DEXTER RE-MAKE

This is mine and Abbies remake of the Dexter title sequence, this was to practice our cinematography skills, using rule of thirds, match on action, whilst also doing white balance, focusing and exposure, this really helped me as it was difficult to do as there were only two of us as the other two people in our group at the time dropped out on us so we haven't given them credit as it was me and abbey who filmed and edited this final version.

Group pie chart

This explains where i feel my group are at and how much work we have all put in, you can clearly see we are all even we have worked on every task together and contributed just as much.

Film opening Examples Research

This is my level 3 example, i gave this opening a level 3 as its imaginative, shot clearly, and i understand the story, the titles are incorporated into the film and the actors are believable, the only problems i had was that there was not a lot of actually cinematography skills, hardly no match on action and shot rev shot.

This is my level 4 example, the story is imaginatively captured and understandable, the titles are cleverly incorporated into the film, there are plenty of titles and everybody gets mentioned, the whole sequence is in the rule of thirds and used cleverly to capture the audiences suspense and mystery.

This is my level 2 example, the story was a bit confusing as the cinematography skills are a bit worse for wear, also the titles are placed on a plain black screen rather than incorporating them into the film.

Individual Idea

Individual Idea

For my AS Media coursework, one of the main projects we have to do is to create our own opening to our own thriller film which means we have got decide on a plot, characters, scenes, settings, sub genres also including filming and editing.

But before we start the creating this in our groups we have to individually come up with our own ideas to make it easier when plotting our own thriller in our group.

above is a xtranormal video of my individual idea, below is the same in more content

Sub Genre

After extensive research (watching some of my favourite thriller films) I had to make a decision, what sub genre was I going to use as my individual idea? Was it going to be, psychological, political, crime?

My first hurdle was what sub genre was actually do-able, as obviously we do not have an unlimited budget like the Hollywood production companies; we have a couple of quid saved from our part-time jobs and pocket money.

After all these considerations I decided to go for the sub genre: Crime

A crime thriller if done cleverly can be done on a low budget; all you really need is some decent actors, any location and a fake gun/ weapon.

Crime thrillers appeal to the 18-28 year audience significantly these are male.

Plot

The film opens with a shot of a girl (teenager 13-19) tied and gagged to a chair, she is beaten and badly bruised, and she is wearing distinctive and recognisable clothing.

The next scene shows two adults, later revealed parents of the girl who is in scene 1. The two adults are in London, walking around and enjoying themselves, the male answers his phone.

The scene changes to the girl in scene 1, before whatever happened to her, she is on the phone to the couple in scene 2 she explains she’s home alone and that she’ll be fine, the couple are her mother and father, she is wearing the distinctive clothing so the audience can recognise her from scene 1.

I do not want to show the actual kid-napping of the girl as I think it would look amateur and a tad ridiculous.

The next scene is of a man wearing all black including leather gloves holing a chord telephone in a phone booth in London looking upon the couple in scene 2. In the distance the couple answer the phone, it is clear that they hear devastating news as the couple fall to the floor in despair.

The man in the phone booth co-ordinated the kid napping, he explains to the couple the kid-napping of his daughter was revenge for what “you” did.

The wife asks her husband what he means by revenge, the husband breaks down.

This beginning scenes will be cleverly edited and shot to create mystery and suspense, the plot will defiantly create mystery as the audience are asking question during the whole opening scenes, who is the girl? Why is she there? Who are the couple? What’s their relation to the girl? What did the man do to spark revenge?

Characters

Teenage girl- 13-18 years old, long hair, distinctive bright clothing

Mum and Dad/ Husband and wife- mid 40's

Kid-Napper- dirty looking, un-shaven, mid 40's, i want the mystery form the first photo with the black gloves, but as the film moves forward the identity will be revealed

Natural Extras (the scenes in London will be shot form vantage points, so we will get the natural extras of people doing their everyday life without creating a disturbance)

All the characters are iconic to thriller films and especially crime thrillers; the theme of the plot is similar to the work of the iconic directors in my collage above.

Inspiration
 My inspiration is form the film Taken, it is a famous crime thriller that features a kid-napping, i want my idea to be different from taken as its based around revenge and the kid-napper has the upper hand.
I also like the mystery of the film Phone Booth, but i would have it switched around so the the criminal will be inside the phone-booth at a vantage point and the parents cannot see where the criminal is.

Preliminary Task

Above is our Script, we were the only group on our AS class who wrote their own, we decided to do this to have more freedom and also we wanted to be more creative, we decided to make the officer a little aggressive as in typical thriller film, you usually find a dirty cop, one that doesn't follow the rules but gets the job done. When shooting the short film, we changed a few of the lines to make the scene flow easer and to make it more professional rather than amateur. When we shot the preliminary task each of us took turns in controlling the camera also we all adjusted the exposure, white balance and focus to make sure we could all do it, we made sure that we all had a chance to use the camera.

This task taught us to importance of framing and how a mis-framed shot could ruin the rest of the film and if a shot is framed well, how effectively it works. We all had a go at editing the final film and we all had a go at editing the match on action scene so when it comes to our thriller film opening, we all will be able to edit at a good standard.

This is the final video

(Some lines in script were changed on shoot)

This is our Directors Commentary/ Evaluation

Below is my individual proof of work for the preliminary task 

This is me and Rosie coming up with ideas on the content of the script

This project taught me alot, it taught me how crucial every shot is, and how it has to be framed perfectly to create th eperfect illusion fr the audience, it taught me the importance of continuity. If i was to re-do the project id make sure the shot was white balanced and exposed perfectly also id do a longer roll in and out to make it easier when editing, id also get the actors to project their voice more as its kind of quiet in the final video.

This is all three of us, editing the final project

Taken - Spoiler

Taken (2008)

Director: Pierre Morel

Writers: Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen

Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace and Famke Janssen

Warning Spoiler Alert

“I don’t know who you are, but if you don’t let my daughter go. I will find you. I will kill you.”

Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is a CIA operative who retired to spend more time with his beloved eighteen-year-old daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace).

The film opens with a grainy home video of a young girl and her family. The scene changes to Bryan awaking on a sofa with a photograph of his daughter in hand. Bryan is driving his car when he enters a small electrical store and buys a home karaoke machine; he takes it home and raps it in a brightly coloured child-like wrapping paper. He turns up at a large house with music thumping and people everywhere; it’s the scene of his daughter’s birthday.

He gives his daughter the present and she looks pleased with what is inside, her mother and Bryans ex wife, Lenore (Famke Janssen) on the other hand has a look of dismay, Stuart enters and the audience are introduced to Kim’s stepfather who is obviously rich and owns this large estate, he calls over to Kim shouting happy birthday and brings in a large well groomed horse, Kim squeals with excitements, Bryan looks like he’s been outspent.

Bryan leaves the party and goes homes, where there’s a knock at the door, three men stand at the door who are introduced to the audience as Bryans friends and also CIA agents, They drink bear and play cards and grill Bryan about his early retirement, he explains how it was to be closer to his daughter and explains the events of that day, They convince him to do one last job, he reluctantly agrees.

The job is a gig, Bryan and his 3 friends are escorting a pop-diva from her car to the dressing rooms, fans are screaming on his busy scene, and Bryan is told he is the one who is escorting the pop singer inside her dressing room. While being primed Bryan tell her how lovely she sounds and that his daughter wants to be a singer, she replies by telling him the best thing for his daughter is not to become a singer, with that the singer journeys to the stage. Kim rings and Bryan explains he is at the singer’s concert doing security work; Kim is impressed and invites him to lunch the following day.

As the singer leaves the stage and Bryan escorts her to her car, the fans break the barriers and charge for her, a man with a knife jumps in front; Bryan shows off his CIA training and beats the man to a pulp. The singer and Bryan run into the car, the singer breaks down into tears.

Once the singer is safe in her hotel, she explains that as thanks she will arrange a meeting for his daughter and her singing coach and she will pay for all the lessons as its least she could do.

The following day Bryan meets his daughter for lunch and much to Bryans dismay his belated wife is sitting at the table with Kim, Conversation turns straight to the point of the meeting, Amanda, Kim’s best friends has invited Kim to Paris for a number of weeks to stay with her cousins, Bryan immediately says no, Kim’s exits in tears and the form that he has to sign as she is a minor is left with him alone in the café.

That following day he turns up at the large house and Kim answers the door, Bryan gives her the signed form and she is ecstatic, he gives her a list of rules and that he is the one driving her to the airport.

The scene changes to Kim and Bryan driving to the airport, Bryan is giving his daughter the dos and don’ts, they arrive at the airport and Bryan sends his daughter away.

Kim and Amanda arrive in the French airport, they are taking photos outside when a man introducing himself as Peter, asks if they want a photo taken together, he takes the camera phone and takes the picture, he then asks if they are getting in a cab, they reply yes and he says that it is very expensive and if they want to cab share, they agree and arrive at their apartment, Kim lets slip that they are here on their own, so know peter knows they are young, on their own and where they are staying.

Peter walks away on the phone saying he’s found two girls, he gives the person on the opposite end of the line, that they are roughly 18, where they are staying and that they are alone.

Amanda tells Kim that her cousins are actually away for the whole period of time that they are staying here, Kim is immediately distressed at this new information.

When they enter the apartment, Amanda exclaims that they have the whole top floor. Amanda put son load music, Kim’s realises that she has had many missed calls form her father and goes the opposite side of the building to ring her dad and get away from the loud music. While on the phone to her dad, Kim sees three men enter the building opposite her, where Amanda is; the men kidnap Amanda and look like they are searching for Kim.

Kim frantically asks her father for help, he tells her to enter the next room and go under the bed, he then tells her that the next part will be the hardest, she’s going to get kidnapped, but she has to shout out everything about the kidnappers appearance and anything noticeable about him, in a high suspense scene the kidnappers enter the room and speak a foreign language, Kim and the audience think the kidnappers have missed her when she is violently dragged out of under the bed, Kim screams and shouts out the information.

Bryan is still on the phone when one of the kidnappers pick up the phone, Bryan tells him “I don’t know who you are, but if you don’t let my daughter go. I will find you. I will kill you.” the kidnapper replies “Good luck”.

Bryan had recorded the telephone call and sends it to one of his CIA buddies to get it translated.

He then goes to Lenore’s house and tells them what has happened, Stuart asks if there is anything he can do, he asks for a flight to Paris an hour ago.

Bryan arrives in Paris with the information that he asked his CIA friend for, the kidnappers are Albanian and that they are big ‘bosses’.

Bryan breaks his way into the girls apartment and reviews the situation form the perspective if his daughter. Bryan finds the phone with the memory card intact, he develops the photos taken and in the reflection of the photos is peters face. Bryan travels to the airport and finds peter and a black guy performing the same trick on some other girls, Bryan confronts peter and beats him, the black guy steps in and Bryan beats him to a pulp, Bryan chases after Peter who runs into the road and gets torn apart by a high speeding lorry.

Bryan goes to a police station and follows a man down the street, turns out it is an old friends form the CIA, Jean Claude, Bryan explains his situation, Jean says its going to be difficult as there is so many Albanians in Paris, he also asked Bryan not to tear up Paris in trying to find his daughter, Bryan replies she will tear down the Eiffel tower if he has to, Jean give shim a starting location, The Albanian men are sex traffickers.

The scene changes to a construction site, a line of men is queuing up with small pieces of card with a number on it. Bryan queues and gets a card, he goes inside, it’s a brothel, Bryan frantically pulls open the curtains to see if he can find his daughter here, she snot there but a girl is wearing the denim jacket that his daughter was last seen in. He beats up the man who was trying to sleep with her and grabs the girl, he runs out with many men chasing and firing at him, gas canisters explode and its really ‘dramatic’.

The girl explains a nice girl gave her the jacket, the girl tells Bryan where to possibly find her.

He goes into the location and introduces himself as Jean Claude, giving them the business card that he got from his former friend when they first met.  They take him up into a kitchen where the Albanians are seated.  He pretends to negotiate a ‘new rate’ for police protection/silence and they give him some money after some wrangling.  He sees a tattoo on a man’s hand that is similar to the one that Kim screamed out and as they’re talking, one man says, “Good Luck.”  It’s the same voice from the tape.

Bryan looks around, scoping out the men and asks the man if he recognizes him, the man doesn’t.  Bryan then starts beating and shooting every Albanian in site, only stunning the man who helped kidnap his daughter, but killing everyone else either with his fists or guns.  After all the Albanians upstairs and downstairs are dead, he starts looking through the rooms. 20 girls tied to beds, drugged.  He finds Amanda; she’s dead with vomit on her face, a needle and bloody cotton swab at the side of the bed where someone gave her too much.  Kim was nowhere to be found.

Bryan returns downstairs and finds the stunned Albanian, he tie shim to a chair and electrocutes him, till he finds out his daughter was sold to Saint Claire.

After Bryan visits Jean Claude’s house and shoots (flesh wound only) jeans wife in order to get information from Claude about Saint Claire. Claude give shim a location.

Bryan gets into the party Saint Claire is holding in his estate by presenting Jean’s ID with his picture on it.  He walks in and finds Saint Claire going into a special elevator.  He kills the guard and goes down the elevator.  Looking around, he sees that there are all small rooms with men bidding on the girls being shown on stage.  A waiter comes and he kills the waiter, taking the champagne and going into the booth where an Arab is bidding on a woman and serves him champagne.  The light is very dim.

Kim is the last one shown, a specialty.  Bryan pulls a gun on the man and makes him win the bid.  As he escorts the man out of the booth, a man hits Bryan over the top of the head, making him pass out.

Bryan wakes up, his hands chained to a water pipe above him and Saint Claire asking who he is.  Bryan says that he’s Kim’s father and Saint Claire says it’s all business and tells his men to kill him quietly as he leaves.  Bryan rips the pipe down, spraying the men with hot steam and kills them all, including the guard that Saint Claire sent down to see what was making so much noise.

After Bryan has killed all the men, he goes and finds Saint Claire in the elevator and shoots him in the arm, asking where his daughter is.  Then he shoots him in the other arm, and then in the leg.  The man says she’s at a pier on a boat.  Saint Claire says its just business and Bryan empties the clip into his body before stalking out.

At the pier, Bryan sees Kim getting loaded onto the boat and the large yacht sail away down the river.  He gets into his car and starts racing it, trying to catch up.  After some insane driving, he gets to a bridge, just in time to jump onto the yacht.

This is supposedly the climax of the film, Bryan jumps on the boat and sneaks past a few guards when he is finally spotted, he kills just about every guard and only getting shot himself once, he breaks into the room where Kim is being held, he fights one last guard where Bryan nearly gets killed himself but obviously he survives and the final guard is dead, he then shoots the buyer and reclaims his daughter.

The seen changes to a wild contract, they are at the airport back in America coming through the gates back home, Kim runs to hug her mother and stepfather.  Lenore thanks Bryan and gives him a long hug. 

The film ends with Kim and Bryan standing outside a door.  The singer from the beginning answers the door with her coach in the background near a piano.  She looks at Kim and asks if she wants to be a singer and Kim nods.

This film is high intensity suspense throughout, the key thriller moments are the kidnapping, the construction scene, the storming of the Albanian building, the Saint Claire party and finally the yacht. These are all key thriller moments in the film as they are pact with suspense, tension and the mystery of is Bryan going to survive and find his daughter.

The locations of this film are perfect for a thriller film as the majority is filmed in large cities, this is because thriller films are usually set in Adult Worlds, also the characters are all either CIA operatives, Kidnappers or powerful organizations, which are very typical of a thriller film. Many of the scenes contrast each other as some the lighting is dark usually build suspense as when the scene is dark it is when Bryans life is in danger or his daughters life is, then when he has the upper hand the light is bright.

From looking at reviews and my personal opinion this film satisfies the action and plot of thriller audiences but many people including myself feel the climax on the yacht was far too short as the film is building up to the climax for over and hour then the climax lasts for what? 20 minutes. It was slightly disappointing but it  is still an amazing film pact with high intensity scenes, interesting plot and Liam Neeson at his best.

FILM RATING : 4 ¾ /5

Group Presentation- Proof of Work

This is my individual proof of contribution to the group presentation on Thriller Narratives that is presented our Group Blog, we all took part in creating this presentation by putting together all our notes and taking turns in typing, we all chose a category and researched it while also finding video tutorials and examples of out chosen category.

These photos show me actively taking part to the creation of our group presentation.

Self Evaluation

Self Evaluation

Benn Kelly peer assessed my blog, he went through each post and evaluated it against the marking criteria, he left a comment on each post with what level he would give me and improvements.

Overall with each level he gave me was : Low LEVEL 4

Improvements: 

• Apply classwork to homework e.g. specific terminology
• Tasks 11 & 9 outstanding
• Presentation for titles time line and 9 frame analysis

Thriller Narrative and Sub Genres

This is my groups presentation on Thriller Narratives and Sub-Genres, we wanted to present the information in a inivative way to spark interest and aslo as this is media we wanted to present our work in a form of media. From doing this task i learnt all aout thriller narratives and sub-genres in a lot of detail, also this form of presentation will help me when revising as i only have to watch a short video. Below is a photo of me as proof of my contribution to the task.

Falling Down Foley

This my group falling down foley. We had to watch the original beginning and mark down when each individual sound comes in and then import the movie into Garage Band and delete the original track and then import sounds that would go with the marking we made. This is important as in our thriller opening we will need to create a foley. We had to put in a variety of sound techniques for example; we used Diegetic sounds for the heavy breathing, children playing, car motors and the fly, all this together creates the perfect ambience of the movie. If you want to see more sound terminologies, i have a post named Sound Terminologies with all the information on.

Match On Action

This is my Match on Action task. We were given a few videos of Mr Barton doing certain things, we had to trim the videos in order to make it look like one smooth motion, we had to chose the correct videos for continuity reasons. This task was extremely helpful as for my thriller film opening that will be posted later i know i would like to use this technique in order to make my film more interesting.

White Balance:

• To adjust the white balance you must first make sure that the camera is on 'rec'.
• Press the menu button and then select function then white balance.
• Grab a plain white sheet of paper and hold it up
• Zoom into the paper and then hold down the menu button when you are satisfied. 
• The white balance is now set.

Exposure:

• Press the menu button, then exposure then manual.
• Scroll up and down to adjust the exposure depending on the setting, lighting and how you like the shot to look.

Focus:

• Firstly press the focus button
• Use the left and right arrowed buttons to adjust the focus to how you would like it to look. 

SE7EN RE-EDIT

This is my SE7EN title sequence re-edit using Final Cut Pro. This was my first attempt using final cut where i used a variety of feature which i felt i took to easily. The title sequence is unfinished as it was just a practice in using the software. I learnt a lot using this software as i was able to trim videos, add text and also add effects to make the title sequence more interesting, i taught myself to layer videos and add music.

A Lonely Place To Die- Spoiler

A Lonely Place To Die- Spoiler

Directed by: Julian Gilby
Starring: Melissa George, Ed Spleleers, Sean Harris
Certificate: 15 

The Scottish Highlands, below zero temperatures, extreme weather conditions, miles away form civilisation, or in other words, the setting of A Lonely Place to Die.

The film opens with Alison (Melissa George) scraping her way up a sheer cliff edge with fellow climber Rob (Alec Newman) and tag along climber Ed (Ed Speleers), the trills begin early in this film when Ed makes a near fatal mistake and nearly sends all three of them falling to their deaths but that would make this film very short and reasonably boring, so after Ed is turned upside down, Rob saves the other two and all is well…so far.

From this point in the film it is clear to the audience there is some tension between Rob and Ed and Alison is the peacemaker, As the three climbers clamber down a hillside towards a small cottage on the mountain we are introduced to the last two of the 5 climbers, broody Jenny (Kate Magowan) and Alex (Gary Sweeney).

The tension between the characters is brewing as young Ed is a little bit arrogant but all is well after a bottle of Gin and some card games that evening at the dinner table.

The five some awaken in reasonable spirits the following morning ready to compete with the harsh climbing conditions of the Scottish highlands.

The five climbers take to the mountains and after a while of hiking they decide to take a short rest stop… well they thought it was going to be a short one.

Ed decides to go for a wee and deviates from the group but while he is urinating he hears a quite whisper in the winds, the noise is made again. He calls to the rest of the group who are reluctant to see what Ed has found.

When the group congregate the whisper happens again. Now the audience gradually begin building up suspense, as it’s been a while since their pulse has been racing in this film so it is quite suspecting that these five climbers will find something in this forest.

The whisper is coming from an old rusted pipe in the ground, after the group come to the conclusion that this pipe is a breathing source to something buried underground, they decide to dig. They come across a wooded crate buried under layers of dirt and leaves. As the group prepare themselves to what is inside the box, two of them open the lid to something they never expected.

There is a small girl scared out of her life huddled in the corner, Anna, it is apparent early on that she doesn’t speak a word of English and is malnourished.

The group decide to take her to the nearest village to get her seen to and broody Jenny becomes attached to the young girl.

Alison and Rob decide to go through a shortcut to get to the village first and call for help, but it becomes apparent that they are not the only people on this cliff edge.

We see Rob and Alison climbing down a sheer cliff edge adequately named, Devils Drop, when rocks start falling above them, falling or thrown?In a high intensity scene Rob is hit with one of the rocks and falls to his death, Alison is clipped by a rock and falls but some trees break her fall, when she reaches the bottom she looks up only to see a dark figure turning away. Now the audience and characters know someone is trying to kill them.Alison follows the river further down the mountain and meets up with the rest of the climbing group to break the news. Shots fire and Jenny is left with a hole through her eye and falls in to the fast flowing river only to drag Anna with her.Alison dives in and grabs a hold of Anna and they begin swirling down the river.The rest of the group come to the realization that somebody is trying to kill them and it may have something to do with what they found in that wooden crate.

The remainder of the group rejoin and scatter into the trees. This is when the audience meet who has been trying to kill the climbers, Mr. Kidd (Sean Harris) and Mr. McRae (Stephen McCole).

The scene changes to a car speeding down a Scottish Highway, there is a CD playing in the stereo, it is of a man that sounds very similar to Mr. Kidd, and its of him telling the terms of a kidnapping. The audience now understand that Anna was kidnapped in Serbia and taken to the Scottish Highlands in order for exchange of money. Inside the car are Anna’s fathers hired investigators.

The climbing group, well what remains of them anyway decide a plan that Alison, Ed and Anna will run a separate way and Alex whose wife was shot in the head will carry climbing equipment with the oat that Anna was wearing wrapped around it and run a different way. The killers fall for the trick and chase Alex who is sadly shot, shot again and shot for a third time to his death. After a quick argument with the killers, Mr. Kidd shoots his companion and now the kidnapper/killer becomes solo.

The remaining two climbers and Anna run into the local town where it seems a festival of some sort is brewing, they run into the local police stations where a withered policeman is suspicious to the story that the panicked climbers told him, he says he’s going to call for backup.

The hired investigators make their way to the local town to make a deal with the kidnapper/ killer who doesn’t have Anna. They meet in a restaurant where the deal begins, once the investigators realise that the killers don’t have Anna they escape.

A shot fires into the police station and the three of them escape round the back, Ed is shot in the back and falls to his suspected death.

Alison and Anna run into a local house to hide when Mr. Kidd follow them, Alison fights the Kidd and during the ruckus a fire breaks, Kidd dies but Anna and Alison are stuck in the upstairs bedroom with the growing fire. Alison gets Anna out the window and Alison falls unconscious because of t

he fumes. The film ends with Anna being returned to her parents, Ed surviving the shooting and Alison being in an ambulance still alive.

The film is very suspense full and developing into a dramatic finale. The film is extreme effective as a thriller, as the audience are full of tension with there arms digging into the arms of there chairs with the high intensity action.

This film is not a typical thriller but is an enjoyable watch.

The film is full of loud suspense full music which just adds to the overall suspense of the film.

FILM RATING 4.5/5 STARS