The first image is one I would like to incorporate into our opening sequence, where the camera is placed in a bag and shots the main character opening the bag as if an object from within the bag.
The second image (top right) is a simple extreme close up of the characters eye, however if used effectively it will help to portray that charcaters feelings, in the case we would be attempting to show the character as concentrating extremely hard.
The third, bottom left, picture would be an over-the-shoulder shot of the less sinister character in our sequence performing the innocent task of preparing food, this would then be juxtaposed however with the murderer holding the knife in a less innocent manner.
The final image is a close up of a map with annotations on it made by the evil character a small pan on the newspaper would reveal further annotations which show a possible plan the murderer has.
Title: In order to come to a decision for the title of our film we researched the following words which describe the plot of the film and the characteristics of the murderer:
Skitzophrenia
Psycho(path)
Double identity/life
Murder
Disturbed
Sinister
Capture
Guilty
Mysterious
Lonely
Outsider
Obsessed
Isolation
Delusional
Idenity
At the moment our favourite for the title is Identity as it does not reveal too much about the film but does connote some mystery
Here is a brief analysis of some of the event we want to produce in our final project :
Characters:
Main character who is shown as both a murderer and as a normal person is called Jake Nolan. He is and investment banker in a large London bank, owning a large house with quaint possessions, he lives on his own and many people around him begin to become suspicious of his goings on.
Secondary characters include murder vitcims, who are shown only briefly and mainly by CU's of body parts as the murder(s) take place.
Locations:
A high key lit kitchen where (insert character name) lives with birght colours depicting a normal life
A low key lit 'dungeon' where his murders take place, includes toolboxes with various tools that could be used as weapons.
A dimly lit street with dark alleys and nothing going on around it, where an abduction takes place by Jake Nolan.
START :
Man waking up for work and getting dressed, no face is shown
Cut to man dressing in long sleeved top, jacket and generally dark clothes, finish with balaclava over face.
Dressed man begins to start his daily routine, killer is following someone in the street
MIDDLE :
Series of action match shots, one will be making breakfast / getting ready will be juxtaposed with man at night killing of / disposing of a body. Examples of ones we might do listed below :
Map with different locations being drawn // matched with to do list on fridge
Putting tools into a bag // papers in a work bag
Stabbing of a victim // putting a knife in a knife block
Throwing body onto table // slapping bacon in pan
Wrapping a body to a table in cling film // wrapping sanwiches with cling film
Blood dripping on the floor// a leaky faucet
Two tables one of murder weapons one of kitchen utensils
Fastening cable tie // tieing shoe laces/tie
Bringing knife down over limbs // cutting food
Opening a freezer to put a body in // Opening fridge to get food out
Pouring acid/body remains // pouring liquid into a mug
Screaming // kettle boiling
All actions have credits overlayed throughout in a dark/plain area of the screen
END :
Man in suit pulls up cup of tea to reveal his face as he lets out a satisfied 'ahh', camera zooms out.
Camera continues zooming out and cuts to CU to MS of a murderer who is revealed to be the same man
Cut to black with title card over the top, sound climaxes to silence.
Soundtrack
the soundtrack will include both diegetic and non-diegetic sound. There will be mysterious sounding music, including strings and wind/brass insturments, with not too much sound so that there are silent moments in the soundtrack. At times of intense action eg. killing, the sound mix will be altered so that the music becomes dramatic and loud. Other non-diegetic sound may include some sort of screeching, heart beat.
2 seconds - Black Screen with text setting the time and place of the events of the film 'BOSTON Some years ago'
7 seconds - MS High angle - Handheld camera footage of a street fight - Grainy look with urban attitudes reflected by this - Male narrators voice 'I dont want to be a product of my environment...'
5 seconds - LS Eye level - More handheld camera footage of school buses being driven out of a school guarded by police men in uniform - Typical American yellow buses, blue police officer uniform - Voiceover continues '...I want my environment to be a product of me', conveys characters ideologies and beliefs, audience also getting idea the film may involve police / criminality from fights and police officers
3 Seconds - MS High angle - More handheld street fighting footage, people shouting in the background - Connoted unorganised chaos - Clothing suggests poor / lower class people involved in the fights
1 Second - ECU High angle - The word 'NO' printed onto a black mettalic cannister ECU - People want an end to the violence seen in the previous clips
3 seconds - MS Low angle - Black school children waving off a bus as if they are going on a school trip, not just anormal day - Voiceover continues 'Years ago we had the church...', man is obviously old/wise/experienced and has recollections of the past.
3 seconds - MS Low Angle - Same bus is seen, this time a black child is exposed through a smashed glass window, still handheld camera videos, shows children may be exposed to this violence -Voiceover : '...That was only a way of saying we had eachother' - Towards the end of the shot 'Gimmie Shelter' by The Rolling Stones begins to fade in
2 seconds - LS Flat angle pan - Crowd of protesters shouting at a line of riot police, shows unrest and unhappiness of the people
4 seconds - MCU Eye Level - Interview with black male, still all handheld camera footage saying 'they put hate in your heart' close up shot of his face
8 seconds - ELS establishing - low quality establishing shot of Boston, zooming in on a particular area, used to show the location of the film
20 seconds - Low angle tracking shot - long slow tracking shot from the side, showing silhouette of main villain expressing his belief about 'niggers' and if you want something you have to 'take it' showing his ideologies and beliefs, showing the man in the shadows shows his criminal / underground nature.
21 seconds - Tracking shot Low angle - The camera moves from a long shot of a cafe, bringing the audience into the cafe and then into an over the shoulder the shot of a man at the counter. The Rolling Stones still plays
2 seconds - CU High angle close up of cafe owner handing the man cash over the counter, shows the man is powerful to take money from shopkeepers without forcefully taking it
5 seconds - MLS Eye level - Man is revealed to be 'Mr C' the same man from the shadowing scene earlier, and says 'don't make me have to come down for this again' this threatens the shopkeeper showing there may be some blackmail or criminal activity going on involving corruption in local businesses.
3 seconds - MS Low Angle - Mr C comments on the mans daughter working behind the counter, we also see children in the cafe now, re-enforcing that children are exposed to the criminal activity
1 seconds - MS Low Angle -Mr C beckons the woman over with a flick of his wrist in a mid-long shot of his body, enforcing his power and status over the woman
6 seconds - MS Eye Level - The woman timidly walks over as Mr C begins counting money out into his hand
1 second - MS Eye Level - Mid shot of the child in the shop, looking directly at Mr C now doing his business
5 seconds - MS Low Angle - Mr C hand the money to the woman, the mise-en-scene of the shot shows him darkened by shadows around him as he remarks 'you get your period yet Carmen?'
1 second - MS Eye Level - Mid shot of the cafe owner / father witnessing this event and being to scared to say anything again emphasizing his power
2 seconds - MS Eye Level - The woman hands the money back to Mr C
2 seconds - MCU High Angle - Same mid shot of the young boy watching the transaction, he wears a worried expression
9 seconds - MS Low Angle - Mr C whispers something un-audible to the girl, then steps back into the shadows and smiles at the young child
There are some techniques we wish to replicate in our film opening which we have seen in other movies of a similar 'crime thriller' genre. I have compiled a list of techniques we wish to re-create if possible to fit them into our movie.
In the opening to Layer Cake there is a transition where a womans hair is blended into a man in the next frames beard, this transition could easily be replicated for our piece of work I believe perhaps using a different subject as the transition however.
We were also very excited to be able to create a bird eye view shot when we were filming, below are two scenes from American Beauty where a birds eye view/crane shot is used.
Here are some examples of shots from TV show Breaking Bad which we may also attempt to replicate if possible
In this action match shot, we see a man filling up his drink at a fast food restaurant and then as the audience expects water to flow out, we see a man filling up a bucket with water in another shot, this would be an easy transition to create if we could think of a subject to do it with
Finally, in these two shots we see the camera behind glass sheets, used in place of solid objects, in the first one the character is writing on a whiteboard, but the camera has been placed behind a sheet of glass to give the audience a different perspective, the second shot would be more easy to replicate, it is simply a camera under a glass table shooting the action, but when the shot pulls away we see the character is simply working on a plain wooden desk. Another simple, effective and creative shot technique
We have chosen to do a thriller film over a horror film as we believe that horror films are very cheesy and often times serious effects can look comedic, when we would like more of a serious tone to our work.
We both also enjoy both criminal and psychological thriller films such as 'Seven' (Fincher,1995) and 'Silence of the Lambs' (Demme, 1991). We will take influence from these films when creating our narrative as we want the villain to play a key role in our opening, to the point where he is the main subject of it, much like John Doe in 'Seven' or Hannibal in 'Silence of the Lambs'.
1.Continuity editing: vary distances and angles, pans, steadicam, handicam, cutaways (motivated cut to cu).
2.180’ rule: ensures correct perspective, shot reverse shot, over the shoulder shot. When could you break this rule and stop the audience becoming disorientated?
3.Two lines of dialogue: consider diegetic sound. Conventional of genre? Enigmatic? Part of narrative?
4.Opening door: framing, close ups etc
This is the original planning sheet we did for our preliminary project, as you can see we originally wanted to have a gambling scene with cards and on a table we could flip over in slow motion.
After some thought we realized that we didn't have any playing cards and neither of us wanted to damage a table or lose any money by flipping one, as an alternative we decided to grab the money off the table and have a game of paper, scissors, stone, giving the film more of a 'spoof' feel to it.
Most of the shots we kept in the final production, we kept the ECU of Sam's head dripping with sweat, we kept a shot of the table showing both me and Sam, and we got an over the shoulder shot.
We did not manage an over the shoulder shot as the room we were in had a very low ceiling and we didn't want to risk injury to ourselves or the filming equipment. Overall our preliminary project went well and has given us a good feel for the equipment we will be using when we create our real film.
The conventions of a thriller film that are present in this clip is firstly the use of a protagonist who is not accustomed to danger or violence ( 'Phonebooth' , 'Memento'). Furthermore it is set in a distant, remote island away from civilization and creates tension through the use of non diegetic sounds (also seen in 'Jurassic Park' ). The clip is very desaturated and washed of colour, reflecting the vacant feelings of the protagonist. The narrative is also conventional of thrillers, Di Caprio's mental issues are touched on when the hallucinations of his wife and child appear in front of the exploding car.
In our project I think it would be very reminiscent of a true thriller film if we were too wash / desaturate the film so that it looked more gloomy and could reflect the mood of the character, we will also try, as much as we can, to make the weather reflect the characters mood and feelings, as seen in this clip the weather is very stormy, reflecting his confused and unstable mind set.
In this film there is a lot of attention to specific detail and attention to chosen objects.
The opening is shot entirely through close ups and extreme close ups. These sorts of shots which focus on particular objects, for example an area of a page in a book, they also include a small amount of the characters hand.
This is something we would like to emulate in our film as we want to draw the viewers eyes on specific attention to detail. For example we are looking to include shots of our main character holding an instrument/weapon in which we would look to establish first what happens but then cut to an ECU of the instrument which gives it a slightly more shocking feel.
This opening scene is also dense with diegeticsound and uses music again, clearly this is something that is almost viewed as essential for the opening scene of a film, however it needs to fit the genre and create some sort of suspense or action that the rest of the film will base around.
The credits that are added into the opening sequence are effectively done and they are blended in so they do not stand out and become a focal point of the shot, this would be a good way to edit our opening scene as it will help distinguish between the main body of a film and the opening sequence.
The whole opening sequence has a negative colour to it, it makes it seem like and x-ray which links to the images which come up throughout the sequence. I like the idea of giving the opening scene some sort of effect like this or a colour wash.
This opening sequence is effective as it throws the viewer straight into the heart of the storyline, about what the character is about to involve himself in over the course of the film.
Technical Analysis
A combination of camera, sound, mise-en-scene and editing are used to create the opening scene. The camera work which creates effect uses a 360 degree pan around the protagonist this is a good effect to use, the audience feel as if they are 'examining' the character and hightens the sense of action.
The editing of the scene helps to make it seem much more dramatic with the use of both slow and fast paced editing at times of intense action, as this is done in the opening scene with moments of extreme sense of action through fast paced editing it sets the pace of the action for the rest of the film. This is an idea I would consider using in our own opening scene.
Mise-en-scene includes a location that has an obvious portrayal of action or drama embeds the sense of abnormalism to this character as he is shown doing his dangerous hobby. The idea of fully showing someones inner details of their character, or at least hinting them is very important to an opening scene.
The clip is fairly heavy with non-diegetic sound which is fairly conventional of a film opening as they often contain some sort of music to set the tone of the film. In this case the dramatic music matches the genre. This idea would help us to create our opening sequence if we included non-diagetic sound in the background.
There is not a voice over in this clip as there is in the one for 'Layer Cake' however we do hear the main character speaking to the audience directly and conveying his ideologies and beliefs. The audience know that Cage plays an arms dealer and he thinks that everyone should own a weapon. We also hear very detailed intricate sounds made clear for example the loading of a gun, pulling of a trigger and metal clashing with metal.
Editing
The editing in this clip is prominent mainly in the second section where the camera follows the creation of the bullet in one long trackingshot. There is also title credits placed over the footage but only over the very plain parts eg. a wall or a sheet of metal where the background is only one solid colour.
Mise-En-Scene
In the opening dialogue we see Cage standing in front of a derelict house, bullets scattered throughout the area and the house smoking and on fire, meanwhile Cage talks very normally and calmly like everything is ordinary, again conveying his ideologies to the audience and further developing him as a character being used to this type of event. There is also a shocking image at the end where we see the child being shot in the head, the shock hooks the reader from an early stage in the film.
Camera
Niccol uses firstly a tilt shot of Cage from a mid-angle the fact that he is shot from this lowangle connotes his status as greater than the audience. The camera is also very shaky and sometimes lies canted so that the audience realize they are following the bullet through its 'life'
Things in this I would like to be present in our work
The use of a voice over being used on top of a montage gives the audience a good brief history of the topic of the movie, aswell as the motives/ideologies of the main character.
Editing
I also like in this scene the editing technique where an image that is present in two separate clips is used to transition the two together, seen here firstly when the woman cowering behind the car has her hair merged into the hair of the hippie in the second clip. Another editing technique I enjoyed was when the voice over matched the movement of lips in the video when the narrator says 'Work it out mate...we're in the wrong f****** game'.
Mise-En-Scene
In the final scene of the opening 2 minutes we see Danie Craig walking around a very modern, clean, white, hospital-looking establishment, which embodies his beliefs that he see's drugs as a business and a commodity to sell rather than as a recreational tool.
Camera
Vaughn predominantly uses trackingshots in this opening and in reality the whole thing is made to look like one long tracking shot due to the very subtle transitions used. There is a vast range of shots used but various angles are scarce as the whole thing is pretty much shot at a flat, eye level.
Things in this I would like to be present in our work
A voice over
Narrators voice matching with the lips of another character
Main characters beliefs to come across
Transitioning into another clip subtly so the whole opening scene 'flows'
