Thriller rough

This is the final rough shoot and edited version of our rough thriller.

Rough thriller shoot edit

Having gone out to shoot our rough thriller on my iPhone, I later uploaded these shots onto my Mac to edit on iMovie. I began by trimming each shot down to the desired length, then once this was complete I added sound effects, titles and credits.

Recky shoot for our thriller

We were given an hour to go out with our phones to film a rough draft of our thriller. This was done so that we could gain a view of how practical our Thriller idea actually is. I was in charge of filming the shots, while Kingsley and Tyler posed as my actors. In conclusion to doing this we found that our idea is fairly straight forward to shoot, however it is just a matter of finding the correct location to shoot at.

Prop list for our thriller

Thriller research- more props

With the he development of our new idea has come the need for use of props. So far the two most essential props that have emerged from our idea are fake money and a duffel bag. This links into the shot of the man packing money into a duffel bag just before he is leaving the house. 

As we developed our story board, we now have introduced the shot in which two policemen are chasing the man through the forest. As they are policemen we need to make it clear, therefore we are going to need two police officers uniforms for our sequence as well. I thought we would go for an authentic look to create the best effect. On top of this, we will need many other props. For example,

1. A safe, preferably with a number dial rather than an electronic dialling pad.
2. Fake money, either Euro's, US dollars and Great British Pounds to be inside the safe.
3. A hard drive to be inside the safe also.
4. A normal bedroom environment, e.g bed, bathroom, desk and chair etc.
5. Duffel bag for money to be placed inside.
6. Policeman uniforms.
7. Car (police car if possible), if not then an unmarked car.

This is our first list of props that we want in our opening title sequence for the time being.

I own a duffel bag, but none of us have fake money, so we did some research on ebay and amazon to see how much it was. Its not too expensive so we decided that when we need to we will order some, so we can make our scene look as realistic as possible. At first we were going to use pounds, but then we changed our minds to use Euros. We did this because we felt that Euros were more of an internationalized currency. 

What is a Thriller?

A thriller can take many different forms, for example, psychological thrillers, crime thrillers, erotic thrillers, mystery thrillers and action thrillers (however these usually involve crime). It often bestows a sudden rush of emotions, whether that emotion be sad, happy or an intense mix of both, which is driven by the story of the film. 

This is an important genre in the world of film because the many sub genre's allow it to be presented the an incredibly wide range of audiences. 

You would expect a psychological thriller to be mental and emotional, rather than physical. An example of your typical psychological thriller is Oren Peli's 2007 Paranormal Activity. This is an incredibly well done psychological thriller as it is a film in which not a huge amount happens but tension is built up so well that something as simple as a door slamming to break that tension would cause the whole cinema to become spooked.

A crime thriller is all about crime, which often begins with a failed crime followed by revenge. It contains murders, heists, car chases, shootouts and kidnappings. The target audience for a crime thriller tends to be your stereotypical, male adrenaline junkie. One of my favourite thriller's is Justin Lin's Fast and Furious 6, if not the entire Fast and Furious franchise. This film contains pretty much every aspect that a crime thriller contains, with particular emphasis on car chases.

As you can see the two sub genres that I have talked about are considerably different, which highlights my point about thriller's appealing to a wide range of audiences.

Location possibilities

We have decided to use a location rather than a set as we feel that it will fit our sequence a lot better. In our sequence we need both an upstairs and a downstairs of the house, therefore it is a lot easier and less time consuming if we use a location rather then a set. It gives us more time to focus on filming and editing of the final piece. Furthermore our sequence requires a Forrest and there is a natural one at Peaslake so that would be prime to use for us, also there is Adams house at Peaslake so we could consider using that as the house. There is no point in using the set for a Forrest when we already have one. For the forest we want it to look like the one below, so all the leaves and twigs will make snapping and crunching sounds which will help build tension and create effect in our opening title sequence. So far we think that Peaslake is the prime location to film at as it provides everything that we need. 

This picture is of forestry in the Surrey Hills which we will be using to shoot our forest scene

Character Development and Actor possibilities

Due to our opening title sequence involving a hard drive, my self and Tyler discussed what type of character that we would like. For example, is he a thug or an IT worker?

If we were going to have an actor who could play the thug then we would want someone big, maybe bearded and imposing. We then had the idea of using Ted Jackson.

Character List

In terms of mine, Kingsley and Tyler's character list we require only one or two different characters. At the moment, the only person we want in our Thriller is a man aged between 30 and 40, which is a very easy age range to find. We have a choice of plenty of teachers at Hurtwood House.

The three of us also contemplated using two policeman to arrive in the drive way of our location, but we feel that we can create more suspense and cause the audience to ask more questions by simply putting in the sound of the policeman knocking on the door, instead of showing the audience who is doing the knocking.

This picture shows two armed British policeman

After effect on opening credits

The idea's on what after effects to put in place on our opening credits are endless, however I have looked into Youtube to find some ideas for inspiration.

This clip uses an unusual style of after effects, which I do not personally like but it gives me an idea of the options available to us.

The clip below is from the James Bond movie, 'Skyfall' and by watching it, it shows me that we do not have to directly involve camera shots, but we could use special effects to a heavy level.

Opening title sequence research- Idea's for our bag full of money

To begin with, we always wanted to have one of our first shots to show money in a bag as feel that it will show the audience that this is something big, and to therefore help to increase the tension in our thriller. As to how we would present this, we were not entirely sure, but with two out of three people in our group being big Breaking Bad fans we are able to use this as inspiration. For example, we both remembered a scene in which a colleague of Walter White is picking up money from a safety deposit box.                                                                        
 Futhermore, as to what type of bag to use to pack the money into and from the start I was fairly confident that a duffle bag would fit in nicely for our thriller. I then further researched into possible idea's and I found this picture that confirmed my ideas that a duffle bag will be the perfect route to take.

Thriller opening title sequence and chase scene research

To begin with, when it came to deciding our main story board we decided upon our actor to run through the forest and for me personally I was reminded of the first chase scene in SALT (2010) staring Angelina Jolie in which she is chased by government  personnel in cars while she runs on foot, jumping onto lorry's on the highway etc..

Now obviously we cannot do something as complex as that but I think that re-watching the scene has inspired me and helped me to form a clear vision of what our scene should look like. As you can see in the top left hand corner, the clip I mentioned is there, as is the movie poster for SALT.

Flaws, changed details in Thriller idea

When Tyler first suggested that we use fake money in our video we looked online to research prices, different currency's and the amount that we would need to which we decided on using fake euro's due to the amount of countries that use the euro, creating a more legitimate feel to it. We considered using the U.S dollar, however we decided against this due to wishing to avoid a clichè. The pound was also a deffinite potential but the euro has the edge over this due to its more 'proffessional' look.

In our current thriller idea, I wrote about having fake drugs in the safe, but thinking on this we felt it would be dull, unoriginal and very clichèd to use them. To overcome this we decided to use a memory stick/hard drive as that would force the audience to ask so many more question and it creates a feeling of mystery and would certainly create tension.

Thriller idea to date - 24th November 2014

Our idea to date begins with a man opening a safe. The safe is full of stacks of money, pills and white powder. Our actor would then proceed to pack the contents of the safe into a duffel bag. The man then hears a knock on the door, and from the actors reaction we would show that this is an expected, however unwelcome visitor. The man would then run down the stairs to storm out of the back door. He would run through the garden and into the forest with music building up steadily, increasing the intensity and tension in our Thriller. We would then suddenly cut the music as the man abruptly stops running. Our camera work would next include a close-up reaction shot of the actor before we hear a loud and clear twig snap behind, where the screen would go black in time with a dark sinister, single beat. 

As you can see below, the story board compiled so far is incomplete and unsubstantial in detail, however we intend to use the remaining 4 weeks to prepare, think through and uncover flaws in our idea to create the desired thriller for our target audience.

Shot 1 : Safe opening, memory stick.

Shot 2 : Picks up stuff from safe, carries it to bed

Shot 3 : Hands putting stuff into bag

Shot 4 : Back to safe

Shot 5 : Hands into safe (hear a car coming up drive, door slams)

Shot 6 : reaction shot close up

Shot 7 : hurried actions, packs bag

Shot 8 : close up of him zipping and picking up the bag

Shot 9 : follow shot of him running down stairs

Shot 10 : over shoulder shot of door (hearing the knock)

Shot 11: Runs to back door

Shot 12: over shoulder shot of back door open  (stops running and pauses to stare) (hears crash as door is forced open) (music starts to build up)

Shot 13: Him running out of the door.

Shot 14: Running into forest, music building up massively then music stops

Shot 15: Close up, breath curling in front of face. (hear twig snap)

Shot 16: black

Thriller developments

As my self, Tyler and Kingsley spoke further about our potential thriller ideas we have frequently changed our minds. To start with we wanted to go with Tyler's idea of a man sitting on his laptop only to hear repeated, and unexplained knocking. However, as we discussed this we decided to adapt it and as this took place the idea got changed completely. Furthermore, on friday we spoke with Matt about our idea, which he essentially liked but he felt that we needed to accelerate the formation of tension to prevent it from becoming boring.

Ollie, Tyler and Kingsleys favourite thriller ideas

Tyler's favourite idea

 Opening title sequence: A man is working in his bed, with nothing but the laptop shining on his face, he is typing up some work. Then it cuts to the front door and all you see is a gloved hand knocking on his door just once. Then it cuts back to the man, he now has anxious yet knowing look on his face. Then the knocking on the door get harder, so het gets up and goes to the closet. Then it cuts to a shot outside his house and there is a car with tinted windows and its engine running, then OTS shot of him seeing the car. As he gets to the stairs the knocking stops, he goes down the stairs creak a lot. As soon as he reaches the bottom of the stairs the knocking turns into a hammering. He slowly walks to his front door, then suddenly the knocking stops, he goes right up to the door, and looks through the peep hole, screen blacks out.

Kingsley's favourite

The girl tries to get up and run but she can’t move at all. There are sounds of someone walking slowly on a wooden floor. She goes dead silent and looks straight ahead in pure fear. A silhouetted figure stands in front of the camera with a knife in his hand, we only see from his hip. The girl wakes up in a bed screaming, in the middle of the night. She looks around and realizes that it was just dream. She gets up out of her room and heads towards the kitchen to get a drink of water. As she leaves the room the camera zooms out from the window and standing a few metres away from the window in total darkness. The same shadowy figure is standing with a knife in his hands. The movie then cuts to black

Ollie's favourite idea

 over shoulder of two men in a car, talking in russian with the word dead in english used for emphasis. follow then on the journey around the roads to a house. men get out and take guns from the boot. cut to a man in military uniform sitting at a desk on a laptop with a US flag on the wall. laptop out of focus. then the two mens legs and shoes appear in the shot. screen goes blank.credits come up in centre screen while newspaper clippings about the russian usa cold war appear on screen.

How we divided ourselves into groups for our AS Thriller

When it came to deciding our groups for our thriller it was very simple, Adam just told us to give him a number between 1 and 16, and this number on the register that matched with a name become the first person in the first group and this went on until everyone was divided. I ended up in a group with Katie, Tyler and Kingsley, however we thought as a group that we would work better as three boys. So Katie is now working with Crerar, Igor and Lauren.

My AS Thriller ideas 2014

Idea 1

 Have a shot in which a text is received with an address with details of specific location. Shot of reaction shot of a person getting into a car- drives off. Follow the car through the countryside, then car arrives at location, finds object- body part etc. twig snapping sound, close up on person turning around- screen goes black.

Opening title sequence- shot of person looking over scenery from the pack with the names of ppl involved appearing in the top left corner of the screen.

Idea 2

Shot of person sitting on a laptop browsing the internet, then cut to another shot of someone tied to a chair with the captor also on a laptop emailing. main focus on the man browsing the internet but with lots of very quick cuts of the hostage. email comes through to the man minding his own of a sinister message, e.g. 12:00 at A or she dies’ sort of thing.

opening title sequence, over shoulder shot of text saying ‘on way home, see u soon’. then action shot of a woman tied up in the boot of a car.

Idea 3

Walk towards a car, find piece of paper tucked under windscreen wipers saying meet at x at whatever time. car driving through country side, (must be dark) to woods. arrive to find people cloaked wearing white masks sitting around a fire. screen goes black.

old fashioned writing on green sci fi back ground.

Idea 4

Over shoulder of two men in a car, talking in Russian with the word dead in English used for emphasis. follow then on the journey around the roads to a house. men get out and take guns from the boot. cut to a man in military uniform sitting at a desk on a laptop with a US flag on the wall. laptop out of focus. then the two mens legs and shoes appear in the shot. screen goes blank. credits come up in center screen while newspaper clippings about the Russian USA cold war appear on screen.

'Charlotte' AS media thriller 2014 analysis

• What is your understanding of the action in the sequence. What is happening? 

 In this sequence, it is clear and simple for me to see that this is quite a mysterious, complex and potentially confusing. However, I can see that it is religion based, and all focused around 'Charlotte'. The scene is clearly showing some form of murder. For example we see a newspaper clipping referring to a death, we also see three separate people representing dead bodies being covered in white sheets, and lastly we see a persons hands covered in blood, dripping all over the floor.

What do you think the rest of the film might be about?

I think that the rest of the film would be set around ghostly connotations, and I have got this from the religious theme, and the creepy and eerie way in which 'Charlotte' has fallen to the bed at the beginning and then re-visited at the end with a close up of her eyes opening. 
What is your view on the casting? Have they chosen convincing actors? (not necessarily in terms of their acting but in terms of their suitability for the role/the right look etc.)

I think that the casting was overall, convincing although people were not needed much at all. However, I feel that during the graveyard shot, the couple did not seem to fit the scene and appeared to be out of place.

Are the characters interesting?

The characters jobs are very basic throughout the sequence, but I felt that the characters did pose a position of interest to me due to their mystery and the lack of knowledge on who these people are.

What do you make of the camera work, editing, sound, how convincing is the mise en scene?

The camera work here is clever, as the shots of the grave, the cross, the couple standing in the graveyard are all very short, mysterious and they present no obvious meaning. Especially the crane, over head close up shot at the begging and at the end and the hand held shots of the grave and cross. This is clever as it keeps the audience asking questions- it keeps them guessing. The editing here is fairly simple yet effective, because of the way that the credits cut across the screen. The mise-en-scene here is useful as it paints a picture for the audience.

Is it a studio or location shoot? How does this effect the final product?

This sequence is clearly shot in both a studio and elsewhere as a location shoot. We can see this early on that it begins in a bedroom, and this image is created by the use of dark lighting and a lamp. The fact that this is both a studio and location shoot works brilliantly on the final product as it creates a noticeable contrast within the sequence.
If there is music, does it fit the piece? What mood does it create?

The music here is sketchy, creepy and mysterious which links back to my idea that this is a ghost story. The music is clever and fits the shot well in that it links up smoothly with the way the credits appear, and especially with the hand held shots of the grave and cross. How many credits are there and what roles do you think they are?

There are 23 credits throughout this sequence, however many names appeared more than once having completed more than one role throughout the task. These roles varied from director, producer, casting, sound designer, music and actors.

Are the credits well spaced? Are they well positioned in the frame? Do you like the font they have chosen to use and does it fit the piece?

I think that the credits are one of the best qualities to this sequence as they are well spaced apart, the font is tasteful as it presents something mysterious. The editing that has gone with it is even better, as it connects to the music. For example before one credit changes, it darts around the screen in a flashy fashion that works with the music.
What do you think of the film title they have chosen?

I think that the film title, 'Charlotte', is well chosen because it is very obvious who 'Charlotte' is.
Is it effective overall? Does it make you want to watch on?

Overall, this sequence is incredibly effective because it sets us up for something exciting, however it doesn't bore the audience.

Saul Bass

Saul Bass

Born: 8th May 1920, in New York City, USA.
Died: 25th April 1996 (aged 75) in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Bass was a widely praised graphic designer whose career spanned over forty years. He is best known for his work on some classic films, such as The Man with the golden arm (1955),  North by Northwest (1959), and Psycho (1960). Saul has 106 credits from jobs as part of the miscellaneous crew, Art department, producer, director e.t.c. Saul Bass has notably worked some big names in the industry at the time, for example, Paul Rand, Milton Glaser, Otto Preminger and the biggest name of them all, Alfred Hitchcock. Alfred Hitchcock being nicknamed "The Master Of Suspense" having used methods in the psychological thriller genres. He is also famous for bringing graphic design into the media world through designing many famous and iconic American branding logos. For example he designed AT&T, Kleenex, abc, Taco Bell and Ford.

Oceans Eleven and Saul Bass

 Saul Bass's work on Oceans Eleven was to complete an opening title to the 1960 film. It features flashing neon type writing and each time Bass wants a new name to appear, the lights shift and move to form a transition from one area to another. It is also appropriate as it sets the scene for a gambling environment with a Vegas type feel to it. This is influential to the rest of the film even today as the Ocean film's have become iconic and well known for its Casino and gambling aspects.

Here you can view the opening title sequence to Ocean's Eleven (1960) created by Saul Bass. The film stars Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis. Jr, Angie Dickinson and Dean Martin who were are remain to be well known actor's/actress.

My completed preliminary shoot

Second editing session of my Preliminary shoot

In my second editing session I continued to use Adobe premier pro, and simply continued to add to my editing that I had already done, with the help of Crerar and Ben. We took the rushes that we needed and cut these into desired segments which enabled us to put in the final touches for our sound bridging. Really, however the only new thing that we did during this second time, was to add an opening title sequence that forms an introduction to our Preliminary shoot.

'Dawn of the Dead' opening title sequence by Kyle Cooper

The opening title sequence to 'Dawn of the Dead' is very clever in that from the start it shows something very sinister and gruesome. For example, the titles are bright red against a black background and shown for time enough to be read. The words then run off the screen as if it is blood washing away in water. After each name has appeared there is an incredibly short cut to a rabid, bloody face that is presumably of the zombies that we see later. This is clever of Cooper as it informs the audience of the type of things that are coming. The remainder of the sequence shows POV and amateur footage of the chaos that we can assume took place before the virus to hold. Now this is visually appealing to an audience because it is showing them a number of different, curious and eye catching things. Cooper is intelligent in the sound bridge that he uses here also as he uses quite a calm and famous song called 'A Man Comes Around' by Jonny Cash. This is quite comedic in a way as the song is completely the wrong thing to play if you are summing up a devastating virus that has 'zombified' the globe, yet it works.

'Superman Returns' opening title sequence by Kyle Cooper

The opening title sequence of 'Superman Returns' is clever from the word go because it immediately captures your attention in that the first shot shows a sort of bloody red plasma ball that quickly shrinks into nothing. Now this sounds fairly basic, but what it does is so much more than that. It captures your attention but as there is only something of visual interest on the screen for such a short time that you want to see more the second that it goes. We then hear a heartbeat type sound and a black dot made visible only by bright light shining behind it, something that is not dissimilar to a solar eclipse. This shot then explodes outwards into a space type setting, with a blue colouring that contrasts the previous red and black. We then are shown greenish coloured rocks that fly past against a black background. The camera follows these rocks until all we see is a black screen. This is again clever as it takes away everything of visual interest, making us want to see more. Next comes the title sequence in which we are presented with a black background with blue writing advancing towards the screen, and once these words have got to a certain position, the words disintegrate into scifi type beams that shoot forwards in a 3D sort of way. We then see the iconic superman crest that naturally excites the audience for what they are about to see. The final thing that Cooper does to present a visually appealing and clever opening sequence is that he has the camera take the audience on a journey through the galaxy where they see meteors, planets, stars, the moon, landforms on planets and finally the scene ends as the camera very quickly zooms in on earth, with the sequence ending with a shot of what looks to be South America from above.

'Wimbledon ' opening title sequence by Kyle Cooper

The opening title sequence in 'Wimbledon' begins with a sound bridge of a tennis ball being hit back and fourth, which is a fairly well known sound, therefore it sets the audience up for what the film is about. I also think that Cooper has been very clever about how, on each beat of the tennis ball, the shot cuts to another area of cloudy, blue sky with a plain white text which is either an actors name, directors name or a word introducing someone on either the left or right of the screen. This effect is continued further as when the name of the film appears, 'Wimbledon', the next two sounds of the tennis ball make the word shrink smaller and then smaller to the point that it disappears off screen. This idea of the names bouncing from left to right on each sound of the ball continues, however the background scene is changed. It is of a moving, painted style image of the crowd and I find this visually appealing because on each sound, the heads of the spectators move from left to right, with the credits, and with the ball that we cannot see. There is then a break in the sounds of the ball for the crowd to clap which shows that a point has been won and it also represents the well mannered sportsmanship and eticet that is associated with the sport and iconic British tournament. There is then two more changes of backgrounds, the first of reporters and photographers with their huge camera's and then onto the umpire, who like the crowd is following the ball intently. The change of four different backgrounds was a clever move by Cooper as it makes the opening sequence visually different, and therefore appealing and it provides a contrast to prevent the audience from being bored in the first 1:00 minute that this sequence lasts.

Kyle Cooper

Kyle Cooper demo reel

Kyle Cooper was born in 1962 in Salem, Massachusetts, USA and he has directed over 150 title sequences and he has been credited for "almost single-handedly revitalizing the main-title sequence as an art form". He has single handily found two film design companies known internationally, Imaginary Forces and Prologue Films. Cooper is especially well known for his work on Seven, Braveheart and Ironman 1 and 2. He has 206 credits as part of the crew, and been nominated for 6 primetime emmy's and one of which he has won.

Editing the prelim shoot

When it came to editing our prelim shoot I worked with Crerar and Ben on a programme called Adobe Premier Pro. When we first opened this programme with all of our shots we created a new bin to contain every original shot that we had (rushes). We then made another new bin for us to copy the rushes that we wanted to use into (called logging), this then means that we could name each shot individually so that it is clear which shot is which. Next came the actual editing and this began by cutting our required shot so that we had the part that we needed. We then dragged our cut into the timeline. This process was repeated so that half of our video was edited smoothly to cut to other shots, presenting the same scene from a different angle.

Overall, I think that our editing ran smoothly however we need to learn to work together and to agree on certain things before continuing the rest of the editing next week.

Actual Coursework Task

Video

Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Main task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source. Both preliminary and main tasks may be done individually or as a group. Maximum four members to a group.

Prelim shoot

Doing our prelim was an ejoyable experience and very informative as it was the first time that I had actually filmed something from a number of angles. The roles in my group were simple, Ollie (me) and Crerar were the actors, performing a short sequence, using the storyboard given to us by Adam. Filming was jointly done by Ben and Lauren, where the task of director was given to Katie. To begin shooting this sequence we bubbled our camera (Sony NX5) and got the white balance right by holding a blank white piece of paper before the camera. The opening shot was very simple as all that it involved was holding a piece of paper infront of the camera that had our names written upon it. Things became slightly tricker but remained possible as we moved onto shooting different angles. But Paul showed us a new way of doing this in that he told us that we should first shoot the entire scene with a wide shot, then the whole thing again with a over the shoulder shot, close up, mid shot and so on..
On finishing these shots we added some of our own to present a better understanding of our story to the audience. For example, we did an over the shoulder shot of pictures on a phone of Crerars 'husband'. This was because our story was about a women who is being told by her lover to get out of the house and run away with him before her husband gets back.

Overall, I feel that this task was a great success as it showed me the basic principles of shooting a scene, how to direct a piece and also how to work with the camera to gain the desired shot.

Opening Tile Sequence: "Sexy Beast"

Sexy Beast






Sexy Beast has fantastic music in the opening title sequence. It is
slightly comedic and up beat which works well with Ray Winstons voice
over. The shots also introduce us the one main charecter, one smaller
and one pool worker.
We are given ideas to who this main character
is. We get a gangster vibe from him. Cockney, gold chain, deep and
heavy tan, leathery skin. The house is in the middle of no where. Is he
lying low? Hiding maybe?
We see a wide shot of our main
character sunbathing and of a heart design on the pools bottom. This
does not fit our charecters setting, but then the use of cross cutting
shows us a women driving. We therefore assume that the women is coming
to him.

Opening Title Sequences, 'The Shining'

An opening title sequence should set the audience up for the rest of the film. For Example, it should show you the genre, the tone or mood which is usually done through music. It will also aim to entice you into the film, give the audience the production information, maybe show you the main charecter/s. The camera shots will also establish a setting and ideally it will leave the audience with the question of, 'What is going to happen next?'

'The Shining'

The opening title sequence in The Shining feautures music with a heavy bass with a sound that is not disimiliar to wailing which sets a sinister tone. The music is superbly done, as when put together with shots of the beautiful scenery is suddenly turns the scenery into something incredibly creepy- it makes it seem isolated and changes everyones perception.

The very start of the sequence is a still of the Warner Brothers logo, which in this day and age stands out as we are used to a moving, shattering or eye capturing image from the word 'GO'.

The fact that we can see someone driving, and the fact that the camera is following them suggests that it is someone of importance. This draws the question of, 'Who's in the car?'. This proves that you are engaged and that the production team has caught your attention.

Genre- is it a horror or a thriller? This is set up by the music?

There is establishing setting which shows us that we are some mountanous area, somewhere islolated. Canada maybe? Alaska or the rockys?

Breaking Dawn opening title sequence :- why I like it

The reason that I like this opening title sequence is because it is different and the after effects added to it make it something visually interesting. For example the time lapse used on plants becoming frost bitten, the red hue added on top of the landscape shots. The colors especially add a dark, mysterious and pleasant feel to it.

First Camera work

On the 18th September, we had a lesson, of which the sole purpose was to educate us on how to set up, use and put away a Sony NX 5. We began by taking out the tripod and setting it up in order to give us the correct height for us to film with. Secondly, we were instructed on how to place the camera onto the tripod, this enabled us to prevent the weight of the camera from dragging the lens down and smashing it against the tripods front. We were also taught, at the same time how to tighten the camera onto the tripod, how to bubble it and how to open the lens cap. Next, came all of those confusing buttons and knobs that littered the camera. We became familiar with the knobs to turn and the buttons to press for brightness, focus, white balance and zoom. The next useful step was to learn how to tilt the camera up and down to view shots at an awkward angle for the rigid camera and tripod.


These seemingly simple skills were obtained of the course of 60 minutes and they gave us the ability to find a shot and to get the lighting, white balance and focus just right in order to film to a required standard. The shot that we used was of my friends Bertie and Tyler standing in the distance. Bertie was holding a reflector and Tyler...well to be blunt, Tyler was just being weird. The positioning of the two boys was sublime as they were outside the double doors of the green room which gave as a lovely balance of natural light to work with.

Introduction in small

Hi, my name is Ollie and this is my AS level Media Studies blog, in which I will update and fill you in on my progress over the following year. I was born in Singapore, where I lived for 5 years before returning to England for the next 5 years. When I was ten years old I moved to Bangkok, Thailand until last September. I was educated at Rugby School from September 2011 until May 2014. I chose Media Studies because in my spare time I enjoy to watch and appreciate good Television and film and I felt drawn to the idea of the subject and of the entire course. My hobbies include Rugby, Hockey, Football and Wakeboarding. The first three sports are all available to me at Hurtwood House. In terms of Television I very much enjoy the Inbetweeners, Misfits, Game of Thrones and Orange is the new black. In terms of film I love Notting Hill, World War Z and the three Lord of the Rings films. As you can see my taste is of a very wide range of media, and I hope that this will help me to present healthy and interesting ideas throughout the course.