It's Christmas Time!!!!!!!!!! :)

So our blog is now closed for two weeks so we can all have a nice relaxing break

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

...and we will see you in 2009 for lots and lots more blogging!
xx

Music

At the moment Tom and I are searching freeplaymusic.com to find a suitable soundtrack for our opening sequence. We have so far found three songs that seem to fit to mood we are trying to create, once we find a song we enjoy we have created a folder and are saving them on the M-drive. This way we can all sit down and as a team decided on an appropriate soundtrack.
:)

What are you talking about guys? We've already captured more or less everything.
We need to really concentrate on finding a track for the sequence. So we could just all do that.
And editing...
See you tomorow.

:-)

Yeah defo, thats a good idea, we'll get work a lot quicker all doing separate jobs :-)

i know that freeplaymusic.com is a site we could use to find music, as other groups have said that there is suitable stuff on there. If a two of us have a look online for other websites and ideas and stuff should be good - yeah will hopefully all be ok

xx

It's going to be a very busy week, i think we should have one or two of us looking on the internet for some inspiration on song choice whilst someone else captures out shoot 3 footage. Then atleast we are trying to do two things at once. Ah so much to do in suchhh little time. But im sure we'll be fine & everything will get sorted:]

xxxxx

Priorities this week

Hi
Ms B just gave me a sheet called priorities this week, as we're not going to have a lesson with the teachers until friday because we have a half day on tuesday because of the awards ceremony so miss our tripple lesson and neither of the teachers are going to be in on wednesday.

On the sheet it says that music and sound effects need to be added this week
- 'There will be a lot to do after the holidays so if you have not sorted your soundrack this term and added it in, you will be very behind'
AH!

We talked about soundstrack breifly before, but we need to think seriously now.
Any ideas guys? Because we need to put all the new footage in order, add all sound effects and decided on and add music within the next 4 days :-S
It's going to be a busy week...
xx

Re-Shoot Re-Shoot (Shoot 3)

On sunday 14/12/08 we did yet another shoot, to get our footage the best it could be. We shot from 9am-2pm, and hour more than we hoped for. It was hard to stay enthusiastic about the project as this was our fourth shoot on it now, (including test), and members of the groups were ill so our energy levels were down. However we still had fun, got it all done and hopfully the footage will turn out good :)

We re-shot almost all of the shed scene due to the lighting not being right and being differnt on the different shoots. This took time as we had to set up the shed again, covering all the windows to stop the light coming in. It also meant we had to make the fake blood again to get Sian looking as bad and scary as possible. Additionally after the actors had left, we spent another half an hour re-filming the TV scene where the hostage video is on screen and the camera zooms in, as we needed to do this with our new footage.

The pictures from the day should be up on the blog soon...

sounds good to me :)

Final Shooting Time

Ok, so Sunday 9am - 1pm it is...
All agreed?
=)

(Ill update this if the time changes)

1. Tom you're lazy.
2. ok yer so sunday i suppose ill cancel with loren :(
but just out of interest roughly what timings will we be filming??
sorry i got in at break & now in a lesson. (checking blogger blates!)
so i guess we will be looking at spotting out for eachother during lunchtime, ill probally be in cafeee/common room if you need me.

xxx

Meetings and Shoots Message

Well I only have periodss 7+8 today, so Ive just woken up (and checked Blogger of course) and couldnt make these meetings. But I do think we really need a reshoot, and it cant be any other time than the week before the holidays. Because we could capture and edit in time for the deadline otherwise. Ill be in at lunch today if you need to talk to me, and im free period 6.
See you guys then. (or whenever)
Tom
=)

This weekend?

Well shall we do sunday then? i do think we need to do it, and it should be now because after the xmas hols we only have like 2 weeks so i think it will be too late.
i think we need a group meeting to discuss it, i can't do lunch but maybe break today - let me know if you guys get this in time.

Hannah xx

I can't do saturday :( Because im working 9-5. & i've already had to take time out of work for the two other shoots. Also with xmas im not hoping to get sacked. Hmm.. i am really stuck with what to do??
xxx

Final Story Board

This is a more finalized version of our Story Board, and It has been added to quite substantially. As you can see the beginning has changed the most. I think that this update does ressolve lots of the issues but also creates new ones. There will be another, new version of this coming as soon as we decide on a few issues and I get the time to scan it in and post it, in a busy editing time for all of us.
That's all Folks.
=)

The Re-shoot Re-shoot

Hi guys
Are we going to film this weekend then?
I do think we need to, because our lighting isn't good in some places, and ceratin scenes could be so much better with a re-shoot. But i know everyone (including our actors) are quite busy at the moment. :-S
Saturday would be best for me if we do it, what about you two?
Hannah xx

The Best Takes

Aafter caputring, the first thing we did when looking at our newly shot footage was to decided which take we liked best, which one we would use. Here is an extract from our list of the best takes of all the shots we took last weekend;

1) Adam Walks = Take 5

2) POV Adam = Take 1

3) House pan (est, shot) = Take 4

4) Wiping Eyes = Take 2

5) Bra in window = Take 2

6) Sian's POV = Take 1

7) Bekah's POV = Take 1

Teacher Feedback

After looking at all the footage from our shoot, we needed a second opinion on some of the shots, and how to make it better as a whole. Here is the teacher feedback we got:

*Mother scream/ sharp intake of breath/Drops mug - Cut to black
*Music over the top?
*Shot of House - Long distance ESTABLISHING SHOT of street- fade down, then fade up inside house
*Coffee cup - stiring
*Ding Dong/ Knock knock - put down milk
*OR just coming down stairs, hand on banisters
*Adam unknown character, walks into shot, along the road, up the driveway, knock, delivers tape
*Shot POV through blurred window?
*Put tape through door - walk away quickly, looking over his shoulder
* Puts mug down, picks up tape
*Adult pose - dressing gown, slippers
*Record Sound of; intake of breath, clanking mug, smashed mug

Group Meeting

Things to do for/ on the next shoot:
* Get lead
* No Ugg boots - black boots needed
*Change bag and purse - to black
* Change photo, something more grown up
*Remote Shot - forogot to film it
*Living room scene NEED establishing shot
*Change over tv - shed need establishing shot
*Grunt shot

Shooting Script

Here is the shooting script from our shoot. We decided the order that we shot in because one of our actors was going to be at our location and hour or so before the other, therefore we did all most of Bekah's Shots first. It was really useful to have during the shoot, as it kept us organised and on track, and was a clear indication of what we had left to do and roughly how long it would take us.

Contra Zoom Experimentation

This is me experimenting with the Contra Zoom technique while Hannah and Danni made blood. It's a shot which I have always been interested since I saw it in use in Films. So I searched for tutorials online and found one. Then this is the footage of me trying to carry the shot out. I think that at points the shot worked, but its difficult to track and zoom evenly. I'm not yet sure whether or where the shot could fit into the sequence but I would like to include it.

Another Re-Shoot?

After looking through the footage we have relaised that we definitely need to do another shoot. This is because our lighting has been different on our test shoot, shoot, and re-shoot. This ruins the continuity because in one shot the lighting will be good, then in the next it will be all grainy and have a yellow tint to it. We have agreed that the best lighting was definitely the test shoot, so we will try to recreate this as best we can. We need to re-shoot the hostage video, as we did not decided on a line where we would stop zooming in, in the living room, and start zooming out in the shed. Therefore the seamless affect we were aiming for has not worked. We also want to re-shoot Bekah's line "You know you had this coming bitch", and make sure we get it from all different angles so we have a variety of shots to choose from when it comes to editing.Some of the camera work could also do with some work, as many of our pans are not as smooth as they could be, and we want to make it more intersting and so i would like to find a way to incorporate the contra zoom that Tom has been practicing. We need to add some extra shots as well, as we won't have enough to make the fasted paced montage that we are picturing.

again...

oh nooo, i dont think i can do another long shoot this weekend... :/
when i get there later we will have to discuss it i guess.
What shots dont work???
xxx

Reply to Note

Hey Danni.
We are trying to edit, but the footage has been a bit of a letdown. We are thinking that we need another big shoot (not a short 4 hour one). We will keep trying to work with what we've got but it's going to be hard to piece it together. The first sequence is fine though. Hannah approves.
See you soon!

A note from me to you!

Heyyyy guyss, im bored at the moment so i thought i'd send you a little post :)
hows the editinggg going??
Me & Tom did quite a bit so i hope you've finished it now! Gooood!
what you doing at the moment?

:D
Dannniiiii,
x x x

Editing

Yesterday I had a session editing on my own guys, it was weird not having anyone there to work with but nonetheless i managed to try out a split screen.
I spoke to Sir about it and ihe mentioned it may have been a bit easier if we were to have shot the whole 'making tea' from further away. This would only help because when trying to the put two shots on the screen, some of them will end up being rather squashed and looks very unproffesional.
Firstly, i tried it vertically but it seemed to cut out the majority of the shot, for example the mug, i had to cut out the handle. Therefore, i tried to do it horizontally, this seemed to have worked slightly better but however not much of a difference.
I spoke to sir and he said if we were to re-shoot then perhaps we should frame it so there is an empty space on the left and the main object is on the right. NOTE- Try using the camera
long ways (to add more footage) and at different angles.

I looked at a video from Reqiuem for a dream, and the montage in it is shot extremely well. Their split screen looks amazing too.
Check it out guys.. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vdSRG5HVlao

:)

Pictures of Latest Shoot

These are the photographs from behind the scenes at our Second Shoot, and of the outdoor filming. Just to give an idea on location and look of our opening shots.

We love Media This much...
There were perfect filming conditions in terms of lighting and ambience, sadly it was FREEZING.

Our chosen location brought to you in canted angle.

This is what our opening shot will probably end up looking like.

Title Ideas

Here is our first brainstorm for our Film Title:
- The Hostage
- The Betrayal
- Miss Harris
- Miss Williams
-

Mid Re-Shoot Post

So we're halfway through our reshoot now and having shot all the new opening sequence shots we are now waiting for actors while doing some admin. Including shot logs, shooting schedules. We have the issue of rearranging the set to not disrupt continuity. Also we had poor lighting in the last shoot, and while we need to redo the lighting, we cannot change it so much so that there is a massive difference. We need to really concentrate on issues of continuity including make-up and costume. We purposely set this time aside in order to get organised as we have less time to shoot this weekend and we want to be more efficient than previous shoots.
I hope it all goes to plan.

Initial Storyboard

This is the initial storyboard for the opening sequence we are creating. It has been changed masses from this original, but this is the group's original vision. Knocked up in a short amount of time this storyboard has minimal annotations, but was drawn up to visualise the sequence; this was all in order to think about continuity and camerawork (framing and cutting points). This is why issues like realism in drawings took a back seat for this storyboard.
This is the first page which has a camera move which we are really excited about putting into the sequence, which is the camera zooming into a screen in one room and zooming out in another. Perhaps its already clear that this storyboard lacks a clear enough opening (where are we?), but we overlooked this originally. The sequence then becomes more conventional and the next few pages show how the sequence continues and finishes, but the aim of this storyboard was not to explain the sequences to an audience, instead it was purely for the use of the group.

We are plan to constantly change and update this storyboard from now till the end of editing. So revised versions will be posted.

Capturing

In today's lesson we captured our footage from the shoot from Saturday. We looked through it and noticed a few issues, such as lighting and continuity. We are happy with the first few takes of the opening sequence, but we feel that lighting got worse towards the end. The acting we felt was better on the test shoot, but this presents issues with continuity because our actress wore a slightly different top. The make-up didn't turn out as nicely as previously done at the test shoot but we had to carry on with how it was. We also felt that some shots were definitely not as good as we would have hoped, some shots had extension leads in and also very bad lighting. However, we were very happy this time with the smoking shots, with Hannah holding a lamp behind Bekah it really created the silhouette effect of the smoke that we were hoping for! We are hoping to do many different cut aways with all the montage shots we took, which we think will give the ending the feel we were eager for.
We said before that we were aiming for at least three takes for every shot we did, and this was definitely the right choice to make. In fact we ended up taking, for some shots, up to six takes! This was certainly the right thing to do, as in some cases there are takes where furniture/lighting is wrong but in the other takes they look much better. It really shows the importance of doing several takes.
Overall, we think the first opening shots were really good & were shot exactly how we pictured them. On the other hand, we may need to re-think what hostage video to use and also what we are going to do about the lighting issues we came across. We are definitely considering another shoot if only for an hour or so, but depending on when the actors and the group can make it. The things were learnt at the test shoot truely helped speed things up, it meant we were able to do certain camera movements ourselves without having to ask other members in our group to help (was very time consuming).


Plan for Next lesson:
We need to go through each shot and vote for the best takes.
We need to decided for definite the best take on each.
& then we need to start putting the sequence together, fitting in our initial ideas for effects and alternating them if necessary.

Final shoot

29th November 2008


Last Saturday was our final shoot to do everything and so for us it was a very important shooting. The plan:
Tom and Hannah would arrive at my house at 9:00 and we would finish off our written work until 12 when Bekah was due to arrive. Bekah was to arrive around 12-12.30 and Sian at 2:00.
The first three hours that the group had before actors started to arrive was used productively. We finished off our storyboard and did our shooting script; we had to make sure that the final shoot went a lot smoother than our test shot. We had already started the storyboarding in our lesson and so we didn’t have too much to finish. Near the end of our 3 hours we took time out to go and set up our locations. We decided on lighting and positioning in the shed and also the living room.
As Sian was unable to attend the start of the shooting due to prior arrangements we decided to use the time effectively and with the equipment and actors we had we started to shoot the living room scene. There were 4 shoots to be filmed here with at least 3 takes of each. These were done well but we did come across a continuity error when filming. We realised that if we were filming these shots in the morning then there will be natural light coming in but by the time we come to film the last shot of the actual hostage video, it would be dark. And so Tom suggested we cut off all sources of natural light and use artificial lighting instead, this way we could create the exact scene when we came to film later on. BUT during shooting our living room shots we came across something that could really affect our overall sequence… we realised we hadn’t used the headphones for the first shot and when we went to find them; we couldn’t. We knew we couldn’t go on shooting without them otherwise our sound would be awful but we also new it was too late to phone miss or even pop into school. After panicking for at least 5mins we called around to see whether anyone had any headphones worth using, eventually we called Sian and thankfully she knew someone who was willing to lend us them, and so she collected them on her way round.
We were lucky to have noticed it before we started filming any scene which included dialogue; we were also careless to have not checked our equipment thoroughly! After this issue was resolved and Sian turned up we started filming the shed sequence. We did Sian and Bekah’s make-up and blood. The shoot in the shed went well and we managed to shoot everything with lots of different takes to choose from.

Overall, the shoot went well and we managed to get everything done. Again, I think our group get along really well and there weren’t many disagreements on ideas and discussion : )

Film Branding

I really want to start thinking about the Films visual identity, its branding and perhaps most importantly its logo (going hand in hand with it's credits font?). I think that this is important to make the visuals instantly recognisable, an iconic logo which stands out, and doesn't blend in among less succesful thrillers.I have collected these two posters to show branding for two different ad campaigns very much on the same boat. The title fonts are extremely similiar and both share very similiar imagery, only different through tone, Saw being perhaps more surgical and about humans as meat. Hostel takes a darker, grittier, more sexual take on the totrure thriller genre, and is certainly more dumbed down. Both are visually similiar ad campaigns, but Saw is more iconic (maybe because hostel lacks a real plot, let alone twists or closure; or maybe its because the villain in Saw is iconic, whereas Hostel has no single villain).
On the Test Shoot I wanted to capture anything I thought could be iconic for this film. I wanted to see what could represent our film the best. So I took photos like these above. I saw the camcorder as an opton for the films icon, likewise with the blood splatter. I am very far from deciding (just showing you guys my train of thought), and I think that a photo shoot would be helpful with next shoot, by this I mean, rather than behind the scenes photos we change the entire lighting on set for photography and snap away. I hope to come out with some more meaningful photography from the next shoot (i.e. less blurry).

The Actors

For our test shoot we used Bekah Murrell for the part of Samantha Harris, and Sian Parkinson as Karen Williams and they were both brilliant! They were very tolerant of the cold, uncomfortable environment and long filming hours. And Sian didn't even comlplain when we covered her in sticky fake blood.


Bekah is mixed race with dark afro style hair and she is about 5 foot 6. Her costume was jeans, boots, and plain black and white layered vest tops. We wanted the character to be wearing virtually no make up except for quite a lot of black eye liner under her eyes, which we purposly smudged so she looked rough. We chose Bekah to act because we knew that she does some professional acting work, so knew she would be good in this tricky role to play.

Sian has fair skin, fair blonde hair and is a similar height to Bekah. Her costume was a white shirt and black trousers to giver her character a proffesional look. Her make up was quite plain again, just a bit of mascara, which we smudged to make it seem like she had been crying. But then we did use make up to create a bruise on her forehead, as well as putting fake blood in her hair, to give the appearence she had been attacked, taking a big hit to her head. We thought this turned out well and did actually look very scary and very real. The pictures from our test shoot will be up soon, so you can see what you think...

Test Shoot Photos

Are up on Facebook now. They'll be posted soon.
Note: People are in motion in nearly every shot.

Making Blood...

We've had the issue of recreating blood. We've come across various methods in which to recreate realistic blood, and we have spent some of our day experimenting with it. Trying out different tones, liquids and viscousity (it matters). We managed to recreate it quite nicely and got really good results. Here's our testing palet.

I can tell you one problem with our current formula, I reckon one of our actors has some red highlights now... Minor adjustments may need to be made.

Original Script

This is the original script for the hostage video in he beginning of our opening sequence. We plan to change and adapt this script as we go along. Its not complete. Our references were real hostage videos on youtube.com.

Bekah: My name is Samantha Harris. It is Saturday the 17th of May 2009, and I have been kidnapped and held here for 3 days now against my will. My captor is demanding £10,000 for my release. This should be payed directly to the bankaccount of Miss K. Williams, that's £10,000 to Miss K. Williams. If you do not complete the transaction within the next 24 hours, she says she's gonna kill me... (all found difficult to say, crying and sobbing throughout)

BLK feedback

hope today went well guys, looking forward to seeing your footage :-)

group photo please. . .

Test shoot

So today was our test shoot and i think overall it went quite well. We were shooting 10-6 so that meant we had 8 whole hours to film:)
Everyone arrived at mine early and so we were sure to head off straight away. Our schedule consisted of:
10am-1pm --> we finished off some written work (shot logs/storyboard) and also shot all the living room scenes. we also set up both the living rooma nd shed scenes(lighting/positioning).
1.30... (lunch&waited for our actors to arrives)
3pm-6pm---> we shot all the neccesary shots in the shed.

We managed to shoot a great amount of footage in the shed, and our actors were a major help aswell. The shots we took were very good, except i think our only flaw today was being maybe a bit unorganised. I think by the final shoot we should have a neatly drawn up storyboard, a neatly typed up script and shooting script. Because although we did have this all done i do not think it was as neat as it possible could have been.
The light coming in the shed was an issue at first, we needed to block all the windows but only had sugar paper enough for two out of the six windows. So in turn we decided to cover them up with black towels and it blocked out every little bit of light and left us with the complete darkness we had hoped for! You wouldn't think it would work but it did work very well.
Also, i mentioned as a pro that filmin inside meant no off-scene noise could interveen but in fact i was wrong, there were builders opposite my road and the noise did manage to be heard, but it ok in the end because we though of shooting all of the living room scenes first and hoped for the builders to have stopped by the time we moved onto the outdoor shed; thankfully it did!

Costume- Today we also for the first time made our fake blood, we followed the recipe exactly and were happy with the turn out. Sian a.k.a K.Williams look very very very good with the blood, and even on the camer it look realistic. We used make-up to make it look like she had bruises on her head and her wrists were hurt, the make-up looked jsut as effective and i think we will be doing the exact same at our final shoot. We also smeared eyeliner and mascara onto Bekah to make her look tired and exhausted. To conclude, i think costume and make up was exceptional and we will definitely be keeping this the same next time.

Lighting- we had to move it around quite a few times in order to get something that suited us all. After numerous times of changing the two lamps around we decided to use one as a prop on the table and ang one up on a hook to make Sian look more significant.

Camera- today we used a range of different shots, just so we could get an idea of what shots we should use more of on saturday and others that we may not need to use at all. We all took our fair share of filming, directing & sound. Some shots were harder than others but we all took a good shot at them all.

Group work- As i mentioned before we all took a fair turn in filming, sound & directing. Although some of us were better at certain things we gave eachother a chance to do everything. Tom was the only one out of the three that got shown how to use the focus but so that we could all take turns he took time to teach me and Hannah how to do it and it was a great help, now we can add to the amount we have learnt. For some of us something as easy as turning on our camera seemed a struggle but as a group we didnt waste no time in helping out, isn't that right? :]]
Today was a productive and fun day. Cannot wait to upload all our footage and start editing.

WELL DONE 'TOM'S GROUP' :]
yaayyyyyyy!!

Final Location

Ok so after careful discussion and weighing up the pros and cons we have decided to film in a shed, in fact my shed. And so I could show the group what it looks like before we started shooting I took a few pictures of it so they we could judge whether or not to use it. It is a very spacey location and at the moment does look partially run down as it is being painted. The only issue may be restricting the amount of light but we think if we stick a bit of sugar paper over the windows then we would get a nice effect on the light. The garage is indoors and so we can block out any off-scene noise and weather will most definitely not be an issue.
Also, as we need a living room to film our beginning scenes it works out perfectly as we can use my living room as well which means we don’t need to be travel here and there. Everything will be set up in one area and it makes things so much easier.
Here are a few pictures of the shed & living room we wish to film in(baring in mind we will be removing any unneccesary furniture):

And here is the living room:

Location

As one of the most important things when deciding on our idea, location, can act for a lot. Without a good location our sequence could fall through dreadfully, that’s why we have thought up some really good places to film.
A few things we came up with were: Garages/sheds, woods, derelict area or an abandoned house.

Woods
We thought woods would be a good location because it has its own environmental feel to it and the fact it feels as though you are in the middle of nowhere gives the sense of being ‘lost’.

Positive
- It has very nice characteristics
- Easy to film, as there is a lot of space
- So many different little spots, therefore a lot of choice
- Cannot adjust amount of sunlight


Negative
- dependant on the weather
- nothing we could do about the off-scene sound
- maybe slightly hard to find even floor
- quite hard to take all the equipment to
- could be quite dangerous

Garage/shed
We thought filming in a garage would be a good idea because although it shows the homely touch it cans till look quite messy and hidden. A shed is usually at the back of your house and so it still shows it’s close to home but its also where most people will keep tools and old stuff and so it shows its still quite a hidden area.

Positive
- under shelter, therefore no problem of weather
- do not have to travel far with the cameras
- can cut out all off-scene noise
- easy to limit lighting
- can position things exactly how we want them

Negative
- could end up looking too staged
- would there be enough space
- Will it fit with our genre?

Abandoned house
We think this would be a really really good venue because it would definitely have the run-down, derelict look we want for our idea. It would possibly be an ideal location for our idea, it’s the sort of location a real hostage would take place. It would mean the setting would have the unique look already and we wouldn’t have to set it up to look how we want it.

Positive
- exactly the theme we want
- would look very realistic on camera
- would fit genre perfectly

Negative
- would be very hard to find one that’s suitable
- could possibly be quite dangerous (need permission)
- there could be off-scene noise
- taking our equipment too far

Initial Idea

This idea was thought up on the premise of making an interesting opening sequence, I wanted to really try and make the camerawork interesting and original. I think that the camerawork is the most important aspect of our production.

The sequence starts with someone getting ready to leave the house, all filmed in POV. They get ready and leave the house, and start walking (destination is unimportant). As the subject turns out of the drive they plug in their headphones, and the soundtrack theme is delivered as a diegetic sfx. The credits are shown along the journey, and my vision was for them to be shown in the film world, through billboards, newspapers, bus adverts, a text to the subject, etc. Then the music would cut out and there would be a loud gunshot sfx. The camera (still POV) would go shaky and loop in and out of focus. The subject would then look towards the killer. His face would be clear. The subject would eventully black out.
The sequence cuts to the crime scene for the murder that the viewer saw. There would be the main character (a detective) standing over the body being briefed by another officer on what they believe happened (it has to be made clear to the audience they are at the scene of the same crime), the detective would continue probing and then another detectie would step into the shot. It would be the gunman.

The story would feature the themes betrayal and trust. It would follow the detective and the killer on the inside. But I have not thought about a ending or anything because it is not important at the moment.

The Group test shoot

As good media students we know that it is not a good idea to go straight into shooting and rely on a final shoot, it's just not practical or professional. So instead we have organised a test shoot on the 24th November, then we will be running through absolutely everything and ensuring everything will be ok to run for a final shooting. A test shoot is a really good idea because it is this which could determine our final idea, if part of our idea cannot be shot correctly then we will simply have to scrap it and rethink our ideas. This is why we need to have our storyboard, shooting script and script ready by late Saturday at least.
The test shoot will last for approximately eight hours, first 4 hours for our group to run through all the camera movement and positing and the rest of the time for running through from beginning to end including actors. The first 4 hours are crucial because that is when we can see whether all of our advanced camera action can work and also if we know confidently what shots come when and how to shoot them, then it will save a lot of time for when we come to shooting with the actors as well. We know we have only booked our actors for 4 hours and so we know that we really need to use that time efficiently.
So far mentally everything is ready for Monday it’s just a matter of doing our paper work and then we are good to go. Another aspect we need to test on Monday is the fake blood, if on the camera it does not look very realistic then we will have to come up with an alternative by our final shooting.

Changes and Improvements

Since thinking our idea through and getting feedback from friends, family and teachers we have made some small changes to it, to make it more realisitic and more effective;

1) We are not having the BBC news ident before our hostage video. This is because unless it is a war related one, it is highly unlikely a hostage video would be shown on the news. Therefore we intend the sitting room to be that of Bekah's parents, as the video would be most likley to be sent to the family of the hostage to get a ransom.

2)We were planning on Sian's character being dead already. However we think she should be beaten up but still alive so that a couple of lines of dialogue can be exchanged between her and Bekah. This will establish their relationship, making the plot deeper and more disturbing.

3) Finally, similar to point 2, we wanted to give the two characters a personal relationship. Therefore we have decided to place a picture of Sian and Bekah together looking happy with arms round each other in the wallet next to the bank card to imply they were close friends at one point....

Final Idea - THE TREATMENT

1. The action: identify the event your idea is based around; what actually happens (discovery of a body, an illicit meeting, a witness seeing a crime being committed, a criminal act taking place)?
Our opening scene is based around a hostage situation. It begins with a hostage video of a girl crying and stating a ransom must be paid for her release. However we soon learn that she is framing her best friend, so that she can get away with the ransom money. And she has murdered her best friend in an attempt to stop people finding out.

2. The theme(s): what should it make the audience think about or feel, what ‘issues’ will it raise (revenge, sexuality, voyeurism, stalking, obsession, greed etc)
It brings up the issues primarily of revenge and betrayal. With key themes also being murder, ransom, madness and greed.

3. The narrative: how is it structured - classic narrative pattern or break with convention, real time or different time zones, flashbacks/forwards, dreams etc. Will there be dialogue? What about diegetic/ non-diegetic sound?
It will be shot mainly in the classic narrative pattern in real time, however there will be a montage towards the end. There will be some dialogue, mainly at the beginning, but not too much as we want the tension and atmosphere to build up from our interesting shot types and music, not just by dialogue. All the sound will be diagetic, except of course for the music.


4. The character(s): who are they, identify their roles, what are their characteristics, including gender, appearance etc?
There are only two characters featured in our opening. Both of which are girls.
The first girl named Samantha Harris is played by Bekah Murrell is mixed race. She is in her early 20s and is pretty, quite tall, with dark afro style hair. At first she appears sweet and vulnerable, but soon we find out she is greedy, devious and very clever, betraying those close to her.
The second girl called Karen Williams is also in her early 20s and is played by Sian Parkinson. She is also pretty and quite tall. However she is very different in appearance as she has wavy blonde hair and fair skin. She is friendly, kind and trustworthy making her an easy target for crime.

5. The setting and choice of location: where is it set?
The very fist shot is in a living room. However the rest of our opening is set going to be filmed in Danni's garage. We are going to set it up so that it looks like an abandoned house or a basement, somwehre derelict and quite, an ideal location for keeping a hostage.

6. The mise-en-scene: identify colours, lighting, dress codes, the overall visual look
Our opening is going to have a very dark feel to it, and this will come across primarily in the lighting. This is because it will be very low key lighting in both locations. To continue this theme the actors will be wearing very plain clothes. Bekah will be wearing jeans with a plain white/black t-shirt. Her make up will also be minimal; a bit of mascara, and eyeliner that has smudged under her eyes.
Sian will be more smartly dressed, wearing a pencil skirt and smart top to show she is a professional woman.

7. The camera work: the style you are aiming for
We wanted to use intersting camera work to give our piece a modern, intersting style. We plan to use zooms, pans and a range of shot distances to achieve this.

8. The editing: edited as a continuous sequence, use of cross cutting, use of montage, or combination?
There won't be cross cutting, but there will be a montage near the end. We wanted to have a shot of a living room with a TV on, we're going to zoom into the TV and when we zoom out again, we will be in the room that was on the television - our vision was to have this as one seamless shot - lets hope it works!

9. Has your idea been ‘tested’ against the key criteria (the 8 questions)?
Yes it has, and we think it answers all of the questions positively.

10. Group responses?
We really love our idea and hope it will work well.

11. Teacher responses?
Our teacher liked our idea, but wants us to keep it simple, and add a bit more dialogue.

Initial Ideas

My initial idea was to have an opening sequence based around a hostage scene. It is a very current theme due to the many hostage videos shown on the news because of the Iraq war. This makes the idea very current and in my opinion very intersting.

It starts off with a news bulletin showing a video of a hostage crying and stating that she will not be released unless £10,000 is paid directly to K WILLIAMS' bank account. We see this through a TV screen in a living room. The camera zooms into the screen and when it zooms out again we are in the room with the hostage. The "hostage" then gets up from the chair, walks over to the camera, wipes her eyes and turns it off. The camera then pans left to show a dead woman lying on the floor. The first girl goes over to her, takes her wallet out of her pocket and pulls out her bank card. The name of it is K WILLIAMS, showing that she is framing the dead woman and planning to take the money herself (TWIST!!!).

HOSTAGE RESEARCH

As the idea we have decided on is about a hostage situation, I decided to do some research on this topic. A hostage is a person which is held by a captor.

Taking hostages is today considered a crime or a terrorist act; the term abductee only started being used in the 1970s. The criminal activity is known as kidnapping.

Hostage taking is still often politically motivated or intended to raise a ransom or to enforce an exchange against other hostages or even condemned convicts.

However in some countries hostage taking for profit has become an "industry", ransom often being the only demand. Our story is based on the main character wanting a ransom (lots of money).

Since the war with Iraq there have been many incidents of British journalists and reporters being held hostage whilst being over there. We have used the idea of this by starting our piece with a hostage video, similar to ones we have seen on the news in recent years.

There have been many films about Hostage situations, most recently the obviously titled ‘Hostage’ it featured big names such as Bruce Willis. The plot sees a failed police negotiator turned small town cop, having to save the lives of a family held hostage, which draws him into a much more dangerous situation.

Although our opening has similar themes to this film, they have very different characters and plot lines, consequently our opening will still be a highly original sequence.

Hostage Opening Sequence

This is a really good opening sequence. Ours will be nothing like this as it won't be animated, but it is still good as inspiration and example of a successful opening. It also shows how two openings with the same theme can show a huge variety, as they will be nothing alike.

Group meeting #3

Tuesday 18th November

Today we had a triple lesson and used our time very effectively. We spoke about so many things today and managed to narrow a lot of things down which helped us a great deal.
Miss Blackborow gave the class a short talk about all aspects that will need to be covered before we can head of for our shoot and spoke slightly about how important our time and planning really are, taking this into account we decided to head straight off and talk through everything.
First of all we decided to use the ‘Hostage’ initial idea as it was different and we had really good ideas for camera movement to make it the best. Having found our final idea it meant we could finalise a lot more things like actors and importantly a location.

Things we are definite on that we sorted out today are:
Actors, ideas, props and costume.



Actors
In the final idea we need two young women who can act really well. So we chose Sian Parkinson a young white blonde female who will play the role of the victim, an innocent woman who you would think could do no wrong. And Bekah Murrell a young mixed race female that will play the part of the ‘bad guy’. I have spoken to both these people and they have confirmed they will take part in out media project.

Props
Chair
Camera
Tripod
Blood
Black bag
Cigarette
Bank card

Costume
Sian will wear a pencil skirt with tights, shirt and heels. Bekah will wear a white tank top, jeans and dolly shoes.

Still yet to figure out location, title, music and company name. Out of all four things, we are most worried about the location, we need to have decided on a definite location before our test shoot or this will hold us at such a disadvantage.
Next meeting we need to do:
Why did we choose hostage?
Organise posts.
Background & links
Group picture

& talk about location!!

Group meeting #2

Friday 14th November

Today our meeting was very productive, we had all written up an initial idea and spoke about them to the group.
We also discussed about using fake blood and how we would try and do this effectively, we had two options, either buying some from a shop or mixing up a recipe for it ourselves. As a group we didn’t want to include to murder in our sequence and so we needed the best makeup/props to help the characters look as professional as they possibly can.
After hearing all the ideas we though of some locations that could work such as derelict building, garage, woods or a darkened basement. Obviously with thinking about the location we will need to consider whether or not it will be practical and if we ware actually allowed to film on the premises.
We know we needed characters for our production and that they had to be reliable and quite flexible with their time. A few names came up: Adam Hawksbee, Laurence Bush, Sian Parkinson, and Bekah Murrell. In order to narrow down our choice we had to ask each of them if they were able to attend a test shoot and the final shooting.

Group meeting #1

Thursday 13th November
Today we all met up during our private study period 6, we sat down and discussed some ideas and thoughts we each had. A few things we discussed were: genre, characters, setting, voiceover and the music. Although a voice over could have a really nice impact on the overall sequence we thought without the perfect speaker it would make the sequence look unprofessional and therefore could ruin the entire shoot. Two genres we were quite keen on were detective thriller and horror, but we decided to finalise this during our next meeting. The music we would like to be quite eerie and slow for the beginning and then will eventually pick up with a beat. As this was our first meeting I think we were all quite nervous as to thinking up a great idea.
We decided to all bring in an initial idea for our next meeting and there we would discuss them and narrow it down to one.

BLK feedback

I thought somebody should kick this blog off, come on you lot!