I feel that the preliminary tasks were a great source of preparation for the main production task. It taught me that I should always get more footage then I plan to use as you never know if you may need more shots and its better to have them to have to go back and film more. Also, during the preliminary task I learnt how to film using different camera angles and after was able to practice editing my footage on a Mac. All of this I feel slowly taught me the basics for what I would need to know for the main task, and without the preliminary task to start, it would have taken a lot longer, and created a lot more hassle for my second task.
Preliminary Task -
Fixation -
After watching my preliminary task compared to ‘fixation’ I can definitely notice an improvement in my editing and filming. Fixation seems to flow a lot more successfully and looks a lot more professional, with help of the additional sound and contrast editing.
Altogether I’m very pleased with ’Fixation’ and since the preliminary believe that I have learnt a lot of skills involved with the production process.
Monday, 18 January 2010
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
As I had never even used a Mac before beginning this course, I found it very difficult to adjust to the new software. However, I found the whole technology experience very enlightening and educational, even if very daunting to begin with.
I thought that filming the production would be the easiest part of the task, but I was very mistaken. At first we experienced a lot of technical difficulty with getting the camera to try and work and we never seemed to have filmed enough footage, which resulted with our group often having to do extra hours of filming. Also, there were lots of problems with filming with the video camera on the tripod. As we were often filming shots close to water in the bathroom, we didn’t want to take any chances by holding the camera and risk dropping it, so we decided to use the tripod, which we hoped would also give us smoother footage. However this was not the case. We had problems ranging from the tripod wobbling every now and again to the camera drooping upside down halfway through a shot.
On the Mac we used programmes such as Garageband, Finalcut and so on, to edit our footage. I found that slowly learning to use these programmes paid off and editing or footage as a group was not as difficult as a imagined. I thought that garage band was extremely helpful when it cam e to producing our background music and finding other sounds effects to incorporate such as a scream or heartbeats. The advantages to using a Mac are that over time they are easier to use, the graphics are better and they are a very fast and efficient source of technology.
I thought that filming the production would be the easiest part of the task, but I was very mistaken. At first we experienced a lot of technical difficulty with getting the camera to try and work and we never seemed to have filmed enough footage, which resulted with our group often having to do extra hours of filming. Also, there were lots of problems with filming with the video camera on the tripod. As we were often filming shots close to water in the bathroom, we didn’t want to take any chances by holding the camera and risk dropping it, so we decided to use the tripod, which we hoped would also give us smoother footage. However this was not the case. We had problems ranging from the tripod wobbling every now and again to the camera drooping upside down halfway through a shot.
On the Mac we used programmes such as Garageband, Finalcut and so on, to edit our footage. I found that slowly learning to use these programmes paid off and editing or footage as a group was not as difficult as a imagined. I thought that garage band was extremely helpful when it cam e to producing our background music and finding other sounds effects to incorporate such as a scream or heartbeats. The advantages to using a Mac are that over time they are easier to use, the graphics are better and they are a very fast and efficient source of technology.
How did you attract/address your audience?
When we initially began to brainstorm ideas for our film, we wanted to incorporate ideas which would frighten us and what scenes which we would enjoy if we were the audience. When creating our film we constructed a survey on the rest of the class to see what would appeal, frighten and thrill them. As we fall into our wanted audience band we can add our own thoughts easily. We all agreed that we would like to create a piece which built up tension so that the thriller essence of the clip was reached right at the end. The title ‘Fixation’ is such a powerful word which we wanted to link to and express deeply throughout the production. We achieved this by highlighting the murderers determination and pleasure for murdering his victims, using the black and white colour contrast to show his distorted mind and effort to reach his victim, by shooting him picking the lock and sharpening the knife etc. I feel a reason that will highly appeal to the audience is how the murderer is anonymous and his victims are no one in particular which creates an eerie and fixating idea that you could be the next victim.
Our marketing products would be visually exciting and still contain harrowing images that would create that stomach churning suspense and desire to watch the film.
As an extra effort to attract our audience, we designed a poster which highlights the true thriller side of ‘fixation’. In a way it acts as a sort of ‘if you dare’ message, meaning it persuades viewers to watch it by promoting itself to be spine-chillingly scary, and causing them to dare themselves to watch it.
Our marketing products would be visually exciting and still contain harrowing images that would create that stomach churning suspense and desire to watch the film.
As an extra effort to attract our audience, we designed a poster which highlights the true thriller side of ‘fixation’. In a way it acts as a sort of ‘if you dare’ message, meaning it persuades viewers to watch it by promoting itself to be spine-chillingly scary, and causing them to dare themselves to watch it.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience would be aimed at young adults and teenagers of ages 15-30 because the film contains horror, blood, violence and gory scenes which would distress younger children. I wouldn’t advise the film for an adult audience because I don’t feel that the storyline is diverse enough to tempt an older generation who in general prefer more well scripted films, whereas ‘Fixation’ focuses more on the visual attractions. I wouldn’t specify a particular gender for this film as I believe that it could appeal to both boys and girls who enjoy a good thriller, due to the young and attractive cast as well as the gory , action packed storyline. Although this is a narrow band of ages, market segmentation statistics show that cinema patrons generally fall within the 15-24 year age gap with over 53% of people surveyed in this age group having attended the cinema one a month or more. Therefore, the popularity of cinemas for this age band should make up for the narrow target audience ages.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Working Title is an excellent media institution to distribute our media product. It is a British film production company which has been producing films and television programmes since 1984.
As an English company with a lot of experience, I feel that working title is a perfect institution to distribute ‘Fixation’ as we, Creative Film productions, are British and have had little experience in this area.
In addition, working title have produced a variety of film genres and have had many successful releases such as ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’, ‘Billy Elliot’, ‘Shaun of the dead’ etc. This would give our film better chance at success as working title is a well known institution.
One other media institution which would benefit our media product would be Dimension Films company.
This company is universally known for its success in distributing films, since 1992, with a thriller/horror genre such as Halloween, Scream, Scary movie and so on. This company would be a good distributor for our media product because it specialises in distributing films with the same genre as our production.
As an English company with a lot of experience, I feel that working title is a perfect institution to distribute ‘Fixation’ as we, Creative Film productions, are British and have had little experience in this area.
In addition, working title have produced a variety of film genres and have had many successful releases such as ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’, ‘Billy Elliot’, ‘Shaun of the dead’ etc. This would give our film better chance at success as working title is a well known institution.
One other media institution which would benefit our media product would be Dimension Films company.
This company is universally known for its success in distributing films, since 1992, with a thriller/horror genre such as Halloween, Scream, Scary movie and so on. This company would be a good distributor for our media product because it specialises in distributing films with the same genre as our production.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
There are only two characters features in our short film introduction: The murderer acted by Thomas Arch, and the Victim acted by myse;f Grace Pickard. Throughout the film the characters names are not revealed. This is to create a sense of mystery and unknowing which could make the film instantly seem daunting to the audience as they are not fully aware of what is happening.
One of the main aims in our short clip was to show the audience the difference between the murders thoughts and the victims. Although this was mostly done using the separation of black and white footage and coloured footage, we also focussed on other factors which could get this message across. The shots featuring the murderer show that he is heavily dressed in army boots, heavy trousers, and a dark hooded jumper. This acts as a contrast to the victims dress attire which consists only of a dressing gown. Here we wanted to highlight the victims vulnerability as she is dressed so lightly compared to the murderer who is wrapped in layers of clothing which makes him seem more threatening.
The environments which the characters in habit also exaggerate their differences. At the beginning of the clip, the murderer in featured outdoors, picking a lock to break in through a door, and then trudging down some old brick steps. This instantly creates an unwelcome, shabby persona for the murderer as his setting contrasts to the victim who is featured in a clean and tidy bathroom which provides her with an innocent and honest appearance.
The clear difference between the characters, I believe, causes suspense for the audience, as they are aware that these very different individuals are eventually going to meet and, predictably, wont get on.
We used Mise en scene to show the clear separation between the victim and the murderer throughout the setting and props. The three main props included in ‘Fixation’ were the; bathtub, dressing-gown and the knife. The idea of shooting the death scene in the bathtub was taken from the film ‘What lies beneath’ which we researched during our textual analysis. In the film, the cinematography of shots used to create a thrilling atmosphere was , in my opinion, very powerful.
Link to bath scene in ‘What lies beneath’
We took some ideas from this scene such as the camera angles shooting down on the bath and the use of the mirror as shown in the image of grace in ‘fixation’ above. I think that the dressing-gown is a very important prop for sending the audience a message about the victim. In addition to contrasting with the murderers clothes, as I have already put forward, the dressing gown also plays a significant role in highlighting the victims vulnerability and therefore creates more suspense. In our close up shot of the woman’s feet when she is getting into the bath, the dressing-gown falls to the floor leaving the woman naked. This symbolises her vulnerability and defencelessness which causes tension for the audience, and hints to them that something maybe about to happen, keeping them on the edge of their seats. My favourite of the props was the kitchen knife which again we used from our research on the film ‘Psycho’. We thought that the traditional element of including a sharp, daunting knife would contribute a chilling and spine tingling experience for the audience.
Even though this choice of weapon is so cliché for a thriller film, by using close ups and black and white contrasting, I feel that we were able to create a bloodcurdling atmosphere.Overall, I believe that these factors would attract a more youthful audience because of the cliché storyline and props as well as the typical American style horror storyline.
One of the main aims in our short clip was to show the audience the difference between the murders thoughts and the victims. Although this was mostly done using the separation of black and white footage and coloured footage, we also focussed on other factors which could get this message across. The shots featuring the murderer show that he is heavily dressed in army boots, heavy trousers, and a dark hooded jumper. This acts as a contrast to the victims dress attire which consists only of a dressing gown. Here we wanted to highlight the victims vulnerability as she is dressed so lightly compared to the murderer who is wrapped in layers of clothing which makes him seem more threatening.
The environments which the characters in habit also exaggerate their differences. At the beginning of the clip, the murderer in featured outdoors, picking a lock to break in through a door, and then trudging down some old brick steps. This instantly creates an unwelcome, shabby persona for the murderer as his setting contrasts to the victim who is featured in a clean and tidy bathroom which provides her with an innocent and honest appearance.
The clear difference between the characters, I believe, causes suspense for the audience, as they are aware that these very different individuals are eventually going to meet and, predictably, wont get on.
We used Mise en scene to show the clear separation between the victim and the murderer throughout the setting and props. The three main props included in ‘Fixation’ were the; bathtub, dressing-gown and the knife. The idea of shooting the death scene in the bathtub was taken from the film ‘What lies beneath’ which we researched during our textual analysis. In the film, the cinematography of shots used to create a thrilling atmosphere was , in my opinion, very powerful.
Link to bath scene in ‘What lies beneath’
We took some ideas from this scene such as the camera angles shooting down on the bath and the use of the mirror as shown in the image of grace in ‘fixation’ above. I think that the dressing-gown is a very important prop for sending the audience a message about the victim. In addition to contrasting with the murderers clothes, as I have already put forward, the dressing gown also plays a significant role in highlighting the victims vulnerability and therefore creates more suspense. In our close up shot of the woman’s feet when she is getting into the bath, the dressing-gown falls to the floor leaving the woman naked. This symbolises her vulnerability and defencelessness which causes tension for the audience, and hints to them that something maybe about to happen, keeping them on the edge of their seats. My favourite of the props was the kitchen knife which again we used from our research on the film ‘Psycho’. We thought that the traditional element of including a sharp, daunting knife would contribute a chilling and spine tingling experience for the audience.
Even though this choice of weapon is so cliché for a thriller film, by using close ups and black and white contrasting, I feel that we were able to create a bloodcurdling atmosphere.Overall, I believe that these factors would attract a more youthful audience because of the cliché storyline and props as well as the typical American style horror storyline.
Foundation Portfolio Evaluation
We were given two tasks for our foundation course
1. Firstly, I was given instruction to produce a preliminary task of creating a short clip of a person walking up to a door, opening the door and entering another room which would then lead into a conversation between that person and another.
2. Secondly, I was asked to create the beginning 2 minute clip of a film in a group with a genre of our choice. In my group were Thomas Arch (http://tomsmediathoughts.blogspot.com/), Danielle Gisbourne (http://dannigisbourne.blogspot.com/), Georgia Entrican (http://123mai.blogspot.com/ ) and myself (http://hellogracesmedia.blogspot.com/) and (http://gracepickardmediathriller.blogspot.com/) We decided to name our film institution ‘Creative Film productions’. We chose this name because we felt that it is linked to the idea of film creating as well as giving the group a unique persona. We decided to produce a clip with a thriller genre because we believed that it would be challenging but at the same time exciting as it would require a lot of imagination and we already had some great ideas for that theme. Our main aim was to create a chilling ambience for our audience as well as producing a well made movie. The name of our production is ‘Fixation’.
In What ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
As soon as my group had decided on a thriller genre for our two minute movie, we began to research already existing films, with the same thriller/horror theme, for inspiration and ideas. We looked at a variety of scary movies, such as: ‘The strangers’, ‘Them’, ‘The ring’, ‘The grudge 3’, ‘Final destination’, ‘Saw’, and ‘Hostel’. The three main thriller films, however, which we focussed on mostly were, ‘What lies beneath’, ‘Psycho’ and ‘Creep’. We looked at the trailers for these films using ‘youtube’ to study the general atmospheres of each film. We then went on to look at certain sections of each individual film to research more thoroughly into the cinematography, editing, Mise en scene and sound in hope for inspiration for our own production. Overall I felt that the textual analysis played a vital role in making the film as it helped our search for a setting, script, music choice as well as many other things. ‘What lies beneath’, a supernatural thriller film directed by Robert Zemeckis, had a huge influence on the setting of our film. When we first began discussing ideas for our plot we wanted something unique and visually exciting. When we watched the trailer for this film we noticed that it include a number of bathroom scenes, which grabbed our attention instantly. When we investigated more thoroughly into these bathroom scenes we looked closely at the editing and cinematography of shots which gave us lots of ideas for our own film. One of the shots we took and developed on from ‘what lies beneath’ on is shown below compared to our own footage.
A scene from What Lies Beneath
The film ‘Psycho’ (1960) directed by the legendary Alfred Hitchcock, was a film that we used the least ideas from but it was still extremely helpful as it gave us an insight into a proper classical thriller, which is globally known for its bathroom murder scene. One very influential theme which we took from ‘psycho’ was the idea of black and white footage. Although this film is featured in black and white throughout, we decided that we would develop this idea and change only selected shots into black and white.
We developed on this idea until we decided to make all the shots from the murderers point of view without colour, and the remaining shots in normal colour contrast.
As well as creating more suspense and tension, we felt that this would show a clear difference between how the murderer see’s the world compared to everyone else.
Here is a link to the bathroom scene in Psycho
For me, the most useful film for research out of these selected three was ‘creep’, directed by Christopher smith (2004), because it provided us with a wide range of ideas and techniques to include in our piece. When we watched the film trailer on you tube, we noticed that occasionally the cinematography was filmed from a characters perspective, and often in these shots the camera was shaky. For example if the character was walking, running or breathing heavily. We included this technique within our film introduction when we shot footage from the murderers perspective. For example, when the murderer is walking up the stairs, demonstrated in the picture below. Watching this trailer also highlighted the impact of quick-cuts and flashing images which we tried to include throughout our film to provide a sense of chaos and tension.
Creep film
1. Firstly, I was given instruction to produce a preliminary task of creating a short clip of a person walking up to a door, opening the door and entering another room which would then lead into a conversation between that person and another.
2. Secondly, I was asked to create the beginning 2 minute clip of a film in a group with a genre of our choice. In my group were Thomas Arch (http://tomsmediathoughts.blogspot.com/), Danielle Gisbourne (http://dannigisbourne.blogspot.com/), Georgia Entrican (http://123mai.blogspot.com/ ) and myself (http://hellogracesmedia.blogspot.com/) and (http://gracepickardmediathriller.blogspot.com/) We decided to name our film institution ‘Creative Film productions’. We chose this name because we felt that it is linked to the idea of film creating as well as giving the group a unique persona. We decided to produce a clip with a thriller genre because we believed that it would be challenging but at the same time exciting as it would require a lot of imagination and we already had some great ideas for that theme. Our main aim was to create a chilling ambience for our audience as well as producing a well made movie. The name of our production is ‘Fixation’.
In What ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
As soon as my group had decided on a thriller genre for our two minute movie, we began to research already existing films, with the same thriller/horror theme, for inspiration and ideas. We looked at a variety of scary movies, such as: ‘The strangers’, ‘Them’, ‘The ring’, ‘The grudge 3’, ‘Final destination’, ‘Saw’, and ‘Hostel’. The three main thriller films, however, which we focussed on mostly were, ‘What lies beneath’, ‘Psycho’ and ‘Creep’. We looked at the trailers for these films using ‘youtube’ to study the general atmospheres of each film. We then went on to look at certain sections of each individual film to research more thoroughly into the cinematography, editing, Mise en scene and sound in hope for inspiration for our own production. Overall I felt that the textual analysis played a vital role in making the film as it helped our search for a setting, script, music choice as well as many other things. ‘What lies beneath’, a supernatural thriller film directed by Robert Zemeckis, had a huge influence on the setting of our film. When we first began discussing ideas for our plot we wanted something unique and visually exciting. When we watched the trailer for this film we noticed that it include a number of bathroom scenes, which grabbed our attention instantly. When we investigated more thoroughly into these bathroom scenes we looked closely at the editing and cinematography of shots which gave us lots of ideas for our own film. One of the shots we took and developed on from ‘what lies beneath’ on is shown below compared to our own footage.
A scene from What Lies Beneath
The film ‘Psycho’ (1960) directed by the legendary Alfred Hitchcock, was a film that we used the least ideas from but it was still extremely helpful as it gave us an insight into a proper classical thriller, which is globally known for its bathroom murder scene. One very influential theme which we took from ‘psycho’ was the idea of black and white footage. Although this film is featured in black and white throughout, we decided that we would develop this idea and change only selected shots into black and white.
We developed on this idea until we decided to make all the shots from the murderers point of view without colour, and the remaining shots in normal colour contrast.
As well as creating more suspense and tension, we felt that this would show a clear difference between how the murderer see’s the world compared to everyone else.
Here is a link to the bathroom scene in Psycho
For me, the most useful film for research out of these selected three was ‘creep’, directed by Christopher smith (2004), because it provided us with a wide range of ideas and techniques to include in our piece. When we watched the film trailer on you tube, we noticed that occasionally the cinematography was filmed from a characters perspective, and often in these shots the camera was shaky. For example if the character was walking, running or breathing heavily. We included this technique within our film introduction when we shot footage from the murderers perspective. For example, when the murderer is walking up the stairs, demonstrated in the picture below. Watching this trailer also highlighted the impact of quick-cuts and flashing images which we tried to include throughout our film to provide a sense of chaos and tension.
Creep film
Changes
Today in media, whilst editing our film the suggestion came up that it would be more creative to turn in into black and white, we tried this and it didn’t seem to create the same feeling of horror, suspense and anticipation.
We then thought about turning it into black and white, and highlighting some cretin mise en scene parts of shots, for instance the black and white. Close up of hands over bath, wit only the read nails put into colour. This would both highlight and draw attention to this feature. We then thought of the time aspects, then realised we most properly don’t have enough time to implement this.
We then came up with the concept of having everything from the murder's perspective in black and white, and everything from normal perspective in colour. This works as it helps promote one of our themes that the murders ‘fixation’ is so strong that he only sees things in black white, were as the rest of the world sees in colour.
We then thought about turning it into black and white, and highlighting some cretin mise en scene parts of shots, for instance the black and white. Close up of hands over bath, wit only the read nails put into colour. This would both highlight and draw attention to this feature. We then thought of the time aspects, then realised we most properly don’t have enough time to implement this.
We then came up with the concept of having everything from the murder's perspective in black and white, and everything from normal perspective in colour. This works as it helps promote one of our themes that the murders ‘fixation’ is so strong that he only sees things in black white, were as the rest of the world sees in colour.
DVD
DVD synopsis
As well as creating a film plot we have been asked to write the synopsis for the back of a DVD case. What we have written so far isnt final but this is a general idea of what it might say:
............
London. Darkness. Women are unsafe.
Because something is watching. Something is waiting. Something unknown, unhinged and unrelenting. A man with a fixation. A fixation to kill!
As newspaper reported Rachel Gellor (Kate Winslet) investigates a series of brutal murders of women in London, little did she know that she was next on the murderers list.
As well as creating a film plot we have been asked to write the synopsis for the back of a DVD case. What we have written so far isnt final but this is a general idea of what it might say:
............
London. Darkness. Women are unsafe.
Because something is watching. Something is waiting. Something unknown, unhinged and unrelenting. A man with a fixation. A fixation to kill!
As newspaper reported Rachel Gellor (Kate Winslet) investigates a series of brutal murders of women in London, little did she know that she was next on the murderers list.
Plot
We were also instructed that we must create a film plot for the rest of the movie and here is what we came up with:
The film opens with the murder of a young woman in her bath tub after an unknown man lets himself into her house and brutally kills her.
The focus then shifts to a women called Rachel Gellor (Kate Winslet) sitting in a coffee shop and reading a newspaper article written by herself. The article is about the murder of a young woman in her London house where she was brutally murdered in her bath.
Rachel is investigating a series of murders around London for her newspaper column. The 12 victims are all single women living alone who were viciously killed by a mysterious attacker. As Rachel investigates deeper into the murders of the women, she begins to see a pattern in the way that the murders are conducted. The murderer seems to have a ‘fixation’ for targeting single vulnerable women in their own homes using a knife.
She visit’s the crime scenes of the murdered women to gather more information.
During the course of her investigation she begins to notice of a mysterious man crossing her path. Later that evening she receives a phone call from her close friend, George Baker, (Brad Pitt) who is acting as a policeman whilst investigating further into the murders undercover. He gives Rachel intelligence from the police investigations that the victims had received an unexpected visit from a man checking their gas meter the day before they were murdered. This man is suspected to be linked to the murders.
As Rachel puts the phone down she remembers that a man had come to check her gas meter only the day before and she realises that the re-occurrence of the mysterious man that day was not a coincidence. At that very moment she hears the click of her front door opening and the creak of a footstep on her porch.
Rachel panics and hides in her wardrobe. She silently waits as her attacker creeps up her stairs in search for her. She can see him move around her room through the cracks in the wooden wardrobe door. The man moves around the house, searching for her whilst she nervously hides in the cupboard. After a while the cupboard doors fly open revealing the murder brandishing a knife. Rachel grabs one of her shoes and stabs the heel into his eye whilst trying to make a quick escape.
However, on her way down the stairs the murderer grabs her hair, viciously wrenching her towards him. She turns to see his eye dripping with blood as he drags her up the stairs.
He locks her in the bathroom, giving him time to aid his wounded eye before carrying on with the murder. He begins to tell her random facts about his identity through the bathroom door. He tells her that his name is Darren brown and he lives with his girlfriend charlotte.
Inside the bathroom Rachel smashes a shard of mirror to use as a weapon. When the murderer opens the bathroom door they both engage in a bloody wrestle. After a lengthy brawl Rachel manages to break free as she stabbed the mirror into the murderer’s thigh. She grabs her keys and stumbles out of the house, due to a wound to her leg.
She gets into her car and turns the ignition on. When the headlights turn on they reveal the murderer standing in front of the car, grasping the knife. As he bounds towards the car, Rachel runs him over. She breaks into hysterical giggles and tears with a sigh of relief.
The focus shifts to Rachel sitting in a hospital bed. Her friend George walks in with a glum look. He reveals that the man she identified as the murderer cannot be right. Darren brown died 50years ago after hanging himself whilst serving a prison sentence for murdering his girlfriend charlotte.
However, when George shows her a picture of the deceased Darren Brown she shrieks with horror as it is the same man who attempted to murder her that very night before.
The film opens with the murder of a young woman in her bath tub after an unknown man lets himself into her house and brutally kills her.
The focus then shifts to a women called Rachel Gellor (Kate Winslet) sitting in a coffee shop and reading a newspaper article written by herself. The article is about the murder of a young woman in her London house where she was brutally murdered in her bath.
Rachel is investigating a series of murders around London for her newspaper column. The 12 victims are all single women living alone who were viciously killed by a mysterious attacker. As Rachel investigates deeper into the murders of the women, she begins to see a pattern in the way that the murders are conducted. The murderer seems to have a ‘fixation’ for targeting single vulnerable women in their own homes using a knife.
She visit’s the crime scenes of the murdered women to gather more information.
During the course of her investigation she begins to notice of a mysterious man crossing her path. Later that evening she receives a phone call from her close friend, George Baker, (Brad Pitt) who is acting as a policeman whilst investigating further into the murders undercover. He gives Rachel intelligence from the police investigations that the victims had received an unexpected visit from a man checking their gas meter the day before they were murdered. This man is suspected to be linked to the murders.
As Rachel puts the phone down she remembers that a man had come to check her gas meter only the day before and she realises that the re-occurrence of the mysterious man that day was not a coincidence. At that very moment she hears the click of her front door opening and the creak of a footstep on her porch.
Rachel panics and hides in her wardrobe. She silently waits as her attacker creeps up her stairs in search for her. She can see him move around her room through the cracks in the wooden wardrobe door. The man moves around the house, searching for her whilst she nervously hides in the cupboard. After a while the cupboard doors fly open revealing the murder brandishing a knife. Rachel grabs one of her shoes and stabs the heel into his eye whilst trying to make a quick escape.
However, on her way down the stairs the murderer grabs her hair, viciously wrenching her towards him. She turns to see his eye dripping with blood as he drags her up the stairs.
He locks her in the bathroom, giving him time to aid his wounded eye before carrying on with the murder. He begins to tell her random facts about his identity through the bathroom door. He tells her that his name is Darren brown and he lives with his girlfriend charlotte.
Inside the bathroom Rachel smashes a shard of mirror to use as a weapon. When the murderer opens the bathroom door they both engage in a bloody wrestle. After a lengthy brawl Rachel manages to break free as she stabbed the mirror into the murderer’s thigh. She grabs her keys and stumbles out of the house, due to a wound to her leg.
She gets into her car and turns the ignition on. When the headlights turn on they reveal the murderer standing in front of the car, grasping the knife. As he bounds towards the car, Rachel runs him over. She breaks into hysterical giggles and tears with a sigh of relief.
The focus shifts to Rachel sitting in a hospital bed. Her friend George walks in with a glum look. He reveals that the man she identified as the murderer cannot be right. Darren brown died 50years ago after hanging himself whilst serving a prison sentence for murdering his girlfriend charlotte.
However, when George shows her a picture of the deceased Darren Brown she shrieks with horror as it is the same man who attempted to murder her that very night before.
Final and Finshed Filming Plan
We finally came up with a plan for our media clip, the following are a general idea of the shots which we are going to try and incorporate:
(NP)= normal perspective
(MP)= murderers perspective
(NP)
Shot of the bottom of a car door
Ignition turns off
Car door opens
Boots hit floor, turn towards car
Car door slams shut
Boots face forwards
(MP)
Look at feet up towards back of house
Woman walking around bathroom in window
(NP)
Woman walking around bathroom
Bath running
Tap running
(MP)
Picking door lock
Door opens
(NP)
Woman looking in mirror
Woman turns and walks to bath
Back shot of woman’s lower legs
Dressing gown falls
Feet leave sight and hear woman getting into bath
(MP)
Getting knife
Sharpening and walking
(NP)
Woman turns off tap
(MP)
Man walks upstairs
Man walks towards bathroom door
Man looks at woman through door window
(NP)
Woman is in the bath
Shots of woman’s fingers dripping
(MP)
Hand pushes door open
Woman turns towards door looking scared
(NP)
Close up to woman screaming
Knife slashes through the aim
Scream in the background
Blackout
Titles
Woman dead in bath
Woman’s fingers dripping blood
The end
(NP)= normal perspective
(MP)= murderers perspective
(NP)
Shot of the bottom of a car door
Ignition turns off
Car door opens
Boots hit floor, turn towards car
Car door slams shut
Boots face forwards
(MP)
Look at feet up towards back of house
Woman walking around bathroom in window
(NP)
Woman walking around bathroom
Bath running
Tap running
(MP)
Picking door lock
Door opens
(NP)
Woman looking in mirror
Woman turns and walks to bath
Back shot of woman’s lower legs
Dressing gown falls
Feet leave sight and hear woman getting into bath
(MP)
Getting knife
Sharpening and walking
(NP)
Woman turns off tap
(MP)
Man walks upstairs
Man walks towards bathroom door
Man looks at woman through door window
(NP)
Woman is in the bath
Shots of woman’s fingers dripping
(MP)
Hand pushes door open
Woman turns towards door looking scared
(NP)
Close up to woman screaming
Knife slashes through the aim
Scream in the background
Blackout
Titles
Woman dead in bath
Woman’s fingers dripping blood
The end
Mise en Scene, Cinematography, Editing and Sound
Mise en scene
We wanted to include some typical bathroom footage for the shots of the woman in the bathroom to set the scene and make it obvious for the audience. For example, the woman in her dressing gown, bath taps running water, bubbles in the bath etc.
With the murderer we didn’t want to show all of him, just a few body parts like his feet and his hands to give the clip a sense of mystery, tension and suspense. We therefore planned to show him wearing black boots and black gloves.
Inside the house we decided to include a lot of typical house items around the house in the shots to emphasize the idea that the man is intruding into the woman’s home.
Props:
Knife
Knife sharpener
Gloves
Knife Rack
Bath and tap
We wanted to keep the props at a minimum to keep it simple but at the same time more effective.
Cinematography
We really wanted to make the film look as professional as possible so we decided to try and incorporate as many angles during filming shots as possible. We especially liked the idea of using close up shots because we feel that it will create more suspense. However, we also aim to include some high and low angle shots to make the film look a lot more interesting.
Editing
To make the film seem more eerie we had the idea that during the clip there would be flashes of the future in between shots, where the woman is dead.
In regards to editing for the other clips of the film we aim to use more short cut clips rather than long drawn out shots. We feel that this would give the film a quicker, and represent the chaotic atmosphere in the clip.
Sound
During the flashes to the woman dead we decided that we would like to have a fuzzy white noise sound in the background to make the images even more in your face.
Throughout the clip we wanted to use low, but menacing music in the background to build to tension.
At the end of the clip we were discussing including a loud woman’s scream (the woman in the bath) to show that she has been murdered.
During the beginning of the project we gave a group speech about some of our ideas for the film. Some of these ideas have changed as we have progressed whilst making our film...
We wanted to include some typical bathroom footage for the shots of the woman in the bathroom to set the scene and make it obvious for the audience. For example, the woman in her dressing gown, bath taps running water, bubbles in the bath etc.
With the murderer we didn’t want to show all of him, just a few body parts like his feet and his hands to give the clip a sense of mystery, tension and suspense. We therefore planned to show him wearing black boots and black gloves.
Inside the house we decided to include a lot of typical house items around the house in the shots to emphasize the idea that the man is intruding into the woman’s home.
Props:
Knife
Knife sharpener
Gloves
Knife Rack
Bath and tap
We wanted to keep the props at a minimum to keep it simple but at the same time more effective.
Cinematography
We really wanted to make the film look as professional as possible so we decided to try and incorporate as many angles during filming shots as possible. We especially liked the idea of using close up shots because we feel that it will create more suspense. However, we also aim to include some high and low angle shots to make the film look a lot more interesting.
Editing
To make the film seem more eerie we had the idea that during the clip there would be flashes of the future in between shots, where the woman is dead.
In regards to editing for the other clips of the film we aim to use more short cut clips rather than long drawn out shots. We feel that this would give the film a quicker, and represent the chaotic atmosphere in the clip.
Sound
During the flashes to the woman dead we decided that we would like to have a fuzzy white noise sound in the background to make the images even more in your face.
Throughout the clip we wanted to use low, but menacing music in the background to build to tension.
At the end of the clip we were discussing including a loud woman’s scream (the woman in the bath) to show that she has been murdered.
During the beginning of the project we gave a group speech about some of our ideas for the film. Some of these ideas have changed as we have progressed whilst making our film...
Cast and Setting
For our cast, I will be playing the role of the woman in the bath and Thomas Arch will be featured as the man ‘murderer’. We didn’t want to complicate the film any more than needed so we decided to use ourselves as actors in the film just to make things simpler.
The setting will mainly be featured in a bathroom, but will also show an establishing shot of the house and occasionally include shots of the inside of the house from the murderers point of view.
The bathroom: The bathroom will be a fair size, not too big, not too small. It will be simple but feature a bath and other usual bathroom furniture for example a sink. We will use quite a simply decorated bathroom, which isn’t too fancy or over the top because we want the setting to look as ’every day’ as possible.
The house: The house will feature typical home like qualities, for example. Clothes folded on the side etc. We would really like a house with tiled or wooden flooring because we feel that it will create a more eerie feeling.
The setting will mainly be featured in a bathroom, but will also show an establishing shot of the house and occasionally include shots of the inside of the house from the murderers point of view.
The bathroom: The bathroom will be a fair size, not too big, not too small. It will be simple but feature a bath and other usual bathroom furniture for example a sink. We will use quite a simply decorated bathroom, which isn’t too fancy or over the top because we want the setting to look as ’every day’ as possible.
The house: The house will feature typical home like qualities, for example. Clothes folded on the side etc. We would really like a house with tiled or wooden flooring because we feel that it will create a more eerie feeling.
Storyline
Eventually we came up with a plot for our film. At first we had discussed setting our clip in a stranded car, and then considered filming in a forest, however we finally agreed on a bathroom scene.
We liked this idea because we felt it was different to all the other ideas that groups were doing with a horror genre and that we could incorporate a variety of cinematography within the setting.
The plot follows a man who lets himself into a woman’s house and brutally murders her while she helplessly relaxes in her bath.
We liked this idea because we felt it was different to all the other ideas that groups were doing with a horror genre and that we could incorporate a variety of cinematography within the setting.
The plot follows a man who lets himself into a woman’s house and brutally murders her while she helplessly relaxes in her bath.
RESEARCH
After deciding on our genre we then began to thoroughly research thriller/horror films to collect some ideas and get some inspiration.
The main films we focused on were: Creep and What lies beneath.
‘Creep’
In this clip there is a lot of unfocused footage shot by the camera which creates tension and an uneasy atmosphere. The music incorporated in the background also contributes to the thriller effect.
'What lies beneath'
This film features a memorable bath scene. The filming for this film is much different to that of 'Creep' as it features much lighter and more focused shots and relies more on the music to create tension rather than the shots.
The main films we focused on were: Creep and What lies beneath.
‘Creep’
In this clip there is a lot of unfocused footage shot by the camera which creates tension and an uneasy atmosphere. The music incorporated in the background also contributes to the thriller effect.
'What lies beneath'
This film features a memorable bath scene. The filming for this film is much different to that of 'Creep' as it features much lighter and more focused shots and relies more on the music to create tension rather than the shots.
The Task
The task we have been set for our media coursework is to create a 2 minute beginning to a film based on a particluar genre.
We researched films of all different genres - comedy, romance, gangster etc - and we decided that we would like to have a go at producing a Horror/Thriller genre film.
We chose this horror because it was a challenge but also because we had already begun to develop some unusual ideas which we may use towards it.
We researched films of all different genres - comedy, romance, gangster etc - and we decided that we would like to have a go at producing a Horror/Thriller genre film.
We chose this horror because it was a challenge but also because we had already begun to develop some unusual ideas which we may use towards it.
Our Logo
Logo
For our Film institution (Creative Film Productions) we decided to make a logo to represent the company. We looked at other logos for inspiration such as universal and working title etc and eventually came up with the logo below.
For our Film institution (Creative Film Productions) we decided to make a logo to represent the company. We looked at other logos for inspiration such as universal and working title etc and eventually came up with the logo below.
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