Tuesday, 24 March 2009
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
Preliminary Planning
For our preliminary task we chose to do a thriller to gain practise for our thrillier movies we would later be doing. For it we used a crime, credit card fraud, that is happening around us currently. This showed us how the idea would work on film.We made it so members of our group themselves were in it. Then we wouldn't be forever getting worked up about whether people were going to show up, or do things right as we knew when we had to be there and what we had to do.This way we had more time on our hands to film and edit it.
Thursday, 5 February 2009
Actor Evaluations For Our Thriller
The female in our thriller is a stereotypical femme fatale. She is the main character, she wears a glamorous dress with high heels and you even see her putting on the red lipstick. She has perfect hair and perfect make up to go with it. She goes into the toilets to change her look, this is so anyone who could have noticed her before doesn't recognise her now and she is in less jeopardy of being caught by her victims of whom she took their credit cards.
She gets in trouble at the end of our clip, as she gets caught out by a man whose wallet she'd previously stolen and then it ends, so you don't know what has happened to her, why she steals wallets, if its for her own benefit or not or if she's doing it for someone else. This could spark a lot of thought to the audience. Has she had a hard upbringing and needs to get ahead of life? Perhaps she used to be abused or bullied as she was growing up and wants to show them all she is better than them. Does she just like fancy, expensive clothing and accsessories and needs a way to pay for it all? Is she fed up of being perfect in all aspects and is looking for a bit of excitement, a bit of danger? All these questions could be running through the minds of the audience, which is good, great infact and would urge them to watch the rest of the film.
She gets in trouble at the end of our clip, as she gets caught out by a man whose wallet she'd previously stolen and then it ends, so you don't know what has happened to her, why she steals wallets, if its for her own benefit or not or if she's doing it for someone else. This could spark a lot of thought to the audience. Has she had a hard upbringing and needs to get ahead of life? Perhaps she used to be abused or bullied as she was growing up and wants to show them all she is better than them. Does she just like fancy, expensive clothing and accsessories and needs a way to pay for it all? Is she fed up of being perfect in all aspects and is looking for a bit of excitement, a bit of danger? All these questions could be running through the minds of the audience, which is good, great infact and would urge them to watch the rest of the film.
We used this actor has he looka like the type of person to be easy to robbed. He doesn't look strong, tough or harmful. Viewers thoughts would turn to 'vulnerable' the male actor. Did he really not notice her take the wallet? Was it part of a big plan to capture her? Is he really that trusting of people to just leave his wallet stuck in his back pocket like that? Supposing he is, is there a reason to be so trusting? Will he be in the rest of the film? Will he notice it's gone and have any suspects? Is he part of any gang or organisation? The audience will want to know so many of these answers that they will want to watch the rest of the film.
Our actor for this role has broader shoulders and is bigger all around to show toughness and doesn't seem like victim material. The audience will think about the second male now and think up different circumstances for him too. How did he know it was her? Did she steal his wallet at the train station too? Is he part of a gang or organisation constructed to bring down people like her? Was it just chance that she took his wallet and not the man standing the other side of the building than him? Was he deliberatly standing in her path? Was there something in his wallet, some kind of tracker that made him able to pick up her location? Did he know who she was anyway? Was he family? Was he her abuser? Was he her pimp even? All these many, many questions would need to be answered. The audience would have to watch the rest of the movie to find this out, making the introduction a great acheivement as it does what it's intended to do.
Audience Research Questionnaire Results
We handed our questionnaire out to 20 people, 10 males and 10 females, in order to make the results fair.
The most common age group we were able to pass it out to was the 15-20 year olds.
We gave them out to an even number of boys and girls.
Most of them were students who watch films at least once a week.
A lot of them would rather watch films at the cinema with their family or friends, but sometimes cant affort to or want to spend their money on other things. Therefore watch it at home on the TV, online or DVDs they already have.
Boys mostly wanted girls to have the leading role, though a few did choose men for the butch male action aspect of it. Girls are the opposite, primarily choosing male for the leading role, though a few wanted to see a girl in the lead.
The most common favourite genre that our results turned was action. Both girls and boys in there late teens like the thrill of action scenes, especially with a bit of romance mixed in.
All of the results showed that they preferred to watch films in colour.
The most common age group we were able to pass it out to was the 15-20 year olds.
We gave them out to an even number of boys and girls.
Most of them were students who watch films at least once a week.
A lot of them would rather watch films at the cinema with their family or friends, but sometimes cant affort to or want to spend their money on other things. Therefore watch it at home on the TV, online or DVDs they already have.
Boys mostly wanted girls to have the leading role, though a few did choose men for the butch male action aspect of it. Girls are the opposite, primarily choosing male for the leading role, though a few wanted to see a girl in the lead.
The most common favourite genre that our results turned was action. Both girls and boys in there late teens like the thrill of action scenes, especially with a bit of romance mixed in.
All of the results showed that they preferred to watch films in colour.
Shot List - Thriller
Shot 1.
Shot of the back of the males head
Shot 2.
Female walks by, just behind the man and walks away.
Shot 3.
Shot back to the male, standing alone in train station. He's looking at train times.
Shot 4.
Cuts back to the female looking round suspiciously and slowly moving towards the male.
Shot 5.
Close up of her hand removing his wallet from his back pocket.
Shot 6.
Mid-shot of her walking away.
Shot 7.
Extreme close up of her hand and the wallet. She removes his credit cards and money.
Shot 8.
Close up of her putting the money and cards into her bag.
Shot 9.
Mid-shot of her walking away and throwing the wallet into a bin.
Shot 10.
She walks up to the toilets and looks around before going in. Door swings shut behind her.
Shot 11.
Mid-Shot of her in a cubicle in the toilets with the door shut. Audience can only see her legs and feet.
Just see her coat fall to the floor.
Shot 12.
Cubicle door opens. Audience see woman in a dress. She picks up the coat and hangs it on the back of the door.
Shot 13.
She walks over to the mirror and puts on expensive jewellery. Over the shoulder shot, as she looks in the mirror. We can only see her reflection and the door behind her.
Shot 14.
As another woman walks in, we still see her reflection but we can now clearly see a man in dark clothing standing outside the toilets.
Woman doesn't notice him.
Shot 15.
She walks out of the toilets and walks off.
Shot 16.
Long shot of the man, with the crowd all moving around him.
Shot 17.
He starts to follow the woman. He keeps his distance from her.
Shot 18.
As he gets closer to her, you see her stop and apply some red lipstick in a compact mirror.
He blends back into the crowd.
Shot 19.
He starts to move towards her again, as she moves off. (His identity is never revealed)
She's still looking in the mirror.
Shot 20.
She notices him staring and moving towards her. Her eyes widen, and she starts walking briskly.
Shot 21.
She stops again and looks around, using the mirror. She see's no-one.
Shot 22.
She starts to finish applying lipstick. A mans arm appears and grabs her arm.
Shot 23.
Lipstick is smeared across her face while the mirror falls to the floor. The end of the lipstick breaks off.
Shot 24.
Still shot of shattered glass on the floor.
Shot of the back of the males head
Shot 2.
Female walks by, just behind the man and walks away.
Shot 3.
Shot back to the male, standing alone in train station. He's looking at train times.
Shot 4.
Cuts back to the female looking round suspiciously and slowly moving towards the male.
Shot 5.
Close up of her hand removing his wallet from his back pocket.
Shot 6.
Mid-shot of her walking away.
Shot 7.
Extreme close up of her hand and the wallet. She removes his credit cards and money.
Shot 8.
Close up of her putting the money and cards into her bag.
Shot 9.
Mid-shot of her walking away and throwing the wallet into a bin.
Shot 10.
She walks up to the toilets and looks around before going in. Door swings shut behind her.
Shot 11.
Mid-Shot of her in a cubicle in the toilets with the door shut. Audience can only see her legs and feet.
Just see her coat fall to the floor.
Shot 12.
Cubicle door opens. Audience see woman in a dress. She picks up the coat and hangs it on the back of the door.
Shot 13.
She walks over to the mirror and puts on expensive jewellery. Over the shoulder shot, as she looks in the mirror. We can only see her reflection and the door behind her.
Shot 14.
As another woman walks in, we still see her reflection but we can now clearly see a man in dark clothing standing outside the toilets.
Woman doesn't notice him.
Shot 15.
She walks out of the toilets and walks off.
Shot 16.
Long shot of the man, with the crowd all moving around him.
Shot 17.
He starts to follow the woman. He keeps his distance from her.
Shot 18.
As he gets closer to her, you see her stop and apply some red lipstick in a compact mirror.
He blends back into the crowd.
Shot 19.
He starts to move towards her again, as she moves off. (His identity is never revealed)
She's still looking in the mirror.
Shot 20.
She notices him staring and moving towards her. Her eyes widen, and she starts walking briskly.
Shot 21.
She stops again and looks around, using the mirror. She see's no-one.
Shot 22.
She starts to finish applying lipstick. A mans arm appears and grabs her arm.
Shot 23.
Lipstick is smeared across her face while the mirror falls to the floor. The end of the lipstick breaks off.
Shot 24.
Still shot of shattered glass on the floor.
Shooting Schedule - Thriller
We did our shooting for our film over two weeks. Overall we did about four and a half hours of filming, all done at the early evening time of day.
Week 1
Thursday - 1 hour
Friday - 1 hour
Sunday - 1 hour
Week 2
Saturday - 1 hour
Monday - half an hour.
We didn't know how long we would need to take so we planned out for 6 hours, but we stopped on the Monday after half an hour because we had shot enough film to make our thriller with. We thought, if we needed any extra parts we could of gone and shot a bit more during editing, but we haven't needed to.
Week 1
Thursday - 1 hour
Friday - 1 hour
Sunday - 1 hour
Week 2
Saturday - 1 hour
Monday - half an hour.
We didn't know how long we would need to take so we planned out for 6 hours, but we stopped on the Monday after half an hour because we had shot enough film to make our thriller with. We thought, if we needed any extra parts we could of gone and shot a bit more during editing, but we haven't needed to.
Prop Evaluations For Our Thriller
For our thriller, we didn't use too many props as the main objects to look at were either part of the costume or part of the building.
We did use a compact mirror for the femme fatale to look in as she was applying her lipstick and to show the audience the man was behind her at this point.
We used a dark red lipstick for her lip colour, which could indicate blood or danger, which she could then be in for. It draws on her face as the man grabs her, then it drops so it also used to make a great impact on the ending.
The line of lipstick on her face could signify him breaking into her perfections. Her perfect make up, her perfect clothing, her perfect channels of thought on how she's getting one over on everyone. He ruins all that for her and this starts off the whole movie on a different level of how it originally started.
Location Evaluation For Our Thriller
We filmed at Norwich Train Station. The location really fitted in with our thriller it was around the late dusk time of the day, so the light and shadows helped give a great effect. The toilets in the train station were also good as they had large mirrors to do an over the shoulder shot of the femme fatale getting changed into her second costume, letting her hair down and sorting out the credit cards, money and wallet. The fillming didn't leave the train station at any point, so it was our only location.
Above: outside of the train station.
<-This is a couple of the train platforms where you see our femme fatale looking around frantically. 
<- A noir picture of one of the platforms we used during filming. We stood on the side platform and filmed our character walking down the middle one from across the track.
<- A noir picture of one of the platforms we used during filming. We stood on the side platform and filmed our character walking down the middle one from across the track.
<- This is the main area of the station where people wait for their trains. The part where our femme fetale gets grabbed when she's applying her lipstick is filmed here.
Film Analysis - Once upon a time in America (1984)
(Right) A poster advertising the film when it was released.
Once upon a time in America was made in the year 1984 and directed by Sergio Leoni. This movie consists of intense violence and greed, The film is about the rise and fall of Jewish-American gangsters in New York at the beginning of the century through the 1960's. The movie tells the story of five decades in the lives of four gangsters from New York City - childhood friends who are merciless criminals almost from the first, but who have a special bond of loyalty to each other. One of them breaks their bond, or at least thinks he does and he carries the guilt with him until later on in his life, when he finds out that he wasn't the one who broke the bond, he didnt betray them, he got betrayed. It's an astounding tale of friendship through a lifestyle of crime, betrayal, lust, and greed that spans over half a century.
The film has the femme fatale, both glamourous and beautiful and it all starts with noir lighting. Very effective and generic.
Then it goes onto the three hats and overcoats of the men, standing behind a close up of the dead lady. It was wet and raining and they came across three dead bodies, wrapped in black labelled bin bags. There's jazz music in the background which could be associated with Mafia. You see the man in the left shaft and there is an amazing worms eye view shot and point of view shot of man on the floor.
(Below)The trailer for the film.
Film Anaylsis - Witness (1982)
(Left) Poster to advertise the film when it was released.
Witness is a thriller movie from 1982 directed by Peter Weir.
The film explores the sharp cultural conflicts between the old Amish society of western Pennsylvania and the modern American world of crime and violence.
The main character, Philadelphia police detective John Book is forced into hiding by a group of poeople looking for a little Amish boy. The boy witnesses a brutal killing with in the first few minutes of the filmand identifies the policeman who did it from a photograph on the wall at headquarters. John Book and his witness hide in the house of the boys's mother Rachel on a farm in the Amish country. The detective and the Amish widow gradually enter into a frustrated love affair, over objections of her father and neighbouring youth who sees Rachel as a potential wife. The killing takes place in a very generic location. There's the unglamourous toilets posing as the confined space. There are continual use of close ups and diegetic sound
(Below) Trailer for Witness, 1985.
Perfume Advert
For our perfume adverts, we were told to make it look english by adding traditional english objects, people or places. To do this, i made the old fashioned red telephone box to be the main object of this picture, with the english icon kate moss to the right in the window looking out at the perfume in the picture. This hopefully makes girls think if Kate Moss wants it, I've got to have it.
I used bold, black font to make a solid point that the readers would take in easily and want to be part of by owning the perfume.
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