Thriller Mood Board

Our task for this lesson was to use Microsoft Powerpoint to create a mood board of all the things associated with thrillers that scare me. I looked primarily at the idea of unknowing and isolation. For example, if someone were wearing a mask this would scare me as I would not know who was underneath the mask. Isolation also scares me as the idea of being alone to me, means that there is no one there to help if you get in trouble. For example if a person is alone in a house and an intruder enters, it is made more scary as there is no one to help them out in their time of need.

Mood board

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Learning how to use Final Cut Pro

After we shot all the footage we needed for our preliminary task, the next stage was to go to the editing suite and put the footage together to make a scene which flowed well. We were introduced to 'Final Cut Pro' the programme we will later be using to edit our thriller.

In our groups, we were assigned to a computer. Our group decided to first look over all of the footage we had shot and decide which our favourites were. Matt taught us about the importance of bins. We were shown the 'log bin' where we put our favourite bits of footage to be edited and also the 'rush bin' where all of the footage is stored - wanted and unwanted.

Our group decided that instead of making our scene fast-paced, we would slow down the speed of conversation to add a sense of suspense. We managed to create this effect through our editing and the final outcome was very successful.

For me, the hardest part of adjusting to Final Cut Pro, was keeping the continuity of the scene flowing. For example, when making a cut from a wide shot to an over the shoulder shot and keeping the footsteps looking as though there is no break in the cut.

Above is our final edited version of the preliminary task

Preliminary task

The preliminary task was the first time that I got to work with the group of people who I will eventually be working with for our coursework filming task. In my group there are four of us - Talisa, Bella, Laura and me. This task not only tested our ability at filming and directing a short scene, but also showed us how well we worked together as a team.

I felt much more confident behind the camera in this task than I did in our practice. Our group was focused and we were keen to get all of the necessary shots in the 1hr and 10mins that we had.


Above is the first page of the storyboard we followed which shows the simplicity of it

In order to ensure that we all had time behind the camera, we used two students from the year above as our actors. How we interpreted the script was basic and involved:

1) Character A entering a room.

2) Character B is sitting at a desk with a sheet of paper in front of her.

3) Character A and B have a conversation together.

4) Character A leaves room, leaving Character B at the desk.

We tried to include techniques that we have learnt in the year such as not breaking the 180 degree rule, filming using ECU's for emotion and a variety of different angled shots e.g. over the shoulder, wide shot etc. It was also important that we kept the continuity of the shoot constant, so keeping an eye on little things such as positioning of props was key.

Overall, the shoot was successful and we managed to get all the footage needed in the time we were given. Now that we had all the raw footage, all that we had to do was to learn how to use the editing programme on the computer and edit our shots together to make a flowing scene between two people.

Practising using the camera

As I missed the lesson in which we were taught to use the cameras, my first experience with our school's cameras was in our practice shoot for the preliminary task. We were put into groups of three or four. I was in a group of three and as the script we were given had only two characters, we constantly had two actors and one person behind the camera. Our group was lucky enough to be given the studio as our set; this meant that we could play around with various different lighting and use the props available to us as well. Our group made the mistake of not filming the whole scene as a wide shot first, so our footage at the end was incomplete. By making this mistake, I learnt a vital lesson which later on helped me when we filmed our preliminary task. Other than this mistake, I learnt how to use the cameras, including how to control the white balance before filming and also the setting up of the camera and the stand.

The white balance is controlled by focusing the camera on a white wall or area so that the camera is able to pick up all of the colours correctly from the spectrum. Once the white balance has been adjusted, the temperature of the picture changes completely.

Using photoshop to create thriller posters

In this lesson, we had the task of going around the school in groups and taking pictures of each other in scary situations. We then had to return to the computer room and use our photoshop skills to edit our favourite picture into a thriller poster advertising a new film. I chose to edit a photograph taken of me on a bench. In the foreground were leaves and twigs, as if someone was looking at the hooded figure (me) on the bench (as seen below). 

 [UPLOAD PHOTO]

I played around with the controls, editing the colour of the photo to make it seem more eerie. I then used the text tool on photoshop to add in a title for the film. I had to play around with various colours in order to choose one which was legible against the dark background, I also tried different fonts and sizes of the text to find the one most suited to the thriller genre.