Costume

We are going to have the male character dressed in a large coat. We have chosen to dress this character in this coat because we feel that it will make them look dominating. The fact that they look dominating will make the atmosphere intense because the audience will have a suspicion that they may do harm with the fact they have tools (weapons) and a dominating appearance.

We are going to dress the teenage girls in casual clothing. We have purposely done this to try and get the audience to relate to them rather than the mysterious character. We thought this was much more likely to make the audience relate with the girls because you don't see what the man looks like until further on into the sequence.

Test Footage

This is some test footage of our beginning scene of the mysterious man in the garage:



Our test footage shows our first scene of the mysterious character. The books and other items that they place in the bag represents the tools that they will be putting in the bag in the actual scene. We have specifically chosen an extreme close up of the characters eyes to create mystery as the character's identity is still not revealed through this shot, it will also scare the audience as it is intense and it is still unknown as to what is going on. The medium shot where it focuses on the character putting the items in their bag is used to show you the part of the character but not all of them so that the character's identity is still not revealed. This creates a sense of mystery and suspense with the fact that you don't know who they are. The items (tools) will also add mystery because it is not clear at all at this stage why the character is packing tools.

Target Audience

Our target audience is boys and girls late teens [15-18] we have chosen this age group because they are the most interested in watching horror films, also this age group is the age group that will go to the cinema most to watch films. We think that our film will appeal to this target audience because the characters are that age so the audience can relate to the characters. We think that girls may be more attracted to watch the film because the cast has more girls than boys, however we are trying to appeal to both males and females.

Idea's for places to film

This is the main setting for our film opening for the bonfire scenes, we have chosen a forest because it is an isolated setting and at dusk it will look creepy and create tension.


We will be filming in a garage for the beginning scene of the mysterious figure putting tools into the black bag.

Blog of the week review

Why do you think it is blog of the week?
Firstly for the 64 posts within it! This indicates the time and effort they have put into their blog work as a group. The involvement of photos and text connotates the knowledge and use of media each individual has. It makes it seem much clearer and gives a more creative approach; rather than academic. The colour in the images brings the blog to life making it seem more fun to read and not a lecture. The ideas are represented in a very basic way through short and simple points on the other hand detailed. The amount of effort portrayed through the amount of blogs posted proves the have thought very deeply into their project also thinking aside by making back up plans, i.e. camera use.

What can you learn from it?
The work posted within this blog proves that to create a good piece of work the more ideas and opinions involved within the blog is going to make it much more successful, the detail involved in showing ideas is essential to deliver a satisfying section of filming. This is what these posts have proved. By gathering more background details and looking into other successful films it helps to create a much clearer storyline.

Evaluation Questions

Evaluation Questions

The following questions must be answered in your evaluation PowerPoint:

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Storyboard

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Shot List

Shot No.1 - Establishing shot, long duration shot of the empty misty garage. Low Key lighting.
Shot No.2 - Close Up shot of the ex's feet, long duration shot slowly panning up the body. He will be wearing black boots and black trousers, continues to pan up the body slowly showing legs and the sound effects carry on whilst pans further up the body showing dark clothing and it pans all the way up to his neck, his face just pout of shot to create mystery. This is where you see him filling a bag with tools from the garage, low key lighting shadowy effects.
Shot No.3 - Medium long shot from behind. Showing the figure in the garage still, in the shadows. Low key eerie lighting. Medium duration.
Shot No.4 - Extreme long shot, through the trees, shot of the girls sitting around the fire chatting, crackly fire sounds.
Shot No.5 - Close up of main girl talking about her ex boyfriend. Just her face is on screen to show that she is the centre of attention and everyone is listening to her.
Shot No.6 - Over the shoulder shot of one of the friends talking about him to her ex boyfriend, just her head and shoulders.
Shot No.7 - Medium shot of main girl thinking about the ex.
Shot No.8 - Short duration shot. Medium long shot of the main girl and her boyfriend when they broke up.
Shot No.9 - Close up of main girl, looking deep in thought slowly zooming in.
Shot No.10 - Medium close up, another flashback showing the main girl and he ex when they were together and happy. Short duration.
Shot No.11 - Long shot of the girl in the woods, through the trees hand held camera work, shaky moving forwards, continues to move closer slowly, still shaky as if someone is walking. POV shot.
Shot No.12 - Medium shot of girl, smoking.
Shot No.13 - Close up of the cigarette end in the grass, after the main girl has thrown it down, long duration shot still hand held, continued - hand close up slowly comes into frame and picks up the cigarette end.
Shot No.14 - Medium long shot of shadowy figure smoking the cigarette end, static camera short duration shot. He cough's.
Shot No.15 - Medium reaction shot of the three girls looking shocked when they hear the cough, shot duration, static camera.
Shot No.16 - extreme close up of mobile phone screen as it rings.
Shot No.17 - Extreme long shot through the trees as the main girl bends down to pick up her phone hand held camera. Long duration.
Shot No.18 - Long shot of girl on the phone static camera, forward track as she speaks on the phone crackly static noise in the background as the phone has bad signal. Continues side pan follows girl as the walks away to get signal long duration.
Shot No.19 - Long sot from behind dark, shadowy hand held camera moving forward, following girl as she walks, talking on phone.
Shot No.20 - Medium shot of girl on phone long duration. Camera slowly moving suddenly grabs girl around the mouth. Shot freezes on this frame.

Classification of our film

We have decided from looking at the criteria of the certificate that our film is rated at a 15.
Our film contains strong violence so therefore it cannot be rated lower than a 15.
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/recent/films
Above is the web link of the criteria of a 15 certificate.

Thriller Project Timings & Deadlines

11th Jan to 15th Jan: Thriller introduction.

18th Jan to 22nd Jan: Analysis of real and student examples/ Production logos.

25th Jan to 29th Jan: Planning and delivery of pitches.

1st Feb to 5th Feb: Storyboarding, shot lists and other planning.

Cameras are available from Friday 5th Feb at 4.10pm until shooting deadline of 9am Monday 8th March. Students can have 2 overnights or one weekend to film. There are three weekend slots available ( 6th & 7th Feb, 27th & 28th Feb and 6th & 7th March).

8th Feb to 12th Feb: Filming.

15th Feb to 19th Feb: HALF TERM. NO CAMERAS OUT.

22nd Feb to 26th Feb: Filming and editing.

1st March to 5th March: Filming and editing.

8th March to 12th March: 8th March Shooting deadline. 2nd lesson of this week is Rough Cut Deadline. Third lesson of week, rough cut feedback.

15th March to 19th March: End of second lesson of the week is Final Cut Deadline. Last lesson of the week, feedback on final cuts and re-introduction to Evaluation questions.

22nd March to 26th March: 9am 22nd March is Interim writing deadline. Lessons this week are for feedback on interim drafts and revisions/writing.

9am 29th March: Final writing deadline.

Planning for filming

• Props - We need a bag of tools for the very beginning of our opening sequence. The tools play a big part as they set the up the character's personality as the person is in black and they have a bag of tools. The tools represent that the person with them will play the villain.
  Cigarettes will play a part in our opening sequence as there is a key moment when one of the girls is smoking - she throws her finished cigarette into the wilderness. The villain then picks up the cigarette which emphasizes how possessive the ex-boyfriend is when he goes to smoke it. This one prop creates a lot of tension because he coughs which makes the girls aware that there is something or someone there.

• 
• Costume - Black for the villain (ex boyfriend). The colour black represents mystery and danger which is perfect for this character. He is also going to be wearing a big black puffy coat - this will add to the sense of mystery because you will not see their face when they are being mysterious anyway so the fact they are wearing a big coat will make them look more dominate adding to their 'scariness' perhaps.
  Stereotypical teenage fashion for the other girls. We have chosen to have normal causal clothing for the girls because this means that the audience are more likely to relate to the girls which will make them resent the villain more (you cannot see the villain's face so the audience will find it very hard to relate to him). With them wearing normal clothing this will make the opening sequence feel much more real.
  
• Lighting (design/ effect and equipment?) - Natural lighting from the fire, Low Key lighting. We have decided to use natural lighting as this will make the setting be much more believable. We are going to film in the dark (night time) so the only light we will really have will be from the fire that the girls will be sitting around. This will give the effect of it being real as the girls are actually there and that is what's happening.
• Make up/ hair - Casual hair and make up. We have chosen to have casual hair and make up because even the villain in our piece is a teenage boy - the fact that even the villain has casual hair makes it much more mysterious in a way because it explores the fact that people can look completely normal but still be evil and people don't know about it.
  
• List of equipment - Camera, Tripod. We are not using a wide range of equipment because for most of our piece we are going to use hand held camera work. We have decided that this technique will be affective because the person holding the camera will be the villain which emphasizes the possessiveness of the character because it will be point of view shot.
  We may not use a tripod a great deal because the main theme of camera work will be as if they are being watched. But we will use a tripod for certain shots where they need to be still. For example, in the shot where the ex-boyfriend is coming up behind the main girl when she is trying to get signal on her phone. This will have to be a still shot because it is no longer in point of view.
  
• Times and dates you want to film and a back up plan - Weeknight in the week beginning 8th. We have decided to film during the week because this is better for us all as a group. Back up plan: the weekend. We have chosen the weekend to be our back up plan. This will not be as easy because some of the group members have work commitments etc.
  
• Locations (maps? permission? and photos) - We are going to be filming in Papworth forest, hollies garage. There is no permission needed for these places because the forest is public and Hollie is in our group and she has already got permission from her parents.
  
• Actors (Photos and suitability for character roles) - Georgia, Hollie and Kiera playing the three teenage girls, with is suitable as they will be basically playing themselves. Fran is playing the ex boyfriend, this is suitable as she is filming the fire scene.
• Production roles - assign a role to each member of the group. (Camera person, directors, producer, production co-coordinator - provide definitions of each role and each person's suitability for that role - experience? skills?
  
• Camera Person, The main person responsible for the filming and camera work - Mainly Fran but the whole group will share filming responsibilities, Fran is suitable for this as she is the most experienced at using the camera.
• Directors,responsibility of directing the film - Hollie and Georgia are the most suited to this as they most creative abilities. Hollie and Georgia also know the area well where we are filming so they will know the ins and outs and how to get the best affect. This is to our advantage that we know the area because we will know the right places to go to get the
  
• Producer, this is someone who creates the scenes and the conditions for making movies - Kiera and Fran will be suitable for this as they are quite familiar with the software.
• Production Co-ordinator, they make sure all necessary equipment and materials are on site at the right time and the actors and actresses are all in the right place. The whole group will be responsible for this as if there are more people things are less likely to go wrong.
• Sound - We will have a soundtrack to our film opening along with diegetic sounds and ambient sounds. We will make a soundtrack that will link to the images on the screen that will create tension and suspense. There will be quite a lot of dialogue as that is key to the story.
• Test Shots/ Footage - We are going to test out the shots we have decided to do in places just like the atmosphere we are using, this way we will be able to see what works well and what may look fairly unprofessional. Seeing as our shots aren't all about movement they should be reasonably easy to shoot.