Final Post!

The Group

We all really enjoyed this project

Favourite Shots

This was one of our favourite shots and it was inspired from the film shrooms which has a simliar aerial sho tin woods (except it is much higher). But unfortunately, we did not use this in our final opening sequence since there wasn't really any relevant place to put it.



We also loved this shot because it's just so striking, it also shows our villain as very powerful and our victim as very vulnerable - as well as making the woods seem very menacing.

Establishing Shot

Overall we probably spent much more time on this shot than any other and everyone was involved to try and make it smooth.
This was one of our first attempts:



It's obviously too fast, too shaky and we realised that the camera should linger on the shoe before Alix's hands came in to give the audience a chance to take it in.
In order to make it smoother Liam held the camera at the start and Matt stretched out his arms (so that he didnt have to walk) and Angelie stopped the camera as Matt's arms swung round so that the shoe would be properly in view.

This was the one we used in our sequence:



It's a lot smoother but in our final sequence we did slow it down and we cut off the shakey bit a the start where it lingers on the river because it's too wobbly.

Target Audience Profile

Primary Audience

• 18-24s
• Male + Female
• Have a particular interest in thriller/horror genre
• Could be shown in an Art house or Multiplex so they might have to know about independant films and cinemas

Secondary Audience
a.)

• Under 18s
• Male + Female
• Obviously need to care enough about film to try and sneak into an 18

b.)

• Over 30s
• Male + Female
• Parents - they woul dfind it scary at the thought of this happening to their children
• Real film/thriller lovers

Our film doesn't really have a target audience with specific interests, hobbies or lifestyles just who love films.

First Sequence

This is our orignial sequence with Lara in from our real shoots (not test shoots).



Alix
I find it quite shocking that this was some of our real footage from a 5 hour long shoot, we clearly didn't spend enough time planning this. It definitley confirms that changing our idea was the best option as it's obvious we didn't like this idea enough to put all the effort in to make it look as interesting and almost as weird as our final idea did. I do like the effect on the POV shots - they were only overlapped and cross dissolved - but they go on for too long and the whole sequence is quite boring.

Angelie
It's definitely a good thing that we re-worked our idea to make it better than the sequence above. The shots are too far out distance wise and I feel like the establishing shots at the beginning were way too long. Also, without the slow shutter speed setting on the camera, the POV shots aren't really as effective when trying to show how drugged the victim is. It's also good that we decided that the victim should cover less ground when running away from the killer, since it made things a bit easier for us continuity-wise.

Liam


Matt
Although I do like some of the actual shots in this short sequence I feel this does not set up expectations of a psychological thriller. Instead there is no evidence to suggest this isn't just an action thriller and so I feel we need to anchor our subgenre with either cutaway shots to the villains obsessions (some random ideas include cutaways of books which have strategic methods of killing or shots of the victim caressing a mannequin, etc.) The first panoramic shot is really successful at establishing the location of the chase however there is no intimacy shown between the audience and the actress, i.e. I think the establishing shot could be from her point of view or towards her.

Audience Feedback

Here is a selection of the feedback we have from screenings
M=Male
F=Female
....then followed by age.

1. What is the name of this film and can you tell us what happens in the sequence?
" 'The Anaesthetist' - man chasing young girl through park, kills her" - F 15
" 'The Anaesthetist' - person ran away from rapist while screaming. Runs through forest and eventually gets chloroformed. At the end there is a news report" M 17
"A drugged girl is chased through a forest" - F 18
" 'The Anaesthetist' - a man chloroforming a girl in the forest. He is an evil serial killer. Then cuts to news report about the incident and we see a new victim" M 18


2. What genre category would you put this film into and why?
"Thriller - fear factor and stalking" M 17
"Thriller/slasher - serial killer" M 17
"Thriller - because the clip is centred around suspense" - M46
"Thriller -lots of suspense from music and content, and not as graphic or bloody as horror' M 18

3. What do you think the rest of the film will be about?
"Next victims" F 16
"The killer going after someone else and eventually she kills him" M 17
"Him killing more girls and how he is caught"
"Seeing another murder through the murderer's eyes" - F 16
"How [the police] solve the murders" - M19
"Obsession with girl in the last photo and more future girls. A police investigation catches him.-All from the 'Anaesthetist's' point of view" M 18

4. And would you go and watch it?
"Maybe" - M 17
"If it was on TV definitely, cinema maybe" - M 17
"Definitely" - F 18
"Yes"- M 17
" yeah, def. M18"

5. What works well in the sequence and what do you think could be improved? "
"I like the shaky camera movement, but I don't find it that scary because the scenery looks too normal" - F 15
"Good setting. Music seems too epic and face of guy too exposed" - M 17
"The sound could be improved but the cinematography's really good" - M 17
"The impression of an isolated location" - M, 46
"The running through the woods as it made you want to watch more" - F 14
"The music is great and news report" - F 16
"Music, Titles, Acting, News report" - M 17
"The girl being dragged off at the end is great" - F 47
" Why not hide the villain's face throughout?" M 18

6. Do you think it is a British, American or European film?
"British" - F 47
"British" - M 18
"British" - F 17
"American" - M 16

7. What sort of cinema would you expect to see this film in? (e.g. Arthouse cinema, Multiplex etc)
"Multiplex" - F 13
"Multiplex" - M 46
"Mulitplex" - M 17
"Arthouse" - F 16
"Storyline is Multiplex in its accessibility, but low budget so Art house" M18


8. What would you give the opening sequence out of 10?

We had an overall average of 8

All

Survey

Group 1C Opening sequence Feedback

Age

Gender

What is the name of this film and can you tell us what happens in the sequence?





What genre category would you put this film into and why?




What do you think the rest of the film will be about?





And would you go and watch it?

What works well in the sequence and what do you think could be improved?


Do you think it’s a British American or European Film?
What sort of cinema would you expect to see this in? (Art house – the Phoenix, Multiplex – UGC etc)


What would you give the opening sequence out of 10?

All

Audience Feedback

On friday lunchtime we are going to invite people to the media block to watch our sequence and give us feedback, we are also going to put our sequence on to youtube and ask peopel to watch it and comment on it

During our screening we will give people a sheet with 4/5 questions on it.
Possible question ideas:

Alix

• If you were to put this film into genre what would it be, and why?
• If you saw a trailer for this film do you think you would watch it, why/why not?
• What do you think the target audience for this film is?

Matt

• What cinema would you expect to see this in? (Multiplex - UGC, Art house - Phoenix)
• What would you give this opening out of 10?
• Would you consider this a fear of current society?

Angelie

• What type of film do you think this opening sequence could have come from? (e.g. Hollywood, British, low budget etc)
• Based on the opening sequence, what do you think the rest of the film will be about?
• What works well in the sequence and what do you think could be improved?
  

Liam

• What section of the film do you think this is (i.e. opening, climax, middle section etc?) and why?
• Does the scene have enough impact for you?
• Who is the main character and what is his background?

Technical Breakdown

V = Villain F = Female

0:00 - 0:30 seconds

• [15 seconds] Fade up from black. Low-level crane shot to close up of shoe. Fade to black.
• [3 seconds] Fade up from black. Title: A Strikeout Film. Fade to black.
• [5 seconds] Fade up from black. Close up of shoe, victim’s hands come into shot and grabs shoe. Cut to
• [2 seconds] High angle, Medium, over the shoulder shot of victim trying to put her shoe on. Cut to
• [2 seconds] Eye-level, Medium close up, shot of victim’s facial expression when attempting to put on her shoe. Cut to
• [3 seconds] High angle, Medium, over the shoulder shot of victim managing to put shoe on. Fade to black.

0:30 - 1:00 seconds

• [3 seconds] Title: Starring Sian Willams. Fade to
• [1 second] MCU of female, starts turning around. Cut to
• [1 second] High angle MCU, female finishes turning around. Cut to
• [1 second] POV of female, very long shot, villain walking towards camera in middle of the frame. Fade to
• [1 second] POV of female, very long shot, villain walking towards camera on left side of the frame. Fade to
• [1 second] POV of female, very long shot, villain walking towards camera on right side of the frame
• [2 seconds] Long shot of female getting up. Cut to
• [2 seconds] Very long shot of girl getting up. Cut to
• [2 seconds] Blurry POV shot (female running). Fade to
• [3 seconds] Title: And Nicholas Green
• [4 seconds] Low level track of villain's feet, female in the background. Cut to
• [2 seconds] CU reverse track of female, panting diegetic. Cut to
• [3 seconds] MS track, camera moves behind tree. Fade to
• [3 seconds] Title: Casting, Angelie Stephens. Fade to
• [2 seconds] Low level side track of female's feet. Cut to
• [3 seconds] MLS reverse track of female, she looks around. Cut to

1:00 - 1:30 seconds

• [2 seconds] Still, floor level tilt. F runs out of shot. Fade to
• [3 seconds] Title: Exectutive Producer, Matthew Barnes. Fade to
• [2 seconds] Still, floor level tilt, V walks out. Cut to
• [2 seconds] CU reverse track, F runs out frame, V is behind MS. Cut to
• [2 seconds] Ms track of F. Cut to
• [2 seconds] High Angle, long shot, F runs in falls to floor. Cut to
• [1 second] Blurry POV from F of V. Cut to
• [3 seconds] High Angle, long shot, F gets up. Camera tilts as she stands up. Fade to
• [3 seconds] Title: Editor Liam Thompson
• [3 seconds] Blurry POV. Running, looks to the left: villain appears, looks to the right: villain appears, looks to the front: villain appears
• [1 second] Extreme close up of female's eyes (reaction shot)
• [1 second] Medium shot, from behind female, almost over the shoulder
• [3 seconds] Medium shot, pan as girl walks backwards into villain

1:30 - 2:30 seconds

• [3 seconds] BCU, still, victim being drugged, fade to black
• [5 seconds] HA track of victim's feet dragged out of frame, fade to black
• [3 seconds] Title: Director Alix Tumilty, fade to black
• [41 seconds] Pan L-R of poloroids, he crosses out one and strokes another
• [3 seconds] Title: The Anaesthetist fade to black
  

All

Finished DVD Cover

Tagline: An overdose of desire
Blurb:
With Strikeout Pictures’ most recent production, once more, we are not disappointed. Nominated for ‘Best Film', 'The Anaesthetist' follows a story of voyeurism, obsession and kidnap.
Unbeknown to Naomi Lawson (Sian Williams) she is the latest fixation of ‘The Anaesthetist’ (Nicholas Green) – the systematic serial killer with a fetish for white silk, a scientist’s knowledge of euthanasia techniques and passion for autopsy.

Finished Opening Sequence

Thursday + Friday 17/18 January

On these days we completed our opening and front cover.

We finished the contrast of the shots, although the 3 shots were the girl puts her shoe on were incredibly overexposed and we spent ages on them but unfortunately were unable to match them to the rest.

We also re-recorded our news broadcast for the end as it wasn't long enough and it needed to fit throughout the last pan. So although it detracts a little from the creepy-ness of his wall of girls it would be stranger if it suddenly faded up during the pan as if our villain had miraculously just tuned into the news report about himself.

We also took our cover shots:


We decided this shot looked a little strange because of his facial expression and also because of the fire bucket.

This photo is too blurry, but although we liked the composition all the others which were clear had a big red fire extinguisher in the background

W decided to use this image (put onto a Polaroid outline) because its very striking and it shows he sort of leads a double life and that there are lots of secrets.

We had 3 possible ideas for our title which were 'The Butcher', 'The Anaesthetist' and 'The Silencer' but in the end we went with 'The Anaesthetis't and a generally more medical and methodical killing style for our villain.

Alix

Wednesday 16th January

Today we completed the majority of the back cover and did a good rough draft of our blurb:

In Strikeout Pictures’ latest production, yet again, we are not disappointed. Nominated for ‘best picture’, it follows an epic story of voyeurism, obsession and kidnap. Unbeknown to Naomi Lawson (Sian Williams) she is about to be the latest fixation of ‘The Anaesthetist’ (Nicholas Green) – a serial killer from North London with an intoxication with white silk, a scientist’s knowledge of euthanasia techniques and passion for autopsy.

But will Naomi prove too much for him?


We also recorded our news report which was too short at first but this is the final script:

And the intensive search continues for the 17 year old girl who went missing late last Saturday night from Oakwood in North London. She is 5 ft 7 with blue eyes and dark blonde hair.
The police fear that Amy Williams is yet another victim of the killer whom the tabloids have named ‘the anaesthetist’ due to the substances found in his previous victims’ bodies.
They are strongly advising any young females in the area not to travel alone whenever possible. The police believe that he (trails off)





We also changed the idea for our front cover, we are going to have a photo similar to the one below (but obviously of our main actor) because we feel having girls tied up in white dresses is a little too repetitive.

Matt

Tuesday 15th December

We think that we have nearly completed finished our opening, minor adjustments such as fine tuning the contrast, and editing to the music more we will do if we have time.

Today we decided on a definite rough plan for our cover:


We also decided that our final pan needed some sort ofd sound, so we decided to have a news report playing in the background as if our villain is listening to the radio, here is a rough first draught of it:

'And the search continues for the young girl who went missing from north london last saturday. The police fear that Amy Willis (this is where he is crossing 'Amy' out) is the latest victim of [insert villain's nickname here]. (Then as we pan to the new girl it says) The police warn any females in the area to not travel alone. (Then it starts to fade out on:) They believe that...

We have decided that the villain is going to have a nickname - as in the sort the press would give him for example 'Jack the Ripper' - i think that it should be related to the drugs somehow for example 'the anesthetist', and his nickname will almost also be the title.

Alix

Meeting:14th January

Meeting 14th Jan 2008:

At this meeting, we as a group decided that a polaroid of the latest victim should be on the front cover. This not only anchors the storyline throughout the thriller but more importantly shows themes and characteristics of the villain- obsession, stalking, capturing, etc.

Significantly we decided not to put a red cross throught this polariod which suggests she has not already been killed prior to teh opening of teh film. Polariods of other victims with these crosses will be on teh back cover to show that they have been killed, which draws the attention back to the front cover whereby this victim is not yet dead. This is enigmatic as the audience may think, why is she not dead yet? why is she this killers victim? is she going to survive or quite literally be crossed out? ...

Matt

Ideas for the DVD cover

Ideas for the DVD cover

Another idea for the front cover would be to have a developing polariod on the cover. This would reveal a young female however her identity is not yet clear. This is highly enigmatic for the audience as they may ask, Who is she? Why has a picture of her been taken? etc. This polariod also connotes the villains obsession with stalking and taking pictures of his victims which is a key theme throughout the thriller.

Something like this:

On the back there would be polariods neatly displayed which are fully developed and have a red cross through them. This is a strong conntation that they have been killed and checked off of the villains list of victims. Therefore this draws attention back to the female on the developing polariod on the cover. The audience builds expectations that this is his next victim and she is somehow going to be different to the villains other victims -more than likely puts up more of a struggle and even possibly gets away which leads to the villains capture.

Film Title

We think this incorporates the cholorform/drugging, his obsession/compulsion to stalk these girls and his, almost, (scientific) expertise in the area. We also obvioulsy decided that our title would be 'the anaesthetist' - as it sounds creepy and almost surgical - a methodical killer.

Other ideas we had for the title of the film were -

• The Butcher
• The Silencer
• The London Butcher
• The Strangler
• Intoxication
• Numb
• Breathless

Matt

Ideas for the DVD cover.

Ideas for the DVD cover

I think a good idea would be to show the villains obsession and attention to detail on the front cover. Therefore i think it would be a great idea to anchor a crucial fanatasy of his that is to dress his victims up in a white silk nighty. We could show how twisted yet articulate his is about killing his victim and further show this obsession by using an old mannaquin. This would be displaying this silk nighty which all his victims are made to wear, in a dark obscure location with only a spotlight to highlight this prop. This suggests that the killer leaves this light on and always replaces the dress, forming an almost ritualistic approach to his killings.

On the back cover i think that polariods of his previous victims should be across the top to connote he is a serial killer who follows a trend in all his killings. I think the main background image should be teh main victim character looking back over her shoulder in a confused manner. This connotes that something out of the ordinary is happening to her i.e. the villain is stalking her, but this also shows that she is not afraid to confront her fears implying that the villain may not have it all his own way.

Matt

Friday 11th January

We re-shoot our final shot today as our first one was too fast, very bumpy, the 'x' was awful and the last photo wasnt clear enough that it was a new girl (as we used the one as she is walking down the road). So on wednesday night Alix took some more pictures of our final girl from above through a window (as if she is just a passer by) and then printed them off the next day.

Alix

Final Shot

We are shooting our last shot tomorrow (which is leaving a little late we know)
These are the photos of the new girl he is stalking:

We think this one is a little too close, not in a disturbing way, just in an unbelievable way

I really like this one because of the bush in the foreground it shows him hiding and i think it's a good distance

This one is also good as it's just simple, we will probably definitely use this one.

The shot will show one photo already up and he will put a new one up as well, but we haven't decided which ones yet

Alix

Feedback from Ms Blackborow

Yesterday during our lesson, Ms. Blackborow gave us some feedback on our opening sequence and suggested a few things that we could improve on.

• Pace: at the moment, our opening sequence maintains more or less the same pace throughout, and Ms Blackborow feels that everything's happening quite fast. So, she suggested that we slow down all of the shots up until the girl turns around. She also suggested that we slow down the shots where the girl is captured by the killer.


• Establishing shot: Ms Blackborow said that we could cut out part of the beginning of the establishing shot since it's slightly shakey at the beginning.

Angelie

Friday 21st December

We have a new song, it's called 'Cold city', and it has a fantastically eery feel to it, the only problem os that although it starts slow it never reaches a crescendo of any sort, but this also indicates to the audience that she is going to be caught and that there's no point even hoping.

Targets for Christmas Holidays

• Find a medium sized red marker (one is too big and one too small) - everyone
• Take photos of girls for 'new girl' - Matt + Alix
• Brainstorm film titles

Pan Shot

Plan

• Pan starts half way across one photo (well this is where we will cut it for the start of the shot)
• Goes across 3/4 other photos which are all crossed out with red marker
• Comes to photo of Alix, crosses it out top left to bottom right, then top right to bottom left.
• The camera carries on panning to see just a photo of a girl walking a long the road/waiting for a bus.
• Then he puts a new photo up of this girl - doing something normal again, and he strokes the photo

Contrast

We've realised that adjusting the colouring, contrast and lighting so it looks the same throughout our sequence is going to be fairly time consuming. For continuity purposes, the colouring and contrast is going to need to be basically the same, and since we shot on different days, a lot of our shots look quite different. We've decided to make all the shots a sort of bluey colour and we'll put quite a bit of contrast on each of them. So, we'll have to spend quite a bit of time making it all the same.

Angelie

Poloroids

We've finally scanned them in, we experimented with 4 different types of light and here is a sample

We all thought a dark effect looked good on the camera, however as it was going to be shot in a dark room they might not show up, and the red cross on them wouldn't have shown up either. We also needed to definitely recognise Alix's face for full anchorage that he has just killed her etc.


These are the ones we are going to use because we think they are the most effective, they will really show up the crosses and we like the detail on them.

(None of the scanners would interpret the other 2 light levels properly - don't know why)

Alix

Monday 17th December

WEEKEND FOOTAGE

it was good, we got it all done, and i was happy with the shoot thankyou I was impressed with Alix's ability to fall over, and was pleased with her commitment. Nick's haircut wasn't too bad for us, as he was only in about 2 shots pre-shaving, one which we actually recorded over. He was very good, and we even let him have a go recording one of our trail runs, he was actually quite good.... The footage was overall quite good, so our only shots left are of the killer putting the photo of Alix up on the wall. We also need to figure out a name for Nick to call out, and record that, probably on the school field or in the nearby park to get the same diegetic effect that we would've had in the forest. The contrast, brightness and general colour of each shot varied, but this can be fixed in the editing process.
WOOH NO MORE GROVELANDS

liam

Villain's Speech

We want our main character (villain) to be saying/mumbling something when he is dragging her away and/or when he crosses out/puts up the new photos. Possible ideas:

• "I knew you'd/ she'd look good in the dress"

Alix

• "She was pretty" - as he crosses her out
• When he puts up the new/main girl i think he should say something relevant to the film title - like 'i just can't resist one more"???, then the title is 'irresistable (rough example)
• He could sigh loudly and say 'she should've listened'

Liam

Dragging

• "I'll need to up the dosage next time
• SHe should've listened....
• How dare she
• tsk, tsk, tsk"

New Photo

• sniffs
• stroke it
• "I'll take care of you"
• "There There..."

Matt

• there could be a voiceover throughout the whole chase, of the victim and villain's conversation before she escaped. e.g. Villain: "do you know who i am?" "do you understand?" "i am much more than a human" Victim: "please don't hurt me" "you won't get away with this" "[Scream]"
• he could possibly say something which mimics the victim's speech prior to her escape [in the same high pitched voice]. e.g "please don't hurt me" This would show his state of mental illness and isolation from the normal society. Also this would reflect his dominance.

Effects

We feel that it isn;t anchored enough that she has been heavily drugged and we ar eplanning to use the following effects to emphasis this. Firstly, on the camera there is the "trail" effect, which makes the image lag with movement, meaning there is a delay on the speed of the shot. Aspects of the previous frame are left in the shot to create the effect of heavily delayed reactions. Secondly, and also on the camera, is the "slow shutter speed" effect. This has a strength of 1-4, and we found 2 the most effective. This uses less frames and also blurs when action is captured, therefore creating a delay and the effect of impaired vision.
In the editing suite there are several video effects which can be used to slightly alter or adjust specific shots. The blur and soften tools can be used to make objects less distinguishable in shot, as if a person cannot focus on them properly.

LIAM

Our Favourite Shots

Favourite shots (and possible screen grabs for the cover).

1)

We all really like this big close up shot. It reflects the themes of 'anaesthetising' through drug abuse, kidnap as the villain is swarming the victim, and shows dominance and brutal nature of the villain which will be developed in the rest of the film. The clean and clinical method of sedation reflects his ability and experience. We also slowed this shot down during the opening to create more suspense and highlight the key themes it shows. I think this is a perfect shot to put on the DVD cover as it sets up expectations of the film through its generic signifiers etc. yet it doesnt give away any of the film narrative.-i.e. THIS IS THE FALSE HEROINE. So in fac tthe audience only learn the themes of the film, they dont learn who teh main characters are!

2)

As a group we feel this low level, medium close up, track is very effective. It clearly shows generic codes such as black v light clothing to show good v evil, whilst it also shows that there is infact going to be elements of chase scenes occuring through the film . This also acts almost as an establishing shot, as we see the enormity of the forest and we can see there is no way out of here -reminding themes of isolation and entrappment. The distancing between the victim and villain in this shot also shows that he is catching her even though he is walking whilst she is running.

MATT

Friday 14th December

Our definitely final shoot is tomorrow, we are meeting at 9am and plan to finish by 12. We are going to re shoot the following shots of Nick because of his new hair cut:

• The first shot of him walking, he will now walk almost side to side in the frame to make it more obvious (that she is drugged)
• The aerial (ish) shot of her running in shot and then him running in shot, in our first take they run top right to bottom left, but it has to be bottom right to top left so that it makes sense (as she runs that way into the forest).
• We need a shot from her POV (just after she has looked round) of him behind her striding towards the camera - reverse track as if she is running obviously
• More low level tracking shots of his feet (and her feet)
• The entire capture scene, as in editing the shots don't fit together well due to different bodily positions.

We also need to shoot some other shots which are missing and some new ones:

• More POV shots - we need more anchorage that she is drugged
• We need to reshoot her feet running past the camera and then his as well (it wasn;t framed very well and Alix's feet need to stumble)
• A few more CU reverse tracks of Alix to show more emotion
• We also need a shot of her looking round (then cut to her POV)
• We are also maybe going to do our river shot AGAIN as it is still a little wobbly.
• We also need to get some panting/frantic sounds of Alix

Alix

Thursday 17th December

We have planned to shoot our poloroid photos tomorrow lunch time at the back of the great hall, so far 3 girls (and Alix obviously) are definitely coming, and we only have 1 or 2 more to ask. They will be in the white dresses and will be gagged (the back ground will be dark and therefor mysterious so you don;t know where he keeps him - therefore not giving away his where abouts yet in the film)

Targets

• Bring white dress + poloroid camera in - Alix
• Bring material for gag in

Alix

Wednesday 12th November

We captured our shots and we started editing it together, and it has started coming together. The main problem is the contrast between the shots, obviously as they come from many different days the lighting conditions are incredibly varied, but we are going to experiment with contrast.

Shots to shoot on Saturday

• More running shots of Alix
• Shots of Nick walking towards the camera
• More action matches between Alix and Nick
• POVs

We realised we need a lot more POVs to show just how drugged she is, particularly because even though Alix felt like she was acting very frantically + drugged, it didn't come across that way on camera.

Alix

Shooting Weekend

On Saturday morning we went to Grovelands to test shoot our new idea without Nick, and to try and do some final shots which Alix was in and Nick wasn't. However, after about 30 minutes it started to rain, and continued to get heavier until it was impossible to shoot and Alix was extremely cold (particularly as she was on the floor a lot). So we decided to go back to Alix's house as it was round the corner and do some more planning and storyboarding.

Then on sunday we met at 9am and started to shoot, after about 2 hours it started to completely pour but instead of giving up again we decided to wait under a shelter until it cleared up - which it did after about half an hour. There were showers for the rest of the day but we were still able to shoot through out. We didn't get it finished but we did get some good shots, however we are having great difficulty with one reaction shot of her looking around to see him, because Alix's acting skills aren't great - we feel the only solution is to keep trying because it's such a crucial shot we can't cut it.

This tuesday we have a half day and the only lessons we have in the morning is double media studies and double private study so we are planning to shoot then. However Nick is unavailable so we will have to shoot for a few hours on Sunday morning to complete the shots with him in.

Alix

Storyboards

Initial storyboarding of our first sequence:

Matt

Storyboard of new idea:



(Red arrows for camera movement and green arrows for character movement)


This storyboard was compiled during test shooting sessions at the exact location of our opening.

Matt,Alix,Angelie,Liam

Another change of plan and a minor problem...

Now Alix is definitely acting in the opening sequence.

We decided that it's too short notice and unfair of us to ask Ciara to change her plans to suit us. And, since we weren't 100% sure we'd definitely be using Ciara anyway, it'd be even more unfair if we ended up not using her.

We also realised that although Lara had her own pair of white shoes, Alix doesn't have any... Alix might try to borrow Lara's, but they might be a bit too small. So, Angelie's bringing a pair of her white shoes to the shoot tomorrow to see if those will fit better.

Angelie

New weekend schedule

Saturday
On Saturday we're meeting at Alix's house at 9 a.m. to create a storyboard for the new opening sequence. We're then going to the park to test out the new shots. Alix will act as the victim for these test shots. We plan on doing some screen testing for Ciara, so might also test out some of our shots with her in them. If Alix ends up needing to act in our opening sequence, then some of the shots we do to test things out may be used as part of our opening sequence. Our actor, Nick, is probably not going to be needed.
We may also do some sound capturing while we're there in the park.

Sunday
On Sunday we'll be meeting quite early morning in the park.
If Alix is our actress: we'll shoot all of the shots that we didn't take on Saturday along with all the shots that Nick features in.
If Ciara is our actress: we'll shoot all of our shots, excluding any really good shots we may have taken on Saturday.
We will also shoot all the shots featuring Nick and maybe do some more sound capturing.

All of these plans will happen regardless of weather conditions.

Angelie

New Actress

Our original actress (Lara) told us that she can't shoot on Sunday since she has to be at work by about 10 in the morning. This gave us some major problems, but we sorted out a few possible solutions quite quickly.

1. Use another actress: Ciara
   Originally, we had intended to use Ciara as the main girl for the rest of the film. So, it would have been her picture that was put up on the killer's wall of victims and she would have been on the front cover of the DVD. Instead, we may use Ciara for the actress in the opening sequence with Lara as the main character of the film.
2. Use another actress: Alix
   Since Alix knows exactly what we want the opening to look like, she probably wouldn't require as much direction as another actress. But, Alix would prefer to spend a bit more time behind the camera. Also, Alix may be a bit too tall to be a thriller victim and she says she can't really act.

We're probably going to use Ciara as our actress. But, since we're not sure if she can act and we haven't screen tested her before, so we'll do that tomorrow. Then, if Ciara doesn't really fit the part, Alix will have to act instead.

Pictures of Ciara to be added soon.

Angelie

Friday 7th December

After watching creating a short rough edit of our footage from the past 2 weekends, we realised that our footage wasn't quite to the standard that we would have hoped. So we discussed a new way of shooting with Ms. Blackborow and created a slightly different chase sequence (with much tighter framing):

• Establishing shots of the river
  
  
• A pan from the river to a shoe on the ground amongst some leaves
  

• A hand comes into frame, scrabbling for the shoe. Then the hand finds the shoe and grabs it and pulls it out of frame
  

• Girl puts shoe on (only hands/arms and feet/legs shown)
  

• Shots going up her body
  

• Shot of girl looking very startled (she has just heard the killer calling her name, or something similar)
  

• The killer's silhouette appears at the top of the slope. Then it cuts to shots of him seemingly 'jumping' forwards
  

• Girl scrambles up
  

• Girl falls again and grabs tree or maybe knee
  

• Running shots of her (the killer is in none of these)
  

• Matches of her and him (e.g. her feet come into and out of frame then his feet come into and out of frame, she runs past and touches a tree then he walks past and touches a tree etc)
  

• She's looking around to see where he is then crashes into him and he captures her
  

• He chloroforms her
  

• He drags her away (shot of her feet, maybe her shoe falls off, linking the ending to the beginning ? )

It probably also needs to be said that some of the shots Ms Blackborow suggested/liked were ones that Matt suggested a while ago but the rest of the group rejected because we thought it'd look too supernatural.

In this meeting we decided that we're definitely going to need to buy another white dress for the girls in the polaroids to wear.

Angelie

Thursday 6th December

We decided to stick to our orginal(ish) idea, we are still going to have the opening as the chase with Lara, but we will try to cut this down to 1min 20 secs. The last 40 or so seconds will be the slow fade to black, fade in and then out of the films title, then fade into the pan of the different girls omn the walls, he will then cross out in red laras face and will add a new photo of a new girl. In this meeting we also decided on the schedule for the weekend (i.e. different scenarios depening on weather) which is shown below. We are also planning to take our poloroid photos on tuesday lunch time.

Alix

Weekend Schedule

Saturday and Sunday Schedule:

• Group arrival at Grovelands at 7:45am promt to get prepared, i.e. sort out any distractions, set up tripod and organise camera, whiteboard, umbrellas, blankets, sort out course, and finalise shot order in relation ot time of actor/actress arrival.
• Actor and actress arrive at 8:00am promt ready to change into and adjust costume, such as swapping socks and shoes for tiny white plimpsoles and doing hair in the desired fashion. Ready to start filming at 8:15am
• Break from shooting session at roughly 11:00am. Sit in the park cafe to warm up-taking into consideration our actress is wearing barely anything! Also this gives us a chance to sort out any disagreements and restructure shot order if needed
• Commence filming at roughly 11:20am until 1:45pm, following shot order.

Roughly half of the shot list to be taken on each day of the weekend. But the more the merrier!

Note: breaks will be taken throughout as aactress is wearing very little and may literally be freezing and may also be taken to group our thoughts and sort out disagreements.

If the weather changes from saturday to sunday then the following procedures will take place:

• If sunny on sunday: film the remaining shots from the shot list
• If raining on sunday: film the remaining shots from the shot list and if time, reshoot yesterday's shots in this weather. Make sure the second half of teh footage is taken first as it is more important to finish shooting than to start over again. The weather is ever changing and so we will have to do our best in the editing suite to overcome this.
  

EXTRA

Monday schedule:

• free school periods two and three: go to the great hall and try out shooting the final shot of the row of victims pictures. Note: use Alix and try to find the best and most suitable lighting (taking into consideration the stage production equipment)

MATT

Weather

A large problem of ours at the moment is the weather, these are the 2 local weather reports for Southgate/Palmers Green for this coming weekend.



Obviously the best day is Sunday as it has light showers and some patchy sunshine, however, if we leave it till Sunday and it does rain in the morning we would have to shoot our whole thing again so that all of our footage is in the rain - but we can't do this all in one day.
So instead we are going plan to shoot the second half of our footage on Saturday and if it rains then we will shoot our first half again instead. This is incase it rains on sunday - we will shoot the second half on sunday, and if it rains we use the first half in the rain, and if it doesn't then we use the first half which is shot in sunshine from the previous weekend.

- Does this make sense? It seems a little rambley

Alix