Moodboards

Moodboards

Moodboards are more commonly known as inspiration boards which are an arrangement of images and text. It used to evoke a mood or a specific idea through these images. In my storyboard I tried to evoke the idea of an action thriller.

The pictures from Fast and Furious gave us the inspiration for our adrenaline
 packed thriller which involves a numerous amount of cars. The picture of the estate blocks shows what we want our location to be like. Estates in London are known to inhabit gang activity. We want the audience to figure this out. The alleyway is our well though out location to evoke thrill and suspense in the audience. The location will be dark as it well be filmed on a gloomy end of the day.

Before any planning this mood board allowed us to put our ideas into pictures and disperse it on a large piece of paper. This helped us to decide if our ideas will work well together.

Treatment

Treatment

Group Roles Cinematography: Josh Mise-en-scene: Eric Sound: Altin Editing: Arbaaz

Title:  Hunter Hunted Tag Line:  “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer”

Synopsis: A day in the ghetto turns good to bad real quick. Altin and Arbaaz patrol the ghetto when out of nowhere they see unexpected trouble. The chase for the trouble begins. From the depths of the estate to the narrow dark alleyways of Dagenham. Will the success of the trouble break ties with friendship? Hunters will be hunted!

Key Genre Conventions: ·        McGuffin – the exchange of a package to throw the audience off. ·        Cliff-hanger – betrayal in the thriller leaving the audience  wanting more ·        Mise – en – scene – All black costume to show gang representation through colour then different colour for enemy. Distinguishing between two different gangs. ·        Camera shots – establishing shot of the estate to show the audience of the setting ; familiarising them with the surroundings.

Lighting Exercise

This video demonstrates the different lighting techniques that films use to create an specific effect within a scene. The types of lighting techniques consisted in the video are listed as follows:

• No lighting 
• Three lighting set up 
• Key light 
• Back light
• Under lighting
• Top lighting
• Low key lighting 
• High key lighting

Costume - Planning Document

Costumes and Props

Character Name: Arbaaz Raza
Costume: All black costume	Props: Car
Character Name: Altin Derri
Costume: All black costume	Props: Baseball bat
Character Name: Josh Byrne
Costume: All black outfit with black bandana	Props: Cricket bat

Character: Erick Kasaine
Costume: red outfit with black	Props: None

Animatics blog

Animatic Blog 

An animatic is a preview of any film, which is produced by successive shots of your storyboard. The animatic will try to recreate what your actual final piece will look like. They are used mainly to test pre production of a film. It can be used to rule out any problems with productions as well.

I made my animatic by taking individual pictures of my storyboard. Then I uploaded the pictures to premier pro to start the editing phase. An animatic uses the pictures and brings them to life. So the additional notes on camera angles I tried to recreate using my editing skills. The use of movement of the car shows how I tried to bring the animatic to life. Once I had put the pictures together and added movement the animatic is formed.

I used thriller music to present the genre of the film in the animatic. I also used sound effect to recreate the actual filming. The sound effect I used was the car engine starting. This is because in one of the pictures I had keys in the ignition.

Animatic

Storyboards

What are storyboards?

Storyboards allow your ideas in your head to come alive. It allows you to put your ideas on a piece of paper. A storyboard will give you a preview of what your filming would consist of.

A storyboard consist of a picture and a description of it. The picture will be what will be in the shot. The descriptions will contain, most importantly, the type of camera shot and any other additional informations such as setting, actors, camera movement, lighting or special effects. This is all the misc en scene of your shots.

When making your storyboard you can label characters to avoid confusion. It does not have to be detail drawing. Stickmen can do the job if you can make the shot obvious.





complete storyboard

Me working on my storyboard

Camera Exercise

Audience Research - opening thriller

Audience Research

We then pitched our ideas to our classmates who were our audience. One by one we pitched our ideas. This constructive criticism helped us pick the right ideas. 

We pitched our ideas one by one. Our first idea was thought to be not thriller enough but more of a crime action movie. A thriller needs good tension and suspense. The audience expressed that in an opening thriller with mafia elements we couldn't create a The idea of the different mcguffins seemed to complex to film and to make into a effective thriller. The first idea would take much more intricate planning than any other. It would be hard to make it an effective opening to a thriller.

The second idea seemed like a more sensible idea to go with. The idea of a chase allowed there to be a more adrenaline packed thriller. a chase can be very tense in itself. We discussed camera shots and the use of action to get the audience on the edge of their seats. Our audience thought it would be the most sensible idea to go for. The story was not complicated and it could be easier to film than the first one.

The third idea had similar reactions to the first idea. The story seemed to complicated to film and make into an effective thriller. The audience suggested we merge some of the ideas of the second and this idea. This would make an effective thriller.

First production meeting : ideas generation

Our group had 3 initial ideas. This was two action thrillers and one comedy action thrillers.

Our first Idea - Action Thriller.

Our theme for this idea was the mafia. We had a mcguffin that was a bag, which had no actual relevance to the thriller. We also had a cliffhanger, which was that one of the bags was switched but the characters do not know. The story is quite simple but an effective thriller. The setting of the thriller would be an estate block. There would be a exchange of conversation and an exchange of bag. What the characters do not know is that the same bag is with another character who is ease dropping on the exchange. This character would drive away creating confusion for the audience and the thriller opening would stop there.

Our second action thriller was the idea of a chase. We had a cliffhanger that was a betrayal from one of the characters. The story entails a casual day out in the neighbourhood when all of a sudden we see our villain. Then it becomes increasingly tense. The chase then starts with the characters after each other. Once they had trapped the villain in alleyway they then close on in on the him. At the end one of the other character betrays them to join the villains team.

Our third idea was a comedy thriller. The mcguffin in this opening would be valuables in the car. They have no actual relevance to the thriller. The story starts in the car with a bit of joyful music. There would be jokes being thrown in the car and funny banter between characters. We plan to pick up another character. This character is the creepy one. The audience would know this by the non diegetic music we would put after he his introduced. Then we would go for a drive and out of nowhere crash. Everyone would be badly injured or dead. The camera would track to the creepy characters phone, which is ringing. He would then pick up the phone then walk away. With the finishing speech "the job is done"

In the end, it was decided that the second idea was the best to go for! This was because we thought it could make the most effective thriller opening. We can use a good range of camera shots to embodied around a real thriller. The mix of both McGuffin and cliff-hanger would be the best way to get the audience wanting more. As we have access to props, location and costumers with the second idea it could lead to a much more successful thriller compared to the first or third idea.

Lighting

Lighting

The typical set up of lighting includes the subject,filler and key.

The key light is the brightest and most influential.

the backlight helps counteract the effect of key and creates an outline or silhouette

the filler light help to soften the harsh shadows that the use of key and back light creates

under lighting is when the main source comes from below the subject. used in thrillers and horror films

top lighting is when the main source of lighting comes from the above highlighting feature used to create a glamorous look.

low key lighting is created by using only the ket and backlight. it would produce a sharp contrast of light and dark area on the screen as very deep, distinct shadow are formed. this is chiaroscuro

key lighting

backlighting

Top lighting

Underlighting

reflector light

Gender Representation in Mad Men

Gender representation is how men or women are portrayed in the media. In Mad Men we are able to witness a series of events, which allows us to see how both genders are portrayed in that period of time.

In Mad Men season 1 episode 1, we are thrown into how women are seen in the workplace. Not surprisingly the men had the authoritative positions in the work place, for example the ad men and CEO of companies were men. This shows that during the 1900's there existed a very patriarchal society. Don Draper was enraged by the idea of women who wanted to do business with him in the office. It was uncommon for women to take lead roles. Instead they would take a more secretariat role in the office. This job allowed us the audience see the extent of extreme gender representation in the workplace. In  Mad Men, secretary's would encourage others to adopt more of a sex appeal in the work place. One worker points out that if Peggy was lucky she could go from working in the city to living in the countryside. From this we can infer that women needed to sell themselves in the workplace to the higher earning men in order to get married. In order to do this women would have to lower their standards, which included shorter skirts.

In this episode, objectifying women was one of the key issue. Men would see women as objects to have sex with. In one of the scenes Pete Campbell was in the strip club trying to talk to women. Quickly the scene escalated when Pete gave her the hint by touching her leg without consent. This shows the disrespect he had for women. The women stood up for herself and left Pete. Not all men were stereotypical towards women. In one of the scenes Pete Campbell complained to Don Draper that he always gets the new secretaries whilst eyeing Peggy Olson up and down. Here we see Pete objectifying Peggy as a new toy that Draper has acquired. Draper then defended Peggy and fought against the objectification. 

We clearly see the diverse levels of stereotypical views that each character has. Draper has respect but isn't willing to do business with a women of high authority. On the other hand, Pete has no respect for women. Another example of this is at the end of the episode. Pete, who is due to be married went and slept with Peggy. In this scene we see the men had no respect for their partners and felt because they are in control they could do anything.In conclusion, it is evident that people lived in a very patriarchal society. Men were the breadwinners and women were objectified. Most men though they could control women and look down upon them. Some would speak up and some would add insult to injury. Mad Men season 1 episode 1 had very bad gender representation.

Camera Angles + Shots in North By Northwest and Fast and Furious 7

Camera Angles + Shots

Hitchcock uses a range of camera angles and shots to create mixed emotions and atmosphere. The main elements that thrillers should have is excitement, tension and adrenaline filled scenes. Hitchcock successfully include all the main elements of a thriller in North by Northwest.

One of the way Hitchcock does with the camera is using different camera angles and shots. One key should would be the close up and extreme close up. In North by Northwest, Hitchcock uses the close up of the hand to create anxiety and tension. The effect this has on the audience is that it leaves them in suspense. Audience would try predicate what will happen in the next shot. Hitchcock does this to engage the audience in the movie. In comparison to modern day thriller the close up of the hand still exists. In Fast and Furious 7 in a already tension filled scene with Jason Statham and Dwayne Johnson, the camera angle focuses on Jason's hand. It is important that they use this close up to foreshadow what will happen next. We do everything with our hands and it's only right for the camera to show exactly when the hand is in motion.

Another way Hitchcock uses the camera to create an adrenaline is using the tracking shot. In North by Northwest uses the plane and the main character to create sudden tension. The backward tracking shot makes the audience feel that the action is right in front of them. Hitchcock uses this shot to really leave the audience on the edge of their seat and engaged in the movie. In Fast and Furious they use the same backwards shot but to create excitement. This shows that the same camera shot can engage the audience in different ways. In Fast and Furious 7 when arriving in Abu Dhabi, the camera uses the backwards tracking shot to show the audience the grand entrance with the exotic supercars. The effect this has on the audience is that it builds up excitement for the next scene

A unique way Hitchcock uses camera angles to create emotion is using the POV shot. In the car chase you see a first hand account on what is happening in the scene. This puts the audience in the characters shoes so we are able to empathise with them. The shot increases tension in the scene. In Fast and Furious they also use the Point of View shot. It directly involves the audience in the adrenaline packed action scenes. It's important to use these in films like fast and furious because it's needed to keep adrenaline going. The thrill of able to be in the characters car seat is a key element to the films success.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEO26yNqwns - Fast 7 Backwards tracking shot