Font Analysis

Here are some font ideas for our film opening...

The font featured in the opening sequence of 'Seven" is child like and looks as if it has been hand written. It is relatively small but is white to make it stand out between the shots and fast paced cuts. The font used is messy, flickering and jumping making it seem old, creating an eerie effect typical of the thriller genre creating suspense for the audience. Accompanying the credits is non-digetic music which is atmospheric and scary.

The opening sequence of 'Delicatessen' is interesting because the credits have been placed onto objects that correspond with the role of the person in the film. For example the costume designer's name is embroidered onto fabric and the director of photography is on a camera.

In the opening sequence of 'Kill Bill' a quote appears before anything else, "Revenge is a dish best served cold". It sets the tone for the rest of the film, making the audience aware that revenge will be a key theme in the film. The rest of the titles are classic white on a black background with no distractions.

Location Analysis

Why we chose the Locations...

Tonbridge Park Scene

We decided to use Tonbridge Park for one of our scenes as we needed to have stairs, and found this was the most convenient place. We had to wait at our designated location until it was dark due to wanting a consistent darkness of colour throughout our psychological thriller opening. This is because most of our filming has been in the dark and we want this to be continuous in colour themes. The colour of darkness represents a hidden and uncomfortable environment which is what we want to achieve in our psychological thriller. The dark also hides secrets and things about a character, and adds to the tension and scared emotions which is necessary in a thriller. 

Alley Way Scene

The alley way ending scene is also very dark and consists of many short lanes and turns which creates a sense of panic from the character. There will be a lot of cuts in this scene to reveal the tensional and contrasting emotions of the character. The darkness will compliment the rising tension of music at this point and will add to thrill of the film opening. 


Church Scene

This scene will be placed mainly at the beginning of our film opening and plays an important role in our psychological thriller film opening. Firstly, this scene compliments the storyline of a character tracking down Anna Parker through something she has done, and is doing God's will and the greater good by the actions which are not seen in the opening. This scene sets the story in her walking down the church and praying, enabling the title of 'The Greater Good' to relate. This scene will also introduce the first character and some of her characteristics (e.g how she will walk). 


Cafe Nero Scene

This scene will serve the purpose of placing the character in normal circumstances so that the audience of teenagers can relate to her environment. When the character is more relatable, the audience will be more inclined to watch it as they become involved and understand her to be a supposed 'normal teenager.' This scene contrasts which the Church scene as this is not a conventional place for a teenager to be placed in films.

Story Board

'The Greater Good' Story Board

Here I have created the storyboard for our film opening 'The Greater Good', detailing the types of shots we will use, the sound/music, lighting etc. We will try to achieve these results planned, however, we may detract away from it, if we feel certain types of shots or angles work better. 

Scripting

For our film opening, we required a distressed phone call from the victim to the police. For this, we had to research into how a real life phone call to the police as we wanted it to be as realistic as possible. We looked at a variety of you tube videos, however we found these unsuccessful as they were focused on prank calls to the police and were very unrealistic. 
We then looked online to see if there were any scripts for the police automated voice, however we were unsuccessful in finding any here either! 

Fortunately, another media student at Weald's dad is a police officer and deals with distressed phone calls on a day to day basis. So, we organised a talk with Hannah's dad and he gave us guidelines of what to say and what the police automated voice would ask. This was a huge relief as we had struggled to find anything accurate and reliable online to create out script by. 

Taking into account all the information we were given, this was our final script used in our film opening: 



*Phone ringing sound effect*

Automated 999 voice: Which emergency service do you require?

Victim: Police, please

Automated 999 voice: Can I take your name and the address you're calling from?

Victim: My name is Anna Parker. I live at 13A, Elm Lane, Cowden, Kent

Automated 999 voice: What's the emergency?

Victim: There's someone following me. I've tried to report it for weeks but no one is helping me. Please can someone actually do something now, I can't take it anymore!

Automated 999 voice: Are you safe? Or re you in immediate danger?

*Phone disconnects sound effect*

Costume Props and Make-up Sourcing

Costume planning:

Protagonist - The clothing that the girl wears needs to be simple and not too expensive looking - show she is an average teenager.

• Black/dark coloured jeans - pre owned
• Dark brown top - Primark 2.99
• Dark green top - Primark 1.99
• Dark coloured cardigan - pre owned
• Brown Dr Martens boots - pre owned

Antagonist - Clothing needs to be dark and loose fitting and look unwashed and worn a lot.

• Dark trousers - pre owned
• Loose fitting dark jumper (green) - pre owned

Props:

• Candle - bought from homebase for 2 pounds - which we lit before filming, the wax dripping down it was effective
• Diary notes - pre owned 
• Matches - pre owned
• Torches - pre owned

Make-up:

• Mascara - boots 2.99
• Dark eyeshadow pallet - boots 3.99

Possible Filming Location

The church has many stained glass windows which would be ideal for natual light. However the church doesnt allow candles to be lit, only if supervised.

There is a long isle with pews on either side, and feels like an old church. This leads to a table at the end and an area where you can kneel and pray.

Parts of the curch are decorated wth dark stained wood, ideal for creating a dark atmosphere/backdrop. The seats have deep red cusions on which is ones of the colours associated with psychological thrillers.

There are many stairs round the church, two of these lead up to a balcony tyoe area, great for taking crane shots or high angled shots. The only problem is that there are windows creating large shadows if you want to film making it hard to capture crisp shots. The church has a marble floor, which would get very cold at night making it a problem as we want to film with barefeet. Also the celing is far too decorative to be used for a psycological thriller set.

We found that the church didn't have a car park and was very close to the main road making it hard to find space to park. Also as the church is situated in Tonbridge Wells, it would take 20 minutes to get there so we decided to find a church nearer, so that if we needed to re film parts it would be more convenient.

Alleyway Location Scouting

In our film opening we want to shoot the last few shots in a dark alleyway. Filming at night in an alleyway is quite dangerous, but luckily I have one behind my house. Here are a few pictures that I've put togther, using interesting shots to try and show the full extent of the alleyway.

Luckily the alleyway has street lamps on during the night, which are used alot in thrillers to keep the emphasis on the protagonist. it also means we dont have to use much artificial light to illuminate the scene, giving it a more authentic feel.





Also in the alleyway the fences consist of bars that are often used in a thriller type film as it suggests that the characters are imprisoned with no way of getting out. This is suitable for our film opening as we are showing the victim getting trapped by the killer.

There are many places for the person filming to stand without their shadow obstructing the scene. At night there is a redish tinge to parts of the alleyway created by the lamp wich ties in perfectly with our genre - psychological thriller.

BFI Media Trip

British Film Institute 

As part of our course, our media class went on a trip to London to visit the BFI. This part of the course is different to our coursework side, however, we were able to gain knowledge into how and why certain things were presented. This helped us to gain analytical skills which is useful in evaluating our own piece of film because it forces us to think of ways to signify certain ideas or moods.






Through the day the lecturer guided us through different slides with tips on the exam but most importantly, he went through particular clips of representation of TV drama. We then had to discuss and write down how different issues (i.e gender/rural identity) were portrayed (through different aspects such as mise en scene).   


Through reviweing and analysing these different clips we could gain ideas of how to expose different emotions or ideas about a character. This is useful because we can incorporate these thoughts into our film to expand how the viewer perceives the narrative of the film opening. (We analysed films such as Glee and Waterloo Road)

After watching the first episode of BroadChurch, we then had a chance to listen to a question and answer with the producer, Richard Stokes. 

We then were allowed to have audience participation where we could ask the producer questions about creating the episodes, or how to get into the future line of becoming a producer, or any other ideas about how he produced BroadChurch/other TV series. 

Other examples of TV series in which he has produced is Law & Order, Torchwood and Holby City. 

Overall, this media trip was very beneficial, as it enabled us to gain further ideas and helped us to develop onto our previous ones, to clarify how we can signify certain ideas that reflect contrasting or stereotypical viewpoints of a character/scene. 

Nine Frame Analysis of Se7en

Se7en Nine Frame Analysis

Frame 1- Pages of a book flicking, without showing who is flicking them. The colour of the writing is white which may represent holiness or innocence. The writing is disoriented which could represent how the protagonist doesn't fit in, into society. 

 Frame 2- A high angled point of view shot shows two drawings of hands on a book, one hand being darker than the other which could signify the contrast in good and bad. There is also a contrast in the dark shadows with the light, again portraying this battle, and signifying secretiveness. 



Frame 3- A close-up of the characters fingers are shown, as he is cutting skin from his fingers. The dirty hands represent him to be unclean and also conveys a disturbing environment toward the viewer. This also conforms with the general convention of villains in thrillers, as they have something wrong with them. 

Frame 4- Close-up of the characters hands but with bandages as a result of cutting his fingers with a blade. It appears he is obtaining some sort of file. The writing appears of the title, arranged in the black area which represents the contrasts of light and dark.

Frame 5- A close-up of the character writing in a book. This is over-layered with another frame which presents the excessive amounts of writing he is doing, which then conforms with the conventions of an emotionally unstable person.




Frame 6- This uses a lot of dark lighting which highlights the close-up of the of the picture of the person with his eyes scratched out. The dark lighting could represent the character doing something wrong or something done in secret. The white writing appears again which could represent innocence.

Frame 7- A close up of the character sticking something in a book, again only revealing his hands and no face. The audience can see everything he is doing in detail which is consistent, arguably revealing the thoughts going on in his head. 

Frame 8- Another close-up of the character sewing pieces of papers together with thread. There is a lot of metal objects shown which are sharp which may imply him being a source of pain. It also creates the sense of torture toward his victims.



Frame 9- A close-up with the character cutting out the word 'God' which gives more clues of what the film is about. This could represent the guilt of the character and some sort of sins he has committed. As this is the final frame it leaves an important message of religion/holiness/sins etc. 

Nine Frame Analysis of Psycho

Psycho Nine Frame Analysis

                                                                                    Frame 1- The opening title of the film is seen in white which contrasts the black background. This presents the idea of opposite characteristics from the darkness to purity. The jagged font implies a dis-oriented mood and could suggest the instability of the character.

Frame 2- An establishing shot is used to set the scene showing a city. This breaks the convention of a psychological thriller, as usually it is set in isolated dark areas, whereas this is a crowed city I'm the day. The shot then pans to the outside of a window.

Frame 3- Shot shows a character obtaining stolen money from her purse. The high angle creates a sense of intrusion from the viewer, through seeing what secretive/ or low things she is doing. As the character is turned toward a wall it also creates the impression that she is doing something secretive.

Frame 4- A medium close up shot is used to identify the character's worried expression whilst she is driving a car. As she is biting her lip it conveys a nervous or apprehensive attitude, possibly relating to the money stolen. Her rigid position of her body creates an uneasy mood which could represent guilt.

Frame 5- A long shot of a house is presented, which complies more with the conventions of a psychological thriller as it is isolated and very dark. As this is in a dark lighting it coveys the antagonist may be around here. The viewer's attention is directed toward the light source which is located in one room. 

Frame 6- An over the shoulder shot of a man uncovers a hole in the wall. This shot makes the viewer feel like they are intruding into something secretive adding to the tension of the film. This shot creates mystery as the viewer wants to find out what is in the hole. 

 Frame 7- A two shot is revealed through a character's shadow being casted over the shower curtain, creating anticipating, The tension is also enhanced through the character being in the shower as it is such a private and personal place. 

Frame 8- When the curtain opens the camera quickly zooms up to a mid-shot of the antagonist's dark silhouette holing a knife. A dramatic violin accompanies this which adds to the drama making it more frightening. As we don't see his face it creates more mystery and therefore danger. This is done by the bright background light blinding the viewer's view, creating expectation to who the killer is. 

Iconography Associated with Thrillers

To help us when creating out film opening I decided to research into iconography associated with the thriller genre. Iconography means the symbolic representations, which often have a caonventional meaning attached to an image or object. Thrillers often have various pieces of iconography associated with them, and is very important as it is part of the mise-en-scene and helps construct certain messages to the audience.

Cities/Busy Towns: Psycholocigal thrillers are often set in a city or busy town to bring the drama closer to home. It creates a sense of reality for the audience.

Woods/Trees: OFten thrillers take place in woods as it creates a sence of being lost as the characters find themselves trying to figure out how to escape. It creates a sence of vunerability and inevitability for the characters as they are so isolated. There may be a house in the woods which often turn out to be the antagonist.

Knives: One of the most recognised symbols associated with the thriller genre is a knife. It has the connotations of blood, death, pain and brutality. Knives are used to show that someone is about to get killed and acts as a common device to keeo the audience engaged. For example the famous knife scene from Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho'.

Shadows: Silhouetts and shadowns give a thriller the enigma and mystery for the audience and is a common piece of iconography. It builds up fear and suspence for the audience by instigating that the protagonist is being watched by a human or animal/monster. For a majority of the time the protagonist is oblivious to this but can often sence that something isnt right. They often induce thoughts of fear and darkness for the audience as well as giving them clues and adding to the suspence. A character with a silhouette is most likely to be the antagonist - usually revealed at the end of the film.

Confined spaces: A comon way to make the audience feel trapped is the use of confined spaces. It usually leads to the protagonist breathing heavily and panting. It informs the audience that they are trapped and cannot escape and leads to the start of their struggle as they try to break free.

Running water: Running water is often a symbol of death as it suggests the draining of life. Also associated with blood dripping and suggests that the character is in danger.

Street Lamps: NIght time scenes in thrillers often include street lamps to keep the emphasis and focus on the protagonist and the fact they are in almost complete darkness apart from the spotlight from the lamp. This further accentuates the fact that the protagonist is alone in the dark, creating fear and suspence in the audience. A tence atmosphere is created by the underlying darkness.

Bars on windows and Fences: Bars are used to show imprisonment and isolation linking to the conventional thriller. It also suggests that the characters are improsoned with no way out - detached from the outside world - conforming to the convention of isolation in thrillers.

Synopsis Planning

Initially we wanted to base our film on how technology allows us to gather information about others, and to what extent someone will go to stalk someone. However when we got to the story boarding stage we found that involving alot of technology would become too difficult and unless done well the audience would be left confused.

After much thought and planning we have come up woth a synopsis that we all think is interesting. We all contributed to the idea in some way- here it is:

The film will feature a 16/17 year old girl who is being followed and harased with phone calls by an unknown person. The focus of the opening will be how she cannot cope anymore with the stalking, going to the police but with no real help. The identity of the villain is never completely shown withing the audience as this will give it all away and we do not want the audience to see his/her face until the end to create surprise.

The protogontist will be seen in a series of locations, each time moving forward in time and it will always be dark. she will keep recieving phone calls and text messages warning her that someone knows what she has done.

The antagonist will be very spiritual, verging on obsessed with doing "God's work on Earth". They will be seen as mad, surounded by notes and never fully seen. When they are on the screen postproduction editing will play a large role of conveying their unsecure state.

Typical Psychological Thriller Synopsis

Thriller movies, or specifically Psychological thrillers often place an innocent victim into a strange, life-threatening or terrorising situation due to a case of mistaken identity/misidentification. The genre often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre (sometimes bordering the horror genre) in addition to the typical elements of the thriller genre.

Directors typically use women who are subjected to misogynistic abuse, threatening humiliation or murder. They explore the darker sides of human nature through sexuality, guilt, paranoia, punishment and obsession. Unbearable suspense is created for the viewers as a horrific event is made inevitable. 

The story line will usually follow the main character battling with themselves - in conflict with a mental illness or strong emotions. Usually thrillers are intense leaving the audience with a lot to think about. For example 'American Psycho' directed by Mary Harron.

Audience Expectations from a Thriller Film

For someone watching a thriller film the audience expects to see/feel certain things. I asked some people between the ages of 15 and 25 what they expected from a thriller film and they answered:

• "Sudden things that make you jump"
• "Scary"
• "Tension, gripping moments, jumpy moments, climax, dramatic music"
• "Lots of suspense and jumpy stuff"
• "Something which like is exciting and like keeps you on the edge of your chair"
• "Lots of action and something that has you on the edge of your seat"
• "Adrenaline rush"
• "Erm good storyline, suspense and atmospheric music"
• "Lots of suspense, like tense moments when you're not sure what's about to happen"
• "Tension, music for the mood, something that makes you jump, night scenes"
• "A chase, scary music, bushes"
• "Close-ups of the face"

SHER Productions Logo

Our Name:

We have now began to think about production names and logos for our media group. We had brainstormed a number of possible name both meaningful and random. 

We decided on SHER Productions; this is because SHER is the first initial of each member of our groups names so we felt it was relevant, and we had managed to create a twist on the word 'Share', to make it meaningful and relevant to our media task as we share our final product with you.

Our Logo:

We then started designing and coming up with possible logos for our group, 'SHER Productions'. We wanted something simple, yet eye catching that people would recognise.  

This was our final logo design we had all decided on. The colours were bright and bold and the shapes behind we felt reflected that of a camera lens or flash affect. The slogan at he bottom, "sharing media with the world" ties in with our name and fits for a production company well. 

Paramount Pictures Logo development 1914-2012: 

For inspiration we had looked at a number of production company logos, including Paramount Pictures, and how their logo had changed overtime to fit with current trends. Below is a video timeline of the Paramount Pictures logo development. 

Advertising our Blog

We decided that to attract an audience for our Media group we would use a variety of social media. Social media sites have become all the more popular since the introduction of smart phone apps such as instagram, twitter and Facebook so this is where we chose to post about our blog and production progress. 

We chose twitter and instagram as they attract an audience of teenagers and young adults, similar to the target audience are aiming at in our film opening. Also, by having a Facebook page we can advertise our work to all our friends and family and invite them to gain frequent updates about SHER Productions. 

On our instagram page we can post visual updates. So far, we have uploaded filming progress as we had begun the filming process. These include a number of our test shots when experimenting with different types of lighting and focus. 














The twitter page is our main method of advertising SHER Productions as it is quick and simple to attach photos and links. Therefore, we can link twitter users to our Facebook posts and instagram pictures and videos, in turn, increasing peoples awareness of SHER. The hashtag craze allows us to hashtag relatable words to our post which widens our audience and opens up our page and film to millions of twitter users worldwide. 

Colour in a Psychological Thriller

Colour can create different emotions and feelings towards a certain attitude or representation and can adjust the mood and atmosphere in any image or clip. Through our film opening it is crucial we explore the different colours which will enhance the meaning of a phycological thriller in our piece. 

Black Swan Trailer

The Colours frequently used in this trailer are mainly black, white and red, which each contribute to the contrasting mood and atmosphere of this clip. The negative dark lighting and black colours used signify death, hiding a secret and evil. Differing from this imagery is the light spotlights and white which demonstrates purity, beauty and innocence. The red is also a very bold colour which stand outs, in revealing blood, death and danger. When creating our phycological thriller we may decide to incorporate these three elements of colours/lighting, to produce a similar representation and symbolism.

Se7en Film Opening

Here in the Film Opening Se7en, the use of colours explored are mainly exposed to be black, white and red, which were the same in 'Black Swan', representing a pattern of what the colours are in a conventional physiological thriller. In this film opening there is also a lot of dark shadows casted over the viewing, which creates a mysterious and fearful atmosphere. These shadows also make it hard to distinguish the setting, which further creates disorientation and concealment.  However, the light guided over certain parts of the shot reveal certain focus points, which direct the viewers attention to certain movement or objects. 

Colour Symbolism Chart 
Here is a colour chart which indicates the possible meanings behind how colours are represented. 

	Red: Excitement, energy, passion, love, desire, speed, strength, power, heat, aggression, danger, fire, blood, war, violence, all things intense and passionate.
	Pink symbolises love and romance, caring, tenderness, acceptance and calm.
	Beige and ivory symbolise unification. Ivory symbolises quiet and pleasantness. Beige symbolises calm and simplicity.
	Yellow signifies joy, happiness, betrayal, optimism, idealism, imagination, hope, sunshine, summer, gold, philosophy, dishonesty, cowardice, jealousy, covetousness, deceit, illness, hazard and friendship.
	Blue: Peace, tranquility, cold, calm, stability, harmony, unity, trust, truth, confidence, conservatism, security, cleanliness, order, loyalty, sky, water, technology, depression, appetite suppressant.
	Turquoise symbolises calm. Teal symbolises sophistication. Aquamarine symbolises water. Lighter turquoise has a feminine appeal.
	Purple: Royalty, nobility, spirituality, ceremony, mysterious, transformation, wisdom, enlightenment, cruelty, honour, arrogance, mourning.
	Lavender symbolises femininity, grace and elegance.
	Orange: Energy, balance, enthusiasm, warmth, vibrant, expansive, flamboyant, demanding of attention.
	Green: Nature, environment, healthy, good luck, renewal, youth, spring, generosity, fertility, jealousy, inexperience, envy, misfortune, vigour.
	Brown: Earth, stability, hearth, home, outdoors, reliability, comfort, endurance, simplicity, and comfort.
	Grey: Security, reliability, intelligence, staid, modesty, dignity, maturity, solid, conservative, practical, old age, sadness, boring. Silver symbolises calm.
	White: Reverence, purity, birth, simplicity, cleanliness, peace, humility, precision, innocence, youth, winter, snow, good, sterility, marriage (Western cultures), death (Eastern cultures), cold, clinical.
	Black: Power, sexuality, sophistication, formality, elegance, wealth, mystery, fear, evil, unhappiness, depth, style, sadness, remorse, anger, anonymity, underground, good technical colour, mourning, death (Western cultures).

How to Create Fake Blood

How to Create Fake Blood

We decided that in our physiological thriller we may use fake blood in some of the scenes to enhance a more disturbing mood and atmosphere. This was a possibility, however through planning we will decide whether it is necessary. 

Here I have research how to make fake blood through this video clip

Materials:

• Measuring cup
• Measuring spoons
• Blue and red dye
• Corn starch
• Corn syrup
• Cocoa powder

Measurements:

• 8 tbsp corn syrup
• 1 tsp cocoa
• 1/4 tsp corn starch
• 1/2 drop blue dye
• 1 tsp red dye

Method:

Stir all together and make the necessary adjustments to make the fake blood more life like.

Conventions of a Film opening

Here I have created a clip which outlines what a film opening would normally contain. It also reviews the different themes which are usually presented in a psychological thriller films. This information enables us to use the different conventions of a film opening and incorporate some of the themes usually seen in a film to make it a psychological thriller, in our own work.

Picture Mood Board

Along with our spider diagram mood board we created following a discussion, I created a picture mood board to summarise our ideas and visually represent our thoughts and ideas. We will use this mood board along with the other one to stick to the codes and conventions of a typical psychological thriller and to give us a guideline of what we should includes with reference to shot types, colours and lighting. 

The mood board when looked at uses dark colours with splashes of red and neon green to indicate the sudden electric drama that is found in psychological thrillers. The mood board also displays a number of examples of films we watched for inspiration with our opening.