Last Minute Development
Saturday 24 March 2018
Last Minute Development
Veronica Ingram AS media Thriller 'Seize'
My Final Product
Once I had finished my thriller, I felt a great sense of achievement as I have spent 7 months working on it. I got a very positive response from teachers, friends and family who all found it thrilling, which was of course my aim.
Unfortunately, the overall quality of my film opening decreased during the process of transferring it from Premier Pro to Youtube.
Unfortunately, the overall quality of my film opening decreased during the process of transferring it from Premier Pro to Youtube.
Sunday 18 March 2018
Question 4
Question 4
How did you integrate technologies – software,
hardware and online in this project?
Inserted below is the link to the youtube containing my response to this question.
Question 2
Question 2
Inserted below is the link to the youtube containing my response to this question.
Question 1
Question 1
1. How does your product use of
challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
My two
minute Thriller movie opening ‘Seize’ shows a young girl running through the
forest away from a man with an axe with a hunting dog. As it is only an opening, there is obviously
no storyline, plot or explanation in these crucial first two minutes. This therefore means that it conforms to the
convention of withholding important information from the viewer for a suspense
affect from the very start. In terms of keeping to the mise-en-scene criteria
of a thriller film, for my location I used a forest, as it is quite a
stereotypical characteristic of thriller movies as they are full of interesting
shadows and things to hide behind. Therefore, suspense is creating out of the
fact that someone could jump out from anywhere. The woodland setting creates an
eerie atmosphere, making the protagonist seem all the more vulnerable. For the
costume element of my thriller opening, in some ways you could say that I very
much conformed to the character stereotypes, however in other ways they were
defied. For example, the antagonist of my movie opening played by Douglas
Ingram was dressed quite stereotypically as a dodgy, aggressive and farmer-like
character to make him seem intimidating and suspicious. I had carrying an axe
as a prop to induce fear and apprehension into the audience. I purposely gave
my protagonist, played by Holly Ranger, no props to make her seem helpless and
defenceless with no weapon to defend herself or means of phoning for help. I
had her dressed in plain, simplistic clothes of muted colours to present a dark
mood. Her acting very much reflected the
female stereotype that suggests that all females are weak and vulnerable, along
with the male actor suggesting dominance and violence. It could be said that my
thriller opening explores the issue of young girls being targeted by men on a
daily basis, which shockingly is still an issue. Obviously as it is only the
first two minutes of the film, the audience is not yet aware of the reasons
behind this targeting, however, watching it we must assume that we are to find
out in due course. One of the Thriller mise-en-scene conventions that I
actually challenged was the lighting. As we know, Thriller movies or openings
would usually be low-lit to create an eerie affect, however, I purposely chose
to film of a beautifully sunny day as it make it all the more confusing that
this girl is being chased through a forest by an axe murderer in broad
daylight. Although it was an incredibly sunny day, the light was actually very
intense as the tree canopy made it quite shaded but the light that got through
was the perfect amount to show that it was a nice day. Aside from the fake blood
used on the protagonist at the end, the makeup element was very basic and kept
to a minimum. My male actor required none as his face was never shown as this
was part of the conventions, however my female actor did require some basic
face makeup to make her skin glow when on the camera. The fact that she is
wearing makeup also indicates that she is just a normal teenage girl; therefore
my target audience can relate to her and hence sympathise.
Monday 29 January 2018
Character Costume
Character Costume
For Holly as the character of the protagonist, I wanted her in plain simple clothes so that her movements and emotions were the main focus of the viewers attention. She wore plain black leggings and a grey hoodie. I initially wanted her to wear a white dress but it was incredibly cold on the day so I didn't want my cast to be uncomfortable on set. We also made sure that they were clothes that were not of great value incase they got muddy or damaged, however as the director I was willing to replace them if it came to it.
Douglas wore blue jeans, wellington boots and a Barbour jacket. I was aiming to achieve the typical huntsman look. I chose wellington boots as they are big, clumpy and intimidating.
Thursday 25 January 2018
George Méliès
George Méliès
Georges Méliès is one
of the most influential filmmakers in cinema history. Just a few years after
the birth of filmmaking in the 1890s, the French filmmaker began releasing his
own minutes-long silent shorts. However, it wasn’t
until the groundbreaking 1902 short A Trip to the Moon that Méliès
became a bona fide international star. The film’s widely
popular image of a spaceship crashing into the moon’s eye turned Méliès into a
legend. By the time of his death in 1938, the prolific talent had starred in,
written, produced, and directed almost all of his 500 films.
1. GEORGES MÉLIÈS WAS AN ILLUSIONIST BEFORE HE WAS A FILMMAKER.
1. GEORGES MÉLIÈS WAS AN ILLUSIONIST BEFORE HE WAS A FILMMAKER.
Méliès’ background in magic undoubtedly aided him in becoming the first
master of special effects in cinema. According to Turner Classic Movies, after finishing his studies,
Méliès moved to London to work for a family friend, and there he began
frequenting the magic shows of illusionist John Nevil Maskelyne. He began
practicing tricks himself, and eventually started performing in public back in
Paris.
According to Méliès’ official website, the director is responsible
for three still widely used techniques: the first double exposure (which he
used in 1898's The Cave of Demons); the first split screen with
performers acting opposite themselves (in 1898's Four Heads are Better Than
One), and the first dissolve (in the aforementioned Cinderella). He
first discovered that cameras could manipulate images in the fall of 1896, when
he developed the footage he took after his camera jammed filming a basic street
scene.
3. HE BUILT THE FIRST MOVIE STUDIO IN EUROPE.
As one of the earliest film pioneers, Méliès had a hand in all facets of
developing the film industry in Europe. According to World Film Directors: Volume I, 1890–1945, in 1896, Méliès ordered the
construction of Studio A in the vegetable garden of his property outside of
Paris. The building was made entirely of glass walls, with a shed used as a
dressing room. However, according to his official
website,
Méliès was forced to turn his studio into a variety theater (which was then turned into a hospital for wounded soldiers during
the war) once the novelty of his films began to wear off in 1915. Bankrupt, he
eventually abandoned filmmaking altogether.
4. MÉLIÈS TEAMED UP WITH YOUNGER BROTHER GASTON TO BRING HIS MOVIES TO
THE UNITED STATES.
As piracy of his films increased overseas, Méliès needed to protect his
work. As noted in George Méliès, by Elizabeth Ezra, Georges
sent Gaston to set up shop in the U.S. to guard his copyrights and distribute
his films to the American market. Eventually, Gaston himself began making his
own films under George’s Star Films banner. First based in New Jersey, Gaston
relocated to San Antonio, where he started making westerns and changed the
company’s branch name to American West.
5. MÉLIÈS DIRECTED THE EARLIEST ADAPTATION OF CINDERELLA.
Although the most famous adaptation of the fairytale is Disney's 1950
animated version, Méliès first brought it to the big screen as a short in 1899. The film starred Jeanne
d’Alcy (as the Fairy Godmother), Méliès' second wife, who appeared in most of
his works.
Wednesday 24 January 2018
Hans Zimmer
Hans Zimmer
During the process of looking through various clips of thriller music of youtube, one of the youtube adverts actually turned out to be very relevant and interesting to what I am doing. Hans Florian Zimmer is a German film score composer and record producer. Since the 1980s, he has composed music for over 150 films. His works include The Lion King, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1995, the Pirates of the Caribbean series, The Thin Red Line, Gladiator, The Last Samurai, and The Dark Knight Trilogy. Therefore, it is easy to take inspiration from Hans Zimmer due to his great success and unique outlook on film scoring.
Thriller Music Reference
Thriller Music Reference
To help with the music creation for my final Thriller piece, I have been listening to music created my other people using technology like garage band. I have observed what kind of beats they have when they want to build tension of create suspense or when they want it to perhaps fade into a different beat.
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