Production - how it went:

We have now filmed just about all of our opening sequence, and any additions to filming would be for elements that we did not originally plan to include.

On the 8th, we filmed a lot of our sequence, even recording audio from the traffic outside so that we can overlay this onto our whole sequence, so that continuity is better as cutting to different shots won't sound so strange (e.g. hearing a car coming closer in one shot, and then cutting to another shot and the noise of the car gone). 

We filmed many different shots from different angles and distances: Long shots, close ups, canted angle etc. But we didn't quite get things complete by the time that it was starting to get dark. Seeing as the shop is open Monday to Saturday, we came back on Sunday the 15th to complete our film. Learning our lesson from the week before, we decided to arrive at Spring Electrical at an earlier time than on the 8th - so that we could get everything filmed whilst it was still light outside. 

Upon our arrival back at the shop, we noticed that a lot of the products that Spring Electrical sell, were now missing or in different places on the shelves, which would have affected our continuity if we just decided to continue on filming from the last week. Therefore, we filmed the whole opening sequence from scratch. Not only did we manage to film the whole opening sequence, but I feel as though we were able to improve on many shots from the week before. Still, we will look through all of the footage filmed when we go through the editing, and might pick out certain shots from footage filmed on the 8th which we think were better than shots on the 15th. Overall, we are progressing well and things are looking positive for our opening film. 

Problems encountered:

Continuity from the week before - Solved by re-filming the entire sequence

Continuity in terms of audio of traffic - Solved by Overlaying a two minute audio clip of traffic outside, so that it all sounds more natural 

Voiceover acting in dialogue between daughter and sales assistant - Solved by simply trying over and over again to get a natural sounding dialogue. 

Acting for all characters on screen (apart from Phoebe's daughter character, as you only really see the back of her walking out of the shop so there isn't anything to criticize about her performance) - Solved by many retakes of shots, and even watching scenes with characters and reactions which were a little bit similar to what we wanted to portray in body language in our opening sequence. 

Font testing

We thought it would be important to look at a variety of different font's using dafont's downloadable library. The three fonts are examples of what fonts we could use for our film title credit. Although I liked the first one as it was fairly cramped and dark in nature, I didn't feel as though it really carried the impact that I wanted. The second one was also missing the mark slightly, as similarly to the first font, it had a hint of 'wild west' about it. I want to use the 3rd font 'Plane Crash' in my film title credit because it's worn out but very bold, connoting power, whilst at the same time it connotes how degraded the main character's life has become, and also the damage that is inflicted to various characters throughout the film. This is the font used in my film title credit design that I have already shown on this blog.

Costume and prop list:

Costume: 

Teenager: Dark burgundy coloured shirt, tucked into smart dark grey trousers. He will have a black/navy t-shirt underneath visible through the few undone buttons at the top of his shirt. The smart shirt and trousers connote the teenager's professional nature, but the undone buttons and absence of a tie subtly connote that he is also unconventional - not entirely professional. The t shirt visible under his shirt serve to denote his resourcefulness, always warmly clothed and prepared. We will also use make up in order to achieve redness and then darkness under the teenager's eyes, connoting that the teenager could have irregular sleeping patterns as he is always hunting for his targets, and hinting at his dark and psychotic nature.  

Sales assistant: Dressed in her black 'Spring Electrical' uniform, the sales assistant will look realistic for her role, intensifying the film, as it looks and feels more real. The darkness of the uniform will also reinforce the dark and cold mood of our film as black and darkness denotes evil and intensity when it comes to the thriller genre.  She could also have her hair up, which tends to look more friendly on film as it connotes that she has nothing to hide, as she wouldn't have hair covering any of her face. 

Daughter of sales assistant: Jeans and a bright jumper, her bright and more colorful clothing will contrast with what the teenager is wearing, making her seem more 'sweet' and innocent and easier to empathize with. 

4th character/ shopper: Will be dressed casually, in jeans and a fairly dull/ plain T-shirt/ jumper (most likely a jumper or with a jacket, as it would cause a disparity in our film if he were to only be wearing a t-shirt despite it being Christmas time - which would be evident from the Christmas themed lighting). Glasses, a carrier bag. Just an average man going about his daily life. 

Props:

Gun: Possessed by teenage killer, the gun's connotations are obvious - connotating that danger and violence is to ensue. 

Photograph: Laid down onto the till by the teenager, the photograph introduces narrative enigma as the audience is unaware of who is on the photograph and why the teenager is looking for him

The thinking and organisation behind the actors/ actresses that physically appear in our opening film:

Denise Hillier - The sales assistant:

When deciding the actors and actresses, Denise Hillier was an obvious choice. For starters, she is quite readily available and accessible as she is a family relation, so she is more likely to be motivated and dedicated to the role. She works as the actual sales assistant for Spring Electrical in the first place, and frequently appears in her local community theater. Therefore, we decided that she would be ideal for the role as she is likely to portray it realistically and has experience with acting. We contacted Denise weeks before we planned to film, securing a reliable actor for our film.

We even made sure to ask her for feedback on our scrip and idea, and this was her reply:

It's great that Denise liked our script and idea, as it means that she will be more motivated into a good acting performance and making our film as good as possible. 

Joe Panton - The psychotic teenage killer:

We decided that we would use as many members of our group as possible for our opening film, as it would be easier to plan knowing that the actor would always be present. Therefore, we decided that I would play the role of the psychotic teenage killer. This is for other reasons as well such as: I am probably the member of our group that can play the role of the psychotic teenage killer most convincingly, with fairly long hair that can be molded into a 'crazed' look more easily, and access to a costume that would better fit the character than what other members might have. As well as this, I am one of the two boys in our group of four, and in the thriller genre a man is more likely to represent evil and violence than a woman, who is more likely to represent a more caring and moral side, so we are being fairly conventional with the gender. However, the age of the psychotic teenager may be unconventional as it is odd in the thriller genre to see a killer that is so young.

Phoebe Davies - The sales assistant's daughter:

Again, going with the idea of using as many of our group members as possible, we decided that Phoebe Davies would best represent a typical innocent daughter, with probably a softer voice than Beth, in our group. However, if we needed to because for whatever reason Phoebe can't make it to the filming, we can have Beth step in as back up and produce fairly similar results.

Andrew Panton - Forth character/ customer:

Since we were filming in a lighting shop, we decided it would seem fairly unrealistic and unbelievable if your regular shopper in a lighting shop was a teenager, so rather than going for another group member, we went for Andrew Panton as once again he is a family relative and also works at the lighting shop so he would be accessible and more willing to act the role. If he couldn't make it for whatever reason, we could have gone for Jake Andrews, or Beth Overton, from our group.

Film title design

This is my title design for our opening film 'Dealer's Atonement'. The text font is called 'Planecrash' and  gives a grazed and damaged impression to the audience, connoting that the film will be full of danger and that the characters in the film will go through harmful ordeals.

The red footprints were chosen for my title design as it denotes that there might be some kind of stalking or chasing going on throughout the rest of the film, which is conventional to the thriller genre. It also connotes that there could be some kind of investigation, which is true to our narrative and again a key feature commonly seen in crime thrillers. The redness could connote danger and violence as red often symbolizes blood. It could even be interpreted that somebody has been killed, and the killer has stepped into their blood walked away, and the blood forms on the floor in the shape of footprints.

The yellow background is interesting as we could use the colour yellow as a motif in our film. It could be used to connote danger as it will be a key colour in scenes when the killer is about to enter the scene.  However, this won't be incredibly apparent during the opening sequence, but we will still try to make a point to noticably include the colour yellow.

Brainstorming proof

We have been able to get a scanner working, which allowed us to scan our brainstorming work onto the computers. (Apologies for presentation of brainstorming - as it was a rough first try at gathering ideas)

Ideas for how the scene plays out

Completed a week after character ideas

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Ideas for characters

Brainstorm completed a week after location ideas

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Ideas for location and setting

This brainstorm completed a few days after genre ideas and elements

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Brainstorm genre and elements

Brainstorming was completed a long time ago

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Final Script

Screenplay for Film Opening With Camera