This Blog displays all my work for my College AS course which will then be marked online. The Thriller unit is complete and I'm now starting TV Dramas and the Film Indistry
Showing posts with label G321 Thriller planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label G321 Thriller planning. Show all posts
Abigail on the day of filming on the Saturday planned out extra scenes to film so then our thriller would have continuity, instead of cutting to different aspects of the day. This was because she thought it would flow better, and I agreed. We tried other shots like a extreme close up on her feet as she left the house and filmed extra walking scenes without the antagonist. We re-filmed the blood scene and made the antagonist look taller, it didn't take as long as before but we went over it a few times just to be sure.
Bus Stop scene, caused some problems when filming. The first one got accidentally recorded over the first shot and on the second attempt the angle was wonky due to the tripod stand being slanted.
Bus Schedule is exactly the same for Thursday 22nd for another attempt at retaking the scene.
Tuesday and Wednesday wasn't appropriate due to bad weather.
Our thriller idea was influenced by a variety of psychological thrillers. We very much liked the idea of a central protagonist who is unconventional. As suggested by our title ("Hysteria") the underlying theme of the film is the mental health of the protagonist, and in our opening sequence we have the protagonist speaking to a psychoanalyst, to re-affirm this idea of the central character's mental fragility. Many psychological thrillers employ the technique of creating a character who is presented as the protagonist, but is deeply flawed. In our film, the protagonists main flaw is her carrying out a sinister deed under the orders of the antagonist.
From our research into audiences expectations regarding thrillers, we found that many appreciated a twist in the plot, to keep the audience guessing as to the outcome of the film.
The idea behind this was that at the end of our "film", it would be revealed that the protagonist had simply endured a vivid hallucination, and the antagonist had been a figment of her imagination. This sort of twist was employed in films such as "The Sixth Sense" and "The Others", where the central characters are not as they appear.
My Addition:
We could not relate the exact relationship of the antagonist and the protagonist in our thriller to any other existing thrillers. The protagonist is mutual to the antagonist and doesn't display any emotion or feelings towards eachother. Unlike in conventional thrillers where the plot line is similar to ours the protagonist would express fear towards the antagonist and the protagonist would try and make contact almost straight away with the protagonist.
One weak example is "The Shining", where the father starts seeing things in the house and gets influenced to be violent towards his family. He can't tell if the illusions he see are actual illusions and his mind is plagued or if they are really there. So the antagonist is the illusions, but instead of putting any influences onto the protagonist the antagonist does nothing, just stares.
Fact File Sixth Sense: Director: M. Night Shyamalan Producer(s): Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Barry Mendel Running Time: 107 minutes Country: US Budget: $40 Million Box Office: 672,806,292
The Others:
Director: Alejanro Amenabar
Producer(s): Fernando Bovaira, Jose Luis Cuerda, Tom Cruise, Paula Wagner
Taken from Sophie's Blog: Beccy and I have been given the task on researching and possible find music. Deciding on a thriller song will be hard, manly because of two reasons : the expectations of what a thriller should be the second will be try to find music that will fit the editing or trying to fit the editing around the music. Copy right laws also make it hard for us to find music with out paying royalties. Music ideas we have are;
Beethoven Moonlight Sonata Movement 1.
The rite of spring - stravinsky
Horror film music - scary halloween piano music- isisip original instrumental music - myth
Frosty moon by shingetsutan tsukihime
There is another piece which would be very good to use however, we can not do this because of copy-write laws. The piece is Frosty moon by shingetsutan tsukihime. We also had this trouble with the song "Myth". However we can do Beethoven and Stravinsky.
At the moment it is had to choose a music piece to go with our film. It will be much easier to do the editing and then pick one of the pieces to use.
This piece is subtle and creepy, the only trouble with this piece is that it is played by an orchestra. Many people dislike the this music and the music is very key to the opening f the film there for if people don't like the music they won't like the film. If we had of made the film in the 50's i think this piece would be perfect however with the range of music genres now out there i think it will be tricky to get this pice to work however having sad that if this piece does work it will be very effective.
This piece is very effective to the audience. This piece makes you think like a good thriller film, it also makes you feel like you are in a dream, a world with no truth. There is also crescendo build ups in this piece. this piece has a mixture of note values this helps to give you the idea that you don't know what to expect next. There are 3 different parts to this piece, the structure goes A B A C A. The good thing about this piece is that it will appeal to the audience meaning. Many people turn their noises up at classical and orchestral pieces, this piece uses a piano so it does not have the classical/ orchestra sound. Though classical pieces are ones which we should use because of copy write laws tis does not men we should se them as this can sometimes reduce our audience market. Often the structure of classical songs reflect a story for example Raindrop prelude by Chopin is a story of a storm, the structure of it is a ternary structure ( A B A). this piece starts of calmly( A) then builds up to the storm (B) and then quietens down again (A). This piece comes from a collection of 3. This is the 1st movement of them, called Adagio Sostenuto. The third piece of this movement is too fast Ferocious. The second movement is too short. The 1st movement is based on an accompanying motif in triplet rhythm that, together with a accented notes motif, creates the impression of a grave, meditative state of mind. The composer adds the following direction at the beginning of the first part: „ Si deve suonare tutto pezzo delicatissimamente e senza sordino” which means that the performer should play the part with great delicacy and without dampers. Moonlight sonata is the 2nd movement out of 4 movements. This Movement is the best known.
This Piece i think will be very effective for thriller music. This piece i feel had the effect to make you more sad then scared or tense. This piece, however is not very long lasting, only 1.56 minutes. We cannot use this unfortunately because of copy write law.
This piece is really good as it is more recent using developed instruments like the synth to create tension. I think however for the thriller we are doing to tempo is too slow. This might be good for a horror but not for our thriller.
This is a collection or already used thriller ad horror theme track, this helped us in deciding which songs to pick as it gave us a greater understanding of what is needed.
My Comment: I had not as much input on the music but when they found one they liked I gave my opinion. Sophie said she would like to edit and muck around with the music (Since she is taking music tech) and she knows more about music than I do. Beethoven Moonlight Sonata Movement 1 & The rite of spring by Stravinsky are the two songs we are looking at because they aren't copy righted and depending on how much time we have we may or may not edit it but try and fit our filming in with the soundtrack. We like these two because they are eerie and sets the right tone and atmosphere we want to achieve in our opening. These two tracks fit what we want well into producing a physiological thriller.
The music could be compared to Hitchcock thriller films, but we are trying not to make it as aggressive and upbeat like in "North by NorthWest". We are following his style of using classical music but at a lower/slower tempo.
From the first schedule we ended up merging the walking and dog walking scene together. This is because it was raining and we thought at the time it would be enough. We didn't shoot the bus pulling away scene because we only had one camera and it would have been difficult to film it on the bus with all the other passengers, we also felt that it was not needed. We got the antagonist to put their hands on the door. When filming we found it difficult to write "Hysteria" in blood and it didn't look very effective, so we changed it so the antagonist bangs their bloody hand on the window when the protagonist opens the curtain downstairs. Also while filming we decided a head shot would be better than a extreme close up for the therapist at the beginning.
Retakes
We had to redo the bus scene because of technical problems and was recorded over, but only a segment was saved. (Was retook on Wednesday 7th November and is due for another retake Thursday 15th)
We are to redo the dog walking scene because we didn't like how the antagonist followed the protagonist when in all the other shots they just stand and stare.
We plan to add in another walking scene when it starts to get dark. Abigail wanted to do it, as we had time as we had asked for an extension of time with the cameras. We plan to film near a lamppost which will give it a eerie feel.
To re-film: Sunday 11th November - Afternoon.
Saturday/Sunday - 17th - 18th
People Present: Myself and Abigail will be filming the retakes on Sunday because Becky and Sophie are busy. Sophie - Working all day Becky - In Derby
Date: Thursday 8th November Sound track We as a group have started to look at different sound tracks to get an idea of what will work along with our film. So far, we have chosen the sad, dark, eerie genre of music to set the tone of the colourless, dull atmosphere we want to achieve. After researching on youtube a piano style is what we like the idea of Beethoven's moonlight symphony 5. We are still undecided on what music soundtrack to use, but once we have the filming all complete we will be able to capture it onto a Mac and see what fits best with our opening.
Opening titles work
We have already agreed on the name 'Hysteria' and have started to think about possible font types which we can adapt. Our aim for the font is to make it look like a blood splatter and the titles is made from the blood.
We started messing around withCooltext.com to get an idea of what we could have.
1) Black - Dark. This font is hostile and looks like the writer is isolated and alone. The wobbled effect of the letters suggest instability and madness (instability of the mind).
2) Red - Blood. The crazy scratching of the letters hints the Thriller will be psychological. Its an aggressive font which suggests what the story line could be about without giving away too much information. The font style is more horror then thriller. It is similar to "Seance".
Changes to Our Thriller - The shots of the protagonist are not intercut with shots of the therapist scene. We only see the therapist at the very beginning of the sequence. This means that now the scenes can be put together as though in a dream sequence or flashback, and the opening flows a little better. - The script does not mention the antagonist a great deal - in order to create mystery, the protagonist is vague in describing the person watching who is following them. The script also alludes to an event in the protagonist's past that she wishes to forget - something she has done that she regrets. Again, very little detail is offered, in order to create intrigue and gain the audiences interest. - Instead of a shot of the protagonist's front door, we used a large window at the front of the house. We had the protagonist creep toward the window in a dimly lit room, before tearing open the curtain and revealing the antagonist. The change from door to window came about because, originally, we wanted a smooth tracking shot from the hallway to the door, but when we started filming we realised that this was not entirely practical. Instead we decided to use the front window, which meant we could have the curtains closed - making the room dark - and introduce a "sudden reveal" into the opening - having the protagonist rip back the curtain, revealing the antagonist. - The antagonist does not write the title of the film on the glass, as the fake blood mixture we used was too thin to draw with. Instead, they slam their bloodied hand against the glass when the protagonist opens the curtains. - We merged the dog-walking and park scenes together, due to extremely bad weather on the day of filming. The bad weather meant it was extremely difficult to film certain outdoor scenes, and we also wanted to avoid any damage to the equipment. The merged scene now involves the protagonist walking the dog past the park, in the rain, with the antagonist suddenly following behind. - Rather than an extreme close-up of the therapist at the very beginning of the sequence, we opted to film a close-up of the therapist's head and shoulders. A shot of the therapist's whole face allowed the audience to see her expression, and to begin to identify the character more easily - something that would have been very difficult with an isolated close-up of her mouth, which we had originally intended to do. The shot we chose to do also allows the audience to see the therapist as an authoritative figure, someone sensible and sane - in contrast with the other characters. [Taken from Abigail's blog. We discussed what and why we changed things and complied a list. Team Effort]
The Protagonist is a college student who is emotionally isolated from society. She enjoys her own company as she is socially dysfunctional. For years she has been followed/observed by a mysterious figure. It follows her everyday, but has never made contact with her, frightened her, or harmed her. The Antagonist is the aforementioned figure. The figure is silent and wears a long, black coat, and a mask. It silently stalks the college student, and is never acknowledged - as though it's not even there. The Antagonist's presence adds to the eerie atmosphere. The Therapist is interviewing the protagonist, asking them what happened (reminiscent of the archetypal psychological thriller). The therapist is presented as a clean and tidy workaholic, who is learning about the protagonist's dark past.
Cast Therapist - Jos Banthorpe Antagonist - Rose Denmark Protagonist - Abigail Fish
Casting Decisions:
Jos
I asked Jos to play the Therapist because she is an adult. This would make our thriller more realistic then using a teenager as a therapist. She has acted before for projects back in 2010 when I helped out a university student with her media project. Jos acted in it also. Jos is part of the Foulsham Entertainers, who perform yearly variety/themed shows to raise money.
Abigail
Rose
Abigail is playing the protagonist because it is convenient for the bus scene (and other scenes that take place in the village). She was happy to do so and as a bonus made filming easier due to all the cast living in the same village.
Rose is playing the part of antagonist because the identity of the "figure" remains a mystery throughout, and so gender does not matter. Again, this is also convenient when filming scenes in the village. As my sister, she was happy to help out because her part was covered up and speechless.
Bus Stop, Dog Walking and Park scene: Location. Draw stick figures to represent where characters will be. Therapist Room
Books and shelves indicate tidy professional. Planning to put in a desk and organise furniture around it too look like an office.
All but Walking/Lamppost scene have already been filmed. We changed our original decision to going to Abigail's house because it would of been a lot easier to do it all at mine. So we comprised and used similar settings. We decided to use the school bus stop and filmed the school bus. In each scene the Antagonist would stand silently in the distance or nearby the protagonist as they did daily/ordinary activities all basic everyday things.
The window scene downstairs - The scene where the bloody hand print hits the window and then it cuts to the title of the film. The thud we aim to have on the window should make people jump. The window scene upstairs - When the protagonist opens the curtains and see the antagonist in the road. It will show that the antagonist is everywhere and the protagonist can't escape it, but also doesn't want it to go away because it doesn't bother them. Dog Walking - The isolated path looks fairly dead with bits of colour. The antagonist just 'pops' up in between the hedge as the protagonist walks past - Creepy/Stalker Walking/lamppost - The original plan was to film walking around the corner with the lamppost on but sadly the lamppost light didn't work so we comprised to using the desolate telephone box which has a light inside that flickers occasionally. Bus Stop - The bus stop scene portrayed school life for the protagonist and shows how the antagonist is EVERYWHERE! This scene when filming was easy but you could only take one take a day due to the bus leaving for the high school
The locations are fairly isolated like in "No Country for Old Men", where there are people around but you never usually see them. The location is isolated but your not cut off from the world.
Costume: Therapist - Red Lipstick, Red Nails, Tied up hair, Formal Clothing. Why? - To be professional and bring colour to the opening. Almost to show her sanity in comparison to her patient.
Antagonist -We chose the black coat and to use a mask because we wanted the antagonist to have no identity. So no one can relate to him or see him as a human. We borrowed a V for Vendetta mask from another media student who isn't in our group. We wanted to have a black coat because its dark and black can be associated with evil and bad.
Protagonist - Wearing simple but dreary clothing. We decided on this because it wouldn't show her as anything special. Just a normal person who was slightly different.
Props by Scene:
Therapist Room:
Desk
Chair
Lying down Chair
Desk Lamp
Folders and Papers
Bus Stop:
School Bag
School Bus - Richards Bus
Other passengers
Dog Walking:
A Dog (Rolo - Alice's Dog)
Lead and Collar
Coat (Cold weather)
(Other locations props are already provided for) --> Hall way --> Bedroom --> Park
We see
brief snippets of the daily routine of the protagonist: getting up and opening
the curtains in the morning, leaving the house to catch the bus, the bus journey
to work/college, walking the dog. During each snippet of each part of the
routine, we see a figure in the background, apparently watching the protagonist.
The figure is never seen clearly, and is stood off-centre in each shot. The
music is quiet, eerie, and ambient. The shots of the daily routine are inter cut
with shots of the protagonist talking to a therapist, in a small office. The
protagonist explains that for some time they have been watched. They never
felt threatened, or scared – just that they were being observed. We then see a
shot of the protagonist’s front door. Through the frosted glass of the front
door, we see the blurred silhouette of the antagonist. They raise a hand, and
scrawl a message on the glass backwards. They rest their hand on the glass, and
the sequence ends.
Sequence 1 - Inside therapist's office. Protagonist begins to talk. 2 - Protagonist continues into voice-over. Shot of them opening bedroom curtains. Antagonist is seen in the street outside, under a street lamp. 3 - Tracking shot of protagonist walking down the road, to bus stop. 4 - Shot of protagonist at bus stop, then boarding bus, and bus leaving. 5 - Shot from protagonist's P.O.V. looking out of bus window. Antagonist is seen in the distance. 6 - Protagonist leaving college/work, antagonist lurking behind them/in the background. 7 - Protagonist leaving house, walking dog in woods. Antagonist seems closer. 8 - Shot of protagonist's hallway and front door. Antagonist stood behind door. Camera zooms in slowly/tracks toward the door, as the antagonist writes a message on the glass. Antagonist rests hand on glass, leaves bloody handprint. Sequence ends. Possible Titles "Creep" "Quietus" "Delirium" Final Title Choice "Hysteria" We chose this title because of the connotations of the word. The two possible definitions of the word are (1) an uncontrollable outburst of emotion or fear, often characterized by irrationality, laughter or weeping, and (2) a psycho-neurotic disorder characterized by violent emotional outbreaks, disturbances of sensory and motor functions and various other abnormal effects. If a person is hysterical, we define them as being emotionally unstable, and possibly physically violent - a danger to themselves and to others. Although the beginning of our opening presents the antagonist as being calm, and not particularly intimidating, in the very last shot we see the antagonist suddenly as being extremely threatening. This sudden change reflects the sudden, violent outburst that the title alludes to. Even the protagonist is represented as someone who is undergoing therapy - clearly they too have a fragile mental state, in need of repair.
(Taken from Abigail's blog and I contributed with evaluating why we chose Hysteria as the same of our Thriller)
In media we got into our groups and started to brain storm. We had agreed to film Abi's Idea but with a few changes and adaptations.
We concluded there to be 3 main characters: The Protagonist, Antagonist and The Therapist.
On each we went into detail of the costume ideas that we had in mind.
Also started to consider props we could use. The chair so far is the issue.
We started to think of location ideas and the majority can be done in Foulsham which is handy because 2 of the 4 of us live in Foulsham. For each location we thought of the scenes which aren't finalized but seems the best option due to convenience.
Opening Monologue Draft One: I’ll never forget what I did. I try to forget it, but I can’t. It finds me at night, and taints my dreams. When I’m alone. When its dark. I can’t forget. It’s always there. Just like he was. Always there, always watching. I thought he was watching over me. I thought I was safe
Group Thriller Idea: Group: Alice Denmark, Abigail Fish, Sophie Jarvis, Becky Wade
We all liked Abigail's idea of the figure stalking the protagonists life and have decided to do that for our thriller opening:
We see brief snippets of the daily routine of the protagonist. Getting up and opening the curtains in the morning. Leaving the house to catch the bus. The bus journey to work/college. During each snippet of each part of the routine, we see a figure in the background, apparently watching the protagonist. The figure is never seen clearly, and is stood off-centre in each shot. The music is quiet, and eerily ambient. A short voice over by the protagonist declares that for some time they have been watched. They never felt threatened, intimidated, or scared – just that they were being observed. The protagonist says that for a while they thought their observer was like a guardian angel, perhaps. We then see a shot of the protagonist’s front door. The voice over changes tone and they say that now things have changed, and they don’t feel safe. Through the frosted glass of the front door, we see the blurred silhouette of the observer. They raise a hand, and scrawl a message on the glass backwards. They rest their hand on the glass, and the sequence ends.
Continuity Video by Alice, Becky, Chris and Hayden
Connotations: A looper has no defined meaning. As the film is a sci-fi action thriller then Looper in this context could be some sort of being or a job as most sci-fi's are based in the future. Looper could have something to do with time travelling (Loops through time).
(One word title)
Typography: The font is a modern and sci-fi style. The light coming from behind the title is blue with a bright white centre. It follows along with the typical sci fi style font which is sans serif (Basic and Simple). The lettering is all in capitals so its easier to read but also the sci fi style follows this pattern. You'd find capitals in computer coding possibly? We can gather that science is involved from the present + because its not the stereotypical font style you'd find in a period piece of film work.
THE CABIN IN THE WOODS
Connotations: The title suggests the plot line to the story is about a cabin in the woods. By putting "The" in front of it means the cabin is of some importance, The Cabin not A Cabin. The title sets the scene of where the film takes place.
Typography: The font type looks like Times New Roman. The points and bendy curves in the font give it a essence of horror about it. The scratches over the text imply a darker atmosphere and meaning. Horror Thriller? The scratches could be from nails (trying to get away) or the dragging acorss the floor like in one of the many paranormal activities. The black stands out against white, the white is almost like a paper texture. In captials once again (Easy to read).
Plot: A girl/boy is being stalked by sending random and threatening messages like "I watch you sleep" or "Why is your skin so soft?". This then builds up to when the character gets lost on a friends camping trip and the Stalker follows him into the wood. They get further and further into the woods trying to find a way out but is unable to. They then face their stalker in the woods......
Possible Location: Bintree Woods (Spooky as well as peaceful. Echoes)
Idea 2:
Plot: A teenage girl/boy mourns the death of their father after he is murdered but the murderer is never caught. The teenager is then convinced the murderer is still out there and asks the police to keep looking, when they say no the teenager goes looking themselves. Eventually tracking down the murderer and finds out the father owed money. The debt still needing to be paid, the teenager runs for their life. It ends with the murderer being caught by the police and the teenager in a wheel chair from being hit by a car while on the run from the murderer.
Possible Locations: Drayton? Norwich? Fakenham? Town based locations
