Filming... again!

So, as you know, we've had to film all over again and we started on Sunday night ! Me and Sophie went to our location which was situated on a farm with a huge barn. The barn has loads of things in it which links in with our vision of what the setting would look like. Also, it has a work shop which we think fits in with our story. I will hopefully get some pictures up soon :)

Anyway... We filmed the first part of our film where Sophie had to put mud, ketchup, dirt and loads of other stuff over her to make it seem like she has been dragged everywhere. She was then tied up to a chair and we set up the lighting for our shots. I then shot various shots of her struggling to get away from the chair and some shots of the surroundings such as oil drums and lots of metal. Next time we film we will film the 'scrapbook scene'. This is where the man plans who his next victim is. This will include close-ups of newspaper clippings and also we might record the voice over aswell.

:)

Ahhhhhhhh!!!

We've had a bit of a crisis.. we didn't like our thriller opening so we've decided to change it. We haven't got long so we better crack on.

In this lesson we have been coming up with a new idea and thinking more about setting a mood for a thriller opening rather than setting up a strict storyline, which is where we went wrong last time! We feel that our new idea will be easier to film and will link in with the conventions of a thriller opening more than what our old one did, so here it is...

We have decided to use scrapbooks and newspaper articles of people going missing to set the mood of a torture scene. The torture scene will be set in an old, dusty room which is dark and mysterious. A girl will be tied up to a wooden chair with ropes around her wrists and bruises around her neck. We will use lights to concentrate on the girl and the chair. Also, there will be a man looking through the scrapbook and putting it together but at first he pulls out knives, dirty pliers and metal before he takes out the scrapbook and newspaper clippings.

Hopefully it will all go to plan this time ! :)

Sophie, Charlotte and Dan xxxxxxx

Progression

Yesterday we filmed one more scene where Charlotte gets snatched by a man. We felt it went smoothly.

In todays lesson myself and Olly are finishing of the music and making new music for what we filmed yesterday. Whilst Charlotte and Sophie are uploading the clips from yesterday onto the mac at school and editing the scenes.

We feel like we are making good progress by sharing the work out evenly. We have to shoot one more scene and then do the same proccess e.g. making sound, editing and blogging.

Story Board video

After many problems with the uploading of the storyboards as a video i have finally managed to sort it out and upload it so here it is...

18th march!

We are all off doing different things today as we havent managed to film more. However we have planned to use our time after school next week in order to ensure that we have as much time as we can for editing. Today dan and ollie have been look on a website for music ideas to help them with producing the sound. Charlotte is blogging ensuring that we have completed as much as we can for our pre production and i contined editing and are starting to plan answers for our evaluation! :) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thriller opening - Memento.

We have to blog what we have done in the lesson so instead of writing about the normal things like music, titles and editing, I have decided to blog about other thriller openings that I have watched. I decided to watch Memento as we have watched it in one of our lessons before. I will talk about the good points in the opening and the bad points.
Here are some of the good points about memento:

I think that the blue writing at the beginning of the film gave a good contrast to the picture in the background. Blue represents a calm environment, whereas the picture behind the title represents danger and evil. The title of the film can be seen as calm due to the colours but the font of the title seems sharp and edgy, which suggests that there may be some danger throughout the film. Also, the picture of the blood up the wall and the man laying down shows what the film will be like. I think this opening sequence is effective and sets the scene very well for the rest of the film.

I think that the low, sombre music at the beginning is very effective. At the end of the film, the same music is played which links to the storyline of the film, beginning with the music and ending with the same music at the, in the same way that the first scene plays back at the end of the film. The score suits the film really well and it gives the feeling of calmness towards the audience to suggest that nothing serious is happening yet.  

I also think that at the end of the polaroid sequence when the picture goes white and blank, it links with the story that Leonard has a blank mind and he cannot remember previous memories. The polaroid picture also symbolises the 'memento' that Leonard keeps throughout the rest of the film to try and track back his memories. This sets the scene very well and gives an idea of what the story is about.

The black and white colours are used to suggest that not everything in Leonard's world is "black and white".. he has to keep memories on pictures to make sure he can live life without feeling that he doesn't know what is going on.. it is not all easy for him.Also, when the polaroid picture is in colour and the rest of the background is in black and white, it suggests that the picture indicates something important to do with the story of the film. Also, there are not alot of camera angles and techniques used in the opening, but I find this a good thing because I think it gives a sense of mystery. The camera isn't showing too much, so it leave the audience asking questions about what might happen next, which will intrigue them into watching more of the film.

to be continued ... (:

I'm now going to finish this blog off with what  I think the weaknesses of the opening sequence of memento are:

I found that there wasn't enough shots that were different. There was alot of close-ups of objects, whereas I think there should have been more flashbacks, to give a story of his past.Using fast shots of flashbacks would have given an effect of the camera snapping a picture which would have been good to be used as a graphic match.

I think that the opening may have given too much away with the shooting of the man. Throughout the rest of the film it is a story about trying to find the man who raped Leonard's wife and beat her, but the start of the film kind of gives away who the person who did it, is.

Also, I think that the polaroid picture at the start was in the shot for too long but apart from this, I really liked the opening of this thriller because it made me, as the audience, wanting to watch more of the film because it seemed interesting and mysterious.

Editing...!

We are still editing! Me and Charlotte are finding it hard to chose between final cut and imovie as they both have many advantages! We have decided to continue our editing of our opening on imovie as we found it hard to use final cut, however we are still undecided on whether to try work it out as in the future it will benefit us and we would have more options. We are Now continuing editing and trying to get it precise and to how we want it to look.

Progression with sound for our film.

After following on from Olly's last piece these are screenshots for our film. We fitted each bit of sound in with the appropriate scene. We followed the storyboard to enable which bits of sound fit in best with the scenes that we filmed. Once we film the graveyard scene we will then select appropriate sound to coincide with the filming. We experimented all of the types of sound that garageband offered. We found this an effective way of gaining the right sound choices.

By Dan Palfrey and Olly Seldis

Me and my main man Daniel James Palfrey have been working on the sound for our final film. After our preliminary task we have found it easier to work on garageband, and have a better understand on incoporating the music in with the cuts. After looking back over our storyboard and our final film we have worked out where we will be cutting the music and the mood of the music needed. We have a rough draft of the music that will be used.
By segmenting the work we feel that we have made good progress :)

Taken

i felt that the thriller film 'taken' did not have a very good opening as it was not very exciting and started so i have decidecd to analyse a section within the film, in order to see the key conventions of a thriller being used. 

Taken is a film about a former spy relying on his old skills to save his estranged daughter, who has been kidnapped and forced into the slave trade.
Pierre Morel directed this film in which was written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen. Pierre is a successful director in which is manly known for taken and the transported films.

The Scene in which i will be looking at is the scene starting when Liam Neeson is on the phone with his daughter, trying to find out what is going on with his daughter, it is very suspensefull and the sound effects are very tense for the viewer as they are getting ready to expect the unexpected. When Liam Neeson's daughter says, "They're taking Amanda" her reaction is as if she is very scared and has almost lost hope, the music beats and she starts breathing deeply. 

There are many good points within this film in which i think worked well such as the editing of the shot reverse and reaction shots are perfectly timed and relevant to the situation they are both in. The shot reverse shots are constant between herself, her father and the kidnappers, it switches very quick continuously to show the way in which she's thinking what's going on. Furthermore her heart starts beating faster and quick music kicks in, this workd well as it added tension and puts the viewer on edge, the audiences heart may also be feeling worried with her. Continuing, When Liam Neeson tells his daughter what to do then eventually tells her: "There going to take you" she realease a deep breath and cries before the rest of the instructions were told, this particular part of the scene contains many shot reverse and reaction shots, the audience get to see her reaction closely and almost feel they are experiencing it with her.  It is suspenseful for the viewer when she feels relieved they have gone, then is suddenly thrilled and so are the audience when she is captured under the bed. As she is taken she screams loudly in which i think worked well as it showed the panic and scaredness of her however the sound may be edited and increased in volume to show the tenseness of the scene and how suspenseful it is about to get. There is minimum diegetic lighting and the lights are all mainly off, which shows that something bad is going to happen.All these factors represent that this is a thrilling scene and show that this film is only going to get into the story of the kidnapping more and more, which encourages the viewer to continue watching it. Especially in this scene there is a lot of parallel editing, which personally caught my attention and interest. She herself is dressed in white jeans and a turquoise top and has been placed within a white setting, i feel that this is significant to show her innocence within that setting.

I am hoping to use some of these good points in my film opening so that it creates suspence for the audience as the build up of this does and then thrills the audience as the kidnapping does within this scene.

Sound and Editing

Well we shot the majority of our film in the half term, and just need a few more shots. Also, Charlotte and Sophie have been editing and doing a good job of it ! and me and Oliver Max Seldis have been making sound for the scenes that were shot in half term :)

Target Audience

By looking at the picture to the left you can see that this is a picture of our target audience who is in fact teenagers. We picked teenagers as our target audience as we felt that our film would be appealing towards them and would reach them. We gathered the pictures from magazines, pictures and headlines that can be associated with teenagers. :)

Editing !

Woo, we've started editing ! We have a little bit to finish off filming but we have been a bit unlucky with the weather and getting everyone together. We will soon be doing some more filming to make sure all of our filming is complete. We have also started producing some music for our film and we feel that the start of it fits in really well with our opening shot. It is mysterious, and has low sounds, which links in with the codes and convention of a thriller. Soon, we hope to put up a sneak peak of the music for the opening !