One Page Pitch

We did a one-page pitch to pitch our ideas of our movie towards a producer of some kind to look at.

Working title: Systems Down
Film Genre: Psychological Thriller
Length: 110 minutes
Target Audience: 15- 24 year olds
Why?: This is because of the genre of the film and content that’s within the film itself, the suspense and fantasy type of feel to it from the ghosts, an audience younger than 15 may think of it as something real, as though ghosts do genuinely exist. We believe that the audience will be all genders but it may appeal more to the males who typically like ghost and thriller movies more, stereotypically anyway. This is meant for an audience who’s not so much as a serious film goer but watches it for just entertainment and for those who enjoy movies like paranormal activity for example, just films that would keep the audience on edge.
Tag-line: Murder doesn’t stop when you’re dead.
What if premise: What if the psychotic thoughts of a woman drove her to destruction yet still lingered, even in the afterlife? What if the woman who sees ghosts, turns out to be the ghost?
Plot Synopsis: The protagonist is a beginner ghost hunter who has encountered an advertisement, asking for help about something ‘spooky’ occurring within the house. Taking up the job of investigating, he goes to the house to only come across the owner of the house and talk to her about the issues occurring, after hearing the information on the happenings within the facility.
He then installs cameras about several rooms that the owner reported the strange happenings occurred in, the cameras are known to pick up ghosts. He then travels back to the kitchen where he’d set up his ‘base’ before looking through the cameras at midnight, when the occurrences were rumoured to start, he then noticed the ghosts stood before the camera. Staring in awe, he then checked other cameras through the system and spotted them in different locations.
These ghosts seemed docile at first before gradually growing quite fierce and restless as they slowly noticed the man’s existence within the kitchen and slowly approached the kitchen as he could see through the cameras where they were and how fast they approached him.
One by one, the cameras start to go down, showing only static as he falls into fear and panic. Looking up though, slowly from the screen, he spots the three ghosts before him as they just seem to stare at him. Before they decide to take his life though, he catches a glimpse of their past and what had happened to them.
Statement of Intent: This was inspired by the game Five Nights at Freddy’s but has obviously taken a slight turn as we altered accordingly to not be seen as plagiarism. We wanted to tell this story because of it being chilling and it takes a twist of things, as some plot twists occur within it. The audience in the younger range of our audience may take a thrill of all the events that occur so we are hoping they will enjoy it. It’s a film over a TV drama because of it being cut so short as the main protagonist is *spoilers* ‘killed off’ by the ghosts with grudges, hence why it’s a film, also, it’d be difficult to figure out how to continue it.
Visual Realisation: We have realised that a similar thing has been done but with Paranormal Activity though ours isn’t a mockumentary style, instead it’s simply more like a point of view film. The Babadook is how we wish to portray our film as its recent and uses effects that we’ll be able to find now but in particular, how things are shot is good as well. The dialogue is limited to only a little as this is found during the opening sequence mainly with the woman explaining the events that have been occurring before the ghost hunter arrived on the scene.
Audience Appeal: We understand that our target audience may go for things that are visually scary and enjoy watching things to do with the paranormal, believing in the possibility of them existing, so we decided to add in some plot twists as well which would keep the audience on edge as that is what is assumed that the audience will enjoy, an example of the plot twist is that the woman who currently owns this house is actually a ghost.

We decided on some young actors as well, such as Emma Watson as an example as she’s a young actress who appeals to our young male audience that we’re hoping to gain, as well as popular actors such as Josh Hutcherson from the Hunger Games to appeal to a female audience and hopefully attract their attention.

Practicing Lighting Shots with Stef

 

I decided to practice different lighting shots to create different moods that I could use within the thriller opening that me and Stef will be making. I really like the 1st and 3rd picture with the lighting shining up on the face and the lighting shining down. The light shining up gives a thrilling sense for the audience in my opinion and is quite the cliche lightning style. The light shining down shot gives a little bit of chills.

Starting Storyboard

Here is the storyboard for our thriller movie opening so far, it's just a rough outline of what we're thinking of making.

The Original Drafting and Planning Process

This was the original ideas sheet we used to figure out what we were going to do for our thriller opening, let alone how we'd do it as we thought about certain things to do and went through a couple of ideas as well, for example, mannequins that would go about a house that was seen as an attraction, these are now ghosts with masks.

Age Restrictions

Suitable for all ages- 'The U symbol stands for Universal. A U film should be suitable for audiences aged four years and over. However, it is impossible to predict what might upset a particular child, especially at this lower end of the category range. At U we only allow infrequent use of very mild bad language (e.g. ‘damn’ and ‘hell’). Characters may be seen kissing or cuddling and there may be references to sexual behaviour. However, there will be no overt focus on sexual behaviour, language or innuendo.'

 Parental Guidance- 'PG stands for Parental Guidance. This means a film is suitable for general viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for young children. A PG film should not unsettle a child aged around eight or older. Parents should consider whether the content may upset younger, or more sensitive, children.'

Cinema release suitable for 12 years and over- 'Films classified 12A and video works classified 12 contain material that is not generally suitable for children aged under 12. No one younger than 12 may see a 12A film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult. Adults planning to take a child under 12 to view a 12A film should consider whether the film is suitable for that child. To help them decide, we recommend that they check the BBFC insight for that film in advance.'

Video release suitable for 12 years and over- 'The 12A requires an adult to accompany any child under 12 seeing a 12A film at the cinema. This is enforced by cinema staff and a cinema may lose its license if adult accompaniment is not enforced for children under 12 admitted to a 12A film. Accompanied viewing cannot be enforced in the home, so the 12 certificate remains for DVD/Blu-ray, rather than the 12A. The 12 is also a simpler system for retailers. It means they cannot sell or rent the item unless the customer is over the age of 12.'

Suitable for 15 years and over- 'No-one under 15 is allowed to see a 15 film at the cinema or buy/rent a 15 rated video. 15 rated works are not suitable for children under 15 years of age.'

What might I see in a 15 rated film or video?

Any of the following:

• strong violence
• frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***').
• portrayals of sexual activity
• strong verbal references to sex
• sexual nudity
• brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
• discriminatory language or behaviour
• drug taking

Suitable only for adults- 'Films rated 18 are for adults. No-one under 18 is allowed to see an 18 film at the cinema or buy / rent an 18 rated video. No 18 rated works are suitable for children.'

What sort of issues might I find in an 18 film or video?

18 works are for adults and can contain strong issues such as:

•   very strong violence
•   frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***') and / or very strong language (e.g. ‘c***’)
•   strong portrayals of sexual activity
•   scenes of sexual violence
•   strong horror
•   strong blood and gore
•   real sex (in some circumstances)
•   discriminatory language and behaviour

Knowing what the age restrictions are this will help aid me to choose the right type of audience that we are aiming to target when we make our opening to our thriller film.

Types of Thrillers

Psychological thrillers- a fictional thriller story which emphasizes the psychology of its characters and their unstable emotional states. Psychological thrillers often incorporate elements of mystery, drama, action, and horror. An example of a psychological thriller film is the film 'Psycho' Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Some themes in psychological thrillers are:

• Reality
• Perception
• Mind
• Existence/Purpose
• Identity
• Death 

Romantic Thrillers-  a fictional thriller story which emphasizes the romantic side of its characters. A good example of a romantic thriller film is the film 'Ghost' directed by Jerry Zucker. 

Some themes in romantic thrillers are: 

• Anticipation
• Uncertainty 
• Surprise
• Anxiety
• Terror
• Obsessive Love    

Medical Thriller- a fictional thriller which focuses on the a character or characters with illness and they may not know what is happening around them. A good example of a medical thriller is the film 'Awake' Directed by Joby Harold.    

Some themes in medical thrillers are:

• Grief
• Near-death experiences 
• Heartache
• False Hope
• Anxiety
• Loss

Horror Thriller- a fictional thriller which focuses on the dark and brutal sides of character. An example of a horror thriller is 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' Directed by Wes Craven.

Some themes in horror thrillers are:

• Demons
• Supernatural
• Murder
• Paranormal activity
• Serial Killers
• Gore

Military thrillers- a fictional thriller which will usually follow the footsteps of a soldier or people involved war. A good example of a military thriller is 'Saving Private Ryan' directed by Steven Spielberg.

Some themes in military thrillers are:

• Violence
• Weapons
• Murder
• Good Guy/ Bad Guy
• Tense
• Fear

Conspiracy thrillers- a fictional thriller which focuses on a conspiracy theory that everyone/ some people/ one person believes in. A good example of a conspiracy thriller is the film 'The 39 Steps' directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Some themes in conspiracy thrillers are:

• A conspiracy theory 
• Accused Person
• Secret Information
• Deduction 
• Influence
• Improvement  

Active .V. Passive Audiences

Active .V. Passive Audiences

In media texts, there are different types of audiences. One way to describe audiences, is by categorising them as an active audience or a passive audience.
A passive audience is usually very easily manipulated, which means that they take in what ever the media text tells them and they will believe it and they will not bother to question what the have been told. Furthermore, a passive audience will not typically take interest in what they are watching or listening to they will usually only half watch/ listen to what ever they are doing.
Alternatively, a active audience is typically engaged in watching they are watching. They will usually look into what they are watching and try to take interest, if they like it then they will typically become a fan of what they are watching and become very involved in learning more about what they watch.      
Passive Audiences- The Hypodermic Needle Theory

• Audience members tend to react to what they are they watching or listening to.
• The theory was created in the 1930's.
• They all passively receive messages about watch they are watching.
• Audiences are easily manipulated.
• The media will effect their thoughts and their behaviour.

Principles of a Thriller Film

Principles of a Thriller film 

In any thriller film, the producers do many different things to make sure that the audience of the film will know that the film that they are watching is a thriller film. They will do things like using quick jump cuts or cutaways between scenes; they do this so that the audience watching the film’s anxiety and tension will increase throughout the film. They will also usually use low key lighting to enhance the sense of darkness; this should most likely make the viewer have a suspicious feeling about the characters within the thriller movie. Diegetic sounds such as breathing can usually convey to the audience that the character is tense or scared, typically after a shot of someone breathing heavily in a thriller a jump scare tends to happen therefore the audience end up sitting on the edge of their seat and anxious because they feel or know that something frightening will happen. Changes in the shots are added to show the representation of characters feeling or what is going on within the scene, a lot of shots are used to represent the authority and power a certain character has, for example if it was the main villain then they would probably use a low angled shot to make them look bigger and much more powerful. Many principles for thriller movies are usually put in to increase the fear so that it will give viewers the thrill factor.

For example in the thriller film, The Purge, the producers use editing to make the camera shots look like security camera footage, they use low key lighting on the footage to convey suspicion and fear, so that the sense of what or who is lurking in the shadows feeling is set into the viewers watching the film, resulting in them being frightened and anxious, like what many thrillers have in them. I hope to have some of the techniques that were used in this film to be used as some inspiration in my short film.

Prop for Ghost Characters

Masks For The Ghosts

For our film their will be people dressed like ghosts. To get the effect of a ghost, the people who are acting in our film will be wearing masks like these, this is because we want them to have no expression and look blank, we want them to  have a 'death' like look to them. But also have a real person look to them. Therefore making them look like 'living death'.

Possible location for our film

Abandoned/Possessed/Haunted House 

This will be made to look a lot scarier, and the lights will be low to created a suspicious and dark atmosphere.

Tetual Analysis of Se7en

Preliminary Task

Analysing a TV Drama

Preliminary Task

Our Preliminary Task

For our preliminary task, we are filming a minor part of a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom the character then exchanges a few of lines of dialogue. This task will establish match on action shot, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.

Match on Action Shot

The match on action shot will emphasise certain events within our clip which will make it stand out more. Match on action (or cutting on action) is an editing technique for continuity editing in which one shot cuts to another shot portraying the action of the subject in the first shot. This is not a graphic match or match cut, it portrays a continuous sense of the same action rather than matching two separate things.

Shot/Reverse Shot

Shot reverse shot is a continuity editing technique used in conversations or simply characters looking at each other or objects. A shot showing what the character is supposedly looking at (either a point of view or over the shoulder shot) is followed by a reverse angle shot of the character themselves looking at it, or of the other character looking back at them, for example.

The 180 Degree Rule

The 180° rule is a filming guideline that participants in a scene should have the same left-right relationship to each other, with filming only taking place within the 180° angle in which this is maintained in a conversation, for example. This allows the audience to have a greater sense of location in the scene in terms of what may be off-screen in some shots, for example in shot reverse shots.

Story Board - Prelimarey Task

This is the final storyboard for our preliminary task. We used a range of different camera angles such as extreme close ups, long shots, follow shots etc.

We have came up with the name of 'La Penna Rosa' for now, but that could possibly change in the near future.

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Post-Production

TV series 'Utopia' on Channel 4, is a sci-fi thriller that centres around a inequitable group of people who discover a global conspiracy in a comic book. But they do not know if they are living in the conspiracy.
In order to show connotations to the comic, they dress the sets in more yellows, cyans and magentas so in post-production they can make them bolder. Colourist Aidan Darrell carefully colour correct each shot in post-production.
I have learnt that Post-Production occurs after starting the filming of your movie.
Post-Production contains: editing, publication, and a short evaluation.

Throughout post-production, the producers, the director, and script writers can take a seat and watch their movie completed. This can permit them to see if the filming meets their storyboard and what they need out of their movie, that commendably meets their targetable watchers and that it gets the top results.

 

  

We practiced shots using a Nikon DSLR D3000

 Mid-Shot

 

 

Establishing Shot

Extreme Close Up 

 

 

 Long Shot using Leading Line

 Close Up

 Establishing Shot

 

 Low Angled Shot

 Three Different Viewpoints from Different Angles

 Mid Shot 

 

 

 Long Shot

 A Long Shot using Background

Welcome to the Blog!

Hello and welcome to my blog!

 

I have never studied Media Studies before but I have always been interested in how film is made. I am a very keen watcher of films and TV of many genres, but I don't fully understand how they are made! So at this point I am very looking forward to studying media.

 

One particular area that I am looking forward to is learning to use the cameras that the Media department has and learning to fully understand how to make the best looking videos that I can.

 

I am really looking forward to making the opening to a thriller at the end of the year, I already have a few ideas up my sleeve and I look forward to hopefully learning all I can to make the opening as enjoyable, and as strong as I can possibly make it!

 

Hopefully you will enjoy the final film!