Thursday 5 May 2011
Continuity Sequence
This is the continuity sequence that we filmed. It helped us practice our camera shots, angles and transitions. This short sequence was filmed with the same camera that the actual delirium opening was filmed with. After filming this, we realised in order to make the delirium opening as good as possible, we would have to change the camera's brightness/contrast settings in order to create a more "movie like" feel.
Audience Feedback
We used survey monkey.com to put together a questionnaire to find out what our target audiences preferences were and the types of films they enjoyed watching as well as smaller details such as how many characters they liked to see in the opening to a movie.
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Wednesday 4 May 2011
Script for Delirium
Gullaid Ibrahim walks down the road and enters the estate via the gates.
He continues to proceed through the estate until he comes to a door (entrance to flats)
Gullaid Ibrahim receives a message from Thomas Tesfay via the walky talky:
"Have you entered the premises? Over"
Gullaid Replies to Thomas Tesfay's message via the walky talky:
"Affirmative, over"
Gullaid Ibrahim proceeds to walk up the stairs in the flats.
Thomas Tesfay contacts Gullaid Ibrahim via the walky talky once again:
"I will meet you there in twenty minutes"
Gullaid Ibrahim replies:
"Affirmative"
Gullaid continues up the stairs, reaching the top and goes round the corner. When he comes across the dead body he contacts Thomas Tesfay via the walky talky's again saying:
"We've got a two, two, five on our hands. I think it's an inside job."
After film darkens and Thomas comes around the corner, Thomas says:
"That's because it is an inside job."
The fuzzy TV effect takes place ending the opening sequence.
He continues to proceed through the estate until he comes to a door (entrance to flats)
Gullaid Ibrahim receives a message from Thomas Tesfay via the walky talky:
"Have you entered the premises? Over"
Gullaid Replies to Thomas Tesfay's message via the walky talky:
"Affirmative, over"
Gullaid Ibrahim proceeds to walk up the stairs in the flats.
Thomas Tesfay contacts Gullaid Ibrahim via the walky talky once again:
"I will meet you there in twenty minutes"
Gullaid Ibrahim replies:
"Affirmative"
Gullaid continues up the stairs, reaching the top and goes round the corner. When he comes across the dead body he contacts Thomas Tesfay via the walky talky's again saying:
"We've got a two, two, five on our hands. I think it's an inside job."
After film darkens and Thomas comes around the corner, Thomas says:
"That's because it is an inside job."
The fuzzy TV effect takes place ending the opening sequence.
MoodBoard
Friday 15 April 2011
Delirium Production Stages
Throughout the production of our opening, we tried out many techniques and many different versions were created in order to find our final product. Here you will find videos of our previous attempts leading up to our final product.
This is our title sequence which I took responsibility for shooting and editing. It was a time consuming procedure but paid off in the end as it worked well with the opening sequence. We took inspiration from the opening sequence of the movie Se7ven, which we thought would create a very disturbing and mysterious image in the viewer's mind.
This is our initial attempt at making the opening scene of our film. It had certain good qualities about it such as having close ups but overall we decided this was not high enough quality to use for our final piece and did not do a good job of keeping the viewer confused.
This is our second attempt at the opening scene which we thought came out much better than the first. While there may have been no close ups, this was done to prevent the audience from getting too much detail in the inspector's face. We also thought the shots in general were smoother.
This is our Rough Cut, which we presented to the class and asked for their feedback on. They liked the editing that was used but said there was one particular shot that was not smooth enough and needed to be corrected. They also pointed out how Tom did not seem menacing enough and clearly viewing his face gave away too much about the movie too early on. We therefore took this on board and made the necessary adjustments.
This is our final product which rectifies the problems pointed out with our Rough Cut. We also decided it was best to tone down the colour of the opening sequence as in the rough cut it was sunny and made the scene look happy rather than melancholy.
This is our title sequence which I took responsibility for shooting and editing. It was a time consuming procedure but paid off in the end as it worked well with the opening sequence. We took inspiration from the opening sequence of the movie Se7ven, which we thought would create a very disturbing and mysterious image in the viewer's mind.
This is our second attempt at the opening scene which we thought came out much better than the first. While there may have been no close ups, this was done to prevent the audience from getting too much detail in the inspector's face. We also thought the shots in general were smoother.
This is our Rough Cut, which we presented to the class and asked for their feedback on. They liked the editing that was used but said there was one particular shot that was not smooth enough and needed to be corrected. They also pointed out how Tom did not seem menacing enough and clearly viewing his face gave away too much about the movie too early on. We therefore took this on board and made the necessary adjustments.
This is our final product which rectifies the problems pointed out with our Rough Cut. We also decided it was best to tone down the colour of the opening sequence as in the rough cut it was sunny and made the scene look happy rather than melancholy.
Evaluation Questions
Q: In what way does your product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real products?
A: Our title sequence has a lot in common with the title sequence of the film SE7EN. This being that it is a montage of shots looking at many different objects which have a relationship with the storyline of the film but not giving away too much, keeping the audience in suspense. The reason we used the SE7EN opening idea is because when viewing a short clip of the film and the opening title sequence, as the audience we thought that it was very effective and gave off the same effect we to wanted to give off.
Q:How does your product represent particular social groups?
A:Our product does not quite represent any particular social group as we had as little as possible of any form of conversation. Otherwise the audience would be able to bond with the characters too early on into out film. Instead we reduced the dialogue and increased the suspense. This is to back up the conventions of a Thriller movie. However our detective as an individual is portrayed as brave, seeing as he is going to a crime scene investigation by himself without any backup in that estate which he is not familiar with and still stays calm.
Q:What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
A: The media institution which would distribute our film would be Film4. Reason for this is because Film4 has a tendancy to fund/distribute films that are more risky and differ from the "safe" route that companies such as Working Title used to take.
Q:Who would be the audience for your product?
A:The audience of our film would be 15 years old and over. This is because the film would not contain any sexual scenes or swearing but would however contain graphical images through use of shots and pictures within the text. These images would be of deformed or defaced individuals and would not be suitable for those under the age of 15.
Q:How did you attract/address your audience?
A:Our results from our survey on survey monkey told us that the majority of people preffered Thriller movies over all of the other genres. They also preferred at least two people to be in the opening of the film, so we took this into account when creating our opening sequence. However we ddn't show the audience both of the actors faces to increase the mystery in the plot.
Throughout the entire title sequence we placed the credits ovr the footage which was playing in the background so that the audience did not get bored. This would also keep their attention on the film. The film was also posted on Youtube and Facebook where it received a fair amount of feedback. This was a good way of getting our film opening out to our target audience as it was Free andour group was on a very low budget.
Q:What have you learnt about technologies from process of constructing this product?
A:Throughout the production of this product I have learnt how to work an HD Camera, turning it on and off, inserting the tape into the camera, using white balance and transfering the rushes from the tape to the computer. We did however encounter problems with the tranfering of the rushes on the 2nd transfer, so in order to over come this we used an alternative camera from home. We also had trouble with Final Cut Pro which wouldn't allow us to use some of our rushes and at one stage became 'Not Responding'. We overcame these problems by using an alternative software, Sony Vegas, in order to edit at home.
Q:Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
A:I have learnt that disasters CAN happen out of nowhere which can set your plans back a very long time and although you may have set out an alternative as a back up, alternatives can also go wrong so when planning during the preliminary stages you should also allow yourself a little extra time than you believe you will need in order to make production easier and completed to the deadline. I have also learned that although it is easy to come to an arrangement in planning, it is alot harder to carry it out and can be quite fustrating so patence is required, whether something goes wrong or not. Having a strong, effective team is also essential.
A: Our title sequence has a lot in common with the title sequence of the film SE7EN. This being that it is a montage of shots looking at many different objects which have a relationship with the storyline of the film but not giving away too much, keeping the audience in suspense. The reason we used the SE7EN opening idea is because when viewing a short clip of the film and the opening title sequence, as the audience we thought that it was very effective and gave off the same effect we to wanted to give off.
Q:How does your product represent particular social groups?
A:Our product does not quite represent any particular social group as we had as little as possible of any form of conversation. Otherwise the audience would be able to bond with the characters too early on into out film. Instead we reduced the dialogue and increased the suspense. This is to back up the conventions of a Thriller movie. However our detective as an individual is portrayed as brave, seeing as he is going to a crime scene investigation by himself without any backup in that estate which he is not familiar with and still stays calm.
Q:What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
A: The media institution which would distribute our film would be Film4. Reason for this is because Film4 has a tendancy to fund/distribute films that are more risky and differ from the "safe" route that companies such as Working Title used to take.
Q:Who would be the audience for your product?
A:The audience of our film would be 15 years old and over. This is because the film would not contain any sexual scenes or swearing but would however contain graphical images through use of shots and pictures within the text. These images would be of deformed or defaced individuals and would not be suitable for those under the age of 15.
Q:How did you attract/address your audience?
A:Our results from our survey on survey monkey told us that the majority of people preffered Thriller movies over all of the other genres. They also preferred at least two people to be in the opening of the film, so we took this into account when creating our opening sequence. However we ddn't show the audience both of the actors faces to increase the mystery in the plot.
Throughout the entire title sequence we placed the credits ovr the footage which was playing in the background so that the audience did not get bored. This would also keep their attention on the film. The film was also posted on Youtube and Facebook where it received a fair amount of feedback. This was a good way of getting our film opening out to our target audience as it was Free andour group was on a very low budget.
Q:What have you learnt about technologies from process of constructing this product?
A:Throughout the production of this product I have learnt how to work an HD Camera, turning it on and off, inserting the tape into the camera, using white balance and transfering the rushes from the tape to the computer. We did however encounter problems with the tranfering of the rushes on the 2nd transfer, so in order to over come this we used an alternative camera from home. We also had trouble with Final Cut Pro which wouldn't allow us to use some of our rushes and at one stage became 'Not Responding'. We overcame these problems by using an alternative software, Sony Vegas, in order to edit at home.
Q:Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
A:I have learnt that disasters CAN happen out of nowhere which can set your plans back a very long time and although you may have set out an alternative as a back up, alternatives can also go wrong so when planning during the preliminary stages you should also allow yourself a little extra time than you believe you will need in order to make production easier and completed to the deadline. I have also learned that although it is easy to come to an arrangement in planning, it is alot harder to carry it out and can be quite fustrating so patence is required, whether something goes wrong or not. Having a strong, effective team is also essential.
Permission to Shoot on Premises
The opening shot will be shot on a council estate on the weekend outside of school hours so no permission will be needed as the estate is open to the public. Gullaid Ibrahim found the shooting location.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=london+mayday+hospital&aq=&sll=53.826597,-4.042969&sspn=10.514259,43.110352&ie=UTF8&hq=mayday+hospital&hnear=Westminster,+London,+United+Kingdom&layer=c&cbll=51.390703,-0.113663&panoid=5aoXHHc0jScXCQxeQ9D7Pg&cbp=12,329.39,,0,3.98&ll=51.390637,0.016479&spn=0,0.935211&t=h&z=11
This is the housing estate at which we will be shooting out opening.
The opening shot will be shot on a council estate on the weekend outside of school hours so no permission will be needed as the estate is open to the public. Gullaid Ibrahim found the shooting location.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=london+mayday+hospital&aq=&sll=53.826597,-4.042969&sspn=10.514259,43.110352&ie=UTF8&hq=mayday+hospital&hnear=Westminster,+London,+United+Kingdom&layer=c&cbll=51.390703,-0.113663&panoid=5aoXHHc0jScXCQxeQ9D7Pg&cbp=12,329.39,,0,3.98&ll=51.390637,0.016479&spn=0,0.935211&t=h&z=11
This is the housing estate at which we will be shooting out opening.
Initial Ideas
Opening Credits
The film will begin with the 'Mystery Arts' logo introduction. This will be followed by our title sequence which will be a montage of shots which will tickle the audiences curiosity. This will be made by Christopher Sziranyi. After this our actor, Gullaid Ibrahim will be seen walking through a council estate to investigate a murder. The film will carry out from there.
Colour
What type of colour should we use?
Low key lighting (Dark and shadowy). We will use After Effects to tint the footage to make it more gloomy and dark to create a sad, depressing effect.
Characters
Amount of characters
The majority of our audience believe that at least 2 characters are needed in the opening sequence to make it interesting. This is why we have chosen to use two characters in our title sequence. Originally we wanted to use the two characters, letting the audience see their faces but as we figured that that didn't have the correct effect, we decided to make one character a mystery.
Name: Tyrone Francis
Role: Actor/ Officer at the door
About Tyrone: During the filming of our first attempt at the opening scene, we used Tyrone Francis as the officer that stands outside the door and hands the documents over to Gullaid. He also made an appearance in the last shot of the opening scene as the murderer. Unfortunately, this first attempt turned out to be a rather underwhelming one and we decided it was best if we replace Tyrone with another actor that could bring more suspense to our opening sequence.Name: 'Inspector' Gullaid Ibrahim
Role: Actor/ Officer in charge of the operation
About Gullaid: Gullaid Ibrahim was the Director of Delirium. He was also an actor in the film, taking the part of the main character 'Inspector Ibrahim'. Gullaid also found the group our shooting location. Although fairly lazy at times, Gullaid's positive attitude and dedication inspired the group as well as his 'STUNNING' smile! (see picture on the left)
Name: Thomas Tesfay (Also known as Tom)
Role: Actor/ Psycho Killer
About Tom: Tom is a close friend to all of the members of the group and agreed to help us out by playing the part of the murder towards the end of the opening to our film. However during our second take on shooting the opening and after feedback we came to the conclusion that Tom was too 'Nice'. This then gave us the idea to darken the picture when Tom comes onto the camera, not allowing the audience to see his face and keep them in suspense. We also distorted his voice making it deeper and more evil.
Genre
The majority of people preferred Thriller/Horror movies with the mystery factor. They like to be kept in suspense and surprised.
The least preferred genre was science-fiction.
Musical and comedy Genre were equally second preferred however it would be difficult to include factors from those two genres in a horror movie and still create the same effect which we wanted to create.
Equipment
During the production of our film opening, the group encountered some technical difficulties with the equipment provided. The computers were not allowing us to upload our rushes onto the computer so that we could edit them on Final Cut Pro. As a result of this we had to improvise and find other means of filming and editing independently since this happened towards the end of our deadline. In the end we used my handy cam and tripod. I also edited the footage at home in his bedroom using Sony Vegas Pro. Recording done by Shey Hinds Meikle. Below are pictures of the equipment:
My Camera which we used to film our opening scene as well as the shots for the title sequence
The tripod used during the filming of Delirium!
Analysis of Existing Products
Analysis of Existing Products looks at other films which contain features, effects or story lines which can influence or give us ideas for our product without us directly taking the idea and using it. By analysing existing products we will be able to come up with broader ideas in our final brainstorm and create a better product for our audience to watch and enjoy while still having the effect on the audience which we wish to create.
Name: Seven (SE7EN)
Why?
The opening sequence to this film creates a lot of mystery and questions for the viewer while at the same time giving a hint of what they should expect to happen. We will use this in our films title sequence also to create mystery.
Name: Saw
Why?
This film contains a killer who has a good reason to kill (so he believes) which we wish to include in our film. Also he does not simply kill them he mentally plays with their sanity at the same time.
Name: Psycho
Why?
Although old fashioned this film, unlike any of the others creates a supreme level of mystery throughout with a lot of twists and turns while still including a key feature. Murder. This is the type of effect we want to have on the audience with our film. We want to let the audience know the basic details of what is happening throughout the film but at the same time not knowing enough, making them want to watch on and find out more while still experiencing a feeling of fear and excitement at the same time.
Name: Hostel
Why?
Very much like Saw it contains sadistic murders and gore which is what we wish to include in our film. The murderer in our film will not only murder his victim but use the most insane torturous methods of making his victims suffer before ending their lives. In the opening sequence none of this will be shown as we will want to keep the audience in suspense at first but further into the film, the true psychotic actions of the murderer become more clear.
Thursday 14 April 2011
Thursday 31 March 2011
Inspiration
We want to base our thriller film in the same sort of style as Se7en. We believe it is a very good example of a thriller because of it's effects, fonts, cut away shots etc. One particular effect we wanted to replicate in our opening scene is the swiftness of the scenes cutting into each other. Our group decided this effect would grab the attention of the audience but at the same time would not give away too much of the film due to how quick the cuts change. We have also been searching for a suitable font which conveys a similar horror-like font but at the same time is not identical to the font used here. We tried a number of fonts and came to the conclusion that the following font was the most suitable:
(PASTE PICTURE OF FONT USED HERE)
Monday 28 March 2011
Treatment
The treatment looks at what our product is going to look like and will provide the audience with an overview. It will also explain why the product will look like this and why we have to decide to use these techniques to give off these effects.
The film is called ‘Delirium’. It starts off with the opening credits. Short editing showing clips from later on in the film giving the audience an idea of what’s going to happen. Dark, shadowy disturbing images of a person doing and planning disturbing things. A close up of blades scraping along each other, the screech of the blades as the slide along one another. Distorted images of the murderer writing, pictures of victims etc. Between each short clip the screen goes black, the sound of electricity to signal the cut. While the screen is black that’s when the credits are shown, then back to showing the audience what they want to see, those distorted images again. Once the opening credits have been shown, this should take roughly 1 ½ -2 mins. After this is when the real film starts. Our main detective who has been set on a case of severe blood shed leaves a house during the pouring rain and enters his car where his partner is waiting for him. The detective, ‘Detective Brown’, speaks telling his partner, ‘Detective Jackson’ that he ‘cannot enter that house again’. So our two main characters are introduced to the audience and in the conversation in the car, their personalities will show.
Within the film there will be 6 murders throughout. 5 of the victims will be a pregnant woman. However there is one murder, a woman who is not pregnant which throws the pair way off track as this is an anomaly in the trail. Race will vary, and so will age, gender and social class between the victims so the only link which they have to work on is the fact that they were all pregnant. This one murder is the reason why the investigation takes so long and the fact that the investigation was dragged out for so long is the true reason why the film ends the way that it does.
Welcome to our Production Blog
Throughout the duration of this year we will be working on creating a title sequence for a new thriller as well as the opening scene. On this blog we will be updating all of the stages in the making of this project and will be uploading some extra content such as interviews, rough cuts etc.
We hope you enjoy, and perhaps even learn something from our Production blog.
We hope you enjoy, and perhaps even learn something from our Production blog.
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