Practice Run & Schedule

Last week we filmed a practice film with one of the school cameras, so we were better prepared for the final piece. We decided not to spend time editing this as it would take a long time, however we have created a Time Management sheet with a schedule that we can now use for our final film.

Here is a copy of the schedule we have made:

Camera Booked & Weather Report

The camera has been booked for the 11th of February, and we will have it for 3 days. This is the camera we have selected, based on the reccomendation of Scott, as he is experienced with this equipment.

http://www.camerent.co.uk/video_camera_hire/consumer/Sony_PD170.html#specifications

The camera will cost us £150 each and we will recieve £125 back when we return it. The school have agreed to pay for half of the £75 hire fee so after the deposit is refunded we will only have spent £12 each.

We have also ordered the camera on a day that is forecasted to have the suitable climate for the film, between the 11th and 14th of February. Here is a link to the bbc weather site:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast/

Our initial plan was to film everything in one day, and then go back to specific scenes that need re-filming either the same day or in the three day period. The weather forecast indicates that the weather will be fairly consistent with dull dreary weather that fits our chosen genre and the feeling we're trying to convey.

We will try our best to film all the outdoor scenes we need in one day so that if the weather is inconsistent then it will not effect continuity.

Song Permission

Yesterday I emailed an artist about permission to use his cover of Coldplay's song, The Scientist, this was his response:

Original Shot List

This is our original shot list, we later decided to make changes to it which you can now see in our final piece, however this is where our ideas first started:


Shot Number 1 (Approx time- 10 seconds)
Establishing shot (ELS)
Description;
Father figure sitting on a bench in the distance (Across the lake). Sky at the top of the shot and clear view of the environment to set the scene.
Analysis;
Obviously, every first shot should set the scene and introduce at least one of the main characters to the audience. The choice of environment is very important as it is symbolic in our films direction as the final scene will end up with the father and daughter re-united on that same bench across a calm lake. The fathers facial expression will be out of sight to cause enigma and confusion to what this mans motives and emotions are.

______________________________


Shot Number 2 (Approx time- 20-30 seconds (To be confirmed)
Long shot (LS)
Description;
Shot behind male figure with full body and bench showing and a lot of sky in view. This shot will feature a time-lapse that lasts what the viewer presumes is about 2 hours long with the natural flow of people and dogs passing by the man, however, the shot will only last about 30minutes, and we will use lots of extras and costume changes to try and get as many 'passers by' as we can. The male figure will be stationary the whole time, and by using a special editing technique, we can take a shot of him lasting 2 minutes and combine it with the 30 minute shot to add to the effect. The shot will be sped up to show people passing by the man at great speed. The sky will also be changing from vibrant blue to an orangy hazy sunset.
Analysis;
Very influencial scene as it is symbolising that time is passing by the man very quickly, could either portray the idea of his life nearly being up and everything is at an advanced rate, or showing that he does not care about anything anymore.
______________________________


Shot Number 3 (Approx time- 5-8 seconds)
Close up
Description;
First insight on the male figures face and also shows his emotions. Balled up red eyes and deep sigh resulting in him looking from the sky down into his lap.
Analysis;
Shows the characters emotions which is obviously sadness. Creates enigma as viewer does not know why he is sad or why he is not moving from this bench. Maybe has a emotional connection with this location? Left to viewers imagination.

______________________________


Shot Number 4 (Approx time- 5-8 seconds)
Extreme close up (ECU)
Description;
Extreme close up of man's eyes. Red tear filled eyes which consequently leads to a singly tear running down the males face.
Analysis;
Eyes are the key to emotion so we are using this as a very strong shot as it will show his true feelings. The use of the tear also continues onto the next scene which creates continuity.

______________________________


Shot Number 5 (Approx time- 15-20 seconds)
Close up
Description;
Shot of picture of young girl crinkled at sides and worn. Single tear will run onto the photo which follows on from the previous scene. When tear hits the photo a slight shaking will begin in the males hand.
Analysis;
Worn photo symbolises he has had this photo for a long time and may be treasured as a favourite as it has obviously been handled numerous times. Gives you a small insight into the males personality, maybe OCD? Again, enigma is created. Hand shaking also gives the impression of fear as people shake when they are scared. Scared of loss? Scared of death? Unknown.

______________________________


Shot Number 6 (Approx time- 40-60 seconds dependant on many variables)
Medium long shot- Close up
Description;
Dark room shrouded by shadows and darkness. Back lighting showing the outline of a figure in the corner. As music intensifies the zoom gets increasingly closer to the figure until, (keeping with the horror/thriller codes and conventions), a bang occurs while a girls face appears with makeup down her face. This contrasts with the previous picture of her smiling with high key lighting showing her innocence. Wide eyes open and crooked forced smile directly into the camera. Key lighting from the left illuminating approximately three quarters of her face.
Analysis;
Very much symbolic and subliminal leaving the equations to the audience. Make up running down her face, why has she been crying? What are her motives in this scenario? Wide eyes opened and false smile, maybe drug abuse? Many questions left unanswered and left to the imagination. This idea of leaving many end loose and unanswered, is relevant to our previous audience research which told us that a successful horror movie should leave many aspects of the film to their imaginations. Also creates a sort of crime feel as the audience are already trying to piece things together like a detective and work out the twisting plot.

________________________________________________________________________

Risk Assesment

Injury
__________________
Incase of injury, we will all have mobile phones so that we can call family or emergency services if neccesary. None of our planned shots involve stunts etc. however if someone slips/falls then we will be prepared. The locations we plan to shoot our scenes are no more than 2minutes away from residential areas so if for any reason our phones are not working, we can quickly get assistance from people living nearby.


Severe weather
_______________________
Due to the cost of equipment and continuity of our scene we will have to postpone filming if we get any rain or snow during the day. Very light rain can be dealt with as we will carry several umbrellas with us to shield the camera from any water damage. Before we book a date to hire the camera, we will check weather forecasts to try and avoid any weather which will stop us from filming.
  

Camera Damage
_______________________
We will be purchasing basic insurance cover incase, for example, we drop the camera, as due to the cost of the equipment, we would not be able to afford to replace it (the camera costs approximately £2500). Better safe than sorry!


Illness
_______________________
As our intro involves hardly any dialogue, it shouldn't matter if our actors have a cold for example, aslong as they remain in the same physical state we need them to be. We have several backup actors who will be able to fill in incase the actor is incapable of attending filming, we also have recording equipment ready for post-production incase the young girl is incapable of singing on the day of filming.

________________________________________________________________

Dialogue

To add to the effect of the first scene of our movie intro, we will not be using any speech. We feel that the emotion within the scene will come across more effectively if only music and quiet sound effects are used. In the following scene, we plan to have a short piece of dialogue while a young girl is singing a nursery rhymne in the corner of a dark room.

We will include a few pieces of diagetic sound during the intro so that it doesn't look like a music video. And adds more depth to clips.

________________________________________________________________________

Camera Hire

________________________________________________________________________

As a team we are very passionate about films, and we are all very keen to get started making our own intro. This is a piece of work that we want to be proud of, however we feel that the quality of the cameras our school can provide are not of sufficient quality to make a professional looking piece.

We intend to hire out a camera for approximately 3 days and this will cost us around £60, including a £150 deposit. As we only have the professional camera available for 3 days, we must make sure that our production is planned down to every detail so that we can go to the locations, shoot as few takes as possible and then move on to the next location.

________________________________________________________________________

Potential Actors

________________________________________________________________________

We have been told by Scott that hiring actors from an agency would significantly boost our overall mark. Due to insufficient amount of time, we tried getting one of our fellow younger students from drama to hopefully participate in our production in hope it will aid their portfolio.

Continuing from this we went to see Mrs Micilock who is head of drama at this specific time. She said she will look further into this matter and get back to us.

______________________________________________________________________

Costumes and Props

 

In the first scene, the father figure / brother is sitting on a bench while a time lapse takes place while the sky changes from blue to a hazy sunset. His clothes will be dark and plain as he shows little emotion, and black also represents danger. His clothes may be scruffy as he has let himself go due to the loss of his daughter / sister. Droopy eyes show lack of sleep aswell.

The girl in the corner will be wearing clothes that are either 'normal' to show that she is an average girl who the audience can relate to, or black as it symbolically shows danger to the audience.

 The main majority of the opening scene will be at cuckoos hollow on a chosen bench looking out of the lake. We will be using a photograph of the girl and the public bench as our props. One of the scenes features the main character 'drowning his sorrows' so we will also be using a beer bottle which along with his stumbling shows to the audience that he is drinking/drunk.

________________________________________________________________________

Target Audience

Our target audience is teenagers to adults, as our film will be considered a Thriller/Horror. We intend to include scenes which may be seen as unsuitable to children and deemed disturbing, so our film will be made to meet 15 rated guidelines. By limiting ourselves to a PG or 12 rated movie, it might mean eliminating many of the ideas we originally thought of.

After reading about film rating guidelines, we came to the conclusion that the bbfc (british board of film classifciation) would most likely classify our film as a 15. If our scenes were too mature for a 15 certificate then we would work to change our film to meet the required standards, as otherwise we could lose part of our target audience.

To rate our film ourselves, we looked at the ratings guideline which can be found here:
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/

________________________________________________________________________

Pre-Production progress

________________________________________________________________________

So far, we have decided on the first minute of our main production, and we are optimistic about the shots we are proposing to film. We have a number of different shots in mind, and have decided on the storyline for our film.

________________________________________________________________________

Main Production Planning

_______________________________________________________________________

Today we are beginning to seriously start the planning of our main production.

Notes  will be added soon.

________________________________________________________________________

Research into opening scenes/trailer of same genre

Our chosen genre is a combination of thriller, drama and it also includes scenes which verge on horror. This film shares similarities with ours.

Here is the trailer to the movie with the analysis underneath; (first minute)

9-11 seconds- Panning shot from right to left featuring the main character (medium shot). He is shaving which shows that everything is fine and normal as shaving is a part of everyday life for the majority of older men.

12 second- Extreme long shot of voice machine with a female voice calling out 'Dad' showing it's his daughter.

13-15 seconds- Close up of the males face showing him turning, presumably towards the voice machine, he also looks slightly confused. This shows that he has acknowledged the voice and been affected by the sound. This could mean that he has not seen his daughter in a long time and he is surprised to see her.
16-18 seconds- Blank screen with small text surrounded by a light glow. The text is slowly decreasing in size which gives the effect of distance which corresponds with the words 'Some memories never fade'.
19-22 seconds- Fade from black screen to a flashback of the main male character playing with a very young child. Flash back is implied by decreased contrast and natural lighting which also makes the scene look less sinister. Close ups of smiling faces and playful nature between father and daughter show that this is a happy scene.

22-24 seconds- Again, like two scenes before, light glowing writing is the main focus of the shot as it contrasts against a dark background. The writitng this time is the opposite side of the shot on the left side but still with the same effect of decreasing. The second use of this text style shows this is probably going to be a common occurrence throughout the trailer.

25-32 seconds- This shows the same man with a little greyer hair meeting a similar older looking girl from two scenes before. The woman's voice is the same as on the tape recorder from the second scene so this implies it is his daughter and the contrast levels show that it is no longer a flashback. The shot consists of medium close ups of both characters and small talk which shows everything is fine in their life. Non diagetic music is playing in the background which is relaxing and induced this feeling on the viewer.

32-33 seconds- Fade to a car on a motor way in the pouring rain which shows where the next shot is to take place. Also fade symbolises the end of something so it shows the end of the first meeting between these two characters.

34-38 seconds- Shot reverse shot of both character seated within a car previously shown on the motorway. The characters talk about relationships and we find out that the main male figure has no womanly figure in his life which gives us the viewer a bit of background information on the main character. Relaxed background music puts the viewer at ease and tells them that everything is fine.
38-39 seconds- Long shot of car pulling into a drive way. As shot fades to black the relaxed music also quickly changes to a low eerie screech that implies the atmosphere has dramatically changed.

40-41/42 seconds- Low eerie tone continues throughout this scene. Loud shout from behind 'CRAVEN' in an aggressive tone which makes the main character turn around abruptly. Quick panning from right to left which makes the background blurred. Shaded masked figure shoots a gun as the eerie tone turns to a sudden bang which signifies the rising adrenaline.

41/42-43 seconds- Quick straight cuts with 3 shots of bright lights pausing briefly on 'Craven's' face. Extreme close up of Craven's eyes wide open to show his emotion which is distressed.

43-45 seconds- Reverts back to the light glowing writing on the dark background slowly decreasing in size. Now could imply the lack of control he has over the situation. Writing says 'Some secrets' which could imply that the events that just took place were down to the main characters past actions.

46-47 seconds- Transitions from shot to shot has increased in pace which corresponds with the faster music and more distressing scenes. Close up of Craven crying and embracing his daughter on the floor. Which implies that she was shot by this masked figure but does not reveal the reason why.

47-49 seconds- Again, the pattern continues with the glowing slightly shining writing upon a black background. This time though, to coincide with the death and revenge, the writing changes from calm submissive blue to blood red to symbolise death and rage. It still decreases in size to show things are slipping away. The writing says 'Take us to the edge' symbolises the Craven's mentality at this point.

49-50 seconds- Medium close up of Craven once again embracing his daughter lying on the floor motionless. This scene ends with a very slow fade which symbolises the end of something, in this case, the end of his daughters life.

51 second- Pure black continuing from previous fade.

51-52 seconds- Shot of television screen with a news reporter talking about the incident. Her voice narrative continues over the next few shots which are very quick changing which symbolises rising adrenaline. Also contributes towards continuity.

53-54 seconds-  Long shot overlooking the scene in which the murder took place with a heart beat background music which is very slow and relaxed for these first few scenes.

55-56 seconds- Extreme close up of a police bag being covered symbolises that Craven's intentions are unlawful / outside the law.

58-60 seconds- Craven talking about the killer with what looks like a friend. Close up of both characters faces. Friend says 'This is somebody armed and dangerous' while Craven replies 'What do you think I am?' which implies that Craven is saying he is also armed and dangerous, or he is surprised that his friend believes that he will go after him.
60-61 seconds- Extreme close up of a males hand loading a hand gun which contrasts with the last scene of telling a police officer he had no intentions of revenge. It also corresponds with the covering of the police badge as he wants to do this outside the law and not as a police officer.

Resevoir Dogs - Practice Intro

We will soon be starting our final production, so last Friday we did a practice filming session, where we attempted to re-enact Quinton Tarantino's film, Resevoir Dogs. We actually started filming the intro to Juno, however due to problems with the weather we postponed filming, and then during this time we decided to change our intro to Resevoir Dogs.

Due to the weather conditions and our change of plan, we only had 20 minutes to actually film the intro so we don't feel that this intro reflects our true capability, especially compared to our Preliminary film.

In the end we decided not to upload the introduction, however the file remains in our 'Documents' on the school system.

Diagetic & Non Diagetic Sound

________________________________________________________________________

Since returning from our school break, we have been looking further into the mechanics used in film production, and why they are used. Most recently, diagetic and non diagetic sound.

Diagetic sounds are all the sounds you can hear from within the scene itself, e.g. footsteps, conversation and an explosion. These diagetic sounds can be used to provide a clean transition from one image to another.

Non diagetic sounds are the unnatural sounds that are not within the scene, e.g. background music and voice overs.


---------------------------------- HOW WE WILL USE THIS ----------------------------------


Music in a thriller film is essential, so we plan to have non diagetic music playing throughout the scenes. This will help set the mood and establish the theme of the film. We will also be using lots of diagetic sounds, including sound effects, however the only dialogue we will use is a nursery rhymne sung by the girl being held captive by our villian. Other than this, we will have no other speech, adding to the effect of the film.

________________________________________________________________________

Audience Research

________________________________________________________________________

Since deciding that we would go ahead with Idea 1, we have completed some audience research and looked at what people are looking for in a horror film. We also thought about what we wanted to see in a horror film, and our critisicms of some horror films out there.

One of the biggest problems with horror films today is that if they do not feature good actors and a solid script they can come across as cheesy or humourous. The last thing that someone wants to see when they go to see a horror film, is a comical scene or one that doesnt grip one. We are fully aware that if we want our movie intro to engage the viewer, we must keep them on the edge of their seat through the entirety of the clip.

________________________________________________________________________

Lighting

________________________________________________________________________

Lighting used in movies:

High Key Lighting is used to try and eliminate dark shadows in the picture. It can be used in daylight and night scenes.

Low Key Lighting is used to add significant shadows to the image, introducing anonymity and adding a sinister effect to the scene.

---------------------------------- HOW WE WILL USE THIS ----------------------------------

High Key Lighting will feature in our opening scene of the father/brother figure of the victim sitting down looking out into the lake. He is not a dark character and could be classed as the 'hero' of our film, he is one of the main characters and features in the script throughout the film, so his identity is known. Therefore, during this emotional scene at the beginning, we will be using High Key Lighting to eliminate any shadows (if any) in the scene.

In the scene following this, featuring our villain and the victim (the father's daughter / brother's sister), there will be only Low Key Lighting to enhance the sinister effect of the scene. Low Key Lighting will also help keep the identity of our villain hidden, this mystery will remain hidden throughout the film, and gradually unveil as time goes on.

________________________________________________________________________

Result of Audience Feedback

________________________________________________________________________

After hearing everyones opinions on our two ideas, we have decided to go ahead with our first and most prefered idea, and create a Horror/Thriller film. We will now begin pre-production, and hopefully start filming within 12 weeks.

________________________________________________________________________

Idea 2: Romance

________________________________________________________________________

Our second idea is very contrasting to the first as the genre is Romantic. The movie begins with scenes from the two main characters past. Childhood sweethearts through the majority of their childhood spending days upon days together. Perfection, only to be ruined by a family move to the city of New York. As the children are only Teenagers they don’t have any legal power to prevent the move and only have to concede that their love was not meant to be.


The film then continues to the present day and follows the two characters lives approximately 10years on, the character that moved to New York comes back to England and they both narrowly miss each other numerous times (one exits a building as the other enters)


Eventually they meet by complete coincidence.

________________________________________________________________________

Idea 1: Horror/Thriller

________________________________________________________________________

Our first idea is focused around the genre Horror. It begins with a small girl sitting in a corner of a room alone singing to herself (nursery rhyme). She is emotional and has running mascara down her young face. Then the door creaks open and a male figure enters with a wrench in his left hand. The camera will hold on this shot for several seconds then there will be a loud bang on the background music track and the shot will cut to darkness. This is when the credits will fade in.

________________________________________________________________________