First Thriller Film Ideas - Prezi

We have based our initial thriller film idea around the opening sequence of insidious because it goes against the normal openings of horrors where by the family are all settled in and then the trouble comes later on in the film. We think this is important as it shows we are creative and think outside the box and don't copy all the usual stereotypes.

Research into Target Audience

Whilst planning our narrative, we wanted to get peoples opinions on what they liked about thrillers and what they would personally want to see in a thriller. We were also interested in their opinions on what they thought the target audience should be. We have used these videos to take into consideration what they want. Using their feedback, we will adapt our planned narrative.

How to make a Sweded Film

Sweded Films are amateur recreations of famous films using limited resources and technology inspired by the 2008 comedy film Be Kind Rewind. The films are typically much shorter in length than their originals and use shoe-string budget props to mimic the source material.

Origins:

The term “sweded” was coined in the 2008 Michel Gondry comedy film Be Kind Rewind, starring Jack Black and Mos Def. The film takes place in Passaic, New Jersey, where the declining VHS rental store “Be Kind Rewind” loses its entire video collection after being inadvertently magnetised. Mike (played by Mos Def) and Jerry (played by Jack Black) attempt to replace the store’s video collection by recreating films using a camcorder and claiming they are special editions from Sweden.

An example is Be Kind Rewind Trailer:

Three Point Lighting

Three Point Lighting

TPL adds dimension and the goal of it is to create the illusion of a three dimensioal subject in 2 dimensions.

Key Light - Main light used on the subject
Fill Light - Fills the shadows created by the key light, reventing it from getting too dark
Back Light - Seperates the subject from the background

Whichever wa the subject is facing in the frame, put the key liht on that side of the camera

The thing to be cautious about is to not create a second shadow. The fill light is too powerful if you see a seocnd shadow

Scrims are designed to reduce the lightwihout softening it. Jels are used to reduce light. You dont have to use a seperate light as a fill light.

No need for 3 seperate lights when applying 3 point lighting

What makes a good opening sequence?

What makes a good opening sequence?

• Introduction of the main protagonists and antagonist 
• Good use of sound and effects 
• Crucial to include titles
• Effective use of costumes - give characters meaning 
• Perfectly set up mis-en scene
• Fully prepared into terms of props
• Research how to do certain scenes and shots in advance 
• Writing a script in advance
• Less is more - no need to show everything e.g. Murder
• Make sense to the viewer
• Lighting and shot composition are key
• Shot list and story board need to be created beforehand 

Avoid Predictable places e.g. The woods
Avoid filming in the school
Avoid starting the filming with action
Small glimpse of the film. Avoid giving too much away.  


                                                                                                                                                       
This is a good example of an opening sequence because it sets the tone by portraying the typical conventions of a thriller however not giving too much away about the narrative. The non diegetic music shows us that there is an element of suspense about the film. Along with the isolated location, the birds eye view shows us that there wont be many people around. The opening sequence limits the information we are given about the narrative. 

Fugtive Poster

How I made the poster:

• Got the same picture of trees in a forest that the original poster used from the school resource library
• Cropped it to the relevant part of the image
•  De -saturated the image
• Used the curve tool to position the curve downwards in order to darken the image
• Used the burn tool to darken out the bottom of the image
•  Created new layers to drag in new image of the trees and man from school resource library
•  Selected the brush tool (cyan colour)
• Added colour mask (filter, blur, Gaussian blur)
• Used the rubber tool (hardness tool and reduce opacity)
• Added a layer and then light,in order to get the light straight across, I held shift when doing this 
• Used motion blur  tool to blur out the light
• Used selection tool to minus and add the correct edit of the male figure
• Selected and rotated the male image to make image accurate to original poster
• Enlarged and transformed image  to make the it bigger
• Cropped entire poster, narrow image to make it look like the original posters height and length
• Added text, white font = F U G I T I V E
• Right clicked on 'F U G I T I V E' layer and duplicate it and go on filter and blur out the title.

Film Poster

To make this poster, i used photoshop. I began by sketching ideas and planning what i wanted the poster to look like. i took a picture of my class mate and uploaded it to my poster. i removed the bodies of the protaganists and adjusted them according to the rule of thirds where there eyes are places at the point where people looking at the poster lay there eyes on first. I used the resolution tool to put the male and female bodies behind  the blooded hand. i then applied the burn tool to make the images fit with the genre. I applied a font for my writing that was typical of the horror genre. I made the poster include these particular people because i wanted the victim to be a typical blonde white girl who is vulnerable and an older black man to take advantage of that.

Articles to influence my filming

Analysis of a Thriller Film of my choice

I watched the opening sequence of lilya 4 eva. From the opening stages of this film i can infer that it is about a girl who is unhappy with her life so she decides to end it prematurely. It is clear to see from her makeup that she is being abused due to the bruises around her face. The desperation of jumping off the side of a motorway connotes that she is in a bad state and it is something she has been thinking about. The setting of the scene is very dull which reflects her feelings and self esteem. The glumness continues with the grey buildings and sky, also known as pathetic fallacy. The fast tempo music goes with the setting. The shot of her looking down on the motorway from the top signifies the end and her effectively giving up.

How i Filmed my Prelim

How i Filmed my Prelim

When i first started editing the prelim, I began by naming each clip to what they shots they were filmed at for organisation purposes so i didn't have to repeat going back to edit clips and not knowing what angles they were. e.g. if it contained a wide shot of a character, I would name it "Wide shot". 

A problem I noticed whilst editing the prelim was the difference in sound of some clips. This was something that i wasn't technically able to do so the prelim was at fault for this. As time advances, i can amend the prelim so the volume is better quality and the same sound for all the scenes. 

In order to produce what the script sheet required of certain lines of dialogue in certain angles, i had to keep cropping most of the footage so it fitted with the requirements. This took a lot of time and patience as i only needed a few seconds of each scene and it was hard to crop it perfectly so i had only relevant footage. 

I put in a wide range of camera angles in my prelim, including close ups, medium close ups, wide shots, low angle  and over the shoulder shots

I discarded the high angle looking down shot as it wasn't necessary because it wasn't in the dialogue of what we had to include as well as not being advanced enough to keep to the 180 degree rule. 

Editing the prelim was challenging at first because i had never done it before and all the tools were new to me however i got used to it after a while and then it became simple and enjoyable. The hardest part of the process was the initial editing stage as it was all new to me and i was a bit lost. 

The 180-degree rule was easy to keep to because we only filmed the protagonists on one side during each scene. e.g, Hannah was shot on the left side whilst Mia would only be shot on their right hand side.