There are many things I have learnt throughout my AS level Media Studies, from the first preliminary task and my final cut of my thriller opening. The use of certain aspects of mise-en-scene such as lighting, costume, continuity and props have all be things I have needed to consider, in order to make a successful thriller opening.
Lighting proved to be an issue whilst filming scenes for my groups thriller openings. In my preliminary task lighting, wasn't too much of an issue because of our limited understanding of cinematography. Where as in my groups thriller, lighting was very key in establishing the mood we had decided upon, whilst planning. In filming our opening my group had to switch cameras half way through because of lighting issues.
Example of bad lighting from our first recording:
This experience has made me understand how important lighting is when considering the mood and action of any genre, not just the thriller genre. My group tried a ranged of different lighting effects such as chiaroscuro lighting, low key lighting and ambient lighting, all in an attempt to create a more dramatic mood. These effects were very hard to achieve, and we decided to film in the day time, and then use lighting effects during editing, rather than wasting time trying to get the 'perfect' lighting, which would be almost impossible, without professional help or technology.
Compared to my preliminary task, my thriller opening has used a wide range of transitions to enhance the mood of the situation. In my preliminary task there are no transitions used, just quick cuts between each shot, showing how little I knew of transitions and their influence on my thriller opening.
Preliminary Task (no effects, just cuts):
Thriller Opening (range of transitions enhancing the mood of the situation):
Continuity was also an aspect of mise-en-scene me and my group had to deal with. As shown in my preliminary task evaluation and the clip, continuity was very poor, for example Jono's costume changes from him wearing a jumper to him wearing a t-shirt. Continuity also became a problem when filming my groups thriller opening. Me and my group had all of the footage that we had planned to get, and were ready to start editing. But we then got recommendations from fellow classmates, friends and our teacher, about adding in extra footage to make our thriller opening better. James had his hair cut half way through editing which didn't matter too much, as the majority of the scenes we needed to shoot did not involve James. We were quite fortunate that the recommendations only involved enigmatic figures and not James, otherwise, our thriller would not have been as dramatic as it is now.
When filming our preliminary tasks the main focus was on the use of shot-reverse-shot used in the opening of 'Pulp Fiction', and the 180 degree rule. At first myself, Jono and Nile found it quite challenging to get these simple aspects right. And looking back on it now make me think how much I have learnt over the eight months I have been taking AS level Media Studies. We were constantly told not to use mid shots during our thriller opening, as they were boring and didn't add to the mood of the situation. Therefore when filming our thriller, me and my group tried to avoid using mid shots, and instead using tilt shots, high angles and low angles, this proved to be very good advice.
Before filming the thriller me and my group had quite a strong understanding of what we wanted to do, and all had similar ideas. But once we started filming, we realised that some of the scenes we visualised in our minds was not do-able. This caused a lot of trouble, as we then had to think of more possible scenes to replace these ideas. We were intent on keeping with the mood we set out, and to make these scenes as dramatic as the ones before. As said in the paragraph about continuity, we had a lot of support from our fellow classmates, friends and teacher, which proved to very influential in our thriller opening. Using questionnaires such as the ones below and places of improvement from our teacher we managed to include the scenes recommended, which has truly benefited our thriller openings.
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