Thriller

What is a Thriller?

"Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, television and gaming that includes numerous and often overlapping sub-genres."

Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent suspense and action packed. Most people enjoy thrillers as the anticipation usually keeps people on the edge of their seats, as twists unfold and unexpected 'bad guys' appear, the pscychological aspect of thriller is usually the most popular, whereby the audience are mislead by the film to later realise that what they pressumed before, was wrong.

Final Cut Pro

Final Cut Pro is a professional non-linear editing software application developed by Apple Inc. The software logs and captures video onto a hard drive (internal or external), where it can be edited and processed. Which is why it is best suited to our project, as we were shown by Matt, Final cut pro ensures that our work will always be safe and backed up by the server. First of we were taught about 'Logging Rushes', Rushes is an alternative word for our film material. This process enables us to select our wanted shots into a thing called a 'Logged Bin', this is where we can store out best clips. To select a clip, you simply press down the letter 'i' and then a furthur 'o' when you've selected the size of the clip wanted.

Secondly, we placed the shots in chronilogical order on the time line and then trimmed and cut them in order to create the illusion of simultaneour event. Any other additional sounds may be included, such as soundtracks and sound effects.

Preliminary Task: Introduction

In our friday lesson, myself and a group of three others shot our preliminary task, The preliminary task involved us following a storyboard and script to create a conversation between two of our groups members, one of which was me. We also didn't have particuarly great lighting, so we made do with just one light source. We did this task to practice and explore camera work, editing techniques, lighting, and how you shouldnt cross the 180 line. Gina directed us, and chose different angles on how to take the shot. Whilst Ben ensured that we were both heard and held the boom. We decided to shoot it in one of the media classrooms, and stuck to just that location. The scene was a series of shots where I was sat down in a chair with my hands in handcuffs refusing to James' pleads as he walked into the door laying a gun on the table.

Key Technical Elements of Shooting;

Observation of 180 degree rule
continuity/ compostition
camera postion (movement, angle, technique)
lighting/ focus
beginning and ending of role
catching multiple takes

Introduction To The Studio

Our introduction to the studio was where we had to pretend we were doing an interview for T4, we had two presenters; Lainy and Chaz. And the rest of the class werew interviewed. Two students were in charge of the camera, and another three incharge of three individual lights.

Introduction To The Camera And Tripod

Our first lesson we experienced using the PD170 video camera. We where told to construct the cartoni delta tripod. This involved getting it out of the travel bag and pull the legs apart. Then we where told to get the PD170 out of the box and mount it on the cartoni delta tripod. We where shown how to bubble the tripod this consisted of loosening the nut under the mounting block and you would movie it until the split-levels bubble was in the middle this shows that the camera was level. Then we where told how to change the settings on the camera for different types of light.

Introduction to photoshop

In our introduction to photoshop we were taught all the basics on the tool bar, we used our new skills on photos we had taken in a previous lesson of eachother. We messed around with liquiefying and the clone stamp tool etc. For prep, we were asked to create a horror movie poster using the skills that we'd learnt the previous lesson. I felt the skills we had learnt were useful as without them I wouldn't have been able to make my horror poster as effective.



*The lasso is the cut/crop people, objects or buildings, sky etc. There are three different lassos you can use; the polygon lasso, the magnetic lasso and the free hand lasso.
*The healing brush is to get ride of any unwanted spots, scratches or specs on the picture.
*The clone stamp tool directly copies information from the first area to the next.
*The smudge tool is quite self explanatory; it spreads and mixes the content of an image.
*The doge tool lighters areas.
*The burn tool darkens areas.
*The sponge saturates /desaturates a areaof an image.

My Horror Poster..

It was more than interesting making my horror poster. Firstly I got my friend Zara Scriven to model for me, but it wasn't just ordinary posey photos I wanted, instead I turned her into something completely different.. an 'emo', seeing as they're quite scary looking themselves I thought it would fit the criteria of horror. So after drenching her in black eye makeup and white powder I took numerous photos of her acting in a scared manner. When I selected my favourite two photos I edited them on photoshop. I firstly started off by changing the colour of the photos to black and white to keep it dark, turned the brightness up to enhance the white of her skin and black of her makeup. I then merged the two images together. To cut out the shape of Zara's face I used the magnetic lasso tool and then placed it ontop of my original image where she is sitting in the corner of the room. To make this look natural, I feathered the sides so it looked moulded into the first image.
For the text, I went for red. Mainly because it ressembles blood, I felt this was appropriate as it is a horror after all! I kept the title and characters names in red and the same font. But for the slogan i chose to change the colour to white so it stood out more than the others to dry and draw people to it.

Analysis Of First Five Minutes Of Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince

I have chosen to write my analysis on the first opening five minutes to Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince. At first, the scene starts off with the Warner Brothers production sign except they’ve edited it from the usual blue sky and gold Warner Brother logo to a grey misty effect with thick clouds surrounding the logo and dark skies. I feel this was effective and a smart way to start off the film as it builds suspense and danger.
From that clip, it very cleverly goes into an extreme close up shot of Harry Potter’s eye from breaking through the metal steel bars of the Warner brothers production sign through the clouds and then moulds into the shape of Harry’s eye. The camera then zooms out to give you a close up Harry’s face which is being exposed through a very faint light so you can only see the outline of his face and glasses. The scene then breaks away from Harry, to a flashing seen which flickers between a negative shot where everything seems transparent in black and white and then back to normal colour to make it look as if Harry is having his picture taken by the press. Dumbledore the holds onto Harry’s arm and walks him off as if he is a prisoner with his hands behind his back as the camera keeps flashing and following the two subjects it then goes back to the first initial scene of the clouded sky’s and lightening where the opening Title for Harry Potter is shown in the same way Warner Brothers Pictures was.
It then contrasts between supernatural and natural, the scene is straight away taken to a typical meeting in an office in London, where they are disturbed by a unusual figure in the sky where they have edited a mould of a skull through the clouds, they show this through the windows of the office looking up. Black thick streams of smoke then seem to dart around the sky and then head down into London, but as this is happening they keep the camera focused on the clouded skulls which are slowly forming and keeping the camera still whilst the other black darted smoke goes in and out of the shot.
The camera then moves through the middle of London as if to be the smoke flying around in and out through the streets and buildings of London. This camera angle is more intense than others, as it then takes your through time to the ‘Muggle World’ where the location is more dark and old, and the streets are smaller and claustrophobic. The change from the busy bustling streets straight into the gloomy walk ways of the Muggle World was unexpected yet effective as the camera stayed at the same zoom the whole way through. The camera then follows back through into London where the London Millennium Bridge. They edited the bridge to look as if it had broken and swirled down into the River Thames. The scene then moves to the London underground where his black smoke seems to snake throughout the crowd causing distress within the citizens. The camera darts from close up to wide shots of peoples individual faces to catch their expression.

The gender and age of this film was definitely appropriate for all ages, but more aimed at the younger generation with the supernatural magic. However as the films have progressed the filming has got more intense to where they had to change the age limit up because of some disturbing scenes.