Preliminary video

Click here for our finished preliminary task video
Making the preliminary video was useful to our group as we could quickly grasp the concept of making a thriller and can look back on it whilst making our film opening to see what went well, and what didn't.

Animatic Storyboard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqHUq2VIK18

Titles and Credits - Rachel

1. Credits Separate to the moving image and appear on a blank screen; These can be continuous or cut between the actual film's opening sequence.
   

• Credits are separate and can add nothing to fhe film narrative and are simply informative. However, sometime they can be used to communicate something about the film. Music would also convey meaning.



• Credits are separate to the opening sequence, adding something to the narrative of the film through font style, colour, effects. Usually it is genre expectation.

However

• Credits can be separate to the opening sequence but create a mini narrative, adding something extra to the film in some way.

2. Credits can be superimposed into the opening sequence.

The Orphanage

The opening sequence is in two parts; the first part establishes a foundation of the plot, in which we see the children playing in their orphanage uniforms and all seems well other then a sinister looking scarecrow which is probably irrelevant to the plot, but is a little disturbing and communicates a darker undertone to the plot. The titles sequence is a separate piece to the film and it seems that the film will be about children and that something mysterious is hidden. we know this from the children's hands (which we recognise as being from the orphanage buy their uniform) ripping off the wallpaper and from the ECU shots of the cracks, swooping through them and this makes it seem that this is significant by the way that we the camerawork focuses on this. The way that the paper they rip off is red and then beneath it is grey could suggest that there is something bad, decaying or evil in the wall and the ripping off paper gives a sense of something being revealed as a main part of the plot.

Se7en
Similarly to "The Orphanage", the film begins with a short introductory sequence, introducing the two main characters and basis for a plot and then cuts to black and the opening credits begin before the rest of the film. The opening credits consist of CU shots of someone making a booklet and of someone of the material in this booklet as well as 'routines' or 'procedures' this character practices, such as removing their finger prints, writing some sort of journal, developing photographs, sourcing and saving pieces of information or tiny fragments of material, colouring out words in books as well as clips of a gun. All these acts are unususal and the images that we see this person collecting are disturbing and the way that these shots are combined with footage of him removing his finger prints etc shows that this may be someone who enjoys these disturbing images. These clips build a character - some sort of loner, violent and agressive (communicated through the CU of the gun or weapon being moved - this shows that he is active in using it) and because there is constant movement in all these clips such as shadows of just his hands its shows that this is an ongoing progress. We do not see this person's identity but know that this is the significant antagonist from the story.

Vertigo

ECU shots of woman's mouth and eyes are very intensely intimate and this makes her seem in a way more vulnerable and exposed to us. When the red filter is introduced this communictaes a sense of danger and her eyes seem panicked.

Lighting decisions- Beth Reszke

We have decided as a group that the atmosphere of the indoor car park is good for the effects we wish to achieve. However, we will most likely still use additional lighting for outside the car park so that we achieve a silhouette effect when seeing the feet of the antagonist by the slightly open metal shutter door. It is still important to make it look like natural outdoor light, and to have correct continuity, it must also match up with the natural light in the outdoor shots of the car.

Risk Assessment - Health and Safety

The group made sure to read the risk assessment form and agree with its terms and take on board advice towards health and safety risks.



Having a child in our film, we have to make sure that we understood and were covered on the risks involved. It was important that all people in the car had a seatbelt on while the car was moving, and the child must have a car seat if they are are under the age of 12 and under 1.35 metres in height.
http://www.childcarseats.org.uk/law/index.htm

As well as this, we would be working in a car park with hard flooring, and it was necessary to accompany children at all times to prevent injuries from slipping and falling.

Prop and Actor Research - by Amy

In our film, we do not need many props, but the props we do have are essential to the plot of the film and are not as easy to find as smaller props may be.

• Car

The car is an essential prop in our film. We have found someone to be our older character who is able to drive and owns a car. This is essential in the film because otherwise, we would have had to use a 'body double' of sorts, but this has helped the situation a great amount. I managed to find a friend who was willing to take part in our production.

• Children's car seat

We also need to use a child's car seat in the film. This prop adds a significant amount of suspense at the end of the film, and for obvious reasons it is needed for the child in the film to be seated in the car safely while we film the car driving towards the car park. We are still in the process of finding a child to act in the film, as we will need permission from the child's parents, and we are still discussing what age would be suitable for the purpose of the film.

Synopsis - by Rachel

The basic plot of our film opening is of a mother driving into town with her child, she parks in an enclosed carpark, leaves her child there and forgets to lock the door. We see her walk off and then the focus changes to the child, that he is alone and therefore vulnerable. We then see that he is not alone in the car park and this new character is an antagonist. This is suggested by use of sound and cinematography and we do not see the full figure of this person but only outlines, shadows, his feet, hands or silhouettes which opens more questions about who he is and keeps us distant emotionally from the character as we don't see his face but we know that he is of importance by a use of CU shots. It then becomes increasingly intense as the camera cross-cuts from him to the child in the car, creating a relationship between the two and we see that the child is in danger. Our opening finishes with a shot of the empty car seat where the child was sitting. We plan to keep it simple by including no dialogue and for the opening to open up lots of questions that need to be answered such as "where has the mother gone?", "When will she come back and how will she react to her child missing?", "who is the person that took the child?" in the way that we have seen most thriller openings do.