Final Sequence: Thriller

For our final project in AICE Media, our group decided our 2 minute intro to the film should be a thriller. The premise behind this is that thrillers are one of the easiest genres to film; production shouldn't cost much or be too difficult. In our prior blogs, we had chosen the pitch of Hit(Wo)men, a film about a two psychopathic girls who will go out of their way to protect each other, until tragedy strikes. Other pitches we had considered included romantic comedies and a horror film. However, in the end, we decided on the thriller but even that has some elements of a rom-com and horror in it too. In the end, we had figured a perfect blend of our pitches that collided into becoming Hit(Wo)men. 

Genre Research: Other Genres

Thriller

Camera angles, movements, and shots: High angles and birds eye shots are used to make the characters look vulnerable. Fast pans add suspense during action shots. POV shots can put you in the character's shoes as they go through their dilemma in the moment. Close-ups show emotion, vulnerability, and reactions of characters. 

Common costumes, lighting, actors, makeup, props, and scenery: Costumes usually fit the time period usually either present time or could be adapted based on location (ex. Space). Lighting is very contrasted. Some scenes may be shot with bright lighting to make sure the audience has a full understanding of everything that is happening or the scene while, other scenes may be casted in darker more moody lighting to add drama and suspense to the unknown, the situation, or the antagonist. Makeup is usually done pretty natural for characters. In addition, some scenes require special effects for injuries and gore illustrated on film. Props usually consist of  survival gear, new technology to defeat the antagonist, or everyday objects. The scenery is usually a type of post-apocalyptic abandoned scene. This can include empty houses, stores, shacks, etc. Actors are usually method actors, performers who can invoke a believable and emotional experience to the audience. Thrillers hinge on suspense, so the mis-en scene of the film has to focus on building anticipation.

Editing in Thrillers: All thriller films use fast and slow paced editing in their films. This is very good at creating suspense, tension and also conveying emotions and/or representing characters. Most commonly, thrillers use fast and slow paced editing specifically to create suspense and tension within a scene. Jump cuts for example, can be seen in the thriller genre due to their disorientating effect on a character or scene. Shot, reverse, shot is another editing technique used especially to show the audience something that the characters do not know. Another editing technique used is parallel editing; where the audience is shown what two characters are doing at the same time. One shot usually has an effect on the other in these type of shots. 

Elements of Genre: The main element of a thriller is suspense; putting the audience on edge through impactful storytelling. Alfred Hitchcock was a master of suspense as if one simply shows the audience a room full of people and it explodes, only shock is felt. However, when an audience is shown of a room full of people and a ticking time bomb is about to go off then,  suspense is built. Thrillers are meant to heavily stimulate the viewer's moods giving them a high level of anticipation, ultra- heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and even terror.

Examples of Films:

Get out, Ma, A Quiet Place, Glass, Parasite, Joker, Night crawler, Gone Girl, Bird Box.

Common Sound in Genre: Thrillers have eerie scores to direct the narrative of the story. The aim of the music is to keep the audience on their toes.  Silence is widely used to create tension to a certain scene. The non-diegetic music in thrillers is fairly repetitive, creating anxiety and agitation for the audience. Non-diegetic sound used to increase the tension and create a sense of pessimism, desperation and paranoia. Sound bridges are used to cut to another shot, without the action being interrupted, this is very important in a thriller as it allows the audience to still feel tension even when the action is no longer viewable. Finally, Dialogue is diegetic, and often the dialogue creates a very tense atmosphere.

Positives and Negatives of the Genre: 

Positives: 

• Suspense keeps the audience engaged.
• Eeriness of the genre is appreciated.
• Themes/story of this genre generally interesting.
• Uses a lot of camera angles and shots.
• Thrillers tend to be more story focused and not relying on sequels; story is self contained.
• Use of visuals and audio to invoke suspense.

Negatives:

• Genre not accepted by all, not as mainstream as action/adventure films.
• Story lines sometimes too complex, has to reveal all in a single movie.
• Actors have to be decent for the movie to have its effect. 

Horror

Lighting: Up lighting

• Silhouette- Shadows show movement of antagonist so the viewers imagination creates their worst fear.
• Spotlighting- Drawing attention to main focal point.
• Underexposure
• Prominent and projected shadows
• Shooting through objects and elements- Creates strange and irregular shadows.

Angles:  Bird eye (high angle): used to make the actor look vulnerable.

• Close up: used to see characters reactions
• Tracking shot: shows if a character is being watched or followed.
• Reversed shot: shows the consequences of a person's actions by using time.
• Long shot: used to establish the scene ( ex: how deserted a town is)
• Over the shoulder shot: Used to build suspension
• Reaction shot: To show fear after jump scare.
• POV shot: when character is running from antagonist.

Movement: Running from antagonist

• Choreographed fights (hand to hand and/or weapon use)
• Scared/surprised faces 
• Hysterical crying 
• Stunts (Jumping out of windows, dramatic deaths, vehicle chases)

Mis en scene:

• Sets with fog and dark lighting
• Strobe lights for added attack effects 
• Regular clothes costumes and set design to make things appear scarier because they are more realistic.
• Special FX makeup used to create realistic wounds and creatures
• Shooting Locations appear to be isolated and rural.

Elements of genre: Scary locations

• Spooky music
• Fear of the unusual
• The dark
• Fear of death
• Shocking plot twist
• Unsafe feeling

Examples: The Shining, Frankenstein, The Conjuring, Halloween, Scream, and The Blair Witch Project

Sounds: Suspenseful music

• Non-diegetic sounds (Ex: Monster noises)
• Sound Motif (Ex: Michael Myers from Halloween)
• Fear inducing score (Ex: Psycho shower scene theme)
• Screaming
• Silence (Bird Box/A Quiet Place)
• Emphasis on Diegetic sounds (door creaking, crows, wind, footsteps, Sirens etc.)

Positives: The fear of death until the end credits of movie conveyed by overall music, graphics, and special effects (Ex: IT). A shocking plot twist because it leaves the audience following one story which changes drastically throughout leaving you intrigued and sometimes confused on previous motives (Ex: Psycho's false beginning that grows darker throughout the plot). 

Negatives: Unrealistic plots and monster/creature effects: It takes away from the overall scary experience with improper Mis en Scene (Ex: Ghostbusters). Unnecessary blood for unwanted effect: Makes scene more comical and unrealistic (Ex: Kill Bill).

Hard to follow plots: We can’t be fully frightened when we do not fully follow along on with what's happening (Ex: Into the Forest).

 

Genre Research: Westerns

Prior to starting my final project, I had done research on the Western genre of film. Above is the PowerPoint I made detailing the conventions of the Western genre. From my research I had learned that westerns aimed to capture the feeling of westward expansion and mastering the wild west while still having a sense lawlessness. The setting of a western is essential to establishing the tone of the story. Whether it be a honorable sheriff that protects the town from the bandits or the haunted pueblo town, Western invokes a sense of fantasy and storytelling that aims to get the audience invested into the world of the wild west. 

Final Pitch

For our final project we have narrowed down two pitches. The first is called Hit(Wo)man and is about a jealous friend who goes to the extremes to protect her friend from a guy that she deems "unworthy". The second pitch we narrowed it down to was "235" a film about the aftermath of a nuclear disaster in a small town where investigators uncover a terrifying secrets pre-disaster that led up to the destruction. For the Hit(Wo)man pitch, we talked about how simple the plot would be. A woman goes to psychopathic lengths to keep her friend away from a guy due to her having secret feelings for her friend. Since the project required our product to be two minutes long, establishing the story and setting should be easy and the anticipation of what the protagonist is going to do would keep the audience engaged and wanting more of the story. Shooting of this production would not require a lot of makeup, costumes, or props. Establishing characteristics of the mis en scene of the film would be practical. The setting of the film would be regular streets and shopping centers that displays the outrageous nature of the protagonist by showing scenes of her sabotaging and stalking her friend. The second pitch is going to be an ominous interview of a nuclear disaster surviver who gets slowly convinced by the doctors to reveal the realities of how the nuclear disaster started. Opening scene of the film will invoke sense of ambiguity. However, after much debate and increased foresight, we decided that the premise of the movie is too closely correlated to the HBO show “Chernobyl”.

Starting the Final Task

My name is Anjun Wu, and I have been taking AICE Media for about half a year now and through this educational process, I have learned a lot about the filming and post-production of film. I feel that I have numerous ideas on interesting stories and themes that can be incorporated onto the wide screen. From my AICE Media class, I have learned the technicalities of film production, but in reality, this class has allowed me to dig into my creative conscious and output my ideas into a medium. Since completing my commercial and music video project, I feel that I have gained new skills like organization and time management. For our final project we need pitch ideas to start off our film. A pitch is an idea, the plot of a film that can be summed up in one sentence. For example, we have three pitches to choose from. The first one is going to be named Hit(Wo)man, which is basically a vengeful lady tries to prevent a friend from falling into the arms of the wrong guy, by going to the extremes. The second pitch is called 235 and revolves around the aftermath of a nuclear disaster that reveals deeper secrets about the town it took place in. The third and final pitch is a romantic comedy that employs extreme situational irony as road blocks in the two protagonist's lives. 

 Our group consisting of myself, on the right, Nyaria in the middle, Katie on the left and Preace on the left in the bottom picture.

Editing for Music Video

   For editing the music video we used Pinnacle Studios like last time. After we dumped the raw footage to the computer we started to synchronize the video with the audio, 'Thrift Shop' by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. We wanted to tell the story we imaged in pre-production. To emulate the original Thrift shop video, we made sure to have the right costumes and setting to fit the theme of the video. We took the rough footage and transferred it into the editing software. It took a while to load and process, we thought the program had crashed initially, but eventually, it prevailed. On this shoot we filmed with 1080p quality on my own camcorder instead of the schools since the battery on the school's camera was wonky. Our first scene was the one with Joe, the owner of the Little Thrift Store, pushing my partner Preace on a shopping cart across the establishment; this acted as the establishing shot. We followed up with a cut to the Goodwill where we started the fist verse of the song. I found that syncing up the external audio with the movement of our mouths took a lot of work and attention. I constantly found myself tinkering and slightly adjusting the audio to match the sound in the film. One of the shots that we thought we needed to edit a lot was a transitional shot from me to my partner to display different parts of the lyrics. Instead, on filming day we just decided to use a flash pan as the transition from me to my partner. We then added all the other remaining parts of the video and concluded by adding a fade out and title card at the beginning. We thought about adding extra filters and lenses on the footage but ended up not doing so as we thought it would cheapen the video. the video ended up being a little over a minute and ten seconds. We followed all conventional music video stereotypes and felt that our video conveyed the same feeling as other multi-million dollar music videos. 

Filming of Music Video

   We had already established where we were filming (a local thrift store and a Goodwill) prior and started the day by going to my partner Preace's house. We enlisted his brother to help do some shots that the two us alone couldn't do, like the tracking shot in a part of the video. Our gear consisted of the school's camcorder, a tripod, my own personal camcorder, and two SD cards (one personal and one from the school). Since my friend lives in Miramar, we decided to find a local thrift there and ended up stumbling across The Little Thrift Store. The owner, Joe seemed cool a ecstatic that we were filming a music video, let alone it being the song Thrift Shop, which popularized the notion of thrift stores to kids my age. Joe also helped us in one shot with a shopping cart shown below: 

   A lot of ideas were floating around to how the cinematography would work in this project. Some shot ideas were scrapped and others were improved upon. During a shot at the Little Thrift Store, we planned to shift the camera while it was on me to Preace which ended up looking choppy. Instead, we used a flash pan to create a smooth transition from character A to character B; it ended up pretty nice. I almost forgot to mention that without Preace's brothers help filming that sequence and the project in general, it wouldn't have turned out as well as it did. The next location we filmed at was a Goodwill. The look of a Goodwill is different from the aesthetic of a local, small thrift shop. Racks of clothing lined the store and is useful as the shots that required us to rummage through and examine the clothing required a lot of space and clothes. Not to mention that that particular Goodwill had a giant clock that we could play our pun to. Before I forget, costumes played an important part in our project since we wanted our video to embody the flashy and individualistic nature of thrift store fashion. The chains, the pink hat and robe all echo the confidence attitude shown in the original music video. Overall, our filming was great. It only took us a day to film and in that day we had accomplished a lot and learned a lot about camera and angle composition, whether one scene could gel well with the other and how to tell a story with film.

Us at the Goodwill

"Dressed in pink..."