Planning: Filming Schedule

Our group plan is to start filming in the February half term. This is because we will have a lot of time to get prepared throughout the day so we don't waste anytime when we come to the process of filming  and when we are going to be filming, we need to make sure that the lighting is suitable and doesn't ruin our opening. Also, since we have the whole day to film, if there was a slight error then we can fix it within a short period of time. I think it is good to film within the half term because if somebody was to be working, then we still have some days to get the filming done.

Planning: Shot List

A Shot List is important to the Pre-Production Stage, as it informs us clearly on what shots we need to capture when filming our project. This means that when we are filming, we will waste less time on shots that are unnecessary or will not be used when editing.


Shot 1: The Expendable character  crashes past the camera, stamping in a puddle. The shot will open with a Tilt Shot, panning down from the canopy of the trees to look at the floor. This helps establish the secluded location at where our opening is set, contrasting the peace of the area to the panic of the character in danger.

Shot 2: Establishing shot of Characters walking in a wood. The camera is focused on the nearby tree, which causes the characters to become out of focus. This implies that they are the lesser object in the location, suggesting that they are vulnerable and in danger. Sound and soft pan shows the calmness and tranquility of the setting.

Shot 3: Cuts back to the Expendable Character. A POV of the victim running away. Handheld shot to represent the urgency and danger of the scene. The unsteadiness and speed of the scene represents uneasiness and the characters fear.

Shot 4: Cuts back to the Characters in the woods. Character 1 throws bag on the floor, showing he is angry or annoyed. Another shot looking at the characters from behind a tree, suggesting they are threatened by the location, to being watched.

Shot 5: An Over the Shoulder Shot of the expendable character running away. Represents the 'killer' chasing him, exaggerating the danger he is in.

Shot 6: Character 1 drops Phone on the ground and gets up to look for a way out.

Shot 7: Final shot of the character running. The expendable character trips, and turns to face the camera, showing the fear on his face. The character screams.

Shot 8:  The scream bridges over back to the camp. The characters hear the scream, and turn in shock. As this happens, the phone dropped by Character 1 starts to create a white noise and shows a distorted image.


We had to slightly adjust the plot from our Storyboards, as on our first attempt at filming, we discovered that dialogue wasn't as effective as we wanted it to be. To solve this, we slightly changed the plot to be less dependant on dialogue, and more emphasised on actions of the characters and non-diegetic sound.

Planning : Mise-en-scene (props, costumes)

Our group's task is to create the opening two minutes of a horror film. With the genre being horror, there will be minimal props to keep a sense of realism within our scenes, and some makeup. Now that we are in the later stages of of our planning, we have a good idea of what sorts of examples of mis-en-scene we will need.

Character One Connor - This character is going to be the the one who isn't very active and unhappy with the fact that he has been asked to hike, this shall be portrayed in the clothing this actor will wear.  His look shall be casual and unsuitable to tracking through the woods, to enhance this they will be wearing casual jeans, Jumper (Preferably a grey and washed colour to go with the dark, washed colour scheme we want for our filming) flat shoes and a small rucksack to show that this isn't his typical sort of situation.

Character Two Matty -  This character is the exact opposite of our first character, his sports gear and thermals with a large jumper show he's active and thought carefully about what he wants to wear, he's more adapted to this sort of situation of hiking through woods and hover hills.

Expendable Character Rhys - Our expendable character shall have a thick rain coat to hide his features, along with this a black pair of jeans or waterproof trousers/Tracksuit will also be used to signify that this character's identity os hidden and mysterious, the only information you would be able to tell from the costume is the fact that he must of been hiking or camping in the first for a while due to the warm clothes and waterproofs.

Props

Other than suitable clothing for each of the characters to personify their persona. we need to look at props we could use to further create a sense of realism within our opening. Props we could use;

Bike- The abandoned bike shows that the character has ditched the bike in an attempt to get further into the first, away from what ever is chasing that person. The spinning of the tyre can show that it has recently been abandoned.

Lighting - We aim to shoot in daylight in order to get the most cheap light, however we try to film in overcast weather so that it has an erie effect pre production however in Premier pro we have much more mobility to play with the dynamic lighting.

Planning: Casting

Why is Casting important?

In my opinion, Casting is one of the most important processes in Pre-Production and requires a high amount of care when doing it. Casting involves running auditions from the potential actors, to find the most suitable person for your film. It is important that you find someone who is not shy in front of a camera, someone who will not burst out with laughter when filming, and someone who can create verisimilitude within the production.

To find suitable actors for our production, our group will run short auditions for the potential actors. We will give the actors short scripts to perform, and use these performances to decide whether they will be suitable.


Characters

Our film consists of 4 characters. These characters go camping, showing they are all outdoor,
adventure seeking people. My group and I evaluated the characters in our film, and what type of actor would be suitable for playing the part in our production.

Our first character is Peter. Peter was brought up by a single mother and he never met his dad, causing him to develop a wild nature, and rarely being at home. Peter is seen as the leader of the group, as he is brave and not scared to take risks. He is the loudest of the four friends, which gets him into a lot of trouble.

Elliott is seen as the weaker member of the group. He is two years younger than the rest, often resulting in him being bullied into doing things he doesn't want to do. However, Peter acts as an older brother figure over Elliot and sometimes gets protective over him.

Our third character is unnamed, as he dies early on in the production. This character is used to place the scenes of the other characters in the camp in juxtaposition, as he is running away from the 'Killer'.

Evil Steve is the villain in our production. However, Evil Steve is rarely seen. The film cuts between the group in the woods, and a Point of View from Evil Steve through parallel action.


Actors

This is Stephen, one potential Actor. Stephen gave a strong audition, but unfortunately he cannot look at a camera without laughing.

Another potential actor is Tom. Tom also has the same problem as Stephen,  he is very shy in front of the camera, shown by the crossed arms.

Planning: Location

It is important to have a good location when it comes to horror films because in horror films, most of the locations are secluded to create a sense of insecurity so that there is no escape and that the victim will struggle to get away meaning that the killer can easily single out people to kill and people will not know.

The first location is Bramble side woods and is a wooded area and is very suitable to film because  the location is quite big as  so there will be  more than one specific area where we can film. The large area is possibly the area in which we are going to film because there would be so many different areas to film in case one area isn't good enough. But this location can be quite bad because the main road is quite close to the area meaning we are going to be hearing a lot of cars go by. Also there is a wooded area behind the area near the main road but cars may still be heard but if we go further into the woods, the traffic won't be heard as much therefore we will most probably like to use this location just because of how close it is to where all of our actors live.


Our second location is is going to be in Corby, this is because there is an area that is wooded and would be good for filming in as well. Also Corby isn't too far away meaning that all of the actors will be able to get to Corby.  As you can see from the picture, there is a large area where we are able to film and is secluded as well meaning it would be a good location. But this location isn't very good because there are not many trees around meaning we can't really make the audience feel like it is a secluded location. Also the other bad factor about this area is that the area is a nature trail meaning there are going to be a lot of people there and we may be interrupted.

We have one more location  which is possibly the best one of the three as well which is also in Corby and is a much better location than the other ones because there is not a main road nearby and the area is very large as well meaning that we can film in more than one place. It is quite a secluded location as well meaning that we may not get interrupted when filming as much as we might in the other locations.

Planning: Storyboard and the importance of storyboarding

The importance of storyboarding

Storyboarding is very important in the pre production stages, this is because before the filming actually begins, the storyboard is a very good way to plan for what is going to happen in the film because of how simple the process is but how effective it can be. storyboards also cover a lot of different aspects  such as the shots, the movement, the angles etc. These are really helpful because instead of doing the filming without any planning, it will look quite bad because no thought has gone into it whereas if there is a plan such as the use of storyboards. The whole filming process will be much more easier and the production phase will be effective and done in a quick time as well meaning there will be no time wasted on one scene. 

Planning: Target Audience Feedback

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BR5LF3Q

My group made a survey about our film openings and what people would think of it. Our survey also included about peoples fears, what conventions they think are most important and if they like horror films overall. This will give us an idea of what people will like our film and if they would go and see it or not.

I have also analysed the results i got from asking some people and i will be using the results to see if we can make some slight changes that may make the film better.

This is the first question and out of the 6 people i asked, all of them were between 16-21 and our film is aimed at that age range as well so most of them may seem interested when answering.

The second question was the gender and all of the people i asked were male, this is a mistake by me because i think i should've asked a few females as well because they may have different views.

This is the third question which was asking people what opening they preferred and majority of the people preferred the first one and people have gave their reasons for choosing the specific opening in the next question.

This was the fourth question which is carried on from the third question which is their reason for selecting that opening. There were different types of feedback but majority of the people said that the first one looked better than the second one or they said the first one seems like a good idea and very interesting.





This was the fifth question and this was about how important the conventions given and the other image is what people answered what and most people think that a secluded location is very important, this may be because there is nobody around to help them if they get in trouble. But most people think strange are not important, this may be because strange noises are very predictable because when there is a strange noise something can happen. I myself think it is important.

This is the sixth question asking people what their fears are and there were some weird fears that people have, an example would be someone is scared of octopuses but some are quite expected for example a crazy killer and ghosts.





This question was about how many times people go to the cinema per month and everybody put 1-2, this may be because they want to go more but may not be able to afford it or there are no films out that may appeal to them.







A lot of people liked horror films because they liked some of the conventions that were involved that may possibly make the film even more exciting for the audience, one person put no because they may not like all the blood and gore that gets used and other conventions.

This was the final question and it was to see what are peoples favorite horror movies, i asked this because then i will get a good idea of what i can use I,e the conjuring and the woman in black have a lot of jumps in and some people said that, so by asking this question, it can help us when creating so we know what to go for and try and make it enjoyable but scary for the audience if they were to see it.

Planning: Who Are The Target Audience?

Our film opening is targeted at people within the age range of 15-21. This meant to be aimed at people who like films that are unexpected with jumps because a lot of people like getting the feeling of being jumped because some people find it a lot more exciting than a lot of other films.

For example a person like Kiain would like this because Kiain enjoys horror movies and likes the uncertainty of what may happen such as jumps. Kiain also has a job so he can afford to go to the cinema to watch these types of films. He is also 16 so he would have no worries into getting in the film which has a certificate rating of 15.

Planning: Potential Openings

Our task was to discuss 2 different film openings. The picture shows the ideas.

Opening 1

The first film opening was an establishing shot of the dense forest which shows the location and it is set in the past. Its is about a young vulnerable character who decides to go into the forest and then they start to get chased by an unknown killer and the character gets caught after trying to escape the killer.  We have chosen to do this because it is meant to make the audience a bit frightened because the audience are meant to feel that more people are going to die in this film. We are going to use diegetic and non-diegetic sound throughout the opening because it will give it a better effect.

Opening 2

The second film opening we came up with was that a group of friends are watching TV and the TV starts to flicker black and white with some white noise we are going to use to make seem more uncomfortable for the audience and to make it even more uncomfortable, a silhouette walks past and the audience sees it but the characters don't. This is in one of the characters house before they go camping and this is meant to represent the dangers of each character as they go out into a dangerous place.

Planning: 60 Second Pitch

We were asked to pitch our film idea which was called "The Watcher". In this pitch we mentioned what the film was about, who it was aimed at and why people should go and watch it. We also used our planning ideas in the pitch.