Thursday, 3 April 2014
After all our editing and changes, we're finally finished with our product.
We're happy with the finished product and believe that all the aspects, such as the music and editing, fit well with the genre and help to set the mood and feel of the film, as well as establishing the genre.
It also feels like the beginning of a film and there are many possible places that this film could go if it continued on as a full length screen, and could be developed in may ways.
Monday, 24 March 2014
Possession (2008)
This is the Possession (2008)
We feel that this is a very effective piece in regards to the use of the flames, and was part of the inspiration to us placing flashes in our own production. We feel that it helps to create an uneasiness and builds up the tension in an effective way, and also helps to create an unnerving feeling.
We plan on adding them at irregular intervals of the scenes we filmed as part of the additional 'shed scene' filming to help give a background of the film and to create tension and a mystery for the audience.
Wednesday, 12 March 2014
Re-Filming
After our additional filming, we tried to upload it on the computers but was stopped as all the files started deleting.
This was because we had a corrupted memory card, and lost all our work.
Today, we re filmed it all and changed it slightly to what was available and improvements o our last filming.
We decided to eliminate the smearing lipstick scene as we do not think it adds to the opening two minutes, and would be better placed in a later section of the film, if included at all.
This was because we had a corrupted memory card, and lost all our work.
Today, we re filmed it all and changed it slightly to what was available and improvements o our last filming.
We decided to eliminate the smearing lipstick scene as we do not think it adds to the opening two minutes, and would be better placed in a later section of the film, if included at all.
Friday, 7 March 2014
Additional Filming
After the initial editing process, we realised that there was more filming needed in order to complete the storyline. From here we created additional storyboards and arranged to film on a separate day i order to fit it in the film on time. We created a storyboard which wasn't necessarily in order of the final product, but had all our ideas on as we couldn't decide the order of our shots, and thought it best to decide this in the editing process itself to see how it fit and the best order based on this. Through our initial experience of filming our final product, we understand the synopsis of our film and the type of filming necessary to fit in with the rest of it, for this reason we can ensure that it is film to best join the current film and to finish the storyline for the opening 2 minutes, which aims to introduce the film.
Monday, 3 March 2014
Location Research - Additional Filming
For our additional filming we wanted to shoot in a old, dirty-looking, abandoned shed.
On researching locations, we found the shed that we will film our additional filming.
It is secluded with plants growing around it, which helps add to the feeling that the antagonist does not want it to be seen.
It also has a workbench area which we plan on using as a work station, revealing the dark and true nature of the male character.
It also has a dark, eeriness feeling to it and seems quite foreboding to the audience.
On researching locations, we found the shed that we will film our additional filming.
It is secluded with plants growing around it, which helps add to the feeling that the antagonist does not want it to be seen.
It also has a workbench area which we plan on using as a work station, revealing the dark and true nature of the male character.
It also has a dark, eeriness feeling to it and seems quite foreboding to the audience.
Friday, 21 February 2014
Filming Day
We filmed our final product today. Although once we got to our location, our ideas completely changed.
This was because we decided to take advantage of our location, and the use of the sun, and the surrounding area. We went out with a basic idea from our storyboard, but when we started filming it wasn't effective, and started to see possible shots which we didn't know about, such as the 'Look Out' sign, which varied the content of our shots and broke up the tedious walking.
The only part we didn't film was the placing of pictures on the wall, which we will do tomorrow as we need to print off the pictures and cut them to look like polaroids.
This is what we ended up making, shots of man following a woman and signs which help portray the darkness of the film, such as 'Look Out' signs and spiked fences.
This was because we decided to take advantage of our location, and the use of the sun, and the surrounding area. We went out with a basic idea from our storyboard, but when we started filming it wasn't effective, and started to see possible shots which we didn't know about, such as the 'Look Out' sign, which varied the content of our shots and broke up the tedious walking.
The only part we didn't film was the placing of pictures on the wall, which we will do tomorrow as we need to print off the pictures and cut them to look like polaroids.
This is what we ended up making, shots of man following a woman and signs which help portray the darkness of the film, such as 'Look Out' signs and spiked fences.
Tuesday, 18 February 2014
Location Research
For our location, we wanted to find quite an isolated location, to add to the eeriness of the scene and get the feel that there would be no one to help the young victim.
For this we looked at the areas we knew well, with a good network of side streets that we could navigate our way through.
We chose this location as we felt that it would create the right feel for
our film.
We wanted a series of roads with street signs and other objects such as trees
, in order to create our idea of titles appearing on them.
We also chose this location as it contained the street name 'Chillerton road', which we thought was a good way of setting the mood of the film, and may give an in sight on what was to come in the production.
For this we looked at the areas we knew well, with a good network of side streets that we could navigate our way through.
We chose this location as we felt that it would create the right feel for
our film.
We wanted a series of roads with street signs and other objects such as trees
, in order to create our idea of titles appearing on them.
We also chose this location as it contained the street name 'Chillerton road', which we thought was a good way of setting the mood of the film, and may give an in sight on what was to come in the production.
Monday, 17 February 2014
Title Research
Our film is quite dark, with the stalking/murdering plot, and so we want a name that will help to represent this to our audience.
As we are planning on revealing the name with photographs, it needs to be quite short and one word that makes the story clear.
Our name ideas:
- Cracked
- Stalker
- Creep
- Print
These were the only names we could come up with as they explain our film, but some of them are quite weak.
We asked a number of different people what they think, and the majority said that PRINT was the best option as it could mean a number of things. Such as a fingerprint or photograph print, we think that this is effective in giving away some of the film and can help to portray what will happen, this also makes sense as the title will be in pictures which will help to make sense of the film.
As we are planning on revealing the name with photographs, it needs to be quite short and one word that makes the story clear.
Our name ideas:
- Cracked
- Stalker
- Creep
These were the only names we could come up with as they explain our film, but some of them are quite weak.
We asked a number of different people what they think, and the majority said that PRINT was the best option as it could mean a number of things. Such as a fingerprint or photograph print, we think that this is effective in giving away some of the film and can help to portray what will happen, this also makes sense as the title will be in pictures which will help to make sense of the film.
Saturday, 15 February 2014
THE CHEAP DETECTIVE
Before filming we found this video - The Cheap Detective.
The opening two minutes is very similar to what we have planned to do, and we find this a big influence to what we plan to do - Seeing one so well executed in the style we want
Friday, 14 February 2014
Character Research
Traditionally, in thrillers there are two different types of character; the victim and the antagonist.
The antagonist is traditionally an older male, and the victim is normally a young, vulnerable, female.
We have decided to use on these conventions as we think it's the best way to portray our genre in the first two minutes most effectively.
We will portray the 'villain' as an elderly man, with mysterious clothing so that their face is never seen, and the victim will be in bright, casual clothing to represent their age and vulnerability; this will be in the form of a hoodie and jeans, as is typical of a teenager.
This can be seen in many films, such as The Lovely Bones, Silence of the Lambs and Psycho
For our antagonist we were thinking of a dark, baggy trench coat and a 'bowler' hat type, to cover the face which is also quite menacing.
This can be seen in The Cheap Detective in which the outfit is similar to what we are thinking of, as can be seen here:
This helps to create an element of mystery, and suggests that the have something to hide as you never see their face and their body is thickly covered, not giving anything away.
We wanted to stick to the conventions of a thriller; a young, female victim and an older, male antagonist.
Female Victim
For this we turned to our friends, who are all 17-18 year olds, which is the target age for our victim.
We don't want her to be too young as this would change the story, making it more a child-hunter antagonist - Which we didn't want.
We looked at a few different people, including Katie and Aimee.
These are both within the age range of our female victim.
They are both blonde, which is typical of a thriller victim, however we want to challenge the idea that blondes are the best victim and show that our antagonist is slightly different.
For this reason, we looked at people with darker hair, but still within the age range of 17-18 years.
We again looked at a few different people, including Hester and Louisa.
We think that these two people are very good choices, as they are young, females, with darker hair to challenge the blonde hair convention.
For our production, we need two victims; one for the newspaper showing past victims, and one for the main piece of acting whom is being 'stalked'.
We have chosen to use Hester as our previous victim, and Louisa as our main actress. This is because we feel that she has a more youthful look and is more willing to act on screen.
Male Antagonist
Preferably, this character would be played by an older male but we do not have access to this age range.
Therefore, we looked at males within our own age range and thought that we could portray as older once filming, with the use of costume and behaviour.
For this we looked at Louis, who we thought would be good to play our villain.
This is our option to play our antagonist, he is in our age range and is a male who could possibly play our villain.
We plan on dressing him up in order to make him appear older, as is the typical convention of a thriller, to have an older male pry on young females.
In order to challenge the conventions, we have actually decided to use a female actress.
This is to challenge the conventions of a real media product.
We will dress here up in male clothing in order to portray to the audience that she is male. In our opening two minutes, her face will not be seen, keeping her gender from the audience in order to play on conventions. However, through viewing the production of the opening two minutes, she appear as a man to the audience, as is intended.
The antagonist is traditionally an older male, and the victim is normally a young, vulnerable, female.
We have decided to use on these conventions as we think it's the best way to portray our genre in the first two minutes most effectively.
We will portray the 'villain' as an elderly man, with mysterious clothing so that their face is never seen, and the victim will be in bright, casual clothing to represent their age and vulnerability; this will be in the form of a hoodie and jeans, as is typical of a teenager.
This can be seen in many films, such as The Lovely Bones, Silence of the Lambs and Psycho
For our antagonist we were thinking of a dark, baggy trench coat and a 'bowler' hat type, to cover the face which is also quite menacing.
This can be seen in The Cheap Detective in which the outfit is similar to what we are thinking of, as can be seen here:
This helps to create an element of mystery, and suggests that the have something to hide as you never see their face and their body is thickly covered, not giving anything away.
Actors Research
Female Victim
For this we turned to our friends, who are all 17-18 year olds, which is the target age for our victim.
We don't want her to be too young as this would change the story, making it more a child-hunter antagonist - Which we didn't want.
We looked at a few different people, including Katie and Aimee.
 |
| Katie |
 |
| Aimee |
These are both within the age range of our female victim.
They are both blonde, which is typical of a thriller victim, however we want to challenge the idea that blondes are the best victim and show that our antagonist is slightly different.
For this reason, we looked at people with darker hair, but still within the age range of 17-18 years.
We again looked at a few different people, including Hester and Louisa.
 |
| Hester |
We think that these two people are very good choices, as they are young, females, with darker hair to challenge the blonde hair convention.
For our production, we need two victims; one for the newspaper showing past victims, and one for the main piece of acting whom is being 'stalked'.
We have chosen to use Hester as our previous victim, and Louisa as our main actress. This is because we feel that she has a more youthful look and is more willing to act on screen.
Male Antagonist
Preferably, this character would be played by an older male but we do not have access to this age range.
Therefore, we looked at males within our own age range and thought that we could portray as older once filming, with the use of costume and behaviour.
For this we looked at Louis, who we thought would be good to play our villain.
 |
| Louis |
This is our option to play our antagonist, he is in our age range and is a male who could possibly play our villain.
We plan on dressing him up in order to make him appear older, as is the typical convention of a thriller, to have an older male pry on young females.
In order to challenge the conventions, we have actually decided to use a female actress.
This is to challenge the conventions of a real media product.
We will dress here up in male clothing in order to portray to the audience that she is male. In our opening two minutes, her face will not be seen, keeping her gender from the audience in order to play on conventions. However, through viewing the production of the opening two minutes, she appear as a man to the audience, as is intended.
Storyboard
Because we decided to do three of these topics; stalker, murderer/serial killer and an element of mystery. We thought the best way to signify a stalker would be to show him taking pictures of someone, their victim, to signify his dark nature and to show this is a key part of the film.
We're planning to do a dedicated title sequence.
We have decided to film a man taking a picture of his victim, then walking through the street back to his house. We wanted him to look at street signs and such as he passed, and place all our titles on these street signs.
We would then show him walking into his house and pulling out photos from his pocket - Showing that he's been following this person for a long time.
He will then stick the pictures on the wall, which will be like polaroids and titles will appear on the bottom.
We then want to show him step back from the wall and the name of the film be made out of the photos he placed there.
Here is a picture of our first storyboard:
We're planning to do a dedicated title sequence.
We have decided to film a man taking a picture of his victim, then walking through the street back to his house. We wanted him to look at street signs and such as he passed, and place all our titles on these street signs.
We would then show him walking into his house and pulling out photos from his pocket - Showing that he's been following this person for a long time.
He will then stick the pictures on the wall, which will be like polaroids and titles will appear on the bottom.
We then want to show him step back from the wall and the name of the film be made out of the photos he placed there.
Here is a picture of our first storyboard:
Thursday, 13 February 2014
Wednesday, 12 February 2014
Dedicated title sequence or straight into the action?
We were trying to come up with some ideas for our opening sequence by looking at examples from 'art of the title'. From here we got the idea of doing a dedicated title sequence. These give an insight into the film and help set the mood/feel of the film very effectively, as well including a number of titles which is needed in our production - this can help to give us some inspiration for our own production.
We think that a dedicated title sequence would be a good way to help create the feeling of the opening two minutes of a film.
We researched several different dedicated title sequences, such as 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' and 'Man Men'. All these are media products, TV programmes and films, which are good for us to get ideas from.
We think that a dedicated title sequence would be a good way to help create the feeling of the opening two minutes of a film.
Tuesday, 11 February 2014
Ideas and Research
Trying to come up with a plot for the opening two minutes is quite hard.
Our aim is to make the first two minutes of a film, it had to:
- Introduce the film, without giving away too much of the story
- Establish the genre
- Create the right mood/feel of the genre
- Address and attract your target audience
To do this we started brainstormed a series of ideas.
These were the different options we could come up with for our film.
From these, we tried to come up with different stories for each, and for some we couldn't think of a developed storyline, so decided to avoid those ones. These include a deadly game, play on common fears, deranged character and factoring a psychopathic character.
We think that we should do three of the topics; stalker, murderer/serial killer with an element of mystery.
From these, we tried to come up with different stories for each, and for some we couldn't think of a developed storyline, so decided to avoid those ones. These include a deadly game, play on common fears, deranged character and factoring a psychopathic character.
We think that we should do three of the topics; stalker, murderer/serial killer with an element of mystery.
Monday, 10 February 2014
Deciding a Genre
We noted down all the different types of genres which our film could be, and some well known films that were in that genre.
From here, we both saw what films we had seen more of and which genre we knew the most about.
This turned out to be thriller/horror/crime. This was not only decided through film, but through other media outlets such as television programmes that we both watch, which sit inside this genre.From here, we both saw what films we had seen more of and which genre we knew the most about.
We feel that we can replicate a thriller/horror/crime film most effectively which contains all the right conventions as we know this genre well and will research what is essential to this genre.
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