Blog finished

I. HATE. EVALUATION. QUESTION. ONE

For some reason, trying to make a simple video blog to answer evaluation question one has turned into a NIGHTMARE! Firstly the video wouldn't upload onto my computer and it was too large to email to myself, as well as it was too large to upload straightly to Vimeo.
So I thought I'd just edit it down but I ended up having to use the old premiere software. It took forever to edit and when I tried to render my project, it took 25 minutes and then stopped at 99%! So, in my stressed state, I had to start again. Then when I uploaded it into the new premiere, the audio didn't match the video and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't work out why, so instead of a video of me blogging I've used all my cuts of Neurosis in chronological order and made it into a director's commentary type thing. Then when I got to the end of the audio, I realized - again for some stupid reason - that a piece of the audio was missing! So I've had to insert title slides into my question, with the missing piece of audio written out! I'm currently just waiting on it exporting which apparently is going to take 20 minutes...let's hope it goes on vimeo without a fuss!

GRRRRR

I've had to change the format of my piece and just keep the sound from my vlog as for some reason when I've tried to edit it in Premiere, the sound doesn't match the picture! Instead I'm gonna play Neurosis over the top and have it act as a voice over.

BLOG (NEARLY) FINISHED!

For some reason, my iPhone won't let me transfer my evaluation question 1 video onto the computer and Vimeo won't let me upload it yet as it is too long! So tomorrow in the lesson, my aim is to edit down my clip, get it on vimeo, finish my evaluations and finally say that my blog is finished!

Evaluation Question 7

VoiceThread was quite difficult to use so I've had to separate my evaluation into two slides. The first slide is my evaluation of Haematemesis, which finishes with the piece itself. The second slide starts with Neurosis before getting into the evaluation and how I've improved afterwards. Feel free to skip both clips if you just want the analysis!

Evaluation 6

Evaluation 6

Scribd seems to have converted my file in a really weird way and some of the text is all over the place - my apologies! 

Evaluation 4/5 - continued

Unfortunatly I had to continue this question as a PowerPoint as I am only able to make two free storyboards a week on StoryboardThat. Here is the final part of questions 4 and 5 of my evaluation.

Evaluation Question 4/5 - Storyboard Two

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Here's the second storyboard for questions four and five of my evaluation.

Evaluation Question 4/5 - Storyboard One

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Here is the first storyboard I've done for questions four and five of my evaluation.

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 2

http://prezi.com/3qdnavaowbcl/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Evaluation 1

Excuse my constant sniffling - I wasn't well when I filmed this - but here is my video for question one!
eval q1 from Chris Earl on Vimeo.

Final Piece!!!

Final Cut from Rhiann Quinn on Vimeo.

Coming soon to a blog near you...

Over these past couple of weeks I've been doing a lot of work for media around my evaluation and that has meant I have been creating and tampering with a bunch of posts to do with my evaluation, all of which have not been posted yet. Over the next few days there will be a flurry of posts answering the evaluation questions in many wonderful ways, shapes and forms! 

Looking back on the editing process...

As we've reached Rough Cut 3 - which I'm feeling might be my final cut - I feel it would be appropriate to post something about the editing process of 'Neurosis', from looking through the shots to finishing the third rough cut.
   When I uploaded all my footage, my original plan was to do two scenes and I had all the footage for them done. I had the scene I've used for all of my rough cuts with Kieran and also an extra scene with Laura where we actually see her waking up and realising she'd been kidnapped (hopefully I will get this edited together and posted as a 'deleted scene' so I can evaluate why I decided to not use it). I decided on the shots I was going to use and started editing!
The first cut took a long time to edit as I was slowly realising how long the first scene was and how I wasn't going to have time to add in the second scene; this caused me to panic slightly because I wasn't sure whether or not the first scene alone would be enough to secure the marks I wanted. I also has several continuity issues throughout my piece. Firstly the photographs kept switching places as whilst we were filming I was showing Kieran how to pick them up and their order etc, which caused them to be in slightly different positions in each shot. Secondly Kieran would sometimes switch the hands he picked the photographs up with, which was another fault on my part because I should've checked the footage before we finished shooting. Finally, the lighting was a major issue as some of the shots were so dark, you couldn't actually read the credits! These errors became apparent when I was editing everuything together so I uploaded a very haphazard rough cut and decided to film again.
    Kieran and I filmed the scene again and he was fantastic throughout the whole process; the second filming experience was much more fruitful than the first as I knew exactly what I wanted and Kieran was able to improve upon the first time. His acting was really good and fitted what I wanted perfectly.
   Once I'd uploaded and looked over the new footage, I was much happier with everything as nearly all the earlier issues had been fixed: the lighting was much better, the issue with the hands had been sorted and all the photographs stayed in their original places. So the second editing process began.
    I found editing for the second time much less stressful as I had a multitude of shots I could use and I'd also taken some new shots that I thought would work well in my piece. One of these was a shot of some water that would be edited to show some black ink being poured into it but then it would quickly cut back to the original shot. I wanted this to show my main character's mental instability (which is also why I used a lot of ghosting and fuzzy shots). Another idea I had was to actually use clips from news programmes and disasterous events such as 9/11 and Princess Diana's crash in my piece. These also represent the character's mental issues and his gruesome outlook on life as they're meant to be images that are flashing in his head; I conveyed this by making the images distorted. I had a small issue with the music and where I was going to actually fade it out but I decided to leave this until I got my feedback from Mr Earl on some of the overall shots. Rough cut 2 was complete!
    Mr Earl commented on some of the length of the shots, as well as the fact I needed to actually try and focus in on the actors in the photograph when their credits came up. This reduced the actual length of my piece by quite a bit and fixed the problem I'd been having with the music, so overall everything seemed to work out with Rough Cut 3. It's now uploaded and I'm just waiting on some feedback but hopefully I will be uploaded it again soon with a slighly different tite....FINAL PIECE!

Cut 3

Final Cut from Rhiann Quinn on Vimeo.

Rough Cut 2

Rough Cut 2 from Rhiann Quinn on Vimeo.
Here's my second rough cut for Neurosis. I'm much happier with this cut as I feel it just works better and thanks to the second shoot, all the glaringly obvious continuity mistakes have been fixed and I've been able to add scenes from news broadcasts into the latter half of my piece to show all the disturbing images in Kieran's character's mind. 

Rough Cut 1 - the first of many...

Rough Cut 1 from Rhiann Quinn on Vimeo.


Here's my first rough cut for the first half of my final piece. I'm aware that there are many continuity errors and lighting issues which is why I decided to reshoot this piece again and it came out much better! What I learned whilst editing this rough cut is that firstly I would have to edit out certain pieces of footage as I have a whole other scene to add and the first half is already three and a half minutes long which is bang on the suggested time. If i go over, I could be penalised and lose marks.

Audience Questionnaires

I asked a bunch of people to take a few questionnaires to help with the fourth question in my evaluation.

The editing process so far...

The editing process has been somewhat of a tough one so far. The main problem I've had with my footage is lighting; on the camera it has looked fine and I (foolishly) assumed it would look the same on the computer however they're all quite a bit darker. I'm going to change the contrast on a lot of the shots and hopefully that'll be enough to make it suitable for the examiner to watch. The dark lighting works on some levels as it's a horror so every cloud!
The second issue I had was continuity; in several shots, Kieran changes the hand he picks the photographs up with and despite this being a small error and obviously one that Kieran wouldn't have prempted to be a problem, I've had to book in another filming session with Kieran on Wednesday 4th to re-film certain shots. My aim is to power through as many shots as possible AND maybe even change certain shots that didn't work as well as I previously hoped.
I'm yet to edit the second part of the scene and I also need to massively cut down my entire piece as it is excessively long.

Shot lists

I've been going through the shots I've taken and marking down which ones I will use for my final piece, which ones may be good for a bloopers reel and which ones didn't work so I can use them as a comparison when I evaluate. I will upload this once it is fully completed. 

And so it begins...

We have started the editing process! I uploaded all of my video files from my memory stick and I have started compiling the successful pieces of footages and I also have added my chosen music, 'Evening of Chaos' by Kevin MacLeod. So far it's going really well - I've got all my idents and the music has fit perfectly to certain shots! Also, the ambiance is working really well and it's exactly what I envisioned. The one problem I'm having is with lighting - some of my shots are very dark and although this works well for a horror, I also need to think practically as the examiner needs to actually see my shots! 

THE BATTLE IS OVER!

We have finished the filming process (cue victorious music!)! Kieran and I powered through the first scene today, grabbing all the shots that we need and we had fun doing so too - I think I may have quite a few bloopers from this one! Tomorrow's plan is to look through all the shots and see which ones are suitable to be used for my final piece; I also want to check if it fits with the music that I've chosen. I'm excited to start the editing process because I feel that's where I can really make things stand out and pop and have the effect I want them to have with the use of some clever audio and visual effects. I want to upload a rough cut by next Thursday ideally so Mr Earl and my fellow media bloggers can have a look and give me some feedback on what I could change or improve upon. 

Scene 2 Filming Done!!!!

We've finished the filming for scene 2!!! Laura and I spent around an hour and a half today in a freezing cold garage perfecting the second scene of my final piece and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't quite a difficult task. Firstly there was a struggle in creating enough fake blood for the scene - I actually had to ask my Granda to go and get some more bless him - and our first attempt went horribly wrong! We managed to get it right after several attempts. Then we tried to heat up the garage which turned out to be a pointless exercise. Then there was the problem of positioning the tripod in a tiny garage - there were quite a few stumbles and wobbles admittedly! However we managed to get all of our footage and I'm happy with what we've done tonight. I also managed to shoot a behind the scenes vlog which I'll be editing and uploading later on this week - here's a few sneak peaks from them. 

Pinterest board

http://pinterest.com/09f8qurh/as-media-mood-board/ 

I've added more things to my Pinterest board☺️

The Void

We've come to a point where I've finished all of my practical and planning work however I cannot start filming until next week so I'm stuck in what can be referred to as 'The Void'. To try and fill said void, I'm going to find some more horror imagery to add to my Pinterest board. 

Changes in filming schedule (AGAIN)

This is turning out to be very stressful indeed! I have to push my filming back another week - which eats into my editing time - because both of my actors are unable to film at the times I've set. It's  not their fault, it's just clashing schedules. Also due to delays in the Year 13s filming, there's no cameras at my disposal so I'm going to film next week instead :-)

Preparation!

Here are some of the props I've created for my final piece so far! I've created my own Polaroids with pictures of Laura with her friends and family; these are key to the first scene. I've also taken some photographs/

test footage for my final piece. 

Change in filming schedules

Unfortunately due to illness and lack of props, I've had to postpone my filming until next week. Ideally I wouldn't have done this and it would've all been done this week but unfortunately several things have stopped me from doing so. However this gives me more time to perfect my ideas before I start to shoot :-)

Preliminary Footage & Test shots

Here are some test shots for lighting for Scene 2; I also brought Laura to the location so she could familiarise herself with it and help me decide what needs moving and how to best arrange things for each shot. I'm really happy with this location as it sets the atmosphere perfectly for my piece! 

Preliminary footage of doll

My final piece is in association with James Wan, so as an ode to him and his first horror 'Dead Silence', I'm having a doll feature in the opening shots and in scene 2 of my piece. 

Production schedule

Production Schedule

 

Tuesday 27th:

 

• Scene 2
• Location: Garage
• Cast: Laura Greenley
• Shots: ECU (Light, doll, puddle, water dripping, tools, Laura's eyes opening), LS (show Laura lying on the floor in the garage), MCU (Laura looking around and moving slowly) P.O.V/Handheld (frantically looking around), Over the shoulder (showing her pushing herself up onto her knees- hands in a puddle of blood, lifts hand) MCU (Laura looking at her hand in shock), 45 degree upwards tilt & 180 degree pan around the room (Laura looking around once more), High Angle shot (Laura trying to get up and falling to her knees in pain) CU (Laura's face in pain) Travel shot from Laura's face to her stomach covered in blood, CU (Laura gasps), ECU/Flashes (bloodied tools surrounding her), MCU (Panicked laura clutching her stomach and crying in pain), High angle (Laura trying to grab onto some shelves) MCU (Laura pulling herself up) MLS (Laura leaning against shelves and trying to slowly walk forward to garage door) CU (feet walking over tools and through blood) MS (laura leaning against garage door, trying to push it open) Over the shoulder (door behind her slams open quickly), MCU (Laura turns around) Fast follow (towards figure in the door).

Wednesday 28th:

• Scene 1
• Location: My house/Ethan's room
• Cast: Kieran Gray
• Shots: MLS (Kieran leaning on desk), CU & pan (over the photographs), MCU & upwards pan (Kieran leaning on desk), MCU (Kieran picking up a photograph), CU (Photograph with Kieran Gray written on it) ECU (of the faces in the picture), CU (Kieran's face, looking pained and distressed), Over the shoulder (throws down photo and picks up another one) CU (Photograph with Laura Greenley written on it) ECU (flashes of gruesome bloody photographs) CU (Kieran shaking his head and clenching his eyes shut) P.O.V (picks up pill box and pops one into mouth) MCU (Putting down pill box. Pill box with the title 'Neurosis' written on it) MCU (Kieran looks upwards to photographs stuck on the wall) P.O.V over several photographs stuck on the wall - they read Becca Connor, Jess French, Elleah Stanton, Ellie Leckenby. Flashes of scenes that took place in the photograph happen here), ECU (Kieran's eyes darting back and forth), High angle (Kieran looks down and picks up a selection of photographs that read 'Casting by Billy Hopkins', 'Music by Kevin Macleod', 'Costumes designed by Sheila Quinn'), Pan over desk (shows photographs again), CU (Glass of water on desk, you can see a photograph that says 'Edited by Rhiann Quinn through it), CU (Kieran picking up a piece of paper) CU and pan downwards ('Produced by Eli Roth and James Wan', 'Written by Wes Craven', 'Directed by Rhiann Quinn' then Laura's face on a missing poster - flashes of more gruesome photos) MLS (Kieran throws all the photos off the desk and slumps to the floor)

Thursday 29th 

• Scene 1
• Location: My house
• Cast: None
• Shots: CU (Lionsgate logo in photo, Blumhouse productions logo in photo, James Wan photo)

Call sheets

Here are the call sheets for both of my actors with the start times, end times and locations listed. I will be providing all props and costumes so my actors won't need to bring anything but themselves!

Locations!

I've finally got both of my locations sorted; my granda's garage for the second part of my opening sequence, and my brother's bedroom for the first part! The reason I'm using both of these locations as I am familiar with them both and I know that they're safe and comfortable for my actors to use. Secondly, they're versatile; both locations belong to family members that won't mind me moving things around or making changes (as long as I clean up afterwards!). My brother's room works well because it matches the idea I want for the main boy protagonist's room and also it has a desk and a chair that will be the main focus for the first half of my opening sequence. Things will obviously have to be moved like the TV and the Xbox which my brother has agreed to help with. 

The garage won't need much rearranging as it's meant to look like a dirty old garage; all I'll be adding is some fake blood and a doll in the corner as well as maybe scattering some tools around. 

Laura Greenley saves the day!

Laura has agreed to be my main actress for my final piece (yay!). Since I only need her for one day, it won't impinge on her media project which is what's most important and it means I have a new lead actress - who by the way, is very good! 

Spanner in the works!

Unfortunately my lead actress has had to pull out at the last minute - we were due to film on Monday - so I'll have to find somebody to replace her with. Hopefully I'll search around and I'll find somebody within the next few days or so!

Name of the 'sister'

I have decided that the name of the missing sister will be Laura; I find this will be the easiest way to shoot the shots I want. I want to shoot some 'natural' scenes where Laura - the actress I've picked - is just around her friends so rather than make her friends call her by a different name (possibly ruining the natural atmosphere I want for the scene), they'll just refer to her as that.

Set Design

Here are some rough sketches of how I want my locations to look like in my title sequence. 

Costumes

Here are the costumes I will need for my final piece.

Props List

Here's the props list for 'Departure'. Overall I don't actually need that many props for my title sequence as the props I do have each form a large part of the sequence itself.

Scenario for 'Neurosis'

Neurosis

(Film opens with a fade into the back of a man leaning over a desk, his head bowed. He's looking at a multitude of photographs that are scattered on the desk in front of him; these are all photographs of his sister. She is missing. There are photographs of her at social events, with friends and family. The man brushes aside a photograph to reveal a missing poster. There are also photos of police evidence, such as footprint and blood splatters, amongst the mess. The man's face is scruffy and he is unwashed. His eyes are red and there are bags underneath them. His eyes dart rapidly back and forth over the photographs before he slumps into a chair)

(The scene opens in a dirty garage. There is a single light hanging from the ceiling. There are a vast array of objects in the garage, from saws and tools, to old broken dolls and ladders. A hose drips water into a puddle ominously. A girl is lying on the floor in the garage, wearing an old tattered shirt and ripped, bloodstained trousers. Her eyes slowly open and she takes a few seconds to fully regain consciousness. Once she's awake, she turns her head to try and make sense of where she is before slowly attempting to get up.)

Girl: GAH! (clutches her stomach in agony and stumbles to the floor once again. Breathing heavily, she uses a nearby shelf to hoist herself up) *noise of pain* 

(She manages to stand up with the help of the shelf. She clutches her stomach once more and lifts her shirt to reveal a dirty infected wound on her abdomen. She cries out in shock, stepping back and kicking some paint cans as the door to the garage flies open.)

Breakdown of Titles

I have decided on the order of my title sequence after researching many other horrors and thrillers and doing my previous work on the conventions of a title sequence.

• Lionsgate Entertainment presents
• A Blumhouse Production
• In association with James Wan
• Kieran Gray
• Laura Greenley
• Neurosis
• Becca Connor
• Elleah Stanton
• Jess French
• Ellie Leckenby
• Casting by Billy Hopkins
• Music by Kevin MacLeod
• Costumes designed by Sheila Quinn
• Edited by Rhiann Quinn
• Produced by Eli Roth and James Wan
• Written by Wes Craven
• Directed by Rhiann Quinn

Music

I've been looking for music to play in the background of the beginning of my title sequence and I've actually found it quite hard to find a piece of music that I could deem suitable for the atmosphere of my piece. On the internet, there was an abundance of horror soundtracks and pieces of music that in themselves were brilliant however, I needed something more eerie and unnerving that would fit a film about a missing girl and that could be manipulated to fit the shots I wanted.
After quite a long stretch of looking, I found a selection that I thought would be effective in my final piece.

Day of Chaos - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po1FBMIJ-Mc

Evening of Chaos - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTH_e_tUPuE

Unease Piano - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUW5SAL9PNg

It is Lost - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ntJ04HuRgY

Metaphysik - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p62skjxCmbs


After much deliberation (to be honest, I would be surprised if I change my mind several times before the actual filming process begins!), I have decided to use 'Evening of Chaos' as the background music in my title sequence. Despite the fact that all of the pieces could've fit and been effective in creative an atmosphere, I believe that this was the one that fits my idea and what I have in mind the best. It has the eerie atmosphere you'd expect from a horror/thriller and will fit in well with the shots I use.

Genre, Representatin, Audience and Institution

Genre:
I have chosen to focus on horror and thriller for my title sequence. Horror, as a genre, is extremely vast and can focus on many different elements to provoke fear. Some horrors focus on physical monsters that invade our reality, some focus on serial killers and murderers, some focus on more psychological or paranormal aspects, but they're all used to induce one thing: fear. Thrillers use similar techniques however most thrillers tend to steer clear of any paranormal or supernatural elements and try to stay more grounded in reality. Films in these genres generally end on either a cliffhanger or on a generally sad ending (a lot of characters have either died or gone missing etc.). There are so many sub-genres within both horror and thriller and I have decided to embrace elements from psychological-horror/thriller and crime-horror/thriller in my final pieces as I feel they work the best together. I feel like using the horror and thriller genre allows me to experiment and be versatile without even using any dialogue or narration; the beauty of these genres is that you can create an atmosphere easily and effectively with some decent lighting and choice of shot whereas with other genres like comedy or 'indie' films, I personally would find it hard to fully establish the genre without using dialogue.

Representation: 

My title sequence has two main protagonists: a brother and a sister. The brother will be roughly a 17 year old male and the sister will be 16. Many teens in horror films are the focus point and many get killed almost immediately; there are also usually definite 'roles' each of the teens play in plot (the jock, the nerd, the virgin etc) and they tend to die in a certain order. I didn't want to stick to this stereotype of teen horrors, I wanted to focus on the psychological damage the brother has suffered at the hands of his sister going missing and also, despite her being kidnapped and mutilated, the sister's emotional strength and strong common sense (I'll display her strength in the photographs and I'm definitely not having her do some sort of daft scream or anything like that!).

Audience:
My key demographic is both males and females - it's why I've made the two main protagonists a male and a female - in the age range 18 - 25. This is the age range for many of the horror films I've studied and since I have taken inspiration from them, I believe my title sequence will warrant a similar age range.

Age Certificate:
My film would have an 18 certificate as not only is this right in the key demographic I'd be aiming for, it contains gore and horror elements that may not be suited for anybody younger.

Institution:
After doing my research on Wikipedia and IMDB, I have decided that my film will be produced by Blumhouse Productions, who have produced 'The Purge', 'Insidious', 'Sinister' and 'Paranormal Activity' and are prominent producers of horror films. I also want it to be in association with James Wan, a well-known director who specialises in horror films. I want my film to be distributed by Lionsgate as they are synonymous with horror films after distributing 'Saw', 'The Last Exorcism' and 'The Cabin in The Woods'. I feel like these film companies fit well with the film I want to create.

Outline of plot

My final piece is going to be in the style of a horror/thriller as I believed I know those genres the best and I can be extremely creative and versatile within them. I have had the outline of my plot in my mind since we began - I'm a perfectionist you see :p - and I've taken a lot of inspiration from films like 'Se7en', 'Saw' and 'Psycho'. I have also taken inspiration from directors such as Alfred Hitchcock and Eli Roth regarding props and the shots I will use. 

My aim is to create a very dark, angsty mood with my title sequence; I want the horror and thriller themes to be evident in every single shot I use. However I don't want it to be jam-packed full of cliches so as well as taking inspiration from other films, I do have a very clear idea of what elements of my own style I can incorporate. 

The opening scene will be set in a boys bedroom however it will be dimly lit and the main focus will be on the boy himself and his desk, which will be littered with photographs. The boy's costume and general appearance will connote his age via mise en scene as the rest of the room won't be included in the shots and the desk itself will be clear bar the photographs and a small mug that says 'Brother'; this is what will clue the audience in to the relationship between the boy and the other character in my piece: his missing sister. We then see that amongst the photographs, there's a missing person poster as well as photographs taken by the police of footprints and blood splatters. I want to include most of the credits here as the photographs will be polaroids, I want to scribble the credits on the bottom. I also want to use flashback style shots by focusing on certain photographs - possibly one of her with her friends or one of her at prom - and having a flashback to when that picture was taken and then back to the picture itself. This is where all of the credits will happen before I move onto the opening scene. I want to portray this character as a concerned brother who is teetering on the side of obsession over finding his sister; I want him to be slightly scruffy and dishevelled in appearance to connote that he hasn't been eating properly or washing as he's been so focused on studying these photographs. There will then be a black screen as the camera does a 180 pan from the boy to the darkness in his room.

Then I will have the opening scene which will open in a garage with a single lightbulb on a string on. I'm taking inspiration for movies like 'Saw' and 'Hostel' with this choice of location and I want it to appear as dirty and grimy as possible to add to the horror. There will be a multitude of shots of dripping water, dirty old saws, flies and all the stuff that connotes horror and gore however I want to intermix them with shots of normal things like close ups of paint tin labels, lawnmowers and screwdrivers so show that whoever owns the garage is yes a pyschopath, but also does the same things that you and I do and owns the same things as we do: he is just like us. I took this idea from the title sequence of 'Se7en'. We will then see a shot of a teenage girl, covered in dirt and generally battered in appearance, opening her eyes for the first time. This is the missing girl and the audience will realise this from the photographs shown previously. She will struggle to get up and collapse to her knees before looking around frantically. She will then suddenly cry out in pain as she struggles to get up once more and she notices she's wearing somebody else's ripped old clothes. She lifts up the bottom of her shirt to reveal a bloody, infected wound on her abdomen. She starts to cry before the door behind her flies open and that's where my sequence will end. Very dark, I know!! 

Vlog 2!

So this is my second vlog overall and my first final piece vlog! I want to record a lot of vlogs throughout this process and I believe it is the most honest way to record the different milestones throughout this project; it is also massively useful to have different pieces of film that I can compile together to contribute to my evaluation,




Vlog 2 from Rhiann Quinn on Vimeo.

David Fincher

The final director I decided to research was David Fincher, a more modern director in comparison to the others. He is well-known for directing 'Se7en', 'Fight Club', 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' and 'Gone Girl'. He has been nominated twice for the Best Director Academy Award and has won both a Golden Globe and a BAFTA for 'The Social Network'. 

His feature debut was 'Alien 3' which despite being panned by critics and audiences, got an Academy Award nomination for its visual effects. Then in 1995, Fincher directed 'Se7en' which grossed millions internationally and shot him to prominence; he went on to direct 'The Game' and 'Fight Club', the latter which was originally panned by critics and did badly at the box office has rounded up a huge cult following. 

Pinterest: http://uk.pinterest.com/09f8qurh/fincher/ 

Martin Scorsese

The penultimate director I researched was Martin Scorsese, one of the most significant filmmakers of all time. He is part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking; in 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to film preservation and in 2007 he founded The World Cinema Foundation. 

Scorsese's body of work is amazingly impressive and addresses themes such as Italian-American identity, machismo, modern crime and many more. A lot of his films are notable for their use of violence and liberal use of profanity; The Wolf of Wall Street holds the record for the most uses of the 'f-word' in a mainstream non-documentary film at 569 uses!

Scorsese has directed many landmark films such as 'Taxi Driver', 'Goodfellas', 'Cape Fear', 'Raging Bull', 'Mean Streets' and more. 'The Departed' got him his first Best Director Academy Award and with 8 nominations for the award, he is currently the most nominated director alive today. 

He is well-known for working with actors such as Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio. 

Pinterest: http://uk.pinterest.com/09f8qurh/scorsese/ 

Christopher Nolan

The next director I decided to research was Christopher Nolan. Nolan is known as the director of the Dark Knight trilogy that revived the series after the abysmal 'Batman and Robin'; he is also known for 'Inception' and 'Interstellar'. 

Despite only directing nine films overall, altogether they have grossed over $4 billion worldwide and have garnered 21 Oscar nominations. Nolan has come a long way since 'Following', his first feature film, that he funded himself and filmed with his friends; he has worked with huge stars such as Christian Bale, Leonardo DiCaprio, Anne Hathaway and the late Robin Williams. 

Pinterest: http://uk.pinterest.com/09f8qurh/nolan/ 

Quentin Tarantino

The first director I started to research in the thriller genre was Quentin Tarantino, one of the most infamous directors in the world due to his use of violence, non-linear storyline and satirical subject matter in films. I personally love all of Tarantino's films and I have watched Pulp Fiction more times than I can count! 

Tarantino grew up obsessed with film and actually worked in a video store whilst he was learning to act; his career began when he wrote and directed 'My Best Friend's Birthday'. However his independent film career really began when he directed and released 'Resevoir Dogs' which is regarded as a cult classic. Then one of the most famous films in the world, 'Pulp Fiction', was released and it instantly became a critical and commercial success and to this day is regarded as one of - if not THE - best films ever made. 

Tarantino then made 'Jackie Brown' in 1997 and then in 2003, he released 'Kill Bill: Vol 1' starring Uma Thurman (who he has described as his 'muse'). Tarantino has build up an informal 'repertory company' of actors who have appeared in multiple roles in this films: Samuel L.Jackson - who has appeared in five of Tarantino's films - Uma Thurman, Christoph Waltz and Zoe Bell.

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Thriller films

I am doing the exact same thing I did for the research into horror films and their directors for the thriller genre as I want my final piece to be a horror/thriller so I need to have an equal level of research on both areas. I once again separated the 'classics' from the 'moderns' and tried to find a trend of common thriller directors; surprisingly enough I found it easier to find a trend with thrillers than with horrors as I find nowadays a lot of independent horror films with lesser-known directors are becoming more and more successful. I have decided to do my research on the following directors: Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan and David Fincher. 

George A. Romero

I returned to the classics for my final director: George A. Romero. Often referred to as the grandad of zombie movies, Romero is a director, producer, screenwriter and editor who is best known for his series of gruesome and satirical horror films about a hypothetical zombie apocalypse. His 'Dead series' began with 'Night of the Living Dead' which became a cult classic and a defining moment for modern horror cinema. Romero's depiction of 'zombies' are often believed to be the 'original' zombies or the 'classics' - some even go so far to say that they are the only true type of zombie and the more modern running depictions don't have the same effect as Romero's slow-moving originals. Romero also directed 'The Crazies' (one of my favourite films ever!) which was about a bio spill that induces an epidemic of homicidal madness. Romero returned to the zombie genre in 'Dawn of the Dead' which was shot with a budget of just £500,000 yet grossed over £55 million worldwide and was named one of the top cult films by Entertainment Weekly in 2003.

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Eli Roth

The penultimate director I decided to research was Eli Roth who is also a well-known actor (he often features or has little cameos in the films he directs or produces). He is known for directing 'Cabin Fever', 'Hostel' and its sequel 'Hostel: Pt II"; he also acted in Quentin Tarantino's 'Inglorious Bastards' and won awards for the role. Roth's familiarity with both being in front of and behind the camera makes him very creative and versatile. He also co-wrote the script for 'Cabin Fever' with his college roommate at the time, Randy Pearlstein. 

When Roth started directing Hostel, he reportedly turned down studio directing jobs to do so - showing he's extremely dedicated to the films he's making and is also largely independent in his choices he makes about films he wants to direct - and also only took in a salary of $10,000 to keep the budget as low as possible. 

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James Wan

The next director I went on to research was James Wan, a more modern director  so I could compare him to some of the more classic directors.

Wan is widely known for directing the horror film 'Saw' and producing the entire franchise, as well as actually creating Billy the Puppet (the puppet that Jigsaw is seen using in the film). He has also directed 'Dead Silence', 'Insidious', 'Insidious: Chapter 2' and 'The Conjuring' (and is set to direct the upcoming sequel!). Before his success in mainstream, Wan worked on smaller films such as 'Stygian' before hitting the big time with 'Saw'. His venture into gore shot him to directorial superstardom and 'Saw' was a global success; Wan produced all of the following 'Saw' sequels which were all successful too. 

In 2007, he directed 'Dead Silence' which he described as an "old school" horror that was "in the spirit of old Twilight Zone episodes". Wan directed this film to try and distance himself from the gore he'd become synonymous with due to the success of 'Saw'. 

Then in 2010, he directed 'Insidious', a very psychological paranormal horror; Wan also had complete creative control over Insidious.

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