What skills we have learnt between doing our preliminary task and thriller

So far we have learnt how to

• Work as a team in relation to filming, e.g One person filming the other zooming. People having to leave the room due to certain shots and mirror problems etc.
• How to film different type of shots 
• Filming in the difficulty of a mirror along the length of the room.
• we have learnt the skill of ballet 
• we have learnt how to work more independently  with the camera.

Online film magazines

We feel that empire is more likely to review our film rather than total film   magazine. We feel this because empire looks more like a sophisticated magazine with formal reviews and more serious colours(red/black) dark colours however we feel that total film is more informal. it uses brighter colours and uses text such as 'No School no rules' which is really cheesy and it seems its more for happier films along the comedy genre, however we feel are film is much more serious then this. 

its hard to find different between the magazines as both are mainstream magazines that review popular films however it does feel one is formal and ones more informal for a younger audience. 

The Women In Black- IMDB

This is a detailed page of the film 'The Women In Black' on IMDB.
The page includes the title of the film, a rating, a short synopsis of the film , who directs the film, the writer of the film and the main stars. It also provides the genre's of the film e.g thriller, drama. Release dates of the film are also given for the country you're in and run time (95min)
It also includes pictures from the film, pictures from the production and the main poster advertisement of the movie.
There's also a link to the trailer of the movie.
You're also given related video's from films like this one.

Individual Contribution So Far

So far within this project I have contributed in a few things. 
I helped with the planning of the story line to our opening sequence and also came up with ideas for the name of our film. I also contributed ideas to music suggestions and the mise en scene within the shots. I also play the role of the protagonist within the sequence this involving bringing the appropriate costume for myself. I also helped to upload our footage onto the computer and helped with editing and filming. 

Individual Contributions

My individual contributions to our opening sequence so far have been: helping to come up with and develop the storyline, playing the main character of the antagonist, bringing in costume parts such as a black top so that my character looks creepy and dark, bringing in a music box with specific eerie sounding ballet music that we thought would fit well with our storyline and create tension, ideas of how to film certain parts in the best way and how to overcome problems such as re positioning when we wanted to film a certain thing but the mirrors in our scene revealed the camera from that angle, and helping to steady the camera on a tripod when filming from a high angle.
I have really enjoyed playing a part in our film, directing some filming, helping to edit and working in our group throughout this project.

Thriller conventions and their use within our work

The two conventions I am going to look at are: Enigmas and Micro Elements that Combine in a build up of suspense. 

Enigmas: 

I think our group used the thriller convention Enigmas in a very effective way. From the beginning of the scene to the end we have the audience thinking and asking questions in relation to what is happening on the screen. 

The first enigma created is that of the setting and the genre and how they could be possibly related. This is due to the connotations that come with a ballet studio are very positive. 

The second enigma which is the strongest and more obvious is who the person wearing fully black and watching the dancers is.  This character creates tension as we don't know who they are and why they are standing there. 

Micro Elements: 

Mise en scene - The mise en scene used in our opening sequence works well to build suspense, examples of this are the dancers clothing and the setting. 

The clothing used within the sequence is very important. The 2 dancers wear white tights, leotards and a white top. The teacher wears all black. The stereotypical connotations of white and black are good and bad. Therefore before we even start we get the impression the teacher is bad and the dancers are innocent and good. 

Sound - The sound being used within our sequence is going to be stereotypical ballet music but slow and eeiry. This will create suspense as it will subvert the image. 

Editing - The editing within the sequence will be just straight forward cuts but some will be quick paced to create tension. 

Cinematography - The cinematography within the sequence creates tension as most shots have been positioned so you can't see one person which is the teacher. 

2 thriller conventions we will show through technical elements

A typical convention of a thriller film is how a series of or one important enigma would be set up in the opening sequence of the film, further complicated during the first part of the film and resolved at the very end of the film. As we are only filming an opening sequence we cannot further complicate our enigmas throughout or resolve them at the end, but we have definitely set up a series of enigmas in our opening sequence and have tried to do so in a way that would make our audience want to continue watching to find out the reasons behind these enigmas and how they are resolved. The enigmas our audience will be left wondering about after watching our opening sequence will be why the antagonist has an obsession with one particular character, what is wrong with the antagonist, if they are a previous criminal, and what they are going to do. Technical elements that help us to make these enigmas apparent are: camerawork such as how the shots are taken from behind the antagonist's shoulder and head to clearly show how they are watching the protagonist constantly, editing certain shots one after another to show how things link together and reveal the beginning of secrets and enigmas, mise en scene costumes such as pink ballet outfits to make the scene look realistic and show the vulnerability of the girls, and sound such as eerie sounding ballet music to show the audience something is not right.

Another convention of a thriller film we use in our opening sequence is how the narrative presents ordinary situations in which extraordinary things happen. We filmed a part of our opening sequence inside some normal looking toilets, but through editing we will create a scene where the antagonist will appear then disappear from behind the protagonist in the mirror. To create this we filmed two different parts of the scene, one with the antagonist behind the protagonist and another with just the protagonist looking in the mirror and nothing behind her. We will edit them together smoothly and the protagonist also kept very still in both scenes so that it looks realistic and as if it was not cut between. This will hopefully surprise our audience and give a creepy effect.

Individual contribution so far

So far during the process of the thriller opening I have created a variety of the blog posts to add up to our groups need of 50, as well as this I contributed to the story line and what we should do as our thriller.
During the filming I process I have filmed many of the shots we will be using in our opening sequence, I have helped set up equipment and upload video's and helped contribute on how we will be filming many of the shots. 

2 Thriller Conventions We Used.

In our thriller opening we have lots of enigmas. This is a common convention used in thrillers. Most of our story line is surrounded by enigmas, and as we are only making the opening they never get solved. The cinematography helps to show these enigmas as most of them are about the ballet teacher, and you don't actually get a proper look at her. The sound we used is also an enigma as it is mainly ballet music and not speech. The editing of our opening sequence will also create enigmas as it will flicker between different images that do not always fit together, making the audience try to work out what is going on.

The mise en scene is another thriller convention that we used. Our antagonist is dressed all in black, which makes her look more mysterious, and the ballerinas are dressed in typical ballet clothes. These two outfits create another enigma between as they are opposite outfits which give of opposite thoughts. The dark outfit makes her seem quite scary and creepy, while the ballerinas look so innocent. The high camera angle add to this as it looks as if the ballet dancers are being watched and they don't know that they are. 

Individual Contribution

My individual contributions for the thriller project include doing some blog posts and doing some of the filming for the thriller opening. This was a shared responsibility. I was also responsible for bringing in the jewellery box with the ballerina in it, as this is one of the main props in our thriller opening. I also helped to come up with some of the ideas of some of our main enigma's, and some of the ways to film without the camera being seen in the mirror. I was also one of the characters in our preliminary task. 

Thriller conventions and how they're used in our Thriller.

Enigmas
Our thriller storyline definitely features the use of Enigmas, throughout the opening sequence we use the enigma of the antagonist stalking this ballet dancer, the antagonist is player by her teacher and the audience asks, why is he doing this and whats his need to stalk this young girl.


This enigma is shown throughout the opening sequence  through  cinematography in the way of camera angles and shot types as we record parts of the ballet class and then how the antagonist moves into the young girl closer and closer however we don't film any parts to show why he is doing this, which makes the audience ask why? During the opening you never really see the teachers face which builds a lot of tension, you see parts but there is no close up shot to reveal too much and to show is just a normal actor.


We also use sound in the opening sequence point however this sound doesn't directly relate to the Enigma, the sound we will be using is a light ballet sound which doesn't really enforce the enigma however we will edit this sound and make it contradict what will be happening in the scene, for instance quite a tense dramatic scene will have calming music, this will keep the audience on edge and introduce a new enigma of 'why is this happening'


Mis-en-scene will be used to enforce the Enigma as our Antagonist will be dressed in all black clothing, this contradicts the bright colourful clothes of the ballet dancers and will create tension, as well as this dark clothing gives mystery and darkness to the character now showing any kind of emotion or picture of them, along with the clothing to make our antagonist even more dark and scary  the character will always be looking down which makes them seem quite mysterious and like they have something to hide, this will enforce the Enigma and keep the audience in question.

The use of editing in our opening sequence will also further carry on this Enigma, the use of flicking from shot to picture's of the young girl on a poster and different photos of her will build this idea up for the audience to try figure out.

Micro elements combine in a build up of suspense.
This  convention is also shown in our Thriller opening, many parts of the opening combine up to create suspense and mystery during the scene.


The use of cinematography shows this convention because during the opening sequence we use very long shots and little close up shots, showing minimalistic values of the characters so the audience don't get to many idea's of what is happening, this is shown mainly through the antagonist as the audience never really see this persons face, this creates a build up and then the fact we have a huge Ballet mirror the use of mirroring in the opening sequence and things disappearing in the mirror, this also adds to the suspense as the audience can see certain parts of what's happening to the girl while she can't see it, this causes frustration and intensity to the audience. 


The use of mis-en-scene also uses this convention as we dress the antagonist in dark black clothing which builds up suspense as it means they're kept dark and secretive and not much is revealed about the character as well as this are use of posters and pictures of the young girl used as props are in the opening sequence and they suddenly appear on the screen, which makes the audience confused and wonder what is happening now, whats the antagonist done to the girl? etc


The use of editing is also used to build up tense as we use quick flashes and quick clips means the audience are kept on there toes throughout the sequence 

Individual Contribution - Sophie O'Dell

Individual Contribution

Throughout this thriller project, I feel I have contributed well to group work and individual work.

I play a main part in our thriller, being one of the ballet dancers in the thriller opening and I have also done some of the filming for our thriller. I feel I have helped to direct the group well in most aspects such as camera angles, extra props (poster made and designed by me, and ideas to create the ongoing enigmas). I feel that my contribution has significantly helped the group move on with things and feel motivated in creating the scenes and coming up with the overall idea.

The costumes were throught up by myself and charlotte and the idea to use our setting of the college dance studio was also an idea from myself, so we could then film easily within college hours as we all live miles apart from one another. It was then my responsibilty to make sure we could book the studio when we wanted it and make sure it was free. I feel without some of my motivation our group wouldn't have progressed how it has and I feel that some of the ideas we have come up with, it has been me that has tried to develop them and use the correct thriller conventions.

Overall, I feel this project has really widened my knowledge of how thrillers should be filmed to look effective, and how to use different camera angles etc to create the atmosphere we want to for an audience to feel.

Analysis of two thriller conventions we are going to use - Sophie O'Dell

Themes of seeing, reflection and mirroring

In our opening of a thriller we are going to use the convention of themes of seeing, reflection and mirroring to create the thriller theme. We are going to present this convention by using mirrors throughout the piece which will create a theme of uncertainty as you can always see what is behind the main character and enhances the element of surprise and drama.

The camera angles we are going to use show the antagonist appearing behind the ballet dancer and then disappearing in the mirror to trick the eye and to also build up the suspense of who this person is who keeps flashing in and out of view, here we will edit all of our clips together to they run smoothly from one another changing the contrast of light to give the effect of a flash signifying her disappearence. The camera angles we use allow the ballet dancer to be oblivious to the reflection of the antagonist and so does not fear their presence, apart from at the very end in the bathrooms when she feels a presence of someone behiund her buyt when she looks they're gone.  The antagonist will mirror the body movements and positions of the ballet dancer at various points to show a theme of the antagonist hiding from the ballet dancer, trying to stay unnoticed and secretive. The variety of camera angles we are going to use, such as over the shoulder shots and long shots, show both intense moments of the antagonist being secretive and an over view of the whole scene portraying a clear atmosphere to the audinece.

Elements of mise en scene which we will use are; we are going to use a dance studio with a wall of mirrors to create the effect we want with the reflections and mirroring. We are also going to use the toilet mirrors to show this same element of being able to see what is creeping up behind you, but we have changed the scene to show how this girl is clearly being followed. We chose two characters for the antagonist and the ballet dance who were similar iun size so the antagonist can easily be masked by the ballet dancer at certain points. We aren't going to use any "object" props in the thriller opening as the mirrors are the main focused on prop as they give us this thriller convention of seeing, reflection and mirroring. Because you can see our costumes from both sides, in the reflection as well as the side the camera captures, we made sure our outfits and hair were the same style etc.

We are going to use diegetic sounds such as music from a jewlery box as well as music we are going to create in garage band which relates ballet thriller theme. The non-diegtic sound will show the delicateness of ballet dancing but then also allow the scene to become a thriller as you can see this evil antagonist approaching the ballet dancer, but the music sounds peaceful and delicate.

We will edit the scenes in our thriller opening to show the sudden approaching of the antagonist behind the ballet dancer in the mirror. We intend to edit in special effects to put between this trasitions to make them smoother and also build up an intesity and highlight suddne movements. We also want to edit in clips of the poster, photographs of girls and the antagonists eyes to show the element of seeing these girls at this ballet class and the obsession the antagonist has over them.

Enigmas

For our thriller opening we are going to use a definite element of Enigmas. We are going to do this by having an ongoing enigma of who the antagonist is and why they have such an obsession over this one ballet dancer:

The use of camera angles and shots in the thriller opening, really show the element of enigmas as the camera never gets a close up shot of the antagonists face and keeps this ongoing enigmas throughout the opening. We also vary the shots of the antagonist and the ballet dancers, to show the obsession that the antagonist has over the dancers but never reveals why through shots. We keep the shots short and snappy of the antagonist ensuring not to reveal too much. 

The elements of mise en scene that we will use to keep the enigmas are to have the antagnoist all in black, not showing their identity and personality in anyway. We will also have them always looking down so when we shot them in the mirror you could never see the reflection of their face. We also are goin to show snappy shots of the ballet lesson poster and crossed out images of the girls photographs, these images will keeping appearing between scenes creating an enigma of why this person has crossed out photos of these girls and what really the ballet class is about for this teahcer.

The sound we are going to use will not reveal uncertainty as we are going to use light ballet music however, at some points this music will go be the oppisite of the action in the scene, but we feel this will also add the element of thriller because it is abnormal and will make the audience feel uncomfortable.

We are going to edit in the music (above) and also the extra images of the girls photos and the poster to ensure that the enigmas keep on building for the audience to figure out. We want to also add in special affects to increase the thriller theme and elements of enigmas because it will disjoint the images and the viewer will be intrigued into what these images mean.

Challenges of the shoot.

The main problem we faced while filming our thriller opening was to be able to film without seeing the camera in the mirror, as most of it has been filmed in front of a mirror. At times we also had to hide in the room so we could not be seen in the shot.

It was also a challenge to keep the main characters in the shot as we were zoomed in and the choreography meant they kept moving out the shot. 

We also found it difficult to shoot the high shot as we couldn't get the camera high enough. This also made it hard to keep the camera still.

It was also a challenge to book the dance studio as there was other people that wanted to use it. As we were filming in there for 2 different days it was difficult to make sure the outfits were the same both days.

Who is your target audience?

The target audience for our thriller is teenagers who are aged 12 and above. It is for both genders but girls may enjoy it more because of the ballet theme. They will have probably watched thrillers like 'black swan' before. Their favorite director could be Darren Aronofsky as he directed Black Swan.

Which social groups are you using in your thriller?

In our thriller we're using  the social groups of Ballet Dancers, the stereotypical image of these is of a controlled dancer with lots of talent and perfect form, they're quite individual people who are artistic and insular.
In our thriller opening we show ballet dancers but in a different type of form, Not so perfect, more of a worried character who is aware of her surroundings,  different from the ordinary stereotype are opening sequence also portrays the image that ballet teachers are that of a creepy character, who look at the people in there class this is different from the normal ballet teacher who is very talented and a proud person.

Another social group we use is that of youth, this is usually portrayed badly as kids aren't seen very well by elder people as we are seen to all do drugs, smoke and drink lots.
In our thriller opening youth is portrayed to be sensible. talented and victimized by the elder generation, this is a completely different image to what's seen usually.

Review of equipment we have used so far.

So far with our  Thriller opening we have used-

• Apple imac
• Sony Camera
• Tripod
• Jewellery box

We have learn how to successfully  use a camera and use different shots with a camera, we have also learnt how to successfully film using a mirror without seeing yourself, we have also learnt how to watch back our clips and view pictures using the camera. 

Pro's

Good quality picture with the quality picture

Steady picture using the tripod

Typing is easier then handwriting 

Con's

A bad thing about the camera is that it can occasionally be quite slow, also you have to worry about battery life as you don't want it to run out while filming. 

Another Con could be that someone could use the camera and delete our footage.

We could forget to press record, turn the camera on.

Title Ideas

- The Obsession - Can't be used as shown in the research as it is already a title
- The Class - Could be interpreted as a school film
- Attraction - Is good but doesn't show the determination of the teacher
- Crazed * - effectively shows the extent to which the teacher will go
- Infatuation * - Shows the fixation the character has and creates an enigma
- Passion - Shows the strength but not effective enough
- Fixation - Not effect enough for the title of our film

Out of the two titles - 'Crazed' and 'Infatuation' the group prefers the title 'Infatuation'.

Call Sheet

Monday 20th February: We will start filming in our media lesson at 10.50am, and we will film for 1 hour and a half. We can film our opening in college hours as our setting is in the college dance studio.

Tuesday 21st February: We will start filming at 2.40pm until 4.10pm and will hopefully be able to finish off the filming for our opening sequence.

If our filming is not finished by the end of Tuesday 21st we will continue filming in our lunchtimes during the college day. These time periods will be from 12.20-1.05pm.

Friday 24th February: We will hopefully start editing at 9am as we think we will have got all of our filming done by this time. We will then edit for 1hour and a half and start to create our sound for the opening using garage band.

First day of filming:
(Depending on availability of our main location) If the dance studio is not available, we will do the shorter shots such as the shot of the music box, the poster and the toilet mirror scene. But if it is available on this day, we will make sure we get all of our shots done in the dance studio which is the main part of our opening.

Second Day of filming:
If not done so already, we will do the shots of the music box, the poster and the toilet mirror scene. These shots are the joining shots which break up the scenes which are in the dance studio. These shots also build up the suspense and the set off enigmas that we want the viewers to wander about.

Story Board

Shot List

Close up shot - Music box and ballet dancer
Medium shot - Poster flickering
Long shot - Zooms out onto real girl
Establishing shot - shows the whole of the class
Extreme Long Shot, Over the Shoulder shot - of ballet class
Extreme Long Shot, POV shot - in the place of the teacher watching the dancers directed in front
Close up shot - Music box
Long shot - Ballet class
Close up - Ballet dancers face
Extreme close up - Dancers face
Long shot - Ballet class minus one dancer
POV shot, Pan - Girl in the middle of the room and teacher is circling
Close up - Girls face
Extreme close up - Dancers eye with the reflection of the teacher in the pupil
Long shot - Girl in the mirror and teacher behind
- Teacher disappears and flickers

Inspiration Research

Our group has watched this opening sequence of a TV series that was shown a few months ago and decided to use it as research as it is very similar to our idea of having a ballet teacher who is obsessed with a student. We found this video during our research and watching it has helped us with ideas for costumes, props and settings and has helped us to decide on things we can use in our opening sequence to make it look more realistic, as watching a real televised opening sequence has given us ideas and inspiration on how to make it look as good as we can.

Evaluation of test footage

Our test footage could have been better for many reasons, some of these being:
- We were not able to use our preferred location - dance studio, due to short notice
- We were not able to use the costumes which will be used in the real filming

Although despite these things I think our test footage was very effective just because we got to play with some clips we want to add within our final film (Bathroom scene) and we also have learnt that some shots we would like to do may not be easy to do (Close up of the teacher) due to focusing issues.

We were able to practice certain shots such as high establishing shots and close up shots of Charlottes face in the mirror. We also were able to practice getting the angle right of the shot with chloe disappearing in the mirror. This is an element of our thriller which is quite significant and therefore it helped us being able to practice it. We think that the test shots gave us more of an idea of effective shots that we could use and widened our ideas and canera shots for our thriller. Our opening thriller will now consist of a varied amount of shots enabling us to keep the viewers attention.

TEST FOOTAGE

Planning for test footage

3 Thriller Conventions:

• Construction of enigmas = Why the ballet teacher is obsessed with the students and what is wrong with him. Face of teacher only reveled at the end of the sequence.

• Contrapuntal music = Eerie piano music which sounds unsettling for the class. Starts of as normal ballet music becomes slower and unsettling as the scene progresses.

• Limited information given through camera angels (E.g. extreme close ups) = The viewer can only see the back of the teacher, and close up shots of students in the mirrors, as if from his point of view. Close up of his face only shown at the end reveals things about the plot.

3 Camera Techniques

•  High angled zoom setting the scene of the action. Zooming in onto ballet students from teachers point of view. 

• Close up shots of the mirror so that we can use transitions to create an effect of
• someone’s reflection appearing and disappearing. 

• Mid shots to show the class and tracking shots whilst the class goes on.

All of the thriller opening will be shot in the dance studio, or in the corridor next to it. Creating an eerie unknown atmosphere. To shoot them we will need a camera and tripod. We will use a tripod to ensure that certain shots are steady and accurate, as we want it to look professional and to not disturb the tension through shaky amateur shots.