Effective use of transitions and layering of images. clearly a lot of consideration has gone into the mise-en-scene at the start of the sequence. The setting (of the shopping centre) could have been a darker setting to create a more sinister effect. Although the handheld camerwork is effective in your next project try to use a tripod as it forces you to consider framing a lot more. Well done on a successful sequence.
This is a trailer for the film one hour photo. It is about an old man who has an obsession with peoples lives. He wants to be a part of them and stalks a local family. This was part of our inspiration for our thriller titles because we thought it was a subtle yet scary topic to cover. However, we didn't base our whole thriller sequence as we wanted to add our own ideas.
Analysis of sound techniques used in the Face Off title sequence.
The following paragraphs are my analysis of the first 3 minutes of the movie face off’s title sequence. I chose to do only do the first 3 minutes as I though there where loads of interesting sound techniques used.
For the first minute or so of the face off opening sequence, we hear the soft and gentle sound of a diagetic instrumental child’s song in the back ground. This (being the first thing we hear) almost sets the scene of a calm and relaxed atmospheric place (like a child’s play area). It starts off with just a repeated music box, kind of affect but as we get in, instrumental sounds are brought in. This helps create a calm atmosphere. The sound of children’s laughter adds to the atmosphere being a calm place which we now know is a play area, but the echoing of the laughter gives the impression that it is a flash back or a past memory for one of the characters. The soft laughter of the child is also used to give the audience an idea of how happy they both are in this situation.
When the gun is pulled out by the third character which we are introduced to in the title sequence, the soft instrumental sound is replaced by a low pitch quires hum, which gives a religious and spiritual feel to the title sequence and introduces the character to be evil. The low humming sound is used to change the atmosphere of the scene and shocks the audience into thinking that a safe environment like a play area is not as safe as it seems and that now we have a rough idea of what is going to happen whiles the son and his child have no idea, making us feel as if we are now involved in the whole event, making them uncomfortable and on edge, long before they are shot. Following that the diagetic sound of the humming, we hear the sound of the happy children’s instrumental music again but just a few seconds before the gun is fired, when he looks into the guns scope we hear a muffled gun fire which is used to prepare us for what is about to happen. We then hear a loud noise which is fades in, replacing the children’s music, and quite quickly becomes very loud. This creates another change in atmosphere and the audience now almost know what is going to happen next.
When the gun is fired we hear the loud bang from the bullet being shot and then the impact of the bullet into the father and his son, but then there is almost no sound for a couple of seconds apart from a very quiet echo of the impact. The affect of this on the audience is that almost in shock from what has happened, because all other noise is either taken away or muffled. When the fake hours shrieks it gives the impession that we are in a battle scene, which again challenges the fact that it is a child’s play area. The hours shrieking also makes it seem as if the person being shot is almost heroically falling. This again introduces him to the audience as the good guy in the film, whereas when we are shown the person with the gun all music becomes dark and evil. Following on from the hours, the only sound we hear is a loud high pitch violin. This could have more than one affect, the first being that the gun shot may have temporarily deafened the audience or more likely it could be trying to represent people screaming but muffled because they may trying to make it seem as if they are again in shock. As soon as we are shown the dead child on the floor, the main music which has been played mostly throughout the scene comes back again but this time slightly more dark (this being a quire in the background and a soft drum beat in the background.) this drum beat could represent the slow decreasing heart beat of the mans son, which slowly fades away into the dark music which also slowly becomes louder as the father starts to remorse over his son dying. The affect of the father crying on us as an audience is that we feel sympathy for the man. After the man and his child are shot, we are bombarded with many sharp and un-natural noises which shriek and scream. This is used to confirm that this is the end of the battle and reflects on the horror which just happened, leaving us with the reminder of how things such as this can happen in a safe environment like a child’s play area before it jumps into the next scene.
Level 1.......0-23 marks The work for the main task is possibly incomplete. There is minimal evidence in the work of the creative use of any relevant technical skills such as:
Level 2........ 24-35 marks There is evidence of basic level of ability in the creative use of some of the following technical skills:
Level 3....... 36-47 marks There is evidence of proficiency ib the creative use of many of the following technical skills:
Level 4........48-60 marks There is evidence of excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:
Holding a steady shot, where appropriate;
Framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;
Using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;
Shooting material appropriate to the set task;
Selecting mise-en-scene including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;
Editing so that the meaning is appropriate to the viewer;
Using varied shot transitions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the set task;
Using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;
posted by Long Road Media Students 2008 @ 10:18 AM
Friday, December 5, 2008
Thriller Deadlines
Make sure that you are aware of the following deadlines:
1. End of the last lesson of w/c 24th November: ANIMATIC DEADLINE. 2. End of the last lesson of w/c 8th December: ROUGHCUT DEADLINE. 3. End of 1st/ 2nd lesson of w/c 15th December: FINAL CUT DEADLINE. 4. 9am 19th December COMPLETED EVALUATION POWERPOINT TO MOODLE.
This is our test footage for where we want to film our thriller title sequence. We have done this to get an idea of shot types we want to do. We decided to test out the black room and the white room in the media studio to help give us a rough idea of what we will eventually film.
The class liked how we incorporated the titles and names into the sequence and thought it looked professional.
They also liked the motion of the animatic and the way the camera zoomed in and panned onto different points of focus in the picture.
The class suggested that we could incorporate different focuses in the clip which would reflect on the actual title of the film.
The class described how the pictures were detailed and how easy it was to understand what is happening.
Everyone suggested that a sound track is key, for the animatic set the atmosphere.
Also the theme was represented well by zooming in on the pictures on the wall, this showed the state of the character and gives an insight to his state of mind.
The first thing that appears on the screen is a man sitting up in a bed. It's dim in the room, and the lamps on, which suggests that maybe its quite late at night. The man puts his book down, then places his glasses on the bed side table, we have a close up of this. He seems restless, as his turns to look at the time, slowly moving side to side. To me this seems as if, for him, time is going slow. Although, the atmosphere seems to be calm. The it switches to a close up shot of a book, with the pages turning, and the shadow of a hand from behind the pages. Again, its the backgroud is dark.....
posted by Long Road Media Students 2008 @ 11:53 AM
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Alien title sequence analysis
The title sequence of the first alien film starts off dark, with a glittery and perhaps unearthly background. What we see is very shadowy and difficult to interpret which gives us a sense of an encounter with the unknown which is a stereotypical play on a fear. The Camera slowly pans from left to right. This gives a creepy feel because the viewer does not know what is going to come into the shot next. It also disorientates the viewer because you can’t get a sense of scale.
The title ‘Alien’ comes up at the top of the screen in separated straight lines. Right until the very end we do not know this is the title of the film. It can be read as looking like symbols, which reinforces the meaning of the film that when the characters on the spaceship first see the aliens they don’t know what are. The way the title sequence is set out purposely gives us clues about what the film is going to be about. Everything in the sequence points to the centre. This could be read as a clue to the main film, because in the film, the centre is where the pupae of the Alien comes from; the middle of you. The title also looks like an ‘alien’ encryption which could be read as there being a creature that has previously been around a long time ago and is now being re-awakened. Sound plays an important part in a thriller as it can make the sequence seem more scary and real. The non-diagetic music is slow with high-pitched noises every now and then. This music creates steady, dark tension which gives the audience a sense of being in a nightmare. I believe ‘Alien’ to not be stereotypical of thrillers as it has high production values. You can tell this by the fact it was made in 1979 and would still not seem out of place today. This is compared to the normally gritty realism and rough camerawork of a thriller.
posted by Long Road Media Students 2008 @ 11:26 AM
Friday, November 28, 2008
Animatic storyboard completed
Our animatic storyboard is now completed however we have run out of time to upload sound to the video. If we had upload sound though it would of been dark tense music which would of had you on the edge of your seat and be wanting to know what was going to happen next. The next time we are making an animatic story board. We now know we need to manage our time better and we will take this into consideration when filming.
The title sequence of se7en starts of with a unknown man in his bed, he then switches on a device which starts ticking. This makes the audience feel uneasy because it makes use feel like it is counting down to something. This could make the viewer feel that he is possibleing going to be murdered, because sterotipicly murders happen at night when people are alown. The scene then switches to another unknown person that we don't see. This character is shown to be very disterbed by showning him cut of skin of a dead persons hand with a razor blade.we then see that this person is writing something in a book, this razors question for the view and makes use want to know what the person's writing, and why is it so important? We then realise that this person is creating something but what? This again draws the auidence in more as they want to find out more about what the person is creating and why. The audience then feel a sence of uneasyness as we start so see lots of disturbing images, which could tell use that the person isn't right in the head and that he/she is someone to be feared. Finally the music throughout this scene is important because it makes the audience feel even more uneasy and has them on the end of the seat throught because the music makes use feel like it is building up to something.
posted by Long Road Media Students 2008 @ 12:07 PM
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Our idea for our thriller title sequence.
We have decided to set our thriller around missing and murdered teenage girls. We will open the sequence with a man in an apartment/photo development room. The audience will then see lots of photos of girls that have gone missing and have been murdered we would like to have a computer with lots of different windows and tabs to social networking sites and messaging sites with the 'villain' talking to teenage girls. The scene will then switch to a police station to show the investigation. You will then see pictures and newspaper articles over the walls of the people that have been murdered. We want lots of short duration shots to set the mood and build up tension. The setting also needs to be dark to set a spooky and mysterious atmosphere.
Group 38 are Danielle Langley, Harriet Miller, Ali Free and Mike Walker. We have been assigned the task to create a title sequence for a thriller. AND ITS GOING TO BE A MASTERPIECE, (we hope).
