G321 - Research and Planning

ALL THE PARTS HIGHLIGHTED IN GREEN ARE TO SHOW WHERE I HAVE GONE BACK AND IMPROVED MY BLOG

 Friday 21^ST October

In this lesson we started our coursework, which is to create a film opening. Firstly, we were given the mark schemes for research&planning, filming&editing and evaluation, therefore this helped us understand where we can get our marks and what we need to do to reach the higher level. For each mark scheme we highlighted the key points so that we could see what we need to do. After, we then got into our groups that we were put in to create our film and we created a brainstorm together on 3 possible ideas for our film. As Lily took the role of writing down the ideas on the paper, we were having a group discussion about the ideas before she wrote it and whilst she was writing notes, and we all imputed into the discussion, therefore it was a group effort as we all worked together. For each idea, we listed the potential location, character, climax, genre and beginning, middle and end. The three possible ideas that we had come up with were that someone woke up in an abandoned hospital, a suicide jumping off a roof and lastly, a mentally ill character, having flashbacks of her with her mum and dad (who have died) and she freaks out, these are all potential ideas that we could use for our opening to out film, however these ideas may change when we go to plan it in more detail as they may not be suitable. Furthermore, this was a successful lesson as we came up with 3 clear ideas, however it was hard to think of them straight away as for some of the ideas we didn't know how to develop them into a film but then we managed to successfully come up with 3 ideas in the end. 

Brainstorm for 3 Potential Ideas

Secondary Research:

For my own research, I watched 3 film openings and for each one I wrote the setting, characters, narrative, genre, where  the story is going and why is it successful. The 3 films that I watched was Shallows, Grown Ups and The Conjuring. Moreover, watching all these film openings has helped me see what needs to be included in a opening so that the audience is kept interested throughout and so that they would want to watch the film, therefore this has helped with my knowledge for when me and my group create our own film opening. Also, from watching these 3 different film openings, I could notice that 2 of the opening started with a flashback and the other one was also a flashback but it was shown on a video camera, therefore I could see that they mostly use flashbacks at the beginning of films. 

Shallows:

Genre: Thriller/Drama

Setting: Beach/Coast

Characters: Nancy Adams (Blake) and Carlos (Oscar)

Narrative: Still reeling from the loss of her mother, medical student Nancy Adams travels to a secluded beach for some much-needed solace. Despite the danger of surfing alone, Nancy decides to soak up the sun and hit the waves. Suddenly, a great white shark suddenly attacks, forcing her to swim to a giant rock for safety. Her left leg injured and stranded 200 yards from shore; the frightened young woman must fight for her life as the deadly predator circles her in its feeding ground.

Opening: A young boy plays with a football at the beach when he comes across a helmet by the sea with a video recorder attached to it. He watched the recording and it was of a couple of people surfing and one of them got knocked off the surf board and got attacked by a shark. After, the title of the film was shown.

Where the story is going: Nancy goes surfing in the same sea and she notices sea gulls flying in the sky around her which represents danger, she tries to surf to safety but she fell off her surf board. She then comes up from under the water and notices a shark, she manages to reach safety but she had cut her leg, the thing she was on wasn't safe enough therefore she swam to a rock for safety. After, she notices someone coming towards her, she shouts that they should go back to land but he couldn't hear and he got attacked. Nancy has an idea of swimming with the jellyfish as sharks don’t like them which then led her to better safety. In the end, the little boy sees her in the sea and calls for his dad, his dad brings her to land and she awakens. The end shot is her remembering her mums face.

Successful: The opening of the film was successful as it made you wonder what was going to happen and what the boy at the beginning was representing. Also, the helmet which was shown in the sea at the beginning kept the audience intrigued to why it was there, therefore it made us carry on watching to see what it was going to show and represent. Overall, the film was successful as it kept you interested all the way through and it make you want to watch it right till the end to see if she manages to stay alive. Also, her being in the sea with the shark builds tension as we just want to her to be safe, therefore as an audience we get right into the film. 

Inception:

Genre: Fantasy/Mystery

Setting: Dining Room Table

 Characters: 

   Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio),
   Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt),
   Ariadne (Ellen Page)

Narrative: 

Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a thief with the rare ability to enter people's dreams and steal their secrets from their subconscious. His skill has made him a hot commodity in the world of corporate espionage but has also cost him everything he loves. Cobb gets a chance at redemption when he is offered a seemingly impossible task: Plant an idea in someone's mind. If he succeeds, it will be the perfect crime, but a dangerous enemy anticipates Cobb's every move.

Opening: Dom Cobb has a conversation with two other characters, when the building starts to shake causing an explosion. Then, Dom turns into a thief as he steals something for the safe.

Successful: The opening was successful as when the building was shaking and the protagonist Dom looked at his watch, the sound of the ticking was effective as it got louder and faster which was building up to the explosion that went off. Furthermore, the music that created suspense when Dom was walking through the dark building with a gun, made the audience wonder what he was going to do and what may happen. Moreover, it made us want to watch the rest of the film as at the end of the opening it showed him getting an envelope out of the safe, therefore it made the audience want to see what was in it.

Micro Elements for 'Inception'

As part of my secondary research of watching these thriller openings, I decided to go back over my blog and watch 'Inception' again and make notes on Micro and Macro elements that I identified throughout the opening. 

Firstly, I looked at mise-en-scene within Micro elements, I watched the opening once just to remind myself on what happened, then the second time watching it I made notes on the different elements that I saw throughout and said where it was shown and the effect it created. Furthermore, as you can see in this opening dim lighting is used to create an mystery effect, and also, from the micro elements used you can see that 'Inception' is more of an action thriller, as for example the props that are used are a gun which he uses as protection and to get anyone who gets in his way to where he wants to get to, therefore this is showing his intelligence and the gun is a known prop in thriller films due to the action. 

Mise-en-Scene

Additionally, I then looked at the range of camera angles and movement that are shown in the opening and the effect that they create for the audience. In this opening, a range of cinematography was used, therefore I was making notes whilst watching it and i kept pausing the clip so that I didn't miss any important shots. Furthermore, whilst watching it I noticed a close up was used showing his watch that actually portrayed as being used as a symbol for the bomb going off, I think close ups are good shots to use to create an impact and when you are showing a characters facial expressions, therefore for our opening we have decided to use a few close ups, mainly to show specific things, for one scene we are using a close up when our character Will is shown in distress in bed and also, we he falls he looks depressed at work to show his facial expressions clearly to the audience so that they can relate and see how the character is feeling. 

Cinematography 

Moreover, when watching 'Inception' and looking for different types of sound used to create an effect for the audience and the main one used in thriller films is non-diegetic sound and exaggerated sound to create more of an impact. Both of these are used in this opening but at different points, however I liked the non diegetic music used throughout him getting into the building until he reaches the safe at the end of the opening, as it broke the silence and using the music make it a lot more interesting for the audience as we want to see whether he achieves his aim as the music continues till the end so therefore the audience flow along. Also, using the music creates an atmosphere as it makes the audience wonder what is going to happen through the scene. Additionally, we haven't completely decided what music we are going to use in our opening, however we have cut out some of our conversations out to use music instead as we feel it will create more impact on audience as the conversation isn't necessary in the opening, therefore we are always thinking about our audience which is 15- young adults as everything must appeal to them.

Sound

Additionally, when watching 'Inception' again and looking out for editing techniques, I watched it a couple of times but I only picked out a couple to talk about. The main technique used in thriller films and any films is shot reverse shot, and this is normally used when two people are having a conversation. Withing using this technique in Inception, it helps the audience see both their facial expressions and the audience can understand the characters a bit more. Moreover, in 'Inception' eye line match was used which helps the audience understand the characters relationship and you can tell if they are close or not, therefore we ,ay use this shot when our two characters are in the park talking about Will's condition of Insomnia, as we can show their relationship through the shot, therefore the audience will be able to understand their relationship.

Editing

Macro Elements for 'Inception'

Additionally, when looking at Macro elements, I watched the opening to 'Inception' again and wrote down about the genre of the film and the targeted audience for the film. Inceptions has two genres of Thriller and Mystery, through the opening you can see this due to the codes and conventions  used throughout of the opening, as for Thriller, for example you can see that low key lighting was used a lot throughout and it is a known convention for a thriller film. Also, you see parts of mystery through Dom Cobb's actions when he creeps around the building to get the envelope and throughout that scene is makes the audience want to watch to see whether he gets it without getting caught. Moreover, the genre of Thriller links to our film as through our opening, the codes  and conventions that we are using throughout will be similar. Additionally, within audience due to the use of a gun and some of the conventions used, it would be aimed at 12 and above, however as our film is a man suffering with Insomnia, we have chosen to aim it to 15 and above, due to children younger not understanding what it is and we felt that they would be too young to watch a film on it. 

Genre and Representation 

Furthermore, within narrative for this opening, it was set out to be quite interesting and engaging throughout as it didn't get boring when watching it, especially, the end scene when Dom has a plan and uses props to reach what he wanted to get, therefore as an audience that was the best part of the opening as we wanted to see more and whether he got out without getting caught. Therefore, this is a good way to end an opening as it makes the audience want to watch more, so we are creating our opening we have decided in the end part, that will hopefully engage thew audience as make them want to continue watching. Additionally, in this opening you can see that the protagonist is very intelligent and knows what he is doing, however this is completely to our opening as our main character is shown to be weaker as he suffers with the condition of Insomnia, therefore he has to have people look after him as some days his condition is worse than ever. Also, through representation you can see how characters are represented throughout and if they change during the film.

Narrative and Representation 

The Conjuring:

       Genre: Horror

       Setting: A dark room inside their home.

       Characters: 
       Ed Warren (Patrick Wilson),
       Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga),
       Judy (Sterling Jerins),
       Carolyn (Lili Taylor),
       Roger (Ron Livingston)

Narrative: In 1970, paranormal investigators and demonologists Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) and Ed (Patrick Wilson) Warren are summoned to the home of Carolyn (Lili Taylor) and Roger (Ron Livingston) Perron. The Perrons and their five daughters have recently moved into a secluded farmhouse, where a supernatural presence has made itself known. Though the manifestations are relatively benign at first, events soon escalate in horrifying fashion, especially after the Warrens discover the house's macabre history.

Opening: It was a flashback from 1968, where 3 characters were being questioned about what had happened, which was about a girl being inside a doll and what they had experienced. Throughout them being questioned, clips were being shown in-between of the doll.

Where is the story going: In 1971, Carolyn and Roger Perron move into a dilapidated, old farmhouse in Harrisville, Rhode Island with their five daughters. One morning, Carolyn wakes up with a mysterious bruise and their dog Sadie, is found dead. Over the next couple of days, various paranormal activities occur. At night, their young daughter Cindy sleepwalks into the eldest daughter's bedroom, where she bangs her head repeatedly against an old wardrobe. The activity culminates in the eldest daughter being attacked by a spirit that looks like an elderly woman. Carolyn seeks the help of Ed and Lorraine Warren, noted paranormal investigators, to validate their concerns. During the process of researching the house's history, Ed and Lorraine find out that the house belonged to an accused witch, Bathsheba. This is followed by reports found of numerous murders and suicides in houses that have since been built upon the property. Throughout the film it is an investigation to find out what is causing all these weird issues.

Successful: The film opening was successful as the clips shown through the interview of the notes and of the doll being shown right at the beginning and before the title of the film, made you want to watch the film to see what it was representing. Also, it made it more interesting by showing the interview and putting the clips in between as, as an audience it made you want to carry on watching the opening as it wasn't a conversation the whole time.

Micro and Macro Elements in 'The Conjuring'

When going through my blog as I now learnt about Micro and Macro elements, I decided to go back over the opening scenes that I had research, therefore I watched 'The Conjuring' again and wrote down some of the micro and macro elements that I saw throughout the opening and the effect that they created. I have added pictures of all the Micro and Macro elements firstly I looked at Micro elements which involved Mise-en-scene, camera angles, sound and editing. 

For Mise-en-scene, I watched the clip once to identify some elements, the second time I watched it I was making notes on what I saw and I kept stopping the opening so that I could make notes and explain the effect that the elements had created and why they were used. All the elements that I saw are repeatedly used in thriller films to give an mysterious and suspense effect throughout for the audience. Additionally, these elements help with our opening as we can see what types of mise-en-scene they use to interest the audience to make them want to watch the film, for our opening using dim lighting would be very effective as, as an audience you always wonder why it is used and what the lighting is portraying as normally something bad happens or their is a mystery occurring, however we would only be able to show dim lighting at the beginning of our opening when our actor called Will is tossing and turning in bed and maybe when the young girl is found tied up in a room, as all our other scenes are filmed at work or outside. Overall, picking out all the micro elements in this opening has helped me get more of a variety of elements to use in our opening to create more of an impact for the audience. 

Mise-en-Scene

Additionally, after I had completely writing about mise-en-scene, I looked at Camera Angles and movement, whilst I was watching it I was making notes throughout and I keep stopping it to go into detail on why certain shots were used and the effect that they had created. Whilst watching the opening, the zoom out of the dolls face used right at the beginning, straight away made the audience wonder what the doll was representing and I liked how it didn't show the whole of the doll, it zoomed out to eventually show it. As we are showing a man with insomnia in bed tossing and turning, we could use a zoom out showing his facial expressions of him getting stressed with not being able to sleep and then zoom out of his gestures an how he deals with not being able to sleep, therefore this will help our audience understand how people with Insomnia deal with the condition and for people who don't know what Insomnia is, then through the beginning of our opening we will be showing his actions so that people understand what it is. Overall, all camera shots used in the opening created some sort of effect for the audience, none of the shots were basic, therefore for our opening we will use a variety of camera angles and shots.

Camera Angles and Movement

Furthermore, then I looked at the sound used throughout the opening to see the range of different sound techniques that they use in thriller films to create an effect. When making notes on the types of sound I heard in the opening, I said when it was used and how it interested us as an audience to make us want to watch it. A main element of sound used in thriller films is non-diegetic dramatic music added for effect and to build suspense to lead up to an action occurring, this was used in 'The Conjuring'  when the camera was showing all the smashed photo frames and it made you want to watch to see what was going to happen next as it was going through different areas of the room. Therefore, we have decided to add some sort of dramatic music to our opening as it builds suspense making the audience 'sit on the edge of there seat' waiting to see what will happen next, for our opening we could use this right at the end when the girl is found, as people will want to watch the rest of the film to see what has happened to the girl. Overall, sound is a main part for thriller films as it builds that tension that the audience want as they want to be kept interested throughout. 

Sound

When I looked at editing through the opening, I watched the clip and noted down a couple that I saw, however I couldn't find that many editing techniques throughout. The first one I noticed was the cross cutting technique when it went from the character to the doll, to the characters and the doll again, whilst it was doing this it zoomed into the doll each time. This technique was intriguing for the audience as it built tension from going to one to the other but you were able to see the characters facial expressions and emotions on how they felt through these spooky occurrences. Additionally, the eye line match that I also saw showed the audience the connection between the two characters in this house, and that they stick together throughout sll these problems, this suggests that they are always there for each other. 

Editing

All these Micro elements, making an opening a lot more interesting for the audience as they are all conventions that appeal to an audience as its what they look for in a thriller film and with these elements the opening doesn't get boring to watch. Furthermore, through watching this opening again and writing about the micro elements, I feel as if I am able to pull out all elements shown in an opening that build suspense for the audience, which makes them want to watch the whole film which is our aim. Therefore, doing this has helped me fully see what is included in openings for the audience to state that they would be interested in the whole film, therefore when we create our film we will have to make sure that we include a variety on micro elements to keep the audience on the edge of their seat. 

Monday 31^ST October

In this lesson, firstly we looked at the mark scheme and we had to look at level 4 for Research and Planning. We got given the task to brainstorm what we can to do achieve each one and reach the higher grade; I have put a picture below showing the brainstorm. Moreover, we then looked at film openings and we got given 2 questions to answer which were what is the importance of a film opening and what does it tell you about the film. For these two questions we had to answer them independently, a film opening is important as it sets the scene and grabs the audience’s attention making them want to watch the whole film. Also, a film opening tells you characters within the film and it sets the tone. We then looked at narrative; a narrative is a key element to films and it is a structure of what is happening throughout out the film. It also, helps the target audience understand what is going to happen and a narrative always has an objective/goal.

Brainstorm for Research and Planning

Furthermore, we looked at Todorov’s narrative theory which I have shown below, I have created a flow diagram showing the order of the theory and underneath I wrote a brief few words for each one. Then we got given the task of, for 2 of our possible ideas for our film we had to write equilibrium, disruption of equilibrium, recognition of equilibrium, an attempt to repair disruption and a reinstatement of equilibrium, for both ideas, therefore we were able to see the different parts that we could include in the film. In this lesson I have learnt about Todorov’s narrative theory, which has helped with how to plan our film opening and to have clear understanding of what is going to happen as it shows how the story will go throughout the film. The theory shows how to plan out an event that will occur in a film and each stage needs to be thought about to enable the theory to be correct and to work. It also helps when going into depth with you idea as you can link ideas to what will occur in each stage of his narrative theory.

Todorov's Narrative Theory

For this task in our groups we had to show two of our ideas using the layout of Todorov's theory, therefore we had to think of a main event that would occur in the film or opening, the first idea we chose was when a teenager a school was bullied as you can see from the sheet, the event was that the teenage boy attempts suicide, therefore we based everything else around that. This did actually help seeing this theory for when you plan the opening/ film as it breaks down clearly what is happening throughout and you can break down each part and go into more depth of what is going to happen in the film. Furthermore, the second idea that we used was when someone is mentally ill and the event occurring for this is when she goes mental/ crazy and nobody can stop her. At the end which is the reinstatement of equilibrium is when the issue gets resolved as she finally gets help, therefore planning it out like this makes it easier for us seeing each stage of what is going to happen, so we therefore have an idea of what we want to film in the opening and actual film.

Todorov's Narrative Theory - Film Idea's

Thursday 3^RD November

In this lesson, we learnt about Micro and Macro Elements. The things that come under micro elements are mise en scene, costume, make-up, props, lighting, location, camera angles and movement, non-diegetic/diegetic sound and editing. Whereas, macro elements include representation, genre, narrative and audience. We then got given a sheet on the Micro and Macro elements and we watched the opening of ‘The Big Lebowski’ and we had to fill in the sheet on what we saw which I will show down below. After, we then watched another opening of ‘Rush’ to compare to the other opening and this one was more modern and appealing to our audience. This task has helped us when we film our opening as we know what we need to include attracting the audience and what they look for. Furthermore, in pairs we got given a sheet and ours was on the qualities to make a strong opening scene for a film, we read through it and highlighted the key pints on what the opening needs. When highlighting, a few key points were that the opening must engage the audience otherwise they will get bored and not want to watch the rest of the film, and also, introduce the characters briefly. Overall, this task helped us a lot with creating our opening film as all the points that we had highlighted were all important to helping us make a strong and interesting opening, therefore it helped back up our knowledge on things that the audience want to see.

The Big Lebowski Opening:

Macro&Micro Elements from The Big Lebowski

Shown above is the sheet that we were given in lesson to fill out about the Macro and Micro elements seen in the Big Lebowski. In the lesson I had completed some of the sheet which is shown in black pen, then part of my own work when I got home I watch the clip a couple more times and made some more notes on what I saw and developed some of the other points that I had made, shown in the green pen. Overall, separating the Micro and Macro elements helped see all the different things that they had used in the opening to keep the audience interesting throughout.

Qualities of a Strong Film Opening

Examples of Film Openings

Friday 4^TH November

In this lesson we learnt about demographics and psychographics and we did our own secondary research on it to find out what the words mean and the factors.

I found out that a demographic is the statistical data of a population based on factors such as age, race, income, education and gender. In some cases, two or three traits distinguish target customers from people outside the market you advertise to. However other times, most of these qualities are used to identify the typical customer. Moreover, for this definition I did some secondary research and I got it from an online source, which was a online dictionary; I think this is a reliable source as it’s from an online dictionary and dictionaries are always known to have correct definitions and examples for words.

Source: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/demographics

Additionally, for our film our main character Will Clarke who suffers with Insomnia, is in the lower/ middle class category as he works in the offices in Tesco, therefore he hasn't got a very high pay as he only works in the offices but he gets more than someone working as a sales assistant in the store. Also, his sister Charlotte is more intelligent than him and she has a higher paid job, therefore she is in the upper middle class category due to her job and wealth. 

Demographic Table

Furthermore, I found out that Psychographics is an analysis of a consumer’s lifestyle in which to create a detailed customer profile. Market researchers conduct psychographic research by asking customers to agree or disagree with activities opinions statements. The results of this get combined with demographic characteristics to develop a more clear targeted consumer. Moreover, I got this information from a business dictionary, which I think is a reliable source as it’s from a dictionary website; therefore it has to be a true definition of what the word means, so it can’t be fake.

Source:
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/psychographics.html

Psychographic Table

From this psychographic table, as a group we have decided that the 3 we are going to use in our opening are Mainstreamer, Aspires and explorers.We are going to use Mainstreamer as the audience is the biggest, therefore we will get more people to watch our opening and our film, and we will be able to see who is attracted to it. Moreover, we decided on Explorers as it targets a younger audience. Also, we decided on using Aspirers, as our audience for the opening will be targeted at a younger audience therefore as Aspirers also has a younger audience we decided that would benefit us the most. Though my secondary research I also found out that the the majority of people who go to the cinema are in the age range of 15-24, therefore this also helped us decide our target audience as that age range are more likely to go to the cinema and watch our film, therefore we would want to attract them the most. Furthermore, the graph below helps show who goes to the cinema the most in the UK as it shows the percentage of all the age ranges who go to the cinema, however the graph also shows that the percentage of male's going to the cinema are slightly higher but not by much, therefore we have decided to attract our film to both genders as it will be a wider audience.

Source:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/296240/age-and-gender-of-the-cinema-audience-uk/

Additionally, I have done my own primary research by creating a questionnaire which I have given out to people to get a variety of answers to compare and to see if their is any similarities.

Also, in this lesson we decided that the potential ideas that we had originally come up with either didn't work as we couldn't film in the locations that we wanted as we couldn't get permissions and the locations were too difficult to film in and also, we didn't think they were interesting enough for our audience. Therefore, we have now decided on an idea that has more practical locations where we can easily film where we won't have any problems filming and an idea that we hope will interest the audience more. As a group we decided we wanted to base our storyline on a mental illness, therefore we researched some illnesses and we decided on Insomnia. After, we created another brainstorm on two possible ideas around the illness so that we had a couple to chose from, then as a group we decided on the one that we thought the audience would be more interested in. This was a successful lesson as now we have a clear idea for our opening, therefore next lesson we can now plan and make sure that the idea is suitable and catching enough for the audience. Our updated brainstorm of the two ideas are shown below:

Updated Brainstorm of our Ideas

Secondary Research: Thriller Opening Scene's

Silence of the Lambs:

As our opening for our film is a thriller genre, for part of my secondary research, I watched the opening scene to ‘Silence of the Lambs’ as it is a psychological thriller, therefore it links to our genre. Also, I wanted to see what they had included in their opening which makes the audience want to watch the whole film, from this I noticed that at the end of the opening one of the characters had noticed some pictures all pined up on a wall as if they meant something to her, therefore it makes us as an audience want to see what they represent in the rest of the film and that’s what I liked about this opening, it kept you interested throughout and made you want to watch more. Furthermore, from this opening I have learnt that we need to have something at the end of the opening that is very attention-grabbing for our audience so that they want to watch the rest of the film.

Shutter Island

Moreover, I looked at the opening scene of ‘Shutter Island’ which is Thriller/Drama. In the opening it started off dramatic as you wondered what was wrong with him, then later in the opening you saw the wide shot of the island which set the scene and the shot was shown with non-diegetic dramatic music which created an atmosphere and made the audience wonder what’s going to happen there and whether it could be dangerous. I like the opening to the scene as it introduced the two main characters and set the scene in the opening, with music in the background which kept the audience interested throughout. After watching this opening, it has helped with a few ideas that we could do for our opening. For our opening I think we should use some sound effects or dramatic music for effect to keep the audience intrigued throughout the opening to then wanting to watch the film.

Se7en

Seven is another Thriller/Drama genre, which I watched the film opening for to help with my research for our opening film. In this opening, at the beginning they used an exaggerated sound of a ticking clock which created an atmosphere as everything else in the scene was silent when the clock was ticking, therefore the noise of the clock stood out and the close up of the clock made it even more effective. However, sometimes when the clock wasn't ticking you could hear the TV in the background.  Furthermore, as for our film opening we decided on doing it on a mental illness of Insomnia, we may show our character to be falling asleep or in bed throughout the opening, therefore as a group we did come up with an idea of using a clock in the opening, therefore that links well with this opening and as an audience you could see how effective it was. 

The Sixth Sense

The Sixth Sense is a Drama/Thriller, therefore I also watched this opening as it links to the genre of our film opening and it will help with some ideas for our film opening as I can see what they have used to keep the audience intrigued for them then to want to watch the rest of the film. In this opening, I liked when they zoomed in on the characters face to show her facial expressions when she looked at the bottle of alcohol, as from her expressions it inferred that what was on the alcohol bottle mean't something to her. Therefore, for our film opening I will suggest on using zoom to show their facial expressions as you can clearly see their expressions by it. Furthermore, I also liked the wide shot of her standing in the centre shivering as if it was freezing down there but also, you were able to see the location of where she was and what it looked like. As it was dark and shadows were used it could suggest that it is haunted, therefore this has also helped with our opening as a wide shot is good to use to set the location.

All these thriller film openings that I have watched as part of my secondary research have helped me and my group massively as we now have some ideas that we could possibly use for our film opening, therefore it has given us a wider range of things that interest and give an effect to the audience.

For our film opening we have now decided on our idea, which was a character who has Insomnia and he kidnaps a young child, we decided on this idea as we felt it will continuously interest the audience and we could show a climax and build tension through what he did and end on a climax so that the audience would continue to watch the film. Therefore we have now done our first plan on what may happen throughout the opening, including some camera shots on how we could film parts which I have shown below, however it may change throughout planning our opening as we may decide to include something else or change it , therefore its not a definite structure of what's going to happen. We have done a first plan so that we have a starting point for our opening, therefore this will help for when we fully plan what's going to happen and when we develop our opening through this, as this is just a basic plan.

First Plan for our Film Opening

As we have decided on our idea, in this lesson me and Lily have listed some potential ideas that we had thought of for what we could film or use in our opening, I took the role of writing it up and we thought of different things we could do in editing, cinematography, mise-en-scene and sound, just so that we have a few ideas for when we plan what we will actually include. Furthermore, this helped with our idea planning as we now have a few ideas planned that we could use in our opening and this has helped with the basics, so when we come to write up our actual camera shots we want to use then we can develop some of the ideas that we originally had into better camera shots which could create a better effect. Moreover, these ideas that me and Lily had brainstormed, looking over them now as we have sorted fully what is happening in our opening, some of the ideas for camera shots and editing techniques that we have written down won't be used in our opening due to the opening narrative being changed, therefore there are only a couple that will now help us when we actually write out full shot list for our opening. 

Camera Shots and Mise-en-scene Ideas 

Sound and Editing Ideas

Thriller Directors

As part of my secondary research I looked at some thriller directors, firstly I looked at 'Alfred Hitchcock' which I have shown above and he looks at psychological thrillers. I think the website where I got this information from is reliable source as it’s from a biography, therefore it’s all about his background and real information about him and the films he has directed.

Alfred Hitchcock:

• Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was a director, producer and screenwriter.

• He worked in engineering before entering the film industry in 1920. Hitchcock created more than 50 films, including the classics Rear Window and Psycho. 

• In 1925, Hitchcock directed his first film and began making the 'thrillers' for which he became known the world over. His 1929 film Blackmail is said to be the first British "talkie". In the 1930s, he directed such classic suspense films such as 'The 39 Steps'.

• In 1939, Hitchcock made his first film called, ‘Rebecca’ (1940), which won an Academy Award for best picture. Another famous film he created was 'The Birds'.

• In order to create suspense in his films, he would alternate between different shots to extend cinematic time, e.g. the climax of Saboteur.

• In lots of his films, he created shadows on the walls.

• ‘The Birds’ is a Thriller/Horror and it’s about a character called Melanie Daniels who meets Mitch Brenner in a San Francisco pet store and decides to follow him home. She brings with her the gift of two love birds and they strike up a romance. One day birds start attacking children at Mitch's sister’s party. A huge assault starts on the town by attacking birds.

Source: Biography for Alfred Hitchcock

Furthermore, I chose Alfred Hitchcock as I liked how he created shadows on walls, as for our thriller opening as are having protagonist who has Insomnia and some of the our opening will be filmed in his room, therefore we could possibly have a scene in his house where shadows are used but that is just a possible idea as it may not fit which what we actually want to film in the room. Also, I like how in his films he creates suspense though alternating between different shots to extend cinematic time, I quite like the idea of this, therefore we could also trial this out or we could create suspense through a different way as what he did may not work for our film opening and we could think of our own idea for it. Overall, after doing my secondary research on Alfred Hitchcock's techniques I did like what he uses, however for our film storyline, these techniques may not be suited as we are showing something completely different, therefore I am going to look at another thriller director to see if any of his ideas can be interpreted into our film as all this secondary research of thriller directors helps us get broader ideas of techniques we could use in our opening to create more suspense for our audience to mainly interest them to watch the opening and the film. 

Another film director I looked at was David Fincher who directs thriller genres. I got this information for a two websites one was a biography and from a IMDb website. I think the biography which I got some of the information from is a reliable source as its from a biography, therefore it must be the correct facts on their and also, you are unable to edit the information. However, the other website I looked on doesn't seem as reliable as it did say edit, therefore we may be able to edit the information, so any one could have wrote it but some of the information was correct therefore it is partly reliable. 

David Fincher:

• David Fincher is an American film director and music video director. As a film director, he has achieved huge success with 'Se7en' in 1995 and 'Fight Club'  in 1999. Fincher was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for his 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. and his 2010 film The Social Network.

• His movies frequently have characters in the shadows where you cannot make out their face, an example of this is shown through Kevin Spacey in Se7en.

• Often Fincher uses low key lighting with green or blue tinted colour temperature.

• Include many back stories with flashbacks.

• He uses stationary shots, unfocused background with character walking into focus.
  
  
• One film he directed was 'Se7en' which is a Thriller/Drama and it is about when a retiring police Detective William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) tackles a final case with the aid of newly transferred David Mills (Brad Pitt), they discover a number of elaborate and grizzly murders. They soon realize they are dealing with a serial killer who is targeting people he thinks represent one of the seven deadly sins. Somerset also befriends Mills' wife, Tracy who is pregnant and afraid to raise her child in the crime-riddled city.

• Movies often end with villains either 'winning' or not receiving proper punishment for example the films, Se7en and Gone Girl.

Sources: Biography for David Fincher and David Fincher

Additionally, another thriller director I chose was David Fincher as I liked that he uses low key lighting with green or blue tinted colour temperature as that is effective in thriller films as low key lighting is a key convention that is used a lot in a thriller genre, therefore in our thriller opening, as a group we had already suggested about using low key lighting, however we hadn't thought about using a tinted colour temperature, therefore David has influenced and helped out group as he has given us the idea of trialling using colours instead of plain low key lighting to create more of an effect. Furthermore, I also like that he includes back stories with flashbacks as this allows the audience to understand what happened in the past and to understand the storyline better, therefore they get a clearer understanding. However, as a group we have decided to not include a flashback in our opening as we don't think that we need it because our storyline is already clear and it will flow better without it, therefore our storyline is going to start from the beginning of the protagonist having a Insomnia. Overall, when doing my research on David Fincher, as he is a thriller director, his ideas have given me and my group a few possible ideas that we could use in our opening as when he has used these codes and conventions in the films that he has directed they have all been successful, therefore this could help to make our film successful as we are using conventions that the audience want to see.

Similarities:

When I had finished researching the two directors, I had noticed some similarities between the two. One similarity is that they are both Thriller Directors. Also, both directors use shadows in their films and alternate between different shots to create tension and suspense.

Differences:

After researching the two directors, I found out some differences between the two. One difference is that Alfred looks at Psychological Thrillers whereas as David just looks at Thriller. Also, David's films often feature several single frames that flash on the screen in the middle of a scene for example in 'fight club'.

Furthermore, for my secondary research, I have listed some codes and conventions that are normally used in thriller films, some I had already knew from studying media last year, but I got an example from the internet. Codes and conventions are techniques used in media to convey certain ideas and to give impressions. Also, technical codes include sound and lighting, where as symbolic codes include dress and actions of characters. All the codes and conventions help make the film more intriguing for the audience as its what the audience sometimes look for in films to interest them to watch it. Also, I have listed some of the sub-genres within thriller and examples, that I have also shown below. Moreover, researching the codes & conventions and sub genres has all helped with our film opening as it has given us more ideas on to give an effect to the audience to keep them engaged and also, the codes and conventions that show that its a thriller film.

Thriller Codes and Conventions:

• Low key Lighting is used a lot in a thriller genre and most scenes are filmed under unnatural light sources shown with dark shadows after and this creates an eerie and creepy atmosphere. Also, though doing some research on low key lighting, I found out that low key lighting is used by directors when they want to minimise distractions in a frame, therefore it guides the audience to where a director wants you to look.

• Tension/Dramatic Music is essentially for a thriller genre as it creates suspense throughout the film when it is shown with a dramatic scene as you sit on the edge of your seat waiting to see what happens. Additionally, sound within the thriller genre is an important element, as different musical themes within a film can produce different moods that affect the audience in different ways.

An example of Dramatic music is shown through the soundtrack of 'The Dark Knight Rises'.

I liked this soundtrack from 'The Dark Knight Rises' as it started of softly, then it soon started creating a dramatic effect with all the different instruments, it made you want to carry on listening as it didn't get boring as it carried on climatic. It was interesting to see what other instruments were going to be brought in and to see the range of sounds throughout. It did get a bit quieter around the middle of the soundtrack, however, it came back even more powerful than it did before.

Furthermore, they did add a couple of quick silences throughout the soundtrack which I liked and I may even suggest to film some scenes silent in our opening as even they create a atmosphere. Moreover, a dramatic soundtrack is a key code and convention for a thriller film as it keeps the audience intrigued and it creates a reaction, therefore the audience are wondering what is going to happen after the scene finishes. Also, if the music is added at the end of a opening with a scene ends on a cliffhanger, it makes the audience want to see the rest of the film to see the outcome. 

• A range of camera angles are used in thriller films to show different facial expressions, body language and setting. Therefore, by using a range of angles it can capture every emotion shown within the film as you can film scenes from angles to get different views, and also, its more fascinating for the audience instead of all the angles being the same. Additionally, the audience get a clearer insight to what the characters emotions are in the film. 

• Shadows are a good way to create a mood in a production, and after doing my research I found out that shadows look more distinct in black and white than they do in colour. Furthermore, I learnt that a key factor for making the shadows more pronounced and darker is cover the area fully by the shadows is significantly less exposed than the area that is lit, and this can be done by filming with very bright lights.

Sub-genres:

Action Thriller -

An action thriller uses physical action between characters and objects to create suspense within the film and an example of this is 'The Bourne Ultimatum'. Additionally, thriller/action films normally include when a protagonist or protagonists end up in a series of challenges that typically include violence, close combat and chase sequences. Furthermore, action/ thriller films are action packed movies which always have a bit of a twist, and they deal with a semi-realistic storyline though weapons.

Crime Thrillers -

A crime thriller combines suspenseful qualities of a thriller with a plot from a crime film, an example of this is 'The Dark Knight Rises'. Also, they use action and psychological aspects to build tension and suspense in the film. Furthermore, crime thrillers incorporate the suspenseful aspects of a thriller with a crime plot. The sub-genre of crime plot usually centers on a serial killer, murdered or robbery. As opposed to traditional crime films, the narrative focuses both around the criminal and the protagonist.

Psychological Thrillers -

A psychological thriller incorporates elements of drama and mystery to a film and explores the processes of the mind, which helps create suspense from the mind rather than a physical feeling of suspense, an example of this is 'The Black Swan'. Furthermore, this sub genre has similarities to Gothic and detective fiction in the sense of having a complex relationship with pathological and obsessive characters.

Science-Fiction Thrillers -

A Sci-Fi thriller merges science based themes into the plot of the film and an example of this is 'Super 8'. Moreover, sci-fi films use fictional science based depictions that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as alien worlds and time travel, along with futuristic elements such as robots.

Religious Thrillers -

A religious thriller uses religious themes, objects, and ceremonies during a film and an example of this is 'Angels and Demons'.

Action Thriller

Crime Thriller

Psychological
Thriller

Sci-Fi Thriller

Thursday 10^TH November

In this lesson, we looked at how we could use primary research, both quantitative and qualitative for our film opening. Primary research is research that you find yourself; therefore I am going to create a couple of questionnaires one for quantitative and one for qualitative questions to find out what types of things that our audience likes and what they want to see in films. Furthermore, quantitative data is any data that is in numerical form such as statistics and percentages whereas qualitative data is typically descriptive data and as such is harder to analyse than quantitative, also qualitative research is useful for studies at the individual level, and to find out information in more depth.

Moreover, as a group we decided that we wanted to create a quantitative questionnaire as part of our primary research, we decided on doing a quantitative questionnaire as its reliable as we are getting actual statistics, therefore its not fake results, and also, its less time consuming, therefore we can spend our time doing other research. However, there is some disadvantages with this research as it doesn't give lengthy answers, therefore we aren't actually finding out much information from our audience as they are only yes/ no answers, therefore we did decided to create some qualitative data as well which I will show later on in the blog. Additionally, we created this questionnaire together by listing some questions that we could include to find out about our audience to help with our opening. This is the questionnaire that we created:

Quantitative Questionnaire 

Insomnia

As a group we decided to research about the film 'Insomnia' as that is what our film is going to be about, therefore I have done some secondary research about it. Insomnia is a mystery/thriller and it is about a acclaimed director Chris Nolan comes the story of a veteran police detective who is sent to a small Alaskan town to investigate the murder of a teenage girl. Forced into a psychological game of cat and mouse by the primary suspect (Robin Williams), events escalate and the detective finds his own stability dangerously threatened. Also, this film partly links to our film as we are creating a psychological thriller. Furthermore, I have added the trailer of the film below and when watching this you can hear that the detective doesn't know that its a plan to set him up and you then see that the detective doesn't sleep, therefore this shows that he must suffer with Insomnia, therefore this links to our film as we had decided to create a film based on Insomnia but a different storyline as we are doing about a man with Insomnia who kidnaps a child. Moreover, at the end of the trailer I liked when the phone rang when the title Insomnia came up and they said "don't worry will, you can sleep when your dead", as this is quite a catchy line to end a trailer on as it makes you want to see what actually happens to him.

Vertigo

Here is the trailer to the film 'Vertigo' which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and it includes Hitchcock's romantic story of obsession, manipulation and fear. Vertigo is a Drama/ Thriller and it is about a detective who is forced to retire after his fear of heights causes the death of a fellow officer and the girl he was hired to follow. He sees a double of the girl, causing him to transform her image onto the dead girl's body. This leads into a cycle of madness and lies. Furthermore, this film links to our film as we have also said about including a detective in our film but we aren't going to show it in the opening, but we came up with a detective who has retired, however he has come back to work to investigate the kidnapping that has occurred as the same situation happened to someone in his family, therefore he feels as if he should help to found out who has done it as the two situations may link.

Friday 11^TH November

In this lesson as a group we started doing our primary research, firstly Cameron and Joe from my group went to our common room and they gave people a quantitative questionnaire to fill out, whilst me and Lily stayed in the classroom and thought of some questions for qualitative research as we are going to create a video on different and lengthier questions for our audience. Furthermore, I have added to sample questionnaires that two people have filled out to show how we presented them and what these two said, however we have decided to present the rest of our data using a graph, therefore we can compare the results.

Quantitative Questionnaire 

Quantitative Questionnaire 

When we had collected all our quantitative research we decided to present the results in a graph, we only chose the most important questions to include in the graph as some weren't as important for our research, therefore we chose 5 questions from the 10 that we asked. From the graph you can see that for the first question, the majority of people watch thriller films, therefore this helps support that people like thrillers, and also as we want to keep the audience interested throughout that's why we decided on a thriller as they create suspense throughout. Furthermore, on the second question we wanted to find out if people had watched the film Insomnia and from this graph you can see that 19 out of the 20 people haven't therefore from this primary research we have noticed that there is a gap in the market for our film as it is about Insomnia, therefore when we bring out film out, it should attract more people as they haven't seen anything like it before. Additionally, for the next question we wanted to find out whether our targeted audience like psychological thrillers, as we thought of doing a psychological thriller for our film, as the majority of people said they liked psychological thrillers, therefore we decided to stick to that idea as we knew that from the people would be interested in it as the research proves it. Moreover, for question 7 we waned to find out whether our targeted audience would be interested in the condition Insomnia being in a film as we had decided on an idea based on Insomnia, therefore we wanted to make sure that people would be interested in seeing is otherwise we would of had to change our idea, however the results on the graph show that the majority of people would be interested in seeing it in a film, therefore that's why we are going to stick to that idea. The last question shown on the graph is whether people would be interested in a film called 'Parasomnia' as we had thought of having that as the title of out film, therefore we wanted to make sure that people would be interested in the name and through this research, the majority of people said that they would see a movie called this, therefore we have also decided to keep the name of our film the same.

Questionnaire for Primary Research - My Own Graph

 

History of Thriller

As part of my secondary research, I have listed some facts about the History of thriller to find out more about the genre of thriller and to see what is in most thriller films now. Furthermore, from the research of the history of thriller you can see that Alfred Hitchcock played a main part as he directed most of the films at the start of when the thriller genre came out, therefore he started ff creating the films for thriller genre.

This is a timeline showing the history of thrillers, you can see that the first half of the films are showing the films that Alfred Hitchcock has directed. From this timeline, you can see that thriller films are an occurring thing as new films have constantly been brought out over the years, therefore this must mean that it is a popular genre for all audiences. Also, thriller directors must enjoy directing thrillers, for example Alfred Hitchcock as he has made many over the years and he is one of the main thriller directors due to him bringing out the first thriller; he has also directed many famous and popular thriller films, for example Psycho and Vertigo, the rest I have shown below on the timeline. Additionally, after Alfred Hitchcock, thriller films carried on being made due to the amount of people being interested in them as directors could see that Alfred Hitchcock's films were popular with the audience, however now they are just directed with different directors and also, become more modernised. 

Monday 14^TH November

In today's lesson we firstly did some independent research on actors/characters in thriller films and we listed some key traits that the characters have. After me, Lily and Cameron created a brainstorm together as Joe wasn't in today on the traits that characters have in thriller films and I took the role of writing and re-wording some of what we found out, I will show this brainstorm below. Furthermore, after this task me, Lily and Cameron had a discussion about what is going to happen in our opening, while having this discussion Lily was typing it on her phone and then she wrote it up as draft 1 so we could see it clearly and change it if things need to be added or changed.

Characters Traits in a Thriller

Additionally, here I have shown our draft one of our treatment for our film opening which sir has marked in red pen and we he sat with us and gave us feedback we realised we didn't to include the last paragraph that we had wrote as we are only supposed to write the treatment for our opening, therefore as you can see from the picture of it, I had annotated it in green saying that we didn't need to include that paragraph in the opening. After looking at the feedback, we decided to re-write the treatment, however me, Lily and Cameron decided that for our second draft we are all going to write one by separately and then in our next lesson either choose the best one or merge all 3 together, therefore we are putting all our ideas forward, once we have all completely our next draft, I will show them later on in the blog. Furthermore, for doing a draft for our treatment, this helps us as we are able to develop this draft even more and improve it into a better one with more detail as a treatment is what happens right through the opening.

Draft One - Treatment

We then got given a sheet about synopsis, on a one sentence synopsis, one paragraph synopsis and one page synopsis, I red through it and highlighted the key points; reading through the article has helped me understand the importance of the synopsis and why they are useful. I have annotated the article to give a brief idea of why that certain synopsis is used and I have added the article down below. A synopsis is used to help the director make a film and for the audience to understand the majority of the storyline but it doesn't give too much away. Additionally, we then created a one paragraph synopsis, however as we had already written our first draft for our treatment, we already knew the basis of what we could write. As Lily took the role of writing up the synopsis, me and Cameron helped her in writing it, we then got sir to read over our one paragraph synopsis, which he marked and gave us feedback which was that the wording was a bit basic, therefore Lily wrote up an edited version which sounded a lot better.

Synopsis Article

Below is the original synopsis that sir had marked in the red pen and underneath is the edited version which after reading it as a group we decided that it sounds a a lot better and it doesn't give everything away which is what a synopsis is meant to do. Whilst Lily was writing up the edited version, I took the role of writing all the character profiles, we all thought of names for the characters, however, I completed the rest and for the characters part which is how they are presented and shown in the film, before writing it I checked with Cameron to make sure that I was correct with what I was saying, but otherwise I did it by myself. Furthermore, by us doing two tasks at once, this made our group on target as we worked together to complete the tasks that we needed to complete, therefore next lesson we can concentrate on other things. Overall, I think all 3 of us worked well in this lesson as we all worked together as we all worked as a team to complete the tasks.

Draft and Edited Version of Synopsis

Here, I have added all character profiles that I have written for all our characters that are in our film. We created character profiles so that we have a clear understand of our characters but also, if anyone wanted to find out about our characters, this is a clear indication of what they are like in our film.

Furthermore, for the main character who we called Will Clarke is a antagonist and we gave him an age of 22 as he is a young man suffering with Insomnia, therefore he doesn't know how to control it his condition and he is immature, therefore that is what leads him to kidnapping the young girl. Where as his older sister who we called Charlotte Clarke, aged 26 has a much higher paid job due to having more intelligence than Will, therefore Charlotte looks after Will due to him having the condition of Insomnia and also Will always goes to his sister for help, therefore they have a close relationship. Moreover, the protagonist in our film is the detective called George Wallace, aged 45 as he retired from his job due to a family incident, however he returned to work due to hearing about what Will had done as his family situation is the same to what happened to the young girl who Will kidnapped, therefore the detective decided that he must come back to work to find out about the mystery.

 Antagonist - Will Clarke

Charlotte Clarke 

When going over my blog looking at my character profiles, I was thinking on how to improve them as they could be made more interesting as it looks quite plain at the moment with  just a description on the character. To improve my character profiles, I have decided to take a picture of all my characters apart from the detective as he isn't in the opening, and annotate around them to say why they have them specific characteristics and why they are wearing that costume and what it symbolises, therefore you can see exactly what they look like and have a clear understanding of them in the film. I will show these improvements later on in the blog, when I am able to take pictures of all my characters.

George Wallace - Detective 

Chloe Brown 

My Potential Treatment - Draft 2

As we had completed our first treatment as a group, we had been given feedback on it and we didn't realise that the treatment was just on the opening not the rest of the film, therefore we has to re write it. Furthermore, for our second draft I decided to write my own treatment, then the others in my group decided to too, therefore we could compare them and choose parts from each that make it sound better rather than using basic words. Therefore, we will create a final draft from mine and my groups second drafts which I will show later on in the blog. Now looking over this treatment, I have realised that it is quite basic and doesn't give enough detail that would interest the audience to watch the opening, as the way I have worded the treatment isn't a high standard, therefore when writing the treatment again I realised how much better it sounded with detail. Also, reading over this treatment I noticed it had some pointless scenes that would just make the opening drag out, therefore when having a group discussion that's why we decided to cut some of the scenes and mainly conversations out. Further on down the blog, you can see the difference in the treatments and how basic this one sounds compared to the other treatment that I had written as a edit.

Thursday 17^TH November

In this lesson, firstly me, Lily and Joe sorted out each of our roles for this production by listing who was doing what. In the lesson Joe wrote down the roles whilst we were all talking about it, however I wrote it up for my blog. As Cameron wasn't in this lesson, it didn't effect us doing our work but in the next lesson we will make sure he knows what we did in the lesson so he isn't behind. We sorted our the roles that we are all doing so that we know who is doing what and so that you know our different roles. Furthermore, as you can see from this list that my main roles in the production is doing all the filming of the opening, location manager and costume designer. Therefore, I will sort out our locations in our opening and I will take pictures of the different locations we are filming at and also, for the costume designer I am going to decide and sort out what costumes all our characters are going to wear. For the costumes, I am going to take pictures of all our characters and I am going to print and annotate around them to explain why they are wearing that certain costume.

Additionally, me, Lily and Joe created a basic plan for what was going to happen throughout our opening of our film and what we would potentially film throughout the opening, therefore we had a clear idea of what was going to happen. This isn't our final plan as Cameron wasn't in today, therefore next lesson we were going to have a discussion about the plan to see if there are any changes that need to be made and next lesson we will annotate it to improve the opening.

First Plan for our opening

Here is a calender with our plan for our next lessons up until Christmas half term, therefore we have planned out what we were going to do in each lesson so that we didn't fall behind and we know what we are doing each lesson. As you can see that in November we are doing all the planning for our film, and then in the beginning of December we carry on with our planning, then we start actually filming our scenes however as our opening scenes can't really be filmed in lesson time as our locations are a bedroom, work desk and park, however the work desk we may be able to film at school due to our classrooms having desks and our teachers offices, therefore this may be an option for us, however the other two locations we will have to film outside of school, therefore this will be after school or on weekends. 

Calender for a Plan for our lessons 

Friday 18^TH November

In this lesson, we were firstly given a sheet to read on how to write and what to include in our treatment as my group had already done our first draft for our treatment, reading and highlighting the extract helped us see where we needed to improve which was to not make the wording basic and describe the characters and setting a bit more so that the audience have a clearer understanding of what they were like. I have added the extract down below and as you can see I have annotated around it to briefly explain what an treatment needs and what to avoid doing in a treatment. From reading this extract, I have learnt that the treatment must be simple and that you can't give too much away, otherwise the audience won't see any point in watching the film as they know what's going to happen anyway. Also, in the treatment you should talk about the characters and their emotions and motives in the film so that you are introducing them which makes it clearer for the audience to know who is who. 

Information on a Treatment

My Own Research - Treatment 

Here I have done my own research on how to write a treatment, as due to having to write one myself as part of my planning for our opening, doing this research will help me write mine as I now know what to include in my treatment and what should and shouldn't be in it. From doing this research the main thing that I noticed is that is should be as short as possible as treatments are known to be quite brief and keep the reader engaged throughout so that they want to read more and watch the film, as the words and information included in the treatment should make the reader think to themselves that this type of film would interest them. Additionally, for a treatment you should always have a purpose as all you want is people to read it and be interested throughout. 

Additionally, as we had completed out first treatment together, I decided to write my own potential treatment as draft 2, I had printed off four copies of the treatment, so that me, Lily, Joe and Cameron could all annotate around it to see where it could be improved and if anything else needed to be added to help us write a final treatment. I have added all the sheets of feedback and edits that I had given myself and what others had written below so that you can see what changes we made and how we are going to improve it. Furthermore, annotating and editing my treatment, actually helped as us all as we were able to see clearly what was needed to be changed for our final one and as we were all reading through it, we were getting different points of view.

Here is my edited version of my own treatment. When reading through it, I was editing it as I went along and I realised that some of the words that I had used were a bit basic and could be developed to sound a lot better and the wording on some of the sentences could have been a bit more developed. Also, I realised that I had added a part that isn't actually included in our opening, therefore it didn't need to be their as the treatment is only meant to have information on storyline for our opening. Editing my own work actually helped me as i could see that the treatment needed to have more detail, however overall we kept most of my treatment and only made a few changes.

My own edit of my Treatment 

Additionally, this is Lily's edit on my treatment and from what she edited in the first paragraph, she noticed similar things to me which was the wording of certain sentences and the words that I had used, therefore from the picture on the first paragraph you can see where she changed them to make the treatment a higher level. Overall, Lily's editing has helped me for when i re-write my groups final treatment as I can now see what words I could potentially use to improve the treatment to make it more appealing for the audience.

Lily's editing on my Treatment

Here is Joe's annotations on my treatment, and he has annotated parts that we has decided to change in the opening and he mainly wrote these whilst we were having a discussion so that we didn't forget what we said but some annotations he did whilst we were all reading through it. This will help me when I write the final treatment as now I have the correct storyline and order of our opening.

Joe's edit on my Treatment

Lastly, here is Cameron's annotations, he has similar annotations to Joe as he annotated about the changes that we had made to our opening and also, where I had added parts that are included in the opening. However, even though all the edited versions of my treatment have helped with re-writing it, the beginning of our opening has changed again due to us discussing the fact of whether it is actually interesting enough for the audience and whether certain parts are necessary, therefore we used the annotations for my treatment that I did, however as we have changed it, we won't be able to use them for our actual final treatment.

Cameron's edit on my Treatment

Furthermore, after we had all edited it, we had a discussion on the storyline of the opening and decided to cut some parts out as they weren't necessary in the opening as we felt it would be a bit boring for the audience so we decided to get rid of parts We also, changed the bit of when Will and his sister Charlotte were at the park as instead of them having a conversation which the audience can hear which we actually decided was pointless, we changed it to having different camera shots of them talking but have music playing instead as we thought that would be more effective for the audience as they wouldn't get bored by their conversation. Overall, after our discussion I made a few more notes on mine so that when I write a draft for our final one I have everything that I need. Moreover, the discussion also helped clear up what was actually happening in our opening as we were talking through each part so that we all understood.

I took the role of re-writing the treatment with all the feedback given, however, I did check a couple of times with my group to make sure that what the order I was writing it in was correct. When I had completed writing it, we read through it and so did our teacher, and after have a discussion about it we decided that the opening was quite jumpy in the way it changes from place to place quite quickly, therefore we made some changes to it and we decided to make it seem more like a haze. Furthermore, I have annotated the treatment in green pen with the parts we were keeping which was the bottom paragraph and I explained at the bottom why we are changing the first part of our opening. Now that we have sorted the beginning part of our opening, I am going to write another treatment with the correct information, hoping that it flows and sounds a lot more interesting and clear to the audience. Overall, it has been a successful lesson as we have finally managed to sort out the storyline and treatment, however it did take while as we had to make quite a few changes especially to the beginning of the opening but we all helped each other in getting it done in the end.

 Draft for our Final Treatment

Whilst I was sorting out and writing up the treatment, Cameron and Joe edited the plan for us as we needed to annotate it to show what we had changed as me, Lily and Joe did create this last lesson but as we had made some changes to our opening, therefore they added parts that we had missed and crossed out the changes so that you could clearly see what we had changed. Furthermore, planning it out like this actually helped us see what was happening clearer as we had written scene to scene of what we wanted to show, therefore we had a basic understanding of what we needed to film for our opening, therefore we can develop it from this sheet to make it even better.

Edited Plan for our Opening 

After Cameron and Joe had edited the plan, Lily typed it all up and she added arrows so that you can see where each scene changes clearly and splitting it up into parts make it easier for us to develop each scene. However, this flow chart that Lily had created got changed a few times as when I was sorting out the final treatment and Lily was typing it up, as a group we were having a discussion about what was happening throughout as we kept changing the beginning to improve our opening as we felt some of the opening wasn't necessary for the audience and that it wouldn't keep them interested, therefore we knew we had to change it.

Final Plan for our Opening

Here I have created a potential camera shot list for part of our opening. These are a few ideas that I have thought of that could potentially be used in our opening, when we start writing the camera shots that we are going to use in our film, I will suggest the ones that I have listed here and we can discuss whether they will work or not. Furthermore, we want to use camera shots that will give an interest to the audience and to get an effect from using them, we don't want to use all basic and similar ones as it just gets boring, we want to use a range throughout. Therefore, looking over a couple that I have listed which are the wide shots, I am now thinking are that actually necessary for using them in them scenes as does the background need to be in it, especially at the start when Will is tossing and turning, as we want to just focus on him and how he sleeps, therefore I now think that we shouldn't use a wide shot for that scene as the background isn't at all necessary. 

Potential Camera Shots

Secondary Research on Insomnia

Additionally, I have done some research on the condition Insomnia as I wanted to find out more about the condition as that is what our film is about. I have found an article from the guardian about someone called Mark Rice-Oxley on how he coped with Insomnia and how it affected his life. Moreover, I found the article very interesting to read as he explained what happens through the night but he made it engaging and at the end you actually felt sorry for him for what he has to go through every night. Reading this article mean't that I was able to find out more about the condition and back up my knowledge so that I understood more clearly on what our character in our film was going through. Furthermore, I have added the link to the article for you to read as I think it is worth reading about, however I have printed off the first 3 paragraphs which is about his story and I have shown this below and annotated around it.

Beginning of his story 

Article on Condition of Insomnia

Furthermore, I have completed some more research on the condition Insomnia due to it being a big part of our film, therefore from reading this the audience can understand what people with Insomnia have to deal with and what they do about it, therefore down below I have added a picture of 4 paragraphs within the article that I have read and annotated and the link from where the information has come from, I have also added below. Moreover, this research that I have done is about when she got insomnia and things she has to do when suffering with Insomnia, therefore she is helping anyone who has the same problem, therefore she is offering advice for anyone that cannot get to sleep, therefore reading this article has made me see the characteristics that our character as he suffers from the same thing, therefore we are able to picture what they are going through to create our opening on how our character has to act. 

Conquering Insomnia

Article on Conquering Insomnia

Another Draft for our Treatment

After getting feedback on our last treatment, I decided to write up another draft but this time making sure the storyline didn't jump in the treatment and also, without including parts that weren't necessary. When writing this treatment, I also decided to add more detail as when reading over the last one I realised that it didn't actually have that much detail and it seemed quite basic. Therefore, whilst I was writing this I was making sure that the treatment sounded interesting for the audience as otherwise they wouldn't want to watch the opening or film. Overall, I thought this treatment sounded a lot better with the detail I added as it wasn't boring to read and the storyline flowed throughout. Also, the ending of the treatment I have kept the same as when I was given feedback, it was said that that the opening was strong, therefore I didn't change it. As my group still needs to complete our final treatment for our opening, hopefully this edited version that I have done will help us complete one and we may also use parts from another treatment from someone in my group and add parts from each so that we make it as good and detailed as we can without giving too much away.

 Draft for my own Treatment 

Thursday 24^TH November

In this lesson we were looking at how to write a script, firstly we were given a two sheets one of a script and another on terminology that is used in a script. We had to highlight and annotate the terminology that we saw in the script so for when we write our one we know what to include, I have shown the sheets below. Furthermore, the terminology sheet helped us with writing the script as we could check that we had added everything that we needed and nothing was missing.

Script Terminology 

Script Example 

My Own Research - Script

Here I have done my own research on what to include and how to write a script, as for our opening we have to create one. Therefore, from doing this research I have learnt how to write a treatment and what to include in it and the main thing is to structure the treatment properly and to only include things that are in the film as the directors/producers follow the script. Additionally, you should always introduce the setting each time it changes so that they know and introduce the place, and you you should make sure that you always set the scene.

Example of a Script

I have also found an example for writing a script with all the things that you need to include in it for example you must have 'FADE IN' at the beginning of the script and you must have a scene heading of where you are locating the dialogue and the time of day it is. Therefore, by looking at this you can easily write a script as everything is on here that you need, so if you are writing one always look at something like this as that way you will never miss anything out. Additionally, when you are typing up the dialogue you must always include the characters name above so that the director or whoever is reading it knows who is mean't to be saying it, therefore it makes it clearer and more understanding. 

Script Example

Example of a Script

Additionally, after we had all annotated the scripts, we then had to write our script for our opening, as we had already decided on roles, Lily created the script for our opening as well as Joe. However, whilst Lily was typing it up, me and Cameron were listing the location and props that we are going to use in our opening, and for this in our next lesson we are going to take pictures of our locations and props, explaining why we chose them. Furthermore, by listing the props and locations, next lesson we are able to take the pictures straight away. Moreover, as Joe had also created a script we annotated Lily's as a draft and therefore decided to keep Joe's as our final script which I have shown below as it was more detailed, however when we read through it we just made a couple of changes that he has missed out.

Lily's Script

Review for Lily's Draft

After reading through Lily's script that I have shown above, there are some positive and negative aspects throughout as when reading through it, Lily had included the right things that are used in a script, for example the scene heading and character names at the beginning of what they say; the length of the script was about right as it wasn't too long, however scripts are normally shown to be longer than the one Lily had created and overall it was a good script as it did make sense. However, I noticed that the script lacked some detail compared to Joe's, therefore Lily needed to add more about the description of characters and locations which would make it clearer for if a director was going to create this film and for the audience. Additionally, Lily needed to improve on showing how the dialogue is shown on the script as it wasn't very clear to see, therefore she could add some punctuation and put the dialogue in the centre of the page.

As you can see from our script we have used that much dialogue in our opening as after having a discussion we felt that even though our characters are having conversations in our opening what they were saying wasn't actually necessary in the opening, therefore we are going to use music instead and also, music creates more of an effect for the audience. Also, when we were given the terminology sheet, this helped us write our script as we could make sure that everything was included and as you can see we have written the script in the correct format.

Final Script

Friday 25^TH November

In this lesson, we learnt about semiotics and got given 4 sheets on the entire semiotics which were Icon, Index, Symbol and Signifier &Signified. As a table we each had a sheet to read and make notes on, and then we had to feed back to the rest of the table so that they understood each semiotic. After we had written down what each one was which I have shown below, we then fed back as a class and went through them all to make sure that we all understood them clearly.

Semiotics

After learning all the semiotics, we then got given a sheet each of two film posters and we had to annotate all the semiotics that were seen in the poster and what they were, which I have added down below. Therefore, from this task we are able to pick out all the different things shown on a film poster and it helped me understand the semiotics better as I was able to pick them out from the posters.

Semiotics

Additionally, after we had fed back as a class, we then got given the task to write a reflection on what we have learnt and improvements that we can do to understand the entire semiotics; therefore this helped us see where we needed to improve. Overall, I found learning these semiotics quite difficult especially explaining them so that I understand them, however after the lesson I read over my notes to make sure that I knew them all a lot clearer and so that I am able to explain them to somebody. Down below I have shown what I learnt and where I need to improve.

Reflection 

As part of my secondary research, I have printed off some thriller film posters to annotate on semiotics to help me understand what they are and where they are shown, and also you will be able to see where the different semiotics are shown on the film posters. Furthermore, as you can see from the film posters, they are set out quite similar as they all include similar parts on each poster.

Firstly, I have chosen the film poster from the thriller 'The Revenant', I added the poster onto a word document and printed it off so that I could annotate the different semiotics around it. For this film, the main focus was on his facial expressions, therefore as you can on the poster, I said that it could connote that he is quite evil due to his eyes and that it could contain a fight scene where it gets quite aggressive. Additionally, I said that the dark and dim colours on the poster signified that it is set in quite a dull location and the weather is very gloomy, therefore this could represent danger because normally that's what dark colour suggest.

Semiotics - The Revenant

Additionally, I then looked at the thriller 'Seven' and this film poster was also quite dark which could suggest that the film could be brutal and I said that the colour of red used over the words signified death or in opposite love as normally that's what that colour normally represents. I also said that the words in the center of the poster signified that all the words mean something within the film, therefore it makes the audience wonder what them words mean and it could make them want to watch it to find out. 

Semiotics - Seven

Location and Props

As part of our planning for our film, we have taken pictures of all our props and locations that I will show down below. We took some of these pictures in lesson time, however the majority of our locations are outside of school, therefore on Friday, me, Lily and Cameron went out at lunch and I took the pictures for our locations and a couple for our storyboard as me and Cameron are creating it. We managed to take all our pictures for our props and locations in that day, therefore it was a successful lesson and day as we managed to complete it and therefore we can move on to more planning more of our opening.

Props 

Laptop

Here, are the props that we are including in our opening. Firstly, we are using a laptop as a prop in the opening as our character Will who suffers with Insomnia has a scene where he is at work, therefore as he has his own desk at work he brings in his own laptop and uses that, therefore this makes it easier for him as he doesn't have to write much, he can just type. Also, the laptop helps symbolise that he is at work and that he works in an office; therefore it makes it easier for the audience to understand his location. 

Phone

Additionally, we are using an IPhone as a prop within the opening, this will be seen when Will is tossing and turning in bed due to Insomnia and he checks the time before he gets up and he may even check it when he keeps waking up in the night due to his condition. Furthermore, by using the IPhone it is showing the opening is a lot more modern as the IPhone is quite new and also the phone is used to symbolise the time for both the character and the audience, as they are able to clearly see what his night is like and the time he gets up from having barely any sleep. 

Watch 

Also, we have decided to use a watch in our opening film as in the scene where Will's sister Charlotte meets him at the park, she looks at her watch and realises that she needs to be back at work, therefore the prop is used so that the audience understand why she has left and the story line will flow better as it will make sense, rather than just seeing her walk off. Furthermore, a watch is a well known prop in thriller films, especially in 'Inception' when there was two close up shots in the opening with exaggerated sound of the ticking which was representing a bomb going off, therefore the prop of a watch is normally used to symbolise something within a opening. 

Locations

Additionally, these are our different locations where we are filming our opening, they all represent a different part of our opening.

Bedroom

Our first location is a bedroom, where Will is tossing and turning in bed as he can't sleep due to his condition of Insomnia, therefore we are showing this scene of him in bed so that the audience understand what he has to go through most nights and the story line will flow much better as it starts from the beginning of his day. Additionally, we have chosen to locate this in a male characters bedroom so that is is more realistic and as our character with Insomnia is a male, also we decided to start with the scene of the bedroom as it goes through his daily life.

Work

Additionally, this is the location for where Will works, therefore we are filming a scene to show how his day is at work, which is that he falls asleep due to the tiredness. At work we are showing him with piles of work, however he rarely manages to complete the work due to being too tired and from falling asleep all the time. We decided to show a scene of Will at work so that the audience can see his day and what he is like a work, therefore the story line flows better. 

Park

Another location where we are filming is at a park, this is where Will wakes up from falling asleep at work, leading him to wake up here and Charlotte goes there to meet Will in their lunch break, however Will is confused. We decided to locate some of our opening in the park as, as our opening is about a man with Insomnia, who kidnaps a young girl due to his condition and falling asleep, therefore, as young children are known to go to the park it linked well with the narrative as the girl was at the park whilst Will and Charlotte were there, that's why we decided on the location. Additionally, using the park as a location will make it clearer for the audience as seeing the girl in the park will make them recognise her at the end of the opening, therefore they will understand why she is there and who she is. 

Park

Room where Chloe is found 

In our last location, we are showing Chloe tied up a room of our character Will's house, to show the kidnapping that he had done through his condition of Insomnia getting worse, however in the opening you don't actually see him do it, all you see is her sitting in the corner of the room looking scared. We decided to show Chloe in another room as it would make the audience wonder why Chloe is in there and it will be a mystery as they will want to find out why she has ended up their, as this is our final location for our opening as we want to leave the audience wanting to watch the film, therefore it will end with seeing her in the room as we feel as if the audience will want to know what has happened to her. 

Monday 28TH November 

In this lesson we firstly listed all the different camera shots, camera angles, movements and compositions which I will show below as this will help when we are planning our shot list as we can make sure that we use a variety throughout to interest the audience. In the lesson we watched 'Amelie' and we wrote all the different parts of cinematography that we saw throughout the scene, however as part of this lesson, I have done my own research and I have found two thriller scenes from two different thriller films from youtube and I am going to say the different shots that are used throughout and the effect that they create.

The Dark Knight Rises 

Firstly, when searching on youtube for 'The Dark Knight Rises', I found this scene of the prison escape which I have added below, whilst watching it I noted down all the different camera shots, movements and angles used throughout the scene and the effect created, which I will show below. Watching this scene, helped see the variety of shots used within and why they were used, therefore this will help for our opening as I am able to see where the different shots are used and how we can use them in our scenes in our opening. Their are many different shots used in The Dark Knight Rises which I will show underneath.

Cinematography

From watching 'The Dark Knight Rises', above I have listed some cinematography that has been used throughout the scene and it made me see how they use the shots and angles and why, as the different variety that they have included intrigued me to want to watch the whole scene to see what happens to him in the end. When watching it, I noticed that low and high angles are effective and engaging techniques to use as it really makes us as an audience watch to see whether he achieved his plan by getting out of the prison. Moreover, for our film opening we could potentially use high and low angles, however we are more likely to use high angles due to the content of out opening, therefore we could use a high angle when Charlotte is helping Will up from the floor as we could have the camera above showing her helping him, instead of having a basic wide shot, therefore this will be more interesting for the audience.

Fast and Furious 6  

Additionally, I found a clip of a chase sequence in 'Fast and Furious 6', which I am going to use to identify all the different camera shots, angles and camera movements throughout, therefore I can see even more shots used and how they are used in this scene. In this scene as it is a chase sequence a variety of shots, angles and movements have been used from all the different angles, therefore it made the scene a lot more interesting and engaging for the audience. 

Cinematography

Additionally, for the scene in 'Fast and Furious 6', I listed some cinematography that has been used throughout to create an effect for the audience. When watching it, the shot I liked was the one at the beginning through the binoculars as it made it seem like we were there with them and it put us in that characters position as its from their point of view, therefore we were able to see what was going on in that scene and just from that shot without seeing the title of the scene you could tell that it was going to be a chase sequence. I also liked the tracking shot that was used as it felt like we were in the car with them and we could feel the speed of the car, therefore I thought that, that was a good movement to use in that scene.

Script Cinematography Annotations 

Additionally, in the lesson Joe printed off his script and we all had a copy to annotate the different camera shots, angles and movements that we could use in the different scenes of our opening, therefore we all have a variety to choose from and we can all discuss what shots we are going to use and what shots will be better for the specific scenes. Also, doing this we are able to come up with different shots that are potential, therefore have all come up with our own ideas. As we have all finished annotating them, next lesson as a group we will finish our shot listing and write the correct ones that we are going to use throughout the opening. 

Cinematography for our Final Script

At the beginning of the opening, I have annotated the part where Will is tossing and turning in bed and suggested that we could use a wide shot and a close. The wide shot could be used to show his fully body in bed and the things that he has to put up with due to his condition, therefore the audience can fully understand the character. Also, the wide shot helps the audience see clearly what someone with Insomnia has to go through. Additionally, a close up shot of Will laying in bed, shows his facial expressions and you can see his emotions through the irritation of not being able to sleep due to Insomnia, therefore you can tell that he is getting fed up with not being able to sleep.

Furthermore, another annotation that I have suggested is to use an over the shoulder shot when Will and his sister Charlotte are talking in the park, therefore the audience will be able to understand what both their characters are saying and the main focus is on the character speaking and in the frame. Also, the over shoulder shot creates an effect to the audience on what their relationship is like and therefore for our opening, Will and Charlotte have quite a close relationship as she looks after him. Moreover, I have annotated that we could use a zoom in when Will drifts off to sleep, therefore the audience will focus on him and nothing else in the frame, and also the audience can see his facial expressions with the camera zooms in on his face.

Final Treatment 

After completing many drafts for our final treatment we have finally got a final draft for our opening which I will show below. For this treatment, Joe wrote it up using a few ideas from the other treatments that had been written, as we kept improving it due to including parts that weren't necessary, therefore I re-typed the final treatment to put on my blog. As you can see from our treatment we have included all the parts that we needed that are happening in our opening, however we haven't gone into too much detail as we don't want to give too much away as we want the audience to watch to find out what is going to happen. Also, in the treatment we have introduced the characters clearly by showing their names in capitals and for our main character Will we have given a description, so that the audience understand a bit about him.

Cinematography List

Here, from all our scripts that we annotated, we have created a shot list on some of the shots that we are going to use in our opening. Additionally, Joe created the shot list as it was his script that we used for the annotations,however I have added my own information which I have highlighted in green.

Scene 1:

1. Steadicam medium shot (POV) using Alfred Hitchcock's technique of making the camera another character. It'll be a slow Steadicam through a hallway, up a set of stairs and left into Will's room. This shot really builds up the tension because the slow movement teases the audience and make them really want to find out the destination of the moving camera. Also, as it is leading to Will Clarke's room, the audience are intrigued to see what’s round the corner, therefore instead of straight away showing Will's room we wanted to build up the scene.

2. High angle of Will trying to sleep, but he's unable to and keeps tossing and turning. This shot connotes the fact that he's inferior and is being beaten by his insomnia. Additionally, by using a high angle you are able to see his whole and the movements that he does to try and get to sleep from his condition, therefore seeing it from a high angle gives the audience the full picture and by using a high angle it is a lot clearer than just using a wide shot.

3. Medium shot of Will throwing off the covers in anger, which fills the screen with black, therefore this sets up the next scene without it getting confusing for the audience. Also, covering the screen shows the frustration of him not being able to sleep and that as he goes to get out of bed, it connotes the fact that he just gets up due to lack of sleep.

Scene 2:

1. One continuous medium shot which slowly zooms on Will, eventually the whole frame is taken up by his face. This is to show the audience that he is unaware of what happens when he blacks out. By using this shot it shows the surroundings of where he is and then by zooming in, it shows his facial expressions.

Scene 3:

1. The camera zooms out to a new location as a bird's eye view. Zooms from Will's face, out to show the location has changed to a field. Therefore, this helps the transition between the two scenes as it will make it clearer and additionally, due to his condition of Insomnia the audience will understand why his location keeps changing and why he keeps sleeping, so we decided to use zoom in and zoom out to make the opening clearer to the audience. 

2. High Angle/ Over the shoulder shot of Charlotte helping Will up, from over her shoulder looking down onto Will. Shows that there's a conversation, facial expressions and the fact that Charlotte is superior to Will, because her mental state is more stable than his. Moreover, it shows their relationship is quite close as she looks after Will due to what he suffers with, therefore it suggest that Charlotte always looks out for him as some days he is that bad that he needs looking after as he could do anything that he shouldn't. 

3. As they walk towards the bench a Dutch angled close up of Will shows his confusion as he says his dialogue.

4. As Charlotte says her dialogue, an over the shoulder shot will be used, she will be turned towards Will at this point. This shows the fact that they're having a conversation and shows the talker (Charlotte) and her facial expressions as she speaks, but also acknowledges Will being there.

5. Close up of Will as his eyes start to close and him trying to fight it. This focuses the audience's attention on the fact that Will is trying to stay awake and makes sure that they don't look at Charlotte who's dialogue isn't significant after a certain point, which is why it fades out. Using this shot, will make sure that the audience just focus on Will and nothing else in the scene as Will's actions is what is portrayed as important in this scene as the audience can see what he goes through in his daily life. 

6. The first of many quick shots of Will that are Dutch angles, this one is from far away, making it a long shot. This won't be steady and will shake slightly. This is in order to disorientate the audience showing the psychotropic state that Will is in, in this scene. This shot is only slightly canted because the effect will be too great as it's a long shot.

7. A fast, canted pan of Will. The pan is left to right and is at medium height, therefore you can see the setting of where Will is and his expressions.

8. This shot will break the 180 degree rule, this is done to disorientate the audience. It's a shot of Will from behind the bench is a canted static medium shot. Additionally, breaking this rule confuses the audience, therefore this should make them watch the rest to see what happens and to understand what is happening throughout the opening.

9. Another long shot of Will but this time it's a static shot but it zooms in quickly.

10. The final quick shot of Will in his psychotropic state. This one is a fast Tilt which is up to down. All of these shots (from shot 6-10) are to create an element of paranoia, which is a symptom of insomnia because you can't think straight, as I found in my secondary research.

11. Close up of the right side of Will's face, which then pull focuses to Chloe playing in the playground. (Still keeping the pace of cuts up). This foreshadows that something will happen between him and the girl and forces the audience to look at her hinting that she is significant to the narrative. Showing Chloe in this scene will make the audience wonder what she represents and whether she is included in the narrative, therefore this makes the audience want to watch the rest to see who she is and why she was shown in that scene. Also, this is a good way to introduce a character as it isn't obvious to the audience, therefore it doesn't give to much away but when they see her in the scene, they will then understand why she was shown in the scene at the park.

12. Quick zoom in on Will's face as he starts to go to sleep, to continue the motif going of when he goes to sleep, the camera zooms in then out. This would be a wide angle to a close up, therefore the shot is showing where Will is located before falling asleep and then to his face which shows him drifting off to sleep, so as an audience you can see that him falling asleep is a repeated problem throughout the day.

Scene 4:

1. Zooms out again to show the new location. This time it zooms out to a master shot of the front room. To show the audience that Will has had another black out. We have used zoom in and out for each time that Will blacks out so that the understand will understand that every time that cinematography techniques is used, it will represent Will drifting off to sleep.

2. POV shot from Will's perspective on the sofa looking at who is calling him. This tells the audience who's calling him, therefore they see how he reacts to getting the phone call due to who it is from and this shot shows his actions from his perspective.

3. His reaction is shown in a medium shot of him on the sofa, it also shows him trying and failing to answer the phone as it cuts off. Therefore you can see his reaction to when his phone is ringing and what he does to react to it ringing.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Scene 4.1:

1. Medium and tracking shot of Will putting on his tie, this shows him clearly putting on his tie to show what he's doing.

2. A close up of Will, as he finishes putting on his tie, he walks towards the camera. When the thud occurs, he stops. The camera moves then past him as a Steadicam and focuses on the door where the noise came from. Therefore, this shows that the room with that door is representing the noise so we wanted to make sure that the audience focus on the door not anything else in the scene and it makes the audience wonder what the noise is. 

3. A close up on Will's face as he approaches the door, to capture his confusion and the fact that he doesn't know what's in the room. Using a close up shot of Will's face shows the emotions on Will's face and as he doesn't know what is behind the door, therefore it helps the audience understand how he is feeling and you can connote how he feeling about opening the door to investigate what the noise was.

4. (Match on action)- extreme close up of his hand slowly opening the door, to build suspense. We decided to use a extreme close up shot on Will opening the door to engage the audience and to build up the scene so that they wait to see what is behind the door, therefore using this shot makes it more engaging for the audience instead of just using a medium shot of the door as we just wanted the audience to focus on the handle.

5. Then after he opens the door, a dolly zoom on Chloe to emphasise the fact that Will is shocked, Chloe's not supposed to be there and to exaggerate the shock for the audience also. Therefore, using this technique helped show the audience the impact on Will of Chloe being there and his confused face on how she even ended up in the room,however from this scene the audience would have recognised the girl from the park scene therefore they would of understood who she is.

6. A fast zoom on Will's face to further drive home that he is shocked and to focus the audience's attention on his gasp.

All these camera shots that I have listed above are shots that we intend to use in our opening and we hope that they all engage our audience to the opening as we didn't want to use all basic shots, we wanted to use a variety, which we have achieved in the list.

Certificate Ratings/BBFC Research 

Additionally, here I have added all the certificate ratings so you can see what the range is. These are important as when creating a film you must think about the age you are going to target for your film, otherwise the audience won't know whether the film is appropriate for them, especially for younger children as they can only watch films appropriate for their age. Moreover, age ratings are important to have for all films as the content of the films are normally only targeted to a certain age group mainly due to the codes and conventions included. Furthermore, when creating our opening we consistently thought about our target audience for our opening, we had decided on targeting the opening to 15 and over as the narrative is about a male with Insomnia, and anyone younger wouldn't understand what Insomnia is and also some of the content involved wouldn't be appropriate for anyone younger, therefore that's why we decided on 15 and over. In our production, we will have to take into account that what we are going to include in our opening is suitable for 15 and above, however we know that due to going over our narrative that it is suitable for that age range due to what is included. 

CBBFC is designed to give children the low down on age ratings in the UK, and offer them a chance to find out about recent films. Also, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is an independent body which has classified cinema films since it was set up in 1912 and DVDs since the Video Recordings Act was passed in 1984.

Still Frame Analysis 

As part of my research I have decided to look at sill frame analysis. From doing this I can now see what is used in films to create something for the audience, therefore when creating our film I will know what different things I can use to create an effect for our audience. The first film I looked at was 'Inception' and then I looked at 'The Dark Knight Rises'.

Inception 

The Dark Knight Rises

Font Analysis 

As part of my research for when we create a film and the font we use for the title of ours, I am looking at the different types of font analysis used within films, therefore it helps me see the variety used, therefore I will analyse some and suggest to why they get used for that specific film so it will help my group choose ours. Firstly, I looked at the font for the film 'Shutter Island' and from the poster you can see that is is quite bold and brighting, attracting the audiences attention. Moreover, I then looked at the font of a film called 'Divergent', this title was thinner and not as bold as shutter island, therefore overall for our film I will chose a bolder font to attract the audience to it, so that it stands out to them as that is what we want.

Monday 5^TH December 

In this lesson, firstly we discussed our production name and logo, however Cameron and Joe decided to take this role as they had already thought about the name for it, but me and lily did get involved in the discussion and make sure that the names they were saying were appropriate as a production name and professional. At the beginning they had come up with one production name which was G-Wizz which I have shown below and then Joe drew the logo, then they thought of another idea called Grizzly Wizard Films which Joe also drew the logo for. Additionally, for the first one that Joe created which was G-Wizz, after he had drew it we discussed it and then Joe thought of another idea and decided to create a second logo and name which I have shown below and after he had completed that one, we compared the two and talked about which one we preferred. 

First Production Name and Logo

We decided on 'Grizzly Wizard Films' as after Joe had designed it he asked what one I preferred and I said this one as it looks and sounds more professional, also as he asked Lily and Cameron they both agreed with me and Joe himself preferred this one, therefore we had all come to a final decision to have this as our production name and logo. Moreover, as it was named Grizzly Wizard Films, that attracted us more to this one as it sounded more professional and like a production name than G-Wizz, therefore that's another reason why we chose this one.

Final Production Name and Logo

Storyboard 

Furthermore, whilst Cameron and Joe were creating the production name and logo, me and Lily were creating our own storyboards and I will add mine down below. For my storyboard I printed off some templates and from our shot list I created a storyboard and drew each shot in the boxes right till the end of the opening. I decided to draw it as it makes it clearer to see and understand the shots from what is written underneath. Then, after I had drew all the different shots, I wrote underneath what shot it was, what the shot was showing, the sound in the scene and where it was located, therefore anyone looking at the storyboard would understand what is happening throughout the opening as the storyboard flowed throughout. 

This is the storyboard, that I have drawn out myself to show each shot and underneath I have explained what it is of and the type of shot that we are using so that the audience can understand and have an idea of what shot we are using. Additionally, on this storyboard I have included an estimate of the shot length, some ideas for transitions and change in location, therefore it makes it clearer for a director/ producer who is looking at the storyboard to understand it better as all the information needed on a storyboard is on there. Furthermore, it makes it easier for us when we go to film our opening as its a plan of what we need to film for each shot, therefore it gives us a clearer view of what each shot looks like and we use this to film with our shot list as it makes filming a lot more easier for us which means we can get is done as everything is planned. As you can see from our storyboard we have used quite a lot of shots in different locations, therefore that's why we have so man y shots as want to show different things to explain what happens through his day when coping with insomnia. We have used quite a lot of close ups which then zoom out to link locations together so that they flow together and show the fact that he keeps falling asleep due to being so tired.

Schedule 

Here, I have created a schedule for our opening, as it goes through what shots and props that we are going to use within the scene, the location where we are filming, the equipment that we are going to use, the cast (actors) throughout our opening and what day and time that we are going to film each scene. Therefore, this has helped with knowing what we are going to film and the day that we are doing it as it is all planned so we will finish filming what's needed this week, therefore we are on target as if we need to add anything or re-film then we will have next week to make any changes. Additionally, this schedule makes it clearer for us for everything needed for our opening as all the equipment needed to film the scenes is on this table which makes it better for us when we start filming as we can check that we have it all, especially as we are filming the majority of our opening outside of school we will need to check that we have everything we need with us, otherwise if anything is forgotten then that could mean we can't film which could put us behind.  

Costumes/ Update of Character Profiles

As part of our character profiles and costumes of our characters in our opening, and as  I am costume designer, I have taken a picture of all of our 3 characters and annotated why we decided for them to were that specific costume and what it represents, I will show these below. Therefore, after taking pictures I added them to a word document and printed all 3 of and wrote around them or why we chose those costumes. 

Additionally, for Charlotte Clarke (Lily), who is Will's sister is shown to be intelligent due to her costume and her job description as she is a lot more smarter than Will. We dressed her in business where to show that she has come from work as in our opening she goes to meet Will in there lunch break in a park as Will's condition is getting worse. Furthermore, the costume of Charlotte just helps the audience see what type of character she is and it represents the location. 

Charlotte Clarke

Moreover, our main character Will Clarke (Cameron), who is dealing with the condition of Insomnia, after having one of the worst nights sleep we show his day with coping with the condition and what occurs throughout the day. We decided on Will wearing a suit to show that he does go to work, even though he doesn't have a higher up job like Charlotte, he still has to wear a suit to work and the scene in the park then helps show the audience that he has come from work instead of being in casual clothing. 

Will Clarke

Chloe is the young girl who Will kidnaps during our story line, however we don't actually show the scene but we represent that something has happened during our opening. We decided to have Chloe's costume of her in her uniform to represent that she is a young child and also for the scene in the park, it represents that she has gone to the park after school, therefore it makes the narrative more realistic. Furthermore, at that age they are more likely to get kidnapped than if you were older, therefore that's why we also decided to have a child that young.

Chloe

Re-Film

Wednesday 14^TH December 

Last lesson, we had a discussion on the fact that our opening doesn't make sense, therefore we had discussed a few changes which ended up in a disagreement within the group. As we knew that we needed to make changes and we didn't communicate as a group and discuss how we are going to move forward, me and lily came up with our ideas and Joe and Cameron came up with there's, therefore we weren't sorting out how were going to change our opening and what we were going to do to fix it which caused a few problems. Therefore, today me, Cameron and Joe stayed after school as Lily couldn't and discussed with sir the problem and what both our ideas were, then me, Cameron and Joe discussed between us what we should do with our film and the overall conclusion was that we were going to change what we have included in our opening but keep the storyline similar with a few changes. We then discussed what we wanted to include in our opening and we all came up with ideas that I brainstormed and will add below but we had a constant discussion about it making sure that we were all on the same level. 

Mindmap of Ideas for our opening 

When I had written down the ideas, we then spoke about structuring our opening and what we wanted to include throughout, therefore I took the role of writing down what is going to happen throughout and showing a clear structure of the shots and what is was we were filming. Whilst I was writing this we kept having a discussion and all of us were throwing in ideas of parts to add within the opening and things that can be included to help the audience understand that he has Insomnia. Also, for our last opening that we created, it didn't seem like a thriller, therefore this time we need to make sure that the codes and conventions we use make it look more like a thriller. Furthermore, I feel like this was a successful afternoon/ evening as we managed to sort out what we need to film and the improvements that we are going to make to our opening so that the audience understand what is happening throughout, compared our first opening where we realised that the audience wouldn't understand. 

Structure of Opening

Above I have added the structure of what is going to happen throughout our opening, I took the role of writing this when I was having a discussion with Cameron and Joe, however we will update Lily on what we have planned for the opening. As you can see we have decided to have a voice over continuously throughout the opening as we think it will more interesting for the audience understand what he is going to through and how he is feeling, and also, the audience will hopefully understand that he has Insomnia, through what he is saying and through research the voice overs seem effective and for scenes where I suggested about him sitting in the corner, we can show to the audience how he is feeling and what he is thinking, therefore they can understand his character. Additionally, we decided to have the majority of the shots in his bedroom, to show that he is trapped due to not being able to sleep and that he can't get rid of his condition, therefore its showing the audience that he is like this constantly. After discussing the structure and sorting out what is happening, we have now planned to start filming tomorrow, hopefully completing the majority of filming in tomorrows lesson and after school and if not finish filming on Friday. 

Potential Shot List

Here, I have created a potential shot list for our narrative for our new opening as we have changed the shots we are using, therefore I have created my own shot list to give ideas forward on different ways we can film. Furthermore, I have suggested a variety of different shots that we could potentially use so that we aren't using the same shots and angles throughout the opening, therefore we are keeping the audience more interested to the opening as its not from the same angle. Additionally, using these shots and the voice over, will work well as for some of the scenes the focus is just on him and what his is feeling and thinking, therefore the audience are connected with the character due to what is going through his head, this makes the audience want to watch as they care connecting with the character. 

My Treatment 

As we have changed what we are showing and we are re-filming our opening due to our original not making sense to the audience, therefore we need to create everything again, so I have decided to create my own treatment as part of my planning for what is now happening during our opening, which I have added below. Therefore, this will help the audience see the progression and what we have changed within our opening.

WILL CLARKE a depressed young man who is trying to cope with his condition of Insomnia, traps himself in his house, especially his bedroom. Day and night. He sits in that bedroom trying to get himself to sleep, however he is unsuccessful every time. One day, Will's condition worsened, he laid on his bed going over in his head what he had done. Thinking it was a dream, Will throws cold water onto his face to wake him self up realising that is wasn't a dream at all. Wanting to sleep, Will goes to collect his pills hoping that he will forget what he has done and get some needed sleep. Yet again he was unsuccessful. Will decided to make a coffee to stop the drowsiness, burning himself in the process. Angrily, Will sits in the corner of his bedroom fed up of not being able to cope, thinking to himself and his feelings running through his head on what he should do about not sleeping. Will still believes what he didn't wasn't true, he goes to check...did he kidnap Chloe or did he not?

Thursday 15^TH December 

As we decided to start our filming in our lesson, which was after lunch, we therefore left at lunch, to go to our location and start filming. However, as I am camera women, I also took the role of taking pictures of our location and props that had changed for our opening as we had added props in to make it look more like a thriller and so that the audience understand that he has insomnia, as our original opening didn't make that clear to the audience, therefore that's how we knew that we had to re think and discuss re-filming the opening. Therefore, I have added the pictures below to show what we are the using, the one of his bedroom is the same as we are still using that location, however all the rest have been added in.

Props & Location 

Props:

Here, I have taken a picture of all the props that we are using in our opening and they are all shown in one shot, and they all represent something in the opening. The main thing that these props are showing are that he takes these to help him get to sleep as through them, especially the box that says sleep aid, makes it clearer to the audience that he cant sleep and also, all these tables show how many he can take to help him as he struggles that much. Additionally, when re-filming we decided to use these props to make it clearer for to the audience on what condition he is suffering with which will make the opening more understandable for the audience, and also to create more of a thriller as our genre we chose was a thriller. Additionally, as he is suffering with insomnia, we are showing a scene where he takes a pill, therefore that's also why we used these as props. 

Furthermore, here are some more props that we are using in our opening which are a Kettle and a mug when our main character Will makes himself a coffee to try and wake himself up from being so tired. However, through this process he manages to burn himself showing the audience that he is even not capable to make himself a hot drink, therefore we decided to add this scene as another way of Will attempting to wake himself up but also show how is character is weak due to such lack of sleep and that he needs sleep to have some energy in him, however he is never able to get to sleep, causing him so much distress. 

Kettle

Mug

Locations:

As we decided to film our opening at one location, we therefore use a couple of places within the house which were his bedroom, bathroom and kitchen, so that we could show different parts of him suffering and being incapable with having this condition. We filmed in 3 rooms, due to making it more interesting for the audience instead of it just being in his bedroom, therefore the audience are seeing how he copes and what he does to try and wake himself up. Our first location was his bedroom, which we kept the same as he still has Insomnia but we are showing it differently making it more clearer to the audience as our original opening, didn't make that clearer for the audience, therefore that's why we knew we had to re-film as the may point we needed to get across is that he has a condition. For this location of his bedroom, we aren't actually showing him in bed, we are showing different things to represent the fact that he can't sleep, and as we have decided to have a voice over throughout our opening to connect the character with the audience, therefore some scenes we are just having Will sit or lay and have the voice over on how he is feeling and what he is thinking, therefore the audience are able to understand what he is going through.

Bedroom

Additionally, we then filmed at the location of a bathroom where Will throws and splashes cold water over his face to try and wake himself up, however he was unsuccessful, as he was still looking so drowsy through his facial expressions when he looked at himself in the mirror. We decided to have a scene in the bathroom to show him looking at himself in the mirror to show what he looks like and through this scene we are going to have a voice over on how he feels, therefore the audience can connect with the character and hear from his point of view on what he is thinking with this condition and how he deals with it. We decided to use cold water as wanted to show the fact that he does try to wake himself up and that is isn't completely lazy, therefore the audience are able to see different ways that he copes with this. 

Bathroom

Costume

As we have changed our main character of Will, however he still suffers with the condition of Insomnia but he doesn't go to work as he is too weak and unable to attend due to constantly being tired from lack of sleep, therefore we decided to change it to him just being at home as it would make more sense to the audience and we would be able to show the audience that he has insomnia from being at home trying to wake himself up instead of keep changing the location which didn't make sense to the audience in the first place. As I was designated the job of costume, I therefore took a picture of Will's costume which was casual clothing due to him not going out and it seeming like he is trapped at home due to what he has done and not being able to go out due to always being tired and not being able to cope with Insomnia. The costume represents the fact that he doesn't go out, therefore it makes the character clearer for the audience to understand what he is like. 

Additionally, as I am costume designer I have taken another of picture of Will Clarke to show his change in costume as he now isn't going to work in our opening, he just stays at home which is his daily routine due to suffering with Insomnia. I decided for him to wear casual clothing (tracksuit bottoms) as that is normally what people wear when they don't go out anywhere to be comfy, therefore this fits his character as he is weak due to having repeated nights with no sleep, therefore all he does is lay about forcing to get to sleep, however it never works. Furthermore, as he mainly traps himself in his room he doesn't really bother getting changed as he can be too tired to move, therefore that't also why I chose casual clothing as its what he wears all the time, not wanting to change into anything else. We had to change Will's costume due to changing his character within the opening as we are re-filming, therefore you can now understand our character a lot better and through his costume you can portray what he is like within the opening and in daily life. 

Character Profile

Additionally, even though our character still has Insomnia we are changing the background of our character, therefore below I have typed up the new version of our character Will Clarke due to us making some changes as our character now doesn't go to work as he isn't capable so he has no choice to stay at home which makes him feel like he is trapped in his own home from never being able to go out. Furthermore, we have got rid of the other characters within the original opening, due to his sister not being necessary in this one as we are showing that he can't even go out of his home, therefore we decided to cut her out of the opening. 

Character Profile -

Name: Will Clarke 

Age: 22

Gender: Male

Hair Colour: Black

Appearance: Casual Clothing, Top & Tracksuit Bottoms
Character: He is a young man who is suffering with the condition of Insomnia, leading him to being weak and vulnerable due to him never being able to sleep, therefore trapping himself in the house especially his room where he lays day in and day out. Moreover, he manages to kidnap a child, however due to his condition he doesn't believe that he has done it, therefore he tries to convince himself that he hasn't done it when he realises that he has. Will is an incapable man who can't cope by himself as it leads him to doing stupid things. 

Final Shot list

As I have created a potential shot list from looking at the structure of the film, Joe therefore took the role of writing up the shot list due to us wanting to re-film as soon as possible and some we had already planned, therefore Joe added to it and changed a few to make it more interesting for the audience. Additionally, I have added some of my own annotations that I have highlighted in green to make it clearer to see.

Shot list:

1. The camera moves in a low dolly over the bed with a Steadicam, this shot allows the audience to infer that Will is an insomniac because of the props, it also is a kind of ‘calm before the storm’ as it’s a slow shot before the quick shots which will come. Additionally, showing this scene at the beginning will made it clearer to the audience that he is struggling to sleep as showing the props, especially the pills will show that he takes these to help him sleep, therefore straight away the audience should be able to understand the storyline.

2. Wide angle showing Will getting on top of his bed, which allows the audience to see the whole room. Moreover, using a wide shot will show all the props like the pills and prescription, therefore showing that he takes these before going to sleep, however they never work.

3. A high angle then, on Will laying on his bed closing his eyes while the voice over speaks. His eyes then open and he leaves the frame. This shows that Will is inferior in this scene to his condition of insomnia and you can see the force through his eyes of him trying to get to sleep, as he never gives up on trying because he just wants it to stop and go away, therefore the audience can connect with how he is feeling. 

4. He goes to the bathroom, over the shoulder shot, showing his reflection. This tells the audience that he’s reflecting on himself. A close up of covering his face in cold water to wake himself up. Furthermore, this shot clearly shows his emotions and through his facial expressions you can see the distress he is in through the mirror, this makes this shot a lot more interesting from the audience its a different way to show his expressions and you can see how he reacts to the water. 

5. Medium shot of Will going from the bathroom back to the bedroom, this is just to show that he’s walked back into his room, therefore this makes the next scene flow and it shows the audience the change in room as the next scene is when he goes back into his room angrily. 

6. Low angle of Will sitting on the edge of his bed, and taking one of the pills, trying to get some sleep. This is to juxtapose the high angle earlier showing that he’s trying to overcome his condition. And to change the audience’s focus from Will to the tablets. He lays down on his bed and the camera stays on his face as he lays down.

7. Quick cuts of Will making the coffee, he burns himself. All these quick cuts will make it better for the audience so that is doesn't drag and also, we decided to have a quick cut of Will burning himself to show that he is incapable so that is why it has lead to him burning himself, showing the audience that he can't even make a cup of coffee for himself. 

8. The camera from the opposite side of the room, showing Will coming in the door of his bedroom before he slams the door and slides down in the corner. A high angle of him whilst voice over is going which shows again the condition has got the upper hand now. He questions whether it was real. He gets up and rushes out of the door. 

9. Everything slows down and a medium shot of the camera going through Will's hand to see the door. Therefore, it is building the tension for the audience on what is behind the door and using this shot makes it more intriguing and it makes it clear that the character Will links to it. 

10. An extreme close-up of the door handle opening slowly. Therefore, this will leave the audience wanting to see what is behind the door and whether he has committed a crime or it was all a dream. It will make the audience sit on there edge of their seat waiting to see whether he has done it or not. Additionally, we filmed this shot, however we haven't decided whether this will be the end of not as we may use shot 9 instead. 

Storyboard

As we have now completed our final shot list, I have drawn out my own storyboard of our opening so that you have an idea of what we are filming in our opening and therefore it will make it easier for us when we start re-filming our opening as for our original opening we also had the storyboard when filming and it made it much easier, therefore I decided that I would draw another and to show the changes we have made between the openings. Moreover, this time the storyboard will be clearer and make more sense from shot to shot as overall the storyline makes sense compared to our original. 

Above is the storyboard that I have drawn out of each shot included in our opening, and I have written underneath what is happening in each shot and the angle/shot that we have chosen. Therefore you can read what shots we have used, and also I have added the type of sound that we are using either diegetic or non-diegetic. As part of planning, I have added a potential shot length and potential transitions between the shots. 


My Idea's for Voice over

As we have decided to include a voice over in our opening for effect, as part of my own planning I have listed some ideas of things that could be said in our voice over, to help the audience understand what is going on and so that they can connect with the character. Additionally, as we want the voice over to be the main focus due to the effect it will create on the audience as they will hear personally how he feels about the situation he is in, therefore that's why we want to make it as effective and interesting as we can. 

Script
As we have decided to have a voice over throughout our new opening, we have therefore created a script with everything that is being said throughout the voice over. Moreover, as we have created a whole new opening as our first one didn't make sense for the audience, that's why we have had to create a whole knew script as the dialogue has completely changed. Due to Joe recording the voice over using the camera provided, he created the script and as the voice over was good first time round of doing it, we therefore kept the script as it is. As you can see above I brainstormed some potential ideas of things that could have been included in the voice over, however as it was Joe's role he decided that he would do the script. From the script you can see where the location has changed, the time of day and who is speaking throughout, as we just have one actor within our opening who is Will Clarke he speaks all through the opening but in parts as some shots didn't need the voice over. 

Script 

Camera Equipment

Throughout filming, we used a camera, tripod and steadicam, therefore to show this I took a picture of the equipment on the day where we re-filmed the opening so that we could show the equipment that we have used through the process of filming. All this equipment was needed to film our opening, therefore I have added the pictures below and explain why they were important for filming as to get a high standard film you need the camera to be steady. Furthermore, I used this camera to film as I was the camera women, as I hadn't used this camera before, it took me a bit of time getting used to it and finding out where all the buttons are, however after a few takes, I got used to using it and therefore it was good to use in the end.

Camera

I also used a steadicam through filming our opening, however we only used it once and this was right at the beginning of our re-film when the camera went over the props to show that is had Insomnia and that he takes pills due to not being able to sleep, therefore it was making it clearer to the audience. Anyway, we used a steadicam to keep the camera still and when showing the props as we didn't want it to be shaky, therefore it take takes us a couple of takes to film this shot, however once we knew where we wanted it placed we did it in one take as it was so much easier using the steadicam.

Steadicam

Lastly, we used a tripod with filming some of our shots so that they were steady as we didn't want the shots to be shaky otherwise that would be bad quality, therefore we were making sure that when we were filming still shots we used the tripod as well. 

Tripod