28th February - Actors Chosen.... Why?

Actors...Why?:

We have chosen Sophie Neil, Thomas Adcock, Andrew Tinley and Josh Curran (left to right) as actors in our opening sequence due to the fact that they have all studied Drama and Theatre Studies at GCSE and A Level, in the past year or two, therefore techniques, such as focus (which is vital in a short time film schedule) are fresh in their mind. Also they are all 16 or 17, which is the target age for the victims in our film and also they can do normal teenage things without much effort (making it look normal and realistic in footage). In addition they all have quite innocent faces, which hopefully will make audience empathise with them. In the storyline, the stalker predominately wants male teenagers, therefore Sophie Neil, will not be targeted, however due to the fact that a couple is used in the film, I think the couple effect will add the emotion of love in the film and break up, due to the stalker, which will again hopefully add audience empathy. I look younger than 17, therefore again pedophiles wanting younger teenagers is more of an issue and the audience will find it more disturbing, therefore, as stated, have empathy for the characters.

28th February - Photo Taking for Pan Sequence

Today I went out with my sister and my friend and took various photographs of me in different situations in different areas of my home town, with different clothes on, to try and represent the fact that a stalker had taken these photos over a series of weeks/months etc. These photos now will be printed off and then we can use them tomorrow in our filming session.

When taking the photos we tried getting walls, cars, trees, bushes, branches in the shots to, like Friday, give the impression that somebody in hiding behind something. We took various shots and angles to again enhance this element. We tried to use different cameras such as a 10 mega pixel digital camera and then a professional camera and blurred some photos and focus others to again reinforce the representation of the stalker using different cameras over a period of time and taking them at a fast pace.

Below are some examples of these photos.

Not able to upload all of the photos which will appear in pan shot, but these are the different settings and costumes used.

28th Febuary - Film Schedule

Film Schedule

Planned Dates:

• 1st March - Pan Sequence
• 5th March - Victim walking (me) and Victim being watched at park (tom)
• 8th March - Victims being watched at the park (tom and Sophie)

UPDATE: We didn't really stick to our schedule we decided to film the shots of a victim on the park again but using me instead of Tom.

Friday 12th March (Lunch)- Second Victim being watched and then took by killer

Actors Needed

Andrew Tinley
Thomas Adcock
Sophie Neil

UPDATE - (8th March) Josh Curran (Killer)

Equipment Needed-

Samsung Video Camera
Tri-Pod
My Digital Camera
Props for Photo Pan- Camera, pens, diary, pins and pot, cable and phone

Locations-
Sophie's House (but we can do elsewhere due to the fact that we never see the interior of the house)
Toton Lane - My walking sequence
Fairfield Park - Me/ Tom on the swing
Archer's Field - Tom and Sophie's final stalker sequence with stalker seen

27th February - Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment:

Key:
High Risk
Medium Risk
Low Risk

Falling over:
We will ensure that appropriate footwear is worn during all photo taking and filming sessions and make sure that the ground we are walking on during a scene/photo is extremely safe before capturing.

Getting Injured By Moving Car:
We will ensure that precautions are put in to place for road safety during footage around roads and we will never film actors crossing busy roads. (If crossing of a road is necessary in one shot, then the cameraman will never rush actor and make sure he/she feels safe crossing the road and that they do it as naturally and safely as possible).

Hypothermia:
During cold weather, we will ensure that all actors have sensible clothing on and if it is necessary to film scenes without appropriate clothing we will complete these scenes with a high level of focus, therefore it is shot efficiency, preventing unnecessary time in the cold weather.

Getting Lost:
During certain "forest" scenes, we will make sure that all actors have phone in their pocket in their pocket if they cannot find way back. However, this will be prevented by filming in groups of three or four at all times, which will limit individual isolation.

Damage to Equipment:
We will make sure, when handling equipment, that we do so gently and slowly, preventing any quick slips, trips or falls with the equipment. We will also share the equipment when walking therefore preventing any one person to carry all of it by themselves, which will hopefully prevent injury or damage to person or equipment.

Strangers/Assault:
We will make sure as a group that we don't annoy or aggravate members of the public during the filming's of our scenes. We will choose fairly isolated areas during the day to avoid this, but if we encounter a person we will take extra safety precautions to avoid awkward questioning or negative vibes.

General Injury:
We will ensure that our locations are near college during, college hours, so if something happened we can quickly return to get help. Also we will always travel in a group of 4, therefore if someone is in trouble, one (or two) member(s) of the group can stay with them whilst the other one or two can run off for help.

Illness:
If a member of a group falls ill time needs to be used efficiently to remain on schedule. If its more than 2hrs we need to find replacement or a definite reschedule date will be set and be met without exception.

26th February - Final Planning and Start of Production

Planning:

This week hasn't been overly productive, this is due to the fact that in our group we aren't all clear on the storyboard. We decided on the first opening title sequence that was, various photographs (approximately 30/40) each which will be panned over very slowly. But after that we had three scenes in mind, like taking pictures of a couple, but concentrating on the boy rather than girl, person having shower, or getting out of shower, taken though window and a person in a kitchen or lounge. We obviously had to check that our idea was "do-able", we checked with the technical helper in our class and he approved the idea and said it was possible. We finished our storyboard, but we may have to re-do this because we aren't all clear about it. We obviously have to make sure we are all clear on storyboard and it is clear to person working the camera what shots are to be taken and where. Therefore our storyboard has to be very specific and completed before we even think of filming.

Taking of Photographs:

We started taking photographs on Friday for the table of scattered photographs which has to be filmed on Monday. Therefore I decided that over the weekend everyone had to get people to take pictures of them (at least 30) so that we have photos to pan over. We started taking some of Tom and Sophie at the end of the lesson, it was raining, however this did add a nice effect to the photos. I took photographs of Tom and Sophie walking and sitting down on the bench (as if it was a professional camera which could take 10 shots a minute), and in almost every shot I made sure there was a foreground of a tree, bunch, branches to give the impression that I am hiding.

Examples Below.

Our aim is to have all photographs printed off and for the pan to filmed on Monday the 1st March.

25th February - Storyboard Planning

Initial Storyboard
(Done as group)

This is the first page of the storyboard, this consists of 3 shots. Shot one which is at the top, is repeated in between every shot as a sync rising motif. This motif is the picture panning sequence which will consist of various pictures of old victims and certain props which a stalker may have beside them like camera, phone, diary etc.

The second shot is four shots of an old victim walking across Totan Lane, Stapleford. This shot box is separated in to four sections, these show the different camera angles and movement which we have planned to capture during this filming section.

The third shot is similar to the second one, but this time it is of two victims together walking across a field and near a gate on Archurs Field, Stapleford. This shot box again is split in to four sections showing the different angles and movements which will be shown in this section of the final film.

This is the second page of the storyboard shows the last two shots which are going to be shown in our film. Box 4 shows the stalker's perception shot, which is going to be shot using hand-cam and shot behind a tree. This will be shot of the two victims walking across the field like in box 3. Then in shot box 5 shows the camera dropping to the floor and shows the blurry shot of the final edit.

17th February - Questionnaire

Questionnaire:


1) Are you:

Male: (17)
Female: (13)

2) What age group do you belong in:

0 to 10:
11 to 20: (17)
21 to 30: (4)
31 to 40: (9)
51 to 60:
60+:

3) How would you define a thriller:
Most frequent answers include

•Fast paced
•Thrilling
•Scary
•Violent
•Epic

4) Do you watch Thrillers?

Yes: (14)

No: (16)

5) What sub-genre of Thriller would you prefer?

Action: (9)

Crime: (12)

Psychological: (5)

Medical: (0)

Disaster: (4)

6) Would you prefer little or lots of dialogue in an Opening?

Little: (23)

Lots: (7)

7) Do you prefer films in colour or black and white?

Black and White: (18)

Colour: (12)

8) Which title sounds the best for a Thriller?

Dirty Lens: (3)

Possession: (10)

Camera Shy...: (1)

Out of Focus: (11)

Smile for the Camera: (5)

14th February - Research - Casino Royale Analysis (Opening Sequence)

Casino Royale Analysis (Opening Sequence)

Camera:
Slow pans are used during this scene to build up the tension and also meet the typical conventions of a "James Bond" movie. A crain shot is used when the protagonist and villain are fighting at the start (but hidden by shadows and the "poker" element of the titles). This poker theme throughout the opening credits again meets the needs of the classic "James Bond" movie due to the fact that all the previous films also have a certain theme running throughout the opening credits (more than likely a theme in the film. Eg. Goldeneye - bright, gold and fire themed credits).
Sound:
Chris Cornell's - You Know My Name is used throughout the opening credits (just as Shirley Bassey, Tina Turner, Duran Duran and Paul McCartney have all done before) to again meet the needs of the typical "Bond" convention. This opening song is quite an upbeat fast tempo song, therefore foreshadowing the upcoming film as being action packed. This track is the only element of sound Incorporated in this opening sequence, due to the conventions of a typical "Bond" film, therefore the audience expect it and know in the past these films have had good reputation.
Editing:

The editing is quite slow and only really includes slow fades and dissolves. The odd cut is used at the start just after the title "Casino Royale" appears. These types of shots are disguised due to the nature of the computer manufactured titles. These slow fades are placed in contrast to the fast paced music to make the opening titles, although generated, seem interesting and appealing to watch.
Mise en Scene:

These opening titles seem to consist mainly of a "poker" themed titles, due to the nature and narrative of the specific film. Typical "Bond" conventional items such as shotguns and handguns etc. are also added in to the tiles to add interesting still and moving images. These objects are placed in the titles because they are not only expected by the audience but also more importantly they fit with the narrative of the film.

14th February - Research - Casino Royale (Opening Sequence)

12th February - Research - Se7en Analysis (Opening Sequence)

Se7en Analysis (Opening Sequence)

Camera:
This opening sequence mostly uses close or extreme close ups, this gives the effect that the audience are very close to the action if not involved. This helps gain their attention, therefore attracting them to want to see more. Most of the shots show originality from the start by the use of scraping finger nails and cutting various DNA examples. This immediately gives the impression that this is a horror/thriller rather than action.
Sound:

Enhanced ambient sounds such as razors and knifes are used to make the audience feel as though they are apart of the action and involved in the film. Also white noise and video sound are used, along with vague screams to add to the tension and build up the suspense. A slow beat rhythm is introduced about 30seconds in to again build up the tension. These techniques are used to make the audience feel on edge and grip them to watch more.
Editing:

Straight cuts are used throughout this sequence to gain pace, but also fades and dissolves are used when tiles appear (on a black background). This helped the opening sequence retain a steady speed and also again added tension.
Mise En Scene:

Props are used in the opening sequence which will later be related too in the film, such as fingers, DNA, film role, books, diaries, sheets of paper and pens, these are all objects in which relate significantly to the film. Therefore these are placed at the start to immediately give the audience an impression of what this thriller is about. Also these props are filmed and edited in a very negative tense way, therefore the audience know how to see these objects and expect this thrillers narrative.

12th February - Research - Se7en (Opening Sequence)

5th February - Initial Thriller Planning

Today, we started off by collaborating thoughts and views on what a thriller actually is, we discussed typical conventions, made mind maps and worked as a class to stick post it notes on the specific sections on the board like characters, storyline etc. Then we started planning our thriller and had various mind maps of ideas, story lines, locations, music, camera shots and extended ideas from people's opinions.
Sophie had this idea of photographs scattered over a carpet or side board and the camera pans over them as opening sequence. These pictures are going to be of us in specific situations (deepening on storyline which we haven't yet created fully) then the camera zooms in to one of the photos, which is going to be a still of the first scene of the opening sequence.

The picture above shows the initial ideas we thought of in the format of a mind map. We first branched off to "sub genres", such as Sci-Fi Thriller, Action- Thriller, Horror - Thriller. We decided as a group that "Sci - Fi Thriller" wasn't going to be easy and due to the limitations of time and equipment we couldn't make it look realistic. We liked the "Action - Thriller" and "Tradegy - Thriller", we we discussed ideas on how we could merge these two sub-genres. We also discussed the "do-not" elements of this course, which have been carried out before and looked predicable,boring or lost marks. We got 4 points for this. Firstly "predicable stalker sequences", we wrote this down because in the majority of pieces we had seen in the past, most of them took that approach and all filmed in the same way, by filming the "stalkers" feet and the prey, getting closer and closer, which we didn't want to portray in ours. "Get confused about thriller" was another aspect of the way in which people in the past lost marks. I said at the start of the course that "thriller are to make you jump", which isn't overly accurate, some do, however some don't have to. I saw "Wolfman" (Joe Johnston) over the February half term, which was described as a "Gothic thriller", this film was very jumpy, however the film we watched before half term in class, "Unusual Suspects" (Bryan Singer) wasn't, so it just depends on the way you want to go with it. Big "do not" is not to break the "180 degree" rule, which particular students have done in the past, including me in my preliminary task. A big "do not", advised by our teacher was not to have "unrelated titles" to the storyline and plot of the thriller.

We then discussed Music, obviously at this stage we hadn't got any ideas of our thriller, therefore we couldn't find, at this point, any corresponding music tracks. But we liked the use of silence as an ambient sound technique, which would hopefully add tension to the scene. Copyright music tracks, obviously have to be sourced and correctly applied for and agreed. So we thought as a group we would go for the un-copyrighted tracks, which I used for my preliminary task. After this we moved on to general possible ideas for camera shots. We thought if we filmed in the dark it would add tension because the audience would be feel as if they couldn't see everything in the shot, however, this would be difficult due to the lighting. We would have to make sure we had professional lighting equipment and it may be hard to organise and re-edit if it went wrong. Also the quality of the footage may be decreased due to the lighting. We liked the idea of using a range of creative camera paces and shots to develop tension make the piece seem interesting.

This mind map above was related to the sub genre combination we chose, which was "Action/Horror/Tradegy Thriller". We split it in to 4 sections "limitations/disadvantages", "ideas", "plot..." and "locations. Firstly we thought about the limitations, as I mentioned above, the element of filming in the dark could become very messy and difficult, due the fact of time and equipment. For the "ideas" branch, we came up with loads of themes like "psychological", "death", "car accident", "jealously", "murder" and "stalker". Some of these ideas where enhanced such as "murder" and "stalker". We had idea of the fact that there's a murder amongst a group of friends and one of them committed it. This was initially a positive idea, however then we thought it wouldn't be overly realistic and big childish. Then Sophie had idea of photographs opening titles, which linked to the "stalker" idea, so that is one we went for. (however we can still incorporate those ideas in to this final one).

I wrote a vague plot that a stalker would take pictures of male youth teenagers (due to the male:female ratio in the group and would take loads of pictures and have some kind of shine, which would link to Sophie's idea of the photographs across table. Then could result at the end of the film, a murder or rape etc. Lastly, we talked about locations, we decided seeing as it was a stalker taking pictures, scenes should take place on fields, houses and in town possibly. Obviously these areas would be different for each character who was getting stalked.

This mind map, above, just enhances the idea of the "opening credits, photography idea". We had the idea of it being a "scrapbook", "table" or "pin board" and for the camera to pan slowly across the them. The old fashioned photographs are going to be taken on a digital camera and then edited using "Adobe" or another photo editing programme then import it. Then after the slow pan has occurred the camera will zoom in to a picture of a location then start a moving scene from that still image. We may use gentle flashes to separate certain clips, obviously added in as an editing technique later in the process. The titles over the pan at the start have to be subtle, obviously legible but simple so that the focus isn't changed from the photos, because these photos are very important to the narrative of the story.

2nd February - Evaluation of Preliminary Task.

Strengths

I think our preliminary task forfileld the necessary criteria that was to film a short sequence, having somebody waking in to a room, having few lines each and incorperating shot reverse shot. I think our final edit, shows these objectives quite clearly. I think the music added atmosphere to the piece and made the end more emoitonal. The cuts which were main in the editing process I think, at some points gave the piece a sophisicated touch and helped the peice to develop.

Weaknesses

I think the main weakness of the piece is the white noise at the start of the clip, due to the fact that we forgot to record a minute of ambient sound. This really is enhanced when we start speaking and actually sounds like its a "broken record" rather than ambient sound of the scene. Also some of the shots, like the establishing shot between me and Charlotte, could have been cut to be a smaller take rather than a good few seconds because in our final edit it looks really unnatural and we are just sat there staring at eachother. Also the ending of the scene, when I am upset, i covered my face which I need to avoid doing in futre, however this was because I had the tendacy to laugh during certain takes.

Improvements/Suggetions For Future Projects

In the thriller task later on in the year, I need to refrain from laughing and also make sure in the editing process that we have realistic time limits on certain camera shots (to avoid unnatural scenes). Also if we are allowed to do this, email the copyright records of a famous or copyrighted song that we could use in our piece, therefore people can relate to the song and it will hopefuly add familiarity to the piece.

29th January - Our Preliminary Task - Final Edit.

1st February - Introduction to Thrillers

Today we had an introduction lesson in to the typical conventions of Thrillers and what patterns they follow. We analysed the opening of three films and took notes on mise en scene, camera angles and movement, editing, sound and representation.

• Lost Highway - David Lynch 1997
• Signs - M. Night. Shyamalan 2002
• Blood Simple - Coen Brothers 1985

We analysed "Lost Highway" and found the power of silence and enhanced ambient sound added to the atmosphere and built up tension in the scene. Also the beat music during the opening tiles added a gripping atmosphere from the start and the contrast and juxtaposition of the beat music and silence in the scene added a high level of tension to the start of the thriller. This helps attract the audience from the start, hopefully resulting in them watching the whole film.

We then analysed "Signs" and found that the dark atmosphere added tension from the start and made the audience feel unsafe, due to the fact that the visibility of the objects on screen were hidden due to the lighting. This effect was enhanced by the confusing and close camera angles in the first scene. In addition, again ambient sound was used to add tension.

After this we finally analysed "Blood Simple" and found that, again, limited lighting was used to make the audience feel uncomfortable. Typical enhanced ambient sounds where again used such as a telephone ringing, and also enhanced dialogue was added to again add tension.