Filming the Preliminary task

Review of the preliminary filming task

 After filming the preliminary task, I found that me and my group worked fairly well together, however there were some personality differences and also, we found we had clashes in ideas, but after talking about it and working together we found positive ways around situations and managed to get our project finished fairly quickly and were on the whole happy with the result

We found that after filming our choice of lighting meant that the footage we had shot was very dark and grainy as initially we wanted to use low key lighting to create suspense and a slight eeriness to the piece, and meant that we would have more work to do when we began editing to improve our footage. However this was also helpful as we learned a crucial lesson in what we would try and avoid if we were to re film the project, or on later projects. We also found that the dialect from our clips weren't very audible, but we like the way our clips fitted together and they made sense as a short film all together, we felt our ideas for the prelim task were strong. 

At the start of our short film, I took on the one of the acting roles, and the first clip showed myself walking through some double doors, face concealed by the hood of my coat to hide my identity, and the camera tracked my movements round a corner and cut as I walked through the door. We found when we watched the footage back we found this to be quite effective. We then shot several short sequences showing me walking through the door, including a close up of my hand pushing open the door, which when put together, added a dramatic effect and created a slight feeling of suspense.

The climax of our preliminary task is the shooting of one the other actor who is shown sat at a desk in the room my character enters. We choose to film a close up of the barrel of the gun we used as a prop before cutting to a plain black screen where we then edited the noise of the gun shot and found this to be far more effective than actually showing the shooting itself, more eluding the audience that the character had just been shot, which we felt tied in well with the 'Thriller' theme we have been studying in class.

Overall I am pleased with the final piece and thinking myself and my group worked well not only coming up with ideas but also in our filming and editing of the footage, as well as looking at what we could have done better.   

Preliminary Planning

Preliminary Task Planning 

The task we were set was to film a short sequence, focusing mainly on different camera angles and shots, and also to practice editing and making changes to our film in preparation for our thriller work. 

Group

Olivia Whyley

Ben Hall

Sam Weeks

Harry Edwards

For the preliminary task, I worked in a group with three other people and we began to devise ideas for our sequence, we did this by creating a story board which depicted what the actors would do in each cut and what shots and camera angles we would use. We found this very helpful and useful to get all our ideas written down in a systematic order before we actually began filming.

We decided that we were going to use only two locations for our preliminary task, a corridor and a small classroom as the main setting, we wanted to keep the sequences as simple as possible so that it wouldn't detract from the camerawork, which we wanted to be the main focus of the piece. 

When writing the script for the scenes we had some conflict with members of the group over what dialogue we were going to use, but we managed to work through this and come to a mutual decision and in the end, all members of the group were happy with the script we devised together.

Narrative of Seven

Narrative of Seven 

 

Seven is a thriller set in a nameless city staring Brad Pitt (Detective David Mills) and Morgan Freeman (Detective William R Somerset) as two detectives desperatley searching for a serial killer who justifies his crimes as adsolution for the world's ignorance of the Seven Deadly Sins. Together they trace the killers every step, witnessing the aftermath of his horrific crimes one by one as the victims pile up at an alarming rate, all the while moving closer unknowingly towards a gruesome fate neither of them could have predicted. The sins of Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Pride, Lust, Envy and Wrath are shown in this order resulting in more and more gruesome and sadistic murders each time.

Conventions of a thriller

A thriller is a film that relentlessly pursues a single-minded goal- to provide thrills and keep the audience 'cliff-hanging' and at 'the edge of their seats' as the plot builds towards a climax. Tensions usually arises when the main character(s) is placed in a threatening situation, mystery, or a dangerous mission from which escape seems impossible. Life itself is also often threatened, usually because the main character is unsuspecting or unknowingly involved in a dangerous or potentially deadly situation. Thrillers often always features a protaganist fighting against the often mysterious antagonist. 

 

Types of Characters feautured in a thriller: 

Convicts

Soliders

Spies

Law enforcement officers e.g. Detective Mills & Detective R Somerset

stalkers 

Men associated with danger

Criminals

Assassins 

Innocent civilians dragged into dangerous circumstances 

Psychotic characters e.g. serial killers such as John Doe

Prison inmates