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.

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.

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!

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.

RESEARCH - COSTUMES AND PROPS

We began to think about how our costume and props could influence our piece's aesthetic as a whole.

We wanted a change in costume for the protagonist to show the change and threat that has taken place in her life. Since our opening shots are of her running, we probably want her in sports leggings and a hoodie with running shoes. Later to turn into tracksuit bottoms and a zipped up hoodie over her head and a big duffel bag containing all her belongings.

It is vital that we characterise our antagonist as powerful and wealthy. We thought a long dark smart coat would enhance this.

RESEARCH - IDENT

Idents are an important part of the marketing towards a productions company and also can be used with a sound bridge to enhance and the atmosphere set up for the film that is about to happen.
Whilst researching ideas for our own ident concepts we came across a selection of 'Film 4' idents as shown above. Ewan and I liked the composition of these indents though we know it isn't possible for us to create our own ident in a similar way. We liked the concept of a dark graphic, cleanly cut ident that was simple. We liked the motion animation of the film 4 indents which worked to create a slick, professional and thrilling ident. We aim to achieve the same effect with our own ident; though it is graphic and simple we want to make it edgy. Here are some indents we liked and thought would influence our ident design well: