Research for our Thriller

The Departed

Set in Boston, the Departed is about the state police force waging war on Irish-American organized crime, much like in our thriller where we have the police tracking the criminals working for Silk Road. This influenced the implication in our Thriller that the police have been onto the man in charge for a while.






We're the Millers

‘We’re the Millers’ isn’t a thriller but a comedy about smuggling Marihuana, a concept that is close to our idea. This film influenced the use of a comedic and farcical touch in our thriller. It also made us want to have a slight sense of the drug distributors looking unexpectedly 'normal'.

 








Hot Fuzz

Hot Fuzz is a hilarious parody of police crime thrillers. This film inspired us to have police as a prominent feature in our thriller with an action scene. This also made us want to do something comical involving the police in our thriller.







The Business

 

THE BUSINESS is an action packed gangster flick set in Spain's sun drenched Costa Del crime. Charlie, a young man, soon becomes one of the gang, and finds himself drawn into a flamboyant and violent world of organized crime. This inspired the idea of having a young gawky assistant in our thriller. The film also inspired our idea of having the don of the gang wearing a smart suit and the non-diegetic voice-over about his dream of a luxury lifestyle.

Storyboard for our Thriller

We initially tried drawing a storyboard on paper but found that we weren't able to accurately represent the detail we wanted. We then attempted to recreate the pictures of the shots using the Paint application but we encountered the same problem. We then found the storyboarding website http://www.storyboardthat.com/ incredibly useful because we could pay precise attention to detail as well as add textables and arrows easily and quickly to help the illustration of our idea.

Preliminary Task

Research a Film Production Company: Warp

Bunny and the Bull

The companies that contributed to funding the film were Warp X and Screen Yorkshire. Warp X are known for the films 'Tyrannosaur', 'Donkey Punch', and 'Complete History of my Sexual Failures'

Screen Yorkshire are known for 'Wuthering Heights' (2011), 'Tyrannosaur' and 'Complete History of my Sexual Failures.'

The director, Paul King also directed the BBC series 'The Mighty Boosh'. The cast includes some of the cast from the show such as Noel Fielding, Julian Barratt, Edward Hogg, Simon Farnaby, Richard Ayoade and Rich Fulcher. Noel Fielding is well known for appearing on Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

On the opening weekend, it was shown on 27 screens in the UK and made £49,612.
The film is a comedy, targeted at teenagers and young adults. Particularly fans of the Mighty Boosh.

Distributors

Independent Film Channel (IFC) (2010) (USA) (all media)
Optimum Releasing (2009) (UK) (theatrical)
Delphi Filmverleih Produktion (2010) (Germany) (all media)
Madman Entertainment (2010) (Australia) (DVD)
Madman Entertainment (2010) (Australia) (all media)
Orlando Films (2010) (Israel) (all media)

Final Idea for Thriller

We thought about the concept we had for our thriller and decided that it may be difficult to achieve because we had included so many different locations. Finally we thought we would rather focus the action around the warehouse instead. We then felt that we should draw less attention to the drugs themselves and more to the drug business but we still wanted to show the world of drugs in more detail than most films.

We also thought that it might be better to incorporate more representation of the actual characters in the thriller rather than just the concept alone.

Having drawn the thriller away from the idea of drugs alone, we have decided that calling the thriller 'Silk' might not be relative enough to the main idea of the thriller. We eventually came up with the name 'Shaking the Habitual' because we wanted a quirky title that would spark an interest.

Feedback from professionals on our Thriller Idea

What they liked:

• They liked the idea of a thriller concerning drugs because drug gangs are a very common feature in thrillers. They liked the idea of showing the way drugs are cooked. 

What needed improvement:

• They didn't agree with the idea of the idea of the 'ordering' drugs because they decided it wasn't realistic. They thought it looked too casual like a pizza delivery and suggested that we focus more on the.
• They told us we would have to pay particular attention to getting the right props made us think about how difficult it might be to make the process look realistic.
• We needed more focus on the characters because we were being to dismissive about the plot to our thriller and what the thriller would be about in a wider view.

Discussion when Pitching Thriller Filming Idea

When we conveyed to the media teachers our idea of having the actors carry in boxes to the container, there was discussion about the use of boxes because we were told there would realistically be a lot more boxes with full contents in a warehouse. We weren't sure we would be able to find enough 'criminal' props to fill the boxes but we talked about possibly filling them with other things at the bottom and having the guns and drugs showing through the top.
We also discussed the warehouse and decided that it would be unrealistic to try and find a warehouse to shoot our thriller in because we would need one that was available, close enough to the school to save time and energy and we would also have to set it up and get hundreds of boxes to really set the scene. We found out that we could use the containers outside our school. They are smaller which incidentally makes for a better setting for criminals.

We were originally going to have a freeze frame of Ted with a narration on top. However, our teachers didn't think it necessary to have it because they thought the tricking of the police could be the essence of the film. They also suggested that rather than use a white van for the criminals, use a Range Rover because it is easier to obtain since one of the teachers owns one and it gives the criminals a little more character.

Editing the Prelim

We first looked through all the shots we had taken, selecting the ones we decided would prove useful for our video. We chose them based on the quality of the acting and the composition of the shots. We decided we wanted the video to start very dramatically to capture the audience's attention from the start so we chose a close up of Simon's foot kicking the door open because it had a lot of energy. Our next clip was a middle shot of Simon and Greg stumbling into the classroom. We had trouble making these two clips flow together because of the door opening. When we first added the second clip, it looked as if the door opened twice so we cut the second clip, taking care to make the door open in one continuous motion from one clip to the next.

Continuity was quite difficult because in one shot, Simon throws Greg a memory stick but Greg didn't always catch it. Finally we found two shots worked well. We used these two shots next. Then, for the dialogue, we chose a medium close-up of Simon from the side with him saying 'do it, come on!'. The then a high angle shot of Greg saying 'I can't' but this made the dialogue too stilted which lost the energy. We then tried tried cutting Simon's clip halfway through but keeping the sound going over the clip of Greg looking defeated before saying his line. We found that this worked well because it kept the action flowing and it looked more professional.

We then chose a low angle shot of Simon saying 'it's gotta be done'  following by a high angle shot of Greg to establish Simon's position of power and Greg's helplessness. When Simon left, we cut to a shot of Greg looking defeated and overlapped the sound of the door closing on that clip rather than just film Simon closing the door in order to create an effect. It emphasised how Greg had no way out of the situation, making the audience feel sorry for Greg. We then had a medium close up of the usb port on the computer with Greg's hand inserting the memory stick. We cut the shot midway through the insertion and added a close-up of the same action, cutting it so that it picked up the action from the previous shot. We found that this added a feeling of excitement because by highlighting the action with a close up, it made it seem important to the story and makes the audience want to know what happens as a result.

Intro to Editing

Editing in film is a process of cutting and assembling film footage to produce a finished product.

 

Transition

 

The process of cutting from one shot to another usually involving a simple straight cut.

 

Different types of transitions available in film include:

• faed to black
• dissolve
• wipe

Shot duration

 

The duration of a shot will usually reflect the narrative context.

 

Continuity Editing

 

It appears invisible and the images flow continuously or in a continuous fashion, in order to make the editing look more like camera work.

 

Main Functions of Editing

 

• To connect actions together to tell a story
• To identify and maintain spatial relationships
• Identify important lapses in time; conceal unimportant ones
• Maintain a rhythm and pace (e.g action films --> fast cuts, drama --> slow cuts)