CdL; Reflections on 29/02/12

In today's lesson we:

• Uploaded footage from Wilderness Woods filming trip
• Considered which shots will work best as we completed our storyboard, especially the angles of the shots of the antagonist walking down the staircase
• Rearranged the order of some of the flashback shots so that they work more effectively with the triggers we are planning to use
• Considered the idea of taking only elements of, or overlaying, some non-diagetic sound in order to get around the issue of copyrighted sound, as the type of soft, atmospheric music we are looking for is not easy to find
• Finalised plans for our first filming shoot and the subsequent shoot in Alexandra Park which will involve more actors and may cause more issues such as weather and general public in the shot which will be bad for continuity

G4: Wilderness Woods Footage

From our trip to Wilderness Woods, we practiced several different types of shots and a few of the shots we want to use in our opening. These are the shots we took at this location:

G4:First Film Shoot

• Date - 2nd March 2012
• Location- RB's house
• Equipment - Camera, tripod and camera frame
• Props- Lipstick (red), dress, heels, cutlery, glasses, tablecloth, candle, match, photo albumn, fake blood. 
• Weather - Will not effect us as it is an internal set 

 ROLES

FK: Acting

RB: Filming

CdL: Directing

(only FK needed for acting)

Planning on filming as much as possible on the 2nd  March, then if needed go back to the location on the 5th March.

      

Callsheet

 

Location	Shot number (on storyboard)	Cast	Technical notes
Alexandra Park	4	FK and CM/LSW	CU on limbs – struggling in fight
	8	FK and CM/LSW	CU of heels and dead body – kicking body into ditch/undergrowth
	10	FK	ECU of heels
	14	CM/LSW	CU of dead body in ditch/undergrowth
House	1	FK	Ella in bedroom - mirror shot of lipstick?
	2	FK	CU of perfume
	3	FK	Over the shoulder shot on landing – looking out the window
	5	FK	MCU low angle of walking down 1st stairs
	6	FK and CM/LSW	LS/High angle from top of 2nd stairs – flashback to body at bottom of stairs
	7	FK	MCU of walking down 2nd stairs and putting heels on at bottom of stairs
	9	FK	MS of walking into dining room and straightening cutlery.
	11	FK	CU of reflection of lipstick in knife
	13	FK	CU of lighting a candle
	15	FK	CU looking at photos/photo album/scrapbook – pictures of previous boyfriends (crossed out/circled in a heart)
	16	FK	LS of walking from dining room to front door
	17	FK and CM	CU of opening front door, kisses Chris on cheek
	12	FK	CU of flashback to knife covered in blood

Risk Assessment
 

Location	What is the hazard? Think about road safety, filming at night, potential damage to equipment	Who/what might be harmed and why? Think about who needs to be aware of the risk	How will you reduce the risk? What steps will you take to ensure that the risk is lowered?	Signed Approved by JF, CF, KJ
Alexandra Park/House	Dropping the camera on ground/in stream	The camera
Alexandra Park	Actors getting hurt in fight scenes	Actors	Being careful and not doing anything that could result in anyone getting hurt and choreographing the fight.
Alexandra Park/House	Tripping over	Actors	Not wearing heels when walking down stairs and being careful when in the park

G4; Evaluating Pitch

What skills were used in the pitch?

• Using ICT to present a concept and back it up with research, such as the use of results from SurveyMonkey and the slides showing our recce and instituional context
• Dividing tasks equally between the members of the group so that when it came to presenting our pitch, each of us could contribute something
• Using time effectively, so we could convey our ideas precisely and without wasting time
• Taking on board the constructive criticism and feedback of others in order to more fully develop the details of our film idea

What obstacles or weaknesses were encountered?

• The idea of setting the opening just after the murder was questioned an so we have had to change it to just before the murder, as we were told this creates more tension and, along with the flashbacks, is more enigmatic
• We were unsure how many different actors we would need if we were using montage editing to show various prior victims; however we have now sorted this out with two actors as we will be showing only distorted CU shots of them, so they won't be identifiable
• Our antagonist lacked a recogniseable motif; however now she will mark her victims with a red lipstick kiss mark
• Furthermore, we have introduced various triggers for the flashbacks such as the angle of the camera and items such as the lipstick and a knife.

How could performance be improved next time?

• Could include more detail about the exact technical ideas we wish to use in the opening, to help the audience visualise our concept
• Maybe try making a presentation on Prezi

G4: Pre-production Audience Survey

Audience Feedback from Survey

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G4: Pitch Presentation

Group 4 – Pitch

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G4; Feedback from Green Light Pitch

In our pitch for our film, Ditched, we heard feedback including

Points to consider

• change the set to dining room, showing the antagonist preparing dinner/ a date (we could incorporate shots in the bedroom into the sequence prior to showing her doing this)

                                           

• open on Valentine's Day rather than just after it, thus setting up some enigma and tension for the impending murder
• following on from this, we could use flash forwards to the murder rather than flashbacks
• alternatively, if we continue with our ideas of flashbacks, we could use montage editing of various past victims rather than just the one
• recognisable motifs to link romance and death, such as the use of red lipstick on photos and bodies
 




• diagetic sound could include that of the antagonist humming to show relaxation, and the sound of the doorbell right at the end
• triggers for flashbacks were suggested, including CU shots of candles (could shoot through the flame), cutlery, especially the knives, or the red lipstick itself

Approved Ideas

• use of female antagonist as the serial killer rather than the traditionally male one, to break with convention of horror genre

• Valentine's theme links romance with death
• use of the femme fatale from noir convention, and giving her centre stage as the main character rather than relegating her to a supporting role as motive for the male protagonist's actions
• use of intercutting and flashbacks
• photographs to indicate serial nature of the murders, although we may change them from surrounding the mirror to being stored in a drawer or a scrapbook

• CU shots of body parts which flash onto the screen througout her carrying out "normal" tasks, especially to link aspects of the murders with the dinner date
• "Ditched" was a popular and well recieved title

FK; Reflection on th Wilderness Trip

• I learnt how to successfully over come danger hazards while on location. For example on the trip there was significant snow, however by not walking backwards and wearing appropriate footwear I overcame this.
• I learnt how to use tracking to create a smoother film
• I experienced using fisheye lens to create an effect on our footage
• I also learnt how to follow a story board and shot list to ensure all footage was done to a schedule

G4: Location Recce

We have found a suitable bedroom to use for the scene in our opening. This location will be used as the antagonist's bedroom where she gets ready the morning after the murder. For the filming in this location, personal items belonging to the characters will be placed around the room.

This mirror would have the photos of the antagonist with her current boyfriend stuck around it and pictures of her past boyfriends hidden behind.

After leaving the bedroom, the antagonist will walk down the stairs. We will use the stairs to shoot the antagonist walking down from a low angle shot to make her seem more powerful.

The shape of the stairs will mean that we will have to use continuity editing when editing our opening to show the antagonist walking round the bend in the stairs.

The antagonist will also be in the dining room to lay out the table. The space around the table will be enough room for the scene and we will be able to shoot the scene from different angles.

G4; Location Recce

• On 13/2/12, RB, our lead actor Chris and I did a location recce at Dunorlan Park in Royal Tunbridge Wells and we discussed the idea of using undergrowth instead of a ditch as this may be easier to obscure the body than in a ditch.

• On 15/2/12 I went and took some photos of another possible location, Alexandra Park in Hastings as there are some very good shallow ditches and streams there, although I am aware of problems with this as we have decided we shouldn't use water

• There is a patch of undergrowth which we could easily have the antagonist dump the body, however, so I think this is a very good location to consider

G4; Sound

• For our opening scene I think it would be a good technique to blend diagetic sound, such as a piece of music or a song playing on the radio in the scene in the girl's bedroom, with a non-diagetic soundtrack of the same song or piece of music playing throughout the opening, which would create a sound bridge and sense of continuity across the flashbacks and the scene in the bedroom
• Alternatively, we have considered creating a more disjointed feel to our sequence by using purely diagetic sound in the flashbacks, such as the sound of a fight, or shouting, and keeping the soundtrack for the shots inside the bedroom, which would heighten the contrast between the murder scene and the seeming normality and domesticity of the scene in the bedroom
• However, we realised that using a recogniseable song or piece of music would be quite difficult due to copyright restrictions so this limits our options for a soundtrack. We either have the option of creating original music or looking on websites which provide copyright free music and hopefully finding some which suits the mood of our opening

FK: Useful shot from Wilderness Trip

• I was looking over the footage from the wilderness trip and I really like this clip, especially the heels! I think we should definately incorporate this into our real thing!

Group4: Prop List

Audience Survey

Here is the link to our audience survey!

Click here to take survey

A Grade Planning Blog

Well done girls; you have put a lot of work into this blog, it is well presented, analytical and detailed with very good use of a wide range of media terms. Exemplary work.

G4; Institutional Context

• As our film is going to be a mix of film noir and horror, and breaks with convention in terms of the antagonist, there are not many films which are actually similar to ours
• Our film would be made by a conglomerate production company with some British influence, such as Working Title
• However the highly stylized nature of Black Swan (Aronofsky, 2010) could be something to which we aspire, with the contrast of light and dark and the main character as an emotionally unstable female, although it was a thriller rather than a horror. This film had a budget of $13 million
• Jennifer's Body (Kusama, 2009) has a young female antagonist who kills male classmates, and had a budget of $16 million
• Finally, The Woman In Black (Watkins, 2012) features a female antagonist and a male protagonist and although not in the noir style, has the antagonist partially obscured and uses rural and bleak locations similar to the woods we are going to film in. The budget was $13 million.

G4; Fonts and Title Ideas

• I have been looking on http://www.dafont.com/ for ideas on suitable fonts for both the title and credits in the opening.

• As we have chosen horror as the genre for our film, I though that these fonts would be suitable:

• With any of these fonts, if they were written in red it would look like blood which would connote death and fit in with the theme of the opening genre.

• However, as we are thinking of basing the film around Valentine's Day or having this as a theme, I also thought these could be appropriate as the title fonts:

• Also with these fonts, having them in red could connote love which would be suitable for a Valentine's Day theme as well as death or murder.