Friday, 14 December 2012

Tuesday, 11 December 2012

Our Final Shot List

1. Production ident
2. Gravestone with "presents" on it. Mid close-up.
3. "Kate's Revenge" written on plank on side of train, shot zooms out, close-up to long-shot
4. Cut away shot of the train, extreme close-up
5. "Connor Marshall" written on plank
6. Shot of Connor walking through graveyard
7. Close-up of gravestone with Connor walking towards it
8. ECU of flowers being laid
9. Cut away shot of train moving, close-up
10. Fade to white - "Annbelle Potts" written on plank
11. Shot of Annabelle standing on platform, mid-shot
12. Pan shot moving on dolly towards Annabelle
13. "James Craig" written on plank
14. Front shot of Annabelle standing on platform, James comes up behind, gags her, pulls her on to ground and puts her over his shoulder
15. Long shot of James/Annabelle walking down the platform
16. "Directed by Matthew Bostock" written on plank
17. Cut away shot of train, close up
18. Low shot of James throwing Annabelle on to track, mid-shot
19. "Edited by James Parronchi" written on plank
20. Cut away shot of train, extreme close up
21. Shot of James tying Annabelle down to track, long shot
22. Shot of James tying Annabelle down to track, mid shot
23. Cut away shot of train moving, extreme close up
24. High angle shot of James getting up and running after Annabelle
25. Mid shot of James picking up Annabelle and carrying her over to train track
26. Match on action shot of James/Annabelle walking over to train track
27. Match on action shot of James/Annabelle walking over to train track
28. Mid shot of James putting Annabelle down onto train track
29. "Narrated by Henry Saunston" written onto plank
30. Over shoulder shot of James pulling off balaclava
31. Shot-reverse-shot of Annabelle looking shocked
32. Mid shot of the rock
33. Close up of James's hand moving towards Annabelle's face
34. Mid shot of James tying Annabelle to train track
35. Cut away of train, long shot
36. Low angle shot showing Annabelle's face with James jumping up onto platform and walking away
37. High angle shot of Annabelle laying on train track
38. Close up of Annabelle screaming, fade to black.

Thursday, 6 December 2012

Inspirations for our Production

Monday, 3 December 2012

Actor Profiles

Name: Annabelle Potts
Age: 17
Role: Victim (Kate)

Annabelle was chosen for this role because she looks like the type of person who would be waiting for a train early on a morning. Annabelle's height is not dissimilar to the height of our protagonist, James, meaning that James could throw Annabelle over his shoulder without too much difficulty


Name: James Craig
Age: 16
Role: Protagonist

James has an interest in acting, and is part of our media group, which is why he was chosen for this task. James is a similar height to Annabelle, which meant he could throw her over his shoulder easily. James was able to play the part well, and when dressed in a balaclava, looked like a traditional killer.


Name: Connor Marshall
Age: 17
Role: Mourner

Connor was chosen for this role as he has the ability to look sad, and as though he would be able to be mourning at a grave. Connor played this role very well, and enabled us to get all the shots we needed.

Photos from our second Filming Day



 
Overall, our second filming day went very well. The location was ideal, and the weather was similar to the first day, which helps add continuity to our production. We managed to get all of our shots with the actors on site without too much difficulty, and because we got the filming finished in good time, this gave us the time to explore other techniques to use in our production.

Thursday, 22 November 2012

Train Track Site Plan

We have found a fantastic stretch of disused train track to use for our production. The former train house is still on site, and runs alongside the train track, so it will give the impression that the girl is waiting for a train to come. However, there are two trains on the tracks that cannot be moved, which may present us with some issues. The map below shows how we will overcome this issue:

Our shot list can be found here. 

Wednesday, 21 November 2012

Timings for our Filming Days

Monday, 26th November 2012

8:00am - meet at Bourne Cemetery to commence  filming of shot 1 (8:00-9:00) and shot 13 (9:00am to 11:00am)

12:30am - meet in Bourne, where James's Dad will take us to Tallington train track. Commence filming of shots 2, 5, 10 and 12.

Sunday, 2nd December 2012

8:00am - meet at abandoned train track in Rippingale, to commence filming. Filming of shots 3, 6, 7, 9, 10,  between 8:00am and 1:00pm, when James Craig (Killer) is present. Filming of shots 4 & 8 can be done after 1:00pm.

Shot List - Final Edition



1.       Pan right through the four gravestones, with titles on each one
2.       A cut away shot of the train moving – Close up shot
3.       Girl is waiting at the train station with killer close behind – mid shot
4.       Point of View from Killer, gagging the girl.  
5.       Another cut away of the train moving quickly – close up shot
6.       Shot of killer gagging the girl, and lifts girl over his shoulder, walking her down the train track – mid close
 up shot
7.       Shot of killer putting girl down onto the train track – mid/long shot
8.       Shot of the girl being tied down to the train track – close up
9.       OTS shot from the killers shoulder, removes balaclava and turns to camera, at which point the girl looks shocked and recognises the killer – close up
10.   Another shot of the train moving quickly – close up
11.   Killer runs off leaving the girl helpless – close up
12.   Side on shot of train coming, indicates death – close up
13.   FTB, final shot shows mourner walking up to gravestone and laying flowers – mid shot

The Andromeda Strain Title Analysation










 

The Andromeda Strain is a film written in 1971, with a particularly secretive and mysterious title opening. The title sequence makes up the body of the film opening, although many elements of this give hints as to how the film may develop, and at 2 minutes 53 seconds, the title sequence is quite long.

The sequence starts in an unusual way, with an acknowledgement message from the Vandenberg Air Force Base, stating that the story is being told accurately and in detail.  This indicates to the audience that what they are about to see is based on a real story, and that it is not simply made up. This then follows by a message informing that the audience that the release of this film does not harm national security, which again, adds a sense of mystery to the film.

The sequence then proceeds to show the titles overlaid on top of words such as ‘secret’ or ‘Index of Effectiveness’ going behind in the background. Each scene is framed so that the words or background are in one colour. This gives it the sense that it is very ordered and organised, in an almost military way. In the background, different objects are shown, often including mathematical instruments such as a protractor in shot 3 shown above, which again gives the impression of  precision and secrecy, and as though something is taking place in a forensic lab.

The background is black, with white text, which suggests danger and fear. When the background text is red, this represents danger, whilst the green background text represents safety, thus creating conflicting viewpoints.

Tuesday, 20 November 2012

Title Credits for our Production

Director – Matthew Bostock
Editor – James Parronchi
Starring – James Craig, Annabelle Potts & Connor Marshall
Producer – Connor Marshall
Narration - James Parronchi
Camera Operators – James Parronchi & Matthew Bostock

Monday, 19 November 2012

Analysing a Title Sequence







 
The title sequences above are all taken from the ‘How we Built Britain’ title sequence. The sequence consists of a series of aerial/high angle pan shots of buildings shaped as the letters that make up the word ‘Britain’. Some shots were also created in the edit using 3D effects in software such as Adobe Photoshop. The shots pan the different buildings, which range from old castles to modern day skyscrapers. Two shots of each building are then edited together, and arranged to spell the word Britain.
For the final shot, each of the buildings are then edited next to each other, with the words ‘How we Built’ edited towards the top left of the shot. This then makes the whole title of the film appear on the last frame. As this is a television series, it does not feature any text overlay for roles such as director or editor, as we would perhaps more commonly expect in films of the Thriller genre.
An interesting technique used is the introduction of a Land Rover car in each shot from the A of Britain, which can be seen driving through each shot. This gives the sense of continuity, and makes the audience feel as though they are driving through, finding these letters on their journey. The car then drives along all of the letters in the final shot.
Apart from the car, no other props are used, and no obvious additional lighting is introduced. Each shot typically features the countryside, apart from the N, which is filmed in a city environment.

Sunday, 18 November 2012

Questionnaire Results

I asked 10 people, including both males and females, aged between 11-17 a questionnaire to help us improve our thriller opening. The results can be seen below:

The results from question one show that people like Comedy films the most, followed by Horror films and Thriller. This shows us that although we are not making a comedy film, we could try and add an element of comedy into our thriller opening, to try and attract a wider audience. 
Question 2 shows that people in our target age group go to the cinema quite frequently. A large proportion went to the cinema just 2-4 weeks ago, and so we should bear in mind that our film does not need to be in the cinema for too long.  
Question three shows us that over 3/4 of the people like films to be 1 1/2 and 2 hours long. This shows us that the film cannot be too long, as the audience's attention might diminish if it is any longer. Also, it shows us that fast editing and fast-paced action need to be included to maintain the audience's enjoyment. 
The large proportion of our target audience do not stream movies online. This shows us that making the effort to make our film available on services such as Netflix would perhaps be a wasted effort, and that people would prefer to enjoy our movie via more traditional media methods. 
Question five shows us that the majority of people would like to go out with friends given t wo hours leisure time, instead of watching a movie. It shows us that we should work on promoting our film on posters, billboards, in taxis, buses and resturants, instead of working on promotions in the cinema. 
The last film the majority of people watched was Skyfall, the new James Bond film. At the time our survey went out, this film was extremely popular, and so it shows that people watch films that are 'in trend' - films that other people are watching and talking about on social media services such as Twitter and Facebook, and on the television and the news. 
100% of the people we asked said that they would like to watch a film involving death. This shows us that we should ensure we involve death in our film, and this is something that we have included in the opening of our thriller. 
Around 50% of our audience would spend between £5:01 and £10 on a film. Again, this shows our group that if we were working on selling our film, this is the price range we should base it on. 
This shows that most people would prefer to watch films where they have to concentrate on the plot. Therefore, we should work on making the plot more complex, and perhaps slightly twisted, so that it slowly becomes apparent to the audience how the film will end. 
Question 10 shows that the majority of our sample agree with the statement that they are a film enthusiast. It shows us that the people who we are targeting our film at are people who watch films on a regular basis, and therefore they will be experts at analysing and watching films. Therefore, we should work to ensure the film is as good as it can be, to provide the audience with the maximum amount of enjoyment.