Practising with Titles

Today I came across a project I started at the beginning of the media course regarding titling. I began to finish editing with it and my group member Brandon also helped me with this. We worked together and helped, following the steps on the tutorial and were able to create a creepy looking title, with bats flying through it to represent the mystery of the 'Black Widow' so we are calling our thriller. I am very proud of what we managed to achieve, and although it isn't yet finished I have inserted a clip of what we managed to create so far
below. We will most likely be using this in our thriller film, as it looks very professional and represents our thrillers mystery well.
 

Testing out Equipment

Today we practised using the Boom Microphones and Poles to see the sound quality and how effectively we would be able to use them in our thriller. We definitely know that we want to use them when making our thriller film as they capture sound effectively, and you can get a more precise cut of the sound, as opposed to the DSLR camera's sound, which we also tested out. I feel it is important to have a strong idea of how to use equipment before we film so we are as prepared as we can be in the run up to the filming days.

Analysis of Blank Space Music Video - Gender and Power roles.

The music video Blank Space, by Taylor swift has formed an inspiration for our thriller film. As we feel the prospect of a video, a love story which ends with a psychotic women killing a lover. As this links in so closely with what our idea is for our thriller. I have chosen to analyse it, picking out crucial shots that we may possibly use in our thriller.



The reason I have chosen to analyse this music video, is because it closely links in with the topic of our thriller, deception and unfaithfulness. The video uses a clever range of shots, to reveal the truth of the plot.

0.05 seconds
There is an establishing shot of the castle, from an arguably low perspective to make it appear bigger and more daunting. We see the car, which seems tiny in comparison, possibly representing the power of the two protagonists, the man in the car and the woman in the castle, immediately portraying woman as superior from the start, and in a fairly positive way thus far.
0.15 seconds

-There is following this, a long shot of the main woman character at the top of a grand staircase. As she is stood at the top of the staircase, and the cutaway following reveals the man is at the bottom knocking on the door. It shows she is in full control of the relationship from the very beginning, as the position of her on the stairs shows her high status and perhaps wealth, therefore more power within her decisions. As the man is behind the door, it shows he has to wait for her to open the door to be let in, this potentially foreshadows their relationship and that - she is in control, as she has to open up the door for him into their new relationship, whilst he is very much stood waiting for her command.
0.27 seconds

The shot of the man drinking the alcohol at the opposite end of the table, then the woman at the following end, in a new outfit. This is effective in showing the passage of time, as her outfit has clearly changed, and could show the change in their relationship - from strangers to love interests. As they are at opposite ends of the table in the shot this could mean that they have different interests, and their relationship is not intimate as they are clearly far apart from each other, dooming the relationship from the start.
0.42 seconds

The woman's direct look at the camera in this shot, suggests to the audience that she feels she can trust them, as the direct eye contact suggests intimacy. This could mean that she is letting the audience on perhaps very much accurate memories. Therefore foreshadowing the level of trust between the woman and the audience, so we potentially trust her recollection of events better.
0.49 seconds

The long shot used of the woman and man is an interesting one as it reveals a lot about their relationship. The man is holding two Rottweiler dogs, often associated with being strong and potentially dangerous dogs. As the man is holding the two dogs, this could represent the mans dangerous character, revealed later on in the video. In the following shot the woman stares into the mans eyes whilst he walks on, this could show his lack of interest in her, and the black outfits they both wear could arguably connotate mystery and evil of the two characters.
1.12 seconds

The slow motion capture used shows the girl running, which is effective as it could symbolize time moving slowly throughout the relationship. As she is running away from the man playfully it could show they have had a lot of fun times, as the slow motion makes it feel longer than it is. Alternatively, the shot of her running away could possibly represent the fact that she wanted to get out of the relationship but slowly as opposed to quickly - maybe she knew it wouldn't last from the get go?

2.11 seconds

The woman is closely grabbing the mans face in an angry demeanour and we can immediately infer, from the previous few seconds, that they are in an argument. This scene is captured with a shaky turn from the camera, from the camera being placed nearer the left side of them, moving further right. As the camera deliberately moves shakily, this could show the unstableness in their relationship at that moment in time.

Risk Assessment Form

We had to complete a risk assessment form, so that we could identify the risks that could occur when shooting our film. It is beneficial to us to know what potential risks there could be.

Schedule

This is our schedule for planning out filming hours in January 2015. We have tried to find and book out equipment for days that we are all free to be able to help out capturing shots and organising the film. The day's highlighted in yellow on the sheet are the days we have booked out the equipment to film our thriller opening.

 

Equipment



A Camera Lens
A separate camera lens for recording various different shots, this will give us more of a variety of shots, and more of a chance to experiment with the type of shots that we could potentially capture.

A Camera

A camera, although this seems obvious, we will need a camera that is able to capture high quality shots, such as a HDR camera. This is so we can try out different effects, and change some of the features of the camera such as the aperture, exposure and various things.
 

 A Microphone

 We will need this to closely capture all the sound that is in the film. As we are using a microphone the sound will be clearer and more precise, so we can use this to edit the film.

 

A Boom Mic Pole
We need a pole to hold our microphone on to make sure we can get the sound without the microphone being in the shot, this way we can hold it above the characters to still get clear dialogue.

A Tripod

To hold our camera steady when filming, we will aim to use this most of the time so the shots that we do take are focused and still. Unless we were to pan, then we would use features available on the tripod to do this.
 

An SD Card.

The SD Card is used to capture all of the shots, without one we couldn't film so this is possibly the most important piece of equipment to remember and we must keep it safe.