Analysis of a Foreign Trailer

With the use of fast pace camera work the audience create an impression that the film will be fast pace with lots of action. With car flipping and windows smashing it shows that the film contains lots of action and violence. At the start of the advert we see the main characters alone at night on a motorbike, this shows that she works on her own.

The black ink shows corruption and represents blood signifying danger and death. The voice over corresponds to the advert which shows who is the girl with the dragon tattoo when she takes the helmet off, this shows the audience clearly who the main character is, by this time we have seen her following a van on her own at night which creates her suspicious character. We then see a match being lit then the next camera shot is of a van, similar to the one the girl with the dragon tattoo was following, the van is on fire and by the previous camera shots connotates that this unknown woman set the van on fire.

The soundtrack builds up to a climax it is also intense which excites and thrills the viewers, it also uses slow motions which emphasises the facial expressions, it also highlights the girls face which has blood on, which creates a mystery for the film. The trailer leaves the viewers wanting more which makes it a successful trailer.

Our Characters

Firstly we chose Adam Grant as the family man who wants revenge; this is due to the fact that he will appeal to an older audience as will as a young teenage audience, therefore to maximum our potential audience we chose Adam. Furthermore his is actually a family man and therefore would be an easy role for him to fit into as he will not how to react in the situation; helping make the thriller as realistic as possibly.

Secondly as the old man we chose James as he best represented the character we wanted. We wished the character to be a banker type who was slightly over weight which will portray to the audience that he is a greedy man and a selfish individual man, and James best suited this role.

StoryBoard for our Thriller Idea

Simulacrum Shooting Script

Shot 1: exterior, the camera will be placed on a tripod as we have no movement; the camera will be focused on the character in the car. It will be night time to show secrecy, it also shows that the man should not be there.

Shot 2: The camera will be placed Interior (inside the car). Low angle, showing the character putting the mask on. It will be filmed using a Handheld/tripod. The camera will be focused on the characters face as he puts the mask on. This will be filmed at night

Shot 3: establishing shot of the house, the camera will be exterior. The camera will be on a tripod, it will be a low angle shot to show the size of the house. Due to the shot being a low angle, this makes the house look bigger and scarier.

Shot 4: Reverse zoom out from main door to show the gun man standing outside the house. We will be using a tripod as we have no movement in this shot. The camera will be focused on the man stood at the front of the house.

Shot 5: This shot will be filmed from interior looking at the fist breaking the glass in the window. We will film this using the camera on a tripod. The cameras subject will be the fist coming towards the window.

Shot 6: This will be filmed interior, it will be focused on the man walking up the corridor, and it is going to be filmed handheld to show the movement of the man walking towards the room.

Shot 7: The camera is going to be placed interior, this will be a tracking in slow motion to shot the man walking into the main room.

Shot 8: The camera is going to be interior, the camera will be on a tripod. The camera is going to be a mid height.

Shot 9: The camera is going to be placed interior, this shot is going to show the man with the gun and the old man in the room. There will be a shot reverse shot to show what they are looking at. It will be filmed using a tripod. The cameras subject will be focused on the two characters standing in the room.

Shot 10: The camera is going to be placed interior; this shot shows the man getting shot. This is going to be shown by using a mid shot.

Shot 11: This shot will be filmed interior, using a low angle and slow motion as the whiskey glass falls to the floor. The cameras subject will be focused on the whiskey glass.

Shot 12: This shot will also be filmed interior; it will be a mid shot showing the gun being wiped clean. The cameras subject will be focused on the gun.

Shot 13: This will be filmed interior which shows the killer placing the gun in the mans hands. The main focus is going to be the mans hand where the gun will be.

Shot 14: This shot will be interior, showing the gun man walking out. We are going to show this using a tracking shot. The main focus will be the character.

Shot 15: Simulacrum title appears in white writing with black background.

Updated Shot List for Simulacrum

Simulacrum

Plot: A man getting revenge for the dead of his family through the killing of the murderer.

Shot 1 – the main character is banging his fists on the dashboard

Shot 2 – putting his mask on

Shot 3 – establishing shot of the main house

Shot 4 – reverse zoom out from the front door of the house

Shot 5 – main character punching through a window close up shot

Shot 6 – walking down the main corridor in the house (wide shot)

Shot 7 – walking to main room 

Shot 8 – wide shot of both the men in the room

Shot 9 – conversation of the two men, shot reserve shot

Shot 10 – the second character is shot

Shot 11 – whiskey glass drops on the floor and rolls

Shot 12 – main character is wiping the gun clear

Shot 13 – puts gun in the dead characters hand, looks like suicide

Shot 14 – last shot wide shot main character walks out the room

Shot 15 – final shot the screen goes black and the title pops up ‘Simulacrum’

Prop List and Costumes

Prop List:

Hurtwood House drive, front door and reception.

A black pistol/handgun.

Black car preferably 4X4.

A whiskey glass.

A mask which covers the whole head/ Balaclava.

Costume, Gun Man(Adam Grant):

Black shirt, Black coat, Black trousers, black shoes and a bold red tie.

Costume, greedy man(James Tunstall) :

White shirt, brown or black trousers, coloured tie not a black tie.

The reason why we want a black car is because it shows that our character is secretive and also weathly showing that he is experience at what he does. We want Adam in all black to show that he is a professional and the red tie to show the characters danger and the audience will realise instantly that the main character is dangerous.The mask will be to cover the main characters face because we wanted to convey the enigma of the thriller and get the audience asking the questions of who the character with the mask, is he a good character? who is he? why is he killing people? Our main focus was the surround the character with mystery and keep the audience guessing all the way through the thriller.By having the mask as a famous political character it gives clues to the audience to why the character is killing people through the thriller. By having the location at Hurtwood House which is a big old building it shows the main bad guys character, it shows his greed for wealth and power, and by having a number of gaurds in the building it shows that he has high importance and that he has secrets to hide.Without these props the thriller video will be half as effective than if we have them and this is why this props list is essential to the thriller.

Reaction to Our Pitch for Our Media Thriller Video (Similucrum)

We pitched our latest Media Thriller idea, hoping that Simulacrum would be the best idea to use as my AS media video. Our last pitch went pretty well as they thought that Assembly point had the potential to be a successful Thriller video, but we decided to change our idea after encountering problems involving set and location. Our new idea Simulacrum also has the potential to be a successful thriller idea but the reaction was that they wanted the plot to be different so that we were on the side of the masked characters, and instead of kidnap maybe murder maybe a better way of having an impact on the audience therefore having a stronger beginning sequence for a thriller. By having the more camera time on the three masked characters the audience will become on the side of them instead of the older man who we wanted to portray as a rich, rude older male. By having the plot from the point of view from the three masked killers we all agreed that would be a better option for our thriller idea instead of having an even amount of camera time.

The reaction mainly was about just changing the plot slightly so we can shorten the sequence, another reaction was that we needed to show that the old man deserved to die and that we needed to convey the old mans rudeness and brutality so that we agree with the three masked characters sneaking in the house and killing the old man. Another reaction was that if whether the masked men would sneak in quickly and efficiently like a James Bond film or would the three characters be more anarchists and smash the house up then brutally kill the old man.

The reactions to our pitch helped a lot in my opinion because it showed where our idea needs to improve and what should be changed so we can create a stronger media thriller idea.

My Thriller Idea

The new thriller Idea is called Similucrum, there is an old man in a very large house watching tele late at night, the weather is raining, we suddenly see one man outside with a political character mask on to hide his identity, we then see the old man pull out a cigar, we then see three people in the same masks outside the house watching the man intently, we see the old man light his cigar, by this time the three people in masks have disappeared and are unknown to there whereabouts. The old man starts to fall alseep, by thios time we see the door handle turn slowly with the men in masks enter slowly, as the man has fallen alseep they surround him in his grand chair, they knock him out unconscience and throw him into the boot of the car, by this time the wife has wokon up and wonders downstairs calling his name only to find one of the masks left behind on the chair where the old man was last seen.

The Change in Our Thriller Idea

Our idea has changed dramatically since we decided to choose the idea of Assembly Point, we found out many difficulties if we carried on with that idea so we decided to change it completely but keep some asspects we decided to keep, such as the masks we have still included comedic masks in our new idea Similucrum. we still like the idea of a kidnap so we chose the idea of the masked characters kidnapp an older man so that the audience sympathise with the old man because he is vunerable.

The New and Updated Thriller Idea

Simulacrum Power Point

The Shot list for my Media video

Plot: 4 anti capitalist terrorists wearing black clothes with political masks on kidnapp the political character.

shot 1 - tracking shot of the room

shot 2 - Wide shot of old man in room and log fire

shot 3 - close up of old man

shot 4 - mid shot through window (no-one there)

shot 5 - close up of cigar box

shot 6 - mid shot, man appears in window

shot 7 - close up of old mans face smoking cigar

shot 8 - Three men now stand at the window all wearing masks

shot 9 - close up of old man breathing out smoke

shot 10 - mid shot of window (no-one there)

shot 11 - tilt of old man

shot 12 - tracking shot of the floor, to the door

shot 13 - tilt shot of the main door

shot 14 - close up  of the door handle turning

shot 15 - cross cut to old guy asleep

shot 16 - mid shot of the three men in masks. just outside the door.

shot 17 - close up of man asleep. reverse zoom to see three men stood behind the chair.

shot 18 - close up of tissue in face, then knock out

shot 19 - Close up of rope around legs being tightened

shot 20 - Mid shot of the man in boot in car, close up of face

shot 21 - mid shot of boot closing

shot 22 - wide shot of masked men getting in car

shot 23 - Wide angle of car driving off

shot 24 - Wide shot of wide coming downstairs

shot 25 - over the shoulder shot of her walking into the room/lounge. looks at chair to see the mask.

shot 26 - Shot reverse shot of mask and her face

shot 27 - close up of her face....words....husbands name.....

shot 27 - black screen

title pops up, white writing

Defining A Thriller

A thriller most of the time involve a very clear a good and bad side to the story if it a terroist attack against a character who becomes a hero and saves the day. For instance Die Hard 4.0 there is a very clear good and bad guy in the story. I think people enjoy thrillers because we easily identify who the vistims are and the audience side with the victims every easily. The suspense of having a victim killed intensifies our feelings towards the bad guy and the victim because there is nothing we can do about it but watch the events unfold on the screen. In a thriller there is the protagonist who is at the mercy of the antagonist. there is always a cheap surprise which thrills the audience a little because they are unexpected. Sometimes there is a false ending or cliff hanger which leaves us wanting more from the film.

Analysis of a Short Sequence of Bronson to Increase My Understanding of How Methods are Used to Create Film

Bronson

Thriller idea (Original Idea)

Thriller Idea


This is the powerpoint of the origianl idea which we all thought was a great idea of a thriller but after we chose the idea, we began to work in more detail of how we would film the sequence and we thought it would be difficult to find enough believable characters to work in an office. We also found it hard to create an effective and believeable location for an office. This is why We decided to change our idea from 'Assembly Point' to 'Simulacrum'.

Analysis of an opening title sequence (The Shining)

The Shining Opening Sequence

Preliminary Task (Editing)

We filmed our preliminary task in the school studio which meant the light was perfect for filming, but we did a white wash just in case, because it was in the studio we had some furniture of a sofa and brick walls surrounding the characters, we also had a grey door which we used to have a character enter and exit from.

For our preliminary task we logged our shots by choosing which shots were effective and which were dull or pointless, the ones we liked we logged and saved, these would then be edited into the final prelininary video. We discarded some shots because we didnt bubble the camera which had a big effect on the shots we had used, it did make the camera seem unbalanced which didnt make the shot look good at all.

By using final cut pro we had to chack in and chack out our videos so we can edit them correctly and save our data. Even if the video didnt run smoothly we were able to click and drag certain seconds of video which helped create the continuity of the video.
One problem we faced that we found out after we edited the video that the shots were too quick and the shots changed to fast to gain camera time for one character is that the audience to gather an emotional connection, the pace of the sequence confused me as a viewer, so I would defiantly change the pace of the sequence if I got another chance to edit the video.

We used extreme close ups on one of the characters at the end of the video to show the reaction of the character, our idea was successful but I don’t think it was effective because the reaction was at the end of the video and may have been better if it was placed earlier in the video.

We used over the shoulder shots to show who is talking, I think over the shoulder shots are simple but effective to convey the story ands the characters emotion. The continuity aspect I thought we didn’t do very well at, you could clearly see where we purposely changed the shots, the video in my opinion didn’t run smoothly as it should.

My Thriller Idea

It is night time and the location is a grand manor showing the owner has much wealth and power. But in the distance we see three masked men in black clothes, the masks will be political characters such as Margaret Thatcher or Gordon brown masks to show that the reason why the masked men are there for political reasons. The man in the house is falling asleep watching TV and the three masked men walk in and kidnaps the old man and put him in the black van outside the house. The wife walks down the stairs to find that all is left is a mask on his chair.

Our idea is from a few films, such as the masks coming from Batman and The Town, then the idea of a kidnapp came from the film The kidnap of Alice Creed a British thriller.

What I expect in a thriller

Well a thriller needs to excite the audience, it needs to include tension, suspense and excitement to make a successful thriller. there are many differant types of thrillers and many thrillers also cross into the horror genre. in my opinion a thriller needs to make the audience think and create a large amount of mystery. In my mind a thriller needs to keep the audience on the edge of there seats till the end of the film, i think also it needs to make the audience think about the end and surprise them with a few twists in the story, they need uncertainty an unknown and surprsing ending. A good example of this is a film called 'Devil' right the way through the film we are kept guessing who the bad guy is and at the end it has a twist which no one would expect to happen. this is why i think the film 'Devil' is a succesful thriller which i strongly suggest watching.

Prelim task

The location we filmed in was a film set in the studio, which is set out to be an old damaged apartment. This location worked for us because we could clearly see the 180 degree line in the set, the set also looks quite real with the furniture in the set to add realism. The set made our film look more realistic and detailed. The primary role I took was director and the role of continuity in each shot because I noticed the differences between each shot we filmed, for instance if the door was meant to be open or closed. I also gave the instructions of ‘stand by and camera rolling.’

Lighting

As a group we looked at the two actors and the brightness of there bodies and faces because one had very pale skin and the other had a more tanned colour of skin. We also looked at the lightness of the room we wanted to make the scene as naturalistic as possible by using artificial lights.

By trying to create natural realistic scene lighting was key, if the lighting was too dark the viewer would find it difficult to see what was happening, and that’s why we had to do a white balance.

Filming

We set up the camera correctly first by lifting the tripod to the height we wanted it, I think the shots we chose were effective or conveying the characters status, power and relationship towards the other character. We then correctly placed the camera on the tripod, we then ‘bubbled’ the camera so that the camera was correctly balanced and was not at a tilt. We didn’t check the level of the camera at each shot because we used different heights for different shots; we mainly noticed what went right in the shot or what went wrong in the shot. We had one particular shot where you could see in the top left corner the end of the set where it was just a black wall. There was another shot where one actor opened the door and you could see the green paint behind the door, we could do nothing about it but it did stand out as we viewed each shot. We used a variety of different shot types, we used a high angle shot of one actor show show her status and power between both actors. We used a couple of times, a close up and an extreme close up so that you can clearly see their emotion and reactions of the actor. We also used a wide shot which was also used as an establishing shot of the scene, the wide shot also shows the proxemics of the two characters. The shots we used were all appropriate for our scene because they all had a hidden meaning if it shows the relationship between the two characters or if it shows the characters status.

We used a wide shot at first to establish the audience where the characters are, we also remembered the 180 degree rule which we knew we must not break otherwise it would confuse the viewer. We found it difficult to remember everything at first, such as to bubble the camera so that its level and balenced, also to place the camera on the tripod securely and successfully, it was all new to us and we found it a challenge to set up the camera. Once we had placed the camera in the first shot which was a wide shot we needed to allocate positions to each member of our group, whether they would say the lines such as 'stand by' or the person who would press the record button and then we also needed someone who would be the continuity person to keep every shot looking the same.We used extreme close ups on one of the characters to show the reaction of the character.

We used over the shoulder shots to show who is talking, I think over the shoulder shots are simple but effective to convey the story ands the characters emotion. The continuity aspect I thought we didn’t do very well at, you could clearly see where we purposely changed the shots,

We did notify the 180 degree rule and so we stuck by it, we may have moved around the 180 degree line too much, we may have had too many shots which were far too different from each other, we did not break the 180 rule but we did move very close to breaking it, almost in line the 180 degree line but we all knew that we must not go past that invisible line.

In the practical lessons I have learnt how to set up a camera and tripod correctly, I have been able to work in a small group to be able to film a simple but complete scene with one camera, I have learnt in our group that it takes a long time to perfect only a few seconds of film, I have learnt the basics on how to edit the scene we filmed.

Camera shots

This video shows the differant camera shots I have been learning in Media studies in the past 6 weeks. The video also gives an explantion to new camera shots which I have yet to learn, i.e the arc shot with circles a scene or character which increases the tension of the scene. they show the tracking movement which by tracking in twoards a character grabs the audience's attention and focus on the character and by tracking out shows that the narrative and scene has finished. they also show a tilt shot which shows the characters status and power. I learnt the crab shot which follows the characters movements at a low level, for example following their feet and the pace at which they move accross the scene. The video shows differant zoom shots and explain that it can be used as an alternative to a tracking shot.

We used a number ofr differant camera shots explained in this youtube video in my prelim video such as

Zoom
Wide shots
Close ups on the face
Over the shoulder shots
High angle shots
Low angle shots
Extreme close ups

The low and high angle shots help show the characters power, status and relationship with the other characters in the scene. Close ups of the faces and extreme close ups show lots of detail in a characters face from every wrinkle. A wide shot shows every thing in the scene and zoom shows where the focus is and where the main attention is.

Why are Genres Important?

Genre is a French translation for ‘Sort’ or ‘Kind’. A genre differentiates individual films in categories and sub-categories, for example Horror, Romance, Action, Thrillers, Documentaries, Adventure, Family and Comedy. A Genre helps tell the audience what the film will include before they have watched or purchased the film, if the film is a Horror for example ‘The Omen’ all the viewers will know that because it is in the Genre of Horror they will know what the film will include.

‘Although genres are not always precisely definable, genre considerations are one of the most important factors in determining what a person will see or read. The classification properties of genre can attract or repel potential users depending on the individual's understanding of a genre.’  A Reference from Wikipedia on the topic of Genre.

doctor who!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/trailermaker/view/7iykgm

Denotaion/Connotation of a Thriller poster

This poster of the film Harry Brown can explain a lot of information about the plot, the characters and the genre of film. The man on the right is Harry Brown we know this because the denotation of the man on his own which leads to the connotation of his importance to the film, he is also more magnified which emphasizes his characters part in the film. With the group on the left and Harry Brown on his own on the right it connotates the two sides in the film; the good and the bad. In the poster there are a number of guns in the picture, which connotates that the film will contain violence and death. From the poster we can denote the clothes which all the characters are wearing. What Harry Brown is wearing connotates to his professional character and persona as the group of people on the left we can connotates that they are young because of the contrast in clothing with baggy tracksuits and hoodies, it’s the stereotypical dress for the characters they represent. We can denote the image of the gun sights with the title in red and blue, again it connotates the two teams of blue and red colours, we can connote the gun sights which shows danger and violence.

About myself

Hey! Im Andrew and this is my first blog ever and hopefully not my last. This blog is about myself so lets start with  my school. I go to Hurtwood House and Im in Peaslake house, which Emily Blunt also went too. I used to go to Bromsgrove school but it doesnt even come close to how much I enjoy life in Hurtwood House.

One of the subjects I am taking is Media Studies which so far is a very enjoyable subject. The main reason why I chose Media Studies is because I enjoy watching films and I am interested in how films and TV programmes are made, also media in todays sociaty plays a big role in our day to day lives and I want to learn why and how much the media means to us.

My favourite film of all time has got to be 'The Darjeeling Limited' which is about three brothers on a spirituel journey after they have been seperated for three years. This film is closely followed my my second favourite film, Bronson which is about Charles Bronson who is the most notourios prisner in England, it stars Tom Hardy who is also in Inception and Rock N Rolla.