First Draft Video

  This is just my first draft and it contains all of the footage that has been unedited and unmanipulated in a sequence. Many things are still needed for the end product such as sound and titles.

First Title Logo

We created the first title logo for our title sequence, we used photoshop and google.

Detailed shot plans

Nathan and I planned our shots we will be using these are:

 Zoom in - on the radio to add suspense to the scene, possible name of a title.

Over the shoulder shot -  these will consist throughout so the main characters face is hidden, this adds a mysterious effect for the clip.

High angle shot - to see the main character sorting through his toolbox for the weapon he wants to use for torture on the kidnapped individual.

Close up - this will be used to show the many tools within their tool box.

Long shot -  shows the main character walking down the stairs heading into the kitchen to have breakfast.

Mid shot - this will capture the main character eating breakfast and also brushing his eating, but however it will leave out his eyes and get his mouth.

Two shot -  this will feature the main character as well as the kidnapped individual in the same scene, adding a nervous effect for the audience.

Risk Assessment

Nathan and I decided to plan everything that could be a possible risk whilst filming just in case something dangerous could happen. We made a table of the things, this included the actual risk as well as the likelihood, severity and prevention.This allowed us to be safer during filming.

Title Planning

Nathan and I, planned our title sequence, these are to have Insanity entertainments 'presents' then a 'production studio' being Magnet and Steel productions. Then afterwards to have 'directed by' being San Miguel. After this to have 'Filmed by' with the names San Miguel and Rodge Lawrence. Then afterwards to have 'casting by' Kelvin Smith. Following on from this to have a 'production designer' by Carrie Williams. Then a 'producer' being Tiffany Steel and to have a 'co producer' next called Tony Magnet. Then a 'written by' Clint Woods. Then after to have the 'movie title' called Psycho Sunday. Then finally the two 'actors' called Nathan Hill and Sam Nyilasi.

Having all of these titles would make our short film more sophisticated and less like a small production with barely any experience, as well as this it also seems a lot more professional using production companies with actual logo’s, despite the logos and companies being created by ourselves.

Primary Research Questionaire

hfFor my primary research I asked 7 questions to my audience. The 20 people I had to ask these questions to were my peers in my class. The first question I asked was what gender are you? this ended up being 40% - 60%. 40% being male and the other percent being girls. The second question I asked was do you like thrillers to get a view upon what people generally watch and like. More people seemed to like thrillers then the ones that didnt. The third question was how often do you watch them per week, no one watched thrillers 6 or more times a week, the most majority of people tendered to watch thrillers once a week. The forth question was how old are you and everyone I asked was between 16-18 years of age making it 100%. Another question I asked was what do you commonly associate with thrillers. The majority of people said tense music and suspense is what they associate with thrillers. then I proceeded to ask would you prefer a male protagonist and almost everyone said that they would. Then the last question that I asked was what do you think is the best title name for a thriller? out of the four options the most people went for the ransom and psycho sunday these were the most popular.

Filming Schedule

Today I and my group had to decide upon a filming schedule, this in many ways was a difficult task as me and the other member often didn't have spare time in the same time of day or even on the same day. So after finally agreeing upon the days and dates when then decided what we would do on each of those days and dates. We made Thursday our filming day then Friday and the following Wednesday our editing days as for both of us editing was the hardest part. But however this now meant we would get use to it quickly which is a positive.

Storyboard

In our next lesson after doing all of the previous work, I and the group then created a storyboard of each scene with detailed drawings and images and in depth writing describing all of the shots for each section as well as what's happening within each scene. The first part shows a character lying on a bed and then the second box shows the main character walking towards the bathroom. The third box shows the character brushing his teeth, then the forth box depicts an over shoulder shot as the character walks down the stairs. The fifth box shows the viewer that the character is eating breakfast, then the next box shows the type of shots being used for the next scene. The seventh box shows all of the tools and finally the last box depicts the kidnapped person in the chair.

Planning

Firstly we as a group had to decide, some of the important features of our main project. These included props; location and camera shot as well as a few others. First off we needed to brainstorm a handful of ideas we could use as some sort of narrative, this was easy enough as I and the group had similar ideas. We ended up deciding we wanted to leave the audience with some sort of cliffhanger and as well as this we wanted to include a kidnapping of some kind, this made it quite controversial.

After brainstorming the ideas together we came up with a narrative that included all of our favourite ideas. The brainstorm proved key and worked well. Following on from the narrative we then had a few other matters to decide such as the location where we will film and we decided a sub urban house would be best for our video. Shortly after this we came up with a large amount of different camera shots we could use throughout, because this is only a plan we thought we could change them if needed or even add in more.

I and the group agreed on the props we would need to use to connect with the story we came up with earlier. Being a small group of around two people we decided, that we'd have to use very few characters, so we agreed on having two characters. One being a sinister villain and the other being a normal male who has been captured. Then after this, the last thing to decide was what costumes we would wear and for the villain we decided just normal clothes would be best this could add a creepy effect and for the captured male, bloodied clothes that have been cut to give the effect of a sinister narrative. Putting the audience on edge as they are unsure about what has happened.

Evaluation Prelim Task

Overall there was many strengths and weaknesses throughout and from both I will know what to include into my real video. The strengths in this prelim task. I thought one of our strengths in the video were that there was a large amount of strong camera angles, such as the extreme close up on the door handle as well as the two shot capturing both characters and finally the shot reverse shot used for the short conversation, this gave a veriation to the film, making it more interesting and something worth watching. This suggests it was better then the most basic of attempts at a prelim video. Another strength was the editing as we made the overall film flow very well with smooth transitions that really pulled everything together. A third positive strength is that the sound effects such as the door opening, footsteps and the knife stabbing all work really well and emphasis the scene that they are used in, they make the whole thriller alot better as sometimes sound is everything. Unfortunately in my eyes there were a lot of negatives. One of these negatives was that the background was quite poor being set in a school. Realistically the type of narrative we had being a thriller typically wouldn't have been set in a place such as that. Another negative is that we could of had better costumes to make it maybe a bit more stereotypical to the thriller convention.  Also we could of implemented more dialogue into the short film to make it more interesting so everyone understood exactly why the male actor died from that girl stabbing him. All of these different things made me learn that to create a good short story film or intro I need to add multiple types of camera angles such as close up, shot reverse shot, long shot and pan. As well as that I need to have proper costumes for each character to engage the audience further, these could be sterotypical. Another thing I learnt was that I was quite bad at acting, so for next time if I was acting I could try harder and have more takes too. I found that I was quite good at editing, I noticed this as editing became an easy task to complete in a short amount of time. Something we as a group could of done more of was further in depth planning as this could prove helpful especially if we were to do another video task. Something I could do with getting better at is making the dialogue louder possibly by using mic's or something like that as the dialogue in the prelim task wasn't too loud, this would also make it unmuffled and make it seem more professional too. I could also add more dialogue to create a better story aspect. Or I could add in even less dialogue to give it more of a thriller effect because sometimes less is more.

Editing Prelim Task

After filming everything all of the clips were ready to be edited. So the following day we went onto editing. Firstly for editing we had to get up the editing software which was Adobe pro premium then after that we had to upload all of the clips on to it. Once they were all on we had to sort through the good and the bad clips such as the scenes we had to do multiple times due to either poor acting, laughter or simply the wrong camera angle. Then we put them in an order of first to last, so it was a little bit easier for us as a group. Then after doing that some of the clips were abit too long, so we had to crop them down to include everything we wanted them to. Then once all the clips were ready after we had cropped them to the correct size. We decided to put transitions in between them such as cross dissolve. We put  enough in so that it still looked as if the clip went smoothly but however we still played around a bit to see which were the best overall. Then once everything went rather smoothly throughout we then went online to find some none copyright sound effects that would be key at parts. These sound effects included loud footsteps, doors opening and a knife stabbing sound.  After adding the ones we wanted in, we then watched it back to see if it all went smoothly and made sense. Then when we were happy with it we rendered the whole clip and saved it. Then after all of this we uploaded it to youtube so we were able to place in our blogs.  Overall the editing was abit tricky at times as the software was quite new to me really but I got stuck never the less. Once I have got into the editing  I found it quite easy and simplistic to use . This is going to help me loads as the editing is the most difficult part as well as this it also takes up the most time too, but now I feel as if I can really do it with great ease.

Filming Prelim Task

After we had planned everything out through a storyboard. We went onto filming it, and shortly after filming a handful of scene we were interrupted and had to move elsewhere. This meant we had to start again. As a group we tried to stick to the plan as best as possible but on accessions we came up with better camera angles then the ones that were planned. A few other things were changed too. The things that were changed were the camera angles going from a mid shot to a long shot to display both characters in a better as well as that we also changed an extreme long shot to a close up as we decided that we wanted to view the facial expressions of the characters instead.  The filming wasn't too difficult as the camera was a simplistic tool after awhile of getting use to it. This made the camera became an easy task to use.  Not only that but whilst filming, it was funny so oftenly we would have to have more then one take due to someone laughing. Overall it was an enjoyable experience putting together this almost practice effort of the real thing. It has given me good knowledge to know how to use the camera properly as I will need that next.

Storyboard Prelim Task

Firstly on the prelim task we were set into small groups, people who typically I wouldn't usually work with but however we still worked well together through good use of communication. We all found the task quite humorous at times as we made eachother laugh as well as the scene being funny itself trying to keep a straight face. The first thing we did as a group was make a storyboard depicting what was going to be in each scene as well as what camera shots we were going to use too. For the storyboard we had a sheet with six boxes on and a few lines of writing underneath. Inside of the box was a rough sketch of what in that perticular scene we as a group decided we wanted to see, this sketch was typically a stick drawing with very little detail,.as none of our group could draw properly but however it was still manageable that you were able to tell what it is. We knew what we wanted to see in each scene as previously before this we wrote a rough story intro and we also brainstromed some rough ideas too. Then in the lines underneath the boxes were short snappy decisions of what is happening in that scene, we also wrote what camera angle we wanted to use. We decided we wanted to have around six or more camera angles in the whole prelim that were all different these included long shot, close up, mid shot, pan, shot reverse shot and extreme long shot. These shots would compliment eachother quite well we thought. As well as making the storyboard we also planned out the narrative and all the dialogue. This is so our actors knew what they were going to say, so that it wasnt just made up on the spot. None of these decisions were completely set in stone however as we thought we might come up with better ideas throughout.

Inception

Inception Opening Sequence

Near the store a quick court is used to go from Leonardo DiCaprio's face when the lights are switched on in the background to turning around and holding up his gun and aiming it. This builds tension as this Gun threat situation could turn really bad for both sets of characters as well as this though the audience is still unaware of what is actually happening and who each character is and why they're doing this. This then sets a cliffhanger atmosphere.

A shot reverse shot is used to show a conversation between Leonardo DiCaprio and another man talking they were speaking about how he knew that Leonardo Dicaprio was stealing from him.  This adds to the tension builds atmosphere as the shot portrays both facial expression is  depics their voice raising in an anxious way. It also leaves the audience in the dark as they don't know what Leonardo Dicaprio is stealing.

There is Diegetic sound from the building collapsing which captures how tense all of the action is as to whether Leonardo Dicaprio will escape alive. Not only that the sound shows to the audience the massive substantial impact on the whole surroundings every little thing and crumbling or falling and breaking. This shows a fast paced tense  part as you watch the whole of the enormous building fall into pieces. Putting the audience on the edge of their seat.

That is music near the start was Leonardo DiCaprio cracks a safe then switches and envelope with another this is a moderately slow beat of a loud drum and really brings the tense atmosphere to life as the music appears to deepen and get louder before he runs out of time.

There is a close-up of the start which shows Leonardo DiCaprio opening a safe and then switching on envelope with another envelope this adds to the tension because it makes the audience completely unaware of what he's doing and why he's doing it. As well is that it builds atmosphere to whether or not there will be consequences to his action and this shot lets the audience see that.

There is a mid shot that shows Leonardo DiCaprio's facial expression is and that she is holding a weapon to cover himself. His facial expression shows he knows that he's been caught stealing the envelope and at the same time and anxious expression because they've captured his partner. This puts the audience on edge as to how they captured his partner as well is this how did they know he was stealing.

A gun prop is used to build a tense atmosphere as they are used to harm and kill people, so this scene could be portrayed as a high intense action thriller,  as well as this the good and shows an intent to threaten and hurt someone in this particular scene which is why Leonardo DiCaprio is carrying one as he must feel threatened.

The location set seems to be within a Chinese looking building something really architecturally  mesmerising structured from wood and carved very neatly to look stunning as well as this though however you can see that this is old as no modern place holds the same features. Within this almost sacred temple the old Chinese statues and paintings on the walls that show Chinese lettering and ancient images, it also has some shrines as well you can see from this a lot of time is being spent finding the right interior for the setting.