The Crazies, thriller movie

The Crazies is a 2010 American Thriller movie directed by Breck Eisner.

The Crazies Poster

First the movie introduces us to the distributor, Overture Films.

The Crazies is about a fictional place in Ogden Marsh, Pierce County, Iowa which is known as “the friendliest place on Earth” when the water supply is accidentally infected with the "Trixie" virus. Slowly throughout the movie the infected victims turn into bloodthirsty killers.

The first thing you can hear is the sound of the harsh, thundery winds and I can see a yellow fiery background where all of the Mise en scene has been set on fire and the entire town has been trashed.  We are basically shown what the town looks like after the virus had struck. 

A wide shot of the distruction of the Ogden Marsh town.

When suddenly the sign ‘Welcome to Ogden Marsh’ falls completely down after being set on fire. The sound of the piano is used as a sound bridge to connect the previous scene to two days earlier when the incident occurred. Various images were edited together just to introduce the audience to the type of town it is, a very simple one that still contains farms.

After we are introduced to the main character David Dutten the local sheriff of Ogden Marsh portrayed by the actor Timothy Olyphant. We are immediately shown a significant prop, his sheriff’s badge on his uniform.

Then we are introduced to some other local characters such as: Rory ‘the man with the shotgun’, the doctor and priest and significant buildings such as the ‘Family Medical Clinic’, the ‘Baseball club’etc.

We are shown a man with a gun, Rory who has clearly been affected by the viral water but only the audience are supposed to have realised this when suddenly a bird’s eye view shot out of nowhere signifying that someone is watching them.

The representation of the coffee being spilt onto the floor implies that something far more important is going on.





After the first five minutes of the movie the title is revealed to us ‘The Crazies’ in a simple white font with a black background.

Subtle signs are presented to us when people become zombie like as if there empty vessels, repeat themselves, their body language is always stiff and you can hear eerie alien music in the background.



                                   A short clip of 'The Crazies' trailer.

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from Donna

Aron, Jamila and Sumi

Please can you

write about a post, an analysis of a thriller of your choice (add screen gabs)
research some other blogs that inspire you, make some notes and we can look at them after the holiday
produce a talk to camera (on your phones) about the experience of the remake (five minutes). What did you learn, find useful and think will help you in the final production.

if you get these things uploaded, you will all be up to date.

Well done

A film opening usually consists of many different conventions, such as the name of the film, the names of the cast as an introduction to the characters, the names of the director and the producer. 


This can be done by using an appropriate font and can also be done by using other conventions such as the music/soundtrack, the graphics and the camera shots that attracts the audience. Alfred Hitchcock uses these conventions in his film opening PSYCHO.


This screen grab shows the title of the film, this graphic transition is significant as it reinforces the thriller element of the title, The words are as if sliced with the lines which works well to be presented as a thriller opening.

Collateral: Original & Edited.

Original:



GoAnimate.com: Collateral O&E by AA42765

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Collateral: The Remake.

This is the final (Compressed) export of our Collateral Remake.

Regarding the editing aspect of the piece, I (Aron) found it relatively easy to do on Final Cut Pro.
I constantly tried to edit the piece in the mindset of a producer thinking about continuety editing and matching shots that would make sense to the viewers. I used the trim tool to cut unwanted extra parts of clips.

I also used effects such as Slow motion, this took several attempts to get perfect as i had to clone the piece and then use continuety editing to make the normal speed of the scene transition fluently with the slow motion clone of the scene. Effects such as fade outs were used to give a more professinal feel to the piece. Ultimately i feel that the editing process was straight forward but i will practise using final cut pro in my spare time to enchance my editing skills. Lastly the music i added was a track entitled "Hurt Me" produced by Burial, i added the piece to give the film more groove and tempo yet the eerie sounds and atompshere helped create suspense to the thriller, leaving the viewers in suspense.

The making of Collateral.

• First Aron assembled the Tri-pod:

• Then Jamila and Aron adjusted the camera:

We had problems trying to place the camera onto the Tri-pod however in the end we worked it out. 

• We practiced our parts without recording to get a sense of the characters.

• We recorded the main scene several times to ensure we had enough shots. 

• Not having any key props caused many problems, however we used our initiative and figured out a solution.  We just used our own bags and phones. We realised, that when we shoot the real 'thriller opening' we should think very carefully about the 'mise en scene'.   

• This practice exercise was useful in helping us prepare for the 'real' shoot in the new year. We learnt how to set up shots and frame correctly. 

• We enjoyed remaking a clip from Collateral.

Health and Safety Tutorial

-  We were introduced to the JVC Camecorder and were given a memory card and the battery.(We were told we would get 2 memory cards when we start shooting.) 
-  We were shown how and where to put these items. E.g camera slots A and B
 -  We learnt about the buttons and the different functions of the camera.
-  Do not touch the lense. This could damage it. 
-  We learnt how to place the camera carefully onto the tripod without causing any damage.
-  We were shown how to assemble the tripod and were given a chance to do it ourselves.
-  We were shown how to frame properly, how to record and how to play back what we recorded.
-  We learnt the thirds rule and the 180 degrees rule (crossing the line).
-  We were told to always copy all footage from the memory card into our video drive.
- Never leave the camera out in the rain, if we need to shoot in the rain the media department has big black umbrellas to keep the camera shielded.
-  Always keep the camera with you, never leave it in an unsafe place.
-  Return the camera to college at the time set.

Film Convention Openings

This is the opening sequence to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGtms4B1pO8

-  Audience is introduced to the production company logo.

-  A reccuring motifs is heard straight after. This helps the given audience identify the film.

-  There is a non-diagetic shrilling noise as the screen is blank. This comes to an abrupt halt as we see an extreme close-up of a person's eyes.   

-  There is no title sequence which tell us who is starring in this film; however the audience is introduced to key characters.

-  The title of the movie is shown at the end of this clip.

Collateral Storyboard

Animatic of our Collateral storyboard

Storyboard of the remake of the movie:Collateral

Collateral Summary

Collateral is a 2004 American crime thriller film.
Starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx.
It was directed by Michael Mann


Beginning Plot:

Nightshift cab driver Max Durocher (Jamie Foxx) drives U.S. Justice Department prosecutor Annie Farrell (Jada Pinkett Smith) to her office building where she spends the night preparing for a pending federal grand jury drug indictment case convening the following day.
Annie takes a liking to Max, leaving him her business card as she gets out of the cab.
Vincent (Tom Cruise) a former special operator, likely to be Delta Force, hails the cab next, explaining he is in town for one night closing a real estate deal and bribes Max with US$600 on the pretense of chauffeuring him to his five appointments.


Collateral: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
No. Title
1. "Briefcase"
2. "The Seed"
3. "Hands of Time"
4. "Guero Canelo"
5. "Rollin' Crumblin'"
6. "Max Steals Briefcase"
7. "Destino De Abril"
8. "Shadow on the Sun"
9. "Island Limos"
10. "Spanish Key"
11. "Air"
12. "Ready Steady Go"
13. "Car Crash"
14. "Vincent Hops Train"
15. "Finale"
16. "Requiem"

Possible songs can be used in our action thriller.

Research & Practise Camera Shots

(Second version as my previous post did not save)

We learnt about many different types of camera shots and as part of a practical task were given handheld lumix finpix cameras
and made our way around the college building

to complete a checklist of camera shots.

Here are some examples of the shots:

 

 Here we have a wide establishing shot outside of our college building

 'Take a picture of your shoes"

 Picture of shoes taken from a longer angle on a staicase

 Wide establish shot in the canteen

 Over the shoulder shot of annie looking out the college windows

Birdsseye shot of the canteen

 Wide Shot

 Close up shot of someones face

 Medium ranged shot.

 Student passing by

 Me agaisnt the window

 "Take a picture of your shoes in a intesting way"

 Over the shoulder shot

The law of 1/3rds the subject is standing in the 1st 3rd of the frame

Film opening analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPA6kRuhKks

This is the infamous opening to the film "Saving Private Ryan"  which is a 1998 American war film set during the invasion of Normandy in World War II. It was also directed by Steven Spielberg

Film conventions of the opening

• Lots of diagetic sound is used in the opening, such as bullet sounds, breathing and the sound of action undernath in the water.
• Introduced to the scene with a establishing shot of the Normany beach.
• The main charecter receives lots of screen time, signify that he plays an important role in the film

Conventions of film openings

- Introduce production company logo
- Introduce distribution company logo
- Title sequence tell audience who stars are
- Key characters are introduced
- Established shots convey key locations to the film
- Music helps set mood and tone for film
- Intended to hook audience into the film

Introduction to CAMERAS.

Big Close Up

 This is a big close up shot of a persons face. The photo could look better if it was more closer.

Wide Shot
 This is a wide shot of a large open spaced room.

Interesting way of shooting FEET
This is quite an interesting perspective i took of these feet. 

The THIRDS Rule
This is a photo of 1/3 of the Thirds rule. This is correct as there should be space infront of the person but there isnt enough behind her. 

Over the shoulder shot
This is a good shot of the over the shoulder shot as there is alot of space around the person.  

Natural Lighting
 This is a shot to show the natural lighting that can be used in a photo not that bright as the sky is grey.

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Health & Safety Tutorial

My presentation of the introduction of camera's.

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