Friday, 29 January 2010

Filming...

Due to the fact that we have less time than we planned to have for filming, we've had to change our final idea, to make it simpler and to make sure we have sufficient time in which to do it.

The scene starts off with a short take of Phoebe scrolling through music on an iPod and then pressing play. Following this, in quick succession there are shots of 'scary' images, and sounds played over the top (listed below). In between these shots, we see Phoebe getting ready (shots also listed below). Throughout the opening the amount of scary images gradually build up until at the end, Phoebe wakes up suddenly, and then the credits roll.

'Scary' images:
- candles being lit
- ballet shoes by candle light
- swinging pendulum
- woods/trees
- ribbon on a tree blowing in the wind
- 'scary' books (The Haunting)
- crucifix and prayer beads
- angel tarot cards

Sounds:
- screams
- heavy breathing
- footsteps
- baby talking
- laughter (male)
- crying (female)
- dialogue (to be repeated throughout)
- screeching tyres
- sirens
- church bells

Getting ready shots:
- ipod
- make up (blusher, mascara)
- hair being taken out of hairband
- hair being brushed
- top being put on (shot from back)
- leggins
- shoes
- turning off light
- things being thrown on bed (e.g. bra, top)
- doing up necklace(from the back)

The main idea with our film opening is that we want the audience to be kept guessing about what the rest of it will be about. We want to grip them with the idea of the unknown. Is the girl seeing things that have happened, that will happen, or simply just made up events.

Thursday, 21 January 2010

FINAL IDEA - planning, continued

FINAL IDEA (For Images and Sounds)

Flashes

Ouija board
Pills (rapid intake)
Tracking shot of graveyard
Smashing glass (red wine)

Sped up clock
Crows
Ballet shoes (undo, redo)
Walking down stairs (e.g prom)
Barbie head - decapitated
Bloody hand on door knob
Grubby hands on window
Greek writing (rewind, rewrite)
Chalk symbol
Mask in the mirror
Gag in mouth
Wind through trees

Pendulum (slow motion)

Lighter-burning paper
Food-angry fork
Kids in playground
Regurgitating red wine
Hopscotch
Swing in wind

Candle blown out

Match sound, lit again…fast rewind up to glass smashing , stops on clock, clock slows down, then SMASH - glass - girl wakes up
Questions etc
Rock music, loud voices
Noise continued from first two clips

Sounds

Laughter/crying
Screams/Gasps
Voices:
- mother and child
- monologue (MPD)
- humming/whistling
- bitching (friends)
- child’s rhyme/whispering
- mans voice-anger
Ripping paper
Cars/ambulance sirens
Breaking twigs

SILENCE

Chair dragged on tiles
Door slams/creaks
Running water/splash
Chanting
Heels - fast
Breathing
Wind - whistling
Doorbell/knocking on door
Dial tone/answer phone
Radio sounds



Heartbeat sound slow, soft. Progressively louder and faster, up until SMASH of glass.

Effects/Camera shots

Rewind
Black and White
Sepia
Negative
Solarized
Over-exposed
Blur
Canted angle
tracking shot - fast

Wednesday, 20 January 2010

FINAL IDEA

To create our final idea, we took many ideas from our previous planning and we also took some inspiration from existing thrillers...

The scene begins with two teenage girls getting ready to go out, applying make-up, doing hair etc. There is light banter between the two, and we establish that one of the girls is being slightly reserved, although we sense a close bond between them. The quieter of the two is applying eye-make up in the mirror, the camera pans round so we see the girl from the view of the mirror, as it were. The camera zooms into the girl's eye, and then carries on zooming until it blends into a different scene, of a Ouija board, with 3 sets of hands (black nail varnish, net gloves etc- gothic). This triggers the rest of the images (see next post). After the images come to a sudden stop, the last thing we see is the girl sitting bolt upright in her bed. The audience are left asking questions...Was it a dream? Was it a memory? A premonition?

The idea is that there could be a number of answers, without seeing the rest of the film, you don't know what the story will be about...Psychological thriller? Supernatural? The audience are left guessing, which hooks them into watching the rest of the film.

Also, we decided to include in the flashing images a couple of images that show only one body part. For example, eyes, hands, running feet etc. We featured this in our preliminary task and found it effective in creating suspense, so we decided to replicate it.

Friday, 15 January 2010

Thriller Opening - Planning

Dream Images - PLANNING

The girl's hand covered in blood triggers a succession of brief, chilling images...

-Girl leaning over edge of building
-Running barefoot over wet grass
-Girl sitting on bus stop (alone/with friend) seems normal, double-take, girl sees someone on other side of road wearing an innocent looking mask, but scary.

Each flashback scene starts like normal, then ends in distortion and mystery - twist on normality.

More dream image ideas -

(sound of heartbeat played continually, faster and louder towards the end.)

- Doorhandle covered with blood
- Ballet shoes being done up with white gloves
- Old fashioned clock
- Eye (with creepy contacts)
- Floorboard with footprint in blood
- Dog barking
- Jewellery box
- Child's doll impaled on spike
- Glass smashing on kitchen floor
- Crows
- Kitchen knife being pulled out of block
- Pot of pills spilled out
- Animal skull
- Shot of looking up at canopy of trees, spinning
- Graveyard
- Pet burial with smear of blood on box, dirt thrown on
- Swings in the wind
- Blood dripping off a stair

Sunday, 10 January 2010

Thriller Opening - Planning

PLANNING FINISHED - 1st February
FILMING FINISHED - 20th February
EDITING FINISHED - 20th March


Locations

- Woods (Vassells Park - river/waterfall)
- Bristol harbourside/waterfront
- Brandon Hill
- Church & Graveyard behind Fishpond's Park.
- In a car

Ideas

- Flashback (dramatic, quick shots fade into normal shot. A number of hours earlier...)
- Running, a chase
- Twist on normality, 'typical gone wrong'

Camera shots/Editing

- Light settings:
Night vision
Negative
Sepia
Black and White
Lightning effect
- Close-up shots of body parts, e.g. feet (as we liked preliminary task)


Our idea:

Shot of young girl (aged between 5-8) in the park, with long blonde hair,in a white summer dress, walking bare foot on grass. Picking up flowers, walking round trees etc. Only shot from waist down. Walks into stream. While this is happening, flashes of images such as fingernails on floorboards, muddy feet running, all in black and white. Then the final thing we see is the girl's hand going down to pick up a pebble from the stream, and it is covered in blood. Water runs into the water. When the hand drops down, we see an older girl (17) sit bolt upright in bed, and it is then that we realise the whole thing was a dream.

The idea is that throughout the opening, the viewer doesn't know that it is a dream. Then, when they do find out, they don't know whether the girl in the dream is a figure of the past, present or the older girl's imagination.

Tuesday, 5 January 2010

Monday, 4 January 2010

Preliminary Task

Our preliminary task went reasonably well. We came up with the idea for our storyline quite quickly, and soon had a few rough lines and a brief storyboard including the different camera shots we were going to use.
Whilst filming, we found it quite difficult to capture Adam walking down the corridor, and we had to do it quite a few times before we had the camera at an angle we liked. The rest of the filming went smoothly and was finished within a day. However, when we got to the editing stage, we came to the realisation that we didn't have enough material to work with. From this, we drew the conclusion that in our next project we would need to film a lot more, so that we would be able to play around more, and have a greater selection of shots to choose from, instead of having to settle for what we had.
Something else we liked from our preliminary task was the idea that you don't see the 'fortune teller's' face throughout the film, only her hands. This creates a sense of mystery and suspense, which is exactly what we need for the opening to our thriller, as we need to hook the viewer into watching the rest of the film. Consequently, we decided to take this idea and replicate it in our next project, either with a character's hands, or another body part, e.g feet, eyes etc.