For our thriller we need to consider the way our regional identity will affect the way the thriller is interpreted by others with a different regional identity. Although we are unable to change this we can still ensure that our thriller is clear to others.
Below I have briefly identified a range of different regional identities.

• 'londoners' 
• for this region there are two main stereotypes, one is that they are portrayed as being wealthy, posh, snobby and upper class from central or West London. However, there is also people that live in North East or South London and these people are portrayed as being poor common, lower class, criminals and violent. 
• 
  
•  Manchester / Newcastle / Liverpool – Oftenshown as being “chavs”, wearing fake designer labels, or tracksuits, drinking a lot, being aggressive, uneducated, criminals
• 
  
• Yorkshire – Often shown as living in rural countryside, with rolling hills and cobbled streets, being quite old fashioned
• South England – often shown as being the centre of culture, modern, classy, clever, sunny, richer,doing middle class jobs such as managers etc
• North England – often shown as beingpoorer, bad weather, lower class, aggressive, lessculture, less clever, doing working class jobs suchas builders etc
•  Irish – often shown as living in the countryside,working in rural areas such as farms, being veryreligious, being good at dancing and singing, veryfriendly but less intelligent

Tips and Tricks to improve my editing skills!

After today's lesson I thought i would try and improve my editing skills in my own time so I can contribute to our thriller as much as possible during post production! Here is what I watched, it has helped me have a better understanding on how to edit, as well as making me feel better and more confident for when it comes to editing our thriller!

Whats a screenplay?

Before me and my group write a screenplay I thought that I would write a post about what information I have found on screen plays, and what I learnt during a lesson on a screenplay form Jaws.
What is a screenplay? 
A screenplay or a script is the written work by screenwriters for a film, video game, or television program. These screen plays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing, for example, a book being made into a film. In screenplays the movement, actions, expressions, and dialogues of the characters are narrated in great detail.
what makes a good screen writer?
One thing that makes a good screen writer is speed, most common screenplays are one page per minuet which could mean over 100 pages in detail and this could take a long time. So it is important that you are able to produce good quality work at a face pace, thankfully the film me and my group will be making will be around two minuets long so this wont be a big issue. Another thing that makes a good screenwriter is endurance, it is essential that you keep trying no matter how many times you may get it wrong or you may never succeed.

Jaws
During a lesson we looked at a screenplay of a section of the Jaws and looked at how the screen play matched the short part of the movie we watch, we also looked into all the different things that were included on the script, like how the movement was written on the screenplay giving us a better idea of how to word ours and what we will need to include on our screenplay.

after doing some research on screenplays, and focusing on a specific one (Jaws) and identifying what was wrote in that screenplay. I think I have a better idea on how to write one myself which will hopefully come in handy when me and my group decide to write ours.

One page pitch

Working Title: Missing 

Film genre: Mystery thriller  

Length: 90 minuets

Target audience: 15-34 both genders 

Tagline: Can you escape the darkness? 

What if you were left alone in the woods with your worst nightmare? 

The story synopsis: The story begins with a girl coming home from a friend’s house, she decides to take the short cut home through the woods due to being late for dinner. She gets kidnapped by an unknown character, where he keeps her hostage and taunts her until he receives money from her family through a series of clues. In the end she frees herself by murdering the man. 

Statement of intent: Theme is based around a missing person and the strong determination between the family to get her home. We’re telling this story because we want it to have a good mystery storyline to keep the audience on the edge of their seat. It’s a film rather than a TV drama series because we didn’t feel that a long-winded series would work for this idea as this way it’s faster pace rather than having intervals until the next episode. Our film differs from other thriller films because rather than just intentions to scare the audience it has a gripping storyline. This is a film that we would enjoy watching as it has a lot of background story. 

Visual realisation: A mixture between long lasting shots to build up tension for the climax and fast cuts to show the fast pace struggle between the antagonist and protagonist.  We don’t know of any films similar to this type of film/ 

Audience appeal: This film will appeal to our target audience (15-34) because adults and teenagers both generally enjoy mysteries, also the protagonist will be a teenager so everyone can relate to being this age.  

Initial Thriller Ideas

Brief history of the thriller films

1920s/30s 

 Alfred Hitchcock started to make thriller moves such as “The Lodger” in 1926, which was a silent film. And later on his first sound film, “Blackmail”, in 1929.  In 1929 the first “Spy” movie was released by Fritz Lang called “Spies”.  Many other thrillers were then released of the genre and it started to become popular.

1940s 

 There were a wide range of Hitchcock thrillers released such as “Suspicion” in 1941, and “Shadow of a Doubt” in 1943.  George Cukor did a psychological thriller in 1944 called “Gaslight” and many others which also bought about the popularity of the genre. There were many other thrillers made by other directors, they genre was getting more popular as time went on

1950s 

 Hitchcock is still making thrillers and starting to use Technicolor too, producing films such as “Dial M for Murder” in 1954. Other directors were also producing films such like Charles Laughton who directed “The Night of the Hunter” in 1955. Another example would be Orson Welles’ thriller “Touch of Evil” in 1958.There were many films produced which all had a range of sub-genres e.g. Crime

1960s

 There were many directors in this time period who produced thriller films, Hitchcock only being one of many. There was the likes of Terrence Young, Michael Powell and Stanley Donens.  There also was a large number of spy thrillers which came out, such as the Harry Palmer movies which later inspired the James Bond movies.

2000s and Present day

There have been a range of thrillers which have been released in the 2000s such as “Hostage” in 2005, “P2” in 2007 and “Funny Games” in 2008. In the last few years the films, “Inception”, “Shutter Island” and “Black Swan” in 2010, “Limitless” and “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” in 2011, “The Cabin in the Woods”, “Sinister” and “The Impossible” in 2012, “The Purge”, “Gravity” and “The Call” in 2013.

Conventions of a thriller theme genre

Conventions of a thriller film genre from emilyflaxman

Diffrent types of lighting

Lighting 

Although this isn't the best example, in this picture our group tried to create a silhouette. this is where the dark shape and outline of someone or something visible in restricted light against a brighter background. This effect would work well in a horror thriller, due to the identity of the character being unknown.

In this shot we used artificial lighting to create the effect of half the face being in the dark, and half visible due to angle the light was held at.












Chiaroscuro Lighting
This lighting affect is most common in art and is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, I think that I can apply this to my film to create a spooky effect and make the character look more scary.













Artificial lighting
any light that doesn't come from natural sunlight,
the lighting in this picture is from a lamp which is a ideal example of artificial lighting.

Final Preliminary video.

Evaluation of preliminary task, question 5.

Feedback from others

positive:

• Good music was put in which sounded like a lot of time was spent doing it.
• ran very smoothly throughout.
• some good shots used.

negative:

• some conversation missing making it not sound right. 
• music was good but was really relevant and didn't match what was happening. 
• when walking in the dance studio the footage looked weird due to it being speeded up to improve this it could have been re done and Emma could have walked alot faster preventing it to drag on.

Evaluation of my Preliminary Task. Questions 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6.

Preliminary Task- what's going to happen.

What's the task about?

The next task we are completing is the continuity task, this involves filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair or standing opposite another character. After this the two characters (Emma and Abbie) will exchange a couple of lines. This task should demonstrate the following camera shots: match on match action, shot/reverse shot and then 180-degree rule.

What's going happen?

We are hoping this to take place in the PE corridor, and the dance studio, but if not we will adapt our task to a more suitable place.

 Firstly Emma will walk down the PE corridor, and then enter the dance studio. She will open the door,we will film this using the camera shot match on action. This will show her entering the room from the outside, and will also show her entering from the inside. After this she will walk over to Abbie who is sat on the bench on her phone, then using the camera shot shot/reverse shot, we will show Abbie and Emma having a short and simple conversation :

Emma: Are you doing silver D OF E?
Abbie:No, I'm doing Gold.
Also during this conversation 180-degree rule will be used.

After this conversation Abbie exits the dance studio.

Camera shots used in this task:
match on match action:

In the continuity task we are going to use camera shot match on match action, this will demonstrate Emma walking into the dance studio from the outside and the inside in one shot.

180-degree rule:

The 180-degree rule is most commonly used during a conversation between two people, this camera shot is when the camera stays on one side of the two people and the camera doesn't go beyond 180 degrees, here is a picture to visually explain.

shot reverse shot:

In this short film we will also be using the camera angle shot reverse shot, this also mostly used during a conversation between two people. This shot is where one character is shown looking at another character, and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character.

Shot Types

Shot Types

During our first few lessons we got into small groups and practised different shot types around the school, this is what our group got: 

Establishing shot

This shot sets the scene, this shot could show where it took place.

Long Shot

This long shot shows Charlotte, it shows that she is dominated by her surroundings. She is starting a new school and somewhere she hasn't been before and is scared, because of how big it is and because she doesn't know anyone and is on her own.

Shot/reverse shot

This shot shows that Charlotte has made a friend at her new school and now isn't on her own. This shot shows the facial expression in detail, and shows that she is happy.

Low Shot
This low shot shows that Abbie and Charlotte, it creates the

Effect that they are larger than there surroundings.

Welcome to my blog!

welcome to my blog!

Hello, my name is Emily Flaxman,
I am 16 and have just started my AS Levels and  decided to choose Media Studies as one out of four options. I choose this  because I was curious about what the course was about, and after watching TV all the time I wanted to know what happens behind the scenes, and try it for myself. I am looking forward to using all the equipment and editing the videos I have made. I enjoy watching very varied programmes such as, Pretty Little Liars, Game Of Thrones and Coronation street and many more.


Thank You for reading, bye.
#bloggersforlife