third screengrab from final video

This screengrab shows part of the interview, we edited in the breaking news at the bottom to make it look more realistic.

second screengrab from the final video

This is another title, this time showing the actors name. The background however is slightly different, it looks more like a black background with blood splattered on it.

Screengrabs of final video.

This is the opening title, it is on a red and black background. It creates the setting and genre almost immediately.

Final Video

This is my storyboard which shows our ideas of our task.

Props, music, costume & technology.

Props:
we didn't have many props in out film because it was mainly based around snapshots to create the thriller effect. Our opening scene consisted of images, titles and short film clips.

Music:
It took us quite a while to find a suitable track for our film. At first we researched a lot but couldn't find what we needed. We eventually decided we would use the sweeney todd soundtrack as it is similar to our film. We also realised we had a problem with copyright, but then found out as we were only using it for educational purposes it was fine.

Costume:
Like props this wasn't very essential for our opening scene, however for our interviews we did use costumes, the history teacher was in a suit and the pe teacher was wearing sporty clothes. Our snapshots didn't include characters so it wasn't needed a lot.

Technology:
The only technology we really used was the camera and editing software. This included cutting and putting the clips and images together. Then putting the soundtrack in and making it quieter when people were talking.

My responsibilities in our task

In our task my main responsibility was the editing; we all helped with the planning and research. I would have been there to help with the main filming but i was absent when this was taking place. Therefore i did the editing, this was also because i was the one who knew how to use the editing software best.

3 thriller films

Secret Window

The opening of Secret Window starts with the actor Johnny Depp in his car. The camera is close up so all you can see is his face. His hair is scruffy and covered up by a hat and his face is unshaven, giving him a rough appearance. The camera stays on him and its all quiet until a voice is heard, it says “turn around, turn around! Turn the car around, get the hell out of here, right now!” This creates the atmosphere and portrays that it is a thriller movie right from the start. The lighting is also very dark, its snowing outside the car and its filmed just before nightfall. As soon as the voice is gone Mort, Johnny Depp’s character, turns the car violently around. When he’s turned fully around the voice returns saying “don’t go back, don’t go back to her.” He then reverses the car but the camera stays still, letting the audience see where he is. Behind is bright red letters is the sign for a motel. Mort goes into the motel, takes some keys and goes to a room, he opens the door and we see a man and woman in bed together, the audience can guess by the voice from before that the woman is his wife. You see Mort shouting and then the camera backs out of the door, past his car and slow intense music starts to play. It is now clear that the voice from earlier was in fact Morts, this could lead the audience to thinking that maybe he is crazy because he is talking to himself; this could make it even more obvious it is a thriller movie.

Sweeney Todd

The Sweeney Todd opening actually starts when the DreamWorks logo appears because the music played behind that is creepy and automatically gives off the atmosphere of a thriller movie. Straight after this it’s a high angled camera shot of the sky, its cloudy and raining, then it suddenly thunders and music starts playing. The camera moves down enough so we can see the tops of buildings and chimneys, the lighting is extremely dark, suggesting it’s in the middle of the night. Among the raindrops there are occasionally drops of blood dropping as well. Titles are running over the top of this scene, shown in plain white writing. The camera moves along the houses until it gets to a window, it zooms in on the window and you can clearly see a barber’s chair, suddenly a splatter of blood lands on the window and the directors name comes up. The camera them jumps to a wall and on the wall are paintings with blood dripping from them, Actors names are shown beside the paintings. The camera then follows the blood that’s dripping; it drips onto cog wheels and then away from the camera. The blood is obviously animated into this bit but the effect is still good, making it completely obvious it’s going to be a thriller movie. The screen then goes blank and the title come up. However it then carries on with actors names and it cuts to a scene where meat is being pushed through a blender, then again it jumps to a scene of fire and then pies coming out of an oven with blood on the baking tray. The blood runs from the fire, down a drain and into the sewers, it’s all extremely dark and quite hard to see except for the bright red blood running down the centre of the screen. The director’s name is then repeated and the movie starts.

Nick of Time

The opening of Nick of Time starts when the paramount pictures logo comes up, behind we can hear a clock ticking, and then music, a girl humming. The music is creepy because the singers voice echoes. The camera zooms in on a child’s clock, it’s a teddy bear and its eyes move as it ticks. The camera slowly moves behind the clock and actors names come on the screen one at a time in yellow writing beside it. Behind the clock the camera goes on to show the cogs working, whilst still showing actors names. The title of the film comes up, which leads the audience to think that the film is about to start but the opening scene carries on. The camera now shows the barrel of a gun, opened with no bullets in, it’s zoomed in a lot and the background is very dark. The camera is moving extremely slow, enabling the audience to realise what is being shown, the fact that it is a gun almost certainly portrays it is a thriller movie. The music changes after a while and it creates a lot of suspense. The camera flicks between shots of a gun and the cogs behind a clock. When it shows the gun for the fourth time it is now loaded. You see towards the end the gun being fired, but it’s like it’s doing it by itself, no-one is there holding it. The music then changes to the sound of a big clock ringing and the camera shows a big white clock.

prezi evaluation

http://prezi.com/qluj-5xyrd0a

Evaluation

For our task we wanted to create the opening scene of a thriller movie. We think our target audience will be older teenagers and adults who enjoy watching thriller movies and also people who are interest about the Steve Wright murders. For part of our movie we used snapshots of pictures that we took, we wanted this to create a scene and image in our audiences mind. Our interviews took place in one of our houses as we wanted to create the effect that we were interviewing people from their houses. This was because they were scared of the murders and grieving. Our short scene of a person running took place outside on the grass. We did research however about our ideas, and looked at films such as sweeney todd and from hell which were based on murders and jack the ripper, which Steve Wright is to be thought of as a modern day version.

I think we would choose a production company like Lions Gate Entertainment if we wanted to distribute our film because although this isn't the most well known company, it has produced a lot of horror and thriller movies before.

We did however have many problems when doing our task. For a start we found it difficult to come up with an idea that we all liked, and that we all thought was achievable. We then had problems when actually filming. One of the group members was always hard to contact as she had no phone or email address. This made it hard for us to organize a time when we could all get together. Work was also an issue so the time we had was limited. Also when editing we realized we didn’t really have enough filing but it was too late to film some more, obviously time was a major issue here and we should have checked our filming before we began to edit. when editing as well there were only 2 of us that knew how to actually use the software, as we were used to using a different one, and even then we still found it difficult and could only do the basics. Our task could be seen as more of a documentary then a film, this was because we included the interview, if we had longer than 2 minutes then maybe it would become clear it was a film.

Therefore in our task there are a number of things we could have done better, we should have put a lot more effort into our task, and planned more thoroughly. We also needed to work better as a team and communicate more.

In conclusion I am not really pleased with our final task. I don’t feel all group members tried their hardest and we didn’t work to the best of our ability.

Planning

Firstly our group looked at what genre we wanted our film to be. We decided to make it a thriller/drama; we plan to make a drama on the media uprising of the Steve Wright murders in Ipswich, it is definatley not going to be a documentary however, more of a film representing it.

We re going to be filming snapshots of gloomy, eerie areas

Location - jess

Music, news reports - jenni

snapshots - me

Evaluation of the preliminary task

For our preliminary task we had to film someone in a room, with another person entering and the 2 people talking for a short time. Our Genre was comedy, based on a police drama. Our film consisted of an investigator (jenni) and a suspect (whitney), Whitney was french and couldn't understand english very well, when being questioned she misunderstood something and asked about a hamburger.

The first thing we had to do was look at an appropriate locoation for our film. The location was quite difficult to find at first as we tried to film in sprowston high school but whenever there was a time free for the room we wanted someone couldnt make it. It took too long to find a suitable room and in the end we filmed at sewell park.

Another problem that came up was the costumes. Our original idea was that the suspect was going to be an elderly woman with hearing difficulties, as we found it hard to find someone to act this person for us, and to find a suitable costume we changed it to a french teenager. The investigator was obviously dressed smartly, just as they would be in real life. wearing a suit jacket and black trousers.

Out first ideas were to have the investigator smoking in the scene, but then as we had to film inside and at school this wasn't allowed. The old woman was also meant to have a walking stick, glasses and everything but as this took to long to get a costume together we had to change it.

Also when we were filming one of out actors was very ill, meaning we had to wait until she got better, this meant we didnt have as much time to film as we would have liked. The editing for the movie went quite well, we all had parts to do and the overall film came out okay. I think the main issue in our group was timing and organisation.

Febuary 21, 2010