Programmes we used for Editing

These are some screenshots of the editing programme Adobe Premiere which we used.

This screen showed us the clips we intended to move onto our actual timeline for editing. It allowed us to select the exact sections we wanted:

This is the second monitor which shows our full sequence.

The News Report

"Earlier today it was reported that Keith Roberts, recently convicted of murdering Sarah Walsh in his north London home, has escaped while being transferred from Coldingley prison in Surrey to Castington in Northumberland. He was last sighted boarding a train heading for London on the 16^th of March. If you think you have any information regarding Roberts’ whereabouts call the London crime stoppers hotline on 0800 555….."

We decided to use a news report instead of music because it meant that we were able to subliminally add messages into the opening sequence in a short amount of time. Although the audience doesn't know anyway in which the criminal and the girl in our sequence are linked, the enigma caused by his mention suggests that she is in danger.

Shot list and Shot log



This is a rough shot list we made when planning our shoot before writing it up onto an organised shot list. As a group we found it helpful to write down the shots we wanted to shoot in the order we wanted to film them in which is why we separated them into inside and outside shots:

This is one of our written up shot lists which contains more detail about where each shot was to be filmed from, which greatly helped us on set when filming:

This is an example of one of our shot logs we used on our shoots so we could easily capture our best version when editing on Adobe Premiere:



Genre and Audiences

Our film fits into the teen thriller genre, with themes relating to crime and action, as it's plot is tense and full of enigma, whilst featuring a promdominant teen cast.

We have a primary audience of teens/young adults (16-24), both male and female. We attract them to our film as our protagonists are teen aged and are presented in a positive light - they are strong and independant. As the thriller genre typically attracts more of a male audience, we felt that we needed to have strong female characters. So our hero's sidekick Charlotte, a girl, is strong-minded, brave, helpful and reliable.

Our secondary audience consists of adults who are fans of the thriller genre, and who are familiar with similar films such as Taken or The Dark Knight.

Narrative Theory

How is our plot line effective?

Todorov's theory

Our narrative begins with an equilibrium - Dani is safe, at home, leading a normal life with her boyfriend.
There is a sudden diruption - she is kidnapped during a short blackout
Problems are solved throughout the film - Josh and Charlotte fight to save Dani
Equilibrium is restored - Josh dies, the baddies leave Charotte and Dani when they escape, and they return to normal (although altered) life.

Propp's character theory

The 8 character roles:

THE VILLAINS - The corrupt businessmen

THE HERO - Josh

THE DONOR - The escaped prisoner who leaves clues to Dani's wherabouts

THE HELPER - Charlotte

THE PRINCESS / VICTIM - Dani

HER FATHER - Dani's dad

THE DISPATCHER - Josh's father, who causes the dispute between the businessmen and Josh

THE FALSE HERO -  We do not have a false hero in our story

Levi-Struass's Theory of Opposites

Some binary opposites in our narrative:

Good/ Bad
Josh / Corrupt businessmen
Innocent girl (Dani)/ Corrupt men
Teens/ Adults

Theory - Barthe's Codes

Barthes Five Codes

ENIGMA CODE:

Our opening contained a kidnapping, which played on Barthes enigma code, as it occurred during a blackout, which leaves the audience uninformed. It provides a mystery that draws the audience in and poses questions, causing the audience to become intruiged.

ACTION CODE:

In our opening, the boyfriend arriving at the location of the kidnapping could be considered to follow Barthes action code, as the audience has to wait to see what he will do. We don't get to see anything beyond the room. The suspense is created by the action, rather than the audiences desire to have mysteries explained.

SEMIOTIC CODE:

Within our opening, there aren't many signifier's for this code but we have an establishing shot of the road outside which shows a very British, average household, which suggests the film will have a realistic, gritty feel to it, and could represent a serious, dramatic theme due to the conventions of films set in the streets of London.

CULTURAL CODE & SYMBOLIC CODE:


The only place where the cultural code appears in our opening, is when Dani carries the bottles of WKD alcohol down the stairs before putting it into the fridge. The alcohol is a cultural substance, depending on age/location. We also use the symbolic code as we only hear Dani on the phone to her Dad, and with no sign of the mother the audience is left wondering if the Mother in the family has left/gotten a divorce/died? The voiceover can also be a symbolic code as the audience doesn't know the relevance the prison escapee has to the storyline.

Theory - Semiotics in our opening scene

In order to hint at what is to come, we used visual and auditory signs:

- We used clear, bright lighting at the beginning of our sequence to symbolise lightheartedness and safety.
- However, after the black out and kidnap, the scene becomes darker to symbolise the forthcoming danger.
- Dani wears light clothes to symbolise her innocence
- Josh wears dark clothes to suggests that he is tougher
- The news report that we hear mentions an escaped prisoner, which links to the kidnap
- The low bass music that we hear at the end of the sequence suggests danger and doom

Sound

We decided we wanted a song playing from a radio in our opening, and the themes we wanted it to connote were:

• Romance
• Rebellion
• Horror
• Disturbance
• Sex
• Mainstream
• Familiarity with the audience

 After searching on the internet we managed to come up with a few suggestions for the song:

• Paramore - Playing God
• Mystery Jets - Half in Love With Elizabeth
• The Script - We Cry
• The Fray - You Found Me
• Nickelback - Hero
• The Macabees - Toothpaste Kisses

Eventually we decided to use Toothpaste Kisses in the middle section of our opening, whilst the radio was on, but we used a score from Soundtrack Pro to create a spooky atmosphere in the beginning and ending of the opening.


However, after testing the song out in our opening, we realised it didn't fit the theme and we changed the middle song to a voiceover. We recorded the voiceover on a Mac computer, using Final Cut.

The news report:

"Earlier today it was reported that Keith Roberts, recently convicted of murdering Sarah Walsh in his north London home, has escaped while being transferred from Coldingley prison in Surrey to Castington in Northumberland. He was last sighted boarding a train heading for London on the 16^th of March. If you think you have any information regarding Roberts’ whereabouts call the London crime stoppers hotline on 0800 555….."


We decided to use a news report instead of music because it meant that we were able to subliminally add messages into the opening sequence in a short amount of time. Although the audience doesn't know any way in which the criminal and the girl in our sequence are linked, the enigma caused by his mention suggests that she is in danger.

Costumes

When planning our opening sequence and character profiles, we decided on costumes:

Dannie's costume

Dannie is a laid back 17 year old girl. She is staying at home on, however is waiting for her boyfriend, Josh, to arrive. Therefore, her costume needs to be relaxed and casual, however still neat and slightly dressed up in order to impress Josh. So, we went with jeans and a plain top. Her flower necklace and pinned pack hair reflects her girly personality. She is wearly some make-up, which is for costume purposes, as well as to ensure that her skin appears smooth and attractive on screen in the harsh lighting. She is not wearing shoes, as we have established that she is staying at home in the opening. Her blonde hair is typical of a 'girlie' girl in a film: although we do not want her to appear weak and stereotypically girly like cheerleaders in American high school films, who only care about their appearance, the blonde hair is typical of a damsel in distress character, such as Dianna Agron's character in I Am Number Four.

Josh's costume:

Josh wears dark clothes in the opening scene, which portray him as tough. Their plainess reflect how the audience should view him at this moment in the film: he seems normal, yet he must become brave and save the day in the rest of the film.

New Actor

We edited the ending of our sequence so there is now the appearance of the boyfriend.
The actor playing 'Josh' is Jules Bredon. He lives near the shooting location and is reliable.

Filming - Behind the Scenes Photos

Photos of the set

The majority of our sequence is set in the kitchen of our main character's house. We chose to shoot at Eva's house, which is a reliable and convenient location.



We prepared the kitchen and hall by taping bin bags to the windows and doors to prevent unwanted light (from neighbours or street lights, for example) from ruining the effect of the blackout. To prevent the audience from being distracted by the setting, we cleared away any unncessary objects and kept the table clear. However, as the scene is set in a home, we kept some kitchen objects such as food and pots on display to keep a relaxed, homely and unstaged feel. We aimed to keep the kitchen as realistic as possible.

For continuity, we removed signs such as photos, which would show that more than just the girl and her dad lived in that house, or which would show Eva and her family, who actually live there.







Planning How We Will Shoot

When planning for our shoot, we decided a floor plan would be really helpful as two out of the three of our group had never seen the location, and we wanted to make sure the shots we needed were possible. 

We lettered the positions on the floor plan from A-G with a shot for M (master) as well, so that we could easily remember which position was where without difficulty.

This helped a lot with planning our shot list. We now know exactly where each camera is, and what it needs to film. This way, we will not miss any shots or get any shots that are at the wrong angle or defy the 180 degree rule.

What we need for our shoots this weekend:

Camera

Tripod

Clipboard

Clapper board

Whiteboard pen

Wiper

Shot list/log

Floor plan

Costumes

WKD bottles

Mobile phone

Additional Storyboard

After editing the first part of our sequence, we decided we needed to add a new section to make it more interesting. We also wanted to introduce another character so that the narrative structure would be clearer to the audience. It also gives the audience some clue as to what has happened in the kitchen, as the actual kidnapping happened in darkness.

Addition to Script

After editing our footage from our shoot, we have made changes to the script to make our opening sequence more engaging.

Group 6 Script 2

We also decided to add to the script because there was an issue with the actress, so were unable to reshoot the blackout scene. This meant that if we had left it there would have been an even longer portion of the sequence in total blackout. We talked to the media teachers and they agreed that something else needed to be added instead, so the appearance of the boyfriend was introduced. This worked out for the better actually, because it meant that the protagonist appeared at the beginning of the film so the audience was familiar with him and the circumstances before the film had properly started. 

We also changed our character's name from Lou to Dannie in order make the script feel more natural to the actors.

Run through of new idea

After scripting our idea, and drawing out a storyboard, we have run through our sequence in the class room with the help of Chris the technician, to ensure that there are no problems when it comes to shooting in the house.

We used tables and chairs to set teh classroom otu as if it was the kitchen at Eva's house. We made ti the same size to see what sort of shots we could get. While filming, we used a floorplan to note where we positioned the cameras to make compiling our shotlist easier.

Here is our rough edit of the footage:

New Storyboard

After changing our idea, we created a new storyboard with annotations describing the shot length and angle, so our shoot would run smoothly and efficiently.



Opening Sequence Script

Here is the script for our new opening sequence.

Group 6 Script 1

(We changed our character name from Lou to Dani, so that the script felt more natural for the actors)

Location

We will be using Eva's house for our location as it is reliable and convinient. The kitchen, hallway and stairs are the rooms we will be using.

The Kitchen:

 

The Hallway:

 

Actress

Our actress is Danielle Hodson-Michael. She will be playing the only character in our new sequence.

We chose Danielle to act in our opening as we feel that her appearance matches our character's personality and traits well. Her straight blonde hair and pale complexion is stereotypically feminine and this is ideal for our characters, who at first seems innocent and girly, but is actually rebellious against her father.

New Film Synopsis

Our new film synopsis:

The film begins with the sudden kidnap of one of our main characters, Dani, who was at home alone waiting for her boyfriend, Josh.

Josh's dad recently died in a tragic car accident, meaning that Josh inherited his wealthy fortune. What Josh doesn't know is that the money was won out of a corrupt business deal between his dad's company and a rival firm in Italy. The owners of the rival firm actually murdered Josh's dad, and are hunting Josh down in order to reclaim the money. They help an old business partner out of prison and send him to kidnap Dani: a trap to lure Josh.

Josh searches for Dani with the help of Dani's best friend Charlotte, and they eventually find her after a difficult search. However, after a brutal fight when they try to escape unharmed, Josh is killed. The girls manage to get away unscathed, however the baddies have won back their money.

Change of Idea

WE HAVE DECIDED TO CHANGE OUR FILM IDEA

We realised that the idea that we had got was not working and that it would be too hard to make the sequence realistic and genre specific. We were told we had enough time to change our idea, so we have taken the opportunity to do so. However, we have chosen to stick with the horror/thriller genre as we have researched this already.

Our research on the horror genre is still valid, and we will be using as much of our past work as possible. We can reuse our actor contracts, with different dates.

Here are the reason we chose to change our idea:

- Our over all film idea was good, however needed a lot of fine details to make sense, as our characters, especially the girl, where so unusual. We didn't have time to figure out all of these elements, and without them our opening sequence didn't make sense.

- Shooting outdoors was tiring and unpredictable, especially shooting in February/March.

- Including a fight scene is very difficult. It requires immense effort and thought, as it must be choreographed and shot intricately. This planning must be conveyed to the actors, who need time to practise and learn to run through to sequence many times without injuring themselves. As we are inexperienced in this, the fight scene was very difficult to create realistically and believably.

- We felt that although dramatic, our opening scene wasn't engaging enough as it lacked dialogue and pace.

- As we realised how difficult the scene was becoming, as a group we lacked enthusiasm and belief in our product. We all felt that it was best to start afresh to ensure that we created a product that we enjoyed and backed fully.

We have all learnt a lot from trying to make our last idea work, and we will plan our new idea with these points in mind, so as to make or new production run as smoothly as possible, especially as we now have much less time.

Key points to consider when planning our new idea:

- Shoot indoors. This will make the shoot much more enjoyable and comfortable, plus, the setting will be reliable and the continuity controllable.

- Choose an idea that fits a genre, so that we have an ensured audience and theme.

- The opening scene can be simple, with a slight twist: the audience will understand it better and will be drawn in slowly.

- Keep the number of characters adn the action to a minimum. It is important to include some movement and dialogue, to engage the viewer, however a fight scene is too difficult!

- Come up with an idea that everybody in the group likes and feels motivated to produce. THis will ensure group cohesion and positivity, as well as effort and purpose during production.