Final Group Thriller - Miss Georgiou

Disturbia final cut

West hatch high school 16807

Molly Emmerson 9327

I worked alongside with

Jake Butler 9313

Claire Golightly 9334

Rough Cut - Miss Georgiou

Rough Cut

Introduction

Now that we have completed a rough cut of our thriller opening it is necessary that we take action in to getting feedback to how we can make improvements. Audience feedback is always important when making anything as they have a very big impact on how you are able to make improvements. We are able to see where we have made mistakes or could change things slightly to make it more appealing to our audience. In our own group we have been oblivious to how we could make certain improvements and having an outsiders perspective broadens our knowledge.

We receive our audience feedback from posting our rough cut on youtube and gaining comments from various people. I have also shown my rough cut to the whole of my media class getting positive and negative comments from my teachers and fellow students. I where also able to look back on our questionnaires and use them to incorporate a new range of questions to ask friends and family what they thought of my thriller opening. I asked my sister Emily Emmerson, 15 years of age a number of questions one of them was. 

Would you carry on watching this if it was a feature length film?

She replied with: Yes because the story seems interesting and i want to know more about the character Cameron and what happens to Harmony at the end.

This shows me that we have been successful with connecting to our target audience which was aimed at people ages 15 and above.

Feedback

Here we see two opinions taken from our thriller opening on you tube. Kerry Boyne has stated that she thinks the narrative is successful as she believes it engages the audience this is something we planed to achieve while planning and making our thriller opening as we included a variety of characters that each had a specific role within our thriller. A constructive comment she also gave us was that we should add more low-key lighting which is something I agree on as when the character Cameron is committing suicide the lighting should be darker and gloomy to build suspense for the audience. 

Here we are able to see two comments, one from Amy-Michaela Sowerby and another from Malu Pillai. Amy mentions that we have used a good amount of variation in our shots. She has mentioned adding a sound effect when Cameron's character appears behind Harmony at the end of our thriller opening. I agree that this would shock the audience even more by adding a high-pitched noise that could even scare the audience a little, making them feel a lot of adrenaline. Malu also like the idea of our narrative which indicates to us that using a mentally unstable character was a successful choice to make. She also states that darker filters should be used which I agree with as I think it will help us when creating a very suspenseful atmosphere.

Bettie states that the editing is well presented in our thriller. The smooth crossover transition we used in our thriller has been successful in achieving an overall smooth opening thriller that flows well. She also suggests that we should make the credits longer in our film as they are hard to see which I agree with. Its important for an audience to be able to see who is in our film and who is directing it etc etc. This is why we should change our opening credits to make them longer and easier to read.

Conclusion

Overall our thriller opening seems to have been rather successful at intriguing our audience and making them shocked and full of suspense at some points. Although we now have realised that there are a number of things we can improve on and this can be how we make even better improvements on our thriller opening by making the atmosphere overall alot more shocking and thrilling

Risk Assesment - Miss Georgiou

Risk Assessment

Introduction

Risk assessments are lists of hazards that could be present when filming and taking part in any activities to do with finishing our film successfully and safely 

Risk assessments are important as they are able to separately demonstrate what kind of things we need to be extra careful with and wary of. When using dangerous iconography and weapons within our scene we need to ensure that we are using these responsibly and carefully not putting anyone in harms way. 

This helps with filming as it provides a way to state and think about all the dangers we could encounter. For starters we will need to be careful when filming in busy local areas. People are not used to delays and will not usually care about getting in the way and ruining a shot. In addition to this when walking into roads we need to make sure that everyone is vigilant and knows that there is no danger between us and incoming vehicles on the road. 

Conclusion

Overall the main focus that we have on keeping everyone safe is to be very observant and know our surroundings. We need to make sure we are safe and secure when trying to film our opening thriller sequence. Not only do we need to focus on everyone's safety but we need to be aware of what in our shot. We need to make sure that no one is visible in our shot that shouldn't be there and we need to make sure that our locations look realistic and believable. Overall we need to keep an eye out for little things that could really ruin a shot.

Production Roles - Miss Miller

Production Roles

Introduction 

When making or creating an opening sequence there are a lot of different tasks and jobs that need to be handled most of these jobs contain a lot of work. This means that most of these roles needs to be dealt with separately and this is why we have tried to evenly give each person in our group a good amount of work that needs to be done.

Producer (Production Name)

Our producer is GoButson. This company was created by us and the idea came form Jake Butler to merge all our last names together to presented our opening sequence in a much more personal way.

Directors

We decided that the best people to have the role as the Directors was myself and Claire as it was our individual ideas that where very similar and would work well together. This meant that we where both very ambitious to come up with a group narrative that displayed some sort of disturbed character. We knew exactly how we wanted this character to be portrayed and we needed the directors to have a lot of creative ideas to be able to successfully create this type of opening sequence. We wanted people from our group that made an effect into the work to be the directors. This meant that it required leadership skills.

Actors

Our main character Cameron, is played by Morgan Brown. We choose Morgan as we felt like he was able to appear as a good antagonist with streaks of innocence. Morgans family has always taken an interest into acting and he always enjoyed it at school and succeeded in GCSE. The same goes to the character of Grace (the mother). This character is played by Grace Wingrove. She informed as that she took GCSE drama and finished the year with an A. Finally the character of Harmoney is played by myself. We decided I would be a good fit with this character as I always always available to film and help out behind the scenes when off screen.

Director of Photography

We decided that Claire would be a very good fit into having responsibility with shooting the scenes. She has always taken an interest into photography and has had experience with shooting footage at family events such as her cousins wedding. She was also the one that filmed the preliminary task and proved to the rest of the group that she had the ability to film a numourus amount of creative and intriguing shots.

Music Producers

We decided to share the role of the music producers as we all have different tastes. Jakes prefers Rap. Claire like calming music such as acoustics. I prefer Indie and Alternative. After I showed them the song 'Tip Toe Through The Tulips'  we all agreed that this was a suitable paralell sound to be demonstrated in our thriller.

Screenplay Writer

We deicided that the person who fitted the role for screenplay writer was in fact Jake. He has a lot of skill when writing due to the fact he is taking english language at A-level. This means he must be the most suitable for the role and would be able to handle this job well enough.

MES co-coordinators 

Jake did gcse media, aswell as myself which meant we had a wider knowledge on what is suited to the thriller genre through the presentation of the MES conventions. He seemed to know the best type of lighting and probs to use that resembled the MES thriller conventions very well.

Editor

I took on the role as the editor as the group knew I had experience at GCSE. This meant that I would know how to use the editing software and get the hang of it quickly. I was able to know what type of editing was suitable to a thriller. This is because in my GCSE media coursework I had to produce an opening to a thriller similar to the task we have now.

Jake

Jake's roles where to take on the role of the MES co-ordinator and The screenplay writer. He also had a little part of playing Cameron's voice overs in our opening thriller. Jake was very good at voicing his opinions and getting across his ideas. This enabled me and Clarie to set up scenes and make sure the props and lighting was correct. If Jake was to improve on his role he should participate more in actually doing the work and take more of an interest within his roles.

Claire

Claire took on the roles of camera man and one of the directors. She was very successful at using creative shots and she used the equipment very well. She was able to always create a steady shot. As a director she was very good at coming up with locations and her input was always needed and helpful to all of the group. If she was to do something different within her role it would be to challenge the camera even more by experimenting with unusual shots.

Molly

I took on the role of editor and shared the role of director with Claire. I really enjoyed editing and tried to make the transition as smooth as possible. I liked watching back on footage with Claire and deciding whether it was suitable and what would've been done to improve it. I decided that if I was to do anything different I would take more time on the editing and concentrate on making sure it was a pristine as possible.

Conclusion

Overall filming was successful and everyone was suited to there role. Although an improvement on having certain roles would be to assign Jake with a more technical role such as director or camera man. This may have pushed him and all of use to be more organised and have everyone make an equal effort not just some of the group.

Opening Scene Narrative - Miss Miller

Opening Scene Narrative

Introduction

Our very first frame consists of a long shot. The location is the school corridor and the frame shows an example of the character Cameron pulling along the chair and facing his death. The sound will be very simple during this scene as the focus is on the squeaking sound of the chair. The scene continues onto a median shot the sounds and frame remains similar focusing on just building the tension. The scene then portrays Cameron opening the door to the scene with the stair case. This shot is median and all you hear now is the door creaking slowly, this flows into a close up of the door and shuts firmly to show how trapped Cameron is. The scene then fades to black and is reunited with a close up of him tying the rope around the metal staircase. The location remains very dusty and damp looking and the use of iconography is present here as the chair and scarf (used as rope) is seen. As the character Cameron steps onto the chair Erie sounds begin to be heard non-dieageticlly towards the audience. A close up of Cameron's lifeless face is then presented. We use makeup under his eyes to show the exhaustion. His facial expressions remain to appear as if he has given up. The cinematography then begins to change as we zoom out into a medium shot. The editing is very slow in this scene as we plan to use slow motion to prolong his death, creating tension. The final frame to this scene is used with a median shot. You see his legs continuously struggling. The iconography remains the same and all we see is the chair being kicked over. The sound track remains gloomy to create the effect and realisation that his life is coming to an end. The positioning of the character Cameron remains very unsettled as we see his struggle after committing suicide. The editing then comes in from a big fade/flash transition to show we have actually gone back in time to where Cameron's struggles began. 

The first frame suggests that Cameron had a 'normal' family life. The sounds of eating is present and the long shot is used to show the positioning of the characters which is Mother and son placed awkwardly at different ends of the table. The iconography in this scene is the cutlery and 'food' that is left out for them to eat. The constant sound of eating and knives against the plate is heard and the lighting remains quiet natural considering this is the evening. The following scene is a point of view shot form Cameron's view he is looking at his mother she begins to nag him, talking about a doctors appointment. Her facial expression remains concerned and the only diagetic sound we hear is the mother raising her voice about how she believes Cameron has behaved. A close up of Cameron stabbing his knife into the his toast is used here. We see the anger in the way he uses this iconography which builds up the audiences perspective of what type of character Cameron is. We then see Cameron's whole body language. His position remains very stiff and his facial expression remains very tense. The lighting is now darker as the scenes atmosphere fades. The sound of his mothers dialogue is faded as Cameron's concentrations turns dark. The next scene shows an extreme close up of Cameron's dark eyes. Erie sounds begin to take place as we see the frustration in his facial expression. A sudden fade is then brought in which lasts roughly 3 seconds. Cameron shuts his eyes. After a flash transition the frame is led from Cameron's point of view and the use of iconography is used and repetition is used showing of the knife is continued. The short violent scene are brought to the audiences attention in quick editing. The character Grace is shown being stabbed and falls off her chair why she then looks confused and dazed after being wounded. Cameron then remains in power as we see him struggle to maintain purity as he murders his mother. We hear nothing but the soundtrack being played, which is a cover of Tiny Tim's - Tip Toe Through The Tulips. This parallel sound is played as Grace struggles to get her son off of her. Although this diabetic sound is muffled, We are able to here Cameron's muffled breathing. The lighting is still dark at this point to show that his 'dark' side is present. 

The title 'Disturbia' Is the portrayed on the screen while we continuously here the soundtrack Tip Toe Through The Tulips.

The final scene is then demonstrated.With a medium shot that shows Harmony walking. We are able to see a deserted looking street and bush to the right. The following shot remains quiet low and only shows half of her body. Her phone then begins to ring and a median shot it used to present her answering the phone. When the phone remains fuzzy and threatening she panics and a POV shot is shown as she frantically looks around to see if anyone is watching. Cameron replies with 'Cameron's Not Here Anymore' - As Harmony walks off we see her in a black coat. She wears all black to annotate that danger is near for her. We got Cameron to remain in a suit almost to show the contrast in characters. When his innocent he wears white. When he is in black he is evil and the fact he is in a suit at the end shows that this is only the beginning for Cameron. His 'protagonist side' wants to trick the audience into thinking his in charge.

Conclusion
If this was an entire film the storyline would continue to show how Cameron's innocent side deals with the guilt which leads him to his suicide and how does the film actually end does Cameron really die. The fact that Cameron appears to kill himself at the start shows how our thriller opening differ to stereotypical thrillers. In conclusion to our opening scene narrative we have successful attempted to include all the micro-elements that need to be presented in a conventional thriller opening.

Filming Schedule - Miss Georgiou

Filming Schedule

Introduction

A filming schedule is something that allows us to be more organised with what we are doing. It causes us to communicate with each other and the actors. Overall we are able to discuss which lessons and days after school we are free to all film. We are able to know the date and time of which we will be meeting and taking part in the participation of our opening film. In addition to this our frame looks more organised as we are able to see what iconography and equipment is needed and who is going to actually be needed in this particular scene.

This helped us a lot with planning our opening sequence. We was able to have an overview of what was needed in each scene. Having a filming schedule made us feel a lot more secure with what we where producing as the scenes that where created in our minds come to life on paper.

Although our filming schedule was made to help us become more organised and take a more realistic approach into filming our opening sequence. We still had to consider all the possibilities that it may not go exactly to plan. We actually changed the location of the bus stop scene that was filmed on the 3rd of December due to the fact that it was an awkward place for us to get to and none of us could make it within a reasonable time sequence. The location was changed to a street outside our school which made it accessible to the actors and production team.

Another part of the filming schedule that we wanted to follow but didn't always stick to was the length of the shots. This was due to a number of reasons, such as actors. In some scenes they would laugh or get distracted and this created a divergent in how long the scenes/shots had to be this was because of the effect that we needed to create without anyone smiling or laughing in the shots. This resulted in a number of the shots being cut down and very short. 

Our third most significant problem that occurred when following the filming schedule was the fact that we had to re shoot a part of the opening scene. When Cameron's character drags the chair. This is because the scene was filmed in the school and some posters where seen in the background this was filmed the week after we thought we had finished all our filming completely but as we went to edit it. We realised that the part of the scene that needed to be changed didn't look right. 

Conclusion

Overall the filming schedule is used to organise and keep up with the different scenes and times for filming. If we wern't able to organise the different days and times of filming then we would struggle to keep up with the work. In addition to this we are able to see what changed we made and what was successful when planing our filming schedule we where able to notice the differences that have occurred when starting to plan our thriller sequence and finishing our thriller opening.

Group Storyboard - Miss Miller

Group Storyboard

 Introduction

This project is done in groups which means it is crucial for it to work properly. It needs to be able have a number of different opinions and ideas added to it, without it being a solo project. To do this we needed to combine our individual storyboards to eventually create something that would equally have a share of ideas into it.

We had to go through each storyboard and individually assess each one of them. We was able to pull out successful features from each one and successfully add different perspectives of what we want our final opening sequence to look like. 

The first ever shot, demonstrated in frame 1 was taking from Claire's original storyboard we all agreed that having him walk towards the camera prolonged the scene and the walking which built up tension and fore-shadowed his death. This use of cinematography was a long shot which means we are able to see the long corridor that is also represented in the scene and adds to the suspense of the prolonged walk. In addition to this we see him dragging the long rope and chair which was iconography taken from all of the groups storyboard as we all agreed these where the best props to use and the audience may begin to question where he is actually heading, resulting in them feeling anxious towards for the character Cameron his body language here also indicates that his giving up so the audience know wherever he is heading he is not going to be safe and enjoying  it.

In the next scene we see a combination of both mine and Claire's idea of how to build enigma before he jumps. In Claire's scene she focused on using a close up of his face whereas in mine, I have continued to use a median shot which also began to pan out. The aim we had was to combine our frames together and create a zooming out shot that started focused on his facial expressions then zoomed out to his body, for the audience to see the rope wrapped around his neck. This overall is a much more effective use of cinematography as we decided it focuses on the two most important things. His facial expressions and his body language, with the iconography present. This is conventional to a thriller as the audience are able to see the two most important things in this scene his facial expressions and body language as well as the iconography used which is the rope. Leading the audience into knowing what he is about to do. This idea was taken from Shutter Island as in my own storyboard I said about how close ups and facial expressions are crucial when trying to connect the audience to our characters.

Above we are able to see the start of an idea from Claire and myself. We where able to figure out a way to add a range of our different shot techniques but still save time and not spend too long on separate frames. We decided to add a 'montage-like' type of footage. We decided to have a numerous amount of angles portraying the mothers death but then turn it into a very fast scene with a lot of impact. The transitions will be almost like a flash racing across the screen and each frame will last about 3 seconds. We also thought it may be a good idea to piece together a range of blackouts during the 'montage' to create even more suspense within the scene. After the mothers death we then go on to introduce the title. This is when Jake agreed that this was a good idea to play our soundtrack - Tip Toe Through The Tulips.

The final shot was taken from my own storyboard in frame 24 we decided to leave it on a cliffhanger and decided this was the best way to do it. The way that the character Cameron lingers in the background, but the focus is not on him will cause uncertainty towards the audience. The audience will question his body language and facial expressions as they will remain unclear. The fact that the only facial expression to be seen will be Harmony's will remain very frightening for the audience to watch as they may be unsure as to what is going to happen to her as a character. The build up to this shot it complimented by a range of different panicking frames. In frames 20, 21, 22 and 23 They all remain to focus on different things such as her feet moving uncomfortably and the audience being able to see her panicking through frame 23. All these techniques where chosen by all of us as a group and we have worked together to achieve a number of shots that imply that the character Harmony is weak and vulnerable and appears to be being 'watched'. 

Conclusion

We had to compromise on a number of things through each stage of completing our plan. When we first thought of our group narrative we had a range of ideas and settings that we thought we could use. Initially we wanted a very dark, dirty room to be used for the suicide and wanted to use Claire's cellar. Unfortunately this wasn't possible due to the fact that the space was to small to film and there was to many of us to all contribute into making this scene as perfect as possible in such a small space. So while drawing and creating our storyboard we evidently came up with the idea of having to use a staircase on the school premises. Doing this meant that the lighting and atmosphere may not be as we planned but in editing we are going to add filters that will hopefully create more erie lighting. If I where able to change any elements of our storyboard it would be to maybe prolong the beginning. Maybe add more shots and longer time frames to prolong the suicide even more. This would build the overall feel of the opening sequence and contribute in creating a successful thriller opening.