Yesterday we presented our pitch to the rest of our media group. It went well, and I am pleased with the feedback that we had off of our teacher. This means that we can now carry on with our storyboarding, we have a few more shots to do and then we will be able to start filming.
I have had a reply from lacock, about whether we can use the cloisters to film. However they wanted more information about who we were and when we would want to film, so we are waiting on that to which weekend we will choose to do the majority of our filming on.
We have also started to think about soundtracks, and have been using Garageband to come up with ideas on how to make this. However we cannot fully start this until we have our filming done. We will start to develop our ideas more during the week when we are editing.
Poppy Smyth
Friday 27 February 2009
Sunday 22 February 2009
22/02/2009
I am very pleased with the progress that Laura and I are making.It will be very much more difficult due to the fact that there are now only two of us in the group. Yet we know exactly what we want to do, and are making sure that we get there.
As you can see from her previous post, we spent a lot of time last Wednesday on the planning of our main task, and how we are to pitch the idea. It took us all day, this included all the planning, the presentation, going out on location to find whereabouts we are to film.
Poppy Smyth
As you can see from her previous post, we spent a lot of time last Wednesday on the planning of our main task, and how we are to pitch the idea. It took us all day, this included all the planning, the presentation, going out on location to find whereabouts we are to film.
Poppy Smyth
Thursday 19 February 2009
19/2/2009
We are making very good progress as Poppy and I spent a lot of yesterday planning our main task. As you can see in the previous post Poppy and I put our thriller idea into a lot of detail. We are currently working on our presentation to be given to the rest of the class on monday morning. This presentation will include all of the ideas we came up with yesterday. We are trying to find a way to make the presentation interesting and enthusiastic to convince the audience that our idea is a good idea.
Yesterday noted down some of the locations we will be using for our thriller and also any of the props and costumes we will be needing. We are getting this ready now, so that we can film as soon as possible so that all of our ideas will be fresh in our minds.
Laura Knapp
Yesterday noted down some of the locations we will be using for our thriller and also any of the props and costumes we will be needing. We are getting this ready now, so that we can film as soon as possible so that all of our ideas will be fresh in our minds.
Laura Knapp
Wednesday 18 February 2009
18/02/2009
Title- Mutiny – Mutiny means a conspiracy among member of a group resulting in a conflict or a rebellion. We chose this name for our thriller because there will be a lot of conflict between the main two characters. A connotation of ‘mutiny’ could be fighting for power or the idea of mutants (non human forms). Thrillers which includes conflict between two characters include Sleeping With The Enemy.
Audience- aged 15 to 40. We chose this target audience because a lot of students will enjoy this because young people like to get scared. It is a very wide target audience because there will be some time shifts in the film and the older audiences can work out the plot as it may be quite confusing for younger audiences. This will be a lot like the Shawshank Redemption as there are a lot of flashbacks in this film.
BBFC- 15, due to mild fantasy horror. There may also be some violence and suspense. Films such as Don't Look Now, The Others and The Sixth Sense all influenced our idea for the BBFC rating. This is because they are all rated above 12 and our thriller will have some violence.
Studio - Bueno Vista Pictures. We chose this because some of the films which inspired us were made by Bueno Vista Pictures. Bueno Vista is also Universal Studios which is a very large company. So therefore, we will use Universal Studios because Bueno Vista is well known for children's films. One film in particular which influenced us is The Sixth Sense. The Sixth Sense use a lot of red which signifies blood, anger, power, strength, energy, leadership, danger and aggression.
Mood board
Trees and woods, camera looking out from behind trees. High angle shot (camera up in tree) looking down on character. This will signify that the character being looked down on is weak and helpless and shows that they are being watched unknowingly. Films which are set in the woods includes the Blair Witch Project and The Secret Window. We wanted to set it in the woods because it is a very quiet area where there will be no one else. There are also a lot of different shots that can be used such as high angle shots up in the trees and low angle shots, looking up at the trees. We will also be able to make shadows using the trees and trees are a good place for the characters to hide behind.
Establishing shot which will be a pretty landscape. This could be of come hills or fields. This gives a sense of being alone where no one else has been and there is nowhere to go. An example of a thriller which does this includes The Secret Window.
Old building. This could be used to emphasise how lonely it is where the characters are. The Others has an establishing show of an old building. This shot sets the scene for the rest of the film.
Red objects such as a red balloon or a teddy. The red symbolises blood, anger, power, strength, energy, leadership, danger and aggression. This colour will come up a lot in each shot which shows there is some significance. The colour red is used a lot in The Sixth Sence and Don't Look Now. These films inspired us to use the colour red.
A child with psychological issues. The character in our thriller will have short term memory loss and has to write everything down so that she remembers what she has to do each day. Psychlogical thrillers such as The Sixth Sence inspired us to use a child. The Omen also helped us come up with the idea of the psychological issues. Also children in thrillers seems very sinister because children are seen to be innocent.
A Ghost. The child who has psychological issues is a ghost because she fell off a swing and banged her head when her older sister was pushing her. This is why she has short term memory loss. Don't Look Now is a perfect example of a ghost of a child. This is where we got our inspiration from . This is because in Don't Look Now, a child falls in some water and drowns and her ghost comes back.
Lacock, showing the cloisters. This has a lot of history to it. Also the cloisters could symbolise a barrier between the two conflicting characters. Thrillers which have used old buildings include The Others.
Films that influence the thriller. On our mood board, we will put some film posters of some films that have influenced our ideas for out thriller. Some of these films will include The Village because it is set in a forest and The Sixth Sense because the colour red is used frequently.
Treetops looking up into the sky. This will be from the character’s point of view. This will symbolise how trapped they are because it will look like the trees are closing in on them. This is used a lot in the Blair Witch Project. In the Blair Which Project, nearly all of the filming is hand-held. We will not do this in our thriller, however, we may use it as an element in our film.
Tunnel of trees. This will also symbolise how trapped the characters are because they are such a confined space. This is also used in The Blair Witch Project.
Water such as a lake or a stream. This could be used to show purity of the character who is getting chased. This is used in What Lies Beneath. This is what inspired us to use water in our thriller.
Black and white pictures. We are going to use a black and white effect when there are flashbacks in our thriller. This shows a time lapse. Thrillers which use this effect include The Others when they are looking at the old photos which are in black and white. This shows that the pictures were taken a long time ago.
A swing. This will show the innocence of the child when she falls off. This will make the audience feel sympathy when the little girl falls off the swing. This effect is used in The Omen, The Sixth Sense and Don't Look Now. These do not all include swings, however they all make the children seem innocent by getting the child to carry a teddy or a balloon.
Ideas
Zooming into picture taken on same day as filming. Zooming out onto actual shot. This could be used for a flashback. This is used in Momento.
Bridge, filming from other side of the tunnel. This could symbolise a barrier between two characters. This is used in Sleeping With The Ememy when the man is stalking the women and there are a lot of barriers between them.
Looking round tree as if being watched. The camera will be filming the character walking past the tree as if the audience are being stalked. This is used in The Village.
Opens cupboard door and picks up something red. The camera will be inside the cupboard and there will be a shot of a character opening the cupboard door. This type of effect is used in the Davinci Code. It is to show that character is dominant.
One character will let go of a balloon and it will fall back down to another character. This will show some link between the two characters. The balloon could have a warning note written onto the side of it. The type of effect is used in What Lies Beneath where there is writing on the mirror. This is one character giving a warning to another character through writing. This inspired us to have a warning written on the balloon.
Close ups of a knife being drawn. The camera will not show the character who is drawing the knife which makes it more mysterious. This effect is used in Psycho. This lets the audience know what is about to happen, but they do not know who is drawing the knife.
Camera placed on the ground and there will be a shot of a character’s feet running. This makes it unclear who the characters are. This is a little bit like the Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield because sometimes the audience can see the charcter's feet and that is it. The audience can still hear what is going on, but cannot see the full picture. This may make the film more frightening because the audience will be using thier imagination.
Over view of opening sequence-
John writing note, dissolved into next shot. This will be an over the shoulder shot because it makes this character mysterious. As John is writing the note, there will be a voice over of what he is actually writing. This effect is used in Momento. This is what inspired us to do it.
The first shot will be of Maisy getting a red balloon out of a cupboard and walks out of house. There will then be an establishing shot of some fields as she walks in front of the camera so that we see the back of her head, pulling the balloon behind her.
The camera will then zoom into Maisy’s eye and there will be a flashback of Laura taking the balloon off of Maisy. Laura will then pop the balloon in front of Maisy which will be in slow motion to reveal Maisy’s sad face. The camera will then cut (flashes) back to Maisy standing in field with balloon again.
Masiy will let go of balloon and the balloon will fly off and the camera follows the balloon. Camera looks up into bright sky, and then back down to Laura (main character) in a different place and balloon will fall down at her feet.
Laura will pick up the balloon and there will be writing on the side of it saying, ‘it is here’ The camera will then zoom into Laura’s eye as if it is another flashback, but in Laura’s point of view, The flashback will be a scene of Laura pushing Maisy on a swing in children’s playground. Maisy falls off and the swing is left swinging gently. There will then be a quick shot of a gravestone, letting the audience know that Maisy has died. There will then be a shot of Maisy laying on the floor with the swing swinging behind her and Laura running away.
The next shot will be back to Laura’s eye which will zoom in and then back out to her looking at the balloon.
Laura will drop the balloon and run and whenever Laura looks round, she will look at the camera, as if the camera is a stalker chasing her. There will then be a shot of Laura running underneath trees to show weakness, which will be a high angle shot.
There will be different shots of Laura running in different places. She will run over paths, fields, up hills, down hills, country lanes, past lakes, each end of the cloisters, on different sides of the cloisters and jumping over streams. Laura is in a panic, so she is running fast and breathing quite heavily however Maisy will be walking calmly humming to herself.
At the end of our clip there will be a conversation between Laura and Maisy. Laura will run down the alley of cloisters with the camera on the other side of them. The will be an extreme long shot of Laura and then a quick cut to Maisy’s face at the other end of the cloisters. There will then be a non-diegetic ‘whoosh’.
The camera will then cut to Laura’s facial expression and fade to black as she screams. The camera will then cut to Laura on the floor, looking up at Maisy, This shot will be blurry and all the audience can see is Maisy’s silhouette, with her holding a balloon. Maisy will be looking down on Laura which shows weakness.
Script-
John: (voiceover) Get the balloon out of the cupboard, walk out of the house, and don’t look back.
Laura: You stupid girl (pushes Maisy away and pops balloon in front of her)
Maisy: I remember it as if it were yesterday, it all happened so quickly but I remember it in slow motion. It was March, St David’s Day, I had been out with my sister to the playground as we always did, every Saturday afternoon. There was nothing different about that day. We left the swings til last, because they used to be my favourite. (sound of the sisters laughing on swings, then sinister eerie sound as Laura pushes Maisy and then she falls off) That was the last time I ever played in that playground, all because of my sister.
(Eerie, child’s music-nursery rhyme, just the tune. And some sort of backing music like the sound of a xylophone)
Maisy: (voiceover) She ran, ran away. I couldn’t keep up to start with, but she started to tire. I was determined to get her, after all that she had done to me, I couldn’t let her get away this time. For years she had bullied me, she told me that it was all just a game. That day. That silence, was the first time I realised it wasn’t. Her screaming rang in my ears. I could see it now, picturing her helpless, on the floor face down, her head turning to look into my eyes. The pain, me laughing as she grasps the last strands of life. (On the floor in the cloisters).
Maisy: This is my revenge (looking down at Laura)
End of scene
Propp’s theory
There are two sisters; the younger one is killed by her older sister when being pushed on a swing in the playground. The older sister runs away and leaves her sister to die. The younger sister comes back from the dead, to haunt her sibling. She wants revenge.
The villain/dispatcher – Youngest sister
The victim/hero/princess – Older sister
False Hero – Parents, against the older sister because of what she has done
Donor/helper – providing the villain (young sister) with instructions of how to get revenge, by writing notes to her.
Todorov’s theory
Equilibrium – The two sisters are pushing each other on a swing. This will be a peaceful, calm satisfactory, relatively normal scene.
Disequilibrium – The younger sister is pushed off of the swing and is killed.
Disruption – The younger sister starts to haunt the older sister. This is when Maisy pulls a knife to her sister at the cloisters in Lacock. The audience hear screams but does not know if Laura dies or not.
Restoration of the equilibrium – Older sister goes home and there is no sign of the younger sister. But Laura still hears her and sees flashbacks of her younger sister.
Recognition – Older sister carries on thinking she is alive, but is actually dead. The audience doesn’t think she is dead. She then soon realises she is dead as no one else can hear her other than Maisy.
Equilibrium – Both dead, return to where Maisy died. At the end of the film they are both seen swinging on the swings.
Audience- aged 15 to 40. We chose this target audience because a lot of students will enjoy this because young people like to get scared. It is a very wide target audience because there will be some time shifts in the film and the older audiences can work out the plot as it may be quite confusing for younger audiences. This will be a lot like the Shawshank Redemption as there are a lot of flashbacks in this film.
BBFC- 15, due to mild fantasy horror. There may also be some violence and suspense. Films such as Don't Look Now, The Others and The Sixth Sense all influenced our idea for the BBFC rating. This is because they are all rated above 12 and our thriller will have some violence.
Studio - Bueno Vista Pictures. We chose this because some of the films which inspired us were made by Bueno Vista Pictures. Bueno Vista is also Universal Studios which is a very large company. So therefore, we will use Universal Studios because Bueno Vista is well known for children's films. One film in particular which influenced us is The Sixth Sense. The Sixth Sense use a lot of red which signifies blood, anger, power, strength, energy, leadership, danger and aggression.
Mood board
Trees and woods, camera looking out from behind trees. High angle shot (camera up in tree) looking down on character. This will signify that the character being looked down on is weak and helpless and shows that they are being watched unknowingly. Films which are set in the woods includes the Blair Witch Project and The Secret Window. We wanted to set it in the woods because it is a very quiet area where there will be no one else. There are also a lot of different shots that can be used such as high angle shots up in the trees and low angle shots, looking up at the trees. We will also be able to make shadows using the trees and trees are a good place for the characters to hide behind.
Establishing shot which will be a pretty landscape. This could be of come hills or fields. This gives a sense of being alone where no one else has been and there is nowhere to go. An example of a thriller which does this includes The Secret Window.
Old building. This could be used to emphasise how lonely it is where the characters are. The Others has an establishing show of an old building. This shot sets the scene for the rest of the film.
Red objects such as a red balloon or a teddy. The red symbolises blood, anger, power, strength, energy, leadership, danger and aggression. This colour will come up a lot in each shot which shows there is some significance. The colour red is used a lot in The Sixth Sence and Don't Look Now. These films inspired us to use the colour red.
A child with psychological issues. The character in our thriller will have short term memory loss and has to write everything down so that she remembers what she has to do each day. Psychlogical thrillers such as The Sixth Sence inspired us to use a child. The Omen also helped us come up with the idea of the psychological issues. Also children in thrillers seems very sinister because children are seen to be innocent.
A Ghost. The child who has psychological issues is a ghost because she fell off a swing and banged her head when her older sister was pushing her. This is why she has short term memory loss. Don't Look Now is a perfect example of a ghost of a child. This is where we got our inspiration from . This is because in Don't Look Now, a child falls in some water and drowns and her ghost comes back.
Lacock, showing the cloisters. This has a lot of history to it. Also the cloisters could symbolise a barrier between the two conflicting characters. Thrillers which have used old buildings include The Others.
Films that influence the thriller. On our mood board, we will put some film posters of some films that have influenced our ideas for out thriller. Some of these films will include The Village because it is set in a forest and The Sixth Sense because the colour red is used frequently.
Treetops looking up into the sky. This will be from the character’s point of view. This will symbolise how trapped they are because it will look like the trees are closing in on them. This is used a lot in the Blair Witch Project. In the Blair Which Project, nearly all of the filming is hand-held. We will not do this in our thriller, however, we may use it as an element in our film.
Tunnel of trees. This will also symbolise how trapped the characters are because they are such a confined space. This is also used in The Blair Witch Project.
Water such as a lake or a stream. This could be used to show purity of the character who is getting chased. This is used in What Lies Beneath. This is what inspired us to use water in our thriller.
Black and white pictures. We are going to use a black and white effect when there are flashbacks in our thriller. This shows a time lapse. Thrillers which use this effect include The Others when they are looking at the old photos which are in black and white. This shows that the pictures were taken a long time ago.
A swing. This will show the innocence of the child when she falls off. This will make the audience feel sympathy when the little girl falls off the swing. This effect is used in The Omen, The Sixth Sense and Don't Look Now. These do not all include swings, however they all make the children seem innocent by getting the child to carry a teddy or a balloon.
Ideas
Zooming into picture taken on same day as filming. Zooming out onto actual shot. This could be used for a flashback. This is used in Momento.
Bridge, filming from other side of the tunnel. This could symbolise a barrier between two characters. This is used in Sleeping With The Ememy when the man is stalking the women and there are a lot of barriers between them.
Looking round tree as if being watched. The camera will be filming the character walking past the tree as if the audience are being stalked. This is used in The Village.
Opens cupboard door and picks up something red. The camera will be inside the cupboard and there will be a shot of a character opening the cupboard door. This type of effect is used in the Davinci Code. It is to show that character is dominant.
One character will let go of a balloon and it will fall back down to another character. This will show some link between the two characters. The balloon could have a warning note written onto the side of it. The type of effect is used in What Lies Beneath where there is writing on the mirror. This is one character giving a warning to another character through writing. This inspired us to have a warning written on the balloon.
Close ups of a knife being drawn. The camera will not show the character who is drawing the knife which makes it more mysterious. This effect is used in Psycho. This lets the audience know what is about to happen, but they do not know who is drawing the knife.
Camera placed on the ground and there will be a shot of a character’s feet running. This makes it unclear who the characters are. This is a little bit like the Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield because sometimes the audience can see the charcter's feet and that is it. The audience can still hear what is going on, but cannot see the full picture. This may make the film more frightening because the audience will be using thier imagination.
Over view of opening sequence-
John writing note, dissolved into next shot. This will be an over the shoulder shot because it makes this character mysterious. As John is writing the note, there will be a voice over of what he is actually writing. This effect is used in Momento. This is what inspired us to do it.
The first shot will be of Maisy getting a red balloon out of a cupboard and walks out of house. There will then be an establishing shot of some fields as she walks in front of the camera so that we see the back of her head, pulling the balloon behind her.
The camera will then zoom into Maisy’s eye and there will be a flashback of Laura taking the balloon off of Maisy. Laura will then pop the balloon in front of Maisy which will be in slow motion to reveal Maisy’s sad face. The camera will then cut (flashes) back to Maisy standing in field with balloon again.
Masiy will let go of balloon and the balloon will fly off and the camera follows the balloon. Camera looks up into bright sky, and then back down to Laura (main character) in a different place and balloon will fall down at her feet.
Laura will pick up the balloon and there will be writing on the side of it saying, ‘it is here’ The camera will then zoom into Laura’s eye as if it is another flashback, but in Laura’s point of view, The flashback will be a scene of Laura pushing Maisy on a swing in children’s playground. Maisy falls off and the swing is left swinging gently. There will then be a quick shot of a gravestone, letting the audience know that Maisy has died. There will then be a shot of Maisy laying on the floor with the swing swinging behind her and Laura running away.
The next shot will be back to Laura’s eye which will zoom in and then back out to her looking at the balloon.
Laura will drop the balloon and run and whenever Laura looks round, she will look at the camera, as if the camera is a stalker chasing her. There will then be a shot of Laura running underneath trees to show weakness, which will be a high angle shot.
There will be different shots of Laura running in different places. She will run over paths, fields, up hills, down hills, country lanes, past lakes, each end of the cloisters, on different sides of the cloisters and jumping over streams. Laura is in a panic, so she is running fast and breathing quite heavily however Maisy will be walking calmly humming to herself.
At the end of our clip there will be a conversation between Laura and Maisy. Laura will run down the alley of cloisters with the camera on the other side of them. The will be an extreme long shot of Laura and then a quick cut to Maisy’s face at the other end of the cloisters. There will then be a non-diegetic ‘whoosh’.
The camera will then cut to Laura’s facial expression and fade to black as she screams. The camera will then cut to Laura on the floor, looking up at Maisy, This shot will be blurry and all the audience can see is Maisy’s silhouette, with her holding a balloon. Maisy will be looking down on Laura which shows weakness.
Script-
John: (voiceover) Get the balloon out of the cupboard, walk out of the house, and don’t look back.
Laura: You stupid girl (pushes Maisy away and pops balloon in front of her)
Maisy: I remember it as if it were yesterday, it all happened so quickly but I remember it in slow motion. It was March, St David’s Day, I had been out with my sister to the playground as we always did, every Saturday afternoon. There was nothing different about that day. We left the swings til last, because they used to be my favourite. (sound of the sisters laughing on swings, then sinister eerie sound as Laura pushes Maisy and then she falls off) That was the last time I ever played in that playground, all because of my sister.
(Eerie, child’s music-nursery rhyme, just the tune. And some sort of backing music like the sound of a xylophone)
Maisy: (voiceover) She ran, ran away. I couldn’t keep up to start with, but she started to tire. I was determined to get her, after all that she had done to me, I couldn’t let her get away this time. For years she had bullied me, she told me that it was all just a game. That day. That silence, was the first time I realised it wasn’t. Her screaming rang in my ears. I could see it now, picturing her helpless, on the floor face down, her head turning to look into my eyes. The pain, me laughing as she grasps the last strands of life. (On the floor in the cloisters).
Maisy: This is my revenge (looking down at Laura)
End of scene
Propp’s theory
There are two sisters; the younger one is killed by her older sister when being pushed on a swing in the playground. The older sister runs away and leaves her sister to die. The younger sister comes back from the dead, to haunt her sibling. She wants revenge.
The villain/dispatcher – Youngest sister
The victim/hero/princess – Older sister
False Hero – Parents, against the older sister because of what she has done
Donor/helper – providing the villain (young sister) with instructions of how to get revenge, by writing notes to her.
Todorov’s theory
Equilibrium – The two sisters are pushing each other on a swing. This will be a peaceful, calm satisfactory, relatively normal scene.
Disequilibrium – The younger sister is pushed off of the swing and is killed.
Disruption – The younger sister starts to haunt the older sister. This is when Maisy pulls a knife to her sister at the cloisters in Lacock. The audience hear screams but does not know if Laura dies or not.
Restoration of the equilibrium – Older sister goes home and there is no sign of the younger sister. But Laura still hears her and sees flashbacks of her younger sister.
Recognition – Older sister carries on thinking she is alive, but is actually dead. The audience doesn’t think she is dead. She then soon realises she is dead as no one else can hear her other than Maisy.
Equilibrium – Both dead, return to where Maisy died. At the end of the film they are both seen swinging on the swings.
Friday 13 February 2009
This is our final piece for our Preliminary Task.
Overall, I am very pleased with our final piece for our prelimiary task. I feel that Poppy's filming was very good and the use of panning and zooming was very smoothe. To improve our prelimiary task I would have made sure that it was obvious that the camera was filming through a window. I say this because some people who watched our preliminary task asked why they couldn't hear the man shouting. They said that it was not clear that it was being filmed through a window. To improve this I would either film it inside the room so that we could hear the man shouting, or film it further back so that the window frame was in shot. I would also try and add a litlle more diaglogue into it. This is because it was a mystery and I think with a little more dialogue at the end would have helped to make the plot more obvious.
When the man was shouting through the window, I would have not made that shot as long as it was because I feel it was too long. I was have also liked to focus on the clock on the wall inside the room where the man was shouting. If the camera had looked at the clock for a second, there could have been a discussion about the time when the two characters were talking outside. This could have also made the plot mroe obvious.
Overall, I am very pleased with our final piece for our prelimiary task. I feel that Poppy's filming was very good and the use of panning and zooming was very smoothe. To improve our prelimiary task I would have made sure that it was obvious that the camera was filming through a window. I say this because some people who watched our preliminary task asked why they couldn't hear the man shouting. They said that it was not clear that it was being filmed through a window. To improve this I would either film it inside the room so that we could hear the man shouting, or film it further back so that the window frame was in shot. I would also try and add a litlle more diaglogue into it. This is because it was a mystery and I think with a little more dialogue at the end would have helped to make the plot more obvious.
When the man was shouting through the window, I would have not made that shot as long as it was because I feel it was too long. I was have also liked to focus on the clock on the wall inside the room where the man was shouting. If the camera had looked at the clock for a second, there could have been a discussion about the time when the two characters were talking outside. This could have also made the plot mroe obvious.
If I were to compare this with another thriller we have studied, I feel that it is a lot like Sleeping With The Enemy because we do not see the man's face for a while and he seems mysterious. There are also a lot of shots of his feet which show that he does not want his face to be shown.
Laura Knapp
Thursday 12 February 2009
11/02/2009
Katy is no longer in our group due to illness. Therefore it is going to be a struggle as there are now only two of us. However, we have completed our filming and are now starting our editing, we will continue this tomorrow (12/02/2009).
By Laura and Poppy.
By Laura and Poppy.
Monday 9 February 2009
09/02/2009
We have not been able to complete our preliminary task, or yet do our peresentation as school was suspended for most of last week due to snowy weather. Monday afternoon, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. We have about 4 seconds worth of footage, we would have been able to record more, yet the camera ran out of battery.
Poppy Smyth
Poppy Smyth
Monday 2 February 2009
02/02/2009
We have started to finalise our storyboard, for our Preliminary Task. Katy was ill today so therefore we had use our teacher to act her part in it.
Our preliminary task is based around the style of Alfred Hitchcock, and focuses on his techniques. A character walks into a room and exchanges at least four lines of dialogue with another character, the sequence has to be at least thirty seconds long.
Our idea is that there is a flashback of two characters having a conflict, the film will be in black and white and we will use some non-diegetic music to create atmospere and suspense.
It will start off with an establishing shot of a stairway with a man walking down the stairs, he will then walk into a room where the audience will see a girl looking out of the window. Behind the girl is a doorway, in which the man will come through and start shouting, but the audience will not be able to hear the shouting because he will be the other side of the window. There will be music to accompany this shot.
The music then stops and the camera is in the room looking over the shoulder of the man, and the girl is on the other side of the window, where the camera was. The camera then zooms slowly into the girl's eye, fading into black.
Then the camera is fully zoomed in on an eye, and pans out to show the girl stood outside with the man, this shows a time shift, as if a flashback has occured. They exchange dialogue and the audience is left with the staring eyes of the girl and the sense of mystery.
By Poppy and Laura.
This first shot should last no longer than 2 seconds. It will be of a man walking down a flight of stairs, but not showing his face. This will make the man mysterious. It will be a long shot of his legs at a low angle to show that he is powerful. There will be no camera movement for this shot; the camera will just watch him walking down the flight of stairs. Accompanying the shot will be non-diagetic music. It will be quite fast paced music to show that he is alert and on some kind of mission. The transition for this shot to the next shot will be a cut. This is so that it is fast paced.
This next shot will also be a 2 second shot and it will be a high angle, shot looking down at the man's feet. The camera will be hand-held to make it seem like the audience are in the character's eyes. The non-diagetic music will continue throughout this shot. The man's feet will be the only thing in the shot which shows that he is dominating the whole shot and that he is a powerful character. The camera will not show the man's face to conceal his identity and still make the audience suspicious of who he is. The transition from this shot to the next will be a cut
The third shot will reveal more of the man, showing all of his body, apart from his head. This shows that he is becoming more and more dominant throughout the scene. This shot will last another 2 seconds and will be a low angle shot to show that he is in charge and that he is the more powerful character. It will be a mid shot which will turn into a close up of his legs because he is walking towards the camera. As he walks closer to the camera, his body gets bigger and fills up more of the screen which shows that he is powerful. The non-diegetic music will continue throughout this shot. The transition from this shot to the next shot will be a cut which continues to make the scene fast paced.
This next shot will show the back of the man's head, walking away from the camera. This is the first time we see the man's head, however, he is walking away from the camera which could show uneasiness. As he walks away from the camera, he is getting smaller and smaller which shows he is becoming nervous. This shot will be a mid shot at eye-line level, however you cannot see his eyes. The camera will slowly follow the man as he walks out of the door in front of him using a panning movement. The non-diegetic music will continue playing throughout the shot. This shot will last about 2 seconds. The transition for this shot to the nest shot will be another cut to keep up with the pace of the music.
The next shot is an over the shoulder shot of a girl looking out of a window. However, this over the shoulder shot will not be from behind the girl, it will be from the front. This is so that both of the character's faces are revealed which shows that they are both equal at this moment in time. The camera will be filming from the other side of the window so that you cannot hear what the man is saying to the girl which makes it mysterious and will make the audience want to find out more about the character's history. This shot will be a mid-shot so that both of the characters can be seen. The camera angle will be at eye-line level of the girl so that the man will look bigger than the girl and also more powerful. The window will frame the shot which will show that the two characters are in a confined space together which will build up the suspense and conflict. The non-diegetic mucic will carry on, gradually picking up some pace to build up the suspense. This shot will last about 6-8 seconds long. This shot will be longer than the other shots because we have introduced a new character and the pace will slow for this character because the girl is more laid back than the man. There will also be no camera movement during this shot. The transition from this shot to the next shot will be a cut to keep up with the pace of the film.
This next shot will be a close up, slowly zooming into the girl's eye to become an extreme close up. This is to represent a flashback or a time lapse is about to happen. It also making the audience feel emotionally closer to the girl because they are looking into her eyes and trying to understand what she is feeling. The camera angle of this shot will be at eye-line level so that the audience feel that they are equal to the character and that they are becoming involved. The music to accompany this shot will change. The non-diegetic music which had been playing in the previous shots will gradually die down to a very low level of volume and a non-diegetic twinkling sound will start as soon as the camera starts to zoom into the girl's eye. This is to let the audience know that something is about to happen. It will seem as if the little girl is going off into a daydream and blanking out what the man is saying behind her. This shot will last another 4 seconds because the camera is focussing on the girl and whenever the girl is on screen, the pace slows down. The transition from this shot to the next shot will be a flash to show the audience that they are about to watch a flashback.
This shot will be an extreme close up of the girl's eye and will then slowly zoom out to reveal that she is stood somewhere else (outside). This shows that this shot is a flashback. When the camera starts to zoom out of the girl's eye, more of her is revealed which shows that she is becoming more confident. This is the only shot where it is only the girl in it. The rest of the shots have had the man dominating the shots. As the camera starts to zoom out of the girl's eye the non-diegetic twinkling sound will stop and the non-diegetic fast-paced music will merge back into the shot becoming louder and louder as the camera reveals more of the girl. When the camera is fully zoomed out, the shot will change into a long shot with a mid-angle.This shot will last another 4 seconds because if it was too quick, there would not be much mystery about the shot. The transition of this shot to the next shot will be a cut to start up the fast pace again because the man is about the come back into the shot.
This next shot will be a two-shot with both of the characters looking straight at eachother. This shot will be a mid-long shot because it has to show that both of the characters are making eye contact for the first time. There will be no camera movement for this shot because there will be some dialogue. The man will say 'have you got it?' This piece of dialogue sounds mysterious because the audience will not know what he is asking for. As there will be some dialogue, the non-diegetic music will slowly decrease in volume and the conversation will begin. This shot will only last 2 seconds because the pace is gradually picking up again because the man is abck into the shot and he is the one causing the conflict. The transition from this shot to the next shot will be a cut.
The penultimate shot will be an over the shoulder shot. It will be over the shoulder of the girl and the man's face will be facing towards the camera. The man will then say, 'I don't want to have to ask you again'. This shows that these two characters have had conflict with eachother in the past. However, it is still a mystery about what they are actually talking about. The non-diegetic music will be playing at a low volume so that the character's voices can be heard clearly. There will be a slightly low angle to this shot. It will seem that the man is looking down to the camera as if the audience are at the same level of the girl. There will be no camera movement which shows that the pace is at a stable level so that the two charcters can compromise. This shot will last about 3 seconds and then will cut to the final shot.
The final shot will be an over the shoulder shot. It will be over the shoulder of the man so that the girl's face can be seen when she is talking. The girl will then say, 'I don't like the dark'. This shot will be at a slightly high angle so it is like the audience are seeing out of the man's eyes, looking down at the girl. This shows weakness to the girl and power to the man. There will be no movement in this shot as they will still be talking. The non-diegetic music will then stop when the girl says her line. This shows that there is some significance at what she has just said. The words ' I don't like the dark', may make the audience wonder what the man wants the girl to get. We chose this to be the last line of dialogue because it will leave the audience on a cliffhanger.
Our main aim of doing this preliminary task is to discover any problems now and learn how to over-come them before we start our main task. This preliminary task is a psychological thriller. Thrillers which have influenced our preliminary task include the Shawshank Redemption and Psycho. The Shawshank Redmption infuenced our idea of the flashback because there are a lot of flashbacks used in that film. Psycho influenced us because during the shower scene, the camera focuses on the plug hole and then fades into her eye. This is where we got the idea of the flashback by zooming into an eye.
Our preliminary task is based around the style of Alfred Hitchcock, and focuses on his techniques. A character walks into a room and exchanges at least four lines of dialogue with another character, the sequence has to be at least thirty seconds long.
Our idea is that there is a flashback of two characters having a conflict, the film will be in black and white and we will use some non-diegetic music to create atmospere and suspense.
It will start off with an establishing shot of a stairway with a man walking down the stairs, he will then walk into a room where the audience will see a girl looking out of the window. Behind the girl is a doorway, in which the man will come through and start shouting, but the audience will not be able to hear the shouting because he will be the other side of the window. There will be music to accompany this shot.
The music then stops and the camera is in the room looking over the shoulder of the man, and the girl is on the other side of the window, where the camera was. The camera then zooms slowly into the girl's eye, fading into black.
Then the camera is fully zoomed in on an eye, and pans out to show the girl stood outside with the man, this shows a time shift, as if a flashback has occured. They exchange dialogue and the audience is left with the staring eyes of the girl and the sense of mystery.
By Poppy and Laura.
This first shot should last no longer than 2 seconds. It will be of a man walking down a flight of stairs, but not showing his face. This will make the man mysterious. It will be a long shot of his legs at a low angle to show that he is powerful. There will be no camera movement for this shot; the camera will just watch him walking down the flight of stairs. Accompanying the shot will be non-diagetic music. It will be quite fast paced music to show that he is alert and on some kind of mission. The transition for this shot to the next shot will be a cut. This is so that it is fast paced.
This next shot will also be a 2 second shot and it will be a high angle, shot looking down at the man's feet. The camera will be hand-held to make it seem like the audience are in the character's eyes. The non-diagetic music will continue throughout this shot. The man's feet will be the only thing in the shot which shows that he is dominating the whole shot and that he is a powerful character. The camera will not show the man's face to conceal his identity and still make the audience suspicious of who he is. The transition from this shot to the next will be a cut
The third shot will reveal more of the man, showing all of his body, apart from his head. This shows that he is becoming more and more dominant throughout the scene. This shot will last another 2 seconds and will be a low angle shot to show that he is in charge and that he is the more powerful character. It will be a mid shot which will turn into a close up of his legs because he is walking towards the camera. As he walks closer to the camera, his body gets bigger and fills up more of the screen which shows that he is powerful. The non-diegetic music will continue throughout this shot. The transition from this shot to the next shot will be a cut which continues to make the scene fast paced.
This next shot will show the back of the man's head, walking away from the camera. This is the first time we see the man's head, however, he is walking away from the camera which could show uneasiness. As he walks away from the camera, he is getting smaller and smaller which shows he is becoming nervous. This shot will be a mid shot at eye-line level, however you cannot see his eyes. The camera will slowly follow the man as he walks out of the door in front of him using a panning movement. The non-diegetic music will continue playing throughout the shot. This shot will last about 2 seconds. The transition for this shot to the nest shot will be another cut to keep up with the pace of the music.
The next shot is an over the shoulder shot of a girl looking out of a window. However, this over the shoulder shot will not be from behind the girl, it will be from the front. This is so that both of the character's faces are revealed which shows that they are both equal at this moment in time. The camera will be filming from the other side of the window so that you cannot hear what the man is saying to the girl which makes it mysterious and will make the audience want to find out more about the character's history. This shot will be a mid-shot so that both of the characters can be seen. The camera angle will be at eye-line level of the girl so that the man will look bigger than the girl and also more powerful. The window will frame the shot which will show that the two characters are in a confined space together which will build up the suspense and conflict. The non-diegetic mucic will carry on, gradually picking up some pace to build up the suspense. This shot will last about 6-8 seconds long. This shot will be longer than the other shots because we have introduced a new character and the pace will slow for this character because the girl is more laid back than the man. There will also be no camera movement during this shot. The transition from this shot to the next shot will be a cut to keep up with the pace of the film.
This next shot will be a close up, slowly zooming into the girl's eye to become an extreme close up. This is to represent a flashback or a time lapse is about to happen. It also making the audience feel emotionally closer to the girl because they are looking into her eyes and trying to understand what she is feeling. The camera angle of this shot will be at eye-line level so that the audience feel that they are equal to the character and that they are becoming involved. The music to accompany this shot will change. The non-diegetic music which had been playing in the previous shots will gradually die down to a very low level of volume and a non-diegetic twinkling sound will start as soon as the camera starts to zoom into the girl's eye. This is to let the audience know that something is about to happen. It will seem as if the little girl is going off into a daydream and blanking out what the man is saying behind her. This shot will last another 4 seconds because the camera is focussing on the girl and whenever the girl is on screen, the pace slows down. The transition from this shot to the next shot will be a flash to show the audience that they are about to watch a flashback.
This shot will be an extreme close up of the girl's eye and will then slowly zoom out to reveal that she is stood somewhere else (outside). This shows that this shot is a flashback. When the camera starts to zoom out of the girl's eye, more of her is revealed which shows that she is becoming more confident. This is the only shot where it is only the girl in it. The rest of the shots have had the man dominating the shots. As the camera starts to zoom out of the girl's eye the non-diegetic twinkling sound will stop and the non-diegetic fast-paced music will merge back into the shot becoming louder and louder as the camera reveals more of the girl. When the camera is fully zoomed out, the shot will change into a long shot with a mid-angle.This shot will last another 4 seconds because if it was too quick, there would not be much mystery about the shot. The transition of this shot to the next shot will be a cut to start up the fast pace again because the man is about the come back into the shot.
This next shot will be a two-shot with both of the characters looking straight at eachother. This shot will be a mid-long shot because it has to show that both of the characters are making eye contact for the first time. There will be no camera movement for this shot because there will be some dialogue. The man will say 'have you got it?' This piece of dialogue sounds mysterious because the audience will not know what he is asking for. As there will be some dialogue, the non-diegetic music will slowly decrease in volume and the conversation will begin. This shot will only last 2 seconds because the pace is gradually picking up again because the man is abck into the shot and he is the one causing the conflict. The transition from this shot to the next shot will be a cut.
The penultimate shot will be an over the shoulder shot. It will be over the shoulder of the girl and the man's face will be facing towards the camera. The man will then say, 'I don't want to have to ask you again'. This shows that these two characters have had conflict with eachother in the past. However, it is still a mystery about what they are actually talking about. The non-diegetic music will be playing at a low volume so that the character's voices can be heard clearly. There will be a slightly low angle to this shot. It will seem that the man is looking down to the camera as if the audience are at the same level of the girl. There will be no camera movement which shows that the pace is at a stable level so that the two charcters can compromise. This shot will last about 3 seconds and then will cut to the final shot.
The final shot will be an over the shoulder shot. It will be over the shoulder of the man so that the girl's face can be seen when she is talking. The girl will then say, 'I don't like the dark'. This shot will be at a slightly high angle so it is like the audience are seeing out of the man's eyes, looking down at the girl. This shows weakness to the girl and power to the man. There will be no movement in this shot as they will still be talking. The non-diegetic music will then stop when the girl says her line. This shows that there is some significance at what she has just said. The words ' I don't like the dark', may make the audience wonder what the man wants the girl to get. We chose this to be the last line of dialogue because it will leave the audience on a cliffhanger.
Our main aim of doing this preliminary task is to discover any problems now and learn how to over-come them before we start our main task. This preliminary task is a psychological thriller. Thrillers which have influenced our preliminary task include the Shawshank Redemption and Psycho. The Shawshank Redmption infuenced our idea of the flashback because there are a lot of flashbacks used in that film. Psycho influenced us because during the shower scene, the camera focuses on the plug hole and then fades into her eye. This is where we got the idea of the flashback by zooming into an eye.
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