Costume and prop list;

Costume and props list;

flash backs;
ripped up leggings and grey top; main characters outfit 
Fake blood; make the girl look injured.
Blue/black make-up(eye shadow pallet) ; to show bruises when she is in a state
red and black eye liner; make the scar upon main characters face
office space
Smart top and trousers; for the interviewer
Paper; to make notes on the girl while interviewing her in the current scenes.
blanket; to wrap around the main character.

setting 
reculver towers; run down church towers
office space; for the police interview(plain without any poster or items in only chairs and table)

Age certificates;

In the film industry there is 5 different certificates to determine what age range of people should watch what films this is a legal requirement for every film in this blog pot I will be talking about the 5 different age ranges and the reason that theses age ranges are in place in the uk; I will also be discussing what I feel my film will be.

   The first certificate is the U this is simply meaning that it is unrated and that there is not any guidance as to who should watch it; it is open to everyone and should not involve any scenes which could affect the public.
    The second age range is PG this means that any child under the age of 8 needs to be assisted by an adult the reasoning for this is that they may be scenes in there which a child under the age of 8 could find distressing however it Is totally the parents responsibility as to whether there will allow their children to watch it and is available to the general public.
    The next age range is 12 this means no child under the age of 12 is recommend to watch the film and if they want to watch it they should watch it with a parent present. The reasoning for them not watching is because the film contains content which some may find offence or might cause harm onto children it is parent’s responsibilities whether they should watch it or not.
  The next age range is 15 this is the same concept as 12 this means that no child under the age of 15 should watching this film and if the of then there should be a parent present.in 15 films things which may cause offence is strong violence, language and behaviour, nudity and drug taking; these things are normally present so if someone is going to find these things offense it is advised to not watch this film.
    In my media film I feel that my work will be a 15 this will be because there will be scenes which may scare the audience and it may also contain some swearing which someone who is under the age of 15 should hear.

Our first planning ideas;

We started to plan out 2 minute opening after we finished our preliminary task; we first sat down as a group and we all verbally gave our thoughts and ideas which we wanted to base our 2 minute opening on we then all wrote a quick 2 minute synopsis of what we expect our ideas to plan out like.

My 2 minute opening idea; my first idea was to have a young girl who was seen to be very run down and beaten up which is shown through bruises and run down clothes with mud and rips all over it; this will help to show it is a thriller and can add suspension early on; this young girl will be shown in a dark room and be seen to be very scared and as if she’s in danger from something. Then this scene will cut into a police interview room where the young girl will be shown to be sitting with an interviewer sat opposite her (interview shown very concerned). Throughout the two minutes clip it will cut between flashbacks of her in a dark tunnel/prison and her being interviewed in an office space. This will be shown through her having questions asked which jog her memory as to what has happened to her; although she will never remember a full detailed recount of what happened. See then sees a male figure who she believes is the person who has caused this upon her but no one else can see him.

Tia’s 2 minute opening idea; the opening of the film will be set in a small town in America where a young girl named Amelia goes to see a psychic to hear about her future after her parents died from being buried alive.  The psychic tells her that she needs to find 5 different people in order to break the curse which killed her parents and led them to being buried alive. Throughout the meeting with the psychic, there are a couple of flashbacks to represent her trauma of her parents dying e.g. the funeral, however the flashbacks will most show a link between the rest of the film and the opening 2 minutes which are being shown. This opening will mostly show the meeting with the physic so this will set the plot for the rest of the film.

Rhia’s 2 minute opening ideas; while investigating the death of a local bartender, Josh, a bold & curious nurse called Laura Wilkinson uncovers a supernaturally-cursed book from thousands of years ago in her basement linked to the recent murder. As soon as she begins to read the book, she finds out she only has 30 days to live. Laura insists on the help from her friend Jenna Parish, and while Jenna examines the book for any clues on the past, Laura is busy finding trails leading to his death. Will Laura and Jenna be able to break the curse, before its Laura’s time to go?  This opening will set the scene for the rest of the film so that the rest of the film is based upon the 30 days which Laura has to live.



Once we had decided all of the ideas which the group has put forward we decided to go for the my idea as we felt that it would be the easiest to complete will our budget and settings which were available for us this is very basic and for my idea there wasn’t a need for anything extra ordinary and we had an empty prison available to us due to my family connections. We therefore felt that my idea would be the easiest to asses and for it to be completed up to a high standard.  
  
 

Analysis of other student’s openings;

As a class we watched two students’ openings thrillers to be able to see different examples of work so I can get an idea of what i should do for my opening and what I shouldn’t do. The openings will also help to give me ideas for my opening.

 

 The first opening clip we watched was called ‘inner evil’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLsiGGF9DPc) this clip lasted 2 minutes 45 seconds this is a good length as it allows the director to involve a lot of variations of shots and angles. The main feature in which I felt was effective was the sound this was used in many different way this is  to add in tension to the scene(this is one of the main features of a thriller) the main sound used is non-diegetic sound as there is always music playing in the background throughout the film clip. The music changes throughout the film opening the main changes are pitch and volume to have an effect on the audience this cause the audience to feel a sense of uneasiness as it the sound is changing so much they are unsure as to what is going to happen. One of the main sound changes is the sharp pitch noise within the music when her face is shown with a lash amount of blood on her face this sudden change gives the audience a sense of uneasiness as they are unsure as to what the sudden change of sound is used to show. Another factor which is good about the short clip is the angles and shots which are used during the clip the main shot which is used is a long shot this is used a lot to show the main character walking this gives the audience a clear view of the character and lets them see what they’re wearing and the speed in which they are walking; the character is shown walking through at a fast pace which shows the audience the worry which the character is feeling without showing the characters face this is very effective. Something else which I felt was a good feature of the opening clip is the way the used there mise en scene to create different atmospheres for example they showed the character leaving her house wearing normal clothing items and then when the stalker is shown it is wearing all black which is a colour attached to death this therefore adds fear onto the characters. However something which I would criticise of this clip was the way the title was shown at the end of the clip this made the opening feel like a trailer rather than an opening and in my 2 minute clip I will show the tile at the beginning of the clip so that it seems more like an opening clip.

After watching the first clip ‘inner evil’ we then went on to watch another clip called ‘blanc’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A2-LPm_7Og) I felt this clips key strength was the camera angles which was used these showed different things throughout the clip which helped to create suspension as the audience wasn’t shown everything which was happening throughout the whole clip; this means that the audience is made to imagine what they believe is being shown in the rest of the shot. There is then a long shot of the character running through the woods this shows everything which is going on in the shot this is a contrast to the rest of the shots used in the clip this makes the audience unsure of what is going to be shown in the and makes them question what is going to happen this is a convention of a thriller so this is used effectively in the clip.  Another feature which is good in the opening is the sound the music which is used throughout the film is very quiet and is not very clear however it is clear enough to be able to add a sense of uneasiness onto the audience as when the stalker is shown the pitch of the music changes and becomes more sharp which may shock the audience and add to the fear which is being caused. I would criticise this clip for having too much slow motion added in this slows the clip down as it seems to take longer to move on to then next scene and this makes the clip longer.  

From watching these clips I have learnt some things which I will use when I am making my 2 minute clip the main thing which I will apply to my clip is the use of music and sound both these clips have used good music which have both added in different elements of uneasiness and suspension which are both conventions of thrillers. I will also not add the title at the end as this makes the clip seem more like a trailer rather than an opening piece.  

Preliminary Task - The Secret in the Woods

In my preliminary task I worked with a group, which consisted of Tia, Rhia and myself I feel we worked well as a group and we got all our work done to a high standard and within the time scale we was given; I therefore plan to work in this group for my 2 min opening film clip.  During this task we completed planning, then the filming and we then edited the clips together to get our 15-second film together. In this blog post I will be discussing the task as a whole talking about the planning/filming& editing and the positives &negatives which we experienced during the task its self.

The first thing, which we experienced, was the planning stage in this stage we started off by thinking of basic ideas and what our first ideas were we then narrowed our ideas down to one main idea which we was going to film; we then made a storyboard of our ideas and put the different shots and angles in which we planned to use along with the type of music we want to add into the different shots. After we completed the mood board we then discussed the mise en scene of the clip we arranged what outfits we wanted the characters to wear and where about we wanted to films top be able to get the best out of the environment we had to film; we therefore decided to wear everyday clothing so that the film looked as realistic to be in a school environment we also had limited environment to film in therefore we needed the costume to look realistic to the environment the characters would be in. I feel we used our planning time very effectively which allowed us to be fully prepared for the filming this meant we was able to complete the filming quickly and get everything we wanted to get done in one sitting as we didn't have much time for everything it also meant that we didn't leave anything out.

After planning what we went off to film our preliminary task we had decided to film our clip started in the woods and ending in a classroom with two characters. We also knew we had to include the three different shots these were match on action, 180 and shot reverse shot so we was making sure that we included these while filming our different shots.  I took on the role of filming and then Tia and Rhia took on he role of acting. I found that the filming wasn't a hard job and I was able to include most of the different factors I needed to. During the filming I needed to stay aware of the different shots which needed to be added into the shot clip; I feel we added the three different shot into the short film well there are all very clear in the clip. The first shot we had to include was match on action this was used when Rhia was shown running through the door you can see her opening the door on one side and then on the other side where she’s already inside the door this shot is very clearly shown. The next shot which needed to used was shot reverse shot this shot was shown during the conversation which was had between Tia and Rhia’s characters the filming during this was not very clear and felt a bit jumpy as the shots are seen from different angles this is because we filmed the two sections of the conversations separately this means that the two parts of the conversation are shown with different angles; also during the second part of the conversation the top of Rhia’s head is shown to be cut off and this shows how we filmed it in two parts and doesn't seem continual. From these mistakes we made during the filming of shot reverse shot we have learnt that we should film each part of the conversation separately and then edit it together so that the conversation doesn't seem jumpy and flows better. The last angle we needed was the 180 degree angle this is shown during while Rhia is running out of the woods this shot is well set up and clearly shows how the shot is used to see a good transition from the different shots.

The last stage in making our preliminary task was the editing this is where we put everything together and added in the sound, titles and some transitions. To edit our film we inputted all of our filmed data into it iMovie this is what we editing everything together; I felt this programme worked well and allowed is to use all of our filmed data usefully. After we inputted all of the data it was we put together of the clips we filmed in the order in which we wanted to this allowed see what we needed to add in and change we decided that we needed to add a transition between the scene of Rhia’s characters running through the wood and into the school hallway this changed seemed to sudden and didn't seem to flow probably so we added in a fade in transition so that the two shots flowed together better. Once we had everything edited together we decided to add music into the background of the clip to add a sense of suspension so that it seemed liked a thriller the music we used was base music from a background of a horror we added the music only to the beginning of the clip where Rhia was running to her destination as this creates a sense of uneasiness on to the audience as they are unsure where she is going, why she is running and who she is going to meet these are the sort of questions in which the audience should be asking while watching a thriller so I feel that we completed the task to a high standard.

Overall I feel my preliminary task went well and although the clip was only short it showed the three different shots which needed to be seen during the clip so we therefore completed what we set out to achieve with this task.