Equipment list & shooting plans

Equipment list & shooting plans

Video camera (canon), Sony tripod, plain black clothing, phone, sign saying ‘mental institute’.

We will need the video camera in order to film the shots. The tripod will be used to take steady filming shots and also it will be used for panning shots. The plain tracksuit will be used for the characters outfit. We will be using a phone as the character in our film will need to text one of her friends, and she will also recieve a text saying that someone is after her. Finally, we will be making a sign that says ‘mental institute’ as it is one of the three flashbacks that will show the audience where she has come from.

As we have flashbacks in our opening scene, the two parts will be filmed on difference days, or at different times during the same day. This is going to be because the flashbacks are meant to be from earlier in the day when she ran away from the mental institution, therefore they need to be filmed in the daylight.

We will be filming the flashbacks next Saturday which will be the 7^th of December, at 12:30am, this means it will be daylight when we film. We will spend 2 hours on this.
We will be filming the alleyway scenes next Saturday, 7^th of December around half 5,
therefore it will be dark when we come to film. We will spend 3 hours on this.

The people involved will be myself and Cliona, Cliona will be the one being filmed and I will be the one filming. However when we film the flashbacks, Cliona will film some of the flashbacks such as feet running and the mental institution so that she will also get a chance to film.

Costume:

For Anna Dylan's costume, I thought that it should be plain as she has just run away from a mental institution therefore she wouldn't have much of a range of clothes. The majority of what she is wearing is black. It's black to portray sadness and that she's not in a good place, instead of making her wear white which would portray her as innocent.

The idea was that as my sister has blonde hair and is pale, she looks innocent, however she is wearing black which symbolises death and sadness. Therefore, this shows that on the surface she may look like a villain, however underneath she is innocent as you can see by her face. The way she looks is a massive portrayal of the film itself as on the outside she looks like a villain like in our storyline, she is suggested to be to blame, however underneath she seems innocent, which in our film, she is.

From this picture you can see that she is wearing a hooded jumper which portrays her as a stereotypically bad teenager. She is also wearing a black scarf, this shows the audience that this must have been filmed while it was cold, giving them an idea of the setting. She is also wearing a mismatching coat, which shows that she hasn't been able to afford nice clothes, and that she isn't from a good area.

The character Richard Grayson needed to wear an outfit that looked like he had just come from work, showing him to be rich and in a high place of authority. The idea of him wearing smart clothes has also come slightly from the character Patrick Bateman who was in the film American Pyscho which I analysed. In the opening scene of American Pyscho Patrick Bateman talks about how what he wears is to make him look normal like he can fit in, so no one realises what he is truly like. The same applies for our character as we wanted him to look like a normal person so that the audience could relate and think of him as looking normal even though he really isn't.

Richard Grayson also wears a long coat with a collar, this smart coat makes him look more sinister. Also a lot of antagonists in movies seem to wear smart jackets or smart coats. For example, in this picture you can see a villain from the James Bond films who is wearing a smart jacket.

Risk assessment:

·        Equipment being knocked in the dark (lights, camera, tripod)

Severity of risk = 4/10

·        Loose wires if there is any.

Severity of risk = 6/10

·        Forgetting the equipment/equipment such as camera not being charged.

Severity of risk = 10/10

·        Tripod not working.

Severity of risk = 4/10

·        Someone knocking the camera.

Severity of risk = 4/10

·        Accident or injury.

Severity of risk = 9/10

·        Public walking in shots.

Severity of risk = 3/10
 

The highest risk within this is the equipment not working/not being charged. This would be a major consequence if we were to get the two characters in the location on a certain time then not be able to film. Therefore, to solve this I will make sure I charge the cameras before the day to make sure that it is ready to use. I will also test my camera at home before coming outside to use it so that I know it works properly.

Loose wires on set shouldn't be a problem for us as we're not using anything that should include wires. We are simply using a Tripod and Canon camera to film. If these were to get knocked over on set, this would be a high risk. Therefore, to avoid this I will be making sure to keep the tripod stable with the camera on top of the tripod, therefore it will be safe on the tripod. I will also keep my attention to the equipment at all times to make sure no harm comes to it during the filming process.

There's also the risk that public may walk in shots, therefore to solve this we will be filming early in the morning to try and avoid these situations so much.

Storyline

Three characters we use in our storyline are based on people in real life, however our storyline is not based upon the whole truth of an event that happened. Though, there are some parts in our story that are taken from particular events. Due to this I will firstly have to inform you about the background of the people before I begin. 

We based our main character upon a real life psychopath, called Sharon Carr. Sharon Carr was the first youngest killer in Britian, who murdered a girl called Katie Racliffe at the age of 12. The police found out about her murder due to the diary she kept that had worrying sketches in which lead them to putting Sharon Carr in Broadmoor mental institution. Sharon Carr murdered her first victim in 1992,which was when John Major was prime minister of the United Kingdom.

At this time, John major was having an affair, and the only person who knew of this was a man called Tony Newton who worked for him. John Major entrusted Tony Newton to keep his secret, which he did. Tony Newton, John Major, Sharon Carr and Katie Racliffe all feature in our storyline, however in real life they are not all linked to eachother.   

In our storyline Sharon Carr sees John Major having an affair with another woman, she sees this outside a hotel room that she is staying in with her family. Due to the fact Sharon wants to be a news reporter she spies on the two lovers and takes pictures of them together, writing about them together.

Whilst spying on John Major and his mistress she overhears John Major tell a worker (Tony Newton) that he must not tell anyone about this affair he is having, otherwise he would be fired. Therefore Tony Newton has to keep quiet as he has a strong fear of losing his job. Sharon Carr notes this own in her diary and writes also about how Tony Newton seemed distressed over the prospect of losing his job if anyone finds out.

Tony Newton is a psychopath in this storyline and has schizophrenia, therefore, due to his paranoia he becomes increasingly worried about this affair and is on the edge constantly. Sharon Carr is aged 12 in this storyline which links back to real life as the psychopath she was based on was also aged 12.

Sharon Carr brings along her friend Katie Racliffe so they can spy on the Prime minister (John Major) together. However, while they are spying, Tony Newton sees them and runs after the two while they shout and scream. Due to the screaming, Tony puts his hand over Katies mouth hysterically trying to stop her from screaming, however in the process of doing this he kills Katie. He kills Katie due to his paranoia and schizophrenia that was getting increasingly worse as mentioned earlier.

Sharon Carr runs away as she is scared of this man who is coming after her to stop her from spilling the secret, however, Tony Newton has a better plan. Tony Newton tells the prime minister that there has been a killing of a little girl named Katie Racliffe, telling the prime minister that it was Sharon Carr who committed this murder. Due to this, they call the police, and Sharon Carr is taken to a mental institution.

Sharon Carr manages to run away from this mental institution at the age of 18, which is where the opening scene of our movie starts, as you will see her in an alley way which is where she runs to once she has escaped. She ran away in order to retrieve her diary that she wrote in when she was 12. She wants to retrieve this as it has pictures of John Major in and his lover together, but more importantly, it has notes about Tony being told that he must keep this affair secret otherwise if anyone finds out he will be fired. In the story, Sharon Carr manages to find her diary which in turn proves her innocence, and Tony Newton gets put in a mental institution for his crime.

Our characters cant be named after people in real life due to evading their privacy, therefore we have made the main characters name Anna Dylan, we have also changed the name of Thomas Newton to Richard Grayson, the girl who died we also changed the name of, we changed her name to Lily Piper. Finally, we changed the name of the prime minister to Edward Sawyer. 

 

Simplified version:

Anna Dylan was accused of the murder of Lily Piper, and due to this she got placed in a mental institution. However, she had a diary that can prove her innocence, and that she didn't actually kill Lily Piper, she was just framed with the murder by Richard Grayson who really killed her. Therefore she ran away from the mental institution to get her diary to show the police the evidence that shows she is innocent.

This storyline is based loosely on events in real life such as the killing of Katie Racliffe by Sharon Carr. Our character is based upon Sharon Carr as she is a real life psychopath. It also uses the idea of John Majors affair.

Evaluations of filming and planning

Equipment list & shooting plans:

Video camera, Tripod, Plain tracksuit, cigarette, lighter, sign saying ‘mental institute’.

We will need the video camera in order to film the shots. The tripod will be used to take steady filming shots and also it will be used for panning shots. The plain tracksuit will be used for the characters outfit. The lights will be used just in case it gets too dark whilst filming, the boxes link in with this as we can put the lights on the boxes for something to rest them on. The cigarette is used in the first shot along with the lighter as the character is lighting up a cigarette. Finally, we will be making a sign that says ‘mental institute’ as it is one of the three flashbacks.

As we have flashbacks in our opening scene, the two parts will be filmed on difference days, or at different times during the same day. This going to be because the flashbacks are meant to be from earlier in the day when she ran away from the mental institution, therefore they need to be filmed in the daylight.

We will be filming the flashbacks next Saturday which will be the 7^th of December, at 12:30am, this means it will be daylight when we film. We will spend 2 hours on this.
We will be filming the alleyway scenes next Saturday, 7^th of December around half 5, therefore it will be dark when we come to film. We will spend 3 hours on this.

The people involved will be me and Cliona, Cliona will be the one being filmed and I will be the one filming. However when we film the flashbacks, Cliona will film some of the flashbacks such as feet running and the mental institution so that she will also get a chance to film.

We decided that as Cliona needs to film too, we will be using my sister as the character of the film so that we both can do an equal amount of filming.


Risk assessment:

·        Equipment being knocked in the dark (lights, camera, tripod)

Severity of risk = 4/10

·        Loose wires if there is any.

Severity of risk = 6/10

·        Forgetting the equipment/equipment such as camera not being charged.

Severity of risk = 10/10

·        Tripod not working.

Severity of risk = 4/10

·        Someone knocking the camera.

Severity of risk = 4/10

·        Accident or injury.

Severity of risk = 9/10

·        Public walking in shots.

Severity of risk = 3/10

Evaluation of first attempt at filming

For our first attempt at filming last Saturday we brought a camera and tripod from the school and took it back to my house.
When we got the camera and the tripod to the house we were struggling to find good places which we could film so we spent a long time trying to figure out where we were going to film, therefore by the time we left it was getting dark.
However, we didn’t think that by the time we got there it would be as dark as it was. As we were using a canon camera, we didn’t know how to get it so that we could film in a night setting, so that it would be lighter. Therefore the camera was too dark and we couldn’t see what we were filming on the camera.

Therefore, as we couldn’t film the flashbacks, we also couldn’t film the alleyway scenes as you couldn’t see anything even when we used lights with the camera.

To solve this problem, we are going to be filming next Friday after school, this means that we can be in school and use the equipment if we don’t have the correct equipment with us.
To solve the problem of the lighting, we will be in school therefore we can use their lighting which will be better that the lights we have at home. And to deal with the time problem, we will be filming it all during the day so that the camera won’t be too dark and we will be able to get some shooting completed.
We were planning to film it at night in the school using artificial lighting outside to make it slightly brighter, however we realised that it was too difficult to be able to get the lighting outside.

Therefore instead I decided that we could film during the daylight straight after school, and during editing, we can darken the exposure to make it look as if it has been filmed at night. Therefore we have changed the date of our filming to being Friday the 13th and we will be filming it after school at 3:15, this means that it should still be light.

Our shooting schedule for the first attempt at filming:

Evaluation at the second attempt of filming:

The second time we filmed it was December 13th. We decided we would do this filming after school, and shoot it at school so that we know we have done it straight after, otherwise if we went home to film it would be too dark by the time we got home. For this time of shooting we used a tripod and a canon camera.

When we came to film, we managed to get all of the shots, however, the shots didn't seem long therefore our opening scene would be short if we used these shots. We also came across the problem that Cliona needed to film, instead of being in the film, therefore we could't use these shots as she wouldn't of had any input if we did.

There was also the problem we came across when we later viewed the footage as we saw that it was too dark to be visible, and the shots could've been lightened in editing but they still wouldn't look as natural or good as we wanted. 

From this time we filmed we learnt that we need to film in the daylight instead as we decided it would be hard to film when it was just getting dark in the afternoon. Therefore to fix this, we decided that the next time we came to film we would we would film in the morning at the weekend instead so that we know we definitely have shots.

We were going to have the shots done in the present set at night/dark and the shots from the past done in the daylight. However as this was found hard to do we needed to come up with a different way of showing that these two different shots aren't from the same time period. Therefore we changed the original plan so that we would have the flashbacks in black and white and the normal shots in daylight, therefore the audience can decipher one shot from one period of time from another. 

Our shooting schedule for the second attempt at filming:

Evaluation on the third attempt at filming:

We filmed our opening scene of our film, on the 5^th of December. To film we had to use an old storyboard as the new one had to still be created due to the amount of changes we had made recently to it. We used a canon camera to film, and a tripod for the panning.

The filming went well and we managed to get all of the shots that we wanted, however the present shots were meant to be done in the night, but as we realised that would be to hard to do, we decided to film it during the day along with flashbacks.

Some problems that occurred whilst filming was the lack of storyboard, and was hard to remember what scene had to come next with only a rough copy, some of the shots are blurry as well, which would have been better if we took each shot twice to make sure that we got one that was decent. However, apart from that, all of the shots were completed and we had all the equipment we needed, this attempt at filming had been better than our other two as we realised what we had missed from the last two attempts at filming so by the third attempt we knew what mistakes not to make.

I have now begun to edit the shots we have, by cropping them and have started to add the flashbacks in between the scenes, none of the shots were too dark which meant I didn’t have to brighten any using colour balance. The person I am working with told me that the best idea is to make the flashback in black and white so that we know what is in the present and what is a flashback.

Whilst editing the film I wasn’t sure of how we were planning to do the voice overs, therefore after asking someone, they said the best way to do it was to delete the soundtrack already attached to the film and use the voice recorder that’s on final cut.

To of made the filming better we could’ve remade the storyboard or had better planning to what we could’ve done, however we did manage to get all the scenes done with that said we could’ve been more organised with the planning side.

Our shooting schedule at the final/third attempt at filming:

Soundtrack analysis

Soundtrack analysis

I will be doing a soundtrack analysis on the opening credits of the film Pi, because it is the same film genre to the film genre that i am doing which is a psychological thriller.

The start of the opening scene uses a quiet ringing noise, it starts off by being quiet, then it gets louder. This ringing noise could be used to show madness as if it is ringing inside someone's head, a noise that would drive you insane.

After the ringing noise gets slightly louder, digital sounds come in which make the sound strange as if it is computer generated, this could show that it could be because the film is about mathematics and being driven insane by work, and this soundtrack portrays that sense of confusion/frustration.

Next the computer generated soundtrack gets louder which could portray a sense of madness due to overwhelming thoughts. This is a good soundtrack to have in the opening of a psychological thriller as it gives off the idea of madness and the loss of mind.

When the music gets faster it makes the soundtrack sound as if it is losing control, much like someone would if they were losing their mind. It also sounds as if there is too much information for it to take in, sounding like you would expect a computer to sound if it could make music due to the electronic feel of it.

This is non-diegetic sound which means it is used to fit the mood of the film instead of being used to have emphasis on certain sounds such as sound effects. The soundtrack changes from being quiet, to getting louder and having electronic type sounds put in it, it then gets faster in speed and more electronic sounds enter. This increase of sound and speed shows the process of being driven insane, starting off sane and getting increasingly mad.

In our film we will be using a voice over for the majority of our filming, this is used to tell the story as it makes you connect further with the character. However we will also be using deep breathing noises and the sound of feet running, this will be used to build tension.

Opening shot plans

Opening scene:

The first shot is going to be of the phone the character is using to text her friend to ask him to help her, this will be a extreme close-up to show you the object of importance. As she is asking for help, this leads the audience to believe she is a victim.

You then get a medium to long shot of her standing against a wall with her phone in her hand which tells the audience who was texting, it also shows the audience what she looks like. This shot is particularly blurry  which is a consequence as it doesn't make it as clear what the character looks like and her surroundings. If we had time, we would re-shoot this particular long-shot. 

You then see her leaving where she is and walking round the corner into an alleyway and the narrating begins, this will be a long shot to tell you the location of this particular character (which will be an alleyway). The character who was on her phone is going to be narrating throughout the opening scene. 

The first thing the voice over of the character says will be “I know they are after me” once she enters the alleyway, this will be a long shot still to show that she is now down the alleyway. In this shot you will see her worrying about the fact that people will after her, as portrayed in her expression.

After she says this a flashback of her feet will be shown to to intrigue the audience and make them wonder where she has come from, leaving the audience to question this character. The shot of the feet running will be in black and white. This is to show the audience that this particular shot was from a different time period from the other shots seen previously that are in the present, suggesting that this is her recalling something from the past. This is an action shot. (This shot has been removed due to the film being too long because of the other shots we still had to add in)

The following shot will be her back in the present, her facial expression still expression signs of terror, giving the idea that something traumatic has happened, and she might be running away from something that has frightened. This particular shot will also have a voiceover. (This shot has been removed now due to the film being too long)

The next shot is a flashback, this will be of a sign of a mental institution telling the audience the question of what they may have be wondering before which was where or what was she running from. This shot gives the audience the information about the protagonist as well, informing you that she might be clinically unstable.

The next scene will show her eyes, moving left to right. This shows that she is looking for something, or in this case, somebody. This builds tension as you start thinking what is it she is looking for? and is that the reason she has run away from the mental institution. In this shot diegetic sound of breathing will be used.

Following this, there is another flashback of her running through the trees. However this flashback differs from the rest as while she runs through the forest, the person holding the camera is running with her, to give the effect that someone is chasing her.

After that scene it goes to her back in the alleyway where she is starting to freak out over the fact that she is recalling what happened, therefore she will be pacing up and down. This will be a long-shot to show her movement. She then says that “I know I wasn’t safe there, that’s why I had to go”.  (This shot has now been removed however due to our film being too long)

In this scene you will see a flashback that has been split up into three different parts. The first shot will show her running off into the distance to show how far she has run from the mental institution.

I really liked these shots, however they were too similar to the present day shots and therefore had to be changed. I changed these shots to this one which I took of myself writing in a diary. This will give let the audience know why she is looking for her diary as it has the writing in it about her first seeing the antagonist. This shot was taken in back and white to show that this is a flashback shot. This shot is a close-up, it's a close-up to show that this is a code enigma code, and that it is an object of importance even though the audience aren't yet quite sure why this diary holds so much importance.

Here is the shot of the diary she writes in:

This particular shot is a high angled shot. This shows the mise-en-scene, including the surroundings that the characters are in, the car the characters drove in, and also it shows the action as you see Anna Dylan run away. This is the last ever shot taken, leaving

This is another one of my favourite shots as it is an over the shoulder shot. This particular shot you see in the antagonist (Robert Graysons) POV, looking down on Anna Dylan. This shot makes Anna Dylan look like she isn't as good as him as he is looking down on her making her look insignificant which is the type of shot I wanted to create.

Here there is a shot of Anna Dylan and the antagonist behind her, this is enigma as it leaves the audience questioning who this person is behind her and it they are dangerous. This builds suspense as you see the anguish and worry wash over Anna's face which makes the audience feel that they should also be worried of this man. This point in the opening scene is crucial as it shows that Anna is not the antagonist - she is the protagonist. It also introduces a new character immediately showing that he is a villain as he is coming after her. As robert Grayson is introduced second it means that the audience have already had a chance to emotionally relate to the main character Anna. Furthermore making the audience feel worried for Anna as they know her better.

Importantly, the house behind Robert Grayson is red which is a connotation for blood and anger. This reflects the character of Robert as he has killed a girl and also is a psychopath with anger issues.

Here is a shot I'm talking about:

This shot is another one of my favourites as it is an extreme close up of the villain talking which shows his features but not all of them, leaving mystery to the audience on a cliff-hanger adds suspense. This type of shot is used a lot in psychological thrillers to not give the antagonist away too much yet, building tension slowly.

Here is the shot i'm talking about:

Genres and sub genres

Genres and sub-genres

Psychological thriller is a sub-genre by itself, however it fits under the genre of horror and thriller. The themes in a psychological thriller are: reality, perception, mind, existence, identity, death and black comedy. This sub-genre differs from the main genre because the sub-genre is more specific and talks about how it is about mental people instead of just being a thriller or a horror which suggests its about something scary and that’s all. A psychological thriller isn’t just a horror or something to scare you, its deeper and makes you think, causing you to feel an emotional connection to the characters.

As a psychological thriller is the most typical of thriller, it means that it is implemented into all the sub-thriller genres, this type of subgenre makes the film suspenseful as it shows the mentality of a character and the thought process that they go through.

Here are some examples of types of sub-genres contain the sub-genre ‘psychological thriller':

Sub-genres like psychological thriller would be conspiracy thriller which is a type of genre that consists of some sort of hero or heroine who are stereotypically journalists or armature investigators who find themselves trapped in a very powerful organisation. The main character later finding out that to keep the company going the company will use lies and propaganda. This type of sub-genre is like ours because they are both making the audience question who is in the right and who you should trust and who you shouldn’t like in our psychological thriller where you constantly doubt the main character.

Another sub-genre a psychological thriller fits in with would be mystery thriller as a psychological makes you feel an element of mystery to what is wrong with the person who has the mental disorder and a mystery thriller usually gets into the psyche of the audiences as audiences act as if they are part of the film, trying to figure out who the villain is as they find out more information about the characters.