Ealuation

There have been a few problems with the evaluation that i couldn't fix. The audio's that i've uploaded do not play on request possible due the format. Most images are hyperlinks and they are active. The font's and animations have been altered which loses it effect. Yet the contents is still there.

Evaluation

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Reqiuem For A Dream

Link to watch opening:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zGF_WD--Nk




The opening sequence is not too similar in the style to ours yet the film as a whole really captures the essence of drug taking and is a huge inspiration also the film. The opening intriduces you to the main characters, enigma's are building to what they're doing. It's more of a drama based film about drugs and is shot in a very unique style. It has a minilistic approach which i strongly like. The opening scenes are quite abstract and the shots are shown as an artistic representation rather than soley trying to tell a story. There's incredible sequences that show them 'shooting up' which is repeated several times through out the film. I think the shooting style is very alternative and quite experiment and it's something that we followed to a certain degree. If we were to produce more filming rather than an opening we'll trying experiement more and create sequences and camera movements that will make a reall impression on audiences. This is one way to really push for the word of mouth distribution.

Editing

We've refined the editing and we're very close to finishing. We've got an extention till tomorrow as we've had a few difficulties with creating the soundtrack. The film is complete although we just need to re positing the title in the sequence as we realised it's not fully being absorbed by viewers. The narration still needs to be recorded. The script has been finalise and my only worry is that audience viewers may be not fully engage with it as it is quite vague and abstract. Although the intention is to mezmerise viewers and engulf them within the life of our cahracter Anna.

Trainspotting

Trainspotting is an epic film that is regarded as a Drama to be remembered. The opening narration introduces characters and draws viewers in with quite an abigious beginnin. It begins describing a lifestyle of choice and instantly establishes the perspective of the life the film's opening to you. I thoght to take much inspirationg from Trainspotting as we're including similar themes in our narrative and characters (yet ours is more thrilling and gorry rather than comical and witty).

The narrative is based mainly around a man that's addicted to heroin and it shows his lifestyle and his rehabilitation process. This drama does have it's thrill elements yet it's a British film that has the local settings the power scripts and is an inspiration to us.

The opening shows the main character running away (a scene that's repeated towards the end) with him as narrator. This is extremely similar so ours although ours takes on a more darker theme, whereas Trainspotting shows a more bubbled and creative world of drugs. Yes it has the controversial narrative strands such as a mothers baby dying due to neglect and her heroin addiction, yet i feel more can be done to really enforce and heighten the realism of crack houses and that urban 'underworld'.

Well it has been a while since i've posted anything. I'm extatic to say we've finally finished all filmig and hav begun the editing. The script is also complete and so is the basic composition for the soundtrack. As soon as all the shots are constructed then we can record the voice over narration and then add the final soundtrack sample.

The group now has totally been disconnected, it was rather hard boosting the groups team spirit and enthusiasm during the half term. It seems only Me and Matthew have bothered to put in all the hours of editing (which may i say is the most crucial step). I understand this can all get turned on me, and it's easy to say i'm controlling and dominent in the group yet i've given everyone an equal choice to contribute ideas and help physically. Though it seems people have not bothered to turn up and they have no input to the group and i don't think i should be an excuse for their laziness.

Today me and matthew had continued where we'd left on. We'd finished 2/3 scenes. Looking back i've seen a few scenes which can be shortened and a few shots that look uneseccery. The problem we have is that we went too ambitous and have reached 3 minutes. The assignment mentions that we are restricted to 2 minutes. Me and Matthew are would be extremely heartbroken if we have to cut out major moments. Looking back at our footage i don't believe we gathered too many shots as we hadn't too much to play around with. We were extremely suprised and excited when we realised that we'd managed to pull off some amazing shots that we strongly doubted during the filming sessions.







In the above scene you may have noticed that the sounding has not been established. Background sonds are still in place and it's very distracting and doesn't compliment the visuals very well. Me and Matthew are well aware that we have many more hours to spend until everything is complete. Below is another video of the first scene (when we began our first editing senssion). I had recorded myself narrating and my friend Sam on the piano. We uploaded it just to allow us to have a clearer vision of how it's going and what we still need to work on.




As i said this is not at all the refined version. It's mearly a sneaky preview!

Music.. The Working Progress

There's been brief discussions amongst the group about music and we've agreed on a sombre mood. This helps to accumilate tensions, suspense and sympathy which fall under conventions of thrillers and dramas (both styles we're following). I've asked a close friend of mine to help compose a peice of music which will come along with our thriller opening. Music is a crucial element for us as we're muting most of our shots (approximatly all of them beside ocasional non diegetic noises). I've spoken to my friend today and we've already composed a few opening chords on the piano which will fit very well. Once i've got a hard copy of the shooting script we could then highlight the climatic points of the scenes as timing would be essential to accuratly take audiences through the 'rollercoster' of emotions. We've also discussed to incorporate various instruments such as saxophones, possibly strings and also incorporate electronic beats to help build an epic peice to fit the opening. We must also know exactly when the titles are to come in.

A huge mistake we have made is leaving little dicisions to be decided when we begin editing, this will make it a larger challenge then need be. It seems we have been rather un organised as even know during our filming days we don't have a finaly shooting script and we don't know how each scene is to be constructed as yet as we're constantly improving and refine our work as we go along. I feel as though we hadn't enough time to plan and refine ideas. Yet it's still a working progress.

In the next week we hope to have completed all filming, begun editing, finished composing the music and finished a script ready for recording (once Anna returns from her vacation). This then allows all members of the group one week to complete their evaluation which is adequate (and is a result of their lack of enthusiasm and willingness to contribute early on)

Filming. Day 2. First Scene. 4/4/09.

To be perfectly honest, they would have been no need to continue for a second day on this scene if preparation/pre-production was more efficient and adequate. We struggled on Saturday to capture the shots with the desired lighting. The sun goes down quite suddenly and we never managed to capture all the shots, so we've failed to some extent to show a continuitive narrative. Few ideas were brought up during that evening to perhaps have an additional scene (which will show Anna in well light surroundings) as well as having her in the dark. We could even decide to cut all the day light scenes. These are decisions the group will have to come to when we begin the editing process and peicing together the footage.

I believe we have plenty of footage, we extended the storyboard slightly with moments of inspiration. Due to the natural lighting we were forced to use streetlights to give silheutted effects. This created very powerful shots as the use of shadows really intensified particular moments.

We struggled with holding the camera steady, Matthew did a very good job at it. Some shots we chose to do were quite ambitious so it took a few takes to get it right. What i learn't for the next filming session is to be more prepared and have a shooting script so we know approximatly what time we'll leave and how long the filming session will take. To also rehearse certain shot's before to save space on the tape so the editing process will be made that bit easier.

For next filming session Anna should have completed the final storyboard for us to work with. Matthew and Khalid should prepare the group a shooting script. And Prince should turn up and also bring the recce form he was asked to do. I need to later provide a script so when Anna returns from her holiday we can record.

Music enhances the visuals.

Silence of the Lambs


Based on the novel and created as a film in 1990 Silence of the Lambs is considered to be one of the most acclaimed Thrillers ever made. It's main genre style would be considered physcological Horror. It had won Oscars for best actor, actree and film. It's said that it made an indelible impression upon viewers at the time and even until now.

The opening scene shows a scenic view of a foggy landscape with silhuetted trees, it then pans into the mist. We then see the main character running which seems to appear as an assault course in the woods (amongst the tress). I would personaly describe the music as quite epic. It's of a classical genre (more likely to be a string quartet), it sets across an unsettling mood and is amazingly contrasted to the content of the scene. It builds emotions within you and builds a sense of anticipation within. You may feel an adreneline for expting for something to occur. The music sets the mood and almost helps predict the outcome for the scene or the film as a whole. It dictates what you expect to see from the visuals and enhances any thought of feeling you currently have when viewing.

The same soundtrack is used through out the film yet it's varied in volume and tempo to imply variation in impact on the viewer. For example when Clarice Starling (lead character) is approaching Hannibal Lecture for an interview, the music begins. The soundtrack begins but does not have a great impact on the audience as it's not as loud in volume nor is it as epic as the original. It seems to be a small sample which ahcieves it's goal at unsettling the audience. Althought viewers are only getting a sample of the tension/anxiety/fear as it's a climatic build towards the end. It's preparing the audience not for something particularly devistating, so towards the end where the music is more intense they would understand that it's the final moments of horror.

We'll be following very similar styles with the opening. For example the landscape shots are quite surreal. The character is in an isolated location and appears vulnerable. The music is very distinctive and sombre. The music and visuals are composed together in a style we'll try to replicate.

Filming 31/3/09

On tuesday night we prepared ourselves for our first filming session. We filmed the first scene where it shows Anna in the present tense. Overall the filming went very well yet we hadn't enough time to finish the scene so we've decided to continue filming this Saturday. We followed the storyboard as best we could yet we modified a few shots as we felt they would not work well with showing a narrtive of continuitive construction.

Group Meeting 31/3

We decided to have an official group meeting to discuss deadlines, progress, the filming and what new roles people were assigned to.

- We confirmed that tonight at 6pm we'll meet up and make our way to the Muswell Hill location to begin filming.
- Matthew is to bring a camera to document our work, he should also upload them onto the group blog so we can refrence to them.
- I'll charge the camera and bring it this evening


- Tomorrow Me, Matthew, Khalid and Prince will be visiting the other 3 locations.
- Matthew will have to bring a camera and take pictures
- Me and khalid shall take brief notes which Prince will write up into a Recce form.
- We'll also run a quick rehearsal to see if were able to shot some of our complex shots.


-Saturday evening will meet up to finish filming Anna's scene.


- All filming must be finished by the 6/4/2009
- All outstanding paper must be finished by 1/4/2009
- All editing should be completed by 18/4/2009
- An evaluation should be completed by - 31/4/2009

Our Working Progress!

We've just had a group meeting in which we discussed the progress of each area of production. It seems that it's extremly stressful having to rely on others. It's been 3 weeks now and the group have not finished there tasks set for example the storyboard and the schedules. We're now falling behind which is becoming quite a worry as we have 3 different location scenes an a near total of 50 shots. Tonight we have planned to begin the first shot in which Anna is shown in the present tense, this could only be done if other members of the group finish doing the paper work to enable any further production. It seems there's also a lack of communication amoungst us, the group blog i set up is not being used and seems there's a real lack of enthusiasm.

Things that are yet to be done include;


- visiting 2 other locations and completing the paper work required for it,

- completing a final storyboard,

- completing a final script,

- completing all other oustanding paper work,

- filming the scenes and of course the lenghy process of editing

- And evalutating.


It's very frighting seeing the 'to-do' list yet i've given up on trying to generate motivation amoungst other members. It may seem that we may have to cut it short in order to comply with the dealines. I've expressed my feelings to the group many of times yet there's not much more i can do than do it myself. I'm very dissapointed in the slow progress yet i hope that once we begin filming they'll become more motivated. The ball is rolling yet just at excruchatingly slow speeds.

Group meeting today.

Today we had another gathering to try and refine our accumilated ideas. We've got various storyboards together of each scenes and different shots and transitions we could use, it's not deciding which ones to use.

the scene structure of our opening keeps changins as we're unsure wether to begin with the present tense or show a flashback. There's 3 different locations and approximatly 4 differents scenes. The latest refined structure we've decided up goes like such:

Begin with Anna in the present tense running towards her 'sanctuary' her fast running and facial gestures of deep breathing and anxiety would be shown through close ups. And the suspense and tension will be shown through her determination and speed. Though we'll have a sobre piano playing and all diegetic music will be muted.

She then stops beside the train bridge (underneath) to take a moment to 'catch' her breath, this would allow time for the audience to begin contemplation on the character, yet no direct shots of her face will be shown to keep an essence of mystery. She'll then continue on her way.

Arriving at her destination this allows us to shot our trademarked 'rooftop shots'. It will show Anna in solitude, in contemplation and in deep though. The Narration may begin here, if not now then possibly whilst she's running. The emotional script and sombre piano with the silence and emptiness of the location would hopefully draw strong emotions in the audience. After these few shots we'll see a POV shot of Anna's feet as she sits upon the bridge with a large distance to fall.

A simple fade to either white or black (undecided) will be our transition from the present to past tense.

We then see a young girls feet (Anna in the past) as she's about to open a playground gate. We then see the park through the eye's of a child. This requires a variety of complex shots and camera movements which are hard to describe with out refrencing to the annotations on the story board. This scene would signify the equilibrium stage and begin portraying a false depiction of Anna's life as a child. It's a false representation as she had a brutal and tragic upbringing which would later be revealed. We've discussed idea's wether to shot the flashbacks in black and white to show a clear contrast. This will also work well with the dark railway scene previously, as too much of a contrast could be startling on an audience and 'throw' them off.

This scene would then show Anna leaving the park holding her mothers hand. This could then fade once more to enter the next scene.

We've had breif discussions about filming the movement of clouds over several hours to then fast forward them to show an artistic backdrop to display the title (Clouds). This is still under deliberation. If it was to be done, it would occur now. Then fading to white the next scene would continue.

It shows Anna arriving home from the park at her door then running up the stairs. In a POV shot in the style of the famous film Halloween. She then hides in the closet and you see her hiding. This would hopefully add a sense of mystery and be unsettling to the viewer. The narration would have stopped at the titles and piano would fade in, yet not as a sobre peice but to be more epic and intense.

The scene would then suddenly end which a sharp anticlimatic build and which a fast fade to black.

Location test

24/3/09

As a group we've refined our idea's and storyboards enough to begin searching for our ideal location. Anna which is a main character would be away during the half term so we have to shot her scenes next week before she leaves. So yesterday we went to Alexandre Palace and Muswell Hill (the old train tracks that have been referbished into a path). For the scene we're hoping to film quite scenic views of an urban lifestyle. Preferably get rooftop shots. Both locations have different style of rooftop shots. Alexandre Palace enables you to get a very wide panoramic shot yet the view will be at quite a distance so this caused a few problems. The old train track in Muswell hill is a narrower view yet it's alot more intimate as yet get a larger range of rooftops and the distance range.

As a group we discussed it and decided to choose the old train track in Muswell Hill. Yet we're still unsure on the time of shooting i think we'll have to revisit the site to see it in other lights. The next step now is for Matthew and Khalid to do a production schedule and Prince will have to do the Recce form. We must also visit the other two locations we've chosen to visit for the other scene. This should all be done by this week.

I feel that we could possibly be a bit behind as other groups have began shooting yet we're working slowly on the pre-production process. Yet i feel after this week the confidence within the group will grow as we'll have most paper work finished and we'll be preparing for the shooting days.

Halloween opening

Opens with a POV (point of view) shot that's consistent through out the opening. This is very engaging and demands the audience's attention and would instantly grab the audience's interest. It adds a huge essence of mystery and suspence as whilst you watch it you yourself get a 'feeling' as though someone's watching you. It's also extremely eiree, the mise-en-scene contributes with this mood as it's set in a conventional desolate location and dark lighting. It creates many enigma's and situations where you feel unsettled as everything is so unexpected as the character your invisualising is extremely ambigious. You have this feeling as though you are hiding and this is a technique we're adopting into our opening. Also the use of hand held camera's, there's no fancy tracking used and we can also adopt this skill into our opening. It helps provide a more eiree and realistic POV, also the slight cantedshots you acheive helps to attract audience's attention.

For the flashbacks (in childs perspective) we can have the POV shots. This will allow full engagment and better understanding. This allows audiences to be almost involved in the voilence themselves rather than constantly showing close ups of facial expressions audience members can interpret their own emotions into the film.

The Butterfly Effect opening sequence

Opens up with an inspirational quote/saying which is quite an effective way to begin engaging with the audience and allowing them to have a broader mind set to interpret the the film. Any poetic quote or saying has can have a very vague interpretation depending on the individual so it allows a larger target audience and again it follows the theory that thriller viewers are more 'intellgient' than the standard film viewer.
In then follows by diving straigt into the devistation of the film which is a scene that is reapeated towards the end of the film. This is done quite often where a film begins with the end scene which is very effective in drawing out plenty of enigmas. After this brief chaotic scene the title appears which; is short, simple and highlights the main topic of the film which is a brain scan hilighting the physcological elements of the film.
After this it shows n flash back of the protagonist's childhood an an equlibrium stage. This is an idea we've taken an adapted into our own idea's for a thriller opening. The music is also very convention as for the chaos it has a thrilling and exhilirating ambience whereas the equlibrium showing has a more sombre mood.

Rather then having an sort of philosophical saying at the beginning we've decided to have a philosophical narration as it will work well with the abstract visuals. It would also give the character depth and add more ambiguity to her and her lifestyle. It would also help widen our audience, as drugs is a narrow path to take. The editing style is similar to what we want to acheive, showing the devistation at the beginning and having flashbacks to show the cause of effect. This works well in drawing enigmas and suspence. The sombre music is something that could work very well. As our character is a Heroin addict, Jazz is the genre that's heavily associated with the drug so this is something to consider.

E-mail to group 14/03/09

Hey guys, hope your all well. I've created a blog account for all of us to post our final peices onto. It's on www.blogger.com.

Mediastudiesblog@live.com Is our e-mail which is needed to log onto. The password for this logging on to hotmail sign in is: ******

On the blogger log in the pass word is: ******

And the url is: www.zoemattannakhalidprincemediastudies.blogspot.com

My blog is zoechristo.blogspot.com

It would be great if you could tell me your blog spaces to see how things are getting on.

On tuesday when we meet we shall all have a story board (up to an a level standard please) and i think to get some inspiration we should bring in a few thriller films and discuss the openings. If i'm not mistaken it's a double and after those two hours we should have accomplished a final idea for the opening sequence, including title designs, location etc. If any of you can try get in touch with prince somehow through IM, Myspace, facebook etc.

Thanks!! I'll see you Tuesday, common room =)






I e-mailed the group plans for the lesson on tuesday, it would finalise the direction and idea's we've all conjured and would put is all in a clearer direction. I'm going to concentrate on the more horror/drama/phsycological genres as that's the path we're heading towards. I also feel inspired to follow a direction of british style films as they work on low budgets, as are we. So i'll do some research as to what films i'll show the group and it'll be interesting to see what films they'll feel inspired from.

Group Discussion 12/03/09

I printed the group a copy of the treatment (as well as the email) so we all have an clear knowledge of where we're going. Everyone is going to create a storyboard of a small section or of the whole opening idea to see everyones personal interpretation. We'll then put it all together into a final idea and it would be my job to draw out a large copy for everyone so we can clearly how we're going to represent the opening. We've decided for tuesday we'll further extend our ideas on the opening and begin organising our testings for locations. We've also decided to create a group blog we're we'll post all relevent information to the group and update it with our own interpretations. So i've been elected to create the blog, this would allow us all to communicate in an alternative way in case a member of the group fails to recieve a re draft of the treatment or schedule and etc.

We refined our idea's a bit more about and discussed the relations between brother and sister and decided that the little girl was brought into the family via her dad who married the littles boys mum. This caused the little boy to become extremely angry about sharing his mum and spiralled his sexual fustration.

E-mail to group

I've emailed the group the treatment so they can have a clear idea of what we've decided upon, as notes could be quite hard remember by. I also emailed them the opening sequence idea we came up with; which is below:


* The basic structure for the opening was to have

- Girl shoots up herion
- Rooftop shots
- Establish the location
- Narration begins (poeticly phraised)
- "la la la" song
- Play ground scene appears
- Running, can't escape
- Present time, women stares into the mirror (reflects upon who she is)
- Matthew, obscene and happy


Yet i feel for Thursday we could improve on this idea now we have a treatment and an actual structure for a story. Again, this doesn't have to be final we can add and improve.


- I do think we can expand and come up with something possibly more simple and effective. The opening with the establishing shots over rooftops and urban area's could work really well with the titles. If the we're naming the film clouds then this can also fit in quite well. I think we need a group discussion to expand upon these ideas.

Main idea - Treatment

With the opening we began brain storming some ideas neither group member had a definitive idea. We began thinking of character idea's and weather there would be only one antagonist, and we how we can turn a standard character in an ambiguous one.
Our initial thoughts were to have both a male and female, but to include the sense of uncertainty and ambiguity we decided to show the male to be the vulnerable one in a more passive tone, and still being very 'male', in the way he acts (mannerism), characterisation and other conventions. We thought for the women to be the antagonist as this could be represented as a unavailing twist as the story progresses. Next we had to construct a relationship dynamic between the two. We decided to have them as step brother and sister.
This helped us branch out to a narrative idea, we thought we could tell a brief story of their family dysfunction (as past tense). We thought this would be perfect for filling the story with enigma's and it would also help us, more easily, draw audiences in to the characters by creating a sense of sympathy. More idea's were that the male, as a young boy, could have been the 'favourite', or that the younger girl suffered abuse and neglect.
We decided to no follow the conventional narrative structure by simply representing an equilibrium stage, but rather throwing the audience into the chaos. Yet from the woman's perception we'll see flashbacks of her past through the film to reveal to viewers why they have grown up to be the people they are today. We decided due to their family dysfunction they'd grown up to be outlaws to society, they'd be condemned in the eyes of others to be able to live a 'normal' life. Our film idea is now taking on a more Drama style genre as one of the main themes is turning out to be family and family dynamics.
We need to begin thinking what could have happened during their childhood that began a chain of negative events and thought patterns. An idea came up that we all agreed upon that the little girl (past tense) saw her brother either being physically abusive or murdering either the mother or step father. As you see this whole film through the perception of the girl, you witness the dysfunction of the boy, as a child and in the present. Yet it's not until the ending where it reveals to the audience, she's just as messed up as him. As the viewer all along you'll be believing her narration and believing she's completely sane and grounded. Yet as the flashbacks reveal more and more they reveal her abandonment as a child and these foundations she's learnt from have caused her memory scares disabling her to behave/live appropriately in society. This brings forth huge ambiguity to her character and the film would have a huge element of mystery and suspense.
As the boy was very aggressive at the young and vulnerable stages in his life, we decided for him to have this deep underlying love for his mother in which he secretly desired her (inspired by Freud as his theory that young baby boys secretly lust their mothers). This would contain that obscene more shocking element to the film. So as the step father moved in he's anger raged and he began lashing out at his mother. Till the day came where he went too far and killed her. This was done by his own physical strength and a mirror (details not necessary). He managed to escape authority causing him to live in the shadows of life.
The main objective of both characters is the search/quest for their own happiness and escapism. The film would deal with many phsycological issue's dealing with addiction, denial, escapism, anger, anxiety and etc. As the boy grows older he becomes and porn addict, he channels all his rage through the violence and obscenity of the under ground porn industry. We this disturbance through the eyes of the women, who appears to be the more vulnerable one, sympathy is given to her as she has to 'look after' her older brother.
The women on the other hand would begin to appear Innocent constantly living in the shadows from the start with little attention. As the back flashes reveal more we see how a little girl starved of attention begins to be neglected and emotionally scared from the scenes she's witnessed. As the film goes on, the narration changes, as she takes us the viewer through a window of her life, she finds her happiness. What she finds is not reveled to the end. Her perception completely changes and the film almost becomes distorted as it's through her perception.
So the boy in this channels his anger and dives in a world of oblivion. The girl is mentally unwell due to her calm and hugely depressing outlook until she becomes a heroin addict. What's quite common with thrillers is that the begin and end scene repeat each other to emphasis a particular point. This also helps develop a tag line/famous phrase that's easily remembered in the film, that of course must have a high impact on audience's and is very emotional. So maybe it would be nice to begin the film very surreal to show a rather twisted equilibrium, yet as it revels it's actually a resolution of complete devastation.
We decided to have an urban location, as living in a city can extremely isolated, with the idea of alleys, cold streets, so many strangers and generally a lonely place in your mind (constantly reinforcing the physcological element).
A name that was brought up in discussion was the name Cloud or Clouds. Personally I fell this definently suits the film well as clouds instantly remind you off the sky and how clouds can be perfectly situated to present a perfect picture. By calling the film Clouds it brings an added disturbance to the nature of the film. It also represents how each character lives 'in the clouds' or how addicts have their 'heads in clouds'. It could also signify how clouds just go by without notice and change and mold by factors of their surroundings this can be symbolically applied to the women character.

This is the basic treatment, yet i feel more needs to be discussed on the character dynamics between the Brother and Sister.

Thriller Openings - Memento

Memento directed by Christopher Nolan, is considered to be a highly classed thriller, and is considered a phsycological/mystery thriller. The word memento is a reminder, an object of importance that signifies a reminder of some sort, this simple title is broad and open to interpretation. It links beautiful with the film, it's quite common that thriller titles are very short and sum up the film in a subtly underlying way. This film does not follow the conventional narrative structure as it begins with the 'disruption'. Audiences are immediately 'thrown into' the film. My thoughts on the opening and first half of the film;

Credits appear in a simple black background with blue fonts all very centralised, the diegetic music builds quite epically yet this is all very conventional to a thriller opening. We then see a long first shot, as an audience we begin thinking what the significance of this could be and instantly begin trying to create an idea of the theme/mood of this film.

We realise the picture is being under developed, it shows a rewind of time. This slow fade allows the audience to absorb the moment and to recognise this film will require your absolute focus. It's as though this idea was set to subconsciously implement this message, that audience members must prepare to unravel this plot. As the audience heavily focus on this first shot, there's a surprise/shock element when the realisation occurs that this is not in a chronological time pattern. This shock and enigma created within the first few seconds instantly brings attention to viewers that this is going to be a good film.

The film is very cleverly constructed and so requires full audience engagement (which is the cause of any success) yet as the plot slowly unravels in a rewind time frame this causes tremendous enigma's to arise which creates endless enigma's as to how? And why?

A voice over is used as a narrator, this helps us to keep track of what's occurring. It also helps the viewer to see a clearer perception of the character, and as like Leonard, we took may begin forgetting our short term memory as through the film get reminded on what we just sore. This follows a similar convention of Thrillers where audience's no only as much as the protagonist.

As the film progresses, it becomes less about knowing the story and the unraveling of the plot but our thoughts are centralised about Leonard and his journey through his 'quest'. We feel sympathy for him and fully engage in his frustration and whirl wind emotions. We would classify him as the Hero as we are on 'his side', yet we're unsure as to weather the extremity of his vengeance is justified by what happened, as we are 'in the dark' is to what really happened. Thrillers tend to have ambiguous characters and with Leonard's 'condition' there's much ambiguity as to wether he's morally right or wrong. This brews endless enigma's to his characterisation and we're constantly doubting our own judgments as the story progresses. Unlike the standard/conventional hero we don't have complete trust in him, as there's no certainty or reliability to anything he says or does (he's a confused hero). The basic structure of this plot is filled with ambiguity and accumulating enigma's causing it to be a massive success (this all sparks suspicion of a 'twist ending') and accomplishing the Thriller element to the film.

Memento is a good film to look at, i was blown away by the beginning and the whole film. It's very cleverly constructed and i felt inspired to take the elements of this film and create my own response if you like. I loved the idea of not having a chronological time pattern, this would work very well with adding that physcological element to the film. The visuals are quite abstract and the use of narration is essential in allowing the audience to understand. This idea is again a very good one as it would conquer the problem of background noise (wind and other noise pollutions). Having a naration would allow us to be more creative in our project and this enforces our direction of a British style. The abigious and confused character really engages with audiences on a wide sectrum as it relates to almost any human being who's been in a situation before that they've never really understood. Character development is a big thing we must look at as it's essential to having a good script.
A good script is essential, the Uk Film Council stress on the importance of it as there's no grand budget to work with so there must be clever ways to reach your target audience. We must keep this in mind when we begin brainstorming.

Developing knowledge on Thrillers

The narrative structure commonly goes through 4 stages; equilibrium, disruption, development, resolution. Although as Thrillers are for the more intelligent viewers, what's considered a good thriller tend to drift from these conventions. For example some Thrillers bring the audience immediately to the disruption and chaos of the story line(s). This allows a perfect opening as the audience would be swarmed with narrative enigma's and a huge mystery as to what's going out. This is very effective for creating a mood of suspense. Mise-en-scene contributes hugely to setting the mood for the film, for example the emphasis on props using bullets or a gun has many implications and sets possibly a tense mood. Lighting and location are extremely important (as everything is) to creating the intended mood/atmosphere/theme. For example, commonly used for crime investigation type thrillers, it could possibly be a wet dark street and instantly you would begin associating this location with a crime scene where a crime of some sort is about to be committed.
We've decided to go straight into a disruption as we believe this is key to instantly grabbing audiences attention. Following Shane Meadows costumes, props, location will be all basic and set around local area's to add to the realism and relatability. We have no specialist lights to use so we're relying soley on natural lighting for any outdoor scenes and basic room lighting for any indoor scenes. This means when we're plannning to film anything outside we must ensure our times are appropriate and that there's a steady continuity.

Preliminary Evaluation

During the course of filming are creativity blossomed and so we decided to feature a long prologue to the entrance and dialogue as we felt it would be more artistic to include a credit sequence during the coffee production. This lead to us having plenty of shots (approximatly 10 minutes) of the coffee making proccess. We had a sufficient amount of shots for the whole scene yet we ran out of time to finish the whole script. The original idea of the abusive husband being central to the scene failed as we never approached the moment where we see the verbal assualts. This caused us to chang the name of our 'prelim' task to Coffee (due to the emphasis of the coffee making).
During editing we noticed that there was many close up shots, some may say too much. As a group we wanted to built an enigmatic narrative and we felt this helped achieved that suspence element. We also decided to not feature the full figure of the Wife as this helps build that enigmatic suspence in the viewer. This is all for practice for the main task. We were also not able to use the soundtrack we wanted to to copy right reasons. We felt an appropriate song could be Bob Marley - Dont worry, be happy; as it sets a nice contrast to the tension. Yet we were left with odd sounds which did not have time to refine (mute). We did not have enough time to include the opening credits or include any fade transactions to clearly indicate the change of scene, yet we hope it's apparent enough. We know for next time to be better prepared for what's priority and have better time managment.
Although i did feel the framing was accurate, the pans and trackings were not too shaky, we followed the 180 degree rule and most importantly we showed an individual response of a scene on continuity.
A leason which we learn't is to not be too ambitious with ideas and keep in the mind the time target of two minutes. This means there's flaws in our production side (eg, organisation, managments) we must improve this skills for the main task.

Preliminary Task

For the 'prelim' task i had several idea's to work with. Considering the task its self was so broad it was very easy for adaptation. The task was to: film a short sequence of someone entering through a door and containing basic dailogue. We are to show a scene of continuity following the basic filming rules such as the 180 degree rule, match-on-action, rule of thirds, no jump shots, basic camera movement (panning and tracking) and etc.

My pitch idea's were:
- Patient, Doctor, Nerves
- Husband, Wife, Abusive
- Student, Friends, Relationships
- Student, Counsellor, Emotional
- Patient, Physciatric, Suspence
- Lovers, Romance, Proposal
- Student, Lovers, Lustual

As a group we decided for the 'abusive husband'. We developed a ruff story board and a very basic script. We decided to include any physical abuse as that will appear far too controversial and detailed for the task at hand.

Basic plot for the scene:
The husband is extremely tempermental and his anger rages as his wife does not prepare him a coffee to his fancy. The wife begins making him the coffee and forgets to add sugar. She enters through the door from the kitchen and hands the husband the coffee. She sits down and they begin a standard conversation (with a tense atmosphere). He then sips the coffee and begins verbally assualting his wife, this will be a 'nice' climatic end.

Script:
*Wife makes coffee without sugar and walks through the door*
WIFE: There you are darling
*hands over coffee*
WIFE: Did George sort out those files for you?
HUSBAND: I'm home now not at work, so shut up.
*Wife is hesitent*
WIFE: Prince rance today, him and Ruby wanted us to go round on Friday for dinner. I told them i'll let them know tomorrow.
HUSBAND: I don't want to see them Friday, I want to go to the pub.
WIFE: We havn't been out in such a long while, i think it will be nice.
HUSBAND: I just want to go pub.
WIFE: Alright hun, i'll tell them we can't make it.
*dramatic pause*
WIFE: Drink your coffee it's fetting cold.
HUSBAND: Women, don't tell me what to do.
*dramatic pause*
**drinks coffee**
HUSBAND: Fucking whore
*spits coffee*
HUSBAND: Silly slut! There's no sugar. Stupid Bitch, you should know this by now.

My Skill Development

GCSE level (previous years) I shot a music video as coursework, with very little knowledge of structure or storyboarding. With this in mind what I 'pulled-off' was quite exceptional. The video should appear below, if not then follow this link .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjR61JTOlUE



My camera work and creative diversity is extensive and at the sake of sounding arrogant is better than most and is the only thing that carried me through.
I was also part of a gifted and talented media workshop in year 9 (which involved me and one other to take part in a GCSE project with the years above). This allowed me the experience to see behind the scenes of filming, this helped broaden my knowledge of the construction of capturing footage.
At this present moment, the current generation is exposed to endless computers, technology and electrical devices. Being occupied by computers for quiet a while I was already familiar with using editing software due to slide shows and other presentations. I've also been to the CLC before yet was not able to absorb all the information of facilities as i was nieve.
There's endless room for improvement, yet I feel that so far I've learn't a lot more then before. I've learn't to play and to used specialised camera techniques to have concurrent narratives and to show continutity to tell an 'accurate story' (with out the use of jump shots). I've extended my knowledge of the theory of camera work, for example I never knew the extent of how camera angles and movement emphasise feelings and thoughts within viewers.

What makes an effective Thriller?

What makes an effective opening sequence in a thriller style?

- A build up of enigmas (drawing audience's in through suspence), causing the audience to think deeply. This also defines thrillers to be more intelligent then other basic genres such as; action, romance, comedies etc.

- This leads to a 'scare' moment, where audiences will feel a strong moment of fright/shock due to (for example) a violent attack or unexpected moments/circumstances occur.

- Audiences minds are distracted by the occuring enigmas and so when they are reminded of the 'horror/action' taking place then they become scared. The enigma's allow the viewer the deepen the plot themselves by replaying questions in their minds in an attempt to predict the unpredictable. This also allows a deeper engagment and allows viewers to focus more deeply on the uncovering plot.

- Extreme close up shots help build tension as it stresses the importance of a specfic action/object.

- Longer shots allow questions to formulate in the audiences mind, this allows viewers to feel a personal emotional response to the image they have conjured in their mind.

- Busy/claustrophobic shots allow audiences to quickly peice together relationship dynamics. It also builds tension as viewers begin feeling curious about how the scene will 'play out'.

- Non-diegetic sounds/music is used to create suspence or any desired emotion.

- diegetic sounds are used to create a realism, for example; lighting/thunder sounds, rain, door creaks. It allows audiences to imagine a realistic setting and circumstance which allows them to indulge more into the films thrill factor.

- Loud sounds are used very briefly for the moment of shock/fright to innitiate a strong reaction and catch audiences attention.

- The same 'loud sound' is used whenever a moment of shock/fright is apparent, so audiences connect the similar sound to the emotion, no matter how frightful the situation is. Even if a moment of little shock is being presented audience will still fill an exhiliration/breathlessness as that similar sound reminds them of the fright they experience previous (subconsciously audiences establish a connection).

- Isolated settings cause a rise in uncertainty in viewers. Audiences themselves may feel ailenated.


These are all conventions and codes that we should try our best to pratice and inplace in order to generate a successful opening.

What Makes a Thriller?

Martin Rubin wrote a popular book titled Thrillers, in which he tries to define what is mean't by a thriller and what a film must constitute in order to be classified by the genre Thriller. His study very basicly states that a Thriller is a 'meta-genre' and is a very broad term to classify a film as it does not inform audiences of the narrtive/themes but vaguely informs audiences on the approach taken in direction.
A thriller attaches itself to genres such as horror, action, crime, spy etc, although thriller cannot be a sub genre to any other genre for example genres such as musicals, war, western etc.
All thrillers provide an emotional intensity for the viewer. Feelings/emotions which are commonly drawn are apprehension, exhiliration, excitment and breathlessness (feelings which are commonly associated with a 'thrill')If a thriller is not creating these fundemental emotions within the viewer then it's not thrilling, threfore not doing it's job.

With this we can't base our Thriller on a thriller alone we need other influences. We already have the drama inspiration from the British film industry and our group is keen on trying to create a physcological thriller (with narrative twists and enigmas)

British Social Reality Dramas

British social reality dramas are basicly films that depict as stated a social reality in Britain with a dramatic narrative. Shane Meadows is a very well known british director that follows this style or 'genre'. A big movement in the 1950's called the Kitchen Sink Realism movement focused on this social realistic representation of a working class lifestyle. It's focus was to depict a realistic representation of 'real' people and follow themes that were highly relatable to the majority of the population.
Shane Meadows works with low budgets and this coicides well with the movement that occured. He has a unique direction in presenting his ideology of a working class reality and this is reflected upon his personal lifestyle and unbringing. It's said that all his films are taken from the stimulis of his own childhood with mise-en-scene, location, and characterisation. So he uses local settings to heighten the realism and adds to the realatability factor.
It's obvious to see Shane Meadows does not follow popular conventions or applies himself to the money making populist approach as you see his films follow an autobiagraphical style.
Shane Meadows requested actors take an improvisational approach in which actors respond to each other without a script in order to generate a more natural conversation effect. Actors would also follow Stanislavski's techniques to create naturalism on stage/in front of the camera.

Shane Meadows is a huge influence to our opening. He strongly focuses on depiced a realism to relate and attract is audience's. This is a technique were also strongly focusing on, although our audience may be more narrower as were concentrating on a darker world of drugs and abuse rather than a comical outlet on working/lower class. Another focus was to really show a social reality, to show a lifestyle of complete obscene abuse, this reality is on the extreme spectrum to accumulate the Thrill. We need to concentrate on the narrative as our film is relying soley on this, like many British directors and productions.