Day 3 of Filming

Day 3 of Filming

Location: Freya's house (home of James and Megan)
Scene: 1 and 3
Actors/actress': Robbie and Jess

Today we were filming at my house as this was the location in which Megan and James live. Our group decided to use my house as this location as it is fairly modern and we wanted the couple to have a fairly wealthy appearance to the audience to communicate that both of them have well paid jobs. 



What went well: 

• All members corporated together and worked well as a group and shared ideas with one another
• We were able to get all the shots we needed and more! Our group decided to take more shots than we needed so we could play around with them when editing
• All members came on time and in the correct clothing ready to film straight away
• The location was suitable for filming and had socket plugs and props already in there that we could use, for example, a table, plate, easily accessible backdoor

What issues we had to face:

• The kitchen/dinning room we were filming in had large open doors going into the garden that had no curtains or blinds to cover it. The light pouring through made the footage on the camera look very blurred and we were unable to get a clear shot. So Jess and I had to stand on chairs and hold up a double sheet (black) to block out the sunlight to enable Jack could get a clear shot. 
• When we were filming the first scene, the printer we were using to print off missing posters ran out of inc so we were unable to actually show footage of the printer printing off the posters. But luckily we had some printed out already so we made it look like Robbie (the husband) printed them out. 
• During the first scene the husband needed to answer the door and open it and have a short conversation with his wife's sister. As I live on a main road it is very noisy when you open the door and you get road noise flooding in. Therefore it might be very difficult to hear the two when they are speaking so we will have to mute the sound and record them talking again and match up the speech with the movement of their lips. 

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Newspaper

Newspaper

This is the newspaper seen in the opening sequence showing the article of Megan’s disappearance, the title is simple as both the characters and audience are unaware of what’s happened to her so we wouldn’t be able to give too much detail about how or why she’s missing. The only detail shown is that she’s been missing for 3 days and that she was last seen coming home from work. The use of the adjective ‘concerned’ before Abigail but having no adjective before James’ name subtly hints that something isn’t quite right and that perhaps he isn’t as concerned about his wife as he should be. The quotation “I just want her back safely” has a slight aggressive tone about it hinting at James’ character and is also quite cold considering this man is suppose to be in love with her. And ending with ‘after sister contacted us yesterday” clearly shows it wasn’t the husbands choice to involve the media and we can presume he wasn’t too happy about it as this is attracting more people to the situation creating a greater chance in him being caught.

Planned by Freya, Jack, Jess and Robbie but made my Jess

Rough Cut

Rough Cut

Day 2 of Filming

 Day 2 of Filming

Location: The cellar

Scene: 4

Actor/actress': Freya (me) and Robbie

Today we were filming the final scene of our opening sequence. This was set in our friends cellar. We had many small issues we had to face and work around but we managed to get good footage. 

What went well:

• All members corporated together and worked well as a group and shared ideas with one another
• We were able to get all the shots we needed and more! Our group decided to take more shots than we needed so we could play around with them when editing
• All members came on time and in the correct clothing ready to film straight away
• The location was suitable for filming and had socket plugs and props already in there that we could use, for example, a chair

What issues we had to face:

• Prior to filming our group realised that we didn't have all the props we needed for filming. This included duck tape and cloth for tying the wife to the chair. This was due to miss-communication within the group and not telling each other where and when we needed to get the props for. I had also brought a red top and a white skirt with me but others in our group decided that we needed to put mud on the clothing to make it look more realistic that she had been forcefully taken down to the cellar. As i didn't want my clothes getting ruined I went and bought a cheap top and skirt from Primark!
• The lighting was another big issue when filming. The main light in the room was too strong and bold to use so we found a lamp which was weaker but still very effective. This lamp was just connected to a wire so we got our friend to hold it in the right position. But we had to make sure that we didn't get any shadows in the shot of anything but the husband and wife who were in the opening sequence. As a group we worked out the best angles to position the light and ourselves in to make the shots good. 
• The cellar had very rocky floor and I (the wife) in the opening sequence had to be in bare foot. Therefore to enable I didn't cut my feet I walked over in shoes and a member of my group would take the shoes off me. This meant that I would have to stay seated until we had finished filming the scene when they would bring my shoes back to me.  
• Dialogue in our opening sequence is on a minimal. Firstly so it accentuates the mysteriousness of the characters and plot of the story but secondly as our actors and actresses are not that good at acting! But in this scene the husband has to shout a line of dialogue and we spent quite a while trying to perfect the line and make sure that it sounded realistic. 

Make-up for the Final Scene

Make-up for the Final Scene

This scene shows the audience where the missing wife and who is holding her hostage! Therefore, as this is such a tense and dramatic scene we have used bold colours. The colour red is used to connote the promiscuity of the wife, reflecting on how she cheated on her husband. The colour red also signifies danger and warns the audience about what is happening. 

We have chosen to have messy make-up for the wife to signify how she has been forcefully put in the cellar and to connote to the audience how distressed she is. The black mascara under her eyes shows that she has been crying and the messy hair suggests that she has been struggling a lot. We did put some mud on her to emphasise the fact that she has been dragged down their by her husband. As a whole, we didn't want her to look too dirty as she has only been down there for a couple of days but of course she hasn't washed!

Second Scene!

Second Scene!

This is the second scene of our opening sequence. As a group we haven't fully edited it as we still need to work on what sound we are using and what effects we need to set the scene and atmosphere. This is the scene where the husband and his sister in law are putting up missing posters in the street to help find their wife/sister. As a whole we think the filming went well and we got a wide range of shots.

Day 1 of Filming

Day 1 of Filming

Location: Street/alleyway 

Scene: 2

Actor/actress': Robbie and Jess

Today we filmed the second scene of our opening sequence which went well. But we had many issues that we had to clear up and work around. The sister of the wife and the husband were walking down the street putting up missing posters.

What went well:

• All members in the group turned up on time and in the correct clothing ready to film 
• We managed to get all the shots we needed and more using the main camera which was fully charged prior to filming
• As a group we remembered to bring all the props we needed. For example, posters and blue-tac

What issues we had to face:

• The sun was setting during the time when we were filming so it was at an awkward angle and kept getting in the way of our shots. So we had to keep moving the camera and the places where we were filming to make sure the glare of the sun wasn't in the shot or interrupting the vision. 
• The wind was also very strong and we were in quite an open space so you could hear the wind very loudly in the camera footage. This meant that we would have to mute the sound in this scene and put non-diegetic music over the top so the audience wouldn't be able to notice. 
• As this was a public area there were people walking past regularly so we had to keep stop and starting filming so we didn't get them in the shot. I thought it would be more realistic if we did have random people walking past as the characters are putting up posters so members of the public would see it and this would demonstrate to the audience that the public would see it. But as we don't have permission from them we agreed that it would be best not too as we didn't want to get into trouble!
• A member in our group brought in an extra camera so we could film different angle shots at the same time, but he didn't bring his SD card with him so we were unable to use it.
• The tripod we were using only rotated to about 90 degrees so we were limited to the shots we could do as we planed to have one of the characters walking past the camera and the camera would track their walk but it was unable to turn far enough to capture a decent shot. 

Evaluation of our Questionnaire

Evaluation of our Questionnaire

We gave our questionnaire to 10 volunteers who completed the survey that offer both open and closed questions. The age range for questionnaires were those aged 16-31+ years old of both genders, who were our initial target audience. This creates a varied response from different genders and ages so that we gain a good idea of what people think about our idea. This gives our group a clear idea of what our target audience think about our opening sequence idea and how it could be altered to create a more effective opening sequence. From the results, we analysed what people had thought and took their ideas into consideration when we film and create the opening sequence.

The first 4 questions we asked our volunteers was a bit of background information about them which helped us build on what kind of people they were and if they would fit into our target audience. It also allowed us to decide and gain an understanding of who would be our main focused target audience. 

Our 4th question asked the volunteers what the likelihood would be of them watching our film out of 5 (5 being the most likely). All 10 volunteers answered from 3 and above, signifying that they all had an interest in our film idea and stating that it was engaging from only plot. This is encouraging, as it shows that as a group we don't need to alter the plot of our film idea.

The next few questions asked about the costumes of the main characters and their opinions on what would best suit their personality and portray this well to an audience. For the husband, 70% answered that the best outfit would be all black to represent his mysterious nature and to signify that he is the antagonist in the film. He would also be in a smart attire as this is conventional of the thriller genre. The antagonist wears smart clothes to cover up their mental mind and to make the audience believe that they are normal. For the wife 70% also answered that she should be dressed in a red top with a white skirt.  This was to connote the contrast and divide in her personality; the red top signifies danger, anger and to show her promiscuous side. Whereas, the colour white portrays her innocence and purity. It also gets the audience guessing as to what she has done wrong and the colour red will make them think if it was to being unfaithful to her husband. Therefore we will take on board the advice our volunteers have given to us and use these outfits in our opening sequence. 

Our group found it difficult deciding on a name for our film so we asked the volunteers to vote for what name they thought was most effective for our plot. The highest scoring name was 'The Vault", which is another word for a cellar and as the main setting of our film is in a cellar we all agreed that it would be effective if we chose that as our film title. It is not only effective but it is also subtle as it doesn't immediately give away the plot of our film as not many people use the word 'vault' in their daily vocabulary. 

We then asked what they thought the main focused target audience should be for our film. In which 90% answered that it should be between 16-24 year olds. This states that they believe our film plot is targeted towards a younger fan base audience and it attracts a younger audience due to the age of the characters (young couples). Signifying that it is more relevant to a younger audience as it sympathises with them. 

Our final question asked what we could improve on in our opening sequence and what we can do to make the plot more engaging. The feedback we received was to mainly keep the cellar in an untidy condition to make it more realistic and to not give away too much information to create narrative enigma and keep the audience guessing so they want to carry on watching. No answers stated that we had to make any alteration to out plot, only of elements to do whilst filming to ensure we make our film as good as possible. 

Overall, the questionnaire was very effective as it enabled us to gain feedback in order to make any changes to our film before hand and to build up an idea of what our main target audience should be.