Camera Angles

Storyboards

Layer Cake

Institutions:

Name of film: Layer Cake

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Date of release- 1st October 2004 (UK)

Country where made- UK

Awards nominated: 3 wins - Empire Award - Best british director, Special Recognition x2 - for excellence in film-making.

Certificate: 15 (UK)

Genre: Crime Thriller

Audience Response:

'Clever, 27 September 2004

Author: Philip O'Carroll from Cork, Ireland.
This is a clever drug dealer movie set in the UK. It starts out with the main character (XXXX) and narrator cheerfully extolling the virtues of the drug industry when you are careful and organised like he is. He is about to retire with a nice little fortune. Then it all starts to go wrong, one thing after another as layers are added to the plot.Sometimes it seems as if the plot is too complex and there are two dangers, one of leaving the audience behind and two leaving gaping holes in the plot. Still the humour and action set pieces are enough to pull it through. It is not as good as Snatch or Lock, Stock etc but is original enough to stand on its own right. Worth a look.'

This film is extremely good, and very popular, which is good especially for a British film. This is because most films that are made are American. The film can be quite confusing though, as it cuts from shot to shot, which could be a danger as audiences could lose interest in the film. This film does make the audience think about the story behind the bigger picture behind the story though, meaning it's the perfect thriller.

Shooting Schedule

We shot our thriller over the course of 2 weeks, using different days each week. Each shoot was successful and went to plan. Our thriller was also shot later on than everyone elses as there were a few complications in my group.

Thursday 15th January - Shoot went well, got to the train station at 6.00pm and left at 7.00pm. The shoot was a lot harder than we thought. Still a lot to film.
Friday 16th January - 4.30 pm - 5.30pm, went very well. Only needed two of our characters so was a lot easier to shoot.
Monday 19th January - 5.00pm - 6.00pm, final shots filmed, and just re-shot a few scenes.
Thursday 22nd January - 4.30pm - 5.00pm, only needed to check we had everything filmed so we were only there for about half an hour.

Questionnaire Results

When completing the audience research, we handed our questionnaire out to 20 people, 10 males and 10 females. This meant that our results were fair.
As our thriller is aimed at the age group 15 - 25, we handed out the questionnaire to people mainly in this age group. We did, however, hand out our questionnaire to a couple of people who weren't in our target audience, but it let us find out if different age groups vary in taste.
Whilst looking at the results, we found out that a majority of our target audience were students in either full or part time education. When it came to looking at the male results, a majority of the people who had completed the questionnaire were aged 15 - 20, and this was the same as females. We also found out that males tend to watch films more than females. Most of the males mentioned that they watch films at least once a week, whereas females only said at least once a month. A majority of the results showed that our target audience would rather watch a film at the cinema than they would at home, but this could be hard as money could be tight for some. Only 3 out of 10 males admitted that they would rather see a male in the lead than a female. This is probably due to the fact that a male lead would appeal to them more as they could perhaps relate or idolise him. Females had two minds when it came to choosing a gender for the lead role, so a majority chose 'don't mind'. This could be because they could want to see an attractive male as the lead or they could want a female as the lead because they would relate to her. Basically all of our target audience said that they would rather watch a film in colour than they would in black and white. This is most likely to be because of modern media products being in colour, so it is therefore what our target audiences generation is used to.

Perfume Advert and Analysis

My perfume advert was made by using three different images and then layering on Photoshop. My advert is aimed out at teenagers - young adults (15 - 23 year olds). I aimed to choose someone who is known as a British icon and and someone who is very popular with my target age group. With this as my idea, I chose Cheryl Cole, a popular British style icon, and also chose an image of a crowd waving Union Jacks. This would highly emphasise the Britishness behind the advert.
I started by choosing my background image, the crowd with Union Jacks, and opened it on Photoshop. I tried many different effects for this such as film grain and plastic wrap, but I didn't think that these were eye-catching enough. Eventually I chose an effect called posterising. This effect really makes the advert stand out, and it also makes it unique as there are no other adverts like it. I then opened the image of Cheryl Cole, and used the magnetic lasso tool to cut her out of the picture. After doing this, I dragged her image onto my background and posterised it. After this, I needed to find an area of the image where she would blend in. I chose to put her in the corner as she would then look like part of the crowd in the original background. I then chose my tagline, 'be that face in the crowd', and put it into white, the only colour which was readable. However, when putting it onto the background, it isn't that clear. I came up with my product name, 'English Glow', and put it into a turquoise colour, making it a colour that stood out and pulled the audience in, making it unique.

When A Stranger Calls

Institutions:
Name of Film- When A Stranger Calls
Director- Simon West
Date of release- 12th May 2006 (UK)
Country where made- USA
Awards nominated- 1 nomination for the Golden Trailer award (Best Thriller)
Genre- Thriller

Audience Response:
'Just as good as the original, 6 February 2006
Author: redheadkz from United States
Having seen the original when I was 13 (and, yes, I was stupid enough to watch it while babysitting!), I was excited to see this remake.Camilla Bell did a great job as Jill Johnson. And the fact that a teen horror flick could be made in the year 2006 without tremendous vulgarity and gore, made it even that much stronger of a film. I had a great time trying not to chew my fingernails off!This film won't win anyone an Oscar, but it is entertaining and worth the matinée price ticket I bought to see it. I think girls around the world should watch the original and the remake...and then determine to never babysit again. All I can say is, I'm glad I'm too old to babysit! There's just something about being in a dark creepy house with sleeping kids that makes this movie classic. No blood, no gore...just good psychological fun! WINNER!'

This user comment was useful as it commented on both the original and the remake. Having seen both, I agree with this comment. This film has no blood and no 'monsters' making the scares completely in your head. The film had all the generics of a thriller film, making it the perfect thriller to analyse.
The film includes a lot of noir lighting, one of the main conventions of a thriller. The film also has many close ups, particularly of the girls face. This lets the audience see her reactions and expression in more detail. The clothing of the killer is typically generic especially for thrillers. He is dressed in dark clothing, making him automatically seem threatening and creepy. The young girl, Jill Johnson, is dressed casually, making the audience realise that the film is set in everyday life. It also makes the audience aware that she is just a teenager, therefore leaving the audience with the revelation that this could or does actually happen in everyday life.

Preliminary Planning

As a group, we came to the decision of having ourselves star in our preliminary task. By doing this, we gave ourselves more time to film and edit. This also meant that it would be easier for us as we wouldn't have to worry about having people not turning up.
We decided to have a thriller storyline to help us gain new skills and techniques for when it came to filming our thriller films. We used an everyday crime (credit card fraud) which would also fit in with our thrillers.

Mock Exam

Analysing Phonebooth

Institutions:
-Name of film: Phonebooth
-Year made: 2003
-Certification: 15 in the UK, R in America
-Genre: Mystery Thriller
-Country of origin: USA
-Awards: 7 nominations including 2 MTV Movie Awards
-Director: Joel Schumacher
-Production Company: 20Th Century Fox

Codes and Conventions:
There are many different aspects of a thriller which are generic signifiers. Phonebooth connotes a lot of these.
The lighting in Phonebooth is as though the film was in everyday life as it was quite cloudy lighting. Although this is breaking the codes and conventions of a thriller film, the lighting does seem to work. It's not chiaroscuro or noir lighting like in generic thriller films, but the cloudiness of the setting seems to make the city 'not right'. It adds an eery feel to the 'normal' city, making the audience know something isn't right. By using a lighting like this, the audience feel less like they're watching a film and more like they are there, watching it as though it's an everyday thing.
The mise-en-scene throughout the film makes viewers more aware of the character just being in everyday life. The clothes he wears aren't usually what would be classed as generic thriller costume. However, by breaking these boundaries, it becomes obvious to the audience that he's completely innocent and just 'in the wrong place at the wrong time'. Colin Farrell's character, Stu Shepard, is dressed in a suit jacket, shirt and a pair of trousers which connotes that he was possibly on his way to work when the phone in the phonebooth rang.
The film was shot in down-town Los Angeles, even though the film was actually set in New York city. The setting is quite dismal and dirty, fitting in with the generics of a thriller film. This, of course, adds to the suspense which keeps the audience intrigued. The main character, Stu Shepard, is actually walking through a 'red light' district which adds to the creepiness and mystery of the character. This also leaves the audience with the question 'why is he there when he's got a loving wife at home and has also got a lover on the side?'. This, again, would draw in the audiences attention, making them wonder what would happen next. The area that the character is walking through makes him look quite sleazy, but as the hidden sniper threatens him, he very slowly breaks down.
The film includes a lot of split-screen shots, drawing the audiences attention to the other possible victims. There are also point of view shots which add to the suspense and put the viewers in the characters place. This would make the audience feel as though they were they are there, either as the sniper character or as one of the victims.
There is a cultural signifier in the setting as well, however, it wasn't a signifier for New York, it was a Los Angeles signifier. It's a double-decker bus which is clearly marked 'LABBS'. The setting makes downtown Los Angeles look dirty and dingy which represents it as a place where a majority of people are violent and have a strong desire for money.
The area that the film is set in, has a lot of prostitutes around and they come across as a group of quite dirty, sleazy, money-orientated people and their 'boss' seems protective but very aggressive. They are also Latino-American so this could, therefore, insult particular audiences.
The film could reflect the divide between upper and lower class Americans, e.g. the sniper in his dirty, small apartment with no-one and the main character with his wife at home in his penthouse apartment, then with his lover at her house.
The film has had 39,125 males rate it with an average of 7.3 out of 10. Females, however, have voted it 7.2 out of 10 with only 5,141 votes. This film is more popular with males than it is women as it contains scenes which can get quite disturbing and gory, for example; when the main character is shot in the ear.


Teachers Comments
Male audiences probably find the film more appealing because the central characters are men.
From your discussion, woman are represented in the stereotypical wife/whore convention, thus the film churns out the traditional message that cinema action revolves around male fantasies of paranoia and sexual liberty!

Preliminary Task

Our preliminary task took two takes in order to achieve the right angles. We used a lot of camera angles so we were able to practise getting them right. Although our prelim is short, we still included plenty of camera angles and movement in order to show we knew what to do.
I think that some music over the top would have completed it and it also would have helped us when it came to editing our thriller task. This is because it would have given us practise of how it's done.

Unfortunately, for some reason, the moving images in our preliminary task have gone extremely pixelated.

Shot List

Shot 1. Shot of the back of the males head

Shot 2. Female walks by, just behind the man and walks away.

Shot 3. Shot back to the male, standing alone in train station. He's looking at train times.

Shot 4. Cuts back to the female looking round suspiciously and slowly moving towards the male.

Shot 5. Close up of her hand removing his wallet from his back pocket.

Shot 6. Mid-shot of her walking away.

Shot 7. Extreme close up of her hand and the wallet. She removes his credit cards and money.

Shot 8. Close up of her putting the money and cards into her bag.

Shot 9. Mid-shot of her walking away and throwing the wallet into a bin.

Shot 10. She walks up to the toilets and looks around before going in. Door swings shut behind her.

Shot 11. Mid-Shot of her in a cubicle in the toilets with the door shut. Audience can only see her legs and feet. Just see her coat fall to the floor.

Shot 12. Cubicle door opens. Audience see woman in a dress. She picks up the coat and hangs it on the back of the door.

Shot 13. She walks over to the mirror and puts on expensive jewellery. Over the shoulder shot, as she looks in the mirror. We can only see her reflection and the door behind her.

Shot 14. As another woman walks in, we still see her reflection but we can now clearly see a man in dark clothing standing outside the toilets. Woman doesn't notice him.

Shot 15. She walks out of the toilets and walks off.

Shot 16. Long shot of the man, with the crowd all moving around him.

Shot 17. He starts to follow the woman. He keeps his distance from her.

Shot 18. As he gets closer to her, you see her stop and apply some red lipstick in a compact mirror. He blends back into the crowd.

Shot 19. He starts to move towards her again, as she moves off. (His identity is never revealed) She's still looking in the mirror.

Shot 20. She notices him staring and moving towards her. Her eyes widen, and she starts walking briskly.

Shot 21. She stops again and looks around, using the mirror. She see's no-one.

Shot 22. She starts to finish applying lipstick. A mans arm appears and grabs her arm.

Shot 23. Lipstick is smeared across her face while the mirror falls to the floor. The end of the lipstick breaks off.

Shot 24. Still shot of shattered glass on the floor.

Actor Evaluations

The female in our thriller is generic femme fatale. She is the main character in the film, wearing a fitted dress giving her automatic stereotypical sex appeal, high heels and red lipstick - something that's of high importance for a femme fatale. The female also has perfect hair and make-up making her the envy of most females. During the opening, she goes into the toilets and changes her look, making her unrecognisable to her 'victims'.

The male shown as the victim in the opening, was cast as he didn't look tough, he looked as though he could actually be mugged. He looks naive and vulnerable making him the perfect person for our film. He is shown to be extremely trusting of those around him because of the wallet sticking out of his back pocket.

The male shown as the attacker, was perfect for the job. He naturally has broad shoulders meaning he looks threatening. He is in a black jacket, making him blend in the crowd. He is shown to be extremely threatening too as he follows her and his evil stare is seen in the reflection of the mirror.

Location Evaluation

All of our film is going to be shot in and around the Norwich Train Station, an old, dark building making it a typically generic thriller setting. We will be using the front of the building and the inside as it is extremely unglamorous. Our thriller will be shot in the evening, again making sure we have generic thriller signifiers in the film. Although we are shooting in the evening when it will be dark, we will make sure that the footage is visible and that no part of our film is unclear.

We have previously been to the train station and made sure that the areas we are using to film are well lit.

This is where the main part of our film will be shot. As it's going to be dark, hopefully the lights in the train station won't be too bright which could make our film seem unrealistic and more like a home movie.