Preliminary task evaluation.

The planning process.
What planning did you do and why?
We all took roles in our preliminary task. For example, Max wrote the script and I did the storyboard of the angles we were going to use for the task.
How well organised were you?
We were quite organised. We had the plan of what we were going to do, we just didn't quite know how to do it, and had to change some of our ideas.
What would you change next time?
We would incorporate more techniques into the video task, and discuss the best angles for each shot. We would allow more time for planning to ensure the video turns out better. We would use lighting effects, as this wasn't in our video because we had to do it in a rush. 

The video production.
What did you do, does it work, do the edits (match on action) work well?
I feel we used match on action very well in our video (if anything, this is what I'm most proud of), however there were a few bits, like max holding the gun which didn't match up. and if we planned out the putting the gun away scene more then this would have worked better. 

Have you stuck to the 180 deg rule?
We did our best to, however noticed at the beginning of the preliminary task max walks off the screen on the left, then enters on the left in the next shot. 

Are the shots & angles well framed (rule of 3rd's)?
Being the person filming, i tried my best to use the rule of thirds. I feel i did use the rule of thirds on most of the shots, except after putting together the film, i realised i could have altered the composition of the last shot, where max falls off the chair. In the task, we used over the shoulder shots, and shot reverse shot well. 

Does it look convincing as a conversation?
We tried our best to make it look convincing, although due to a few errors while editing, we accidentally cut off the beginning of a few clips while importing them to the computer. 

What would you change to improve it?
Use depth of field on at least one of the shots, and make sure we include lead/looking room.

Overall. How well have you completed the preliminary task?
I feel we tried hard putting the preliminary task together, but with a bit more organising and co-operation we can improve our next task.

Composition.

A few techniques i had to research about were the rule of 3rds, lead room and depth of field.

Rule of Thirds.

The rule of thirds is all about composition of filming. To make sure the shot looks good, you should follow this rule. 

The rule of thirds splits up the screen into 9 equal parts, all going into thirds horrozontallty and vertically. For the shot to look good, you need to make sure the main subject in the shot is on one of the lines which cross. Like in the picture below. 

As below, you can see that the picture of the boat in the first square does not look as good as the one in the second square. This is because the composition of the frame is not on proportion. 

Looking/Lead Room.

This is when there is a picture and the subject is in movement, or stationary, and the picture would suggest that it is about to move in a certain direction. When this happens, there is room left on one side of the picture, and the space suggests that the subject is going to move in that direction. 

As you can see in the picture below. 

In this picture you can see the direction the subject is moving.

If the lead room is on the wrong side of the subject, then the picture is out of proportion. As you can see below. 

Depth of Field.

The depth of field is all about the focus used on the camera. 

Storyboard. Dirty Harry.

Park of our groupwork.
In lesson, we discussed the angles used, and what was happening in this scene in the film Dirty Harry.

History of Thrillers.

Write up to come....

Se7en Sequence.

I admit myself, its not very good. This was the first time using Final Cut, and i had to re-do it after it not saving correctly/ me not being able to find it again!

Self Evaluation of Individual and Group Blogs.

Time management: I feel i have done a substancial amount of work, however i only uploaded it to my blog, and not the group blog. Now i am aware of this, i will make sure everything i post on my blog, i also upload onto the group one.
Some of the group work is incomplete, this is also down to time management, as we havent allocated certain tasks to people. We are missing the Production companies, BBFC ratings, Iconic sounds, history of a thriller (still to be uploaded), iconic directors (still to be uploaded), Storyboard/9shot card scene (still to be uploaded) , and there are a few more things still to be uploaded to the group blog that are on the individual ones we have.
 We could have made our research more interesting by making videos instead of writing about it. This could be something we consider to change on our blogs. 
If i were to mark the group blog, i would give us a 5/20. This is because we have missing research, and there is minimal work on the blog. A 5/20  would mean we are at Level 1 on the marking scheme.
I know who was allocated what, and what still needs to be allocated. I feel the research that was done was detailed, however not presented in an interesting way. The creativity of the research is very dull. I feel as the blog is at the moment, it does not look like our group has done 4 hours a week for 5 weeks, by 3 students.

On my individual blog, i gave done a lot of the research and completed  most tasks, however there are some missing, therefore taking that into consideration, i would mark myself an 8/20, which would come under Level 2 of the marking scheme.
I feel i have included lots of detail in my work, but i haven't been very creative when presenting the work, i just wrote about it, whereas i could have made a video of the research i collected.  I feel i have learned from the research i have done, and i didn't just copy and paste the work from Wikipedia. I collected information from a range of different websites and wrote up my own point of view and in my own words.
I could have put more detail into my work, as well as making it more interesting.

The next stages i will take after today will be to upload the work i have on my blog onto the group blog, and with some help, make a few videos for the research i have already done. This will give us more experience with making videos, and using the software and also make our research more interesting. 

What have i done well?
I am proud of how quickly i picked up how to use finial cut pro. I enjoyed editing the preliminary task, and the seven sequence. I feel i have learned more about composition and how the camera angles are used in films to create power and authority. I can ow recognise in other films/movies the different angles and techniques they use.... like 180 degree rule, rule of 3rds, over the shoulder shot, and shot reverse shot.


Whats missing off each blog....
Individual: 
Seven Sequence (done but not uploaded)
Storyboard of 9 frame analysis (done but cannot be found)

Group: 
Production Companies
BBFC ratings
Iconic directors (done but not uploaded)
Typical synopsis
Iconic Sounds (half done, but not uploaded)
Mood Board (done but not uploaded)

Group Blog: Thriller: Preliminary Task Final Edit

Group Blog: Thriller: Preliminary Task Final Edit: This is our Preliminary Final Edit which we used Final Cut to produce. We used a combination of camera angles and shots to produce this vide...

Mood Board.

6 Ways to Kill Your Husband.

6 Ways to Kill Your Husband. 

This is the 1st draft of our movie.

Group Blog: Thriller: Group Plan

Group Blog: Thriller: Group Plan: We decided to split up the work that we will be doing in our group. It is as follows: Chloe: Intro- summary, what is a thriller (story/them...

Group Task: 6 Ways to Kill Your Husband/Wife

In our group, we have Ashleigh, Max and myself. Here is the groups script we used.

Script

6 ways to kill your husband (or wife)

(screen begins with MARK coming through the front door)

MARK

(concealing gun in suit jacket pocket)

Hello dear how was work?

PATRICIA

It's...it's so hard now moms gone. Bless her for leaving us a little something behind.

MARK

(sitting down on the dinner table with pistol now in hand)

Yes dear there's a lot we can do together now my dear try not to let your mom's death affect you after all anyone could die at any moment.

PATRICIA

(joining Mark on the table with two cups of tea for both of them)

I'll try to for you, i hope you enjoy you enjoy your!

MARK

(placing gun in lap and takes a sip of tea)

It is delicious thank you, however, i have some bad news that you should know.

Patricia

(Smug look on face)  Oh, what's that? that fact i know you killed my mother and that you have a gun on your lap ready to kill me too just like your other 5 dead wives!!!

MARK

Wha- How did you know?!

PATRICIA

And hopefully the poison from your tea will kick in very soon!

MARK

(falling to knees and clenching throat in pain)

y-y-y-y-you bitch! (falls dead)

(screen blacks out)

PATRICIA'S voice

You have to ask yourself wondering sometimes...is there really a perfect man or woman out there for you?

Group Blog: Thriller: Script

Group Blog: Thriller: Script: Script 6 ways to kill your husband (or wife) (screen begins with MARK coming through the front door) MARK (concealing gun in suit jacket...

Alexandra: Thriller Sub-genres (group work)

Alexandra: Thriller Sub-genres: Thriller is a genre of itself but it also consists of sub-genres. The thriller genre can be broken down into 13 different sub genres. Acti...

Alexandra: Thriller Films (group work)

Alexandra: Thriller Films: During the 1920's to 1940's there where three major film makers in the thriller genre. The first Alfred Hitchcock, the second Fritz Lang and...

History of a Thriller, and Sub Genres.

History of a Thriller.

1950's-1960's

Henry Hathoway directed the drama thriller Niagara in 1953. It was the biggest noir film of the year for fox's box office. The drama stars Monroe, Joseph Cotten, Jean Peters, and Max Showalter. A lot of Henry's films he directed had the theme of spies in. They had suspense and mystery, which takes a major part in thrillers.

Alfred Hitchcock was peaking during the 1950-1960's with his most popular movies of those decades being Strangers on a Train (1951), 'Rear Window' (1954), 'Vertigo' (1958),'Psycho' (1960),'The Birds' (1963) and North by Northwest' (1959). He had many themes in all of his thriller films. One being the blonde women being the mysterious women, who usually get killed. A few more of his themes were birds, staircases, trains and silent suspense. Suspense played a big part in all of Alfred Hitchcock's movies.  

Sub Genres.

7) Rape and revenge thriller.

These thrillers usually have a fixed plan of:

Act I: A woman is raped/gang raped, tortured, and left for dead.

Act II: The woman survives and rehabilitates herself.

Act III: The woman takes revenge and kills her rapist or rapists.

In some cases the woman may be killed in Act I and the ‘revenge’ is carried out by a family member or close friend. An example of this case would be ‘Memento’ by Christopher Nolan.

8) Supernatural thriller

Supernatural thrillers have a concept of the ‘un-natural’ in them. This can include a super power or a concept of something that wouldn’t happen in real life. An example of a supernatural thriller is a film called Lady in the Water, however a lot of supernatural thrillers are on the verge of being horrors.

9) Eco-thriller

An Eco thriller is a thriller movie set in a usually outdoor environment. For example Jurassic Park, Jaws and movies with different natural environments in.

10) Medical Thriller

This genre is a a thriller containing medical procedures, surgery or medicines. It is a major element of mecical genre. Examples of a medical genre can be The Third Pandemic by Pierre Ouellette and Works by Robin Cook (American novelist)

11) Disaster – (natural disaster)

This type of genre would usually have some kind of natural disaster, or scientific/geographical explinations. For example, would contain an earthquake, flood, or perhaps the end of the world. A good axample of a a disaster thriller would be 'The Road' by John Hillcoat, or 'The Day After Tomorrow' by Roland Emmerich

12) Historical Thriller

A historical thriller would be set in a date in history, An example of a historical thriller could be a war film such as The Pianist by Roman Polanski. Historic thrillers could have a theme in the film, that was a major issue in previous history. War, discrimination or womens' rights are a few issues that could be used in a historic thriller.

13) Religious thriller

A religious thriller would have a concept of religion in it. A few scenes would be likely to be filmed in a Church, Synagogue, or another religious building. An example of a religious thriller would be The Prophecy (1995) by Gregory Widen and Frailty by Bill Paxton.