PLANNING

Story Board and Brainstorming

Above you can see the story board that we created for our film, we made it so that we could plan out what shots to use where and so we could set out our entire production. This was extremely helpful because it made the production process a lot easier and more efficient because it meant that we already knew what shots were going where and it was all already planned out so we didn't have to make decisions when filming.

Risk Assessment

You can also see our brainstorming process; first of all we had to figure out our target audience for our thriller film we would be making. We decided upon teenagers all the way up to middle aged adults from both genders because we feel the film is relatable to many age groups because the members of these ages groups will have some knowledge of love and heart break. We conducted a survey and interviewed members of our target audience to help us with the production and editing of our film and we implemented the feedback we received from this audience research into our film.

The first risk is that we could potentially cut ourselves on the knife that we are using for our ident, in order to prevent this we will always make sure to use the knife correctly and take great precaution when handling it. Also when the knife is not use we will make sure to have the cover over it so that we do not accidentally cut ourselves.

Another potential risk is that we could trip when carrying camera equipment which could cause us to injure ourselves and/or damage the equipment. This can be prevented by making sure that where you are walking is clear and that you look where you are going, also we should make sure that the camera is in its case and that all equipment is as protected as possible.

Finally, there is the unlikely possibility that there could be a car crash when driving between shoots and also when the passenger is filming whilst Becky is driving so that we can get the footage of the journey for our production. Obviously air bags and seat belts are present to reduce the risk of injury if we were to get in an accident, also Becky will be driving at an appropriate speed and will be paying full attention to the road.

Questionnaire

As you can see the survey consisted of 9 questions that when answered would massively help us make vital decisions before and during the production process. We asked questions that are relevant to our film and the thriller genre. We specifically asked questions that would help us make decisions that we were struggling with or couldn't make ourselves without another opinion.

The answers we received contributed greatly to our decisions making process and we feel like the survey was very successful in helping us because it gave us a lot of useful data and influenced our decisions when planning and making the film.

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Question 1: Most of the people who answered this questionnaire were between the ages of 15-20, which is our target audience, so will give us the best insight into the most popular ideas for our production.

Question 2: Half of the people who answered this questionnaire said they thought that the main protagonist of a thriller should be 11-20 years old. This is probably because they would be a similar age to them so can relate to their situations and the character's personality more. Because of these results, we chose the protagonist in our production to be around 18/19.

Question 3: Most people said a house would be a good location for a thriller film to be set, probably because this is a very relatable place and also represents sense of security and somewhere safe. Incorporating it into our thriller will change this stereotype, enforcing the audience to not even feel safe in their own home.

Question 4: Most people's favourite sub-genre of thrillers was murderous passions, so we decided to mainly focus around this sub-genre for our production. Action and crime were the two second most popular, so we are going to incorporate some aspects of these into our thriller as well, by showing some violence and aggression in certain characters.

Question 5: The majority of people who answered said they would prefer to see a male as the protagonist of a film, probably because of the stereotype that they are a lot more powerful and dominant. They also tend to be more violent than females, so would provide a more entertaining film. Because of this we are going to use a male as our main protagonist.

Question 6: There was an even amount of people who said that a fast or slow paced sound track would be effective, so we are going to use a few different soundtracks all of different speeds to help build tension in our final production.

Question 7: Target audience members said that sound was the most effective for creating suspense in thrillers, followed closely by editing, so we are going to primarily focus on the sound and editing phases of our final production.

Question 8: The most popular answer was night-time, followed by evening. This is probably because the darkness represents the fear of the unknown and reflects the common childhood fear of the dark. We think that evening would be the most suitable time to film our production, because if we film it at night the lighting may be too dim outside.

Question 9: Low key lighting and protagonist in the mercy of the antagonist were the two most popular conventions of a thriller, so we are going to incorporate these things into our production, shooting in the evening when it's getting dark to have the low key lighting, and also pathetic fallacy will help foreshadow the rest of the scenes.

Props:

Knife - The knife that the antagonist uses in the piece is the most important prop in our piece because the knife opens up the whole story to the viewer. The knife creates a sense of danger and makes the character look powerful but also lets the audience know that he is the antagonist because the knife makes him appear as threatening and gives him an evil aspect. The knife also makes every character that isn’t the one holding it appear as weak and vulnerable because they do not have weapons so if they were attacked they wouldn’t be able to defend themselves.

Book – The book that the antagonist is reading makes her seem like she is smart and intellectual as well as sophisticated. This goes against the stereotype of a typical teenager who you would expect to be out partying or out with friends rather than inside reading a book. The book also lets the audience know that the protagonist doesn’t know that she is in danger due to the antagonist that is sneaking into the house with a knife.

Car – The car creates a sense of independence for the antagonist due to the fact that it makes it clear that he is going into adulthood so he should learn to control his emotions and shouldn’t seek resolution through violence.

Casting and codes of dress:

Antagonist- We chose a young male as our antagonist because males are seen as the most dominant and threatening. We have chosen an older teenager because teenagers are the main target audience, so they will be able to relate the most to the characters. We are going to clothe him in dark, repressive clothing to represent the sinister act he is about to carry out and this also gives him an unfriendly, threatening aura.

Protagonist- We chose another female, older teen so that all of the characters would be within a similar age range, and having both males and females both in very different situations will ensure that there will always be a character that the audience can relate to. We are also going to dress her in smart clothing to go against the generic stereotype of females and teenagers, to ensure that she is seen with a respectable job and she is not only seen as a helpless victim.

Equipment required:

Camera – needed to film the product
Tripod – needed to hold the camera to keep shots steady
Computer – needed to edit the product
Editing software – Used to edit the product to improve it
Microphone – needed for the ambient sounds within the piece
Car – needed as some filming will occur in the car
SD card – needed to transfer footage from the camera to the computer.

Ident planning:

Our production company will be called ‘stomp Productions’ so therefore the ident will involve a foot stomping on the ground. The ident will firstly show the ground in the woods which has leaves and grass on it and then suddenly a foot will stomp down on it. Then the words “stomp productions” will come on screen and a swoosh noise will occur as it appears to make the ident more interesting.

Shot list:

Long Shot - We are going to use a long shot of the car outside of the house to introduce the piece by establishing the environment of what seems to be a safe, friendly neighbourhood, which is what a large majority of the audience will be able to relate to. This will also demonstrate a large contrast between the friendly neighbourhood and the sinister events that are to follow.

Over the shoulder shot - We are going to use an over the shoulder shot of the antagonist looking into the rear view mirror in the car, which will make him appear as dominant. This will also establish his malicious intentions through the use of his serious, threatening look.

Close up- There will be a close up shot of the knife to confirm the male characters’ violent actions that the audience will have suspicions about. This close up shot will also help the transition to the flashback.

Medium two shot - There will be a flashback shot of the two main characters laughing together, showing the audience that they used to be together and progressing the storyline further.

Shooting schedule and call list:

We must choose a shooting schedule in order to suit both us and our actors. We have to take into consideration our schedule as well as the different actors. We found that we fitted our shooting schedule better into weekends more as we are able to get a lot more done all at once. Also due to our actors also being young they too have school or work during the week so it would generally be easier for everyone to attend filming on weekends and holidays. We thought it would be harder to get the filming done during the week as we would have to do filming outside and by the time we set up and start filming it would already be quite dark and affect the quality of the film. We have made sure that we all have contact numbers for all our actors so we can get in touch with them if we do need to reschedule anything or there is any problems. We made sure they could contact us for the same reason.