Final Cut

Today we finished our Thriller project, here is the final product called Two Minds. It differs much from the roughcut in that we have completly changed the mirror scence making it more effective. Also with the addition of the slow paced, almost calm soundtrack it creates the sense of confusion the main character is suffering and makes us feel sympathetic towards him.We hope you enjoy :)

Editing

The editing is the most important stage for making the audience understand the idea of our film and ask questions to themselves, which would be revealed when the rest of the film is shown. We have also added in effects to link with the schizophrenia. We have used cross dissolves to link the 3 different personalities shown by 2 different people. We have used quick plain black shots in between shots in the sequence to represent the paranoia and nervousness of the character. We have used fade transitions on shots to end or start a section of parts of the plot without revealing too much information and to represent thoughts going around in the schizophrenics mind. We have added in titles in an appropriate font to represent craziness. We have thought out the pace as well to reflect the confusion and contrast in the real life and mind thoughts of the schizophrenic. Lee did most of the editing but Claire and Tom did contribute to many ideas.

Soundtrack

As part of the editing we created our soundtrack. Our soundtrack is eerie, builds up tension and reflects the images that are seen on the screen. The soundtrack is slow paced to link with the theme of confusion in personalities and uses simple synthesised sounds to create the misleading, weird mood of our piece. We experimented with different ideas to make sure that certain parts of the music fitted with the video, for example, the fast paced images relating to schizophrenia has a texture build up and pace increase. Tom and Dave experimented with many ideas and the whole group made contributions but due to illnesses in our final lesson Claire and Tom worked on completing the soundtrack and then uploading the final cut for you.

Shooting changes

This was our final session of shooting. We have decided to change the location of the first few and final few shots of the animatic, because we were unable to use our first desired location and decided on a bench in abandoned area to show the isolation and changing in personality, to a more out of control personality. We have still used the same idea of having the character waking up and then zooming in to eyes to portray different sides to the character and then waking up on the bench but with his different personality, shown as a different person in our sequence. We have re-done the mirror shots to better depict the change, this has been done by having the character A splashing water on him and then panning around to mirror with the character B(representing other personality) in the mirror. We have now completed our shooting and pleased with our shots. All which is left is touching on editing to make it our final sequence. 

Rough Cut

Due to technical difficulties this edition of our rough cut has been sped up. But you get the idea :)

What we've been doing..

Today and yesterday we were filming shots for our rough cut which is due in at the end of this week.

We are on schedule meet this deadline as we are happy with the majority of the shots we have done so far and already have ideas about how we will produce our final project.

The rough cut will give you an idea of what we have in mind for our final piece and shows you the basic ideas that our project will include but the final piece will have more details and better editting.

Claire and Dave

Filming

Today we filmed shot 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 14.
Dave and Tom were the actors in the film and Lee and Claire shared roles as director and camera person. We were pleased with our results and will continue filming next lesson.
We have used close ups, high angle, medium shots, panning and long shots.
We have decided to have the middle section of the hallucinations in black and white to make it more eerie and weird. We will try to define the colour of eyes when looking in the mirror to make it more tense for the audience and to once again indentify change.

Title credits

Here are our titles we will have running over our opening sequence:

..A Touch Stone Production...
..Starring..
..John Mclane
..Kieth Ripcord
..Jenifer Maddy
... Directed by Seymour Butts
.. Produced by Lilian Watts
.. TWO MINDS..

Animatic storyboard

Here is our animatic storyboard. We have included our music aswell, which creates and eerie and tense atmosphere. We feel this animatic helps us visual and understand what the final sequence will look like.

Initial Character, Prop and Locations List

We are going to try and shoot most of our thriller from inside college if it is possible without losing the quality of the film.

Locations we plan to use are:

Toilets.

A simple corridor with little lighting and no-one else around to try and recreate the idea of a hospital ward at night.

We are only planning on having two actors at the moment because this will mean we will be able to have the other two members of to concentrate on the filming side of production and means there will be more opportunity for there to be an equal share of jobs within the project.

Prop list:

A hospital style bed

Paper and matches

A journal

Pills

A wine bottle.

Costumes:

Man A - pyjama bottoms and a white t-shirt. basic and simple but neat. Messy hair and an ill-looking physique

Man B (imaginary) - scruffier appearance in comparison to Man A, wearing an outfit with not much detail. Bruises on his face and messy hair to create his wilder persona and the notion of him being a weight on Man A's shoulders and a person who has taken away his life and left him as a shell.

These are only our initial ideas based on the shot list and ideas we came up with whilst making our animatic so there is a possibility they will be adapted once we start filming.

Claire.

Title ideas/fonts

Here are a few ideas of titles for our opening thriller sequence:

Crazed
Two minds
Hospital bed
Skitz

We have chosen to go with Two minds because it is portrays the idea of schizophrenia the best. It is also more sensitive to those who suffer from the disorder and makes the idea of this serious psychological disorder clearer for the audience as we hope to give a clear insight into how the disorder affects people's lives.

Here are some ideas of fonts for our title:

(Stam pete)
(Prozac buzz)
(VTKS relaxing blaze)


We have chosen to use Prozac buzz because it best depicts schizophrenia, as the splashes and lines over font demonstrates rushed and lack of control. We asked other members of the class and they agreed with our decision!

Shot List for animatic

Shot 1 - close up of eyes opening
Shot 2 - long shot (hand held camera) of bed, getting closer to person - introduce idea of paranoia.
Shot 3 - Eyes - blinking, rolling back.
Shot 4 - Sits up, panicking, heavy breathing and looking around the room.
Shot 5 - Relaxes and falling back to the bed.
Shot 6 - Zoom to eyes.
Shot 7 - Hallucinations start. Man A walking into bathroom.
Shot 8- Man A looking into mirror. (camera is mirror.)
Shot 9 - Close up of Man B looking into mirror.
Shot 10 - Man B walks out of same bathroom.
Shot 11 - Snap shot of medication.
Shot 12 - Snap shot of bottle.
Shot 13 - Broken glass.
Shot 14 - Journal, writing neat, turning to scruffy, half page ripped.
Shot 15 - Paper burning.
Shot 16 - Faces merged of Man A & B (possible title shot)
Shot 17 - Man B waking up, eyes open.
Shot 18 - Man B sits up in bed..
Shot 19 - Long shot of Man B in bed.

Initial Ideas

Our first idea is an agent who has been hired to protect a girl who witnessed a murder and afraid of being caught by the murderer.
Another idea is a woman finding the body of her murdered husband.
Another idea is filming a sequence of ideas to depict the mind of a schizophrenic man.

The idea we have chosen is the latter. We plan on creating montage sequence showing the psychological state of our main character who suffers from the condition, schizophrenia. This means we plan on using the themes of paranoia, hallucinations. We also like the idea of having the patient in a psychiatric hospital, showing the split of his personality. We want to focus well on editting to create a successful montage with the right effects on the audience.

Analysis of Item 13

In the opening sequence of stuent work 'Item 13' there are many conventions that a thriller should have. The use of editing within the opening sequence involves a lot of fast paced short shots which creates a sense of action. There are also many shots of pictures and photos which gives the convention of identity assuming these pictures will somehow be involved within the film. The lighting used within the film also helps to set the theme of the film. The lighting is very dark and gives the film a sinister feel which is something usually conventional within a thriller.

Analysis of "Usual Suspects"

In the opening sequence of "Usual Suspects", it features many thriller conventions. For example, there is a concealed identity which immediately makes the audience ask questions. This builds up tension and encourages viewers to watch further. Visual imagery of darkness and shadows is used alot in the opening sequence to create an eerie effect and encourages the idea of unknown plot which is yet to be revealed. This makes the audience ask questions to be answered when they watch the rest of the film. Throughout the opening sequence, fire is used to set the thriller genre and creates a sense of danger.

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