Font reserach/ Techniques & effects we hope to use in the final cut

Font research

Although we haven't finished editing, we kept on going back and forth with different scenes and ended up trying to do out title sequence etc. So we looked into it and was basically looking for fonts that look chilling

Here's a few that we saw and used for the title:

I think we said we were going to use the Baskerville Old Face font because it has the look we are going for which is creepy/mysterious/bold sort of look like you see in most thriller titles.

But i think we'll stick to editing the main parts before doing the credits. Next time we edit, which is tomorrow, we hope to finish our thriller!

As for the Credits title, we couldn't change the font due to the type of credit structure we used but it still worked well with everything else and it stands out clearly as shown below...

Techniques & effects



This is some of the effects we hope to use in between scenes and on the actual clips.

Because our film does like a flashback segment we were hoping to try and do the rewind effect where it can rewind a clip back to the start from beginning.



I  think this video will show exactly what i mean

And these are all the things i hope we get to use in our final cut...Until next time

Editing day 2

Today we were thinking about the types of songs we should use in our thriller for certain, we're running out of time and we didn't think we could finish it all by today but then we were told not to worry because we can do more editing another time.

But here's some screen shots of today's editing lesson:



Testing which sounds would go in which section and trimming a few clips down to meet the time limit required





Playing through the film to see if anything else needs changing

Although we never finished editing today as planned, we still did a good amount which i was satisfied with. We should be finsih soon because we haven't got that much to go, but again my predictions always backfire on me so we'll just have to put more time and efort in everyday to reach that goal.

Editing day 1

Today is our first day of editing and it went by pretty quick! 5hours goes by really quick so we never got much done. We managed to piece everything together but not perfect, still got a longgg way to go before we can say "we're ready to burn it to disc :D!"

We are using imacs to edit on which I'm not particularly familiar with so i found helping out quite hard in the sense that i could say what i think should happen to each clip but i couldn't show it. We were all finding it hard to be honest which is why we enlisted the help of fellow student Paul who knows the Macs better than us.

Screen shots of us editing on imovies:




When we started to edit the first scene




Changing the lighting on one of the scenes




Adding a few transitions

Tomorrow is the last day of editing, so were looking to finish by then even though we haven't done much. But we'll come up with something as always...



Day 5 filming/ How the schedule actually tuned out

We still had one last shot to do which was the establishing shot of the police station. Deon was in charge of filming this scene so he went by himself and took a shot of the one in Edmonton green since he lived near it.

Here's his video diary, enjoy!

How the schedule actually turned out...

The schedule didn't quite go as planned because of a few implications during the week but we got the filming done before the deadline which was good. Now all we need to do is start editing tomorrow and Tuesday which i'm hoping goes well!

Scripts?

There wasn't really a script, we just used the storyboard to guide us through. On top of that there was no dialogue used in our thriller so it made it more interesting to watch.

Improvisation was the main key i think, we just said what we knew should happen and what we wanted to happen from looking at the storyboard and figuring out a few things. It worked though, so i guess the script wasn't really crucial but next time we'll use a script because it is important in a sense that it strengthens the storyboard.

Shot list

Due to our storyboard and how each scene will be filmed,we are hoping to use a range of different shots e.g:

• Close Ups
• Extreme Close Ups
• POV ( Point of view)
• Long shots
• Mid Close Ups
• High angle
• Low angle
• Handheld
• Establishing shot

Heres a video of some of the shots in action

Day 4 filming...

Today we filmed our last scene which was when Mandy receives a letter from the stalker/attacker. This was our last scene filming together so we put everything into this shot to get it right and we pulled it off! But of course there were a few problems as always.


What went well

• Everyone was co-operative when we were filming. They stayed quiet while we filmed and allowed us to get it done without any complications.
• Our actress Jenessa was present and the whole team ( me, Deon & Richard) was present too.
• It was originally just going to be Jenessa by herself in the scene but last minute we decided to use extras in the scene who were in the common room when we were going to film. So we asked if a few people would like to be Mandys' friends and Stephanie Opoku, Anthony Browne and Elena Georgiou said yes to it.

Who was in charge of what?

• Deon was in charge of filming.
• Me and Richard was in charge of directing.
• We all helped set up the scene and get everything on point.
• I came up with the location of using the common room kitchen.

What didn't go well?

• Everything went well today when we filmed, there were no major problems except for the fact that because we used the common room in the school which was in use at the same time as we were filming, there was a bit of noise from people talking. But we managed to gain their attention and asked them nicely if they could quiet down for a little while, when we start filming the scene.

Location

• Common room kitchen in our sixth form block which adds realism to the shot. I picked it since we couldn't use our own ones in our houses and the common room kitchen looked like it was in an actual house so it made for a good scene. It also had tables so we pushed one table into the shot which our extras would sit on to make it look as if they were Mandy's friends who were over at her house.

Lighting

• The direct sunlight from outside helped and made the shot look really clear.

Video Diary

The envelope of the letter Mandy will receive






One of our extras Stephanie




The letter covered in soil which Mandy will receive from the stalker/attacker



Our Actress Jenessa getting ready for the shot!



Day 3 filming

Today me and Deon decided that Richard our other group member should take control of filming today since he forgot to press the play button yesterday and failed to get the shot we thought he filmed. I couldn't  help film today because i had revision classes to attend and Deon was busy too.

It was only one shot so it wouldn't take long to shoot, so Richard along with our actor Abiola Fatusin went and re-filmed the shot by themselves. I'm sure it went well and then we can film the last scene tomorrow.

Day 2 filming: The Celebration

This is the video of the celebration which Alfred Hitchcock Junior filmed. He thought he'd shot the scene where the attacker comes down the stairs but he only filmed us celebrating because he pressed play when he thought he pressed stop, therefore catching us cleberating.

Day 2 filming

Day 2 and were halfway through our filming. This is going to be the main segment of our opening clip and here's an update into what went down before filming. Here's another video diary for you guys enjoy!



Technical difficulties:

• Battery went low but it was alright since we finished the shot.

Lighting:

• It was going good until our last frame when it started to get dark, so we had to use the lamppost light to make the shot work

Who was in charge of what?

• Richard was the main cameraman.
• I helped film one shot because we needed steady hands since we forgot the tripod.
• Deon and i directed and he became a human tripod for one scene.

Filming issue:

• It wasn't till after we filmed everything when Richard (Alfred Hitchcock junior) decided to check each shot and realised he hadn't actually filmed one of the scene but rather caught us celebrating for 30 seconds because we thought he did it.
• Because the scene Richard forgot to shoot was taken in daylight we couldn't refilm it on the same day because it was dark by the time we finished.

Props:

• We messed up by not remembering to collect the Tripod out of one our teachers, Mrs Smythes office. I guess me and Deon could be the blame for it but we didn't panic and with last minute thinking came up with the idea to use Deon as the tripod or Dual pod since he only has two legs. Because he was tall and we needed a high shot we put the camera on his head and i worked really well.

Costume:

• All the actors wore the correct colour clothing.

Location:

• Richard again was in charge of the location and found us the perfect place which was a park/forest at the back of St Ignatius secondary school. Here's a part of it below.

  
  

A few pics of us before filming:

Us discussing a few things before actually filming, so we get everything right.

Deon checking the shot while I direct Jenessa

Me, Deon & Jenessa again

Richard with the camera while Deon directs Jenessa 

Since Richard forgot to press play and film the shot, he's agreed with me and Deon to re-film that one shot along with our actor Abiola tomorow.

Plan B...

Problems
Today we were supposed to start filming the main part of our thriller but because we forgot to tell our actress Jenessa Tawiah about the plan for today, we had to cancel filming and hold it till tomorow. Jenessa already had plans today so couldn't film and therefore the schedule had to be changed.

Plan B

Because Plan A failed with the whole not filming today, we as a team including our actor Abiola Fatusin and actress Jenessa Tawiah after long discussions, decided that were going to film tomorow. We've agreed that we're all free and can make it to film the next shot so hopefully tomorrow will be much better!

Day 1 of filming...

Today we filmed the first shot of our thriller. It was a rough few hours but the end result was a success. Firstly, here are the issues we faced which were:

Technical difficulties

• Camera battery died during our first take so we had to reschedule which held us back about 2 hours.
• The tripod wasn't working well with the angle of the shot I needed to take for one part of the scene, so i suggested we revert to handheld instead.

Location

• We were going to shoot the office scene in the study room but then Richard managed to get Ms Smythe, one of the staff members to allow us to use her office since it looked more realistic and similar to an actual office in a police department.

Actors

• Because the office had two spaces we decided to get an extra for the scene. First we used Deon our group member but he wasnt appropriately dressed for the role so we found one of the sixth formers who was dressed to the role and he was more than willing to help.

What went well

Aside form our filming issues, our first shoot went well due to

Actors/Extras

• Richard whose playing Detective Morris, did well and co-operated which is essential for any film making, resulting in a successful shot.
• Kelechi our extra was also co-operative and followed precise instructions and helped set the scene.

Lighting

• The sun was out so it helped brighten the room, making things vivid.

Costume

• The shirt and tie worked well with the scenery.

Weather

• Didn't really effect the shoot because we weren't filming outside for this scene. 

Here's us at work!

Snap shot of the articles and Richard getting into character

Us getting everything into perspective before filming.

About to film! Deon counting down

Individual Music Analysis

The group and i are looking for thrilling sounds like eerie music ect due to the responses we got from doing audience research.

What i thought of

• Gary Jules- Mad World
• Coldplay- Fix you
• Thw weeknd- The morning

Here's a few that i had in mind for certain scenes:

Beginning of our whole film i said we could use Madonna Live To Tell because the first few seconds of it sounds a bit chilling in a way:



There's another scene where the protagonist is lsitening to music so i wanted to try and see if we could add music specifically to that part so the audience can hear what she hears (diegetic sound). Here's one of the songs i had in mind 'David Guetta ft Rihanna- who's that chick' but we would of only used a part of it.



Plan schedule

This is our official time table schedule for our filming dates. As you can see all filming will be done from 3pm onwards because we all have different time tables so it'll be like two of us wil be able to film from like 11 but maybe the other can't so we have to wait it out till after school and weekends

Initial Pitch Re-evaluated

Title: Live To Tell
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Rating: 15
Storyline: College student Mandy is attacked by an mysterious figure while on her way home from school. A week later when Mandy recovers from her attack she receives a letter in the post and opens it to find a note covered in soil which had a pic of a heart which read "its no fun if your hearts not in it".....


This is the full plot of what will happen throughout the whole film.


Following from when Mandy receives the letter, a series of events unfold which lead to the audience finding out that the antagonist( stalker/attacker) is the good guy but hes out fro revenge because of what Mandy (the protagonist) done in the past which involved him. This is why he wants to make her pay for what she did in the past by stalking, attacking and leaving notes....

The note covered in soil is symbolising death. Because of the location that he will attack her is in a forest area which is muddy and dirty, he's basically trying to say she deserves to be 6 feet underground or under dirt because that's where people are put when they die, and he wants her dead. (This is for the people that may not understand the plot entirely)

We finally came up with a title which i sort of suggested because i took it from Madonnas' song 'Live To Tell' which we was going to use in our film as a backing track. We didn't end up using her song although we kept the name because it goes well with the plot.

Lighting

Most of our filming will take place in the evening due to the responses from the audience research we carried out, but the police station scene and the last scene will be filmed in the day. We have'nt drawn the last scene in the stroyboard yet but we know exactly how we want it to be/look, so we'll renew the storyboard later.

Lighting in general can be used to highlight important characters, which is what were looking to do in our thriller, so were hoping to use a range of lighting techniques e.g.

• Low key lighting- effects to make shadows in order to create fear and tension in our movie and it's the time when people are most likely to be harmed so it'll fit with the plot really well.

• High key lighting- for the last scene to make it seem like it's a safe place when she's at home in the kitchen

• Chiaroscuro Lighting- maybe for the part where there is a low angle shot of the antagonist looking at the protagonist after the attack, to make the location and the antagonist seem unusual e.g.

Location

We've gone through a lot of location choices since we've started this project and a few of our first ideas were:

• Central London
• Scotland Yard police station
• Enfield Town
• Knightsbridge
• Bedroom
• Bustop

And plenty more which i can't remember, but we still keep thinking of locations as we work through each scene. And last minute Richard said we should use St Ignatious school aea because there's a forest looking part behind it which would go well with the main scenes. We scrapped using Scotland yard because time was running out and decided to use a police station closer so we came up with Ponders End police station, but it didnt look right so thats when we decided to use Edmonton Police station.

I think using a location area we were all familiar with as a group was much better because we each know what/where the best parts of the location are and Enfield was a good choice.

Props & Costume

We needed to use certain props to add realism A.K.A Richard favourite word (Verisimilitude).

Mandy who will be played by Actress Jenessa will have the following on her:

• Headphones and an Mobile phone or iPod which she will be listening to music from. This will add to the fact that she didn't see the attack coming because she couldn't hear anything and therefore would not hear anyone coming from behind her.
• A handbag which will make it seem like she was coming from school

Location for the chase/attack scene

• The forest will be the main prop in this scene, since its a common place for attacks to happen and everyone is familiar with that it'll add to the suspense.
• The staircase on the high bridge also makes the audience know that someones watching her.

Location of kitchen

• The small kitchen appliances adds realism because she's suppose to be in the kitchen in her house.

Location of police station office

• The telephone, files on the desk and the computer makes it look like he's a busy detective with a lot of cases to research. The image on the computer screen of the blacked out pic makes it look like he was profiling someone.
• The images of recent victims gives the audience an insight into the type of criminal the film will be based on which is a serial killer.

Items

• Envelope and letter that Mandy will receive are probably the main props needed for our opening sequence of the thriller.

Costume



The Detective

• Shirt and tie                                          
• Grey Trench coat 

The girl

• Pink cardigan ( innocence) 
• Black or Grey trousers

The attacker

• Black outfit (preferably black coat)
• Black trousers
• Trainers

Codes & Conventions of a Psychological Thriller

Psychological Thrillers
Is a popular sub-genre of thrillers with heavy focus on characters. It often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre genre along with the typical traits of the thriller genre. In addition, psychological thrillers contain elements of and often overlap with the horror genre, especially seen in psychological thrillers.
Characters are no longer reliant on physical strength to overcome their enemies but are reliant on their mental resources by battling for equilibrium in the characters own mind. The suspense created by psychological thrillers often comes from two or more characters preying on one another's mind. E.g. Playing deceptive games.

Themes

Psychological thrillers tend to follow certain themes which is the centre of the story. Some of them as follows are: 

• Death
• Reality
• Identity
• Existence
• Purpose

Conventions of a psychological thriller

The conventions of psychological thrillers will include things like:

• Low level lighting- shadows to create fear/tension.
• Quick edits & changes in camera angle- increase the feeling of fear and shock. Often used during significant scenes.
• Music- high tension, eerie, silence.
• Flashbacks- time disorientation confusing the audience or showing the past to give an insight into why the characters are the way they are.
• Black and white colouring- increase effectiveness of shadows.
• Claustrophobic spaces- entrapment of the mind, planes or house.
• Font/colour of title- may be written in a certain way to emphasise the theme of the film.

Directors of thrillers

• Alfred Hitchcock - also known as the 'Master of suspense' uses these conventions to an extent that its so effective   and really encapsulates the audience. You can find it in one of his best films 'Psycho' which does this really well.

• David Lynch - is a surrealist director whose mysteries are usually puzzles of the mind. The audience and the characters themselves must figure out what is real and what isn't. E.g. Mulholland drive.

• Martin Scorsese - director of 'The Departed' & 'Shutter island'.

Codes & Conventions of a Crime Thriller

Crime Thrillers often highlight the life of a crime figure or a crime's victim(s). Or the rise and fall of a particular criminal(s), gang, bank robber, murderer or lawbreakers in personal power struggles or conflict with law and order figures, an underling or competitive colleague, or a rival gang.  Headline-grabbing situations, real-life gangsters, or crime reports are often been used in crime films.  
Doing a Crime thriller is one of my groups possible choices for our opening sequence, so these are some of the things we need to take into account when putting our storyline/storyboard together.

Codes

• Camera work (close ups of the characters to show their emotion).
• Long shots (establish the location as well as what the characters are doing).
• Body language (see how the character is feeling). 
• Fast paced music (create suspense). 

Conventions of a thriller

The characters might range from being:

• Materialistic
• Street-smart
• Immoral
• Meglo-maniacal 
• Self-destructive. 
• Rivalry with other criminals in gangster warfare is often a significant plot characteristic.
• They rise to power showing an ambitious desire for success and recognition, but underneath they can express sensitivity and gentleness.

Settings of a Crime thriller

Gangster/crime films are usually set in large, crowded cities to provide a view of the secret world of the criminal e.g. Dark nightclubs or streets with lurid neon signs, fast cars, piles of cash, sleazy bars and contraband. Crime plots also include questions such as how the criminal will be apprehended by police, private eyes, special agents or lawful authorities, or mysteries such as who stole the valued object. 

Features of protagonist

Often from poor immigrant families, gangster characters often fall prey to crime in the pursuit of wealth, status, and material possessions (clothes and cars), because all other "normal" avenues to the top are unavailable to them. Although they are doomed to failure and inevitable death (usually violent), criminals are sometimes portrayed as the victims of circumstance, because the stories are told from their point of view.

Decision making

My group have decided to start filming on the 19th so we can use this week to get our blogs up to date and make sure we know exactly what we are doing before filming any scenes. A few changes might be made but we'll keep posted!

Our title ideas

• Worth/ Worthless
• Chess
• Black and white
• Unrehearsed

Casting

There was only one person which Richard had in mind from the beginning, to use as one of the actors which was Abiola. All we knew was that there was going to be a girl in our film for definite but we didn't know who to choose but when we finally put our story together and finished the storyboard etc. last minute i was talking about it to a friend, saying we need an actress and then she said she'll do it. And it happened to be Jenessa which we used as Mandy the protagonist in the opening sequence.

The detective will be played by Richard who is in fact one of our group members and last minute we chose fellow student Kelechi to be the extra detective because he was dressed smart and matched Richards costume.

Summary of cast

Mandy (protagonist)- Jenessa Tawiah
Detective Morris- Richard Poku
Stalker/Attacker (antagonist)- Abiola Fatusin

Character background

After checking out a website I've got an idea of how to do character research which will help me when doing mine on the characters me and my group will use in the opening the minutes to our thriller. Below is a few bullet points i took from the website which will guide me in my character research.

• A main character who is driven towards achieving a goal
• An opposition to your main character who will hold your main character back from achieving their goal
• A fight (literal or metaphorical) between your main character and their opposition
• An ending which answers the questions "Can the main character achieve his goal?"

The above points familiarise with Claude Levi-Strauss, narrative theory about binary oppositions e.g. conflict between two things such as good/bad, light/day etc.

Main character

• Mandy the main character will be an innocent looking teenage girl with a bad past, who tries to overcome that past but has been reminded of it due to a recent situation. Because of this recent situation she has to use her past in order to change her future for the better. But as always there's something/someone in the way...

• The attacker/stalker who won't be shown in the opening three minutes will be a significant person who Mandy knows of but doesn't realise until later on, when all the clues start coming together. He will have had something to do with her bad past and wants he to remember it for some specific reason we don't know.

 Character background: Jenessa

Cultural background


Ethnic- Black British




Social- Class background




Religion?- Christian




Education- Studies: Psychology, Sociology, English Literature, Science in society.



Occupation- Student

Character background: Abiola

Ethnic- Black British




Social- Lower middle class




Religion?- Christian




Education- Studies: Law, Business studies & History


Occupation- Student

Character Background: Richard



Ethnic- Black British




Social- Lower middle class




Religion?- Christianity




Education- Studies: Sociology, Business & Media Studies


Occupation- Student





The Time period


The thriller my group will be doing is set in the current period we are in now. This is because the audience will be be able to feel more involved and up to date with whats going on in this particular time period.

Location

Our film will be located mainly in Enfield, beause the group, actors and I are familiar with these settings. this cuts down the amount of research will would of had to do if we were to use a setting which is unknown to us and we know how Enfield is so we can encorporate that into our film. Also It is unwise to write about a location that we've never been to before even though its possible. It just requires a lot of specific research. The location affects clothing, attitudes, pace of life, accents, etc. There won't be no dialouge in our opening so accents wont be heard but we will try get across everything about location through the film.



Storyboard: Re-newed

 I drew up the scene on the storyboard because it was a last minute idea to use that scene. we also changed the in between parts which used to be blank but because we added in a scene we changed up a few things. And here is the renewed storyboard below.

Institutional research

I looked into a variety of media institutions that distribute or produce films such as:
Summit entertainment

Summit Entertainment LLC (formerly Summit Entertainment LP) is a North American film studio and a subsidiary of Lions Gate Entertainment headquartered in Universal City, California with international offices in London. Summit was originally founded in 1991 by film producers Bernard Eichinger, Arnon Milchan, and Andrew G. Vajna, initially to handle film sales in foreign countries. Summit later expanded into producing and co-financing films in 1995, and started fully financing films by 1997.

Optimum Releasing

StudioCanal UK (formerly Optimum Releasing/Home Entertainment/Classics) is a film distributor company working in the UK and Ireland. The company releases many films, including foreign language films, anime releases such as Studio Ghibli's films and independent British, Irish and American films in the UK and sometimes Ireland.

Optimum was acquired by StudioCanal, a subsidiary of Vivendi SA, in 2006. Since StudioCanal bought Optimum, the French company distribute their large back catalogue of classic British films (many from the Cannon and EMI catalogues) through Optimum releasing under the strand 'Optimum Classic'.

When named Optimum, the company's image was that of a modern, independent new release and back catalogue distributor. Films were released under four strands: Optimum Releasing (Theatrical New Releases), Optimum Home Entertainment (DVD, Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD New Releases), Optimum Classic (DVD Re-releases of back catalogue films) and Optimum World (New and Back Catalogue World Cinema). The latter three appear to be still being used, despite the company's name change.
They released over 200 films a year and were one of the most prominent distributors in the UK independent film and world cinema market since the closure of Tartan Films in 2008.

Thrillers they've distributed include:

• Orphan
• The loved ones

Film 4

Independent film distribution company which produces, distributes and exhibit their own products making their style of integration vertical. Film 4 are based in the U.K, but to distribute internationally they may need help from huge American conglomerates such as The Weinstein company.

This has occurred on more than one occasion with two prominent films being Kings Speech and The Iron Lady. They've also distributed thrillers e.g. 'The Crying game' which was nominated for 6 Academy awards winning ' Best original screenplay'. Other films include Slumdog Millionaire which was nominated for ten Academy awards, winning eight of them.




Summit officially launched in 1993 by Patrick Wachsberger, Bob Hayward and David Garrett under the name Summit Entertainment LP as a production, distribution, and sales organization. Among the company's early successes was American Pie, which Summit distributed outside of English-speaking territories.
In 2006, it became a fully independent film studio, Summit Entertainment, with the addition of Rob Friedman, a former executive at Paramount Pictures.

The new company added major development, production, acquisitions, marketing and distribution branches with a financing deal led by Merrill Lynch and other investors giving it access to over $1 billion in financing.  With that, Summit now releases their own films on DVD with the help of Universal Studios and Sony Pictures. Summit is also distributed theatrically and on DVD in Europe and in Canada by Entertainment One.

Thrillers they've distributed:

• Sorroity row
• RED (action thriller)
• The hurt locker

• Film 4
• Optimum releasing
• Summit entertainment