Previous Student Evaluation Analysis.

As part of the preparation for my evaluation, I have looked at three previous student examples. I am going to be individually commenting on the strengths and weaknesses of their work, a good use of technology and any influence their evaluation may have on mine, (i.e. particular things I would like to perhaps incorporate). 

Student Example #1

I found this first piece of student work to be a good example of an evaluation. I feel that they gave consideration and explanation to each question, however that they could have elaborated in places. For example, they manage to answer the first question within under 50 seconds!

What I liked about this example was the use of video playback when explaining different parts and the group's analysis of relevant work within the industry and how it influenced their thriller film.  

What I feel could have been stronger was the duration of their responses but also a greater use of different technologies, as this is required to gain a higher grade. I feel that they are, at times, too dependent on playing the video back and don't tend to stray from this.

Student Example #2

Unfortunately, I felt that this example was weaker than the previous. The student does not elaborate massively on the questions, failing to answer any of them in much more than 1 minute. In addition to this, their monotone voice does little to create an interesting dynamic for an Evaluation. 

I also felt that the evaluation lacked technology other than video-playback and I found the habit of not introducing the set questions with a title to be quite basic.

However, what I did lack was the student's consideration of their weaknesses and how they managed to build on skills throughout the project. 

Student Example #3

What I liked from this example was the level of consideration the student had given to each question.

However, because the student does not use a range of technologies and it is entirely word and picture based, I felt that this weakened the effort the student had put into answering the question.

All three of these examples have been good analysis for me to take away and consider when contributing towards our group's evaluation. The main point I would like to differentiate away with from these examples, is a great use of technologies. From each question I would like to incorporate a different style. I.e. not have it either entirely video or word/picture based. Medias such as prezi and presentation programs are something I have been considering.

Draft #2

Here is the second draft of our thriller opening video. 

We realised on upload that the video had not been exported properly, hence the poorer quality video. However it will suffice as a draft and demonstrates of all the frames of the video we now have in place. 

The following parts of editing will consist of:

Recording Non-Diegetic sound.
Further sound consideration.
Considering a limited use of special effects.
A title screen. 

This draft will now be loaded into Final Cut Pro X on my computer. As a group we have agreed that my knowledge of the program and its greater 'bank' of effects and video tools will be of much more use to us than Final Cut Express. 

Sound Scape

Since my research into sound featured within thriller films, I have begin giving consideration to the soundscape of our group's piece. A Soundscape is a very important aspect of a film, especially within the thriller and horror genres. As part of our group's research into sound, I have been looking into the possible avenues of royalty free samples to guarantee us the right type of sound for our thriller opening. I have browsed through pre-recorded diagetic sounds to place into our thriller during the last unsupervised lesson.

"Sound is 50 per cent of the motion picture experience" - George Lucas.

Though we might think of film as an essentially visual experience, the importance of film sound cannot be underestimated. The entire sound track is comprised of three essential ingredients:  

• the human voice (Dialogue) 

• sound effects (Ambience and Effects) 

• music (Soundtrack, Score)

These three tracks must be mixed and balanced in order to produce the necessary emphasis on effects and to create a desired audience response. These comprise to form the Soundscape. They are analogous to elements in the real world.

I have looked into various websites such as SoundJay and Sounddogs. I found both of these sites very useful, when searching for free audio. Here are just some of the sound effects we have considered:

'heartbeat' effect - This can be layered on top of the running scene during the beginning and at the ending of the opening when this scene is repeated, to realistically emphasize the character's emotions.

Cafe noise - Adding to the background scenery during the shots. Because the dialogue will be imported, we therefore need to essentially build our soundscape back up, so creating realistic cafe noise is a must. This is something we may also record ourselves instead of simply sampling it. 

'Eerie Atmospherics' - Providing a transition between the flashback sequences and the 'real-time' as the Witness narrates the story. This is something I am going to look into further because it is important we harness the right sort of music. I.e. Too over-the-top  could quite easily be mistaken as horror music which is not in keeping with our genre. 

A screenshot of one of the Sound archives I have been looking in to.

Animated Title Experimenting

I spent some of my time experimenting with Titles in our unsupervised lesson. 

After designing the logo in photoshop for our thriller, I will then move onto Apple Motion on my laptop where I can then create a full-working animation sequence of approximately 5 seconds.

Here are a few of my plans in photoshop so far: 

Here is my first attempt. The 'Bebas' font was something I found online and will definitely be using in the animation. By making this short animation, it will give my video more of a commercial-look, thus more realistic and professional as a music video.

With my second attempt, I focused on drawing more attention to the director name. Across the 3 lines I included an 'outer glow' effect and on the bottom line, included an inner shadow angled to give an effective shadow. 

Here's my third attempt, similar to the first but I took into consideration the screen placement. This will give me an idea of how I am going to go about making the frames of the sequence. (i.e. splitting it up into different colour effects and font manipulation). 

Although our project will read as 'The Witness', I was merely experimenting with my name, effectively as a director's title. This will be very helpful when it comes to constructing our final title. 

The first draft

Research into Sound of Thriller films.

The Sounds featured within thriller films are used to create understanding and meaning for the audience. This will then help create an audience's response to the film. The sounds are predominately used to illustrate the characters feelings and emotions, allowing a response to be generated from the audience. This will create a certain mood and atmosphere that is in the context of the visuals and genre, which is often used to symbolise both the protagonists and antagonists actions during a scene. There are many different sound techniques that directors use including: diagetic, non-diagetic, parallel sounds, on screen sound and off screen sound.

Diagetic sound can be anything that a character would hear within a scene; for example, a telephone ring, dialogue and dogs barking. It is also used to distinguish elements of tension from the rest of the scene. Diagetic sound tends to be used to convey realism and meaning within a scene, however the sounds can also have hidden connotations. One example of this could be heavy rainful, which often connotes sadness and stress, whilst the onomatopoeic, 'pitter patter' of slow rain can connote a long wait or gradual build in suspense.

Non-digetic sound does not exist within the narrative of the film, but is placed into the soundscape during post-production editing. Examples of this sound include, a music soundtrack, a voice-over or other sounds that can enhance the meanings and elements of the film. For example, the building of a thick texture of orchestral music within a minor key, would connote extreme tension and infer that something fatal or enigmatic is about to take place within the scene. 

Parallel sound is when the sound we hear goes hand in hand with the events on screen. An example of this would be if we were about to witness a murder and dark, fast tempo music would accompany the action. The opposite of this would be 'Contrapuntal sound', when we hear sound that would not be associated with the events on screen.

'On screen' sound is used to illustrate an action. For example, a shot of the character switching the radio on. 'Off screen' sound does not accompany a visual action, for example somebody shouting in a room next door to the person who has just turned the radio on. Both of these 'Screen' sounds are examples of diegetic sound.

Research into how sound is used within the Film Industry:

Randy Thom, is the current Director of Sound Design at Skywalker Sound.

He has worked on many award winning films including Star Wars Episodes V & VI, Temple of Doom, and the second and fourth Harry Potter films.

Here he discusses:

•  how 'real life' vocalisations are added to a film to convey certain emotions. For example, a manipulation of pitch is often made or a transition to other sounds, i.e. the sound of a tiger. 
• For his sound work he uses Pro-tools and Sound search libraries at Skywalker. 
• He emphasizes the importance of having portable recording setups when coming across inspiration. 
• The use of volume variations between sound and the consideration given to real world sound vs synthesized sounds, where he often favours real sound as storytelling sounds over synthesized, electronic ones.
• Challenging scenes, such as action packed scenes of gun fights and car chases take a while to produce sound for, in order for it to be coherent to the audience. 
• The use of Dynamics.
• The future of sound and how he feel it will develop; increasing advances in technology. 

These were particularly interesting considerations I will take when creating the soundscape for our group's thriller film. 

Motion 5

As part of the editing process, I am going to be using Motion 5. The video above explains the basics of the program and how to animate text.

Motion 5 will be a great way of creating a full-working animation sequence of approximately 3 seconds during the start of the video.

Here is some of my research into Motion so far:

Anchoring text is something else I am considering using during the the credits of the video. 

Key-framing will be important in animating the text/logo. 

I also have the option of going down the route of developing text as Kinetic Typography.

I have also recently discovered the Trail effect that can be made in Motion. I think this might be particularly useful during the shot from the victim's perspective, where we see him being attacked by the mob. 

Research into Sound

In today's lesson we considered the importance of sound in films. The biggest consideration to take is: "what isn't present in a scene is just as important as the sound that is present in another". This is important with building suspense and engaging the audience during film openings, thus it is crucial we give careful considerations to the sound in our thriller opening. 

The websites: 
http://www.looperman.com 
http://www.incompetech.com/music/royalty-free 

are good for accessing royalty free music loops, acapellas and vocals. This is an important legal consideration to be taken. 

When looking over http://designingsound.org, I came across a series of interesting articles discussing the use of sound in film. One in particular, "DTS presents: Music Sound Design with Diego Stocco by Jack Menhorn" explores how soundtracks can be generated by playing unlikely sources. 



This video was particularly inspiring. For our thriller opening we have already considered making our own non-diegetic sounds to illustrate actions such as the kicking of the victim and the scuffling of the witness' shoes. 

This article was also useful: http://mixonline.com/post/features/movie_sound_effects/index.html

It gave me certain considerations to take on-board, for instance, the importance of sound and why it is used. A good example of this is "Although realism is important as a baseline, more often than not the recordings (or library recordings) get beefed up considerably."  

Things such as "A classic technique for making car chase sounds more exciting is to subtly layer in a lion (or other large animal) roaring to add to the tension of the sound. Although that’s become somewhat of cliché, it can be very effective." This has left me considering what can be put into our 2 minute thriller opening across the two different settings (the estate and the cafe) to emphasize the narrative and add to the suspense. 

Experimenting with colour correction

Today I experimented with colour-correction on a project I had recently shot with some friends.

Both of the below, are before and after examples of the alterations I had made.

With the use of effects such as Vignette, Strife and Projector, I have begun giving my video more of the desired 'cinematic-look', in essence, giving it more of a darker look, which is typical of thriller films.

What I have given particular thought to is the desired realistic look of the video. I did not want to simply tarnish it with effects, but instead maintain a real-life look. Protecting the skin when editing the colour for example, has been one of these considerations.

Study of Mise-en-scene in Thriller Films

Mise-en-Scene is a French term meaning: ‘what is put into a scene or frame’. It can also be defined as the arrangement of scenery and elements to represent the place where a film is enacted. The composition of Mise en scene within film, provide an indication of genre and we as an audience can begin to recognise these set conventions.

Lighting & Colour -  The way lighting is display within a film or scene is a big indication of genre. Thrillers often use low-key lighting because it creates suspense and an enigmatic atmosphere. Whereas genres such as romantic comedies would tend to use high key lighting to produce the atmosphere of romance and love. Colour is key convention, which comes parallel to lighting as we associate emotions and thoughts with different colours.

Black - Darkness/Evil
White – Purity
Green – Envy
Red- Love/Lust/ anger/danger
Blue- Cold/ sadness/ depression
Yellow- sunshine/ happiness

Setting And Props - The setting relates to location. For example, the typical conventions of thriller film settings would be a dark warehouse or haunted house. Depending on the props used, these objects can help determine the narrative, identity of character and genre.

Facial expressions and Body Language -  By the use of these elements, the emotion of characters can be conveyed. Non-verbal communication such as this, helps the audience to assume characteristics about the character and how they are feeling by not being directly told. For example, if a character is scared we can tell by their proximity to the object/person.

Costumes and Make-up/Hair - The use of costume and makeup allow actors to appear lifelike, because how we present the character reflects on how the audience perceive them. Choices of costume and makeup can create a conventional thriller character; i.e. omission of 'glamorous lipstick' and instead pale makeup will make them look dead. If you want to show a woman fearful and in tears, smudged make up can be used to display her emotions. Costumes can carry certain connotations, including the emotions of the character display by colour.

Position of characters and objectives in a frame -  The way characters are positioned within a frame can tell the audience a lot about the character. levels of supremacy can be identified (asserted by Prevelance in editing), by how characters are centred and angled. In murder scenes, the killer is the dominate character, whilst the victim is the minor character. This can be displayed by staging and levels of the characters.

Study of Mise-en-scene within 'Se7en'.

At the beginning of the view there is a shot of Morgan Freeman in his house. The character's tidy and decorated house, showing him as somebody who takes pride in the appearance of his home. This is a complete contrast to the the typical thriller setting which often starts off within a dark and gloomy setting. His clothing portrays him as the stereotypical smartly dressed detective, including a trench coat and hat. This ultimately portrays the basis of the narrative, with emphasis pus his career immediately and that the film will be based around solving murder mysteries and other crimes.

We meet the other detective within the scene, Brad Pitt, who is a contrast to Morgan Freeman, as he is young, a lot more relaxed, and has a cheeky attitude, whilst Morgan remains a lot more serious. Brad Pitt has an individual detective costume of a leather jacket and more casual clothes, which goes against the stereotype that Morgan upholds.Through the mise-en-scene you can tell that the two policemen are binary opposites. As Brad Pitt is the trendy cop with a unique costume and attitude, which is emphasized by him chewing gum. Pairing these two characters together creates conflict, thus one could be referred to a protagonist and the other as an antagonist. These contrasting characters at the beginning create an enigma, to interest the audiences to see the further complications. 

The house that the crime took place in appears smokey, undecorated and has a gloomy, enigmatic aspect about it. This suggests that something terrible happened there and conforms to the stereotype of thriller settings. The two detectives then leave the house and walk into the typical urban city. This gives the audience an idea of the location, highlighting that it is based around the poorer areas of a city in America, with heavy rain pouring down in a lower class, urban city. Ultimately the onomatopoeic, 'pitter patter' of rain has dark connotations and infers that this narrative is going to become much darker, in the hope of solving the criminal activity. 

Audience Research results

Target Audience Considerations

The target audience of psychological thriller films tends to be a 15+ rating, if not, 18+. There are however exceptions of 12 ratings in some cases. These high ratings are often given due to the excessive violence often displayed and the psychological issues that are presented, which can be disturbing for a younger audience. 

Some examples of psychological thriller films are: 

• Se7en - An 18 rating film; we will not be using this extent of violence. 
• Shutter Island - A 15 rated film.
• The ring - A 15 rated film; psychological thriller with horror elements. 

Our thriller opening will be aimed at an audience of 15 years or older. The actors will be older teenagers (18/19), which will provide a connection between the audience who will be of a similar age. Our thriller will expose the harsh realities of gang culture and will see an interesting psychological twist be presented when a guy confronts his best mate about his involvement in gang violence. The sub-genre of thriller's gives the typical target audience. For example ‘chick flick’ thrillers would target young teenage girls because they can relate to the characters' emotions. However as our thriller is general, this is why we have opted for the 15 rating. We would expect a demographic of 15-25 to watch our style of thriller. 

We are not as dependent on the gender of our target audience, as we are of the age bracket, however it is important nonetheless to create a well-rounded audience classification. Because we need to generalise, we have identified that our opening will predominately be aimed at males because of the masculine features of the film (i.e. violence and building tension.)

Questionnaire

Our group decided to each make individual questionnaires. The point of this was to survey a wider audience, which would give us more concise results. From my questionnaire I will be getting direct information from a potential audience of our film, who will express the conventions of thriller films they favour most. This information will be used when creating the opening scene to 'The Witness'. By using the responses of people and applying them to our knowledge on thriller conventions, we aim for it to overall strengthen our opening film. It is common practice for production companies to carry out audience research prior to shooting a film and hosting test screenings, so we will be doing this same by submitting drafts of our work to achieve the best outcome. 

My questionnaire will allow me to answer my primary audience research question: 
"How can I make my thriller appealing to my audience?"

I did not opt for using a question regarding location. Over my research into thriller films, I have noticed that location does not seem to bare much correlation. Often everyday environments are manipulated to become secluded and volatile. As we also have the two ideal locations planned, this would not be of any help to us.

Title Sequences

I decided to look at the conventions of titles and how they are used in film, to give me an insight into how I can use Titles in my Thriller film.

Titles and title cards can be distinguished as follows:

• A single title card contains one name credit. Typically used in opening titles to display the name of the lead actors and the creative people involved in the movie. Generally referred to as the above-the-line credits.

• A double title card contains two name credits. Typically is used to display the names of supporting actors and additional creative people involved in the movie.

• A triple title card contains three name credits. Typically used to display the names of additional supporting actors.

• A multiple title card contains more than three name credits. Typically used to name additional supporting actors or extras.

• A main title card displays the main title of the movie.

• Scrolling titles are titles that move sequentially in and out of frame, generally used as end titles.

• A lower third is a title placed on the lower-third of the screen (although there might be other screen placements you could consider), generally used to display the information—name and title—of a person being interviewed or a location.

• Subtitles are titles placed on the lower-third part of the screen (or sometimes on the top of the screen to avoid covering relevant information on-screen or previously existing lower thirds). These are generally used to translate dialogue in another language.

• Intertitles are title cards that display the time, place, prologue, or quotes. In silent films, an intertitle is often used to convey minimal dialogue or information that can’t be deduced from the talent’s body language or the scene’s settings.

- http://masteringfilm.com/giving-titles-to-the-types-of-titles/

Here is an example of how Titles are used in the Robert Altman's 'The Player'. As we can see there is continuity in the use of font and colour for the Main title and single titles. 

Titles are used to depict the genre of a film. In the top left-hand corner where the Main title is presented, the use of a scratched font on a back drop of council flats, infers that the film is aimed at a working class audience who would understand what the film is trying to get across. This and the name of the film, 'This Is England', again infer that the film covers the harsh realities of a dark and troubled, urban England.

'Forest Gump' adopts orthodox typography, similar to other 90's films of a similar genre, such as Matilda and Mrs Doubtfire, which all include an underlined moral message. The simplicity of the film's logo is what perhaps adds to its iconicity. The use of this simple font across the title screens infers that this is not your typical horror or thriller film but actually has connotations of happiness.