Thriller storyboard

Here is the storyboard for our thriller opening

Planning- Settings and Locations

Locations

This is an alleyway in manor house.
I like this setting, because we could picture someone walking through
this alleyway , by doing so creates suspense and tension

This is our prop that we will be using.
Most of our footage will be filmed outside and inside this car.

This is the location we planned to film our car scene.
It is local and I live nearby so were able to put our bags in my house.
This prevents loss of any property.

Planning our Thriller opening

We are now at the stage where we begin to plan our final thriller opening. In my group, we have been brainstorming different ideas that we feel would make a successful opening. It is a hard process, as you want to stay away from the obvious. During our planning session we avoided suggesting knives, showers, children on swings and so on..

We went onto watching different thrillers and openings to get different ideas. We also researched different thrillers and read about them. Some film names inspired us, for example 'Identity'... something about the name caught our attention and we read about it, and we brainstormed different aspects that can contribute to create a story. Several film names and different stories inspired us throughout the research, it was a lot harder than we expected. 

We watched the opening to thrillers and we came across 'Marathon Man'. This opening includes cross cutting and we really liked the idea of it as it instantly       makes the audience ask questions.
I personally prefer being lead on that way when I watch a film, its brilliant when films make you ask questions and it really pulls you in.

At the end of the lesson, my group left with some inspiration from 'Marathon Man'. We want to work on the idea of cross cutting between two different characters undergoing two completely contrasting activities.

Audiences in mind for final thriller

Using Wordle to display our final outcomes in which Sub-Thriller were the most popular. 

Crime Thriller is the largest font in this wordle which proved the most popular among our groups decision. While Action was the least popular hence why its the smallest. 

Planning initial ideas- Moodboard

During our lesson we brainstomed ideas we wanted for our
thriller. 

We thought we should create a psychological thriller, because we liked the locations we had seen.

This didn't go  to plan as our ideas of a psychotic woman rocking in a chair in a dark room didn't seem strong enough to build an opening around. Our group then thought that we should have a thriller with heavily based editing. Our idea of this came from Seven.

As a group we knew we wanted to use intertextuality which is why we chose marathon man. We did research on IMBD reviews and saw that we could show off our editing skills in a more professional manner.

We liked the idea of cross-cutting and the footage not linking to create action and suspense.

this is a printscreen of the marathon man review
on the IMBD website. 

Moodboard for planning and preparation

Using Wordle to display our final outcomes in which Sub-Thriller were the most popular. 

Film title name

THE THREAT in French is LA MENACE  

During our lesson we planned our film title. We decided that a foreign language title will create a professional outlook. The French are very well known for cinematic titles so we thought that it would be suitable for our film.
We used google translate to form a title. Here are two titles that we liked and felt would work with the narrative of the film.

EVIDENCE in French translates as PREUVE

Planning- Title Sequence

How we created our thriller opening title 

We  researched that the french are famous for cinematic titles ,which was why we wanted our title to be in french creating a professional outlook on our thriller.

We liked the name Evidence which translates as PREUVE  also
The Threat translating as La Menace.

The title is in french and the text it is written in serif
which is formal. This tells us this is
a professionally edited film.





Inspirations for our title sequence

These are screengrabs of the title sequence from Marathon man.
This has inspired our thriller opening as we admire
the way in which the titles track across the screen similar to the runners jogging movement.
The font used is TW Cen MT and is a sans serif which is more simple an is more seen in magazines.

This is a title sequence from The taking of pelham 123 (2009).
We were inspired by the way in which the text moves along the screen over
the moving image backdrop.

By using art of the title sequence we found the title sequence for psycho.

We liked the idea of white writing on a black background, but didn't want to use it throughout our opening.
The title sequence stands and the text moves. During our thriller we want to captivate our audiences with moving text.

Analysis of a previous student film opening

This is a previous film opening called: Signature

By watching this opening I got an idea that this is a romance or psychological thriller. The story line was interesting and very intriguing for audiences as there is an element of suspense created by the use of non-diegetic sound. I thought that sound could have been used more during this opening, because some of the footage is repetitiveness and audience can loose interest.

She appears as if she is 'sane' doing normal things
i.e. applying mascara and getting dressed.

In terms of mise en scene I liked the use of the props such as
the lipstick appliance through the mirror.

The recurring motif of the iconic rubber duck prop was filmed floating up to the hand which is the element I thought they did well. Points I thought could have been improved were the title as it appears in the end making it look as if it's a trailer and not an opening for a thriller movie. I also thought that the film title could have been changed to 'Signature Kiss' that way the storyline and footage would have linked better.

I think the font they chose went well with the storyline.
The use of italics make it seem as if it has been handwritten.

This is when the rubber duck becomes an iconic prop.
 It floats up to the hand discovering a body in the bath tub.

The Interview - PRELIM

This is the final prelim piece that we done. We filmed the shots step by step following the story board that we planned. Once we finished filming, we put our shots into final cut pro and we edited the piece to create the prelim. When the shots were all placed in correct order in the timeline, we began to add the titles of the opening. We included producers, distributors, the casts, the director and most importantly, the actual film title - The Interview. 

Throughout this task, I felt that the story board could have been much stronger. Including more precise shots and annotations. This task really enabled me to understand the importance of a story board. 

from Donna

Hi Girls

your blog seems up to date, but still feels very static with too much text and still imagery.
please add some talk to cameras and possibly put all your stills into some sort of moving image 'display'. This will produce a much more dynamic blog.

thanks

Donna

Favourite thriller subgenres

Despite the fact we already have statistics that show the most popular subgenres. I wanted to go out a ask a few people myself and the patterns remain true to the official statistics. Action thriller being the most popular.

What we would like to see in a film opening

As we are making a film opening of our own, we decided it would make sense to come up with a list that shows what we like in a filming opening and what would appeal to a wide audience.

• suspense through mise en scene, camera, editing and sound
• simplicity in the narrative 
• ambiguity 
• keeps the story line concealed until further into the film
• dramatic irony between characters
• different shot types 
• effective match cuts
• immersive atmosphere in the audience
• effective sounds
• establishing shots in the beginning

How our editing process went

What our task was

Our task was to edit, add titles and sound into our prelim. We used finalcut pro to lay down our footage onto the time line in order following our storyboard. We then included titles i.e. producers, distributors also the director. Once this had been done we imported our footage into soundtrack pro to lay on sound.

This shows how we used the image wireframe
to place our titles in correct positions

This is a screengrab of us converting our
prelim into an mpeg streamclip

This is our footage that we layed down using final cut pro

How the process went

The editing process of our prelim was enjoyable, however we faced difficulties which slowed down our editing process. We had different technical issues with the software's but they were sorted out eventually. The task gave us a true insight of how the process will be when we come to produce our final thriller opening. It really helped us familiarize ourselves more with the different software's. Despite the technical issues, we really enjoyed doing the task and I feel that we are now recognize the process of filming and editing

Evaluation of Prelim

Our Prelim Final Piece Including Titles

Filming Prelim

Here we are setting up the camera, ready to film the shots.

We set out the mise en scene and prepared the cast.

This is during the filming process.

Prelim storyboard

Here are some of the drawings we done for the story board. It includes the shot and some further description below. We did this process to ensure that when we came to film, we would know exactly what shots to do and this will make the filming process easier. 

It also gives me an insight of how a real production team will work. The idea that you have to plan a story board and follow it step by step through the filming stages. The story board is a key step in the production of a film opening. 

Planning the prelim

In today's lesson we began to plan our shots for the prelim. We story boarded the narrative and illustrated what shots we were going to use.

Editing process- Prelim

Our task was to edit, add titles and sound into our prelim. The images below show the process of each task. We went into final cut pro and loaded all the shots that we filmed and watched them over to figure out a correct order. We placed them in order in the timeline and we watched it through and planned where the opening titles were going to be placed. We included producers, distributors, the cast and the director. 

Using soundtrackpro

Once the titles were included, we added sounds in soundtrack pro. We searched for a sound that we found suitable and that we all agreed on, then placed it into our timeline.

We then converted our prelim into an mpeg streamclip

Practice - Evaluation

Difficulties we faced:

1. We didn't take enough correct shots to make match-cut edits
2. The first shot broke the conventions of the 180 degree rule
3. We didn't have our 3rd team member on the day

Things that went well:

1. Our storyboard made filming easier and faster. This is , because we were able to follow the storyboard shot for shot. 
2. Adding titles and framing gave us more practice and was fun to use
3. We were able to set up the camera on the tripod and alter the position for each shot easily.

Practice - Filming Process

Me & Katie setting up the camera

Katie practicing how to tilt and pan the camera.

Christabell Playing the role of the crime investigator

Our Actor Mohamed  who played the role of the antagonist
being interviewed.

The equipment we used during our shoot

This was how we set up the room for our scene.

Preliminary Match Cut Exercise

Preperation

We created a storyboard in the style of a crime,action thriller.  We made sure that 

we added match cuts e.g. midshot of someones hand opening the door and a close up of the hand opening the door. We added shot reverse shots of characters looking at each other. Lastly we made sure we didn't break the 180 degree rule. 

Our idea was around crime investigation and someone being interviewed.

This gave us the idea of our film being called Trial 26.

Planning

Storyboard

Animatic

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