Editing Stage- What We Did

The next stage after uploading our film was to make a start on the editing. I thought that this was the most important part because we can make our film turn out the way we want it to.
After shooting our preliminary task and editing it, we only knew the very basics of editing. We managed to get more used to final cut pro during our preliminary task so we managed to work alot quicker with our thriller opening.
First of all, we started to choose shots that we were sure of using for our opening and getting rid of the ones that we don't want. Afterwards, we had to cut down certain shots so that the shot will flow with the next. This makes the film look more professional, as you can see we used that method alot for our film.
We also had to make sure that certain shots were put together made sense because certain objects would be in a different position, and we wanted the film to run smoothly rather than the film being really jumpy when it came to the editing.
We also had to make some scenes darker by messing around with the contrast. By making the screen darker, it gives more of an effect on the audience.

Ashley

How we organised ourselves and what we did

Before we filmed our thriller, we didn't know much about filming, we only knew the basics of shots and editing. So we knew as a group we had to make sure we were organised so we managed to stay ontop of things.
In order to organise ourselves for filming our thriller, we set out a list of what we needed(including props and equipment) for our shoot. All we were given for our shooting was a hd camera and a tripod, the rest we had to organise for ourselves. We knew we only had a certain amount of time to complete shooting our thriller so we tried to make a start straight away.
To play our teenage girl for our Thriller, we managed to find an actress from our school(Tia Simon- Campbell). She gave up her free time to come to our location and shoot for the day which was much appreciated. We thgen also managed to find Josh's dad to play our teenage girl's father.
When we managed to find our actors, we then had to look for a suitable location in the Croydon area close to our school so everyone will be able to make it. We managed to find a location to shoot our thriller which was at a house in Surrey because our main idea was for the film to be shot inside in a normal family home. During filming, we had to make sure that the filming was done witin a certain amount of time because our thriller idea is that the daylight is dusk, so we had to make sure our shooting outside was completed befor it got dark outside. We chose the daylight to be dusk because it gives the audience a more dark thriller feeling and this would make opur film seem more interesting than broad daylight. Not many other thrillers are shot when outside is completely bright, there is always a slight shade. Before filming, we had to make sure we had the correct props for our thriller. We had sto make sure for certain that we had the pictures of random teenage girls because it was going to be in the shot. So a few days before shooting our thriller, we walked around school asking for girls permission if we could take a photo of them for our thriller, then the pictures would be threw away afterwards. We also had to make sure that the father was dressed smart(suit and tie) like he has just got home from work. The teenage daughter also had to make sure she was wearing normal clothes that she would wear when shes in the house.

Ashley

Why we chose this idea for our thriller

Our thriller opening is called "Taken". The thriller is all about a teenage girl aged 15-17 years of age that realises that her father has been taking pictures of other girls her age. The teenage girl goes into her fathers room thinking that she will find her birth certificate for her homework project but then finds disturbing photos of teenage girls. She then searches one of these girls on google, and thats when the film ends. The idea for our thriller was to make it a psychological thriller and make the audience think about it afterwards instead of just watching it. Also we chose this idea because othis was the idea that everyone agreed on without any dissagreements or anyone feeling unsure.
Our group decided to choose this specific idea because we believed that this idea made us think of so many ideas to have for this opening. All other ideas we came up with were typical thriller/scary ideas that other groups were thinking of shooting. I also believe that our group idea is different from every over groups ideas. By doing a film that is more scary, there is a specific system you have to follow in order for it to work. So therefore this didn't really make us come up with any origional ideas.

Ashley

Music for Thrillers

In thriller movies, the composer always makes sure that the music goes with what is showing on screen. The music for thriller movies are very important because it is needed throughout the whole film.
For example, if there was a scary part of the film shown onscreen, the composer will have mysterious music playing to attract the attention of the audience more. The music will also give off a more scary feeling towards the audience and will prepare them for something to happen. The audience can tell when something is about to happen because the music either increases volume or increases speed.

Ashley

Box Office Figures and Statistics

What the creators and directors of thriller films hope for is the reaction of the audience to be a great success. I'm going to talk about box office figures and statistics that are involved with thriller films.

For example, Jaws (Directed by Steven Spielberg) was the first film in motion picture history to cross the $100 million mark. On June 20th 1975 when Jaws was released, it opened at 409 theaters. Then on July 25th, the release was expanded to a total of 675 theaters. Jaws then grossed more than $7 million on its first weekend, and was the top grosser for the following five weeks.
Jaws then went on to win 3 Oscars, another 9 wins and 13 nominations. These additional awards include Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films USA(Best advertising & Outstanding film of 1975), and Golden Globes USA(Best Origional Score- Motion Picture). This film was based on the novel by Peter Benchley.

These early thriller films such as Jaws and Star Wars set the standards of Thriller films today when it comes to box office performances and awards. Hopefuly, this has given you a brief idea of the statistics and how much money is involved in the film industry.

Ashley

Preliminary Excercise

The importance of Suspense

One of the earliest Thriller Writers was Edward Morgan Forster. He was a english novelist and was known for his well written plots that focused on class difference and hypocrisy in 20th Century Britain. Two of Forsters best known works were 'Passage to india' and 'Howards End'. Forster associated suspense with curiosity and often used this concept in his work. However, we feel there is a difference between curiosity, which is ultimately satisfied and suspense, which is ultimately relieved by the end of the story. In most thrillers, especially whodunits the audience member wants to discover who is the murderer. They do not want to wait with the kind of anxiety associated with suspense. However directors continue to use the concept as it adds extra tension to the piece. It is said that movies that are considered suspenseful seem to retain their quality and can be watched numerous times and still conjure up new or the same feeling to the audience. Suspense relates not to the question of what will happen next but to the expectation that a specific action might take place. Therefore suspense is very important in thriller films and we will bee taking that into consideration when making our thriller opening.

Shanice and Ashley

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What is our Preliminary Exercise Task?

We were asked to create a short clip that included these elements:

• A character opening a door
• A character crossing a room and sitting down on a chair opposite another character
• Both characters exchanging a couple of lines of dialogue

The task also had to include and demonstrate different shot types.

Group 2

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180 degree Rule

Taken from:

http://www.screensite.org/courses/Jbutler/T340/ClassicismIllustrations01.htm (02/10/08)

This diagram explains the importance of the 180 degree rule when filming. The 180 degree rule is a filming technique which is always used in film-making. It prevents the film maker from crossing a radius of 180 degrees. This is one way the film maker can uphold continuity within their work. If the film maker were to cross the 180 degree line, for example if the shot was of two people having a conversation, their positions would be reversed and this would give the audience the impression that the two people have swapped places, however they have not actually moved.

Group 2

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Introduction to our Group

Our group consists of Bradley Gregory, Ashley Henry, Josh Hinds and Shanice Steele. On this blog we will be taking you through the run up to our two minute thriller opening. We will be including research and a diary of our film making progress and also an evaluation.

Sit back and enjoy!

Group 2

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