animatic storyboard

This is our animatic story board, however it is our starting point meaning it is a firm base to start on, because we currently have 13 shots but our real aim is about 20 and above this is because our thriller consists of allot of work and allot of close ups if you notice on our animatic we have several close ups of the girl, because she is playing the main role and we intend to give certain bits away however not reveal the whole film.

Art of the title sequence

FIGHT CLUB

The movie that i'll be analyzing is the legendary Fight Club with Brad Pitt. I chose to analyse this movie because it has an interesting opening sequence which if you haven't watched the film before would not understand what it's about because it doesn't give a lot of clues but yet i think its a subtle of way of giving out information about the movie. The style of the tittle is modern and edgy, the title says the names of the creative producers and director and also the cast. The images used in this opening sequence consist of brain movements

The opening title sequence was supposed to be starting inside the fear center of Edward Norton’s brain. The electricity is like photo electrical stimuli that is running through his brain. These are supposed to be impulses, fear-based impulses

Director David Fincher. the type of shot that are used in the title sequence are extreme close up of the activities in the brain, the effect of this that it creates an intense movement, and keeps the audience entertained. I think this title sequence is appealing to me because it is so different, and it reveals nothing of the film, but as soon as the action starts with the man putting his gun inside another man's mouth while he introduce himself is absolutely intriguing because as an audience I want to know more about what's happening.

Match Cut Preliminary Film practice

Match Cut practice

The task for this project was to create a sequence of match cuts. The plot for this short sequence is a normal day to day conversation between two friends. We needed to cover the following camera work:

• • Match Cut
  • 180 Degree rule
  • shot reverse shot
  • two shot
  • close up
  
  
  I feel that we have successfully done these objectives in the space of time that were given to us. There were a lot of obstacles while filming this scene. For example getting the shot right and making sure that the action matches and making it flow was hard, but thankfully we have a great editor. I was in charge of filming and directing this scene, but everyone in the group contributed a lot in filming this. The way I wanted to film this scene is to capture the normality and flow of a normal day. The use of long shot, extreme close up on the feet while walking up, and another long shot creates a continuous flow.

Filming practice with sound and edit

Card Game

We were given a task to practice filming for our thriller movie. The main prop was a deck of cards, and using our editing and filming skills we made this short practice film. The plot that we came up for this film is about a young man getting into serious trouble with a card game. The use of editing in this film is crucial because it toys with the chronological order of a normal film. We decided to edit this movie in reserve to make it intense and unique, we were motivated by this idea from the movie Memento.The effect of the reverse creates a unique sound which we took advantage of while putting the soundtrack in. In the group I was one of the people who was in charge of making the appropriate soundtrack for this film. From my practice on live studio, I was able to create a soundtrack that heightens the mood of this film. The lighting for this film is something that I regret because I think even though it goes well with the thriller mood, I think it is a bit too dark, and if I could do this project again I would definitely adjust the lighting a bit better.

Thriller Sub Genres-What inspires me now

A sub-genre is a genre within a genre e.g. Comedy, romantic comedy. Thriller has a number of sub-genres.

• Phsycological
• Sci Fi
• Crime
• Action
• Drama

The sub genre that inspires me at the moment is phsycological. Ilike this sub genres as I find them interesting towatch as they involve a lot of analysis of humans minds and behaviour. It isbecause of fims like Unbreakable (2000), When a Stranger Calls (1979) and Phone Booth (2000).

Phsycological thrillers often have a twist ending in them. This catches the audience off guard and it will have them shocked and surprised. It makesthe audience think about the events that happened earlier in the film and how that affcted the twist.

At the begining of Phone Booth the main character played by Collin Farrell enters a phone booth and strangely a pizza is delivered to the booth. Later on we find out that this was because a secret caller was going to keep him in there for a long period of time and sent him this pizza in case he got hungry. When the caller reveals why he sent the pizza the audience then think 'oh thats why a pizza was strangely delivered to a phone booth.

Sound Cut Pro

We learnt to use a programme called Sound Cut Pro. It allows us to toggle sound effects and sound score to match filmed video clips. When I first attempted to use it I found it quite complicated. However now I feel I have the confidence to use it. It is an essential programme as for our final thriller clip we will need it in order to create an atmosphere to suit the genre.

This is a finished clip in which we edited in Final Cut Pro and used Sound Cut Pro to add the score .

Final Edit of livetype and sound filming practice

We got assigned to do a opening using a deck of cards and apart from it being simple object we had to make it a thriller, so we as group decided to play allot with the lighting as this would illustrate it would be a thriller so therefore you will notice the lighting is relatively dark.

Apart from the lighting we decided to do something unique and different from the other groups which was to play everything in reverse the reason we choose this was because it would keep the audience wondering what is going on and one of my peers said the following

"Is this clip playing magic tricks to my eyes"

My group knew what was occurring but by someone saying the following it gave as great satisfaction because we knew the audience was intact with this short film and we were motivated to do this sequence in this method by the film MEMENTO.

Also the sound also played a huge part because as it was going in reverse when the dealer is dealing the cards you hear the cards being shuffled however in some sort of reverse method so it was this key sound which gave it was going in reverse and also another key sound was when the character leaving done some whoosh sound therefore reinforcing the idea of it going in backwards, but it was sound cut pro that gave the whole idea of it being a thriller because it had some sort of mysterious air in the atmosphere so therefore with a mix of both lightning and sound it allowed the group to achieve a short thriller whilst playing a deck of cards.

so Hope you enjoy the following short film because me & my group are proud of this outstanding short film and I hope you analyzed the special feature of it occurring in reverse.

card game movie - my take

I am very proud of our card came movie; it was inspired by the opening of Memento as we all found this very effective left us confused. We edited the movie so that it was played in reverse and backwards, not until it gets to the handing out of cards you can see this effect this is effective because it makes the audience want to watch on.

We used extreme close ups of just lips to show the sinister expression and another extreme close up of the eyebrows raising, also we used tracking using the camera handheld, this was very effective as this was our last shot in the film.

There were some problems that we realised after we had filmed, like the lighting. The lighting of the room was very poor we changed the lighting half way through and this is very noticeable in comparison from the first shot to the last shot.

Also the quality of the film has significantly decreased once it's been uploaded to blogger.

Match Cut Preliminary Film

Match cut screen grab

Photo word activity

Depression

Photo word activity

In class we were given a task to take a picture that expresses the word. I chose the word Depression, and I chose to shoot a picture which captures the mood. This was taken in our college stair case, of a girl looking down at the world. The framing of the image is secluded which shows her loneliness and her body language shows that she looks like she's about to jump out of the building. This image would be a great shot for a thriller movie as it's mysterious and secluded.

Card Game Movie

Match cut Preliminary Film Excersise

In class we did some filming to produce a finished match cut, after editing. We found it quite hard during filming to organise the order in which we should film the clips. However when we put effort in we found it quite easy. We had to do a lot of things to match the criteria.

• Match cut
• 180 degree rule
• Shot reverse shot
• two shot
• Extreme close ups
• Close ups

HEre is a picture of a work in progress. We used final cut pro to edit our clips to make sure that the final clip ran smoothly.

This is a video of the final outcome.

Match Cut - practice exercise

In lesson we carried out a practice exercise in which we filmed just a normal day action from 2 people but our real aim was to achieve the following:

• Match Cut
• 180 Degree rule
• shot reverse shot
• two shot
• close up

However we did encounter certain issues such as small details like opening the door we decided opening with the left hand so the match cut will be smoother because with the right hand it will block the view of the second character so by opening with the left hand it allowed both a close up of the hand and also the audience can see the second character.

Furthermore we also encountered issues regarding close ups of the shoes because our first shot was more or less wobbly therefore we had to take 2 shots to achieve the perfection we achieved and as you will notice from the screen shot towards the end to achieve the shot reverse shot sequence we needed a huge amount of editing, and lastly I clearly believe we achieve a great amount of match cuts at the beginning in which the primary character enters the scene because we achieved a match cut by closing into his trainers then soon after a shot of him going up so therefore it was a successful match cut because the character done the same action but different camera shots and they were:

1. Long shot of character moving up the stair
2. extreme close up of his trainers
3. then long shot again to illustrate the meaning of match cut in such a simple sequence.

Livetype

In class we used Apples live type to experiment with different titles including effects. The software will help us to do a title sequence for our final thriller sequence. It is important we know how to match the title to the genre of the clip itself. Here is a photo of a work in progress using livetype.

I did a test run on livetype and found it quite difficult to do my title at first. I think with a little more practice I will become more and more comfortable using this software.

Thriller sub genres - Which inspire you at the moment and why?

Thriller can be identified in many ways and here are some of the sub genres that thriller films have:

• Crime
• Action
• Drama
• Spy
• Psychological
• Conspiracy
  

The sub genre that inspires me the most is psychological thriller.

The reason why I like this genre is because of films like Fight Club, Momento, Requiem for a Dream, The Sixth Sense and the ever famous, Psycho.
In each oth these films we are shown the main characters lives and then at the end, everything is pieced together. This may sound rather simple and average, but what's different about a psychological thriller to an ordinary film is that they often have a twist ending in them. The twist shocks and surpises the audience as they didn't see it coming, it makes the audience think back and say "oh so that's why they did this" or "that's why we never saw..." ect. The audience is then forced to change their judgement of chracter in hand as this new information changes everything.

There are elements in the movies that foreshadow the twist; such as in The Sixth Sense when Bruce Willis' character is that in the movie you never see him open a door; he is simply shot from either inside or outside the room without entering himself. Also, whenever he speaks to her it's as if she can't hear him. Bruce Willis' character mistakes this that him and his wife are simply having marital problems but not until the end is it reveled to the audience and his character that he is infact dead, and a ghost.

This twist ending doesn't exactly happen in Requiem for a Dream, but the tist element isn't esential in creating a psychological thriller. Requiem for a Dream the film 'depits different forms of addiction, leading to the characters’ imprisonment in a dream world of delusion and reckless desperation that is subsequently overtaken and devastated by reality.' (via)

The trailer for this film shows what the film is about and it gives an insight as to how the use of camera work and editing helps demonstraight that the characters are in a world of their own. There are many aspects of this film that I adore but mainly the editing and the camera work are the best part of the movie.

Sound Cut pro

Sound Cut pro tutorial

http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/soundtrackpro/

Sound cut pro is a great tool for editing and making sounds for videos. It helps you mix and fix audios in a media file. In movies it is used for creating the soundtrack or sound effects. It has over 5000 royalty free instrumental and sound effects which is incredibly useful for amateur film makers such as students. It has two main modes, the multitrack mode which allows sound effects and instrumental be synchronised into a video. Here we can track the tempo and key the effects. the other mode is the audio editing mode which allows invidual clips to be edited, such as reversing, reverting, or normalising audio files. Sound track pro goes hand in hand with final cut pro, and in my case I had the chance to make a sound track for my practise movie. I found the software quite easy to use as it was straight forward, but I think I need a little bit more practise to be able to create an appropriate sound track for my final piece.

In our practise run we were able to shorten or extend the audio in our video, also add special effects which can contribute to the mood of the movie. As we were creating a thriller movie it is important for us to create the right music to suit the mood.

Here is a screen cap of what I did in the lesson

Livetype

Livetype tutorial

In class we were introduced to one of the editing software that goes along with Final cut pro. Livetype is a software that allows us to create and edit movie credits or adding texts to a video in general. Livetype includes 11Gb worth of contents which are different types of Fonts, objects, textures, templates and effects. You can import media files and create text tracks which can be editied into the media. This is an important part of creating a movie as depending on the genre of the movie it can play on a strong effect. For example, a spy movie would want a text which relate to the mission.

(this is an example of the type of fonts and design which a spy movie would have)

I have also done a practice run on creating my own tittle track. As I am a complete amateur in using this software I found it quite difficult at first but I think with a little bit of practise I can create a better track. Here is an example of what I created in class

Detailed analysis of thriller clip analysed in class

In class we watched What Lies Beneath. It is a thriller with a suspense filled plot. Norman and Claire Spencer are a seemingly happily married couple who uncover a terrible secret . . . a secret so disturbing it threatens to destroy them. When Claire Spencer begins seeing ghostly images and hearing mysterious voices in their home, her husband Norman suspects it's just her imagination - until the images turn real. Now, together they must uncover the truth, confront their worst fears and find "what lies beneath" . . . with twisting and terrifying results. Written by Robert Lynch {docrlynch@yahoo.com}



There are different technical features that create suspense in this film, such as camerawork, sound, lighting etc. When Claire is walking down the stairs we see a close up of her feet, this is very effective because the audience know something is going to happen and it creates tension. (6.32-6.37)

The sound effects made when she steps on the blodd is something that scares the audience as it comes as a shock after a slow build up of tension.

Camerawork also helps create suspense. (7.30-8.30) There is close ups of just claires feet so that the audience see Norman on the floor. This leaves the audience questioning wether or not he is about to do something. The close up of his hand moving and the sound effect that goes with it is particularly effective as it certainly makes the audience jump.

News and current affairs

These are a few headlines in the news at the oment which could inspire our storyline for our thriller.

POLICE investigating the murder of two women found at a house today say they have found the body of a man nearby.
Officers were called to an address in Oswestry, Shropshire, shortly after 5am this morning.
Detective Superintendent Sheila Thornes from West Mercia Police, said the house remained cordoned off as more than 40 officers worked on the investigation.
She added: "At this stage, we are unable to go into further detail.
"As soon as we are able, we will issue a further statement."
A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: "After about an hour at the scene we were stood down by police." Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2840459/Womens-bodies-found-in-home.html#ixzz0eetZ8qEa


'Man Held Daughter Captive In Cellar'
11:00pm UK, Sunday April 27, 2008
Police in Austria have entered a cellar where a man allegedly held his daughter captive for 24 years, during which time he may have fathered seven children by her.

Two of Elisabeth's daughters
The basement area consists of a very narrow hallway and several rooms, said Franz Polzer, head of the Lower Austrian Bureau of Criminal Affairs, on Austrian TV.
Authorities accessed the area after the fathertold them how to unlock a hidden door using a code only he had known.
Detectives say Elisabeth Fritzl had been missing since August 29, 1984.
Now aged 42, the woman was found after a tip-off to police. Her 73-year-old father Josef Fritzl has been arrested and is being held in custody.
Speaking from outside the house, Sky's Greg Milam said: "The fact that police have been able to get inside that cellar is significant.
"It means they have a better idea of what Elisabeth Fritzl was going through.
"But it also means the father is talking to police."
The case came to light after one of the children was taken to hospital in the town of Amstetten.
The youngster, 19-year-old Kerstin, was said by police to be "gravely ill".
Elisabeth told police her father began sexually abusing her when she was 11 and he locked her up in a room in the cellar on August 28, 1984.
During the 24 years that followed, she said she had six children by him.
The seventh child was a twin who died shortly after birth. Josef Fritzl removed the body and burned it.
The two oldest children, aged 18 and 19, and the youngest aged 5, had been locked up with their mother since birth and had never seen sunlight or received any education, police said.
Josef's wife Rosemarie had been unaware of what happened to her daughter and it was assumed she had disappeared voluntarily when her parents received a letter from her saying they should not search for her.
Three of Elisabeth's younger children were each left on her parents' doorstep, the first accompanied by a letter saying she could not look after the baby herself.
All were taken in by Josef and his wife as foster or adopted children and went to school as normal.
Police said Elisabeth only agreed to talk after the authorities promised she would not have to have see her father again and the children would be taken care of.
The mother and children are now being treated in hospital by a team of psychologists.
DNA tests are being carried out to determine whether Fritzl is the father.
The case follows that of Natascha Kampusch, the girl who was held in the basement of a house on the outskirts of Vienna for more than eight years.
She was snatched on her way to school by technician Wolfgang Priklopil, who threw himself in front of a train after she escaped.
In another case that rocked Austria, three young girls were locked up for seven years by their mentally ill mother near the city of Linz.

Detailed Analysis of Thriller Clip

In class we watched thriller 'What Lies Beneath'. "The wife of a university research scientist believes that her lakeside Vermont home is haunted by a ghost -- or that she's losing her mind" (via)

Throughout the film there are many aspects such as, camera work, editing and sound; these all add to the tension and suspence of the movie.

The screen prints below show the scene where Claire is walking down the stairs backwards. While walking down the stairs there are close ups of just her feet, this creates tension because as an audience we know that something is going to happen, the silence and the creaky staircase adds to the suspence. When she steps on the blood, there is a loud noise created by the keys of a piano being violently slammed down. This is then visually followed by a high angle shot from the top of the stairs, the camera then swings round down the stairs to Claire's point of view to then show Norman on the floor in a pool of blood around his head.

At the very beginning of the clip Claire is in the bath, she is paralyzed. This part of the clip the audience are worried for the saftey of Claire. The camera shows close ups of Claire and her face and we can see struggle on her face. The camera then moves to her feet to then show her toes struggling to pull a chain the camera then tilts down to show the plug and then the audience then understand what is going on; she is trying to pull the plug out so she won't drown. The use of the silence apart from the running water makes the bath tub scene very eerie.

In this clip there are many times in which sounds are played to add to the mood. These are the point in which they occur:

3:27 - 4:29 When Claire is getting/falling out the bath to getting the phone; There is an ominous drone
6:46 - 7:11 Claire walking down the stairs; keys of a piano violently being slammed down upon.
8:22 - 8:27 Norman's fingers moving; sharp loud noises.
8:33 - end of clip Norman's eye opening and Claire running out of the house;
theme music.

The use of having the sounds/music in intivals allows the audience to get comfortable and then it makes the audience jump out of their seats because all the while there is no music playing so it makes them very edgy and uncertian of what's going to happen next.

The clip on which this blog is based on can be found below. The screen prints provided are also from this clip.

Photo word activity

As a group we had to choose from a list of many words. From those words we chose four to photograph. Here, is the picture for the word 'electrify'.

Before we photographed this photo we had an idea to have someone in a suit made of electrical things such as phones and wires. Had we have had enough recoures it may have worked very well, but as we didn't have anyway to make a suit made from elecrical good we chose to use the static from a television to illustrate this.

This picture conforms very well to the 'thriller' concept we were aiming for. The lighting or rather, the lack of lighting adds to the intensity and the drama of the photo. The only lighting coming from the television asks the question, "Why is the television on and the lights are not?". It is very ominous; it makes the audience feel as if something is going to happen, that the figure is going to go into the television, have an electric shock or even something will come out of it. The dark figure also adds to the thrilling concept. If the shot was well lit it wouldn't be as thrilling as it is.

Thriller sub genres-Which inspire you at the moment and why?

Thriller ca be identified in many ways and these are a few sub-genres to a thriller film:

• Monster


• Psychological


• Horror


• Spy


• Gangs/Gangster

SPY

Spy is my chose sub genre due to not only creating allot of tension within its film but I have enjoyed a huge amount watching this genre and these films, I regarded them as action however I learnt that these are also regarded as thrillers, and I have noticed why because they create huge tension to the audience and also allot of blood is used within the film to establish panic among the audience and the film which have done that is the James Bond films, my favourite being Casino Royale due to the way the tension i built and the method in which the audience are left guessing what is going to occur next, also you could probably say it comes under the gangster genre due to the amount of gangs the film has involved in it so this is why this specific sub- genre fascinates me.

Title Cut Pro

Title Cut pro allows my group to add titles to our short film, this programme would be used for our credits either if we decide to present them in 3 ways these are:

1. Narrative opening
2. discrete title sequence
3. or both

If you view my picture you will notice 3 different coloured bars these have different functions:

1. The yellow- It is the text in this case DELUXE how long it appears on the screen for in this case it is for the whole sequence
2. The Purple- These are the emotions such as 'mysterious' so the word DELUXE would appear in that method
3. The Blue- is the background that is being used and once again how long you want it to last in the sequence.

If you realised I have used two blue & purple this is because can have to animations working at the same time however it is sensible to keep these to a minimum and not get carried away it is best two be efficient and sweet instead of having many animations occurring all at once, apart from this I learnt how to make the text bigger how to change the colour and most importantly the type of FONT is used, so this is really important because the font would give away what our short film is about either we use SERIF or SAN SERIF, this programme allows all these methods to be taken to consideration and this programme would have a huge impact on our audience which is either they are entertained or not.

Sound Cut Pro

The programme above is called Sound Cut Pro it is a great tool to add many sounds & the name of the programme clearly states its feature's. Today we learnt how to use this programme I learnt that sound track pro allows many feature and they are the following:

• It lets you see samples such as a beat of an existing song
• it also allows the choice of genre such as Urban, jazz etc.
• apart from this we learnt how o move these into the timeline and also that one sound plays louder than another by lowering the volume of that specific sound.

If you view mt picture you realise I have 3 blocks one longer one shorter and so on, this programme allows me to increase the length of the sound so it can be repetitive etc. and also another feature is it allows the user to play one sound louder than another a good example is:

When my group were editing the sound of our first clip we realise we wanted the sound of the shuffling of our cards to be louder than our actual background music so this short moment the action is louder than the background music and this is great for our short film because it add to the sense of thrill we are trying to discover.

Also sound cut pro has sounds of people screaming adding extra help to our thriller film sounds & the squeaky doors also is beneficial to our group therefore I believe I've learnt allot from this programme because it enables our short film to be a great success.

Sherlock Holmes title sequence (Font, camera angles etc.)

The film I'll be analysing is Sherlock Holmes, this is because it was regarded one of the best films in the year 2009, hence to have this sort of recognition must be significant therefore this is why I choose to comment on this film. I first notice that the font is following the Serif, this means that it has a curly edge at the end of each letter, this style of writing relates to the year which this film is set in, which is in the late 60's therefore the handwriting was very sophisticated & also possibly the intelligence which the main character Holmes has,and by having this font it allows the audience to realise that possibly he is very intelligent or wise at what he does & if you view the film you will realise that he does, you can notice the handwriting if look at the picture to your right.

Also the camera work in my opinion is of great use, this is because I viewed a great long shot which is in the sequence which I viewed. This shot allows the audience to view the whole aspect and also to identify that the year this film is set is quite old therefore by giving this image the director is hinting that the film is set in the 60's and possibly the way the actor's are going to express themselves in the film not only this but also props used are genuinely props which were used in that time period.

Further more there are two great close ups that occur during the sequence I viewed, I got the impression that these close ups had significance due to the fact that the close up was of the two most important actors in the film which is Sherlock Holmes himself and also his assistant also it showed great emotions during these close ups so therefore these were great addition to the sequence so it gave the audience a clear idea that these two are the ones which the film revolves around.

Also apart from coming across a close up of each of them, we also view a two shot which gives the audience that sense that these two from having a sort of good partnership[ but also that they are great Friends so therefore this allows the audience to fell compassion whenever these two characters come across immense tension and I believe this is what the director wanted to give away by having this camera shot taken.

As you would say leave the best till last, and this is true because this over the shoulder shot is outstanding because not only does it demonstrate the power which Sherlock Holmes has within him (intelligence) but also the power without and also the emotion which the characters being hit show therefore this allows the audience to once again learn something new about Sherlock Holmes which is his a force to be reckoned with.

Apart from the camera shots in this sequence the sound used is like a thumping sound with a mix of ticking sound this adds to the tension which possibly the characters are put through this film therefore giving the audience the idea they are in for a whole lot of tension, and this is why this sequence appeals to em because it has o much tension it is fast paced therefore keeping me on my edge of my seat and also it keeps me thinking whats next so building a puzzle within my own mind and I think this is what the director wanted to achieve and I believe that he has because it has with me so this is why I have chosen to analyze this title sequence and below you could view the whole sequence.

hello group 19

Jorge and Jasmine - looking absolutely terrific already - really pleased with your posts and some of the thought patterns you've shown
Hannah and Katherine -you must keep up to date with your blogging! Your coursework marks are at stake here!! come and talk if you need to
PS - there are one or two blogs below with no name! Don't forget to add your label because I don't know who wrote it otherwise!

Memento-Opening sequence

During class we watched the opening sequence to Memento and analysed different aspects of it. The genre of the film is a phsycological thriller. During the title sequence the only action we see is played backwards. It starts with a developed photograph which gradually becomes less and less developed. This opening sequence is recognised as titles on a plain background followed by a narrative opening. It starts off with its production company which is Summit Entertainment. We recognise this to be a low budget movie.