Article/review

Here is research of an article from a well known magazine called Empire magazine, which publishes articles based around films and feature films. This is how they layout there online article: 

It is very important to not give away the whole story line, give the audience and critical engaging description of the film but not reveal the whole plot!! Give a mix of good and bad opinions!

Here is my rough design and a written review of our thriller film:

Silent Minds 

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Plot

Lucy Write is confused and is a mentally unstable teenager! She if faced with a number of problems and some things she doesn't take well, leaving her to rebel or break down! Lucy also gets into the wrong crowd at college and she also has family problems!

Verdict 

Silent minds is a creative and factual film, it show deep meanings and expresses life with schizophrenia in a contemporary way! The film show whats it like for a teenager with schizophrenia and how hard it is. The film uses montages and contemporary filming to show the thoughts of the teenage girl Lucy. There is lots of micro elements which are used to engage the audience, for example the music at the start is quite disturbing, which creates an unsettling environment for the viewers. There is lots of enigmas within the audience, which creates tension throughout, the enigmas are like not showing the whole characters face and random object which have a deeper meaning! 

The film goes into depth on teenagers in modern society and how most of them are stereotype as being a problems in today (thugs). There has never really been a film like this, Silent mind is a complex film, which represents youth and mental health in a whole different way! The film is focused on this one girl lucy and her ordeal through her teenage years. 

Review of Silent Minds (Evaluation)

So I could get a better idea of how a film review should sound I looked at a review by Empire Film Magazine of the new film out in a couple days, Contraband.

From this I was shown that as well as your personal opinion that you should also include a short plot description however it is crucial you do not give the story line away as this will ruin the film for the viewer.


My Review of Silent Minds
Plot
This is the story of a young girl going through her last year of college. The stresses of an average teenager are always there, but on top of all this an overpowering mother and abandoning father, Lucy Write is forced on the periphery of society. Easily swayed Lucy soon falls into the wrong crowd and when they turn on her she is forced to be alone. Festering in her own disturbing thoughts it is abundantly clear there is something seriously wrong.

Verdict
This unconventional thriller really feeds the mind both creatively and factually. Engaging the audience from the very first sequence the film shows many teens out there how important it is to have that network of truly caring people. Chaos from the outset and throughout and a taunting tone that shows the audience just how soul crushing a disease like schizophrenia can be to a person.
The mixture of micro elements highlights the tension that is constantly breeding through the film and due to the contemporary editing techniques it gives the film as a whole a fresh and open minded look on the youths of today and what they are really having to deal with and face in modern society on a day to day basis.
Unlike many of the films out on the big screen a the minute the opening to this thriller is crucial to the plot. This is the first time we are introduced to Lucy and immediately we are drawn to her and intrigued by this issue that is engulfing her. The mish-mash of clips engage and involve the audience with the disease making us feel her crippling pain and there for dragging us through the ordeal with her.
In all the thriller, although is very much thought provocative is in a twisted way refreshing as we are able to see today's youth in a way he haven't seen before and I would advise anyone who wants a ride that will not be forgotten to go and see this film.     

Silent Minds s126 Triller opening sequence

Silent Minds is Thriller film about an innocent girl with a mental health illness, who is confused and easily influenced by the problems in modern society! She is a teenager with schizophrenia, which makes life even hard for her! She gets into the wrong crowd at college and starts drinking and abusing drugs, which creates evil situation for this confused innocent young lady! On top of all these problems she has family problems and like a normal teenager, leaves her angry and up set! So she tries to runs away from her problems and stays at hostel in the city, where she makes friend with boy who is in a similar situation!

Voice Over Scrpit

Thriller Conventions
In our opening to ensure we made the appropriate genre we made a conscious decision to follow three of the typical thriller conventions.
The first was showing the protagonist in peril. Although this was not apparent straight away the audience is soon made aware of the  immediate personality change creating enigmas for the audience to engage with.
The next is the antagonist ensnaring the protagonist in a complex web. This idea in its self is very complex as in our thriller both the antagonist and the protagonist are in fact the same person.
 We hoped this would confuse the audience enough that they would be intreged with the storyline but not too much that they would give up with the plot. this idea was first introduced to the audience in the monologue.
the third conventions we tried to involve in our sequence was combine micro elements to build a paramour amount of tension. I felt, despite this sounding the easiest, was probably going to be the hardest. Thankfully this was no the case and and at certain points I feel we were able to really force the audience into feeling insecure and unsettled in the same the character does.

Characterisation
Unlike many other thrillers on the big screen at the moment within Silent Minds we have explored the idea of our character having schizophrenia and therefore having two completely split personalities.
By doing this we hope to make the audience feel complete polar opposite emotions, fear and empathy.

What Thriller Conventions We Used.

During the planning of our opening sequence we did a lot of research into the stereotypical conventions which were in a thriller this was so we could ensure that we included them so that when the viewer came to watch our opening they were immediately aware that the genre was thriller.

the first convention we included in our opening was 'The protagonist will be seen 'in peril' in one or more scenes before the resolution.' 

We chose this one as it would be easy to show in the opening as we wouldn't have to go into the plot too much and give away the story line or answer any enigmas. We did this by showing Charlie in dark scenes and her looking very uneasy and although none were blatant and simplistic each scene hinted to the audience.

The second one we used was 'The antagonist ensnares the protagonist in an increasingly complex web, until the protagonist feels isolated and helpless.' This convention its self was 'complex' as the antagonist and the protagonist is the same person. In our thriller we have explored the mind of a teenage schizophrenic thus the idea of the 'goodie' and the 'baddy' being the same person. We have introduced the start of this 'snow ball' plot when our main character has a short monologue halfway through the opening sequence.

The third conventions which formed our opening and made it the thriller which we wanted it to be so much was 'Micro elements combine in a build up of suspense.' I felt this was the most important to capture in our opening. This was because if the micro elements were all out off sink with each other the clip would look random and completely novice. 

To ensure this did not happen when it came to editing I ensured that I used specific methods and grouped specific clips together to build the tension and create those all important enigmas which essentially make a thriller adequate, good or amazing! For example when it came to the dramatic monologue I faded it to black to leave the audience to think and process what they were hearing, however as well as the monologue being played we also had the unsettling music that ran throughout the whole opening adding to the ambience and tension. 

I hope by having these conventions it will alert the audience immediately that this is a deep complex thriller which they will hopefully want to continue to watch and enjoy.

My Individual Contribution

During the making of the opening I believe that the majority of my time went into the editing of the sequence.

I didn't d have any involvement in the filming so I decided that I would do the majority of the editing. 

I found this easy as I had a very strong idea in my head of how I wanted the film to look and thanks to Billy capturing this on the camera all I had to do was  arrange them in an order which followed the story board and the idea that the main character (Charlie) was slowing but surely loosing her mind and being trapped.

This was easy to portray, as like said before what Billy had filmed worked perfectly on screen and the transitions we had planned on using from the beginning were already offered on the Final Cut software. 

What Equipment We Used.

Whilst producing the opening of Silent Minds there were three main pieces of equipment we used.

1. Camera 
2. Garage Band 
3. Final Cut 

All these pieces of technology were just as important as each other and although there other small pieces that came together to make overall production I feel without these the opening would not even be on the screen and worth watching.

The first was the camera, we used one camera throughout the whole of the filming to ensure that the quality was all the same and the film didn't look tacky or low budget. Even though I was there for the filming (due to external reasons) I was told that there were no complications and as we used our own camera and not the colleges we were able to film in the dark environments that make up the majority of the shots in our opening.

The second piece of software which was crucial to the unsettling environment, that we stove for to ensure our opening followed the conventions of a thriller, was Garage Band.

We used this in two instances, one for the base music which was played at the beginning of the opening however faded when the montage became more twisted. When making this music we used the software at a pretty basic level using the sounds already on the mac and layering them to create a subtle yet uneasy song.

The second way was more complicated. We downloaded a song off youtube which had extremely harsh sounds but with this by itself would be copyright and it was too much for the opening so we modified it on Garage Band. Once the 'music' was on the programme we layered more ambiences and lowered the level sound of the original piece. 

Once both these pieces were on final cut we were shown that alone they were ok but my making the layered sound so much more developed it added a tension that made the opening as a whole so much better.

The final and most important piece of software that we used was Final Cut. This is was made the film a film. It allowed us to enhance the clips so we are able to build as many enigmas as possible and use the clips to the best of their ability, I feel without this although it would be a montage it wouldn't make sense and would ramble leaving the audience confused and bored.

We also used Photoshop very briefly to create the logos which we then decide to leave out as it would look tacky along side the rest of the footage.