Location shots

Here are some pictures of the locations that we filmed in:

Osterley Park

Osterley Subway 

Hounslow West Station 

Hatton Cross Station (inside)

Undeground Train Interior 

Osterley Station 

Hatton Cross Station 

Train (at Osterley Station) 

The reason we filmed in these locations was because we planned it all out before and wanted all these places to be relatively close to each other. Also, filming was done on separate days as we wanted the lighting to be consistent, and we also encountered a few problems like the fact that our school has a uniform and in the video the main character was wearing casual clothing. Because of this we had to film the school scenes during our media lessons and make sure the lighting was pretty much the same to avoid any continuity errors. Everything didn't go as planned, but I believe we tried our best and in the end it turned out fine. Now all that needs to be done really is the editing.

The Filming Process

Filming today was a very long process and everything didn't go as planned, but I believe it turned out better than expected in the end really. The four people in my group and our actor all met up at 9:30am with our prop (the baseball bat) and started planning out our day. After a small discussion we decided to make our way to Hounslow West station to begin our filming and when we got there we were actually quite lucky that it wasn't as busy as it usually was, and this is because we chose to film in our holidays. After we decided which angles and camera shots we were going to use we started filming straight away, although we did have to explain what we were doing to the train station supervisor after he asked us.
After filming the main character walking downstairs we had to film him actually getting on the train and we decided that he and one member of our group would get onto the train but come back as soon as they get off. Amir, Tanveer and I were left waiting and after a while decided to go on the train to the next stop as we thought that they might be waiting there. Because we were underground the phone lost it's connection which made it a lot harder than it would have been otherwise. After a while we finally all got back together at Hounslow West station and planned out what we were going to do after that. We all decided it would be best to film all the train scenes first and then once we left we wouldn't have to come back. After coming up with that plan we all got on the train and filmed a bit before getting stopped by a few police officers that happened to be on the train. They told us we couldn't film on the trains unless we got permission, and we also needed to tell the station supervisor that we are filming if we filmed in any other station. Luckily they didn't make us delete any footage and we got off and continued filming our station scenes and we were allowed to as we told them what we were doing.
Those train scenes took a very long time but after we did that we headed off to Osterley station and got off the trains, meaning our train scenes were done and dusted.
Once we got out we made our way to the closest park which was relatively close so it didn't take too much time. We then filmed a lot of walking scenes there while also trying to use as many camera shots that we could. It took a very long time and the group were getting a little bit bored as so far all we had really done were basic shots. As it was effecting all of us we decided to have a break and think about what we were going to do next. In that time I went to my house and recharged one of the camera's battery since I lived quite close. To make sure it didn't overcharge I had to stay at my house and let my group continue filming without me.
A short while later I got a call and was told to come back with the battery to Osterley station. On my way there I saw someone in a bush with a camera and as I got closer I found out that it was one of my group members. I was then told that our whole plan had been changed and was then briefed. I was sort of confused to be honest, but I just got on with things so no time was wasted. After that we spent a while in the subway and then decided to go to Hounslow East station by bus to film a few more things before we filmed our night scenes. Eventually we did film them, and they were very quick so we got something to eat after that, which was also done to kill some time as we were waiting for nightfall. After that the group and I split as that was all I could do for the day and it was getting very dark. Knowing that I wouldn't be able to stay out too late before going out I asked my group if I could do most of the filming in the day to cover for my absence later on, and they agreed.
Overall the day was a good one, but we did encounter quite a few problems along the way, but that made the whole experience what it was and it would have been incomplete otherwise. We didn't get all the filming done that day though as some things like the waking up scene needed a lot of light to be done, and the school scene couldn't be done either as we filmed in the holidays. However we did eventually film them as soon as we could.

Choosing the Characters

In thriller films the plots vary quite some bit, and we chose to go for the gritty, social-realistic sort of film, and our plan was for it to fall into the category of an action-thriller, as that is what most people voted for in the questionnaire as their favourite. Since that was what we are doing I did a little research to see what kind of actors get casted and see if it would help us to choose our characters. I didn't research woman characters since most people said they preferred a male as the lead in thriller movies. Here are some of the main characters from some recent action-thriller films:

Name: Liam Neeson

Movie: Taken (2008)

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0936501/

Name: Dwayne Johnson

Movie: Faster (2010)

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1433108/








Name: Tom Cruise

Movie: Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1229238/

Name: Christian Bale

Movie: The Dark Knight (2008)

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468569/

Name: Leonardo DiCaprio

Movie: Inception (2010)

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/






From these movies mentioned I also found pictures of the villains to help us decide who to cast. Here are the pictures:

Taken:

Faster:

 

Mission Impossible:

The Dark Knight:

Inception:

From this research I thought it would be best to have an innocent looking person as our main character and decided to cast Amritpal Singh Dhaliwal, who is a sixteen year old boy that goes to our school. I think this is a good choice as he can look innocent and evil at different times, and as he gets kidnapped we want the audience to question him and think about what he could have done.

We chose Amir Jaffer (who is in our group) as the villain. Since the kidnapper's face isn't going to be shown a lot we thought it would be best for a person in our group to be the villain, and we chose Amir mainly based on the fact that he looks quite similar. I think we casted good people, and I hope that the actual video will go as planned.

Main Stoyboard

Since last time Amir and I made the initial storyboards we decided to give the task of making the actual fully developed storyboard ideas to Balkaran and Tanveer. Together they made a four page storyboard outlining the main things that happen in our opening, and I must say that they did a very good job with it. However although we do have the storyboard and it does help us when filming, we may decide while filming that if we change some things it might get better, and this is a process that happens with real movies as well. Nonetheless I am happy with the main plot and I think we have used our reseach and put it into our ideas so far. The storyboard is below:

Finalised Idea

This was the final Prezi I made that outline the groups ideas and shows how we have done things because of our research, which was mainly from our questionnaires. We started out with our own separate ideas and then merged them into one, and now we finally have a whole idea with input from each individual in our group. Also, we decided to name it 'Incognito', and this was my idea which was inspired by games and how they say you have to become that to avoid the police and to get away. The Prezi is below:

Final Idea on Prezi

Dark Knight Analysis

The opening sequence of the Dark Knight is a very fast paced one. Before the actual movie starts the titles show up and these are blue with a black background, and this relates to the dark tone that the movie has. The movie itself starts with an establishing shot and zoom for about 15 to 20 seconds and then the action starts and doesn’t stop until about five minutes into the movie. This is very common for thriller films as the action all starts off at the beginning and then slowly gets into the main storyline. A movie that did this was Inception, which is another thriller directed by Christopher Nolan as well.
The camera angles are mainly neutral (medium shots and two shots) apart from the beginning, where bird’s eye view was used to show the criminals going from one building to the other. I think the reason the director chose to closely follow the crime is to make it seem as if the audience were actually there. It also is more interesting than it would be if it was one long shot, and thrillers do need to be interesting and exciting. It also has to be a little mysterious, and this was achieved by the way the audience was shown the Joker (villain) in the opening but it wasn’t revealed to be him until a little later on. This keeps the audience engaged and makes them wonder whom the person in the mask was.

The editing in the opening is very quick, but only after a long establishing shot. There is a lot of action happening in the opening, so it only makes sense to try and show it all together by editing it in that way as well. The music is also gradually getting more and more intense to make the audience get more involved and it also helps create the atmosphere. Both the editing and non-diegetic sound effectively creates suspense and tension, which is a common convention known to be linked with thrillers as from this the audience are able to establish the genre of the media text. This is the directors attempt to influence the audiences ideas and expectations for the rest of the film.

Sound also plays a major part in movies, and especially thrillers as it need to get the audience’s heart pumping. This is done by the music slowly getting louder and more intense, as if to make the audience know something bad is about to happen. An example of this is when the banker pulls out his shotgun and shoots one of the criminals, meaning that the whole operation is at risk. This is actually a good thing but also very dramatic, and the music ties in perfectly with it. Also, the diegetic sounds of gun shots and police sirens at the end help the audience understand that the movie they are watching is indeed a thriller and not any other genre.

The colours in this are quite dark at the start, but only for the characters as the actual scenes are quite bright due to it taking place in broad daylight. This could have been done to add to the experience as it could make the audience more gripped into the action as such a robbery would usually take place at night, but then that would be quite generic. Also, the fact that the Joker had a clown face that was white could be seen as an ironic thing, as clowns are usually jolly and fun. Also, it concealed the robbers’ identities, so it makes it more dramatic. And another thing that makes it more dramatic are the weapons that are used. The robbers all have guns and that is the first thing that is seen in the movie (a robber shooting the glass window). This is all used to make the villains more threatening and the average people more vulnerable.

There is a lot of use of special effects in this particular opening sequence compared to most other movies. It jumps straight into the action and this required a lot of gun shots as it is a bank being robbed. This sets the tone for pretty much the whole movie and I think that it is almost a subtle portrayal of what will eventually happen in the movie. Most, if not all thriller films start off with a lot of action and then slowly develop into the actual storyline, and the Dark Knight follows this convention.

Here is the opening of the Dark Knight:

Analysing Thriller Openings

Part of the research that is required before we start filming our main task is a brainstorm on a couple of thriller movies. This is good as once we have analysed a few opening sequences we will understand thriller movie conventions better and hopefully use them in our own production.

 

After analysing both films it seems that there is a high contrast between the two. Both do start off gradually, but Inception has more conventions of a typical thriller, so that is probably the better one to read up on since we are only doing the opening sequence and we need to make sure it looks like a thriller. However after this I still need to do research on another movie, and that requires an essay.

Developed Ideas

As our ideas are more developed than they were originally I made another Prezi with the basic storyline that our group came up with on it. It outlines what we are going to try and achieve in the final product and how we are trying to almost make it generic. The Prezi is below:

Developed Ideas on Prezi

Initial Ideas

To prepare for the task I made a brainstorm which I then remade on Prezi, and it is here:

I think this task was useful as it made me think about the main task and how my group and I will have to get through the idea of it being a thriller within the opening sequence. The fact that it is roughly two to three minutes long is helpful as there isn't too much filming or editing that will have to be done if it were longer. However this works both ways as if it was longer than it would be easier to show that it was a thriller.

Storyboard

For the main task a storyboard will have to be made, and to prepare for this my group was told to make a storyboard with our initial ideas of the plot of our thriller movie. We have discussed as a group on what we want our opening to be like, but we haven't really thought about the type of shots that will be used, and I think this was a good way to get us on our way there.
We came up with the idea of half of the group, including myself, making our own storyboards with a slightly different idea but the basic concept being the same. As this was mainly a learning experience we didn't spend too long on this but we hope that the actual storyboard will be much better. The storyboards are below:

My storyboard:

Amir's storyboard:

Questionnaire Analysis

This is the analysis I did after doing the questionnaire. I think it was a good thing for us all to make questionnaires as it gives us a broader opinion, although it was still mainly opinions from people around our age. Nonetheless my group and I will try our best to use this information and base our thriller opening on it.
Presentation1

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Questionnaire

After doing the research I made the questionnaire. I kept it at one A4 page to avoid it being too long, as that was frequently mentioned in the research I did. I believe it was done quite well, but could be slightly better. The benefit of having a group here means that we have a variety of different questions and all the research adds up and will hopefully help us in the production of the final task. The questionnaire is below:

Types of Questions

Along with doing research online, we also did research in class. Mostly everybody in the class hadn't made a questionnaire before so we had to firstly get to know what goes into it. Below is the paper that shows what we learned:

The research outlines the types of questions that can be given in a questionnaire, along with some useful tips as well. I hope this will really help me in the actual task itself as the questionnaire is a very important thing as it gets other peoples views other than my groups.