Evaluation Question 1

'The Greater Good' Film Opening

Here is our final version of our film opening 'The Greater Good'

Difficulties with Footage

We have finally finshed filming all of the needed footage for our film opening. We made sure to overfilm but sometimes found that once at the editing stage the footage didnt work or could be improved. We went through all the different shots, eliminating the footage that wasnt good enough for the final cut. When doing all of this we found that many shots were too bright/dark and whole scenes had to be refilmed because of this problem. However we managed to find the time to re-film thse shots and edit them into the sequence effectively. Another problem we encountered was that some of the shots didnt fit in with the Psychological Thriller genre and so therefore we decided that we would replace them, such as the crime wall we we had in our first cut and the stalking scene that peers suggested should be done in a more appropiate setting as we had used an empty room in school.

Editing our Opening Sequence

Once we got all of our footage onto iMovie we bagan to roughly cut the film, so that it was in the correct order and that the story line made sense. On multiple times we found that some of the shots didnt work as well on a large screen or that the continuity of the shots was wrong. when this haooened we had to find another day to refilm and make sure we had the right shots. We played around with different effects including black and white, sepia and reverse frames. We included jump cuts to create confusion for the audience.

Sound Effects in our Film Opening

Sound Effects

We used this website to get our sound effects for our film opening. We wanted to find atmospheric sounds that created tension and suspense. We made sure that they were all copyright free- http://soundbible.com/tags-scary.html

We used the 'Scary Ambiance' sound which increased the tension within our opening.

http://soundbible.com/1756-Scary-Ambiance.html

We found 'Backward Souls" which again added to the atmosphere.
http://soundbible.com/383-Backwards-Souls.html

We used this at the beginning of our film opening for the phone call to the police.
http://soundbible.com/1868-Ringing-Phone.html

We incorporated more digetic and non-digetic sounds into our opening to create more realistic mood.

Iconic Sounds Related to Psychological Thrillers

There have been many pieces of music and sounds used in thriller films. Typically eerie music is used to create suspense and keep the audience on edge for what happens next in the narrative. Dramatic and scary music are played in many scenes that often make the audience jumpy, producing different moods and settings for thriller films.

• High pitched sounds/orchestral stabs, such as screeches. Eg. 'Psycho' when the female is stabbed in the shower - adds suspense and horror/ thriller to the film
• terrifying screams
• squeaky doors
• disturbing laughs
• diegetic sound 
• non-diegetic sound
• synchronous
• asynchronous sounds
• ambient sounds

In contrast some quieter pieces may be used, usually they are soothing with a consistent beat throughout. This type of music will have the opposite effect on the audience making them feel calm/relaxed/lulled into a false sense os security so when something happens the audience jumps suddenly and the audience will not be expecting it.

Sometimes slow music is used when a character is hiding (not during a chase scene) - adds tension and tone/atmosphere

Usually the music/sounds associated with thrillers are edgy and dark, sometimes sinister depending on the subject and generally classical. The sounds can give information to the audience about the character on screen.

Psycho: This was a groundbreaking thriller film with many iconic sounds. The film uses the famous 'da da da da' sounds, later recognised in thriller films when something pivotal is going to happen. The iconic sound usually appeared if the antagonist was creeping up on the protagonist or if a character is about to get hurt/murdered. Another famous sound used was the 'ding ding ding ding' when the woman is murdered in the shower, then changes to a lower pitch.

Title Fonts

Choosing the fonts for our psychological thriller

We used this website to choose the right font which would suit the genre of phycological thriller - http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=603&page=5


Are all the fonts free of charge?

The fonts presented on this website are their authors' property, and are either freeware, shareware, demo versions or public domain. The licence mentioned above the download button is just an indication. Please look at the readme-files in the archives or check the indicated author's website for details, and contact him if in doubt. If no author/licence is indicated that's because we don't have information, that doesn't mean it's free.

The Note of the author:

"Fun, crafty font. Free for personal and non-profit use."

This meant it was copyright free so we were able to use it our credits. 




We decided to use this particular font because its imperfect style reflects the dysfunctional editing and complies with the overall mood of our genre.

Final Re-Filming

Today we went to Tonbridge park to re-film the stair scene for our film opening.

Originally the three shots looked like different times of the day, so for continuity purposes we decided to re-film. We also decided to go later on in the evening for more low key lighting as it connotes fear and suspense, typical of a psychological thriller.

We concidered where the scene was taking place and how it appeared to make sure it fit with the rest of our opening. Unfortunately the stairs we used before were too dark to film at so we moved to a different set of stairs, which worked just as well and allowed us to experiment with many angles and shots.

We used an the same iphone camera as previous and the steadicam produced a slightly unsteady image which creates a sense of immediacy. It also allows greater mobility when filming as we were tracking our victim walking up some stairs.

We are happy with the shots we got today and aim to edit as soon as possible.

Health and Safety Concerns

Before we began filming the shots we needed, we had to think about our locations and the health and safety that we had to be aware of. For example, we had to be aware of the general public, trip hazards, water/fire hazards and the safety of the camera equipment and the actors. 

We made sure to get the shots as precise as possible on the first take so that the shooting time was minimal and overshot just in case :)

The Station Platform/Stairs
One of our locations was the local station. However when we tried to film we were told filming wasn't allowed at stations due to public safety. In the end we decided it wasn't a safe place to film as there was constant dangers. Eg.. Trains, other passengers. As a result we moved our location to the local castle stairs.  Here there were less safety hazards and was easier to shoot without risking the danger of the equipment.


Alleyway
For the end section of our film we decided to film in an alleyway. There are a lot of safety concerns that come with filming at night in a dark alleyway so we tried to minimise these.1.) Brought lots of torches2.) wrapped up warm3.) used an alleyway behind one of our houses so if there was a problem we could get help nearby4.) made sure there was at least 3 people

Cafe Nero
When we were filming in the vicinity of public citizens we had to make sure we wouldn't be shooting in an area that would affect the people around us. We had to be careful not to be a nuisance and make sure that when filming that we would not move into people who may be positioned nearby. While filming at Cafe Nero we had to move around a lot from seat to seat to get different angles that we wanted so we had to be careful to be out of the way of the public. to make sure we were separated we moved to the corner of the shop where no one was sitting. We also decided to film just before the shop was about to close so it would be relatively empty and made sure to ask the shop assistant for permission.

Church 
We finally decided to use our local churches our filming location. We were given access to the church for a whole afternoon and the wardens were fine with us using candles. As we needed our actress to be barefoot we brought wooly socks and made sure there was nothing sharp on the floor. 

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.

Creating Music for our Film Opening

When watching different clips of phycological thrillers, it was difficult to create a piece of music which fit with our filming. We decided to have a track which was created by Serena Evans and then if we needed to layer over different sounds to distort it more we could. 

This is the sound track played by Serena on the piano as our first music attempt for our film opening.

Schedule for Sunday 9th March

Plan for Sunday 9th March is as follows:

1:00pm - Meet at St. P&P church, Tonbridge
1:15pm - Set up and establish filming areas
              + Ellie our actress will arive - do make up
1:30pm - Begin filming
4:00pm - Finished filming and head back to Serena's
4:15pm - Do foley sounds/film
5:00pm - Break
5:15pm - Re-film parts of the Alleyway scene
6:00pm - A wrap!

Make sure we over film and stick to our health and safety rules - especially fire.

How to Change the Speed of a Clip in iMovie

For our Film Opening we wanted to make some of the clips slower to build up tension within the narrative. As none of us are very experience with iMovie we decided to look up on Youtube how to change the speed of a clip in iMovie. We found one that was especially easy to understand - here it is:

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.