Casting Shots

Elly, who is a fellow member of our group, will be playingthe main character, Lily. We thought that she would be great for this role as she can easily act serious and listens to every idea our group has and plays the role to the best of her ability. Elly is always free during lessons and after school when we need to film so it is easy to film on the days we planned to. Plus she can scream without bursting into laughter!

Another member of our group, Bareen, will be playing the role of Sophia, who is one of the three other main characters who are introduced nearer the end of the opening squence but do not make a proper appearance until later in the film. We decided that the main focus should be on Lily because she would appear throughout the whole film and the other main characters die later in the film. We chose Bareen to play the part because she can act natural and can laugh easily without making it sound fake. Furthermore, she was, like Elly, free to film during lessons so we had plenty of opportunity to film.

Our friend, Marina, is playing Valerie who stands along with Sophia (Bareen) by her locker and laughs at Lily when she drops her books. We chose Marina to play the part because she has an amazing ability to laugh completely naturally at any little thing but can also wait until the appropriate moment. She is also has a very bubbly and enthusiastic personality which suits the character perfectly and so it was easy for her to play the part.

Bryony, another of our friends, is playing Kate, who simply rolls her eyes at Lily for dropping her books. Bryony was free when we needed to film this scene and is great at keeping a straight face and natural look no matter what is going on which is why we pleaded with her (she gave in reletively quickly - that's how good we are) to act in out opening sequence.

We are all very happy with our choices for the cast because all four cast members are of different ethnic groups, therefore giving a wider range of races and therefore can interest a wider audience and all of them were able to play their roles flawlessly with few mishaps.

Location Shots

The house was chosen because it looks very normal and not suspicious

This is the woods behind the school, however they are very small and there is no designated path. Also the ground is very uneven so it would make it hard to make the tripod straight to get a straight shot.

This is the small locker room in the sixth form block, we were trying to decide between this room and the large drama room corridor.

Eventually we chose the drama room corridor to to our filming, this way we could easily achieve a good pan because there was enough room in the corridor.

Audiences

The genre of film we are planning on shooting is horror. This genre of film is mostly popular to 18-24year old males. However there seems to be no typical horror movie viewer.

Our film will be aimed at young people around 16+, but anticipate that horror films are watched by people who are younger or older than our target age.
We are using a young female protagonist, who will appeal to most of the female viewers. Using a school setting will also help to relate to the viewer, who would have probably been to school quite recently.
If advertising our film to our target audience we would have to think about where would be the most effective place. This I believe would be television, advertisements shown after 9pm so not to appeal to a younger audience.

Influences

Kill Bill's opening sequence is an influence for our thoughts on our own opening sequence. Kill Bill begins with a flashback in black and white to distinctly show it is not in the present setting. By using the diegetic sound of the woman's heavy breathing to create tension and suspense which can be very useful for our own production as we are creating horror movie and these elements can be included.

The second influence is the opening sequence of Halloween.Like our film Halloween is a horror film. The film begins with a point of view shot using a handheld camera to create suspense and mystery. We are contemplating using these two elements in our film. The music is also a great influence as it again creates suspense and establishes the mood for the horror film



The third influence for our film is called 'Eden Lake'. The opening sequence for this film is the most influential for us as it begins with a flash forward. The flash forward is very short clips that flash between the credits of a woman who is screaming and crying - clearly being tortured. The flash forward was in total about ten seconds then immediately went to the present day of that same woman teaching a class of young children. From the first few seconds of the film, the audience immediately know that this film is a horror by the flash forward and even the opening credits as the font style was quite bulky and red - a common colour used to foreshadow danger or horrors.

Office Space

An opening sequence happens in every film it has many functions including introducing the company who made the film and main characters of the film.

In the opening for 'Office Space' the classic introduction for 20th century fox is used to introduce who has produced the film. This gives the viewers a sense of security as it is a well known company.
This is followed by the official opening credits for the film, along with the opening music. The credits which are in the brightly coloured blue give the film a light-hearted feel and give you an insight into the genre of the film. The credit have the names of the actors/actresses who will be starring in the film. Which can also give you an indication of the genre.

The first shot used in the film is an establishing shot, which introduces the viewer to the place or environment within a film, it rarely involves the central characters as it does not in the opening for office space.
An aerial shot is used to give you a real sense of the traffic that there is in the area, as it can only be seen from this view.

Office space introduces the first character in the traffic jam, it then shows a second and third character in which looks like the same traffic jam. This gives the indication that these characters may be linked later on in the film.

Shots of the first mans feet when hes is stopping ans starting helps the viewer to empathise with him.
The second mans comical singing gives you the idea that the film is of the comedy genre and sets the mood for the rest of the film.
There is also an introduction of a third character at the end of the clip which indicates these three characters will be the main characters in the film.

Media Studies Brief

The set brief for our Video project is to create the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes. This blog will document the pre-production, production and evaluation stages of this project.

Preliminary Project

For our preliminary task, we had to film a scene that contained an action-match, use of shot-reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. Our group had achieved this and we think that the action-match (when 'William' walks into the psychiatrist's room and the crying girl runs out) in particular went very well. One thing that we would like to improve is the sound, since we did not use a microphone, the conversation between the "psychopath" and Dr. Bea is too low therefore the audience are not able to comprehend as easily as they should do. Furthermore, due to the fact that it was filmed during school hours and there were other lessons taking place, there is unwanted noise in the background of our production (when 'William' walks down the corridor).