Filming - Day 1

Yesterday we started filming.  We were already at a slight disadvantage as we forgot to bring the storyboard to eves hose where we wetre filming.  But luckily we had pictures on our phones of the story board so had a pretty good idea of each scene.  We got the costumes and makeup ready on our actors Lily and Conor and were ready to start.  Before filming we were worried about the lighting for the shots of Lily in her bedroom as we wanted it to be quite moody and dark.  Lukcily the natural light from outside created nice shadows that made Lily seem very mysterious.  We played around with some of our shots, for example when Conoro walks up the stairs we tried different angles to what was on the storyboard, just so we could have a choice when editing that scene in.  I found it really helpful that we had had a planned out storyboard as it allowed to to get the shots we might not have realised we needed. We also filmed many different angles of each shot, just to make the editing process easier.  However, near the end of the day at about 5pm the natural light we were using from outside dimmed, and it became too dark to film anymore so we had to stop.  This was a big limitation and we have to film again next week.   Also theres a shot where a car pulls into the driveway of the house, but we didn't have a car available yesterday so will need to film that next time we film.

Idents

An ident is a image that a television channel or film production company uses to identify its self. It is made up of text of the name of the company. It is usually and animation or another form of moving image. It is usually shown before a film starts. They can be of a movie studio or production company

Examples of film production company indents:

 

It is important that an indent has very clear to read text. There is often a lot of movement, making a more exciting logo. There should be an iterating movement in the animation of the ident. For example, the stars circling in the Paramount ident and the female lifts up her torch, referencing the Statue of Liberty in the Columbia ident. They often have a very epic to them, for example, lions, show lights, mountains. They last from bout 15-25 seconds long each.

 However we want a more modern and sleek feeling to ours. Rather than the more traditional ones such as '20th century fox' and 'columbia'. We like the sleeker look of 'Metro Goldwyn Mayer'. It looks good with the black background contrasting with the gold logo. We can put a lot of effort in this ident by putting in sound effects, music and animation. We want to make sure ours isn't to long that it will get boring for the audience. We could have loud, dramatic and kind of epic music to make it more exciting. Or we could have a sleeker feel by having it simpler and just have sound effects in time with text. This would make a very short ident.

Often independent production companies, often have slightly more themed indents. This is because these companies specialise in making certain types of films, e.g. thrillers. The independent production company, 

Gunslinger make social realism films. This is their ident;

As our film is dark psychological thriller and we want out ident to set the theme of the film. As idents are played at the very beginning of the film, they do have the power to set the film. This means that we don't want a ident that gives a very happy and relax feel. Darker colours and red will work to our advantage.

AC

Portrayal of gender

The Young Girl

We have collectively decided to name the girl starring in the opening Lily, this is due to the femininity and delicacy of the name. It is a very english name which also means a type of flower. It is thought to represent purity and beauty. This means that the audience will automatically warm up to the name and not feel threatened. Although in the beginning she is trapped by a man it is important that we show her intelligence and bravery which will automatically go against stereotypes of a dominating men as she outsmarts him.

Older Man


We want to call this character of the older man Mark. Mark is a very masculine name originating from both England and Russia. It is a very ordinary and normal name which does not attract much attention. This represents the man in all and his personality

EB

Foley Sound

I practiced doing foley sound, by using sound effects on FinalCut Pro and placing them over bait of film i had.   I had to time it well so it looked realistic and this is helpful for when i use foley sound in the  film we are making.

Casting, Archaetypes, Certain look of characters

Possible Archetypes for the girl 

• Child: Could be a literal child or just living like one. Ex: Wally McDoogle, Peter Pan 
• Innocent: someone who is inexperienced and exposed to evil. Ex: Dorothy Gale 
• Slave: Does not belong to himself. Ex: Dobby the house elf 
• Survivor: Pulls through no matter what happens, doesn’t give up
• Victim: Was hurt by someone or lives in fear that someone will hurt him. Ex: Claireece “Precious” Jones

Possible Archetypes for the man

• Introvert: Lives inside his shell to prevent anyone from seeing the real him. Ex: Gabriella Montez (High School Musical)
• Manipulator: Plays with people and situations to get what he wants. Ex: Scarlett O’Hara
• Masquerader: Pretends to be something he is not
• Monster: A depraved beast. Ex: Gollum, Grendel (Beowulf)
• Temptress: Uses power to make others weak. Ex: Megara (Hercules)
• Tyrant: wants be in control at all times. Ex: Captain Hook
• Villain: wants to destroy/trap the hero. Ex: Evil Queen in Snow White

AC

Sound

In the forest, the shot will just be of the girl running and occasionally looking back.  This part of the opening is very ambiguous as we think we are going to start the clip with her just running.  It is also quite tense but to keep it ambiguous we dont want to add over dramatic cliche scary music which builds, and for now we think just exaggerating the atmospheric sound will work with the scene. As it is just the atmospheric sound this will make her seem much more alone, and it will make the forest seem empty.   We've also seen in other films when someone is running, that to add itensity to the scene they over exaggerate the sound of the breathing, so we think it would be good to add foley sound of her panting and increase the volume as this would also make the audience feel as if they were there in the scene.



In the house, mimicking the forest we want a realistic feel and we think a gentle hum in the background which builds gently would fit well with the establishing shot of the girl in the eery creepy room.  We think the sound should be ver sensitive and the souds made by the girl, made very obvious.  For example the loudest noise will be he breaths and cryin, making it an intimate scene.  Other sounds will be the hum or gentle building music, and her moves exagerated as this will also sow how shes alone. Then we want the sound of the mans car pulling up to be heard, and there may be a downbeat then to signify shes scared




The opening of the film 'House at the end of the street' is a scene we will use as inspiration as it mimics the same sounds we wanted to include. 

Obviously this scene is very over dramatic and aims to be more a horror, it uses the wind to make it scarier and mainl uses atmospheric or foley sounds.  We want to do this to make it realistic. 


The downbeat idea we wanted when something dramatic happens in the scene, is shown in a dramatic scene in the film 'Taken'.  This really helped us with how to approach he dramatic moments, as in this scene, instead of the downbeat being simultaneous with height of the suspense, the downbeat is just before the girl is told she's going to be taken.  This allows her reaction of hysterically crying more noticeable, making it more effective and emotional.

IW

Animated storyboard

This our storyboard, for our film.  This was useful as it helped us quickly set up each shot.  We did an original storyboard before filming, but decided to redo it as it wouldn't be helpful when filming.  It also helped us think about each shot that is needed, swell as roughly working out how long the film would be.  

Vox pop interview

I filmed a vox-pop to help with the audience research for our thriller.  We chose some one between the age of 15-25 to use as we found that to be our target age through our initial audience research post.

It helped us find out what films and what type of thrillers people prefer. It gave us more depth and more of an idea of for the audience research for our own thriller. It also tells us what would make some one want to watch a thriller and what makes a more interesting thriller.  It was important to ask both closed questions and open questions to get a better idea of the our target audience.

AC

Shot List

Practical lesson: Things to remember when filming

• Think about reflections like window reflection, as that means the cameraman and the boom mike may be in the shot.
• Wait until obvious sounds like lawnmowers or planes have gone as if you switch the shot in the same scene, it will be obvious the sound is missing
• You always need a main light on both the faces in the shot and then one light from the side or back.
• Make sure the boom hovers over the person talking and that it is close enough to their faces but NOT in the shot.
• If you have recorded outside, and then want to dub over the voices again because they didn't sound good in the original filming, you need to also record about 20 seconds of the surroundings you were in just so you get an atmospheric sound and so the v dubbed voices blend into the scene

Film Script

OUR FILM BEGINS IN MEDIA RES, WE DO THIS TO IMMEDIATELY CAPTURE THE AUDIENCES ATTENTION AND START ASKING QUESTIONS. 

TO ACCOMPLISH THIS THERE NEEDS TO BE A SOUND BRIDGE STARTING A COUPLE OF SECONDS BEFORE THE VISUAL FILMING IS DISPLAYED.

THE FIRST TEN SECONDS OF THE SCENE WILL BE IN A FOREST. 

IT CUTS FROM THE BLACK TO A SHOT OF THE GIRL RUNNING PAST THE CAMERA AS IT IS A CLOSEUP SHOT OF HER FEET. 

IT TRACKS AND FOLLOWS HER FROM BEHIND TREES. 

YOU HEAR PANTING AND HER FOOTSTEPS. 

(THIS SCENE IS MADE TO BE VERY INTENSE AND FAST PACE)

IT MAKES A SUDDEN CUT TO A STILL, long shot of a SILENT ROOM WITH THE SAME GIRL IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FRAME USING AN OPEN SHOT MAKING HER LOOK SMALL AND WEAK.

THE CAMERA PANS AROUND THE ROOM SHOWING THE GIRLS ROOM, IT CUTS TO CLOSE UPS OF THE TOYS PLACED ON THE BED. IN THE BACKGROUND YOU CAN SLIGHTLY HEAR THE NOISE OF THE car pulling up outside.  QUickly CHANGING to a long shot the girl jumps off her bed, and it switches to an over the SHOULDER shot of the girl peering out the window to the car.  

It then cross cuts to the man gettin gout of the guy, and walking through the door.  Using a mid shot, the man walks through the house and sits down to put the tv on and says 'ahh' and slouches into his chair'  he is then staring out the window.  

It again cross cuts to the girl in the bedroom, and she gets frustrated and says 'what is going on, let me out' and screams. it then pans SHOWING her hitting the door.  the noise of her hitting the door will be heard by the man downstairs and there will be a sound bridge to show this.  
then the man gets up and there is a sequence of cross cutting between the man walking up hte stairs and the girl listening by the door.  Then there is an extreme close up on him opening the door, and finally an over the shoulder shot behind the gilr, of him swinging open the door.  This will quickly cut to a black screen and the title will appear.

EB & IW

Location: Woods

In the beginning of the opening we are planning to have a fast pace scene set in the woods, this occurs in many films which creates a fast pace, thrilling start to a scene. The scene should be set in the dark making it seem like it is very late creating a mystery as some shapes and figures are not fully seen by the audience. Due to this being set in December and January the sun goes down at around five which is very help as we can shoot it as soon as it gets dark. These next screenshots are ones from films and give off the same camera shots and feeling that we are aiming for:






The woods where we want to shoot are in Dulwich park, it is a public park making it easy to shoot in and has various different clusters of trees around it. Here are some images of it in the day time:

EB

Location: Downstairs of the house

Following the modern theme of the bedroom we are thinking of using a 'regular' modern day house creating a normality to the scene. The whole idea to the opening of this film is to make the audience feel like it could be based on a true story or that it is a plausible tale. This also makes it a lot easier for us to film as we can use one of our own houses as we film the man downstairs completing domestic chores and watching television.




This setting would be the most ideal place to shoot in although I am still debating whether it would look very out of place in the scene due to it being very graphic. There is also a lot of contrast from light to dark in areas.

EB

Style and Tone

As our film is a physiological thriller, this means we want it to feel very realistic.  This is why we have chosen to do it in an everyday house, with no overdramatic unrealistic props.  We don't want the horror thrill side to the film to be exaggerated either, for example by using over dramatic sound or by the way we dress the kidnapper, just so it doesn't make the style seem cheesy and cliche.  We want the clip to have a social realist genre, and emulate a realistic tone, making it more creepy, as from films we have seen in the past, the scariest are when it seems as if it can happen to you.  

We took inspiration from films like Lovely Bones, which we have referenced also in the costume ideas, The Call, and also Prisoners.  These films all have a similar kidnapping scene in common which seems realistic as ones on a field, one in a carpark, and one on a street.  So we thought we would reference these films and see what tones they emulate as they carry the tone we want.  

(picture above from the kidnapping scene of The Call)

The Disappearance of Alice Creed is also a kidnapping film which emulates the style we want.  In the poster for it i thought it showed the tone of the film well.  The colour palette of the film is also useful to us as the pale greyish colours give a sense of gloom that would be useful to use and gives the film a general mood to it.    It also has a all British cast, which gives it the urban feel we want so we think this will be  useful film to refer to.

IW