Group 1C: Thriller 07

Final Post!

2008-02-01T11:36:00.001+01:00

The Group

We all really enjoyed this project

Favourite Shots

2008-01-31T20:58:00.000+01:00

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

2008-01-30T10:44:00.000+01:00

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

2008-01-30T10:42:00.000+01:00

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

2008-01-30T10:40:00.001+01:00

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

2008-01-26T13:12:00.002+01:00

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

2008-01-25T11:16:00.000+01:00

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

2008-01-21T20:24:00.000+01:00

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

2008-01-21T20:23:00.004+01:00

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

2008-01-21T20:23:00.001+01:00

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

2008-01-21T20:22:00.002+01:00

Thursday + Friday 17/18 January

2008-01-21T20:04:00.000+01:00

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

2008-01-16T17:17:00.000+01:00

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

2008-01-15T21:41:00.000+01:00

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

2008-01-14T23:57:00.000+01:00

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

2008-01-14T23:39:00.000+01:00

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.

2008-01-14T23:12:00.000+01:00

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

2008-01-13T19:25:00.000+01:00

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

2008-01-07T21:13:00.000+01:00

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

2007-12-22T12:08:00.000+01:00

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

2007-12-21T11:31:00.000+01:00

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

2007-12-21T10:31:00.000+01:00

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

2007-12-18T15:24:00.001+01:00

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

2007-12-18T15:11:00.000+01:00

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

2007-12-17T21:43:00.000+01:00

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

2007-12-14T21:43:00.002+01:00

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

2007-12-14T21:23:00.000+01:00

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

2007-12-14T21:22:00.001+01:00

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

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!

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

2007-12-14T21:13:00.000+01:00

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

2007-12-13T21:23:00.000+01:00

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

2007-12-13T21:14:00.001+01:00

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

2007-12-09T21:31:00.000+01:00

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

2007-12-09T21:30:00.003+01:00

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...

2007-12-07T21:55:00.000+01:00

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

2007-12-07T21:13:00.000+01:00

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

2007-12-07T17:24:00.000+01:00

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.

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.
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

2007-12-07T17:19:00.000+01:00

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

2007-12-06T14:59:00.002+01:00

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

2007-12-06T14:59:00.001+01:00

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

2007-12-06T14:58:00.002+01:00

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

Ending

2007-12-06T14:58:00.001+01:00

Over the past couple of days, we've had lots of discussions about how to create the end part of our opening sequence. The basic idea was the same throughout (a pan across lots of polaroids of tied-up girls in the white dress, with the faces crossed out in all of them) but we had a few different ideas of how to actually set up the photos on the wall.

Originally, the idea was to just have the polaroids of the girls in the dress, in a line on a wall. Then after the camera has panned across all of them, the audience would see the killer put up a picture of the new (main) girl in the film. We realised that this wouldn’t work (as explained in the Tuesday 4th December blog), so decided to think of something slightly different.

One idea, was for the killer to have a collage of pictures of all his victims doing normal things. The camera would do pan across the collage a few times (getting lower down on the collage each time). On the wall there would also be a row of the polaroids of the gagged girls, and the camera would pan across those too. We felt like this might not look right, so we came up with some other ideas.

Another idea we had, was to have lots of pictures of different girls (i.e. a few pictures of each of them) in a line across the wall. So for example, there would be three normal sized pictures of a girl doing normal things (e.g. walking down a road, posting a letter etc) and then one polaroid of the girl in the white dress. This pattern of photos would be repeated for about 3 or 4 girls. The audience would then see him put up a picture of the new girl on the wall next to the photograph of his last victim (Lara).

The most recent idea is the one that we’re actually going to use in our opening sequence. There would be a small pile of normal photos (maybe 4 or 5 average sized photos) with a Polaroid pinned to the top. There may also be a number written at the bottom of each Polaroid, to show that this is how the killer keeps track of his victims, and also to let the audience know how many people he’s already killed. After the camera pans across these pictures, the audience would see the killer put up a picture of the new girl on the wall. This would probably be the first picture of this particular girl, to show the audience that the killer has only just started to stalk her and this would also show that the rest of the film will be about her.

Angelie

Wednesday 5th December

2007-12-06T14:57:00.001+01:00

Serious problems changing ideas:
Well at the moment the footage we have from the two previous weekend shoots is pretty poor. The framing is not tight enough, and the acting is nowhere near the standard we need it to be. We also have some problems with the last section of the scene, the pan of the killers past victims and his victim to be, in terms of making the rest of the movie coherent. Add these to the fact that this weekend's weather report is very bleak, there is a strong chance we will not be able to shoot enough suitable footage to keep with our original idea.
Therefore we are seriously considering doing one of the below options:

We shoot the scene in which the girl is captured by the killer.We make this section of the sequence shorter, and extend the killer's lair scene. However, we agreed that this could be difficult in terms of relevancy as to why we are showing a victim running from the killer. We thought we should start with a pan of the previous victims and see sections of their story, for example developing the killer as a photographer who gians the trust of models and then murders them.
We completely change the scene and develop the killers background as a photographer. We have scene in which he takes pictures of models and gains their trust, and use these in the form of flashbacks and 'echoing voices'. Therefore we would probably cut the scene in which a girl is being chased through the woods as this does not makes sense together with this new footage. Only problem with this idea is finding a suitable location, and making it look like an amateur studio.
We reshoot the whole scene with might tighter framing and better quality acting. We start much slower and build up the pace, revealing the killer much sooner. There will be several more blurry and distorted shots to connote the victim's state of mind, and we use a lot more diegetic sound to create tension and suspense for the audience. We then use the final killer's lair scene, devoted much less time to it, and making it altogether more simpler with no flashbacks or voice-overs. The scene ends when the killer puts the picture of his next victim on the wall.

Liam

Inspiration: Scream

2007-12-06T14:55:00.000+01:00

As a group we found that 'Scream's' opening sequence is really successsful. We are all really inspired by the twist on Propp's theory of character roles and the adaptation of Todorov's narrative structure.

The opening sets up expectation that the victim character in the opening is going to be the heroine of the film as a convention of openings is to introduce main characters. As a result of this expectation the audience is therefore really shocked when she dies. She in fact takes the role of a false hero. This enables sooooo much suspense to be formed in the opening with many action and enigma codes such as the telephone conversation, and is a really successful technique which we all would love to incorporate into our own opening.

The opening also changes the conventional narrative structure of introducing a state of equilibrium before a disequilibrium, followed by a new equilibrium. Although there is a momentary state of equilibrium the purpose of the opening and in context with the whole film, the disequilibrium is shown. This allows a greater use of Barthes' action and enigma codes through aspects of mise-en-scene, characters, and camera work. Therefore the opening is more suspenseful and helps to set up expectations and themes of the film quickly. We all love this idea and are planning to start at this stage in Todorov's theory.

'Scream's' opening sequence highlights themes similar to ours such as...kidnap, murder, obsession, isolation, and serial killing.

On the whole Scream has a great opening sequence and and in relation to iconography, the fact it is in a domestic setting adds to the realism of the opening which allows it to directly appeal to the current audience-before it plays on their fears.

As we are producing a 'psychological thriller' this is a technique we are going to use. We plan to subvert some of teh classic thriller theroies in a similar way that 'Scream' has hopefully making ours just as successful or possibly even more so!

The hysterical acting nearer the end was also extremely successful in showing character emotion and very inspirational. I truly think that this would work fantastically for our opening thriller sequence and I think this could be adapted to show even greater isolation and fear by muting her screams- i.e the audience only watches the visuals. This would take the audience momentarily out of the action but they would actually want to be involved and want to help the victim. A technique i personally think is fantastic.

Matt

Tuesday 4th December

2007-12-05T09:09:00.000+01:00

Today we had 2 hours and we watched and captured out good shots and then started to put a rough cut together. One problem was the colours of the shots - it chages constantly from bluey to sunny, but we can easily overcome this by using contrast.
There was also another problem; we have to shoot some tighter framed shots because it jumps from POVs to ELS/LSs - and we thougth we could use this for effect but it just doesn't look right, so we will have to create some more shots in our re-shoot.

We also realised that for the poloroid photos the picture of his 'new' girl that he puts up can't really be tied up because then that doesn't leave much open for the rest of the film - i.e. he has already caught her so why didn't he just kill her (or 'cross her out') when he did lara.
However, if we used photos of all the girls just doing ordinary things (e.g. walking down the road) - as if he was stalking them, we wouldn't be able to anchor the white dress he uses for all his victims.
So we decided it would pan across to a photo of Lara doing something normal, and over the top he would put a photo of her gagged and then he would cross it out, then he would put up a photo of the new girl doing something normal. Therefore each girl has 2 photos, one from before they are caught and one from after.

Targets met from last meeting: Alix is getting poloroid film tonight

Targets set: Look further into contrast to change colouring of shots

Alix

Monday 3rd December

2007-12-05T09:07:00.001+01:00

Today we had a short meeting in our lesson and we just watched back our footage, most of it was good and usable but there are still a few shots we need to reshoot - for example the POVs, sometimes just don't match up to where she ran. We aslo started to organise the poloroid photos of the tied up girls.
There is also a problem with weather this weekend for us to finish our shoot, 60% chance of rain on saturday and 20% on sunday. However if we leave it until sunday and risk it, and then it does rain we will have to reshoot everything that day, which would be impossible as Lara would get even colder in the rain - and she couldnt do everything last weekend in the sun.

Targets set: Alix to get poloroid film

Alix

Shooting weekend

2007-12-01T21:12:00.001+01:00

Shooting weekend: December 1st-2nd

December 1st we carried out our main shooting session, where we made successful attempts at our finl shots. Using a quality control check after all shots we believe most of the shots taken are at a high standard and those which are not will be reshot next weekend. As all of us in the group were out to achieve the highest standards of camera work, shooting was much longer than anticipated. This factor, accompanied with the freezing weather conditions meant that shooting was postponed as our actress was so freezing and began to feel poorly. It would have been ridiculous to make her stay throughout these conditions, and more than this the quality of acting would/was beginnning to deteriorate. Although not every shot was completed we feel as a group that shots taken were infact of a good quality (sometimes we took 10 takes just to get the right camera work and acting!). From this we as a group feel that next week we must firstly film the remaining shots in this outdoor location even if the weather conditions are inappropriate, and secondly to reshoot the least successful shots taken this weekend.

On 2nd december, we as a group are not able to shoot anymore of the opening sequence. This is because it is forecast to rain all day (which it did!), and our actress desperately needed to leave the shoot at 9.45am. This would have meant that from sunrise we would have had roughly an an hour and a half, in which to shoot in undesired conditions.

Problems from this shooting weekend were as follows:

the weather conditions (freezing and then a full day of rain)

time taken between shots was too long that not all shots were completed

the actress could not perform a 'fall' in the way the group all desired

the sun shone brightly and then was clouded over (a very dark sky)

due to the time taken to quality control all shots, it meant the actor (villain) was not needed til much later in the day- although he seemed to enjoy the time away from studying and liked to give his opinion as a viewer.

there were many distractions and many people in some shots as the park was full of dog walkers, runners, walkers, families, children on bikes etc. This meant the shooting was delayed further.

Here is an example of some of the shot logging we did to make it easier for us to know which shots to upload to the comptuer.

Matt, Liam

Thursday 29th November

2007-11-30T13:13:00.000+01:00

During our meeting today after school we altered our shot list, there are still some gaps but we feel that it would be better to mark out the chase on a path in the woods and then just shoot her running and stumbling from many different angles over and over to fill in the gaps between our main events.

Here is the new shot list:

Shot 1
Slow Pan of forest (1+2+3 panoramic – 360)

Shot 2
Slow pan (diff angle)

Shot 3
Slow pan (another angle)

Shot 4
Blurry POV (moving) of girl (woods)

Shot 5
Another blurry POV (looks from up to down)

Shot 6
Further blurry POV

Shot 7
Establishing shot , she is stumbling ELS

Shot 8
MLS/LS reverse track of her stumbling

Shot 9
Pan R-L, she runs in and out of shot

Shot 10
POV of her running, stumbling

Shot 11
Track of her, then she falls over

Shot 12
LS see her scrambling up

Shot 13
MLS/LS Track of her running, moves to side track, tree in shot

Shot 14
POV from girl, just running

Shot 15
LS-MS runs past camera, she almost stumbles into it

Shot 16
LS / MLS side of her from behind trees (framed by trees)

Shot 17
POV of her running / stumbling (only stumbles, hits knee for example)

Shot 18
Reaction shot – front on MS of girl regaining balance

The following are general shots which we will include when we feel they are appropriate
General1
Tracking her through the trees, LS
2
Reverse track through trees LS
3
Side track or track of his feet
4
Side track or track of her feet
5
High angle from tree, Girl runs in then out of frame, then male runs in then out of frame
He appears
Girl stumbles out of view, male is left in the frame camera moves towards him – to MS

Track of her running and stumbling, she starts to slightly look behind

CU her looking round very scared

POV from her of him striding towards

POV of male of her falling backwards (root etc) (2 cams)

Side track trees in frame of Lara running
He disappears
Reverse track she leans on a tree MS/LS

Reverse to other side of tree (stationary), she turns around a little

POV from her looking for male, he’s not there, shaky whip pans

OTS MS/LS track her walking backwards, stumbling, clearly in shock,
Then she carries on running

He reappears
She is looking to the left, he hand comes out from the right (round a tree). Track MLS

MCU he whispers in her ear ‘‘I knew you’d look lovely in this dress’

CU/BCU chloroform rag over mouth, her eyes flutter shut

Shot of her feet being dragged (side track) then dragged out of shot
Shed
Pan L-R Polaroids, comes to Lara’s he crosses out in red, puts up new photo

Obviously there are some gaps, but as ours is made up of so many short takes we really want to be there and we know we will get inspired while there like we did on the test shoot

Matt, Angelie, Liam, Alix

Inspiration: Shrooms

2007-11-30T10:44:00.000+01:00

Although this was a trailer it was very inspirational for our scene. Firstly, the setting is much the same as ours - a forest. There is also a central theme of drugs in each sequence, although in our scene it is forced upon the victim, whereas in Shrooms it is each characters choice. We both wanted to create the effect of blurred or distorted vision, and in this trailer the use of trails and slow motion create this. Disortion of time and space is also created by the use of intentionally jump cuts. One of the most inspirational shots to use is the low level side track of the forest floor. This is almost exactly the same type of shot we wish to shoot as it shows the scene well and in our case we can show the direction the character is running. There is also a good use of fades to black to connote time passing which we will use in the scene and the flashes of white between shots is also very disturbing to the viewer and helps to create suspense. There is also a low level shot of the forest floor, which lingers long enough for a charcters shoe to come into shot and step on the floor. The shot here is extremely close to the foot which almost makes it indistinguishable which is similar to what we hope to ahcieve with some of these shots. This shot will almost act as an insert, allwoing us to cut up the shot types and therefore engage the audience and not let them get bored.

Liam

Wednesday 28th November

2007-11-29T16:58:00.000+01:00

We decided that our montage was just not practical so we changed our ending to one of our other initial ideas (we as a group felt that the shed waws not a sucessful location in the opening squence. Also the montage would mean lots of footage of the streets and garden would needed to have been shown-which the whole group felt could ruin the mystery created in teh opening):

As the false heroine is chloroformed there is a slow fade to black. From black there is a fade to a slow track (MCU/CU) of her feet. From this she is dragged out of shot, as another fade to black is used (very slowly). Here we decided could be a good place for the title to appear. This could be seen as an ending, however we have decided to give the viewer more information about the killer's habits/his character by having a fade up to a CU pan (left- right) of Polaroids revealing his habit of killing similarly aged females with similar looks (17yrs, white, brown or blond hair), all tied up in the same white dress (almost like a fetish of his). From this we see just how twisted he is and this is enigmatic as the viewer wants to understand his obsession. Further enigma is created as each Polaroid shown before the victim/false heroine shown in the opening sequence, is crossed through with a red marker. This signifies that he has succeeded in capturing and killing them. As the pan approaches the victim shown in the sequence (Lara), it stops- from here we see the villain's hand come in to shot and cross this picture out. - this signifies he successfully murdered her. The final shot is of the villain pinning up a new Polaroid on the borad/wall- a new victim! (who is obviously the protagonist in the film and more than likely will feature on the DVD cover) This shot will possibly be emphasised due to our editing, e..g the use of a negative flash.

Development of the idea:
We as a group have decided that sound could be used very effectively on the penultimate shot. We think it could be effective to hear a poloroid being taken in the background accompanied by the sound of struggling/mumbling (as the viewer lingers on the picture of Lara). Then the viewer sees the villain pin up this anticipated polariod, and it slowly develops to reveal the next victim. (time consuming- do we have this long?)

We also finalised how our villain was to disappear and then reappear:

Villain Disappears

Reverse track of girl LS-MLS, tree comes into shot and she rests on it, move into her face – MCU/CU
Reverse shot – she peeks around tree and looks panicked
POV from girl, shaky whip pans around
LS she looks so scared, even more hysterical, stumbles looking around, we move around to a MS
Jumps to MCU
Jumps to CU – emphasises her fear
MLS/LS she realises she need to carry on running and stumbles away

Between disappear and reappear

Lots of cuts – even more fast paced, heightens her hysteria
Tracking of her feet + lots of other strange angles etc – general disorientation
15-20 seconds of general confusion then he reappears
During this time there will be no titles – too distracting, detracts from atmosphere

Villain Reappears

PAN R-L, Girl comes into shot and Villain jumps out from behind tree, she is struggling
Cut to around 60º to the left, MS girl (Villain’s head is cut out) he is in control – arms round her
MCU, (pulls hair out of way?) he whispers in her ear ‘you look lovely in this’
BCU, rag is slowly put across her mouth, eyes flutter shut, she goes limp
Shot of her feet, she is being dragged

Matt and Alix

Generic Signifiers

2007-11-28T09:12:00.000+01:00

In order to make sure the viewer understands that our opening sequence is a thriller, we need to include generic signifiers of this genre.
In our scene we have several of these, for example:

The setting - the setting of our sequence, a dense forest (Grovelands Park), is very conventional to the thriller genre, but probably even more so to the thriller subgenre of horror and slasher.
Lighting - although set early - mid morning, the lighting within the wood is still very dark and full of shadows often used in thriller films. Shafts of light are sometimes seen to create tension and a silhouette of the villain is also used. The lack of lighting, and its foreboding connotations are a signifier of the thriller genre.
The victim - the victim is a young, innocent looking girl, dressed in white to connot her purity. This is commonplace in many thriller films, the helpless victim defenceless against the villain.
The villain - the villain is a tall, muscly man, dressed in black to connote his evil personality. His whole face is hardly ever seen in shot to suggest his hidden agendas and his menace

Liam

Tuesday 27th November

2007-11-27T18:15:00.000+01:00

We watched our footage from our test shoot today, after doing a quick test edit we were quite happy with the results but have still decided on a lot of changes:

Lara needs to look completely hysterical because during our test shoot it wasn't believable that she had been/is about to be raped, so we decided to make sure that; she runs faster, is a lot more clumsy and stumbley (making it obvious she has been drugged), she has to look a lot more scared, and we are also going to mess up her hair, smudge her nmake-up, and put mud on her legs/arms and dress.
Nick also needs to be further away from her otherwise it is so unbelievable that he hasn't caught her already, and he also needs to take bigger more confident strides.
Our framing also needs to be tighter in order to really focus the audience's attention on Lara's emotion.
We also need to start recording before we say action, and leave it runnign for a little afterwards and have our actors run in and out of the frame to give ourselves more choice when editing
During the shoot we didn't concentrate on shot logging and using the whiteboard, so this weekend when shooting one person will do the whiteboard, one will shot log, one will film, and the other will direct the actors. And obviously we will switch roles all the time to give everyone a fair chance.
Our POVs also need more variance - e.g. looking up and down, and we are also not going to unfocus the camera on shoot but afterwards when editing so that we can fully control it.
We also realised that we don't have enough shots, so we are going to take a lot more of her just running and stumbling to give ourselves more choice in the edit room - almost like filler shots, we also want more shots of her falling over.
We realise a big problem of ours is continuity - i.e. the background matching up, so next time we are going to carefully choose a path through the forest. Then we will do POV shots all the way along the path, to again give us more choice when editing.
Lara also got increidbly cold and unconfrotable - particularly between shots when she couldn't put her shoes back on, so this weekend we are going to bring an old towel (or some form of material) for her to stand on, and change on, and sit down if she wishes.
Our main problem was our initial shotlist was also not very helpful so our main priority before this weekend is to create a perfect one which we can just follow and therefore avoid time wasting. We are going to talk through every single shot and therefore get any disagreements out of the way before hand.

Alix

Final Costume

2007-11-26T18:45:00.000+01:00

Since our last post about costumes, we managed to find the perfect white dress for our victim. We felt that this dress was much better than the blue one, since it was a proper signifier of innocence and purity.

Here's a picture of our actress wearing the dress:

And this is a picture of our actor in his costume:

~ Angelie

Test Shoot Weekend

2007-11-26T16:34:00.000+01:00

We did some shooting early morning today and yesterday. When shooting, we found that some of the things we planned worked well, whereas others really didn't.

Some of the shots we had planned to do, didn't really work when we tried them out.

Shot 4: the girl climbing over fence to get into the park
We didn't even attempt this shot. It seemed too dangerous to even try it, since our actress wasn't wearing any shoes, so could have been injured very easily.
Shot 12: a shot from the girl's POV as she stumbles over, we see her hands hit the ground
This ended up being too complicated and really didn't look very effective.

We had also planned to get a high angle shots by having Liam in a tree taking the shot, but this really couldn't work since the trees in the park didn't have stable enough branches (if they even had any branches at all).

On the first day of shooting (Sunday November 25th), we had some weather issues. It was really freezing outside, and because of the actress's costume, she got really cold. So, we ended up rushing a bit, to try and make sure that she didn't get too cold. This ended up meaning that we probably didn't get enough footage as we would have liked to. But, today it was much better, since it wasn't as cold. This meant that we could spend much longer on taking our shots.

We have now realised that we don't have enough shots. We thought we would, but once we put our ideas into practics, we realised that we probably don't have enough shots. So in between now and our actual shoot, we're going to have to add more shots to our shot list. But, while shooting today we did also invent a few extra shots that weren't originally on the shot list.

A few pictures from our shoots:

(that was Liam standing in for Lara as the victim, by the way... oh and Angelie took all these pictures, which is why she's not in any of them)

~ Angelie

Initial Shot List

2007-11-26T16:08:00.000+01:00

This is our first shot list for our test shoot

Shot 1
Slow Pan of forest (1+2+3 panoramic – 360)
4/5 secs Fade to

Shot 2
Slow pan (diff angle)
3 /4 secs Fade to

Shot 3
Slow pan (another angle)
4/5 secs Fade to

Shot 4
Girl climbing over fence
2 secs

Shot 5
Girl running into woods
3 secs

Shot 6
Blurry POV (moving) of girl (woods)
1/2 secs fade to

Shot 7
Another blurry POV (looks from up to down)
½ secs fade to

Shot 8
Further blurry POV
½ secs fade to

Shot 9
High angle (from tree) Establishing shot , she is stumbling

Shot 10
MLS/LS reverse track of her stumbling
½ secs

Shot 11
POV of her running, stumbling
2 secs Fade to

Shot 12
POV she falls, see hands hit the ground
2 secs

Shot 13
LS see her scrambling up
2 secs

Shot 14
Side Track MLS/LS of her running – runs out of frame?
2/3 secs

Shot 15
Low angle, about to jump/stumble over log
1/2 secs cut to

Shot 16
Camera on floor, shot of bare feet.
1/2 secs

Shot 17
POV, blurring, focusing in and out
2 secs

Shot 18
Reverse or stationary, girl stumbles out of view, male is left in the frame
3 secs

Shot 18
(same one) either we are stationary or forward track he is striding
2 secs

Shot 19
Track of her running and stumbling, she starts to slightly look behind
2 secs

Shot 20
CU her looking round very scared
1.5 secs

Shot 21
POV from her of him striding towards
1/2 secs

Shot 22
POV of male of her falling backwards (root etc)
2 secs

Shot 23
Side track trees in frame of Lara running
2 secs

Shot 24
High angle from tree, Girl runs in then out of frame, then male runs in then out of frame

Shot 25
Reverse track she stops behind a tree panting MCU to CU
3 secs

Shot 26
Reverse to other side of tree (stationary), half tree she peeks around
1/2 secs

Shot 27
POV from her looking for male, he’s not there, shaky whip pans
3/4 secs

Shot 28
LS girl screams
3 secs

These next shots are later on, but we haven't quite figured out the details in between and we want to test shoot them.

He reappears - scenario 1
LS track She is running through the trees, then he is behind one, she doesn’t notice and he grabs her.

CU, he whispers in her ear as he chloroforms her ‘I knew you’d look lovely in this dress’

He reappears - scenario 2
She is looking to the left, as his hand comes out from the right (round a tree). Track MLS

MCU he whispers in her ear ‘‘I knew you’d look lovely in this dress’

CU/BCU chloroform rag over mouth, her eyes flutter shut

He reappears - scenario 3
Whip pan left, she sees figure

Whip pan right, she sees another figure

Whip pan from right to centre he’s right there

Matt, Angelie, Alix, Liam

Friday November 23rd

2007-11-24T21:06:00.000+01:00

We had group meetings before and after school to create a shot list for our shoots.

We also had a meeting in our Media lesson, in which we created a list of key possible problems that we might face as a group. Since we've already blogged a few possible problems in our 'Tuesday November 20th' blog, this is just a list of the ones that we didn't have before.

Lighting
Weather conditions will probably have an effect on our lighting, and as we're shooting over different weekends, we may have some problems with continuity as well as shot quality. If it seems like our shots will be too dark, we'll have to try and use artificial lighting to improve the light quality

Continuity problems
Since our actress would be wearing a white dress, as she runs and stumbles through the forest, her dress will probably get quite muddy. So, we'd have to make sure that the mud/dirt looks the same throughout. In order to do this, and avoid other continuity problems, we should probably take still shots of our actress to make sure she looks the same from week to week.

Being thrown out of the park
Since we don't really have permission to shoot in the park, we could be thrown out quite easily

Full reccie
Some of the group haven't actually been to the area we're shooting in. But we can avoid this problem by getting to our test shoot early to go and look around the park.

Not sharing tasks
We could possibly have some problems with not splitting the tasks equally between us.

~ Angelie

Test Shoot

2007-11-24T09:53:00.000+01:00

For our test shoot we are meeting at 6:15am at Alix's house and going to the park before the actors get there so we can set up, we are then meeting Nick and Lara at 7am. We are going to shoot till latest 10/11am.

Props to Take

Matt

Hot Ribena, Rope, Extension Lead, Camera 1, 'Chloroform' rag

Alix

Dress, Food, Tripods, Bag, Sound Kit, Digicam, Black Scarf, Make-up

Angelie

Extension Lead, Digicam, White board, Marker Pen, Group Folder etc, Lighting Kit

Liam

Camera 4, Camera Booklet, Food, Umbrella(s)

Alix

Opening Sequence

2007-11-22T15:07:00.000+01:00

Our final idea is made of up of 4 sections:

1.) In the first, the woods are established in about 10-15 seconds with slow pans etc, then the girl appears and the audience realise she is on drugs or has been drugged and is obviously running from something or someone.

2.) The second is when the audience first sees the male and it is made obvious that she is running from him (i.e. from shots of her looking round and is generally panicked). At the end of this section he disppears from view - which makes her even more hysterical.

3.) The next section is when he reappears - the details of this are undecided but it will be in a way tat makes the audience jump and will build up suspense - and then chloroforms her

4.) Just after he chloroforms her it almost immediatley starts going backwards, very fast, in a montage style. It goes back to before the sequence starting - i.e. as she enters the park and escapes from his house - the final shot will be of her tied up in his shed (it will be very dark then as the hwole thing is shot as the sun comes up). Then the title will flash up.

Alix

Actor Contracts

2007-11-22T12:59:00.000+01:00

Here is in an example of the actor contracts we will make our actors sign to make sure they turn up to the shoot, ready and on time. In the event that they are not able to attend the shoot, we have indicated they must contact us with reasonable notice so that we can set up a suitable replacement.

"Media Group 1C

Actor Contract-Group 1C
I agree to attend all shooting sessions including re-shoots over the following dates: Sunday 25th & Monday 26th November, Saturday 1st & Sunday 2nd December. I will also attend the re-shoot dates Saturday 8th & Sunday 9th if I am required (all actors will be informed of this by a member of the group). The meeting point and time will be given to me by a member of the group nearer to the actual date, and I will be prompt and prepared. In the event that I am unable to attend, I will inform the group with reasonable notice (at least 24hours).
Print Name __________________________________
Signed __________________________________

Thank you"

Liam

Actors

2007-11-22T08:58:00.000+01:00

These are our final actors:
This is Lara who is shown below in an earlier post, we finally decided to go with her because she was really good for the part and was willing to do it, despite her beign very unconfortable (cold etc).

This is Nick who will be playing the villain, we chose him because he is tall and broad, and has a confident stride.

Alix

Costume

2007-11-21T18:42:00.000+01:00

We decided we wanted our costumes, and the colours of them, to be very conventional and obvious generic signifiers. We wanted white for our female but couldn't find the perfect dress, but the blue one is just as fitting, and black for our villain.

Female

Silk white nightdress - innocence/purity
Bare feet: seems almost childlike innocence

Male

Black knee length trench coat - mystery/villainous
Black scarf
Black trousers

Alix

Inspiration: I Know What You Did Last Summer

2007-11-21T10:48:00.000+01:00

We found the chase scene in I Know What You Did Last Summer (blogged in 'Chase Sequences' by Angelie) to be quite inspirational for our opening sequence, since it contained some similar themes to ours.

Clip (the actual chase starts about 45 seconds in):

Shot types
A fairly wide variety of shot types were used throughout the chase sequence.

Different levels were used. For example, a floor level shot when Helen climbs out of the car window and a low level shot when tracking the killer (and his hook)
Different distances were also used, varying from extreme long shots to close-ups
Different types of movement were used. This includes tracking the killer, reverse tracking as Helen runs (towards the camera) and panning as Helen runs past the camera
There was also one handheld shot which appears to be from Helen's point of view
A high angle shot was also used when tracking the killer and his hook.
There is a steadicam/tracking shot from the killer's POV (the camera gets closer and closer to Helen)
An extreme high angle/bird's eye view of the killer approaching the shop

Iconography
The chase sequence appears to take place in some sort of small town, which links to the idea of isolation. The victim character, Helen, is wearing a strappy, fairly short dress and high heels, which connotes femininity but also adds to her vulnerability, since both items of clothing would be very impractical when trying to run away from a serial killer. The chase taking place at night is quite typical of a thriller film. The killer is dressed all in black, which connotes evil/evil characters. The lighting appears to be ambient lighting, since the scene takes place at night. Some artificial lighting may have been used though, to make sure that the shots aren't too dark.

Themes
Murder, Serial Killings, Masked/disguised villains, Isolation, Slasher

Sound
Both diegetic and non-diegetic sound are used in the chase sequence. The music used adds to the tension of the scene. Some of the diegetic sound (for example, footsteps) is used for realism. Other diegetic sound (e.g. panting, gasping, a bit of dialogue at the end when Helen is shouting Elsa's name) is used to make the scene more tense and scary.

~ Angelie

Prop List

2007-11-20T15:34:00.000+01:00

On Screen

White floaty or silky dress
Black Trenchcoat
Black scarf/trousers/shoes
Make-up

On Set

Umbrellas
Digital Camera
Warm things for Lara - Hot Ribena/Coat/Blanket
Wheel barrow
Cling Film (vaseline)

All

Tuesday 20th November

2007-11-20T15:33:00.000+01:00

At this meeting we brainstormed problems with shooting on set, and organised what equipment we will need for our text shoot on Saturday. We have also finalised our idea and ending.

Potential Problems and Solutions

Weather - inconsistent conditions: We have no problem with rain, in fact it could look quite effective as it would make her seem more uncomfortable as she would be wet as well, but if it rains one day and not the other, or one weekend and then not the other we would be in trouble. If this does occur, then we would have no choice but to either: 1.) re-shoot all shots on the second day/weekend or 2.) see if dusk looked similar to dawn as far as lighting goes and try to shoot after school. Although these solutions are problematic in themselves, there is physically no way around this.
Sun Rise - too fast: We are going to have to be very organised because each day we are going to have one hour at most to shoot, so we are going to need an exact shot list with a tight schedule. On top of this, if the sun comes up even faster we are going to have to convince our actors to shoot on some more mornings.
Actors don't turn up: This is very unlikely as we only have 2 and the female is quite a good friend to some of the group so would only not be able to do it in an emergency. If she can't make it on the test shoot the Alix would stand in, and on the real thing we have a possible understudy of Ciara. For the test shoot Liam or Matt can stand in for the male and either would also be fine on the real day if our actor can't make it - particularly as you might never see his face.
Distractions - people/animals in the park: In this case, for example - dog walkers, we would ask them politely if they wouldn't mind taking another route round the park for their walk - which most people wouldn't mind doing.

Equipment

Obvious ones: Camera, Tripod, Small Whiteboard + marker
Digital Camera: To take quick stills of our shots for a more detailed/clear storyboard
Dolly?: We are going to try out different methods for tracking shots.
Sound Kit: We are going to record some sounds (without visuals which we would use) like bumps, thumps, breathing etc to go over the top of our piece, we will also experiment with a little dialogue from our male lead.

Final Idea

Opening shot (10-15 seconds) calm woods
Blurry POV shots - disorientating
One establishing shot to show her stumbling/drugged up
Man appears from behind her, striding confidently after her - obvious it's a chase
More stumbling etc
He disappears from her view
Then from our view for a little
Appears possibly in front of her - makes audience jump
He captures he, chloroforms her - whisper things in her ear, particularly something about 'you look lovely today' to make it obvious he dressed her.
Montage-style sequence, very fast, going back in time, goes back to before she is in the park, to when she escapes from his house, final shot: she is tied up in a shed.
Title flashes up almost instantly
Then possibly her dress ripped and muddy left in the stream - obviously something awful has happened - rape/murder etc

Targets Set

Draw up contracts for actors
Go to Marks and Spencers to buy dress

Alix

Monday 19th November

2007-11-19T14:52:00.000+01:00

Just a short meeting today in our Media lesson (Period 1)

Another idea for the ending of our opening sequence has been developed, so most of the meeting was spent discussing this idea, since it was slightly confusing.

The new ending
The female victim would be caught and chloroformed, as previously established. Then the scene would backtrack in a montage style, and the audience would see a few shots they had already seen (but in reverse order) and they would also see some takes which they haven't seen before (i.e. the girl running into the park). Then the opening would end with the girl being tied up in the villain's shed and then the title screen. This then sets up the location for the rest of the villain's kidnappings/killings that will take place during the rest of the film.

Targets from last meeting
Everyone was to search for chase sequences in thrillers (on foot) so that we can see how they did it, and to get ideas for different shot types. (All of these are blogged below)

No targets were set at the end of this meeting

~ Angelie

Chase Sequences

2007-11-19T10:09:00.005+01:00

Our target from the last meeting was to find and analyse a chase sequence from a film for inspiration.

Alix - The Shining
The best chase scene in the shining is right at the end through the hotel's eerie maze, and it is the father (Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance) chasing his son on a murderous rampage.

Camerawork
The camera spends nearly the whole time tracking, either reverse or forward as the 2 characters run through the maze, and it does it so smoothly it seems almost graceful and elegant and it seems to slow the time down and dramatize it further. The smooth movements also make it seems very disorientating as the large snowy bushes just become a blur. The camera spends most of it's time on a low level but not on a low angle which makes the maze walls seem even bigger and more menacing.

Mise-en-Scene
The Mise-en-Scene in this is brilliant, as it's very early morning around 3/4am it is very dark and there is an eerie mist hovering quite high above the ground 1 or 2 feet, which creates a very creepy atmosphere. The high maze walls also make it seem very sinister and isolated, there is also snow on the ground which is very white and i think it symbolises the little boy's innocence, it also increases suspense as the audience worries that the father is just following the boy's foot prints - so he won't be able to hide.

Editing
It is not quite cross-cutting as they aren't in 2 different spaces but the father and son are never in the same shot. I think this heightens to suspense as you don't really know how far apart they are. I think the sequence may have also been slowed down a little as all the movements seem very graceful and dramatic (and generally just slower) - although this is mainly due to the camera work. They are all straight cuts, and mainly long takes - i.e. they show the father for a while and then the little boy for a while which increases suspense again by the mystery of how far apart they really are.

Sound
There is a lot of diegetic sound mainly panting and footsteps which increase suspense, at the end as well, over the top of a show of Jack Nicholson falling over from blood loss you can here the engine starting of the truck in which his son and wife escape in - so it is incredibly important as it sets the viewers midn to rest.
The non-diegtic changes with the movement of the characters, when they are still (with the camera) the music is mainly horns and trumpets - possibly to symbolises tiredness from their running. When they are running though suspense is further heightened by scratchy/shreiky strings - this is also the films motif and is used through and also quite famous.

Matt - Halloween (2007 film)

Plot summary:

The Devil's Rejects director Rob Zombie resurrects one of the most notorious slashers in screen history with this re-imagining of the 1978 John Carpenter classic that spawned numerous sequels and countless imitators. As a child, young Michael Myers (Daeg Faerch) committed one of the most unspeakable crimes imaginable. Subsequently locked in an asylum and placed under the care of Dr. Loomis (Malcolm McDowell), the hollow-eyed boy grew into an emotionless man determined to escape back to his hometown of Haddonfield and complete the murderous mission that he began so many years back. These days, the long-abandoned Myers house sits decrepit and overgrown on a peaceful suburban street, its boarded windows and rotting wood a silent testament to the slaughter that has haunted Haddonfield for decades. Now Michael Myers (Tyler Mane) is back, and as the children of this typical Midwestern town fill the sidewalks for a fun-filled night of tricks and treats, Haddonfield is about to find out that there is no escape from pure evil.

http://www.starpulse.com/

Camera work:

Use of tilted angles to show disorientation
Whip pans to show immediacy
Shaky movement when more involved as if audience is experiencing the event.
Steady camera work when onlooker so we can take the action codes in
A big range from big close ups to very long shots, showing close emotions to the surrounding environment
Victims eye level to show enormity of villain
Some shots use a stationary camera to restrict the audiences flow in their involvement, making it more enigmatic as they want to be there to help the victim escape.

Mise-en-scene:

Mask hides the identity of the villain and makes him seem supernatural and excluded from society
Villain wears dark clothes to hide identity and is a signifier of evil
Rural street implies a greater sense of isolation, i.e. victim is more on her own and implies this is out of the ordinary rural life
Domestic setting involves the audience when expressing fears on society so is more suspenseful and plausible
Night time and low level lighting gives a sense of creepiness, and is typical of thriller chases
The struggle through doors and windows shows entrapment and heightens suspense. Is she going to get inside in time?

Editing:

Fast pace editing and fast shots are used in places to show that this is actually a chase- it maintains realism and audience’s pace
Slow paced editing and longer shots are purposefully used to hold the audience in suspense and this lingering puts the audience on the edge of their seats- e.g. ‘quickly, get in the house!!’
Slight blue colouring connotes a theme of isolation
Straight cuts maintain pace of the chase

Sound:

Use of diegetic sound such as screaming, crying, grabbing, smashing of objects, smashing glass, banging on the door, locking the door, smashing the door down. Brings chase to life.
Non-diegetic sounds such as ...a piano drone, heightens suspense and enigma.

Angelie - I Know What You Did Last Summer
This chase sequence is the chase leading up to Helen (played by Sarah Michelle Geller)'s death. It starts with Helen in the police car with the policeman who is meant to be protecting her. He then goes to try and see why there is a car parked in the middle of the road. The policeman is then murdered by the villain in all black who uses a hook as his/her weapon, while Helen is locked in the car.

Camera work
The chase sequence starts with her kicking the window and smashing it. There is then a floor level shot of her climbing out of the window. Then there's a long shot of her climbing out of the window, giving the audience an overview of what's happening around her. then it goes back to the floor level shot, she gets up from the ground and starts to run away. The audience can only see her feet, then her feet run out of frame and the audience can see the killer's feet walking behind her. Then there's an very/extreme long shot with silhouettes of trees acting as frames within a frame, then Helen's silhouette runs from behind one of the trees and runs towards the camera. Then she runs out of frame and the killer's silhouette walks into frame, following the same path that Helen took. Then comes a medium shot of Helen running and as she passes the camera, the camera pans to follow her. Then there's a long shot which then goes to medium close up of a shop that Helen appears to be running towards. We see Helen run past the camera again and the camera pans as she runs past. Then there's a shot from inside the shop, of a woman putting some sort of plastic sheeting over a mannequin. Then there's a tracking shot of the villain, which is a close up low level shot of the killer holding a hook. Then there's a reverse track close up of Helen as she runs. Then there's a shaky (probably handheld), point of view shot of the shop she's running towards. Then it goes back to tracking the killer, but this time with a medium long shot. Then back to the reverse track close up of Helen running. Then there is a long shot of the shop, and Helen runs into frame and towards the shop. Then there's a shot from inside the shop (through the window in the shop door) which zooms in as Helen gets closer and closer to the door. Helen bangs on the window to get the character in the shop's attention.
[That's basically the end of the actual chase sequence and afterwards Helen gets into the shop]

Editing
The takes of Helen are generally quite short, to convey her panic. The takes of the killer are usually longer, to show how slowly he's coming after her, but this also shows that he's really in control of the situation. Some cross-cutting takes place between Helen and the killer, and the female character in the shop. There also appears to be some parallel editing, since there are some shots of a girl, researching a murder, on the computer. But, this may instead be cross cutting because their paths may cross later on, but at the moment we can't really tell whether or not that will happen. Straight cuts are used throughout to creat a sense of urgency.

Mise-en-scene
The chase takes place at night, which is typical of a thriller film. The area of the chase also seems to be quite deserted, which is also typical of a thriller film. Helen is wearing a dress and high heels, which make her more vulnerable since neither item of clothing is particularly practical when trying to escape from a murderer. The villain is wearing all black which is a signifier of evil/evil characters. The audience can't tell who the villain is, since his/her face is covered. This creates enigma. The villain is using a hook as his/her weapon, which is perhaps an indication of who the killer really is.

Sound
Both diegetic and non-diegetic sound are used in the chase sequence. The music used adds to the tension of the scene. Some of the diegetic sound (for example, footsteps) is used for realism. Other diegetic sound (e.g. panting, gasping, a bit of dialogue at the end when Helen is shouting Elsa's name) is used to make the scene more tense and scary.

Liam -

Different Endings

2007-11-19T10:09:00.001+01:00

Some different endings to the scene that we discussed in our previous meeting:

Fade to title of film, then fade up to long shot of white dress floating down river - connotes killer has raped and murdered victim
Fade to black, hear victim scream or killer laugh, with title of film
After he reappears it fades to black and then it fades up to him in his shed (links both our ideas together), and it pans across poloroids of girls which have been crossed out with red marker, and then he crosses off the photo with our main actress in.
Have the sequence already shown in reverse, only showing specific shots (e.g. stumbles over to reveal killer), then cut to victim in shed tied to chair - shows where the victim has come from, and connotes she has escaped from this place
Shot of couple walking dfog in forest - stumbling across dress or body (difficult due to the fact it involves other characters)

Liam

Friday 16th November

2007-11-19T10:08:00.001+01:00

Our meeting on 16th november

We discussed the problems that were beginning to show:

we decided that the opening sequence could become too short or just become a little boring if there was just a contant chase throughout the whole opening 2mins. We decided to have many shot types and other events within this chase, e.g stumbling, hiding behind trees etc, as this will prodive more enigmatic content to the opening. Also we are going to brainstorm a few more events which could take place, to add further exciting content.

The targets we have set for the next meetng is to individually look at a chase scene (preferably a foot chase) and talk about at least one technical aspect within the sequence.

Angelie: 'I know what you did last summer'

liam: '28 weeks later'

Alix: 'The Shining'

Matt: 'Halloween' (2007)

Progress with targets from last meetings
Liam - The potential actor (Nick), has agreed to be the mian character in our thriller opening.

Matt - Due to the potential actor agreeing, the search for other male actors was not as vital however there is an ongoing search a backup actor and actrss just incase.

Angelie - had some problems finding relevant music, only found one really good song

Alix - could not find a white dress in Oxfam, and so we have decided to buy a white night dress from Marks and Spencer.

Matt

Inspiration: The Blair Witch Project

2007-11-16T19:26:00.000+01:00

Shot Types
Within the film's storyline there were 2 handheld camera's and the entire movie is seen through these 2 camera's. One is black and white and one is colour - at the end this helps us to distinguish who's POV we are looking at. So the camera shows pretty much all distances and angles and is always very shakey.

Iconography
Mise-en-Scene - The majority of the film is set in a large forest which is quite creepy and it's autumn so most of the trees are bare, predominant colours are brown and orange. The dress codes are just old jeans and flannel shirts as they are spending the weekend camping. The lighting is all totally ambient i believe because the film was supposed to look amateur and was very low budget (another reason why it is inspiring), it is shot half in daylight and half at night time - sometimes the screen is completely black for a few minutes.
Particular images associated with the film are the figure shapes make with twigs which are hung from the trees, and piles of rocks, bundles of twigs and tiny hand prints all over the walls in the final house.

Sound
There is no music as the film was set up to be real, the diegetic sound is one of the things which makes it so scary. There is screaming, heavy breathing, footsteps, twigs beneath feet and a strange noise which awakens them in the night almost like stones being thrown together.

Themes
Exploration, Supernatural, Kidnapping, Murder/Torture, Being Lost, Isolation, Decline of Sanity, Legends/Stories, The Truth, Seeking of the Truth, Naivety

We found The Blair Witch Project as a whole quite inspirational as it's camerwork, iconography and diegetic sound are all incredibly similiar to ours, but it's opening sequence is quite boring as it just establishes background to the story (i.e. nothing interesting happens).

Alix

Thursday 15th November

2007-11-15T18:15:00.000+01:00

We had a group meeting in our Media lesson today (Period 6). It was just a short meeting, but we had some discussion about possible songs and also potential actors for the male character in our opening.

Targets set for next meeting
Alix - try to find costumes
Angelie - try to find more possible songs
Liam - find out if one of our possible actors would be interested
Matt - try to shortlist other possible male characaters

Update of targets from last meeting
Songs we thought would be appropriate:

• Alix
- Comfortably Numb, Scissor Sisters
- Somewhere I Belong, Linkin Park
- Spitfire, The Prodigy

• Angelie
- Distort and Merge, Glasgow Coma Score (see, this is one that no-one will have heard of, ever. But I think it might just work...) . You can listen to it here: http://www.myspace.com/glasgowcomascore or here:

• Matt
-Angel, Massive Attack
-Insomnia, Faithless
-Insomnia vs. Funky S**t, Faithless & The Prodigy
-Glasgow love theme, Craig Armstrong
-Blinded by the lights, The streets

• Liam
- Theme from 28 days later

Wednesday 14th November

2007-11-15T15:09:00.000+01:00

During this meeting we decided definitely on our Grovelands idea being our final and that we would each go away and think of songs we could use and any other details/solutions for our problems.

Targets for next time
For everyone: brainstorm ideas for backing music

(This post is short as everything else is shown below, we only just realised we have to blog meetings)

Alix

Possible Actress

2007-11-14T15:43:00.000+01:00

We might use Lara for our female victim because she's petite, pretty, has quite an innocent look about her, and she's brunette which strays from typical convention of a blonde. She is also taking AS drama so our opening would look more realistic as she is experienced

Alix

Problems

2007-11-14T15:32:00.002+01:00

At our meeting today we came across a few problems with our idea.

The female actress wouldn't be hard to find as it can easily be someone who looks/is young, so therefore someone in our year, the main problem is the male. We want him to be tall, quite hench and generally look older (bit of stubble etc), and this inevitably causes problems as we don't know many men in late 20s early 30s
We really liked the idea of shooting early morning (6am-ish) because it strays from the conventions of night time and we could get really good effects with breath and mist, but this would mean we'd have only approximately 30-45 minutes in which to shoot. For this problem we do have a solution though: we would need to have everything perfectly storyboarded and organised so that we could shoot efficiently.
Different weather conditions could also cause problems, not only just rain but for example sunshine and then not (coming through the trees). Although this is a problem everyone doing this project (and anyone ever shooting) faces.
The costume for the female is hopefully going to be a white floaty dress - to connote innocence/purity and to make her stand out, and probably bare feet, but as we are shooting in December and early morning our actress would get very very cold. Although this could be minimised if we shot very efficiently (as said above) and if we brought like a big warm dressing gown for her to put on between shots.
Our final problem is slightly smaller but we quite like 'Post Blue' by Placebo for our back ground song, except that this was used last year and we didn't realise.

Alix

Rough Final Idea

2007-11-14T15:32:00.001+01:00

These are all the definite factors which we want our opening sequence to contain:

Grovelands woods

Early morning

Innocent young(ish) girl

Drugged up - blurry POV shots

Stumbling, falling

Chased by hench, tall, all in black older guy

White, floaty dress - torn and muddy

Final shot: title of the film flashes up, then fades to her dress left on the floor (poss half in the stream)

Our main starting point is our fantastic location as the Mise-en-Scene of grovelands (and attached idea) is brilliant.

Here is a rough first storyboard

It's quite bad quality because the pencil is drawn lightly

Alix

Initial Ideas: Grovelands

2007-11-14T15:26:00.000+01:00

We all took the idea of a girl being chased through the woods and expanded it again:

Liam
I like the idea of a conventional female victime - innocent looking, short girl which is emphasised by the white dress she will be wearing. I also think that an establishing shot, possibly a pan at the beginning of the scene would work realyl well in setting up the scene and creating enigma, for example, why is a girl runnin thorugh the woods. I think stalling the first appearance of the stalker works really well as this will also create enigma as we have no idea who the girl is running from until this point. We decided that we should not see his face, by casting it in shadow or by simply never having a Medium Close up or Close Up of his face, again to raise quesitons in the audience's mind. We would show the stalker with Extreme Long and Long shots to connote the isolation of the scene. We would also use close ups of the stalker feet and tracking shots from behind him, aswell as his POV as he chases after the victim. POV and handhed shots would be the majority of the camerawork to create realism and suspense, although we do need to use some static camerawork aswell as a range of distances and framing to keep the action hear-thumping and not let the audience get bored. The closing stages of the scene would see the stalker catching up with the victim and drugging her, followed possdibly by a fade to black and then a shot of the white dress floating down the river, to connote he has raped and killed her.

Alix
I really like the idea of having a very innocent looking girl, particularly in a white floaty dress to connote purity and to make her stand out in the woods. The opening shot would be a very blurry POV shot of her running so the audience is disorientated (possibly because she was drugged) and then an establishing shot of sorts is shown and it becomes clear she is running from something/someone. After 20/30 secs a man all in black far away from her would appear, very calmly striding towards her (obvioulsy chasing her). Then at somepoint she looks behind her and she is gone, which obviously even scarier and builds up further suspense. It turns out he somehow got in front of her in the woods and the shot where he appears (not finalised idea) makes the audience jump a lot. The final thing we are shown (possiby after the title comes up) is her dress torn and dirty left on the floor, so it is obvious she has been raped or killed etc.

Angelie
I think having a chase scene through the park would be very interesting for an opening sequence. The chase sequence we discussed in our meeting is quite similar to one of the chase scenes in 'I Know What You Did Last Summer'. There would be a girl in a dress running away from a irrecognisable man who is just walking to try and catch up with her. Him walking rather than running shows his confidence and how he is in control of the situation. I like the idea of the girl wearing a white dress to connote purity and innocence (as Alix said above). As she's running away from the man, she could fall a few times, causing her dress her dress to become more and more muddy/dirty, which could symbolise the gradual corruption of innocence and perhaps foreshadow what will happen later on (i.e. her being raped - corrupted innocence). I think using a few jump cuts could be very disorienting for the audience, which would link to the idea of her being drugged and then trying to escape.

Matt
I definately agree that a small, young white lady runnning through the woods can be a really sucessful opening to our thriller. I also love the fact that the villain has a hidden identity throughout the chase.

I like the idea of her being drugged as this means that her action codes are much slower and less coordinated - a stark contrast to that of the villain's actions. The aim of this is to really agitate and cause tension among the audience as they really want to help the victim and react to her wrong decision making (events that hinder her own getaway.)

I think the victim's POV shots could possibly be more successful if, when editing, we take out a few frames from these shots and slow the shots down, as this will be highly reflective of her state. However this is ONLY a suggestion at this point and we will experiment when editing the footage.

When Liam and I discussed the idea away from the whole group, we came up with a really thrilling and enigmatic ending, which we think is really unique and could slove any problems we had with the content being too 'repetitive' (i.e. the whole opening being a chase throught the woods and then he finally catches her). We came up with the idea that once the victim has been caught and chloroformed by the villain (to knock her unconscious), we then go back in time at a fast speed to give more information to the audience. For this reversal of time we suggested that a montage type effect is used of only some shots that had just been seen by the audience. e.g. If in the chase we see her stumbling, looking over her shoulder etc... we may see this again. However after one of the beginning shots has been replayed we keep reversing the footage- therefore the audience see extra footage of where the victim has escaped from and why she is running. The only issue with this idea is that we would have to make it really obvious that we are just reversing what has just been seen (and more) very quickly, rather than a continuation from the last shot (likely to be the 'chloroforming' of the victim). Otherwise the audience may think that she[the victim] has escaped the villain when trying to chloroform her. On the whole, i really like this idea and will be brought up in the next group meeting.

Location: Grovelands Park

2007-11-14T15:19:00.000+01:00

Grovelands park is so close to all of us and we all think it's a good location because it has a really great forest style part which has a stream running through it - which could be a very good opportunity to be creative.

Alix

Initial Ideas: Shed

2007-11-14T11:54:00.000+01:00

We all took the shed as the main location for a thriller and expanded a little on ideas for an opening sequence.

Alix
The opening is a shot of a normal, middle-aged (early 30s) man in his house (study) organising/arranging/cleaning surgical tools, and sometimes there is maybe a photograph of him and his wife shown. Then the phone rings and he answers it and you see him pick up one of the photographs, smile (slyly) and say 'I'm sorry she's not here at the moment can i take a message', then he snaps on rubber surgical gloves.It's late (around duskish, or else it would be too dark to shoot) and he goes into his garden and starts to walk up his garden path towards the very overgrown part at the back of his garden towards his shed (with his surgical tools). He scrapes the door open and there tied up is the women in his photos - i.e. his wife.I think the title should be something like 'the ultimate betrayal' - or possibly something a little more warped. I think this idea is good because it leaps straight into the action and because it taps into audience fears - someone close abusing your trust/something twisted going on right in front of you.

Matt

In the group meeting we all decided that the shed location could provide a really enigmatic opening to our group thriller. The initial storyline of this opening sequence that we thought of together as a group is shown below in Angelie's section. Adding to this however, i liked the idea of there being a sudden twist at the end of the sequence. This twist is as follows:(leading on from a shot of the villain's hand opening the shed door and after a fade to black with the film title). The villain would then be seen with his wife/gf tied to a stool with her crying-him standing behind pulling her hair back and confidently saying in a low voice "I told you not to come down to my shed" (or something along those lines). The reason i like this idea is because it is much more enigmatic. If we just hear a scream the audience already knows that she [the wife] is being attacked, whereas if we just see her tied up, it shows that time has passed and we as an audience really do not know what is going to happen next! - e.g. is she going to escape? is he going to kill her? is he going to keep her hostage? is he going to emotionally blackmail her? etc. Although i like this idea, along with the rest of my group, we believe trying to cram all of this narrative into an opening 2minutes would be really confusing for teh audience.

Angelie
I quite liked the shed idea we discussed in our first group meeting. The two main characters in this opening were a young couple. The woman wakes up one morning and discovers that the man has already got out of bed. There would then be some cross-cutting between the man locking the shed and the woman looking for the man. Then the two of them would meet in the living room, and it would be established that the couple have only been together for a short while. Then the man would leave for work. The woman would then look at the shed suspiciously, and then go to investigate it. While she's investigating the shed, there would be some cross cutting between her investigation and a character (the man from earlier on, but that wouldn't necessarily be apparent to the audience) coming towards the shed. There would be close ups and over the shoulder shots of the character coming towards the shed, but none of them would reveal too much about the character. There would also be lots of close ups and reaction shots of the woman investigating the shed, but none of these would really show what's so disturbing in the shed. Then there would probably be a shot of a hand opening the shed door, then name of the film would appear on a black screen (though, we couldn't think of a name for the film) and a scream would be heard, implying that the woman had been attacked. The main problem with this idea was that there was far too much going on to fit into 2 minutes of film.

Liam
I didn't realy like the 'shed' idea mainly because i thought some of the narrative elements and the actual setting weren't very plausable. Although I agreed that the basic mise-en-scene of the shed and the environment it was in was very enigmatic and conventional to a thriller, I thought that it would look unprofessional, especially in with the artificial lighting we would use. I also thought that the audience would be confused at the relationship between the man and the woman, and i thought they would not think some aspects of the narrative were realistic. For example, it would be hard to convey the shed as a negative or sinister place in the opening 2 minutes. To achieve this there would have to be speech from both characters, and i thought that possible lines such as "what's in your shed" were improbable and would seem 'stupid' to the audience. Another possible problem was the actors for thise. Although we agreed that a younger actress from either year 12 or year 13 could easily be made to look around 20-25, we thought we needed a male actor actually this age. However, most of the male 20 year olds we knew were at uni, and therefore their availibilty was limited. We also wanted to get the look and aura of the character just right - we wanted a tall, quite muscly, man with dark hair to connote his evil nature. We found this quite hard, and i think this was the main reason we decided not to go with this idea.

All

Location: Shed

2007-11-14T11:44:00.000+01:00

The shed at the end of Alix's garden is a really good location for a thriller because it's really quite eerie, we think it would be perfect as it has a creepy atmosphere and would be ideal for a storyline surrounding stalking or serial killers.

Matt's reccie also consists of a shed location and alleyways....

We thought this shed could work as an effective thriller location as it looks very isolated and secretive, which would be ideal for a serial killer's hide away. Also the size of the location would mean that action codes inside the shed are not restricted and would probably make filming much esier. On the other hand we as a group decided not to use this location as it looks to cultivated and colourful, whereas we feel if we did use a shed it would need to be dark, dingy and creepy.

As a group we liked this alleyway as it connnoted a really reckless and eerie atmosphere (a feeling of unknown). We also liked how narrow this was as it provides a sense of claustrophobia. We have now decided on a better location and so at present will not take this any further.

As a group we diecided that this alleyway could potentially provide a really enigmatic opening shot to our thriller. We had an idea that we would slowly reverse track the serial killer (villain) in our thriller and gradually tilt up to reveal more of him (more enigma codes, his gesture and dress code). Therefore we thought that this really narrow alleyway would make the audience more intimidated by him, whilst the gravel would produce a really enigmatic diegetic sound effect. We have more recently however, decided on using another location which fits our idea more appropriately.

Matt + Alix