Whilst we were constructing our media piece we were constantly changing our idea around, we began our project with an opening sequence that involved a driving scene. The driving scene was made up of a lot of still shots that showed the car moving down the hill and then shots from inside the car of Sam looking out , we decided that these shots were not good enough as they did not flow well when put together and the camera use wasn’t very good. For e.g. there was a shot of Sam looking out the window but it was from behind his head and not only did it not flow with the sequence the shot was moving around too much and we could not keep the camera still, this then led to us cutting out the whole sequence and starting it again. When reconstructing the very opening we decided to start with an establishing shot of the hill which was taken from above a motorway bridge about a mile away from the hill, we decided to include this shot because it would show the audience were about our film would be taking place. This shot then leads to another establishing shot of the road which pans from left to right giving the viewer a full view of the road and name of it. I feel the effect of it works really well because the music is quiet during these scenes and begins to pick up as we go to a shot of Sam in the car driving to wards his home up the hill, this then flows into another shot of the car from the outside which shows the car moving away from the camera further up the hill and manages to make the two shots look as if they are continuous. These shots then place the audience ready to see a shot of Sam in the car because they can perceive it from the fact they have seen Sam driving the car up the hill, this shot then prepares us to see the shot coming up of the Monk in the woods which is taken from the same clip but it is cut in the middle and another shot from outside the car is included between them, at first we thought we would loose some continuity but once it was put together we realised it worked ok. The shot of the Monk in the woods is meant to act as a point of view shot from Sam this is represented by keeping the camera as close to his eyes as possible and the camera would then effectively follow the movement of them. These shots were then followed by a pan shot of the car going past which was then followed by a mid-shot of the car going towards the house then another shot from in front of the car as it parks up next to the house. These shots together represented the hill as a haunted place from the inclusion of the monk in the woods and the eerie road which has no other houses or cars and the obvious woods surrounding the house giving the audience the opportunity to predict what they think will happen.
From the establishing shots that had been filmed earlier we decided that we then wanted to go into the nightmare because the audience now know about the location, the main character and the Monk so they are anticipating something that could happen. To begin the sequence we start with a high angle mid shot of Sam asleep of Sam sleeping. To film this we had to set up the correct lighting in the room and position ourselves so the movement Sam made did not affect our filming. In this shot we begin to play the suspense movement to add effect to the nightmare as Sam roles around in his bed. This shot then cuts into a shot of the Monk in the woods with a series of quick cuts of the monk to build up the suspense, when we first saw the clip we felt it was not dramatic enough so we had to try out some affects on it, and after trying some of them we decided that darkening the clips and changing them to black and white to make it more dreamlike and more effective. These shots then cut back to Sam in his bed except this time the shot has zoomed in more on Sam’s face this is meant to have the affect of Sam being more affected by the dream as it goes on. In the shot we kept the lighting the same and try to keep the continuity from the previous shot of him in the bed. We then go back to another shot of the woods this time though it is meant to look like a point of view shot from Sam as if he is in the woods being chased or possessed by the monk. Once again the clip cuts back to Sam in bed this time it is a mid shot and it shows Sam getting more agitated by the dream, and from this shot it cuts back to the monk in the woods this time he is within a fenced off area with just a tree inside it, this could represent a haunted location etc and gives the audience suspicion to feed on. This time when we cut back to Sam asleep we are filming him from a low angle to the side of him, the lighting is still dimmed and the continuity from the last scene is still there, this then cuts back to the monk still under the tree however this time we can just about make up the monks appearance and this is done to make the audience feel as if the monk may be human but the uncertainty is still there. This cuts back to Sam panicking in bed you can see worry on his face just before it cuts back to another shot of the monk however this time it is a close up of the monk and you can clearly see a crucifix round his neck. This clip is quickly followed by a cut to Sam from a high angle leaping towards the camera with the lights still dimmed down and cuts to another shot of Sam this time he has got out of bed and stretching in front of the mirror, in this clip we purposely made it so you couldn’t see the monk in the background and you cant see him till Sam has walked of this was purposely put in to help build tension to do this we did an over the shoulder shot and made sure that we could not be seen in the reflection. This cuts to a close up of the mirror were you only see the monk in the reflection of the mirror. These shots were put together to create a relationship between both Sam and the monk, it shows the audience that the monk is now linked to Sam and gives the audience that extra thing to think about and builds tension between the two.
The next sequence of events begins with Sam walking towards the forest in this scene we can see only a footpath ahead of Sam and nothing else, this then cuts to a clip of a possessed man running into Sam and in the same shot the dramatic music begins to play. This then cuts to a steady cam shot were we track the possessed man running; this is the 1st time the audience is introduced to the possessed man heading towards unknown destination. This is followed by a long shot that still involves the possessed man running and pans back across to see Sam chasing him these scene both establishes the fact Sam is chasing the possessed man and how far ahead the possessed man is in order for the next scenes to make more sense. It then cuts to an overhead shot of the possessed man running underneath and is then shortly followed by Sam chasing after him. This clip cuts to a clip of the possessed man running towards the edge, it cuts back to Sam lookin around for him to build a suspense to whether Sam has enougth time to stop the possesed man jumping off the edge. This cuts back to a shot of the possesed mans shoes ready to jump off the edge, it then cuts back to Sam catching up with him Sam attempts to shout at him but he is too late and you see a point of veiw shot as the possesed man jumps off the edge. It cuts to a crow flying off and then to Sam picking up a crucifix left by the monk. This then makes the audience feel that there may be answers to who this monk is.
Friday, 20 March 2009
Thursday, 19 March 2009
Locations + Equipment
The location we planned to use would needed to include alot of foliage but still have clear pathways and open areas so we were able to film there and we still wanted the forest to look not to distant from a public forest but to still have that erie feel about it. We went through a few locations such as Chertsey Meads, Virginia Water lake and Saint Annes Hill with Saint Annes Hill being our desired location because of its unique locations, the little amount of civilains using it and it was easily accesible to the group.
As soon as the group had decided on were we wanted to do our filming we needed to decide on when we wanted to book the cameras out for so we could order the Monk outfit for the correct date. This meant booking equipment such as:
As soon as the group had decided on were we wanted to do our filming we needed to decide on when we wanted to book the cameras out for so we could order the Monk outfit for the correct date. This meant booking equipment such as:
- Cameras (sony and panasonic)
- Tripods
- Steadycam
- Monks outfit
- Cast (we had to get a group of actors together that would all turn up at set dates)
- Car (to film shots)
- Make sure when we went filming weather was same and area was clear.
Contribution.
Between the four group members many of the roles were shared between the group evenly and we all got a good chance to put an imput into the camera, editing, sound and mis-en-scene. When we had decided to do a thriller I went off to go and search thrillers such as Eden Lake and The Strangers . I chose to go and search the openings of these particular thrillers because they were set in a similar setting to us and they were both very modern. This may not have given the group many ideas but it helped us realise what goes into the opening sequence of a thriller. After we had looked at a few openings to thrillers/horrors we then went on to deciding what we wanted to do with our opening, during this i did not get many points across but the main ones were to use a Monk and the location of Joe's sacrafice which both were appreciated by the group and those who watched our opening sequence. I also suggested that we filmed partcular shots such as the car scene were we see the monk out the window and when Sam picks up the crucifix.
When filming inparticular we used a few of my shots of inside the car and the pan from right to left and then back to right when James chases Joe up the hill, which i felt established to the audience what sort of distance Joe was ahead because all the other shots only showed either 1 of them.
When we had got all the shots and filming done we put it all on the computer to get it ready for some editing, at this particular point teh group split up and 2 focused on getting a good sequence of shots together whilst James and I went on to such for music and suspense sounds that would work well in our piece. As soon as the other to had come up with a basic sequence of what they thought looked good we all started to focus on the main project and all changes were discussed. This meant me and James could influence some of the changes being made and straight away we decided that we needed a whole new driving scene and that the chase scene before Joe sacrafices himself needed to be changed, this meant going out again when the weather was similar and wearing all the same costumes to keep continuity. When the group went out again we decided to change the location of the chase scene and to use more cameras so the shots would flow better because we could cut them and put them into a new clip clearer which ended up working well. We also came up with the idea for a wide establishing shot of the hill to, to show the audience the location of the filming.
When filming inparticular we used a few of my shots of inside the car and the pan from right to left and then back to right when James chases Joe up the hill, which i felt established to the audience what sort of distance Joe was ahead because all the other shots only showed either 1 of them.
When we had got all the shots and filming done we put it all on the computer to get it ready for some editing, at this particular point teh group split up and 2 focused on getting a good sequence of shots together whilst James and I went on to such for music and suspense sounds that would work well in our piece. As soon as the other to had come up with a basic sequence of what they thought looked good we all started to focus on the main project and all changes were discussed. This meant me and James could influence some of the changes being made and straight away we decided that we needed a whole new driving scene and that the chase scene before Joe sacrafices himself needed to be changed, this meant going out again when the weather was similar and wearing all the same costumes to keep continuity. When the group went out again we decided to change the location of the chase scene and to use more cameras so the shots would flow better because we could cut them and put them into a new clip clearer which ended up working well. We also came up with the idea for a wide establishing shot of the hill to, to show the audience the location of the filming.
Wednesday, 18 March 2009
Evaluation of finished product.
When evalluating the finished product we looked at whether we had achieved our aims, everything we wanted to do is represented in our opening sequence and any changes we wanted to make worked well with the opening sequence we were goin for. When analysing what we had done we wanted to get the opinions of other groups, teachers and students so there wasnt i biast opinion of it, we also did this towards the end of our project incase any chages needed to be made before we put the final touches on it.
Between the group and the people that watched we came to the conclusion that the audience would enjoy our opening because it does not give to much of the opening away it introduces you to a bit of the storyline enticing you to find out more and gives the audience a reason to find out more because there is evidence left to tell us that Sam may go on to find out who this monk is, what he is doing, why he is doing it ect. When we asked the audience what they felt about our peice we got replys like, "I loved the music it was really effective in the last sequence" and "ahh the music flows really well" this was really good news for us seeing as one of the main aims of the group was to have good audio in the background and from peoples reactions they did. Especially after we had spent so much time finding the right songs to go with the moments. But this wasnt always positive feedback on the audio, earlier in producing the opening sequence the feedback was "naa that song doesnt go with the sequence" ect. This made us realise that we were too focused on finding music we liked instead of going for things that worked well with the opening sequence and between us we managed to decide what we wanted to do about the audio situation and we devided the group up so that we could find different ideas and try a range so that we were gettin different ideas and inputs into the production. Then when we showed people again there reactions were alot more positive.
When we came about deciding whether the rating we gave our film was ok we had to ask the opinions of teachers and other staff because they would have more knowledge that the other students we would of asked. And the majority of them came out with 12 and media teachers suggesting it should have been 12 in the US which was exactly what we were going for which was good news.
Looking over our finished project I realised how much of the project I liked, there were many shots end pieces of editing I found that I liked for e.g there were 2 shots in the middle of our sequence that i thought worked really well one of them being the traking shot by Oscar were he follows Joe through the woods which is really effectiv and the way it has been edited to flow with the following shot of both James and Joe running through the woods, I think it is good because we get too see a different shot of Joe running and it then flows back to James and pans across with James in shot so we see the both of them. This shot works relly well with what we were going for because it shows the audience clearly that James is not as close to Joe as we thought because in the previous shots it does not show it to the audience that well, this was an added bonus of having the audience commenting on our peice because it ment we could change it to suit them rather than what we wanted. There were also other parts of our project that I was happy with such as the monk suit and location we chose, and we were really pleased with the establashing shot we managed to get of the hill and everyone that saw it felt it was a good establashing shot to especially because it shows were the evens will be taken place right at the beggining of our sequence. Although I felt personally that there were still little details that we could of done to make our project better, things like the sequences leading up to and out of his dream did not flow as I would of liked into our project. But other that that I felt the project went as planned and better than I thought in places especially the audio, were we spent alot of time deciding what would go well with what and took time coming to descisions about what we should put in.
Between the group and the people that watched we came to the conclusion that the audience would enjoy our opening because it does not give to much of the opening away it introduces you to a bit of the storyline enticing you to find out more and gives the audience a reason to find out more because there is evidence left to tell us that Sam may go on to find out who this monk is, what he is doing, why he is doing it ect. When we asked the audience what they felt about our peice we got replys like, "I loved the music it was really effective in the last sequence" and "ahh the music flows really well" this was really good news for us seeing as one of the main aims of the group was to have good audio in the background and from peoples reactions they did. Especially after we had spent so much time finding the right songs to go with the moments. But this wasnt always positive feedback on the audio, earlier in producing the opening sequence the feedback was "naa that song doesnt go with the sequence" ect. This made us realise that we were too focused on finding music we liked instead of going for things that worked well with the opening sequence and between us we managed to decide what we wanted to do about the audio situation and we devided the group up so that we could find different ideas and try a range so that we were gettin different ideas and inputs into the production. Then when we showed people again there reactions were alot more positive.
When we came about deciding whether the rating we gave our film was ok we had to ask the opinions of teachers and other staff because they would have more knowledge that the other students we would of asked. And the majority of them came out with 12 and media teachers suggesting it should have been 12 in the US which was exactly what we were going for which was good news.
Looking over our finished project I realised how much of the project I liked, there were many shots end pieces of editing I found that I liked for e.g there were 2 shots in the middle of our sequence that i thought worked really well one of them being the traking shot by Oscar were he follows Joe through the woods which is really effectiv and the way it has been edited to flow with the following shot of both James and Joe running through the woods, I think it is good because we get too see a different shot of Joe running and it then flows back to James and pans across with James in shot so we see the both of them. This shot works relly well with what we were going for because it shows the audience clearly that James is not as close to Joe as we thought because in the previous shots it does not show it to the audience that well, this was an added bonus of having the audience commenting on our peice because it ment we could change it to suit them rather than what we wanted. There were also other parts of our project that I was happy with such as the monk suit and location we chose, and we were really pleased with the establashing shot we managed to get of the hill and everyone that saw it felt it was a good establashing shot to especially because it shows were the evens will be taken place right at the beggining of our sequence. Although I felt personally that there were still little details that we could of done to make our project better, things like the sequences leading up to and out of his dream did not flow as I would of liked into our project. But other that that I felt the project went as planned and better than I thought in places especially the audio, were we spent alot of time deciding what would go well with what and took time coming to descisions about what we should put in.
Sunday, 15 March 2009
Storyline
When deciding what we wanted to happen in our project we had many ideas of what we wanted to put into it and this is what we came up with, in brief:
The film would be about a normal boy who is on his way home on a normal day, he comes across a monk in the woods as he drives by and decides to take no notice of it as he believes it was probably a trick of the light. That night he has a bad dream about the monk he sees him appearing in all these locations on the hill, he wakes from the dream taunted by the monk whos spirit is within his house. The next day Sam decides to go out to the hill as he would any other day, on the way there he comes accross a possesed boy who is under the control of the monk who has persuaded him into killing himself for the monk, he chases him up the hill but the boy manages to get away with enougth time to jump off the edge of the hill. When Sam witnesses this he realises that the hill is haunted and feels he needs to find out more about the hill. On his quest to find out how the hill is possesed he comes across a variety of people who know about the hill, he also comes across many more possesed people and decides he needs to stop the monk. Along the way he comes across many supprises and realises the monk is not who he first thought he was and towards the end of the film we see Sam get close to finding out the real identity of the monk.
The film would be about a normal boy who is on his way home on a normal day, he comes across a monk in the woods as he drives by and decides to take no notice of it as he believes it was probably a trick of the light. That night he has a bad dream about the monk he sees him appearing in all these locations on the hill, he wakes from the dream taunted by the monk whos spirit is within his house. The next day Sam decides to go out to the hill as he would any other day, on the way there he comes accross a possesed boy who is under the control of the monk who has persuaded him into killing himself for the monk, he chases him up the hill but the boy manages to get away with enougth time to jump off the edge of the hill. When Sam witnesses this he realises that the hill is haunted and feels he needs to find out more about the hill. On his quest to find out how the hill is possesed he comes across a variety of people who know about the hill, he also comes across many more possesed people and decides he needs to stop the monk. Along the way he comes across many supprises and realises the monk is not who he first thought he was and towards the end of the film we see Sam get close to finding out the real identity of the monk.
Thursday, 5 March 2009
Our Plan
Once we had done all the research into what goes into a thriller we decided to put some ideas together at 1st we were not sure as to what thriller to go for because we had alot of good ideas that could have been put into an action thriller but we also had ideas for a good horror. We then decided that we could obtain the appropriate setting and costumes that we would need to film a horror film and from that we began to create an action plan and as soon as we got the storyboard layed out we decided that this was what we were going to focus on.
There were also other factors that helped us decide to produce the film such as the gap in the market for are particular take on the thriller/horror and we felt there was alot of veiwers that had been waiting for a movie with are twisted storyline to it which we felt was very unique and attracted a wide audience, that is why when we decided what distributor to go for we went for Dimension because it was big in the countries that we wanted to distubute are film for especially the UK which is were are film is set, it is also well known enought to get us noticed, and the main reason we opted to go for it in the end was because of its expertice in the the thriller/horror genre with films such as Halloween (1995-2002) and Scream(1996-2000) which have both done extremly well. We chose it over other distribution companies such as Universal which was a huge distrubutor of films in UK,USA and other areas we were hopin to distrubute our film, what let us down though was the lack of experience Universal had in distrubuting films of our level and of our genre, but this provdided us with too good strong distrubutors we could choose from. Then when we had the decision to pick a producer we went for Mira Max because its studios were in a good area for us and were of the right size to construct the set we wanted to use. This gave us an easy decision because Mira Max are not too well known either so we were able to get what we wanted for alot cheaper aswell. The added bonus of using these imparticular companies was the fact they both worked together and were under the control of paramount pictures. We were hoping to get all our production done by the end of the winter because there was not many films of our genre being distributed at the time and we felt it was an oppertunity. We then set a target deadline, to release our film about midway through Febuary.
The 1st thing we looked for once we had come up with the idea and script for what we wanted to do for our film we had to find a director that would do the filming for us. We went through a shortlist and came up with:
M.Night Shyamalan who has directed and produced such films as The Sixth Sense, Signs and the Village which have all done extremly well in the horror suspense genre but when we took a look at Sixth Sense we realised he could be the guy for us, because it was the same stlyle that we wanted our film to be.
Once we had our director we needed to get some well known actors to asct in our film. We made a shortlist for each character and we came up with the following:
Jack Nicholson who had starred in big movies such as Batman and The Shining and Psych Out which all could be classified as Horrors or Horror/Thriller movies were he plays the role of the villain or badguy. This is why we casted him for the part of the Monk.
Shia LeBeouf who had starred in well known movies such as Transformers, I Robot and Holes, with the 1st 2 succesful thrillers in which he takes roles as the main character well, he shows he can play the part of someone in a situation that he trys to get out of in Holes which is similar to the part we want him to play in our peice. This is why we chose him to play the part of Sam.
There were also other factors that helped us decide to produce the film such as the gap in the market for are particular take on the thriller/horror and we felt there was alot of veiwers that had been waiting for a movie with are twisted storyline to it which we felt was very unique and attracted a wide audience, that is why when we decided what distributor to go for we went for Dimension because it was big in the countries that we wanted to distubute are film for especially the UK which is were are film is set, it is also well known enought to get us noticed, and the main reason we opted to go for it in the end was because of its expertice in the the thriller/horror genre with films such as Halloween (1995-2002) and Scream(1996-2000) which have both done extremly well. We chose it over other distribution companies such as Universal which was a huge distrubutor of films in UK,USA and other areas we were hopin to distrubute our film, what let us down though was the lack of experience Universal had in distrubuting films of our level and of our genre, but this provdided us with too good strong distrubutors we could choose from. Then when we had the decision to pick a producer we went for Mira Max because its studios were in a good area for us and were of the right size to construct the set we wanted to use. This gave us an easy decision because Mira Max are not too well known either so we were able to get what we wanted for alot cheaper aswell. The added bonus of using these imparticular companies was the fact they both worked together and were under the control of paramount pictures. We were hoping to get all our production done by the end of the winter because there was not many films of our genre being distributed at the time and we felt it was an oppertunity. We then set a target deadline, to release our film about midway through Febuary.
The 1st thing we looked for once we had come up with the idea and script for what we wanted to do for our film we had to find a director that would do the filming for us. We went through a shortlist and came up with:
M.Night Shyamalan who has directed and produced such films as The Sixth Sense, Signs and the Village which have all done extremly well in the horror suspense genre but when we took a look at Sixth Sense we realised he could be the guy for us, because it was the same stlyle that we wanted our film to be.Once we had our director we needed to get some well known actors to asct in our film. We made a shortlist for each character and we came up with the following:
Jack Nicholson who had starred in big movies such as Batman and The Shining and Psych Out which all could be classified as Horrors or Horror/Thriller movies were he plays the role of the villain or badguy. This is why we casted him for the part of the Monk.
Shia LeBeouf who had starred in well known movies such as Transformers, I Robot and Holes, with the 1st 2 succesful thrillers in which he takes roles as the main character well, he shows he can play the part of someone in a situation that he trys to get out of in Holes which is similar to the part we want him to play in our peice. This is why we chose him to play the part of Sam.
The project
The project we had to do the opening sequence of a new thriller which included titles, lasted for approximatley 2 minutes and would be aimed at either a 15 or 18 certificate:
When we came about deciding what we wanted to do with our project we decided that it was going to be a horror/thriller called Crucifix, we cam to the name Crucifix after debateing wether to go for other names such as 'Relic' standing for the traces left behind from the Monk, the definiton of relic is "an object or a personal item of religious significance" We came to this name because after every move made by the monk he would leave behind a personal belonging so there death was more significant to him. Other names included 'Sacrafice' this was more of an obvious name because in our film theMonks method of killing people was to persude them to sacrifice themselves therefor we considered calling our film Sacrafice. After all the debating we eventually went for Crucifix which is the object of significance tho monk would leave behind after each death and the part it would play later in the film.
After the group had decided what we wanted to call the film we then had to make a choice on what age certificate we wanted to aim our film at, and looking at what films of our genre had been released at we decided that our film should be aimed at the 15 certificate in England and 12 in the USA because there are no scenes of a sexual nature, there is violenco only to an extent and the use of bad language is kept very low.
When we had decided on all this we had to decide what we should show in our opening sequence, our 1st instict was to go on the internet and look at the opening sequences to different thriller films, whilst we were doing this we realised that there were many different types of thriller ranging from action adventure to sci-fi such as Alien and horror thrillers such as Halloween! Once we realised this we decided taht a horror thriller would be a good direction to go for especially seeing as the rest of our group wanted to do it before we were told the project brief. Following our decision to do a horror thriller we then decided to do some reseach into what the opening of these films looked like, we looked at films such as Physco and Halloween which were extremly well known but when we watched them we realised that they werequite old and wanted to do some reasearch into more modern horror thrillers that had been released. The thrillers i then went to go on and reseach were films such as : The hills have eyes, Wolf Creek, Eden lake and the Strangers, from looking at these we realised that the opening sequences did not give too much of the story away but you were still able to acknowlege cues that were left for egsample in Eden lake and the strangers the film starts off at a slow pace telling us a differnt story were couples go off to enjoy themselves and then find out that they are beeing stalked, especcially in strangers were it takes atleast half an hour before the 1st attack of the strangers. From wactching the clips we were also able to work out that the characters used in horror thrillers were often inocent victims, psycotic individuals psycho fiends and would often be world weary. Watching the opening sequences also gave us examples off what locations were often used and in the films they often came accross haunted houses, abondoned villages and the setting would be given a very eary and cursed feel to it to create suspense and tension. When considering how lighting and camera were used me noticed a cosintancy of dim littet settings and slow camera shots with lots of sharp and quick cuts which helped create that suspense as we do not know when the next quick cut is coming, especially in the film Strangers which i focused on which had slow cuts but when it came to representing the villain the cuts became quicker and occured alot more often to give the impresion that the victims heart is racing and that they are on the edge and focusing on how to get away from the villain.
When we came about deciding what we wanted to do with our project we decided that it was going to be a horror/thriller called Crucifix, we cam to the name Crucifix after debateing wether to go for other names such as 'Relic' standing for the traces left behind from the Monk, the definiton of relic is "an object or a personal item of religious significance" We came to this name because after every move made by the monk he would leave behind a personal belonging so there death was more significant to him. Other names included 'Sacrafice' this was more of an obvious name because in our film theMonks method of killing people was to persude them to sacrifice themselves therefor we considered calling our film Sacrafice. After all the debating we eventually went for Crucifix which is the object of significance tho monk would leave behind after each death and the part it would play later in the film.
After the group had decided what we wanted to call the film we then had to make a choice on what age certificate we wanted to aim our film at, and looking at what films of our genre had been released at we decided that our film should be aimed at the 15 certificate in England and 12 in the USA because there are no scenes of a sexual nature, there is violenco only to an extent and the use of bad language is kept very low.
When we had decided on all this we had to decide what we should show in our opening sequence, our 1st instict was to go on the internet and look at the opening sequences to different thriller films, whilst we were doing this we realised that there were many different types of thriller ranging from action adventure to sci-fi such as Alien and horror thrillers such as Halloween! Once we realised this we decided taht a horror thriller would be a good direction to go for especially seeing as the rest of our group wanted to do it before we were told the project brief. Following our decision to do a horror thriller we then decided to do some reseach into what the opening of these films looked like, we looked at films such as Physco and Halloween which were extremly well known but when we watched them we realised that they werequite old and wanted to do some reasearch into more modern horror thrillers that had been released. The thrillers i then went to go on and reseach were films such as : The hills have eyes, Wolf Creek, Eden lake and the Strangers, from looking at these we realised that the opening sequences did not give too much of the story away but you were still able to acknowlege cues that were left for egsample in Eden lake and the strangers the film starts off at a slow pace telling us a differnt story were couples go off to enjoy themselves and then find out that they are beeing stalked, especcially in strangers were it takes atleast half an hour before the 1st attack of the strangers. From wactching the clips we were also able to work out that the characters used in horror thrillers were often inocent victims, psycotic individuals psycho fiends and would often be world weary. Watching the opening sequences also gave us examples off what locations were often used and in the films they often came accross haunted houses, abondoned villages and the setting would be given a very eary and cursed feel to it to create suspense and tension. When considering how lighting and camera were used me noticed a cosintancy of dim littet settings and slow camera shots with lots of sharp and quick cuts which helped create that suspense as we do not know when the next quick cut is coming, especially in the film Strangers which i focused on which had slow cuts but when it came to representing the villain the cuts became quicker and occured alot more often to give the impresion that the victims heart is racing and that they are on the edge and focusing on how to get away from the villain.
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