Closing Post

We've really enjoyed doing this project and we're glad that we were put in a group together.

We're happy with our final opening sequence and there's nothing that we really want to change about it.

This blog is now CLOSED

Screening Feedback (Target Audience)

We have had a succesfull screening!
We had a turnout of around 20 people ranging from the ages of 16-18.

By looking through all these questionnaires, i can summarise this.

• Our biggest drawback was the quality of our voice messages.
• The audience didn't fully understand the theme of the film, and found it confusing towards the end.
• They liked the titles.
• The soundtrack was seemed suitable and worked well with the sequence of events.

On average, we had a rating of 7.9 out of 10.

Screening Preparation

To get effective audience feedback, we composed a questionnaire asking our target audience what they thought of our opening sequence.
This is the questionnaire that we used:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/29222939/Questionnaire

Questionnaire

Hooray !

After nearly three months of hard work, our opening sequence has been signed off.

We're really proud of the final sequence and feel that we made it to the best of our ability.

There were some ups and downs, as well as times where we felt the sequence wasn't coming together but thankfully, everything worked out !

:)

Titles and fonts

We searched for different fonts that we could possibly use in our opening sequence for our titles

We used the website dafont to search for possible fonts

Production Company name/logo

For the production company we tried to think of names that sounded like they would relate to the sector of the film industry that we were making films in; the thriller and horror film industry. We came up with a brainstorm of names:

'Moonlight Studios' was the name that sounded the best, and was one that we felt could be most creative with to come up with a logo. Patricia and I both then worked to come up with some ideas for the logo, and had two initial ideas that we thought would be good. Here is Patricia's artwork:

When using the Mac the second idea was the one we could work closest to and we came up witha very good end logo to start the film off with, 'Moonlight Studios'...

We went through the same process for the distribution company name and thought of 'Black Rose Productions' which sounds like an independent films distributor that could specialise in horror films.

Editing of third shooting

After our last shoot, we have all the shots we need. However, we feel that something about the sequence doesn't flow.

After advice from our teacher, we have changed our sequence and removed several shots. We realised that it was weird for the character to sit back down on the stairs and drink wine when her friend is panicking on the phone. Therefore we had to remove that shot.

Luckily, we could fill a lot of spaces with our titles which meant we could remove shots that did not make sense.

By removing certain shots, we have increased the pace of the ending of our sequence which is exactly what we wanted. I feel that this builds up tension more and seems more realistic.

Title Brainstorm

Here is a brainstorm showing the various titles we came up with for our film

We had originally liked the title "Anonymous" because it fitted in with the plot of the film. However, we are now contemplating to use the title "Exposed" however, we have doubts that this could lead the audience to think the film is about photography.

Paperwork

Editing of second shooting

We have finished editing our clips from our second shooting.
To be honest, I think that we're pretty much there, but we have decided to have one more shoot, just to finalise things. The feedback the teachers gave us made us realise that we had a few shots missing.
Therefore, we think that it'll be better to have this final shoot, to make our opening sequence less confusing, as even though we're trying to hold back some information to make the audience curious, there's not enough information and hints to make it understandable.
We also have some continuity errors so we need to sort those out. :)

Second shooting

On the weekend of the 27th-28th of February, we had our second shooting at the same location in Bianca's house. This was our main shoot and all the mistakes made in the test shoot and the new ideas that we came up with after it were all incorporated into this main shoot.

Our main changes were:

• Actress changes - Patricia now replaced Bianca and vice-versa as we thought that Patricia will fill the main role better with more emotion and looked the part, and that Bianca's voice was much better for the messages.
• Messages - The message from the mum was now replaced by a message from Jay, in the role of Patricia's boyfriend.
• The first message now happens further into the sequence as Patricia first puts her bags down, takes her coat of, gets a glass of wine and then goes to the phone for the first message. This means that they don't ramble on as much.
• The shot log needs to be taken properly and in full detail throughout filming.

Final Script

This is the final script after we decided to change our last message and change the dialogue that Patricia reacts to:

Message 1 - Boyfriend(Jay): Hey babe, I hope you had a goodnight out. I'm just checking if you're still on for tomorrow; I'll come pick you up at around 7.30, eight-ish. give me a call in the morning if you can. Bye!

Message 2 - Mandy(Bianca) - Hey Jade, i-it's me. I've been trying to get through to you all night but you're just not answering. Please give me a call as soon as you get this; I'm really, just really worried.

Message 3 - Mandy(Bianca) - Hi, it's me again. maybe I'm just being paranoid but.. I don't know I just feel like there's someone watching. Jade just please come, just - wait.. (long pause)  ..I think they know.

Character outfit and props

After looking at the character profile and understanding who our character is and what situation she is, this is the outfit Patricia will wear when we are filming.

It is a party outfit that a girl like our character would wear on a night out. She wil be wearing this with black high heels, a black coat (which she will take off during the sequence) and a black and gold bag.

This is the phone that we will be using.

New Timeline

Alterations to our timeline

In our current rough edit, we have the character opening the door, putting the keys and bag down, and then directly going to the answering machine to listen to her messages.
However, Ms Dymioti said that this should be altered and that rather than the character entering her house and going to the answering machine first, we have her put her bag and keys down, taking her coat off and then going to the kitchen to get a drink.
By doing this, this would also solve our problem of having a long message left by the character's mum. From previous posts, we have mentioned that we needed to shorten the duration of the mum's message and therefore, by making the character come to the answering machine later, we can have the mum's message be around 15/20 seconds.

New Actress

After looking at our rough cut and receiving feedback, we have decided as a group to change the actress and voice actors.

Patricia will now be the new actress, Bianca will be the voice of the friend and Jay will be the voice of the boyfriend.

Reflections

Things we noticed that went wrong:

- we left props in the background
- continuity issues where the match-on-action didn't flow.
- 30 degree rule - some shots were too similar so we had to cut in new shots to make it more continuous.
- unatural movements ( for example the shot where Bianca moves back against the radiator)
- pace is too slow
- not enough reactions to messages

Improvements for the weekend:

- be aware of rules of continuity when filming
- speed up the pace
- add in reactions to messages ( speak the messages through as filming)
-  we might screen test Patricia to be the actress and Bianca will do the voice-over as they will better suit these roles.
- make sure the shots are not tilted and make sure that they are parallel to the lines of the door.

TEACHER FEEDBACK
Ms. Dymioti
mother should be ringing for a reason, not just a random chat - reminding her of an event. much more functional rather than filling up space for no reason. mother's message is just too long.
hear friend first. mandy, mother and then mandy again.
improve more continuity. cutting off end of sequences. not enough details. doesn't need to put on answer phone so early. can put it on after she gets a drink. we're in control of dialogue instead of dialogue being in control of us.
take off earrings and jacket. check reflection in mirror. build up sense of character.
could record it on a mobile - would have the 'phone' effect.
the music is effective.
Mrs Blackborow
the mother's voice doesn't sound like how the audience would imagine her mother to sound.
the music shouldn't start until the 'scary' part starts - we should just have diegetic sound at the beginning, no music needed.

Feedback

After our previous feedback, we started to write our script for our voiceover and work out the timings in order for it to fit in.

We attatched a microphone to the computer and used the program Acid in order to record and edit our sound. We then experimented with the effects to try and make it sound like it had been pre recorded and was being played back on an answering machine.

We got some advice from Tom who told us to move further away from the microphone so we didnt have a big bass effect and he also suggested once we've got the sound on the computer, then we should record it again through the speakers to get that answering machine effect.

Once our sound had been recorded, we imported it into our video and put it in place on our timeline. We matched the reactions to what the recordings were saying.

Feedback

After our rough cut, we asked another group (Tom, Hugh and Tom) to watch our sequence and give us some feedback.

Initially, they were confused as we have not inserted the voice-over so they weren't sure what she was reacting to. However, once we explained it to them, they said they liked the idea and it should be effective once the messages are put in.

Also,they liked the first-person POV shot of Bianca going into her bag.

We also got feedback from our teacher, Mrs Dymioti and the media technician, Mr Deans.

She said that we should have scripted the messages and said it as Bianca was acting so that she would react at the right times. She said that the movement of the shots is fine but the choreography needs to be more natural (when she walks back to the radiator).



Mr Deans said that the shot of Bianca walking back was too long.

Editing Of Test Shoot Footage

During the editing session, we found various continuity errors that we can now correct in our actual shoot.

We found that the end of the sequence seems rushed and we didn't realise that we needed to film certain shots in order to allow the continuity to flow. We realised that we had missed out around three shots at the end which causes it to jump and look glitchy.

Also, the beginning of the sequence where Bianca is walking into the house, getting a drink of water takes a long time and we feel that it doesn't leave us enough time to insert the voice-over of the answering machine messages.

We used http://www.freeplaymusic.com/ to find music for our sequence.
http://www.freeplaymusic.com/search/category_search.php?t=v&i=1083

We liked the Dark Dimension Volume 3 album and felt that the song 'Evil Eyes' fit quite well with our sequence.

First Shooting

After our first test shoot, we managed to finish filming our opening sequence, taking us around 8 hours to complete.

 

Overall, we felt that we did relatively well however from this test shoot, there were a few problems which we came across. However, we now know how to avoid these issues hence making our next shoot run more smoothly and hopefully more successful.

 

Problems that we faced:

• Reflections of the camera and group windows slightly visible in the windows.
• Actress had very little emotion or reaction in the scene.
• No full shot log, which did slow editing down a little bit.
• Quality of the answering machine wasn't clear enough for the film.

How we are going to resolve them next time:

• Be aware of reflections of the camera and members of the group on shiny surfaces such as windows.
• Try and make the actress act more casual.
• Take a detailed shot log at the time of filming.
• Add voice-overs in after during editing.

Preparation for the shoot

Costume for young female adult

• High Heels
• "Night-out" outfit 
• Big jewellery (Hoops)
• Make-up

Props

• Answering machine
• Wine glass
• Wine bottle
• Bag
• Mobile phone 

Timeline

• Zoom in of an answering machine beeping – 3 seconds
• Zoom out + panning to Bianca opening door – 4 seconds
• Point of View of Bianca closing door – Close up – 3 seconds
• Close up of Bianca sighing – 1 second
• Long shot of Bianca putting bag on cupboard – 4 seconds
• Point of View of Bianca touching answering machine button – 2 second
• 180 turn of camera, so behind Bianca – camera stays in place as Bianca walks down to the kitchen. 6 seconds
• (Maybe insert a contra-zoom to be next to Bianca) – 3 seconds
• Side view of Bianca opening fridge door – 3 seconds
• In the fridge shot of Bianca getting a drink – 3 seconds
• Back to side view of Bianca closing fridge door – 3 seconds
• Long shot outside of fridge of Bianca going to cupboard to get a cup. – 5 seconds
• 180 turn to a shot outside of Bianca getting cup down – 4 seconds
• Long shot of kitchen of Bianca walking back near the fridge – 5 seconds
• Over the shoulder shot of Bianca pouring drink into cup and putting it down – 5 seconds
• Behind Bianca walking back to answering machine and pressing button – long shot – 5 seconds
• Close up Bianca taking off high heels and one earring – 6 seconds
• Long shot of Bianca going to bag and putting glass down– 5 seconds
• In the bag shot of Bianca rummaging to get her mobile phone, sees that it’s out of charge, puts it back – 7 seconds
• Long shot of Bianca picking up glass again – 3 seconds
• Close up side view of Bianca pressing button again – 3 seconds
• Extreme close up of Bianca reacting to message –3 seconds
• Long shot of Bianca holding glass – 2 second
• Tilt down following glass breaking –1 second
• Close up – slow motion of glass breaking – 4 seconds
• From the door point of view, Bianca turning around – 4 seconds
• Contra zoom to Bianca’s reaction – 3 seconds

Storyboard

This is the storyboard for our opening sequence.

Character Profile

Jade - 19 years old

        - UCL student

        - Party Girl
        - Always out with friends

        - Really girly
        - Likes to look good
        - In a relationship
        - Has a close friend

       
       

Genre

Improved Proposal

After receiving the feedback from our teacher, we decided to take out the cut-away shots of the killer walking to the house and concentrate mainly on the events that take place in the house and the characters reaction.

The opening scene starts inside the hallway of a house, with the camera facing the door. We hear footsteps approaching the door and a key turning in the lock. A young lady (around the age of 19) opens the door and walks into her house, hanging her keys up on the wall. As she begins to take her shoes and coats off and places her mobile which no longer has charge on the front table, she presses her answering machine to see if there has been any voice-mail messages.

The voice from the machine says "You have 4 new messages". She presses play and then heads towards the kitchen to get a drink from the fridge. Simultaneously, the first message is being played "Message received today at 3:03pm" - "Hi Darling, I'm just calling to remind you that I've booked a reservation at Il Forno, you remember that lovely little Italian Restaurant we saw ..." She cuts the message short.

"Message received today at 5:49pm" - "Jade, where are you ? I need to talk to you !" Jade looks at the answering machine with a confused expression. She plays the next message.

"Message received today at 5:55pm" - "(Mandy can be heard crying) Oh God Jade, they know. (more crying) they know it's us ! I don't know what to do now ...(more crying)". Jade drops her bottle, which shatters on the floor, and runs to the answering machine to play the message again, while it's only halfway through.

It repeats and then carries on; 'He said he knows and........wait. i heard something... someones here. (in a whispered voice) ... *silence*.

In this silence Jade hurries to her mobile, only to find its battery die while in her hands. All the while, the message continues and we hear the phone drop and then a sudden outburst of screaming which is then muffled by the killer's hand. We hear the killer pick up the phone and he says something similar to "Your next". The phone cuts. And the answering machine says "End of final message."

As the answer machine says this, the camera focuses on Jade's shocked expression. She places her hands over her mouth, and her eyes start to water. She glances at the clock and her breathing becomes heavy as she realise the killer must be on his way to find her.

Teacher Feedback

Here are the comments that our teacher gave us

• Too much happening, we need to slow the pace of the sequence down to allow the audience to see Jayde's reaction to the messages
  
• We need to take longer to establish the scene, location and character
• We don't need to show the killer, don't need to cross-cut.
• Our plan to use streetlamps for lighting during the outside shots would cause too many issues
• We need to make definate decisions on who our actors will be
• There wasn't a strong enough sense of an opposite - victim vs killer
  

Proposal

The opening scene starts with a young lady, walking home at night. She opens her door and walks into her house, hanging her keys on the wall. As she begins to take her shoes and coats off and places her mobile which no longer has charge on the front table. She presses her answering machine to see if there has been any voice-mail messages left. The voice from the machine says "You have 6 new messages". She presses play and then starts heading towards the kitchen to grab a drink from the fridge. Simultaneously, the first message is being played.  "Message received today at 3.03pm - "Hi darling, I'm just calling to remind you that I've booked a reservation at Il Forno which is a lovely little Italian Restaurant..." She cuts the message.
"Message received today at 5.46pm - "Hey, It's Mandy. I can't seem to reach you on your mobile. But yeah, call me back when you get this". Jade takes another sip from her bottle, and plays the next message.
"Message received today at 5.49pm - "Jade, where are you? I need to talk to you!" Jade looks at the answering machine with a confused expression. She plays the next message.
"Message received today at 5.55pm  - "( Mandy can be heard crying) Oh god Jade, they know.(more crying) they know it's us!!! i don't know what to do now....(more crying)"
"Message received today at 5.57pm - "I never told you this, but he called me, Jade, he said he knew who we were.........I hear someone.......I think he's here (in a whispered voice)......*silence*" Then a sudden outburst of screaming which is then muffled by the killer's hand. The phone cuts."
Jade continues to look at the answering machine in shock. She steps back. She places her hands over her mouth, and her eyes start to water.

Whilst this narrative is happening, we have cross-cuts of the killer walking towards Jade's house with extreme close ups of his feet as we don't want to reveal to much of this identity. As the messages reveal more information, the killer gets closer to the house, and we see his hand opening the gate and door.

Right at the end, with Jade's reaction to the messages, we see the killer slowly creeping in the background.

Influences

The Strangers - In the opening scene, we wish to have a similar scene to where the killer slowly appears behind the victim.

TV Dramas - Through-out the film, there would be subtle clues as to who the real killer may be. The audience usually tries to figure who the killer is in TV Dramas such as CSI, NCIS, Without a Trace. We decided to incorporate this idea in our narrative, to have our audience's interest constantly drawn into the film and making them interact with the characters.



SAW - In these films, the Jigsaw killer "puts the victims in situations where they must go through physical and/or psychological torture to survive and escape with better appreciation of life." We thought we could have a similar theme in our film, where the killer would "play" with the victim and ultimately teaching them a lesson about how doing the good thing isn't always the right thing to do.

Testing voice clips

I used the mic on my webcam to record my voice saying a message that we could potentially use in our opening sequence.

Target Audience

Primary Audience

- Male/Female, 15-24

- Frequent horror/thriller viewers

- Like the element of thrill and suspense.

- Constantly trying to link clues given in the film, and trying to find out the identification of the killer is, before the killer is eventually revealed to the audience.

- Fans of psychological killers, who play with their victims first and teach them a lesson.

- The female protagonist will appeal to the female side of our target audience, making the viewers emphasise with her.
- It would appeal to the male audience because it has conventional features of a horror/thriller film + features a  young female adult.
- Interesting narrative with a twist that can only be revealed once the audience has seen the film. Makes them curious.

Secondary Audience

People who go to the cinema often to watch the latest films.

Target Audience Profile

Name: Julia Ruff

Age: 18

Currently studying at a sixth form college having chosen English, Geography and Psychology as her A-Level subjects.

LIKES:

• Going out on a Friday/Saturday night with her friends
• Watching TV dramas such as 90210, Hollyoaks, Waterloo Road, CSI
• Loves technology. Owns a Blackberry where she is constantly on Facebook  + Imdb checking out the latest films and their given reviews.  
• Has an unlimited cinema pass to Cineworld cinemas, and spends her Sunday nights watching a new film every week with her best mate, Sarah, whether it’s a blockbuster hit, or a low-budget production.

DISLIKES:

• Downloading/streaming films on her computer – prefers the whole cinema-experience.
• Being home alone at night
• Staying indoors on the weekend
• Taking public transport.

Barthes' Narrative Theory

The opening sequence will correspond to the codes in Barthes' narrative theory. The action code will be the events taking place such as the girl coming home, the man walking down the street and in through the back on the garden and the answering machine playing the messages.

The enigma code will play a large factor in attracting the audience and engaging them in the opening; they'll ask questions about why the girl is leaving messages, who the man is, what has happened that the girl leaving the message becomes so terrified etc. This causes suspense and more tension, and make the viewer want to watch more to see what happens in the film. Those wanting to find out what happens to the girl watch more, those wanting to find out who the suspicious man is view on and those wanting to find out about her past also watch on.

The semantic code would be the actions in the opening sequence being explained from the two perspectives; from the girl's point of view and from the man's point of view. This cross-cutting will be effective and will then eventually link into one when they both are at the same place, and will focus more with the girl throughout the film.

Synopsis

How hidden is anonymous ? What happens when doing the morally right thing puts your own life in danger?

One year ago, Jade and Mandy witnessed a brutal murder and anonymously reported what they had seen to the police. The evidence they provided resulted in the capture of and conviction of the killer.

After a night out, Jade returns home to find five messages on her answering machine from Mandy, who is frantic as she insists the killer knows it was them who made the anonymous call and is coming for revenge. In the last message, Jade listens in shock to Mandy's screams as she is killed. Little does she know, that the killer is already on his way to her home.

Mandy's killer plays a psychological game with Jade that eventually confines her to her home. Yet as the movie goes on, secrets are discovered and the real killer isn't who it seems to be as we realise that nothing stays anonymous forever.

Practicalities




Actors: Our actors are all within the group so this is practical as we know that everyone will be reliable and we won’t have to worry about anyone not turning up or in a hurry to go anywhere as we are all dedicated to the project.



Location: We are using one of our houses as the location so this doesn’t involve us getting any special permission for filming.



Lighting: Most of our filming is going to take place indoors so we shouldn’t have too much problem with not being able to get the correct lighting conditions. The shots of the man will be taken outside, but the street lighting outside will be used in a way to get the right  lighting, along with the portable lights with yellow filters to represent the street lighting. Weather will be an issue with these shots.

Location photos

Here are some shots i took of our chosen location

Sound effects

I looked and have found a good sound that could be used as an example or maybe even in our real opening as the scream that the main girl hears on the answering machine:

http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/soundfx/scary_halloween_sounds/hal_scream_wav.shtml

Inspiration from Strangers

This is a clip from the trailer of the 2008 film 'Strangers'.
The female character is standing in the middle of the room and we see the killer silently walk into view from behind the wall. The woman is still unaware that he is there and continues to stand in  the middle of the room. We are going to use a similar shot in our opening sequence when the girl is standing in the hallway and is unaware that the killer is behind her.

The Sixth Call

This is a sequence thats also homemade, that we got from just typing 'answering machine horror' into Youtube. The idea seems very similar to ours with the answering machine used as a vital part of it, and its done quite well apart from the ending.

Meeting #2 - 25/01/2010

Another idea was of a girl, in a hurry, maybe a busy student or young business woman with her belongings overflowing. She runs out of the house, in a hurry, after having called her friends about a party at her house because she's home alone and has a free house. As she's hurrying out, she bumps into a man right outside the house, a pervert who eyes her up and down, and then sneakily takes her keys while he's helping her gather the things she drops. The shot ends with him looking at the house, rotating from him standing, to the view of the house from his point of view.


Answering machine – wedding day, slow pan through the empty house as messages play. We see hands wearing white gloves. Sweeping up broken glass. Putting flowers back in a vase. Making the bed. Audience will think it’s the bride cleaning up the house, instead of being at the wedding. Messages on machine get more frantic. The last message is the husband calling. Camera shows the answering machine, hand in white glove turns it off and then we see her hand with the engagement ring. Audience realises the bride has been killed. “JILTED”.

The glove on the hand of the dead bride that falls out, will have to look something like this.

Meeting #1 - 21/01/10

Group initial ideas

Possible locations

1. House
2. Park
3. Down a street at night time
4. Alleyways

"Scary" Situations 

• Being at home, alone. 
• Walking down a dark street.
• Placing objects somewhere, and moments later realising they've moved.
• Dark rooms.
• Hearing noises/someone in the house whilst you're home alone.
• Someone suddenly appearing behind you (e.g stalker)

Ideas for an opening sequence

1 - Two mates talking on to each other on webcam. Person A turns around in their room, thinking they've heard something. Writes "brb" to Person B and quickly goes downstairs to see what's making the noise. Returns to the computer, seeing that Person B has disappeared. (Whilst discussing, we weren't sure of what would happen when Person A returned, but something along the lines of one person disappearing and maybe having "Connection Lost" appearing on the screen to hint that something may have happened to them)

2 - Parents being out for the evening, leaving a their two teenage daughters at home. The older daughter tells her sister that she's going out for a while, and should be back in a while. The younger sister starts to walk upstairs with her ipod in her hands, as her sister starts to get ready to go out and leave. Older sisters leaves in a rush, and as she's going out, shouts out "Close the door, bye". With the younger sister listening to loud music, is unable to hear her say this, and continues to walk upstairs into her room. The door is left a bit open. Moments later, the ipod battery runs out, and the younger sister starts to get ready to go to sleep. She hears noises, footsteps on the floor. Panicking, she hides under a bed and calls her sister for help. The phone rings, and the footsteps get louder. Long pauses of silence and sounds of deep breathing from the young girl. Dark shots, nearly black, we hear the girl say in a whispered voice to her sister "Someone's here..."