Filming - Day 2

We arrived at the Combat Gym around 3:00 and began filming the Police scene right away, we started outside where the Police are running to the room to get it out of the way as it was very cold.

After we went inside and proceeded to film the part where the Police arrive outside the room and break in. I had to think and choreographed how Nathan and Isaac who were my Police/Detectives would act when arriving at the door and then breaking in. I made them lean against the wall to show that they have approached what appears to be the room the hostage is inside. I then asked Nathan to knock on the door, but we had to attempt it a few times because it the way he was knocking didn't look right and unprofessional.

The part that took the longest to film was them entering the room and then the reverse shot of them inside the room because it needed to flow. I had to separately film them break in the room from the outside and then entering from inside. But after filming several time our efforts paid off and we decided to finish.

Today was a successful filming and I am very happy with the results.

Filming - Day 1

Today we arrived at my Grandads house around 5:30 was a bit late that I expected, I prepared the scene out placing the tools in the correct place and I had to move some heavy objects outside to create more space. I then brought inside the room a wooden chair and got my prop box which was filled with a pair of leather gloves, toy gun, clock, wire, blindfold, and some other tools like a spanner.

Around 20 minutes had passed and it suddenly had gotten dark, so we had to search for a lamp to record because the room was literally pitch black. I was annoyed that It had gotten so dark but we started filming the scene I had my friend Perry play as the Hostage and Isaac as the Killer. After a few minutes of recording a close up of Hostage's hands tied up and the Killer entering the room I had noticed when playing back that the lighting of the video was very poor. We tried changing the settings and areas of where the lights were focused, sadly nothing seemed to work so I decided to call off filming as it would be useless.

Today filming was unsuccessful whic was disappointing, I'm going to have to rearrange filming for another day and prepare next time, after a little talk we all headed home.

Titles

Deciding the order of the film opening is important as the audience will automatically know that it is a film opening rather that a trailer. The text also requires to suit the film genre and story, as you wouldn't see a Horror film with bright colourful opening titles, you would see a more sinister dark type of text. For my opening tiles I've chosen a plain and bold text as it doesn't need to be eye catching and shows seriousness.


This is the deciding order for my film opening:


Ident 
Azure Studios Presents 
Written & Directed by - Jackie Pang
Edited by Joseph Cox
Isaac Dean (Cast)
Camera by - Thomas Walkley
Soundtrack by - Nathan Petrie
Produced by - Michael King

Props

I have taken to account that I will be needing some props in order to film the opening scene to my thriller film, this is because it will give the sense of realism and feel of the film (real life situation, events). Also because of the genre and the what is happening in the opening scene I will require some tools that will help enhance the realism of the film.

Interior Scene:
Tools - Spanner, nails, hammer, screwdriver, saw, etc.
Gun - fake, toy gun (look real)
Rope/Wire - tie up hands
Blindfold (Not Compulsory)
Leather Gloves

Clock (digital)

Exterior Scene:

Guns

Holster

Sunglasses (Not compulsory)

Ear Piece (Not compulsory)

Costume

It is important that the characters are wearing the appropriate type of clothing to clearly show their role in the film opening.

Police/Detectives

The Police need to look smart wearing a white shirt and a jacket on top, with dark trousers and smart tidy shoes. This is common in what Police/Detectives will wear as you will see mostly in American films when they are on an assignment to track someone down.

Police Costume:

- White Shirt 

- Black or Grey Jacket (At least one of them will require)

- Dark Trousers

- Smart Shoes

- Ear Piece (Not Compulsory)

Killer/Kidnapper

The Kidnapper will require to wear clothes that don't particularly stand out, he will wear a dark long coat, and just casual wear underneath the waist. He will also require the leather gloves which gives a more sinister feel for the personality of the Kidnapper.


Kidnapper Costume:
- Long Dark Coat/Jacket
- Casual Trousers
- Casual Shoes
- Leather Gloves


Hostage


As for the Hostage he will need to wear nothing to flashy for example neon coloured clothes as it will ruin the film because bright vibrant colours don't match to the appeal of the film genre as it is suppose to be serious and thrilling.


Hostage
- Casual Clothing

Locations

I have thought of a few possible ideas for filming locations that would be suitable for the scenes that I will be shooting. Firstly I need two separate locations, one being a dark room which will be for the scene with the Hostage and the Killer and if possible with some lighting as it would be difficult to film. 

The second location will be an exterior shot of  a worn out building with a door that closely resembles the door from the dark room, this is because I need the audience to feel that the Police are arriving at the scene. I also need the interior of the room to look suitable an similar to the dark room.

Here are two examples of the types of locations that I am looking for:

Example: Dark Room

Example: Old Building

At first I couldn't find a decent location for the exterior shot, my initial idea was the rear side of the Hutton Moor Leisure Centre, however when I went to have a look around the area I thought that it would be best to find a different place as the buildings design appeared too modern and wouldn't have been appropriate for the scene.

Distribution Company

In terms of who I think would be ideal and likely to distribute my film, I think that it would be suitable for a more independent company within the UK, likewise a British distribution company. This is because of the setting/location of where the film will be based, also the fact that it is an independent film, and also which there is a low chance that major distributors would be interested in my film e.g. Warner Bros.

In addition I think Hammer Film Productions would be suitable for distributing my film, they are based in London and have distributed films mostly on the thriller genre. Examples of some include: Let Me In, The Resident, Wake Wood and The Women In Black starring Daniel Radcliffe.

 

Shooting Schedule

The shooting schedules for the group I am in is for February 20th-23th (Monday to Thursday) which will be after half term.

I will therefore make some arrangements before that week and find some volunteers who would like to participate and act in the film opening sequence. I will also have to make a list of requirements such as props as they will be essential, and the possible locations i will be shooting in.

Audience Research

In terms of gender for the audience it seems that for Thriller genre films, male audiences are much greater than females, thus showing who would show more interest in my film opening. An example of statistics in the yearbook shows that 76% of the audience for the film Green Zone was male, and also the film being an action, drama, war, thriller, which is similar to what genre my film opening would be however it will be more towards crime thriller.

In age preference it seems that the average audience for these genre of films are people aged 15 - 24, e.g the film inception (within the thriller genre) had a 37% of the total audience for the age group. Which links to my film as it will be Thriller as as shown I think the majority of the audience will be the same (ages 15-24).

Also I have researched audiences expectations of what is in a Thriller film, one of the people I interviewed stated that he expects a Thriller film has a 'bad guy' and that there should be a 'weird twist' in it. He also described the genre with words such as 'creep', 'scary music' and 'action'.