Olivia's media blog

  Script Before starting our storyboard, we came up with some initial ideas for our film on a piece of paper. We then developed that into a script, so we could visualize which shots would be filmed at each location, and sort out the narrative that would be featured in our film. Our storyboard ended up slightly different to our script as we changed our minds on some shots as we began to visualize each scene, however Clementine (my partner) and I found it very useful to have to the script to refer to throughout the different stages of production. First draft Second draft Pre-visualization Below is a picture of our preliminary storyboard, which we drew out when we first started to visualize the different shots. We drew each shot on a magnetic whiteboard sheet, so we could rearrange them as we figured out the sequence of the shots. This made it much easier to figure out the order of our film as we were able to add, and move around shots as we discussed our thoughts. St...

Mood board Before we started planning, we used various techniques such as creating a mood board to plan the tone and some iconography of our film. Although we decided on using a narrative that appeared cheerful (couple going on a picnic), we initially collected photos that captured a kidnapping/murder. This reflected our original idea for our thriller film. We later went on to decide we wanted the film to have connotations of these events rather than showing the murder outright. We both felt this would make the scenes feel more sinister. From there we chose to film a conventional couple as they go to a picnic to contrast the connotations of murder. Once we reveal the body we hope our film will become more menacing. Despite the changes to the plot, we continued to use the mood board to help us capture the tone of the film, and we still included the off-putting imagery of food as we had originally planned.   Shot ideas Once we had settled on the vague idea of our plot, Clementine and...

Padlet I used the website Padlet, to display my ideas for our film in a mind map format. My partner Clementine made a separate presentation, and then we brought our ideas together so we could start planning out our idea. I started by analyzing the film openings of Psychological thrillers to identify conventions that could be reflected in our own film opening. From there I looked at the sounds and music each film used, and started to brainstorm ideas. This research inspired two initial ideas for our film, one of which we ended up using for our final composition. Below, is my padlet of ideas, followed by Clementine's work. As well as looking at conventions, I also inspected how credits were incorporated in the opening sequence. Although I was off school for the week we worked on our pitches, Padlet allowed us to connect our ideas and look at each others thought processes remotely. Feedback ...

  Thriller Sub-genres To prepare ourselves for creating a film opening to a thriller, we did some research into the different sub-genres. There are may sub-genres associated with Thriller films, however these are some of the most well known: Psychological thriller Action thriller Crime thriller Spy thriller Political thriller Mystery thriller Horror thriller Supernatural thriller I did some more in depth research of the sub-genres I found most interesting. Decision  Clementine and I decided to base our film opening on a psychological thriller. We found the use of shared suspense particularly interesting, and thought that keeping the audience in the dark would make the film more interesting. We included this in our film by purposely leaving our actors faces out of each shot, so that their identities remained an enigma code. Psychological thrillers can often include themes of mental illne...