Questionnaire

In a thriller opening do you want to know a lot about the characters?
Do you prefer a climax in the opening, or just basic story line?
In the opening sequence, do you prefer titles then opening, or both at the same time.
Do you prefer music in the opening sequence or more dialogue?
Do you prefer a day setting, or in the night one?
How does a thriller setting grip you most?
What kind of music do you want in the opening sequence?
Do you prefer the credits shown at the beginning or the end?

Possible Thriller Settings

1: The setting for number 1 would be ideal for a thriller opening as it looks very scary and a very unnappealing alley. However, alleys are needed by people to access their garages, so i could have somebody trying to access their garage, and then them disappearing into the blackness of the alley. This would make the audience want to keep viewing, as they would assume he has been mudered.

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2. The Second picture is very interesting as the board shows that it is a nature reserve, however it does not look appealing at all, and nature reserves are meant to attract people and meant to make people want to go there. Usually nature reserves attract elderly people and families, however this does not look attractive to either category, so nobody would want to go there.

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3. This picture does not look very attractive to anybody, which is contrasting the fact that there is a sign saying 'pedestrians'. This is a very strange way to advertise a public footpath as it is very dimly lit, and it does not look appealing at all. Even though it iss dimly lit, the pedestrian sign still shows up, which is revealing that it is meant to be seen. Also the strange orange square seems to glow on the sign, which is very strange.

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4. This picture would be a very good setting for a thriller movie as there is a random gate in the middle of a bush, which seems to be leading to nowhere, this could be interpreted by the audience as the gateway to hell, as all you can see on the other side is blackness and forestry. Also, the fact that it is a very dull,brown and not very well looked after fence suggests that whatever is behind it, no one wants to know. Also, the gate seems to be blocked by a load of bushes and un looked after plants, which could be protecting whatever's behind the gate.

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5. This picture is probably one of the best ones i took as it looks like a very threatening place to be in. The danger of death sign goes very nicely with the barbed wire positioned on top of the fence. This portrays that whatever is behind the fence is hidden for a reason and nobody is meant to go there. Also the graffiti on the fence is also showing that the area is uncared for, this ould be a perfect setting, as nobody knows or cares what happens in this area, so anything could go on.

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6. This picture is interesting as it looks like the tree is trying to escape to the left, this could be because there is something dangerous on the other side, or something is forcing it to lean left. Also all the branches on the tree are coming out of the left side, again reitterating the point that it's trying to get away from the right hand side.

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7. This picture is appropriate for a thriller setting, as it's very dark and looks eerie as you look across the park, also if you look closely, you can see the head of a couple of gravestones. The reason you can only see the head, is maybe due to the fact that they are being sucked into the ground, and that they are trying to escape it's claws and reaching for the sky. Contrasting heaven and hell.

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8. The giant black gate in this picture suggests that something behind it could be very dangerous, as the big gates are preventing it from getting out, or escaping. Or even that the giant gates are there to protect something from the people getting to it, the fact that they are so tall and thick suggests whatever is behind it, may be very big or strong, or both

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9. These 2 pillars are very strange as they seem to be standing isolated however we know that they are connected by a fence. The use of the pillars suggests whatevers behind the pillars is behind the pillars for a good reason. Also because there's 2 pillars, it may suggest the fence or wall carries on outside of the frame, maybe segregating a certain area or thing.

1. The Title- The title sixth sense is very clever, as just by reading it, it draws the viewers in, as there are only 5 senses, and this makes the audience what to know what the 6th sense is. As it appears on the screen, the music changed pitch which also adds tension as the audience can clearly detect that something is not right.

2. How the setting/location is revealed- The setting is very strangely revealed as it appears as if it is from behind the shelf. This portrays to the audience that someone is behind the shelf, and the audience automatically wantto know who it is and why they are there. It is also at the very centre of the womens body, so the status is very neutral.

3. Props- The prop of the smashed glass and phone on the floor are very important, because as we see we as the audience can recognise that there is something wrong. This helps to create the mood for a thriller film, as we want to find out why it's smashed.

4. Interesting Camera work- The high angle shot used portrays to the audience that the man is in the least commanding position as he is small on the screen and the camera is looking down on him, giving him the lowest status possible.

5. Font Style- This font style used on the opening credits is chosen very cleverly as the font is very standard and serious looking which creates tension to the audience, as they want to know why this has been chosen. The use of the colour blue is crucial as blue is a very cold colour, and may explain a bit about the story, and confuse the audience.

6. Story- The story is set up nicely when they mental guy shoots the middle class looking man. This creates a nice scenario in the audiences head as they think that he didn't deserve it, however the audience want to continue viewing the film, to see exactly why he got shot.

7. How opening suggests it's a thriller- This shot creates the thriller type feeling for this film, as the death of the man is very serious and happens early on in the film, so the audience will carry on watching the film, to find out why he got shot, and who shot him.

8. How characters are introduced- The character of the mental patient comes across very helpless and emotional. Wefirst see him standing in the bathroom naked, which confuses the audience as they wonder why he is naked, also when he appears he is very angry, so we can tell straight away that he is a very emotional character.

9. A shot i like- I really like this shot, as the side of the door frame separates 2 different images. Both images are contradicting themselved. On one side you have someone who iss really depressed and has just shot themself, and on the other side, you have a group of people cheering and who are happy. This can be percieved that it was good that the mental guy died, as they seem to be cheering at the incident.

FINAL PRODUCT

EVALUATION

PLANNING

The Brief

To create the titles and opening of a new fiction film, and to make it last for a maximum of two minutes.

Analysis of opening sequence:

'Memento'... how does it appear?:

The way that the word Memento appears is very clever in many ways. In picture 1, you can only see the word Memento in one, colour, but the title of the film changes from a dark blue to a light blue. This is clever, as the colour blue, may suggest the cold, sinister mood of the film, and may also express the confusion of the character, which will portray this to the audience, and also make them feel confused. At first, this blue title appears on a black background so that the title clearly stands out. The title then appears over a picture (picture 1) this is clever as because the title of the film is memento, (which could be a physical memory) instead the film is about a man who cannot make memory's so he takes pictures. so this is clever because it contradicts the name of the film.

Setting:

The setting is not revealed very clearly in the opening sequence as for the majority of the time on the screen iss just a guy's hand holding a photo, and writing over the top of it. However towards the end of the opening sequence you briefly see someone getting shot in what looks like a very dark and dingy basemant. This is cleverly chosen as it is a secluded area, which would be perfect for a murder. We also see a close up of 2 characters, which this hardly reveals them, to keep the audience on the end of their seats.

Key Props:

There are not many props that are used in the opening sequence, however the ones that are used are very important. In picture 6 you can clearly see a bullet, this is a very important prop as it potrays how serious the film is, and foreshadows death to the audience. Possible the most important prop is the photo (picture 2) this is of high importance as it portrays to the audience that the title of the film, has something to do with the props. Also the blood is used (picture 5) as a very important prop as it shows to the audience again hat something very serious has happened. A camera is shown and this is also very important as it portrays where all the individual photo's have come from.

Camera work and editing:

The use of the camera in the opening sequence is very important as it helps to set the mood of the film. Picture 5 is a perfect example, because the camera is on it's side, this portrays to the audience that something is not right, and to reiterate this is the blood running along the floor. A lot of close ups are used in the opening sequence to show the man holding the photo in his hand, this portrays to the audience that the photos are of great importance to the film, and to the man holding the photo. A close up of a man with blood on his face suggests to the audience that he is the victim, or wants the audience to think that he deserved what he got, as it was a more gruesome death, rather than a sad clean one. The pace of the shots is very important aswell, because the majority of the shots are slow paced and quite steady, the last shot of the man being shot comes to a surprise to the audience as they do not expect it to come out of the blue, fast and loud like it is. This is edited cleverly in this way to keep the audience gripped and forcing them to find out who and why this man was killed.

How does the opening sequence relate to the rest of the film:

The opening sequence is very useful for the start of many films as it is there to set the tone, pace and to give the audience some brief information. However, in Momento, it is cleverly used to portray props to the audience like the photo, gun and camera. These props are shown purposely to the audience to show that they are used for the rest of the film. Also the use of violence in the opening sequence also helps to reflect on the film as there is a lot of violence used in the film.

Opening sequence


Trailer


The opening sequence of the Davinci code is very inviting, as it almost forces the viewer to continue watching. It does this in many ways by using a range of techniques. A lot of close ups are used in the trailer of photo's on the wall. However they are not just random photo's, each photo is shown for a reason. Each of the photo's that is shown on a close up looks very sad and depressed, this is to try and reinforce the mood that the guy running away is in. This draws the viewers in even further as they want to find out why he is running away and in a negative mood. The non diegetic sound of th soundtrack over the titles helps to portray the negative mood to the audience as it is very mellow and scary, which conveys to the audience the sinister opening they are about to see. As the opening sequence begins, the music takes a different scay tone, and becomes really low pitched and deep dark sounds, which portray trouble for the man running. At the end of the opening sequence, the camera takes a close up look at a beheaded man, which seems to seal the old guy's fate as he gets shot. This is a good technique used to foreshadow up and coming events. The high camera angle used when he is running away is a clever shot to use, as it shows how small and insignificant he is. To contrast this, the evil guy has a low angle shot, to show how powerful and controlling he is. A lot of pan shots are used in this opening sequencewhich helps to establish the scene. Although it's not a master shot, these shots still help to identify the setting as we as the audience can easily tell he's in a museum as there is a lot of corridors and paintings on the walls. Another low angle shot of the guy who is about to die is used to portray how low status he has, and that he is in the least commanding position, as he is about to be killed.

In the trailer to the Davinci code it starts off with slow paced montage edited clips which seem pleasant as they have a nice soft soundtrack with a comforting voice over the top, briefly exaplaining the story. However, once the trailer develops a bit more, we find out the it isn't so relaxed. The audience can tell this change in mood as the clips become shorter and faster paced, the camera moves around a lot more and is rearely static, and the music gains pace and takes a more sinister tone. The colours used at the start of the trailer seem happy and bright, but again, as the trailer develops the coulours turn from a bright white, to dull grey's and blacks, which makes the mood of the trailer drop and everything seem more scary and sad. The way that the camera keeps referring back to the photo's draws the audience in, as they want to know why they kept being shown, and the photos being shown are very sad and the way the camera presents them creates even more tension, by having extreme close ups concentrating on distinctive features like eyes, as if they are staring right at the audience.

In the opening sequence to Se7en there is many techniques used to draw you into the film and make you want to watch the rest of the film. In the titles sequence as long as the titles appearing and revealing people that had something to do with the film, there are many close up shots of normal house hold objects, like books and paper and pictures. However, the way the creator has filmed these objects makes them very scary and spooky. The mise en scene used for the opening scene is very carefully chosen, as all the objects filmed are very dark, dull and boring, which creates tension for the audience as they want to know why they have been portrayed like that. The use of close ups is also very crucial to the opening scene as it zooms right in to the object and makes it seem out of context and spooky. The fact that the there are hands in a lot of the shots makes the audience feel creaped out as they do not know who's hands they are, and they want to find out who's hands they are. The way that the titles are shown on the screen are even scary, as they look like they have been roughly scribbled and they they disappear eerily also as they just fade out into the dark and shadowy background, which also acts as an aid to create tension because the colour black is very scary and in a way portrays fate and death.

In the trailer of Se7en there are many different effects that are used to advertise and portray the film. In the trailer, there is a narration which helps to inform the viewers of important information to do with the film. In this trailer, the narrator briefly tells the story so that the audience want to watch the film. This narration is non diegetic sound and is there purposely for the audience. The narration is also there to introduce actors that are starring in the film. This attracts the viewers attention as if there is a famous person or a really good actor in the film, this will make the viewer want to see it. Also more important information like the release date and the age rating is narrated on the trailer so that viewers can make sure that they see it. In the trailer there is a montage of clips which help to portray the fast paced and action packed film, if it was one continuous clip it would be hard not to tell the whole story. The trailer of Se7en also shows part of the story and gives vague information about the characters, so the audience can have a rough understanding of what the character is going to be like. In the trailer there is some written words that appear on the screen, the usual ones, like release date and actors and then there are certain words that are repeated on the screen and this is used to draw the viewers attention. Because the words repeated are in red, this automatically creates tension, as red is seen as an uneasy and unflattering colour. So seeing this, makes the viewers want to know why it is written in red.

Title sequence and trailers

In films there are title sequences and trailers, and people often get mistaken as to which is which. however, once you know the difference you will never get them mistaken again.

Trailer- in a trailer, this is where you watch a montage of the clips which it's main attempt is to grab the readers attention and draw the viewers into wanting to watch the film. however, the creators of the trailer may not have any other part of the actual film, as the trailer is like a separate art. Although the idea of a trailer is to inform you about the film, it does not want to reveal the whole film or spoil the story line to the audience as if you reveal to much then they don't even need to watch the film. The trailer needs to also reveal the rough story line, so that it makes the audience want to watch it.

Opening sequence- an opening sequence is similar to a trailer however in many ways it is different. In an opening sequence the idea is to draw the viewer in to the film so they want to carry on watching the film. if the opening sequence is poor people may just turn it off. Although the opening sequence is slower paced, it still does need to reveal some important information like maybe a bit of background information about the character. Or sometimes, the opening sequence can be the most action packed part of the film like a death or something, and then the majority of the film is about why the death happened.

Preliminary task peer feedback

The peer feedback from my task has helped me a lot as i have taken note of the EBI's so that i can use these in the future, and make my piece better and more effective. Also i received a lot of positive feedback on my piece which made me feel proud of my work.

Positive feedback (WWW): used a great rage of shots including high angle. used good match on action on the Juice carton and the Door handle, was a clever original idea with the Juice and CCTV, good editing effects, good innovation and flare,good shot reverse shot, flowed well.

Negative feedback (EBI): i didn't use a master shot to establish setting and scene, need to use more match on action and need to make it more interesting.

By doing this preliminary task i have improved my skill with camera work, and thought about match on action and the idea of continuity, i have also extended the knowledge of my media vocabulary, which helps when analysing peers. This will help me in the future when it comes to my final piece and coursework.

Preliminary Task

In today's lesson i filmed the preliminary task with tom Sullivan and James Sullivan. For this task we had to think about continuity editing, and make sure the film flowed nicely and didn't look jolty or jumpy. We had to film someone walking into a classroom, sitting down, and then having a conversation. We had to use a range of camera angles and shot types in order to make our film unique and stand out. The editing that we had to do was had to mix and match between the range of shots, so that we had over the shoulder shots, high angle shots and shot reverse shots. Shot reveres shot it useful for conversations as we can see what one character is saying, and when it cuts to the other character, we can see what their reaction is. We also had to consider the match on action, so that at the part when i was drinking the juice, we cut it so that the juice was at the same point from one persepective, as when we changed it, it was at the same point, this was done so the clip was not jumpy or jolty, and so it always looked continuous. We had to consider the mise en scene, so that the audience could really see our location, and so that they would always be able to tell where abouts we were in the shot

customize background

to customize my background firstly i need to
1-select design
2- select template or select a title
3- add the template or title to blog

EBI induction pack

although i enjoyed the induction pack, i think it would have been better if we had a lot more time on the mac's. as i did not do media or film stuides for GCSE, i have not got a lot of experience on the macs, so when it came to editing our clips that we recorded, i didnt really know what i was doing. also in the induction pack, we should have learnt about syncing clips with the music before we did the push a little button task, this would have made the vidoes look smoother, and much more enjoyable to watch.

WWW induction pack

WWW: during the induction pack, we did many tasks which have helped us progress as media students, however i found the Donnie Darko task the most enjoyable yet challenging at the same time. as this piece required continuity annd clear speech, it enabled us as actors and editors to really engage in our characters when acting, and when filming and editing, we had to think about angles and camera shots. we even thought about the 180 degree rule, and upon breaking it we even showed the camera panning across, to show the breaking of the rule.

this is my first trail on my blog for my media coursework.

to add this picture i clicked the icon next to the ABC. i then browsed my files and selected this photo to upload, as i thought it was funny.