G321 - Lesson Logs

History of thriller

- The first thriller film made was in 1926 made by famous
Alfred Hitchcock, the film was called "The Lodger"

- The first psychological thriller was directed by George Cukor
titled "gaslight" which was produced in 1944.

- Thrillers usually tend to have some type of a twist which generally shocks the audience.

- In the 1950's thrillers saw a massive change, firstly they were not in black and white, secondly he 'icy blondes', this change is evident as even in thrillers today many films include icy blondes such as "Scream", "The others" or if you want to use a famous example of one of Hitchcock's film "psycho" 

- Thrillers are used to stimulate the feelings of the viewers, for example suspense, surprise or anxiety, these emotions are triggered with the helps suspenseful music, dark lighting and camera shots

- Thrillers are generally designed to keep the audience anticipated, not giving them a chance to relax as they never know when something is about to happen

- In the 1970's this was the era in where horror was incorporated in thriller films, but still maintaining a clear difference in the two genres, for example Frenzy (1972) by Hitchcock or Duel (1971) by Steven Spielberg

- 21st century or present day thrillers have moved much closer towards the horror genre as films now contain more blood and deaths and some even using codes and conventions from action movies, however they still remain fairly loyal to its routes as films such as Shutter island, or Sixth sense are clearly thrillers but do incorporate conventions from other genres.



Lesson 1 - G321 coursework introduction  

6/11/15

Image result for thriller films

  










In our first lesson we looked into fiction films and non fiction films. We first began to look into the differences between the two, and what makes them fiction or non-fiction. We have also looked at how mise-en-scene has a number of different effects and how it is used to help show if a film is fiction or non-fiction, they are one of the key features in telling if a film is fiction or non-fiction. After we finished this, in our second hour we were given a mark scheme and then began to look at other sixth form students films, we would then mark them based on the mark scheme, this was really useful as it gave us an idea of what ours would look like, and what we would need to do to establish that.
Later on in the lesson we look at 5 film openings, both fiction and non fiction and we would then analyse the film, picking out the codes and conventions to see what made them fiction and non-fiction.


















                                 

 Lesson 2 - Coursework G321- Potential narratives

 9/11/15

This lesson was the main starting point, as this is where we were assigned to our groups. My group was made of myself, Jake and Dylan. This group i believe would work well as i have worked with Dylan in GCSE during our final part of the course which was filming, and i was pleased to see Jake as he is also a very smart individual with good ideas, furthermore we all think alike and help build on each others idea which i think would be really helpful, however because we all think alike it could be a negative, so we need to try and be a lot more critical which could be a challenge for us.

We began the lesson by brainstorming a number of potential narratives for out film opening, this task was actually a lot harder than i thought as it was hard to think of something which was strong yet subtle which wouldn't give a lot a way, for example we was thinking of a kidnapping scene where somebody gets shot but we thought it gave too much away.

After a bit of thinking and pitching ideas we finally came up with a potential idea, which is based on a detective like type of opening, in where a male detective is investigating the murder of three girls who have very similar characteristics, in the opening there are a number of clues, which get the audience thinking, this is good as it is what we wanted to achieve with our a film opening we wanted it to be engaging and for the audience to think.



Coursework G321 - Research into crime dramas 


I wanted to research into some crime drama TV shows or films and see what conventions, patterns and conventions i can pick out and see how i could apply them to my own film, i think this would be very helpful as for GCSE i done a similar thing and it really helped me. So i will be looking into three Crime/Dramas and see what they all have in common.






Prison Break

- Prison
- Use of drugs or forensic teams
- Drug abuse
- Dramatic something always happening
- Dramatic music when something is about to happen or has happened

- Good use and white use of 
                                   camera shots to show clues, or            
                                   Ways for the prisoners to escape 
                                  - Really effective use of close           
                                    ups to show danger emotions and  
                                    Expressions
                                  - Some form of corruption
                                  
                                                                                         
                  

Image result for CSI
 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

 - Always starts with a crime scene
 - Drug use in the show ( effects of people using drugs)
 - Close ups to show clues about a crime scene
 - Strange lighting used in flashbacks to signify a flashback
 - A lot of the times there is a twist
 - Never enough evidence, so makes things hard to figure   out
 - Fast paced music when something has happened




Scarface

- Dark lighting in the film
- Heavy drug use
- Very strong language
- Corruption
- A lot of murder
- Sexual scenes and references throughout
- Antagonists are foreign
- Scarface theme tune plays during significant events, very suspenseful dark sounding low music.









Looking at these films and TV shows i have found a few interesting patterns, firstly there is a consistent use of drugs in each of them, secondly there is a large use of dark lighting, this is because crimes are usually bad things and associated with bad and dark so the use of dark lighting will build on to it and also showing what is happening or has happened is bad.

The one i am particularly interested in is CSI, this is because it opens up with a crime scene so it tells the audience what was happened, but now it is their duty to find out why, so it gets them thinking whereas the other two don't do that, but that is something i want to achieve, also the use of flashbacks i found very affective as it could show a lot about a character or a crime that has taken place, i will be using influences from CSI as it appealed to me more and linked to what i want to accomplish.



Lesson 3 - Coursework G321 - Research into film openings

11/11/15

In today's lesson we looked at what effective film openings will put us in a band 4 grade and potentially what we are hoping our film to look like. We then looked at two different film openings (very different) one of them being "city of god" and the second film "goodfellas" ( a favourite of mine).











Image result for goodfellasGoodfellas is about an New York based Italian mafia where a little boy works his way up the ranks. In this film opening we began to look at how camera shots show who is the protagonist, what is happening, how they can show someones emotions, at first we was confused like how is a camera shot going to show so much? We looked at a master shot of the protagonist driving the car and three people in the back, he was the main focus of the scene so it was obvious he was the centre of everything, and then we began to look at the dark lighting and how it creates and successfully achieves a dark atmosphere the film opening for this was at first subtle, dark and slow which was very affective, whereas the other film "city of god" was fast paced yet effective.



City of God is the second film we looked at, it was very fast paced with a variety of different shots and camera angles such as close ups, panning, tracking etc, it is all really fast paces but it works as the event in the opening is very fast paced, this lesson was actually very useful as it showed what we would need to do to make it affective and what pace creates what sort of effect, for example slow and dark makes it suspenseful and fast being like adrenaline action.


Lesson 4 - Coursework G321 - Research around the target audience

16/11/15


In this lesson, we were shown other candidates film openings. We were given a mark scheme so we knew what to look out for, then we had to look for what made the films effective and what didn't make it as convincing, after watching each of the films we as individuals gave marks to the films, and when we did we would feed back to our teacher and he would tell us the real mark the students received. This lesson taught me how one sloppy camera shot could damage the effectiveness of a film as poorly taken shots would reduce someones mark because it makes the film opening lose its effect, it also gave me an idea of how my film could possibly look like because as we were shown a very high grade film opening to a low grade opening, this really gave me an insight to how hard i now need to work to get a good film. 
                                        

 Lesson 5 - G321 Coursework - Character research (potential character)

20/11/15

In this lesson we began to research various characters, the purpose of this was to look at some characters and try and find potential influences from them, i started to look at characters who are detectives and crime drama based.


Image result for prison break mahone
Agent Mahone in his early 40's. Scruffy hair which signifies stress, however is smartly dressed which shows power and class status. He has a very stern facial expression meaning hardened character (potential characteristics). Struggling to fix his relationship with his wife, addicted to prescription drugs, which helps him deal with his job and help him focus which shows his obsession with his work.


Image result for hank breaking bad
Hank, early 40's addicted to his job but less of a serious character he is outgoing and much more approachable he is also more comical, he has a fat stocky build, and very intelligent, he is a stereotypical detective as he is always right in the end and gets everything right with minimal clues, he also unlike Mahoney has a good relationship with his family.

Image result for the rock
Hobbs, is a very big built military agent, who does a similar job as a detective as he goes out looking for the antagonists, he is very stern, he has a very dark sense of humour and is very violent often using brute force, nevertheless despite how he looks he is very intelligent as he always finds things that others don't seem too.


Lesson 6 - Coursework G321- Directors

23/11/15


Today we looked at a number of film directors in order to increase subject knowledge and to also look for potential influences. The directors i researched were Alfred Hitchcock, Christopher Nolan and Steven Spielberg. They all used different styles of directing and all were unique in their own way.

 

Alfred Hitchcock-


Alfred Hitchcock, or better known as ' the master of suspense' specialised in horrors and there would be typical conventions he would use frequently such as having a icy blonde damsel in distress. He also used framed shots to maximise anxiety, fear and empathy. He has famous films such as psycho, rear window and rope. I will be using some of his ideas, such as icy blonde characters or used into my film in some way as i do believe they could be used to create a cold feeling. Furthermore he also believed it was crucial to tell the film in a cinematic way, i believe this is very crucial because it makes the film and key into making the film strong and successful, this will be the bases for our filming, as there will not be a lot of dialogue, so it is up to the cinematography to tell the story.

Christopher Nolan 

Christopher Nolan a newer director famous for films such as Batman which is a very successful crime drama franchise, or other films which link more to our potential film, physiological thrillers. Typical conventions Christopher Nolan would is things like low key lighting, anything to make it dark and suspenseful. The main character also tends to have evil qualities (which we won't be doing in our film as we think it won't go well with the type of character we want to create).





G321 Coursework - Film poster analysis




   Analysis of thriller poster
        'Shutter island"


- Dark lighting (sinister and suspenseful)
- Blue glow around the island showing significance
- The fire showing his face shows darkness surrounding him
- Serious look on the protagonists face
- Shows the protagonist on the front cover
- Protagonist facial expression also shows fear
- Name of protagonist under his face


- The Font is very sharp and cold giving it an eerie feel to the film, contrasting with the red subheading showing that its evil as red is often a symbol of blood and evil.
- The capital letters give it a cold feel





Image result for the others
         The others

- Very simplistic yet effective colours, darkness vs light giving an insight to the film.
- Majority of the poster is dark could show darkness has taken over good (which is represented by light)
- Female protagonist, who looks scared and alone as she is the only one there, the dark lighting over her face could show she is loosing the battle between good and evil.
                                   - Very simple picture but gives   
                                    off a scary eerie feeling.
                                   - Early 20th century lighting and  
                                   costume used to show when its    
                                   based
                                                                           
                                                                        Font analysis
                                                                             
                                  - Use of capitals                                                                         
                                  - White writing over the black      
                                    black ground showing contrast.
                                  - sinister font, as its sharp and 
                                   cold                                                        


                                                              


          The Butterfly Effect
          

- Face of Male protagonist on the front cover,looks very serious and stern with an image in his left eye possibly giving a visual insight into the film
- Face of damsel in distress on the front looks lost
- Blue sepia lighting gives strange uneasy look to the film making it seem surreal and unrealistic
- Abstract look and feel to the picture as it isn't very clear to what is going on.



                   Font analysis

- The title of the film in a 1980's type computer writing could show when it is based.
- The red colour of the title breaks the blue sepia colour, but contrasts with it to give it a eerie feel
- Placement of the title is in the middle so the audience can directly look at it.
- Credits are around the photo framing the faces of
the two main characters


Within the three film posters, there is something i have picked out which stood out the most and that is the use of lighting, the first two used dark lighting which i thought was very effective as it created a feeling of suspense and made it look very eerie, also the use of blue lighting was present in two of the film posters this made it very abstract however was very effective. In all of the posters the characters either looked confused, scared or worried which links into the film as it shows the emotions and the tone of the film throughout. Also the fonts  used a lot of red as red is very much linked with thrillers as it gives a cold feeling to it. Also the use of white was very effective as it contrasted with black making things stand out more and also showing a battle of good vs evil within the film as it is present in a lot of thrillers.



Narrative

Agent Hobbs a 29 year old detective, a man who is very much dedicated to his job and tried his hardest to succeed, as a child his mother was murdered but the murderer has never been caught he believes it is his duty to capture murderers. In his last case he couldn't find who murdered four little boys, it was a cold case and since then he has been abusing drugs, he is addicted to adderal which helps him focus. A new case has been slapped onto his table, a serial killer has stuck killing three icy blonde women. He feels like this will compensate for his mistakes in the past. He works side by side a man with the name Agent Mahoney, his sidekick/partner they have been working together for a long time but their relationship is strictly work based. Time goes on and Hobbs can't find the murderer. Days go on, and the murder has been caught, a young man in his mid 20's. But the evidence doesn't add up, everybody moves on to the next case except agent Hobbs, he knows something isn't right, he thinks and behind the bosses back is still looking at the three blondes case because it just didn't make sense to him. He feels like the man who had been convicted was framed and that the murderer is still on the loose. Agent Hobbs starts to pick up on his boss at the office, he is always making little comments about things which link to the crime so Hobbs tells Mahoney and they both together try and bring the evidence together and try to prove its the boss who has carried out the series of killings. Time goes on and nothing happens the evidence is weak and not solid, it is all based on speculation and who has said what, there is no hard evidence, during the next murder scene Mahoney makes a comment to Hobbs about his missing watch, which matched the description of the other watch, Hobbs doesn't take notice of it until he gets home, and has a flashback of the day after the murder when Mahoney was moaning about his missing watch that watch was a very limited watch and there is only a finite amount of them left, thats when Hobbs found out that the watch belonged to Mahoney, and this whole time they were both trying to prove it was the boss when in reality it was agent Mahoney.


Lesson 7 - Coursework G321 - Titles

27/11/15


In today's lesson we began to brainstorm potential titles for our film, this task was actually a lot harder than we thought, because a title is what brings people in, we wanted something, simple, sharp and effective, there was a lot of debate. We wanted something linked to mystery, so we started looking around, one of us in a thesaurus, one of us looking at thriller films which were similar to ours and one of us looking for synonyms for 'mystery' after a long time of looking we finally found what we wanted.


'ENIGMA'


We liked the word enigma, because the word its self is a mystery as a lot of people don't even know what it is so he found it quite ironic as a title, nevertheless the title shows that there is a mystery, something has not been discovered and it will instantly give the audience an insight on what the film is on.





Lesson 8 - Coursework G321 - Film Survey

30/11/15





Image result for survey cartoon
















We had to create a survey to see what appeals to the audience. We had put in place ten questions asking things which could help us dictate how our film should look, for example things such as age and gender to see how and what appeals to different genders and age group and all their preferences. Also we wanted to see what people look for in a film opening, this is good for us because we can use this to our advantage to create a effective film opening, with the information extracted from the questionnaires we then designed a bar chart showing the results, and from these results we analysed the information given. 





In this bar chart i evaluated two of the questions, one about what elements of mise-en-scene work the most effectively, the second question  was about what type of film (fiction or non fiction) generate the most amount of money, this question was interesting as it showed peoples preferences. The information i got from this was interesting as it made me realise the importance of sound track and lighting, which means that i will need to put much more focus on this as i would've done previously as i thought it was mainly the custom and setting which had more of an affect. I learnt that i need to put a much heavier focus on lighting and sound as it is very affective and the people who i surveyed made it clear that it needs to be a main priority. 





Lesson 9 - Coursework G321 - Still shots of locations 

1/12/15


















This is a still shot of a stereotypical police office, we will design the filming location to look like this as it is a very convincing room, full of computers, files etc this adds to the realism of the film and will make it more convincing, however we will only have two characters in the office scene as opposed to typical ones where there is a number of police all over the office.















This second location is where the police officer will be exiting the building on his way to the car, we chose this spot because it isn't very open and surrounded by bushes so it could help build the atmosphere want to create with our film.




This is a shot of the car park looking at the ' police headquarters, this location is possibly where most of the filming will occur as it is at the top of the car park.


This is where the evidence and police tape will be set this is the place where the crime scene will take place, it is a good spot as it is fairly closed environment as it is surrounded by bushes and cars, if it was to be darker too (which is when we would like to film it) as it would create more suspense and give it a darker feel which i think would work very well.



Lesson 10 - Coursework G321 - Props

4/12/15


Today we started looking at the props we will most likely include in our film, props could potentially make the film more interesting because props also help create the setting which links into the atmosphere created, for example we couldn't have a crime scene with out police tape or evidence cards etc, it wouldn't make sense so we put together a list of things we would need in our film opening. 


Image result for police badge

This is a special police badge, this police badge will signify the power of the protagonist it will show the characters dominance furthermore add to the realism of the film which i think will be affective, also it gives the protagonist identity so the audience know who he is .








The police tape will signify that something has happened, it also makes the scene more realistic.






Image result for knife
The use of the knife i believe will be affective as it creates a sense of danger, the knife also gives a clue of how the person was murdered, furthermore as it is a crime scene the audience expect some sort of weapon, and a knife is more of a brutal way of killing someone more than a gun is, so we decided to choose a knife.










The crime scene evidence cards are a crucial prop to our film, as the pieces of evidence will be places next to them so it will highlight the clues the audience will be looking for, furthermore it also makes the crime scene look more realistic.













We have added a homicide report as it has relevance to the film, it gives the audience clues on how certain victims were killed, there back grounds etc, so the audience can use these as clues and find any patterns as it is a serial killer.














We also have chose to add in mug shots of the victims, this is because we have made them all blonde, so the audience will know the serial killer. 








Lesson 11 - Coursework G321 - Character profiles

7/12/15

In this lesson we started to create character profiles (finally), which means we are one step closer to starting our film. There will be two characters in our film, one of them being me, Jake's sidekick/partner and Jake the main detective and the protagonist.




I will be playing the role of agent Mahoney. Agent Mahoney is 32 years old and average height, he possesses dark features and is a very serious character he has been a detective for over 8 years. As a child he was beaten by his father, he never had any power or authority which is why he chose to carry out this job. 
We chose to create a character like this because we believe a more of a dark character will have an affect because it will link in with our genre, because if we was smiley and happy it would look like more of a comedy. 



Jake's character, detective Hobbs. Hobbs is 29 years old, a less pessimistic character unlike Mahoney. He is very dedicated to his job. As a child his mother was killed and he was left orphaned as his father had died before his birth, but nobody has managed to find who the killer was, he has chosen this job to bring murderers to justice. He has lost his previous case, losing the murderer so he is stressing if he doesn't find who the murderer is he will lose his job. He abuses prescription drugs which help him focus such as adderal as it helps with his job.

We wanted a character like this because usually in films with detectives there is always that one who is dedicated and stays late hours after his work to try and solve the case, the film will also be based around him so while he looks for the clues, so will the audience and they will both try and put everything to gather to find who the killer is. 







Character costume 


The characters in our film are heavily influenced by Leonardo Di Caprios character on shutter island. Except we didn't go with the hat or the cigarette, instead we made our character more modern with squared glasses a more serious tie with a more of a serious colour. We were heavily influenced by the idea of the trench coat because it is often affiliated with detectives and is a typical convention when it comes to films associated with crime. Usually the detective who wears a long trench coat also has some form of power and showing that they are slightly upper class as it is quite fashionable. Other detectives in the actually full film of ours wouldn't all be wearing long tench coats, there would be wearing normal coats. For example the extra character in our film who will be taking pictures of the evidence will be wearing a normal casual coat over a suit. 







Lesson 12 - Coursework G321 - Font analysis

8/12/15
                                         
In this lesson we started look at different types of fonts. This was actually very difficult as we had to find a font which would fit into our film perfectly.  The font we wanted was a font which was sharp, because films like 'Shutter Island' or 'The Others" had very sharp titles, they were also white making them appear cold, and that's what we as a group wanted to accomplish, we tried looking for it by putting in 
a bunch of different fonts in the credits of our film.
None of them worked, they all looked out of place or looked
really un-professional. Then we stumbled on one font.






When we added it to the credits of our film it came across as really 

professional, it comes across as basic but it fits really well as it was very subtle,also when we applied transitions with the fonts it made it look very smooth and looked like it was supposed to be there. The writing is also neat and looks sophisticated which is why we believe it will fit in with the film as it links to the 
type of audience we want to attract.



Lesson 13 - Coursework G321 - Certificate rating 


In today's lesson we started to look at certificate ratings and what age category our film would come under. A very important factor to consider while making a film is the target audience, putting it into an age category to aim it at a specific audience. The age categories are as followed..


U  PG  12  12A  15  18


Our film will either be a 12 or a 15.

Films which are rated 12 usually contain...



Moderate swearing                     Moderate violence
Moderate sexual references       Light use of adult humour


Films that are a 15 usually contain...

  strong violence                                            frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***'). 

  portrayals of sexual activity                        strong verbal references to sex   sexual nudity                                              brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence  discriminatory language or behaviour         drug taking






We have been debating weather our film will be a 12 or a 15.

This is because we thought for a thriller based film there isn't no blood, a light amount of strong language etc, however we believe the complexity of the film would make it come under the 15 category. This is for a number of reasons, firstly the sub genres. The sub genres for our film are crime, mystery and psychological. The element of it being a psychological means that the narrative would be complex and it would require a lot of thinking, and would need the minds of fairly intelligent individuals to figure out whats going on. The protagonist in the film is another reason why we have rated it a 15. This is because the protagonist is a very serious character, smart and intelligent so 12 year olds won't be able to relate to this character as they would generally want to watch a comical character or some sort of action character which is why they won't appreciate a serious protagonist.  

                                  

Lesson 14 - Coursework G321 - Story Boards

11/12/15







Here are our storyboards, we chose to make them detailed but simple and easy to follow because when we write our script we will be referring to this. Additionally while we film we will also be referring back to our story boards as we have drew images of how we imagined and how we would want our film to look. So as seen we have included camera shots angles and everything so we know exactly what to do. 





Lesson 15 - Coursework G321 - Script

14/12/15

Today we began by drafting our script. This actually proved to be harder than we thought as we would need to include every crucial detail, after we finished our draft we typed it up, this being our final copy.






               




Lesson 16- Coursework G321 - Filming Pt 1 


15/12/15

Today was the day we began to start actually filming (finally!) We grabbed out equipment and went on to film. The first thing we shot was a bathroom scene with the protagonist staring into the mirror, staring into it with a stressed expression on his face, we tried to do this at a load of different angles we did this to give us a variety of options to pick out from because some things may look better than others. We took a close up shot and a side angle, then we took a shot of sweat dripping down from the side of the protagonists face. Safe to say we had taken that shot a load of times and tried hard to get the sweat to drip the way we wanted it too. Then we went on to shoot another scene, the problem is that we wanted to shoot a load of scenes outside when it is dark in order to do what we would have to wait after school, so we began to film other parts of the film, but for this scene we needed props so one of us went to go print of three different icy blonde females, and use them as victims and put them on a board, on the board we put their descriptions down and made it look like there was a pattern. We took a lot of shots, one of them was Jake (the protagonist) staring at the pictures from an over the shoulder shot and then a close up of each of the girls. We had to film this a lot as there would be people passing by us etc. Nevertheless we completed it, and took some good shots. 



Lesson 17 - Coursework filming G321 - Filming part 2 


18/12/15


 In today's lesson we started filming the office scene, but there was one problem. We have no office! But not to worry, we made one, simply we put together two desks, and made it into an L shape. Then its safe to say we grabbed a lot of stuff, such as four coffee mugs to put on the table, pens books papers laptops pencil and pen box, everything which is used to make a desk. And behind the desk was an evidence board which we put on a map on A3 paper the face of the icy blonde characters murder reports and clues to make it seem as realistic as possible. And obviously we would cut out anything in the background by manipulating it with the camera cropping things out, close ups etc (which if i say so my self worked very well). We pulled down all the blinds in the room turn the lights off and began to film. We took a large number of shots, from close ups to over the shoulder to medium shots, POI. Originally we thought we was going to be filming in a real office but because of circumstances and only limited time we had to use our brains and try and think of a way to create an office, it was a problem at first but the outcome was good.



Lesson 18 - Coursework G321 - Filming Pt 3 (Editing Break)    

5/1/16
                                         
  This lesson i began to slowly put our film together and try editing some scenes, this process was actually very difficult as i had to choose between a number of different shots and chose some over others, also i felt like a lot of the shots were good but with other shots didn't work well as it looked like there wasn't a clear narrative, instead it was just jumping from one place to another, it didn't look like there had been a flashback. So what i did i added a variety of effects to try and accomplish this, firstly i changed the colour into a eerie blue tint which signified it was during a different time as the rest of the film will not be in this colour, but i still felt like something was missing we then talked about the three murder victims, and how we could potentially fit them into it, and that is what we did, as the scene went on we would put in shots of the three victims in three different shots to show they are significant and that something has happened to them. This turned out to give our opening a flow and a bit more of a narrative where as before it was too rough, i had to work with what we had because we still hadn't finished filming everything due to certain circumstances, this was hard because i had to picture what was going to be where, so when i played everything over and over i had to imagine that there was going to be something filling the gaps. 

Lesson 19 - Coursework G321 - Changes to the film

5/1/16

We have made some very big changes to our film, we have cut me out (ouch). I know that its sad but it was needed, because we felt like if we was to go by the original plot it would give too much away, so we are taking a few steps back but that isn't much of an issue because what we had filmed so far only contains the protagonist. We also believe that by doing this the film will have more of a subtle yet effective feel to it. We have also chosen to film the crime scene during the day, even though we thought it would be much better to film it at night due to circumstances we didn't do that however in the day was also effective because if the camera shots are right it could still work. It doesn't damage our narrative much as he would still be in the film, just not the opening scene.



Lesson 20 - Coursework G321 - Filming Pt 4

11/1/16

Today we started to film the crime scene i really enjoyed this, so first thing we did was make Jake a believable detective, giving him a walkie talkie, torch, a long trench coat and a pair of glasses because they never hurt nobody. Then we pulled up a car, set the scene using the police tape the evidence cards (which we made in class) and the evidence its self today we used our time very efficiently, we had such a variety of shots. 

Such as
- Close ups
- Extreme close ups
- Over the shoulder
- Worms eye view
- High angle
- Low angle 
- Medium shot
- Tilt up
- POV
- Tracking
- Establishing shot
- Long shot

We took a lot of different shots because last time we struggled putting things together because we thought they didn't fit, whereas now we have a very large collection and options, furthermore doing this whole set up again will be a waste of time.



Lesson 21 - Coursework G321 - Filming Pt 5 (nearly there!)

12/1/16

We are nearly done, today we made a lot of changes, and i mean a lot. To begin with we finally put it in order (sort of). Once we did we still felt like something was missing. And something was, the bathroom scene wasn't effective enough. We decided it was best to do it again and get more effective angles, we went back and filmed it again this time we put the camera where the sink was (by the tap) looking up at Jake so you can see the water dripping down his face and him looking even more stressed. We filmed it and put it onto the mac, it was exactly what we needed. Now it was just editing editing editing! Another big change was was we ended the film with how we started, the bathroom scene then a flashback of the three victims (so we wasn't fully faithful to the story board, whoops..). The film was finally looking good, everything in order the transition were in place( transitions were used after the bathroom scene to show a change in time, and then again after to introduce it in the end, then a fade in transition of the three icy Blonde protagonists). But there was one thing missing, and i thought it was best to leave this nearer t the end. The music.

Lesson 22 - Coursework G321 - Finding the music and credits

15/1/16
This part we left till the very end for a few reasons, (even though it is risky) this is because we wanted to see our final product when it was finished, then add the sound track into it, after making this decision i didn't think it was a good idea, but it worked and proved to be effective, because if we had chosen it before our film was even finished we would've had no idea what it would've looked like, and this was actually a very good idea, the soundtrack we have chosen is a copyright free soundtrack which was paid for, it was really good, and worked very effective with out film. We then finally we started to add in our credits. We have our font, now we just had to find where to put them, and this was really easy with the help of our sound track, every time there was a spike in the song we added in the credits with a smooth fade in transition which made it look very professional and worked very well. 





































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