Evaluation.

For this project we were asked to make a two minute opening for a film. We were not given any thing that we had to include or told which genre the opening had to fit into, only that it could not be over two minutes.
We decided that we would produce a thriller with a massive twist at the end. Our plot line was a schoolgirl would be kidnapped and the massive twist at the end would be that the detective looking into the case is actually the kidnapper. We decided to film between two locations, outside the school, and on location in a cave. We came up with this idea because we all had a similar idea that we wanted to do for our preliminary but it was too long. We came up with the twist because we felt it needed a big ending that would shock the viewer, instead of having no real storyline.


Once everything was in place, we knew what we were doing and the equipment was working correctly, the filming and editing of the opening was really enjoyable to create. We all contributed to the camera movements and deciding what shots should be used and where. Filming in the cave was the best part of the whole process. The whole experience of filming on location, using lighting to create the desired effect and learning how to overcome difficulties we faced was definitely a valuable one. We faced a fair amount of difficulties during the time we had to plan and organise where and when we were going to film. Firstly there was the problems we faced producing our animatic. After filming it and deciding loosely where the zooms and pans etc were going to come, editing it all together and finally choosing the music and where and when it would stop or fade out the laptop decided that it no longer wanted to work and deleted the progress that we had made so far. This was frustrating because we have put a lot of work into getting it roughly the way we thought that we wanted the actual opening, but we all got our heads down and managed to complete a second animatic within a double lesson. Next we had a problem with finding a location that would not only allow us to film, not have prior commitments or that was not too far away for us to get to. We emailed and rung round many places before we were finally contacted by Fort Horsted who seemed really eager to have us in, and even supplied us with extra lighting and rigged us up to a generator for our lighting kit. Finally we had problems with sticking to our time plan to film because our actress was not allowed to leave lessons, although this was not a major problem, it did mean that we had to film during the Christmas holidays to make up for missed time.


I do not think that I would change anything about the way that we filmed because I think that we filmed in a really economical way. We took lots of shots of the same thing from different angles and camera movements so that we did not need to go back and re-film anything. I would, however, change the way that we planned. I think that we should have made a realistic time plan and tried to stick to it as close as we possible could. We also should not have left finding a location until the last minute. After we had sent out loads of emails we just expected the locations to get back to us, however, this did not happen with many of them. I realise now that we needed to be more pro-active and ring around locations and show that we were eager to film and explain our situation.


I have learnt a lot from producing this opening. I have learnt that its important to not just expect someone to email you back and that you need to show that your eager. I have also learnt that making a time plan is important if things need to be done, especially if there is a deadline. Learning how to overcome difficulties that arise that you did not expect without getting angry or frustrated about them. I learnt how to use editing equipment to get the most out of it and what to expect should things go wrong. Finally, learning what it is like to film on location has been the most valuable lesson for me. It has given me insight on how you should conduct yourself if you need to talk to a location manager, how to deal with problems that might arise filming in a remote location and that there are some excellent locations out there, you just have to really dig around.


Overall I have really enjoyed the process of this project. It has taught me valuable lessons, such as backing up your work constantly, how unreliable equipment can be at times and how frustrating it is when things go wrong. It has enabled me to learn about which shots are most appropriate and when they should be used. I have learnt about techniques that I had never used before and learnt how to put them to good use. even though problems occurred and threw a spanner in the works, I think our opening looks really professional with little continuity errors and some techniques, such as the telephone call, which we would not have thought to include initially. We all worked really hard to achieve the best finished product we could and i think that all of our hard work has really payed off.

Locations.

We spread filming over two locations, outside of school, by the gates, and in Fort Horstead. Because the victim is a young schoolgirl and we were trying to represent her as vunerable we wanted to do it near a school location but we decided against doing it in school for multiple reasons. We were worried that if we filmed in a school location it would make us look like we were lazy and could not be bothered to go out on location and film. We also decided against filming in school because we decided that a kidnapping probably would not happen directly in a school eviroment because of the security systems that schools have, instead we decided to film outside of the school gates, to still show the school enviroment.


The second location we used was Fort Horstead. This took a long time to find a place that was suitable for our needs. We emailed Fort Horstead and said that we needed a place that was dark, dingy and ominous and they were more than happy for us to come along and see if it was suitable. When we actually filmed they supplied us with two heavy duty daylight torches because when you are in the cave without them, you cannot see your hand in front of your face. This was highly appropriate for the hostage scenes. We didnt have to worry too much about lighting when we went to visit because we knew that, not only would we have the daylight torches, but we would also have the lighting kit from the school. Filming in the cave was fun because it really set the scene and gave us great mise-en-scene. Lighting-wise we used candles to create an orange glow against the brick walls, the lighting kit from school and also the two daylight torches. We were able to bounce the lights off of the walls to create the effect that we wanted for each shot. Within the cave there was and alley behind the room that we were filming that had window holes and we used these on occasion to get the lights where we wanted. We moved the lights around depending on the shot and effect that we wanted and this is where the window holes worked to our advantage because we were able to run the line through the alley and have the light in the hole that cast the best shadows and created the light effect we wanted.


Using a cave was hard work, but it allowed us to produce some brilliant results. With filming on location mise-en-scene is pretty much already present because you are filming in the place your characted actually is, but Fort Horstead really went that much further because there were huge spiders and dirty floors that really made you think that the place was un-cared for and out of the way, which in reality all of the other magazines had been turned into offices and they could not turn the one we filmed in into an office because a fire had damaged the walls. Even though this sounds unsafe, it was explained to us that the magazine was perfectly safe for use, just not for renovating, because the walls would not take major changes.


Overall, I am really happy with our decisions on the locations we filmed on. The enabled us to get the best shots avaliable and really showed how much effort we put into getting the best we could.

Why we chose Lionsgate.

We used Lionsgate as our film studio because they are related to a lot of thrillers, such as the ‘Saw’ movies. They are also well known and we thought that having a big studio backing our film would make it look more professional and impressive.

We looked into using Paramount studios as the institution we were recognised with. Paramount have distributed many thriller/horror films such as 'Shutter Island', 'Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street' and 'Psycho'. Although Paramount distribute thrillers, they are not commonly associated with them as much as we would have liked and this genre is not one that hugely matters to them, unlike Lionsgate. We found that, through research, Lionsgate specifically tend to only distribute and finance thrillers. This is the main thing that made us decide against Paramount, because we wanted an institution which are dedicated to financing thrillers and are commonly associated with them. This also meant that the viewer can quite clearly identify what kind of film they are going to watch, before the film actually starts.

During the process of choosing the institution we wanted the film to be distributed by, we had to keep in mind our target audience and whether the production company would appeal to our 15-28 year old audience. This was important because an institution such as Pixar or Dreamworks wouldn't appeal to our older target audience, and Lionsgate is commonly associated with certificates 15 and over.

Font, Title and Connotations.

The font for the title is pretty conventional because it’s an unusual font and not what we are used to typing or even writing in. We also decided to have our names and roles in this font because it ties it all together and makes it look more professional.

Our film is called ‘Sunshine.’ We chose this because it is oxymoronic regarding the film, which is dark, gloomy and ominous. The connotation of sunshine is light and happy, which is the direct contrast to our film. We also decided that this was a good title because the actual kidnapping happens during the day, breaking the conventions of normal kidnapping thrillers, which normally happen when it is darker outside so that their identity is hidden. Because we did not film in the dark, we needed to come up with a way that the kidnapper’s identity was not revealed. We decided that the kidnapper would have a hood up and would always be facing away from the camera, showing only his back. The shots are quick and do not reveal much about the storyline. This works to our advantage because it heightens the tension because the viewer cannot really see what is happening.

Music.

During editing we added in music and a fake telephone call between the girl who had been kidnapped and the police. The music makes the beginning more conventional because many thriller films show the action with music over the top with all diagetic sounds apart from voices able to be heard. The music we included was put in to increase tension and followed thriller conventions, but we had to be careful that it wasn’t jumpy, like horror music. We got this music from a royalty free website. This was important because we could not include any copyrighted music without permission. The telephone call plays over the ‘Sunshine’ title with no other noise. Initially we were not going to do this, but we decided that there needed to be some kind of sound over the title to tie the whole thing together. The phone call adds to the eeriness of the film, because the phone line cuts out just was we are finding out what has happened. This was done, not only to link the detective scene to the kidnapping, but also to frustrate the viewer and make them think about where she is and what may happen.