Tuesday 20 May 2014
blurb
My name is Christian Dudmish, I like to think of myself as being good with a camera but i do also like the whole production process from directing, producing, editing, script writing etc. as you will see in my FMP, I've focused more on the visuals than anything else, this is purely because i feel that the visual entertainment in film is more vital and conveys the story across much better than anything else.
Monday 19 May 2014
Friday 16 May 2014
Codes and Conventions of a Thriller
obtrusive editing: quick cuts and obtrusive editing are used frequently in thriller films to accentuate the feelings of suspense and tension. they are used generally on an important or particularly "thrilling" scene, sometimes creating disorientation of space and time by using montage editing. my film will feature this particular convention in certain scenes, especially in the third scene where my story is being set up after the character development stage.I will not be revealing my antagonist in the scene this is to keep the enigma for longer. however when the action kicks in i will be using quick cuts and disorient editing as my protagonist is a little bit "high".
Flash Backs: flashbacks contribute to thrillers by pointing out to the audience that something has happened in the past to create the situation that the character is in now. flash backs are generally confusing to the audience as they are meant to disorientate them by taking them out of the reality of the film to reveal more of the plot. i have not incorporated flashbacks into my film purely because i don't feel that my character needed a past for the story that would help as i felt it would make it "cheesy".
Black and White: is another convention of thriller because it makes the shadows elucid which can often appear quite dark and eerie. for instance in Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" shower scene, the whole film is in black and white . however the shadow on the curtain creates a dark and eerie feel as if something bad is going to happen. again i have not used the black and white colour scheme as i would like to have colour, but i am going to create heavy emphasis on the saturation and shadows during the colour grading stage to give the film a more eerie feel.
Tension Music: music plays a big part in films as it can convey various emotions to which the audience will feel. in thrillers tense music is often used in edgy dialogue scenes or if a character is in a location alone, tension music can also be used for build ups or plot twists. i will be using tension music in my film in specific scenes to convey to the audience that they should be on the edge of their seats.
Montage Editing: montage editing is used frequently in film and can be used to display scales of time that has passed, also it could be used to portray certain non important events, for instance in "prisoners" Hugh Jackman kid-knaps a man and decides to build his own torture chamber during this long process a montage is played whilst he builds it and then Hugh jackman visiting the man.
Deceptive Mind Games: mind games are commonly used in thrillers, more so in psychological thrillers where serial killers, mad scientists and other villains play tricks on the protagonist disorientating them and shaking them of off the ultimate goal. i have used a type of mind game in one of my scenes where my protagonist is "high" on drugs and sees thing which are not real, so rather than the antagonist playing deceptive mind games, my protagonists own mind plays tricks on herself.
Flash Backs: flashbacks contribute to thrillers by pointing out to the audience that something has happened in the past to create the situation that the character is in now. flash backs are generally confusing to the audience as they are meant to disorientate them by taking them out of the reality of the film to reveal more of the plot. i have not incorporated flashbacks into my film purely because i don't feel that my character needed a past for the story that would help as i felt it would make it "cheesy".
Black and White: is another convention of thriller because it makes the shadows elucid which can often appear quite dark and eerie. for instance in Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" shower scene, the whole film is in black and white . however the shadow on the curtain creates a dark and eerie feel as if something bad is going to happen. again i have not used the black and white colour scheme as i would like to have colour, but i am going to create heavy emphasis on the saturation and shadows during the colour grading stage to give the film a more eerie feel.
Tension Music: music plays a big part in films as it can convey various emotions to which the audience will feel. in thrillers tense music is often used in edgy dialogue scenes or if a character is in a location alone, tension music can also be used for build ups or plot twists. i will be using tension music in my film in specific scenes to convey to the audience that they should be on the edge of their seats.
Montage Editing: montage editing is used frequently in film and can be used to display scales of time that has passed, also it could be used to portray certain non important events, for instance in "prisoners" Hugh Jackman kid-knaps a man and decides to build his own torture chamber during this long process a montage is played whilst he builds it and then Hugh jackman visiting the man.
Deceptive Mind Games: mind games are commonly used in thrillers, more so in psychological thrillers where serial killers, mad scientists and other villains play tricks on the protagonist disorientating them and shaking them of off the ultimate goal. i have used a type of mind game in one of my scenes where my protagonist is "high" on drugs and sees thing which are not real, so rather than the antagonist playing deceptive mind games, my protagonists own mind plays tricks on herself.
FMP Proposal
Overview:
The short film I will be producing is a psychological thriller. The film will have a female protagonist and the antagonist will be male, both character will have influences from various characters which I have researched through different films like The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Dexter, Zodiac and Kill Bill. I aim to make the film look visually dark and de-saturated to fit the dark mood of the film. I also aim to create a dark mood through the sound, by using eerie music and atmospheric sounds in non-dialogue scenes.
Synopsis:
The film evolves around my protagonist Hannah who is not just your average lowlife druggie. On a bitterly cold morning Hannah walks to her normal pick up point to get her weekly fix, whilst waiting for the dealer Hannah witnesses an event which petrifies her. She then decides to take her troubles away by abusing drugs. After this still suffering from the side effects of the drugs Hannah finds herself in a park where she cant help feeling as if somebody is watching.
Blurb:
From nothing to everything, Hannah (protagonist) is a lowlife drug abuser, scraping her rent. But on a cold winter day, she is thrown into a life threatening ordeal after a body is tossed into a river. All she wanted was a fix...
Logistics: for this film I believe its vital for the shots to be planed exact for shooting on set as anyone who makes films would know that time is precious on set and planning ahead will not only make me more organised but it will give me more time to experiment with other shots.
Target Audience:
The audience that I have aimed to reach out to is people aged from 16 to 25, who like the thriller genre but also like other genres, for instance horror, dramas, horror thrillers and various other sub genres similar to these. I have aimed for these particular people because I fit into this target audience as well, so I have appealed to this audience by putting in what I like to see.
The short film I will be producing is a psychological thriller. The film will have a female protagonist and the antagonist will be male, both character will have influences from various characters which I have researched through different films like The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Dexter, Zodiac and Kill Bill. I aim to make the film look visually dark and de-saturated to fit the dark mood of the film. I also aim to create a dark mood through the sound, by using eerie music and atmospheric sounds in non-dialogue scenes.
Synopsis:
The film evolves around my protagonist Hannah who is not just your average lowlife druggie. On a bitterly cold morning Hannah walks to her normal pick up point to get her weekly fix, whilst waiting for the dealer Hannah witnesses an event which petrifies her. She then decides to take her troubles away by abusing drugs. After this still suffering from the side effects of the drugs Hannah finds herself in a park where she cant help feeling as if somebody is watching.
Blurb:
From nothing to everything, Hannah (protagonist) is a lowlife drug abuser, scraping her rent. But on a cold winter day, she is thrown into a life threatening ordeal after a body is tossed into a river. All she wanted was a fix...
Logistics: for this film I believe its vital for the shots to be planed exact for shooting on set as anyone who makes films would know that time is precious on set and planning ahead will not only make me more organised but it will give me more time to experiment with other shots.
Target Audience:
The audience that I have aimed to reach out to is people aged from 16 to 25, who like the thriller genre but also like other genres, for instance horror, dramas, horror thrillers and various other sub genres similar to these. I have aimed for these particular people because I fit into this target audience as well, so I have appealed to this audience by putting in what I like to see.
Thursday 15 May 2014
Sound Track planing
For my FMP I want to produce a soundtrack which will create an immersive atmosphere for the viewer.
In some scenes I will have silence but in the background there will be a faint room tone which I will record with a zoom microphone for about 30 seconds, this is critical as if the scene is just silent it could disorientate the audience. So just having a faint noise in the background will create the silent atmosphere.
In other scenes I want to create a tense feeling for when we see something bad happen, for this I am going to record the plectrum scraping the strings on my guitar for this I will feed the XLR lead from my guitar into my amp and from my amp to the zoom via XLR again, by recording the sound directly into the mic it allows me to manipulate the sound levels and possibly distort the sounds further in sound track pro.
For my intro and certain parts of the film I would like to create an actual soundtrack which would give my film an identity, consisting entirely instrumental elements. In doing this I can play this in various parts of the film also allowing me to change it slightly for different scenes telling the viewer to feel multiple emotions, whether that's happy, sad, aggressive etc.
On set for dialogue I will be recording sound with a zoom microphone with a wind protector, so the mic doesn't pick up any unnecessary noise which could wash out what the actors are saying.
In some scenes I will have silence but in the background there will be a faint room tone which I will record with a zoom microphone for about 30 seconds, this is critical as if the scene is just silent it could disorientate the audience. So just having a faint noise in the background will create the silent atmosphere.
In other scenes I want to create a tense feeling for when we see something bad happen, for this I am going to record the plectrum scraping the strings on my guitar for this I will feed the XLR lead from my guitar into my amp and from my amp to the zoom via XLR again, by recording the sound directly into the mic it allows me to manipulate the sound levels and possibly distort the sounds further in sound track pro.
For my intro and certain parts of the film I would like to create an actual soundtrack which would give my film an identity, consisting entirely instrumental elements. In doing this I can play this in various parts of the film also allowing me to change it slightly for different scenes telling the viewer to feel multiple emotions, whether that's happy, sad, aggressive etc.
On set for dialogue I will be recording sound with a zoom microphone with a wind protector, so the mic doesn't pick up any unnecessary noise which could wash out what the actors are saying.
Friday 9 May 2014
Shotlist of 3rd scene
-
1st shot wide shot of girl leaning on
fence.
-
2ND shot close up of a car wheel
-
3rd shot wide shot of car bursting
into the car park
-
4th shot, close up tracking legs
-
5th shot, wide shot of a person
pulling a carpet out of the boot
-
6th shot mid shot of carpet falling
from the persons hands
-
7th shot, close up of a hand fall out
of the carpet
-
8th shot, mid shot of girl looking
shocked and running into a hiding spot
-
9th shot, close up of girls hand
shaking
-
10th shot, close up of girls foot
kicking a bottle
-
11th shot, close up of mans face
spooked
-
12th shot, close up of wheels
spinning
-
13th shot, wide shot pan of car
leaving
-
14th shot, close up of girl lighting
cigarette
-
15th shot, mid shot of drug dealer conversing with the girl
-
16th shot, close up of girls hand
snatching the drugs
-
17th shot, over the shoulder shot of
drug dealer shouting at the girl walking away
Thursday 8 May 2014
Sound Track
Generally during the "producing sound" process the people you would have on hand to help decide what type of music, effects you would like would be the director, sound designer, foley artist and any artists or musicians you would like help to plan. primarily you would have the director there guiding people and telling everybody the sort of track he would like to hear, compared to if he wasn't there nobody would know what to do as they wouldn't know what the director wants without any sense of direction. likewise you would need the sound designer to work with the director discussing what he/she can do in terms of placing the sound in certain scenes and possibly playing with different mixes or play other similar tracks which could further guide everyone to deciding a soundtrack. you may also need the foley artist to help decide where and where not there should be foley sound in the scene, and also to discuss blending the foley with the soundtrack produced by the sound designer. if you would like a lyrical score also, musicians and artists can work with the sound designer to work on an idea for a song.
also during the sound production process, the director and sound designer will go through each scene and sound spot. this is where the director and sound team will devise a schedule which will organise what needs to be created or placed in each part of the scene.
once the sound has been produced and has been added to the scene the sound team will picture lock the scene, which means that the team can no longer edit the sound in the scene and the scene or shot has been locked and ready for the team who edits the whole film together.
when recording sound it doesn't always go to plan, so generally on set there is always a back up plan. for instance if you decide to shoot an important conversation in Liverpool street station the sound team will have to consider the amount of people there but also the echo as its a big station so maybe a boom mic would be appropriate for this particular scene however if this fails somehow, a back up mic like a shot gun mic could achieve similar results as it is directional meaning if you point it at the actor it will only pick up what they are saying, its also big enough to be placed on the end of a boom pole.
planning what type of sounds you would like in the shots are also important as you need to know how you are going to record these sounds. so if you want to have explosion sounds you will probably have to record them on sight in a safe area or use stock footage, whereas if you want to emphasise somebodies walk you may want to ask the foley artist to record some foot steps in the studio using a shot gun mic which allows sound to be picked up from multiple areas but is directional so if you are recording the footsteps with a crowd behind you the mic will pick up more of the actual footsteps because the mic is facing the other way. if you have recorded dialogue on top of a mountain where its very windy you may want to ask the sound designer to record the same dialogue in the studio to be dubbed over the top of the footage, this is called A.D.R (automated dialogue replacement), during the process of recording A.D.R the actor which was in the scene will watch the footage whilst following with the script, after the actor is familiar with the scene he/she will begin to rein act the dialogue and the sour designer will match the dialogue being recorded with the scene until both the the footage and the sound sync.
also during the sound production process, the director and sound designer will go through each scene and sound spot. this is where the director and sound team will devise a schedule which will organise what needs to be created or placed in each part of the scene.
once the sound has been produced and has been added to the scene the sound team will picture lock the scene, which means that the team can no longer edit the sound in the scene and the scene or shot has been locked and ready for the team who edits the whole film together.
when recording sound it doesn't always go to plan, so generally on set there is always a back up plan. for instance if you decide to shoot an important conversation in Liverpool street station the sound team will have to consider the amount of people there but also the echo as its a big station so maybe a boom mic would be appropriate for this particular scene however if this fails somehow, a back up mic like a shot gun mic could achieve similar results as it is directional meaning if you point it at the actor it will only pick up what they are saying, its also big enough to be placed on the end of a boom pole.
planning what type of sounds you would like in the shots are also important as you need to know how you are going to record these sounds. so if you want to have explosion sounds you will probably have to record them on sight in a safe area or use stock footage, whereas if you want to emphasise somebodies walk you may want to ask the foley artist to record some foot steps in the studio using a shot gun mic which allows sound to be picked up from multiple areas but is directional so if you are recording the footsteps with a crowd behind you the mic will pick up more of the actual footsteps because the mic is facing the other way. if you have recorded dialogue on top of a mountain where its very windy you may want to ask the sound designer to record the same dialogue in the studio to be dubbed over the top of the footage, this is called A.D.R (automated dialogue replacement), during the process of recording A.D.R the actor which was in the scene will watch the footage whilst following with the script, after the actor is familiar with the scene he/she will begin to rein act the dialogue and the sour designer will match the dialogue being recorded with the scene until both the the footage and the sound sync.
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