explaining changing our setting to the group

Thursday 29th January 2009

On Thursday's lesson, Louise and I explained to the group what we had done in Workshop and the problem that we had found with filming at night time. We explained that we had looked at the footage and that it was not filmed well because the light was positioned wrongly and also the fact that it looked to dark. We told them the new idea that we had decided on and Pareece thought it was a good idea. We told her that Gez and Mary had advised us that filming in the day time would be better for us and we would still get the same effect we was looking for.

After that was cleared we went into the editing room and changed our credits because it didn't look good for a day time Thriller. We managed to change it and it looked good. Whilst we was doing this, we was decided on the various shots that we would use for our new idea. This however didn't go to plan.
We also discussed whether we would still have the credits cut in between the action as first decided, but that is still to be confirmed.

After finishing all that we didn't have enough time to go and film so we went back and decided to edit the practice Thriller that we had failed to do before. Although this was a waste of time we still had to do it to put onto our blog.

We are planning on filming on Monday in Rebecca's lesson so that we don't fall too far behind. If all the filming gets done by the end of next week, this will allows us to have more time to edit the work and make our Thriller look good.

Workshop-Wednesday 28th January 2009

On Wednesday lunchtime, Louise and I attended Workshop to upload our footage that we had filmed on Monday. When we had uploaded it, we realised that the footage was too dark and the light was positioned wrongly. This made us understand how difficult it would be for us to film at night. We went to seek help from Gez and he told us that the footage did look too dark and that we could still film in the day and it have that Thrilling effect.
We were a bit disappointed that we were unable to film at night but realised we had to think fast. We were unable to discuss with the rest of the group because some people were not present but we made a few changes to the storyline of our Thriller and decided to film in the day. We kept some of the really bad filmed footage so that in our evaluation we can compare it to the footage that we are going to film again.

changing setting for the best

Thursday 29th

In yesterday lesson we looked back at the footage who shot on Monday and after seeking advice from different media teachers we concluded that it would be a wise idea to shot of thriller in the day time as trying to get the lighting perfect would be to changeling and a waste of time. Our whole group was again not present for the lesson so we had to make decisions amongst ourselves without consulting everyone. We decided that the concept of our whole thriller needed to be altered in order to work well with the lighting situation. Once we had worked our alteration for our new idea we planned to start filming the following Monday. This would give us this lesson to redo our credits to make it fit with our new idea and readjust our music soundtrack. We also edited the footage we filmed on Monday so that we could include it in our blog evaluation. Lastly we edited practise footage we had done previously and blogged. Editing took a while because we haven’t quite gotten completely use to dealing with problems that occur whilst using final cut pro as the program is quite complex. I believe that the more we continue to attend workshop the more practise we will get at it and the better our edited thriller openings will look.

Filming- Continued

Monday 26th

This lesson was based on each group continuing with our filming and aimed at bringing our storyboard ideas to life. During this lesson my group were unable to film as we chose to base our thriller at night. But not wanting to fall behind we decided that instead of lounging around , we would aim at getting our credit’s a completed and out of the way as well as potential music, we created using sound track pro. Doing both of these things helped us and me personally get a better idea and understanding of how to use both the programmers. We arranged to have the camera after college and with a location in mind we set our to film. Once we got to our location and began filming we realized the challenge we were facing with ‘lighting’. Though we were given lights, they only lasted for a maximum of 15mins each meaning we had to work fast. We found it really difficult to film even using the light as everywhere we tried to place the light made it looks as if the was a obviously spot light on the subject we were filming. This was a set back for us because we only filmed a few shots before we had to pack up and go home due to the fact that ;the later it was getting meant the darker and less easy it was to film. We realized that between then and next lesson we would have to think of a solution to our lighting problem. If that meant changing our night time idea to day idea then so be it.

Casino Royale tutorial

monday 19th jan

This lesson was based on a Casino Royale tutorial. I learnt a number of things including:

• Sound Layering: Elements e.g. dialogue, music, effects can affect a sequence
• Sound Scapes: Palette of sounds to create a soundscape for still images considering  how appropriate how appropriate they are.
• Sound Sequences: Edit/mix own versions of soundtrack.

Three types of audio element

- Dialogue

- Music

- Effects

I was made to think of questions such as: Why each element had been included. 

Background noise: don't layer too much on as it can just sound messy, look for detail.  The aim of sound is to add not take away!

after doing this turtorial we got a chance to play around with adding sound to footage we had previously filmed, just to get use to using soundtrack pro in preparation for our thriller openings. 

Practise Filming

Our Peliminary Task:




We began to film for our Preliminary task by choosing our location and set up the equipment. Everything went smoothly apart from the fact that people kept walking through the corridors as we were filming meaning we had to stop, wait for them to pass and then start again. We then moved on to filming inside a classroom which was easier as it was silent work in that room. After capturing our footage and being satisfied we watched it over on the camera to make sure we had got the different angles necessary to put together match cuts.

Our filming was successful because we slightly more confident using the equipment and remembered techniques from the first filming. We knew the shots and angles that we required as we noted them in our pre-prepared storyboard which we kept during filming just encase. we learnt that it was essential to plan because sitting down to plan could be the difference between someone getting a good product and a inadequate one. We enjoyed filming and it made us more enthusiastic and anxious to being with our thriller.

Yesterday's lesson was a struggle because once again some of the group didn't turn up. In the lesson there was not much to do, we were unable to film because our Thriller was based in the evening. Me, Louise and Pareece went on to sound track pro and started to make the music. The sounds that we used was very effective and had the build up when we thought that tension was building up.
We knew we was running out of time and had done no filming so after college we booked out the camera and decided to start filming the first bit of our Thriller. We decided to scrap the original first bit of our Thriller because we realised that it was hard to do and time consuming. We was only able to film a little bit because of the light which lasted only 15 minutes. It was hard to film because we found it hard to place the light in a place where it would look natural, but we managed to do it. Our Thriller is going to be cut between action and credits so later on today we are planning on going to workshop to edit the footage we have and add the credits and music to it.

Last week we did a lot of work that would help us with editing and also putting sound onto our Thrillers.

In Rebecca's lesson on Monday, we used Sound Track Pro which is used for making music and also an audio editing application. This is what we are going to use in order to do our Thrillers because we are no longer allowed to use music already done, and so we have to make our own.

Firstly we had a computer tutorial in order to help us with editing sound and also putting on sound. It was really helpful because we had professional production mixers talking about the effects of certain sounds and also the importance of checking background noises. There are many sound effects that can be used to draw the audiences attention. I also understood that using things like heartbeats and footsteps at the right time can have a very good effect on your audience.

We were then given many still images from Casino Royale and had a table in the top left hand corner with things like dialogue, music and effects. We had to drag the various sounds into the place on the picture where we thought it best fitted and also decided if it was background noise or not. This allowed me to understand how sounds fit in together and create different effects.

We was then given a clip from Casino Royale and had to put the sound in and also the effects. This was extremely interesting and didn't want to stop. I found this quite easy to do however it also needed to be done carefully. Unfortunately we had do stop that and put sound on to our practice Thriller that we made. I was annoyed that we had to stop and found that boring. Although it was annoying it was useful because it is what we would have to do for the main Thriller.

In Annabel's lesson on Thursday most of the group was not present. Rhea and I decided that we would do the credits for our Thriller. Mickey gave me a tutorial on Live Type and showed me how to use it. Me and Rhea then went onto it and had a go. We made really good credit and i actually enjoyed doing it.
I wasn't able to finish it off in the lesson so i stayed for workshop and managed to finish it off.

Workshop-Editing

today i attended workshop to begin editing the footage from the lesson my group missed and therefore didn't get to film, but me and gerald filmed it outside of lesson times. As my group were unable to attend i decided to go at it alone. I thought doing it alone would be a good way to practice my editing skills and just to play around and practice using final cut pro in preparation for editing our 'thriller openings'. I enjoyed workshop and was given alot of help form Rebecca i think i am now capable of editing a piece of footage at a 'decent' level.

Catch up 2

Rebeccas lesson on the 5th January, we were focusing on Match cuts and was seeing what it is. Micky and Rebecca explained what it was and gave us some examples of what it was. When we had done that, we were given a synopsis, which was : East London. 3pm. a man chain smokes as he sits at his home pc. He copiesconfidential computer files and plans to a cd. He packages them and is seen posting them.
We had to then fill out a grid using 20 shots to make this opening thriller. We had to try to use match cuts where appropiate. When we had done that we had to watch the one that was made by Mikey and identify and shots that were the same and alos identify where the match cuts were. There were around three match cuts, one beng when he was writing on the cd and two when he was walking t go and post the letters. I found identifing the match cuts easy and i feel they very effective.
Getting to the end of the lesson, we were put into our media groups and were given a storyboard. Rebecca read out a synopsis and we had to make a thriller out of it. She said that: Character A opens the door, enters a room, and sits in a chair opposite Caracter B. Character A and B exchange a couple of words of Dialouge.
We were told to storyboard our ideas and it was to be filmed in Annabel's lesson on Thursday. We was told to use interesting shots and also matchcuts.

On that Thursday, Pareece and I was unable to attend Annabel's lesson because of exams and so i was told that Rhea and Louise were split up and joined another persons group for this exercie.

The following Monday Rebecca told my group that we had to still do thfilm. On the Tuesday me and Louise went to workshop to do it becuase Pareece and Rhea was unable to attend. Whilst filming we found it hard to film and also be in the film because there were many shots that we were unable to do. We was able to include a few Matchcuts, like when Character A is opening the door and entering the room.

On that monday we were told that we had to make a pitch to present to the class. We had to talk about our idea for our Thriller and how we would use the different Techniques to make our Thriller good. The areas we were to talk about were images, icons, settings, location, lighting, camera work, production schedule, audience, music and storyboard. We managed to get ideas down that we were going to use in our pitch. For homework we all decided to write about one topic on the sheet that we had and bring to annabel's lesson on Thursday in order to do our putch.

On the 15th December in the lesson we watch and had to analyse six clips. We watched 'The Shinning', 'What lies beneath', '28 days later', 'Arlington road' and 'Collateral'.

I decided to analyse the Shinning because there are many elements that create a Thrilling feeling. When the clip starts, we see a little boy riding on a bike. This goes on for quite a long time. The lightening in this sequence is very dim and dull like which give an uneasy feel. The audience are situated behind the boy down at his level, this builds suspence as we are left right behind him and we are following him everywhere he goes. We turn the corners after he does and so we are unawer of what might happen to him or what he might see as he turns. Tension is created with the music, this warns us as the audience that something is going to happen. As the boy turns the final corner, he stops at room 237. The camera then drops to his level and we see how he looks at the dorr. As he gets up and goes closer to the room the music starts to build up again and the tension also builds up. When he goes to open the door, as the audience we will be unable to see what is inside the room if he opens it because we are to the side andcannot see. As he turns the door knob there is a quick flash of two little girs. This makes the audience jump. The music could be the reason why we jump, because when we wached it again without the music we didnt feel that tension. After the boys sees this, he quickly jumps back onto his bike and continues to ride off as fast as possible.

This is a summary blog because i have been unable to blog.

The first lesson we had i was absent and wasnt there when we were told the groups that we would be in for our main Thriller. The next lesson which was monday 1st December i found out that i was in the same group as Louise, Rhea and Pareece. In this lesson we was told by Rebecca that we had to make a practice Thriller of a person reading a newspaper. We had to use a minimum of 12 shots in this Thriller and had to storyboard it.
In Gerald's lesson the following Thursday, we were given a tutorial by Mickey on how to use the camera. He taught us all the elements of the camera, how to insert the battery and the tape and also how to use the Tripod.
Our Practice Thriller was of someone reading a newspaper and seeing a rapist story in the newspaper. She then sees the rapist next to her and starts to run. She escapes but gets to a dead end and sees the rapist. He then takes her round the corner and this ends it. The rapist is never seen. In this practice i was the so called rapist and i also took part in some of the filming as we all did. When recording i took in to account the advice that micky gave us about not leaving too much space above the persons head in the shot and also try not to zoom in as it looks bad if not done well. We were unable to finish all our filming because we realisedthat it was harder than we expected. We had to then contiuse this in the next lesson.
On the monday after, Rebecca told us that we would be editing our Thriller but my group hadn't had finished filming it, so for the first part of the lesson we finished off filming and the rest we spent on editing. We was unable to finsh off the editing because of the time but we still got a chance to use the editing program and get a feel of how it is. Using this will help our group when coming to filming and editing our main Thriller.

On Thursday 11th December we watched a film called 'The Bourne Identity', whilst watching this we had to think of three times in the film where suspence was built. This suspence was effective as it could build up a certain atmosphere.

In Thursdays lesson we were first sorting out how we were going to present our Pitch to the rest of the class.
We had to speak about the: Main theme
Setting/location
Storyboard
Music
Lighting
Camera work
Key images/icons
Production plan

We all decided what everyone would talk about. rhea had written out the summary of what our opening Thriller would be about so she spoke about that in the pitch. Louise wrote up a story board of what our several shots are and how we would film them. Pareece spoke about the lightening and also brought very interesting ideas to the group that helped plan out our pitch. I made a production plan that will help us balance out between our filming and also our editing. In the pitch i spoke about the production plan and also about the key images and icons that we would use in our Thriller.

I think that as a group we work very well. Everyone brings ideas that are useful for our Thriller and we have a very good idea. I believe that our Thriller will be very good as long as we continue to work as hard as we are doing currently.

Catching Up

On Monday 12th Jan, myself and Gerald attended workshop in order to catch up with the work we missed out on when the half the group were away due to exam preparation. Our brief was to film a person going in to a room, sitting opposite character B and have a conversation about something. Because it was only two of us we found it hard to do certain shots but i please between the two of of us we did a pretty good job. And as long as our editing is as good if not better it wont even matter that we were missin half the group.

Selling Your Pitch

Thursdays lesson

the first half was spent finalizing ideas and plans for our thriller openings and preparation pitching our ideas to the class. The things our pitch had to include were:

• Main theme
• Setting/location
• Storyboard
• Music
• Lighting
• Camera work
• Key images/icons
  
• Production plan

Our pitch had to last at least ten minutes long.
I believe as a group we work very well together, tasks are distributed equally amongst us. In this lesson Rhea took control of writing up the summary of our thriller , Gerald took role of writing up our busy production schedule, pareece assisted everyone as well as bringing many ideas to the table, as for myself, i drew up a step by step storyboard of our thriller opening, breaking down every shot individually and visually and explaining their relevance and the effect we hope they will have.

In general i believe our pitch went very well, everyone had equal turns speaking and putting our ideas across, and we are all very excited and rearing to start filming.

Presenting a Pitch 15/1/09

For the beginning of the lesson we continued to plan our pitches in our groups, which we then presented after break.

To begin with we broke down the pitch into sections which were:

• Setting and Location
• Camerawork
• Key images/icons
• Music
• Lighting

For each title we discussed our ideas and underneath we wrote down the ideas we had for each section, which helped to ensure that our pitch would be well organised and easy to read when presenting it. After we had written down our ideas we then gave ourselves tasks to complete. I wrote a summary of the thriller sequence on a large piece of sugar paper with information about the target audience underneath. Louise created the storyboard of the different shots we would intend to use. Pareece organised the order of when and who would present the information. Gerald created the production schedule.

The actual presentation in my opinion went quite well, with a minimal amount of hesitation when giving the information to the rest of the class.

12th January 2009

In this lesson we were instructed to begin planning/making our pitch. This session triggered of finalising the idea for our Thriller.

The requirements for the pitch are to:
Descibe the key images or icons.
Describe the settings and locations.
Describe how lighting would be used.
Describe the choice of camerawork.
Describe the choice of music.
Describe the target audience.
Create a storyboard.
Create a production schedule.

At the end of the lesson we decided which tasks we would complete at home.

8th January 2009

For this lesson I was the only person present as the majority of my group were revising for exams so I worked with Niquita, Addil and Wing for this lesson.

I didn't get the opportunity to do any camera work or editing as I was only working with this group for this session and it would have wasted time for them to explain their idea to me, instead I played one of the characters.

Watching back their finished video gave me ideas of how the end product should look.

Planning lesson

Monday 12th January 2009

Rebecca's Lesson

In today's lesson we were put into our groups and were given the lesson to start gathering ideas for what we would like our thriller openings to be based on and further develop those ideas before the end of the lesson.

Once we had done this, we were given the task of noting down all our ideas as we would be required to pitch our ideas to the entire class and teacher just as a writer would pitch script to a director. There areas we were advised to think of in our pitch were: Key images, icons, setting and location, lighting, camera work, music, audience, storyboard and production schedule.

Myself and my group managed to get all of our ideas down onto paper and all in agreement about it. For homework we were told allocate each person in the group a section on which they had to cover within our pitch and have it prepared and ready for Thursdays lesson.

Monday 12th January - Making A Pitch

Making A Pitch

Today, the task Rebecca gave us was to make an opening sequence for my class and teacher. So me and the rest of my group members Gerald, Louise and Rhea sat down and openly discussed any ideas we had for the thriller. The girls and I struggled to come up with a unique idea of our own. However when Gerald shared his nerve- wracking idea the whole group was satisfied to develop Gerald’s idea into something more sinister. After the excitement about his idea had past, things became a lot more complex.

The main several areas we had to think about were;
· Lighting
· Camerawork
· Music
· Audience
· Storyboard
· Production Schedule

In order to perform this task sufficiently we allocated jobs to different members in the group in preparation for the next the lesson.

preliminary task- group problems

thursday 8th jan

I arrived to the lesson quite late and found that half my group were absent due to exams. I was made to join another group for the mean time. Last lesson we were given the task of making up a storyboard based around a given brief which we had to film in todays lesson. We were also told that this would be our final practice before the real thriller filming project started next lesson. Although i missed the filming time, i was present for editing the film work. From what i saw of the shots i believe the group did quite a good job with shooting footage although they did run out of time and were unable to finish shooting.

During editing, the mac we were initially using stopped working quite suddenly and although we were given assistance, unable to fix it we had to move to a different computer which wasted vaulable editing time. Once we moved to the next computer and uploaded our footage with the little time we had left we managed to edit some really good work although the group did not finsh recording. I believe the group worked hard

Lesson 5th january

Rebbecca lesson on Monday was based on learning about match cutting.
At the start of the lesson we were given the definition of match cutting which is to basically put together a shot filmed from different angles but of the same subject. We were then given a short list exercise were we were given a synopsis: East London. 3pm. a man chain smokes as he sits at his home PC. He copies confidential computer files and plans to a CD. He packages them and is seen posting them.

Our task was to fill in a grid creating a short list for the synopsis using no more than 20 shots. I found this task fairly straightforward though it was a bit hard to fill in all 20 shots. After this we watched a version of the sequence pre-recorded and were asked to identify the match cuts in it, i found this quite simple.

Towards the end of the lesson we were made to get into our groups and were given a storyboard sheet as well as another shot list grid. We were also given a new brief: Character A opens the door. Enters a room. Sits in a chair opposire character B. Character A and B exchange a couple of lines of dialogue. We told we would have to fill in our storyboard for homework and be prepared to film this sequence in thursday lesson. I will be sure to include match cutting, intresting angles and shot aswell as an effective title sequence.

Analysis Homework

The clip I have chosen to analyse is What Lies Beneath. The clip of the supernatural thriller What Lies Beneath uses lighting,sound,camera angles and setting to create a suspenseful mood.

From the beginning of the clip there is very little lighting used which gives the impression that what is taking place is in the evening/night. The minimal amount of lighting also suggests that something "dark" is about to happen. The brighter light used in the bathroom gives the audience a clearer view of what is going on in the scene. However the landing of the stairs is dark which makes it seem as though no one is actually in the bathroom as the other light is coming from downstairs-where the actress is coming from.

The actress' reaction to the steam and light coming from the bathroom is captured using a medium shot which then pans to a point of view shot to give the audience a better idea of why she has paused. The close up of the bottom of the door accompanied by the steam along with the actress' feet creates a mood of suspense. The shots switch from the audience's view to the actress' view of action frequently, this shows the action along with the actress' reaction which gives the audience a better understanding of what is going on. At some points the audience can only make their judgement on what is going on based on the actress' expressions and movement. As the actress moves closer towards the bath a mixture of over the shoulder shots, medium shots and close ups are used to create suspense. The low angle shot used when the actress is preparing to pull the plug of the bathtub conveys a sense that she is being watched by something beneath her.

To begin with the music played in the clip is quiet and fades out after the actress enters the bathroom. Throughout the rest of the sequence there is a minimal amount of music used until the actress views the reflection of someone else in the bath, at this point the sound of the music seems louder, higher pitched and intense.

Sadly even after going in to the effort of downloading this Clip from the Shining I forgot my whole folder with my notes and questions based on thrillers. As far as I’m aware of the project, the aim is to analyse the clip from What Lies Beneath. Possibly including topics based on things such as – Camera Work, Editing, Mise- en – Scene and how these tools help build up tension in these thrillers.

The clip from the shining starts with the first five seconds of the character creeping up the stairs and coming to a quick halt in a medium shot. I believe tension is built up a lot here. Where the camera slowly peers into this empty space but because of the angle, we can’t see who or what she’s looking at. As the camera is panning to the left the music also changes to a drowning slow tempo allowing us to observe the surrounding we are in and build up our curiosity. This dim, quiet, still setting allows the audience thoughts to build up and question – What happens next?
A favourite feature of mine is when we see the steam at her feet coming from the bathroom, she slowly opens the bathroom door and the only thing we get to see is her facial expressions first in her close-up shot. I find this my favourite because yet again this builds up suspense , because we almost to have to rely on her facial expressions and the way her body reacts as to what type of atmosphere she is walking in to. Since she is who sees it before us.

Secondly I find the ending of this thriller very interesting because the timing of the shots in the middle was generally (when not focused on her) between 6-8 seconds and when the focus was on her the shots were slightly shorter. So when the shots were getting longer, you fill suspension build up because you almost fill the title of the film replaying in your head, as to what lies beneath in the bath.

(Apologise again will be updated when i have correct relevant info)

Student Thrillers

During Gez's lesson we were given the opportunity to watch a selection of previous student's thriller openings to give us inspiration when creating our own thrillers and for us to be more aware of what is to be expected when creating our own thrillers.

The main focus of watching the thrillers was to analyse the camera angles,setting and the effects that each used but as a class I noticed that we also ended up commenting on the acting of some of the characters. We discussed and analysed what we thought worked and didn't work which helped us understand what to avoid and what to do when making our own thriller openings.

In my opinion the best thriller openings were the ones which conveyed a sense of mystery- the ones which gave enough information for the audience to come to their own conclusion but at the same time create a "what's going to happen next?" feeling.

After the camcorder tutorial session we got into our designated groups to make our final decisions on our "tutorial thriller". The group I was working with was Gerald, Pareece and Louise. The thriller had to involve a newspaper in some way or another so we decided to base our thriller on a dangerous man whose picture is discovered in a newspaper. Pareece played the character reading the newspaper and Gerald played the dangerous man- Louise and I took it in turns to capture footage.

To make our thriller seem more realistic we decided to take a photo of Gerald and stick it in a newspaper under a headline that had something to do with being dangerous. We then used the information we had been given on how to use the camcorder to record Pareece reading the newspaper and her reaction to the fact that Gerald was sitting next to her.

Camcorder Tutorial

Before creating our "tutorial thriller" we were given a tutorial on how to use the camcorders which was accompanied by a well edited DVD created by Mickey.

This session was enjoyable as the DVD explained a great deal on how to handle the camcorders correctly along with a pause every now and again which gave us the opportunity to practice what we were being shown.

The tutorial showed us how to:

• Insert and remove the tape.
• Turn on the camcorder.
• Set up the tripod correctly.
• Use the zoom function.