The Set of 'Solo'

This is a birdseye view of the set we intend to build for our thriller in the studio at school:

 

Research into Casting

Once our group casted Nick we found certain similarties with the character of Mark Zuckerberg in 'The Social Network' drama film, however, sharing conventions with various other thrillers. Also it has been said that Mark Zuckerberg has a slight tendency of autism, sharing similarities with our character in 'Solo'. Additionally, Zuckerberg obviously has technology skills as a result of creating the billionaire business of Facebook, whilst our character in 'Solo' is responsible for hacking into the FBI mainframe as a consequence of his autism. We wanted to show that in fact aspergers could affect anybody and should not detract from what you can achieve in life. By link Facebook and aspergers as well as social networking we can widen our target audience as everyone has heard of Facebook.


Mark Zuckerberg

 

 

Casting

The character of the autistic boy should be played by an actor who is:

• Able to act vulnerable yet mature
• Good Actor
• Appealing to a young audience
• Able to be tried in America for an adult

We decided on the actor, Nick Lyasovsky.

We decided he was right for the role as he is acclaimed as a talented actor therefore he could easily act with the symptoms of autism, which may be quite challenging for other potential actors. Therefore he will also be able to act in a vulnerable yet mature way. He may appeal to a younger audience which may attract younger viewers to want to see the film as the storyline may not necessarily attract them to want to see the film. Nick also looks the right age for the role and he could also be tried for an adult in America.

The young character we have incorporated into our thriller is consequently similar to other thrillers such as the child actors in Terminator 2, Omen, Shining, Sixth Sense. Our actor in 'Solo' could also be seen as a male version of the child actor in 'Hanna' as a result of her extraordinary defence skills and similarly the boy's technology skills in our thriller, deriving from his autism, allows him to subconsciously hack into the FBI mainframe.

 

Research for Mise-en-Scene of 'Solo'

In our thriller our group will attempt to recreate a teenaged boy's bedroom. Since the boy in our thriller is obsessed with gadgets and technology this means the room will consequently have computers and iPads on display. But the pictures below give a rough idea of the desired mise-en-scene. The colour scheme is also key as this signifies the male character of our thriller, with blues and greens as the dominant colour. We need to research this as we wanted to gather as much information as possible in order to recreate the room as realistically as possible, for the audience to believe that the boy's actions could be a true occurence in reality, all by maintaining a well designed set and thoroughly thought through mise-en-scene.

Purchasing Props

Aeroplane Posters on Amazon

Aeroplane Posters on Amazon
 

Rubik's Cubes on Amazon
 

Props for 'Solo' thriller

PROPS FOR 'SOLO'

This aerial shot shows an accurate image of the boy’s bed in the title sequence. His duvet will be of blue striped material. This will be from the school's supply of props.

The pyramid of rubix cubes is an aspect of the boy’s bedroom. This is a signifier of the Asperger syndrome he has as his mind works quickly to solve puzzles as he thinks differently to us. This will be from the school's supply of props.

The airfix models of aeroplanes will be laid out on the boy's table as if he has his own workshop of airfix models. Aeroplanes are one of his obsessions which is another signifier of his Aspergers. A member of our group will bring in her brother's models of aeroplanes.

This poster of aeroplanes reinforces the boy's fascination with aircraft as a result of his Aspergers which links to the message he leaves on the FBI mainframe about 9/11. We will buy these from amazon.

There will be aeroplanes hanging from the ceiling, as shown above. The planes are his obsession as a result of his autism and also highlight the childish streak of his personality. We will buy these from amazon.

The digital clock will be on the boy's bedside table. A close up of the clock is shown at the time of 3am. We will borrow this from one of our friends.

The boy's bedside table will have a digital clock and a lamp on it. We will borrow this from one of our friends.

There will be a lamp on the boy's beside table and a close up of the clear light bulb will be filmed showing the filaments of the bulb to light up consequently over exposing the shot. As well as a lamp this will be from a member of our group's room.

The boy will be wearing aeroplane pyjamas which will reinforce his obsession with aeroplanes. We will buy these from amazon.

The boy will make his way over to his desk and turn on his computer to find the code and break it. We will use a laptop instead of a computer, a desk from the school's supply of props and also a chair from the school's supply of props.

Narrative of 'Solo' thriller

Narrative of ‘SOLO’

'They thought it was uncrackable...it wasn't.'

The title sequence is an introduction to our thriller we have created called ‘SOLO’. The main structure of the thriller follows the idea of an autistic boy discovering a hidden code on a website on his computer. This intrigues him, especially as he has Asperger syndrome, therefore his mind has a different way of thinking. After solving the code he manages to break into the FBI mainframe. When he has succeeded in doing this he leaves a typed message on the FBI workstation after discovering certain problems and information that the organisation had been keeping from the public.

The message reads: ‘"US foreign policy is akin to Government-sponsored terrorism these days … It was not a mistake that there was a huge security stand down on September 11 last year … I am SOLO. I will continue to disrupt at the highest levels … "

The hacking scandal attracts a monumental amount of speculation on the verdicts and movements of the FBI and also the teenage boy.  The film then follows the life of the boy focusing on the consequences of his actions and the legal prosecutions he faces. The underlying decision of whether the teenager will face extradition from the USA or whether the legal charges will be dropped still stands thereby altering the storyline to be one of a legal thriller.

 

 

Evaluating Pilot

By completing the pilot shots of our thriller in our room this made it clear to our group what would and wouldn't work.
Firstly we found that filming in our room upstairs was quite cramped and hard to do as there are three beds in the room therefore we realised when shooting the actual thriller we would be short on space with the added equipment of lights and the camera. Therefore as a result of completing the pilot we decided to chose the studio over our bedroom as a location for filming the opening bedroom scene of our thriller.
By testing out the different shots we decided on in our storyboard, we realised the close up shot of the filament bulb of the lamp was very effective and would be ideal for the titles of the cast and crew appearing in the white colour illuminating the screen.
We found that the tracking shot across the airfix model desk would be very effective also, however, this will possibly take the longest to film but it will definitely be worth it.

'Solo' Thriller pilot shot by shot videos

These videos show a rough guide of the shots our group will film for our thriller.

This video shows the aerial shot of the person getting out of bed but the viewpoint is chosen carefully so the face of the person is not seen directly.

 

 

This video shows the person turning to the side and turning on the bedside light.

 



 

This video shows the close up of the person turning the bedside light on.

 

 

This video shows the brightening of the filament bulb as the shot becomes over exposed.

 

 

This video shows the transition from the light bulb to a white wall and then the slow backwards tracking shot from the wall to stop at the view of the person's head, still not exposing the person's identity.

 

 

The reason for completing these pilot shot by shot videos for our thriller was to gain a rough idea of how the film would pan out and take formation. The benefit of doing this was that we soon found out that the bedroom we were filming in was too small for our group to film in as a result of it being a students bedroom with three beds already in it. Therefore these pilot videos consequently helped us to decide on changing the location of filming for the shoot to the media studio which would be a lot more spacious than this bedroom and our group could additionally customize the set accordingly to our main character, being a boy, targetting our audience specifically, whereas in the bedroom we were previously filming in was a girl's bedroom therefore not matching the desired mise-en-scene of our thriller.  

Shot by Shot Guide of 'Solo' Thriller

SHOT BY SHOT GUIDE

1.First we see a bird’s eye view of the tidy boys room, with the boy in bed asleep. The room is covered in posters of aeroplanes and Air fix models neatly placed on a desk next to his computer. This aeroplane theme runs throughout the room and is an occurring feature to the boys persona.

2.Next we see a medium shot of the boy sat on the bed, looking wide awake. The abrupt movement of him sitting up connoting he had a troubling dream.

3.We then see a close up of the boy leaning over and turning the bed side light on. He flicks the switch, then the shot changes too….

4.A close up of the filament in the light bulb. The filament then exposes to a bright white colour which feels the screen.

5.The white screen then zooms out to reveal a poster and continues to zoom out until we are back to the previous shot of his profile.

6.The camera then rotates around the back of the boys head, using the back of his head as the rotation point.

7.  The camera zooms into the Rubik’s cube to show he has focused his attention onto it. Then the camera zooms into a single square.

8.The colour that is focused on the Rubik’s cube fills the screen, the colour then changes, sliding on a colour scale.

8. a) After the screen has gone through the colour scale and the titles have been shown, the final colour will be light grey.

9. From this shot of the whole, grey, screen, we slowly zoom out to reveal that the grey is the colour of a cartoon plane on the boy’s pyjama bottoms. The camera keeps zooming out until the boy’s feet and calves are in view.

10. This shot continues into tracking shot of the boy walking across the room until he is in the left of the frame.  The camera follows his feet and, to do so, rotates 90 degrees and also reverses under a table and we see the table leg come slightly into view – out of focus. The tracking shot is from an inferior level so when he walks to the other side of the room to the computer and desk, the perspective makes him look smaller than the table leg. From this view we also his hand reach to the left.

10. a) Here will be a match on action shot of his hand picking up the unfinished Rubik’s Cube and his hand moving back towards his body.

10. b) We then return to the previous shot and see the rest of this movement.

11. The camera then tilts/pans up the table leg to reveal a model plane on the table. Here, because of the perspective, the plane looks life-size compared to the boy.

11. b) The camera then pans along the table and as it looks through a magnifying glass, the boy’s head is warped and magnified – signifying his intelligence. The pan finishes with him on the right of the frame. We see his arm start to reach out…

12. Match on action of his hand putting the completed Rubik’s cube down and moving his hand away – we don’t see the surface the puzzle is placed on… (the colour we see from the front of the cube is red, to signify danger.)

12. a) until the camera zooms out to reveal that the completed Rubik’s cube has been placed on top of an organised pile of around 8 other Rubik’s cubes. The screen then snaps into black.

13. Then, with the black background, a green ‘1’ is typed on to the screen. Then slowly, a ‘0’ and then, with increasing speed, green binary code fills the screen. The black background is then replaced by the image of the out of focus silhouette of the boy typing.

14. Then, the camera rotates 90 degrees and, through editing, will go through the layers of the computer and come out the other side to show…

14 a) a medium close up of the boy’s profile, lit by the light of the computer. The camera then tracks behind his head, suspends for a moment and then appears to fly into the screen and delves into a world of numbers.

 

Analysis of 'Audition' Trailer

The trailer 'Audition' starts of with the low angled shot focused on a girl sitting on the floor with her head hung down, her surroundings are motionless and she is completely still creating a tense atmosphere and a consequential climax. The setting is deserted and mysterious as the foreground is shadowy and the background includes a large white bag. The shot instantly changes to a middle aged man staring at a phone, presumably waiting for it to ring. The next shot is purposely filmed from a high angle to display the telephone in the room and therefore link the two characters together. As the girl hears the phone call the close up shot of barely visible mouth is shown to break into a sinister smile. This mysterious body language of the woman is very typical of a thriller as well as the deserted, mysterious, shadowy settting to set a tense mood for the thriller. As the girls head slowly tilts upwards a medium close up shot is taken of the room, with the background visible. The girls face is still slightly covered by her hair, retaining an eerie atmosphere and the importance of her unidentification. The sudden jolt of the white bag sets off a series of fast paced cuts of various shots showing injections and fluids looking as though a scientific investigation is taking place, however, the genre of the thriller leads me to imply there may be an aspect of torture within the film. The contrasting shot of a beautiful woman on a beach is followed by a shot of a couple kissing which hints at the involvement of romance within the movie but is instantly followed by striking shots of an eye flicking open, the sinister face of the girl and the man being injected with a fluid leading him to scream out in pain. The blue tint of the shot of the couple kissing predicts this contrasting series of shots showing pain and torture and the colour blue is negative and usually symbolises coldness, isolation and unhappiness which could have induced these actions to take place and is typical of a thriller. The next low angle shot looking up at the girl suggests that she possesses a sinister power and is superior to the man towards the end of the film. This is then contrasted with the innocently pure and calm shots of, supposedly, the same girl dancing in a white leotard. This emphasises the multiple personalities she may possess within the film or the contrast in her personality throughout the film as she may have started out as an innocent and virtuous character, pure in her surroundings but transformed into a cynical, menacing character towards the end because of her experiences. This is typical of the genre of a thriller as characters often experience a change in their personality or the possession of numerous personalities due to events which have happened in the past or are presently happening in the movie.

Analysis of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' Trailer

The trailer of the Swedish version of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' starts with a wide shot of the back of a girl, dressed in black, walking down an underground tunnel at night. This signifies her mysterious character and the feeling of someone watching her as the point of view shot suggests this, creating a sense of paranoia in the first few seconds of the trailer, being aspects of the genre of a thriller. The shots of the mysterious girl scrolling through code like text on a computer and her rapid typing displays fast cuts generating a fast pace to the trailer which is another signifier of a thriller. The medium long shot of the girl sitting still is filmed from a distance to include the passing of a black shadows across the screen which adds another element of mystery of the unidentified character within the scene as the viewer feels as if the girl is trapped. The next scene contrasts massively with this last shot showing the violent attitude of the girl as she punches a man. The shot of the girl swifting through lots of possessions hints at the activity of the girl medelling in someone's business. The next medium long shot of the girl displays her to be looking at a computer showing a map combined with codes and the eyeline match, zooming in on the screen, shows the codes and maps in more detail suggesting that the thriller combines stalking as the next shot shown focuses on the a man in the street, seen to be walking in the opposite direction to the rest of the public signifying the character to be of importance and a possible target in the film. The next couple of shots display the camera lens to follow the man's actions, followed by the sight of multiple shots of him which presents the process of the man being stalked which is a definite signifier of a thriller. The fast cut black and white, grainy shots of a woman at the window of a house introduces another aspect of mystery as she is not formally introduced in the trailer and therefore must be linked to the man being stalked which is a typical signifier of a thriller, a lost or missing girl or the possible death of a woman. The next shot of girl's wounded leg shows the detail of blood being a typical signifier of a thriller, emphasising the danger and violence of the action involved in the movie. The added shots of a car chase at night also emphasise the action in the movie, whilst the time of day is when most crime and mysterious events happen which suits the genre of a thriller well. The next two shots display the characters in the isolated settings, the man in a snowy landscape, alone whilst another figure is walking across a bridge, also alone. This suggests the characters share the feeling of isolation at atleast one point in the film. The end of the trailer comes to a climax with numerous fast cut and paced shots of various actions such as gun shooting, smashing windows, kissing, snatching and ending with a shot of the main character being purposely injured in the neck and showing her pain in her facial expression. These shots sum up events of the movie as well as associating the storyline of the movie to the genre of a thriller. 

'Vertigo' Analysis of Title Sequence

Analysis of ‘Vertigo’ Title Sequence

The title sequence of ‘Vertigo’ starts off with non-diegetic music creating a sense of confusion and introducing a sinister feel to the movie. The camera zooms in on the woman’s lips and the first title appears drawing attention to the woman’s red lipstick symbolising passion and danger and her twitching lips suggesting anxiety. The shot moves to her eyes flickering left and right emphasising her panicked state implying that there is something she is hiding from. The next title emerges from her eye drawing attention to this feature and as the eye is the gateway to the soul the flickering prevents anyone from seeing her soul. The shot is then edited to a red colour which could link to the genre of the film as the thriller may incorporate danger and the change in colour symbolises a change in mood which introduces the theme of identity, confirming the sub-genre, as this is a convention of a thriller. As the camera enters the eye it suggests we are entering the woman’s mind and subconscious where secrets are revealed. The titles are displayed on one side of the screen next to the swirls where the patterns eventually take over suggesting her psychotic state inside her mind and the way her mind works emphasising her unstable identity. The font of the text is bold and close to being three-dimensional possessing another layer and representing how there are secrets to be revealed as the text is emboldened with another layer. Especially as the font is emerging from being embedded in her facial features presenting the revealing of her own secrets.

'Vertigo' Title Sequence

From title sequences and listing what names appear at what time, this has broadened my knowledge as to what to include in our title sequence at what specific times. For example, the producer, director and lead actors should always come first in appearance during the title sequence whilst other actors, casting director, musical director, costume designer, editor, director of photography and writers come afterwards. The director title normally appears first on screen as they are regarded as the most important role in the creation of the film.

Time:

Text which appears:

What that person or persons role(s) is/are:

0:04	A Paramount Release	Co-financier
0:13	In Vista Vision Motion Picture high-fidelity	Co-financier
0:24	James Stewart	Actor
0:36	Kim Novak	Actress
0:45	In Alfred Hitchcock’s	Director
0:57	Vertigo	Title
1:11	Co-Starring: Barbara Bel Geddes with Tom Helmore Henry Jones Raymond Bailey Ellen Corby Konstantin Shayne Lee Patrick	Actors
1:25	Screenplay by: Alec Coppel & Samuel Taylor Based upon the novel ‘D’entre Les Morts’ by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac	Screenwriters     Authors
1:36	Director of Photography Robert Burks A.S.C Technicolour colour consultant Richard Mueller	Director of Photography   Colour consultant
1:47	Art Direction Hal Pereira & Henry Bumstead Special Photographic Effects John P Fulton, A.S.C Process Photography Farciot Edouart, A.S.C & Wallace Kelley, A.S.C Set Decoration Sam Comer & Frank McKelvy Titles designed by Saul Bass	Art Directors     Photo Editors     Process Photographers     Set Decorators     Title Designer
2:02	Edited by George Tomasini, A.C.E Assistant Director Daniel McCauley Makeup Supervision Wally Westmore, S.M.A Hairstyle Supervision Nellie Manley, C.H.S	Editor   Assistant Director   Makeup Supervisor   Hairstyle Supervisor

	Sound Recording by Harold Lewis & Winston Leverett	Sound Recorders
2:19	Costumes Edith Head Special Sequence by John Fewer	Costume Designer   Sequence Designer
2:27	Music by Bernard Herrmann	Musician
2:33	Conducted by Muir Mathieson	Conductor
2:38	Associate Producer Herbert Coleman	Associate Producer
2:52	Directed by Alfred Hitchcock	Director