What went well and bad in filming

Hey, 

We have finally finished our filming process and we can now finish our opening and continue with the editing process.  Overall the filming process went extremely well, we worked well together and managed to get the work done fairly quick and efficient. 

What went well:

We are happy with how each of the shots turned out although we had to re film many times to get the shot right, but we are happy with the overall filming process. We made some changes to the original storyboard which wasn't an issue because we were able to adapt quickly.

What went bad:
A bad thing about filming was we had to re film so many times but again this is also a good thing as we now have better shots than we did to begin with. It would have been better to have got the filming done in one day but we would not have had the same quality of work. 

Props and costume

Hey, 

We used many different props and costumes for our film opening. 

The props that we used included:

TV remote -  To show her watching TV and not worrying about her children and their whereabouts.  

Laptop - To show her working and her busy life; so much so that she doesn't know where her children are, this shows a lack or responsibility and pulls up emotions in the audience watching this.

The costumes that we had where:

Demi:

We just had Demi dress in a Smart shirt, black jacket and trousers. This is a stereotypical 'Dad' outfit for his age which is around 38-40.

Amy:

For Amy we decided to let her wear a formal attire of a shirt and skirt, as she is coming home from work. As we realise neither Demi nor Amy look around 40, we tried to dress them to look older to help portray their characters, status and age.

Catherine:

As Catherine is a child (teenager) we wanted to keep it simple by using a striped top and leggings to show her youth.

Alicia:

I kept my outfit plain with a pink top and leggings as well to help portray my character and hopefully emphasise our youth with the simple costumes.


I purchased some products from amazon so we could use them in the final scene. I brought fake blood and fake wounds that me and Catherine used for the final scene.

Filming day 5

Hey, 

Today was day 5 of filming, It was just Demi and Amy filming as they just had to re film a little bit, as the audio wasn't the best quality that is could have been. 

They worked on the scene where they have a conversation to each other, I suggested to him that he should act more angry as he has just realised his step-children are missing and possibly disobeyed him. 

They filmed from each of their point of views so when the audience is watching it they can see what the characters see and also adds tension and drama to the scene. 

Filming day 4

Hey,

Today was day 4 of filming. We went to my house to film the scene where the children are found. I mentioned to the group that I have an abandoned barn behind my house. We all agreed that this would be a great place to film the final scene as it was old, wrecked and has a creepy atmosphere about it. The roof is caved in and the flooring is wrecked and dirty, therefore making it the perfect place for 2 teens to be held captive. (stereotypically)

We started off with some makeup. I brought Fake wounds and fake blood online so we could use them especially for this scene. I did my own makeup and helped Catherine with her makeup. 

We wanted to do the makeup realistic but quickly so we can try and film as many times as possible while we still had useable daylight. Although I always had in mind that we would make the scene darker we wanted to film in the day time so we could then adapt it and change it to how we liked and what looked best. 

Here is Catherine's arm were we used the fake wounds, eyeshadow and fake blood to create the look. Filming today went really well as we were able to film the scene many different times which has given us the opportunity to choose which one is best. 

Amy filmed Catherine and I today, as we were the teenagers who have been kidnapped. She was excellent at filming and had many ideas that has helped improve the opening. While we were filming as Demi wasn't in the film or Filming he stayed behind in school and continued to edit. 

Here are some photos of the barn and the inside of it. Here you can see exactly why we decided to film in this location. It is the perfect scene as it is destroyed, abandoned and dirty making it a good scene as an 'holding site'.

Amy also suggested that we use diegetic sounds in this scene. We created the sounds from things we found in the surrounding areas, for example glass and twigs. The noise of these items when Amy trod on them created an eerie atmosphere which we all agreed was a great addition to the film. We got many ideas from filming today and we hope to use some of them in the final product.

Filming day 3

Hey, 

Day 3 of filming was at Amy's house. The scenes between Demi and Amy's character needed some work as the voices where extremely different and therefore ruined the continuity. The lighting was also different and made the continuity different again.

Here Amy and Demi took it in turn to film each other so not only did they both get the chance to film again but they also made it look like it was from their perspective. This was a great way to film as it was more realistic and the fact that they each filmed from where their characters were, has made it look more realistic and makes the filming look more continuos and lets the audience see it from the parents point of view.  

Filming day 2

Hey, 

Filming day 2 went well, I was unable to attend filming for personal reasons but the rest of the group were able to film and refill a large amount of the opening. 

There was one shot we were unable to use because when we got back to school to edit after the first day of filming, we released that Demi's head got cut off too quick (when he stands up from the sofa) and it made the scene look very weak and poor filming. I tried slowing down the clip to make the shot last longer but it only made the clip blurry and it didn't look like realistic because of the speed. 

The scenes that the group decided to film was the clip where Amy shouts up stairs for the children, secondly we changed the angle of Amy walking into the living room after visiting the kitchen. We decided that we didn't like the way the last shot turned out as it was to blurry and shaky that the stabilising option could not fix. They also re filmed Demi's character walking in to the house, as before it was to dark and didn't match the scenes before of Amy. Therefore we had an issue with the continuity of the scenes together. 

Here is some photos from the rest of the groups filming session.

As I was unable to go to the filming session, I stayed in school and continued with editing and I edited the next day as well. One of the things I decided to do while the group went out filming was stabilise the clips so they weren't as shaky. 

Filming day 1

Hey,

Today was our first day of filming, we filmed at Amy's house to start off with. We met on Saturday 4th February at 11:30am.   
We wanted to film as much as possible so we could get more editing done during the school week. In total we spent roughly 2 hours filming on this day.

We started with our opening scene which is Amy's character getting out the car after a long day at work.  I filmed this shot. I decided to film each shot 3 times just that when it came to editing we had many clips to choose from and work on. We were able to film this shot in around 10 minutes, I filmed it more than 3 times as we couldn't get it just right at first, but I made sure we had at least 3 bits of film that we were all happy with.  

Here you can see Demi assisting Amy and telling her what would look best on camera, as the first time she walked out of the car, it didn't look good. Once Demi said about Amy taking more time getting out the car, as well as sighing and locking the car which is what Amy forgot to do first time round. The sighing as slamming the door allowed the audience to know that the character has had a stressful day at work. This mood and atmosphere will also foreshadow what will happen later on in the opening. 


This is the second shot that I filmed. We did have some struggles with this scene as my face was shown in the reflection of the door. We were able to change the lighting slightly so you can't see my face as much. This is still an issue that we will try to fix as much as we can while we work. I had an idea for this scene I wanted to see instead of just staying at the top of the pathway, I followed Amy with the camera. This helped add tension to the scene by following her.

This is Catherine filming today. It was just us two filming today. The next time we film will be Demi and Amy's time to film. We decided on what shots we will be filming and on what day. We wanted to be prepared for filming today so we could get as much filming done as possible in the short time we had to film.





       

Titles and font research

Hey,

Today we worked independently and researched some thriller movie title pages. This was to get some inspiration for our own openings. Here are some that I found and that were my favourite;

The blurry effect on the title adds a mystery to the title and makes the audience think about what the word and number 7 means. They also incorporate the number into the word as well but it is still readable and understandable. It makes the title intriguing.

With this title the use of blood adds the stereotypical thriller feel, of death, gore and suspense  It also adds a question to the watchers mind as they will wonder why and how the blood is there. The title itself also brings up questions of what does force mean and what does it symbolise?

The final font we looked at was the title page from The Butterfly effect. The editors have cleverly created a title where an image of a brain is in the background with a butterfly (linking to the title) overlaying it and the title in white, this helps make it stand out against the blue and black background. The brain helps foreshadow that the main character or the storyline in the movie is about someones mental state (because of the brain). The font being bold also catches the eye which is important within a movie title.

For our own font research I looked at DaFont, a font website that has many different fonts, colours and sizes on offer. Here are some of the fonts that I specifically like as an idea for our thriller. 

All these titles are stereotypical thriller Titles/fonts, but I really liked the look of them all and we are hopefully going to consider using them.

Location research

Hey,

Today we discussed our location and why we thought this was best to choose this location. We decided to film at Amy's house this is because it is a large house with forest areas nearby that were

perfect for filming our opening in.

The second location we will be choosing to film at will be my house. This is because their is an abandoned barn and farm house, which is extremely wrecked. This will be a perfect location to film our ending to the thriller opening.

The third and final location that we will be using is the school. The woods behind the school is a perfect location for the scene before we see the teenagers. 

Here are some photos of the locations we will be filming at. This is the barn that is behind my house. We will be filming the ending of the opening here. There is also an abandoned and broken stable behind this which we could also consider when filming. As it is wrecked, dirty and dark it will be a perfect place to film the ending where the children 
(teenagers) are held captive. 

 Here are some more in depth photos of the inside of the barn;

Amy's house

The second location that we will be using is Amy house. Here is a photo of Her house. We could all get to Amy's house easily and it also had all the features that we needed for our thriller. For example an open staircase, a long pathway and a car that we could access to use for the opening. As everyone else's parents where at work except Amy's we had access to a car that we could use. 




School field


The third and final location that we will be using will be for an extremely short but important scene, which will add tension and drama to the opening without giving too much away. This location is the school. We decided to choose this location as there is a large area of woods that will be perfect to film for the scene before we see the teens that have been kidnaped. Demi took the lead on this shot, and ran up and down the field frantically while it was raining outside. This creates an atmosphere of panic and dramatises the opening. Here are some photos of the area that Demi decided to run up and down to get the perfect shot.

 

Storyboard

Hey,

 We have created a storyboard for our thriller opening. The story board goes though shot by shot and describes the plot. It also describes how long each shot will take (this may vary when we actually film).

We will go by this story board when we film, but since creating the storyboard we have had some ideas that we can incorporate so we will add them as we go along. 

Here we have decided to have a long shot from across the road to show the area and the context of The mothers rival, in this case it is coming home from a stressful day at work. Her body language will help portray this. 


Here we show Amy's character throwing down her bag, this reinforces the audience of her emotions. she then yells up to her children to find no response this brings up the initial worry in the audience.  

This next shot is an extremely important one in helping tell the story and for the story to make sense later on. The high angle shot that we will be using will create fear and suspense as we what to know what really is going on.  

The next couple of shots are Amy's character entering the fridge and getting out a drink. This scene is not important in the sense of telling the story but the silence that we will hear will build up suspense and tension. 

 The next shot we see Amy's character slump onto the sofa and work on her laptop. We then see the reaction of her face when we can hear the sound of the door being knocked. 




This is the scene where we see Demi's characters storm into the house, this builds tension, we have decided to choose a close up shot of him to show his worry and fear.
The sound is silent to build tension. 


This is the scene where we first have the music. This not only builds up suspense but also allows the audience to know that the opening is about to end. It also makes them want to continue to watch as the want to know what will happen. 

We then cut to Amy's character showing the step dad the note the children left. This has been foreshadowed in previous scenes.  We use close up shots to show the fear of the parents. We add a fade to add a dramatic feel to the scene. 

Here is where we see the children for the first time. We end on the title of 24 HOURS LEFT. The music here will intensify and end abruptly when the title hits.