Wednesday 30 March 2011
What makes a thriller/horror?
Thriller
Thriller is a genre of literature, film, and television that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as the main elements. Thriller Films usual have a plot which involves a build up of tension throughout the film top keep the audience on edge of there seats this is done through mystery and the producers of the film keeping some information vital to the outcome from the audience. The thriller films often have a crime genre involved with detectives and police men in them.
Horror
Horror films are unsettling movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, disgust and horror from viewers. Horrors usually involve murders and mutation of the body most horror films have this content, the main characters involved in the films almost always have a flaw or have something wrong with there face which separates them from the audience, this make the audience not feel sorry or relate to the bad guy. weapons in horrors are often knives or bats, as the are more graphic than some one.
Thriller is a genre of literature, film, and television that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as the main elements. Thriller Films usual have a plot which involves a build up of tension throughout the film top keep the audience on edge of there seats this is done through mystery and the producers of the film keeping some information vital to the outcome from the audience. The thriller films often have a crime genre involved with detectives and police men in them.
Horror
Story Boarding
Storyboards are graphic organizers such as a series of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence, including website interactivity.
The storyboarding process, in the form it is known today, was developed at the Walt Disney Studio during the early 1930s, after several years of similar processes being in use at Walt Disney and other animation studios.
Its important to storyboard as it is a plan for the scene and all the different shots your are going to do, it helps keep your shooting focused on the objective of the scene, also you can tick of the angles and parts of the sequence you have done this makes you waste less time when shooting.
Tuesday 22 March 2011
Account of Post Production
When editing the practical we had to adopt a much more critical eye in terms of deciding upon which shots, among the many, could we consider to be the best, and in what order we should place them to display a suitable smooth chain of camera angles which the audience would recognize as good continuity. However like the prelim, we used 'Final Cut' as the editing programme for our practical.
The sound we used was taken from lots of different parts of our shoot, and then layered over sequences in which we wanted to link certain characters together but also to make the change in location and shot type flow. We attempted to make Seb's 'Youtube' confession look as though it was being shot from a web cam, through editing the shots with bad continuity, and via the actors movement within the frame. The majority of the screen time was given to the suspect, due to the understanding that the film is a depiction of her side of the story, which further more identifies her as the films protagonist. Through this the audience inhabits an esscense of trust in her character, which leads us to consider a potential twist in the story, similar to the usual suspects. We employed a cross fade between our shots to signify a passing of time. We gave the video camera screen time, as well as the tape recorder, to depict one of the major themes of the production, the constant survelliance of our modern society, which can be seen to fundermentally add to the level of paranoia in our introduction. To develop an air of claustrophobia, enhancing the thriller aspect of the film, we used a lift in the opening shot to gradually draw our audience into the commotion of the story line, which can be established to be breaking down the level of space in the already small interview room.
In order to keep the diegetic sound of the speech in our thriller the same level throughout, it had to be mixed. With our discovery of the background noise of the air conditioning, we explored each clip to pick out the best quality of sound. This is eveident whilst watching the introduction, because we highlighted the more important sounds of the story by rasing its volume, e.g. the tape recorder's "Click" noise. We layered the sounds from lots of different parts of our shoot over sequences in which we wanted link characters together, and create a polished and smoother change in location and shot type. We developed this by using a sound bridge we layered over the sound of Alex's youtube confession with Kate in the interview room which reinforces the audience's understanding that they were together.
Due to the thriller being identified as 'Aftermath', our titles of the film come into play at the end of the sequence. The text of the credits are not symmetrical with each other and come in at different speeds, this contributes to the instability we are trying to depict in our characters. We reflected the high school theme of our production through the black background and white text representing a similar style to that of a chalk board. Our production company "Sirated" is represented through the uneven layout of the lettering on thwe credits, as the lines on the letters employs a similar structure to that of a serrated knife edge which falls into the association of the horror genre. Due to the fact that we are trying to draw peope into the film, we made the speed of the titles fairly slow. Given that our thriller contains no American actors and that it is set and based in England, it can be fundamentally established that it has little appeal to an American audience, giving reason as to why we choose a British distribution company, Vertigo. With the shooting taking place after math in a school we included references to the title throughout the thriller.
The sound we used was taken from lots of different parts of our shoot, and then layered over sequences in which we wanted to link certain characters together but also to make the change in location and shot type flow. We attempted to make Seb's 'Youtube' confession look as though it was being shot from a web cam, through editing the shots with bad continuity, and via the actors movement within the frame. The majority of the screen time was given to the suspect, due to the understanding that the film is a depiction of her side of the story, which further more identifies her as the films protagonist. Through this the audience inhabits an esscense of trust in her character, which leads us to consider a potential twist in the story, similar to the usual suspects. We employed a cross fade between our shots to signify a passing of time. We gave the video camera screen time, as well as the tape recorder, to depict one of the major themes of the production, the constant survelliance of our modern society, which can be seen to fundermentally add to the level of paranoia in our introduction. To develop an air of claustrophobia, enhancing the thriller aspect of the film, we used a lift in the opening shot to gradually draw our audience into the commotion of the story line, which can be established to be breaking down the level of space in the already small interview room.
In order to keep the diegetic sound of the speech in our thriller the same level throughout, it had to be mixed. With our discovery of the background noise of the air conditioning, we explored each clip to pick out the best quality of sound. This is eveident whilst watching the introduction, because we highlighted the more important sounds of the story by rasing its volume, e.g. the tape recorder's "Click" noise. We layered the sounds from lots of different parts of our shoot over sequences in which we wanted link characters together, and create a polished and smoother change in location and shot type. We developed this by using a sound bridge we layered over the sound of Alex's youtube confession with Kate in the interview room which reinforces the audience's understanding that they were together.
Due to the thriller being identified as 'Aftermath', our titles of the film come into play at the end of the sequence. The text of the credits are not symmetrical with each other and come in at different speeds, this contributes to the instability we are trying to depict in our characters. We reflected the high school theme of our production through the black background and white text representing a similar style to that of a chalk board. Our production company "Sirated" is represented through the uneven layout of the lettering on thwe credits, as the lines on the letters employs a similar structure to that of a serrated knife edge which falls into the association of the horror genre. Due to the fact that we are trying to draw peope into the film, we made the speed of the titles fairly slow. Given that our thriller contains no American actors and that it is set and based in England, it can be fundamentally established that it has little appeal to an American audience, giving reason as to why we choose a British distribution company, Vertigo. With the shooting taking place after math in a school we included references to the title throughout the thriller.
Monday 7 March 2011
TASK 7, Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
More in-depth planning and preparation was involved in the making of the Main task, for example the shooting required an organized storyboard in which we had to construct, as suppose to the prelim task pre made storyboard which we were given.
TASK 4, Who would be the audience for your media product?
Richard from skins, I consider to be the sort of character that would view and enjoy our film, 'Aftermath'. His attitudes towards life, such as 'never compromise' as he repetitively announces in the series, can be seen as the attitude that Alex, played by Seb, employs and acts upon in Aftermath.
Wednesday 2 March 2011
The Script
INT: On Camera (youtube) Confession greenlit / computer screen /webcam look. Actor looks into camera and talks to his ‘audience’:
ALEX:
I don’t expect you to understand now, you’ll see though. I can’t show you until it’s done. Every single day, I watch humanity go about their business, so pointless, so apathetic, shit. That’s what we are. And now it’s time to show every single one of you what you could never see, you’re not so indestructible, you won’t feel so hard tomorrow when your teachers and friends are lain out, lifeless, in front of you, if you’re lucky.
By the time you see this, I’ll be gone and it’ll be done. And you’ll wonder, how could anyone do this, why, what was going through the head of that fucking psycho?!
My answer to you, there is no kindness in mankind, we’re selfish, every single one of us, I’m gonna show you how one insignificant psycho can change everything, not so fucking useless now am I?! By now, I’m dead, literally got away with murder.
Kate, you know you are my world, any time I’ve ever been happy’s been with you. I’m so sorry, but you need to understand that I had to do this. I love you, forever. I love you now, and I’ll love you still when you see this and I’m gone. Don’t go in to school, you don’t need to see this, you’re the only person in this entire fucking world I’m willing to spare.
In years to come, you’ll all be forgotten. Just another kid, tragically killed in that school. But everyone remembers the killer, the psycho that flipped out, killed himself afterwards and claimed it was all justified and in the name of something meaningful. Well let me tell you right now that this is all for the sake of beauty, Kate. The only understanding of real beauty that I ever had. Babe, I won’t let you grow up in a world that doesn’t understand the individual, just like me and you. I won’t let you live in that kind of place, nobody else is gonna change it for you, and you can’t change yourself for the world, so I’ll change the world for you.
INT: CUT TO Interview Room
INTERVIEWER initial insensitive approach, perhaps an element of personal anger over what has happened- shot focused on hand/evidence pictures, Kate out of focus:
So another senior school boy shoots up his school, posting a confession video beforehand, pretty much claiming it’s all for you and you’re trying to tell me that you had no idea about this? Come on, don’t mess me around here. You know it’s all gonna come out regardless of weather you try and lie to me or not.
KATE focus pulls back to Kate as she replies. She is quiet and emotional, signs of grief and shame strongly apparent:
(silent tears) are you fucking kidding me? He killed my friends….
Interviewer Same shot pulls back to OTS of interviewer, left shoulder and head in view, focus on Kate:
Just take your time, tell me everything that you know.
Kate Focus changes to Kate’s image in the evidence camera, she is blurred in the background.- Non- diegetic voice over of youtube confession plays over her tears
(Bursts into uncontrollable tears)
Interviewer Shot cuts to through one way glass, medium wide of the entire interview room, and focus on interviewer here:
(sighs)
Kate ‘I remember’ said in previous through glass shot, cut to close evidence camera picture.
I remember…. He said don’t go into school (dubbed with au voiceover from video- non- diegetic) – but I didn’t see the video in time, I went to school…..
Interviewer :
What did you see at school?
Girl:
I was in maths, at the very end of the main building……… I heard shots… and screaming…. The shots stopped, I went out…………. (crying)
Interviewer:
Go on….
Girl:
My best friend…. Was on the floor, I didn’t believe it, I tried to help…….. she was so pale (uncontrollable crying)
Interviewer:
I know it’s hard, is there anything else?
Girl:
There were so many more….. blood everywhere (crying) ………….then I saw him lying there, he was covered in blood….. (breaks down properly) with a gun in his hand (uncontrollable tears)
Interviewer:
Okay, I think we need to take a break.
TASK 1, In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Distributor
The distributor (in our case Vertigo Films), takes the biggest financial risk in terms of the success of the film, therefore they are mentioned first in the title cards, upholding the traditional form of most opening sequences. My reason for announcing that it is the distributor that plays a key part in the film's success, is due to my knowledge that, the distribution deal is what creates the film's apparent value. 
Producer
The chronology of our title cards is upholding the film convention of mentioning the producer second to the distributor, due to the fact that the producer possesses a postion of secondry importance to that of the distributor in the films intergration. As a result of the fact that the name seems to fit the genre of the film without conforming to the mundane conventional spelling of the word 'serrated', by choosing to name the production company 'Sirated'. The distributor holds the responsibility of putting together all aspects of the film, such as research, development and the final cut of the post production. The production company is typically presented in the title cards, due to this importance in the impact they have on the life of the film.
Director
It is the director's concept and their artistic vision on which the film is constructed around. Giving reason as to why we have placed his name in the title cards, once again sticking to the codes of convention. However without the presense of the distributor and the production company, it would not be possible for the film to be made or recognized in the industry.
Title
After the initial opening sequence and not alonside the opening titles we have chosen to include the actual title of the film. The purpose of this is to give it a greater sense of significance and impact on screen via the seperating of this main title card from the crediting title cards and also to keep the concentration level and attention of our audience alive, hence why there are no lenghty title shots during the opening sequences, which we can establish as conforming to a modern convention of film. An instability of the characters and themes of the thriller is indicated by the writing style in which 'Aftermath' is written, and a further acknowledgement of a school society and life can be depicted through the chalk board style background.
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