Other Footage

Thriller final - the darkroom

Titles

As a group we decided to have a simple but effective title. We thought that with our theme being what it was it would be a bit tacky to have a big edited title, also it reduses the age of the target audience.
In the end we went for a white font, and had it at a medium size. This was ontop of footage and came in time to the music.Not too quick - so it couldn't be read but not slow so that the audeience was bored.
We selected specififc areas of our opening to put the credidts so that they werent obscuring the view of the audience and so that they could be seen easily with the coulours on screen at the time.
We didnt have any animated effects on our title. instead we chose a simple fade in and fade out for each item and for the final main title we had a quick run of fade ins to create a flickering effect. this was intentionally there to give suspence and use elements of thriller conventions.
Overall our titles are very effective as they stand out, fit with our colour schemes, suite the target audience and can be easilty read.

feedback

Cinematography
Which shot do you think are effective?
The black and white shots of the trees worked well to the thriller convention.
The music box, the girl spinning, however i dont like the reflection.
The beggining in the dark room and where the lights are continues
The darkroom scenes and the music box

What do you think of the abstract elements?
Red water works well and creates a element of evil however ballerina is confusing
Music box makes you question why and what is going on
The shot of the ballerina from above is good.
Red lighting area is very good.

Editing
What do you think of our colour themes?
Everything worked well, and colours worked well together.

How do you think the editing creates atmosphere?
Backwards and forwards clips work well, the quick cuts where effective.

The editing makes it eerie.
Blurry shots as if in first person shots worked really well.
Sound
Is the sound appropriate for the thriller genre ?
The music is great at the start but changes later on - not sure if it works.
We like the change, the music is eerie and creates atmosphere.
It is a little bit random but works well and is appropriate.
The build up inthe music works well in combination with the numbers shown in the darkroom ( almost like a coubntdown).
what do you think of the clockwork doll music?
We like it but could have been a transition between the two tracks.
Good, but needed a fade in.

Mise - en - scene
what do you think of our choice of settings? where they appropriate ?
All worked well.
I like the darkroom clips and the forest in black and white.

how do you think the doll fits in with the opening?
Creates questions but is a little confusing.

Overall effect
do you enjoy the opening sequence? does it make you want to wathc the film?
Yes the music is awesome.
Yes all the parts together make it look like an intresting film.
Yes we liked it.

Is our idea too typical? if so why?
No, there were some elements that didnt work but overall was really good.
No.

rough cut

we where going to use this image as part of our opening sequence as a flash clip to give the audience an idea about what might happen to the character, or what the killer is doing. we could still addd this into our sequence but now we feel there is less of as a need becuase we have changed our ideas and plans for the project so shot different footage with a different story line. we photoshoped this image adding the noose in and changing the colours to balck and white we also edited the birghtness, contrast and the levels of the image to make it stand out more when the flash happened. It would also go with the colours we where planning to use and fits with the thriller conventions.

visual ideas.

Although this is not a photo we have taken ourselves it shows the eeire wood effect we are trying to achieve. This in our piece signifies a mysterious chase.
This image shows a simular prop to the one we will be using. The wooden effect shows that it is a belonging to an older girl rather than a young child.

This image will not be used in our piece it just highlights the contrast of the red and black and shows a simular effects to what we will be using.

We are now in the final stages of completing our thriller openning sequence. We have taken all the shots, recorded the music now we simply need to edit all the shots and syncronise the music with the video. Because we have more video than music time we may have to extend our soundtrack to fit the openning sequence perfectly.

rough cut comments

From our rough cut we got feed back form each group:

mise en scene:
good, mysterious as your see no characters faces
liked the dark and showdy forest makes it intreeging

Cinematography:
like the blur when the camera moves - fast paced /hectic feel
bluryness in woods is good
unclearness really works well
like the hand held camera
good variety of shots
tree shots and quick changes worked well and built up tension

editing:
graysclae and darkend room was well done, lighting was good throughout as it provided the sence of unknown
dsitorted shorts work well.
good choice of colours greyscale and dull
black and white works well

sound:
music to distorted sounds works well

genre conventions:
the dark room was effective as you couldnt tell what was happening so it engaged the audience
black and white trees worked better than if they were in colour as they showed mystery

change of plan .....

Unfortunately our initial plan could not go ahead, as we came across a large issue that could not be solved. On the day of filming we went down to the train station to film our main bit of footage. We began filming as soon as we left the college site, filming different bits of our journey to help capture a realistic opening.
Our approach of the station had to be taken severall times so we could get a variety of shots an angles which could be edited to make a realistic yet interesting sequence.Whilst film in the station itself we were approached by a security guard who informed us that it was against the law to film on or around the station area, this was security reasons.
As a result of this it meant our plan could not proceed any futher. Although we could have found simular aleternatives we decided against this as we believed it would not be overall as effective.
Inturn this meant we had to change our whole idea, this was a very big set back for the group as it was so late on in the timescale set.
This imapacted our project as it meant a new idea had to be formed from scratch. We sat down and discussed severall possibilities and came up with the idea of an abstract mystery. We decided our main themes would be an up pace event (the woods) and a slower contrasting abstarct effect( the ballerina and water and red lighting.)
we used overnight sessions to film sections in a wood, this was a very long piece which had to be edited to form a quick appropriate section of the piece. this would create a mysterious and sinister effect to be appropriate to the thriller genre.
The woods are there along with the footage from the darkroom to provide the main story line but are intersected withother elements to create an abstarct effect.
to end our piece we will use a spinning ballerina from a jewellery box, witha lullaby tune in the background: this will highlight the innocene of some people in the film and leave the audience with an eerie feeling.

props: mise en scene

train station

hangman

we might use this as part of our fliming clip. i like to combination of the writing and image. the scribbling on the wall over t he writing make it mysterious and adds the the thriller affect.

noose image 1

This image has an instant eerie impact on the audience. even though it is in a light room the noose really carries the thriller effect.

We found this image on the internet under the title of "lynching" although it is to do with historic events we also feel it can relate to our thriller as a man being hung in the woods.

shot list

1)train tracks
2)train
3)outside station
4)focus on man
5)walk into station
6)look at public
7)back of head looking at timetable
8)look at his watch
9)start walking out
10)tracks
11)approach coffee place
12)look at man behind counter
13)ordering drink
14)look around
15)focus on table with newspaper
16)walks over
17)newspaper
18)sitting down
19)opens newspaper
20)scanning page
21)begins reading
22)looks up at noise
23)see noise
24)look at paper
25)flash at paper
26)image of hanging
27)back to normal paper
28)train passes
29)back to table
30) paper fades into credits
31)title

animatic plan.

Vague Idea

First shot will be someone sitting at train station looking at people walking past and writing things on a newspaper. there will be different shots of the person, slowly zooming out revealing their physical appearance. the camera will then switch between the main character and what he is looking at, for the final step of the opening sequence it will reveal what the person has been drawing which will be something to do with someone being hung.

The sequence will be constantly changing between the story and the credits which will be displayed in front of a background which we think will probably be similar to the student thriller opening 2007 "Surface". maybe some ink in water or something along those lines.

Together we found this opening sequence very effective for many different reasons. overall the combination of many effects has created a piece very appropriate for the genre using typical thriller conventions.
we really like the use of ink in water we think that the abstract idea mixed with the combination of footage creates suspense and interest for the audience.
The music in the opening sequence is appropriate and very effective. Both non-diegetic and diegetic sound have been used to there greatest potential. the way that we cant always see visual images of what is happening the audience has to use one sense (hearing) and their own imagination. this makes the audience dependent on the film to improve their knowledge about what will happen.
The use of black and white with the red, shows connotations to violence and mystery and the contrasts work well.
The colours that are used when the title comes up work well together and the music plus the cinematography compliment each other well.
Our only criticism would be that the end bit of footage reveals too much.

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stylistic conventions:-
mise en scene: For the fight scene there clothes are tared an d there faces are bruised

cinematography: Lots of different angles which gives a nice action/thriller effect. In the fight scene there are a lot of different frames, this keeps the viewer engaged in what's going on.

sound: Considering it's a thriller the music is quite quick and jumpy but at the same time it really works with everything that's going on.

Opening Sequence Analysis

Stylistic conventions( thriller):-
mise en scene:

cinematography:

• begins unfocused so that the audiecne knows nothing and creates tension until elements are revealed.
• camera distance varies: when watching the target in uses mid shot and long distance. but when showing the villain it reveals his identity bit by bit using extreme close ups then a close up to show his hole face. this creates suspense.

sound:

• The music goes from lullaby to heavy string (creating eerie and sinister effect)

editing:

• Slow motion when the mans shot creates suspense
• the view of the man through the gun highlights the target, and shows part of the plot of the film.
  

Narrative and character:

• Innocence of man shown though the affection for the child

themes and ideas:

• As the balloons fly off it shows the fun has completely gone and becomes serious,

• The central event is a crime (shooting)
• black and white distorted horses create mystery and disturbance.