problems we encountered during filming

Due to the setting of our sequence, which mainly takes place outside, we always knew it was going to be difficult because we could not guarantee that the weather or the light would allow us to capture the mood we wanted, it was always going to present us with some sort of difficulty.

Because we had spread our filming out between two seperate days, we had to make sure that we chose days that were relatively similar with light and fog etc. We had to make sure that we went out and filmed at the same time each day to avoid there being different lighting levels in each scene. This again was a problem because towards the end of our first day it had began to get dark and at the start of out second day it was much lighter. because we had already filmed it wasn't an option to complete anymore filming so we had to go with the footage we had and try and rectify the error during editing. To sort the problem out we had to name the films from the day they were filmed, so when we were at the editing stage we hat to play around with the lighting levels of each shot to make sure they were all of an equal level. Whilst this was a major problem initially, we felt that we rectified it by changing the lighting and brightness during the editing stage.

Decision to get some more footage

when we originally thought that our product was finalised we showed it to some of our classmates and some friends from outside the media group. We thought it was important to get the view point of someone who didn't take media studies and someone who was a mainstream media consumer and what they thought of our opening sequence. Both sets of people who saw our product suggested a possibility of some more shots added in or some shots being edited in a different way.

This was beneficial for us because it meant that even though we thought that our product was finalised, the advice we got from other people meant that we needed to get some more footage to make the story-line more clear. We thought that if we listened to what other people and what they thought it would have more appeal to a mass media audience, which would hopefully gain us more marks.

Other people also suggested that we should change the duration of certain shots or add effects or even take effects away, this again was valuable to us because it helped us realise how other people viewed our product and what they thought would make it better. So hopefully by taking this on board and changing our product it will result in a more superior final version.

changes we made from our original idea:

our original idea for an opening sequence fluctuated a great deal during the actual process and we had to play around with our story line to what we thought was most practical and realistic to achieve, and we ultimately get us the best grade.

The main change that we made was to the story itself, our original idea that was based around drugs and the effect it has on people we felt that it was to impractical to film and we were giving ourself to much of a challenge to take on, we felt that it wasn't a part of the thriller genre and it would become too psychological
which would stray away from the criteria.

Having made the decision to change our story line we felt that we still wanted to go down the psychological route, but in a more practical and simplistic form. We changed our idea from drugs to someone with a mental health issue, who commits a murder; and spends the rest of the film trying to cover it up. We felt that by doing this we would still be keeping our theme but without straying too much away from the thriller genre, and it would also make it easier for us to film and hopefully by doing this we would have more time to edit our clips together and maximize its potential as a media product.

We also felt that when we viewed our product from a neutral perspective, and we analysed it as if we were watching it for the first time as someone else's product. We found that it wasn't completely clear from who's eyes we were viewing the situation, so we decided to complete some more editing to make it clear the persona of our sequence.

storyboard

roles and relationships

Dates-

The dates we will be filming on will be the 20th of December, and also the 27th of December. If we haven't completed all the filming on these two dates then our back-up date will be the 30th of December.

Roles and Relationships-

Jack shall have the filming equipment, as it is closer to the location of where we are filming.  Jack shall take the role of the character hallucination that is in Morris’s mind.

Matt shall take the role of Morris, a man with psychological problems who has hallucinations, mostly in the form of a gas-masked suited antagonist, this is mostly because Matt can pass for being a slightly older character and we wanted our film to look as realistic as possible.  The filming will not be delegated to one particular person as we will both be in the film equally, therefore we shall both me taking part in the role of camera man.

Task Division-

We split the tasks evenly and mostly did each of our pieces of work independently.  Matt completed the shooting script because he is more imaginative and it got us a got start on our idea. Jack completed the storyboard because he is the more creative one of the two and better at actually transforming the ideas onto paper.  We thought this was the most effective way to divide up the bulk of the tasks, and to play to both of our strengths.

Those were the two main tasks that we divided up but the vast majority of the smaller and less significant tasks we worked on together because we felt that we needed both of our input on the film because it is a joint idea and we want to maintain our originality.

Mise-en-scene

 Mise-En-Scene

We chose our main location for our shooting as Jack Peppers house because it is a relatively old looking house, which would fit in with our theme and represent our character well.  Also, it has items we need such as a windowed cupboard inside, because this is essential for our filming we need to choose a location which has this, so Jack’s house is ideal.

The mask in our film has been chosen very carefully, we have chosen a gas mask because it goes against the conventions of what you expect to see in a thriller film. A gas mask is a very eerie and impersonal piece of mise-en-scene because it doesn’t allow you to see the character’s face therefore creating an element of mystery.

We have also chosen for the gas-masked hallucination to be wearing a black suit. This would make him look very formal, so this links in with him being impersonal.

Our main character called Morris is going to be seen wearing a comb-over, and possible glasses, for us this is something else that goes against codes and conventions because people don’t associate a nerdy looking character with murder or anything negative.

Our chase scene through a field as also been chosen carefully, we have picked a very desolate area to create the sense of alienation. We hope to film this particular scene early in the morning so we can capture it when it is more misty.

We have chosen the name “ Morris Crombie” for our main character, this is again something that goes against conventions because the name is very intelligent sounding and you wouldn’t expect someone with this name to defy the law. Also, our Morris character is going ton be seen wearing trousers pulled up very high, with a tucked in shirt, we hope that by doing this we can create an air of sympathy from the audience so it’s even more of a surprise when he killed someone.  We have also chosen Morris to have a backpack, because it is also something that is associated with being subdued and nerdy, so people wouldn’t expect him to be a murderer.

In one of our opening scenes we see our main character taking some medication, which is seen very closely by the camera to imply that the character has mental issues. This is a very important signifier for our film because it links in with the psychological -disturbed theme we are looking.

During our second scene our imaginary character tears up a picture of a girl, we have chosen to use a photo, as part of our mise-en-scene because it means people will know who the victim is without using any dialogue. Which for us is important to achieve because we wanted to keep it with as little dialogue as possible in order for it to be more confusing and hard to follow for the audience, which is common for the opening of a thriller film.

We were also planning on filming either early in the morning or late afternoon, this is because we hope to create a gloomy atmosphere to go along with our storyline.  It will also make the mood more eerie and hopefully have a better effect on the audience for the creepy effect we are looking for.  

risk assesment

Risk assessment

Possible risks when filming our sequence would be:

Because we are filming around Christmas time there is a large possibility that the roads and pavements will be slippery and dangerous therefore an obvious risk of us falling and injuring ourselves if the correct footwear is not worn.

Because of the location we are filming, we will be using an upstairs attic, which presents an obvious risk of one of us falling down from a height; we will need to be extra careful when climbing up and down the ladder.

There is a chance that on of our characters might need to be pictured climbing a tree, this is again a very obvious hazard because if it is a large tree then falling down could result in a serious injury.

If we are filming in accordance to our shooting script exactly then there is a chance that we will have to use a real knife for effect, this is the most obvious risk because if someone were to fall and slip it could have a severe consequence.