Name of Film

As a group, we have decided on the name of our film. We chose the title: 'Lost Signal', as our protagonists leaves her group of friends after losing signal on her mobile. When she returns, she finds that her friends are missing, and attempts to find them - leading her into the path of her stalker.

Sabotage, 1935

Sabotage was a another of Alfred Hitchcock's thrillers. Made in the 1935, uses dramatic irony as a way of keeping the audience's attention and entertaining them. Dramatic irony is when some of the characters within the world of the film do not know specific details. However, we as the audience know everything. This is a way for us to both relate to the characters, and to sympathize with them.
With regards to this film, Stevie's sister's husband - Verlock - gives Stevie a package to deliver. Stevie must deliver the package, which contains a bomb, by half one. Stevie does not know of the bomb inside the package - this is an example of dramatic irony. Time passes, and Stevie becomes distracted, eventually leading to the bomb going off in Stevie's hands.

How Does Hitchcock Create Suspense and Tension?

There are several ways that Hitchcock creates suspense within the film. One of these ways is the use of the close-up shot. These shots allow the audience to witness the boy's facial expressions and emotions. Moreover, the shots of the package keep the audience thinking about it, and urge the viewer to feel sympathy for Stevie.
Additionally, Hitchcock uses contrapuntal music when the boy is in the market. To the boy, he is just wandering around the market, but as we know the package contains a bomb - thus the boy is wasting time.
Finally, as the scene nears its end, the music becomes more and more dramatic. This builds the tension, and places  the audience of the edge of their seat; the audience is expecting the bomb to go off.

Mobygratis - Approval

A few hours ago, I received an two emails from mobygratis confirming the licensing of two tracks.

Mobygratis

Today, I signed up to mobygratis.com. Straight away, I began browsing through the wide range of music, and came across two tracks that would fit the opening scenes of our thriller. I have requested the use of both tracks, and will be waiting for a reply.
I will also be visiting sites such as unsigned.com, to try and find other music.

As a group, we want to secure the licensing of about ten tracks, meaning that we have a wide variety of music to choose from.

Idents

This is the first ident created. We used Livetype and placed the images over the top of the moving background. Out of the two, this was my favourite. It reminds me of other idents, yet still has our twist on it.






This was the second ident we made. I don't feel as though this looks as professional as the first, which is why we are not choosing this ident.

Location Research

This is a picture I took at the beginning of November. I think this area would be good to use in our thriller, as it is a rather quiet place. It is local, and the length of the road would provide a very good shot. Moreover, if the weather conditions are similar to the photo, it would really add a scary edge to our work.

Ident and Logo Ideas.

Over the past few days, I have created four separate ident/logo designs. Each one is different to the next, as I wanted to make the decision process easier; if the ident/logos are extremely similar, it would be hard to choose a favourite. I have saved all the files in two file formats: .psd, the Photoshop file so that I can edit them later, and .png, so that the empty areas remain transparent.
We chose the name 'Panoptic Productions' as the word 'panoptic' means to view things from many directions. This links to our coursework, as each shot of our thriller will have to be viewed from different directions in order to make it a high-quality opening.

Design 1

This design is inspired by a drawing I made a long time ago. Cartoon clouds are often used in work by artist who specialise in forms that are less realistic. I think the shape of the cloud works well, as does the font. The font is elegant, and the blue corroborates with the cloud - blue is the colour of rain, and rain comes from clouds. I added a glow to both the cloud and the text, to make them seem more dainty and angelic. The image would not include the grey background; the grey would be transparent. However, I made an example with a grey background to show the shape of the cloud.

Design 2

This is the second design I made. The white area is actually transparent. I decided to use three different faces and different angles as it related to our company name. The text, as well as the drawings, are cartoon-esque and are rather funky. I chose to do it this way as we are only young, and we want to show that creating our thriller opening is fun. I like this design, although I think it is lacking something; I, unfortunately, do not know what this 'something' is.

Design 3

This design is inspired by splats of paint/liquid found in the environment. I chose bold purples and pinks as they stood out from the page, and then used a bold and eye-catching font. This design is simple, yet effective, and I think it would work well when placed into Livetype.

Design 4

This design is my favourite from the set. I think this is a satirical take on Columbia Pictures ident. They use a woman standing on a podium, holding a light. I chose to use a character I created, and place him on a podium. As we come from an industrialised area, I chose to add a skyline to the design. The white area is transparent; when placed into Livetype, I would use a background on moving clouds - this is another reference to Columbia Pictures. The text is rather wacky, and matches the design; the text is separate as I want to be able to  move it freely on the page - I do not know the resolution that Livetype works at, therefore I estimated when creating the design. By having the text separate, I can place it exactly where I want on the screen, without altering the design.

Thriller Ident and Logo

Last night, I began drawing ideas for our thriller ident. I soon realised that the major filming companies used a still image, with a moving background. For example, Warner Bros. use their logo, with flies into shot. The logo then remains still, whilst the background continues moving. This would be easy to do using Photoshop and Livetype. I would draw the design on Photoshop, and save the image as a .png file, so that areas of the image could stay transparent. Livetype supports .png files, so I would upload the image into the software, and use the various effects to make it come into screen.
I would then apply an animated background, so that the background is moving, and the logo is stationery.
I think it's a good idea to mimic the well-renowned companies, as they set the standards that everyone has to match. Moreover, we'd like to put our own stamp on our ident and logo; we're still young, and we don't want the ident and logo to be completely serious.

Misfits Montage

Earlier this week, I uploaded a post about the television show Misfits. I saw the show as relevant to our project, and decided to create a montage of clips from the first episode. The episode was the opening for the entire series; therefore, analysing it will help us in our project.


From the video, you can see that there is a lot of humour, as well as drama. I think it would be interesting to try and use humour in our thriller opening.

Shadow of a Doubt

Below is a video I made. The video is two images from Hitchcock's 'Shadow of a Doubt'.



Settings and Props

• There is money scattered on the bedroom floor, which suggests that the character of Charlie is rather rich, and doesn't value money as much as he should. Moreover, the use of a cigar highlights the character's indulgence in the finer things in life, and suggest that Charlie is not afraid to purchase items he may not need. A further notable prop used in a glass, which is thrown at the wall. This highlights a potentially short fuse, and possibly previous problems that have made Charlie stressed.

Colour and Lighting

• The room at first is dark, which indicates that Charlie doesn't like attention, and prefers to be left alone. A woman then enters and allows light to enter the room. Charlie then moves back into the shadows, reinforcing the idea. Shadows are also prominent throughout the opening scenes, which could suggest that the film draws conventions from the film noir genre.

Hair, Make-up and Costume

• The suit Charlie is wearing looks expensive and well maintained. This again suggests that Charlie is wealthy, and also hints that he cares for his appearance, whether it be to remain unnoticed and ordinary, or just for himself. This idea is shown again through Charlie's hair, which is slicked back. This is a trait of many antagonist in thrillers, and could imply that Charlie is the antagonist, or has villainous qualities.

Facial Expression and Body Language

• Charlie is shown on his bed, looking relaxed, yet tired. This could infer that he has had endured a lot of hard work over the previous few days, and could be why the two characters are after him.

Placement of Objects and Characters Within the Frame

• Charlie is shown as trapped after he leaves the house, as he is placed in the centre of the frame, and the two other characters are either side. Both Charlie and his niece are shown in similar positions when we are first introduced to them, indicating that they are similar, and that the niece sees Charlie as a role model.

Thrillers in Television.

As we are only producing the first few minutes of a thriller, I think that it would be useful to look at and analyse television shows in the thriller genre.
A particular show that I find interesting is Misfits. Misfits is a British comedy-drama series about a group of young offenders forced to work in a community service program, where they attain supernatural powers after a strange electrical storm.
One of the main reasons I watch the show is that it is extremely entertaining; each episode provides a whole variety of different emotions. Moreover, topics such as sex, death, drugs, love, relationships and age are all discussed in a way which engages people.
The opening episode of the first series is the most appropriate for my blog; the scene is set and the story begins. I will be creating a video of the first episode, showing some of my favourite, and the most thrilling parts of it.

Survey

Using surveymonkey.com, I created a survey that asked the participant various questions about thriller movies. By doing this, I hope to gain a better understanding of the audience for my thriller project. Also, I hope to know the aspects of thrillers that most appeal to the viewer. I will be collecting my data at a later date.
Feel free to complete the survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HXL7DJ9

Livetype Experimentation

Last Wednesday, I briefly experimented with Livetype. I created a small piece with the software, but wasn't able to upload it.
I hope to use Livetype and it's functions again in the future, but I feel more comfortable using software such as Photoshop. Therefore, if there are harsh time restrictions, I will not be using Livetype, as learning the basics of the software will be time consuming.

Interviews on the Thriller Genre

Last week, we recorded a series of interviews and were ready to put them onto the computer. However, we realised that the person using the camera was recording all the parts that didn't need recording, and not recording the parts we needed. Luckily, we managed to capture a few minutes of usable footage.
This week, we decided to interview more people, and hopefully use the camera correctly this time. We then uploaded our footage today, and used Final Cut Express to edit the footage. We decided to use the funny and serious footage, as we wanted to show how much fun we had recording the interviews.

Graphic Matches

Graphic matches are two similar shots that are placed next to each other. The graphic matches provide a smooth visual transfer from one frame to the next. They also increase the continuity of the film, and create a  flowing transition between scenes.

Examples of Graphic Matches.

Thriller Montage

This is my montage, showing some of the things I would like to include in my thriller. These include a scary, ominous character, and silhouette figures and dark and deserted locations.

Preliminary Exercise.

The above video was our preliminary exercise. We created a storyboard and then had roughly 40 minutes to film the shots we wanted.We decided to use a variety of shots, including a long shot, extreme close-up, and a pan shot. The also wanted to make the editing appear seamless, so we filmed everything several times.
I feel as though the piece turned out well; the film flowed well, and the shots we used worked well. However, there were a few errors.The first of which is the sound. Some of the dialogue is cut from the piece, and you can here the cameraman shouting go at one point. This was because we could not hear the sound when we were editing at the computer was being slightly temperamental. Moreover, one of the actors looks into the camera.We have realized our mistakes, and we take them into consideration when we next film.