Planning Editing Styles- Miss Georgiou

Editing is essential towards our opening sequence as it is conventional towards a thriller. It helps create effect towards a certain scene and helps convey towards the audience that something bad is going to happen.

Reaction shot

This is used to show fear and anxiety feelings that the character is experiencing in that particular scene. As the relationship evolves between the audience and the characters, the audience then start to sympathise and empathise more when the protagonist is in trouble or danger. This shot shows clear faical expression from the characters involved. This is going to be used in my opening sequence regurally, nearly every scene to represent shock and surpise. As in almost every scene, the victim quickly becomes frightened, and then using this a lot will then clarify the paranoia she is currently witnessing. I think by using this technique will show effective and creativity within my first opening sequence of a thriller. (use example)

Filters
Filters is used to show mood of that particular scene, letting the audience become more familiar within the frame of mind that the characters are experiencing. For our opening sequence, filters will be used during flashbacks to show more of an effective, severe past event in which the is main character (Brittany) traumatised by. We will produce dark colours to represent a low key lighting, which is conventional towards a thriller film, making it an effective piece. By using dull colours, like black and white, interprets towards the audience that it was a past event haunting her towards the present day. Darker colours are impressive as they can then foreshadow the danger or death of the protagonist 'Carol.'

Timing of shots
This type of editing style includes slow and fast editing. By using slow editing, shows the audience of more of a tense moment and then creates more of a shock when the most dangerous part of the scene happens. By using fast editing, clarifying the panic the character is feeling at that moment. This editing style is exceptional for conventions of a thriller of 'shock, surprise and suspense.' This technique will be used throughout the sequence in various different example, for example; slow editing in first flashback when she is in her house, watching a movie which starts the scene with slow editing, this then pro-longs the clip building suspense and tension. It will then gain pace of editing when the scene becomes more anxious. The editing will increase when the victim (Brittany) notices the stalker (antagonist) watching her within the scene. This is a build up of an alarming situation and creates more of an impact when the most thrilling part of the scene has happened

Jump cuts
This is when the film suddenly focuses on something. This technique is effective as it allows the audience to focus on the intended thing without any distraction. This method of editing is going to be used in the opening sequence Inbetween each of three flashbacks, which enphasises upon the link between the emotional devastation each flashback has commonly given to the victim, Britanny. This will also help build a relationship between the scenes, allowing the audience to feel more comfortable and involved.

Editing styles will be useful towards my opening sequence as it will add effect towards a certain scene. Editing styles allows the audience to see the clear emotion that the character is expressing. This allows the audience to creat more of an understanding towards the narrative, making it more effective as a whole. This will also allow us as a group to provide all the necessary parts towards the media product in which makes it quick and leads more suspicion.

Planning Cinematography - Miss Miller

Cinematography is going to be important when being used in my opening sequence as it can make a whole scene much more effective, and also showing a deeper understanding of my knowledge towards using different camera angles. By using different tyes of cinematography, allows the audience to get more of an insight towards a certain scene which them makes it relatable, for example: using a low angle, normally used when the antagonist is on screen to give an impression to the audience that he is strong and powerful, and no matter who's in the audience, the antagonist is more confident and vigorous the character is.

Examples of cinematography that will be used in my opening sequence

Low and high angles

Low and high angles are used to add effect to a particular scene, making the characters nar(antagonist and protagonist) seem superior and more powerful to weak and in danger. The low angle makes the antagonist appear more powerful towards the audience as they seem taller and stronger, this makes the audience fearful and sympathise for the danger the antagonist is trying to put the protagonist in. This is suppose to represent intimidation towards the villain.The high angle is used to make the protagonist seem smaller and weaker, and as a bond has grew with the audience and characters, the audience are persuaded to carry on watching the film to see what happens next and to see if the protagonist is safe. (Add when using in sequence)

Panning

This type of cinematography is when the camera is standing still, usually completed using a tripod for maximum steadiness and security. It makes the audience engage with the scene more effectively, as it allows us to watch a certain crutual character walk, following them, this makes the audience think of it as more realistic and true as they feel as if they are also in the situation with the character as they can see body language, facial emotion, and background images. Panning will be used in my opening sequence when the main character (Brittany) is having one of her flashbacks, when she is walking home from seeing friends and is walking on her own in an alley way. The protagonists anxiety is getting stronger as she feels something is following her but is really just a friendly neighbour on his daily run, panning will be used when the runner is running last to show the fast pace this character was going at. I think this scene would be effective as it emphasises on the paranoia Brittany feels and how much this antagonist (Steve) has made her constantly nervous. 

Extreme close up

This specific type of cinematography is when the image fills the scene with aboslutely no background and only what is intended to be focused on. Showing only a particular image, this is normally someones face to express their type of emotion in more of a dramatic sense. In my opening sequence, extreme close up will be used in one of the flashbacks, when the victim (Britanny) is walking home in the forest and hears a crunch like sound and the camera will focus on the boot of the antagonist causing this noise. This will be effective as their will be an interpretation upon the audience that it was intentional of the villain to make this noise and he wants the protagonist to have constant paranoia and nervousness. This makes the audience sympathise for Brittany as she is the female victim who only wants to stay safe, this shows a typical effective convention of a thriller film.

Shallow focus

This shows focus of the character which the director wants all the focus to be on, to show facial expression and body language. This type of cinematography still shows background but is all blurred which takes away the urge from the audience to look at as it is not clear scenary. In my opening sequence, this technique will be used during the protagonists walk along the alley way, focusing on the reaction and her facial expression when she feels like she is about to be attacked, when it is just her paranoia taking over. This scene will empathise on the relevance of the main character, Brittanys emotion towards how frightened she is of this stalker. This will be used by focusing on her expression as you can see her anxiety building up as the runner is getting closer and closer, but does not dare to turn around. The runner in the background will be blurry alongside any scenary which he is near, to represent how much stress this stalker situation of hers has put her under.

Hand held
This technique is used to put under an illusion towards the audience of realism towards the scene. This type of cinematography is normally used when the character is in the emotion of panic, this then also makes the audience panic for the victimised character, making it a creative scene. This is going to be used during her first flash back, when she is running into the kitchen to quickly grab a knife as she notices someone staring at her through her living room window. In a hurring pace, she quickly grabs (a convention of an effective thriller) a knife so herself, she can feel more safe and make this stranger feel intimidated and not to do it again, as she comes back there is no one. This highlights the anxiety and stress she is feeling as we never find out if someone was actually staring in or she was imagining it.

This will be helpful towards my opening sequence, as it gives a more in depth view towards me and my group why it is going to be effective in my opening sequence and why it will benefitical. This post helped me into a more detailed understanding towards the structure of a particular method of cinematography. I think this type of editing within the media is extrememly effective as it gives the audience an over view towards whatis going on in that particular scene, for example: a low angle suggests to the audience that the antagonist is powerful and strong, creating more sympathy for the victim as the audience know they are going to be more endangered, allowing the audience to create a quicker, more intimate bond within each character in a different way.

Planning miss-en-scene- Miss Georgiou

Setting and iconography
For my opening sequence, the setting I would use for the main scene when the main character is about to commit suicide; to have her stand on a bridge which represents the danger she is about to put herself in to her death. The iconography for this sequence I think would be effective as it would include all things that are conventional towards thriller films, for example,the iconography of a weapon would be a knife, in which was the most popular question towards the question that was asked 'What is your favourite weapon used by the antagonist?' As there would be a nearby death involved, we would supply bricks for the protagonist. By using bricks, will represent how desperate this girl is as she believes the only way to get out of her situation is to end her life. This makes the audience sympathise with her and she is the typical female victim in a dangerous situation.

Lighting and colour

For my opening sequence, lighting and colour will be used throughout the sequence to set the mood of the scene. The main scenes will include a dark and isolated atmosphere alongside with low key lighting (conventional towards a thriller film.) these dark, mysterious colour will be used during all flashbacks to represent to the audience of a past event without actually using dialogue to show this. I think this will be effective as it will show the audience how much the past has affected her to the extent of having to end her life as the only way out. During one of the flashbacks, while she is in her home watching a film, low key lighting will be used with only the light from the television source to show her facial expressions and body language. Using natural lighting will inform the audience that she could potentially be in danger. The next flashback will be in the forest, and will use only natural lighting, so will be quite light but will then suggest towards the audience that she is endangered wherever she goes. Shadows will be used at an effective technique to indicate towards the audience that something is following her. Low key lighting will also be used in the flashback of the alley way, which will isolate the surroundings as it will be a dark area, and will focus on the facial expression that is shown when she thinks she is in danger.

Body language and facial features

During the main scene, when Brittany, the victim, is on the bridge about to commit suicide; her facial expressions show that she is scared and on edge. Her body language is be quite tight to show the lack of confidence is stranger has given her. She starts to have doubts on whether she should jump or not, which is why straight after that scene, it goes to her flashbacks towards why she even thought of such a thing in the first place. There will be a lot of loud breathing involved, to show the victim cannot handle the situation any longer. The antagonist will stand very broadly throughout the whole of the sequence, to give an impression in the audience that he is confident, powerful and strong. These are conventional towards a thriller as it is going to show the typical female in danger victim, alongside with the male, strong antagonist. 

Mise en scene is very important for a thriller film as this topic varies around a range of methods: settings and iconography, costume, hair and makeup, facial expressions, body language, lighting, colour and the positioning of the characters. All of these things help to personalise a certain character to help the audience discover what they are like, helping to provide a denotation of a certain character or the surroundings. 

An example of a successful roller film using the mise-en-scene of triangle formation is the film 'Sin City,'

As it uses dark tones to show the reader that their is sadness towards the scene. Most of the scenes are mainly set in a dark, old house with misty windows. In my interpretation, this was used to represent a confusing topic, and that no one can understand unless they are the ones experiencing the scenario. One of the characters body language is her with cross arms, to show she wishes to keep thoughts and secrets to herself. The back lighting of this particular scene is the lighting inside of the house. The key lighting is on the right side of the set to show the main characters facial expressions. The filler lighting blurred out some of the background objects to help he audience focus only upon the characters and their expressions to certain things.These types of lighting play a role in triangle formation.

Research into Target Audience- Miss Miller

This research was carried out to find out more opinions of peoples view upon thrillers. To complete this questionnaire, we asked 40 people from different age groups all these questions about thrillers. These results would help me with my opening sequence as it gives me more of an insight towards what the publics most preferrable thing about thrillers is, for example what their favourite use of iconography is.

Questionnaire

1.How old are you?

2.what gender are you?

3.Do you enjoy thrillers?

4.What is your favourite element of a thriller?

For instance death, suspense, tension, shock, surprise, chase scenes, weapons and why?

5. What type of thriller do you like?

Action, murder, stalking, psychological and why?

6. What type of setting do you like/ prefer?

7.Do you prefer thrillers which are relatable to your age group?

8. Do you think background music makes a thriller film more effective?

9. What type of weapons do you prefer?

E.g knife, gun, strength of the antagonist, or other.

10. Do you like the effects of having a hidden identity within a thriller film?

This questionnaire was used to show which gender prefers thriller films more, to get more of an insight towards the popularity of this genre of film between genders. As you can see; I used a pie chart to clearly show which gender preferred it, in this case it was the male population.

This question was used to show what age a certain person that was interviewed was. This then showed us what age group prefers these types of movies by looking at the pie chart and seeing what had a higher percentage. The most popular age group was 16+ and the least popular was 1-10 years. I think these were the results due to the fact that teenagers enjoy the thrill of being scared and finding thrillers interesting due to a particular narrative and younger children's do not understand as much and find the narrative disturbing and uncomfortable. I think teenagers tend to like the idea of thrillers more as it could be relatable, as the storyline is mainly about teenagers in trouble and by using this age group in the film, makes the target audience (teenagers) almost feel as if they are in the situation with the characters in the film because of all the enigma created, making it effective.

This was a simple question aimed at the audience to see if the interviewee actually liked thriller films or not. More than half said yes, this then makes the genre of a thriller effective and successful as people enjoy their time watching thrillers. By using a pie chart shows clearly what is the most popular answer. I think this question was simple and effective as it linked with the genre of thrillers and evidentially shows if the audience that were asked enjoyed thrillers or not. From the question before, more than half were aged 16+ which would make them a suitable audience to watch thrillers, so it is effective in which using this closed question to get a general idea.

This question was an open question, which means there should usually be more than one answer as it's more of the audience own perspective without being 'pigeon holed.' This question was used to get more of an insight towards what they enjoyed most when watching a thriller film and why. As you can clearly see, the element of suspense was the most favoured. 

This was also an open question so that we could get more of an idea towards all types of thrillers without the interviewee feeling pigeon holed. Most preferred the action part of these genres of films. I think this question is effective as it gives an idea for us for when we make our own opening sequence to consider what the audience enjoy to watch.

I think this question was effective as it shows how much a certain age group can relate towards a thriller film.bin my opinion, I think if you can relate to a film, you can then build a relationship with the characters of the film and then is much easier for the audience to sympathise and empathise for the characters when they are in danger, this makes the audience fear more for them and then want to see what happens next to make sure the characters end up safe and ok, resulting to carrying on watching he film making it a productive piece. As you can clearly see from the pie chart, more than half of the people that were asked, answered to the closed question with 'yes.'

I think this closed question was effective as there were only three answers to choose from, which gave a more quantitative view for us to see what was the most popular answer, more than half said yes which shows most of the audience enjoy thriller films a lot more when there is shock, surprise and tension involved. I think these three things are very important in thrillers and it makes the audience on edge and makes them more eager to watch on without typically knowing what's going to happen and get bored, which would make it an ineffective and uncreative piece.

This question was used to get more of an insight towards the preferable weapon the audience would like to see the typical antagonist with (iconography.) This was a closed question. As you can see the knife was most popular, I think this was because it is simple, yet still fearful for both characters and audience. I think knife is more relatable than a gun as in every home there is some type of knife, which makes the audience on edge as they could be out in danger at any time. The antagonists strength was the least popular.

I like this question as I think background music provides a lot of tension and informs the audience that something is going to happen. This suspense is created with eerie music. Most people that were asked said no towards that it doesn't provide any effectivity within a thriller film, however I disagree, if you were to watch a full movie with absolutely nothing of non-diegetic sound, then the movie would seem pointless and not up to the potential horror or shock that it could have.

This question was used to get more an insight towards audience perspective towards the scenery that the characters are surrounded in. The pie chart shows that the two most popular types of setting were dark and isolated areas, I think these were chosen as it provides the audience of something dangerous is going to happen to them. If they were in a place filled with a lot of people with everything nicely furnished, would make the character feel more comfortable and safe whereas the whole point of particular narratives is to make them feel on edge, and as the audience create a relationship with the characters, also makes them feel on edge too. 

This research was all equally useful, both vox pops and questionnaires as it allowed me to see evidentally from both video and paper proof to see what people liked and preffered. This will help me with my opening sequence as it allows me to use the most effective method when creating my own scene. As I will use the most popular methods or equipment, this will make my opening sequence effective and creative, allowing the audience to see what they would like to see, allowing them to engage with the characters and the scenary.

Preliminary Task - Miss Miller

Preliminary Task

For this task, there were two other people in my group; Cara and Harry. The purpose of this task was to get more use to the filing equipment, so that we are more familiar and effective with it when using it for our opening sequence. The preliminary task helped us as a group understand how the camera equipment worked and also allowed us to experiment with different camera angles and shots. To complete this task, we had to film a conversation that two members within our group had while the third filmed. The duration of this conversation was about 30 seconds long. After we had done all of the filming, we quickly had to watch the whole sequence back and edit it on the computer to make it more effective. We edited out shots that we did not need or parts of the sequence in which were ineffective. In the conversation for this task, was Cara and Harry having a normal conversation and ending with cars walking out.

We used a range of camera techniques and shot techniques in order to complete this task, for example: shot reverse shot, close up and panning. To make these types of cinematography effective, a tripod was used to make sure the camera was steady and was placed where was wanted it to film. I think what me and my group did well was showing clearly what type of camera techniques we was using and getting straight to the point without it being boring and long. We achieved this by making sure what we filmed was not long, a quick conversation and that was it. I thinks, as a group; we struggled with filming and acting in general and it is very unfamiliar to us, that is why having this task was very effective for us as it helped us gain more knowledge towards this, and making sure The effiency for when we make our own opening sequence will be more productive and impressive. As it was the first time for me using that sort of camera, it was sometimes difficult, especially for 'panning,' to move it around as adequate as I could have. By re-watching the footage of the conversation, allowed me to notice the errors in my filming, and motivated me to do better for future reference. If we could have done something differently I would say, repeat each scene twice or more, as long as it is not only once incase or poor camera work or acting skills. By doing this, would have allowed us to become more professional around the camera and gained more confidence as we would have noticed better results. I feel like this whole acting/filming task has helped us for when we produce our opening sequence as the shots we used are most likely going to be used when filming ours, for example, using a close up will help us be more effective for when we actually use it as it helps build tension and see the characters facial emotion for evidentially.

This task helped me in preparing for filming my opening sequence as it allowed us as group to become more familiar and certain with it, which will show in our filming and acting skills. This helped because using it before and playing around with what is what allows us to show our strengths and weaknesses in this certain part of our media coursework. From this task, I learnt that I need to improve with my camera skills in order to achieve the grade me and my group aim for, by taking part in this task, shows where I need to focus on and also my peers in the group. To ensure the same errors are not made, we will re-act the same scene at least twice to make sure there is no dodgey camera work or things like un-easy acting skills which would put off the reader for example, lack of eye contact within the other character. I think this task helped me understand a lot towards the filming aspect, and as a group have critised towards what we need to work on to make sure our opening sequence is the. Ext that it could be. I am very excited to see how our first opening sequence looks once is all finished.

Research into Conventions - Miss Miller

Conventions of a thriller films

A convention of a thriller means to conforming or adhering to accepted standards. In a film, elements that are common within different film genre patterns that can be seen or used in different films from the same category. Convention of thriller films are used to create the main elements of shock, surprise and suspense for the audience, making the film more effective. By having these elements creates a relationship with the audience as it seems almost realistic. Some examples of conventions within a thriller film are:

• Female victim (usually young, attractive and clueless, making the audience sympathise for her when she is in danger)
• Iconography (weapons, representing a dangeorus situation)
• Antagonist/Protagonist
• Diegetic/Non-Diegetic sound- gets louder when the victim/protagonist is in danger.
• Low Key lighting
• Slow editing
• Enigma which creates mystery to the audience, leaving them with tension and ending up with shock.
• Eerie music (creates tension to the audience)
• Abandoned setting/dark/isolated
• Chase scenes, showing typical thriller content, antagonist after the protagonist.
• Hand held camera/POV
• Timing of shots- slow(creates suspense) or fast (informs the audience that a character is trying to get away or run away from something)

Re-do choose scene from Halloween 2

Individual narrative ideas- Miss Georgiou

A narrative is important because it is what the story is about within a thriller film, something that has happened in a story. This is the factor in the genre of a thriller which makes films so effective. Without a narrative, there would be no point to watch the film as there would be no storyline, the most important aspect within any type of film.

A narrative for a new thriller film

Creating my own thriller film; I was thinking of having the typical female victim in danger while the antagonist has specifically chosen to go after her. By doing this, would make the audience sympathise for her as she is powerless within the opening sequence. For the cinematography part of the scene, use a low angle when the antagonist is on the screen, this would then make the audience feel smaller than the villain and feel the same level of intimidation as the victim, making it relatable. To also make my own narrative effective, use slow editing and fast editing, this would make the audience sense panic and safety within the sequence. As it is going to be an opening sequence, the antagonist could capture/kill the victim, as she is captured away or killed with the antagonist running away. By having this as the end of the scene, would make the audience want to see what happens next and who else is going to be in danger.