Preliminary Task

Evidence of me filming

Evidence of me editing the video on FinalCut

This is the final edited version of my groups preliminary task. In this preliminary task we had to work in groups of three to successfully film a short interrogation scene. We had to include shot reverse shot, match on action and comply with the 180 degree rule. The actors in this video are not members of my group as all 3 of us had to work the camera so we could not be acting at the same time. We filmed all of our shots successfully. However when we came to edit our footage some of the shots would not upload meaning we had to do without the second half of our shot reverse shot. This meant that although we had filmed it we did not have the evidence in our final video. It is not through a fault of my groups it was a technical issue but in future we ill allow more time so that if a shot fails to upload we can re-film it and try again. I think we did well with this task as each group member used the camera and edited well. The image on the left is photographic evidence of me filming and the photo on the right is the evidence of me editing the video.

Preliminary Task with Directors Commentary

This is our preliminary interrogation scene, this time with a directors commentary over the top. The 3 of us in my group are the 3 speakers in the commentary. Myself, Rosie Rattray and Emma Nye. In the commentary we outline the success of the task, continuity, composition and framing, overall success in fulfilling the brief, our own contributions and a group self evaluation of how we feel we did at completing the task. In the video above we took out the sounds of the video and played our commentary over the top. The commentary was much longer than the preliminary task video so we looped the video. We tried to get shots of what we were discussing on the commentary at the same time as they showed on the video for effectiveness. This was not always possible though. I feel that our commentary was very effective as it explained what we did well but also our shortcomings and the reasons behind them.

Spoiler review of the film 'Se7en'

I chose to do a spoiler review of the film se7en, it is a crime thriller with some very dark themes that leave you tense throughout and shaken once the film has ended. The film opens with detective somerset (morgan freeman) preparing to leave his house for work.
When he leaves the shot then changes to show a dead body at a crime scene, this shows the type of gruesome images detective somerset sees everybody in his job, immediately setting the dark mood of the film. the lighting of this scene is also key to immediately outlining it as a thriller as it shows the dim low key lighting used frequently throughout thrillers.



Main Plot Summary
The basic plot of the film follows 2 men, detective somerset and detective mills as they try to discover who is behind a series of gruesome murders. The killer murders his victims based on each of the seven deadly sins gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, pride, lust and envy. For example the first killing involves a obese man and is labelled "gluttony". They find clues relating to other deaths at each of the crime scenes which leads them to the conclusion that they are looking for a serial killer who has planned out these killings perfectly for a long time.
On a different tangent in the story Detective Mills wife is pregnant and confides in Somerset before she tells Mills. Somerset reveals that he has previously pressured a girlfriend into having an abortion as he did not want to have a child growing up in the city. He says that if she is too have an abortion mills should never know and if not she should spoil the child every chance she gets.

After Somersets extensive study at the library he tracks down a man named John Doe who has checked out multiple books on the seven deadly sins over the past year. Mills and Somerset visit his flat but he sees them outside and shoots at them. The two detectives chase him with mills leading the chase and somerset just behind, the chase climaxes with mills being held as gunpoint by Doe before Doe seems to have a sudden change of heart and releases him. 

Shortly after the 2 officers have returned to the station we are shown Doe leaving a taxi and entering the station to hand himself in. He offers the two officers a way for them to see the last 2 bodies, if they refuse his offer however he will plead insanity and will not be punished for his crimes. The two detectives agree and drive Doe out to a remote desert location, being followed from above by more police officers in a helicopter incase the whole situation is a set up. Doe asks what the time is, shortly after a delivery van approaches and Somerset runs over to intercept it, he is informed by the driver that he was told to deliver a package to that exact location at that exact time, again showing the extent to which Doe has planned all of his actions. Somerset looks inside the box and is horrified at what is inside, we are not shown what it is but Somerset runs back to
Mills shouting for him not to listen to Doe. Doe reveals to Mills that the box contains the head of his wife Tracey, after seeing the way that Somerset is running towards him Mills realises Doe is telling the truth. Doe then taunts the now distraught Mills by informing him that his wife was pregnant when he killed her. "She begged for her life, and the life of the baby inside of her" unable to deal with this rationally Mills shouts and shoots Doe dead. The film ends with detective Somerset quoting Ernest Hemingway

"The world is a fine place and worth fighting for. I agree with the second part."

Key Moments
- Discovery of the gluttony body
- Discovery of greed murder body
- Discovery of sloth murder body
- Mills' wife admittance of pregnancy to Somerset
- Visit to Doe's apartment
- No fingerprints in entire apartment
- Clues lead to lust victim
- Discovery of pride victim
- Doe turning himself in
- Journey to desert
- Arrival of delivery van
- Discovery that box contains head of Mills wife
- Mills shooting Doe

Key aspects of why it is a thriller

The film fits all aspects that are associated with the thriller genre. The film is set in a nameless city where it rains nearly all of the time. This gives the low key lighting and shadows that you expect to find in thrillers. The fact that one of the victims was kept alive but paralyzed for over a year keeps with the thriller idea that things take place in the real world around us. It shows that people do not notice something that could be happening right on their doorstep. The film is a crime thriller and we as a viewer help the detectives uncover the case. The main enigma code in the film is why did the killer murder all thes people rather than wondering who the killer is as he turns himself in. This allows us too look at the film from a totally different perspective. The film does contain all the major plot twits you expect from thriller such as when Mills wife reveals to Somerset she is pregnant and when her head is in the box at the end of the film.

Conclusions and Overall Rating
This fim delivers all that you would expect from a crime thriller. It has a very complex plotline as you cannot work out why the killer is carrying out these murders. This keeps you interested and supplies all of the plot twists that you expect to find in a film classed under the thriller genre. The dark clouds and constant rain in the city set a very dark tense atmosphere, this accompanied with the dark lighting in all of the crime scenes adds a lot of mystery to the happenings in the film. You see the majority of the film from the perspectives of Detectives Mills and Somerset however at the end in the desert you start to see the reasons behind why Doe carried out the murders, giving us his perspective on what is happening. It makes the viewer more interested as it ends the film with a more well rounded feel, letting the viewers see both sides of the story.
I would rate the film 4/5. I feel it was a good thriller but the first 45 minutes or so of the film were very slow and did not hold the viewers attention as many other thrillers I've seen in the past have done.

Storyboard for Preliminary Task

In this task we had to design a storyboard for our preliminary task which was an interrogation scene that would typically be scene in a thriller film. me, Rosie and Emma designed the storyboard, Rosie took the photos you see above and me and Emma were the actors or subjects for these photos. When we actually came to film the task me, Emma and Rosie were all doing camera work and directing so we had to get the help of our friends David and Jake to act in our scene. David took the place of Emma in the photos above and Jake took the place of me (Martin) in the photos above. This was our second attempt at a storyboard as our first one was not thorough enough as it did not contain examples of all the necessary shot types. These being Match on Action, 180 Degree Rule and Shot Reverse Shot. We tried to use as many different cinematography techniques in our shoot as possible to create the desired atmosphere you would expect to see in a film which falls under the thriller genre.

Thriller Sub-Genres and Narrative Techniques

This is a presentation me and Emma made using the website xtranormal. We chose to use this way of presenting it as it is more aesthetically pleasing than just a simple PowerPoint and it also will stick in the memory of those who view it more. The presentation tells of 4 narrative techniques and the sub genres of thriller films. It also explains what an enigma code is. I felt it was a worthwhile activity as it gave us a new way to present work but also improved our group work. We presented this to the class as we had to teach each other, and compare videos. we were given ratings by the others in the class. 

Falling Down Sound Foley

This is a video called falling down. We had to work in groups and replace the original sounds from the video with clips that we were provided with to make it sound as much like the original as possible. this is why it is called foley sound. Me and Grace Cuthbertson made this using garageband. We worked on it during classtime but also in our own time to make sure it was as good as it could be. I thought it was an effective exercise as it taught us how to use garageband but also gave us a better understanding of what foley meant. As doing it practically made it easier to remember. I was pleased with the overall outcome as we managed to put all sounds in at the appropriate time and it fits with the video well. we put in the sounds from 00.30-2.30. 

180 Degree Rule, Match on Action and Shot Reverse Shot Presentation

Camera Shots on Prezi

In this task me, Rosie and Emma had to create a group presentation about 3 different filming types/rules. we had to make it both informative but also attractive to the eye so we decided to use the presentation creating website Prezi. We wrote the basic outlines and meanings of Match on Action, The 180 Degree Rule and Shot Reverse Shot. We had to research for this task to make the presentation, but this research was also important as the 3 things that we were researching were camera techniques that we would have to use in our preliminary interrogation task. we had to fully understand these 3 techniques as if we did not include them we would not be able to achieve the optimum grade that we deserved.

Se7en Title Slides, Re-edit.

The video above is an edit of the seven title sequence that me and Rosie made during class. We did not finish including all of the title slides but the main point of the video was to show that we could both use final cut to edit both clips and the title slates that we put over them. I feel this video is a very effective representation of our abilities as we used the effect old film to give the slides a thriller feel, and also made the slides tell an effective story that could start of any number of possible thriller scenarios. The images on screen stop at 00.47 but the music continues until the end of the video.

Module Report

At the moment i would give myself a low level 4 (16/17 marks) for the posts that are currently on my blog. I feel this level could be higher but i haven't yet included all of the necessary posts.

Targets:
- Make posts more attractive, rather than essays - images & embed clip
- Go into more detail on commentary on posts so they will be relevant to Thrillers
- Present tasks in various ways, like videos etc rather than just writing

Spoiler Review of the film 'Panic Room'

I chose to do a spoiler review of the film Panic Room, it is an edge of seat thriller that leaves you tense and thinking throughout. The film starts with a woman (Meg) and her daughter (Sarah) buying a new house, the house is huge and contains a panic room. The entirety of the story from this point on is set inside the house and the panic rooom.

Main Plot Summary
The basic plot of the film is that three men break into the house attempting to rob it. They find Meg and Sarah in the house and were surprised as they expected to find it empty. Meg and Sarah hide in the panic room thinking they can just wait until the robbers have left. what they dont however realise is that what the robbers want is inside the panic room, meaning the place they ran to expecting to be safe has actually put them in a position of greater danger.

 

The image above is a shot of a scene in which the robbers are telling Meg why they are in the house, the fact they have to communicate by words makes it much more dramatic as the written words make more of a definate statement than if they had been spoken. It also shows how detached from the world Meg and Sarah are in the panic room

Many attempts are made by the robbers to attempt the panic room, one of which is the use of propane to gas Meg and Sarah. this backfires on them however when Meg ignites the gas resulting in the character 'juniors' face being badly burnt. Meg manages to sneak out of the panic room whilst the intruders are arguing amongst themselves, she connects the phone from the wall in the panic room to the still active phoneline allowing her to call her husband. She is cut off mid sentence before she can explain the danger to her husband. When junior tries to leave he is shot by Raoul before a major plot twist which involves the womans husband arriving and ends with the 2 remaining burglars and the Sarah in the panic room leaving Meg outside with a gun. Whilst inside the room Meg has some kind of seizure and Burnham has to administer her injection to stop her entering a coma. whilst doing so he says

                            "i did not want to do this, i only agreed to it to give my daughter a better life"

Once they have the money the robbers attempt to
leave using sarah as a hostage. Meg then hits Raoul with a sledge hammer and burnham flees with the money. However Raoul lives and pins down meg, just as he is about to kill her burnmham returns and shoots him
saving her life and therefore the lives of Sarah and the husband. the police then arrive in bulk after obviously being suspicious of Megs earlier behaviour, they capture burnham and the film ends with meg and sarah on a park bench looking for a new house.

Key Moments:
- Race at the start of the film to enter the panic room
- When we are told that the robbers intend to enter the room
- Sarahs SOS signal to the neighbour
- Megs journey to get the mobile phone
- Landline phonecall to husband, cut off mid sentence
- Raoul shooting junior
- Discovery of Sarahs medical condition
- Meg leaving panic room to find injection for Sarah
- Burnham and Raoul entering Panic Room with Sarah leaving Meg outside with gun
- Burnham showing humanity administering injection to Sarah
- Police arriving at the door
- Meg attacking Raoul
- Raoul sitting over Meg about to kill her
- Bunhams change of heart as he returns to save Megs life and kill Raoul
- Police arriving when everything is over, arrest of Burnham

Key Aspects of Why It Is a Thriller:
The film fits all the classifications of being a thriller, it is set in a practically deserted house with many doors and hallways giving many places for intruders to hide, making the house a very suspenseful environment. also the entirety of the film takes place at night time, setting the low key lighting that is often present in thrillers. this lack of light sets the tone for the film and makes it clear that it is serious. the house is situated in a city yet still no neighbours have any idea of what is happening. this is key to the common thriller factor of things taking place in real life situations, and the most busy places without anybody realising. The characters fit the thriller checklist perfectly, we know near to nohing about them at the start but as the film goes on we progressively gain more knowledge and we work out what characters we can trust and which ones we should like or dislike. the character of Burnham is essential as he is a burglar meaning we dislike him at the start but as the film goes on we see he does not want too harm sarah or meg and does in effect save both their lives making us sympathise with him. at the end when he is caught the viewer almost feels sorry for him and wishes he had esced, showing th ecomplexity of thriller characters used in this movie. the film also makes use of guns and high tech equipment which is also a common aspect of thriller films, the panic room itself is a single piece of high tech equipment.

Conclusions and Overall Rating
The film delivers everything that you want and expect from a thriller. it has a complex storyline which is changing all the time so you cannot settle down at any point in the film. The fact that it is set in one house for the entirety of the film creates a very strong feeling of suspense as you know trhat there is nowhere the character can go so some kind of death or confrontratin is inevitable. the film keeps the audience involved as it does not settle down at anytime, you see a lot of the film from the perspective of Meg or the burglars meaning that you as the viewer are trying to work out ways to escape but also ways to brake in. Making it more complex and entertaining than other thrillers in which you often only see the film from one perspective.
I would rate the film 4.5/5 as i really enjoyed it and thought it was a brilliant example of a thriller but the ending was somewhat predictable.

Sound Key Terms Mind Map

This is a Mind Map that I did in class, it shows all the major key terms you need to know to do with sound. I thought it was effective as it was easy to remember due to the mind map layout and it will be easy to revise from in the future

A Photo of A Thriller Location

I thought this was a good thriller location as it creates a sense of mystery straight away without looking at all like the setting for a horror film. The dark lighting in the tunnel and the black water in the floor represent the kind of dark scenes that are commonly used in thrillers. I took this photo at night so that it would get the full effect of the darkness but also the reflections of the lighting in the tunnel in the water. It is the kind of location where in a thriller some sort of deal would happen or possibly somebody could be lying dead with their blood running into the water