Question: 2

Question:1

Soundtrack

Soundtrack is very important because it enhances the visuals, and our thriller opening needed a soundtrack that added to the mood we were trying to convey, which was dark, grittiness, and disturbing. David Fincher's opening to "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" is wonderfully done, not just because of the visuals, but the soundtrack as well. The drums mix so well with the techno sounds, as well as the exciting vocals. It prepares the audience for the intense mindset they need to be in for the film. The build up is amazing because it gets the audience really anxious. The fact that the main character is a powerful female, as well as  having the strong female vocalist in the opening track shows that women are in control and have dominance over the film.

 Nicholas Winding Refn's opening to "Drive" has a warm tone because of the soundtrack that I really enjoyed throughout the film. The easy going beats along with the technological and soft vocals are lovely together. The tracks set such a nice mood because they are great for so many settings, especially driving around on the highway and through tunnels. This track plays along perfectly with the gorgeous imagery here, and this is a great example of how soundtrack enhances visuals.

David Fincher's opening to "Se7en" is another example of a masterpiece soundtrack. The track is a remix of Nince Inch Nails's "Closer", and creates a perfect mood for something sinister to occur. It gives the feeling of being in an old mental asylum, which is really discomforting. The soundtrack in this also makes the images more disturbing than they actually are.

Terry Winsor's opening to Essex Boys" is another example of the type of soundtrack we were looking for from 0:46 to 1:20. It's not as effective as the others because we wanted something more intense.

Neil Burger's opening to "Limitless" has yet another effective soundtrack, but was a little to dramatic for our opening.

Despite the primarily science fiction genre of Paul W. S. Anderson's "Resident Evil: Afterlife", the soundtrack could have easily went well with our opening. It creates a great level of tension and anticipation for the audience.The slow motion of the visuals and the soundtrack are a magnificent combination.

Despite the primarily fantasy horror genre of Micheal Rymer's "Queen of the Damned", this soundtrack is also really intriguing, dark, and intense. 

The following links are different  possible soundtracks we came across on Sound Cloud.

• https://soundcloud.com/denkr/den-k-thriller-soundtrack
• https://soundcloud.com/jessieowen/thriller-soundtrack
• https://soundcloud.com/noisia/noisia-devil-may-cry-soundtrack-sample

We found a couple on YouTube that we were easily able to get so we chose between the following links.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxOsPYRXD14
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG1HZ11L0Og
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60qW28imyUg

Evaluation Rough Draft

Character Profiles

There are two main characters, but four characters in total starring in Deceit.

Nature Brown is a free spirited teenage girl, who is friendly, adventurous, flamboyant, and unique. Her parents provide her with a comfortable lifestyle, providing her with whatever she wants and needs, which is why she is so optimistic. When she invites two friends over her house while her parents are away for the weekend, she is completely oblivious to the fact that her friend Victor has planned to betray her. Because she is so unaware of the situation, she comes across as a typical naive teen.

The vibrant colors in her clothing reflects her exuberant personality. She clearly wants to be observed by the colors she wears, but maintains her comfortable style. The first name Nature was inspired from my real name, because it fit well with my character. The last name Brown was inspired by Jackie from Jackie Brown  because of the resemblance in the way that both characters are confident individuals.

Victor Neal is a typical troubled teenager, that fits into the juvenile delinquent stereotype. He is always involved with damaging property, pranks, and drugs. He is easily mislead because of his greed for success and the approval of his peers. He plans to kidnap Anna with Bill's help, because her parents are very important people who could help them out extremely. So Victor was asked to find a way to be around her, until the perfect timing came to take advantage of her. Hanging out with Nature provided this great opportunity for Victor to fulfill his side of his deal with Bill. Victor arranged for Bill to be waiting for them before they arrived, so he could plot different ways to get Anna.

Victor wears dark, plain, and comfortable clothing usually, but occasionally buys trendy things to impress his friends. His parents named him Victor because they are a family of winners. His parents expect him to be victorious in whatever he does, despite his strong sense of apathy.

—Anna Flones is represented as a superficial teen because she is heavily reliant on her phone, fashionably aware, and flaunts her wealth.  Her parents are very well-known, openly wealthy, and powerful in their community. When she goes to Nature's house, she has no idea what is in store for her. She doesn't know Victor very well, besides what has been said about him, which hasn't been anything good, so she is naturally tense with him. Her weakness of being obsessive about her phone causes her to be easily targeted and victimized. This dependence on technology brings her to her fate.

Anna is very trendy, which allows her to vary with color in her clothing.

Bill James is a mysterious character that the audience is left in the dark about. He is a guy that Victor wants to impress because he is seriously involved in crime. He needs a few favors from Anna's parents, but needs an inside person to help, which just so happens to be Victor. Bill is using Victor simply because he is easy to control since he's so keen to get into the business, but he could have chosen anyone. Bill kidnaps Anna so that he can bribe her parents into helping him. The two characters wear identical outfits to do their dirty work  because it's the general thing to do.

Their difference in shoe styles is important because although they're both black, the vans separate Victor from being seen as a man, rather than a boy. 

Obstacles

This first video is some of our first rough footage that immediately shows things that weren't quite right. We only filmed the outside parts on this shoot so the beginning and the ending is all we had. The lighting was too bright, my camera lens was dirty, the car was facing the wrong way, there was no sound of struggle when Emilie gets attacked, the shots were too short, and the zooming wasn't very good. The shot of the Emilie being in a broken bath tub was too random and added a comedic factor so we had to cut that. In addition, our cliffhanger wasn't strong enough so we got suggested a more interesting one.

This second video is a darker shoot, which was almost completely unusable because it was too dark and created continuity errors. My camera isn't able to shoot well in dark conditions, but the school's cameras captured the footage a little better with lack of light so we used another camera since we had to re-film everything again.

Rough Cut

- I'm happy with the over all edit, especially how well the soundtrack goes with our piece. 

- Weaknesses: I would like it to be brighter and the quality isn't that great, I'm assuming that's because of the way it was exported or just Youtube. The zoom isn't really effective at 1:02, and we need to add titles.
- Strengths: The soundtrack is perfect for our thriller, the contrast between my colorfulness and darker colors is really interesting, the door shutting on its own at 0:33 is scary, and I think our cliff hanger is better.