Minor Setback for a Major Comeback

So yeah about going to visit the prison and take pictures for our storyboard..... turns out its illegal and considered trespassing to be there. One of the members of my groups' dad is a Broward Sheriff and when he tells you its a bad idea to go, its really a bad idea. Ever since that day my group and I have been researching other abandoned locations to try to find a place to storyboard then film.

Yesterday I found this place not too far from where we live called the back wall forgotten home. There were pictures and everything, but when we got there and searched around we couldn't find what we were looking for. Here is a link to what we were looking for and I am attaching the pictures other people have taken of this place. 

Today we came up with the idea of visiting a local park called Markham Park at night in the woods to still give the film opening the abandoned feel and thriller aspects, except it will be legal to be here and film without worrying about getting arrested. I will post some pictures tomorrow when we go visit the location and hopefully we can begin storyboarding tomorrow as well.

 "Taking Pictures at Back Wall Forgotten Home, a Photography Guide of Best Places." ShotHotspot. Web. 30 Mar. 2016. 

The Visit

Today one of the other members in my group and I are planning to go to the abandoned prison in order to get an idea what it looks like and to start on the storyboard. Im not so sure how I feel about this. I've watched a lot of horror movies and an abandoned prison doesn't look like the best place to go or two teenagers to explore. But, since its for the project we're going to make it happen and make the best out of it. I'll pretend like I won't be scared, but I definitely will be. Hopefully this goes smoothly and we can get in and out of there quickly and start on the story board later today.

The good news is that after this visit today and start of the storyboard, we will be on pace with our schedule to get this project done at a reasonable time before it's due to make sure its exactly what we want. I will keep you updated on how this visit goes. :0

Research?

Lately I have been doing some research to help get a better idea of how our opening should be created. This isn't like normal boring research for a 10 page paper. I have been watching films and tv shows either relating to the genre or setting in order to get some more ideas flowing. This kind of research is fun for me because I am a huge movie fanatic and watch them all the time.

First I looked at our genre of a thriller movie to try to get some ideas. One of my favorite movies, Seven, directed by David Fincher, has a very unique and interesting opening. It combines several creepy elements with great artwork and works to create suspense for the viewer. The music in the background fits perfectly and helps to create suspense as well. That opening can be viewed here.

I began thinking of what else I have watched that could possibly relate to our film opening and could give us some ideas. One thing that popped into my head was the show prison break created by Paul Scheuring. It has some aspects that relate to the thriller genre, but what I was more interested in was its setting, a prison. In this opening there are many quick shots that fade in and out to develop the setting mostly, and some of what goes on during the season. I really like the use of the fading shots, maybe we can incorporate that into our film opening.

 "Forget the Film, Watch the Titles." Seven Title Sequence. Web. 24 Mar. 2016. 

 MrIslamZidaN. "Prison Break Main Theme ( with Intro )." YouTube. YouTube, 2012. Web. 24 Mar. 2016. 

Week 2 Update

This week my group and I started creating the plot of our film and how we can fit it into the 2 minute film opening project. We want to show to the setting for the film and show the main character through many different camera angles. This is what we have so far: The main setting for our thriller is an abandoned prison and the film opening will focus mainly on developing that setting. The plot is about an old run down woman who lives alone at the prison and seems normal at first glance, although, she really doesn’t live alone. In order to build up suspense we won’t show the woman’s face until the very last shot of the opening.

            

             When the sun begins to set and she goes back into the prison after gardening and feeding the birds on her long walks, normal activities an older woman would do, we are going to show the creepy side of her, in which she is holding people captive in the jail cells to keep her company. We will show this by throwing a piece of food into a cell and showing a skinny arm and hand reach out slowly to grab it from the floor. Directly after this, the woman’s face will be shown for the first time. The song Strangers in the Night by Frank Sinatra will be playing as diagetic sound throughout the entire opening to help build up suspense.

            

             Since we have a lot to show in the short 2 minute time period we have decided as a group to show the credits spread out while the opening is playing. The title will appear quickly right at the end, after the woman’s face is shown.

              We will continue to talk through the plot of the story, but that will be the main scheme of it. We plan to start on the storyboard this weekend and go visit the prison to give us a better understanding of our setting and story.

 "Strangers in The Night - Frank Sinatra." YouTube. YouTube. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 

What is a Thriller?

I've been talking about this thriller genre a lot. You're probably wondering what exactly is a thriller film? Is it the same as a horror film? A thriller is a genre that is based mostly on suspense and anticipation. Usually the protagonist has a problem that he/she faces and works to solve throughout the film. This problem is built up throughout the film and ultimately leads up to an emotional climax. Not always does the film rely on blood and guts and killing to scare the viewer, like in a horror film.


A horror films' main purpose is to frighten or create panic within the audience. Unlike thriller films, they usually focus around an evil force such as a ghost or spirit. As I said before, the fear in the audience usually comes from killing or a lot of gore in the plot.

My group and I decided to choose thriller as our genre because that is one of the genres we are familiar with and will watch several examples of thriller film openings in order to gain knowledge and ideas for our own. We are leaning towards mostly establishing setting with our film opening, but we will continue top think it through.

 "Thriller." Genre:. Web. 11 Mar. 2016.

"Horror." Genre:. Web. 11 Mar. 2016. 

We Found the Perfect Thriller Setting

Yesterday we met as a group and continued to discuss our genre and began brainstorming where the setting for our film could be and thought of some possibilities for plots and how we would approach the  film opening. Obviously the setting of a thriller needs to be somewhere to draw the attention of the viewer and to do this we picked an old abandoned prison known as the Broward Correctional Institution, which is about 15 minutes from where we live. It was a maximum security prison that was shut down in 2010. It was home to several serial killers and even inmates on death row.

If this isn't an ideal location for a thriller film, I don't know what is. I get scared even just looking at the pictures, much less going and filming a film opening there alone. I'm going to be thrilled, while making this thriller film, because I'm already scared.

 "Local 10 News Gets inside Look of Abandoned Broward County Prison." WPLG. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2016. 

Introduction

Hi, my name is Brett Andjich, welcome to my blog. After a year of learning and talking about the final project, my group members and I are ready to give it our best shot. We began by creating a schedule (shown below) for the 6 weeks to stay organized and to make sure everything is done well and on time

WEEK 1 (3/7-3/12)

Ø  3 postings

Ø  Conduct research and think of idea

WEEK 2 (3/14-3/19)

Ø  3 postings

Ø  create a storyboard, script, find location for filming, find actors(depends on genre selection and amount of cast needed)

WEEK 3 (3/21-3/26)

Ø  3 postings

Ø  Continue research

Ø  Finish final prep for filming

Ø  Start filming

WEEK 4 (3/28-4/2)

Ø  3 postings

Ø  Continue research

Ø  Finish filming

Ø  Start editing and working on sound elements

WEEK 5 (4/4-4/7)

Ø  3 postings

Ø  Work on and finish editing and sound elements

Ø  Make any final changes and corrections to the project

Ø  Start creative critical reflection

WEEK 6 (4/8-4/10)

Ø  Continue on blogs & research

Ø  Finish reflection

After we went to the basics of a film and began brainstorming the genre and target audience for our project. We took into account the difficulty of our acting, the setting, and what would be able to capture the audiences attention in the short opening. We decided that our film would be a thriller/suspense film. Through some research, I found that thriller/suspense films were the 5th most profitable from 1995-2016. That info can be found here.

We will pick back up tomorrow and research more on these types of films, what typical characteristics they need to have, and maybe even begin plotting out the beginning of our film opening.

"Market Share for Each Genre 1995-2016." The Numbers. Web. 10 Mar. 2016.