planning cinematography- Miss.Miller

Cinematography is a key element in the production of a thriller of as it allows us to convey more emotions into a scene by using different camera angles for example using a higher angle allows us to make one of the characters seem vulnerable as they being looked down upon.Planning is required as in order to create excellent sequences we need to decide which angles will be most suited for certain scenes  so we are able to convey the three elements of a thriller further.

We plan on using a POV angle during the chase so the audience are able to see the situation from the female victims point of view. We've chosen to use this camera angle as it allows the audience to see exactly how the victim is reacting to the situation, so it will hopefully make the audience feel more sympathetic towards the female victim however they will also feel more shocked and on edge as they completely see how the feel victim is reacting.This camera technique is quite conventional to a thriller as it helps portray the scene further by showing the situation from the point of view of one the characters.

High angle will be used at the end of the scene when the antagonist is standing over the female victim, this specific camera technique will show that the victim is in fact very helpless as the antagonist now has her trapped. As stated before this camera angle will allow the audience to see that she is now helpless which is due to the fact that the camera is looking down at the victim also making her look inferior.This is conventional as it is a technique which often used in thriller films as it makes the relationship between the character and the audience stronger as they come to realize that the character is helpless.

An extreme long shot will be used during the car park scene when the two characters are having an argument, this type of camera shot allows the audience to see the body language of the characters and the whole enviroment. In this case this camera works perfectly as we want the audience to notice that the car park that the two characters are in is deserted and quite obscure this will make the audience a little more agitated. They should also be able to fully analyse the body language of both and see that the argument is relatively heated making the audience quite shocked.This camera shot is quite conventional as it used in many thriller films and helps convey the three elements of a thriller further. This camera style will not necessarily strengthen any of the relationships with the characters but will allow them to understand the situation more.

Close ups will be used in various situations throughout the whole scene so first of all it could be used when the female victim checks her phone and realizes there is no signal or during the end of the chase scene to show the facial expressions of the female victim.The reason we want to use this camera technique is to help create more shock and surprise so for example the close up on the phone makes the audience recognize that the female victim cannot use her phone and is now trapped in a deserted area with no contact. We also want to use it on the close ups of the female victims face so the audience are able to see how terrified the victim is which will make the viewers feel more compelled to feel sorry for her.This is conventional as it allows the audience to understand the situation further and it also helps the viewers notice specific things which may not be noticed if it is not highlighted.

Handheld camera techniques can also be used during the chase however we have not come to clear decision however it will only be used during the main chase scene rather then throughout the whole scene. The reason for the particular camera technique used is to show the audience the perspective of the female victim which will create more shock and surprise, it will also make the scene more realistic which again create more of the elements of thriller previously mentioned.This is conventional to thriller as it emphasizes how panicked and frightened the victim really is and will create more shock and surprise. The audience will also start to feel for the victim as shes helpless and has no way out of the situation she is in.

My sequence will be more effective throughout the use of cinematography as it will help us emphasize shock, surprise and suspense through the scenes, it will also help us create a relationship between the characters and the audience. 

rough cut- miss.georgiou

A rough cut is a film that has no been completely edited so that further feedback or criticism can be provided in order to produce a points that can continue to improve the film when it is returned to the editing stage.

The audience provided by the audience is important to the production as like previously mentioned it vastly improves the final cut for the film . The audience will be able to provide criticism that they feel is needed which helps the production immensely as ultimately we are aiming to satisfy our target audience by creating  certain elements which we feel will be most liked by our target audience. The feedback we then receive will then be taken in consideration and if we feel it is suitable for our film and does in fact improve the final outcome we will incorporate the suggestion.

We have received our feedback mainly from comments which have been left on youtube we uploaded it, the comments have come from various individuals around the target audience which is of our most concern. The use of a method like a focus group would be too time consuming and not needed as the comments that have been provided are of the quality that we need in order to start producing a final production. The same applies to the questionnaire which in fact would be worse then the focus group as this does not allow for the individuals to freely express their opinions of the film as they will have to conform to the questionnaires.

The benefits of the feedback are similar to what i have explained in the first paragraph. The feedback given will allow us to edit certain aspects more to the liking of the target audience which will subsequently cause more interest from our target audience, it will also allow us to see mistakes which may have not previously seen when editing which will continue to improve the production.

Positive feedback:

"the music within the opening sequence is conventional to the thriller genre and fits the settings and surrounding well."

The music was relatively hard to find as we had to ensure that it is was copyright free and fitted well with the tempo of our opening sequence while also being the type of music that would be associated with the thriller genre. It is clear from this comment that making sure we found the most suitable sound tracks for our opening sequence has played a big advantage for us as we have been able to enhance the experience that our opening sequence has provided.


"the opening sequence is realistic to real life equivalents and does actually look like an opening sequence, as the narrative flowed within the opening sequence.

Throughout the filming and during the development stage we were focused on creating an opening sequence as appose to creating something more like a trailer which would be far from the task that we were given.Creating real life equivalents was also important to include in the early stages of planning as if the audience are able to relate with the characters or the situation this should hopefully make the emotions that we have tried to create more apparent as the audience are able to see themselves in the same or similar situation. The narrative was also of a concern as we were only able to show a small segment as it was an opening sequence so making sure it flowed smoothly but also being interesting and also attractive to the audience proved to be quite difficult but judging by this comment it seems like we done well.


"The use of cinematography was very good, as a variational of shots were used, making the visuals more appealing as the same shots weren't repeated and multiple different ones were used during different segments"

During the planning of the opening sequence we were adamant on providing a wide range of camera angle and camera techniques as this allowed us to demonstrate that we were proficient in regards to the use of the camera, however we also needed to ensure that certain angles were used for certain situations for example using a high angle to show the character thats is lower is more inferior which we had learnt when we were researching cinematography in other films.


Negative feedback:

"some segments could be either removed and placed during other segments of the production, so that the narrative is clearer and easier to understand"

There were parts of the opening sequence that we felt that were a little too long and made the sequence more elongated then it needed to be so based on this comment it has confirmed that we should in fact shorten certain scene in our sequence in order for the overall quality to be improved. In regards to moving certain segments in another order, it simply does not make sense as it would make the narrative incomprehensible as the sequence of events have been placed in a fashion that progresses and makes the most sense, so we will not be paying attention to this part of the comment as it would affect the opening sequence in a negative light.

"The dialogue at the beginning of the sequence seems to be a little quiet in comparison to the sound track and some scenes seem to be a little too dark"

This comment has many fair points which we will definitely take into consideration however they are also very easily fixed, for example in regards to the sound of the dialogue it very easy to increase the sound of the dialogue in those certain scenes that require which i will most definitely fix as the dialogeu is relatively important as it increases the audiences knowledge of the narrative which is crtical for an opening sequence. The lighting in certain scenes however will be difficult to amend as the time that those scenes were created was very dark which was out of our control although we will be able to change the brightness and possibly add certain filter which will improve the lighting but this may not completley fix the problem.

"Certain aspects of the opening scene such as the jump from different settings make it little unclear for the audience"

As a group we spent a long period of time discussing on whether we should create more scenes showing the trasition from one setting to the other which would be the alleyways to the forest however we came to the conclusion that it was unnessary as it just prolonged the opneing sequnece as little to long and may make the opening to boring as the audience would mostly be watching the chase.So unfortunatley we will not be taking the comment into consideration as we feel that providing more scenes would actually decrease the quality of our opening sequence.

Based on the comments we have recieved we will take the comment which refers to the level of volume of the dialogue and the lighting of certain scenes as this is the only comment which we believe to be feasible.After reciving this comment we will go back to the editing software and replay the opening sequence and then make the changes to the volume of the dialogue as well as ensuring that we are able to increase the brightness to level that does make the scene look unaesthtically pleasing.

Individual narrative ideas- Miss.Georgiuo

The narrative

A narrative is important as it helps brings the audience to be more engaged with with film, the opening narrative scene being the most important. The narrative is also what keeps the audience keep interested thought the film as they are able to follow the story across the film and understand the various situations that occur and how the characters react to them, it also helps create the three most important elements which are shock, suspense and surprise. 

Mise en scene

• Forest
• low key lighting
• killer might have a mask
• urban myth that a killer lives in the forest
• group of teenagers
• wanting to explore the urban myth
• all sneak out of house at night 
• decide to meet at forest 
• all explore the forest
• they think its not true 
• they hear some rustling 
• start to get a little scared but brush it off
• then killer comes running out 
• briefly show him with the handheld camera
• they all start to run back 
• screaming and shouting
• end  

I will present this information to my group and then we will decide on which narrative we will use for our scene, we may decide to combine them or focus on one narrative. However it most likely that we will focus on one and develop it further making sure many conventions are present.

Questionnaire

Research was conducted as in order to create a film that the general public will like we needed to see there opinions on what creates a thriller that will become popular as it caters to the wants of the general public. We decided to ask 40 people as this allowed us to question a diverse range of people, this helped us make our decisions as we knew the answers that were given were of a broad audience.

PLEASE CIRCLE YOUR ANSWERS

1) Please specify your gender:

Male   

Female           

2) What is your age?

11-14            

15-17

18+

                       

3) Do you like the thriller genre?

Yes                 

No                  

Sometimes    

4) What type of thriller do you enjoy?

Psychological

Action            

Crime             

Other             

5) What type of settings/ environment do you prefer to see in a thriller film?

Forest

Deserted house/warehouse

Abandoned outside area, for example car park

Other

6) What gender protagonist do you prefer?

Male

Female

7) What type of weapons do you like to be seen & WHY?

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8) What type of soundtrack do you like to hear in thriller sequences and WHY?

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9) Do you like to see gore when watching thriller films?

Yes

No

Sometimes

10) Do you prefer your antagonist to have a hidden identity or to be seen throughout the film and WHY?

Hidden identity

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Seen throughout

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Research was conducted as in order to create a film that the general public will like, we needed to see their opinions on what creates a thriller that will become popular as it caters to the wants of the general public. We decided to ask 40 people as this allowed us to question a diverse range of people, helping us make our decisions as we knew the answers that were given were of a broad audience.

This pie chart shows us that the majority of people we asked questions to were female however we can also see that it quite an even number of male and females asked. This will not necessarily help us with the decisions what we make for our scene however it has helped us to understand that the rest of the questions asked are answered by both an almost equal amount of gender which will make our decisions appeal to both male and females.It also shows us that the male and female people who answered may have some sort of distinct difference in the answers that were provided for example the males may prefer more gore in the thriller films they watch which may not be the case with the females, ultimately this will help choose what type of gender our film is most likely going to be aimed to however in the perfect scenario we would hope that the opening sequence we have created will satisfy both genders.

This information allowed us to analyse the answers between different age group, this is critical as it will allow us to decide what age group we want our target audience, This pie chart tells us that majority of the people who were questioned are between the ages of 15 to 17 which indicates immediately that our scenes will most likely be tailored to the liking of audiences of those ages if we decide to use all of the answers on the questionnaire to base our film on.However when creating out film we must also bear in mind the age restrictions which certain films have based on the content so our target audience could change entirely if the films we produce is to violent or gory, although being of a similar age it is likely that the fllm we produce will cater to this age group providing we adhere to certain rules.

This piechart tells us that a large proportion of people do in fact like the thriller genre or at least occasionally, this informs us that it is obviously quite a popular genre which could potentially mean that our scene will be viewed a lot.There is nothing from this question that we can incorporate into our scene however it just proved that a lot of people enjoy the category of our scene and will hopefully watch it. When taking this answer into context there does seem to be more use to the question rather than it being an indication of how popular this genre is, as the people who answered that they do like thriller films or at least occasionally make the answers of the the questionnaire more valid and therefore more useful to us when creating our sequence as they have more knowledge on what creates a better thriller film then those who answered no.

This question shows us that people prefer many types of different setting so it will be hard to accommodate to every viewer. However in the question there is an answer with a majority which could possibly point us into the direction of using that setting but it does not necessarily mean we will use the answer when choosing the scene. When the question was asked practically every participant did not have a specific type of setting that they really enjoyed and in fact just settings that they may prefer to see which imply's that a certain type of setting may not be seen as too important, which may imply that is in fact up to the creators to choose the most effective settings as the setting allows the certain emotions to be explored more vastly for example a forest would allow us as film makers to create more mystery and suspense as it is a setting that is considered relatively unusual to people and is also associated with being quite eerie.

Based on the pie chart we can see that psychological thrillers are enjoyed the most however it is not a clear majority.This sort of information can be quite critical when making a successful scene as this definitely something the general public may look for in a thriller, so based on this information we will clearly have to pick a specific type of thriller we want to base our scene on. As psychological thrillers seem to be the most popular we will most likely decide to base out theme on this type of thriller as we want our scene to appeal to the majority.

Out of the 40 participants 57% of them preferred a male protagonist to be apart of the scene. This type of information will have a big impact on the gender of the protagonist that we will choose which based on this pie chart will be a male as it is clear a majority of people prefer to see a male be the hero of the film.It is also very conventional which one other reason as to why this seems to be a clear choice for us even before creating the questionnaire, a male antagonist seems to always create more shock and more unease in the audiences of thriller films.

This pie chart shows us that the majority prefer a gun to be used as the murder weapon in thriller films however it is not clear majority so there are still a lot of other people who prefer possibly an axe or knife to be used. These answers will be taken on board however it is unlikely that we use the majority answer in this case as it is difficult to make the murder look more realistic as we will need a prop gun, so instead we will most definitely use the knife as it is a lot easier to use and often more conventional to thriller films.

This pie chart shows us that majority of the people that we asked preferred a fast paced action soundtrack in the thrillers that they watched. This information is likely to be taken into use however the scene that we have narrated will not fit this style of sound so we are more likely to include the slow paced soundtrack as it will create more suspense and shock with fitting scenes. Although we are not using the majority answer we are however using the second most preferred answer which means that the slow paced soundtrack will still appeal to many of our audience.However there may be some use of variations between slow and face paced sound tracks as this seems to be a lot more effective then one continuous soundtrack, this technique is also used very often in thriller films as the sudden change in pace creates more shock to the audience during a significant scene. 

Based on the information on the pie-chart we can see that a majority prefer to see gore used within thriller films, many people also answered with "sometimes" which still suggests that they like to see in most likely more moderation.This information will definitely be taken into consideration as it seems a large majority like to see gore which can also be relatively easy to replicate. The scene we have created can also be easily altered to incorporate more gore with the use of possible fake blood or more visual killings. Although gore may be may be hard to use in an opening sequence but it does quite often play quite a big part in the majority of the film.Starting with a relative amount of gore could be technique used to shock the audience as it is not something they would expect at the beginning of them film as the audience are usually gradually brought into it.

The information in this pie chart shows us that a slight majority prefer the (Not finished as tyler did this one wrong)

The vox pop is a tool used in many forms of media to provide a snapshot of public opinion. Random members of public are asked to give their views on a particular topic and their responses are presented to the viewer/reader as a reflection of popular opinion.We specifically used them as we wanted to see what the general public thought about certain aspects of a thriller film so using the same questions in the questionnaire we asked random people to give their opinion on the questions, as previously mentioned the information that we collected will be treated as the opinions of most  people. To ensure that the results can be more accurately described as popular opinion we aimed to ask people of different backgrounds and cultures.The data we collected which is otherwise known as qualitative data due it being opinions of other people, is practically the same as the questionnaire that we previously asked however the use of vox pop may not necessarily be used just for creating films as it can be used to show others an example of general members of the public answering our questions on the thriller genre. So the vox pops still serve the same purpose as the questionnaire however they allow us to see a visual representation of the questions asked.

Within my research i found many aspects to be of interest to our group, the questionnaire being the most interesting as it allowed it us to see the opinion of 40 people which could help us majorly as we were able to see the interests of a segment of the general population and incorporate it into out scenes.Although it will be difficult to incorporate every bit of information so we decided to analyse each questions and see which was the most feasible for our scenes so for example one of the questions indicated that the majority preferred a gun to be used as the murder weapon however once we analysed this we came to a conclusion that the better option would be using the second answer which was a knife as it would be a lot easier to use in your scenes and is often seen to be more of a conventional weapon.If i were to do the research again i might add more consideration when choosing participants in order for out results to be from more diverse people so that the out results could be based on a broader proportion of the population.