War Thriller Inspiration - Scenes and Short Films

I looked this this short film because I though it had outstanding props and costume, which I felt is a very important aspect to a war film because it shows the audience the time period and which side your character is on. In addition some of the scenes were shot in a higher frame rate making the action more intense. I would like to adopt this technique because I felt it provided a more intense experience.Another aspect I like was actually in the thumbnail. I loved the black and white tone in this photo and I might suggest that some of the war scenes are black and white because it would contrast to the other shots, which would be in colour.
I also watched the iconic 'Saving Private Ryan' to get and idea of ​​how Spielberg used the camera to create emotions such as fear and anger form the characters. I further looked at props to include in our film such as the guns and the types of visual effects like explosions form mines etc.
Both films shared the same war however it was shown in many different ways maybe because of a difference in storyline and budget. However both films used props well and created an interesting story through war. 

Credit To George Turner

How To Edit Videos

This video was made by (and therefore credit to) George Turner, to explain how he edits videos.

StoryBoard For The War Triller Opening

The Storyboard: As a group we discussed what we wanted from our film and the style we were going for, however we had not yet though about what our shots and transitions were going to look like. The first step was to create a storyboard, this is because a storyboard allows every member of the group to put their ideas forward and then have a visual representation of the film. Before diving in to this I wrote up a brief story that we as a group had already discussed;. explaining briefly what was going to happen in our story Meanwhile Katy gathered locations and costume so that we knew what our characters would look like and the environment they would be placed in and George looked at examples of war thriller short films that could inspire us. 

After those tasks were completed George was given the task of creating a storyboard that would represent our ideas best. To do this he made a storyboard template and printed four sheets so that we could have enough room for every shot. The reason he wanted to put so much work into the storyboard is because he felt that when you have a clearly laid out storyboard it's easier to organise the narrative creatively. 

This task did take him a while because he put a lot of thought into every shot thinking about practicality as well as creativity. An example of this is on the last page shot three because we would of loved to have both characters in the same shot however we would have to use after effects, which in my experience is not very reliable. Therefore we made ​​it an OSS so that we could just have another actor instead of using masks etc. Another aspect he put a lot of time into was transitions because we wanted to make sure that the narrative flowed well to set up the story, which would follow after our opening. 

Our aim overall aim was to upset the equilibrium without killing off any characters or changing the story. To achieve this we used flash backs to World War Two throughout our opening which would keep our audience gripped. 

  In addition to this we also made ​​sure that we had research on 'Waterboarding'  (water torture) because we wanted to make sure that the film was some what accurate to the time period we wanted the film to be set in. 

Lastly when it was done I reminded George that we wanted a first person drowning scene that we added as a side note on page two. Overall I felt we worked well as a team and I think the plan is well thought out and creative. 

Credit to George Turner

What We Are Aiming For

We are aiming, as a group for level 4 in both audio and video, in both the 180 Degree Rule film, and our war thriller opening. 
These extracts from the mark scheme show what we need to include to get these grades. 

Level 4 48–60 marks (Video)
There is evidence of excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:• holding a shot steady, where appropriate.• framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate.• using a variety of shot distances as appropriate.• shooting material appropriate to the task set.• selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting.• editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer.• using varied shot transitions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set.• using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set.• using titles appropriately.


Level 4 48–60 marks (Audio)
There is evidence of excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:• recording voice(s) clearly in studio/confined setting.• recording voice(s) clearly in location/outdoor interviews/presentations.• accurately using language and register.• integrating recorded material, as appropriate.• editing and mixing sounds appropriately.• editing to create continuity and meaning.• integrating jingles, music, location sounds and sound effects, where appropriate.

We as a group, and individually will be working on each of these things, in turn, in order to get the highest possible grade. 

Sound Terms ~ Theory Revision

Parallel Sound - follows the narrative and links in creating a three dimensional world which draws the audience into the film.
Sound Bridge - This is where any sound is carried over several shots to link the narrative. 
Diegetic - Sound that relates to the scene and that can be seen in the scene. (In the field of vision)
Non Diegetic - Sound that's not visible in the scene which may come in the form of a voice over.
Ambient Sound - Background noise belonging to the scene but not always visible within the mes en scene.
Dialogue - The voices of the characters speaking to each other. This is also when the sound is re-recorded and the actors have to lip sync.
Synchronous Sound- This is sound that is in sync with an object/subject such as a car or a persons mouth.
Asynchronous sound - The sound is deliberately out of sync with the scene.
Sound Effect - This is added to the visual production to further exaggerate or mark a moment in the film. It can also be used to make the film seem more naturalistic by exaggerating everyday sounds like footsteps.
Voice Over - This is where the diegesis provides information usually about the visuals on screen to the audience.

These are important to think about when making our thriller opening as we need to use the right ones to create the tense tone that we want. 

Updated Props List

Once we had completed our story board we realised that we needed to update our props list as parts of our story line had been adapted.

Updated props list and who is getting what

• WW2 Gun - For the main protagonist as a young man [George]

• Modern Tap - For the close ups [location]

• 1940s hose pipe - For boarding [Mariella]

• 1940s bucket (Metal) - For water boarding [George/ Mariella]

• Dog - For old man walking [Katie]

• Dog leed - Old man walking [Katie]

• Match/ lighter - Close ups [George]

• Wheel chair - End scene [George] https://www.wheelfreedom.com/products/adult_wheelchair_hire/lightweight_foldable_wheelchair_hire

• Belt Straps - End scene [George and Mariella]

• Cloth - Waterboarding [Katie]

• Bed [Location]

• helmet [art- will need painting though]

Props Research

One of the props Katy had to research was what type of gun would have been used during World War II. When looking on Google images she found this diagram of all different types of guns that were used and an explanation of what each one would have been used for and its speciality.

The next prop She had to research was a lead for a dog.  So she decided she would type into Google 'old man dog' so that she could get the best representation and example possible for the research. The main images that came up were quite small dogs such as Beagles, Jack Russels and Greyhounds. However we were not happy with this outcome so she decided to look up World War II dogs as the man might have stuck with the same type of dog he had from the memories he is flashing back to. Once she typed this in it became a more refined research as the main dog that came up was a German Shepard, therefore it is likely that our persona will be walking this type of dog.

Credit To Katy Ward

To Do For Our Thriller Opening

To do, (and to blog) for our war time thriller opening, in no particular order:

1. Plot Overview :)
2. Story Board (NB- 180 degree rule storyboard needs to be completed too) :) :)
3. Shot list  :)
4. Copyright Issues (If any) :)
5. Anamatic :)
6. Test shots :)
7. Research of specific things (see previous post for what needs to be/ has been researched) :)
8. Actors Research + chosen :) 
9. Further thought and depth into character :)
10. Research into PTSD :)
11. Decide on the titles part of our sequence :)
12. Acquiring of Costumes :)
13. Acquiring of props :)

:) = Done

And then, obviously, the actual filming, editing, blogging, and evaluating. 

What Have We Learnt From The Continuity Task?

While filming the 180º Rule task we understood how important it was to have a good storyboard because while filming it we quickly required more guidance than was on our storyboard. This was a problem because we were unsure when filming which lead to the film being slightly shorter than what we wanted to achieve. The reason it's so important to realise this now is because when we undershoot its a lot harder to create a pace as an editor because your very limited to the cuts you can make because certain shots have to be held for a certain amounts of time to create the tension required to grip the audience. To overcome this in the main project we will make sure we have not just a detailed storyboard but also a shot list with an animatic so that we can already have a set plan before our shoot. The animatic allows the pace to be set before the shoot allowing us to already know what the film is going to look like.

Another aspect that we picked up on was that our lighting and location wasn't the best. To make sure this doesn't happen again we are going to make sure we do test shots before the shoot to make sure that the location in mind actually achieves what we want in terms of lighting and sound. This helped us realise the importance of test shots, which we did do but we still think we should of taken notes about it and seen if there was any other options in terms of location.

Lastly we think that we should of practised with the camera because before we used a phone, which was completely different to a DSLR. The reason I think this is important is because I don't think that the group was entirely comfortable with the canon leading to the shots not being the best quality.

Overall I think that we gained loads of knowledge about filming as a group and will be more confident in filming our second project.

Credit to George Turner

180 Degree Rule Reshoot ~ Final Video!

This was the Re-Shoot for out 180º Rule video. The improvements were massive compared to the last shoot because we had better equipment, which allowed us to get more creative shots. When George edited this one he used much less colour correction, he did however did place a luminance mask over the footage to give it a cinematic feel. Although the colour correction was less we feel that this film did a much better job of  building tension compared with the original shoot.We did actually change the last shot on the storyboard because the camera work wasn't stable enough to pull it off. We did try to use a smoothcam on it but it didn't work, so George just gave it a jittery feel (in post) because that's when the rule is broken.

Modern Day Costumes Research

The first outfit Katy had to research was a NHS carer outfit as our main persona that is a past private man of war will be based in a care home, so therefore we will need a carer so she decided to see what nurses/carers wear in this modern day and age. The first image she found was a woman that was wearing the basic plain blue shirt with white lines round the sleeves and collar, overall the outfit is very basic however very symbolic and recognisable.

The next outfit was what our main persona will be wearing the old man, therefore she decided to look up what a old man of our modern day and age stereo-typically wears. What she found out is that they usually they wear some sort of knit wear and they wear very basic trousers or long skirts.

The last part of clothing that she had to research was a bomber jacket as it is symbolic of his younger life, which contrasts to his now lonely and isolated life as an older man. This is the typical bomber jacket of the world war time, it is made out of leather and has fur around the collar, typically a pilot would wear this.

Research credit to Katy Ward

Location Research

The first location she started with was the care home, the first room she looked up was the bedroom as he will be mainly filmed in this room what I found out is that they are very basic and plain, usually with pastel colours. They also usually only have a chair/stool, TV, bed and bed side table, therefore they have a very simplistic way of living.

The next room she looked up was the bathroom, what she found out is that their bathrooms are suited especially for them such as a moving chair to help them in and out of the bath, as well as the shower. They also have pole/holders next to the toilet to help them get up and to sit down.

The last room in the care home that she needed to research was the living room which he would not be filmed much in however needed to be researched. What we found out is that it usually has a TV on the wall and they normally have single sofa chairs surrounding the room so everyone can face each other and talk to one another easily.



Other location she had to research, were the last area of ​​a flat field. It would be easiest for all of us to use a field in Chalfont St Peter, so we decided to research a location that would be close to us for us to use, for convienience. One of the images that came up that was the start of the fields in Chalfont St Giles Chalfont St Peter. This field would be convenient to walk to as it doesnt take very long, and there are plenty of places to film within the space there. 

Credit to Katy Ward

Age Certificates and WW2 Films

The first film that Katy found doing this research was 'Age of Heroes' which is a true story based on the formation of Ian Fleming's 30 commando unit, a precursor for the elite forces within the U.K. and was released in 2011 at the running time of 90 minutes long. The age certificate on this film was a 15, meaning that there would be some references to stronger language, violent scenes; which are expected within a war film or mild sexual references.

The second film she found was 'Inglourious Basterds' which was based on Nazi occupied France during WW2, with the plan to assassinate Nazi leaders in a group of Jewish U.S soldiers. This filmed was given the age certificate of 18, This means that this film would involve high violent scenes which would most likely be extremely graphic which could scare younger viewers, as well as strong language would more than likely be used.

Credit to Katy Ward

Thriller Opening Planning Lists

Costumes Needed

• WW2 Private - male
• NHS modern day Carer - male / female 
• Modern day normal clothes - elderly gentleman
• Bomber Jacket - male/ female (For background symbolism)

Locations

• Care home- including: bedroom, bathroom, living area
• flat field 

Props

• wheel chair
• WW2 gun
• dog/ dog lead
• 
  

VFX

• Gunshot noise
• Plane overhead
• explosions and dust- just in distance
• house exploded
• juttery static movement between flashbacks and normal life 

Basic Story For Thriller Opening

The main protagonist is going to be an old veteran who has war flashbacks while going about his everyday life.
The first flashback is going to be someone knocking on his door to wake him up, but he hears a gunshot.
The second is when he is washing his face and flashbacks to when his younger self is getting water torcher by drowning.
The third is when he is walking his dog on a field and he flashbacks to him running through  no mans land with his gun and explosions and planes.
The forth is when he's looking at a house on his walk back and someone turns a light on. He sees a flashback of a house exploding and goes to shield his face, before realising that he is in the present day and is safe.
The fifth and final flashback is when someone is helping him into a wheel chair, but he flashbacks and thinks that hes being shoved and restrained in the chair.
As the flashbacks go on he starts to blur the past with the present and doesn't know what it real, and what is memory. Also throughout the opening, not only does he go through the day but he ages a great deal as well. we are trying to get across that he has a very repetive life after the war and the experiences still take years of his life away, despite the actual experiences being over. The person who was helping him into the wheelchair comes round the front and sits in front of him. "Son", he says, *dramatic cut to black*, "Its time to tell you a story". This sets up the rest of the film, and lets the audience know what they are getting into.

Test Shots - 180 Degree Rule

This is the first take of our short video for the 180 degree rule. The reason we as a group would like to re-shoot is because while George was editing this video he noticed a couple of errors. The actual plot is missing a chunk of content, it lacks any sense of story or narrative, because the filming was rushed. Another point is the continuity errors with the hand that Katy uses to be a gun. This is an issue because the hand changes making the story even harder to follow. To improve this we want to follow the storyboard more closely because then it would avoid Katy switching hands. Furthermore I want to have a small fight and use my camera with an X-grip to stabilize the camera while it tracks the action because the last shot was terribly shaky. Overall it was a good first attempt, and gave us a good idea of what to improve on and sufficed as a video of test shots, however I really want to improve on it drastically because I know we can do better.

Moral Panic

Moral Panic is where the media creates and publicizes an issue that appears to threaten the social order within society. They can be seen as controversies that can lead to arguments and social tension. The Media usually makes these in order to distract the public from a bigger problem that is going on within society.

Rule Of Thirds

The rule of thirds is a concept in photography and film, in which the frame is divided into 9 imaginary sections. The Points of interest should fall on the crosses, or on the grid lines, either one third or two thirds up the frame horizontally, or across vertically, compared to being positioned in the center of the frame. 

This technique is used throughout film and photography and helps divide the frame up into a more interesting composition.

The examples below are from animated film "The Incedibles"

Costumes Ideas and Resherch

Katy was given the role to research and look into costume ideas that are used within war-time thrillers, then to show examples of them so that there would be a visual guidance to as what costumes should be worn within our project.

The first thing that she found when researching costumes was a girl aged around 5 years old wearing what a typical evacuee would wear once they had been sent off; which included the name tag they would have worn so that when they reached their destination it was easy to locate them to their right carer as well as a cardboard box as a bag which represents that the working class did not have much money and as the government started to downfall so did the whole country with money, which is why they produced ration cards-which should be part of this outfit or maybe just an adults one- so that people could only buy a selected amount so that they country would not run out. As well as the hat which was the typical hat worn around the 1920-1940's as it was the fashion.

The next outfit she found was a youngish women who was wearing the outfit of what the most well known propaganda sign 'we can do it' wore; a bandana with a working jump suit. The use of the woman tensing her muscles opposed to the stereotypical woman before the war started as they were seen to be in the domestic part of society and men were supposedly part of the political part, therefore having propaganda convincing woman to work within the time period it was set shows the countries desperation to help build itself back up.

The next outfit she found was the male persona of a private man of war he was wearing neutral colours such as beige, yellowy brown and light green, colours that can be associated with camouflage which men would need to wear if they were going to fight so that it would not be easy to be spotted on the battle field by the enemy where as if they were wearing every day bright clothing it would be much easier for them to be spotted.

 Research credit to Katy Ward

Updates Project Two - War Thriller Opening

The second project is the one which we will be giving all our attention to after the 180 degree film is edited and uploaded because we want this film to show everything that we have be tort in media and hope that it will look as amazing as we imagine. This film is really going to test us because there isn't a direct link to another film that we could use as help. This is because we have combined two ideas/genres together to create what we hope will be unique film, to some extent. 
The hybrid genre that we want to create is a mix between war thrillers and psychological thrillers because our questionnaires exposed that the youth of today are looking for new psychological thrillers more than others however we didn't want to make a generic psychological thriller because so many others had tried this in media because we as the youth of today like them. So, as a group we came to the decision to create a new hybrid of thriller which younger people would enjoy however would still be new. The reason behind this is because by creating a new hybrid genre it opens windows to pick and choose the conventions that we like from both genres and combine them to create this film. However this doe create more work for us because we then have to research more genres and and then go through the process of seeing what we liked. In the long run I hope this extra work will pay off.
Another point is that this film requires another level of editing that I myself have just started to I think that this is going to be a real push to try and make the film look at a semi-professional level. To make sure that I am up to the challenge I will be research about the way in which these editing techniques are used. For example: Keying, Matting, Chroma-Keying, Colour Grading and 3D Motion Graphics. All of these will serve a purpose in our film to make it look its best.
This is just a small brief of what a huge task is ahead of us.


Credit to George Turner

Updates Projects One - 180 Degree Rule

The first project that we are aiming to shoot is the 180 degree rule, which we have already done test shots of shown in previous blog posts. The idea is that after school we will of filmed the hole 180 degree rule and have it edited by next week. The reason this may be a challenge is because members of our group may be unable to make the shoot therefore we may have to move the day.

In this video George (as a actor for this short) has to do a fight scene. He said he would prefer to use his brother as the second actor, rather than Katy or I. We decided as a group to keep this scene in even though it was inconvenient to film, as our video really needed a climax, as just two people staring each other down would be totally boring and not create the suspense we wanted. 

To improve the film further I am going to use George's camera with an X-Grip  to film, allowing the camera to stay smooth at all times. Including within the last shoot when it is moving around the character, which we found tricky to keep steady last time. Furthermore I shall be using one of the schools tripods when required to keep the camera dead still. Lastly, this time we are filming this after school, not during, which should mean clearer audio because the corridor will be quieter compared with the test shots.