Behind the scenes-filming day 1;

The first day we filed we decided to film at reculver towers; we decided to film later on the day so that it was more gloomy and dark and we could get the real effect in which we wanted; we also waited for day in which the weather was meant to be gloomy and raining so that it would make our film look more effective and scary.  However before we went to our chosen location we had to get the main character ready with her make and costume on; we spent an hour completing the correct makeup and making the costume you can see is doing this in the photos underneath this; Rhia was the main person to do the makeup using a revolution eye shadow pallet and 2 mua eyeliners, we then made the main characters costume out of an old grey t-shit which we ripped up and an old pair of leggings which we also ripped holes into and added some blood marks into it. 

    When we got to the location we first some establishing shots of the area which we was using for our 2 minute opening, we felt that this would be useful during the editing to set the scene. We then went on and followed our starboard along to make sure that we got all of the different shots which we planned on using during our 2 minute clip; I found that using the storyboard was very useful and helped us to get all of the different shots that we knew we needed to get, what we felt would work or not. During the filming we decided that we wanted to change the first scene as there was the right available lighting which we needed to film it we needed the scene to be pitch black however there was no way of blocking out the natural light which was on the set at the time which we filmed we also found when at the location that it wasn’t very clean so we didn’t feel that Tia should take her shoes off to be able to film it barefoot. We then went on to get all of the different shots we needed we completed all the shots in about an hour.

Institutional research;

I have completed some research into what film production I think would produce my film and I this blog post I am going to be writing about why I have chosen ‘dark castle entrainment’ to produce my film and what my other options could have been.

   I firstly found the production company was ‘blumhouse production’ this is a major production company in realising thrillers/ horrors  there most recent films include paranormal activity, Insidious, Sinister, The Purge. This film company has been called the heavyweight company of the this genre in film, this is one of the main reason that I decided against this company as it is producing very large films with very large budgets; however our film is going to be a small production without a large budget so therefore I don’t feel our film would fit into thus company and there other film companies. Another reason that I didn’t feel my film wouldn’t fit into the ethics of the company is because the company has produced a lot of horror film however I feel that my film a more of a thriller rather than a horror.

     I then found the a company called ‘Vertigo Entertainment’ this was my second option to choosing the company I would want to produce my film; I didn’t feel that this company really fits what my film is about and the route my film is going down. Some of these companies’ films include The Grudge, Ring 2, Dark Water, and Shutter; these films are all very different to my film as they are more of a horror rather than thriller. As well as this there is more fitted to large scale productions also meaning that it will not fit my plan to produce my film on a low budget. 

   Finally after different sorts of research I found ‘dark castle entertainment’ this company was one that I could see my film being produced by as they have produced some similar films and have produced many good films with a low budget so I feel that my film would be well produced with a small budget how I planned to do my film. Previous films include films such as Thirteen Ghosts, Gothika and House of Wax these films are similar to ours and I feel our film will complement these films very well. I also feel that this company will really get to grips with what our film is about and will help us to achieve what we want to with our film.

Production schedule;

Date & Time	Location	Actors needed	Costumes, props and make-up	Equipment needed
20.02.16	Reculver towers.	Tia- main character.	Scar makeup and a ripped up outfit, Fake blood	Camera and tripod.
23.03.16	Office space.	Tia-main character and miss mayo -police interviewer.	Scar makeup and a ripped up outfit, Smart outfit, fake blood, blanket, notepad.	Camera and tripod.

Feedback and changes;

We have been received and analysed some information which we collected from sending out some questionnaires; in this blog post I will be discussing what changes we have made due to this feedback and what we plan to do to our 2 minute clip to help fit to our audiences.

  The first change which we are going to make is to the costume which we was planning to use we originally didn’t think very much about what we was going to have our characters in during our 2 minute clip but when we got feedback we realised that it was a very important part of the overall appearance of the clip therefore we decided to discuss what we would put our characters; from this we decided that we would dress our characters in basic outfits with the main girl wearing a white hospital gown and the interviewer wearing a suit so they looks professional and well presented.

    We also noticed within the feedback that the plot was a very key part of the opening so we then went back to our plan and storyboard and added some different elements to it such as adding more dialogue so there is more for the audience to watch and they can get to know the characters better which will help to keep the audience locked into the opening and make them want to carry on with watching after our 2 minute clip.

   We found that the audience also expect thrillers to cause tension upon the audience so we have added in some extra pieces to make the audience feel tension more often the main thing we did was to get more tension was add more close up into the clip so that the audience can see the emotions which are being shown more often this will make them fear the character more as they have extreme emotions being shown such as fear and sacredness.

   The last change which we made from the feedback we got back is to add more variations of shots so that the clip adds more tension this is done by the high amount of changes and angles which are used in the clip.

Makeup analysis;

During our 2-minute we plan to use makeup to cause tension and an affect on the audience so this is bug part of our costume and prop list to be able to get the effect we want when making out clip. In this blog post I will be discussing what makeup we plan to use and what effect this will have on the scene, which is in involved in.

We are planning to use these blood wounds, which will give off the idea that something has happened to the character and will help to show that something has happened to the character while she has been off the scene this helps add tension to the scene.

   We also are planning to use fake blood in some scenes this will help the scene to be more dramatic and may cause fear upon the audience, as blood is something, which is often feared by many people.

  We will also use some blue and black eye shadow to give the effect of bruises and damage which has happened to her over the time which she does not remember this will allow the character to look more run down and to look as if they have had more damage done to them when they were not aware of it; it allows adds more of dramatic feel to the scene.

Location research;

Location research;

We decided that for our location we would find somewhere calm and quiet so that we could make a contrast between what is happening in our scene and the setting which it is in. this contrast will be created during the flashbacks; we plan to have 2 locations one being a police interview room and a rundown tower block this will be so that we can give the idea of her being able to escape from somewhere which she doesn’t want to be in this will create tension.

   The first location which will be shown during our 2 minute clip is the open space/ tower we have decided to use reculver towers this is shown below we have decided to use this as it has a large open space beside it and also has a very effective looking tower which we can use to film our different scenes; it will also look very mysterious at night time which is a very key to our scenes. This space is not often busy which will allows us to get the full effect we want to as it will allow us to have large space which isn’t occupied which can be seen as quite creepy and not a environment which is seen every day.

    However this was not our first location idea we originally planned to set our 2 minute clip in Dover prison tunnels we wanted to do this so that we could give off the effect of the main characters having to escape from an area which isn't easy to get out of; however we decided that this was a unrealistic place to film as it would be to light throughout the day and this would give off the impression that it is easy to scape from and we didn't want this impression to be given off. Also there was compilations with be able to get access to the prison this is when we decided that we would film in reculver towers as it is much more available and we would not need to get any permission to film there.

    Another idea which we had during planning was to use a empty filed for the flash back to give off the ideas that she is trying to get away form somewhere and that she was lost this would allows show how she wasn't sure where or what she is doing. We decided to not use this setting as we felt that it was to basic and it would not give of the right impression of what we imagined our film would be of; we also didn't want our 2 minute clip to look to ammeter and we felt like a field would give this impression off.  

    We then went on to think about where we wanted to film the current day setting of the interview room; we looked at many offices spaces in our school as this was the only place, which we felt would be available to us, we looked round different rooms and we then decided that we would use the room in h block as it is small and contained it is allows very basic which gives off the idea of it being I a interview room we can allows use the which leads to the room as it is very dark and basic which would help us to give the idea that it is in a prison. The different areas around the room will also be used to show the different environment, which she is in. this space is also very available and easy to get to film. 

Questionnaire analyse;

We decided that the best way to get to know what our target audience look for and enjoy in a thriller was to send a questionnaire out to a range of people, to then look at the results we collected and see the different ideas which our audiences have given us. We made our questionnaire using the website survey monkey which gives us a report of all the information which was collected from the different questions which we asked; we made the questionnaire and sent it out via email to 10 people  all of different age and genders this was to give us a board range of information from different groups. In this blog post I will be discussing the different ideas which the groups put forward and how we will use this information to adjust our thriller when making it.

    The first questions we asked was there age and gender this was to allow us to know what type of person was answering and what the different age groups and gender groups feel it also allows us to see the difference between the different groups. We had a good range of ages and genders with 4 males and 6 females and ages ranging from age groups 12-17 to 45-54; this shows us a large range of the people’s opinions. The main age group which we looked at was 12-17 this because we are looking to make our target audience to be teenagers so this is the most useful information to us.

The next set of question which we asked was whether the participant liked to go to the cinema this was to help us get to know whether the participant was a keen watcher of films and had seen a lot of different films or wasn’t very keen on going to the cinema. We found that 10/10 of the participants all liked to go to the cinema this was helpful to us as it meant that the participants may have watched a large range of the genres and films. We then went on to as how often they attend the cinema which will help us to get an idea of how many films they have watched in the last year and what their knowledge of films may be

    The next set of questions were asked about which genres the person enjoyed watching the most this was to find out a bit more about what films the audience watched we found that the most popular genre was rom-coms I feel a reasoning for this is because there was a higher percentage of women who were involved in this study and rom coms have a female based audience this is shown very clearly in the questionnaire people completed. Also it showed a high amount of people enjoyed watching thrillers this is very helpful to our data collection as it allows us to be ask real thrillers fans what they enjoy and expect to see from our 2 minutes’ clip.

    We then went on to ask our audience whether they enjoyed watching thrillers or not; we done this as we want to focus on this genre for our 2 minute clip so we needed to collect information from this genre. We found that 70% of the response we got liked thrillers and 30% didn’t we therefore will focus on the 70% of people who enjoy watching thrillers.

     After finding out a percentage of what people enjoyed watching thrillers we decided to go on and find out some more detailed information about what people look for in thrillers and what they feel a thriller should make them feel. We asked them ‘What do you expect from a Thriller?’ we then got written responses which allowed u to really get to know what audiences want from a thriller one of the main responses we got was for the storyline to be very grabbing and to make the audience stay in tune to the whole film and for the storyline to make the audience want to watch the whole film rather than get bored and switch it off. Another key idea which the audience put forward was the idea that it should make them jump and scared this is seen as a key convention of thrillers therefore I plan to make this effect on the audience when I make me 2 minute clip. The storyline also seems to be a key idea which the response seemed to care about.

    The next question which we asked was ‘What is your favourite thing about a Thriller?’ this was to see what the audience enjoy about this genre and to allow the audiences to express their opinions about thrillers. This information is a key part of our research as it will help us to be able to caterer our thriller to what people enjoy watching. We found that the most mentioned thing about thrillers was the most is the twists which are unexpected this is something which we are planning to include in our 2 minute clip.

    The next questions I asked what feature they expected to see from the different the main thing which was mentioned was the costume and props are very important in the film and help to add tension to the scenes and we also found that the setting was very important.

    The last question we asked was ‘How much of the plot in the opening of a Thriller should be revealed?’ this was to find out the plot is very important with 90 % of the audience saying that this was an important part to the thriller we will therefore make sure that the plot is very well thought out our opening.

Storyboard;

Here you can see our storyboard which shows our ideas which we plan to use and it shows what we are looking to achieve from our 2 minute opening clip. Our storyboard explains and shows the different shot and angles we plan to use during our 2 minute opening clip; the main shot which we are planning to use is a close up as it shows the emotions of a character which is something which we are very keen to show a lot of so that the audience gets to know the characters and also a long shot as this shot sets the scene and shows a large areas around the characters so helps to see the scenes for the rest of the film and for the whole of the 2 minute clip. Another element which we have included into out storyboard is the different sound which will be heard during the different scenes and what effect they will have on the scene this will help to give a good overview of what we want out scenes to be like overall. I have also included the mise en scene which is being shown during the scene for example what the characters are wearing or what the scene setting will look like throughout the 2 minute clip. The storyboard will be very useful when we are filming our 2 minute clip as it will allow us to know what we need to film and what to include in each shot; we will use this storyboard while filming.