Light Research

In order to make our film more effective, we decided to try and play with light and reflection. This would add to creating a sense of ambiguity for our film. This is also conventional of thrillers as it creates a sense of entrapment as the audience is only given a limited view of the scene, as opposed to being able to see everything in the shot. Our group decided to take some pictures in our location to view how we could experiment with light:

As you can see here, the corridor is lit very brightly, creating a clinical sense to the shot. We felt that this would expose too much of the surroundings as we want our opening to happen in an unknown location. This amount of light would make the film appear more like a drama rather than a thriller as it is simply not dark and limiting enough. However, the reflection of the light on the floor could be used to symbolise some sort of urgency; seeing as our opening will be more slow paced, we decided that this wasn't necessary. 



Although we weren't able to fully make the corridor darker, you can see a clear difference between the two pictures. The shadows in the dim lit corridor make it appear more spooky which is exactly what we want -  a remote, isolated location. The shadows make the corridor appear intimidating which is why we think that the darkness of it would expose the bold, formal structure to it, adding to the eeriness of the shot. The problem area of this shot is the fact that there is a lot of natural light coming in, despite the fact that we have turned most of the lights in the corridor off - this is something we should consider when filming.


Through looking at the use of light in our project we have come across some things which we will need to remember to do in order to make our work more effective:
1) Make sure that the light is evenly distributed - this means that we should probably aim for making sure that most if not all of the lights in the corridors are switched off
2) Make sure to film after lessons - this would give more darkness to the shot as there would be no natural light coming in to the shot. This is also important as we found that a lot of people were moving across the corridor, slowing down our progress.

Title research

I thought it would be quite interesting to look for past productions from previous media students. This opening intrigued me, especially by its title sequence. This could help us with our titles during the opening sequence because we aim to make the audience feel disorientated and suspense.

Product research

                                                                                 

                                                                                 I found the design of the title quite interesting. This is

mainly because of how each blood drop completes

the title of "Dexter".  The colour of the title also turns

more blood-red, which emphasises the  brutality Dexter does to his victims as he is a serial killer. 

This shot causes a big impact on its audience. The use of the blurred reflection of Dexter in the mirror may suggest his secretive side of people not knowing who he really is, as he is a forensic expert, who moonlights as a serial killer. This shot could be used in my  thriller opening, as it creates a sense of ambiguity , but the reflection in the mirror is also conventional to portray a different  perspective of a character. 

Titles Research

 Titles are essential in a opening and for our opening we need to create titles which is not only Thriller-like but in context with our opening. I researched some videos which are of help in order for thinking what font, effects and colour to use for our opening. 

This is a Youtube clip I found which illustrates the generic Thriller conventions clearly with the use of blood splattering from the words in the credits. I thought that this type of opening is good in resembling a Thriller which is about crime and murder as the red symbolising blood does this most effectively. The only negative thing about this opening credits is that it is too 'refined' and 'polished' because it shows some gruesomeness but the clear and vivid brightness deters the whole aspect in my opinion. But the fades to black and movement of the words create a paranormal and psychological Thriller feel to it which is useful.

This video shows many great titles from a variety films. This 'Art of the Title' video shows how many films have presented their opening credits in many ways in link with their genre. Many Thrillers are shown in this video such as Psycho, Cape Fear, SE7EN and Panic Room. The titles of the Thrillers shown in this video highlight the differences in how they are presented as the title is in association with the sub-genre and the storyline of film. For example, SE7EN is shown and the opening credits are of a unknown man planning a sinister act. The extreme close ups of the objects he is handling and working on give a sense that he must be the antagonist as his character is not revealed, even throughout the film until the very end. So with this in mind we have to make sure that the font and lay out of our opening credits and titles should be in sync with the context of our opening and most importantly the genre.

Sound Research

As we are now coming up to finishing our storyboards and start filming, I thought that researching soundtracks for our opening will be helpful as now we know what sounds we need in order to build up the suspension of a thriller opening but also sound that fits in with our storyline.

 

 

This is Youtube video I found which is a soundtrack to build suspense and I thought the composition of this soundtrack is really effective as the beats almost resemeble foot steps which can create ambiguity as a character in our opening is covering up their murder. This soundtrack gives us great insight on what to do when either sourcing or creating sound for our opening.

 

 

 

 

This is another Youtube clip I found of a running tap faucet which is also what we need to source/make for our opening but other than the sound I was looking for in this video, I thought that the editing of this clip is very good as the grayscale colour and distortion to the shot creates a dark and apprehensive atmosphere as there is some generic Thriller attributes to it. The shuttering of the lighting can help to portray a sinister storyline which is also an idea that we can use when editing our opening.

Treatment for 'Bloody Detention'

It's a Saturday detention at Willow High. A group of 6th form students are being kept in school the whole day by a teacher as a punishment. Everything is not as it seems as amongst this group of teenagers there isn't your typical teen. Stuck in room 148 on Saturday afternoon, Ellie, the not so average teenager, has something on her mind. Knowing that the school is empty, she decides this would be the perfect time to do what she had to do. The water fountain trip she asked for turned into a much longer one then planned.

Production Logo

This is the image I have created on Photoshop which will be our production logo. We decided that the name of the production will be 'STICK INSECT PRODUCTIONS' and that this logo will appear at the beginning of opening.