Preliminary Match cut film

We completed a bag swap excercise inspired a film opening we watched in class; Collateral. We were instructed to incoroporate at least one shot reverse shot an over the shoulder shot and a match cut.

For this excercise we decided to use the canteen as it was convenient. We came up with an idea to have two friends seated around the table engaging in conversation at lunch. The two bags were placed on the floor and one friend attempts to steal the bag by swaping the bags with her feet; we captured this by using a floor shot. On receiving an urgent call the victim of the bag swapping rushes off in a hurry not realising her bag has been stolen by her friend.

We used a variety of shots including an establishing shot to begin with, over the shoulder shots, long shots and many close ups.

I thought the floor shot was probably the most effective shot as it's not your typical shot and it allows you to see action from another perspective that deviates from the normal type of shots used in the media industury. Though are plot was good when it came to editing the clips it was quite difficult to establish a smooth run when piecing all the shots together as they were naturally quite jumpy when we played it back. It would have been nice to find away to maybe smoothen the transition from shot to shot.

match cut PRELIM alexandra

Bag Swap Excersice

As part of the course we were challenged to perform and produce a bag swap after having a tutorial which introduced and helped us to understand how to use cameras efficiently.

We watched a short clip from Collaterol, which inspired some of our ideas. Our sequence had to include a shot reverse shot, an over the shoulder shot and of course a bag swap.
As a group we decided to shoot our short clip in City and Islingtons canteen.

We used a variety of shots including an establishing shot, close ups and floor shots to draw attention to the swapping of the bags and both cunning and confused expressions of the characters.

I think the actual bag swap in our short production was very good.

Overall I was satisfied with the outcome of our production as it was our first time behind the camera. Altough our shots didnt link together as well as we'd liked them too, we learnt that we needed to be more aware of the positions we placed the camera in and we needed to think more carefully about how to link our shots together better.

Art of the title sequence

I chose this title sequence because I thought it was the most effective.

Firstly, the font is written in italics and suggests that the film was set in the 1900's as it looks like it was written in a fountain pen which were mostly used in that period.

The font also compliments the film as Sherlock Holmes was a detective and the text signifies this.

The background and the sepia effect on the pictures also indicate what era this film was set in as it looks like it has been stained.

Most of the pictures are of men which imply that men were more powerful than women.The men are all in suits and outfits of high status, wheras the women are in dresses and headties which implies that they are inferior to the men.

This appealed to me as the title sequence complented the film very much as it is very much associated with the theme of the film.

Our meeting

On February 19th, Tyra, Alexander and I met up to discuss ideas for our opening thriller.

After contemplating on several options, we finally decided on the idea we thought worked best.

We drew out pictures and annotated them before going off to do our independent assignments.
I was assigned to draw up the story board and to take pictures of out preferred locations with Tyra.

After our meeting, Tyra and I went to Hollow Pond in Walthamstow as we thought it would be a suitable spot for shooting our work. We took pictures of the forest and of Tyras road.

Before the half-term we were also asked to produce a pitch. We decided to take the responsiblility of doing different slides and then putting them together.

I was responsible for doing the slides for; Props, Costumes, Risk assesment and the company that we think would produce our movie.

Our meeting/Location Shots- Feburary 19th 2010

On the 19th of February 2010 Francene, Alexandra and I met up to begin preperations for our film. We drafted our intial ideas and then came up with our final idea of which we all agreed. It took us quite a while to think of how to craft each stage of our story together as we wanted our story to be edgey and unpredictable, we also wanted it to be unique i.e not ressembling any other typical thriller films. It was quite difficult to work out where to place particular scenes as we wanted the film to make sense and in order to do this the scenes needed to mesh together neatly.

Following the meeting Francene and I traveled to Leytonstone to take pictures of the locations we intended as ultimately we needed to include these pictures in our pitch which is due to be presented on the 25th of february 2010.

Upon our visit we familiarised ourselves with the surroundings and measured the suitability of the location we had selected.

When I returned home I began putting the pitch together. I was responsible for the title of our movie, writing the type of sub-genre thriller,outlining planned shots and locations, drafting a production schedule and writing about the target audience for our presentation. Due to the fact that I wanted the presentation to look presentable I animated it chosing various effects for the entrance and exit of words and pictures. I also selected a design for the background. This took me quite a long time however I persevered as I knew it was important.

Match cut excercise

For this excercise we were made to storyboard our match cut idea and record all the types of shots we intended to include whether it be interior/exterior. For this task it was essential that we included a shot reverse shot, a match cut and followed the guidelines surrounding the 180 degree rule.

The first shot is of Francene running down the stairs. Though our storyline wasn't very thriller like we tried to capture the essence of a thriller by maintaining suspense. We acheived this by not feeding the plot to our audience straight away. We also incorporated a section where my voice is in slow motion at the climax of our clip.

Overall I think that our clip worked well as our shots merged together quite nicely, however the some of the different scenes did look quite jumpy at times.

News current affairs events

Gardner Peter Ling (right) was ordered to serve a sentence of 18 years for the killing of Lynda Casey as the judge told him he showed 'callousness beyond belief'. Ling 50, who was motivated by a jealous rage battered his lover to death with a rock after he learned that Casey was engaging in a seperate affair with another student. Ling hid his his victim's naked body whom he also called 'passion flower' under leaves whilst stealing her mobile phone and then accusing her of provocation, an act which was deamed heartless, devious and manipulative by the judge.

This story caught my attention as it's unique case and deviates away from the norm as it's not your typical story. It also ressembles a passionatate love story that turns into an extremely bad romance reminding me of a twisted thriller.

Match Cut Excersice.

As part of the curriculum we had to produce a match cut which included a shot reverse shot and piece of dialogue. We also had to follow the 180 degrees rule.

The first match cut in our clip was of me running down the stairs and opening the door. I think this was successful because the shots worked well together and the edit was not as noticable as others in my previous work.

I think our overall production was good as we all had a chance to shoot at one time or another, therefore we all got a feel of working behinds the camera and experiencing how to shoot different shots in order to imply or indicate something to the audience.

Match Cut Prelim

Skills Audit Soundtrack and livetype

Sound track

I started by opening the Soundtrack Pro program. I used the search tab t

o browse and listen to the various genres and types of sounds. For example 'vocals', 'beats', 'Percussion' etc...

I found this program very easy to use as it is similar to a program called Acid Express which I have previously used before.

To make a sequence, i simply dragged the sound clips onto the timeline and lengthened or shortened them to my preference.

Live Type

The Live Type program was also easy to use. There were a variety of fonts to choose from and creating a title was simple. To make my title I simply typed the word 'thriller' into the text box and choose the font 'SimSun'. I choose 'Uuurch' to create an effect to make the title appear suitable for a thriller title sequence. I also played with the textures, however i didn't apply them to my title.

Skills audit: sound track

Soundtrack

Initially I began by opening a programme called Soundtrack Pro, I used the search tab and listened to the variety of genres provided. I then selected different instruments in order to construct and create a composition. The instruments I used included vocals which consisted of the looping of

a baby's voice and a vocal of a man's voice saying "clap your hands every body". I shortened and lengthened each of

them to what I felt suited better and ultimately

sounded better.

The result of my composition was a dance/garage track which reflects the style of music I like.

Livetype

I opened the Livetype program and used the font tab to select my desired font which was 'bordeau bold LET'. I then selected the effects tab and chose frigid as it served quite a big impact due to the fact that it instantly reminded me of a typical thriller effect. With that I chose the tracking option which seperates the letters creating a space in between them. I selected the color red as it can be associated with danger and anger which can be common attributes of a thriller.

In the news

Recently in the news they has been speculation over affairs with the Chelsea player John Terry cheating on his wife with his mistress lingerie model. These stories speculate an on going affair and has recently just been exposed to the media. I think this would make a good thriller film as the betrayal and the sly behavior would leave an audience anticipated. The two lifestyles John Terry leads would leave the audience hooked as they would be anticipated to see if he's double life is uncovered. The running stories of being deceived, the lies and the hurt could maybe lead to anger causing deaths this I believe would be interesting when pitching a thriller film.

In the News

38 year old Stephen was jailed for knifing a kitchen salesman whose dissembled body parts were scattered across Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. For this, he was called the 'Jigsaw Man'. I think this story would be a good thriller as it doesn't potray everyday life and what crimes people normally do, therefore it doesnt seem real.