film production companies

MAJOR COMPANIES
Fox entertainment group- formed in 1990s, it is now part owned by Rupert Murdoch, and is best known for Power Rnagers series in 1995.

Paramount motion pictures group- founded in 1912 by Adolph Zukor with films such as: Willy Wonka, A Dolls house and Judgement day.

DreamWorks SKG- American company began in 1994 with films such as: Antz, Shrek, Bee Movie, Flushed away and Shark tale.

Sony picture entertainment- In 1989 Sony acquired Columbia pictures entertainment. with films such as: Men in Black, Jeopardy, Spiderman, The Karate Kid and Ghostbusters.

NBC universal- formed in 2004, General Electric' NBC merged with Vevendi. In 2009 GE and US cable company Comcast agree to buyout NBC universal. Comcast getting 51% and GE getting 49% and GE are to buy out Vevendi.

INDEPENDENT
Dark Castle entertainment, Silver pictures, Sherwood pictures, O entertainment, ImageMovers, EMI films, Five and Two pictures, Gold circle films and Liberty Media.

We chose Dark Castle entertainment as we decided our opening was more likely to go straight to DVD is produced therefore would have a smaller company representing it. Dark Castles has represented Psycological thrillers such as: Gothika and Orphan although these were also shown by Warner Bros and Columbia pictures as they are the major companies. Dark Castle was formed in 1999 by Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, and Gilbert Adler. It usually produces horror films as its name pays respect to William Castle who was a filmmaker in 1950-1960, the company's goal was to remake these films, after two films, they decided to produce their own material. Beginning with RochnRolla, they produced other genre films other than horror.

Running POV shot

We researched ways in which we could get a POV shot of our protagonist whilst he was running, so we should also get shots of his hands. This would used as an insight into the mind of the protagonist and it let's the audience see what he is seeing himself. The main idea we had of using a POV shot while running is that the audience can see the blood on the hands of the protagonist which would create confusion as the opening focuses on the the question whether the blood is really there or not.

However after trying several methods of holding the camera to the eye level of our actor, this came with great difficulty as whoever was holding the camera's footsteps would be picking up on the sound and therefore two sets of footsteps could be heard when the footage was played back. Also if the person holding the camera was runnig at a different pace to the protagonist, the camera would not correspond the protagonist's running.Therefore, in order to tackle these issues we would actually strap the camera securely to the side of our protagonists head. Before hand we held the camera to see whether it looked like a POV shot, in which it did.

Firstly Thea and Jakob experimented running along side each other, whilst holding the camera to Jakobs head, however the camera was a bit shakey, and it was hard to keep in sync with one another.Therefore this method of creating a POV shot would be ineffective

We then used a method of attatching the actual camera to jakob's head using duck tape and a swimming cap to protect his hair. This worked very well as it got the exact height and angle of the protagonists eyes. However as Jakob could not see through the camera himself, we had to direct his hands to the right place where they could be seen. This was also difficult to create a 'looking down' affect because of the directioning.




We finally decided that the use of a POV of shot is not necessary when our protagonist is running as we realsied that you do not actually look at your hands when running. Therefore we have deicded as a group that we shall still use the POV of shot to show the blood on the protagonists's hand, however this will be done he is still.

Tonbridge Station at Night - Looking at Lighting (Kathy and Jodie)

We went to tonbridge station at 7:30pm on the 1st February. Are aim was to see whether we would need any extra lighting when we actually filmed, as lighting is always different through a camera. Here is the video of us filming Tonbridge station in the dark;



We started off in the tunnel near the station which we thought might need extra lighting, however it turned out not too, as it was brightly lit. Therefore we consider trying to dim it when we edit to create a more dingy look. But one problem we found was the echo of the trains passing by was extremely loud in the tunnel therefore we would have to film between eahc passing of train to make surethe sound is not picked up on camera.

Then we went through the tunnel and looked at the CCTV type shot we are going to film of our protagonist running into the station, where the lighting was dimmer, and had a tint of yellow. So therefore didnt need any extra lighting. This yellow tint will also compliment the close up shot of the hands because it will enhance the colour of the blood, thus making it seem like there is more on the hands than we actually put on.

Finally we went along the platform and into the womens toilets (because tow girls walking into the men's toilets would seem weird) and again these had good lighting, and so we dont need to use any extra lighting in this section of our film opening. Although one thing we did notice about the womens toilets is that the mirrors are smaller which could be more useful when filming as there is a much smaller chance of the camera being seen in their reflection.

Rush Hour
Also one other issue we looked at was what time rush hour ends. We needed to look at this as we want as little people on the platform as possible and less frequent trains for continuety. After waiting around for a while we noticed that trains and people become less noticable on the platform around 8:15ish so we feel we should start filming after this time. However this may be different on a weekend especially Sundays as generally trains are less frequent on these days.

PICTURES!! (kathy)

On the 6th February our media group met up to take our CSI photos which would be in the beginnig of our film opening. We had already chosen a location, so after putting a scar on my neck, bruises on my arms, breaking a heel of one of the shoes and making a black eye we were ready to take the photos. We asked Katy Fields (an ex Weald of Kent pupil) to take our photos because she is doing photography AS and we wanted them to look professional and as realistic as possible.

When we got to our location, we started to set our scene up by boardering the area off with yellow tape for out establishing shot of a CSI investigation.


Then we set up the position of the dead girl, we decided she tripped backwards over the log, which was a fairly awkward postion to lay in if im honest. We added our fake blood to the dress so that it looked like a stab wound, dirted up the dress, and laddered the tights to make it look like she had been in a struggle.



We took close ups of the shoes, the stab wound, bruises, neck and eyes, to emphasise the importance of these features and to imitate CSI photos, who photograph close ups of aspects of a body where something has been done them





We are not using all these photos, only the ones with the date, time and CN number which we edited on the computer. We printed them off onto photographic paper (8" by 6") and made a white boarder round the edge like the CSI photos we were told about and researched into. We filmed the beginning to our opening at 7pm at jodies house, using her dad to be our CID dective looking at the pictures.

OTH make up (kathy)

This is a picture of the character Brooke Davis from One Tree Hill. I found it interesting to see how the professionals did the fake bruising around the eye. As you can see, they have used a lot of purple and blacks to blend together to make a realistic bruise. They have it darker near the eye and have it slowly fade towards the cheek bone. Towards the checkbone there is less makeup used, and looks as if it is faded into the skin.

They have also put less make up on her face to make her look washed out, and so the bruises stand out more. This make up really stood out to me as being realistic because her left eye is slightly puffy and shut making her look more tired and vunerable.

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.

Police poster (Kathy)

I emailed Mark Ginsberg, and asked him to send us some police posters for our shots at the station, and he sent me 'Be seen, be Safe' which i thought was really good as it is contrapuntal to how our protagonist wants to be.

The information provided is in bullet points, so its easy to read and gets straight to the point they are trying to convey. It also has two large pictures so that it is more appealing from a distance and it has bright colours or high visibility colours so that it can also be seen from a distance which is parallel to what they are stating you should do when you go out at night.

At the bottom of the poster they have put on the contact details, for emergency's, non-emergency's and their website address.

The font is simple, so it is easily read, and the colour of the font depends on the back round colour, but it is white or black which could be said to be symbolic as it is the same as their uniforms.

Costume Research

Whilst watching various other psychological thriller films such as: "The Butterfly effect" and "The Machinist" the protagonist wears a shirt usually done up, and it is mostly dull plain colours such as: pale blue, grey, brown etc. Which all matched their characters emotions at the time of the shot, therefore we used slightly baggy jeans and a grey and black hoodie, to correspond with our teenager character and what they would actually wear in day to day life, for our protagonist to show he was slightly crazy.


For our girl, we decided on a yellow party style dress, as yellow signifies innocence. She had red shoes showing love and passion however the broken heel shows that this has been demolished by her attacker. We chose this outfit as it portrayed her as innocent and as yellow is a bright and happy colour, it contrasts the darkness of our protagonists costume.


Our two girls (who our protagonist walks into) wore coats/ jackets as it was cold, and they were at a station at night. We wanted them to dress normally, so they wore skirts and then their jacket/coat covered the costume so the audience do not really see what they are wearing, as this wasn't relevant for our opening. We wanted them to look as if they were going out, or had been out.

All our costumes are what we expect teenagers to be wearing as we wanted our actors to be comfortable, and because they were all playing characters of their age, we wanted each character to have a different look about them. And by giving them costumes in which they would normally wear, they would act more like themselves and it would look more natural.

CSI photos (Kathy)

I emailed Sgt Mark Ginsberg for some information about CSI photos as the information on the information on the web is very limiting and we want our photos to look as realistic as possible. The information he gave me is therefore more reliable than the internet, and we can use this in our final pictures. The information he provided was:

The photos are 10" by 6", along the 10" side it is plain and blank, however the 6" side has a 1 cm white edge, with a small kent police logo in one corner and a number for the photo in the other (photo reference number)

The photos are bound together with a white glossy cover which has the exhibit label, and the kent police logo again.

He also said he would let us see some actual photos if we wanted, and that he would send me some labels which we could then stick on our photos, to make them realistic and so we didnt have to copy the style that they use.

CSI Equipment (Kathy)

The camera is obviously the most important piece of equipment, so we need to have a professional camera to make them look authentic.
I have investigated into how the photos can look like proper CSI photos, and because of confidentiality etc, it is hard to find out information on the internet. Therefore i have emailed a police sargent who i did some work experience with, and asked for him more information. I got a reply today, with a detailed explanation and an invitation to go and view some proper ones.

Another piece of equpiment is colour spray paint, which is used to mark out a crime scene (mainly car accidents) but is also used on grass, and therefore forests.
Evidence tape- is used to keep out the public and stop contamination in the crime scene.
Number markers- are used to recall exact location of evidence, such as impressions, and the positioning of items found.
Suveyors tape measure- Professional long tape, steel blade with inch and eighth inch graduations – metric consecutive cm and mm on reverse.

Dialogue (Kathy)

Dialogue is only a small part of acting as most of the emotions are shown through body language (about 65%) and speech (7%). So although speech is thought to be an important role in films or theatre, you get a lot more information by watching what and how the actor moves/ acts.


We feel dialogue is very important, as it can either make the opening unprofessional, or it can be very effective. We started to think of all the dialogue we needed and tried to limit this, so we only used the dialogue that was necessary.

I have started to look at police calls (see emergency call post) and started to put this duologue together, and by deciding what the employee has said it was therefore easier to decide what the dog walker says. The most important part of the dialogue, is the vocal emotion as we need to find a serious, calm and slightly older sounding voice for the police employee, and a more panicky and distressed voice for the dog walker, which means the voice of the character has to show all the emotions through speech which is hard to accomplish.

First of all: police- "this is the police, how may we help you?"

caller- "hi, erm, ive found a body... its a girl" (hysterical)

police- "can you tell me where you are?"

caller- "in the woods, near tonbridge station, its in a clearing"

police- "can you stay with the body?"

caller- "yeah i guess, please hurry though"

police- "we will be there in 10 minutes"

Cuts etc (Kathy)

I have researched into different techniques into making scars, cuts etc. I went on youtube (where you can find everything!) and found several videos.
They all used the same technique: they use skin-tite which is a silcone rubber used specially for masks, wounds and scars. It bends so it is easy to shape, and only comes off when pulled.

Mix equal parts of silcone, add pigment which is already mixed with B, then add thi-vex which will thicken it.
Use a tongue depressor, and form a line of skin-tite along back of hand. Dip a brush into alcohol and blend sides of wound onto skin. Carve a line down middle to create a wound gash mark.
Let it set for 5-7 minutes. Use paint or makeup to colour wound to make it look like blood, and darker shades of makup to blend with skin. You can then move your wrist with the wound moving with it.
To remove, pull away from skin using baby oil, or makeup remover to help assist the removal.




I also tried to make one out of wax, however it drys too quickly and becomes brittle (and may burn your hand...) so this makes it hard to mould even though i started to shape it as soon as it went on the skin.

Codes and Conventions (Kathy)

These are the main codes and conventions, all of which are used some point during a thriller unless the director/ playwright decides to break them. We are using all of these, exept flash backs.

•Suprises & Twists
•Plays With Viewers Mind
•Quick Cuts & Change Of Camera Angles
•Music To Add Tension
•Use Of Lighting To Create Shadows
•Mirrors
•Stairs
•From Killers Point Of View
•Flash Backs
•Pass Of Time Sequences
•Make Audience Think

AS well as this, the victim is always female and the protagonist a dominant male, with some connection to the victim, which again we are doing, so all in all we are sticking to the codes and conventions.

Youtube Directors (Kathy)

I went on youtube to find out what directors of psychological thrillers thought about each film, and why they chose to do each code and convention.

Brad Anderson (The Machinest)- responded to script, thought it was dark and sureal, writing is not very detailed- only 85 pages can read in 30 mins, and it stuck with him. The script was like a puzzle, can be interpreted differently- wanted it to be more about suspence and like Hitchcocks work.

Alfred Hitchcock- wanted to shock people, people are frightened of the same things they were yesterday e.g. red riding hood, becasue "fright complex is rooted into every individual" wanted to scare women because 80% of audience in cinema are women. Men have little to do with choice of film. Cinema films are the same everywhere and can be played at the same time in several different countries, and is therefore vast. Same audience is responding to same things.

David Lynch (Lost Highway)- saw somthing in the eyes of the character, the feamle role is more important than the male, use existing music to create tension in film, music has to live in the story- listens to loads of music before deciding the perfect piece to go in the film.

Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight)- dark, followed story, criminal response, looked at audience to get response, be convinced the film is what you would want to see, need to able to critisise work. Watch with real audience- good gage for next project.

These 4 directors of psychological thriller movies all spoke about scaring people and how different people could interpret a script without explicit directions from the writer, none of them went into codes and conventions in depth although some are clear from the information given e.g. dark, wanting to shock audience, and some wanted to break conventions by having dominant role to be female.

Final Location - Woods

We looked at several possiblilities of wood location for example: Woodlands walk in Tonbridge, Pontoise Park in Sevenoaks and discused the pros and cons of them. We ruled out the places near a main road, as there would be a lot of people and it may have been distressing especially if they had young children with them, as we found out! Secondly the woods needed to have a clearing small enough to take photos of a body, but yet still look like woods were a murder could take place.

After settling on our final location for our photos, we decided to go with our "dead" girl (Kathy) to our location " Pontoise Park" which is located on Pontoise Close in Sevenoaks. We decided this would be the best place because it was deserted therefore would be quiet and the wooded area had a clearing which we used for our CSI scene.
We set up our scene as if the girl had fallen over the tree branch that was on the floor, and took photos from different angles, whilst also doing close ups of the parts of the body that had been damaged. The area was muddy an there were leaves everywhere, therefore we had to make the body look dirty, as if she had been in a stuggle and is if she had been there for hours, so mud and leaves were thrown apon the body along with mud under her nails and on her hands.

Costumes and Props (Kathy)

For our opening we need: crime scene tape, handbag, dress for dead girl, high heels, table, lamp, suit for policeman (detective/ CID), posters

Firstly we needed to find some crime scene tape, which we did by looking on the internet sites, and in shops, which was all accessable and reasonably cheap, and then we discovered that the science department had some left over from when the Additional Appplied group last year did forensics.

The handbag we thought wasnt very important, apart from it needing to be a shoulder handbag so that it can be pulled close to the woman when the protagonist is going past.

The dress for the dead girl needed to be a party style dress, and preferably white, however jodie found a dress that was perfect but yellow, however the photos are in black and white, and after experimenting the dress looked white in the black and white camera setting.

The high heels needed to obviously go well with the dress, and also the heel needed to be easy to break, we searched a few charity shops and found a pair of black heels that would contrast with the white look on the dress.

The lamp and table are being used to film the photos. We are going to use jodies dining table, as it is dark mahogany and fitted best with an authentic look relating to CID, the lamp makes it look more mysterious and dingy yet so you can see the photos.

The suit again isnt important, as you can only see the man's arm and sleeve. We thought it was more important that the hands of the man looked older, so that it was more authentic.

For the posters jodie sent off for the mind ones and the rest we got from the internet or made from scratch. All these posters link into the opening in some way for example the give blood relates to the blood on the protagonists hand, along with the Macbeth theatrical poster.

emergancy calls (Kathy)

I started to research into what people say when answering an emergancy call, however obviously i couldnt get this information 1st hand, so i looked at youtube clips and watched serveral episodes of crimewatch.
The majority of the calls said: "This is the emergancy services which service do you require... This is the police, how can we help you?" which was helpful as we can now use some of this dialogue in the police call for our film opening.

In the crimewatch episodes they say "hello, this is the police.... calm down, can you tell me where you are?... i cant understand you, can you tell me whats happened?"

So basically they say whatever they can to calm the caller down so they can gather all the information they need to send out the police as soon as they can. This information i found was all repetitive, and hard to find becuase the calls are only posted if they are hoaxes and so the ones i found were all the same calls.
All the calls have well spoken and easy to hear and understand people on the other end of the phone so that the victim/ witness can concentrate on giving information rather than trying to understand the employee.

Schedule (Thea) updated by kathy

Monday 1st Febuary 2010 07:30 pm
Practise filming of the toilet scene/section at Tonbridge station public toilets, and filming of the tunnel. Checking the lighting.

Friday 5th Febuary 2010 09:30 am
Filming of the toilet scene at tonbridge station, as we cant film the outside during the day because we are setting the scene during the night.

Saturday 6th Febuary 2010 11:00 am
Meeting at jodies house to prepare Kathy for the photographs of the victim.
Take photographs at woods down the road from Jodie's house.
Go to Kate's house to review photographs and manipulate them with paintshop pro.
Print them off.

Saturday 6th Febuary 2010 07:30 pm
Film Jodies Dad inspecting the photographs printed earlier that day.

Sunday 7th February 20:00pm
Filming of the protagonist running along the platform, the running through the tunnel and the match-on action shot of the protagonist going into the toilet.

Monday 8th Febuary 2010 -Thursday 25th Febuary 2010
Editing will take place along with any final touches or refilming necessary.


Wednesday 3rd March 2010 19:00pm
Filming at Tonbridge station- tunnel scene

Friday 5th March 18:00pm
Toilet scene at Sevenoaks toilets

Lighting (Kathy)

Three point lighting is a technique commonly used in films, adverts photos etc. It creates a sense of depth on people by making them look 3D.
It is made up of 3 lights (suprisingly) one placed behind the subject and the other two at 45 degree angle roughly on each side.

KEY lighting- primary to illuminate a subject positioned at 15-45 degree from one side of the camera and down by about the same so its above the subject. This represents the primary source of light stimulating the sun, a window, a light bulb etc.

FILL lighting- after the key light is positioned there is a shadow on one side of the subject. The fill is meant to reduce this and should be placed opposite the key light but needs to be half the brightness and must not be at the same angle otherwise it will look unnatural.

BACK lighting- this is placed behind the subject opposite the camera, but at a higher angle to avoid the light shining straight at the camera lense. It creates a glow on the back of the subject and separates them from the backround. It also prevents te subject from looking 2D, it is also known as the "hallo effect"

Mood
For a comedy- turn up fill to create a more evenly lit set, and a jolly atmosphere
Dramatic- turn down fill to increase shadow and build up the suspense and tension

this is where i got the information http://filmstudies.suite101.com/article.cfm/threepoint_lighting

Creating Bruises (Kathy)

so... to the topic of bruises!!! I started off by experimenting with watercoloured pencils, makeup and then a mix of the two.

Makeup- i used eyeshadow and eyeliner to try and create the same kind of effect, however the eyeliner was harder to smudge, and therefore didnt get the same bruise effect, although the eyehadows were easier to mix together than the pencils.

Watercolours- i got some water and the pencils and put: blue, black, purple, green, yellow onto my hand, and mixed them a bit, i then added more of these colours to build up on the shading, and to make it look more realisic.

Both- mixted together i think it was the best, as you have a wider variety of colours or shades of colours. The makeup was easier to get off as it is designed to come off easily, however the watercolours were harder to get off, and left a red mark and almost a bruise!

The makeup didnt show up on its own, so by adding the watercolours on top make it darker and therefore more realistic. I then finished it off by putting a final layer of eyeshadow to dry the watercolours. I found this to be the best effect and seeing as people kept asking me what i had done, im guessing it was pretty effective!