Jamie Winter As Coursework blog

2009-05-08T06:09:00.000-07:00

Media Evaluation

After finishing our opening two minutes of a thriller film, it is clear to see how we have tried to use the codes and conventions of famous thriller films. By having the opening starting very slowly with the title sequence(see opening 34seconds) and building to a climax we were able to create a thriller opening that is similar to many other thriller openings. This is something we gained from our research. After watching The Sixth Sense by M.Night Shyamalan which uses a title sequence to great effect.
Opening with an establishing shot of the house where the action takes place is very common amongst thrillers to let the audience know where the scene is set. Furthermore we used music throughout to set the pace of the film and to also build suspense. However when we received feedback from our teacher and our class many of them commented on how we used too much music. Our aim was to engage the audience with a psychological thriller. By using point of view shots and close-ups we aimed to get the audience in touch with the characters feelings and emotions. At the beginning of the opening we used our sub titles with the little girl singing over them. By doing this we aimed to create suspense and build up slowly to get the audience thinking about what is going to happen next.
After doing a questionnaire we realised what our target audience wanted to see in a psychological thriller film. Two major things that our target audience wanted to see twists in the plot and a thrilling end. Having only two minutes meant we couldn’t provide a twist however I feel we gave the audience a thrilling end with many fast tempo shot being used. In addition to this we then used a slow paced shot with the camera moving towards the girl to make a climax. (see shot between 1.53 and 1.58).
During our opening we have two main characters. The dad is an alcoholic and is abusive towards his daughter. We used mese-en-sene to show a very stereotypical alcoholic man. For example he was holding a bottle of beer and was dressed in jeans and a vest which our both associated with alcoholic men. On the other hand the little girl in our film was slightly harder to categorize. We were trying to show her as an older girl who because of the treatment she got from her father acts a lot younger than she is. For example when she sang twinkle twinkle we were portraying to the audience that she was acting young. However because she was wearing red lipstick and also wearing boots we felt we were showing the audience that she was slightly older. I now realize thanks to our feedback that we needed to have shown this better as the audience were slightly confused. With the father being more dominant for obvious reasons we still needed to show the audience how dominant he was in order to show how scared the little girl was. This relates to our target audience as we were aiming for fifteen year olds and above and we felt that they would understand and perhaps even seen situations like the way the girl is treated before.
I believe that our film would be distributed by spyglass entertainment as they produced the sixth sense and I think they would like to adapt on our beginning to make it a great film. Furthermore it could be used for schools for educational purposes as some children go through the same situations as the little girl in our film is. I feel that our opening could be a little more affective and this could be shown to people on the internet and schools to show them and give them advice on this type of issue. Many schools with children would use this type of film to educate their children on how to act in these situations. Merchandise could be sold through things such as books and internet sites where people could get advice on situations like our film where the girl is abused by her father. Although we did not aim to make our opening like this I feel that shots and situations of our film could be used to educate people. For example our scene in the woods could used to represent the girl running away and how she is now lost so perhaps running away is not the best idea. Teachers could adapt to this and teach the children what should be done in this situation instead.
In our film we were aiming for an audience of fifteen and above. By aiming for this type of age for our target audience we felt that we needed specific ideas to appeal to them. For example the idea of the dad drinking and how his drinking is abused is something that many people in this country have to deal with. Throughout the papers we are constantly reading about alcohol and how it plays a bad roll in many people in Britain’s lives.
Films that could be associated with ours our films such as the Sixth Sense. We drew inspiration from the Sixth Sense and like our thriller it uses a title sequence to begin. This builds suspense and by using white writing on a blackout lets the audience know that the film is going to be dark and spooky. Also, like our opening the camera shots look down on the child to show the fathers dominance however the child still plays a vital role in the film. Another film like ours is Days of Wine and Roses which is about a man who get married and has a child and then he and his wife become alcoholics. Again like our film the dad needs to be a better role model and like ours it deals with the downfalls of being an alcoholic.
As all film institutions and directors do we were looking to provide a film to match a certain type of people’s criteria. We were looking to show the audience a film about the abuse of alcohol and the affect it can have on children. Although we were showing the audience this type of abuse we did not think that it warranted an eighteen certificate. Researching on the BBFC we found that we needed a lot more in our two minutes to have it as an eighteen. As much as we could we look to show the audience close ups and some point of view shots to let them see the reactions of the little girls abuse. This creates a lot of suspense as when the facial expression is seen the audience can begin to work out how the character is feeling. Furthermore we only allowed the audience to see the child’s bedroom and the child’s things, for example the teddy. We did this to show the girl’s young personality and let the audience know where the scene was taking place. I feel that our film could affect young film watchers as this type of abuse is very hard to understand and I believe this is why it warrants a fifteen certificate.
Throughout the filming I used many different types of technology. From digital cameras and Mac books to tripods and adobe premiere pro. Some of these proved to be better than others. Most of our filming equipment seemed to be good however I came to realise that the digital cameras we used to film ran out very quickly. However what was good about the camera was the fact that we could take shots such as zooms to a very high quality. This is shown in our woods filming when we shot a high angled shot zooming in on the girl and also at the beginning of the piece when we zoomed in on the house to establish the location. Editing was something that I personally found very difficult. However I feel that I learnt how to construct a film quite successfully and also learnt to use things such as whitewashes where you can change a scene and location by slightly fading it out. Unfortunately our anamatic was deleted by another group of students so I cannot show you how much I have improved. However I know that I can use a camera to show a characters emotions so much better than during the anamatic by using close ups and also my editing skills have improved dramatically. Compared to our anamatic which had no flow and didn’t keep to the one hundred and eighty degree rule I have improved by a vast amount.
Without filming the anamatic at the start of year twelve I think it would have been very difficult to have filmed footage to the quality that we have. During our anamatic we learnt basic things like how to not break the hundred and eighty degree rule. Furthermore I got my first use of camera and as I was the camera man for our film the experience of filming before we started our film was very important. Our types of shots improved dramatically. During our anamatic we used basic mid shots and close ups and we uses one slightly high angled shot. However by the end of our finished product I used long shots, zooms, close ups, and pov shots to make a more professional film. Having used the equipment more I feel a lot more confident than I did when I first started filming. To add to this my editing skills have also developed a lot. At the end of our anamatic I could not edit like I can now. Our shots were not cut at the right times and I couldn’t use any special affects what so ever. I feel that our end product was fairly successful and I am proud of how both my group and I worked. However I do feel given this opportunity again that I and the group would have changed some of our ideas.

Finished Production

2009-04-21T02:59:00.001-07:00

Our finished production. We have posted the finished piece on youtube and this is where I have transported the film from.

Improvements and changes

2009-03-21T02:53:00.000-07:00

Although our work had some good points in it for instance our opeing minute and ten seconds is very good we still have a long way to go. After speaking to Mr Michey we decided with his help what we need to change to make a great thriller opening. We decided that:

We need to record Maizy, our actress sining the full version of the twinkle twinkle song so that we can play it over our titles at the start and build a bit more suspense.

Our transitions between places need to be slowed down to give a clear indication that the location has chnaged.

Close up shots of Maizies character need to be shown more frequently so that the audience can interact with her and her emotions a lot more.

When Maizy looks around in the woods we should do some point of view shots showing what Maizy can see.

Our diagetic sound needs to take a bigger role in the second minute of the film in the woods. We need to consider getting rid of some of the music or blening the two together to keep to the verisimilitude of a scene in the woods.

Also we are considering changing a film quite dramticly. We are considering cutting out the barn and alley scenes and instead make our in the house scenes longer and cut at some point in the woods.

Our Thriller opening so far

2009-03-21T02:48:00.000-07:00

So far in our coursework we have produced a ruff cut of our thriller opening and can now see what point we are at and what progress we have made. Overall our group achieved 35 out of 60 for the first piece which isn't too bad however there is a lot of improvements that need to be made to achieve A and B grades. In the next few days I will be posting the ruff version of our thriller so that i can use it in my evaluation to compare how much progression me and my group have made between now and the finishing point of our thriller opening.

Progress we have made

2009-03-13T04:02:00.000-07:00

As a group we have made a significant amount of progress to make our film and we our very pleased with our finished piece. It took us a while to really get into making the film but when we did we came together as a group and worked really hard. I feel i learnt how to use the camera a lot better, something i hadn't done before and I also feel that my editing skills our a lot better than they used to be. With each of us in the group being better than others at different things it showed us how much must go on in films behind the scenes in order to make a great thriller!

Sound's and music

2009-03-13T04:00:00.001-07:00

Throught the editing we needed to use many different sounds and music. We need to find copy right free music which we managed to do after a long time of looking as we needed three different types of music for our film

We also wanted a noise of an owl and a telephone at one point which again we needed to find copyright free.We used sites such as google to search engine places where we could find this type of music.

Sound's and music

2009-03-13T04:00:00.000-07:00

Throught the film we needed to use many different sounds and music. We need to find copy right free music which we managed to do after a long time of looking as we needed three different types of music for our film

We also wanted a noise of an owl and a telephone at one point which again we needed to find copyright free.We used sites such as google to search engine places where we could find this type of music.Using google we found many copyright free music websites which we got our three pieces of music from.

Editing

2009-03-13T03:58:00.000-07:00

The editing proved to be a bit more difficult than the filming. None of us being brilliant on computers ment that all four of us had to work very hard in order to edit our piece. We used premiere to store and edit our footage and we added many sounds and noises to our piece to increases it's verisimilitude.

Feedback

2009-03-13T03:54:00.000-07:00

Ever sicne we started filming we would always take our footage to school the next day and get Mr Michey's feedback on it. He always told us what was good and bad about it making it easier for us to make our film better.

We were forced to change the plot as he told us that our little girl scene did not follow the verisimlitude of our piece. It looked out of place as the girl didn't look old enbough.

To keep to the verisimlitude we also filmed a shot of the little girl holding a teddy bear establishing her age.

05/02 more filming

2009-03-13T03:51:00.000-07:00

On this date we went back, from the advice of our teacher, to the woods where we took our new story board with some different shots. Our teacher told us to take more point of view shots to get in touch with our characters emotions more.

We also improved our piece by giving our actress the dialogue she needed rather than making her think of it of the top of her head.

However we did have some drawbacks as the snow fall that we had had made it difficult to create the right type of scene that we wanted.

Third filming

2009-03-13T03:43:00.000-07:00

Third filming- On this occasion we went to the woods, our main filming location to shoot some new shots and also re-shoot some of the ones we had done before to improve them. On the day it was raining which made it difficult to film and get the correct shots we wanted however it also helped make the mese en scene better as the clouds made it a lot darker. We were beginning to find the benefits of filming more than once as we all realised how much easier we were finding filming however it still wasn’t that easy!

We then went back to Amber’s house where our actor Tad and actress Lia were ready for shooting in the child’s bedroom.

The video camera ran out however we used a camera that could video to do the shots and they quite surprisingly came out looking really good.

By the end of the third filming it was clear to see that we as a group were making progress and film material at a good quality was becoming more frequent.

Media coursework second filming

2009-03-13T03:42:00.000-07:00

Second filming- The group focused on location shots as two of us were not able to attend filming due to sickness. However with the location shots now done we were beginning to get started.

2009-02-09T06:18:00.001-08:00

First filming

Our first filming of our film (disturbance of the un-woken) was on the 15th of January. Our location was in some woods near one of our groups houses. Having the location near to the house enabled me to be able to carry the ladder that we were going to need to shoot our high angled shots from to the location.
We shot many mid and close ups of our actress and we found that these shots were fairly simple to shoot. However our higher angled shots proved to be fairly difficult as the ladder was not particularly stable even with the help of the group holding it.
The timing of our shooting was both an advantage and a disadvantage to us. By filming at around 4oclock we could get our shots in slight darkness adding to setting and building suspense. However it did set us back slightly as the darkness ment that we could not get all the shots done to the quality that we wanted.
The feedback we got from our teacher were that our mese-en-sene costume and location were good however we needed improvement in some shots where the camera was not still. He also spoke to us about changing some of the shots to make the girl look more similar in the flashback shots in order to keep to the verisimilitude.

2008-11-26T08:05:00.000-08:00

Continuity Task Evaluation

In our continuity task we had to create a small film of two people in conversation. Whilst in conversation we needed to film their reactions using a range of shots that we felt were appropriate. By doing this we were gaining and experience in many things. We have never properly filmed before so it was a good experience to learn how to and for groups to all have a go at filming. Also by making the small film we were able to realise what sort of grade we were reaching. We felt that the shots we needed to use were shot reverse shot and a range of mid shots and close ups. Our aim was to not break the 180degree rule and to show the reaction of our characters.
My group received a high band 2/ low level 3 for our work and assuming this was our first go at filming we were very pleased with this. Our sound was used very well and we captured the expression of both characters well.
However we could also improve our piece. When we recorded one of our characters we should have recorded her looking down on the male as she was superior. This would have indicated to the audience that she was the dominant person in the situation. Also our editing could have been better. At one point in our filming the editing is terrible and you can see where the old scene has been cut out and the new one has been put in. As a group we must make our editing better and also use a wider range of shots showing reactions in order to gain more marks.

2008-11-26T08:04:00.000-08:00

Thriller movie questionnaire
1. When the term Thriller movie comes to your mind what are your first reactions of what you expect to see?

2. When you watch a thriller film what is your favourite type of thriller to watch? Crime, Horror, Spy, Drama, Sci-fi, etc, and why?

3. What do you think is the main part of building suspense in a film? Music, Sound, Setting, Camera angles, Pace etc, and why?

4. If you were to watch a thriller what would you not want to see in it and why?

5. Would you expect characters to be stereotypical in a thriller or would you like characters to represent something different to their normal association.

6. What sort of conclusion do you most like to see in a thriller, or do u like a mix?

2008-11-24T05:39:00.000-08:00

Certification and Audience
Every film director that wants to get his or her film released in the cinema must first get a certificate rating of their film. These range from U which means anybody can watch it to 18 where only 18year olds and older are advised to watch it. Giving a film a rating lets the audience know a little about what sort of language and content to expect and whether or not they should let their children go and see these films. Certifying that a film is accessible for somebody to watch is done so that people are not offended by what they see. For instance if there were no ratings and you took your child to a film and it was a horror movie and you didn’t know this could shock the child and give it nightmares etc.
Furthermore you can get film certificates such as 12A. This means that they advise that you should be at least 12 to view the film however with an adult it would be acceptable. You can read up on film certificates on www.bbfc.co.uk and this website keeps you posted on all new changes to certification.
As we are making a film as a group we need to discuss what scenes we are going to put into are film to meet the criteria of the certification that we want. As it is going to be a thriller we are probably going to be aiming at a 15certifcate which means it could have things such as strong language or could be slightly scary. However if we are trying to make our film appeal to an audience of 15 and above we cannot add in scenes like a Disney film as 15year olds and above would not want to see this.
I have concluded from the knowledge I have gained from the bbfc website that our film must match a certain criteria for whatever audience we want our film to appeal too.

Evaluation

2008-11-11T02:15:00.000-08:00

Conclusion
Thriller films use a variety of codes and conventions. I have analyzed five different openings to thriller films and it is evident that they all use many of the same codes and conventions to grip the audience to the film straight away. All five of the thrillers I analyzed used music in the opening to create suspense and tension. This makes it clear to see that when making a thriller the first thing that you need to think about is your choice of music must create a suspenseful opening but what is important is that this collaborates with the camera shots, mese en sene and the editing.
It is also evident that to create a great opening to a thriller you need to introduce your main character early. All the openings I analyzed introduced their main character at one point in the opening scene. Introducing your main character with suspenseful music creates suspense for the audience when they see the character. It is giving the audience a sign that this character is a lead character and the director does this so the audience knows what character to pay close attention too.
Introducing my main character in my opening of a thriller and choosing what my suspenseful music is going to be is going to play a huge role in how good my opening is going to be and if I get this right I will certainly be on my way to making a go thriller opening

2008-11-09T14:39:00.000-08:00

Walk on the wild side
Camera
The director starts the first scene with a mid shot of guttering tube with the cat’s eyes. Zooming in on the tube we get a close up of the cat and the camera pans around it. Introducing us to the main character, the cat, the director has chosen his shots to give us a good look of the cat. Tracking the cat’s movements, the director uses a high angled shot to show us the cat’s good posture. The director has used his shots to show the cat to be powerful. He then shows us the cat with a low angle shot to show us the cats strut as it walks, reiterating that it is powerful. Always using mid shots and close ups of the cat the director wants the audience to recognise that the cat is going to be powerful in his film. The camera gives us a bird’s eye view of the cat and when the cats fight it looks down on the cats to give the audience the best view of the fight.
Editing
Using a variety of cuts throughout the opening scene the director is aiming to give us a full view of the cat and to make it look very dominant. He chooses his cuts and shots carefully to make sure that not only do the audience see the high angle of the cat’s posture but also low angle shots to show it’s strut as well. The scene is very dark making the cat look even more powerful as its strutting about at night.
Mese en sene
As the director wants to show the cat to be powerful there isn’t a great deal of props in the cat’s way as he wants us to see the cat strutting. There are a lot of pipes and fencing in the shot but as it’s black and white in this scene we don’t see anything else.
Sound
The director has the cat walk along parallel to the music to emphasise its strut even more. When close up shots of the cat are shown the music becomes stronger again showing that the cat is strong. The music works well with the cat as it is easy to strut along to and makes it seem like the cat is purposely moving with the music.

2008-11-09T14:38:00.000-08:00

The Illusionist
Camera
Lost Highway begins with the camera very still as the credits begin to come on screen. As the clip moves on the credits are always central and the camera still. However the director shows us small parts of what’s to come with mid long shots of the characters involved. He doesn’t show their faces so we still don’t know who the main characters are and he does this to keep the audience waiting for the characters to come to role. At the end of the clip we get a four second mid shot of one of the characters and then a two second shot of him from the side. Disguising the character by keeping him still, these shots let us see him but we find out little about him keeping the directors character a secret.
Editing
The company, who have made the film, BYP, have their logo shown at the start and this is centralised. By using lots of cuts the director gives us a glimpse of where the film is set and what time it was in but he doesn’t give too much away. He does this as it builds up tension so the audience keep watching as they want to find more about what is going to happen. Cutting from clips of the film to the credits gives the audience a small look at the film reiterating that he is building up tension with small glimpses of the film. Keeping a slow pace the director is building up the scene and the film in order to keep the audience interested but not giving to much away.
Mese on sene
All characters that are shown are dressed in Victorian clothing symbolising the era that the film is set in. This lets the audience understand a little bit more about the film and will help them when they try to identify different characters. Music in the scene is parallel to this as it is Victorian music and this keeps the verisimilitude of the scene.
Sound
Sound is only used in the opening clip with the music. It is parallel to the scene and keeps the tempo of the scene slow.

2008-11-09T14:37:00.000-08:00

Casino Royale
Camera
The opening shot starts with a long shot of a building where the action is to take place. It holds this shot for 13seconds as a car drives past containing the man James Bond is to have conflict with. The camera tracks the man who goes into a lift. There is a close up of the number as the lift goes up signifying what floor he is going to. By being shown this the director is giving us a glimpse of the character James will have some sort of action with. Inside the room at floor five the camera pans around the character as he realises his safe has been broken in to. Showing his facial expression we realise that whatever is contained is going to be significant to the storyline and the camera showing his face helps us to know this. James and the other characters conversation is filmed using shot reverse shot and also cuts. Flashbacks are used and the action in these flashbacks cuts every two seconds to build suspense and show the audience a summary of the action. Conversation takes place between James and the character and the camera looks down on James showing James is of lower status. After the character realises he cannot shoot James, the camera looks down at the other character and up on James showing the change in status.
Mese on sene
Mese on sene is not overly used in this scene as it’s very dark. This is done to create the suspense for the scene. At the start of the scene smoke is used to create a sense of danger to build up tension. A darkened office is used to signify hiding and danger and the only props used are tables and chairs in the office.
Editing
The set is very dark to show danger. There aren’t many cuts in the opening of the extract as the duration of the shots are very long. The action scenes in the flashbacks use a great deal of cuts to show a mini clip of the action and end up with the climax of James killing the man. Cuts are also used in conversation before the man tries to shoot James.
Sound
The noise of the lift is heard to help the audience establish what it is. Spooky music is used to create suspense and this lets the audience know that action is going to happen soon. Footsteps can be heard when the man is walking and we hear the noise of his car door shutting.

2008-11-09T14:35:00.000-08:00

Psycho
Camera
The camera is still through the hole of the opening clip until the end when we get a long shot of a city. With the camera keeping still we are able to clearly see the credits. By doing this the director has made the credits quite interesting to watch as the music runs along with it all making the credits spooky, setting the tone of the film. Seeing the long shot at the end sets where the next scene is to take place and we also see hear that the film is in black and white.
Editing
Opening credits are flicked through the scene and special effects are used with lines running through the shot before evolving in to the person’s name. Again this is quite spooky and sets the tone for the rest of the film.
Mese on sene
The background is black and there are only credits in the shot so no mese on sene is used except in the last shot when we see the rundown buildings and we cannot establish anything from this as it is a one second long shot.
Sound
Sound creates the scene in all of the thriller openings I have seen so far and it does this again in Psycho. We don’t see any action or any characters and the only shot we get is of a city yet the music still manages to spook the audience. Music in the opening clip does not follow the credits but as the background is black is not out of place as it’s still slightly spooky.

As we are aiming to create a psycological type thriller this film opening could come in handy when we look to do our filming. It has enabled us to see that in the opening of our thriller we don't need a great deal of action to bulid suspense as sound in itself could be enough. However it also depends on exacly what type of pyscological film we are going for as this film is quite different to ours.

2008-11-09T14:33:00.002-08:00

Cape fear
Camera
Universal pictures logo comes up at the opening of the film. Centre of the camera, it shows that it is important and we get a close up of it. Mid shots are used to show the water and also close ups of it. We get close ups to show us the water and when the director wants us to see the reflection of the bird we get a mid shot. The director chooses these shots to show the size of the bird and also to make it viewable in the water to the audience. Moving closer to the water the camera gives us the impression that we are almost looking in to the water and the director does this to build up suspense, as the audience will keep watching as they are waiting to see if anything else appears in the water. At the end of the clip the camera tilts upwards to show us a ‘scary’ looking man. By doing this it enables the audience to see the main character for the first time.
Editing
The clip uses cuts to show the water from different angles and this makes the audience feel that they are viewing the water from a different place. After showing us the water for a long time the director cuts to a droplet of blood which tells the audience that at least one person is going to die or be injured in this film. We then get a cut from this to the man and he is darkened out to super impose his image. By having him darkened out the director is showing that the man is the bad character in this film. His eyes are all lit up which also super imposes him.
Mese on sene
The ripples and the droplets of the water make the clip a little bit spooky creating tension as we don’t quite know what to expect. It’s fairly dark in the scene reiterating the fact that it’s spooky.
Sound
The music makes the scene fairly spooky and it builds up the tension as it gets slightly quicker and becomes louder the closer we get to the man. The noise of the water is parallel to the water dripping and we also hear the noise of what sounds like a small waterfall.

What is a Thriller

2008-11-09T14:33:00.001-08:00

What is a thriller?
A thriller is a form of categorization of film genre which allows an audience to distinguish what they are going to be watching. Different genres have different codes and conventions which enables them to be put into categories. A thrillers main codes and conventions are its settings and how its characters are portrayed. By creating a thriller your main objective should be to build up suspense with your audience using sound as your biggest way of doing this but also camera angles, fast and slow cuts and Mese en sene. This should happen throughout the film and the audience’s adrenaline should be up and down as well as the characters.

Intro to my blog

2008-11-06T07:24:00.000-08:00

This is a blog to record and evaluate the progress of my AS Media coursework. I will be regularly posting updates recording the research, pre-production, production and post-production process - evaluating my progress and also looking for ideas and advice.