Film Opening Title Sequence: 'Full Circle'

Thriller Evaluation 'Full Circle': Screen Flow

Media Thriller Evaluation

Media powerpoint evaluation final from sophiamusmarmedia

Animatic Storyboard- Full Circle

Our Production Company 'Move'

Our group has created a film company called Move Productions. This name has been chosen due to its similarities and significance with the film industry.

Our film has moving images, so by this concept we decided to bring the idea of continuity to the name of our film. The name 'Move' sounds like it is growing and progressive which is what we want our production company to be.
All together in our group we decided equally this was a good name and we are happy.

Editing: Fonts

To find the fonts we wanted for our film we used the website 'Art of the Title' alongside '1001 Fonts' and 'Fonts.com' to simply find something catchy for our thriller opening. 

There were many font which we thought would fit the ideal for our film, but the one we chose was 'Zodiac' as we felt like it wasn't trying too hard. It has a similar effect to the fonts below but slightly more corrupt.

Our other favourite fonts from '1001 Fonts' and 'DeFont'

Albertsthal Typewriter

Special Elite

Harting

RM Typewriter

Old Typewriter 2.0

Moms Typewriter

Editing: Transitions

transition

tranˈzɪʃ(ə)n,trɑːn-,-ˈsɪʃ-/

noun

1. 1. 

   the process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another.

   "students in transition from one programme to another"

   synonyms:

   change, move, passage, transformation, conversion, adaptation, adjustment, alteration, changeover, metamorphosis; More

   
   

   Our group decided to use transitions in our thriller opening because we wanted to try out new editing skills and we thought it would make our film stand out more and look more catchy. We used transitions such as cross dissolves which helped our shots move on well and smoothly so whoever is watching will not notice the transition. This was also used on our titles, we used fade which would make the titles appear as if they were being typed. This helped make our opening look more personal and as if someone was there typing the names.

   
   

Editing: Colour

Our film needed some colour grading as some minor shots which we filmed were shot from slightly different angles, so the lighting didn't match, and some colours didn't show up harshly enough so we had to make them more alive and bright.

Opening Scene: We used the blue lighting from the blue assotate which we placed over the light, but some of the shots didn't have the same colouring and the blue was not extreme enough. This was when we decided to colour grade them by altering the highlights, shadows and contrasts.

Flashback Scenes: We again used the colour grading technique, so that when the flashbacks played it looked slightly more obvious, then having just our actor looking upwards and nervous. We were worried that the scene looked like it was being edited badly so that's the reasons due to the colour grading. We used effects like 'washed bleach' and simply  using the manual colour editing tool which made the scenes look mild (the sepia tone).

Editing: Audio & Sound

Our group found sound quite challenging, due to making sure nothing sounded too high or low. There needs to be continuity between each shots and we needed to make sure that every sound sounded like it was meant to be there.

Background Music: Most scenes we had to get rid of the background music when we were filming we weren't really worried about this because we were going to take it out when we were editing. We were originally planning to use atoms from our school database as other sounds and follie. The train station scene was the only scene where we kept the background sound but we lowered the sound whilst we were editing. There were train announcements playing whilst we were filming and we had to make sure the sound was consistent and it didn't sound too messy. So we used audio clips from one shot which was long and carried it through the whole scene.

We used quite a few sound recordings from the school audio database. For example we used 'busy city' for the exterior shots and then we decided to use 'calm atoms' for our interior scenes. 

Our soundtrack was added to the first and last scenes and was quite through the rest. This created mystery and suspense. The music was loud in the more intense moments, where we capture the abusive ex-boyfriend. 

Deciding the name for our film

All of us had different ideas for the name for our film. We all didn't really mind so we decided to research and brainstorm to find different names:

Full Circle- We thought this name would be good, as Iris falls back into the arms of her abusive ex-boyfiend, just after she has broken free of him and her past, making her go in a full circle.

Echo- Echo was meant to represent the echo of her past life, and the abuse, coming back to haunt Iris

Return- Representing the return of the trauma of her past-life and relationship

The Retreat- Once Iris is kidnapped she is held captive, so retreat is a play on the whole captivity and removal from her current life

Regain- This allows the question of 'will Iris regain her old life?' throughout the film.

I personally really liked 'Echo' and it was the name i chose. I thought it worked well because the film is sort of a repeat to her previous past with her abusive ex-boyfriend. No one seemed to keen on it so in the end we went with 'Full Circle", which also has vast amounts of relevance to our film.

Editing the flashbacks part 2

In the beginning, were planned to have our flashbacks at the point where Iris is waiting to meet her bling date. On the other hand, when we were editing and putting clips into their correct place we all came to conclusion that they didn't look obvious enough to the audience.

We also agreed that the train station scene was quite long and boring and dragged on. This is why we decided to make the editing more effective and create short clips of the train station scene. This looked far more interesting and dynamic.

The use of this editing looks much more interesting and keeps whoever is watching more intrigued. It helps create enigma and mystery throughout and doesn't come across as boring. It also makes the next following scenes more effective, as the short snippets represent unease.

Editing the flashbacks part 1

The Flashbacks were probably the most challenging when editing our film. We had to try and make sure the flashbacks were obvious, otherwise it looked like bad editing.

Darren Aronofsky was inspiration for our group, due to his hip-hop montages. There are many quick shots which he cuts. This is the equivalent to a long scene, but just making it short and more catchy. We overall decided that we wanted it to be more sequential. We made the scenes more interesting by butting our seconds of our clips. The image jumps in a good amount, so you don't miss the images. This contributes to the male character, it goes alongside his unpredictable character.

Editing on Final Cut Extra

At first, none of us in the group had the best indication of how to use Final Cut Extra. We had briefly used it previously to edit our 'Napoleon Dynamite Trailer' and to edit our preliminary task. 

Although when reused the programme then we never went into proper detail, this time round we looked more closely into sound, colour and different aspects when it came to editing. When we were editing our thriller opening we had to learn how to colour grade, which wasn't that difficult. We also looked at sound and sound effects which was really experimental and fun to use. Overall me personally and everyone in our group feel much more confident is we were to sit down again and use the programme to edit. 

Finding the music for our thriller

To find the music/soundtrack for our thriller we looked at Kevin Mccloud's music. As you can see from the image below he had a selection on genre's from the Film Scoring Moods. We looked at all of them as they had a link with our film. We didn't want to pick anything to obvious for a thriller as we thought it would look tacky.

In the end we decided to go with the song 'Anxiety' which was around 10 seconds but we extended it throughout. We made the soundtrack slightly more intense in some scenes like the opening with the abusive ex-boyfriend. This made the opening scene film more intense and created suspense and enigma. We then lowered the sound in certain scenes, as we wanted to background music to sound more effective. 

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN: ANXIETY SOUND TRACK FOR 'FULL CIRCLE'

THE NIGHT MANAGER Trailer (2016) John Le Carré Mini-Series

Why is 'The Night Manager' trailer effective?

Special Effects: The opening of the trailer consists of many special effects, including the explosives and the fire. This is the scene where they are testing the machinery they are buying and putting on a performance for the sellers. Having this as the opening scene in the trailer straight away gives you an idea to what the story is about, and creates intensity.

Close-up's & Quick Slides: Having the Close-up shots of the eyes shows a more personal sense of the subject and the character. It shows in the shot below a more emotional side and is quite intimate. By having multiple close-up shots in the trailer shows the different sides of each character and what they are feeling. Overall creating a personal feel to these scenes. Also the use of cut editing and quick slides shows a more dynamic approach and breaks up one scene, by making it look more edgy and different.

Lighting: Having different lighting in different scenes, conveys mystery and suspense. For example there is a shot of an eye with blackness closing in. This could interpret that the character is being trapped and he has no sight of what is happening next. The darkness could indicate the bad people/ bad side to what is happening and how they are more powerful.

Voiceover: Having the voice over of characters creates chaos and intensity. In the trailer we here the girl whom is talking over whilst she is acting on the screen. This could imply two sides of that character, one is she being paid to portray and another of her true feelings and what she wishes to happen.

Brand new drama Thirteen from BBC Three: Trailer

Here is the tailer for the BBC Three Drama: Thirteen
I think this trailer is really effective and straight away caught my attention. As a coincidence the show was on throughout whilst we were creating our thriller. Thirteen and our film 'Full Circle' have a similar story line but not one as intense. I have really enjoyed watching the show from start to finish and it has huge amounts of enigma.

This has been created in the trailer by having closeups of her body. For example there is a close-up of her foot in the beginning, where her foot looks dirty and old. This could imply decay and insists she is escaping/running away from the house which we can see in the background. Here straight away we get an insight of what is happening and it is clear to understand.

Next after the closeup scene, 'Ivy' then decides to sprint down the road with the camera then following her, this is really effective and it is evidence she is running away and the loud sound emphasises what is happening.

There is then use of Slow Motion in the next clip where Ivy is in the Police Station and she is being questioned. The use of the slow mo shows she is confused and over whelmed with the questions and in a way implies she is contemplating on her answers, and doesn't give anything away straight away. This is unusual as you would expect a young girl that is escaping being trapped in a cellar for thirteen years, you would think she would want the guy captured straight away.

The use of layering is another technique which is used in the trailer. The use of layering could imply the different stories being discovered and the layers of which are true. It also creates mystification and shows the secrets and lies being told.

The use of the gray colour grading makes a scene in a film feel completely different. Gray is a neutral and balanced colour. It is an emotionless, dull and moody colour with associations with dirt and decay. It is a timeless colour with links to depression and loss. The use of having the gray in comparison to other seems shows intensity and sadness.

Lastly, the use of the Voiceover in a few of the scenes in the trailer makes it feel more intense. It also indicates a personal reaction from the character and lets you see that feel on whats going on. It makes it feel more tense, as you have a rush of scenes being played on screen and then having someone speaking over the top.

Thirteen BBC3: Review

Thirteen
Thirteen is a British drama television series. The series was created by Marnie Dickens and directed by Vanessa Caswill. Ivy Moxam whom is played by Jodie Comer, is a 26 year old woman who escapes from a cellar, that has been her prison for the previous thirteen years.

The music in the opening 'The title music is In Your Dreams from the album Wild Go (2010) by Dark Dark Dark' Having this music made me feel much more at ease when watching the show, the TV drama is actually quite scary if your sitting down by yourself, so by having this more playful tone didn't make you feel as uncomfortable. It also had a more younger feel, not as adolescent and adult. As the show is quite grown up, the character of Ivy is although 26 when she was taken she was 13 so it makes it feel as if there is youth again. 

I have really enjoyed watching 'Thirteen' and I was so excited to sit down on a Sunday evening to watch the following episode. Every episode was left with a really good cliff hanger which made it so much more intriguing and exciting. The best cliffhanger was definitely the one were Ivy gets out of the car in the evening and the man takes his hand from behind her and grabs her mouth. This was really good as a cliffhanger because you didn't know what to expect in the next episode, also it is the same scene which we used when were making our thriller opening. That worked well because we could compare and gather inspiration for when we were filming ours. 

The characters each individually were really different and everyone created dynamic. As you can see in the image below, her parents are split up and Ivy doesn't know this. Only when her sister tells her her dad left, Ivy realises and then argues with him how he 'gave up on her'. This guilt left on her fathers shoulders then brings the family together and her dad leaves the woman he is currently with. Ivy as we can see feels quite alone as she comes home after escaping, her sister is now engaged and lives at home with her fiancé. Then Tim comes back into the picture when he realises Ivy has come home, Tim was someone previously close to Ivy and the feelings come back when they are spending time together. Ivy doesn't realise Tim is engaged until she goes to tell him she loves him at the pub where he works, this is when she goes downhill and feels as if she has lost everything and everyone. 

Overall, alongside 'The Night Manager' which is also currently on this has been one of the best British TV Dramas that has been on in a while and I would definitely recommend you to watch!

The Oscars: 'Is Hollywood racist?'

The Oscars had been ashamed by some Hollywood figures complaining about the shortage of ethnic diversity among this year's contestants, as all 20 nominees in the best acting or supporting acting categories are white. The Host Chris Rock witnessed the problem head on as he launched the ceremony, and it was a theme that came up multiple times throughout the evening. Rock admitted  he had "counted at least 15 black people" in the montage that opened the ceremony, before welcoming people to the "white People's Choice awards". "You realise if they nominated hosts, I wouldn't even get this job," he quipped. "Y'all would be watching Neil Patrick Harris right now."
Rock added: "Everyone wants to know is Hollywood racist? You have to go at it the right way. Is it burning-cross racist? Fetch-me-some-lemonade racist? No.
"It's a different kind of racist. Is Hollywood racist? You're damn right it's racist but it's sorority racist. It's like: We like you Rhonda, but you're not a Kappa.''

The Danish Girl at the Oscars

Alicia Vikander won the best supporting actress Oscar for her role in Tom Hooper’s transgender drama The Danish Girl.
The 27-year-old beat Kate Winslet for the award. The Steve Jobs actress was seen as the frontrunner after winning both the Bafta and Golden Globe for her performance. Vikander had also won the Screen Actors Guild award for her role.
The Danish Girl which was directed by Oscar-winner Tom Hooper, and revolves on the first ever recipient of gender reassignment surgery and the effect it has on his marriage. Alicia Vikander stars alongside Eddie Redmayne, whom is also nominated for his outstanding performance.

It was one of many films that consisted of swedish born Vikander. She also appeared in the drama Burnt, and comedy The Man From UNCLE, sci-fi thriller Ex Machina, fantasy adventure Seventh Son, crime thriller Son of a Gun and wartime romance Testament of Youth.

Leonardo DiCaprio finally wins an Oscar

Leonardo DiCaprio  finally won his first Oscar for the epic The Revenant, after having six nominations. DiCaprio was named best actor at the 88th Academy Awards, whilst Brie Larson won  best actress for Room. The presenter Julianne Moore who won Best Actress at last year's Oscar's, waited a while before announcing Leonardo's name, to create anticipation for when presenting him with the award. To this date, DiCaprio has won over 40 awards and has been nominated six times for an Oscar. Excitingly this is his first win.

Preliminary Task

Scheduling Actors for our thriller

Our actors Lolly Isaacs and Raphi Patterson were really good with filming times, they were not complicated when we gave them the times and were on time. Although we moved Raphi to the morning instead of the afternoon, as Lolly didn't have to leave at 2 anymore.

Our thriller: Getting Mise en scene and Props

Mise en Scene and props were not that difficult to gather for our film. Most of the props we needed were only for the scenes we shot inside. Lighting was definitely important and making sure we had our blue sheet of assotate so the lights would fit the mood for our interior shots. We needed a cigarette and a ash tray, but for the ash tray we used a circular glass bowl as none of us smoked or had one at home. Our male character played a troubled role, having issues with alcohol, so we needed beer bottles ect.... to set the scene.

Pulp Fiction: Film Review

Pulp Fiction is a 1994 American black crime comedy film which is directed and written by Quentin Tarantino. It is Trantino's second feature film which is known for its eclectic dialogue, ironic mix of humor and violence, nonlinear storyline and a host of cinematic allusions and pop culture references.

It has been nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Quentin Tarantino and Avary won the Best Original Screenplay.

The film is really electric and full of bright colours and captures the culture of America during the 1990s. The films development, marketing and distribution had a huge effect on the field of Independent Cinema

The movie was produced by Lawrence Bender and starred John Travolta, Samuel L Jackson and Uma Thurman. It had a budget of $8-8.5 million and made at Box Office $213.9 million.

I really enjoyed watching Pulp Fiction, there was something about it, making it feel completely different when I watch it. There was a good selection of actors for the film and they help make it complete. Overall I found it really funny and capturing and would definitely recommend.

Interior Shooting: Photographing along the way

Here are a few photographs of us filming inside. We had to experiment a lot with the lighting, as we have never used it before, and we used a piece of associate paper with blue printed over the top to give a more blue effect when were filming which worked really well. 

Preliminary Task

Our preliminary task worked really well. We tried to make it simple and an easy going conversation. Me and Jade were filming and Wini and Joe from another group helped act in our task. It was exciting to use the camera for the first time as we have never used it before, and to learn how to use it before we started filming. The quality was fantastic and it was really fun to use, not too complicated. Overall it worked well and was a huge help as an introduction of learning how to use the camera.

SHOT LISTS

Shooting: First day

The day went really well but it was absolutely freezing, which was difficult for Lolly because she was only in tights and a little dress. So, we had to make sure we kept giving her her jacket when she wasn't filming. We were a little worried when we got to the station, just incase they made a fuss about us filming there but there was no problem and they actually offered to help. We started filming about 11 and finished around 7, we went from the station to the garage and to Totteridge where we went back to Jades house to film the interior shots. 

Shooting: Photographs

Here are some of the 'candid' shots from our day of shooting. 

Skins

Skins is a teen British Drama that is based on a group of teenagers in sixth from that live in Bristol and South West England. The story lines are quite typical for people in this age group and are quite controversial, for example the cover issues like mental illness (eating disorders) unstable families, substance abuse and adolescent sexuality. An individual episode focuses on one particular character and what the upside and downside is to their lives.

Skins was created by a father and son, Bryan Elsley and Jamie Brittain for Company Pictures.
There are 7 series and 61 episodes throughout the whole show. And stares Kaya Scodelario, Nicholas Hoult and Hannah Murray....

I've recently been watching Skins on Netflix. I have watched mostly everything on there but never seen Skins, which is quite unusual for someone my age. So i started from Season 1 and finished all the seasons within two days. I was addicted. I really liked it although i felt as if it got much better from Season 3 when we get to see the world from Effy's generation. I think Effy makes the show, her mysterious and destructible character always leaves whoever watching expecting something big to happen as she gets herself in the worst trouble. I like how each episode concentrates on one particular character, this creates a fresh start to each new episode and is much more exciting.

Thriller production call sheet

Preliminary Task Script

Here is the script for our provisional task, we wanted to keep it as simple as possible.


Jade: Hey


Wini: Hey


Jade: How are you?


Wini: Good thanks, what about you?


Jade:Yeah! Its my birthday tomorrow, would you want to come to my party?


Wini: Yeah cool, thanks! Where is it?


Jade: At my house! Ill send you the address.


Wini: Thanks, see you tomorrow!

Characters & Prop List

Characters:

IRIS: Lauren Isaacs
DAMIEN: Raphi Patterson
ASH/ASHTON: Candid photograph (not actually acting in the film)

Locations:

Damien's room: 
Iris's Study: Sophia's house
Train Station & Platform: Golders Green Station
Garage: North End Road 

Props:

Television
Ash Tray
Cigarettes 
Beer Bottles
Signet Ring
2 Mobile Phones
Computer (Desktop)

Clothing:

Extra: Thriller mood board

Here is another mood board of the opening scene of our thriller, just a combination of dynamic lighting which will create a darkened mood and enigma. There are a few other props we have used to make the character seem more troubled. 

On the right (it's hard to see) it says "

The lighting will have high contrast, dark and maybe peeping through windows (as shown in the photo above)

The tv screen will be lighting up his face, it will be filmed so when the lighting/colours on the screen it will on the face aswel. This is also shown in the photo above.

Perhaps the only lighting in the room will be from the tv screen. 

Fonts for our thriller

We have been researching different fonts for the opening of our thriller, we agreed together we didn't want anything cliché and too typical for our thriller. We have also researched different thriller movies and looked at their opening credits which also gave us inspiration for the fonts we wanted to use. For example 'SE7EN' used a font which automatically makes the person watching expecting a thriller/horror genre. For example 'The Lovely Bones' has quite a modern font and is not usual for a thriller, where if I wouldn't have watched the film I would of have expected it to be a thriller, maybe more  drama/romance genre. Paranormal Activity is another example of a typical thriller, not just that the font is quit spooky but also the colour red represents danger, energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love.

SE7EN FONT



SE7VEN FONT

The Social Network

These are the different websites we used: http://www.1001fonts.com/new-and-fresh-fonts.html?page=27&items=10

http://www.fonts.com/

http://www.artofthetitle.com/

Thriller: Shot Lists

Here attached are the shot lists for our movie: