Research - Initial Ideas

 When I first started planning my psychological thriller opening, I honestly had no idea how much detail goes into just the planning stage and I thought it would be SO much easier. At the beginning, I knew I wanted something that would mess with the audience’s mind rather than rely on obvious horror. I also knew that it was not smart to rely on my acting skills or those of my group members as that would probably not get a message across very well. Psychological thrillers are more about tension, confusion, and making the audience question what’s real and that is the main point I wanted to get across...but I am not totally sure how I will do that!

This week I have decided that it will be easier for me to take inspiration from movies and TV shows I already enjoy watching and can understand well. I took a lot of inspiration from the TV show You, especially how it uses narration and close-ups to make the audience feel uncomfortable and almost involved in the character’s thoughts. I also looked at some other thrillers that i also really enjoy. Both of these media pieces use dark lighting such as smile and black phone, slow pacing, and dialogue that builds suspense without giving away the plot twist too easily. 

My initial idea was to create a story about a character who is being watched or followed, but it’s unclear whether it’s real or just in their head. I wanted to play with the idea of paranoia because it’s something that fits really well in the psychological thriller genre, and I think would be the easiest to act out. I started brainstorming different locations and situations where this could happen, like a bedroom, a hallway, or even outside at night with my team and we all agreed pretty well on these locations.

Research - Script Research

     Writing a script will be one of the most challenging parts of this project. Today during class my partners and I researched  what goes into creating a good script in general, and specifically what questions do you have to ask yourself. 

My last blog post went into detail about what sets psychological thrillers apart from other movies and I am soooooo glad I did that basic research because it made this part of the process so much easier for myself! 

Psychological Core

Before we can start writing, we need to decide what internal conflict our character will have. Down bellow are examples of a few different types of specific psychological core themes that we could choose from: 

• Fear of being watched

• Guilt over a past decision

• Obsession with control

• Loss of identity or memory

• Distrust of one’s own mind

These themes are all very different and it seems overwhelming to have to pick a topic out of these options. To help myself and my group to focus while researching and not go down a rabbit hole, I asked myself these questions. 

• What fear, flaw, or trauma drives my main character?

• What does my character BELIEVE that might be wrong?

• What inner conflict will worsen as the story progresses?

Creating Characters

Although we have not written the script or actually brought characters to life yet, it is important that we built an IMPERFECT protagonist. The success of our psychological thriller relies on how imperfect our main character is, and how that can create suspensive within our audience. 

Here are a few examples of common imperfections of psychosocial thriller main characters:

• A secret or suppressed memory

• A reason the audience might doubt their perspective

• A strong desire that could become destructive

• A mental vulnerability (anxiety, paranoia, trauma, grief, denial)

It is important to note that characters usually have a mix of multiple of these imperfections which makes the character have more depth for the audience to experience. 

Opening Scene Notes 

Once I got home, I started watching the opening clips of some common psychological thrillers and I made small notes of what should be done or what is important to emphasize during the beginning of the clips. 

After watching these clips I did research to what a poor intro of a psychological thriller would be and also took the key points of what we should NOT do. 

During our opening we should avoid:

• Overexplaining backstory

• Starting with extreme action

• Clear answers too early

Location

The last thing I wanted to clearly talk about was the location and color theme of phycological thrillers 

Common choices of where the film takes place:

• Isolated homes or apartments 

• Hospitals, schools, or workplaces - usually abandoned 

• Small towns with hidden and scary histories 

• Everyday locations that feel “off” or "odd"

The setting should be sure to:

• Reflect the protagonist’s mental state

• Feel claustrophobic, controlled, or unreliably safe

Research - Psychological Thriller

     Hi friends!! If you read my last blog post about my choice in genres vs. my partners choices you would know I was not exactly fond of doing 1 particular genre....can you guess which one we decided on? 

And if you were not able to read my last blog post, although you should definitely go do that right now, my partners and I talked and after a long discussion I was convinced to say yes to doing a Psychological Thriller.....yay...! So far, I only associate psychological thrillers with "The Joker" which freaked me out as a kid. Hopefully this research expands my knowledge and changes my opinion!

Deep Dive:

In order to be able to produce our own psychologic thriller, I really wanted to understand what exactly I was getting myself into. Here is the deep dive of what I learned about these movies!!

Rather than focusing on a storyline or action like other genres would, these thrillers focus on the mind and mental or emotional conflicts. The main threat is not usually an antagonist or super evil villain, but internal such as guilt, obsession, memory and manipulation. The audience is than intrigued and drawn to the characters memory's and anxiety which makes them go through the story alongside the characters. (Kind of creepy if you ask me...)

Examples of Key Themes and Plot Structure:

These are a few main themes that present themselves in psychological thrillers:

Identity and self-perception – characters question who they are 

Madness vs. sanity – blurry lines between reality and delusion

Obsession and control – fixation on a person, idea, or outcome

Guilt, trauma, and memory – past events haunting the present can be reoccurring 

Power dynamics – manipulation, dominance, and psychological abuse

Besides common key themes, it is also important to describe the plot structure that is typical to this genre of thriller:

There is usually a slow-burn pacing while the tension builds gradually and not suddenly

Suspense comes from anticipation and uncertainty (audience constantly asking themselves WHY?) not constant action

Twists and reveals that reframe earlier events and show a different perspective (another example would be if the film shows multiple character POV's)

The climax often delivers a psychological revelation rather than a physical confrontation

Characters 

The characters of psychological thrillers are the most recognizable part of this whole genre so it is important to get them right from the beginning!!

-Complex protagonists who are mentally vulnerable, flawed, or unreliable

-Unreliable narrators whose perspective cannot be fully trusted

-Antagonists who may be subtle, manipulative, or psychologically dominant rather than physically threatening

-Characters often mirror or contrast each other to highlight inner conflict

 

Atmosphere and Tone

The atmosphere and tone are also important because it helps tell the audience how to feel and adds into the suspense and overall eerie feel of this genre. The atmosphere is usually dark and unsettling while making the protagonist and audience alike feel claustrophobic. There are usually also feelings of isolation and paranoia. Surprisingly, in most parts of psychological thrillers the mood of the film is more important than what is actually happening in each scene because these thrillers rely on feeling and tenseness. 

Research - Considering Genres

    Today, my group members, Santiago, Sam and I all began researching different topics for our short film. We all have very different tastes in movies so it has not been very easy to pick a genre that we would specialize in. It will take an extreme amount of cooperation and communication to land on a topic. 

Originally I had wanted to either do a Romcom (Romantic Comedy) such as “How to loose a guy high 10 days”, or an action movie such as “Top Gun: Maverick”. Both of these genres came from me personally enjoying those types of movies and wanted to replicate it in our own way. My partners however were both very interested in Horror and Thrillers.

Romcoms!

These movie types have always been super close to my heart as I grew up watching these and have found a comfort in movies like this because they show was I believe true romance is. The genre of romantic comedy’s focus on blending funny storylines with love and hope. This genre is projected with a lighthearted tone, smart or witty dialogue, and an ending that simulates growth and character development. This primarily makes the audience become super involved and focuses on the, will they or wont they date storyline. 

Action Movies

 

Contrasting to romcoms, action movies typically focus fast-paced, high-energy sequences. These movies have typical elements such as car crashes, illegal racing and fight scenes. Usually, these movies are centered around a clear hero or protagonist group that goes against a powerful and clever antagonist. Overall, the plot usually focuses more on revenge or justice rather than a deep character developmental storyline.

Great examples of this type of genre include "Fast and Furious", "Top Gun Maverick", and the whole "Marvel Universe" series. Another interesting thing about action movies that I found while researching is that typically the actors are similar. For example, actors, such as Dwayne Johnson and Tom Cruise, that usually star in an action movie will most likely do another movie in the same genre rather than switching to a different type of movie genre. This creates action lovers to have their favorite actors be in multiple movies that they watch and creates a love and attachment towards them. This is extremely typical of action movies and has become an key characteristic.

Psychological Thrillers

This was definitely NOT one of my choices but honestly after researching it could be interesting to complete, but it seems tricky to produce. Psychological thrillers narrow in on the inner workings of the mind, and have overall concepts of fear and uncertainty to develop the storyline rather than character development or action as seen in the other genres. Topics explored in this genre are often paranoia, guilt and identity crisis. 

One of the most typical yet interesting features of a psychological thriller to me is the very slow build of tension and suspense. Movies such as "Knives Out" or "Fall" both have unreliable narrators and place characters in very tense situations where they have to remain mentally aware, which leads both the characters and the audience to question everything. 

Next we will narrow down the genre topics and land on a final genre, but that will not be able to happen without a long discussion. Wish me luck!!

Magazine Cover Practice - Galata Tower, Turkey

 Today I worked on Magazine Cover Conventions!! 

These are the notes I did in class to help me learn and be able to name different conventions and their effectiveness on the audience. I learned about the different ones such as barcodes, feature articles, and my favorite one, PUFFS!! I mean how fun is that word to say! Afterwards, we went to in-design to be able to practice and work with building our own magazine cover. 

I did a rough design of the different ideas for my magazine cover like what each coverline would say! See bellow:

Finally now I could start on the actual creation process. This was super fun for me because I enjoy traveling a lot and being creative. This project was a blend of the two and I was able to easily come up with fun coverline ideas based on the destination I choose which was Galata Tower in Turkey. The image I used was one I personally took, and I wanted to do it justice with this project! Although easy in theory, there were definitely struggles I had while trying to put all of these parts together. In-design is not the easiest to work with and I struggled with simple things such as changing text color and being able to set a fill, or background for my text. I used different conventions like a puff to show what good food that this area is known for like the "San Sebastian". The coverlines also help grab the audiences attention by saying that Turkey is a blend of Asian and European History!!  

This is my completed magazine cover on Galata Tower, Turkey! 

Overall, I am pretty happy with how my project came out. While I do not plan on submitting a magazine cover for my portfolio project I plan on doing the short film intro, the knowledge and practice I gained from this assignment is very useful! 

Video Editing Practice - Pineapple Whip

 My Pineapple Whip Video Editing Project:

Pineapple Whip Completed Practice🍍

THIS PROJECT WAS SO HARD. 

We did this assignment over 2 class periods and worked until the bell rang BOTH DAYS. We had to go through Premiere Pro videos to understand how to use the app and then we had to create our own clip using B-roll and interview footage. I struggled so much at the beginning of this project. Thankfully I had friends that have used the premiere pro workspace before and videos that explained how to organize the space and make it easier to use. I honestly do not know what I would have done if I had to do this project by myself. In the beginning adjusting the clips was repetitive and very particular. Trying to only grab a small part of the video and having to rewatch the clip 100x to get the part I wanted made me LOOSE MY MIND. I definitely learned a lot about patience on this project because I am super happy with the result of my work. 

I loved doing this in the end because it was very creative and definitely helped me gain experience for my portfolio project because I want to do my opener on premiere pro. I am prepared to take everything I learned as a bases for further projects to build and expand on my knowledge of working with footage and editing it which I think will really help me be successful in this class!

Camera Work Reflection - Practice Filmography

  Camera Movements:

  For this project we worked in a group of 4 and we had to create a filmography showcasing 7 different camera movements. Our experience went generally smooth with only a few hiccups but we finished quickly due to our well thought out plan. The learning process for the camera movements was pretty tricky. We had to redo certain parts of our film so many times because the movement was not perfectly smooth. UHG! 

    As our group was originally planning this story, we actually had very good communication, surprising right? I KNOW!! I was presently surprised that we could all come together and finish the project so effectively. Learning was a big part of our process though. My classmates and I are definitely not perfect but it was fun to experiment. We tried a bunch of different camera movements before finding the perfect one for each scene to emphasize the message that we were trying to portray. In the future, I think we should pay more attention to the distinction of the shots we are filming. As a group we struggled with defining a clear line between some shots, and in certain parts of the story the shots blended into each other      

Here is a snippet from our Camera Movement Film!!

Camera Shots/Angles:

    In contrast of the camera movement project, the camera angle project was super tedious. My partner and I had to create a story based on a non living character, and use different shots to convey a story. We chose to do a story in honor of the month of September being dedicated to suicide prevention. The learning process of these shots was pretty simple. The shots were easy to take and pretty fun to experiment with when trying to pick which angle for each scene should be used. However, the taking of the shots was a huge pain. We had to take the shots OVER and OVER again to capture the perfect angle. 

    The patience we had to have during this project definitely taught me to be more careful when taking angle shots so I do not accidentally shoot something that looks like something else. For example, we had to retake a static shot because it resembled too closely to a mid shot. If we had to repeat this project, I would take more time in perfecting the shots the first time so we did not have to go back and take them again because we messed up the first time. 

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