Preliminary Exercise Editing

Today we had the chance to edit our scene. It wasn't very successful. For some unknown reason our shots continuously jumped and our sound also crackled on and off. We decided to carry on editing it despite these issues because by the time we encounted these problems, we didn't have enough time to record again. We croped it and began adding transitions. I'm not sure if we are going to carry on editing or record another scene. We will have to discuss this. But today was a great experiance because it's best to encounter our problems now so we relise we need to leave enough time to edit our final piece incase we encounter these problems again.

Wednesday 25th Preliminary exercise

Yesterday we needed to refilm our preliminary exercise, experimenting with the camera. We changed our idea for our scene and made it abit more comical. It was much better this time because we changed our setting and got better shots. As we didn't have a lot of time to film, our acting wasn't brilliant and our shots weren't as steady as they will be in our actual film. However, we used a range of shots even changing them slightly by setting them at tilted angles.
Our short play was me spotting Shelley on a bench and getting over excited. I'm abit of a weirdo and freak her out.
Our shots were good because we used the basics such as long shots and close ups but when we did a tilted angle, it represented the distraught mind of my character. We used a zoom too, but i think we will have to see how it comes out when we edit it because it may not look very good.
Im very excited to edit our piece because it was really fun to film and i now want to experiment using the computers to edit it.

Idea

Our group decided that we liked the opening of Se7en and would like to use the idea of combining lots of different shots instead of haveing a actual storyline. It will be a psycological thriller, with the use of maybe drugs. We might have somebody commit a murder under the influence of drugs, and obviously not mean to. However we dont want to show the murder so we will use a soviet montage and let the audience use their own imagenation.

Analyse Of Salad Fingers - David Firth

Salad Fingers isn't a film but it uses the same techniques as Se7en so I decided to compare them.

• The edgey font that was used in Se7en is also used in Salad Fingers. It looks like a childs handwriting too.
• The shots are steady but the movement in the scene is very sharp.
• The music doesnt screech as much as in Se7en but it has the same repitition and eerie feeling to it.
• The mood is very disturbing too. The creature does very unnatural things that are not usual to society just like in se7en.

Analyse of Se7en - David Fincher

• No action in the credits. Just shots are used.
• Flashey edgey font used, looks like a childs hand writing.
• ECU are used. They show alot of detail of what the man is doing.
• There is never a shot of the mans face, but we still know that he has mental problems or something wrong with the way he thinks from the things we see him doing.
• The speed of editing is really quick, showing the state of the mans mind.
• The music is screeching, also gives the feeling of whats in the mans mind and a sense of irratation.

Friday 13th Meeting

On Friday we had to do a preliminary exercise.We had to experiment with the camera and do a little scene using lots of different camera shots. We needed to show we that we understood and could work with:

- Continuity; where a character always looks the same to show smooth and realistic transitions between various shots.- Shot/Reverse shot; where the camera capture two character exchanging dialogue to produce a conversation- The 180-degree rule; When shooting a scene, the camera must always be in the same position so when editing everything from the characters to the background surrounding will be moving in the same direction in different shots.

Neelam was working the camera but we all worked together to decide on the shots we used. We used long shots, pans, CUs, ECUs and POVs. It was going really well until we nearly finished and then relised that we hadn't changed our tape over so we need to re-record our scene again. Although it sort of annoyed us that we had done all that work for nothing, we don't mind re-doing it because it was fun and now we have a good idea of what we are doing we can act out abit better and experiment with a few more shots. I can't wait to edit it!

Sub-genres of a Thriller

Disaster Thriller - The protagonist's job is to survive and save as many people from a grim fate.
The disaster is usually a natuaral disaster but also can have disasters such as
a terrorist attack.

Psychological Thriller - Less action and more based on the mental condition of the protagonist.
They use complicated story lines so confuse the audience by showing them
the nonsence that the main character sees.

Crime Thriller - Evolves around the life of detectives, or criminals associated with criminal
events.

Techono Thriller - The use of technology or the dangers behind it such us cyber terrorism.

Action Thriller - Uses the race against the clock. It uses alot of violence and definatly needs an
antagonist. They use guns, explosions and large elaborated places for action.
They have elements of mystery and crime in them also.

Drama Thriller - Slow paced and contains alot of character development with a plot twist.

Eco-Thriller - The protagonist must avert or rectify an evironmental or biolgical calamity. Often
comes with enemies or obstacles.

Horror Thriller - Conflict between main characters are mental, emotional and physical.

Medical Thriller - The hero/heroine are doctors or medial personnels and are trying to solve a
medical problem.

Supernatural Thriller - Main characters with super natural powers.

Vertigo- Alfred Hitchcock

• The red used represents danger and passion. A shot of an eye is used givein more sense of putting foward emotion.
• The music repeats itself. It feels like a dream that won't end. It becomes worrying and feels scary.
• The swirls represent confusion, dizzyness and like the music, they repeat themselves giving a feeling of sickness and worry.
• The swirls begin to form a shape of an eye (a graphic match to the eye at the very beginning).
• The film begins with action.
• The music changes and sounds like a flock of bees. A man is being chased by police so it is as if the police are the bees.
• A reverse zoom is used when the man looks down to show a dizzy sort of feeling and scaredness.
• As he looks down the music screeches like his mind is screaming for him because hes too scared to make an sudden movements in the fear that he will fall.

Shaow of a doubt- Alfred Hitchcock

• The credits at the beginning are accompanied with a song called "The Merry Widow". The sound carries on as a sound bridge.
• There is a dissolve from the dancers to an industrial scene. There is a burnt out car and homeless people sitting by a river. This change of scene shows a contrast between social classes of some of the characters that appear in the film. The music becomes very dramatic.
• As the music softens, there is another dissolve to children playing in the street. Yet again it is a contrast to the run down area, as the children are happily playing. This shows the split between personalities.
• The camera moves to a shot of a door then a window and then into a bedroom. Once again the music becomes dramatic showing the importance of the character.
• The man laying on the bed is smoking a cigar. He looks almost as if hes dead. The cigar shows he has power and wealth.
• Low key lighting is used to show the darkness of the man.
• The camera moves to a shot of money on a table and then moves down to show money on the floor. The wealth is yet again shown but also that money isn't a problem for him and he doesn't care for it.
• A women enters the room and tells the man about two men who were looking for him. The man remains calm and uninterested even though we get the feeling the men are up to no good. We see the man is in a high position and has no fear for his life.
• The blinds are closed and the music begins again and the man sits up, as if he is coming to life. The music is very sinister, showing the man definitely, is not a good character.
• The dialogue does not really show what the man is like. However we do not need dialogue because the mise en scene represents the character very well.
• He smashes a glass (showing he's violent and very angry about something and we assume it's the men).
• He has cigars in his suit pocket showing he has a few, and that him smoking one isn't just a one off thing.
• There is a long shot showing the man and the other two men walking down the road. We see isolation from this and also that the men are interested in following this man.
• The music has a beat and is in time with the two men's footsteps, and they also walk in unison giving it a great effect. It's like they know what they are doing and they mean business.
• The high angle shot with the man looking down at the other two men shows he is clever and superior.
• Another dissolve from the silhouette to a black telephone shows darkness about the caller on the other end.
• A high angle shot of Santa Rosa (the perfect American town) is clean and is presented in high key lighting, making it look pleasant and is very different from the industrial area we have just seen.
• A mirroring shot is used when another shot of a different window is used but this time in the perfect town. This means there is a relation to the man at the beginning and somebody in this house.
• The music is more cheerful, complementing the atmosphere.
• A girl called Charley laughs and it sounds just like her Uncle Charlie. This is another use of mirroring. It's good because it shows the relationship they have.

Analysing 8Ball

• Lots of High angle shots to show how low the protagonist is willing to go to earn money
• The person playing pool is framed so we never get a clear shot of their face, giveing a feeling of suspense
• No dialogue gives this scene a good effect because we don't know what's really but we all use our own ideas to create a story line (soviet montage)
• The charcters were not acting, they just used shots and editing to make their film really effective
• The music was appropriate and gave a feeling of excitment
• A pan was used with a long shot at the end. It was good because it showed how close the antagonist was to the protagonist but give a feeling of distance like we are not close enough to help the victim

Thriller Conventions

• A crime at the core of the narrative (often murder, but not necessarily)
• A complex narrative structure with false paths & clues and resolutions
• A narrative pattern of establishing enigmas which with the viewer expects to be resolved
• A protagonist who is systematically dis-empowered and drawn into a complex web of intrigue by the antagonist
• Extraordinary events in ordinary situations
• Themes of identity
• Themes of mirroring
• Themes of voyeurism
• Protagonist with a 'flaw' which is exploited by the antagonist
• Titles often reflect an aspect of the pro/antagonist's psychological state
• There is often a scene near the end of the film in which the protagonist is in peril
• Mise en scene which echoes/mirrors the protagonist's plight