Our AS Media brief was to plan and produce an opening sequence of a thriller film which included film titles and a range of different camera shots. We decided to aim our opening sequence around a 15 or 18 certificate.
At the pre-production stage, Jay and I used many ways to develop our sequence in the way that a real, high-budget opening sequence would. The first thing we decided to do was watch a variety of Thriller films to study the typical codes and conventions of this genre. The most helpful or inspiring were Psycho, The Strangers and What Lies Beneath. We chose to study each for different reasons: Psycho for the incredible use of diegetic sounds such the scream during the shower scene, as well as Hitchcock’s power to make you feel anticipation and fear when the film has no colour at all. Typically, colour such as deep reds are a major convention associated with the genre, a difficulty Hitchcock managed to get around successfully. We took this black and white film into consideration. Next, when we studied The Strangers we felt that a storyline associated with this would make a successful opening sequence. We noticed the lack of loud, major music – silence creates more tension than if you have orchestral music playing loudly. What we most liked was the masked figures. In many Thrillers you either see the face of the antagonist or they’ll be completely invisible. We felt using masks kept the character in shot but would raise many questions at the same time. Like who is he? Why is he wearing a mask? What problems does he hide behind it? We decided from this film that a mask would most defiantly contribute to our film. Lastly, What Lies Beneath is a good representation of a psychological thriller – is she really seeing this or is she going mad? At the same time as causing questions to not only her, but us as an audience, we also feel tremendous tension as we rarely know the answer. We felt this enormous build-up of anticipation and questions would fit in well with what we had in mind. Through watching these films we learnt conventions such as masks, rhetorical questions and softer music would fit our style, whereas black and white filming and the secrecy of our antagonist’s identity would not fit. In the end we decided, overall, to go more with Levi Strauss' narrative theory – where it would be Girl vs Boy, Good vs Evil so our characters would be binary opposites in many ways. We felt Todorov’s theory was too obvious, we didn’t want the “good triumphs evil” as we wanted suspense and a cliff hanger ending. We also had the same opinion for Propp’s narrative theory.
When considering the micro elements of film, we agreed that body language/facial expression, lighting and mise-en-scene are incredibly important. As we decided to have little dialogue, these 4 elements were to play a big part in our film. Low-key lighting is often used to give the sense of mystery with the shadows it casts. It often hides a part of someone’s face, creating the impression of secrecy or the unknown. This would be the element which we wanted to focus on the most. When discussing whether we wanted our film to fulfil the ‘contractual’ nature of this film genre, we decided to have elements that both went with the conventions of the genre, and elements that went against. For example, we included lots of colour like in the duvet, rose petals and even the girl’s outfit. Typically, the colours would be dark or mostly red and we wanted to move away from this expectation and include colours such as pinks or creams. We have a few intertextual moments when we refer to another film, like film director Quentin Tarantino – where he refers to different films/television programs or music. We mainly refer to our focus film The Strangers. When evaluating our film more, we realise the extent of inspiration we got from this film – the mask, the eerie staring whilst standing outside and the lifeless, simple pose of the anarchist. We also got inspiration of the location. Whilst brainstorming, we discussed many places such as parks, streets or derelict buildings. We felt that would be too “samey” and wanted a most simple, achievable idea which would be indoor a house, where The Strangers was solely filmed. As a result, we slightly ‘play; with the genres history. Usually a ‘stalking’ of this type would take place outside.
When chosing a production company I researched quiet a few in order to find the right one that would fit with ours. In the end we apted for Film4 Productions. Film4 Productions is a British Production company that supports, produces and showcases films on their tv channels Film 4 and Channel 4. They're very well know for supporting and backing small time films like Four Lions or Nowhere Boy to big hits like Slumdog Millionaire. We felt this would be a great choice as they're British and they back indie films. We also felt getting backed by Film 4 Productions and the possiblitly of being aired on either Film 4 or Channel 4 would reach out to our prefered audience certificate of 15+.
When discussing audience, we wanted to aim for a 15 certificate. We weren’t necessarily aiming our film at the age of an audience but more of the type of preference. Although age helps, we want to aim it at an audience that are keen lovers of thrillers. Saying that, if an age group were required, we chose 15-20. We found this age was more popular when setting out our Questionnaire during pre-production and I feel we have delivered a good thriller sequence that will entice a fantastic, thriller loving teenage/adolescent. We attracted our audience in our film by using teenage actors, this way the age group of 15-20 can relate to the characters and connect more with our sequence. We also made small references to 'popular' items young people may like, for example our antagonist was wearing a Joker shirt saying 'Why so serious??', a character from the popular film 'The Dark Knight'. We also included shots of the film our victim was watching and some could recognise as a scene from 'Public Enemies' starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. Technicaly, we made our sequence nerve-wracking and slow at the start as to capture our young audiences attention and get them obsorbed. We also used our own music which isn't typical thriller - we used a more deeper, slower and eerie soundtrack.
Now when we compare our preliminary exercise of our continuity exercise to our main task, I can see a jump in our skills of filming techniques. Although I think our continuity exercise is an excellent starting point, which taught us a lot and set us up for out final task, our final film looks more rounded, perfected and complete. I feel we made a few slight mistakes whilst filming, but being amateur film makers that is to be expected and I enjoyed learning from the mistakes which made of film improve. We’ve learnt a lot more on camera positioning, how certain shots suit a mood and how lighting can ruin a shot completely. Personally, I have learnt a lot more about team work. As our group disbanded and became a small number of 2 we had to work harder, longer and closer - this taught me that a lot of effort goes in regardless of the group size. I also learnt a lot about pre-production and finding out the best ways of making a successful film. Before I would never of thought to create and hand out a detailed questionaire, but looking back it made our film successful compared to our preliminary task where we made it very quickly.
Originally, our group was set up of 4 members: myself, Jay Boucher, Christian Williams and Leonie Manfeild. During this period we set up our film idea. Soon after Leonie left school, as did Chris so only me and Jay were left. At first we thought this would cause problems such as more work load for each other and more stress, but we found it to be a blessing as we both had more creative control – our ideas were alike and we both had a clear, straightforward idea of what we wanted so we moulded it to suit us both. As there were 2 of us left, we both got access to different elements of film making – we both took part in the creative element such as storyboard or rushes, we both got a go at filming or editing so in all we gained a lot from members leaving. For actors, we knew from the start who we wanted – our two friends Emily and Adam. This way we both – Jay and I – could stand behind the scenes and direct. Typically, this didn’t happen as Adam had prior engagements so we managed with Jay as the antagonist – which again was a blessing due to Jay being able to act out what the character would be like in the closest way possible. With location, we used my house. It’s close to each of us and its easily accessible with little to no sound of congestion and gives a rural, believable feel. As we filming in winter time, it was easy to film early as it would be darker and we could then use the light from the street lamps. When considering the costumes and props, Jay managed to get a mask he made up his father’s house. Like those in The Strangers, it was simple but created the illusion of secrecy, raised questions and created a lot of anticipation. This was easy to require, as were the other props we used – a list which we wrote ourselves, candles and roses I had prior in my house, a phone and a scarf which our actress brought. Whilst planning, we used a particular strategy of not showing the anarchists face at all – a technique we used so the audience wouldn’t get ‘involved’ or attached to him in any way. An example of this is American Gangster where the audience feels sympathy for the bad guy, we didn’t want this to happen at all as we went for Levi Strauss' narrative theory of making a simple, clear line between the two of our characters. Our storyboard and shot list worked incredibly well. Whilst creating and defining every shot, we got a clear idea of the final outcome so when it came to filming we knew what we had to do. Throughout the pre-production stage we twisted and changed a lot of things, whether it was a certain scene or prop – and this helped us become ‘attached’ to our film, making us want to succeed to the best of our abilities. Our creative decisions stayed the same throughout, from the beginning we had a clear view in our heads and we followed that. The outcome was a film we’re proud of. A massive benefit from our pre-production efforts was that we were more organised. We had everything done in time and knew when where we were to film. This meant our time-management skills during filming were to great success. We manage to get every shot filmed and re-filmed in less than 3 hours, and when it came to editing, we had every shot needed. Although we have had problems whilst uploading, our time keeping has been excellent, something we both will need for the future if we chose to carry on.
During pre-production and post-production, we had a different range of technology to use, ranging from relatively good cameras to iMovie on the iMacs. When using iMovie to edit we found some parts diffucult, especially when certail effects wouldnt work when we needed to change the timing. Personally I would of prefered to use a more professional softeware like Final Cut Pro, although iMovie did the job well and we found it easy to use with more practice. As we're amateur film makers, and have no budget or money we worked with whatever we had. Using a camera from Ms. Slater, we paired that with a professional tripod I had as a present. I found it a struggle to use the camera as it didn't have a high amount of megapixels, causing the picture to be somewhat blurry and sometimes out of focus. I found this harder to work with and make work - but after a lot of practice we perfected it. The tripod we used helped a lot, we had access to it at all times and there was no chance of someone else needing to use it. Plus, it was strong, sturdy and we didn't need to waste time learning to use it as we already knew. When it came to technical elements whilst on location, we used a variety of every day, home based items. Firstly, we used my living room lamp to create home-made lighting. We positioned it to cast shadows and highlight different parts, whilst putting other parts in darkness.
This photo above is a good example. We wanted to create an atmosphere that suggested something sinister might happen and aloneness. The positioning of the lighting highlights the shot enough that we can see all the props, and the character - but it's positioned so her face is not illuminated. It shows her in a innocent, vulnerable way. Also, we wanted to portray the fact she is alone in her home, further illuminating her vulnerableness. Lack of light raises questions and as an audience, we ask why she is not illuminated, but other objects are. When it came to mise-en-scene in this scene, we thought it would be a good idea to carry the images of roses or the colour red through, so we used a duvet colour with a rosey pattern. This is a big code and convention in 'romantic' thrillers as usually flowers, or mainly roses which is a symbol of romance, are used.
Another example of our chose lighting is below.
Again, we positioned it so it casted shadows on half her face causing mystery. Usually, when someones face is half in shadow and half lit, we usually get the feeling that this character has two sides to them, almost like a mask they hide behind - so we wanted to portray the fact that although this girl is most definatly going to be the victim, she may of done something to lead to this event, therefore we needed to give a two-sided feel to her.
There was one scene which we both found difficult but enjoyable filming was where the antagonist burned the victims photo...
Due to the wind, we initially found this shot hard to complete and were close to giving up. In the end we managed to keep the lighter alight and ended up with this, which I personally really like. We included as we wanted to 'join the dots' incase anyone was confused on who the boy was and what he wanted. This basically shows the girl in the victim - usual, the burning of a photo normally means the subject in it is the 'next victim', which is what we wanted to get across to our viewer. I feel this is a eerie shot, and adds to the nervous feeling of the film. Shot and technique wise, this is one of my favourite shots in the whole film - especially as the flame flickers in different colours.
When using 'amatuer' lighting for this shot, we used the light on the ceiling. This cast a shadow downwards, almost like a silohette, making the protagonist look even more eerie as we can't see his face or any detail of him. All we can see is the picture in his hand which he later burns. When it comes to the body language, we feel negitivly towards this character as he's very emotionless. He stands simply, in a way which suggests he has no feelings or doesn't respond to anything. He then comes agross as cold and we recognise him further as the 'bad guy'. This is a good example of how we used Levi Strauss' theory, he's the bad guy - she's the victim.
This shot also furthers the cold-ness we hoped to portray, his back's to us and throught the film we never show his true face which doesn't give the audience any chance to get to know the man behind the mask. We wanted to do this as we didn't want anyone to feel 'sympathy' or any other emotion that would make them side with him. Much like the example of American Gangster I talked about, but opposite. The characters were to keep their binary relationships to the audience throught.
Just like all the other living room scenes, we used the lamp to the same effect but unfortunatly we ended up with a ray of light emited from the lamp. Instead of editing it out in post-production, we decided to keep it for a sense of realism. Then, when it came to the camera shot, we used a pan from the following photo, to the next instead of a cut edit. We thought this would create a smoother transition, keeping the audience more 'involved' as we didnt flick from one position to another.
The light casts a nice, eerie shadow down the curtains which almost silouhettes the girl. As you may noticed we included a bunch of roses on a table in the living room. We felt the roses would have a big part in mise-en-scene terms aswell as the big prop of the List. We wanted to keep refering to the roses as a sign that these two characters had a very close relationship before, suggesting heartbreak and revenge. A feeling we wanted to show the audience, rather than tell them with a flashback or words.
When it came to the editing of this scene, me and Jay decided it would be a good idea to speed it up. Before so, the fighting was feeble but after we sped it up on iMovie by 25% we saw a good, realistic difference which looked as if the girl was making a good attempt at fighting back. We did attempt to stabalise it, but it further slowed it down, therefore we kept some of the jerky movements to further give a sense of realism to the film.
Origionally, during pre-production storyboarding and filming we had a bedroom scene after the bathroom scene where the boy smothered the girl. But during the end of our editing we both decided as a group that this scene caused further confusion, rather than cause the audience to ask if she was dreaming before. We didn't achieve the dream-like effect we wanted, so we decided to delete these two small shots.
In our last shot, we used a torch to light the scene from below, casting shadows across the boy but illuminating the photos. We clearly see that he has, or had, an infatuation or was stalking the girl. This is the feeling we wanted to portray and I really like the outcome of the tourch effect lighting the scene from below.
When talking about if the technology we used obstructed or helped our creativity - it did both. Either it was the lack of megapixels in the camera, sometimes creating blurry or out of focus picture, or the iMovie software that was great editing software that gave us a lot of opportunities, but in the end we managed to create what we think is a successful film with the software and objects we had available. We've learnt the difference technologies work in different ways, but at the end of the day you have to work with what you have and work with it well. We overcame each problem we faced and found ways around our problems. Throught the process we learnt that we could make a great film with little equipment.
When it came to responding to the brief of our audience in mind, we responded in a way that made us sure of our audience target. We wanted teenage-adolecent ages who enjoy thrillers. To find out if this was a good audience choice, we handed out questionaires and the results came back backing up our choice - so we proceded with making our initial idea for our inital audience age group. When we studied the films Psycho, The Strangers and What Lies Beneath it impacted our film in the sense of idea for props or scenes. As I said before, The Strangers influence us the most - with the 'break-in' and the mask. I think, without the research into successful professional thriller films, our film would look a lot more un-professional and badly planned - looking at these films helped a great deal.
In filming and editing, we ensured the meaning we intended to portray was apparent throughout. The meaning we were trying to get across is that this boy is 'stalking' this girl and that he intends to harm her. We did this in many ways ...
Firstly, including the shot of a list of names mainly crossed out gives the audience a sense that this boy has been killing or disposing of people. Which leads to further questions of why he's standing outside the girls house with it. Is she on the list?
Next was this shot of him looking up at her house. This makes the 'stalker' label apparent to the audience as well as the creepy feeling we get from him being masked. Throughout we used simple cut-edits to create a nice flow and used mainly medium/close ups to keep the audience closely involved or too make a prop the most imporant object in a shot. Throughout we kept in mind out selected audience, chosing to keep scenes simple such as medium shots. There aren't that many interpritations to be made as we made out film pretty clear.
The role of mise-en-scene is one of the most important in the film. The mask portrays secrecy and mystery. Using the mask we ensure we cant see his face, therefore the audience can't feel any positive emotions towards him. Thus making him a 'treat' at all times. The list is a big prop as it stars in the name, though instead of showing the list throught the film we decided to show it as a close up in the begining - instead of using an establishing shot - to get the audiences attention to it, then we can show what circumstances follow the list being made. Another big prop is the roses, which symbolises romance and love - suggesting an old flame between them, which we realise has ended when the photo of her is being burnt. We rarely used dialogue as we wanted to focus on more of the actions than words and the music is important as it builds up in the right places, so the audience respond more effectivly.
All in all, I feel as a team we have gone through difficulites such as loosing members, time keeping when it came to deciding on filming dates and actors not making it. But throught we have made a good team and I think as a result, we've made an excellent film in which we've planned and thought through in great detail. I'm proud of our work and feel it will be sucessful.
