The entire film is based on following round the life of a suicidal
team. We learn their every move and learn their tricks and meet their enemies.
The opening scene:
Starts of revealing the setting which is a church, we immediately
focus on one particular man straight away surrounded by other people. We notice
a ticking bomb behind his back, when the timer reaches 10 seconds police and
FBI’s crash into the church with guns and we focus back onto the bomb once it
has reached 1 second and the scene suddenly ends showing the title of the film
with a black out screen.
Photos:
Feedback:
Starting with the positive comments.
-Liked the idea of the ticking time bomb as it creates so much
suspense.
-Loved the location of beginning in the church as it is a holy
place, so it contrasted well with the bomb.
-Liked the idea that the audience don't know whether the bomb has
been disabled in time or if the bomb has gone off.
-Correct genre, you know immediately it is a thriller.
-Perfect length to grip the audience.
Improvements.
-Did not understand why the man was in the church, as if he was
part of a suicidal team they would have gone for a much more larger venue, so
think about why the characters are there.
-Terrorist does not work as they normally cause mass destruction.
-Everything you film must lasts the amount of seconds that the
timer is going down in.
-I could a man tied to the bomb hidden underneath the Church
trying to escape, then having the contrast of a choir singing above.
The whole plot of the film is the mystery of the missing girl-A
single father has recently been separated from his 14-year-old daughter;
unknown men have taken her. We follow the dangers and risks the father goes
through to get his daughter returned back to him.
Opening Scene:
The daughter is home alone, her music blasting out from her
bedroom, however a man is downstairs and the music in faded and he suddenly
starts walking up the stairs but trips/makes some sudden loud sound. The
daughter hears this sound and immediately knows her father would not be back
from work at this time of the day. She throws herself into the cupboard
watching the man’s every move as he enters her bedroom looking through the gap
in the cupboard and the scene ends when the man is walking towards the cupboard
and gestures to open it.
Photos:
Feedback:
I was given feedback on this initial idea.
I will start by talking about the positive comments.
-The idea that the young girl is smart and
straight away realises there is something suspicious going on so she hides in
the cupboard.
-The idea that nearly the whole opening
scene is shot through the cupboard, as you can concentrate and rely on the
sounds.
-It was a good length and gripped you from
the beginning.
-You could immediately identify it was a
thriller.
-Clear characters.
Things i could improve on:
-My idea was a lot like the movie 'Taken',
it followed the same story line.
-This was to maybe get the young female
character to notice a unfamiliar car outside the driveway and hide in the
cupboard.
-Alternatively instead of having the
venerable female character in the cupboard I could put the man in the cupboard,
watching her every move.
-Then again you could have the female in
the cupboard but as the man enters the room the girl would jump out and attack
the man eventually manages to escape and the rest of the movie would be based
on why they were targeting this particular young girl.
-The kidnapping happens to fast during the
movie, it would have to come in later, so the beginning scene would be the
father training or working.
-The females should always be the victims
in situations like these, change the roles, the young girl fights back.
In
our next Prelim task we had to edit the footage we shot the previous week,
this was done up in the editing suite. As we had had a previous lesson on
editing the process of editing the footage was a lot easier and much more
efficient.
Finding
what footage we wanted to start with was difficult because we wanted a strong
dynamic entrance. I thought it was really helpful to have lots of different
shots to chose from and not only the shot given to us on the storyboard, it
gave us a lot more variety to choose from. Once we started cutting we came
across a few hurdles, for example we cut in a middle of a line so we had to
make sure the cut was perfect, so the line the actor was performing was exactly
in time with then next cut. This took time but in the end we solved the problem
and were happy to carry onto the next footage.
I
really enjoyed this lesson because it helped me understand how much time it takes
to edit just one scene. I think this process will help me in the future when
editing more footage for my thriller.
When
creating our prelim video we were given a storyboard and by looking at this we
had to film that scene using the camera angles given on the storyboard. However
you could add in some more camera angles, which would make the scene more
inventive and original.
We
were supplied with 2 actors and they were given the storyboard so they could
take a couple minutes to learn the script and discus how they are going to
perform it. In this particular task I was the cameraman so I was responsible
for setting up the camera in the correct manor. I did this quickly as in a
previous lesson we had been taught how to assemble a camera onto the tripod, so
that lesson came in very useful in this task.
We
tested out different camera angles and some did not work, for example the hand
held camera that we used moving around the scene as the actors delivered their line looked uncontrolled and out of focus. My favourite camera angle that we shot was
when the actors were looking directly into the camera making it feel like the
camera was the other actor. I also felt this particular camera angle helped the
audience understand exactly how the characters were feeling at that point and
you could see their facial expressions very easily.
I
think we could have given the actors more direction to make sure they knew
exactly what they were meant to be doing at that moment. Looking
back on that experience I now know that to be a director and cameraman you have
to be fully prepared and know exactly what you are doing and what you want others to do before you reach the
set, otherwise it will take up time deciding what angles to shoot and time
costs a lot of money in the film industry.
This
experience really helped me understand how everything works when filming and
how long the process can take for shooting one scene. I extremely enjoyed this
task as it has prepared me for what is to come when filming our thrillers.
The
movie I will be exploring is ‘007 Quantum Of Solace. I will analyse the sound
throughout the scene I have picked from the movie. I have chosen this clip in
the film because I feel sound in this scene section is of high importance and
helps build a climax to the film.
The
scene starts off with a diegetic sound of the boat revving up and we are
suddenly hit with the crash of the two boats. By using these ambient sounds it creates
an impact and suggests to the audience that this scene will be intense and gripping,
it also helps set the scene for the audience letting them know where the
characters are. We are introduced to two characters in the first 30 seconds of
this clip. We are shown close up shots of their faces so we can identify them
in further shots. This lets us know who will play a major part in this
particular clip. The non-diegetic sound then begins indicating that this action
scene has just started. We hear speech for the first time in this particular
scene this is a diegetic sound, so the characters react to this as they can
hear this. We immediately side with these two characters because they have the
main focus of the scene. The non-diegetic sound then begins in the background
of the action indicating that this action scene has just started. The music
builds up when the boat drives off; the sound is very synchronous to the action
going on throughout this clip.
The
music in this scene comes to a stop gradually when speech starts so that the
audience can really concentrate and focus on the dialogue between the
characters instead of the non-diegetic sound in the background. The soundtrack
is a low dramatic sound creating tension and suspense, this music complements
the action happening on screen.The
duration of the shots at the start of this scene are very short, this increases
the intensity of the movement, as the action is fast and frantic this suggests
that there is a lot going on at once and it is very chaotic. We are shown the
main characters facial expressions throughout the clip and they complement the
non-diegetic sound very well. We side with the characters we can see more of as we
think we know them better than the other characters.
The
non-diegetic soundtrack starts again almost instantly once the characters
stop talking, this indicates that the fighting has begun again. Gunshots are
fired which is a diegetic sound and while this is happening the non-diegetic
sound is reflecting the movement on screen by increasing the volume and power.
We
are then concentrating on the boat travelling through the Laguna and the
duration of these shots are long to build suspense as we don’t know what is
going to happen next. I noticed that when the boats are colliding with one
another the soundtrack becomes more dramatic, and the duration of the shots
becomes shorter so it builds intensity.
As
soon as the action stops the music calms down, suggesting to the audience
that both characters are safe and they have won the fight. The use of the
soundtrack which rises throughout the action includes a harp and a guitar this signifies
a victory. To show the calmness of the scene with the boat in the Laguna, the
music starts again but this time it is a gradual relaxing non-diegetic sound.
When James reaches the island the famous 'James Bond' theme tune begins slowly
and subtly in the background as a non-diegetic. However as soon as dialogue is
introduced back into the scene the soundtrack stops and it becomes silent once
again.
