'Lily' Title Sequence (work in progress):

Research into editing:

Within our title sequence we wanted to replicate the effect of losing consciousness. We originally began with a low angle, point of view shot aimed at the ceiling. The shot tracked down the hallway tilting from side to side suggesting someone was being wheeled down a hallway in a hospital bed. To create the appearance of losing consciousness we needed to edit within post production using the software 'Adobe Premiere Pro'.

I had previously never used this software to edit my work and therefore had to conduct research in order to create my desired effect and make it look professional. I firstly wanted to know how to create a fade in and out so the focus would change throughout the sequence making the clips disorientating.



Above is the clip I found during research. The clip was used to guide our group replicating a fade in and out effect. We replicated the effect shown above to demonstrate the character slipping in and out of consciousness, specifically her vision blurring and then clearing. A second effect we wanted to create was the appearance of blinking as demonstrated on our title sequence photo story board:

Through several research attempts involving research into YouTube videos as well as media blog's I couldn't find a way of creating the effect of blinking whilst it remained realistic. I therefore tested out several video effects in attempt to create a realistic looking blink. After many practice attempts we did the following to create a blink effect:

• Razor blade tool along the clip every few seconds where blink would be needed.
• Separate the clips.
• Add fade to black edit on the end and beginning of each clip, shorten/ lengthen as appropriate.

Through using this technique we were able to replicate the appearance of blinking as though the audience were looking out of the eyes of our protagonist Lily.

This is what the first draft of our opening title sequence looks like following the editing process within post production. The titles themselves have not yet been added.

Applying genre theory to our short film 'Lily':

Genre translates to a type or kind of something. When applied to film it is used as a way of classifying through the use of codes and conventions.

Tom Ryall's genre theory states:
'Genre provides a framework for patterns, forms, styles and structures.' These patterns are presented within genre through iconography, narrative structure, character representations and ideology. Our film conforms to Ryall's theory as it features thriller iconography of a knife. Other films which feature this form of iconography is the slasher horror 'Scream' (Dir Wes Craven, 1996). The use of iconography works as a convention to define film genres allowing audiences to choose films of their preferred genre.



Rick Altman's 'set of pleasures' states:

Emotional Pleasures - The emotional pleasures offered to audiences of genre films are particularly significant when they generate a strong audience response.

Visceral Pleasures - Visceral pleasures are 'gut' responses, defined by how the film's stylistic construction elicits a physical effect upon its audience. This can be a feeling of revulsion, kinetic speed or a 'roller coaster ride'.

Intellectual Puzzles - Certain film genres such as the thriller offer the pleasure in trying to unravel a mystery or a puzzle. Pleasure is derived from deciphering the plot and forecasting the end or being surprised by the unexpected.

Our film fits into the 'intellectual puzzles' category as it features several visions. It is the audiences tasks to define whether the visions will come true. A second way this theory applies is that the ending is ambiguous- it is unclear which character killed the other and down to the audience to decipher for themselves in regards to previous events within the film.

Not all genre theories apply, for example we subvert Douglas Pye's theory of genre which states:
'Films have to conform to audiences expectations of narrative.' Whereas our film does not conform to audiences expectations of narrative, it contains many plot twists. The character Lily resists killing Brett however in the final scene of the film someone has been murdered producing unexpected narrative.

List of tricky shots:

Our film involves several tricky shots in order to create suspense, continuity and verisimilitude. For example the first shot used within our short film includes the title sequence. This involves fade in and fade out editing and editing in a blinking form. The aim of this edit is to demonstrate Lily going in and out of consciousness. The plan for this is demonstrated through our story board:

To replicate this effect we will edit during post production. This effect will create suspense within the opening title sequence of our film establishing the films genre as suspense is a key convention within thriller genre. To create the edit of losing consciousness we used a fade to black repetitively within the clip.

Focus pull is a second tricky shot we aim to use within our production. Below is a video I created demonstrating a simple manouvre to create a focus pull.



Our focus pull will feature our character Lily in the foreground and the prop of the knife and knife rack in the background. The shallow focus will alter from Lily to the knife signifying her thoughts of killing Brett and creating tension. In order to perfect this tricky shot we will create several pratice attempts.The focus pull portrays one of our films key themes; death and psychic ability.

Risk Assessment

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How we will make our short film look professional

There are some common errors that many amateur filmmakers make when shooting and editing their films which affects the overall quality. If the filmmaking process is not undergone in a professional, high-quality manner, our short film would look more like a video. Hence, we decided to research some ways that amateur film production can be made to look professional without purchasing expensive equipment.

The more focused shot on the right looks far more professional.

Focus

This is a vital technique for effective cinematography. Changing the depth of focus allows one part of a shot to be blurred while the rest is in focus, as seen in the picture on the right. This technique can have a variety of effects:

• It directs the viewer’s attention to a particular part of a shot. When something is strategically placed out of focus, the viewer doesn’t pay attention to them. Viewers focus on the part of the image that’s in focus.
• It reduces distraction in the background, which can be a significant issue. Thankfully, it can be controlled via use of depth of field.
• It allows a shot to look richer and more cinematic.

Colour Correction

This is a method of altering the colour of a shot to create a specific effect. For example, shot may be editing to have more of a blue tint to it, which creates a cold unfriendly atmosphere, whereas a slightly orange tint would usually have the opposite effect. Colour correction can also be used to salvage a shot that contained lighting errors. Hence, this will be invaluable for ensuring a professional feel to our film.

The top image shows the original shot, the bottom shows the same shot after colour correction has taken place.

Lighting

Lighting plays an important part in creating the atmosphere in a film. The amount of light and the direction of the light source can give meaning to the viewer of the film. For example, lighting is used to indicate the time of the day. There are 5 main types of lighting:

• Back Lighting - This is the main light source from behind a character or object. It is used to create a silhouette. The character can be made to look mysterious due to the effect of the shadows. It can create a sense of impending doom and is often used in horror movies.

• Key and Fill Lighting - This is often the main light source in a particular scene. It is usually directed onto the main character. Fill lighting can also be added to soften the effect of shadows.

• Under Lighting - The main light source from below the character. It is often used to disfigure the face, thus, it is common for horror films make use of this technique.

• Top Lighting - This is the main light source from above the character. It is used to remove shadows produced by the key lighting. It can also create the illusion of a bright, sunny day

• Side Lighting - The main light source comes from one side of the screen. It is used to light one side of the character’s face and produces shadows across the set, creating a sense of mystery.

Film lighting intro from Andy Wallis

Film lighting, light and colour part 2 from Andy Wallis

Locations

The first half of the short film will take place in a hospital setting. In order to replicate the appearance of a hospital, we will be filming within our college infirmary to create verisimilitude throughout the scenes. The setting includes hospital iconography such as plain white walls and medical equipment. It also includes props such as hospital beds and curtains; contributing to the realism of the film. Setting will also be established through the use of costume and props in regards to the Doctor. Through this setting the audience is automatically aware of the important fact that Lily has been hurt.

The Doctor's death within Lily's vision will occur in an office setting. To replicate this we will use an office within our college and ensure it is clear from  college newsletters and signs as this would cause the scene to look unrealistic and amateur. Props will also be added to strengthen the verisimilitude of the setting; mug, stationary,  hospital files. By adding props to the office setting it can be clearly defined as a Doctor's office within a hospital.

A short clip will focus on protagonist Lily travelling to her home with Brett. This will take place within a quiet street to avoid unwanted sounds. It will also feature shots of the characters entering the home. Setting is not key within this sequence as it will only be very short, elliptical editing will be used.

The left photo shows Lily and Brett's garden. The right shows the door to their house.

Following previous scenes the rest of the film will occur within a family home. The warm, domestic setting influences the audience to believe that the two characters were a content couple prior to Lily's accident and her psychological trouble. The homely setting also creates more tension within the audience as it reveals that danger and death can occur anywhere, no one is safe.

From left to right, these images show Lily and Brett's living room, settee, dining room, kitchen and knife holder.

The two images showing Lily and Brett's garden will only be seen briefly in the film itself. Specifically, they will be seen when the couple arrive home, with a shot from within the house showing the door open; the garden being visible only for a short interval. The living room setting will be used when Brett confronts Lily about her hysteria. She will be sat on the settee, with Brett stood in the doorway. The television may also be on. The above photos of the living room have rather cheery, high-key lighting (due to the flash from the camera), however in the film itself, it will be dark and sombre to reflect the mood of the aforementioned scene. The dining room and kitchen are connected together, and will be the most frequently used setting in the film (in that they will have the most screen time). The setting will be first seen when Lily and Brett are having breakfast, which is also when Lily hears the radio report that triggers her downward spiral into hysteria and delusion. In this same scene, Brett attempts to comfort Lily, resulting in the vision in which she sees herself killing him. The setting reappears again later in the film after Brett confronts Lily, and the latter then storms into the kitchen, only to attack the former with a knife from the knife rack before being calmed. It also appears on the final shot of the film, where the knife is either missing or replaced (depending on the ending we decide to use).

Influences on our film:

In order to establish a professional looking short, we researched into popular films. An example of this is Carrie (Director Kimberly Peirce, 2013):

Carrie follows the story of a telekinetic outcast.

The cinematography within Carrie provided inspiration in regards to our film. Within our plot the main protagonist Lily travels with her boyfriend from the hospital to home. Due to the fact our film is a short film we wanted to reduce the time taken to do this but still convey the travel clearly. 'Carrie' uses quick elliptical editing to portray Sue Snell, an ex bully to Carrie, travelling home.Graphic match is also used to ensure continuity is not broken and allow the elliptical editing to flow. The two scenes and settings cut together can be shown below:

 

The elliptical editing showing Sue's travel home.

We gained influence of iconography through the film Scream (Director Wes Craven, 1996):

Scream is a horror series featuring a mystery killer. 'Scream' features memorable iconography of a bloody knife used to determine the films main theme of death. This will be used similarly within 'Lily'.

Ghost face featuring the iconic knife.

The Dead Zone (1983) is a psychological thriller film based on Stephen King's novel of the same name.

It features the main protagonist Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken) waking from a coma following a car accident to realise that he has developed a new psychic ability: he can have visions of the past, present and future via physical contact with people or inanimate objects. Johnny uses his powers to help others, such as aiding the local sheriff George Bannerman (Tom Skerrit) in solving a series of grisly murders. He later learns that not only can he predict the future, he can also change it. The film's villain is a conniving populist politician named Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen). After shaking his hand, Johnny foresees him becoming the president and starting what is presumably World War 3. Johnny therefore attempts to use his ability to assassinate Stillson; as seen in the clip below. Johnny fails to assassinate Stillson, but is successful in ruining his chances in the election, shown when Johnny has a vision of Stillson committing suicide.

Lily's psychic abilities were inspired by that of Johnny Smith; the difference being that Johnny can see visions of the past, present at future, whereas Lily can only foresee people's deaths. Both Lily and Johnny begin to question their own sanity in their respective films, although Johnny arguably less so. While Johnny uses his powers to save lives (as he does so several times), Lily seems somewhat incapable of controlling her powers, and unlike Johnny, her powers seem to be more of a curse than a gift; resulting in nothing aside from misery and hysteria.


The main concept of the film is that following Lily’s accident, she has developed a psychic ability that allows her to foresee the death of anyone she touches. Given that her vision of Dr. Walker’s demise came true, she assumes that the same will apply to anyone else that she makes physical contact with. Hence, she starts to develop a fear of death, in that she begins to believe that she is bringing certain death upon anyone she touches. She remains practically doubtless that a death seen in her vision is a certainty of events to come; that the future cannot be changed despite her efforts. A film with a similar concept to this is “Final Destination” (2000), in which the film’s protagonist Alex (Devon Sawa) boards a plane with his classmates on a trip to Paris. While on the plane, he has a premonition that the plane will explode in mid-air, killing everyone on board (seen above). When the events from his vision begin to repeat themselves in reality, he panics and a fight breaks out, leading to a handful of passengers being left behind, namely Alex and his classmates. They then witness the plane exploding moments later. Afterwards, the survivors begin to die one by one through a series of bizarre accidents, Alex attempts to find a way to ‘cheat’ Death's plan before it's too late. Six months later, Alex, and two of his friends travel to Paris to celebrate their survival, believing they have finally cheated Death. However, after one of the trio is crushed by a giant neon sign, they realize that Death's plan is still in action. Hence, both films toy with the idea that death cannot be cheated; that it is inevitable, regardless of what is done to prevent it.

Questionnaire Results

Click here to see the results to our online audience questionnaire.

Analysis of Audience Questionnaire Results

Audience Questionnaire Results Analysis from RossWalker098

Title Sequence (Storyboard)

Click the storyboard to enhance it.

 

Film Storyboard

This is the first draft of our film's storyboard. Rather than drawing the events of the film, we instead decided to use an online story-boarding software called 'Storyboard That'. This allowed for much more detailed and effective storyboard than sketches would have been capable of. It will also be beneficial to us as it will enable us to undergo cinematography more easily now that we have a more definite image of the film. The storyboard itself can be seen below. You can click on each section of the storyboard to enhance it.

Film Treatment

Film Name: Lily

 

Overview: The Film is about a teenage girl who receives psychic abilities after an accident, and the subsequent consequences of having these abilities.

 

Outline:  Main character (Lily) has been hospitalised after an accident. The accident has given her psychic abilities with which she can foresee the deaths of others via physical contact. In the first vision she foresees Dr Walker (the doctor that was treating her in hospital) succumb to a heart attack in his office. Lily then goes home accompanied by her boyfriend, Brett. The following day, Lily hears a radio report concerning the death of her doctor. This causes her to become hysterical, resulting in her second vision when Brett attempts to comfort her. In this vision she sees herself stabbing him to death. He convinces her that she is merely delusional, though she remains sceptical. The same evening, Brett finds Lily in the living room, still behaving strangely, and suggests that she seek help since it is beginning to affect their relationship. This angers Lily, causing her to storm into the kitchen with Brett in tail. She then attacks him with a knife in a sequence mirroring that of the vision. She snaps out of her trance and drops the knife before placing back in the holder and going to bed. The film ends with one final shot of the knife holder, the knife itself being absent.

Technical Information:  Length: 5 Minutes

                                            Certificate: 12A

Location:

• First Scenes– Hospital (Infirmary at Barnsley College)
• Second Scene – On a quiet street [Location not yet defined]
• All following scenes - At Lily and Brett's home (one of our homes)

Cast List:

• April Carr – Lily
• Michael Eastwood – Brett
• Ross Walker – Dr Walker

Synopsis: After receiving a severe knock on the head, 18 year old Lily Ashton is rushed to the emergency room, where she is in a coma for approximately a week. She wakes up to find that she has developed a psychic ability. Specifically, she can foresee the death of anyone she touches; all of which come true. However, when she touches her boyfriend Brett Fletcher, she sees a vision of herself murdering him and becomes determined to disprove it.

The film opens with Lily being rushed to the emergency room, although the scene is disorientated with flashing lights and blur. The screen fades to black and reopens with Lily waking up from her coma with Brett and a doctor at her bedside. Brett is happy to see that she is awake, while the doctor checks Lily temperature by placing his hand against her forehead. This triggers Lily’s first vision as she sees the doctor being knocked down by a car. She thinks nothing of it and Brett escorts her home. In the hospital corridor, Lily accidentally bumps into a rather nervous looking man, who she foresees dying of a heart attack.

At home the following morning she hears a news report on the radio saying that a man had had a heart attack while driving, and had hit a local doctor. Lily begins to panic and Brett attempts to calm her, touching her in the process. As a result, Lily foresees herself stabbing Brett. She explains that she has been having visions (though deliberately neglects to mention the vision she had of killing him).

Another week or so on and Lily has been becoming increasingly hysterical due to her visions, causing Brett to question the strength of their romantic relationship. He argues that she is no longer the person she was and suggests that she seek help. She is angered and grabs a knife from a knife-rack in the kitchen and attempts to attack him in a delusional state. Lily admits that she had seen herself kill Brett, and that there is no way to disprove the prophecy. Brett convinces her to put the knife back, and she does. He argues that all she needs to do is control herself, and the prophecy can never come true. Lily however remains sceptical.

The film ends with a short scene the same night consisting of a single shot. The shot reveals that the knife Lily had replaced is now gone. The screen then fades to black.

Use of Elliptical Editing

Below is the full length clip prior to editing.

 

Below is the same clip after elliptical editing has taken place.

 

 

 

Effective use of elliptical editing will be vital in our short film production to prevent its length becoming any greater than the ideal 5 minutes. In regards to the above clip, we managed to shorten the clip by 42 seconds (nearly 75% of the clip's total length) while still portraying the same events without any loss of continuity or meaning. We will need to duplicate this effect in our main production to achieve the optimum length.

Individual research: Title Sequences.

I used the site 'Art of the Title' to aid my individual research into title sequences. The site works as a database of title sequences. Using this site enabled me to choose a specific genre of film, psychological thriller, providing inspiration in regards to the creation of our own title sequence.

Se7en (Director David Fincher, 1995):

Se7en's title sequence features multiple grotesque images symbolising the films genre. The title sequence is discrete, a method used to set the tone of the film before it begins- a form of readying the audience. The title sequence was so dauntingly successful it inspired the creation of several other title sequences within the future, for example 'American Horror Story' is a televison show which features a montage of disturbing shots clearly inspired by Se7en's opening titles.

Image featured displaying a deceased male- murdered.

As shown above 'Se7en' features a series of outlandish images each centred and focused on through still shallow depth of field shots. Once combined these images portray a story to the audience, conveying the context of the film. Each image features iconography of blood conveying a theme of death. Props are used within the sequence: files, pens and paper, these items are linked unchronologically representing the creation of a file or case used to track victims down.

Shot of unknown male investigating.

 The shots are often combined through a fade edit, this represents the literal linking of information within the sequence. This therefore symbolises the building of the investigation. The continued fade to black also increases the dark tone of the film and eerie atmosphere as black connotes death and fear.

Extreme close-up.

Each shot is close up involving shallow depth of field isolating the view. This was done intentionally to avoid revealing the setting causing a sense of mystery and tension as the sadistic plotter could be anywhere. The use of close up also allows the identity of the plotter to remain anonymous furthering the tension.

Prop/Costume list:

Costume list:

Lily: 

• 1st scene: Hospital robe establishes setting, dark shadows under eyes to represent tiredness.
• 2nd scene: Casual clothing, jeans and a loose jumper causing 'Lily' to appear vulnerable.
• 3rd scene: Pyjamas representing the time of day.
• 4th scene: Return to casual clothing, jeans and loose jumper.

Brett:

• Various shirts with jeans throughout.

Doctor:

• A 'doctor' costume eg. white coat.
• Also includes the prop of clipboard

Prop list:

• Doctor props: clipboard, pen, paper, computer, files.
• Overnight bag.
• Kitchen props: kettle, mugs etc.
• Radio.
• Wine bottle (empty).
• Knife with holder.

Research Into Potential Audience

It is not uncommon for psychological thrillers to contain disturbing and violent elements. As a result, they often hold a certificate of 15 or 18 and are most often viewed by a more adult audience that can appreciate such themes. It is also a trait for psychological thrillers to be intellectually demanding or intentionally confusing. This is indeed the case for Memento (2000), in which a man creates a strange system to help him remember things so he can hunt for the murderer of his wife without his short-term memory loss being an obstacle. The presence of mental strain or disturbing content is often not marketable for younger audiences, and thus the genre is more popular within older age groups.

The above pie chart displays the distribution of age groups that view psychological thriller films. The most occupied segments of the chart appear to be the ages of 26-40 (at 35%) and 19-25 (at 24%). It seems likely that most of the data of the 26-40 age bracket will be skewed more towards 26. There is also a reasonable number of viewers in the 13-18 range (17%). In light of this information, it would be sensible to target our film at audiences approximately between the ages of 18 and 35. By calculation from information in the chart, the average age of psychological thriller audiences is around 27 years old. However, given that our film features two teenagers as the main characters, it seems likely that the audience of our film would be slightly younger than this; perhaps more towards their early 20s. This would therefore be the approximate age of our target audience.

When considering our ideal target audience, we must also take into account the gender of the viewer. Within this genre, the proportion of gender will vary from film to film. Nonetheless, there does appear to be an overall trend (seen below).

The psychological thriller genre appears to be popular with males and females; although 14% more popular with males. Given the nature of the overall thriller genre, it seems likely that viewers are seeking some kind of excitement; a trait that is more common amongst the male population. Hence, the distribution is slightly male dominated. While a skew in the data is clearly present, it is unlikely to have any significant effect on the nature of our target audience. Furthermore, our film contains aspects appealing to both genders (e.g. - a female protagonist, adrenaline inducing scenes). Thus, it seems unnecessary to adapt our film in any way based on the gender of the viewer; it can be equally targeted at both simultaneously.



Individual Analysis of a Title Sequence - The Shining

A film that possesses numerous similarities to ours is 'The Shining' (1980), in that they are both psychological thrillers that involve a young psychic who can foresee death and danger, as well as sporting a deluded killer. Hence, I decided to analyse the title sequence of this film as a source of ideas for our own project

As is often the case with Stanley Kubrick's work, the film is full of clever yet subtle imagery. For example, the film opens with an extreme long shot of a small island situated in the middle of a lake. This immediately sets the tone for the rest of the film; the tone being isolation. I suspect that the lone island is intended not only to represent the remoteness of the area, but also to represent the not yet seen Outlook Hotel where a majority of the film takes place; in that it is almost completely isolated from anywhere else of significance. Throughout the title sequence, some eerie, ominous music can be heard in order to create and uneasy atmosphere.

This shot then dissolves to an aerial shot of a car as it travels alone along a winding road. The car is very framed very wide and loosely; it only appears as a small spec in this shot. Kubrick has deliberately attempted to draw attention to the vastness of the surrounding area and how insignificant and isolated the small car is. This, again, contributed to the film's key theme of isolation.

There are several of these aerial shots throughout the sequence, each one drawing little attention to the car and rather the sheer size of the surrounding area. However, it is noticeable that despite the car's lack of attention in the shot as a whole, it seems that almost every shot is a tracking shot of the car; which creates the impression of a 'bird of prey', that the car's occupants are being perused by someone or something. This works hand-in-hand with the eerie music to create a very unsettling and ominous atmosphere that very much sets the scene for much of the rest of the film.

Oddly, the appearance of the film's title is rather downplayed; it brushes vertically across the shot and immediately exits. Its font and colouring are also rather basic too. Kubrick may have does this intentionally so that the title does not draw attention away from the scenery. This way, the latter's vastness and remoteness are further clarified.

Strangely, the individual shots do not transition between each other with a smooth dissolve, but rather with an abrupt cut. This may have been done to create an effect similar to that of the jump cut, in that it creates a rather unsettling and panicky tone. This effect is used as a transition into another shot where it appears that snow is beginning to form on the mountains and across the road. This creates the impression that the road is not only isolated, but also treacherous, and would be easily rendered impassable in the event of a snowstorm.

The final shot of the title sequence reveals the film's main setting: The Outlook Hotel. It seems to be rather lively, judging by the high presence of cars in its car park. This acts as a direct antithesis to the feelings of isolation the viewer was presented with previously. Nonetheless, the framing of the shot remains loose and wide, revealing that there are no presence of other forms of civilisation around the hotel, showing that in fact the hotel itself is isolated from the rest of the world, which certainly comes into play later in the film. The sequence most likely attempts to establish the loneliness and remoteness of the setting which, coupled with the eerie non-diegetic music, creates a rather unsettling and ominous foreshadowing of events to come; juxtaposed with the beauty and serenity of the setting. It shows that even a setting as majestic and beautiful as this can become an isolated hell under the right circumstances.