Evaluation of this Unit

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

As I have mentioned before, we wanted to use some of Thrillers conventions, as they are the most useful tools to make our movie look realistic and professional however we didn't want to make it cliche and tried to develop most of the forms and conventions instead of challenge them whenever we could.

If there is one form and convention that we did challenge however, was that Thrillers normally have realistic characters that can be related to, to help the audience follow the plot and make the narrative more believable. In our opening we didn't want anyone to relate to the Lonely Boy, this is more for plot reasons than to just break  the forms and conventions of thrillers though. We wanted the killer to look like there was a possibility to emphasize with him, but again we made it difficult for an audience to be able to relate to him. We did this because we felt it fit our film better and made it a more original idea. In some ways our Killer is like 'Frank' in 'Donnie Darko', you like him although he is horrifying and is difficult to relate to because we can't understand him.

Sound plays a bigger part in ours than we originally planned it too. We had only planned to have one track in and that was 'The Killing Moon'. The reason for our original dislike of a lot of audio was because of the convention in Thrillers where, music raises tension and then when there is a lack of it, suddenly something shocks the audiences, because this is used so often in Horrors and Thrillers the scares become more predictable. So we wanted not to follow these and shock audiences by places surprises without making it obvious to the audience. 

However we decided not to use shocks like most Thrillers, we just kept it calm while Jake was on screen with 'The Killing Moon' and then contrasted that with some eerie noises Jake found on pacdv.com as well as some party ambiance that would heighten, the isolation Jake is feeling, especially when it is combined with the editing on the scene where time fast-forwards, we really get the feeling of solidarity and we are scared as viewers, however we did not use any shocks to scare audiences, just unsettling noises and editing. 

In my essay I mentioned how Thrillers don't really give characters the standard Proppean Roles (Propp's character type list). Propp says that there needs to be a hero in narrative, however I wouldn't say necessarily that anyone in our production is a hero, at the beginning the Lonely Boy takes someones drink and at the end, it shows everyone shouting at him, so audiences will pick up that he isn't the hero.  Also there is no prize is this narrative, there is no character giving someone a journey to go on. This was a form and convention that we wanted to stick by as it is what I believe to be what makes Thriller so popular.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

When we new we were doing a thriller set a party, it became evident we would be representing young people today and the groups they fall under, mainly the popular and the unpopular. We did this through mise-en-scene and framing mostly and we also used a lot of editing to make sure the social gap was clear. The extras and myself were instructed to act natural, talk to each other about anything, drink and most importantly smile and laugh naturally, it had to be clear we were having a good time so it could contrast with the sinister events that follow.

Jake plays a sort of in between popular and unpopular, he could have friends if he tried to be social, which explains why he's there but chooses not to speak to anyone. Jake played this well, he made it clear that he is numb to the reactions of other people and that he lives in his own world, not only was his acting good but the way he edited the scene where he remains still at the party really captures his personality, and the hoodie which reflects his loneliness adds to the character, representing people who choose not to follow the crowds.

 Alex plays the mentally unstable, the lowest of the low in the social hierarchy. He shadows Jake, despite he is not the most popular boy, he is still who Alex chooses to follow. I suppose when we were writing about this character, we imagined his as the type of people in reality who are alone for so long, they crave attention and will go to extreme lengths to have a relationship with someone, despite the fact they are too unstable to communicate properly and have a high chance of resorting to violence as they no other way to solve their problems, much like 'Norman Bates' in 'Psycho'.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I think the group will all have different opinions on this question, however I think we would all agree that we would not be distributed by a large company like Warner Brothers, Sony or Universal, etc. And to be honest I doubt if this was made into an actual film we wouldn't have the budget to grab the attention of Pinewood or Working Title, which are two big players in the British film industry. Our film breaks a lot of conventions that these major companies guarantee their viewers which is how they attract such large masses to their films. 


If I were to have complete creative control of this film I would like to do what Kevin Smith (Director of Clerks and Dogma) is doing, which is to tour with his film, show it to individual cinemas then have a Q&A about it afterwards, however we would not have the funding to do this so I imagine that we would be distributed by companies such as 'Optimum Releasing', 'Film4' or it was still funded by the government 'The UK Film Council'. Reason for me thinking this is that they distribute Shane Meadows films which despite a very different genre have the same sort of tone as us and the way shows British violence.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our audience would be knowledgeable regular film viewers who are older than sixteen, the reason for this being that there are several homages and references in our film that not many people would be able to appreciate unless they had a wide interest in film, and I'm not saying that people under the age of sixteen aren't interested in film, just our film would, as you can probably guess from the trailer, contain disturbing scenes and violence in it. 

 "Another factor shows that strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised aswell as dangerous"

Our film doesn't exactly sexualise threat and menace, however it does have a perverse nature to it, which means it at least has to be a fifteen. 

'15' films can also use frequent strong language, however the language must be justified if they use the strongest terms. 

If we carried on, we all would have to admit there would be swearing, it wouldn't be a convincing portrayal of British youth if a few swear words weren't uttered, in the shouting scene in the opening, we allowed the extras to shout whatever came to them.

"The final factor is violence, violence in the films may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury."

Violence isn't what our whole plot would be about, in fact the most violent scene in our Thriller (if we were to finish it) is the opening, and nothing is even seen, just footage of a knife. We wanted to leave the gore and the terror to the audience to decide, which links in with question one, this is a typical thriller convention that we wanted to use in our performance.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Something that has always been able to sell a movie for me, are movie posters. Television adverts are very expensive and require a lot of money an Indie film wouldn't be able to afford so they normally have to be creative online, by using something original to advertise the film and give enough mystery to keep the audience interested. A great example in my opinion was 'Black Swan's' original posters, they were very arty, and suggestive to the plot however nothing could be certain, which I wish we could of done something similar with ours if we were to advertise it.

 

Also another inspiration movie poster I saw was one for 'The Dark Knight'. It was a normal 'Dark Knight' poster like one you would see outside a cinema if it was showing however it had been altered to relate more to the narrative, I was so impressed with it I desperately wanted to make our own poster similar to it, however due to lack of time, we just referenced it in our film instead.

Unfortunately we didn't have the time to make posters like this that would attract people to see our Thriller, we just told them to pass it on to their friends if they enjoyed it, and considering the amount of views that we have had on the video I think it did well enough to get to a big enough audience. However elements of our performance that did attract audiences was our original idea. I can safely say I have not seen a media piece like ours before, sure there is a murder and a freakish looking killer, but they lacked the depth that ours had, the points where they would consider too far we would film and edit into something brilliantly fitting. 

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

 

 I think the main lesson about technologies that I've learned during this whole experience is the power of the internet. The Internet is possibly the best way for an indie film to market it's film. It allows us access to details of movies and gain information that before it was invented we didn't have the ability to access. Youtube is the main website for video sharing and it is where we got the majority of our feedback. This website has helped thousands of upcoming stars become both virally and international famous on a celebrity scale, a well known example being 'Justin Bieber'.  

HD technology was originally the main focus of the the Opening Thriller sequence as our last piece, 'Russian Roulette' really lacked a professional look, so we were eager to try our hardest to change this second time around. we used a Kodak ZX1 camera which we acquired from the teacher to ensure high quality video making sure we looked professional. Although after filming through all the difficulties of having a smaller camera, Jake found out we could of used a standard camera and up-scaled the footage using modern software such as 'Sony Vegas' which was irritating. 

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I think it is obvious from the footage of 'Russian Roulette' that the standard is considerably lower than our final piece. Several lessons have been learned since this piece and they include:

• Lighting: As you may have noticed the lighting is extremely 'shakey' in some shots of the first piece, there were shadows of the crew and a lot of things that we had actually put effort into acquiring couldn't give their full visual affect, for example the costumes couldn't be seen. Because of this, in our Thriller opening, we decided to have two lamps shining on things we wanted to film at all times as well as natural lighting to ensure there were no mistakes or unwanted shadows on film.
• Video Quality: As I have mentioned before, the quality of the Continuity piece drove us to go the 'extra mile' when it came to getting a camera for the Thriller piece. There were random blurs making our piece look amateur, and occasionally it shook, this is what led us to use a tripod in the next project, overall I think this is the most important lesson that we learnt.
• Atmosphere: The Drama Studio really didn't do any favours for the banality of the scene, especially considering we only had one track throughout the whole piece excluding the ending music. This made the video obviously look unprofessional, something we wanted however never actually acquired was ambiance in the background. This is something we made sure of for the Final Piece, ambiance is much better than just having silence because otherwise any noises the crew make can be picked up. 

In conclusion I feel that the mistakes we made in the preliminary piece were major problems that we couldn't afford to make in our final piece and so we looked at them all in detail. After this we came up with solutions that could be implemented into our final piece to make it as professional and aesthetically pleasing as possible. 

Film Classifications

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) catagorizes the main issues into the categories below. The following information set out guidelines such as violence and language to be applied throughout 'U' all the way to '18'. The criteria should be taken into factors such as, whether the material is in conflict with the law, whether the material may cause harm towards the catagory concerned and whether the content is generally acceptable at the age group concerned based on a broad public opinion. The main issues are also taken into concern which contain, Discrimination, Drugs, Horror, Imitable behaviour, Language, Nudity, Sex, Theme and Violence. 

'U' - Universal is suitbale for all ages above four. The films should be set within a positive moral framework and should offer reassuring counterbalances to any violence, threat or horror. By using the main issues, 'U' films should contain discriminatory language or behaviour, no references to illegal drugs or drug misuse, unless a clear message of anti-drug message. Scary sequences should be mild, breif and unlikely to cause anxiety to young children. No glorification of easily accessable weapons with dangerous behaviour in which children may like to duplicate. Infrequent use of very mild bad language with occassional natural nudity, however no sexual content. While problematic themes may be present, their treatment must be sensitive and appropriate for young children. Finally, mild violence only with an occassional mild menace or threat.


There is actually also a Uc rating for pre-school children however it is not often seen.

'PG' - Parental Guidance is suitable for children aged eight and over. From the main issues a 'PG' film should consist of discrimination by a character with which children can easily identify. References to illegal drugs or drug misuse must be innocuous or carry a suitable anti-drug message, frightening sequences should not be prolonged or intense to affect the child. The films shall consist of no detail or potentially dangerous behaviour which a young child is likely to copy. Bad language is only suitable unless it is mild, natural nudity is acceptable however, no sexual context. Sexual activity may be impiled, but should be discreet, when more serious issues are featured such as domestic violence, nothing in their treatment should condone unacceptable behaviour. Finally, moderate violence is allowed although it must be justified in its context such as history, comedy or even fantasy.

'12' - 12 is suitable for children aged 12 and over. From the guidlines a '12' film, discriminatory language or behaviour must not be endorsed by the work as a whole. Any misuse of drugs must be infrequent and should not be glamorised or give instructional detail, moderate horror is permitted, however frequent sequences are not allowed. Dangerous behaviour which can consist of self harm may not show detail which can be copied, In a '12' moderate language is allowed, aswell as nudity. The use of sexual activity may also be portrayed, but discreetly, moderate violence is permitted in the films however the use of emphasis on blood or injuries shall not be included. Finally in a '12' film you can use mature themes, but their treatment must be suitable for young teenagers.

'12A' - '12A' guidlines are identical to a '12' film. The classification only exists in cinemas where a adult can choose whether the film is acceptable for a child under the age of twelve, compared to '12' where children under the age of twelve in not allowed to view the film.

'15' - These films are acceptable for ages 15 and over. The guidlines portray that the work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour, drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. Another factor shows that strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised aswell as dangerous behaviour for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming but should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail aswell as nudity, no theme is prohibited, providing that the treatment is suitable for the ages of 15 above. '15' films can also use frequent strong language, however the language must be justified if they use the strongest terms. The final factor is violence, violence in the films may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury.

'18' - These films are only suitable for adults. No-one younger than 18 may see an ‘18’ film in a cinema. No-one younger than eighteen may rent or buy an ‘18’ rated video. In line with the consistent findings of the BBFC’s public consultations and The Human Rights Act 1998, at ‘18’ the BBFC’s guideline concerns will not normally override the principle that adults should be free to choose their own entertainment. Exceptions are most likely in the following areas; where the material is in breach of the criminal law, or has been created through the commission of a criminal offence, where material or treatment appears to the BBFC to risk harm to individuals or, through their behaviour, to society. Also where there are more explicit images of sexual activity which cannot be justified by context.

'R18' - The ‘R18’ category is a special and legally restricted classification primarily for explicit works of consenting sex or strong fetish material involving adults. Films may only be shown to adults in specially licensed cinemas, and video works may be supplied to adults only in licensed sex shops. ‘R18’ video works may not be supplied by mail order. The following examples are not acceptable: any material which is in breach of the criminal law, including material judged to be obscene under the current interpretation of the Obscene Publications Act 1959 and any sexual threats, humiliation or abuse which does not form part of a clearly consenting role-playing game. Strong physical or verbal abuse, even if consensual, is unlikely to be acceptable.

Daylight Macabre Feedback

After barely three days we have had 137 views on our thriller video on Youtube, and on Facebook, using it's 'like' (thumbs up) system we have received 24 so far and I am confident that this will continue increasing. This is the feedback we received after one video post to Facebook from only one member of the group.

We also received comments on Ben's video post to Facebook too, they were also very positive and gave us a lot of confidence that our final piece was as good as we had wanted it to be and all our efforts to make it look professional had paid off.

"This is soooo good!"
"Impressed ben mate. Very impressed"
"Wow ben im impressed thats dead good!"

Despite the fact these comments are very comforting and positive, they lack any instruction to improve or particular scenes which they thought worked well, however there were a couple of comments on Youtube that were precise in what went well, that we could use when we are making our next project.

"Great use of sound, the cinematography works really well. Good job on the editing! :D"

-TimanaSauce

"great job, does a good job of building suspense"

-kasrkin45

Final Piece!

Enjoy!

This is our final piece, we filmed it on a high quality camera so when being watched on Youtube change the quality to the highest, I believe it proves that the little camera that we used despite it's disadvantages, works a lot better than the standard Canon ones.

We are all very proud of this, including the extras, it took five hours for Jake to edit it, and around six hours to film and I think it has all paid off. This isn't how I imagined it, but personally I think this is better, we lost tracking shots and gained other components that really make this Thriller look professional and I am proud to have been part of this production. 

The Title of our Film

This actually turned out to be the most difficult decision of the whole process. We were all against one word titles and we wanted something completely original that didn't sound like a Horror film. Some days we would all agree on a title and then the next we would all say we hated it and wanted it to change. Ben suggested that we use a long winded name to make the film sound indie, but we were all against it and couldn't think of anything that suited the style of our film. I made the suggestion we should use an oxymoron in the title, and my first few examples were:

Beautiful Filth: A title that describes the Killer, beautiful being how he perceives himself, and filth being how he is seen by audiences and other characters.

Beautiful Slaughter: Again beautiful being Alex's perspective on what he does, who he is and slaughter just being the murder at the party.

I made the suggestion as well of 'Daylight' something, considering we were shooting in the day to take away people's assumptions that only 'bad things' happen at night. Macabre then got added in afterwards and we all immediately agreed that it was the best name we would come up with that the whole group would agree on. I am very glad that this worked out the way it did as it went with the 'Shutter Island' part of the soundtrack, 'The Nature of Daylight' which I thought fell perfectly into place.

Making of the Time sped up Shot

This is my favourite scene in the whole Opening, mainly because of the effort that went into to it, and just the fact that it looks really professional. The idea came from seeing this style sequence in many films, not just thrillers. For example, the fast-forwarding scene ours is most similar to I would say is Zach Braff's 'Garden State', where the main character has just taken drugs and sits in one spot the whole party, which is sort of what we were trying to do except, we wanted him to just be sitting there because he has no one else to sit with and is a recluse.

As you can clearly see here, Ben knows exactly what and when things need to happen, he is confident in his decisions and proves why it is fitting for him to be the director. All the extras were involved in this scene, which made it very hard to be able to do this first time without mistakes, in the end it took three takes till we were happy with the results, the cast all did a great job taking it seriously and Jake for managing to stay still for the whole time.

Making the Mise-En-Scene for the Card Game Shot

Something we had noticed from watching other groups Thriller openings was that when they decorated their sets,  the mise-en-scene was never really convincing enough to make us generally believe that they were actually having a party, so we used everything we could, in a variety of different places to ensure this looked like a genuine house party, here is just one of the scenes we decorated to look in this way.

As you can see, even the extras knew how the scene needed to be decorated, it had all been made very clear. Ben wanted everything to be perfect and as you can see here, even the tiniest scenes he got at least three people to set it up just how we imagined it.

Making of the Wall Shot

I am putting up the Behind the scenes videos separately to avoid a complication which results in them all playing at the same time. We filmed these behind the scenes pieces on Ben's camera whilst filming when we were doing shots that required certain things or we thought we should the effort we put into our work and the consideration, so here is one of the behind the scenes moments about a random idea someone had to have the extras and myself on a wall.

Originally I thought that this shot was unnecessary and it didn't really have any need to be in the film other than it's a party shot that we could just flash up at any point. However after filming it, I realised that it's a shot that doesn't have Jake in at all but the majority of the extras, because of this i started to believe Ben, who said that it would further suggest the isolation of Jake and how he doesn't fit in the group. 

Day 3 the Final day of Filming

Day 3 we knew was going to be experimental, so we arranged for just the four of us to meet and film it. We all had been having several discussions about the killers appearance and how he would move and act, we all had different ideas so we decided on giving ourselves around two and a half hours to ensure all of the favourite suggestions could be tested and considered.

When Alex arrived he showed us a variety of props that could make him look like a woman, however they just made him look like comical, for example he had brought a dark brown wig, which just made him look like a drunk 'cross dresser'. So we used Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker as inspiration. Instead of looking like a woman, we just decided to make a cross of both man and woman, to embody his confusion and conflicting personality. For example the male items of clothing on him, include a waistcoat, a shirt and a neck tie as well as some skinny brown jeans. These all combine together to reinforce to the audience that The Killer is trying to really dress himself up and look just right. Even though Alex brought a wig, we thought his natural hair suited the role fine, however it needed to be in a different style, as if, the Killer wants to make himself look 'perfect'. We didn't just want it to be the hair that gave that impression either, the idea  of the fingernails was another suggestion to make him look more womanly.

An element of his appearance that would have to be kept in whether he was a cross dresser or not was the Lipstick, due to his sick trademark on his victims. Unlike the Joker's unique painted smile, we decided to go for a frown, to suggest the misery of the character, the isolation he suffers. Because of this, hopefully audiences will connote it is his misery that has led him to kill. Personally I wanted his appearance to be the thing that makes people who watch our Thriller Opening really wonder who is the actual Protagonist and who is the Antagonist, because a convention of Thrillers is sometimes to have an anti-hero for example Stanley Kubrick's 'A Clockwork Orange'.

Another make-up feature we added to Alex was eyeliner. We needed to make him look like he's really troubled, for whatever reason is left up to the audience but we felt we couldn't just let him look insane and evil, he had to have some features that revealed despite his sick nature, he is still human. Which is where the eyeliner came in, we used it to make our Killer appear tired and worn, we couldn't let him look pure like our lead character so we needed to give him unattractive features, encouraging some sense of empathy with audiences. We want audiences to connote that maybe he has been beaten, maybe it's Jake that has done it.

The Killers Abode


I made the suggestion that we made a similar scene to 'Buffalo Bill's' basement scene in 'The Silence of the Lambs' (Without using his famous line, obviously). In which Bill puts make-up on his face truly believing that he is beautiful, this was exactly what we wanted to show. We also wanted it to reflect and recreate the mind of the killer, and show the damage. This wasn't an easy task as we were filming in Jake's bathroom again so we needed to make sure audiences didn't recognize that we had given Jake and Alex the same bathroom. We wanted to cover the mirror so when Alex is putting Lipstick on like a normal girl would, the audience is uncomfortable watching. However the bin bag covering, although unsettling and original was boring and didn't do enough to distract audiences from noticing the bathroom location, so we got two candles and photos of Jake and created a shrine of 'the Lonely Boy'. The pictures have all circled Jake's face with Lipstick, this is similar to what 'The Dark Night' used to advertise the film, it had graffiti of the Joker's over the Batman posters . This idea was genius as it created this sick thought that the Killer is obsessing over 'Lonely Boy' making his death, all the more perverse and uncomfortable whilst also creating more of a connection between the two characters plot-wise.

Day 2 of Filming the Final Piece

Day 2 was our planned day to use the extras, and have access to setting up all of Jake's house to make it look like a party. After getting times sorted for all of the group members, we made an 'Facebook' event private message that invited a large amount of people to Jake's house who we considered to have a good understanding of what we were trying to create, here was our invitation.

Hello people, Me, Jake Hipwell, Sam Askey and Alex Hyden need some people to be in a thriller opening we have to make for media, just to be extras at a halloween party doing party stuff, you wont need to say any lines but might need to act a tiny bit, we really need some people though so it would be great if you could help :)

If everything works out right we should be filming this saturday afternoon, at Jakes house, should take 2 or 3 hours at the most.

let me know if you can or not or have any questions, thankyou! 

However, to our disappointment, Ben didn't get many returns as the group had hoped so we all just invited friends we knew we could trust in taking it seriously and ended up with around ten extras, which worked just as well I think in the end anyway. Most of those however brought costumes, so we easily just dressed up different people in different outfits making it look like more people are at the location. 

Ultimately, I think the shoot went really well despite the loss of female extras, however we played with that and it helped us gain new ideas on the way. We got all the party shots we needed, with all the extras and did it all under three hours which was a lot less than we had expected. Because of the extra time we acquired we had time to film any ideas that our group got during the shot and one of those ideas was shots of every character flashing up on screen with a brick wall behind them, this can be seen being made here. 

I think everyone who was involved in todays work, was pleased with the outcome and can't wait to see the final product.

Day 1 of Filming the Final Piece

We began filming without any extras, just so we wouldn't have to keep people waiting when there were scenes with just one character in. So we decided to film Jake's (lonely boy) vomit scene and then see how we could tweak it on Jake's editing software, just to test out a few things.

This, is what we are using for the vomit scene, after several Google searches, we realised that the common  ingredients for fake sick were ingredients we didn't have, so we began looking for something that wouldn't taste too bad (Jake would have to have this in his mouth) and looked convincing. After rummaging through his cupboard we came across some soup that had enough variety of vegetables in it to look believable. This scene is vital, we all felt we really needed it to look professional otherwise it gives audiences the wrong first impression.

I know I have used this image before to illustrate our use of the lighting, however, this image also shows Jake about to be sick and now has context. We wanted to have the light hanging over him to help us with the editing process later on, and in this shot we just used a birds-eye shot over him.














This next shot helped us make the realisation that it would be difficult to use the tracking shots that we had wanted to use, however this one, worked well. It will hopefully be used as the credits appear on screen, while noises of Jake being sick can be heard. The two lamps were used here to ensure that there were no shadows on the door from Ben. I am confident that this shot will be used as it has many uses even if in the end we don't want to use it as we plan too, it could make a good ending shot too.

I believe that the shots taken today were successful and will be in the final product. We were certain that we had picked the right location and costumes, so I am comfortable with these scenes being used later on. However we have only just filmed the very beginning we need to get the party and extras in to commence with Day 2's shooting, hopefully after that we can film all Alex's bits on Day 3, two days after Day 2.

Soundtrack Decisions

As I have already said in an earlier blog we always wanted to have Echo and the Bunnymen's 'The Killing Moon' as it is in 'Donnie Darko' and we found it too suit the scene that we wanted to use it in perfectly, however we didn't just want to have one audio track in it then the rest be silence or dialog so we tried to find music or sound effects that would fit our film. We left Jake to try and find some party ambiance noises as just ten of us at a party didn't make enough noise to really make the party look realistic. Whilst he was doing this he managed to find weird noises that could be used when our Killer walks past the camera, this added to our Psychological uncomfortable feel as the noises are distressing and unnerving.

Not only did we find these, but while watching thrillers for inspiration we stumbled across a track from the 'Shutter Island' soundtrack that was so fitting to our ending that we thought we should definitely include it. The track also included the word 'daylight', which at this point we were aware that we wanted it in our films title. Here is the track.

Film Equipment

There were a few things after seeing the continuity piece we knew we were going to have to fix. One of these was the quality of the camera. The reason for this was because, as we watched several films that other groups had made, we began to realize that the main thing holding a lot of the films back was the quality of the camera. If you can see the quality is bad, then you are aware you are watching a film, which was one of the main things we were trying to avoid. After asking around the group to see if anyone else had any better equipment than the schools our teacher offered to lend us one of his own handheld high quality cameras, the 'Kodak ZX1 HD'.

There were downsides however to having better quality, we couldn't focus very well on anything close up and the battery time was quite short considering the fact we had to do one shoot as we couldn't keep borrowing 
Jake's house for a party, 

We needed a tripod, which was actually something that we never used in the continuity piece. We needed it because a lot of the shots required a really professional style that we couldn't really do handheld so in order to convey the emotion of the scenes or the unsettling nature of them we needed a Tripod. Also we had wheels that could fix onto the bottom that we intended to use for the tracking shots, so we wouldn't have to carry it and ruin the quality of the shot.

We also managed to get a hold of a few standard lamps which extended to big enough lengths to illuminate everything that was in the shot we needed. The reason for the massive extent on lighting is because of something we learned in our continuity which was the best way to make a scene look dark but keep all the quality was to film in pure light then edit it to darkness.

Final Cast and Crew

Cast
Jake Hipwell - Lonely Boy
Alex Hyden - Psychologically Unstable Killer
Sam Askey - Party Boy


Crew
Ben Hume - Director
Jake Hipwell - Editor
Sam Askey/Alex Hyden - Lighting


The final positions was probably the most organised point of the production, while we were drawing up ideas, it was becoming clear which team member would be working where because of their skill or commitment to that aspect. All of us were devoted from day one to making our idea look as professional as possible even if meant some of us would get less credit for certain things as long as they were done it didn't matter as we all had a mention and we were all part of it without arguments.


Ben took role as Director, the easiest decision the group made, he knew from the start he wanted to work off camera and was the most dedicated to getting it finished and looking like how we all imagined it, he knew exactly what shots were needed to make it look how we planned and put extra time and effort in checking we made no mistakes, the idea of the party situation was his idea.


Jake fit the role of the protagonist better than anyone else in the group, it was difficult to argue that he shouldn't be the lead character. However it wasn't his on camera performance that made me grateful to have in the team, it was his ability to edit the film and made it look professional, by getting better software and putting hours into the tiniest details.


Alex plays the role of the killer, a difficult role considering the costume and performance of the character, however i knew that he would play it to an amazing standard. It had to not be comic and/or over-the-top and I think we picked the best person to ensure that, he had the right look and ability to raise the verisimilitude of the character, he also put extra effort into drawing the ideas that me and Ben came up with for the narrative.


Unfortunately, I did not do a lot of work on this project that will be seen on screen, minus lighting and minor acting. However I came up with enough ideas to keep myself a value to the group, I may not of been the most creative asset to the group but I believe that my contribution to this Thriller will be significant even if it can not be noticed just by watching the opening.

Final Costume Decisions

As I mentioned earlier we wanted Jake (the main character) to be dressed similarly to 'Donnie Darko', considering he had similar hair and figure it seemed to be a good choice. Reason for Donnie was because of his position in school, a social recluse, same as our main character. Donnie's outfit for his Halloween party, the skeleton shirt and trousers, combined with a hoodie, that really isolates him and embodies his personality. Making it a perfect choice for our lead character, however not wanting to directly copy the film, we went for the plain grey hoodie, but opted against Jake wearing anything Halloween related to sort of show he doesn't go with the crowd and to make him stand out. We wanted him to look pure, pale and eyes wide open, to make him seem as on edge however in his own world at the same time.


There were several suggestions made about our killer, and one thing they all had in common was that we didn't want his face to be shown fully once. This is just something we've picked up from a lot of other Thrillers that hide the identity of a killer. There was a bizarre suggestion made that we should dress the killer up like a woman. Initially we were skeptical about the idea, but then we thought if we did it well it would really add to the perverse nature of the killer, make his trademark lipstick stein on the victims make sense and make even more unsettling moments. So instead of what Hitchcock did with Norman Bates, making him dress up as his Mother when he killed, we went for the same approach as Christopher Nolan in the 'Dark Knight'. Originally I was against dressing up like the Joker, I knew we had to do lipstick and I wanted to darken Alex's (the Killer) eyes to might look deprived of sleep and like he had been beaten. But I hated the idea of taking someone else's character, it took away our individuality. However we decided that we would only use those lipstick and make-up pencil and nothing else to make our character similar to Joker.

Location Decisions

When we had decided on doing a film about a fancy dress party to increase the uneasiness of the thriller, we knew we had to use a house to film in, which obviously raises a lot of complications. Initially we planned to film at a mutual friend of the groups house. Reason for this was that he had a pool and while we were planning a film we thought re-winding someone falling into a pool would be a brilliant shot and ultimately it would be original compared to shots that other groups have made. However because we needed extras to make the party look authentic, and our friend lives far away, we had to change location. Jake, a member of the group has the most conveniently positioned house which turned out to be the biggest house out of the group anyway ended up being our set. Here were the photos that were took when we looked for shots based on our drawings of the narrative.

The first idea for the second narrative, was a boy being sick, so naturally we began taking shots of the bathroom. Because the first time our protagonist is seen, is while he is being sick we thought a side angle shot of him dropping to his knees, then throwing up would be a good way to surprise audiences and also show enough of Jake's face to establish who he is, the shot fits everything we needed in.

This is where we planned for a tracking shot to come out of those to doors at the far back, it's a good shot to show the smokers sitting in the back, and establish more groups that our loner protagonist isn't friends with.

This is a shot of the alley by the side of the house, originally we wanted someone to be followed down it, however after the wall ends on the left it didn't really look right considering the shot types we wanted to use it, and then another member of the group suggested we put some extras on the wall to the left.

This was actually one of the shots we were determined to use, because of the angle of the shot and the way the curved wall makes the shot look like, it would add quite a sinister feel especially if the killer was standing in the far right while the Boy leaned against the wall.

At this point we had already decided the Boy's body would be around where the camera is now, where the two people are standing on top of the hill, would be where possible the killer is standing the home owner considering it's a place where the most powerful character would stand.

This is a shot taken from where the two boys were standing in the previous photo, as you can see there are three levels of paths and on the bottom one we wanted to have the body. the reason for this being that the party goers can be on different levels when they gather round the body.

Shutter Island influence

Another one of Scorsese's films actually fits the same genre as ours. His Psychological thriller 'Shutter Island'. Unlike 'Goodfellas' however it wasn't the opening that really made me want to mention it. It was more the narrative, the constant tension in scenes, the way the tone of the film made you always suspicious of the characters and the locations that the main character 'Teddy Daniels' found himself in.

 The film was beautifully made, the editing constantly gave a bleak feel, the music of the film which we actually took some, due to the fact it was so moving and we felt it fitted our film well. Lastly the acting from Leonardo Dicaprio who had a difficult part to play, especially towards the end where he confronts the truth about his wifes death, worked together wonderfully to give the sense of paranoia, and make audiences distrust characters and always be routing for 'Teddy' to be the character who is telling the truth. This is the direction we would want our film to go if it carried on, a film where sanity is questioned and audiences don't know who the 'good guy' is. It really makes use of it's cast, having Ben Kingsley as Dr John Cawley, an actor who can really make the most pleasant of characters have a sinister feel. Having Mark Ruffalo as 'Chuck' really helped audiences relate to him (before the ending) as he just does everything 'Teddy' says and doesn't know who to believe.

There are several reasons why I want to mention this film but I think the main reason is that it has a lot of 'Wait, What!?' moments in it, much like 'Donnie Darko'. For example the scenes with the rats coming out of the rock, just after he is convinced Chuck has jumped off a cliff, the audience begins to question the reality of the events, which I think a successful Psychological thriller needs to be able to do. Another example would be towards the end where he blows up a car and the backing music quietens for a few seconds as his dead wife walks towards a little girl and watches him. Our attempt at element in Thriller would be where our Protagonist is facing the camera and the killers hands rub his body. We did this to be creepy and unsettling, it doesn't have meaning exact meaning, we wanted it to be a talking point, a moment that's open to interpretation. We just wanted people to be uncomfortable watching it and making them question what's really happening.

'Goodfellas' Opening Sequence influence

'Shutter Island' is our most recently made influences for this film. Directed by Martin Scorsese, a very well known director for his gangster thriller epics, 'Goodfellas' and 'Casino'. Despite these films being a different part of the Thriller genre, their openings both display some of the forms and conventions of Thriller.

This is so effective because of the casual situation in the car, the calmness on Ray Liotta's face when driving, and then just normal conversation when they talk about the potential that he has a flat tire. The reason why i find this sequence so successful for introducing a film is just because of the shock at the end, it hits you hard and it is only a minute and twenty seven seconds long. Joe Pesci's stabbing is almost comically it's done that casually without any tension build up or eerie music leading up to the violence. Even the music contradicts the violence because up-beat and happy at the ending. I thought the opening to this film is probably one of the most impressive Gangster openings made in modern cinema, purely because of it's shock factor in the end and being able unsettle an audience a minute and half in. It would be hard to take an element of this thriller and place it in our thriller as we are doing a Psychological thriller not Gangster. However I wanted to put it on my blog as when we were writing our Thriller, their were several points where we wanted to do something violent or just shocking right at the start, not exactly stab someone, but something uncomfortable to watch, that sets the tone of the move, for example our vomit scene 15 seconds in.

Russian Roulette - Continuity Piece

AS Media Continuity Piece - Russian Roulette from Jake Hipwell on Vimeo.

Cast:
Ben Hume
Jake Hipwell
Alex Hyden
Sam Askey
Crew:
-Lighting
Ben Rodger
-Camera
Micheal Gwynne

This was an awkward video to post as it had copyright infringements due to our original soundtrack on Youtube so it has been changed now and so has the host website. 

This was our first attempt at a serious thriller piece, we were limited on time, space and props. However personally I think that our idea was successful and has played a huge part in making our decisions for our actual thriller, more effective. We filmed just outside then inside the Drama Studio, reason for this was just because we new how dark we could make the scene and then illuminate it with just one light. The main prop we had was a gun, we were trying to see if we could put a gun in an amateur thriller and still be able to make it look convincing, and while it worked fine in this film we felt it was a bit unnecessary and it seemed as if we would be using the prop for the sake of just having a gun in our film.

The narrative was pretty simple, a cult of depressed teenagers decide that instead of waiting for God to kill them, their going to take their own lives despite what the Bible says, the reason for our simplicity was to avoid what most other groups do for their continuity, someone being chased which results in a misunderstanding, so instead we went with an original idea. We used this opportunity to try out the standard cameras we might be using for our Thriller, to see what lighting we would need and which shot types we like. From this all of our group found a preference in the team we would be working in for the thriller so overall I found this a successful experience.

Probably the main learning point that was made after this was created, was the editing stage of our film. We used the Macs that school provided for us with this production, and we found it to be very basic and not very appealing, we made this decision for our final that one of us for use a more professional editing software for our Thriller to ensure that the final piece wouldn't be a similar standard to this one.

 I think when this is compared to our Thriller, it will be more clear how this production has benefited us.

Original Narrative and Final Idea Story Board

My initial suggestion to the group for a thriller opening was more of an emotional take on the task. With a lack of action, loud noises and fast paced shots. I thought it would be an interesting idea just to show a relationship between two characters where the violence is suggested not shown.

The intro would begin with all the credits, getting them out of the way, then it would show a crippled man in a wheelchair drinking and smoking, this character would be played by an old man. The next shot was the mans son just staring at him, then a collection of photographs would be flashed up on the screen as well as a knife while emotional music played in the background. This we decided wasn't allowing us enough opportunities to show off some skills in editing or be able to pay homage to our influences.

So after several discussions we tried developing another idea which was about a killer who left kiss marks on his victims, and the intro was set at a teenage party so we wouldn't need to get any adults or younger students to help out in our project. Everything fell into place, we were having ideas of shots straight away unlike the original idea. The element of him being sick in the opening, which I came up with seemed like an original idea to instantly give the impression to the audience that our film wasn't a standard action, it would have uncomfortable scenes aiming to distress.

 The music came straight away, which gave us ideas immediately of how we wanted it to look, the shot types and durations etc. We wanted the lead character of the intro to die in the end, and we wanted him to be a loner, which would be a personality feature him and the killer share. The reason for the sick and isolation was to make audience make connotations about the film if we were to make a full length feature.