Our Thriller film...

For out final thriller film our group had to choose one of our member's ideas to carry through and film as our final project. Our group consisted of Me, Nurit Hirschfeld and Katrina Kirby; Only having three people in our group did make it difficult when it came to the delegation of jobs. There were four jobs, Producer, Director, Cinematographer and Sound engineer. I was allocated the role of the Producer which meant I was in charge of getting hold of what the director had decidede she wanted, and although we did have set jobs we did alternate a fair bit between each job.

Storyboarding...

Storyboarding is the practice of drawing out each shot in a movie and drawing what you want in the shot, this idea comes in especially useful when filming big budget sequences. Storyboards can be very complex and intricate or then can be very simple and obvious, they can also come with notes and stage directions, all of these factors are decided by the storyboarder.

Storyboarding is an essential part of film making in big budget sequences, most or if not all big budget films will have been storyboarded out before during explosions, or chases etc. Storyboardng can help you understand the Director's intentions and what the director wants or doesnt want you to see or notice. This idea of storyboarding can also be done on a collection of computer packages referred to as Pre-Viz.

What is a horror film ?

Personal

The audiences own identification with the FEARS or TERRORS of the narrative…

· Fear of the other/monster of the darkness
· Fear of the body being ripped/mutilated
· Our own personal boundaries being stretched and transgressed
· Emergence of terror at any level being enjoyed from a safe, vicarious distance


Ideological

The implicit (hidden) or explicit (obvious) messages embedded within the narrative…

· Themes of punishment, rejection, and/or revulsion at subjects which deviate from “correct” thinking
· From simplistic or basic messages the virgin “good girl” surviving at the expense of her rebellious “slutty” friend. To the more nuanced or subtle fears of strangers/hitchhikers breaking our boundaries…

OR the condemnation of any deviant (i.e. non Christian) religions…

Our perception that the power of science can defeat the darkness at the expense of older beliefs in religion and superstition…

· In our modern understanding of fear we rationalise the supernatural and defeat it with psychology rather than Latin chants.
· Modern media creates “demons” by crusading against sections of society and labelling them.
· Are there really so many more paedophiles in today than in the past? Not necessarily we just hear about more about them as they are more documented now,
· How many escaped mental patients have actually stalked and killed innocent people? Probably not very many but the media has built this up to be a daily occurrence.


Industrial/Financial

· Perhaps the most lucrative genre in the film industry, Horror draws in huge audiences justifying the control re-invention, re-making and franchising of very successful Horror product.
· We wonder whether there should be an “Indiana Jones 4” or a “Lethal Weapon” 5 but no questions raised over the legitimacy of producing Saw 6 or remaking “A Nightmare On Elm St.” after 9 previous incarnations.

We also had to give presentations to the class stating why our thriller film idea should be filmed. We had to include a USP (Unique Selling Point), a treatment,a character list.

My Thriller Ideas

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Today we had an introduction to the basic video camera functions. We learnt how to focus, zoom, set up the camera, set up the tripod, install the battery, and install the sound recorder.

To install the battery you need to get the battery and slide it into the battery compartment until it clicks.

To focus the image in the camera you need to adjust the ring on the end of the camera, the focusing ring is next to the zoom ring. You need to turn the ring either clockwise or anticlockwise until the image through the viewfinder/screen is clear precise and in focus.

To install the sound recorder you need to connect the wire to the AV1 socket and screw it in to the holder.

To zoom the camera in or out there are two ways this can be done. There is either the zoom button which is directly in front of your hand if you’re holding the camera. There is also the zoom ring on the end of the camera, next to the focus ring.

Setting up the tripod correctly is a fundamental part of filming. To set up the tripod correctly you must "bubble" it. "Bubbling" the tripod means to get the bubble on the top of the tripod in the center of the ring. The bubble is in a spirit level on the top of the tripod and the ring in printed on the top of the Perspex covering. You must also make sure you connect the "pan handle" correctly, this is basically a handle to the left of the tripod, and this handle enables you to pain the tripod left or right. Then you must attach the camera to the tripod, you need to slide the camera on to the tripod and it will click, this is how you know the camera is attached correctly.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

Yesterday afternoon we were set the task of filming our preliminary tasks. Our group included, me, Nurit, Katrina and Sultan, I was set the roll of being the director, and I was in charge of making sure everyone on the set knew what they were doing, for example I had to shout “standy,rolling, action and then cut” once the appropriate shot was taken. Sultan was set the roll of cameraman, and he was in charge of making sure the appropriate shot was caught against the storyboard. Katrina was then set the roll of continuity girl, who helped check that the continuity was in check. Finally Nurit was in charge of lighting and set, she ensured that the lighting was appropriate for the scene and the set was also appropriate. Although we had set roles we all tried to do parts of other people’s jobs. We filmed in the old edit suite, and although it is a fairly old edit suite actually worked quite well for our scene, this is because our scene was quite eerie and menacing and the blank background with large metal pipes help3ed to exaggerate this eerieness.

The lighting that Nurit chose also helped to exaggerate the eeriness on the set. Nurit chose a very hard and bright light which helped to show up everything on the set and helped to show up imperfections.

When setting the camera up we had to follow some procedures in order to ensure the camera was set up correctly, for example, we had to "bubble" the tripod-which basically means getting the spirit level in the tripod correctly set up. We had to follow this procedure every time we changed shot,so when we moved from long shot to over the shoulder shot we needed to carry out this procedure. We also had to make sure that the lighting equipment was not in the shot, we also had a problem in one shot when one of the crew was stood in front of the light which created a shaddow into the shot which made it look unprofessional, so we had to re-do this shot. We also had to make sure we didn't break the 180 degree rule in order to ensure the illusion of the film space was not affected.

Introduction to video camera

Today we had an introduction to the basic video camera functions. We learnt how to focus, zoom, set up the camera,set up the tripod, install the battery,install the sound recorder.



Setting up the tripod correctly is a fundamental part of filming. To set up the tripod correctly you must "bubble" it. "bubbling" the tripod means to get the bubble on the top of the tripod in the center of the ring. The bubble is in a spirit level on the top of the tripod and the ring in printed on the top of the perspex covering. You must also make sure you connect the "pan handle" correctly

intro to video camera

We had an introduction to the basic video camera functions. We learnt how to focus, zoom, set up the camera, set up the tripod, install the battery, and install the sound recorder.To install the battery you need to get the battery and slide it into the battery compartment until it clicks.To focus the image in the camera you need to adjust the ring on the end of the camera, the focusing ring is next to the zoom ring. You need to turn the ring either clockwise or anticlockwise until the image through the viewfinder/screen is clear precise and in focus.To install the sound recorder you need to connect the wire to the AV1 socket and screw it in to the holder.To zoom the camera in or out there are two ways this can be done. There is either the zoom button which is directly in front of your hand if you’re holding the camera. There is also the zoom ring on the end of the camera, next to the focus ring.Setting up the tripod correctly is a fundamental part of filming. To set up the tripod correctly you must "bubble" it. "Bubbling" the tripod means to get the bubble on the top of the tripod in the center of the ring. The bubble is in a spirit level on the top of the tripod and the ring in printed on the top of the Perspex covering. You must also make sure you connect the "pan handle" correctly, this is basically a handle to the left of the tripod, and this handle enables you to pain the tripod left or right. Then you must attach the camera to the tripod, you need to slide the camera on to the tripod and it will click, this is how you know the camera is attached correctly.

Introduction to Stills Camera...

There are many different types of shots, these are the main ones:





Wide Shot




Close Up






Extreme Close Up






Over the Shoulder






Cut-Away






This diagram also shows the different types of shot movements,including panning and crab. It also demonstrates the zoom and tilt movements. The other shots shown are worm's eye, canted, bird's eye, low, high and eye-level.