Abandoned Opening Sequence Thriller - FINAL

My group had uploaded the final copy of our
thriller opening sequence to YouTube, we had received feedback from our
draft copy of the opening sequence. As a group we extended some shots
towards the end, editing the credits that come up at the beginning to
make sure that they are roughly an even length as well as editing some
of the audio to make sure that the dubbed voices are consistent with how
they are done through the visual presentation.

Links To My Evaluation On Different Media Platforms

I have posted my evaluation to different media platforms for example I have posted some of my answered questions onto a tumblr blogging page , as well a prezi document which also has 3 answers to my questions on it.

Tumblr 

Prezi

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My media product uses forms of conventions of real media products by using the horror/thriller aspect, for example in my final edit of my opening scene it shows an abandoned building where people go missing, this type of convention has been used in real life horror/thriller films in the past which is where my group got our inspiration for our production. So as well as a just focusing on the thriller side of our opening scene we wanted to include aspects of horror and the chiller sub-genres to make this more interesting for our intended audience group.

How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

My thriller opener represents the teenage college student which is what is featured in our opener as we were planning on having our target group as people around the 16-18 year old mark so that it makes it easier for people relate to the characters in the opener as they will use language that younger college people use. From our opening sequence the actors we used dressed as upper middle class which will fit with the social group of the area that we filmed at meaning that outfits or some language may not always apply to other social classes who may want to watch the film. 

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

 I think the media institution that would distribute my thriller would be Pathé because their distribution company has a range of different genre films that would interest my audience. I also think that Warner would possibly distribute my thriller as they can reach a wider audience meaning that more people would view my thriller film. 

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my thriller would be people between the ages of 16 and 21. This is because my thriller features actors around the same age and the plot line of the thriller would be more interesting to people of this age range as they seem to like thriller films that have a slight horror element to them. 

How did you attract/address your audience? 

By using actors of a similar age range will help attract the preferred audience for my thriller because the audience will relate more to actors that are playing characters that are in their age range. Having an age rage that fits my thriller will help for more people to be attracted to it because the audience like people of the similar age. 

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? 

From this construction process I have learned about how important lighting is in shots, as we filmed outside we had to use the natural light which could change due to clouds so we had to film sections quickly to maintain the same lighting throughout, this did cause some problems due to the area we was filming with. I also learned about how to use camera angles to enhance moments that I wanted the audience to focus on for example the camera angle used when the characters go missing. 

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?   

I feel that I have learned about different camera uses from my preliminary task such as handheld camera angles and about lighting in the area of where I am filming. From what I learned during my preliminary task I could use these features from this and adapt them for use in my full production. 

Filming Process

The overall filming process, when finally done was smooth. We had came with a lot of issues during filming such as the location being too dark or too bright on some days as well as the battery dying on the camera so that we were unable to finish filming.We had to overcome this problem by making sure that next time we go out to film the camera was fully charged and we bought an extra battery that was fully charged just in case of an emergency. One of the main issues we had with filming was the location and absences of people in the group as we didn't want to begin filming while missing someone however we had to overcome this and film with them missing. We had to film our opening scene about 3 times due to different circumstances that we had to overcome in the weeks that we had to film for example some of the things that we had to overcome was improvising a short script, originally we hadn't planned to have a lot of vocal roles in our opening scene as we didn't know how to make the speaking relevant to what was happening so this was a problem during the filming when we had to improvise the script however from this it had turned out alright when going into the editing stage of the production. One of the aspects we had to do off camera was the recording of the voices for the final edit, in the beginning some of the voices were too quite to hear on the camera so we had to go into a quite room to re-record the sound so that we can hear the voices of the actors.

Abandoned Thriller Opening Sequence Draft

 
My group uploaded our first draft of our opening sequence onto YouTube, by doing a first draft it gives us the opportunity to get feedback on how well we did and on what we should improve before we upload the final copy of our opening sequence.

Editing Process

The editing process for my thriller opening scene was quite easy as a group we had all put in our input and opinions on what parts should be shortened and cut. One of the areas that we had struggled with was the sound editing as we had to record the voices separately which causes a problem because we had to sync the voices with the lips on the screen. However we had overcame this problem by syncing it as close as possible to the voices, some of this wasn't a problem as some of the faces during vocal scenes which made some of this problem easier to handle. One of the good parts about the editing was the sound for the footsteps that Alex had handled herself, the footsteps where in time with the walking of the characters in the film
which sounded good however they were repeated. Some of the shots we had taken had to be cut because of actors tripping or laughing during certain scenes so we had to cut out some bits which may have affected the final product. One of the problems we had with editing was a what parts of our filming should be cut out due to different aspects, we also had to use the editing software to editing the contrast of the shots so that they would be viewable due to some of the shots being too dark. We had used premier pro to add in the titles of the actors on the screen, we did have some issues trying to make sure that they were the same size and in the same position each time they would be over laid on top of the actual video scene so that it would not breach an error of contingency when we publish our final edit of our thriller opening scene.

Planning Part Four: Location Scouting

Before my group began filming, we went out to look at our location to start filming our Thriller sequence, we had taken some photos with the camera we were going to film with so that we could look back at the images and decide as a group if this was the best choice to have as a location.

We had taken about 30 photos of the area but only used 13 of them as they were from different angels of the building and areas inside of it that we may want to use when we are filming as they had a thrilling look to them when in the right position.

 On these two pages there are 5 photos of the location using different shot sizes, the top two on the left were outside shots of the building, as it was a cold day when the photos were taken the photos look dark and this will most likely change when we go to film.
The third photo on the left is a shot from the inside of a hanging door and rope, we thought this looked quite scary so we took a photo of this, when the wind blows it door will swing in the wind giving it a creep affect, this would be good to capture in the film. The bottom left photo was something we found left in the building we thought this looked rather creepy so we wanted to try and incorporate this into our film. The top right photo was of a tree just around the corner from the location we wanted, we took a picture of this because we could use this as our location if the other one was inaccessible.

The top left photo was a picture of an electrical box left from the building, when we saw this we thought it looked kinda creepy and thought we could possibly use this for some shots. On the second left photo we saw a door with graffiti left on it, as there were quite a few '?' graffiti marks we thought we could possibly use this as a title and working it into the thriller. The two bottom left photos were shots of the field that surrounded it, with the frost on the ground we thought this looked good but knew we wouldn't be able to have this for our filming but from the fourth picture we thought we could use this as the opening scene where the title would appear and have this as something that would be done as a point of view type shot. On the two top right photos they were some pictures of some of the old pieces left over from the building, the top right photo of the wire hanging down could possibly be a health and safety risk so we would have to put that into consideration when we begin to film. The bottom two photos were some shots of two of the doors that had graffiti on it, from these pictures we thought we could possibly use one of the doors in our thriller for example having one of our actors look through the door.

Planning Part Three: Filming Schedule

My group had written up a filming schedule with the dates that we would have liked to have filmed on, however these dates did not happen due to different reasons including the battery dying on the camera which we will make sure next time to bring a spare battery with us and missing members of the group.

We had decided who we were going to have as our actors in the thriller as we had asked some college friends if they would be happy to do the filming for us on these dates, we had Paige Richmond, James Cox, Boston O'Grady and Georgia Gray as our actors however if these people were not available we would have back up people to do feature in the thriller for us.

For the costumes we decided that we wanted our actors in their everyday clothing that they would usually wear to college as we wanted it to look as natural as possible as their characters are college students so having the actors in there normal clothes will save time in costume changes but also gives us the problem if we need to re-shoot a scene they will not be wearing the same outfit.

For location we already had a location we wanted to use that was an abandoned building close to the college which gave off a creepy vibe, we thought this would be a good location to film because of the thriller aspect it has but we also wanted to go to take some pictures of the area to evaluate later.

We had minimal props to use in our filming and were only used for the sounds for example a stick snapping and a brick falling, we did not have any props in the scenes we were filming as they were not needed.

Our time management included making sure we had everything planned before we go out to film so that we know what we are going to do when we go so we don't waste time.

Planning Part Two: Storyboard

My group had made a storyboard so that we could document our original idea of what we are going to do when we go to film. The storyboard consists of 8 scenes, the first scene is a group of teenagers walking through a field where the are talking until they come across a abandoned building ahead of them, this is shown in the next scene where they are standing in front of the building intrigued as to what is is, wanting to explore the area. We then cut to the scene where we see the front of the building where the actors will exchange dialogue about the building before entering it which will then be the next scene where the go inside the building and splitting as a group each one of them going in different directions which will show in the next few scenes until they go missing one at a time leaving just one person left after the blank screen where the last person will be seen running away from the site.

Planning Part One: Mind Map

The group that I am in (Heather and Alex) made a mind map where we had four different categories, these were 'Titles', 'Sound', 'Future Intentions' and 'Evaluation'. In the titles category we came up with six different possible titles for us to use in our opening scene for a thriller, in this process we wanted the titles to have a thriller type of titles. From the titles we thought the best one to use was abandoned as it fits the storyline we want to use. In the sound category we thought of five different sounds that we will need to think about and possibly use when we begin filming our thriller, we thought about the dialogue and when will our actors use dialogue in scenes and whether we will have to record the dialogue separately to make sure you can hear them. We also thought about amplifying the sounds of footsteps and items breaking so that you can actually hear it when we have the final edit. In the future intentions category it included us making sure we are prepared before we go to film making sure we know what we are doing and what we will include as well as having the correct equipment with us and sticking to a schedule, this was also mentioned in our section for evaluation.   

Inception Opening Scene Analysis

Inception is an action/adventure thriller featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page and Tom Hardy. In the opening sequence you meet Leonardo DiCaprio's character Dom Cobb.

In the beginning of the scene you see an ocean with waves splashing against a rocks, the camera pans to the left to another rock with the waves splashing against it, this scene lasts about 9 seconds before cutting to another shot of the ocean waves, after this 3 second shot it cuts to a close up of Cobb lying on the beach with the waves hitting him, this shot lasts 5 seconds before cutting to a out of focus, slow motion shot of a boy playing in the sand. It then cuts back to him in a extreme close up shot while he lifts his head up out of the water, after this 4 second shot it cuts to a mid-range shot of two children playing on the beach in slow motion with them talking, it will then cut again to Cobb lying on the floor looking up then back to the children playing in slow motion for about 2 seconds then an extreme close up of Cobb putting his head back into the water then a cut to a over the should shot of a man with a gun poking Cobb in the back to see if he is alive, it then cuts to show a man in a uniform with the sun behind him, in this mid shot the man moves his head so that the sun is blocked out and you can see his face, it will then cut to a close up of the gun moving Cobb's jacket to reveal the gun wedged in his back pocket then a cut back to the man shouting to another man up on the rocks, in this long shot we see then man turn around and run towards the building that is showing in the shot.

A cut is used to show inside a room from a doorway with dialogue of a man who is in the room, the camera zooms in closer as the dialogue continues, the camera then cuts to a mid-range shot of the back of a mans head who is sitting at a table. another man possibly a guard then walks into the shot placing items onto a table, an extreme close up is shown of the man placing an item onto a table, it then cuts to another mid-range shot of the back of a man's head to show him turn his head slightly. A cut is used to show a mid-range shot of the guards dragging Cobb into the room, in this shot you can hear the rattling of the chains as he is dragged across the room. It then cuts to a close up of a reflection of the table then panning upwards to show Cobb sitting at the table eating. An over the shoulder shot is used after this scene to show the distance between him and the man at the other end of the table, once the dialogue begins it goes from being on focus on Cobb to then pushing forward to the man at the end of the table. It then cuts to a close up of Cobb after he had stopped eating then a cut to an extreme close up of the man putting his hand on the gun then moving it to pick up the spinner next to the gun, more dialogue begins as the camera pans upwards to the man then a cut to a long shot of him at the table then spin the spinner as the dialogue and background ambient music continues, after this shot that was about 7 seconds long it goes to a close up shot of the spinner on the table which lasts for about 3 seconds before cutting to a close up of the man talking, this then lasts for about 5 seconds before cutting to a close up Cobb looking up at the man as a sound bridge happens to indicate the next scene.

As the dialogue continues it shows a close up of a man eating to then a over the shoulder shot to show Cobb talking this lasts for about 2 seconds before cutting back to a close up of the man eating then another cut to a third man who adds to the dialogue in this scene, it will then cut to Cobb sitting down at the table talking with a cut to the man eating then back to Cobb talking, this shot lasts 7 seconds before cutting back to the man eating to show his reaction then back to Cobb talking for another 3 seconds then a long shot of all three men sitting at the table talking whilst eating, this lasts for about 4 seconds before an over the shoulder shot to show the third man talking then an over the shoulder shot to show Cobb talking for about 5 seconds before cutting to a close up of him talking again, this shot lasts for about 11 seconds before cutting to an over the shoulder shot then panning up to follow Cobb as he stands up from his chair as the dialogue continues when it cuts from the over the should shot to the first man reacting to

what Cobb is saying then to another over the shoulder shot as the camera follows Cobb as he is walking around the room talking, another cut goes from the first man back to Cobb in a mid-range shot as he continues to talk then a cut back to the first man listening to him then as he sits back up and then a low angle shot of the third man begin to get up then a cut to the first man leaving the room while talking to the two men left in the room. A mid range shot of the third man talking then a cut to a mid-range shot of Cobb then another quick cut to a close up of the third man look around as the room begins to shake, a mid range shot of the table is shown as the room shakes then a cut to a mid range-shot of Cobb checking his watch then a cut to an extreme close up of the watch ticking to finish the opening sequence.

Now You See Me Opening Scene Analysis

Now You See Me is a Crime/Mystery Thriller staring Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco. In the opening sequence of this film you meet four main characters who will feature throughout the film.

In the first scene you will meet Daniel Atlas, it begins with a close up shot of him holding a deck of cards with the dialogue being him explaining to someone what he is about to for his next magic trick, after he is finished explaining the camera will then be positioned behind him creating the over the shoulder angle so that you can see the woman he is talking to in this shot, the woman and the crowd around her are all in focus while the person who is just left to the camera has been placed out of focus, this could have been done so that you know who Atlas is aiming his conversation to. The camera will then go back to a close up of him however the camera will begin to slowly focus onto the deck of cards in his hand to indicate to the viewer what to look at during this scene, as the focus goes to the deck of cards Atlas goes out of focus however continues to talk. The camera will then show a close up of the woman in front of him with four people in the crowd being focused on and the rest being out of focus, the woman doesn't have much dialogue in this scene however at the beginning of this shot you can still hear the dialogue from Atlas however we can see the reaction of the woman and the crowd in front of him. You will then see a back and forth eye-line match shots which run for 4 seconds in the scene, the back and forth close ups will feature small dialogue being shared between the two main characters in the shot. After this Atlas brings out the cards showing them to the woman and the audience behind her, the camera pans down from a close up of Atlas then down to the cards focusing onto the cards, after this scene that was about 1 second long it will go onto another eye line match of the two characters exchanging dialogue for a few seconds of the scene then the camera goes to being a mid range shot of Atlas throwing the cards up into the air with the crowd in surprise with the camera panning up and the cards fall down to the ground showing the apartment building with the number of the cards showing up within the lights in the apartments. The camera will then cut back down to the woman and the rest of the crowd in shock then another cut to the building with a high up pan around the building before another cut to the crowd clapping.

After the first scene in the film it will then cut to the next scene to meet the next main character. The camera is in a close up shot showing the poster of a man called Merritt McKinney with the camera zooming out to show him hypnotising a woman as a part of his act. After this different cuts used to go into different camera angles showing Merritt and the couple who paid to see his act. It then goes to an over the shoulder shot behind Merritt to show the man that he is talking to, the two exchange some dialogue with the over the shoulder shots from Merritt and the man until a side shot showing all three characters in the scene is used with Merritt on the left, the woman in the middle out of focus and the man on the right. After this another over the shoulder shot is used to show Merritt talking then it will go into a fast paced extreme close ups that lasts 2 seconds with extreme close ups on the mans face including his eyes, mouth and the side of his face, the extreme close ups is used so that it emphasises the reaction to each letter that Merritt says to him, after his reaction has forced him to reveal a letter another extreme close up pan shows the mans reaction to the names that Merritt is saying so we can see his reaction to the names. After Merritt finds a name it does a close up shot of the woman attempting to answer him as she was put under hypnosis. After this there is a continuous use of the over the shoulder shots and different cuts used to show the dialogue exchanged between the two characters. In this scene the use of close ups and over the shoulder shots were popular as they used this type of shot mainly for the important parts of the scene.

The camera pans around a shot of New York with the shot focusing on the bridge and on a yellow boat that is driving down the river, this shot lasts for about 2 seconds before cutting to Jack on the boat walking out the door, in this scene a sound bridge is used as you can hear the dialogue of the character talking even though we are currently not on that scene yet as he is walking up the steps to the top deck of the boat. As he reaches the top deck it cuts to show him talking to the crowd of people, this is a long shot as you can see most of his body in the shot, 3 rows of people and the landscape behind him, after a few seconds of dialogue it then cuts to show people on the boat turn around within interest of what he is talking about. There is also another cut to him this time with a mid range camera angle showing him hold up a spoon showing it to the crowd of people around him, this shot is about 2 seconds long before a pan down another mid range shot of him hitting the spoon against a metal railing to prove the spoon he will use for his magic trick is real, it quickly pans up before another cut to a long shot of him talking to the crowd explaining what he is about to do and how they will be involved in the trick. After the dialogue it cuts to a close up shot of him supposedly bending the spoon with his mind, this lasts for about 2 seconds before an over the shoulder shot so that we can see the reaction of the audience watching the trick. After he bends the spoon he lifts it up with the crowd of people clapping and a close up of the bent spoon in his hand. A man from the crowd approaches him and pulls the spoon from his back pocket in an extreme close up shot, in this sequence we see an extreme close up shot of the man grabbing the spoon from his back pocket and a extreme close up of their hands interlocking as if he was trying to stop him. A two shot is used after
this scene to show the two men exchanging dialogue then a cut to a over the shoulder shot to show a spectator talking to Jack. After Jack gives the man money it cuts to the bottom of the stairs showing Jack leaving the top deck.

A cut is used to go to the next scene with the camera panning around from the front of Henley Reeves to the back of her showing the crowd around her, it then cuts to a close up of people in the crowd cheering with another cut to a clock up on the wall with the camera zooming in towards it then another cut to show the tank above her with a pan down to show her underneath. An extreme close up is used to show her feet with the chains attached then another extreme close up of her hands together with chains. A quick cut from her to the clock beginning to count down then back to her falling into a tank for water all used in a close up style to show her reaction as she goes into the water. A short pan begins to show that she is in the tank of water with a quick cut of her fumbling with the chains on her wrists then another quick cut to a long shot of her in the tank then another quick cut to an extreme close up of her face underwater. After this quick sequence it goes to a medium shot of her showing the crowd her wrists free from the chains. A slanted shot is used to show the clock that is up on the wall counting down then a cut from the clock goes to show the tank above her. A long shot is used again to show her fumble around with the chains that are holding her legs down while the crowd is cheering however during this long shot you can see her begin to panic as the crowd slowly stops
cheering. A medium shot pan is used to show her hitting against the glass and the spectators begin to panic as a cut goes to the clock showing she doesn't have much time left before the tank of piranhas is
dropped. An extreme close up is used to show her underwater pointing to something that may break the glass for her to escape. A medium shot is used to show the crowd running around trying to help her out with a cut to a man hitting the glass with something however this doesn't break the glass. Another cut to a medium shot of the clock going down then to a close up of her pulling herself free at the last minute, an overhead shot is used to show her getting out of the water then a medium shot of
the piranhas being released on top of her while hearing her screaming after this. A close up is used to show her panic as she is pushed back underwater with the piranhas swimming around her, a long shot is used after this scene to show the crowd panic as you hear Henley screaming with water gushing back on to her, a quick cut is used to go to a close up of her scrambling around then a medium shot of the crowd hitting the glass, another cut is used to go to an extreme close up camera shot of her underwater up against the glass trying to get out.

Gravity Opening Scene Analysis

Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, 2013) 

Gravity is an action thriller featuring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, in the opening 15 minutes of the film you see the two working on a space mission until the situation goes wrong.

The opening scene is shown a close up of the earth with the camera panning to the left, you can hear some dialogue with a static sound in the background, this scene goes on for about a 1 minute and 30 seconds. With the dialogue continuing in the background a space station begins to get closer to the camera showing someone floating around the outside of the station, the dialogue continues possibly showing that the person in the space suit can hear what is being said. As the camera gets closer to the station you see another person working on the station and begin to float away from it.

The camera begins to get closer to the woman who is in the space suit, in a mid-range shot you can see the dialogue being exchanged between her and the people who are back on earth. The mid-range shot lasts about 10-13 seconds before panning to the other person in the space suit. A two shot is then used showing the two astronauts exchanging dialogue between each other; this shot lasts about 20 seconds.
The camera then does a 90 degree pan before zooming in on the man while he is talking to the other astronaut. The camera continues to zoom in whilst panning up to show the earth then the camera panning around and back down to the man in the space suit while he begins to talk once again.

A mid-range two shot is used while the man is continuing the dialogue. The camera continues to zoom out slowly showing the two astronauts clamber towards the rails on the station while the camera pans around and down to show the station and another pan back around to show them. A tracking camera is used to show the man go down towards the bottom of the station.

As the music that is used in the background begins to pick up you can see that it is a tense situation as they begin to panic. A zoomed out shot is used to show the station begin to spin out of control and a long shot is used to show the woman spinning out of control into the darkness. Another long shot is used showing earth and the woman coming towards the camera then getting to a close up shot of her panicking under her space suit while trying to communicate with the other astronaut involved in the mission.

Prelim Task Video and Evaluation

Above is my groups prelim task video, the video is 32 seconds long featuring an opening transition, different camera angels and credits at the end of the video. In my evaluation of the video I conclude that the editing of the video, mainly the editing of the video was good enough, the parts that we had filmed were edited together with the fading transition so that it would fade from one scene to another showing a different angel to the task. However I do believe that there were different issues with the video, for example one of the flaws that was in this video was the volume of the dialogue, we could improve on this for the next time that we shoot a video by using a microphone to enhance the volume or shooting the dialogue in an empty room so that we could hear the voices properly. Another thing that could have been improved on for the next time I film the next task is making sure the camera is steady when using it in a handheld way, when I use the handheld camera I may have to film it a few times before I have suitable footage as I do not want the footage for my final edit to be shaky and having the issue of filming the footage more than once or twice after the editing phase.

Premilinary Task Part 2

In today's lesson (Tuesday 26th) we started editing our final video for the preliminary task. Editing our video was a fairly straightforward task as our footage didn't need much editing for the final video to be presentable, there was an issue in the footage that the audio was quiet when we listened to the footage through headphones however we can overcome this problem by either re-filming the footage needed or dubbing it over with audio that we recorded through a microphone in a empty room. For the editing of the final video i had added in a credit title which took sometime to put together as I didn't fully know how to add it into the video but it was added in the end.

Preliminary Task

In today's lesson (Monday 25th) we began filming our prelim task, in the beginning we had creative differences as non of us quite knew what we wanted to accomplish in the two hours we had allocated to work. In the first our we start putting our ideas together coming up with the idea for our scene then working the dialogue around it. In the first our we had difficulty finding an empty class room that we could use to film in but we overcame this by waiting until the second hour and seeing which class rooms were empty, once we were in our room we started setting up the equipment that consisted of lighting stand and a Nikon camera, in the beginning of the filming we had difficulty deciding on a suitable camera angle as the lighting we used would leave a spotlight mark on the whiteboard that we were using for our scene. To overcome this we moved the lighting to different areas and turned down the brightness so that it wouldn't interfere with how the shot was going to be used. When we actually began filming it went smoothly as we only had to re-shoot a few parts to our scene because of different incidents.