welcome back!

hey year 12's, hope you're all refreshed and ready to kick off your production work soon! find some inspiration on youtube - go to latymer media, and have a look at the 2005 and 2006 thrillers.

Hwk then - to watch as many as possible, but at least the ones discussed here as a minimum, and blog some of your own responses. Read my comments below to encourage you to focus on the right kinds of things:

2005
group 1's sequence works really well for me in many ways - the one with the 2 men in the car planning a 'hit'.

For example:
*there's some great use of continuity editing, and really interesting camera work. *it's very 'thriller' in lots of ways.
*it's character driven - much easier than something with lots of action to pack in. *it keeps things really simple, 1 location, 2 characters,1 idea for the audience to follow - doesn't try to do too much or go for overkill
*great script, very tight and signifies the roles of the characters and the relationship between them very effectively
*it's plausible (believable) and menacing at the same time
*really well acted and mise-en-scene spot on

Negatives: the group struggled with sound quality, they were limited by the equipment but coped well nonetheless

the other groups in this year faced all sorts of problems, not because they didnt work hard but mainly because they over-complicated and tried to do too much. have a look at them - you'll see what i mean. there's some really great work there - (particularly some great camera work)but not fully sustained perhaps. continuity causes lots of problems mainly because students don't think about it enough in the planning stage. working through your shot by shot sequence in advance and storyboarding the tricky bits is really essential. see what you think anyway.

2006
Also have a look at the 2006 sequences ie the current upper 6th. there are some really simple but effective ones here too. try 2e - very similar idea to the car one that i've just discussed. one location, super continuity work, acting mise-en-scene all effective. you couldn't do this kind of continuity without working it all out in advance, as with the previous one.

also 1c - 1 room, 3 or 4 actors, mise-en-scene including lighting and camera work really atmospheric, although some problems with continuity that had to be disguised with dissolves and some rather stilted dialogue as a result. 4e had many issues with lighting but check out the camera work in this clever domestic thriller. they do a good job of the flashbacks too, but these created all sorts of problems at the time.

the best sequences are really simple, as i have said but still really ambitious. conversation is hard to do well, by the way, but well worth having a go at - especially as we now have the right sound equipment - boom mics etc. we have new portable lights too, which should make a big difference generally.

the most succesful sequences prove to me that it is much better to concentrate your efforts on your development of a continuous sequence than it is to jump around from scene to scene with flashbacks, different locations and actors etc. there's enough to worry about getting your continuity right!!

saying that, there's plenty of other good work from this year group too. 4c's ghostly tale works really well as does 3c's dodgy stepfather idea. the kidnap is effective in 2c's. these all stick to the 'rules' of 1 location, and just a couple of actors. 1e tried a different approach and really go for it with a range of locations and characters all building up to an intriguing meeting.

all in all, i would say that year after year, our students turn out great sequences but focus mainly on thriller genre signifiers, camera work, acting and some elements of mise-en-scene. these are usually done really well. continuity is often an after-thought though, and very few seem to get the lighting right. dialogue is often avoided for being too tricky. the groups seem to fall out endlessly as well (not alway but often enoughg to become a real issue in some groups) and personality gets in the way of performance.

maybe 2007 is the year that all this will change!!!

posted by Ms B