Avoiding problems

5 things I can do to help the group to avoid problems when shooting

1. Continuity problems
   I will try to ensure that we avoid continuity problems, perhaps by taking still shots of actors/the location to make sure that these things look the same from week to week.
2. Forgetting equipment
   I'll try to sort out all my stuff for the shoot the night before, and then double check everything a couple of times before leaving the house on the day of the shoots.
3. Being efficient when shooting
   I'll try to make sure that the group stay focused when shooting, to make sure that we're as efficient as possible. This will be particularly important for our real shoots.
4. Compromising
   If the group have different ideas about something, I'll try to compromise in order to make sure that everyone gets a say in what happens.
5. Being honest and open with the group
   If I don't think something will work, I will be honest about it and then as a group we'll probably have to have some sort of discussion to try and sort out the issue.

'When A Stranger Calls' (2006) Opening Sequence

The sequence starts with the "ScreenGems" graphic. Towards the end of the graphic, there is the sound of a phone ringing twice. Then at the end of the "ScreenGems presents" black title screen, the phone is picked up and you can hear the voice of someone (sounds like a girl) saying "Hello?", then there's a male voice asking (quite creepily) "Is that Alice?" and the girl replies "No, I think you've got the wrong number". Meanwhile, the opening credits continue. Then the man says "Oh... well... what's your name?" and the girl replies "This is Stacy.... uh, who is this?" . The image of a house (at night time) then fades from black. The shot is slightly low angle, looking up at a window on the first floor of the house. We then hear the girl saying "Hello?... Hello?". The camera then pans right and a ferris wheel appears in the background of the shot (behind the house). The camera continues to pan right and then the audience gets a full view of a fun fair. The camera then tracks two children (medium long shot) running through the fair ground. There is then a pan of a man walking his dog. There appears to be a frame within a frame, which makes this shot appear to be a point of view shot. There are some jump cuts while the man is walking his dog, which is quite disorienting for the audience. Then there is a shot of a girl on a carousel. There is then a very quick cut to a shot of the house we were shown before, and then it goes back to the girl on the carousel. This is very disorienting for the audience since you can barely tell what disrupted the shot of the girl on the carousel. The camera pans from the carousel to the house we were shown earlier. You can then hear the phone ring once, then a girl picks up and says “Hello?”. Then there are very quick takes of close-up shots of the house, then long shots of the house. Then we hear the girl say “Who is this???”. The shot then changes to a shot of one of the fairground rides spinning around. Then there is a shot taken from behind an elderly couple sitting on a bench outside, the man waves at another man walking his dog. Then the shot changes to one of another house, we see someone walk out the door and call the names of 3 people. Then the camera pans right. The camera then moves up (sort of like a tilt, but the whole camera appears to be moving) to reveal the ferris wheel behind the house. A pink neon sign then comes into view, and the camera moves up until you can see the ‘Jesus’ in green neon lights. The woman who’s just left her house continues to call other character’s names. We then hear a small scream and during this scream, there are jump cuts of the house. The woman walks down the steps at the front of the house, then there are some more jump cuts to closer up to her and then further out. She then calls “A.J.!” and looks around, then calls “Charlie! Catherine”. Then the shot changes to a man with a dog going through the gate at the front of his house. Then we go back to the fair ground, with a low level shot of people at the fair ground, children playing etc. Then there is a shot of the first house we see, and the phone rings again. A girl (it sounds like it’s been the same girl on the phone throughout the whole opening sequence) and says “Hello? … Hello?… Please stop calling me!”. There is then a close up of a window on the top floor of the house, and the faint sound of a scream. Then it cuts to a shot of some wind chimes hanging off a branch on a tree, and the camera zooms in to the wind chimes. Then a silhouette of a person sprints past the wind chimes, and the sound of a scream is heard. Then the audience is taken back to the fair, with a close up of the middle part of the carousel. The name of the film then appears on screen, over the top of the carousel. Then there is a shot of another fairground ride (it looks sort of like a pick-axe stabbing downwards, which is presumably meant to be symbolic) , then the camera pans left to the ferris wheel, and keeps panning until it gets to the house that we were first introduced to. Then the light comes on in one of the first floor level windows, and the silhouette of a person can be seen, and there’s a really horrible scary scream. There’s then some more jump cuts which take you closer then further away from the window, very quickly. Then there are various shots of the fun fair, with people on different rides etc. All the while, there’s another 2 long and scary screams. Then the camera tilts up to follow a red balloon that has been let go and is now floating through the sky.

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Apparently this film isn't actually very good, but I thought the opening was quite well done. It was very good at being disorienting for the audience, since quite a lot of jump cuts were used (more than the ones I mentioned above). I thought this was a very interesting editing technique, since it was clearly done to deliberately disorient/confuse the audience. In the opening, no main characters are introduced really, only the voice of one girl (who is presumably killed and is the character doing the scary screaming) and the voice of a creepy guy (who is presumably the villain in the film). The cross cutting was also very interesting, especially since the two scenarios were very contrasting to each other. I also liked the use of enigma. The audience would wonder:
1. Who is Stacy?
2. Who was the voice at the other end of the phone (i.e. the creepy guy)?
3. Who was the scream at the end coming from? (I assumed it was Stacy, but can't be sure really)
I also think, that it's really good when there's a death in the beginning of a thriller film, so that might be an idea for the real project :). Also, the screaming was good because it scared me a bit and it sort of catches you off-guard, which made it even more scary. But yeah, overall, I thought this opening was really well done.

Atonement: Steadicam Sequence

I know Atonement's not a thriller in any way whatsoever (one of my favourite films though), but the camera work in the following sequence is so cool and I thought I'd quickly blog something about it.




The camera tilts down from the top of a ship (on land) to the main character of the film (Robbie, played by James McAvoy). Then the steadicam movement kicks in and the camera starts to follow Robbie as he walks along the shore. Robbie then walks out of frame, and the camera continues to move without following him. The audience then begin to get a sense of the surrounding as the camera moves around the scene. The whole sequence is just one long take, so there's not really much edited together. The sequence is fairly slow-paced because of this one take, and this works really well in taking the audience away from the story for a minute, just to give them an overview of the location. From earlier on in the film, the audience is shown that this part of the film is set during the time of World War Two (the mise-en-scene and character dress codes all indicate this). So, this whole sequence is used to show the consequences of war. Then at the end, the audience is brought back to Robbie, and the narrative continues.

The clip above is just a part of the 4 and a half minute long steadicam sequence.

A long time ago...

...me and my cousins made a short film (with the help of my uncle, about 4 years ago now) and I hadn't thought about it in a long time. But then, the other day I watched it again and realised that it could be quite useful for this project, since our film was in fact a thriller. . Instead of showing it to anyone (no-one will ever see it since you know, I was in it and it's thoroughly embarrassing), I thought that I would have another look at the opening and then blog something about it :)

**Update (08/11/07): Added some screencaps from the opening. They're a bit rubbish quality since it wouldn't work when I tried to screencap the video on my computer, so I had to use my digital camera to take pictures of the TV screen... **

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So the film starts with a black screen, then the music starts. Then the opening credits start and there are 4 titles (all of which appear over black screens) saying:

1. "Stephens Motion Pictures"


2. "in association with"


3. "minidrama productions"


4. "presents..."


5. "Death Diary" (that, was the film's name... I realise that I didn't mention that earlier...)

The audience is then introduced to two young female characters (meeee, and my cousin) who are sitting at a bus stop (during the day) having a conversation about a television show. Then one of the girls' (I'll call her Girl Number 1 for the purpose of this blog) mobile phone rings, and the other girl (Girl Number 2) continues to play a game on her mobile phone. Girl Number 1 picks up the phone and then tells Girl Number 2 that it's their dad on the phone. Girl Number 2 then tells Girl No. 1 to put him on speakerphone.


The audience then hears the father's voice telling the two girls that their grandmother has fallen sick, so their aunt has gone to stay with her, and the girls will have to stay with their grandmother too. So then Girl No. 2 protests saying "But Dad, Grandma's crazy!" and Girl No. 1 says "Yeah, and we haven't been there in ages". The reason behind the girls going to stay with their Grandma is then explained when their dad says "There's no-one else you can stay with and I've got a plane to catch". The Girl 1 then says goodbye and hangs up the phone. Both girls walk away from the bus stop and start to make their way to their grandmother's house.

The scene then cuts to the two girls walking through a pathway in a field-like area, where they are discussing the fact that they have to stay with their grandmother just because their dad has a business trip.




There is then some cross-cutting between the girls walking and a floor-level shot of another female character walking out of a front door and putting something under the door-mat.
The two girls then talk about how their grandmothers only friends are her "stupid neighbours" named Edward, Mary and Elizabeth, then Girl 1 comments that the neighbours must all be as mad as she [the grandmother is]. The two girls then meet up with their aunt (the other female character introduced earlier on), and the aunt explains that she can't look after them this weekend because their grandmother's been admitted to a hospital in Newcastle and explains that their grandmother's been "acting really weird lately", so the aunt is going to go and stay with her for a couple of days. Girl 2 says "Dad's not going to like us being alone...", Aunt Nina replies "Yeah I know, but I'll only be gone a couple of days... and I will phone him". Girl 1 then asks how they can get into the house, and Aunt Nina replies that there's a key underneath the mat (which, the audience saw being put there earlier on). The girls say goodbye to their aunt and begin to go their separate ways, but then the aunt stops and says to the girls: "Don't go in Grandma's room, she doesn't like people going in there".

The scene then changes to a medium shot (from inside the house) of the two girls opening the house's front door, both girls look slightly worried. Girl 1 says "You first", then Girl 2 says "Why's it always me??" and then Girl 1 says "because you're the youngest!" and pushes Girl 2 into the house, follows her in and then shuts the door (lots of shot/reverse shots here). Then there's a high angle long shot of the two girls looking up the stairs and Girl 2 commentinG "It's kind of creepy here, isn't it?".


There is then a reverse shot of the stairs and a reflection (through a mirror) of the first floor of the house. Then there's shot (taken from the same angle and distance as before) of the two girls then going into the kitchen through the door on the left. Then it goes back to the reverse shot of the stairs and the first floor of the house, a mysterious female figure (with her face unrecognisable because it's covered) comes around the corner to the top of the stairs.


Then there's some more cross-cutting between the mysterious female character walking down the stairs and the two girls having a conversation in the kitchen. The girl's then decide to go into the garden. There's a shot from inside the kitchen, looking through the window onto the two girls in the garden. The mysterious female figure then walks into the shot, facing the garden, and appears to be watching the two girls. It then cuts to the girls smelling flowers, then cuts back to the over-the-shoulder, frame-within-a-frame shot of the mysterious female character watching the girls.



The mysterious female character then walks out of the frame and the two girls are then shown sitting down on a bench at the back of the garden. Then the scene fades to black.

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Most of the dialogue in this is a bit silly, and most of the opening doesn't really seem very thriller-y. But, I do think that other than that it's quite good really. (And I'm allowed to say that since I didn't shoot or edit it).

The shot variety is pretty good, since lots of different distances, angles, movements and levels are used. I think the editing is really well done too, the cross-cutting works really well. The sound used is mostly diegetic, and the non-diegetic sound used helps to create tension.

But most importantly, the opening sequence helps to create enigma in very little time (the parts I've described above only take place over about 3 and a half minutes). The opening sequence raises the following questions:

1. Where has the girls' father gone on his business trip?
2. Will the girls' grandmother's neighbours (Edward, Mary and Elizabeth) become more relevant later on?
3. What happened to the girls' grandmother that made her "act really weird lately"?
4. Why doesn't the girls' grandmother like people going in her room?
5. Who was the mysterious figure on the stairs/watching the girls?

....I have to say, I never realised that this film we made would be useful for future schoolwork!

Opening sequence credits conventions

I've watched a few thriller opening sequences, and have made a list of the credits that appear in them. By doing this I have learnt about which credits/graphics always/often appear and this will help me when it comes to creating my own thriller opening.

Flightplan

• 'Touchstone' graphic
• 'Imagine Entertainment' graphic
• 'Touchstone pictures and Imagine Entertainment present'
• 'a Brian Grazer production'
• Actor name
• Film name
• More actor names
• Casting
• 'Music composed by...'
• Costume design
• 'Editing by...'
• Production Designer
• Director of Photography
• Executive Producers
• 'Produced by...
• 'Written by...
• 'Directed by...

Firewall

• Warner Brothers graphic
• Village Roadshow Pictures graphic
• 'warner bros. pictures presents'
• 'in association with village roadshow pictures'
• 'a beacon pictures/john shestack/thunder road production'
• 'a richard loncraine film'
• Actor names
• Film name
• More actor names
• 'Casting by...'
• 'Costume design by...'
• 'Music by...'
• Co-producer
• 'Edited by...'
• Production designer
• Director of photography
• Executive producers
• 'Produced by...'
• 'Written by...'
• 'Directed by...'

1408

• Dimension Films graphic
• 'Dimension Films presents'
• 'A Lorenzo Di Bonaventura production'
• 'A Mikael Hafstrom Film'
• Actor names
• Film name
• More actor names
• 'Casting by...'
• Costume designer
• 'Music by...'
• Editor
• Production designer
• Director of photography
• Associate producers
• Executive producers
• 'Produced by...'
• 'Based on the short story by...'
• 'Screenplay by...'
• 'Directed by...'

When a Stranger Calls

• ScreenGems graphic
• 'ScreenGems presents...'
• 'A David Entertainment Production'
• 'A Film by...'
• Actor names
• Film name
• 'Casting by...'
• 'Music by...'
• Costume designer
• 'Edited by...'
• Production designer
• Director of photography
• Executive producer
• 'Produced by...'
• 'Based on the film written by...'
• 'Screenplay by...'
• 'Directed by...'

The Number 23

• New Line Cinema graphic
• 'New Line Cinema presents'
• 'a Contrafilm/Firm Films production'
• 'a Joel Schumacher film'
• Actor name
• Film name
• More actor names
• 'Music by...'
• Associate producer
• Costume designer
• Editor
• Production designer
• Director of photography
• Co-producers
• Executive producers
• 'Produced by...'
• 'Written by...'
• 'Directed by...'

Conventional credits included in opening sequences
(in the conventional order they appear in)

• Film company graphic
• '[Film company] presents'
• 'A [producer/production company] production'
• 'A [director name] film'
• Main actor names
• Film name
• Supporting actor names

Other credits that often appear, but not necessarily in this order:

• 'Casting by...'
• 'Music by...'
• Producers/Executive Producers/Associate Producers/Co-producers
• Costume designer
• Editor
• Director of photography/Cinematographer
• Production designer
• Writers/'Screenplay by...'

Sometimes there are also credits to indicate if the film is based on a book/other film