Production roles - Miss Miller

It is important to have set production roles within the production of our film as this will aid us to have a well structured planning schedule for the creation of our film. Setting certain roles for each group member allows for less stress as everyone is under clear guidelines of what their set job is, this also means that there is less pressure on everyone to perform to a range of different tasks, as well as making sure that everyone else is taking part as we have a set guideline as to all of the jobs we need to be following meaning that overall jobs can become lessened and more focused upon as people become fully aware of what their set mission is. Another positive of people knowing exactly what it is that they need to do is that they are able to spend more time and care on the individual job as they become more personal due to it being their main job alone hence it shall enforce peoples pride as it is something the team is allowing them to have responsibility over and trusting them with so they will want to do even better because of this. This also means that more time can be put into individual elements of the filming hence they will  be produced of a higher standard than they would have having been rushed. As well as people not knowing having allocated jobs meaning they wouldn't have a set structure of what to do which could result in everyone attempting to perform the same jobs leaving the team in a mess on that end and then other sections of the production going unfinished or even untouched due to a lack organisation and understanding.

Although within our group we have set production roles that doesn't mean that we wouldn't allow members of our team to work on other aspects of the film in fact we would encourage it. Although Harry was allocated the role of main director both myself and Emma took on jobs which would be seen as something which was apart of the directors role, such as simply directing we both had ideas so we brought them forward for instance I suggested that Brittany should run over to the window with the knife after running out of the kitchen and Emma suggested which way I should run out of the kitchen these were both ideas which worked well with the plot line and were used within the film. Together we practically took charge of the scene deciding where I should be standing, where the camera should be positioned etc.

I myself took on the official production roles of being an actress (portraying the role of victim Brittany), a producer and a MES coordinator.

Harry was officially the director for our film, editor and screenplay writer.

Emma took on the job as Cameraman and music producer.

We decided as a group that Emma would be the best person to take on the role of cameraman as we had planned for her to be doing most of the filming throughout our sequence. We also discovered that she had the most experience with camera work after our preliminary task she had learned the most from it as she was the one doing the most of the filming throughout the task and came to grips with how to over come her past issues with camera work such as how to shoot a close up. We also decided that Emma would be the best person to be our music producer as she already obtains a strong interest in the music industry hence we thought that she would have matured a key finding for the right pieces of music to display over our film. Although both myself and Harry also looked for music for our film we made sure that we ran through them with the group and if Emma was to say that she didn't think it was right for our film we would take that on board and find another piece. Finding a piece of music to play throughout our film was something which we struggled on as it was difficult to find something which we really identified with our opening sequence and didn't suddenly change tune which we found happened with quit a few pieces of music. I think had we found one main piece of music to run throughout our sequence finding other pieces of music or sound to edit in with our film might have been easier as well as the editing. Music is a key piece of editing for a thriller film had we set on our main sound sooner I think we would have had a better understanding of how our film would have turned out and where it was heading which would have made other aspects easier and ran more smoothly.

To for fill my role of playing the main character within our production I had to make sure I had my costume completely accurate for every scene and that there were no changes in costume between takes which shouldn't have happened. Although it sounds simple enough to remember to keep my costume the same for takes which they are supposed to stay the same changing it can easily be done. For instance between takes you may find that you are rather hot so you take your jacket off after which you may return to filming without remembering to put it back on this would majorly ruin the logic between our sequence as the audience wouldn't have seen me take my jacket off they would wonder how I went from suddenly wearing one to not without physically taking it off this would ruin the effect behind the film for audience members. Another factor which I shall have to watch in regards to ruining the film in the same manner would be my nail vanish when filming on different days it can easily be done that one day I shall be wearing it one day I won't, one day I will be wearing one colour the next a different one however this cannot happening if we are to go back to shooting for scenes which we had already began on a previous day. I also put myself in charge of deciding on the locations for our film I chose all of the locations apart from the forest as Harry thought that he knew of a better place to film than the forest I had thought of which he wasn't sure of. This was a fairly easy task once I had pictured how we wanted everything to look in my head and out of the places I could think of what would work best with the sequence, as well as which places had the most accessibility, I also tried to pick places which would have a lower population density however this was difficult to predict as these were not places which I would typically visit often especially on weeknights when it was dark which we would often be filming on.

Harry put himself forward to be the official director of our film which means he shall be controlling aspects of our film such as us the set up of characters within scenes, camera angles, etc however this does not mean that both myself and Emma won't be involving ourselves within this process as stated above we have already took it upon ourselves to act on this part. Although we have faced difficulty with Harry changing ideas for the narrative throughout the production of our sequence he did help to come up with much of our and narrative and was happy to take the role of screenplay writer so it made sense for him to take this role. This meant that he had charge of the groups storyboard as well as the camera equipment and had the duty of bringing all of it with him every time we went filming. As Harry was the official director this also meant that he had main control over the editing of our sequence which I thought he done rather well. He listened to both ideas and criticism from myself and Emma and took it on board. Although I liked the effect he was creating with the filters I thought that for some scenes they were a little bit too much. They appeared rather unrealistic which I thought sort of ruined the effect of the film for the audience this wasn't something which I was alone in thinking as when we showed our sequence to the class Ryan commented on the fact that he didn't like the filters. After which we attempted to tone the filters down as as a group the decision was that we didn't want to get rid of the filters completely.

Although the majority of our filming ran smoothly there are a few aspects which I would change. For instance Harry being the director of our film meant that he had main responsibility of the camera equipment. Not a good idea. This lead to the breaking of our first camera hence delaying filming the remaining footage which we didn't manage to film prior to the camera being broken. Once we had managed to over come this problem via getting our hands on a new camera we arranged to go out again and shoot more for our sequence however once all three of us met we found that there was a few obstacles which we needed to over come. First of all Harry announced that the camera was low on charge meaning that we would have to be very sufficient with our filming so not to waste the battery charge and course our camera to die out half way through our filming. So to save our charge we done a run through first of all without using the camera to see how everything would look on camera and make sure that everything ran smoothly however once we turned the camera on ready to shoot and put the memory card in we discovered that said card wouldn't work with our new allocated camera meaning that we had a wasted journey and was able to get nothing done. Once again delaying the filming of our production. After this incident we arranged to go out again where we discovered that both of our memory cards didn't work within our newly allocated camera meaning that once again we were unable to get any filming done. (So in hindsight our filming might have ran a lot more smoothly had we given this role to a different member of our group.) To over come this we had to ask our teacher for a new camera and rush all of our filming together in a rather short space of time which was difficult as everyone had long days and it was getting dark rather early which was a set back as we needed to film some of our remaining daylight shots despite all of this we managed to get it done in the time limit which I think was very successful and showed determination considering the amount of setbacks we had to overcome. However this doesn't mean that everything went wrong with our filming aside from a few frustrations I personally found that I could work well with Harry especially when we were discussing our narrative as we were both working together to make our ideas match, improve them and and build upon them which resulted in the creation in our narrative.

When filming I found that acting wasn't as easy as I thought that it was going to be. One time I had to tell Emma to leave the scene as Harry was the only one filming this scene so she was simply standing there making me laugh hence we wasn't able to get much good footage done. The laughter was quickly going to become a problem for us hence we overcame it by Emma moving away out of my eye line.

Just before this we were in the middle of a shooting a scene when Emma began shouting advice to me about how to act when filming obviously this would have been heard on camera therefore we couldn't use this piece of footage and had to start again. So to overcome this issue we made sure that we had even more in depth conversations about scenes prior to filming so that no one felt that had things to throw in at the last minute.

On one occasion I struggled with the acting greatly. It was a rather confusing scene for me and I'd began to get confused about all the different elements to the scene we had spoke about. It was also a confusing scene for me because I was unsure of my ques and when asking members of my group about my queries none of them appeared to understanding what it was I was asking. So It would have helped had I been more clear with my questions.

Group planning - Miss Georgiou

Group planning 

 Within my group I am working alongside Harry osborn and Emma Allen it is essential for us to have meetings as a group to make sure that we are all working on the same page, making sure that any plans for our work run smoothly without any confusion or mix ups between our separate work and that if anyone decides that something isn't going to work, comes up with an idea which they believe is better, or any problem meaning that something has to changed then we can discuss said issue as a group and over come it together.

During our first meeting we discussed our own personal narratives and brought them together in order to create a shared narrative for our opening sequence. Both myself and Harry took lead in this side of the project, we spoke about ideas we'd already gathered in preparation before our meeting i.e we'd already thought about previous aspects of the thriller genre which we have found we either enjoyed or found interesting to watch as well as specific elements from certain films which we had watched for instance I brought up the factor of a hidden identity within a list of thrillers which I found it to be interesting within such as Scream, Valentine and many alike. Once I brought Harry around to the idea he mentioned his idea of suicide instantly we were able to pair these two concepts together. Emma and myself had spoken prior to the meeting about what we liked about the thriller genre I spoke of my love for 'scream queens' within the genre using Sarah Michelle Gellar for an example after which Emma brought up the conventional factor this has to the typical female victim which she brought up again in our meeting again this was an idea which we all agreed would be good for our film straight away hence the creation of Brittany.

We planned to have flashbacks for some of our scenes there will be one in the house where by Brittany is watching something on TV we planned to have this as something rather innocent for instance a child's film this will contrast the on goings of  the situation as she is being watched via Steve our character with a hidden identity.

As a group for our muse en scene we needed to decide on ideas which relate to said technique. For our main scene our main character Brittany shall be on top of a bridge about to kill herself. After this scene will show flashbacks. Our final flashback aims to fully display the extent of her paranoia.

Planing cinematography -Miss Miller

Planning cinematography 

Cinematography is the art of both photography and camera work displayed within film making. Cinematography is the aethetics of a motion picture within filming meaning that it is what we view with our eyes.

within our opening sequence we will be using high and low angles as this adds various different effects towards the antagonist for instance using a low angle camera angle for the antagonist will make them appear bigger and look as though they are standing boarder and taller hence urging the audience to see them with further more power as they are made to look rather superior naturally making them scarier to the audience as it would appear that they have this power as an advantage over the chosen victim or protagonist. This is conventional to the genre as it shows the antagnoist with a superioty over the victim stereotypically adding to the factor of the victim being unable to defend themself and the antagnoist being of an unfair advantage making the hate for them grow stronger. The audience is made to feel smaller compared to this character thanks to the shot work making the character even more intimidating hence creating further suspense as they fear what their next move may be.  The usage of a high angle shot within our opening sequence makes the victim seem even more innocent than they already would compared to the antagonist this is good as it brings audience memebers emotional levels up coursing them to like the victim not just because they are a victim but as a person which will create further suspense as the audience is more fearful of the outcome for them. High angle shots will also show the victim to be in danger as they appear much smaller in a larger siuation representing them being out of their depth in a difficult to survivie scenerio. Yet another convention to a thriller as within the genre the victim/ protagonist is always outlined to the absoulte finest so that the audience is instantly able to connect with and their struggle recongising them as the victim i.e the person that they should feel sorry for.

Another type of camera shot we have planned to use to film our opening sequence will be shallow focus which will show focus of the character we want the audience to be mainly focused on however it will still show elements of what is going on in the background however it won't be as clear as what is at the fore ground so to keep the audiences main focus on that however audience members are still able to notice anything else happening in the background so long as they are paying full attention which is crucial within many thrillers hence making it conventional to a thriller. An example of how we will use this technique within our group is during the scene were Brittany is waking down an alley way the shallow focus shall be focused mainly on her however we are still able to see the rest of the alley way around her,making audience members suspicous that something is to jump out from behind her or someone could possibly be following her/about to attack her etc. Her facial expressions are the most important throughout this scene as her facial expressions are the best way to showcase her emotions at this point to the audience also her experssions are a good way of conveying to the audience what happen next hence keeping them guessing. Again the concept of keeping the audience guessing about certain aspects of the film genre such as who the antagnoist may be if a hidden identity is used, who the next victim may be, why the antagonist is actually doing what they are, etc? It is often used within the genre as it keeps the film intresting as the audience attempt to predict what will happen next it keeps them engaged trying to keep up with everything that is happening often within thrillers there is a lot to take in, you need to stay focused to understand what is actually going on so this is a good way in order to help the viewers stay focused. Often fans of the genre say that the guessing element is one of the things that like best it is certaintly something you would expect to see within a thriller film as there are so many different aspects to the genre you can use to follow it and it keeps the storyline flowing.

We plan to use panning as this engages the audience more effectively as they follow the character as they travel around making them feel really enaged with the journey as though they are discovering this story with the character hence making their emotions more involoved and helping them to gain a better understanding of what this is like for said character.Panning will be used by us during flashbacks when a jogger is running past the victim in the alley way we plan to use panning for this scene as from this the audience is able to feel that they have a better idea of what the alley way is like making them feel that they have a better understanding of what is happening around them which could throw them off sent hence making the film more shocking making it more rememerable and intresting. Many thriller watchers love to be kept guessing so this would make it all the more conventional to one. This scene will not only be convetional to a thriller as it keeps the audience guessing the audience will audience get to see Brittany's reactions to believeing that this is the sound of her stalkers footsteps as well as finding out that they were in fact harmless. Showing characters reactions is a good way of displaying their emotions without displaying dialouge, this is also a much more real way to do so as often within films audience members find themselves questioning the conversation in hand deciding that this probbaly is a conversation which would just naturally come up or flow the way they often unnaturally make them appear to within films, simply showing the characters emotions is a believeable way of displaying what they are feeling hence making it much more reletable and keeping the story alive.

We're also going to be using hand held shots as they make the scene more realistic. These types of shots are normally used during a state of panic this feeling will be passed onto the audience through the effective of the camera work. Again this is another technique we will be putting into place throughout our flashbacks, the first time we do so it shall be when Brittany out of panic runs to the kitchen to collect a knife representing the anxiety of which she is suffering. Illustrating panic through shot work is conventional to a thriller as it portrays the vibes of aniexty within the situation, if the camera was to be shot oridnarily pain and straight then it wouldn't have the same effect, in fact it may actually lose some of the panic of the sitation as the audience is being shown this part of the story through a calm lense, having the camera unstabily filming it relates the feelings of aniexty felt within the situation to audience members as they become slightly uncomfortable watching the scene this way.

Extreme close ups are another shot we will be using the image fills the scene so no background is seen and more focus would be put on that particular image this will be used in our film production during the scene where by the villains boots crunches on the leaves on the ground. This is convetional to a thriller as it highlights a certain thriller piece which needs to stand out to create a certain effect on the audience. The focus on the boot not only indicates how close the antanogist now is to Brittany but it also gives audience members something else to look out for when trying to guess who this man may be in his real life. For instance this was done within the Scream series of thriller films, a shot of a boot woren by the anatgonist was displayed after which audience members noticed the police force wore boots of the kind this is done to give clue and indicate who the person behind the hidden identity is as well as to fall audience members into having other suspects keeping the shock factor alive.

Cinematography is very important within the thriller genre as it involves many of the key elements. Without many of them it would be difficult to display certain things hence the film won't be able to provide such an effect upon the audience.

Planning mise - en scene - Miss Georgiou

Setting and iconography: 

 The main scene within our opening sequence will take place on an isolated bridge in a public yet deserted place at around dusk as our victim is about to attempt suicide. Having the scene set a later stage through out the day as well as in an empty location creating more mystery to the scenario, also there are no witnesses to stop the antagonist or to report him afterwards therefore making it appear that our villain is able to attack Brittany (our victim) in the ways which is suggested and even worse possibly completely get away with it. The effect of Brittany appearing to be completely alone furthermore elaborates how vulnerable she is and emphasises the fear we feel for the victim.  This  will be the main focus throughout the sequence The iconography within our scene will obtain a knife as our potential murders weapon of choice, bricks, the river  and bridge showing the likely hood of her death or, even any death within the sequence, the typical clothing of a teenager for instance a hoody this will be done in an attempt to emphasis her age and make her further relate-able to people of that generation as well as to make her venerability more apparent as young girls at that age are said to be at a more likely risk of becoming a target to such a threat for reasons such as they are seen to be less physically strong etc.

Within our film we be will be exploiting the usage of flashbacks we will be doing this in order to highlight how long these chain of events have been going on for hence indicating how much of an effect it could really have had on our victim as well as adding furthermore to the idea that our antagonist is willing to go further than the 'normal person' with his obsession as he has been doing so for a while and all of this little things connected become even creepier and suggest they he may go even further and course her serious harm. One of our flashbacks will show Brittany at home appearing to be alone watching someone on TV we considered the idea of he watching another thriller film however we decided after talking to our teacher Miss Georgiou that this idea was perhaps a bit tacky and could appear that we were trying to make our thriller too much like other thrillers such a the scream series. So we opted to have her watching something rather 'innocent' so to contrast the fact that it appears that Brittany is being watching. Another one of our flashbacks showcases Brittany walking along a path way when she hears footsteps she looks frightened indicating to the audience that she fears this is the man she thinks is stalking her however as they run past we realise this person is just your typical every day jogger and not of threat. This is a crucial scene which I fought to have in our film as it makes the film more interesting/ confusing/ intense as the audience is unsure whether what they are being shown is the truth or simply what is happening from Brittany's pov.

The lighting in this sense with be fairly dark creating an intense and eerily vibe however it will still be light enough for it to past as a not to late stage in the day this makes the antagonist appear more powerful as he is able to do such things at an earlier stage in the day it makes them appear more fearless and capable.

The costumes our characters will be wearing play a major part in the film as they help the audience to indicate their roles, for instance villain Steve shall be dressed in a rather secretive costume sticking to as much black as possible, black is a good colour to dress our antagonist in as it is often paired with trouble and danger the colour itself can often indicate to audiences that there is trouble about to occur as it is such a dark colour it suggests to the audience that this will be a rather dark character. Many people claim to be afraid of the dark which is often paired with the colour black hence many viewers shall find the a character dressed as darkly as possible to be someone that they should feel afraid of. The characters dress will also help with the affect of him having a hidden identity, black can also be viewed as a rather secretive colour which does give much away. Wore as we want Steve to wear it it can be quite covering for instance it doesn't tell us anything about who he may be or what he may be like in his every day life, the audience is unable to guess from his appearance what job he may do, what he family life is like, his culture/ background etc. This continues the theme of the antagonist being someone that we know nothing about other than his sick obsession with Brittany this makes him all the more frightening as he could be absolutely anyone and Brittany would be none the wiser.

If you picture the character/characters '-A' from ABC'S series 'Pretty little lairs' that is the sort of effect we want the character of Steve to have on the audience by dressing in a similar way, when watching the show many audience member's are freaked out by the antics of this character or characters. One of the scariest things is that through the beginning of the show many audience members were unsure if -A was just one person or not after all so little was given away about them from their appearance all that was recongisable about them was the distinctive black dress. Having our character dress this way makes them even scarier as a stalker as if the audience was to know who this person was they wouldn't be so scary as this wouldn't have this power over the audience. Think back to a time when you've watched a known character watch/follow another imagine how much scarier that would have been if you was pondering who it may be that was watching them. The fact that this character is unknown also makes them scarier as viewers are unable to make an educated guess or assume what it is that they are capable of or how far they are likely to go.

Often throughout films of the thriller genre the antagonist or antagonists are dressed in a way which not only sets them out as the 'villain' but also provides them with further fear from the use of having a hidden identity hence being conventional to a thriller as this technique is often used within thrillers for it's added fear factor. As well as becoming distinctive and remember-able to that character. Often within films with cult followings having distinctive dressing is used this is a good way for audience members to recognise the film individually and not just see it as another film of the genre. 

Here are some examples:

'Ghost face' from the Scream series

The masked killer from Valentine

Serial killer from my bloody valentine 

The 'fisherman' from I know what you did last summer

Brittany herself will be dressed as the average teenage girl would, for the scene at the bridge Brittany will be dressed in a hoodie not only does this symbolism average teenage dress but it is also a useful piece of costume for the script as apart of Brittany's attempt at suicide she plans to place bricks inside her hoody's pockets to force her to drown in the river below. Having Brittany dress in a rather universal manner helps to make her more appealing to the general audience as she is someone that more people will be finding themselves able to relate to quicker. As well as keeping her dress typical to that of the ordinary teenage girl so that she appears more likable hence gaining further sympathy I plan to also have her dressed in clothes which are quite 'innocent' appearing for instance she won't wear anything particularly revealing showcasing her sweetness. If this was to happen to someone behaving rather promiscuously then often audience members tend to lose sorrow on the victims behalf as they find themselves going off of the character. It is seen as overly typical to have a promiscuous victim within the thriller genre often people just assume their death as coming the minute the character is introduced and little relationship is formed. Creating a relationship between the audience and the victim or protagonist so to help them have a better understanding for them is good hence they shall be rooting for them more but it is also a convention to a thriller as often within the genre this technique is displayed for the audience to be able to relate to the characters more so and therefore feel even more suspense when hoping for them to do well and come out okay of certain situations.

Carol our protagonist will be dressed as comfy appearing clothes, for instance a nice jumper or cardigan as this will make her seem rather warming and cosy, we want her to seem as nice as possible to make her best attempts to help Brittany seem as believable as possible. We want Carol to come across as the nicest person in the world, you couldn't get any nicer than she is which is an aspect of her personality which we have to keep up throughout her portrayal even in her clothes, if she was to wear a nasty slogan t shirt than the audience would view this as her not being as nice as she is trying to seem.

Brittany's facial expression will be the most important of all the characters. Brittany is the character that for the most part the audience will feel the biggest emotional relationship with. Watching Brittany face change as she is experiencing different elements of the thriller will play on the audiences heart strings as they watch her struggle through pain feeling sorry for her and wanting better for her.

Our protagonist's facial expressions shall also be important as we want the audience to see Carol as this perfectly nice human being hence her face as well as every other aspect shown of her needs to suggest this. We will show her smiling sweetly  at Brittany displaying the facial movements of someone trying their best to be comforting.

The body language of the antagonist is key, we need him to come across as intimidating for the portrayal of Steve to work and to have him appear as frightening as he needs to. The actor portraying this role shall have to stand broad and tall as well as rather frightening and intimidating they should stand as though ready to attack at any given moment.

Our antagonist shall we displaying body language suggesting that it is okay for Brittany to warm into her and feel safe around her. For instance putting an arm around Brittany and sort of cuddling into her etc making her seem as friendly as possible. We will have Carol positioned in rather close to Brittany showing that she truly does care for her.

Brittany has to be shown as looking rather fragile especially compared to the antagonist. She needs to look weak and innocent and unable to fight this incredibly empowering man that should seem to be towering down over her. This would be conventional to the thriller genre as throughout films of the genre the victim or protagonist is showed to be weaker or at a lost to the antagonist so to make them appear more powerful/frightening and make the situation more intense and scary building upon the suspense.