This Blog is Now Complete and is Ready for Assessment

15th March 2011

Evaluation

Final Product

This is our final title sequence:

Production: Filming Pictures

Throughout both days, we took pictures of the production.

Production: Filming

Yesterday we completed our second day of filming. We had everything we needed costume etc. At the last minute we decided we would take a step ladder to the woods with us so we could get higher angled shots. Also we thought it would be more comfortable for Sophie- Jo, our actress, if we brought bin liners to put on the floor as the woods was damp. We took some more post production shots of us filming. Everything went according to plan. Altogether we now have about 11 minutes of footage to sort through in the editing process.

Production: Filming

Today we filmed all shots in the house with Sue and Jess, the day went really well, with both the actors, and myself and Laura enjoying ourselves all day. Once in the location we found there were many different places we could film to get a variety of shot angles, and we took more shots than necessary to ensure we would have enough for the title sequence. We both found the camera relatively easy to work once it was all set up, and as we had made sure the battery was fully charged the night before, there was no problems at all. 

Organisation: Shot List for Saturday 8th

This is our Shotlist for Saturday 9th. All these shots are the ones that we will be filmed in the house. These are the types of shots we plan to film, however it is likely when filming that we will also take other shots that we find will work more effectively,



SHOT 6 : Cut away to Sue and Jess walking to the front door.
SHOT 7 : Match on action of Sean and Sue walking into the house from opposite angle.
SHOT 9 : Cut away back to house see Sean and Sue sit down on sofa .
SHOT 10 : Medium close up from behind Sean and Sue watching TV.
SHOT 11 : Panning shot to turn around and see Sean and Sue happy on the sofa.
SHOT 16 : Close up Sean and Sue's faces, all happy.
SHOT 17 : Pan up to the counter above them to see pictures of Sophie and them.

Organisation: Shot List for Sunday 9th

SHOT 1 :  Extreme Close Up  of Sophie's mouth, all you can hear is her breathing heavily.

SHOT 19 : Whip pan of her hair in the wind

SHOT 2 : Camera Tilt/ Pan downwards  see what Sophie is wearing and her feet walking

SHOT 8 : Extreme Close Up of Sophie's shoes as she starts to walk a bit quicker.

SHOT 12 : Hand-held shot of attackers feet walking

SHOT 18 : Hand-held shot of Sophie's feet as she runs from her attacker

SHOT 25 : High Angle shot of someone's feet walking up to her on the floor

SHOT 13 : Whip Pan up to the back of Sophie in the distance

SHOT 3 :  Pull away, long shot, see Sophie from her attackers point of view, hear a branch snap, and sophie turns around.

SHOT 4 : Match on Action shot, handheld we cut back to Sophie's POV of her looking around behind her.

SHOT 5 : High Angle shot We see Sophie start to walk quicker through the woods.

SHOT 14 : Tracking shot of Sophie suddenly starting to run behind her

SHOT 15 : Tracking shot of Sophie running from in front of her

SHOT 20 : Medium Whip Pan from the side, see all of her body running.

SHOT 21 : Match on action shot of her feet, she falls and trips over

SHOT 22 : High Angle single shot of her lying on the floor

SHOT 23 : Medium shot from the side of her lying on the floor

SHOT 24 : Low Angle single shot of her lying on the floor

SHOT 26 : Long Shot of Sophie leant against the wall
SHOT 27 : Medium Shot of the front of Sophie leant against the wall

SHOT 28 : Panning Shot of Sophie walking off to the right

Organisation: Filming Dates

We have now booked the cameras, and are filming all scenes, with Sue and Jess, in the house on Saturday 8th December and all scenes in the woods, with Sophie, on Sunday 9th December. 
We will have a photographer with us whilst we film, who will take pictures of the production of our opening title sequence. 
We will then begin editing the following week. 

Organisation: Casting Update

Unforchunatly one of our cast, Sean Taylor, is unable to make the dates we have booked the camera for; as there is no other times we can film, we have had to replace him. Instead of having a husband/wife, father/mother family set-up at home, whilst Sophie is running through the woods, we will now have a mother and a younger child/sibling relaxing at home.

Jessica Cook is 12, and is part of a young actors group in Stourbridge. She will play the younger sister of Sophie and the daughter of Sue. 

Organisation: Risk Assessment

This is our Risk Assessment. We will be shooting on two consecutive days; on Saturday we will film all shots in the house. On Sunday we will film all the shots in the woods.

Audience Research: Updates

We showed our focus group our animatic so they could see what our final peice might look like. We wanted to give them the oppitunity to make any last comments for improvement before we shoot.

This is what they said:


Lauren Hornabrook:
"I can tell that there will be some kind of chase scene, I'm a bit unsure of what is chasing her but i guess that could make me want to see the rest of the film. I love the fact its set in a wood and it's dark and gloomy, you can definitely tell the film will have something dark about it"


Richard Emsley:
"The music fits in really well, especially the last few shots. The music is eerie and its really effective with those shots, it leaves a kind of cliffhanger in opening. It puts a twist on this 'innocent' girl we think we are seeing running away and it looks slightly creepy. I can see the idea of switching back to normality where you see the woman on the sofa, i think this is a good idea and will look a lot clearer when you actually shoot it"


Holly Adams:
" I think you've created a really interesting character, it seems like the film will be kind of twisted. Because not a lot is given away in the opening it makes it seem more exciting. There are places where i think there is a lot of silence and maybe sound could be put there, probably non diegetic. I do think the 'chase' music works really well and you can tell its a chase because the shots start to speed up slightly. However i do this it will look more realistic when its filmed. "


Emma Parker:
"I like the idea of two simultaneous scenes, you can tell by the setting and the lighting that one is dark and one is supposed to be 'normality' The sequence with the close ups of her face is really effective, also shots from a distance make it looks like somethings watching her. Its clear to me that shes running from something that's watching her. I really like the shot of the phone on the floor, its slightly blurry so it looks like shes running away really fast"

Planning: Animatic

This our Animatic storyboard, giving us and our focus group a vague idea of what our actual title sequence will look like. We will show this to our focus group and collect feedback.

Organisation: Time Management

On Sunday 12th, we took our main actor, Sophie, out to our location and took pictures for our animatic storyboard, and for our risk assessment. However, the camera we were going to use was out of battery, and we couldn't find the charger, so had to use my mobile phone. Then there was problems uploading the pictures on the computer from my phone, as I don't have a USB lead. Instead we had to load them via facebook, and this took more time then expected, and so didn't get our pictures saved until the 14th. 

Planning : Shotlist

This is our chronilogical shotlist. This shows the types of shots we want to use and will film. It also shows the order in which we want to  put them in when we come to the editing process after we shoot.  However this is only a rough draft and if some shots don't give us the effect we want when filming; we will try a different shots.


SHOT 1 :  Extreme Close Up  of Sophie's mouth, all you can hear is her breathing heavily.
SHOT 2 : Camera Tilt/ Pan downwards  see what Sophie is wearing and her feet walking.
SHOT 3 :  Pull away, long shot, see Sophie from her attackers point of view, hear a branch snap, and sophie turns around.
SHOT 4 : Match on Action shot, handheld we cut back to Sophie's POV of her looking around behind her.
SHOT 5 : High Angle shot We see Sophie start to walk quicker through the woods.
SHOT 6 : Cut away to sue and sean walking to the front door.
SHOT 7 : Match on action of Sean and Sue walking into the house from opposite angle.
SHOT 8 : Extreme Close Up of Sophie's shoes as she starts to walk a bit quicker.
SHOT 9 : Cut away back to house see Sean and Sue sit down on sofa .
SHOT 10 : Medium close up from behind Sean and Sue watching TV.
SHOT 11 : Panning shot to turn around and see Sean and Sue happy on the sofa.
SHOT 12 : Hand-held shot of attackers feet walking
SHOT 13 : Whip Pan up to the back of Sophie in the distance
SHOT 14 : Tracking shot of Sophie suddenly starting to run behind her
SHOT 15 : Tracking shot of Sophie running from in front of her
SHOT 16 : Close up Sean and Sue's faces, all happy.
SHOT 17 : Pan up to the counter above them to see pictures of Sophie and them.
SHOT 18 : Hand-held shot of Sophie's feet as she runs from her attacker
SHOT 19 : Whip pan of her hair in the wind
SHOT 20 : Medium Whip Pan from the side, see all of her body running.
SHOT 21 : Match on action shot of her feet, she falls and trips over
SHOT 22 : High Angle single shot of her lying on the floor
SHOT 23 : Medium shot from the side of her lying on the floor
SHOT 24 : Low Angle single shot of her lying on the floor
SHOT 25 : High Angle shot of someone's feet walking up to her on the floor
SHOT 26 : Long Shot of Sophie leant against the wall
SHOT 27 : Medium Shot of the front of Sophie leant against the wall
SHOT 28 : Panning Shot of Sophie walking off to the right

Time Managment

As we are unable to meet to produce a photo storyboard in the week, we are meeting on Sunday with our main actress, to take the pictures for the storyboard, we will also take pictures for the risk assessment then. During the next week we will then produce a animatic storyboard, and complete our risk assessment.

Audience Research: Updates

We showed our focus group our storyboard. We wanted to know if they liked our idea and storyline. We will listen to their comments and use them to improve our final piece.

This is what they thought:

Lauren Hornabrook - 'I think that the last shot of the girl looking and smiling suggests a twist in the tale, and the setting of the woods is very traditional of a thriller, and the running sequence sounds exciting and scary.'

Holly Adams - 'I think that the sequence will really capture the audience; one shot in particular, the last one, looks like it would be really effective because it gives the start of the film a sense of mystery.'

We then showed our focus group our cast list and this is what they had to say:
Rich Emsley - 'I think the young girl cast as the main character, is perfect. She looks both innocent and also looks like she could have a dangerous side, in many thrillers characters aren't what they seem.'

Emma Parker - 'The parents cast in the role as they are already a married couple, will be comfortable together, and as they are in their own home, it will appear even more realistic.'            

As all of our focus group liked our actors and ideas for the title sequence, we dont need to change anything :)                                          

Organisation: Props and Costume

Costume/Prop Item : Girls Flowery Dress 

Source: Borrowed from Lauren Hornabrook

Potential Cost: Nothing

Person in Charge: Kate 

Costume/Prop Item: Wooly Tights

Source: Sophie's wardrobe

Potential Cost: Nothing

Person in Charge: Sophie

Costume/Prop Item: Brogues 

Source: Kate's wardrobe

Potential Cost: Nothing

Person in Charge: Kate

Costume/Prop Item: Wooly Scarf

Source: Laura's wardrobe

Potential Cost: Nothing

Person in Charge: Laura

Costume/Prop Item: Jacket/Coat

Source: Borrowed from Holly Adams

Potential Cost: Nothing

Person in Charge: Laura 

Costume/Prop Item: Women's jeans

Source: Sue Parker

Potential Cost: Nothing

Person in Charge: Kate

Costume/Prop Item: Woman's Winter Jumper

Source: Sue Parker

Potential Cost: Nothing

Person in Charge: Kate

Costume/Prop Item: Slippers

Source: Sue Parker

Potential Cost: Nothing

Person in Charge: Kate

Costume/Prop Item: Men's jeans

Source: Sean Taylor

Potential Cost: Nothing

Person in Charge: Kate

Costume/Prop Item: Men's Winter Jumper

Source: Sean Taylor

Potential Cost: Nothing

Person in Charge: Kate

Organisation: Casting

Sophie Jo-Lusted, is going to be our main actor; she will be playing 'Isabelle Hartly' the young girl running through the woods. Sophie is taking performing arts as a AS level, and so is at a good standard of acting, which will make our opening sequence appear more real and professional. She always attends dance rehearsals, and is committed to her responsibilities.

 After talking to a variety of parents, we have decided that my own parents are right for the role, and as the location they will be filming in is my own house, it would speed up the process of filming a great deal.

Storyboard Synopsis

Throughout our opening sequence, we are going to alternate shots of a young girl running panicked through the woods, with shots of her parents happily relaxing at home. 
There will be a variety of shots when Sophie is running for her life, close ups of her eyes, mouth, hair, feet never her face, and shots from the point of view of someone running behind her.
Slow panning shots of the family home, close-ups of baby pictures, and her parents happily watching t.v, will contrast with the fast movement of Sophie.
As she stumbles and falls, we see a single shot of men's feet, and then a black screen with the title of the film in white, bold text. 
In the last shot, Sophie is lent against a brick wall, staring straight ahead of her and then she turns her head to smile at the camera, and walks the opposite way. 

Genre Research Summary

In 'Thrillers', the titles tend to be in bold fonts, and in both Arlington Road and The Usual Suspects black and white are the predominant colours. Fading in and out quickly seems to be a recurring theme, it adds a spookier effect. 


Both non-diegetic and diegetic music is used, in Arlington Road the short scene of the man in the hospital, we can hear the sounds of trolleys being wheeled by, along with other usual sounds you would expect to hear in a hospital; The Usual Suspects uses non-diegetic through the majority of its title sequence, a violin is the main instrument, giving a creepy unnerving feel to the film.


In 'The Usual Suspects', there are no characters in the opening sequence, and yet it still provides a spooky opening; Arlington Road uses one character at the very beginning, however he is not creepy, or scary in any way, although he has blood on his shirt, he does not seem a threat to us. Throughout the titles of Arlington Road, there are no characters established, simply shots of children playing, and one shot of a dog. This shows that we don't necessarily  need to use a great number of people to produce a scary opening sequence. 


The mise en scene for 'The Usual Suspects' is extremely simple, light reflecting on the water. It is it simplicity that makes it creepy, 'Arlington Road' takes the opposite approach. Lots of shots and pictures of the neighbourhood in different camera effects e.g black and white, sepia, negative, make it unnerving and uncomfortable to watch. 


Engimas are used thoroughly throughout 'Arlington Road', in the first sequence we ask ourselves, who is the boy? what happened to him?. When we are shown repeated shots of small children, we get the clear message that a predominant theme is children. 'The Usual Suspects', provides Engimas because we wonder who's point of view are we seeing the light reflecting on the water.


Fast cut editing is used throughout 'Arlington Road' to unsettle the audience, and make it appear like more is going on, and create more tension and fear. In our opening sequence we will use a lot of fast pace editing, to build excitement and tension.

Audience Research Focus Group Meeting Analysis

All of our focus group found 'The Usual Suspects' uninteresting; it was clear from our focus group research that it just didn't grab their attention,  I think it was not nessiccarly the lack of people, as Arlington Road didnt showcase people a great deal, but our focus group still all found it interesting. Rich said that there was a lot more going on, and Emma thought it was quirky. We have now decided to make our opening sequence interesting and intense to ensure we involve the audience straight away. Lauren liked the idea of using the family, and thought it makes the storyline more traumatic, we also felt this way, and so are going to defiantly use the theme of family throughout the film. We also want to make sure that our title sequence is creepy and has a dark and sinister edge to it, this would ensure the audiences understanding of our genre.

Audience Research Focus Group

These are people in our focus group and their comments on our Genre Moodboard, and ideas.

Lauren Hornabrook - Aged 17

" I like the idea you have of using a family, because its always more traumatic when something happens to a close family in a film. Lots of thrillers use families in them. My favourite genres are Romantic Comedy, Comedy and Horror. ' Typically in Romantic Comedy's there would be two people who meet, fall in love then something happens to rock their relationship but it normally ends happily.  I thought the title sequence of 'The Usual Suspect' made the film look like it would be spooky, but it was a bit boring and repetitive. From the title sequence it looked like fire and water might have something to do with the storyline, the film defiantly is set up to look dark and spooky. "

Emma Parker - Age 19

I liked the moodboard, I thought there was a lot on their that typically represents thrillers. However I was a bit confused by the picture of the dummy, maybe this is supposed to represent children, but there already was a picture of a child. My favourite types of films are chick flicks, thrillers and indie films. In a thriller typically there would be murder, children being kidnapped. I liked the 'Arlington Road' opening sequence I thought it was quirky, I didn't like 'The usual suspects' I thought it was a bit boring and unimaginative. In 'Arlington Road' we are set up to think that the boy is the one of the main characters, so I think the film might have something to do with children"

Richard Emsley - Aged 20

I thought the genre moodboard was effective, it had scary and creepy images. I like to watch horror and thriller films most of the time. Things you would typically see in these genres would be death, supernatural quite a lot of the time ghosts and monsters. In most films there is some kind of superhero character who 'saves the day'. I liked both the opening sequences they were both effective in different ways, but I found 'Arlington Road' more intense and more interesting to watch because the there was lots going on at once. Judging by this opening sequence I think maybe the story is set in a typical American neighbour hood 'gone wrong' or something about it not right or 'normal'.

Holly Adams - Aged 16

"I like the moodboard, there are certain images that really remind me of thriller movies. My favourite film genre's are romantic comedy and horrors. In romantic comedy's the main story is normally a love story and something dramatic happens to break them up. However normally they get back together in the end. I didn't really like either of the clips, none of them really interested me I found' Arlington Road' confusing and 'The usual suspects' boring and uninteresting. I couldn't really tell what was going to happen in either of the films but that they were both going to be a bit creepy and weird.

Target Audience

This is our target audience mood board, and what we consider our target audience to be interested in.
Our target audience 16-20 year olds, in the pyschographic group of mainstream; and in the socio-economic scale of B, C1 and C2, and are mixed gender. However it could also appeal to a more individualisic person, as it will have a darker grungy edge to it. 

Film Openings - Genre Specific Analysis

We have chosen to analyse 'Arlington Road', and 'The Usual Suspects', as part of our genre analysis.

'The Usual Suspect'

The audience is shown an empty back screen, with non-diegetic music starting after about three seconds, as the very beginning of this film. The music is slow paced, eerie orchestral music; which straight away connotates mystery and darkness to the viewer.  This type of music is typical of genre thriller. The titles are simple block capitals that slowly fade in fade out, they are light blue which ensures stand out but give a bold and effective effect, that doesn't distract from the main element, the music. Already by the point, it is clear to the audience that the tone of the film would be very dark and sinister, and its genre is 'Thriller'.

In the background we see a vile on light reflected on water moving across the screen, as the titles continue. More and more viles of light appear, again moving, this effect is an example of Barthe's theory of enigma,despite the music pushing the audience to assume that 'evil' is happening, the audience do not know what is causing the light. This is the only thing we see in the title sequence, the fact that we only see this effect and darkness; in itself could suggest that the film has a very dark narrative.

Towards the end of the title sequence, there is a black screen shot in which the time and place of the film is set, heightening the audiences understanding at the start of the film.

In the next chronological shot we suddenly see a close up of several matches being lit; this effect is sudden and is a stark contrast to the slow, dark sequence beforehand. This suggests there might be an element of shock and suspense in the film, stereotypical to a thriller. We as an audience associate fire with danger, suggesting a theme of fire recurring in this film. The Diegtic sound of the matches is also used to set the scene, the non diegetic music is faded out, this clearly shows the audience that we are now into the narrative. 

The sequence finishes with 'reversed match on action shot', there is a medium close up a man lighting a cigarette with the match previously shown. The lighting is very dark in this shot, with only natural light is used. The opening shot is also set at night, all this is typical to a thriller genre, the audience are brought into a 'spooky' atmosphere. Diegetic bell chimes are playing in the background, adding future eerie affects to the shots. A burning fire sound is also playing and we see vague flames in the background; this adds to the earlier idea of danger.

The character shown is wearing dark clothing, and looks scruffy which re-enforces the common theme of darkness and evil; typically in thrillers an 'evil' character is often dressed in dark clothing to make them look sinister.

Arlington Road's opening titles begin with a man shouting about a young boy as he makes his way down a  hospital corridor with a blood-stained white shirt looking angry but not dangerous. Instead of a stereotypical creepy character opening the film, we are presented with this ordinary looking man, who shows concern for the boy. It is the missing information of how he got blood on his shirt, who is this unknown boy, what exactly happened here? that establish the genre as a thriller. We are left with the man shouting at the nurse, 'I don't know his name!', which then heightens the mystery surrounding this character, and shows the clever use of Barthe's theory of  enigma code. We as the audience, just like the man, want to know his name and his story. 

The titles then take the more traditional sinister, creepy turn that you would expect from a thriller film. The white picket-fence that most people would normally see on ideal perfect neighbourhoods in America, is in the harsh colours black and red, colours we would associate with danger, violence and blood. The camera effects used throughout help to create an mood for the film, and take everyday neighbourhood objects, and turn them into spooky, unnatural things. These shots again show what would be an ordinary looking neighbourhood, but in black and white ; however the black and white roles have also been reversed, normally with this effect, the sky would be white and the house black, but by turning this on its head, its creates a rather spooky, scary shot. Again making every-day scenes of American life fit within the thriller genre. 

Shots of children are used repeatedly throughout this opening sequence, suggesting to the audience that young children might  be a theme that occurs within the film. However the young children are not shown as happy, smiling or joyfully skipping around but instead as dark, and creepy. The effects of the camera make them appear this way. At one point we are shown close up shots of little girls running looking back at the person holding the camera, and then it cuts to a shot of two empty swings moving, as if someone has just been playing on the swing and then they were taken or snatched. This also used Barthe's theory of engima code, we ask ourselves why is the swing empty? Who are these children? What is there purpose? The empty swing especially re-enforces the idea, that something is lurking, waiting to take 'our' children, the things we hold most precious to us.

The scene with the man in the hospital uses both non-diegetic and diegetic music; the non diegetic music of the surrounding hospital makes it more realistic, whereas the rising of tempo in the diegetic music allows tension to build. Non-diegetic music is very stereotypical of 'Thriller' genre films, as it can unnerve the audience and help introduce them to the genre. The diegetic music used for the rest of the sequence is very creepy, unnerving and at times uncomfortable to listen too, the audience can clearly connate that this film isn't going to be a cheerful chick flick, but a sinister and dark film.

The titles are all in black and white, and sometimes, like in this example change from black and white, reflecting perhaps, how quickly people can change from one thing to another, or something not always being as it seems. The simple colouring of the titles doesn't distract from the  background images, however they still make enough impact to be noticed by the viewer. The font is very bold and square, there are no round edges to suggest playfulness, but only the blunt straight lines, conatating harsh elements to the storyline, which we as an audience expect, considering this genre.