• Holding a shot steady, where appropriate; Proficient
• Framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate; Basic to proficient
• Using a variety of shot distances as appropriate; Basic
• Shooting material appropriate to the task set; Proficient
• Selecting mise-en-scéne, including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting; Basic to proficient
• Editing so that the meaning is apparent to the viewer; Proficient
• Using varied shot transitions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set; Basic to proficient
• Using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set; Proficient
• Using titles appropriately; Proficient

1. Good use of non-diegetic sound at the start (see 5)
2. Have folio of camera flashing at same time as pictures
3. Interpret pan/envelope tool into pictures so they have a 3D effect
4. Change transitions of pictures from wipe/crossface to camera-like flash
5. Eliminate some of the pictures at the start.. 36 secs is too much
6. Why are the photos blurry? Make them clear, not distorted.
7. Lower volume of non-diegetic ‘creepy’ music at start
8. 37-1.19 — This is too much time getting ready, 1/4 it.
9. Transitions are interesting, but why are they used? They must have a purpose.
10. 17-119 – Vary shot types. Must be done.
11. 39- music, no music (Jay Z) –> Too abrupt. Eliminate.  There is also a lack of continuity with other cuts.
12. 129 — Door handle, feet?  Different shots needed.
13. Trim area in stairs – continuity –> look where the characters are at.
14. 134 — How do the audience know it’s a change of day?  151– Visually, how can this be shown? Think about flashes (camera)
15. 156 — really good.
16. Trim from 134 – 156 –> get to 156 sooner.
17. Good use of non-diegetic music at 156 — but why not use the same music from the start?
18. 151 –> why heartbeat?
19. 151-2.17 –> Varied shot types needed — feet getting up, faces, etc.
20. 224 –> why transition used?
21. 2.24 – -> the non diegetic sound stops too abruptly,.  Once again why heartbeat?
22. 2.42 –> Good white out turning into flashback with Ouija Board
23. 2.42 –>Continuity? The characters are in different positions.  3.13 –> Eliminate some – needs to be trimmed.
24. Good use of non-diegetic sound ‘No’ and close up –> 3.13
25. 3.18 –> Why is this transition used?
26. 3.30 –> Get rid of zoom out/edit down.
27. 3.35 –> close up of bag/hand needed.  Close up of Ouija board needed.  Anna’s POV needed.
28. 4.08 –> Faith’s character, must edit down – interpret a different angle.
29. 4.09 –> Good white out to introduce flashback.
30. 4.20 –> close up’s needed
31. 4.26 –> use the screaming in the background with a black screen
32. 4.28 – 4.30 –> too blurry for too long
33. 4.30 – 4.38 –> too much POV – close up’s needed of other characters.
34. What comes at the end?   Have the protagonists face with shock

Overall

Good; Use of non-diegetic sound

Target; Vary shot types and trim areas needed.

33/60

Preperation: When preparing to film our thriller we had to firstly discuss what we were going to where, where we were going to film the location of getting ready together, and when we could actually film it together.

We decided to film at my house and we sorted out the days when we were all free and got straight to filming the scene!

We did make the mistake of not writing a script together which affected our performance as sometimes we overlapped eachother as we spoke and did not know what to say. We had to film the ‘getting ready scene’ again because of this mistake as we felt it didnt quite flow as easily as it should. We used our initiative and wrote a script for the second time. This improved our performance dramatically as we were stronger in our vocals and timing of speech.

Outfits: We all decided to wear dresses as this is what most girls wear when going on a night out with her other girlfriends. We didn’t wear many accessories as sometimes if too many bangles are worn they can make clashing noises which would be overheard by the camerarecorder and disrupt our script. For the second time that we filmed this scene we all chose to wear different outfits as last time when we were filming the ‘graveyard scene’ it was really cold and we felt rushed to shoot the scene as we were so cold! It is seen in the ‘getting ready’ scene that I grab a coat.

Filming: Because our first draft of the ‘getting ready’ scene was too long, we decided not to film ourselves getting ready infront of the mirror,(putting on our makeup), for that long as it was just a waste of video time and if we needed more time for our film this time then we would use more video from the ‘grave yard’. We will also write a script for the ‘grave yard’ scene as this will make it flow easily.

We had numerous different cameramen on the first day of filming. These were: Rob Strover, Faith Adamson, Tim Rogers and myself.  Seeing as Rob was not in the first scene, he filmed us at the opening of the graveyard scene lying on the floor.  This then changes to Faith’s own perspective which she then filmed as her own point of view.  Most of the shots when she is being filmed or the camera is over my shoulder are being filmed by myself.  The flashback of the hobo is filmed by Tim Rogers.

By using these different people to film, it produces different camera angles and a variety of contrasting shots.  On our first day of shooting, we filmed at St. Andrews Church in Hornchurch on a Sunday morning.  We found this setting good, as it was quiet and far from busy.  The only problem with this was that because it was a Sunday morning, there were a few people from the church who were walking where we were filming, also the church has a bell that rings at a certain time,  so we had to avoid these both.  We could have either done it on a different day or made it a little bit later.

Storyboards are, though on the surface seemingly primitive, they are a really useful tool when shooting any kind of film. The reason they are useful, (if done properly) as they show shot by shot the progression your story takes. So as well as something to refer to if you need to be reminded of the story it reminds you of the shots you need to get to link the story together. Originally our storyboard was a more simplistic and basic than the final one you can see above. It contained only basic shots, long shot, close up and our pictures were fairly basic with no detail. We decided we needed something more detail we added in things like more shots (over the shoulder,high shot, establishing shot) and props. This only took 10 minutes put will really help us in the long run. When creating our storyboard it help to develop other aspects that we hadn’t really thought about and had over looked.We had to think about our characters and their personality and how we were going to make a link between them and the audience eventual we decided the best way to do this would to have the characters the same age as the target audience with then using the same dialogue to make it easier for the audience to relate to.

Above was our final piece but after getting feedback from our Media teacher, Mr Dunford, we were informed that we need to make a few adjustments in the continuity of the video and shorten it’s length. I will post the final edit once these changes have been made.

Costume

The characters costumes were what teenagers would chose to wear on a night out.

Props

This is a picture of a Ouija Board in which Grace, Sophie and Alice play in the first flashback thatis shown. It is then showed being played by Sophie, Ryan, Harry and Alice.

This is a picture of the camera that was used by Alice, Grace and Sophie in my bedroom as they took pictures of themselves getting ready to go out. It is then shown in a bag that the girls later find and Alice is rumaging through in the graveyard.

This is the phone that Sophie used to check the time when asked by Alice. When the phone is in shot you cannot really see the phone, it is only a close up of the time being portrayed on it’s screen.

This is the bag which was found at the graveyard scene, on the grass area in which the teenagers       wonder to when they wake up. The bag is found alongside the homeless person which leads the audience to believe it is his.

This is a picture of the makeup used in the first scene by Alice, Grace and Sophie. There are no close ups of the makeup but in the scene you can see the characters applying it.

This is a screen shot of the bracelet that is shown in the first flashback when the girls are playing with the Ouija Board and it is seen to be moving itself. It is then shown again in the graveyard scene when Sophie, Alice, Ryan and Harry decide to play with it again.

Setting

Above are screenshots taken of the settings used in our thriller film. My house, the graveyard and down Faith’s road used for the ending scene.

Mise-en-Scene

In the opening scene, shown in my bedroom of the characters getting ready I made sure the lights weren’t too dark so that the characters faces could be shown well and the props could also be seen. There are a few pictures taken in the camera that I have on my wall, which I thought was a good idea to use as it captures all of the characters at the same time instead of asking one person to hold the camera to take pictures of the other two.

In the second scene where all the characters wake up in St Andrews’ graveyard. I thought it was best that the filming was captured in the morning time as this was when the lighting was best. There were not many people up at this time wondering through the graveyard so this helped, although it was on a sunday morning which meant the church’s bells went off quite often for a while. The time also made it seem a bit foggy, which added to the effect of our thriller storyline. It also meant that we didn’t need to edit much to the film to make the atmosphere look scary.

The target audience can relate to the characters costumes and their actions as it is steriotypical of teenagers to go out at night with their friends and have a good time together. Photos are often taken before and on the night out also. The costumes that were chosen by the characters are also quite modern which will then again help relate to the age target in which our thriller is aimed at.

Storyline;

After brainstorming our new ideas for the thriller, we decided to finalize and storyboard them. They were as follows; The beginning shows 6 characters played by; Faith Adamson, Anna Chapman, Dave Badley, Tim Rogers and myself getting ready and their night out in snap shots to give a digital camera effect. These will be put in different places across the screen. The next scene is where the main protagonist (played by Faith) wakes up and is confused at her surroundings. This scene will include a few establishing shots in different angles. Faith’s character then comes across a deserted Ouija board and when touching it has a flashback which includes mine and Anna’s characters. She then stumbles across our 6th character who is a homeless person (played by Rob Strover) strewn across the grass dead. Once Faith’s character touches the homeless person, she then has another flashback of what happened to him when he found the Ouija board. By this time the others have woken up and started to explore the surroundings, finding the Ouija board and start to play it. As Faith’s character runs to warn them not to play, she finds them in an unresponsive trance. She then notices a dark figure in the background, similar to the one in the flashback The camera zooms in on the character and whilst gasping, she drops the camera and this is where it cuts out and ends.

Setting;

After looking around and finding places where we individually would be good for filming, we finally decided on a graveyard and the piece land in St. Andrew’s Church, Hornchurch. We decided that this was a good location as it is a fairly quiet and a quite deserted location which contrasts to the characters, especially as they had been out partying the night before. Looking around this setting, it is quite obviously not looked after or used very often as there are many discarded things such as shopping trolleys. This ideally would be a good place for our character the homeless person to be killed and hidden, as it is next to a graveyard and it doesn’t look as if it is visited often. These points also make the audience wonder what a group of teenagers are doing there and how they ended up in this location. We use two settings in our video; St. Andrews and my house. My house will be used in the flashbacks (when the girls are getting ready to go out and also when they are gathered around the Ouija board). We decided to use my house to have the flashbacks as her bedroom is the biggest out of our group which will allow us to have more space and be able to get different shots used. My house’s layout is helpful as her stairs lead up almost directly to my bedroom, this will allow us to be able to run up the stairs while someone is filming at the top and then the shot will become an ‘over the shoulder’ shot as we enter the room. We will be gathered around in her parents’ room with the Ouija board in the middle showing us playing with it. We will use a ‘birds eye view’ and a pan of the room which will help us to get every possible angle.

Roles; We have 6 members of cast in our thriller. They are as follows;

Girl 1 – Faith Adamson

Girl 2 – Vickie Paxton

Girl 3 – Anna Chapman

Guy 1 – Dave Badley

Guy 2 – Tim Rogers

Homeless person – Rob Strover Also we have our antagonist who is played by Dave Badley and Rob Strover in different scenes. We are also alternating the camera roles and have distributed the amount of camera work each person does between us. For example, our beginning establishing shot is filmed by Rob Strover, which then turns into a point of view shot filmed by Faith. Faith later on films her footsteps following  as she finds the Ouija board and the homeless person. Anna also does the camera work on some close-ups throughout the film. For the editing, we are all going to edit it together as a group (myself, Anna and Faith) in school and over half term. Seeing as Faith have the programmes at home, she will take the piece of film home and continue editing it herself. Rob Strover has also offered to help us with the editing in a few scenes where we want a certain effect that is available on the Adobe After Effects, this is because he has more experience with this programme and is willing to help us out. For the soundtrack, we are currently previewing a few tracks together as a group and we will decide which main soundtrack we will use and also the different sound effects which will be used throughout the film. A few examples have been included in my recent blog ‘Soundtrack Research’. We are all going to decide as a group which soundtrack will be used, and we will include whilst working on editing our video.

Title;

We chose the title ‘OuiParty’ as it incorporates the word Ouija board and Party, which is what we were doing the night before. It is also clever as when it is said outloud it sounds like ‘We Party’. We all contributed in trying to find a good name of the video. Here are a few of our ideas; Followed Death by Ouija Board A Night Out With Death The Unseen 666 Ouija We thought that these names weren’t up to the standard of OuiParty and weren’t really related to our entire storyboard whereas ‘OuiParty’ incorperates the words Ouija and party which gives the audience an idea as to what the video will be about.

Published by Faith Adamson & Vickie Paxton.

We were given the task to brainstorm our ideas for our thriller opening, below are the ideas that we have come up with so far…

Characters

• Five teenagers
• A homeless person
• A man dressed in black

The teenagers will be around the same age as us (16-17) to appeal to our target audience.

We, ourselves will be playing the three teenage girls shown in the film.

We will invite other actors to play the characters of our friends.

The ‘homeless’ character will wear fingerless gloves as this is the stereotypical item of clothes that homeless people are usually associated with.

Where will we film?

We will film at the back of a nearby church. We will have scenes that will include the graveyard, but will mainly focus on a pathway/alley that is situated near the church. The pathway is rather long and wide which allows our cameras to get a good shot of our characters running as we use this shot in one of our scenes.

When will we film?

Filming will depend on the actor’s schedules because everyone will need to be free at the same time so that we can film continously.

We will need to film during the day for some parts as a few scenes are during this time. We will also need to film during dark as this will help capture mystery and atmosphere.

Notes about shots that we could use

• At the beginning of our film we will be using snapshots swirling onto the screen of the night before. We could also use freeze frames here aswell.
• We could use the pan and zoom effect on the last freeze frame.
• We could also split the screen into four areas and have pictures of everyone in each corner.
• We will use a range of different shots to try and make the audience feel like they are in the main characters shoes, we will establish this by using a ‘point of view’ shot.
• We will use close-ups of body parts e.g. Eyes opening, hands pressing against the ground as the characters awake and we will be filming the characters feet as they run away.
• Low angle shots of the man in black and shots that do not show his face. This will add a sense of anxiousness to the viewer.
• We could end the film on a close-up of the man in black’s feet with the camera slowly going up his body, then it could cut out and end on a black screen. This makes the audience wonder what he looks like and what will happen next to the girl and her boyfriend.

Below is a clip from the film Lord of rings;

In this clip is a character wearing a black cloke. When our group first watched this we found that the character, by wearing the cloke around his head, creates the feeling of needing to know more about the character. We have decided to use this in our film and also add suspense by never showing the audience what the man looks like without his face covered.

Below is a clip from Final Destination;

This short clip from the film shows flashbacks that one girl has. This is the effect we would like to use in our thriller.

Published by Vickie Paxton