Wednesday 27 January 2010

Thriller Shooting Map.




Above is a Hand drawn Over View of our Shooting Plan. The numbers mark several places around the "CIV" that we are using, or that are key to the set. This drawing is only rough and does not give exact distances or real life proportion.

Description of places marked.

1) This is the enterence to the site itself. We will be shooting our female character going through the fence and into the site itself. The Fence is located down a dark and mysterious allyway. This will create suspense and Add drama.

2) This site is an open basketball court that has been trashed and spray painted. This will possibly be shown in the background of our shooting. It is dark and dingey and fits in with out theme.

3) This is the main building, the first room is an old squash court where most of our filming is due to take place. This is subject to change. The walls are full of graffiti and the lighting is sparse. This will fit in with the typical conventions of thrillers really well.

4) Second part of the main building is slightly more un-useable. Despite the site being lighter here the structure is slightly most unstable and due to alot of rubbish and rubble, we didnt see that this end of the site being a good place to film in.

5) This end of the building has been completely knocked down apart from a few remaining walls. This may be a good place to do a few shots through to add effect but apart from that is going to remain mainly un-used.

6) This is an open area filled with shrubs and trees. the ground isnt particulally stable but is a good place to take a shot of the building. This area will remain mainly un-used.

7) This is a small burnt out shed that is to the side of "the civ" and could be a possible place to shoot from. Despite having alot of ambient light the room isnt quite as good as the first suggested room so will remain out of the main shots but may be used in the background.

8) Number eight is the main field, this looks rather scary at night and because of the trees and the vast darkness could be used for a really good chase scene. It is also a good place to shoot a long shot of the buildings from.

9) This is the allyway needed to walk down to get to the civ, its dark and mysterious and leads round the trees to the enterence gap. This is going to be featured in the opening of our thriller showing our characters entering the site.

Monday 25 January 2010

Shot List Version One.

Shot One- A girl Running through ally - Mid tracking shot.
Not much light, eerie feel to the shot.
**Credits One** Diagetic sound of Girl Running
Shot Two- girl going through the hole in the fence. - Close up from Front.
Various Extreme close ups of Arms and hands, Legs and Feet and Face.
**Credits two** Diagetic sound of Fence.
Shot Six- Girl Running to the civ. - Tracking Mid shot from behind with some More ECU.
Shot Seven- Girl cowering in the corner of the sqaush court - panning shot from front.
Close ups of her hands and legs.
**Credit Three** Diagetic sound of crying and Footsteps.
Shot eight- Feet appearing at the doorway, cigarette dropping to the floor and foot stamping it out. ECU on cigarette.
Shot nine- first person view of girl looking up at men, the lighting hides their faces.
Shot Ten- first person view of girl running away, grabbed by man one and hit with the weapon by man two.
Shot Eleven- Blood hits wall.
Shot Twelve- Shot from Floor in opposite corner of room, girl slides down the wall and close up of feet as they exit the room.

Wednesday 20 January 2010

Tuesday 19 January 2010

Costumes and Props.

Our Thriller only really uses two props, the fist of which is a baseball bat. The baseball bat is used as a weapon to beat up the young girl hiding in the burnt out building. Baseball bats are common in films with violence and gangs etc. Whe chose this weapon because it looks distinctive in a shadow, which is the way we are going to film the attack, through the shadows on the wall. This will tell the viewer whats going on without having to directly show a young girl being beaten up, an idea we thought would be too difficult to shoot.

This prop features in the cover of "Inglorious Bastards" covered in blood with an army helmet hanging off it, this is because the film is about Nazi germany and world war two. This gives us the impression that the bat is used in the film the way we are using it in our film, as apposed to its actual use which is baseball. This baseball bat looks alot more gruesome than the one in the photo above, and fits in with our thriller theme really well. We will not be showing any particulally gruesome shots because they are harder to make realistic on a small budget and without trained actors.


The only other prop we are using is a ciagrette. The cigarette will be dropped next to our main character to alert her to other people being in the room. cigarettes are common in thriller films with seedy characters because these are the people more stereotyped to smoke. The cigarette will drop to the floor and will be stubbed out by a big black boot of one of the men. Cigarettes are a symbol of hardieness, grimey characters and death. They can also be used to express femeninity in the right context. Straight cigarettes are more common in films and we will be using a cigarette similar to the one in the photo below on the left.




For our costumes we have selected predictable clothing. Both of the men will be dressed in big black coats and big black boots, this fits in with our genre and the eerie feel to the setting. Our two men will be intimidating and dark, and through the film we do not see their faces, we only hear them and see their torso and feet. More attention to detail was paid to the female character, who had been out when witnessing an attack. She will be in a small coat, a dress and heels. This represents her vunrebility and her femeninity. This is important because we want to give an impression of innocence about her, something which the male characters appear to ignore. the Photos below are the costumes of the men in our Thriller.

Friday 1 January 2010

Classroom Notes from the opening scene of "Seven"

The Opening of the film goes straight into the scene of Morgan Freeman (Decetive Somerset) in his apartment. This is before credits or titles. There is no speach but we get to know a small ammount about his way of life. He is Quiet, Tidy and witheld. He has very particular ways of getting ready to leave his house.
Next Shot, still no titles is a dead body, the blood is highlighted by the lighting.
Voice of a police officer talking about the neighbours account of what was happening.
Enterence of Brad Pitt (Detective Mills) to the crime scene.

Detective Somerset:
Quieter, Old, Wise, Logical.
Fussy, Lonely?
Wears a Hat - a sign of an upstanding gentleman?

Detective Mills:
Sarcastic, Wise-act, Confident
Young/Stupid?
They are contrasting characters.

Titles Come after end of Convosation in the street between the two detectives.
Opening credits are strange. Lots of flickering and movement.
They are very uneasy and gruesome.
Dark Shadows are Used typical of Thrillers.
The flashing images give a sense of unease to the viewer.
Childrens Writing? Images of cencoring, photographs being developed. finger naiils being cut. Lots of images of books and writing.