Pre-production: Location Permission

Fortunately, this was not a necessary step in the pre-production stage of our film as we will be filming the majority of the scenes on my property and will be filming other scenes in public areas that we will not need permission to use.

Equipment and Software

For the filing of our opening we will be using the Canon EOS 700D, which we were luckily able to borrow from our friend. This gave us an advantage with the filming as with this camera we are able to control and distort the focus of the clip. This camera also shoots in HD which was extremely helpful to us as it meant that we were able to produce high quality shots. 

We also used a Velbon CX 888 tripod to film with. This was a tripod that Lucy already owned and helped us in the filming process as it allowed us to get steady shots as well as achieving different angles and shot sizes.

On days that we were shooting we also used an SD card and, for the bench scene, a push bike in order to do the tracking shot.

For the post-production stages we used a Macbook pro laptop to edit on. This device has a retina display and therefore means that we can watch shots back in high quality.

We will using the imovie software to edit our piece as this is a software that me and Lucy both feel confident in using. 

First Cut & Feedback

This is the first cut of our entire film opening. We edited and put together all of these clips in order to create a simpler version of what our final product will be. We have added a title to the end of the film and an ident at the start, but we have not yet added music or credits. By having this first cut of our film it allows us to see what our film is missing and what we could do to enhance the mood and convey the story more effectively. 

Reaction:
We asked two of our classmates to review our film and give us feedback on what we could change to make our overall production more effective. Molly and Jess are also within our target audience as they are both between 16-17 years old. 

Things we did well:  
I believe that the story of our main protagonist has been conveyed well. Through this film we see her deteriorate and I believe that our use of makeup and editing of the tone and lighting of the clips helped to convey this. We also added sound effects into this first cut which I think helped to shape the mood of the scene as well. For example we used bird song in some of the scenes in order to give out a feeling of calmness and then in later scenes we added harsh static sounds to introduce an idea of a distorted reality which further enforced the fact that our main character has experienced extreme emotional trauma. 
I am also happy with the ident and title sequence and do not think that we will do much more to improve it. However we did receive feedback from Molly and Jess in which both seemed to think that we should darken it so that it fits in better with the genre. We will be making these small changes in order to make our film more appropriate for our target audience.

Things to improve: 
Molly and Jess also believed that our production could be improved with additional dialogue. This is something that we will have to discuss adding into our film as we originally were not including dialogue as we firstly took inspiration for the narrative from up (which features no dialogue between the characters). We will watch our film and find appropriate moments for dialogue to be added and then discuss whether  we think it will improve our film or in actuality, take away from our original narrative choices. We were also told that our film would be improved with the addition of tense/ creepy instrumental music. This is our next step in the editing process and we will be adding similar music as that described by Molly and Jess. 
Also, personally, I feel that although I am happy with the narrative structure of our film, we should make what happens to Character 2 more obvious. Therefore, after a discussion on what we could do to improve our production, we have decided to include images of a bloody hand and a knife, thus making it clear that this character has in fact died. 

Pre-production: Initial Sound Ideas

Our film opening features a significant shift in tone half way through. We have decided that the beginning of our film will have calm and slightly up beat instrumental, non-diegetic music. This will fit in will the happy recollections/ memories at the start of the opening. However this will be slightly distorted as to sound more like a lullaby in order to make the atmosphere slightly more uncomfortable as the music is ever so slightly wrong for the scenes that are being shown. Then, as the tone of the memories begins to change, so will the tone of the music. The music will first begin to slow down and then will become more sinister; increasing in tension.
We took inspiration for this from:
UP (2009):

Women in Black (2012)



We will also be using diegetic sounds in our opening. We will use bird song and natural laughter of the characters at the very beginning in order to introduce an element of calmness. Then in the later scenes we will use harsh static sounds in order to create a sense of distorted reality and to suggest that things things not quite being as they appear.

Ident Research

From my previous research on film openings within the thriller genre, I found that there is a significant difference between the Idents in this genre and other film genres. Below are some examples of idents from thriller films.

It appears that in order to fit in with this particular genre, filmmakers have abandoned the famous logos of these big production companies in exchange for darker, more depressing tones and colours. Black seems to be particularly popular as it connotes danger, death and sadness. By doing this the filmmaker is also able to express the seriousness and danger of the film as they have not used the typical cheery logos that are often used in other genres. This is something that I will be strongly considering doing in my own piece as I would like the tone of my film opening to be consistent, including my ident. 

Editing: Sound 2

We decided to add sound effects to some of the scenes in order to create a sense of realism. We did this by MP3 clips from youtube of birds singing and footsteps. This was added along side the non-diegetic music. We decided that we would also add these sounds to the flashbacks scenes in order to reflect that fact that these memories are vivid and clear in the mind of our main character. For example, in the scene in which the girls are looking into fish the pond, we added sound effects of swirling water and singing birds. We also included the diegetic sound of the girls laughing that we took whilst filming. However for this particular scene, I recorded an audio clip of my hand swirling in a sink filled with water to go along side with the movements of our actor's hand, as I believed that this would enforce the sense of realism.
We also added a heart beat sound effect, gradually building in pace, over the top of the fast editing sequence towards the end of the film. This was done to create a sense of building intensity, and to refer back to the fact that these events are taking place in the mind of our main character.

Editing: Sound

We had initially intended on asking my brother to create the music for our production however this created some issues and we therefore decided that it would be more appropriate to find copy-right free music online and then edit it on imovie. We liked the idea of the music being similar to lullaby to convey the mental instability of our main character. Therefore we have chosen a soft sounding lullaby to run through the first half of our opening and then, as the tone becomes darker, we have distorted the music by adding a harsh bass and slowing the lullaby music down.
From feedback from Molly and Jess when watching our first draft, they wanted music that built in intensity, therefore we tried to accomplish this by adding a deep bass sound towards the end of the opening, and making the lullaby more sinister.
Also from our focus group we received this feedback regarding music:

What sort of the music do you think we should add?

• Something innocent but eery
• Something that subtly builds suspense, but you don't want it to be too dramatic. 
• slow music that slowly builds up to create tension.

This helped us to decide on the lullaby element of our film, as it reflects the innocence that the group mentioned. 

Post-Production: Deciding the Credits

We decided to use a focus group, made up of our target demographic. We presented them with a 3 options that we thought would work with the typewriter theme.

The options were:

Didot:

Courier New:

Chalkduster:












From the feedback we received, with four out of the five people asked preferring it, it is clear that we will be using Courier New as the font for our credits. We also received positive feedback that the typewriter theme fits in well with the narrative of our film, and they felt the Courier New would be best to portray this.

Making the titles and credits

Titles:
We took inspiration for our titles from the film Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012). They use a typewriter style font to suggest that the film is an account of Charlie's (the main protagonist) life; similar to a diary entry. We also wanted to use this font to convey a sense on enigma; it could convey a similar idea of this being a diary entry from the main character, but it could also be seen as something similar to a police report for the supposed murder/ disappearance of her best friend. As we divided some of the editing work, Lucy was given the role of making the titles. She did this by using Microsoft Powerpoint, creating an individual slide for each letter (in the font Courier New). She then transferred screen shots of each slide into imovie to create the effect of the letter being typed. We then used an MP3 sound clip from youtube and added it to the clip to make it appear as though the words are being typed onto the screen by a traditional typewriter. She then exported this individual imovie file and we added it to the end of our final film.

Credits:
We wanted the credits to convey a similar effect. Therefor we used the credit option in imovie. We considered animating the letters, however we could not a suitable method that did not make our film look cheap. We chose to use the font 'Courier New' due to feedback from a focus group that we conducted. We also wanted to make literature a theme of our film with the titles and the inclusion of book in one of the flashbacks; enforcing the fact that our film is a story, told through memories and recollections.

Filming: Props

Perhaps the most significant of all the props that we are using in our piece is the bench. This is what our entire narrative revolves around and therefore plays a key part in the story. We will be using the bench that is already in my front garden (where the scene will be filmed), but we will be re-positioning it so that it is in front of the house. For this scene we will also get our actors to wear black hoodies in order for them to appear more mysterious and to introduce an ominous element into the beginning of the film.

Later in the film there will be scene in which Character 1 is looking into a mirror in a distressed manor. We will be filing this scene in my bathroom and therefore will be using my bathroom mirror as the key prop in this scene.
In the one of the happier memories we will be filming a scene of the girls taking a selfie and therefore will use either mine or Lucy's iphone as a prop in this scene.

We will also need blankets and pillows in some of the happy memories in order to create the sense of a comfortable and happy atmosphere.
And finally we will need to use two books as props for the scene in which the two characters are lying on the floor reading together. The books that we have decided to use are ' The Shock of the Fall' by Nathan Filer, which explores grief and madness, and 'A Hundred Pieces of Me' by Lucy Dillon, which explore memory and letting go of the past. Therefore, if these books are recognised by the audience, it will give them a sense of what are narrative is. 

Editing: Dividing Work

As both myself and Lucy own the software that we intend to edit our film on, we have decided that we will be dividing the flashback scenes equally between us. Each scene will be created as a separate imovie project and then we will combine them into one final project which we be our final film.  By doing this it enables us to contribute equally to the project and allow us both to include our own creative ideas. It also means that we will be able to produce our first draft sooner and therefore get feedback, and have longer amount of time to improve our film.

Editing: Final Changes & Filming Day Three

When showing our film to our classmate we continually received questions regarding what happened to the second character. It was clear that we were achieving the correct sense of enigma, as our plot appeared to confuse the audience more than intrigue them. Therefore we set up one extra day of filming. We did not include our actresses in this filming process as it would only take us a short amount of time to achieve. On this day we filmed a few varying shots in which a knife is dropped from a bloody hand.

We used false blood and a kitchen knife as props in this scene. By doing this we were able to make it clear what happened to the second character, whilst still maintaining a sense of enigma as to whether the main character did this and if so why. We shot close up shots of the knife being dropped and the hand trembling, along with a close up of the knife on the floor and a POV shot of the bloody hand.
We filmed the scene in the evening so that there was a sense of this event taking place secretly at night. It also will contrast the bright colours of the other memories. We also used brighter back lighting on the hand to suggest that the girls holding the knife is leaving a house.
These shots are to be combined in a fast paced montage of memories of our main character. These images will flash quickly and randomly throughout the montage in order to startle the audience.

Focus Group

We created a focus in which we asked people within our target audience a series of questions regarding what they thought of our first draft. The group consisted of 4 females:

• Emily Marsh 16
• Molly Braggins 16
• Jessica Underwood 17
• Anna McAllister-Little 17

Are there any parts of the footage you think we could improve on?

• Some of the shots of the bench scene are very bumpy. Make them smoother to improve the look of the shot. 
• Scene at the bus stop, a lot of it is out of focus, your opening may be better if you cut the shot or cut down the timing of it. 
• The shot of them walking down the street is too long. 

What sort of the music do you think we should add?

• Something innocent but eery
• Something that subtly builds suspense, but you don't want it to be too dramatic. 
• slow music that slowly builds up to create tension.

Does the opening set a good tone for the rest of the film? Can you get a feel for the narrative of the film just from the opening?

• Yes, it sets an eery tone and leaves you wondering what the full story is.
• I thought it was a good first draft, I think the music would really bring the opening together for the rest of the narrative. 
• I liked the constant contrast between past and present in this opening. It makes me very intrigued for the rest of the film. 

Do you have any extra feedback?

• I think it needs to be made more clear what happens at the end to the girls friend because its quite confusing. We aren't sure if she was real or not.
• I think there needs to be a bigger impact with the ending. 

This feedback will help us to improve our draft and make sure our final film is appropriate for our target demographic. 

Pre-production: Health and Safety Risk Assessment

Filming: Makeup

Day 1:
On this day of filming we were only shooting the bench sequence. For this scene we needed Lauren's makeup to look relatively extreme. We used blue and green eyeshadows to create bags under her eyes and a bruise on her chin. We used greys and taupes to create shadows around her face that would make her skin appear dead and face appear hollow. We also used red under her eyes to make them seem irritated, and then smudged mascara beneath her eyes and on her eyelids to give the appearance that she had been crying. And finally we added white and purple to her lips to drain any colour from her face. 



Day 2:
Before filming, we allowed ourselves half an hour in order to complete the makeup for the first few scenes of our production. This would be for the happy memories, in which the girls must look healthy and full of life. For this we used soft eyeshadows, light blusher, highlighter and a sheer red lipstick in order to make the characters look as radiant as possible. Our aim was to give the impression that the girls were not wearing a significant amount of makeup, but instead looked naturally healthy and glowing. 



Later in the day we altered Lauren's makeup in order to make her look vacant and distressed for the more melancholy scenes. For this we used greys and taupes to hollow out her cheekbones. We then used red eyeshadow under her eyes in order to make them look irritated and sleep deprived. We also added white and purple powers to her lips to make them look dry and to make her overall image appear more dead. We added greens and greys to her chin in order to give the impression of a bruise being there. And finally we smudged her mascara from the previous scenes to give off the sense that she had previously been crying. 

Filming: Day 1

For this day we had limited amount of time to film due to our actors having other commitments. Therefore we decided that we would spend this time filming the tracking shot of the girls sat on the bench. We started the day by doing Lauren's makeup for the scene as she had to look distressed and somewhat unsightly. We allowed ourselves half an hour in order to complete this. We then began filming the scene.
In order to move around the girls accurately whilst still being able to get a steady camera movement, we used a push bike. This was effective as I could steer the bike, therefore being able to move around the girls in the correct shape, then Lucy would hold the camera in place on the seat of the bike. By using this method I could accurately control the direction of the bike whilst Lucy steadied the camera and made sure that we had a good quality clip. 
We then had to get close up shots of Lauren looking directly into the camera. We first tried using a tripod but we were not able to get close enough to her face and we felt that the standard of the shot was not at the level of quality that we had expected. Therefore we took initiative and had our other actress bend over whilst I balanced the camera on her back. This allowed us to get the extreme close up that we wanted and also achieve the best quality that we could. 
Overall filming was successful. We were able to get a variety of shots at a high quality