Planning - My Set Tasks

In our group, I've been set the storyboard and the logo for our company. So far the storyboard is coming along well with a two pages of stills done and more to come while the logo is still being decided on before any actual practical work begins on it so in tomorrow's lesson, we will get more of the storyboard done and think up possible names for our company logo and post any updates after the lesson.

Film Opening Scenes - Research 2*

Saw Opening Scene Analysis 


In this clip we see two characters, Adam and Dr Gordon. Straight away, we see the difference in representation between them, evident by the title for Gordon and the tapes left by the main villain, "Jigsaw". Gordon is shown immediately as the more educated one as he is a doctor and suggests to Adam of using his shirt to get the tape recorder. Also he seems more level headed and optimistic then Adam as when they can't reach the tape recorder at first, he nearly gives up but Gordon keeps saying there must be something. For the representation of Adam, he's less trusting and more paranoid by not wanting to give the recorder to Gordon saying he "doesn't want to break it". Also his tape describes him in greater detail, Jigsaw says he spent his time "hiding in the shadows" connoting that he is a more sneaky character and he is also described as pathetic, connoting further his life isn't worth living which is Jigsaw's main philosophy. Another character we get pieces about is the obscure Jigsaw. We only hear his voice through the tapes but it gives us a much more detailed view then we first think. From the first tape, we can tell he despises people who abuse life by the way he talks about Adam and his shadowed, parasitic life as we find out later that takes pictures of other people's private life. We also find he is sick himself from Gordon's tape as a deep cough fills the end of the tape, only representing is view on doctor's as he wants Gordon to break the oath he made when he first became a doctor by killing the man in the room with him, Adam. While the audience know that Jigsaw is the bad guy, they begin to doubt the moral standing of the two men in the abandoned bathroom as we wonder why he choose those two men in particular, wanting to know his twisted reason behind his game. This film opening fits well within the codes and conventions as while its revealed many bits and pieces behind the story, we the audience are no closer to finding the reason behind it all. This follows the main convention of making the audience guess and think up their own conclusion, also not forgetting the mind game element this opening has as that what most of these films include, mind games between the criminal and his pursuer. This element isn't shown till later in the film and adds to the premise by also including the victims in this loop as they want to know why they were picked for this game of sorts.

The whole premise of the film is that the situation the characters are in a game of sorts. Jigsaw develops the phrase" I want to play a game" throughout the series as the people he picked thought that life is nothing but a game to them or don't respect it enough so this "game" is used to test their willingness to survive and learn from the mistake of abusing the life they were given. This is what makes the Jigsaw so much more complex as he is technically not the one who kills his victims, they fail the test and essiently kill themselves as they did not learned there lessons.

While this clip and its content don't really suit our idea of short sequences of the killer's daily routine, it still offers us some ideas like the complexity the killers in this genre have and require. It gives us the idea of what sort of tone the title sequence should be and how the character should be structured e.g. not crazed and foaming at the mouth but more refined, calm and sophisticated like the characters in both Saw and Hannibal who don't think they are the villain necessarily as they just think they are either normal human beings with their own interests or trying to deliver a message to the people who abuse their life which is the case for Jigsaw.

Film Opening Scenes - Research

Hannibal Opening Credits Deconstruction

Hannibal was a psychological thriller/horror directed and produced by Ridley Scott, adapted from the same novel written by Thomas Harris and had a production budget of $87 million with it being distributed by MGM.

In this film opening, it begins with a voice over from two unknown characters discussing the topic of the main character, Dr. Lecter. This immediately follows the psychological horror conventions of not showing the audience the full picture of what's happening within the scene as the viewer can only listen to what they say and ponder the meaning behind it all. By the tone of the characters that are speaking, they are all highly educated by the way they speak philosophically about psychology, saying how its not a science to him and neither did Lecter also hinting at some secret admiration for him. This creates the feeling of discomfort that psychological horrors are known for since Hannibal Lecter is an iconic character who the audience already know is a cannibal and murder, making them want to quickly move away from the subject of this man but the conversation goes on until the actual footage of the conversation comes into view. Now we see who these people are and what atmosphere they are in. The main premise seems to be one character filling in the other about the time he shared with Lecter as the other is obviously fascinated by the individual, heavily connoting this person is equally twisted as Lecter, again relating back to the conventions of the genre.

All this is focusing on the representation of the characters as, judging by the background, the one on the left is extremely wealthy from the presence of canopy beds, elegant furniture and the apparent butler by his side. But its not until we get a close up of the wealthy character, that we see his heavily disfigured face. This sudden cut to his face comes as a shock to the audience since we didn't expect to see it so suddenly. The atmosphere lulled us into a false sense of security from the charming mansion - style house and classical music that played over the beginning, linking to the conventions as these types of horrors may show one view but then drop on its head from some sudden twist. It also links in with the concept of "body horror" which is one branch of the genre. Body horror deals with the themes of degradation of the human body like disease, decay or mutilation which is the one in this case. This character has clearly suffered horrific mutilation but the audience don't know how and possibly might not want to know but subtle hints are dropped throughout the opening scene from their lengthy discussion on Hannibal. All this connotes some hidden meaning or agenda by the characters since why would someone be so entranced by such a insane individual unless, they did something to them, suggesting to the audience that Lecter is the cause behind his disfigurement. So while it may not seem to fit within the psychological horror genre, it does down to the letter but only much more subtly then most other films like Se7en. In terms of representation for the other character who is retelling his experiences of his time with Lecter, he seems to be more complicated in nature for a few reasons. The first being he talks rather highly of Lecter, always calling him "Dr. Lecter" and his comment of psychology not being a science just like Lecter hints at his own admiration for the character but his willingness to reveal all he knows about him and selling the iconic mask he used to own, connotes a more complex nature compared to the other who, while may be a victim is portrayed as a villain. His actions of siding with this individual seem to put him in the same light but could be shown rather as desperation since the character may need money and is just taking a chance, and on the other hand, he is just handing out simple information about Dr. Lecter so he is more like an impartial or neutral character.

Final Project - Intial Research

For our final project, Craig and have thought about doing a psychological thriller/ horror. For our research we have looked into what are the codes and conventions of a psychological thriller/horror, the main distributors and producers of this genre and examples of films of this particular genre.

Codes and conventions

The main element that psychological thrillers include is the way the plot is structured as instead of typical action films where the characters rely on their strength, psychological thrillers instead have for example, the criminals play games with the officers chasing them, aiming to destroy each other’s mind in turn creating the suspense in the film as the audience is constantly on edge of who will win this battle of wits. The reason this genre borders close to horror at times is because this technique shows the audience sometimes disturbing insights into what the antagonist is like who, unlike typical horror, is a normal human being and not some monster. This frightens the audience more as the character is a human doing these depraved things and shows another side of humanity that we are afraid to admit exists. This is mainly used in the serial killer films like Seven as we see these sides to the killers in great detail, creating the psychological horror part to the film.

On occasion, sometimes the film may focus only one characters struggle like the film The Machinist starring Christian Bale. The whole film is about a character who has had a year long period of insomnia and doesn't know why. Also keeps seeing a man called Ivan who doesn’t exist and post-it notes depicting hangman games. While all this seems insignificant, it all builds up tension towards the climax of the reason behind it all. So a main link between most of these thrillers and horrors is instead of going full bore with monsters and gore, they give smaller clues that all add up and keep the audience guessing whilst coming up with their own ideas as this is another part of these films. It’s all about the character's and audience's interpretation of everything in the film as while one my find something useless within working out the plot, someone else might think it’s the final piece of the puzzle. In terms of tone, the majority of films usually go for unsettling dark atmospheres coupled with the main tones of death, humanity and sometimes morals like the Saw films target moral ambiguity as the title character "Jigsaw" thinks he's helping people understand life better while the audience and the other characters think he is just demented with the work he does. Sixth Sense is a good one for the death aspect as the whole film deals with this subject.

Continuity Task Evaluation - A Day in the Life of Craig

We have now fully edited our short movie with all the continuity elements present. We would have finished the project earlier if it wasn't for the computer crashing and not saving our work completely but we managed to get it back up to scratch. Overall, the movie was of a much higher standard then our last one as we planned the scenes out a lot more by using storyboards to make sure we have all the scenes we need whilst taking more then one take of each scene so we can choose the best one or mix and match the best elements of each. Also we took the improvements given during our verbal feedback to include more varities of shots to help improve the overall quality of the movie and create a specific tone or atmosphere based on the present scene like the point of view/close up of Craig as he lunges at the camera, creating a much more frieghtening feeling then if we used a long shot for instance.

However, while the movie maybe an improvement in some areas there are still major problems. The most obvious one being the quality of the footage. We underestimated how quickly it got dark and as a result, our shooting could have been seriously effected. The picture below shows the extent of the effect the poor light had on our clips.

We did manage to improve it somewhat by using a decently lit tunnel near the arnison center which compensated for the poor lighting so we still got our clips shot on time. Another problem was the slight continuity error during the final scenes of our movie. As you can see below, Craig on the left has his hood up as he slams me against the wall but in the next shot he no longer has it up in the next screen. Unfortunatly we didnt notice during filming and couldn't fix it during editing so this is something we will make sure to look out for in our final project as this could seriously affect our mark.

Another slight problem was during our reverse shots between me and Peter. We wanted to do something different from the usual shot/reverse shot by doing a phone conversation to help bulid tension as Craig stalkes Peter on his end of the call. While we got the dialouge right and the quality was good, we notcied that we were both facing the same way not like reverse shots are meant to be. It was easily fixed though by adding a horizontal flip effect to the clip which reversed my parts of dialouge so I was now facing to the right of the screen while Peter was to the left.

In all, our project was an improvement over our previous one with more varied types of shot and flows a lot more smoothly in terms of narrative unlike the types of shot video. We completed each one of the continuity takes, reverse shot, action match and the 180 rule. The reverse shot was mine and Peter's conversation over the phone and the action match was done twice when I closed the door and when Craig threw me against the wall. The 180 rule was done when Craig walked behind Peter as we kept on the left side of him and made sure not to cross to the right hand side otherwise the rule would be broken. In general, the video is a much needed improvement to help achieve the high levels but there are still a few bugs and careless mistakes that could be easily removed and not hinder our mark.

Continuity Task - First Shooting day

Last night, me and my group went out to film some of the shots we needed for our project. We made good progress with the amount of shots we completed and managed to get different scenarios of each scene so we can have a lot more room to choose and craft the project the way we want to. However, we did experience some problems whilst filming. We underestimated how quickly it got dark and during filming, the quality degraded past the point of recognition so we had to find some area with better lighting. In the end, we did find a suitable spot and shot the scenes we needed. So in today's lesson, we are currently looking through each shot to see if the quality is up to scratch.

The Prisoner Final Cut

Here is our video which was made by the group and consisted of me, Craig Mullen and Peter Chivers. Throughout the production, we encountered a few problems. Some shots were missing which were so simple like actors entering the room or establishing shots which lack certain continuity elements (one including with me with my hands in my pockets but a second later I didn't). We also picked up a lot of diegetic noise when filming certain scenes s we had to think up a work around which we did by playing some music over the top. It in fact added a much better atmosphere to our film, creating a somewhat creepy and fearful tone as the character who is the integrator walks towards an apparently abandoned area which contains the prisoner. Also, our interrogation scene was nicely filmed by Peter which gave a very good atmosphere with the low angle, focusing on the prisoner while Number Two is in the background who is much higher to show the difference in power between the two. So overall, we did a decent job at filming our scene but simple problems like missing shots and less planning brought it down. It does however, show us what we need to improve on for our next project and make it much better then our last.

The Prisoner - Editing Process

We started editing our shots and sorting them into order of how we wanted our film to go but now we can see the various problems arise. Some simple shots are missing which have dramatically effected our editing but we are finding ways to reduce the negative effect its having on the project and some major continuity errors are popping up during cuts which are harder to fix without basically reshooting certain scenes. Still, you can't get it perfect everytime and we did give a good effort with some of our shots and acting hitting the mark. Tomorrow we will be finishing off the editing with fixing some of the problems we can and adding music to help increase the overall quality of the final movie.

Movie Progress

So far, we have taking every shot we needed for our movie extract and sorted through the ones we are using last lesson. In the editing process, we are focusing on getting all the scenes we needed cut to the desired length and will do the music and effects later on.

AS Media Video - Camera Movement Shots

Here is the video displaying all the various camera movement shots that were editied and taken by Craig Mullen, Peter Chivers and I, using a camera with a tripod attached. Some of the edits used in this movie was freezing some shots to display the members of the group and speeding up some of the slower shots that were taken.

AS Media Video - Types of Shot

Here is the video of shots made and taken by Craig Mullen, Peter Chivers and James Corker.

Tuesday 21st September

Managed to get all the clips edited and put together with rendering complete so now the video is running smoothly. We have the basic shots done with a few extra that could be used later on if needed, might need to add a couple of shots tomorrow in free period. Also to my group members, the camera and tripod are booked ready for tomorrow's lesson so make sure one of us picks it up.

AS Media Pitch

Type of Film: Thriller

Brief Description

A detective is on the case of putting away a major mafia boss and finally finds a witness who can testify against him, putting him away for life. When the court day approaches, the witness goes missing after the mafia boss puts a hit on him, causing him to flee. Now since there is a lack of evidence, the boss walks free but the detective doesn’t give up and sets off to look for the witness. Yet, so does the mafia, making it into a race against each other to see who can find them first.

Opening Scenes

The film opens with the detective talking to his partner about finally getting a break on the case and saying how it’s all over for the mafia boss, thanks to the key witness they found. It would track the detective walking calmly to the court room to await the trial. It then shifts to the mafia boss who is being led to the court room in a bright orange jumpsuit and handcuffs by a handful of officers. Instead of looking terrified at the possible chance of a life sentence, he has a smug grin of his face like he knows something no one else does.

The next scene shifts to the actual courtroom with the detective taking a seat in the stalls, watching impatiently as the judge, defence team and prosecution bundle into the room before being followed by a heard of people through the main double doors. A few anxious minutes pass until the mafia boss is marched into the room and given a seat next to his defence team. The detective looks at him with a furrowed gaze while he returns with a cocky grin, alarming the detective greatly as the prosecution calls the witness which makes up their whole case since all other evidence has “disappeared”. Yet, the room remains silent as everyone holds the breath in anticipation of the designated man to walk towards the witness box. No footsteps are heard for awhile when they realise he isn’t here. The defence lawyer stands up and requests a mistrial due to the fact that one person was there only evidence, with the judge grudgingly agreeing with a swing of her gavel with thunders around the room.

It then shifts to a couple of weeks later with the detective still hung up about the case going south until his phone rings. The unknown caller gives him a tip about the location of the old witness which the detective hastily jumps at, not wanting to lose him this time. However, little does he know that the mafia boss gets the exact same call by the same mysterious voice, urging him to do the same and chase down this loose end. Then the chase begins...