Black and White Photography: Filters (Jakob)

By placing a filter over the lens you can dramatically change the tone so a colour becomes darker or lighter grey. You may have seen a black & white landscape photograph with the dark blue sky turning almost black. The chances are this will have been taken with a red filter over the lens.
Filters allow certain wavelengths of light through and block others from reaching the film. The filter will let through it's own colour so the grey tone of subjects with the same colour as the filter will be lighter and the tones of subjects with contrasting colours will become darker.


The following filters are commonly used in black & white photography: Yellow, Orange, Red, Blue and Green, and the visual below shows what happens to the tones when the filters are used.



Original colour photograph for reference shot on a blue/grey background.






Photograph taken in black & white with no filters used.
Notice tones such as orange and light pink become almost identical so do blue and red.



Adding a yellow filter introduces a subtle change to to yellows, oranges and red which become slightly lighter.





The orange filter lightens oranges and reds and darkens the blue and green pencils.
It's the red filter that has a serious effect on tones. Notice the pink and orange are now almost white while the deep red displays similar values to the original orange, while the blue and green have become very dark.


Since we are featuring several black and white shots in our film, this research is seriously relevant. We are using a yellow dress based on the assumption that it will appear white when pictured in black and white on the camera we will use, but if that doesn't come out perfectly then we can use a yellow filter on the camera lens to achieve the desired effect.

(source: www.ephotozone.com)

Final Location (Tonbridge Station)

As a group we went to Tonbridge station to research furthur into our chosen location for the film opening. During this time we experimented with the camera around the location as well as putting it at different heights to see what effect is created. Here is the video of our finding and the path in which our protagonist is going to run from start to finish;




We decided the tunnel near tonbridge station would be perfect to use as part of our chase. The walls were dirty and the lighting was fairly bright, however we can edit this to make it look darker to increase the tension. Personally I (kathy) thought the tunnel was really good for what we anted to achieve in our thriller opening, and we stuck posters on the walls, which all have a reference to our protagonist for example a macbeth poster- blood on his hands etc.

Primary Research (Jakob)

Once we had decided on the genre of our film, we felt that the next step was to conduct some primary research. We created a questionnaire to find out what our audience associated with psychological thrillers, and alaso what they liked and disliked about the genre. In addition, we put in a few questions that were directly related to our opening in order to help us with our own project.

We received a total number of 21 responses aged between 16 and 56. Thirty eight percent were male.

The interview
After looking at the questionnaire responses we realised we had a lack of males from the higher age category therefore we decided to interview someone who fits into this category, Mr Gilkes.

The Facebook Group
In order to reach a wider spread of results we created a facebook so that we could get our questionnaires completed efficiently by various people (Not just those in our 6th form). The facebook group also provided an area for people to give their general opinion or comments.

THE GENRE

What do you think of when you read the phrase ‘psychological thriller?
Intense paranoia, messes with the mind, dark, weird, disturbing, mind playing, jumpy, gripping, music and dialogue creates suspense and tension

How Often Do you watch Psychological thrillers ?
Rarely = 10 Sometimes = 6 Often = 4 Never = 1

What Do you like about Psychological thrillers ?
Storyline = 9 Issues = 7 Characters = 5 Camera Angles = 3
Other = relates to real life, construction, psychological effects, theatrical dramatisation

What do you not like about Psychological thrillers ?
Story = 9 Confusion = 8 Issues = 2
Other = characters unbelievable, being made jump

Our storyline incorporates nearly all of the things people associate with psychological thrillers, for example intense paranoia, messing with the mind, jumpy and gripping, dark, and with music and dialogue creating suspense and tension.
Because it is only an opening, the storyline in our film cannot be very drawn out our explicit but we feel the part included is strong. In addition our film focuses on characterisation, an aspect that people cited as important.

THE STORYLINE

Do you prefer a simple storyline with chronological events or ones with twists?

Simple = 2 twists = 19

Do you find flashbacks effective? Why?

Yes = 15 No = 3

Why = help establish sequence of events, easier to understand, further depth, good to know characters, enables audience to look at the past, builds an idea of what is to come, allows tension to build towards the end

What time of day is most predictable in a psychological thriller ?
Morning = 5 Afternoon= 2 Evening = 7 Night = 11

Our film does not have a simple chronoligical storyline. We wanted to include flashbacks, and after looking at other films and discussing ways for us to do this, we have instead inserted crime scene photographs into our film which have the same narrative effect.

We plan to film during the daytime, subverting people's expectations of the genre and adding to the unnaturalness of the scene. In addition this would make filming easier as we could, for the most part, use natural light.

CHARACTER AND TITLES

What gender and age would you most empathise with in terms on main character
Male = 7 Female = 14
<16= 20 =" 11" 25=" 5" 30=" 2" 35 =" 1">

Do you prefer films with one word titles or longer
One word = 15 Middle = 5 Longer = 3

Although most people said they would emphasise with a female lead, most people were also female. People tended to say they would emphasise most with a character of their own gender, and as we feel a male character would seem more likely to have killed someone, we are using a male main character.
Most people would also emphasise most with a character their own age, and as our target audience is between about 16 and 24, that will be our character's age. Furthermore, it will create a sense of innocence and vulnerability contrapuntal to the blood on his hands.
The title of our film is as yet undecided, but chances are we will go with our audience's preferences and make it one word.

Our narrative

What do you expect to see when you go into a public toilet ?
Graffiti, wet muddy floor, broken toilet seats and doors, dark , dingy, glass everywhere, grimy mirrors, cold looking, cracked mirror, metal sinks, not much lighting, soap if lucky, bland, advertising, toilet roll everywhere, smell.

What do you expect when you think of a mental illness?

Hallucinations= 10 Paranoia = 6 Anger = 2 Depression =7

Other = mood swings, memory loss, incoherent speaking.

this links to our narrative as one of our main scenes is inside a public toilet, and we wanted to make it to be clearly a public toilet. What's more, by using or finding a place with all or most of these conventions, the horrible, dingy conditions will be emphasised.

We also want it to be clear that our character has a mental disorder. We are including Hallucinations, paranoia and anger in our opening. The ways we will portray these things on film can be found in our blog, 'Psychological Disorders'

More Crime Scene Photography (Jakob)

Our film includes crime scene photographs, and as well as researching the lighting and effects to use to make these realistic, it is equally important to make sure we have the right photographs in the first place.

science.howstuffworks.com says 'There are three types of photographs a CSI takes to document the crime scene: overviews, mid-views, and close-ups'. To be authentic, our film should probably include a variety of these, as opposed to just one, etc.

'Overview shots are the widest possible views of the entire scene'. We include this, in a shot of the crime scene tape which leaves the body vague contributing to the mystery and suspense of the film.

'mid-shots show key pieces of evidence in context', for example, location in the scene or distance from other evidence.

'close-ups are of individual pieces of evidence, showing any serial numbers or other identifying characteristics. For these pictures, the CSI uses a tripod and professional lighting techniques to achieve the best possible detail and clarity -- these photos in particular will provide the forensics lab with views to assist in analyzing the evidence. The CSI also takes a second set of close-up shots that includes a ruler for scale'. This type of shot is the one most important to us, allowing us to convey injury and death whilst retaining mystery and suspense. We included close-ups of a foot, a hand, and finally the eyes. We have researched what professional lighting techniques to use to make these realistic, and by including a ruler in at least one of these shots we can add to the proffesional feel. In addition, we need to include a reason for the detective to have taken these photos, so we will add in some important pieces of evidence on these photos, for instance cuts or bruises.

Psychological Thrillers (Jakob)

This post is a bit late, but as part of our initial research we analysed and deconstructed some films and film openings (see blog 'Movie Night'). After looking on the internet (eg list sites and review sites) and talking to some film fans (eg the Blockbuster staff), i made up a list of top psychological thrillers:

The Beach
Disturbia
The ButterFly Effect
Donnie Darko
Don't Look Now
Flatliners
Gothika
Hard Candy
Hide and Seek
Jaws
Psycho
Rear Window
The Sixth Sense
Straw Dogs
Se7en
Thr3e
The Machinist
Fight Club
Gaslight
Donkey Punch
Memento

References to Macbeth (Jakob)

As you may have noticed, Certain aspects of our project, for example the imaginary blood on the hands which cannot be washed off, are similar to parts of Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'. We have decided to exploit these similarities, creating an effective atmosphere.

One way in which we could do this is through the Mise en Scene. Already we are using 'Mind' posters, and we could put up 'Macbeth' posters or advertisements in the background.

However, the better, subtler, more effective way to do this is through the sound. Our film opening includes frantic, overlapped whispering, portraying our protagonist's panicked stream of thought. The dialogue, consisting of phrases such as 'she cant be dead' and 'this isn't happening', could contain some quotations. Reading the play, i have selected certain lines and phrases from Lady Macbeth's own hallucinogenic episode. We will use 'where is she now', originally in reference to the murdered Lady Macduff, and 'will these hands never be clean'. In addition, i believe 'yet here's a spot' will prove more effective than the more famous, sloganised 'Out, damned spot'.

Sound Effects (Jakob)

The opening of our film involves the sound effects of footsteps, heavy breathing and a heartbeat. After searching and listening on various websites, including www.a1freesoundeffects.com, www.youtube.com and www.pacdv.com/sounds, my final decision is to use footstep and heartbeat sound samples located at www.sound-effects.com, despite the small charge. I believe that the heavy breathing will be more realistic and effective if recorded directly by our lead actor himself.

In addition, the opening features deep, pacey music that eventually crescendos, in a similar style to the music in the opening of Se7en, as well as frantic, overlapped, whispering voices to convey thoughts, guilt and panic. Both of these will be recorded at Blizzard Record studios on the 30th of January, after which i will post all sound samples.

Pschycological Disorders (Jakob)

As part of our film opening, our main character will suffer from hallucinations as a result of a past incident resulting in the death of a woman. Following are the results of my (Jakob's) research into what underlying problem could cause this.


PANIC DISORDER

In Panic Disorder, a person suffers brief attacks of terror and apprehension, often marked by trembling, shaking, confusion, nausea and difficulty breathing. These panic attacks can be triggered by stress, fear, or even exercise, although the specific cause is not always apparent.

This suits our character in some ways: the terror and panicking works perfectly, and the fact that it can be triggered by stress, although vague, fits our character's back story. However, the main problem with using this would be that panic attacks do not induce or include hallucinations.


POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER

This is an extreme anxiety disorder which results from a traumatic experience. It can result from an extreme situation, or even a serious accident. Common symptoms include flashbacks, avoidant behaviours, and depression.

Again, this works in that it's caused by a traumatic experience, but does not induce hallucinations. The Fashbacks could be very useful, as flashbacks are part of our storytelling method. If we choose this as our character's ailment the flashbacks could change from being purely for the sake of the viewer, at least on the surface, and become a symptom and expression of the character, which could prove interesting.


PSYCHOSIS

Psychosis is a generic psychriatric term for a mental state often described as a loss of contact with normality. Functional causes of psychosis include the following:

• Brain tumors
• Drug abuse
• Brain Damage
• Schizophrenia
• Bipolar disorder
• Severe Clinical Depression
• Severe psychosocial stress
• Sleep deprivation
• EXPOSURE TO SOME TRAUMATIC EVENT

Two interesting and relevant points here: Firstly, according to chemistrydaily.com, 'people experiencing a psychotic episode in the context of depression may experience persecutory or self-blaming delusions or hallucinations', i.e exactly what we want our character to experience.

Secondly, en.academic.ru states that "A history of psychologically traumatic events, and the recent experience of a stressful event, can both contribute to the development of psychosis", i.e, exactly why we want our character to be hallucinating.

CONCLUSION

Our character is suffering self-blaming hallucinations as part of a psychotic episode triggered by a recent traumatic experience.

On film, we will show the hallucinations by contrasting P.O.V shots from our protagonist in which he has blood on his hands with P.O.V shots by passers-by in which his hands are clean. The traumatic experience will be portrayed with the use of crime scene photographs of a murdered woman at the beginning of our opening, and his guilt implicated by the literal blood on his hands. A sense of panic will be created with sound effects such as heavy breathing and by fast editing.