Planning

Initial Ideas

To initiate the planning for our production; each member of our team thought of two initial ideas. We will then hold a discussion to propose our ideas to each other, and incorporate elements from each of these into one main idea for our production. For the production of our A2 horror teaser trailer (including planning and production process) I am working in a group with my peers Abi Bacon and Grace Crawford. We agree to all contribute fairly to the project and behave cooperatively. We worked together last year and found this to be a success, and hope to produce once again a production that is executed professionally and visually pleasing.

My own initial idea 1

Evaluation:

In terms of practicality I think that the age of characters may need updating to fit our resources available as I believe convincing the adults we know (and a teenage male) to participate would be difficult due to their own busy lives and lack of acting experience. Also I believe having characters of closer ages to our audience would make our film more enjoyable and relatable for our audience, so perhaps we can adapt this. The messages which this plot centers upon would be fairly simple to create, and we could think creatively about how to integrate them into the teaser clip; our team members possessing creative talents. I think that the sounds including diegetic sound such as heavy breathing and voices could be created by ourselves using foley sound techniques and the recorders available, and our previous editing skills would mean we could integrate into footage effectively. I like the idea of creating a grungy visual style and think that we will aim to create this in our production with the use of editing. Also it involves a scene where a character playing a murderer violently kills a person and stalks a corridor wielding a knife. This would perhaps be difficult to depict in a realistic and horrific way and so perhaps this isn't ideal and so we will consider alternatives to adding elements of gore to satisfy our mature audience.

The audience appeal within this idea lies mainly within the idea itself which I believe is quite unique, and therefore will be enticing for fans of the genre who will want to see something new. In relation to the theory of Christian Metz I would say it is perhaps a deconstruction of the horror genre as we are evolving the genre by merging it with psychological and mystery, however also reusing successful conventions (as suggested by theorist Steve Neale) to enable our audience to identify the genre of the film and gain the same thrill intended from horror. The focus upon POV shots to put the audience in the place of our protagonist is something I believe could be highly effective and so this is something I would like to carry forward into our production idea.

My own initial idea 2

Evaluation:

I think this idea is the most achievable due to its setting of a house and involvement of teenage female characters. We could film comfortably in one of our own homes, and as it is close to Winter it gets dark fairly early, it would be possible to film with an appropriate atmosphere. The location is very accessible and permission could be granted easily. Additionally risks are minimal and we would have control over our setting completely, as well as not being hindered by weather conditions. However, I am aware that poor quality lighting and darkness can result in poor quality footage; and as this idea uses darkness as a motif we are likely to encounter problems with filming key scenes as content can be hard to depict in low lighting. However perhaps this could be overcome through the use of artificial light which we could manipulate within our production. As darkness is a key element of mise en scene within horror; we are likely to use dark scenes within our production and so we will have to come up with our own solutions to be to go through with our ideas.

I think it would appeal to our audience as the sub-genres of supernatural and psychological are popular with our audience (as found out in our audience research). This idea reflects that of the themes within horror film Oculus (2014) which has a slightly similar ending and seemed to go down fairly well with audiences receiving a rating of 73%. The themes of disappearance and murder are conventional within horror and are likely to be favoured by the audience who gain a thrill from seeing scenes that are perhaps controversial and disturbing. I think the main setting of one of the girls' homes would be rather impactful and make the film increasingly personal and relatable for the viewer (who we intend to be of similar age) who may be provoked to consider such happenings occurring in their own lives which should instill a fear, meeting the purpose of our genre successfully.

Ideas contributed by my team members

By Abi:





By Grace:

Devising our final idea

After coming up with our own individual ideas we came together to discuss them, and combined elements from the ideas we found to be both interesting, appropriate for the genre and what was most achievable with our available resources, resulting in the conception of the our idea for Eve: a horror film with sub genres of psychological, thriller and mystery. A few notable things that our final idea draws upon on, as contributed by each of our team members include the psychological and supernatural themes (the use of messages and signs) within my own, use of teenage female characters of our own age alike Abi's idea suggested, and Grace's genre-specific props including blood, phones to shock and aim to scare our audience. 

Planning Schedule

In order to organise the team and work towards completing the entirety of the tasks required to prepare us for filming; we put together a schedule of planning. Together we decided who will complete each of the tasks. We will be able to refer back to this to see who has been assigned which tasks, and so we can check them off.

Proposal

This task was completed by Abi. The idea of a proposal is to detail aspects of our idea, now that we have developed it as a team. In my commissioning research task; I found out about how a proposal is required in order for a producer to convince a commission body in order to secure support for commissioning, and so if we were making a full film for commissioning; we would present this proposal to a potential commission body.

Mood Board

This task was completed by Abi Bacon, along with the analysis included. The only part I wrote myself for this task is the conclusion at the end. It is useful to create a mood board as it allows us to compile images that serve as inspiration for our project which we can look back at.

Analysis of moodboard [completed by Abi as part of the task]:

Within this mood board I have established a dark aesthetic, this is reflective of the dominating presence of the antagonist within our piece, of which their growing influence over the protagonist shall be conveyed through the increased application of low key lighting and shadows as the narrative of the film progresses.

This dominating darkness shall foreshadow the negative end to the piece, in which the antagonist emerges as the dominant force over the protagonist. This is effective in conforming to the dark and challenging conventions of the horror genre as this domination of evil will be effect in inciting a sense of fear and terror within the audience as they linger upon the dark fate of the protagonist.

This piece also conveys the leading settings within the film, these being a school, the protagonist's home and the Park within the village; in which the protagonist resides. These are effective in conveying the settings that the protagonist shall be featured,

The use of a range of distressed facial expressions and body language within these images conveys the gradually increasing paranoia of the protagonist, reflective of their growing vulnerability as they begin to isolate themselves form the world around them. This is effective in conveying the loneliness of the protagonist, of which will help to forge a bond of care between the characters and audience as members will fear for the vulnerable state of the protagonist.

The antagonistic messages are also conveyed, establishing a sense of variety and malevolence regarding their presence. These shall appear in the form of seemingly handwritten notes, which the protagonist shall come into contact with unwillingly. However, these will soon take a more sinister form, with intimidating lettering and possessing colours reflective of blood.

Additionally; the manipulation of light and shadow will be highly important in conveying the antagonist's increasing presence within the piece (signalling the ultimate end and dark fate of the protagonist), The visual style for the piece shall focus upon dark colours, of which shall become increasingly more cold and void of vibrancy as the narrative progresses; this will be reflective of the protagonist's gradually degrading mentality as they cave into their own paranoia and fear. The locations within our piece will be void of additional characters, as the narrative progresses, emphasising their increasingly isolated and troubled state.

In conclusion; this task has been useful in creating a visual representation of elements that will inspire our teaser trailer. When undertaking tasks such as the creation of a storyboard; we can look at these images which give an idea of the piece's overall style and feel. Our film will possess dark elements derived from horror and play on ideas of isolation and distortion of the mental state, in the hope to provoke fear in our audience.

Character Profiles & Casting

This task was completed by Grace.

Costumes and Props

This task was completed by Grace.

Titles

This task was completed by myself.

In conclusion; this task was useful because it prompted me to consider the formatting of the titles that must be created for our production. When producing our titles for our production I will be able to look back at this and draw upon my initial ideas. In our horror teaser trailer the titles should possess a sinister style; we are likely to use a simple black and white which is conventional and suitable, in cooperation with fade transitions. I will aim to design a title that is reflective of our themes.

Script

The script holds the purpose of being the root of our idea; and is to be interpreted by actors so they can be aware of what they are required to say and how to say it (i.e. tone as to depict their character in the way we as the writers desire). We will take this to every shoot to guide us through what scene we are intending to create.




This was worded and edited by myself, but we worked on the content collectively (Abi, Grace and myself).

We have completed a script that incorporates our ideas for key scenes within our production. This may end up being altered slightly as we found last year that during shoots we thought of more creative shots to include resulting in a longer production that required some scenes being cut, but we will conduct all of these and make these decisions during editing. This script was informed by my research into the genre and key conventions including the protagonist's quiet and fearful nature, the paranormal happenings such as the movement of people and props unpredictably and the inclusion of blood as a prop to shock the audience.We decided to try to include voiceovers as this is conventional of teaser trailers as seen in The Conjuring 2 for example; and echoes the characters' thoughts and personalities giving the audience a feel for what would be to follow in the release of the full film. Following the creation of this script we can now progress forward to create useful items such as out shot list and storyboards to create a more fleshed-out vision of how our production will look.

Location Ideas 

In this task I shall be considering appropriate locations to feature within my A2 production. After coming up with locations that could potentially be suitable, I will be discussing key elements about them to allow me to ponder how suitable they are. This task is necessary to allow us to select locations that we can film in responsibly.

This piece of work is produced by myself.

Location Recce

Firstly I produced this basic visual map of the main area we are filming (Caddington village) to give a clear view of our intended filming areas. The areas that we will be visiting have been represented on the map and routes mapped out so we are well organised when it comes to filming.

I completed a location recce to describe key aspects of our locations, allowing me to decide upon the suitability of these areas for filming our video production.



This planning task has prompted me to consider the suitability of the locations we have chosen for the filming of different scenes within our production. Consequently; I am aware of the key issues that we will need to maintain whilst there, and can do our best to avoid encountering any problems.

Risk Assessment

I conducted a risk assessment for all of the locations we will be using in our production. This is beneficial in terms of health and safety as it encourages to think ahead so if possible we can prevent encountering any risky situations; in order to protect ourselves.

The location map, location recce and risk assessment were all produced by myself.

Permissions

As our production will feature others' property and relies upon the participation of people as actors, it is essential that we legally acquire permission for this. This part of our planning process focuses upon us creating our own solutions in order to contract those needed.

As we are producing a film of the horror genre, we will film scenes that may involve somewhat suspicious behaviour that will take place in public places. Failure to obtain the correct permission could result in the general public feeling disturbed by our presence which could lead to us getting into trouble.

Location permission

Locations are key in our project as we want to be able to film in places we feel have the right atmosphere for the scenes we wish to execute. Therefore we will be attempting to obtain permission for our desired locations in this task. Having decided upon the locations and actors needed; here is a list with their conjunctive owners:

• Manshead Upper School; classrooms [Mr Parker, Head teacher]
• Kira's house [Kira's parents; the owners of the house]
• Caddington Village; park, streets and alleyway [Central Bedfordshire Council]

Due to our good reputation and familiarity with the teachers at our school, I believe that this permission will be easy enough to obtain. Our requirements are also nothing dramatic; the scene will just include social interaction in a classroom and so it doesn't pose much of a threat to the school and its pupils.

Team member Abi requested permission from the head of the school via email, and he willingly obliged, shown in the email screenshot below. We now have this location secured.

It was also necessary to request permission to use the house of Kira (friend of Grace). Grace handed the document to the family of Grace beforehand and much to our gratitude, they kindly obliged.

Next Abi went about emailing the local council who we believe are responsible for the Caddington areas which we desire to use within our production. This includes the park and alleys that enter into it which we require for our key scenes.

In her email Abi attached this map she prepared, highlighting the areas we are acquiring about using in our production. This gives a clear indication to the recipient of the email and shows we are handling this in an organised and responsible manner.

After brief discussion, Abi was successful in securing permission for the location, so we may progress with filming confidently, knowing that we are permitted to do so.

[Zoom in from previous image] Permission granted.

Talent permission

Talent regards the people who will play the roles of our character. In the character profiles and casting task team member Grace assigned character to roles to people. These involve Grace herself who will star as protagonist Eve, Abi who is the friend of Eve; Jess, Ellie who is school pupil 1 and myself who is the mysterious stranger 1.

Due to ourselves having volunteered to take on these roles we know we have the necessary consent; but we will need to prove this by getting signed documents to validate their commitment. This is important as the role of being an actor involves sharing oneself in a media text that could potentially be viewed by many; therefore exposing them to the public, risking their identity to some extent.

I arranged the signing of these documents and hereby prove with photographic evidence our agreement.

Permission from Danielle (myself)

Permission from Grace

Permission from Abi

Permission from Ellie

Contributor release form template (for location and talent)

Designed by team member Abi Bacon.

We decided that an appropriate way to request and prove these participants' agreement was to prepare permission forms, displayed below which were made by team member Abi. We handed these to the necessary people and asked for their signing.

Audio permission

This part of permissions was completed by team member Grace.

Test camera shots/camera set up diagrams

I will be taking on the task of test shots which will involve shooting several shots from the classroom scene in our production. This is to enable me to practice my photography skills and handling the equipment after some time.

This task was conducted by myself.

In conclusion this task has been useful in preparing us for the real shoot as I have identified minor defects that we will desire to prevent such as unwanted background contents. Additionally I can see beforehand the importance of white balancing so we will avoid making this mistake in our real production. Also we realized that during this scene another shot may be required of the message received on Eve's computer so that it is clearer to the audience.

Camera set up diagrams

It is useful to produce diagrams of our camera set up as to prepare ourselves for shooting in our selected locations. In these sketches I have mapped out the contents of each scene and where the camera will be positioned, along with key actors and props etc.

Completed by myself.

Shotlist

This shot list will be of great aid when it comes to executing the filming of our production as it will guide us and inform us of what we need to film and which shots we will be using.



All team members participated in the creation of this shot list.

Storyboard

This results in us producing a visual representation of each our shots from the shot list. The benefits of this is that we can bring these to the shoot to help create ideal shots that are as we envision them to be. Our actors can also learn of their intended expressions and positioning within shots to create the portrayals we desire.

Grace, Abi and myself worked together to complete this task. I supported my team members by completing a number of the shots, thinking thoroughly about the desired mise en scene within the scenes. Additionally I suggested camera shots including a close up of Eve's eyes to communicate her worry when she receives the mysterious email and this is conventional of the genre and will express clearly the mood of the piece.

Shooting Schedule

The creation of a shooting schedule prepares us for the stage of filming on each day and records and plans ahead details such as time and equipment required so that our team can arrive prepared and our day has a structure that we will aim to follow as closely as possible. These were produced by Abi for each day we plan to film.

Filming Day 1 [31/11/16]
Location: Kira's house

Filming Day 2 [03/11/16]

Location: Manshead school

Filming Day 3 [05/11/16]

Location: Caddington Village

We plan to dedicate a time slot within each day of filming to at a single location (within one town or area); which we believe is the best decision as this will mean we are not rushed and can focus upon producing shots of high quality that we are satisfied with, reducing the chance of having to re-film many scenes. Also it gives us time in between shoots to log and reflect upon our footage.

Call sheets

This task was completed by Grace.

Filming day 1

Filming day 2

Filming day 3

Filming day 4

The completion of the call sheets will help organise us on days of filming and attempt to reduce potential mistakes.