Title fonts

We have looked into different fonts for our film title, for the opening credits. As our film was originally based in a rough area in London, and the characters were rough, and poor, we thought a graffiti font would be most reflective of the film content. Both fonts are very effective, however the second one has more of a graffiti effect, and reads a lot clearer. However we have decided neither font is right for our film, as we have changed our film and its concept entirely, and we want something more sophisticated, sharp and to the point.We are going to do more research into various fonts, and hope to be consistent with out film title font and our opening credits font, as we believe this would look more professional.

Music

We have thought long and hard about what sort of music we want. We have considered a range of different compositions, including somber acoustic guitar pieces, African jungle pieces, and aggressive rock pieces. However after great consideration, we have decided we want a mysterious piece of music, that adds to the tense atmosphere of the film. We have chosen two pieces of music. One to build up tension and fight in the aggressive apartment scenes, and one to build upon the audiences emotions, and emphasis the upset of the murder.

Progress on 27th January

Today we have carried on with the editing of our rough cuts. We have also discussed and shortlisted which music we will chose for our opening.
In our next session we aim to complete what we have started today and finish our rough cut and decide and include which music we will use for our final copy.  

Costume Changes for final Video

We originally had scruffy, casual clothing. However once we did a few shots of our film, we soon realised that the costume was not effective, and looked unprofessional. So we changed it. The male antagonist is now smartly dressed to relate to his Job as a detective. He wears a smart suit to give off a professional, high class, wealthy impression. However this is not the case, but the audience are fooled into thinking he is someone that in actual fact he is not. His costume helps to build this false sense of security for the audience.
 
We kept the female actors costume the same, as she does not feature a great deal, and when she does feature she appears to be reasonably poor, and quite scruffy. The costume we chose relates to her work place, as she is hands on backstage at a theatre. We also wanted to create a vulnerable, naive protagonist, so her costume is innocent to create this impression, making the audience feel sorry for her.

DAY TWO FILMING PROGRESS

During our second day of footage we filmed our apartment scene and our actions shots for our credits. We were successful in our action shots and accomplished everything we had planned with them. We used tracking shots as it gives the viewer more time to recognize the character.

However, our use of location for our apartment was poor. We had used the science block and we tried to make it as though it is an apartment, however it was not as convincing enough. We aim to make this more convincing in our final piece by using a real house, flat or apartment.

In our next session of filming we aim to complete all our filming for our rough cut and then start looking in to improving certain shots for the final piece.

alfred hitchcock prezzi

alfred hitchcock on Prezi

Location and Setting

Our first 10 shots are set in a rough area in London. However, the setting that these shots are filmed in is not built up at all, and is just a grassy abandoned area- we have chosen this area for our beginning shots to create suspense, mystery and tension. A majority of our beginning shots are filmed against a brick wall, to reflect a scary, alley way. However after viewing our first shots of the brick wall, we have come to the conclusion that it does not reflect a rough area in London, so we think we may either re-shoot the beginning shots and add graffiti to the wall, or edit some graffiti effect in once we begin our editing.
The second half of our film is in an apartment in London. We have not yet filmed this, however we are carefully choosing an area to film in, as we want to reflect a busy, bustling area, to make it look as though it is filmed in London.We have decided that Cambridge may be the best possibility, as it is the busiest,most lively area around, that is easily accessible.

DAY ONE FILMING... PROGRESS

On our first day of filming we had put together the first few shots of our opening to our thriller. We did suffer from the problems of trying to get the framing correct, however we overcame it and managed to create good effect for the shots we had taken.  We also had a difficulty at the beginning as the camera was not fully charged and this restricted what we filmed.
So, in our session of filming we filmed shots 1,2, 3, 5, 7, 8. 
In our next session of filming we aim to continue with our filming and to get closer to completing the task and get to editing the final product.

Original Costume

We have decided to have very scruffy, casual clothing so that it reflects the nature of the film, and shows the audience the characters backgrounds. Our film is set in a rough area in London, and the characters in our film are quite poor and deprived- we have based our costumes around this idea, so that we reflect the overall feel of the film.
Each character in the film has a different costume, although some characters have very similar costumes.
Jon, actor of Taylor wears: Jeans, hoodie, scarf.
Harris, actor of CJ wears: Jeans, hoodie, hi-tops.
Ashley, actor of TJ wears: scruffy chino's and cardigan.
Tash, actor of Tulisa wears: Leggings, casual top, cardigan and boots.

We have created casual, scruffy clothing for Jon, as he is the victim, and we aim to portray him as poor and deprived.
We have also created a casual look for Harris, as he is accused of the murder of Jon- this creates an effect on the audience as one would cast judgement on Harris, because of his scruffy clothing.
Ashley's costume is somewhatsophisticated in comparison to both Harris's and Jon's, we have done this, so that there is a big contrast between the killer's outfit and everyone else's. The audience would expect the murderer to be scruffy, and poorly dressed, however we want to portray him as smarty dressed and sharp, whilst having a evil, crazy mind,this reflects his split-personality disorder.

Filming schedule

 Thursday 19^th, January 8:55-10:55

Friday 20^th, January 3:05-4:45
Thursday 2nd February 8:55-10:55

Original Costume's

Harris (The Accused) - Trackies, hoodie, 'scruffy clothing'
Jon (Victim)- Scruffy Clothing, trackies, hoodie.
Ashley-Better dressed than Harris and Jon, more sophisticated to create a contrast between his perceived sophisticated appearance and his evil, split personality mind.
Tash- Casual, every day clothing.

SHOT LIST

Shot 1- Close up of feet from right side

Shot 2- Aerial shot of dead Tyler (flashback)

Shot 3- Close up of upper legs from right side

Shot 4- Over shoulder shot from Ashley's position (flashback) 

Shot 5- Close up of mid section from right side

Shot 6- Close up but pan right of Tyler (flashback)

Shot 7- Close up of face from right side

Shot 8- Long shot from behind Tyler (flashback)

Shot 9- Two shot of Tash and Ashley (flashback)

Shot 10- Close of gun from left side

Shot 11- Title

Shot 12 to 16- Action shots of characters (tba)

Shot 17 and 18- Credits (director and producer)

Shot 19- Close up on Ashley's face with light on his face

Shot 20- Close up on the other side of Ashley's face. Darkness on his face

Shot 21- Same angle of shot from shot 20, however shot is no longer a close up Establishing shot of Ashley sitting in the apartment. Shot then changes to a long shot of Tash walking into the apartment.

Shot 22- Tash approaches Ashley at the table, long shot turns to a closer shot of the two of them meeting up. Tash and Ashley start conversing, and the shots change to slightly show each actor more when they are speaking, however still showing the other character at the same time, just not as clearly. Tash then leaves the apartment and the camera turns on her and does a panning shot of her leaving the apartment.

Shot 23: Ashley is still sitting down, the camera is facing him square on, and captures the whole room in the shot. He then stands up and turns around, and the camera follows and films from the side of him, whilst he walks over to the window the camera does a tracking shot from his side. As he is staring out of the window, the camera is viewing from the side front, still on his face. Whilst Ashley is panicking and stressing the camera is shot on the front side of his face.

Shot 24: The Camera turns to face the back of his head and rest of his body, still capturing him panicking whilst looking out the window, although his face is not visible in the shot.

Shot 25: The Camera is still shot from behind him, and then Ashley turns his head to look directly into the camera. The Camera is closer to his face, capturing his shoulders and face. Ashley stares into the camera, whilst his body is facing the other way, and he smiles and laughs.

Shot 26: Text: '12 Days Ago' quickly appears on screen.

First five minutes: Girl With a dragon tattoo

Camera- The film starts with an establishing shot of a cold, snowy landscape, the scene appears to be very picturesque, and exerts a calming emotion on the audience. The camera then moves to pan across the landscape and ends up shooting and establishing shot of a run down house, covered in snow. This is when the audience begin to really engage with the film, as they will start asking questions, who's house it that? What is the significance of it? The camera then quickly changes, to capture an old man inside the house, answering the phone. Immediately this gives the audience an idea of one of the characters, and introduces them to the first speech in the film. The man speaks abruptly on the phone, and the man on the other end does too. At the end of the conversation, the old man in the house appears upset- this makes the audience feel sympathetic towards him, as he is alone and the weather is cold outside. The shot from outside, to inside he house contrast greatly, from a relaxing picturesque scenery, to an abrupt and serious conversation. This creates drama and tension for the audience. After the conversation, the old man takes his glasses off and puts them down, the camera focuses the audience's attention to the glasses, which are laying on a frame with a pressed flower inside. This makes the audience question the significance of this frame, and creates mystery and suspense. Then the shots change to a fast moving pace, showing water droplets and harsh sea waves . This creates an effective contrast between the slow moving action before, to the quick paced, action packed opening credits. This creates drama, and tension for the audience.
Editing- The establishing shots at the beginning of the film, are reasonably light, although the mist makes them not as clear and visible. This then changes, as once the opening credits begin, the lighting is dark and gloomy.Mise en Scene- The house outside is run down, and due to the cold snowy weather, the run down cabin looks inviting. This creates a picturesque scene. The old man in the house is in a dressing gown. This could suggest the time of day it is, as he could have got out of bed. This also reveals the importance of the conversation, and arouses suspicion for the audience, due to the time of the phone call. After the conversation, the man appears upset and ditressed, this makes the audience sympathise with him, as he is all alone.
Sound- The film starts with a non-diegetic sound of an eery, spooky piano playing. As the camera pans across the snowy landscape, the diegetic sound of whistling wind can be heard. This gives a spooky, but realistic effect. The phone begins to ring over the top of the piano playing, this adds tension and confusion for the audience, as they do not know the relevance of the phone ringing is. The immediate change to the two men conversing, suddenly throws the audience into action. This arouses the fear of the unknown for the audience, as they are kept in the dark about what is happening. As the opening credits begin, the music changes to a quick, fast paced soundtrack, which creates an effective contrast from the relaxing, calm piano. The change in music could suggest to the audience what is going to happen next.

Target Audience of Psychological Thrillers

Usually the target audience of most psychological thrillers is 18+, this is because they contain many disturbing characters with psychological illnesses. However a majority of psychological thrillers attract primarily females, aged 18-35. Research shows that women are more attracted to psychological thrillers, because they enjoy the mystery and story behind events that take place in thriller films. It has been shown that females prefer the intellectual side of the mental illnesses and strange psychologically challenging behaviour that features in psychological thrillers. We have researched a lot about all different types of thrillers and have decided we are going to do a psychological thriller, as we have a detailed idea and understanding of our target audience, and how to please our target audience with the appropriate film content.

Black Swan Audience Analysis

Total views: 149,098

Ratings: 57		Comments: 24		Favorites: 37
Likes: 51 Dislikes: 6

Significant discovery events

	Date	Event	Views
A	01/13/11	First referral from related video – Black Swan (Trailer)	2,858
B	12/24/10	First referral from related video – Black Swan Trailer (HD)	1,147
C	11/19/10	First referral from YouTube search – black swan official trailer	1,013
D	11/13/10	First referral from YouTube search – the black swan trailer 2010	1,336
E	09/12/10	First featured video view	5,828
F	09/10/10	First view from a mobile device	16,191
G	09/10/10	First referral from YouTube search – black swan trailer	7,180
H	09/09/10	First referral from YouTube search – black swan trailer 2010	23,092
I	09/09/10	First referral from YouTube search – black swan movie	1,943
J	09/09/10	First referral from related video	1,467

This video is most popular in:

More

Less

Audiences

This video is most popular with:

Gender

Age

Female

13-17

Female

18-24

Female

25-34

Black Swan Audience Analysis

Black Swan is a psychological thriller.

Black Swan had a limited release in select cities in North America on December 3, 2010, in 18 theaters. The film took in a total of $415,822 on its opening day, averaging $23,101 per theater. By the end of its opening weekend it grossed $1,443,809—$80,212 per theater. The per location average was the second highest for the opening weekend of 2010 behind The King's Speech. The film has Fox Searchlight Pictures highest per-theater average gross ever, and it ranks 21st on the all-time list.On its second weekend the film expanded to 90 theaters, and grossed $3.3 million, ranking it as the sixth film at the box-office. In its third weekend, it expanded again to 959 theaters and grossed $8,383,479. The film went on to gross over $106 million in the United States and over $329 million worldwide

Music

• Due to the nature of our film, we had to identify particular aspects of music that we could incorporate into our piece to consolidate and capture the full mood and aura of the genre. After extensive research into the introductory sections of films, as regards to the musical content, it is evident that the soundtrack to a film is most effective when it includes ambient sounds and eery and mysterious sound effects. This is why we have used this information to create a piece of music that we know will create tension, suspense and mystery for the audience. 

• Once we had decided on which genre we wanted to use for our film, I began composing the song to fit the necessary requirements we needed to attract our target audience. Due to the fact that I was not competent enough to use Logic Studio (the program I used to compose the music,) we searched online for tutorials so that I learnt how to navigate and use the program effectively. I also read online manuals for Logic, which highlighted key techniques that were necessary to use. After a week, I felt confident enough to start composing my piece, so I began using the useful techniques I'd learnt to construct an effective, grasping, eery soundtrack. 

Black Swan- General Analysis

Black Swan was released in the United Kingdom on January 21st, 2011. Originally it was suppose to be released on February 11th. The Independent said, the film was considered one of "the most highly anticipated" films of late 2010. The newspaper then compared it to the 1948 ballet film The Red Shoes in having "a nightmarish quality ... of a dancer consumed by her desire to dance".

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray disk in Region 1/Region A on March 29, 2011. The Region 2/Region B version was released on May 16, 2011.

Black Swan had a limited release in select cities in North America on December 3, 2010, in 18 theaters. The film took in a total of $415,822 on its opening day, averaging $23,101 per theater. By the end of its opening weekend it grossed $1,443,809—$80,212 per theater. The location average was the second highest for the opening weekend of 2010 behind The King's Speech. The film has Fox Searchlight Pictures highest per-theater average gross ever, and it ranks 21st on the all-time list. On its second weekend the film expanded to 90 theaters, and grossed $3.3 million, ranking it as the sixth film at the box-office. In its third weekend, it expanded again to 959 theaters and grossed $8,383,479. The film went on to gross over $106 million in the United States and over $329 million worldwide.These figures show one that the film was, to say the least, a great success. Attracting a variety of people from all over the world. Many reviews said the film was 'wonderfully creepy.' This showed that the psychological thriller attracted its target audience successfully.
Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a mixed review. He wrote, "[Black Swan] is an instant guilty pleasure, a gorgeously shot, visually complex film whose badness is what's so good about it. You might howl at the sheer audacity of mixing mental illness with the body-fatiguing, mind-numbing rigors of ballet, but its lurid imagery and a hellcat competition between two rival dancers is pretty irresistible."

Honeycutt commended Millepied's "sumptuous" choreography and Libatique's "darting, weaving" camera work. The critic said: ,"Aronofsky ... never succeeds in wedding genre elements to the world of ballet ... White Swan/Black Swan dynamics almost work, but the horror-movie nonsense drags everything down the rabbit hole of preposterousness."

Various critics have commended Millepied for his excellent camera work, describing it s 'darting' and 'weaving.' This builds up the psychological thriller, and creates suspense, tension and horror.

Supernova have looked at the various comments and reviews on Black Swan, and have realised that the camera work has been particularly praised, however the over the top horror movie scenes did not add to the tension and dramatic atmosphere of the thriller. We are going to use the reviews from this film to help us with our thriller. What we have particularly taken notice of, is the effectiveness of darting, weaving camera work. We have realised that this is what the audience is attracted to, as it builds suspense and gives an element of excitement.

Supernova logo design

• After a lot of research, I realised that it was vital that our production company had a name and logo, for promotional purposes. I found various programmes that enabled me too make a logo, however my favourite was Flame Painter. Flame Painter is a unique paint program that lets you create original artworks with flame brushes. Flame Painter was created within an experimental project. The initial vision was to create an application for professional artists as well as for people without artistic skills who want to create something original. Lack of inspiration is often the reason why people are not creative. However, the tools were accessible on flame painter, and the use became the inspiration for creativity.The tools inspired me, and I made the logo below.

• The name of our Production Company is Supernova. I identified that existing production companies often correlate their logo with relation to their Production Company name. I used this knowledge to set about creating our companies logo. I began by playing around with various colour's, and eventually decided a general colour scheme that I wanted. Once I had decided this colour scheme, I started to brainstorm about what drawings/photos to include in the logo. I then realised that I wanted to have life like stars, but in the colour's that I had initially decided. Once I had created the visual effects, I began adding the 'Supernova' text to the logo, experimenting with colour, font, and text positioning. After much deliberation, I decided on the text I wanted, the colour and the position of it.

Audience Research- Focus groups

In our group we decided to ask both boys and girls questions, to find out what their views where, and whether we had to target each gender separately. We asked a group of girls, and a group of boys the same questions. Here where there answers:

1. What genre of thriller do you most like?
GIRLS
'Psychological thriller'
'Thrillers that keep you on the edge of your seat'
'Thrillers that you don't know what's happening until a certain enlightenment point'
"Thrillers that include a shocking twist"

BOYS
"Thrillers that are full of action"
"Thrillers that have killing in"
"Thrillers that excite you through the fast pace"

2. What are your favourite thriller films?
GIRLS
"Black Swan, because it has the psychological element"
"Shutter Island, because it messes with your head, and then you have a sudden realisation"
"Inception, because it gets you thinking, and sitting on the edge of your seat"

BOYS
"Dark Knight, because from start to finish it s filled with action"
"The Stash, because there's death in it, and has violence and fast cars- it's exciting"

After our focus group research, we realised that boys and girls have conflicting opinions, and we would have to take this into account when making our thriller, and deciding the target audience.

thriller conventions.

thriller key things to include-

chase scenes-car scene, stalking/following scene

crime-murder, rape, robbery

suspense-builds tension in the audience, key to a thriller

anxiety- also builds tension and also curiosity in the viewer

excitement-to push the senses, intrigue and excite the viewer. it keeps it interesting and makes certain the viewer wants to see more.

Storyboard Animatic

Script, layout of film.

Script

Shot 1:

No speech. Diegetic sounds of the wind, birds singing and a peaceful atmosphere.

Shot 2:

No speech. Diegetic sound of police sirens and rain.

Shot 3:

No speech. Diegetic sounds of the wind and birds singing again.

Shot 4:

No speech. Diegetic sounds of rain and general background noise.

Shot 5:

Diegetic sounds of the wind. Sound of 'The accused' (Harris) breathing heavily.

Shot 6:

'The Accused' (Harris) screaming: 'Nooooooooo!' Diegetic sound of rain.

Shot 7:

'The accused' (Harris) breathing heavily, gasping, shaking.

Shot 8:

Victim (Jon) standing still. Diegetic sound of rain.

Shot 9:

Victim (Jon) has his back to the killer (Ashley). Diegetic sound of rain. Tash says: 'Don't do it!' Victim (Jon) turns his head round.

Shot 10:

Victim (Jon) turns around. Shot taken down the barrel of the gun, watching as Jon turns his head around to look directly at the gun. Diegetic sounds of rain, and then the 'bang' of the gun shoot victim (Jon).

Shot 11:

Title of film appears on screen as the bang sound fades out. Film title 'bangs' up on the screen to create dramatic effect. Black background, with title in red font.

Shot 12:

Opening title sequence begins. 'Harris Tzen, actor of CJ'

Shot 13:

Opening title sequence. 'Tash Beaumont, actress of Tulisa'

Shot 14:

Opening title sequence. 'Ashley Sammons, actor of TJ'

Shot 15:

Opening title sequence. 'Jonny Weekes, actor of Taylor'

Shot 16:

Opening title sequence. 'Rachel Lee, Camera women'

Shot 17:

Opening title sequence. Director- George Spielberg.

Shot 18:

Opening title sequence. Producer- Steven Lucas.

Shot 19:

Ashley in his apartment. Close up on his face, sitting at the table. He's panicking, and stressing. Saying: 'Shit, what have I done! What am I going to do!?' The light is on his face, as he shows remorse and fright.

Shot 20:

Ashley in his apartment. Close up on his face still. He's laughing, and smiling, starts to reveal his split personality. Darkness on his face to show a sinister effect.

Shot 21:

Ashley still sitting down in the apartment. Tash walks in, and Ashley stands up quickly, startled, and stops laughing. Ashley: 'Why are you here?!' Tash: 'For you, obviously!'

Shot 22:

Front door to the apartment closes, Tash approaches Ashley, and gets closer. Ashley says: 'But why, why are you here for me! Why why why!?' Tash: 'Calm down, calm down babe!'(Tash puts her arms around Ashley) Ashley: 'Calm down, fucking calm down!' Tash: 'Dont get aggressive with me, I'm trying to help you TJ!' Ashley: 'I'll get aggressive with whoever the fuck I want, just leave me, you're no help, you're infuriating me even more!' Tash: 'I'm the only person that is prepared to stand by you, yet you're stupidly pushing me away, you're an idiot. How dare you throw it all back in my face, you make me sick. You're a cold hearted killer. I never want to see you again!' (Tash leaves the apartment crying)

Shot 23:

Ashley is left alone in the apartment, he gets up and walks over to the apartment window. He hears sirens, and sees an ambulance go past. Ashley begins to panic, and stress. Ashley: 'Why, why have I done this, why have I brought this all on myself?'

Shot 24:

Ashley is still standing looking out the window in a panicky state. The camera is behind him facing the back of his head whilst he is in his guilty, upset state.

Shot 25:

Ashley is still standing by the window, facing the opposite way to the camera- facing out the window still. He then quickly, and dramatically turns his head to face the camera, he starts laughing and smiling whilst looking directly into the camera.

Shot 26:

Text: '12 Days Ago' flashes up on screen.

The End.

risk assessment

-Working on concrete, must protect equipment
-Wires, make sure there are no loose wires to trip over
-Alley way, make sure there are no hazards to trip over or walk into
-Make sure we are not trespassing
-Check for broken wires
-Check for any nearby water to avoid damage or harm