As we go on planning and developing our thriller, it's important that we're all on the same page with the same intentions for the piece. We formed a group chat in order to share work and to keep discussing ideas in time outside of class. A good example of when we've used our group chat recently was when my teacher had requested that I along with my group come to class 10 minutes earlier to make our final pitch because we hadn't and the time in class. My group wasn't with me at the time that our teacher requested so I passed on the information using our group chat. Since then, it has been used to schedule little meet ups between classes and to share each others work and resources.
Today we made sure that we as a group had exchanged phone numbers and emails with each other which I haven't included within the blog for personal discretion but it means that if we ever need to meet, we have easy contact with one another. We also looked at when we each have free time so that we can organise group meetings. I also made a list of when we each have frees so if any of us happen to be free at the same time, we can meet to discuss our idea. In addition we've made a group chat so that we can communicate ideas when we're not at school so that we're always working on our idea.
Over the week we've been we've bee discussing and developing our groups idea and working toward a test shoot which would make our pitch more visual and allow us to communicate our idea and how outlook of pour pitch to our teachers.
In our pitch we've included brief outlines of the overall plot as well as summary of our opening. Other things that we've included is the location, costume and props as well as the actors we'll need. All of these are kept brief because our idea isn't finalized but we want it to be clear so that we get the most beneficial feed back possible.
Unfortunately I was unable to be in this lesson to plan and organise our test shoot that we're meant to be filming tomorrow because I was taking part in a music video for some A2s. I managed to talk to Harry and Hale Ho about the things discussed in the lesson. They still hadn't decided ego's idea we're going to pursue but I suggested that we just choose one so that we have something to develop rather than spending too much time over this minor obstacle. I suggested that we follow through with Harry's idea and experiment with incorporating parts of my second idea within it because there are a lot of similarities.
This week, each group filmed a test shoot. The purpose of these was to give us a visual understanding of our undeveloped idea and see what needs improving or changing, if the idea is good enough and will also help for when we pitch our ideas to the media teachers. Our group ended up doing two test shoots, this was due to us deciding that we weren’t particularly happy with the idea, it didn't turn out as we hoped probably because of unorganisation and a slight misunderstanding because we hadn’t finalised much in the pre-production process and also because Mike, our teacher gave us some feedback which we decided to utilise and create a rather different idea.
For our first test shoot, we couldn’t find other students of the right gender to be actors so I volunteered to play one part and we found another girl in the year above to be our other actress. We filmed on Harry’s phone because it has the best quality out of all of our phones. This meant that all our shots were rather shaky because they were handheld which, although we probably won’t us in our actual thriller, went quite well with the plot because it added an element of uncertainty and unease.
Overall, we were happy with the footage. Harry had altered the white balance when we were filming, making it seem like we were filming at a later time in the day and also worked well with the orange tint of autumn which complimented the colours of the trees and general natural landscape. We lowered the ISO because the background was very bright meaning that I, our actress, was more of a silhouette so you couldn’t see my facial expressions very well which we didn’t want. It was difficult but we managed to find an appropriate balance so that we could see both the background and my facial expressions clearly.
The overall shoot went well but it was the editing that made us question our idea. Harry was the only one in the group who had easy access to editing software and was also the most enthusiastic about taking on the task. However, the shots seemed forced and rather unnatural when they were put together, which was no fault of Harry but our shots dimly didn’t work very well. The end result wasn’t great and non of us were particularly pleased but we knew that we weren’t going to have our idea finalised instantly and that this shoot would help us realise what it is we need to alter or and if we’re happy pursuing this idea. The ‘fight’ section was very short and unrealistic that it actually added an element of comedy which we didn’t intend. I knew before that the fight wasn’t going to look particularly exciting visually because we didn’t really have the time or another actress who was comfortable doing it. I was still optimistic about the fight but other members of the group weren’t so I don’t know if it’ll be something we carry on through into our final idea. One of the main issues was that it was very very short. Our thriller will have to be about 2 minutes long but our test shoot was only _____. This shoot helped us to develop our idea more by presenting certain questions within our narrative that we have left unanswered but made us relies that we need to rethink our idea and develop it a lot more so that we know exactly what we’re doing next time.
Test Shoot 2
After getting feedback about an alternative narrative from our teacher from our first test shoot, we decided to try again to eliminate all the problems presented form the first shoot. When filming we realised ghat we could play around with a larger range of more visually appealing shots. The idea was to have a police officer pointing a gun at a young woman who is standing by a ledge panicking. He approaches her and tells her to ‘put the gun down’. She would then turn around suddenly and say ‘I didn’t do it’. A short dialogue would follow where we see how distressed and scared she is. We used tracking shots to establish the tension within the two characters and also to increase tension as a body is also revealed. The officer convinces the girl to drop the weapon and she does so. He takes her away.
I was happy to have done the other test shoot because it unearthed some questions that we hadn’t yet answered and also gave u some more inspiration as to how our idea will develop. There were aspects of the first shoot that we liked and brought into the second one. Harry wanted to try and film part of it as a oner but he missed the part when the woman and officer walk away so the continuity wasn’t perfect but it was interesting to see what that would look like.
Even after this shoot, there were a lot of questions that I felt were unanswered. It was slightly annoying in the post-production process when I tried to bring this into conversation but some members of the group were quite reluctant to answer because they were trying to edit. Hopefully, when it comes to filming and editing we establish priorities because some of the questions needed to be answered to help with the editing process.
Overall, this shoot went better than the other one but in a lot of the shots one our group members accidentally found himself in frame which meant that a lot of our shots had to be cut short because he was in them making it seem ‘jumpy’ at times but it was a lot more successful than test shoot 1 and we were all happier with it.
Today I had to pitch my two favourite, most developed ideas out of my four original ideas. I struggled to pick which ones to pitch but in the end I chose 1 and 2. I found it quite challenging because I felt like I couldn't word my ideas properly making them seem dull and undeveloped which was a shame because I could have got more precise feedback but I learnt from the experience and I feel more prepared for when we have to pitch our groups idea and I know what it is that I can do to be more prepared so that I can successfully contribute to the pitch making sure that our idea is properly communicated. For my first idea the main feedback was to focus more on the flashbacks then on the man running through the forest which I agreed with because it would help achieve another point given which was to think about other ways to increase tension and suspense and because I ad thought originally that seeing a man running through a forrest for 2 minutes would be a bit cliché and boring. Another piece of feedback was to consider what sound I would use. One suggestion was that I maybe have non diegetic voice recordings that sound like news reports informing the audience what it is the character is running from suggesting that it's a mental thing he's running from rather than him being physically chased. I knew that this would then mean that I may have to play around with the overall narrative of the film but I thought it was an interesting concept to consider. A question that I was asked was what it was that drove the character to murder. I was offered a lot of interesting ideas as to what the characters motivation to commit such a crime would have been. Ideas like black mail or a hostage situation were proposed which I knew would effect my original idea for the overall narrative but I was excited to develop those ideas and try to incorporate them into my narrative.
Mise en scene can be used to establish a time and location or to represent certain people and the social group that they fit into be it gender, age, status, ability and disability, ethnicity, regional identity or sexuality. Whilst learning about mise en scene I watched the video below to better my understanding. The video includes the trailer to the film The Dressmaker that was released in 2015 starring Kate Winslet, Judy Davis and Liam Hemsworth followed by an analysis of the mise en scene within the trailer.
1) A gang based in London, Who mainly work in the human trafficking business, enter a
crisis after one gang member goes rouge. Daniel, a man in his twenties was on a job with a few other members of the gang. He was the youngest member for a while meaning everything he did before was just simple pick ups and drop offs for the gang. When a younger guy joins the gang, Daniel gets promoted, allowing him to actually be part of the jobs not just a taxi service. However, when seeing the brutal reality of these jobs he runs away because he can't bring himself to killing of hurting people in the way the others could. The only problem is that the gang leader Is the one who tells you when it's 'OK' to leave. Daniel didn't seem very important but the information that he had gathered from those drop offs ad pick ups where enough to bring the entire gang down. The gang pursue him all the while trying not to aggravate him. When Daniel realizes how much power he has over the gang, he tries to out smart and manipulate him but it goes wrong. He exposes the gang and restores justice but on the way, kills the gang leader resulting in him, being locked away for murder. We see him being locked up however, the final shot will suggest that he breaks out. Opening: We see a man running through a field of through trees will blood on his hands
and clothes. He's scared and tired. You can hear him panting and frantic body movements show he's scared and looking out for someone who could be chasing him. He stumbles through some trees crying out but with no sound. There are flash backs of the events he's just experienced. These would include seeing human brutality between some of the gang members and people who they're illegally selling. There will then be flash backs to a chase whereby he was being chased by a gang member. He hides behind a tree and we see the member approaching. As he gets closer, Daniel jumps out and they engage in an aggressive conversation that leads into a fight in which he knocks the member unconscious. It will pull back to reality and we see Daniel breaking down falling to his knees terrified. He hears a noise- potentially another gang member. He runs off.
2) The daughter of an assassin, unintentionally gets herself involved with her fathers work and some dangerous men. One evening, some men break into their house and she sees her father get killed. Her father left her instructions in the likelihood that something like this could happen- the instructions contained vital pieces of information that the murderers would be determined to get back. The girl looks over the documents she stole and sees that the men who killed her father were terrorists and were planning a to detonate a bomb on New Years day. She battles through to try and expose them whilst trying not to get caught.
The opening would begin with the girl coming out of class with her friends and eventually saying good bye because it’s the end of the day. We follow her through school grounds before seeing a man dressed in fairly ordinary clothes holding a gun (that he then puts in his pocket following the girl. As he approaches her, she turns around and we hear a groan. The man collapses and the girl continues to walk as though nothing happened.
3) The film is about a man who obsesses over young girls and always longs for their company. He stalks teenage girls and young women both physically and on social media, taking their pictures and learning their daily routines to help with the planning their kidnapping. He keeps them in his basement and 'looks' after them in every way he sees necessary but refuses to feed them. If they starve to death, he continues to look after them, panting their nails, brushing their hair and putting makeup on them. Over time we find out he works as a policeman and is placed on the case to investigate the disappearances of the girls but is partnered with a man who's daughter was a victim of his unhealthy obsession.
We would see a rather 'normal' looking house somewhere in the suburbs of London where it's peaceful and quite. Throughout the house we see ordinary house hold objects making the general atmosphere of the house seem safe and relatable, as we go further and further into the house we see objects and weapons that make the setting very uncomfortable and suspense begins to grow. As we go down into the basement we see walls and walls covered in pictures of young girl and tables full of makeup and other beauty products. We then see a girl in a cage screaming but that sound is removed from the film, instead an upbeat joyful song plays subverting the stereotypical 'scary' music used in thrillers. By using contrapuntal sound, the opening would actually become more disturbing.
Sound is one of the four key elements within film that can be broken down into several sections. The easiest way to categorises types of sound is either as diegetic or non diegetic.
Diegetic sound: is sound that comes from a source within the frame that both the character and audience can hear. Examples of diegetic sound are dialogue, sounds from objects like a glass breaking, animals singing or groaning or music from a radio, TV or headphones.
Non diegetic sound: is sound that comes from a source outside of the film. It is usually used to create an atmosphere or bestow fear on the audience like an intense soundtrack in a horror film.
Contrapuntal sound: is used to create an uncomfortable and distressing atmosphere. A clear example of this is in Resevouir Doggs. The music seems to be far too upbeat and happy for a scene such as this. This juxtaposition between the sound and the narrative allow for a whole new meaning to be created.
Sound bridge: can also be classed as a type of editing. It's when the sound from one scene or shot carries on over another scene or shot.
As we go on planning and developing our thriller, it's important that we're all on the same page with the same intentions for the piece. We formed a group chat in order to share work and to keep discussing ideas in time outside of class. A good example of when we've used our group chat recently was when my teacher had requested that I along with my group come to class 10 minutes earlier to make our final pitch because we hadn't and the time in class. My group wasn't with me at the time that our teacher requested so I passed on the information using our group chat. Since then, it has been used to schedule little meet ups between classes and to share each others work and resources.
