Final Video

Existing products

Films
Taken - Dad avenges his daughter
Eclipse - The killer avenges her dead boyfriend
True Grit - Girl trying to kill her dad's killer
Salt - A CIA agent gets accused of being a spy, and gets revenge by trying to kill the president


Programmes
Dexter - serial killer
The Mentalist - guy looking for person who killed his wife

Print-Screens

Comments on our film

Adding colour, make it look more cinematic
Less voice overs, or more spaced apart
Make music slightly quicker, picking up the pace near the end
Treeset Pictures title should stay on after he walks across

Production titles pictures

New changes on the thriller.

We added the sounds of dogs barking as the main character walks in the garden
We also added the sound of a dial tone to the first phone message. We decided to only put this on one because the sound would start to get annoying if we had it on every phone message.
We also changed some of the titles, adding more red to them to continue the theme.

Evaluation Questions

The following questions must be answered in your evaluation PowerPoint:
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

To do next lesson

Add dial tones

Make some titles more red

Editing

First we choose the best clips we did and we cut them together so it was continuity editing
We then added music that we had previously made on Garage Band
Then we put on the titles in appropriate places and made them the right size
We then added our voice over.

Louisa's phone script

Hey It’s Kara, Louisa, remember we’re coming out tonight!

I’m getting the Chinese now, what do you want? Can’t wait!

I couldn’t wait, I just chose sweet and sour for you

Louisa, the Chinese is getting cold, hurry up!

It’s me again, hurry up, you’re late

Hey, gimme a call when you get this, you’re almost an hour late

Louisa, please ring me, I’m getting worried

Louisa, has Kane done something again? Please ring me

Louisa, answer your phone, this is getting ridiculous.

Louisa, I’m really worried… I’m coming over.

Sound effects

Police car passing
Spanner
Water running
Door closing
Foot steps
Tap of knocking over photo

Example of Main Title

This was made using Picnik

Camera shots

Close ups of his hands, feet and props to create mystery.

Panning shots for movement.

Point of view shot for when he is washing his hands.

Reaction shot after seeing blood on his hands.

Example of title

This originally had a transparent background, but when it was exported to jpeg the background turned white.

Order of titles

1. New Line Cinema Presents
2. An Arnold Kopelson Production
3. A Film By David Fincher
4. Brad Pitt
5. Morgan Freeman
6. SE7EN
7. Gwyneth Paltrow 
8. (More actors)
9. Casting By
10. Music By
11. Costumes Designed by
12. Edited by
13. Production designed
14. Director of photography
15. Co-producers
16. Co executive producers
17. Executive producers
18. Written by
19. Produced by
20. Directed by

Script

INT. Evening

Man walks into his house, takes shoes off after coming in from back garden, places a bloody and dirty spanner on the dining room table. Walks up stairs to the bathroom. You can hear in the background messages that were left on his wife's phone, asking why she isn't picking up. Looks at picture on window sill, of him and his wife, strokes her face and leaves a strip of blood and dirt from his hands. He then goes into the bathroom and washes his hands. He walks downstairs and picks her phone up from the downstairs window sill, and turns it off. Messages stop, everything goes silent.

Props

• Spanner
• Fake blood
• Phone 
• Photograph
• Overals
• Shoes trainers/boots

Costumes

Kane: Mechanic overalls and/or casual clothing like jeans with a t-shirt and trainers as this would be his everyday clothing. Clothing will be dark colours to fit in with the theme.

Kara: Skirt and plain top with pumps to make it look casual in everyday clothing. The skirt highlights her gender and vulnerability.

Louisa: As we will only see her hands and feet, her costume will be black heels to represent power and her on her hands she will have red nail varnish and jewellery to show her higher status.

Lighting/Colour/Mood

Lighting - It would need to be quite dark as we want it to feel quite creepy and mysterious.
Colour - Dark colours, blacks and greys
Mood - Tense. The lighting and colours being dark would help this. We could also have quiet slow music in the back ground and high light any diegetic sounds by not letting background music over-power them.
This is the kind of lighting we were thinking about:

Title

Ideas:
The Avenger
Revenge
Vengance
Retaliate
Vendetta
Ultionem
Ucisici

Character Profiles

Kane
24, works as a mechanic, lives in a flat with Louisa (His wife of 1 year). Him and Louisa were childhood sweethearts. Has a violent past, but Louisa has tried to help him through. Their flat is modern, and they have no children. Likes to wear tracksuit bottoms, as he is a mechanic. Gets jealous easily. Dropped out of school at 15.

Louisa
23, works in a nursery, wants children. She is unhappy with her relationship with Kane, because he gets violent. She cheats on Kane after a drunken night out with her girls, but decides to tell Kane because she wants an honest relationship.

Kara
25, works part time in a bank. Lives alone in a flat. Louisa's best friend since secondary school. Has always been wary of Kane's violence and tries to protect Louisa when he does. Dresses smart, been to university. Knows about Louisa's one night stand, and tried to tell Louisa not to tell Kane about it, because she knows what Kane is capable of.

Locations

We think as it's only the first scene then it should stay in one places which would be the flat that Kara and Kane own.This is where he gets the message on the phone from the anonymous person. We would have to use someones house for this.
We are thinking Rhians house as it is closest.

Music

If we were to have music I think it should be quite slow and creepy, With violins or piano, so it's soft and creates a tense or eerie atmosphere. it should be continuous but subtle.
If we deicide against music it could just be silent other than over dramatic sound effects which makes each sound scary and creates worry that it makes noise, there will also be small dialogue in it.
Alliance - it fits the theme but too repetitive
Mystery accents - fits theme but really short, would only be used for a tiny bit
 Emotion piano - quite creep but a bit sad
Contemplative synth 1 + 2 - creepy
Beginning of Half moon bay - tense

Fonts + colour schemes for titles

I think as the main theme in this plot is a murder i think the possible colours could be:
Red
Black
Purple
White

The font needs to be quite sharp and bold but at the same time quite creepy.
Ones we are considering are
-Apple casual -  It's quite bold but childish
-Bell Gothic std - Quite bold and formal
- Big Caslon - Fitted the theme but quite plain
-Blackoak std - good (:

-Britanic Bold - Also good (:

-Chalkduster - really good, looks scruffy, fits theme

-Cracked - Fits theme :D

-Handwriting Dakota - Looked like hand writing, creepy!!!

-Marker felt - Bold, doesn't fit theme as much
-Tekton pro bold - Stands out, fits theme

Big caslon - It's formal bold and modern

We decided to use Big Caslon as it is the most appropriate. 

Deciding Idea

Our idea is a psychological thriller.
We have two main characters, a killer and his avenger.
Our idea for the killer, is after his wife cheated on him, he goes crazy and kills her. No-one knows about the killing, apart from his wife's best friend, who is out to get revenge for the wife. Until the end, you don't find out who the avenger is.

Our idea for the first two minutes is after the wife has been killed, her best friend is leaving messages on the answering machine asking where she has gone, or saying 'I saw what you did.'

Killer: Kane (Means 'A spear' in Hebrew)
Wife: Kara (Means 'Dearest' in Italian')
Avenger: Louisa (means 'Famed Warrior' in latin)

Making a logo

We got more of an understanding of how to use photoshop and final cut express. I think it helped us learn how to use these better and feel more confident with them. Same with garage band.

Title

Twisted Pictures

The Twisted Pictures title shows that they make horror films, because of the barbed wire twisting around the words.

Pixar Logo

We think the Pixar logo portrays what the company is about, as there is a childlike aspect to it, with the lamp jumping around.

Lionsgate Logo

This is the horror version of the Lionsgate into. We think it looks a bit like going into hell, because of the red moody lighting.

Thriller

How does it fit the genre?
- Dark lighting
- Fast paced
- Masculine characters
- Creepy sound


What conventions are used?
- Drinks, martini's
- Close ups and fast pace
- Costume is suits are shirts
- Titles were  mainly shots from the computer and newspapers
- Font was rigid

Likes and dislikes?
- The characters were good looking
- Like the camera angles
- Good mise en scene
- Liked the dark voices, made it more serious

The recruit thriller

Miller's Crossing

It's a hybrid as it crosses with gangster. "Not since the Godfather has there been a portrait of gangsterism as powerful as this audacious electrifying masterpiece from the Coen Brothers"
The characters are stereotypical to gangster films, you have the boss and their henchman.
There was conflict between two gangs.
there was lots of shot reverse shot during the first scene when they were talking. during the titles the camera   was panning slowly through trees.
There is continuity editing.
They were all in suits. the set and costume all seemed to have a sepia tone to it. We think it was set in the 1930s because the dress and set e.g. the telephone.
During the titles there is slow calming music. there was no back ground noise apart from a few cars during the dialogue.
The titles are bold and formal. They are green which we think is pretty weird as it contrasts with the sepia theme.
We thought it was quite slow and hard to get into as the beginning dialogue so quite boring and there was no sounds.
We liked the sepia theme as you could really feel the time period.

Panic Room Opening Sequence Evaluation

We think that the title sequence for Panic Room fits the film well because of the tone and colours, as it had a very blue tint it. This suggests this is about a women who is very clear and business like. The opening sequence shows lots of office like buildings which also connects to the main character being a business woman. The titles are floating in the air, which gives the sequence an eerie feel to it. The time of day the titles are set it day/night, we see a setting sun when the 'Columbia' title comes up.

Panic Room Opening Sequence

Montage

Shot reverse shot

Shot reverse shot is where one character is looking at another character off screen, and the character is shown looking back at the first character. The 180' degree rule has to be taken into account for this

Continuity Editing

This is when an edit between two clips is seamless. For example, if a character is wearing a red shirt in the first clip, and in the second (after an edit) is wearing a blue shirt, this does not have continuity.

180' Degree Rule

The 180° rule is a basic guideline in film making that states that two characters in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary line, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle.

180' Degree Rule

The 180° rule is a basic guideline in film making that states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle.

Prelim Task

In our preliminary task, the problems we had with it were shot reverse shot, and 180' degree rule.
 This was because we didn't keep each character on the side they were came into the shot.
The focus was also on the background more, which was also a problem because you weren't focusing on the characters.

Prelim task