The Usual Suspects: Screen Shots

Notes on the Thriller

In one of our lessons we watched a thriller- The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer 1995) the whole way through, but the main part we took notes on was of course the opening scene.
We discussed what gives a film the name 'thriller' on the basis of camera, editing, sound and mise en scene.
We noted that the camera involved many close-ups and were used at an angle so that not all of a set was revealed including characters who played an important role, particularly in the opening scene, e.g. the character who is Keyser Soze was not revealed until the end of the film. Also the 180 degree rule was broken many times throughout the film in tense action to create that sense of disorientation as I have mentioned before.
The editing was simplistic but cuts were notably much shorter and faster, especially in fight scenes.
The sound involved many loud noises, e.g. shouting, cars etc. which were used to give a sense of busy urban lifestyle and a panicked atmosphere.
Finally  the mise en scene was mostly urban, e.g. offices and block buildings, but also at sea. Sets were dark including the first scene to create mystery. But altogether there was a large range of locations and sets, costumes, e.g. leather jackets and suits and t shirts.
Thrillers have many sub genres it seems that are all tightly packed into either an action packed plot line or a more relaxed but mysterious plot line. There is always conflict within a thriller.

The Final Prelim Task

Click here to see the end product for our Preliminary Task...

Editing

The editing process involved the softwear, Adobe Premier Pro. We simply took what clips we had and cut them to make them fit into good sequence. At first we thought that it would be difficult to use the clips we had because of their poor quality, but we found it easy due to a large variety of ways of altering the clips on Premier Pro.
We decided that the scene with our friend stealing the phone from the bag would work well as a flashback and with part of it (between picking the phone and putting it in his pocket) in slow motion. We found that Premier Pro offered tools to enable us to put dissolve from one cut to the next, so resemble a flashback.
We put the scene in black and white to identify that it is a flashback.
One of our problems with filming was that we were in a noisy environment and one of the shots as our actor (victim) walks in the door picked up loose dialogue as someone was talking at that time.
We found that we could lower the audio volume on the shot and add ambient sound from another clip in over the top to make the shot seem less abrupt.
I have not corrected the sound so that I can demonstrate the huge affect any slight sound can have on the clip and also as a reminder to me of things I should be thinking about when I film the thriller.

Filming

We started filming with a flip-cam on a small 'pocket sized' tripod. We stood it up on a football table which worked for the angles we wanted but the tripod wasn't steady enough to pan with. Nevertheless, we kept filming until we got a steady enough pan as not to distract the audience. What would have improved the establishing shot (pan) is a full sized tripod with a rotating top.

However for a low angle scene as our friend walks through the door, the tripod was very useful, because we could get the camera low to the floor and still film steadily (without moving the tripod.)

For the close-up shots, we found it easy enough to film, but again it would have been even better with a large tripod.

After filming the conversation, we realised how important the lighting was as we re-watched the clips; we could see how the back light behind the victim had made him appear silhouetted which took away some of the emotion in his face.

The dialogue in the conversation, we realised, was too quiet and there was too much background noise from working machines in the location. We have concluded that a quieter room would be adequate and that the actor's we chose should make effort to speak louder.

The preliminary task had been a great eye-opener to the world of filming, and next time we have decided that much more care and thought about: 

Lighting, 

Camera Movement,

Dialogue and Ambient Sound, 

...as these are the most needy areas.

Storyboard and Script

The next step was to develop our storyboard for the preliminary task including the camera angle, e.g. shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule, close-ups and an action match (opening a door.) This is our main idea, but it has been developed as we've discussed the available location and the 180 degree rule. We chose two of our friends, Matt Ahluwalia and Daniel Blake. Matt played the guilty criminal and Daniel played the upset victim.

The Initial Script

This is the script we wrote as part of our storyboard before we began filming. We later added and re invented lines for our two actors:

Victim: Have you been in my bag after my phone?
Criminal: No I don't know of any phone.
Victim: Well, one of my friends said he saw you snooping around and take my phone.
Criminal: Okay, you can have it back! I was just looking. Anyway it's a rubbish phone, I don't need it.
I don't even know what I was doing.
Victim: *Gives a rude look and walks off in a huff*

We altered the lines so that it fitted the scene and the type of characters we were aiming for: Stereotype teenage lads. For example we switched 'friends' to 'mates'
Our 'criminal' actor strayed from the script and swore, but we decided that it was worth keeping for its humour and to demonstrate confidence in our use of speech. It worked well, except we noticed a sudden change in his tone of voice from the previous lines implying falsely that he was suddenly being rude and it almost disrupted his personality and appearance.

180 Degree Rule

Here is a clip that I have watched to understand the affect that breaking the rule has on a film.
I have learned that breaking the 180 degree line can also have positive affects and can contribute to a film.
The 180 degree rule can also be used in a three way conversation as shown in this clip:

The First Part of My Research:

In order to begin the preliminary task, we had to gain an understanding of camera angles, movement and editing.

We found a video clip discussing the shot/reverse shot technique which is used to build a strong relationship between two characters in conversation. Firstly, conversations start with an establishing shot of the two people so that the audience can obtain a better understanding of their location and clearly identify who is talking to who if there are more than two people in a scene. The two characters are shot closer together and facing each other to enhance the connection between them which draws the audience in. 

By watching this clip, we understood the effects that different techniques most commonly used in any clip had on the way story-lines, the relationship between characters and objects were presented to the audience.

We also studied the 180 degree line rule which is where the camera is only focused on half (semi circle) of a location in order to not confuse the audience in where they're looking.