30/3/09

I am very happy that we have got the main bulk of the work out of the way now. There a few finishing touches that need to be done such as the credits. I also think we need to adjust the voiceover slighly because I don't think it sounds natural and it needs to sound like the character is thinking it. However, overall I think it is a job well done!

Laura Knapp

30/03/09

We are now in the final stages of production.
Today we completed our soundtrack and have put it together with our film. It looks really good! There are a few parts that need to fixed, in some places the soundtrack overrides the voiceover and it is difficult to hear, but overall I am very happy with our production.

By Poppy Smyth

28/03/09

Poppy and I are still on schedule. We just need to finish off the last of our soundtrack and also add the opening credits. As we are on an Easter break during the period of 3rd April-20th April, we will not be able to do any editing, so we plan to carry on writing to our blog and thinking of any other perfections we could add to our final piece. We plan to watch thrillers such as the Shawshank Redemption, Sixth Sense and Don't Look Now. This is so that we can compare our thriller to the thrillers that inspired us. We will need to closely watch the Shawshank Redmption because it contains a lot of flashbacks, as does our thriller. By watching The Shawshank Redmption, we will find ways to perfect our flashbacks and learn how to make them even more realistic. By watching the Sixth Sense, we will check that the acting and the costumes of the actors and similar because our thriller has a similar plot to the Sixth Sense. We would also check how the Sixth Sense expresses the colour red as it is also shown a lot in our thriller. Finally, by watching Don't Look Now as it is about the death of a child who comes back to haunt people.

Laura Knapp

The first shot will be 5-7 seconds long. It will a extreame close up of a man writing the instructions 'Go the the cupboard, open the door, don't let anyone hear you, remember what I said.' It will also be a high angled shot, looking over his shoulder, slowly zooming into the writing. There will also be a voiceover of the man saying what is being written. There will also be some non-diagetic music in the background to add mystery. This shot will then fade into the next shot which is of a girl doing the man's instructions (this girl will be wearing a little dress to show innocence). This shot will last about 7 seconds. This will be a close up shot of the girl opening the cupboard. It will be a mid angle and there will be no camera movement. The camera will be filming from inside the cupboard. The cupboard door will then open and the is a balloon in front of the camera. The character takes the balloon out and closes the door. The voiceover of the man saying his instructions continues as the character is doing the instructions. There will still be non-diagectic music in the background. This shot will cut to the next shot of an extreme close up of the girl's face and will slowly zoom into her eye at a mid angle. There will be twinkling music as the camera zooms into her eye (non diagetic whoosh). This is a flashback the girl is about to experience. This shot will last for about 5 seconds. The transition from this shot to the next shot will be a flash. The next shot is of the older sister's eye at an extreame close up shot and a mid angle. The camera will zoom out to reveal the older sister talking to the younger sister. This shot will be in black and white to signify that it was in the past (flashback).

The next shot will be an over the should shot, which is still in black and white ( over the shoulder of the younger sister and looking at the older sister). The older sister will be wearing a leather jacket to show power. The younger sister will be wearing the same clothes throughout the film. It will be at a slightly low angle, to show the power of the older sister. There will be non canera movement during this how. The older sister will then pop the balloon in front of the younger sister's face and reveals the younger sister's shock and sadness. As this is happening, the older sister will then say 'you stupid girl'. There will be very low volume non-diagetci music playing the the background to create suspense. This shot will be about 7 seconds long. This shot then cuts to the next shot. The next shot will be back in colour ( end of flaskback) with the younger sister holding a red balloon next to her looking sad. This shot will be a mid shot at a lod angle. There will be no camera movement and there will be low volume non-diagetic background music. This shot will then cut to the nest shot.

The next shot will be of the younger sister walking out of her house, carrying her balloon behind her. As soon as the door opens, the music will change and will have a higher pitch and have a more 'happy' feel to it. This shot will be a mid shot and have a slight low angle to show that the younger sister is becoming more dominant and more powerful as she walks out of the house. As she walks up the path, the camera will pan from left to right, following her. This shot will last about 5 seconds. The next shot will be of the younger sister standing still and holding the balloon next to her. This shot will be an over the shoulder shot at a high angle . There will be no camera movement and the high-pitched music will continue. The girl will be looking out to a beautiful landscape and then let go of the balloon. This shot ill last about 3 seconds. This shot will cut onto the next shot which will be of the balloon in the sky at a low angle, looking up at the balloon floating away. The camera will follow the balloon for about 5 seconds and then fade into the next shot. The next shot will be a high andle shot, looking through the trees of the of the older sister walking through the woods. This will be a long show and there will be no camera movement. The high-pitched music will fade out and a musterious sound will be played. The balloon will then land next to the character. This shot will last about 6 seconds. This shot will cut to the next one.

The next shot will be a mid, low angle shot of the older sister looking down at the balloon. This shot will be 2 seconds long. There will be no camera movement and the mysterious sound will fade out. This shot will cut to the next shot which will be a close up of the balloon from the older sister's point of view. This will be a high angle shot because she is looking down at the balloon. There will be no camera movement because the audience will need to read what it says on the balloon. The balloon will have 'it is here' written in blood. This shot will last 3-4 seconds and will cut to the next shot of the older sister's facial expression. This shot will be a close up and a mid angle. There will be no camera movement and mysterious music will play (getting ready for a flashback). A voice over will start...'i remeber as if it were yesturday....' and the camera will slowly zoom into her eye. This shot will last about 4 seconds. The transition from this shot to the next shot will be a flash. The next shot will be an extreme close up of the older sisters eye at a mid angle. The voice over will continue and the transition from this shot to the next shot will be a flash.

The next shot will be in black and white to show that it happened in the past. This shot will be of the two sisters playing on the swings and it will be a long, two-shot at a low angle. The older sister is wearing something slightly different to show that this was a different time. There will be no camera movement and the voiceover will still be playing. This shot will last about 3 seconds. This shot will cut to the next shot of the younger sister laying on the floor with the swing swinging behind her. The audience will see the older sister's legs running away behind the swing. This shot will be a long shot at a low angle. The camera will be at the same level/angle as the girl laying on the floor. The pace of the music speeds up and the voiceover ends. The volume of the music then increases. This shot will last about 5 seconds. This shot will cut to the next shot which will be in colour to show that the flashback is over. This shot will be a reaction shot of the older sister olding the balloon. It will be a low angle show and there will be no camera movement. The older sister drops the balloon and runs away from the camera. (she has just realised that her sister is back to haunt her). This shot will last about 4 seconds and will cut to the next shot. The nest shot will be of a gravestone to show that the younger sisster did die. This shot will be a mid shot at a low angle. There will be no camera movement and the fast-paced music will continue. This shot will only last about a second because it just needs to be a quick flash as the pace is building up. This shot will cut to the next shot.

The next shot will be of the older sister running. It will be a long shot at a mid angle. The camera will hide behind the tree as if spying on the character and when she looks at the camera, the camera will hide totally behind the tree and then pan around the other side of the tree to watch the character run away. There will be camera movement in this shot because the camera will be hand-held to make it seem that the audience are the people stalking the character. The fast-paced music will continue. This shot will last about 4 seconds and will cut to the next shot. The next shot will be a high angle shot in the trees above the older sister who is running. This again, will be a hand-held movement to make it seem that audience are stalking the character. It also shows that there is something obsure and unsure happening. This shot will last about 2 seconds. This shot will cut to the next shot which is of the character running over a beautiful landscape. This shot will be an extreme long shot at a mid angle. This will be a tracking shot of the character running. The camera will be on the other side of some bushes which will act as a barrier between the character and the camera. The voiceover of the younger sister speaking will begin, 'she ran, ran away' and the music volume will decrease. This shot will be about 3 seconds long and will cut to the next shot which will be a shot of a tunnel of trees and the older sister will run from behind the camera and away from the camera. This will be a high angled shot and there will be no camera movement. The character will seem big to start off because she will be close to the camera, however the further she runs away, the smaller she will get. This shows that she is losing her power and becoming more scared. This shot will last about 4 seconds and will cut to the next shot.

The next shot will be a long shot at a low angle of the older sister running. There will be no camera movement and the voiceover will still be playing. The character will run over a bridge in a frantic rush to get away. This shot will last about 2 seconds and will cut to the next shot which will be another shot of the charcter running and will then cut to a close up shot of the older sister's feet at a high angle. Her feet will be running frantically (she will be wearing old trainers). This shot will last about 2 seconds and then cut to the next shot of the younger sister's feet at a high angle. The younger sister's feet will skipping calmly and then the feet will stop (she will be wearing little girls sandles). The voiceover will stop and a heartbeat sound will begin. This shot will last about 3 seconds and will cut to the next shot.

The next shot will be a point of view, long shot. It will be in the point of view of the younger sister, looking at the older sister. It will be at a low camera angle and the sound of the heartbeat will continue. The camera will pan upwads to reveal the Lacock Cloisters. This shot will last about 5 seconds. This shot will cut to the next shot of the older sister running on the other side of the cloisters which acts as a barrier between the camera and the character. This shot will be a long shot and a mid angle. The camera will pan along with the older sister running. The heartbeat sound will continue and should be in time with the editing. This shot should last between 2-3 seconds. This shot will cut to the next shot which will be a shot with both the characters in at the same time. This shot will be a long shot with a slight high angle. The heartbeat sound will still continue to play. This shot will be in the Lacock Cloisters and it will be on a corner so that the audience can see both characters, but the characters cannot see eachother. The light through the cloisters will luminate the balloon and give a red glow to the shot. This shot will last about 3-4 seconds and will cut to the next shot of the older sister screaming. This will be an extreme close up and then the shot will fade to black.

The penultimate shot is a close up of the older sisters face. The camera will be at the same level (eye level) as the older sister laying on the floor with the younger sister's legs standing behind her. The heart beat sound will start to fade away. This shot will last 2 seconds and will cut to the final shot will is a mid shot of the younger sister looking down at the camera (as if the camera is the older sister) and the shot will fade to black. This shot will last about 3-4 seconds.

23/03/2009

We used stop motion to make the credits for the ending of our thriller. I have sped this one up a bit more because the other version was a bit long. The timing for this is now 5 seconds.

Final Pitch for Thriller

This is the final pitch for our thriller. We presented this pitch to our class and teacher. This is so that everyone has a clear understanding of our idea and also shows that we have planned successfully.

We have decided to call our thriller Mutiny. Mutiny means to have a 'conspiracy amoung members of a group resulting in a conflict or rebellion'. We decided on this name because in our thriller, there is going to be conflict bewteen two sisters. Mutiny also sounds like 'mutants'. Even though this is not what it means, it still gives out ideas that there is sometime obscure meaning to it. One of the characters acts like a mutant because she is dead and has come back from the dead and has changed the way she is.

We have decided that our film will have a BBFC rating of 15. This is because it will include fantacy horror and also invlove a lot of violence and strong language. We decided that our target audience will be aged bewteen 15 and 30 years old. We chose this age group because if they were aged under 15 years old, they may not understand the plot because it will be a psychological thriller. We decided to make our target audience quite a young audience because the characters will be young. We decided to make our target audience in the classes of C to A because it will have a challenging plot to understand and the audience will need to be reasonably clever to work it out.

This is a mood board to show our ideas for our thriller. We put a lot of pictures of dark, woodland areas. This is because this is the type of scenary we want in our thriller. This is because woods and trees could signify aloneness and could also act as a barrier between characters. Films which have been set in woodland areas include the Blair Witch Project and The Village. We also included a picture of a child on a swing. This is because our plot includes a child getting killed on a swing. We chose a swing because it is seen as innocent and represents the child's age. We also have a picture of a teddy. This is also to represent the child's innocence. We would also like a certain object that signifys the young child, like a balloon. This will let the audience know when the child is in the presence of another character. This is subverting the stereotype because a balloon is seen as an innocent object but it will actually be used to give a character a warning. There is a picture of a gravestone which represents death. We chose this picture because there are going to be deaths in our thriller. We also have a picture of our location where we want to film, Lacock Abbey. We chose Lacock Abbey because the cloisters will act as a barrier between the two charcters and it also looks like a deserted place. There are also pictures of young children because we want a young child to play the main part in our thriller. Finally, there is a picture of a bloody knife which shows how the charcters are going to die.

This slide shows what films inspired us with our idea. The Sixth Sense inspired us because it has young children in it. It is also a pyschological thriller which is what we aim for ours to be. The Omen also inspired us because because it has a child with psychological problems. The secret Window inspired us because it was set in the woods and that is where we plan to have our film set. This is also the case for The Blair Witch Project because that is also set in the woods. The Blair Witch Project also uses hand-held camera work and we plan to use that effect in some areas of our film. . Ashes to Ashes inspired us because it used a little girl carrying a red balloon which signified her innocence. The Brothers Grim and The Village also inspired us because it is set in woodland areas where suspicious events occur.

We have decided to use Dakoka Fanning as the the younger sister who died on the swing and is back to haunt the older sister. We chose her because she looks very sweet and innocent and she is at the right age we want the younger sister to be. Dakota Fanning has starred in a lot of films. She starred in The War Of The Worlds which is a science fiction thriller. This shows that she would have a lot of experience acting in thrillers. We chose Kristen Stewart to play the older sister because she recently starred in Twilight and she can play a dominant character. We chose Johnny Depp to play the man who is writing instructions down for the little girl. He will not be seen properly in the film, it will only be the back of his head and his hand writing which will be shown. We chose Johnny Depp because he has a very low voice and he can change his accent very easily. His voice is very deep and will be suitable for a mysterious man. We decided to use Bruce Willis as the father of the two sisters. We chose him because he is a very dominant actor and will be very suitable for a protective father. Finally, we chose Meryl Streep as the caring mother. Our main reason we chose her is because she looks a lot like Dakota Fanning which shows that they are mother and daughter. We also chose her because she looks caring.

We chose Buena Vista because films such as The Sixth Sence. Brother's Grim, No Counrty for Old Men and The Others. Buena Vista is also Universal Studios. We will probaly use Universal Studios as they are more well known and Buena Vista is commonly known for doing children's films.

The entire narrative is that two girls are playing on the two swings and having a good time. This is where everything is normal. This is called the equilibruim. The disequalibrium is when something goes wrong. This is when the little girl falls off the swing and the older sister runs off (the little girl thinks she has been left to die, but the older sister has actually run for help), but unfortunatly the little girl is already dead. The disruption is when the older sister is being chased (disruption) by her younger sister (who is dead). The younger sister then draws a knife out to kill her sister (this is where our piece of film will stop). The camera will then fade to black and then the older sister is back to normal in her bedroom ( as if it were a dream), however she soon realises that no one can see her (she is dead - the younger sister did in fact kill her). This is called the recognition. The restoration of the equilibrium is that the two sisters start to talk again because they are both dead. The equilibrium at the end is that the two sisters are both together again. At the end of the film, everything will be concluded and explained that the older sister was in fact running to get help for her little sister (this piece of film will be shown at he end).

This is a concept board of what our opening sequence will look like. The first shot shows the younger sister looking out onto a beauliful landscape. This is when she is looking for her older sister. As we did not have a balloon when we were taking these photos we could not show it. This shot is an over the shoulder shot with the girl standing to the left of the screen to show the audience the landscape she is looking at. This is where the younger sister would let go of the balloon. The next shot is a high angled shot of the older sister walking through the woods. This is to show that she is not dominant or powerful because high-angled shots make the character look small. In this shot, it is where the older sister will pick up the balloon and read a warning message. In the next shot, the camera will be looking at the older sister from behind a tree. This will make it seem that the older sister is being stalked. This shot will be handheld and as soon as the older sister looks at the camera, the camera will hide behind the tree and pan around the tree and watch the older sister walk away. The next shot is a shot of the older sister running through the woods. This will be a long shot and the closer she runs to the camera, the closer the shot will be. This is to signify that the closer she runs to the camera, the more she is understanding why she is being chased. Also, the closer she is to the camera, the more closely related the audience feel towards her and the audience start to feel the character's fear because they can see her facial expressions easier. The next shots show what the older sister had a flashback of. It is of her and her little sister at the park, playing on the swings and then the little. This will be a two-shot with the older sister pushing the younger sister on the swings. The younger sister will then fall off the swings and the older sister will run away. The next shot is of the swing swinging to show that the younger sister is alone.

A the end of our presentation we asked the audience if they had any questions to ask. There were a few questions about how are we going to make it clear what the flashbacks are so that the audience will not be confused. We said that we will be putting the flashbacks into black and white to show that it was in the past. There were also a few other questions about the target audience our film is for. We said that it is aimed at a wide target audience because younger people will enjoy the violent aspect of it and the older audience will enjoy the mystery aspect of it.

20/03/09

We have experienced a few problems over the past few days. However we have sorted out most of them. Yesterday we asked our teacher to overlook our thriller, and we can now see that there are a few more places that need to be edited, to make it more smooth running.
I am going to upload the story boards later, so that they are safe on the computer. I will then go back and look through the blog and make sure that the posts are all up to date.
Next week we plan to get the voice over completed and look towards finishing our soundtrack, from there if it all goes well, we shall be well on schedule, and will definitley be completed by our deadline date.

By Poppy Smyth

20/3/2009

Yesturday, we recorded the voiceover of the man giving the little girl instructions. We also recorded the voiceover of the older sister when she was experiencing a flashback. We have put the film and the voiceover together and also added some sound effects. I am very pleased with the progress Poppy and I are making. We have done the main bulk of the editing so that means we have over a month to add the credits, effects and soundtrack.

The difficulties Poppy and I are finding include; trying to get the shots flow smoothly into eachother, getting the shots into a good order which the audience will understand and also making sure shots with the main character running has the character runnning in the same direction throughout the film.

We are currently trying to sort out a shot where it breaks the 30 degree rule. To overcome this we are planning to use a transition between the shots to make it less obvious. We also found when we first put our film together, there were shots with the main charcter running and then sitting down and then she was running again, so we put the clips in a different order.

Laura Knapp

19/03/2009

Today we are going to continue with our editing and try and get the voiceover sorted. If not, we will continue with the planning of the soundtrack.

By Poppy Smyth

16/03/2009

Today, Poppy and I uploaded our footage that we filmed over the weekend and started to put all the clips in order and deleted the unwanted clips. We then started to edit our film and add transitions between some of the shots. At this moment in time our thriller opening sequence is just over 2 minutes long. However, we plan to add a few more clips in the near future to make it 2 minutes 30 seconds.

Poppy and I have been working together while doing the editing. This so to make sure that we are both happy with the final result and that we are both putting in equal amount of contribution towards the coursework.

Laura Knapp

15/3/09

All this weekend, Poppy and I have been filming the footage for our final production. Yesturday, we went around some woods in the local area and filmed the scenes with the characters running. We also purchased some red balloons and filled them up with helium so that the balloon would fly away easier when the little girl lets go of it.

Today we went to Lacock Abbey to finish the rest of the filimg. Some problems were encountered while filming. The first problem was making sure our outfits, hair and make-up were the same during the two days. This was a problem because the outfit I was wearing was very dirty and I couldn't wash them because it would look different on the film. The next problem was while we were filming in the cloisters. It was a bright, sunny day and there were a lot of people at Lacock. This meant that we were restricted to what we could film because of the amount of people there. Another problem was not being able to use the tripod in certain areas because there was not enough space due to the amount of people at Lacock. However we did over come this issue by resting the camera on a stone ledge instead of using the tripod. The final problem we encountered was when we were doing the flashbacks, we had to make sure the characters did not move or else the clips would not merge smoothly into eachother when editing it.

Despite the problems we encounted, I think we have made extreamly good progress and I am very happy with the footage we have. Tomorrow, Poppy and I plan to upload the footage onto the computer and save the footage onto memory sticks for back up in the case of technology problems.

Our schedule stands as:
16th March - 20th March = editing and voice over
23rd March - 27th March = soundtrack, any extra editing and adding the credits, adding the voiceover and any special effects
30th Marck - 3rd April = Post production (including screening and audience interviews)
Between 3rd April - 24th April = finishing touches
24th April = Final date for submission

Laura Knapp

Sknapp Productions Presents...

This is what we have decided to use as our opening credits. After we have put our film together, we will then decide whether to use this piece of film.

Laura Knapp

Stop motion practice

[URL="http://tinypic.com/player.php?v=142x3k9&s=5"]View My Video[/URL]
For our opening credits, we plan to use stop motion. We decided to have a practice first to learn how it works and how far you can move the obejct and how many pictures we will have to use. After a couple of tries we came up with this short film.

Laura Knapp

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

10/03/2009

We are to film on the 15th and 16th which is this weekend. We are still unsure whether we are going to use Lacock to film at, we may have to use a different location for the shots that we have.

However, everything else seems to be in hand. We have started to think about our soundtrack, though we cannot fully start it now as we need to put it together with the film, after the editing, and it will be then, when we will see whether the soundtrack goes with the pace of the film.

Last Friday, we completed the opening credits of our piece, using stop motion. We had a practice first of all, with about 7 seconds of footage. Then we moved on to the real opening credits. I am pleased with the results.

By Poppy Smyth

3/3/2009

I think I have finalised our storyboard which means we are ready to start filming. Poppy and I have been in contact with Lacock Abbey to ask permission to be able to film in the cloisters. We are having a little difficultly about cheking if we have the correct insurance, however we are currently working it out. We are hoping to be filming on the weekend of the 14-15th of March. We plan to get all of the filming out of the way by the 16th of March. This will give us plenty of time to edit and produce a suitable soundtrack for our piece of film.

Laura Knapp