Main Brief Pre-Production: Pitch

Here is the pitch we presented to our classmates. The pitch contained our initial ideas for our main brief, as well as ideas for media institutuions we could work with for our brief. We decided to have teenagers and young adults as our target audience as our research into film ratings revealed the most popular rating for horror films was 15. If pur film was reated 15, it would allow us to include more graphic, explicit and scary themes/ special effects whilst also allowing the majority of our target audience the opportunity to watch the brief.

 

We were inspired by Barthes Theory of Engima and Strauss's Theory of Binary opposition when creating the story line of our main brief. We used Barthes enigma theory towards the end of the opening of the brief, as the viewer is left perplexed about what happened to Rosalie (why she looks like she has battered) and why Caroline seems so affected by the appearance of Rosalie (the flashback reveals they were friends.) We were inspired by Strauss when creating our characters- Caroline (the protagonist) is wearing a white top, jeans and layers of coats. The antagonsit- Rosalie- is wearing a black lace dress and no jacket. There is a contrast of black and white with the clothing and there is also a contrast in the projection of the protagonist and antagonist- Caroline is loud and projects her voice well, whilst Rosalie only whispers. These elements reveal influences of both Barthes and Strauss.

Planning the pitch:

 

Main Brief Recce's

 

(These are shots of the ideal time for filming due to the atmosphere and mood implied by the colour of the sky.)

 

Mini Brief: Filming Day

Once we had finalised our production preparation, it was time for us to film. We booked out a Canon 600D camera with an 1855mm (Kit) lens to use for filming, as this type of camera allows us to adapt the ISO and aperture which would create a dark image with lots of shadows (which are conventions of the thriller genre.)

When we reached our filming location we first started to clear up any rubbish that would intrude in our shots. This included moving chairs, tables and relocating barrels (inside the cupboard.) In the process we discovered that the lights from the adjoining room did not sufficiently illuminate the cupboard we were filming in .  We knew that there were no lights in the cupboard but the camera could not detect shapes due to the lack of light, so the filming quality was blurry. To adapt to this problem, we used torches from our phones to illuminate the corners of the cupboard. This meant we could manoeuvre and manipulate the lighting to show important things (such as the face of the hostage) but to also create shadows that would convey a tense atmosphere.

Once filming it took us a few shots to realise that the camera was out of focus. The cameraman (Abigail) figured out how to use autofocus shortly after saying 'action' and the filming quality improved dramatically. The filming process went well, despite having some problems with the size of our filming location. The main issue was lighting (As mentioned  above) and space. Whilst following the 180° rule we came to the realisation that it was hard to film a low angle shot of the interrogator (portrayed by Bethan) in a cupboard around 2 metres wide with a filing cabinet, barrel and hostage (portrayed by Beth) in the way. We were able to overcome these difficulties by slightly moving the barrel so the cameraman had enough space to crouch down when filming.

Here are some screenshots from the clips we filmed (and before we started the editing process!)

 

 

 

Mini Brief: Pre-Production Storyboard Draft

Following our visit to the location, we drafted a storyboard of our sequence.

 

Mini Brief: Pre-Production Storyboard Planning

We returned to our shooting location to take initial still shots for our storyboard. We planned when to use match on action and shot reverse shot, as well as how we could use the 180° rule. We took shots of where our characters would be placed in the sequence and worked out what shot types we could use (close up, mid shot, POV, panning, follow shot etc.)

Mini Brief: Pre-Production Recées

We went to look for the perfect location for filming our short sequence. We kept the conventions of horror in mind, and were able to find a small space with low lighting (but sufficient to film in) with dark corners for shadows. There is graffiti on the walls and the tight conditions create a 'suffocating' effect which creates tension and builds suspense. Here are some Recces' of our proposed filming location: