Evaluation

Evaluation

Forms and conventions
Our thriller film intro is similar in many respects to a real crime thriller film and recognises the film noir genre, it creates suspense by imitating many of the sorts of shots used for example we used a shot where it is high angled facing the barrel of the gun and its user. this type of shot is very common to use in a genuine thriller because directors want to emphasise tension and fear , briefly getting the audience to look into the eyes of the victim. the rapid cutting from one character to the other captures the subtle reactions and the audience is involved in evry emotion. the recognised designated mafia like were created by the use of costume and props such as the cigar and the obligatory gun.

 We also used black and white to set an old fashioned scenario , much like an old fashioned or noir film. this taps into the audiences expectations and experiences of black and white sepia films we then used strong contrasting levels with stark black and white produced by the use of spotlighting. this gave our film a dark grim vibe much like the contemporary movies of Sin city (2005) directed by Frank Miller or the begining of Casino Royale (2006) Directed by Martin Campbell.

 Casino Royale
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE2tTsltS1k

Sin City
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm4YTs_Mr5M

The way in which I feel we devoloped the black and white genre was by introducing changing light levels. I wanted to create a more surreal, abstract element to my film. the motivation came from the recent  movie cover for Scarface which uses only black and white with blood red lettering and has a black and white pop-art look to it.

Social Groups
The social groups represented in this film  is very minamal as there are only two characters shown in the opening sequence. The character Pelican played by Rupert Vann Alexander (left of picture) , is a leader of a gang. his superior and sinister personallity is portrayed with high angle shots, and extreme close up shots of certain features i.e the facial expression, his getures and items he use like the cigar and gun. the cigar and black suit suggests a suave personality and the gun suggesting he is dangerous and in power over the other character.  The other character Ryan is played by Christopher Hudson (right of picture). his clothing is in plain bright white , the colour suggesting good/naive/innocent, he has fake blood on his nose, make up on his left eye to look bruised and his hair is scruffy suggesting he has been beaten up by someone or possibly pelican.  there are various Close ups of his facial expressions to show that he is in a vulnerable state.

Distribution/Audience
People who may choose to distribute our film , would most likely be an independent film company as many 'indie' film producers take an interest in films that are dark and dramatic. one such company is called INDEPENDENT. Quentin Tarantino may be interested as he likes movies that are stark and sinister and also due to the fact he was once an independent film maker himself.

In terms of who might enjoy this movie I think that many teenagers would find this movie appealing because of its retrospective vibe and sinister edge. I also think that many adult viewers would find this film enjoyable
as it is a genre that they will recognise and appreciate the cultural context and the familiar signatures of the crime/noir genre. Both audiences would be attracted to the underlying dark humour and subtle tongue and cheek references this pastiche produces.

Construction and Technologies learnt

The equipment used for filming was an Sony DCR-HC62E camcorder and a Velbon DV-7000 tripod. The camera was straight forward to use and provided us with very little problems. The use of the tripod was indispensable for reliable camera control. The stability it gave was really helpfull in creating the mood of menacing silence and conflict.

For cutting and editing the film we used the editing software Final Cut Pro. I was fairly familiar with the effects and filters that the program had to offer as this film making software had been a childhood hobbie of mine. We were able to produce the pace and concise cutting that we had hoped to achieve. It was vital that the shots gave an immediate impression that spoke to the audience. There wa alot to say in a very short time.

Conclusion

In this assignment I have learnt a great deal about the writing process, the organisation of a project, the cutting and camera work and most importantly , the benefits and pleasures of good team work. I learnt there was a significant amount of organisation before hand. the writing require certain times for me and Ade to get together, the actors needed to be engaged and involved , props and venues had to be organised in good time for the shooting deadline.

The writing process has really helped by discussing this with people in my house (Mc Gills) and creating enthusiasm for the task. By knowing Rupert was to be my main character, I could keep him in my minds eye, whilst developing the storyline. The ideas for direction and shots were already beggining to formulate. The process of team work between us four resulted in a product that we were all proud of.

Finished Editing :D

over the past week ade and I have been focusing hard on the editing. our intention was to intensify the drama , without giving too much away. we focused heavily on the two characters and also aim to give the audience the experience of been at the end of a gun. we hope that the cutting allows the audience to see the emotions of both characters from close up expressions,  and we also wanted to make the gun like a third character, we achieved this by isolating it with one shot from the side with the hand shaking and the second shot emphasising the agression of the gun with the camera looking up the barrell of the gun allowing the audience to see the victims point of view. it is now complete and ready to be put on dvd. the evaluation now has to take place.

Editing

yesterday we have started editing our as thriller on final cut pro. the specific effects we have used to set a dark , bleak yet old fashioned environment. we have used a sepia with the colour to make the film appear in  black and white. we have used brightness ( low) to set the darkness of the scene. we have used levels to improve the quality of the film and to set a dramatic bleakness to the scene.

Filming Complete :D

We have finally finished the filming of our sequence. This second session of filming was a lot quicker as there were no outside shots; we had previously filmed all the smoking shots, outside. we had estimated that this would take about an hour and a half and this was more than adequate. Both Ade and I  feel very satisfied with the shots filmed and  very excited to start editing the project. At times it was a bit difficult to motivate and control the actors as enthusiasm sometimes got the better of them :D , However they were very co-operative and respectful and they did exactly what Ade and I wanted them to do within each shot. the chemistry between the two actors was outstanding, and the casting was perfect. We plan to make the start of this film in black and white to emphasis a bleak and grim atmosphere. we achieved the lighting effect with just the one lamp , giving us great dramatic shadows. Everything including costumes fitted well within  the desired retrospective time period of the 1960s. We tried to use a variety of shots including shoulder shots, high/low and angle shots and very mild panning.

filming ( part 2)

during activities, we started to film our thriller. we have done all of the smoking shots, so now we only have to film the rest of the inside shots, which hopefully won't take as long. we only had a few minor difficulties. a student who wanted to help us claimed that we didn't have to follow the story board and tried to change the lighting and feel . for this reason we may have to let him go, as we feel it is very important that we FOLLOW THE STORYBOARD. we were also short on a few props , so i will need to go aquire them, before they are required for the shot. other than that we are on track and we are on our way to finishing the filming. we plan to finish at the end of thursdays activities. as we need to finish by half term as ade leaves for nigeria on friday.

Filming Day ( pre filimg)

today is the day when we start to film our thriller. we have the props all together. we've created the signed warning people that filming is in progress. we have printed permission slips and scripts for each cast member. the smoking problem has been resolved by filming the smoking shots outside and non smoking filiming and action inside. we shall commence filing during school acftivities at around 4 oclock . day lighting will not be a problem  as some of the windows will be covered to set the darkness. it won't be a problem as there will be sufficient natural light.

Locations

Today I went and had a look around school campas, to find the place that Ade and I are going to film the thriller. The sort of place that we desire to film is a place that is isolated, creepy and dark and can be visually interpreted as a hide out. I have found several decent places that are sheds, buildings and even a garage. It may seem like alot of choices but we have to consider the availability of the areas within our set filming time on tuesday. these are the areas below....

Props/Setting

This weekend I have been acquiring some of the props needed for our thriller intro. As Ade cannot go outside school premises as he boards full time, It was my duty to go out and buy any props needed. we had previously worked our way through the storyline and decided that we required the following: a gun, cigars, a suave fedora hat, a lamp, a white carnation flower, 2 suits and fake blood. so far we have obtained the anglepoise lamp, the carnation flower,  and the gun. for legal reasons we cannot use a real gun , therefore i decided to spray paint a toy gun in black and chrome so it looked like a real one.

at the moment, we currently searching for fake blood, the fedora hat, the cigarsn and suits. places to investigate are oxfam shops for suits, joke/toy/costume shops for fake blood failng that ketchup will have to do. at the moment i'm twisting arms for a loan of a fedora hat. the deadline for props is saturday ( hopefully) as that is when we plan to start filming.
for our location we hope to find a warehouse or garage as the setting is quite dark and isolated and possibly on school premises. other venues will explored through personal contacts

Preliminary task video

We Have finished the preliminary task, i was mostly responsible for the filming but directed some of the acting. We edited it all on final cut Pro and exported the footage onto to a video file. for filming it was very easy to set up the positioning of camera and cast, however it was diffcult to determine whether the panning and positioning was correct. it was also difficult if we wanted a close up because the zoom on the camera was limited in range. therefore if we wanted an extreme close up we would have to physically move the camera and tripod. when it comes to filming the actual project, i want to mark with tape the areas of where i want the camera to be positioned , for different shots. This way all of the shot types desired to be the same will be at least similar to each other if not exactly the same.

Goodfellas

Today I watched the movie GoodFellas (1990) by Martin Scorsese starring Ray Liota, Robert De Nero and Jon Pesci. I thought it was a great film full of eye popping moments, but i did not see it so much as a thriller because i thought the story structure was more drama. I thought this beacuse It was told in 1st/3rd person narrative and the story status went rising from equallibrium  declining to disequallibrium half way through, for instance when Henry loses the last of his expensive cocaine which was flushed by his wife, leaving him broke. Like a thriller there were thrilling moments e.g when Devito shoots Spider in the leg (by accident) , then after Spider recovers from the hospital,  totally unexpectedly, Devito shoots him again and kills him ( this time deliberately). However these thrilling moments don't pose as a particularly long dilema and don't progress as the scene movie proceeds. Not extended , but done and finished with. I felt the music was used more in a lifestyle natural way, there was hardly any cinematic music used to emphasise tension. as it was based on a true story this made the film more amusing. I would say this movie is thrilling but not thrilling enough to be a thriller film. Though it has its thrilling moments , its more of a all round film , giving characterisation and doesn't follow the 31 functions of a typical story.

StoryBoard Finish/ Preliminary Task

Today in conjuction with Ade, we have finished the storyboard for our thriller intro. It took us a few hours as we had to construct it carefully to ensure that the story had a logical order and the camera shots were identifiable. Our main concerns were that we had to chose the right camera shots and sequencing in order to create the tension and climax within the desired atmosphere we had visuallised for our film. This week we are starting the preliminary task of filiming a short sequence and we have been given the details of the shots, including the range of shots to be covered. The storyboard for the preliminary task is complete and now we need to film it and then edit it. Afterwards Ade and I will be able to commence the shooting of our project. To keep us on track with the project and to make sure that we had considered all aspects of the project from costumes , casting to soundtrack, I designed a plan with tick boxes and deadlines to ensure a logical order in our planning and preparation , this plan also included deadlines and the overall objectives.

Final Cut Pro Tutorial

today we had an induction of how we use the video camera and its tripod and how you upload the video file onto the computer. we also learnt how to use the program final cut pro on mac computer. learning how to import you're video files from the camera and edit them. we also learnt how to put effects on e.g filtering ( colourbalance /contrast/sepia etc..). we also learnt how to manipulate the speed/size/movement of the camera shot. 

story board and logo

today we have  changed the script, so there is less swearing as very bad language isn't approved by the exam board. after this we have made a start to drawing the story board. we drew the pictures in , what type of shot it is and what the line is in the shot, in numerical order.  as well as starting our storyboard, we have chosen our logo entitled " the magpies" . to avoid copyright infringment we have only used fonts on microsoft word. the font we chose is called " herculanum" in bold. we chose this font as it is very sinister and dark like the thriller we plan to make.

Music

  Today we have started to make the music for our thriller. we are using the application logic pro 8 , a  more advanced version of garageband and as i know how to use it due to other topics , i feel it is worth using. i want the instruments to be as minimalistic as possible. so i used an atmospheric fx surround synth pad sound to sustain a tension. there is a slow piano riff played through in and out. it is played in the E Diminished scale in a high octive with reverb to set an Dark, shallow, uneasy and intense surrounding to the scene. during the end of the music , .the piano is then played last time after we hear the gunshot but don't see it, creating a sense of unease.

Script Writing

Today I have started to write a script , with my work partner Adi , we have decided we want to make our intro about american gangs. the scene is about the ring leader interrogating and torturing a victim for which he decides to shoot in face. for this scene we want to make it sinisterly intense and grim yet old fashioned. we plan alot of adult content in our opening sequence , nothing sexuall , but hopefully alot of bad language and bloody violence. so we are trying to make this intro at least a 15 in hope for an 18. we aim for this scene to be black and white , inspired by the begining of Casino Royale (2006). we have written the scene but we hope to make further improvements to the script with additional inspiration and more ideas. once finished writing , we plan to start casting and planning a storyboard.

Thriller Directors

Quentin Tarantino: in the early 90s quentin began as an idependant film maker using nonlinear storylines and aestheticization of violence, he then went on to make some of the most well known thriller films of the 90s and 00's. including  Resevoir dogs, Pulp Fiction , the Kill Bill Trilogy and Inglorious Basterds. recieving acadamy awards and baftas , amd being nominated for emmy and grammy awards.

Brian De Palma: known for thrillers such as Scarface , Mission Impossible and The Untouchables recieving box office sucess. he is known for a cetain trend in camera angles throughout his career. for instance split screen , showing two seperate events happening all at once together. he also uses a 360 camera pan to empasise a dramatic impact. and also often using slow sweeping panning and tracking shots.





 Micheal Bay: Known for directing many films in the 90's and 00's including Bad Boys 1 and 2, the island and the transformers film series that haved grossed over 3 billion dollars worldwide. He is well known for his movies having usage of practical special effects , fast cuts and stylistic visuals. he has recieved many MTV movie awards.







 Alfred Hitchcock: Known for such all time thriller classics such as Psycho, Spellbound, Suspision, etc. He was a succesfull silent filmaker ber moving into hollywood. He is known for his use of voyerism in his film. and his techniques of suspense, enigma and twist endings. There is a use of violence , crime and psycology in his thrillers. He has recieved many academy awards , including 5 for Best Director. In the Movie Maker magazine he has been hailed as " the most influential film maker of
"All-Time".