This is our final version of our piece Night Falls Fast, by Ewan Leslie and Eliza Teale
Overall, we were happy with the way our Media product turned out. The action of our Protagonist running and panicking to escape the antagonist was followed through in the high speed editing and cross cutting.
This is also the final version of the music, which we were very happy with. we layered different atmospheric sounds along with the soundtrack to make our piece more thrilling and intense.
We used Cinematic Booms as well for some atmospheric effects, like our end titles.
If I were to improve my piece I'd like to have had more time to film and establish more professional locations so that i could use more lighting with some interior close up shots. This would help establish the characters more.
The task of creating only a 2 minute opening sequence was very difficult, if we had had a longer time frame, we would have been able to establish the characters more. From our audience research we found that they valued establishing a connection with the characters in thrillers as it got them more emotionally invested in the story and it therefore became more thrilling. However, in our opening sequence we think that the fast cutting chase sequence theme of it is exciting and thrilling, and we hope that leaving the narrative slightly unknown would work to make our audience want to continue watching.
Friday 20 March 2015
PRELIMINARY TASK
PRELIMINARY TASK
In our preliminary task we had to show we could successfully create a piece of film with a narrative and show proof of a match on action, a shot reverse shot and of obeying the 180 degree rule. The narrative was to follow someone's action down a corridor, into a room, across a room and then a conversation between two people.
My preliminary task went well, it was interesting to experience editing the footage and matching the action for myself, although it was difficult to get my actors to pay attention!
In our preliminary task we had to show we could successfully create a piece of film with a narrative and show proof of a match on action, a shot reverse shot and of obeying the 180 degree rule. The narrative was to follow someone's action down a corridor, into a room, across a room and then a conversation between two people.
My preliminary task went well, it was interesting to experience editing the footage and matching the action for myself, although it was difficult to get my actors to pay attention!
EVALUATION - QUESTION 7
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?
In our preliminary task we had to show we could successfully create a piece of film with a narrative and show proof of a match on action, a shot reverse shot and of obeying the 180 degree rule. The narrative was to follow someone's action down a corridor, into a room, across a room and then a conversation between two people.
The preliminary task introduced us to using formatting programmes such as Final Cut Pro. Although this was difficult to grasp at the beginning, I soon got the hang of it.
In using these programmes I figured out how to match on action and cut pieces of footage together to make a clean and clear piece of film.
This lead to our compulsory task 'The Package'. Each group was given the same objective: to create a film with the narrative of a package arriving and being placed on site at school. This process involved working in a group and learning how to incorporate transitions and music into our piece of film in Final Cut Pro.
These experiences were the foundation blocks of all the knowledge I have accumulated through completing this piece of media.
In working in a group, I learned that all shoots must be planned and organised with everyone's corporation. This lead to my development of my pitch and then story boards and shot lists of the piece to get an overall idea of how it would look. Planning like this allowed for mistakes and problems to happen and be solved quickly; a lesson I learned quickly from not having time to plan the shooting of 'The Package'. However, we still made mistakes during our shooting for our final piece, equipment was forgotten, not charged or even worse, left at school! Having already planned my piece and its shooting schedule before embarking on shooting it was valuable though, it allowed me in those moments of panic to think of a way around the problem and how what we were going to do instead.
'The Package' and my preliminary task helped me to understand that it was vital to take recce shots and to understand the location that we were filming in. Recce shots allowed us to see which locations worked on the screen instead of behind the camera. I learned that it was hard to get the perfect shot and you often weren't lucky in terms of lighting. However, through the recce shots, I was able to grasp an understanding of the location and are that I was filming in. Having already learned from 'The Package' that not only multiple shots are vital but multiple angles are vital too, I was able to get a clear image and understanding of each location I wanted to film in so that when it came to the shooting day, we were able to take more time on learning what shots we liked best rather than wasting time on setting up. Due to the planning we had done earlier, we were confident enough to experiment with different shots and angles and chose which ones we liked best with the location and lighting that we perhaps hadn't thought of on our storyboards.
In using these programmes in 'The Package', I began to get an understanding of how to use music, camerawork and editing to aid our film in creating a thriller atmosphere. In 'The Package' the camera had a perspective and a narrative of it's own. In our final piece I composed some shots from the new scenes that we added, to create a connection between the protagonist and the viewer. For instance the shot where our protagonist looks directly at the camera establishes a conversation and connection between the character and the viewer.
In our preliminary task we had to show we could successfully create a piece of film with a narrative and show proof of a match on action, a shot reverse shot and of obeying the 180 degree rule. The narrative was to follow someone's action down a corridor, into a room, across a room and then a conversation between two people.
The preliminary task introduced us to using formatting programmes such as Final Cut Pro. Although this was difficult to grasp at the beginning, I soon got the hang of it.
In using these programmes I figured out how to match on action and cut pieces of footage together to make a clean and clear piece of film.
This lead to our compulsory task 'The Package'. Each group was given the same objective: to create a film with the narrative of a package arriving and being placed on site at school. This process involved working in a group and learning how to incorporate transitions and music into our piece of film in Final Cut Pro.
These experiences were the foundation blocks of all the knowledge I have accumulated through completing this piece of media.
In working in a group, I learned that all shoots must be planned and organised with everyone's corporation. This lead to my development of my pitch and then story boards and shot lists of the piece to get an overall idea of how it would look. Planning like this allowed for mistakes and problems to happen and be solved quickly; a lesson I learned quickly from not having time to plan the shooting of 'The Package'. However, we still made mistakes during our shooting for our final piece, equipment was forgotten, not charged or even worse, left at school! Having already planned my piece and its shooting schedule before embarking on shooting it was valuable though, it allowed me in those moments of panic to think of a way around the problem and how what we were going to do instead.
'The Package' and my preliminary task helped me to understand that it was vital to take recce shots and to understand the location that we were filming in. Recce shots allowed us to see which locations worked on the screen instead of behind the camera. I learned that it was hard to get the perfect shot and you often weren't lucky in terms of lighting. However, through the recce shots, I was able to grasp an understanding of the location and are that I was filming in. Having already learned from 'The Package' that not only multiple shots are vital but multiple angles are vital too, I was able to get a clear image and understanding of each location I wanted to film in so that when it came to the shooting day, we were able to take more time on learning what shots we liked best rather than wasting time on setting up. Due to the planning we had done earlier, we were confident enough to experiment with different shots and angles and chose which ones we liked best with the location and lighting that we perhaps hadn't thought of on our storyboards.
In using these programmes in 'The Package', I began to get an understanding of how to use music, camerawork and editing to aid our film in creating a thriller atmosphere. In 'The Package' the camera had a perspective and a narrative of it's own. In our final piece I composed some shots from the new scenes that we added, to create a connection between the protagonist and the viewer. For instance the shot where our protagonist looks directly at the camera establishes a conversation and connection between the character and the viewer.
Or the handheld shot of the protagonist locking the door with keys which creates suspense, tension and thrills through the fast action and pace of the camera. This makes the viewer seem like they are in the position of the protagonist character themselves.
Or the over the shoulder close up shot that not only establishes the perspective of the protagonist but also makes the viewer seem like they are in the room with the character and experiencing the story themselves.
'The Package' and preliminary tasks overall gave me the tools and understanding work of the camera and the softwares that I needed to create a smooth shooting process and create a fluid clear aesthetic to our piece as a whole. They highlighted the importance of planning in advance and being confident when using the camera. They gave me the starter experience I needed to gain in order to tailor our piece to fit exactly the style and narrative we wanted to and therefore create as exciting a thriller as possible.
EVALUATION QUESTION 5
How did you attract / address your audience?
Initially Eliza and I decided to change our target audience from a lower age group to 20-30. This is because we discovered that younger ages where less keen on the idea of a social realistic thriller compared to a slightly older audience. This gave us a better idea of what the audience wanted and so allowed us to create a film specifically for that audience.
We rated our film a 15, and chose to target slightly older age group, but wanted to include the excitement of a thriller that might attract some of the younger age group as well. We generated a survey during our audience research, allowing us to see that it was the older age group that understood what a social realistic thriller was, which was the main motivation for our middle age group. We also learnt that people thought that the Mise En Scene and camera angles were very important in a thriller, and also the soundtrack, as these are all things that help make the thriller suspenseful. Through these studies we addressed our target audience and developed our product around these ideas to try and attract our audience.
Our audience response video is seen below:
We set up a Facebook page to help attract our audience, posting a survey to find out further what people were interested in. We continued to learn that a slow building suspenseful opening is what they wanted to see, and is hopefully what we achieved with our finished product. We really took into account what our audience suggested and developed our product around these ideas, which would help attract them, as they can then take more interest in our product.
We also wanted to attract our audience by having characters that people can relate to. The involved using verisimilitude to produce an opening that can involve the audience, to make it seem like a realistic plot so that they relate and take more interest in our product. We thought our soundtrack was a strong point to build suspense, as well as the contrasting settings, light and camera shots, which allowed for our slow building opening to be produced.
Survey response:
We also wanted to attract our audience by having characters that people can relate to. The involved using verisimilitude to produce an opening that can involve the audience, to make it seem like a realistic plot so that they relate and take more interest in our product. We thought our soundtrack was a strong point to build suspense, as well as the contrasting settings, light and camera shots, which allowed for our slow building opening to be produced.
Survey response:
Written by Ewan Leslie
EVALUATION - QUESTION 4
From our research and planning (vox pops, questionnaires and
online research) we found that an older audience of about 17-28 would enjoy our
film genre, psychological thriller, more. However, we hope to push the
boundaries by using a younger main protagonist and hope that this will open up
the range of our audience age to younger people too.
Our film is open and available to many different types of people, any gender and of any personality.
However, in order to understand the market audience for our film, we have compared our film to the
However, in order to understand the market audience for our film, we have compared our film to the
So, in general, we believe that a viewer interested in visiting arthouse cinemas like Greenwich Picturehouse or The Ritzy Brixton who enjoys developing an amateur critique of many different films would enjoy our film.
Since our film's plot is much like that of 'Taken', though in a completely different aesthetic, the audience who found the story of 'Taken' thrilling would also find ours thrilling. This would mean our audience could dip as low as 15 years of age.
We hope that through the distribution of our product would be available and attractive to all kinds of classes. However, since our film is a psychological thriller, we would aim it to be predominantly presented in city centre art house cinemas. This could mean that it might narrow our audience range as the prices might not be affordable to all classes of people in a city.
Essentially our audience for our film would be young adults (17-28) who are interested in psychological thrillers and go to art house cinemas regularly rather than blockbuster cinemas.
Eliza Teale.
EVALUATION QUESTION 3
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
There are two sides to the distribution process, that being two different styles: Independent and Major. Majors are large Hollywood companies, such Warner Bro's who distribute 18.3% of the films we see nowadays. Another example are United International Pictures who have distributed 10.2% in comparison to Warner Bro's. The films they distribute are often large; big budget Hollywood blockbusters then generate a large turn over profit, and work on a multi million-film budget. This is not the style of our film at all.
We would look to use a much smaller company, which release a larger range of films in comparisons to the larger companies. They target small independent audiences instead of world wide, allowing for more specific films to be distributed by certain companies. Companies like these often have very small budgets, using more general locations and less cgi. This is something our product incorporates.
An Art-house, or much smaller companies would most likely distribute our product. An example of this could be Vertigo, which is an independent British company who work on micro-budget productions. They are a London based company, who have previously worked with unknown thrillers and products. They generally aim their products at the British population, and would hopefully take interest in our small independent product. Film4 might also distribute our opening, with our minimalist indent, and low budget feel to the film.
There are two sides to the distribution process, that being two different styles: Independent and Major. Majors are large Hollywood companies, such Warner Bro's who distribute 18.3% of the films we see nowadays. Another example are United International Pictures who have distributed 10.2% in comparison to Warner Bro's. The films they distribute are often large; big budget Hollywood blockbusters then generate a large turn over profit, and work on a multi million-film budget. This is not the style of our film at all.
We would look to use a much smaller company, which release a larger range of films in comparisons to the larger companies. They target small independent audiences instead of world wide, allowing for more specific films to be distributed by certain companies. Companies like these often have very small budgets, using more general locations and less cgi. This is something our product incorporates.
An Art-house, or much smaller companies would most likely distribute our product. An example of this could be Vertigo, which is an independent British company who work on micro-budget productions. They are a London based company, who have previously worked with unknown thrillers and products. They generally aim their products at the British population, and would hopefully take interest in our small independent product. Film4 might also distribute our opening, with our minimalist indent, and low budget feel to the film.
Our ident has a sophisticated feel to it, with its minimalist style matching those that suit smaller independent companies. The titles are similar; creating interesting graphics that could be used on a larger film, but have a smaller budget feel and more of an arty presence. The rest of the titles, where only words are used compared to out actor titles, are dotted across the page, similar to the style of London to Brighton, a film that was low budget and was an inspiration for out product.
Written by Ewan Leslie
EVALUATION QUESTION 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms or conventions of real media products?
In the process of research and planning we investigated the conventions of thrillers for our own film introduction. We reviewed thriller openings including ‘Kidult hood’ and ‘London to Brighton’, taking notice of the social realistic style of the films and techniques used that we could include in our product.
It was clear there were some gothic representations, often shown through darker lighting and night time scenes, creating suspense and darker gothic tone. This created an almost horror type atmosphere, with the presumption that something bad is eminent. We wanted to develop this, creating both the suspense of a thriller while incorporating this darker gothic element. Both films mentioned above are social realistic, a genre that we wanted to incorporate into out product, as there was a natural feel to the shots that we thought we could develop into our piece. Thrillers often present action and pace, which is shown by the use of camera movement, and high speed cuts. We used this in our opening in the chase scene, sometimes using handheld shots and high speed cuts to represent the frantic situation and build suspense.
Annotated final cut:
Annotated final cut:
Written by Ewan Leslie
Thursday 19 March 2015
Rough Cut with finished Music
This is a second rough cut of our piece with a rough cut of music along with it.
Our friend Joe Reeves has composed the music himself.
We are happy with the way he has composed it, it is very nearly the finished piece that we want to use. It includes the urban modern techno sound to it whilst also being thrilling and fast pace.
We are very happy with the way it builds in tension, constantly layering the track.
We want to improve the soundtrack as we think it's a little too upbeat at the moment, we want it to be heavier and darker with some lower notes to build some more tension.
We have also added a new element to our narrative, we realised that it didn't make sense. People who were viewing our piece didn't understand why our Protagonist was on the run. We discovered it was vital that a threat or a change had to take place in order for the narrative to make sense.
Rough editing cut
There was a problem with uploading, the clip is not 7:45 mins long but in fact ends at 2:00 mins
This is a rough cut of our editing. Though we decided most of the editing and the way we wanted our piece to look like, most of the editing was done by myself whilst Ewan developed the graphics of the ident and the title sequence.
I tried to create a smooth finish with the editing; we wanted high speed cutting to create tension and thrills.
Elements of psychological thrillers includes high speed editing, motivated editing, cross cutting and a face pace thrilling soundtrack. We have tried to create this in our first rough cut of editing.
However, upon attempting to edit our piece at first to create a similar opening to our animatic, we realised that cross cutting between the two parallel times was confusing and didn't make sense.
We have tried to clarify our piece by changing our narrative slightly, so that our piece is not cross cutting between past and present but stays in the present the whole time and only cross cuts between locations.
We thought this would would make our piece easier to follow as the audience follows the story of the protagonist at the same time.
Monday 2 March 2015
Embarking on the Editing process
Embarking on the editing process was difficult. It required me to become accustomed with using 'Final Cut Pro'.
In terms of camerawork, I wanted to edit the piece as closely resemble a psychological thriller as much as possible. This included cutting the shots as close together as possible to create high speed editing. I cross cutted between shots on two different locations, interspersing shots of our protagonist running down a tunnel with panning and tracking shots of our antagonist. We hope that the change of speed of action during the scenes will cause tension and build suspense. The slow looming shots of the antagonist interspersed with shots of the protagonist rushing around her bedroom or running down a tunnel builds suspense. It was hard to find the right balance when editing, sometimes upon reviewing the editing I had done, I realised it had become so quick and fast pace that it was actually hard to follow and understand so I had to elongate some shots to make it more understandable.
We had problems with our narrative, and decided to reorder our series of shots to make our final version of our opening sequence more easy to follow. This included rearranging sequences of shots and tightening certain shots to move seamlessly into others. When editing two shots of our protagonist running, I tried to match up the end and beginning of each shot with the next foot our protagonist landed on. We experienced problems with continuity and had to reshoot some scenes. We include a variety of interior, exterior and low light and day light shots.
Sound was also hard to figure out on Final Cut Pro, all music and sound effects had to be matched directly to the video and we used fade in and outs in the music to build suspension. I had to edit the recording of our protagonist's mother in order to make the recording sound like it was coming from our protagonist's mobile phone. I learned how to enable and disable certain clips so i could layer the atmospheric sound that our composer sent us; for instance in shots of our antagonist i layered the original soundtrack with extra creepy atmospheric soundtrack to make it more eerie.
We decided if we used a title sequence inspired by 'True Detective' TV drama for every actor then it would become confusing. So, we have tried to match the 'True Detective' inspired photos on top of the film, using fade in and out transitions. We hope this defines the illusive, thriller aspect of our film.
In terms of camerawork, I wanted to edit the piece as closely resemble a psychological thriller as much as possible. This included cutting the shots as close together as possible to create high speed editing. I cross cutted between shots on two different locations, interspersing shots of our protagonist running down a tunnel with panning and tracking shots of our antagonist. We hope that the change of speed of action during the scenes will cause tension and build suspense. The slow looming shots of the antagonist interspersed with shots of the protagonist rushing around her bedroom or running down a tunnel builds suspense. It was hard to find the right balance when editing, sometimes upon reviewing the editing I had done, I realised it had become so quick and fast pace that it was actually hard to follow and understand so I had to elongate some shots to make it more understandable.
We had problems with our narrative, and decided to reorder our series of shots to make our final version of our opening sequence more easy to follow. This included rearranging sequences of shots and tightening certain shots to move seamlessly into others. When editing two shots of our protagonist running, I tried to match up the end and beginning of each shot with the next foot our protagonist landed on. We experienced problems with continuity and had to reshoot some scenes. We include a variety of interior, exterior and low light and day light shots.
Sound was also hard to figure out on Final Cut Pro, all music and sound effects had to be matched directly to the video and we used fade in and outs in the music to build suspension. I had to edit the recording of our protagonist's mother in order to make the recording sound like it was coming from our protagonist's mobile phone. I learned how to enable and disable certain clips so i could layer the atmospheric sound that our composer sent us; for instance in shots of our antagonist i layered the original soundtrack with extra creepy atmospheric soundtrack to make it more eerie.
We decided if we used a title sequence inspired by 'True Detective' TV drama for every actor then it would become confusing. So, we have tried to match the 'True Detective' inspired photos on top of the film, using fade in and out transitions. We hope this defines the illusive, thriller aspect of our film.
Sunday 1 March 2015
TITLES
Originally we were using this name (Night Falls Fast) for our ident, however we decided the name would be better suited to out film title due to research into the factual book named 'Night Falls Fast'. We created a logo for the ident already, but then decided that we could try and incorporate it into our titles for the film. This is shown below:
The graphics wouldn't necesarily be on a dark background, but could be overlaid on the video, such as the still shot shown below:
Saturday 28 February 2015
Ewan's Post on Ident
Here is our ident, we wanted the minimalist feel of an independent company, while maintaining enough motion and for it to be swift but interesting. We used a simple fade for the 'Productions' and slowed the spin of the EE as the ident then fades to black.
It was all made using motion.
PLANNING - IDENT
We planned our ident to be clean and simple with a simple rotation motion.
Our Production studios name is "EE Productions". We hoped this would be memorable for our audience and enhance the sleek font effect we have used throughout our entire film.
This is our finished ident, we had some trouble with creating the motion in the application 'Motion' but got there win the end! We're very happy with the way it has turned out.
Our Production studios name is "EE Productions". We hoped this would be memorable for our audience and enhance the sleek font effect we have used throughout our entire film.
This is our finished ident, we had some trouble with creating the motion in the application 'Motion' but got there win the end! We're very happy with the way it has turned out.
Saturday 21 February 2015
SHOOT NUMBER 2 - COMPLETED
Our second shoot went well!
The footage looks good, none of the batteries on the lights ran out this time (as they did last time) THANK GOD!
We had already begun to edit before we did our second shoot so now we are matching up the shots from the second shoot in replace of the old shots.
It is also appearing to be very difficult to match the sound recordings exactly with the actors on video!
The footage looks good, none of the batteries on the lights ran out this time (as they did last time) THANK GOD!
We had already begun to edit before we did our second shoot so now we are matching up the shots from the second shoot in replace of the old shots.
It is also appearing to be very difficult to match the sound recordings exactly with the actors on video!
Saturday 14 February 2015
SHOOT NUMBER 2
After looking and attempting to edit the footage from the first shoot we have had to schedule a second shoot.
There are gaps in the narrative that don't make sense; the audience don't understand why our protagonist is running away from our antagonist.
So, we have created new scenes to be filmed in our second shoot.
Also to be filmed in our second shoot are some reshoots of night shots that didn't come up very well on the screen due to lighting. We also had continuity problems: there were shots of our antagonist packing a bag but then running with out it.
This is becoming very difficult!
Thursday 5 February 2015
SHOOT NUMBER 1
A successful first day of shooting done and finished! We managed to remember all the equipment on the last day but forgot some lighting equipment on the first day so we will have to see how the footage turns out before we can judge whether we want to use all the footage!
Ewan and I took turns in recording both the sound and the filming and we got a variety of shots from all sorts of angles and different locations.
Can't wait to show you guys!
Ewan and I took turns in recording both the sound and the filming and we got a variety of shots from all sorts of angles and different locations.
Can't wait to show you guys!
PLANNING - COSTUME/PROPS/ACTORS
Here are some screenshots from some of the footage we recently filmed to show the costumes and props developments and how they have altered slightly.
Monday 2 February 2015
PLANNING - SHOOTING SCHEDULE
This is the first edit of our shooting schedule although it had to be changed because our actor (Meredith Mack) dropped out. However, we used the same dates to do all the same shots just with our other actor (Grace Teale). Although when we decided to add another scene for our narrative to make sense, we did have to do another day of shooting. We also reshot some of the night shots to see if we could get some clearer shots of our protagonist in better lighting.
Sunday 1 February 2015
PLANNING - Dialogue
On deciding a dialogue, a conversation over the phone between our protagonist and her mother, we have drafted a script:
Mum:
''Hey darling''
''Hope you had a good day, how are you?''
''When will you be back?''
''Okay see you soon! Have fun!''
Mum:
''Hey darling''
''Hope you had a good day, how are you?''
''When will you be back?''
''Okay see you soon! Have fun!''
Thursday 29 January 2015
OUR FIRST SHOOT - 18th JANUARY 2015
OUR FIRST SHOOT
Unfortunately, despite our media teacher's warnings (and threats) Ewan and I were unable to film more than a recce shoot today. We had failed to charge al of the equipment to maximum capacity in preparation for our shoot.
However, we managed to get a shot of our Protagonist (Sara played by Meredith Mack) in the location we wanted to use for our opening scene and possibly with the same sort of lighting that we aim to capture in our end product.
Ewan and I chose this location (the Southbank) because we felt it encapsulated the urban effect we were aiming to achieve, yet the reflection from water (of the river Thames) gave slightly eery, mysterious look in winter weather.
In actual fact, Ewan and I captured a shot where the sunlight was reflecting off the water left on the pavement, framed with large trees on either side. We thought this was quite beautiful, against the urban backdrop of London.
DISCLAIMER: we haven't quite yet mastered the act of uploading footage to youtube under the correct title......
However, we managed to get a shot of our Protagonist (Sara played by Meredith Mack) in the location we wanted to use for our opening scene and possibly with the same sort of lighting that we aim to capture in our end product.
Ewan and I chose this location (the Southbank) because we felt it encapsulated the urban effect we were aiming to achieve, yet the reflection from water (of the river Thames) gave slightly eery, mysterious look in winter weather.
In actual fact, Ewan and I captured a shot where the sunlight was reflecting off the water left on the pavement, framed with large trees on either side. We thought this was quite beautiful, against the urban backdrop of London.
DISCLAIMER: we haven't quite yet mastered the act of uploading footage to youtube under the correct title......
Friday 23 January 2015
ACTORS ARE FLAKEY!!!
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the actor playing our Protagonist has had to pull out of our project.
Although this is difficult and challenging for us as we had thought that this particular actor would be perfect in the role of our protagonist, we have met adversity with courage.
Despite our desire to cast our protagonist role as older than our age range, due to desperation and availability of our potential actors, we have had to cast the main role to my younger sister, Grace, aged 13.
This is not ideal as you can imagine, and anticipate that in the filming and editing process, we may have to alter our narrative slightly in order for it to make sense with our protagonist.
Although this is difficult and challenging for us as we had thought that this particular actor would be perfect in the role of our protagonist, we have met adversity with courage.
Despite our desire to cast our protagonist role as older than our age range, due to desperation and availability of our potential actors, we have had to cast the main role to my younger sister, Grace, aged 13.
This is not ideal as you can imagine, and anticipate that in the filming and editing process, we may have to alter our narrative slightly in order for it to make sense with our protagonist.
PLANNING - SOUNDS
Our final inspiration for our finished soundtrack was from this scene in the french film "Tell No One". Although the building guitar strumming with the atmospheric sound slightly contrasts the scenes that are being shown, it builds tension and suspense whilst still being thrilling. We used this to aid our composer Joe Reeves to compose a similar piece of music.
Saturday 17 January 2015
LIGHTING PRACTICE
Here is a task we were set in practicing using lighting before we began filming. W e experimented with making flat weather into interesting lighting through the composition of the shot. We also experimented with using filler lights and spotlights in an interior atmosphere. We learned a lot about where to position the lights and how long their battery packs last for, hopefully avoiding them running out during our night shoots!
Friday 16 January 2015
PLANNING - LOCATION
For our locations, we are using an estate in New Cross Gate (south east London). This estate is undergoing maintenance and is covered in scaffolding, hopefully presenting a deserted estate within the film. There is this one light that stays on all the time, just above the stairways which we will use as the protagonist is being chased. Below shows some of the pictures of the estate. We will be filming here when dark.
As well as this estate, Ewan and I will be filming at the south bank in the very opening of the film. We did a recce where the light was reflecting off the wet floor with the shadows of the trees contrasting to give a really interesting shot. This is shown as below:
However, our protagonist has changed now and probably so will the composition of the shot.
PLANNING - TARGET AUDIENCE
After doing our audience research, Ewan and I decided to change our target audience from a lower age group to 20-30. This is because we discovered that younger ages where less keen on the idea of a social realistic thriller compared to a slightly older audience.
This gives us a better idea of what the audience wants and so will allow us to create a film specifically for that audience.
This gives us a better idea of what the audience wants and so will allow us to create a film specifically for that audience.
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