Tuesday, 31 January 2012
Evolution of our thriller
We had another group meeting and we decided on some changes to our thriller. Now, instead of having random people being entered for this competition, we will have outcasts of society who have been entered by other people. We went through some of the character we could have and decided on having an illegal immigrant, a disgraced ex-politician, an ASBO, a depressed smoker and a druggie. We also made changes to the ending, we will now have a special guest coming onto our show from winning the series last year. This will be a homeless mum. Similar to the X-factor we will do a big montage of her to show her journey from being on the street to being a star. We will have clips of her before, during and after the show
Monday, 23 January 2012
Thriller shoot
Today I shot my thriller with my group. We started out in the studio with the green screen and filmed the contestants of the competition. We made a few alterations in terms of the actors used to play our contestants. We used the green screen for the 2 second action of each contestant which will look like the x factor intro. We did a medium shot and a close up of each character. I was in charge of filming the contestants for about 20 seconds each while everyone would shout out actions for the actor to do. We did this because we could edit out all the sound and the other 18 seconds of the shot. We wanted the action to be short and to be something that defined the character. The ex-politician is meant to be reluctant to join the show so for these few seconds we decided instead of having him in front of the green screen, we could have him arguing backstage with the producer. Our next shot was outside the studio next to the school car park. Each different character was placed to their own suitable environment, for example, the asbo was sitting in the back of a vandalised, graffitied van. We filmed the interviews as medium shots and we took two shots of each interview, both with different different lines so we could decide on which we liked better afterwards. After the interviews we filmed some of the scenes that will be included in the montage of the homeless mum from last series. First, we took a video of her on a park bench with her baby, before the show had begun. Then we filmed her being told that shes in the show and what weapon she would like. This was followed by lots of action scenes where she hid in dustbins and in the back of peoples cars and shoot them. To make it more realistic we purposely had me coming into the shot with the microphone and her shouting "GO AWAY".
When filming each member of our group would have a different active role and we alternated positions every few scenes. One person would be filming, another directing and the other controlling the sound. The person behind the camera would have to check the focus, change the white balance and then film, occasionally having to zoom and pan in the shot. The sound person had to listen to how loud the actor was and adjust the sound by looking at the bar in the bottom right of the camera screen and also had to hold the mic. Finally, the director would set up the shot and organise the cast. Alternating positions worked well for us as we all got a chance to use our skills that we learnt from our prelim task from a few months ago. The prelim task proved useful as we remembered how to set up the tripod and camera, focus the camera, white balance it and check the sound. We had a separate microphone to the one in the camera. Someone would hold this microphone and for the interviews with the contestants we did one shot with mic visible and one without. We did this so it looked more like a documentary type film. One of the hardest shots was filming as a journalist asking questions to the ex-politician who was trying to avoid any attention. I hand held the camera and had to re-do the shot a few times because it was hard to move quickly and keep him in focus at the same time.
We were quite lucky on our shoot day because the light outside was bright enough to film but dark enough to make it look like a thriller. Some of the shots had to re-done at a different angle or position because it was too dark. We later remembered that we could adjust the aperture to get more light in so we went back to the shots that weren’t bright enough and we did them again. There was one shot that we went back to of the homeless mother running through the woods chasing after somebody. We also had a few other shots of her in the forest and from lots of different angles. These shots will be in her montage so later we can add things such as slow motion. In the studio we used three tier lighting. By using three tier lighting to create a verisimilitude by matching reality with fake reality. We placed the lights so that there wouldn’t be a big shadow casted by the characters. This will make it easier to edit afterwards.
We planned our day by asking the actors when they were available and what times we could book locations like the theatre and the studio. Fortunately we didn’t have to do too much setting up because our thriller is set somewhere similar to the school. I brought in a lot of props like clothes and guns and for some shots we had to ask for permission to use someone’s car. We did encounter some small problems like sound the kitchen staff made while we were trying to shoot the homeless mother receiving the gun of her choice. To overcome this problem I asked them to be stop working till the shot was finished and I also made the area out of bounds just in case we got people passing by. Another problem was replacing one of the actors (the illegal immigrant) because of his absence. We looked through about 4 other actors we found in the lunch hall and we decided on Glen because he had bruises on his face which made it look like he had been in a fight. The location of this school played a big part as we could shoot a lot of scenes in the woods. The woods is a good place to set the film in because the thriller is all about gun warfare and in the woods there are lots of trees and hiding spots, therefore it is used in a lot of films and is a good place for something like paintballing. Throughout the day we filmed in many locations and used a variety of camera angles. Overall I think we did a very good job, now for the editing!
When filming each member of our group would have a different active role and we alternated positions every few scenes. One person would be filming, another directing and the other controlling the sound. The person behind the camera would have to check the focus, change the white balance and then film, occasionally having to zoom and pan in the shot. The sound person had to listen to how loud the actor was and adjust the sound by looking at the bar in the bottom right of the camera screen and also had to hold the mic. Finally, the director would set up the shot and organise the cast. Alternating positions worked well for us as we all got a chance to use our skills that we learnt from our prelim task from a few months ago. The prelim task proved useful as we remembered how to set up the tripod and camera, focus the camera, white balance it and check the sound. We had a separate microphone to the one in the camera. Someone would hold this microphone and for the interviews with the contestants we did one shot with mic visible and one without. We did this so it looked more like a documentary type film. One of the hardest shots was filming as a journalist asking questions to the ex-politician who was trying to avoid any attention. I hand held the camera and had to re-do the shot a few times because it was hard to move quickly and keep him in focus at the same time.
We were quite lucky on our shoot day because the light outside was bright enough to film but dark enough to make it look like a thriller. Some of the shots had to re-done at a different angle or position because it was too dark. We later remembered that we could adjust the aperture to get more light in so we went back to the shots that weren’t bright enough and we did them again. There was one shot that we went back to of the homeless mother running through the woods chasing after somebody. We also had a few other shots of her in the forest and from lots of different angles. These shots will be in her montage so later we can add things such as slow motion. In the studio we used three tier lighting. By using three tier lighting to create a verisimilitude by matching reality with fake reality. We placed the lights so that there wouldn’t be a big shadow casted by the characters. This will make it easier to edit afterwards.
We planned our day by asking the actors when they were available and what times we could book locations like the theatre and the studio. Fortunately we didn’t have to do too much setting up because our thriller is set somewhere similar to the school. I brought in a lot of props like clothes and guns and for some shots we had to ask for permission to use someone’s car. We did encounter some small problems like sound the kitchen staff made while we were trying to shoot the homeless mother receiving the gun of her choice. To overcome this problem I asked them to be stop working till the shot was finished and I also made the area out of bounds just in case we got people passing by. Another problem was replacing one of the actors (the illegal immigrant) because of his absence. We looked through about 4 other actors we found in the lunch hall and we decided on Glen because he had bruises on his face which made it look like he had been in a fight. The location of this school played a big part as we could shoot a lot of scenes in the woods. The woods is a good place to set the film in because the thriller is all about gun warfare and in the woods there are lots of trees and hiding spots, therefore it is used in a lot of films and is a good place for something like paintballing. Throughout the day we filmed in many locations and used a variety of camera angles. Overall I think we did a very good job, now for the editing!
Montage
We used the beginning of this clip as a template for our montage of last years winner. I liked this clip because it is also a reality TV show and shows Cher Lloyd, a successful singer from last year, coming back as a special guest. For our thriller we our going to have a very similar montage of last years winner. In this montage we will show what she was like before the show, some clips of her killing people, and then finally her winning the show by surviving.
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Thriller Script
Voice over: Tonight, we have 6 contestants- Ollie, mina, Freddie, Jack, Steven, Sola each fighting for their survival and release back into society! This is Friendly Fire!!!!!!!!
Sunshine: hellooooooo! We have a great show lined up for you tonight with the six contestants you selected. These contestants are going to be given various tasks each week. These tasks will end with the brutal murder of a contestant. Here is a taste of the contestants this year….
Ollie – I wanna die high
Mina –I was considering killing myself anyway
Freddie – I LOVE TO KILL!
Jack – (shouting aggressively at camera) I’m going to shank you all up!
Steven – the only reason I’m doing this is to leave my past behind me and be accepted, now go away.
Sola – I want to start a new life in England.
Sunshine: Tonight we have brought back the winner of last years series, the incredible homeless single mother, Ella Denton!!!!
Voice over: This isn’t just your average homeless mother.
Ella: I had nothing just my baby and the clothes I wore.
(Clip of Ella on the street begging)
But then I was nominated to the show. At first it was really tough but then each week I improved.
(clip of murder of 2 contestants)
By the end of the competition the killing became a routine
(clip of murders)
Voice Over: ELLA DENTON
Sunshine: hellooooooo! We have a great show lined up for you tonight with the six contestants you selected. These contestants are going to be given various tasks each week. These tasks will end with the brutal murder of a contestant. Here is a taste of the contestants this year….
Ollie – I wanna die high
Mina –I was considering killing myself anyway
Freddie – I LOVE TO KILL!
Jack – (shouting aggressively at camera) I’m going to shank you all up!
Steven – the only reason I’m doing this is to leave my past behind me and be accepted, now go away.
Sola – I want to start a new life in England.
Sunshine: Tonight we have brought back the winner of last years series, the incredible homeless single mother, Ella Denton!!!!
Voice over: This isn’t just your average homeless mother.
Ella: I had nothing just my baby and the clothes I wore.
(Clip of Ella on the street begging)
But then I was nominated to the show. At first it was really tough but then each week I improved.
(clip of murder of 2 contestants)
By the end of the competition the killing became a routine
(clip of murders)
Voice Over: ELLA DENTON
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