Opening Scene Narration- Miss Georgiou

 Opening Scene Narration

Our opening sequence for our thriller film will begin with a zooming in shot from the front door to the stairs then to an open bedroom door, to introduce the audience to the location of the scene. The sound that will be employed in this scene will be instrumental music and the shot will directly lead to the audience being presented with a mid shot of the boy putting a pill in his drink and mixing it. The sound used will be an enhanced sound of the boy mixing the pill into his drink and the editing style we will use to move to the next shot with be a straight cut. 

The next shot we will use will be an over the shoulder shot of the boy as he stands and progresses towards the door. The sound the audience will be able to hear will be the footsteps and the editing style used will be a straight cut to a panning shot of the boy walking to his sisters room which will straight cut to a close up shot of his feet, then an extreme close up shot of the glass in the boys hand, which will then straight cut back to the panning shot. 

The sound employed during the transitions between each of these shots will be instrumental music which will be at a low/medium constant pitch. This shot will then straight cut to a close up shot of his hand opening the door where the audience will hear the sound of the door slowly creaking open. This shot will then straight cut to an over shoulder shot behind the sister, seeing her brother walking in. At this point the sounds used will be natural sounds that are relevant to the scene. The editing style employed after this shot will be another straight cut to a point of view shot of the brother handing his sister the drink. 

The sound employed will be dialogue of the brother speaking "It's Perteniam, it will make you feel better" in an encouraging tone. After this shot it will straight cut to a close up shot of the glass and sisters mouth from the side as she drinks the dissolved Perteniam. The sound employed will be the gulping of her drinking the drink.

The next shot will be a high-angle split screen of both the brother and sister laying down in their separate beds with their eyes open. The only sound you will hear is the ticking of a clock. A straight cut will then be used to follow onto an extreme close up shot (also split screen) showing their eyes closed.

We aim for the above shots to make up around 45 seconds so that we have the remainder of time to show our main focus of the nightmare.

We as an audience will then enter their nightmare...

Following the house location scenes will be a series of shots put together with fast paced editing switching from one shot to another to signify the chase they are encountering. One of the shots will be handheld to present the disorientation and chaos of the situation and will also relate to abstract conventions. This handheld shot will be used from both Evie and Jordan's point of view to justify that they are both experiencing the same nightmare: Evie's through the side effects of Perteniam and Billy's through his lack of mental stability. 

Another type of shot we will use is an extreme long shot to display Billy chasing Evie and establish the location of the forest. The sounds heard in the nightmare will be a diegetic alone. Our diegetic sounds will include Evie's screams, Billy's heavy breathing and the crunching and rustling of leaves all used for dramatic effect. We aim to record sound separate to the visuals as we hope it will emphasise them more so therefore more effective.

We will also use another handheld shot of the camera spinning slowly at a height showing the trees of the forest from Evie's point of view also to present her confusion; another side effect of Perteniam. It will also display her paranoia that someone is chasing her. 

We are also interested in attempting to get a shot from Billy's point of view whilst wearing the mask. We would do this by placing the camera behind the mask but not too close that you do not see the outline of the mask itself but at eye level with the eye holes. This may not work out but we will try a number of methods in order for it to succeed but if this shot does not go to plan we will replace it with a handheld shot.

We are aware that displaying Billy stabbing Evie in the nightmare scene in the forest will difficult due to a number of different reasons therefore we have devised a number of shots we could use instead of typical high budget thriller shots which graphically capture it. Much like Hitchcock's famous shower scene in Psycho, we would like to follow the method of "each physical stab symbolises each cut and shot" We aim to combine a variety of shots and fast paced editing to make the stabbing as realistic as possible but we are also considering the safety of the actors whilst the knife is present. Shots will include a close-up of the knife dripping with blood, an over the shoulder shot of Billy stabbing Evie in the cheek and 

As the nightmare scene is not intending to be realistic, we are aware we would like a sense of surrealism to be captured throughout. We are especially interested in making some of our shots out of focused as we were inspired by the Saw opening when the character was disorientated therefore hope to employ this during the editing process.

We would like the nightmare scene to last a maximum of 1 minute in order to achieve it's purpose of thrilling our audience and keeping them engaged with fast paced editing hopefully keeping them on the edge of their seats in suspense. 

Once the nightmare has ended, we will employ a high-angle shot of Evie waking up in shock and panicking as she believed the nightmare was true. Due to the side effects of Perteniam, we will then show a panning shot of Evie running to  the bathroom followed by an over the shoulder shot of her looking in the mirror noticing she has a flesh wound on her cheek. This then causes her to vomit and this is where we would like to employ another over the shoulder shot of her vommiting down the toilet. The sounds used will be of her choking and spitting to add to the visuals. Once she has vomited, we will then use another over the shoulder shot of her looking in the mirror again, this time with no flesh wound. We hear her gasp. 

The final shot will be a repeat of Perteniam fizzing in the glass. We would like this to act as a motif to remind the audience of not only the film title but why the nightmare occured. As we are ending on this, we would like the audience to decide for themselves a number of things: "why did Billy harm his sister?" and most imperatively, "what will happen next?" and "I want to watch the rest!"

If we were not restricted with our opening having to be no longer than 2 minutes we would have liked to have had shots of Evie and Billy tossing and turning in bed showing their reaction throughout the nightmare. This would be effective if we used fast paced editing also with straight cuts from the nightmare to Evie to the nightmare to Billy etc. We may decide to capture these shots in our house location in case we have enough time to play with therefore add it in during the editing process. Although it would add to the effectiveness of our opening, the "flashback" shots are not vital.  

In conclusion, we are keen to experiment with certain camera shots whilst filming therefore our opening scene narration may not be exact to our final outcome. However, this is an outline of our ideas which we will follow whilst filming, some ideas of which we will use and others we will alter if we feel it is necessary. 
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Risk Assessment- Miss Georgiou

Description of Hazard	Precaution of Hazard
Trailing leads whilst filming	Use gaffer tape to secure leads
Filming in a forest whilst dark	Use torches and stay in a group
Using a ladder to capture a high angle	Have someone support the ladder whilst the camera operator is at the top filming.
Shot of Evie consuming a pill	Ensure she consumes a pill which will not cause her any harm.
Use of matches whilst creating opening credits	Make sure there is nothing which is highly flammable around the area and also pay a lot of attention whilst carrying this action out

The main reason in why we create a risk assessment is to insure we know how to identify potential hazards that could come our way during our filming process and how we can prevent them. We wouldn't want anyone getting into any harm whilst filming for our Thriller especially if we can prevent this from happening. 

 Above is a chart showing how we will be taking precaution of any hazards that may come our way whilst filming our thriller. As a group we will use this to insure we will not come across any hazards throughout the filming process by following our precautions we have discussed to insure our group and actors feel safe whilst the filming process.

Character Representation- Miss Frisendar

Character Representation

Character representation is how the character is presented to an audience and how the audience perceive them by judging their background(family, past, clothing and attitudes). It is important for an audience to have a relationship with characters so they can relate to them and feel sympathetic/empathy towards them whilst watching them. Furthermore, from this the audience can  become more engaged and emotionally attached to the character without even knowing it. Through the Thriller genre there should always be a variety of different characters that are represented differently to the audience.

In our Thriller opening we only have two main characters in which they are brother and sister: 

Name: Evie Lovell                                                                 
Age:9                                                                                      
Gender: Female                                                                  
Purpose: The Thrillers Protagonist  
Race: White Caucasian     
Background: Good upbringing, been brought up by her mum and dad.         

Name: Billy Lovell
Age: 12 
Gender Male
Purpose: The Thrillers Antagonist 
Race: White Caucasian    
Background: Had a good childhood, been brought up by his mum and dad but was diagnosed with Schizophrenia a year ago.    

             
We discussed that the main characters should be brother and sister as in our storyline the brother (Billy) attacks his sister (Evie) and this will surprise and shock the audience which is a Thriller convention and also as the brother suffers from Schizophrenia the fact that he is at a higher authority throughout the Thriller there is a twist to the storyline as in reality he would be weaker then his sister.

Opening Credits Analysis- Miss Frisendar

Opening Credits Analysis

Se7en Analysis

The opening credits to the psychological Thriller Seven, is effective due to the , Mise en Scene, cinematography, editing and lastly the use of diegetic and non diegetic sound throughout which adds to the shock and suspense within the audience before the film has even begun.

We are first shown the production name, following with the director and then by the actors names. this seems to be in order of importance and in some cases popularity as Brad Pitt was shown first. The style in which the text is superimposed is on a blank black screen in a white, Gothic font which appears to be as if it is scratched into it. Additionally to this, we as the audience are produced with the antagonists hands alone and not their face, this is a generic convention to a thriller genre as the antagonists identity are typically hidden with  either a mask or different shots of their body in order for the audience to try and guess the character.This as a viewer creates a suspense and entices the audience into the narrative  to see if their intentions were in fact right as to who the antagonists identity is.  
Furthermore, another element to the opening credits which is effective from the Thriller Seven is the use of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. The most effective use of Diegetic sound is the screaming of what we are led to believe is the innocent, vulnerable girl victim which keeps merging into the non-diegetic fast music, this lets the viewers guess what is expected within the film.

The After Life

We had to analyse another Thriller films opening credits as well as Se7en to see the impact they have on the film and if it creates a suspense in the audience before the film has even begun. As a group we should also get some ideas from with in these Opening Credits to add into our own Thriller opening, for example we may decide to use a similar colour and style of font to add an effect on the viewers experience before the films even begun.

From watching The After Life opening credits I have discovered that the use of colour has a big impact on the audience as the font is red which straight away makes us think of danger and blood which links to the theme of death which is a main convention to a Thriller film. Also the background is white which represents innocence and pure but to the audience it may give them the idea of heaven which links to what the film is about hence the title 'The After Life' and also the fact that the opening character is a funeral director (Liam Neeson) who deals with dead people who are now in 'heaven'.  

Another aspect I have found whilst studying the opening credits of The After Life is the order of appearance of the cast members, this goes in the order of the most recognised actor to the audience first and the least likely last. This allows the viewers to relate to the film a bit more as they also know that the first name to appear us going to be one of that main characters and how relevant they are to the film, the audience could also be able to guess what kind of role this specific actor is going to play and give them an idea f what may happen in the film before it actually begins. 

Throughout the opening scene there are numerous actions which portrays the thriller genre, for example in the first few minutes we are shown a dead man in a coffin being prepared for his own funeral in this shot there is a use of low key lighting which allows us to clearly see shadows around him which is yet again another thriller convention and can give the audience an idea that there is going to be many more murders within the film. 

Preliminary Task- Miss Georgiou

Preliminary Task Evaluation

This is our preliminary task. To begin, a positive point of ours is the numerous amount of camera shots we have used to display the characters authority, for example we used some thriller conventions with the characters being an antagonist and protagonist. In addition to this we used high angle shots on the antagonist, although we did not need to base our preliminary task on the thriller genre we decided it will benefit us for when we have to create our group Thriller Opening.

Consequently to this, our Preliminary Task also has it's weaknesses. Firstly, throughout the whole piece we can hear background noise from people in the corridor which is not needed, therefore this has disrupted some sound in our piece throughout. Secondly,we never had a tripod so all of our shots are handheld therefore the picture isn't very good quality as there is movement throughout some shots.   Finally, we were restricted from using different lighting as we were placed in a naturalistic environment. We would have liked to use low-key lighting in parts of our piece as it would follow the conventions of films of the thriller genre.

We discussed as a group about each individual shot, especially how it would effect the audience before we went on to film it. 

This is a high-angle shot showing Daisy walking down the stairs to meet me. It presents Daisys lack of authority as a character in this narrative. It would have been more successful if we had use of a tripod and did not have to balance the camera as there is some movement.  




A high-angle shot is also used here to represent my status of the antagonist. We thought it would be effective if I looked up to the camera because it informs the audience that something bad is going to happen and may get the audience thinking what exactly could happen. 

Another shot we use is a low-angle shot which shows me following Daisy down the stairs in which she is unaware I am doing this. We thought it was effective to show me behind Daisy because it looks as if I am mysterious and I am thinking about my future actions.  

Our final shot is again a high-angle shot which shows the  after effect of my action. The previous shot to this (which is shown)  zooms slowly towards Daisys phone and ring as she lies on the floor vulnerable, which are both motifs of iconography throughout the piece. We were inspired by Hitchcock's use of a similar shot in Psycho where the girl is dead with her eyes open and the camera zooms slowly in.

The purpose of carrying out this task was to give us an experience of producing our own material and also to enhance our knowledge on the filming and editing process. 

After producing our preliminary task we have learnt a number of things in which we will improve and include when it comes to producing a trhiller film. One thing we have learnt from doing this task is that the use of a tripod in the filming stages are very important to increase the quality of our video so we get steady shots. We need to watch where we film it as the sound in the background is ot needed. We could also film each individual section numerous times so that we get the perfect shot. We are now more familiar with the editing software which will be an advantage when it comes to editing our thriller film. Finally, doing the Preminary Task we have a good idea about who should have what role in our Thriller Production, Emma was camera operator therefor we dcided she should take the role as camera operator in  the making of our Thriller, me and Daisy both came up with theidea of the locations and has positive ideas on how to film it and what to include throughout for example the angles and where the actors would be positioned, from this we decided I should be location manager and Daisy should be the director for when it comes to our Thriller so it will be a success.

In conclusion to this i think our Preliminary Task was a success as it was our first time doing anything practical like this as a group. We have learnt a lot from doing this as we now know to do and what not to do to create a successful opening to a Thriller.
 

Mise-En-Scene Planning- Miss Georgiou

Mise-En-Scene Planning

We as a group are planning our Mise en Scene for our opening before we start filming it. Mise en Scene consists of a variety of elements of which design aspects of film production.

Costume

We would like our actors to wear contrasting colours to emphasize of whom is the protagonist and the antagonist throughout the Thriller opening. For example, we would like Evie (the sister) to be dressed in neutral colours for the nightmare scene. Maybe a nude nightdress and shoes to show her innocence as a young girl and the protagonist in our narrative. Where as Billy (the brother) will be wearing a mask to show hidden identity and dark colour tracksuit bottoms and a black hoodie to create a mysterious tension throughout the nightmare scene. However, in the bedroom scenes we would like Evie to wear pajamas's which consist of light colours to  echos my previous statement on colour choice and also as a stereotypical young girl in films/reality so the audience don't guess what may happen and who it will happen to. We would like Billy to wear dark colours in both the nightmare scene and the bedroom scenes as it would portray his dark personality and sadistic thoughts about his sister due to Schizophrenia. 

Iconography                  
              
Iconography plays a huge role in our thriller opening. Firstly, our film title is Perteniam which is the name of the pill Evie will be consuming in our very first scene and is the thing which causes her nightmare, the pill is also the first piece of Iconography of which has any importance to the scene and will draw the audiences attention. Secondly,Billy will be wearing a mask throughout the nightmare. The use of a mask was popular throughout our quantitative data questionnaire therefore we took that into consideration and we included it in order to enhance our audiences viewing, and also wearing a mask creates a hidden identity in which is also a Thriller convention. Thirdly, another form of Iconography throughout our opening will be a knife in which Billy uses to harm Evie during the nightmare. Knive's where also a popular choice when doing our questionnaire and they are extremely conventional to thrillers as they are a weapon which can put characters in lives at risk. We will also be using a mirror in which Evie will look in after waking up from her nightmare after from consuming Perteniam and notice a wound on her face which was created by her brother. The use of mirrors in thrillers are  conventional because the use of them can display the darkness within someone characters.

Actors 

For our thriller film we have asked two experienced young actors to be our main characters thoughout it. Evie and Billy are 12 and 15 but will both be playing the roles of younger characters. We have a clear idea of how we would like the characters to be presented as our opening is a Thriller and we have included a wide range of Thriller conventions throughout.. Evie, the younger sister will be portrayed as the innocent and vulnerable protagonist who gets hurt by Billys actions . Billy will be shown as a mentally unstable character as we learn he has Schizophrenia and is putting his sister at harm because he is jealous of her. Throughout the filming of this we will allow both actors to  experiment with facial expressions and body language as they are experienced in acting so therefore could use this as an advantage. However we will make sure they know how we want their characters to be represented throughout this. 

Location and lighting 

To begin, as our Location Manager I have decided to keep our narrative simple in terms of locations by only using a local forest and Daisys house. We have also taken our quantitative data into consideration by selecting the most popular location with our audience being a house and another being the forest. We aim to film in the forest as we feel low-key lighting is best suited for the tension and suspense we want to bring to the audience and also it follows conventions of Thriller films. When filming in the house we will use light from a lamp as it will create the atmosphere for low key lighting but will have aspects of light as which is visible.

Production Roles- Miss Georgiou

Production Roles

To have a professional production you need to require:  

• Sound Technician-  They're required to assemble, operate and maintain the technical equipment used to record, amplify, enhance, mix or reproduce sound. They identify the sound requirements for a given task and perform the appropriate actions to produce this sound. Sound technicians of different types are required in a range of industries including film, broadcasting, live performance, advertising and audio recordings.

• Camera Operator-  They are responsible for operating a variety of technical equipment including single and multiple portable, remote-control and electronic cameras, cranes for panning.

• Actor/s- An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic or comic production and works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity.

• Editors- The film editor works with the raw footage, selecting shots and combining them into sequences to create a finished motion picture. 

• Film Director- A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in film making. They control a film's artistic and dramatic aspects, while guiding the technical crew and actors.

• Location Manager- The Location Manager is responsible for the finding and securing locations to be used. They are also the face of the production to the community and responsible for addressing the issues that may arise due to the production's impact on the community.

• Storyboard Organizer- They are responsible to make sure the team/crew follow the storyboard step by step through the filming progress. 

• Producer- A person, company who produces motion pictures

• Screen Writer- A screenwriter or scriptwriter is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media such as films, television programs, comics or video games are based.

• Production designer- Is a term used in the broadcasting industry to describe the person who is responsible for the look of the set.

• Costume Designer- Is a term used in the broadcasting industry for the person who is responsible for the look of the actors/actresses on the set. 

• Music Supervisor-  A music supervisor is an individual who combines music and visual media.  A music supervisor is often responsible for managing a team of music directors working on any number of musical productions.

In our thriller production we won't have to allocate so many roles.These are the roles our Thriller film will require, these have been discussed within the group:

We have asked Evie and Billy to be actors in our thriller film as they both have acting experience and are willing to participate. We have decided as a group that Emma is most suited for the role as camera operator as she played this role for our preliminary task and the outcome proved successful. Also, we as a group have decided that Daisy should be film director because it would involve her working closely alongside the actors and she has a clear artistic view for our final outcome. Additional to this we have decided that I am the best person to take on the role as location manager because I am keen to secure good locations and I have a good eye for successful framing.Furthermore, there are three production roles of which all group members will be required to take on together: sound technician, editors and storyboard organiser. 

We are all sound technicians because we feel sound is an imperative element within our production therefore we all feel we should be involved.  

All group members are editors as the editing process will require all of our opinions as to which shot should follow from the next. The editing within a production is also key to whether it is successful or unsuccessful.

Lastly, we are all taking on the role as storyboard organiser because we all have differentiating visions therefore we find it important to include all of our ideas to create a successful final outcome. 

Narrative Theory- Miss Georgiou

Narrative Theory

A narrative is a constructive format it can be either speech, writing, song, film, television, video games, photography or theatre that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. 

A narrative includes a beginning, a middle and an end and for films this gives the viewer a chance to make their own interpretations as to what may happen within the story line, throughout the film the viewers can construct their own understanding and meanings from the narrative and with the right conventions can identify things from previous films they have already watched. All narratives have codes and conventions and the viewers examine the conventions of genre, character form and time. We use these conventions to help us interpret the text. Time is something that we as viewers can understand as a convention as narratives aren't a true reflection of real life. Therefore time is considered as "the time of the thing told and the time of the telling." (Christian Metz Notes Towards A Phenomenology of Narrative). The main reason the audience are able compare texts with others and understand these conventions is because they started reading narratives from a young age. 

Theory 1: Vladimir Propp

Vladimur Propp was a Russian critic who was active in the 1920's was extremely interested in the narrative of folk tales. Folk tales included the same basic struggles and appeared to have stock characters. From this he created a theory about actions and characters as narrative functions and that whatever film you watch you will always be presented with a certain type of characters and actions.

According to Propp characters have a narrative function and provide a structure for the text:

• The Hero - a character that seeks something.
• The Villain - who opposes or actively blocks the hero's quest.
• The Doner - who provides an object with magical properties.
• The Dispatcher - who sends the hero on his/her quest via a message.
• The False Hero - who disrupts' the heroes' success by making false claims.
• The Helper - who aids the hero.
• The Princess - acts as the reward for the hero and the aim of the villains' plots.
• Her Father - who acts to reward the hero for his effort. 

This theory applies to fairy tales and not all narratives.


Theory 2: Tzvetan Todorov

Trzetan Todorov simplified the idea of narrative theory whilst also allowing a more complex interpretation of film texts with his theory of Equilibrium and Disequilibrium. 

Todorovs Theory is simply this:

• The fictional environment begins with a state of equilibrium. 
• It then suffers some disequilibrium. (disruption) 
• And in the end a new equilibrium is produced. 

There are another five stages a narrative can progress through:

• A state of equilibrium.
• A disruption of that ordered by an event.
• A recognition that the disorder had occurred.
• An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption.
• A return of restoration of a new equilibrium.

In Todorovs' theory the narrative is seen as circular structure as apposed to a linear one.
The narrative is driven by attempts to restore the equilibrium, however the equilibrium obtained at the end of the narrative is not the same as the initial equilibrium. Todorov argues that a narrative involves a transformation, therefore the characters or situations are altered through the progression of the disruption.


Theory 3: Aristotle

Aristotle's Theory is that all films are based on common themes. Headings that are sometimes employed by producers and screenwriters include:

• Inciting Incident 
• Dramatic Question/s 
• Character Goal 
• Antagonist/Protagonist 
• Stakes
• Resolution
• Sympathy/Empathy 

In our group narrative we are going to be including pieces from both Aristotle and Todorovs Theory. Aristotle's Theory is suitable for our Thriller opening as we are going to be using an incident where the pill is being taken and the dramatic questions the audience will be asking throughout our Thriller opening as well as there being an Antagonist who is the brother with the schizophrenia. However, we will also be using Todorovs Theory of equilibrium and disequilibrium; this is because our film opening will start where everything is how it should be. The disequilibrium will happen after the equilibrium suffers disruption which will begin when the children have the nightmares after the pill has bee taken. Then at the end of the film (if we could show it) a new equilibrium would have been produced.