Animatic

importance of storboarding

storyboarding is a major part of filming it gives the director a platform to start to put his idea into a feature film, in this process the director usually sits down with a sortyboard editor and mocks up the whole film to create a rough look which develpoes into a more develpoed look in the form of an animatic which is the storyboard that moves and has sound and music much like the final film will. Some directors will not take so much time on storyboarding which when it comes to filming a director will spend time trying to get a shot right and when things go wrong there is no back up which is an exspensive thing to do when the actors are getting paid waiting for the director to find his next shot. the main thing about storyboarding is preporation it gives a plan to go out and film and acts as a backup when things dont go to plan, another use of storyboarding is it gives the crew a chance to think about what locations will there be ,what props ,what times, when to shoot e.c.t and most importantly it gives the director that rare chance to sit in the audiences seats and witness what the movie comes across like.
A director that takes the time to produce storyboards and finds them very usefull is M.Night Shyamalan director of film like "The Sixth Sense" and "Signs" he referce to storyboarding as "making the film before making the film" it shows that point of being the audience and giving a plan for filming to be true and shows how important stoyboards are to any film or television programe even adverts.

continuity task

this is my continuity task in tilted "oh my god a goat"
the main idea of this short sequence was to create and film a discussion between two people showing a person walking in and a person leaving after saying a few lines of dialog. to achieve a good graded level 2 sequence it must flow and have continuity.
this project gave us an opportunity to see what our filming skills were like and start on some practical however by doing this it meant we could improve our skills by getting feedback and when it comes to filming our final piece we would be at a higher standard of ability to produce a good quality final piece.

improvement i could make that i picked up myself was that i did brake the 180 degrees rule after the tracking of the feet shot the camera switch to open on completely different door which broke continuity, but a positive from my work is that i thought the tracking shot of the feet worked well and also gave my sequence a shot that others did not have. as well as i tyred to

 make mine slightly funny with repetition and a few random ideas which talking to the class i think went down well, as a group things didn't go to plan and people were of ill as well as having some difficulties however we did produce a piece of work and did film some good stuff which showed we could push through and create some sort of work. incidentally the group has changed and we work much better creating new ideas and producing much better work.

feedback from the class and teacher. improvements i could make is adjust my framing making sure i keep the whole body in frame from start to finish as well as i must plan ahead in more detail taking into account time script and locations because location is key to sound a quite room is needed not one with lots of background noise.

overall i got a level 2 grade which was average and achieved this grade with the majority of the groupes in the class.

final storyboard

this is my final storyboard for our short opening of our thriller film titled "marked", first we mocked up a few rough shots which developed into this final draft, in our shots we wanted a slow paced dark unique look and style much like a "sin city" opening or a "watchmen" type composition. to create this effect we have a continuous slow but happy song ,acting as a sound bridge, which is the opposite of what is in the shot such as an abduction would not usually have a happy swing type track behind it, this hopefully would create there atmosphere to be even more UN nerving to the audience.

in the first shot we have our establishing shot this shows how the house is our main location and as the shot is played a dark red card floats through the letter box symbolising the moment of the house and family being "marked" by our antagonist of our film the villain. to try and portray this theme of "marked" we Incorporated symeolidgy in the form of colour as the dark red connotes a sinister and evil perception.

next we have the abduction shots of the son being taken, in this scene we had a clear vision of what we wanted the shots to look like and it was all about exciting the idea with quality drawings and filming, at the start of the scene you see a long shot tracking behind the boy walking home down a lonely road as he walks were only have diagetic music of his foot steps and the struggle as he turns to look behind him in shock this is were a non diagetic music kicks in and we move into the very slow motioned struggle of the abduction we as a group had a clear view on that the abduction must be slow and in close up shots to try and bring the audience closer and give the verisimilitude and intensity we set out to achieve in the first sketches of our idea.

next we see a ipod falling through the air in slow motion signifying the destruction of the person who has targeted this particular family this shot is repeated to give a sense of time as the ipod shows past and the shots in between our in the present time.

after the ipod we have a seres of shots showing the present time effects of this abduction on the family which gives the film depth as that the narrative has many roads to go down which is key to the opening in that we as the makers of this film can not fall into the trap of trying to show lots of action and story as it is only the first 2 minutes not a short film. so in these shots we have the mother, in a spot light shot, in a police interrogation room saying " i just wont my kids back" this shows how it is effecting the family.

the next shot is a long shot, the camera situated behind some clothing looking out in a dark field while lights flash past acting as the police looking for the teenager. a fade cut is added in each transition of every shot which keeps the pace slow and constant, after the fade cut we next see a tacking shot moving past a door way were we see the deeply effected family barley eating dinner after the abduction. at this point we decided looking back that the extract is to short and with more shots which will be the dad slamming his hand down in anger which is then cut to the ipod hitting the ground which putting the two shots together creates a graphic match and bring the extract to an end. by adding these shots it would give the scene more meaning as well as extending the time length.

finally we have our end shot of the ipod hitting the ground which then is held until rain drops hit the screen and a slight zoom is used to bring the object into a focus and then faded out to end the opening and also bring the past and present shots into one and a end.

inital ideas and final idea

as a grope we came up with a variety of ideas, the first main storyline we had was a action thriller "abduction" its main plot was two teenage friends walking home as night begins to fall a serious of pans and tracking shots would start the sequence and then build into a fast paced edit in the middle of our opening a key convention to a action thriller sub genre. As the characters were walking home in the distance possible a dark wood there would be shady characters floating about, and as the characters start to run out of options they begin to run home which ends up in a fast anti climax where they run into a ordinary man and women, this idea is a fairly good idea it has conventions of an iconic thriller but we felt it could fall into a cliche student type film so we wanted to push a more original idea which finally came to be our final idea.
our final idea is a more original complex idea with a strong narrative behind it, it is a major improvement to our last idea and a key thing we found is to create a strong storyline it is key to producing a good opening sequence so therefore we planned out a short draft narrative to give our film depth, the main plot is how a family is "Marked" ,the films title, and the plot revolves around a sociopaths obsession with this family, it starts with a son being abducted and then moves on to a montage of how it effects the family which is the main subject, how the family becomes torn apart and broken which turnes the home life very dangerous and scary. with this idea we could come up with a rough storyboard to get a further developed outline to visualise.
here is our rough draft of our first storyboard:

as you can see we planned a few shots out put them in a order and started to make some ideas,our next thought was flashbacks we thought that flash backs to present and past the present being the family's reaction and feelings and the police's involvement and the past being the abduction and this ipod falling throughout and en between the flashbacks to give it a fluent sequence, to create a sound bridge we wanted a completely contrasting song to whats going on in the shots so a happy song but not to upbeat something similar to "The Watchmen" by Zack Snyder, and the end shot of the ipod hitting the floor as the rain hits the dimming screen.

to evaluate this task i would say our group worked really well we all came up with ideas and helped create this rough storyboard, everyone had input and well all got along. i am happy with our idea i think its original and an idea with depth to it and doesn't fall into the category of cliche thriller opening however it is a physiological thriller which is a common genre of film and can be executed wrong but i feel we can do it well and create a good opening.

THE BBFC

what are the bbfc?
the bbfc are an organisation that work in the industry of film they have the power to certificate each film, however the local council also have the power to over rule the board. bbfc stands for British board Film Classification, it is a non-government body and has been classifying film since 1912

U
the U classification means it is suitable for ages of four and above and will not have any adult themes.

PG
PG means parental guidance and is suitable for anyone if the parent or guardians thinks so however this classification can suggest that some scenes are not suitable for children

12A
12 A is a classification that insures younger than 12 year should be accompanied by an adult unless they are of the acquired age or over this certificate is only applied in film and is the same as a 12 rating

12
the same as a 12 A classification but is put onto DVDs and videos. to see a film of this rating you have to be 12 or older.

15
15 classification is suitable for 15 only and usually consits of violence and adult themes and for thrillers it is a commonly used certificate in the genre. this is the most likely certificate that would be used for our own film it has violence but not of a graphic nature as seen in 18's

18
this is the oldest classification and is suitable for 18 and over again a violent film with use of adult themes and is not suitable for anyone younger another common thriller certificated rating

reference- www.bbfc.co.uk

survey

this is my thriller questionnaire it has some standard questions age for example but has a few questions that will benefit my ideas and develop my thriller film such as ,"list your favourite thriller films", this allows me to look at the chosen films and look at the directors techniques that i can take into my work to hopefully create a high quality piece of footage.

all i need to do is send this survey out to about 60 people to get a varity of answers which will enable me to conclude and bring out my target audience

premier pro

Our task was to edit a last year’s student’s work. We had to re order their work and cut it to fit in the time limit. I had a fear idea on how to use this programme and similar programmes from doing PVA and digital art. It is a fairly complicated programme but is easy to pick up and start to play with titles and layers to add dissolves and different cuts.
first we put all the shots into the correct order then cut them into place, and added the music in the background which you can edit on another programme called sound booth but you can edit sound on lots of other similar programmes such as fl studio but with this programme we used it puts it straight back into the film after editing. finally we added the beep of the phone which just mint we had to put it on another layer and get the right timing of the frames, you can zoom in to get a more accurate tuning on the frames,
The programme can also be used to put different cuts in such as fades dissolves to this go to the effects tab then drag the specific cut on to the time line and you will have your cut finish.

premier pro

Our task was to edit a last year’s student’s work. We had to re order their work and cut it to fit in the time limit. I had a fear idea on how to use this programme and similar programmes from doing PVA and digital art. It is a fairly complicated programme but is easy to pick up and start to play with titles and layers to add dissolves and different cuts.
first we put all the shots into the correct order then cut them into place, and added the music in the background which you can edit on another programme called sound booth but you can edit sound on lots of other similar programmes such as fl studio but with this programme we used it puts it straight back into the film after editing. finally we added the beep of the phone which just mint we had to put it on another layer and get the right timing of the frames, you can zoom in to get a more accurate tuning on the frames,
The programme can also be used to put different cuts in such as fades dissolves to this go to the effects tab then drag the specific cut on to the time line and you will have your cut finish.

Eagle Eye directed by D.J. Caruso

camera
this extract opens with a tracking shot of children playing with a variety of mid shots and long shot which then moves on to look over a small Arab village, the use of children playing connotes a sense of innocence which could be a political statement by the director on the Afghanistan and Iraq war, next we see the camera angle change in that the camera is tilted so the American military is in a low angle empowering them and the Arabs are in a high angle depowering them showing a dominate force of the Americans.
editing
as this film is a sub genre ,technological thriller, the conventions are slightly different such as it opens with a fast paced edit throughout building up to the Americans bombing a village,
mise en scene
to establish the genre,technological thriller, we see many props used that are computer based tech objects such as 3d generations and mobile phones helicopters and flying cameras all this which is then contrasted with the Arab using simple AK47 guns showing how the Americans are such a dominate force and are ruthless with there power in that they kill the seeming to be innocent village the guns and war associated things are all iconic to the action thriller sub genre which shows that this film will have action this is reinforced with the fast paced edit as seen in many action thrillers such as I Am Legend.
sound
like I Am Legend a chrushendo is used to signify danger and an event taking place but this extract also uses a non diagetic music track that is classical and big band rhythm to it which seems to be a recurring convention in thriller films.

I Am Legend directed by Francis Lawrence

in the opening of I Am Legend we first hear non diagetic sound of a radio talk show, the sound with no pictures or images reflect that radio effect this links the idea of old fashioned and simple pleasured society in the ideology of the radio itself this gives the audience a sense of simplicity and reinforces that idea of going back in time which comes a clear idea carried on in the film. in the non diagetic voice over we also hear the word "New York" repeated this gives the audience a sense or location and something to picture as the film starts. Next we see a television news show talking about how they have finally cured cancer and as the scientist brakes the idea behind the cure down we hear her talk about "taking a natural thing and re-programing it" this links back to the idea of going back in time to simple society such as nature and how we rely on nature in this case as a cure but yet we destroy it in life today! to keep the film believable and real the director has chosen a big issue such as cancer to relate it to the audience and make the film a realistic outcome or event this is used in many other films of this genre such as "Eagle Eye" where it is based on the use of technology taking over and the Iraq war.
As the conversation about the cure end we hear a non diagetic musical crushendo this is another common feature to film in genre introducing a event or character in this case it is a drum scary sudden sound which instantly reflects somethings gone wrong or not gone to plan a complete contrast to what was said in the dialog, next we see long shots of empty major busy parts of new york such as a train station this being a long shot reinforces that something has gone wrong and really shows how there is literally no one around a shocking realistic shot creating that suspense and thriller tension backed up with ambient sound but not of a city of a jungle showing juxtaposition and linking the idea of nature and how it will always be dominate and survive,
next we cut to out main character our protagonist we can tell he is the hero because of the use of semiolidgy such as we see him driving a red mustang which dose connote danger but also reflects power and presence and we see with Will Smith a dog but not just any dog a police alsation dog all these signifyers symbolising a savour. As the dog sees something instantly the pace changes to a fast paced with using quick straight cuts, as the car chasing the deer around new york,this yet again goes back to the idea of nature as we see a car chasing its pray which is something usually seen on a nature programme where a loin is chasing prey not a car giving a contrast and looking at that idea of "re-programing nature" to finish and establish an action based thriller, iconic signifies are used such as the gun and the fast paced edit in between a slow paced edit to reinforce that action thriller convention.

Walk On The Wild Side directed by Edward Dmytryk

camera
the camera is used just like any other thriller it is iconic to see tracking and panning in an opening of a thriller film it crates suspense and keeps the pace of the edit slow, the types of shots used are close up and mid shots this is also a common technique such as seen in "Sin City" ,close ups crate a connection with the audience and establishes character as well as help create mood, tracking seems to be a main convention in the thriller genre it is seen in many films such as Alfred Hitchcock's , a big thriller film director, "citizens Kane" where we see tracking of fencing and panning inside the house "citizens Kane" is a brilliant example for lighting and camera use for a thriller genre.
editing
like wise with the cameras slow paced editing is used to keep the pace slow and flow fluently to do this dissolve cuts are used which is yet again iconic to the genre however later in the opening extract a fast paced edit is used when the cats fight this shows how the genre is an action thriller and this technique of having a fast paced scene seems to always happen in thriller sub genres such as "I Am Legend"
mise en scene
there is a lot semiolidgy in the extract it starts with binary opposition with black and white being the cat black walking through white surrounding this could show how in every normal setting such as a place of work or in a person i.e a city there is always a "wild side" underneath liking the title with the narrative, another iconic signifier is the cats eyes when the e.c.u is used on the cats eyes it reflects a sense of mystery and unknown as well as the cat being fully black it symbolises danger and death, going back to the idea of a wild side in a location or person we see tracking of a fence with the cat going in front and behind using a dissolve cut inbertween this could reinforce the idea of how as a person there is always that underlining idea and need to brake the rules and go past that barrier weather it be in society or life in general.

sin city directed by Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez

SIN CITY

in the opening shot we have a centralised women in a red dress, long shot, she is skinny and wearing a backless dress this gives the impression that she is venerable and alone. to add to the verilisilitude and venerability of the character ambient sound of the city is added in as she looks out at the landscape, all this diagetic gives realism to the scene and being parallel sound makes the sequence flow much better. to crate a sense of familiarity and connect the audience with the characters close ups are used this is used in every film thriller, action every genre i think this technique that must be kept in my opening extract for my coursework.
The red is an symbolic signifier to love and death which instantly links to the narrative of the film addressing the audience, to establish a sense of genre the director has used slow paced edits this creates suspense iconic to a thriller film to get this slow effect the camera uses zooms and panning, this slows down the time of the individual shots and adds to the mood, straight cuts are the most dominate used cut as that it is a conversation which gives continuity to the sequence keeping with the pace of the extract, another common effect used in the thriller genre is low key lighting and sin city is one of the best examples to give that sinister cold light which just adds to the suspense in the film, a grate use of this lighting is binary opposition in the shot where we see the man looking at the woman talking about how he has watched her the light is dark on one side of his face and light on the other this signifies that he is not completely trusted and that dark side is one that can be dangerous and threat to the women.
Once the director has established a thriller genre he reinforces this with an iconic sign , the gun, this shows that this particular thriller is under the sub-genre named action thriller and the location also adds to the genre as that it is in a city where most action films are set such as "Die Hard" and "speed"

the birds

the opening sequence of "The Birds" Alfred Hitchcock 1963. starts with a shot of silhouetted black crows on a white sky behind this is an example of binary opposition it gives the sense of darkness and evil on innocence which links the audience to the narrative,on top of this shot titles are placed they are sans serif simple text common in the thriller genre another connotation to the titles is the colour the colour is a light cold blue connoting sinister feel.

On top of this title sequence non diagetic parrael sound of crows squawking frantic flapping this gives a sens of ambiance and panic to the audience as the sound is high pitched and not something that is nice to listen to.
Next we see a fade cut where we see an ,the fade itself is iconic to the thriller genre, establishing shot of a woman, we can tell she is a important main character because she is centralised in the shot as the camera pans with her walking through the city into the bird shop, this creates a connection with the character and the audience. finally to give a further connection and view on the narrative to come the woman is shot small against the tall city building making representing her as a victim and insignificant person compared to a city landscape.

what is a thriller

A thriller as a genre is a film that produces high intensity and excitement throughout, however there are many more emotions presented to the audience such as fear and anxiety. The films main objective is to give the audience a thrilling experience this is done by the plot usually being full of cliff hangers and suspense a character is in danger and she or the issue is resolved through mystery or violence, common characters are police, public victims,criminals,murders and stalkers.

thrillers are often in sub-genres for example:
.action thrillers
.adventure thrillers
.sci-fi thrillers
.crime thrillers
.Weston thrillers
.film noir thriller
.psychological thriller

there are key conventions of a thriller using semiotics,camera,editing and mise-en-scene. some conventions are simple titles along with low key lighting the best example for this is "sin city",slow paced edit to start with using tracking dissolve and fade cuts to give a longer shot slowing the pace a good example "citizens Kane". however to establish the sub genre such as action thriller iconic and symbolic signifiers are used such as a gun fast paced edit and violence.