Rough Cut

Feedback from Groups on our 'rough cut'

All groups agreed that our Mise En Scene was good with the wood settings.
(Cinematography)The Framing was good and the final shot with our main character running, held hand camera was favouritised. For Editing they liked the titles and good cut from clip to clip.
The Sound was good, and bulit up tension and suspense. However a group question the genre and one didn't understand the sequence and the other groups thought the sequence was appropiate and effective.
All of the above will help us finalise the thriller sequence.

Test Footage

This is our test footage. Doing this we realised that the music doesn't quite go with the footage, as it makes it look like the guy is marching. We have decided to re-do the music once we have finished shooting, as then we can look at all our footage, and see which music suits it best.

Animatic

Rough Storyline

We have come up with a rough story line for our whole thriller movie. We thought it would be best to have it writen down, because it will help us figure out the opening sequence.

After witnessing the murder comitted by a governemnt election runner and running for his life the main character hides the tape and decides to go abroad to protect his family. Whilst abroad he gets a head injury and can only remember what has happened up to the murder. He does some research on the murderer and discovers he has recently won the election. When he goes back his family believes he has been found dead and have all moved on, when he runs into an FBI agent who is trying to arrest the murderer but cannot get to him as he is a government offical. When she meets our main character she tries to get the tape off him but due to the head injury he cannot remember where the tape is and has to find it before they do. When they have located the tape the government official coners them both and the FBI grabs a pen off her desk and stabs him in the leg to avoid getting killed and plays the tape on public television.

Filming Preporation

Cast

• one man
• one woman
• two kids- one boy and one girl

Props

• Tripod
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• Camcorder
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• Poster
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• Pen
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• Picnic blanket
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• Glass full of coke that gets knocked over
  
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• Jacket
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• Car
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• Cam corder Tape
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Sets

• Ely nature trail
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• In a car down the motorway
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Music- Garage Band

Our first attempt at garage band was good. We got loads of ideas of what we wanted. At first we made a very morbid track, which we decided against. This gave us the idea to do something more happy. But that was abit too happy.

We came to the conclusion that we wanted the beginning happy, and then it gets more morbid towards the end of the opening, once the plot has started to unravel.

We also decided that we would only make a rough track as we know we will change our mind about things when we put the clips to the music, so there was no point waitsting our time making a whole track if we are just going to change it later.

Story Board and new ideas

Whilest doing our story board, we came to the conclusion for several main points.

Firstly we decided that in the opening sequence we do not want to show any full body shots, because it leaves questions. We are just going to show feet, but mainly ground shots. For the ending shots, one with our main character looking into his cam corder, and then with him in his car, we are going to show close ups of his face, to show emotions, and to create tension.

For the blackout shots we decided a good effect to use on them would be like car headlights driving past. We thought this would be good as it would be able to introduce the blackouts nicely and give the impressions cars may be used alot within the thriller.

We wanted a specific font for the titles, but we could not find it on final cut or photoshop. We decided to write it at home, scan it in to our computer and then bring it in on a memory stick. This way we will have exactly what we want.

On 3 of the clips, where we show the 3 main actors names, we want the name in the top, right hand corner of the screen. We then want someone to walk past, rubbing it out.

Student example

We liked....

• the music- it suited the genre
• The voice over was a good idea; it suited the mood. Only problem was that you couldnt make it out very well
• The beginning car shot was too long, and abit wobbly, but was a good idea for an opening
• The shot with the parts of the gun was good, because it showed what the film might envolve, a gun, but left lots of question - this is what a thriller opening should do
• The title of the piece was very effective and was a good effect.
  
• The actual titles looked good on the black screen in between each shot. We have decided to do this for ours, but with a slight difference.
• We are not sure if it was in chronological order, or it was just us getting confused with the shots of the man driving, and then being back in the room, and leaving to get into the van. Maybe it was supposed to be out of order?

Real thriller opening

• Music suits the genre
• Titles look creepy and daunting, which is amplified by the daunting music
• Nice camera work. Good shots of city
• At first doesn't really show what is going to happen in film, but then introduces characters straight away
• Name is cool, suggests what film is going to be about, very appropriate.
  
• When the name of the film comes up, the music is at its most dramatic, and then changes to a different pace
• Ironic how the titles suggests an enclosed place, but the beginning shows New York, which is clearly not an enclosed place
• Camera angels help the daunting effect