Breaking a Mirror Safely

Breakable Mirror: 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acrylic-Mirrored-ACRYLIC-PERSPEX-PLEXIGLAS/dp/B0074A9672/ref=pd_cp_21_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0HP2Q1XWNJNYQG9JS718

How to break a mirror:

1. 1
   Put on gloves and safety glasses
2. 2
   Place a tarp under the mirror
3                    Score the mirror into sections with a glass cutter  

                                                                            
1. 4
   Place strips of duct tape on top of the score lines
2. 5
   Cover the mirror's entire surface with carpet protector film, which is available at home improvement stores
3. 6
   Tap the mirror lightly with a small hammer along the duct-tape covered score lines until the glass breaks
4. 7
   Remove the carpet protector film and duct tape carefully if you're reusing the mirror pieces

Two ways to break a mirror: With and Without a Safety Backing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I0Z8u9G5NY

Final Group Idea

After talking with Matt and taking his idea on board, Ashen came up with an idea. The whole sequence would be shown in reverse. In a linear sequence, the boy would take the medication out a cabinet and eat it. He washes his face in the sink and turns the tap off. He would then start shouting at the mirror and getting very angry. He smashes the mirror with his fists and then fade to black. Showing it backwards would be really cool because the glass would go back into the mirror and the water back in the sink. 
Ashen originally planned to reverse the sequence very slowly so that it fits the two minute criteria, but we all decide that it would be very boring and the audience would switch off.
We then thought back to the waiting room idea that Matt gave us and we had struck lightning. We would start off with the same reverse sequnece but it would be fairly quickly rewound. We would then cut straight back to the beginning of the film where the boy is in the waiting room and his name gets called by the announcer to see his GP, fade to black. The title would appear in the transition between the bathroom scene and the waiting room scene and the credits would roll while he is in the waiting room. 
We didn't want anyt titles to appear at the start because it is very engaging and we wouldn't want to distract the audience. We knew that the waiting room scene wasn't an ideal time to put the title becaus it's the start of the film so we thought it would look cool to show the title earlier and fade to black as the boy walks in the GP room.

 

Issues with idea

There are a few issues with our idea now. We tried messing around with the ideas that Matt gave us, but every time we tried to create the "Deja Vu" moment, it confused us and didn't' work with our narrative. Although pulling off this effect looks cool, we felt as if it would be too difficult to find a moment in the sequence where the lines and shot can come back to the same place on a loop. It would be very hard to film within a day because we would have to try and film the same moment perfectly but with different reactions from some of the characters.

We then thought about just trying to play around with the colour and the angles of the sequence, which would fit the style of our piece and make it more interesting for the audience, but we didn't want to give the impression that the boy was on illegal drugs. We wanted black and white because it illustrates the depression and lack of empathy that this medication gives people rather than the mental high people get from overdosing.

We all think it's best to get some rest and try again in the morning.

Decision Time...

Today was really important because we had Matt coming in to our class who would discuss our ideas with us and either give it the green light or shut it down.

When he talked to us, unlike the other groups we had two ideas for him to work with. Ashen delivered his first because it was most likely to get a green light as it was more practicle. My idea was a back-up in case Ashen got shut down. Luckily, Ashen's idea got the green light, but there needed to be changes. Matt said that he loved that our idea was current and relevant to the world today and the style of the piece i.e. black and white works really well. He didn't like the idea of the boy travelling to school and having a mysterious bag because it was too obvious and it felt more like a scene within the film rather than an opening title sequence. 
Matt gave us a few ideas:

1. Set the scene in a hospital/clinic waiting room to support our theme of overperscription of medication
2. Mess around with the order of the scenes and make the character aware of these "De ja voux" moments i.e. the character walks in a room and a few shots later he ends up back in the same place and saying the same lines over again, while being conscious of what happend.
3. Distort the picture so it gives the audience the same side effects that taking these drugs have.

We took these ideas on board and chose to discuss the following day what we had come up with in terms of an updated idea.

Matt wanted to hear my idea anyway to see if mine could work without any changes needing to take place. He told me that it was a fantastic idea and he loved the fact that I had the resources available to film i.e. the mansion and the Lamborghini, but he said that it is very difficult to film in a day because we would have to mess around with the lighting inside the house and filming with a car is always fiddly. He told me to hold on to that idea so that "when the stars aline, you can shine" - Matt 04/12/15

Calling Pfizer

Post from Ashen's blog:

Right. We came back on the Monday and of course non of the group members had a new idea. So it was my opportunity to take a risk. I didn’t want to let go of my idea just yet. So used my skills in deception and seduction to pull them back in, with a motivated and enthusiastic manner, I told the group how "You know what? Matt is just a failed filmmaker who’s just jealous of our sick idea, we should take a risk and do it” and like that they were back on board. Bring someone down and you appear taller. However there was still an insecurity of weather this could actually be an opening title sequence. So we waited for Adam to come to our table and give us his third party view. 


And that was it. This is what I needed, to be finally rejected AGAIN by Adam. Ok I know I have been naive and immature with trying to persist with this idea, but I just knew how awesome it would look. But Adam said it again “An opening sequence establishes either the scene, character or context” and he was right. I had been doing it all wrong. Ok we know that, I already told you this last time, but I wasn’t ready to drop the idea. Ok so since the idea is based around a drug that is over proscribed and destroys people’s empathy (the worlds best war weapon)… Prozac. For an opening title sequence you would have to show the production of this drug. As it doesn’t really show you anything but it gives the audience an idea of what the film could be about. 

Ok, so obviously it would be impossible to get behind the scenes of a large pharmaceuticals production stage, but why not take the risk. Ok so Haydon knew of local place called Pfizer. So I suggested with give these dudes a ring. However I made an agreement that if they said “NO” then we would drop the idea for good. 

Calling Pfizer Video

What is a Thriller

Thriller is a genre of film, television, and even literature, which usually has subgenres for example:

• Action or Adventure thrillers (The Dark Night - Christopher Nolan- 2008)
• Sci-fi thrillers (Alien - Ridley Scott - 1979)
• Crime-caper thrillers (To Catch a Thief - Alfred Hitchcock - 1955)
• Western thrillers (The Mask of Zorro - Martin Campbell - 1998)
• Film-noir thrillers (Double Indemnity - Billy Wilder - 1944)
• Romantic-comedy thrillers (Mr. and Mrs. Smith - Doug Liman - 2005)

Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer's moods, giving them heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety. Successful examples of thrillers are the films of Alfred Hitchcock.
Thrillers generally keep the audience on the "edge of their seats" as the plot builds towards a climax. The cover-up of important information from the viewer, fight and chase scenes are common elements. Literary devices such as red herrings, plot twists, and cliffhangers are used extensively. A thriller is usually a villain-driven plot, where he or she presents obstacles that the protagonist must overcome.

A closely related genre to Thriller is Horror e.g The Cabin in the Woods - Drew Goddard - 2012. A lot of horrors aren't good films because half of the film is spend on watching bodies being chopped up or zombies trying to kill everyone. Horror films are purely made to scar people for life whereas thrillers are made to create suspension and take the audience on a journey through the film. This is why I believe that thrillers have become more popular than Horrors and unless the Horror genre can escape out of the stereotypical elements of Horror, Thrillers will always be more popular.

What I really like about Thrillers is that they aren't very repetitive so if you go to the cinema to see a thriller you probably won't have seen many other films like the one you are about to watch. Obviously there are conventions to the thriller genre that we can't escape from because it's what makes a good thriller and the audience expect them to happen. When I watch thrillers, I can always tell when something bad is going to happen and everybody knows the whole "I heard a noise in the basement...lets go and take a look". The director knows that audiences foreshadow events in thrillers and so they use this to their advantage and play with the timing. An example of this is the "fake jump-scare". Here is an example :



So how did all of these subgenres come into play and who was the first example of the thriller genre?

The answer is...(drum roll)...(drum roll)...(drum roll)...ALFRED HITCHCOCK!!!

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director and producer, often nicknamed "The Master of Suspense". He pioneered many elements of the suspense and psychological thriller genres. He had a successful career in British cinema with both silent films and early talkies and became renowned as England's best director. Hitchcock moved to Hollywood in 1939 and became a US citizen in 1955.

Over a career spanning half a century, Hitchcock fashioned for himself a recognisable directorial style. His stylistic trademarks include the use of camera movement that mimics a person's gaze, forcing viewers to engage in a form of voyeurism. In addition, he framed shots to maximise anxiety, fear, or empathy, and used innovative forms of film editing. His work often features fugitives on the run alongside "icy blonde" female characters. Many of Hitchcock's films have twist endings and thrilling plots featuring depictions of murder and other violence. Many of the mysteries, however, are used as decoys or "MacGuffins" that serve the films' themes and the psychological examinations of their characters. Hitchcock's films also borrow many themes from psychoanalysis and sometimes feature strong sexual overtones. He became a highly visible public figure through interviews, movie trailers, cameo appearances in his own films, and the ten years in which he hosted the television program Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films in a career spanning six decades and is often regarded as the greatest British filmmaker. He came first in a 2007 poll of film critics in Britain's Daily Telegraph, which said: "Unquestionably the greatest filmmaker to emerge from these islands, Hitchcock did more than any director to shape modern cinema, which would be utterly different without him. His flair was for narrative, cruelly withholding crucial information (from his characters and from viewers) and engaging the emotions of the audience like no one else." In 2002, the magazine MovieMaker named Hitchcock the most influential filmmaker of all time.[1] Reference to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock

As you can see from Wikipedia's detail and description of Alfred Hitchcock, it is clear to see that he was extremely influential in creating the thriller genre and his techniques will always be referred to. Here is a list of his best thriller/suspense films:

1. The 39 Steps
2. North by Northwest
3. Rope
4. Shadow of a doubt
5. The trouble with Harry
6. Vertigo
7. Rear Window
8. Psycho
9. The Lady Vanishes
10. Notorious