Individual Storyboard - Miss Miller

What is the purpose of an individual storyboard?

Storyboards are used to help put loads of different ideas together to create a collection of images of what will happen in each frame and some text expalining it in further detail. A storyboard will usually give a rough overview of what is going to happen in the real film, or in our case our thriller opening scene, they help to identify any errors or problens that might occur when it comes to filming, editing and creating the real clip.

Why will you be creating individual ones before creating a group one and how will it help when planning the group storyboard?

We are going to make individual storyboards before creating a group one because we want to ensure we choose the best possible ideas from each of the group members individual storyboards to incorporate into the the group storyboard. It will also allow us to to choose the ideas that we like to most and that are easiest to create which we will agree on as a group. Creating an individual storyboard before creating a group one will help my group when planning our group storyboard because then as a group we can consider everyone's ideas as it is the most efficient way of contributing and combining everyone's ideas and coming to an agreement on the rough outline set for our group storyboard. It will also allow our group to think about the different conventions of a typical thriller to incorporate into our opening scene. Making our individual storyboards will allow us to point out any errors more clearly and then know what we can/can't include in our group storyboard to reduce any problems we may encounter during filming.

Include a brief summary of what you have included within your storyboard (general idea of the sequence).

In my storyboard I have included possible camera shots to be used, the location of the shot, any iconography seen within the frame, the level of lighting being used, the actors in shot, any sounds/soundtracks being included, the editing styles used/speed of editing and a narrative description of each individual frame ithin the storyboard. We have included these specific elements for each shot as it allows us to think carefully about how we went our shots to be portrayed to the audience and the effect they are going to create for the audience.

Planning Opening Credits - Miss Georgiou

Opening credits are included in the beginning of films because they give credit to all the people involved that help work towards the finished product such as the production company, actors, director and producer etc. The opening credits and sequence also establishes the genre more clearly to the audience, this is done by the overall aesthetics of the opening like the font, colours used as well as how they the credits are delivered and displayed such as in a jerky and unsteady fashion, conventional to the thriller genre.

As a class we looked at the opening credits to the film 'Se7en'. The order of the production roles are as follows: Production company; director; actor; title of film; more actors; casting; music; costumes; editing; production; camera operator; co-producer; producer; writing and last of all the director again. During the opening credits a lot of dark colours and low-key lighting is used, this is conventional to a thriller and helps to define the genre more easily to the audience. The white of the writing on the black background shows the contrast between good and bad. The iconography during the credits and the hidden identity because you don't see the person's face adds a sense of mystery, conventional to the thriller genre and portrays this to the audience more clearly. The jerkiness and uneasiness of the credits adds a sense of enigma which is also conventional.


Our order of credits:

My opening credits:
After reviewing the opening credits of several films I have come to the conclusion that my credits will appear in the following order...

1. Sandstorm Productions
2. Director - Joe Smith
3. Director of photography - Daniel Armstrong
4. Actors - Cara Gaffner, Daniel Armstrong, Joe Smith
5. Film Title - TBC
6. Editing director - Reggie Witham
7. Producer - Sam Smith
8. Co producer - Mark Abraham
9. Costumes - Lara Walker10. Music - Joe Smith

I feel that this is a very concise order and it will look professional as this is similar to the order that is used in many of the big budget films that I have analysed

Fonts, Styles and Colours...

For the font of our group credits I have suggested a jagged, almost hand written font. I believe this is conventional to the thriller genre as it will look as if it has been written by someone who is unstable. I also believe this font is most relevant to the images that will be shown on screen at the time. I have also seen this hand written type of font used in many of the thriller films that I have analysed, therefore it must have some type of impact on the audience. Furthermore, I have suggested that the colour of the credits should be in red, I believe this is most conventional of the thriller genre as it connotes evil, danger and blood, all of these being things you would expect to see in a thriller film. I was going to use the colour white, however I don't think this will allow the credits to stand out as much as the colour red will. For the style of our groups credits, I would like them to fade on and off of the screen slowly, so that its noticeable to the audience but at the same time it will create an eerie effect.

Production Roles - Miss Miller

When creating a film people are allocated specific roles to ensure that each small part of the film is done as well and effectively as possible. By doing this the process of making the film will be done efficiently as possible as the roles have been allocated to specifically skilled individuals. Without these very important roles there would be no film. There are many production roles such as Producers; directors; actors; director of photography; music producers; screenplay writer; mise-en-scene co-ordinators and film editors.

The Production Roles:

• Producer- the role of the producer is to prepare and supervise the making of the film. It is their job to make sure everything is going well and decides the setting for the film. Also they should make sure everything is running smoothly in the group for example, making sure everyone is happy with what role they are doing and making sure people know what to do.
• Director- the role of the director is to contribute and advise when there are any problems with following the order of the storyboard when filming, they would then put their ideas forward and therefore direct them in what they should be doing. The directors role is to also guide the actors in behaving in a specific way whilst filming, this is to portray a particular emotion that the director wants them to display according to the storyboard.
• Actors- the actors role is to portray to the audience what is happening in the scene by connecting with them and telling them vital information. The actors play a large role of engaging with the audience and creating relationships with them bringing out emotions they want the audience to be feeling.
• Director of photography- the role of the director of photography is to be in charge of all the shots that are taken whilst filming.
• Music Producers- the role of the music producer is to be in charge of all of the music for the whole film, this includes any soundtrack, non diagetic sound, diagetic sound, parallel and contrapuntal.
• Screenplay Writer- the role of the screenplay writer is to decide and write what is going to happen in the film and has the job of writing the script for the actors.
• MES coordinators the role of the MES coordinator is choosing and deciding all elements of Mes-En-Scene are appropriate to the film, these include choosing costumes, makeup, iconography, lighting, the characters facial expressions and the positioning of characters within a frame.
• Editors- the role of an editor is to put together all of the shots we have taken and to delete any unneeded footage that is irrelevant to our thriller and not needed. Then they are to edit the shots to make them flow from one to another to grab the audience's attention and to create suspense from the way the film is edited.

Character Planning - Miss Miller

The purpose of characters within a film is for the audience to build relationships with, this will make the audience more involved in what is happening in the clip as they will feel more emotions towards what is happening. This is because they will have built relationships with the characters therefore caring more about what happens to them and if they are in any danger/happy/sad etc. Different characters are also very important within a thriller as it helps the audience identify different characters status by displaying their background/age and role in the film.

Victim: In our thriller clip we have chosen carefully what characters we are going to include so that the audience can relate to them more. Our main character is a sterotypical blonde female school girl from a middle class background, aged around 16/17. This is will help engage the audience as she is the same age as our target audience and therefore make them more interested in whats happening, as they will create a relationship with the her. The audience will feel more fear as they will be able to put themselves in the same situation as the character as its a ordinary day to day situation.

Victim's friends: The next character we are going to include are the main characters friends (roughly 3) they are going to help display that the main character is a sterotypical teenager and on a night out with her friends. They are going to be from a middle class family background as this will appeal to the target audience the most as its most relateable. They are going to be the same age as the main character (16/17) and have brown or blonde hair. This is to make it relateable to other audience's who have different hair colour. This is relatable to the audience as the group of friends are not to specific making it relatable to as many people as possible.

Killer/Villan: The killer's age is going to be unknown, and still irellevant as he will be wearing a mask hiding his identity. Although his identity will be hidden, his age will be around 16/17 also this is to appeal to the target audience who will be watching and they would be more interested in whats happening if they are the same as themselves. His background will be that he has been stalking the main character for a long time as he is a mental patient. The fact that we don't know his background fully will add to the enigma of the film and therefore make it appealing to the audience to find out about him and what happens.

Preliminary Task - Miss Georgiou

For this task, my group, including me, Dan Armstrong and Joe Smith were asked to film and edit a short scene to show what camera skills we had. The clip was to be short, no longer than a minute long but was set in place to give a better understanding of our main task to allow us a chance to get more familiar with the filming equipment and camera whether being in front or behind it. It also gave us a chance to use an editing programme to give us a greater knowledge on how it works and the steps taken into making a short clip. By doing this it should benefit our final clip and main task as we were able to have a test run on the whole process we are about to begin.

For the filming, our teacher put in place a few details our clip had to feature so we had a narrative to play around with and make our own. It involved filming and editing a character walking and opening a door, crossing the room to join another character, before having a few lines of dialogue and then exiting the room. These were the only guidelines put in place so the location, cinematography, other micro-elements and dialogue content was for us to customise and make our own. However to make our clip as good and professionally as possible we all agreed to include as many micro-elements as we could, however it must be appropriate the shot we are using.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c61PKo4qoyg

After filming our short clip we then returned to our class and uploaded our video content onto the macs, after searching through the possible clips we had shot to make sure the best ones were used we then inserted them into the editor and arranged them into order. Once that step had been carried out it was time for us to edit the shots to try and merge them as seamlessly together as possible to maintain continuity and flow. To do so we soon realised a lot of the shots needed to be cut accordingly to stop our whole clip becoming one big jump shot. Carrying out this step we realised how hard it was because we were unfamiliar with the editing software however nearing the end of the task we could all spot where clips needed to be edited or cut further and had a greater understanding of how to make the final product of our minute long clip as good as we possibly could, editing-wise, which can greatly enhance and scene.

Opening Scene Analysis - Miss Georgiou

An opening scene is key to a good, successful film because it introduces the story and tries to engage the audience. By stating the key characters and location from the outset it allows the audience to familiarise themselves with the characters so they can relate an emotional distance and feel involved with the storyline.

How does the opening sequence from Halloween inform the audience of the codes and conventions of the thriller genre?

Narrative

The opening of this film is set on Halloween in the 1960's. The scene opens with a view of a house. The shot focuses specifically on the house and not the street, making the location unknown and adding a sense of uneasiness and eeriness to the scene because the location is never revealed to the audience. By showing nothing around her as she's in the bedroom it adds to the tension and idea of her death being inevitable since there is nowhere to escape from which also sends a panic through the audience as they don't know how she will escape. It then switches to two teenagers fooling around in  the living room however we see this through the window from the outside of the house which adds to the idea that we are seeing the scene through the villain/killer's eyes (POV) which creates an interest between the audience and the main character and adds an element of powerlessness and suspense within the audience as they watch the scene play out and they have no control over anything that is happening. The person who's point of view the camera is following then enters the house, suggesting the idea that they are coming for someone and that something is going to happen, building the audience up for a shock. You also notice that the person is familiar to the layout of the household since they walk straight through to the kitchen and retrieve a knife from the drawer without any confusion, this intrigues the audience as we can see what's happening but the murderer's identity remains a mystery and so by showing their point of view, we seem more connected to the villain than the victim in this instance as the audience feels like they and the killer are one because they can only see the situation through the killer's eyes. This also makes it harder for the audience to sympathise with the victim as they can relate to the murderer more easily. Once the girl has been killed with a knife taken from the kitchen, we see through the POV shot that the murderer makes their way outside to be greeted by returning parents of the household. The father then walks closer to the camera during that point of view shot (getting closer to the villain) and takes off the mask to reveal it to be the girl's little brother and he is standing outside the house with a bloody knife in his hand in front of his Mum & Dad.

Cinematography

A weapon is used in the form of a knife (a common convention in thriller films), this makes the scene more realistic and the audience can relate to the situation more through the clip being set in a house and the weapon that is used can be found in a typical household. As a result, the audience can relate more to the scene as it is a familiar and everyday object than other weapons i.e. a gun. A knife is also more commonly used as it creates a more gory, bloody death as multiple wounds are usually inflicted to cause death. This allows there to be more suspense as the scene can be dragged out as a death by knife is slower and more theatrical than other methods of killing in the thriller genre.
A weapon, in particular, a knife is very conventional to the thriller genre as they allow the villain and victim to have more contact during their fight scene so it adds a struggle to increase the suspense and tension in a killing scene. This means that the killer can also act silently which adds to the suspicion and tension. This also means in order for an incident/murder to occur they have to be very close together which opens a hole for a chase scene to come in and makes them more tense due to the close contact between the villain and victim.

Characters 

The victim in the opening scene is a female. This is a stereotypical convention of a thriller as a female is typically seen as the weaker sex and so by trapping a female it makes the member of the audience feel more empathy towards them, creating a bond built on fear for the victim as the female gender portrays vulnerability more effectively than a male. However more typically a blonder female is used as they manage to portray more innocence to the audience emphasising their position as the victim.
Another minor character in the scene is the girl's teenage boyfriend. Through them both being teenagers it adds to the conventional idea in a thriller as they both seem to be very naive and more innocent than an adult, however being more prone to being alone and therefor more vulnerable than children (unless they are alone), which makes them a perfect example as an age category for thriller actors and actresses. The teenagers are very stereotypical, being completely oblivious to the fact that the back door is open and they are being spied on.This allows the audience to relate to the character and can put themselves in the same situation and the audience can feel more empathetic towards them, building a stronger character-audience relationship as well the fact that everyone feels completely safe and comfortable in their own home. By seeing it through a different perspective they can now see that the feeling of automatically being safe when in the company of others and this makes you question that sense of security. 

Editing

There is very limited edititng used in this film as through following the point of view of the villain, the audience is forced to follow his journey and entrance into the house making the shot stay continuous. However, although a lack of editing is used, a mixture of timing of shots are used. At the beginning all the movements and editing was at a slow pace as the villain was outside creeping about which allowed him to seem as though he was trying to remain undetected and lurk in the shadows. This shows the audience that the murderer has planned it out because their actions seem persistent and cautious which gives the audience the impression that the murderer is making sure everything inj the lead up to the murder is executed perfectly so he can do what was intended and get away. However, in contrast to this as soon as the murder has taken place the timing of shots become more fast paced which gives the audience the impression that the murderer has panicked and the killing didn't go exactly to plan. This fear and panicy get away makes the villain have an inferior persona which makes them seem naive and not as cunning as we first made out. The fast shots interlink qith the rushed exit made by the killer, making the audience anticipate the killer being caught because typically villains in thriller films always walk towards their victims with a sense of arrogance and confidence but the panicking from the killer makes us believe that maybe the murderer wasn't as calculated as we first thought.  

Target Audience results - Miss Miller

Target Audience Results

 

 

The gender pie chart shows that we asked more males than females, this is good because stereotypically thrillers are enjoyed more by males because of the conventional 'scary' nature of thriller films. It is good that we asked close to an equal amount of females and males (55% - 45%) because we need to get unbiased results by asking a wide variety of people.

 

 

This chart shows that we asked a wide age range of people from 12 to 23+ to get a variety of responses for what they'd like to see so we could average the data to find out what type of thriller would appeal to most people. Overall we asked a majority of 16-18 year olds (62%) so we can aim it mainly at their wants and what they'd like to see in a thriller film.

 

 

This shows that it is a close call between films with certificates of 18 & 15 to what people would like to see, 15 has 45% while 18 has 43% but 12 only has 12% which means we probably should be aiming for a 15 rated opening scene. So we'll have to look at our research into age certificates to see what we can involve in a film rated at 15.

 

 

When we asked what people favourite thriller was from the list of: Shutter Island, Scream, Psycho, Inception or other, Shutter Island got the most votes at 30%. This suggests that they may like psychological thriller films since Shutter Island falls into the psychological category. Inception was second with 25% so we could try to incorporate to involve features from a plethora of different thrillers to appeal to a wider audience.

 

 

We then asked what type of thriller people would like most, to which the majority (43%) replied with horror, and only 15% said psychological. This contradicts the last pie chart when the majority said they liked Shutter Island which is a psychological film. So we could merge the psychological aspects with horror. This would then appeal to a much wider audience of people.

 

 

We also asked them if a conventional female victim would interest to which 67% replied yes, the rest being a yes or maybe. This means we can follow conventions and incorporate a female victim.