Recce: Location One.

As part of our planning we were asked to take photo's of the locations were are using for our final opening sequence. The first location is a bathroom. I have taken photographs of the key parts of the bathroom being filmed. The corner. Where the woman will dress and the mirror is where the woman will transform.

Here are the pictures:

The location has plug sockets just out side the room which can be used for camera charging.
Just out side the door of the room, where the second picture is taken there is enough space to be able to film without capturing any wall ect this is good because the camera can be outside the room, leaving enough space for actors to act ect. This will be productive when filming the scenes with Psycho-girl in the mirror as the camera will not be seen.

This is a residentual bathroom which with a few probs like travel sized complimentarys can be changed to look like a hotle.

There is also a kitchen in this house that can be used for refreshments which i will provide. Tea, coffee ect this is important as we will need to keep actors energy levels up in order for them to perform well.

There is a seperate toilet that the owners of the house/cast/crew can use so that they are not inperupting filiming time.

the lighting is good and the titles are easily wiped which means that there is not a great risk in staining anything.

The bathroom has a good morder feel which will make our film look professional.

There is a spare room in the house which can be used by the cast and crew as a costume/make-up department and can also be used to store equipment without being damaged.

Parity Opening Sequence Remake:

Mr. Barton asked us to remake the opening of Parity in order for us to get used to using the cameras and to give us an incite to what filming our final idea will be like.

Here is the opening sequence we produced:
http://youtu.be/8hXWeEXVySc

These are the roles each member of our group was allocated:
Editing: Kaite
Camera: Frankie
Directing: Chloe
Acting/Directing: Connie


When completing this task i learnt that in order for production to run smoothly we will need to ensure we know what were are producing inside and out. That we create a shotlist to know which shots should be filmed when ect.


When filming our final sequence, we will make sure that we know exactly what we are doing and that we practise each shot three times before filming. That we are more organised. 

Group Meeting: 28th Nov.

As we are filing our sequence as a group it is important that we meet regularly and discuss what we should be doing. This is what went on in this meeting...

We have all come in today to film our remake of Parity, for this we have brought in ketchup to use as blood and have borrowed a bucket and mop from the school cleaners. The filming is taking place in the boys toilet as it has a mirror we can use and a similar setting to the toilet used in Parity.

For our remake we asked a friend of ours called Josh, who acted as the murderer, and Connie acted as the victim. Katie directed the remake by using a shot list  and the stills sir had posted on his blog to use as guidelines. Frankie was behind the camera, paying close attention to the directions Katie was giving. Chloe is in in the process of editing the shots.

Here are the stills:

Group Meeting: 24th Nov

As we are filming our final sequence as a group it is important that we meet regularly to discuss what we should be doing. This is what went on in this meeting...

We came together as a group to discuss the shooting of Parity which is a remake of another student's work. The topics we discussed were how we were going to shoot it and the mise en scene aspects we will need to film it as close to the original as we can. We watched the video itself and paid close attention to the stills Sir has posted on his blog. We propose to create a shot list, obtain the following props; fake blood, a knife, a bucket and a mop. Also, we are going to message two boys asking them to star in our remake, we will be print-screening the message as evidence.

We have decided to meet every Mondays after school, Tuesdays 3rd Period and Thursdays 3rd Period. Plus, we will write a list of the things we will complete before the following meeting.

Here is the video of Parity:

Title Map: Seven.

In this lesson we were asked to produce a title map of a thriller of our choice.
I learnt that a title map is useful when making a film and that we should definitely use a title map in the making of our own sequence. An also learnt that a title map is a time-line of what exactly goes on in the title sequence and where.


I watch Seven and here is the title map that I produced:

Group Meeting: 22nd Nov.

As our sequence will be shot as a group, it is important that we all meet up regularly and discuss what will be happening. This is what went on in this meeting...

We met up as a group in order to film our remake of Resevoir Dogs.
We had met up on the 16th and the 21st to film however the people who we had asked to be in our remake did not show up, so today we all met up and got a group of boys together in order to film.
We used goals as our location as their was a wall we could use. 

Frankie was behind the camera, Connie was directing as well as Katie and Chloe will be editing the final piece. Katie messaged and invited the people we asked to a group via facebook, so she will print-screen the group invitations and the message.

Individual Treatment:

Mr. Barton also asked us to write an individual 25 word treatment.

In order to write a 25 word treatment i need to get familiar with one actually is so as well as reading the directions on sir's blog i did some research.

Here is a website, i found a useful explanation of a treatment here:

http://carltonross.tripod.com/write_treatments.html

Here is an example of a 25 word treatment:

My 25 word treatment:

Name: Justice Kills The Cop.

Plot: A naive detective comes to regret his biggest achievement when a notorious gang leader, sent down for murder escapes thirsty for revenge.

My story-line is very much like seven because of the revenge element in seven, the murderer wanted to teach the victims a lesson for commiting one of the deadly sins.

It is also like Memento because there are revenge elements in that also.

Brainstorm:

Mr. Barton asked us to produce 3 brainstorms as a group to the three Scenarios that he proposed.

Here are the Scenarios:

We all produced a brainstorm each. I chose to create a brainstorm for the "Crime thriller scenario".

I used the website www.bubbl.us for this.

Here is my brainstorm:

Mr. Barton also asked up to research Thriller that we think are like the one we brainstormed for.

I used the The Internet Movie Database website (www.imdb.com) to find photos and posters on the films I researched.

My brainstorm is a little like Seven, although Seven is a psychological Thriller is does have elements of crime thriller in it and i think my story-line is like Seven's because the murderer in Seven murders to get revenge on the people who are committing some of the deadly sins. 

Memento is also like my brainstorm as the lead character is seeking revenge.

Why completing this task I learnt that you have to think about certain details when thinking up a thriller story-line in order for it to make sense. I was constantly thinking, does this make sense? Is it to complicated to film/act or understand? Is there elements of suspense? Will it appeal to the target market?

I feel that my story-line would be more effective if the budget for our production was higher.

The actors would need to be in there late 20's.

In the end we decided to go with Katie's idea for a Psychological Thriller. This is because psychological thrillers are easier to film on a lower budget, her idea was great and effective, we all agreed strongly that we would like to film it.

Here is the brainstorm for Katie's idea:

9 Frame analysis:

The scene opens with a man in a kitchen tiding from what looks like breakfast, he then dresses and there is a close-up of a police badge which informs the audience that the man is a police officer. The scene then goes to a close-up of of a dead body and the officer on scene explains that witnesses heard screams and gun shot then nothing. The detective who name is now revealed to be Detective Summers

Company Logo's:

In order for our final sequence to look professional we were asked to create a company logo. I was allocated this task and created to for the group to choose from.

These are the logo's:

Logo 1 -

Logo 2 - 

The group chose logo 2 as it looks better and is more relevant to a thriller. This is because the mysterious man and the fog are two conventions of a thriller.

Reservoir Dogs Title Sequence Remake:

Mr. Barton asked us to remake the title sequence for Reservoir Dogs in order for us to get used to using the cameras and to give us an incite to what filming our final idea will be like.

This is the re-make:

http://youtu.be/_36tRAyIWSY

These are the roles each person in the group were given:

Katie: Directed and communicated with the actors, Titles Map
Connie: Directed, Titles Map
Frankie: Filmed, Shot list
Chloe: Edited

When filming this sequence I learnt that it is important to rehearse properly, to communicate with actors efficiently and to organise props effectively.

Things i would do differently:

I would ensure all props are present, that the actors have seen the original sequence before the shoot so that they have a good idea of how they should be acting, and that the actors and camera have both rehearsed.

When it comes to making our final thriller opening sequence i will take what i have learnt on board and ensure that our sequence is rehearsed by at least once preferably twice by actors, we should also ensure that the actors have seen the animatic in order to give them an idea of how the sequence should look. As well as making sure the camera-man is aware of how to film the scene by test running the camera three times before filming each shot. We should also make sure that all props are organised before the filming dates and the responsibility of carrying/making sure props are present on set is allocated to a group member. 

Reservoir Dogs: Script.

In order the to film the title sequence from Reservoir Dogs we needed to needed to plan out what was happening in every shot and the about of seconds the shot lasted. This task was hand written for practicality, we took it on the shoot with us in order to know which shot we were filming.

Whilst doing this we writing this we also figured out what the shot list was and what props were needed.

The actors provided some of the props as did connie.

Here is the script we made:

Group Meeting: 1st Nov

As we are making the final sequence as a group it is important that we meet up regularly to discuss what we should be doing. This is what went on in this meeting...

This is a group meeting to say who is doing what and what needs to be done in order to complete research.

Frankie: Iconic Directors. Frankie must finish and post her work on Ionic Directors, she will be doing a video of present the information.

Chloe: History of Thrillers. Chloe needs to complete and post her work on History of Thrillers. This will be presented in a movie.

Connie: Typical Thriller Synopsis. Connie needs to complete and post her work on the Typical Thriller Synopsis. This will also be presented with a video.