Brainstorming Ideas

This is the brainstorm I completed listing some ideas that could be used for the Thriller Opening. I wrote brief notes which could help us when deciding what we are going to do and what we want to include in the film.

Production Meeting - 1

We are currently in the process of creating our opening of a thriller. Listed below is the step by step that we are going to follow to create the outline of our thriller.


Task 1 - Creating a spider diagram (on paper or in word) of potential Thriller ideas.


Task 2 - Take one idea and develop it through a second spider diagram. Consider locations, props, camera work, cast etc.

Task 3 - Write a 'proposal' outlining your idea for a thriller opening and the locations/props etc. - that you require.

Task 4 - Storyboard it.

Narrative

Structure, Formulas and Devices
E.g. Automatic use of 'continuity editing'.
The clear establishment of 'cause and effect' plotting which establishes character motivations and helps tell an interesting story which proceeds logically and steadily.

Enigma's
This refers to a puzzle, something mysterious or inexplicable, or a riddle or difficult problem.
In thrillers this is commonly something which the protagonist has to try to find out or solve before the narrative is resolved and the film finishes.

The 'Psychological' Thriller

The mind, conflict and the past
The suspense created by psychological thrillers often comes from two or more characters preying upon one another's minds, either by playing deceptive games with the other or by merely trying to demolish the others mental state.

Sometimes suspense comes from within one solitary character where characters must resolve conflicts with their own minds. Usually, this conflict is an effort to understand something that has happened to them.

Hitchcock's 'Maguffin'

A MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin or Maguffin) is a plot device that motivates the characters and advances the story, but has little other relevance to the story.
"We have a name in the studio, and we call it the 'MacGuffin', it is the mechanical element that usually crops up in any story. In crook stories it is always the necklace and in spy stories it is always the papers."

Suspense and Shock

The suspense 'Thriller' - Hitchcock model
'Under the strong influence of Alfred Hitchcock, thrillers often begin with a crime and the accusation of an innocent bystander. Were the accused to contact the authorities, no doubt the case could be promptly solved, but instead the poor bystander runs from the law thus further jeopardising life and limb.' - Rick Altman.
Some examples:
'The 39 steps' - 1935
'North by Northwest' - 1959
"In...the Thirty-Nine steps...suspense films abandon both thrills and suspense when the falsely accused character finally reaches safety" - Rick Altman.


Suspense
Imagine a scene in a film similar to this (classroom, students, teacher). The camera reveals that there is a bomb under the table to the audience but we (the students, teacher) are unaware of it.
Will we be saved ?
Will the bomb go off ?
This is Suspense !
Rope - Example of suspense
Tells the story of two young, wealthy men, Brandon and Phillip, who strangle and murder a friend of theirs just to see if they can get away with it. They then invite other close friends (including the murdered man's parents) to their apartment for a dinner party, whilst hiding the body in a chest/box in their sitting room, just to see if they can get away with it.
The suspense is created through the body in the chest/box.
What will happen?
Will the body and two men be discovered and brought to justice ?
Do we as the audience, even want this to happen ?


Shock
Now imagine the same scene except that instead of the camera revealing the bomb under the table, without any warning, it explodes and kills all present.
This is Shock !
Children of Men - Example of shock.
A man walks into a coffee shop full of people watching the news as the youngest boy in the world who was 18 had just died. The man purchases a cup of coffee and leaves. However less than two minutes after he left the shop a bomb exploded and many people were killed and severely injured. This is an example of shock.

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood. He fashioned himself a distinctive and recognisable directorial style and also pioneered the use of a camera made to move in a way that mimics a person's gaze.

Alfred Hitchcock was the 'Master of suspense where films came to be the benchmark for 'psychological' thrillers'.

Listed below are a few quotes from Alfred Hitchcock:

"The only way to get rid of my fears is to make films about them."
"There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it."
"If it's a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on."
"Always make the audience suffer as much as possible."
"I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach."

Preliminary Task - Analysis

In analysis of the preliminary task video I think we completed it very successfully and included all of the aspects that we were briefed to.

1. Match on Action - We successfully included match on action in the video. It was clearly shown when the character A first ran into the room and also later on when character B exited the room. Also match on action was demonstrated when character B was walking out of the room at the end of the video. There was various other examples of match on action in the video which were carried out successfully and professionally.
2. 180 degree rule - For the duration of the video we made sure we followed the 180 degree rule and that there were no instance where character positioning would seem to change. The characters always maintained the same right/left relationship.

In the video we saw a character walks towards and through a door to get inside a room where a different character was situated. The characters also exchanged dialogue and later on in the sequence a character does also exit the room. This was all stated in the brief and we have successfully followed this guideline. 

In conclusion overall in the video we fully followed and understood the brief and made sure it was clear in the video. This preliminary task shows that we can successfully include these elements in a video when needed.

Preliminary Task - The Video

Preliminary Task - What We Did

To complete our preliminary task we first created a storyboard to provide a guideline for us to follow when filming. Over a period of two days we filmed our preliminary task. We went out to the Robert Clack Leisure Centre, which was the setting for our short film, and we began to film the shots which were needed.
Myself, Nicholas, Toyosi and Edwin created and edited the film, with Nicholas behind the camera and the three of us acting out the task.
When editing the preliminary task we found there were a few unusable amusing clips. Therefore we decided to include these clips at the end of our film to allow the audience to see the process of filming which we went through.

Preliminary Task - Brief

To create our preliminary task we had to follow the brief and certain guidelines. 
It must successfully show:

• Match on Action - We see a character start an action in one shot and then see them continue it in the next.
• Shot/Reverse Shot - Where one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character.
• 180 degree rule - A basic guideline that states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other.

In the sequence we should see the following:

• Character A walks towards a closed door.
• Character A enters through the door and crosses a room to where character B is seated.
• Characters A and B exchange a few lines or dialogue
• Either character A or B exits the room.

Graphic Match/Match Cut

The film maker can choose to place shots in a certain order to create a smooth transition from one frame to the next. When two consecutive shots are matched in terms of the way they look this is called a Graphic Match/Match Cut. The image doesn't have to look the same, it can just have the same patterns of light and dark, or the same positioning of the figures in the shot. The director can choose to present a totally contrasting shot to achieve a different effect. An example of a Graphic Match/Match Cut is show below.

Soviet Montage

Some film-makers have played with this natural desire of the audience to make shots link logically together. Lev Kelshov, a Russian film-maker, in the 1920s experimented by showing a shot of an actor's face followed by a shot of food, followed by the same actor's face again followed by a dead woman, followed by the same shot of the actor's face but this time followed by by a child. Although the expressions of the actor never changed, when asked, the audience said he firstly looked hungry, then sad, then affectionate, as they tried to make the shots link together with some sort of logic. This placing together of images is called Montage. Also known as 'Soviet Montage' as it was a group of Soviet film makers who put forth explanations of what constitutes the montage effect. 

Editing

In the process of editing a film the editor looks at the film footage that has been shot in production and joins shots together to make a continuous piece of film. The editor has various methods of doing this and they will work with the director to decide which to use. 

Editing is the process of looking at all the footage which has been shot during the making of a film or video. When editing you place the footage in the desired order and actually joining it together. There are two main parts to look at when editing, 'Speed of Editing' and 'Style of Editing' which are explained below.


Speed Of Editing
When we watch a moving film of a fairly long duration we see the certain points where it has been joined together, where it has been edited. Each scene in a film usually lasts a matter of seconds, however there are some scenes which last much longer. The length of each sequence helps to establish the pace of the film. The speed of the editing may help to determine the mood that is occurring on screen. If the film makers want the audience to feel anxiety and suspense the pace of editing will be quick with the scenes changing frequently. If the film makers want the audience to feel relaxed and calm the scenes will last longer and change much less frequently, the film will adopt a slower pace.
   The scenes at the start of a film (not the opening credits), must be quite long as they are the establishing scenes which allow the audience to understand what it is going on. As the film progresses the scenes will most likely become shorter as the editing switches back and forth telling multiple stories at once.

Style of Editing
Some of these methods include:

• A Straight Cut - an abrupt transitions between two shots.
• A Fade Out - where the screen fades to black, this represents the passing of time.
• A Dissolve - where one image is slowly brought in beneath another one.
• A Wipe Cut - where one part of the screen moves to wipe across the other.
• A Jump Cut - where the audience's attention is brought into focus on something very suddenly.

The most used join in editing is the straight cut. We are so used to seeing these that we generally do not notice when they are used and a skilful editor will take care that the editing does not distract us from the action. The other types of edits can be used to create a certain effect; fades will often signify the ending of an episode in the film, dissolves will create a blending of the two scenes into each other in a story sense as well as in a physical sense. A wipe cut will be instantly more noticeable to our eyes as it is something that only ever happens on screen and, likewise, a jump cut will draw our attention immediately to a character or object that appears on screen directly after the edit.

 Different types of editing may appear more frequently in certain genres of film, for instance a wipe cut will often appear in a comedy feature film, or a jump cut in a thriller. However, most cuts can be used for a variety of effects and so we must not specify them in terms of genre.

  When the film-maker has made a choice about how to join the shots together they also have to make a choice about what order the shots in.

  Shots can be placed together so that one event logically follows from the next. We as the audience of the film try to make sense of one shot joining onto the next; for instance, if we see the outside of a house and then a shot of a chair, we automatically assume that the chair is inside the house that we have just seen the outside of. If we see a man locking a door and then getting on a bus, we assume he has walked down the road and waited for the bus.