Friday, 19 January 2018
Wednesday, 29 March 2017
Directors commentary
Hello my names Dylan peach and today I will be doing a directors commentary over our thriller opening Decorum.
First of all the beginning of the thriller opening shows the title and the meaning. Some people may not know what decorum actually stands for so this is a quick reminder, plus it fits with the story of the film.
After this we are greeted by a mid shot of Jak. This is an establishing shot telling the audience that he is busy researching. As you may have noticed the background is blurred out, this is because the pictures were not related to our thriller opening as it was someone else's office in which we borrowed so I blurred it out. I did this by masking the wall and adding a camera blur and feather.
Next is a panning shot of the BBC News page with the title "Killer of Jak Hunter's Parents, John Hill escaped Jail 2 days ago presumed dead. This not only ties in with a later scene of a pin board but gives the audience a bit of context of what Jak is searching and what is happening. I used the BBC News page and re-edited it to make it authentic and believable as most people can recognise this page.
After that there is a close up shot of a lock being cut. This suggests to the audience that the person cutting the locks shouldn't be there, this builds up tension. then it pans down to the floor where you can see the lock fall to the ground.
The next shot is a low angle shot of jack walking into the shed. The Cutters are specifically blurred to create a dramatic effect of someone watching him behind them.
This is an extreme close-up shot of Jak turning on the power then the light switch, this is adding to the dramatic build up to see whats inside the shed which has been locked off.
We then see the lights on the roof turn on. This is really dramatic as it gives a kind of "saw" look to itt as its dimly lit making it even more tense than before.
Next is a panning shot of the shelf with the knives on them. This is a really dramatic shot as the audience get shown what is in the shed for the first time. All the knives and blood suggests that he himself is a murderer, foreshadowing future events.
After that you get to see Jak looking at his shelf's full of weapons, pin boards and gun. This is all shown through the outside window through a rip in the plastic bag covering it to create a motion of you are following the antagonist and watching him.
Then there are a few shots of Jak putting on gloves and wiping the blood-stained knife. These are more 'filler' clips, however they still keep the suspense flowing and they gave me an opportunity to include most of the credits.
now it cuts to my company name, "vector productions". This is a name I have used for some previous productions. Vector is a term meaing lossless quality, which I thought worked kind of implying that the vector productions films are very high standard.
After that it cuts to a long panning shot from quite a wide/long shot of Jak walking. As you can see we chose quite a rural setting to fit with the conventions of a thriller. If you cannot tell I have synced the clip with the glitch in the audio.
We get an extreme close-up of Jaks hand with the gun banging on the metal bars. This suggests that he is confident in what hes doing, and willing to show people he is not ariad, consequently building up suspense.
The next shot includes Jak leaning on the metal bars whilst looking. This is dramatic because he is blurred out and only the tree branches are in focus. Also i added a little pan to it to keep the scene flowing.
The main shot of the thriller opening is this shot. I am in the entrance of the tunnel on my phone. I am alone and not on guard to portrait to the audience that I am vulnerable. then it pans up to see that Jak is standing above me. it proceeds to pan down to see me on the phone again. The next time it pans up Jak is not there, this is done in sync with the glitch sound if you listen closely. as it pans down for the final time you see Jak and myslelf.
As I lift my head up it cuts to a first person view of me looking at the gun, then for Jak to swing it at me and knock me out. Only the barrel of the gun was in focus to connote disorientation and the fact that the gun is all they can concentrate on.
This was my directors commentary over our film Decorum hope you enjoyed,
Actor interview and out-takes
Me and Jak filmed a questionnaire with the help of James giving the questions and using the camera. After loading it into my editing program (Premiere Pro CC 2017), I decided to add some out-takes from filming our original idea so people could see what it was like. Below is the video and below that is the editing file.
Group Roles
To increase productivity, we split our group up giving different tasks to each other.
Dylan:
My role in the group was mainly editing. I edited the whole of our thriller opening, plus I did all the Photoshop edits such as the movie poster,billboard and Empire magazine cover. I also acted for a short part of the film and was the main cameraman. I did the most with the camera as it was my personal camera and I knew how to utilize it to my the best ability.
Jak:
Jak Main's roles in the group were doing the screenplay and acting in the thriller opening. Jak is the main character in our thriller opening and seen a lot during it. He also wrote the thriller opening and did the final story board for it. Another thing Jak did was operating the camera.
James:
James main role in the group was directing. He also used the camera for some of the shots.
Dylan:
My role in the group was mainly editing. I edited the whole of our thriller opening, plus I did all the Photoshop edits such as the movie poster,billboard and Empire magazine cover. I also acted for a short part of the film and was the main cameraman. I did the most with the camera as it was my personal camera and I knew how to utilize it to my the best ability.
Jak:
Jak Main's roles in the group were doing the screenplay and acting in the thriller opening. Jak is the main character in our thriller opening and seen a lot during it. He also wrote the thriller opening and did the final story board for it. Another thing Jak did was operating the camera.
James:
James main role in the group was directing. He also used the camera for some of the shots.
Sunday, 26 March 2017
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I have researched a lot about the forms and conventions of films in the thriller genre (please refer to my blog post Conventions of a thriller genre). I have also watched many and many highly rated thriller films to broaden my knowledge of the genre (Leon the professional, Shutter Island, The silence of the lambs, etc.)
First of all the title of our thriller opening 'Decorum' hints to the audience what the general meaning/morals of the story are. The definition of the word decorum is "behaviour in keeping with good taste and propriety". Now this can be interpreted in many ways in our thriller opening because of its genre (thriller). On one hand it can be interpreted as the murdered kills but he still keeps himself well presented. This is apparent from the Empire magazine starring Jak Main on the front cover. As you can see he is wearing a very formal suit but is covered with blood splatters and holding a knife. Another way it can be interpreted is that he has no sense of morals or self awareness in his behaviour when trying to hunt down the murderer of his parents. This could connote that the different things he does in order to find the killer (ends up being him) are very disturbing and not normal.
Thrillers typically have one main protagonist and one main antagonist. The basis of the story revolves around these two characters. This is apparent in our thriller as we have one main protagonists (myself) and one main antagonist (Jak Main). Doing this our thriller fits with the forms and conventions of the main characters.
Our media product has shots in which conform to the typical locations used in thriller movies. First of all the locked away shed. This is shown throughout the opening in a very dark palette of colours with very dim lighting. Low lit basements and sheds are used to create tension, like in the films Texas chainsaw massacre and mainly The silence of the lambs.
To fit with the conventions of a thriller our cast had to be clothed in normal clothes and be seen doing normal every day things. This makes the thriller seem realistic as they are just general people. Near the end you see myself walking about on the phone. This is to connote that the protagonist is vulnerable. The whole aim of this is to connote to the audience that this is an event that could happen to anyone, even the person watching, therefore making it very tense and scary to watch.
Typically in thriller movies the antagonists despite their problems/wrongdoings, usually live in a secluded location. This is shown in our thriller as Jak Main is in his shed, with no other visible home for him show in the introduction. This connotes that the shed is where Jak's character does all the killing (supporting that with the blood stained knife on the shelf). The darkness of being in the shed in the thriller opening creates suspense as you can't see fully inside it, leaving it to the audiences imagination what is there.
Our film challenges the convention that antagonists usually have a hidden identity until later on in the film. Our film takes an approach from more an antagonists point of view, like the film Shutter Island.
Props are typically used in thriller films to add to tension and to build suspense. Weapons such as guns, knives and explosives a generally used a lot in Thriller films, however household items such as cutlery, glass bottles and other sharp objects can be used to make the person look desperate. In the first minute of the introduction of the thriller the audience have already seen a variety of knives, a handgun, pair of cutters, and various utensils for breaking into places such as screwdrivers. This connotes that the person in the opening is violent and willing to kill someone (blood on knife) therefore building suspense as the audience can see he is well equipped for what hes eventually going to be doing later on in the film.
Mise-on-scene is obsessed over in the thriller genre. It is designed to target your subconscious, making you think about whats going on around what your primarily focusing on (e.g. if someone’s in the background in the dark, only slightly visible.) In our thriller opening there is constantly things to be focusing on, the BBC news screen, the board with all the pictures of different suspects/murder victims?, consequently making the viewer on edge and scared for whats going to happen next.
Added to that the scene where I am held gun point by Jak takes place in an empty tunnel. This represents there is little/no escape, no weapons, no where to hide. This fits the conventions of a thriller as the location where the action takes place is somewhere where you would be most vulnerable, alone away from any form of human interaction.
Lighting is a big part of mise-en-scene as it can connote subliminal messages to the audience. Lighting in thrillers is mainly low key which is used to create shadows on faces, bodies and props. Low key lighting is normally used during more sinister, scary scenes to emphasize the suspense and tension. It helps provide detail, making the viewer unsettled as they can’t see what’s going to happen until it’s too late. Colour is a direct link to emotions, therefore a lot of dark greys and blacks would go with uncertainty and confusion.
Editing is vital in a Thriller because it is used to create a tense and suspenseful atmosphere. This is achieved through fast cuts, changing angles and possibly motion blur to disorient the audience. Jump cuts are mostly used during thriller films, these are used to give information to the audience that they might need in order to understand a part of the film. Jump cuts can completely change the scene, the faster the jump cuts the more tension created within the film. A quick succession of short clips will disorient and audience. This is because the fast pacing makes the audience lose focus on everything which is happening in the scene. Our thriller uses all these techniques to disorient the viewer, leaving them in a sense that they want events not to happen in the film which will happen and they are left with a feeling of no control on whats going to happen.
We challenged the thriller genre by having no dialogue in our opening. This creates suspense and tension as there is mystery behind whats going on. Not giving the audience too much information leaves them to use their imagination, therefore usually making the scene scarier as they would assume generally worst case scenarios for the characters.
Finally we used a variety of camera shots to entice the viewer and get them immersed in whats happening in the film. For example at the end of the opening you see a first person shot of myself in a gun point situation. This is very terrifying for most viewers as I have been shown as vulnerable throughout the opening. This doesn't challenge the forms of conventions of a thriller, however first person, or point of view shots are rarely used in thriller films.
First of all the title of our thriller opening 'Decorum' hints to the audience what the general meaning/morals of the story are. The definition of the word decorum is "behaviour in keeping with good taste and propriety". Now this can be interpreted in many ways in our thriller opening because of its genre (thriller). On one hand it can be interpreted as the murdered kills but he still keeps himself well presented. This is apparent from the Empire magazine starring Jak Main on the front cover. As you can see he is wearing a very formal suit but is covered with blood splatters and holding a knife. Another way it can be interpreted is that he has no sense of morals or self awareness in his behaviour when trying to hunt down the murderer of his parents. This could connote that the different things he does in order to find the killer (ends up being him) are very disturbing and not normal.
Thrillers typically have one main protagonist and one main antagonist. The basis of the story revolves around these two characters. This is apparent in our thriller as we have one main protagonists (myself) and one main antagonist (Jak Main). Doing this our thriller fits with the forms and conventions of the main characters.
Our media product has shots in which conform to the typical locations used in thriller movies. First of all the locked away shed. This is shown throughout the opening in a very dark palette of colours with very dim lighting. Low lit basements and sheds are used to create tension, like in the films Texas chainsaw massacre and mainly The silence of the lambs.
To fit with the conventions of a thriller our cast had to be clothed in normal clothes and be seen doing normal every day things. This makes the thriller seem realistic as they are just general people. Near the end you see myself walking about on the phone. This is to connote that the protagonist is vulnerable. The whole aim of this is to connote to the audience that this is an event that could happen to anyone, even the person watching, therefore making it very tense and scary to watch.
Typically in thriller movies the antagonists despite their problems/wrongdoings, usually live in a secluded location. This is shown in our thriller as Jak Main is in his shed, with no other visible home for him show in the introduction. This connotes that the shed is where Jak's character does all the killing (supporting that with the blood stained knife on the shelf). The darkness of being in the shed in the thriller opening creates suspense as you can't see fully inside it, leaving it to the audiences imagination what is there.
Our film challenges the convention that antagonists usually have a hidden identity until later on in the film. Our film takes an approach from more an antagonists point of view, like the film Shutter Island.
Props are typically used in thriller films to add to tension and to build suspense. Weapons such as guns, knives and explosives a generally used a lot in Thriller films, however household items such as cutlery, glass bottles and other sharp objects can be used to make the person look desperate. In the first minute of the introduction of the thriller the audience have already seen a variety of knives, a handgun, pair of cutters, and various utensils for breaking into places such as screwdrivers. This connotes that the person in the opening is violent and willing to kill someone (blood on knife) therefore building suspense as the audience can see he is well equipped for what hes eventually going to be doing later on in the film.
Mise-on-scene is obsessed over in the thriller genre. It is designed to target your subconscious, making you think about whats going on around what your primarily focusing on (e.g. if someone’s in the background in the dark, only slightly visible.) In our thriller opening there is constantly things to be focusing on, the BBC news screen, the board with all the pictures of different suspects/murder victims?, consequently making the viewer on edge and scared for whats going to happen next.
Added to that the scene where I am held gun point by Jak takes place in an empty tunnel. This represents there is little/no escape, no weapons, no where to hide. This fits the conventions of a thriller as the location where the action takes place is somewhere where you would be most vulnerable, alone away from any form of human interaction.
Lighting is a big part of mise-en-scene as it can connote subliminal messages to the audience. Lighting in thrillers is mainly low key which is used to create shadows on faces, bodies and props. Low key lighting is normally used during more sinister, scary scenes to emphasize the suspense and tension. It helps provide detail, making the viewer unsettled as they can’t see what’s going to happen until it’s too late. Colour is a direct link to emotions, therefore a lot of dark greys and blacks would go with uncertainty and confusion.
Editing is vital in a Thriller because it is used to create a tense and suspenseful atmosphere. This is achieved through fast cuts, changing angles and possibly motion blur to disorient the audience. Jump cuts are mostly used during thriller films, these are used to give information to the audience that they might need in order to understand a part of the film. Jump cuts can completely change the scene, the faster the jump cuts the more tension created within the film. A quick succession of short clips will disorient and audience. This is because the fast pacing makes the audience lose focus on everything which is happening in the scene. Our thriller uses all these techniques to disorient the viewer, leaving them in a sense that they want events not to happen in the film which will happen and they are left with a feeling of no control on whats going to happen.
We challenged the thriller genre by having no dialogue in our opening. This creates suspense and tension as there is mystery behind whats going on. Not giving the audience too much information leaves them to use their imagination, therefore usually making the scene scarier as they would assume generally worst case scenarios for the characters.
Finally we used a variety of camera shots to entice the viewer and get them immersed in whats happening in the film. For example at the end of the opening you see a first person shot of myself in a gun point situation. This is very terrifying for most viewers as I have been shown as vulnerable throughout the opening. This doesn't challenge the forms of conventions of a thriller, however first person, or point of view shots are rarely used in thriller films.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back at my preliminary task, being our continuity piece, I felt like I defiantly have improved and learned a lot from the task. Most importantly I have improved on working as a group, time management and editing. Without doing the preliminary task I feel like I would have made a lot of mistakes which I did on the preliminary task, on our final piece (thriller opening). This is really good because it gave me a lot of experience of what to do and what not to do when doing our thriller opening.
First of all the story we came up with for our continuity piece was too ambitious. We had a lot of difficulty thinking of an appropriate story we could convey in such as short amount of time. Because of this our continuity piece was not very clear, which was not good. This taught us to be a bit more realistic when coming up with our thriller introduction as we didn't have enough time to include a full section of the story.
A huge difference between our thriller opening and our preliminary task is the dialogue. From making our continuity piece we realized that dialogue was breaking the tension and all we built up. None of the people in our group are experienced actors meaning that when it came to scenes with dialogue it sounded really unprofessional. Because of this we learned that if we wanted our thriller introduction with a high amount of tension we were to not include dialogue.
The editing in our continuity piece wasn't amazing. I had not done any synced cuts with the audio or added any special effects. This was because I didn't really have much footage to work with. Because my editing on the continuity piece was just standard I really wanted to step it up to another level when doing our final thriller opening. I spent many more hours perfecting our thriller opening. I really didn't want to let my group down as I had took full control of editing saying that I would do the whole thing. Even though I did all of the physical editing, Jak and James did help by providing really helpful information and tips on how I should edit it. This was a definite improvement over our continuity piece as I pretty much did all the editing without asking for opinions or what my group would like me to change.
In our preliminary task there was a scene where the camera followed myself into a room and then panned over to our friend who was acting as a criminal. When looking back at the scene in my editing software I saw that James had not properly focused the camera so half the scene was in fact blurred. This was down to the camera we were using not being ours so we didn't know how to use it properly. Overall this helped us realize that to make our thriller opening good we needed to use our own camera so that we do not make mistakes which are prone when using new equipment. For our final thriller opening we used my camera as I knew how to set it up for every scene, which I did and it made a huge difference.
Our preliminary task is all in black and white. This is because of our group being unorganized when filming by shooting some scenes in the dark and some in the light. I could have made the bright scenes looked like it was night in post-production however it would have made the characters look very weird and very contrasted which wasn't nice. I ended up making the whole continuity piece in black and white and giving it more of a "Sin-City" feel to it. From this I learned that organization is key when going and filming as re-filming parts is very difficult as you need to get proper lighting and weather for the scene. This helped when shooting our thriller opening as we stuck to a specific time schedule and it worked perfectly.
In our preliminary task as you can see the music isn't that effective. This was due to us not being able to find a suitable copyright free song to use which would build up tension. Because of this there wasn't any tension being built up. I learned that music was vital when making the thriller and so when we came to making our thriller opening we spend many hours picking the perfect music which would not only fit the conventions of a thriller but build our scene up making it really tense and maybe even a little scary in some aspects such as the knives on the shelf scene. From previous experience I told the group I am working in that I wanted to edit the clips together before finding music, and then put music in and finish the final cuts and tweaks we needed to add. Doing this worked really well as there are certain parts of the thriller where the music is in sync with the cuts, which overall makes the thriller opening really effective. Examples of this are when the cameras panning on Jak walking (straight after the vector productions text disappears), and when the camera is panning up to see that Jak has gone, then to come down to see that he has me at gun point.
First of all the story we came up with for our continuity piece was too ambitious. We had a lot of difficulty thinking of an appropriate story we could convey in such as short amount of time. Because of this our continuity piece was not very clear, which was not good. This taught us to be a bit more realistic when coming up with our thriller introduction as we didn't have enough time to include a full section of the story.
A huge difference between our thriller opening and our preliminary task is the dialogue. From making our continuity piece we realized that dialogue was breaking the tension and all we built up. None of the people in our group are experienced actors meaning that when it came to scenes with dialogue it sounded really unprofessional. Because of this we learned that if we wanted our thriller introduction with a high amount of tension we were to not include dialogue.
The editing in our continuity piece wasn't amazing. I had not done any synced cuts with the audio or added any special effects. This was because I didn't really have much footage to work with. Because my editing on the continuity piece was just standard I really wanted to step it up to another level when doing our final thriller opening. I spent many more hours perfecting our thriller opening. I really didn't want to let my group down as I had took full control of editing saying that I would do the whole thing. Even though I did all of the physical editing, Jak and James did help by providing really helpful information and tips on how I should edit it. This was a definite improvement over our continuity piece as I pretty much did all the editing without asking for opinions or what my group would like me to change.
In our preliminary task there was a scene where the camera followed myself into a room and then panned over to our friend who was acting as a criminal. When looking back at the scene in my editing software I saw that James had not properly focused the camera so half the scene was in fact blurred. This was down to the camera we were using not being ours so we didn't know how to use it properly. Overall this helped us realize that to make our thriller opening good we needed to use our own camera so that we do not make mistakes which are prone when using new equipment. For our final thriller opening we used my camera as I knew how to set it up for every scene, which I did and it made a huge difference.
(Scene from our Continuity Piece)
Our preliminary task is all in black and white. This is because of our group being unorganized when filming by shooting some scenes in the dark and some in the light. I could have made the bright scenes looked like it was night in post-production however it would have made the characters look very weird and very contrasted which wasn't nice. I ended up making the whole continuity piece in black and white and giving it more of a "Sin-City" feel to it. From this I learned that organization is key when going and filming as re-filming parts is very difficult as you need to get proper lighting and weather for the scene. This helped when shooting our thriller opening as we stuck to a specific time schedule and it worked perfectly.
In our preliminary task as you can see the music isn't that effective. This was due to us not being able to find a suitable copyright free song to use which would build up tension. Because of this there wasn't any tension being built up. I learned that music was vital when making the thriller and so when we came to making our thriller opening we spend many hours picking the perfect music which would not only fit the conventions of a thriller but build our scene up making it really tense and maybe even a little scary in some aspects such as the knives on the shelf scene. From previous experience I told the group I am working in that I wanted to edit the clips together before finding music, and then put music in and finish the final cuts and tweaks we needed to add. Doing this worked really well as there are certain parts of the thriller where the music is in sync with the cuts, which overall makes the thriller opening really effective. Examples of this are when the cameras panning on Jak walking (straight after the vector productions text disappears), and when the camera is panning up to see that Jak has gone, then to come down to see that he has me at gun point.
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