Evaluation

Our piece of coursework challenges the traditions of most thriller openings by it starting the open in a public place unlike most thrillers which usaully start in an out of the way place such as an old abandoned building after a crime has already been committed which shrouds everything in mystery.


Our media product represents youths/teens today as me, jack,jordan and lee russell are in this film. So we feel that youths/teens can relate to this film as actions like these happen to youths/teens today and is on of the issues that the UK face today. It represents youths/teens by having youths/teens in the video and the crimes that the killer commits in this video happens to youths/teens today this why we feel that youths/teens can relate to this.


The target audience on a general level is those that like the thriller genre while a more in depth target would be someone who likes or would like to see into the mind of a person growing up in an urban area now days, and what phsycotic ideas litter their mind, e.g. crime, murder etc.


The media institute that might distribute our media product would be Film 4 or United Artists as they do low budget British films. We think they would be interested in our film because they do British based on real life issues and our thriller movie shows troubled youths and their actions, and because of this realism we think this would be a film that Film 4 and United Artists would be interested in.


We feel that we attracted our audience by the name of the thriller Degrees of Murder and felt that this would be the reason to the success of the thriller just like i feel that the film I Am Legend is one of the reasons that the film made so much money was because of the name of the film I Am Legend.


From this thriller i have now learnt how to make certain shots with the camera such as Extreme close up and over the shoulder shots. From this thriller i have now learnt how to edit shots and how to take out unnessary parts in the film such as us laughing in parts of the film. I also learnt that using this technologies wasn't as hard as it was the first time in the perliminary exercise as we had gotten use to editing it all.


Looking back at this media product i have now learnt how to edit parts of the film and how easy it is to do so. I have now learnt also how to use certain shots such as over the shoulder and extreme close up shots. I have now learnt that they are a number of faults in our thriller that we could have improved such as such as the location it would have bin better to do it in a alley and we could have also edited a bit more such as the long shot in the beginning and could have used the tripod in the shot when the attention is turned on the dead body.

Thriller movie Degrees of Murder

We have finished our thriller and here is the final piece

Editing Complete

We have now finished editing our thriller today and hope to do the evaluation 2morrow. Due to difficulties with camera shots and the look of realism and what is going on with the thriller extra shots where needed in order to finish editing. We used a mid shot to show the person being chashed by the killer and then show the first person shots, showing the person being chashed by the killer. We also used an ECU in one shot to show that killer and killer his first victim when his glasses had fallen off. Other shots that were used inculed mid shots and close ups. I was involved partly in the film as i am seen making a phone call to call for help and i also used the camerea to film other partly and so did Jack Stone. Jordan was involved partly in the film aswell.

Questionnaire Results

Sorry i didnt post this earlier but this came back to mind when i saw it on another person's blog. The results are that the majority of more people asked were between 10-16 (except one person who was apperantly between 26-30 and didn't know the concept behind circling an answer). The majority of people asked were also female and most of the favourate genres chosen was romance and comedy, is stereotyping of womens' likes and dislikes true? Thirdly people mostly go to the cinema 1-3 times a month this may be because alot of people i have asked when it comes to movies and what to see they usually say that theres not much to see and how cinema isnt as good as it used to be. Lastly was that most said the thing that they liked most about films was story line. This draws to the conclusion that a genre that dominates a lot of movie studios in america is a mostly enjoyed genre of film.

Mobygratis not needed

We will not be needing to sign up to mobygratis as we have found a website to put our music which will of course be feautred in our editing. We shud b editing 2morrow and finishing this as quick as possible. The name of the website is www.newgrounds.com

Editing and Evaluation to follow

Now that we have finished filming we will now begin editing shortly and shud be able to have it all done before the final day it has to be in. After we have finished editing we will then do our evaluation of the thriller.

Filming Complete

Yesterday me, jack and jordan where able to finish filming our thriller sequence in one day with the additional help of Lee Russel who was also in the filming itself. The name of our thriller is called "Degrees of Murder" and involved a killer (Lee Russel) mudering two people in a park near a lake. The first kill involved a dispute between the killer and another person which led to the killer threating the person and began to start chasing him on a killing motive and eventually catching him and killing. The second murder happened when a vitness saw the dead body of the person and the killer noticing this and begins to chase the vitness eventually catching and killing him and therefore performing degress of murder.

Future Posts

I havent posted anything on my blogs for this amount of time due to a school trip to New York and having an issue of remembering my email address. I will be posting more in the next few days to make up the days i have missed.

Animatic

We have now completed our Animatic and can be viewed here

Storyboard complete

We have successfully completed our storyboard an i will be posting the animations tomorrow and we will also be filming our thriller very soon and have come up wiv a name for our thriller called "The degrees of murder" and involves a number murders from one person more details and post will be posted soon.

Preliminary exercise completed

We have finished our preliminary exercise and we have done all the editing. In our preliminary we had to use different camera shots such as wide shots, over the shoulder shots, and close ups.

While filming our preliminary exercise we had to keep continuity  which involved each shot matching each shot and having realism. For example if in one shot someone had brown hair and in the next shot he had his hair dyed red this would not be continuity because the shots don't match and there would be no realism involved.

The video was a success and can be viewed here:

Review of Fracture Film

I am now going to do a review for the film fracture.
Fracture is a crime thriller film made in 2007 by New Line Cinema and was directed by Gregory Hoblit and starring Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling. The film involves Theodore "Ted" Crawford (Anthony Hopkins), a wealthy and talented structural engineer, discovers his wife Jennifer (Embeth Davidtz) is having an affair with police detective Rob Nunally (Billy Burke). Crawford proceeds to shoot his wife, seriously wounding her and he immediately confesses the crime to Nunally on the scene. However, at his arraignment, Crawford retracts his confession.
He then engages in a battle of wits with rising star deputy district attorney William "Willy" Beachum (Ryan Gosling), who considers this an open-and-shut matter and agrees to go to trial. Beachum is busy making preparations for his transition from criminal law to corporate attorney for Wooton & Simms, a well-known firm, and begins a romantic relationship with his future boss, Nikki Gardner (Rosamund Pike).
At the trial, Crawford acts as his own attorney, which serves as a key vehicle for the plot of the movie—matching up against a star prosecutor as a supposedly untrained litigant. Crawford reveals that the arresting officer (Nunally) was having an affair with his wife and was also present during his interrogation. His confession is ruled to be inadmissible as evidence, as it was fruit of the poisonous tree. Beachum discovers that Crawford's handgun was not used to shoot his wife, because it had never been fired and did not match the shell casings at the murder scene. Since the house was under surveillance the entire time from the shooting to Crawford's arrest, the police are baffled. Beachum is tempted by Nunally's scheme to plant false evidence to implicate Crawford, but decides against it at the last minute. With no new evidence to present to the jury, Beachum is forced to concede the trial and Crawford is acquitted. The disgraced Nunally commits suicide with his own gun outside the courtroom.
Beachum's future with the prestigious firm is in tatters. With the case closed, he obsessively continues to search for evidence. He repeatedly visits the comatose Jennifer in the hospital, hoping she will wake up. But at Crawford's request, a restraining order is issued forbidding Beachum to visit the patient. Realizing that Crawford's plan is to dispose of the only eyewitness to the crime, Beachum goes to great lengths to get a court order to keep Jennifer on life support. Nikki refuses to help him and they end their relationship. Beachum arrives too late and Crawford orders the hospital staff to take Jennifer off life support, allowing her to die.
A mix-up of cellphones leads Beachum to realize that both Nunally and Crawford used the same gun. He figures out that before the crime, Crawford switched his gun with Nunally's identical Glock 21 in a hotel room where Jennifer and Nunally secretly met. Crawford shot his wife with Nunally's gun, whereupon the detective arrived on the scene carrying Crawford's gun. While Nunally lingered over Jennifer, trying to revive her, Crawford reloaded Nunally's gun and placed it back where Nunally had left it, while at the same time taking back his original gun. Distracted by the sight of Jennifer's body, Nunally did not notice the guns being switched back. When Crawford appears back in the room brandishing his own gun, Nunally tackles and beats him up before Crawford is arrested, at which point Nunally unwittingly holsters his own gun, the murder weapon, and lets Crawford's unused one to be taken as evidence. Beachum confronts Crawford with his new evidence. Since she died, the bullet lodged in Jennifer's head can now be retrieved and matched with Nunally's gun. Beachum tricks Crawford into confessing, knowing that Crawford thinks he is protected under the double jeopardy clause. However, Beachum reveals that by allowing his wife to die, Crawford can now be prosecuted for murder, having previously been tried merely for attempted murder. If he had not pulled Jennifer off life support, he could have been protected by the double jeopardy clause. Crawford is arrested by the waiting police. The film end with a new trial about to begin.
The film had two nominations for awards one was best actor in a horror thriller movie in Teen Choice Awards the other was for Film Composer of the Year and was a World Soundtrack Award.
A trailer of the film can be viewed here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qacXgLYhi0

Thriller Conventions

A crime at the core of the narrator (often murder, but not necessarily).
A complex narrative structure with false paths, clues & resolutions.
A narrative pattern of establishing enigmas which the viewer expects to be resolved.
A protagonist who is systematically - empowered and drawn into a complex web of intrigue by the antagonist.
Extraordinary events happening in ordinaty situations
Themes of identity
Themes of mirroring
Themes of voyeurism
Protagonist with a flair which is exploited by the antagonist
Titles often reflect an aspect of the protagonists/antagonists psychological state
there is oftenn a scene towards the end of the film in which the protagonist is in peril.
Mise en scene which echoes/mirrors the protagonists plight.

Alfred Hitchcock the greatest ever director?

This week in media we learnt about the famous director Alfred Hitchcock and learnt about his famous work. He is known for making famous films such as Shadow of Doubt and Rebecca which won an oscar for best film. Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone in 1889 and started directing British movies he was the first director to make a British film with sound which was called Blackmail in 1929. Hitchcock began to make successful British movies and would lead to him getting the chance to go to Hollywood to become even more popular and make successful Hollywood films. His first American film was Rebecca in 1940 which one an Oscar for best picture. Hitchcock would go on to make popular films in the 1940s such as Shadow of a Doubt and Mr and Mrs Smith. His film Shadow of a Doubt, according to Hitchcock was his personal favourite. Hitchcock also made famous films such as Physco in 1960 which he was nominated for best director his film physo is considered by many as one of his best films. Hitchcock work as become so popular that 6 of his films have been in the National Film Registry (Vertigo, Rear Window,North by Northwest, Notorious and Shadow of a Doubt). His films Shadow of a Doubt and Notorious were also in 1998's AFI's 100 best American films and the AFI's 2007 update. In 2008, four of Hitchcock's films were named among the ten best mystery films of all time in the AFI's 10 Top 10. Those films are Vertigo (at No. 1); Rear Window (No. 3); North by Northwest (No. 7); and Dial M for Murder(No. 9). Hitchcocks film Vertigo was famous for bening the first film to have a reverse zoom shot. Hitchcock is known for making many cameos in his Hollywood films. Hitchcock died in 1980 in Bel-Air, Los Angeles, California and remains one of the best-known and most popular filmmakers of all time.

Seven Deadly Sins

I was able to examine a thriller the other day called Seven a film made in 1995. The story follows retiring detective (Morgan Freeman) and his replacement (Brad Pitt ), jointly investigating a series of ritualistic murders inspired by the seven deadly sins. The serial killer (Kevin Spacey), the person who has commited these murders in intelligent as it is seen in the opening of the film that he removes his skin so that no one can match his finger prints. From the opening of the film alot of close ups and extreme close ups and use low key lighting to help show that it is a dark film noir film. In terms of money the film was success as it grossed $13.9 million on its opening weekend and went on to gross $327.3 million world wide. The film also was nominated for a BAFTA for best orginal screen play.