Second Preliminary Task

For our preliminary task we had to create a short film of some body entering a room where a short conversation took place. The film that we created had to have continuity, meaning that the sequence should flow smoothly with no glitches in the piece. For this task we had to get into groups of three. My group consisted of Holly, Samson and myself.

To begin we brainstormed ideas for our 'conversational' footage. We came up with different ideas, many being absurd ones. We finally decided on creating a piece where a character enters a doctor's room, where they consequently create a conversation, containing a comical element.

The first shot we produced was a worm's eye view of my own character walking along a corridor. We choose this shot as it successfully generates a difference in status type of feeling. Also as a manual effect, we shook the camera slightly every type my character took a step to emphasize the mass of the person.

The next shot was a medium shot of my character walking to the door and stopping in front of it. This medium shot allowed the audience to understand a bit more about the location of this shoot. The following shot was a pan, which allowed the audience get to know the character in more detail, where the camera slowly studies his body and the audience are finally allowed to see his face in more detail.

As my character walked into the room and sat down, we experimented with a few over the shoulder shots, and a two shot. It was very interesting to shoot these scenes as we had to hardly move as the actors because it will distrupt the continuity of our footage if we moved too much.

Thrillers Codes and Conventions

In our lesson we brain stormed some ideas of what we believed should be included in a successful thriller sequence. Some of the ideas were: Flash backs, supernatural, puzzles, jumpy music, dark lighting, suspense, mystery, cliff hanger, plot twist, unusual angles and many more.

All of these techniques can help add to the thriller effect. The main objective of a thriller film is to make the audience feel tense possibly surprising them; keeping them engaged with the film. This technique of creating or increasing tension and suspense, can be achieved by many different methods. One method to keep the audience on the edge of their seats, is too use music and sounds/noises. Jumpy music can be played to surprise the audience and introduce a jumpy part. Significant sounds to each film can create the same effect (e.g. a baby crying).

When making my own thriller opening sequence with my group, we shall try to input these ideas and methods into our piece. By doing so we can increase our chances into successfully forming a thriller sequence.

An Introduction to Production Brief

For this year of AS Media, we have been asked to make an opening sequence including the titling section, of a made up thriller movie. For this big task we are to group ourselves into groups of three, to film and participate in (if you want to) a beginning sequence. The short film that we shall capture will need to be a few minutes long and include techniques of thriller movies to make it successful.

I am personally very excited to create this piece of work especially as it will be a new experience for myself, seeing as I haven't worked much with cameras before. I am optimistic about how my sequence will evolve as I have alot of ideas to include in the film. I am interested to learn more about the camera and hopefully shoot some footage myself, but I am also very excited about possibly particiapting as an actor within our piece.

An Introduction to Shot Types

To begin our Media lessons, we talked about different shot types and learnt what they are. First of all we learnt about the basic shots of extreme long shot all the way down to extreme close up. In this task we found pictures that were examples of these shots. Here is an example of a medium shot:

Subsequently, we progressed onto learning about the 'angle' shots. Which include: worms eye, low angle, high angle, birds eye and canted eye level. These angle shots also create different moods. We then learnt about even more shots. I was really excited to learn about the variation of shots and interested to realise the range of shots that I could be using during filming.

Lastly we then looked at movement shots. Due to there not being many photographs of movement shots we looked up the definitions of these shot types. I was surprised to recognise the movement shots for the definitions given.