Production Roles

Research and define the main roles within a film production (camera operator, actors, sound technician, editors, film director, location manager, storyboard organiser)

as a group decide on which role each group will be taking and why

Camera Operator

Whether movie set, television or commercial shoot, directors and cinematographers (also called the director of photography or DP) rely heavily on the camera operator. On most productions, the DP doesn’t touch the camera. This is why the camera operator must intimately know the equipment selected for a production.

A camera operator has a unique position in taking instruction from the director and DP that must be relayed quickly to a camera crew. For each scene, the director and the DP devise a plan for conveying a mood or emotion. The camera operator then executes on that plan, using technical skill and their personal style to get the desired footage.

While revered within the industry and a close proponent to directors and DPs, camera operators are not always recognized in the public eye, at least not in the way a director, cinematographer or editor may be. The reward is good pay and being at the frontline of the action with actors and sets in getting that perfect shot.

Editor

The film editor works with the raw footage, selecting shots and combining them into sequences to create a finished motion picture. Film editing is described as an art or skill, the only art that is unique to cinema, separating filmmaking from other art forms that preceded it, although there are close parallels to the editing process in other art forms like poetry or novel writing. Film editing is often referred to as the "invisible art" because when it is well-practiced, the viewer can become so engaged that he or she is not even aware of the editor's work. On its most fundamental level, film editing is the art, technique, and practice of assembling shots into a coherent sequence. The job of an editor isn’t simply to mechanically put pieces of a film together, cut off film slates, or edit dialogue scenes. A film editor must creatively work with the layers of images, story, dialogue, music, pacing, as well as the actors' performances to effectively "re-imagine" and even rewrite the film to craft a cohesive whole. Editors usually play a dynamic role in the making of a film.

Location Manager

Location managers are responsible for making all the practical arrangements for film or photographic shoots taking place outside the studio. Productions are made in a wide range of places and location managers need to research, identify and organise access to appropriate sites.
As well as arranging and negotiating site use, the role usually includes managing sites throughout the shooting process. This involves working to strict budgetary and time limits and maintaining a high standard of health and safety and security. The demands of organising crews and dealing with a range of people make this an intense and varied role.

Storyboard Organiser

Location managers are responsible for making all the practical arrangements for film or photographic shoots taking place outside the studio. Productions are made in a wide range of places and location managers need to research, identify and organise access to appropriate sites.
As well as arranging and negotiating site use, the role usually includes managing sites throughout the shooting process. This involves working to strict budgetary and time limits and maintaining a high standard of health and safety and security. The demands of organising crews and dealing with a range of people make this an intense and varied role.

Actor

An actor communicates a character and/or situations to an audience through speech, body language and movement. This usually involves interpreting the work of a writer under the instruction and support of a director, although some work may require the actor to devise a character or improvise the reactions of a character to a situation.
Work varies enormously, from live stage performances of the classics and community theatre to soap operas, radio work and film parts. An actor's role may also involve education, training or therapy, as well as entertainment.
An acting career inevitably incorporates periods of unemployment, underemployment and alternative employment.

Sound Technician

Sound technicians are required to assemble, operate and maintain the technical equipment used to record, amplify, enhance, mix or reproduce sound.
They identify the sound requirements for a given task or situation and perform the appropriate actions to produce this sound. Sound technicians of different types are required in a range of industries including film, broadcasting (radio or television), live performance (theatre, music, dance), advertising and audio recordings.

Film Director

Often called the captain of the ship, the Director is the primary creative force behind a Film. He or she is the person who translates the screenplay onto the screen through a definite vision. In doing so, he is aided in equal measure by a host of creative & talented technicians, such as the Director of Photography, the Editor, the Actors. But the entire visual language and the final say rests with the Director. It’s the Director’s unique interpretation of the story and of the characters told through an individual cinematic aesthetics that makes the Director the torch-bearer of a Film.

In my thriller film out of the group i will be the ghost that is haunting the group since they made a mistake on an Ouija board letting out a demon, i have chosen this role as i feel i am most suited being the tallest and dressed in black can make a good effect of a ghost/demon. Will be taking the role of the director and camera operator, Brittany and Kate will be actors in the opening scene acting as two school girls at a sleepover.

Individual Narrative

Individual Narrative

Target Audience =15

My idea for our thriller is based on a sleepover and a ouiji board. I think this will be very effective as it is extremely scary and is clearly a thriller. The ouiji board will get out of control 

The beginning of the thriller starts off that there are a group of girls at a sleepover in their pyjamas and cuddling their teddy bears. They are sitting wtching a film, eating popcorn and telling eachother secrets when someone comes up with the idea of doing the ouiji board. All sleepover crew go along with the idea and they go on the laptop to see how to set the ouiji up  porperly. Once they are aware of how to do it they set it up and begin to play it. As they are playing the game it all goes as plan and it works properly when it spells out a name that is Familiar to Kate therefore Kate begins to panic and asks to leave the game. The glass moves over to the word no, explaining if they leve the game they will be haunted forever. However whilst playing the game suspicious things start happening to the room they are sitting in. They begin to hear noises of whistling and assume one of the friends is joking around and making the noises. They beg to believe it is none of them and the noises become louder causing the characters to become scared and worried. As they are so startled they come together in a group and take their hands off of the ouiji board when someone shouts out letting them know they are not supposed to take their hands off the glass, everyone becomes more paranoid. Just when they begin to calm down they see a light come on in the room next door and assume it is the friends mum, then realise they are home alone and the light flickers on and off. As they are concentrating on the light a flower vase smashes infront of their eyes and they begin to get even more worried when a dark shadow runs across the outside of the window.

Pie Charts

Our group decied to use pie charts to show our results for our questionaire, as we felt that this is the clearest way to display the information we found out about thriller films. It is the easiest form of chart to read information quickly and easily and is visibly the ................

Interviews

For our interviews we went around the school in our group, our group consists of Tayler Coe, Will Stacey, Brittany Terrelonge and Katie O'Shaugnessy. We walked around West Hatch High School with camera recorder and interviewed 5 people. We asked various questions about thriller films, what they like about them and what conventions they felt appropriate when watching a thriller film. The clips will last around 1 minute each and once completed we will upload them to the computers and edit them and post them to our blogs

preliminary task

what was the purpose of the preliminary task?
The purpose of the preliminary task was to improve our groups knowledge on working with cameras and editing. It was to give us an insight view of what we are required to do within our own thriller movie.

what did you learn through the process?
(equipment, camera shots and distances, locations, sounds, framing)
Throughout the process we as a group learned exactly how the cameras work and how to deal with them in order to get a steady shot by using the tripods. We learned how to store
how will it help you with the main thriller task

evaluation

The purpose of having a target audience is so that you can find out who your thriller film is targeted towards and therefore can appeal to the audience. The research that we carried out to find out our target audience was a opportunity sample where we went into our schools common room where we handed out questionnaires. We done this particular sampling method as we an get an even spread of what we want and there is no bias or demand characteristics involved. We surveyed 40 people to get a good sample where we can get mixed views and find similarities on what people want giving our task population validity. The vox pops that we carried out helped us as we got a first hand view on what people want and we can tell if they are lying or being serious, however this particular method does contain demand characteristics.

group narratives

Out of our group we have each made an individual narrative but with all of them there will be advantages and disadvantages, by the end we will choose one of them and stick by it for our opening scene to our thriller film.

Brittany Terrelonge

For Brittany's narrative it is 4 friends sleeping over starting off as a normal sleepover watching films as discussing secrets when one of them decides to put across the idea of doing an Ouija board and they all end up agreeing to it. But when they do it one of them gets spooked and drops the glass, this is bad and as soon as it happens spooky things start happening around the house and they all become scared and what follows is unknown.

Advantages of this is that is has a good basis for a film and can easily include special effects that could show the house to be haunted and what things happen could be presented well. It is also is good as it relates to the age group as it is something that would happen at a sleepover but includes what could go wrong.

The disadvantages that come from this are that it may be hard to include all special effects as we only have the basics, it will also be hard to create a scene and make the house seem spooky and haunted. It will also be hard to be all serious about what is happening and will have to include some good acting which may be hard to do.

Katie O'Shaughnessy

Katie's individual narrative is that there are 4 people living in a house and one of them becomes possessed, this is because she is the youngest and most vulnerable, the other 4 get spooked out and decide to do an Ouija board and it spells out the girls name, and says other various spooky things, in the end the get in an exorcist to sort her out.

Advantages of this theory is that it is a good set for a thriller film, you could include various jumpy scenes, eery sounds and edits to make it seem as if the girl is truly possessed.

Disadvantages of Katie's narrative is that it would be very hard to edit it to a good standard to make the story believable and also have to include various props and things that may be hard to obtain, another down side is that it seems the narrative for the opening scene has all of the story embedded in it and what happens later on will just be little extras and no real surprise.