Editing process

So far, Lauren and I have made a rough cut of our film opening. We have managed to cut it down to 3 minutes 39 seconds. However, we still need to cut it further to 2 minutes. This might be challenging as we don't want to cut down too much as it wont make sense, however, creating ellipse would cut down some of the film and also still make sense to the audience.


We have started on editing the opening. In one scene Lauren and I both wanted to do slow motion when our character is walking in the park, to present isolation and a faint like experience. We firstly, split up the shot into small shots then gradually slowed it down and then sped it up. This looked really effective as she looks unstable and threatened.
Next we inserted our film ident and the certificate rating into the beginning of our film opening.


Next lesson will be putting sound on to the top of it, as well as voice overs. I think this will really add to the thriller as we can use sound effects that Flora can hear in her head. This will give the audience an insight to what she is experiencing and witnessing. We also need to add the credits at the beginning at the bottom of the screen.


Finally, we need to experiment with different tittles as I am not completely happy with our tittle font. We want it to be more dramatic and powerful so that the audience want to keep watching.


 At the moment all the editing has gone well and I am pleased with our film opening so far.

Timetable for filming day

                                                                             Dates and Times

Thursday 26-                   4:00- 6:00- shower and bed scene at my house (Neelum and Beth)

Saturday 28th -               11:00 - walking scene (Neelum and Beth)

                                          12:00- 1:30 - Park scene (kids and Beth and Neelum)

             
February Half Term-     Editing

Risk Assessment

Timetable

This is our timetable for the next few weeks when we are preparing to film our film opening. The date in red is the date we are unsure of. We will sort this out closer to the time.

Shot List

Location Planning

Before our filming day, Lauren and I made sure we went to the area we were filming to check it all our and to see if the area was suitable enough and to see where about we would be filming. This is good as it made us more prepared for our filming day. We were pleased as both locations were perfect for our filming, however, we had to take into consideration that the time we are filming the park scene is on a Saturday which means it will be busier. However, we will be getting to the park early so there will be less chance it being very busy.

9 Frame Analysis

Frame 1. This shows from the back of her, with her hand movement over her face showing that she is vulnerable and fragile. Also the background is full black and she is wearing pink that shows that she is weak and innocent. Additionally, she is walking into black to show that she is waking into the fear of the unknown.

Frame 2. Here she is in the for-ground looking into the dance studio. This implies that she is an outsider and isn't accepted by the other dancers. Also with her about to walk into the group of people shows that she is going to change to be like them, this is shown by the costume colours.

Frame 3. Here is a close-up of her face to show her emotions. Here she looks very concerned and unaware of her future in this dance studio. She is very natural looking, with little make-up, which symbolises her immaturity. Her hair is also very perfect, which reflects her character in the show- her being the black swan as she doesn't know how to be dark and sinister.

Frame 4. This frame represents the relationship that both characters have together. This is because the man is always looking over her and controlling her in her every move throughout the film. We can tell by the facial expressions how the characters feel about each other.

Frame 5. In this next frame, we can see her reaction when she sees her instructor, this shows that she is scared of him and he is always in her personal space.

Frame 6. This is the same as frame 5 in the way that he is always in her personal space. This could also represent their relationship as it looks like he is going to kiss her. From her facial expressions she looks embarrassed and doesn't want to face him.

Frame 7. Here her facial expressions have changes considerable as she looks panicked and the way that she looks over her shoulder shows she doesn't know what is behind her.

Frame 8. This is the dark character that is always a shadow which is represented by her outfit as it is dark. In the film we always see two of her from Nina's point of view this is shown by there being two of her in this frame.

Frame 9. This final frame reflects the swan queen and the black swan in the show. Nina being the perfect white swan with her pale skin and light clothing. Whereas Lily (on the right) is portraying the black swan with her black clothing, darker skin and swan like tattoo, implying the darker, evil swan.

Our Logo

Storyboard

Film Company Idents

1. What is a film company idents?

Short for identification. It is a short visual image employed between television programmes that works as a logo to locate the viewer to the channel.

    

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation is an American film studio and film distributor currently owned by 21st Century Fox. It is one of the "Big Six" major American film studios and is located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, just west of Beverly Hills. The studio was formerly owned by News Corporation. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation is an American film studio and film distributor currently owned by 21st Century Fox. It is one of the "Big Six" major American film studios and is located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, just west of Beverly Hills. The studio was formerly owned by News Corporation.    2. Why do we have idents?

• Identity of a channel
• Break up schedule
• Branding
• Rebranding
• Marketing
• Raise viewing figures
• Visual stimulation

Warner Brothers

WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC. is a fully integrated, broad-based entertainment company and a global leader in the creation, production, distribution, licensing and marketing of all forms of entertainment and their related businesses.

Warner Bros. have also created thriller films too, such as 'Gone Girl' and ' The Devils Advocate'.




20th Centaury Fox 

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation is an American film studio and film distributor currently owned by 21st Century Fox. It is one of the "Big Six" major American film studios and is located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, just west of Beverly Hills. The studio was formerly owned by News Corporation.
This film ident has done many thriller films such as 'Morgan' and 'Jeepers Creepers'.
This logo is recognised everywhere as it is such a popular ident.

Audience Expectations

Actors, Costume, and Props

Lauren and I have been thinking careful about the actors, costumes and props or our film opening.

Actors:
We have chosen Beth to play flora as we know she will be confident to play this character.
Neelum is going to play the part of Flora's friend and also the unknown figure in black.
We are also using siblings for the children in the playground.

Costume:
We have talked about costumes and we want Beth to wear quite dark and dull clothes to try and represent her character. They are sixth form students so we still want them to look smart. Her hair will be in a bun and she will be wearing a backpack and glasses to try and imply she is quite nerdy and unfashionable.
Neelum will be wearing a skirt and a smart top with hair down, wearing makeup and a bag.
The  black figure with have the face covered by a big hoody so he identified.
The children in the park will be wearing just normal clothes.

Props:
A back pack for Beth to carry.
A drink for when she goes into the kitchen
Soap for the shower scene
Phone for when she calls her mum
Chair for the dark figure to sit in
Park equipment for the children
Bed for Beth in the last scene
Lamp for her to turn on and off in the last scene
bedroom full of personal things

Our Treatment

This is Lauren and my treatment on our film opening. Hope you enjoy :)

Descriptions of my character in my film opening

My target audience is going to be a 15 as my film opening is a thriller and could be unsuitable in some places. I think that teenage girls will be most drawn to my film as the main character is of a similar age.

My main character is called Flora and she is a 16 year old teenager who suffers from schizophrenia and hallucinations which makes her see things that aren't really there. Flora, doesn't have that many friends as she is considered as quite a quiet and geeky person.
Description;
Flora has blonde curly hair with big framed glasses.
She is an introvert person due to her illness but is confident within her friendship group.
Flora loves school as it gets her mind off her hallucination but once she is alone and starts feeling nervous and valuable that is when she starts hearing voices in her head and seeing things that aren't really there.

Ideas for my thriller opening

In the half term Lauren and I planned out generally how our film opening is going to look like, with camera shots, the scenery that we will be using, the cast of actors we will need and the basics of how the opening is going to look like.
We have decided what our story line is going to be from the inspiration of the  film we watched, The Black Swan.

• The  main character is: A teenage girl who suffers from a psychological disorder which occurs when she is stress or feeling nervous.
• She sees things that aren't really there.

The general idea of the film opening:

• The scene starts we a girl and her friends walking back from school one day happily chatting. Once she leaves them to go her own way home she begins to see children swinging on the swings and playing on the see-saw in the park, which aren't there. The lighting will be in black and white with Foley sound of children creepily laughing.
• She then lets herself into her home and goes to take a shower. We know that when the steam covers the mirror in a bathroom, fear of the unknown can make people on edge, so we wanted to create this in our film opening.
• When she gets out of the shower she looks into the misty mirror and suddenly sees a dark sinister figure of a man staring back at her.
• She freaks out and runs to her room to ring her mum. She calls her mum and whispers in a petrified voice " Mum I think its happening again". As she puts down the phone she turns her head to see a man dresses in black sitting close to her bed staring at her.
• The camera cuts to a close up of her face to show the fear as she lets out a scream and the shot ends with a black screen.

We haven't planned it all and we need to chose our actors and setting carefully but we think we have some ideas.

The Black Swan Film Review

On Monday, Lauren and I spent a day planning out our film opening with our chosen genre. We wanted to watch a film that would inspire us for our own opening, so we chose the film, The Black Swan as it incorporates the genre of thriller.

The Black Swan is about a women called Nina (Natalie Portman) who is a ballerina whose passion for the dance rules every facet of her life. When the company's artistic director decides to replace his prima ballerina for their opening production of "Swan Lake," Nina is his first choice. She has competition in newcomer Lily (Mila Kunis) however. While Nina is perfect for the role of the White Swan, Lily personifies the Black Swan. As rivalry between the two dancers transforms into a twisted friendship, Nina's dark side begins to emerge.

This was a very good film and I was surprised how dark and chilling it was as there were parts were it was quite graphic and gruesome, such as when Beth is in the hospital and starts stabbing her face with a knife. Even though I probably wont watch it again, I do believe it was very useful as it gave us both ideas for our film opening. W

We want to use the idea of someone who suffers with physiological problems who start seeing things that aren't actually there. This character will come across very vulnerable and the audience will grow an attachment to her which will inherence fear.

Help from Axil

Last week we were lucky enough to have a camera operator come in and talk to us. Axil works as a camera Operator in films and this was particularly useful as he helped us and gave his top tips for our film openings. First of all he looked at all of our Preliminary Test and gave us corrections. It was interesting as all of us had made similar mistakes. He told us straight away that first of all we have filmed our frame too high so therefore had too much head space at the top. In this case for me I had chopped out Alainah's feet at the very start of the shot. For future reference, I would tighten up the frame and come down to eye line when she sits down.  I also needed to cut when she sits down instead of doing it all in one shot and towering over her. Finally, I needed to keep the same distance away from each actor when I'm doing match on action. This will prevent it looking unbalanced.

Just before the end we were able to use the camera and let Axil show how panning in one shot is done. By placing the camera in the right position first and practising panning before shooting made sure we weren't chopping any feet off or having too much head room.

I think Axil's advice was very valuable to my work as I have learnt techniques that I didn't know before. Now I can apply all these tips to my film opening to make it the best it can possibly be.

Sound

We have been looking at sound and the importance of it in films recently. There are so many different sound elements in a film sequence that is easier to the group them into certain 'types'. A very simple way to identify and divide the difference sounds is as follows:

• Dialogue- all the words and vocal expressions of the actors
• Music- the music soundtrack that may be in parts or all of the sequence
• Effect- other sounds such as footsteps, gunfire, car for example.

Diegetic and Non- Diegetic

Diegetic:
Sound whose source is visible on the screen or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film: 

• voices of characters 
• sounds made by objects in the story 
• music represented as coming from instruments in the story space

Diegetic sound is any sound presented as originated from source within the film's world 
Diegetic sound can be either on screen or off screen depending on whatever its source is within the frame or outside the frame. 

Non- diegetic:
Sound whose source is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action: 

• narrator's commentary
• sound effects which is added for the dramatic effect
• mood music

Non-diegetic sound is represented as coming from the a source outside story space. 

Music helps to create the mood in a piece. However, we watched an extract from the film called Huger. This is a very powerful piece as there wasn't any sound. This isn't common in a film as although we may not always be aware of it, there is always normally some kind of sound. In this film extract there was limited dialogue but the focus was non diegetic sounds as the sound effects were added for dramatic effect such as deep breathing, footsteps and doors clicking. All these sounds made the scene more serious and mysterious as all our focus was on the sound of Bobby's breath.
I will use the idea of non diegetic sound in my own opening as I want to create a sense of isolation and tension. Silence will help me do this with little dialogue and more dramatic effects.

Mise En Scene

We have been learning about Mise en Scene recently in our lessons. Mise en Scene is a French word which basically means composing the scene. The definition of Mise en scene is the process of setting a stage, costume, lighting and surroundings. We looked at one film in particular which demonstrates Mise en Scene well, The Duchess.

The extract in The Duchess shows the journey of the newly- wedded Duke and Duchess
of Devonshire from their secret wedding ceremony, through the streets of London to Devonshire House. The scene ends in the wedding bedroom. This extract expresses Mise en Scene as the extravagant  dresses, wigs and jewellery all present how wealthy the couple is, in contrast to the families on the streets of London. As I looked closely I could see that the people on the streets were in dark browns which matched the colours of the floor and buildings. Where as the upper class were all dressed in clean white clothes and the lighting was on them to stand out and present their importance.

Another film we have looked at is Chicken Run. In the extract we see Mrs Tweedie taking one of the hens to kill it. The sky turns  dark red, blue and grey to show death, sorrow and bleakness.



I will be using Mise en Scene in my film opening, by using clothes that are dark and dull and limited lighting  and dark settings to create a uncomfortable atmosphere for my thriller.

Cinematography

In the last two lessons we have been focussing on Cinematography which is the art and craft of the camera itself, in terms of its position and choice of shot type to film a scene and how this contributes to making meaning in the film. We looked at two films in particular, Chicken run and Wallace and Gromit which are both similar as they both are animated.

We looked closely at the length of the shots and how that portrays a different character with or without power. For example when looking at Chicken Run, I couldn't help notice that when Mrs Tweedie enters the camp the camera makes her look very big and aggressive by shooting the scene beneath her so that we are looking at the chickens perspective. This makes it seem that the chickens are tiny compared to her as they are looking up and it also shows she has power and authority whereas the chickens are vulnerable. 
I can link this idea of vulnerability and authority in my own film opening by filming the shots in different angles. Another example, is using different angles such as canted angles. This makes the audience uncomfortable and unsettled as we don't know why the camera isn't at a straight angle. Once again this would be a perfect technique to make my audience feel unsure in my thriller opening. This technique is used in Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, in the scene where Wallace experiment goes wrong and the camera is darting around the place to show chaos.

Lighting is also a big part of expressing the genre in a film. For example, in a horror / thriller film, dark colours such as black, greys and whites are used to create a spooky and unnerving scene. Both film clips we have looked at have included dark and sinister weather. Whereas for a rom-com bright colours would be used to show love, happiness and joy. I will be looking shooting my film opening in are dark and run down place.