Final draft - opening sequence

First draft evaluation

My overall opinion of Elliot and Myself's first draft is that it is of a low quality due to various different reasons, such as it has no opening credits, some areas of the scene have no sound, and the props/clothing didn't fit in well with the actual theme of the movie. Some parts of our opening scene were completed to a high quality but I believe that they were overshadowed by the lack of quality in other areas due to the camera not being focussed and through the editing process being rushed.



 The first problem with the first draft of our opening sequence is that we were over a week late on the deadline which meant when we filmed it, we rushed ourselves rather than taking the time to record it to a higher quality. Due to this, some of the shots in our opening scene are blurred. In the first shot of the garage scene, the camera is supposed to be blurred to express how the character is disorientated as it is a POV shot, but it is unclear to the audience whether this is on purpose due to the camera being blurred in other shots throughout the opening scene. We also had to rush the editing phase so that we could upload it as soon as possible, I felt that this massively hindered the overall quality of the final result of the first draft becausewe were unable to include the credits onthe opening sequence and we left some shots unedited which made the opening sequence First Draft end up being completed to a low quality.

Another problem with Elliot and myself's first draft is that during the filming stage of the production, we didn't use a tripod and decided that we would film every shot with a handheld camera, this reduced the quality of the shot because the camera struggled to focus on the shot due to the constant movement.

On the contrary to my previous comments on my First Draft, I also felt that there were some positive aspects in the First Draft, such as the sound bridges used fairly commonly throughout the opening sequence which I feel had a positive effect on the scene. Also, I feel that the garage shots were successful, we originally planned for them to be out of focus to give the perception that it is a POV shot of someone who has just awoken and therefore their vision is blurred.

Final Draft Evaluation - Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back at my first draft compared to my final draft of my thriller opening sequence, I believe that there is a visible contrast in the quality between the two pieces of work. Some examples of what Elliot and myself have done to improve our thriller opening sequence was that we changed the main location of the scene from a police questioning room to the detective's office. We also did multiple takes for each shot to ensure that each shot was always in focus. The actor of the Detective in the final edit also changed to Edward Barker because the original actor, Josh wasn't available to film when we planned. 


Location
The Detective's office

In our first draft, Elliot and myself originally planned for the main location in which the scene takes place to be in a police questioning room, however in the final draft we altered the location to the Detective's office because we felt that it would be easier to recreate this room than a questioning room with the resources that we had. Originally, we used the school's studio to represent the questioning room, but we felt that the room didn't work very well. For the Detective's office, we had an empty room with two desks to work with. First of all, we set up a PC on the desk with some folders to give the desk some verisimilitude, then we created a 'crazy wall' which is seen in the background of multiple shots throughout the opening sequence. 

For the preliminary task, we used the School's studio for filming our opening sequence for a thriller called 'The Stuff', once again the studio wasn't a very good location because of the dark lighting and the black curtains that surround the wall made it difficult to make any adjustments to the room which we would have liked to include.

The Kidnapper's garage

For the garage where Scarlet and her friend was held by the kidnapper, we decided to keep the original location from the first draft and use the same footage that was previously recorded. We thought that the footage worked well because the camera being out of focus helped to resemble that it was a POV shot of someone who has just awoken and whos vision is distorted/blurred. To make the room seem more like a real location where a hostage would be held we scattered objects around the room to make it more of a mess and then placed a chair in the middle of the room which the girl was tied to.

Evaluation of improvements for Location

The Final draft has multiple improvements that are noticeable in comparison to the first draft in terms of the location. One of the most noticeable changes is the difference in location for the questioning scene, I feel that using a different room was a huge improvement from the studio because the lighting was much better, the setting was more realistic, and we were given a blank canvas to work on which gave us the opportunity to make the room look how we wanted it. However, the room was much smaller than the studio which made it much harder to use different camera angles which restricted us to using close-up shots for the majority of the opening scene. After using the studio in the preliminary task and the first draft, we realised that it was not a suitable location for us to film in for our Final Draft.


 Equipment
Canon 700D

Elliot and I used a Canon 700D for both the First Draft and the Final Draft of our thriller opening sequence. After using it in the first draft, we got used to using it and became familiar with some of the features so we decided to use it again in the Final Draft.  I also used this same camera in the preliminary task, however Megan was in charge of recording so I didn't get a chance to have a go at using the camera.


Tripod

In the First Draft, Elliot and myself made the mistake of not using a tripod throughout the filming process. Due to this, some of our shots are actually slanted and the slight wobble of the camera is easily noticeable. Whilst filming for the final draft, we used the tripod which made a signicant difference in the quality between the two opening sequences. The camera was more focussed on the tripod and there is no longer a clear shaking of the camera due to it being handheld. 

Evaluation of improvements for Equipment
There is not much to talk about to do with improvements that we made with equipment, apart from the fact that using the tripod in our Final Draft made a vast improvement on the First Draft because of the reduced shake of the camera which was a problem when recording with a handheld camera.

 Planning

For the preliminary task, the planning process was fairly rushed because we only had a short period of time to plan and produce the short clip. This forced my group and I to take little time thinking of ideas for the plot and writing a script. The storyboard and planning sheet were both completed to a low quality because of the small time frame in which it was completed.

During the planning phase for the final task, I had much more time to brainstorm ideas about the plot of the thriller opening sequence, therefore the quality of the storyboard and the mindmap is of a higher level. Elliot and myself also had more time to write a more detailed script for the opening sequence. There is only one of the four pages visible from the storyboard below but there is a clear contrast between the quality of the two storyboards.

What have I learnt during the progression of this task?











Over the entirety of my coursework task I have learnt many new things and I feel that my skills have progressed throughout. I believe that compared to the planning of my preliminary task, I have become more efficient with creating ideas and putting them down on paper in a shorter space of time to a higher quality, I have also learnt more about the filming phase of the production stage, I realised that there are many benefits to using a tripod rather than trying to film by hand and Elliot and myself managed to get the filming done for the Final Draft to a higher standard than the First Draft and we completed the filming in a much shorter space of time. I also realised that a small additional piece of detail such as the 'crazy wall' can make a large impact on the scene because it makes the setting much more believable to the audience.

Final Draft Evaluation - Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Final Draft Evaluation - Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Final Draft Evaluation - Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Final Draft Evaluation - Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Distribution company No.1 - Studio Canal
 

Studio Canal was formerly Optimum Releasing from 1999-2011 and is a London based distribution company that often releases low-budget British movies. It has distributed movies such as The Last Exorcism, This is England, and Submarine. Each of these movies were made independently. The highest budget out of these three movies was This is England which had a budget of £1.5 million which sounds like a large amount of money but compared to larger production movies, the budget is dwarfed. Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides holds the record for the highest movie budget ever, the budget for this movie was over £300million. Studio Canal has also released box office hits such as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Why might this company be interested in my movie?

I believe that Studio Canal would be interested in Stockholm Syndrome because they have released many different low budget British movies in the past and they have released a lot of horror/thrillers, these include The Last Exorcism, The Hound of Baskervilles, and The Imitation Game. The plot of Stockholm Syndrome is very mysterious which I believe would intrigue the distribution compsny and make it more likely to release this film.

 Distribution company No.2 - Pathe 

 Pathe is a distribution company that has released movies such as Philomena which had a budget of around £9 million. The company has also released a number of other low budget British films. The company has also produced some higher budget movies such as Bekind Rewind which had a budget of around £20million. This company may be interested in Stockholm Syndrome due to the elements of mystery that the movie holds and the unique plot of the story. 

 Distribution company No.3 - Revolver Entertainment


Revolver Entertainment is a British Distribution company that was founded in 1997 and has released multiple low budget British movies such as the Kidulthood trilogy, the opening budget for the first installment of the trilogy, Kidulthood was just £600,000. The company has released other low budget British movies such as Ill Manors, and Anuvahood. The companies highest grossing movie was Adam Deacon's Anuvahood which took a total of £2.1 million at the box office. I believe that they would be interested in my thriller because the company bases itself on low budget movies. The plot for my movie would hopefully be what they are looking for and would intrigue them into distributing it.
 
 
 

Final Draft Evaluation - Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Final Draft Evaluation - Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

 

Final Draft edit

Planning- Props

Garage Props:

The garage contains several specific props in order to create verisimilitude. We are trying to create a mysterious atmosphere and to make the shots look gritty and dirty to reinforce the reality and hardship of having to live as an abductee. 

A wooden chair has the second girl tied to it. This kind of chair is used to show that it is improvised as it seems like a very average but old fashioned chair. It also helps because the ropes can be tied through and around the chair. 

 

 

 

This also leads to another important prop. Some simple rope that is tied around the chair to restrict the girl when she is being tortured. Any kind of rope will do as long as there is enough to tie the girl's arms and legs.

Scarlett's bed is meant to look improvised and uncomfortable. It consists of a few blankets on the floor which are dirty and untidy. This photo is representative of the kind of thing i would like to create. 

There is a bucket in the garage. It is not explicitly said but assumed that it is used for the girls to do their business. This reinforces the grittiness and realistic tribulence of the girls experience in the garage. 

The garage will be filled with tools which are grimy and used. This implies that the captor is torturing them and also proves that he is sadistic because he is torturing her in a surgical and precise manner. 

Interrogation room props

The most important prop in the interrogation scene is the table and chairs which the detective and Scarlett use. They need to look simple and similar to that of a police interrogation room in order to reinforce the verisimilitude of the set. This photo is an example of a simple table and two chairs which would be viable as a prop option. 

 The lamp is also an important prop because it creates a specific type of lighting that me and Oliver wanted for the scene. 

These are two examples of lamps which would fit into our piece. They are black and simply designed which would blend well with the subtle tones we will include to reflect numbness and isolation.

Planning - Makeup

For our thriller opening sequence, we require make up to use on some of the cast to give the characters features such as bruises/cuts and tattoos. Elliot and myself have decided to do the make up ourselves on the characters. To give us a better idea of how to do the make up, we have been researching on the internet by watching make up tutorials and have practised doing some of these so that we can complete them to a high quality for our final sequence.

 The black eye 

 For our opening scene, the protagonist, Scarlett Joyce will have a black eye in the police questionning room. Elliot and myself are going to be using make up to create the look of a black eye on her face. We have watched tutorial videos on Youtube to help us learn how to make the bruised eye look realistic. The Youtube video that we watched is visible below:

 





The tattoo 
The antagonist in our thriller opening sequence (the Detective/Kidnapper) will have a tattoo on his right hand. We haven't made a final decision on the tattoo just yet but we have been looking on the internet for simple tattoo designs that we can use on the antagonists hand and we have been looking at tutorial videos to teach us how to make a realistic looking temporary tattoo. These are a few ideas that we may use for the tattoo:

Stockholm Syndrome- Draft edit

Storyboard

 This is Elliot and Myself's storyboard that we made during the planning stage of this task. The writing isn't as clear as I would have liked in this since we overlapped the drawings with tracing paper that had the actual writing on but we felt that it looked better in real life with the tracing paper overlap. We also have now changed the title of our movie from 'Left Behind' to 'Stockholm Syndrome'. The storyboard is visible below in chronological order:

Costume Planning

Costume Planning   

For our thriller opening sequence, Elliot and myself have decided to have a mixed variety of different costumes for each individual character to suit their individual roles in the scene. The two main characters in the opening scene are two completely different people so they will not be dressed in a similar way and will have costumes that are representative of their characters.

Protagonist: Scarlett Joyce   

Scarlett Joyce will appear in two shots in the opening scene of our thriller movie, she will be in the shot where she is tied to a chair in the unknown location where she is held captive by the kidnapper and in the shot where she is in the interogation room being asked questions by the detective. She will be wearing a grey sweatshirt and grey jogging bottoms with white socks and plimsolls when she is in the interogation room. This is because she will be wearing the clothes that she has been given by the police since the clothes she was found in were dirty and ripped. When she is in the unknown location, she will be wearing ripped jeans, a t-shirt, and  which are stained with blood, dirt and sweat.

 Secondary Character: Sally Roberts
Sally Roberts will only be in the shot that is located in the unknown location where the kidnapper is keeping her, she will be dressed in a similar way to Scarlett, she will also be wearing dirty jeans, and a t-shirt that is covered in stains. They will both be dressed in dirty clothes to show how long they have been kept by the kidnapper and to express how awful the living conditions are in the place they are being kept.
Tertiary Character: The Detective
The Detective will be dressed in a formal way for the shot where he is questioning Scarlett. He will be dressed in a black pea coat, black trousers and black shoes, he will also be wearing a white shirt with a tie. He will be dressed like this so that his costume suits the role of a detective and he doesn't look out of place in the scene.

The Antagonist: The Kidnapper   

The Kidnapper will be wearing all black in the opening scene, this costume will be made up of Black Dr Marten boots, black denim jeans, a black hoodie and a black balaclava to cover his face. This costume will be used to add mystery to the kidnappers identity because the entire plot of the movie would be less interesting if the antagonist's identity was revealed from the beginning.

 

Filming Schedule