vox pops

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YntNHu40Zuo&context=C3516508ADOEgsToPDskL_6GLO0uNL0N33GA50NcgB

Here are some people we asked what their expectations were from a thriller.

Call sheet

Another weather check......

We thought we would do another weather check nearer to the date as the weather is constantly changing. Here we can see that the day should be warmer but raining.

Reccees

These are some photos of the location for shooting on the 19th December. Obviously they won't look exactly like this on the day. Due to a lot of things happening at my house (reconstruction, moving back in, etc) it won't look like this. There will be some things happening on the day of shooting but they won't affect the shoot in any way. The bathroom, the stairs, the hallway & the front path way are parts that will be heavily used throughout our opening scenes.

PARITY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQPu610wKjE&context=C228aeADOEgsToPDskL_6GLO0uNL0N33GA50NcgB

Please follow the link to watch our parity video

Animatic (Again)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp0s9B4yI6U

please follow the link to watch

Animatic (Hopefully it works this time)

Lighting & locations for the 19th December

On the 19th December, we will begin shooting on the first day at Rivendell, Mally's Place, South Darenth (my house.) I feel that it is a good location because it is a private road which works to our advantage as there is a scene when we have to walk down the road and there will be no cars around the area. The lighting is quite bright but we will use artifical light to reinforce some scenes. I believe it is a good location for our thriller because it is tucked away from most of society and it is set in the country side, South Darenth is mainly country side with very little disturbances or social interactions, such as town centres. A possible idea was to use Farningham Road station and have our actor 'come' off a train in his army outfit, however we dismissed this idea as it would be very difficult to shoot at a train station.

Script Ideas

Although for our task a script is not needed, towards the end of the scene we plan to have some sort of brief conversation just to show how the main two characters interact. Here are our ideas so far (13/12/2011)...

Moodboard/Influences/Brainstorm

Animatic

We discussed our animatic thoroughly via a video. You can find this video on this link below...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp0s9B4yI6U&feature=context&context=C2bbf8ADOEgsToPDskL_6GLO0uNL0N33GA50NcgB

Permission to Shoot...cont.

When we got a reply, Joe then rang the council and they told us to email another member of the council, which we did as you can see.

I think we're just planning to go ahead with filming as Mr Cole of Gravesham council informed us, the palce where we want to film is not their responsibility.

Ringing Gravesham Council (For Permission To Shoot In A Public Area)

Group Meeting 12th December

Risk Assessment

Weather Check

Although we've looked at the weather report for next week today, we're going to obviously check closer to the time of shooting. We had planned Tuesday to be our day for shooting outside so if it does start to rain, we'll work around it - and in the story, the weather actually has no correlation to the way we're shooting, so the reliability won't matter. 

Permission to Shoot...

We sent this email last thursday and got a quick reply, but we've heard nothing since. I will try ringing them either tonight or tomorrow to confirm whether we can shoot/film at the industrial site in Gravesend. 

Filming location for Tuesday 20th December

Here are some recces from our shotting location on a gravesend industrial site. The lighting here is wuite good if we only shoot in the daytime, if we need lighting we would have to use chargeable lights as there is no where for us to plug them in on site. Also we could use car headlights if need be.

We may need to record the actors speaking seperately as we are filming on the Thames and the wind may be picked up on camera which will cover the actors lines. Also there is a cement place down the road from our location so we could also pick up some sounds from there. The area is quite safe to use, there is a road there so we will have to be aware that vehicles may be passing throught at some points. We also need to be aware of needing to stop filming to allow vehicles to pass without disrupting a take.

The area is quite suitable for our thriller opening as we wanted a derelict area which we could use to make the character seem isolated also the area helps to build suspense in the piece as there are so many possibilites of what we could do in the are.

If we need to charge the camera up there are 2 pubs located just down the road from where we are filming so if it was quiet and we were customers they may allow us to charge the camera their, also my aunt works not far from the location and as one of the actors can drive we could go there and get some hot food and drinks and charge the camera there.

Timeline for DEAD BY ALLIANCE

This the timeline for our thriller opening called DEAD BY ALLIANCE.

This is where me and Maisy Osbon decided how long each shot should last. Some shots were hard to but a number on and we were unsure of how long the action would take to complete so same may be noted to short or too long. We also changed some of the shot lengths when we where completing the animatic as we then got to see how long some shots where and we realsied that some became boring and others were too quick, so the audience wouldnt get the effect we want from the shot as they would not have time to notice it.
I shall upload another timeline with the shot lengths taken from the completed animatic to get a true timeline for our shots that we shall use to help us on our shooting days.

Props List

Cigarette & Lighter. Amy smokes so we will borrow one off her. The smoking scene is not essential to the opening, we just wanted to show a contrast to the character - he has OCD and an obsession with being clean, yet he smokes which could be seen as an unclean thing to do.
Picture. We will print off the picture that is necessary, it will probably be in black & white as a deeper meaning (it can show the two sides of his personality, the OCD obsessive clean person and the army man.)
Picture Frame. It hasn't been decided if the picture in the picture frame will be used, but we're going to shoot with it then do two edits of the film, one with it, the other without it and see which looks better.
These are the main props that we have at the moment. Amy will also need to hold a baby doll which can be found of a young family member.

Film company production research

Film Company Production Research

An American film company – 20^th Century Fox

They are one of the six major American film studios as on 2011. They are located in the Century City area of Los Angeles. The studio is a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s news corporation.  The company was founded on May 31^st 1935. This was due to a merger between Fox Film Corporation and founded in 1915 by William Fox, and Twentieth Century Pictures founded 1933 by Darryl F. Zanuck, Joseph Schenck, Raymond Griffith and William Goetz. Stephen Blairson is the current CEO of the corporation.

Some of 20^th Century Fox’s biggest films include, Avatar, Star Wars, Ice Age, Die Hard, Planet of the Apes and The Chronicles Of Narnia, plus many more. Many famous TV shows have also been known to come out of these studios such as, The Simpsons, Family Guy and American Dad. The production companies first film star was Shirley Temple. Other major stars to have come from there are Betty Grable, Gene Tierney, Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield. They also had the first African-American cinema star Dorothy Dandridge.

20^th Century Fox now are joined to other production companies which include Lightstorm Entertainment, Regency Enterprises, Blue Sky Studios and Spyglass Entertainment as well as many more successful production companies.

British – British Lion films

British Lion films Corporation is a film production and distribution company. They have produced 170 films. Until 1976 they were also film distributers as British Lion Films Ltd. British Lion Incorporated was founded in November 1927 by Sam .W. Smith, he was the brother of Herbert Smith. By the end of WW2 they had released 55 films including, In which We Serve. In 1949 they suffered financial problems and were forced to accept a loan from the National Film Finance Corporation. As they were unable to pay it back they went into receivership in 1955. As a results of this they were formed as a distribution company in January 1955. Until 1976 their distributer filmography included 155 films.

British Lion Corporation were taken over by EMI in 1976. They were sold to Cannon, then to Weintraub Entertainment, Movie Acquisitions Corporation which went on to be renamed as Lumiere Pictures, then UGC (DA) now with Studio Canal.

Low Budget-Coffee Films

Coffee Films came around in 1996. It has grown from the Naked Pony Theatre Company and Mr Spambapstic Films.

Naked Pony was a Fringe Theatre Company based in South East England. As well in 1996 Steve Piper produced the 4 minute short Televisual Man with friend Dave Smith, they worked under the company name of Mr. Spambapstic Films. An Orwellian themed experiment shot on a S-VHS tape, edited on camera and completed the same day. Unfortunately it would be 9 years before anyone in the public would see any of the film. Naked Pony wanted to take the theatre company forward. They asked for a grant from the lottery, which was refused. Instead the company assets  were sold to fund a short film of King Lear, their intention was to use this to move the company into film production. Shortly after completing the film, Piper settled into a marketing day job and started organising his own film production company team, Coffee Films. The team was made from all his friends who had little or no experience in making films. The intention was to prove that anyone could have a go at making films, huge budgets, films schools, special effects and stars was not as important as a tight knit team, determined to prove their point. 1998 produced 10 experimental film shorts, animated sequences and documentaries. In 1999 they became inspired by the achievements of Rodriguez thy started working towards being able to shoot a feature length film with no budget. Three scripts were completed and shooting started, but scheduling around the cast and crews day job was impossible so all 3 projects ended up on the shelf.

In 2002 shooting began on the final no budget short Dealer, due to be released to festivals and internet streaming sites. A few months later the script to ‘How to Disappear Completely’ landed in the mailbox from Canada. Towards the end of the year the first ever board of directors were established. Piper was managing director, television QC Rob Fairlie as technical director, and entertainment lawyer Vanda Rapti as director of legal and business affairs. Contributor Gelli-Graham set up a sister artist management company Coffee Artists, the rest of the original team stayed on the board as shareholders. They were used to fulfil roles from acting to location scouts. The company was incorporated in 2003 as Coffee Arts and Media Ltd.

Dead By Alliance - Shotlist

The shot list for the actual story done by Maisy, is shown below...

Below is a more detailed shotlist I conjured up to show what we were filmimg - the specific shots for certain days, what we need to film first on each day and I also sectioned the numerous scenes to make it easier to film in small chunks rather than taking on the whole thing.

I've got a hard paper copy of the above to use as a reference during filming.

Dead By Alliance - Storyboard

This is our storyboard...

We discussed our storyboard and the way in which we wanted our shots to be via a video group meeting...

Group Meeting 7/12/11

Ok, so today, we discussed the details of our recce pictures and also the direction we plan to take in terms of actuall shooting. The storyboard was finished completely, though we all understood that shots and scenes may be changed in accordance with feelings on the day.

We've also found a great group of musicians who are willing to work with us to produce an original thrilleresque track to be used for our final thriller piece - Dead By Alliance. We'll be breifing them within the next week , and working from then on, on the track.

It was decided that we would experiment with different fields in the film process that we wanted to have a go at or felt we should get to grips with: So the filming will be primarily done by Joe on the 19th and Abbie on the 20th, with Maisy doing the main amount of editing in the first week of January.

Filming location on the 19th December

There is a potential problem as I haven't been living here for a year (I move back on the 15th) and there may be deliveries and such at random times. This can be worked around. Amy has confirmed that she will be okay to shoot on the 19th. All three actors are confirmed to be there! A picture of Connor can be found above!

BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) With Chris...

Iconic Sounds Connected with Thrillers

There are some sounds that are iconic and completely define a thriller film.

Like the
    sound of footsteps getting 
           louder and louder 
                        even though you can't 
                              see the person who's walking.

Or the drip drip drip drip of a tap. 

Music is a big part of any film, but it's especially crucial for a thriller film. The soundtrack is usually full of classical music and it makes a real impact on the tone and atmosphere of the film. Here are a few iconic soundtracks from thriller films:

Psycho:

Requiem for a Dream's soundtrack is very iconic in the genre of thriller as is the theme song for Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder and perhaps the most iconic sound of all, the Jaws theme tune:

Most music/sounds connected with thrillers are usually edgy, dark sometimes a bit sinister depending on the subject and generally classical. Soundtracks and sounds can sometimes give information to the audience about whatever character is on screen, for instance: a murderer will have a dark, tense piece of music following them, so that when the music starts playing, the audience are familiar with and know it's that specific character.

Iconic Thriller Directors!

Iconic Directors

I decided to write about some Iconic directors known for their thriller movies.
I chose Alfred Hitchcock, David Fincher and Quentin Tarantino.

I have got my information from wikipedia, thriller bloggers.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK  

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13^th August 1899 – 29^th April 1980) was a well known British Film director well known for his iconic movie ideas. He was the person behind many of the thriller techniques widely used in thrillers today. He pioneered many of these techniques in suspense and psychological thriller genres. After he well established his career in silent films and early talkies in the UK, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood in 1956. His career spanned over half a century Hitchcock became fashioned for, for his directorial style. His use of camera made to move in a way to mimic a persons gaze. He also framed shots to maximise anxiety, fear, and empathy and used ‘innovative’ film editing. A theme known throughout Hitchcock’s is ‘fugitives on the run from the law alongside icy cold blonde female characters’. They also all have twist endings, violence, murder and crime.   His techniques are so established that no thriller film is complete without using one of his techniques. ‘Hitch’ as he was also known by has influenced many thriller directors such as Stanley Kubrick, Robert Zemeckis and better known Tim Burton. As another name of his, he truly is ‘the master of suspense’.

DAVID FINCHER

David Andrew Leo Fincher born August 28^th 1962. David Fincher is a well known American film and music video director. He is well known for his movies, seven (1995) The game (1997) Fight club (1999) Panic room (2002) and Zodiac (2007).

Fincher has received many awards for his movies. Fincher received academy award nominations foe best director for his movie, The curious case of Benjamin button in 2008. He recently was awarded a BAFTA for best director and a Golden globe for his film the social network. His recent movie was 2011’s The girl with the Dragoon Tattoo.

Fincher was a young aspiring film director, he began to shoot his own movies at the tender age of eight years old using a 8mm camera after being inspired by the movie Butch Cassidy and John the Sundance Kid. His first job was loading cameras and doing other work for John Korty at Korty films. He used this experience to climb the ladder to director instead of going to a film school. After working for John Korty he was hired by Industrial Light and Magic in 1983. Fincher worked on productions like twice upon a star, star wars: episode VI-return of the Jedi and Indiana Jones and the temple of doom.  In 1984 he left ILM to direct commercials for the American Cancer Society. His most controversial piece was a commercial showing a foetus smoking a cigarette. This lead to Fincher to the opportunity to direct the commentary The Beat of the Live Drum featuring Rick Springfield in 1985. Fincher later joined Propaganda Films to improve his directing skills. He then moved on to feature films.

David Fincher’s first feature movie was Alien 3 in 1992. The film received an Oscar for its visual effects the film was hit hard by critics reviews. Fincher went on to have disputes with 20^th Century Fox over script and budget issues. In the “director’s cut” Fincher went back to directing commercials and music videos, during this time Fincher directed the Grammy Award winning track ‘Love Is Strong’ by The Rolling Stones.

In 1995 Fincher made his debut back into feature films by directing the movie seven. The film starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. The film grossed $11 million domestically and over $300 million internationally. Arnold Kopelson the chairman of new line cinema, refused to allow the filming of the ending climatic scene, with the aid of Brad Pitt, who said he would not be involved with the film if the ending was changed, which allowed Fincher to include the scene in the final Cut.

In 1997 Fincher directed The Game. The film was well received by critics but still got middling results in the box office. T he film starring Michael Douglass grossed $14.3 million on its opening weekend. It made $48.3 million in North America and $6.1 million in the rest of the world. This made a total gross of $109.4 million.

Fincher then went directed Fight Club 1999. The film featuring Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter and Brad Pitt. The film was an early disappointment at the box office and received many mixed reviews, the film went on then ruined by critics and alienated audiences leading to a box office failure in the US.  Later many critics and audiences changed their perspectives of the film and the film went on to appear on ‘best of the year list’.

In 2002 Fincher added to his impressive portfolio with the amazing Thriller movie Panic Room. Starring Jodie Foster and Kristen Stewart. The film grossed $92 million in the US box office alone. Fincher himself describes the movie as mainstream thriller. He described the film as a “date movie” and a “really good B movie” about “2 people trapped in a closet”.

Fincher returned with vengeance 5 year later. In 2007 Fincher directed the movie Zodiac. The film starred Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr, Anthony Edwards and Brian Cox.  The film was filmed mainly using a Thompson Viper Film Stream Camera. High speed cameras were used to shoot for the Blue Rock Springs and Presidio Heights murder scenes slow-motion shots. It was meant to be released earlier but had to be set back as Fincher refused to cut 20 minutes off the end of the movie.  Zodiac was one of the best reviewed films of that year, but even so the film struggled in the US box office. The film only grossed $33 million. The film did better overseas grossing $51.7 million. After an aggressive campaign by the studio and expectations of Robert Downey Jr’s supporting performance, Fincher directing and Vanderbilt’s script the film did not earn any Academy Award nominations.

QUENTN TARANTINO

Quentin Jerome Tarantino born March 27^th 1963 is an American film director, screenwriter, produced, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990’s Tarantino began his career as an independent film maker with films employing non linear storylines and the aestheticization of violence. Tarantino is well known for his films, Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill (2003,4), Death Proof (2007), Inglorious Bustards (2009) and upcoming movie (Django Unchained (2012). He has earned Academy Awards, Golden Globes, a BAFTA and the plame d’OR, as well as numerous Emmy and Grammy nominations.  His movies tend to be characterised by his influence from grindhouse, kung fu sand spaghetti western. Tarantino also collaborates frequently with fellow film maker and friend Robert Rodriquez.

Tarantino met Lawrence Bender at a Hollywood party, Bender encouraged Tarantino to write a screenplay. Tarantino directed and co-wrote a movie called my best friend’s birthday, during editing the film was destroyed in a lab fire but its screenplay would form the basis for True Romance. In January 1992 Reservoir Dogs screened and was an immediate h it with audiences and critics. True Romance was released in 1993 and his screenplay Natural born killers was sold. As of the success of reservoir dogs Tarantino was approached by big Hollywood projects such as Speed and Men In Black. He decided to declines these offers and instead go to Amsterdam and finish work on his next screenplay Pulp Fiction. After the screenplay pulp fiction was finished Tarantino directed episode 4 of Four Rooms. ‘The Man From Hollywood’ a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock presents which starred Steve McQueen. Four rooms was a collaborative effort by Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell and Robert Rodriguez. This film was not favoured by critics. Tarantino wrote and starred in Robert Rodriguez film From Dusk Till Dawn.  The film got mixed reviews buy yet had 2 sequels which saw Tarantino and Rodriguez as executive producers.

Typical synopsis of a thriller...

History of Thrillers...

The genre of thriller has been in the film business for roughly 70 years. Various directors have gained their acclaim for success through the thriller genre. Here is a picture from the website timerime which shows the progression of thriller films...

Here are summaries of just a few of them...

Rebecca was made in 1940 and was amongst the first lot of films in the thriller genre. It was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and stars Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. Rebecca was the first film to be shown at the 1st Berlin International Film Festival and set the bar for thriller films: it won two Academy Awards (which included Best Picture) and both the lead actors aswell as Judith Anderson were nominated for Oscar awards. Based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier, the story centres on a young woman who has recently married a man and moved into his mansion, only to find herself being haunted by his ex wife.The picture is filmed in all black and white which is what Hitchcock wanted to give the film a darker edge and atmosphere. Rebecca was Alfred Hitchcock's first film to be made in Hollywood.


 

Psycho was made in 1960 and was again directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It starred Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, John Gavin and Vera Miles. Psycho was nominated for four Academy Awards even though it got mixed reviews. It is generally considered to be one of the best films Hitchcock made. The story focusses on a young woman who steals money so her and her lover can get married, but it comes with serious consequences. Psycho was the last picture Hitchcock filmed in black and white - he thought if it was in colour, it would be too gory to watch. He used various camera shots and lenses to help give the audience a deeper sense of realism.

The Shining was made in 1980 and was directed by Stanley Kubrick. It stars Jack Nicholson as the main protagonist and is based on a man who takes a job at a hotel only to find it does strange things to him and therefore to his family. The Shining is based on the novel by Stephen King. Stanley Kubrick forced the cast and crew to re-take scenes over and over again for a lot of crucial scenes and distinct shots. The Shining has been  named as one of the top ten most scariest films ever.

Pulp Fiction was made in 1994 and was directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars John Travolta, Samuel L.Jackson and Uma Thurman-all of them were nominated for Academy Awards for the film. Pulp Fiction is based on a intersected and knitted group of LA 'mobsters'. Tarantino has a very unique style and a love for crime and violence being used in his films. Pulp Fiction was named the 94th Greatest Movie of All Time by the American Film Institute.

Inception was made in 2010 and was directed by Christopher Nolan. It stars numerous actors and actresses including Leonardo DiCaprio. It is based on a world based on technology of humans and how they deal with it when strange things start to happen. Inception was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won five of them. Nolan uses many large scale shots and created one of the most interesting thriller films of the twenty first century

Potential Problem!

How the actors are getting to the shoot?
Amy can drive and as she is James' girlfriend, we can probably ask them to come together, will confirm whether that will happen later. Connor will get a lift with either Abbie or Maisy. For the second shoot, I will get the bus up to Gravesend to meet everyone there. We are beginning filming at 12pm on both days for continuity.

Group meeting 5th December

Connor confirmed that he will be our second actor, pictures of him to follow.
Shooting should start on the 19th December at my house (South Darenth) from 12pm & on the 20th December at 12pm (Gravesend.) Pictures of locations are to follow.
Another meeting will follow tomorrow (we will also begin to create our timeline & storyboard in this time.)
All actors have agreed to show up to the shoot.

Costumes

For actor 1 (James) he will have two main outfits: the army outfit & a coat with jeans. We have an army all in one which we will cover up the fact it is an all in one. The coat & jeans, James will have but we will possibly change it to a trench coat. For Amy (the female) we were thinking of her wearing a night gown or dressing gown or possible tracksuit to show she has been lonely since her husband went to war. The other actor, possibly Connor, will have a hoodie and jeans. We will cover up his face, it seems very horror film-ish at the start but that is intentional as it is a thriller. There will be no murders or anything horror-y apart from their outfits.

Actors Pictures (& Pictures of relevenace towards the shoot)

We have permission to use these photos in our shoot and for our blog.

 Main actor: James Mann. He has already said that he will be able for the shoot on Monday 19th December & Tuesday 20th December. Amy (girl in the picture with him) may possibly be used. Waiting to hear back from our second main actor.




We decided to use these actors as we decided that they would be the best suitable to portray our characters. Overall our piece will contain 3 characters (including connor featured in a later post). James will play our main character whose stroy will be followed by the audience. He will portray a man who has OCD whose family has dissapeared and he is trying to find them.
Amy will play the girlfriend/wife of James's character. She will feature in the jump cut alongside James.
Connor will play the mysterious character who is seen lurking behind James's character in most shots. The audoence will never see Connors whole face, only the bottom half as we want to keep the audience interested and intrigued.

We decided to use these actrors because they are known by members in the group so we know we can trust them. Also we wanted actors who looked older for their age but still mainting that youthfull look as we didnt want to use older actors.

Synopsis Of Our Thriller - Dead By Alliance

An ex soldier returns home after being away from his loved ones for years, things have changed and everything he has ever known is a lie. Will he ever get his old life back? Or will he finally be broken?

Group meeting 1/12/11