Account of Shoot Day

The Shoot day began by my group and I setting up the set. The set had all ready been built the day before, all we had to do that morning was lay the floor. All the planning had already been completed in lesson time. The set looked very similar to what we had planned in the set sketches and story boards. I feel as a group we were well prepared for the first scene which was filmed in the studio. We could of briefed the actors better so they understood the plot also we were poorly prepared in getting the cast appropriate footwear for the day.

For our second scene which we shot on location, at a local gastro pub which. We had not prepared for this scene as well as the first, this lead to problems, these being the amount of space we had to film, a large mirror that restricted where we could not film with out the crew and the equipment being reflected into the shot. As well the location being open to the public which is unsuitable when using equipment such as a boom or laying tracking on the floor. The location did not look that similar to our original storyboard but was still suitable as it had all the major features that were needed.

The shots we used in the first scene are: With most of the shots we used, we used them to create tension. We wanted to create tension because we wanted our audience to feel on edge or uncomfortable.

Wide establishing shot of the whole of the set- We used this shot so the audience could see setting and the different characters evolved. This shot was also one of the easiest to shoot, this was because the positions of the camera were easy to set up as we do not have track or pan so it was quite simple to shoot.
Tracking in shot of Randell Merit- We chose to this shot because we believe it will create tension. This was one of the hardest shots of several reasons, these being that we had to make sure the camera was straight by making sure the tracking was layer correctly. Also I had to keep the shot in focus whilst another member of the crew held the camera steady whilst tracking in.
Mid shots of the governor, priest and the two policemen- We shot mid shots of these characters so they could all be separately identified.
Close ups of the governor, priest, the two policemen and Randell Merrit- The close ups of the characters helped to create tension.
Extreme close ups of the hood being pulled over Randell's head and a sponge being squeezed- We used the close up of the hood to graphic match the first scene with the second, which can help the sequence flow better.

We used a single shot for the second scene which was a tracking panning shot. We used the shot so we could create a tense atmosphere as well and conveying the story line in a effective way.

For the first scene we shot in our school studio. We shot in the studio for several reasons, the first being that we could design and build the whole set so that it could fit our specification, also it would be hard to find an appropriate on set location seeing as there is no capital punishment in the UK. We shot on location for the second part of the sequence to make the scene seem more authentic and realistic, it also gave contrast in the sequence between the two scenes. We found it hard to shoot on location because the William Bray Pub where we shot the sequence was still open so we had to deal with the public and staff potential getting in the way or disturbing a shot. This also meant that we did not have a lot of room to set up lighting or use appropriate tracking for our shots.

We chose specific costumes and props represent or signify different things. We wanted to try and be as authentic as possible so that we would not challenge the audience to much.

In the picture you can see several of the main characters of the opening sequence. First Randell Merrit who’s is sitting in the electric chair. We tried to research what authentic prisons wore at that specific time period as well as the police/guards and the priest. We could only find limited information on the process of an electric chair execution, especially involving what the costumes are for the different characters. We borrowed costumes from a performing art department.

We chose the appropriate actors to be cast the parts for different reasons. The actor who played the main character was chosen to play Randdel Merrit because he had a dark look about him also slightly redneck look which was appropriate for where the sequence that was set. We used our teacher for the governor to make it look more authentic. This is because the majority of actors available to us were aged 16-18 years old and politicians would be a lot older and look middle aged. We also cast a pretty blond girl that fitted the usual horror convention of a serial killer target. With the rest of the actors which we cast we picked them on how comfortable or appropriate as there character. We tended to use actors that look older than they actually do.



 

Here we used naturalistic lighting, the location

was lit sufficiently for us not to use any additional light



Here we used the lighting available to us and a blond head light.



Are sound on the day was dialogue we used a boom to record a sufficient sound.

our team work was consistently good, we all got on and agreed with each others ideas, i felt everyone got an equal amount of say in shot choices and directing.

After the day of filming i felt good about it and exited to start editing. it was thoroughly enjoyable and i would love to work with the same people again in another project. I wouldn't change a huge amount if i did it again i would not have filmed in the pub as a location as sounds and shots were differently because the obvious reason of the location not being designed for filming.

Story Boards

Set Sketchs

What is a Thriller?

Thrillers promote intense excitement, suspense, a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety, and nerve-wracking tension.


A genuine thriller is a film that restlessly pursues a single goal - to provide thrills and keep the audience cliff-hanging at the 'edge of their seats' as the plot builds towards a climax. The tension usually comes when the main character or characters is placed in a certain situation or mystery, or an escape or dangerous mission from which escape seems impossible. Life itself is threatened, usually because the principal character is unsuspecting or unknowingly involved in a dangerous or potentially deadly situation. Plots of thrillers involve characters which come into conflict with each other or with outside forces - the menace is sometimes abstract or shadowy.

These are famous thrillers:
Rear Window(1954)

Psycho (1960)

The Sixth Sense (1999)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
The Shaw shank Redemption (1994)

Se7en (1995)
Memento (2000)

Chinatown (1974)
Fight Club (1999)
North by Northwest (1959)
The French Connection (1971)

Mood Board

I have collected a range of pictures which reprisent a theame or mood that could help with thriller/horrer opening sequence ideas.

Thriller

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Secret window opening scene

Secret Window Opening scene

Presentation1 will day

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Prelim Post Production.

To access are footage on Final Cut Pro we have to check out the raw footage from Final Cut Server. Once this had been done the raw video footage will be acssesable from Final Cut Pro.

Intially all the raw footage is in the rushers bin, from there we went threw every take of each shot to see which had the the best performance, lighting, sound, ect. Once we had chosen the take that we wanted we draged it in the log bin, we repeated this for each shot. We do this so all the good takes are in one area where they can be quickly acsesed.

Once a take of every shot has been placed in the log bin you can begin edidting the shots. we did this by selecting the shot we wanted and cuting it into the length that we wanted in the clip viewer before dragging the shot into the timeline, we repeated this for all the shots we wanted to have shown in the finnished product.

We chose spesific shots at differnt times for differnt reasons, We started of the scene with a wide tracking point of view shot the cut to a wide shot. This established the area so the audience can see where the scene is set which will assist the narrative. Then we continued to cut to relevent shots of either a character talking or acother character reacting. This helps the narrative of the story work and make sence.

We tryed to show that one character was more domminate then the orther by haveing the intal shot looking up at one character makeing them look bigger and more powereful.

When cutting from a certain shot to another, you have to make sure the timeing of the shots are inline with each orther, as the diologue must link up. This adds to the continuity of the scene.  Continuity editing is the predominant style of editing in narrative cinema and television. The purpose of continuity editing is to smooth over the inherent discontinuity of the editing process and to establish a logical coherence between shots.

Prelim Shoot day evaluation

Location we filmed our prelim task in the studio, which was assigned to us. We filmed against the black curtain and the location was very useful as it had all the necessary props needed for the task e.g. door. Also another pro for the location was that there weren’t any people walking through the room. During the filming, I acted as one of 2 directors, it was my job to shout ‘action’, ‘turn over’ and ‘stand by’, making sure to leave a lead in and enough of a lead out until ‘cut’. Another way I helped out the filming, I helped thing about how to set up the shots and camera angles.

Lighting in our prelim task, we used the lights in the room, as we didn’t have any spare lights, but luckily the lighting was quite good, so we didn’t have any annoying shadows in the faces, the lighting was quite soft; the and dark, which did help the scene as it gave it a more of an ‘inside’ feel, which is were it was set. The lighting was effective.

Directing we set up the camera correctly and correctly focused and white balanced, but there was one short scene of, Lea, our actress’ eyes where had her talking to the camera.  Luckily we bubbled the tripod, which means adjusted the tripod so it’s level, correctly every time, so the angle isn’t off. Framing the shot gave us a bit of a problem in the close up, as our actress kept moving her head during the scene, which meant that at some points in the close up her head was halfway out of the frame, but as we redid the scene several times and adjusted the frame we finally got a good shot. In the over the shoulder shots we adjusted the angel sever times, so that the back of the room wasn’t in the room, as it wasn’t in any other shot which would have confused the audience. As we got a storyboard from our teachers before we started filming, we know just how to film the sequence as it was clearly laid out for us which hugely sped up up the filming process. During the filming we got our actress to stay in the same spot each time which helped us to stay on the 180 degree line. The line was kept throughout the filming of the task. In order to make sure all of our cast and crew knew what was going on we used the appropriate terminology; for example before we did anything the director shouted ‘stand by’ which told everyone to get ready, as soon as everyone is where they should be, one would then say ‘turn over’, to which the camera man would reply ‘turning over’ which means the camera is rolling, after a short  lead in the director shouted ‘action’ letting the actors know it is their time to shine. We did several shots during the task; all the necessary ones on the story board and after we were done with these, we played around with focusing from and to things, to give nice effects and we did a point of view shot and a close up on our prob, the gun.

In general i learnt a lot about what goes on behind the camera with setting up every scene and the way you need to take several takes for one scene to work and continuity is something I had never thought about before the evaluation. front his task I have learnt how to use a camera, work from a story board and edit things together to give it a sense of continuity. 

Pelim Task Evaluation