What is an Enigma?

An Enigma is a question that the audience has but cannot be answered straight away, this is usually found in all manners of genres, mainly the crime dramas, E.G. when there is a murder or something similar and the audience wants to know but cannot until the end.


An Enigma is a question that the audience will have that will not be answered immediately. Examples of this can be found in all manner of different genres, especially crime dramas. For example when a murder or any other crime is committed the audience will want to know what has happened but this is not clearly explained until the end of the film.

Rough Copy

This is the rough cut of our thriller, above is what it was when it was near completion but still had some minor editing changes, such as sounds and little cuts to make it smoother.

Title music

This is the music that we decided to use in our opening scene, it was very important that we did not break any copyright rules so we made sure to pick a song that was free to the public, but still fit the scene properly.

Costume and props

After watching our finished thriller or even the rough cut, it becomes very clear that we did not put a great deal of emphasis into our costumes and props. We used normal every day clothing as though nothing were different. This was to keep a sense of realism to the scenes that we used, and to keep the rule of continuity.



The only thing in this scene that we used that wasnt ordinary, was the gun and the fake blood, these were to add tension and drama to our scene. We was going to show a 'torture table' but decided against it, deeming it too inappropriate and sticking with a simple gun.

Format of the title

1. HamProductions Presents
2. A Film By
3. Danny Boylan
4. Starring
5. Ellese Lee
6. James Gardiner
7. Matas Vireikis
8. Also Starring
9. Kamie Rose
10. Georgia Fortt
11. Ropafadzo Mugadza
12. Editing By
13. James Gardiner
14. Costume Design By
15. Ellese Lee
16. Music By
17. Matas Vireikis
18. Screenplay By
19. Danny Boylan
20. Producers
21. Matas Vireikis
22. Danny Boylan
23. A film by Danny Boylan
24. Directed By Danny Boylan
25 Title - Disappearance

Sound

There is a number of different sounds used when making a film, each performing a very specific role, the types of sounds are;


diegetic
Diegetic sound is what the people in the 'film world' can hear, such as talking or cars, these exist in the sound world to increase the realism and add to the scene.
non diegetic
Non Diegetic sound is the sound that the characters cannot hear, but we can, this is usually in the form of music that adds to the scene and makes tension or increases the thrill. Examples of where this would be used is in a horror, specifically when there is about to be a reveal of the thing hunting them.
parallel
Parallel sound is when the music in a film matches what is happening, such as a very energetic song is playing while there is a chase scene.
contrapuntal
Contrapuntal sound is the opposite to parallel, it is when sound does not match what is happening, a classic example of this would be in the film 'jaws' when the people are partying on a beach, but the music is very dramatic and serious as the shark approaches.
offscreen
Offscreen sound is pretty self explanatory, it is when there is sound off screen that we can hear, it is usually when something is happening, similar to a wood chopper or people talking, it adds to the realism of the scene by having more things happening within the world besides what we can actually see.
onscreen
Onscreen sound is the opposite to offscreen, it is sound that we can hear, whilst also seeing it, such as someone speaking or a gun shot, as the gun is usually in the scene

Analysis of Studio Idents

An ident is something that a company uses to represent itself. Idents are always at the very beginning of a film and is always kept the same from film to film unless the company makes an executive decision to change the Ident, these Idents all represent their company and they are short but very effective in their effects of introducing the film and holding the audiences attention.

Target Audience

Our target audience is of all people from all demographics as films of an action/thriller genre tend to be known to do well with any class. We feel that our film would tend to be rated a 15 as it shows violence and bad language, however our film will appeal to both genders but it should go more towards males of the age 15-25 due to it being a fast paced action thriller.

Second day of Filming

Today we have filmed the last scene to the opening of our thriller, We decided that we should film in Ellese's shed as it is an isolated area and it enabled us to use fake weapons and we knew it would look like someone had been kidnapped and an ideal location to be held hostage, i feel our second day filming was effective as we managed to finish our filming.

Update on our Target audience Production

At thursday it was decided that we would do more research, when we did this, we did it by taking the camera to a different school and interviewing people around that had free periods, we asked them;

What is your favorite genre of film?

How often do you visit the cinema?

How do you usually watch films?

What story lines attract you to a film?

What do you think about having a narrative that centres around a kidnapping?

Vox Populi

Vox Populi which is generally shortened to Vox Pops, it refers to the gathering of peoples ideas that has anything to do with the media industry, they are generally used to getting a wide range of opinions from a non biased group, these are often used by broadcasters and is to show a balanced and contrasted opinion regarding the controversial topic. This is an example of our Vox Pop.

Production Company

As a group we decided to call our production company "HamProductions". This was decided due to James having a youtube channel with the same name, therefore we kept it because we felt that it would suit our group well and also have a nostalgic affect. We felt that this name would be an effective name for a production company as it is unique, it also adds a sense of originality rather than a simple generic name.

Before deciding on a particular style James experimented and showed us previous idents he had made on his channel.

 

Although these were of a particularly high standard we could not use them as they were to long. Due to this, we had to go to measures to provide a shorter, and still affective ident.

First day of filming

On our first day of filming we started by meeting outside of Robert Clack. We stuck to where we initially decided to record and then travelled to Hainault forest, This took nearly an hour. Once we arrived we had to find a location to film that wouldn't look like it was next to any civilized location and had enough space to record that removed any dangers to us or the equipment. We wanted the scenes to be dark but due to the conditions on the day it was quite sunny, therefore in the editing process we had to darken the scene however I do not feel it made too much of a difference on the scene. We managed to finish relatively quickly however the scene wasn't as long as we would have liked. Our choice of location came with some problems as it was quite muddy and thus made it difficult for us to travel around. however this made for some interesting scenes, like the one shown in the opening of the thriller that introduced Ellese as a character. Due to our lack of funding we did not have the material to do specific scenes easily, that is why in our crane shot scene, we had to scale a tree with the camera. The POV shot for example was quite easy as it was on ground level and only required us to run to complete it.

Thriller Ident

Lighting

In film there is a number of different types of lightings used, each has a specific use and each is extremely important.

this shows the different types of lighting, Typically when filming, a director will have all types of lighting active, this is to eliminate shadow and to make the scene of better quality, however this is extremely hot so therefore actors will have to wear makeup to stop 'shine' as the light will reflect off of their skin, removing he effectiveness of it.

Key lighting
Key lighting is the most important light when it comes to cinematography, the purpose is to highlight an objects form and dimensions. If the key light is not used, it can result in a silhouette effect. Most key lights can be placed in a scene to illuminate a moving object.

back light
The back light creates a 'glow' around a person, usually used within horrors to hide the actual face and features of a person or object by making the light darken out anything in front of it.
filler lighting 3 point
Three point light is the standard method used in film. When using 3 different positions, the cameraman can illuminate the shots subject. it also removes any shadows that would be a result of different lighting.

Under lighting
Under lighting creates a glow when placed below a person, illuminating a shadow behind  them which stands much higher than themselves, also darkening their eyes and forehead, this is very important when filming horrors and thrillers as it creates a menacing feel to whoever it is placed upon.
top lighting
top lighting is the opposite to underlighting, creating a glow on the top of a persons face or body, this usually removes shadows behind them as the light is coming from directly above.
low key lighting
Low key lighting is used to create a chiaroscuro effect, the low key lighting only uses one key light which is controlled with a fill light or simple reflector.

high key lighting

High key lighting is the style of lighting that aims to reduce the ratio present in scenes, this is originally done for technological reasons, due to original films not dealing well with contrast ratios. it is often used to present an upbeat mood.

Film title analysis

The opening title sequence for North By Northwest, begins with a green background that slowly fades and builds into the side of a building of manhattan, where  the film is set, this is used because it effectively builds into the opening scene of the film, the text sliding in is very effective as it is used to create a busy feel which fits the movie.

Genre

When it comes to Genres, there is a number of different ones.

The types of main Genre's are;

Science Fiction

Science fiction or Sci-Fi is the genre that is mostly based around the future, this includes their technology and creatures. The main percentage of Sci-Fi films generally has the hero have some form of ability that helps them in the futuristic setting, the highest grossing sci-fi was "avatar" released in 2009 costing roughly $500M to create, however its intake worldwide was around $2 billion. To date, Sci-Fi is the most favored genre and highest grossing.

Horror

A horrors main goal is to create a sense of realism and fear within its audience, this means a typical horror film will stick around Phobias and Nightmares, these are usually to bring up emotions such as disgust, fear, panic and anxiety. Usually a horror will stay around a dark atmosphere due to it being easier to hide things. In most cases, a sudden burst of action follows an eerie silence that is to unnerve the audience, amplifying the fear factor.

Action

Generally when an action film is made, it follows a stereotypical series of challenges with the 'hero' and 'villain' going head to head in a series of challenges. Usually the action thriller will contain a series of face paced scenes usually revolving around car chases and gun fights. 

Thriller

Thriller Storyboard