Terminology - Gender

Composition 

C.U

Match on Action - editing 

Shot reverse shot - camera or editing 

180 degree Rule - continuity - camera or editing 

Ambient -Dialogue 

Diegetic and non-diegetic 

Foley 

Establishing sound or shot 

Setting - location or studio 

Pan 

Props  

Camera: 

-shots(c.u, e.c.u, m.s, l.s, e.l.s, w.s, p.o.v, o.t.s) 

-angles (high, low, eye level) 

-movement (pan, tilt, tracking)

-composition 

-

Editing:

-cutting

-shot reverse-shot

-an eyeline match

-graphic match

-match on action 

-jump cut 

-cross cutting 

Sound: 

-diegetic and non-diegetic

-synchronous/asynchronous 

-sound effects 

-sound motif 

-sound bridge 

-dialogue 

-voiceover 

-direct address 

-soundtrack 

Masculinity-

-low angle 

-C.U (Can be intimate so feminine as well)

-shot rev. shot (promanace) 

-cutting 

-eyeline match

-pace 

Femininity- 

-high angle 

-L.S (isolated, loneliness, depends on setting and location. If it's masculine shows the character as independent) 

-transitions (fade, dissolve, wipe) 

-eyeline match 

Engima Codes

Questions that are embedded in the film to get the audience thinking and asking themselves questions, which are then answered throughout the film. 

Examples: 

Who is the killer? 

Why is he/she running? 

Whats in the case?

Whats going to happen to that person?

Questions like this are what the audience should be thinking about. 

Paranoia Edit

Here is my groups Paranoia edit. We did this to try and understand how to use the Rule of Thirds and many other rules for filming. For one of the clips we didn't take into consideration the head room that was there. In the first scene there was a lot of needlessness head room in the background within the shot. This wasn't needed so it was is relavent that we take into consideration the use of backgrounds when we are shooting our opening sequence. With the extreme close-up we did quite well, we focused on one part of the body which en extreme close-up is. The over the shoulder shot was good but we could of made it better by following the Rule of Thirds more and placing the actors better. The close-up scene on the actors feet was good, all focus is on the feet and the use of space was good. Finally the last scene was also good, we used the Rule of Thirds and position him well, the way we shot it with the framing was ok, this is ok because it was the first time were using proper professional camera to film with.


 

Falling Down Edit

Relevant parts are from 0.33 seconds to 1.13 seconds.
Reason for doing this was to get us to understand how to use Garageband so that we know how to work it when we create are thriller opening. This got us to understand what is needed for sound. By using Garageband we managed to drag in and edit in some different sound effects to help make make the scene tense through what we used. We didn't need to do this for the whole of the clip, but we had to choose a certain point where we knew we could embed some sound. We only got given a certain amount of sound to use so if we needed more then we would have to go and get it from YouTube and download that to use it.

DEXTER Opening Edit

This 'DEXTER Morning Routine' that me and my group remade was to help our skills with using camera, understanding in getting better angles and shot types whilst we used more of the camera rules, such as Rule of Thirds, 180 Degree Rule etc. Other than use getting better camera skills, it gave us better editing and sound skills. All of us had to create our own edit but using the same clips. This meant that all of us are gaining skill from this other than just having one person editing and getting better. Finally this was the time where we had to choose our group for our final project.    

Grading Past Students

This filming opening sequence is a good example I think of a C Grade piece of work. They had a good use of sound throughout the clip but think failed in the creativity of the piece of work. They didn't use a good understanding for Mise-en-Scene. Location wise wasn't very creative, only doing it local doesn't give a good atmosphere and help set up the genre. You can understand what they were trying to do but there camera work was very basic, using only pans and tracking mostly. Shows very basic understanding of how a thriller film is made, and how big a part the opening sequence is.




Now this opening I believe would be a B Grade. It also has a good use of foley and the camera work is a lot better. They've made a better attempt for mise-en-scene, they've thought more in the location and lighting of the and aspects of how a thriller is made. This unlike the C Grade clip makes us as the audience ask questions about it, what was in the envelope? Who was the girl? Stuff like this makes us question it and thats what a thriller films are there to do. Apart from that this group have taken in all the aspects of mise-en-scene and created a good piece of work.




Finally this clip I think deserves an A Grade, as the way they have edited it and put the music and then the over lay of there voices was good. It gave them a good advantage over the other 2. The use of text when editing gave the clip a professional look about it, the lighting made it more like a thriller film. It did lack a bit of dialogue but other than that was a very good opening, it didn't give to much away but did give us a few questions to ask.

Doctor Who Animation - Masculine & Feminine Shots

Will, Bruce and I together as a group had to take 12 shots using cardboard cut out Doctor Who characters and tardis. The point in this was to get us to understand the differences between masculine and feminine camera shots. Firstly we watched a clip of the Doctor, Amy and Rory talking, but the image was gone so we had to rely on our listening skills to try and determine what kind of camera shot to do for that certain scene. After watching it a couple of times we got a list of all the 12 shots that we were going to shoot to try and fill in the picture over the sound. The point in this was to get us to understand what makes a masculine and feminine camera shot, this then has us talking about how will we put this into are final project. 

Iconography - Mood board

What is Thriller?

These trailers help back up with what I think defines thrillers.

Sound

Sound is just as important as clips. It's needed to be added to coursework and you must analysis it for the exam.

What Sounds Can You Hear?

- banging sounds

-creaking 

-birds tweeting : rural setting

-whisle 

-doors opening 

-water dripping

-chains 

-chattering 

-sighing 

-dog crying 

-cracking 

-huffing 

-flies

-crashing 

-wind 

-train 

-hooting 

-running & walking : loneliness = L.S

-telegram 

-cracking knuckles 

Ambience -

Rural area. Midday. Tense ambience, e.g you can hear the wind, cracking noises. 

Foley - 

Emphasis certain background sounds. E.g fly and  creaking door 

Dialogue - 

No dialogue in clip. But sounds are emphasized.

Emotional Realism - 

Establishing Sound - 

These sounds are usually reduced, but in this case there are emphasised to help to the narrative and set the mood. E.g the wind and a fly

Sound Motif - 

A sound you hear only with. Particular character. E.g the fly and the barrel 

Terminology

Ambience - the character and atmosphere of a place.

Foley - reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to film 

Dialogue - a conversation between two or more people to resolve a problem 

Emotional Realism - 'true-to-life' situations that link the character and scene to reality

Establishing Sound - sound that establishes from the scenes surroundings (e.g cars in traffic) 

Sound Motif - sound effects or a group of sounds that are associated with a particular character or setting through a film. 

Match on Action

Match on Action
MoA is used to show 2 or more different angles of the same scene to make the scene more interesting to the audience. To use it you have to have at least 2 different angles of the same scene and then cut it together to make the movement smooth.

SE7EN Edit

Why Are We Editing Se7en? 

-Better skills 

-Understand the software 

-Used effects, filters, why?

-Shows it more as a thriller 

-Trying to create mystery and suspense in our edit

-Ordered the pictures and videos properly 

-Intercutting the clips to make the clips better and shorter

-Trying to get a story (Narrative) 

-Added titles to make it an opening scene 

-We have titles for copyright reasons 

Camera Rules

The Rule of Thirds:
Vertical and horizontal guidelines that help place people and setting in a scene. Vertical lines help place the people and the horizontal to show the background/setting.












Match on Action:
MoA is a type of editing technique for continuity editing in which one shot cuts to another shot portraying the action of the subject in the first shot.

 
















180 Degree Rule:
They are basic guidelines regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene.

Camera Rights and Wrongs

Camera Settings:

White balance: blue and yellow
Exposure: lighting
Focus: clear and blurry

How is the camera used to create suspense and mystery?

- Shooting back and fourth from character to disaster
- Crime
- Never shows mans face
- Not in same shot
- Blurred props
- Exposure
- Following the line of the fire to show bodies
- Tight shoots
- Fight brings up lighting (symbolises devil)

What are the 7 common mistakes people make when filming?

- Background lighting
- Headhunting
- Upstanding
- Jogging
- Zooming
- Snapshooting
- Firehosing

Spoiler Review - V for Vendetta

The film 'V for Vendetta' is set in the near future; it starts off with the US being in turmoil state due to a virus, which killed a lot of Americans. Britain is lead by a dictator (John Hunt), Britain remains the only stable country. It is being lead by the fascist Norsefire party, which is known simply as 'the party’. All of the worlds "undesirable" people like Muslims, homosexuals and immigrants were all placed in concentration camps. On the 5th of November, Guy Fawkes Night, Natalie Portman's character, Evey Hammond, was rescued by a Guy Fakes-masked man who calls himself V. Evey Hammond works for the British Television Network (BTN) when she was out past her curfew and nearly got raped by members of the 'finger men' secret police, this is when she was saved by V. When V got her he lead her to a rooftop to watch the destruction he caused of the 'Old Bailey' criminal building, accompanied by fireworks. An inspector call Finch (Stephen Rea)is given the task of looking at all of V's work. V's main purpose is to try and get British people to overrule the Government and meet him on the 5th of November at the House's of Parliament; he does this when he takes over a broadcast of the BTN. Evey helps V to get away after the police try and capture him.

Evey is taken to V's home were she is told to stay until 5th of November when V promises to blow the House's up, and she is asked to help kill with him. Later on Evey escapes from V after being mortified by killings. Evey runs to her boss called Gordon Dietrich, he shows her this collection of paintings and also tells her that he claims to be a womaniser, but he really is a homosexual, being well aware that he could be put in concentration camp. Finch learns that V was part of an experiment being placed on humans and he was tortured during his time there. Gordon's home gets raided whilst Evey was trying to escape but got captured. Evey got taken away to a secret location somewhere, was tortured, got her hair shaved and got burned. All this torturing was to try and get here to talk about V.

 Whilst there Evey was told that if she didn't give up information about V, then she would be executed, she said she would rather die that give up locational information about V. Later on we find that all this was a set up, by V to try and get Evey to concur her fear. Of course Evey hates V for doing all this torturing, but she realised that she is now a stronger person and promises V that she will return to him on the 5th of November. Whilst all this has been happening, Inspector Finch has been trying to get the true identity of V, and then finds out he was part of a program to do with bio-weapons in a detention centre.

Once finding out that he was, the 5th of November was upon us. Thousands of Guy Fawkes masks were spread all round the city. As promised Evey she returned and meet up with V and then danced together. V then takes her away from the crowd over to a train full of explosives that he had been working on for years to take down the Houses of Parliament. He told Evey that it was her chance to pull the lever to release the train on the Parliament. V then walks away from her and explains that he had a deal to keep. He was to kill a Parliament member, Mr Creedy (Tim Smith). V does eventually kill him but suffered many wounds. He stumbled over to Evey who is still by the train, and he then died in her arms. Evey then thought the right thing to do is to put him on the train and pull the lever to destroy the Parliaments. While doing this Finch finds her. Meanwhile the thousands of men and women in masks are walking towards the Parliament buildings and soldiers are forced to stand down. Finch tells Every to move away, but then as she refuses he puts the gun down he was holding to her and allows her to pull the lever, and destroys the Houses of Parliament that V always wanted.
 On being a thriller film I would rate this 5 out of 5. It gives the audience a sense of suspense in areas, which is key in thriller films, and always has questions that need answering throughout.

 

Sub Genre

Conspiracy thrillers - heroic figure, set in business location, powerful organisations are involved, e.g 'Inception' and 'Shutter Island'

Crime thriller - Criminal offence, main character is either detective or murderer, e.g 'Inside Man'

Disaster thriller - Main character is mainly a scientist, plot based around a natural disaster

Mystery thriller - Links to crime and detective, story usually a crime that relates clues to keep the audience guessing, narrative restricted, e.g 'Sixth Sense'

Political thriller - Around Government and prevention of war, e.g 'V for Vendetta'

Psychological thriller - Narrative are usually non linear, usually based on a character with unstable mind set, e.g 'Butterfly Effect'

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Recce

Recce Idea:

I chose the Bluewater underground car park as a good place to be for a location for a thriller film. It is a big area and has the right look for a thriller, underground and dark. It would be a good scene to if you wanted a suspensive area for a film.

Title Sequences

Q1- What 2 words describe the mood and atmosphere of a thriller?
A- Suspense and mystery

Q2- Why do we have title sequences?
A- To show production company, director, casting etc.

Q3- How many title slates?
A- 20-30

Q4- What comes first in a title sequence?
A- Production company

Thriller Title Sequence

-Suspense music
-Production company
-Main character comes first
-Co-casting
-Production team

Title Sequence for 'Mask' Remake

Q- What makes 'Mask' remake a thriller?
A- Music, the gun, location and atmosphere

Q- What questions are we left with?
A- Why was he being chased?
Why is the gadget important?
Who are the men in suits?
What's the gadget?
What happened next?

'Se7en' Clip

How does it create mystery and suspense?

Whats in the box?
What does the prisoner know?
Why is the prisoner so mysterious?
Why do they want to kill him?

This clip creates mystery and suspense by how the music is quite tense and low level and giving the audience questions to think about. The camera keeps going back and fourth to a helicopter that's probably looking for the prisoner. Giving the situation there in, with one of the characters opening a box and being shocked of what is in there. Which also gives the more suspense. As for the other character has a gun to the prisoners head so he could be trying to collect information out of him about what is in the box. I'd rate the film 5/5 for it on being a thriller. It shows the main signs of mystery, suspense and questioning.

How a Sequence Sets Up the Genre

Having a sequence at the beginning of a film can help the audience decide what the genre of the film could be. Take the film “Skyfall”, it has a long but explanatory opening sequence, all the pictures and animations help build up the genre of what the film is about. There are certain aspects of an opening scene that can determine the genre of the film; one of those aspects is the music.

The music can help build up the genre of a film by how the music is. If it were a horror movie, then the music for the opening sequence would be quite creepy and low leveled. But if you look at an action film, then the music would be loud and in your face kind of music. Another thing that could help build up a genre would be the animation and coloring.

When designing the opening sequence, they have to take in account the genre of the film to help them decide on the colour, music and layout. Its different for if the film is an animation, but for a real story, then you have to think hard about what the design is going to be. If its an action/adventure film, like “Indianna Jones”, the opening title would have to have natural colours to help discover the genre, and the music would have to be quite up beat and catchy.

 There are many things that can help an audience understand the genre of a film. Most of them come down to how well the designing team did to help make the film more readable in that sense.

  

Spoiler Review - Inception

Inception is mostly just a film about where you can have a dream inside a dream, inside a dream. The idea went round for years and some try it. Two men, Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), and Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) are extractors, they preform corporate espionage by using military equipment to get into someone subconscious and extract information by doing shared dream.

Dom and Arthurs target is a Japanese businessman named Saito (Ken Watanabe). When they tried to extract information from Saito, it failed when a part of Dom’s memory comes into the equation, his wife Mal, (Marion Cotillard). While out his subconscious, Saito tells them that he was testing them to s

ee if Dom’s team is capable of preforming the task of “inception”, planting an idea into someone else’s subconscious.

Saito’s plan was to get Cobb and his team to plant an idea of dissolving a company into the mind of Maurice Fischer (Pete Postlethwaite) heir, his son Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy).  Cobb’s only agreed to do this for Saito because he Saito said that he would drop the murder changes on Cobb, and if that happens that it can allow Cobb’s to return home. He accepts and Cobb gets his team together.

Cobb and his team have to get Robert Fischer somewhere isolated. Cobb sedates him and brings in the extractors to dream share. In the first layer of the dream, one of Cobb’s team created it in rainy downtown. The team abducts Fischer, but because we are in Fischer’s subconscious, he has trained subconscious to protect him, Saito gets wounded. Another of Cobb’s teammates temporarily takes the look of Fischer’s godfather, Peter Browning (Tom Berenger), to get Fischer to reconsider his fathers will. Yusuf (team member), drives the team around while they are going in the second layer of the dream.

Now, Arthur dreams up this layer, it is hotel. This time instead of abducting Fischer, they recruit him. Once on their side Cobb, his team and Fischer go to the third layer, snowy mountain fortress. To get out all the dreams there has to be a sort of “kick” to wake them up at once in all three layers. In the hotel, Arthur placed them all in an elevator to hold them down. In Yusuf’s he drove off a bridge so when they hit the water the “kick” will bring them back. Saito finally dies from where he was wounded, and Cobb’s projection of Mal sabotages the whole thing, she kills Fischer, sending them both into limbo. Cobb and Ariadne enter limbo to find Fischer and Saito, while Eames sets up the kick in the third dream.

Cobb remains in limbo to find Saito, but Ariadne finds Fischer and pushes him off the balcony of the house they were in. That resuscitated him at the fortress, where he enters a safe to discover and accept the planted idea: that his father wishes him to be his own man. All the team but Cobb and Saito follow the synchronized kicks back to reality. Cobb eventually found an aged Saito in limbo and they both remembered the agreement, they both killed each other to return to reality where everyone is on the plane.

Once arriving in Los Angeles, Cobb’s goes to his father-in-law who takes him home to his children. As he is trying to determine if this is a dream or reality, he gets distracted by his kids and ignores the outcome.

On being a thriller I would rate this 4 out of 5 because it didn't really give that sense of surprise to the audience at the end but did have a good mysterious story.