Thriller Questionnare

Please answet these questionsin as much detail as possible, it will give us some good ideas for our Thriller production.

1)How old are you? 5-18, 18-25, 25-35, 35+

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2)Are you male or female? Male or Female

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3) What is your Occupation?

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4) What genre of film do you prefer to watch?
Horror, thriller, romance, action, Sci-fi, and Documentary

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5) How many films do you watch in an average week? 0-1, 1-3, 3-5, 5-7, 7+

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6) Who is your favourite actor?

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7) Do you enjoy thriller films?

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8) What is your favourite all time film?

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9) Do you prefer a simple or complex storyline?

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10) What are you interests and hobbies?

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Preliminary Evaluation

What I felt was successful in our preliminary task was that added a wide range of shot types. We have shot it based on a thriller. We made it relevant to all type of age groups. We stayed in the 180 rule and made sure that there was some dialogue. We kept it fast paced so people can understand what was going on. I felt what went well was that we kept to the storyboard and it made sense. I felt that we kept the camera steady and was well focused. And the editing was successful.

The reason why it was successful was that we planned what shot would look good and would give it a thrilling effect. We made sure that we kept the camera steady by using a tripod; this helped us get the moving shots and still shots. I found that the editing was successful as we made everything continuity, it was a quick but effective opening. We added effects like fade to blacks, using the date and time effect at the time to make it look like a CCTV shot. We made sure that when we shot they was sat in the same place that everything was where it needed to be like we did on the storyboard.

They type of things that didn’t go to plan and that we had to over come was that some of our group was not here so we had to improvise and used other actors. We found it hard to do a high angle shot, as it was hard to get to. And we could have improved our editing by using more lighting and titles to make it more of an opening. And we would have made it so it had more colour. We would have used more props to make it more effective. The lighting as the main thing I would have improved, as it was not very good makes its effect of the sense a bit more inappropriate. The lighting didn’t give it the thrilling effect we wanted to this meant the opening was not very watchable.

The skill knowledge we have used is that we used iMovie to make it more realistic. We have added effects to make it flow better and make sense. We used the skills on iMovie to create the effects like the fade to blacks etc. we used the skills like keeping the camera steady. Also that we used different shot types like close ups, extreme close ups shots, pan shots. We did the 180 rules and used a match on action to create effect. Also used shot reverse shot as two people were talking. This will show the audience that there is a conversation going on. We got told how to is iMovie so we understood what we would do to improve the opening.

What I will do next time to improve would be to have different lighting, to make it more rephrase?  Also I would add more titles to show the audience what is going on, what the film is called, who is in it etc. the result of the lighting made it less effective. We could have used more props and ass more effect to iMovie. Also would have made it so we didn’t have to get people to be actors because people in the group were off. This only happened because people in the groups we not there when we was filming this was the course of that. 

 This was the final piece to our Preliminary task!!

No country for old men

 

 

The opening for no country for old men starts as still shots on landscapes. This is showing the audience that there is no one there. But there is s person speaking in the background telling a story. This is giving a sense of mystery as the audience doesn’t know where they are and what the story is about. There are no sounds apart from the sound of the man talking and sound of faint wind. This shows that there is not much going on. Make you want to know what’s going to happen next. The landscapes are extreme long shot; this shows where they are and what type of place they are at.( shot below)

In this frame there is two people and they are shadowed so you can’t see their faces. This shows that they don’t want you to know who they are at this point of time gives tension about not know who is who? The person who is telling a story stops and there is minimal talking at all. the shot is a point of view shot showing that they are getting into a police car, this shows that something has happened but we don’t know what. As they drive away in the police car, it shows the landscape that no one is about so how could someone get caught by the police? Shows how empty everywhere is.  Make the audience think that they must have just caught him doing something wrong because if they wasn’t there they would have never known as it’s so empty. Still you don’t know what’s happened and who is the hero or the villain.  (This does not have a screen shot)

The screen shot above clearly shows the differnces between the hero and the villian. The main focus is on the man holding the phone who seems to be sorting out where the man is going . at this point he is very vunrable, he dosent know what is going to happen next. But as you can see the man is the background is blurred and has a darker lighting this shows he is going to do something bad, and you still cant see what he looks like. Its still a mystary on what he looks like. He standing up which shows hes going to do something bad. This is a mid shot showing all the inportent bits to show the audience that he is vunrable and he is going to get hurt or killed by the man behind. (shot above)

 

In this frame it shows the attack on the police man. Show the struggle of the police man. He’s trying to get out, defend himself, but the amount of strength that he is putting in to killing this police man seems like he has done it before. He used what he had to kill him and that was hand cuffs. He made him struggle make the kill more painful. As you can see the lighting in the background is very dark making you focus on the people giving them more lightly. The is no sound people the sound of lost deep breath the sound of struggling. It switches camera action. It’s a low shot showing that they are on the floor.

 

Showing the face and the straight angle that give it more tension. This is a shot level shows all the action. Shows angry and tension between two people. Its shows more drama in this shot, because two people are fighting. This scene also shows that the police man is struggling for breath and is getting frustrated with this man because he is red in the face and his hand grip is very tight which shows more anger throughout this scene. They also tried to show more tension by this man’s facial expressions because by having emotion on their face it adds more tension and is more interesting to watch. So therefore draws the audience in. They stand out whilst there fighting as well which is very important as there are no distractions in the background of the scene making them the main attention and gives a better effect of angry emotions.

 

(Sink shot )

This shot is showing that the murderer of the police man is not fazed by his actions because he’s not in shock he’s just calmly washing his hands it also shows that he can just wash away his wrong doings this shows he doesn’t care and he’s very heartless towards other people, this could show that his background is bad like where he is from. It gives the idea to people that are watching it that he has done it before. He’s not bothered that the police man has hurt him because the police man isn’t alive anymore so he’s happy he’s gone. It also shows how much strength he had to use in this scene because of the cuts from the handcuffs. The show s darkness as there is very dim lighting this adds a better effect to his wrong doings and shows how bad he has acted. The shot is a bird’s eye view; it doesn’t show any facial emotions it’s just shows tension in his hands. It makes the audience look down on him as he has done something wrong the audience are more confused as to why he has killed the police man. It is like the man is playing a game that he can just end but it will always haunt him of what he has done.

Task plan



For this piece of work we have been ask to make a thriller opening which will be 60 seconds, we are expected to do the following:

character opening doors

crossing the room.

sitting down in the chair opposite another character.

Then characters exchanging brief dialogue.

we are ment to use a Match on action, shot/reverse/shot and the 180 rule.

match shot action

Match shot action is an editing technique for continuity. This is editing in which shot cuts to another shot. It is an action shot of the subject in the first shot. This creates the impression of a sence of continuity.

180 degree rule

The 180° rule is a filming guideline that participants in a scene should have the same left-right relationship to each other, with filming only taking place within the 180° angle in which this is maintained in a conversation.

Purpose of the Prelim

To put your learning in to practise- camrea work / editing

To learn how to shoot effective digital video and editing using iMovie.

To apply the rules of continuity editing

To experiment/ to also be creative.

We have to work in a group of 4 max

we have to do a storyboards 25 sketches of shots we are going to do for the opening of the thriller. we aim to make it a minute long and to add all the camera work to show our development.

 we have made it as a man who wants his "gear" he has taken a man and has a bag over his head not knowing why he has been taken. We are wanting to make it action, and thrilling at the same time.
In this prelim i will be working with ben, elliott and myself. we will be then useing iMovie to edit our openings, to improve it and to show that we can use iMovie. This Prelim should be down by the end off half term.

How does Welles create an air of mystery in citizen Kane?

 

In the thriller film citizen Kane Welles uses the technique of having a fade to black at very beginning of the movie he made the gates of the start of the film symbol something like a prison, being trapped, this give me the theory that that it’s a bad place that no one can come in or out. He did a close up of the gate and paned up to make it looks like it’s moving up. But using a fade to black, this is good as it changes where they are this is making it more tense and making the audience confused on where they are? He also uses a close up to the man’s face. This is not showing the audience what he looks like only the more important parts. He saying “Rosebud” is an extreme close up. An extreme close up of his lips saying the word. He says it in a very quiet as it makes it more dramatic. In the film the man drops the snow globe, by the man dropping the snow globe; this shows the lady walk in and shows her refection. It’s an extreme close-up on the globe. At the start of the movie you never see the nurses face, them doing this give it a sense of mystery. There is no conversation in the opening only music and single word talking. This shows the audience what’s happening without convocation. Not knowing what the man died of make the audience think what did he die of? Welles also keeps going to window shot showing that this might be his room, makes the people think what is this window symbolising? I think it could mean that it’s his window to his room,.

Welles makes the audience think why did he die? What was wrong with him? He make the audience think that but doing close up shots of the man and the nurse. Still not letting them know who they are and why they are there. He also does a lot of fades to blacks these seem to flash back to the window. Makes you think what the interest in the window is.

Also Welles has added the effect of sound which is non-diegetic to make it more gripping and thrilling. The non- diegetic sound means that its outside the film it’s not meant to be in the film. It also shows a lot of shadows in the film and the lighting is very dark to make it scarier but the only light in it is from the window. Why is that the only light though?

This is the DVD cover we had to design, we had to design in for a thriller and how we thought a DVD cover should look like. I have chosen The High Tide" as it name as i think it fits great in what the story would be about. i have chosen blade colours Black, brown, and grey as they are the normal colours for a thriller DVD cover. I have designed it to look scary and to make people think what is this about? and why is there a skull on the cover? keeps them guessing.