Evaluation of the pre-production process:

Are group had negative and positive points. When we are getting on with our tasks we work well and communicate but our weakness is actually getting down to our task. I feel that some people in the group have put in a lot more work then other members. We have finally got organised and we are now up to date with our work. After being allocated our roles and organising what each individual person needs to get on with we began to form a solid group and began meeting our deadlines correctly.

Olivia took on the role of being the ‘camera women’, which she will only be credited on when we start shooting. She was the camera women in our preliminary task and really enjoyed it and because our group only had three people at the time and two of them were acting she had to do the camera on her own and managed it very well. Olivia did two pages of the storyboard, she also has organised all of the actors and created the cast list. She also came up with a lot of the ideas for how to shoot the opening sequence.

Oscar took on the role of being ‘editor’ which again he won’t get credited on until after shooting our thriller sequence. He has done the drawings for the storyboard as he takes art. He did it really quickly (not rushing it) and they came out really well.

Ellie took on the role of being continuity girl and helping with the editing. She was continuity girl in her previous shooting of the preliminary task. Ellie did two pages of the storyboard. She has been ill and so hasn’t been able to do anything more at the moment.

I took on the role of being producer and director. I am rather organised and I will be able to get everyone in position and doing what they are meant to be. I did four pages of the storyboard and got them page numbered and organised to send to the group and to print of for Oscar. I also did the props and costume list which Olivia helped me with. I also did the shooting schedule. I also came up with ideas for the opening sequence.

We firstly decided on what we would each be doing and why we thought we were best for those jobs. We then made sure we all knew exactly what wanted to come from our thriller. We then got together a rough copy of a storyboard so that we could go through it as a group and then start the real thing. After finishing the storyboards I printed them all of and gave them to Oscar for the weekend he brought them. After Oscar completing the storyboards we moved onto doing the cast list, props list, costumes list and deciding on our exact locations.

We have learnt to work as a team and make sure we meat our deadlines. We all have different strengths and weaknesses but we ended up making them work in our favour. We have all improved our skills and learnt how much time and effort it takes simply organising a group and preparing for a simple opening sequence.

If we had the chance to start it all again I would make sure we were organised from the start and make sure that everyone in the group put in the same amount of effort. I think my main strength is making sure everything is up to date if it means staying late and organising other peoples work then I will do it because I am determined to come out with a good result. I am also quite a quick worker when I get focused and I know what I am doing and I will not stop until I finish it there and then.

Shooting schedule:

This is the shooting schedule I created so that the shot times were organised. it helps us know how long it will take, and let us know if we need less or more time then we are allowed. It will also keep us on track so that we don't get behind time if we are always trying to meat a deadline.

Casting decisions:

We decided that we needed a young girl around the age of 9-11. We decided we would use Olivia’s younger sister that was 11 years old. We also needed a man around the age 40-60. We are now using a man called Russell who is 44. We chose him as he is accessible, is an actor that is willing to do it and lastly he would make it realistic. We would use make-up and costume to make the actors look older or younger if it was needed.

Discussion of what institution would produce our film:

The most likely institution to produce our film would be use an independent British film company such as; WARP Films. This kind of institution would allow us to produce a moderatly low budget production that would embrace a gritty realism that is so often associated with British productions such as; Danny Boyles ‘Trainspotting’. It would be unlikely that our film would be produced by a major Hollywood institution using major A List celebrities and multi million pound high production value budgets.

Account of your target audience:

We decided that the audience should be over 18’s as it is a daunting film using; nudity, lewd language and it is violent and there is a lot of blood shown. It would be for any gender however males may bond with it more. It would not be to complex but it may be psychologically a little demanding and may cause uncomfortable audience voyeurism.

More importantly audiences are defined by their specific expectations and demands and our audience would respond to the inclusion of a complex and fear inducing narrative that engages them on a personal and filmic level. They would also respond positively to a high level of voyeuristic realism that gives the text believability and credibility and makes the experience more painful and authentic.

Account of the research sources:

For our original idea Ellie’s influence was ‘The shinning’. She liked the idea of the two twin little girls. How they were innocent but still created this creepy atmosphere. She wanted to have at least one little girl like that, that looked innocent at first but was really evil. We then looked at the last scene of ‘Don’t look now’ and wanted to use that idea. Where there is a small character which makes the audience think they are harmless. And for that character to be sobbing so that the audience sympathise with the character and then when the character turns around it shocks the audience as the character is far from innocent. The music we want to use is the general thriller increasing movie which we got from several different films.

One particularly important text that directly influenct our casting and narrative construction was 'The Shinning', specifically the scene in which Danny encounters the ghosts of the dead twins in the hallway. this helped us to consider the construction of the mise-en-scene (hallway) and the aesthetic appearnce of the ghost child in our sequence. See

Storyboarding, Props & costumes:

In this lesson we divided up in order to complete a number of individual production tasks so that we could come together at the end of the lesson and put it all together. I went and printed of the storyboards in order so that Oscar could begin drawing it in. Olivia worked on the cast list trying to find the photo’s etc. I also finished and printed of the prop list. Ellie helped Oscar with finishing of the storyboards. After this we all updated and edited our Blogs. We decide that for our props all we needed was; a china doll, old sheets, old books, a candle and a china doll. For our costumes we decided that we needed a Victorian style night gown for the man and a white ghostly night dress for the little girl.

Finalizing storyboard details and beginning storyboarding:

In the last two lessons we spent our time firstly deciding all our shots in detail finalizing the shot type, angle, movement and timing. We then produced a written draft version of the storyboard technicalities in order to access continuity and visual impact.
We then began the process of casting by locating an eternal actor and considering the role of the young child.
We then started working on our storyboards by initially word processing the technical directions in preparation for the insertion of the visual images.

Choosing our production groups sequence/idea:

After all our group voted on each of our presentations we ended up doing Ellie's. It was called; 'The Old Mans Haunting' It was a series of shots made into a sequence such as; a bike on the side of a walk way with the back wheel still spinning, a swing in a park swinging on it's own. A man being haunted by a little girl that's a ghost. However after looking to this idea we decided to change it. It is still about a man being haunted but now he is asleep in bed and is woken by the sound of a little girl sobbing. He looks around the house seeing bright lights in the cracks of doors. He then opens one door, as the sobbing gets louder, to find a little girl holding a broken doll crying. However she is not innocent as she has been made out to be but is ghostly and haunting.

Account of giving presentations for possible Thriller ideas:

Everyone gave a presentation on there idea for a Thriller through showing a powerpoint presentation. We then all had to vote on which one we liked the most and we thought would really work.

This was my prensentation of my idea:

First story line:
- A man awaiting his death.
- Getting ready (breakfast, shower, writing a letter, passing his cell.).
- Walking towards his death.
- Being hung.


Second story line:
- A teenage girl.
- Knocking on a door franticly, crying, screaming etc.
- Silence other then her screaming.
- She gives up knocking (when he is hung).
- Slams her back to the door and slides down.

Locations:
- A hall with a door (old looking door).
- A cell (white room).
- A corridor (looking like a prison corridor).

How does my idea create tension?
- By switching from the man walking to his death, then to the girl screaming at this door. Making the audience try and work out why he is being killed and if the girl is maybe trying to save him and if so will she save him?
- Go in between those two shots really quickly.
- Having eerie music in the background gradually building and building until it stops instantly and you just hear the rope being tugged.

Props, casting
- A man (25-40).
- A teenage girl.
- Chains/Handcuffs.
- A bed for the prison cell.
Why do I think my idea will work?
- It is not too complicated.
- There are only 3 location (the cell, the door and the corridor).
- I think it would build tension really well, with all the questions the audience will ask themselves.
- It’s original.
- It has something which people care about in life (the death penalty) that people could relate to.

Target audience:

- 18 and over

- male and female

- it would be a Hollywood stlye movie company

Account of lesson on "What is a Thriller":

Our lesson explored the concept of the thriller genre and clearly identified its key conventions. The thriller genre is a difficult genre to explain because so a lot of the emotions and reactions that come from Thrillers are part of the whole understanding of film. It is a ‘meta-genre’. A good example of a film with the genre ‘Thriller’ is ‘Don’t Look Now’. A Thriller film relies on complexity of plot to generate fear, apprehension and suspense in the hearts and minds of the viewers. Thrillers need to make the audience question the film not be confused but question why? Etc. Most Thrillers have themes such as love, money or death at the heart of the film. It is this struggle that frequently enthralls the viewer. A Thriller is really a film in which the director causes hurt and anguish to the characters with in it. Our enjoyment is derived from their distress.

Account of editing peliminary task:

We used final cut pro that were run on a G5 Mac computer. All the editing took place on a timeline that was very easily modified and adjusted. The rushes were digitized from tape on to fire wire hard drives which were portable. We then looked through all the shots deciding on the ones we needed to keep and the ones we needed to discard. After deciding that we logged the footage we needed and discarded the bad takes. The best shots were dropped down onto the timeline to be trimmed and adjusted which includes; slowed, color adjusted, sped up etc. We can then after doing this manipulate the sound by importing music or sound effects etc. which we didn’t do. This allows a narrative to be constructed into a logical sequence. The shots that we discarded were the shots were either the actors made a mistake, if we broke the 180 degrees rule and thus compromised continuity. We had to take out one were one of the actors began to laugh. The shots were trimmed, adjusted and extended to enable smooth continuity editing that generated the illusion of a continues event which was our simple two person conversation.

Account of shooting peliminary task:

For our preliminary task we were put in a group of four and given a storyboard. We had to film a dialogue between two people using the same shots as the storyboard and adding more shots that were from different angles or positions. Our objective was to be introduced to video cameras and learn how to use them in the right way for example; construction of shots, composition, framing, focus and learning to deal with continuity which consisted of making sure that in every shot the actors looked the same were wearing the same clothes, the background had not changed etc. It was also to practice and then comprehend the concept of constructing a narrative sequence using continuity editing. Ultimately our objective was to produce footage that could be digitised and cut on a timeline using non-linear editing.

We used a storyboard as it helped us begin with a structure; they were not complex shots but simple ones as we were rather in experienced at the time. We used mid shots (MS) as to show the expressions of the actors from waist up. We also used some close-ups for example when one of the actors fake cried we wanted to generate close character audience proximity to draw the audience in, into feeling sympathetic for this character. We also used long and wide shots so that we could include the two actors in the shot to see both of there body gestures. We captured one high angle shot, we stood on a table to try and make one of the characters seam intimidating and superior, making the other actor look inferior contrasting the other character. It was a high angle over the shoulder shot. We didn’t end up using this shot as it did not work well with the other shots because it was out of proportion to the others. We also used low angle shots and eye level shots. We didn’t use any following pan shots or surveying pan shots. We did use zooming in at one point, which we didn’t put in the timeline though. Although we didn’t use very complicated shots we used a variety of shots to provide filmic variety. The storyboard also helped us structure the timing, the shot types, a range of shots, camera and subject positioning, chronology of the sequence, to help us never break the 180 degrees rule so not to confuse the audience, the lighting and finally the editing transitions.

When using the camera we did not increase gain as the lighting was adequate. We had class room, artificial lighting shinning down on the actors from above. We also didn’t want any shots to be grainy. It is important to set the white balance right for the internal setting which we did as we were inside. We used the focus so that we could direct the audiences attention clearly and direct there eyes to the main subject. We also used the out of focus to create depth of field which appeared well constructed.

We recorded the conversation with a directional microphone attached to the side of the camera. It was pointed directly at the source of sound all the time as it was connected to the camera and so pointed in the same direction as the camera. We did not take the microphone of and hand held it at all. The camera was not put in a position that was too high or to low so we had to set the levels so that they were right on the camera.

Our strengths and weaknesses varied as we ended up only having three people in the group. Two of us had to act in it and so only one of us could be the camera man however we all helped, checked for continuity and all of us put our opinions across and compromised as a group. One of our strengths was that we had a strong hard working compatible group. We also added in extra shots such as shooting from a very high angle by standing on a table, and attempting a shot from the floor looking up. We also used props such as eye drops to make one of the actors seam as though they were crying, to make the scene look more realistic and to make it look like it had depth to it.

We had difficulties with the room we were shooting in as one of the sides of the room was a window with darkness the other side of it so it created a reflection. We had to make sure that in each shot we didn’t get the camera’s reflection init. This did corrupt one of the shots we wanted to do unfortunately. We could only face the reflecting background when we were doing close-ups so that the actor took up the entire frame.

Intro to using Final Cut Pro editing package:

This lesson focused on the use of Final Cut Pro editing package. We learnt about the principles of editing using a timeline. This enabled us to drag shots onto the timeline from a logged bin and extend or trim them in order to create a coherent sequence and construct a narrative. We also learnt how to manipulate sound and visuals separately. We were also shown the potential of after effects.

Intro to Video Cameras:

Our lesson focused on the operation and use of the Sony PDR170 mini Dv video camera. We learnt about the importance of insuring a steady shot by using a tripod, we had to bubble up and level the tripod before starting to shoot. We had to make sure there was a neutral balance of light. We didn’t use any artificial lighting such as gain as it creates a poor quality. We only used the normal lighting in the class room. We had to make sure that the exposure was right before using the classroom lighting.

For the framing and composition we made sure that each actor had head space and room to move around when needed. We also made sure we were using the rules of thirds as needed and used a range of depth of field of the shots.

Learning about Stills Cameras:

We were first introduced to a stills camera in Media with Matt, Vicky and Scott. We learnt to turn the camera on, focus the lens, making sure the camera was on manual. We had to make sure the aperture was right, so that it was letting in enough light. We had to consider the framing and the composition rules e.g. the rules of thirds that we had discussed in class.

Intro:

Hello I chose to do media because I had herd really good things about it, especially about Hurtwood media. I had never done media or been interested particularly....now it's my favorite subject. I find it really interesting and all ready I feel I have learnt so much about film, TV and cameras. Already I feel I do want to be involved in media in later life I would love to do something connecting to media as my career. My favorite films have to be 'Blow','Amelie' & 'Lord of the Rings' watching these films after studying media makes me appreciate the films even more, as I have come to realize just how much work goes into creating a film like 'Lord of the Rings'. This is all quite funny considering Media was my last choice and has turned out to be my favorite so...yay.