Thursday 29th January

We started editing as Nicole and Tony were not prepared for a filming lesson which i thought we were doing. So instead of waste valuable lesson time we decided to start editing the scene we had shot in the previous lesson. We rewound the tape to the beginning and logged and captured each part, even the parts we did not need because we just wanted to make sure we had all the camera angles. After that we started to edit the few shots we had which was a pan of the London city skyline to a cross fade of Nicole's heels walking towards the camera.

Searching for a location - Saturday - 24/01/09

As from the previous lesson, which was on Thursday 22nd with Rebecca, we came to the conclusion as a group that we were not going to be using “Ella Street”, therefore myself, tony, and Zeneath decided to meet up on Saturday morning/afternoon and look elsewhere.
Unfortunately, Zeneath did not appear, and was not able to make it, leaving myself and Tony to explore and look at other sites. From before, I and Tony had already had a place in mind, also Rebecca and Micky had advised us to explore and look at famous and good sceneries, so we thought to take a look at “London Bridge” as we thought it would be suitable to use for our setting. Due to this, we decided to go and take a look, and see whether it was suitable like how we imagined it to be. The minute we had reached there, we got to work straight away. We walked around, taking pictures of different roads, different pavements, and also different buildings, so that we could take it back to our other members who were not there, and see their opinion on the scenery, and also to compare it to our previous location we had in mind. (This was “Ella Street”). After we took pictures, and had a look around, myself and tony felt comfortable, and impressed with what we saw, as it fitted our storyline, and certain places, and corners (e.g. – metal stairs) had that thriller effect. For this reason, we decided to call it a day, and went home, hoping that the other members of the group would like it just as much as we did.

First Filming Day

Monday 26th
Today is the day we started to film our opening sequence. We had everything we needed and we were very organised and Nicole and Tony had their costumes ready to wear. We left the media lesson at 09.30 am and arrived at London Bridge at 10.10am which was the final decision of where we were filming, upon arrival we got straight to business and started filming with a pan of Tower Bridge from London Bridge and then to Nicole, who walks pass the camera, remembering the 180 degrees so I changed angles and shot it again. I shot from all different angles to add effect and to make it easier for my group when we go into the editing suite. Then we follow her down stairs through a pathway which runs along the river bank. We then introduce tony into the scene, while walking this is when all the action happens, which we haven’t started filming yet. But we were unable to completely finish the opening scene even though we are more than halfway done. We will continue filming on Thursday.

Production schedule & Setting

In today’s Thursday lesson we was discussing our production schedule to see what time fitted with everyone’s timetable and whether we needed to do it in none college hours. From discussing amongst ourselves we came to the conclusion to film on the days we had double lesson, which was a Monday. We also had to decided where we would want to film our thriller opening because we had not came up with a fixed location to film. We told Rebecca about what sort of location we was looking for and she thought of a place near the college which may be suitable for our preferences. So as a group we borrowed a camera from college and went to the place that Rebecca told us about which we took pictures of and uploaded onto blogger.com which is the images below, one of the images had a pair of feet in it. Once we got back we thought as a group that the place was not that good of a choice and decided to not to film there, but was one of our options.

Preparing and presenting our pitch

In today’s double lesson we were told to prepare our pitch. We were sitting there, discussing what we would we would be doing and who will be talking about what parts of the pitch and so forth. We as a group decided to change our story from our initial idea at the last minute. We change our idea from a story about an affair then changed it to, a woman who kills a man but we do not know who the killer is to the very end is as she walks off. The way we would have to pull this off and make it look good, we would have to have good scenery and have perfect camera shots and editing to not bore the audience. Once we had came up with our story we had to allocate task for each member. My task was to talk about the plot of our thriller opening and the camera shots. Once we was finished with our pitch, Mary asked us questions and her concerns about our thriller opening and we had to justify why was doing our thriller this way and so forth. Once that was all done Mary gave us the all clear and we were ready to film for next lesson.

1st Filming Lesson - 22/01/09

Today’s lesson, we were free to go and film, however no one in class actually got round to filming for some reason. Personally, our group was having a couple disagreements as not everyone was prepared to travel anywhere else apart from Angel in order to have better scenery, and so because of that we were unable to film as we had not made a decision of what location we wanted to film in, therefore until that decision is made, we are unable to film, and this is where the disagreements came in. In the meantime, instead of making it a wasteful lesson, we decided to take a walk to Ella Street, to have an idea of what the scenery was like and if it fitted our description. In the process of this, myself and Tony decided to borrow a digital camera from the college to take pictures of the area from different angles to get a rough idea of what it would look like If we were to film there. However we came to the conclusion that we could find a better location than that therefore myself, Tony and Zeneath then decided that we would meet up for Saturday at college for 12, so that we can go and explore and take pictures of other locations and their sceneries, and then compare it to what we have. As our scenery is expected to be on a lonely , deserted, isolated road which starts of with Victorian houses then slowly as the mood of the scene changes, different houses begin to come in, for example – estates, which is where the incident would happen. Apart from that Zeneath finished off the new storyboard, while I and Tony went into the editing sweet to download the pictures into our blogger.

Pitch Presentation - 19/01/09

In today’s lesson with Mary, we were given the first half of the lesson to finish off planning and organizing our pitch. Luckily we were given half the lesson to finish off planning, as the previous night, I had thought of a new and easier concept, however it was too late to inform the other group members that night. Therefore I did my task which was to write a summery of what the opening sequence is about, and what type of audience we were targeting, as well as the group’s task for the new concept. That way if they did not like the new concept, then I had work prepared for the original idea for the presentation, however, if they were fund of the new idea, and actually preferred it rather than the old idea then I had already written every one’s task/work done for them, that way all they had to do was to say what part they want to talk about, and elaborate on it. With further discussion, we made a group decision to go with my new idea; also in addition we asked Mary for her opinion on what she thought would be best. As a result, we felt like the old idea would have been to complicated and long to film, as we have only got 2mins of filming time, so we decided to make the new idea official. This was a big risk that we took as we made a dramatic change to the overall dialogue last minute, however it all turned out good as Mary was fund of the idea, and the way we presented never reflected the fact that we had changed it last minute, as in you would have never known we changed it last minute unless we told you. Overall the pitching went good, and we were able to film as long as our storyboards was complete, which it was, as I did all that the previous night. All that was left to do was to add in a couple more steps to the storyboard which Mary suggested we should do to add more flavor to the scene. Due to this, Zeneath had to redraw and copy out the original storyboard, including the new steps which Mary advised us to include.
Briefly summarizing the new storyline, I named it “The Woman Killer”. The opening is based on a sophisticated woman, who lives in London, who has urges to kill men. She is like a predator, and men are her preys. As our opening can only last 2minutes, we can not put so much into it, if we no it would over run, so basically, I decided to only do a short intro, introducing the woman and her first prey. It begins with a smartly dressed woman, who has a sophisticated look, dressed in black with killer heels on. It would begin with an extreme long shot/birds eye view, showing the view and scenery of where the location is. We would then show a long shot of a young smartly dressed male looking over in the direction of where the woman is. Automatically, were influencing the audience to think the male figure is going to do something to the woman, whereas it is the total opposite. We then show a long shot of the woman introducing her into the scene, and her character. We would then do a close up on the woman’s feet, then hand hold the camera steadily, tracking the woman’s feet as she walks. We also are doing the same thing for the male; however we would not be showing anyone’s point of view, as that would be giving it away. So at the moment we do not know who is in front of who, whether it is the man or woman, it is a mystery. We would then show an extreme close up of the woman’s eyes, then a close up of her face, showing her face in fine detail, so that the audience can see her facial expressions clearly. Again we would do the same for the male. At this point, the female’s paste of walking is increasingly becoming faster, and if all were seeing is feet, eyes, facial expressions, along with different sound effects, making the overall feeling very suspenseful, us audience are then already becoming nervous, as we are unsure of what’s going to happen, however if anything, we are expecting something to happen to the women. The paste then picks up again, and all you hear is heavy breathing, along with faster foot steps, with some other sound effects. Then “boom”! Her bag falls. The camera then shoots a medium close up, showing her bending down rushing to pick up all her contents, a close up shot will then take place, showing how eager and nervous she is to pick up all her stuff, this shot will show her hands shaking, showing how keen and impatient she is, again sound effects would be contributing a great deal at this point to contribute to the tension growing. She then gets back up, and the cameras are back focusing on her feet, then at the mans feet then all of a sudden, we would have a point of view shot, however not showing from anyone’s perspective, the camera would be filming straight then it will pan back towards the audience showing the woman holding up a knife and killing the male. The camera would then fall to the floor with the victim, and would be tilted to the side, only showing her killer heels walking off into the streets of London.
I thought that this would have been better than the first idea as it would be much easier to film. I feel like the previous idea was far too long, it would have been hard to find three adult volunteers who wouldn’t mind acting, and it did not really have a thrilling effect to it, which is why I thought of this idea. Obviously this is just a brief summery however there are a lot of other things we would be adding to the overall scene, to give it that overall thrilling effect. I have trust and faith that I and my group can do this properly, and get a good grade. I believe that all it takes it some determination, and a positive attitude, together with our skills, to put together a high quality piece of work.

Match cut practice - Second filming practice 12/01/09

This lesson was basically for us to experiment, and practice using the camera again, allowing us to be comfortable and confident in how to use the camera appropriately and in a professional way, so that when it comes to us filming our actual thriller, we are well aware, skilled, certain, experienced and contented while handling the camera. (While filming). The difference between this filming practice session and the previous filming practice session (the newspaper thriller), is that in this practice session, we were expected to include some sort of match cut technique, and the 180 degree rule, showing what we had learnt from the previous lesson with Rebecca. A match cut could be known as “raccord” or even a “metaphor cut”. This is a technical term for a cut in film editing from one scene to another, in which the two camera shots' compositional elements match, helping to establish a strong continuity of action. It can be used to underline a connection between two separate elements, or for purely visual reasons. The 180° rule is a basic film editing guideline that states those two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. Also, the new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle. As myself and tony were absent in the previous lesson of planning, due to our exam, we had only Zenneath to explain fully to us what we were expected to do, and film, as Rebecca was absent that day. Due to the missing out of the previous lesson, I felt like myself and tony worked really hard as we had no clue on what we were expected to do. Even after Zenneath had explained, we were still unsure in certain things like the 180 degree rule, or even what the match cut technique is all about, however we made it our business to find out what those were about, so that we do not miss out on any essential information. In result to this, we asked Mikey for some guidance and a brief explanation of what match cut technique is all about, and the 180 degree rule. After this point, myself and tony felt confident and certain to start filming, as we now we understood completely what to do, and what was expected of us at the end of this lesson. After Zenneath had given us the storyboard, and a brief understanding of the storyline, we got down to business and started filming. Tony and Zenneath were acting, and I was the camera man, with a little support from Zenneath when she was not acting. I basically had to film Tony walking down a corridor, opening a door and entering into a room. He then had to join Zenneath, by sitting down at a table, where they both shared a couple of lines between themselves. This was done through using different camera shots, from different angles, including the 180 degree rule, and the match cut technique. At one point, we needed some direction from Mickey; as we needed some recommendation on how to shoot a specific shot from a specific angle. This is where we ran out of time due to this difficulty and the fact that tony and Zenneath had the giggles, (which made the overall experience fun, and exciting), we had to work threw our break time, back into our lesson time, which is when we then went into the editing sweet to begin editing. At the end of our editing session, our finished outcome was impressive, however I feel like it could have been made to appeal to be more thrilling and suspenseful. On the other hand it was good.I am pleased and grateful that we had this lesson to practice filming once again as, as I was doing majority of the camera work, I really got a chance to bond with the camera and learn, knowing properly and thoroughly how to use, and handle the camera by myself with no support. I also learned a new editing technique which I never knew before. This was the match cut technique and the 180 degree rule. In addition to doing some research on the match cut technique and the 180 degree rule, (definitions), I now feel even more confident in what I have learnt, and in how to use the camera. I feel like this was another lesson well used, as I benefited a lot from it.

Pitch planning lesson - 15/01/09

Towards the end of the previous lesson, Mary handed each and every one of us a sheet containing information based on what Pitching is all about. We were told to go home and read it, preparing us for the oncoming lesson. Due to that, I was already aware and prepared of what we were going to be doing in today’s lesson with Rebecca and Laura. In today’s lesson we were given a task which was for us to come up with some ideas for what our actual real opening thriller is going to be about. We were given an A3 sugar paper and some markers for us to brainstorm our ideas for the opening sequence. Making this more realistic, we had to also prepare a presentation in this lesson and present it to Mary on the following Monday. This was what pitching was all about. In order for us to go on and start filming, we had to sell our idea to Mary. If Mary felt like our idea was not good enough or it could improve then she would tell us and make us come up with something more appropriate and better. So basically we had to come up with a pitch, going into fine details of what our opening sequence will be about. I must say at this point we struggled a lot in coming up with ideas, however once we concentrated more, we all came up with different ideas, and wrote them down. After debating on what idea to perform, we finally decided that we were going to do a romantic thriller which Rebecca suggested.

Basically, the plot was based on an unhappy marriage, where a young sophisticated woman has an affair with another man behind her husband’s back, which provokes him, making his anger level rise which is when he seeks for revenge, in a violent and disturbing way. As a group we decided that the woman would have a sophisticated look, smartly dressed, as she leaves work to meet her lover. She then meets her lover, goes to a restaurant and from there leaves to return back to here married life.
We discussed and took many things into consideration. We discussed:
Ø what props we would be using,
Ø Type of lighting, whether it would be artificial or natural,
Ø The setting,
Ø A variety of different camera work,
Ø What equipment we would need to take out,
Ø Type of music we would be using,
Ø What type of audience are we aiming at,
Ø And what costume we would need.
I wrote down all these ideas down, preparing and organizing who would be explaining what on the day of the presentation. So basically by the end of the lesson, I and others in the group had our own individual task on what to write about for Mondays pitching. My role was to talk about the overall dialogue and audience. I was expected to explain to the other classmates, as well as Mary what our overall opening sequence would be about, and what type of audience are we aiming/targeting at and why. Tony was expected to discuss the camera work which we plan to do, Zeneath was expected to converse about the props, and costume, and Rebecca was expected to discuss the production schedule and music. As everyone had to speak, and take part in the presentation, everyone was assigned with a role to play. We were so determined to get this presentation right and of a high standards that we were prepared, and actually made plans to go look at some scenery’s, and locations for us to film befor the presentation.
Just as we finished planning, the lesson had finished.
In this lesson, I must say I really did feel the stress build up, as now we are actually starting our thriller opening, no more practicing, meaning were now working against time, and it is now important we be more serious, more focused, and more determined to make the outcome of a high-quality.

Location hunting

Thursday 22nd
In the media lesson today we went over our production schedule and storyboard to check we were ready for filming. We were ready but Tony and Nicole didn’t have their props and costumes so we decided to go location hunting so we went to a road in Islington which followed our initial specification we needed a road where it started looking posh with Victorian houses until you reach the end of the road where you see estates and new blocks. After seeing it i thought it was the perfect place to film, to give it the edgy and thrilling effect, but the others weren’t to sure after the media technician said it would be a bit bland just walking for the two minutes open sequence, so after the brief discussion we decided that we would use a good location to make our simple and sharp storyline work and be more effective. So Nicole and Tony decided they would look for a location on Saturday but i couldn’t attend. So the final choice was London Bridge which is far but i didn’t really mind.

The Pitch

Monday 19th January

In this lesson we prepared for our ten minute pitch to Mary and the rest of the class. We were given a chance at the start of the lesson to prepare for the pitch, get our group together and go over our idea. At first our idea was to have a romance type thriller – where a successful, married woman has an affair and her husband realises and seeks revenge similar to ‘what lies beneath’. This as an opening sequence however would not have worked as it would not have looked realistic unless we got actors of a mid 30’s to play the roles required, this would have been difficult to find the suitable people and times to film where it fits everyone timetables. So after some careful thought Nicole came up with the idea that we decided as our final idea, it was a typical stalking type thriller – where a woman stalks a man as if he is her prey. To portray this we hope to use tracking of the feet throughout the opening sequence not revealing the faces of the characters to create tension. Also close up and medium close up’s to add suspense to our two minute thriller. After as a group we came to the conclusion of our film idea we then each chose a specific area of to pitch to the class, we covered:
· Music – the use of a voice-over, background music, natural sounds such as footsteps, loud breathing.
· Props – Handbag and contents inside it.
· Costume – smart causal though you will not see the clothes: heels and smart shoes
· Editing – the camera cuts and speed to create intensity
· camera shots – medium close ups and close ups: panning and tracking
· lighting – the use of daylight instead of fluorescent lights.
The pitch went well exploring all areas required. I made a production schedule so now we are ready for filming on Thursday’s lesson.

Presenting our Pitch

In todays lesson we had to now show Mary and the rest of the class the pitch that we had planned last lesson for the opening sequence to our thriller. We had at least 15 minutes were we each explained our selected part and waited for her feed back and the classes before she marked us.
Unfortunately we changed our idea of the women having an affair to 'the women killer' which is a sophisticated women living in london setting out to kill a very formal man. Although we all thought this idea was better we had all already planned our pitch which had to be dramatically changed. None the less we selected our roles again and began planning a completely different pitch. This time i selected costumes and props where i just described how our two main characters would be represented and the props they would use. Tony, Nichole and Rebecca again split the rest between them.
Thankfully Mary liked our new idea and gave us good feed back. We should be able to start filming straight away, which we are planning to do once we can each match up some dates of when we will be free.

Preparing the pitch

Last thursday in our media lesson we were set the task of preparing our pitch for our thriller film. We were put back into our groups and given sugar paper to brainstorm different ideas of different thrilling situations.
After a little while of thinking hard we came up with the concept of a married women who has an affair, and her husband is immediately filled with anger when he finds out but surprisingly won't be shown doing anything about it.
We then talked about different things like costume and props, setting and location, lighting, camerwork, music, audience, storyboard and production schedual. Nicole wrote down every idea we each had on the sugar paper, and we then selected a task that we each had to to prepare and gather information for on the weekend, that we could present together for the pitch that we had to do on Monday for Mary. I selected setting and location and the rest were split between tony, rebecca and nichole. We also organised a weekend trip so we could all go and see the different locations we selceted and see if they would give off the right atmosphere that we wanted to create.

The Preliminary film

In our last media lesson we were set the task of making a second practice film which i thought went very well considering that two members of our group were absent last lesson so i had to explain to them exactly what we had to do. The three of us were able to work together and come up with an alternative story line, which went very well.
Between the first and the second practice film i think i have become more familiar with the camera than before because i had a better idea of what i was doing this time. i learned how to match cut which is cutting from say a person walking down the hall and putting his hand on the handle, to then just seeing his had in a close up shot on the door handle. This for me was a very good experience and i'm glad i learned how to do it.
I feel that we more followed the forms and conventions of real films rather than challenge them because of the time we had and the fact that we had to plan a new concept. We each had the chance to film and take different shots. Myself and Tony more assisted Nichole with the camera because we were included in the film. Our lighting was the same because we didnt have enough time and much to work with. We used the college hallway and our media classroom to film and create that suspenceful feeling for the audience.
After the first half of our lesson we then had to start editing the clipse we had taken. This was more of a challenge for each of us considering we had never done match cutting before and we were not as familiar with the apple Macs as we thought.
Although once we had edited the clipse together we then had to convert the video in mp4 format that was enough to fit onto blogger.com, we used final cut pro to convert the video then turn the video into Vimeo so that it could be uploaded onto blogger.com.

Preparing for pitch

On our Thursday lesson that week we were in our groups again and was given sugar paper and some coloured markers. We had to come up with a pitch for the following Monday’s lesson, stating what are opening of our thriller will be about. We all had ideas of what we thought our opening should be about and came to the conclusion to have a young married woman to have an affair with another man behind her husbands back and him getting really angry about it but not showing him actually doing anything about it. We also talked about things such as what would the woman in our video be wearing and what props may be needed and so forth, which Nicole wrote down onto the sugar paper. We then allocated ourselves task to do during the weekend to prepare for the pitch that we had to do on Monday. My role in the pitch that was allocated to me was to talk about the camera shots and the audience that it will be targeted at. We also made plans to meet up that day to go look at possible settings to film our thriller opening and before we knew it the lesson had ended.

Second pratice video

Today’s lesson we were given the whole double lesson to film and edit our video. The first half of the lesson had to show Mary our storyboard and if it had enough shots she would allow us to get the camera and begin to filming.

At the beginning of the lesson I was confused as what to do due to the fact I wasn’t in for the previous lesson. Though I quickly caught on to what we had to do from Zeneaths explanation. We begun to film and I was acting within the film and so was Zeneath acting and working on the camera at the same time with Nicole when she was not needed within the shots. Our story had changed slightly from what it was due to the fact we was missing a member of the group, which came up with the story. So we decided just have someone walking into the room and going to sit down and talk to the other person at the table. I also helped the group out by helping to position the camera in certain place to make the shots look good, though we may have took longer than we had anticipated, none the less we finished and move onto editing after break.

After break we took our camera plugged it into the Mac and was given our hard drive which also needed to be plugged into the Mac. We each took turns in trying to editing the clips and arranging the clips to make sense. We all found it a bit difficult due to the fact we was new to match cutting. It was hard to get the clips to fit together nicely, and have the sound fit with the different cuts. Even though it ran into lunch break we was determined to finish it and we did finish half way through lunch which made our video look rather good. Once the video had been edited together we then had to convert the video in mp4 format that was enough to fit onto blogger.com, we used final cut pro to convert the video to mp4 format then, turned the video into Vimeo so that it could be uploaded to blogger.com.

Match cut and preparing for preliminary clip

For this lesson I was unable to attend Unfortunelty because I was at a psychology exam that day which made me absent for the lesson. Though I was unable to attend I took the liberty to ask a member of my group who was in that day to inform me of what happened it class and was told that they prepared for a Preliminary clip of someone talking to someone else and coming through a door in different angles. I was told this was called match cutting, to have different views of an event in different camera shots and editing it together without making it look unusual.

Documentary, thriller openings and importance of audience

On our first Monday back from, Christmas holidays we was back in to class and down to work, where we watched a documentary about films openings with the does and don’ts. We were also given a handout with questions on the documentary called “Watching”.

Throughout the documentary we was told to answer the questions on the sheet as the many people talked out what makes a good opening. The first question on the sheet says what did Thomas Sutcliffe mean when he says: “films need to seduce their audience into long term commitment. While there are many types of seduction, the temptation to go for instant arousal is almost irresistible.” This was one of the 8 questions that were put in front of us. My answer to this question was as followed, “In my opinion I think that Thomas Sutcliffe means that the audience needs to be sucked into the movie from the very beginning to have them stay for the duration of the whole film.”

The second question, questions the first because it said according to the director jean Jacques Beineix, what are the risk of instant arousal? I wrote that according to the director jean Jacques Beineix the risk of instant arousal is that the audience will be aroused to the highest point and will need a constant arousal to keep them committed to the film.

Another person said in the documentary that a good beginning must make the audience feel that it doesn’t know nearly enough yet, and at the same time make sure that the audience doesn’t know too little.

Once we the documentary had finished we moved on to watch other students thriller openings from the last years classes. We were shown about 5 thriller openings which showed us the different sort of thriller openings we could do, giving us ideas of how much we needed to do to get a good grade and ideas of how to structure our own thriller when it comes to it.

The last part of the lesson we given a handout called Thriller films & audience, which had statistics and questions on the audience. The statistics were on which gender went to watch film in 2007. The tables showed that the majority of action films watch in the cinema were male, such films and 300, Transformer and a few more. The tables also showed which films females watched more than male and what films shared the same amount of viewings. The handout also stressed the importance of the audience.

28 days later

Over the Christmas break we were told to analysis a video we watch in class. I wasn’t in for this lesson, because I felt in ill during the first 5 minutes of the lesson and decide to go home. Though I did ask one of my classmates, to inform me on what happened in the lesson and told me that we had to write about Alfred Hitchcock and do an analysis of a film that they watch in class. My classmate told me that one of the films that they watch was 28 days later which to my benefit had already seen in my own time so I was able to write about it as I will be doing now.

28 days later begins with an incident with chimpanzees with a virus which infects to a few humans, which is the start of the pandemic then the screen goes blank, words come across the screen saying 28 days later…, which we see man getting up from a hospital bed. We as the audience already have an idea of what may have happened to London outside of the hospital because then man wakes up and the hospital is very quiet which gets us as the audience pondering as to what is going on, due to the fact that we witnessed the scene with the infected chimps. We automatically know now that something has gone very wrong when he leaves the room and goes out into the hallway where there is no sound of people of any sort, hospital clothing scattered around on the floor, to further build suspense all the phones in the hospital do not seem to be working as the man checks each phone for a connection, cans of soft drinks are scattered across the floor as the vending machine is smashed right in. This connotates to the audience that something must have gone terribly wrong for the phones not to be working and vending machines smashed right in. We as the audience feel that something has definitely gone wrong from the first scene which the character within the film was not able to witness and unaware of. In which the law of Alfred Hitchcock that if the audience knows more than the character then that is the way to create suspense. To further support the audience idea of that the city must have been infected, there is a long shot of the themes river and we can see the iconic wheel in the distance, with no people at all, this shows that he really is all alone in the city. We constantly see iconic places of London one after another to emphasise his aloneness. A very slow non-digetic sound plays in the background as he walks through the city and gradually intensifies, the beats become fast, as he begins to realise what has happened while reading missing people notes on the statue in Piccadilly Circus.

11/12/08 - Last media Lesson before christmas

Unfortunately i was absent in this lesson, which i informed my teacher about, explaning to her why i was going to be absent. However again, i asked classmates which were in, what i had missed, and based on their explanation, i understood that in that lesson, they watched four different type of thrillers, which were 1)Collateral, 2)The Shining, 3)28 Days Later and last of all 4)What Lies Beneath. Based on the short clips they had watched, they had to fill out a grid, and they had to state why these things made the clip suspenseful. In addition to this, they also had to brainstorm different thrillers which they know of, according to what was best for their group. All this i plan to catch up with in workshop.

Match Cut Lesson - 8/01/09

I was absent in this lesson due to my psychology exam. However i got class members to enlighten me on what they learnt or did while i was absent. From what they told me, i understood that in that lesson, the remaining of the class (as there was a good couple of people absent due to the psychology exam too) were given a tutorial on what match cutting is all about, and were shown different clips which use match cut. i was then told that they had different senario's thrown at them, where one of them, they were expected to film, which is why they spent the remaining of that lesson planning and creating a story bored were they had to plan the shot types. The senario which they were given was of a person who walks into a room, they then sit down, and then shares a couple of lines with another person who is already sitted in the room.

Planning of filming Session 2 - Dialogue envolving conversation 8/01/09

Unfortunately i had a psychology exam on this day, therefore i was unable to attend this lesson. However i was told what was done in that lesson, from a group member. From my understanding, that lesson was used to plan and do a film storybored, showing the different shots and angles we wanted to use, for different parts of the act. Only Rebecca and Zeneath were present as they had no exam. I understood that our target for that lesson was to finish our story bored ready for the next lesson where we couuld actually start filming. Basically we had to film someone walking in a room, going to sit at a table where someone is already there sitting down. We were expected to shoot this from many different perspectives, and different angles, taking different shots, focusing on a person walking into a room, and sitting down.

The Shining evaluation - 15/12/08

In today’s lesson, we watched a suspenseful nerve-wracking creepy film called “The Shining” starring Jack Nicholson. This lesson was mainly done for us to have an idea of what a thriller is all about, what makes a good thriller movie, and how to make a movie suspenseful. The Shining was mainly about a man with a wife and a kid who he takes to a lonely hotel, in a deserted surrounding, which he is looking after, as a janitor/caretaker. The setting alone was very creepy, thrilling and strange, not to talk about the actors and the storyline. Slowly during the film, us audience are showed a different personality from what the family sees, and based on that sinister, weird devilish look/appearance of the man During watching the thriller, we are expecting something alarming and gripping to happen. In the end the janitor becomes disturbed in the head, out of control, and is officially evil. In result of this, he attempts to kill his wife and child, who unfortunately are unable to escape from this nightmarish hotel, due to this horrible weather, containing heavy snow. While this is all taking place, suspense is building up, making us viewers tense, anxious, and nervous, unsure of what is going to happen. This is done through various ways, example, through different camera angles, shots types, different types/genres of music, and also the blank screen totally black, only stating a date and time in pure white. This was done in such a way, making the audience think the mother and child do not escape; however, they end up just about escaping. Towards the end, their was a sense of suspenseful alarming constant feeling, making it nail biting and nerve wrecking for us audience to watch, making it impossible for us to loose interest. (As from the start of the film to the end was pure suspense) Towards the end, it shows a little boy (son) running in a maze away from his father. This was shot from a birds eye view showing us how far away the father is from catching the son, how big the maze is, and the speed which all of this is going in. In addition to all this, the music gradually became louder, more thrilling, and more suspenseful, making the audience panicky not knowing whether the father will catch him or not. The music has had a great effect on the overall film, as the music has also contributed to the movie making it more thrilling, exciting, suspenseful, and unsettling. The different pitch, and tone, and also level of volume all gave the movie the overall thriller effect. Different camera shots built up the suspense as well. A prime example is the scene where the child (son) is playing on his tricycle in the deserted hallway of the hotel. The camera focuses (medium close up) on his foot as he is peddling; there was an over the shoulder shot, showing us what is in front of him, and a birds eye view following him, and tracking him, every turn he makes in every corridor he drives through (which creates suspense for the audience, not knowing what’s round the corner). At the same time while all this is happening, all we can hear is the noise coming from his tricycle wheels, creating a tense, spooky atmosphere, making the audience feel unsettled and anxious, as they can tell by the way the camera is following the tricycle and the hallway which is deserted, containing only him in it, something bad is going to happen.
While watching the thriller, we were expected to take notes, detailed focusing on the important aspects of the film, and the most suspenseful scene, which was mainly throughout the movie. As a viewer, I must say that was the best thriller I have ever seen, as throughout I constantly felt tense, unsettled, nervous, anxious, there are so many words I could mention just to describe the thrilling feeling I got. I was quite pleased and thankful I watched that film. I felt like the lesson time was used efficiently, as by watching the movie helped me open my eyes and understand what I need to do in order to get the audience how I felt, and what to do to make a thriller movie extremely thrilling. After watching it, I felt experienced and motivated, ready to start my actual filming.

Preparing for our pitch

Thursday 15th January

Upon arrival to the lesson everyone was sitting in their groups of fours. We then started to brainstorm ideas of our opening sequence on A3 paper. The ideas were not exactly flowing and we had difficulty in coming up with ideas. But then I said we could do a romantic thriller - a man, a woman one cheats other seeks revenge - that type of storyline which is used in what lies beneath. So the first idea was for Nicole to sophisticated business woman and to have an affair with someone and for her husband to realise and seek revenge on her. This was a good idea but would it be practical as Nicole did not look like a woman in her 30's and it would be hard to find people in that age group to play the part for us so we had to think of a more practical idea which is possible.

Alfred Hitchcock - Let 'em play God

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock born on the 13th August 1899 and died on the 29th April 1980. Alfred Hitchcock was a British film maker and producer, also one of the best know and most popular film makers of all time.

Alfred Hitchcock wrote an article to show how to get the audience on the edge of their seat, he said that the ingredient to this was called suspense. Alfred Hitchcock stated that to allow the audience to play God, that suspense was needed. Alfred Hitchcock uses many example and situations in films such as when a young man is standing by a shadowy room and is slugged by an unknown person who isn’t visible to the audience. He says that the audience does not know if the young man is a killer or a hero and the audience is lost as to whether to cheer or weep. If the audience does know the truth, then they have been told all the secrets that character within the film do not know about. He said that if the audience knows what the fate of the character is going to be, then this is know as “playing God”.

Alfred Hitchcock has been making thrillers, dark mysteries and chillier films for 17 years during his time. During that time he never did a whodunit film or a puzzler. He believed that puzzling the audience was not the way forward to the essence of suspense.

Alfred Hitchcock’s time in film making came to an end while making a spy thriller called The Short Night, collaboration with screenwriters James Costigan and Ernest Lehman. Due to Hitchcock’s failing health, and following his death the film was never finished.

prelim film

The Shining

Today we watch a film called “The shining” which is a thriller starring Jack Nicholson. The story is about a man who is the janitor that is taking care of the hotel during the winter times when no people come to the hotel, which he takes his family along with him to the hotel. The janitor slowly becomes insane and tries to kill him wife and child as they try to escape from his madness but are unable to leave the hotel because there is snow everywhere outside making it impossible to travel. The film has constant suspense throughout the movie from the very start of the movie to the very end, never allowing the audience to get bored. We as the audience can already predict that the there is going to be trouble due the setting and the way the camera follows the car. The camera is at a birds eye view following the car into the cliffs as if the camera was following them like eagle stalking its prey as it focuses on its target. In my opinion, I think that this is a key signifier to all the bad things to come for the family as they travel of into the silent cliffs.

During our lesson we was given a hand out and had to note suspenseful scenes within the film. A great scene that shows suspense in my opinion would have to be the one when the child is on the tricycle and peddling through the wall way and as he goes over the carpet the sound goes low then high again as he goes over the wood. This builds on the suspense to aid the suspense further the camera tracks the boy around the corners of the hotel to leave the audience waiting in fright of what is around the corner. The boy drives around corner after corner, each time nothing there till he reaches a corner and he passes room 237. He slowly turns his head and looks at the door then slowly approaching the door and lifts his hand towards the door and slowly twists the door handle as the camera zooms in on the boy’s hand. The zoom and slowness is a great way to build suspense, and to get the audience heart pounding and wondering what is on the other side of the door at the same time the audience doesn’t want to know what it is, because it could be something very scary or bad. The different camera angles, shot types and music all build great suspense in a film which this film has a large amount of.

Monday 5th January Media Lesson

In Monday's lesson we watch previous years thiller movies, it was a quite good lesson, while watching we got to see the best and worst graded. There were ones that we thought were good but got low grades and how the thriller are graded. Also what we can do to prevent our scenes from being graded low. After watching them it has helped us decide what will be included in our opening sequences and what features of other we wouldn't want to include. Seeing last years thrillers were dramatic and tense so to get the feel of a thriller we watched one the exam board sent which wasn't very tense or suspenseful in the first two minutes, I think what they are trying to say is that all the drama and thrilling part of a thriller doesnt happen in the first 2miutes so theres no need for blood and gore.

The Shining - How suspense is builded

In this clip of the shining suspense has slowly been built up by the director as it starts off with the picture of a dark hotel on the mountain top. It then cuts to a black screen with the word 'tuesday' shown in white letters with a high pitch low toned sound. Already this has given the viewer a feeling of suspense because of the dramatic affect it has making you think what is going to happen next. The clip then cuts into another scene of the little boy riding his play bike through the deserted hall ways of the hotel.

The camera tracks the little boy as he twists and turns on the corners of the corridors. And the music gradually gets louder. Suspense is created particulary at this point because the camera stops with the boy, close ups and off the shoulder shots are shown of the room door, 237 as the young boy appairs to be drawn to it. At this point you want to know whats going to happen next because the music has started to get louder and more menacing than before.The camera then stops as the boy approaches the appartment door, it follows him off the bike and stops in a medium close up shot. Suspense has definately been built up here, because you want to know whats behind the door, or whats going to happen to the boy.

The music is louder and the camera is still. The suspense is cut by a quick unexpected clip of two young twin girls then back to door which at first would make you jump, because it came out of no where. As the boy approaches the door the music is louder, and just by that the viewer would think something bad is going to happen but as he trys to open the door its locked and the music goes back down, and all the suspense is drawn away as he rides away on his bike still looking over his shoulder.
The location of this clip alone builds up alot of suspense for the viewer because you would wonder why a little boy is all alone riding through deserted hall ways of a hotel.