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.