Today is the deadline for the planning folder, and blog. We are on course with everything. Editing was very tricky at first but we overcame it and just have a little more editing to do. While editing we noticed that many of our clips didn’t exactly fit in together. Sam kept telling us we needed 4-5 second cuts but our ones were about 12-15 seconds long. We cut a lot of clips down and started to put it all together. With the sound we have decided to let kasim work on that alone and I and shoib would work on the editing. Because we are so far behind I took Gerard’s advice and gave everyone separate roles so the more we covered the faster we will be done. In order to create a sense of comedy to build tension we used little character movements like finger tapping odd objects and also dialogue. The sound we will be using will be non digetic score like soundtrack because it’s just sound and wasn’t created for the movie but we will use it to help hide editing errors and also use flashes, darkening of the clip. We hope all this will give us the effect we need.
Remember:
An opening sequence can be used to introduce a range of genre characteristics
· character types, the way they look, their role and purpose (two detectives in Seven)
· main themes of the film (eyes and voyeuristic looking in Vertigo)
· some narrative elements (pre credit sequences in Seven and Blue Steel)
· symbolic and iconic images (hypnotic images in Vertigo, the killer's obsessive record keeping in Seven)
· some visual references to the title (think of Blue Steel, Vertigo, Witness)
· a sense of danger (Face/Off, Blue Steel, Seven)
Will you use a pre credit sequence and a title sequence or roll the credits across the first piece of action? You will only have a few minutes so don’t try and tell the whole story.
Things needed:-
· lots of close ups
· attention to detail, it’s the details that count
· think about camera position, framing, angles, moves etc.
· think about Mise en scene, what is in the background is important
· lighting can usually be improvised. These cameras work well in low light
· films get made at the editing stage so plan your editing from the start
· also plan how you are going to use added sound, titles and Photoshop work
Objectives are:
· to create an appropriate mood and style for your film
· create interest in the audience who should be left wanting to see more
· show an understanding of a range d thriller conventions show good/advanced skills in all the relevant technologies
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddtgmtfg_9f9tgzhf3
Also today we spent filming the other part of the film. we got many different angles in. we used zooms and cut ins to emphasise objects and different angles to demonstrate binary opposition.
Today my group was all present and we went over everything, some things like the idea of using some old footage and merge it with the new to save us time. We also booked a camera out for Wednesday, tomorrow. We will begin filming and if everything is completed editing will begin on Friday.
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STEP 1: It's the Mind of the Audience
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Hitchcock knew why people are drawn to a darkened theater to absorb themselves for hours with images on a screen. They do it to have fun. In the same way people go to a roller coaster to get thrown around at high speeds, theater audiences know they are safe. As a film director you can throw things at them, hurl them off a cliff, or pull them into a dangerous love story, and they know that nothing will happen to them. They're confident that they'll be able to walk out the exit when its done and resume their normal lives. And, t
STEP 2: Frame for Emotion
Emotion (in the form of fear,laughter,surprise,sad
ness, anger, boredom, etc.) is the ultimate goal of each scene. The first consideration of where to place the camera should involve knowing what emotion you want the audience to experience at that particular time. Emotion comes directly from the actor's eyes. You can control the intensity of that emotion by placing the camera close or far away from those eyes. A close-up will fill the screen with emotion, and pulling away to a wide angle shot will dissipate that emotion. A sudden cut from wide to close-up will give the audience a sudden surprise. Sometimes a strange angle above an actor will heighten the dramatic meaning. (Truffaut)
Hitchcock used this theory of proximity to plan out each scene. These varations are a way of controlling when the audience feels intensity, or relaxation. Hitchcock compared this to a composer writing a music score - except instead of playing instruments, he's playing the audience!
STEP 3: Camera is Not a Camera
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This goes back to Hitchcock's beginnings in silent film. Without sound, filmmakers had to create ways to tell the story visually in a succession of images and ideas. Hitchcock said this trend changed drastically when sound finally came to film in the 1930's. Suddenly everything went toward dialogue oriented material based on scripts from the stage. Movies began to rely on actors talking, and visual storytelling was almost forgotten. (Truffaut) Always use the camera as more than just a camera.
STEP 4: Dialogue Means Nothing
One of your characters must be pre-occupied with something during a dialogue scene. Their eyes can then be distracted while the other person doesn't notice. This is a good way to pull the audience into a character's secretive world.
“People don’t always express their inner thoughts to one another," said Hitchcock, "a conversation may be quite trivial, but often the eyes will reveal what a person thinks or needs.” The focus of the scene should never be on what the characters are actually saying. Have something else going on. Resort to dialogue only when it’s impossible to do otherwise.
"In other words we don’t have pages to fill, or pages from a typewriter to fill, we have a rectangular screen in a movie house,” said Hitchcock. (Schickel)
STEP 5: Point of View Editing
Jimmy Stewart looks at dog and then we see him smiling. Jimmy Stewart looks at a woman undressing and then we see him smiling. Those two smiles have completely different meanings, even if they are the exact same smile.
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- Start with a close-up of the actor
- Cut to a shot of what they're seeing
- Cut back to the actor to see his reaction
- Repeat as desired
You can edit back and forth between the character and the subject as many times as you want to build tension. The audience won't get bored. This is the most powerful form of cinema, even more important than acting. To take it even further have the actor walk toward the subject. Switch to a tracking shot to show his changing perspective as he walks. The audience will believe they are sharing something personal with the character. This is what Hitchcock calls "pure cinema." (Truffaut)
Note: If another person looks at the character in point-of-view they must look directly at the camera.
STEP 6: Montage Gives You Control
Divide action into a series of close-ups shown in succession. Don't avoid this basic technique. This is not the same as throwing together random shots into a fight sequence to create confusion. Instead, carfully chose a close-up of a hand, an arm, a face, a gun falling to the floor - tie them all together to tell a story. In this way you can portray an event by showing various pieces of it and having control over the timing. You can also hide parts of the event so that the mind of the audience is engaged. (Truffaut)
Hitchcock said this was "transferring the menace from the screen into the mind of the audience." (Schickel) The famous shower scene in Psycho uses montage to hide the violence. You never see the knife hitting Janet Leigh. The impression of violence is done with quick editing, and the killing takes place inside the viewer's head rather than the screen. Also important is knowing when not to cut. (Truffaut)
Basic rule: anytime something important happens, show it in a close-up. Make sure the audience can see it.
STEP 7: Keep the Story Simple!
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An abstract story will bore the audience. This is why Hitchcock tended to use crime stories with spies, assassinations, and people running from the police. These sort of plots make it easy to play on fear, but are not mandatory for all movies.
STEP 8: Characters Must Break Cliché
Make all of your characters the exact opposite of what the audience expects in a movie. Turn dumb blondes into smart blondes, give the Cuban guy a French accent, and the criminals must be rich and successful. They should have unexpected personalities, making decisions on a whim rather than what previous buildup would suggest. These sort of ironic characters make them more realistic to the audience, and much more ripe for something to happen to them.
Hitchcock criminals tend to be wealthy upper class citizens whom you’d never suspect, the policeman and politicians are usually the bumbling fools, the innocent are accused, and the villains get away with everything because nobody suspects them. They surprise you at every step of the plot.
STEP 9: Use Humor to Add Tension
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In Marnie, Tippi Hedren is stealing money from an office safe and is just about to leave when she notices the maid happens to be cleaning in the next room. The maid is completely innocent and unaware. Hedren will get caught if the maid sees her, but the audience is already hoping that she gets away with it. The more happily the maid mops the floor and the closer she gets to seeing Hedren, the higher the tension.
You'll also find that Hitchcock tended to use comical old women to add a flavor of innocent humor in his films. They will usually be opinionated, chatty, and have a highly optimistic view about crime. If someone were committing a crime they might even help with it!
STEP 10: Two Things Happening at Once
Build tension into a scene by using contrasting situations. Use two unrelated things happening at once. The audience should be focused on the momentum of one, and be interrupted by the other. Usually the second item should be a humorous distraction that means nothing (this can often be dialogue.) It was put there by you only to get in the way.
When unexpected guests arrive at the hotel room in the Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day are in the midst of a tense phone-call. The arrival of the guests laughing and joking serve a dramatic counterpoint to the real momentum of the scene. In Spellbound (1945) Ingrid Bergman sees a note which has been slipped under her door. Just when she grabs for it, her colleagues walk in and speak with her about the dissapearance of Gregory Peck, completely unaware they are standing on top of the note from him! The end result is - the audience pays more attention to what's happening.
"Information" is essential to Hitchcock suspense; showing the audience what the characters don’t see. If something is about to harm the characters, show it at beginning of the scene and let the scene play out as normal. Constant reminders of this looming danger will build suspense. But remember - the suspense is not in the mind of the character. They must be completely unaware of it. (Schickel, Truffaut) In Family Plot (1976) Hitchcock shows the audience that brake fluid is leaking out of a car well before the characters find out about it. In Psycho (1960) we know about the crazy mother before the detective (Martin Balsam) does, making the scene in which Balsam enters the house one of the most suspenseful scenes in Hitchcock's career.
“The essential fact is to get real suspense you must let the audience have information." --Alfred Hitchcock
STEP 12: Surprise and Twist
Once you've built your audience into gripping suspense it must never end the way they expect. The bomb must never go off! Lead them in one direction and then pull the rug out from under them in a surprise twist.
In the climax scene of Saboteur (1942) Norman Lloyd is cornered on the top of the Statue of Liberty as Robert Cummings holds him at gunpoint. Just when you think it's over, Cummings begins to speak, startling Lloyd to fall backwards over the edge!
STEP 13: Warning: May Cause MacGuffin
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The MacGuffin is nothing. The only reason for the MacGuffin is to serve a pivotal reason for the suspense to occur. (Schickel) It could be something as vague as the "government secrets perhaps" in North by Northwest, or the long detailed weapons plans of Mr. Memory in the 39 Steps. Or, it could be something simple like the dog blocking the stairway in Strangers on a Train. Nobody cares about the dog. It's only there for one reason - suspense. It could have just as easily been a person, an alarm, a talking parrot, or a macguffin!
One of our group members were missing today so me and the following group member agreed with the proposed idea and started to collect the props needed. We went on to the internet and search and downloaded many images, which include mug shot criminal profile pages and so odd pieces of look a-like evidence. We began making the actual folder files needed and finished them. We had a few disagreements so in the actual layout of the profiles; however we have come to an understanding and completed all the practical work needed.
These things came to mind today. So I wrote up a plan for the next four days, which will cover everything we need to do apart from editing which a whole day will be dedicated to, hopefully this Friday. Things in this plan will include filming, creating all the props, and organising to actual location. In my opinion these things will work, conversely will my group share my outlook.
Today I used many programs such as Lexmark imaging studio, Photoshop cs3, Sony Vegas pro 8 to do a small sized practice at home. I used the first to programs to actual make the pages of the book, and used the last software to edit the whole video together. I used my own camera for this work. I used many different colours, transitions and sfx to see which will create more Anticipation and Apprehension on the audience. I found that using all of these to a certain extent, will give me the things I need.
My entire group was present in today’s lesson so we put our ideas together and started to sketch out some possible layouts for the book and also done some research into how we are to come to making such a masterpiece. We also booked the camera out and done some practice shots to give us further ideas on how we are to approach it. We used many types of techniques such as double cut ins and some dissolving, and different angles in the same line/area.
One of my group members is ill and the other had coursework to do so they both were not here today, so instead of wasting time I took full advantage and checked if my planning had been marked. I got a 3 for my brief and 3/4 for my planning. I read the advice Sam had left and began to put the points into practice and started improving my brief. It also gave me time to lay back and think of ideas. This time was a god send because every minute counts when you’re trying to catch up with the rest of the group. Also about the trip I went to yesterday I took the perfect picture, which I can include in the production.
Look up some images of missing people http://www.missingpeople.org.uk/areyoumissing/missing/ and newspaper articles of murders on Google. We have decided to invert the colours on the video to give it that mysterious touch to it. Our main inspiration on this idea would probably be Se7en 1995. There is no need for actors so no actors needed. It will mostly be hands on work with producing the actual book. We are very late behind because of us changing ideas so we will have to work pretty fast but to an excellent standard because my standards are very high. I am going on a trip to the galleries of justice in Nottingham tomorrow so no entry will be posted. But excellent timing for the trip because it will give me an insight in to many of the most notorious killers and how they were terribly executed.
We have decided our previous idea was not working so we are going to go with PLAN B. the story begins with an open book this book contains news paper articles, pictures, and other extras like pieces of hair, and pieces of jewellery. These pages will be turned by hands belonging to the serial killer. The book will then lead to an empty page a name and picture. A knife will drop on the image and a dark figure will walk off out of the room. We came up with this idea because it overcame most of the set backs we got from plan a.
It’s the last day me and my group will see each other, making it very difficult to work together when I’m on holiday, to France by the way, and the others live on either end of Birmingham. Due to this we have decided to postpone any work until after half term. This is a major set back because kasim told me he had booked the camera for the holiday. So today we went through the footage as a group and some good comments were brought to light. Our work is production is producing many unanswerable questions, so if it comes to the worst we might scrap the whole idea.
The deadline for this is tomorrow so I began working on it earlier and finished it. I completed it early so I can get the opinion of my teacher before handing it in. this also gave me the time to go over the footage and evaluate it. It was pretty good but coming to think about it now there needs to major amendments made. Things such as lighting because some shots were too dark and you couldn’t even see the actors. That brings me to another point the actors were not very good, you could tell they were not enjoying them selves because they never wanted t o act. So I will now be thinking long and hard on how I can fix these setbacks.
We collected the camera and the equipment and went out to film. As director I hoped to get as many shots in as possible then pick the best later. We filmed in the corridors, reception, and on the stairs and in the classroom. I was even lucky enough to find some posh looking people and a good, but intelligent looking women lurking in reception and got them in the shot too. (In every film you need fit looking women). We however got shots such as high and low angles; birds eye shots, zoom, tracking and many more. I will look over the footage in tomorrow’s lesson.
Today we booked the camera, dolly, and tripod for tomorrow lesson, shoibs mother had helped him sew a stab proof vest and kasim got his hands on a real American police badge. These props along with casual non functional costumes I hope to show the audience that both characters are police officers without actually telling them that, like in the opening of Hannibal 2001 when the man was wearing a FBI cap. We have also come up with the plan of what we are going to. The main obstacle is getting our free periods all in sync.
Done some research on how to film i.e. using the camera effectively etc. the BBC provides a training and development course http://www.bbctraining.com/searchResults.asp?cat=2781&subcat=2789 which has helped me learn lots off stuff through the online videos.
The teacher told me the more textual analysis I do the easier it will be for me to talk about my sequence and will also broaden my knowledge.
Mise en scene: it was set in one scene all that was shown was the book and what was within it. It was dark around the book but a lot lighter on the book, putting emphasis and telling the audience what to look at.
Sound: digetic sound that was used was the sound of the instruments e.g. typewriter, pages turning over. The non digetic score was of a high pitched tension creating horror nature. This was extremely useful because it helped build the idea that it was about something horrific.
Sfx: no special effects apart from the black and white transition.
Editing: a lot of cuts were used but only two types cut in and cut out. Cut in were used to move in on something and cut out to move make to the whole picture. This was also used to put the director in the boss position and tells the viewer what to concentrate on. Also shots were placed on another to join relevant information.
Cinematography: many angles were used like high, low medium. The camera always stayed in close up on occasional zoomed in to extreme close up. This was the most excellent use of cinematography because it allowed the audience to see what the film is about, how it starts and how it ends.
comleted the planning sheets and now thinking of were or how we are going to get our hands on the props needed. also went out to check some locations again to go with our story line.
World's worst killers
Chikatilo was Russia's number one serial killer
A Colombian man's admission to the murder and torture of 140 children has again put the spotlight on the gruesome history of mass killers.
Since Jack The Ripper, criminologists say there have been about 100 known cases of serial killers around the world, including one of modern history's worst murderers - Pedro Alonso Lopez, known as Monster of the Andes.
'Terminator' Onoprienko wanted to be the most notorious killer
Lopez is thought to have butchered more than 300 young girls in Colombia, Peru and Ecuador throughout the late 1970s and early 80s.
He was arrested in 1980 but was freed by the government in Ecuador at the end of last year and deported to Colombia. In an interview from his prison cell, he described himself as "the man of the century" and said he was being released for "good behaviour".
Other serial killers to get close to Lopez's horrific tally of victims were the Americans Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole, and HH Holmes, who killed more than 200.
Lucas, a one-eyed drifter from Texas and Toole, who had a taste for human flesh, killed anyone who crossed their paths, with a preference for picking up hitchhikers. They are known to have killed more than 200 people between the mid-1970s and mid-80s.
Holmes built a massive mansion, complete with trap doors, acid vats, lime pits and gas chambers, with money he made from a drugstore empire he built in Chicago.
'Torture castle'
During the 1893 World's Fair in the city, he rented rooms to visitors, then killed them to try to collect on their insurance policies.
Fred West is one of Britain's most notorious mass murderers
He also lured women to his "torture castle" with promises of marriage but would kill them after they signed over their life savings to him. He was hanged in 1896.
Sisters Delfina and Maria de Jesus Gonzales, owners of a Mexican brothel, killed prostitutes they recruited and an unknown number of clients.
They were arrested and later sentenced to 40 years in 1964, after police found the bodies of 91 people following a raided on the bordello.
True vampire
Another notorious female mass murderer was Hungarian Erzebet Bathory who carried out a reign of terror in the 16th century. Known as the blood countess, she tortured and murdered more than 600 victims from her family estate in Transylvania.
One method of killing victims was to strip them and lie them down in the snow in winter and then pour water over them until they froze.
She is considered to be a true vampire because she bathed in the blood of some of her victims, believing it would keep her skin looking youthful.
Russia's premier serial killer this century was Andrei Chikatilo, who killed 53 women and children in a prolonged campaign of serial murder which began in 1978.
Gruesome evidence
Chikatilo, who grew up believing his older brother been kidnapped and cannibalised, during the great Ukrainian famine of the early 1930s, mutilated some of his victims by gnawing at them.
Just failing to match this tally was Ukranian Anatoly Onoprienko, who was nicknamed the terminator by the police. He confessed to 52 murders.
One hundred volumes of gruesome evidence were presented at the trial last November.
He issued a press release from his prison cell saying he had wanted to hold the world record for killing.
Lethal injection
German Bruno Ludke, who killed at least 80 people, mainly women, began his 15-year killing spree in 1928.
Declared insane, he was sent to a Vienna hospital, where experiments were carried out on him until he died by lethal injection in 1944.
During World War II, Frenchman Marcel Petiot built a sound-proof home in which he killed up to 63 people.
He claimed he was a member of the French Resistance and told his victims, who were mainly Jews and others escaping from the Nazis, that he could arrange for a safe passage out of the country for a fee.
But after receiving the money, he gave them a lethal injection pretending to given them a "vaccination against foreign diseases".
In 1944 police investigated Petiot's home due to the stench of burnt corpses. He was found guilty and died by the guillotine in 1946.
Fred and Rose West are two of Britain's most notorious serial killers. Fred, who hanged himself in Birmingham's Winson Green prison on New Year's Day 1995, killed 13 women and girls - including his first wife and two of his daughters - in Gloucester and nearby Much Marcle between 1968 and 1987.
His wife, who is serving a life sentence in London's Holloway prison, was convicted of 10 of the murders.
Australia's two most prolific convicted serial killers are James Miller, who raped and murdered seven women in the 1970s, and Ivan Milat, the notorious "backpack" murderer, who killed seven tourists and buried their bodies in the bush outside Sydney.
But in May this year, Australian police charged three people with murder after finding human remains in a disused bank vault.
Another two were found buried in the garden of an Adelaide house. Police say they suspect the motive for the murders was a welfare fraud.
Hannibal link
Pietro Pacciani, the Monster of Florence, was convicted in 1994 of murdering eight couples in lovers' lanes near Florence, between 1968 and 1985.
Pacciani was given 16 life sentences but was freed on appeal in 1996 and died of a heart attack in February 1998 while awaiting a retrial.
Thomas Harris, author of blockbusters The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal attended the trial of Pacciani, where he sat and studiously made notes.
The fruits of his research appear in Hannibal, with references to "Il Mostro".
Brief has been uploaded and in lesson we were given some planning sheets, to keep us organised to minimise potential miss haps. Also got together with my group and discussed issues involving, location, cast, props etc. we have agreed on everything. Our location will be based in college. We will be in the film and so will a couple of mates be involved when we are occupied. For our film we need cling film, water, a chair, stab proof vests, police badges, and black piece of material, a lamp and a dolly track. Some of these will be specific props made by us and others will be found props which we will go out and buy.