Hello, my name is Isaac Harvey and this my Media Studies Blog. I am a media student doing the AS level at Seven Kings High School. In this blog I shall be showing you how much Planning, Shooting, Editing and Feedback it takes to make a good Title Sequence of a film. Hope you enjoy and hope you learn something in the process.
I have a condition called LIMB/PELVIC HYPO/APLASIA which means that there is a complete absence of upper limbs, shortened legs with feet of unequal size and a partially formed pelvis.
This means that I am unable to psychically hold a camera and it is difficult to do editing inside of school. However this doesn’t stop me. Even though I can’t hold a camera I still help out by directing my group and getting across my ideas. For editing I have a LSA (An LSA will normally work with a particular pupil or pupils providing close support to the individual pupil and assistance to those responsible for teaching him/her), so when editing a piece of work I tell which ever LSA I have with me what to do. Since I have to do this it means that I may take longer because some have not used programs such as ‘Final Cut’ and I have to explain each time of what to do. If I had this software at home I could do it myself as I can use a laptop at home by myself by using my feet, but since it is quite expensive it is very difficult to acquire one. This still makes me very determined even though there are obstacles in my way.
For us to make a good thriller we had to follow the right conventions, so I searched the sound, editing, mise-en-scene and cinematography for a thriller film. Here is what I found out:
Cinematography - The art or technique of movie photography, including both the shooting and development of the film.
Camera movement is a convention that helps to give a film its “thriller” genre, as different camera angles create different body language and emotions. Thriller films also use camera angles such as close up shots and mid shots.
Editing - To assemble the components of (a film or soundtrack, for example), as by cutting and splicing.
Editing gives films things like quick cuts and cutting on action. These quick cuts can also be seen in films such a psycho, when the female character is in the shower and is getting stabbed there is a lot of fast editing, as it shows different angles of her being stabbed. This makes the film fast paced and makes it tenser.
Sound - The narrow strip at one side of a movie film that carries the sound recording.
Sound is a very important convention in thriller openings as the different music themes produce a different mood and feel for the films. For example jumpy and and quite scary music which are played in each scene, create different atmosphere to a quiet more spooky set of music. Another sound element which is very important is high pitched sounds/orchestral stabs such as screeches.
Mise-en-scene - A stage setting or the arrangement of performers and properties on a stage for a theatrical production or before the camera in a film.
Dark and dull lighting help give the film a gloomy mood and helps to make the audience feel more suspense towards the film. Another thing which also makes the opening off a thriller stick to its thrilling genre is props, as in thriller films there is a lot of sharp objects and weapons like glass, knives, guns etc….
This is the website where I got all the conventions for a thriller:
Since our film was a thriller we had to make sure we chose the right age because not any age might be suitable. So I researched the different ages for films and how they are suitable for the specific age.
bbfc - The British Board of Film Classification is an independent, non-governmental body which has classified cinema films since it was set up in 1912 and videos/ DVDs since the Video Recordings Act was passed in 1984.
This video explains the different age ratings from bbfc:
After knowing about the different ages we decided that our
film would be a classification of '18'. We classified it this age because people
younger than 18 may get easily confused as most thrillers have unexpected turns
and diverse possibilities. Another
reason is our film has psychological parts; children below ‘18’ may not have
learnt this kind of stuff in school which would mean that they wouldn’t
understand. We didn’t rate it a ‘15’ because we didn’t want to show a risk or
harm to individuals through behaviour or society and the use of explicit images
of sexual activity which cannot be justified. Another reason we classified it
this age was because some parts of the full film may have had explicit
violence. We believe that ’18’ is the perfect age for our film.
We wanted our film to have action as well as a thriller but we didn't want the action to take over. From this we decided to have it but to keep it minor.
Action (movie) - Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes are thrust into a series of challenges that requires physical feats, extended fights and chaotic chases. They occasionally have a resourceful character struggling against unbelievable odds such as, life-threatening situations, an evil villain, and/or being chased in several ways of transportation (car, bus, truck, etc.), with victory achieved at the end after difficult physical efforts and violence.
Even though this film has its action it has too much. So this film isn’t good to use.
Kikujiro - A young, naive boy sets out alone on the road to find his wayward mother. Soon he finds an unlikely protector in a crotchety man and the two have a series of unexpected adventures along the way.
This film I have watched and it’s the total opposite of the film mentioned before. Even though this film has a great story it lacks in action, so again this film isn’t good to use.
A good film which does have action but keeps it to a minimum is…
Sunshine - A team of astronauts are sent to re-ignite the dying sun 50 years into the future.
‘Sunshine’ has great thriller elements which keep you at the edge of your seats and top of it all it has minor action. So this is a great film for getting inspiration.
We also wanted our film to have some psychological aspects to the film. We wanted it same as the action, by this I mean we didn't want the psychological aspects to take over but have it more than the action.
Psychological - of, pertaining to, dealing with, or affecting the mind, especially as a function of awareness, feeling, or motivation: psychological play; psychological effect. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/psychological This definition explains how we want to use psychology in our title sequence. It would also attract female girls as most like to think while watching a movie.
These are types of films known to promote intense excitement, suspense, a high level of anticipation, a great sense of expectation, uncertainty, anxiety and nerve-wracking tension. If the genre is to be defined strictly, a genuine thriller is a film that continuously pursues a single-minded goal - to provide thrills and keep the audience cliff-hanging at the 'edge of their seats' as the plot builds towards a climax. The tension usually arises when the main character(s) is placed in a terrifying situation, from which escape seems impossible.
Alfred Hitchcock - was the son of East End greengrocer William Hitchcock and his wife Emma. Raised as a strict Catholic and attending Saint Ignatius College, a school run by Jesuits, Hitch had very much of a regular upbringing. His first job outside of the family business was in 1915 as an estimator for the Henley Telegraph and Cable Company...
His films include many famous and recognizable names such as:
The Birds
North by Northwest
Vertigo
The 39 Steps
Steven Spielberg -Undoubtedly one of the most influential film personalities in the history of film, Steven Spielberg is perhaps Hollywood's best known director and one of the wealthiest filmmakers in the world. Spielberg has countless big-grossing, critically acclaimed credits to his name, as producer, director and writer...
James Cameron - was born in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada, on August 16, 1954. He moved to the USA in 1971. The son of an engineer, he majored in physics at California State University but, after graduating, drove a truck to support his screen-writing ambition. He landed his first professional film job as art director...
These directors helped as most of these films made by them are well-known and are very good. Here are some of the films which gave a good inspiration while making our own:
The Birds
‘The Birds’ by Alfred Hitchcock is a film about a time when birds seemed to stop being creatures which people liked to listen to and admire; they appeared to get together to become a very large flock of angry flying monsters who attacked people even in their own homes, terrifying them and pecking at them until they collapsed. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056869/plotsummary
My mom who watched this film told me that ‘I considered this film a thriller as it starts quietly and gradually the birds began to gather but there is no indication at this stage of what will happen. The tension builds up slowly, one woman is attacked and gradually the attacks come more and get more severe. Eventually the humans are forced to move out of their homes, this event would have been unthinkable at the beginning of the film.’ From what my mom said it really helped get a better understanding. At the end when she said that, ‘this event would have been unthinkable’ this helped me a group a lot as we wanted our film to have a plot twist at the end, in other words to have it ‘unthinkable’.
Jaws
‘Jaws’ made by Steven Spielberg is about a small community called Amity Island whose main business is its beaches. There is something in the sea that is attacking swimmers. They can no longer enjoy the sea and the sun as they used to, and the spreading fear is affecting the numbers of tourists that are normally attracted to this island. After many shark attacks the great white shark continues to stay and won't go away. Sheriff Brody, with friends Hooper and Quint decide to go after the shark and kill it. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073195/plotsummary
I have watched ‘Jaws’ and it has its good thriller elements which made it a good thriller. For example throughout most of the film the shark wasn’t shown which made me and probably everyone else who watched the film ask themselves many questions. If you watch the video below it shows how good the shark doesn't have to be seen to make it quite terrifying.
We wanted ours to create many enigmas and ‘Jaws’ is a perfect example for this.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
'Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines' written by James Cameron is about; It is a dark time for the resistance and Skynet is on the verge of going online, the events of the last movie has changed nothing and John must now battle a new Terminator called the T-X. As before, the resistance was able to send another T-800 as a protector for John, and it’s still a question of which one will reach him first...
I haven’t seen any terminator films before and I don’t know anyone who does but I watched one of the openings of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
(There are many openings to this film and since I haven’t seen it before I wasn’t sure which one to choose, so I chose one of them.)
After watching this, it made me want to watch more as it made many questions come into my head. I wanted to have many questions answered, such as; what’s going on? What is the voice talking about? Where is the location? Why is there a huge bomb exploding?
Now I know that there have been previous terminators and unfortunately like I said before I haven’t seen them so these questions would have been answered or maybe the second terminator might have had a plot twist. Even if it is the third, it has a great opening as it doesn’t give much away. We wanted our film to be like this because we wanted the audience to ask themselves questions so that they would want to watch more.
This title sequence was good as the first video because not too much was given away. However the sequence started to drag as it was too long to be a title sequence. Most title sequences are usually just a minute this was 3x the limit, so from this I knew not to make my own too long as it would have not made the right conventions of a title sequence, I also had to make sure it wasn’t too short. Also the soundtrack was very good as it helped build up tension making you want to know more.
Conclusion
By watching these thrillers and getting a better understanding of thrillers it has really helped, from this I know now that most thriller title sequences don’t tend to give out much detail of what’s going on, so I will have to make sure that I do the same.
Since our film was a thriller, we did not want to give too much away, so we did not add any dialogue. This also created many enigmas as it made you think more as it did not give much away when nothing was said.
This film was shot on the same day and we did not experience any of the usual possible problems with costume, natural lighting, producing the same angle on a different day. However we did have some problem to overcome while setting up such as:
Artificial light – Since we were in a drama studio we had to ensure that we used suitable light to set the mood for our title sequence which was a thriller.
Props - Since some of our props were small we had to make sure that the camera shots were focus on them clearly making sure they were not too close or too far.
Actors – Had to make sure that the camera angles were able to see the actions performed by the actors.
