Shoot Day - PIERA

On Thursday 21st January 2010, Me, Amy , Steph and Tom went to the studio at 9:00 to start shooting our thriller. We arrived at the studio quite nervous and unsure of what was going to happen in the day to come. We arrived on set with our two cast members Berika Mindeli and Alabama Jackson, Amy went to do Alabamas make up and hair, as well as getting her into her costume. Berika turned up wearing the outfit already.

The first thing we did was brief Simon and Luc what our sequence was about and gave Simon our production pack. We then started to make the set, making it more spooky, by lighting the candles on the desk and putting carpet on the floor to create the atmosphere. This did however take a long time to do and could have been made quicker if we were a bit more prepared, however the final look of it all was good.

The sequence was successfull in acheving its goals as we finished the day feelimng pleased and we got all our shots done. Our goals for the day were to get the shots done in time and for them not to be rushed so that they looked good, and also for us to get Alabama Jacson to act for us, as this was a tricky situation as she had school, but we did however manage to get her to act for us, which was a great help.
Another goal was for the group to work well together and co-operate together well, so that the day would go more smoothly .

The group didnt have any major location problems, we were in the studio for a majority of the time and our external shots took place in leathil, there was however a problem with leathill and getting there, as non on the media department were qualified to drive us there, so we had to get permission from David Broome to allow Fiona to drive us there. When we arrived there, the sun had set abd it was quite dark, so we brought an external light to light the building when shooting. We did however have to find a way into leathill to connect it to a power soccet, and if it wasnt for the help of fiona, this wouldnt have been possible. That was our only major flaw, although we did eventually overcome the situation rapidly.

We had enough time to shoot all the shots, apart from the night shots where it was a little bit rushed due to us needing to go back onto campus. We did however manage this as we only needed 4 shots of the main protagonist walking towards the house. This all in all took us 10 minutes to shoot.

The teqhnical equipment that we used during the shoot was

1. Rubber Tracks
2. PD170 Camera
3. Lighting Desk

We used the same camera in which we used for Preliminary Task, so this was helpfull as we knew how to use it and set it up according to the shot that was taking place.
The equipment was set up by the group's particiption, and Luc was a major part in the teqhnical set up of the day, but not so much the shots.

The organistion of the day was relativly easier as we didnt have alot of locations to film, we had the studio, Leathill and Hurtwood Corridor basement. Dressing the set in the Studio took a longer time than we anticipated, we had to light candles and wax the table so thwy would stick to it, and this took a long time. We also had to make candles go into the ground which was a dilema as they wouldnt stand up, but with the help of Luc and Simon we decided to screw nails into some wood and screw the candles on them. This did however become a hazard later on in the day as the candles were removed from the nails and the nails were left exposed, which to our amazement Alabama Jackson stood on and had to be taken to the medical center, but after a quick check, she was fine again. External light was however a problem at leathill, although we did want the light to be dark to set the mood, we did recover the issue quickly as we put a light on the building to light it up. During the day we had an amount of food that could have been seen as a disration to our work, this was however a learining curve for us.

The crew organised there roles earlier on in the project, so we all knew what role we had and what to do on the day, however some people realised that the role they were given didnt really suit them and others found that other ones did. The group as a whole worked togther well and the roles that were given worked well for each other.
I was the director of the sequence, so i had to call 'Action' and 'Cut' where nessacary.

The group tried as hard as possible to stick to the storyboard but due to locations etc ... we had to do them in different orders i.e shot one of leathill was done last as we wanted it to be dark not light. We did however find that we did more shots than fully intended, we did improvise a number of shots that we realised would work better than others, but werent initially on the storyboard.

The technical factors that we had to monitor whilst shooting and recording the sound,
Shooting - We had to make sure that there was enough light etc .. this meaning that our candles were all lit and that the light bulb was on when needed. We had to make sure that we were focused in the shot, by zooming in closely to the P.O.V then zooming out to make it focus.We had to make sure that the tri-pod was bubbled and steady to film. Also that when we were using tracking shots, that it was all safe and that it bend where needed etc ..

Sound- Was natural sound i.e wripping of the bed linen, footsteps and the scream of a child being smothered. We used wild tracking and made sure that the level of voices didn't peak over 6.

What i learnt from the shooting day was that it was very challenging and stressfull at times however it was a learning curve and helped me understand what i can and cant do next time i do a shoot.

Pre Production Group Roles

Group Roles are a list of all the tasks that each team member did and how they contributed to the task that we had. This was helpfull as it made us as a group more organzied and understand what role each of us had, it also made the production process alot quicker.

Pre Production Floor Plan

Floor Plans- This was a helpfull to the group as it showed us the layout of the studio in which we were going to film a majority of our sequence. It shows clearley and neatly where the light would be and the props etc and also the scale in which the room will be.

Pre Production Equipment List

Equipment List- This was a list of all the camera pieces and shooting props that we might possibly need, so that when it came to the actuall day we would look at the list and check that everything was there on the day.

Pre Production Shooting Schedule

Shooting Schedule - This is an itinery of the day for when we are shooting, it gives a timetable of what to shoot, where and when and also when there will be breaks etc . It also gives us an idea on how long the day will be and how busy etc ..

Pre Production Costumes

Costumes - This is a list if what clothing will be needed and what the actors will be wearing during the shoot. We wanted to have a modern look to the man and a more victorian look to the child to make the sequence look more creepy.

Pre Production Folder - Cast List

This is the cast list from our pre production folder, we choose to use these two actors because they fit the criteria. We wanted a child actor and an adult actor that look quite scary, as well as the male being attracted to appeal to our target audience.

Props List

Props List - This is a list if the appearance props that we will need, for example sheets to rip up and candles for the light. Its a list of things that we will need in order to shoot our thriller.

Pre-Production Folder Intro

Intro- This gives a bried synopsis of the sequence that we are going to film and also tells us when the cast and crew should arrive at the shoot, and how long they will be needed for. Also the time in which everything should take and what each character is in the sequence. Its an opening page allowing us to explain to you what will happen.

Final Storyboards Re Written

To begin the process of creating the storyboard we initially finalised the chronology of the sequence and began the process of creating individual shots in storyboard order. This involved specifying all of the individual technicalities including location, action, shot & movement, sound (Diagetic and Non Diagetic), lighting, edit transition and timing.

Shots

1.The gate is closed and we see a car arriving and stopping in front of the gate

2.Tom goes out to open the gate and then drives through it (when the leaves blow up they from “Milano Production Presents”)

3.Shot out of one of the windows in the house seeing the car arriving (we see the breath on the window and then a “A Storm Cunningham Film” is written in there”

4.POV shot of Tom looking at the house

5.shot from in front of the house seeing Tom getting out of the car and starting to walk

6.Track shot of him going to the house

7.CU of his face looking around anxiously (next to him a door sign saying “featuring Tom and Alabama)

8.ECU of him looking through the window

9.mid shot of h8im hearing the noises

10.shot of the lights flashing behind the door

11.Tom walks back the mid shot and down the front door stairs until he ends in a long shot

12.Camera sits in the back of the car and sees Tom arrive and enter the car

13.Camera zooms into his eyes and the flashbacks begin

14.Fast cut from a long shot to ECU of the masks on the children (cold breath comes out and builds ( Produced by Amy Milan)

15.Cut to Tom

16.Shot of Tom stitching the mask (sticking stuff builds “Directed by Storm Webster and Stephanie Mareen”)

17.Cut to Tom

18.Bloody hands writing “Edited by Tom Cunningham”

19.Zoom out of Toms eye

20.Shot out of the window of the house seeing the car reverse

21.Close up of tom using the gear stick

22.Close up of him using the gas

23.Camera in the backseat – view through the front side seeing the car leave

24.Drives fast and the front lights hit a kid

25.Shot from behind the kid looking at the front lights of the car

26.ECU of Tom blinking

27.POV shot of Tom and the kid is gone

28.Shot through the wind shield on the backseat is a child

29.Close-up of the child – breath coming out and building the title

Old Storyboards

Group Logo

This is a possible idea for our production logo. W choose the name Milano Productions because we wanted an unusual name and one that sounded proffesional. Amy cut out peices of magazine and paper and cut the letters out that we needed, we used pastely colours as it would relate to childhood better, seeing as the sequence was mainly about children and the physcological mind of them.

Locations

On Thursday afternoon during our media lesson, we went out as a group in the minibus with Adam to take photos of the locations for our sequence.



This is a photo of the house we are going to use in our thriller shoot. As a group we decided this location was perfect as the house looks very eery and creepy looking. As director of photography, Tom Cunningham, a member in my group, was in charge of taking the photographs for the group to reflect back onto.

My Opinion Of My Group Version

In my opinion our new idea is better, although the old idea was a nice concept, the new idea opens up better ways in which we can reflect our skills. Although it was upsetting to find that our initial idea was going to be partly scrapped, it did open other doors for us.
I now feel that our new idea will work better because it is much more effective, it makes sense and includes all the aspects of a thriller. It is interesting because we explore the theme of schizophrenia which builds tension and as a group we have learnt about the condition and applied this knowledge to our sequence.

3 Act Treatment

ACT ONE1. Man steps out of his car in front of a scary looking building. He is isolated and in the dark. He walks into his ‘workshop’ where all of his tools are laid out neatly on a table. He starts ripping bed linen up, stabs knifes through to make eye holes and stitching them back together again to make masks.2. The man picks up the mask, and walks down a corridor towards a trap door. He opens the trap door and walks down the spiral staircase. He lights a match which lights the candle. Then we see a girl tied up against a wall and she is whimpering. She wets herself and then the camera tilts up to see the girls face. Suddenly the man pulls the mask over the girls face and the title appears.3. The man puts the child into a cage with lots of other children who are all wearing masks. Suddenly one child pulls off his mask and the man gets very aggressive. He takes out his knife and pulls the mask back over the head of the child. Full of anger, he runs out to his workshop where there are family pictures on the wall. In one, he and his brother are standing between his parents. However his brother’s face is deformed. Next to this photo there are newspaper articles about a car crash.4. The man looks to the left and we see his brother sitting in a corner, unable to move with a mask in front of his face. However we can see his face is deformed because there are holes and rips in the mask. Suddenly we see lights flash down the corridor and the man grabs his brother and runs away.ACT TWO5. A female police officer called Annie comes to rescue the children in the cage and sees the pictures on the wall, but the pictures of the man are gone. The police officer is angry and says ‘There’s nothing I can do right now, we can’t find him’. She steps into her car and drives home for dinner with her husband. However when he greets her, we see that in fact it is the man who captures the children.6. At that moment we realise that the man is a schizophrenic. The man says very nervously, ‘Did you find anything new?’ while having dinner. His wife answers, ‘No not yet, but we found a picture of a family’. The man gets very scared and tells his wife that he isn’t feeling very well. He gets up runs outside and jumps into the car and drives away.7. On his drive, he gets flashbacks of himself with his brother. He is disgusted at the sight of his brother’s disfigurement, so he takes the bed sheets covers his face to hide it. Suddenly his phone rings and his wife is screaming ‘Look, look... I know it all of it – your brother is here... HELP!!’ACT THREE8. The man is driving the car and suddenly stops, he doesn’t know what to do, but then he spins the car around and goes back to the house to rescue his wife.9. As he enters back into his house, he sees his wife tied up on a chair unable to move and his brother is standing in front of her, no longer wearing a mask. His brother smiles at him and says ‘Hello Brother’. The man is still close with his brother, so he thinks of ways to save his wife. However, as he looks into the face of his brother, he changes mind and looks back to his wife with an evil facial expression. He looks at the knife in his brother’s hand and says ‘Give it to me, let’s do it together’.10. Annie screams and tries to get away as her husband says, ‘Let me do it’. The man hands the knife to his brother and he walks towards Annie. However he sets her free and they both walk towards the main male character (referred to throughout as ‘the man’). His wife says, ‘I’ve always known who you were Tom’. She walks towards him and cuts his face open, leaving it bleeding. She rips up bed sheets which were neatly folded after coming out the tumble dryer just hours before, and places it over his face.The man’s brother says ‘Good job darling’, kisses her, then stabs her in the heart and leaves the house.

Further Thriller Production

Today we were criticized for our thriller idea and had to change it because it didn’t really made sense. Therefore we needed to change every production we have started to make a better one. We wanted to have a man getting out of his car in front of a house, looking round, hearing creepy noises and seeing lights in front of a house. Then he should go back to his car and have flashbacks of potato sack masks that are being stitched and children that are wearing them. Then he sits back in his car and drives away until suddenly the flashlights of the car hit a child with a potato sack mask in the middle of the street. The man blinks and the child is gone. Then the camera zooms into the car and the child is in the back seat. We were criticized a lot because the teachers felt that the idea was already taken too often (Friday 13th, the orphanage, Strangers) and potato sacks wouldn’t really fit into our environment. The biggest criticism we got was the fact that the story didn’t make a lot of sense, therefore we changed it to give it a real story. In our short sequence you’ll see this:Tom gets out of his car and walks towards the house. Then we do a montage shoot when he is sitting in the cellar ripping bed linen and cutting eyes and stitching them back together etc. During this sequence the titles will be flashed in. Then he suddenly hears a child laughter, takes his lamb and searches. The lamb lights hit the feet of a child and then the light goes up and we get a close up of a child screaming under such a mask. Cold breath comes out of his mouth and builds the title of the movie. The idea of the total movie will be shown in the next post.