Thursday, 29 November 2012

Group storyboard (Miss Georgiou)

Group Storyboards

This storyboard shows us what will be happening in the first scene and all the camera shots and effects we will be using. In frame one, we have shown the stalker wearing all black, sitting at a desk. Using the colour black is conventional to a thriller because it represents death and dullness. We will be using low key lighting to make the first part of our scene effective. This is conventional because it keeps the audience in suspense when the lighting is low to make them aware of danger. In the second frame we will be showing the stalker writing in his diary about how he is going to hunt the girl down and try kidnapping her. The camera shots we will be using will be an over the shoulder view so you get a clear view of everything the stalker is writing.
In frame 3 the stalker is burning the picture of the victim so emphasize how that's the girl he is going to stalk. The camera shot we will use here will be a mid shot. In the forth frame the stalker is holding a knife and he is going to cut himself to show the audience how crazy he is and to build tension. Throughout all these frames and the first scene we will be using low key lighting so it has a greater affect on the audience.
The iconography we will be using in our first scene will be a knife for the stalker to cut himself, a picture of the victim for the stalker to set on fire and matches to light the picture. These iconography's are all conventional to a thriller because for example a knife and setting fire to picture is very dangerous and it helps keep the audience in suspense.
 
In the second storyboard it shows us what is going on in the second scene of our thriller opening. The 5th frame is showing us the innocent victim tied up in a small dark room and not knowing where she is. This is conventional to a thriller because the dark room creates low key lighting and low key lighting keeps the audience on edge and makes the scenes look more scary and effective. The camera shot we will be using will be a low angle to focus more on the victims facial expressions and the iconography we will be using will be a rope to tie the victim up and duck tape to keep her mouth closed.
In frame 6 we will change the camera shot to the point of view angle to show what the victim looks like from the stalkers prospective when he is walking towards her. There will be low-key lighting again in this frame and the iconography we will be using is the same as the frame before, duck tape and a rope.
Frame 7 doesn't show much, but it shows the victim looking directly in to the camera so the effect we can use here is zooming in to the victims eye to show a flash back of how she ended up where she is.
Low-key lighting is used throughout.

 
The third storyboard is showing the third scene which is the flashback to show how the victim ended up captured and tied up.
In frame 9 we will be using a low angle to show the girls feet walking. The location we will be using in this frame is on the street seeing at the girl is walking to her friends house. The iconography we will use is a pair of shoes on the victim and a pair of boots on the stalker to show he is following her. This will be to build up tension in the audience. In this scene we will be using fairly high key lighting to make it look natural but to show its a flash back.
In frame 10 we will be showing the victim walking up towards her friends house, showing her full body then we focus on how the girl presses her friends doorbell. The camera shot we will be using will be a mid shot so we can focus more on the hand and the bell.
Frame 11 is showing us the victim entering her friends house to pick up some books. The camera shot we will be using here will be over the shoulder shot to show the conversation and how each girl looks from the other girls point of view. The lighting here we will use will be high key lighting again because the victim is in the house.
Frame 12 is showing the victim receiving the text message from her stalker. The iconography we will be using will be a telephone and the lighting will be high key but not as bright as it has been in the frames before, this is to symbolise how something bad is about to happen. The camera shot we will use will be birds eye view but over the shoulder to show how the victim can see the text.
The final storyboard is summarising the final scene of our thriller opening.
Frame 13 is showing the victim walking back home whilst she is unaware of the stalker following. the camera shot we will use in this frame is a far angle to show the girl walking and the stalker behind her. The location we will be using will be an ally way for the girl to walk through which leads into a forest. Here we will use low key lighting to make the scene look dark and make the audience feel more scared.
In frame 14 we show the girl seeing the stalker and start running away from him The camera shot we will be using would be hand held to make that part of the scene seem more chaotic and quick. This would have more of an effect on  the audience because it helps them feel uncomfortable like the victim is at that moment.
Finally in the last frame of this scene we will show the victim hiding away from the stalker behind the tree, The iconography we will be using will be a phone for the victim to call her friend on and the location would still be in the forest. Here we will use low key lighting and make it look very dark to make it conventional to a thriller. The camera shot we will use will be zooming in to the victim and we end by the stalker grabbing the girl.

 

Character Representations (Miss Hartt)

Character Representation

The Stalker ( Main Character )

Name: Hidden identity
Age: 20
Gender: Male
Race: White British.

Purpose of the narrative:
In our thriller film opening, the purpose of the stalker is to keep stalking and harassing a girl that he is very obsessed with. He keeps his eye on her and follows her around to many different places until he finds the right time to capture her and take her away to his apartment. He gives the victim a few signs that he is coming for her, for example he sent her texts messages relating to what she is doing at that point to scare her, but the victim takes no notice of it.

How will the stalker appeal to the audience?
Me and my group think that the audience would dislike this character because he is a the evil character in our thriller movie. This character is the one that creates all the shock, surprise and suspense for the audience and we have put the stalker in black clothes to show that he is the evil and dark character in our movie. We keep the stalkers identity hidden to prevent the audience building a relationship with such an evil character. 
 
 
 
The Victim ( Main Character )Name: Dipika Sharma.
Age:16
Gender: Female
Race: Indian

Purpose of this narrative:
The purpose of the victim in our thriller opening is for the audience to feel pity and sympathy for her seeing as she is just a normal teenage girl trying to live her life and out of no where she gets stalked and kidnapped. Although the stalker has been giving her signs that he is going to hunt her down, for example by receiving threatening text messages, the victim decides to ignore all signs seeing as she thinks that its just her friends playing a prank on her and also she just doesn't want to believe that its true.

How will the victim appeal to the audience?
We think that the victim would come across to the audience as a character that should be sympathised with seeing as she is just a young teenage girl trying to get on in life but is going to get kidnapped for no reason at all. We dressed the victim up in all white to symbolise purity and innocence and we also done many close up shots of the victims face and facial expressions to allow th
e audience to build a sympathetic relationship with her.
 
 
 
The Victims Friend.Name: Ayesha Ali
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Race: Asian British

Purpose of the narrative:
The purpose of the victims friend in our thriller opening was so that the victim had someone there for her that she could call when she was in danger and also for the victim to have a purpose for walking around at different times of the day to allow us to get a camera shot of the stalker following her. So we decided to have the victim walking to her friends house to pick up some books. The friend seems like quite a vulnerable and naïve character as well as the victim.

How will the Victims friend appeal to the audience ?
Me and my group don't think that the audience could build a relationship with this character as well as they built the relationship with the victim seeing at the victims friend is only in our thriller opening for a short period of time. However when the victim is getting stalked, the first person she calls is her friend Ayesha which could make the audience think to themselves that the victims friend could be a very reliable person.

Wednesday, 28 November 2012

Opening scene narration (MissGeorgiou)

Opening Scene
For the opening scene of our thriller film, we are going to start off by using fast editing. At the beginning we will use a variety of different camera shots to show the stalker doing various things like burning a girls picture and cutting his own hand etc. This is conventional to a thriller because we are going to keep the stalkers identity hidden so this will helps build up suspense for the audience. We will have the stalker dressed in all black, a black hoody, black leggings, black gloves and black boots, this is also conventional to a thriller because  the colour black connotes death and this foreshadows what the stalker will do later in the film. We have decided to use low-key lighting in this scene so it created strong shadows and keeps the identity hidden throughout.

In the next scene, it will show a teenage girl tied up on the floor with makeup running down her face. She wakes up now knowing where she is and tries to get herself out of the rope which was unsuccessful. This will show that she has been kidnapped and trapped in a small room. The camera shot starts off zoomed into her hands, and slowly the camera zooms out to show her body tied up. This is conventional to a thriller because it will show the use of iconography and emphasize the fact that this girl is trapped and can't escape. She will be wearing a white/cream top and the colour of her costume straight away tells the audience that she is the victim in the film as the colour white/cream symbolises purity. The use of camera shots will make the scene look a lot more effective seeing as it will show a lot more detail like the facial expression which gives the audience a chance to develop a relationship with the victim. This is conventional to a thriller because it allows the audience to experience the fear and adrenaline that the character is going through that that moment. Again we will use low key lighting in this scene because it helps create a shadow behind he girl of the stalker walking towards the girl which builds up tension for the audience leaving them wondering what he is going to do to her. Also it keeps the stalkers identity hidden throughout. We decided that at that point, the girl should have a flashback of how she ended up where she was also because a flashback creates a good effect. We will zoom into the victims eye when she is trapped and that straight away leads into the flashback and how it started.

The third scene is the flashback and it starts of with the victim walking to her friends house to pick up some books. The camera starts off zoomed into the victim walking and slowly zooms out of her while she is walking towards the camera. At this point the stalker will be staring at her from different angles. One of the shots we are going to use is a point of view shot to show the stalkers perspective. We will show this by the stalker standing behind a tree and holding the camera to show the audience what he can see which is the victim walking up towards her friends house with some small branches in the way. These camera shots are conventional to a thriller because the stalkers identity is still hidden but yet again it lets the audience see what the stalker can see and it builds up suspense for the audience because they can see that the stalker is watching the victims every move. This also created enigma for the audience. When the victim reaches her friends house and rings the doorbell the camera will show her friend on the laptop from behind, as she goes to open the door, we use a couple different camera shot. When the door opens the two girls exchange a little conversation. Here we use camera shots like over the shoulder and close ups so you can see the facial expressions and what the character can see. As the victims friend goes upstairs to get the book, the victim receives a text from an unknown number talking about the book. One of the camera shots we will use at this point of the is zoom, we decided to zoom into the phone as the victim is unlocking her phone to emphasize what the text said and to build suspense for the audience as the camera is zooming into the phone. The victims friend then comes down the stairs questioning who the text message was from but the victim closes the text and acts like it was nothing and she tries to ignore the fact that she is getting stalked. The victims friend kindly offers her a drink or something but the victim refuses and says she has to rush home.

In this next scene we will show the victim going home but taking the short cut through the ally way then the forest. We will film the victim casually walking into the ally way but then we show the stalker standing behind the victim in the ally way watching her walk from a distance. We decided to use the location of a forest and ally way because they are conventional to the thriller genre and it highlights to the audience that it is an isolated setting and no one would be able to hear her scream.
As the victim is walking through the forest we done a camera shot of the victims feet walking and the
stalkers black boots following behind. This is effective because you can only see the feet of the stalker, so it keeps the identity hidden and builds suspense and tension. Suddenly the victim hears a twig snap behind her. Here we show the victim seeing the stalker standing behind her so she screams and drops her books and runs away. The camera shot we use at this point is a hand held camera to show a chase so the audience experience the fear and adrenalin that the victim is feeling at that moment. This camera shot is effective because it makes the scene appear as unsettling and chaotic.
The victim then runs and hides behind a bush, she tries calling her friend but her friend fails to pick up her phone. So we end our opening of the stalkers hand covering up the victims mouth. This is an effective way of ending our opening because it leaves the audience thinking what happens next? So it ends on a cliff-hanger.

The sounds we will be using throughout most of our thriller opening is going to be non diegetic sound. Non diegetic sound is .. sound that is not visible on screen for example, a narrators voice, or maybe a police siren in the background etc.
The non diegetic sounds we will be using is mostly background music to make the scene look more dramatic and seem more important then it is.




 

Thursday, 22 November 2012

Opening credits (Miss Hartt)

Analysis of the opening credits from Seven
 
 
The opening credits to the thriller film Seven uses mise-en-scene and alot of fast editing to help build up suspence for the audience. In the opening credits to the film Seven, they have used a pretty straight forward font but they have added an effect to the credits which makes the writing look demented. Also the background music they have used is at a medium speed, so its not too fast or too slow. This music is effective because it fits in with the whole theme of whats going on in the credits, so it goes well with the fast editing. This keeps the audience hooked in because as it was getting further into the opening, the music gets much louder, interesting, dangerous and effective.
We are shown the credits in some sort of order. This order is ...
first we are shown the production name which is the name of the group that produced the film. Then we are shown the directors name which is the man/woman that directed the whole film throughout. Then finally we are shown the actors names, which is all the actors in the film.
However the actors names seems to be in order of importance and sometimes popularity seeing as Brad Pitt was shown first and he is a very popular actor.
In this opening scene, they keep the mans idenetity hidden. This is a majour convention of a thriller because the camera takes different shots of the mans  body in order for the audience to try and guess the character. This creates suspense and tension for the audience seeing as they dont know who this man is, and all they know is that he is the bad person in this film. Also the man is wearing black, this foreshadows the fact that he will be causing many deaths throughout this film. The colour black also symbloises the killer in thriller films seeing as they are wearing such a dull colour.

 

Risk assessment (Miss Georgiou)

Risk Assessment

Hazard
Precaution of hazard
Someone could trip on the trailing wires.
We will use gaffer tape to secure it to the ground.
We are going to use knifes for iconography.
Ensure that we are being careful when using in and have a first aid kit nearby just in case someone cuts themselves.
We are going to go to the forest where we could slip and fall.
We are going to stay in groups so if someone gets hurt we can help.
We are going to tie Dipika’s up with rope and she could fall over.
We are going to make the ropes lose enough for her to release her hands and move any sharp objects out of the way.
 
In the table above, there is a list of possible hazards whilst filming our thriller opening. I have then wrote how we can take precautions in order to prevent these hazards for happening. I produced this table using Microsoft word and as a group we will use this as a guideline to make sure we are all safe and unharmed.
It is essential to consider the risks before film so we are aware of what could possibly happen and we can be careful avoiding these hazards. The risk assessment will assist my group when filming our thriller opening because we will take precautions such as buying gaffer tape and moving sharp objects aside.

Sunday, 18 November 2012

Planning the production (Miss Georigou)

Planning the production

Objective: 
To be able to plan and create the mise-en-scene of your thriller film.


 
Task one  
-

Production role post: Research and define the main roles of the following within a film production

Camera Operator - is someone that is responsible for physically operating the camera and maintaining camera angles throughout a given shot.

Actors - is someone that acts in a dramatic or comic production and usually works in filming.

Sound Technician - is someone who works in the filming industry and are skilled professionals that make films, TV shows and music videos sound much better then they usually do in reality.

Editors - is someone that makes the final changes to a newspaper, magazine, book or anything to do with filming to make it perfect.

 
Film Directors -  is a someone that directs the actors and film crew in film making. They control the film's artistic and dramatic aspects, while guiding the technical crew aswell.


Location Manager - The location manager is responsible for the finding and securing locations to be used.


Storyboard Organiser - ois someone that organizes and manages timelines to ensure work is completed on time. They plan the shots and camera angles that are going to be filmed and provides an overview plot of the story-line.

 

Task Two
-
As a group decide on which role each group will be taking and why? 

The roles each person in the group is going to play:
Camera Operator (Lauren, Dipika Ayesha)
Actor (Lauren, Dipika, Ayesha)
Editor (Lauren, Dipika, Ayesha)
Location Manager (Lauren and Ayesha)
Sound Technician (Lauren)
Storyboard Manager (Ayesha)
Film Director (Dipika)

We applied the roles to each person in the group because we thought that they would be the best person for that particular job and would get the best results. We decided to useall three of us to be the camera operater because we all have different ideas for camera shots for each scenes. We believe that we would all be able to achieve good camera shots and so we were going to film different parts. This worked well for us whilst doing the preliminary task so we are going to use the same technique when film our thriller. Ayesha was chosen to be the film director because she has shown creative ideas such as locations and camera angles. She is organised and is good with communicating with everyone. I was chosen to be the sound technician because i have used garage band before and we thought i would have more of an idea on making the music. Storyboard manager is dipika because she is most organised and is aware or the specific scenes and angles that we planned to use.

 
 





 


Saturday, 3 November 2012

Group narrative (Miss Georgiou)

 
Group Narrative
Everyone in my group wrote up and individual narrative saying what will happen in each scene what types of character, camera shots, edit etc. we could use. We looked at the advantages and disadvantages of each idea and created a narrative to use in our thriller clip.
 
Dipika Sharma
Individual Narrative

Storyline
My storyline is about a girl called Aisha that has two best friends called Angeline and Louise. They do everything together and they are such a close group of friends. Aisha starts receiving strange text messages from a random number and she keeps it quiet for a while. Soon she decides that she would tell her friend Louise about this stalker. Her friend Louise thinks that Aisha (the girl that gets stalked) is joking and lying about the stalker and doesn't believe her what so ever seeing as Aisha is a top joker and jokes about everything! Soon after Aisha goes missing one day and there's a note on Louise's bed saying "Call Aisha's phone or she dies"
Louise then tells her friend Angeline, the clever one out of the three about what happened, but she gets angry because they didn't tell her in the first place!


Characters
The characters in my story are 3 best friends called Angeline Aisha and Louise.
Angeline is the clever one out of the three, she has an answer for everything and she can easily get out of traps and never gets into trouble because she is so clever.
Aisha is the top joker in the group, she jokes about everything and never takes anything seriously. She has no limits to her jokes no matter how extreme they are she jokes about it.
Then there is Louise that's blonde and thinks everything's a joke and laughs about everything as well. She's always worried about her looks and makeup.


Setting
In our thriller movie we will use a number of different settings and locations throughout depending on what is going on in that particular scene. The first scene will be set at night on a roadside in public, with just a girl walking home on her way back from a club. In this opening scene I will try to use codes and conventions of a thriller film and the key feature we will use is low key lighting. We will also use background music to suit what's going on at that moment. So when the girl starts getting chased the music will turn into fast pace music etc. Other settings we will use in our thriller opening is one of the girls bedrooms, a club, a car park and a forest.

Target Audience
This film will be rated a 15 because it will have scenes of a sexual nature and maybe some use of drugs and violence.

Codes and Conventions
- Low key lighting
- Shock
- Surprise
- Suspense
- Tension
- Stalking
- Chase
- Background music

An advantage to this is it has loads of good codes and convention like low key lighting from the stated settings. A Disadvantage to this is it would be hard to film the scenes without getting unwanted people in the background or noises the will distracted the viewers.

 

Lauren Vale
Individual Narrative

My individual idea for our thriller narrative is a teenage girl wakes up and finds herself trapped in an unfamiliar room tied against a chair. The clip then goes into a flashback to reveals what had happened to her and how she ended up in that predicament. The teenage girl goes missing and eventually the best friends notice her out of character behaviour of not turning up to school and not talking to them for a number of days and decide to try and find out what happen to her. Over that period of time all the girls get anonymous texts from someone dropping hints on where she is and gives them tasks that they have to complete. If they did this they would receive another text giving them the next tip to help them find her. If the girls didn't do what the texts said their friend would be killed.

Settings:
There are going to be number of settings throughout my thriller narrative and the first one will be based in a dark room. The girl wakes up and finds herself tied to a chair and doesn't know how she got there. The audience will be able to realise that she was drugged up by the unknown stalker. In the scene i will used low-key lighting to help conceal the identity of the stalker and prevent the audience for getting a clear view or the surrounding keeping them in suspense. The second settings will be set in a forest. This will highlight to the audience that its hard to escape and that the girls are alone. This is where the stalker will get them to do a task to get the next text. Finally the third settings will be at a park whether the two friend meet to talk about the texts and their missing friend. The park is conventional to the thriller genre because it create a creepy atmosphere for the audience and the audience expect there to be little kids playing there instead of girls being stalked.

Beginning:
Once the girl wakes up she remembers what had happened the previous day and starts to panic. I will use diegetic sounds of the girl screaming and her heavy breathing to create a tense atmosphere. The clip with then going back into a flashback of the three girls walking to school when one of them receives a anonymous text message threatening to kidnap her. The girl dismisses it and continues like normal without telling the other two girls what has been happening. over this scene non-diegetic sound will be played to make the audience suspicious creating a sense of foreboding that something bad is going to happen. The day carries on like normal, they go to school and as soon at the bell goes they meet up to walk home. The two friends wait for the other girl and soon realise that she isn't at school and assume she went home early. I will then show the girl receiving the texts walking home from the stalkers point of view making the audience know she is being followed. I am going to use  specific camera angles such as a low angle and point of view to help hide the identity of the stalker and build suspense.

Middle: In the middle of the narrative there will be two scenes one in the forest and one at a park in their local area. Firstly the two girls arrange to meet up to talk about the texts they have both been receive and about there missing friend. This scene will be shown in a two shot so the audience can see their facial expressions and their body language. This scene will include on-screen sounds such as the swings creaking in the wind or the trees whistling. These conventions will build suspense within the audience.
The second scene is where the friends of the kidnapped girl both receive anonymous texts off of the stalker telling them to go so a certain place and certain time. The diegetic sound of the phones ringing at the same time will be shown through an extreme closed up with shallow focus. This is conventional to the thriller genre building a tense atmosphere. The girls are told to go to a forest which highlights to the audience that its is an isolated location making the generic victims more vulnerable. They complete the task set out in front of them that leads them closer to their friend.
 
End: In the final part of the thriller narrative the two girls a led to the place where their friend was and struggle to help her untie herself from the ropes. Once they have finish all three of them run towards the door to get out where the stalker reveal his identity and raises a gun a the girls. The cameras zooms in on the iconography prop and this diegetic sound you hear a gun shot. This shock the audience and the camera fades to black.
The target audience for my thriller narrative was a 15 because i may use strong threat and menace unless sadistic. The violence may be strong but i wont dwell on the infliction of pain or injury.

an advantage for this would be that she has used different scenes to connect my event. She could use a variety of conventions such as camera shots, settings and lighting to create suspense, surprise and tension. However a disadvantage would be that it would be hard to find a god location for the scene where the girl wakes up in a dark room like a warehouse to film. This would be ineffective because it wouldn't create the suspense needed.



Ayesha Ali
Individual narrative

Narrative:
There is a group of 5 children, they're all on vacation and they're all having a sleepover round onee of the five children's house.. it's 9 o clock and they decide to play hide and seek.. one of the children go upstairs and hide in the loft in one of the cupboards and he finds a box that was tapped up with allot of layers, so the child decides to open the box, once hes opened the box he finds a book.. he starts reading the book, and the book tells a story about 5 characters that all get treats and good things happen to them. What the boy does not realise is that the book is based on the 5 friends life.. so in the book as one character gets a gift, one of the friends get a gift and so on.. so all five friends eventually have good things going for them, when suddenly theres a twist.. one friend in the book has to die, so all five friends argue within themselves as they are worried to find out which friend dies.
Characters:
The characters in my story are 5 best friends called, tom, jake, amy, rose and mike. In my story all five friends go to Tom's house for a sleepover. The character who finds the book is Amy, and amy decides to tell her closest friend Rose. In the story, Jake is the very calm, easy going character who takes everything as a joke and is very rarely serious, so in this situation Jake does not really pay much attention until the twist happens. Finally Mike, Mike is the very clever character who looks into everything into detail, he very rarely takes a joke and makes one, once Mike finds out about this book he creates an argument as he wants to tell his parents as this is something serious, but the other characters do not agree.

Setting
In the thriller movie we will use many different settings ongoing throughout the movie which all relies on the particular scene. The opening scene will first be set out in the playground of the school where all five friends play together everyday, and that is where all characters decide to have a sleepover round Tom's house. Later the scene will be placed at Tom's house where they play hide and seek and find the book. Many other scenes may be included for e.g: Houses, Park, Cafe or school.
Target audience:
The target audience for this thriller is 15 because many scenes may include a limitless number of violence or blood.

Codes and conventions:
Shock
emotions
chase
enigma
low key lighting
Background music 

An advantage of the narrative is that it has a typical setting in the house which is conventional to the thriller. A disadvantage of this is that in one of the setting it would be hard to not get unwanted noises. An example would be wind or even children that are going to play in the park. Another disadvantage to this narrative would be that it is hard to get five people to act it out.
 
 
 
Synopsis
For our final group narrative we have decided to use different bits of all our individual narratives and put them together to create a new idea.
We decided that we were going to make our final storyline about a school girl that is getting stalked. We decided to make this guy start obsessing over this school girl and start stalking her continuously keeping his eye on her and following her everywhere she goes. The girl needs to go and pick some books up from her friends house and the stalker is watching her the whole time. When she gets to her friends house to get the books, the victim starts receiving these strange messages asking about what books etc. But the girl doesn't take much notice of the messages seeing as she just thinks that its her friends playing a prank on her. As she is walking home it starts getting darker but the victim takes a short cut through an ally way and through a forest. That's when the girl sees the stalker and starts running away from him. The stalker gets hold of the victim and kidnaps her.