Non Diegetic And Diegetic Sound Research

Within the thriller opening few minutes my group and I will be creating,we will have to include sound to create an interesting atmosphere and intense film opening. There are different types of sound categories that are used in the film industry world, normally done in the editing stage of producing a film. 

The term diegetic means sound within the world of text ,where’s non-diegetic means the world of the text. 

For example Diegetic sounds are sounds that are apart of the film, it comes from the source of objects or people, e.g. dialogue, cars, or door slamming. It can occur off screen and therefore means we don't actually see where the noise is coming from or other noise can happen within the camera framing so thats its evident where the sound is coming from. 

  

Non diegetic sounds are sounds that the character cannot hear on set when filming, the audience does not know where the source of sound is coming from as its not a natural sound hear daily, e.g. background music, narratives voice. Which are added during the editing stage of production. 

Sound Bridges 

Sound bridges are when music or sounds continue into the next scene. It creates smooth transitions from scene to scene dmd works well in flowing/ com pining two scene together.

Parallel Sounds

Parallel sounds are sounds that match a scene, for example they could be a happy scene will have happy and aesthetic music and laughter.  

Contrapuntal Sounds

Contrapuntal sounds are sounds that do not match the scene, e.g. a happy scene will have sinister music. This is effective as the audience immediately know something bad is going to happen due to the suspense within the music increasing with the volume. 

Hopefully when my group come to filming  and editing we will be able to  include a variety of diegetic sounds, non-diegetic sounds, sound bridges, so the scene can flow through well, and parallel or contrapuntal sounds in my film when it is appropriate and seems to create an interesting opening.. Also by adding a variety of different sounds it will create a better flowing film opening and also may create suspense to the thriller genre with some kind of fast temp music being played during a dramatic  or intense scene. 

Film Production Company Research

Film Production Company

This is a link to the slide share presentation on which production companies we will be using in our film opening and why we have chosen these ones over the rest, including some background information into the production companies.

Film Titles Ideas

Deciding on a name that linked well to our storyline was at first difficult to decided on, we created a mind map of thriller opening film names that we could use. We chose to research into different meanings behind thriller associated name and find definitions to words we associated our storyline to be about. Below is a mind map of all the different name ideas we came up with. 

As a group the four of us couldn't come up with an agreement, the majority of us thought that 12 hours would be an interesting name to use but we wasn't too sure if it was basic and similar to previous published film names. Also the reason we felt that having 12 hours as our name was because it linked to a kidnapper wanting money for names and the victims family having a certain amount of time to gather together the required amount of money asked for. However we did choose to include a question in our target market research and we found that 12 hours was the best proffered title name, something about it stood out to people, followed by the name title 'Seized' which came second with only 1 vote between them. 

An idea of using this 12 hours name would be to have a constant timer ticking up to 12 hours or down from 12 to 0, this would be used to insinuate that the teenagers captured have a certain time before they are killed. This timer could be constantly ticking and placed in the bottom left hand corner, creating a tense atmosphere for the viewer as they question the teenagers saftey.

When the film title has to appear on the screen I came up with an idea that the clock could be ticking really fast up till 12 and as the number gets higher so does the opacity of the title, which means that as it hits 12 hours the title would perhaps be when an intense music is added to signify this is the films title name. This idea i came up with when i analysed 'The Talented Mr Ripely' as the titles opacity increased whilst different names were flicking to create the title name. 

However when it came down to filming and editing together the film opening, as a group we came to the conclusion that using '12 hours' wouldn't work as our title name, it didn't have any purpose due to us including a 24 hour flashback title with the editing we decided that the audience watching could get confused in what the name title actually was. Instead we have decided that choosing seized as the title name would be more practical and perhaps that the name ' seized' would be more effective and different, due to there not being a film currently produced based around this name title. Although we had a good idea behind the 12 hours name , we felt like it didn't quite fit into the type of storyline we was following when filming, as we changed around the storyline slightly due to there being less actors and a 2 minute time amount. Also the title name seized came second in our target market research which meant that we was still gong with a title name that out target market thought was interesting and effective. 

Storyboard

This is our storyboard of 44 scenes in total, we used a storyboard to help us plan how we were going to film our opening thriller scene. Within this storyboard we used a variety of different camera angles and editing techniques to give a feel of what the film storyline was going to end up like. 

Target Market Research

We decided to gain more information about our target market my asking a selection of our questions from the surgery we produced on survey monkey. We chose to film this kind of feedback to work on out video re crying skills of setting up the tripod and making sure everything was in frame when filming. W asked Olivia the questions , she's another as media student who was willing to be recorded and respond to the questions we have asked. 

We wanted to develop our editing skills and therefore decided that placing Olivia in front of a green screen would enable us to further develop our editing skills. When filming we did make some stubbles on some words that were asked and therefore we came to the conclusion that we would defiantly have to edit this video in iMovie. Another thing we chose to add in was a background image and because we used a green screen behind Olivia this was a simple task to do, we saved a cinema corridor image into our area and imported into iMovie placing it behind Olivia in the background. This background worked well and actually looks like she is sitting in the cinema corridor which is something that for our first try we didn't think would be so successful. Overall the green screen try was a success and maybe something that if need be we could use in our thriller film opening as perhaps a backup if the location we are using isn't available at the time we are meant to be filming. 

 

This is the video of when we asked Olivia's feedback to our questionnaire, this feedback has helped us get more feedback into the thing we need to think about more when filming, she made a comment on the clothing that she would expect a victim to were, her repose of normal clothing maybe a hoddie our previous stereotypical thoughts of the villain were theta instead , so when filming and deciding on costumes this could be something that as a team we have to think about and look into what we will be wearing. 

Production schedule

Date & Time	Location (issues such as travel or permission needed)	Actors needed	Costumes, props and make-up	Equipment needed
Thursday 18th Feb -19th Feb	Garage	David Aluko – Kidnapper Megan Clements – Kidnapped girl David Odumosu - Kidnapped boy	2 old fashioned chairs Rope Tape Torturing equipment Phone Keys David A- Contact lenses Black gloves All black outfit Kidnapped teenagers- Casual clothing	Camera Tripod Source of light
	Park	Amy Miller – Other teenager Gideon Abiodun – Other teenager Anuj Patel – Other teenager	Phone Other teenagers- Casual clothing	Camera Tripod

Location Research And Ideas

Good Places To Film Our Thriller 

As a group we have came up with a list of destinations and short picked the ones in which we personally feel captured the thriller theme of our storyline.
We looked in and researched into different thriller movie locations, from this research we found that dark settings and large areas were most commonly used for example fields, large old houses and spooky atmospheres. We thought that using a basement for the main section to our storyline would be most effective because it could create an abandoned atmosphere with a torch feel to the limited lighting and it being underground therefore to emphasis the secrecy of the victims to know where about's they are placed.

This location setting in a basement would be a good use of space and the visible stairs could be incorporated into the escape, but also create suspense as creaking footsteps could be added in the editing stage to represent the kidnapper walking down the stairs, symbolise that he has entered the room. The basement looks preferably new , the wooden framing on the staircase looks brand knew and the wiring hanging from the ceiling could be to indicate that the basement was purposely built for the kidnapping to take place. This therefore would inform the viewer that the kidnaping was planned and the teenagers where the victims who where targeted.  However a negative about filming in this area would be the lighting, its preferably bright and we were going for a dark stingy looking atmosphere to show that this kidnapping crime of tougher has been taken place before. 

This basement has a horror theme to its look, the wall in which are mouldy and extremely old with the white plaint cracking and peeling off the walls.This would also be a good idea to the kind of basement look we could film in, the use of dim lighting creates a creepy atmosphere and with the room having a corridor exit it emphasised the unknown and if someone was to escape the would automatically be walking into an area that they haven't seen before. However the overall shabby and grubby look that the room has would create a good touching scene, also with the one pole near the centre of the room it could be where they are tided u to begin with. This basement comes across to be old which could give the impression that this isn't the first kidnapping ransom / torcher that the kidnapper has commented and that perhaps the grubby make on the wall could symbolise blood stains.

A dark corridor would be a good scene to have when the teenagers are on the edge of escaping the kidnapper. The dark corridor and steep steps signifies they are underground therefore maybe in a basement or garage which is something we want to imply to the audience. However this would be a hard scene to find, unless we had access to a cellar or an extremely low basement then this would be hard to find access to, therefore we would have to improvise by either using the green screen or  use maybe loft stairs f stairs at home but use quick cuts to give the illusion that they are connected to a cellar or wherever we are filming. 

Another idea that as a group we thought would be quite effective would be to have two different locations, for example the wood area for the second scene, this would be where the two friends are trying to hunt down the kidnapper and find there two friends. We chose this destination because we found that when looking into thriller movies forests and fields came up a lot as films such as , shutter island, the maze runner, the boy next door and sinister all conveyed a thriller genre with the use of a forest to portray an intense and spooky/ unknown destination. The reason in which frosts and open feilds create an effective location for a thriller would be because it creates a dramatic impact to the audience, it's also a place that forces you to experience the full darkness of the night which is in my opinion why directors uses forest destinations to represent a thriller/horror as its stereotypically found scary to be in an abandoned woods at night. A lot of people have many fears that also come with the forest aspect, people have forbearers of insects and the dark which therefore inpacts into the kind of effect that it gives out to the audience and perhaps why a forest would be found to be the best setting for a thriller/horror movie. 

Negatives of filming in the woods and choosing a date to film;
Some negative things about when filming in the woods would be that because its a public place you could get people walking their dogs or going for a walk/ run therefore the time and day we film would be vital to the impact in the amount of people in the woods at that certain time. Another disadvantage about filming in the woods is the lighting, this would come into the time we were deciding to film. Due to us filming in the winter we have to make sure that when we start filming we will have enough daylight to finish the filming. Also taking into consideration the weather on the day because if its raining  snowing or high winds then it wouldn't be the best idea to start filming around this time. However after analysing different thriller movies the weather in these wasn't perfectly sunny and there was dark sky and small showers, it just depends on wether we want to use rain within our opening scene. 


Overall after considering all the possible solutions we have decided that we could find a basement or cellar that was available to use so therefore we improvised and choose to film in a garage that someone in our group has access to. This will allow use to preferably get the same kind of effect however we will just have to add props to give the illusion that its in a basement or cellar.  Also the scene would be the forest at Hempstead because its local is near to where we are filming in the garage so it practical to film in this area.