Making of EXHIBIT A- Chalk Body Dilemma

Before shooting the scene of the chalk body on the floor of EXHIBIT A we had a problem. The chalk we used didn't show on the floor. 

After trying out the chalks we managed to find TALCUM POWDER around the house and decided to use that. Even though the drawing out the chalk body is a two minute job, for us it took long as we had to make a fine outline and cear up any excess powder.
OUR SOLUTION!!!

To get the outline of the body we first got Sabina to lay down on the floor. Baris went around outlining the body with talcum powder when Tufael went around making the outlines fine using a paper. After the outlining was finished Sabina had to get up carefully so that the lines didn't mess up.
Here are the videos showing the process.

from Donna

Hi Guys

Your photos and new blog design look great. Could you edit your photographs into an 'edited piece' in Final Cut. This will improve 'the look' of your blog. You are filming tomorrow, so I will get the equipment with you first thing.

Baris you are behind with your blogging, so could you attend workshop and catch up please.

see you then

Donna

Making of EXHIBIT A - Shots

These are some shots of us filming our thriller! Dont mind the plastic bag over our camera, it was raining and we improvised! 

EXHIBIT A - Storyboard

This is our story board for our thriller. Planning out shot by shot helps us to stay organised and film what we need without wasting time! Also when it comes to editing we can easily put the clips in order. The story board also reminded us of the exact match cuts we would use. 

Different types of structure of a film opening

The three basic types of structures of a film opening that I have recognised are a narrative opening, a discrete title sequence and titles over a black screen.

Narrative opening: whereby the opening has titles running throughout.

A discrete title sequence is when the titles are shown but the action over powers, and so making it almost camouflaged.

Another style of opening is stylised editing, this is when the precision of the opening is immaculate, the titles will almost become one with the sound and action of the opening.

Panic Room

I have chosen Panic Room to illustrate the film opening of narrative opening. In this intro we see the titles continuously running throughout and also the titles are not subtle, they are very bold and large in size and so hard to miss. They make the audience recognise and read the titles. 

Enemy of the state

This is an example of a discrete opening. We are almost enticed or captured by the action behind the titles that we almost miss the big names that run across our screen such as "Will Smith".

The Taking of Pelham 123

This is an example of "stylised editing". The way in which the titles run through this intro is immaculate. Different fonts and sizes are used for the titles throughout, the titles match the music the sound and the action and almost become one with them. For example when the music is mysterious the title is bold and black and is slowly uncovered.

The tape

Finally got the black and yellow tape! this will make the crime scene look authentic

what do crime scenes look like?

Tufael here, i done some research into what crime scenes actualy look like on google images and i also found out how our evidence cards should look like.

this is the first image that caught my attention mainly because its a lot like how our scenen is ment to look like. The lighting and body give a very strong atmosphere of mystery and dangour which we could use in our thriller.

I think this picture can help because the black and yellow tape on top is the exact same as the one we have for props.

layout of evidence cards

Here are some close ups on evidence cards. i will try to print some out the best i can, im also going to have to write some of the credits on the bottem of the cards just incase. 

Production Schedule

13th February 2012

11.00-11.30- Meet up in Old St. Then head to Stoke Newington [Baris's sisters house]

11.45- At the location. Setting up the outside location and the equipments [putting the tapes around the house]

11.45-12.15- Shooting the first scene of Baris going in the house. Flashbacks of the man in the house.

12.15-13.00- Do the outline of the chalk body. Set up the inside of the house [ putting tapes around in the house, setting up the props.

13.00- 14.45 - Shooting the scene of Baris going in the house, checking the evidence and the telephone scene.

14.45- 15. 15- Break

15.15 - 16.00- Bathroom scene

FINISH FILMING

16.00- 17.00- Clean up, pack up the equipments

Getting the props ready

These are some of the props we've prepared. Not all of them are ready but we're getting there.

tweesers and cotten buds for when the detectives collecting the evidence, we are going to try and make it as realistic as posible.

 We made some fake blood out of kitchen equipment just incase, we might need them.

Heres the surgical gloves with blood on them which is going to be one of the evidence's.

 This is going to be collected with the cotten bud. We made it as realistic as we could and it turned out to be very realistic.

very realistic :)

The phone which gets a unknown caller. 

I was playing around with the background, how does it look?

PITCH - Presentation

Tufael here, this is our groups prezi and we covered most thing in it

(were changing our distribution company to metrodome or film4 because warner brothers is not believable and these two institutes are low budget and uk based but also very well known which is perfect for our film)

Some metrodome films are '50 dead men walking' and 'the darklands'
Some film4 films are 'west is west' and 'the lovely bones'

EXHIBIT A on Prezi

Structure of Thriller Openings- EXHIBIT A Opening Structure Idea

Whilsts looking at film openings I have noticed that there are three basic structures. A NARRATIVE opening with the titles running through out, a DISCRETE tiltle sequence and titles over a black screen followed by a narrative opening.
An example of an narrative opening ' Panic Room', I liked this opening because the titles seemed like they were attached to the buildings. It was very bold and clear to see.

 An example of an discrete opening 'Enemy of the State'. This opening had a lot of actions in the scene and the credits went along with it. Obviously this one was edited more heavily as there were those targets in the screen and texts were stylised.

                                                     
Here is an example of credits over blank screen opening 'Donnie Darko'. This opening seems quite simple like the credits are shown first than the narrative. This is quite good as its clear to see the credits as it has the main focus at the beginning and then get involved with the narrative.

 There is also another style of opening which has been named 'Stylized Editing'. These type of openings are amazingly stylized and its stands out because the editing is outstanding however it will take a long time in the post production. Here is an example of an stylized opening 'The Taking of Pelham 123'

For our opening of EXHIBIT A we have decided to do a narrative opening similiar to our prelim video Room 333. Whilst doing a narrative opening for our prelim we have noticed that it worked well and we all felt that a narrative opening was the most suitbale for our opening.
One of our ideas is to have the some of the credits pop up at each evidence for example when we see the chalk body on the floor with a card  labelling the evidence an actors name would be shown. Something along that line.

Skills Audit

Through out the sessions there are many skills that I have learnt and will help me when it comes to do the filming and editing of our opening scene of EXHIBIT A. We have learnt to use many softwares such as Final Cut Pro, Sound Track Pro also sites such as Blogger and Prezi.
Whilst editing the clips of Arlington Road in FINAL CUT PRO I have learnt how to

• Import files into FCP and arrange them together
• Extend and cut clips
• Add stylized texts in different sizes and fonts also arranging them into in places to make a title sequence
• Exporting the video on to Quick Time Movie as well as Soundtrack Pro
• Adding foley sounds which we recorded and importing them into the sequence

When using SOUNDTRACK I have learnt it is to add non diegetic sounds into the video. We have used this when we were doing the Arlignton Road re-make and our prelim video of Room 333.  I have learnt how to

• Find non diegetic sounds/instruments under catergorized folders
• Drag the sounds across to the timeline and positioning them where its best suited
• Importing them back onto FCP where we dont have a mixture of sounds

Also during the process we have learnt how to blog on blogger and to keep it intresting. Blogs that are plain and dont have any visuals such as pictures and videos seem quite tedious thats why we post various of things such as videos, story boards presentations etc. We also learnt how to use PREZI and found out that it is much more appealing than using Microsoft Powerpoint which isnt that bad either.

Whilst doing the prelim video of Room 333 I got a general idea of how to match cut, pan and do the over the shoulder shot. Altough our match cut wasnt perfect we got the drift of it however after many takes we manged to get the panning shot from the fan to Baris perfect.

Planned Locations - House in Stoke Newington

The location we have chosen to do the EXHIBIT A opening is Baris's sisters house in Stoke Newington. We have chosen this location as it is going to be ideal to shoot the opening scene where the detective investigates the incident. Baris has got his sisters consent to use her house and would be available for us on the dates we planned to film. Also the area Stoke Newington is convenient and we are not too far from it. Here are some shots Baris took of the house

Research into film audiance

After some research i can see that the film audience is crucial in getting a film out there. In the main stream the film audience is one of the first things thought about when thinking about a film, i can also see that different film audiences prefer different genres for example older people who may have been involved in ww2 will be interested in war films and our target audience which is 16-30 tend to watch the more fast paced cross genres like action thriller, horror thriller, sci-fi thriller etc. Target audience also rely on gender in thrillers there is a slightly higher male audience than female this is probably because females don’t enjoy fast paced action movies these days as most men do. Yet still there are exceptions such as the film ‘he loves me he loves me not’.



and the film ‘the roommate’

the roommate start off looking like a typical female film about a students life and friends which will straight away attract the female audience making them think its not a thriller, but half way into it when the attention of the audiences caught then the director reveals that it is a thriller but at this point the audience is interested in the story and will not care much about the genre. This is sort of like a trap to get the female audience watching a film by presenting what they like before and grabbing there attention. This is effective to get a larger audience (some males may even be interested in watching the film too as it has a sense of mystery and horror as well).

Our Thriller Idea Video

A detailed video of us explaining our idea

pictures of us in work shop making the pitch

what do people think of our film opening

Asked a few people over facebook what they think of our idea

person 1

person 2

person 3