Finished Opening Sequence of Our Thriller

This is the finished opening sequence 2 mins of our thriller, after a whole day of filming and just under a week of editing and this is the final product and I hope you enjoy it.

Editing Friday 26th March - Wednesday 31st March

The editing for our Thriller was done by myself and began on Friday 26th March, this was the day after all the filming had been finished. The first thing we did was to upload all the footage that we had onto iMovie then from every clip we had imported we had to cut out all the extra clips inbetween, which included footage of an Elvis impersonator.

We then began editing the clips in the order that we wanted them to appear, we started with the shots that were taken outside of the house and Hayley's sister, after this we began editing the part of the open

ing with Hayley in the bath, then the ending with Hayley seeing her sister, falling onto her bed and the flashbacks. After the each scene had been edited to flow with the next we began including transitions and effects to make the flow of the film even better, cross-dissovles were used to show short passages of time without having to show them to the audience and fades were used to show both the starting and the ending of the opening sequence.

We used a black and white effect on all of our flashback shot to show the audience that they have gone back to the past.

After we had completed the editing we went through the opening sequence with our teachers to see what they thought of it and what things they think should be included, they told us what they liked and disliked about the sequence and also what transitions and effects should be added and taken away.

Changes to Animatic video

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Changes made to our Animatic

As our thriller must be a minimum of 2 mins long when filming began we added a few more scenes and shots into the middle of the storyboard.

Instead of starting the beginning of the film going ny going straight to Hayley being in the bath we deceide to have some shots from outside Hayley's house and also a few shots of Hayley's sister outside. The scenes of Hayley in the bath we have left the same as on the storyboard but after Hayley gets out of the bath we added in the next scene where Hayley and her sister are staring at each other, we decided to add this scene to make it seem as if Hayley has seen a ghost of her past she then we then also have shots of Hayley walking past her sister and a few of a picture of death. The storyboard then goes back to how it was planned with Hayley falling back onto the bed and having another flashback.

We decided to add this section in the middle of the opening as sit would make the opening longer and it would also make it mire dramatic to try and get the audience to ask questions such as, "Who is that girl?", "Why is she seeing her?". By adding these scenes in we have also added three Thriller conventions, tension, mystery and suspense.

First Day of Filming

Thursday 25th March- Filming the Thriller

This was our first day filiming of our thriller and it went very well as after roughly 4 hours of filming we managed to get a number of shots from more than one angle for our film, this has enabled us to begin editing on Friday 26th March.

For the filiming of our thriller we meet at Hayley's house during our break at 11.30 before we beagn filming we did another practice run of what we actually wanted to film, after filming the practice run we got the shots that we needed from outside Hayley's house for these shots we needed Hayley's sister to play a younger version of her. We then got the shots that were needed for our flashbacks where we see Hayley as a young girl being abused by a family member, we got two different types of abusing shots as it is only the opening two minutes of a thriller.

The next shots we got were the hardest and the most important scenes within our thriller as they were the shots that required Hayley to be in the bath. Firstly we had to get a couple of shots of Hayley before she went under water; we then had to get shots of her actually going under water, we have a lot of these shots as it was hard for Hayley to get under the water because of it going up her nose finally after figuring out how to get her to stay under water for the length of time that we needed we got shots of her going under the water and waiting for a few seconds before shooting back up.


The last set of shots involved Hayley and her sister, where we see Hayley and her sister looking at each other after Hayley has come out of the bath. We then got shots of Hayley falling back onto her bed, again we got this shot from a variety of angles.

Health and Safety Assesment

Health and Safety Risk Assessment

1. No filming in inappropriate locations.
2. Check safety of locations e.g. roads.
3. Minimise risk of theft of equipment.
4. When filming on location ensure teacher or responsible adult know where you are and have telephone number and when you will return.
5. Check all equipment is working before you leave.
6. Ensure you have permission for filming if necessary.
7. Always film with at least one other person.
8. Ensure you have the permission of those you are filming.

Before filming began we had to check the environment in which we were filming to make sure that it was safeand that none of us were to get injured. For us we had to be especially careful as we would be filming in the bathroom and in the bedroom where we would have to make sure that there was no water on the floor to reduce the risk of Louise, Hayley or myself slipping. We would also have to be careful when Hayley is to fall back on the bed as she could hit her head on something that was left on her bed and if Hayley was to get injured we would have to stop filming and find someone else.

Construction of the Production

Friday 19th March- Practice Run

For the practice run we filmed Hayley doing each of the scenes fully clothed this was to give us a rough idea of the shots we would want to use and would make sure that everything would run smoothly so that there are no problems or obstacles that we will need to overcome when we actually film the scene on Thursday.

Music

The music for our film will be done by Haykey's brother's band, but just in case we don't have enough time time to get the recording we will have to request a peice of music from either Moby Gratis (http://www.mobygratis.com/film-music.html) but receiving confirmation from Mobygratis usually takes either 5 working days or 2 weeks, so again we will make sure that we have a backup which we will get from Free Play Music (http://www.freeplaymusic.com/).

For the opening two minutes of our thriller we have chosen a piece of music called Things to Come which Hayley found on Free Play Music.

Filming update

We began our filming on Friday 19th, March and we will continue to film our on Wednesday 24th, March during our Media lesson and on Thursday 25th, March in our own time by doing this and by me also as the editor coming back in my own time to edit the film will allow us to meet our deadline of April 1st, 2010.

The film is set at Hayley's house where we will be filming our bath scene during our own time on Thursday; this scene has to be filmed right as Hayley will need to under water and if it goes wrong it will mean we will have to wait for Hayley to dry her hair for us to try again,

The film is set at Hayley's house and on Thursday we will begin to film our bath scene to make sure that this scene is filmed perfect first time round we will discuss what needs to be shot and how it should be shot and to also make sure we get it right we will be doing a practice run of what and how to get the shots we want.

Planning of our Production

In our group we have been discussing different idea's for how we can put together the opening scenes of our Thriller. So far we have thought about the types of shots that can be used, a rough storyline, a few ideas of locations and backgrounds, what conventions of the Thriller we will be including and what how we want it to be edited.

Group Members and Roles

• Hayley Skinsley- Actress
• Louise Vann- Cinematography
• Jaye Parker- Editor

Cast

• Hayley Skinsley- Girl Now
• Hayley's Little Sister- Girl in Flashback
• Hayley's dad/brother

Using Hayley's family will be efficient for us as a group as they will be on hand when we are actually filming, as we will be at their house.

Settings

• House of Hayley Skinsley
• Bedroom
• Bathroom
• Street
  

(Hayley's House)




These settings are again efficient for us as a group as Hayley is member or our group.

Equipment

• Camera
• Tape
• Tripod
• Bed
• Bath

Shots

• Point of view shots
• Long shots
• Over the shoulder shots

Animatic Storyboard "Girl In Der Badewanne"

The animatic is the animation of the pictures from our storyboard editied together to give an idea of what our openng sequence will look like. The animatic was edited by me (Jaye Parker), and then checked by the other two members of my group Louise Vann and Hayley Skinsley.

The Shining (1980)

The Shining was written by Stephen King (novel) and Stanley Kubrick, directed by Stanley Kubrick and stars Jack Nicholson, Shelly Duvall and Danny Lloyd.
A novelist Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) gets a job as a caretaker at Overlook Hotel and he brings his wife Wendy (Shelly Duvall) and his son Danny (Danny Lloyd) to keep him company throughput the long isloated nights. After a snow storm blocks in the family, Jacks sons Danny discovers that the hotel is haunted and along with his writers block Jack begins has a complete mental breakdown and the situation takes a sinister turn for the worst.


From the opening of this film we can already see one of the very important convention within the Thriller genre: isolation. The first shot we see is of a lake surrounded by mountains, there is then either a dissolve or an overlap showing a car driving down a curving mountian road surrounded by a forest. We then see that same car driving on a hillside where in the distance we can again see mountains, we continue to see the car making it way along roads at the edges of cliffs, the camera continues to move and follow the car as the characters continue to where they are going. After a few more shots of the car traveling alongside snowed covered mountains and forests we see the hotel that they are heading to and by using this opening sequence the film has used a Thriller convention of isolation.

The Crying Game (1992)

The Crying Game was written and directed by Neil Jordan and stars Forest Whitaker, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Rea and Jaye Davidson.
The film is about an unlikely friendship between an Fergus (Stephen Rea) IRA volunteer and Jody (Forest Whitaker) a kidnapped British soldier, but when the hostage taking goes horribly wrong Fergus seeks out Jody's lover Dill (Jaye Davidson).


The Crying Game begins a extreme long shot of fairground where the camera continues to pan around the fairground, before we are taken to the fairground where we meet Jody and Jude (Miranda Richardson). After winning Jude a teddy, they go away from the fairground where they begin to get physical only she is in on the plot to kidnapp him and helps to men to get a bag over his head and take him back to their camp.



(Please ignore the music as it has been changed.)

Target Audience

Films are rated by the BBFC (British Board Of Film Classification), the majority of thrillers are have the age certificate of 15 and 18, this is usually because some of the footage is either not appropriate for people below these ages. In films with an 18 certificate the scenes within the film are more likely to contain extreme violence, or scenes of a sexual nature. Rating the films these means that only people aged 15 and above can watch and rent a 15 movie and only people aged 18 and above can watch and rent a 18 movie and no one younger. Although this may be films may receive a different rating when they are released on DVD.


- Universal- There is nothing unsuitable for children, the film should be suitabe for audiences aged 4 and up.
- General viewing though some scenes may be unsuitable for young viewers, therfor parents are advised to accompany younger children to view.

- Suitable for those aged 12 and over though some scenes may be unsuitable for viewers under 12. This certificate only exsists in cinemas and no one younger than 12 may see a 12A rated film unless accompanied by an adult.

- The 12 criteria is the same for 12A.

- Suitable for 15 years and over, no one under the age of 15 may see a 15 film in the cinema.

- Only suitable for adults, no one under the age of 18 may see an 18 film in the cinema.

- Are to be shown in specially licensed cinemas or licensed sex shops and only to those aged 18 and above. It is a legally restricted classification due to it's explicit sexual or fetish material using adults.

Memento (2000)

I had seen a few clips of Memento in media lessons and so asked to borrow the film to watch and write about it on my blog. Memento was directed by Christopher Nolan, written by Jonathan and Christopher Nolan and stars Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano.
The film stars Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby as a man with anterograde amnesia which makes him unable to create new memories, use his notes and tattoos to try and find the man who raped and killed his wife.

The film begins with a photo of blood, tiles and what appears to be a head in the bottom left-hand corner of it, we then see the person holding the photo shake it giving the impression that they are trying to develop the photo as the person continues to shake the photo we see that it begins to lose quality like it is undeveloped prompting the audience to question what's happening it's after this that we see the film is being played backwards as Leonard puts the picture back into the camera and we begin to understand what's happening as the film continues to play backwards we see that Leonard has in fact shot Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) in the back of the head.


This film compared to the others was very confusing as it consisted of two different types of films one in black and white and the other in colour; as the black and white scenes are played in chronological order and the colour in reverse chronological area, the scenes are played alternately until they both meet at the end of the film.

The suspense in this film comes from the main character where they must resolve conflicts with their owns minds, this is usally to understand what happened to them.

Preliminary Exercise

For our media coursework we must work in groups my group is made up myself, Hayley Sknisley and Louise Vann. For part of our media coursework we have to create a preliminary exercise to show that we have a clear understanding of how to use the camera and editing software on the iMacs. This enables us to show that we know how use a variety of shots such as long shots, wide shots and over-the-shoulder shots as well as allowing us to experiment with the different transitions within iMovie. For our actual thriller opening Louise will be our cinematographer, Hayley will be our actress and I will be the editor.

180 Degree Rule

This is the basic guideline in basic film making which says that two people within the same scene should have the same left/right relationship to each other, if the camera passes this imaginary line it creates a reverse angle. Looking at our preliminary exercise I can see that we will need to avoid crossing the imaginary line as we haven't been able to in our exercise.