Preliminary Evaluation - Ryan

After the pre-production stage of planning and discussing ideas we chose to make a stalker type scenario. In pre-production I was the storyboard artist and I thought that went well, I believe we should have added the scenes we added on the spot during filming so they were completely correct.

In the production stage I was the 'main' character, with the plot surrounding 3 characters of equal importance, and with me and Rebecca sharing the only dialogue scene of the piece I felt more dialogue or extra characters were needed to take away the unintentional focus on the one dialogue scene. When on set I felt it was a bit rushed (in all honesty it was) and that we were trying to get it out of the way rather than spend time on the piece. However when we were in the swing of things I felt we put effort in and managed to film what we thought was acceptable. After filming what we thought was the task, and to save us from more work we decided not to check the sheet when going over our thriller, this was a mistake. We found out that we were missing most of the task and that our piece at the time wasn't completing the task at all. We then decided to correct this error by re-shooting the piece and re-editing the shots into the finished product.

In post-production I was the editor (I was the only one with a basic grasp of editing on MACS) when editing I thought we did a good job overall with the audio being our highlight using sound from the program it's self rather than sourcing out copyrighted music which in the 'proper' thriller task is not allowed. With using a mixture of cuts we edited our piece to our group's satisfaction, both times our first 'attempt' and our correct 'attempt'

The audience's reaction was to be expected with the piece ending on a close-up of my face this was more comical and one of the things I would of changed, but overall the task was a success and gave us a few pointers on how to do better next time.

Ryan

Thrillers - Rebecca

        I am Legend –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOjOoICCRGI

-          The first shot is an over the head shot, you first think he is just walking in a field. Then you see the gun and realise he is in the middle of a city.

-          As the scene carries on you realise that the place is deserted and immediately start to ask questions.

-          Then it goes into a close up of the dog, showing its interested in what’s out there.

-          When he first puts up the gun you have no idea what he is aiming at. This creates tension

-          You then see what he sees in the gun and realise it’s an animal.

-          The buildings being really big and tall shows his venerability because he is so small in such a big place.

-          By the camera being shaky as its following him you think someone’s following him and you can see their point of view.

 The Dark Knight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OYBEquZ_j0

-          The very first shot is an establishing shot of the setting for the film.

-          The shot then pans into one window where the action starts with a man smashing through a window. This is a long shot to a medium shot.

-          The over the shoulder shot of the man firing the gun out of the window shows you what he can see but also lets you see him doing it.

-          The man standing by the road is instantly classed as the bad character even when you can’t see his face, because of the way he appears you automatically get the impression he is up to no good by what he is holding and wearing.

-          When the car pulls up this is when the action really starts as the music starts too, and the fact he knew to get in that car straight away shows they has planned this for a while and all knew what to do.

-          The shot of the two men jumping out of the window is good because you don’t realise how high it is till the camera points down then you realise.

-          The identity of the characters is not given away because they are all wearing masks, this keeps the audience guessing.

Casino Royale

-          The first shot is an establishing shot to show where the first scene is going to take place.

-          It’s all in black and white to begin with to create tension and make it different to other films.

-          A low angle shot is used to show a man getting out of a car looking suspicious and this makes you think who is he and what is he up to?

-          The scene being black and white also makes it look like night and that he shouldn’t be there perhaps he is breaking in.

-          The close up on his face when he first realises someone is also in the room shows his expression and emotion of fear. Then over his turning shoulder you can see the other character who then begins to talk but his identity is still unknown to the audience.

-          A quiet bit of tense music then starts to play.

-          As it goes into a flashback of the characters memory of what happens the colour inverts to show it was a different time.

-          The action then flicks from the two men in the room and the memory of the man. Cutting fast to make it more chaotic.

-          The music gets louder and faster and reaches a climax as the man is dying in the sink. Then when he falls to the floor the music is barely playing.

Inception
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VXkUzf1et4

-          The very first shot is slow motion of the waves, then it cuts into a close up of the character so you can see he has been in the water. 

-          You immediately think he is dead as he isn’t moving, but then he does move slightly and gasps for breath so this shows he has been in trouble.

-          it then cuts to the children playing showing their innocence and they haven’t noticed him there.

-          The low angle of the man with the gun shows his power over the other character and not knowing who he is makes it more worrying for the audience.

-          The first inside shot is framed on the two men standing either side of a table showing whoever is in there is important and powerful otherwise he wouldn’t have to be guarded.

-          They don’t give away the identity of the man straight away by showing the back of his head this makes up curious to who he is.

-          By there being no music it shows its serious and in some ways creates tension in the scene because you know something is going to happen.

44 inch chest

-          Dog look afraid and hiding so this immediately makes the audience know something bad happened just before and that we are being shown what has happened.

-          The apartment is in a mess, this shows signs of a struggle and that who or whatever came in had no regard for the persons belongings.

-          The first few shots are still shots, showing no movement, then as the camera starts to move slowly into the apartment showing each bit of destruction as it goes you notice more this way.

-          When you see the man lying on the floor you know he is the victim as he looks as if he came off worse and is dead.

-          The camera looks directly down on him as if you’re in a someone’s perspective and you have just discovered him.

-           The man doesn’t look like an innocent old man, he looks dodgy like he was involved in something that went wrong and he came off bad.

-          The music doesn’t go with the mood of the scene as its all jolly and normal where as you would think it would be depressive and sad as you think something bad has just happened and changed someone’s life forever.

Preliminary Evaluation - Rebecca

Overall, I think our preliminary task as a whole went well and there were both strong and weak points of it. The main bad point about our preliminary was that the first time we uploaded it was incomplete; this was due to us not reading the sheet correctly and also getting carried away with the story line of the trailer. But we then went back and included the shots we had missed out.
We casted our film as a group after a discussion about who doesn’t mind being in it. The main character was Ryan then the rest of us all had small parts in it, this worked well because then we all had a chance to direct and tell the people acting what to do and all have a chance to be on camera too.

When doing the actual filming we came across a few problems that stopped us filming when we may have wanted to, such as Ryan and i weren’t always wearing the same clothes as we were in the first time we filmed. This caused a continuity problem so we couldn’t film till we were wearing the same clothes. But when we did get to film we all worked well together and worked out the best ways to catch the shots we needed and how to make it look best.
The shot i feel worked best was the high angle looking at the feet going up the stairs one after the other, this created tension and kept the audience on the edge of their seat. The variety of shots and angles that we shot worked well. I like the way the camera doesn't always follow the characters with something like a tracking shot, I think that it works just as well when the character just walks into the shot. This makes it less predictable. The last shot of Ryan in the lift is zoomed and it did work well but i think it could have been done better as the picture quality wasn’t that good because of the light and the camera shake. Also we could have framed some of the shots better, like the one of Me and Ryan by the lift was slightly to one side and could have been closer to get more of our facial expressions in.

The editing of the film went well, we all chipped in a bit to the editing, as me Ryan and Bekah did some to begin with then Bekah and Zoe finished it off for us.

 In all i think our film came out better than we thought it would, but still some elements of it could still be improved if we had the chance to do it again, but we worked well as a group and got all the tasks complete on time.

Evaluation of Prelim (Rebekah)

Filming:

I did the filming for the group, I did a lot of it but I worked with the group as well to make sure the shots looked good. The good bits of filming which have come out of this film is the match on action, this bit we didn't put in the first version of the film, we got carried away with what the story was so we ended up forgetting the most important things such as the match on action and the 180 degree rule. The 180 degree rule, I did not film as I was the actress at this time, however we did break it.

 

Directing:

As I was the director I had to make sure that when we started filming everyone knew so that they could get into their positions, and always said Action, and other phrases so that the whole group knew what was happening. This worked well as we could get the job done quicker. As director I think I did a reasonable on what we have created.

The Film

I think the final film looks better then expected, I think that our whole group did well on the performance and getting each task done. It was not hard as we all knew what we were doing and we worked well as a group to get it finished in time. Our first film was done and uploaded in time, however as we watched it through we noticed some mistakes and noticed things that could have changed and things that needed to be added, this is what we did the next day. It didn't take us long as we already knew what things and how we were going to do it. However this time I had to be in it so that we could do the 180 degree rule. If we had another chance to do the preliminary again, I think we would have focused more on what needs to be done first instead of the story and the performance. I think some good shots were used in the final film, such as high angle shots of the feet walking up the stairs, this gives a better effect of someone following but not quite there.
The Roles 
 I chose the roles in making of this film, I was the director and was filming most of it, if not all of it, this meant that we needed a few people to be the actors/actresses, as we already knew the story and what was going to happen we needed people who would not mind being in it. As Zoe had the coat she was going to be the shady fellow then we needed someone else to be the other characters, this meant Becky and Ryan one of them was going to be the victim and because we didn't want to sexist we put Ryan as the victim.

To conclude we could have done a lot better in a few areas, which some of that was my fault however I think we worked well as a group.

Completed Thriller

This is our completed thriller.

Zoe- 5 Thriller To Research.

American Psycho- Directed by Mary Harron released-21st April 2000


Camera work-
Over the shoulder two shot
Close up of Patrick Bateman to shows his reaction
Big close up of Patrick to get a sense of what he is saying
Editing-
Fast cuts at the disco to show how fast paced the place really is.
Mise En Scene-
When you first see the table you automatically assume that there is girls and the table, this arises questions when you see its not
Red drops in the credit, you think of blood this makes you wonder whats happening.
Sound
Music contrapuntal from when Patrick is describing himself to when you see the offices
Dialogue

The shining-

  Camerawork-

• long take of the car driving, as an establishing shot shows just how far they are going from civilization
• Canted angle, gives the sense that you have lost your bearings.
  Sound-

No dialogue

Loud orchestra to create tension, parallel sound.

Eerie music to create a sense of mystery.

Editing- 

• Very long cuts
• No background or car noise just the music.

Mise en Scene-

• The nearer it gets to the place it goes from light to dark this maybe to show danger.
• Deserted although there is other cars on the road
• Sepia colour throughout.

 

Inception- Directed By Christopher Nolan, Release Date 16th July 2010

Camerawork-

Low angle of the man with the gun shows that he is in higher power 
Long shot of the building 
Sound

• There is non diagetic to begin with then it cuts to the waves
• Dialogue
• editing

quite fat cuts from the children back to the man in the water shows that they ma have a relation to them, The waves have been made to be heard more.


Mise en Scene
Children show innocents
 having the spinning top on the table automatically gives a sense of mystery.

Shutter Island-Directed By Martin Scorsese, Released-12th March 2010


Camerawork-Tracking in from the marshell to following him outside
Long shot of the island, just shows how big it really is
fast track in oat the gate shows how fast the car is really going, or how much danger they are about to get it.
Close up of the Marshal's face in the mirror really gives you his point of view.
Editing- Cuts from the Marshal to the location to how why he feel like he does like this.
cut out all noise.
Sound- No background noise
Dialogue
Mise En Scene- low key lighting in the present and high key lighting in the past to show either happiness or it could be real but its not.

 Camerawork-Pan of the room as an establishing shot gives a real sense of where you are.
Close up of the door shows characters.
Split frame of the man behind the door shows that you are not meant to see who he really is.
Extreme close up of the grenade implies danger.

Editing-

Fast cuts when the shooting begins give a sense of how fast it is going 

Mise en scene- Low key lighting, and sepia lighting shows danger. Messy room so you know something has happen that was bad.

Sound 

Parallel to what is happen i.e the messiness. no background noise this create suspense as the spectator doesn't know what has happened 

5 Thriller Films (Rebekah)

Final Destination, James Wong, 2000

Camerawork:

• Close up and Extreme close up shots at the start of the clip
• Quick zooms into things such as books and fans 
• Medium shots towards the middle of the clip when packing the boys bags 
• 2 shots 
• Panning in the night when the boy is asleep 
• Track in when sleeping

Editing:

• Quick cuts
• Straight Cuts
• Fade
• Parallel editing

Sound:

• Dialogue 
• Tense Music

Mise En Scene:

• Lighting: Low key lighting 
• Props: Typical props for going on holiday such as suitcase, bags 
• Clothes: Normal everyday clothes, nothing fancy or dressed up, teacher has suit on to show that he is in a higher position then the kids.
• Make-up: Normal everyday make-up, plain
• Character: 
• Alex: Tense as he is going on holiday without his family, excited as he is with his friends, however doesn't know why he feels the way he feels and thinks that everything looks weird and strange to him.
• Mum & Dad: opposites, don't see much of them in the clip, however the dad like to tell jokes however has a serious side to him, the mum likes everything to be perfect and ready.
• Friends: They like to make jokes
• Setting: 
• The home seems creepy when it is nighttime especially in Alex's room as he has creepy dolls and toys around, this makes the audience question why he has these.
• The airport: seems friendly and okay like a normal airport to everyone else however to Alex it seems abnormal and something doesn't seem right. 
• Hair: Everyone hair is tidy and normal, like it should be no ones is messy like something has happened to them as this is only the start of the film.
• Mood: Alex is tense about going on holiday and always seems to worry about a lot of things, the movie in whole give a more tense mood and makes the audience worry about what is going to happen. 

The Boy in Stripped Pyjamas, Mark Herman, 2008

Camerawork:

• Slow zooming out of the flag
• Panning from the flag
• Extreme long shot when camera comes out of the flag into the streets creating an 
• Establishing shot 
• Medium shots in the street following the kids 
• Close up of the hands cleaning the glasses 
• Slow pan to the light folding up the carpet and pan to the left to show the cutlery being layed out
• Crane 
• High angle shot doing the table up
• Low angle shot of feet
• 3 shot

Editing:

• Quick Cuts
• Straight Cuts
• Parallel editing

Sound:

• Dialogue 
• Party music

Mise En Scene:

• Lighting: High key lighting and low key lighting
• Props: cutlery, glasses typical things which would be in a house but the camera focuses on them as if something may happen 
• Hair: smart tidy hair, common in the of which this was set
• Make-up: plain make-up not to much but not to little something which makes them look normal.
• Costume: smart, fancy clothing which was required at that time period, war uniform which suggest that they are in a good job
• Setting: town of which a lot of weathly people as well as little poor people live there. 
• Mood: This movie gives a sad mood and the audience wonder what is going to happen, this upsets them as they can see that the little boy doesn't want to go and doesn't like leaving his friends whereas the rest of the family are happy.

Killers, Robert Luketic, 16th June 2010

Camerawork:

• 3 shot 
• Medium shot
• Extreme Long shots
• Pans to left
• 180 degree rule 
• Close up
• 2 shot
• Tracking shot
• Low angle 
• High angle 

Editing:

• Fade
• Straight Cuts

Sound:

• Dialogue 
• Tense Music

Mise En Scene:

• Lighting: High key lighting
• Props: Car this is very useful to get around in this case it is also useful as it is a fast car, swimming gear, this is vital for him to complete his mission
• Hair: normal, nothing fancy or smart however some going towards a messy bun
• Make-Up: normal and simple nothing fancy, plain
• Costume: swimwear this is good as Spencer is going into the sea and flippers will help him get lower down better, however Jen is wearing a suit which could suggest that she likes to be a smart person
• Setting: 
• Aeroplane: this is a normal aeroplane which is crowded with people this could suggest that they are going on holiday with the bright summer clothes that they have on.
• France: romantic and bright and sunny not the typical thriller, crowded with a lot of tourists and the locals and a good place to go on holiday or a get away. 
• Character:
• Jen: Fun and bubbly doesn't really know what's going on and doesn't really like hanging out with her parents, gets nervous around hot guys but can open up easily whether drunk or not.
• Spencer: Hot, romantic, speaks french and likes the ladies and flashy cars. Undercover spy or detective or some sort, trying to help out as best as he can, is not afraid of danger.
• Mum & Dad: seem a  little bit over protective and wants what is best for their daughter however can be a bit controlling which their daughter can hate, the mother is a bit of a drinker.
• Mood: The mood of this movie is a happy and a sad and tense mood, the audience don't really know what is going on with Spencer in a lot of detail, however they are happy by the fact that Jen is going on a date with him, this would make it a romance film, however because of the action and the killing it in, the audience can see that the movie is not just a romance and in fact something else, this makes them ask questions. 

Cloverfield, Matt Reeves, 2008

 This film itself is not thriller as it has creatures and that would change the genre to horror. The start of the film as you will see in the clip is a thriller. The start of the film the audience can see police documents, like they are investigating the clip, this is a bit like lost as it is by the same person.

Camerawork:

• Close up shots through out the whole of the clip
• Medium shots which also shows some of the background and the audience can get a better understanding of what is going on
• Establishing shot to set the scene 
• Extreme long shots when walking and looking outside the window 
• Steadicam/Handheld the whole movie
• Zooms, most of the movie
• Panning when going across the room to see the pictures
• Extreme close up while adjusting the camera 
• Focus pulls when adjusting the zoom
• shallow depth of field when adjusting the zoom
• Low angle shot of him looking in front
• High angle shot of him looking into the camera
• Fast pans across the room 

Sound:

• Dialogue
• Tense music
• Cars beeping
• Party Music

Editing:

• Quick cuts
• Straight Cuts

 Mise En Scene:

•  Lighting:

• Low key lighting to create tension and atmosphere this is used at the start of the movie.
•  Props: Camera, however it is what the audience is seeing it is also a prop as they are characters are videoing the party. Food, this is important because without it their wouldn't be a party.
• Costume: Every one is dresses smart and dressed to the occasion, in the start of the clip, there is nightwear to suggest that thye just woke up. 
• Hair: Smart not plain but not to fancy, good for the occasion
• Make-Up: plain and simple but good for the occasions however at the start of the clip, the character may not be wearing any due to just woken up
• Setting: New york: busy in the day and in the night, Party: Full of people having a good time, light dimmed to look like normal and like a party.
• Mood: Lets off a happy mood and a sad one because the audience can see that everyone is happy by the fact that he has got a good job but sad because he is upset that he is moving away as the audience don't know much about him. 

2012,Roland Emmerich,2009

Camerawork:

• Close up of the fire 
• Close up to medium shot in the cab
• Extreme long shot of the cab coming towards the camera
• Pan to the left as they are walking into the bulding 
• High angle shot looking down at them in the lift 
• 3 shot in the lift
• 2 shot when out of the lift 
• Shot reverse shot when looking at the information 

Sound:

• Tense Music
• Thunder Lighting, Rain
• Dialogue

Editing:

• Quick Cuts
• Straight Cuts
• Parallel editing
• 180 degree rule 

Mise En Scene:

• Lighting: Low key lighting 
• Props: Umbrellas due to it raining
• Hair: tidy but messy at the same time 
• Make-up: Minimal or none at all
• Costume: very plain nothing smart but nothing to normal as if it is their normal day going out clothes, near to smart 
• Setting: India: very busy inside the building as well as very hot
• Mood: This film makes the audience worry and question if this is really going to happen in 2012, however because they don't really understand what the scientists are saying they can not fully understand and relate to it. When getting the to middle of this clip the audience have a better understanding of what is going on in the film and makes them question if the government are doing the same thing right now. This makes the audience tense because they know that even if it is happening right now there is not much they can do about it and then that makes them upset because as they might go home thinking the world might end in 2012. 

Rebekah