'Contagion' trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sYSyuuLk5g

I saw this Thriller trailer, and it is one of those movies that could actually happen, and it scares people, so in my opinion it is a mixture of a psychological thriller because it gets into your head, makes the audience feel dirty, making them want to clean themselves and probably making them more weary of germs. i've had a couple of people tell me that after they saw that film they were actually more weary about what they touch, and how well they cleaned themselves. It is also in my opinion a Political thriller because the government is trying to solve the economic virus that is spreading very quickly because no one is immune to it.

This film has also given me a few ideas for our thriller opening that we will be filming soon. It is very intruiging to find out what is going to happen, and that is what i think most people look out for in a thriller. Contagion is an inspiration to the ideas that our group has.

Costume

We decided that in our 'Thriller' opening that Lily, Oli and myself will be the main characters of the film. we decided to be wearing black suits, white shirts,, black ties, to make our characters seem convincing, to get the point across that we are professional criminals.
Lily will be carrying a brief-case, this is linking to our film with us running out of a building implying that the brief-case has something very important inside it.
like this for example:
        
Some of the extras that will be in our opening, will be in the motorbike protective clothing, the leather, helmet etc, because they will be chasing us on their motorbikes.


There is going to be a person in protective clothing suit in a science lab, to give the impression that it is very dangerous in that room.

Something like this protective suit will be used, but obviously not that high-tech.

preliminary task complete

Camera - There are a good range of angle shots and the matched cuts turned out how we wanted them to be. The camera shots we used like the 'P.O.V' shot creates tension for the audience because they can relate to how scary it can be. The high and low angle shots contrast between Lily and Oli, shows lily is more powerful, and Oli is looking up to her, like shes the authority figure. 

Editing - For this we used 'Final Cut Express' because it allows us to edit it easily. We found it difficult at first but we practiced on our animatic storyboard which gave the experience on how to cut and place different shots and therefor we had all the practice to do the editing on this task. Our match cuts worked fluently with the storyline.

mise en scene - we asked to use the chemicals as props in our task. Oli had to remember the same costume as the one he wore on the first date. This would prevent it from looking as if it was the following day when he walked into the room.

sound - there was an alarm going off at the time we were filming this, which we used to our advantage, and it created tension in the atmosphere. but half way through our filming, so there is half of our film without the alarm going off.

'Enter the void' opening credits analysis

The opening credits to 'Enter the void' appear immediately on screen in a very fast paced manner. There is electronic music playing in sync with a strobe flashing effect of the credits. The credits are flashing white orange and red. The credits appear, then change so quickly that you barely have time to read them. This also adds to the fast pace of the clip. Some of the credits are from different countries e.g. France. "French unit" is displayed on screen with a French flag in the background. This is done also for 'Canadian unit', 'German unit' and 'Japanese unit'. After this and some company names, the music stops and there is a moment of silence. Different electronic music then resumes. Again, in sync, the strobe light credits reveal the title, the producers etc in a very colourful neon light effect way.

Filming for the preliminary task progress report

Today we started our filming. Having a storyboard for the camera shots, dialogue and camera angles helped because we had made our decisions and it gave us more time to get the filming right.

The shots were brilliant and there were no parts that we got terribly wrong, where we would have to do lots of cutting out. When it comes to editing, the sequence flows really well.

 However, we didn't finish the filming altogether in the 20 minutes because the classroom we needed at the end wasn't free and perhaps we could have checked before hand and planned where it could be set.

'Abandoned' trailer comments

The trailer starts off with the happy couple together in hospital.

 The background music starts off with slowly building up music. The girl says 'you look after him' which tells the viewer something is going to happen to him. The slight pause after she speaks gives the audience a moment to realize this. This shot shows the happy couple in contrast to the lonely girl we see later on.

The stop at the clock shows the passing of time.Which also starts to make the viewer feel the pressure the main character has under the clock.

We can see that the girl is being watched on CCTV with the way that the picture changes. The viewer is put into the position of wondering what could be going on in the film and the character in hiding is intriguing to the viewers.

This is a really good thriller trailer because it keeps the audience guessing and wondering. Like many people in my focus group said, a thriller should have tension and playing tricks with the viewer.

About Match Cuts ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lBoSLVHIrQ&feature=related

This is a video i found on you tube that demonstrates use of match cuts. We will be applying some different sorts of match cuts in the preliminary task because of the advantages shown in the bullet points below.

Advantages of match cuts are

•  Smooth transition.
• Attracts viewer's attention.
• Creates visual metaphors in film since the matched cut can suggest a relation between two disparate objects.
  
• Should be used when linking two different scenes, but they both need to have "matched" objects that has similar shape, direction of movement, and center of attention in the frame.

In relation to our thriller clip, this could be a useful cut to add to suspense and cause the viewer to preempt whats about to happen. 

Se7en opening credits analysis

Se7en


Straight away in Se7en there is a close up on a book, and the credits appear beside it in a way thats like an old movie, it's very shakey, theres two sets of the same writing aswell that un merge when they're about to disappear.
It then shows the writing back to front and with a blink of an eye, it is the way it should be.
The font of the credits looks like writing on a chalk board and it looks like a young person has wrote it.
It has a close up of someone scraping away their skin with a razor, and a non diagetic sound of a girl screaming, which gives the impression that it was a memory.
They have made the opening credits very tense, and it is quite psychological. One part in the credits that shows its psychological is when they have merged two shots together of someone writing on a bit of paper, it shows him writing one part, and then suddenly it shows the person writing something else at the same time.
There are loads of close ups on all the objects, and hands, and it makes the audience wonder what this man/woman looks like. There are also a loads of matched cuts, just skipping a bit of time, and this again, get inside the audience' head creating a tense atmosphere.
The music in the opening credits is very slow, you can hear a heartbeat, it sounds very machanical, very echoy. then it sudenly picks up its pace and the suspense and tension rises.

Blade 2 credits analysis

http://www.artofthetitle.com/2008/03/31/blade-ii/

Backgrounds fairly dark, with scarlet red bold writing. The shots of the title credits are shiny like blades and theres red hints of blood on them like somebody has been cut.
The whole credit sequence is played more or less in the shadows to create that 'unknown' suspicion that something is going to happen.
The close ups on the silver daggers, shows the audience that you don't want to mess with him. It creates fear in the atmosphere.
The majority of camera angles are low, and it switches from postive to negative, to create an supernatural atmosphere, bringing a myth to reality in a way.
The camera also pans right, following 'Blade' make his weapons out of silver, and shows him growing up, telling his story.
'Blade' is the voice over speaking, telling the audience that this film is real, what is in it, is real.
This gets the audience ready to experience a tense action thriller.
The cameras are onlt showing his shadow and reflection to draw the audience in, to know what he looks like.
The music in the opening credits is very futuristic, gives the impression that this film is 'Supernatural'. But it also has a bit of jazz merged into it.

Prelimenary Script.

Oli: I've got it.
Lily: Were you followed?
Oli: No ofcourse not, im the best of what i do.

(couple seconds silence)
(Adam walks in)

Shot List

Shot 1: Pan right shot of Oli running.
Shot 2: Over Shoulder shot of Oli opening doors.
Shot 3: Matched Cut, Oli coming in doors,  body shot.
Shot  4: POV shot of Oli running up stairs, looking over the rail, seeing Adam.
Shot 5 : Close up of hand, opening door.
Shot 6: Low angle shot, pacing on bridge, looks behind him once.
Shot 7: Matched Cut, opening doors, walks over to chair, sits down, puts something on the table.
Shot 8: 180 degree rule, swapping between Lily and Oli, with dialogue.