Storyboard (uncoloured)

Is this OK? I filled in the titles between the 'sudden' shots, as I didn't see the point of wasting panels when they all look basically the same. I shall get to work colouring them now. (Click to full-view)

Screening

I won't be able to make it; I'm too ill...at home with an evil, evil, evil cold. Good luck though, hope everything goes well and that we get lots of nice feedback. I've given my CD to a couple of friends to watch so that we can get feedback from them, but I need some copies of the questionnaire for them to answer...can someone email it to me, please?

All my love and sneezes,
Mary

Script

Hey guys This is the script we came up with for our opening sequence. It is a conversation between the killer (Emma) and the housemate (Yasmin). It will come after the titles in the second half of the sequence. Emma: (Knock on door) Come in Yasmin: (Opens door) Hey. You look dressed up. Your not going out at this time, are you? Emma: Um yeah…I’m just out to see a friend. (Pause) She’s dying to see me. Yasmin: Okay…well be careful, I’ve just heard some terrible things on the news. Emma: Oh, yeah, about all those poor women? I heard. It really scares me. Yasmin: Yeah, me too. Well I’m gonna go to bed anyway. Goodnight. Emma: Okay. Night. Yasmin: (Smiling) Have fun. (Closes door) - Bhavika xx

'Se7en'

We watched the beginning of Se7en (David Fincher, 1995) in class and we were really inspired by it. I've embedded the opening of the film from where the titles start, after the little bit at the beginning where Brad Pitt's and Morgan Freeman's characters are introduced and the setup is established. We really liked the whole style of it - the title sequence was designed by Kyle Cooper, and is really original and is very memorable, from the music to the font.

The soundtrack:

• diegetic sounds - traffic, creaking, clattering of keys on a typewriter?
• steady drum rhythm that sounds like heartbeat
• electronic-sounding
• screechy bits
• features song 'Closer' by Nine Inch Nails - lyrics heard are 'You get me closer to God' -> the film is based around two detectives on the case of a series of murders inspired by the seven deadly sins, and the word 'God' is one of the words we see being cut out of a newspaper in quick flashes
• crime thriller sort of music

Credits/Text:

• jumpy/jittery
• white on black
• scribbled handwritten style font
• image comes after they're shown, and they stay on screen for a bit before fading out
• big names first - David Fincher, Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwenyth Paltrow - audience knows this director and these actors -> acts as guarantee, quality seal

Transitions:

• dissolves over shots
• fades (into opening)
• numerous, fast-paced clean cutting

Camera Work:

• BCUs and ECUs showing detail of killer's work
  

We loved all these effects combined to create such an impressive opening - they really help to build a sense of unease and jumpiness, and to give an impression of the killer. We want to do something similar with the credits and music, so we'll see what we end up with!

- posted by Mia

Inspiration from the Opening Sequence of Legally Blonde (Luketic, 2001)

Hey guys!

As our opening sequence involves a female killer (who is obsessed with the way she looks) getting ready I thought I might try to get inspiration from a film involving a girl getting ready. Legally Blonde is probably one of the most obvious choices and is very much about image and the way Elle looks and dresses. So, I have broken down the sequence and analysed shots and aspects that we might gain some inspiration from for our opening sequence.

The first shot is zooming out of Elle’s hair as she brushes it. It is effective because it starts as an Extreme Close-up and the audience is therefore not sure what exactly they can see. All of Elle’s actions appear slow and deliberate so that the audience can clearly see what she is doing and has time to take it in. We want the actions to be clear but also not really slow because we need pace. We could try using Extreme Close-ups at the very beginning in order to withhold information from the audience and make it slightly more creepy/sinister.

In general, lots of Extreme Close-ups and Close-ups are used as they effectively show Elle getting ready in detail. For instance, when she puts on a necklace and is painting her nails. The audience does not see her face until the end of the opening sequence, which is an aspect I particularly like. The whole sequence is a build up to this point. Perhaps we could have a slight build up before we see her face properly? Obviously, the actual build up is towards the draw being opened when we see the knife so it would have to be a smaller build-up before seeing her face.

Slow pans are used in between in order to tell the audience about Elle’s character and this provides the mise-en-scene. We have already thought about our mise-en-scene and are using pictures of models and beauty products to reflect the character’s frame of mind. We could pan these pictures that are on the mirror and the beauty products on the dressing table in between shots of her getting ready. We decided that we wanted it to be subtle but I’m not sure if the audience would necessarily understand or even take much notice of it unless we make a point of showing the beauty products and pictures. This would make it clearer that the main character is obsessed with her image and kills other attractive women.

- Bhavika xx

Comments and Reflections

Yeah I've just read over the many comments/reflections that have been put up on the blog. We definitely need to do something about the emptiness of the draw and I'm up for trying out the paper idea. Aghhh reflections in the window! Did you guys find out if we can do anything about them yesterday when editing? And yeah Mia's idea about having the flatmate watching the film - we might be overcomplicating things again! I'm not sure if it is needed unless you guys all really want to do it. Plus we don't have to have the credits coming up onscreen over the shots we have filmed now. We can have then on a black background that comes up in between the shots or something if you get what I'm saying...

- Bhavika xx

Test Shoot and Real Shoot (Friday 28th and 29th November)

Reflections Both shoots took place at Mia’s house, as this is now the location for all of our opening sequence. We tried out plenty of different shots on Friday and did some planning. We got a lot of planning done on the real shoot on Saturday. We did all the planning and decided on the actual shot order in the first two hours and then filmed all of this in the next two hours. All in all it was very productive and loads of fun…I can’t wait to see the footage and actually edit it! Good work guys! - Bhavika xx

Sound

Mia, I think I know what you mean. When there is a song playing in the background that you think is non-diegetic but then it sort of becomes diegetic and is playing on the radio, which someone is listening to or something like that.

I can’t think of any examples of where it is the other way round, so it goes from diegetic to non-diegetic. I remember seeing a scene on Neighbours where somebody is singing and then you continue to hear them sing while they show clips of other characters but I don’t think that’s the same thing. It’s the closest thing I can think of.

We could try it out but I think there is a big chance our audience what necessarily understand unless we make it really obvious. If it doesn’t work and isn’t clear, it might seem a bit amateur. If the others want to I’m up for trying it because you never know, it might look really cool!

- Bhavika xx

Sound

Okay, I just spent a while on youtube trying to find a clip of the beginning of an episode of Hollyoaks, because quite often the song in the background becomes diegetic, playing on the radio or something, but I couldn't... I'll have a look again later and see if I can find it, so expect this post to change! Hopefully..
But yeah, I don't think any of you watch it, but basically they start a lot of episodes with some crazy style things & music playing in the background (non-diegetic), and then all the crazy things stop and it'll be like, someone's house and they'll be eating breakfast, and the song will be on the radio.. I thought it might be helpful for our thing with the whole song playing, possibly becomes non-diegetic, even though it's the other way around. Anyway, I'll have another look and try and find an example - or just try and see an episode this week or something.

Idea Development

We've decided to alter our original idea a bit, and scrap the outside shooting because there's so much to think about with it, & we can focus a lot more on character if we just have the getting ready bit. Mary's going to use her superfantastic mad skillz to storyboard this before we shoot it, and we're going to test it out tonight. Wooh!
posted by the group xx

Test Shoot

I think we can book out the equipment tomorrow…well we’ve got no other choice!
Not to worry - I’ll print off the equipment forms now. Doing it as we speak!
Looking forward to the test shoot guys!

- Bhavika xx

'Halloween'

I thought it would be a good idea to post up some notes on other film openings - like John Carpenter's Halloween (1978), the opening of which is all shot as subjective POV shots.

Soundtrack
-ticking background
-high pitched piano
-starts with creepy children chanting Halloween rhyme
-has high pitched, sustained, clashing/dissonant notes; also quite childish
-diegetic sound; crickets, owls etc., clock striking 12?
-sudden noises when something changes e.g. seeing his sister, stabbing her...

Credits/Text
-orange, capital letters for names of actors etc. on black - turn red before fading away; connotations with blood, violence, danger, passion...
-sans serif, bold
-white text for setting
-black background
-glowing pumpkin on the left getting closer and closer; orange links to Halloween & pumpkin
-text to set up location & setting (time)

Transitions/Filters
-fades
-cuts
-slow-paced; builds suspense that way
-not many as it's subjective

Camera Work (position, perspective, framing, composition)
-subjective POV shots: when he puts on the mask we see through the eyeholes (changes the frame)
-handheld camera, looking through windows etc.
-end of opening switches to objective shot
-shot of house at start is slightly Dutch angled
-low-key lighting
-long takes (because it's subjective)

Character(s)
Position/Dress/Gesture/Representation
-child (Michael Myers) dressed up as a clown for Halloween
-boy & girl in normal teenage clothing of '60s

Action/Enigma Codes
-Michael picks up knife, there's scary music, it's dark, he goes upstairs - action code; we know he is going to stab his sister (except we don't know it's Michael yet)
-enigma code: we don't know it's Michael until the end of the opening
-sister says "Michael's around someplace" - who is Michael and where is he? (enigma code)

Dialogue/Narration
-boy and girl; couple, go upstairs together; there's no one else in the house so when he leaves she will be alone
-"Michael's around someplace"

Location
-big house
-Halloween
-dark
-empty after boyfriend leaves
-nice neighbourhood

Iconography
-pumpkin
-rocking chair in house
-low-key lighting

Subversion of Convention
-the killer is a young child

Juxtaposition
-little boy dressed up in a clown costume on Halloween holding a knife & killing his sister

GROUP TREATMENT

This treatment is designed to check the practicality of our idea and whether it needs re-thinking or changing. Here goes...
1.) Is it practical?
Yes. Set indoors meaning we have easy access to equipment and fewer problems with lighting, sound or weather.
2.) Is it an idea that will work to the strengths of the group?
Most definitely. As a group we all love horror and know quite a lot of horror conventions. We only require female actors for the opening, meaning we can use good quality acting directly from the group!
3.) Will it show off the skills you have learnt so far on the course?
Yes. We plan to use a variety of shot types including; shot-reverse-shots, crane-shots, montages and pans. Also, we plan to adhere to most opening sequence and horror conventions, and think carefully about when we can challenge them.
4.) Is it something you can reasonably shoot and edit in the given time?
Yes. We have thought about how much of the plot we want to reveal, and how much action to include. We think that we can get an excellent two-minute sequence, edited to perfection within the time that we have.
5.)Can you get permission to shoot in the chosen location at the chosen times?
Yes. Mia very helpfully let us use her house. This means we have permission to use it whenever we need it.
6.) Can you organise lighting to use in that location?
Yes. It should already be well lit as it is a house. We also have access to pag lights and a studio lighting kit from the school's equipment store.
7.) Have you included dialougue? If so, will it work to shoot a conversation in that loaction?
Yes and yes. We are shooting in a quiet, closed environment and therefore, won't suffer any technical, sound-related problems.
8.)Do you have guaranteed high quality, reliable actors to play the characters?
Yes. Using actors from within the group definitely gives us the upper hand! In any emergency situations, the actors will always be present.

Bisma

Meeting Notes for Tuesday 25th November

• Discussed Enfield cinema car park as possible location. Too many obstacles and problems found when shooting there for the test shoot.
• Discussed alleyway near Southgate station. Everyone liked pictures taken by Mia of the alleyway. Decided we need to test out alleyway.
• Arranged a second test shoot for Friday 28th November after school.
• Use of car park as location means we do not extra actors.
• Discussed possible actors and actresses.

Individual targets to be achieved by Monday 1st December:

Mary
Focus on storyboard which is to be completed
Bisma
The Treatment,
Asking possible actors/actresses if they are willing to act in it
Bhavika
Update group blog with meeting notes etc
Research
Mia
Research

- Bhavika

Props

Heyy! I just thought I would make a list of the little props we are going to need so that we can start preparing for the shoots. We might not need them all but I've them up in case.

• Black gloves
• A weapon (knife?)
• Red lipstick
• Heels/boots possibly red
• Hair brush
• A photograph of the killer with her ex boyfriend

And I looked at Mia's slide show and really like the dressing table. Plus there is a long mirror which we wanted to use so it could work!

- Bhavika xx

My House

btw guys I put loads of pictures of the beds and stuff in cos I sort of imagined her sitting on the bed lol I don't really know why? But obviously we're probably not gonna do that, but yeah. Hope this helps!

love Mia xx

Characters

V I C T I M S

Ok guys, I tried to make a moodboard of victims in horror films to look at dress codes and stuff - bearing in mind I've not seen most of these! Yeah, it might be a bit small, sorry about that. As you can see there's always a lot of gore, and disturbing imagery - and often the characters are portrayed as being more vulnerable at the time, e.g. not wearing many clothes.... They're all familiar settings, but with horrific situations for the characters, which makes it all the more scary because the audience can relate to it, and it makes it seem more likely to happen to them. You'll notice a lot of the victims are female - I thought that would be good seeing as our killer's victims are girls, and they always tend to have a lot of females to kill off in horrors anyways. There are a couple of zombies in there - victim or villain, take your pic, but I'd go with victim... normal people turned into killing dead things. So yeah, hope this is helpful. :)

V I L L A I N S

... and this is a moodboard of villains from horrors (Dark Knight isn't really a horror but the Joker is the most amaaazing villain and it would just be wrong not to put him here). A lot of them have masks - and we know all about masks and disguise etc. etc. from Lord of the Flies and Jack and his painted face... But yeah, for whatever reason they have the masks as characters, for the audience it can be a whole lot scarier, and really really iconic. On the other hand, Norman Bates just uses his face (well, Anthony Perkins who played him in Hitchcock's Psycho), and it's so incredibly creepy, but just brilliant. The costume/dress codes of the villain is really really important, and because ours is really more thrillerish atm, it's a bit different, but we can still do other things to make our killer memorable and scary. Look at the ghost girl thing from The Grudge, and again, Norman Bates. But yeah, hopefully this will be inspirational =]

- love Mia xx

Music AND Test Shoot

Hey guys! Music I really think The Tender Trap could work. I listened to all the ones suggested and like them all but think this one would work best. So unless we find anything else, a definite yes to this one from me! Test Shoot – What Did We Learn?? Although it was loads of fun J we have all realized there is a load of stuff we have to take into consideration/prepare for when we do the actual shoot. I know Mary has already covered some of this, I just thought I’d add my thoughts too and kinda summarize it. Firstly, next time we need to check the weather forecasts and prepare for the shoot according to this. We also need to think about the lighting and need to bring extra sources. Linking to that, we need to decide an appropriate time to film (when it is dark enough) and also when there will be less people and cars around so that we don’t have to keep stop filming. That is if we actually use this location. I liked the car park as our location but if someone finds something better I’m all for it. To sum up, it was all in all a very interesting and fun test shoot. And Finally, I think we all need to make sure we have set our alarms for the right time the night before and haven’t gone to sleep ridiculously late so that we only get like an hour of sleep!! (not naming names you know who you are) Bhavika xx

Location recces

They're posted on my blog. I did the park and the forest. Go check 'em out.

Mary

More Pics

Ok, I realise this is a lot of pictures... and you can only put 50 on a slide.. and it might take a while.. so here's a link to my photobucket page with all the photos which should work. But yeah, it took a while to upload them all so I'm posting these! And the TV thing is quite cool - well the fact that there are 4 kinda ruins it but oh well. Yeahh, so these were just me checking out the locations near me and they could help us decide whether or not to go with them, because it's easier to visualise with the photos (I hope!). So enjoy! Sorry there are so many

Mia xx