Adobe Tutorial

This helped us put the news banner as Adobe pro elements 10 is complicated to use, this provided plenty of help in producing an accurate and realistic news report.

Thriller Conventions

Thriller film conventions:

• Antagonist- Normally have twisted views of the world and they normally believe there actions can solve the worlds problems, they are normally psychopathic and in certain films they are portrayed as smart and thinking through there plan methodically, such as in Seven.
• Setting- Thrillers are normally set in very corrupt areas such as cities, haunted buildings, prisons etc, the dark streets in the city provide tense and mysterious backdrop.
• Protagonist- They are normally male characters who are going through a normal day, but in the film they are suddenly sent into an extraordinary plot.
• Themes- The director will normally put a number of themes into a film, the plot for example will normally revolve around some kind of mystery or some complicating conspiracy. Some films are designed around a theme such as Seven which is based aroun the seven deadly sins, these themes are placed around the whole film.
• Sound- The sound used in thrillers is crucial to showing the mood of the film, in thrillers the sound provides the most tension and suspense and it can make shots appear very menacing and dramatic to the audience
• Editing- The director will often use jump cuts as it often makes the film flow better and allows the film to make sense to the audience, it can also help build suspense in the audience and can cause jump scares, in some situations, it can also be used to show one of the characters is nervous and this can add tension to the scene this was widely used in the film District 9.

Storyboard Animatic

This is our animatic storyboard, this is what we used to design the different scenes we are planning to have in our trailer, the individual scenes are using the timings we want to use in the trailer. Overall the animatic storyboard was used often throughout filming to give us an idea on what to do next.

To do list this week

1) Questionnaire Evaluation - explain your findings and how this has influenced your film trailer

2) Title Research of films in your genre then create practise titles and explain what is effective and why

3) Sound Research

4) Online Tutorials to help with the filming and editing

5) Animatic Storyboard

6) Stereotypical props and character types featured in the opening - explain that the antagonist photos featured in the trailer are conventional as the detective often looks at the suspects. The antogonist is a stereotypical representation as he is a convicted criminal, male, middle-aged, serious and intimidating etc.

Shot types in our film

This is a list of some of the shot types which will be shown in our trailer, we will try to use a range of shots throughout.

Over the shoulder shot- This shot will be used when Chloe is sitting down watching the news report, the over the shoulder shot will show the TV and it will tell the audience that she is watching the report.

Close up- We will use this shot when we are showing the expression on Chloe's face, this will be when she is frightened due to the lights going off.

Extreme close up- This will be shown when the antagonist is in Chloe's house. There will be an extreme close up of his eyes, he will be seen to be very serious and intimidating which will link to his character.

Long shot- We will use a long shot when the antagonist is shown to be following one of his victims, we will also use a long shot when the antagonist is shown to be walking away from the scene with a knife.

Medium shot- This will be used when Thomas is doing the news report. A medium shot is good for us because it helps us show his smart clothing, indicating his reporter job, it also helps show the background, which is important because we are filming live from the scene.

First Day of Filming

This is Thomas Cunningham in our film, this is the scene where he is reporting in the news about the new dangerous convicts that has escaped the metal hospital. His costume was very good and he looks like a professional news reporter due to the suit and tie and the trench coat. This will be the opening shot of the trailer, we believe it will set the scene, as this character tells the audience what the trailer entails.

Diary of Filming

-On the 30th of November we filmed for the first time.

- The weather was good, as there was no rain, this meant we were able to film without any distractions.

- We were not able to film all of the shots

- We have filmed around half of the shots that we need to do

-We are going to look over the shots in the coming days and see if we need to re-film them

- The rest of the shots needed are at a different location

-These shots will be filmed in the coming days

- We feel the quality of the shots are a lot better than last years filming

- The camera quality is very good as we used a GoPro

This is Thomas Cunningham in our film, this is the scene where he is reporting in the news about the new dangerous convicts that has escaped the mental hospital. His costume was very good and he looks like a professional news reporter due to the suit and tie and the trench coat. This scene is the establishing shot of our trailer as it tells the audience what the trailer entails and what the movie will be structured on.

Production Logo

This is the production logo we have designed to add to the beginning of our trailer. The name J-RAT Media Productions comes from a combination of our filming groups names, and we thought it was effective and memorable.

Film Script

Starts off  near the crime scene, where Tom is reporting the murders.

THOMAS: We are now reporting live from the scene of a murder investigation. We believe that the source of this murder is from the recent outbreaks from the West Park Avenue mental asylum.

PRODUCTION CREDITS

inside Chloes living room while she's watching the news report

THOMAS: We would advise anyone within the area to stay inside until the murderer is caught, the police have informed us that this man has the potential to go on endangering the lives of others. 

To the first murder outside under the bridge.

(long shot of a stranger being followed by the stalker.)

(reverse shot of the other end of the pathway showing murderer walking off and showing the victim laying dead in the background)

TITLES- BASED ON A TRUE STORY


ALEX:  Who is it?  (shouting, while looking at pictures of potential suspects)

(back to Chloe's living room face timing the detective/ boyfriend)

CHLOE:  This stalker person is really creeping me out Matt, when will you be home?

ALEX: I'll be a few hours, you'll be fine, don't worry about it.

CHLOE; What was that?

ALEX: What?

CHLOE: I just heard something

ALEX: Don't be silly, i'll be home soon anyway stop worrying

CHLOE: Okay try and be as quick as...

ALEX: Chloe.... who's that behind you..

she turns around and lights turn off , Chloe screams 

MURDERER:  You better hurry home. ( fade to black transition)

TITLES- STALKER 

Thriller Genre History

The first thriller film was produced by Alfred Hitchcock in 1926, it was called The Lodger and was a suspenseful Jack the Ripper story, Hitchcock is considered by many to be the father of the modern psychological thriller film as he has produced so many critically acclaimed thriller films, he was nicknamed "the master of suspense", six of his 15 films in the 20's and 30's were thrillers and almost everything he did afterwards was Thriller, he also produced The Man Who Knew Too Much.

In the 1940's and 50's, Alfred Hitchcock continued producing suspense thrillers such as the Oscar winning film Rebecca which is about a women in danger from her husband. During the 50's the use of technicolour filming techniques became more widely used, Hitchcock began to use it in his films during this time period, he produced Strangers on a Train in 1951 which was about two train passengers who both staged a series of murders trying to outwit each other.

In the 1960's the violence that appeared in thriller films increased rapidly with the release of Peeping Tom, with Carl Boehm as a psychopathic cameraman the film was released prior to Hitchcock's Psycho. After Hitchcock produced the thriller Psycho, which at the time stunned and frightened audiences for its graphic deaths and tension, the film itself is about a loner mother-fixated motel owner who kills the guests at his motel. Spy thrillers also began to appear, films like James Bond were very popular especially during this time because it was the height of the Cold War.

The 70's and 80's had spy films scattered through them and most of the James Bond films were released during these decades. The industry also see's the last Hitchcock film as he died in 1980, he released one of his last films in 1972, it was called Frenzy and it made nearly $12 million. These years also saw rapid increase in the number of slasher films and films tended to be far more violent as the industry began using improved makeup and special effects techniques.

The 90's and films today have seen a wide range of thrillers, there have been several films based on thriller novels, most famously by Stephen King. The 90's was an era of obsession based films with a stalker usually following or becoming obsessed with a certain character an example of this was The talented Mr Ripley. There was however another theme throughout the 90's and this was the hunting down of serial killers, the most famous of which is Silence of the Lambs, which received best-picture in 1991, Seven was another famous thriller of this decade. Since then the thriller genre has started to reuse elements from previous films and add more violence and brutality, an example of this includes The Last House on the Left.