The genre that we chose in our planning was a Psychological thriller. This influenced our film extract and the decisions we made about Location, costume design, camera shots and the soundtrack. The location we chose was influenced by the genre because we needed a place that was very large and because of all the different mirrors and rooms it was quite confusing which worked well with our film. I especially like the part where you can see the woman's reflection in the mirror, I think this is a very effective and confusing shot because we wanted the audience to feel the suspense and confusion. The costume designs were not well thought out however we just needed something plain and basic for the Psycho and we also need to keep him disguised. I think that the plain black jacket did this well because it hid his face which kept the suspicion and mystery. The camera shots we used worked well and was affected by the genre that we chose, the shot in the lift is very good because its suspicious and surprising I like the way the camera stayed in the lift whilst the suspect killed the victim. There are not many close ups which isn't very good but I think the various long shots that we have work well because they do not reveal the suspects face.
My micro responsibility was costume designs and some editing. I think the editing has developed the narrative because it put everything together, the shots created suspense in the narrative. As the extract goes on the scene builds up suspense which is created through the editing. The editing combined the sound track which helped to build the tension.
The whole group worked together in the planning to create the narrative, characters and genre. We had a few planning lessons where we created mind maps and discussed the ideas and decisions. Me and Phil created the narrative in one lesson it started off as a basic thriller but it seemed like an unoriginal idea so we decided to add some twists, the genre then lead to be and Psychological Thriller. We devised the characters whilst we were creating the narrative and I think the characters are very effective and work with the film well. My favorite character is Phil's character, the accent that he used was not planned but I think adds a slight amount of humour which I think is needed to break the tension. After we had created the narrative we thought up and drew a story board which had all the different shots we wanted to use.
We adapted and changed a lot of our plans as we went on. Some due to not being able top create what we wanted and some because we thought it would improve. The mirror shot is my favourite and this was not in the story board, it was an accident by I think this is very effective and lucky. The costume design ended up different because our organisation was not good and for the killer we ended up using a coat we had with us which was lucky. I brought in my costume which was planned. did not plan to use the list however I think the shot is great so that worked out well.
I wanted the audience to react in a shocked way I wanted them to feel the tension and suspense as it went along. I think the editing did this well because it was adapted to fit the soundtrack which meant that the right sounds happened at the right time. I also wanted the audience to react to the location in a good way because I think that the location that Phil found is very good and looks very professional.
We received mixed feedback for each micro element. For the camera work people thought that the following of the woman builds up suspense I see this as a success however I would have liked to have had a lot more varied shots such as close-ups. The mise-en-scene had good feedback, people said that the mirror shot gives a strange and confused effect. The feedback showed that there was a good use of props and costumes, this surprised me so it has tuned out as a success. the other groups liked the elevator scene where it opens and closes. there was no bad feedback about mise-en-scene so this was a success also. The sound had mixed feedback. People liked the soundtrack and thought that it built suspense however they thought that the diagetic sound was too quite but altogether I see the sound as a success. The editing had good feedback, the audience liked the fact that the shot flowed into one another. however one person noticed that the was a slight jump cut.
My technical skills did not hold the group back. I have learned to use all of the programmes through media and film studies. We only used programmes that i am familiar with so my knowledge has not hindered the creating of the film extract. We have been able to use and create all of our ideas because the whole group knows how to use all of the programmes.
Altogether I feel that the film extract was a success and I would not changed many things at all.
Camerawork - Camera movement- following the characters builds up suspense
Mise en scene - Clever use of the mirror in one shot to give a strange and confused feel to it. Good use of props and costumes, 0bviously an office building Use of elevator close and opening.
Sound - Suitable soundtrack - changes the mood as it progresses Diagetic sound is too quiet (overshadowed by sound)
Editing - Shots flow into each other well -no jump cuts only one point where it jumps a bit but its hardly noticable
We filmed for a second time to add a few more little parts to improve out extract. When I got back to the computer we were working on and tried to upload the footage it was not there. I'm not sure what happened but thankfully we have already filmed the main scene of our short film extract.
Here listed is the costumes the characters will be wearing in our short sequence.
Sheridan - Blue blouse with white shirt, black trousers, black shoes (with heels), hair in a bun. Phil - Suit jacket, Blue jeans, yellow t-shirt Steve - Black coat (with hood), blue jeans
In the short film sequence which we will be filming on the 27th January we are planning on using only 3 characters, this is because of the context of the film, that the woman is on her own in the office with another guy, who then gets killed by the stalker. The three characters are as followss with names of people in the group who will be acting them.
Phil - Womans friend who gets killed Sheridan - Woman being followed Steve - Stalker
As we had a delay in our actual filming of our coursework, we decided to do a test run of our piece. I think that this worked well as it gave us some new ideas of shots, and also helped us change the plot slightly. Below is the test footage which we shot on the 26th January.
Because we have filmed some test footage we have had a chance to practise and rehearse. Also we have got some new ideas on what we can do with the stairs in our actual location. We filmed this test footage in college on a stair case so that we had a rough idea o what the location would be like. This has given us some ideas about costume because we know what you can and can't see on the camera because we want to disguise the psychopaths face.
We planned to film on the 25th January but we couldn't make it due to organisation and communication problems. We have now had to rearrange a new time to film. We have now got to film in an evening because we are all busy at the weekend. This has caused some problems with the location as there will be people around at this time. We can over come this by filming quite late in the evening. We have decided to film on Tuesday and if there are any problems with that we will film on Wednesday.
We have made a draft version of a theme tune which is something we can build on to make better once we have the footage to relate the soundtrack to. We have chosen to do a spooky thriller type soundtrack as it relates to the genre of our film, the soundtrack would be fast paced towards the end to go with the large amount transitions between shots.
Because the rough cut deadline is on the 29Th of January we only have one weekend in which to do it. We need the office blocks empty so we have better access which means we are unable to do it on a week day. The only day we are able to do it is this Sunday so we will book the camera for then. The final deadline is on the 5Th of February and hopefully it Will done by then.
I chose to look at this clip by Jeff Betancourt because he did the editing for when a stranger calls which was quite interesting. However, Ii think that this clip is a lot different and I do not think that it would work well in our short film extract. The clip has tension in the beginning because of the music which worked really well with the video. The clip had slow pace which I don't think would work well with our film extract.
In this clip of When a Stranger Calls the pace is quite fast, this creates a lot of tension. I think that it could be a good idea as the editor to make sure that our film extract has a lot of tension I could make sure it has a fast pace like this clip. Jeff Betancourt did the editing for this clip. He has done editing for lots of different thriller-type films such as The grudge, The Grudge 2 and The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Betancourt mainly seems to edit films that create a lot of suspense and tension I am going to look at some of his other techniques in The grudge.
Psychological thriller mood board This is the mood board, we have chosen to use Psychological Thriller film posters. this is because we have chosen the psychological thriller genre for our film extract. The music was created by Steve I think that Steve's music goes well with the video because it is eerie and creepy. I created the video, I used the Ripple dissolve as the transition between film posters which I think worked well with the theme of psychological thriller. We lost quite a lot of time with this task because Sheridan and i weren't clear on what we had to do so we did it wrong and to start again but i think the final outcome was very successful.
I chose to look at 'There is something about Mary' for ideas because it is very similar to our original ideas. Watching this gives me a wider range of ideas for our film extract. Our film extract is very similar to this because but ours has a different twist creating a thriller theme. We have tried to add twists to our synopsis. We could get some character ideas from this film which could broaden our original ideas.
I have decided not to use somthing about Mary as reasearch because it does not work with the genre of our film.
My selected role is the editor, this is a very important role as it may make or break the outcome of the film. To be an editor it is important that you know how to use all of the software on the computers so that you can do it efficiently and effectively. It is very important for the editor to work closely with all of the group members, it is important to work as a team. Having every one work together means that we will be organised, we can help each other out but also must stick to the main task. It is especially important for me to work with the sound editor because the video must link with the audio. I am also going to help with the costume designs, make-up, planning and the story board. Which means I will have to work closely with the director and camera man.
In their teenage years boy (psycho killer) and girl (Hostage) are best friends. The boy loves the girl but she doesn't know. He proposes to her after getting the wrong impression she says no and he later turns into a psychopath. He goes round killing people in weird twisted ways. After 10 years of being apart (In different city's) he finds her living in Cambridge. He goes to the office where she works and confronts her after watching her and killing the person she is with. She doesn't know it is the boy from teenage years. He pretends that he has killed the guy that proposed to her (him) And she breaks down and cries how much she loved him. He tells her that its okay because the guy that proposed is actually him, he takes of the mask. She says how much she doesn't want him any more because of all the killing. He kills himself.
