My Thriller idea

For our coursework we were supposed to make our own thriller idea and then to present it to the class, and afterwards the whole class is voting for some ideas which will be then produced.
For my Thriller movie I had two ideas. The first is called 'The Black Rose' which deals with a girl whos mother died and she wants to buy a flower for her dad. The old woman in the flowershop gave her a really 'special' flower: a black rose. The girl takes it home and puts it on the table of her fathers desk in the near of the bed.
In the next morning when she comes into the room of her dad, he is dead in his bed, blood over all and the head is cut off.
The girl goes again to the old woman and buys because of sadness a flower. She puts it on her desk and goes to sleep. In the middle of the night she wakes up, looks to the rose. In this moment a hand with a knife comes out. The girl takes suddenly the knife and cuts the hand in the flower off.
The next day she goes to the flower shop and sees the old woman who just has one hand. Shock on her face. And then black.
For this idea the locations would be a bedroom and a room which is looking like a flowershop.
The equipment I would need for this idea is a black rose, a bed and a knife. The characters are the old lady in the flower shop, teenager girl, and the dad. The tension is generated because of the darkness in the scene where the hand comes out of the flower. The institution of making the film would be TV production CO like CH4.


The second idea is about a little girl who is alone at home. Her dog lays under her bed like every night. So that she is not scared, she lets her hand down so that her dog can lick her hand. In a wide shot you can see her leting her hand down and under the bed laying the murderer. She falls asleep. A second later she wakes up because she hears something dropping, like a water tap.
She stands up and goes into the kitchen. Nothing. She goes back to bed. Falls again asleep. A second later she wakes up again. The watertap is still dropping. She goes into the bathroom. Nothing. She goes back to bed. But the dropping is not stopping.
So she goes again into the bathroom, takes the shower curtain away and the dog, hanging, the tummy slit, blood over all. In blood letters is on the wall: Also murderers can lick. Her face in a close up. Then the title: 'Psychopath'.
For this idea the location would be a bedroom, a kitchen and a bathroom.
The tension is generated because the auidence can see the murderer under her bed so that the audience knows before the protagonist knows what is going on. For this idea I would need for the equipment dog which is slit, a bed and a shower curtain. The character has to be a little girl and a men with scary eyes. I think it is a good idea because most of young kids are scared by what is laying under the bed. So the movie would be something for people in the age of 16-24.

Thriller Posters

The differnece to the Horror movies is shown also in the posters.
The Thriller posters are more 'normal' and not with blood and supernatural. It looks more like a taken picture than a edited Poster.

Horror Poster

Here are different Posters of Horror movies. The first and the last one are similar because the screaming mouth but still differnet becaus in the first poster you can see that the person has in its face pictures of differnet situations which makes it on the first view mysterious and spooky.

What is a Thriller? What is a Horror?

The word Thriller comes from the word to thrill which means pierce.
The Thriller genre is diffficult to define because so many of the emotions and reactions that come from Thriller are part of the whole experience of film. It is a 'meta-genre'.
The types of Thriller can be very variuos. Most used type is the psychogical like Seven, I am Legend or The Ring.
Action and Espionage type is something like James Bond movies and Charade with Audrey Hepburn. Another often used type is the paranomal and ghosts Thriller type. Movies like Gothica and Panic Room.
The Thriller creates fear, apprehension and suspense in the hearts and minds of the audience and relies on intricacy of plot.
It plays on our most basic worries by drawing on the most infanite and therefore repressed thoughts. These thoughts can be voyeristic, sexual or violent.
The Thriller achieves this by raising questions or Enigma codes in the mind of the audience.
The audience also experiences a sense of ambiralence. They feel a sense of identification and sympathy with the hero's or victim's vulnerabilit.
Most Thrillers have universal themes at their core - the struggle over love, death or money. It is this Struggle that often enthralls the spectator.
It is also done through a sense of delay. When something does happen, there is a sense of relief from tension.
In many ways the Thriller genre is sadomachistic - the audience enjoys watching the director cause pian and suffering to the protagonists. Our pleasure is drived from their discomfort.
Horror films are slightly different to Thrillers.
Horror movies are most of the time based on death, mental illness and supernatural.
Thrillers are to excite and Horror are about blood and death and haven't sometimes a real story in it.
Movies like Frankenstein,Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are more the classic horror literature.
Halloween, Friday the 13th, and The hills have Eyes are more the new movies.

Our introduction to Final Cut Pro

Our last media lesson was about the editimg prgramme Final Cut Pro. That basically showed us how to use Final Cut Pro and Server. Final Cut Pro is a software package which runs just on G5 Macs.

The first step was to bring the shots into the programme so that the sequence of shots is coherently cut together to construct a narrative or montage.

We were introduced into Final Cut Server which allows the storage of projects and prevents loss of work and essay access by checking work 'out' and 'in'.

The third thing we did was the logging which means basically to take the best shots from the diditised rushes and this allows careful selection of the takes and rejection flawed material.

If this was done the fourth thing we did was the logged shots were placed onto chronological timeline.

You then cut the shots and trimmed to generate continuity and conceal the illusion that the sequence is not spontaneous.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

We were established in different small groups. We had to film to actors, who were choosed by ourselves. They had to play a scene with just a few sentences and different shots. Our sequence was simply just that both actors are inside the room, an argument breaks out and one actor wants to go out, shut the door. For the filming we used a Pd170.

My group worked in studio and that was effective because in the studio was the set of a room. All of us worked with the camera and the actors. I did sometimes the part with "Standby, Rolling, and Action." and holding and moving the camera.
The lightning was pretty soft and dark which gave the scene atmosphere.
That was effective because one of the actors was threatening and the other one was quite scared, and so the soft dark light gave the situation a pretty dangerous touch.

We checked the if the camera was set up correctly and when it was not we changed it. The tripod level was everytime right. The angles we choosed were from the low to the high angle shot and we made once a shot with just the feet of the actors. The decision that we used different angles was because of the different situtaions it could be.
The 180 degree rule was everytime conformed. We tried every shots to see what fits the best to the text. However, we just filmed first in whole sequences, which changed then to a Medium shot and continues to close ups of the feet, one actors face and the door. Then to over the shoulder of both of the actors.
We tried to get so many different shots how possible.


The Prelim Task:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt7d3Tjw98s

Making movies

Our last practical lesson was about to make short shots of different camera techniques. The first shot was a wide shot so that the camera takes the whole event. Then comes a cut and after that comes a mid shot, but still the same action.
The following shot is a close up and most of the shots are done more than once. It is still the whole sequence.
We also learned the 180 degree rule so that if it is a two shot create line and draw 180 degree line.
And it can record everywhere on this side. We also had a car example to make the rule clearer. And never cross the line , so just film from one side.

Tripod

We learned to use a tripod.

When you work with the tripod you can put them higher or lower and lock them.
Pan and tilt locking at the tripod head. You put the camera on by pushing button, and then lock it.

Camera

In our practical lesson with the cameras we learned that moving postcards means images which let the action play through.
In the right upper corner in the screen of the camera is the time code and the camera takes 25 frames a second. And the number 16:9 is the wide aspect. A TV screen is every time like this wide. DVCAM means the type of film which you are filming. The 50 is the shutter speed and that means it is twice as fast as normal. If you increase it, sharps for action scenes and never below 50! The button gain is for the synthetic light. For that is the letters ‘dB’. If you want it brighter, it reduces quality. So take light and not gain! So it should be zero. F5.6 is doing the brightness which is called exposure. If you want it brighter make it lower and if it is higher it is darker. Wide balance (wabal) is important because it regulates the sun or man light for in- and outside.

The interview in the studio

We did an interview with our group with
a few questions about the subject media,
our favorite music and movies, etc.
In the studio were three people
who were the interviewer and two cameramen.