Our Final Thriller Opening Evaluation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEPlEd60CGk&feature=player_embedded


We open up with the sounds of birds squawking as a man walks through a graveyard, he then arrives at a particular gravestone and turns, from here on in we've only seen the man's feet but the camera quickly cuts to the back of the gravestone and we see the man's face, it appears to be modern day judging from the man's clothes and he is older, we the audience then see an over the shoulder shot of a teenager with his girlfriend walking past, the boy of the two looks similar to the man, as the two walk past we hear gun shots and screaming while the screen goes white and then black. We then open in what appears to be a flashback because of the camera effects there are trees and branches covered in blood giving the audience a sense of dread, people have been killed here. We then have a close up of two soldiers walking through the woods with crickets in the background it appears that all is calm but we the audience know that something will happen because of the whole blood scene beforehand that scene faded out along with the eerie music. One of the soldiers is fully equipped and carrying a gun and is leading in front while the other one behind him is carrying almost no equipment has a bandage around his head with blood soaking through it and an injury on his arm it appears that the armed soldier has found the injured one and is bringing him back to the base. The soldiers are walking through the forest and we get a shot from the front as they walk past more trees, but the camera is at a distance so we can take in the surroundings also. We then see the injured man shot and a gunshot sound rings through the forest as the injured man falls the other one dives for the nearest tree and crawls for a good line of sight. We then see an over the shoulder shot of the soldier lying in the dirt firing his gun into the distance, its very clear the soldier has no idea where the shot came from because he's firing in all directions. We see him waste the last of his shots hoping to make contact we view this entirely from the side but the shot shows his entire upper body and the rifle so a well placed shot. We then see the soldier get up and run across the field (and I use that term loosely) while the camera follows him. The camera at this point is shaking but still keeps a good view of the soldier so its not uncontrolable, the soldier then dives down into the dirt taking cover. We then get another over the shoulder shot but this time of the enemy, the enemy is wearing a Vietcong outfit with a straw hat, this clears up our suspicions of what war it is set in if the jungle didn't already show it was Vietnam. The enemy fires a shot at the soldier who we can also see from this shot and misses, she then pulls back behind the tree. We then get a close up on the soldier behind cover taking this opportunity to pull a grenade out and toss it at the enemy. We then get a shot of the grenade landing and the Vietcong pulling back but is blown up by the grenade, the camera then cuts to the soldier trying to help the injured one, it feels a little incomplete because we have no idea how he got there. He tries to reach for the injured soldier but a bullet hits the tree showing that there are more Vietcong out there he then gets up and leaves while the camera follows him, leaving the other guy to die. We then leave the flashback the same way we entered it and it returns to the man in modern day still staring at the gravestone who we now know belongs to the man he left behind. The man then turns and leaves the graveyard in slow motion, the picture then turns to black and white and the credits come on.


We realised as we planned this that there was a good chance that this would become a war film instead of a thriller because of the action scenes and the setting of Vietnam, which is why we wanted to base the thriller genre mainly in the present day parts to show the emotional stress this guy has gone through. We also took notes from the film 'Saving Private Ryan' because their intro starts with a flashback like ours does. The main element that we thought would show this as a thriller rather than war and action war in general. We tried to show that war itself is a very frightening, unforgiving and brutal experience and how the experiences and mistakes on the battlefield may never leave you. Because this was only an intro and we had a five minute limit we couldn't show everything we wanted, of the thriller genre but we discussed what we would do if for the film. We discussed this because seeing as we were already making the intro we thought it was only right that we at least think about how we would show the rest of it. We agreed that for a full film we would make more flashbacks occur, see how everyday scenarios would remind him of his time in the war and we also thought that for a more in depth and detailed storyboard we would have the man get frustrated or angry when seeing something about soldiers either TV or in the street be it protest, praise or just news on how the current war was going. Another in depth thought was that the main character was suicidal, something we didn't show in the intro, and we thought that the best way to show this would be having the film course over about 5 days and at the end of each the man would sit down in a chair and think about how he left the fellow soldier, with a pistol on the arm of the chair indicating his insanity. I think that war is linked very closely to thriller because though there aren't many thriller and war film mashes, that are good there are still moments in war films that show the emotional stress and haunted memory's that veterans deal with, I think that combining the two to become a thriller could be a good choice if handled correctly.


In conclusion though our thriller opening is more war than thriller based if viewed from another perspective one begins to understand why our thriller was set out like this.

Behind The Scenes: Costumes and Props

For a war based film intro we had to get appropriate costumes and props so army Jackets, guns, and something a Vietcong would wear. The picture on the right is an American soldier in the Vietnam war this is what Ben was going to wear and lucky for us he already had most of the stuff that made up this costume. We could get the same type of gun from Mr Silverwood, the Jacket and trousers and especially the equipment he's carrying was all down to Ben. The picture on the left is Ben as seen he has a very detailed replica of the American soldiers costume it highlights most of the things the American soldier has and makes a suitable costume for the main character. Also the clothes Ben is wearing didn't cost us anything because he already had those clothes in his house thanks to his Grandma and his obsession with war. I too had to get an American costume but my guy was also injured so I had a bloody bandage around my head. Also my Jacket was camouflaged as opposed to plain like Ben's was I hoped this would distinguish us.


For a Vietcong soldier we needed to get Alex mostly Black clothes and a straw hat or a helmet. The picture on the right is a picture of a Vietcong soldier from the Vietnam war, as seen they are Asian, wear black and have little to no equipment or backpacks. The picture on the right is Alex who plays the Vietcong in our thriller opening we got her a Ju Jitsu jacket which looks similar to what the actual soldiers wore and a home-made straw hat which was also what they wore back then. By comparison between both characters we did a pretty good job on the costumes.

2. Hendrix (Becko) - Vietcong 2 (game)

3. The  - The Doors

4. For what its worth - Buffalo Springfield

5. Clapton - Vietcong 2 Vietcong 2 (g

Behind The Scenes: Soundtrack

We knew what we wanted from actors but we still needed good music and sound effects to with it. We had a few songs in mind and agreed it should be a depressing soundtrack but also from the sixties so that it fit in with the Vietnam setting. Here are the songs we thought would be good for the thriller Ben had them already on his Ipod so agreed to hear them and they were all good.

1. Fortunate son - Creedence Clearwater revival

2. Hendrix (Becko) - Vietcong 2 (game)

3. The End - The Doors

4. For what its worth - Buffalo Springfield

5. Clapton - Vietcong 2

good. In the end though we decided to go with 'The End' by The Doors because of its gloomy and more depressing atmosphere and it was lest action packed than the rest were. We didn't plan on playing it throughout the entire intro but we had the idea to play it in the flashback, the graveyard scenes or just the end of the intro. The gun sounds and explosions were easy enough to find because over the internet they have websites dedicated to finding things like that so that was sorted. And with this soundtrack we were confident that sounds would go far in the editing.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0kbC0hQHRg&feature=player_embedded

Behind The Scenes: Camera angles and still shots

When filming we had to make sure we knew what we were doing, we took a digital camera and tripod into Cannock and began filming with the people we had. We would always do more than one shot of a certain scene just to see which one was better. And before that we would do a practice run through so we knew what we were doing. It was extremely important to us that we got everything as close to perfection as we could. So I particularly would spend up to 2 minutes trying to get the camera level and in the right position so we would have the most intense scenes. Something we wanted most of all was non shaky camera angles that meant using the tripod almost all times, apart from the running sequence I think we pulled it off. With the picture on the right especially we needed to explain exactly what to do because Alex didn't know where to go, how to move or anything like that so I had to show her the movements she'd make and then do a practice run of what she'd do. There were scenes where me and Ben were on camera at the same time so we would hand it over to either Sean or Ben's Mum, to make sure we didn't waste time or film we walked them through exactly what we wanted to happen. For still shots and the like we would yell freeze or stop when we wanted them to just hold position this gave us an idea of the actors movements in the filming.

Behind The Scenes: Cast and Crew

Because we were in a group of three we needed more people to star in our thriller opening this was of little concern because Mr Silverwood had already told us that we could use other people from around the school, but we did need more people, especially now that Anthony had decided to do nothing towards the film so here's the members of our team.

Crew                                                                                                                        
Josh Fletcher: Director, Camera man 1, extra
Ben Hilton: Assistant Director/Editor,
Sam Pearson: Editor
Ben's Mum: Camera man 2
Sean Brown: Camera man 3
Anthony Hall: Well... Umm... Anthony did nothing throughout the course of the filming its a wonder he's even in this list.

Cast
Ben's Dad: Main Character
Ben: Main Character (past)
Josh Fletcher: Guy who's shot
Alex Chong: Vietcong
Becky Colclough: Main characters girlfriend before war                                    
Anthony Hall: Again did nothing

These were the people who contributed to our thriller and were a huge help to the Final product, except Anthony of course.

Behind The Scenes: Location Location

The most important thing in our opinion was the location seeing as we needed a graveyard and a place we could make look like Vietnam. The school field looked to familiar and there were barely any trees, Milford looked good but still wasn't as good as we were hoping so in the end we decided to go to Cannock Chase. this was a good setting for the flashback in Vietnam because of the trees and wilderness. We mainly picked it because of the branches and trees and good places to duck into cover. We drove to a deserted part with trees everywhere with a stream running through the middle no-one was going to walk their dogs through it and it was away from any houses so we didn't have to explain ourselves to anyone at home. There was also a point we found that we used repeatedly because we could stand the camera up and have some really good environment shots. As seen in the second picture if you look closely Ben is in his full costume acting out the scene where he hides from the Vietcong because of the camouflage we had some points where we needed the character to move quite abruptly so people could see him but because of the whole scene being very fast paced it wasn't a problem.

The other location we filmed at was the German graveyard again on Cannock chase. Here we filmed the man walking into the Graveyard and the beginning and end of the flashback. We picked this particular graveyard because its set out like a war memorial there are clear lines of sight and rows of gravestones to choose from.

Behind The Scenes: The Story

We understood the storyline perfectly fine because we had created it but we had to take into account just what complete strangers or people who had no idea what it was about would think, this is what we had to clearly show in our thriller opening. Our plot was that a man walks into a graveyard, walks along until he reaches a certain gravestone he then turns and stares at it until he sees a vision of him and his girlfriend before the war when he used to be a good man he then has a flash back to the day he let his friend die. Two soldiers including himself ,either good friends or not, would be on a patrol near the base so no cause for alarm or caution was needed. We then decided that one would be injured and instead of patrolling they would be close to the base so that the injured man could get medical treatment. While they have their guard down they're ambushed by Vietcong, the injured soldier is shot and the other gets to cover. The whole flashback is set in the Vietnam war so it is a brutal experience for these men. The main character looks at his friend dying on the floor and wants to help him but he's to scared so he runs away from the battle and leaves the man for dead. We then return to the graveyard where the man is twenty years older his life is in ruin and he regrets leaving him that day the man then leaves the graveyard. This man has been suicidal for years and seeing as this is an opening it would be what the film is about. So overall we had to show this story to the audience with decent actors, a good location and some real good editing and camera angles. To go into extra detail about making the story as good as we possibly could we would either arrive on location with ideas and pick the best ones or we would meet round each others houses and take notes or ideas on the story.

Behind The Scenes: Brainstorming becomes Idea

When we were told what we were meant to make a thriller we all had different ideas on the subject, I was hoping for a thriller that was based around either nuclear holocaust, a sci fi thriller where a man goes back in time and tries to change events for the better or one where someone knows the truth about the 9/11 attack and is being made to keep quiet because of it. Out of these three we liked my nuclear holocaust idea best because the time travel one sounded to similar to 'the butterfly effect'  and the 9/11 attack might be a sensitive issue to some whereas in a world of nuclear winter we didn't know what would happen. Ben Hilton had an idea for either a rapist or murder thriller where the girl or victim would be hidden while the stalker looks for him/her these ideas were scrapped because we had previously done a murder in our practice thriller and wanted to try something new and we couldn't do the rapist one without getting two intimate with a girl and plus no-one in their right mind would agree to it. Anthony the third member of our group had an idea to do a soldier who deserted his squad and was getting tracked down because of it, though we liked the sound of this idea it sounded to original and nowhere near scary enough but then we had a thought to combine mine and his ideas that are set in war times and put them together. We now had a setting where a soldier leaves his friend to die after an ambush we were happy with this and we came to the conclusion that it could all be set in a flashback like 'Saving Private Ryan' was, this way the man had been living with the guilt for a long time. Ben came up with the idea of us setting the flashback in the Vietnam war so that over 20 years had past. We now had an idea and believed that any plot holes or things we'd missed out we would compensate for along the way, with that   in mind we went on to make our storyboard. 

Our Final Thriller Opening Behind The Scenes

For our thriller we needed to keep in mind that it was not so much the thriller that would get us marks but the process doing it. Therefore we took pictures and archived what we did each day for the thriller. With this in mind we had to make a good thriller in good locations and show evidence for it. So these are the steps we took in making a thriller for our AS Media studies.

SE7EN opening credits evaluation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEZK7mJoPLY The opening starts abruptly with us staring at a book that is laying flat on a table, the camera is positioned so that we see the top rim of the book, the lighting illuminating the book and the hand turning the page, there is an eerie feel to what the audience is seeing here we don't. The music throughout the opening isn't rock and roll theme or smooth Jazz but rather a repetitive syllable playing the same thing over and over again but it still adds to the mood. The scene then goes black and we're shown detailed blueprints of someone's hands showing that whoever is doing this is planning something. These hands also appear to be deformed so we are put on edge by this.Machinery operates from what looks like a type writer we are shown this for the briefest moment while the lighting still appears to be candlelight. The camera then does some quick cuts between more blue prints and a man shredding the skin off his finger tips. A record is rewinded in the music which sounds very much like a woman or girl screaming. The title sequence then begins and we see the hands reach for something the fingers are now plastered. We see a second book open and more typing continues whoever is planning here is extremely busy the candle light is flickering more vigorously now giving the impression that this person is almost finished it also shows that it cant be good and this man is most likely the villain. We are shown more and more footage of writing, typing and cutting up film while never seeing the persons body or face this is clever because we are shrouded in mystery to who this person is. The music changes to a more rock and roll style near the end of the credits.

Batman The Dark Knight 'trailer' evaluation

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxKJgOZXEho We open with a view of a tall buildings rooftop, the camera rotates around it before fading out, we are then shown a birds eye view of the streets below to show that this building is HIGH because we can see the tops of over tall building below. The camera follows the same general rotating action until we see Batman standing at the edge of the buildings roof. We then see an over the shoulder shot of Batman looking down before he jumps off the edge into a dive hurtling towards the street, the audience also notices that when the Bat jumps he has no way of breaking his fall no special cape, no harness, no glider, no... Rocket Boots. However we don't get the same sense of dread as we would if a gun was in his face because he's BATMAN and we know he can handle it. The scene then blacks out and an explosion of the film company's involved is shown but those barely last two seconds the camera then fades in to daylight and a swooping birds eye view of the city. After that we here Jokers voice talk about cops and lawyers and are introduced to the main characters of the film The Joker, Detective Gorman (I think), and the soon to be Two Face. This sets the ground for the story because we know that the story will revolve around them. We see the back of Joker just before the bat mobile smashes through the wall in what appears to be a separate scene. The next scene is of Jokers back again so the audience now are determined to see Jokers face and on the line 'we kill the Batman' we do as opposed to what we were thinking clean cut and smart he is actually quite hideous, greasy and has scars coming from the sides of his mouth. The camera then cuts between Joker holding a Joker card and  the streets filled with chaos indicating that he has no restraints but also that he finds it all to be one big joke. Batman is then shown in his civilian state entering a very high class restaurant to find his ex and Two Face, Face says Rachael has told him everything about Bruce with him countering with I certainly hope not so not only is Bruce still the Bat but there is already some tension between these two. We are then shown explosions and Batman riding through the city we already gathered its going to have action but this shows its intense. There is a Romance scene between Bruce and Rachael showing their feelings are still there and there is a love triangle in this film it also implies that the only way he would give up Batman is if he can be with Rachael. There are repeated scenes throughout the trailer where Harvey says something about Bruce which in a way implies his identity as Batman and the scene changes to Batman doing some crazy stunt. The next part is Joker standing up the party and it shows the war has escalated between Batman and Joker. The next ten seconds shows just how crazy and chaotic Joker is, Batman battling his inner demons and Harvey fighting on the side of good. We then see Joker moving through the streets with the words 'here we go' coming from his mouth it is then scenes of the action and hard choices that will be made when fighting Joker. The trailer then ends its daylight and the joke about the Lamborghini is made with it being a gorgeous car.

Psycho 1960 'shower scene' evaluation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VP5jEAP3K4
We the audience start out innocently enough watching a woman shred the evidence of her stealing money and ready to right her wrongs. The camera cuts to her getting ready for showering then the water coming out, the audience can only see her washing and hear the sound of the shower but at the same time we are a little creeped out and know that everything isn't as it seems. We then see her from another angle still showering but now she is on the right hand side of the camera so not the centre of attention any more we're almost expecting something to happen. The door in the background opens from behind the shower curtain the audience know nothing good can come of this but are hoping that its the man giving her towels or something, the camera slowly zooms in on the shadow of the person entering the room. The shower curtain is quickly yanked open and suddenly the famous psycho thriller music begins to play. In this moment the camera is focused on the person who has entered the shower, he/she is wearing clothes we've never seen before and we have no idea who it is because they are shrouded by shadow. The camera cuts back to the woman who spins around and screams the camera zooms in on her mouth and the scream lasts about three seconds to add to the sense of horror. The shadowed figure then raises a knife and stabs her, the music intensifies at this moment and there is a pause where we see the woman fighting for the knife with a wound in her arm. She however is injured and cant keep up the fight for long. The killer breaks free and starts stabbing her over and over and over again, the camera cuts from the woman to the killer to the knife as she is repeatedly stabbed. The camera then shows the floor of the bath and we see the blood washing away. The woman then turns trying to run but in the enclosed space she cant escape, we see the same stabbing sequence only from the back now, then it stops and the killer leaves the room, we see her from the back and see woman's hair and a dressing gown we get the impression she is the motel owners mother. Leaning against the bath wall and is breathing heavily and then reaches out with her hand in one last desperate effort to move. The camera then focuses on the hand grabbing the shower curtains, the woman then collapses and we see her lifeless body and the last of her blood wash away the end shot is a slowly closing in on her money wrapped in newspaper the reason she came to the motel in the first place.