Planning: pre production paperwork

Intro:
In our groups, we had to each take on the role of creating a professional piece of paperwork that would need to be distributed to people in our groups as well as our cast. We had to do this to ensure that the filming runs smoothly and in case any problem arises such as complaints for using a particular location, accidents occurring when filming or if an actor complains because the thriller is published, we will be able to fall back on the paperwork where all declaration were made.


Production Schedule:
- The production schedule is given to all members taking part in the thriller to remind them what days, location, scenes they will be taking part in.

-the location schedule was given to:

•  Marlyn
• cee jay
• Christine
• Josh
• Shelah

Client release form:
-A client release form is an agreement form which is given to the actors stating  what they will be involved in, the risk that may occur and how it will be dealt with or who would be held responsible and what the production will be used for. the client can only take part in the production once they have agreed and sign the form.

-the client release form was given to:

•  Marlyn
• cee jay
• Christine
• Josh

Location Recee:

- The location recee is also given to all members taking part in the production to informs them of every particular location the producer wants want the scenes to be film and reason for it. 

-the location release form was given to:

• Marlyn
• cee jay
• Christine
• Josh
• Shelah

Location Release Form:

the location release form is similar to the client release form as it requires agreement from the owner or the person in charge of location we would like to film our thriller. the location release is always given to the owner of a location asking for permission before using the area.

Risk Assessment:

-the risk assessment looks at every possible incidence that can occur during the the production and how dangerous or serious it could be depending on what equipment we will be using. this form is given to al members in the group because it tells them how to deal with any problem that can occur and what can be done to avoid it.

The risk assessment form was given to:

• Marlyn
• cee jay
• Christine
• Josh
• Shelah

Planning: Preliminay task

The purpose of preliminary task

the purpose of the preliminary task was to give us an idea of how our filming process will be, how to use equipment such a tripod  and editing software to remove any unwanted scene to have a continuous edit. it allowed us to understand what each member in the group is good at and locate what areas would need some improvement. 

Video

The scenario (Screenshot)

the scenario of our preliminary task was between marlyn and I and was about how she got me into trouble because she has forgotten to bring a few thing that i was supposed to hand back to Sean who i was afraid of due to his superiority. so i was frustrated at her because i then had to beg Sean on giving me another chance to get all his things to him. 

Group roles

Shelah: Actor
Marlin: Actor
Josh: camera operator i can t
Sean: Actor

Difficulties you encountered whilst filming

while doing our preliminary task, we encountered a few problems such background noise coming from students walking around the school, this prevented us from talking to one another as we were always disturbed and afraid of picking up any background noise in our recording. another problem we encountered was that we did not know when we had enough scenes to stop recording, so we just had to create many scenes hoping it would be 30 seconds which also meant that we would a lot to do when it come to editing.

Difficulties you encountered whilst editing (Screenshots)

As it was our first time editing on an IMac and using the Final cut pro software , we had to familiarise ourselves with it first as we struggled on retrieving the videos located on the SD card and importing it into the final cut pro application to start editing. we also had some trouble saving our final video which had to be exported and saved along with the original videos in the same location. 

What have you learned?

from the preliminary task I gain a bit of knowledge on how the whole filming process works, knowing what needs to taking into consideration, for example choosing a suitable and quiet environment, planning out scenes in advance and having the correct equipment. I also learned how to edit which I thought it was really beneficial as I was able to edit our video on my own due to the absence of my team mate and I think this skill can be useful in similar circumstances in the future. 

Conclusion: How has the task beneficial 

the preliminary task was beneficial because it gave us an idea of what is expected from each members and thought us how a slight mistake can effect a the whole production. I learned the importance of working as a team, planning out before producing and being responsible in role we all undertook. in addition we also learned how to operate the cameras, deciding what shot and angle should be used to make the scene symbolic and lastly how to edit it.

planning: mise en scene

introduction:

Mise en scene are key elements used by produce to convey the message in the film . it consist of 6 element which are lighting, body language, and facial expression, hair and make, costume setting and iconography. each element plays a big roll in a film as it allows the audience to understand clearly what is going on and to distinguish the roles of each character according to the way they may be presented, for example a actor who is well dressed will straight away indicate a sign of status and power but his body language an facial expression will allow the the audience to characterize them.

lighting:

in the first scene of our thriller we will be using low key lighting to hide the identity of our main character as she is shown knelled down in an empty white room. this will make the audience question themselves on why is the character in that place, who they are and what are their intentions

setting:

we selected various location which we thought will be appropriate for the scenes of our thriller. the first setting in our thriller is a white room which we will use in our opening scene. the second setting is a living room and the last is outdoor more precisely in an alleyway.

iconography:

in our first scene there isn't any iconography surrounding our main character who plays the role of a victim and antagonist. but if we take look back at the second flashback of her boyfriends living room she was surrounded by iconography such as a lamp, scissors, table and electronic devices and once she was assaulted by him she made use of all the item she go her hands on and ended murdering him. this shows that she cannot control herself so therefore was left alone in an empty with nothing and none to hurt.


costume:

our main character will be dressed in a white robe that suggest that she is a victim and so therefore innocent, her robe will be ripped and will contains black stains which represents a hidden dark side of her. our second character who is the boyfriend will be like every normal 20 year old men but on top he will have have a white shirt and a black jacket. our last character who is the rapist will be dressed all black with a hoodie which hides his identity.

planning: character representation

introduction:

in this post i will be identifying important aspects of each characters in my thriller. character representation will help me and my group when it will come to choosing someone to play the role of a particular character. it will give us an idea of what is required from our actors in order to match the characters.

characters:

Name: unknown
character role: rapist
age: 25-30
gender: male
costume: blue jeans and a black hoodie
hair and makeup: his hair will not be seen as he would be wearing a hoodie and makeup will not be needed because his identity will hidden by not showing his appearance.
body language and facial expression: he will have an intimidating and dominant body language
represented as: someone who
role within narrative: he rapes an innocent girl who was left traumatized by that experience and he was never found guilty.


Name: lucy
character: female victim/antagonist
age: 18
gender: female
costume: she wears a white ripped robe filled with stains
hair and makeup: she will have messy hair and her face will be pale
body language and facial expression: she will have an agitated body language and a frightened facial expression
represented as: she represented as a innocent, lost young girl who is tormented by her pass and struggles to control her emotions.
role within narrative: she play as a girl in a mental hospital who is unable to control her emotions

Name; boby
character: boyfriend/victim
age: 21
costume: the boyfriend will wear a white shirt and a black coat on top
hair and makeup: he will have scruffy hair and a natural look (no makeup)
body language and facial expression: he has a persuasive body language and
represented as:
role within narrative:

planning: production role

Introduction

when making a film, there are nine different key role or responsibilities which are given to different individuals in order to ease the production of the film and ensure that its of a high standard. in my group we've allocated each individuals with different roles so that the production is done faster with no time wasted and to avoid giving one person a lot of responsibilities.

the first role we have have which is a common one is of a director: the director is the person who I would say have the idea of what the film would look like, therefore they would be in charge of almost everything from choosing actors and coaching them, planning location and choosing shots for different scenes. this role was given to Marilyn as the idea is hers and she can instruct us according to how she visualized a scene.



camera operators: camera operators are the people who bring what is on the storyboard to reality. they are in charge of capturing shots while actors are acting and ensures that the angles and the sizes are as shown on the storyboard. this role is assign to Josh as he has experience of doing this in the past.



producer: on set the role a producer would be to supervise everyone and to make sure that everything is as the director requested. producers are also in charge of finding team members capable of taking responsibilities of designing, filming and sometimes directing. out of set they will be doing thing arrangements for distribution, selling and promoting.  for this role we've decide to assign it to Marilyn because she is sociable and knows who are the right members to recruit.



light operator: lights in films can create different moods depending on how its projected. light operators are the one in charge of projecting different types of lighting in different scenes just as it was visualized by the director. for example if the director want a character to look a bit distorted and create a dark mood they would tell the light operators to project a low key lighting from a low angle. I would be taking this role because I have past experience of using different types of light in a drama performance.


location manager: a location manager is responsible for finding a set/location where each scenes would be film in order to match and be suitable for a particular scene or the story of the film. this role was again assign to me as I have already thought of an appropriate location which would be suitable for our thriller


costume, hair and make up: in the making of a film there are always people who are in charge of making characters appear in a certain way to give the audience an idea of their role in the film and what may be expected from them. the appearance of a character would depend on the sub genre of the film, an example for this would supernatural thrillers which mostly would have characters that look demonic which is expected from that type of movie. Marilyn is responsible for this as she has the experience of applying make up to make a character appear in a certain way and knows what the character should wear and what it connotes.


storyboard: storyboard drawers have a very important role because everything is captured by the camera operators and as its drawn on the storyboard. storyboards drawers also makes the role of other workers easier because the shows step by step what needs to be done and what characters will appear in what scene. this role was assign to Joshua because he design a clear and more detailed storyboard that will make the production of thriller to be more easier as the actors have a clear understanding of what happens in every scenes


editor: after long days and hours of filming, the movie is edited by professional who cuts any unwanted or inappropriate scenes, adjusts the time frames of each scenes and adds a few effects if needed. we have assign this role to Josh because he has the software needed as he has done it before.

sound editor: a sound editors are in charge of implementing sounds in particular scene to match the action or to make the audience feel in a certain way. an example for this would be in a crime or psychological thriller in scenes where the unexpected appearance of the antagonist behind a victim is accompanied with an eerie sound that strikes fear into the audience.

conclusion

this has helped me because I now know what responsibilities me and the people in my group would have depending on our roles. we can now start our production knowing that everyone has a brief understanding of what is expected from them in order to create a excellent thriller.

Planning: Initial ideas

Initial ideas

Each member of my group had their own ideas of the type of thriller they wanted to create. We discussed them as a group and used this to help decide on a final idea.



Idea 1
Sub-genre: psychological thriller
Narrative: boy who seeks revenge for the death of his parents by killing his victims by the order of their birthday
Title: happy birthday
Characters: two male and one female(victims), a 17 year old boy(antagonist) and the police
Setting: city
Theory: Can use Todorov's theory of start middle and end. Conventional characters that the audience will expect to see.
Themes: Violence, revenge, family
Audience response: They will feel scared of the boy but at the same time they will feel sorry for him because he has lost his parents and clearly he is really affected by this.
Positives: can cause good audience response, character can be likable and feared at the same time.
Negatives: not sure if we can portray believable deaths and if we can show this is two minutes.



Idea 2

Title: Bipolar relapse
Sub-genre: psychological thriller
Characters: doctor, nurse,  female victim and antagonist
Narrative: a women who is the victim of rape  becomes tormented and seeks for revenge. She is in a mental home because people think she has lied and she escapes and gets her revenge on her attacker.
Setting: a hospital and a dark room
Themes: revenge, rape, childhood, innocence
Theory: Propp's characters and good themes used
Audience response: they will want the victim to get her revenge and they will feel sorry for her.
Positives: can twist the audiences emotions so can be quite clever, characters should be easy to portray
Negatives: rape is quite a sensitive issue to show so not sure how we would show this on the screen



Conclusion

By sharing our ideas we are able to see the similarities and differences in our ideas, who's idea can be accomplished with the equipment available and how we can make it into one idea. We should now have a brief idea of what our thriller would be as we can see that both our ideas have the same sub-genre and a character wanting revenge so we will use this idea. I think the female getting revenge on the attacker is going to be easier to do so this is the idea we will go along with and plan.

planning: final ideas

Final idea:

Title: bipolar relapse

narrative structure: a woman who is tormented by her past and considered as a threat to the society so therefore she is locked up in a mental hospital where is never visited and neither treated as her state remains obscure. she is kneeled down with her head down and her hair covering her appearance, she starts to see flashbacks of how it all started, the first flashback she sees is of the man who forced her to do what she did not want while crying and begging him to stop but was repeatedly told "its like nothing ever happened", she is then shown in her sell all alone crying with hatred for who she has become. she then sees the second flashback of her boyfriend who was repeatedly stabbed by her for saying one simple sentence,"its like nothing ever happened".the next day,a male nurse informed the doctor of her state how she seems to be normal but hasn't said a word to anyone and was only heard her talking to herself, the doctor did not know how to help or treat her due to the insufficient information he had about her so he orders that she's observed and never approached alone. a few days passed by, when a male nurse entered her room to give her meal while she was seating down on her bed. the male nurse approached her and placed the tray with food on her laps and tried to feed her as she hasn't eaten any food given to her previous, she acts collaborative in till she raised her hand to hold the fork but then drops the tray of food, she starts to panic and her hand shaking but reassured by the male nurse that everything was aright and "its like nothing ever happened".


film influenced my idea

se7en
Hannibal silenced
law abiding citizen

Mise En Scene:

I would use low key lighting to create a dark mood as the camera moves into the female victim from an extreme long shot to a close up
My setting would be in a mental hospital and a room painted all white
the main character who has a mixed role would be dressed in a white rob which shows her innocence,but would have black stains, her hair would be messy and clothes ripped showing that she's been through a lot and and the dark stains which represents dark side of her which by the memories of her past.


conclusion:

I want the audience to question themselves on who the character may be, what are her intention and why is she in that place. I also want the audience to feel sympathetic toward her for what she's been through but also scare and frightened of her actions and not knowing her identity and seeing her appearance.