Tuesday 15 February 2011

what are your top tips for filming??

Some of my top tips for filming.

One of our main tricks we found vie a process of elimination, is when shooting a medium or close up of a character (when outdoors especially), is to use a mirror of large white sheet to counter the shadow on tone side of the character's face.

Another tips is when shooting a POV scene attach a light/torch to the camera, especially if the POV is for a thriller in the dark (as they usually are). this give more imidiate light to that ever the person if looking at, however it can backfire and look unrealistic if the light is too bright.

Target Audience

Age: Late teens to 30's. We feel this is an appeal to this age range as it being a thriller young children will not be watching our production, due to the fact it would be too complicated or disturbing for them to watch. And with the content that is in our film, we feel that late teens to adults is a good age group. 
Gender: Male and Female. All genders could enjoy and watch our film, due to the fact that it's a thriller, which both genders enjoy. Both genders can relate to the film.
Existing films similar to ones such as ours are; s7ven, The Shining and Psycho. Our target audience may enjoy these because they're all also thrillers and have a similar storyline.

Tuesday 8 February 2011

Why Thrillers Thrive

   The reason people go to the cinema to watch a thriller is because our civilization has blocked out the elements of what should be everyday life that allow us to feel 'thrills', and the only other way that people can feel this is to watch others doing so. To a degree getting your 'thrills' through a screen could be seen as the best alternative as you don't receive the consequences of getting them, consequences such as injury, or emotional scarring. Attending a cinema to get these 'thrills' allows the audience to be safer and secure when getting the their source of adrenaline.
 
   Whilst watching unconventional things of peoples everyday life unfold on a screen, the message that is eventually passed on to the audience is how the actions that unravel are only acceptable on the screen and not to be practiced outside of the cinema.

Shot List

Location Recce

Location one - Emilys house - Soham.
Interior - The only rooms in Emily's house that we will be using are the hall, the living room and the kitchen. We will use these for shots 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 and 9. The only risks I can find with filming in these areas is the fact that in the kitchen there are such utensils such as knifes and ovens and microwaves, and with all the equipment in there things might get knocked over or in the way.

Location two - The garage - Soham.
Interior - The inside of the garage is large but does have some items still in it. But this will make it look realistic. We will use this this location for shots 10 and 11. The possible risks that could occur would be if we used the loft, and using the stairs  to climb and up down the stairs.

Shooting Schedule

10:00am - Pick up equipment from college.

11:00am - Arrive at set location.

11:15am - Test shots. (Location 1)

11:45am - Film shot 1.

12:00pm - Film shot 2.

12:15pm - Break.

12:30pm - Film shot 3.

12:45pm - Film shot 4.

1:00pm - Break (check through footage)

1:30pm - Film shots 5 6 7

2:00pm - Film shots 8 9

2:30pm - Move to location 2.

2:45pm - Film shots 10 11 12.

3:30pm - FINISHED.

Friday 4 February 2011

Mise En Scene Blog

Costume -
Grace: Grace is a lower class single Mum, with not  a lot of money. So her costume will include trackies and a jumper/hoody. This will show and contrast with Harry's outfit due to that fact shes a lower class than him and is a lot less wealthy.
Harry - A suit, to show his importance and wealthiness. Smart hair and shoes also.

Location: We chose to use one of our group members homes for our opening scene, this is because the building is suitable. moreover, if we were to film in a public place other members of the public may get in the way (e.g. walking across our shot). we also chose to film our murder scene in one of our group members garage. we chose here because we think it will create the right kind of dark atmosphere which we want to display, and that is needed for thriller.

Lighting: The lighting will depend on the day itself when shooting the first few minutes of our sequence, although when Harry wakes up in the garage before being tortured, we will have to make it dark and shadowy. This will make the whole scene seem more dark and scary, and will create the right mood and atmosphere. We will use little lighting and make Grace's shadows heavy and dark, to make her seem more superior than Harry, as she in the one in control in this scene.

 Props: As Harry's buisness is involving bananas we will need a few for him to bring to Grace's house. Although the main area where props are needed is the torture scene, where we will need to all bring in some type of torture method. Although this could be dangerous, so they cannot be real.
Props such as : fake knifes, plastic guns and hammers, nails, matches. We realise that we have to be careful whislt using these toys and will take great care whist doing so.

Storyboard


Wednesday 2 February 2011

Digital Storyboard Frames (to be completed)









Script


Script

EXT
Harry (the brother) is walking down the road towards his sister’s house.  Shot of Harry walking which switches to a shot of Grace preparing torture methods.
Harry walks up to the door and knocks. He waits for a reply. Shot is taken to inside the house showing Grace (the sister) running to answer the door. Shows Grace opening the door.  Harry walks inside.
INT
Both of them walk into the living room and Harry sits down. They talk for a while. Grace gets up to go get them some drinks, the camera follows her. Shows her preparing the tea and pouring the poison in.  Harry drinks the tea and passes out. Harry then wakes up again in Graces shed. Shows Grace torturing Harry. End of scene.



Conversation/dialog:

Harry: hi grace, why did you call me over?
Grace: haven’t spoken in a while so thought we should have a catch up
Harry: oh well can I come in?
Grace: Yeah sure
(Harry and Grace walk in to the house and enter the living room)

Harry: how you been then?
Grace: yeah good thanks, how’s the business and that?
Harry: well you know, its all going good, still lots of money coming in.
Grace: brilliant. Would you like some tea?
Harry: yes please
(Grace enters the kitchen and makes two cups of tea, adding poison to Harrys. She then comes back to the living room and joins harry)
Grace: here you go
Harry: ah cheers
(Harry passes out)

The next scene starts with a POV view of Harry waking up in Grace’s garage, the camera looks down showing he is tied up. The scene proceeds to show Grace torturing and killing Harry.

The next scene starts with “6 months earlier”

Tuesday 1 February 2011

Thriller Opening Sequence Mind Maps


Feedback On Our Presentation

After presenting our plans and idea's we received criticism from the audience on what we're missing from our plan and what's good about it. We were told we had a good variety of idea's as our plans featured a few possible idea's. We were also told to think about sound, if music would be featured in our thriller and where and when we would apply it, where we then came to the conclusion that music will be featured but we have yet to go into the detail of where and when to feature it.
The sub genre of crime was good, but we were told that we had to make sure we apply it to the thriller in a clear simple way. A key feature of a crime thriller is that it normally features a murder so as our planned thriller involves a murder, this can express the sub-genre easily.