Final Opening - Thriller Title Sequence

The Carpenter

Post Production story board

Above is the post production story board. Although we tried to follow our pre-production story board as much as we could, once on set we found that slight adjustments had to be made. Due to certain circumstances we found the group had to improvise and change initial idea's slightly.
Inside the garage we worked with what was there and rather have the Victim lying down on a table, he ended up being attached to the wall by rope instead. The rope was attached to some hooks on the wall and ceiling and creating a noose which added to the immense chilling feel of the place. The noose created an opportunity to explore with some very interesting camera shots which we filmed as Matt's head appeared to be through the noose, however actually in the background.
I believe the post production story board is a much improved version of the first one because we really had to improvise once we started to work on the set, we had to utilise what was available.

First audience viewing of title sequence & response survey

Once we had completely finished editing our title sequence, we were ready for the first viewing in front of an audience. I made posters about our thriller and stuck them around the school. This seemed to be a great method of a little 'free advertising' as many people turned up excited and willing to fill in the audience survey we made.


The poster ^

Below is the 'Audience Survey for 'The Carpenter'. This was handed out to everyone that came to watch our finished opening title sequence. Once we had the results, we would be able to see which aspects worked and which did not work. It was extremely important we understood what the audience truthfully thought of it as they are the consumers and ultimate judges.


Below is the first draft version of 'The Carpenter' which we showed to an audience before reviewing the feedback and changing aspects to improve it. The constructive criticism really helped us to see what else could be done to strengthen our thriller before submitting the final link.

Evaluation -What kind of media institution might distribute your media and why?

'Film 4' would be my first choice of production companies to distribute our media product. Having researched the company online, it states their 'ethos is to co-finance and develop up-coming film productions'. As Film 4 often invest time and money in new British talent, I believe our thriller would stand a good chance of being funded and distributed. Film 4 often has themed nights and seasons, highlighting a genre, director or actor. This product would be well placed in a thriller category, perhaps after a world wide distribution by Film 4 it would be marketed for DVD sales and eventually shown on TV. It would give us a great opportunity to be able to work along side some of the Britain's best film makers. One low budget film that was funded by Film 4 and which did incredibly well was 'Slumdog Millionaire'. It went onto be nominated for ten Academy Awards and won eight. Directed by Danny Boyle and produced by Simon Beaufroy. This film was originally shown at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, USA, before being shown at the London Film Festival. This is the path I envisage our film to take. I feel a film festival is more likely fitting venue for our film to be shown.

Evaluation -What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

As a group, Talia ,Yaakov and myself worked very well together and we were really good at managing the equipment, resources and meeting the interim deadlines. We were always open to suggestions and comments from one another and we made sure we were well organised. We were the first group to completely finish filming and met all the deadlines.The filming was booked well in advance, giving us plenty of time to prepare and arrange a timetable for the day of filming. I collected all the equipment from school and took it home for safe keeping, It was my responsibility to return it the day after the shoot.
I was responsible for directing on set and a lof of the editing. I feel I have put a great deal of effort into this protect, and am grateful to have been able to use the facilities on offer to me at school. I made the general thriller questionnaire and chose the music. I feel I have learnt a great deal from this experience and appreciated the co operation of my team members enabling us to complete our thriller.
I used 'Wikipedia', the online encyclopedia, which helped me find useful information and 'Youtube', the video sharing website for clippings and from that sight I was able to gain access to several useful film sequences, showing interesting camera angles which I was able to adapt myself. Google was also a good means for searching all other information.

Evaluation -How did you attract /address your audience?

After analysing the feedback we got from the questionnaire, we found it helped us greatly to identify what aspects of a thriller appealed most to an 18 and over audience. We gathered from our information that the audience wanted to see the victims similar ages to them with the villain much older. This meant the audience could relate and perhaps imagine themselves in the same situation as the victims. They also mentioned the importance of the background music and how it adds to the atmosphere whilst subconsciously influences ones mood.

Evaluation -Who would be the audience for your media product?

Craig and Nathan are both second year university students and are studying Business Management at Leeds. They shop at Topman and River Island and favor the casual dress.
Craigs enjoys listening to RnB and Nathan listens to Rock. They are both very socialable young men and take part in a variety of sporting activities to keep fit. They are both single at the moment but enjoy female company. With a limited disposable income they both find it difficult to spend money going out with girls and going to clubs. Instead they find they can afford the cinema and going to the student bars for a bear. They enjoy most genres of films especially Thrillers and Comedies.

Evaluation -Looking back at your premlinary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

The preliminary task was a good practise with the equipment and editing facilities and it enabled us to familiarise ourselves with the cameras and what we could achieve with them. We learnt what the 180 degree rule was and how to create a match on action shot which enabled continuity. We used these techniques along with the shot reverse shot in our thriller as well as a variety of camera angles which added to the suspense of the thriller.
The story board and script we created for the preliminary task was a lot more basic then the one that was made for the thriller, but having had that previous practise helped us finalise our story board with more accuracy. However, on the day of filming we still had to make some minor adjustments.
We recognised one problem during the editing of the preliminary task with a sound not matching up to its action accurately. Once we were aware of this, we made sure that when filming the thriller this would not occur.
With the help of Talia's mum and Raheem, our equipment was well looked after and we were able to set up quickly at our location. Having used the equipment for our preliminary task we were familiar with how everything worked.
After filming and editing the preliminary task we felt that we really learnt alot in the progression to the full product. We felt confident on the day of shooting knowing how to use the equipement with ease.

Evaluation -How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We decided our Psycho would have the appearance of a middle-aged, unshaven grubby man as he would fit the stereotype that would appear in most thriller films. His clothes look dirty, he is giving us the impression that he has low self esteem and possibly had a troubled upbringing. Although in this opening sequence we do not see much of his features, one still has the impression by the way in which he walks and his profile that he is a psychotic and emotionally unstable person.
The location fitted our brief perfectly. A shabby backstreet that houses garages and dumped cars with uneven and broken road surfaces. This gives sense of insecurity and uncertainty with an eerie feeling about it.
The Victim in this circumstance did not represent the stereotypical character traits of a young man of today because he is portrayed as a helpless quivering wreck. Our Psycho who has already killed the young female victim, was able to demonstrate strength and power over her as he left her body on the ground next to the young man. This makes him feel inadequate and undermined, also aware that he is next to be tortured and killed.

Editing the thriller

Once we had finished filming, we brought the tape back to school and were ready to start editing. We fist had to insert the tape in to computer and open up Adobe Premiere Pro. The first thing to do was capture the footage by recording it. We used a keyboard short cut button 'F5' which captured all the footage at once. Once this had been done all the footage was saved on to the computer, and all we had to do was drag each clip into the side bar ready for us to start editing.
We had learnt to use tools such as the razor tool during our preliminary task which dissected each shot which enabled us to move shots around and put them next to any scene we wanted, as well as delete any unwanted material.
Having been extremely lucky with our sound as the camera mic picked it up very well, we did not have to pre-record the audio and link it up to related shots. Therefore all we had to add was appropriate music. I listened to many heavy orchestral famous compositions however I wasn't satisfied with a specific one, but rather stuck for choice between two completely different tracks. After playing around and exploring with the different features Adobe Premiere offered, I found that you could actually drag both tracks onto the audio line. The result sounded fantastic and the two different tracks sounded marvelous on top of each other.
As we filmed in order and followed our storyboard, matching together each shot for shot was easy and continuity wasn't lost. However, I had to place different transition effects after each shot to create a smooth flow between one scene and the next. Some of these included 'dip to black', 'cross cut' and 'fade'. We also experimented with different effects such as 'ghosting', and although it had a great effect it looked unrealistic.
As we had a list of different titles we had to include in the sequence, we were worried it would effect the audiences view of the action and create an unbalanced feel to it. However, the black titles actually created tension in the thriller and an uncertainty as to what was going to happen next. Titles went as follows:

1. SONY PICTURES
2. FILM FOUR
3. AN A.T.Y PRODUCTION
   
4. THE CARPENTER
5. Psycho -IAN WELKA
   
6. Victim -MATTHEW PERRY FRENER
7. Victim -TALIA WELKA
8. Music -ABIGAIL IPALE
9. set design -YAAKOV TAMIR
10. Producer -STEPHEN SHPIELSTEIN
    
11. Director -PHOENIX WILLIAMS

We decided to have separate black titles rather than an overlay of titles on top of the action. As we only had about 8 minutes of captured film altogether and once taken out doubles of scene, we were left with about 3 minutes, separate black titles was essential to make the sequence appear longer and lengthen everything it to the 2 minute max.
Fonts and Titles:
We picked an old fashioned scary font of white writing to use as it looked effective on the black background. It stood out and looked eerie.
As we were filming and it being Winter time, it began to get dark fairly early and we were concerned it would look unbelievable. Although, we found an effect under 'Brightness & Contrast' where by you alter the colour of the screen to make it appear lighter or darker. We used this in every shot so all of the scenes were the same colour, and it didn't look like we filmed hours apart. We altered it slightly making it darker giving it more tense atmosphere.
It was very important after each change we made to the thriller that we 'Rendered' each section. We did this by pressing the 'enter' button making the footage look sharper and having it at its best quality.

Filming - equipment, actors & pictures from the shoot

To ensure we had plenty of time for editing which we new took the most amount of time, our group decided to be organised and film relatively early. I picked up all the equipment on Friday 5th February from school, which included:

• 1 x dolly
• 1 x tripod
• 1 x XLS camera
• 2 x tape (already blanked)
  
• 1 x battery
• 1 x light

I took the equipment home with me from school, ready to go to Talia's the next day for last minute preparations. On Sunday 7th February 2010 we were ready to film in Hackney and arrived at the location for one o'clock in the afternoon. The weather was not great as it was very cold with dull grey skies and although unpleasant to be outside, it created the perfect setting for a thriller. One of the most important aspects of a thriller is the costume and props, which need to be realistic and easy to get hold of. The props we used and brought to the set included:

• a re-chargeable electric drill
• a saw
• selection of tools (spanners, screws, metal bars)
  
• hammer
• rope
• ladder
• ketchup (for fake blood)
• talcum-powder (for face make-up)
• axe
• 2 x plain T shirts (costume for victims, which we splattered ketchup across and rubbed dirt on to)
• half a lemon (in which we painted it skin colour and placed a screwed up red tissue inside. This is for the last extreme close-up shot of drill supposedly going into victims head).

The Actors:
Psycho: Ian Welka


When we cast the actors, we wanted the 'Psycho' to have the stereotypical appearance and characteristics that a 'madman' would have. We were originally going to cast someone our age who had a big build, until Talia's dad suggested he play the part. As a middle aged man with the perfect structure he played the character unbelievably well and really got into character which portrayed in his lunatic body language and scary limp.


The Victim: Matthew Perry Frener


I thought my friend Matt who took the lead role in our school Shakespeare play recently would be perfect to play the main victim in our thriller. His acting skills and enthusiasm made the sequence believable. With true emotion his screams created such tension which is crucial in any thriller film. His facial expressions, gestures and body movements could make an audience grip to the end of their seats with fright and horror.


Dead girl: Talia Welka


We thought having someone lying on the floor in the background would create a good setting. There was no script or even acting required for her part other than lying on the floor 'playing dead'. We placed a wooden frame that we found in the garage on the floor, and then staked small wooden boxes on top. We also added a hammer on the side of the wooden frame for effect and splattered a T shirt with ketchup. We tied her legs together with tape to make it look like she was the Psycho's previous victim adding panic to the audience.

The Filming:
We were able to start filming straight after we set up the equipment, which took no time at all as we had 6 people altogether on set. This included myself, Talia, Yaakov, Ian, Talia's mum (who watched the equipment for us), and Raheem (a friend who is studying film-making who came and gave us great advice). Everyone played an important role on the day which made everything run smoothly. We started filming:
Shot 1: A close-up shot of the drill in the Psycho's hand. Attempting to re-create the Marnie scene which inspired us, the camera would zoom-out as he walks down the cobbled road with a limp tracking his movement gradually. We did 2 practise takes of this shot and recorded it a further 3 times. We did this to ensure we had the best shot possible and could therefore select which one we preferred.

- After the first shot a complete blank black screen will appear where one of the titles will be added.
Shot 2: A medium close-up shot of the Psycho approaching the garage door as he pushes it open. The drill is placed and stuck in the letterbox whilst the Psycho aggressively pushed the door in and steps into the garage with digetic sound of the Victim screaming can be heard from outside.

- Another blank screen for a title
Shot 3: The camera focuses on the right side of the Psycho as he stumbles into the dark garage. The camera only focuses on the lower part of his body creating an unexpected atmosphere of tension for the audience. As the audience can hear the Victims scream, they wait nervously to finally reveal who and what is actually happening.
- Another blank screen for a title
Shot 4: a match on action shot of the Psycho's shoes walk into the garage as screaming becomes louder. Camera works its way up the Victims body and reveals a terrified young man pleading for his life, trapped by rope which he is tied to the wall by.

Shot 5: A medium close-up of a struggling boy tied up screaming with a noose hanging from the ceiling. A close-up shot of the victim with his head appearing to be in the noose, however just special camerwork effects. He screams 'Get me out of here', 'Help me' and weeps.

Shot 6: Close-up shot of Psycho as he approaches victim and puts duck tape with a heavy hand around his mouth and face. The Psycho grabs the drill and the screaming becomes more panicky as it gets close and closer to his head.

Shot 7: close-up shot taken from the side view. Drill going into the victims head.
shot 8: exreme close-up shot of the drill going into lemon (Victims head). Screaming lowers to a silence, meaning he's dead.

Location and Risk Assessment

Once our storyboard was complete, we had to find a suitable place to film. This wasn't a problem as Talia who was in our group, said we could film on location in a private road her dad owned. Therefore a consent form/ permission letter was not needed and we could start filming straight away.
















The private road of garages


Inside the garage

Risk Assessment:
"a document that lists all potential risks at all locations and recommend actions that will reduce or eliminate those risks". This is important as analysing the potential hazards that could occur may actually prevent them from happening. Below is the risk assessment sheet we drew up;

Pre-Production Storyboard

It is essential to create a storyboard before any filming as it helps visualize the scenes and find potential problems before they occur. Storyboards include basic drawings or arrows or instructions that indicate movement. The storyboard provides a visual layout of events as they are to be seen through the camera lens.

Below is the storyboard that we hope to re-create in our sequence.

Shot 1

Description: Psycho walking down cobbled road holding drill

props: drill

Music: heavy orchestral thumping

Lighting: natural daylight (will be edited on Adobe Premiere through 'brightness&contrast' to create a darker more frightening atmosphere.)

.

Shot 2

Description: Psycho swings garage door open, focusing only on the back of him

Props: drill

Music: a more tense high strung sound creating an urgent feel

Lighting: natural daylight

Shot 3

Description: open view of garage, boy strapped to table/ dead girl lying on floor. Handheld camera overlooking birds-eye view of significant objects on floor and around garage

Props: tools, table, victims x2, rope

Music: digetic sound of victim screaming with deep orchestral music over

Lighting: dark indoor low key lighting

Shot 4

Description: Camera glides over significant objects on floor and table

Props: tools, table

Music: " "

Lighting: low key

Shot 5

Description: victim tied up against wall

Props: rope

Music: atmospheric, screams are loud
Lighting: very dark, low key

Shot 6

Description: close-up shot of psycho coming towards victim with drill

Props: rope, drill, lader

Music: screaming "get away from me" & "leave me alone you monster" etc from victim

Lighting: low key dark lighting, effect slightly tinted red like blood

Shot 7

Description: close-up shot of drill going into victims head

Props: drill

Music: heavy orchestral music & dialogue victim screams

Lighting: " "

Shot 8

Description: medium shot of psycho drilling into victims head

Props: drill

Music: screaming slowly fades with music into just drill sound

Lighting: low key lighting, effect slightly tinted red like blood

General Thriller Questionnaire

Below is a questionnaire which I produced in order to establish what elements of a thriller people find most captivating.

BBFC - BRITISH BOARD OF FILM CLASSIFICATION

The website www.bbfc.co.uk – is the official website of the British Board of Film Classification, the independent regulator of the film and video industry in the UK.

Cinema: ''The British Board of Film Censors was set up in 1912 by the film industry as an independent body to bring a degree of uniformity to the classification of film nationally.'' ''Statutory powers on film remain with the local councils, which may overrule any of the Board's decisions, passing films we reject, banning films we have passed, and even waiving cuts, instituting new ones, or altering categories for films exhibited under their own licensing jurisdiction.'

Having researched age ratings on many different thriller films, I have found that the majority were classed as an 18 or over suitable viewing audience. I think this would be a sensible age limit for my opening thriller sequence. The BBFC website clearly state why horror films must be classified;

Horror: ''The use of frightening elements which might scare or unsettle an audience is part of a long tradition of story telling and film making. Many children enjoy the excitement of scary sequences, but, where films are targeted at a younger audience, classification decisions will take into account such factors as the frequency, length and detail of scary scenes as well as horror effects, including music and sound, and whether there is a swift and reassuring outcome. Older audiences often pay to see horror films because they like being frightened or shocked and such works are classified at an appropriate category to ensure that the young and vulnerable are protected from too intense an experience.''

Final Idea

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Having discussed the task, we decided we wanted to produce a 'twisted sick, torturous and sadistic' opening thriller sequence. As we were adamant to use heavy duty tools I came across the film 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' and realising the similarities to the ideas myself and my group had come up with, we decided to do our own version of it.

The film, which is supposedly based on a true story, takes the audience on a journey following five young college students who find themselve trapped by a killer with a sledgehammer called 'Leatherface'. The brutalness of this vile ugly creature gave me ideas of how to incorporate such brutal behaviour into my own sequence. The typical conventions of such a character was easy to identify and copy because of his use of power work tools used for killing purposes and the evil in his eyes.

Brainstorms and Influences

Marnie

Having looked at many Alfred Hitchcock's films and his renowned method of producing, directing and editing, one film that particularly stood out and inspired us was Marnie - a 1964 psychological thriller. The film stars Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery.

The YouTube link below (watch from 02:00 - 02:30) shows a classic and effective opening scene of Marnie part:1 where the camera focuses on her bag whilst tracking her movement gradually and every know and again pausing as Marnie's figure goes further towards the platform. This use of camerawork reveals a character to the audience without actually showing themselves leaving it to the viewers imagination, it effortlessly becomes scary.




Psycho
Another film that inspired me was 'Psycho', 1960 American thriller/horror film directed by Hitchcock. The film features one of the most famous scenes in cinema history, the murder of Janet Leigh's character in the shower.

This scene runs for 3 minutes and has a staggering 50 cuts. Most of the shots are extreme close-ups, except for the medium shots in the shower directly before and directly after the murder. The mixture of shots with the short duration between each cuts makes the scene feel longer, more uncontrolled, erratic and illusory. I believe this clip is one on the most chilling and effective scenes of all time, due to the build up of suspense and compelling eerie music.

Preliminary Task

Editing Preliminary task

After finally filming our preliminary task at school, it was time for editing. In lesson we looked at the famous Alfred Hitchcock who was an English filmmaker and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. I knew I would relate back to his works at some point during my thriller sequence as "his flair was for narrative, cruelly withholding crucial information (from his characters and from us) and engaging the emotions of the audience like no one else"

As all of the equipment was new to me I realised I would have to play around with it first, to fully understand all of the buttons and learn how to use and take advantage of all the cool effects- which i will hopefully use in my thriller. There were lots of different features within the 'Adobe Premier' programme as well as the 'Editing Keyboard', which we later used to our advantage as it proved to be a much quicker way of editing. Short-cuts such as the letter 'C' was to cut out a part of the film that we wanted.
Continuity editing was crucial in the preliminary task as it would help show the uninterrupted flow of action in a story. There is no attention brought to the fact that there's editing taking place. This gives the film a more realistic feel and makes it more believable. However when it came to the editing transitions, there were many to choose from, such as;
-straight cuts

-fade outs
-dip/to/black
-crop cut
-dissolves
-wipe cuts
-jump cuts
-reaction shots
-matched cuts
-motivated cuts
-cutaway shots

A technique that we used when filming the preliminary task was waiting five seconds before and after the action in each shot as it easily allowed us to cut each shot without removing any important action or dialogue. When filming the thriller, I will use this technique as it makes the editing process a lot easier.

Team Work & Filming

After learning how to use the camera and understanding my assignment, it was time to organise myself into a group and begin to set specific tasks for each person.
I was in a group with three other people, Talia, Yaakov & Zack. We decided as a group that Talia and I would film and Zack and Yaakov would act. We quickly then wrote up a script and once organised we began to film.

Problems;
We found that luck was not on our side when trying to get a reliable camera and blank tape that worked properly and had not been tampered with. After trying twice to film all our necessary shots and realising only afterwards that it had not actually been recording properly, we began to feel slightly frustrated with ourselves and the equipment. However, I learnt from this that when dealing with very technical equipment, it is very likely that something can go wrong. After all it was just a process of trial and error.

Camera work

Having only had experience using digital photo cameras, I was eager to get started and learn how to use a very technical digital video camcorder. My teacher gave us an instruction manual and once I read through it, I began to understand quite quickly how to use it as it wasnt as complicated I thought it would be.

There are many different formats which the camera must be set on in order to film in a certain way:

1. Firstly make sure you have inserted a power source. -Slide the 'EJECT' button across to release the cover -Load or unload the cassette -Press the 'PUSH' mark on the compartment until it clicks -Click the cover back into place.
   
2. I adjusted the 'white balance'. I found that we got better results by setting the white balance manually esspeacially in places lit by certain types of fluorescent or mercury vapour lights.
   
3. Optical zoom lense. The camera has two zoom controls from either the side grip or the camera handle. Turn the zoom control towards 'W' to zoom out to wide-angle, and turn towards 'T' to zoom in to telephoto.
4. Basic recording. -Simply turn to POWER dial -Press the start/stop button to begin recording -Press the start/stop button again to pause recording.
   
5. Using the STANDBY button. As long as the POWER dial is set to a recording program, you can use the STANDBY button to tirn the camera on & off. This makes it easy to save battery power, & prevents accidental operation of the start/stop button. -Press and hold the STANDBY button for a few moments to enter/leave stanby mode. When the camera enters standby mode, ENTERING POWER STANDBY is shown in the viewfinder.
   

Introduction to the 'Preliminary Task'

Today I set up my blog which will enable me to record and evaluate the progress of my work.

My first exercise is a continuity task which has to involve a number of different things;

• filming
• editing
• character opening a door
• crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character
• S/he then exchange couple of lines of dialogue

This task should demonstrate a variety of different shots;

1. Match on Action - cut from one shot to another view that matches the action and pace of the first shot. This creates an impression of continuity despite the fact that you might have filmed the shots weeks apart. If a character begins an action in the first shot and completes it in the next, a visual 'bridge' is created that acts to disguise the cut from on to the other.
   
2. Shot/Reverse shot - when two characters are in conversation, film one character looking off screen to where the other character is imagined to be, and vice-versa. Ensure that one character faces left and the other faces right., so you can edit between a character talking and a character listening.
   
   
3. 180-degree rule - when using a variety of shots for point of view and switching between the characters it is essential that all shots are filmed from the same side of the line. If you cross the line when filming, the characters will appear to exchange places and continuity will be lost