Wednesday and Thursday development.

Wednesday
In the wednesday lesson the group informed me of the new plans , I automatically disapproved of some points and shots but believed it was a good start and that we could expand and develop from this point now . Most of the lesson was spent thinking of new shots as we were still lacking in ideas for footage . the lesson didn't really come to much use as we still hadn't filled out the timeline sheets or come up with new ideas.
Thursday
On thursday another member of the group was ill , making it hard for us to get work done but by the end of the day we had completed all the work we had to have done by the weekend. we began by coming up with a title for the film . "Anna" . We agreed we would need to start a new idea , including old shots and themes from previous ideas . We sat talking and coming up with new shots , every know and then when we came up with one , we wrote it down on the timeline sheet and drew an image in the designated area of what we imagined it too look like .

We began with an establishing shot of a house , then silent shots of inside the house (a hall or room) , then the noise of a knife cutting things would begin , then a shot of a kettle or tap then the ecu of a knife cutting food , meanwhile the credits are coming on in a corner , slowly creeping away after every chop sound. We then had the idea of the screen fading into a black background , the title popping up , and the noise of an axe chopping , the title slowly fades away and then suddenly a low shot of a man aggressively chopping a piece of wood as if to chop the audience . then different shots as the man collects the wood , gets his dog into his car , drives off down a road. we would have quick ecu's of things like the keys going into the ignition , The dog panting etc. We then cut to a ecu  shot of a vacuum , then the woman cleaning again , and a mid shot of her in front of a window , vacuuming , we see the car drive past on the driveway , but the vacuum noise is so great she doesn't notice . The music builds with tension as a close up shot of her shoulders shows hands slowly scare her , the music lowers as tension ends as a shot of the man and her talking shows its just her husband . This was all a rough draft but , we got some good notes down , filled in the timelines showed above and completed what we should have .

Development on the title sequence -Tuesday

In the tuesday lesson i was sadly absent but my group began developing our ideas we had for the title sequence . We were determined to follow the basic story of the dead wife of a husband haunting his new family and there home . They thought the title sequence would mainly include our washing line idea, that included the strong , loud and howling winds blowing them . Behind the sheets we would get the impression of a woman in a black dress behind them . Due to the development we've changed our idea completely , partly as the whole thing would depend on us picking the perfect and random day to shoot in a loud and windy environment, the idea was also quite basic and we believed we could expand on it. The group were given sheets , that would act as timelines for our title sequence , where we could draw and write each shot of the sequence.

In the lesson my group came up with a new idea for the sequence , trying to use shots that creeped the audience out but without using anything really terrifying. they described the sequence as going like this.

" we came up with the idea of the sequence starting off with an establishing shot of a house, then we would have a wide shot from some bushes watching some kids playing football, then we would have an extreme close up of a knife cutting, then you would see hands come from behind the woman, she would scream and turn around and you would see that it was just the husband."

They decided to stick to this idea until i returned to discuss it with them , where we could develop the idea or change it completley.

New idea from fridays lesson

Last Friday I came up with the idea of completely changing our idea form a haunted hotel to something to do with a family home that's haunted by the owners ex lover. we thought about the title sequence , not directly including the ghost in it , but creating a creepy atmosphere through everyday life at this house . including a washing line outside . the idea is yet to be developed , but we related our thoughts to the title sequence of "the sixth sense ". Where the director gives the audience a feeling of tension without scaring them , or including anything particularly terrifying.

Our sequence , wont actually show a ghost , it will give the audience the creepy and tense feeling without scaring them through screams or ghosts. etc.. The title sequence will involve something similar to the film "it" , where a scene involves the clown slowly appearing behind laundry sheets blowing in the wind , if we used this it would be little sections of a figure of a woman that you subtly see or a shadow , from inside a house . watch from 00:20to 00:50


The laundry part would only be for a bit , then it would change to the loud noise of a kettle or something to distract you , and release the tension , to then continue the film

We would include a lot of noise into the sequence , building tension that worries the audience as if something is about to happen , like the roar of the wind , or sharpening of blades (is actually someone getting ready to cook) , a kettles wistle , the dog bark. etc

related title sequences to our thriller

We watched thriller title sequences that could relate to our two mane ideas , firstly the idea of the crocodile  and then the idea of the haunted house or hotel . we took notes on each title sequence and how they could relate to ours.

For the haunted idea we watched
Hostel
Tenant
Taken
repulsion

we watched these few as some scenes were similar to our full plot of our original horror thriller idea , including scenes with screaming coming from rooms , which relates to a scene we were going to include in our title sequence.

Hostel included a dark , damp area , with blood going down a drain , implying certain moods and atmospheres in the title sequence.

Taken- the into establishes a birthday party with grainy footage that suggested it was seen by characters .
The tenant began with an establishing high shot that showed a run down building that the film was probably based in

For the crocodile idea we watched the following

jaws
alligator
lake placid
monsters
clover field

Jaws started underwater shows the water is key to the film , cuts to surface to show shot of beach showing beginning scene , shots of girl in water , as of tip be a shark.

alligator shows extreme close up of alligators eyes , suggesting the films plot , then zooms to show where and what is happening , alligator has blood foreshowing what's about to happen.

 

Lake placid was similar to the shining , building tension , text is like water ripples , goes underwater suggesting plot.

monsters , text suggests plot of film , suddenly starts with jumpy loud noises , ending tension. 

clover field ,  emergency broadcast builds tension , suggests plot of film immediately , central park on news flash, shows films base.

The exercise gave us ideas on what to include and how other films built tension or showed the ideas and areas the films would cover in their title sequences.

Documentry on title sequences

Today we watched a short documentary on what makes a good and effective title sequence , we watched professionals and directors explain title sequences and what makes them interesting.
                       Thomas Sutcliffe said , "films need to seduce their audience into long term commitment . while there are many types of seduction, the temptation to go for instant arousal is almost irresistible .He's clearly advising that , you shouldn't fall into the trap of giving away too much in the title sequence or beginning of the film, otherwise the audience aren't lead on to continue watching , it becomes boring and predictable . instead give away a bit , to  excite the audience for what's about to come next .
                         The documentary interviewed the director Jean Jacques Beineix, who explained the "risks of instant arousal". also commenting on not giving away the film and not being able to keep  up the high levels of interest and excitement. he also commented on the risk of not being able to answer the metaphorical questions from the title sequence , which leads to confusion and a boring film for the audience.
                           "a good beginning must make the audience feel that it doesn't know nearly enough yet, and at the same time make sure that it doesn't know too little".
                           The film critic   Stanley Kauffmann described what makes a good title sequence and opening scene . 1.establishing shot
                          2.close up of a building of which the film is generally set.
                          3.the camera focuses on a window
                          4.the camera moves past the receptionist to where you meet the main character .
The directors also gave examples of some of the greatest title sequences like , "the shining", and "seven". The shining , is a shot following the car like a predator , into mountains , the music clearly emphasises that wherever they are going , is a bad place. For seven it was said that it told the story but also showed the obsessive nature of the main character and foreshadowed what was going to happen.

Pitching our final ideas

We were informed a few days before the class that we would be pitching our ideas to a media teacher that would give us honest feedback on them, we were also told to break down our ideas into three final ideas , each chosen by one member of the group , then between ourselves come up with the final , best and most inspiring idea that we could branch on . we chose the idea that originaly came from the man being stranded by the crocodile for two weeks. After which we had to come up with two other ideas to randomly pitch to the teacher .
      I came up with the idea of a story about a small motel that has a ghostly problem , the title sequence would appear as being fully shot on security camera tv's , as if you were watching different security cameras in the motel , one camera pointing on a door of a room , then we have a voice over as if through a walky talky or phone of the manager saying that guests in rooms below this room could hear screaming , the voice over continues to say to someone that the room hasnt been booked out by anyone , then switches to the elevator where you see security going up , then changes to a corridor camera as you see him walk up to the door , then switches to the other end of the corridor , you hear screams , as if they were coming from inside the room , and the camera cuts as the voice over tells security not to go in as police are on there way .
     Another member of the group pitched his idea of the aftermath of hurricane katrina in new orleans , as a man attempts to travel through floods to reach his family . This was pitched as a disaster thriller as mine was a horror thriller.
    When we pitched the first two ideas , we got feedback saying , firstly both ideas were good , but both of them would have too much dialogue in the opening title sequences , this isn't good as were using un trained actors in out title sequences , and too much talking will most likely lead to it not working. Also the two plots came across as being confusing which would make it difficult to finish.
        we then pitched the idea of the crocodile that we developed , that we based around films like , jaws , lake placid and alligator , with a similar title sequence of jaws , as a group of friends are by a river edge , a few friends drinking around a fire , having a good time , a couple plan to go swimming in the river , the girlfriend jumps in as the boyfriend drunkly prepares himself for the water , she suddenly is struck , dragged down and you see ripples and small waves as she struggles underwater . We got good feedback but there were a few problems with this idea , firstly the river at this time of year would be freezing for someone to be swimming in , secondly it will be difficult for the girl to look as if she was being attacked underwater , as if there was an aligator. This idea was vaguely based on the similar title sequence of jaws .

stories and sub-genres influencing thriller ideas

After being placed in groups of three , Phil kindly gave us a sheet full of stories and news clips on things that have been coming up in the news over the past year , stories that could be easily turned into a thriller film , he asked us in our groups to select four stories from the list that we liked , the four we chose had to be able to be split into four different sub-genres and all be different from one another. we looked into each story and chose ones that we found would be easily expandable and inspiring .

This gives you an indication on the amount of stories to choose from. We selected

We then began to brainstorm ideas , including a full story line for a thriller , and the opening title sequence which would be around three minutes long.
Crocodile stalking man for two weeks
We chose this as it came across as unique and different , we felt something like this hadn't been done before and could be expanded upon very easily, the storyline could have been placed under many different sub-genres , but we chose this to be an action thriller as it suited the role the best .
Story line
A group of friends are terrorised by a huge crocodile , one of them is lost to it , soon to realise its a giant crocodile that had escaped from a local zoo , English villagers based near rivers are on the hunt to capture the crocodile and claim a bounty for it as it continues to terrorise children swimming in rivers .
Opening title sequence
A group of friends around a camp fire next to the rivers edge , drinking , having fun , a couple plan to go swimming and the girl is suddenly taken from underwater , quickly and suddenly as her drunk boyfriend is clambering into the water , screams of the boyfriend as ripples of a beast go down river.
Man stuck in Andes mountains
This story struck us as being quite interesting and could work as a thriller title sequence , we decided on this as being a psychological thriller .
Story line
Man riding through the Andes mountains gets stuck , and is unable to release himself from a rock crushing him and his bike on top of a mountain , he struggles four a few weeks before he is found and released , rushed to hospital .
Opening title sequence
Very simply a man riding his bike through very dangerous and rocky mountains , a far shot of him bicycling up whilst credits role.
Mission to mars
We thought this story would work well with the conspiracy sub genre heading ,could have come off as unique and different to most thrillers .
Story line
Aoup of people being sent to mars to rely information on the planet , and go back to earth , however they realise other humans have been there and clearly been stranded to die . in the same situation the group have to find a way to return.
Title sequence
Conversation between people at ground control and a man in the ship. They are talking about what the man will do and how this is a very important job. The clip then ends with footage of a ship taking off which is accompanied by a T-Minus count.