I set my Thriller opening at nighttime so I was going to film it after school or at a weekend in the evening. This ended up not being possible for some of the cast. I have therefore decided to set my film in the daytime so that I can film it in the morning when it is possible for all of the cast.
I think this will be easier as the camera might struggle to film outside if it is too dark also, with the nature of some of the outside shots, it would be a lot easier and safer to film them in the daylight. It is also a lot easier for everyone to get together to film by filming in school time.
Sunday, 24 January 2010
Shot list
Shot list contains only the movement within the shot from the characters.
Person Key:
• 1 - man
• 2 - woman
• 3 - driver
• 4 - girl
• 5 - boy
• 6 - boy
Flashback shots:
• Long shot - 1 & 2 - 2 walks out into the road.
• Mid-shot - car - car comes towards the camera.
• Mid-shot - 1 - 1 steps forward (towards the left of the shot).
• Mid-shot, shaking camera - 3 - 3 is sitting in the car just after the accident.
Scene 1:
• Wide mid-shot - 1 & 4 - 4 walks into the shot & 1 sits up.
• Zoom out to wide shot - 1 & 4 - 1 gets up and walks out the door.
Scene 2:
• Wide shot - 3, 5 & 6.
• Wide shot - 3, 5 & 6 - 3 stands up & goes through the door.
• Long shot - 3 - 3 walks towards the camera.
• Wide mid-shot - 3 - 3 turns round & walks out of the bathroom.
• Wide shot - 3, 5 & 6 - 3 walks into the room, 5 & 6 stand up & 3 & 5 walk out the door.
Scene 3:
• Wide over-the-shoulder shot - 1, 3 & 5 - 3 & 5 walk out of the gate & towards the right of the shot. 1 follows towards the right of the shot.
• Mid-shot, camera moves backwards - 1, 3 & 5 - 1, 3 & 5 walk towards the camera.
• Over-the-shoulder shot, camera moves forwards - 1, 3 & 5 - 1, 3 & 5 walk away from the camera.
• Mid-shot, camera moves backwards, stops then moves backwards again - 1, 3 & 5 - 1, 3 & 5 walk towards the camera & stop. 5 walks out of the shot (to the left). & 1 & 3 continue walking.
• Wide mid-shot, camera moves backwards then stops - 1 & 3 - 1 & 3 walk towards the camera, 3 stops & turns round whilst 1 goes behind a tree.
• Wide long shot, camera comes round the tree - 1 & 3.
Person Key:
• 1 - man
• 2 - woman
• 3 - driver
• 4 - girl
• 5 - boy
• 6 - boy
Flashback shots:
• Long shot - 1 & 2 - 2 walks out into the road.
• Mid-shot - car - car comes towards the camera.
• Mid-shot - 1 - 1 steps forward (towards the left of the shot).
• Mid-shot, shaking camera - 3 - 3 is sitting in the car just after the accident.
Scene 1:
• Wide mid-shot - 1 & 4 - 4 walks into the shot & 1 sits up.
• Zoom out to wide shot - 1 & 4 - 1 gets up and walks out the door.
Scene 2:
• Wide shot - 3, 5 & 6.
• Wide shot - 3, 5 & 6 - 3 stands up & goes through the door.
• Long shot - 3 - 3 walks towards the camera.
• Wide mid-shot - 3 - 3 turns round & walks out of the bathroom.
• Wide shot - 3, 5 & 6 - 3 walks into the room, 5 & 6 stand up & 3 & 5 walk out the door.
Scene 3:
• Wide over-the-shoulder shot - 1, 3 & 5 - 3 & 5 walk out of the gate & towards the right of the shot. 1 follows towards the right of the shot.
• Mid-shot, camera moves backwards - 1, 3 & 5 - 1, 3 & 5 walk towards the camera.
• Over-the-shoulder shot, camera moves forwards - 1, 3 & 5 - 1, 3 & 5 walk away from the camera.
• Mid-shot, camera moves backwards, stops then moves backwards again - 1, 3 & 5 - 1, 3 & 5 walk towards the camera & stop. 5 walks out of the shot (to the left). & 1 & 3 continue walking.
• Wide mid-shot, camera moves backwards then stops - 1 & 3 - 1 & 3 walk towards the camera, 3 stops & turns round whilst 1 goes behind a tree.
• Wide long shot, camera comes round the tree - 1 & 3.
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
Thriller Opening
This is the final idea for my thriller opening.
Present day
Flashback
The man and the woman are standing underneath a street lamp holding hands, saying "goodbye" to each other. The woman steps out into the road and is hit by a car.
The man is lying on the sofa and wakes up suddenly. The girl brings in a cup of tea/coffee for him and they have a short conversation. The man gets up, puts on his coat and walks out of the door.
The driver is round a friend's house with some mates. He goes upstairs.
The driver is sitting in the car just after the accident.
He splashes his face with cold water, dries his face and looks in the mirror. He goes back downstairs and the boys decide to leave.
The man is outside. The boys come out of the house and start to walk down the road, the man follows them. The boy separates from his mates and the man continues to follow him. The boy stops and turns round. The man hides so he sees no-one behind him. The man is now standing behind the boy.
I am going to have a production card at the start of the film, the credits will come up over the clips and then the title card will come up at the end of the film.
Present day
Flashback
The man and the woman are standing underneath a street lamp holding hands, saying "goodbye" to each other. The woman steps out into the road and is hit by a car.
The man is lying on the sofa and wakes up suddenly. The girl brings in a cup of tea/coffee for him and they have a short conversation. The man gets up, puts on his coat and walks out of the door.
The driver is round a friend's house with some mates. He goes upstairs.
The driver is sitting in the car just after the accident.
He splashes his face with cold water, dries his face and looks in the mirror. He goes back downstairs and the boys decide to leave.
The man is outside. The boys come out of the house and start to walk down the road, the man follows them. The boy separates from his mates and the man continues to follow him. The boy stops and turns round. The man hides so he sees no-one behind him. The man is now standing behind the boy.
I am going to have a production card at the start of the film, the credits will come up over the clips and then the title card will come up at the end of the film.
Friday, 8 January 2010
Doctor Who clip
For the second flashback in my film I want to create a feeling of tension and unease amongst the audience as the shot is off the person driving the car. To do this I thought of having the person sitting still in the car but moving the camera to create the effect. I found this type of camera movement in an episode of Doctor Who. The effect that I want to use is demonstrated between 00:53 - 04:43 minutes of the clip below. I want a more subtle shake on the camera than what has been used in Doctor Who though.
How to film someone being run over by a car
In the flashback scene I am going to have a woman get run by a car to set up the film.
To film this I thought I could film the car and the person separately and then lay the pieces of film together to create the effect of someone being run over. Unfortunately you can't lay images over each other on the editing software that we are using, iMovie.
Instead, I decided to have a look on YouTube to see if I could find a video which would show me how to film someone being run over by a car. I found it very difficult to find a video which would do this. I did, however, find a video by someone who had previously done this themselves for their own film. The video is actually about a problem that the guy faced when filming this sequence, he broke the windscreen of his car. In his video he has briefly explained how he filmed the shot and the show motion shot is shown within the video so I was able to see how to film someone being run over by a car.
Another idea I had was to film parts of the shot and not have a person in front of the car. I could then put these shots together so that the audience knew what had happened without having to actually see it. I thought this would be a very good way of showing the action as the scene is only meant to be a flashback and the person who is having the flashback doesn't really want to remember the night.
I have decided that I will film the woman being run over by a car in the last way that I described. I have made this decision because I think that trying to film someone rolling over a slow moving car would be very difficult not only to film but to also carry out as an actor. I think that this would be more conventional of a thriller as the audience would be forced to think about what is happening, also the shots, the build up and the character who is witnessing the action would make it quite obvious to the audience what is going on. Being a flashback scene, I don't think the audience need to necessarily be told piece by piece what is going on as, quite often to the person who is having them, flashbacks can be quite disjointed anyway.
To film this I thought I could film the car and the person separately and then lay the pieces of film together to create the effect of someone being run over. Unfortunately you can't lay images over each other on the editing software that we are using, iMovie.
Instead, I decided to have a look on YouTube to see if I could find a video which would show me how to film someone being run over by a car. I found it very difficult to find a video which would do this. I did, however, find a video by someone who had previously done this themselves for their own film. The video is actually about a problem that the guy faced when filming this sequence, he broke the windscreen of his car. In his video he has briefly explained how he filmed the shot and the show motion shot is shown within the video so I was able to see how to film someone being run over by a car.
Another idea I had was to film parts of the shot and not have a person in front of the car. I could then put these shots together so that the audience knew what had happened without having to actually see it. I thought this would be a very good way of showing the action as the scene is only meant to be a flashback and the person who is having the flashback doesn't really want to remember the night.
I have decided that I will film the woman being run over by a car in the last way that I described. I have made this decision because I think that trying to film someone rolling over a slow moving car would be very difficult not only to film but to also carry out as an actor. I think that this would be more conventional of a thriller as the audience would be forced to think about what is happening, also the shots, the build up and the character who is witnessing the action would make it quite obvious to the audience what is going on. Being a flashback scene, I don't think the audience need to necessarily be told piece by piece what is going on as, quite often to the person who is having them, flashbacks can be quite disjointed anyway.
Ideas for Thriller Opening
To start with I came up with 2 different ideas for a thriller opening. For the first idea I only had parts of it but for the second idea I was able to come up with a whole opening scene apart from one small part of the narrative which I'm not too sure about at the moment. I have therefore decided to use my second idea as my opening scene to a thriller film.
At the moment the ideas are just a flow chart. Once I have decided on the last part of narrative that I'm missing, I will write out the full idea.
At the moment the ideas are just a flow chart. Once I have decided on the last part of narrative that I'm missing, I will write out the full idea.
War of the Worlds - Steven Spielberg (2005)
What is introduced/told to the audience in the opening 2 minutes of the film;
• Starts off with cells in a leaf - this suggests that the film is about science, maybe specifically biology.
• Shots of outer space - this suggests that space comes into the science or the film in some way.
• Lots of short takes of places/people on Earth are used - this shows that the film is set on Earth rather than in space.
• A voiceover is used - this sets the scene for the film and suggests hostile extra terrestrial activity towards Earth.
• The film is set in the 21st century.
• Only non-diegetic sound/music and ambient sound is used.
What I thought of the opening sequence;
The opening sequence of War of the Worlds hasn't inspired me for my own thriller opening as, personally, I found the opening sequence of the film quite boring and it didn't make me want to watch the rest of the film. On the other hand, I quite liked the way that the first shot went from the inner workings of a cell to the leaf that that cell was a part of.
• Starts off with cells in a leaf - this suggests that the film is about science, maybe specifically biology.
• Shots of outer space - this suggests that space comes into the science or the film in some way.
• Lots of short takes of places/people on Earth are used - this shows that the film is set on Earth rather than in space.
• A voiceover is used - this sets the scene for the film and suggests hostile extra terrestrial activity towards Earth.
• The film is set in the 21st century.
• Only non-diegetic sound/music and ambient sound is used.
What I thought of the opening sequence;
The opening sequence of War of the Worlds hasn't inspired me for my own thriller opening as, personally, I found the opening sequence of the film quite boring and it didn't make me want to watch the rest of the film. On the other hand, I quite liked the way that the first shot went from the inner workings of a cell to the leaf that that cell was a part of.
The Bodyguard - Mick Jackson (1992)
What is introduced/told to the audience in the opening 2 minutes of the film;
• The main character is a man.
• He's a professional killer of some sort.
• Sombre non-diegetic music is used.
• Limited amount of dialogue in the first of the 2 scenes.
• Low-key lighting.
• Diegetic, synchronous gunshots create a soundbridge from the opening credits to the opening scene.
• A handheld camera zooms out to reveal the rest of the setting.
• In the second of the 2 scenes you learn that the main character's name is Frank.
• He is moving on to another job. This suggests that the film is going to be about his new job.
What I thought of the opening sequence;
The opening 2 minutes of The Bodyguard hasn't really inspired me for my own film. The main character in my film will be a man, like The Bodyguard. One thing which is kind of similar to my idea is the use of dialogue. In the first of the opening 2 scenes there is very little dialogue whereas the second scene is a conversation between to people. In my flashbacks I am not going to have very much dialogue at all and then in the present day scenes I am definitely going to have dialogue.
• The main character is a man.
• He's a professional killer of some sort.
• Sombre non-diegetic music is used.
• Limited amount of dialogue in the first of the 2 scenes.
• Low-key lighting.
• Diegetic, synchronous gunshots create a soundbridge from the opening credits to the opening scene.
• A handheld camera zooms out to reveal the rest of the setting.
• In the second of the 2 scenes you learn that the main character's name is Frank.
• He is moving on to another job. This suggests that the film is going to be about his new job.
What I thought of the opening sequence;
The opening 2 minutes of The Bodyguard hasn't really inspired me for my own film. The main character in my film will be a man, like The Bodyguard. One thing which is kind of similar to my idea is the use of dialogue. In the first of the opening 2 scenes there is very little dialogue whereas the second scene is a conversation between to people. In my flashbacks I am not going to have very much dialogue at all and then in the present day scenes I am definitely going to have dialogue.
Thursday, 7 January 2010
Memento - Christopher Nolan (2000)
What is introduced/told to the audience in the opening 2 minutes of the film;
• The main character is a man.
• The killing of a man takes place.
• No dialogue.
• Only non-diegetic music and synchronous sound is used.
• All of the action goes backwards but the sound goes forwards.
• Low-key, naturalistic lighting.
• It causes the audience to ask lots of questions.
What I thought of the film;
Memento uses two sets of alternating time-frames in the film. The earlier series of black and white sequences is in a motel, where Leonard's (the main character) condition is explained. The second series of color sequences, played in reverse order, is where we see his investigation and learn what leads Leonard to kill the man in the opening credits.
I like the way the story is told backwards and a little bit more action is added on each time. I think this causes the audience to understand the main character's condition better as you get a sense of what it is like. By telling the story of Leonard's condition forwards, this helps the audience as the condition is told to them straight so that they don't have piece it together, leaving them to concentrate on piecing together Leonard's investigation.
The film causes the audience to think the whole way through and the only time they get a break is during the black and white explanation scenes. This causes the film to be quite challenging to watch.
The narrative that runs in chronological order is clearly distinguished from the narrative that runs in reverse order. This helps out the audience and adds a different dimension to the film.
If this film was shown completely in chronological order, I don't think it would be a very good film at all as I don't think that narrative is strong enough on it's own. What makes this film good is the way the narrative is told to the audience, allowing them to piece it together.
Memento hasn't really inspired any of the choices I've made for my film. I think this is probably because, personally, I didn't like the film, I only liked the way it was presented to the audience as I thought this was a very interesting way to do a film. Having said this, I wouldn't choose to do my film like this as I think it would be very hard to do and you couldn't really do something like this in the opening 2 minutes of a film. Also, this doesn't fit with the way I want to show the action in my film.
On the other hand, like Memento, my film is going to be a psychological thriller. Memento uses some flashbacks to show Leonard's life before the accident and also flashbacks to show the accident. Similarly, I am going to use flashbacks to show the audience the accident that happens in my film. This is the only way in which my film will have any similarities to Memento.
• The main character is a man.
• The killing of a man takes place.
• No dialogue.
• Only non-diegetic music and synchronous sound is used.
• All of the action goes backwards but the sound goes forwards.
• Low-key, naturalistic lighting.
• It causes the audience to ask lots of questions.
What I thought of the film;
Memento uses two sets of alternating time-frames in the film. The earlier series of black and white sequences is in a motel, where Leonard's (the main character) condition is explained. The second series of color sequences, played in reverse order, is where we see his investigation and learn what leads Leonard to kill the man in the opening credits.
I like the way the story is told backwards and a little bit more action is added on each time. I think this causes the audience to understand the main character's condition better as you get a sense of what it is like. By telling the story of Leonard's condition forwards, this helps the audience as the condition is told to them straight so that they don't have piece it together, leaving them to concentrate on piecing together Leonard's investigation.
The film causes the audience to think the whole way through and the only time they get a break is during the black and white explanation scenes. This causes the film to be quite challenging to watch.
The narrative that runs in chronological order is clearly distinguished from the narrative that runs in reverse order. This helps out the audience and adds a different dimension to the film.
If this film was shown completely in chronological order, I don't think it would be a very good film at all as I don't think that narrative is strong enough on it's own. What makes this film good is the way the narrative is told to the audience, allowing them to piece it together.
Memento hasn't really inspired any of the choices I've made for my film. I think this is probably because, personally, I didn't like the film, I only liked the way it was presented to the audience as I thought this was a very interesting way to do a film. Having said this, I wouldn't choose to do my film like this as I think it would be very hard to do and you couldn't really do something like this in the opening 2 minutes of a film. Also, this doesn't fit with the way I want to show the action in my film.
On the other hand, like Memento, my film is going to be a psychological thriller. Memento uses some flashbacks to show Leonard's life before the accident and also flashbacks to show the accident. Similarly, I am going to use flashbacks to show the audience the accident that happens in my film. This is the only way in which my film will have any similarities to Memento.
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