Before we begin to film our actual thriller film opening, we have to learn how to use the cameras properly, and gain confidence in using them. this is so that when we come to filming our real thriller openings we can make them as best as they possibly can be. The media technician Micky showed our class the basic skills of using the video cameras.
We were shown:
How to insert the two memory cards How to adjust light levels How to change focus, in order to variate between soft and hard focus How to safely remove the battery and turn the camera off How to safely attach the camera to the tripod How to use the tripod for panning and other things.
Micky also advised us on different camera techniques, so that our films would looks as professional as possible. He advised us to not follow the actors with the camera as they travelled across the scene, to take a few takes of each shot, in order to gain optimum results and finally to use a wide variation of shot types to make the film as interesting as possible.
'Thriller' is a broad genre, which uses suspense, excitement tension to create a fast paced atmosphere. There are many smaller sub-genres of thriller, that incorporate other genres. Some sub-genres of thrillers include:
Basically, suspense is where the audience are drawn into the film, creating tensions and viewer's interest. It keeps the audience guessing and makes them ask questions about the storyline. It should keep the viewer on the edge of their seat.
When our group make our thriller film opening, we aim to use a lot of suspense, to create the best thriller possible. =]
On Monday’s lesson, we had a go at doing storyboarding, in order to have an idea of the planning we have to do before filming our opening sequence. But instead of drawing the storyboard, we did it using a camera and gummy bears!
Each gummy bear represents a person (as you may have guessed!) and we tried our best to do a little mise en scène, using blue tack and a tissue. We have decided to keep it simple, as this was just a practice for us to realise how important a storyboard can be.
We had a set story and several types of shots to do, like in our practice film “The Bag Swap”.
And here’s the result
Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to put any sound in our video. But this isn’t a main issue, as this exercise was meant for us to understand how to plan our real film.
And here’s a little “making of” gathering all the pictures and short videos I have taken “behind the scenes”!
... And if you want to know what happened to all the Gummy Bears (notice how we ended up with two in the end? ...) ask our stomachs. To be honest, they weren't even that good!
In our last lesson, we had to take pictures and make an animatic of a short scene, using jelly babies. In the next lesson, we will be using the animatic as a plan to follow as we will be shooting the scene using actors instead of sweeties. The animatic is a simple thriller story-line: one person enters the room and attempts to have a conversation with the other person, after the person is ignored, they begin to shake the other, who then falls on to the floor, revealing that they are dead. The other person then runs away, frightened. This is still in keeping with the thriller genre, as it is not clear to the audience that the person is dead until they fall on to the floor and the other one runs away, and suspense is built when they are being shaken.
When Thomas Sutcliffe says '' Films need to seduce their audience into long term commitment. While there are many types of seduction, the temptation to go for instant arousal is almost irresistible'' he means to get the audience's attention immediately but its more important to maintain this attention in order to keep the audience sucked in throughout.
Grabbing the audience in the first 5min is Crucial.
However, according to director Jean Jacques Bendix there are certain risks of 'Instant Arousal'. If we firstly drawn to a big opening that hooks the audience it is a risk of maintaining this interest. For example we watched the opening of Casino which in my opinion was a dramatic opening. It included Robert Di Nero coming out of a ''hotel'' and going into his car. And as his starts the engine there is a great Blow Up.
This surely stunned the audience's. However if the rest of the film is not as great, its a big let down to the audience's.
'' a good beginning must make the audience feel that it doesn't know nearly enough yet, and at the same time make sure that it doesn't know too little ''
Basically at this point we as the audience need to know more than the characters. For instance, in the film WE can see the lady getting stalked by the killer, but the lady herself doesn't know.
We need enough information, but not to much.
Kyle Cooper's title sequence to the film Seven was more effective because he gave the message of what its about straight away. There was no credits or name of actors shown. His purpose was to send the message right away. On the other hand Seven has an unusual yet very interesting opening. The dull colours and moving images struck me most.
Orson Welles wanted to go straight into the movie with no credits in the opening to the film 'A Touch Of Evil'. He intended to not have a title or credit just suspenseful music order to plunge the audience in.
Starting the film with the ending is what is meant by '' a favourite trick of Film Noir ''. A great example of this would be the title sequence of 'MOMENTO'
During the opening to the film The Shining you have the idea of a predator.
A high strong focus on a small object (the car) being followed discretely. As the audience we are presuming that there driving the wrong way ?
