We were very impressed by the ideas used for the opening sequence of Se7en and Momento. So we wanted to create similar version of it. Nevertheless, our ideas became unoriginal and there was not a proper storyline to it.
Due to musical rehearsals and falling ill, I was absent for several media classes. Therefore, I missed out the discussions with my teammates. However, I managed to receive a brief information on what has been happening in the class. Despite all that, I came with an idea where we could use a similar style of Momento.
During our first meeting, we each shared our ideas to each other and finally decided to use Imogen's idea.
We were aiming to create mystery, fear, and spooky atmosphere to the audience by using a doll, a young girl, an old shady house, a playground and the swing. We chose these because this amplify the theme of the opening sequence: horror/thriller.
a small girl in a park on a swing
a woman watching her
flashback of woman pushing her daughter on the swing
woman looking at the photo of her daughter to indicate that her daughter has died)
woman putting 'wanted poster' through the little girl's letter box
little girl turns up at woman's house and we see that woman is going to kidnapp her.
After a while, we realised that it is not a good idea to develop further because it is too long to fit into the 2min opening sequence and it would be difficult to find a little girl (6-8 year old) for the part. It will be unrealistic to use 16 year old teenager to play for it.
We then brainstormed some ideas and Isabel came up with a total different idea and we got the inspiration from
Organ Theft.
"Dammit, that's the second time this—wait a minute..."
Organ Theft, as the name would imply, is the practice of stealing people's organs via surgery, which can then be used for further purposes such as transplants or sold on the black market* One particularly common variant of this is trope is the "kidney theft" Urban Legend, in which the victim is conned somehow and drugged into unconsciousness, and then wakes up kidney-less in a bathtub full of ice, often with a message attached telling them to go to a hospital. This trope was popularized by, and originated with, Larry Niven's Known Space stories, in which Organ Theft is called "organlegging", a portmanteau of "organ" and "bootlegging."
So this is the idea which we came up with:
There is an extreme close-up of a girl's eyes. We see them open as she gasps.
There is then a reverse zoom so we can see that she is in her underwear in a bath full of ice; she has a shocked/confused expression.
There is then an eyeline match of her looking in the mirror. We see that there is something written on the mirror. The rest of the mirror goes out of focus and allows us to read what is written in red lipstick: 'call 0800......( a phone number)'
The girl looks around and sees a phone lying next to her. She slowly types in the number and we see a close-up of the phone with the diegetic noises of her typing in the numbers.
she puts the phone to her ear, but we don't hear what the person is saying on the other line. She has an extremely shocked expression and slowly lets go of the phone in fear.
There is then a flashback. We see her dancing in the club holding a drink, she moves over to dance with a guy and when she's not looking there is a close up of him spiking her drink. We then see him dragging her into his car or something similar to this to show that she is the victim and he is the bad guy.
It then cuts back to reality and she is in the bath. We are looking at her through the mirror. She looks down looks back up at herself in the mirror and screams.
The screen goes black and the title comes up whilst she is still screaming.
We wanted to create something that is quite real as it has happen in the rural places before and kidneys are sold at hight cost. Through this idea, we are also conforming to the genre : thriller.
It was a brilliant idea and no one has ever done it before ; It is new and fresh. However, we faced some issues regarding the girl being shot with bra but resolved that we use a guy shirtless instead and he being conned by a sexy girl from a club. We might also need to hire a make-up artist to make the the stitches believable. In order to film in a club, it requires for our group to write a permission letter for approval both from the Principal and the owner of the club. After several discussions with our teacher and staffs from the media department, our idea was rejected.
In the opening sequence, we see a lady alone in the house and this we expect to see her as a victim and she could be in danger. In this opening sequence, the lighting is yellow orange colour which represents that she is danger. We have a wide a shot of her talking on a phone and quick cuts between her and the popcorn heating up to reinforce that she is danger. We also have see a mid close up shot of her to show her facial expression which juxtaposes later with her feeling really scared about this stranger who turns out to be a killer.We hear their conversation of them talking about horror movies which suggest that this film's genre is under thriller/horror film. The tension is gradually developing for the audience as we begin to see an establishing shot of her boyfriend being killed outside of her house . Her being in the house and watcing her boyfriend died signify that she is on a weaker side where she does not have the availabilty to help him. This also suggests that she herself is trap inside her own house. The mystery killer is in control and that she is the victim.
The Shutter Island
In this opening sequence, We see two people dressed up in a big trench coat which were brings out the stereotypical image of detective which immediately tells us that there might be a murder or something have happened and that they need to solve it. We then see a point of view shot of them looking over at the people the other side who are waiting for them. They are dressed in police uniforms with guns which suggests that the place is a dangerous place. This is highlighted again when we see a close up shot of patiens in chains to show that that particular place is dangerous. From this we know that this film involves horror.
First, we have a close up of a round clock hanging on the wall showing its twelve o’clock and then dissolve to a close up view of the red rounded house telephone to signify danger. During these shots, we have synchronous sound of a clock ticking and the telephone being press slowly producing ‘err..rre.er…’ sound.
Suddenly we hear someone banging the door. From then, we have clock ticking really fast and we see a close up of the red phone winding really quickly. As it is winding quickly, we have a very quick montage of a tray of surgery tools (knife, scissors, and tweezers), a hand with a white glove holding a knife which is covered in blood, we see a victim’s hand and legs and lastly we have a finger with long black nails stopping the winding of the telephone.
During this sequence of the montage, we have the non-diegetic sound of whispers and talking and it all stopped when the telephone stops. It ends with in black and the title shows in white- grayish ink ‘The Cycle’. For lighting, we have a very dim light for the clock and a very dark lighting for the red telephone. For the montage, we have yellow lightings.
Equilibrium- Normal sunny day at the beach playing and relaxing, everyone is preparing for the 4th of July celebration
Desruptive- Find pieces of the dead body ehich had been eaten by shark.
Complications- Does the beach close or remains open? Is there really a shark? Another person dies. Are there more deaths?
Resolution- The beach is open and they decide to look for sharks.
New Equilibrium- Shark and shark hunter are killed. Everything returns to normal but there are slight changes because people in the area are affected by the cause.
Characters
There are particular set of five characters in the film according to Vladimir Propps Theory:
The Hero - the one who saves the day
The Villain - the evil one who causes disequilibrium
Side Kick /the Helper- a person who helps the hero.
The Victim - at the mercy of the villain
The Donor - someone who has something special which will help the hero.
I am scared of dolls espcially if it is at night because their wide eyes and it feels like they are watching me.
Mirrors
I am afraid of mirrors as I always imagine that there might be someone in the mirror who could pop out or I might see something which is really ugly and terrifying.
Shadows and darkness
I am also afraid of the shadows and darkness as I could not see properly and I would have scary thoughts spirits walking around.
Clowns
Lastly, I find clowns very disturbing and it scares me because of their make up and their mischievous behaviour
Denotation: The girl is on a phone outside of her house and then we see guy in a mask holding a
knife.
Connotation: She could be calling someone for help, she is also in danger and the villain is
trying to kill her.
Gothika
Denotation : The back of a woman in a blue hoodie with blue pants is looking at the red colour writing
'Not alone' on the wall.
Connotation: Red paint could be blood and that she could be in danger. Creates mystery and suspense and
she is trying to find out who has written it.
Exorcist
Denotation : A girl with with yellow eyes and messy hair. She has scars pn her face and her teeth is rotten.
She is in her blue pyjamas.
Connotation: She is possesed by demon and she perhaps have eaten or bitten some human beings. She could
be slashed by a villain and it happens at night. She was a victim herself.
Just by looking at these three still images, I noticed that many of the victims are women and many of the ‘villains’ are male and they are often cast in a mysterious way. This creates the audience to feel anxious about who the killer is. Another common thing we see from thriller, horror movies is that the camera work which is tilted image. The effect of having a tilted image is to have show the audience is have a chaotic and building a distorted style.
Finally, we learnt how to use Final Cut Server in our lessons. Final Cut Server is . Final Cut Server is a computer programme created by Apple Mac to put together shots to produce a film Final Cut Server is a computer programme created by Apple Mac to put together shots to produce a film.
The process starts with uploading our clips onto Final Cut, then watching them to find the ones with mistakes or tthe clips which fitted our sequence best. all the best clips were put into a log bin, the log bin helps to separate the clips as well as on an organisation level, as having this folder makes the clips easily acessible. it was important that we chose the better shots, as because it was our first trial of filming, there was obviously going to be lots of mistakes. So we tried to cut down some clips with background noise or extra talking, to make the scene lookk more professional. this helped us to find the best fitting cuts to build a scene which really worked.
continuity editing. I had to ensure that the scene made sense and flowed well. I also had to remember to fit the sound over the clips in the correct moment otherwise it didnt fit. Then I had to choose the most relevant shots, to build a scene and to help the film flow smoothly. This was to manipulate time and space in the narrative. I then had to put together the most appropriate shots to help the audience to side with the protagonist and the antagonist. The shots have to appear in a particular order, so that the audience can have some background understanding of the scene. My film showed this, by showing the antagonist walking along into the room, opening the door then closing it behind him. Then the protagonist was sat in the same room, which the antagonist later enters, holding a gun. Just having this simple 30 second clip, tells the audience that the man is the antagonist, as he looks threatening. Then the audience understands that he is dangerous. Just as the woman is sat holding a gun, this gets the audience to think, whether she is the antagonist as she is going to shoot the other subject, or she is perhaps the protagonist because she is protecting herself with a gun.
After this, each of the special chosen shots were put onto the storyboard. the storyboard worked as a timeline which would fit each of the clips together. Once we had dragged them onto the story board in the correct positions, we had to make sure the background sound was in time with the movement of the shots. In my sequence we had more screen time on the protagonist as we wanted to highlight how she is good and how her reactions are important. Then the antagonist had less screen time. Although, in the editing, we made the cuts between each of them fast paced to show tension between the charcters. With a few single screen shots of the revolver, highlighting again the danger within this scene.
The overall editing turned out very well. The scene looked great in the end. But I noticed as we were watching it through that I had left a flashframe. This means there was a second where the scene goes black inbetween scenes.This means that the clips are not directly next to each other. Therefore I had to go back and pull the clips closer together. It is very hard to notice, but through the eyes of an expert its very obvious. If I had just left it, it would have looked like very poor editing.
Overall I really enjoyed using the programme and now that I have learnt from my mistakes it will be a lot easier to use. But it is a very useful prgramme and I will definitly be using it in the future.
One last thing to remember was to APPLE SAVE so that we would not loose any data or any editing which we did.
Preliminary task
After learning how to set up the camera and learning different types of shots in theory , we were divided into groups to use it. It was a good experience for us because we now have a little knowledge in handling the equipments.
There are 4 in my group: Holly, Immie, Miran and myself (Honey). We were then given given a scenario where someone walks through a door, says some dialogue to the person in the room and then walks out again. This is the scenario we were given:
However, we could use this idea as our basic idea and we were asked to develop on it. So we used my idea with some changes. So the storyline was that the main character was possessed by demons and he was killiing and destroying. So he came rushing through the room where his girlfriend ( who was holing the gun for protection) was and asked her to shoot him but she was frightened and did not want to shoot him. He would kill her if she does not kill him, so she does not have a choice. At the end, he was shot dead.
Before we start to shoot, we had to do several things first:
Find two actors
Adjusted the tripod to the right height
Bubbling the tripod to make it level
Attatched the camera to the tripod
Open the shutter on the camera and turn it on
White balance the camera by facing it towards a white surface
Adjust the shutter speed
Focus the camera
Among the four of us in the group, we shared the work equally for the shoot to be successful. Holly - who did the shooting Miran - helped with the lighting, camera angle shots Immie - control the lighting me - directing
Aside from Holly who had to control the video camera, Miran, Immie and I helped around to move objects to ensure that it will be a continuity editing and be more realistic. I learnt that it is important to be in detail when filming, otherwise it could ruin the film as it is not in continuity editing. During the shooting, we used the terminology such as 'Cut', ' Action' , and 'Stand By'.
Overall, I enjoyed being on the set helping and directing as I understood better about 180 degree rules and how important it is to have 'white balance' before shoots as it could ruin the colour in film. I really enjoyed working with my group because we were all working together as a unit and it makes our shooting much easier and faster.
This month I learnt how to set up and how to operate the camera the correct way. I use Sony DSR PD-100A to learn how to use it.
First of all, we learnt how to set up the tripod and we had to ensure that there is bubbling. This shows that it is ready to use. It is important to have the bubble in the centre. It is important to have tripod as it helps to take shots smoothly and not shakey at all times. It allows to use different type of continuity shooting such tracking shot, tilting and pan shot.
We are told not to record video tape at any speed other than Standard Play as MiniDV digital tapes hold either 63 or 83 minutes in Standard Play. A standard "T-120" or two hour VHS tape holds 120 minutes of video -- two hours recorded in the Standard Play mode. I learnt that there is an imprint of date/time on the camera. Once this information has been imprinted on your tape, it cannot be removed.
The date and time will be on during the shoot unless it is turn off before shooting! Most video cameras have a zoom lens, which enables you to go from a wide angle view to a close up at the push of a toggle. If you intend to edit your video tape, using your zoom toggle is o.k. You'll need to use the zoom to change the apparent distance between you and your subject. Once you've zoomed in or out, video tape the scene for at least five to ten seconds before going on to your next shot. If you don't plan on editing your video tape, zooming may be necessary to make a transition between shots. If you must zoom, zoom slowly. Start with about five seconds -- a slow "one one thousand, two one thousand" -- during which there is no movement, then zoom in or out at a speed which is virtually imperceptible. Many cameras have a combination of optical and digital zoom.
Here is the reference to different types of camera shots and camera movements
White balance
My group and I tried to zoom in and then out as it helps to focus on the object which we are shooting at. I learnt that white balance is really important because it ensures that the colours are reproduced accurately. To do 'white balancing', we must manually do a white balance every single time your change from one light source to another. Otherwise, the camera will think that white is what it saw under florescent lights when you are shooting in warm sunny summer sunlight.
Exterior -> Daylight –> cool, blue
Interior -> Tungsten –> warm, orange
Without white balance With white balance
I learnt that I have to becareful with 180 degree rule as I am often not careful about it and it will not be ilogical for the audience to see it. The 180° rule is a basic guideline in film making that states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other.
This schematic shows the axis between two characters and the 180° arc on which cameras may be positioned (green). When cutting from the green arc to the red arc, the characters switch places on the screen.
It enables the audience to visually connect with unseen movement happening around and behind the immediate subject and is important in the narration of battle scenes. Avoiding crossing the line is a problem that those learning filmcraft will need to struggle with.
My teammates Holly and Amy were constantly aware of that during our first task of shooting the given basic storyline and shots such as two shots and over head shoulder.
Lastly, we use industry terminology whilst filming so that we don't waste time and helps everyone to comprehend what to do.
Stand by/ standing by-
Prepares everyone into position for the take. The AD calls Stand By and the response tells them that everyone is prepped.
Turn Over/Turning over- The director tells the camera operator to start filming. A few seconds of film is then run as the camera gets up to speed and this is often referred to as Lead IN. Once it is done,the camera operator will respond Turning Over or rolling to indicate being up to speed.
Action! - Cue the actors to perform the take, and the crew to do their jobs. It is a good practice for director to let the film run on a further few seconds after the take is completed before cutting. This is referred to as Lead Out
Cut- Cue for the actors to stop running the film. Industry practice expects that the camera operator does not Cut being told.
In order to help us shoot with specific shots ('close ups', ' medium wide shots' and 'establishing shots'), we learn different types of camera shots in class first.
Proper framing
The first thing to learn is how to frame your subject. If you’re a still photographer you’ll already know about the rule of thirds. This works for filmmaking as well. Notice the website below. The rule of thirds:
This is a general principle in photography, which is generally considered to make shots more appealing to the eye. One can easily visualize this rule by taking a frame and dividing the horizontal piece into three equal sections and dividing the vertical in three equal sections. This creates 9 equal sections. Where these sections meet are four points on the frame. By aligning the central object into these points of the frame (often called the power points), instead of centering the object, you get more aesthetically and professional-looking shots.
However, we should note that while we describe this as the RULE of thirds, it might better be used as a guideline.
Common uses of this rule in video are:
Framing an interview: The eyes of your subject should fall in one of the upper powerpoints and the subject should be looking towards the empty space on the frame.
Shooting a horizon: Rather than position the horizon on the center of the frame, align it along the upper or lower third depending on what you want to emphasize. For example, if you’re shooting a cloud time-lapse you will want two-thirds of the shot centered on the sky.
Basic Camera Shot types:
Extreme Wide Shots (EWS) act to establish the area. Wide Shots (WS) show the entire person or area. They’re great for establishing the scene and allow for good action of the characters. Sometimes this is known as the long shot. Medium Shots (MS) frame the subject from the waste up. This is the most common shot and allows for hand gestures and motion. Medium Close Ups (MCU) shots show the subject in more detail and are often framed from just below the shoulders to the top of the head. Close Ups (CU) show a particular part of your subject. For people this usually means the shot frames just the head! Extreme Close Ups (ECU) are much tighter close-up shots in which you get detail greater than the human eye might be able to normally perceive. An example of this shot might be of the mouth and eyes together
Advanced Camera Shot Types
Two Shot: This is a shot of two peoples (or other individuals) together. Cut Away (CA): Cutaways are used in the editing process to fill in footage which is different from the main action. B-roll is often used for cut-aways. An example might be a cut away of a bird singing if the shot is focused on a couple in the woods. Over the Shoulder Shots (OSS) are shot from behind the person towards their subject. Generally the frame is cut off just behind the ear, although there are several variations. A good technique to use to get this shot is to frame the person facing the subject with about one third of the frame. Point of View (POV): This is an effective shot that gives the audience the feel that you’re seeing it from the eyes of the performer. It is taken from near the eye-level of the actor and shows what he might see. It could be used to give the perspective of other animals too like a frog, a bird, or a fish. Selective Focus: By using a large aperture value (f/1.4, f/2.0) you will be able to create a shallow depth of field. This effectively leaves one part of the frame in focus while blurring others, such as the foreground or background. When you change the focus in the shot from the foreground to the background you’re doing another advanced camera shot called a rack focus.
What is a thriller?
In our lessons we looked at the film 'The Usual Suspects'. We studied the camera, lighting and mis-en-scne of the film. we also discussed what constitutes a thirller...
There is usually a twist in the plot.
A hidden identity within a charcter.
Lots of violence
Good verses Evil. A 'good' guy and a 'bad'guy.
Flashbacks, to reveal previous information to the story, or to the crime.
Added audience information.
Dark lighting
Murder/Corruption
Deep, heavy drmatic music.
Criminals and Police
Death
Mystery
Lighting such as ambient - natural light, low and artificial, usually designed for the film.
Low or high key lighting depending on what type of film your watching. (Film Noir)
Also in our lessons, we denotated and connotated the main promotional image.
we picked up on things such as
5 men in a police line up.
All dressed differently
One is in a cream suit
They are all various heights
No one is smiling
Man on the end is grsping his arm
Man dressed in leather has an agressive stance.
Horizontal lines behind them
Tallest man is in the middle (pyraid lik,e shape)
Red font title
Connotations for the Denotations
Police line up, signifies there in trouble.
They are all in the same situation, as they are all stood together
The cream suit guy, looks different to the others.
Lighter coloured suit symbolises innocence.
Red font represents danger
Holding arm for discomfort.
Pyramid of Power ... Hierachy between the charcters.
First, we were divided into groups to take pictures within 20 minutes. We then individually used Adobe Photoshop to edit and produce a thriller poster. I used several tools such as dodge tool, cropping and desaturation to help create my poster.
It helps to manipulate the image. We used the picture of Holly standing at the backyard of the house and desaturate the colour of the image into a very dull black and white image. This helped to create an effect of her as a ghost or someone who is dangerous and a serene atmosphere. Using saturation was easy and effective for me because I have used saturation before for my personal pictures and it helped to create mood through colours. I use Lasso tool to help me cut a specific piece of picture which I want to have on my poster.
Using Photoshop is hard for me and that is probably because I am not use to the tools and I believe if I practice often then I will be able to use it well.
However, it is very useful to help create impossible shots for poster and Adobe Photoshop makes it happen. For example, you can't take a picture of human drilling his head and blood squirting out but Photoshop can help us to do that by using Lasso tool, dodge tool and saturation.
It is also useful when designing posters and DVD covers because it helps us to give us hints on the movie's genre and the plot.
What is Photoshop?
Phottoshop is to alter image (as a digital image) using an image-manipulation computer software. The software which we use here is called Photoshop CS2 and it contains various types of graphic,editing tools that has an ability of changing, manipulating and creating images either from existing photos or even using bits and pieces from different images and combine them into one image.
The basic tools that we use in Photoshoop are :
Clone Stamp Tool
It allows you to duplicate part of an image. The process involves setting a sampling point in the image which will be used as a reference to create a new cloned area.
Aligned- If this option is selected, the new cloned image will be drawn continuously even if you release the mouse button while drawing. If it is deselected, the clone will begin drawing from the sampling point each time you release the mouse and resume painting.
After going through once more, and spent some time practice using these tools, I began to feel more confident using these tools and began to realise how magical the photoshop is. Although it can be time consuming at times but it makes everything so convenient and extraordinary. For example, you don't have to retake pictures and then stick them together, with Photoshop, you can use Lasso Tool or Clone Stamp tool to help.
This is my new photopshop pic
Select the Clone Stamp tool , then check the settings in the options bar. Make sure you have a brush size appropriate for the job.
Before
After
The Lasso Tools
The lasso tools allow you to select precise areas of an image by drawing or tracing the selection outline. It was one of the first tool which I have learnt to use in photoshop. It is easy to use because it is not complicated as you just have to trace the outline of specific part of the image and cut and paste it.
There are are three lasso tools available:
Lasso Tool
This is a freehand selection tool. Click and hold your left mouse button on the image and draw your selection.
Polygonal Lasso Tool
Similar to the lasso tool, except that instead of holding your mouse button down to draw, left-click on various points to create a selection with a series of straight edges.
You can also hold down the Alt key (Windows) or Option key (Mac OS) to draw freehand sections.
Magnetic Lasso Tool
This is a very handy tool for selecting areas which have reasonably well-defined edges. Left-click at the starting point of your selection and simply move the mouse along the edge.
"Fastening points" are automatically made at various points along the edges. Left-click at any time to add a fastening point manually.
To Complete a Selection
To finish drawing a selection, either click on the selection starting point or double-click anywhere.
Photoshop Healing Brush
This is my favourite tool because it allows you to fix image imperfections such as scratches, blemishes, etc. By sampling the surrounding area or using a predefined pattern you can blend the imperfections into the rest of the image. It is very easy and fun to use too. Thanks to this tool, I now understand how celebrities have such flawless skin.
Note: Use All Layers: If this option is selected, information will be used from all visible layers. Otherwise only the active layer will be used.
Basic Settings: Adjustment Layers
The final basic setting (the circle with a diagonal line through it) lets you decide whether the clone stamp tool should sample adjustment layers when cloning. Adjustment layers, such as Hue/Saturation and Levels, are meant to be a non-destructive way to change the appearance of layers. So, you can make drastic changes to a layer or group of layers without destroying the original pixels.
Because of this, turning on Ignore Adjustment Layers When Cloning is almost always a good idea. This allows you to clone the original image, which can then be affected by an ever-changeable adjustment layer. If you do not choose to ignore the adjustment layer, the adjustment becomes permanent in the cloned areas.
In the layer set-up below, turning on Sample All Layers would by default clone pixels from both the background layer and the adjustment layer in the foreground. Turning on Ignore Adjustment Layers prevents this.
Proper framing
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