After looking at some of Kyle Coopers work and some of his thriller opening sequences, I've realised what needs to be incoorporated into our own thriller opening sequence. The main points which i now feel are very important are:

• leave a suspense for the rest of The story line
• make sure that the audience knows that the genre is thriller
• have some shock factor
• use music very carefully

• I really like his idea of developing the title line throughout the sequence, and am now hoping to use this technique in our opening scene.

Kyle Cooper

Kyle Cooper.

 

A modern designer of motion picture title sequences.

these include sequences in films such as-

Zoolander

Spider man

Iron man

The Incredible Hulk

Sherlock Holmes

 The Orphan

 

Being the creator of these sorts of title sequences, gives him the important job of setting a good expectation for a film, and drawing in the audience. Looking over some of his most creatively valued work I seemed to get an idea of what he was trying to do, such as create suspense and portray the genre of film. in one of his most recognised sequences, Se7en we know its going to be a thriller due to the police pictures of someones hands, we also see someone writing something. this suggests to us that someoen is plannign something possibly with a grusome outcome, which is helped by the music.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



We pitched our thriller idea to the media team, this is the powerpoint that we showed them-

We gained some positive and negative feed back.
One of the main points which we realised that we had to change was the fact we would be relying on the acting too much and need to concentrate more on the camera movement. Another would be the fact that the film could possibly end up turning into a drama, seeing how the mother copes with her son being mentally ill, therefore we would need to focus more on the son and only briefly see her and maybe don't use the point of view shot. We thought that to draw the attention towards the son more we would have a voice over leading up to the killing creating a different story line.

During editing the prelim I learnt various different things which I will put into practise when filming and editing the thriller. For instance, we had to check in and out of final cut pro. Firstly we watched our shots then put them in order, then cut them down so they ran smoothly into one another. However due to continuity this proved very difficult and we learned that we had to plan all the shots we wanted to do. I also learnt about log bin, which we put all the useful clips in, as some clips were accidental and were useless.

 However I really enjoyed editing as it was interesting to see how much better a scene was than just watching it all as a wide shot, close up on faces and closing doors made it more intense. Sometimes we didn't need to use the lines in a shot, we could just zoom in on a persons face, for instance when someone turns round to see who is coming through the door, we know they are scared without having to speak.

I found it fairly difficult to put the shots in order and I had to keep referring to the first wide shot that we did, as many of the other shots were just one line from the script. I also found it difficult to cut the shots down to fit with the next, to make a story board, and we had to be careful not to overlap lines. 

 If I could do it again I would would put everything in order before starting to edit them. If we had planned out what shots we were doing for each line it would have made filming quicker and editing simpler. 

As a team I felt we worked well together, we each took it in turns to take control of editing but we all imputed equally.

Idea for thriller opening scene

I based my ideas on a massacre that was in the media a few years ago when a teenage boy killed some people in his school them killed himself, as he was mentally ill.

I feel like this could be a good thriller as it involved psychological problems and killings. It will also be easy to film. 

I imagine the opening as the killer walking along the street and we only see the top of his back. Along the side people would be looking at him strangely but the audience would not know why. Whilst walking we see distorted flashes of what has just happened (  which was a mass killing at his school). This carries on until he gets to the door and we see his blood covered hand knock on the door. Then switching to a camera from inside the house the door is opened and there is a gun pointing straight at the camera,the boys face looks crazy and he is covered in blood and filth. There is a gun shot at the same time as black out.
  
I think that whilst we see the boy walking along the middle of the street would be a good  time to put in the subtitles. I would put the subtitles in the bottom right and alter the camera to make the boy walking in the top left, as this is where eyes are naturally diverted to.

Inception, opening scene to thriller analysis.

This is the opening scene of inception:

 

SOUND-

•There is a full orchestra gradually getting louder and louder, creating a more dangerous mood. It is quite triumphant, there are lots of horns and strings this makes the film seem very important with large widespread issues, this is accompanied when we see the sea, as this covers the entire planet.  Serious.

•All of this is non-diegetic sound, which means it cannot be heard by the characters.

•This incorporates that fact that this movie is a serious thriller

We then hear the sounds of the waves crashing, this signifies power and destruction, its very natural. This could also be metaphorical of the destruction and power that the character on the beach had encountered. The fact that the character has been in distress reminds us that it is a thriller.

MIS-EN-SCENE-

•There is only one single building, this generates the idea of seclusion and therefore putting the character at risk and creating suspense.

•Then he is prodded by a gun, gun represents violence which is majorly featured in thrillers. When the man is standing he is blocking the light, this makes him seem like the ‘baddie’, as light usually signifies good things.

•Looking at the characters acting, we can see that he is emotionally attached to the children in some way, as he really strains himself trying to look up at them as if he really wants to go and see them he even tries to reach out with his hand. This starts to create a story around the character.

CAMERA-

•Medium close up of man half dead, on the beach, alone. Which creates questions as to why he is there and why is he almost dead, an enigma. The fact that death is involved already in the film brings us back to the idea that it is a thriller.

•When we see the man with the gun we see him from below, this puts him in  a position of power making the protagonist more vulnerable. The fact that there are guards with guns on duty at all suggests that this area is a place of importance, this then incorporates the idea that this is a serious thriller.

EDITING-

•The child shown on the beach from his perspective is shown in slow motion which makes him seem dizzy and dream like, which reinforces the fact that the movie is a psychological thriller.

•Before we see the child, the sound of him laughing had been edited in whilst the camera is still on the man. This implies to us that the man is hearing the child.

Preliminary Task

In our preliminary task, we made a short scene with six different shots-

1. a wide shot
2. over the shoulder
3. a close up
4. another wide shot
5. over the shoulder of the other person
6. a close up of the same person

We also had to apply the 180 degree rule ( explained in another post) so that when the audience watched it they would know that the two characters always stay on the same side. We aso used various different close ups of pacing feet and doors closing. these were not required but we felt it gave the scene more drama.

This was the script which we had to follow, and create a scene around it, we did this simply by putting a gun into the scene, instantly making the scene more interesting. We filmed it in this room In our scene, we used a fake gun, I walked into the room and thrust the gun at the other person they then said their line gave it back, refusing to come then I walked out again. During this small scene we used all six of the shots above.

 I took the role as the actor, I also occasionally helped with directing and camera when we were just shooting the other person. I learnt that the further you zoom into a persons face the more you see their emotions, meaning that the acting has to be convincing.

I enjoyed working as the actor because it gave me another view of how filming works, and made me consider how i should work when filming next time.

I felt that our group worked well together, however I felt that we could have worked quicker and then may have fitted more shots in. I also felt that even though I was in front of the camera, I had to step in and see what they were doing which was often not correct. This meant that eventually I had to take charge which was difficult as I was not behind the camera. If i could do the task again I would put myself behind the camera, I would also take more time to concentrate on continuity. However I did feel that our choice of location was good, as there was a clear area for filming and somewhere to walk in and out of.

We shot a few additional shots of the gun, pacing feet and the door closing. The pacing feet gave a suspense, as we didn't know who the person was, it also showed anxiousness before even seeing their face. The door closing would signify the fact that the character has gone out to kill someone.