Planning
Brainstorm
We created a brainstorm to plan out certain elements we want to include in our opening which fitted within the psychological thriller genre:
Pitch
In lesson we presented our pitch to the rest of the class, this included the log line, target audience, genre, actors, similar films, and where it will be shown. We got feedback from the rest of the class so we could make improvements to our opening.
StorylineLogline: a mad scientist has an obsession with collecting human organs, he fulfils this by murdering and experimenting on human bodies. A group of detectives are trying to get to the bottom of this investigation.
So far we have decided on the genre: Psychological Thriller, after researching several openings we came up with our own story line to our opening. We decided to call our film 'Ruin' : the storyline involves a mad scientist; it is set in present time, however he is an old scientist who has been working on his murders for a long time. Therefore we made the setting in an old Laboratory which looks quite shabby, as we wanted to create a rustic feel. The story behind the mad scientist is he's a serial killer who has an obsession with collecting organs and blood, therefore he maliciously kills various victims and experiments with their body parts; this links in with our title 'Ruin' as the scientist is ruining the human body. The story carries on to a group of detectives who are trying to get to the bottom of this investigation to stop the killer from claiming his next victim; this was both influenced by Seven and The Human Centipede. |
Target AudienceAfter our feedback from the Questionnaire on Survey Monkey, we decided to make our target audience 18+, as well as our feedback we also took into consideration of the films we researched; most of them being 18+, therefore we thought this rating suited our film Ruin this would also allow our opening to include more blood and gore. Our audience is going to be targeted at both male and females, however it is going to be dominated by males as they were the most common in our Questionnaire, we also thought that the whole 'Science' behind the film would stereotypically appeal to a more male audience, as they supposedly are interested in science. As well as that, we assumed males would be appealed to blood and gore more than females therefore we thought a dominate male audience is ideal. As part of our storyline we include a female, which could draw in males attention to the opening, she is shown as being vulnerable and a victim. Due to the fact our audience is mainly young adults, we thought it was most suitable to show our films in mainstream cinemas such as Vue, Cineworld and Odeon.
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Characters
Our opening is going to include only two characters; the first one being the Scientist and the second one being the victim. We decided to make character profiles to give our opening some context; we thought this would be helpful to understand the storyline of the opening. We also wanted to summarise characters traits and descriptions so we were prepared when we were filming.
Script
(extreme close up pan of jars)
(close up of book slow pan) harman turns the page
(slow pan of scalpel knife) harman picks up the knife
(extreme close up of documents)
Harman cuts down with scalpel knife
(over the shoulder shot) Harman circles Leah's face
(close up) Harman unbuttons lab coat
(over the shoulder shot) Leah walks out of station
(long shot) Harman follows Leah
(close up) Harman pulls out knife
(close up of book slow pan) harman turns the page
(slow pan of scalpel knife) harman picks up the knife
(extreme close up of documents)
Harman cuts down with scalpel knife
(over the shoulder shot) Harman circles Leah's face
(close up) Harman unbuttons lab coat
(over the shoulder shot) Leah walks out of station
(long shot) Harman follows Leah
(close up) Harman pulls out knife
Storyboard
Draft
Before we started filming, we planned a draft copy of our storyboard; the aim of this was to have a visual idea of shots we were going to use in our opening. We wanted to put all our ideas down on paper so we had somewhere to start when we were filming, this helped us organise what props, costumes, locations and lighting we need to get ready for our filming. Each scene has a camera shot/movement/angle this was helpful when filming as we could practice if these shots looked good and if we needed to make any changes; we tried to use a variety of shots however most of them being close-ups as that was the style of filming we were looking at. To make our opening more interesting we thought we would change location and shoot outside to start the idea of chase, we thought this would create more suspense to the storyline. In the last shot, we show the title 'Ruin' this is not the style we are looking for as we are looking at openings, and structurally the Title is normally shown at the beginning, as this is just a draft we were able to make changes.
Final
After practicing some shots from our storyboard we realised we needed to make a couple of changes to make our filming more practical. We changed a few shots so our filming took place mainly inside the lab rather than outside, we thought this would look effective as we didn't want too much action going on in just the opening; the close ups also looked more effective as this style appealed to us more. We also made changes to the title, to follow the conventions of an opening it is shown at the beginning. We also changed some shots inside the lab as we wanted to make use of our props, we included more close ups and effects, we also changed some shots so we had a variety of camera angles.
Mise En Scene
Mise En Scene is defined as everything shown in the scene, this is highly important when making a film as it creates an atmosphere for the audience and makes it seem more realistic, this includes Location, Lighting, Costume, Gesture and Props.
Location
1) Science LabAs our storyline is based around a mad scientist we thought the most appropriate location would be to set it in a Science Laboratory, we took advantage of the fact we were in a school and asked permission to film in one of the Science Labs. Luckily there are some old science labs in our school which was ideal for our opening as we wanted the location to look quite shabby and dirty, as if the Scientist had been working there for years. We thought this would be effective as it would show the Scientist is isolated from everyone else and does not like to leave his comfort zone, we thought it would also show how he has built up his life alone and has no one around him. The tables in the lab are scratched and worn, this is ideal for our opening as it creates a rustic feel.
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2) Hounslow Central StationWe decided to shoot part of our opening at Hounslow Central Station, we chose this location as we wanted a complete contrast from the science lab, we thought this would show the contrast between the Scientists 'bubble' in the lab to reality in the outside world. This location was ideal as it was busy and fast moving in comparison to the lab where the camera movement is slow and close up. We thought including this location would help follow on to continue the storyline, we chose Hounslow Central as we wanted to show the victim coming out of station to a suburban area suggesting she is on her way home.
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3)Lampton ParkWe then decided to film in Lampton Park as our third location, we chose to film here as it was a more isolated location compared to the station. We wanted to show that the victim is alone and therefore vulnerable, we needed to show the scientist following her so it looked as if she was being stalked, this would look more effective in an area where nobody is around suggesting she is helpless and is in serious danger. We chose to film at the entrance of the park as it has a path way, this was effective as we were able to show the scientist following behind her, this location worked well as it moved the storyline into a more tense atmosphere building up danger that is going to take place, we wanted to create an element of the girl not knowing what is going to happen but the audience does.
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Props
1) JarsWe chose to use science jars containing dead animals/insects as one of our props, we thought these looked effective as the dead animals look quite creepy and we wanted to repulse the audience. From our feedback it tells us our audience would like to see something unusual in the opening, therefore we thought these props would be ideal as the different animal would interest the audience- we chose which jars to choose specifically so we had a range of animals to show, some of the jars included were dead maggots, catfish, fishes, and a claw; we thought these specific animals were dangerous therefore would scare our audience. We wanted to film these props using an extreme close up, we thought this would make the audience have to think twice about what is being filmed, as it is a psychological thriller the idea was to show close ups of the animals to repulse our audience, we thought this would help create a scary atmosphere.
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2) DocumentsAnother prop we included in our opening were documents, we wanted to show a close up of the documents so the audience would be able to see what it reveals. My role was to make these, I did this by going online and finding images of different organs, for example the heart and lungs, I then manipulated them by changing the effects to x-ray, so they looked more scientific. I then scrunched them up and burnt the sides to create a rustic feel and suggest he's been working on these for years. The idea of the documents was to reveal that the scientist has an interest in organs and the human body, we included facts on the documents to show that the scientist is knowledgeable, I also made some words in a bigger font so we were able to show snapshots of them, we thought this would give an idea of the storyline to the audience.
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3) Scalpel Knife/ScissorsWe used a scalpel knife and scissors as a prop for the gore element in our opening, to add to the horror we used food colouring on our props to make it look like blood: we had to make the colouring of the blood darker to make it look more realistic, we did this by adding a darker colour in the dye. We wanted to show a close up of board to create the sense of danger and death, we wanted to show the audience that this scientist is capable of murder. We also used test tubes and a test tube rack as these are scientific equipment; we put blood into the test tube to create more gore, the bright colour red also stands out to connote death.
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4)Science BookWe used a biology book as a prop to show the scientist reading; we wanted to show that the scientist is knowledgable and is researching the human body, we thought this would link to the fact he is a scientist and show the audience that this is what he does as a hobby. This book looked effective as it was quite authentic and looked like an old biology book that had detailed images inside, we thought it would be a good idea to take photographs of these images and flash them throughout our opening. We also wanted to reveal previous victims and show them being crossed out to suggest they are already dead, we chose to show the victims face (myself) as a close up as this would link to the scientist targeting me as his next victim.
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LightingIn our opening we wanted our lighting to be very dim as this followed the conventions of a psychological thriller; in the labs we pulled down all the blinds to black out the rooms, we then used a lamp to light up our props, it was important for the light to be on one side of the props as we wanted half of the shot to be black; this would allow us to edit our credits onto the dark lighting. Our aim was to make everything in the lab darkly lit to create a dingy atmosphere, we thought this would look effective in comparison to the shots taken outside, as these were taken in natural lighting and brightly lit. We thought this would show the difference between the scientist 'bubble' and the reality of the outside world.
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Costume
Cinematography
Before we started filming our official opening, we wanted to practice some shots and camera movements so we could see what we needed to improve and what we could include in our official opening. This helped us plan what sort of lighting we needed, and what props we should include and if we need to make any changes to our opening.
Jar Scene: Panning
In our first scene we wanted to show a close up pan of jars from a science lab, we thought this would look effective as the close up would make the animals in the jars look creepy and therefore would intrigue the audience. We attempted this however after drafting our first scene, we saw we needed to improve the lighting, we wanted the lighting to be dark however this made it difficult to see some of the creatures in the jar, we also wanted the lighting to be bright enough to be able to see a glimpse of the scientists eye through the jar, we thought this would look effective as we wanted to scare our audience. We also took into consideration that in our official opening we would need to use a TriPod, as free hand makes the panning look shaky and un-proffesional. We also practiced the speed of the pan, a slow panning movement looked the most effective as it built up suspense in the opening.
Science Book: Close Up
In this scene we wanted to reveal the scientists hand by him turning over a page in the book, we chose to to this by taking a slight low angle shot partly showing the corner of the book, we thought this would look effective as it leaves dark lighting at the bottom allowing us to include our credits there. We chose the scientist (Harman) to wear a black glove to create mystery in the opening as we wanted him to remain anonymous hence the close up. To improve this scene, in our official opening we want to make this scene slightly longer, so the pace of our opening is slower, we thought a slow pace throughout the opening would be effective as it would build up to something that is going to happen.
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Documents Scene: Close Up
We drafted another scene from our opening; the close up of the documents, we wanted to show a slow pan across the documents to give the audience in-sight in what the film was about as the documents revealed images of organs and so on. We thought this draft went well as the lighting looked effective, it was bright enough just to show the glimpse of the documents and half of the shot was dark, we thought this would look effective as we could show our credits on the darker side in a white font. However in our official opening, I think we need to make the pan over the documents much slower, as we want to gradually reveal what it shows to help build up the suspense in our opening, we used an birds eye view shot of our props, therefore in our official filming I think we should use a TriPod which expands to it's highest.
Scalpel Knife: Panning
In this scene we wanted to slowly pan over the science tools, we thought this would look effective as the sharp objects would link to danger therefore we thought this would scare our audience. To improve this scene we need to take into consideration where to position our props; in our official filming we need to be aware of the lighting so we are able to keep half of the shot dark, this is so we are able to edit our credits into the scene. Once again, we think we should make this scene slightly longer so we are able to pan slower, we think this would add to the build up of suspense. To improve our props, we thought we should include blood on the scalpel knife, we think this would look effective as it would connote danger, and the idea of someone dying or being cut up.
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Camera Shots
Editing
Photoshop
In our opening we wanted to show snapshots of our scientific props as this would reveal the storyline to our audience and give them an idea of what the scientists intentions are, therefore we took photographs of our props and edited them on Photoshop to make them fit in with the genre of our opening by making them look more horrific and scary.
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On Photoshop I wanted to darken the photograph to suit the lighting to the rest of the filming, I did this by adjusting the contrast and brightness, I then used the burn tool to darken the marks and blood on the board; this looks effective as it deepened the colour of red making it look realistic, it also darkened the black marks making the feel of the photograph look more rustic. I then used the dodge tool and brightened the highlights to make the sharpness of the scissors stand out. |
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I took close up shots of some of the images in the science book related to the human body, it showed different cell types, as this would link to the scientists fascination with the human body. On Photoshop I adjusted the contrast in the photographs, this darkened the image and fitted in with the lighting for the rest of the opening, this would show the continuity in our filming. I also adjusted the curves to make the image look more greyscale and even darker; this looked effective as it made the photographs spookier. |
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We then took photographs of our protagonists previous victims; we used a biro pen to cross out there eyes and circle them suggesting they were targets. This was to show the audience that the scientist is after individual people; and it creates an element of mystery. On Photoshop I darkened the images by adjusting the brightness and contrast, I then adjusted the colour balance to give a hint of blood this connoted danger/death. I then used the burn tool to darken the background further. |
Final Cut Pro: Experimentation
Timetable
To keep organised throughout this project we needed to be aware of time management, we kept a timetable; this helped give our team individual roles so we were able to work collaboratively together, and make sure we got the work done in the time given so we were able to reach our deadline.
My Role
When planning and producing our opening, we all contributed as a group however some of us took on different roles so we were able to get more work done more efficiently. My role within the group firstly was to plan our storyboard; I was most confident in drawing therefore I took on this job and sketched our ideas up onto a board so we had a plan ready to film. When it came to filming I planned the mise en scene; I made the props; for example burning the documents and putting fake blood on our props, I also played a part in the opening as the victim; therefore I took part in the filming process by being an actress, this went well as I was only in the clip for a short part and I was successfully able to show I was a victim. When editing we all gave a big input, however I individually edited snapshots on Photoshop which we had taken whilst filming, these looked successful as I was able to use my Photoshop skills to make the photographs fit within the genre. Following this me and my other group member took part in choosing the soundtrack, which was a tough task as we had to find a track which firstly suited the genre and secondly fitted in with our clips. On Final Cut Pro, majority of us had an input on choosing different effects and transitions, overall we worked successfully as a team.