Planning Opening Credits - Miss Georgiou

 The purpose of opening credits is to not only show the production of the film as well as the title, but it sets the mood of the film by the use of different style of fonts and effects used in the credits. Also, it lets the audience know what the film is going to be about. Moreover, the actors are shown and so the audience know who they are about to watch and who plays what role.

We analysed the film Se7en opening credits so that we know what order our credits should be in what the layout should be like. From looking at the colour of the font used it is in white, this contrasts with the black background. This not only makes the writing easier to read when on top of a dark image but it symbolises the victims innocence and purity where as the dark background symbolises the antagonist and how he is dark and twisted as well as it representing death. As well as this use of black and white there is also hints of red throughout the opening credits, this use of red represents blood to the audience and that there is a lot of danger in this film but also that the victim will most likely be killed in the end. During the opening credits many thriller conventions and element's are portrayed such as tension being created, this is done through the way the images and text on screen are seen at a fast pace. This relates to the theme of an enigma, which is a reoccurring theme throughout Se7en, this is because by the images being fast it causes them to become unclear to the audience about what they are of, causing the enigma. Furthermore, Morgan Freeman's and Brad Pitt's names are shown before the title and the rest of the actors. This is done to show the audience who are the important and most famous actors within the film are and so it helps in promoting the film by having the famous, well known people first. Additionally, by showing there names first it draws the audience in as if they are fans of either actor then it will draw the audience in and keep them focused in watching the rest of the film. 

This is the title and production company design that i created using final cut pro. My title was positioned in centre of the page compared to the production company name, which i had positioned in the top left hand corner.The strengths of my design ideas are that it is conventional to the thriller genre this is because the title contains the colour red, which represents death and blood as well as anger. Also, the white contrasts with the black symbolising the victim (white writing) and the antagonist (black background) showing how the antagonist is bigger, stronger and has power over the innocent victim. On the other hand my design also has weaknesses. These include that the font of the production company in my design could be in a different colour, like a bight red so that it stands out more against the title and matched the titles shadow. Also, this would make the title more bold and stand out more against the other credits. Furthermore, the effect could be taken of the title to make the red shadow more bright and conventional so that it would against the white writing. Although me and my group have not decided on a title for our thriller sequence, we have decided upon using a short one worded title. This is because it is simple for the audience to remember compared to a longer title, which might not then fit on one line.

Group Member: Samara Stevenson 

Strengths:

A strength of Samaras' production and title design are that the glow effect she has use on her text makes it stand out against the black background. Furthermore, her design is conventional as it uses dark colours, which can represent death, power and mystery. This fits in with the themes we are using throughout our group narrative.

Weaknesses: 

Samaras weakness in her design are that she could use a brighter red so that it contrasts more with the black background, which would then make it more conventional as by using a brighter red it could then symbolise blood and danger. Additionally, she used and unconventional font 'Birch Std' this is not very rigid and does not symbolise the unstable mind of the antagonist or the type of rigid dangerous weapons the antagonist might use.

Group Member: Leo Ly 

Strengths: 

A strength of Leo's work is that the font he has used and the way he has edited it to make it unique. Also, his font is conventional to the thriller genre and it is rigid and so it could represent either the mind of the antagonist being unstable and mental or it could represent the sharp edged on the knife, which is the antagonist's weapon.

Weaknesses: 

The colour red is not very and bright, therefore, compared to the white title it does not stand out as much. Which, is a weakness for Leo's design and so to improve it he should make the red slightly brighter and bolder. However, these colours are conventional as the red symbolises blood, death and danger where as the white represents the innocence and purity of the victim.

In summary i think me and my group will most likely choose Leo's design for our opening credits this is because the use of his glow effect and the font he used is effective in making his credits fit in with the thriller genre. However, we will include some of the strengths from mine and Samara's designs to incorporate with his. For example, i think from my design we will take the effect of the red shadow as we all agreed this was effective and conventional as it portrays danger also, it forebodes that there will be blood and death. Whereas, from Samara's design we will include the idea of making the films title and the rest of the credits the same colour and the way she has made the title bigger than the production companies name. This is effective as it makes the title more bold and stand out so that the audience know this is the title of the film, which the audience are more interesting in knowing than who produced the film. Furthermore, this is conventional to thriller film opening credits as they usually show the title as being bigger than the other text, as well as this they usually also have the credits all in the same colour, which is usually red or white as they are conventional colours to the genre. This is because red symbolised blood and white portrays innocence and purity from the victim.
The order that the opening credits will go in are:

Production company - Peach Tree Productions

Director - Layla

Actors - Leo and Rhiannon

Title of film - The Clown

Casting - Fred

Music - Charles

Costumes - Sarah

Editors - Leo, Layla, Samara

Camera operator - Samara

Co-producer - Leo

Producer - Samara

Writers - Leo, Layla, Samara

We will show them in this order as this is the order used in the thriller Se7en and this is also the order used in most thrillers and so it is conventional to the thriller genre.

Individual Storyboard - Miss Miller

The purpose of a storyboard is to plan out the each scene and to write what shots and what editing techniques will be used. This is useful because without planning your storyboard you could forget certain shots. Additionally, this it makes your idea easier to show other people if they can picture what is going to happen in each seen as well as it making the filming part of your narrative quicker as you already know how to lay everything out.

Before creating our group storyboard we have created individual ones first, this is so that we can incorporate everyone's individual ideas when we create out group one to make our sequence the best we can. This will help by us to be able to easily make our final group storyboard compared to if we had just made our group storyboard first. This is because we would not of been able to show the rest of the group how we think the sequence should be filmed and so our ideas might not of been clear and then not incorporated. Where as now they can see a clear image of what we think it will look like and so they are able to imagine incorporating our storyboards together. 

In my storyboard i have included what is going to happen in each scene. For example, at the start of my storyboard i have shown how the clown will be getting ready looking into a mirror. He will then pick up a picture of a young girl, which causes a flashback showing him leaving a note in her bag. After this, we then see the girl find the note before walking to where the note tells her to go, we then see through the pictures that the antagonist sneaks up behind the girl and knocks her out. Finally, the storyboard then shows the girl tied up in the corner of a dark room, before it changing to the antagonist with a knife covered in blood and then shows the girl laying there dead.

Each part of the scene has afferent elements involved, for example, when the girl walks down and find pictures of her self we will use a reaction shot. This is to not only show her reaction and emotion on her face but it also creates tension and shock for the audience because they don't know either why her pictures are all around the alley. Furthermore, i will also use low key lighting a lot throughout the sequence but especially towards the end when the girl is tied up in the corner of a dark isolated room. This low key lighting is used to foreshadow that something bad is going to happen to her, which is conventional to the thriller genre as it creates suspense for the audience because they don't know what is going to happen to her or when it is going to happen. I have also planned in my storyboard to use different types of editing. For instance, i have planned to use the kuleshov effect at the end of the sequence when the innocent girl is killed. Although, the audience will know it is the antagonist who has killed her this still creates and enigma because they don't know what has really happened. 

I expect the audience to react in a good way towards my sequence i have planned on my storyboard. This is because i think it includes many conventional thriller aspects, such as a female victim and a masked antagonist. Moreover, it is a easy to follow narrative, yet it is still interesting because of the different conventions and editing styles i have chose to include. 

Inspirations for my storyboard have been taken from various films, which i have analysed in previous post's. One inspiration is the use of the kuleshov effect, i got this from the film orphan when i researched into editing styles. I took this inspiration as i believe it creates suspense and tension for the audience, which is needed to keep the audience interested and engaged in the thriller sequence. Another inspiration was the use of a knife for the antagonists weapon, this was taken from the thriller film scream made in 1996, which i analysed in my research into sound post. I used this inspiration as by using a everyday kitchen item such as a knife for the weapon, the audience can easily relate to it. This causes the audience to feel more sympathy and create a better relationship between the victim and the audience. I also took the inspiration of a masked antagonist, with a hidden identity. This convention was taken from the film scream 4, which was released in 2011. This inspiration creates a sense os suspense as well as an enigma for the audience as they do not know who the antagonist is and so it keeps them engaged, wanting to find out who is behind what is happening and what there motives for there actions are. Furthermore, it also helps is creating a beer relationship between the victim and the audience as neither the audience or the victim know who the antagonist is, this means that the audience can understand how the victim is feeling.

Me and my group will incorporate each others ideas from our individual storyboards when we create our group one, we will do this so that our overall scoreboard is the best that it can be. To do this we will talk about what elements of each others storyboards are good and what parts are bad, and so we will then combine all the good sections together to create our overall sequence. When me and my group combine our individual storyboard ideas to create our final group one i hope that they include my idea of the kuleshov effect at the end of the thriller sequence. This editing technique i hope for us to include as i think it creates suspense and an enigma for the audience, this is vital in keeping the audience engaged and interested and wanting to watch more. Additionally, i hope they take my idea of using a reaction shot when the victim, Jenny, first see's all the photo's of herself in the alley. This is because if the audience can see the characters reaction as soon as this happens then they can connect with how the victims character is feeling. Also, the audience can see the shock on the victims face, which then creates shock for the audience as well as tension as they audience start to question who put the pictures there and what is going to happen next.

Overall i think my individual storyboard is good as it shows a clear outline of what i expect to see within my groups opening sequence and it provides what types of shots, sound and editing techniques i would like to use. However, some issues i have with my storyboard is that the drawings could be better and could include more detail, which as a result would make what I'm trying to show through my storyboard more clear. On the other hand this is not a big issue because i have clear descriptions os what is happening underneath each picture. Another issue is that i have not included how long each slide will last in seconds. However, the reason behind me not doing this is because i was unsure on how long each section should last. But, when me and my group make out final group storyboard we will be ale to discuss how long each slide should last.

In regards to filming my thriller sequence making my individual storyboard is helpful as it means i am more organised before filming with my group and we know what is going to happen though out the sequence. Therefore, we know what to expect and how it should look overall and so when we come to editing our sequence and inputing sound we know what sounds and what editing techniques to use. Also, our storyboard will be helpful as we can refer to it as a plan for when we film and how everything should be set out. 

Planning Characters - Miss Miller

The purpose of characters in a film is to help the audience relate to the narrative and to help them stay engaged in the film by using characters they can relate to. Additionally, if there were no characters in a film then the narrative would not make sense ad there would not be a plot for the audience to follow. Therefore, planning our characters is important to do before filming our sequence so that we know what we want the characters to look like as well as how we want them to be portrayed.

My Groups Characters Planning Sheet

Our first character is a female victim, she is age 17 and her name is Jenny. She is a sixth form student who does well in school, achieving the highest grades. In our thriller sequence she will be wearing a dress, which is white. By her wearing a dress it fits in with her being clever as it is a smart outfit for a young women to wear. Additionally, by her wearing the colour white it symbolises to the audience her purity and her innocence, which lets the audience know she is the victim and that she is vulnerable. Jenny’s figure and structure is quite small and petite, this emphasises that compared to her the antagonist is stronger and more dominant and as a result she wont be able to fight back. Moreover, Jenny’s character is stereotypical to the thriller genre as she is presented as being weak, vulnerable, hopeless and innocent because of this she is then an antagonist’s obvious target within a thriller. Furthermore, this then causes the audience to build a strong relationship with Jenny’s character as they feel sorry for her and fear for her life knowing she is the victim and that she is going to be killed at some point by the antagonist.

My other character for our thriller sequence is the male antagonist, age 32 and because he is unknown the victim and the audience he does not have a name. In comparison to the victims clothing, the antagonist will be wear a black tracksuit with his hood up, this is intimidating towards the victim and the audience. Also, the colour black resembles dark, power, evil and death. This is conventional to the thriller genre and the antagonist as he has a twisted evil and dark mind, this leads him to carry out a murder as well as this he also has power over his victims. Moreover, he will wear a clown mask to keep his identity hidden so neither the audience nor the victim knows who the antagonist is throughout the sequence. This creates and enigma for the audience as they want to know who he is and what his motives are, which is conventional to the genre. The antagonist’s character is mentally unstable this is due to the fact he did not have a good up bringing as he did not have a father figure to look up to when he was a young child. This leads to why he’s victims and all females and as to why he has many pictures of women in his room because when he was young he was always around females. Furthermore, the antagonist is a stereotypical character to the thriller genre as his murder weapon is a knife, this is a common weapon used by antagonist throughout thrillers. Also, he will be portrayed to the audience as a stereotypical character as when he knocks out and kidnaps the young women or when he kills her he does not hesitate, as he is not afraid to her hurt and actually enjoys doing this. In addition, his character wears a mask, this creates tension for the audience as they don’t know his true identity and so it keeps the audience engaged, as they want to watch and find out more.

In conclusion, I think that our two characters in our thriller sequence are stereotypical to the thriller genre as they are what the audience would expect to see. This is due to the way they are dressed and presented to the audience and their role within the sequence is obvious. Both the victim and the antagonist will emphasise the genre of the sequence as the victim is a young, vulnerable female and the antagonist wears a mask and also carries a knife. These main aspects of the characters help in creating the main conventional elements in a thriller, which are shock, surprise, suspense and tension. In addition, the audience will stay interested and engaged in the thriller because of this. Moreover, I found planning the characters before filming helpful, as it has helped me and my group to think about the characters individual personalities and make character profiles on them. Also, with the female victim we can imagine she is like outside of the situation she is put in once she has been kidnapped and with the antagonist, we now know his reason for killing young women, as we know more about his person life. As well as this by planning our characters before we can also now imagine what the characters will look like and how they will act.

Planning Editing Styles - Miss Georgiou

Editing styles are important in thriller films this is because they help to create shock, surprise, suspense, tension and a enigma. These elements are conventional to the genre as they help in keeping the audience keeping the audience interested and engaged. Furthermore, by using different types of editing style it helps the audience in building a relationship with each character as the editing styles help to show the individuals characters emotions, which the audience can then relate to. 

My Groups Editing Planning Sheet

The first editing style me and my group are going to use in our sequence is timing of shots. This will be used when the female victim is walking through the alley by herself on her way to meet the unknown person who left her a note. At first the timing of shots will be slow as she is alone as she is walking slowly until she notices her pictures on the walls all around her in the alley. Then the antagonist will grab her and knock her out as this happens the timing of shots will change from slow to fast. The slow timing of shots at the start of this scene build up tension and suspense implying to the audience that something bad is about to happen to the innocent young girl. This helps in building a relationship between the audience and the victims character as they sympathise for her. However, once it then changes to fast timing of shots, there is the element of surprise because the audience did not know the antagonist has followed her down the alley. Therefore, this use of timing of shots is conventional to the thriller genre and out sequence as it helps in creating the elements tension, suspense and surprise by the scene suddenly becoming more dangerous. Additionally, the audience are then questioning what is going to happen next and so there is also and enigma, all this helps in keeping the audience engaged.

Timing Of Shots

Fade In/Fade Out Shot

The next editing style we all use is a fade out followed by a fade in shot. We will use this when the antagonist knocks out the victim in the alley way and so the image on the screen will fade to black. This is to represent the victim becoming unconscious and her eyes closing, showing that the antagonist has hurt her. Therefore, the audience know that the antagonist does not care what he does to her and that she is weak and vulnerable. The fade in shot will then be used when the victim wakes up from being unconscious and she is tied up and helpless in a dark room. The use of the fade in shot straight after the fade out shot is to show her now waking up. It will be from her point of view as if her eyes are now opening. These two shots helps the audience build a relationship with the victim as they are scared for her and her safety while she is unconscious and even once she has woken up. Also, they know that she must be feeling confused and unaware of what is going on similar to how they would be feeling while watching. This is because neither the audience or the victims character know who the antagonist is or what his motives are for the female victim. Moreover, this is conventional as it builds up tension for the audience. This is due to the fact they don't know what is going to happen next to the young women and if she is going to escape from the unknown antagonist. 

Reaction Shot

Another type of editing technique we will use is a reaction shot. This will be used when the antagonist enters the dark room where the victim ins tied up hopelessly in the corner and he slowly walks towards the victim, scraping the knife along the wall. We are going to use the victims point of view shot as the antagonist first enters before then changing to the reaction shot of the victim. The audience will then be able to see the victim crying and screaming. This will show that she is frightened and although she doesn't know what will happen next, she knows that she is in great danger. The audience can relate to this and they don't know either what is going to happen, however, they can guess that the antagonist is most likely going to kill her with the knife. Furthermore, the audience build a negative relationship with the antagonist as they now realise his motives for the young girl. Whereas the audience's relationship with the victim is the opposite to there relationship with the antagonist as they feel sympathetic, frightened and fear for her the females victims life as they desperately hope that she manages to get out alive. This is conventional to the thriller genre as it build up suspense for the audience because they don't know for sure what is going to happen next and so it keeps them engaged as they want to find out the ending. 

Kuleshov Effect

The final editing technique me and my group will use is the kuleshov effect. We will use this when the antagonist murders the victim, using his knife. However, the audience will not see this murder take place. Instead we will show the victims facial expressions of being scared, frightened and worried as the antagonist approaches her. The shot will then change to the antagonist holding his knife before changing back to the young female victim lying on the floor dead. Therefore, the audience will feel sorry for the vicim as she has been killed, they also can infer from the third meaning of this kuleshov effect that it was the masked clown antagonist that has killed her. Moreover, this is conventional to the genre thriller as it shocks the audience, this is because they don't expect the antagonist to kill her.

In conclusion, by planning our editing styles me and my group will use this is because it has helped us to understand where shock, surprise, suspense and tension will be found within out opening thriller sequence. Additionally, we can make our sequence more conventional to the genre as the type of editing styles we have decided on using creates different effects elements for the audience also, the editing styles we are going to use are stereotypical to the genre. Therefore, our editing will appeal to out target audience which is age 15 and over, this is people the techniques we have used create  lot os suspense and enigmas, which make the film more interesting to watch and help in keeping the audience engaged. 

Planning Sound - Miss Miller

Sound is a important within thriller films, this is because without it the there would not be much tension or suspense and so the audience would not be able to stay engage in the film as well and would lose interest easily as the film would then be less scary. Therefore, planning is required to help us in producing our sequence as it mean we know what sounds will go where before filing our sequence, and so we know what sounds will create shock, surprise, suspense and tension. The sounds used need to link in with images seen by the audience on screen as if they don't this could cause the audience to become confused. Additionally, it could effect the suspense which has been creates from the previous sound, which could result in the audience losing interest and no longer benign engaged in what they are watching.

My Groups Sound Planning Sheet

The first sound me and my group have decided to use is on-screen sound. This is going to be used at the start of the sequence when the antagonist is in his room getting ready and is listening to the radio. We will then use a radio voice over to announce how young women have been going missing, this will then imply to the audience that he is the antagonist and that he is up to something and the camera will be on him when the voice over occurs. This is because the audience can infer that he is involved with the warning said on the radio and so the audience fear for his next female victim. The impact this has on the audience is that they feel sympathetic towards the victim also they build a negative relationship with the antagonist as they start to understand his motives for his next victim. This type of on-screen sound is conventional as it forebodes that something bad is about to happen.

The second type of sound we will use is silence, we will use silence when the victim is alone in the a dark alley way on her way to meet whoever left her the secret admirer note. She then notices pictures of herself hanging all around her in the alley. This shows that she is frightened and vulnerable as she does not know what is going on and that she is in danger. When the silence occurs it makes he audience feel sympathetic towards the victim as the silence can foreshadow her silence once the antagonist kills her. Additionally, this also causes a closer relationship to form between the victim and the audience as they fear for the innocent young woman's life. Silence is conventional in a thriller as it builds up suspense and as a result keeps the audience engaged.

The next sound we will use is diegetic sound, this will be used when the victim is sitting alone tied up in the corner of a dark room and she has just woken up from when she had been knocked out in the alley. The antagonist then enters and while slowly walking towards the victim he scrapes his weapon, the knife, along the wall. This diegetic sound highlights to the audience that the antagonist has power over the victim, which makes the audience fear for the victim life as they do not know what is going to do to her. Also, as the audience does not know who the antagonist is it makes them question what he might do next as he could do anything. This sound is conventional as it demonstrates to the audience that the antagonist is more dominant compared to the victim, which creates suspense and keeps the audience engaged wanting to find out more about the antagonists motives and wondering what he will do to the victim. 

The last sound technique we will use is contrapuntal sound, this will also be used when the antagonist is scraping the knife against the wall walking towards the victim, who is tied up in the corner and appeared to at the audience as being hopeless and vulnerable. The contrapuntal sound we will use is happy circus music, this will play in the background. This relate's to the theme of having a clown antagonist however, it contrasts with the fact he is preparing to kill the innocent victim. It shows that the antagonist enjoys killing and kidnapping females after obsessing over them and that he gets a thrill from it. This use of contrapuntal sound builds a negative relationship between the audience and antagonist, as they know what his motives are for the victim and what is about to happen to her The use on contrapuntal sound creates tension for the audience, making this conventional to the thriller genre.

To conclude, i think that the type of sound techniques me and my group have decided to use will be effective in our sequence as they will help to build suspense. This will help in keeping the audience engaged and wanting to watch more to find out what will happen. The sounds we are using are conventional the the genre thriller, this is because they create the main elements: shock, surprise, suspense and tension as well as an enigma. I found it helpful in planning the sounds we are going to use in our sequence, this is because we now know what sounds we are going to use. Therefore, we know what element will be created by the sound, also, the characters will know how they should act to fit in with what sound is being used.