Wednesday, 12 March 2008 P2-42 : THRILLER PROJECT 2007/8
Feedback
We looked at each others work and commented on the conventions and micro aspects of it.
- Builds suspense but not too much. - Sub genre - Mystery thriller - Rest of the thriller, she tries to find out whos stalking her. - Camera work, editing and titles were all good. Large variety of shots. - Was professional although the screen doesn't justify how good it is.
- Titles we professional and were good and clever. - Genre conventions and genre creates tension. - Sub genre - Mystery - Rest of thriller - She finds out that the stalker is related to her and has alien babies with him before moving to Ireland to become a lepricorn. - Good camera shots especially the fridge. - Good editing.
We showed our rough cut sequence to other groups in our class, we then gave them a piece of paper where they wrote positive points and areas for development within the opening sequence. The feedback we received is below.
Editing Positive - Titles were very good and in effective places such as on the wall when the main character walks past, most of the groups liked our titles and thought they were in clever places Development Areas - One piece of feedback from a group said that some of our shots where slightly too long and we could cut them down to make them shorter, quicker and more effective. Another group thought a possibility for a title would be in the cutlery draw when the main character opens it.
Camera work Positive - Good shot angles, especially the one from in the fridge where the main character gets the bottle of wine out and two of the other groups said the variety of shots were good and worked especially well with what was happening in the clip. Good establishing shot of house and main character. Development Areas - One group disagreed and said that we needed slightly more shot variety by using more close-ups.
Sound Positive - Good diagetic sounds that worked effectively, but this may have been because there was no soundtrack at the current time. Development Areas - One thing said that was our diagetic sound was out of time with the sequence, but we have discussed this as a group and the teacher and decided we would not try and fix this till after the rough cut as it could be too hard. Also we needed to add a soundtrack which we hadn't currently finished when we had to upload.
Mise en Scene Positive - Groups said overall that we had a good choice of location thats adds a sense of tension to the thriller sequence. Development Areas - No groups commented on this part of the feedback section so we believe, we had the right choice of mise en scene and it works effectively.
Narrative Positive - Very good narrative with a clear sense of where the story would be going. The main character is a good actor and plays the part of her character extremely well, especially when watching the CD on the computer. Development Areas - Maybe considering changing the name of 'Stalk' as they do not believe it works well with the film.
Thursday, 21 February 2008 P2-42 : THRILLER PROJECT 2007/8
Cast list for "Stalk"
A OmniOutliner production presents A Michael Rockwell film Holly Ellis Gary Barnes Chad Waldman Costume Design by Otto Waldman Art Direction by Kathy Nelson Production Design by John Seda Casting by Billy Jr. Lazan FIlm Editing by Franco Jackson Cinematography by Clare Barden Original Music by Lauren Folsey Produced by Scott kern Directed by Michael Rockwell Main Title: "STALK"
Thursday, 7 February 2008 P2-42 : THRILLER PROJECT 2007/8
Feedback
We showed our animatic to our class to find out different opinions about our thriller title sequence, and various ways that we can improve it. Firstly the soundtrack we used on our animatic was an initial idea, and the group said it was too cheerful and slightly romantic. However, we already had another soundtrack that we were intending to use for the final sequence. Our new soundtrack is quite fast paced, and it is quite laid back to suit our idea. Secondly we were also told to use an establishing long shot at the beginning, to show the audience more about the location of the sequence, this would also mean more different shot types. Thirdly, we were told about the importance of mise en scene and close up shots and the fact that an object e.g a kettle or toaster shows alot about a person, whether there old or young, male or female, rich or poor. For instance, if there is a brand new toaster, then this may show that the person could be fairly young, and that they also have a bit of money . Fourthly we were told that we should show the woman in the final clip when the man is watching her through her window. It was suggested that when the woman inserts the disc into the laptop the clips on the screen should show a variety of different shots from different public places this will add more suspense and more mystery around who the stalker is.
Tuesday, 29 January 2008 P2-42 : THRILLER PROJECT 2007/8
Setting
There are a few potential settings for our thriller project: One setting is Travel-lodge in Cambridge, we could use a room here and pretend it is her flat. To use this we would have to ring up and get permission from the manager, and it could cost us. This was our original idea but we believe they make us pay for it for the night we would cost us around £100. So another possible setting is one of the groups house and we could use this as the girls home, this would be better than the travel-lodge because it would not cost us either.
As a group we are now going to analyse the thriller, Hills Have Eyes. The opening sequence starts with a piece of text saying about what has happened in this area with America and nuclear testing. then it goes onto the landscape with this thriller being set in New Mexico Desert, so this is a typical good thriller because it is st in unknown exotic landscape. Ot then goes down to a river and follows the river along until the camera gets to a group of scientists or someone catching a fish out of the river with a net. The camera then flicks to one of the scientists who are walking on their own, he is looking at the ground and a machine he has that is showing high reading. Here it has good camera shots from through the mask so we can only see the same as what this person can, and then suddenly a guy covered in blood comes in falling into the scientist. Then an axe goes straight through the scientist face and out through his mask. He falls to the floor and once again is another camera shot, with it looking like the camera is on the floor, showing the scientist and his machine. Then we go to another two scientists who are both killed off using the axe. Throughout this you only ever see an outline of the killer, you can tell it is a man but not his features, which make it suspicous for the viewer as they want to no the person doing the killing. Another scientist tries to escape up the cliff, the next shot is good because we see him get dragged back and killed but we do not know how or anything. The set of shots show someone who we never see, driving off in a truck dragging two bodies along with him behind. The next and final two minutes of the opening sequence goes back to old shots as if you were watching a television, it shows clips of planes and nuclear bombs and deformed people. Which is what the whole series of films are about sumed up in a small clip. In these clips there is text about the producers, directors, actors etc. The mise-en-scene is extremely good in this opening sequence because all the scientist are in exactly the same clothes and all we can tell about the killer is that he is dressed in black. The special effects used in this opening sequence will be alot of fake blood to make it feel like the person is actualky bleeding, especially when the scientist walks of on his own and thie guy covered in blood comes in. The soundtrack used at the beginning of the Hills Have Eyes opening is bold and loud creating lots of tense and suspicion with the scientists and the viewer wanting to know what they are doing, this is effective because it works well. Then we it goes back to the old clips, it has different mucis with every clip, the first one of the woman has happy music and they use sound effects when it swithces clips with a sort of zipping sound exactly as if they are stopping and changing it. We believe this is an exteremly good opening sequence and works effectively with what happens in the rest of the film. If you had not have seen the whole film then you would wonder what is happening with the hole flashback clips but once you have seen the first Hills Have Eyes you will no it is about the deformed people. Overall we liked the opening soundtrack as a group
