Week Plan - 2nd March

This week we will be filming. Our group and individual plan for the weeks lessons & extra work is as followed:
Monday 2nd (Today): we will be mainly brushing up on our blog posts today & also practicing some more shots if we have time.
Alex - today Alex is going to edit the shots we practiced last lesson (Friday) and add them to our previous weeks plan on the blog. He will also be finishing the last three question analysis' of the survey. 
Amy & Sophie - Today Sophie & Amy are going to have a look through the filming criteria on the brief to make sure we have done everything we need to do to ensure we are ready for tomorrow. This includes creating the risk assessment, making sure our equipment is booked, and if posted writing on the practice shots from Friday.

Tuesday 3rd (Filming): We are going to be filming tomorrow. We will be meeting in East Grinstead at 8.30am and will aim to be in the woods, set up by 9-9.15am. We need to start filming in the woods due to our specific need for a 'morning' feel to the scene, so we will complete the flashback shots (being shot in a private machinery room owned by Sophie's dad) after the woods. We will be finishing filming and getting a bus at 1.20pm.

Friday 6th (Editing): On Friday we will begin with the editing of our opening. 
 

Filming criteria

The Filming

1. Book filming equipment in advance

2. Leave your £10 returnable deposit - No deposit, No equipment.

3. All equipment borrowed must be returned at the same time and by the person who paid the deposit

4. Document evidence of having organized transport, actors, props etc

5. You must set the White balance – document this on a post

6. Set up your lighting and follow any Health and safety procedures (if using red Heads) and document

7. Film yourselves setting up the shoot – costume, make up preparations, discussions etc.

8. Follow the SANDWICH procedure

9. Dialogue needs to be filmed on a voice recorder, in addition to the camera. 

10. Use a tripod

11. Shoot each scene several times

12. Use a makeshift clapperboard to help you organize footage later in the editing suite.

13. Don’t break the 180 degree rule

14. Be wary of continuity.  If you film a character in a white dress, it would be odd if she were to suddenly be seen in different clothes.  Using a digital camera at the beginning of a shot can be useful, as a checking mechanism to ensure nothing in the scene has altered. You can upload this evidence to the blog.

15. Get into the habit of filming yourselves in discussion immediately after a film shooting.  Consider how it went?  What problems did you experience?  What have you learnt from the experience?  What can you improve for next time?

Audience Feedback (Survey Results)

(1) This question shows us what age ranges have responded to our survey. Our target audience (15-18) are the majority respondents which allows us to really see how our opening will appeal to them. We are able to not only see individual responses in this age range but in the others as well which shows us how other age groups will respond.

(2) This question gives us the main idea of whether thrillers appeal to our audience. The majority response being 'sometimes' lets us know that it depends on the film and storyline more that the genre itself this allows us to focus on how the opening looks and making sure it captures attention.

(3) This question helps us see how intense we should make our opening. The majority response was one below 'very' showing it should be intense but not terrifying allowing us to put a limit on how far we go into the thriller genre.

(4) This questions help us to see how effective our idea of flashbacks will be on the audience. The overall answer was no, which is positive for our opening. However 14 people out of 37 did respond as well, meaning that in able to appeal to the audience fully we need to be careful and selective with when and where we place the flashbacks in order to avoid any confusion or misleading information.

(5) This was definitely an overall answer of Yes. This is very helpful for us as a very important aspect to our opening is that the man is seen but has a hidden identity. The results have shown that our expectations of the effect of this were right and this will hopefully be effective.

(6) The majority answer here is Yes. This is very helpful for our planning process as our piece includes a climax of action which end on a generally quite tense outcome (revealing the shadowed mans face). We have specifically planned to build up the tension in the middle of the opening and have an almost anti-climax (the women is fine in the forest following flashbacks - continues running) however we are also adding tension and enigma by showing the man following her (present day) in the woods. This will create tension at the end of the opening, and these results can confirm that this will be effective.



(7) As we can see the majority answer for the question "In your  opinion should the storyline be clear from the opening sequence?" we found the answer is yes. this means that our opening will need to  understandable for the audience on what is going on in the opening.

(8) Many people were not sure on if there should be more than 2 or 3 characters in the opening sequence. but for our sequence the maximum amount of characters we are having is 2.

(9) For the question "if mildly disturbing/ creepy shot flashed onto the screen would this put you off of the sequence?" 83.78% of our viewers suggested no while 16.22% said yes

Week Plan - 24th Feb

Because of the way all three of our timetables work, we are unable to film until next Tuesday (3rd March). So we are setting some goals for the this week to achieve that will contribute towards the pre-production planning.
We want to use this week to practice the shots & lighting we plan to use so that filming will be efficient we can get it done as quick as possible.

Tuesday (Today): Firstly, we have made a survey. Today we need to review the results from the 37 responses and come to conclusions based on what the audience feedback has said. After this, we are going to practice lighting. We will be focusing on the lighting in the flashback sequence as we need to create a specific atmosphere (mystery, fear, etc) and keep the man a hidden identity. All photos taken will be posted to the blog.
Friday (27th Feb): We plan to practice shots in this time. Especially the tracking shots following the running women as we again need to create an effect which makes it feel like the audience are following her. We will also be exploring the camera angles we have planned for the same reason. All practices will be posted to the blog.

Lighting
We went through the shot list and picked specific shots we wanted to create in practice. We found this so helpful in getting a sense of the kind of atmosphere we want to create through the lighting. Here are a few examples:

We chose to try out a shot sequence in the flash backs that show the male character walking alongside a counter, this consists of shots focusing on the characters hand and legs. The first shot we tried was a close up on the characters hands running along side the counter, we decided we want to have his legs in shot. We created this with one LED light on medium strength from above the character.

Using the same lighting as the previous shot, we created the medium close up of the character walking along the side (from his mid thigh down)

(2) Next we decided to replicate a CU we have planned of the women's (in the flashback - been kidnapped) foot moving from out of a spotlight into darkness/ a shadow. (In the actual shot she will be bare foot) we did this using again, one LED light coming from above (slightly at an angle) her foot, with the strength very low however close to the subject. We want to create mystery in this shot.

To experiment, we then tried adding some filters to the light. Not many made a significant difference to the shot, however the purple filter sheet (used in the shot above) did make a difference to the shot. The purple definitely made the shot more interesting and enticing, however it did also take away some of the darkness and mystery. We are not 100% sure on this shot yet.

(3) Third we were keen to try and create some of the shots of the mans face (trying to keep his identity hidden). This was definitely harder than expected and took us quite a few times to get it right. We created both shots with one LED light and no filters. The top shot we tried to create by placing the light directly behind him, however it ruined the shot as we couldn't see anything. So we worked out that putting the light directly on top of him created the mysterious effect we wanted - only lighting up his hood and cap.

This is our favorite one we based this on a specific picture we found on Google (used to describe his costume on a previous blog post).

Audience Feedback

In order to get audience feedback throughout the planning, filming and editing of our project we have made an account with survey monkey and have constructed a survey to collect ideas from our target audience. Also we will see how different age group will interpret our thriller opening.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Q37B8ZF

With our target audience being young people ages 16-21, we are going to share the link mainly via social media. eg/ Facebook & Twitter. Additionally we will be targeting our friends. 

Animatics

Without Sound:

With Commentary:

The Plan of Lighting in The Opening Thriller

The setting of the film will take place around morning outside in the woods. So the main source of lighting will come from the sun. However, when filming we will be using a variety of LED lights and reflectors to balance the lighting in our sequence.