Film Sequences

This lesson, I chose which film sequence I will be doing for my assignment. I have chosen to do Sequence 3, which includes Jurassic Park, directed by Steven Spielberg, and North By Northwest, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. I chose to do these film sequences as I have pinpointed specific elements of the different film techniques while watching them, and I believe they both effectively depict the genre of thriller/suspense.

I have also started planning, by researching the two directors and the genre-specific elements of mise-en-scene, cinematography, and sound and editing. Here's the research I have gathered this lesson:

Genre-Specific Conventions

Mise-En-Scene:

- Typical thriller are set in a haunted house/dark alley/etc.

- Usually a weapon is involved

- Victim/s dressed as a regular person

- Villain often in dark clothing

- Low-key lighting, use of shadows

- Cooler colours, such as blue

Cinematography:

- Longer shots when leading up to the climax, quick shots at the climax

- Use of canted shots

- Montages of shots

- Close ups of the victims to show their emotions (facial expressions and body language)

- Quick shots of villain, usually to hide their identity and create suspense

- The victim/s generally take up less of the frame than the villains do to emphasise who has power and who doesn't

- The shots of the victim/s are usually taken from a high angle, whereas shots of the villain are taken from a low angle to show power

Sound and Editing:

- Starts with a slow tempo and quiet/no music to build tension

- Eerie music to create suspense

- Music builds up to make the film more dramatic

- Lots of jump shots

- The rhythm of the shots matches that of the music

Information on the Directors

About Steven Spielberg (director of Jurassic Park):

- Academy Award-winning director, screenwriter and producer

- Some of the films that he has directed include Jaws, Schindler's List and Raiders of the Lost Ark

About Alfred Hitchcock (director of North By Northwest):

- Has created more than 50 films, for example, Psycho

- Has been nicknamed the "Master of Suspense"

Updated Character Profile

Ainsley Winter is a 27 year old woman, currently living in the Metropolitan Psychiatric Hospital, located in Massachusetts, USA. She is American-born, caucasian and has an average sized body type, with a  height of approximately 170cm. She also has dark blonde hair and brown eyes. She blends in with the other patients of the hospital and does not stand out as she is just a regular person, and throughout the series she is only seen in the hospital gown.

Ainsley is a long-term patient of the hospital and she spends all of her free time planning and executing murders on unsuspecting victims. Her major strength is the ability to complete multiple murders within the hospital without getting caught. The main motive for this is her family’s deaths by murder many years ago. When she was six years old, her mother, father and older brother were all murdered in front of her by an intruder in their family home. Ever since the incident, she has suffered from multiple mental illnesses, one including antisocial personality disorder, and this has led to becoming a serial killer. Also, the victims of her murders are only the patients of the mental hospital who are murderers themselves. This is because she likes to seek revenge on other murderers because of the death of her family.

In effect, she has no family or friends, and this means that most others see her as lonely, antisocial and an outcast. The patients in the hospital who view her this way and who treat her badly because of it are the victims/future victims of murder. Ainsley plans to kill each and every one of the other patients who treat her differently because of her lack of friends, however, her main priority are the murderers in the institution.

Filming Monday Afternoon

This afternoon, I finished filming the remainder of my film. I filmed the shots of the flashback with the boy and the girl, as well as the shots at the end of the film where the girl is walking into the cafeteria, and the revealing shot. We worked really quickly this afternoon as I had planned out exactly what I needed filmed, by editing my shot list to how I want it.

New shot list:

I also finished editing my final edit. I am mostly satisfied with the result considering the circumstances, however, I would have liked to spend more time finding better music to suit my film. The music that I have at the moment is alright, but it doesn't end very well. But, I am happy with how I coloured the shots and the way I put them together.

Reshooting Counsellor Scene

Yesterday, I completed the shots of the counsellor scene during the lunch break and I am happy with how they turned out. I added in some extra shots that weren't a part of the shot list to make it a bit more interesting, but I will only add them in to my final edit if time allows. My time management today at lunch was good as I got a lot done in the half an hour that we had. I believe my time management has improved a lot since last year, and I hope to maintain this throughout the year.

After school, I was supposed to film the shots for the ending of the film, as well as the flashback with the boy in it. However, I was unable to do this has I had to leave school straight away due to a family situation. I have spoken to Mr Andrews, as well as a few other teachers, and I have had my due date extended to Tuesday next week which leaves me with Monday afternoon to film and edit the remaining shots. 

Feedback

In class today, I received some feedback for my film. I found out that it's not very clear that the guy she murders is a patient of the same hospital; it just looks like a random guy that she has murdered, and that is the reason she is in the psychiatric hospital. So to fix this, I will be filming shots of him and of them together in the cafeteria as a flashback, before he is murdered. This will hopefully make it more obvious that he was previously a patient. 

Tomorrow, I will be re-filming the counsellor scene during lunch break and then filming the ending of the film, as well as shots of the boy in the cafeteria as a part of the flashback.

Filming and Editing my Rough Edit

Today in class, I finished putting together and editing the shots I have completed so far. I lowered the exposure, made the colour of the majority of the shots blue-ish, as well as a couple of other things. Here is an example of one of the shots:

After school, I filmed the remaining shots that I could do without Eliza. I filmed close ups of myself writing in the diary, close ups of the hospital documents and shots of the dead body and knife. This didn't take very long which was good, because then I had time to add them to the edit and finalise my rough draft which is due tomorrow. The shots that I have left to film are when the girl is leaving the counsellor, when she is entering the cafeteria and sits down (after leaving the counsellor), and the revealing shot.

I am not completely happy with the rough draft as it hasn't come out the way I pictured. There are shots that need to be re-filmed, such as the beginning, which will hopefully make it better and I will be more satisfied with the final result. Also, I need to make the blood more realistic in the shots of the dead body. I was playing around on Final Cut and worked out how to edit the colour of a particular section (such as the blood), and I made it stand out more as a brighter red as it didn't look like blood, due to the lowered exposure and saturation. It worked in some shots, but it was too vibrant in others, looking very fake. Here is an example of one of the shots:

Second Filming Session

During today's lesson, I filmed all of the counsellor scene, aside from one shot. However, I will most likely need to re-film all of it instead of just adding in the extra shot as I didn't take into consideration the space of the room. The way that the desk is spaced out in the room, doesn't make it easy to shoot the girl standing up from the desk and leaving. There is another small table located directly behind the desk, and the exit is on the other side of the room, so I wouldn't be able to shoot the girl leaving in a single shot, which is what I want.

After school, I filmed the majority of the shots that I need from the cafeteria - I just need some extra ones for the end of my film. I will be filming this as soon as I can find a time where Eliza and I are both free. I also need to film the quick shots of the dead body and the knife, but I'm not quite sure who is going to be acting for this.

I am happy with the way we worked this afternoon and in class with our organisation and time management, however, I am not completely happy with all of the shots. I haven't really used lighting as much as I could have, so I think I will reshoot some things and improve the lighting. The shots haven't really turned out the way I pictured them when coming up with the concept, but that's mostly because I don't have the resources to shoot the exact shots that I want.

Next lesson, I will be editing my film as Eliza needs to work on her film's planning and we will most likely be filming more tomorrow afternoon.