Best Shots

Establishing Shot:

Sun flare shot, we did this to make the feeling of speed for intense:

Final Shot, this shot shows the final stance that the king has, it is a metaphor as sometimes you end up on your own:

Josh

James - Music & Sound effects

During the making of our thriller opening, we threw around a fair few different soundtracks and sound effects in them to try and get the best effect. Our very first idea was to have a fully instrumental soundtrack to compliment the monologue. Before finishing, we had decided this wouldn't work as well as having a slightly more generic background drone, complimented by a few effects at the start. We also put a few effects on Dom's voiceover to make it sound more creepy. At the end, we decided to add a creepy little music box tune. The overall feel of it came out really well, adding a creepy tone to our Thriller Opening.

James

Editing

The editing proved very difficult in this opening. As you can see there are a lot of clips cutting to and from each other. I used quick fades and fast shots to keep the pace of the opening throughout.

Using colour correction we were able to achieve the black and white that we wanted. We did this by lowering the saturation removing the colour.

Here is the layout for our text. We wanted to stay true to our theme of political thriller so we used a very sophisticated font that portrayed class and intelligence.

this is the font we used:

Josh

Thriller Opening - Fool's Move

Achieved today 17/03/10 - Ryan & James

We have all agreed and decided that we are happy with the finished product.
Today we have managed to complete:

• all video and video effects we thought needed editing
• as well as all the music and sound effects that we removed and replaced
• and we are now exporting the video
  

-James and Ryan

Reasearch into similar products - Ryan - James

Similar films may include:
The Godfather - For instance the mafia aspect for the plot of our film

James bond (octopussy) - because of the chase scene where the clown is being chased by a man with a knife.

Carlito's way - Because of the film starts at the end with a monlogue speaking over the top of the opening sequence similar to our film opening

Ryan & James - Today 17/03/10

Today we are going to watch through the thriller opening and make any changes that may be needed such as any music, video or effects.

Achieved today - Ryan

Today we have edited the music and removed the helicopter and added the deep voice narration. outstanding :D

Narration - James and Ryan

"Chess: a war game, a battle of wits. In chess, sacrifices must be made to protect the king: the one who is held high above all others. This game is far more like life than it first seems. There is always one person that must survive to achieve victory, and there will always be people that will give their lives for the cause if needed, much like in chess, there will always be people that were meant to die. I used to think that I was the `king, the one that really mattered, but then, somehow, my position had shifted: I had become a pawn, and realised that I was the only one that could do what needed to be done to save the one who mattered most, and so I was the one who made the ultimate sacrifice."

This is the draft of or monologue script. We didn't take too long to piece it together, as we knew what we wanted said.

James & Ryan

2nd to last lesson of thriller opening - Ryan

Today we are going to fine tune the video and sound and if we have time we shall attempt to write the narration and record Dom's voice and put it on top of the opening.

Feedback of rough cut from class - Ryan

Good feedback:

• good ident
• shooting scene
• king knocked over
• opening credits
• fitting opening music
• smooth transitions
• effective shaky camera

Improvement feedback:

• Chess didn't make sense
• soundtrack starts well then goes down hill
• Helicopter irrelevant
• why did josh stop running
  

rough cut version of Fools move

Todays achievments - Ryan - 10/03/10

Today we have edited the rough cut film, add music and added sound effects. and this all been exported and put on to you tube and there are two different versions one for the recommended file format compression and the other in a slightly higher definition for better quality.

Today - 10/03/10 - Ryan

Today we are continuing the editing on the rough cut as well as the music and sound effects that will go with it ready for showing the rough cut to the rest of the class.

Ryan & Josh - Final day of shooting

Well, today me and Ryan were on our own, as Josh had a music exam, so we decided to get on without him. It was hard, as Josh played the main character, and we wanted to reshoot a few things. However, we ended up taking the ''gun shot'' and editting it into our final piece. It went very well, and we got the shots we needed, so well done us.

Todays plan - Ryan

Today we plan on doing the following things:

1. Filming the gun shot
2. adding this clip to the already existing film
3. adding gunshot effect over the top of the gun shot scene
4. and edit the entire film so that it is less disorientating and clear.

Todays filming session 01/03/10 - Ryan

Today we filmed the running scene for a fools move, this was filmed near the back of long road amongst the trees we chose to do this as the Grafton center was to far away and the woods at the end of long road was a lot more convenient. in this filming session we accomplished the running scene the chase scene and now must film the gunshot scene in which the protagonist is killed by the antagonist. this shot will be filmed on Wednesday the 3rd of march. and for the rest of this lesson we have to decided to blog and edit the new footage.

Today - 25/02/10 - Ryan

Today we are planning more on Mondays filming session for the running scene and the scene were the protagonist dies from a gun shot. also today we will be continuing with last lessons work and editing the music, video and sound of the final product.

for the gunshot we have decided to use josh's "Pango Gun" and a cap gun which we can use to spray fake blood over the wall behind the protagonist and use the cap gun to shoot him with, we have decided to use a cap gun as we get the spark from the end of the cap guns barrel creating a realistic visual effect, but for the sound of the gun we shall use a pre-recorded sound from a secondary source.

Filming and editting - Ryan

On Monday the 1st, we are going to start our last stage of filming. We've already filmed the bulk of our thriller in college, and are planning on polishing off the filming by next week.

The next piece of filming we need is a chase scene between the two on screen characters. This will probably be filmed in the Grand arcade roof, during the lesson on Monday.

Hopefully, the weather will allow us to do it, and we will have no problems. However, if the weather isn't favourable, we're going to use a school corridor as a back up plan.

-James & Ryan

rescheduling second filming session - Ryan, James, and Josh

Unfortunately we were unable to film today as we have neither the props and costume or the signed form for us to be able to take the camera off school grounds to either the Grand arcade or the Grafton center in Cambridge.

so instead this lesson we have decided to edit the sound and film of the footage we already have and link this to our ident for "JJR studios".

Hopefully we shall have props and costumes aswell as any other "mies en scene" for monday 01/03/10.

Josh, James & Ryan

Next Filming session plan - Ryan

Next filming session we plan to film the running scene's providing the weather calms down, and we shall film the gunshot scene at the end of the running scene which hopefully shall take place in either the grand arcade or the Grafton center this will be filmed through the point of view of the pursuer.
The main character will be wearing smart casual wear and for the gunshot will attempt a squib wear we attempt to create a realistic gunshot wound effect and will beshot with a cap gun. this will hopefully happen next lesson.

Ryan - Today 11/02/10

Today we filmed the the chess scene where the two enemy's are competing we used room G1 where we dimmed the light by closing blinds doors, then we increased the light using a lamp to spotlight the chess board but keep the surrounding room dark , we also took some different still shots to check and compare which lighting we preferred the most.
During this scene we do not break the 180 degree rule and we use a couple of different angles and zooms including:

High angles
low angles
close ups
extreme close ups
panning shots
over the shoulder view (of the white king)

For the running scene we are going to use:

panning shots
hand-held tracking camera
long shot
first person view

Ryan - 15 certification

Suitable only for adults. Nobody younger than 18 may see an 18 film in a cinema. No-one younger than 18 can rent or buy an 18 rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game.

The beginning of the start of our film - Ryan - James - Josh

Ryan - more planning for film

Props:

• cap gun
• Cap rounds
• Chess board
• Chess pieces
• Fake blood
  

Costume:

• Suits (or formal clothing)
• Wrist band
• hair tie

Lighting (design/effects + equipment?):

• dark with spotlight during chess scene

Make up/hair:

• hair spray
• Long hair slicked back

List of equipment:

• video camera
• Tripod
• Dolly

Sound (music, dialogue effects, narrator):

• Orchestral music.
• police helicopter, police radio chatter, radio channel changing, shuttle landing, police siren, rain, thunder and phone ringing.
• Narrator (deep voice) over running and chess scenes.

Actors:

• Ryan - Bad guy. Josh - main character.

Ryan & James - rough plot idea

The rough idea for the plot is about a man that is part of the mafis, at the begining we see the main character playing chess. In between playing chess there are scenes of the main character running away from something or someone, the chess is not part of the plot but is used as a metaphor for life and how one wrong move can end the game. first of all we start at the end of the film, where the main character is playing chess and cutting between being chased, our group has decided that he is not fully aware of his role in the mafia and is actually the heir to the 'throne' of their family's mafia. The general plot is that he starts off, refusing to have anything to do with the mafia, but is slowly pulled into it, and dies at the end.

James & Ryan





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Possible Location Photos - Ryan - Josh

Here we have some of the locations that may be used as a location during the thriller for things such as chases and the chess game.

Ryan + James - ideas for thriller/introduction explanation

Our thriller opening is going to be based around a chess board. this is relevant, as the opening monologue running over the top is comparing chess to life. The main character is the one playing chess, and he eventually loses, as he speaks of how the wrong move can end the game, the game being life. We cut this up with scenes of him running, and end it with a gun shot, and his hand on the floor as his opponent gets checkmate.

He speaks about sacrificing pieces, and how sometimes sacrificing too many for whatever reasons can end the game as well. He continues to speak about tactics and plans. The main point is that we began at the end, and how he sacrifices himself, but could win in the end.

It starts with a black screen, playing the sounds of a police scanner, in reference to the fact that the main character is some form of gangster. The reason he dies is that he's drawing the assassin away from his previous target his brother who has information on a raid being planned against their 'family' (Mafia)

Over the black screen, we will have jumpy white titles, and the occasional cut into the running scenes. during the chess scene, we see the main characters hand, with a distinctive ring, and when he dies, we get a close up of his hand again, so the audience knows that it's him that is dying.

James & Ryan (Collaboration)

Ryan - my new ideas

Adding on from our groups idea of using a chess board in the opening scene i could imagine this being about a man with the mental condition "Autisim" this has made the main character lacking with some skills such as social skills but has made him excel in the world of maths, this man in particular is called to try and predict an event using the chaos theory.

Pitch

The idea for our thriller opening revolves around the game of chess. We will have a narration over the top, explaining how chess is a lot like life. with each move the scene will cut to a frantic running scene, this will go on with the music growing in intensity until it comes to the final move to put the opposing team in check mate. As the piece lands it will cut to a gun shot!

we will make the chess pieces move using stop frame animation so there is no need for human intervention!

josh

Ryan - thriller

some ideas that i have had for the thriller opening:

i think it should be a psychological thriller, and in this i am going to research different mental conditions that we could use for a character in the opening which makes the person hallucinate, using this mental condition we can show the characters internal struggle and make the audience feel unsettled using strange canted angles and increase or lower the speeds of characters or scenery and also change the colour of people and objects in the characters point of view.

The openings plot:
i think in the opening we should include: blood on the edge of a chair in the middle of a room, where a person has been capturing victims and performing a gruesome torture, and is believed to have a mental condition, when in fact the person attempting to capture him has the mental condition and does not realize but during the film is given hints by the supposed murderer who is trying to capture, the main character turns out to be the true murderer and is chasing a family member. this roughly what i believe the plot should turn out to be.

Josh Post Thriller

this thriller is very effective because it has a great amount of tension. As one of the main characters is paralyzed from the neck down it appeals to your sympathy.

thriller definition 2

The suspense is terrible," says Gwendolen in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), before adding, "I hope it will last." This witticism contains an intriguing paradox. Why is it that we both fear and enjoy being frightened? Alfred Hitchcock always thought it started in a mother's arms, when she says 'Boo!' to her child, who is first startled and then delighted. In the cinema, this sensation might have originated in the first public screenings of films by the Lumière brothers in 1895. "A train appears on the screen," wrote Maxim Gorky in a memorable newspaper review. "It speeds straight at you - watch out! It seems as though it will plunge into the darkness in which you sit..." Some audiences did indeed flee the theatres in terror, but they must have returned, because the cinema had soon established itself as the most popular mass medium of the early twentieth century.

Audiences went to the cinema not simply to see but also to feel something which they would not ordinarily experience in real life. At one extreme, they were enthralled by the ingenuity of the dog in Rescued by Rover(1905) as it discovers the whereabouts of a kidnapped child. At another, they shuddered as the title character of F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu(Germany, 1922) makes his sinister progress to the heroine's bedchamber. Something of that film's eerie atmosphere seeped into the first thriller masterpiece of the British cinema, The Lodger (1926); and the first major British talkie, Blackmail (1929) was also a thriller, using sound particularly imaginatively in the scene when the recurrence of the word 'knife' in the mouth of a gossipy neighbour presses on the heroine's guilty conscience like an exposed nerve.

The director of both films was the young Alfred Hitchcock, who declared his intention "to give the public good healthy mental shake-ups". So he supplied a string of films during the 1930s - including The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935), Sabotage (1936) and The Lady Vanishes (1938) - which set the standard by which future English thrillers were to be judged. They also set some important ground rules. In the thriller, whodunit is not that important, and unlike the gangster or the crime film, the leading protagonist can be an innocent bystander who gets caught up in the adventure, like Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) in The 39 Steps. In this way, an audience is gripped because the hero is an Everyman figure grappling with unexpected danger not too far removed from possibility. Needless to say, not all thrillers of the decade were of that quality, least of all - with a few exceptions - the so-called 'quota quickies', supporting features designed to fulfil as cheaply as possible quota requirements for British films. Nevertheless, films like Carol Reed'sNight Train to Munich (1938) and Thorold Dickinson's The Arsenal Stadium Mystery (1939) had something of Hitchcock's verve.

During the war, the thriller was pressed into service to guard people against complacency. Dickinson's Next of Kin (1942) warned that 'careless talk costs lives', while Alberto Cavalcanti's Went the Day Well? (1942) was a disturbing fantasy about a possible German invasion of England. The latter was based on a story by Graham Greene, who scripted three of the best British thrillers of the late 1940s, the Boulting Brothers' Brighton Rock (1947), based on his own novel, and two films directed by Carol Reed, The Fallen Idol (1948) and The Third Man (1949), the former a study of innocence and experience, the latter an extraordinary evocation of the amorality of post-war Europe. Prior to these films, Reed had also directed the outstanding Odd Man Out (1947), which, alongside two films of the same year, Cavalcanti's They Made Me a Fugitive and Robert Hamer's It Always Rains on Sunday, cast a noirish gloom across post-war tales of betrayal and disillusionment.

The most significant thrillers of the next decade or so often combined suspense with a social conscience. Particularly adept at this were the producer-director team of Michael Relph and Basil Dearden, examining the policeman's lot in The Blue Lamp (1950), racial prejudice in Sapphire(1959) and homosexuality in the groundbreaking Victim (1961). Similarly, the Boulting Brothers' Seven Days to Noon (1950) combined an exciting race-against-time structure with a thoughtful sub-text about the dangers of atomic research. Forced into exile during the McCarthyist era in America, Joseph Losey brought a stylistic flamboyance to Time Without Pity (1957) and Blind Date (1959) but also brought his socialist sympathies to bear in attacking capital punishment in the former film and exposing class hypocrisy and police malpractice in the latter. Another blacklisted American, Cy Endfield also enlivened the English scene with the exciting Hell Drivers (1957) and with a B-feature, Impulse (1955), made for Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman's Tempean films, which produced some competent low-budget thrillers during this period. The most controversial thriller of the time, however, was undoubtedly Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (1960), which, brilliantly but disturbingly, analysed the tortured psychology of its hero and implicated the audience in his anguished voyeurism.

It would be fair to say that the antics of James Bond rather overshadowed most British attempts to revitalise the thriller in the 1960s. Indeed, refreshment came from abroad, with two remarkable films from European auteurs working in London. Roman Polanski's Repulsion (1965) clinically observed the mental breakdown of a lonely young woman (Catherine Deneuve) whose alienation will lead her to murder. Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up (1966) told an ambiguous tale of a fashionable London photographer who films an incident in a park that looks like a harmless love scene but, on closer photographic inspection, could be a murder. The artistic ambition of that film was to be matched at the end of the decade by Donald Cammell's and Nicolas Roeg's Performance (1970), in which a reclusive pop star begins to play deadly mind games with a gangster on the run who has stumbled into his lair. Roeg was later to top this with the cinematically adventurous Don't Look Now (1973), which added sensuality and the supernatural to breathtaking suspense.

In subsequent years, some of the most interesting thrillers stiffened their suspense with political undertones. If Richard Lester's Juggernaut (1974) seemed in part to use its situation of an ocean liner in peril as an audacious metaphor for the last days of Edward Heath's Conservative Government, later films like John Mackenzie's The Long Good Friday(1979), David Drury's The Defence of the Realm (1985) and Peter Greenaway's The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989) spun tense tales of entrepreneurial greed, political conspiracy and materialist rapacity to communicate what they saw as the ruthless values of Thatcherism.

Recent examples have tended to lack that political and social edge and have been slick but relatively conventional in their dramatic strategies, such as Danny Boyle's Shallow Grave (1994) and two popular gangster-thrillers, Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) andJonathan Glazer's Sexy Beast (2000). Nowadays it is more common to find a good British thriller on television than in the cinema, but it remains a fascinatingly flexible form that, at its best, can undermine complacency through a dramatic rendering of psychological, social, familial and political tensions; and can encourage sheltered but sensation-hungry audiences, in Hitchcock's phrase, "to put their toe in the cold water of fear to see what it's like."

Thriller definition 1

Here we take a brief look at what exactly is the definition of the thriller genre? There's no narrow definition. According to International Thriller Writers, a thriller is characterized by "the sudden rush of emotions, the excitement, sense of suspense, apprehension, and exhilaration that drive the narrative, sometimes subtly with peaks and lulls, sometimes at a constant, breakneck pace." In short, a thriller thrills. How? Mostly through skillful plotting.

Thriller is a genre of fiction in which tough, resourceful, but essentially ordinary heroes are pitted against villains determined to destroy them, their country, or the stability of the free world. Part of the allure of thrillers comes from not only what their stories are about, but also how they are told. High stakes, non-stop action, plot twists that both surprise and excite, settings that are both vibrant and exotic, and an intense pace that never lets up until the adrenalin packed climax.

Thriller fiction is hot! What makes readers love it so? How is it different from straight mystery or suspense? What is a thriller?

Homer's Odyssey is one of the oldest stories in the Western world and is regarded as an early prototype of the thriller.

Today, thriller novels provide a rich literary feast embracing a wide variety of worlds - the law, espionage, action-adventure, medicine, police and crime, romance, history, politics, high-tech, and religion.
Thrillers are usually about life and death situations. When skillfully written, thrillers can also carry the load of bigger themes than strict realism will allow. Other examples of this genre in literature include The Da Vinci Code, The Hunt for Red October, The Day of the Jackal, and Jurassic Park.

The Thriller fiction genre, sometimes called suspense fiction, is a genre of literature that typically entails fast-paced plots, numerous action scenes, and limited character development. One example is that: the hero, who may even be an ordinary citizen drawn into danger and intrigue by circumstances beyond their control faces danger alone or in the company of a small band of companions. The protagonist may be a law enforcement agent, a journalist, or a soldier, but typically he or she is cut off from the resources of "their" organization.

Part of the allure of thrillers comes from not only what their stories are about but how they are told. The plot of a thriller is usually driven by the villain, who presents obstacles that the hero must overcome.

Not all thrillers are suspense novels; but many suspense novels are thrillers. The average thriller is longer than the average mystery, which makes a brisk pace crucial to success.

What Makes A Thriller - by james and josh

Definitions: A thriller movie is one of great suspense, a film designed to scare and intrigue the viewer. Basically its meant to 'thrill" them

Josh's Example:



I think what makes this opening so scary is the fact that it appeals to people fear of clowns. (Josh) I too have a fear of clown which is why, for me, it is one of the scariest film openings of all time!

James' Example:



I think what makes this opening such a brilliant opening, is that it leaves so many questions off the get go. It becomes very psychological very quickly, and keeps the viewer glued to the screen.

Whats A Thriller - by josh

A thriller has been described in many different ways. It's been described as psychological, action packed in some cases, and a lot of the time it's been described as shocking. Our favourite of all of the definitions, however, is: "An action film sees the protagonist running towards the danger, whereas a thriller is about the protagonist running away from the danger". Brilliant. It sums up the ideas of a thriller very quickly. That's why we liked it, thinking that it just about sums up the difference between the two genres.

Ryan - Evaluation - Preliminary task 2

This time we managed to maintain the continuity rather well making sure that characters, plot and costumes stay the same within a scene. we also maintained the 180 degree rule during a conversation this is when you swap sholder views of the characters but stay on the same side of them all the time so when looking at two people facing each other i will be on the right hand side of one characters point of view and on the left of the other characters point of view. Match on action we used this when josh enters the building through the automatic doors we see him enter the building from the outside then change to a clip of josh entering the building from the inside in the same position this is a match on action. during using the 180 degree that i mentioned earlier we used a shot to counter shot also known as a reaction shot, this is when one character may speak and it cuts to the next character showing him react to the other persons voice for example.

=) - Ryan - (=

Second Preliminary Task

Prelim Evaluation

1) we achieved continuity editing eventually after a while. We encountered some problems with the match on action shot as i cut it too close. however we started again and sorted it out by allowing it to run a bit more before cutting

2) we managed to maintain the 180 degree rule very well, ryan always stayed on our left and therefore maintained the continuity of the scenes

3) we struggled with the match on action shot, when i walk through the door at the beginning, but like i said we managed to work it out and make a good opening!

4) shot counter shot was quite easy for us and we managed to keep it intersting with different shot each time. we also used a close up at the end.

josh

Ryan - second preliminary task

For the second preliminary task i think we have improved by a long way. we have all the shots including: Establishing shot, close up shot, match on action shot, reaction shot, long shot and filming a conversation using the 180 degree rule correctly. we were also able to acquire the shots very quickly: this makes me feel that our thriller opening sequence will run a lot smoother and we will not have to rush things to reach the deadline in time with a good plot set up for the rest of the film. =) - Ryan - (=

Preliminary Task (josh)

Our last preliminary task was a complete travesty against all cinematic creations. However this time round we intend to learn from our mistakes and go for a much simpler and easy to understand film. This time it is a bout two men talking about "the stuff" one wants the stuff, the other is dealing the stuff! The man dealing "The Stuff" is unaware what "the stuff" is.

Instead of trying to be clever we used conventional shots that were easy to understand. All in all i think we achieved something a lot better then our initial try.

Josh =]]

In preparation for our second Preliminary Task - James

We've just been told we have to do the SAME THING AGAIN, and it's really quite upsetting. I suppose it gives us another shot at it, seeing as we made royal d***heads of ourselves last time. Last time, we went for an over complicated plot, and tried to deconstruct continuity, when in all actuality, we were meant to show we could do continuity. Fail. Anyways, we thought for our next preliminary task, we'd be smarter: Simpler plot, better shots, generally more effort. A lot more thought has been put into this preliminary so that we can get the full marks for it, rather then doing the EXACT opposite of what we did before.

Our idea for our preliminary task, the one we are actually going to use and NOT muck up, is a conversation between 2 rather shady characters, talking about picking up ''the stuff''. Little bit of confrontation, and some quick camera work, and it should turn out well. Here's hoping. Skittles...

-James <3>