Production log (pre-production)

For the pre-production we've so far planned the plot for the opening of our film, cast the actors and found a location. The plot of the film has been decided through the minor changes made throughout the weeks, we have drawn and written all the information on the story board however that has yet to be changed from the new scenes. The actors have been cast and we are selecting dates that all the cast can begin to film however one of the main actors is unavailable during the Christmas break therefore we are will continue filming without him and then re-film when he is available. Lastly the location was found, we are using the Kingston car park but we just have yet to confirm it with security or anyone in control around when we may be filming. As well as deciding that we will be filming hopefully around the schedules more specifically on Sunday's as from the sound and lighting shots which was filmed on a Sunday, it was more empty although we have chosen on the top outside floor of the car park as we knew it would more likely to be empty throughout the week rather than using the indoor levels which could constantly be busy.

Choosing a genre and researching

The thriller is a very wide genre and can be confused along with horror, however after doing some research I was able to identify some of the most popular, best, top grossing films from the genre. Firstly from the IMDb website, they created a list of the most popular thriller feature films and the top three were Spectre, Crimson Peak and The Gift which all were released in 2015 so very recent, although I disagree with some of the choices they put as I wouldn’t classify Spectre as a thriller film and more of a spy film. However similarly again from IMDb they featured a list of best suspense/ thriller films and the top three were The Sixth sense (1999), The Dark Knight rises (2012) and Inception (2010) compared to the last list, these films are shown to be more varied in years. Lastly from the film4, I found the top 30 thrillers of all time that they had listed and the top three were The third man (1949) directed by Carol Reed, Rear Window (1954) directed by Alfred Hitchcock and The usual suspects (1995) directed by Bryan Singer. This list of films is very different from the ones IMDb have published in their lists as they are created from an older generation therefore they could be more outdated. The thriller genre has evolved over time, as in the later dates the films may not have been a low budget due to the generation but the plot narrative may not be as skilful as it is now. Through the way of editing and in general the plot, which allows the film to create an overall suspense but that effect may not have been able to be created, therefore in the past they may of made it to be gory instead of adding mystery.

Like any other genre in film, thriller has many conventions such as:

• Low key lighting
• Quick cuts
• Shadows
• Tension music
• Changes in the angle of shots
• Diegetic sound of breathing
•  Montage of shots
• The leading character is in the mercy of the person who has taken possession over them

As well as having many conventions that we will have to include in our preproduction but also ensure it's original, thriller also has many clichés for example:

• There is a murder, that is followed by a trial of other murders that all relate back to the first one. This shows the unrealistic situation as there is only murders that couldn't happen again or happen repeatedly leaving the area in danger.
• Along with this, there is also a burial scene where all the characters are there wearing black including the murderer and the suspense is just increased however linking in again, the generations have changed and different methods have formed in which can be done instead of a burial
• Lastly, in thrillers if any of the characters are in threat or on the run many of them can be quite obvious and do not care of their surroundings to be aware that they might get caught again. 

Overall however the main concept is that certain thrillers can be very unrealistic and not observative of their situation, which then leads to events that the audience can already predict to happen.

Genre Fact File
Films that are similar to our opening and genre that helped inspire us with the plot and the shots used were: Lovely bones, The Perfect Guy. We also used other films such as Halloween, Memento, The Purge as despite the fact that they weren't completely thriller yet helped us with different type of shots for the opening. As for thrillers that fit into the audience for teenagers or young adults, films such as: Crush, Scream, Taken, The Strangers etc. For example for the film (Crush) which wasn't a very well known film however was targeted towards teenagers and that was shown in the plot. The stars cast in the film were: Lucas Till, Crystal Reed, Sarah Bolger, Caitriona Balfe, Reid Ewing, Leigh Whannell, Holt McCallany and Camille Guaty. The film was only published in America and had a budget of $1.2 million, it also earnt $8,123,213. 

Choosing a genre (genre mind map)

Choosing a genre

Final genre: Thriller

Genre 1: Thriller

Pros:

·         Easy to think of a narrative (e.g. Taken)

·         Easy access to locations (e.g. Friday the 13th, The Evil Dead and Wrong Turn)

·        Tension can be easily created through music (e.g. The Purge)

·         Props are less likely to be expensive (e.g. P2, these are similar items that would have been seen in the film)

·         Could work with a relatively small cast (e.g. Crush, a 2013 independent thriller film about a secret admirer's crush on a high school boy turns fatal)

Cons:

·         Difficult to distinguish difference between horror and thriller (e.g. The Exorcist, Halloween and The Cabin in the Woods - they are all considered both horror and thriller which shows the thin line between the genres)

·         Easy to create something generic and cliché (e.g. Taken's plot)

·         The plot can be given away quickly (e.g. Taken as mentioned above)

·         Hard to pick a specific target audience (as mentioned above with the genres, makes it harder for the audience to decide due to the similarity between them both)

·         Difficult to use certain props at locations (e.g. guns and certain locations in other countries perhaps could be harder for lower budgeted independent companies to feature in their films)

Genre 2: Action

Pros:

·         Action achieved through pace

·         Can easily do a chase scene

·         Access to a lot of potential cast

·         Narrative does not need depth

·         Can be easily created through music

     

      Cons:

·         Chase scenes are generic and overused

·         Need access to expensive props if not doing chase scene

·         How will we achieve bird eye establishing shots, conventions of the genre?

·         Needs large budget or special effect software (not available in school)

Final selection: Thriller

We will overcome the cons of the thriller genre as we won’t purposely include gory or murderous scenes in the opening to confuse the audience between the two genres which leads onto not using such a classically thought out storyline. The storyline we use will be more unique than what you could normally do to get the idea for a thriller however not too different and in the opening, we will have to ensure that the entire plot of the film isn’t a giveaway to add suspense. As for the target audience, we have already identified our specific audience because it depends on the plot of the film and it will be for young adults (15+) as it is relative to that age range. Lastly for the props, we will make sure that if we do want to use props that may not be suitable to ask for permission or perhaps use props that are more likely to be able to be used however still ensuring it doesn’t look unrealistic. 

Film Opening Analysis

Film Opening Analysis

Name/Link/Genre	Brief Summary of events	Locations used	Characters introduced	Use of sound	Range of shots	Action and enigma codes	Use of titles
Jaws- Adventure, drama, thriller http://whatculture.com/film/10-greatest-movie-opening-scenes-of-all-time.php/8	Women and man are taking off their clothes as they run to get into the ocean, the female character however gets into the ocean faster as the male is out of breathe and eventually lies down. As the female character swims further out, without realising a shark approaches and eats her.	A beach briefly but mainly in the ocean	A female and male however the female is shown to be the main attention as she is the one who is shown to get into the ocean more hurried than the male.	The theme song before the female character is killed, this is used to familiarise the song to the shark and future attacks.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9QTSyLwd4w	Medium shot Wide shot Point of view	The first introduction of character is the male and female, however it is uncertain what their relation is to one another. Within the beginning of the film, the female character is killed off therefore it is unclear of her importance and what could of killed her because it isn’t shown nor specified.	Title of film is shown immediately and the list of actors are shown afterwards. The titles are purposely shown under water to set the scene of the film that relates to the shark.
Lilo and Stitch- Animation, adventure, comedy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuDeQ4nQf7s	The backstory scene which starts the opening which introduces Stitch is just finished and cuts onto the opening credits. This then focuses on a little girl who’s been swimming in the ocean and is rushing back while putting on her costume. While she is on her way back, in another scene a dance routine has started with 5 older girls and 4 younger girls. The little girl shown in the beginning joins the routine before it finishes and the little girls slip over the wet trail she has left.	Briefly in a spaceship at the starting scene, then ocean and finally onto a stage.	Opening includes Stitch who is the ‘monster’ created and his creator is also shown. Then into the opening titles, a little girl is shown as she is travelling to her dance class where then the other dancers are shown and the teacher.	They include a song as soon as the opening scene is finished and it goes onto the title where the little girl in the ocean is shown. This song also fits in time with the dancers and plays until they stop dancing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YinkbnaBgIk	Extreme close up Medium shot High angle shot	The audience are introduced to Stitch otherwise known as the ‘monster’ however it is unclear of the relation between him and the little girl as at the beginning they are only shown in separate scenes. Therefore it is not very clear what the relation between them is or could be as he is shown to be a bad character. Similarly so is the little girl as she is late to the dance class which shows a similarity but yet a relation between them.	The titles of the film are shown at the beginning of the opening and then throughout the titles are shown of producers/directors etc. however no actors for the voice overs are shown.
Iron Man- Action, adventure, Sci-fi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hT4Jt1qx54	A man is in a car with soldiers taking him somewhere which has two cars on either side, one of the soldiers is taking a picture of the fellow soldier and man when a bomb blows up in front of them. All three soldiers leave the car and tell the man to stay inside however he leaves and hides behind a rock, getting his phone out until another bomb appears to which he is then thrown to another part of the desert and he then uncovers his chest which has some kind of armour around it.	A desert	A male who is being taken somewhere the audience is unaware of, also shown to be the main character and the three soldiers in the car with him.	Starts with diegetic sound of the empty desert. Then the sound is changed into a song that is at first presumed to be just heard by the audience but however is actually playing on the radio in the car.	Establishing shot Close up Shot/reverse shot Medium shot	The audience are introduced into the main male role who is being taken in a car through a desert however the audience are unaware of why and who he is. The confusion is then arrived on when he is seen to be the only one still alive from the bombing and has some sort of metal armour on his chest.	The titles are not presented in the opening scene, they show before the scene properly starts showing the companies of Universal and Marvel prompting for the title of the film to aware however it doesn't and decides to start the opening instead.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s- Comedy, drama, romance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JfS90u-1g8	Woman shown to be the main character being dropped outside the Tiffany store and has her breakfast outside before returning back home.	New York City, first scene is shown to be of the empty city road that is filled on the sides with stores.	Female character is first introduced and shown to be the main character as you watch her journey and actions throughout her visiting the store.	Opening sequence starts with this song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ8j-X1hq1I	Extreme long shot Wide shot Medium shot	The woman is the first character to be introduced to the audience therefore it is likely that she is the main role. However the audience are uncertain on who exactly she is and why she is having breakfast outside of a store. The mystery is carried on when a man is waiting outside her apartment for her as she tries to not be noticed by him so the relation between them hasn't been shown as well as the role of the female character.	As the woman gets out of the car, the credits are shown around her e.g. on the window of the Tiffany store she is standing outside of.

Preliminary Task

This is our final production made for the Interrogation scene, overall it didn't entirely plan out as how we expected it however that was more involving the filming than the plot. From this, we will be able to evaluate what went wrong and use that to make sure our pre-production opening is better. It also took longer than we anticipated so for the future we can plan out the whole production and be more aware with what is going to happen behind scenes. 

Sound and Lighting Test shot for the classroom

This is the Sound and Lighting test for the dark room entry, however this room was not the exact room we hope to use for filming therefore the shade of lighting and possible sound may differ, however prior to filming we will check the availability of the room in order to achieve the most out of our time in the room. However we believe that the difference is slim between rooms as we took the necessary measure such as using the same time of day (for the test shots) in order to make sure that the actual film will be as similar as possible. Despite this, the sound of the door opening was evidently picked up by the camera, and also sounded as if it was amplified due to the silence of the room. Also the lighting was not ideal as this room offered more in terms of brightness and this prevented us from achieving a tense tone in and amongst the room, therefore this further adds to the reason for ensuring that the particular room we want is available upon recording.

During this Sound and Lighting test we can evidently see that the conditions are similar to that of the Entry to this particular room, this is because despite an alternative angle the degree of brightness is still the same, and therefore is not an ideal location for filming, especially when taking into consideration the tense and dramatic emotion we are trying to create. Nevertheless this underlines the importance of test shooting, in order to understand ideal and problematic settings for filming, but also considering the problem that we encountered with the entry for the room, we are now aware that we need to identify a room with a sufficiently decreased amount of lighting, otherwise our scene will not match with the surroundings, and this is vital when trying to achieve visual effect. Overall the sound gathered was similar to that of the Dark room entry as their was a slight degree of background sound and also that any other sound within a 3 metre radius is picked up and amplified. But in our proposed location this is not the same case as all sound in neutral.

Sound and Light Test shot for the corridor scene

This is the Sound and Lighting test for the corridor scene, during which we consider the brightness from the opposing window and also the lights above the movement, and how this could effect the overall effect of the opening shot. During this test shot there is a clear understanding of the character, this is helped by the window on the left hand side projecting a natural bright tone, however the tone was not to bright to affect the camera, also at the same time we were analysing the sound sufficiency, this test shows us that the sound picked up from the recording device are efficient enough for use in the preliminary task, therefore this means that we do not need to record the backtrack for the footsteps over the top (this sound is important in order to create tense atmosphere) instead we can use the actual sound given out by the movement being made.