Title Sequence

It is important to have a title that is short and snappy this is to grab the attention of the people walking by, and to have them questioning what may happen in the film, which will want them to find out more about the film, then they may even want to see it, not only the title of the film is important. We need to come up with a suitable title name that does not reveal to much of the plot of the film and leaves a sense of enigma among what could happen in the film. We may be able to use a single word title to do so.

In our opening we will use the titles to further convey a sense of enigma and mystery by including transitions like fades and dissolves so that the text appears to be moving in a way that coincides with the action and soundtrack of the opening.

The font has a big part to play because if the font is pink, bold, and bubbly and the film is a thriller, then no one would take the film seriously and wouldn't want want to see it because it wouldn't look scary. A better font would be a sharp, bold, black, white, or red according to the background of the photo, something that stands out and looks scary.

The Font we are thinking of using would be a bold white with a faded blurred edge that would standout against the dark background of the train station but the faded edges further convey the thrillers sense of mystery and enigma and work well with the thrillers dream style theme.

Editing the clips

Due to the problems with editing and having to use a students laptop to edit our opening for a thriller we have only had limited time to get the film edited. in three hours we managed to edit the clips so they are linked together, brightened them, sped some of the clips up, used effects on some clips to make them creepy and jumpy.

We have realised that some of the clips we took were taken quite late at night so they are particularly dark, when we brightened them they became really grainy and the light in the clip looked like it was glowing, we aren't able to retake these clips because the cut on her belly and blood on the bed sheet and pajamas can only be done once. We should of watched the clips after we filmed them to see if we needed to retake any.

Film Poster

For our film poster we include some of the key imagery from our opening such as the knife which is used as the murderer weapon from the dream. And also the dream character. We have included such imagery so we do not reveal exactly what the story line of the film and keep an enigma among the audience as the the plot of the film. Hopefully buy not revealing exactly what the story line is it will encourage a large audience to watch it in order to find out.Furthermore we have blurred the background image and font to create a sense of mystery surrounding the film and to suit the dream theme of our thriller similarly the poster reflects the action of our thriller as it appears dark and mysterious as does our opening.

Music selection

When deciding what music to have present i our thriller we needed a piece that reflected the suspense and tension of the on screen action. We also wanted a piece that portrayed the sci-fi theme so either a sci fi feel or a techno genre. We were unable to create this music ourselves so we looked for websites where we were able to download mp3 files that were copy wright free which meant they are free to use by anyone.

On freeplamusic.com we were able to request want genre and style of music we wanted which was tense/suspense of a techno genre. We were then given a list of suitable matches which we could download an sample in order to asses their suitability.

Font Choice's

I went through different types of fonts to find an appropriate one to fit, for the title of our film and the genre of it. I think the first and fourth one are to 'girly' and 'bubbly' to represent the genre of our film, i like fonts three, five and six because they are sharp, i think one of these will suit the name and the genre of our film.

problem

We seem to have met quite a big problem. The school cameras we needed to use wouldn't charge, so we decided to go to London to try to find a charger, we tried Maplins, Jessops and Sony, all three said they didn't sell that models charger as it was too old fashioned. Instead we had to use Katy's one. We used it successfully but the file type was incompatible with most editing equipment. We will have to use one of our fellow students laptops to edit it.

Incubus facebook page, Marketing

We wanted to direct the target audience, 15-21 year olds, so we wanted to think of a strategy to promote our film to them directly using media that they regularly use such as social networking e.g Facebook, Twitter, Myspace. We created a page that will hopefully promote our film to them, inform them about it and make them more likely to see it, this will hopefully lead to more people joining it and as the page collects more group members it shall get more well known and more people are likely to come and see it.

Hannah

http://www.hannahmais.com/#/portfolio/4533714455


We knew that Hannah Mais would create a believable and realistic stab wound for us because we researched her previously and looked on her website to see work she has previously carried out. She is a qualified makeup artist with a first class honours degree at the London college of fashion. So we knew we could rely on her to create a realistic wound for our thriller opening.

the process of making the stab wound

Firstly we got Becca's sister (who specialises in special effects) to make a stab wound in our characters stomach, this was made with wax and blood like goo and paint.


After making the stab wound we then cut a hole in the top that our character is wearing.

When we were then ready to film we put the blood around the stab wound and the top.

A Diary of a day Filming

Here I decided to shoot a 'behind the scenes,' section to show what we did while filming and the discussions we had to the logic of what was happening in the film and where to shoot, at what angle and how close up.

Pitch/brief

We filmed ourselves talking about our thriller opening, where we are filming and the props the actors need, and reasons why we aren't doing certain things.

Shooting Schedule

A schedule of the dates and the scenes we aim to film on those dates

Title for our thriller

INCUBUS
We have decided to call our thriller Incubus, we went through the idea of calling it 'only in your dreams' we thought that this was to long and devalued the suspense of the film's opening.

We then decided to look up the word dream and see what other synonyms there were for dream.

The words, delusion, incubus and speculation stood out to us the most, we then looked into these three words.

We didn't choose delusion because it means misconception and misbelief, and that isn't what our film is trying to portray.

We also didn't choose speculation because it means theory and guessing, and this isn't what our film is mainly about.

We decided to stick with incubus because it can mean nightmares, or devils, or demons, we thought this fitted perfectly because we have an unpleasant character, in the thriller but nobody knows who it actually is.

Setting of bedroom scene

Bed where the white bed sheets will be blood stained after the dream scene

View of mirror where the female character checks stab wound and villain appears behind her

The bedroom in which the dream scene will be shot it will show both characters going to sleep and injecting them selves using the plastic tubing and silver case as shown earlier. Then as female characters enter a sleeping state they enter together in the victims dream. Within this dream she is stabbed by the villain and just as she does she is jumped from her dream and is awoken to find her white bed sheets covered in her blood and she screams in pain she then runs to the mirror to see the wound which is when the villain is also seen behind her.

Props

We used the balloon for the female character as she welcomes home a friend at the train station. We are using this prop to emphasise the fact that the villainous character has been missing for a large amount of time and the enigma for the audience is where she has been.We have also used this balloon to emphasise the innocence and vulnerability surrounding the character.

We have used this retractable knife which when in contact with an object of person retracts into the handle.This will ensure that we can act and film a realistic stab scene without having to use a real knife and risk the any of the characters become injured.We also chose this knife as we think it looks very realistic and will create a sense of realism surrounding the stab scene

We used this case as it links with the theme of one our influence 'Inception' We wanted it to be partly silver to suit the theme of the film as characters use a silver case.We also are going to use this plastic tubing which can also be linked to inception as a similar tubing is used to connect the characters to a drug which automatically sends them into a dream state.

Filming Problems

On Sunday 13th of March, we chose to start filming our thriller, we first went to Ingatestone train station. Unfortunately when we arrived there rail works had been taking place that day and Ingatestone station was the end of the rail line, this means there were buses and security all around the place because there were buses in for trains.

As we parked the car to begin filming a security guard said we were unable to park in this area as it was needed for the replacement buses to park. As we left the car to begin filming on the platform a train stopped and a large crowd of people left the station. We tried to set up to film but there was two station workers said we weren't allowed to film there without permission from the national rail service. With this news we then decided to go to Brentwood train station to film, this worked fine but because it was a busy station, we had to wait for times when there were no people around and when there were no trains around. We often had to stop filming due to the public disrupting our shots. We were also worried about scaring the public with various props we used for the scene such as the mask and knife, we often felt ourselves rushing various scenes so we did not strike fear in the public present during filming.

Risk Assessment

Ideas for the film

We decided to completely change our mind and use a girl instead of a boy because we couldn't find any time we could all do, therefore we had to change our idea slighty by having the two girls as house mates and as if one of them (the killer) is being welcomed home by the other, (the victim). We then thought that as she got welomed home her friend hugged her and the killer would stab her as she was entering the hug.

For this we would need a welcome home balloon, a silver suitcase which looks quite old, Becca's dress for the victim, white patent shoes, green hood coat, fake eyelashes for the killer, watch for the victim as the killer is running late, doc martins for the killer as they are clumpy and will make a lot of noise.

Possible locations ingatestone station

face

We want to use 'Alex' from Clock Work Orange and make our character look like him with the bowler hat, fake eyelashes and pale face.

Filming Prop table

A table showing the props we will be needing on each day of filming.

Costume design :Female character

Costume design female character

We have chosen this dress because it creates  a childlike sense of innocence making the character appear venerable. Similarly the white shoes make the character appear young and innocent. Using white as a major stable of the costume makes the character appear untouched and virginal.

Location

We like the idea of using Ingatestone train station as one of our locations, the bridge over the railway will give it a creepy look and we thought we could have one of our characters standing on it. As we want to use the idea from Inception that has the dream inside of a dream we thought we could have it also set in a different place so when the character dies in one dream it could go down a level to another place. We thought a good place would be in a bedroom as it a lot different from the station.

Lift to the Scaffold

We watched the opening clip from Lift to the Scaffold, directed by Louis Malle in 1958. The film was the first 'French new wave' film, this meant the movies featured unprecedented methods of expression, such as long tracking shots. Many of the French New Wave films were produced on tight budgets; often shot in a friend's apartment or yard, using the director's friends as the cast and crew. Directors were also forced to improvise with equipment (for example, using a pram for tracking shots). Louis Malle asked Miles Davis, a well known Jazz musician, to watch the film and then play what he thought would go well with the scenes. This worked very well and in some places to the opening scene contra punctual sound occurs.


The first shot is a extreme close up of a woman's eyes, this questions the audience by wondering who she is talking to on the phone and why she is saying it. The shot then cuts to a man and his reply's to the woman on the phone, which then draws back to see the establishing shot of him in a building and she is in a phone box. The props used in the film, a gun, glove and rope all represent crime, meanwhile the audience is still wondering what is going to happen and who he is going to shoot. Whilst this is happening fforeshadowing occurs as the employee is sharpening pencils, you see her do this before the murder is happening and during it as it blocks out the gun shot so she doesn't suspect anything. 


A long take of the boss is used to show how much power the boss has over the man with the man with the gun and even when he draws out the gun he still shows he isn't scared, again showing he is a powerful character so the employee with the gun must have a lot of confidence to shoot him. As the tension between the boss and the employee with the gun builds up you can here the music in the background increasing which gives off the impression that as he pays attention, so do the audience. 


After this scene it cuts back to the woman who is waiting, the scene completely uses artificial light and none of the people around her or driving are actors, which makes the film more life like as it captures peoples real reactions. As she stands up to walk down the street pathetic fallacy of the thunder crashing is used to show how angry she is. Instead of a tracking shot being used for the scene, the director improvised and used a pram.


Opening clip from Lift to the Scaffold