RISK ASSESSMENT - Miss Georgiou

RISK ASSESSMENT 

A Risk Assessment meant that me and my group could discuss the possibilities of what could go wrong throughout filming our opening sequence. To show this, we created a table to show the hazard and how it could be prevented ( the table above ). If we consider these risks before filming then we can plan ahead and take precautions so nothing interrupts our filming or anyone gets hurt. Before filming in a certain place we will evaluate the scene to make sure where we are going to film is safe and compatible for what we need.

Risk assessments are very important as they form an integral part of a good occupational health and safety management plan. They help to: Create awareness of hazards and risks.

Planning ahead gets us ready and means we are all aware of the risks that could happen. One of the most important hazards we thought of was 'fire'. As our finalising scene is a piece of paper burning with pictures of victims on, we thought that the piece of paper could easily catch alight, so we will be using a suitable area with sources around that can help prevent this from spreading.

Another common hazard that can take place when filming is hanging leads from the plug to the camera. This is a hazard because anyone could easily trip and hurt themselves, or cause the camera to stop working in an important bit of the film. We can prevent this by either charging the am era before or hiding any loose wires under a mat or tucking them behind where no one can hurt themselves. Another hazrad that links tho this is the darkess, if the weather is bad and the night is approaching then there will not be much light available in the forest, this means that extra precuations should be taken with hanging wires aswell as what is on the floor e.g. large branches or stumps on the ground. A torch should be used at all times to ensure safety for all group members.

Nature cannot be helped when filming and as we are in the forest this may be a hazard. Animals such as a fox may approach us when filming a scene and this may distract us or prevent us from filming. Being aware of this will prevent us from being harmed or even distarct us from filming as we dont want this to happen, the time we spend filming is crusial as its hard for me and my group to film when there is light.

All of our hazards are important and need to be taken seriously. The next hazard is the weather. Again this cannot be helped, although some precautions can be taken. Before filming check the weather to see what the forecast is, all group member agree on whether we thingk this is accpetable to film in or not. Another precaution we can take is having an umbrella close by to hold over the camera itself aswell as the tripod. This ensures that the lense will not get damaged and no mechanical faults can take place throughout, putting aside any risks to me and my group members.

Overall i feel that me and my group have outlined all of the major hazards that can take place when filming our thriller opening sequence. We have taken the necassary precautions to ensure our safety aswell as the equiptment we are using. If anything is to go wrong when filming then we have all the necassary precatuions/equiptment ready.

PLANNING INDIVIDUAL STORYBOARD - Miss Miller

PLANNING INDIVIDUAL STORYBOARD

After discussing our final ideas and planning everything up to filming, planning my own individual story board has helped me to express my onw ideas for our group narrative. Although me and my group have come up with a basis to our narrative, we have each created our own individual narrative and when completed will bring them all together and have a group discussion about what small things we think work well and whaat dont.

For my individual story boards i created 20 frames on 4 storyboards. Each story board itself had 4 frames which included picture space and all of the editing, iconography, lighting and sound skills i would use. For each frame i drew a picture which represented what would be shown in that scene, for e.g. in my first frame i drew a plain black screen. The reason for this is because the voice recording of the news will be shown and a black screen will slowly be opened up to a long shot of the living room of the house. The black screen will slowly fade with the voice recording of the BBC news fading too, the low-key lighting will slowly disapear and the screen will be bright introducing both of the main characters. Whilst this is taking place, the credits will be on the screen introducing the actors, director, music etc.

 In my third frame a black figure will pace past the window in flickers, bringing tension to the screen. In this scene the lighting will be flickering to low-key as the pace of the opening sequence will be quite fast not giving anything away to the audience. I took inspiration from past media clips which me and my group have analysed and taken notes from, this helped us to explore what works well in an opening sequence and why. We found the flickering of the screen worked well as the pace was fast and kept the audience on the edge of their seats wanting to see more than the opening sequence.

In my third story board, i chose to use a long shot. This long shot represents and shows a picture of the two main characters behind, the lighting that i have planned to use is low-key lighting with shadow features on the ground. There will be two actors and the editing will mean the audience see them flicker down the path quickly, almost in a blink of a second. This will keep up the pace of the opening and keep the audience interested. The same movement will be used when the antagonist passes the window, the editing will be fast with black flickers on the screen. Both of these uses will be at different points in the short opening and mean the antagonists face and body features will not be shown, thjs will leave a mystery as it is very hard for the audience to get a good look at the antagonist.

I hope that the audience will be kept in suspense from my opening sequence. I hope this because of the cliff hanger ending where the audience are left wondering what has happened to the girls, if they are in danger, and what will happen to them next. Not only this, but I hope that the audience will also be shocked and surprised at some scenes, also feeling sympathetic to the characters. This could possibly be from the scene were they see the young boy tied up to the tree. 

I think that my own storyboard was well thought out and that it had clear thriller conventions. It also has good camera techniques that are typical of the thriller genre. It has an engaging narrative which will keep the audience on the edge of their seats for the whole sequence. It will also create the three thriller conventions: Shock, Suspense and surprise.

Each of my frames are in much detail and all show to the audience what I am going to do and use. From these individual story boards we created a group story board, this meant discussing ideas.

Our group story board is 24 frames, which is 5 story board pages. We found that planning this in detail helped us look at intrecate details we need to use and make sure we include.

This is an example of a blank story board that we used, this shows the space for pictures as well as writing. We had to include the length of the scene and what frame number is was, this helped me and my group stay organised.

PLANNING OPENING CREDITS - Miss Georgiou

PLANNING OPENING CREDITS

Opening credits are important in any opening sequence to a film. They introduce the characters, directors, producers etc. Opening credits can be shown in very different styles and ways, after research into opening sequences we have discussed our own ideas for our own. 

For our research we looked at an opening sequence to a film called, s7ven, which is a well known thriller film.


This film showed the purposes of film credits; shows the title, introduces characters, represents the mood & style of the film and shows the different job roles. 

From watching this opening sequence of credits I noticed a lot of things.

The first thing being the conventions. From this 2 minutes clip I noticed; flashing lights, dark scenery, low-key lighting, using black and white features which represent good v evil. The flashing lights in the credits shows unbalanced effect of instability of the antagonist, this can give ideas to the audience on what type of thriller film this is and how it is going to give them clues and intrigue them into watching the rest of the film. Although most of the conventions we see in thrillers usually take part throughout out the whole film, a lot where squeezed into one short space of time and me and my group feel this worked really well. 

The second thing me and my group looked at was order of appearance. In thriller films the credits are presented differently and may be shown to present the actors first or the title, each film is made differently. From analysing this opening sequence of credits we found that the company name was shown first, this is to show the audience who had made the film that they are watching, and give them small clues from this what type of thriller this is and on what other films have been made from this name before. The second thing to appear was the director. This was done in this case for this film because he director is very famous and showing his name before the actors often persuades the audience to watch and feel welcomed by the fact that the film making itself will be good. After this, the actors we're shown first; again the more well-known actors we're shown first, e.g. In this film it was Brad Pitt. Then the music, then the co-producers and costume producers and then the director was shown again to the audience. I found that from researching what order the credits we're shown it helped me to think what order I should use within our group opening sequence and why they should be used in that order, will our actors be famous enough to be shown first? 

The third thing I analysed when researching the opening credits from this film was the colours used. The colours shown can show what type of thriller is going to be shown. From these opening credits I found that most of the background colours and text used was black, white and dull colours. The black and white could represent death & mystery and bring suspense for the audience. For a thriller the conventional colours used are usually dark and mysterious and do not show much colour to the audience. A thriller film likes to keep the next scene a secret and things in darkness. This use of constant black and white has inspired me to discuss with my group about using this as I think it works really well.

The last thing me and my group analysed was the style of credits. The style of credits Is different in every film and shown in different ways too. The credits we're shown in this opening sequence to be handwritten, this could indicate that the antagonist is a psychopath and is mentally unstable, from first thoughts this is giving away clues to the audience and keeps the audience in suspense, keeping them wondering what he is planning and why. Other styles I noticed was that the title was in bold, meaning the director wants the title be shown and seen straight away, also a lot of flashing on screen and an diegetic electrical faint sound. This is an eerie type of noise and builds up tension quickly creating an easy relationship with the audience, keeping them intrigued. 

From this research I have gathered my own ideas and made a first draft of my own opening credits. I have taken ideas from each section of my research. The first thing I found which helped was the colours used. From my research I found that the dark intriguing colours worked well. From this I used dark colours as it introduces the film opening quite slow and keeps the audience wondering what is going to happen next. 

This is the opening picture of one of my group members; Hannah. This clearly shows the title, in bold writing. From the research I can clearly see that she has use black and white colours, although a very light background. This attracts the audiences attention quickly and the red can represent blood and danger, a small flash of this on the screen.

 

Ollie's opening credits takes the form of blood flowing down the page from corner to corner. At the end of the credits there is a puddle of blood with the name of our film above it (Obscurity). It is very conventional of the thriller genre because blood is known as being linked with death and harm. My title is going in the centre of the page to draw the attention of the audience towards it and also to make it bold and protruding. The colour of my font will be red which is very conventional of the thriller genre because red links to blood and murder. My background is black is to show death which again is conventional to the thriller genre.

PLANNING MISE-EN-SCENE

PLANNING MISE-EN-SCENE

Mise-en-scene is the arrangement of scenery and stage properties in a film or play. We have had many discussions about what we will be including in the scene of our film. Mise-en-scene consists of the setting, characters, iconography, facial expressions and body language, lighting and colour and the positioning of the characters in the frame.

Setting
Settings can engage the audience by creating certain expectations and bringing a twist to scene. From much discussion we have chose to use two scenes for our opening sequence. The first is a small road in a village, this road will be fairly quiet with houses the whole way through. The setting will also be dark, creating tension and suspense when the antagonist rises. Leading on from this, the scene will change to a dark forest, which will consist of enclosed areas. We found this will work well as its a smaller space for the characters to feel victimised and easier for the antagonist to move around and follow the venerable victims. The forest is an ideal place to feel isolated and this is conventional in a thriller sequence, also creating fear. Victims almost always feel captured and insecure in thriller films and this is how they show empathy to the audience, this is what we want to create and also show this through the use of facial expressions and body language.

Facial expressions and body language

Facial expressions indicate how the character is feeling and can tell a story to the screen about what they are going to next. Music can also accompany the way someone is feeling, for example; creepy music which rises up may show tension or anger. Body language can show to the audience how the character is feeling within that moment or how they feel towards another character, portraying there relationship to one another e.g. hate, love, compassion. We will use a range of facial expressions throughout as it can change the way the audience feel about the characters easily. One stage in our opening sequence where our facial expressions will change very quickly is the ending scene, here the two main characters will feel trapped and enclosed, looking innocent and scared at the audience, although after a few seconds of looking at the unknown black figure in the near distance the two girls become possessed and there facial expressions soon change to angry and frightening. Throughout we will concentrate on the range of facial expressions that we use, for example things such as laughing and smiling when they are enjoying conversation at the beginning of the scene. Although, the audience will not be able to see the antagonists face in the opening sequence as we are using a mask to create greater effect when he is looking through the dark window. The body language used will not be slouchy or unsympathetic. When the two characters see a young boy being victimised by an unknown character, the two girls feel sorry for him and feel an emotion to help. There facial expressions and body language will be strong and engage the audience.

Iconography
Iconography is the visual images and symbols used in a work of art of the study or interpretation of these. The first peice of iconography we have discussed using is a mask for our antagonist. Hiding the antagonists personality and identity creates an mysterious atmosphere for the audience. The mask we have chosen to use will be white with black distinct features. We have chosen to use this as the openi sequence will be at night and we need the mask to stand out and be an attraction for the audience, aswell as the characters. The white mask will almost be an white glow and stand out widely to the screen, this may cause the audience to be suprised and may create a feeling of suspense. The relationship created through mask is hard to show as we cannot show any emotions or facial features to the audience, although a mask does create a sense of hidden identity and can leave the audience wanting more and asking themselves questions. Do we really know the person that is underneath that mask? As the aim for our audience is 15+ the audience will be more intreged as the actor for our antagonist will be around the same age. 

Another prop/feature of the film we will be using is an animal; a dog. An animal used in films especially thrillers can create empathy towards the characters quickly and we found this worked well from research. A relationship from the audience to an animal can sometimes be stronger than one to an characters. This is because animals can't speak and show there emotions so the audience guess and think of the conventional way they would be feeling.

Lighting and colours

Everything in the scene itself consists of colour and lighting, whether it is very dull or a bright flashing light. From much discussion and planning we have decided to film overall in the evening, this will mean the sky is falling in darker and sunset will be taking place. This will give off a range of wide colours to the audience. Colours such as red, white and black are conventional of a thriller film as it can make a woman look innnocent or a man look scary and a criminal. The lighting that can be used which we found when researching is red beams or a white bright light in a dark setting. In that dark e.g. a forest like our setting, a white torch light can show dimmed features of the charachters bodys and faces, this can show there emotion or facial expressions to the audience. Although we will not be using any beamed lighting we may use a torch to show more of the charachters body image. We felt we should do this as it will be dark outside and we want the scene to stand out to the audience and keep them intriged.

PLANNING CHARACTERS- Miss Miller

PLANNING CHARACTERS

The purpose of using characters in films is to help engage and create a relationship with the audience. This helps the audience become more intrigued within the film and after seeing the opening sequence it leaves them wanting more.

After discussion we have chosen to use two main characters. The stage names we have given is Amy(Ella) and Chloe(Hannah).
Amy: young girl, teenager, blond/brown, innocent and a good friend. All of these are her characteristics of the character for our film.
Chloe: Young girl, ginger innocent and has a good personality.
As you can see from these brief descriptions both of the main characters are very similar and we have done this so it creates a better relationship between the two and the audience. With two young teenage girls it can create empathy easily and make the audience feel sorry for them. 

These two characters will create empathy and different emotions throughout so it is important that we use the right characteristics for both.

I want the audience to engage easily and keep them on the edge of their seats during the whole opening sequence. Introducing the characters in an opening sequence is vital as the audience get to know who their seeing and who they will be watching throughout the rest of the film. In our opening sequence both girls are introduced to the screen and are shown to the audience to be friends.

Although we have two main characters we do have a antagonist in our opening sequence, although the face will not be shown and only used for small amounts of the opening sequence, for example: flashes at the window and the antagonist holding the camera, to give an effect to the audience that they are watching in his eyes, building tension quickly. We will also include background charachter as throughout; e.g. Walking down the road either beside or on the other side, this will not create a relationship or any emotions to the audience but show that the setting isn't a busy place and is quiet&innocent, representing the two main charachters personalities.

Another conventional character is the antagonist. Which will also be played by Ollie, but in different scenes. The antagonist is conventional because the antagonist in our opening thriller sequence is very tall, creating a sense of dominance over other characters. Aswell as this, our antagonist is all masked, with a hidden identity, this helps to create a sense of enigma which is key to creating a successful thriller film. 

Teenagers (15+) is our target audience and then watching creates shock and easily builds a trusting relationship between the two. This is good as it intreges and the audience easier and quicker, keeping them guessing and wanting more. We think this will work as we have chosen to use young characters, instead of older women as it will be more interesting and social.

I found that planning helped towards making our characters as it helped to indivually plan who the character was, and why there rold was important. Not only this but it helped me to show which characters would not be necessary within the thriller opening sequence as the plot could have become too confusing.

PLANNING EDITING - Miss Georgiou

PLANNING EDITING

Editing styles in a thriller scene is important because they work well to engage the reader and build a gradual relationship with the audience. Editing styles creates elements of shock, suspense, suprise and tension.

In our thriller opening sequence we have chosen four things to include, the first being slow editing. Slow editing is conventional in a thriller film as it builds up tension quickly in a short amount of time e.g. a phone ringing, the camera slowly zooming in and capturing the charachters face. In our opening sequence we have discussed using slow editing in our opening scene. This editing shot will be used after panning as the build up to the window will create suprise to the audience when they see a black figure hovering around. In this scene the characters will not be able to see what the audience can see, meaning the audience will empathise for them and create a relationship through being scared and feeling sorry for the characters themselves. Slow editing can change the mood quickly and in our case we are hoping that it will. The camera in this ecene will be kept still and the zooming in to the window will happen slowly and gradually.

The second editing style we have chosen to use is montage editing. Monatage is the technique of selcting, editing and peicing together separate sections of film to form a continuous whole. We have discussed using montage editing when the reaction shot is taking place. Lots of mini shots will be taken at one time and edited together. These shots will be quick flashes of the characters faces and facial expressions when they hear a loud whistle in the forest. The montage will be quick and fiesty and show the facial expressions very quickly. Montage editing is a convention of a thriller film as it can get through to the audience quikcly and show to them what emotions are being felt. Although we feel this will not create much of a relationship with the audience, we do feel that they will have the image that they are in the scene and feel the same emotions that they do, creating a sense of shock and suspense. Our overall discussion came to a conclusion that the suspense aspect will state a feeling of excitement or anxious uncertainty about what may happen next.

The third editing style we have discussed, researached and chosen to use is fade/dissolve. This is a gradual transisiton from one image to another or fade into complete darkness or a blank image. We have decided to use this editing technique when the two main characters walk down a long stretch of road. This fade will end the scene and slowly open the next scene. Closing the setting leaves the emtrom of the characters hanging and leaves emotion. Although, we found that this technique will not create a relationship with the audience as there is no emotion shown through the characters and no close up shots spoken directly to the audience. This scene pourly shows a shot from behind (hand held camera).

The last use of editing we are using is a Reaction shot. A reaction shot shows the reaction of a characters facial expression or body language or can show a reaction taking place in a scene. After much research on reaction shots we have decided we are going to use one in our opening sequence. We have chose to use our reaction shot when the two main characters walk into the forest and hear a whistling noise and scattering of the leaves.

all of these editing skills will help to capture the audience even more. for example the reaction shot will show to the audience a quick shot of what has just happened and a clear glimpse of what they are feeling and why there reaction is.

GROUP PLANNING - Miss Georgiou

GROUP PLANNING

Our group consists of three people; myself, hannah and ollie. Group planning is vital and helps when making decisions. Group meetings mean me and my group and discuss and contribute new ideas for our opening sequence, meaning our ideas will be to a high standard. Group planning is  essential as it helps us develop ideas, produces structured guidance, helps us gather inspirations and finally discuss the four main points of a thriller; shock, tension, surprise and suspense.

Our first group meeting consisted of discussing our first narrative ideas. Each of us contributed ideas, writing them down one-by-one so we could see all the ideas put together. We looked at ideas about taking an idea from each of ours but finally came to a conclusion of using Ollie's idea as we found it had a good narrative. Although when fully writing down our first narrative idea, we made small changes to improve certain areas, for e.g. changing the scene to be a forest and adding a new background character. All of these helped contribute to it being a better opening sequence.

Furthermore, we also discussed our inspirations. Our inspirations discussion consisted of what each of us felt inspired by and why. We came up with ideas from our previous posts and research which we had already done.

Another group meeting consisted on talking about mise-en-scene. Two of our ideas were the setting and characters. Within our opening thriller sequence the setting we will use of a forest is conventional to the thriller genre. This use of mise-en-scene will be used when the girls enter the forest, to find a boy tied up looking possessed, and are unsure of the reason why. The entire scene will be mostly filmed within the dark forest. This is conventional as it is will be dark and confided place so it's easy to see the main point on the screen as well as being hard to escape from the antagonist. Also another reason why the use of a forest is conventional to the thriller genre is because at the time we will use the forest it will be dark and gloomy. We wanted to use the forest at this time as it creates a sense of fear as it is unknown what lies within the forest, and creates a sense of foreboding as it is unknown what will happen next.

When creating ideas we wrote them all down on an A3 sheet of paper. Our first discussion which we wrote down was, the name of our film and the 8 different things we need to include in our opening sequence, these were; miss-en-scene, cinematography, soundtrack, editing, target audience/age certificates, codes and conventions, research into thriller films and finally representation of characters. For each one of these 8 things we wrote down ideas which would be included in our opening sequence, a few examples of these are;
1.Mise-en-scene: forest setting, 2 main characters.
2.Cinematogrpahy: panning and close up.
3.Soundtrack: footsteps and diabetic leaves rustling.
4.Editing: high angled shot, jump cut
5.Target audience: 15 age certificate
6:Codes&Conventions: low key lighting&death
7:Research: Looking at the film halloween
8:Representations: Young male victim who is defenceless

The A3 sheet we composed was about planning cinematography. On this A3 sheet we chose 6 cinematography shots we are going to use and wrote about them, two examples of these are; panning shot and zooming in and out. For these two we wrote about where they would be used in the film and why they would be used here, this helped to conclude further into our opening sequence. Planning cinematography has helped us contribute ideas about what uses of cinematography we will use and why; we have decided to use shallow focus as it intensifies the scene and brings certain characters attention to the audience.

Another A3 sheet we composed and came up with ideas is soundtrack. We divided our page into four and wrote about diegetic and non-diegetic sounds that could possibly feature within our opening thriller sequence to intensify the scene and help to create as much suspense and tension as possible. We have decided to use non-diagetic heart beat sound, footsteps, diagetic leaves rustling and whistle ( subtle ) whenever the antagonist is around. Another sound we will use is the non-diegetic sound of an exaggerated heart beat. The heart beat helps to intensify the scene as it shows how scared the character is. The audience will then sympathize for the characters as they are a similar age and can not help but imagine themselves in the same situation and how scared they must be. We will use this when the two characters first spot the dark figure in the series of montage clips. Not only does this give the audience a sense of uncertainty but it also builds suspense and tension as the audience think something will happen or jump out at the characters at the end of the sound. Soundtrack planning as a group has let us elaborate on new ideas and individual ideas. One of the soundtrack ideas is Diagetic leaves rustling. This is a diagetic sound as the leaves will be shown on the screen on a low angle shot.

The third main point of our thriller opening sequence is editing. From discussion we have chosen 4 editing skills to be used; high-angled shot, low-angled shot, reaction shot and montage. All of these will help to bring shock, suspense, suprise and tension, which are vital for creating a thriller film. All of these will help to show different angles of the charachters aswell as the scene.

In our last group meeting we discussed which editing techniques we were going to use. Firstly we will use is making the scene faster, this is when the pace of the editing is increased. This would most likely be used alongside the montage editing and when the hand held camera is being used to show that the pace of the unidentified killers walking has also increased as he follows them. In addition to this I think it would be effective to have a non-diegetic heart beat over the top of this scene as it shows how frightened and scared the two girls are. 

Overall, although are group meetings are yet to continue to discuss new ideas and plan further into our thriller opening sequence. The planning we have done so far I feel has been done well with a good structure to what has been said. Each topic we have discussed we have made detailed notes and wrote down what we will use for each, I found this good as when we came to writing about them, we all knew what we was talking about; aswell as when filming, we will all be knowledgeable about which parts of the film we will be filming and what will be included. 

-add more group planning discussions in future.

Date	Meeting	What We Discussed and Achieved	By Who	Discussions

17/10/2014	1	Ideas & Plan our intial Group Narrative	All	Discussed ideas for narrative on a group mindmap.

24/10/2014	2	Ideas and Planning for Cinematography	All	Mindmapped & finalized Cinematography on A3 paper.

06/11/2014	3	Ideas and Planning for Sound	All	Mindmapped & finalized Sound on A3 paper.

07/11/2014	4	Ideas and Planning for Editing Styles	All	Mindmapped & finalized Editing Styles on A3 paper.

07/11/2014	5	Ideas and Planning for Opening Credits	Individual	Planned Individually our Opening Credits

13/11/2014	6	Ideas and Planning for Characters	All	Mindmapped & finalized Characters on A3 paper.

14/11/2014	7	Planning and Finalising Group Storyboard	All	Mindmapped & finalized Storyborard on 5xA4 paper.

17/11/2014	8	Planning and Finalising Filming Schedule	All	Planned our Schedule on Edexcel to follow.

23/11/2014	9	Planning Risk Assessment	All	Planned our Risks to avoid them during filming.

01/12/2014 10   Filming our Opening Thriller Sequence. All Took into account all of our planning & filmed sequence.

Our group planning meant we could discuss as a group and come up with the best ideas. I found this worked really well andAltogether I think that group meeting have helped to keep my group organised and has helped us to understand what needs to be done next. In addition to this it has helped to expand and broaden our ideas to develop them further helping to create a better opening thriller sequence as this is all of our ideas combined. 

PLANNING SOUND - Miss Miller

PLANNING SOUND

Researching different sounds helps you to explore what works well in an opening sequence. As our opening sequence is going to be a thriller, me and my group researched individually about convential sounds In thrillers. After much discussion and bringing our throught together we decided on 4 different types of sounds we are going to use. 

The first sound is diagetic, this is any sound that is visible on the screen or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film, for example: a voice of a charachter or sounds made by an object, such as a creaking door. The sound which we have discussed using for our opening sequence is russling of leaves, this could also be a parallel sound. We have decided to use this sound when the two main characters are walking though the forest and the leaves are russling as they walk through. This will create a noise for the audience and can trigger the thought of someone following/watching them. This creates tension because the eerie silence with russling leaves creates suspense, leaving a very sudden atmosphere. This is conventional to the thriller genre because diagetic sounds can be seen and show clearly to the audience what is happening. A diagetic sound also dosent leave the audience wondering what it was and dosent give them the feeling that they are in the antagonists or victims shoes which is sometimes a good thing in thriller films.

The second sound we have decided to use is a non-diagetic heartbeat. After research from previous thrillers we have discussed using this sound. The scene in our opening sequene which we are going to use this sound is when the anatgoist is creeping round the forest and the two main characters become adjatatated and scared, we being their heart beat sounds to the screen to bring emotion and create a relationship between the audience and the charcters. We feel that this sound will create suspense, shock and tension. This will create suspense because the audience will suspect something will happen at the end of the gradual sound, adding to the scare factor of the sequence. Also creating uncertainty leading up to something bad happening on the screen. A non-diagetic sound can make the audience feel like they are in there shoes and feeling exactly what the antagonist or victim is feeling. for example the heartbeat may bring the audience to feel nervous or under pressure.

The third sound we are going to use is diagetic; whistling in the background. Research found that from watching other opening sequences and films the suttle whistling creates suspense and suprise for the characters aswell as the audience watching, making them jump and keeping them on the edge of their seats waiting for the next emotions to jump out and involve them in the sequence, also creating enigma and a strong relationship with the charcters as they feel sorry for them. We have decided to use this sound technique throughout the short opening sequence. This is because a small sound of whistling will appear on screen when the antagaonist is around, this will build up tension as it will get louder everytime.

The last sound technique we are using is an exadurated diagetic sound and parallel; footsteps. Footsteps could mean anyone is following them in the background and will be elaborated for the audience, making the audience jump and think/wonder who it actually is. The footsteps heard will not be seen and will give the audience the feeling that they are in the antagonists shoes. We feel that this sound technique will work best when the hand held camera is being used as the camera will be in the antagonists eyes and create tension for the audience. 

Overall looking through sound and planning what I am going to use in my opening sequence of a thriller has helped me learn new techniques and look at different situations in to what sounds work and what don't. I feel that all my choices of sound are going to work well and engage and create a relationship between the characters and audience quickly.

PLANNING CINEMATOGRAPHY - Miss Miller

PLANNING CINEMATOGRAPHY

Cinematograpy is all about the camera work in a film, it includes angle, movements and positions. Cinematogrpahy plays a massive part in the making of a film, especially of the thriller genre as it helps create tension, suspense, surprise and shock. A lot of planning is required producing an opening sequence for a thriller. Planning cinematography means i and my group can look at the art of photography and camera work in film making, this helps bring the right image to the audience and show camera techniques.

The first camera angle we have decided we are going to use is a panning shot. Using a panning shot in our preliminary task helped us to see what advantages a panning shot can bring to an opening sequence. The scene in the opening sequence we feel will work well with a panning shot is of the front room of the house. The panning shot will reveal a mysterious image standing at the window behind the two main characters. A panning shot can bring suspense and surprise to the audience and create a feeling they are in the room and can create a relationship with the characters, this is good as it gets the audience involved. A panning shot is conventional to a thriller film as they can create surprise easily and leave the audience feeling scared. This camera angle also portrays features that can show the whole scene in front of the camera and can show a full image of the characters being shown. Overall, i feel that a panning shot will work well and all of the above creates a good thriller opening sequence and this is vital to catch the audiences attention and leave them wanting to watch the rest of the film. This picture shows an example of a panning shot.

The second camera angle me and my group discussed using is zooming in and zooming out. Although these are two separate camera angles, we feel that including them together helps to show the two differences between the two. We decided to use zooming in in the opening sequence as it helps to show emotion and facial features of the characters. We have decided to use the camera angle zooming in, in the same scene as the panning shot. After the panning shot has finished, the camera will slowly zoom in to the the black figure behind the window. We have decided to do this so that is creates tension and suspense for the audience watching. We have also decided to do this slowly as it leaves the audience wanting more and keeping them on the edge of their seats. We found when researching from other films that zooming in is used a lot which is what inspired us to use this technique. Furthermore, the other technique we have discussed and think we are going to use is zooming out. Zooming out helps to show a bigger picture of the film and helps elaborate on what the audience have already seen. We have decided to use this camera angle when the two main characters walk into the dark forrest and hear a mysterious noise. Zooming out shows to the audience what is surrounding them and will show the whole scene. This can give away clues to the audience and show a different point of view to the audience than what the characters can see themselves. The picture shows an example of a zooming in shot.

The third use of cinematography that we have discussed using is a long shot. A long shot is going to be used in our opening sequence when the two main characters are walking down a long stretch of road. The camera will be following them from behind as a view of the antagonist. This will be showing a long shot of the two characters and the audience will picture themselves as being the antagonist. Although, when using a long shot will be using a technique; hand held camera. Holding the camera instead of using a tripod gives a raged effect for the audience as if they are holding the camera themselves. Also this gives the impression that the antagonist is holding the camera. A long shot is regularly used in a thriller opening sequence/film. A long shot can show a whole persons body, this includes the small amount of scene behind and the characters body language, clothes and iconography, all of these are vital when creating a thriller. In our long shot we will make sure that the character will be using iconography e.g. a phone or we are discussing on using a pet(dog).


The fourth use of cinematography we have chosen to use is point of view. We have chosen to use this as we feel it creates a relationship with the charachter and the audience. Using point of view gives the audience an idea of what the charachter sees and feels, creating empathy. We have chosen to use this in the forest scene, the point of view will take place when the two girls are scared and turning around looking for the answers. The point of view will show the camera turning round side to side quickly showing full view of the dark gloomy forest. When a point of view is shown in thrillers it can create tension and suspence easily, aswell as suprise e.g. if something jumps out infront of the camera quikly. Me and my group will that this use of cinematography will work well and show a bond between the audience.

Another use of cinematography we have discussed about using is a high angle. A high angle in a thriller film shows a high view of the scene or charachters, this can work well by showing something that needs to be see by the audience or the scenery or the charachters clothing/body language. We have decided to use a high angle to show the two main girls walking through the forest. The camera will be high in a tree to get a full angle of the scene and what is happening. This will create empathy for the audience and tension as the audience will be able to see ahead of the charachters. A high angle isnt really a convention for a thriller although does work well in many films. We have decided to use this for our thriller as from our research we found it works well when trying to show a whole scene and showing to the audience a bigger picture. In my own opinion filming from a tree will be able to show the picture we want to; abandoned scene with two vunrable girls and a strong whistiling wind, i see this as building up tension. The picture i have used as an example of an high angle shows what we will try to create, a background scene shown and a full picture of the charachters.

The last use of cinematography we have discussed as a group and decided to use is shallow focus. A shallow focus shot blurs out a image in the background. From research we have found this will work well when the two girls notice a black image in the scene. The antagonist will be blurred to create suspense from the ending scene and leave the ending scene on a cliff hanger. A shallow focus hides identities and leaves the audience wanting more, creating a relationship with the charachters easily. Shallow focus is a convention commonly used in thriller films as it can hide victims or the antagonists identites or hide something that is not meant to be seen for e.g. someone at the window or a clue in the room. The shallow focus will be the last use of cinematogrpahy in our opening scene and we felt this one would bring the most surpise and shock to the audience.

Overall i think our discussion and planning of cinematogrphy has helped to create a solid plan of what we are going to use and how they will help to create shock, suspence, suprise and tension.