Shooting Schedule

Locations

For our opening title sequence we have taken the idea of our crime scene to take place in an ally. Therefore, in order to prepare for our filming we had to establish specific locations that we were interested to film in and also set our storyline that would be appealing to the audience keeping them interested and one that also fitted the thriller genre. Taking into consideration the British market that our independent film our aiming towards, we used a local location in Carshalton. The local setting also is supported by our feedback from our survey that we completed with results identifying that viewers preferred to see a local setting for a thriller compared to an extravagant one.

The first of the photographs show an ally in the dark. We experimented with the two contrasts of lighting in order to ring out which one was more suited to our thriller genre. 

The second of the photos showed another ally however this time we looked at the angles we wanted to film at. This photo was taken to show the possible idea of creating the murder scene down a straight ally rather the third photo of the possibility of shooting the scene in a more complex layout, however this would allow us to have a larger variety of angles. 

We also filmed in the location of our schools photography dark room. This location was used as a lair for our killer, were we filmed all our extreme close-ups.  We chose this location as the lighting provided a dark and gloomy atmosphere that was perfect for a thriller genre. 

Main Title Ideas

Coming up with an idea for our main title was hard as we all had to discuss ideas and come up with a name that was fitting for our thriller genre and also catchy and memorable for the target audience.

Fonts Research

Using the word Hamburgevons to show off the typography of each font, we searched for possible fonts to use for the main title as well as the headings. As we have not come up with our Main title, it's difficult to tell which one would work for our opening sequence. However we felt that a messy, rugged font such as "True Lies" would look great for the Main title as it shows aspects of mystery mixed in with horror being dramatic and bold as well as strange. For the headings we decided a type writer font (Like "times new yorker")would work great as it would relate to our theme of detectives and their cases.

Casting

 

Actor: Matthew Tizzard

Character: Jack Matthews - The recently deceased co worker of the protagonist - Hugh Green

I volunteered for the role of Jack Matthews as I have had previous experience in performing. My appearance combined with the costume will match that of the characters bio and the features found out from the target audience research. Besides my looks and experience i was also chosen as i don't mind getting dirty, lying down on our set in the middle of the street, in front of people. Plus it might be fun.

 

 

 

Actor: Peter Smiles

 

Character: Hugh Green - The protagonist determined to find out the killer of his co-worker and friend - Jack Matthews

 

I was involved in the filming as my looks, age and build helped convey the character that 'The Unit' production team wanted to portray. The character also appeared interesting and I wanted to over come the challenge set to me.

 

  

 

Target Audience Research

Background Music and Sound Effects

We choose this as a draft or starting point for background music as it is calming however it still builds tension slowly for the audience by the use of the piano. We also think that we could put sound effects over the backing track because the music itself is not over developed and complex so it wont be too manic for an opening sequence.







We also have chosen the piece of canon music as it sounds a more realistic Gun shot rather than the actual hand gun sound effects. The sound also has a steady continuous after effect of the shot which makes it more dramatic and we would like to put it in the first 30 seconds of the opening sequence before the audience is visually introduced to the opening sequence.  

Props List

Order of Titles

In class we discussed the order we would expect to view the names of the production team and actors within our film. To plan this we studied another film opening and noted the order and appearance of their opening titles and credits in order to correctly complete ours. 

Costume List









Production Ident

In class we planed and created our own company and developed a production ident for it to be used within our film opening.

 

Animatic

In class we presented our film animatic's that were watched and then evaluated by other groups to give us vital feedback in how we could improve our animatic making it a higher quality level of work.

We were given advice on the camera shots we used, editing, sound and also the overall storyline seeing whether or not it was a good pace and understandable.


Feedback from the camera shots was positive with people commenting that we have a wide range which we were hoping would add pace and interest to our title sequence.

The evaluation of our storyline seemed again positive with accurate interpretations of what was happening in the animatic such as the visiting of the crime scene and the investigating of the previous cases.

Editing was suggested to be shortened between some transitions as it was pointed out that some were to long making the animatic lose pace and interest. However the way in which characters are introduced was positively commented which supported our initial idea of having silhouettes which was an unsure idea previous to the animatic.

Lastly, sound was commented on to build suspense and also helped to support the storyline. Although some said the opening sound which was correlating with the blackout was extended to much making the suspense fade therefor this needs to be shortened in order to keep the audience engaged and the opening intense.

Overall I was impressed with how the opening of our title sequence was developed in the animatic as it gave me a clear ide of what to expect from our actual opening. All the shots were carefully constructed and well drawn with the score being well matched to our animatic. What I will consider changing in future sue to the feedback suggested is the speed of the transitions helping to keep pace.  

Memento - Analysis of an opening sequence

Target Audience Reaserch

This data allows us to base our protagonists personality, character and appearance around our data recorded by survey monkey. Majority of people said that he would beat the antagonist and a strong minded male. Another popular aspect of a protagonist would be heroic. Our group are using the data and re-developing our protagonist to a more younger male who has a strong mind and body to complete the situations in hand. We also had a response that said ‘Cares about those around him’. This could be used however I believe this could become into the conventions of action-adventure. 

The data given to us shows that the antagonist should be a foreign male who is from a stereotypical ‘evil’ country. Our research also said that he should have characteristics of him being sly and cunning. As a group decided these were the best responses form our feedback and have chosen these specific feedback to develop our antagonist.

 

In our survey we asked the gender of our audience, the majority was male, indicating we will most likely aim our film towards the male gender.

  In our survey we asked the age group of our audience, the majority who responded were under 18 and so we will be aiming our film at around that age group.

 Within our survey we asked the question of what conventions people expected to see when watching a Thriller film - gaining a wide range of results. The main answers involved adding suspense and mystery to the atmosphere. Therefor my group and I will focus on this within the opening sequence to allow the film to begin by drawing in the audiences attention and making them feel on edge and unnerved. Another common result was having detectives/cops as characters which supports the character ideas that my group and I held. Lastly, a good plot twist was also a common answer meaning that my group and I must include a well thought out and gripping narrative that incorporate a shocking twist to keep the audience entertained and the film inline with the genre of Thriller.

We asked the people taking part in our survey whether or not they found it important to share a relation with the main character of the film. The biggest response was ‘yes’ with 54.55%. Because of this result my group and I will try to incorporate likeable and also common personality traits into our main character allowing the audience to feel a bond resulting in them wanting to see the character succeed.

We asked the audience what they thought about violence in films, there were mixed reactions but most said that it can be good to an extent and if used creatively, this had made us think about the amount of violence we should show in our extract and if it is needed.

                                                                                                     

Production Logo Evaluation