Final Thriller idea
14:05The opening sequence shows a list of game users flashing up on the screen and a man taking some prescribed drugs to give an impression this character has mental problems (this could make the audience empathise with the character or it could make them sense something is wrong). After that it switches to a silhouette of a man playing fighting games on a large tv screen. It focuses on his glasses and the reflection of the tv screen and the player really being drawn into the game- he has an almost hypnotised look on his face. It them flashes to violent sequences of him fighting another “player”, this player having the virtual reality glasses on and cannot sense the killer coming towards him. It changes back to the man playing and focusing on the video game. This is repeated a few times and it ends with the player dead on the floor. The killer takes the glasses off the dead young boy. On the tv screen there is a dead person on the floor and words flash saying "game over". In the next shot you see the killer sitting with the glasses on. There will be a clear difference between the gore on the tv as opposed to how violent the real-life killing is so that they are effective as they juxtapose. New words on the Tv flash up saying "level up". The camera pans back to the killer with the goggles on and a smirk is created on his face. The use of contrapuntal sound might really make it seem very un-natural and intense.
Feedback for two of my Thriller ideas
11:55
Idea 1:· “Might be a little too short for an opening sequence” If I were to carry on this idea, I would need to think about what other shots could be included and how they will show the genres conventions.
· “I like the idea of the gory photos being hung up”
Idea 2·
I"I like the connection between video games and real life”
· “I think the switching on camera from video games to real life is a really good idea”
·“Follows thriller conventions- make sure there are really violent parts.” I could Juxtapose how it might not be as violent on the game to the gore of the killings in real life.
“Maybe try and make audience empathise with the killer in some way so this psychopath may not seem as stereotypical.” I could think about the psychopaths life story, he may have a mental disability/ addiction, humanise the killer.
“It’s really current at the moment- links to a news story about swatting “(people online get aggressive)
“Could include the virtual reality aspect- as they’re in virtual reality they won’t realise you’re there.”- I think this is a really good idea and great advice. If I added this aspect it would bring my thriller to a whole new level.
“Tell us more about the victim” I need to think about how I could incorporate clues and evidence about who the victim is and their background.
“Sounds quite cliché (about the photos)” serial killers are more likely to take a trophy like a hair or something so I could play around with ideas to make it seem more interesting. (he may have a book full of hair taped to pages).
· “I like the idea of the gory photos being hung up”
I"I like the connection between video games and real life”
· “I think the switching on camera from video games to real life is a really good idea”
·“Follows thriller conventions- make sure there are really violent parts.” I could Juxtapose how it might not be as violent on the game to the gore of the killings in real life.
“Maybe try and make audience empathise with the killer in some way so this psychopath may not seem as stereotypical.” I could think about the psychopaths life story, he may have a mental disability/ addiction, humanise the killer.
“It’s really current at the moment- links to a news story about swatting “(people online get aggressive)
“Could include the virtual reality aspect- as they’re in virtual reality they won’t realise you’re there.”- I think this is a really good idea and great advice. If I added this aspect it would bring my thriller to a whole new level.
“Tell us more about the victim” I need to think about how I could incorporate clues and evidence about who the victim is and their background.
“Sounds quite cliché (about the photos)” serial killers are more likely to take a trophy like a hair or something so I could play around with ideas to make it seem more interesting. (he may have a book full of hair taped to pages).
My 4 thriller ideas
23:58
1. A new lawyer has a case and is defending a man accused of killing his house-keeper and it seems like an easy win until she uncovers some secrets that not only make her believe her client is guilty, but may be one of the worst serial killers in the past two decades… and he knows she found out. He holds her captive and the movie is about her escape before he kills her like he kills the others. Once free she is able to lock him up for what he’s done.
opening sequence:
The opening sequence shows the death of the house keeper and the killer is not revealed at all. It shows the preparation of how he is going to do it and him setting up and printing out a small photo of the victim after she is killed. He then hangs these up with a series of other photos showing other people that he has targeted and killed. The camera will be pointing at mainly things like his hands and focusing on the small details of process he takes once killing each victim. This will be filmed in a small, dark empty space where there is a table set up with the body strapped to table and gruesome photos hanging on the wall to imply he has not only killed one person. These images show the wanted look of the location and how the images will be hanging.
2. A Video game freak becomes so obsessed with games that he kills all of his opponents in order to feel like he has more life power in the game- he is confused between reality and the games. The movie is about the police investigation trying to find this criminal and them approaching different deaths where he leaves a clue at each, the last one informing them that they are part of one of his “games”. he attempts to kill the two police officers but fails and is locked up for life.
opening sequence:
The opening sequence shows a list of game users flashing up on the screen, then it switches to a silhouette of a man playing fighting games on a large tv screen. It focuses on his glasses and the reflection and the player focusing on the game. It them flashes to violent sequences of him fighting another “player”, and changes back to the man playing the video game. This is repeated a few times and it ends with the other character dead on the floor, and on the tv screen it shows a character dead on the floor. This will be filmed in a messy mens bedroom. These photos show the type of location and what may be written o the wall after he kills the player.
3. A killer picks out females who he finds attractive but also have criminal records and kills them so that they will be in hell waiting for him when he dies. His hide out is a log cabin in the woods as its a great place which no one would usually approach, however theres a passer by walking their dog and the dog starts barking and runs off to this cabin- the door is left open and the killer is out. The dog walker is forced to investigate as the dog wont stop barking which leads to him finding the girls locked in one of the rooms. The killer comes home and the man is trapped in the house. The rest of the film is showing how the dog walker is hiding in his house and secretly helping the girls, who are still alive, to escape.
opening sequence:
The killer is sitting at the desk cutting out images of girls face and pinning them up on the wall, a few are circled and how their eyes crossed out. The camera focuses on the things he is slowly doing with his hands. He is doing everyday things however they imply that he is some kind of killer (cutting things out). Flashes of the girls face come up as each photo is shown. The camera then goes into a room and all the girls circled are laying tied up in a row. It ends with a gun shot into new of the girls heads. The images show the location and what the photos of the girls may look like.
4. A group of drug smugglers have to face an female agent in their attempt to get it to their multimillionaire client. The smugglers families are under threat if they don't get it to the leading gangster of this gang. On their journey they come across the agent many times and each time she fights and kills one of the group members. The last man just reaches the client when there is a final gun shootout and the spy has successfully finished her job.
opening sequence:
The opening sequence shows a lot of action between the female agent and a gang of men, resulting in all the men killed and her standing there looking at her watch. Special effects will be used and hopefully a drone at the start to emphasise the open space. It then changes with her breaking into a house and finding a ton of drugs hidden inside kids teddy bears. This will be filmed in an outside urban location and inside a house. The photos show the space where theres a shootout and the teddy bear which the drugs will be hidden in.
Prelim part 2-Editing
14:49
After successfully filming the scene, I got to edit my prelim task using Premiere pro. I quickly understood how to use it and which buttons to click and when which meant the editing task could be done faster.
Prelim Part 1- Filming
13:36
For this task, we were put into groups and we allocated certain rooms to work in. My group got given the film studio and we placed the set in the way in which we though looked the best visually. We were handed this storyboard to follow:
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| Harry setting up the camera |
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| Our set |
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| Behind the scenes (taken by Oriana Pooles) |
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| A behind the scenes video (taken by Oriana Pooles) |
Editing workshop
00:27In this lesson, we went up to the editing suite and learn the basics of editing using adobe premier pro.
What we learnt:
Command (⌘) S.- SAVE
C- CUT
V-back to arrow
Command (⌘) C- copy
Command (⌘) V- paste
I- Mark in
O- Mark out
Command (⌘) Z- Undo
What we learnt:
Command (⌘) S.- SAVE
C- CUT
V-back to arrow
Command (⌘) C- copy
Command (⌘) V- paste
I- Mark in
O- Mark out
Command (⌘) Z- Undo
Overview of the four sections on Premiere Pro:
Top left: Collection of rushes.
Bottom left: Rushes viewing screen.
Top right: Rushes-chosen-for-editing viewing screen.
Bottom right: Where rushes can be directly edited.
Bottom left: Rushes viewing screen.
Top right: Rushes-chosen-for-editing viewing screen.
Bottom right: Where rushes can be directly edited.
Analysing sound in a Media text
16:57
Sound has existed in film since 1927 and is used conventionally to create a more involving, captivating and believable narrative. First of all, I am going to outline what the types of sounds are. Diegetic sound can be subsided into dialogue, sound effects and ambient sound. Non- diegetic sound is portrayed usually through soundtrack or voice-over. Parallel sound is when non-diegetic sound is used to support what is happening in the narrative; contrapuntal sound, on the other hand is when non-diegetic sound is used and contrasts the images. A sound bridge is when sound connects two scenes and can be both diegetic or non-diegetic.
The movie clip which I have chosen to analyse is a scene from Sin City; the reason for this choice is because its clear the genre of the film is thriller and action and it involves many different sounds- which created different effects. non-diegetic sound is used throughout this clip and is parallel sound. The soundtrack correlates with the action by adding more emphasis on the movements and is used as a way of exaggerating the action.Thereby having the effect of interesting the audience and keeping them drawn in to what is happening. Near the end of the clip, there is narration- this giving us more information and dynamics of the plot with a detailed explanation of what is happening. In this case, the narration gives the scene a slightly humorous aspect to it even though the characters have just killed a number of people. These comments in the voice over create a stronger relationship between the audience and the character, adding interest in the scene.
When looking at diegetic sound, in this scene, there is both dialogue and sound effects used. The dialogue is an obvious way of showing the audience the connection between the characters involved and can show clear emotions. Dialogue also triggers of events in the scene. When the female character at the start says “you’ve just gone and done the dumbest thing in your life” you immediately know something is negative is going to happen. The words used help the audience guess what events may occur next. This happens a lot in this scene so that the audience has an idea of what is about to happen next, for example a male character says “watch your step” and straight after, the other character slips over and is stabbed by an object” another example of when this happens is when the man says “don’t pull the trigger, she blocked the barrel, it will backfire” and directly after, the other character does exactly what he is told not to do. This dialogue adds humour to the scene because the opposition even warns the character not to do these things yet he was stupid enough to do them.
A sound effect which stood out to me was when the man is biting his own fingers of his chopped off hands so that he is able to grasp the gun again. this squeaking sound makes the audience feel uncomfortable - well it certainly makes me feel uncomfortable. This connoting the gore and the lengths that the characters go to, to get exactly what they want. Also, the idea that the fingers are squeaking could also add humour to the scene and can make the narrative more fun and easier to watch.
An example of where Parallel sound is used is at the start when the female character enters the scene and is conjuring a plan and taking action- it immediately makes us focus on the character and what they're doing. Sound bridges are used to add continuity to the scene to make sure that the audience know that it is all happening in a chronological order in the same location at the same time and is effective because of this.
In conclusion, this sequence is portraying thrill and also humour aspects which is done by the use of sound effects, a voice over, dialogue, and soundtrack. This combination of noises add a hecticness to the scene to go alongside the action. The sound effects have a clear relation to the genre and were used because of this. I imagine they were used so that the genre could be identified easily. Other sounds portray the emotions or status of a character and mainly sound is used to add interest in the scene; if the scene was done with no sound, it may bore the audience. Keeping the target audience intrigued is crucial when it comes to filming because if the audience aren't interested, the product is unsuccessful.
The movie clip which I have chosen to analyse is a scene from Sin City; the reason for this choice is because its clear the genre of the film is thriller and action and it involves many different sounds- which created different effects. non-diegetic sound is used throughout this clip and is parallel sound. The soundtrack correlates with the action by adding more emphasis on the movements and is used as a way of exaggerating the action.Thereby having the effect of interesting the audience and keeping them drawn in to what is happening. Near the end of the clip, there is narration- this giving us more information and dynamics of the plot with a detailed explanation of what is happening. In this case, the narration gives the scene a slightly humorous aspect to it even though the characters have just killed a number of people. These comments in the voice over create a stronger relationship between the audience and the character, adding interest in the scene.
Dialogue is effective in the sense that it keeps the audiences attention and initially tells the audience what is happening, similarly to thee way narration gives us information. Sound effects are used frequently throughout this scene for many reasons; there is a lot of pleonastic sounds which emphasises the focus of that point in the narrative. Another example of diegetic sound is the sound effect of metal scraping across other surfaces, this straight away emphasising the action taking place (with more of a focus on it) and also highlights the use of weaponry, large pieces of jewellery and other props or costume in the scene which imply the genre of “thriller”.
A sound effect which stood out to me was when the man is biting his own fingers of his chopped off hands so that he is able to grasp the gun again. this squeaking sound makes the audience feel uncomfortable - well it certainly makes me feel uncomfortable. This connoting the gore and the lengths that the characters go to, to get exactly what they want. Also, the idea that the fingers are squeaking could also add humour to the scene and can make the narrative more fun and easier to watch.
One last example of diegetic sound is the thunder sound. This sound portraying the evil and something bad is about to happen. Also the thunder sound is a common cliche to when villains enter a scene or are aoudad during the scene. This is because it shows their strength and power and their high status as a result of this. the audience may see this in a funny way as such a cliche sound is used but they also might believe that it is effective because is creates tension.
An example of where Parallel sound is used is at the start when the female character enters the scene and is conjuring a plan and taking action- it immediately makes us focus on the character and what they're doing. Sound bridges are used to add continuity to the scene to make sure that the audience know that it is all happening in a chronological order in the same location at the same time and is effective because of this. 
