First Draft

The first draft was different, comparing to our final thriller. Unfortunately, the first draft of our thriller opening has been deleted and was not uploaded. But the things that we have done for our thriller in which are different from our final was the main item that we have used, instead of making it into a cliche, we have decided to omit the use of the mints, in which we have used as narcotics, and had then replaced it with a cartridge, to change it and to make it more interesting, The other thing was that the walking segment was more longer than the final, in which had made it more of a tedious scene, so in order to make it more appealing, we have shortened it to avoid dragging it out, along with that, when the main character was walking, he was walking towards the jewellery store, in which now, he was walking to the access to a parking, and then had looked around mysteriously.

Treatment

This is the treatment for our thriller opening in which we have given the credit for the people in which have created the work, the title for it, the tag line/motto for the thriller opening, and the synopsis behind the thriller opening.

Costumes and props for thriller opening

For our thriller opening, we have used various clothing and costumes within our thriller opening. The first person that we will be analysing in which will be of the Overseer, or Sam. His clothing made it look modern, but it also is used in less colours, he is seen wearing a small bag in which is of a parody of a very well known portable system known as the Nintendo GameBoy, along with a hoodie, t-shirt and a set of jeans. In which what this gives for the character is a sense of enigma, a mystery shrouds within him, it gives the character a more mature perspective on him.

The next person is of the dealer, or Joshua. He is seen wearing sneakers/trainers, in which he is seen wearing a hoodie, a jacket and a set of black trousers. This gives him a more of a sinister perspective within this character, he looks more of a character that is not to be messed with, someone who is looking a bit more younger for his age.

There were only a couple props in which we have used, and those were of a phone within the last few segments in which the Overseer/Sam had used to reply within the text, and the other major prop is of the tech/device in which I have obtained, in which what this was of a cartridge of a video game system, the Nintendo 3DS, within the thriller, they are the mystery behind all of this, as the person would wonder what is the main objective behind all of it is and for what use is those devices within the thriller.

The last person is me, the collector. I am seen with the fur parka coat, and a set of jeans, with trainers, the clothing is seen within a more of a friendlier appearance in which is the main reason as to why the person is on the ground level, instead of the rooftops and lower level. However, the facial hair present, gives it more of an aggressive jawline/face, giving the person the perspective that they are not originally from the location, in which may also give it the perspective that the person is from another country doing an illegal operation conjoining of more than one country.

Initial Ideas

Here is the initial ideas, in which shows the earlier planning of what we have done throughout the earlier stages of developing a thriller, in which we were all over the place in the premise, for this, we have sort of nailed what we were doing, but throughout the times, we had to fully solidify what we were doing for the thriller opening.

Studio Idents

Studio idents are ways to introduce the film and the company that have made this. Over the course of time, they have evolved into brand new versions of the old intros, and then it have then stuck and had been a major part of the movies, any type and any director.

One example of a ident is of the 20th Century Fox. It is an animated ident, in which it have started with the top view, and then it goes down towards the front, along with the lighting showing as if it is a very important event, in which case, the important event is the movie itself. The examples of films showing the ident from the company are films like the 'Aliens' trilogy and the 'X-men' series.


Paramount Pictures is also involved in the big six producers of films, they were created in 1912, the mountain with the stars is one that many people know of. This prouction company are known to delve in different films, along with different genres, an example of a film in this producer is the known 'North by Northwest', which has been created by Alfred Hitchcock, a legendary director in the thriller genre of films.

Warner Brothers are also one of the most notable producers, with the crest being present with the initials of WB, The company was founded within 1923, their most notable films were of The Hobbit trilogy the Dark Knight trilogy, American Sniper and Man of Steel. They create films in varying genres, more in the superhero genre with Superman and Batman.

Universal Studios is also another very known one, and one of the more notable studio idents, it starts of with the Earth, and then the Universal title starts to move towards the centre, aligning itself in the middle. Similar to Paramount, this production company was created in 1912, the most examples of their works are of E.T, Jurassic Park and Jaws.


Walt Disney Pictures is also another very known producer created in 1928, the ident shows the castle in full view, and then goes minimalist and presents the outline of it. They have done notable films such as The Lone Ranger, Pirates of the Carribean and Alice in Wonderland(2010).

Location

For our thriller opening, we had to decide where we had to film for this, so while we were on our 2nd production meeting, so the location/area that we have thought of was the City of London/Central London. The reason why is to give some form of interesting setting, it would give more of a tense atmosphere, contrasting to the generic and basic streets of Barking and Dagenham, which would make the thriller look bland and very uninteresting.

So we then had condensed the locations as to where we will film this thriller, so we decided to find a location in which we would film at a high level, so that we can be able to see the skyline of London, in which we have found one location to do so, the One New Change. This is a shopping mall/centre within the heart of London, this was very close to the St. Paul's Cathedral in St. Paul's, in which there was a roof terrace available for the public to go to, so we managed to record on the rooftop region.






Once the rooftop recording was done the next process was to go to an alleyway, so we found a near path, in which it was not fully an alleyway, but also a parkway area, in which the next segment in the middle of the thriller opening had been recorded within Gutter Lane, The reason why we have filmed here is because to give it a more secluded feel when the deal had happened within the thriller opening, instead of showing it in the public.

Styles of editing

There are various styles of editing incorporated to create some form of effect being shown, especially in the thriller genre.

Montage Theory: Russian filmmaker and film theorist Lev Kuleshov, created a theory, that a film is similar to a house, the shots represent the bricks, so each shot was the brick for the house, so in the end, the once all the shots(bricks) were done, that would make the film(house). Montages especially were different images/films combined together.

Fade: The fade cuts as the image/video darkens and/or brightens, for most cases throughout the film, it is use to convey a passing of time, in which is a common thing to use.

Continuity Edit: This edit tries to make it into a chronological order, even if it is a flash back, it will still make sure that the time is moving forwards, and not any other way.

Graphic Match: A match-cut or raccord is an effect in which there are two separate items, in two different regions, where those two shots of those, graphically match.

Match-on action: The said character starts an action, such as a fight sequence, and then we see this segment to the end.

Wipe: This transition is basically when one segment of the film clip, gets shifted in any direction, this is the transition in which gets recognised quicker by the audience, the most common wipe in which is conveyed is when it is wiped to the right, because it links to the fact that time is being passed.

Eye line match: What this does is essentially move the camera from the character to what the character is seeing.

Jump cut: The reason why the transition is often use is because it grabs the audience's attention, it is quick and sudden, not slow and predictable, it essentially breaks the continuity editing, the reason why it feels like it is because it looks like something from that scene was removed from it.

Straight/Normal Cut: The last and most common cut is the straight cut, it the editing in which is the most common out of all of them, it is used to retain reality within the film, they are slow, however, these edits does not distract the audience, it does not obscure the audience's attention.

The reason as to why I have done a blog on this is because I have now gotten used to the camera work, and had practiced editing within our couple of films that we have created, and I wanted to learn more examples of the various types of editing and how are they used in films, especially within the thriller genre.

3rd Production Meeting

This was our third production meeting, in this meeting, we have solidified the ideas, we have also figured out where we will film it, so we got the equipment needed, the camera, boom, tripod and the microphone, so we have done as many filmings as possible, so that we got the bulk of the thriller opening, so we can then be able to edit this and to show what we have done to the people and to get some opinions about what we have made.

Studio Ident

This is the studio ident that we will be will be using for the final thriller, for our group, White Virgin Media.

Sound Test

 This is the sound test, in which we have tried to attempt a serious sound test, but eventually, led into a comedic approach into the sound test, this was our first attempt at using the camera and boom in a serious production way. For this, the boom was fitted with the dead animal/cat, the reason as to why that has been mounted/fitted onto the microphone is because to avoid the wind being picked up within the filming of this sound test, we have used diagetic and non-diagetic, sound coming from the film like dialogue and nature and not coming from the film like music and sound effects that we have done. This film is to also show how we have improved with our quality with filming, in which we have used the tripod, to try to give stability to the filming, this immediately improved our quality of the filming, it had given more stability and made the filming look better.

First day of Filming

For our first day of filming, we have made some progress. We went to Central London, at around the St. Paul's area, approximately the City of London borough. We have filmed at the top/ the rooftops of the One New Change, a shopping centre within the area, in which what we have done was film the starting segment of the thriller, and the panning shot of the skyline of London, in which the progress was good, as we had it finished in a quick timing, and had to re shoot the skyline because we wanted to try to make it interesting.










Once we have finished with the rooftop segment of the thriller opening, we have then decided to film below, on the ground of the One New Change, as the next segment was of me going towards the alleyway on a higher long shot, the street that we were filming on was Gutter Lane, and in this picutre on the top, there is Carly and Sam filming us, and in order to get the communication for what I had to do, they decided to call me and then give me the directions, the reason as to why they call me on my phone is because it is a more civilised way to communicate the instructions, instead of shouting towards me.

Then once we have done the scene, we have then done the meetup scene within the main alleway/parkway area, in which the scene required us to be serious about this, in which in some cases, it was either that the scene became awkward, or we missed our call to start the scene, once we have done it, we then transitioned to me walking towards the camera, in which caused some awkward parts, as I either froze halfway, or just looked at the camera, instead of looking shifty.

Preliminary Evaluation

For the preliminary task, what we have tried to do is to prepare ourselves for the thriller opening by using what we have learned throughout the filming and editing phase of this preliminary task, overall, we have found many things in which we have done well and the segments in which needed some form of improvements throughout this. As stated in the previous preliminary blog, we have done the preliminary in two halves, the first half was on the main preliminary, the main segment, whereas the second half of it, was more of an outtake/blooper reel of the preliminary task, in which we have shown our blunders and some mistakes that we have done either because we were out of focus, forgot something, and tried to do something else, in which had failed miserably.

Positives
The editing involved was alright, the cross-fading involved within the beginning segment of the preliminary shows a sense of time passing, as the main person waits impatiently for the other character, the setting shot in which the clock is being presented is a interesting starting point, as instead of starting it in a cliched way with a person, we have tried to vary it.

Negatives
Where the problems arise from the piece of work is the acting, it can be described as awkward, quirky, the delivery of each of the dialogue had some form of emotion, instead of containing none, however, it could've had some more depth to it, one of the segments near the end, had a very awkward perspective/look onto it, in which I had looked at the camera near the very end, in which for some, may not be noticeable, however, it can be seen as distracting and can put off some people and make it very off-putting. The music near the end had a it of an awkward transition throughout the work, as near the end to try to create a heightened tension, it feels cheap, and unnecessary to do so.

Overall
In the end, it is the starting point to the process of creating that final thriller opening, in which while it is awkward and unusual, it shows how the process of the work had started and will reach in the end towards the serious two minutes of those thriller openings.

Preliminary

This is the preliminary task that we have done before the Thriller Opening, the reason why we have done it is because to prepare ourselves for the thriller opening in which we have done. The reason why this is 3 minutes long is because most of the first half is shown as the actual preliminary, whereas the remaining length of time is shown with bloopers/outtakes to present our mistakes and a few errors throughout the time that we were recording the preliminary.

Movie Theorists

There are various theorists involved within the film industry in which have created various theories, these theorists are: Barthes with the Enigma code, the Binary Opposition by Levi Strauss, the 3 Act of the Traditional Hollywood Structure, Todorov's Narrative Theory with the 5 stages and Propp's Character Types.

The first thing within the Hollywood Structure was very basic and traditional. It is mainly three parts/acts. The first segment is 25% of the movie in which is the set up of the movie, it is the primary premise of it, it sets up the characters, the story and some things in which are extremely crucial to the main story segment. It is strictly a linear plot, there is very often little to no sub plots involved within the main story. The main thing that is involved within the main story, is that there is often closure within these type of stories.

The next thing involved is Roland Barthes' Enigma Code, it is essentially the mystery within the story being connoted within it, there is the open code in which the story has no resolution within the end of the story, while closed is the opposite, the story has a resolution. Films or television shows such as Eastenders, do not have a resolution entirely, it would still develop over time.

The next theorist is of Levi Strauss, in which shows the Binary Opposites, via dominant and subordinate. The main examples are with the hero and villain, male and female. The main example can be of Good and Evil, in which in the popular example within the trilogy is of the Star Wars, in which Luke Skywalker is in the good side, or the Jedi, whereas Darth Vader(Anakin Skywalker) is in the bad side, or the Sith, Batman and Bane/Joker/Two Face.

The next theorist is of Todorov and his Theory on Narrative, there are essentially 5 stages to it, the first stage is of the equilibrium, as how it has started, then the next stage is the disruption of the equilibrium in which has been triggered by an event, then they recognise that the disruption has happened, there is then an attempt at repairing this disruption, and the final stage of it is the reconstruction or repair of the equilibrium. A very notable example of this is of the Die Hard, the 1988 action film staring Bruce Willis, the first stage is of John McClaine, with his wife, going to the Nakatomi Plaza on Christmas Eve for a party, the next stage is of the disruption of the party created by the terrorist, Hans Gruber, the police and John realise that everyone is kept hostage by Gruber and his terrorist group, in which the next stage is for John to become the one man army and to stop everyone including Gruber, in which he does, and the equilibrium has been restored.

Vladimir Propp's theory is of the various character types involved, in which he had incorporated and analysed teaditional folk stories and had found 8 different character roles in which are key to the story. The hero, villain, helper, donor(provider), father, dispatcher, the princess and the false hero, in which some of these characters can be in more than one role. Examples: Hero= Tony Stark(Iron Man), Villain=General Zod(Man of Steel), Helper=Short Round(Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom), etc.

The other theory is of Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze, the theory is of the fact that women are seen as erotic pleasure, the women are passive and men are active in the movie, women do not move the plot forward, the cinema reflects patriarchal society. Films like Rope portray the olden times in which