Evaluation 7 - 'Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?'

In our preliminary task we were unprepared. We didn't plan everything and a lot of the things we did weren't in accordance to the proper thriller genre. We though if we got some good camera angles and we did something spooky, that our preliminary task would fit the thriller genre - we were wrong.

We hadn't done any research on our prelim task and so we didn't know so much about how the conventions of thrillers worked and how important they were to making a successful opening. We didn't take into account the various elements needed at first. We had also just got started with all the equipment and applications on the prliminary task, we didn't know too much about them and couldn't use them to maximum efficiency.

We began the creation of our opening sequence much differently than we had for our preliminary task. We didn't just make an idea on the spot, we had many different ideas on what we wanted to do and how we were going to them, if we could add things from all our ideas and put it into one finished product. We also did our research into the thriller openings and movies and how the openings of thrillers lead to the movie and the story it portrayed. We even used openings from television shows to broaden our perspective. This allowed us to get a better idea of how thriller movies work and correspond with the audience, something we did not do in our preliminary. Using real life products as inspiration (movies such as American Psycho) helped immensely.

We were also a lot more comfortable in the use of equipment. We were more used to using the camera and applications which allowed us to shoot our scenes with a variety of different camera shots and angles suited to our genre and story.

We learned a variety of different camera angles and shots and used them better than we had in the preliminary task;

Medium close-up shot of the victims upper body

Close-up of character's feet as he walks alongs

                                                                                        
These are screengrabs of shots we used in our thriller sequence. We used some of them in our preliminary task although with not as much efficiency. In our preliminary task we were to absorbed in the idea of using many differeny kinds of shots at once (even though there wasn't much going on) and making them as 'extravagent' as possible.

A high angle shot we used in one of our scenes

Although there are still things that could have improved. The soundtrack for one didn't exactly fit the purpose 100%. Unfortunately our original music editor/creator was not present and could  not create the music so we had to improvise. We could have also improved on our setting/location, there were many places we could have explored although alas it was not meant to be.

 

Soundtrack

 

 A screen shot, taken by a member in my group, of him creating a soundtrack for the thriller production. The application 'Garage Band' was used for this process where it's vast amount of sample tunes and loops allowed us to experiment with the music to create what we thought a suitable track which would go well with the sequence as well as emphasis what we wanted to show.

The Next Step

My next move would be to research on marketing ideas and distributor ideas. To look into the different types of institutions, major and minor, and to compare them to find out which one would most likely produce our film. Looking into film festivals would also be a good idea.

Hmmm...i need to find out whether there's any other work that i need to do. Oh, of course - screen shots and research of past projects would be a good insight, the screen shots are evidence that i've done something (because reading the whole thing isn't enough).

I guess finding ways to improve the rough cut of our project is an ongoing thing (until it ends) so experimenting with the applications would be a good idea. Working on ideas about our logo is a must do as well.

*sigh*....all this to do, so....much time
huh, how anti-climactic
(for any of you who take offense to the above comment or don not take it as a joke....It was a joke)



PS - Progress + Responsibilities

Todorov + Propp

Propp
8 character types

Hero - the one who saves the day, by usually saving someone, solving something or defeating somebody (usually a bad guy/villain)

Villain - Enemy of the hero. Tries to stop the hero or destroy/kill him.

Dispatcher - Is usually the one who sends the hero on his journey or tells him the information which leads him to the journey with him ending up as the hero.

Donor -helps move the story along by providing something vital to do with the story, whether it be to the villain or the hero.

Princess - The hero's reward ('be the hero, get the girl'), and is most of the time the one who needs protecting from the villain (at least in fairy tales anyway).

Father of princess - the one who awards the hero, usually with the princess (unless he's very overprotective).

Anti-Hero  - more of a rival than an enemy. He tries to stop the hero form accomplishing his goal.

Helper - helps the hero in a variety of ways (providing information, as his partner etc).

Todorov
5 stages

Equilibrium - A state of 'equilibrium' is created, the story begins and is explained - basically a happy phase in the film.

Disruption - an event occurs which disrupts the equilibrium creating some kind of trouble.

Recognition of disruption - disruption event is now recognized and characters set goals to try to resolve the problem.

Attempt to repair disruption - characters try to fix the disruption by any means necessary to get back their normal lives. They have to face obstacles to accomplish this.

Reinstatement of equilibrium - disruption is fixed and the situation is resolved. Things go back into a peaceful state and a conclusion is announced.

After Effects Work - Screenshots

A screen shot of me working with the video. Here i am working with the brightness and contrast of the video. Our original footage was shot on a bright day (either we were stupid or had terrible luck....I'll let you decide) and our chosen genre needed the video to be a bit darker. So messing around with the brightness and contrast was required as i needed to make the footage darker.

A similar screenshot to the one above,although this time i am working with the text/titles which need to be added in the movie. Here i am working with the text, trying to time where the text should go and where it would fit in the video. It isn't easily readable, but i was working with many key frames as well as a couple of effects (linear wipe and changing opacity of text) to fit in with the footage. I was also using a mask which added more key frames and work for me - fun times.

DVD Cover analyses and comparison

We first see the stunning picture of what seems to be San Francisco which is in the background, a bridge in the foreground and the faces of three people above the city. Firstly, we are not shown the whole bridge, we are shown a portion of it with the rest covered with thick fog or mist. This element adds a sense of mystery, spook and gives a glimpse of the type of genre the film is - thriller or maybe a horror.

We are also shown a whole city, or at least most of it. This could mean that the movie is set or happens all around the city, but adding the thick fog could give the meaning that something terrible has happened in this city and that there is no escape. The thick fog covering the bridge could mean that escape is impossible for the characters in the movie which gives us more information about the type of movie (what genre) the movie could be -still swaying in favor of either thriller or horror (or a mix of both).

we also see three faces above the city, these are most likely the main characters of the film. Shown above the city could symbolize them as the ones who will try to stop the terrible thing that has happened in the city - the heroes. Although doing this would tilt the genre slide to more of a thriller than a horror film as introducing characters like that would give more of an impression that they are trying to deduce something, to solve the mystery of the city - more of a thriller than a horror.

The title of the movie is clearly seen as a white glow of letters. The 'O' in Zodiac is different from a normal 'O'. It has, what looks like a sword through it, or some sort of symbol. This could support the theory that there is a mystery in the city and the three characters we see before us must solve it.

Above the title of the film are the actors names, more specifically the three names of the actors that are shown on the cover. This is used to promote the DVD by showing the big name actors that are in the film. Below the title it says "From the director of Se7en and Panic Room." Another way of promoting the movie by saying that the movie was directed by the same person who directed other big movies. Both these titles are smaller than the title of the film as the most important part of the cover is to show the title of the film, this is so the movie can be promoted by other means than just advertisement (word of mouth).

At the bottom of the cover it tells the audience that the film is 'Based on a true story.' This could be said as another way that producers sell a movie - a movie based on a true story could catch many people's attention as it is something that happened and can happen in reality, it is not something completely made up. Realism is important in many movies, even if they aren't based on true events.

I chose this DVD cover as it is not a thriller film. I wanted to analyze the difference between a cover from a thriller movie and one from another genre, in this case James Bond Quantum of Solace - which is a spy action movie.

One can see that this is most likely not a thriller (or a horror) as we are first enlightened to a character, who is probably the main character, in a suit holding a gun. He is walking away from a building on fire and seems to be in a sandy place of some kind, maybe the desert or a country with rough ground.

The character wearing a suit shows that he is some symbol of authority, he must work for a high agency for a government, in this case he is a spy. Him holding a gun would say that the movie has some gun play in it which most probably means action. This is our second indication of what type of genre the movie could be (the first being that the character is wearing a suit). The character is also walking away from a smoking, burning building which most likely means that the movie will entail action of some kind, more specifically an explosion of some sort. The character walking away from the rubble would mean that he is probably the one who did it.

The lighting and colours of the cover is lighter than that of most thriller DVD covers. It is day and we can see the shine of the sun on the ground and on the character. Most thriller covers use darker colours of gray, blue, black and sometimes mix a little of white with the black (but never too much white). The title in the middle of the cover is white, but not a spooky white like in the Zodiac cover, but a white that goes with the bright light and colours of the cover. It could also be saying that 'the hero will win in the end.' '007' is identified in black to show the trademark James Bond sign although that's probably exclusive for the James Bond movies.

The way the characters are introduced, the lighting and colours, the titles are all used differently to show the types of genre for the film. The brighter lights and colour of the action film with the darker and dull colours of the thriller. The way the titles are shown is different, even thought they are both shown in white. The white goes well with the action movie cover as it is accompanying brighter colours of the cover and means something completely different than the white title of the thriller film. The title of the thriller movie cover has a certain mysterious glow to it which is supported by being seen with a black background (the sky in this case). The way things are shown on a cover and how things are mixed and matched give off very different feelings and show off each genre in a different way.

Progress and Responsibilites

My main responsibility for the project was to focus on the editing. To edit some of the video and to see what fits where. Although my main job in editing was to work with the titles and to time them in accordance to the video. Other jobs i have had was to help with the pitch, to come up with ideas of what types of shots to use and the mise-en-scene in those shots, help with the story and what we wanted to say from our opening sequence and to help with some research for the group as well as do some of my own for the jobs that were given to me.

I have watched many different opening sequences of different genres of thrillers and tried to match which genre would fit best with the story made for our opening sequence. Although films were not my only inspiration, i also analyzed a couple of opening sequences from television shows, and although the openings on television usually differ greatly when compared to openings of film (the titles are usually shown after the episode has already begun) there were a couple of shows i found which had amazing opening sequences;

Six Feet Under


Dexter


These two were my favorite examples of television openings, probably because I've seen the shows. Six Feet Under, a show about death. One could instantly associate the show with death from the title alone but the opening adds finesse to the title.
Dexter was also a good inspiration for me although it took a while for me to deduce why that opening sequence was used for a show like that. Pretty much everything Dexter does on his 'night' job is shown in the opening sequences, only less viciously, by using an everyday morning routine.

Of course this doesn't mean I've been neglecting film openings, that is our main aim. I have looked at different film openings from the thriller genre and some from outside the thriller genre to see the difference between thrillers and other genres and to know what to put in a thriller opening sequence and what not to put. A couple of opening sequences which caught my eye were 'The Number 23.' I thought both the movie and opening sequence went well together and that the message of the movie was clearly shown in the opening sequence, as well as making it frightening.


My first idea was to actually make an opening sequence similar to this, but the idea was shelved as the opening sequence was to include video footage (unless you were amazingly skilled at making opening sequences without footage).