location shots

Location Shots

The first location my group chose was mile end park, I thought this was a great location because it's a perfect place for a jogger to go. It has a canal,nice green grass and it is very peaceful. so it looks all happy and energetic in contrast with our other location. Additionally it is very close to our second location so we didn't have to travel much.

Our second location is my flat which is in east London Poplar . This has inspired the title of my movie 'Door 29 and which you can see is the same as my actually door. I thought this was a great location because it has nice view of canary wharf which was great to show an establishing shot. Also in the letter scene because it is very dark in my hallway it works well with my character because I wanted to give of the impression that he's dark and sinister.

Location Shots

Primarily for locations we knew we needed at least two locations for me and Jevoney (the two actors).

For my character, we decided on Mile End Park with a big green area as my character is a runner in the film.
We wanted a nice, clean peaceful park as my character is calm. For this reason, we decided to film on a Sunday Morning, as that's the quietest time of the day and week.

As for Jevoney, being a dark, mysterious character we kept it simple by filming him in his Mile End flat with gloomy lighting to reflect his mysterious character. It was also convenient as Mile End Park is only up the road from his flat.
Jevoney's flat was on the highest floor, so the view from his balcony was amazing, overlooking the city's landscapes such as Canary Wharf and The Gherkin, establishing the film's setting (London)

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News & Current Affairs Events

Here are two news stories I've seen and read recently that would make a good basis for a plot of a thriller movie:

Story One:


Haiti Earthquake - (Disaster Thriller: could be a film based a family that suffered massively due to a natural disaster)
The earthquake was tragic natural disaster that killed thousands and thousands of people, crushed houses, school, hospitals and the presidential palace. The 7.0 magnitude earthquake which struck the small Caribbean island has been the worst quake to hit the capital in over two centuries.

Story Two:


Khyra Ishaq Story - (Psychological/Crime Thriller: mother mistreats child, due to possible mental issues)
This tiny seven year old girl weighed just 2 stone, when her body was found. Abused and starved to death, in a house with a packed fridge, by her mother Angela Gordon and partner Junaid Abuhamza. In 2008 her case slipped through the net and her file was closed by the council a month before Khyra died. However on the 25th of February 2010 Gordon was convicted of manslaughter in court, where she admitted cruelty too five other children in her care. Abuhamza was also found guilty of manslaughter and admitted cruelty to other children. Here is a heart-breaking quote from the Daily Mirror: 'The girl could barely move but he lashed her three times with a cane as he thought she was possessed'


Although two very sad and chilling stories, I would say they could both actually make rather good thriller films and sound extremely like other thriller films already made, as they're believeable and people would be able to relate to the stories.

News and current affairs events

For this task, I had to find out about news and current affairs that will be a good basis for a plot of a thriller movie.

Khyra Ishaq (Crime thriller)

Khyra Ishaq was seven years old when she died. She was kept away from the outside. Khyra weighed only 2 stones 9 pounds when she was found dead, she had been abused and was forced to live in starvation. If she was seen with food, she would be beaten and left outside in the cold by her mother Angela Gordon and partner Junaid Abuhamza. Khyra died in 2008 however, her mother was convicted of manslaughter in February 2010. Partner Junaid Abuhamza was also convicted with manslaughter. This would make a good crime thriller because it contains careless parents, abuse, death and threat to a young child who was helpless, this story could be related to by viewers.

Haiti earthquake (Disaster thriller)

On Tuesday 12th January 2010, there was an earthquake in Haiti where three million people were affected and up to 230,000 deaths. Many buildings had collapsed and destroyed the area. It is the 6th deadliest earthquake in the world so far. This would make a good disaster thriller because it involved natural disaster, the earthquake.

Body found in River Thames, Shadwell Basin (Action Thriller)

A body of a 20 year old man was found in Shadwell Basin, East London on Friday 19th March 2010. Police are investigating the murder, he was involved in a confrontation with a group of people on Thursday night before ending up in the river. Detectives are trying to find out if the man was pushed into the river or whether he fell. This would make a good action thriller because it contains violence, the police are in the process of finding out who was with him, why this had happened, how it had happened and if it was planned.

Live Type and Sound Tutorial

Skill Audit

After we had shot out mimic of Collateral and edited it, we exported our footage on to live type and soundtrack.

Live Type

Live type is used to add you titles and effects on to your footage. Here you can use different types of fonts, effects, colours and transistions to suit ur film and make it look professional.

Soundtrack

Sound track is used to lay over tracks or natura sound, such as foot steps. This is used to increase sound, and make the scene more effective.

What is suspense ?

What is suspense?

The exact definition of suspense is a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety about an outcome of a certain action. suspense may operate in any situation where there is a lead up to a big event or dramatic moment, with tension being a primary emotion felt as part of the situation. In the kind of suspense described by film director Alfred Hitchcock , an audience experiences suspense when they expect something bad to happen.

Sourse http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspense

Includes numerous and often overlapping sub-genres which are Action, Conspiracy, Crime, Disaster, Drama, Erotic, Legal, Spy, Horror,Medical and many more .Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more powerful and better equipped villains. All thrillers are suspenseful, that is what makes it a thriller and this is what separates it from horror, to add suspense in a thriller you'll normally use a cliffhanger most often use in soaps and a long build up so the audience is on the edge of the seat because they know something is coming to happen.

Sourse: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_(genre)

Final Edit of Livetype & Sound Filming Practice

Final Edit of Livetype & Sound Filming Practice

Brief:

My groups task was to rein-act the bag swap scene from Collateral, We only had around 40minutes to do this task so we decided to remain in the college.

Camera:

This task was simple for me and my group because i have a lot of experience with Cameras. However we had a challenge because we had to do specific shots which where POV, over the shoulder and a variety of close ups.

Suspense:

Doing this was a little difficult because we had so little time and very thing had to be created from scratch. Eventually we came up with an idea that we shouldn't show there faces, we started of with there feets and as the get closer and closer the camera goes higher and higher. Additionally we decided it should be a long build up to the swapping of the briefcase. We managed to successfully pulled this off and created some sort of suspense

camera tutorial lesson

Camera Tutorial

In my media lesson we had a lesson on how to use the cameras, we was shown each part of the camera, what it does and when to use it. We was also learnt the saftey rules on how to protect the camera at all times. First we were shown on the interactive board how to use the camera, then we were given a camera per group and given the chance to play around with it.

Overall i learnt how to

• insert a battery and memory card
• turn the camera on and off
• how to zoom in and out
• to focus the camera
• how to put the camera on a tripod
• if raining use an umbrella to protect the camera
• and to not touch the lense.

After our lesson my group got to use the cameras in making a duplicate to Collateral. After we learnt how to put our work onto the computer and later edited it.

Tutorial lesson on editing

Tutorial lesson on editing:

In this tutorial I learnt a lot of different techniques on editing a footage on final cut pro. After you've watched a footage you can choose to shorten or lengthening your footage by putting an input and an output anywhere you see fit then you drag it down to the time line. This software also includes many effects and transitions for example fades, dissolves,wipes and many more. I additionally learnt I could place music or sound effects on to the time line to give my film a specific feel whether its sad happy or tense.

skills audit

Skills Audit : Livetype & Soundtrack

Brief:We had to film a short sequence mimicking the briefcase swap in collateral. Which we used Final cut pro to do the editing process. When we are happy that the editing is completed we export the footage to either Livetype or Soundtrack.

Livetype:

This allows you to add text,objects,template and effects, for example dissolving,fades, glows and many more on to your footage to give it a professional look.

Soundtrack

This enables you to add or layover natural sounds like footsteps, clapping and screaming. You can also add sound effects either to make your film comical or to build tension. Additionally you could even create an original soundtrack to make the footage more interesting.

Intro to Camera & Health and Safety Tutorial:

Intro to Camera & Health and Safety Tutorial:

In this tutorial we was introduce to the camera before we could start filming or sequences. We was giving a tutorial on how to use the follow equipment

• Tripod

This is a great tool because it allows you to keep your camera still. It can be extended or shortened in length

• Video camera

This is the most important tool because without it you wouldn't be able to film. We was introduce how to put in the battery into the back of the camera, how to turn it on, zoom,focus, record and how to watch the footages you've recorded.

• Memory card and memory car reader

The memory card goes into the side of the camera either in slot A or B but before this we got to make sure its unlock because the footage will not record if its locked. When you are finish filming you go into the editing room where you just put the memory card into the reader so you can have access to it on the computers.

• Video drive

finally this is what we store all our footages on including the work we have done on final cut pro, soundtrack and livetype.

Health and safety terms and conditions

• Use umbrella to keep camera dry if it is raining
• Always close the lens when finish filming
• Nevertouch the lens

Skills Audit: Livetype & Sound

Desciption:
When filming our Bag Swap clip, about two identical silver briefcases 'accidentally' on purpose, dropping them into each other and us walking away with the opposite cases.
After editing, we exported the final cut to a software called Livetype and Soundtrack.

Livetype:
We use this software to add our own credits for our title sequence and being able to design it using different fonts, colour, effects and transitions such as fade, dissolve etc, which gives our sequence a sharp and professional look and a hopeful opening to a film.

Soundtrack:
The Soundtrack program is obviously to do with sound. We are able to export music, that could be instruments (e.g. drum, piano), natural sound (e.g. footsteps, wind, police sirens) or even creating an original piece using different types of tunes and beats. Whether adding it on top of a sound or as backing, it simply makes the sequence more interesting to watch and would definitely be more effective. We matched specific sounds and noises to the scenes, such as suspenseful music to create the tense atmosphere and footsteps on top of mine to add pressure to viewers and also police sirens in the background, to subconsciously get people thinking something fishy is going down.

Preliminary Match Cut Film

Our Clip
The synopsis: "A character opens a door, walks into a room, sits down opposite another character and they share a few lines of dialogue."


Also:
This match cut exercise was given to us in lesson, were we were given the synopsis above.
It was compulsory to include the following:
- at least one match cut
- a shot/reverse shot
- show understanding of 180 degree rule

My Opinion:
I found this task easier than the bag swap task. From the planing, to the filming, down to the editing, maybe because of more experience or maybe just a better understanding of the camera's uses and functions due to practice. Whatever it is, using the camera has become easier and is really growing on me!

Final Edit of Livetype & Sound Filming Practice

Task:
Our task was to film a bag swap, following the theme of Collateral. Not having a lot of time meant we had to stay close, so we decided to use the college area as our location.

Camera:
Using the camera, at first was quite tricky because it was our first time using it and we were trying to keep everything we just learnt in mind. Trying to keep it safe and still think of all the different types of camera shots ( point of view, over the shoulder and the basic close ups and long shots.)

Suspense:
Creating suspense in the short amount of filming was the most difficult because we didn't no how to do this in such a little amount of time, but we eventually agreed that slow, subtle and a long wait would probably defiantly create suspense. By starting filming from the actors feet, working out way up slowly with the camera and hiding their faces throughout the entire clip, we managed to create some sort of excitement, hopefully causing suspense.