Initial Layout of Scenes and Shots:
Montage of clips to establish setting
A moment of dialogue between the couple- establish their relationship.
This is a single take tracking shot following them until they get in the car and rive off, the shot continues and shows my car following them
Cut to black
Close up on different aspects of the house
They go in
Cody is following and sneaks in through garage
Close up on golf clubs and one is taken
Sit down
On couch and start watching tv
Cut to black
Cut to them both asleep and the sound of Cody breaking in (window breaking/door unlocking etc)
Cut to black
~FIN
Mood Board:
Our mood board was created with the help of canava to be able to artistically display our theme and the general feel that we wanted our film opening to emulate. The board used photos of our main 2 setting (the beach and the car). These photos helped us visualise the setting of our scenes for our opening and allowed us to plan what other elements/thriller conventions we wanted to incorporate. we also used photos of other main elements, not revolving around the setting, such as golf clubs to show the murder weapon and how such a mundane object can be turned into an item of destruction and despair if put in the wrong hands and photos of how we wanted the relationship between the 2 main characters to feel, giving of a genuine and authentic connection. The template that we used felt fitting towards our piece as not only did it map out our ideas of the general mood, but it added a realistic approach to what the film would entail.
Planning for Production – roles and responsibilities.
Today in class within our groups we discussed and delegated some key roles and responsibilities as we prepare to produce our film opening. It was decided that I would be in charge of Storyboarding, scriptwriting, costuming, casting director. Though these were all jobs which i would contribute towards, my top priority would be both Storyboarding and Scriptwriting. This is because I am both good at and have experience in storyboarding from one of our previous preliminary tasks, and script writing as I take A2 Drama and have been writing scripts for devised pieces for years. My first step towards these jobs is to come up with a solid idea that we all agree on to be the plot of our film opening, and visualise what we each want. To be successful I will need to come up with multiple options on communicate with my group members of whether or not my work is what they had envisioned and is meeting their standards.
Possible Locations ➮
(Narrow Neck Beach- Filming location 1)
Other Locations
Narrow Neck Beach
Narrow Neck Beach. (other end)
Definite Car 1 and Garage
Definite Car 2
Storyboard
Here is my group’s production preparation to date. The highlights of our project so far have been developing a clear idea for our settings, overall aesthetic/mood of our piece and main order of events. However, there have been some challenges along that way, especially with confirming aspects of our storyline and we realize that there is little to no representation.
As we get closer and closer to our filming week, we are focusing on finding new ways to incorporate representation. We have now finished our script, mood board and our storyboards. As an individual, and as my job as both the Storyboarder and Writer, my next steps are to incorporate wider themes such as representation of not only teenagers but the LGBTQIA+ Community. We have decided that our first filming session will be on 12/06. Our biggest challenge so far as been trying to find new ways to incorporate elements of representation while staying true to our genre.
FINALISED STORY:
To make our movie more representative of oppressed communities, I changed the narrative from my character killing the girl to killing the guy. Not because she loves him, but because she loves Beatrice. Though this shift is not integral to the overall order of events, its implementation avoids the cliché of male rivalry which is such a common trope for women in film. instead, our film explores themes of queer love, repression, and obsession which makes the story more complex and allows people to feel seen.
Some photos from our shoot:
Our Process of…
Filming
Over the course of our filming process, there were many different successes and challenges which became apparent throughout.
I believe that we were successful in collecting montage scenes, adding in atmospheric scenes, while also allowing elements of our story lines to shine through, to set the scene an immerse the audience in our film opening. However, initially, we were not clear within our story line and we struggled to make the idea within our piece known to audience members which caused us to refilm and film new scenes on different filming dates (17/07)
We also found it challenging to film with the weather conditions, as some days when we would plan to film, it would be raining, and we even struggled one time with extreame winds. We also stuggled to work around tide times during filming aswell as the sunset times.
Filming with the use of cars was another struggle as we wanted to be able to show that the stalker character, was following the couple, while also remaining safe while driving as we were filming on main roads, which were busy at the time.
Another problem we faced when filming with cars in public places, was that we were not a proper film company and we did not have any rights to film in certain areas, meaning our shoot did not take priority over what other people in the area were doing. For example, in one of our scenes where the couple begins to run back to their car and my car is seen parked behind them, the shot had to be filmed many times, as average people would yell at me to move out the way so they could park there car in my spot, or just honk their horns at me until I moved, which would ruin a take.
Though these aspects of filming proved to be difficult, we overcame them by having multiple filming days, rather than relying on one day to get all the shots done. This was successful in getting the best takes that we could use in our finale edit and did not leave us with any desire on re-filming a scene, as we had a wide variety of scenes to choose from.
⇦ Unused/blooper clip from filming.
SURVEY FEEDBACK: (LAURA CURWOODS)
This is my teachers feedback on our first edit. i have decided to share hers as she gave the most informative and detailed feedback out of all the responses.
“narrative is interesting – establishing shots great – nice variety of camera angles
need far more tension building between the ex and the couple
it’s not super clear that cody is at the house
[what is going to happen next?] a house scene between the couple – maybe watching TV or getting a drink and then cody creeping in/up to them and then maybe a flash-forward or back.
sound quality and tension between characters needs building. clarity of clips with cody creeping around house so that we can see it
sound quality and tension between characters needs building. clarity of clips with cody creeping around house so that we can see it
Rough Cuts Review
In class this week we were given the opportunity to perform some market research on our class as an audience. We showed key scenes from the film in a rough edit and also explained our general plot/theme/characters to the audience. As a group we decided we wanted feedback on the overall plot line of the edit, because we felt that it wasnt very clear in representing our story line or key themes. to gather this feedback, we created a Microsoft form for our audience to submit there thoughts
The audience came to the agreed conclusion that though the overall atmosphere and aesthetic of the film was good, it dragged on for too long, took to long to get to the point, and was confusing as the plotline that we explained was vastly different to what was showcased in our film. Based on the feedback, I think our next steps are to film more scenes as flashbacks to gain more context of the killing, add in more emotionally accurate music to evoke different emotions such as enigma and sympathy, and make our film overall more immersive.
Edits
Based on our feedback and our own reflections we basically changed everything, including the editor. Though josh was the initial editor of this project, i decided that i wanted to create my own personal edit of how i wanted the film to look with our added flashbacks as he felt they would be unnecessary and did not want to add them to the edit, We made these changes to enhance the plot points, representation and the overall make the opening more thriller-esque.
in the end, the group decided to use my edit as there finale submission as they believed that it was the most effective in evoking emotions through audiences and was generally better even when compared to the finale edit that josh had made.
Joshes finale edit ➪
⟸ First Finale Edit:
This was initially our first finale edit, however, after weeks of having on our finale edit page, we decided against it as i pointed out that the audio was not configured correctly and needed to be redone. another issues with this issue which was not noticed at first was that the shot where i am clutching the end of the golf club was lost and was no longer in the edit, which caused me to re edit the opening which resulted in being our finale edit.