Structure of Openings

 There are four basic structures in thriller openings, below are some examples of each type of thriller opening:




 A discrete title sequence

A narrative opening with the titles running throughout.

A narrative opening with highly stylised editing, distinct from the rest of the film.

Font analysis

We can tell this is serif font because at the end of every letter it has a extra part to it. it is tend to be more traditional-looking and are usually used in more formal text e.g the dailytime. They generally look more old fashioned and 'classic' so therefore it is more aimed at older people and working class.

This is sans- serif font because it is commonly used e.g Arial and Comic Sans. This is more informal, they look 'modern', 'friendly' and some might say simple or childlike. They are generally used in texts aimed at a younger, lower class audience than texts using a Serif font

In this cover serif font is used. We can tell that this is aimed at older and more educated audience because serif font is normally used for formal movie front cover. The text is all in capitals, making it look very straight and orderly, like soldiers in a line. It could also mean it could be in the second world war because the font shows the boldness and stand out.

In rocky, the font (Franklin Gothic Heavy) is used. This is one of Sans Serif font. Which tells us that the film must be aimed at a younger, more casual audience than Pearl Harbor. The title is very bold and very big, which could have been used in order to portray Rocky. The title show the man who is strong and brave and quite muscilar. The font used in this seem to attract the audience more because of the title.

 

LiveType: Title Sequence

In order to finally finish the Bag Swap Scene, we needed to add a title sequence, which was produced by me, although it was hard to get to grips with the program, i managed to make a title sequence which fit the aim of the Scene.

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I had to create the Titles seperately to make a unique title sequence, therefore each word had to be rendered seperately in a different file, because Live Type was unable to do what i wanted to achieve.

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However this made things difficult to manage, as the files were made for each word made it hard to get the timing right for the words to come out at exactly the right time and disappear.

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Although i experienced difficulty in doing this, the title sequence came out in satisfactory quality and even though i was disappointed with the result, it wasn't that bad and came to suit the Scene quite well...

Sound - Skills

After we completed the Bag Swap Scene, we knew we were missing something very important, we needed something to draw the audiences attention into the scene and get into the mood of the scene.

In order to do this we needed to have background music, but not just any background music, we needed to produce these from scratch and had to be absolutely original. We used Soundtrack Pro for this... 

There is a timeline in the middle which allows us to mix, crop and slide in place the sound clips, aswell as other features. At the bottom right of the program, it gives us a list of all the unique sounds, SFX etc. to help us create our "Mysterious Atmosphere".

After We managed to create a very mysterious soundtrack for our Bag Swap Clip. We rendered the soundtrack and placed it accordingly into our Final Cut Pro Project, which included our readily edited footage. We then simply matched the BGM with the clip and saved the project.

 

Watching documentary

When I was watching the documentary i believe that Thomas Sutcliffe once said "Films need to seduce their audience into long term commitment. While there are many types of seduction, the temptation to go for instant arousal is almost irresistible" this mean it should seduce your audience; either by going straight into a film or right from the beginning of the film this is to seduce your audience with an instant arousal. I think that for me as an audience the a movie should start straight from the beginning so therefore it would pull me in and waiting for something to happen.

There is risk for starting a film with such energy and high expectations is that the expectations are hard to keep up. It has to live up to the rest of the film so there won't be any disappointment. For example, i think by having a car crash or someone dying in the first scene it may look abit dull and boring at first, but for me as an audience I think that it would draw me in and keep me anxious. Quoting from the “watching” documentary "good beginning must take the audience feel that it doesn't know nearly enough yet, and the same time make sure that it doesn't know too little".  What this mean is that it should not give too much clue or hint away or give too less information this may make the audiences bored or not wanting to watch it.

Some movies opening contain long shots of location such as a town or area of a map. This is part of mise en scene this allows the audience to understand where the situation is being held. Also, you have to establish your characters and introduce the important roles in the films so that the audience can get a clear understanding of the story line.

'A favourite trick of Film Noir' means to show the end of the film at the beginning. Hence, this allow the audience to see the event happening and leaving the audience clueless of what and how it led to this event. It makes the audience have to watch through the whole movie in order to know the leading up to the event.

The opening of the film 'Touch Of Evil' is the longest scene ever record into one shot. it is 4 minutes long. No cut was used until like the very end. It must of took quite a very long time in order to fit everything perfectly into one shot without any mistake. At the beginning we was tracking and following a car, the audience think that they are the main character. Then afterward we switch toward two couples walking on the pavement now we believe that these two are the main characters.

Livetype

Lastly for our video to be completed we needed to add the title sequence to our video. To do this we used a program called "Livetype". We all had to take part in our editing.

Here is the first title sequence of our video. we had to editing each part seperate because it would not allow us to edit it all into page.

This is the second screen shot our title sequence. in order for the second title sequence to come in. The first title sequence has to fade out before this come in. But when you have got the hang of this program it then become quite easy and familar to use.

This is the third part of our title sequence. In this we had to correlate with the second screen shot because then the title sequence would make sense. If it did not move at the same time the video would look bad and unproffesional.

This was hard but we managed to do it and our video look quite good. So im quite proud of what we have achieved

Sound track

When we finish editing our bag swap. we had to put sound onto our video. so we use a program on the mac called "soundtrack pro" we needed a good background music like a intense sound when the guy e.g. me walks in and sit next to a guy e.g. nahid. The clip intense would increase as the guy about to swap the bag and take it.

we couldn't just take any background because it is copyright so we couldn't use it. Therefore we had to create a new background track from scratch.  

Here is a print screen of our clip in "soundtrack pro" In the middle there is a timeline where you drag the sound from the bottom right to the middle. In the timeline you can move and editing part where you want to fade out a part of the sound and to fade in.

In the left hand side you can see our clip. It is link because you can move the sound where you want the background music for a particular scene.

Livetype and Sound: SKILLS

Soundtrack Pro Introduction
Using 'Soundtrack Pro' I explored how to insert music and sound effects to our 'Bag Swap' production. Literally over hundreds of sounds to chose from, and there were such wide categories such as from; orchestral, electrical, dark sounds, natural sounds, nature sounds, vocal sounds like breathing, singing, talking and screaming, drums, violins and heavy beats and many more.

We used this software so we can make our own background soundtrack for our movie, this soundtrack will have to match our video piece, as we're doing a theft the soundtrack has to be as if it's a thriller type of sound.

The image above shows us what buttons on the software do what. In our soundtrack we're going to use a variety of sounds so it'll fit into our production piece perfectly.

We've decided to go for a 'thriller type' of soundtrack, so it should fit in nicely with our video. Most of our sounds that are going to be used, come from the 'dark sounds' category.

Movie Production

Bag Swap

This is a short little movie production our group created, its about a man (wearing blue) reading a book, then another man (wearing grey) comes and swaps bags with him, its a deliberate theft, the victim only realises his bag is gone once the theif has took it. Starring Nahid Miah & Viet Nguyen, Camera men; Fuzail Ismail & Abid Khan

Introduction to Editing

After we created our short-piece production, we started to edit the our video and make it into a short clip. We used a software on the Mac called 'Final Cut' in order to edit our movie. The Mac is specially made for editing movie or pictures and designing movies.
In the picture on the left hand side, you can see the software.





The image above is a image of how we used the software to edit our production. In the picture on the top left this is where you insert your clips and go through picking out the ones you need and the one you don't need. In the middle of the picture this is where your clip are being played. In the top right this is where your final video and fully edited is going to be played. At the bottom you can see a timeline this is for your video when you go through your clips, you drag it onto the timeline and place it where the next scene is going to be next.

We took many scenes so we had to cut and delete certain irrelevance scenes so we would not be confuse when we choosing our clips.  As we're getting marked on our ability to edit scenes it was an vital element that our production was edited in an suitable order. Whilst we were on 'Final Cut'  we edited our piece by taking out certain parts of scenes so it's as if they were merged together. This wasn't diffcult because we has a tutorial of the editing program before we started to use it. 

Introduction to cameras

In Class we were given a tutorial lesson on how we use this camera.

This is the type of camera we was going to be using. Its JVC camera, top of the range camera to be using for our filming. In the lesson we was taught how to operate this camera. For example we was taught how :

• To insert the SD memory card in the camera
• To turn on and off a camera
• To zoom in and out
• To use the manual focus button
• To reduce the amount of light going into the camera

We was told that we should treat this equipment with care as if it was one of our own electronic devices. For example, if it was raining then the department can offer us a special umbrella for the camera therefore the camera would not be damaged. It is essential that we should not leave the camera on it own or laying on a bench. If the camera was to broke then we all as a group would be paying the fine. 

 

This is the type of tripod we're going to use. This tripod allows us to pan a shot steadily and and track a shot and this also help us to keep the camera still. The handle on top allows us to move directions of the camera so we won't have to keep moving the tripod around per scene. But before that we must put the camera on the tripod and we have to make sure all the legs are fully streched out so the tripod so it won't be shakey and the camera wont slip out, also we have to make sure that the camera is tightened once it's placed on top of the tripod. Also this Tripod has a compass which allow us to see if the Tripod is steady and straight up. Tripods should also be treated with care as it allows the user to attach the camera on top so we must be cautious when we travel around with this peice of equipment.

These camera are very delicate so we should take good care of it. Also once we borrowed the equipment we should hand it back in on time as other student are waiting to use the equipment after us.

Analysis of a title sequence

Taken Of Pelham 123

The main reason the title sequence of Taken Of Pelham 123 inspired me is because of it has a fast upbeat soundtrack which attract the viewers and the editing pace is quite fast which make it more interesting.

State the Production and Distribution companies

• Columbia Pictures
• MGM
• Scott Free Media
• Relativity Media

this show that it has big companies names to encourage people to watch it.

List the information that is included in the title sequence

• Director
• Actor 
• Title of movie 
• Other actors
• Casting
• Proexectutive Producers
• Editor
• Productive assisstant
• Director of photography
• Produces
• Casting/costumes 

Title Sequence Timeline: enter the start and end times of the film opening, and then the plot the title sequence along the line

• 15sec: Film starts
• 19sec: Columbia IDENT 
• 23sec: Columbia Pictures, MGS
• 30sec: Relativity Media
• 33sec: Scott Free/Escape Artist 
• 41sec: Tony Scott - 1st actor
• 46sec: Denzel Washington - 2nd actor
• 50sec: John Travolta - 3rd actor 
• 1min17sec: Taken Of Pelham 123 - Title 
• 1min22sec: Location  
• 1min43sec - 1min49sec: Supporting actors
• 1min54: Group of actor
• 2min28sec: Minor actors
• 2min32sec: Casting
• 2min34sec: Costumer
• 2min38sec: Film ends

Choosing Our Shots

We used Final Cut Pro in order to choose the types of shots we needed for the Bag Swap to look legit.

First off we needed to save the project file in our video drive, so we could access the project file again in a later period. We then imported all of our clips from the SD card onto our Video Drive and then imported it into Final Cut Pro, so if we some how managed to delete or corrupt the video files we would still have the original copy of it in the SD card and vice versa.

After we imported the clips, we scanned through them to see which clips were needed to make the scene. We double clicked on the clip to view it and then used CMD I and O to choose particular scenes from the clip, and we then placed the scene onto the timeline.

We did this for all the 'needed' clips and placed them beside each other in chronological order on the timeline. After we reviewed the entire clip and were satisfied, we exported the clip as a Quicktime Movie.

We were then told to exported it using a compressed format, such as iPod etc. so that when we uploaded the footage to our blog, it would take less time.

We only managed to select the clips we needed, however we will be editing them in our next lesson.

Introduction To Cameras: Skills

In Class we were given a briefing about the usage of the college's cameras and equipment;

We were usually revolving around the important subject of looking after the cameras properly, and of course ways in which we could do that. These ranged from using the cameras special umbrella to protect it, if we were shooting a scene in the rain, to staying as close as we possibly can to the college, in case we decided to go to 'Heathrow Airport' for some Plane Spotting...

- We were also given a detailed analyses and a practical on how to operate the cameras, as we were having to redo the process with prying eyes watching us.
- We were taught how to insert an SD card into the camera aswell as remove it, we were taught how to focus an object or person using manual zoom, which was preferable because using auto zoom would usually give unfocused scenes at times as it is always searching for something to focus on, unlike the manual zoom which locks the focus onto the person or object we are trying to get the audience attention on, without disturbed focus ruining the shot.
- We were then shown a special filter the camera uses to allow more light into the lens, this is usually used when filming in the dark, where there is less light etc. but it is always preferable to film with enough light even when filming in the dark.

THEN CAME THE 'apparently' HARD PART!

THE----> 

We were taught how to stand the tripod upright, by extending all the legs at their fullest reach and making sure they were 'locked' to make sure they were perfectly level, or depending on the type of shot or ground position we were told to extend the legs until we were satisfied it was level and the 'green bubbly thing' was also showing it was level. We were then shown how to slide the cameras into place, and were repeatedly told to always slide the camera in from the back of the tripod, and slide the camera in place making sure the camera didn't stick out either end, and lock it into place using the handle on the right of the tripod.

AND NOW OFF TO FILMING!



Introduction to editing: SKILLS

Editing 'Bag Swap'
After we created our short-piece production, we started to edit the production. We used an software called 'Final Cut' in order to edit our movie, we used it on the Mac computers, Mac computers are specifically designed to edit videos/pictures. Below is an image of how we used the software to modify and edit our production.

The image above is a image of how we used the software to edit our production. We took many scenes so we had to cut and delete certain scenes so our movie will look good and much more professional. As we're getting marked on our ability to edit scenes it was an vital element that our production was edited in an suitable order.

Whilst we were on 'Final Cut'  we edited our piece by cropping out certain parts of scenes so it's as if they were merged together. This wasn't that difficult as to what we thought, with great ease we manged to put merge all the scenes together.

How is suspense created in Memento?

Memento is mainly about a man who has a short term memory and uses pictures and notes in order for him to know who is around him. In order for this man to capture his wife killer, he tattoo evidence of this on his body. This is a psychological thriller. In a psychological thriller, suspense is often created by two or more characters preying upon one another's minds, or either playing mind games like cat and mouse.

There are many type of suspense in memento. In one scene that shows suspense is when he talking to on the phone to someone for a long time and then questions who he is talking to on the phone. In this part the uses of sound helps to build up the suspense. The music stops just before he asks who he is talking to. When the music stop it grabs the audience attention and makes them think that something is happening.

In beginning we see the main character shooting one of the other characters in the head. By having this happen at the beginning of the film it builds suspense and leave the audience clueless and wanting the audience to carry on watching.

Suspense was also created through flashbacks. Each flashback held the answer or showed a vital clue to the story. The flashbacks created suspense because they kept going back to crucial points in the story, though at the time you're not sure why they are so important.

Using Handbrake

In lesson we learnt a new programme called "handbrake". This is a programme which converts files into another suitable type of file so that we can upload videos we have made onto our blog. It converts MOV. files into MP4. files

Here are the instructions : 

first you open up Handbrake and this screen will appear. Then you click source in order to find your file which you want to convert so you can put it on the blog. You then when its loaded, click 'Iphone and Ipod touch', This is the format which the blog will only take. after that you click on start, and wait until it says its has finished.

 'Put down that cocktail!'

When it is finished you are ready to upload on your blog.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is taking ideas from other media texts and shaping them to be used in another media text. Psycho's famous shower scene is an excellent example of intertextuality as many films intertextualize with it. There is intertextuality with Psycho and; The Stepfather, Fatal Attraction, Succubus and What Lies Beneath


The Stepfather duplicates Psycho with the idea of the main character pulling down the chower curtains after being stabbed, pulling the shower curtain down is an last act the character makes. Also both these movies used the same type of knives to attack their victims.


Fatal Attraction copys Psycho with the fact that they also used shadows which added much more suspense in to the scene. Both these productions also used the same type of knife  and there is also a scene which is held in the bathroom in Fatal Attraction which is a a direct reference to Psycho.


Succubus also does uses an effect from Psycho by doing the exact same soundtrack that was being used in Psycho, both the movies were also held in the bathroom. Again the same type of knife was used to kill the victim.


What Lies Beneath duplicates Psycho by after the victim gets assulted their left in state that there body is paralysed, they're motionless but their eyes are wide open and they tell us how much pain the victim is in, also when the characters fingers are reaching out this was also done in Psycho.

Taken Of Pelham 123

 

The main reason the title sequence of Taken Of Pelham 123 inspired me is because of it's upbeatness, the scenes were very fast and it matched with the music perfectly. I also liked the idea of a 'bad guy' being able to walk around the subways as if he was an normal civilian, cause most movies nowadays don't use this type of idea for some reason but i think it's a really good idea and the fact that the 'bad guy' is using public transport is another good effect they created.

State the Production and Distribution companies

Columbia Pictures

MGM

Scott Free Media

Relativity Media

 

List the information that is included in the title sequence

Production companies

Distribution company

Key actors

Title

Other casts

Casting

Costumer

Title Sequence Timeline: enter the start and end times of the film opening, and then the plot the title sequence along the line

15sec: Film begins 

19sec: Columbia IDENT - shows that this is a big movie 

23sec: Columbia Pictures, MGS

30sec: Relativity Media

33sec: Scott Free/Escape Artist 

41sec: Tony Scott - 1st actor

46sec: Denzel Washington - 2nd actor

50sec: John Travolta - 3rd actor 

1minute &17sec: Taken Of Pelham 123 - Title 

1minute & 22sec: Location  

1minute & 43sec - 1min & 49sec: 5 actors are shown

2minute & 28sec: Minor actors (4 actors)

2minute & 32sec: Casting

2minute & 34sec: Costume designer

2minute & 38sec: Film ends

Film title - where exactly is this placed? Start, middle or end?

"Taken Of Pelham 123" is placed in the middle of the screen at 1 minute and17seconds in to the trailer, it is shown in the center of the screen.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality mean a visual referencing between films. In simple word it mean films that 'borrow' a bit from each other such as camera angles, mise en scene, snippets of sounds or methods of editing in some films that you have seen in others.

An example is a clip called 'succubus' where it take some aspects from the movie 'psycho'. In the clip we see a boy is having a shower and gets killed by a girl. But whereas in the movie 'psycho' there is a gender reverse where the woman is having a shower and the man comes in and kills the woman. The shower setting is very similar to the movie one. In both clips, we get a feeling of suspense because we know that while they are having a shower, we get a feeling that someone is coming and the character does not. This clip also borrow the stabbing pose and in both clip the camera shots are the same, we get mid shot and close up on the murderer. We only see victim’s reactions but we do not get dramatic images. In both same edit has been used, there pace is slowed down and there’s loud, digetic sound of 'knife punches'.

In stepfather, we also get the bathroom scene this is part of the mis en scene that is borrow from 'psycho'. we also have the stabbing pose. This pose is very commonly borrowed and used in many movies. we see the woman attacks the man with a sharp piece of a cracked mirror and he falls to the bath and pulls a shower curtain with him. This is quite significant because there is a low angle shot and a close up of the ripping curtain

when we see this we recongise it straight away. 

 Fatal attraction has aspects that have been borrowed from Psycho and used such as the fighting and action between these two people. The shower door aganist the glass is very similar to psycho. A woman and man are having a fight and try to kill each other, similarly to Psycho, where man murders the lady and she tries to defend herself. However i do not think that there are much camera work, sound or editing being borrow from psycho.

What Lies Beneath there are little aspects borrowed from Psycho, such as the use of Mise en Scene and the setting in bathroom. We do not see much except for the bathtub and the water inside. But the uses of water in the bath we can link to psycho. What happens in the scene is much different. I think that the opening of What Lies Beneath is much more similar to Psycho, where a character is having a bath and then get an unexpected electric shock, however we’re expecting something bigger to happen. But In psycho the character is working out and then flushes it down the toilet.

What Lies Beneath

The opening of the trailer is all blacked out and slowly the music starts to come in to play, this keeps the audience in expectation.

The production company’s title appears when there’s a full black background, it comes in slowly, at that time there’s fog being used so it comes in steadily with it. Then after the production companies names are shown, the title of the movie appears, it's shown as if it's being reflected by water also its as if we're seeing the title in a dark and mysterious night under the moon. Then all of a sudden an pair of eyes appear at first we persume it belongs to an dead person but then we realise the eyes belong to the main character as she is coming out the bath. From this we get a small little hint what this movie is about.

 

Then the camera takes us in to the bathroom of the main character, we're placed where presume the door of the bathroom will be, then slowly we come closer to the main character, she starts to breathe quite heavily indicates that she’s quite scared, she then looks around to make sure she is safe and alone. By doing this we are led to believe that the main character doesnt feel safe in persumably her own bathroom, this also gives us an indication in what type of movie this will be about.

Then the camera ‘jump shots’ to a scene where the main character is blow drying her hair, the hair dryer stops to work, whilst trying to fix it she gets a little electric shot, she then manages to fix the hair dryer, whilst she's blow drying her hair she is standing infront of an mirror, the mirror is foggy and you cant see no reflection, at this point we are placed behind the character it's as if we are watching her over her shoulder. Also it's as if something is watching her and once the mirror is cleared then it'll be visable.

Introduction To Camera. :SKILLS

Camera and tripod introduction

In my last lesson we had an introduction to cameras, we learnt all the basic stuffs in how to operate an camera, what we've learnt is listed below;

One of the main points we learnd in the lesson was that the cameras are very expensive so it'll be wise if we take care of them as if they were our own personal property. If not we would have to pay a high fine in order to repair/replace the camera/tripod.

This is the type of camera we're going to use to record our project. We learnt what are the functions in how to record and what buttons do what as well as how to record. This type of camera is quite exspensive so we should deal with it with care. There is two ways in how you can record you can record using manual focus or you can use auto focus, we were told that we should use auto focus as it'll be much to our advantage as it'll make the lighting better for our recording. We also learnt that if we decide to zoom in on a subject then there is a rubber attachment infront of the camera that'll allow the user to gain focus and make the subject much more visable to the seeing eye.

This is the type of tripod we're going to use. This tripod allows us to mount the camera on top and be able to record our project peacefully without having to worry of the camera shaking. The handle on top allows us to move directions of the camera so we won't have to keep moving the tripod around per scene. But before we get to put the camera on the tripod we have to make sure all the legs are fully streched out so the tripod won't be shakey and the camera wont slip out, also we have to make sure that the camera is tightened once it's placed on top of the tripod. Tripods should also be treated with care as it allows the user to attach the camera on top so we must be cautious when we travel around with this peice of equipment.

Cameras of these sorts are very delicate so we should always remember to handle them with caution, if it's raining we should get an special umbrella that should be placed over the camera so it wont get wet, and if it rains heavily we should cancel filming for the day and reschedule it for another day. Also once we borrowed the equipment we should hand it back in on time as other student are waiting to use the equipment after us.