Media Film Project Evaluation

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Editing (The real thing this time)

We decided the day before after a lengthy group meeting where we aired out our grievances that we would meet up at Usman's house to do our final edit to present to our media teacher on Monday. So the day rolled around and I got a call telling me the time had changed to one o'clock but then several minutes later I got a text saying the time had changed back to twelve o'clock I was like make up your mind people!! Anyway I left the house and got Usman's house at ten past twelve and as I arrived Ali was there already, so I grabbed a chair and sat down to do some editing. We all had problems with the other edited versions of our film as before we gave Ali a list of improvements and he went away to do them. This wasn't fair to Ali as he ended up doing all the work and when we didn't like the changes he took it personally which was understandable. The first thing we did was find all the clips as Usman's USB had some shots missing so we had to do a lot of importing from Ali's USB this didn't take long as Ali thank God had his USB with him. Anyway, after all the shots were there then we had to decide what shots to put into the timeline; there was a dispute between Shadei and Ali over the fact that in one shot Shadei had jeans on and in another she had a dress on. I personally didn't really see it as a problem but I understood where she was coming from as there was some continuity problems. Then we decided to compromise and put the shots of Shadei in a dress, once that had been sorted we continued with putting the shots we wanted into order and another problem came up we had a dispute about what shots to include and the end as we had shots of the car and shots of Shadei running away from men in masks. The dispute was what shots to use as there was two shots of Shadei being chased;one where she was being chased by a man in a mask with a stick and one of her being chased by two men. My case was that the shots of Shadei running away from the 2 men was more effective because she was screaming,it looked like something out of 28 weeks Later. In the end we went with the shot of Shadei being chased by a man with a stick as we felt that the fact that Usman (guy with the stick) was so close it made it scarier. Next up was the title sequences, after much debating we came up with a name which had a relation to our film, we called 9 Seconds and I won't tell you why because that would ruin it but it will be pretty obvious when you see the film. The final thing to do was to slot our names in but here we ran into a problem, Ali put his name as director but Shadei said that wasn't fair, I didn't even want my name in as I hadn't done any acting but we resolved all arguments and just left Ali as director with everyone names following on. Then disaster struck, the computer crashed, my idea was to turn it off and let the program recover it for us but nobody listened to me, so we spent an hour trying to recover our file until eventually we turned it off and guess what I WAS RIGHT!! It cam back and we did the best thing we had done all day we saved it!!!

Day 3:Filming

I arrived early today and as I waited for the group to arrive I checked the camera to see if I haved charged the camera whcih I sometimes forget to do, but never during filming time. Anyway, eventually the group appeared and we gathered to discuss what exactly we were going to film. Shadei straightaway decided she needed to change and as the guys walked away we decided to film the shot which was the most controversial because of the danger incolved. we were going to drive over the camera!!!! The first time we drove over it, the camera wasn't even recording so despite all our nerves we had to do it again; I couldn't watch it because it was scary. The second time we went over the camera it was slower which doesn't look good on film so once again we had to do it again. So we composed ourselfs and once again drove over the camera but this time we went over it at full speed, I went up to the van and Ali told me that we need some scenes to come inbetween the bit where Shadei gets licked by her boyfriend and when she gets caught. We tried to film a scene where a case of knives that was opened that didn't work because there was a lack of lighting as well as the problem of how to place the camera in an effective position to get the best outcome. So instead we took the case of knives into the van and filmed a scene that consisted of Shadei's boyfriend opening the case. This scene worked alright although I have to admit this shot was just a filler whilst we decided what to do. After this scene was filmed we figured that maybe we could do a scene in the park, all we did was do a couple of shots in the park of me walking around saying "where is she" whilst searching for Shadei in the bushes. Personally I think that this day didn't go too well as basically to tell the truth we ran out of ideas and were just filling out the time doing shots that we probably weren't going to use.

Research

I watched a recent horror thriller called Diary of the Dead. The thing that interested me the most was the way the film was shot. It was incredibly innovative in the way the film was shot, what happened was the film was shot through a hand-held camera but the real twist was that the person filming the film was an actual character who the other characters talked to, he even developed an actual love interest!!
The reason why I think this applies to my film as the pure innovation is inspiring for me to take the courage to do shots that may sound crazy in theory but look incredibly good in the film. If I can apply the innovation of this film to my film then I will be in good stead in terms of grades.
Inside Man is another thriller that I watched and is what I think is the perfect thriller as it confounds the audience and makes the audience think what is going to happen next. The opening consists of the audience hearing a man describe a bank robbery and invites the audience to watch and then we see an efficient gang enter an bank. I liked this opening as it confused me until I realised it was the leader of the gang telling the story. My thriller has to do exactly the same thing as I want to disorient my audience so much that they want to stay and watch the film just to find out what may happen, the television show Lost employs the very same strategy as even the most die-hard followers of the show don't know what is going on. I don't want my opening to be as confusing as Lost but I do want there to be an element of confusion that leaves the audience in a state of perpetual wonderment.

Day 2:Filming

Today was not a good day to film as it was pouring with rain which I put in the risk assessment as a hazard. I was wondering what exactly we were going to film with it raining so hard but I was willing to try, so I got dropped off as per usual and found Ali and Shadei waiting in the van huddering from the cold as I climbed into the van I asked what we were going to be filming today and was told we were going to begin filming the torture scenes that occur in the van. As we waited for Usman to arrive we discussed what shots to include and what exactly we should film as there is no point in filming unless we knew exacty what we were going to be doing. Usman arrived and rapped at the window, I opened the door for him and he bundled into the van. The very first shot we filmed was the one of Shadei landing into the van but we had to be careful as there was a board that had a nail at its head somewhere in the van. This shot I think worked to a certain extent but I think we didn't get enough sense of the fear that we wanted to display. The next shot was the shot of Shadei getting licked on the face; this was probably the most annoying shot of the day as we had to constantly keep doing it over and over again because SOMEBODY kept laughing all the time. This shot apparently didn't work when we viewed the film on camera, Ali and Shadei said it looked pornographic on film but maybe if the shot had been more darker as in the shot was more shady in the sense of Dark Knight it may have worked as I think that the light that was there made the shot look weird. The final shot we did was the shots of the van as it sped to kidnap Shadei I filmed these shots personally and these worked well as I followed the van, it looked those car films were the chase is looking really fast although I haven't seen what it looks like I hope it worked.

The Bourne Identity

A prime example of a film that left the audience wanting more is the Bourne series of films, the one I shall be taking a look at is the first of this trilogy, The Bourne Identity.
This film is an action thriller this means that there will be a variety of car chases, lots of fighting and running as well as incredible stunts. Mixed in with all this is some romance for Jason as well as crime (identity crime, Jason's lost his identity thanks to the CIA). I watched the opening scene where Jason was picked up by a fishing boat and I then made these notes...

• The darkness combined with the sea sets a foreboding opening


• Boat location makes audience wonder what is going on


• Constant darkness entwined with eerie background music is effective


• Location is not appropriate for removal of bullets (Jason got shot and there is doctor on board the boat)


• There is a series of shots from different angles showing him being pulled


• Blackout used-point of view of the character (Jason)


• Reaction shot of the fisherman's face


• We build up to the audience realising where the character is. The audience is plunged into the world with the same sense of lack of knowledge as the main character


• Non-digetic soundtrack used to create suspense and tension


• Digetic sounds-thunder/lightening/creaking lights and floorboards on the ship


• Foreign language alienates the audience

Thriller films such as this one work by combining all of the above to create an intelligent piece of film which creates tension and a response from the response. Leaving the audience wanting more is the way to go in today's movie world but not many films accomplish this feat and the ones that do are the films that are most successful. It takes a lot for a film to do this as I have signaled up above, as I am only doing an opening I have to piece together some of these factors to keep the audience interested in a way that makes them want to watch the rest of the film. Foreign language has some resonance in my film as the girl who gets kidnapped is from another country and is talking on the phone in another language before she gets grabbed. I have taken a leaf out of The Bourne Identity's book and decided on mainly darkness to begin with as darkness leaves everybody wondering what is going on and in terms of my film it will be better in building tension and suspense as the dark mood will give off the sense that something sinister may happen.

Thriller research

Martin Rubin wrote a book called "Thrillers" in which he described what a thriller is. Martin Rubin said that there is no such thing as a 'thriller", as the "thriller" is a meta-genre that gathers several other genres under it's umbrella. Thriller components work better with some genres than others, for example it works well with spy, crime and horror films but not so well with musicals or war films.
I totally agree with this analysis as when has there ever been a film which was described as just a thriller, the answer is never. Instead whenever you see the word thriller it is always associated with something else so can never be a genre on its own. Thrillers can never be associated with all films as it definitely works better with some films than others as can you imagine High School Musical combined with a thriller; you'd have Zac Efron dancing around when all of a sudden he'll stop and creepy music begins to play as a hand grabs his shoulder but its just VANESSA HUDGINS!! Ha ha.
In my opinion an effective thriller film should make the audience sit up in anticipation as they wonder what may happen next. A thriller must make a person think and also try to figure out what is going on. Thrillers must have many twists and turns within the films and end in a way that leaves them wanting more. The thriller I would most like to produce is a psychological thriller with a bit of violence thrown in for good measure. Psychological thrillers are my favourite kind of thriller films as they give me a chance to predict what may happen next which as I am mostly right most of the time gives me a happy feeling. But even when I get the predictions wrong these sorts of films always make me go "how did that happen" or "I did not see that coming", these sort of statements are what I want to give to the audience as they watch my opening as I want to give my audience the same feeling I get when watching psychological thrillers, the feeling of not knowing what may happen next.