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.