Wednesday 29 February 2012

Our Thriller group members - cast and crew

Constructing The Light Bulb In The Location

The location we used didn't have a light source in it at all. Consequently we had to put up our own. To do this we had to cellotape the lightbulb to one of the wooden ceiling beams.

Tuesday 28 February 2012

The Location


We decided that we wanted to use an isolated space that would be out of view, intimidating and dark. After searching around we found that Josh's garage would suit this perfectly. Although it was on the small-side it was the best possible location we could find in all aspects so we worked around it and improvised by moving things about to give the impression that it was bigger.


This is a short video of us at our location setting shortly before we adjusted the space for filming that night. Our location was small and confined but it was the best we could find so we improvised. In order to combat the amount of space we had to work with we decided to move things about, giving the impression the space was larger... a 'warehouse'. We found filming in this confined space difficult when using the lights on the tripods and distance from the camera to the subject, but sometimes it didn't hinder us.

Experimental tester shots 2 (on location)


Swinging Light Bulb Pan Down To Character


Before we even storyboarded our production we had in our heads the desired effect we wanted with one of the shots. We experimented with lots of different camera angles and heights, a camera hand-held or a camera on a tripod. - When it came down to producing the shot for real we used a hand-held camera and we used a normal eye-line angle. This gave the shake-y, frantic look we desired. Different from the tripod which made too much sound and wasn't smooth enough.

Mirror Scene


When we were at our location we decided to do another test of this shot as there was limited space and we had to figure out how to overcome the bumpy floor. We overcame this by putting down wooden planks to act as a smooth runway for the dolly to roll across. We had difficulty with this as the wooden planks were of a different thickness and size and when the dolly was rolling across there was a bump down from one plank to the other. We had to place something underneath the lower board in order to make the same height as the other. 

Experimental tester shots


Mirror Scene


This was one of the ideas that we had for our final film, the idea was that the henchman will pick up a mirror and place it in front of the victims head so the camera will see the reflection, then the camera will track round to see the real face of the victim. this will then become part of the next shot on to the next shot. 









Wednesday 22 February 2012

Storyboard original images

1) P.O.V shot of a man's legs being dragged backwards. this is a link to a vidio with an example of this shot being used at the beguining of the clip. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs4_e3iHqO8&context=C37feb00ADOEgsToPDskL0nSoJ70JdINC-inYXHIL0

2) Shot of a swinging light bulb. Then tracks down to the next shot.


3) Once the camera tracks down to this height, it will show a man being beaten in a chair from behind.

 

4) Cut to a high angle close up of a girl sitting in the conrner

5) Low height medium shot of a mans side sitting at a table in  the opposite corner to the girl

6) the villain then holds a mirror to the hostages face, the camera and audience is then aware of his identity. After a few seconds, the camera will then track around on a dolly to see his face for real (next image). After a few more seconds, a bright light will shine onto his face.


7) Cut to a low angle of a man standing in doorway. Identity hidden by silhouette effect.

8) Cut to an eye level extreme long shot of the girl in the corner, the main villains legs will then slowly walk through the frame. Her eyes follow him. A suitcase will be seen being put down before he crossed her view.


9) Very high angled shot over the shoulder of man sitting at the table playing with cards.

10) Low angle medium shot of hostage in chair, main villain seen walking around him (with dialogue).



11) Cut to big close up of girls face to show her trembling and tears.

12) Over the shoulder shot of main villain picking up suitcase.

13) Cut to shot of hostages lap. The suitcase is seen being put on his lap.

14) Track up from last shot to reveal hostages facial expression.

Sypnosis

The film is all about a man who has lost a lot of money to another man in a gambling match and cannot afford to pay him back. At the start, a guy is getting beaten up and interrogated in the middle of a room. Then, after a while the boss comes in and gets the information he needs. Then, he disposes of him with a bomb. Beforehand, he drags the girl out of the room with him to torture her and find out where he keeps his money. After this opening it would then cut to a flashback that shows him before the gambling match, losing and him being caught. In the middle of the story we see him on the run from the guy who he owes money to and anyone that gets in the bad guys way gets in trouble. We finish with the opening, we see the introduction again but from different point of view.

Sunday 19 February 2012

The Bomb (Dan Sheridan) and light bulb Props (Josh Brown)


As you can see above and left I have placed the bomb inside a metal silver briefcase, this type of case is more common in this situation then a black leather one. whilst making the prop I came up with a difficulty in deciding on what to use for this. The dynamite are normal long candles that I have painted red with acrylic paint and used black electrical tape to bound them in groups of threes. I have decided to use a digital clock as the activation trigger as it has a programmable countdown timer which will make it perfect for our opening. The phone placed at the top right acts like a power source but also as a secondary detonator. If this was a real bomb the phone will be connected via a low vaultage cable, this would mean if the vaults from the phone changes (e.g screen lights up or a button is pressed ect) the vaultage will change setting off the bomb. in this case I have used ordinary garden wire for the cables. the wire is stuck onto the back of the phone and the clock.





 This is the light bulb that we will be using. It is a light from a car then i soldered to a long cable which was then soldered to a 9 volt battery connector.






This is the light bulb taken from a car.





 This is the 9 volt battery that will be powering the car light bulb.
Because the car light bulb is small, we will attach it to the back a bigger household 230v light bulb. So in the second shot, only the household light bulb will be seen with the car light bulb behind it.








This is the lightbuld fully constructed, we have attached the car battery to the back of a normal lightbuld to add the desired effect to the normal sized light bulb.



Monday 13 February 2012

Our final decision on the opening

We have finally come to the conclusion that the location will be Josh's garage. we will be using the same idea as we originally came up with for Shoreham airport but have adapted it for this location. This idea is that we have a man and a women tied up for reasons that get explained in this opening but we don't know who these people are or who the gang are.

We have decided what characters we will include in this scene and who they are being played by, the casting list is as follows:

  • The man getting beaten up will be played by Justin Macklin
  • The man doing the beating up will be played by George Jones
  • The man playing cards in the corner played by Lewis Morgan
  • The boss played by Dan Sheridan
  • The hostage girl played by Ellie Armstrong

As Justin and Ellie are the ones tied up its natural that they would've fought back so there would be a struggle leaving them will cuts and bruises on their face, so to make this believable we will be using make up effects to give them the look of this without inflicting any damage to them. As George is the henchman he is the bosses muscle so he will definitely have some bruises on his face so for this we are also adding some make up effects to him.

These make up effects will be done by Monika Sewell.

Wednesday 8 February 2012

This is an image found on Google Image search that we are basing a characters appearance (costume) on. we are going to have the boss in a Hawaiian styled shirt with a vest underneath as illustrated in this picture. the reason for this is it is quite casual but is a common look for these types of stereotypical gang bosses. the facial appearance in this picture isnt how we are going to depict the charecter in our thriller, this is just meerly to show the costume and the effect of the costume that we are going for.

Risk Assessment Form



This is a screengrab for our auditions event on facebook.This is how we are communicating with our auditonees .
This is the electronic plans for the LED display that we are going to use for the time bomb.

Sunday 5 February 2012

Ideas for opening 4: 


Location: Our original idea was based in a hanger at Shoreham airport but as we didn't get permission we decided that we would change to location to one which we could get permission on. e have now decided that our location now will be in josh's garage.


Bomb: For the bomb, we will use an old black suitcase, with 3 empty Pringle's cans to simulate the explosives. We have an electronic LED display that ranges from 0 to 19, to simulate the bomb timer.



Because the timer is too complicated to program to make it countdown automatically, we could take extreme close up pictures of it, and then create a slide show, that makes it look like the timer is counting down.



Camerawork ideas: At the very beginning of our thriller piece we could start with the light hanging and swinging above her/his head. If the camera angle stays the same then it would be a track down, but if the camera stays in the same position but starts to face down, then we would use a tilt.

Thursday 2 February 2012


5 ideas for Thriller Openings (Josh Brown)

1) Man going home from night out with friends at pub not drunk. Sitting on bench at train station alone. Looks down and sees a reflection in a puddle of another man who looks exactly like him and wears the same clothes, standing up on the other platform. The original character looks up to see his vision is true. However, before he can act on his speechless reaction, a train passes through the station quickly, and by the time the train has passed, his identical vision has vanished.

2) Small relaxed house party. The host is going round small talking to his guests. Lots of background talk. They spot some empty pizza boxes and bottles, so they decide to take them out to the recycling bin. Opens the bin, and there is a body in the bin, the host presumes they are a drunken guest and tips the bin over to get them out. The body turns out not to be a guest of his and dead.

3) Mother is alone in bed at midnight dreaming. Cut to the dream of hers, slightly faded frame effect to symbolize that it is not real. The dream is that she is home watching a movie with her kids and she falls asleep, and starts to have a dream inside the dream she is already having. The dream has a fade that is much less inside the present dream. She dreams that she wakes up in the living room in the same position she fell asleep in. All the kids have gone and all lights are off. She makes her way upstairs to see if the kids are in bed. But they aren't.

4) Location: Shoreham airport

Plot: Guy in hangar, tied up in chair in the dark. One single light above his head. Big strong guy beating him. After a bit, big strong guy holds mirror in front of his face. Audience see his identity in reflection of mirror. Man opens hangar doors. Lights behind him create a silhouette effect on his front. Minimal lighting.

Camera ideas: When the big strong guy holds mirror in front of face, camera see’s reflection for a second, then camera begins to track around him to see him in reality. Minimal props. The main criminal, at the end of the opening, will present a bomb to the hostage and the clip will end when the timer of the bomb will reach 1 second to go.