Possible changes needed

Matt came down to speak to us again and we briefed him on our new idea. We all agreed that this was a much better idea. Although we were all happy with this idea our group as a whole as well as Matt and Adam had some concerns about the sequence instantly becoming categorised as a 'vombi' movie.
After having a long discussion we felt that because we had the evidence and the basis of the story as something that has happened in the news this was a realistic part of the idea.

We all decided that over the half term we would go and look at some more thrillers and look how they are presented this sort of idea and gain more inspiration.

Making Progress

We thought it would be a good idea to sit down and start looking at people we might want to star in our thriller. While each of us had people we wanted to use in our thriller it came down to the people that we though would be best suited for the role.
We worked out we only needed two actors for the idea we had so far, we needed a girl (this would be the person taking the pills) and a doctor.

We decided these roles could be played by:
- Lucy Gavin
- Nick

Obviously these are not set in stone and could change at any point during the course of time between now and when we shoot.

We also began story boarding. These were not proper story boards however they were just a rough outline of what the thriller was going to be like so that we were able to better visualise it. After looking at the story board we realised that some shoots could be taken out and some added in. After analysing it some more we also though that there may be too much going on so we could cut out some shots we felt unneeded.

Our Research

This link shows a video from the Daily Mail under the main title "Pictured in hospital: Miami cannibal victim 'awake, alert and walking' after most of his face was eaten off by naked man high on 'bath salts'" We have decided to take this as the main theme in our trillers. At the moment we have an idea to use pill pots lined up for the opening with our names and credits written on the pills pots before they medication is switched over and the drugs are taken. However, this is just and idea and it could change depending on what other ideas come up.

Back to the drawing board

Here are our 4 new ideas once we returned back to the board room and did our research on the BBC news. We have decided to go with the first idea because we felt this was something different i would be good fun to shoot and we also have a lot of research with this idea. 

A girl who is on medication. Her pills get switched over and she begins to go crazy. Flashes of lights, in-between the flashes you see her turning over, fitting etc. A nurse comes in the lights go out and you hear crunching noises and scream, the light comes back on and her face turns round and zoomed up on her dirty bloody mouth.

    

Same idea of a family going into a new house except the young girl is ill and is hooked up to hospital equipment with a private doctor or nurse attending her. While the mother is talking to the nurse flashes come up of the nurses face on a newspaper of her being wanted for child abuse. Mother doesn’t know this but the audience do. She has been wanted for many years.

A prisoners last day in jail before he gets sentenced to death. Execution. Scene opens with him tied up as he’s mentally ill and is a danger to others. Film on a handheld camera to create more of an effect. Flashes of him trying to get free, people come up to him and laugh, spitting at him and making jokes about him. It is filmed at a creepy house that could look like a jail. Scene ends with man being dragged into a room and the door being slammed.

Bomb/Terrorist attack, Have everyone/families sitting at home watching the news, sirens start going off and suddenly we see everyone running out of houses and doors everywhere. Everyone shouting, people confused.

Presenting Our Ideas

Today we went a presented our ideas to Matt, the media technician. We presented our ideas for our thrillers. After we presented all four we had a long discussion and came up with the conclusion that they all had the similar paranormal theme. This made is quite hard for some people to relate to although they may have been our own personal fears. Another problem was also that some of our ideas may be too large to fit into 2 and a half minutes. Also our themes would be to hard to put into an opening sequence of a film.

So with this feed back and help from the media technician we went back the drawing board and re thought of some ideas. We went on the BBC website to help gain some inspiration. The reason we went to the BBC news was because we could use some of these stories that will quite possibly scare people and will enable people to relate to the story more. 

First Production Meeting

We immediately went into our new groups and started to discuss our ideas. We listened to all of our ideas and then took these ideas and either used them or adapted them. I found that when discussing our ideas many of them changed due to other members of the group having a different twist on it or new idea to make it better or more interesting. I feel that discussing our ideas and adapting them together made the ideas a lot better because we got everyones input and ideas. We picked four of our favourte and strongest ideas, although some are stronger then others. 

Our New and Adapted Idea's

  
 A family move into a new house, the house is very old. There is a young kid and they put baby in the crib straight away and so they can unpack.  Above the crib is a photo/painting of an old lady in a rocking chair hold a baby. They have a baby monitors. In the baby monitors you hear a rocking chair, children singing/or an old lady singing ‘hush little baby’. The baby then starts screaming, the mother runs upstairs and sees a dark shadow of an old lady about to pick the baby up, the head turns and the door slams.

A girl gets up early to go running (misty). You hear her music loud. She begins get shiftier and you hear her breathing heavily. She starts to look behind her but we do not see what she is running away from or what is scaring her. She runs into her house and closes the door, leaning back on it. She then turns round and looks through the peephole and you’re a see creepy zoom of a young girl scream into the camera (muddy face, blood down her face). A child hugs her round the legs and says ‘mummy your home, you were gone so long’. She turns round and is it the same child but normal (cute and clean. 

A woman is watching the news and it is about a tragic death of a man. When she see the picture of the guy she breathes in heavily and goes pale, zoom into a shot of her eye and she is tearing up but we don’t know why. She keeps thinking she is seeing him and so do we. When she says to her friends look that him he’s the guy that was on the news this morning it is a completely different person.
 

A family goes and looks around a house. Whilst they are looking round there son goes off and they lose him. They go up to the attic and they ask him how he got up here and he says Alice showed me. They ask who Alice is and he points the other side of the room and says ‘Alice she is over there, can’t you see her’. The parents say they should go and they make there way to their car. As they drive out the drive way the kid turns round in the car and looks out the back window and see the little girl up at one of the window waving he waves back.

What is a Thriller?

A thriller is a type of film which is designed to keep the viewer on edge. This is achieved by suspense. A thriller is often described as a piece of literature and can be presented in a film, television program. Tension and excitement are the main elements in the thrillers, these all help create suspense. Thrillers change the views mood giving them a high level of anticipation, uncertainty, suprise, anxitery and terror.

The aim of a thriller is to keep the audience alert and on the edge of their seat...waiting for something to happen. The film in almost every case will emphasise danger. Tension should be built throughout the film and leads to a highly stressful climax. 

A thriller can also provide a sudden rush of emotions, excitement and suspense that drives the narrative.  The way that the plot is constantly building to a climax keeps the audience excited because they are waiting for something to happen although they are not completely sure what that is yet.

Our task is to create the opening title sequence of a thriller, we have to be careful with this to make sure we do not reveal to much to soon. We need to build up the tension to the audience experience suspense and tension but leave them asking questions.

Getting Into our Groups for our Thrillers

After going around the class telling everyone our idea's we were then split into a group. We did this in a completely random way by Adam (our teacher) picking names out of a hat. 

My group consists of:

• Myself 
• Xenia
• Yivana
• Luka

I feel this is a good group and we will hopefully work well together. We have got a good mix of ideas, all of which would be very interesting to work with. Once we have cancelled out some of the ideas which would be to hard to do, leave to many questions at the end of the sequence or impossible to shoot in just one day we should have some fairly sound good ideas to work with. I am looking forward to getting our final idea and starting to shoot our title sequence. 

Getting Started On Our Thrillers

Triller Ideas 

Idea 1: 

A young girl wakes up early one a cold winter morning to go out for a run. She is running round and round a track, you get a wide shot of her running round the track and then a extreme close of up her ear and her very loud music. As well as hearing her music you also hear her breathing. She starts to run faster and get more shifty. You see her keep looking behind her but you do not see what she is looking at. She see s a house and sprints in and closes her door behind her and leans against it. See then opens the door and you see a small evil looking child standing there.

Idea 2:

Someone wakes up after having a bad dream, covered in sweat (possibly crying) and panting. They wake up with a loud gasp and sit up. She looks around and lays back down. When she lays back down you here a chair rocking, starts of slowly and gets faster. The lights start to flicker. (at his moment in time loud screeching music should be playing). Suddenly, a window burst open and a gush of wind comes through the room. There is another flash of the light and in the mirror you see a women in a white ripped dress covered in blood staring back at them.

Idea 3:

The camera is in the view of the murder/killer at this point. You see that he is outside a house, a zoomed in shot of a girl walking into her bathroom in her towel. The killer takes you into the house and goes to the door of the bathroom. You here the girl singing which gives quite an eerie sense. The mirrors and shower door are all steamed up. You then see a shot of the killers shoes walking towards the shower trailing mud all over the floor. The door is swing open and you get an extreme close up of the girl, a scream and a blackout. You could have the title of the opening sequence at written in the steamed up mirror. 

Videos on Kyle Cooper and His Work

Kyle Cooper is a legendary title sequence designer. This video shows Kyle Coopers Motion Graphic Demo Reel:

The following two videos are interviews of Kyle Cooper and his title design. He goes through many of his title sequences and what he likes about them and what made these peaces of work so graphic and legendary in the title sequence business. These videos also explore how he achieved what he did and what he likes to work with to make his work as incredible as it is.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Kyle Cooper

 

Klye Copper

Klpe Cooper Born in 1962 is a modern designer of motion picture title sequences. He went to Yale University and studied graphic design being taught by Paul Rand. Very early on in his career he worked as a creative director as an advertising agency in New York city and Los Angeles and created the title sequence for the 1995 America Crime film Se7en. He wanted to create titles that raises the creative bar. After Co-founding in Imaginary Focus he decided it was time for him to focus on more creative work and left Imaginary Forces. In 2003 Cooper founded in the creative agency Prologue.



Kyle Cooper is described as a man who single handily revitalised the title sequence as an art form. In 1995 his title sequence seven is one of the most important design interventions of the 1990's.

Cooper had shot over 100 film title sequences his three most important being:

- Dawn of the Dead

- Spiderman

- Super Man Returns

A title Sequence should set an expectation.

He likes to study things such as: cells, teeth, bones and things with micro detals. As well as shooting through hand made objects, he says there is something imperfect about it. 'I like looking at stuff that is already there'. He likes to work with live action and studio work so he can place the two together.

In his title sequence The 'Dead Zone' there was a real impression of very symbolic typography which made it mysterious. There is now becoming an overlap between typographers and graphic designers moving to the creation of content in the opening sequences of films.

The 'Dead Zone' really made am impression on Cooper because at this point because 'i realised at this point that my interest in film and my interest in typography and graphic design could some how be the source of another location.'

His title sequence 'Se7en' is a very famous title sequence of his. The handwriting format connects with the serial killer and the keeping of his journals and trys to help add to the impression.The amplified screams give the sense of danger and insecurity and the general idea of helplessness giving a thrilling sense. Physiological aspects build up to the tension and action within the film. Some of the shots seem to be quite graphic and brutal with once again build up to the action within the film.

The future of tittle design at least in the case of prologue is that our title designer's help in the movie and put you where you need to be in ahead of the film.

Editing my Prelim

Out of our group of 5 we split into and group of 3 and 2 so we could focus more closely on the editing aspect and each get a go at editing. In my editing group i had myself, Meriella and Tody. The program we used to edit is called 'Final Cut Pro'. 

We then found our clip  and checked it out. We created two folders, one called the 'rush bin' and the other called the 'log bin'. The 'rush bin' holds all the original copies of the clips while the 'log bin' hold all the selected clips. After watching all the clips we chose which ones we wanted to use in editing and put them in the log bin. 

We used the wide shot as our main shot and started with that. We then chose different shots and put them into where we felt was appropriate and fitted. We learnt that if you wanted to cut from a wide shot to a close up you need to cut when the actors are in motion. This allows the movement  and cut look much more flowing. When we decided what shot we wanted to use we dragged the little triangle cursor where we wanted the clip to start, we then dragged the clip into the timeline and split screen. 

We then ran into some problems with the sound where there was something said in the background so we cut this out. We then used some empty background noise from another shot and copied it into the now empty space in the sound area. Some other problems we ran into were with the continuity. We found when editing that each time the actors said something different, this made it quite difficult to cut and edit it together. 

Although this task was quite hard i learnt a lot about editing and found it very fun. I learnt that continuity is key in the acting. I also found that we could have had a few more varied shots. Apart from the small problems we ran into we were very pleased with the final outcome of our prelim and learnt a lot about editing and shooting a sequence.