Day 2 Filming

Second day of filming we  got alot done very quickly, we took our first footage watched it and tried to annalyse where the best camera angles and effects could be used, we then spoke and decided to re take some shots to get the perfect camera angles for our opening sequence. We was worried that people might be able to notice that we did more filming on a different day but everything worked out well!

Editing Day 2

Today we were able to go back into the studio after the electrocuting incident before. After connecting everything up we were able to get a quarterof the editing done in about 5 hours with some breaks! We are now planning when next to meet at dans so we can carry on with out editing.

Personal Response

So far I think our groups been getting on really well we have all contributed to the ideas and each one of us have noticed our strengths and weaknesses, we decided when we would meet, our days of editing and planning and how we would work round everything. I have a small part in the opening scene in the boot of the car, we have decided before filming my part I would help with props and some of the camera work along with alice and luke , we have a clear outline and plan of our film and this is helping things to be more quick and easy for us all.

Editing Day 1

Today we all went to Dans house and carried on working in his editing studio we used and iMac with the fina cut pro and 2 studio monitor speakers. The day went well, and we all worked together until Dan electrocuted himself an we had to go home to edit more another day until we was safe to go back in there!

First day of filming

Day 1

On our first day, we all met at Dans house quite early on a sunday!About 10 o clock, as we knew we would have a full day of filming ahead of us, and needed to be quite quick. We decided Dans would be the most appropriate place to film, as the industrial estate was only round the corner, and he had been insured to drive the car so we could get the right shots of him.

We brought round all our planned props, and Alice helped me to put on makeup to make the effect of the young girl in the boot being hurt and tired and look like she'd been in there for quite some time. After getting ready the costume for the male character, and deciding where we would take each shot, we went to the bathroom which had good lighting to show his face and to introduce the idea of blood when he cuts himself, this took quite long as we were actually trying to make Dan cut himself! So instead we used red food colouring which looked effective with an over the shoulder close up shot.

After getting the right shot, we then continued with Dans morning routine, this showed him putting a tie on, we took many shots of this as we were trying to figure out what would look effective with the narration. We firstly had planned to go straight from the first shot of him shaving jumping straight into the shot in the mirror of him doing his tie up. I thought that could be quite boring and not effective so we then took another shot of 180 degrees tracking shot, to keep the audience intrested.

We went through step by step of how our sequence would go, the next step getting the shot of alice saying goodbye to dan, we decided not to film alice as she had no importance to the film we did not want to interfere with the main character.
I had an idea to film the shot of him driving off out the top bedroom window as well as from behind the car,  from the side and many different angles, however the shot from the bedroom window did not work as well as I thought so we decided not to use this shot.

The next scene we had to shoot was driving to the industrial estate, to the main climax of the film intro. We took many shots from different angles of dan driving, we put the camera over the shoulder shot, and also had a close up of behind the wheel of the car which added effect.

We then took some shots of Dan driving down the road showing the surroundings, and of him getting out of the car. I then had to get the props ready, with the gag round my mouth, and hands tied up, mess my hair up and look like i'd been dragged about a bit.  I then was being filmed from looking down, from a distance to see the situation I was in, with me struggling and screaming.  I thought a good shot would have been of me in the boot with the camera of my face and then one of looking up at him, to show his power over me, but the group disagreed and so we just took the shot of him slamming the boot down and his face of him laughing.

I thought our first day of filming went really well!! and everyone got along. We all had our own input and we knew our plan for what we had to do so there was no confusion on the day. Watching back on the clips everything worked well. I cant wait to start editing to see our final sequence!

Prop List

Props List

For our first day of filming we had to create a quick and ruff check of what we would need for that day at dans house.

Male Character 
Long black coat
Ordinary work clothes- Trousers, Shirt
Hair- Neat


Female Character 
Ordinary clothing 
Black tired eyes
Messy hair
Gag in mouth
Hands tied back

Teachers Feedback

Mrs Thrashers Feedback

Group y2

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After Mrs feedback we took this into consideration and had a group meeting to discuss the points she noted on.

Our Finished Storyboard

Our first inital group storyboard showing the shots we plan to take.

Group y

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Group y3

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We chose 4 main shots from the sequence to show the camera angle, sound, titles, visula style/transactions and notes on the shots.

Planning our opening sequence

This was a group discussion on what we all thought would work well it included our theme, storyline, location, costume and props and characters.  I think this lesson our group worked well and we agreed on most things.

Preleminary

To help practice for our opening sequence and so that we could get used to working as a group and using final cut, we was asked to produce a Preliminary sequence that we could practice using the camera angles and use group discussion and work around how we would take out a short sequence which helped to prepare for our opening sequence. We experimented a range of shots, close ups, zoom, panning shots e.t.c from what we had learnt in lesson.

Production Guide- Planning our opening sequences

On our first group lesson together we sat and discussed our initial ideas and plans of what we had drawn on a story board to compromise and decide on how we was going to film our opening sequence.  We all had different perceptions on how it could be filmed the best. I had decided that I thought the best opening would be of a man standing in the middle with an over the shoulder shot to show him washing his hands with blood I found this idea from a scene in psycho. I also had the idea of a girl been drove of in a boot to a forest I was influenced from this idea by the front cover of the movie eden lake . Both my ideas were used however slightly changed. We compromised to have the male actor doing daily routine leaving his house with him cutting his face with a razor which introduces the idea of blood. We also changed the young girl in the boot to be in the setting of an industrial estate which I disagreed would be the best idea however compromising the group had to work together. We then had to contribute all into creating our storyboard by giving our ideas, and shot ideas roughly and writing them down before we would draw the storyboard so we were planned ahead. 

Film Idea

We all contributed to creating our horror opening sequence, we each produced a storyboard and discussed what the best idea would be,We decided to use my idea of the girl in the boot as our ending part to the opening sequence, however i thought the location should be in a forest but after a group vote we went with dans idea to have it in an industrial estate to be original.  This seemed to get everyones attention, helped that it was easy to access using dans car, and we got permission to use the industrial estate.  Dans idea to add the idea that we should present the male character as a normal man to lead to confusion for the audience as the character leads a secret life of murder. Luke helped contribute to the idea that the film would be based on a kidnapping story as he talks about other people that our involved.



 

Research of Horror films and opening sequences

Research developed into opening sequence


I have researched horror films by looking on google and viewing popular opening sequences this gave me an insight to how they get the audiences attention, by creating mystery that the audience will question whats happening and intrigue them, we adapted mystery into the opening sequence by having an ordinary man living a normal life but leading a separate life of physchological maniac the part of him that enjoys kidnapping young girls. i also researched the history of horror films.

History of horror movies 


Horror films are unsettling films designed to frighten and panic, cause dread and alarm, and to invoke our hidden worst fears,  often in a terrifying, shocking finale, while captivating and entertaining us at the same time in a cathartic experience. Horror films effectively center on the dark side of life, the forbidden, and strange alarming events. They deal wit our most primal nature and its fears: our nightmares, our vulnerability, our alienation, our revulsion's, our terror of the unknown, our fear of death and dismemberment, loss of identity, or fear of sexuality.

Day1

Today we got put in to our groups. Our Group Media P- Me, Alice Piner, Daniel Drinkwater and Luke Smith. We spoke and got on quite well, we spoke about what sort of films intreseted us, what type of genres we watch, they were all completely different but I felt we all got on well and we all had different skills that would be contriubted into making a good opening sequence as a group.

After this lesson we then indiviually went away and researched the genre of our opening sequene