Final Film

Rough Cut Two

Audience feedback

Charlotte Morrison-18
Positives

• Good use of non diegetic sound
• Good integrated titles
• Good range of camera angles, tilts, pans and close ups
• Obvious genre

Negatives

• Could have varied camera angles
• Shaky camera at some points

Mollie Rose Turkentine-17
Positives

• Non diegetic music made story clear
• good fast pace
• Story line was clearer and easier to understand
• Obvious genre

Negatives

• Can tell actor is reading
• Pill bottle out of focus
• Days should have been made clearer

Caitlin Scott- 17
positives

• Music matched and enhanced mood
• Liked the integrated titles
• Obvious genre

Negatives

• Untidy handwriting
• Sometimes it was unfocused (camera)

Steven Adcock- 16
Positives

• Good use of lighting
• Props were effective
• Good music

negatives

• Writing could have been neater
• days should have been made clearer

Feedback gathered by Olivia Saltmarsh

Rough Cut One

Audience feedback
Mollie Rose Turkentine- 17
Positives

• Good alarm clock framing
• Liked the camera angles, especially pans

Negatives

• Non diegetic sound would make story clearer
• Very slow paced

Steven Adcock- 17

Positives

• speech was clear
• Liked the different lighting
• Liked titles

Negatives

• Not enough happened in the time
• Music would be good

James Dye- 15

Positives

• It built tension, wants to see the rest
• Webcam scenes made him feel like the character was talking to him

Negative

• Needs music
• very slow not a lot happened it would be better if things were quicker.

Feedback gathered by Olivia Saltmarsh

Our target audience

Our film is going to be certified as 15, this is because most of the films we had researched were of a 15 certificate. We will make sure that our film adheres to all the protocol given by the BBFC to make it suitable and reduce the need for censorship. After looking at certification guidelines its clear that our film will make it into the 15 brackets, mainly because there will be minimal physical violence in our film, as we are making a psychological thriller the violence will mainly be psychological. The violence included will not be glamorised and portrayed in a negative light. We have also considered the way we are portraying Harry's medication. We have made sure that the pills are obviously prescribed and when he comes off the pills we have made the reaction a negative one so to show his anger in a negative light.

Our film will be geared more to the male demographic as I found from my audience research that thriller films usually appeal more to the male market. As our film is a 15 its left it very open to most of the population to be able to see it. It's not much of a worry that we lose people under the age of 15 because we found through our research that people under the age of 15 are more likely to watch a comedy or rom-com.

Alfred Hitchcock is one of the most influential psychological thriller directors of our time and his film's are inspiration for ours, his films Psycho and the Birds are bother certified 15 so I'm confident our certificate and target audience are correct.

Our film is likely to appeal to the social demographic C1, C2, D and E. This is because people of demographic group A and B are more likely to want to watch something more educated and possibly policital. The top layer of this film could be associated with the hypodermic needle theory but members of the demographic group C1 or E may be able to find the under layers and find the uses and gratifications of the film. Our film is going to be certified as a 15 so it will have to mainly appeal to demographic group E. most teenagers are automatically in demographic group E because most of the time they are students and even if they do have a part time job they will still mainly relay on other for income.

Olivia Saltmarsh

Filming day two

Our second filming day was on the 25th of March. We had learnt from our mistakes of our first filming day and made sure we were completely organised and ready to film. Before we went to our location to film we made a definitive plan of what we were going to film when and how we were doing our titles. It was decided that it would be best to film as much of it as we could in chronological order. We acknowledged the fact that this could take us longer to film but due to our problems before we thought it was important to make sure our titles are in the right order.

We chose to do it on the 25th because it was the start of daylight savings time. This meant we had an extra hour of light which we needed because we quickly ran out of light on our last filming day. It also meant our lighting would be more continuous because we wouldn't have to increase the amount of artificial lighting we used as the natural lighting faded. We also wanted to use as much natural lighting as we could to give the film more realism which is a convention of independent film.

We understood how to use our equipment better in this filming session. we used the tripod more efficiently when filming as before we hardly used it. This wasn't much of a problem but there were sometimes wobbles when someone was filming by holding the camera. By using the tripod more and making the bulk of our film look smoother when we moved into the hand held part of it the difference would make more of an impact on the audience. Also after looking at some of the clips we filmed before we noticed that there was some background noise when we zoomed. In some clips there will be music playing over the top and the clip can be muted so we can get around that but in some clips we need the internal sound so we decided to re film those bits and physically move the camera instead of zooming to reduce the whirring.

We realised that the mise in our first set of clips was sometimes not quite right, for instance we still had some posters on the wall of our location this made our film look more armature and less organised as the mise wasn't right and some of the props didn't fit. We decided that it was really important to put this right so on our second filming day we re-evaluated the mise of the room and changed some things around to improve this.

We have one or two scenes left to film after this session. On of them is on a different location and is to be filmed outside, we have considered the health and safety aspect of filming outside near a road so have decided to film during the day on a street we know will be quiet. A good thing about doing it during the day is that all of our actors and our crew will be in the same place all day which gives us scope as to when we are planning on filming. We are also considering re filming a few scenes to improve the look and continuity of them.

Olivia Saltmarsh

Filming Day One

Our first day of filming was a learning curve. We had to stop off at someones house to get costumes, wasting time and light. This has shown us that we should have the desired costumes at hand, and have over come this by keeping the costumes at our location.

We have decided to integrate our film titles into our film. This means that we need to be more organised a know exactly what title we want in what shot and how we are going to integrate it. However, we were not prepared for this and did not have all of our titles premade. We also did not film in chronological order, making it difficult to judge where the titles should be. This has shown us that we should have all of our titles ready when we are going to film. We are also going to film in chronological order to ensure that we have the titles in the correct places.

Lighting was another issue we encountered. As filming went on, we lost the continuity of light. As a result, we tried shading various lights however the continuity did not improve and we shall re film certain shots to gain this continuity. As the clocks go forwards, we will have more natural light and therefore more time to film.

Becky Rose

Film Schedule Sunday 25th March

We decided to film on Wednesday 21st March from 4.00 till 7.00 pm, we filmed quite a few scenes but due to natural light and some organisation problems we have decided to re-film some of the footage to improve each shot.

We are Filming again on Sunday 25th March and to combat the problems that occurred on Wednesday we have decided to organise and plan this film more, we Have created a film schedule in order to have every ready and film quickly without wasting time deciding what to do, we have planned the order in which tasks will be carried out in order to take full advantage of the natural light.

Sunday 25th March will also be a good day to film as the clocks go forward an hour on midnight on Saturday 24th giving us an extra hour of natural light to take advantage of when filming

Schedule

• 4.00pm - Filming starts and everyone is going to travel to the film destination where the equipment will already be set up to save time when filming.
• Re-film - We will start off by re-filming the first set of titles we have integrated into our film, this includes the main actors' and actress' names and the title of our film, we filmed these on Wednesday although we are not sure of the quality of the footage produced and whether we will be using it, we have decided to re-film so that we have a variety of footage to choose from and cut together for optimum quality in our final used footage.
• We then decided to film the shots in chronological order as we are integrating our title and this will stop us from getting confused about the placement of our titles.
• First Morning Routine - we are shooting our first morning routine in order again so that we can take advantage of the lighting in order to improve from Wednesday's filming, this will include: The awakening scene, Shower scene, The Pills scene, Harry getting dressed and having breakfast.
• We will then film both the Monologues for Harry videoing himself as this is the only real use of dialogue in the entire opening and it will be easier for us to film these both together as the lighting will be the same for each and we will be using the same equipment just having our main character changing costume.
• lastly we will (judging on natural light) film one of our last scenes in which our main character charges out of his house with a handheld camera, we will use a match on action shot in order to professionally complete this scene and to complete this we may use two cameras so that both pieces of footage will fit together well.

 Robert Thurgood Phillips

Film Schedules

When we as a group had discussed completely what to film for our opening sequence we decided to film,  we filmed for three days, Wednesday 21st of March, Sunday 25th of March and finally the following thursday 29th April 2012, after completing filming on these days we had almost all the required footage to create a very professional film, we encountered a few problems with organisation, but we figured our a solution to these problems and developed as a group in order to prevent these problems in the future.

Wednesday 21st of March. 

We had completed our planning and were ready to film our first lot of footage for our opening sequence, we had our full film synopsis and also our opening sequence synopsis completed and we knew the footage we needed to get, we planned to walk back to our primary film location and film the scenes in chronological order. 

The filming equipment was in hand and there was no confusion as to how we were going to film our footage, it was 4.00pm we we arrived at location and once our actor for Harry was in character we were ready to film, we filmed the waking scenes and the alarm clock scenes, each about for times in order to have plenty of footage to choose from when editing. 

we also filmed the bathroom scenes, of which parts were chosen for final footage, we had then realised we were not entirely co-ordinated and prepared for which scenes to shoot or how we were going to go about it, therefore this had to be decided and agreed on before filming could continue, and a majority of the opening scenes were not filmed at all.

After realising the problem at school and also noticing the natural light for our waking scenes was not able for use we decided that we had to prepare better for the next week, throughout the rest of the week, jobs, timings, costumes and props had been planned out and created in time for the next scheduled day of filming.

Sunday 25th of March. 

Once we had completed our first film day we realised our weaknesses and learnt very quickly how to combat them for our next shoot.

I created a film schedule for our second day in order to create some sort of plan for how we would go about it in order to remove chances of confusion which we had experienced the day before. 

Lighting was also taking into effect when planning within the four days between both days, we took full advantage of the clocks changing on the night before our filming on this day as it gave us extra natural light which we would have needed in order to make our film top quality. 

Our full film schedule complete with reasons of creation is located on a different post which will explain in full detail the plan of filming. 

 Lots of useful footage was produced on this shoot due to the massive improvement of organisation and our knowledge of what to expect from this task which we gained from our last, more unsuccessful shoot, we filmed much utilised final footage including lots of our integrated titles.

Although we prepared more for this shot, as we started filming at 4.00pm and finished at 7.00pm we realise we were probably too optimistic for the amount of useful footage we would receive, and although we filmed a lot of footage and this helped to raise our confidence after the first shoot, there were still problems that needed to be overcome, albeit smaller and rather more manageable problems.

Thursday 29th of March 

This was our final film day, and although no film schedule was created, rough notes and to do lists were created, although we all knew the shots which were left to do were manageable within this time frame, the last of our props were managed to be included and our integrated titles and actor were completely ready, this filming day, although the shortest was completed with the most fluency as i believe we had finally adapted to this type of task, we walked to the location directly after Sixth form and started filming roughly 4.30pm after a problem regarding a practical joke involving the camera delayed progress slightly.

The natural light was very good for our kitchen scenes and could be used to portray morning extremely well, we filmed all of the scenes within the kitchen and the antagonist's video diaries and managed to finish all of our footage to a brilliant standard ready for the editing task. 

The filming of the footage was the most fundemental part of production and although problems were encountered they were quickly overcome in order to finish with the superb footage we needed.

Robert Thurgood Phillips

Health and safety considerations

Before we start filming we have to think about the safety of both our actors and ourselves. Although they might seem like obvious things we still have to think about them to make sure everyone is safe and our filming runs smoothly.

As we are filming some aspects of our film outside by a road we have to be really careful about cars on the road as we may not be concentrating hard enough on the road as our priority will be our film so we will just make sure we are always keeping a look out and consider using a street we know will be quiet like down a cul-de-sac and try to film these scenes at a time that roads will be quiet like in the morning after the school run and commuting times. This will also reduce noise pollution in our film.

We will potentially be using at least one actor under the age of 18 so we need to make sure we get consent forms signed by their gaurdian under the child protection act as we need permission from an adult to let us film someone under 18. Without these we won't be able to film that person. We may also have an actor over the age of 18, we will need consent forms from them too but for a different reason, there is a chance that once filming is over an actor might not like the film or just change their mind and say they dont want the footage of them to be used or that they didnt give consent in the first place. If we have the consent form its like proof that they did give consent and that they dont have the right to withdraw content. This is all explained on the consent form so when the person signs it they have given informed consent.

We are using a lot of equipment that w have to be really careful with. We have to position cameras, tripods, dollys and cables really carefully to ensure no one would walk into them and hurt themselves, we will have to make sure everyone is aware of what equipment is where.

Olivia Saltmarsh

Final Script

For our second rough cut, I condensed the script down. By doing this, I hoped that the lines delivered would have a greater impact and that it would appear that Harry is blaming Penny for his insanity. Script Second Draft Script and post by Becky Rose

Final Shot List

This is our final shot list. Due to timings, we are also considering showing Harry going about more of his morning routine such as breakfast, however feel that these shots will probably take too long. However, we may also decide that our film may get too repetitive and therefore decide to show him a breakfast to add in variety and make the film more interesting to watch. We may also reduce the time of some of the shots to ensure that our film is faced paced which is a convention of a psychological thriller. Final Shot List Shot list and post by Becky Rose

Considering Sound

Sound is an important element while filming. It can help to create an atmosphere and help to determine the genre.  It is important that we use the correct music in order to create the music we want but not to use similar music to other psychological thrillers. I have been looking at royalty free music websites, and have discovered slow strings help to create an eerie atmosphere, however, I believe it will not make our pain protagonist, Harry, appear to be the antagonist but will also not portray him as innocent. The music should also be low as that will add the the sinister atmosphere we would like to create.

Sound ideas

Post and PowerPoint by Becky Rose 

Non-Diegectic Music For Our Opening.

Due to copy rights I made a song under two minutes long to match the criteria of the exam board. The songs consists of minor chords giving away the idea that its a sad story line, this meant that it went with our opening because its sad seeing someone mentally ill. The lyrics are about how he feels about his daughter Penny and i got my friend to sing it as though he was her dad so you get an idea of how he is feeling hence why he takes drugs every morning. We chose against using this song as a group though because we cant prove that No one else in the world used those chords in that order and we dont want to be penalised for copyright at the last minute so we have chosen music from royalty free which suits our opening better.

Jordan

Shot List Second Draft

Shot List TwoSecond Draft By Jordon Kenneally

This is the second draft of our shot list. The location and time column have now been completed, allowing us to see what shots we are expected to shoot where. We have said that all of the shots are to be filmed in the morning but this may change due to the timings of our shots and when our actors are available.

Becky Rose

Animatic Storyboard

We created an anematic storyboard in order  to see how our film would run. This will allow us o see howlong our shots would be and if the film would be too repetitive.  Through dong this, we have established how long we are going to hold all of each shot for. However, we are now realising that our film is very repetative which would not make our film appealing to watch, especially for our target audience who have a short attention span and do not like repitition. As a result, we are considering chaning some of the shots of the morning routine to ad variety and to make our opening more interesting to watch.

Storyboard by Bob, Livi, Jordan and Becky
Post by Becky Rose

Shot List First Draft

Shot List One

This is the first draft of our shot list. I have been unable to fill in the location and time columns as we have yet to make a final decision. The location will determine what time we will shoot because we need to account for time to get there and back in one lesson. This is not very detailed, so I shall now show this to my group and we will discuss what props we shall use when and the forms of lighting we can use. This will help to make our shot list more detailed.

Our shot list will help is to be organised and ensure that we have everything we need for each shot and when we need to film it. It will also ensure that we do not miss any shots when filming. The shot list will help us to see where we need to film each shot to ensure that we film the correct shots in the correct location. This will help ensure that we will not need to revisit a location as we forgot to film one shot, saving us time.

Becky Rose

Final Props List

When we are filming we will need to ensure that we have the following props:

• Litter to make Harry's room appear messy and unkempt. This will show that he is not looking after himself and enhances his dependence on Penny. 

• Scrabble for one of our titles and to make it appear that he has been playing with his daughter. Scrabble is made up of dark colours, connoting the sinister atmosphere we intend to create in the opening.

• Baby photos showing Harry remembers his daughter. By having the picture on the wall, it connotes that he loves his daughter and that he always has. This connotes that he still does which is partly so desperate to find her.

• Picture his daughter drew, acting as a title and showing he had a good relationship with his daughter. The picture will be drawn in bright colours, connoting that the child was happy. The people in the  picture will also have smiles to connote that the family were once all happy. This will help to create a furthur sense of myster and encourage the audience member to continue watching because they want to find our how the family became broken.

• Alarm clock to wake him up and show him going about his daily routine. As the days go on, it will take Harry longer to turn off the alarm, connoting tiredness and that he has given up now that Penny is not with him, thus connoting her maturity for looking after him.

• Pills and pill pot as the lack of pills will show that he is mentally unstable. We will also show a title on the pot. The pot is going to be dark brown or dark orange. This connotes that the pills hodl negative connotations which are seen later in the opening.

• We decided to use cereals instead of bread. This is because children typically prefer cereals to toast, making in appear that Penny has recently been living in the house. Through the cereals always begin present, connotes that Harry has not given up hope and that he believes Penny will come back.

• Carton of juice to show a title and him going about his daily routine. Light colours will be used on the carten, connoting that he is happy going about his daily life and that his mental illness does not effect him in this aspect of life.

• We will use teabags to show a title. This also connotes that the child might be slightly older, as teenagers typically drink tea. However, with the juice being earlier shown, shows that the house is lived in by both an adult and child. The everyday props used such as the tea bags and cereals will be brightly colored, connoting that Harry is normally happy going about his everyday life.

• Newspapers to show he is looking for his daughter and to include a title. The text will be red, connoting that dangerous information he may find in the paper, such as the news that his daughter is dead.

• To do list to show the lack of activity in his day and how this activity decreases the more mentally unstable he becomes. We will also show a title on this list.

• Sticky labels and pens to help create the titles

Becky Rose

Final Costume Ideas

Harry

While sleeping, Harry is wearing a white t-shirt, connoting that the audience's first reaction to him is that he is innocent. He is wearing blue pyjama bottoms connoting that he is peaceful when asleep. We decided to portray him as innocent in the opening inorder to surprise the audience and add twists to the film. Also, through him being portrayed as innocent, the audience will sympathise with him, causing later events to be more shocking and forcing the audience to see previous events differently which is a convention of a psychological thriller.

The first day he wears a red shirt connoting the danger that he holds and the possibility that his daughter is dead. He is wearing smart jenes making him look smart casual. We wanted him to look like this because it shows he is looking after himself, and connotes that he is a respected person. This then makes the aspect of him losing control over himself later on shocking and proposes the idea that people are different to what they appear. This is a regular occurring theme throughout the entire film so we wanted to include it in our opening as what is in an opening should be reflected throughout the film.  

The second day he will wear a dark blue checked shirt and jenes. The dark colours hold negative connotations and aids the creation of a dark atmosphere. He also appears to be scruffier than befor which helps to show that he is taking less care of himself and foreshaddows his life going down hill.

On the final day, Harry will wear a brown hoddie and and navy blue tracksuit bottoms. These are comfy cloths generally associated with sitting around the house, connoting that he has no reason to leave his home and is in need of some comfort. Through him not leaving the house shows that he has given up on going about his daily routine, connoting that he depends on his daughter. Also, on this day he will run out of pills showing how dependant he is on thoes too. Through the pills running out when his daughter is not present connotes that he was keeping his life on track for her. The dark colours of this costume furthur aids the dark atmosphere and as the audience begin to see the true side to Harry, connotes that he is a dark character.

Penny

Originally, we decided to have Penny in clothing with relevant connotations to later on in the film, however have decided that it would be more beneficial to portray her as an innocent character so that the audience sympathise with her which will help make later events more shocking. The white T-shirt she is wearing connotes her innocence, and the blue jacket furthur connotes that she is a clam character. These therfore connote that she is not the person who will looes her temper or intend on causing trouble-the opposite to her character. The dark orange skirt also connotes that she is a dishonest and decitful character who is capeable of causing trouble. Through the use of a school bag and bright pink shoes, we hoped to portray her as a typical teenager who attends school. This would make her appear more innocent as she is just seen as going around her everyday life.

Becky Rose

Final Locations

Chosen Bedroom Location

3 Barnfield Mews





This is the room we chose for our final locations. It is the perfect setting as we can film easily film here. The setting is perfect as it is dark and this reflects the characters personality. the footage we will collect will be good as the lighting is perfect.

 Chosen Bathroom location

3 Barnfield Mews

This is the bathroom we have chosen,filming will be simple as it is in the same location as the bedroom. We have chosen this bathroom because it is easy to film in and the layout is perfect. We wanted a singular shower and this bathroom fits the description. The only problem is that the medicine cabinet is not great.

Chosen Kitchen Location

1 Hillcrest Chignal Smealy



This is our chosen location for the kitchen. It will work well in our film as we can achieve multiple different angles and shots as it is so big. The kitchen is plain and simple so it means the audience aren't easily distracted and only pay close attention to the props and main character.

Script Second Draft

Script Second Draft

We have not changed much of our scripts, however decided that we needed to make some the stage directions less specific, making them easier for our actors to follow. It then offers room for their interpretation of the character.

Becky Rose

Photographic Story Boards

Rob, Becky, Olivia and Jordan.

This is our Story Board- it helped us have a better insight from the animated story board as to how everything was going to plan out. This meant that if we were unhappy with the look of anything we could change it or if we felt as though there were not enough scenes we could add more and discuss easier where and when we could add or even take away.

Jordan kenneally

Audition invitation

When we decided who we wanted to audition for our film we realsied we have to write a formal invitation for them to come and auadition. The purpose of this is to show some professionalism to the actors we want to use, if the actors see that we are taking the audition seriously they are more likely to turn up, try to get the part, take us more seriously thus taking direction better and do as well as possibly if we chose them. We decided to write two invitations, one for the male part and one for the female part this is because the two auditions would be very different. The male one would have to tell them that there would be a script to read from and that they would need to take direction as to how they say the extract and to get permission from them to be filmed. The female invitation will only need to ask permission for a picture to be taken in various ways.

Male invitation
We would like to invite you to come and take part in an audition for our media film. It is a psychological thriller film and if you are sucessful in your audition we will need you to commit to an attached filming schedual. The part you are auditioning for is the character of Harry, he is the main character of the film and you will have to be able to play a character with mental illness and who has some mental issues. When you come for the audition we will give you a small extract from our script to read on camera, we will need to see you on camera so we can see how you look on camera and how you will fit within our framing. We will ask you to say the extract in a number of different ways so we can see how you take direction and also to help us decide how we want the lines to be delivered. If you are happy to take part in our audition then come up to the media suite at lunchtime on thursday.

Female invitation
We would like to invite you to come and take part in an audition for our media film. We are making a psychological thriller film and if you are sucessful in your audition you will be playing the part of Penny who is the subject of Harry's obsession. We will only need to take a picture of you because for the opening you will only be seen for a few seconds in the opening. Our main aim for your audition is to find an actoress with the right look. If you are happy to take part in our audition please come up to the media suite at lunch time on thursday.

Olivia Saltmarsh

Auditions for the role of Penny

Amy Bowman was a highly considered auditionee. She is studying Performing Arts and Drama, which shows she can follow direction. However, she does not fit the image of the way we invisioned Penny to look and is also studying media and therefore we did not have enough frees together to film. 

Caitlin looked liked we wanted Penny to, and was able to give the evil look we wanted to achieve. For these reasons, we considered casting her. 

We also considered casting Imogene, as she too  had the characteristics we envisioned Penny having. She is also studying Performing Arts, and therefore can follow direction. However, we were limited as to when we could film her due to a lack of frees together.

We decided to cast Louise because she also looks how we imagined Penny, studies Performing Arts and is in  the school performance and can therefore follow direction. Initially, we thought filming may be a problem because she is unable to film after school due to other commitments. However, because she is in the year above has more frees and we could then work out a filming schedule from there.

Audition Script

We are going to hold auditions for the cast of our film. The script will be the same for each person playing the same character. This will mean that we can compare the same skills of each actor so we can assess who would be the best person for the role.
The person auditioning for the role of the main protagonist will deliver the following section of the script. We have taken all of the stage directions out, allowing us to ask the person to deliver the lines in certain ways, allowing us to see their ability to act and follow directions. It will also allow us to see their interpretation of the character.

Ok it’s been a month now, where are you? I need you here. I need you to look after me. I bet your friends put you up to this didn’t they! I’ve never approved of them; they were always a bad influence. When I find them-. I’m sorry I didn’t mean that. Just come hope ok?

The character of Penny will not have to deliver many lines as she is only a minor character who does not feature a lot in our opening. We will have her walking with her friend who will just need to be able to act casually but confused when the man calls out her friends name. Penny will turn when her name is called and we will ask her to look worried. This is all we need this actor to be able to do.

Auditions for the role of Harry

As a group, we felt Jake's audition lack emotion and was monotonous. Also, after several attempts he laughed during his audition. We had to take this into careful consideration as we could not afford this to happen during filming as it would be more time consuming and would make our film look less professional. For these reasons we decided not to cast him. 

We decided to cast Jack partly because he is a Drama student and can therefore follow directions, is able to fully take on the role of the character and can put a lot of emotion into acting. We also felt his performance contained more emotion than Jake's and he was able to maintain focus. 

Auditions held by Robert, Olivia and Becky

Becky Rose

Explaination for auditions

To cast our film we need to hold autions. The auditions will give us a chance to look at many different people for the role of a character and then decide who is best and who we want in our film. Auditions will also give us the chance to decide what we want our characters to look like. We have an idea that we want Harry to be tall, of slim build and have dark hair but if we auditioned one or two people who had blonde hair or who were of larger build we may decide that on camera these characteristics will have more of an effect.

Our auditions for Harry will take place in front of a camera so we can have an ide of what each person will look like on camera as it is very different to how they look to the naked eye, it also means we have the film there to look back on, review and compare with other auditions. For the audition potential actors will be given an extract of the script to read and will be directed in different ways to read it. this will give us an idea of how the person would play the character and how well they can take direction. This is important because if the actor can't take direction it will make the whole filming process much longer and could end up changing the whole film into something we as directors don't want.

Our audition for Penny will be slightly different as she doesn't say anything in the opening she is only seen walking past Harry so at this point the main thing we are looking for is that her apperance is right. We are looking for someone with an innocent feminine look about her as we want the audience to empathise with her and see her as the victim throughout the film. As her look is the most important thing we are only going to photograph potential actors. This means we can compare them and see who we think fits the role for our opening best. We are going to do the same thing for her friend. The look of her friend isn't as important because she is only a very minor character but we need to make sure the two girls look right together and fit comfortably in a frame together.

Olivia Saltmarsh

Film Titles

As a group, we have made the decision to integrate our film titles into our opening by presenting them as everyday objects, for example, a to-do list. On the first two days of filming, we considered how we integrated our titles but did not make them until we reached the location. This lost us a lot of time, and meant we were less organised which resulted in confusion and us not making the most of our filming time. As a result, I have made the rest of our titles, considering what scenes they will be in, what order they should go in and how we will show them.The titles I have made will go in the breakfast scene which we did not originally plan to have but decided it would enhance that Harry lives a standard life. This is a typical convention of a psychological thriller-the victim falls into a chain of events through chance. I have put them onto a loaf of bread and box of tea bags, typical items you would find in  a kitchen. There is also a to-do list which gets shorter as Harry becomes more mentally unstable with the main task being finding his daughter. The title will look like another task he needs to complete. By the list getting shorter, it shows that he is able to do less and less and that life is getting harder for him now that his daughter has gone. The final way our title will be shown was on a newspaper that Harry will read over breakfast. The newspaper will show that he is looking for his daughter, and is a tabloid to show that he may struggle mentally. The red writing connotes the danger of the information he may find in the paper.

Another way we have shown our titles is through a scrabble board. This shows that he had a good relationship with his daughter and used to play with her. The game appear untouched, and loos like they are only half way through the game connoting Harry thinks his daughter will come home soon. We also steamed up the shower, and drew a title on there as it showed Harry going about his daily activities. As we panned across the desk, we panned over over a book with a book mark showing the title, showing that he used to read to his daughter and with the book sill open shows that he intends to read to her again soon. We then panned across baby photos and a picture she drew for him displaying Harry's love for her. The picture is of her 'mummy' and 'daddy' showing that he did have a wife put is now a single parent as the mother does not feature in the film, although the audience to not know this from the opening, creating an element of mystery around Harry's character.

Becky Rose

Napoleon Dynamite titles

When we first decided to put integrated titles into our fil we tried to think of similar films that also had integrated titles. We couldn't really think of any thriller films that had integrated titles, most have animated but subtle titles such as the film Se7en which has small white titles in the opening. These titles fit well with the music and feeling of the opening due to the scratchy font they are in. The white colour of them make them stand out but they do not distract from the content of the opening.


We had made the decision to use integrated titles to add to the sinister nature of the film, we looked at some other films that had integrated titles that weren't in the thriller genre, the one that we found that interested us the most was Napoleon Dynamite. This film opening uses integrated titles as its whole opening so they aren't really in the action of the opening but we thought we would look at it to try and decide how we wanted to do our titles and to take some ideas.
http://www.artofthetitle.com/?s=napoleon+dynamite
The titles in this film were inspiration for the titles of ours. They are integrated into the action of the scene in natural settings. They are integrated within meals a lot of the time. These plates of food give an idea of the context, setting and themes of the film. The titles in the film aren't fully integrated as there is nothing else going on in the frame. We decided to do fully integrated titles that would be within the framing and action of our film.

Olivia saltmarsh

Titles list

We have come up with a list of titles that we need to include in our film opening along with the time they will appear on screen. This was a very important exercise for us because we are intending on integrating our titles into our film opening. We decided to do this because we though it would make it visually more interesting and it would distract less from the introduction of our main character and the story as they will be in the story already. We need to have this titles list as it will be very useful for us to know exactly how many titles we will have so we can decide how we are going to incorporate them, it will also help us with timings.

0.03- Scorpio pictures logo
0.06- Scorpio pictures presents
0.09- In association with Post Mortom productions
0.12- male actors name (TBC)
0.16- females actors name (TBC)
0.19- film title
0.23- Dena Sica
0.26- Zachary Tesch, Polly Tye
0.29- Wesley Shire, Polly Belentine, Greg Tibbers
0.33- screen play by Caitlin Fike
0.36- unit manager Rick Mosca
0.39- director of photography Timothy Farfan
0.42- edited by Lewis Knupp
0.46- costume director Cassandra hight
0.49- make up by Herman Hafley
0.52- hair by Theresa Hafley
0.55- special effects Petra Skeens
0.58- sound by Samual Teeters
1.01- assisstant director Dean Coto
1.05- produced by Amy Dritz
1.08- co produced by Emily Cloud and Aaron Cloud
1.14- music by Jordan Powell
1.20- directed by Gloria Richardson

The times on this list are only rough because we are integrating our titles into the opening, we may have to change some of the title times to find an appropriate place to add the titles but this is the definite order they will go in.

Robert Thurgood Phillips and Olivia Saltmarsh

Institutional Logos

This is our Scorpio Productions institutional logo and Post Mortem productions logo. Both of these logos have a black background, holding connotations of death. The red writing connotes danger and blood. These connotations will create a sinister atmosphere, mirroring the mood of the film and informing the audience that this film contains dark acts. The white used in the Post Mortem connotes the innocence of some of the characters, and suggests to the audience that this film will include an innocent protagonist.

Both of these logos as simple as we are producing an independent film and therefor do not have a lot of money to spend on producing a logo. Both of them are animated as they are the first thing the audience will see and therefore need to grab their attention. The scorpion moves quickly across the screen as that is how people in vision scorpions and also connotes that the film will be fast paced. This is further enhanced by the quick flashing used in the logo bellow.

Originally, the Scorpio Productions logo was going to have the scorpion running across sand. We decided not to include this, in order to make our logo more simplistic and to keep the colors conventional to a psychological thriller.

The Post Mortem Pictures logo was originally going to have the words revolve around each other. However, research has shown me that this is not conventional of a psychological thriller, and therefore decided to keep the animation more simplistic to keep it conventional.

Designs and post by Becky Rose

Considered Animation Techniques For Production Logo

As we have been given our own production company name we will need to make a logo to show at the beginning of the film, there are many possibilities of different ways of creating a logo, whether we go for a logo that is animated or just a still picture we will have to take different factors into effect such as the fact that we are creating an independant film so it can not look too grand but we still need to keep a level of professionalism within our logo, we are named Scorpio Productions so it will need to be relavent and our ideas are mainly revolving around scorpions, we have created drafts of possible openings and we have confered how we would like to create our logo, we have each created a draft idea for our logo and we will continue to incorporate each idea into our final idea.

Animation is an unfamiliar task to us so i have been researching different ways of animating which would not be to complicated in order to be able to complete our design without difficulty.

I have begun by looking at different ways of creating .GIFs (Graphics Interchange Format) as it looks professional and possible with the technology we have, after searching the internet I found a selection of websites with the same way of creating .GIFs and was recommended the website http://gickr.com/ by a friend who had used it before.

Another way of creating an animation with the technology available would be to use Photoshop in order to create a .GIF, this is not as simple as using the website but I will be able to ask some of my friends who have this program and know how to use it to teach me, it would be good as the final product would be very professional and would probably be better quality than if i were to use gickr.com.
in this program pictures are edited then captured together along a timeline to create an easy and effective way of making your own animation.

Robert Thurgood Phillips

Institution Logo Ideas

This was my idea for our institutional logo:

The scorpion would dart across the sand and leave the words "Scorpio Productions" in the font seen bellows. The quickness of the scorpion reflects the fast paced editing within the film. I have chosen a scorpion as that is the symbol of the Scorpio star sign, making it relevant to our institutional name. There would be a black background connoting death and creating a dark atmosphere which would be reflected in the film. The scorpion would be white, the white on the black background connoting the innocence of the characters. The title is in red, connoting danger.

The postmortem pictures logo would be split into two. The "post" and the "mortem" would spin around each other. This is simple but would make the title more interesting to watch. This title would also be on a black background which holds negative connotations such as death. The two sections of the title would be red and white further connoting the danger and innocence seen in the film.

Both of these  logos are simple and we are creating a low budget film and these titles would not have cost a lot of money to make.

Becky Rose

Scripts First Draft

This is the first draft of the script for our opening sequence. I will now show this to the rest of my group and we will discuss the changes that should be made to it.



Becky Rose

The Initial Story Board.

Jordan, Robert, Olivia and Becky.

We did a story board to give us a better image of how we were going to execute certain scenes and titles. We used post it notes so if we made a mistake with a scene or a title then we could just change the post it notes. This saved us loads of time and enabled us to get onto other tasks quicker. It also gave us a better structure as to what order to film scenes in and helped us put things in chronological order.

Jordan kenneally

Considerations For Film Title

As a group we decided to come up with the name name of our film once we had come up with the complete design of our film, we have discussed the possibilities and how they keep to the typical conventions of a psychological thriller and our film in particular and have come up with three initial ideas for our film title which we need to compare and decide between:

"Who Knew?" 
"Who Knew?" is our first idea for our film, if we were to have it it would spur the audience into making their own ideas for the film and would decrease the likelihood of our film following the Hypodermic needle theory.
It is relevant to our film as it contains many twists and turns and it would be a question asked when the film progresses and the stalker is shown in a different light completely, and the mystery and the fact that it is a very short title follows the generic conventions associated with a psychological thriller.

"Desolate" 
Desolate is a word to signify that a place is Deserted of people and in a state of bleak and dismal emptiness. 
It is a very negative adjective and having a one word title sticks to the generic conventions as nothing is given away, ideas are generated from the audience and they are prone to think about what this film entails, they will ask themselves 'What is desolate?' and this will attract them to the film even more as it is the only way they can truly get the question answered, it also fits in to the film as the man feels that as his daughter is not there his world is truly desolate ans he is secluded from everything else. 


"Alone"
Alone is a very similar idea to desolate as it is another lone adjective challenging the audience to wonder what the word is actually describe, it gives no details as to "Who is alone and why?" and draws in the audience to engage with the film, it also is a very negative and emotional description of someone and this fits with the generic conventions of a psychological thriller.
It is a simple and effective title for our film and connects to the story as he is seen to become more and more alone after he loses his daughter. 

"Penny"
This could be a possible film title. Its only one word so its quite snappy and its two syllables which gives the word a rhythmic feel, it is proven that words or phrases that have that rhythmic feel are more likely to be remembered so I think it's a good idea to have a title that fits this. Having a girls name will be intriguing because the audience will want to know what the significance of this girl will be. As the film progresses it will become apparent who Penny is but as its a psychological thriller not everything will be given away so the audience will be asking questions all the way through about her and as its the film title it will be at the fore front of the audiences mind.


Robert Thurgood Phillips and Olivia Saltmarsh

Why we need to consider mise-en-scene, location and casting

There are a number of reasons as to why we need to consider mise, locations and casting at this stage.

Locations
We need to consider a number of places to film in order to make sure that we have a location that meets our expectations and that will perfectly suit our film. It is also important that we can film at this locations during the day in order for there to be enough light for filming. This may limit some places. We also need to ensure that the location we are thinking about is realistic and can be achieved. If it cannot be achieved, then we may need to change elements of our film. Further more, distance also needs to be considered. We need to ensure that we are going to be able to transport both pour equipments and cast to our chosen location, which could also limit us. Looking at various locations may give us different inspirations for our film which could potentially help us improve it.

Mise
It is important that we have an image of how we want our film to look. This will allow us to find the correct props, acknowlege how we are going to acheive the lighting we require and to find the appropriate costumes. Also, if we have an image in our heads now we have time to find these things. When we have considered our mise, we may consider changing our camera shots to show more of the mise. Also, through out mise we can hint at the twists that will occur in our film. This can help to create an enigma and will make the audience want to continue watching. We will also need to make sure that we include everything in our frame that we would like the audience to see and ensure that we do not cut anything off in our shots. We will plan ahead and shoot our shots a number of times to ensure that we include what we want the audience to see within our frame.

Casting
To cast the correct person for our characters, we will consider what celeberities that we would ideally like to be in our film. This will enable us to have an image of what the character should look which we can then use while casting. We need to begin to consider this as we will need to hold auditions for potential characters, where we will test their acting skills and ability to follow directions. We will also need to create a a filming schedual to ensure that our actor can film when needed. When arranging auditions, we will look for people who look similar to the actor we have selected.

Becky Rose