Audience Response To Film - Hide & Seek

After completing our film we watched our film and others groups during a lesson with our tutor, assessing each others films and commenting on the strengths, and weaknesses of each film. Below is an audience response on the strengths and weaknesses that pupils in our class commented on about our film (Hide and Seek).

Strengths: 

• Good use of sound and sound effects; screeching sounds whilst words swiped in.
• Good use of special effects e.g. the slow motion and swiping of words effect.
• Good variety and wide range of shots used; establishing shots, close ups, panning shot etc. 
• Good use of camera angles;  high angle and low angle shots.
• Good build up of tension through sound and editing
• Good use of enigma codes.  

Weaknesses and improvements: 

• Few camera shakes whilst filming. 
• A minor jump between transitions affecting the flow in camera shots.
• One pupil said the zoom we used was a little to fast, although we felt we needed a fast zoom in order to be safe in not exceeding the 2 minute film time limit. 
• Another pupil suggested when the camera cuts from Louise counting one... two... three... to where the people were hiding, we could have carried on the counting adding a voice over at these cuts, instead of going back to Louise counting five... six... seven... and missing out the number four. 
• Also we could have filmed the outside establishing shot of the house during dusk, instead of filming at daytime, as someone mentioned this would add to the codes and conventions of a Thriller, also adding to the suspense. 

If we were to reproduce this film we would take these improvements into consideration and use these points to improve our film. 


 

Hide & Seek - Film Evaluation

Our brief was to construct the opening sequence of a Thriller film, including titles and a wide range of different camera shots. The opening sequence was to be aimed at audiences of 15 or 18 certificates and must not be more than two minutes long.

In what ways does your Film, develop or challenge forms and conventions of existing Films? 

Firstly I analysed a set of different existing thriller film opening sequences, some of which included; 'Physco', 'Vertigo' (both by Alfred Hitchcock) and also 'The Secret Window'. I found the opening of Vertigo very clever as the camera zoomed into a woman's eye and then faded into a spiral creating a lexical field of disillusion, leaving the audience confused as to what is happening, and still keeping the shape of the eye. The spiral continued revolving symbolising the womans eye, until the camera then zoomed out and faded back to the womans eye. This then inspired me and my group to come up with the Idea of using a close up camera shot of an object and then fading it into another object of the same shape and outline (developing the forms and conventions existing films). We decided to use the circular outline of our production company (photoplay), and to then fade this into a circular light on the outside of the house, slowly zooming out from this to an establishing shot of the house. Although some of our ideas were inspired from other thriller films, we wanted to create a different thriller opening that was unique and different to existing ones (challenging the forms and conventions of existing films) We had studied Saul Bass in class and looked at the work he had done to create the opening of Vertigo. I then researched more on Saul Bass and his work within films and found he produced the opening of the famous James Bond film 'Casino Royale'. We watched these Thriller opening sequences to find out the typical codes and conventions of a thriller, and to also look at what camera shots and angles are used. We could then get an idea of what shots most thrillers use as an opening sequence. 

As our thriller piece was only a title sequence, we were not able to follow the rule of Todorov's theory (equillibrium, dis-equillibrium, equillibrium restored), although many thriller films usually follow this structure. The purpose of a title sequence at the beginning of a film, is to give the audience an inset as to what the film is about, it gives the audience subtle clues as to what may happen, and leaves them pondering and thinking over what they may expect in the film. Basically the opening of a thriller builds up suspense, leaves the audience puzzled; questioning the outcome plot of the film, and gives clues as to what the film is about. The answers are then usually revealed at the end of the film. Music, lighting, camera shots, sounds and mise-en-scene are all linked and combined in some way to create a successful thriller piece. These five film factors are all used effectively and all play an important part when producing a thriller.

How does your film represent particular social groups?      

Our film consists of a group of four young teenagers, who have a sleepover party. When one of the girls (Louise) decides to go and get a glass of water, one member of the group has an idea to hide from her. Louise comes back from getting her glass of water and notices her friends have gone. She realises they are playing a game of hide and seek; "playing hide and seek are we?". What the group doesn't realise is that someone is watching there game, someone is peering in through the window, some kind of stalker. One of the girls get locked in a cupboard in which she is hiding in, by this 'stalker', the scene ends with the girl screaming for help, whilst the rest is a mystery for the audience to wonder upon. Our film is represented with an ordinary group of young teenagers. The actors in our film are aged 16/17 which means they can relate back to the teenage social group. 

What kind of media institution might distribute your film and why?

Being as we are amateurs and have not produced the full film only the opening title sequence, I would distribute my film virally, on sites such as youtube where the majority of web videos are viewed and discussed, and Facebook where the majority of my target audience would be able to view and discuss, also my video would then get widely spread quickly. If my film was fully produced and I could get the sufficient amount of funding for my film I would consider distributing my film to a small British institute such as DNA films. 

I have found many thriller openings, in fact the majority of thriller openings include very little or no dialogue, this is because the director does not want to give away much of the actors identity away, this is left for the audience to work out. Also there is usually a mysterious yet sophisticated location for the opening of the thriller, adding to the anxiety and leaving the audience to anticipate whats happening. Ambient soundtrack is also used in most thriller openings, this is also to increase tension and create a sense of illusion. Low key lighting may often be used to create an eerie atmosphere. Orchestral music is commonly used in thriller openings, as the powerful sound creates suspense adding to the conventions of a thriller. 

Before filming we first had to plan and think in groups of what we were going to do. In our group we came up with many ideas, we got some of our ideas from thriller stories online which inspired us. After discussing and thinking up a brief outline to the story of our thriller, we decided to title our film, 'hide and seek'. We thought this title was best suited for our film, as it described the film and was quite simple not over complicated, but also effective. We tried out many different fonts and writing styles but decided to go with a simple effective font, instead of making the title look over the top (messy). The location we choose to film at was Zack's house, we choose this location as there is a lot of area surrounding the house, the house is quite big and paramount, and also there is a wooden balcony situated and the back end of the house, which we thought would be good to use or take some shots from. The house is also in a remote surrounding which we thought would add to the suspense of the thriller. Many of our group members lived close by which also helped to determine this area which we were going to film at. Once at the location of filiming (zacks house), we had to set up props, mark out postioning of objects, and cover or take down any mirrors that would obstruct our filming.

Who would be the audience for your media product (film)?
In our group we decided not to show or use any violence in our film. Instead we came up with an idea of having a stalker peering through the glass windows whilst a group of friends were playing a game of 'hide and seek', gradually building up the tension and suspense. The stalker then gets into the house and locks one of the girls in a cupboard which she is hiding in (buliding up tension), the girl is then left screaming for someone to help her, the opening sequence is then cut to a close up of a light on the outside of the house, the camera then zooms out from the light to an establishing shot of the house, fading into the title 'Hide and Seek'. The audience for our film would mainly consist of 15 year olds to young adults who enjoy the the Thriller film genre. The rating for our film would be 15 certificate.

How did you attract/address your audience?          

Once the scene ends the audience is then left to work out what will happen next. An actor in our film (Louise Howard) begins counting before she goes looking for her friends; 1,2,3,4....5,6,7..... etc. we decided between each block of numbers we would have a cut to show the friends running off to hide. During the editing stage we also decided to put the words, 'you can run', 'but', 'you can't hide', in during the pauses between counting. To add to the tension of the piece, we added screching music as the words slid in, we thought this would be effective and add to the anxiety. We also agreed to not show our protagonist's face (the stalker), as we felt this would give away a lot of his identity, where as we wanted to leave this a mystery so that the audience would be puzzled as to who he is, we felt this would add to the suspense not knowing who the killer/ stalker is. By using young teenage actors in our film this helped to attract the teenage audience. Also the game Hide and Seek is a well known children's game, meaning the audience of teenagers/young adults, would be able to relate to this. The sounds and SFX in the film would also appeal to, and attract our target audience e.g the screeching sound effects and tense build up in music. 

 

Intially we was going to film, during dusk just as it began to get dark, although this would have not been possible, as this would of affected the lighting and shots would not come out as clear due to the darkness outside. To avoid this problem and stick to the dark creepy feel, we edited the lighting of the piece making the shots a dark dull colour.

Many people would argue that our opening sequence is more in the style of a trailer, as one member of the class criticised, although this is the effect we wanted to achieve. The story to our thriller film is that a group of young teenagers are having a sleepover, but what they don't realise is that there is someone watching them some kind of stalker. The stalker gets into the house and locks a girl in the cupboard left screaming for help. The audience is left to wonder what may happen. We decided that this would be the opening title sequence and that the film would be shown a few years on to when the group have grown up and are adults.

We used many camera shots and different angles in our film. The shots used to produce this sequence were; low angle as the group of friends ran to hide, establising shot of the house, panning around the empty room to give the effect of the girl looking around the room, close up of the give counting, and camera zooms in and out towards and from the outside house light (we also edited in a rippling effect here, that faded from the photoplay production logo).

What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing your film?

From producing and constructing my film I have found that, the filming stage of producing a film takes much longer than I initially thought. I have learnt there are many stages of planning and thinking a director must go through order to produce a successful film. Many of these stages were, making sure all mirrors and obstacles are removed or covered from the location of filming, objects and furniture are kept in the the same place as to begin with in order for the continuity of the piece to flow correctly, and also that any places/ positions an actor is required  be at in points of the film, are marked out and made clear to the actor(s). Also the actor must kept hair, clothing, and style the same each time filming in order for the continuity to flow correctly, if the actor did not do this and change, for instance, their hairstyle the film would look un-professional and the continuity would not flow correctly. I have also learnt how to edit a film and add special effects to the film, which also take up a significant amount of time in producing the film. 

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

From reflecting back to the preliminary task I have learnt and developed many new skills including; how to film a piece correctly using a wide range of camera shots and angles, I have learnt about the 360 degree filming rule, how to keep continuity flowing correctly, and that it is essential to use a tri-pod when filming to reduce camera shake and keep shots still. I have also learnt to keep to deadlines keeping to the timing requirements, and to develop group working with others skills. A lot of our media coursework has been done online using a computer meaning it has also developed and increased my IT skills. Before producing a film I didn't really know how to edit a film, over the period of working on the film and learning how to add sound effects, reduce camera shake, and edit the film, I now know how to edit and create the final version of a film, and to produce the final product (the film). 

 

Final Film Opening Sequence - Hide & Seek

Planning - Title Ideas

As a group we decided to choose the name for our film as 'Hide and Seek'. We decided upon this name as it fitted well with the ideas of the film we were going to produce. We came up with many film title ideas, and thought of many different film fonts we could use like; Candara, Freestyle script, Impact, Jasmine UPC, Juice ITC, Mistral, Papyrus, Pristina and Segoe Print. We then thought of ways in which we could 'play' with the three 'Hide and seek' words, to create an eerie Thriller film title that is effective. We changed then font size, tried using upper and lower case lettering, used bold and italic fonts, and then Rachel Hatter came up with the idea of fading the two 'ee' letters in the word 'seek', to a pair of suspicious eyes that would blink and then fade back into the work 'seek'. Here is the idea we had, of using the eyes below: 

 

  Unfortunately we did not have the equipment/software to do this idea of the eyes blinking. So we decided not make things over complex, and decided to go with a more simple but effective idea.

Storyboard!

Here is our Storyboard it was produced by myself and Ellie Clark: 

 

Thriller Film Script

HIDE AND SEEK

Written by Ellie Clark, Rachel Hatter, Zack Franks and Josh Christopher.

BLACK SCREEN

Sound of rain hitting window and girls chit chatting.

CUT

P.O.V FROM PERSON OUTSIDE

Girls laughing, talking etc.

Typical girls bedroom, e.g magazines, make up, food etc.

ZOOM IN FROM P.O.V SHOT TO INSIDE GIRLS BEDROOM.

GROUP SHOT OF GIRLS IN BEDROOM.

CLOSE UP OF GIRL ON LAPTOP

Girl 1: Oh my god, listen to the end of this one! “She opened her eyes and saw his gloved hands around her neck!”

GROUP SHOT

The other girls pretend to be scared.

MID SHOT OF GIRL GETTING UP

Girl 2: Just gonna get a drink…

CAMERA TRACKS HER OUT

LONG SHOT OF DOOR

CANTED SHOT OF DOOR KNOB

MID SHOT OF GIRL 3

Girl 3:  girls, I know, lets hide from her!

They all run out of the room laughing.

Girl 2 re-enters

MID SHOT OF GIRL WITH DRINK

PANNING OF EMPTY ROOM

CLOSE UP PUTTING DRINK DOWN

CLOSE UP OF FACE

Girl 2: Playing hide and seek are we?

Puts hand over face (grinning)

Girl 2: One

EDIT

BLACK SCREEN WHITE WRITING

Writing: you can run

CUT

CLOSE UP OF GIRL 2 FACE

Girl2: Two

EDIT

BLACK SCREEN WHITE WRITING

Writing: But

CUT

CLOSE UP OF GIRL 2 FACE

Girl 2: Three

EDIT

BLACKSCREEN WHITE WRITING

Writing: You can’t hide

CUT

CLOSE UP OF GIRL 2 FACE

Girl 2: Five, six, seven

CUT

MID SHOT OF GIRL UNDER A BED

CUT

CLOSE UP OF GIRL 2 FACE

Girl 2: nine, ten, eleven

CUT

MID SHOT OF GIRL RUNNING DOWN THE STAIRS

CUT

CLOSE UP OF GIRL 2 FACE

Girl 2: Thirteen, fourteen, fifth teen

CUT

GIRL RUNNING INTO A ROOM PANICING GOSE TO THE CUBOARD AND GETS INIT

P.O.V FROM GIRL OPENING THE CUBOARD

This is the first part of the script for our thriller opening. It was completed by Rachel and myself.

Sound of rain hitting window and girls chit chatting.

CUT

P.O.V FROM PERSON OUTSIDE

Girls laughing, talking etc.

Typical girls bedroom, e.g magazines, make up, food etc.

ZOOM IN FROM P.O.V SHOT TO INSIDE GIRLS BEDROOM.

GROUP SHOT OF GIRLS IN BEDROOM.

CLOSE UP OF GIRL ON LAPTOP

Girl 1: Oh my god, listen to the end of this one! “She opened her eyes and saw his gloved hands around her neck!”

GROUP SHOT

The other girls pretend to be scared.

MID SHOT OF GIRL GETTING UP

Girl 2: Just gonna get a drink…

CAMERA TRACKS HER OUT

LONG SHOT OF DOOR

CANTED SHOT OF DOOR KNOB

MID SHOT OF GIRL 3

Girl 3:  girls, I know, lets hide from her!

They all run out of the room laughing.

Girl 2 re-enters

MID SHOT OF GIRL WITH DRINK

PANNING OF EMPTY ROOM

CLOSE UP PUTTING DRINK DOWN

CLOSE UP OF FACE

Girl 2: Playing hide and seek are we?

Puts hand over face (grinning)

Girl 2: One

EDIT

BLACK SCREEN WHITE WRITING

Writing: you can run

CUT

CLOSE UP OF GIRL 2 FACE

Girl2: Two

EDIT

BLACK SCREEN WHITE WRITING

Writing: But

CUT

CLOSE UP OF GIRL 2 FACE

Girl 2: Three

EDIT

BLACKSCREEN WHITE WRITING

Writing: You can’t hide

CUT

CLOSE UP OF GIRL 2 FACE

Girl 2: Five, six, seven

CUT

MID SHOT OF GIRL UNDER A BED

CUT

CLOSE UP OF GIRL 2 FACE

Girl 2: nine, ten, eleven

CUT

MID SHOT OF GIRL RUNNING DOWN THE STAIRS

CUT

CLOSE UP OF GIRL 2 FACE

Girl 2: Thirteen, fourteen, fifth teen

CUT

GIRL RUNNING INTO A ROOM PANICING GOSE TO THE CUBOARD AND GETS INIT

P.O.V FROM GIRL OPENING THE CUBOARD

This is the first part of the script for our thriller opening. It was completed by Rachel Hatter and Ellie Clark.

Planning - Our Final Idea (How we came up with the Idea)

We started thinking of Ideas in our group, and began to use the Internet to look up Scary stories and Thrillers, this inspired us as there were many tension building, clever stories in which we could change and twist to make it our own. The website we used to find these scary stories was: 
                                                         
                                                           www.everythingscary.com 
    

 The story, we all agreed to use and apapt (change) was 'bless you':  

Bless you: 

 Jamie was playing hide-and-seek at a slumber party with a
few of her young friends.
“I’m going to count to twenty,” said Annie, “then I’ll come
and find everybody.” She clamped her hands over her eyes and
then sat down on the couch.

Jamie sighed because she knew
that Annie would peek through the small crevices of her fingers,
but she ran away excitedly anyway.

“One, two, three…” counted Annie as Jamie ran up the stairs
and frantically searched for somewhere to hide. Not just
anywhere, but somewhere good. Somewhere that would take a
little searching to discover.

“Four, five, six…”
Brittany dove onto the sofa and buried herself beneath a
quilt. Sarah crouched beneath the kitchen table. Mandy dashed
for the hall bathroom. Frustrated, Jamie darted down the
hallway, not knowing where she was going. Time slipped by and
she was still out in the open, exposed.

“Thirteen, fourteen…”
She passed by the hall closet. From what she could
remember, it was actually quite large inside. It was used for
storage. As a last resort, Jamie turned around and slipped inside
without turning on the light. With the door closed behind her,
she sat down in the inky darkness and waited.

The rest of the house was exceptionally muffled, and the
hum of silence inside the closet was almost deafening. Jamie felt
a tickle in her nose. She plugged her nose to quell the sneeze,
but it was inevitable. As soon as she removed her fingers, it
exploded from her nostrils.

“Bless you,” said a gravelly voice from somewhere in the
darkness.
Before Jamie could scream, there was a pair of strong hands
around her neck. And then she fell into a much deeper, blacker
darkness.

We found this story very clever and effective and this inspired us the most! 

Planning - Roles within the Group

Here is the list of roles we each have to for each stage of production. We must do this in order to have good organisation, to know what we are doing, to be well prepared to film and to be confident when filming:
                   

 Pre-Production
Ellie - StoryBoard/Script
Josh - StoryBoard
Rachel - Script/Dircetor
Zack - Location Shos/Producer
Production
Ellie - Mise-en-scene/Actor
Josh - Lighting/ Props
Rachel - Director
Zack - Producer/ Actor
Post - Production
Ellie - Editing/Final Production
Josh - Editing/Final Production
Rachel - Editing/Final Production
Zack - Editing/Final Production

Planning - Shot List

Here is a list of the shots we are going to use and at what points within the film we are going to use each shot: 

                                        (Planned by Ellie and Rachael, written up by Zack) 

Planning - Shot List

Codes and Conventions of a Thriller Opening Sequence:

Sub Genres of a Thriller - Sci - fi, Physcological, Crime and Mystery. For Example; The illusionist, Silence of the Lambs and Jaws.

Thillers often begin with an opening that leaves the audience puzzzled and disorientated, often engaging the audience in what is happening leaving them wondering what is going to happening. The main features that contribute to the opening and throughtout a thriller is the; sounds effects, and also the editing (fast repeated cuts, camera tilting). Lighting can also be used in thrillers as a way creating suspense, e.g shadows.

Location Shots for Film

Here are the location shots of where we will be filming our Thriller piece:

                                        Long establishing shot, you can see the house and 

                                                                its surroundings.

                                    Close up of doors looking into the room of where we will be 

                                                          filming our opening sequence.

 

                                           This shot will be used as a Point of view shot (p.o.v) 

                                                      as the girls are sitting on the bed. 

 

 A bedroom where one of the girls could be hiding.

  

                                                               Living room, where someone could be running to hide 

 

 

 

Shot of hallway with mirror. (P.O.V)  

   

Shot of an old Piano, could be used to play mysterious/ 

creepy music 

 

 Low Angle shot of Staircase.

Zack and I took these wrecky location shots of where we

will be filming our Thriller opening (Zacks house). 

Some of these shots will be used within

our film although we are still 

discussing which 

shots to use. 

 

Our Continuity sequence

 

Here is our group continuity sequence named 'the eyebrow'

Taken from You tube account  

Thriller film narrative (Hide and Seek)

Beginning:
        The film opens with a flashback of the girls past, their childhood. The five girls are having a sleepover party and during the sleepover one the girls suggests to hide from their friend while she's gone to get a drink. This then turns into a game of Hide and Seek. One the of the girls is killed during the game by a mystery killer/ stalker.

Middle:
        The girls are now all grown up and are living separate lives. They start coincidentally bumping into each other. One of the girls is having a wedding and arranges a hen party. A couple of days before the hen party strange things start to happen to them. For example one girl will wash her hands and blood will run from the taps, instead of water. Another might be seeing their dead dead friend in the mirror. The girls start to disappear one by one, is this the mystery killer? They are killed by strange happenings. The audience are left left wondering and in suspense.

End:
        We don't actually find out who the killer is, we are left to think, we only see a hint of his identity; a possible action to symbolise the killer for example, a hand grip.

The Secret Window Thriller opening analysis (own choice)

As Part of our research and analysis we have to analyse a Thriller opening of our own choice. The Film I have choose to analyse is the Secret Window (2004), directed by David Koepp. The codes and conventions that make up a thriller include; dark or low lit settings, increased tempo in music, sinister upbeat music, threats, and a build up in tension and suspense. I will be looking at how the technical aspects like; camera, sound, editing and mise-en-scene create the opening of the thriller.

       The clip begins with the Columbia production company logo, immediately as the opening starts the music begins. The editing is done very cleverly as the scene opens with a car (jeep) parked outside from what we can see is a house, this then fades into rippling water; this confuses the audience and makes them think about what is going on, it plays with our minds. The camera then pans up to an establishing shot to see the setting of a forest surrounding the lake with house situated at the middle (centre of the forest). There is then an edit where the scene fades closer to focus on the house; the camera is then slowly zooming into the house on a crane shot. Still on a crane shot the camera is swung around, zooming into a small window on the side of the house, the audience is left to think about what this is leading up to. The camera is then panned around to focus on a laptop at a desk.

       Still on a crane shot the camera zooms into a man sleeping in pyjamas on an old sofa. His dressing gown is ripped at the seam of the shoulder, we then think of him as of a lower class and tatty in the sense that he can’t afford to buy a new one. The camera is then left at a medium shot of the man on the sofa for a couple of seconds. There is then a black out as the opening sequence ends. The transition of cuts and editing flows nicely, the fading into closer shots of the house works well and effectively without disorientating the audience; instead leaving the audience work out what's going to come next.  

Vertigo Opening Analysis:

       For Our Media film analysis, we have been asked to analyse a Saul Bass thriller title sequence opening. The film I have chosen to analyse is Vertigo, a famous 1958 Thriller by Alfred Hitchcock. From studying the opening of the film, I think the title sequence is good as it makes the audience feel disillusioned; it gives us a sense of dizziness. The strange ambient backing track adds to the lexical field of suspense and disorientation, leaving the viewer wondering what is going to happen.

       The opening begins with an extreme CU of the bottom half of a womans face in black and white (the audience does not see anything before this, and is left puzzled to what is happening and who this person is).  The Camera then swings around from the right to the centre of her face, keeping the extreme CU shot and zooming into her darkly coloured lips. The camera is then tilted upwards to focus on her eyes as she looks to both sides. Notice that she does not blink, this also adds to the tension and suspense. There is then a zoom in to her left eye and her eye then widens, also as the camera zooms in the colour changes from black and white to a blood red colour, this increases suspense as the colour of the red, is adding to the connotation value of blood.

       After the zoom in of the eye, a rotating, spinning, spiral appears from the centre of the eye, enlarging after every rotation keeping the same circular shape of the eye (Iris wipe). This is clever of Alfred as it shows he has thought about his opening; (the word vertigo refers to dizziness, where there is feeling of motion when one is stationary) he has incorporated the meaning of vertigo by adding the spirals and disorientating images, focusing on the dizziness referred to the word Vertigo, and using it as his opening giving the sequence a lexical field of disillusion. This also adds to the denotation meaning, as the audience then associates the symbol of the spiral and dizziness to the word Vertigo.  The spiral images continues leaving the audience waiting in suspense wondering what is going to happen, leaving them puzzled to question themselves. The last spiral then focuses back to the eye, and the blood red colour, rotating to the shape of the eye. The scene then fades into blackness, leaving the audience wanting to watch on. 

 

( Image taken from - www.google.co.uk/images )  

Research and Planning!

Week 1:


During the first week we learned how to set up the Tripods and how to use each part on them. We also used the cameras and set them up on the tripods using the clip attached to the top of the tripod. We looked at the features on the camera and got used to using the Cameras. We had to insert a film into the Camera, and then rewind the film as unfortunately the films had already been used.

Week 2:

Continuity exercises and ideas were discussed. We watched some continuity exercises and learnt about the different camera shots and angles. We then in our groups took shots of the different Camera shots and angles, using the Cameras and tripods. We did this as a short exercise to get to grips with the Camera shots/ angles.

Week 3:

During this week we decided what groups we would be in do our continuity piece.We also discussed what roles we would be doing within the group and brainstormed some ideas we were thinking of including.

Week 4:

In this week we learned how to draw up a storyboard. This was important as it was a plan of what we were going to do in our continuity piece, the location and mise - en - scene of where we was going to film it, the camera techniques; angles and shots, and what parts each person would be doing. We came up with many ideas of what of title could be for our continuity piece, but finally decided on 'The eyebrow' which was an idea we thought of. Here is an example of a storyboard:
 

Week 5: 


Filmed continuity sequences using a variety of different camera shots and angles. Unfortunately I was not here during the lesson in which we filmed our continuity pieces due to a trip in another subject. This was not an issue as I participated in the editing process of the piece and managed to catch up on what I had missed. My group then filmed our continuity sequence during the lesson the film included a wide range of shots including close up (CU), big close up (BCU), and establishing shot (ESTB). The only issue we had whilst filming the film was that pupils in the School would walk past whist we were filming. We had to do a lot of preparation before filming; we had to make sure that camera were fully charged, that the films in the cameras had been rewound being as the films had been used before and that any marking out of positions were marked before filming.


Week 6:


We discussed in our groups what went well during the piece and what didn't go so well. We discussed on improvements we could make in our continuity piece, and what could be done to make the piece flow better. We then uploaded the clips using a firewire and began the editing process using imovie.


Week 7:


HALF TERM!


Week 8:


We finished off the editing of our piece. We then watched the piece back whilst other groups made comments on it suggesting improvements for when we film our Thriller pieces. Also we looked at Thriller opening sequences of Vertigo and Psycho by Saul Bass (who we are currently studying). Vertigo is a famous Thriller by Alfred Hitchcock, its famous for its shower scene. The opening title sequence of Vertigo is very successful for its criss crossing of lines and the orange and black effect used. 


Week 9:


During this week we wrote out the narrative to our Thriller piece. We also planned and completed our storyboard to our film. After this we went to the location of where we are going to film our piece and took some location shots, for various scenes in the film.