Location Shooting Day Two

We began filming the main section of the film on Sunday 29th March. We began by meeting at
Pete's house, and driving to our first location: an abandoned house in Doddinghurst. The filming went alot faster than we planned. We started by getting some exterior shots of the house and of a car pulling up to it. We encountered some problems of reflections of the camera in the cars paintwork, which we fixed by changing the angle we were filming from. We then moved to some interior shots, which are mostly handheld, adding a sense of motion and tension to the filming. The house itself fit our idea perfectly, and we made no changes to it, with there even being some graffiti in place when we arrived. Here are some photographs:






























































We then moved to shoot a few shots at a location in Brentwood. All of these shots were filmed with a tripod, and again we encountered problems with the reflection of the camera and tripod in the cars surface. We then filmed one final shot of handheld footage. Here are some more photographs:

- Joseph Lawrence

Influences II - Watchmen

Even though we have mentioned our influences throughout our blog. And have mentioned briefly how Rorschach influenced the masks. This section plans to show specif influences and references in our piece to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's work. The mixture of shades to show that scenes are taking place in different time zones is strikingly effective. the red shade shows the danger of 'the Comedian's' assassination, the link to blood, and the intensity. The normal lighting in the investigation puts this into contrast, showing the reality of the situation making it More gripping. It also provides contrast, making the murder much more shocking. We've Incorporated this with parallel editing between the psychiatrist scene and the assailants readying themselves. the scenes with the assailants Will have a much darker colour scheme to give this contrast and to emulate that intensity.

These few frames encapsulate everything we wanted from the psychiatrist scene, that anxiety, extreme close ups, close ups, no two shots the same showing how different the two characters are and how they are at conflict.

By having the psychiatrist talk more it shows the patient as on the upper foot. It adds a dynamic to the scene which we wish to incorporate with the patient with more knowledge. Again our patient knows about the house whereas the psychiatrist simply can not acknowledge it.

The Ink blot cards are used in the scene, and make effective props and plot devices to push forward the narrative. The first frame of the inkblot in centre is copied in our piece.

Tim McNiven

Brief

Our task is to produce the opening two minutes of a film within the thriller genre, as well as to keep a blog of our planning, research, production and post production.

We have chosen to produce a piece within the psychological thriller sub genre, as it allows us to make a good quality film through the use of effective cinematography, scripting and enigmas within our story.

The target audience is predominantly male, with an age of 15-25 years of age, as is typical with this type of film. We have chosen our protagonist to be within this age range, which will allow the audience to relate to him as well as including an older character that will make any potential viewers outside of our target age range feel more comfortable with the characters. This will allow our film to attract a wider range of people outside of our main target audience.

The cast is all male, as we felt that the characters would not be best represented if played by women. The costumes vary depending on the character: our protagonist is dressed in a scruffy and unkempt manner, relating to his state of mind, with his psychiatrist wearing more formal attire to show his authority as a doctor. The antagonists are dressed in dark clothing with their faces obscured by masks, creating a sense of enigma and menace. The protagonist's accent is lower middle class, with the psychiatrist having an upper middle class accent. This highlights the difference between the two characters, and their roles within the story.

Our storyline follows the codes and conventions of a thriller by creating several enigmas that keep the audience and interested and would make them want to watch further. The antagonists are dark characters, and give a sense of danger to the film, which will keep the audience on their toes.

If this film were to be a major Hollywood production, then we would have it directed and produced by M. Night Shyamalan, who was behind the thrillers The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. These thrillers are good examples of how a thriller should be made, with a twisting plot and dark cinematography.

We have two main locations: an abandoned house in the countryside and an office in a town. These two locations create a contrast, making the audience wonder what the connection between the two is. The abandoned house fits with the grim and dark imagery of our antagonists. The inclusion of our scruffy and unkempt protagonist in the smart and tidy office setting creates an interesting conflict of themes. We will use a variety of different shots in order to keep the film well paced and the audience interested. Shots we have used include tilt shots, tracking shots, pan shots, reverse zoom shots, close ups, extreme close ups, mid shots and long shots. We used a tripod for several shots, but also made frequent use of handheld footage to create a feeling of chaos and motion.


-Joseph Lawrence

Props II (Masks)

Originally we were looking through merchandise websites such as ‘ebay.com’ and ‘amazon.co.uk’ for the masks of our assailants. Whist there is an element of the ‘The Strangers’ and ‘Watchmen’ with the masks, we decided not to use fabrics, firstly due to expenses. But secondly a hard material dehumanises the assailants, making them, ultimately, scarier. The writer of B.B.C’s thriller ‘Hyde’, Steven Moffat, commented on what makes monsters scary is that they are human enough o relate to but something that distinct them from humanity at the same time. These masks aim to achieve that.
On the websites we found many different masks with varying patterns, one that particularly took our eye were replica’s of the masks worn by ‘V’ in ‘V for Vendetta’. However, despite that it was a striking design, the fact it was too recognisable would distract the viewer and take away the menace, as their minds wander.
Eventually we purchased our masks from ‘Crafty Arts’ on Brentwood High Street. We bought a pack of six masks in order to have spare copies if any were broken.
However we encountered many problems when we took the masks out of the bag. Firstly the masks were much smaller than they appeared and didn’t fit round the actor’s faces, it undermined the characters making them comical.
Next the design of the mask didn’t have menace; the mouth piece was a small slit and almost looked like a shocked face. The eyes on the mask didn’t align with our eyes adding to this unwanted effect.
However the biggest problem of all was the paint used, it chipped off a smallest touch so our original ideas of blank white masks were finished.
We quickly accommodated however, with a pair of scissors we planned and I cut out sections of the mask…

Shooting schedule

Pre-Planning

To prove that we have actually planned our shooting schedule I have bellow a detailed list explaining as to what the day will consist of.

We Will be meeting at my house at 12.00 p.m as we will need plenty of daylight for filming. We will be heading towards an abandoned house that is on route to Doddinghurst.

Directions:
Go towards Mountnessing, Cross two roundabouts 1st left at St.Annes Road or 2nd Left at Thoby lane.
At the end of the road turn left.
Come to a sharp bend and turn right.
The abbandoned house is on the left approx. 200m down the road.
We are now at the abandoned house.


At the abandoned House we will be shooting the scenes with the masked man 1 being Oliver Fitch. The character will enter the house search it and find a sword. Oliver will then leave the house and hopefully according to plan exit it and get into a car (Porsche Carrera S). After we have a good variation of these shots we will leave this location and go towards Brentwood. Here we will get shots of all the masked characters outside a building in an industrial area, with the car hopefully pulling up and Ollie getting out.

This will be all the footage that we will need as we have already filmed the psychiatirst sections.

To prove that we have actually planned our shooting schedule I have bellow a detailed list explaining as to what the day will consist of.

We Will be meeting at my house at 12.00 p.m as we will need plenty of daylight for filming. We will be heading towards an abandoned house that is on route to Doddinghurst.

Directions:
Go towards Mountnessing, Cross two roundabouts 1st left at St.Annes Road or 2nd Left at Thoby lane.
At the end of the road turn left.
Come to a sharp bend and turn right.
The abbandoned house is on the left approx. 200m down the road.
We are now at the abandoned house.

At the abandoned House we will be shooting the scenes with the masked man 1 being Oliver Fitch. The character will enter the house search it and find a sword. Oliver will then leave the house and hopefully according to plan exit it and get into a car (Porsche Carrera S). After we have a good variation of these shots we will leave this location and go towards Brentwood. Here we will get shots of all the masked characters outside a building in an industrial area, with the car hopefully pulling up and Ollie getting out.

This will be all the footage that we will need as we have already filmed the psychiatirst sections.

Peter McLaughlin

Use of Demographics

Gender - For the opening title of our thriller we have an all male cast. Originally this was chosen firstly because we thought having a male psychiatrist linked to the archetype of authority and by subverting that stereotype we’d only have to use up more screen time to justify that decision to the viewer. Secondly even though the patient could be of either gender it was a simple choice of the right actor happening to be male.
This is also from influence of John carpenter’s ‘the Thing’ (where he took out the female character from the original ‘The Thing From Another World’ stating it would make it more realistic) where an all male cast gives a shocking impact. By having male characters take the place of typically female characters it adds another layer. By having these (in Mainstream Blockbuster’s) potential hero’s breaking down on screen, it makes the viewer extremely uncomfortable. It also leaves an underlying tone of aggression and possible violence through out. We believe this tone will give a dialogue driven scene an edge,
This does have some effects on our viewer however, as a thriller is usually aimed at a male viewer. This means that the male viewer should be able to relate to the patient easier. Adding tension that the psychiatrist does not believe the protagonist.
If this was to be made into a full film, it would be more than likely a female character would be introduced, this means potential female viewers won’t be excluded and male viewers gives a potential love interest. Whether this would be the ‘helper’ role or the ‘femme fatale’ role would have to be decided.

Age – Our Protagonist is a viewer’s insight into the film, and by using an actor in their late teens, this means those from 15-19 can fully relate to the character and those older might aspire to be that character. This use of age can make our film more accessible which is necessary in high concept films, as viewers may switch off if it doesn’t effect them (that’s why many thriller stake place in urbane places as it mean no matter how fantastical the plot they can imagine it could happen in their home/school/workplace/etc.).
By having our psychiatrist as an older member immediately our target audience will subconsciously have little empathy for the character. This proves a helpful tool in quickly establishing the psychiatrist as an uncaring character. We know nothing about the character and can not relate.

Ethnicity – Our two cast members are both White-British, this is simply a reflection of the area in which we are shooting (and whilst there is never a point that sets it in a certain area, it would be fair to pin point to around the Essex-London Area) is predominantly white. There was never a suggestion of casting people of nay ethnic background as it would have been tokenism. (Tokenism is where cats members are chosen with the ethnicity as a primary reason, it comes across as untruthful as it comes across as prejudice, ticking boxes, as opposed to telling a good story.
An example of Tokenism is from the original Star Wars Trilogy, where ‘Star Wars IV : A New Hope’ was criticised for a completely white cast. This was planned to rectified when Lucas cast ‘Lando Calrissian’ in ‘Star Wars V: Empire Strikes Back’ to a Black Cast Member. This caused controversy as the decision was labelled and condemned as tokenism.)

Class – The casting of our teacher meant he had to have an upper-middle class accent, this puts him outside our demographic again emphasising that feeling of mistrust. With our protagonist as lower-middle class it makes him fairly accessible, and the approximately the same class as our demographic. Class was important to us, as films where class is misused often can aggravate the viewer, an example of this is in ‘Notting Hill’ where the casting of Hugh Grant can be criticised with his upper class accent distancing him from the everyday man he’s meant to represent.

Tim McNiven

Influences

The Rorschach character from Watchmen was influential to the antagonists in our thriller as he poses an enigma with his mask, as the audience is not aware of his identity. The ink blot like mask influenced us to use ink blots in the psychiatrist's test (a part of our thriller), so this is in direct reference to him.

To be specific to our thriller it was primarily based around the scene in the Watchmen graphic novel where Rorschach is taken into custody by the police and is unmasked. He undergoes a psychological examination but gives his Psychiatrist nothing on the situation and himself.

Vanilla Sky has been hugely influencial with the use of a mask, the psychological thriller elements and the constant questions posed to the audience. This can be compared to our film clearly.

The film The Strangers also has masked characters that engage the protagonists and the audience in a terrifying atmosphere and their presence creates an enigma throughout the film: Who are they? Why are they here? What do they want? These are questions that The Strangers in our thriller pose.

In our thriller we will have a group of induviduals that will only have destruction as their agenda. This can be related to the film Clockwork Orange with a group of oddly dressed men wearing masks (this can be related to our piece)

Peter McLaughlin