Hlms group

Critically Evaluating My Video Production By Hayley Outhwaite

2010-05-03T10:41:00.000-07:00

Maintaining continuity is considered one of the main priorities with in the production of a film. It is an editing technique that is used to avoid irregularity in scenes. In relation to our film we evidently showed use of continuity editing in our conversation scenes and scenes where the actresses were walking through corridors. We also chose to include jump shots in our film to keep the audience engaged and to avoid our film being labelled as boring; evidence of where we used jump cuts is in the morning sequence when Lucy is getting ready for college. Instead of including every step of her preparing for college by using very long shots we made the shots shorter and so when the film was played it gave the scene a rushed effect which is what we initially wanted the opening scene to feel like.
The genre of our 5 minute film is a psychological thriller as it has a lot of similar qualities to other films with in this genre such as ‘Seven’ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4YV2_TcCoE&feature=related) and ‘Hard candy’ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-C2H4ipxz0), this film is a disturbing film that keeps you on the edge of your seat all the way until the end, I liked this quality and so I wanted to make our film as captivating as this. The film that we took the most ideas from however was ‘The uninvited’ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-C2H4ipxz0) this is a film that has a lot of similarities to ours as it is also about a girl with a mental illness who has an imaginary friend that is her sister much like in our film where Lucy has schizophrenia and has an imaginary friend that is Emily-Jayne. Another positive idea that we liked from the film ‘The uninvited’ was the twist at the end of the film and so we tried our best to incorporate that at the end of our film and in my opinion I think that it worked really well as there was a gradual build up of the story and then it was revealed that Emily-Jayne was in fact a figure of Lucy’s imagination.
As Richard Dyer states in his ‘Theory of Entertainment’ that a person chooses a film that shows or gives them something that they want but don’t have at that time. For instance if a person is lacking money they will watch a film with lots of wealthy people, fancy cars and clothes. In my opinion I feel that many people will watch our film as it is entertaining throughout and keeps the audience guessing what is going to occur next. Educationally I feel that our film provides plenty of information about schizophrenia and how it effect’s a person as we see when Lucy forgets to take her tablets. Also as it gives people an insight into how schizophrenic people are, both sufferers and people who know someone with the mental illness can relate to our film as they are have either had similar experiences themselves or they know someone who has.
When making our film and both our sources of advertisement we were trying to create a confusing yet spooky experience for the audience. For our first source of advertisement which was our poster I feel that we definitely managed to create a sense of spookiness as firstly after collaborating our ideas together for our final poster we decided to incorporate a dark patterned background to try and create an eerie feel, we also chose to make the image of Emily-Jayne stand out even more than it already did by colouring the area surrounding her with a bright white colour resembling light. I personally got this idea from when I was researching other posters and I came across the poster ‘Ghost’ where the two main characters are embracing each other and surrounding them is a bright white light, this ties in with the storyline of the film as it is about the afterlife and what happens after we die which is much like our own film where Emily-Jayne is a ghost. We also decided to include the names of the two main characters as we were aware from our research that the names of the main characters are almost always included in a films poster in order to inform the audience who the actors are that they are watching on the scene. Another clever aspect of our film I felt was the writing ‘chasing her ghost…’ which was repeatedly written down the left hand side of our poster, I feel that this writing looks really effective and ties in really well with the aspect of someone suffering from a mental illness as it gives the impression that someone has repeatedly scribbled this down in frustration or confusion over something.

For our second source of advertisement which was our radio trailer we wanted to keep tied in with the theme of confusion and mystery like our poster did and so we decided upon a piano playing for our background music. This piece of music was repeated throughout our 30 second radio trailer which created a ghostly effect. Lucy and Shelley simultaneously spoke in our trailer which gave the feeling that they were chanting and made what they were saying a lot more powerful to the audience; we also used clips from the film when Lilly is saying “No I don’t know what’s happening” and she also says “Emily-Jayne Hart’ several times and on the final one an echo effect is used to create even more of an eerie feel to the film.
Here is our radio trailer: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oifK738zsF0&feature=player_embedded)

In order to gain a real insight into what the audience thought of our film we made sure that we gathered feedback from our audience. We did this by firstly producing a number of questions, after this we set up our camera and recorded five people from our audience give their answers. By doing this we were able to look at their opinions of our film and the criticism that we got we could then use constructively in order to improve our film. For instance we were told that our film lacked music and so in order to better our film we incorporated more music into our film which included a song from our college’s band ‘Our Friends In Vegas’. As well as this we also added music from Garageband which helped make scenes more effective and also build up tension in some cases.
The majority of our audience members said that they didn’t know that the twist was coming at the end of our film and so this is really good positive feedback for our film as we wanted to make the twist unpredictable to the audience and we succeeded so no changes needed to be made in the final editing stages of our film. We chose to interview people around the same age group as us as these were the target audience for our film and also the main characters were of a similar age group too and so in most cases the audience will be able to relate to Lucy and Emily- Jayne in many ways.
Overall we were very pleased with the audience feedback that we gathered because as well as positive things being said about our film that enabled me and my fellow group members to be proud of our work, we were given criticism that we could then use in a positive way in order to make our film even better and work on satisfying our audience even more. After been given reviews such as 3, 4 and 4.5 out of 5 stars I myself am very pleased with how the public has reacted to our film and am now sure that all of our hard work has paid off.

The vital piece of technology that helped us during the course of planning and researching for our film was the internet, without this our group would have struggled gathering any information. The internet also enabled us to access http://www.blogger.com/ where we each had an account and after every piece of work we did we could then upload it onto blogger, this made things easier for our group as we could see what work had been done and what work needed to be done. As well as blogger playing a huge role in the planning and research of our film so did http://www.youtube.com/ as we used this site to look for radio trailers to gather research for our own work and to also upload our work such as our audience feedback, radio trailer and our final film.

In order to create our posters we used the computer programme ‘Photoshop’ which I found very difficult to use at first but after a few lessons with my teacher explaining how to use the basic tools on the programme I felt that I excelled in this part of our work especially as I was the one that made our final poster.

For our radio trailer we used a zoom H4 recorder to record our voices, we then placed our audio onto Garageband which we then used to create our final radio trailer. For all of our filming we used a Sony HVD 1000 video recorder along with a tripod that made sure that the shots we recorded weren’t jerky or uneven in any way. Finally in order to edit our film we used the software ‘Final Cut Express’

The Lost Hart Finished Product By Matthew Helliwell

2010-04-30T08:01:00.000-07:00

Here is our film 'The Lost Hart' I uploaded it to youtube earlier this afternoon.

Here is the embedded video.

Alternatively here is the link.

The Lost Hart

Audience Feedback by Shelley Brookes and Hayley Outhwaite

2010-04-29T08:40:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPcAuSgtW8U

For our audience feedback we interviewed several people after getting them to watch the unfinished film. This was so that we could get feedback on what else needed doing and any changes that could be made. A problem we faced when recording our feedback was that the tape we were using ran out of space. Therefore we had to find an alternative tape to use.

The questions we used were:

1. What did you enjoy about the film?
Throughout the film, were you able to pick out any favourite parts?
Specifically, was there any parts that stood out to you?
Were you able to follow the film with ease?
2. What did you think about the twist at the end of the film?
Was it easy enough to understand?
Is there anything you would change about the twist or the build up to the main climax?
Was the ending obvious throughout the film?
3. Was there any part that you didn't enjoy, or you didn't think was necessory?
(Answer Yes) Specifically, what didn't you enjoy?
(Answer No) Would you say there was nothing wrong with our film?
4. Do you agree with the 12 rating of the film?
(Answer Yes)Why?
(Answer No)What rating would you give it and why?
5. Overall, what star rating would you give the film?

These questions were produced by Lucy Davies as shown earlier on on blogger.

Critically Evaluating my Video Production by Shelley Brookes

2010-04-29T04:53:00.000-07:00

Continuity editing is a common technique within our film and is difficult to maintain. Although we showed that we were able to do this as our shots were all continuous. We used it to show the actresses walking through doors, conversations and all other continuous shots. We also used jump cuts to deliberately miss things out for example walking to another place.

Our film is a psychotic thriller and has similar aspects of other films. These include, The Uninvited (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnqDcdyI-qQ ), Gothika (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0e8SfWvXdM ) and The Butterfly Affect (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5dVQfzjDS4 ). It has a thrilling affect and causes a sense of confusion. We used The Uninvited for ideas on how to create a twist, as in this film there is also a girl suffering from a mental illness. As a result of her illness in the film she has an imaginary friend who is her dead sister. Her sister leads her to kill their step mother. Whereas in our film her imaginary friend is a girl who use to go to the college she attends. The girl is a positive attribute to her life as she helps her with her problem, which is being bullied.

Towards the end of our film we were trying to create horror by having Lucy sat with her friend Emily-Jane and the camera is a mid-length shot of them both, then cut to the teacher Simon and then back to the shot before but with Lucy sat on her own. This is like at the end of the film The Uninvited where the girl is stood with her sister and then the camera cuts to her dad and then back to her on her own covered in blood and holding a knife.

‘The Theory of Entertainment’ by Richard Dyer states that a person picks films that show or give them something they don’t have at the time. For example if a person is lacking abundance then they will watch a film with lots of money, cars or clothes in it. This is a film that shows wealth.

We were trying to achieve a sense of fear, confusion and suspense with the audience when making both our film and our two sources of advertisement. It was reflected in our poster by the way we used dull colours but with a splash of white around the main character Emily-Jane to make her stand out, as we were hoping she did in the film. Also, the old fashioned writing may imply it has something to do with something from the past. We decided to have Lucy and Emily-Jane on the poster as they are the main characters and this is how most posters are set out. This is shown in the poster for the film ‘Date Night’. It is an image of both Steve Carell and Tina Fey who are the main characters in the film. We then repeat the writing ‘chasing her ghost..’ all down the left hand side of the poster. This is to show an annoyance or something that is in the film that the character may not be able to get rid of. In our film this would be her mental illness.

Our other source of advertisement was a radio trailer. We used a piece of music which was performed by only a piano. This same piece is repeated over and over which creates a creepy feel to the audience. We used voices of the same pitch so that it creates a better sense of panic when we use the extracts from the film. This is due to the big difference in the tone of voice. We then added an echo on to the voice of the character; this dragged it out and enforced a sense of confusion and suspense on to the audience as they aren’t sure what’s happening but will want to find out by seeing it.

The film Law abiding citizen uses music from a piano at the beginning of the trailer. When a climax occurs though the music changes and speeds up. The music is usually background music on a trailer so that the voice of characters or the narrator can still be heard. But the music plays the biggest past as it implies to the audience the type of film it’s going to be. In our trailer it is the same all the way through which will cause confusion as it gives nothing away about the film.

When we first got our brief we decided we wanted to make a storyline with a twist at the end of it. This way they will think they know what’s happening all the way through the film and then at the end it will get them thinking as they realise they are far from the truth. To help us with our choice of film I conducted some research using a questionnaire. It consisted of questions that would help us with our choice on what genre to use. In my results I found that most short films were seen on the internet site http://www.youtube.com/ by the audience. It then came to my attention that within horror films was murder and rape. Second to this was sex and drugs. Therefore we had to make up our own mind as it would be virtually impossible for us to include any of the other 4 aspects in a five minute film. We then asked the same question but with what they don’t like to see and the results showed that they didn’t like to see what they previously liked. This implied to me that the people taking part in my questionnaire were either not taking it serious or just ticking any of the boxes.

So that what was happening in the film was apparent to the audience we took several different shots every time we filmed. These included shots from different angles, with different amount of lighting and in different parts of the room or college. We used cuts of previous parts of the film to represent Lucy’s flashbacks. We also used special effects to make Emily-Jane disappear then re-appear in the room with Lily. Finally we experimented with saturation and colour effects. This lead to the decision that we would change to a three or four toned colour then change it back to its original colour. This caused it to look like a flash and created a spooky effect.

Our film was aimed at teenagers so we used characters of the same age so they were easy to relate to. For example, Lucy being the victim of a bullying problem meant that any teenagers being bullied could relate to her and it may encourage them also to talk to someone. This made the characters easy to understand as they were teenagers suffering real life problems. Although, the older generation who like psychological thrillers may also be classed as our target audience. In my opinion our film was easy to understand all the way through until the end we intentionally set out to confuse people with the twist. We found out that this technique worked when we got audience feedback. The participants said that they thought it was ‘unpredictable’ and a ‘good idea’.

A problem with our film may be the regional accent. Although, there are no regional words used but the pronunciation of words may be different to how others say them. This may lead to a mixture of interpretations with the audience or for them to be confused with what the characters are saying.

When I was planning and researching before the film making process I used the website http://www.blogger.com/. I created an account and posted all my research and planning on the site. We used http://www.google.com/ to find out any information we needed for the film. An example for this is when we were deciding on a certificate. I also posted my poster analysis, the poster I designed, my analysis of a five minute film and all the diary extracts I wrote after days of filming. Apple Mac’s were the computers we were on to do all our planning, research and any other work that was needed. Photoshop was another computer programme which helped us with our other advertising product, our poster. We had several lessons to give us information on how to use this programme and what tools to use for best results.

The video recorder we used was a Sony HDV 1000. A tri-pod was used as a stand for the camera so that it was a still and even shot. To make sure of this I would check the spirit level on the top of the tri-pod and alter the legs until the bubble was central. For our radio trailer we used a H4 zoom recorder. This was easy to use; although we were given a sheet with the instructions on to prevent us making any mistakes.

When editing our film we used software called ‘Final Cut Express’ this was very useful with the production of our film and made it a lot easier for us. Garage Band was a programme we used to add audio clips to the film such as the alarm clock.

All the technology we used was a big attribute to the production of our film, poster, movie trailer and the research and planning we did. I found the website http://www.blogger.com/ difficult as I didn’t know how to make my name visible on the blog’s wall. I used the camera a lot so I found this was the easiest source of equipment for me. I developed my filming skills, using a variety of shots and techniques such as zooming and panning. I also liked to get a number of different shots so that there would definitely be one that we liked and wanted to use. The programmes on the computer played the biggest part on helping us develop our film as they made it possible to add special effects, such as audio clips and change of colours on certain shots. It also let us cut off parts off the shot we didn’t want.

Diary Extract by Shelley Brookes

2010-04-27T11:09:00.000-07:00

March 23rd
This was our final day of filming and was used to do the car scenes. This was the most difficult scene to film as it was outside college and included driving a car on a real road.
First, we did a shot of Jade, Sharon and Danielle (the bullies) driving down the road in the car. This was done close up and then from a distance so we could get a better shot of the bully Danielle throwing a bottle out of the car window, aiming for the head of Lucy. We then did these shots so that Lucy could be seen walking down the path at the side of the road. The bottle was then thrown so that it would miss her head, that way we didn’t hurt her.
We then did a shot of Danielle throwing the bottle at Lucy’s head but with the car at a stand still, this was so she could do it softer.
Finally, we did a shot from inside the car with the bully Danielle holding the camera. This was so the audience could see it from her point of view.

Critically evaluating video production by Lucy Davies

2010-04-27T11:02:00.000-07:00

For our media product, we wanted to create a mild psychotic thriller that was potentially for a wide audience. Psychological thrillers deliberately use psychological tricks to create tension in the audience by stimulating the imagination of the viewer, as they make up their own minds on what is going to happen. To make maximum use of suspense in our film, we purposely kept the action content to a minimum which was a way that made the audience gripped to the storyline making the overall experience of the film thrilling.
We chose to place our film under the category of psychological thriller as it includes a main character with mental health issues rather than the actor being exposed to physical danger. As a group, we decided to rate our film as a ‘12a’, enabling a large amount of people to actually watch the short film we produced. Another reason why we rated our film as a 12a is that we didn’t have the right equipment and experience to form any scenes of violence or horror, so we decided to produce a film that contained mild swearing and mild scenes of horror to qualify the rating of our film as a 12a. Throughout the production of our film, we enabled ourselves to use the correct set of shots and cuts to enhance the importance of the psychotic effect we wanted to establish for the duration of our film. At the end of our film, we used flashing images of Emily-Jayne standing behind Lucy which was a feature we interpreted to reveal the twist at the end using a psychotic effect. We also used filters and coloured effects with blurs and blurred motions to make some parts of the film more unusual, as we wanted to add things that the audience would not expect. In some places, we used quick cuts from shot to shot to make the scene more frantic, allowing the audience to feel more anxious to what could happen which was a way that built up tension to capture the audience’s attention until the very end of the film. We also used a variety of different shots, including close up shots to emphasise emotions and facial expressions used by the actors and long shots to show the scenery enabling the audience to see where the film is taking place so that they get a better understanding. Mid length shots were used for conversations allowing the audience to feel more involved in the film. We also used full length shots so that the audience could see the characters fully and make up their own opinions of each character from their appearance. (This technique of letting the audience make their own decisions was an idea I wanted to incorporate from the 5 minute film I analysed, as it makes the revealing of the twist more dramatic). The character Emily-Jayne that played the part of a ghost wore the same clothing throughout the film implying that there could be something mysterious about her. The costumes of the characters became a problem during the film as the dress we used for Emily-Jayne was borrowed from the performing arts section of college and it got lost after we had used it several times so we had to improvise on set. Also, we used two different jumpers for Lucy, and as both characters had to film in their own time we could only do short scenes so we got confused which jumpers were needed for each shot.
Continuity editing is a technique used to link a sequence together using a variety of different shots. This makes a scene more interesting as it enables the audience to see a range of shots that they can simply follow without confusion. Continuity editing was used throughout our film for conversations and walking sequences through doors and corridors etc. We used this technique to make the film flow more appropriately, allowing the audience to get a better understanding of what the film is about without getting confused, especially for the twist at the end. However, some parts of the film where we wanted to use continuity editing was impossible as some of the scenes we filmed didn’t have enough different shots to make the sequence flow appropriately. Also, the lighting and sounding from shot to shot was different which made it difficult to make the scene continue. An example of this is when both main actresses were in the canteen. It was difficult to make the scene continue with a variety of different shots as we simply didn’t have enough shots. Nevertheless, in some parts of our filming we did the same shot twice but made the actress do it in different emotions to enable us to have more variety when editing. We also did the same shot in close ups and long shots so that we could chose which was better for the overall scene. When filming, we did have an advantage as we were able to use actors from performing arts which made the filming part more professional, but this caused problems as we had to film in our breaks at college and their breaks which left us little time to edit.
In addition, we used several jump cuts to compress a number of shots into a quick scene. An example of using jump cuts in our film was the opening sequence when our actress (Lily) was getting ready for college, to create a more frantic scene. This technique emphasises a specific activity that the character is acting out, which is a way of creating suspense to capture the audience’s attention. We also used dissolves and fades to pass a passage of time and to simply link different scenes together without immediately cutting from scene to scene.
Uses and gratification (Richard Dyers Theory of entertainment) is an approach that highlights why people enjoy watching films and the pleasure they get from them. This can be summarised from the entertainment value of the film, the information that it provides for the audience, specific role models that the audience may find inspiring and the socialisation factor that comes from watching a film. In my opinion, our film is entertaining as it captures the audience’s attention throughout the film until the twist at the end. As Emily-Jayne is wearing old fashioned clothing and comes across as an outsider, the audience are anxious to see why this appearance was used for this character, which is a way of gradually building tension. Our film is also educational as it provides information about schizophrenia and how it can affect people. Even though our film comes across as dramatic, it is still true to life making the audience learn about situations that schizophrenics may be in. Transparency can make certain viewers want to watch our film as they may be able to relate own experiences of knowing people with schizophrenia or even being a suffer themselves of schizophrenia , enabling the audience to share their own emotions towards the film. Furthermore, all films create socialisation as any person can have their own opinion on a film which is another reason to why people may watch it.
From the 5 minute film I analysed (‘LOVEFIELDS’), the main way that tension was built was by the music used and the fact that the director led the audience to believe the male in the film raped and killed the woman, making the revealing of the twist more unexpected. In addition, the use of close ups were used in this short film to express emotions more clearly, making the overall experience of watching the film more thrilling, as it involves the audience. This is a technique we used in our film, by doing close up shots of Lucy’s face when she was distressed etc to make it more direct to the viewer. In our film, we led the audience to believe that Lucy was an ordinary girl that was getting bullied, leaving any action content to a minimum to keep the audience gripped throughout. This was a technique I wanted to include in our film, as the opening sequence to ‘LOVEFIELDS’ was very slow, however it made me anxious to see what was going to happen. I believe that our film gave no implications to what the ending could be about like ‘LOVEFIELDS’.
To advertise our film, we used a radio trailer that included appropriate information to inform the audience. With any trailer, to get the maximum effect of advertising a film to the viewers, it is vital that specific techniques and features are incorporated to make the audience want to see the film. This is a DVD trailer of the film ‘The Sixth Sense’. Before watching this trailer, I was intrigued to see what techniques were used to persuade the audience to watch the film and the music and script included, in order for me to take ideas and use them in our own radio trailer.

Immediately, the audience is captured by the scene of the accident and the fact that the young boy is implying that he can see a dead woman next to his window. The audience’s attention is now focused on the young boy, making them predict what the film could be about. We used this technique in our trailer, as we wanted the listeners to make their own minds up on what the film could be about, making the twist at the end less obvious. We wanted the listeners to be left in suspense after listening to the trailer, which was a technique used in ‘The Sixth Sense’ trailer. We did this by using an extremely brief description of the film and adding extracts of the film to leave the audience wanting more. Both trailers had their own way of building tension by using psychotic effects. In our radio trailer, we wanted to include a piano for the background music to create a ghostly effect. Both Shelley and I spoke for the audio to portray that a group of girls were chanting like the bullies in the film, or Lily and Emily-Jayne were talking simultaneously to show their connection with each other. An eerie effect was created in ‘The Sixth Sense’ trailer by using thrilling music and extracts from the film such as ‘I see dead people’. Also, a deep male voice only said the title of the film and the tagline being ‘Not every gift is a blessing’ which emphasised these two features. In our film poster, we included a tagline 'chasing her ghost...' to leave the audience in suspense and by copy and pasting it, it gives the implication that someone has repeatedly written it down in frustration (Highlighting mental health issues). Also in the poster, the title is the biggest piece of text so the audience won't get confused between the tagline and the title. We thought it would be a good idea to smudge all the text used on the poster to create a ghostly effect that we have used throughout the design on the poster. Furthermore, putting the rating of the film on the poster was a vital piece of information that needed to be added so that the audience knew what age it was suitable for, which is something ‘The Sixth Sense’ trailer didn’t include.

To begin with, as a group we chose images that we thought were suitable to use for a film poster. We thought it was vital that both main characters were used in the poster, so that the audience have a better idea of who to expect in the film. This is why a large image of Lily's face and a figure of Laura-Jane is used, including their names at the bottom of the poster enabling the audience to recognise who they are. Cleverly, in ‘The Sixth Sense’ trailer, it included five star ratings and critics’ opinions that may make the audience want to watch the film. We wanted to include this in our radio trailer, but we thought it may be inappropriate to the script. However, ‘The Sixth Sense’ trailer highlighted the main actor ‘Bruce Willis’, so we decided to include the actors names in our radio trailer, as we did in the poster, as this could also persuade the audience to watch the film if they knew the actor or actors from previous films they have seen them in. To continue with the eerie effect, we wanted Emily-Jayne to be in the background, distorted, so that the audience were under the impression that she could be a ghost. Influenced by the film poster I analysed, we decided to slightly blur her face like the young girl was in the ‘Uninvited’ poster as it created some sort of mystery.

For our audience feedback, I produced a number of questions to get the right amount of advice to make improvements on our film. Some of the positive responses enabled us, as a group, to feel good about our film, and also leave things in that we may have taken out. We did receive criticism which was that the pace of the film at the beginning could have been quicker, so by improving this, we shortened walking sequences and long conversations to make the film more entertaining for the audience. We were also told to add more music to our film, so we choice a piece of music that we wanted to use as our theme tune from a college band ‘My Friends in Vegas’. We also added music from Garageband to build tension and make scenes more interesting to watch. One member of the audience said how they worked out the ending which was disappointing; however, no one else seemed to know what was coming so we decided to leave the film from the majority of people’s opinions. Another member of the audience mentioned how the film didn’t flow in some parts as there were editing brakes, so we solved this by finishing the film fully and by adding fades and dissolves to link scenes together.
After asking the question, ‘Do you think the rating of a 12a was right for the film?’ we had positive responses reassuring us that we made the right decision to class the film as a 12a. One of the viewers stated how this was a suitable age rating as anyone younger may not be able to understand the twist at the end, even though the film wasn’t really scary or contained bad language.
We decided to ask people of our own age to give feedback on our film as this was our main target audience. By using the main actress we did (both actresses were of a similar age to our target audience), this enabled our target audience to relate themselves to the film more. From our audience feedback, we were pleased with the overall outcome, and the fact the audience understood our story and thought that the characters were believable. This made our final stages of editing easier as we had little changes to make to our film.
The most important piece of technology that we used was most definitely the internet. This enabled us to use http://www.blogger.com/ so we could sort out all our work on from media and share it with each other. Also, by using http://www.youtube.com/ it gave us inspiration for radio trailer ideas and film poster ideas from http://www.impawards.co.uk/. To create the poster for our film 'The Lost Hart', we used Adobe Photoshop, enabling us to use effects and images of our choice. This made our overall poster look more professional and more likely to be used for a large Hollywood production company if this was possible. In our film, we also used Garageband to add sound effects and music that was appropriate for each scene. We added non-diegectic sounds, such as the alarm clock at the beginning of the film, and also background noises of people murmuring to make shot to shots in the canteen continue.
We used a zoom H4 recorder to make our radio trailer, and then added the speech onto Garageband to create a professional trailer that could potentially be used on a real radio station for advertisement. To edit our film, we used final cut express on an Apple Mac computer which was an easy way to produce the film and add effects to make the film more impressive. Our final piece of equipment we used was the Sony HDV 1000 to film our movie and a tri-pod to stand the camera on and get steady shots, and the DV 1000 to add all the clips we filmed to the computer so we were able to edit it. Both pieces of equipment were easy to use; however, the camera was not always reliable as the battery ran out several times during filming which lost our group a lot of time.

Diary Extract by Shelley Brookes

2010-04-27T11:01:00.000-07:00

On March 2nd we did the classroom shot of Lucy entering the room with Emily-Jane to speak to their teacher Simon about the bullying. We started with the conversation between the two but with the camera facing Simon. We then did the same with Lucy, although we did it more than once as we needed to capture Lucy doing a variety of emotions and reactions within the conversation. We also needed to do this show with and without Emily-Jane to show in the film that she isn't really there and we need several different angles of the shot.
Finally, the shot of the bullies for another scene was done using panning. It panned across the faces of the bullies whilst they all made a comment towards Lucy and the way she's talking to herself. We did this shot with Emily-Jane there talking to her and then again without Emily-Jane there and Lucy talking to herself.

Diary Extract by Shelley Brookes

2010-04-27T10:59:00.000-07:00

On the 10th February we did a shot at college of Lucy putting on her jumper. This was due to the fact she had two different jumpers on in scenes next to each other. Therefore we decided to do this shot to go in the middle, showing that she has changed jumpers.
We then did a shot of Emily-Jane and Lucy entering the classroom for the scene with the teacher Julie. This was being re-done as the first copy we did of this shot got filmed over. We used members of our media class to act as the class on the film.

Critically Evaluating my Video Production By Matthew Helliwell

2010-04-26T11:13:00.000-07:00

Continuity is an editing technique that has to be observed and measured at all times to avoid irregularity in the scene. We generally stuck to continuity to make the production flow from scene to scene an example is when Lucy moves from corridors into a classroom. If continuity isn’t observed in shots like these then we would get an irregular passage of movement. I edit to make sure we stuck to these parameters, but also added jump cuts to keep the viewer from getting bored. The benefits of this are to make a very long shot shorter like in the bathroom scene where Lucy is seen brushing her teeth I split the shot and took bits out so she darted around the bathroom. I hoped to create a rushed effect with these jump cuts but as our films final cut was too long by a substantial amount of time. I had to trim down shots that wern't necessary so I took a lot of shots out of the bathroom. But there are still examples of jump cuts creating a rushed effect throughout the beginning. You can see this clearly by looking at the frame by frame screenshots between the shots.

Here we can see Lucy Casken standing at her

wardrobe as she has just removed a jumper from it.

And in the next frame we can see Lucy Casken in a different location putting the jumper on.

And a few frames later we see her down the stairs.

And then in the kitchen getting breakfast.

This scene purposely breaches basic continuity laws by using jump cuts to rush Lucy's morning routine. It also stops camera shots dragging out and possibly boring the viewer. I like jump cuts and I use them frequently in our film. I got the idea for including jump cuts by doing research into films that use them, such as Notting Hill. I also analyzed a short film produced by other A level students called "The Wrong Turn." This film included jump cuts throughout. Which made me feel confident in using them, because if other A level students could use them and make them work well using I movie editing software. Our group certainly could make it work using Final Cut Express.

If we had to categorise our film to a certain genre I think psychological thriller would be adequate enough as our films themes relate to other films in that category. A major theme of psychological thrillers are characters trying to find out what is real and what’s not which poses a strong connection with the character Emily-Jayne. With Lucy Caskan trying to find out who she really is kind of like how David Fincher tries to make the narrator from Fight Club find out who he is. Which I reference in my film ever so slightly. As the camera pans left to right and shows the bullies speaking about Lucy there is a slight flash of Emily-Jayne Hart stood there next to Lucy Caskan. This idea was brought upon by Brad Pitts emergence to the narrators life in Fight Club. You can see sharp quick flashes of Brad Pitt at the beginning of the film as The Narrator deals with psychological problems. An example of this is in this video taken from youtube you can see the quick flash around the 17 second mark. [Tyler Durden Flash]

Blink and you miss it. You can see it clearly in these screenshots.

This is the workplace around the 16 second mark.

And now we can clearly see Tyler Durden stood in the workplace. This is to show the narrators mentally fragile state of mind. Which I wanted to show in our film.

I love the film and liked the idea of using ideas that stemmed from it. Also in the film especially towards the end there are a lot of brightness sweeps. I got this idea from the TV show Prison Break although they tend to invert the colours I still got the idea from there. The editing I hope provides some kind of enjoyment for the audience. The editing I think keeps the film moving and avoids it from getting a little bit slow. Other than editing techniques I think using actresses who act regularly helps make the film more appealing and real. Anyone with a love for films such as Fight Club, Se7en, the Uninvited and other thrillers would appeal to our film as it contains attributes of typical thrillers as well as attributes that may not often be associated with thrillers. Its always good to have something new and to keep the viewers guessing, like in Se7en. I don’t think we achieved this as well as I would’ve hoped to in our film. In places I am very disappointed with the film, but from the camera shots I got I think I managed to edit it to the best it could be. In the dining scene where Lucy buys two coffees and they sit down and have a conversation that was very awkward to edit and get something decent as members of the group had just filmed one shot throughout the whole conversation which was a substantial amount of time. So to ensure the viewer did not get bored I had to adjust the wire frame of the shot and stretch it so that it did a close up onto Lilly’s face. I think I got the best possible out of that situation because it would’ve been terrible to leave it as one long shot. I also went back and filmed a little bit more which wasn’t filmed with the only available actress and tried to make the scene as good as it could be. As for transitions I don’t really like using them because I think they look tacky. So I just dimmed the contrast to fade out at the key frames I wanted. I did this because I could make it more personalised than a set transition. Editing is a way of making things personal, I made the most of Fast cutting, slow cutting, continuity editing, intentional jump cuts and effects that were available to me. I used a lot of blurs and motion blur to put across the main characters confused state of mind. In the flashback we also see a colour change so the viewer knows it is a flashback. From an audio perspective I added an alarm tone for when the alarm goes off. An equalisation filter also helped me get around a problem of hubbub in the cafeteria. Although I couldn't reduce it fully I took most of the bass out and it did make a positive difference. I also added audio effects such as reverberation and delay on some audio tracks I found it very effective on voice to create a sense of confusion.

As a finished product. Our film poster, radio trailer and film itself produce an all together spooky, confusion filled experience. Which I think we all wanted that effect. First of all our poster is very dark, featuring eerie colours such as blacks and greys with speckles of light. This is sure to give a spooky, eerie feel to anyone who looks at the poster. The tag line which I created ‘Chasing her ghost,’ also gives a spooky sense, it is duplicated on the background to make it stand out yet still come second to the title and actors names. I think this is a very effective poster in applying a theme of confusion to the film.

The radio trailer also does this but I think it was more difficult to portray these themes just through sound. The eerie delicate piano piece underlying the speech is used to draw the listener in. As a package the radio trailer and poster both match the prospects of the film, an eerie psychological thriller. My poster draws resemblance to the poster from the film A Beautiful Mind, as it has Emily Jayne Hart stood in the background slightly faded out, whereas A Beautiful Minds poster has a series of blurred colours and then a silhouette of a person in the background. This was a good idea and I’m glad I stumbled across the poster and took ideas from it.

In filming I was sure to film scenes in two emotional moods so when I came to edit I could choose which looked best. So we made the actresses go through some lines in a sad mood and an angry mood. You can see this at the end when Lucy shouts at the teacher ‘She was my friend I knew her,’ later on there is a flashback and she says the same words in a sad tone. From this I tried to get the view that in her own head she sounds different and she feels different so that the viewer could feel her confusion. But I think fast editing in the flashback scene stops the viewer noticing this as much as I’d like the viewer to. To try and get the most out of the film and portray the characters to the audience I spent time planning before filming, trying to work out a way to build a love able character that people get attached to, I found this hard to do in just a few minutes but tried as it is very important. In the end I think it depends upon the audiences willingness to accept a new character. I tried using sympathy to try and make Lucy connect with the audience through her bullying as bullying is a trouble a lot of teenagers go through. Trying to make teenagers sympathise was a good choice as our target audience is mainly teenagers going onto older adults who like psychological thrillers or thrillers in general.

After taking part in our audience feedback which can be viewed here.
[The Lost Hart Audience Feedback]
We were able to find out what other people thought of the film and we could see if we succeeded in getting across our themes to the audience. At the time we let people watch the film to judge, It was only half way through, we did this so that we could retrieve criticism and then change the film accordingly.
In our audience feedback we got praise for using real actors we also got a lot of praise for editing techniques like the brightness and contrast flashes, one viewer said it made the film interesting and another said that was how the twist was shown. From criticism we found out that we needed more music in parts where there were little or no dialogue. So I got a song off garage band to use as a song off the radio in the car. Other songs in the film were cut from a song that my friends band wrote and i thought it fit the themes well. The statistics of the audience feedback suggest that we had particularly good reviews with 3 out of 5 stars a 4 and a 4.5, we were very impressed with that.

During research and planning the vital piece of technology was the internet and mainly the blog we created. This allowed us to all share everything we had together in our group. It solved a great deal of problems including when I forgot the script one day, we were able to print it off as it was on the internet and accessible to everyone. The most important piece of technology for me personally was using the editing software Final Cut express.I found it easy to use and just brilliant. A lot more flexible with cuts and effects. Plus having multiple video and audio tracks helped the creativeness of the film and allowed us to experiment more than last year where we used I-movie. As well as Final Cut I used garage band for audio samples like the alarm clock which was very useful. To record sound for radio trailer we used a zoom H4 recorder which is very simple and easy to use. To record video, we used a Sony HDV 1000. I found that the camera was very good but pulling focus and setting a shallow focus was rather difficult. This was a disappointing feature as it is commonly used in all films.

Technology at the most of the times was very helpful and reliable although we did have certain problems. A few times we got a camera out and the battery wasn’t charged which was a big problem when we were filming exterior locations. As well as battery problems we got the camera out and when we filmed the shots were not use able due to something not being cleaned correctly. The only problem I had with any other technology was the editing software final cut closing unexpectedly and I lost hours worth of work because of that which was devastating.

To conclude we thought it was best to stick to certain rules and obligations and not stray too far from the genre themes. This makes it easier for the audience to understand our film. Which from our audience feedback they mostly did. Which is a plus. Technology helped us greatly as personally I didn’t fancy splicing film tape to edit each shot. I think we made the film the right way.

Organisation On Set By Matthew Helliwell

2010-04-23T11:45:00.000-07:00

Personally I think that being organised when you come to filming is crucial to obtaining good results. It ensures that filming takes minimum time which is important for everyone.

To be organised whilst on set I obtained a clipboard from which I could pin the script and the shooting script plus any other additional notes which contained ideas that I wanted to put into consideration when filming came.

This is the script which was pinned to the clipboard for reference when actors forgot words or just for general guidence. As you can see part are highlighted for which lines the actors are reading in the scene we were filming.

And this is the shooting script that was also attached to the clipboard. This is always to be refrered to and each scene is sectioned off by a different shade of grey. Alspo each scene is numbered for quick reference to other members of the group. Each shot is described very accurately so that we can carry out the shots and make things easier for all of us.

This is the outcome. Script on the top and shooting script on the bottom because we used the script more than the shooting script. It is a lot easier than having a lot of sheets in your hands.

Radio Trailer By Lucy Davies Final with ideas from the whole group

2010-04-01T08:35:00.000-07:00

This is our radio trailer for our 5 minute film. I wanted to include piano in the background to create a ghostly effect. Both me and Shelley spoke for the audio to portray that two girls were chanting like the bullies in the film, or Lily and Emily-jayne were talking simultaneously. We also added delays and echos to make the ghostly effect more dramatic. We included appropriate information to inform the audience of the characters and the time it will be on the television.

Final Poster Created by Hayley Outhwaite with ideas from the whole group

2010-04-01T07:13:00.000-07:00

This is our final poster of which we used ideas from our own individual posters and collaborated them together in order to manufacture this final poster.

Radio Trailer Created by Lucy Davies with help from group (changes to be made)

2010-04-01T07:11:00.000-07:00

This is the first draft of our trailer for the 5 minute film we created. Unfortunately, the trailer lasts 22 seconds which is too short so there are changes to be made. I am wanting to do this by adding another audio of Lily saying 'Emily-Jayne Hart' and extending it by making bigger gaps between each audio part with the music playing continuously in the background.

Characters by Shelley Brookes

2010-03-30T06:48:00.001-07:00

Laura-Jane

Lily Thomas

My Poster by Shelley Brookes

2010-03-25T08:55:00.000-07:00

This is the poster i designed for our film. I used this background to imply confusion as it uses a range of monochrome colors. I then used a shot of Emily-Jane and Lucy sat down together. I made Emily-Jane in black and white and left Lucy in the normal color but decreased the lightness to make it more dull giving a negative affect and making the audience think they aren't from the same time. I then put a picture of Lucy in the top right corner as she is the main character and also she appears to have a look of shock or horror on her face and made the image look worn so it puts across it is an old photo. This should make the audience think it is a horror film. The certificate of the film is placed in the bottom corner to inform people on how old they must be to watch it and to the left of this is the names of the two main characters over the shot of them sat down. Finally, I put the name of the film central and in the largest font so that it catches attention as this is important. Then underneath in slightly smaller writing I put a tag line to go with the name.

Poster Design By Lucy Davies

2010-03-04T08:39:00.000-08:00

To create this poster for our film 'The Lost Hart', I used Adobe photoshop, enabling me to use effects and images of my choice. To begin with, as a group we chose images that we thought were suitable for all of us to use in the poster. I thought it was vital that both main characters were used in the poster, so that the audience have a better idea of who to expect in the film. This is why I used a large image of Lily's face and a figure of Laura-Jane, including their names at the bottom of the poster enabling the audience to recognise who they are. If this was a Hollywood film poster, specific A-listed actors could influence people to go watch the film, which is why their faces are used. I wanted Emily-Jayne to be in the background, distorted, so that the audience were under the impression that she could be a ghost. Influenced by the film poster I analysed, I decided to slightly blur her face like the young girl was in the Uninvited poster as it created some sort of mystery.

I also included a tagline 'chasing her ghost...' to leave the audience in suspense, and by copy and pasting it, it gives the implication that someone has repeatedly written it down in frustration.

The background I used highlights the main parts of the poster making the audience focus on specific aspects. The title is the biggest piece of text on the poster so the audience won't get confused between the tagline and the title. I also wanted to smudge all the text used on the poster to create a ghostly effect that I have used throughout the design on the poster.

Furthermore, putting the rating of the film on the poster was a vital piece of information that needed to be added so that the audience knew what age it was suitable for.

My Film Poster By Matthew Helliwell

2010-03-04T08:22:00.000-08:00

This is the poster I have made for our film, The Lost Hart in adobe photoshop.

I decided to include the two main characters Emily Jayne Hart and Lucy Caskan in the poster. Most importantly their appearances in the poster is very different to in the film. Lucy's face is half lit as I have burned the other half so her face is half lit, this could give her the look of having two sides to her and Emily-Jayne is brightly lit and also I created a ghostly feel to her appearance by scorching marks into her dress to make it seem as though light is flowing through her easily, it gives her the look of being semi transparent. Also I increased the brightness of her skin colour to make her seem more pale and bright. More ghostly and more eerie. The background I used is of a broken mirror, and the frame is very rusty. I tried to symbolize the difference in their characters through colours, Lucy Caskans face is cast in a dark shadow whereas Emily-Jayne's face is shrouded in bright light, which also gives a ghostly feel. Because of these colours I also wrote the names of the actors in contrasting colours to contrast the difference in the characters. The title of the film is written in Copperplate, because I wanted a plain look to the writing, but I added a shadow effect on the last word Hart, spelled according to Emily-Jaynes last name but is a play on the word heart. The tagline "Chasing her ghost" is written in Edwardian handwriting like Emily-Jaynes Attire I also made the last word "Ghost," Overlap into Emily-Jaynes body.

My Influence came from the poster for the film A Beautiful mind, where a shadow is seen in the background amongst a blur of colours. The film poster draws attention to the main character played by Russel Crowe who also has a slight shadow covering half of his face.

To conclude, what I wanted to achieve with this poster is the contrast between the two characters. I achieved this by contrasting the colours wrapping around them I also wanted to give Emily-Jayne a ghostly feel. I think I achieved both of these things.

My film poster by Hayley Outhwaite

2010-03-04T07:44:00.000-08:00

This is my poster that I have designed for our film 'The lost Hart.' I chose to include both the main characters Emily-Jayne and Lucy Casken on my poster as they are the main focus of the film. The image that I decided to use for the background of my poster is a black and white patterned one which I felt added an eerie feel to my poster.

The section of my poster that I feel is the most effective is the highlighted area surrounding Emily-Jayne. The reason I chose to use this effect is because as Emily-Jayne is in fact Lucy's imaginary friend, the light behind her is a a good indication to the audience that there is something special about this character.

Even though the lettering of the title on my poster is set in the same colours as the background that I have used, black and white, I still feel that it stands out due to the fact that I have given the letters a bold outline and also made the letters as white as they could possibly go in order to make them stand out even more.

Extra Poster Research By Matthew Helliwell

2010-02-25T07:27:00.001-08:00

A Beautiful Mind is a film, like ours, which uses a form of schizophrenia as a topic. Early in the film John forbes Nash (the main character) contracts paranoid schizophrenia early on in the movie and this interferes with his life and his family. Nash also refuses to take his medication.

These are similarities to our movie where our film uses a form of schitzophrenia, but instead of refusing to take her medication, Lucy simply forgets to take them. We also see how it affects the people around her, most importantly her mother.

The poster for this movie is even more relavent to our film because the lighting used on Russel Crowes face is darkened on one side. This shows us that there is something wrong with him or there are maybe two sides to this person. Also i like the effect of the shadow seen in the background amist of a blur of colours, this would be a great affect to use for our film poster as the character Emily-Jayne is not real and a figment of Lucy's mind, therefore could be represented by a shadow or something else that is not whole.

Analysis of a film poster By Lucy Davies

2010-02-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

This is a film poster of 'The Uninvited' I chose to anaylise this poster as we based our 5 minute film on this specifically. The eerie effect created by the woman looking through the window leaves the audience in suspence as the figure doesn't show a face. Furhtermore, the woman looking through the window implies that she isn't welcome, hence the title 'The Uninvited'. This also links with the tag line 'fear moves in', suggesting that the uninvited guest maybe the 'fear' that enters whatever is behind the window. The main title is the largest piece of text on the poster. This makes it stand out from the other texts, also making it obvious what the title is for the audience. Even though the title is the prime focus, 'from the producers of The Ring and Disturbia' is centered in the poster, which is a good advertising skill to make the audience want to go see the film. This is because there is no 'star actors' or reviews to persuade the audience and by showing pervious successful films, this could imply that this film is just as good because the same producers were used. Other relevant information is based at the bottom of the poster in white, but this isn't exposed as much as the title, tagline, producers or the release month (January). Moreover, the font used creates a ghostly effect, which continues with the eeriness throughout the whole poster.
No colour is used at all in this poster, however, this is cleverly done to produce a cold atmosphere. The trees in the background show seclusion, which also links in with the old worn out window suggesting that this could be a cabin etc isolated in a forest so no one can escape the 'fear'.

Poster analysis By Hayley Outhwaite

2010-02-23T05:57:00.000-08:00

This is a poster of the film Ghost. When i first saw this poster my immediate impression was that this film was about ghosts and other spiritual factors. By the way the surrounding area of the two actors in this poster is highlighted this links in with the title of this film 'ghost' as when i initially think of a ghost i think of bright lights. The tag line 'believe' also links in with the title of the film as not many people believe in ghosts so i get the impression that this film is also going to be based upon the belief in ghosts and maybe trying to get people to change their views on spiritual aspects such as ghosts.

This film relates to our film 'The lost Hart' as our film too incorporates spiritual factors as one of the main characters 'Emily-Jayne' turns out to be a figure of Lucy Caskcan's imagination and is in fact a ghost.

The way the male actor in this film is kissing the females neck signifies that these two actors are in a passionate relationship of which ties in with the sentence above the title on the poster 'before Sam died he told Molly he would love and protect her forever.' This sentence also tells the audience a lot about the two actors such as the fact they are in a relationship and that the male actor obviously loves his partner very much, however the way it says he will 'protect' her forever gets the audience thinking that maybe something bad happens in the film that he has to protect her from.

All in all I feel that even though this poster is not very complex it tells a lot about the film and this is what i want our poster to be like.

Poster Analysis by Shelley Brookes

2010-02-08T04:48:00.000-08:00

This is a poster for the movie ‘Frozen’. It has a dull setting implying cold, horrible weather. Which creates a frozen atmosphere and a negative effect on the audience. The writing also gives a cold impression as it is written in white which implys ice. Also, the title is in the biggest writing as it is the most important part, the reviews are slightly smaller because they’re less important and finally the writing at the bottom, for example the producer, is small as it isn’t that important to the audience.
The way it shows the person trying to stop himself from falling by holding on to the ski lift to stop him from falling. This will cause the audience to have a sense of fear, implying this film is a horror. Also it is emphasised by the way the sky behind them is the only light part to make this more clear.
A persuasive feature here is the quotes from the newspapers because it gives the reader an ideao n what the films about and is likely to make them want to see it.

Diary Extract by Shelley Brookes

2010-02-08T02:08:00.001-08:00

On 3rd February we re-filmed the shots at Hayleys house of Lucy and Lucy’s mum. This was because the scenes we filmed here previously had been deleted.
We did a long shot from the door of the bathroom watching Lily brush her teeth, a long shot of her from the corner of the room and a medium close up of the side of her head. We then did a long shot, a medium close up and an close up of Lucy brushin her hair to get ready for college.
Next we did a long shot of Lucy grabbing a jumper out of her wardrobe which will then cut to a close up shot of her putting it on at the top of the stairs followed by a tilt down long shot of Lucy running down the stairs.
Finally we did a long shot of Lucy running in to the kitchen and pinching some toast off her mum whilst her mum is trying to say something. We also did a side on mid length shot of this.
Al these shots are put in the film to show that Lucy is in a rush to get ready. These will all be on for a shot length of time to emphasise Lucy rushing.

Diary Extract by Shelley Brookes

2010-02-01T01:27:00.001-08:00

On Tuesday 19th January we did the corridor scenes again with the correct jumper. This was a long shot of Lucy coming down the corridor open an a door to look in to the room then walking off. We also got a long shot from round the corner of her arriving at the door looking inside then turning towards the camera and the camera panning to follow her down the next corridor. Then finally just a shot of Lucy just walking down the corridor after shes looked in through the door (this is not on camera).
We then did a scene from another corridor of Emily-Jane and Lucy walking towards the camera talking about the subjects Lucy has chosen. We then went to a shot around the corner of both of them walking up to a door for Lucy to enter the room and Emily-Jane walks back down the corridor they’ve just walked down.
Next we went in to the refectary for the scene where Lucy buys her and Emily-Jane a hot chocolate and they discuss speaking to a teacher about the bullies they had confrontation with earlier in the film. A problem we had with this scene is that the refectory is an open place therefore people are free to come and go anytime so there was a lot of noise and interuptions and we had to keep re-filming.
This was the last scene of the day and it overall went well. We now need to do the scenes in the classroom with the teacher again and then the car scene and the scene with the bullies. We plane to do this on Monday 25th or Tuesday 26th of January.

Diary Extract by Shelley Brookes

2010-02-01T01:25:00.000-08:00

On Thursday 14th january we decided to film the corridor scenes although it took us half an hour to decide this and to get the actresses dressed and ready. We set up at the end of the corridor and did qa long shot of Lucy walking down the corridor holding her timetable. When she got to the end of the orridor she peaked her head round a classrom door and when she realises there’s noone inside she carries on through the corridors. We got several shots of this. We took a close up from behind her as she was looking in the door and one from around the corner of the corridor so we could just see her open the door then walk towards us. And finally a long shot of her walking away from the door and down the corridor.
We then took the camera to outside the classroom that we film in to see Lucy entering her first class. We did a long shot of Emily-Jane and Lucy walking down the corridor towards the room. They then begin a conversation about what classes Lucy is studying. A continuous shot is then used from round the corner of them arriving at the classroom door. The camera then jumps to inside the classroom to a close upside shot of Lucy entering and then to a long shot of the rest of the class and Lucy joining them. This is the last shot we did.
Although, when we put all the footage on to the computer we realised we would need to film it all again as Lucy was wearing a different jumper and therefore there would be issues with continuity. We plan to film this agin as soon as possible.

Analysis of Edge of Darkness Poster by Shelley Brookes

2010-01-28T08:26:00.000-08:00

This advertisement highlights the title of the film by making it the only font that is red. This could imply blood or danger. ‘Mel Gibson’ is nearly as big as the title as if he is as important, although it isn’t in red. The tag line is in a lot smaller font even though this is important for the audience to know what it is about. The date ‘January 29’ is also highlighted by the size of font. This is precise because it’s important the audience know this and is used an alternative to coming soon.
The picture on the poster is Mel Gibson highlighting that he’s the main character; this is a way of persuading the audience to go and see it. Another aspect of the poster is that he’s in the centre of a black emphasizing the film name which is ‘Edge of Darkness’. But is hard to see whether he is black and white or whether he’s just under a spotlight. Also, he has badge under his coat to the left which is in colour and in view so the audience notice this and the gun his hand would also make people think he is part of the police.
Within the writing at the bottom there is the producer which is BBC films, Warner Brother’s studios, person in charge of screenplay and who it was directed by. There is also a website below this so that the audience can look and find out more information about the film before going to see it. This hints that it will be an action movie but due to the dark colours it could also be a horror.

Poster Analysis By Lucy Davies

2010-01-28T08:25:00.001-08:00

Initially, when I looked at the film poster my attention was drawn to the fist with the dagger, stressing the importance of the sharpness of the blade held by the male. This gave me the immediate impression that the film was based on some sort of violence. Using this technique could capture a specific audience’s attention by highlighting the fact that violence could be included in the film. Cleverly, the image of the triangle outlined with orange (which connects to the title ‘Clockwork Orange’) gives the implication of a sharp knife, expanding the emphasis on the blade. Also, using a white background makes the image in the middle become the prime focus of the poster. Furthermore, the male actor is emphasised by his sinister expression and eccentric make-up which could leave the audience questioning why this image was used. The image of the white woman below also leaves a bit of mystery to why it may have been included. This is another clever technique used to capture the audience’s attention by leaving them in suspense.
Including the image, the audience is given a lot of information with the tagline. Having placed the tagline above the main focus of the poster, instinct draws the eyes to the top of the page to read it. It is simple and straight to the point, giving the audience a little insight to what the film is about.
The title is clearly shown in bold, capital letters to stand out with the book writers name above also in bold letters. This could interest any fans of the book to watch the film if they enjoyed reading the novel. In some cases, this is an advantage for the film as the book was a success, which immediately ensures that a target audience will be attracted by this poster. The producers were also included at the bottom of the poster, however, they were not emphasised as much as the author of ‘Clockwork Orange’. The rating is also shown indicating that only a specific audience is eligible to watch the film and it could suggest that the violence in the film could be pretty brutal.

This is a poster of the film, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. My attention was immediatley drawn to the only object in colour, being the red pad lock. This gave me the implication that Jack Nicholson could be locked up as the image of him and his name above the title inform the audience that he is the main character of the film. Moreover, the high fencing with barbed wire in the background suggest that the film could be based in a prison of some sort. This could interest a specific audience knowing that Jack Nicholson is in the film or that it is based in a mental institution (Judging from the title, the audience may get the impression that it is set in a mental hospital rather than a prison.)
The cartoon like writing used for the title and ‘Jack Nicholsons’ name could imply that there is some element of childness in the film. This could link to the fact that the film is based in a mental institution. Also, the expression given by Jack Nicholson shows that he may be a mental patient.
At the bottom are listings of the producers etc, however, they aren’t exposed as much as the title and Jack Nicholsons name.

Poster Research by Matthew Helliwell

2010-01-28T07:57:00.000-08:00

I have researched theatrical posters in order to gain knowledge on what a poster should and should not represent, as we have to make a poster or a trailer for our film.
One poster which i think fails at conveying the films true market potential is the theatrical film poster for the David Fincher film Fight Club. The way that the poster focuses on the useage of soap in the film is really inapropriate, it almost mocks the film. The slogan is also very poor.

A really good example of a theatrical poster is this poster of The Shawshank Redemption, it is very simple and holds a great tagline of
"Fear can hold you prisonor, but hope can set you free,"
This tagline is brilliant for this movie and on the same

wavelength as the films theme. Unlike the Fight Club poster which featured soap. although soap making is a major factor of the film it isnt really in the same theme.

All posters were taken from http://www.impawards.com

Audience Feedback By Lucy Davies

2010-01-28T07:51:00.000-08:00

These are the questions we are wanting to ask our audience after they have watched our film, enabling us to get feeback from our film and make any changes if it is necessary. We are wanting to ask these questions to random people after they have watched our film (in the process of being edited) and record the interview in order to get the right amount of helpful feedback we need as a group.

1. What did you enjoy about the film?
Throughout the film, were you able to pick out any favourite parts?
Specifically, was there any parts that stood out to you?
Were you able to follow the film with ease?
2. What did you think about the twist at the end of the film?
Was it easy enough to understand?
Is there anything you would change about the twist or the build up to the main climax?
Was the ending obvious throughout the film?
3. Was there any part that you didn't enjoy, or you didn't think was necessory?
(Answer Yes) Specifically, what didn't you enjoy?
(Answer No) Would you say there was nothing wrong with our film?
4. Do you agree with the 12 rating of the film?
(Answer Yes)Why?
(Answer No)What rating would you give it and why?
5. Overall, what star rating would you give the film?

More Jump Cut Research by Matthew Helliwell

2010-01-03T08:52:00.000-08:00

I was watching the film Notting Hill a few days ago and there was a scene where Hugh Grants rushes into his kitchen to tidy it up before Julia Roberts sees the mess. The Jump Cuts are edited and used very well to create the effect of rush.

Like how you can see in this video

We could use something like this to stop certain scenes lasting forever and boring the audience. I like jump cuts because if edited correctly they can look great and i think they are interesting. We will definatly be using them in our film.

Our Fifth Day Of Filming By Hayley Outhwaite

2009-12-18T05:13:00.000-08:00

Tuesday 15th December was our fifth day of filming which took place back at my house. As well as filming new scenes we also had to re-shoot previous scenes from the fourth day of filming which included shots of lily brushing her teeth, brushing her hair and taking clothes from her wardrobe. The reason we had to re-shoot these scenes was because when we previously shot them it was late afternoon and there was no sunlight left which was no good to us as the scene is set in the morning when Lily is rushing about getting ready for college.
We also managed to film all the scenes involving Lily and Michelle who plays her mother in the film. For every shot we did we made sure that we filmed it more than once and also changed the camera angle to add more variety for us to choose from when we are deciding what to include in our final product.
All in all I am happy with the amount of filming we managed to get done, we worked well as a team which will hopefully show when our film is complete.

Research on Flashbacks By Matthew Helliwell

2009-12-10T16:14:00.000-08:00

I have decided to do some research on flashbacks to give our group some inspiration or ideas on how to do our penultimate flashback scene.
I have found that flashback scenes need to be noticably different so the audience can understand that it is different like shot in black and white for example.

In this clip from the film [Out Cold]

The man is driving and while he is talking the scene cuts to a different location, the audience know that this is a flashback because he is describing it in the script and because the lighting changes dramaticly. In his car the lighting is just natural for a night, but in the flashback scene the lighting is very high, enhancing colour and making the audience notice a difference which is important. It also gives the impression that maybe he is remembering happier times.

There we saw a good example of bright lighting used in a flashback.

In this clip from the film [Twilight]

A flashback is used as he is telling Bella the story of his family. The scene changes and his story continues over the top of the flashback again but this time the lighting is dimmed creating an orange glow. The actors faces are lit but nothing else is, making the audience look at what the director wanted them to look at. The shots also seam to fade out around the edges of the camera. I thought i would use this example as it differs from the first example that i used.

In the film [Citizen Kane]

Flashbacks are used excessively, as news reporter Jerry Thompson delves into Charles Foster Kanes private life and tries to figure out the meaning of Kanes dieing word "Rosebud." The flashbacks occur as Jerry Thompson interrogates the people who were close to him, and they tell him their account of events throughout Kanes life. The flashbacks have no effects to change the appearence of the scenes, so the only way the viewer can tell it is a flashback is that previously the man who was being interrogated started a story and then the flashback starts. Another way which defines the flashbacks (as they are not allways chronological) is the age of Kane as in some stories he is young and in others he is considerably older, this gives us some indication to what time range this story is being told. Nevertheless flashbacks have a very important role in telling this story.

In this clip from [The Shawshank Redemption]

There is a flashback as Tommy is telling a story. At 07:16 the scene goes into the flashback and into Tommy's recolation of the story. The change is made distinguishable by the contrasting change of lighting, Tommy was telling the story in a well lit library, where as when the scene changes to the flashback it seams to be set in a dark cell. The mans face is half hidden by darkness. The flashback is effective i think because of the continuous dialogue between the scenes.

In our film I think we have to indicate some kind of effect which will distinguish the change between real time and flashback in Lucy's mind, although I dont want to change the image to black and white. I liked how Catherine Hardwicke did the Twilight flasback as it was a similar situation to what we want to do, a short scene that reveals something. I particulary liked the effect on the film as it created the feeling of dark, and sadness. which is what we would like to produce.

Information On the Film By Matthew Helliwell

2009-12-10T15:35:00.000-08:00

I think the film has to focus on Lucy's state of mind. And trying to put that across to the audience, but i would also like to focus on whether when she stopped taking her medicine i would like to think whether it made her a happier person or not. I think that with the introduction of Emily-Jayne which is through her not taking her tablets, I think Lucy is a happier person with emily than without her, so i am going to try and put the feeling of misery across by using low lighting as she takes her medicine and in all the shots after as Emily-Jayne starts to fade.

The most important scene in my opinion is the one where she is sat in front of the mirror looking at herself, the sense of misery can be clear here by the expression on her face and the low lighting in the room, maybe even have non diagetic subtle music in a minor key in the background.

Scenes By Matthew Helliwell

2009-12-10T14:26:00.001-08:00

As director of the movie I feel like there is a lack of organisation within the group which leads to us being confused so I've decided to organise the shot list into scenes. This should contain all the information we/I need.

Scene 1.
Undecided.

Scene 2.
Interior. Lucy's House.
Lucy wakes up and realises she is late for college. She rushes around brushing her teeth and her hair. We are going to use jump cuts to emphasise the haste of her morning. She grabs some toast off the side. Slides on her shoes and goes out the door.

Scene 3.
Title sequence.

Scene 4.
Interior. Corridors
Lucy arrives at college and gets lost. Could use jump shots and very quick shots of different places to create the effect of confusion. She eventually gives up and settles for sitting in the library.

Scene 5.
Interior. Library
Lucy is sat in the library, we could have a shot of emily putting some books back on the shelf and then noticing Lucy sat down. Emily-Jayne goes over to Lucy and helps her out. I was thinking of putting a series of extreme close ups together as she pulls the piece of paper out of her pocket to show Emily-Jayne where she is supposed to be.

Scene 6.
Interior. Corridors, Classroom
Lucy walking up to the door of her classroom. The teacher acknolages her and then tells her to take a seat, she does so.

Scene 7.
Interior. Lucy's house.
Lucy arrives home from first day has little conversation with her mum and goes upstairs.

Scene 8.
Interior. Library
Lucy is sat at a computer while a group of girls from across the room shout abuse at Lucy.

Scene 9.
Exterior. Pavement.
Lucy and Emily-Jayne walk on the pavement by the side of the road. The group of girls go by in a car and throw soemthing out of the window at them, it hits lucy.

Scene 10.
Interior. Cafe
They walk into a cafe order coffee and sit down. Lucy's mum rings her and tells her about her forgetting to take her medicine.

Scene 11.
Interior. Lucy's Bedroom
Lucy's mum finds the pills scatterd under her bed.

Scene 12.
Interior Cafe/Lucy's bedroom
Scene follows the conversation on the phone more directly.
She sets off to go home.

Scene 13.
Interior Lucy's house.
She goes home takes her medicine and goes upstairs.

Scene 14.
Interior Lucys bedroom.
I'm going to put alot of emphasis on this scene, there is going to be no dialogue and i want this to be the point where Lucy sort of realises herself as she stares at herself in the mirror. Her expression is to be blank. The room should be low lit.

Scene 15.
Interior. Corridor.
Lucy and Emily-Jayne are talking to one another on the phone, then she meets up with her.
I thought we could add signal problems to the call, which is to show that her medication is starting to work and Emily-Jayne is slowly leaving her mind.

Scene 16.
Simons Classroom
Lucy walks into Simons empty classroom looking to sort out the bullying. She finds out alot more when she realises that Emily-Jayne suddenly starts to fade away. The lighting should be dimly lit.

As Lucy is pacing around the room in confusion i would like to have Emily-Jayne appear for a split second. I got this idea from the film Fight Club where he uses flashes of Tyler Durden whilst the Narrator is speaking. Like in the dieing seconds of this link.
[Tyler Durden Flash]

I hope to make Emily-Jayne stand out alot more than this but hopefuilly this will create an exciting effect that may help the audience understand Lucy's confusion.

Scene 17.
No set location.
In this scene i would like for everything to unwind in Lucy's mind through a series of flashbacks and expressions of shock on Lucy's face. I want her to realise that she has been on her own all that time, that Emily-Jayne never existed. I want her to visualise her self walking down corridors speaking to herself. Sat in the cafe alone. Maybe it would be a good idea to film the flashbacks in slow mode. to make it look a little bit different. Or maybe have the flashbacks in really low lighting. I am going to research flashbacks in other films to get more ideas.

The film ends on a close up which could also do a quick zoom upto her face, as she screams. Then the credits can roll.

Jump Cut Research By Lucy Davies

2009-12-07T01:45:00.000-08:00

As a group, we thought it would be a good idea to use jump cuts for the opening sequence when Lily is getting ready for her first day at college. I went onto 'Youtube' to find an example of jump cuts and I thought this link was the best.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EuBZHEmRE4&feature=related

We decided to shoot several shots of Lily doing the same thing but with different expressions and body language use. We wanted to give the implication that she was in a rush. We thought we would create this effect by using jump shots.

4th Day of Filming By Lucy Davies

2009-12-03T12:33:00.000-08:00

For our fourth day of shooting, we went back to Hayley's house and decided to film the rest of the morning scenes including Lily that we were unable to shoot from previous inconveniences. As a group, we were able to film all the morning shots when Lily is getting ready. We wanted to get plenty of shots of Lily doing the same scene, so that we would be able to create jump shots, e.g of her brushing her teeth in the bathroom in a hurry. However, after filming all the shots we weren't satisfied with the results, so we are arranging to film the shots again. The main problem was that the scene were set in the morning and we had to film at night, which made it difficult to look convincing. We need to re-film all our shots because we want the lighting to be the same for each shot and also for Lily to look the same so that we can use Continuity Editing.

3rd Day of Filming By Lucy Davies

2009-12-01T06:39:00.000-08:00

We were able to film the scenes including Lily and Laura-Jayne when they first meet in the Library. We tried using the shooting script, however, we wanted to have a choice of different shots in case we thought another shot looked better than the one on the shooting script. We did have difficulties, being that the noise level in the Library was fairly loud, which could be a problem when editing if the background noise doesn't sound continuous. Also, we thought there could be a problem with hearing the actresses, but we checked after to make sure the shots we took were suitable for our film.

Title Sequence Extra Research By Matthew Helliwell

2009-12-01T06:18:00.000-08:00

I have done more research on opening title sequences of films. Searching youtube I found title sequences like the title sequence from Seven or Se7en. There is a link here.

[Seven Title Sequence]

The film is directed by David Fincher who also directed Fight Club.

This is probably one of the best title sequences i have seen it begins in a very dark room with a metronome clicking at a very slow tempo we have the camera switching from the metronome to the man who is laid in bed, the room is very dimly lit. There is a thunderclap and the shots go to the actors names one by one between pictures of what appears to be a person cutting their fingertips off. Nothing is definite in the title sequence and it causes the viewer to think, the confusion intrigues them. The title sequence is very long and the score seams to speed up as well as the speed of each shot. It is also very detailed, it even mentions the composer of the score, casting and costume.

A factor which is very interesting is that the title sequence does not mention the serial killer and main character John Doe played by Kevin Spacey. This seams to heighten the mystery of the murders of the film, this shows us that it could be a good idea to leave main characters out of the title sequence to create the effect of mystery.

Seven uses quite complicated title sequen

ces.

Simpler sequences have been used by movies such as Pulp Fiction. The opening scene stops at a freeze or snapshot and then the titles come on over black. First it mentions the production companies and director. Then the title of the film "Pulp Fiction," rises slowly in large letters from the bottom of the screen.

It halts as it takes

up the middle and starts to decrease in size as the actors names come one by one in whit

e over the decreasing title. What is most important about these titles is the music, the title song

Dick Dales version of Misirlou is played through the opening titles and helped make the film iconic.

Here is a link to the titles of Pulp Fiction, shown on youtube.

[Pulp Fiction Title Sequence]

2nd Day of Filming. By Lucy Davies

2009-11-30T02:40:00.000-08:00

During the filming process, several problems have occurred which has slowed down the development of our film. On our first day of filming we had difficulties with the cameras, however on our second day, the actress we needed was unavailable and Matthew was ill making it hard for us to get the scenes we wanted to film completed. To solve the problems that occurred, we decided to film all the scenes including 'The Mother' at Hayley's house in Pogmoor. We were able to shoot all the scene of 'The Mother' which enabled us to become more up to date with our filming.

30th November

We want to film the scenes of Lily and Laura-Jayne in the Refectory at College. However, this could be a problem if the Refectory is too busy; making it difficult for the sound to be clear if there is talking in the background. If this was to happen, we would be able to shoot other scenes including Lily and Laura-Jayne at College (Library, Corridor scenes).
We would also like to film the car scenes on Shelley's street if we have enough time to do so.

Costumes By Lucy Davies

2009-11-18T06:41:00.000-08:00

In our film, the costumes worn by the characters (especially Emily-Jayne) are a vital part to the storyline. This is because we needed to get the appropriate costumes to suit each character and the roles they played. Emily-Jayne, being a girl who died many years ago needed to portray someone old fashioned and to do this we chose a dress from the performing arts department at college. However, we didn't want the dress to look too antique as this would then make the twist at the end too obvious. Furthermore, to add extra effect to the characters roles and costumes, we thought that Emily-Jayne should wear the similar clothing throughout the film to imply that she is dead.
We thought that Lucy would best suit casual clothing to make her look 'geeky'. This was so the audience could make out what kind of character she is, and also to make her look more of an outsider. All of the costumes used by the other characters are their own clothing that we, as a group, thought would be suitable for their role.

1st Day Filming By Matthew Helliwell

2009-11-18T06:39:00.000-08:00

Problems with the camera kept us from filming all of the scenes we wanted to. We had to take the camera back to the store and get it cleaned then go back to where we were filming in Pogmoor this wasted loads of time and left us with only half an hour shooting time, we could only film shots 5-12 before we had to go. This was a big disapointment as we had set our sights on filming scene 2, scene 6, scene 11, some of scene 12, scene 13 and scene 14. We used the medicine props, and used lighting to make the scene look like a morning. We only needed to use one costume, we only needed typical bed wear so we used pyjamas.

Schedule By The Whole Group

2009-11-16T02:10:00.000-08:00

Schedule for Filming
16th November - Choosing suitable costumes for the main characters.
17th November - Filming all scenes within Hayley’s house.
· We will need the medicine and alarm clock props,
· The main characters Emily-Jayne, Lucy and Lucy’s mother.
· We will need three costumes for Lucy,
1. One where she wakes up, so she will need pyjamas.
2. Another for when she gets changed and walks downstairs.
3. And another when she arrives home after her mother calls her.
· This means we also need to shoot shots of Lucy’s mother vacuuming under her bed as she finds Lucy’s medication.

Shooting Script Final Draft By Hayley Outhwaite (Idea's from first draft By Shelley Brookes)

2009-11-16T01:23:00.000-08:00

SHOT 1 Close up shot of images and written words, being pulled in
And out of focus.
SHOT 2 Over exposed close up of white clouds.
SHOT 3 Close up shot of images and written words, being pulled in
And out of focus.
SHOT 4 Over exposed close up of white clouds.
SHOT 5 Extreme close up on alarm clock that reads “07:00”
SHOT 6 Close up shot of her hands knocking her medication over
SHOT 7 Close up of medication hitting the ground and rolling
Under her bed, the pills scatter on the floor out of sight
SHOT 8 Close up shot that shows Lucy going back to sleep
SHOT 9 Extreme close up on alarm clock that reads “08:45”
SHOT 10 Extreme close up of Lucy’s eyes as she wakes up and
Realises she is late for college
SHOT 11 Medium shot of her quickly jumping out of bed
SHOT 12 Panning medium shot of her grabbing clothes off her chair
and getting changed behind her wardrobe door
SHOT 13 Close up of the alarm clock reading “08:50”
SHOT 14 Same as Shot 12, Medium shot of wardrobe closing and
Lucy coming out of the wardrobe dressed for the day
SHOT 15 Medium close up of Lucy looking for something around her
room
SHOT 16 Eye line match of Lucy looking at her brush on the dressing
table
SHOT 17 Medium shot of Lucy brushing her hair
SHOT 18 Jump cut to a medium shot of Lucy brushing her teeth
SHOT 19 Tilt shot of Lucy running down the stairs
SHOT 20 Long shot of Lucy and her mum in the kitchen
SHOT 21 Eye line match of Lucy looking at some toast
SHOT 22 Close up continuous shot of Lucy grabbing a piece of toast
SHOT 23 Long shot of Lucy coming out of the house
SHOT 24 Long establishing shot of Lucy entering the college doors
SHOT 25 Long shot of Lucy running through the college corridors.
Panning and camera tilts are used to follow her
SHOT 26 Extreme long shot of Lucy running through the college
Corridors. Panning and camera tilts are used to follow her.
SHOT 27 Long shot of Lucy entering the Library
SHOT 28 Close up of the sign reading “Learner center”
SHOT 29 Medium shot of Lucy sat on a chair in the library
SHOT 30 Long Shot of Emily-Jayne walking over to Lucy. Panning used to follow Emily- Jayne.
SHOT 31 Medium shot of Emily- Jayne taking a seat next to Lucy
SHOT 32 Over the shoulder shot of Emily-Jayne talking to Lucy
SHOT 33 Over the shoulder shot of Lucy talking to Emily-Jayne
SHOT 34 Over the shoulder shot of Emily-Jayne talking to Lucy
SHOT 35 Over the shoulder shot of Lucy talking to Emily-Jayne
SHOT 36 Over the shoulder shot of Emily-Jayne talking to Lucy
SHOT 37 Medium shot of Lucy pulling a piece of paper out of her bag
SHOT 38 Close up of the piece of paper
SHOT 39 Over the shoulder shot of Lucy talking to Emily-Jayne
SHOT 40 Continuous point of view shot of Lucy pointing a something on her piece of paper
SHOT 41 Over the shoulder shot of Emily-Jayne talking to Lucy
SHOT 42 Long shot of Emily-Jayne placing a pile of books onto the
shelf. Panning and tilting used.
SHOT 42 Over the shoulder shot of Emily-Jayne talking to Lucy
SHOT 43 Over the shoulder shot of Lucy talking to Emily-Jayne
SHOT 44 Over the shoulder shot of Emily-Jayne talking to Lucy
SHOT 45 Long shot of the corridor that leads to her classroom
SHOT 46 Over the shoulder shot of Emily-Jayne talking to Lucy
SHOT 47 Over the shoulder shot of Lucy talking to Emily-Jayne
SHOT 48 Over the shoulder shot of Emily-Jayne talking to Lucy
SHOT 49 Over the shoulder shot of Lucy talking to Emily-Jayne
SHOT 50 Over the shoulder shot of Emily-Jayne talking to Lucy
SHOT 51 Medium shot of Lucy opening the door to her classroom from behind her
SHOT 52 Continuous editing used to show Lucy entering the room from the front of her
SHOT 53 Long shot of the class looking at Lucy from over her
Shoulder
SHOT 54 Over the shoulder shot of Lucy talking to the teacher
SHOT 55 Over the shoulder shot of the teacher talking to Lucy
SHOT 56 Over the shoulder shot of Lucy talking to the Teacher
SHOT 57 Medium close up shot using panning to show Lucy’s point
of view as she enters the classroom.
SHOT 58 Medium close up of Lucy sat in the classroom on her own
SHOT 59 Long shot of Lucy entering her home.
SHOT 60 Close up shot of Lucy hanging her coat up
SHOT 61 Down tilted Long shot gradually tilting upwards to show
Lucy walking up the stairs.
SHOT 62 Close up of Lucy’s Mum’s face as she shouts to her from downstairs
SHOT 63 Close up shot of Lucy’s face as she shouts to her Mum from upstairs
SHOT 64 Close up of Lucy’s Mum’s face as she shouts to her from downstairs
SHOT 65 Close up shot of Lucy’s face as she shouts to her Mum from upstairs
SHOT 66 Close up of Lucy’s Mum’s face as she shouts to her from downstairs
SHOT 67 Medium long shot of Lucy sat at the computer
SHOT 68 Medium Long shot of the group of bullies shouting abuse to Lucy from the next
table
SHOT 69 Close up of Lucy’s face looking upset.
SHOT 70 Medium Long shot of the group of bullies shouting abuse to Lucy from the next
table
SHOT 71 Medium shot of Lucy sat at the computer with Emily-Jayne sat behind her
SHOT 72 Medium close up of Emily-Jayne talking to Lucy
SHOT 73 Close up of Lucy Looking startled as she didn’t know that Emily-Jayne was behind
her. Then speaks to Emily-Jayne
SHOT 74 Close up of Emily-Jayne as she talks to Lucy
SHOT 75 Close up shot of Lucy as she talks to Emily-Jayne
SHOT 76 Medium Long shot of the group of bullies shouting abuse to Lucy from the next
table
SHOT 77 Close up shot of Emily-Jayne as she talks to Lucy, suggesting that the go to a café
SHOT 78 Close up of Lucy’s reply
SHOT 79 Long shot of Lucy and Emily-Jayne getting up and walking out of the Library.
Panning used to follow them
SHOT 80 Long shot as Lucy and Emily-Jayne walk down the road
SHOT 81 Long shot of a car winding its window down and throwing an object out of it.
Panning to follow the car as it drives along the road.
SHOT 82 Medium shot to show Lucy clutching at her head in pain as she has been hit by the
object. Continuous editing is used.
SHOT 83 Long shot of Emily-Jayne putting her arm around Lucy and asking if she is alright
SHOT 84 Close up of Lucy replying to Emily-Jayne
SHOT 85 Medium shot of Emily- Jayne and Lucy as they are talking
SHOT 86 Medium long shot of Lucy walking into the café
SHOT 87 Over the shoulder shot of Emily- Jayne talking to Lucy
SHOT 88 Over the shoulder shot of Lucy talking to Emily-Jayne
SHOT 89 Over the shoulder shot of Emily-Jayne talking to Lucy
SHOT 90 Over the shoulder shot of the cashier
SHOT 91 Over the shoulder shot of Lucy
SHOT 92 Over the shoulder shot of the cashier
SHOT 93 Over the shoulder shot of Lucy
SHOT 94 Over the shoulder shot of the cashier
SHOT 95 Close up of Lucy handing money to the cashier
SHOT 96 Medium shot of Lucy picking up the coffees and placing them on the table where
Emily-Jayne is sat
SHOT 96 Over the shoulder shot of Emily-Jayne
SHOT 97 Over the shoulder shot of Lucy
SHOT 98 Over the shoulder shot of Emily-Jayne
SHOT 99 Over the shoulder shot of Lucy
SHOT 100 Over the shoulder shot of Emily-Jayne
SHOT 101 Side on shot of Lucy and Emily-Jayne as Lucy’s phone
starts to ring
SHOT 102 Close up shot of Lucy’s phone ringing
SHOT 103 Medium close up of Lucy answering the phone
SHOT 104 Medium close up of Lucy’s mum on the phone
SHOT 105 Medium close up of Lucy talking on the phone
SHOT 106 Medium shot of Lucy’s mum talking on the phone
SHOT 107 Scene cuts to a Long shot of Lucy’s mum vacuuming her room
SHOT 108 Close up shot of Lucy’s mum discovering the pills scattered under her bed
SHOT 109 Scene cuts back a medium shot of Lucy’s mum on the phone
SHOT 110 Medium shot of Lucy on the phone
SHOT 110 Medium shot of Lucy’s mum on the phone
SHOT 111 Medium shot of Lucy on the phone
SHOT 112 Medium shot of Lucy’s mum on the phone
SHOT 113 Medium shot of Lucy on the phone
SHOT 114 Medium shot of Lucy’s mum on the phone
SHOT 115 Medium shot of Lucy hanging up the phone and standing up from her seat
SHOT 116 Close up shot of Emily- Jayne saying bye
SHOT 117 Long shot of Lucy entering her home
SHOT 118 Medium shot of Lucy’s mum putting her coat on as she talks to Lucy
SHOT 119 Medium shot of Lucy talking to her mum
SHOT 120 Long shot of Lucy walking to the kitchen to take her tablets. Panning used to
follow her
SHOT 121 Medium shot to show Lucy taking her pills
SHOT 122 Long shot of Lucy’s mum talking to Lucy as she puts her coat on
SHOT 123 Medium shot of Lucy shouting back to her mum
SHOT 124 Medium shot of Lucy’s mum talking to Lucy
SHOT 125 Medium shot of Lucy talking to her mum
SHOT 126 Medium shot of Lucy’s mum talking to Lucy
SHOT 127 Cuts to an over the shoulder shot of Lucy looking at her reflection
SHOT 128 Long shot of Lucy grabbing her bag and Leaving her bedroom
SHOT 129 Long shot of the corridor as Lucy and Emily-Jayne are
talking on the phone to one another.
SHOT 130 Close up of Lucy on the phone to Emily- Jayne
SHOT 131 Medium shot of Lucy and Emily-Jayne outside the classroom
SHOT 132 Over the shoulder shot of Emily- Jayne talking to Lucy
SHOT 133 Over the shoulder shot of Lucy talking to Emily- Jayne
SHOT 134 Over the shoulder shot of Emily- Jayne talking to Lucy
SHOT 135 Medium shot of Lucy as she knocks on the door and then enters
SHOT 136 Medium over the shoulder shot of Simon talking to Lucy
SHOT 137 Medium shot of Lucy talking to Simon
SHOT 138 Medium shot of Simon talking to Lucy
SHOT 139 Long shot of Lucy as she closes the door behind her and takes a seat opposite
Simon
SHOT 140 Over the shoulder shot of Lucy talking to Simon
SHOT 141 Over the shoulder shot of Simon talking to Lucy
SHOT 142 Over the shoulder shot of Lucy talking to Simon
SHOT 143 Over the shoulder shot of Simon talking to Lucy
SHOT 144 Over the shoulder shot of Lucy talking to Simon
SHOT 145 Over the shoulder shot of Simon talking to Lucy
SHOT 146 Over the shoulder shot of Lucy talking to Simon
SHOT 147 Over the shoulder shot of Simon talking to Lucy
SHOT 148 Over the shoulder shot of Lucy talking to Simon
SHOT 149 A medium shot of Lucy looking down at the chair next to her is used
SHOT 150 Close up shot of Lucy’s face looking puzzled
SHOT 151 Medium shot of Simon talking to Lucy
SHOT 152 Medium shot of Lucy talking to Simon
SHOT 153 Medium shot of Simon talking to Lucy
SHOT 154 Medium shot of Lucy talking to Simon
SHOT 155 medium close up of Lucy pointing to the seat next to her
SHOT 156 Close up shot of Lucy muttering to herself and looking around the room frantically
SHOT 157 Medium shot of Simon talking to Lucy
SHOT 158 Close up shot of Lucy looking sick and confused, replying to Simon
SHOT 159 Close up of Simon telling Lucy to calm down
SHOT 160 Medium shot of Lucy placing her hand on her head and standing from her seat
SHOT 161 Medium close up shot of Simon looking through his filing cabinet, he pulls out one
file
SHOT 162 Long shot of Lucy pacing around the room
SHOT 163 Medium shot of Simon as he scans through the file, his face looking shocked
SHOT 164 Lucy sits back in her seat and replies what Simon has just said. Staring at the
ground.
SHOT 165 Close up of Simons face looking confused
SHOT 166 Close up shot of Lucy’s face to show her crying
SHOT 167 Medium shot of Lucy from behind, sat at a table
SHOT 168 Cuts to a flashback of Lucy and Emily-Jayne earlier in the
film
SHOT 169 Cut back to an Extreme close up of Lucy’s face to show
shock
SHOT 170 Cuts to a flashback of Lucy and Emily-Jayne earlier in the
film
SHOT 171 Cuts to a flashback of Lucy and Emily-Jayne earlier in the
film
SHOT 172 Cuts to extreme close up of Lucy as she screams

Photographs of College Locations by Shelley Brookes, Lucy Davies Writing By Matthew Helliwell

2009-11-15T12:17:00.000-08:00

We chose the college library as we need a library setting for Emily-Jayne and Lucy's first meeting and conversation. Another factor was because it resides in our college and is easily accessible for all members and camera, also if we do it during lesson time the library will be quite empty and we will be able to avoid other students looking at the camera during shooting time. Also in the library there are chairs which are suitable for the scene where Lucy sits down and Emily-Jayne comes over and helps her.

We also took pictures of the corridors which Lucy and Emily-Jayne will be walking down. These are also just in our college which makes it easier to get the filming done quick as the actors are in college and so is the camera. We used these locations for more efficiency, using the college helped us to get a lot of the scenes done quickly.

Prop Work By Matthew Helliwell

2009-11-15T11:19:00.000-08:00

This is the tub of paracetamol that i am going to use for the tablets that are knocked off of Lucy's bedside cabinet.
I scratched a little bit of the label off so that it didnt stick out above the label i printed off the internet.

I cut my label out of the bottle i printed off the internet and stuck it onto the bottle of paracetamol.

This is the Paracetamol bottle next to the prop I have made.

This is the box i am gonig to use to place my medicine box net over. this box is a little smaller than the net, so i ahd to adjust the net to make it fit.

This is the net for the type of medicine I want to use. I cut it up into parts and stuck them on using sellotape. The effect was not so good.

This is the turn out after i stuck on the pieces, the corners look a little frayed because the paper is curling off. i sorted this out by sticking them down. I thought it would make the overall prop look glossy but it actually is not soo bad.

This is the outcome. The edges are tightened up but it doesnt look as good as i would have expected it to, I'm not sure on whether to use this prop, although it looks a lot better in person than on camera.

Health and Safety Rick Assessment by Shelley Brookes and Lucy Davies

2009-11-12T08:33:00.001-08:00

Prop Work. By Matthew Helliwell

2009-11-12T03:17:00.000-08:00

For some scenes in our film we need a tub of tablets or a box of them to take the part of Lucy's medication. I aquired a tub of paracetamol and a box which contained flu tablets. And with some research i found out what medication is used to treat an illness similar to the one Lucy has e.g. Schizophrenia. The medication used to treat this illness typically are Antipsychotics. I have chosen to use the drug Haldol and i printed off a tablet cover for Haldol and a bottle cover for a similar drug; Riperidone.
I got information off of the website http://www.medicinenet.com/
It was very helpful in identifying the medicines used for schitzophrenia and information on them.

Five Minute Film Analysis by Shelley Brookes

2009-11-11T06:51:00.000-08:00

For my short film analysis I chose the film ‘The Talisman’ by Mathieu Ratthe although it was written by a popular writer known as Stephen King. I found this film by typing in short films on www.youtube.com. First I watched another of his films called ‘Lovefield’ and then I saw the link to this one on there and found it to be more interesting. It has a twist within it and we are wanting to achieve this in our film therefore I thought analysing this film could further my knowledge on what to do in our film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LHFRF0mVho

It starts with a long shot of all black and the outline of a door that you can tell is slightly open due to the light coming through around it. Orchestral low frequency music is played whilst the camera slowly zooms in towards the door and the words ‘demo scene “THE HOTEL ROOM”’ merge closer to the camera. As the camera gets closer a person appears from the left hand side of the camera walking towards the door. He reaches the door and pushes it open letting in a explosion of light and the room is lit up showing a hallway with a door to the right and a boring decorative feel. You also see it’s a boy dressed in casual clothes carrying a rucksack although he soon disappears inside and the doorway and inside of it can not be seen because of the light.

The screen is then filled with a flash of the light and the pitch of the music rises to course more of a noise, this is a way of disguising the cut to the next image. The light gradually dims to show a picture frame on a wooden table, in the frame is a picture of a boy and a woman the music is now a bit louder than before when the camera was outside the room. From the body language between the two it hints that they are mother and son. A shadow is then seen in the frame and someone walks past the camera. The camera uses a pan to follow this person who drops a rucksack on the floor in front of the table. This gives the audience the impression it is the person we followed in to the room as the camera has just followed him again. The camera then zooms in on the bag. It is army green with the word ‘sawyou’ on the front and inside is a sketch book show from the drawings stuck on the front.

The camera then cuts to a medium shot of a room with the shadow of someone in a cupboard door before the boy from the beginning enters the room. The director uses diagetic sound here as the boy is shouting mum repeatedly and the music has gone so that the audience focuses on this. The camera is slowly zooming in on the boy and he then starts to remove his coat before telling his mum he is home. This tells the audience he has probably been at school. The camera then cuts to a close up of the boys face as a continuous shot. This is to show the audience the look of confusion on the boys face as he still hasn’t had a reply from his mum.

The camera then cuts to a long shot of a living and dining room with a big window covering the majority of the wall in the background. Through the window a peer can be seen along with the sea and sand. On the peer is a funfair and the weather is nice therefore it would usually create a happier feel although the silence makes the audience think something isn’t right and then a crow cawing appears and flies past the window.

The camera then cuts to a medium shot from the sofa showing the side of the room where the boy enters. Its pans across the room following the boy who is looking out of the window that is now situated behind the camera and the crow can still be heard. He then turns to look at some double doors which he walks towards and begins to open them whilst the camera tilts downwards and pulls focus on a cup of coffee that is letting off steam. This tells the audience that it has just been made therefore someone must have just been in that room. A higher pitch noise is heard whilst the camera is looking at the coffee causing the audience to think something is about to happen then it cuts to a long shot of the boy opening the doors from the inside of the room behind them. This again is continuity editing. The music then cuts off again and a non-diagetic sound of a television is heard.

The camera then cuts to a medium shot of the boy although the camera is slightly tilted upwards. The boy focuses on the bed still and says ‘mum, come on. You told me an hour ago I’m starving!’ The camera then cuts back to the long shot of the room and the boy walks towards the bed whilst the camera slowly starts tilting up and moves so that the audience can see the bump in the bed that the boy is talking to.

The camera then cuts again so that we can see the bed from the boy’s angle but the boy keeps walking forward and the shot then becomes an over the shoulder shot. The camera then moves around the boy following his hand as it touches the quilt and whilst he is still shouting mum. Although his voice appears more quit now as if his mums asleep. It becomes a close up of his hand and as he moves the quilt it cuts back to the long shot slightly tilted up at the boy. As he moves the quilt and asks his mum if she’s asleep he realises there’s no one in the quilt. At this point there is a look of confusion on his face and the shot cuts back to his arm moving away from the quilt. Also, when the camera cuts to this shot the crows starts to make a noise then which is a lot louder than the television in the background. It gives the audience the impression that the crow is an important part of the film.

It then cuts to a close up of the left hand side of the back of his head. Showing the expression on his face when he turns towards the left where the crows caw appears to be coming from. The camera has pulled focus on his face so the open door in the back ground is blurred. Then a shadow is seen on the wall through the door and a loud noise is heard. This would make the audience jump and cause suspense because they now want to know what is in that room. The boys head immediately turns to look at the door and its pulls focus on the door then rather than the boy so you can get a better look at the door, when he turns his head you hear something drop on the floor in the room and the shower turns on. This tells the audience it’s the bathroom. The camera then zooms in towards the door and suddenly cuts to a wall next to a door with the shadow of the boys face on it. You can tell we are closer because the shower has got louder. The boy then shouts mum again and when there’s no reply he moves and the door opens towards us showing the boys head come around in to the room the camera is in. The camera then zooms in on his face and cuts to the eye line view of what the boy is looking at, this is the bathroom and a steamed up shower with what looks like a person in it. The camera then zooms in towards the shower before cutting back to a close up on the boys face and the door and panning across it whilst he says mum I’m home. It then cuts back to zooming in on the shower and then back to a medium shot of the boy where he is still looking at the shower and begins to walk towards it and violins start to play in the background softly whilst he is moving his head with confusion. He then shouts his mum again, the music still playing and the camera cuts to a close up of his feet following them while they walk toward the shower asking why she doesn’t answer him. This also gives the audience a better view of the room. There is a shoe on the floor as if it’s been kicked off and a towel screwed up, also the bin has been knocked over to the left.

When his feet are nearly at the shower it cuts back to a close up of the shower door and his face entering the shot. The music has gone and once again he shouts the word mum and looks down, the shot then cuts to an eye line shot, a close up of his hand knocking on the glass door right next to the handle and the loud orchestral music from before returns. The camera uses a continuous shot cutting back to a close up of the boys face whilst he is still knocking and says ‘mum’ again. The boy begins to try and look in the shower and the camera cuts to a shot from in the shower where his eye is looking through and he asks ‘what’s going on in there’ at this point the music pitch and frequency gets higher. It then does a quick cut back to his hand for a second showing that he is now knocking faster on the door then a cut to a close up on his face and then back to a close up of his hand trying to emphasise the panic and making the audience scared because it hints something’s going to be in the shower. The camera then cut to a medium shot from the inside of the shower and the boy immediately opens the shower door with a look of horror on his face looking around the inside making the audience want to look at what is there. The camera then cut to a shot of the shower head and running water making random loud noises whilst zooming in a bit but no one is there.

A cut is then made to a close up on the side of the boys head showing his confused and upset but relieved. It then cuts to a medium shot of the boy looking away from the shower whilst saying mum and the camera travels down towards a table with a mirror on it until it finally shows a bunch of pills, pills bottles and prescribed bottles of liquids as a hint of drugs. The music appears to be a string instrument and it is very loud and disturbing. The way he says mum whilst it shows you these makes the audience think they are hers. Whilst the camera tilts downwards you vaguely hear the boy’s voice asks ‘what’s going on here?’ and at this point the music has gone back to being quiet and gentle.

The camera then cuts back to the living room emphasising the window because it’s a nice day therefore the light from outside is what’s lighting up the room. The music has now stopped completely. The camera pans from left to right in the room but always has the window fully in the shot. It’s just showing you it from different angles in the room. We then see the boy in front of the camera walking towards the window but looking round the room rather than out of the window. The camera keeps panning to the right whilst the boy turns round making sure he’s looked everywhere in the room for his mum. The silence makes it a lot more eerie and causes excitement yet suspense.

The camera then cuts to a medium close up of the boy facing the camera with the window behind him. The boy begins to walk backwards as the camera zooms in on him he stops walking backwards and the camera zooms in to make the shot a close up of his face. This shows the confusion and horror on his face whilst he stares at a fixed point behind the camera. He then says mum again as if he feels her closer because he doesn’t say it as loud and he says it more slowly.

We then hear a loud crash and we see a crack appears in the window behind him. The camera then uses a continuous shot as the boy begins to turn round the camera cuts to his face and shows a medium shot of him as he jumps which then quickly zooms into a close up of his face showing how scared he is of what’s about to happen bacuse you can see him breathing more heavily and his eyes fixed on the window. The camera then cuts back to the window where the crack expands still making that awful noise as it does so and the camera gradually zooming in. when the crack develops and becomes horizontal down the middle of the window a loud smash is heard and one side of the crack flashes over exposed light and the sound of thunder is heard. At this point the orchestral music appears to cause the audience to feel terrified. The half of the window that went bright then flashed to the same view outside yet it was dark, bad weather and looked a lot scarier. You could see the lightening that was making such noise within the room. The camera then cuts to another close up of the boys face whilst the music still plays and then it cuts straight back to a close up on the half of the window that’s changed emphasising a big lightening strike that appears in the background although there is still some blue sky that can be seen in the top left corner. This shows the contrast between the weather in each half of the glass. The camera then slowly zooms in on the glass giving the audience a good look at the storm that is taking place. A loud scream then over powers the sound of the storm and the camera cuts to outside the window tilting up at the window whilst the scream is still occurring. It is a woman’s scream hinting at the audience that it may be the boys mum. You then see the boy moving towards the window anxious to look outside and as he moves close the camera zooms in on the boy. When he reaches the window he puts one of his hands on it. As the camera becomes a close up on his face you see his facial expression turn in to a shock yet scared look. It then cuts to a tilted down shot as it is to show what the boy is looking down at. There is a woman dressed in her dressing gown being dragged in to a black car by two people in black. She stands out because her clothes are brighter than everything else in the picture. She is screaming up at the window and the camera zooms in on her face whilst she does so showing her resistance to go with the two people. It then cuts back to a tilted upwards medium close up of the boy through the window shouting mum because he wants to help her.

The camera then cuts back to an extreme close up of one of the men that are kidnapping her and he immediately turns his head. He doesn’t look like a normal person as his face is covered in hair, he has long hair and his eyes are a very scary aluminous green and yellow. He continues to stare at the boy whilst he is still screaming for his mum, his hair then begins to grow even more on his face that much that you can’t see his face and he begins to look like an animal. And a disgusting sound like the moving of worms or beetles is heard whilst the hair grows.

It the cuts back to a close up of the boys face and a look of horror as he doesn’t know what to do and now that he has seen the people that are taking her. His mum has begun to scream again at this point and the camera then cuts to a tilted down close up of his mum screaming and struggling. Whilst the camera gradually zooms in then cuts to a tilted down close up of her arm and a hairy hand grabbing her arm and her scream changes to a short low pitch one and then she stops. Her white dressing gown makes the hairy hand stand out more for the audience to see because it is a really dark colour compared to the white. The hand then begins to push at her arm and then the camera cuts back to an extreme close up of the boys face at the window screaming for his mum whilst it cuts back to a tilted down close up of his mums face as she looks exhausted and scared. It then goes back to a tilted up extreme close up of the boys face repeatedly shouting mum and the camera begins to zoom out and we hear a woman’s voice shout jack and the window returns to normal and the crack disappears along with the bad weather. This has established what the boys name is and behind him you see a woman stood with a white dressing gown on and Jack then turns his head to look at her. The camera cuts to a medium close up of him with a look of confusion on his face and the window in the background back to how it was before. It then cuts back to a view in to the house from the outside of the window with the back of Jacks head as he has turned to look at the woman. He then turns it towards the camera and looks back down at where his mum was before and a piano begins to play. It then goes to a medium close up of the woman and the audience then know for certain that it’s his mum. And as the camera slowly zooms in on her she asks, ‘is everything alright honey?’ and then gives a warm smile before the camera cuts back to a medium shot pulled focus on Jack from outside the window. The camera then begins to zoom out as his mum walks towards him and says ‘honey’ as he still hasn’t answered her question. He then turns to look at her and gives a reply ‘yeah…everything’s alright mom’ whilst the piano still plays in the background and the camera is still zooming out. It then turns in to a long shot and a loud bang of drums is heard when the crow lands on the window sill and looks at the mother and son talking. It then begins to core and the camera cuts to a black screen with ‘directed by Mathieu Ratthe’ appearing in white writing in the middle of the screen. ‘directed by’ disappears first and then the name. Then the words ‘Based on the novel “THE TALISMAN” by Stephen King and Peter Straub’ when this has disappeared the rest of credits appear with all the people that were involved with the making of this short film.

In my opinion this was an excellent short film because although it was only 4 minutes it had a beginning, middle and end. Also, it had a twist in it and contained things that would get the audience thinking and cause a feel of terror and suspense. I felt that some details were missing though and that a longer film could have gave me a better insight to why things were happening and I would also like to know what happened after this. But overall for the time the film lasted it was well produced.

Storyboard By Lucy Davies

2009-11-10T06:41:00.000-08:00

Shooting Script By Hayley Outhwaite and Shelley Brookes

2009-11-10T06:36:00.000-08:00

SHOT 1 Close up shot of images and written words, being pulled in and out of focus.

SHOT 2 Over exposed close up of white clouds.

SHOT 3 Close up shot of images and written words, being pulled in and out of focus.

SHOT 4 Over exposed close up of white clouds.

SHOT 5 Extreme close up on alarm clock that reads “07:00”

SHOT 6 Close up shot of the pills hitting the ground

SHOT 7 Close up shot of Lucy in bed asleep

SHOT 8 Extreme close up of Lucy’s eyes as she wakes up and realises she is late for college

SHOT 9 Medium shot of Lucy brushing her hair

SHOT 10 Close up of Lucy brushing her teeth

SHOT 11 Long shot of Lucy and her mum in the kitchen

SHOT 12 Long shot of Lucy coming out of the house

SHOT 13 Long shot of Lucy running through the college corridors. Panning and camera tilts are used to follow her

SHOT 14 Extreme long shot of Lucy running through the college corridors. Panning and camera tilts are used to follow her.

SHOT 15 Medium shot of Lucy sat on a chair in the library

SHOT 16 Long shot of Lucy and Emily-Jayne talking in the library

SHOT 17 Extreme long shot of Lucy and Emily-Jayne walking down a corridor

SHOT 18 Over the shoulder shot of Emily-Jayne talking to Lucy

SHOT 19 Over the shoulder shot of Lucy talking to Emily-Jayne

SHOT 20 Over the shoulder shot of Emily-Jayne talking to Lucy

SHOT 21 Long shot of the class looking at Lucy from over her shoulder

SHOT 22 Medium close up shot using panning to show Lucy’s point of view as she enters the classroom.

SHOT 23 Medium close up of Lucy sat in the classroom on her own

SHOT 24 Long shot of Lucy entering her home, hanging her coat up.

SHOT 25 Down titled Long shot gradually tilting upwards to show Lucy walking up the stairs.

SHOT 26 Medium long shot of Lucy sat at the computer with Emily-Jayne

SHOT 27 Long shot as Lucy walks down the road, panning as the car drives alongside her

SHOT 28 Medium long shot of Lucy walking into the cafe

SHOT 29 Over the shoulder shot of the cashier

SHOT 30 Over the shoulder shot of Lucy

SHOT 31 Over the shoulder shot of the cashier

SHOT 32 Over the shoulder shot of Lucy

SHOT 33 Over the shoulder shot of the cashier

SHOT 34 Over the shoulder shot of Emily-Jayne

SHOT 35 Over the shoulder shot of Lucy

SHOT 36 Over the shoulder shot of Emily-Jayne

SHOT 37 Over the shoulder shot of Lucy

SHOT 38 Over the shoulder shot of Emily-Jayne

SHOT 39 Side on shot of Lucy and Emily-Jayne as Lucy’s phone starts to ring

SHOT 40 Close up shot of Lucy’s phone ringing

SHOT 41 Medium close up of Lucy answering the phone

SHOT 42 Medium close up of Lucy’s mum on the phone

SHOT 43 Long shot of Lucy and her mum in the hall way as Lucy is taking her pill and her mum is putting her coat on.

SHOT 44 Over the shoulder shot of Lucy looking at her reflection

SHOT 45 Long shot of the corridor as Lucy and Emily-Jayne are talking on the phone to one another.

SHOT 46 Medium over the shoulder shot of Simon talking to Lucy

SHOT 47 Long shot of Lucy pacing around the room

SHOT 48 Close up shot of Lucy’s face to show her crying

SHOT 49 Medium shot of Lucy from behind, sat at a table

SHOT 50 Cuts to a flashback of Lucy and Emily-Jayne earlier in the film

SHOT 51 Cut back to an Extreme close up of Lucy’s face to show shock

SHOT 52 Cuts to a flashback of Lucy and Emily-Jayne earlier in the film

SHOT 53 Cuts to a flashback of Lucy and Emily-Jayne earlier in the film

SHOT 54 Cuts to extreme close up of Lucy as she screams

5 Minute Film Analysis By Hayley Outhwaite

2009-11-03T12:06:00.000-08:00

The film that I have chosen to analyse as part of my A2 media work is a short 5 minute film named “The game”, I came across this film on YouTube which was created by four A level students as part of their media coursework. This relates to the reason that I chose to analyse this film as I also have to come up with a short 5 minute film with the rest of my group which consists of 3 other members. By examining in detail a 5 minute film created by fellow A level pupils this will benefit me and my group greatly as we will be able to gather ideas such as the various different shots they have used and also their editing techniques.

Here is the link to the short 5 minute film that I chose to analyse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAYWDAD3fnY

The opening couple of seconds of this short film shows a bright circle of light being brought into focus with non-diagetic sound gradually getting louder in the background. The shot quickly changes to a high angle shot of a young boy laid on a blue and white stripy bed with his eyes closed; the non-diagetic sound continues to play throughout this scene which really sets the mood as it makes you feel as if you are waiting for something to happen. In the same shot the young boy slowly opens his eyes then gently lifts his head up so that it eventually goes out of shot almost completely. A low angle shot is then used as the boy is sat upright in bed with his feet perched on the end of the bed, as the shot is at a low angle pointing upwards towards the bed his body is out of proportion. His feet being the closest to the screen look a lot bigger than any other part of his body and his head is around the same size as his big toe this adds an unusual sense to the film. The first use of dialogue is used in this shot in a way that makes the film seem like a monologue “stuck in this confided room, my own version of therapy,” however the young boy’s mouth doesn’t move as the voice is heard, which gives us as the audience the feeling that we are listening to his thoughts out loud. We then see a medium long shot of a plain chocolate brown door, in relation to this the boy then says “There is a door, and I chose not to use it” these two pieces of dialogue that we have heard so far is already getting us guessing what’s going on and asking ourselves questions like why has he locked himself in this room? Is he crazy? This is always a good quality to have in a film as it keeps the audience curious as to what is going to happen next and leaves them wanting to watch the rest of the film. This medium shot of the door is then followed by the same low angle shot as previously used when the young boy is sat upright in bed with his feet on the edge of the bed, however at the end of this shot an eye line match occurs as the boy looks down to the right hand side of him and then the next shot shows an alarm clock reading 9 o’clock this is a good use of continuous editing. From around 9 seconds onwards you notice a change in the non-diagetic sound in the background as a faint beeping noise seems to get louder and more aggressive as the film goes on, then eventually 20 seconds into the film it is revealed that the noise is in fact coming from the alarm clock because when the boy reaches with his hand to turn the alarm off the noise immediately stops, this is a very clever way to use non-diagetic sound as it builds up the suspense in the film.

The next shot shows a close up shot of a chessboard with the boy in the background, both of which are out of focus. However as “I like to play chess” is being said the boy and the chessboard are brought into focus. The boy then continues to speak “a game I have adored since childhood” a close up shot is then used to show the expression on his face has he lets out a sigh, an eye line match occurs again as he looks to his left where the chessboard is situated, this time his head is in the shot however showing him looking at it. The boy then carry’s on speaking about the chessboard “it keeps my mind surrendered, from the dreams” and as the words “from the dreams” are spoken a medium shot is used to show a view of the room that the boy is in, both the bed and the chessboard are shown in this shot, this shot is also an establishing shot as it sets the scene. The boy then moves from his bed to take a seat at the table on which the chessboard is on. An extreme close up is then used to show a camera which the boy then begins to talk about “the camera is part of my therapy, time to change the tape” the next few shots show the process of changing a tape by using a mixture of close up and high angle shots, I find these few shots totally irrelevant to the film. After these few shots however the film starts the get more interesting as the boy says “I forgot to mention my opponent” we then see a point of view shot of what the boy is looking at which is a dark figure sat at the table. The shot then cuts back to show the boys face looking inquisitive as we hear him say “I didn’t expect him back so soon” as these words are heard we also hear a slight ticking noise in the background which is very effective. We then see a full view of the boy and the mysterious figure sat at the table “it’s his move” we hear him say, this makes us curious as to what is going to happen next. A distorted voice is then heard as an over the shoulder shot is used, persisting not to show this mysterious persons face which makes us want to see who it is even more, even though the tone of the voice is very effective it should be more clear as it is hard to work out what he is actually saying. “Ignore his taunts, he’s pathetic” these words make us think that the mysterious person is not going to be a nice character and that maybe he’s not very nice to the young boy. The ticking gradually becomes louder and more forceful as we see a close up shot of a hand twirling a tape around their fingers, then a cut back to a close up shot of the boys face, then another cut back to the hand twirling a chess piece and then this is followed by another cut back to a close up of the boy who rubs his face as if to show that he is aggravated in some way. The same hand is shown again in a close up shot showing it moving a chess piece on the board, an extreme close up is then shown of the boy’s eyes which seem to be fixated onto something until the distorted voice of the person says “your move” and then his eyes change direction to point straight forward and we see him then move a chess piece and claim his opponents piece. Throughout this chess game everything seems very serious and competitive as if they have everything to play for which captures the audience’s attention and keeps them interested. Eventually as it is the mysterious characters turn to move they move their chess piece and then say “you silly silly boy, check mate!” revealing that they have in fact won the game of chess. By now the slight ticking noise in the background is at a much rapid pace, it cuts to an extreme close up of the boys eyes of which give the impression that he is really infuriated about the situation, it then cuts to a shot of his chess pieces and then to his fist which he is clenching. All these shots are building up the tension of the scene until finally a medium shot of the table is shown where the boy fiercely knocks the chessboard onto the floor, at the same time that this occurs the ticking stops and just a steady paced non-diagetic sound continues to play. Following the next few shots the boy eventually says “time for sleep. A rethink” continuous editing is then used to show the boys journey from the table to the bed in the middle of the room. The boy is laid flat on the bed and as he rolls over a close up shot of his face is then shown as he the words “he cannot have won” are heard with an echo effect added which is very effective as it shows that this thought is going round and round in his head. As the word “he cannot have won” are repeated over and over again the screen goes black which leaves the audience anticipating about what is going to happen next.

As the sound of the ocean plays as the screen is still black this gives the viewers the sense that the next scene is going to be somehow related to the ocean, which is exactly right as the following scene is set on a sunny beach. As the first establishing shot of this scene shows the boy laid in the exact same position as he fell asleep in during the previous scene this also gives us the impression that maybe the boy is dreaming. As the boy slowly wakes up continuous editing is used very skilfully to show him gradually getting up from where he is laid on the sandy beach. As the boy then looks around, as if becoming familiar with his new surroundings, the camera immediately moves to the other side of him to show continuity by using a medium shot. Straight after the previous shot a long shot is used to show the boy looking directly forward, this shot is then used again, this time as an extreme long shot however. A very effective use of overlapping follows this, as over the top of the extreme long shot of the boy a medium long shot of the boy walking along the beach is played, gradually taking over the full screen. A low angle shot is then used to look up at the boy who is now stood still looking over the horizon, though out this shot a sort of Arabian style non-diagetic sound kicks in, this then cuts to a point of view shot of a pebbly hill, and then back to the low angle shot of him and finally back again to the pebbly hill, yet this time a head is gradually appearing over the hill. As the head is being revealed from the top of the pebbly hill it cuts back to the boy, however this time it starts as a long shot and by using free hand camera work and fast forwarding the material an effective transition is created as the camera gets closer to the boy ending in a medium shot of his body, at this point an effective sound is used as if to symbolise his heart beating at the sight of the figure appearing from the hill. The next shot shows a medium long shot of the figure that has now fully appeared over the hill walking straight towards the boy, we can now see that this is the same mysterious figure that we previously saw who bet the boy at chess. The next couple of shots cut from the boy to the figure approaching him from the other side of the hill until finally a 180 degree pan shot is used to circulate around the boy to reveal that the figure is now behind him, as this occurs a sound effect is used which sounds just like thunder which is extremely significant as thunder is contemplated as a bad thing and the figure that is stood behind the boy has proved so far to be a bad person too. Part of the mysterious persons face is revealed in the next scene as a close up shot of his mouth is used as he speaks in his distorted voice saying “You ruined our game Allan, now were going to have to play something else” this piece of dialogue reminds me of the popular film saw and so maybe this is where they gathered their ideas from. The boys name is also revealed for the first time in this piece of speech. A long shot is the next shot to be used which is looking over the shoulder of Allan, this shows that he has now turned around to face his opponent once again, this is followed by an extreme close up of the opponent and then we see another long shot of them both with Allan screaming “no” and running away from the man into the direction of the camera. The next extreme close up of the man’s mouth shows him smiling which gives us the impression that he is happy with the outcome of Allan running off. Just as we think that Allan might have finally got rid of his enemy the next shot shows a medium close up of them both standing face to face with the man looking down on Allan as he hangs his head down which signifies that he has power over Allan. The man then says “You can’t escape, I’m in your head” which is echoed to add effect, as this is heard the man’s mouth doesn’t move unlike previously which ties into what he has just previously said about being inside Allan’s head. Another extreme close up of the man’s mouth is shown as he says “you can’t get away, then the player will die, let’s go for a walk” an over the shoulder shot is then used as the man walks off towards the sea. A low angle shot follows this to show the man’s feet walking in the sand and then Allan stood a short distance behind him. After a close up shot of Allan’s face it cuts to the previous low angle shot, however this time it shows Allan running behind the man. The following shot is a medium shot of the two boys with their backs to the camera facing out to the sea, both stood with their hands clasped behind their back. A close up shot then shows the side of both their faces with the mysterious man closest to the camera, he begins to talk “this is the game Allan and you just lost it.” Allan then replies to this by saying “What game? I didn’t know we were playing a game? What chess? I’m good at chess, I win you at chess, what are you talking about! I’m not playing a game!” Allan stutters whilst saying this as if he is scared about what he has just heard, he expresses his fear by raising his voice near the end of the piece of dialogue and by running off towards the sea as we see from another over the shoulder shot looking behind the man as he watches Allan run away from him. By now another non-diagetic sound has arisen which sounds a lot like a siren, gradually getting louder and more potent. Whilst watching Allan run towards the sea the man says to him “I’ll have to deal with you now!” and then yet another extreme close up shot of his mouth appears as he says something else however I couldn’t quite make out what it was that he was saying which is a shame as this was part of the climax scene. The scene does however end with a long shot of the beach with the man stood facing the camera watching Allan run towards us into the sea where he eventually fall’s face down into. There is yet another character stood a few feet away from the man in this scene which I found very confusing as no other characters have been introduced to the story yet and having already watched the ending I know that no other character does appear, this leads me to believe that maybe the figure was in fact a cameraman which is not a good thing to show in a film as it spoils the effect for the audience who are watching the film.

As the scene has just ended with Allan falling face down into the sea, the start of the new scene which I find very clever shows a high angle shot of Allan laid face down back in bed where he previously was before he ended up on the beach. The screen then goes black and all of the non-diagetic music dyes down until eventually the high angle shot of the boy laid in bed from right at the beginning of this short film is shown again, a soft pumping noise is also heard as if resembling a heartbeat, then the same beeping noise of the alarm is played. The entire opening scene is repeated all over again in a much more rapid pace and the ticking noise that was previously heard before gets slower and slower as the scene is sped up until finally a close up shot of Allan looking into the camera lens is shown and the ticking has almost stopped, then suddenly a point of view shot is shown of what Allan is looking at threw the camera lens which is the table where he earlier played chess. We then see medium shots from earlier on of them both playing chess sped up so fast that it creates some sort of flicker affect with a rapidly paced flickering sound playing in the background, until finally a medium shot of the table is shown in a blurred affect and then it cuts back to the medium shot of Allan who by now is looking extremely scared as he hears the man’s words once again “I’m inside your head” which are echoed once again. This shot of Allan slowly fades into a black screen and soft orchestral music is played as the ending credits appear by scrolling up the screen in a contrasting white font to its black background.

Conclusion

After watching this short 5 minute film several times and analysing it in great detail I have been able to pick out both the positive and negative points in this film. Firstly I was very impressed with the several different camera angles used in this film which ranged from extreme long shots to extreme close up shots. Also the use of non-diagetic sound to create an effect worked brilliantly throughout this film, for instance the ticking noise towards the end of the film built up the tension as the scene progressed. I was especially impressed with the amount of continuity editing present and the few times that eye line matches occurred.

The story in itself I felt was slightly confusing as at some points I found myself asking what was going on and why were certain parts occurring, for instance about 40 seconds into the film there were various different shots showing Allan changing a tape in his camera which I found totally irrelevant as neither of these shots related to the story so far and if anything just totally confused us as the audience. However I liked how the film had a mysterious feel to it keeping the viewers captivated and wanting to know what was going to happen next. I got the impression from watching this film that the young boy named Allan had some sort of mental illness as it showed him in a small confined room at the beginning of the film as if he was in some kind of mental hospital, also you get the impression throughout the film that the second character, which was the mysterious male figure, is some sort of imaginary friend that he cant get rid of who taunts him and makes his life hell. In my own film that I am creating with my group we have a character named Lucy who has schizophrenia so it has been really helpful for me to have analysed this film as I have been able to gather ideas of how I can portray her illness to the audience of viewers by using such things as an echo effect of peoples voices like they have used throughout this film.

Overall I felt that the group of A level students who created this film worked really hard to create an effective film which entertained its audience, however I felt that the storyline was a little bit confusing at times and lacked clarity in some parts.

Five Minute Analysis By Lucy Davies.

2009-11-03T05:32:00.000-08:00

LOVEFIELD (Short Film by Mathieu Ratthe)
For my own choice of a short film analysis, I focused my decisions on finding a film that had a running time of 5 minutes, also including a twist at the end. These were the prime factors I decided to revolve my film choice around, as I thought it would give me and my group a better implication to how a 5 minute film could fit a storyline and a twist in it, without making it too difficult.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4meeZifCVro

Shot 1- Striking opening of overexposed lighting to immediately capture the audience’s attention, but then the lighting decreases revealing the production of the film. The music begins (Piano is the main instrument at this point creating an eerie effect).

Fade out

Shot 2- Fade in to an extreme long shot of field full of crops which informs the audience of the set in which the film is taking place. (Slightly looking over the field) The title ‘LOVEFIELDS’ fades in and out of the shot, establishing the link to the film and the title. Crane shot panning down towards the field, ending with the camera in the crops. Music builds tension using a crescendo of violins. Non-diegetic sound of wind added blowing through the crops which creates an isolated atmosphere, which is another technique used to capture the audience’s attention.

Shot 3- This is a clever shot that is used throughout the opening sequence. Mathieu uses the same shot as before, however, the top and the bottom thirds of the screen is blurred, emphasising the middle section. This shot is used to gradually build tension.

Shot 4- Dissolve effect is used, overlapping the previous shot of the crops with another shot of the crops. This creates a wipe, as if it had happened over a period of time. Panning is used right to left. Crops are still on the shot, continuing the use of the non-diegetic sound to create wind, however, another non-diegetic sound is added being the squeak of a sign being blown in the wind. This creates a ghostly atmosphere and alerts the audience immediately as an unexpected noise is used. The camera pans to the sign, making the crops blurred as it pulls focus on the sign. The camera the pans upwards to the top of the sign revealing a crow sat on top.

Shot 5- Close up shot of the crow, as it squawks several times, still with the squeaking of the sign in the background.

Shot 6- Cuts to another shot of the crops. Shallow focus is used, leaving only a few of crops are in focus. This is a medium long shot as the camera pans so the audience can just see over the crops. This shot shows how secluded the area is. Non-diegetic sound of the crow and sign is still used.

Shot 7- Close up of crow again.

Shot 8- Cuts to the crops again, using the same shallow focus as before. Camera pans down into the crops. Crow and sign sound are still used in the background, however, another non-diegetic sound is added, which is a beeping noise. When the sound is introduced, the audience don’t know where it is coming from, but it indicates that someone is there leading the audience to believe that something is going to happen, which is another technique used to keep the attention of the audience.

Shot 9- Another dissolving effect is used, using two different shots of the crops again, however, the second shot is a close up of the crops near to the ground. This makes the beeping noise louder implying that the beeping noise is getting closer. The camera pans to a close up of a mobile phone using a shallow focus, so that the main object on the screen is the mobile phone. The camera then continues to pan backwards on the ground leaving the phone out of focus (beeping noise decreases) and making scattered on the floor the main focus. A woman cries alerting the audience that there is most definitely something wrong. The camera continues to pan leaving the scattered money out of focus. Suddenly, a woman’s hand comes into the shot using a close up, as she grasps some straw on the floor, indicating that she is in pain. The woman cries louder. Her hand leaves the shot as the camera pans further backwards, as it pulls focus to a piece of womens underwear on the floor ( at this point there is no sound apart from the woman’s cry) The camera then pans even further backwards pulling focus to a womans foot as it is moving. The camera stops moving when it is on a close up shot of the bare foot. The woman scrunches her toes to suggest that she is in some sort of pain. Crescendo of violins is used again to build tension as the woman is struggling and crying. All of a sudden, the music stops and her foot stops moving giving the impression that she has been killed. The shot is very quite so the audience are less prepared for the next bit which is a sudden strike of loud music and a males hand stabbing a knife into the ground, in front of the woman’s foot. Immediately, the audience presume that this male is a murderer as his hand is covered in blood and the music becomes more dramatic suggesting that something bad has just happened.

Shot 10- The shot then goes back to a close up of a crow squawking. The piercing sound of violins is used to create tension.

Shot 11- The camera pans a male from the side of his waist to his head. It begins by showing the audience the blood on his hands, and then gradually coming up to his shoulder, emphasising a tattoo. This makes the audience nervous as the tension is built up tremendously, as no characters have been introduced properly in the film at this stage, and the fact that the first character being shown is the ‘murderer’ makes the watcher on edge. Finally, there is a close up of his face looking worried. The male looks behind him to look at the sign and the crow on top. There is a long pause of the male looking at the crow, giving the impression that he is wanted help or advice on what to do next. At this point, the music becomes less dramatic as the camera pulls focus to the sign and crow. (Non-diegetic sounds are added again).

Shot 12- Close up of crow again.

Shot 13- Medium long shot of the male stood in the crops looking around to see what he can do. This shot was used so the audience can see the anxiety in his facial expression and body language. After he looks around (music fairly calm) he looks down at the floor giving the impression that he is looking at his victim, making the audience curious to see.

Shot 14- Cuts to a medium shot of his knees to his waist as he is walking back from whatever he looked at in the previous shot. The music becomes more dramatic. In this sequence, the audience are anxious to see what the man is going to do. The man begins to turn around.

Shot 15- Continuity editing is used in a medium length shot. The male continues to turn around and runs forwards.

Shot 16- Sudden cut back to the crow.

Shot 17- Cut to a full length shot of the back of the male running towards the car through the crops.

Shot 18- Continuity editing used as he leaps out of the field and runs around the side of his car. The car door is open, and he hesitates (as if he was panicking and not knowing what to do) He then leans into the car. The camera pans the males but slightly moving away from the car. This technique was used so that it gave a full length shot of the car, enabling the audience to see where he was and what he was doing.

Shot 19- Camera suddenly cuts to another close up shot of the crow. These quick cuts to the close up shots of the crow creates a slight confusion towards the audience as it gives a variety of unexpected shots making more things happen in the film rather than just having similar shots of the male.

Shot 20- Cuts to a medium shot of the males shoes as he gets out of the car and runs to the boot of the car.

Shot 21- Continuity editing is used in a medium length shot of the man coming to the boot of his car.

Shot 22- Cuts to a close up of the man trying to open the boot. There is an emphasis on his hands shaking as he is panicking to chose the correct key.Blackout

Shot 23- Using a wiping technique from the bottom to the top of the screen, the camera is set at a low angle looking up at the man using a medium close up (this shows the man looking around in the boot of the car for something)

Shot 24- Cuts back to a shot of the crow.

Shot 25- Cuts to an extreme long shot of the back of the male, still searching in the boot of the car. The road is also in the shot showing that there are no cars or people around.

Shot 26- Extreme close up. Hand held shot on top of the car. Slightly at a low angle shot. Nothing is really shown on screen but the audience can make out that it is the back of the car boot and the man and the man is on the other side looking for something. This builds tension because the audience is restricted to what he is trying to find.

Shot 27- Cuts back to the crow.

Shot 28- Cuts to a close up shot of the man pulling out some plastic bin liners. This is taken from the side.

Shot 29- Cuts to a medium long shot of the man pulling out the bags. Non-diegetic sound is added. (which is a loud tapping noise) This alerts the actor and the audience.

Shot 30- Cuts to a close up of the man peering over the boot door. Music becomes more intense. The audience can’t see what the man is looking at, making them feel more on edge.

Shot 31- Cuts to a shallow focus shot of the crow on the roof of the car suggesting that the crow is making him feel bad for what he did. This is another technique used to make the audience believe that he has just murdered a young woman.

Shot 32- Cuts back to the close up shot of the man. This shows the man sweating, emphasising the worry in his eyes.

Shot 33- Cuts to a long shot of the car. Slightly at a low angle shot, showing the crow on the roof of the car. The crow begins to tap again on the roof with its beak, revealing where the tapping noise was coming from.

Shot 34- Close up shot of the crow from the back. Shallow focus used, although it is till obvious the man is still peering in the background. The camera then pulls focus to the male. The music is high pitch. He suddenly puts the car boot door over his face so that he can carry on his search. Music then changes more dramatic when this happens.

Shot 35- Cuts back to the low angle shot of the man looking in the boot (as if someone was looking at him from the boot)

Shot 36- Like shot 25, an extreme long shot is used as he continues to find something. The road is still in the shot to show isolation. Violins are used dramatically. Male pulls out a blanket to give the impression that he is going to use this to cover the body.

Shot 37- Hand held shot used by someone in the car as it pans the males walking from the boot of the car to the front at a slightly high angle.

Shot 38- Continuity editing used as it changes to a long shot of the man walking around the front of his car. Shot showing the back of the male as he looks to his left and suddenly stand to a halt. Non-diegetic sound of squawking added.

Shot 39- Cuts to a medium close up shot of the crow sat on the top of the sign again.

Shot 40- Cuts to a high angle shot in the crops, using a shallow focus with the man in focus as he walks towards the womans body. Her feet are in the shot so the audience know she is still there, even though they aren’t in focus. The man walks to the body and stops at the womans foot. Shot 41- Cuts back to a close up of the crow.

Shot 42- High angle shot of the man. Medium length shot is used of his top half as he kneels next to the body. He lifts the sheet up as if he is going to cover the body. Crescendo used to build tension to the extreme and the audience are captured during this time.

Shot 43- Cuts back to the crow.

Shot 44- Male continues to put the sheet over the camera using the same shot as 42.

Shot 45- Cuts back to the crow as it shows that it is still watching what the male is doing. The music has suddenly stopped at this point, implying that something has happened. This leaves the audience in suspense as nothing is happening but they know something serious is going to happen.

Shot 46- Side on shot using a medium close up of the man looking downwards slightly. Everything is silent as he continues to look. The twist is revealed when a baby in handed to the man in the sheet he collected from the car. For the music, a piano is used to uplift the mood. Man is smiling and laughing. Everything changes to a happy mood. The camera pans slightly to the left so the woman, man and baby are all in the shot. Medium close up is still being used.

Shot 47- Close up of a woman showing her smile as she holds her baby.

Shot 48- Cuts to a side on shot of the man using a medium close up shot, as he smiles too.

Shot 49- Cuts back to the crow.

Shot 50- Crane shot from the crops to looking over the field as a police car comes down the road and the man runs to get its attention. Extreme long shot used to get a shot of the whole scenery.

Throughout the film, the audience are lead to believe that the woman who was crying at the beginning had been raped and killed. Due to the characters used, it gave the impression that the male was the stereotypical type of person to do something like that. Furthermore, Mathieu cleverly persuaded the audience to believe that the woman was dead and he was trying to get rid of the body. Right through the film, the crow played a main part. In shot 4, the crow was first introduced making the audience wonder why a crow was sat on top of a sign. With the immediate close up of the crow that followed (shot 5), the audience are given the impression that the crow is in the film for a reason. With the cuts from the crow to the crops then back to the crow, this enhances the importance of the crow as it gives the impression that it is looking at something. Skilfully, Mathieu used the crow throughout the film implying that it knew what the man supposedly did (which was rape and murder in the audiences point of view), suggesting that he did something wrong, making the male act more nervously during the film. I furthered my research to see why the crow was such a prime factor in the film, and I found that Steven King wrote several short stories that Mathieu produced into films, which included the crow. Close ups were used throughout the 5 minute film to show facial expressions and emotions (an example is shot 30), which is a technique we will use in our film. It also includes full length shots so the audience can establish what the main character is doing and get a better understanding of what is happening. The long opening at the start of the film leaves the audience in suspense until they can hear suspicious noises. This is a technique we want to use in our film, so that the audience’s attention is captured throughout the 5 minute film.

A Crescendo of violins was used to gradually build tension in several parts of the film, also using a piercing high pitch sound to alert the audience that something was wrong. Furthermore, in certain parts of the film it would become silent, so that the audience were less prepared for the ‘jumpy bit’ that was to follow (like at the end of shot 9 when the males hand strikes the floor with a knife). Non-diegetic sounds were added at the beginning of the film creating an eerie effect, also giving the impression that no one was around to inform the audience that the area was isolated (Meaning, there were no traffic noises or people speaking in the background, only the non-diegetic sounds being the crow and the sign squeaking were used).

Throughout the opening sequence of the short film, the shots were panned slowly creating a calm atmosphere. (This technique was shown in shots 2 to 4). At this point in the film, nothing was revealed leaving the audience confused and in suspense. The shots that were used in the opening sequence were extremely similar as the same shallow focus and dissolving techniques were used when panning the crops. With the shots used, the audience are drawn in by the tension that is built up as they are eager to see what is to happen. In shot 8 to 9, new, unexpected noises were introduced which implied that the film was about to become more dramatic. As the camera pans, emphasising the different objects and underwear covered in blood scattered on the floor, a woman begins to cry, enabling the audience to start making their own decisions on what is happening so far in the film (This technique is cleverly used to make the twist at the end more unexpected, as the audience make their own minds up). In shots 14 to 29, the music became more dramatic and different shots of the man and crow are used more frequently and rapidly to make the audience feel tense and anxious to see what is about to happen. In some sense, it makes out that the situation is serious, leading the audience to become more concerned and attached to the film. A variety of different shots were used to make the scene more frantic, for example shot 20 and 22.

As the audience were given the impression that the woman was killed, the twist is made more unexpected leaving the audience in shock when they found out what actually happens. In shot 46, the twist is revealed and the mood of the film changes totally with the use of soothing music and content facial expressions used in close ups to create a sense of relief for the audience as the actors are holding the baby. As a group, we wanted to use this technique so that the audience would be surprised when our twist was made known. Overall, I thought the film was produced perfectly. It left me in suspense till the very end of the film, and I was in total surprise when the twist was revealed, which I thought was truly inspirational, which is why I chose to analyse this 5 minute film, because the basis of the film is similar to ours, and we are wanting to use techniques, like the close up shots to show emotion and how suspense was carried throughout the film. Having it been set on a sunny day, the use of natural lighting complemented the scenes and actors very well. I was impressed with the use of varied camera shots, to change the mood as well as making the audience feel more involved in the tension that was built throughout the film. Furthermore, I believe that the music chosen proved that it can have an effect on the way the audience feel when watching a film. When I watched ‘Lovefields’ for the first time, the music had a great impact on me and I felt that if the music wasn’t used in the correct way then the film could have been less impressive. All in all, this has given me important factors that I wish to use in our group film. This has given me a better insight to how a short film should be produced!

Title Sequence Research by Shelley Brookes (ideas from Hayley Outhwaite also)

2009-11-02T01:24:00.000-08:00

In the title sequence the font plays a big impact as it is usually a mixture of typed and hand written writing. This creates a variation in font. Also a lot of blurring of objects and words is common because I causes mystery and makes the person watching more intrigued.
A big aspect of the entire film is music so it is really important to choose the right genre because it adds to the effect. Orchestral, drum and base and pianos solos we found were used a lot within horror and thriller films or rather than music sounds may be used, these could include whispering and breathing. Or, finally no sound at all could be used making the audience clueless about what’s going to happen. A long period of silence causes suspence.
Flashes of what’s going to happen in the through have appeared in openings before. This makes the audience excited and causes suspense. The music goes along with what’s happening on the screen and so does the lens filter for example a red colour filtered on to the shot imply blood. Special effects could also be used for example smoke as fog or clouds could be used as a background whilst black font could be used for the titles over them. This would make the writing stand out.

5 Minute Film Analysis By Matthew Helliwell

2009-10-23T18:18:00.000-07:00

I have decided to do an analysis of a 5 minute film by some other A level students as i think this will give us more output into what we want from our film, It was edited on I movie just like ours will be so the outcomes are realistic to us. The films’ in black and white and is called Wrong Turn. I chose this film becasue it was made by A level students like us, and also it was edited on Imovie and that is the software we are using so watching and analysing this film will give us a lot of ideas because everything they do we could probably create too.
Here is a link for the short film,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw72aMfI7kc

The film starts with a bluesy piano and bass making up the score, the first title in white over a black background reads the production company, and then it soon switches to this fuzzy dim lit picture of an overhead high angle shot of a man walking. We cannot tell who he is because we cannot see his face, there is a little jump cut and it jumps to him moving forward. The music changes when the man appears, a saxophone comes in and drums come into the score but they are of different texture they seem to be more driving than the angelic blues of the piano before. The next title reads A Low Budget Production. The organ comes in and the man who is lit from the left hand side cocks his pistol whilst lifting it to the air the picture is so distorted we cannot see any of the features of his face, perhaps this is to suggest he is very mysterious, the way half his face is lit could mean that there is two sides to this man. The next title reads “In association with Quick Short Home Movies,” Then a short close up as the man lowers his gun until it comes into the camera. The music builds up suspense and we here a gunshot as the last title is shown, the title of the film Wrong turn. Throughout all the blurriness and distorted flashing black and white images the black background underneath the title of the film flashes white as we here the gunshot, this is very dramatic. The next shot is a close up of an eye still very fuzzy but the fuzz sort f pulls into a clear picture, like you would pull a focus. But the image gets sharper. The director’s title is shown. And that bring an end to the title sequence. I think the title sequence is quite good as it doesn’t go on forever but just gives you what you need to know, it is not boring either and gives you a kind of insight into what the film may be about with the scenes in between each title. The music carries on through into the start of the movie, I do not think that it is clear enough that it is the actual start of the movie, I think this is down to the music not changing. It is quite confusing. The titles were very darkly lit with high contract, and there was this old television feel to it all. Most of the music was non diegetic, the music for example, but sounds like the gun cocking and the gun shot where all diegetic.

First scene, the score is still playing the same music as the title sequence but the picture is not as distorted, the first shot zooms from a close up to an extreme close up onto a box being held by an actor. It gets closer and pulls focus so you can see that it is white powder, possibly drugs. Then the next shot is to the side and is a close up again, the actor tips the powder onto some kind of surface he is sitting at. The next shot is an eye line match in the point of view of the actor, then an extreme high angle shot from over the head of the actor the camera moves slightly as he collects notes from his pocket, as the saxophone wails on the score, there are a series of jump cuts of him cutting up the drug with a credit card then a shot which appears to be hand held but has the attributes of a dolly shot. Gets closer to the substance, the cameras quick shots move around the substance and this gives us a feeling of rush, a mixture of close ups and extreme close ups also speed things up. More jump cuts, as he separates the substance into lines, and even more as he prepares and rolls his notes. This gives us a meaning of urgency as the jump cuts get more and more often, the director tries to portray the actor as being excited, There is no diegetic sound in this scene, only the music which keeps on playing, as the actor has rolled his note and he bends down to snort the substance we see an extreme close up of the substance moving up the note and then we see the actor’s face for the first time, he looks like a young adult about 16 or 17. More jump cuts as he snorts each line and lifts his head back, the music gets more dramatic as the last line has been dealt with, and we see an extreme close up of his face.
The next scene is of him putting his coat on the lighting is still kept very low this maybe to produce an essence or eeriness, still the director uses jump cuts but now this could be to display the actors confusion in his drug addled mind.
The next shot of the next scene is a dolly high angle shot looking down on a road, as it pans up it is cut to a car approaching, the score is still playing and violins come into the piece, now another diegetic sound as he pulls the handbrake. A close up on the actors face and the camera trembles and moves slightly, his face looks troubled. However he gets out of the car and the music becomes rockier, the next shots are medium shots of him walking with his gun in his hand, as he stands under the streetlight the contrast is very high. He cocks the gun and as he shoots a white flash appears on the screen to match the shot, this is very amateur, and doesn’t look too good, at this point he is lit from the right hand side as he raises the pistol in his other hand. He runs towards the door.

Then the next shots are in slow motion, as the door is forced open we hear a smash and a few medium close ups of him holding both guns in the air. He starts to climb the stairs, he walks into a room and we see a familiar high angle overhead shot, the one we saw at the beginning of the film. The score is now fully fledged rock; he wanders round the house apparently looking for someone, an eye line match occurs and he is looking at a door. He loads his gun then the man he is looking for opens the door and an eye line match to what the new character sees occurs and it is of the main character heavily lit from the side again, and the camera may be set at a low angle to convey that the main character has some kind of significance over the new character. He points his gun continuity editing used between these two scenes on the lowering of the gun. He shoots once and the new character when he drops his gun it is dropped in slow motion,. When he gets the pistol out it is the same shot as the one in the titles and we see these flashes on the screen with every shot and then a shot of the bloodied boy dying in the shower. We see another shot which featured in the titles the eye shot is repeated again. He walks out of the house and shortly after we see these flashback types of scenes, the shots fade in and out of black onto another shot, the shots are mainly of the boy in the shower dead. There is a very interesting shot where the camera is above him in the shower and in slow motion it spins around a little bit so the picture blurs. The score changes as we see these flashbacks it goes spooky and tense. It soon changes back to rock though as we see the murderer walking he stops with his back to the camera, then suddenly on the last shot we see a close up shot of his face, and then the credits roll.

Conclusion
The film has an obvious drug influence so maybe is classified as a gangster related genre, I think it was very graphic and under the BBFC guidelines i think it would’ve been made an 18 or a 15, for reasons like obvious hard drug abuse and the very violent gory murder.

The title sequence was good and I thought that the high contrast images worked great and how the film later on involved the images to give the viewer an explanation was a really good idea and it worked well. The way the music did not change when the titles were over and the film began did not work, it left me confused not knowing if it had started or not. I also did not like the lack of diegetic sound; it made me feel as though I was not involved in the film. Plus the lack of script and dialect was also a bad decision; it did not feel like a film. However the score was very good for this film, I like the interchange between the soft blues at the start to the heavy rock at the end.

The use of Editing in this film was very interesting, the director had filled the film with jump cuts which worked very well, especially around areas of confusion. It worked brilliantly. The use of continuity editing was also present, and a few uses of temporal editing and eye line matches.

The director had used lighting to his advantage, he used a lot of side lighting to put across the feeling that the main character was maybe two faced, or he was not all there. Although all the film was really dark I think it worked reasonably well.

I think the film had a good use of camera angles it varied them which made easy viewing; the director used angle shots to portray the characters importance. The director used tracks and also had a few hand held shots too. This helped vary things up a little; it stops it from getting boring.

Overall the film had little plot and the lack of dialogue was really disapointing, in our film i would like to maybe introduce some jump cuts as it really worked on this film, i would also like to add lighting tricks, and a score would be nice to have for our film. Also i think this film lacked focus tricks like pulling focus and deep focus, shallow focus i think they are very important in films. The black and white option was contraversial but i really dont think that film would have worked in colour.

Audience By Lucy Davies

2009-10-15T13:40:00.000-07:00

Primarily, the younger generation (being 12 to 25 year olds) was the focus for our short film. As a group we decided this was the most obvious age group to target as our main audience because our two main characters play students in the short film. We thought this was an advantage as it made it easier for the targeted audience to relate themselves to the film. Furthermore, we wanted the language in the script to indicate the stereotypical view of the way a student speaks, which again will hopefully interest the main audience group. However, the genre of the film is a psychotic thriller making it more mature in certain places. This expanded the age group of our targeted audience making it suitable for people above the age of 21. If we were to produce this as a Hollywood production it would make more profit because there is a larger variety of people to watch it.
From the data we collected from our questionnaires we could see that comedy would have been the best choice to use for our targeted audience. However, we thought it would have been too difficult to make a film 'funny' especially only have 5 minutes. So, we decided to take the next option being horror/thriller, which we thought would appeal to our targeted audience even though it wasn't comedy.
By Lucy Davies

Questionaire Results Analysis By Shelley Brookes

2009-10-12T01:58:00.000-07:00

My questionnaires were done by eight people. There were five males and three females. All eight of the participants were aged 12 to 18. The most common of the favourite film genres was comedy getting 3 people choosing it as the genre they liked. Then romance and horror got 2 people saying they liked them and thriller and action/adventure both got 1 person that liked them. Science fiction was the only genre that no one liked.

All of the participants apart from 2 could name a short film they had seen in the past. So the questions ‘what do you like about the short films you’ve named above?’ and ‘where did you see the short films?’ were also answered by all of them except 2. The most popular answer for where it was seen was at home (2 people gave this answer) and the most popular answer for what the particpants liked about the films were ending, style and characters because they all got chose twice. Whereas storyline and music only got one tick each and genre didn’t get any.

The question ‘what would you not like to see in a thriller film?’ got answers that told us the least thing people want to see is murders and rape because these got ticks off 4 people. Drugs and sex got 2 whereas psychopaths and swearing only got 1.

The favourate type of thriller was mystery because out of the 8 there were 4 people that said it was there favourate. Second was psychological with 3 people liking it and then spy got one person voting for it. Crime got 0 people liking it.

When a question was asked about narration it was found that people prefer films with narration because it got 5 people saying so. Whereas 2 people said they disliked it and 1 person said they didn't mind wether it had it or not.

Overall, the data collected from the questionaires contibuted to our decisions when coming up with ideas for our short film. It will also help us when the films in production.

By Shelley Brookes

Character Profiles By Hayley Outhwaite

2009-10-12T01:52:00.000-07:00

Lucy Casken played by Lily Thomas.

Lucy is a 17 year old girl who has just left school and is ready to start college. She is short with long brown hair and piercing blue eyes. She is a shy and retiring character who lives at home with her mother. Her mother worries about her and so there is some conflict between them. She finds it hard to make friends due to her lack of confidence, which leads to her being a victim of bullying.

Emily- Jayne- Hart played by Laura-Jayne

Emily- Jayne is also 17 years old like Lucy. However she is tall with short brown hair. Her eyes are blue and she finds it difficult to make friends as well. Her dress sense is somewhat different to present day fashion although she looks very smart. She works at the library as a voluntary worker, this is where she first meets Lucy and they become very close friends. Unbeknown to the viewers who are watching the film Emily-Jayne is a fragment of Lucy’s imagination. Lucy is on tablets for her schizophrenia and due to the fact that she is forgetting to take them, she begins to see Emily-Jayne who in fact passed away many years ago. This is not discovered until the end of the film.

Bullies played by – Lucy Davies, Shelley Brookes and Hayley Outhwaite

Jade Turner played by Shelley Brookes

Sharon McQueen played by Lucy Davies

Danielle Squires played by Hayley Outhwaite

Jade Turner, Sharon McQueen and Dannielle Squires together make a group of vicious bullies who get a thrill out of making other people’s lives a misery, especially Lucy Caskens.
Jade Turner is the leader of the group with her bright blonde hair and blue eyes; she is the most outspoken out of the three. Her dress sense is casual however she tends to wear a lot of jewellery. Sharon McQueen and Danielle’s Squires on the other hand are the followers in the group they do whatever Jade tells them to as if their scared to disobey her. Sharon has short dark brown hair with blue eyes and even though she is influenced in a huge way by Sharon she is a lot more fashionable than her. Danielle Squires is the least intelligent one out of the group; she has long blonde locks and light blue eyes. Her dress sense is similar to Sharon’s as they dress a lot more girly to jade. Together they see Lucy Casken as a good target for their bullying as she is new at college and has struggled to make friends on her first day.

Mother- Michelle Outhwaite

Lucy Caskens Mother has short mousy-brown hair with bright blue eyes. She dresses casually around the house which is a contrast to when she is going to work as she dresses very smart in suits and high heels. She is like any typical mother, she worries about Lucy however sometimes she often suffocates her as she is always pestering her to take her medication and asking her is she’s ok; she would be devastated if anything happened to her daughter.

Teacher- Simon Casken
Simon is a media teacher at Lucy’s school; he has short blonde hair with sparkling blue eyes. He is an ordinary teacher who is friendly and caring towards his pupils. When Lucy is being bullied, he pulls her to one side and asks if she is alright in an attempt to comfort her.

Extras

Cashier- Cafe owner
College pupils

By Hayley Outhwaite

Script By Lucy Davies and Matthew Helliwell

2009-10-01T07:39:00.000-07:00

Interior, Lucy's house. The scene is shot early in the morning and she hurries as she is late for college.

(Alarm clock rings and Lucy hits her hand alarm clock to stop the sound)

Lucy: Crap

(Runs around the house murmuring inaudible things to herself)

Interior, College. The scene is shot in the corridors of college as she is trying to find her class.

(Quick cut shots of her searching for her classroom again murmuring inaudible words)

Interior, College Library. Lucy sits down in a huff. Emily-Jayne comes over.

Emily-Jayne: Hello,
Lucy: Hi
Emily-Jayne: are you alright?
Lucy: Yeah, I’m fine, just a little lost.
Emily-Jayne: Oh, maybe I can help, where do you want to go? I’m a volunteer librarian here so I know this place like the back of my hand.

(Lucy gets a piece of paper out and indicates where she needs to go)

Lucy: I need to find this place here, E572?
(Points to paper)
Emily-Jayne: Oh yeah I took media there a while back. Just give me a minute.

(Emily-Jayne puts some books that are on the table on the shelf)

Emily-Jayne: Come on then, sorry I didn’t catch your name.
Lucy: Oh I’m Lucy, what’s yours?
Emily-Jayne: My names Emily-Jayne.

(Cut to the corridor of the classroom Lucy needs)

Interior, college corridor. Lucy and Emily-Jayne are having a conversation about As Levels as they come round the corner.
Emily-Jayne: So what is it you are doing A levels?
Lucy: Umm yeah, Media, Biology, Sociology, Use of Maths.
Emily-Jayne: Well you’ll get sick of the sight of this room then, I do. This is it.
Lucy: Okay then thanks a lot. See you around.
Emily-Jayne: Bye.

Interior, College Classroom. Lucy walks into her Media class. The teacher is teaching and everyone turns and looks at her.

Lucy: Sorry I’m late, I got lost.
Teacher: It’s okay, just find a seat quietly.

(She scans the room to look for a spare seat)

Lucy: Okay

(Sits down alone)

Interior. Lucy’s House. Lucy walks through the door and goes straight upstairs; Lucy’s Mum calls her from the Kitchen.

Mum: Hi darling, did you have a good day at college?
Lucy: Yeah, it was alright.
Mum: Did you make any new friends?
Lucy: Yeah a few. Ones called Emily-Jayne, she’s nice.
Mum: Ohh good, dinner will be ready soon.

Interior, college Library. Lucy is sat alone on a computer in the college library. Bullies are murmuring insults at her and she catches some of the words.

Emily-Jayne: Just ignore them

(Lucy is startled because she doesn’t realize Emily-Jayne is sat behind her she jumps)

Lucy: Jesus Emily, You nearly gave me a heart attack.
Emily-Jayne: Oh sorry, you really shouldn’t listen to them.
Lucy: I Don’t.

(The bullies shout more abuse because Lucy is talking to herself)

Emily-Jayne: Come on let’s get out of here. Do you fancy getting a coffee?
Lucy: Yeah sure.

(They walk out of the library away from the bullies.)

Exterior. Pavement outside college next to a main road.

(Emily-Jayne and Lucy are walking on the pavement, a car goes passed and throws something at them. They realise it was the girls from the library)

Emily-Jayne: God, are you okay? You really need to do something about that.
Lucy: Why should I, I’ve been dealing with it most my life I can handle it.
Emily:Jayne: Yes but,

(Lucy cuts her off)

Lucy: Look I don’t want to talk about it, please just forget about it.

Interior, Quiet Café.
(Both girls walk into café.)

Emily-Jayne: Oh sorry, I’ve forgot my money.
Lucy: No No, it’s my treat, I’ll get it for you.
Emily: Thanks.

(Lucy goes to the counter, while Emily-Jayne takes a seat. Cashier walks over to Lucy to take her order)

Cashier: Yeah?
Lucy: Ermm just two Lattes please.
Cashier: Two? (Confused expression)
Lucy: Yeah two if that’s ok? (Confused expression back)

Cashier: No problem love

(Lucy hands the money over, gets the drinks and goes to sit down opposite Emily-Jayne)

Emily-Jayne: I know you probably don’t want me to bring it up again but I think you should tell Simon about what those girls just did.
Lucy: Yeah, you’re most probably right. I’m just glad you’ve been there, I don’t make friends easy.
Emily-Jayne: Yeah me too, shall we go see Simon after the coffee?
Lucy: Maybe (Looks scared)
Emily-Jayne: Oh I was going to ask.

(Lucy’s phone interrupts Emily as it starts to vibrate on the table)

Lucy: Oh it’s my mum, just give me a minute.
Emily-Jayne: Okay no problem

(Lucy answers phone and a graphic match occurs to Lucy’s mum on the other end of the phone)

Lucy: Hello.
Mum: Hiya darling.
Lucy: What’s up?
Mum: Well I was vacuuming your room this afternoon.

(Scene cuts to her mum vacuuming the room)

Mum: And I found your medication under your bed, have you not been taking them?
Lucy: Oh crap. I must have forgotten to take them.
Mum: How could you forget? .....Well you need to start them again immediately. Do you want me to bring them to college?
Lucy: No it’s okay I was going to come home for dinner anyway.
Mum: Okay well hurry I’ll make you some food before I go to work.
Lucy: Okay bye.

(Lucy hangs up and stands up)

Lucy: Sorry I’m going to have to leave you. I’ll see you tomorrow yeah.
Emily-Jayne: Yeah sure.

(Lucy leaves the café in a rush)

(Mum rushes towards Lucy as she walks through the door of her house)

Mum: Your medicine is on the table and your dinner will be about 5 minutes I think.

(Rushes about to go to work)

Lucy: Okay. Cheers.

(Lucy goes over to the table gets some water and takes her tablets)

(Whilst the mother is talking she is putting her coat on and getting ready to go out of the house)

Mum: So what you done today then?
Lucy: Well kind of just had media and then hung out with Emily.
Mum: Ohh great. Maybe you should invite her round for tea sometime.
Lucy: Yeah she’d love it, maybe I will.
Mum: Okay love, well I’ll see you after work. Bye.

(Cut to Lucy’s bedroom she is looking in the mirror muttering to herself, she gets her bag and walks out of the door)

Interior: college corridor. Lucy walks around the corner on the phone to Emily and sees her standing there she continues talking to her on the phone.

Lucy: Okay I can see you now. Signals kind of going anyway.

(Lucy hangs up the phone)

Emily-Jayne: So are you ready for this?
Lucy: Yeah sure, I mean it’s not that much of a big deal really.
Emily-Jayne: I suppose not.

(They walk round the corner to the door of the classroom. Lucy takes In a deep breath and knocks on the door)

Simon: Hello Lucy, what’s the matter?
Lucy: Hello, I think I need some help.....from you, are you busy?
Simon: No not at all, come in. Shut the door after you.

(Lucy walks into the classroom, shuts the door behind her and sits down opposite Simon)

Lucy: Okay well...well. Right, I’m having a little bit of trouble with some of the girls in our class.

Simon: Oh okay, well let’s start with who?
Lucy: Well really it’s just Jade, but also her friends Sharron and I don’t know the other one but she has long blonde hair and sits near the window just over there.
Simon: Ahh you mean Danielle Squires.
Lucy: Yeah I think that’s her name.
Simon: And what has been happening then?
Lucy: Well it started out softly you know just like muttering in the library and whenever I see them really. But I just saw them today and they threw something at me and Emily and I dunno I’m just a little bit fed up now. I feel daft coming to you at this age, but I just don’t know what to do.
Simon: No worries, that’s why I’m here...... so it’s not just you getting bullied then? Who’s this Emily girl?
Lucy: Emily-Jayne Hart? Um yeah

(She looks to the empty chair. She looks confused and puzzled at why Simon is reacting so blankly)

Simon: What?
Lucy: Emily, yeah she’s um.
Simon: What are you talking about Lucy?
Lucy: Emily-Jayne

(Lucy Points and looks to the side of her)

Lucy: (Mutters whilst she looks around the room)

(Lucy looks and she sees no one there, she looks a second time but there is still no one in the seat)

Simon: Lucy, Lucy? Is everything okay?

(Lucy looks sick and confused)

Lucy: No no I’m not at all. What’s happening?

(She puts her hand on her head and stands off her seat)

Lucy: I don’t know what’s happening.

(She continues to mutter to herself whilst pacing up and down)

Simon: Just calm down Lucy,

(Simon looks through a filing cabinet in the corner of the room he flicks through the folders until he finds the folder Hart, He pulls out her file, Lucy is wandering around the room pulling at her hair)

Simon: I have found her file.

(Simon scans the sheet of paper in his hand; he suddenly looks at the file in shock)

Simon: What the....

(He says to himself)

Simon: Look this is most probably a misunderstanding, but it says, it...it says (he stutters) well it says she died Lucy.
Lucy: She was my friend, I knew her. She was the best friend I have ever had.

(Lucy doesn’t really take in what Simon had just said to her then she falls silent and stares at the floor)

Lucy: Oh my god.

(She realises what has just happened and sits back in her chair)

Flashbacks occur in Lucy’s head, they cover the times they spent together and what they must have looked like to a normal person. She is sat in the café alone, on the phone to no one, walking down the corridors laughing to herself trying to find her class, the bullies watching her having a conversation with herself in the computer suite, they are laughing at her. The bullies throwing an empty bottle at her.

(The camera pulls focus onto Lucy’s Face)

Lucy: NOOOOOOOOOO!

Graphs By Shelley Brookes

2009-09-29T05:52:00.000-07:00

By Shelley Brookes

Suggested Elements By Lucy Davies and Matthew Helliwell

2009-09-28T01:23:00.000-07:00

*First scenes - Slow shot of a newspaper, camera gradually zooms in on old bin with a newspaper on top, carrys on zooming or moving towards the paper until the printing is recognisable and the headlines are shown. The headlines are all words like "Suicide!"

*Tention gradually builds, and the shots speed up until the tention is released and a close up shot of the alarm clock as it rings into lucys room and wakes her. Lucy's hand slaps the alarm clock off but also knocks her tablets off the bedside table, and falls back to sleep. When she wakes back up she says "Crap." Becasue she realises she is late for her first day of college (music starts). Very fast paced and hectic scenes of her rushing out of the house hopping to get her shoe on for example.

* Wondering around the corridors of her college, lost. She cannot find her way to her lesson causing her to be more late. She resorts to the libary because she is late, she sits down in a huff. A friendly face (Emily-Jayne) comes to see whats wrong, they start to get to know eachother in this scene.

* As Emily-Jayne is a voluntary librarian she is glad to help find Lucy's lesson with her. Knowing the college well this takes no time at all.

* Short scene of her walking into a classroom. Tutor asks where shes been, she explains she could not find her way to the classroom, he tells her to take any seat and unfortunatly she knows no one so she has to sit on her own.

*Quick cut to her closing the door of her house as she comes home from college. While shes walking upstairs her mum is asking her questions about college to see if she has made any new friends, and she mentions Emily-Jayne, which then shows a close up shot of her smiling.

* Next day, Lucy is in library, and Emily-Jayne comes and sits with her again to keep her company. Lucy hears other students in the library sniggering and laughing, this is when the bullying begins. Emily-Jayne says to ignore them and Lucy shys away.

*Cuts to a scene where she is walking home clutching her books and someone drives passed and throws something at her causing her to have an injury.

* Emily-Jayne and Lucy go for a coffee in a nice quiet cafe, Lucy gets the drinks, ordering two. Emily-Jayne sits down and Lucy brings the drinks over. The cashier looks at her weirdly but gets the drinks.
Lucy takes the drinks over and sits down and they have a conversation Emily-Jayne never drinks her coffee. The waitress marvels over Lucy talking to herself. Emily-Jayne asks why she has an injury and she explains that a person in a car threw something at her. But she doesnt want to make a big deal of it. Emily convinces her to go to her tutor about the bullying.

* Lucy gets a call off her mother, her mother informs her that whilst she was vacuuming her room that she found her tablets and she hasnt been taking them. She reasures her mother that she is coming home for dinner.

* Lucy comes into her kitchen sees her mother, gets the tablets and starts taking them immediately.

*She goes back to college and with Emily-Jayne she goes to see her tutor about the bullying. Her tutor does not know anything about an Emily-Jayne. and Lucy thinking she is sat by her side looks and then Emily-Jayne is not there.

* A series of short flashbacks occur where Lucy is putting everything together. Such as her sitting alone drinking coffee in the cafe. Walking down the corridors alone talking to herself.

*The film ends on a close up of Lucy with a shocked expression.

The location of our film is mainly set in a college. We will be using various parts of the college one of them being the long corridors, which should create a feeling o the character being lost. We will also be using a kitchen, cafe, classroom and a bedroom. We will be using two people who do performing arts to play the parts of Lucy Casken and Emily-Jayne Hart.

By Lucy Davies and Matthew Helliwell

Audience Questionnaire By Shelley Brookes

2009-09-24T08:40:00.001-07:00

(On the multiple choice questions tick the answer that applies to you)

Are you male or female?
Male female

How old are you?
12 – 18 18 – 25 26 – 30 31 – 40 41+

What is your favourite film genre?
Horror Thriller Comedy Science fiction
Romance Action/adventure

Can you name any short films you’ve seen in the past?

.......................................................................................................................................................................

What do you like about the short films you’ve named above?
Storyline Characters Genre Style Ending Music

Where did you see the short films?

.......................................................................................................................................................................

What do you like to see in thriller films?
Murders Psychopaths Sex Drugs Rape Swearing

What would you not like to see in a thriller film?
Murders Psychopaths Sex Drugs Rape Swearing

What is your favourite type of thriller?
Crime Psychological Spy Mystery

Do you like or dislike films with a voice over?

.......................................................................................................................................................................

By Shelley Brookes

Synopsis By Lucy Davies and Matthew Helliwell

2009-09-24T08:40:00.000-07:00

Lucy Casken, is an average girl that has just started college. Her first day at college introduces the second main character named Emily-Jayne Hart. The film starts off with Lucy sat in the Library on herself, because we wanted to pursue her as a loner. However, Emily-Jayne comes and sits next to her and they begin to talk to get to know more about each other. Overtime, they become really close friends but Lucy is getting bullied by several people around college. She tries to not let it bother her because she had Emily-Jayne, and she was there for her all the time. One day the bullying became too much for her so she decided to have a word with her tutorial teacher. Both girls sat down and Lucy explained what had been happening. The tutor asks for her name and she replies ‘Lucy Casken, and this here is Emily-Jayne Hart’. The twist behind the story is that Emily-Jayne is not real. The tutor sits there in puzzlement and wonders who she was talking about. In the end he remembers about a death that happened several years ago when he started teaching at the college. A young girl named Emily-Jayne Hart committed suicide and the reason why Lucy was getting bullied was because she was talking to herself and Lucy thought she was talking to someone who was actually there, when in fact there was no one.

By Lucy Davies and Matthew Helliwell

Classification Guidelines By Matthew Helliwell

2009-09-22T06:01:00.000-07:00

We went on the bbfc classification guidelines website to see what age guideline our film would be classified under. We opened up a PDF document explaining everything on every catagory.
Here is a link to the website I went to get the information

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/

From here I found a PDF file giving all information for all classifications.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/downloads/pub/Guidelines/BBFC%20Classification%20Guidelines%202009.pdf

We decided that we would catagorise our film under the 12 we decided this because:

-We are not planning on having any discrimitive language or behaviour, as we will have no need for it in our short film.
-We have no use of drugs in our film so this topic will not be a problem.
-In our film, we have moderate psychological threat. However, this threat will not be frequent, it will be very mild and at the end.
-We will not have any hangings in our film, although we do have a suicide. We havent decided on whether we will show or just mention the suicide. We will definatly not dwell on any detail which could be copied and it will not seem pain free.
-We may use moderate language, for example; the occassional use of the word "Shit." But strong words such as "Fuck." will be extremely rare, or may not even be used.
-We will not have any scenes of nudity.
-We will not have any scenes of a sexual nature.
-Our theme is mild psychotic thriller. It is quite mature, even thought it contains young adults starting college.
-We will not have any extreme violence. Altought it may contain mild violence there will be no gory scenes with excess blood. We will not glorify the violence to make it look good in any way.

By Matthew Helliwell

Links By Lucy Davies and Matthew Helliwell

2009-09-21T02:20:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpjHSiQLPmA

This is a link to a video posted on youtube. It is a short film which is extremely interesting as it has no script or dialogue. But the camera shots are enough to still make the film very interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjGnCa0XYhY&feature=fvw

This is a link to the uninvited movie trailer. This was our main influence for our short film.

By Matthew Helliwell and Lucy Davies

Main Idea. By Lucy Davies and Matthew Helliwell. Ideas from the whole group.

2009-09-21T01:22:00.000-07:00

We decided to create a 5 minute film that has a twist at the end. The story is based on a girl (Lucy) who has just started college, a loner, with no real friends. On the first few days of college she starts to notice a girl similar to her self. Throughout college she starts to get bullied by a group of girls, because of her abnormal behaviour. In the end both girls go to the headmaster to make him aware of the bullying. He asks for Lucy's name and then Lucy also adds Emily-Jayne's name and points to the spare seat next to her. The headmaster realises that she has mental problems and she is talking about a girl that isn't there. In fact Lucy's best friend, died seven years ago, committing suicide, when the headmaster first got his placement at the college.

Ideas for scenes in the film:-

-Film starts on an old newspaper, in the obiturary, with the last name of Emily-Jayne (Hart)

-Lucy finds out Emilys last name by the headmaster as he looks through old records of the school to find Emily-Jayne, as the name reminds him of something

-After first shot of the orbituary, wind blows, very quick camara shots then Emily Jaynes face, which lights up and she screams.

Written by Lucy Davies and Matthew Helliwell

Ideas from the whole group.

Research By Lucy Davies

2009-09-14T02:18:00.000-07:00

Today we have researched short films for children, however it was difficult to find a short story that was suitable for a young age group. Furthermore, we did get more ideas from watching short films on youtube. In particular, there were two films that had no speaking in, but were the most interesting. We wanted to use this technique if we were basing the film on adults, but we believe this will not be appropriate for young children.
From the research we decided to produce a film that included magical features, e.g. bernards watch.
By Lucy Davies

1st Ideas Written By Lucy Davies

2009-09-10T08:01:00.000-07:00

As a group, we were thinking about creating a childrens programme. This would consist of educational dialect, helpful information for a growing child and fun parts to make the programme more interesting to watch.
Furthermore, we were also thinking about a sitcom or a romcom.
By Lucy Davies