Target Audience and Certification

A target audience is the the type of the viewer that you expect to see and like your film. This can be age group, social group or just to do with common interests. For our thriller: 'The Hurst', we think that our target audience would be largely males between the ages of 15-30 who enjoy other thriller films also.

When putting a certificate to a film there are a few to choose from, including: U, PG, 12, 12A, 15, 18, we believe that thriller films would fall into the range between 12 and 18.

If the BBFC was to classify our film, we think that they would give us a 15 certificate because our film has thriller and suspenseful elements to it which younger viewer may find distressing but it does not include gore and disturbing images so it does not deserve to have a higher certificate.

Test Footage

This is our test footage of the different shots we are going to use in our real opening sequence. We have not edited this piece because we are just experimenting with different shot types and actng skills.

This footage is shown below:

Deadlines

Below are the deadlines we need to follow and work to:

Thriller Project Timings & Deadlines

11th Jan to 15th Jan: Thriller introduction.

18th Jan to 22nd Jan: Analysis of real and student examples/ Production logos.

25th Jan to 29th Jan: Planning and delivery of pitches.

1st Feb to 5th Feb: Storyboarding, shot lists and other planning.

Cameras are available from Friday 5th Feb at 4.10pm until shooting deadline of 9am Monday 8th March. Students can have 2 overnights or one weekend to film. There are three weekend slots available ( 6th & 7th Feb, 27th & 28th Feb and 6th & 7th March).

8th Feb to 12th Feb: Filming.

15th Feb to 19th Feb: HALF TERM. NO CAMERAS OUT.

22nd Feb to 26th Feb: Filming and editing.

1st March to 5th March: Filming and editing.

8th March to 12th March: 8th March Shooting deadline. 2nd lesson of this week is Rough Cut Deadline. Third lesson of week, rough cut feedback.

15th March to 19th March: End of second lesson of the week is Final Cut Deadline. Last lesson of the week, feedback on final cuts and re-introduction to Evaluation questions.

22nd March to 26th March: 9am 22nd March is Interim writing deadline. Lessons this week are for feedback on interim drafts and revisions/writing.

9am 29th March: Final writing deadline.

Storyboarding - Lesson 2

We have now completed storyboarding the shots for our thriller opening sequence on post-it notes and have also decided on an appropriate order to shoot them in. We just need to copy these onto a proper storyboarding sheet to finalise them.

Here is a camera shot list, with photographs, and an explanation of each shot:

• Medium close Shot

This shot will be filmed from the front seat of a car looking back onto the girl filmmaker peering out of the window. A short conversation will then strike up between the boy film maker and the girl.

• Long Tracking Shot Forward

This shot will be filmed from behind the girl walking to the destination. As we are using a shaky cam style it will look a bit creepy, as if someone is following the girl when actually it is just her friend. This may also disorientate the viewer as they will not know the location and they will only be able to see the girl in shot.

• Close Up

The next shot will be a close up of the girl's face talking normally to the boy filmmaker, again the viewer does not yet know the location of the girl so this may be a bit unnerving for them.

• Track Backwards

This shot will quickly follow the previous one to finally reveal the location to the audience whilst the girl talks about the project and surrounding area.

• Mid Shot

The sequence will then cut to a shot of the surrounding area, the first one being a tree. This will introduce the audience to it but it may also make them feel as if the cameraman is searching for something, so it creates a mysterious atmosphere.

• Extreme Long Shot

To view the surroundings better, we have decided to use an extreme long shot of the area. Within in this shot you can vaguely see a black figure in the far distance. This may confuse the audience as they do not know whether it has been noticed by the cameraman or not. This could also unnerve them slightly.

• Fast Track Sidewards

This fast track sidewards may be a clue to whether or not the cameraman saw the black figure, but there is still uncertainty. The track moves back to the girl who continues to talk about area and project again.

• Mid Shot

This shot is of the girl continuing to talk but the black silhouette is visible yet again and distracts the cameraman slightly.

Zoom Forward

The distraction of the cameraman leads onto this next shot, which is a zoom forward towards the black figure to see whether it is actually real and there and if so what exactly it is.

• Pan

Although the cameraman student is very scared, he still wants to catch whatever he has seen and heard on camera so pans the area whilst the girl is begging and begging him to go. This piece of dialogue between them builds a lot of suspense and most of all tension.

• Mid Shot

This is the last shot of the piece, and it is back to the girl and the black image is directly behind her, but you cannot see its face, just the shape. The duration of this shot will be very short so it frightens the viewer and leaves them in suspense and with a mystery to solve.

The opening sequence will end with a black out immediately after the last shot.

Planning for filming

Costume:

The two main characters will be wearing normal clothing for people who are going to a rural area to film a school project, such as hoodies, shirts, jeans, perhaps boots or wellingtons.

The"antagonist" will be wearing very dark clothing and something to obscure his facial features, such as a large coat or hood.

Props:

There will very little to no props, and if we were to include any then it would only be something that the "antagonist" would have, such as a weapon for example. however i very much doubt we would include this, since we would like to have a certain air of mystery surrounding him, an therefore the inclusion of a visible weapon would be very un-subtle.


Lighting-effect + equipment-

Since the entire sequence is to be flames outdoors, there is very little we can do about our lighting conditions, though we would prefer for it to be reasonably bright, since it would not realistic if the student filmmakers chose to film a wildlife program in the dark. Since the film is in the found footage shaky cam style, we will only use the tripod in once instance, which would be for the "wildlife film" portion of the narrative.

Make up/ hair-

As Josh is playing a dark and mysterious character we have decided to darken his face to keep his identiy hidden and give a fiflthy and un groomed look so the audience belive that he has been hiding out for how every many months or years an gives a almost tramp like impression.


List of equipment

• Camera
• Tripod
• Tape
• Battery
• Spare battery
  

Times + dates you want to film, including a back up plan.

We are going to be filming on the 6th which falls on a saturday. We have allocated ourselves a 2 hour filming slot and think this will suffice to get the shots we require. If these plans dont go to plan our back plans are to film for the following day, the 7th with the same time schedule as before.

Location

We have chosen our location carefully to find an open area that would be appropriate and suited to the type of opening we will be filming. The area is a patrially wooded, partially fielded area in the small village of Little Downham. The location we have picked is also easily accesible so there will not be the problem of getting there to film.

Actors

We have chosen for Lydia to play the protangonistic character becuase conventionally women are seen to be the more vulnerable and desirable in thriller films so by making Lydia the object of the opening sequence then we are following this convention. This also sets the film up quite well to keep the viewer insterested.

(PHOTO)

Fil, will be the camera man both in real life and for the opening sequence. From previous projects we have seen that Fil is the best with the camera so he was chosen to film and therefore he fell into the role of the camera man in the sequence.

(PHOTO)

Josh will be playing the mysteroius antagonistic, cloaked character within the opening sequence and we think he will be suited to this role well as he is good at acting so can move well across the frame to create a mysterious character.

(PHOTO)

Production roles- camera, actor, directors, producer, production, co-ordinator etc

Fil-Cameraman

Actors- Lydia and Josh

Directors- Fil and Josh

Producers- Lydia and Fil

Editors- Lydia, Josh and Fil

Sound- Lydia, Josh and Fil

Test photos/footage.....