Directors Commentary

26/02/09 Final Lesson Before Deadline For Thriller

In today's lesson we completely finished our thriller. Our filming, editing and credits were all finished before today's lesson so all we did today was finishing off the music and creating the title to add the end of our thriller. Since there was only me and Ayse in today we decided to assign the music and title to one another, so we decided that I will finish off the music while Ayse does the title, we already discussed on what the title should look like and decided that it should be flashing on a black background. Before we started our individual jobs we decided on what to call the thriller and eventually decided on 'Retribution', which means punishment. I managed to finish the music and helped Ayse with the title, we added the music and title to our thriller and I was so relieved to have finished.

23/02/09 Second Lesson Creating The Music For The Thriller

In today's lesson we continued creating the music for the thriller we decided to add a base line at the start because it sounded plain. We decided to add a different track over the base line when the car starts moving to show to the audience that there is something not right with the car. When it gets to the shot of inside the car from the stalkers point of view we had the tempo increase, as the clip went on , and as Elaine gets faster the tension increases. We managed to get most of the music finished today all we need to do now is the end part of the music and the title next lesson.

12/02/09 Creating The Music For The Thriller

In today's lesson we started to create the music for our thriller in Soundtrack Pro. Since the credits were finished and so was the filming all we had to do was the music and title and we were done. The music we created today created tension, it starts of very quiet and as the scene goes on the music gets louder and the tempo gets faster. We showed what we have so far to our teacher and she gave us some feedback which was mostly good. She pointed out that our music does create the tension and that the film came together, good. There was one shot she said that needed to be cut down and that was the pan of the reflection of Elaine because it goes on for a bit to long and she gets too small at the end which is unnecessary.

05/02/09 Last Thriller Filming Session

Today was our last filming session as Elaine, the main character in the thriller, was going to be at drama all next week. We didnt have to film much just a couple of shots including a pan in which Elaine is reflected in a window. After we had filmed the few shots we needed we match cut it with the footage we already had and realised we had finished the filming part of the thriller and all we had to do now was the music in Soundtrack Pro and the title in LiveType. Since we had finished our task for today I decided to catch up on blogging.

29/01/09 Second Thriller Filming Session

In today's lesson we still had not heard anything from the people at Liverpool Street Station so we unanimously decided to film the car shots we needed. We had Mickey, the technician, driving the car in the shots. I filmed Elaine walking and eventually breaking into a run when she realises she is being followed by the car. For our long shot of inside the car we had Elaine walking down many different streets while I was in the car filming all the time without stopping I decided this would be best and we could cut which part we wanted when we came to editing. The hardest shot to film today was the shot of the rear view mirror because of a mixture of:

• Elaine being so far away from the car at the start of the shot
• the mirror having to be adjusted to the perfect angle to see Elaine
• the camera having to be held perfectly still and in the same position, otherwise the angle would be off and would not be able to see Elaine

When we had finished filming Mickey drove us back to college and as we had some time left we decided to edit the footage we had filmed now. I decided to stay at lunch to get it finished and as Elaine and Aziza never had lesson's after lunch they stayed on a bit longer as I had to go to lesson. We managed to match cut the footage and played it with the footage we filmed two lessons ago, and saw it coming together nicely with just a few shots and final touches needed. Through lunchtime we managed to create half of the credits and eventually I had to go to my next lesson but I later caught up with them and they told me they managed to finish the credits and added them to the film.

26/01/09 Editing Footage From First Thriller Filming Session

In today's lesson we edited the footage we filmed last lesson. We carefully cut and pasted each shot and match cut it. We fiddled about with the footage and basically to get the footage to flow we used trial and error until we were happy with the results. In the lesson everyone took turns editing at some point and we also set a task to anyone if they found themselves not doin anything and that was to think about potential titles for the film some that we came up with were:

• Dead End
• Tenacious
• End of the Line
• The Stranger
  

22/01/09 First Thriller Filming Session

In today's lesson it was our first filming session of our thriller and we already had a problem. On monday my group decided we were going to film at Liverpool Street Station, but today we found out from the our technician, Mickey, that to film there we must first get permission from them. We then agreed that it would be best not to go down there today in case we were not allowed to film there and it would be a day's filming wasted. We asked Mickey if he cold e-mail them for permission and if it was granted we would film the shots we needed from there next lesson. We decided to film in a quite back street not to far from the college today and given it was our first filming session it went well. Since I was the camara man it was up to me to get the shots we needed and set an example. I filmed elaine walking through an enclosed area of tall buildings with a series of shots. We got more than enough footage today and are ahead of shedule.

15/01/09 Selling Our Pitch

In today's lesson we had to give our pitch to our class and teacher. The first half of the lesson we were given a chance to practice and combine ideas, since we did most of the work individually for homework. Our pitch had to contain 8 main themes and they were:

• Main theme
• Setting/location
• Lighting
• Camara work
• Storyboard
• Key images
• Music
  
• Production Plan

The pitch itself had to last at least 10 minutes.
Since there was only me and Elaine giving the pitch we had a harder job than the other groups because there was just the two of us. I feel the pitch could have gone better but went ok considering we had two people missing, and we had to fill in the blanks that they left. Speaking was shared out between me and Elaine, I would say 1 paragraph and she would say the next etc. I think we had some good ideas and that we knew exactly what we were shooting and when, and that was 'a young woman coming home from work realises she is being followed by a stranger in a car. The tempo gets faster as the scene goes on and is left unresolved leaving the audience on a cliffhanger.

Thriller Evaluation

Our task was to create an opening sequence to a thriller, which was a minimum of two minutes. We had to think about different aspects to the film, which included sound, editing, camera angles and overall outline. In lessons leading up to filming we were shown a mixture of famous and AS college thriller scenes, some of which included The Shining, Arlington Road and 28 Days Later. We were shown these to try to influence and help with our own ideas, we also had to think about our target audience and implement these ideas into our thriller. We also learnt a brief of what constituted a thriller and we made a brainstorm of a mixture of different thrillers, a few of them were psychological, action and sci-fi thrillers.

The music for our thriller was influenced by many of the old suspenseful thriller films including Duel and Jaws, as they both use the music in a way to create the unknown scary even though you rarely get to see the villain. In Jaws, the music is what made the film so famous, the music that plays when you, as the audience, are in the viewpoint of the shark is what influenced the music from our shot from inside the car and viewpoint of the villain. It builds the suspense up and makes the audience wanting to see what will happen. As the shot from our thriller goes on it gets louder and faster, and just like the jaws music, we implemented our music adding suspense into our shot. Going back to the shot of our scene from the driver’s point of view it was influenced by the shot from The Shining, when the little boy is riding his tricycle. Both scenes are shot from behind the person in view which gives the audience a blank spot, which means the character in view knows more about what's in front of them than we do leaving the viewer in an uneasy position. Also we used a technique which was famously used in the film Duel, which is we never show the villain and creates the element of the unknown and suspense that builds up until the end of the opening sequence.

There are three characters in our opening sequence, one of which makes only a brief appearance and is classed as an extra and another you never get to see but you know is there (the stalker in the car). The main character, is a young woman in her mid twenty's, she work's in an office and lives in a nice neighbourhood. The idea of this young innocent woman being followed in a nice neighbourhood shows the contrast this thriller is supposed to show and that is crime can happen anywhere and to anyone. The character in the car even though you never see him, you know he is the villain and makes you feel uneasy just by the fact that you never know how he is, which means you can relate to the woman. The stalker is a middle aged male whose wife was killed when she was involved in a car accident 10 years ago, which he has never got over and has driven him over the edge. He now looks at other women and all he sees is his wife, and he sees women as objects and not human beings. Our thriller has the common representation as the man being the dominating role in films, as in most thrillers the man will be the one who is the villain and if there is a woman as a main character she tends to usually be the one who is being chased. This sexist view is used because in films males are usually thought of as being a dominating figure, whereas women are tend to be thought of as sidekick's or used to bring in more men to watch the film. This is a sexist view, but in our case, it would look weird if it were a female chasing a male so we had to fall back on this Hollywood stereotype.

The kind of media institution that would release our film would be a similar kind to those that distributed films similar to ours, one of those is Duel directed by Steven Spielberg. Duel is a 1971 movie about a man driving along a remote and lonely road being stalked by a large tanker truck and its unseen driver. I did some research on how Duel was released and it was originally a TV movie of the week on the American channel ABC, but the ratings and reviews from the media and viewers were so good Steven Spielberg decided to film more scenes and release the extended version in cinema's across America and Europe. Our film would be a similar release to this but instead of showing the film first on TV it would be released in the cinema. If then the reviews we would look at a possible TV company to promote and show our film across the UK, maybe on film4, as they show good British movies. Going back to the film being shown on Film4 if that were the case the film production company that would produce our film would be Film4, it would be an obvious choice as both the film and Film4 Company are both set and based in the UK. Another film company that could produce our film if Film4 doesn't would be Twisted Pictures as they are famous for producing only horrors and thrillers which would fit in with our film. Twisted Pictures is an American based film company and are well known for releasing thrillers.

The target audience for our thriller would be aged between 18-29 for males and females. The film would be aimed at people who are afraid of the unknown, the driver being the unknown in the film. Also they would be someone who likes to try and work things out for themselves but sometimes never gets there. A person, who never gives up trying and will always give it a shot on what is happening, yet likes the element of surprise. As the woman in the thriller looks like a city office worker, it will attract more people who like a good thrill and live in the city to watch it just because they can relate to her especially since its set in London. I have thought about a director who plays on this sort of target audience and he is Alfred Hitchcock, this film will appeal to anyone who has seen his films as the suspense is always going throughout and the music is similar to some of his films.

We were aiming to attract 18-29 year old people who live in the city.

They would be attracted to the film as they could relate to this woman in the film, as it shows one aspect of crime in the city and that is kidnap. Many women now worry about the dangers of being in a unlicensed mini cab, even though there is no mini cab in our film it is still displaying a portrayal of kidnap and being stalked. Women who watch our film will be scared of the shock factor because its not this scene couldn't happen in real life, its a perfectly believable scene which will leave the audience more frightened of the unknown. It will also make them more aware and cautious of the dangers out there and our film could also be a lesson learner for them if they take it serious enough. We would market our film through television and newspapers or billboards, as this is where our target audience would most likely see our advertisement of the film. The poster in the newspaper or billboards would be something along the lines of a shocking picture and a catchy line that would leave the reader guessing on the plot, something like 'Fear is the Unknown...' That’s just a draft but it leaves the audience wanting more and will attract them to see the film, also it’s a short, catchy line that will stick in the audience's mind. The picture in the advertisement might be along the lines of the rear-view mirror shot we had in our thriller but mixed together of an over-the shoulder shot of a dark figure from inside the car like this image from the similar film Duel (see below).

The poster for our ad would be that shot in the Duel poster but in the mirror we would have the main character just like the shot from our thriller but this time you can see the drivers silhouette, which still leaves us in the dark about him and he would still be an unknown and mysterious character. Instead of having a truck in the windscreen we would have a darkened street with just a few flickering street lamps to give it a suspenseful and chilling feel. The line 'Fear is the Unknown...' would be on his shoulder in white like the Duel poster, and the title of the film 'Retribution' would be at the top in bold writing to stand out. I like this poster idea as everything in the poster would be quite dark to emphasis that somethings not right whereas in the mirror the main character would be in a brightly lit part of the street, from the street lamp to show her innocence and to identify her as the victim.

I have learnt a lot from this project from filming to blogging. I have developed my understanding of filming and different aspects of camera angles and learned that some camera shots were harder to do than others were. For example the shot were we had to set up the main character in the rear-view mirror (image see above), was a lot harder to set up than most of the other shots. This is because the character was so far away from the car the mirror had to be at the perfect angle for me to see her through the mirror from the back seat where I was filming. I also learnt how to use different aspects of final cut pro and the different tools involved with editing the film. We had to cut down our shots, and the shot from inside the car was drastically cut down as it was originally two minutes on its own. With that shot, we had to improvise and instead of cutting it with credits, we had the credits blend with the shot. To cut it down we simply faded two parts of the shot together and cut everything in between, the fade worked well as it ended up looking like a timeline and was influenced by this shot in Duel where it fades to show a skip in time. I have also learnt to blog

which is a vital part of our grade in media, I have learnt to upload my video of the practise filming to blogger where I can refer back to it and so the reader can now see what I’m talking about in my blog.

From our preliminary task I have learned a lot, from the lesson when we had to plan our pitch I already had a few ideas about what this thriller could be about one of which was a pretty similar mould to the final outcome. The initial idea was a girl coming home from work then starts to be followed by an unseen driver in a car, she then runs around a corner and thinks she has lost him. A dark silhouette appears behind her and drags her in the car, the ending was going to be a black and white segment of the girl waking up and frantically trying to escape the car that had been stopped in the middle of nowhere and the door opens and the same silhouette appears and climbs in. We decided to scrap the ending as we thought the unknown would be much scarier. The 'match cut' exercise was a revelation for me, to learn different camera shots and how to set them up. The editing was hard at first but a quick brief on the different tools and it began to become more and simpler the more I used it throughout the 'match cut' and the thriller. In the thriller, we had to learn to implement the credits and title in to the film, as we hadn't done that during the 'match cut' exercise. We also had to create the music for our thriller and think about the subtle changes in the music when something happens in the thriller and the change in mood, example from calm to cautious.

In conclusion, I have learnt to plan ahead and have a clear image of each shot in my head so when we get there to shoot I will know what needs to be changed and where the people need to be in order to shoot.

Evaluation

As a group, we have been working for a while on our thriller opening. As we wanted it to look like a professional one, we used some of the conventions that a real one would supply. This essay will look at the conventions that real thriller openings have used, and how I have applied these to my thriller opening. An example that I will be using to look at the conventions that the real media has used, is 'The Shining'. As in 'The Shining', my thriller has suspenseful music, because of this suspense the audience would want to watch more of the film to overcome this emotion. In addition, I think that the music makes the audience feel sympathy for the characters involved.

Another convention I have used is the lack of identification of the perpetrator. The person who is following Elaine is not shown. This creates suspense, as the audience cannot identify the villain, by not showing this persons face it adds to the suspense. We see an excellent example of this in 'The Shining' when the camera is following the little boy, riding on his bike, along the corridor.

I have also used the convention of using the camera shots as if it is in the point of view of somebody watching the character, which there is nobody actually watching at all, for the audience it feels like they are following this vulnerable person. When Elaine is walking out to the road, she is not aware of anything and she does not know that somebody is following her until the camera is in the point of view of the real villain, which is in the car. Also in 'The Shining', there is nobody following the little boy but because we are behind him it feels like there is somebody there.

In my media product, the character that we have used represents itself in a vulnerable way. The character that we have used is a female and straightaway the audience may suggest that a male is inside of the car that is following her. My media product represents the females as vulnerable and very scared of the opposite sex. Usually we see examples of this in real thrillers.

Because my media product is not professional and the top directors and software did not make it, I think that if we did spend so much money and distributed it internationally then I do not think that we would make much money. Therefore, I think that if we first released it over the internet via YouTube then we could get a rough overview of how many people will view it at the cinemas before we make any expenditure. However, if it was professional I think that the distribution company that would most suit the media product will have to be The Working Title.

The demographic descriptions that my target audience fit are the achievers. My character, Elaine looks like a businessperson, and they would consider her as themselves. I would think that they would also be of middle class females who are aged 25-49. As an example I have here, Elena, who is 28 years old and works in a tourism agency, she loves to socialise with friends and often goes to the cinema with them. I think that she will be a perfect candidate for an audience for my thriller.

The best way to advertise my media product will be to use the face of my main character, which is Elaine. Because the target audience for my thriller will be middle class business women, when they see the face of my character they might want to consider seeing my film. I would want to advertise my film on the internet for a start because many business women use the internet nowadays for lots of different reasons. If they watch the trailer on YouTube then they can decide to watch the whole film.

In the process of constructing my media product, I had many opportunities to widen my knowledge about using technology. I have firstly learnt how to use the camera. I now know how to record, change a tape and how to change a battery of a camera. I have also learnt how to use a few software’s; Final Cut Pro was the one I used to do the editing of my thriller. Another software I now have knowledge on is Sound Track Pro, I have used this software to construct a very suspenseful piece of music.

Another level of technology I have learnt to use, in the process of making the media product, is the internet. Obviously, I knew how to use the internet previously but I did not know how to blog and did not know what blog actually meant. This has opened a completely new step for me about the usage of the internet, and I am now very familiar of the website blogger.com.

From now when I look back at the preliminary task that we were assigned to complete, I feel that I have learnt a lot more. I also think that I did not know much about the 'match cut' exercise when we were told to do it in class, before the media product was briefed to us. After having this experience to do a thriller, I now feel that I know a lot better in doing 'match cuts', storyboarding, planning, filming, editing and post production, (which is my evaluation that you are now reading), If I were to do this kind of task again then I would try to plan better and try to stick to it. Some of the feedback I got from other classmates who watched my film at the cinema said that it was very suspenseful and they wanted to watch it more at the start because they wanted to know where Elaine was going to go. I now also think that practising is the key to success.

On Thursdays media lesson it was the last lesson for us to complete our thriller opening. Two of my groupmates were not in, which were, Aziza and Elaine so, I had to complete our thriller with Jamie. Firstly, Jamie and I added the finishing touches to our music, we were a little bit confused and didnt know if the other two would agree with our choices but then at the end we decided that we would go with our own choices and if the other two disagree then it is their own fault for not arriving for our last lesson before the deadline. After we added the finishing touches to the music we thought of a title for our thriller and added this too, to our final masterpiece. Now that the making of our thriller openings are over, I feel a little sad because it was a very good experience for me because I got an insight of what it would feel like if I decided to work for the media industry in the future.

On mondays lesson, as a group, we decided that we would carry on doing the music and sound effects for our thriller. We also decided that we would carry on doing this for the rest of this week because we think that after our choice of shots, the music is the most important part of the film when trying to create suspense. Using the software Sound Track Pro, we tried to use the most effective suspense creators. We firstly put a base music which would be playing throughout the whole film, then as the viewer keeps watching and understands what is going on, (when the car starts to follow Elaine), we used a music which makes your heart want to escape from your body. We could only do this much in a single lesson because searching for the right song is quite tricky, as I said earlier, we will be carrying this onto thursdays lesson and hopefully be adding more details, such as, footsteps, running, breathing, gasping etc.

The Shining

The shining builds up a lot of tension because of the music and also because of the point of view of the camera. The music is a very high pitched violin and when the boy is about to open the door the music keeps on increasing in volume and then decreasing, which shows us the audience that something bad is going to happen, it also raises the level of anticipation. When he does open the door the music changes which shows us that there is going to be a change, which will surprise us. The camera is at a very low level, the audience is with the child and we are behind him which shows that something bad will happen. The anticipation the little child feels is then transferred to us which makes us feel very vulnerable. The little boy takes up most of the screen time. When the boy arrives at the door 237 we are shown this very clearly, which shows the audience that it is not a good number. The editing is very fast when we are shown the two girls. The location is a hotel corridor, it is not bright but well lit.

12/1/09 Getting our pitch ready for next lesson

Today's lesson was all about getting our pitch together and ready for next lesson, this was crucial as we will be getting marked on our pitch and this was something we could not leave to the last minute. I first made a list of some ideas for the thriller which my group looked over and added some of thier ideas. We then had a vote to which idea sounded the best: we unanimously decided the idea of a person in a car (the identity of whom would not be revealed), would be stalking a girl as she comes out of a train station and will proceed down a quiet street. Eventually after the girl realises she becomes increasingly frightened and she gets faster, she will run round the corner and bump into someone (taking the suspense out of the scene). Our ending has not been decided yet, one which came to mind was she would be thrown into the back of the car, but this will probably change. As we were giving our pitch next lesson we assigned each other tasks to brainstorm for the pitch I decided to pick camara shots and sound & lighting.

8/1/09 Practice filming session (walking into a room with conversation)

In today's lesson we had to film a short scene of someone walking, from whatever location we wished, into a room and have a conversation. First we assigned each other roles, my role was to film and help with editing. Our teacher told us we must use as many different types of shots as possible, i took this into considaration while filming wrote down a list of camara shots, and worked them into our scene. I think the scene turned out nicely, I thought it flowed good when we matched cut it. The shot I liked the most was the pan up the stairs which only showed her bottom half, I thought this worked well because it didn't reveal her identity and built up the suspense.

In todays lesson we started to create music for our thriller using the software Sound Track Pro. The credits for our film were previously done on mondays lesson. I think that the music that we have produced does create tension because it starts off on a normal pace then as the film plays on and the viewer starts to realise what is going on the music starts to get louder at the points of suspense. Annabelle, our subject teacher, watched our thriller so far and thought that it was very good and she told us that it does create the tension that is needed, she also pointed out some improvements, one was to cut and shorten one of the clips because she thought it went on for too long and Elaine, our character looked very small on screen. She also suggested that we should use some of the music techniques that would make the viewer think that everything is ok when the music suddenly stops, but then they would come to realise that it was a false resolution when they carry on watching the thriller to the end. I think that Annabelle's suggestion for the music is very professional and we would use the suggestion.

1-12-08 Soundtrack Tutorial.

In todays lessons we had a soundtrack tutorial on the computer. It was interesting to see that what no music sounded like in the famous film Casino Royal. We got to play around with the music, put what sounds we like and see how different it sounded. You can also add sound affects eg, the sound of a car screatchig. Also you can place it where you like  so that if you wanted to hear it through one speaker you could, it is really affective. you can pretty much do anything.

15-12-08 analysing the shinning

In Rebbecca's  lesson we watched six opening of thrillers. One of the best out of the six  thrillers was 'The shinning'. There were very good shots used in the opening, i felt scared and excited to see what was going to happen next. To begin with there was an EXLS of a building. The building looks scary and old, already we know that this is going to be in the thriller genre, and i can confirm this with the mysterious music in the background, it makes you scared and shiver. Then there is a shot of a boy peddling on a bike in the corridor which i'm asuming is a hotel. This shot would not have been scary if it was not shot from behind. It makes the little boy look vunerable and we feel scared for him as the music level rises. Later there is a shot of the boy  looking over at a door. We as the audience make a conclusion that there is something weird and spooky in that room as he stops right in front of it, gets out of the bike and looks at it for a couple of seconds. It cuts into a close up of the little boys face and we can see his fear as he begins to breathe harder. When he begins to reach for the door, we , as the audience don't want him to go into the room and feel scared that he is going to get hurt. There is also another good shot, when he looks up and two girls appear. If i had seen this image another time i wouldn't have been scared but because we see them now, it symbolise something scary. I still jumped as i saw the two girls even though the music did not change. It just shows, that through good camera work you can make the audience feel what ever you like.

Today it was the last filming session for our group, because Elaine isn't going to be in next week regarding rehearsals the school play which she is taking part in. We were planning to film in Liverpool Street Station today but we havn't yet recieved an email from them, so instead we decided to film Elaine walking out onto the road again because last time we filmed this part Aziza and I were visible in the background reflection. The filming for today took us one hour so for the rest of the lesson we did a bit of logging and editing using Final Cut Pro. Today for filming we used a panning shot and a long shot.

Today we filmed some parts of the beginning of our film, to only realise we did not need it.
So we came back to edit and fix up some of the credit section.

Thursday 29th January 09 ~ Filming part 2.

Our orignal plan was to film in Liverpool Street Station today, but Mickey did not receive the email which was sent to ask for filming permission at Liverpool Street Station. So we decided to film the section with Mickey and his car.
Today I, was filmed walking then breaking in to a run while Mickey 'stalked' me in his car. We did many of these shots on different roads. Eventually we did the scene where i'm running away from Mickey and bump into Aziza physically and drop all my belongings which causes me to bend down and pick it all up, we which end on.
Ayse dissapeared so, me, jamie & aziza stayed behind to edit some of the footages.
Eventually Jamie had to leave for lesson and me and aziza stayed behind to continue with the 'Credits' section and to think of a title. We came up with many different Titles by looking through a dictionary and thesaurus.

Editing Lesson ~ 26.01.09

Today we decided to edited our first filmed section, partly because i did not bring in my outfit which I was wearing during the filming session.
We uploaded all the clips and carefully cut and pasted each section into match cut scenes.

Filming the 2nd part to our Thriller.

We started to film the second part of our thriller.
'the part where i walk out from the station'. We went to the Angel Centre area near the Station, but was stopped half way through our filmimg; due to being on private property. We was then granted the permession to continue filmimg.
We done several shots of me walking to the bottom of a pair of stairs and around the corner.
We took many different angles and shots so we couldnt decide which one would best fit into match-cut scenes.

Filming the 2nd part to our Thriller.

We started to film the second part of our thriller.
'the part where i walk out from the station'. We went to the Angel Centre area near the Station, but was stopped half way through our filmimg; due to being on private property. We was then granted the permession to continue filmimg.
We done several shots of me walking to the bottom of a pair of stairs and around the corner.
We took many different angles and shots so we couldnt decide which one would best fit into match-cut scenes.

In todays media lesson we filmed the part where we used Mickey our technicians car. We did low angle shots of the car. We pannes the car. We did a point of view shot of Mickey watching Elaine, while he was in the car. Another point of view shot of Mickey while Elaine looks over her shoulder and realizes that the car is really close to her. A medium shot of Elaine while she is running and she bumps into Aziza when he is trying to run away from Mickey who was following her. And also a panning shot of Mickey in the car who is following Elaine up the road. I think that our filming and the shots that we used have all went very well and I am quite proud of the work that we have produced as a group. The things that we are also planning to do is to film inside Liverpool Street Station, that will only be done when we recieve an e-mail from them, which as you can tell we haven't and it has been a week. Also to finish the editing, then produce our music track using SoundTrackPro and to finish off to create our credits.

On Thursdays media lesson we began to film our thriller opening. On Monday as a group we had decided to film in Liverpool Street Station but on Thursday morning we found out that we needed permission to film there. So the media technician Mickey sent an e-mail and we have to wait at least a week to recieve a reply. So then we decided that we should film the other parts of our thriller opening. We started to film in a quite street near our college. Jamie was the cameraman. We filmed long shots and low angle shots of Elaine walking down some stairs. We also panned her walking out on to the street and medium shots of her running away scared of the car which has been following her, while she bumps into another person, which was Aziza from our group. While filming this part of our thriller opening their was a challenge that we had to face which was the rain. So we had to hold up an umbrella for the camera to avoid it from getting wet and damaged. The filming was a very good experience.

On mondays lesson we were given a sound tutorial. It consists of watching clips from James Bond films. We also did a soundtrack using the software SoundTrackPro on our practice thrillers.

18/12/08 watching previous works of past students

In today's lesson we watched previous works from past students to get some ideas for are own thriller. The one that caught my eye was the opening when a man in a suit walks into a skyscraper gets in the lift but leaves a suitcase in their. The idea is very simple but the type of shots used made a simple idea seem good, which is what I want to do when filming my own thriller opening, a simple idea.

On 12/01/09's lesson, firstly Rebecca went through what a pitch means with us. This week Elaine was missing in our group, we had to still carry on doing the plan for our real thriller. This lesson I also found out that we cannot use any Copyright music and that we have to make our own music using the SoungTrackPro software. We started to plan our thiller, we as a group liked the idea of an illegal cab kidnapping and raping a girl. To get some more ideas we watched some of the last year thrillers. Everyone in our group got a role each and mine is to complete a storyboard to show to the class and to write down who the target audience of our thriller opening is.

15/12/08 Watching clips from famous films lesson

In today's lesson we watched clips from the films 'Arlington Road', 'The Shining', '28 Days Later', 'Collateral' and 'What Lies Beneath'.
'The Shining' was my favourite film out of the list and the scene we watched portrayed the film brilliantly. The scene we watched was the little boy riding his tricycle down the coridoor's of the hotel. The scene is arguably one of the most famous of all time, yet so simple it was done to perfection. What makes the suspense in the scene is the eeirey music and the low angle camara shot from behind. The low angle shot puts us as the viewer in a vulnerable position and being behind him we no less about whats going on than he does, especially going around corners. When he gets off the bike the camara is in such a position that we dont know whats inside if he opens the door but he will, this along with the music sets up a perfect suspenseful scene.
'The Shining' along with 'Arlington Road' and '28 Days Later' have given me many ideas for my own filming work.

11/12/08 Bourne Identity Lesson

In today's lesson we watched and analysed the 'Bourne Identity'. The 'Bourne Identity' is a film film based on Jason Bourne who is found at sea by some fisherman, he then for the rest of the film tries to find out his true identity and finshes unresolved which sets up the film for a sequel. While watching the film we had to write down three suspenseful scenes and write down why the were suspensful, i found that many of the suspense in the film was due to the music or silence and then a loud bang.

8/12/08 practice filming session

In today's lesson we started practice filming our assignment was to have someone reading a newspaper but using camara shots make it suspensful. Since two people in my group were not in Ayse and I joined with Wing and Addil. When we were filming i took the role of being the person who was reading the newspaper while Wing and Ayse filmed and Addil was character 2. After break we started on editing our film it turned out pretty well and flowed smothly. The best shot I thought was the over-the shoulder shot of the person reading the newspaper (me). The shot worked well as the camara was handheld and moved up and down to show character 2 breathing heavily.

The task we were given for our practice filming session was to film a thriller opening using two characters and at least 20 shots. The shots that i think were the most successful were the panning and low angle shots. The editing was perfect, the continuity of it was very successful and it actually made sense. I think that we did manage to create an element of suspense because at the start we only filmed my legs going up the stairs and started to follow where we were going, so the audience may be drawn into it to see where this person may be goingto. We didn't forget to do anything, like filming extra five seconds before and after each shot which is very useful while editing. I think that this practice filming session was very useful because we will be much more comfortable and knowledgeable while doing the real thing.

06th January 2009. - Match Cut Introduction.

Today we had Marrisa come in and explain what a match cut is. A match cut is basically, a continuous motion between each clips. After we had to plan a 16 shot short clip, for thursday's lesson. Where two characteres are needed, character A and B. A door and a table would be needed for this session.

11th December 2008 - The Bourne Identity.

Today we watched a film called , 'The Bourne Identity' with Gez. This film is about a guy who was found at sea, who has lost his memory. The aim of the film was to help find the guys identity, to find out about himself and who he is. The aim of the lesson, was to watch the film and note down how they create suspense during this film, which will help us during our thriller makings.

06th January 2009. - Match Cut Introduction.

Today we had Marrisa come in and explain what a match cut is. A match cut is basically, a continuous motion between each clips. After we had to plan a 16 shot short clip, for thursday's lesson. Where two characteres are needed, character A and B. A door and a table would be needed for this session.

11th December 2008 - The Bourne Identity.

Today we watched a film called , 'The Bourne Identity' with Gez. This film is about a guy who was found at sea, who has lost his memory. The aim of the film was to help find the guys identity, to find out about himself and who he is. The aim of the lesson, was to watch the film and note down how they create suspense during this film, which will help us during our thriller makings.

Filming & Editing of the MatchCut session.

Today we filmed a short clip based on character A and B. Character A has to walk through a door and simly sit down and exchange a few sentences. We had difficulties getting the right positions and get everything in order, but we got there in the end.
Editing was humourous, we manage to fit all the sections togther to create a perfect match-cut. We experimented with the sound but ended deciding not to use any sound.