Music Score - Justification

As it has been said before the film Mulholland Drive (David Lynch 2001) was incredibly influential to the cinematography of our piece. It was also used as a model for our musical score, whilst their is no diegetic sound in the opening of Mulholland Drive their is a cleverly produced soundtrack, we tried our hardest to imitate a similar type of aura through the non diegetic sound. however this task proved harder than originally thought, as we were only allowed to use garage band to produce our soundtrack and not bring in any other music, making it sound professional and effective was difficult, partly because we were very limited in our selection and that the clips of music weren't long enough to stretch the whole length of the sequence, we had to try and overlap them, so if you listen closely you can tell where the music has been overlapped

Final feedback

We all went round in groups looking at the other members of our class's work. if we had more time and could improve on our film we may have:
-used a more realistic body
-got more shots of inside the car
- made the music a bit less repetitive
and include more close ups from inside the barn, for example unlocking the barn door.

All the groups could see that it does include thriller genre conventions, for example the use of light created suspense and the music held freaky quality's. Some people perceived it to be a murder/mystery.

Some groups also thought the soundtrack was repetitive, however still effective. Others said that the use of diagetic sound was pimping! for example the car pulling up and the dragging of the body. 1 group also pointed out that the body wasn't realistic enough and clearly just rags and a coat... oww dear.

Several groups also commented on the end title how it fitted in with the theme of the sequence with the use of moving light, as well as the choice of font.

The groups also depicted from our sequence that it required more close ups for a more effective atmosphere.

when asked to decide what they thought would happen in the film, the groups all predicted similar things, for example find out who's body it was and about his past and who the murderer was. and why this person was killed?

in all we are happy with the comments we received


:):):)

my view of the end project

overall i am very happy with how our project ahs turned out, and i am pleased with the end results. despite having a few problems when actually shooting with the camera, we managedto get a good variety of shots and i am pleased we did so .
we kept our editing very simple by using fades and cross dissolves.this helped our shots to flow better in to one another. it particually helped us in the end shot where the 'body' was being dragged into the barn as we worried people would not trust that it was a body so we broke the shot down to cut out some of the movement.
when choosing our titles, we had to agree on a font size and style. i am very pleased with the one which we have chose as it is quite bold but still small. i particually like the end title as we used the light from behind another shot to move across the titlee introducing each letter one at a time. i thought this worked very well.
if we has more time we may have adited the music a little more as in some places we thought it needed changing a little to help it flow better, however, we did add more diagetic sound of the car running which worked well to create more tension.
finally, i am very pleased with our idea, i think that keeping it simple helped and gave us lots of oppertunity to add the titles in clever places.

This is it ..!

After Light

Editing

We are pleased with the way our editing has gone; we have got all our titles in our sequence now and added a few transitions.
We are very pleased with our end title "after light", it came out just the way we wanted with the right font and comes up on the screen at the right time, I like the way it goes from black to white and shines which creates a supernatural feel to the sequence and makes an impact.
Were happy with the other titles also, the choice of font suits the scene and we like the names we chose.
I am very happy with the sound and think it goes well, there are sections where it jumps because it is hard to blend them together but we are working on it and shall sort it soon.
Not many transitions were used because we didn't want to make it to complicated, which can ruin a sequence, the video filters we used were fade and cross dissolve.
The visual style we are trying to create is an eerie, psychological thriller, we wanted a lot of suspense and tension in our sequence for example the audience would be wondering where the driver is going and why he is stopping at a barn. I think we have successfully achieved this.
To create this visual style we used the slow eerie music, the variety of interesting shots using just the car light in the dark and the clever titles.

Personal Views of Rough Cut 4/3/08

Personally i think that our Rough cut looked rather impressive for a draft version of our film. We managed to shoot all or footage, edit the shots down and practice adding titles and transitions, all within the time span. Of course their is more work needed to be done on the sequence, however i think we achieved what we needed to for our first cut. At the moment we are in the process of adding additional titles to the sequence and making sure each shot runs smoothly into the next using transitions (mainly fades and cross dissolves) We have also had to slow down one of our shots because the continuity of it doesn't match the majority of clips; the car is seen first as traveling slowly up the road and then the next shot (from inside the vehicle) shows the car moving significantly faster. We have also been editing our soundtrack, as the different stages of it don't link together and overlap like they should to make it sound professional.

Editing action plan

after discussing our feedback we were quite pleased with the comments we received.
some people said they thought that when travelling to the barn it went on for too long and the shots were all quite similar, although they thought this could have been improved this was exacty the effect we were hoping for, we wanted the car journey down to the car to create tension and make the audience want to know what was going to happen.
we will add some more transitions in between shots to make them more interesting and this will help them flow better in to eachother.
we cannot use any more diagetic sound as there is none appropraite. however, i think the sound that we have works well.
finally, our next step is to add titles to our footage.

response to rough cut feedback

After allowing every other group in our class to watch our project so far, we received some very positive feedback along with some ways in which we could improve it.

Positive feedback:
Editing: Good range of shots from in and out side of the car.
good use of transitions especially when the car pulls up into the yard.

Camera work: The car lights worked well and gave off a good source of lighting. for example the headlights as the man walks out of the barn to the boot of the car,
headlights drawing closer almost to cover the whole screen
good range of camera angles.

Sound: Soundtrack fits the piece well
Good use of diagetic sound at the beginning to create tension.

Mis en scene: the setting used was effective and worked well
the minimalistic use of mis en scene reflects the spookiness the audience are supposed to feel.

Narrative: it is simple but still good for and opening sequence.


Things to improve:
Editing: more transitions could possibly make it a bit more interesting.

Camera work: quite repetitve- similar shots.

Sound: more use of diegetic sound could be used- of the car.
repetitve

Camera Moves - Techniques and pointers

(This blog was composed with help from 'the guardian guide to making film')

Pan
A pan is a horizontal camera pivot from a stationary position from left to right or vice versa. this movement enables you to follow a subject or to show the distance between two objects. when panning, face the middle of the pan with your feet firmly planted on the ground. from there, twist your upper body towards the start of the pan, through centre, and end with your upper body twisted toward the end of the pan. Always start on a still shot and end on a still shot.
A whip pan is a sped up version of the pan that creates a blur effect, this can be used to convey the passage of time, or simply to frame rapid action as it occurs.

Tracking is lateral camcorder movement that parallels a moving subject. Professionals achieve this using a track on which a wheeled "dolly" is placed.

Animatic

Here is our animatic, the transitions i used were cross disolves and to make it black and white i used the effect image control- desaturate, then altered the brightness and contrast and then used Channel- colour offset.

Shot examples.

These are similar to shots we will be taking.

Possible Titles

Our group has specifically designed the title(s) to our thriller sequence in order to suggest possible themes and plot narrative for the rest of the film; we wanted to enhance ideas of isolation for the introduced victim which is dragged into the barn and create a sense of mystery for the driver.
Possible ideas are:

Capture, Isolation, After Light, Reeper calling, Crucial memory, When The Dark Comes, Lights Out, Silence, Sweet Sorrow, Inialation,

We decided to use "After Light" as our final title for the sequence as we felt it captured the perfect description for the remaining story, as well as boding well with the image of the barn door shutting out the light before the introduction of the title.

-Time Frame-

Finish filming by the 8th February (1 week)
Start editing after half term (week beginning 18h February) (2 weeks)
Rough cut due by week beginning 25th February (3 weeks)

We are aiming to shot our footage on Monday the 4th February and get it all done that night.

Story boarding and animatics

We have made a story board showing the main shots in our sequence, so that anyone who looked at it would be able to work out what is going to happen. We decided not to include all of the shots we are going to take in the story board, as we did not think it was necessary to do so. however, it does still make sense.
Under the drawings, are captions showing the type of shot that it is e.g long shot, and a short definition as to what is taking place in the shot, and also the direction of the camera.
After we completed our story board in pencil, we then went over it in black pen so that when it came to taking the pictures for our animatic, it was clear.
We then used the camera to take pictures of our shots individually. Once all of our shots had been taken, we uploaded them onto our computer and then imported them into final cut. From here we could edit our sequence, adding transitions and cutting our shots to make them more appropriate lengths.
Then the music made in garage band was added so that we could get a feel for how weel it went with our sequence. we may need to alter this after filming.

Thriller types.

Our Thriller will fit under the genre of Psychological/Crime thriller. This, to a certain extent will be made obvious in the opening sequence we are creating.

Psychological thriller is a sub-genre of the wide-ranging thriller genre. However, this genre often incorporates elements from the mystery genre in addition to the typical traits of the thriller. Generally, thrillers focus on plot over fictional characters, and thus emphasize intense, physical action over the character itself. Psychological thrillers tend to do the opposite, emphasizing the character and his/her mind just as much, if not more so, than the plot.

Crime thriller - This particular genre is a hybrid type of both crime films and thrillers that offers a suspenseful account of a successful or failed crime or crimes. These films often focus on the criminal(s) rather than a policeman. Central topics of these films include murders, robberies, chases, shootouts, and double-crosses are central ingredients.

Other Genres which our film could fit into are: Neo Noir (a type of film that prominently utilizes elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style or visual elements that were absent in films noir of the 1940s and 1950s..) and Mystery (a loosely-defined term that is often used as a synonym of detective fiction — in other words a novel or short story in which a detective, either professional or amateur, solves a crime.)

Aprroximate shot by shot

shot 1: camera height at eye level looking down at a an empty road, for approx 5 seconds. cross fade to shot 2 (during fade - introduction of music)

shot 2:camera height at eye level, at the corner to the entrance of the road; with the car approaching form the distance coming towards the camera to then turn right out of the still shot.

shot 3: camera height at eye level in the middle of the bridge looking at/over the hump, waiting for the car to approach from the other side. (approx 2 -3 secs)

shot 4: cemera height at eye level looking at the bridge from the right; side on. The car is already moving from the previous shot. Car leaves the shot to the left. (approx 2 -3 secs)

shot 5: camera height at eye level looking at the bridge from the left slightly head on. The car is over the bridge an leaves the shot to the right. (approx 2 -3 secs)

shot 6: camera placed in the car over the shoulder of the driver capturing the road ahead . able to see some of the dash board and the top half of the steering wheel with the drivers hands. (approx 3 -4 secs)

shot 7: camera placed on the floor in the middle of the road looking down the road, very symmetrical. car approaches from distance and drives over camera; when under the car fade to next shot. (approx 4 - 5secs)

shot 8: close up of drivers left hand inside the car steering round the corner still hiding identity. (approx 1 - 2 secs)

shot 9: camera height high above the car looking down at the road at an angle. The car leaves out the top of the shot from the center; no camera movement. (approx 1 - 2 secs)

shot 10: camera height just above the floor with the front left tire of the car in the right hand side of the screen, car is stationary. Driver walks from the right hand side of the screen to the left dragging the body retrieved from the boot behind him towards the barn on the left across the shot (approx 4 - 5 secs) sound of engine and gravel.

shot 11: close up of the lock to the barns door on the left ( the whole of the lock full height of the shot), the drivers hand holding a key comes from right side of the screen and unlocks door slowly; pulls key out and pushes barn door inwards.

shot 12: inside the barn, camera at eye level looking down at the opening to the barn revealing only the drivers knees. Driver drags body inside the door dropping it just inside the barn. Driver stands momentarily then drops something on te bodys shoulder.

shot 13: close up of body's left arm dominating the bottom half of the screen, revealing the driver standing just outside the door slowly

Special effects and editing

Special Visual Effects

when editing our project we have decided not to use any special effects as we want our film to seem as realistic as possible, and if there are lots of transitions in it we feel it will ruin this effect. We will keep it all quite simple.


Final Cut

We are going to be uploading our footage into Final Cut. we have had experience with using programmes like this as when we made our kids tv project we used imovie. We will use some basic transitions such as cross dissolves and fades in and out, to make our footage a little more interesting than just simple cuts between shots.

the soundtrack

I have been producing the soundtrack for our opening.
I wanted an erie feeling to the sequence and i think i have achieved this well.
The soundtrack isn't very complex because our sequence isn't very complex, there wasn't very much to choose from in garage band for this type of sequence but i am pleased with the one i found. I didn't want to cram a lot of different soundtracks into the sequence because it would be to much. I wanted a slow erie soundtrack, which i believe i got.

update

Location

We are going to be shooting our footage in a private farm that a member of Esme's family owns. Therefore we will have good access to it. From what Esme has described it seems like it will be the perfect place to shoot our footage, as it has the stoned roads which will create a good sound as the car travels over it. and there are barns which we can use to drag the body in. As it will be very dark when we shoot our footage this will add to the 'spooky' effect. as we don't all live near each other it will mean arranging ways of getting there and taking the camera out over a weekend but that shouldn't be a problem.

Sound

We are going to make a soundtrack for our sequence in garage band, we want to use a lot of piano in it to create suspense. The soft sound of the piano gives the impression that everything is okay, but with sudden, louder/harder notes it makes the audience jump. When i think of pianos i imagine them sitting in an old house covered in dust, as today they are not as frequently played as they used to be. although we are going to produce a soundtrack we will have it on quite low, as we want the audience to also here the diagetic sound of the car as it travels over the stony ground. I think this will work well and create more tension. We will also hear the engine of the car running as the man gets out to take the body into the barn, and then the door shut behind him.

Acting?

As our sequence is quite 'secretive' and we are not letting the audience know too much we are not going to have any 'actors' as such. We will have a driver of the car, which will probably be either the owner of the car or Tom, but no-one will know the identity of the character as his face will not be shown. This will leave the audience in more suspense as they will want to know who the driver is, what he looks like, and what he is doing? these questions will make them gripped from the opening and then they will want to continue watching the film to find out the answers.
we will also need a body. Which could be played by any of us. Again the identity of this person will not be shown and they will either have something covering their face or shots will be taken of the rest of their body, leaving the head out.

Problems?

We are very pleased with our idea and think that it will work well. we have found a car which we can use, and have an appropriate place to shoot our footage.
One problem which we think may occur is the fact that we are shooting at night. Although we are going to be using light from the car headlights as our main source of light, we are still a little worried that it will still be quite dark, and we have been warned that the cameras we are using do not film well in the dark. We will try and produce as much extra light as possible, maybe from another car, but we do not want it to look too 'artificial'. If we were to film our footage during the day then it would not have the same effect, so we will have to do all we can to ensure we get the best possible results.
If it was to rain on the day of filming not heavily but just slightly, this could give a really nice effect,especially as the driver drives into the road, we could focus on the windscreen wipers.
This is not part of our idea, as we obviously cannot predict the weather, but if it was to rain slightly we could use it to our advantage.

Shooting.

We have not as yet picked a specific day for filming as we need to all get together to arrange a date. We are either hoping to film on a week night after college, or a weekend, either a Friday or Sunday night. We will discuss this as a group when we are all together.

Props and Costume

To make the sequence still seem quite ordinary, we will have the driver dressed in casual clothes, such as jeans and a jacket. We have decided to do this as if he was wearing say a black cloak and long leather gloves etc, it may make it seem too over the top and unrealistic. the driver we are using will also feel more comfortable in his own clothes.
The 'body' will again be dressed in ordinary everyday clothes which may have a blood stain on? We may also use a cloth with blood on which could be dropped on the body by the driver, to set somebody up or something.
The only other props we will need, will be the car, and the camera. the barns will obviously be at the location. Also we may need to buy a padlock for when the driver leaves the barn.

Our Idea

This is a pitch of our idea so far...

We are going to have a car traveling down a private farm road. it will be late at night so in the dark, and the viewer won't really know why the car is travelling down this road. the first shot will be of the car turning off the main road. The audience will be unsure as to where the car is going and why at this point. after this their will be various shots of the car traveling towards the yard where the driver will park in front of some barns/machinery/scrap.. the sequence will probably go on for a while to create tension in the opening. Our soundtrack will be playing all the way through but it will be very quiet so that as the car travels down the road the sound of the gravel can be heard.
The driver will carry on down the road here, we will have a shot taken form behind the driver, so the viewer can see the drivers hands, the steering wheel and speed that he is going and the road ahead of him, i think this shot will work quite well and can create more tension. Eventually the car will come to a stop as it pulls into the yard area. The driver will get out of the car and walk around to the boot.
(POSSIBLE:)... Where he will get out what the viewer will assume to be a body.
We may possibly at this point have the boot shutting, him maybe locking the car and dropping the body as really quick shots where you can hear the sound each of these things make and they are sped up. this is just an idea, as we don't know whether doing this will ruin the flow of the film as before this part it has been quite slow and calm.
He drags the body to the barn and leaves the door ajar. Once he is in the barn he leaves the body, and leaves the barn shutting the door behind him. here, there will be a shot of darkness, from inside the barn and then the title of the film will come up on the screen in white writing. then the entire shot will fade to complete blackness.
Other titles will appear on the screen throughout the sequence probably quite small and in white to contrast the darkness. fading in and out probably.
I think that this sequence is clear to the audience that it is a thriller and also if it was to be made into a film it would set up a story quite well in my opinion. as the audience does not know too much information, and will want to know who was body, why he was killed adn who the driver of the car was?

Originally we had thought of the idea of filming the sequence on a rainy night, however, we are limited with our shooting days so may not be able to shoot on a nght where it is raining, although this definitely is an idea we are keen on.

We have also had to think alot about lighting for our piece, as the camera's are not top quality they may make the sequence appear slightly grainy because of the darkness, although we do intend to use the car headlights as our only source of light, this is intentional, as we dont want to show too much of the setting, the shots will probably all be framed by complete blackness.

things to include

car
farmhouse
headlights
yard
forest
farm/narrow road
eary music
sudden loud sounds
shadows/silhouettes
view of inside of car

Derilium Tremens

I think that you can tell that this sequence is a thriller, as from the very beginning tension is created by the white noise as the camera shows the view of a city. the idea of a city is also shown in films such as panic room which is also a thriller. it is the idea that everything is fine and you don't know where abouts in the city what is going to happen is.
You wouldn't instantly know that it was a thriller, but as the story unfolds it is clear that what is happening is not quite right and creates suspense to the audience.
whilst the titles are appearing the audience is being shown the view of the city, i think this is to keep them in suspense as they do not know anything about the film yet. they then carry on into the start of the sequence but only as the character is waking up. it isn't clear at this point that he has done anything wrong.
the group shoot their footage on what appears to be the top level of a multi story car park. which is completely empty to create the idea of loneliness. and makes the audience wonder why he is there.
the beginning of the sequence starts by a long panning shot of the city, establishing the main setting where it is taking place. then goes to a long shot establishing where they are. and then the car. this is as if they are starting form a long way a way then gradually getting nearer to the 'action'. they use a variety of shots from long shots to close ups foe example of the mans expression as he looks at what is in his boot. the movement between each shot is quite slow to fit in with the music.
At the beginning there is no sound but white noise, which creates tension and suspense. then when it gets to the car park the music begins to show that something is going to happen all though you are not sure what. the music is the same all the way through form when it starts to finishes. i do think this works well but for instance when he opens the boot, i think a sudden change in music could have worked well here.however, by keeping it the same they never know when something is going to happen. There is no diegetic sound just the quite calm, slow, theme tune they used, i think the harder notes hit on the piano create tension.
The footage all the way through is in black and white which does make it seem more eery.
i do think that this sequence is good and you can tell that the man is clearly uncomforatble. as it was on a high building i thought that he was going to commit suicide as he ran to the edge and climbed up a barrier. you can tell there is somenthing not quite right. it is left in a way which makes you want to watch on to discover what is in the boot, i assume it is a body?
i think it is clear that this sequence is a thriller opening

Thriller opening evaluations

Psycho - Alfred Hitchcock (1960)
We particularly liked this opening because of the music used to create suspense and tension. Bernard Herrman did the score for this film, he has also wrote music for other thrillers such as 'Taxi Driver', 'Vertigo' and even the 'twilight zone'.




Dirty Harry - Don Seigel (1971)




This is a very good Thriller opening, however, not really the kind of thing we're aiming for, we did however analyse it because it has been very influential to thrillers in the movie world since it was made.

Bullitt - Peter Yates (1968)




This is again not something we would head towards producing but, like Dirty Harry it has been a great cinematic influence.


Mulholland Drive - David Lynch (2001)



This is a perfect example of a thriller, specific for our sequence as it includes many of the same elements.. The music in this piece is definately of the same type that we would like to accompany our piece; nothing too upbeat, eerie yet threatening. The shots have been very influential to our piece -shots from behind the car, of the headlights..etc- we will however keep our piece from looking too similar to this, we will make sure it has its own originality.

introduction

Our group is made up of Danielle Watson,Esme Marr,Chris Pope and Tom Simper. We are going to be making a thriller opening sequence.
I am looking forward to making this project as i think it is a good opportunity to be creative as apposed to the kids tv title series there are not as many restrictions.
i think it could be a little difficult to make our title series seem realistic and scary. so we will have to bare this in mind when taking our shots so that they do seem real and not 'tacky'.
Also as this time we have to make our own theme tune in garage band it should be easier to make it fit in with our sequence, and we can make the music fit in with it better than one already made. we can make the music more sudden and 'jumpy' when something scary occurs in the sequence. i think this would work better.

Surface- Great example

I think this sequence is very good and interesting, it has thriller conventions in it but could also be portrayed as a horror. What makes it a thriller is the suspense and erieness to give the audience a thrill.
The structure of the sequence- while the titles are coming up there is some sort of murder going on and it keeps cutting back, the audience is not sure what is happening which makes it a good thriller. My guess is a vampire film because you can sort of see a man bitting a girls neck.
The lighting is very good and works well, it is quite dark, and with the blood moving with a black background is very effective, when the murder is happening it is dark but with a white light shinning on the two characters, which makes a sort of grey, this works well and makes me think she is being murdered somewhere dark and eerie. From what i can see there are no props and cant tell what clothing apart from the close up of the girls jumper.
The camera work is very good and suits the genre, it starts off quite calm and focuses on the blood floating, which i'm guessing was food colouring in water, then as the sequence goes on it gets faster and there is a lot of rapid camera work and quick imagery. There are a few close ups of the girls face, one being of her eye, which at first glance i couldn't tell what it was, there is also close ups of her body, which you can see a white jumper. The framing is very gd and works well.
I think the sound is very good in this sequence, goes extremely well with the setting. It starts off very quiet and erie but by the gets very loud and fast. At the end it makes you feel quite uneasy