14th February 2011

Group -
We started filming the opening to our film. We managed to film the establishing shot and the shots of the phone in the field. We also filmed a rough scene of Jay walking down the pathway without his dog, we might use this instead or we will film it with Bruce. We have uploaded the shots and roughly edited them how we can.

Animatic/Storyboard - Jamie Parrett (Voiceover/Storyboard), Chris Bailey (Editing)

Animatic - Jamie Parrett (storyboard, drawing), Chris Bailey (editing) and Laurel Drew (photography and editing)

Health and Safety Risk Assessment - Laurel Drew

Bedroom
Objects and cables on the floor may cause people to trip over.
We don't have an image of the exact bedroom location but we have an example of the sort of thing we are going to create which shows possible hazards within the environment.
Bathroom
The water and electricity may create a risk.
Cables may cause people to trip over.

Kitchen
Sharp knives used to cut and butter the toast may cut the actors.
The toaster may burn the actor when they remove the toast.
Cables may trip up people.
The water from the sinks and electricity may cause a risk
We dont have exact location shots, but we have examples of the kind of thing we are looking for which shows possible health and safety risks.


Field
Cables hidden by long grass may cause people to trip.
Hidden tree roots may cause people to trip in the mud.
Think links to the location shots below, showing the possible hazards that may occur during filming.
Worth Way
Tripping over cables causing a danger.
The dog may be difficult to control and run into equipment and knock people over.
The road and pavement is fairly narrow which may create danger from oncoming vehicles.
This is shown in the below location shots.

Analysis into similar products - Laurel Drew

I liked the beginning of Inception when the man is lying on a beach and the audience aren't sure quite how he got there. We thought we would use something along these lines because it creates enigma and grips the audience because they want to find out how they got there. Many of the thriller films we researched as a group played with the narrative structure and began with the disruption. We thought this was also a good technique to use and the films thats used this were often the better films. We decided to have the phone already lying in the field when the film begins because we thought that it would grip the viewer and make the want to watch the rest of the film to find out what happened. We also decided to start at this part of the film because we found that films that use restricted narration grip the audiences attention more because they  take the same journey as the characters and find out information with them. We decided to uses this technique by starting with the phone in the field because we found that films with Unrestricted narration because irritating and frustrating to watch. The film 21 Grams research by Emma used cuts between  different characters which creates confusion because the audience aren't sure what connects them. We decided to use a similar technique because we thought it was really effective because it created enigma and gripped the audience. A lot of thriller films also use a contrast in locations and settings. We thought this worked well because it enhances the suspense of the opening and adds to confusion.

Researching other thriller films really help us as a group and enabled us to gather good techniques for are own opening. It also helps as discover what didn't work well and allowed us to learn from other people mistakes to make are project the best it could be. It also showed us subjects and plots which thriller films cover and enabled us to come us with a different and effective plot ourselves.

Storyboard - Jamie Parrett

Sound - Laurel Drew and Emma Chamberlain

For the first main part of the sequence we wanted to create a thrilling effect that reflects ideas used in sequences such as Donie Darko 21 Grams. This silence creates a thrill because the audience are left unkowing. Following this, the phone dial tone will be heard, this will be edited onto the sequence using garage band. The naturalistic settings with the casual characters will be reflected with the sound in this part of the sequences. For instance, the radio playing in the background to help us with character understanding that they are part of an every day family who listen to radio in the mornings.

Diegetic:

Crows in the empty field
Dialling from the phone in the field
Phone ringing, three different types of ringing
‘Chirpy’ birds when walking the dog

Bruce’s claws walking on the road
Jay and Bruce’s breathing
Radio in the kitchen
The toast popping out of the toaster
Toast being buttered
Dialogue

The shower

A hair dryer

Non Diegetic:



We have noted that the ringtones of the people will vary and reflect their personalities. We need to find out whether we are allowed to use copyrighted music or if we have to produce our own. After asking we found that we can use copyrighted music if it's in the ringtones or radio, because of this we can now choose ringtones that reflect the personalities, as discussed earlier.