baska's post on the newspaper thriller

     For the 2 minute trailer we decided that the camera would represent the stalker. It was a a basic idea in which the identity of the stalker would not be shown. the movie 'the shining' inspired us and provided a few ideas for example leaving quiet spaces or first person mode while using the camera. We used a range of shots but for a 'stalker' thriller we had to use long distance shots giving the effect that there was a person from a distance. our group decided to use diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. alot of what happened in the short thriller happened accidently.

     Our group memebers are me, dainai, tamina and maria. firstly we planned out the actions of the girl as being natural; she wouldnt know whats going on or even that someone is following her. our task was to basically create a thriller surrounding someone reading the newspaper. The camera work was great, the shots came out nicely and showed actions that wouldn't have been seen if we hadn't used the shot. For example the high angle shot used at the begining showed her looking at someone and the man looking back at her; putting a slow motion effect really gives a type of mystery for the audience. One shot when the girl was walking inside the problem was that some people who walked by acted to weird, like the guy who tryed to hide as if the camera hadn't seen him.

     The editing was very simple and more effects and diegetic sounds however the non-diegetic sounds really came in nicely. It was completly accidently but suited the thriller when slowed down. the edited sound didn't work with the thriller. the sound doesn't match the action. I learnt that more thought and time needed to be used or else we would have to just rely on accidental shots. One thing that forgotten is that we needed to film during a time period when there was no people. this way the tension would've builded up more and also people wouldn't act so weird.

     One convention that would've been useful is to be more prepared. In most thrillers the settings are deserted and quiet. There may be a few non- diegetic noises or sounds. the shot of the camera following the girl was a typical shot from thriller movies. Our teacher said it has a lot potential to be great problem was we didn't get enough time to finish off the editing in total.

I feel that that the teacher's comments on our task was completly right i think that if more planning was put into it then we probably would've had more time to finish off.

Dainii's Post On Final Match Cut exercise

We were given the task to film a short thriller opening.We chose to do a triad themed thriller.Tahmina did the camera work.We decided that we should use shots that would keep the main female characters (a triad leader's) identity a mystery for a short while, so close ups of her legs and medium close ups of her chest area were used. The other main character played by me,was an inferior client that owed money to the female triad leader.To portray this we used high angle shots which were also used to get cctv-like shots of her. The fast paced editing between the shots built up a sense of tension. Doing this task help me to see what we should not do in our real thriller. Such as not breaking the 180 degree rule ( which we did break) and when doing point of view shots we should place the camera exactly where the person would be looking from (and looking to). This is essential to create the sense that the audience is looking through the characters eyes. Further more when next filming shots i will be sure to acknowledge the space between the top of the shot and subject being film, as to ensure there is not too much or not enough space.In addition to this , i have learnt that it is paramount that we leave 5 seconds before and after each shot and not to forget as it can effect where you put your in and out points. Our teacher was very pleased with the outcome and reminded us that we should remember to incorporate the slow motion shots in our actual thriller as to attach ideas of superiority to certain characters. Overall i think our thriller was very successful and that we will definately be able to enhance the idea it in our final thriller.

Dainii elliott

Newspaper practice. (18/11/08)

For our first practice we were given a subject to use which was a “newspaper” this was to be included in our thriller. My group Maria, Baska, Dainii and I decided that our thriller would be based on a young girl (played by myself) reading a newspaper whilst coming into college but being followed by a stalker. Who she saw an article on when she opened the paper. Although we had a good story line, the group did come across a few problems where members of the group had little arguments and disagreements because some people in our group found it difficult to communicate and agree with each other this then led to some of the members walking out. However we resolved these problems by sitting down and discussing how we should approach the situation next time we go to shoot the trailer.

The lesson which then followed we sat down and gave each other significant role in which we would be taking part in for instance I was given the role in acting, by being the girl who is getting stalked. Dainii and Maria both handling the camera work and directing and Baska helping out with the settings and scenes making sure we were not disturbed whilst filming. Throughout the process of filming all this footage, me and the other members of the group realised that planning was a vital factor, as our group lacked that factor. This gave us a much better insight into how we should approach our next attempt of filming our thriller.

(21/11/08)
Whilst we were editing we learnt lots of different techniques which could be applied to our film for instance how to slow/speed up footage. However some sounds came naturally to the trailer as we did not put them in ourselves for example the point where I turn ma head the sound there was from the original footage itself.

Tahmina Khan