Sound for our thriller

As a group we wanted to disgust how the sound was going to be like in our thriller. We looked at the sound of 'Se7en' and how they created the suspense for their opening sequence. We understand that we can't copyright the sound for 'Se7en', but it has given us ideas on how we are going to create the sound for our opening.

So we spoke to our teacher on how we are going to create the sound as well as creating suspense at the same time. Therefore we want to use non- diegetic music to create the nervous atmosphere creating the suspense and waiting time for the robbers as well for the audience too.
So for example, when we will be filming in the van with the robbers we want the sound of the vehicle engine moving, as well as the hustle of the robbers getting ready.

As we want to create the sense of nervousness, as this is what it would be like in real life, with the robber and policeman all ready to go, all the waiting will create the suspense as everyone is nervous of what is going to happen and what the outcome of the robbery will be like. We really want to seduce the audience slowly so they feel part of the nervous atmosphere. So therefore, we must create a realistic atmosphere which the audience feel part of.

Versimilitude

In today lesson our teacher introduced us to a new concept called 'Verisimilitude'. As I was researching for police costumes and props, we had to make sure that we make the police as realistic as possible. 
The police costumes are so important to get it right so it doesn't look false. I had to remember that we are filming in the U.K, so I didn't want any American costumes, which were mostly coming up. I then researched on what our police in our country wear, remembering that it is a bank robbery. So I researched in to getting bulletproof black jackets which the police wear, when riots and bank robbery happen.  

Verisimilitude is a philosophical or theoretical concept that distinguishes the truth and falsity of assertions or hypotheses. In film verisimilitude is created through the costumes,set,props. These all create the audience to get swept up in the film and submerged within it. 
So I started to search the internet what the robbers wear when the a robbing a bank. There were many footage of the robbers in all in black with no skin on show. So as our thriller we want to take that on board and incorporate that image for our robbers. 

Therefore we started looking at what robbers actually wear, we did this by watching real footage of bank robberies on Youtube and looking at images on google.
We then realised that we also had to think about what type of policemen we want in our thrillers so that we can make our characters the most realistic they can possibly be and then determine the type of police uniform we need to invest in to create this realism. 

Thriller Planning

In today lesson I have been looking in to where we can shoot our opening sequence of our thriller. I looked at banks in Cranleigh, which is a nearby village to school. I looked up on the internet of the numbers of the banks which are in Cranleigh who would be interested of we could film outside of their bank, as well if we could use some of their previous CCTV footage. Of course we understand that we won't be able to go inside the bank as it is against the regulations. 
The banks which I looked up were: 

Lloyld TSB 

HSBC Bank

Nationwide Bank 

Natwest Bank

I then moved on to looking in to costumes and how it is so important that we get the characters realistic costumes, because if they are wrong the audience will be turned off straight away. I searched the internet of what the robbers could wear. The main site I found costumes for them was amazon. We want to have the robbers wearing balaclava, black turtle necks, black loose bottoms, black thin gloves and then black plimsoles. We discussed as a group that we want the robbers to have no skin revealing, as it is more threatening to the audience as you can't see their faces and what their identity is. After researching amazon and how we can imagine what the robbers are going to look like, I had to think about a money budget and to not spend to much money.  So I recorded all the prices on amazon which they were charging for each of the items.

Narrative Action Of Our Thriller

"Narrative Action of “Karma”

1.     Get a view of the city/ where the bank is

2.     Then see the robbers in the back of the van meditating to get in the zone

3.     Point of view shot focusing on the robber leader

4.     View of the bank that’s going to be burgled

5.     Shot of the pc plod and the gang waiting for the arrival of burglars

6.     Another shot of the robbers but a close up

7.     BCU of one of the robber’s eyes under the balaclava

8.      Close up of robber holding a gun

9.     Wide shot of the policeman on roof top of building ready to attack

10.  Another shot of a policeman hiding behind a wall in the alleyway

11.  Close up of another policeman outside the bank into the alleyway

12.  Back to the robbers in the back of the van shortly before attack

13.  CCTV high angle shot, view of the bank

14.  Zoomed in the CCTV camera of the footage of the previous page

15.  View of the bank and everyone in there (cashiers/ customers/ etc.)

16.  Back to the policeman waiting in the alleyway

17.  BCU of police badge to establish the contrast in characters

18.  Shot of the police vans to highlight to audience how many are there and seriousness of situation

19.  BACK to the robbers chilling in the van

20.  BCU of a static policeman

21.  BCU on robbers eyes in the police van

Creating our story boards.

During the beginning of this week we have been creating our story boards for the opening sequence of our thriller. After doing lots of research of how we are going to open our thriller as well of drawing the story board of how we imagine it will be like. When discussing with the group, we want to start the opening sequence in a van with the robbers, we wanted to create as much tension and atmosphere in the van as possible, showing the audience the suspense. The process of writing our story board was choosing the shoot types and sizes, this had to be carefully done as we want to make the thriller theme as isolation and suspense. 
We then also thought about using an effect of CCTV footage from inside of a bank to add more realism and establish the location for the audience. 

As we establish our thriller is based around on lots of suspense, so we decided that we were going to have a slow editing pace in order to show the character, location and theme. So therefore we don't have many shots in our story board as we feel that if it was a fast editing pace the audience would feel lost, as it would be too chaotic to watch. So understanding that we are going to do slow editing pace between the shots it would make it much easier for the audience to understand, also having a slow editing pace would add more suspense. 
The last image is the final copy of our thriller story board, we understand it will be adjusted from now to when we shoot. 

Watching backstage of the A2's music video.

In the lesson on monday, we when to watch for 5 minutes one of the A2's shooting their music video. It was so interesting to see what goes on backstage when filming and how as a group they were coping. When walking in to the studio, I loved it how they were filming the video, and how the set was. When realising that they were filming it, as if it was underwater. I thought to myself would this work? But I got that completely wrong, as it looked amazing, having fun and realistic. 

So as they wanted to create a underwater effect, the models were wearing flowing white dresses which were ripped to give the effect of floating in the water. They also had flans to blow the ripped dresses as well as their hair.  

I also found their make up really strong on camera, they had glittery lips which went really well with the white flowing dresses. 

When watching the A2's shooting, it really made me think of the day we shoot our thriller. It really inspired me how the A2's were so calm and relaxed, that is how I want it to be like on the day of us shooting our thriller. 

Thriller ideas

So we brainstorm again and came up with the idea of bank robbery. We came up with lots of ideas with it. As a group we liked the idea of showing the city, like what they did in 'Pelham 1,2, 3'. I think that was really effective because showing the city, characters with out giving the story away. There was also no dialogue which also added suspense to the audience.
We also looked at 'Reservoir dogs', which is a fantastic action thriller which gave us lots of ideas. One of them was zooming in to the characters to introduce them, then have a traditional style background. So then we came up with the idea of being set in a white van where the 3 robbers are getting ready and having that suspense in the van. Then cross cut to the bank which they are going for and shoot as if they are having a normal day at work, but not realising that what is about to happen. We are also trying to include the police but we are still in process of where we are going to include them in the sequence. But we have discussed that in the background we are going to have that busy city sound with police sirens in the distance.
As a group we have chosen to go forward for the bank robbery and have further ideas and how we can move it forward to make a brilliant thriller.

Writing our synopsis

In Today's lesson we started to think about the plot of our opening sequence. We started looking at the cross cuts, then we wanted to establish our theme and characters, we wanted to have a chatic a fast paced opening. We also looked at cosumes, lighting and music, all of these would inculde the intensity of the atmosphere in the city. Below we have wrote as a group the synopsis of the opening squence.

Plot of narrative action in ‘Karma’

The thriller opens with a view of the city followed by a fast cross cut to three robbers inside a moving van. Inside this moving van there is a tense atmosphere as the lighting is dim with the robbers getting ready by putting their masks on and getting their guns loaded creating a very fast pace. The sound within this scene is very loud with a fast tense beat. The robbers will be wearing all black with black leather gloves and black balaclava. We then concentrate on this scene, as it will be the main one of our opening sequence. We then cross cut to the bank with the police standing by waiting. The police will be wearing uniform and have body suits to protect themselves from bullets. They also will have guns and dogs, which will help set the atmosphere of the opening. We see a line of police vans and the sound suddenly stops and it is silent followed by a policeman saying: ‘Standby’. Then there is a loud sudden sound/music and the titles begin.

moving thriller ideas on...

During this week we have been discussing as a group how we are going to move our thriller on and further ideas. When looking on the news daily, we came across a story line of the plane evacuation which was at Glasgow airport. One of the public members had filmed this dramatic moment of the people getting off on his phone. This made it more dramatic because it was juttery of the person film was hissteric of the fear of the people on the plane. We thought of some ideas of what would of happened if these people had got stuck in the plan.
* Lock in the plane
* Crashed and then can't get out

* Dead bodies everywhere
* A dream of people getting on the plane for a holiday and then a suspicious guy comes in and looks like he maybe up to something
These ideas above were a quick brain storm of what it could of been like.
Then after looking into the idea of the plane evacuation. We realised that we were that keen on doing it, as we thought that we couldn't go anywhere with it.

Above is Glasgow International Airport is where the plane evacuation happened.

Below is the people getting of to evacuated airplane down the slide.