RESEARCH: SCOOP IT

I created a Scoop It page on thriller codes and conventions. This is the link:
http://www.scoop.it/t/thriller-codes-and-conventions-by-charlie-myers
As well as scooping things about thrillers I also decided to add things about Film Noir as that is what we are basing our film opening on.

18.09.13 PLANNING: FILM NOIR

Today we finished off working on what our story would be. We had a rough idea of how the story would progress and even some more technical things like camera angles and sound design. We wrote lots of things down and below you can see a picture of what we did in the lesson. The picture is hard to read, but the piece of paper on top is a flow chart of out story, the paper below that is a mind map of ideas we had and the piece of paper to the left of theat was other ideas we had.

24/09.13 PLANNING: FILM NOIR

Today we started to further develop our idea of Film Noir. Film Noir is a style or genre of film marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism and menace. We knew that George had some resources we could use, like a old time Double Decker bus. We needed to decide whether we would film it in colour or in black and white. Kate had the idea that we should do it in sepia. We liked that idea and considered it. As well as this we thought we would like the music from Jonathon Creek. We also looked at a couple of film Noir books and thought of movies we liked in the film noir genre. We then thought about our story and conventions used in film noir. We started working on a very rough storyboard. We then knew we would have to continue this in the next lesson.

17.09.13 Research: film Opening

In these two lessons we looked at a couple films to help give us ideas about things we could do for our movie opening.
First we watched The English Patient. The opening to this is an extreme close up of a hand painting. The camera pans while hand moves, creating one long lasting shot. It then cut to a sweeping shot of the desert. We learnt that extreme close ups were very good at creating suspense and mystery. The sweeping shot taught us how it they are useful for exposition.
We then watched Made In Dagenam which had a lot of camera angles we could use. For example there was a panning shot from left to right that gave us a greater sense of where we were.
Then we split up in our groups and decided on what we should do. My group decided that we should make a Film Noir Opening.

Production Log 11/9/13

Production Log 11/9/13

Research: The Art of The Title

I went to www.artofthetitle.com and saw the Pacific Rim (2013) titles by Guillermo Del Toro. There is repeated use of close ups to intrigue the audience. I have learnt that using extreme close ups can make the audience curious. The colours are very dark and there is a very heavy focus on CGI, with nearly no live action. The sequence is very serious and you can very easily tell the genre, Science-Fiction.

I also watched Moon (2009) dir Duncan Jones. In this the film starts witha advert for a fake energy company before cutting to different shots of a space station on the moon and it's one man crew doing various activities. The credits appear as if they were physical objects in the station and cast shadows as well as occasionally being obscured as the camera pans.

I then watched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) dir Shane Black. The opening credits to this film are a animation that shows parts of the film in silhouettes. The shots are all different from panning shots to push ins.

Finally I watched The Player (1992) dir Robert Altman. The opening to this film is one continuous shot that lasts for 8 minutes. The credits appear as standard, while the camera pans around a film studio and tracks several people. There is no cuts or editing involved and the only thing that wasn't there when they filmed it were the credits themselves. The film opens with a director shouting action and a man holding a clip board that says 'The Player' on it.

Introduction to the project.

I am working in a group of four. The other members of my group are Tom, George and Kate. We have chosen Brief 7 (video) The opening sequence from a new film including titles, in any genre or mix of genres such as a comedy or thriller, together with a storyboard. Maximum length: three minutes.