FILMING CANCELED

Filming has been canceled due to bad weather. They have canceled it because of health and safety reasons therefore it is postponed till next week at the moment.

Organising for the Filming Day

The day Abby, Jacob and I are going to be filming on is Tuesday 30th November 2010. We have all day to film and also, as we collect the camera at 3:15pm on the Monday before we have the afternoon/evening to film other parts of the thriller opening.
To make sure we are prepared for Tuesday, we have been working hard so we know that everything is in order and that we don't need to rush around on the filming day. A few things that we have been doing this week in our media lessons and out of media lessons are:
Abby has been getting the eye drops or onions, the tie for Jacob to wear in the thriller opening, and has also been helping me find a wedding dress to wear. She'll also be bringing a knife for the bride to use on the day.
Jacob has been getting the flowers (roses and corsage)as his mother is a florist herself. Organising lifts between our destinations and getting a suit to wear on the day.
Myself, I have been organising the venue in which we are filming the thriller opening in. I have rang 5 different numbers (these include Bourne Abbey Church and also the Anglican Church in Morton) We have managed to get a venue for at least 3 however, we are going to look at the surrounding areas of the Church to see which is the best one to go for.
We have chosen a who is doing which role in the thriller opening, these are:
- Abby Newland: Abby is the director, helps us to know what goes where
- Jacob Wright: Jacob is the groom, and is also helping with the camera  techniques
- Myself (Rebekah Willcox): I am the bride of the thriller opening, i will also be helping with the camera techniques
Today (November 25th 2010) Abby and myself are going into Peterborough to search for a wedding dress that i am going to wear on the Tuesday. We are only looking for a cheap dress as we are going to be ripping the dress (making it muddy) so we don't want to spend loads on a pretty looking dress.

Final Idea - Distraught Bride

Over the past few weeks, Abby, Jacob and I have been going into more detail about our three ideas. We looked into futher detail about the ideas, and how we can portray them as thrillers. However the idea we have chosen to go for is 'Distraught Bride'. The reason for this is because we can pull this opening scene off as a romantic thriller, rather then something that has just been thrown together at the last hour. In this short detailed paragraph (perhaps a few more) I will explain where we're going to film it, when (what time of day etc) and what we need to be able to pull off the thriller opening.

First of all, the location. Now we aren't going to tell you exactly where we are going to be filming the opening however, here are a few images from google maps to give you a broad idea on where we are positioned.

    This will be the church that we are filming the past flashbacks to the wedding in. The reason why we chose this church is because: it is in the country side (quite isolated) and it has a thriller look about it. We are asking for permission to film in this church, so fingers crossed. We are going to film the more thriller parts in the fields which are situated behind the chruch. These will be good to use because it is an open space with a woodland area to set the scene.

We will be filming the main part of the thriller, from late afternoon/early evening. This is because the lighting of the day is quite gloomy and misty which also helps set the scene for what we are trying to portray. In the late afternoon it starts to become dark, so here if we wanted to film the main part of the thriller in the late afternoon we'd have to watch the time throughout the day. We are hoping to be filming the flashbacks during the morning/early afternoon, it helps show a romantic side to the thriller opening, however if the day isn't sunny then we may come across a few problems.

 Props that we are going to use to help portray the thriller opening are listed below:
- Wedding dress (a cheap one so that we are not upset to destroy it)
- Bunch of roses (dead and alive)
- Bow tie/Tie for the groom
- Suit for the groom
- Wedding dress
- Vail
- Shoes
- Eye Drops
- Knife
- Make-up & Hair styling equipment

Thriller Classifications

Here is a list of three thriller films, and why they have been given the classification that they have. This task helps me decide what classification i have put on my thriller openings.

Jaws is a unforgettable film that has captured the eyes of many people in the past 35 years.It was originally classified at 18 however, due to much more extreme thrillers being released, it has been lowered to a 12, allowing younger children to view it. Another reason why it has been lowered to a 12 is because over the years, the 'scarier' parts have been removed meaning they are able to sell more. The film was directed by the one of the most famous directors in recent history, Steven Spielberg who also directed one of the finest movies of all time, ET. Jaws is regarded as a watershed film in motion picture history.

 Hollow Man is a classification of 18. This film was directed by Paul Verhoeven in 2000. The film is about a scientist Linda Foster, who is working on a serum to make people invisible. When another scientist tries the serum and becomes invisible his colleagues figure another way to bring him back to the normal world.This film was later on connected to such films as SAW 2 (2005).

 Blood Diamond was created in 2006 and directed by Edward Zwick. It includes famous actors like Leonardo DiCaprio. This film is set in Sierra Leone Civil War which took place in 1996 - 1999. The film portrays many of the atrocities of that war, including the rebels' amputation of people's hands to discourage them from voting in upcoming elections.

Main Task - Idea Three, The Deal

The deal may include scenes such as knives, guns and drug deals. This is a very ganster type thriller, where someones time is now up. Paid your life away and not bothered to pay the rent? You'll recieve a terrible fright in the night as this spin tingling thriller is sure to keep you hanging off your seat. The basic idea of this thriller is that the main character is a drug dealer, and is dealing out drugs to the other main character (who cannot pay it straight away). Later on we see the drug dealer on a killing spree, trying to find the person he dealt drugs to...

Techniques used are similar to the previous ideas:
Close ups
Long shots
EXTREME long shots
etc..

Editing will include
Audio
etc..

Main Task - Idea Two, is it really paradise?

Is it really paradise is about a couple who are currently on a holiday/honeymoon. This is probably a typical what you call 'romance film' to begin with however, there is a thriller look about this film.
The couple, (enjoying their time together) are walking down a nice quiet street, when they hear a loud 'scream'. The man chooses to leave his wife as he goes and checks this noise out, little does he know this loud scream was only to draw his attention away from his now vulnerable wife. She is left to stand in an unknown place, confused and awaiting for her husbands return. Everything may seem all nice and calm however, little does she know that there is a gloomy Shadow lurking in the background ready to attack...

Night time falls, and the woman is still left on her own, confused about why her husband hasn't returned...
Will she make it through the night?

Techniques that may be used throughout the making of this thriller opening are:
- rule of the thirds
- 180 degree rule
- close ups
- establishing shots
- long shots

Editing types may include:
- Audio (such as heartbeat)
- fuzzing of the scene (blurs out unknown figures)
- black and white
etc...

Main Task - Questionnaire Results

Abby, Jacob and I handed out approximately 30 questionnaires to a variety of different age groups. This helped us tremendously with our initial ideas to our main task. Here are a few of the results we managed to collect together;

1. What is your gender?

We asked 31 people what is their gender. Overall we asked 15 males and 16 females to fill in our questionnaire. This helps show an even amount of results between each gender.

2. What is your age?

The larger number of people we had asked to answer this questionnaire was 11-16 however we got a handful of people from other age groups to get a wider variety of answers

3. What is your favourite film genre?

From our results, we noticed that most of the people we asked preferred to watch a comedy, closely followed by romance. These choices could be due to people's humour, or they may prefer something more 'chick flicky' rather than blood and gore. As we can see that horror is the least favourite of the types of genre.

4. How often do you watch films?
Altogether, a lot of the audience chose weekly. Perhaps they are quite into their films? Not a lot of people picked daily.

12. What type of music do you expect in a thriller?
To answer this question, the audience could pick more than one answer (there are four answers to choose from). As we can tell from our results people chose intense music over the other three. This might be because people expect a heart racing experience.

15. What themes would you expect to be mixed with a thriller?
The majority of people selected action. We thought that this was an odd option to chose. However this could be to do with the large number of people asked were 11-16.

MAIN TASK: AS Media Pitch: the good and the bad points

We performed our presentation to the class on Friday afternoon. We performed in front of around 30-40 students whilst being recorded and 'examined'.

Things that we included in our PowerPoint on Friday was:
1. Questionnaire Results
2. Preliminary Task (how it aided us)
3. Our three ideas
4. Techniques that we may be using in the thriller opening

I believe overall: Jacob, Abby and I presented our pitch very well. We managed to explain our ideas clearly and gave out detail that was needed in the PowerPoint. Also, I feel that we worked well as a group even though we have our differences. Jacob was the star of the group, this is because, although he was giving out information, he added a sense of humour to the presentation which livened up the room. As a whole, the group was very confident in what they were saying because we practised before hand how, and what we were going to say.

Although this was a good presentation (I can be biased, some may not think it was good), there were also its downfalls. For example we didn't use a lot of media terminology whilst giving our presentation. Words like 'Mis-en-sence' and 'infer' could of been used in our presentation to show what we are aiming to do. Also, to me, I feel that there could have been more detail put into the presentation (such as explaining certain terminology to refresh the class' minds or more detail on the location of where we may set each idea.

Main Task - Questionaire (questions)

These are the 15 questions that we asked a selection of people to fill in:

1. What is your gender?
Female/Male
2. What is your age?
11-16   17-24  25-30  31-40  other
3. What is your favourite film genre?
Comedy  Thriller  Horror  Romance  Action  Other
4. How often do you watch films?
Daily  Weekly  Monthly  Other
5. What are your expectations within a thriller?
6. What is your favourite movie?
7. Do you get a head start and go to the cinema or wait until the movie is out?
Go to the cinema  Get it on DVD  Download
8. What do you expect in a thriller opening?
9. What types of characters would you expect in a thriller?
10. What type of setting would you expect in a thriller?
Woods  House  Park  Graveyard  Morgue Other
11. What thriller opening do you find good and from what film?
12. What type of music would you expect in a thriller?
Intense  Dramatic  Horror  Other
13. What  type of film classification, when watching a thriller, would you expect?
12  15  18
14. Do you think 18 is a too high for a classification?
yes  no
15. What themes would you expect to be mixed with a thriller?
Horror  Action  Comedy  Other

Main Task - Idea One

 Distraught Bride...

The basic layout of this idea is:
At the beginning of the production, (flashback)the bride is awaiting her husband to be in the church. Meanwhile, back at home the groom runs away. Leaving the bride waiting, holding a bunch of roses (which is a theme through the clip)

Back to the present day, we find the bride distressed and upset in a woody, dark and gloomy setting, an extreme close up of a bunch of dead roses (linking back to the wedding day). This resembles the brides feelings. Also, an extreme close up of a tear rolling down her face will help portray feelings. We see the bride all bruised up, running through the woods. She is searching desperately to seek revenge on the groom, clutching a knife tightly in her left hand. Will she find him?

Techniques that will be used:

- Extreme Close Ups

- 180 degree rule

- Different effects on the mac to show the time difference (black and white etc)

- Long distant shots

BBFC film classifications - http://www.bbfc.co.uk

U suitable for all ages - has to be suitable for children aged four years and above

PG Parental Guidance - general viewing, however some scenes are not suitable for younger children

12a/12 - The ‘12A’ category exists only for cinema films. No one younger than 12 may see a ‘12A’ film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult, and films classified ‘12A’ are not recommended for a child below 12.
The ‘12’ category exists only for video works. No one younger than 12 may rent or buy a ‘12’ rated video work.

15 - No-one younger then a 15 year old may see a 15 rated film, rent or buy

18 - No-one can view, buy or rent a film that is 18 if they are younger then 18 years of age

R18 - To be shown only in specially licensed cinemas or supplied only in licended sex shops and to adults no younger then 18 years of age.

'Donnie Darko' Analysis of the cover

The front cover of this film portrays Darko to be quite a enigmatic and very manipulative. This is because of the posture of his body (stance) and also his facial expression, which implies that he is unaware of what is going on around him/what harm he is doing to others. However, this facial expression also shows that he is quite devious in the way he does things. The way he is clutching his axe loosely and also his facial expression foreshadows the violence and despair throughout the film. The axe also shows that there is a hint of death/horror look about this film.

Looking at the tag line placed at the top of the front cover, we can say that this is a convention of the thriller genre. This is because this line is also mentioned in the film. So therefore it would also be foreshadowing the film. The character that mentions these words is the rabbit that only Darko himself can see, 'why are you wearing that stupid man suit?' This was a rhetorical/sarcastic answer to what Donnie Darko had asked the rabbit before hand in the cinema.

The colours of blues and blacks convey that the film has a very cold and dark setting amongst the mystery of the front cover. A variety of blues and blacks helps show that it has a thriller genre about it. Darkness looming in, surrounding Donnie Darko infers that the world may shortly be coming to an end in front of his eyes. The light that draws your eyes attention, gives us the idea that it may be a life line support keeping Donnie alive, as this has an orb surrounding the light. This orb appears to be controlling Donnie Darko in the film telling him where to go.This light illuminates the front of the film cover.

Words beginning to cover over Donnie Darko sutterly creates an air of obscurity, denying any existence that he has upon planet Earth. Also, these words we believe to be words from the book in which Grandma Death (Roberto Sparrow) provided to Donnie Darko in the film. The words around him have a very strong importance throughout the film giving clues (in sights) about what the film is going to include and also its lay out.

The title 'Donnie Darko' is in BOLD writing, however on the edges of each side they begin to fade into the blackness, foreshadowing events that are going to happen in the movie.

The Rule of Thirds and The Golden Mean

 This is the Golden Mean. It is one of the two compositions. It means that the shot is based along an diagonal not in the centre of the scene.

 The shot is split up into a grid of nine and normally this shot is based on the centre square (where the bees wings are)

Different types of shots

Close up shot


Medium shot


Long shot


Panning Shot


Aarial Shot


Wide shot


Double shot