We all had a group discussion about the location however because of the filming taking place at Mollies house we thought it would be easier for her to take the photos. Once the photos were taken we then then had another group chat about why this was chosen. Mollie then wrote this up.
We decided to use a wooden inclosed space having the two options of using either a wendy house or shed. Both capture the cold, dark, sinister scene that we all instantly thought of in our meeting of loosing the location. We all thought that the wendy house could look very interesting and inviting to a young girl. Using the low angle shot we could then make it seem intimidating relating back the mans personality.
Male Characters point of view shot at the wendy house, side view
It also looks very effective and appear as if he was lurking and watching in the darkness. This would become apparent if some scenes were shot in the darkness enhancing the personality and characteristics of the man who is trying to capture Rosie.
The photographs have been taken from different viewpoints and angles in order to experiment with different camera angles. We all agreed that if you are looking through a element/object it appears as if you are looking at it from another point of view and therefore the audience will feel as if they shouldn't be there, making them feel uncomfortable and awkward as if they are spying and stalking alongside the male character.
Low angle shot of the wendy house, point of view.
We also agreed that the lighting would be appropriate if it was to be natural with some highlighted areas lit with man made light. We have decided to film during the day with natural daylight being apparent however some parts of filming being much later at night so we will be able to capture different elements and highlight some characteristics of the character. With the day time representing Rosie and the night time the man, suggesting that this is all he thinks about, loosing sleep over it. This is also because Rosie is a happy young girl, energetic and vulnerable, she doesn't know what is going to happen to her, not having the understanding and knowledge. The male has a colder nature and much darker therefore the darker sky will help to represent this. This location was also chosen because it is easy for our whole group to access, with no permission being needed. Mollies garden is quite un even with it slopping downhill, to the left in the photograph. However we have found a way of working around this by using a tripod and changing the leg lengths when necessary checking the spirit level is always in the middle, if the camera is not straight then this could lead to it looking unprofessional.
(All completed as a group- however I changed and re wrote some areas- Molly Hetherington) After all having a group discussion about all of our ideas, together we came up with the following.
Deciding that all of these work best with the genre of our opening title. I then took it upon myself to develop from our notes and write this post of our final decisions
In the opening titles of the film 'The Lovely Bones' we like the way the scene started off with them talking together and their positioning, therefore we would like to do a similar set up including over the shoulder shots.
Although this is a trailer we can still see that dark nature of the girl. In our opening title we want to create a similar set up but our roles are reversed with the little girl being the victim and our male being the one who is the villian, almost wanting to feel loved. We also like how she looks girly however she has dark clothing we want to reverse this, with our character still wearing a dress but of pale colours. This will suggest purity.
To get the best possible opening scene for our horror/thriller movie we decided to do as much research as possible. We looked at various different film opening titles including Se7en, Orphan, Tears and The lovely bones. Many more were included however we found that these worked the best and gave us the best ideas. Therefore we based our research on thriller and horror movies.
Lighting- In all the opening titles that we have watched, the main theme throughout is using low-key lighting. Therefore as a group we have come to a decision that we would like to use this too due to the effect that it creates. With a sense of mystery creating tension and adding to the danger. We have also decided on using a black screen when showing the titles, this is because it breaks up the video images, making the audience want to see more and giving them a short break to digest what they have already seen. This is also similar to what has been created in the film ‘Se7en’. We found that it worked well towards the audience, adding to the tension. The font used for these titles is going to be very child like, due to the nature of the film. Childs writing is of a 9 year olds girl, so therefore it has not been fully developed yet and is not full sophisticated. Although the font is similar to the one used in ‘Se7en’ we have developed on this, our film is of a similar nature however ours involves a child, we want to make this very clear in our 2 minute opening title scene. We our going to create this lighting by using lights that shine away from the camera and trying to film our scene in the early evening/ late afternoon.
Setting- For the setting we have decided to focus it in a shed or what they audience to be a house of some sort. We thought that using the shed would suggest that he is keeping it from his private life, suggesting that he has two sides to his character. The shed that we are using is very similar to a wendy house therefore it is very child like. This helps to draw the audience in just like the character. We have easy asses to this location so not only will it be easy for us to film in but to also create the correct effect and scene that is appropriate for our genre. The lighting will connotate the sense of darkness and nature to the setting. In the film ‘Se7en’ the audience can only assume where the scene has been created and we thought that this would be a good idea in creating our scene, due to the freaky nature that we would like to portray.
Costume- We want to keep our costumes quite simple and basic, as we don’t want to take any attention away from the film action. However we want the little girl to look vulnerable and her age, we thought a dress would be good for this. Showing her girly nature. The creators of Orphan have also put the girl in a dress, and dress her in a girly nature, this helps her to appear younger. We then want our main character, the male to look casual suggesting that this a casual thing for him something that he does regularly suggesting that he is used to it and that this isn’t the first time. We also want to keep them dark, due to his dark and psychopathic nature. We do not know what the actor in the ‘Se7en’ is wearing therefore we don’t focus our attention on this, taking nothing away from what the scene creates. Almost wanting to know what he is wearing. The use of normal clothing suggests that the audience feel that they can trust him due to him looking normal, the audience can then also relate to the girl Rosie trusting him.
Props- For our main prop we want to use a book, this is similar to the one used in ‘Se7en’. We want it to include nursery rhymes along with pictures of the little girl who we are going to make clear her name is ‘Rosie’. Showing that he has watched the girl grow up, following her. This will then link to the other prop that we want to use which is of a Rose, connotating the name used and the main nursery rhyme, which will be ‘Ring a ring a roses’, we have decided to use this our non digetic music. We are going to create the book ourselves. This book will also show other victims, as we want the opening titles to state that is was ‘1 year ago’, a past event. All these props are easily available to us and we believe they will work well with the scene and atmosphere. We also want to introduce the girl’s favorite teddy, showing her age, we can then link it to a picture of Rosie holding the teddy bear. The use of coloring books and games will also help to show her age.
Body Language- In the opening titles of ‘Se7en’ we don’t see the actors face, this is similar to what we want to do as we liked the effect that it created, of him being unknown to people and adding the other side of his personality. We also believe that filming close up’s of the actors hand will make the action seem real and create mystery. We also want to do a over the shoulder shot of the man, with a straight and upright position signifying that he is confident in what he is doing. We want the girl to also appear comfortable in his character suggesting that this isn’t the first time that they have been together, showing that she is comfortable around him and therefore doesn’t feel threatened. The close up of his hand will also show his lack of nerves and confidence in the way that it wont shake. We also want the girl to look happy with a smile on her face, showing that she is happy around him and does not know of is creepy nature and what he is really doing, she thinks it is all normal.
Positioning on the frame- We wanted the main character of the male to be in the middle of the frame most of the time, this shows that he is the main character and that this is only one side of his personality. We then also want to use the rule of thirds showing that he is focusing on Rosie, not taking his attention away from her.
In order to
complete and carry out more valid research into our opening title we decided to
create a questionnaire. This is where we would ask our target audience six
questions. We also thought it would be a good idea to do these because we had
some ideas that we were not certain about, we wanted our target audience to
feel more involved and see their views and ideas.
Once all
the questionnaires were completed, it helped us as a group come to some final
decisions. Helping us to discover our audience’s expectations and opinions on
successful horror and thriller movies. We also decided to use ‘every day’ and
‘normal’ clothing. This is because it helps add to the mystery of the opening
title, letting the horror/thriller play on the audiences mind making it much
more effective relating to real life and therefore making it more realistic
leaving the audience curious and paranoid.
Here are
some examples of the questions that we asked:
Due to the preliminary task we learnt that you have to film everything in one day as the surroundings of the area can change. This makes the audience confused and makes the cut look unprofessional, it also helps making a clean, smooth shot of the scene. When we shoot again we need to make sure the tripod is correctly set up as at some points the camera is slanted from poor set up of the camera. This made it difficult to edit the clips together. For example, as we moved the camera to track the actor walking out of the room, it fell off of the tripod. However to cover this problem up, take more footage which will give us lots of different options to choose from when coming to edit. If it's not possible to control the environment you're filming in then it's best to try to film everything in one day. This highlighted an issue with independent, low budget film making that we will have to plan for in our opening title shoot. Also we recognised that our continuity whilst filming was off so during editing it was difficult to select the clips and piece them together as there was not a continuous flow. This made the editing process longer if this happened to a low budget or a high budget film this would affect the cost as it would take more time to edit causing a decrease of money. If you're producing a film with a low budget like Paranormal Activity, directed by Oren Peli with a low budget of $15,000, time is money and he would have to make sure the rules were applied whilst shooting to decrease the risk of loosing money.
In order to gain a better understanding
of how to use the equipment available at school but most importantly to get to grips with understanding continuity, this was to make sure that we
had a complete understanding when it came to the real thing. Demonstrating a
basic level of skill and knowledge. Our brief was to film a short task, ours
had to consist of a character walking through the door and to include a short
conversation; it also had to be edited. This task had to demonstrate the use of
match on action, the 180 degree rule and shot/reverse shot. All this equipment
was new to us as well as all of the continuity rules. Before we undertook any
filming we completed a number of storyboards until we found the one that worked
best as long a short script of an dialogue that would be said, keeping it
simple so that there would be no trouble remembering it. After all of our filming
was done we then went on to use a specialized editing programmer- Adobe Premiere Pro, this was
where we edited all of our shots together.
