What happens next?

At the end of this week or at the beginning of the next one we are going to present our ideas to Mike. We are going to get some feedback, what to change, what is well done, if he sees any problems. We will discuss location, story line, if we need any permissions to shoot and our basic plan. After that we will need to finalize our idea and decide upon who do we want to cast, what props do we need, what music should we use to build up the tension. We also need to draw our storyboard and decide on our shots. Due to the fact that we want to shoot in the market and local church we need a permission to shoot there. 

Working in groups 

At the end of last week w have been devided into groups of 4. In these groups we are going to shoot our thriller opening sequences. I am working with Hugo, Tommaso and Kirill.

We started discussing or ideas - if to combine them in some way, to pick one or to come up with completly new idea together. It was hard to connect our ideas and we couldn't decide who's idea we like the most as a group so we decided to start from the beginning. We started our brain storm from location because during the weekend together with Tommaso we found an amazing church in London, where the interial looked like a militarian ship. It would suit really good for the thriller - there were different rooms with ropes, knifes, hooks and there was also a chapel.


From the beginning our main theme was a religious/gothic opening sequence. Apparently we are not allowed to shoot away from school or Guildford so we abandoned the idea of church in London.

While working on our idea we agreed on everything, we only argued about little details. The whole process of creating our concept went fast.

Our opening sequence is going to be about priest and his morning routine. Firstly we want to show how he is well known and liked among local people by having conversations with shop keeper and a pedestrian. Then when he is walking to the church we can see him as someone is observing him, but the audience doesn't really know who. He is entering the church and makes the sign of the cross. Next he is walking to the small room to put products that he bought in the fridge and then we speculated to show a head of a dead person in that fridge. At the end the priest would give the audience a visual tour arounf that room showing typical equipment used while commiting a crime.

Presenting initial ideas to class 

At the beginning of this week we were suppose to present our favourite initial idea to the whole class. We got a paper from Katie, where we can write our opinions about other's presentations - what went well/wrong or if we see any problems. 

Everyone needed to talk about the whole story line of the movie and then about the opening sequence in detail. 

I choose to present the idea about missing girl. 

My whole story line was about young murder, who kills teenage girls, but at some point he just cannot help it - it becomes an addiction. He knows that it's really awful so he decides to kill himself. The girl at the beginning was just one of his first victims. 

My opening sequence would be concentrated on girl's morning and things that she is doing on the daily basis. Only thing that was suspicious for her was that her mom did not wake up, despite the fact that the girl was shacking her body and asking loudly to give her a drive to school.  She does not realize that she is gone until nobody is noticing her in school and she sees 'missing person' posters around town. 

The whole group generally liked my idea, they only said that the fact that the girl is asking her mother to give her a lift to school does not make sens if she finally walk on her own. 

Analysis of preliminary task 

On our last studio lesson we've been editing our footage from last week. 

We've decided to start with long shot to set the scene, show the audience the location and both characters. It was an eye level shot to make the viewer feel like she/he is a part of the action. 

Subsequently we put close up over the shoulder to show Hugo facial expressions, afterwards we changed it onto over the shoulder shot on Tommaso to emphasize the idea of conversation. 

Then we captured both characters in one show to show the little distance, the intensity between them two.  We used quick editing to change the shot and show the increasing pace of the conversation. Then the camera was pointing on Tommaso, focusing on his gestures and facial expressions. 

Till the end the viewer can only see Tommaso going backwards towards the door. 

As a last shot we've decided to add a comedic element, when suddenly the viewer can see Tommaso dragging Hugo along the floor. 

Finished clip last for 25 seconds, but what is interesting that it took us more that an hour to get the footage that we needed. The whole process was really time consuming. It requires a lot of patience and concentration. I found continuity the most important thing. It makes your editing a lot easier. At the beginning it was hard to remember about it but later each person from our group was looking after fluency. I was happy shots over the shoulder and close ups. It makes the moment more emotional and helps to set the atmosphere. I think we could have add more camera movements like panning during conversation - to make this clip more interesting, or to add shots from different angles to suggest who is more energetic and to show their role and power in this situation. 

I had a lot of fun during shooting but it is important to stay concentrated of all times especially when you are a director. Watch everyone on the set and control continuity. It is also important to shot as many footage as possible to make your movie/clip more interesting. 

Edited preliminary task 

Influence of sound in thriller sequence

As a first sequence I choose clip called 'Ends of Deceit', which is a opening scene to a thriller movie made by Hurtwood students. 

This clip starts with a few seconds of credits accompanying by non - diegetic ambient melody, in order to create tension and set a viewer in a insecure mood. It is also a sound bridge to the beginning of the action when camera is panning in the room to show the location of a action. The purpose of the sound bridge is to keep the audience in the same mood and prejudice. 

Then we see a girl in her bathrobe coming into the kitchen with her dog. The observer sees and hear door opening so it is a diegetic sound.

The mysterious melody is still playing in a background but at the moment when the actress comes in the additional sounds begin. Her footsteps, or rather scrapes are a diegetic and pleonastic sound. Due to her clothing we can assume that it is morning, so the scrapes can suggest that she is tired or she has just woke up.  Girl opens the door which is a diegetic sound and lets her dog out. In this point the gloomy soundtrack ends, what make the audience more concentrate on the following sounds. From that moment the audience can see only the dog. His footsteps, which are diegetic and pleonastic are imposing his importance in this clip. For the next 40 seconds the audience can see the dog running around in the forest. We can hear simple, natural and delicate sounds of nature - wind, birds, movement of leaves - these are all non - diegetic sounds. They influence on our suspicions, now it seems like nothing special will happen, every sound is neutral. The audience abandons the mysterious and scary perception of the clip. On the next shot we can see the dog in front of the house. He is getting inside by pushing and scratching the door, which are diegetic sounds. He is running to his bowl with food and starts eating. Here the tension starts to build up again. While eating the ambient melody starts to play one more time , which makes the audience questionnaire what is happening. Sound of eating, which is diegetic sound and soundtrack set the audience in the uncertain feeling what is going to happen next.  Subsequently we can hear dog's footsteps, which is a diegetic sound, he is going to other room and suddenly the ambient sound start to play parallel with footsteps and the audience can see the victim of the murder - girl is laying on the floor with her head in blood. The sudden appearance of deep and intense sound with the view of killed girl shocks audience. Afterwards dog is walking next to the victim squealing, which is a diegetic sound. It makes the audience feel helpless and pity. 

After watching this clip i thought that the amount of sound is balanced. It did not bulit up tension throughout the whole clip which i liked because at the beginning the audience is waiting for the plot twist but suddenly it dropps and lives the observer with confusion. The plot twist takes place at the end when the audience does not expect that. 

IDEAS FOR THRILLER OPENING SEQUENCE 

1. Missing person 

I was thinking about showing a typical morning of a teenage girl, everything is on daily basis but when she is trying to wake her mom up to drive her to school she won't wake up even if the girl is shaking her body. The girl is in such a hurry that she decides to walk on her own. She is getting out of the house and she is passing trees every few meters but the thing that she doesn't notice is 'missing person' posters on every tree with a picture of her.

2. Imaginary friend

In this sequence i was thinking to show a person talking to another person throughout the whole sequence, but the audience sees only one person talking, asking questions, asking about their opinion about his/hers look. At the end of the sequence camera is showing the rest of the room and that there is nobody there. 

3. Mirror 

I thought of setting this sequence in a car -  lady is driving really nervously in a bad weather. She acts really stressed, she keeps looking in the rear view mirror - nothing's there. When she looks away on a street the audience sees the reflection of a men sitting on a back seat. Suddenly she stops a car, she opens the door and we can see the man reflection one more time in a window of the door and the lady is getting out of the car.