Making the credits

  To make the credits we decided to use stop motion so we could animate objects using photographs to add something interesting to our opening sequence. we came up with the idea of using magnetic scrabble on a fridge as it was easy to move around and therefore animate. We used a different path for the letters coming together for each name so it was varied. It was a challenging task in some aspects as it had to fit together well and flow properly for it to work but the outcome was successful. One problem we faced was after we took the images we realised there was a change in shadows between some of the images which didn't look as professional as it could of. We decided that if we have time at a later date we could re-do this but as we were all pleased overall we thought it was not a big problem for the moment.

Filming Our Foundation Project

Above are some  photographs of us filming some of our foundation task (at one of our shoot loactions) . We tried capturing each piece from as many different angles as possible, as we intended to  allow ourselves extensive versatility when it came to editing the clips together, to create a continous effect. We also wanted to develop a wide range of shots for our montage sequences aswell, to make them alot more dramatic and have a much larger impact on our audience. With heinsight we realised that our ‘Feed The Fish’ preliminary task, perhaps lacked a varied and creative range of different angled shots, for example : high, low,canted,point of veiw,reverse  and so on. So we wanted to learn from our previous mistake, and try to take a more challenging approach to our filming.

Our filming schedule

Because we needed to book cameras and organize filming our actresses at several different locations, it was vital we had a legible, clear filming schedule as above.

Our Pitch

This is the basic plot line to the opening sequence of our thriller film. Set in the 21st century, where the real horror and chills are drawn from behind the doors of suburban normality, the safe havens and places children feel secure and at home. Our protagonist, a sixteen year old girl, occupied by running her everyday stresses away with a relaxing soak, idiotically allows an intruder, posing as a 'helpfull' handy man, into her house. Rushing to turn off the taps and shut out her problems, she leaves the suspicious stranger downstairs. After hanging back for a few minutes and eerily inspecting her childhood photographs, he ascends the staircase, getting closer and closer to something he is far too familar with...

How our opening is conventional...

From our individual analyses of opening sequences, the four of us concluded that there were some conventions that the vast majority of opening sequences used, and that we should therefore use these as rules/guidelines when creating our own sequence. These were:

1) Montage. Montages were commonly used in sequences we analyses, and this was a good technique that created a lot of suspense and drama. In our storyboard, we planned to use this as the main antagonist is walking up the stairs, by incorporating flashbacks of different girls. As none of this has dialogue, instead of using the audio from the video we thought we could make this into a montage, with emotive music as a backing track instead.

2) Dialogue is allowed, but only a little. Most of the sequences we looked at had little to no dialogue, but a few did. Our sequence fits with this as there is a short exchange between the girl and the man, but it does not last long and does not dominate the sequence.

3) Introduce the character. Our sequence introduces two characters, but you can tell the man is the main character as we equate the girl with several other girls through use of flashbacks.

4) Introduce the narrative. Our sequence does this, showing the film to be about a rapist/paedophile and his crimes.

5) Have credits! Although we did not storyboard this, we have decided to use the idea of fridge magnet pieces and stop motion to spell out the names of the people involved in the production of the film.

STORYBOARDING

The above was our completed storyboard, but to make it easier to read, see below. 

Media Storyboard

Props and Costumes

Group Meeting #4

Today we tried to sort out our props and costumes. The main character was to be wearing a dressing gown to appear vulnerable, the pervert was to be wearing a hat low over his eyes to seem dodgy and a luminous jacket as part of his disguise, and all the other characters were to be wearing school uniform from various schools to show their age and innocence. We also needed a framed photo for a certain shot we wanted to do, and any book.

Group Meetings #1 #2 & #3

------------------------------------------------ 

Group Meeting #3  

In this meeting we started to roughly storyboard with Post-It notes, trying to figure out what we needed to do and what kind of shots we could manage. We didn't get very far, and planned to continue this upon our next meeting.

------------------------------------------------

Group Meeting #2
In our following lesson, with a rough idea in our heads, we decided to start thinking about locations and our cast: what we could realistically do. We realized that our family members could play a big role as the part of the paedophile and the young girls (siblings), and that as it was set in a house any one of ours would do. We also started thinking about different shots we could do that we liked, and started to briefly order our thoughts so we knew what to film. 

------------------------------------------------

Group Meeting #1

This was our first lesson concerning our final video for our coursework. After having been briefed by our teacher, we were given some sugar paper and started to brainstorm everything, from which genre we should do down to as specific as signs on doors. We ended up wanting to do a thriller, with somewhat of a rough idea: we thought we could do a paedophile inviting himself into a young girls' home, with the audience knowing his history of paedophilia but with the young girl not having a clue. We had a good idea of how to present this, by elongating the scene of him walking up the stairs, making a montage where each footfall reminded him of a different girl at a different time. 

Own response to Brief

The brief we were given we were all very pleased with. We all were able to have an input of our ideas and we were happy with the fact that we thought we could do the brief to a high level. We all had ideas which we put together to come up with a good idea. The group were pleased with the brief and thought that we were able to present a well edited, well filmed and well acted film.

Our Group