ellipsis teaser trailer

el thriller opening

Feedback on Rough-Cut

After showing the rest of the class the rough cut for Ellipsis, our opening sequence to a thriller, we recieved the following feedback:
- To make all scenes black and white, where some where still coloured.
- To change certain parts of the music so that it fitted better with the images.
- That we should possibly add some more shots better explaining the plot, however this is impossible but we can re-edit the scene to give it the desired clarity.
- To add diegetic sounds (for example a can opening).
- Above all we must add the remaining titles.

Our Opening Sequence Music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqfPOKUZqnI

Filming & Editing

We have filmed our opening sequence and are currently in the editing process. After discussion within the group we have come to a few decisions regarding the features we will include in the edit. For example, a large part of our film is being treated with a black and white effect. The filming process was relatively easy, with few slip-ups, one of which was a problem with the location we were using, however we overcame this obstacle and filming went on as planned. We feel the editing process won't take much longer, and hope to be finished within the next few lessons.

Ellipsis Title Demo

Our Test Footage

Script

Location 1: Warehouse, day
Location 2: Elizabeth Way, day

Location 1
elipsis shaves his face and gradually puts on his shirt and jacket

Credits For Our Thriller

- Main actors - Will Burton, Dan Monroe, Sam Chester 
- Music by - Alice Black
- Sound supervisor - Robin Cotton
- Camera operator - David Burton
- Production manager - Stan Fielder
- Set designer - Susan Lee
- Costume Designer - Andy Pond
- Editors - Frank Smith, Connie Cooper
- Producers - Ryan Lamb, David McLaren, John Green
- Executive producers - Omar Djen, Lila Tate
- Writer - Arthur Callahan 
- Assistant director - David Goldstein
- Director - Phillip Lake


Font: 'All Over Again'

Props

Nathan: Suit, white shirt, lighting, shaver / shaving foam, old clothes, scope, chair / white sheet.

Dan: Black bin bag, old clothes, gun / two of them.

Dylan: Cigarettes, ashtray, old clothes, zippo lighter?

Angus: Old clothes

checklist

script/dialogue  /
storyboard
location recce
casting scripts run through
Costumes /
Props /
make up
shooting schedule|
lighting other
equipment
titles and graphics
special effects
sound effects
music/sound pad /
test footage

locations

Characters

Main character: A man in his mid 20s; We don't actually see his face in the opening sequence, he remains mysterious.

We will only show one character with visual clarity, with others feature in small, short clips. At no point will a character's whole body be in shot.

Thriller Ideas Mind Map

costumes and props

props: ashtray, cigarette, bb gun, scope,  car?

costume ideas: suit/ jacket, ideally black white shirt. smart dress.

fonts and colour schemes

This font is very simple, clearly readable and bold.

This font looks like it has been written in liquid to give a horror like effect.

This is a jagged and distorted font, which would give the tile of our film a creepy and dramatic feel.

- Colour of fonts

- Possible colours of font

- We believe that we should split the colours of the font in half for instance half the title in black and the other in red 

However we could also just use single block colours i.e.

black red gold white 

job titles in order of appearance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcRr-Fb5xQo

In order of appearance in the opening title sequence of MADMEN
- Actors appear first with many well known names being used
- Special guest appearances are then shown
- Casting by
- Editor
- Head production designer
- Director of photography
- Produced by
- Executive producer
- Title of film
- Created by, written by and directed by

music

music ideas for thriller opening sequence
in many thrillers the main genre of music in the opening sequence is either classical bold and attention grabbing or in some cases a more upbeat sort of music is used
however is some opening sequences of the sub genre of thriller use a slower creepier genre of music.

locations

Warehouse

multi-storey car park

abandoned building 

darkened room

bunker?

elizabeth way bridge
Grafton at night
night time ?
short scene over bridge
bridges in cambridge?

learning experience

while making our logo we had to use programs such as paint shop, final cut and garage band.
We used photoshop to create the original images and effects on the titles, although with some difficulty with getting the canvas size correct we finally decided the mood of the titles.

We then imported each layer separately into final cut, however we needed to make the screen size the same as the images so they stay square and do not get compacted. We finally added the effects and edited the sequence several times. when this was done we imported it into garage band to add sound effects to give it a overall professional feel.