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.