Conventions Of A Thriller

Vox Pops (16/12/2011)

We wanted to know what people expected from the thriller genre...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4ZvlKSqOvc&context=C43df61aADvjVQa1PpcFNiOUQoHseqBUL9BrFQUACp3oSm_kh7Wls=

Call sheet (16/12/2011)

~Abbie Hales

Another weather check...... (16/12/2011)

We thought we would do another weather check nearer to the date as the weather is constantly changing. Here we can see that the day should be warmer but raining.

Recces (16/12/2011)

These are some photos of the location for shooting on the 19th December. Obviously they won't look exactly like this on the day. Due to a lot of things happening at my house (reconstruction, moving back in, etc) it won't look like this. There will be some things happening on the day of shooting but they won't affect the shoot in any way. The bathroom, the stairs, the hallway & the front path way are parts that will be heavily used throughout our opening scenes.


~Joe Fitz

PARITY (15/12/2011)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQPu610wKjE&context=C228aeADOEgsToPDskL_6GLO0uNL0N33GA50NcgB

Please follow the link to watch our parity video

Lighting & locations for the 19th December (14/12/2011)

On the 19th December, we will begin shooting on the first day at Rivendell, Mally's Place, South Darenth (my house.) I feel that it is a good location because it is a private road which works to our advantage as there is a scene when we have to walk down the road and there will be no cars around the area. The lighting is quite bright but we will use artifical light to reinforce some scenes. I believe it is a good location for our thriller because it is tucked away from most of society and it is set in the country side, South Darenth is mainly country side with very little disturbances or social interactions, such as town centres. A possible idea was to use Farningham Road station and have our actor 'come' off a train in his army outfit, however we dismissed this idea as it would be very difficult to shoot at a train station.


~Joe Fitzpatrick

Script Ideas (13/12/2011)

Although for our task a script is not needed, towards the end of the scene we plan to have some sort of brief conversation just to show how the main two characters interact. Here are our ideas so far (13/12/2011)...

~Maisy Osbon

Moodboard/Influences/Brainstorm (13/12/2011)

I've been working with a couple of ideas for our thriller film...

~Maisy Osbon

Animatic (12/12/2011)

We discussed our animatic thoroughly via a video. You can find this video on the link below...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp0s9B4yI6U&feature=context&context=C2bbf8ADOEgsToPDskL_6GLO0uNL0N33GA50NcgB

Permission to Shoot...cont. (12/12/2011)

When we got a reply, Joe then rang the council and they told us to email another member of the council, which we did as you can see.

I think we're just planning to go ahead with filming as Mr Cole of Gravesham council informed us, the palce where we want to film is not their responsibility.


~Maisy Osbon

Group Meeting (12/12/2011)

http://joeabbiemaisy.blogspot.com/2011/12/group-meeting-12th-december.html

Risk Assessment (12/12/2011)

~Abbie Hales

Weather Check (12/12/2011)

Although we've looked at the weather report for next week today, we're going to obviously check closer to the time of shooting. We had planned Tuesday to be our day for shooting outside so if it does start to rain, we'll work around it - and in the story, the weather actually has no correlation to the way we're shooting, so the reliability won't matter. 

~Maisy Osbon

Permission to Shoot... (12/12/2011)

We sent this email last thursday and got a quick reply, but we've heard nothing since. I will try ringing them either tonight or tomorrow to confirm whether we can shoot/film at the industrial site in Gravesend. 


~Maisy Osbon

Filming location for Tuesday 20th December (11/12/2011)

Here are some recces from our shotting location on a gravesend industrial site. The lighting here is wuite good if we only shoot in the daytime, if we need lighting we would have to use chargeable lights as there is no where for us to plug them in on site. Also we could use car headlights if need be.

We may need to record the actors speaking seperately as we are filming on the Thames and the wind may be picked up on camera which will cover the actors lines. Also there is a cement place down the road from our location so we could also pick up some sounds from there. The area is quite safe to use, there is a road there so we will have to be aware that vehicles may be passing throught at some points. We also need to be aware of needing to stop filming to allow vehicles to pass without disrupting a take.

The area is quite suitable for our thriller opening as we wanted a derelict area which we could use to make the character seem isolated also the area helps to build suspense in the piece as there are so many possibilites of what we could do in the are.

If we need to charge the camera up there are 2 pubs located just down the road from where we are filming so if it was quiet and we were customers they may allow us to charge the camera their, also my aunt works not far from the location and as one of the actors can drive we could go there and get some hot food and drinks and charge the camera there.


~Abbie Hales

Timeline for DEAD BY ALLIANCE (11/12/2011)

This the timeline for our thriller opening called DEAD BY ALLIANCE.

This is where me and Maisy Osbon decided how long each shot should last. Some shots were hard to but a number on and we were unsure of how long the action would take to complete so same may be noted to short or too long. We also changed some of the shot lengths when we where completing the animatic as we then got to see how long some shots where and we realsied that some became boring and others were too quick, so the audience wouldnt get the effect we want from the shot as they would not have time to notice it.
I shall upload another timeline with the shot lengths taken from the completed animatic to get a true timeline for our shots that we shall use to help us on our shooting days.


~Abbie Hales

Props List (9/12/2011)

Cigarette & Lighter. Amy smokes so we will borrow one off her. The smoking scene is not essential to the opening, we just wanted to show a contrast to the character - he has OCD and an obsession with being clean, yet he smokes which could be seen as an unclean thing to do.
Picture. We will print off the picture that is necessary, it will probably be in black & white as a deeper meaning (it can show the two sides of his personality, the OCD obsessive clean person and the army man.)
Picture Frame. It hasn't been decided if the picture in the picture frame will be used, but we're going to shoot with it then do two edits of the film, one with it, the other without it and see which looks better.
These are the main props that we have at the moment. Amy will also need to hold a baby doll which can be found of a young family member.


~Joe Fitz

Film Company Production Research (9/12/2011)

An American film company – 20^th Century Fox

They are one of the six major American film studios as on 2011. They are located in the Century City area of Los Angeles. The studio is a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s news corporation.  The company was founded on May 31^st 1935. This was due to a merger between Fox Film Corporation and founded in 1915 by William Fox, and Twentieth Century Pictures founded 1933 by Darryl F. Zanuck, Joseph Schenck, Raymond Griffith and William Goetz. Stephen Blairson is the current CEO of the corporation.

Some of 20^th Century Fox’s biggest films include, Avatar, Star Wars, Ice Age, Die Hard, Planet of the Apes and The Chronicles Of Narnia, plus many more. Many famous TV shows have also been known to come out of these studios such as, The Simpsons, Family Guy and American Dad. The production companies first film star was Shirley Temple. Other major stars to have come from there are Betty Grable, Gene Tierney, Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield. They also had the first African-American cinema star Dorothy Dandridge.

20^th Century Fox now are joined to other production companies which include Lightstorm Entertainment, Regency Enterprises, Blue Sky Studios and Spyglass Entertainment as well as many more successful production companies.

British – British Lion films

British Lion films Corporation is a film production and distribution company. They have produced 170 films. Until 1976 they were also film distributers as British Lion Films Ltd. British Lion Incorporated was founded in November 1927 by Sam .W. Smith, he was the brother of Herbert Smith. By the end of WW2 they had released 55 films including, In which We Serve. In 1949 they suffered financial problems and were forced to accept a loan from the National Film Finance Corporation. As they were unable to pay it back they went into receivership in 1955. As a results of this they were formed as a distribution company in January 1955. Until 1976 their distributer filmography included 155 films.

British Lion Corporation were taken over by EMI in 1976. They were sold to Cannon, then to Weintraub Entertainment, Movie Acquisitions Corporation which went on to be renamed as Lumiere Pictures, then UGC (DA) now with Studio Canal.

Low Budget-Coffee Films

Coffee Films came around in 1996. It has grown from the Naked Pony Theatre Company and Mr Spambapstic Films.

Naked Pony was a Fringe Theatre Company based in South East England. As well in 1996 Steve Piper produced the 4 minute short Televisual Man with friend Dave Smith, they worked under the company name of Mr. Spambapstic Films. An Orwellian themed experiment shot on a S-VHS tape, edited on camera and completed the same day. Unfortunately it would be 9 years before anyone in the public would see any of the film. Naked Pony wanted to take the theatre company forward. They asked for a grant from the lottery, which was refused. Instead the company assets  were sold to fund a short film of King Lear, their intention was to use this to move the company into film production. Shortly after completing the film, Piper settled into a marketing day job and started organising his own film production company team, Coffee Films. The team was made from all his friends who had little or no experience in making films. The intention was to prove that anyone could have a go at making films, huge budgets, films schools, special effects and stars was not as important as a tight knit team, determined to prove their point. 1998 produced 10 experimental film shorts, animated sequences and documentaries. In 1999 they became inspired by the achievements of Rodriguez thy started working towards being able to shoot a feature length film with no budget. Three scripts were completed and shooting started, but scheduling around the cast and crews day job was impossible so all 3 projects ended up on the shelf.

In 2002 shooting began on the final no budget short Dealer, due to be released to festivals and internet streaming sites. A few months later the script to ‘How to Disappear Completely’ landed in the mailbox from Canada. Towards the end of the year the first ever board of directors were established. Piper was managing director, television QC Rob Fairlie as technical director, and entertainment lawyer Vanda Rapti as director of legal and business affairs. Contributor Gelli-Graham set up a sister artist management company Coffee Artists, the rest of the original team stayed on the board as shareholders. They were used to fulfil roles from acting to location scouts. The company was incorporated in 2003 as Coffee Arts and Media Ltd.


~Abbie Hales

Dead By Alliance - Shotlist (9/12/2011)

The shot list for the actual story done by Maisy, is shown below...

Below is a more detailed shotlist I conjured up to show what we were filmimg - the specific shots for certain days, what we need to film first on each day and I also sectioned the numerous scenes to make it easier to film in small chunks rather than taking on the whole thing.

I've got a hard paper copy of the above to use as a reference during filming.

~Maisy Osbon

Dead By Alliance - Storyboard (8/12/2011)

This is our storyboard...

~Maisy

Group Meeting (7/12/11)

Ok, so today, we discussed the details of our recce pictures and also the direction we plan to take in terms of actuall shooting. The storyboard was finished completely, though we all understood that shots and scenes may be changed in accordance with feelings on the day.

We've also found a great group of musicians who are willing to work with us to produce an original thrilleresque track to be used for our final thriller piece - Dead By Alliance. We'll be breifing them within the next week , and working from then on, on the track.

It was decided that we would experiment with different fields in the film process that we wanted to have a go at or felt we should get to grips with: So the filming will be primarily done by Joe on the 19th and Abbie on the 20th, with Maisy doing the main amount of editing in the first week of January.

Filming location on the 19th December (7/12/2011)

There is a potential problem as I haven't been living here for a year (I move back on the 15th) and there may be deliveries and such at random times. This can be worked around. Amy has confirmed that she will be okay to shoot on the 19th. All three actors are confirmed to be there! A picture of Connor can be found above!

~Joe.

BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) With Chris... (6/12/2011)

Iconic Sounds Connected with Thrillers (6/12/2011)

There are some sounds that are iconic and completely define a thriller film.Like the
    sound of footsteps getting 
           louder and louder 
                        even though you can't 
                              see the person who's walking.

Or the drip drip drip drip of a tap.

Music is a big part of any film, but it's especially crucial for a thriller film. The soundtrack is usually full of classical music and it makes a real impact on the tone and atmosphere of the film. Here are a few iconic soundtracks from thriller films:

Psycho:

Requiem for a Dream's soundtrack is very iconic in the genre of thriller as is the theme song for Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder and perhaps the most iconic sound of all, the Jaws theme tune:

Most music/sounds connected with thrillers are usually edgy, dark sometimes a bit sinister depending on the subject and generally classical. Soundtracks and sounds can sometimes give information to the audience about whatever character is on screen, for instance: a murderer will have a dark, tense piece of music following them, so that when the music starts playing, the audience are familiar with and know it's that specific character.

~Maisy Osbon