Inspirations:

Inspirations:

The next step in the process, was to begin planning for our main task, this meant we needed to firstly chose a thriller sub genre, and some opening scenes under this category to analyse for inspiration and direction, in order to make a narrative for the main task. So we all agreed on looking at psychological thrillers, and how they create and convey ideas to their audience in their use of camera shots, movement, editing, sound, and mise-en-scene. We all chose to look at few films we really like, in fact it seems we have been mainly looking at theses few throughout the project, knowing how much we like their style, sub genre and plots- these are our main inspirations and strong influences: 

Sucker Punch (Dir. Zack Snyder 2011):

The opening sequence begins inside a theatre, looking at the stage, where a girl (babydoll) is sat in her room on her bed. This suggests that what we are about to watch isn't real, that it could be made up inside the girls head. This idea is supported by the voice overs line 'it's every one of us who holds the power over the worlds we create' this infers that she has created a world, perhaps in her imagination. Sometimes our imagination can be at its strongest in a dream, to some, a dream is a world that our subconscious has created for us to explore, meeting our desires, facing our fears... The voiceover also mentions a 'fierce dragon' which has connotations of mythology and imagination, again conveying the idea that this world is not real. The song playing in the background, a remake of Eurythmics 'sweet dreams' by Emily browning, which kind of supports the dreaming idea, which also immediately gives it a psychological feel which starts to stir up confusing ideas in the audience. I thought it would be really good to have some kind of dream/nightmare scene to set the psychological tone and disorientate the audience with suspense, confusion and terror. Perhaps we could include a chase dream scene.

Our first sight of the girl, we see that she has blonde hair and is wearing pink pajamas  which this can stereotypically symbolises vulnerability, innocence and naivety, and she has bleach blonde hair that represents purity. However, the voiceover suggests that we ignore these, that in fact we should not judge a book by its cover 'but don't let appearances fool you, they can be as fierce as any dragon' this creates a contrast in appearance and personality, which can subtly help the audience prepare to be tricked- this shows the plot to be a psychological rollercoaster ride. The fact this character has full makeup on, suggests that she is defined by males, looking good for them. This can hint at a controlling male figure. She looks frightened and insecure by the way she is hugging her legs tight to her chest and shaking, as the song constantly refers to abuse 'some of them want to abuse you'  perhaps she is being abused by a male figure, taking over her life, ruining it. I thought this idea was interesting and would like to include a suggested dominant male figure and weaker female.  

As the camera slowly pans around, revealing that they are no longer on stage, we see that the weather is terrible outside- raining, thundering and lightening. This really helps set the low key lighting, which hits the conventions of darkness, perfectly. The weather and darkness both function as pathetic fallacy, reflecting the mood of the girl character. This creates another psychological feel to the narrative, with the thought that this world she could have created, is messed up and full of conflicting emotions. Emotions play a good part in psychological thrillers so it would be good to have that concentration on emotions, we could do this through the use of close ups of facial features and expression to help unfold the story. In fact, there is no dialogue in the first 6 or so minutes of the film, which then relies on everything else to present the story to the audience; I really liked this as it allowed the audience to perceive the plot more individually and arguably naturally. I especially like how the weather reflects the emotions; it would prove very effective in our piece to convey the psychological side. 

It’s weird how baby doll looks so unsettled in her own bedroom, suggesting the house isn't a safe place for her, we later see a close up of the letter opener held by the step father to open the will of babydolls mother; this is strongly suggestive of violence and danger, that's very easy for the audience to understand, therefore, I thought this idea would be good to include it in our piece for similar effects. Dominance was also shown by the stepfather, through his composition and costume. We only ever see him wearing a suit and tie suggesting he may be responsible and authoritative. Although this also gives him a feel of power, we see how he has power over babydoll, in the use of low angle shots of him and when he stands over her in height. I liked this idea of an imbalance of power in relationships in physical form, which is very understandable to viewers. 

When he loses his temper at the will, he throws a bottle of liquor in the fire, causing it to blaze up uncontrollably, I perceived this as a foreshadow for something horrible and scaring that he will rashly do in spite. Its implied he was going to sexually assault babydoll, as he pulls at her pyjama top, ripping a button off, hitting the ground spinning, a great shot captures this in slow motion, also blurring out their figures in the background- this really inspired me to try and make my piece very arty and creative in the shots. After, babydoll manages to escape, pushing him out the room. He turns his focus to the younger sibling, he decided to lock babydoll in her room, as we last see her eye in the key hole of her door, we zoom further into her eyes reflection, watching the stepfather make his way into the little girls room. I also really loved the creativeness of this shot, and how it linked scenes through an extreme close up of an eye, I felt inspired to use close ups of eyes and facial features in my idea to intensify the scene and make it more creative. In babdolls attempt to save her sister, she has no choice but to climb down her drain pipes, ultimately showing the audience her desperation and determination to save her. This toys with the audiences emotions as they sympathise even more, quickly developing an emotional attachment, which keeps them hooked so they can see what happens next. I thought I could include a character in distress to achieve the same effects. Sadly, babydoll accidently kills her sister, creating a plot twist that keeps the audience interested and shocked, which basically leads to the plot of the film.

What I liked and wanted to use:

1. The idea that it might not be real (dream)
2. The weather to reflect emotions
3. close ups to intensify emotions
4. Colours for representation
5. Vulnerable female and dominant male figures
6. High and low angle shots for power imbalance
7. Suggestive violence
8. Suitable costumes
9. Reflections
10. Plot twist
11. corresponding music
12. Deep meaning and creativity 
13. Contrast

Inception (Dir. Christopher Nolan 2010):

The audience are shot into the narrative, where the scene starts with overly loud crashing waves, later revealing a man washed ashore on the beach, this created a strong sense of confusion in the audience, encouraging them to speculate what may have happened, which in itself immerse them cleverly, but considerable more difficult, which could immediately make the audience exclusive to older males. The setting of a beach and wild waves gives it a raw edge can also make the audience feel at danger at one point, then safe the next, therefore plays with their emotions a little. I really liked the idea of dropping the audience into the narrative, letting them figure out for themselves what exactly is happening. I also liked the idea of a very natural destination with both positive and negative connotations of beauty and danger, as they contrast in ways that can create panic in the audience; they may be unfamiliar with a location which can be scary, but it can be beautiful like the beach, making the viewer feel at ease. Therefore, I think as a group it would be good for us to use these ideas, because they're practical, available, and can help us achieve the psychological genre. 

 The washed up man (Cobb) played by Leonardo DiCaprio lifts his head and looks at what he can hear, and eye line match is used to present these children to the audience. We hear their childish laughter growing as they play in the sand, creating a strong feel of innocence, contrasting with Cobbs vibe of disruption and disorientation, making him stand out the audience as quite a intimidating character at first. Close ups of his face push the audience to feel more his confusion and relief. He is then confronted by men with guns, suggesting he should not be there, perhaps he's a danger, this idea is strengthened at the sight of a gun tucked in he pants, this can be easily misinterpreted, and again subtly prepares the audience for suspense later on. They alert other authority and the scene switches. I would like to use this idea of innocence vs corruption, portrayed through age and appearance.

A zoom is used to bring the audience forward in to this warm glowing, yet dim room, this makes the audience feel like they are not welcome at first, as the camera is sitting outside the room, yet the zoom slowly enters them. The low key lighting created the idea that the happenings in this room were suspiciously bad. A man is sitting on a chair, central in the large room, with his back to the camera- small use of hidden identity, which is generically used in thrillers. Immediately this shows him to be powerful, feared and perhaps unknown, this also intrigues the audience with the idea that they want to know their possible enemy. He spoke in another language to the people around him, where the audience can naturally feel intimidated or offended  for not understanding (subtitles were included) I really liked the dark grande table he sat at alone, because it reflected the yellow lights above, and the close ups of the object that sat on it. The audience can easily recognise the gun, however the other little object remains a mystery, thus intrigues them more. Looking at the colour yellow, in terms of the animal kingdom, is seen as colour used to show danger and warning the other animals not to become involved, take certain insects for examples, bees and wasps which most humans are afraid of in case they sting us. 

A conversation takes place nearer to end of the opening scene, where over the should shots are conventionally used, helping the audience navigate themselves in the conversation. And we notice how very formally dressed all the characters are, these costumes highlight the serious business side to the plot, which also shows power and knowledge to the audience. I'd like to use costumes to help mirror the personality and background of a character, in order to convey ideas more easily. At the end of the opening sequence we kind of learn how Cobb and his friends are sleeping, therefore in fact dreaming what just happened previously, looking back at the yellow glow in the room, it can suggest the dangers of our dreams. Furthermore, focusing on the reflective table, in terms of conventions in thrillers, I associate reflections as a way of revealing inner darkness to a character or scene. I really liked these annotation, and I'd like to reflect this thought in our piece- a dangerous dream a character cant escape, which pin points the psychological thriller perfectly. I think this was a really good influence and we could take a good amount from this.
What I liked and want to use:

1. Dream sequence 
2. Innocence vs. corruption
3. disorientation through different concepts
4. Colour representations
5. Close ups
6. Costumes
7. reflections

Shutter Island (Dir. Martin Scorsese 2010):

Firstly the audience are presented with a date and location 'Boston Harber Islands 1954', giving them contextual information so they can convey ideas better. The scene begins by leading the viewer in gently, through the mistiness that creates a mysterious feel, that its unsettling at first. A boat becomes visible, where we then go inside it, we meet the first character, named Teddy (again played by Leonardo DiCaprio). Hes throwing up with sea sickness, immediately portraying him as quite weak and unstable in certain situations. He looks up in the mirror, drenching his face in water, he talks to himself 'pull yourself together teddy' this creates a psychological feel straight away, making himself appear quite mental; the first sign of being crazy is talking to yourself, some may say. This subtly suggest that perhaps Ted is mentally unstable, this idea makes a clear appearance late in the film. Mirrors are generically used in psychological thrillers, with the idea that they reflect the inner parts of a person, like darkness, secrets, and raw emotion that isnt clear in appearances. They can make the audience feel tricked almost by the parallel images, messing with their minds more, therefore I think it would be brilliant to include mirrors in our piece. I particularly liked the close up of his face, where you can truly see the seriousness in his eyes, it's quite creepy. I thought it may be good to have an extreme close up of eyes in our piece to emphasise any emotions, thus emotionally involving the audience more. This inspired me to want a character who appears almost mentally disturbed.

After he walks out the bathroom, the camera is positioned behind lots of hanging chains and cuffs, we can the diagetic sound of the clinking, and the camera is focused on them, then Teddy. I thought the blur went really well in this shot and I especially liked how the focus on the chains create ideas of aggressive behavior, pain and danger, probably used as very subtle hints to the plot and the character of teddy. Next a point of view shot is used when Teddy looks over at his new partner, he can see him through the metal wired fence, where this shot forms the idea that how Teddy sees his new partner to be suspicious and untrustworthy, perhaps. I really liked the POV shot to create personal/ bias ideas about other characters or feeling toward the situation, maybe we could incorporate this idea in our work

Sometimes the mind of a mentally ill person is thought to be clouded and suffocating, this prompted me to realise that perhaps that what the mist could mean; knowing this film a psychological thriller. It seems like something the director has purposely done, the ship sail through the fog could be perceived as an allegory for a mentally ill person looking for an answer, somewhere clear, where they can receive help, and make it out of the fog that is their issues. This idea makes more sense knowing that at the end of the film, Teddy is convinced he is insane but refuses to realise it, and that the whole operation was set up to show him how all along he is the one he was looking for... Andrew Laeddis, the man who he thought killed his family, this suggests why Teddy is supposedly insane, because he is Andrew Laeddis, and he made another person up to blame it on. I thought this metaphor idea was clever, so I think it would be very interesting to try and use it in our piece, where the location has more connotations than it looks, in order to ultimately convey better developed ideas for the audience to see. 

Moreover, the very silently sharp music playing throughout the opening, compliments the fog and steady acting at the beginning  and also gives it a sense that something isn't quite right, despite how normal and natural everything appears. Even the conversation between Teddy and his partner, its calm but somehow the faint sounds of the ship gives it an edge of uncertainty and false security. 

Pin pointing a good convention of psychological thrillers, when Teddy makes his way to the front of the boat, and talk to his new partner, he has a vague flashback to his now dead wife. In his mind he depicts the memory to be sweet and lovable, although its very silent which adds an unusual effect, that perhaps it's not all real. There are a few close ups of their happy faces which emphasises the loss to the audience, allowing them to sympathise and empathise early on in the film. Flash backs can mess with the audiences mind as well give them an insight to ones past, yet our retrospective memories can be manipulated and distorted, which means when the real past is revealed, the audience have been deceived and tricked, creating a plot twist. I would really like to construct a plot twist in our piece to achieve strong conventions and their affects. 
What I like and want to use:

1. Mirrors
2. Psychologically disturbed character
3. Mysterious setting (allegorical meaning) 
4. Suspiciously too calm scene (emphasise shock)
5. Close ups
6. Eyes
7. Pathetic fallacy in weather
8. Flash back
9. Point of view (bias ideas)

Black Swan (Dir. Darren Aaronofsky 2010):

This elegant opening introduces the audience to the protagonist, during a ballet performance, it symbolically outlines the plot line. A spot light focuses on the swan, lighting her white dress that is very much enveloped in the surrounding darkness; creating a strong contrast that shows more dark than light. This can represent how her innocence will be eaten away by the darkness of the world. The feathery costume presents a creature much to pure and delicate to battle the darkness... I liked the strong use of both the low and high key lighting that achieves the contrast, as it can simply form ideas that the audience can understand easily. I thought that when the camera tracked her feet at the beginning was good to show how perfect she appears, in the way that she doesn't put a foot out of line. 

Later, the black swan appears on stage, controlling her performance, he begins to physically handle her aggressively as she struggles to escape this horror. The camera movement really compliments this part, as it twists and turns around them, creating confusion and making it difficult for the audience to navigate themselves. This can be symbolic of the psychological changes she will encompass, messing with both the characters and audiences mind, clearly showing the psychological side straight away. I'd like to reflect this chaotic movement in my piece to create similar ideas. The darkness and lightness can easily represent the two swans, also showing an imbalance of power between evil and innocence. I like the idea of perplexing opposites in light and human form because it adds suspense and anticipation for what will happen .

This famous piece of music, known as 'swan lake', paralleled the onscreen action perfectly, from slow and gentle like the ballet dancers movement, then becoming fast and loud, where the white swans struggle against the black swan matched it. This effectively makes the audience feel more immersed and in sync with the narrative, leading them to be emotionally involved right at the beginning. The scene ends with a fade, where the swan is finally free, which suggests a peaceful ending, which I didn't like as much for an opening sequence. 
What I liked and want to use:

1. Symbolic lighting 
2. Colour representations ( black and white)
3. Chaotic camera movement (complimenting)
4. Paralleled music
5. Contrast  
6. Tracking feet
7. Costumes

Blue Velvet (Dir. David Lynch 1986): 

After discussing our ideas based on our influences, we had a vague idea of what we wanted, but we realised something is missing. We wanted something realistic to contrast with our idea a little in order to help outline our sub genre and add to our plot. So we looked at Blue Velvet's opening (despite not being under the psychological sub genre), knowing that the ideas conveyed in this piece are similar to what we are looking for, so I took a closer look to develop and refine our ideas. 

The opening scene shows a seemingly perfect neighbourhood, the sun is shining, everyone seems happy and well, even the children walk in single file across the road. We cut to a low angle of the picket white fence, tilting down to the lovely red flowers. But it all seems too Perfect, creating a sickly sweet appearance, which can suggest that something dark is hidden in the plot, perhaps- like a thorn on a rose, nothing is that perfect. In this opening, there a shot that shows the tv, where a gun is visible, this could foreshadow a bad events like violence and death, that might ruin the perfect neighbourhood. Then the hosepipe knots around a flower stem, this close up could symbolise a near death, corresponding with this the man holding the hosepipe has a sudden heart attack, showing how its not that perfect.

Reverse Dolly Zoom/Vertigo shot: 

From learning about these type of shots, as a group we were really intrigued by the illusion they create onscreen. They looked difficult to shoot, yet ambitious, interesting and fun, so we wanted to somehow include this in our piece to create ideas and show the confusion and disorientation in the protagonist, and the audience slightly, in a psychological sense. We thought they would go really well under our chosen sub genre to make the audience feel immersed and impacted upon. So here are two clips demonstrating this shot professionally, from Jaws (Dir. Steven Speilberg 1975) and Lord of the rings- Fellowship of the ring (Dir. Peter Jackson 2001):

This is a very fast vertigo shot, I really liked this one especially, it worked well because of the character onscreen that the camera focused on. It create the idea that he just had a shocking realisation, which makes sense knowing he just saw a shark in the water. This technique conveyed that idea perfectly, which was also really complimented by the long screeching sound. 

I liked this zolly even more, as it faced down the dark path, it created an illusion in the perspective which disorientates and creates panic in the audience.

The Preliminary Task:

Preliminary task:

Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening the door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of a dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

In this post I am going to go through in detail, how exactly we as a group, pre-produced, filmed and edited the preliminary task.

Pre-production:

Initially, we began to devise a narrative to fit the preliminary. As the genre we had to undertake was Thriller, we could then begin to add structure and spark ideas from our own knowledge and experience. We knew some key thriller elements and possible plot lines that we could incorporate into one short film. It was also made clear to us that this task 'so important, it was just so we had some necesarry experience in using the camera shots and techniques we had been asked to use (the 180 degree-rule, match-on-action and shot-reverse-shot), and so we also had experience working as a group. Therefore, we decided to create it during school hours, using the college facilities available to us.

The setting:

We went into the media suite (editing room) and began to base and expand ideas from what we have available. The room was very small and oddly bare with clutter around it, so this wasn't bad at all. We also decided to use the foyer right before the media suite, now we had chose a fair setting, we moved forward with our ideas that could allow us to use the techniques we had to. Here are some pictures I collected of the area we used:

Our idea:

We created an idea all together in the space of the hour we had in lesson, it meant we could discuss and compare ideas quickly for a final idea we all liked, that simply included the necesarry features and even other codes and conventions of a thriller.

The main idea we came up with was weirdly sparked off from the window in the editing room- we imaged a powerful figure standing there, arms perched on the window sill, as the character dramatically stared out into the distance. We then realised that we could also make this narrative into a thriller parody, for comedy elements, considering this task wasn't that serious. So we decided to have the blinds shut as the powerful figure stood closely to them, staring right at them instead of looking outside. This would make the figure appear less threatening, but actually quite loopy, therefore it could be perceived as humorous. This would contrast with the serious and suspenseful feelings of the scene, creating a roller-coaster-like effect on the audiences emotions, which is generic feature of a thriller film.Even though the closed blind can be seen as an error, it was completely intended. The closed blinds also helped create a darker setting. As low key lighting was used, this effectively created a deep mood, that suggested darkness, secrecy and fear, which is also a common convention. 

Casting for development of ideas:

 We allocated our group member, Lizzie, this role of a powerful figure. We were aware that strong female roles were becoming more popular in recent years, therefore, Lizzie fitted this role. Around this idea of an authoritative figure, we designed the costume to fit Lizzie. We then created another character, who would come visit her, where Lizzie would offer some business... Next, we thought about the identity of this character, which lead us to think, how about a secret identity? The idea of an assassin came to mind. We developed this character to be a male, therefore the group allocated me as the assassin. Also i usually look very tired and i have clothes that would fit the role of a young, modern day assassin. The idea of an assassin connoted death, corresponded with the low key lighting, and further allowed us to expand the narrative, regarding the conversation. An assassin was perfect for the thriller genre. To support the conveying of Lizzie's power and success, we finally allocated Iain the minor character that played the role of Lizzie's  assistant. 

Final idea:
The basic plot idea was that I would walk in the foyer (Assistants office leading to the bosses office) where Iain the assistant would tell me to go through into Lizzie's office. When I go through, Lizzie is waiting for me. We then exchange a couple of lines about my business, then it would end after Lizzie orders me to assassinate someone... It was short, snappy and right for us. We all liked it, and agreed on producing this narrative idea.So we started planning further, especially in planning the camera shots, making sure we used each technique effectively- which I will come onto talk about later.

Story boarding:

After we fully knew what we wanted to create, we went into the rooms we were shooting in, and planned the shots, frames and angles that would capture the film the best we could in the space we had. We done parts of the story board on other bits of scrap paper to help plan and develop the narrative as it unfolds. We all contributed fairly in the drawings of the story board, (so we were all a story board artist).

But here is the final story board we made, with it fully explained and annotated:

Shot No.1
To begin we used an over the shoulder shot long shot, that focused on the assassin walking behind but towards the secretary. This helped represent how he is a secretive and devious character, that might strike at any time, taking lives, without anyone knowing... The camera was placed close to the keyboard which emphasised the ambient typing sound, this outlined the working enviroment as the setting scene.

Shot No.2 

The secretary then swiveled around to face the assassin that walked into the shot, then walked out towards the bosses office door. First Iain said 'just go straight in' as this heightens the tension and mystery and, in a way, the parody aspect. We used this to make the audience think something dramatic is going to occur and to ask questions. The assassin continued silently, which subtly made him appear quite unconfident in his actions

Shot No.3

The next shot was framed so that the assassin walked towards the camera. The camera was on the other side of the door, looking through the grilled wires in the glass window, at the assassin. This was done deliberately, to be suggestive of how the assassin is tapped in the dangerous business. This makes the audience sympathize with this character, especially with his age.

Shot No.4

This close up of the door handle moving, where the side of the door slides across out of the frame, as the door opens, begins match-on-action and set the pace for the subject in the next shot. We used this shot to ensure we used this camera technique. The close up exaggerated the feeling of a mystery unfolding so quickly before the audiences eyes. This would help maximise any shocks that weren't anticipated too early on.

Shot No.5

Continuing the match-on-action, as the door slips out the frame in the previous shot, the assassin smoothly falls back into the shot and takes a seat at the same pace the door opened, where an over the shoulder shot is established. We then concentrate on a mid shot of the stiff figure stood with her back to the camera. Her threatening pose, her clothes and the lighting instantly portrays her as dramatic, powerful and dark. She turned her head, showing only one side. Then the firsts words that came out of her mouth were 'I've been expecting you...' although this can be quite intimidating, it also adds a slight bit of humor, with a few weird/sexualised connotations. We did this to help outline the parodical side, as did the closed blind that the boss was staring right at. We done this to make her look silly for trying to act so dramatic. 

Shot No.6

To really ensure we had a range of shots for different effects, the next shot was an extreme close up of the boss scrunching a picture up of the victim, after the assassin enters and she greets him. This emphasised the feeling of anger and frustration, as well as representing her as emotionally unstable; as you would imaging that someone with such a high status would keep them self under control when meeting someone for business. The quick crunch and heavy breathing adds to the emotions, and can also symbolise how she wants to destroy the victim quick and easy, therefore, hired an assassin... The diagetic sound is effectively much louder and crisper, which can send shivers down the audiences spine, preparing them for something...

Shot No.7

The boss then turned and took a seat opposite the assassin, and placing a number of photographs of the victim, face down on the table between them. Now she has sat down, the audience know she is ready to start discussing business, revealing the any answers to questions they may have. As they are both sat down now, they appear more equal now, it shows that the boss has to be on the same level as the assassin to talk, which is implicit of him being the more powerful one... but is he?

Shot No.8

This is a quick close up shot shows the assassins hand reaching over to flip a picture over take a glance at his next target. However the shot cuts right before it the audience see anyone, keeping the identity hidden, teasing the audience that bit more. This conforms to the thriller convention of hidden identity.

Shot No.9

Another over the shoulder shot, from the boss's side, is taken. The dialogue properly begin, where the assassin asked 'so how shall I do it?' which hints at an assassination, and makes him seem uncertain and unconfident in his own actions, so he asks how it should be undertaken. This could be seen as cooperative too; friendliness can be seen as a weakness in this corrupt business, as it shows he doesn't have his guard up. A slight high angle shot was also used to show his lack of power in this meeting.

Shot No.10

A shot reverse shot is established next, as the camera switches to the assassins side, over the shoulder shot. This shows dialogue in the use of camera techniques, therefore the boss then answered 'I don't care, as long as it's done.' we added this dialogue so that the boss would appear very cold and unpleasant. We especially liked her deadly stare and body language, sitting up straight, looking stiff, arranging something evil.

Shot No.11

Returning back to the assassin, he curiously asked 'any reason why?' which seemed a bit cheeky and perhaps too personal to discuss. He looked far too comfortable compared to the boss, as if he wasn't threatened by her. We made this seem to be battle for power here; the assassin asked all the questions to control the conversation, whereas the boss acted very unwelcoming and threatening, telling things straight with anger. As soon as the question was asked, the boss begins to stand up in this frame, where we sharply cut to the next shot.

Shot No.12

Finally the 180-degree rule was distinguished, the assassin and the boss are sat, with the table between them. But the boss stood right up over the assassin, looking down on him... This was done so that we could present the imbalance of power between them. The boss's power is confirmed when, she states 'that is none of your concern. Now kill him!' as she demands that he does it, and shows how shes had enough of the questions, as if she is saying who dares question me? Although it seems like she is trying to dramatise the situation, displaying pseudo-power.

Shot No.13

The final shot revealed the victims, as the camera tilted slowly down to look at the photographs. These (prop) images held all the tension for the ending, that soon showed the victims to be a cat. This shone the comedy element to our narrative, now the audience were more aware of it being a parody, everything that occurred appears more funny and dramatic, when you think back to how the characters acted. The cat act as a plot twist, obviously because the audience didn't expect the victim to be a cat. Normally the victim would be a person The silence helps the audience focus on whats happening on screen, which helped the film come to a humorous close, with no sound distractions.

Here are the story boarding sheets all together:

Costumes:

The cast each had a set costume so that ideas about us were quickly and effectively conveyed to the audience, without telling the audience any character labels, eg. A boss. Here are the costume designs and semiology behind each one:

• Lizzie- The female boss: We planned an outfit that outlined sophistication, power and authority. So she wore a blouse and skirt for a feminine touch, then a black women's blazer, as blazers are traditionally worn and associated with men, therefore giving her a masculine feel. The black blazer also had connotations of darkness and evil. Under this, a white blouse represented innocence, showing how she is kind inside (maybe at home with family) but dark on the side (at work, she needs to be a strong masculine woman to survive in her field of work- the world of work is possible a male dominated world). She also wore black laced heels, appearing taller (rank of power) formal, yet feminine. And black tights, covering her pale white skin, having the same ideas as the blazer. In the makeup department, Lizzie simply wore red lipstick, having both negative and positive connotations... although, making her appear mature and ready to deal with anything that came her way. 

• Daniel (me)- The assassin: I designed a look which appeared rough, dark and youthful. So I wore mainly very dark clothes, such as black skinny trousers, with a black jumper, joined by a dark grey denim sleeveless jacket, and black vans. The skinnies and vans skater-shoes strongly outlines the youth aspect to my character. After all,  I am a teenager, so it was best to look like one. Teenagers have negative associations in a modern world, such as criminality, so in a way i fitted the role slightly... The hood up and overall darkness of my costume added a lot of secrecy and hidden identity (an assassin wouldn't want to be known), and reflect the darkness of my personality. Black also represents evil, and to kill another living thing is obviously seen as evil; this this colour choice was perfect for the character I played. The denim jacket helped showed how rough I must be, living a gritty life, making business by killing others. I wore no makeup, though my eyes are dark enough to look like I did, they can reflect a pathway an assassin has chosen in life. 

• Iain- The male secretary: As he was the male Secretary  we thought it would be suitable to be rather plain, yet also sophisticate and stylish. From this, Iain wore a purple patterned shirt, and a simple black tie. This simple and modern look was good for Iain's role, although there was no deliberateness in choosing the outfit for any strong representations, unlike mine and Lizzie's. 

Props:

We gathered primary props, such as the printed out pictures of the victim, we got these because we all imagined that when an assassin is assigned some business to take care of, some pictures of the victim would be conveniently provided, to ensure the assassination is done and dusted, without any mess. This particular prop helps add realism to the plot, as that's what props are for. Other props included the bits of clutter that barely surrounded the editing suite, like the wires, paper and folders, etc. The computers  that were in any shots were turned on to seemingly mimic a working environment.

Production:

Practice:

After we had finished story boarding the narrative for the preliminary, we thought it was a good idea to have a fun practice run through. This meant a lot of mistakes were made, for example, we got the shots wrong for the shot reverse shot conversation(the over the shoulder shots were accidently switched over when a character spoke). But it was mainly to check the camera angles weren't too bad and worked, and just for fun really, as we had the time, and it really didn't take long. Be warned, there is a lot of laughter and shouting from Iain, who directed and recorded us throughout this practice. We filmed this using Iain's iPhone 4s, for convenience, rather than getting the video recorders out. After watching this, we noticed any major errors we made, therefore avoided them in the real take- this practice was helpful. This also helped us establish the key techniques we needed to include. Although this doesn't count for much it was still good to have for comparison and reassurance. 

Here is the video of our practice run through of the task (bloopers included):

The actual filming:

 There were a total of 82 video clips taken for the 13 shots we needed for the narrative, which just comes to show how many times we repeated the shots to get them good enough. We also had to tweak some shots and framing, this was because we used a tripod for steady clean shots, and the rooms we had were considerably too small to fit the shots we originally planned in our story board. Despite the awkward spaces, we overcame this issue, and filmed it with no major changes in the camera position; I guess we just didn't anticipate how the tripod would create space issues. As Iain played the minor role of the assistant, who was only in the first two shots, he was our camera man and set up the shots. He also directed us during the filming. We all wore our costumes on the day, ready for filming. The filming took place over a double lesson, it went well and we got it all filmed in time to avoid filming the next lesson, this meant we could quickly get onto editing it together. However, the software wasn't yet installed onto the computers, this meant we would have to do that at a later date.

Post-Production:

Now we had finished the preliminary task we were ready to edit it all together. After the software was installed on the school computers, we got on. The editing software we used was 'Adobe Premier' which was really advanced and easy to use. 

Editing:
Firstly, we selected the shots we thought were best, edited them together the smoothest we could. We wanted to meet other conventions too, so we made the production a film noir piece; the use of black and white accentuated the shadows and lighting. This helped create an idea of good and evil, and the overall low key lighting made it darker to show how it was taking over, and reflecting the people and situation accurately as evil, secretive and dark. Using this edit, outlined how we met the convention of shadows too. At the beginning we included a fade in as it was smooth and welcoming. Then we used a lot of cuts as this allowed the pace to pass through each shot easier. Before the last shot we added a dissolve to represent passing of time to slowly reveal the victim at the end for suspense. Now we had explored a range of editing styles, we felt more confident for the editing of our main task. At the end we even made some humorous credits to clarify the parody aspects. The small production as a whole is 51 seconds long, with 13 shots, excluding the rolling credits. We almost used a song called 'O verona' by Craig Armstrong, as we took inspiration from the xfactors  dramatic theme song, to highlight suspense and humor. Instead we extracted some sound from a clip of Lizzie joking, and overlayed that.
Here is the song:

The Final piece:

Changes and improvements:
From the story board to the filming, we made a number of minor changes, if what we planned didn't work properly, or if we had a different idea. Here are some examples:

Shot No.1- At first the camera was positioned so my whole body was in the frame to achieve the planned long shot, although we soon realised that as I walked closer, my head was cut off. Therefore we re positioned the camera which left my bottom half of my body cut off, but my other half untouched  This was cause the moving subject went from a long shot to a mid shot, as it got closer, and we didn't take this into account. 
Shot No.3- We ended up using a med shot instead of a close up as this would help preserve the pace and direction, if we emphasised it, it would disturb the pace and direction, therefore making the discontinuity more visible.
Shot No.12- We originally planned for lizzie to say " That is none of your concern! So are you in... or not?" but then we changed it slightly to " That is none of your concern, now kill him" as this made it very blunt and aggressive to maximise the  shock and drama for humor.

If we could remake this piece, we would have tried to make less continuity errors, for example, we would have captured the conversation scene twice from both sides to ensure smoother and finer cuts. 

Bloopers:
We took the opportunity to put together all the other shots we didn't use, because of any mistakes and retakes, for example, in the second frame we realised the door was open, so we shut it. And another example is that we noticed that in the conversation, behind me, it was best to place the camera just at the edge of the room we we could fit my head in. Here's the video:
The video refused to post on here so here is the link to it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pHlnX7yhMk

Overall, this task wasn't bad, after looking and analysing it, i thought we could have done a better job, however, we got the experience we needed which is good. We just wanted to make this task funny and enjoyable, as the next main task is supposed to be much more professional and well put together, which means less joking and more filming!