Daniel's As Media Blog:: Main Task:

The Main Task:

We had to create a short (2 minutes) opening sequence to a thriller film. We needed to include the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot reverse shot. In this post I am going to explain clearly how we developed our ideas for the narrative, and how we created our piece from start to finish through the three stages of production.

Pre-Production:

A lot of planning and details went into this first section

Sub Genre:
Our main tasks sub genre is a psychological thriller, this means our film will meet and challenge a lot of the conventions of the genre. Our inspirations have demonstrate strong ideas that will have analysed to bits, we know that this sub genre can be difficult and ambitious, however, we all really like it and we feel confident in creating a film for this category.

The Original Narrative:

We knew that we were making a psychological thriller, and we wanted it to interesting, and take on a lot of the points and ideas we gathered from our inspirations. So as a group, our first idea consisted of a few disturbing elements to highlight the psychological part; we thought about the protagonist character being a young innocent girl, who tried to escape from a corrupt orphanage that was owned by a psychotic doctor who experimented on the orphans as patients for creating a sixths sense. We liked this idea of barbaric experimentation, that would lead up to her gaining the ability to see ghosts (from an eye transplant). We thought that perhaps this idea wasn't quite opening scene material, as well as too ambitious and too dark to begin with. We then tried to manipulate some ideas, for example Iain suggested that maybe she is caught in the act of stealing something, or retaining a ball for instance, from the dark basement of a sadistic mans house. In theory, our ideas were good, we all liked them and they were strongly demonstrating psychological aspects in the plots we devised. We even made a few small videos to start us off with the sixth sense idea, where the clips of certain objects would represent the 5 senses, in order to hint at the plot line. Here is the video montage of senses:

We didn't finish the senses video as we were unsure about our ideas, but when we discussed it we planned to have these representing the sense:

Touch- hand feels the tree trunk
Sight- the match close up or a shot of the forest
Smell- the girl smells a rose
Taste- the girls bites into an apple (Eden ref.)
Hear- Birds tweeting

When we planned out the idea, the young female character was taken from Sucker punch, and she was going to escape the house, where she'd be chased by the man through different peculiar places, that almost make not much sense (this is because it is in fact a nightmare she is having- dream idea taken from inception) where these places symbolise darkness in her subconscious and the journey she ventures through to escape. This part would effectively grab the audiences full attention, keeping them on the edge of their seats, it would have worked well and we liked this idea so far. As we know chase scenes are generic features of thrillers, and that dream are conventionally used in psychological thrillers. The girl would end up in a graveyard, which has strong connotations of death which can link back to her past, suggesting her parents died. She'd then see a ghost and talk to one, highlighting the fears of eye experiments. To have a vary in locations, Iain looked at the tunnel near his area; as we thought it would be good to include different locations, to mimic the unexpected and weird parts of our dreams were the things around you change- we wanted this to happen in our dream sequence. We planned for her to run down the tunnel and meet the light at the end, where she'd eventually wake up in her living nightmare. We started looking for the locations, props and costumes, etc to use. Here are some images that inspired us:

We even discussed how perhaps she wakes up twice, like a dream within a dream to nail the psychological aspect straight away, but then we thought that it might confuse the audience too much, leaving them more distant than to begin with, and disliking the plot line. Anyway, next we talked about how she might have a conversation with the doctor, where he could be treating her too nicely, stroking her hair, knowing she frightened, but again we weren't too sure at this point. We still had some major developing in details to go over, if we wanted these ideas to work as well as we hoped. We also wanted to include more parts from our inspirations that we wanted, we used these again to help improve our ideas.

From a practical point of view, we didn't have a mature male actor to play these roles, nor did we have any sophisticated or realistic medical props, or the believable and suitable locations. For example, after looking at the tunnel, we deemed it unsafe and difficult to include, so we dropped this idea. Therefore on these negatives, it was crucial to change our ideas, based on our inspirations, our skills and the availability of things such as the location, etc. It was time to change the plot once more. We dropped other ideas such as the sixth sense, thinking it may be too much to reveal in the opening.

New and Developed Narrative Idea:

Our new idea began with a chase scene in a forest, in the girls nightmare, where she was running from creepy looking doctor, she then suddenly wakes when she is caught by the man. This next indoor scene included a weird and unidentified doctor who brought up breakfast for her. We aimed to create a dramatic contrast to emphasise both the freakiness of the dream, and the sickly sweetness of the reality. The young girl would appear distant from the doctor, and overly aware of her surroundings to add some edge, while appearing fine and normal... Conveniently, Lizzie suggested we use her room, as the pale colours and design looked quite clinical and empty, reinforcing the medical side to the plot. The doctor would leave her room, giving the girl a chance to go the bathroom to refresh her sleep deprived state, where she is shocked to see the doctor in the mirror, as he stands from the other end of the corridor; and the sequence ends. This was much more simpler, more effective and more like an opening sequence compared to our previous ideas; we thought they were too much regarding the dark psychological side, so we added the normal breakfast procedures to add some realism and contrast. Of course this mean we dropped the other ideas of the tunnel, sixth sense and double dreams, keeping it simple and better. Here's a breakdown of events:

(DREAM SCENE)

-The protagonist is chased
The protagonist hides

-The protagonist is caught

(REALITY SCENE)

-The protagonist wakes up

-The Antagonist makes breakfast.

-The protagonist goes to the bathroom

-The protagonist gets shocked

(OPENING ENDS)

The Locations:

The exterior scene- For our dream sequence, we had a number of location ideas, that all had their own nice contributions, that we all liked, for example, we talked about mysterious crop fields to deserted beaches- both of which are available. Although, from looking at what went with the chase the most, we decided to for a forest chase. Look at Twilight for example, they opened with an unseen vampire hunting a deer in a deep forest, where lots of obtrusive cuts and point of views were used to capture the scene, I really liked that part. Therefore, we thought it would be effective to use a forest like location. For this we went to Ormesby Hall.

The interior scene- Our second half where the girl awakens, it was obvious to us that our bet was using one of our homes to film it. As I've previously mentioned, Lizzie suggested her own home for certain reasons; so we did use Lizzie's house.

The Manor House- We planned on using this as the establishing shot, this would imply that that she lives in the big creepy looking house, like she was trapped there. We liked how this big house looked dark from age and weathering as it created ideas that it was sinister and evil, therefore what happened in the house were too. We were glad it didn't look perfect and new, as that would form other ideas.

The Forest- From all the places we could have filmed the dream sequence we chose this as it created idea that the woodland could represent her wildly overgrown subconscious filled with her fears and unpleasant suppressed feelings, for example, it would be full of horrible insects, where some childish fears lay. The track could show how she ventured down this path many times in her dreams, suggesting how severe her nightmares are, and her feeling towards this doctor who follows her. As well as showing her desperate she is to escape. Conveniently, this ear is located very close to Lizzie's house, and it's a part of the manor house.

The Bed room- This is Lizzie's room, she suggested we use it for the bedroom scene where she wakes up. We were really pleased to use this room as already it looked homely, yet clinical, pale and empty; this was good to replicate the idea of a room in a hospital but in a house, this would reinforce the barbaric medical side to the plot, suggesting that also the girl is ill- we conveyed the idea she is mentally disturbed through the nightmare, therefore implying she is mentally ill because of the traumas shes experienced. This helps outline the sub genre we chose, a psychological thriller.

The bathroom- After we basically used all the locations closest to Lizzie't was logical that we used her bathroom to continue the indoor scene. We were glad to use this bathroom as it also had a main mirror, which we needed in order to show how the girl is looking at her reflection of her inner darkness and disturbance; conventionally used in our sub genre. Despite the size of bathrooms that can make it difficult to film there, we still planned to use it, as we were confident it wouldn't be a major issue.

Cast, Costumes and Props:

The Protagonist- We cast Lizzie as the role of the you female protagonist, she fitted the descriptions of what we wanted the girl to appear like, for example blonde hair, white skin and small. We wanted the girl to look like this to look innocent and weak compared to the antagonist; Lizzie was obviously available to play the role. For this character, we all decided that it would be good if she wore pyjamas to again highlight the innocence and vulnerability of the girl. This idea was inspired by Sucker punch, in fact the appearance of the girl from Sucker punch was kind of what were going for. We planned that the girl would be wear the costume throughout the opening in both the dream and reality, thus form a visual link between the scenes, creating the idea that there's a bit of horror and reality in both her life and mind, which helps emphasise how she is both physically and mentally trapped, we loved how this conveyed these ideas. Lizzie was at the town one day and found a good deal on some nighties (we wanted a more feminine and hospital like style) where she found two suitable ones at tk max, Lizzie sent us an image of them together, asking which we liked most. Here is the image:

We all agreed that we liked the one on the right more, as it looked more plain and similar to actual hospital patient clothing, whereas the other was more delicate and detailed with warm white patterns on it. Therefore, we bought the one we all agreed on, paying equally from our own money. Here is a closer image of the girls costume:

The Antagonist- For this character, we needed a doctors coat/lab coat to outline his profession, in order to create the negative connotations of an evil doctor who conducts barbaric experiments. We also wanted an older male to play this role, however there was no one available, so Lizzie suggested her cousin Alex, because he would be available and Lizzie added the fact he's 6ft3" tall, ergo he would be fairly suitable. We were glad to have someone to play the role, even though he didn't look anything like an stereotypical doctor due to how young he is; but this wasn't a major worry as the costume provided a degree of hidden identity in the way that we wouldn't see his face clearly. Obviously we wanted the costume as soon as possible so we did some research in lesson, none of us conveniently had this costume, so we had to get one ourselves, like we did with the girls- we went on Amazon and looked at a small range of costumes, we gathered a few links to costumes we would consider buying, based on quality, design and the price. Here are the links:

The semiotic meaning behind Alex's costume can be perceived in the blank white colour of the doctors coat, this white colour suggests innocence, whereas the black top we planned to have Alex wear under the coat, highlights the doctors dark and evil side that lays deep within his personality. The white coat can be implicit of how he wraps himself in the coat of innocence and purity to appear that way, when in fact his true colours of black makes him who he is. The narrative suggests that the doctor is evil, straight away the audience will learn this from the dream, therefore will ignore his deceptive costume, but will still understand further why he appears that way symbolically. The connotations with the doctors coat also included power, intelligence and dedication, although these can be positive, contextually we aimed for them to perceived as negatives, for instance, being overly powerful,dominant and controlling towards the mental patient girl. I found a doctors face mask in my house, that was weirdly given to me in a university prospectus bag, so I informed the group we can use it to hide Alex's face as well as match the costume perfectly. Here are some images of Alex's allocated costume:

The Film Title:

When it came to the part of naming our film, we all decided it needs to be short, catchy, memorable, with a deep and relative meaning to the plot and perhaps sub genre. Over Facebook chat, together we spun out names, where we either expanded on them or made it clear what kind of names we want and don't wan't and even names we can't have. We had lots and lots of ideas, but here are just some examples that I remember:
Dream catcher (link to plot and sub genre)

The happening
Insomnia (mental illness strongly links to the plot and sub genre)
Trauma (German word for dream) Clever link to bad past experiences
Mirage
The witching hour (another phrase for midnight- scary connotations)
Parallel (idea of self reflection in physical and mental forms, link to plot and sug genre conventions. Inspired by Hitchcock's titles)
The imagining (inspired by the Sucker punch speculative point that she could have imagined it all, created by dark subconscious)

We all really liked our ideas, we actually said we all liked Insomnia the most without a big discussion; however it occurred to us that this name was already taken by a major motion picture, therefore we could not use it for out piece. This was really annoying because we had to then make another decision on names we liked less, nevertheless, we soon narrowed them down to three main ones we liked the most. These were:

The imagining
Parallel
The witching hour

I liked 'The imaging' for the idea that it's all imagined and created by a mentally dysfunctional mind, which can be very interesting. It's always been in peoples interest to understand and know what goes on inside a disturbed mind; this title offers that idea to the audience and will attract them.

I like Parallel more as it's short and snappy, making it memorable and catchy, inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's film titles, such as 'vertigo' and 'psycho', which seem to have more impact on the audience and being easier to understand (as it's only one word) . The name even linked to the narrative of the opening scene where the girl looks in the mirror, as well as relating to a generic feature of psychological thrillers- where mirrors are used in the way that they show a deep self reflection of one self, often showing the darkness and disturbances within the character.

The title 'The witching hour' in my opinion isn't as strong as the others. It's nice in the underlying meaning that it refers to midnight, a time where bad things and childish fears of monsters, reveal themselves, which could be like dreaming is the time we go to face our fears and desires.

Stuck on which one we liked best, we thought it was best to create a chart for the three and take advantage of the other students and teachers around us around the college. So in our lesson we went around a range of areas containing different people and asked them which title they liked best- which one they found most appealing if they were to see the thriller film based on the name? This step was crucial in the way that we could give the audience what they wanted in the fairest way. The sample included different people regarding age, gender, and interests; and because we asked a fair amount of people, we thought we could more or less generalise the results to the rest of the public. Here are the results in a pie chart:

The results clearly show that the most popular film title was 'Parallel' as just over half preferred it over the other two choices. As a group we were pleased with this outcome, as we all liked this name for a number of reasons, such as meeting the criteria we originally set out for a suitable name. As you can see 'The witching hour' was least popular, so weren't going to use this idea, we went with the most popular, to satisfy our demographic, as this would also reach out to them to engage with them more effectively, pulling in more viewers.

The Storyboard:

(DREAM SCENE):

-Shot number one is simply the production company logo, creating the effect that the following film is going to have a degree of professionalism and is to be taken seriously like a real thriller film. We wanted this ti then fade into our next shot, as a fade would create suspense right before the film starts, instead of jumping straight in.

-Shot number two introduces the setting through an establishing shot, we planned to give the audience a simple idea that the dream is set in a woodland area, which would begin to form ideas in the mind of the viewers. It also helps the audience develop an understanding of the geography of the scene, which helps them navigate the scene more easily and immerses them. We also planned to include the institution titles on this frame, both 'Eden pictures presents' and 'a white stag production'.

-Shot number three was where the camera would be placed on the ground in order to capture the foot of the girl as she runs past; this intrigues the audience and teases them through hidden identity. The foot gives it a weird feel, knowing the first thing you see is a foot. On this frame, we wanted to include the first actress name title 'Elizabeth McLaughlin'.

-Shot number four carried on the hidden identity through the use of a point of view shot of the girl. We planned that we should be able to hear the diagetic sound of her heavy breathing and foot steps to suggest panic and a chase scene coming on. It was a hand held shot which showed the audience more that she is very fearful and shaken up with adrenaline, desperate to escape. This began to form an emotional connection between the girl and the audience.

-Shot number five was again another low angle ground shot, this time the camera faced the direction of the girl and watched her run past the camera, which finally revealed her figure but not her face; still maintaining the hidden identity slightly, this slowly eased the audience into the plot and characters.

-Shot number six is a pan shot that was planned to track her figure running past the trees, we liked the thought of the tree trunks quickly passing her, as this could express the idea further that she was panicked and trying to overcome these obstacles that were aggressive looking tree trunks. This shot also offered more range in shot and angles which would help the audience navigate themselves.

-Shot number seven contains a point of view shot of the pursuer/monster that chased the girl through the forest. This confirms a chase scene which heightened the excitement and suspense, therefore pulled the audience to the edge of there seat- fulfilling a major thriller convention. This shot was planned to include the diagetic sound of the monsters more aggressive/masculine breathing to create negative ideas about this character straight away. This was also supposed to be a hand held shot to strengthen the chaos and desperation in the chase. This would also push the audience to become more interested, through the new hidden identity of a seemingly bad character. This is where we planned to have the second actors title 'Alex Sherlock'.

-Shot number eight is another pov shot, this time the girl- the audience now kind of know it's the girl as there's no one in front of her. She would start to turn and direct her run towards some bushes where she'd hide and hopefully escape. The use of a pov shot emotionally involves the audience further, now they would start to feel more what she might be going through in her attempt to escape; this creates sympathy and hope in them for the girl.

-Shot number nine aimed to confirm that it the girl is hiding in the bushes. We purposely planned to make this a long shot to include a range of shots, helping the viewer navigate.

-Shot number ten is on a canted angle, further in the bushes than the girl, watching her enter. The canted angle creates the idea that this was a bad decision, suggesting that maybe now she will be caught. It also shows the disorientation of the girl, as her world is beginning to tip over until eventually its truly up side down.

-Shot number eleven included a small pan from the path across to the girls face, this shot finally reveals her face, we want the audience to immediately sympathise when they see the fear in her face; this would captivate the audiences views on who's side they are on, as they like to take side because it helps them understand the plot more, as well as emotionally involves them from a characters point of view, ultimately making any traumatic events more effective in impacting the audience. This frame is planned to also include the 'executive producer James Walton'.

-Shot number twelve is an extreme close up of the girls lips as they tremble in terror, again close up pull the viewers in more, and it demonstrates a range of shots.

-Shot number thirteen is a tracking shot of the girl as she slowly peers out to check if its clear and safe. This shot shows the relationship of the character and camera, showing how we are more on her side anyway, as we follow her every move. The closeness of the camera to the girls head reinforces the relationship the audience have developed with her, that they will be by her side no matter what.

-Shot number fourteen is planned to be a reverse dolly zoom ( if you look on the extra storyboard planning sheets, it explains how we might film this shot twice, with and without the doctor standing at the end of the path waiting for her- we chose to include him) The man is revealed through this shot as a doctor. The illusion of the reverse dolly zooms makes the audience feel strongly involved, as they are pulled to the screen which can also freak them out hopefully... This depends on how well this shot goes as it will be very difficult and challenging.

-Shot number fifteen show the girl get up further after noticing how far away he is but also coming closer, encouraging her to run now! The next title 'executive director Iain Guy' is shown on this frame.

-Shot number sixteen captures the girl do a quick turn to run, finding that she has run into the chest of the doctor which shocks both the girl and audience. We want to be able to seea bit of the surgical mast to also unsettle the audience, as it can create negative and creepy connotations of barbaric experiments on the girl, explaining why shes afraid and why he wants her. The fact he was in one place then suddenly another helps outline the dream, as dreams don't make physical sense at times. It's also known that chase dreams are very common, so hopefully the audience might figure this out, however the next shot confirm that it was a dream. This is the last shot of the dream sequence and please note that there was music throughout.

(REALITY SCENE):

-Shot number seventeen is an extreme close up of the girls eye dramatically opening as wakes up from the nightmares shocking end. We want diagetic sound to be evident here, of the girl gasping in shock.

-Shot number eighteen is a long shot from the 90 degree side angle on the 180 degree rules circumference line. This would show the girl jumping up as she wakes, this acting would show how again she is surprised from the dream.

-Shot number nineteen is more than one shot as it is a montage of breakfast being prepared by the doctor- full of close ups and high angles of for example sizzling bacon, pouring a kettle and buttering toast, etc. This scene create context and some contrasting ideas to the bad dreams portrayal. This breakfast montage idea came from the popular tv series called 'Dexter' which is about a psychopath that murders other psychopaths- the opening credits include a montage of morning preparation.

-Shot number twenty is a close up of the doctor opening the girls bedroom door. This movement of the door opening was used to also recreate the match on action for the reality scene to help link the other shot and from stronger continuity.

-Shot number twenty one is a mid shot of the doctor walking into the room with the breakfast tray which portrays him as nice, we deliberately made sure that we couldn't see his face to maintain the hidden identity.
-Shot number twenty two is the 180 degree rule which captures both characters, we aim to show an imbalance of power again through a height difference, showing how he dominates her in both dreams and reality.
-Shot number twenty three is an over the shoulder shot, used to show how the girl views him, also they are generically used in conversations, the doctor begins a conversation, as 'so how are you feeling this morning?' making him appear caring and kind, contrasting with her dreams portrayal. We also want to ensure that the audience still don't see his face.
-Shot number twenty four continues the dialogue as the girl replies 'I feel good thanks, still tired though', this shot also begins the shot reverse shot, as its from the doctors side, using an otss.
-Shot number twenty five is a high angle shot that captures the doctor put the tray on the bed, at the same time accidently dropping the knife on the floor, to create a slight unease and suggestive violence.
-Shot number twenty six is a close up that shows the doctors hand grab the knife of the floor. We plan that he says 'Oh I'm so clumsy, I'll go get you another one'
-Shot number twenty seven goes back to the 180 degree rule, as he lifts up and goes out the room to get another knife, the girl simply says 'thank you'.
-Shot number twenty eight is another otss from the girl, showing that she is watching him leave the room.
-Shot number twenty nine is a long shot that shows the girl get out of bed, pushing her breakfast tray aside, her behaviour begins to create tension as its unsure what she might do. she will walk out of one side of the frame.
-Shot number thirty smoothly re enters the girl into the frame, forming a visual bridge because of the match on action created here, the smoothness makes the audience think she knows what she is doing.

-Shot number thirty one is a mid shot of the girl opening her door to leave.
-Shot number thirty two is just a mid shot that captures the girl from the side as she walks out the room.
-Shot number three and four is another mid shot where the girl is walking right towards the camera, here we plan to use a technique called the 'invisible camera' as the next shot is the camera facing the direction the girl is walking, as she walks forward. To join these shot we plan to use a fade to black, as if she walked through the camera. This helps the audience feel more a part of whats going on, by involving them through this technique. She would then open the bathroom door.
-Shot number thirty five is a pan, following the girl walk in the bathroom towards the sink.
-Shot number thirty six is an extreme close up of the tap, as she turns it. we want to hear a squeaky tap, however, Lizzie informed us that her taps don't squeak.
-Shot number thirty seven is a high angle of the girls splashing water over her face to refresh herself, as she's just had a bad dream she needs to pull herself together. This action also relates to the audience as we thought everyone does this. We wanted to increase the sound of the water running, as hyperbolic sound can begin to unease the audience, and maybe prepare them for shock.
-Shot number thirty eight is where the camera acts as a mirror, the girl looks up into it after washing her face, and sees the doctor standing and watching her, from the other side of the landing. Which freaks her out, knowing shes just had a nightmare about him, and it suggests that reality for her is similar to her dreams, which means her reality is like a night mare. This use of the mirror idea outlines the psychological feel, as mirrors a conventionally used.
-The final shot number thirty nine, is a close up of the girl dramatically turning her head to see is is really there. We haven't decided whether we should have the girl scream or not. The opening then ends on this.
-The title of the film appears on shot fourty- PARALLEL.

Here are some more story board planning sheets for extra information:

Production:
Now we had planned it all to the best we could, we began planning to film it.

Planning, Dates and Issues:

Before we got around to actully filming our final piece, we set out dates and plans for the day. Orignally we planned to film on Saturday the 30th of Marth 2013- we planned that Iain would stay over at my house so I could provide transport, ensuring we both arrived at Lizzie's on time. We also discussed the catering for the day, where Lizzie's mum generously prepared tea for us. We planned to arrive at around 11am to film to interior scenes, this was so that we could capture the natural day light in order to create the effect of being a morning when the girl wakes. Then we planned to begin editing until 5pm where we would have tea. After this we planned to go outside into the woodland like area opposite Lizzie's house and film the second half of the piece; this was also deliberate in the sense that we also wanted to capture the naturual light, slowly turn into low key as the sun set. This would aslo match the connotations of nightmares and strengthen any symbolic meanings withing the lighting.

Unfortunately, Lizzie got ill right before this, which meant we had to post pone the dates for filming to the next week (in the middle of the two week period) which was Saturday the 6th of April, so this issue was resolved quite easily as we were all free and able to film then instead. The same procedures applied for the day. I think our group can agree on how we should not have underestimated how long it would take to both film and edit the entire piece in one day- as we planned to film it in two sections as well as begin to edit it inbetween parts and eat. After we had film it all in that day, there wasn't really any time to edit, and we couldn't any way as the editing software refused to work on my laptop for some unknown reason, which meant we had no stable choice but to wait until we got back to college, so we could use their editing software.

The actual Filming:

When the day came, Iain and I got a lift of my dad to Lizzie's house, when we arrived we became aware of the house etc, which then lead on to us jumping straight into filming the indoor scene. Lizzie and Alex were eagerly ready in their costumes too, so all in all it was at a good start. We didn't film chronologically, firstly we captured the breakfast montage scene, as this allowed us to continue with the bedroom scene, where the doctor brought the breakfast up. The breakfast scene was sometimes awkward to film, as we had to avoid the toasters reflective surface, be very silent and patient to wait for the toast to pop up, and make sure Alex's hand action didn't disrupt a shot too much by being too close or awkwardly covering parts we wanted to catch, so we had to direct him here in how exactly he cooked the breakfast!

This section of film took the longest, there must have been over one hundred takes! Lizzie couldn't help but laugh, neither could we, although we did anticipate this... It was quite difficult in parts, like having to preposition shots until it was good enough, and having to record Alexs line about the knife seperately, to then later add in the editing stage, as we couldn't master this shot and have Alex talking, plus it was a quick shot. After this was finally done, we quickly got onto the bathroom part (aka the ending) After we successfully filmed this half, we relaxed a bit, as the editing software wouldn't work. Lizzie's mam prepared tea, and after this the late was on it's way which meant it was time to prepare for the dream sequence.

We brought Lizzie's old bike for the reverse dolly zoom as we planned to attach the camera on the handle bars and roll backward while zooming in slowly, and obviously all the camera equipment. We tried a number of times to do to rdz, like on the bike, and holding it ourselves, walking backwards. It was rather cold so Lizzie wrapped herself in a snug parker coat for inbetween shots. Lizzie was very dedicated to her role as she agreed to run bare foot for the chase, under the condition that we made sure it was safe with no broken glass etc lying about- so we helped clear the path. I'd say that the acting in this part was much more serious and professional compared to the indoor scene, I guess Lizzie was too comfortable perhaps, in her own bed while acting! Nevertheless she was really good in this part, as she seemed to really get into her role, you could see the primitive fears in her eyes for example in the shot where the audience finally see her face. However some narrative shot issues still occurred in this part. Although Lizzie was an actor, she still jumped at any chance to help direct and frame a shot, so she was helpful in all areas.

Changes made in Production:
While we filmed our piece, we seemed to make a number of minor changes that didn't really affect the final piece, but here are some examples:

In our establishing shot, instead of just showing the forest from afar, we thought it would more effective in forming ideas if we used the manor house, zooming towards and slightly to the side of it. On our extra storyboard planning sheet we thought it would be good to maybe have a range of establishing shots all varying in angels, but we didn't stick to the plan on this idea; we just got the simple one shot to waste less time and get straight into the plot.
In shot number six, in the dream sequence we did plan to use a pan shot which tracked the girl as she ran through the forest, I really liked this shot as it offered a wider ranger of angles which would help immerse the audience quicker. However, at first we decided to post pone this shot until it got darker, as the angle of sun light made it too bright which would contradict what we wanted to represent through lighting. Sadly, when we got around to filming this shot, it was too dark to even see the girls figure in the darkening forest. Even though I wanted this shot, we thought that it might even disrupt the continuity.
Another example, is shot number nine, we didn't include this shot as we felt we might be repeating it too much, as we used a point of view shot of the girl running toward the bushes. It didn't create any issues as it was a mutual agreement to exclude this shot, in order to keep the scene quick, which meets the convention of a thriller to have obtrusive quick cuts.
Shot number fourteen was planned to be a reverse dolly zoom, obviously it was very challenging to try to capture it effectively. We decided to also try and combine it with a point of view shot of the girl. When we filmed this shot is was basically a hand held shot, which made it shaky; however this went well with the type of shot, as it creates the idea that she is very frightened and fearful of the doctor.
Dialogue changes were made in order to sound more natural, as some parts sounded too rehearsed and even camp, for example, the doctor was supposed to say 'Oh, I'm so clumsy, I'll go get you another one' and we though the first part sounded too feminine for the evil doctor, therefore we simply changed it to 'I'll go get you another one'.
Shot number twenty was originally planned to film the door opening from the inside of the room, whereas instead we captured it on the other side with the doctor. This was partly done to avoid the huge Tangled poster on the back of Lizzie's door that was glued on... we didn't want to draw attention to it as it might make the room seem to girly and fun when it's supposed to look clinical and empty.

We knew it was okay to make changes to our planned piece we only used it as a rough structure to guide us.

Post-Production:
Now we had filmed it all, we were ready to move on to the next production stage and edit it together.

Editing and Music:

We tried to begin editing at Lizzie's, but the software didn't work, so as soon as we got back to college, our editing period began on the 15th of April and we finished it fully on the 1st of May. During this time, at first we suffered a few issues with what computers to use, and it took a lot of effort to extract which clips we needed for the final piece, out of about 200 clips - we done it manually lots of times to find it refused to work, so we had to go into the editing suit to see if it worked there, and finally it did. It didn't take that long to edit our piece yet it was longer than anticipated, as we had to really try and perfect the finished piece!

After our preliminary task, we felt much more confident and familiar with editing, so we got straight on. We used Adobe premier editing software to edit our piece, it was very easy to use and advanced. We firstly edited the reality part, by arranging the shots chronologically, then cutting them until they fitted accurately to how we wanted. Then we began on our dream scene, again we arranged them and added the music (which we collected weeks ago before, as we researched into a range of sound tracks until we found the one we wanted and suited our film the best), this was so when we edited them together properly, we could try and make the video correspond with the musics rhythm and beats, which would be more thrilling and exciting for the audience, effectively keeping them hooked and entertained. And the music did, there are lots of thumps in the music, where the titles and acting match perfectly, for example the foot and the girls eyes opening were really effectively edited to be on time.

This was a successful yet rather long process. Sometimes the software inconveniently switched itself off before we has even saved our process, which would set us back a bit, for example the part of the editing where we finally started adding titles it turned off. Eventually we got it done safely and we thought it was a huge success and relief, we went from disliking the film at the beginning, to really liking it at the end. Before we fully completed it, we edited the dream sequence some more by adding filter effects, after exploring a range of effects that didn't quite fit what we wanted, we found something that sufficed. It was a drain in colour, making part monochrome, and others in colour. I especially liked how when the girl ran, it was like the colour from the trees was sucked out of them, as if they died as she past, which would create good symbolic ideas that suited the dream. Also, throughout this process we were able to add the fades and dissolves we needed to patch parts together, like the invisible camera and titles for example. We decided to add a tiny flash of video right at the very end, both a shot of the manor, and a shot of where the girl meets the doctors chest, to show a quick flash back to her dream, as she sees the doctor behind her when she in the bath room, as this creates a final punch at the audience to unsettle them and interest them further- was very pleased with this part. Look the the production diary for more information on dates we started and finished tasks.

Here's my finished production diary, noting all important dates of the making of Parallel:

Bloopers:
The video wouldn't upload and Blogger couldn't find it via Youtube, so here's the link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKZGx1aYozc

Conclusion of task:
In conclusion, although this was a challenging, ambitious and very long task, I think we handled it successfully and professionally. We were very proud and relieved to have finished it as well as we did, despite all the obstacles and issues. My favourite part was editing the piece together because only then, I could begin to see how well we done as a group. If I could have re done the task, I'd have made sure we got more shots for the dream, and improved the reverse dolly zoom, knowing it was difficult and dark. And I hope you enjoy the finished piece.

Daniel's As Media Blog:

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Main Task:

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