TW: Location Reccie

St. Peters Church - 25th Feb

Reflection After Reccie

• graveyard not conventional or as big as originally thought
• not much space for good shots in woods
• might not get permission as church still in use
• however space on green for good establishing shots
• woods disimiliar to tunbridge wells common so continuity inneffective
• one of other choices more appropriate

Reccie Questions

• 25th February
• purpose of trip was to have a look at potential graveyard location
• looked at the woods by church and the surrounding area
• looked at graveyard to check suitablility
• graveyard isnt conventional
• good areas for establishing shots

Group: Planning Update 25th Feb

Planning/Filming Time

• actress not available over half term
• planned filming time for 2rd or 3rd March
• further planning for availability for after school filming
• prop research updated
• plans to purchase props to be available for filming time

Group: Storyboard

Group: Pitch Feedback

        When we presented our pitch to our peers and teachers, we received extremely positive feedback. We received the 'green light' without hesitation, which is obviously a positive motivation for our group. Everyone liked the basic storyline, the fact that we will be creating our own soundtrack as two members of our group are music technology students and will be using specific software to create this, and our ideas for our titles - the 3D movement effect especially. 
        Some of the improvements, or suggestions, made by our peers and teachers included highlighting the importance of our graveyard scene, that the cross-cuts between the killer's dark room and the woods is key, and that we need to make the context clear through use of mise-en-scene and sound. 
        This feedback allowed us as a group to evaluate our ideas and adapt them to create a detailed storyline and overall, a film that our target audience would like to watch. It also made us aware that we had to test the level of light in our locations before we start to film our opening, as difficulties tend to occur with footage being too dark and therefore being difficult to watch as an audience. We overcame this difficulty by going on 'location reccie's' to test whether the amount of light is suitable for the shots we need to make a successful horror/thriller opening sequence.

Group: Pitch

The link below will take you to our presentation of our pitch, including all of ideas, thought processes and our current situation with how we plan to use time management skills effectively so as to complete our film opening sequence on time.

Group 7 Pitch

FA: Location Reccie

St Thomas a Becket Church, Capel - 15th Feb

Pembury Old Church - 15th Feb

The purpose of these location reccie's was for each of us to visit a different graveyard to see which location would be best suited for our film opening sequence. Still images were taken in appropriate places in each graveyard to see if we would be able to recreate effective shots for a horror/thriller film.

Group: Mise-En-Scene

To make sure our group is completely organised, we have devised a list of everything to do with mise-en-scene which we are going to need throughout the filming process.

Props

• Flowers
• Bloody Knife
• Pictures of girl
• Picture of house
• Newspaper
• Mask
• Flower stall

Costumes

• Mask
• Dark clothes for killer
• Casual bright clothes for girl

Characters

• Anonymous killer
• Innocent girl

Locations

• Graveyard
• Woodland
• Pathway to woodland
• Cottage
• Flower stall

Group: Soundtrack Ideas

Child Laughing Sound

Creepy Music Sound

We decided to use a child laughing sound to create a conventional horror effect. We also want to use a 'jack in the box' sound to label the killer with. Aswell as this we will be creating our own soundtrack using Cubase sequencing software.

Group: Typography Ideas

This is a good example of the type of font we are looking for, it is almost slightly animated but with a dark and melancholy feel at the same time.

This one is represents a slightly more conventional horror which could be used to make our film seem more violent and bloody, however it is possibly a bit clichéd.

This is a good example of a subtle horror/thriller type font, it has the darkness of the previous fonts but with an almost action feel which connotes more of a thriller genre than horror.

This is a slightly more clichéd font, inspired by Tim Burton, it still has a horror feel but it doesn't take itself too seriously, so it would brighten the mood of an otherwise dark opening.


We plan to put a 3D effect on 'aftereffects' to create a large title which will move with the landscape scene framed in LS.

  

Group: Initial Audience Research

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3RSZKQW

Methodology

• surveymonkey.com is a website which allows questionnaires to be created, distributed and completed on the internet, making the task simple and easy to collect a reliable amount of results
• questions (mainly closed) were thought of and typed onto the website with appropriate answer boxes
• gains knowledge and advice from the target audience about their interests regarding horror/thriller films
• distributed using the internet, social networking sites and emails
• generates a variety of quantitative and qualitative data which can be analysed and displayed in graphs easily

Analysis of Answers

This question about which locations the target audience associates/finds most effective in horror films shows that filming for our production in the woods would be most suited to our genre. Shooting in an abandoned house and in a graveyard were also popular choices for the respondents.

This question about the killer and how much the audience can see of him and his identity proved that not being able to see the killer's face fully would be most suited to a horror/thriller genre of film.

This question about sound effects used in horror/thriller films proves that the target audience find silence and dramatic, tense music most effective in our chosen genre of film, which we will then be definitely using in our production.

Finally, the last question about important aspects in our genre shows that having an interesting plot line and a climax is most important and effective in a successful horror/thriller film.

Group: Moodboard

This moodboard was created to give our group a sense of conventions and common themes explored within horror/thriller films. However, its main purpose is to give us inspiration for our opening sequence, including plot, characters, props, lighting and locations.

TW: Technical Analysis

Casino Royale (Campbell, 2006)

 

Duration	Camera Techniques	Mise-en-scene
12	Low angle LS	Black and white  throughout, urban modern building, white text of location
5	Low canted angle CU	Man in stereotypical Russian hat looks around
5	Low MS canted	Side of building showing elevator
3	High CU canted	Man looks at elevator level number
4	CU	Elevator number increases
4	MS tracking	Follows man walking along corridor
7	Low MS, pan + track	Man opens door, shadows, props object view, reveals silhouette in chair opposite
1	CU	Man looks confused at something
1	MS	Open safe is revealed
3	CU-LS	Russian man turns reveals antagonist in chair
4	MS	Protagonist in chair
3	MS	Russian man walks to chair, bright lamp in shot
3	LS	Shows both characters at either ends of room, binary opposition
1	CU	Shows draw with gun inside
12	MS	Antagonist in seat, props obscure
8	LS	Shows both characters at either ends of room, binary opposition
4	MS	Antagonist in seat, props obscure
1	MS	Protagonist in chair
1	Birds eye MS	Cross cut to Fighting in toilet area, protagonist throws Indian man into toilet cubicle, more high key lighting than before but still black and white
1	CU	Protagonist attacks with angry facial expression
1	MS	From outside cubicle see agent try to punch enemy
2	Birds eye MS	Push through different cubicles
2	MCU	More hand to hand combat
1	CU	On door as they fly out
1	LS, low angle, pans down as fall	As fall onto floor, fighting continues
1	MS	Of protagonist as he gets up
1	MS	Indian man is kicked my american
1	MS	Indian male tries to attack with bin
1	LS low angle	Agent kicks bin
1	CU	Cross cut back to office, Extremely quick cut of Russian mans face
2	MS	Russian holding gun
2	MS	Protagonist looking unphased
8	CU	Russian man holding gun, pulls trigger but no ammo, signified by diegetic sound
3	MCU	Protagonist shows ammo
2	CU	Antagonist looking worried
2	MCU	Shot reverse shot, protagonist looks pleased, holds ammo in hand
6	CU	Antagonist talks, facial expression shows fear
2	MCU	Protagonist replies
6	MS	Cuts back to fight, Indian is thrown and strangled
2	CU	Being strangled
3	MS	Strangling by sink
1	CU on gun, high angle	Gun on floor

 Soundtrack

There is little non diegetic sound in the soundtrack when it is in the present showing the binary opposition. the diegetic sound and the dialogue builds the suspense, however there are sharp high pitched stabs  of strings to create tension. Unlike when it cross cuts to the fight scene there is a dense orchestral soundtrack emphasising the frantic action. Conveying the diffference is the type of tension.

Evaluation

I leant about the use of cutting rate to create tension, using short increases to crerae it. As well as the use the of little non diegetic sound can be as successful as using lots of diegetic dsound to create tension. CU should be used to highlight ey object ssuch as weapons. Also the use of camera positioning to reveal binary opposition between characters. Lots of different angles and distances are used to keep the clip interesting.