One Page Proposal

Working Title: ‘Mind Games’ is our working title, it shows the mental health issues of the murderer and that his own mind is playing games on him.

 

Film Genre: Horror/Thriller

Length: Estimated 2 Minutes

Target Audience:

·        Age: (15+ Year Olds)

·        Level of Intellect: Anyone can watch however it does leave questions which

·        Lifestyle: People interested in thrills, mystery and drama.

·        Income: Anyone

·        Culture: Appeals to British (Dialogue = English)

·        Bias: Towards males due to only male actors

·        Audience Tone: Average film goer, inquisitive and interested audience.

Tag Line

“The more you know, the more it takes controls”

 ‘What If’ Premise

What if you honestly believe that you are innocent even though you committed the murder of your two friends?

The Story Synopsis​

It said that the mind has complete control. That it can make you do things, things you might not want to do, bad things, things you thought you were never capable of. But can you remember these things? As the mind further consumes it host, how do you escape it...can you escape it?

This is the story of what is supposed to be a calm night in with three friends; however they are all completely unaware of the horrors that may befall. As one friend battles against the severe mental problems threatening to take over, how will he cope with the sudden disappearance and death of his two friends? Will he start to unravel the truth behind the killings or will his mind take control? Certain of his innocence he battles with his unforgiving mind. But who really committed the murders? And will we ever know...?

Audience Appeal

We understand that our target audience (15+) would be seeking jump-scares, eerie atmospheres and the occasional sense of mystery. Baring that in mind, we believe that our final piece will be made up of, and consist of all 3 of these elements. Once our piece has been fully watched over we're definite that questions will be left unanswered (in a cliff-hanger type of manner). Questions such as "how did they become so inhumane?" and "could they of possibly escaped safely?", making the audience really think about the plot and what different outcomes could have occurred. We could imagine young, yet mature actors to embody these roles. Actors such as: Dylan O'Brien, Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Dexter Darden. These 3 could really capture the characters innocence yet potential to survive. Leaving that question of "are they capable?"

Visual Realisation

The look of the film with is very dark, mysterious, gloomy and the pacing will be fast. Films like this could be the clip called 'lights out'. Ours will differ because it involves our characters mental health but is similar as we also aim to show a minimal amount and use the power of suggestion. Another film in mind would be ‘Shutter island’ that took the same psychological approach and is a very good approach to that genre so is a good source to refer to.

Disability Representation in Media

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Media Production - 6 Stages

http://prezi.com/pbhrf_hmlxry/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Filming Location - Stubbing Court, Wingerworth

As a group we decided to use this location due to it being secluded and isolated, which is perfect for a thriller. We chose to create a horror/supernatural thriller and many films of the same theme tend to use similar locations as it's easy to create tension, suspense and an eerie atmosphere, whether it be because of the sound of the leaves crunching or the trees creaking in the wind. We also have permission to film within the building as it belongs to one of the group members (Frank's) family.

Secondary Research - Inspiration for Effects

The following link is my groups source of secondary evidence. It is a short clip from Youtube titled 'Im Never Turning The Lights Off Again'. Throughout the clip a series of interesting effects are used. As a group we decided these were the sorts of effects we could incorporate within are thriller opening piece.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzJCoJVgKA8

Our Storyboard

Lighting Effects

We decided to play about with lighting within our group. We tried to use un natural lighting in a dark room to give the character a rather sinister look.

In this photo it shows the character (Frank) with the un natural light source shining on the right side of his face showing his facial expressions. Whereas on the right side of his face there is no light and therefore creates a mysterious and sinister effect. We may consider using this effect in our thriller. Also in this photo the lighting creates a shadow effect in the background, this was not intentional however is a technique we could look into using.

In this photo we decided to put the un natural light so it was shining under the chin of our character (Frank) this created the sinister effect we were looking for as it shows all facial expressions but doesn't give off any of the background. This again is a technique we may consider using in our thriller.

Thriller Film - Brief Ideas

We decided to mind map a few brief ideas of what we want our thriller to be like, these brief ideas included:

• Roles in the group - what each individual member will be contributing to the task.

• Location - just a few short ideas on where we want some of our scenes to be shot e.g. woods/beside a pond.

• Plot ideas - we decided to brainstorm a few plot ideas we may incorporate in our thriller. However these notes are brief and may not be followed as written.

• Genre - we decided we want to mix the horror/thriller genre as it gives us a wider audience of film lovers and we believe by adding the horror element we can incorporate more effects.

SE7EN TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

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The Effects of Cut-a-Ways

Effects of cut aways

 

We have done this post to show how different techniques can change the ways in which certain scenes can be perceived. One scene could be seen as a different genre depending on what ios to follow, it can create a different emotion.

 



This use of a cut away above makes the character on the left look crazy and sinister with the character smirking at a dead body. However the cut away below shows a characters reaction to another character making a funny face which makes the scene much more comedic and funny.

Conventions of Thriller Films

Conventions of Thriller Films

A broad genre of literature, film, gaming and television. It includes numerous, often overlapping sub-genres

Typical Features

·         Low key lighting

·         Quick cut

·         Shadows

·         Tension music

·         Changes in angle of shot

·         Diegetic sound of breathing

·         Black and white shots

·         Montage of shots

·         Protagonist is at the mercy of the Antagonist

·         Binary oppositions (complete opposites) by Levi Strauss e.g. good vs. evil, weak vs. powerful, city dweller vs. country dweller, individual vs. organisation.

·         Cheap surprise (an easy shock generated by a sudden unexpected noise/action/movement)

·         Make it personal – protagonist’s family is kidnapped etc.

·         Theatre of the mind – doesn’t show the audience everything; force them to imagine some things.

Ingredients of a thriller

fast-paced, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more-powerful and better-equipped villains.

Literary devices such as suspense, red-herrings and cliff hangers are used extensively.

Types of thriller

·         Spy thrillers – e.g. James Bond

·         Political thrillers – e.g. Argo

·         Military thrillers – e.g. Saving Private Ryan

·         Conspiracy thrillers – e.g. The Insider

·         Medical thrillers – e.g. Coma

·         Forensic thrillers – e.g. The Bone Collector

·         Psychological thrillers – e.g. Seven

·         Horror thriller – e.g. The Silence of the Lambs

·         Legal thriller - e.g. The Pelican Brief

·         Crime thriller - e.g. No Country for Old Men

·         Supernatural thriller - e.g. Flatliners

Characteristics

Often overlap with mystery stories but are distinguished by the structure of their plot. Thrillers often occur on a much grander scale: crimes are more serious.

Standard plot elements include a sense of jeopardy.

Climax

Example: When hero finally defeats villain, saving him and others.

Some thrillers are influenced by film noir and tragedy, the hero can get killed.

Often take place wholly or partly in exotic or dramatic settings e.g. cities, deserts, churches, airports, subways, Polar Regions, the woods or high seas.

Finished Storyboards

This is the storyboard my group used for our preliminary task. Whilst filming the group came up with many new ideas. As a result the storyboard does not cover everything we filmed. However, the majority of the camera angles shown in the storyboard were still used in our finished film.





 

Finished Preliminary Task

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9hYX85Aq8M&list=UUht5fxUjha19_XNfG0mi2EA

Framing a Shot: Practice with Stills

Framing a Shot: Practice with Stills

Today the class was given the task of getting into groups of 2/3 and go around the school premises to shoot a series of images using a wide variety of camera angles. The following photos are were taken by me and my group and analysed by me.

The picture above is an establishing shot. Establishing shots are useful because they allow the audience to be fully aware of where a certain scene or piece of filming occurs. Apart from informing the audience of the location, it also indicates the time of day (e.g. night or morning), a scenario/ situation (e.g. hostage situation) and relationships between characters, (if a variety of characters are in the shot).

The picture above is a long shot/medium shot using leading lines. These 'leading lines' can act as a guide line for the camera to follow. They can occasionally lead up to the target/focus of the shot as well.

The picture above is a low angled shot. This shot can represent the targets dominance and power. It can also show the point of view of a smaller character within the scene. For example, if a child was present.

The picture above is an extreme close up. Its purpose is to show detail within the chosen characters face. It can reveal emotion. It can also expose hidden details within an object.

Taking 3 shots of the same target offers different perspectives of the scene. For example the 2nd shot could represent someones point of view of the target. Whereas the 1st shot could simply be used to represent the power of the target. The 3rd could then be used to show the surrounding areas of the scene.

Welcome to my blog site!

Welcome to my blog site!

I've never studied Media Studies before but I've always had an extremely high interest in films and how they're produced. I wouldn't consider myself an avid watcher of films and television, but it's an occasional hobby of mine and I feel like I don't know as much as I'd like to know about film making at this point. So this is what I will be looking forward to doing the most. 

Two areas in particular that I'm looking froward and interested in doing is the filming and editing. I think this is where you can establish meaning and make the most of the film that we have shot. I believe that working in groups to create a short film opening will be a fun and alluring experience that I'll be able to gain a abundance of skills from. 

The task (to create a 2 and a half minute film opening) sounds really intriguing and I'm already beginning to think of some ideas. 

Hopefully you will be entertained by the final film on this peregrination! :)