Shot Still's

After shooting the footage for the sequence as a whole there are some brief still's of the footage below:

The shot that first introduces the idea that the character  is looking for the estate agent.

The first obvious position in which the audience are introduced to the idea of a ghost. A shadow is seen in the glass behind the two central characters.

The two characters featuring in a shot-reverse-shot.

The estate agent going to investigate.

The estate agent leaving into the dark.

The estate agent being brought to a unhappy ending by a shadow.

The buyer looking for the character, unaware that she has been killed or injured.

Current Progress - Friday 26th February

We were finally able to wind-up the shoot today and have completed all of the neccesary shooting to fulfil our new storyboard. Due to several issues with set changes and inspiration from locations we adapted the storyboard in order to make the best use of our surroundings.

This afternoon we finished the so-called 'scary' parts of the shooting in order to create and deepen the sense of apprehension. This was done under full permission at the Combat Gym. We filmed over 30 differing shot's and plan to edit and remove the parts we feel are unwanted or redundant in the following week.

We are, as a group very happy with our current progress and are looking forward to settling into the editing.

Title Experiments

Although this title shown is not to the style we are looking for is has given us good practice in using the tools to create an animated professional looking title.


Image by Cool Text: Logo and Button Generator - Create Your Own

Jakob also created some still title's:

Secondary Location Photography

As previously discussed, due to safety issues we have found it neccesary to source a secondary location that we could use for finishing, polishing and enforcing shots. We discovered the gym shown above and used a stills camera to capture some location photography.

Current Progress - Tuesday 23rd February.

We have began rough editing our piece today, along with completing other tasks that contribute to our final sequence.  
We have discarded all of the footage that is irrelevant or unusable and have cut together the shots that fit our storyboard model. After looking over our shot's we adapted the storyboard slightly in order to create a better atmosphere using our shots.
Last week we encountered some safety issues with filming in the Royal Pier Hotel and had to scout for another location that wouldn't affect continuity. It is an old dance and combat studio that has been abandoned and has a similar and continuing atmosphere to that of the hotel. We need to polish and film some further shooting and have adopted this location as the place to do it. We received permission to film and are planning to do so on Friday 26th February. The shots that we want to film are: Emotional close-ups, spooky discoveries of the building and the eventual death or disappearance of the estate agent.
We have also planned to re-film the estate agents and stairs portions of the film as they simply don't match the quality we desired. There also plans in place to create the flashback sequence.

Opening Sequence Purpose

Our opening sequence serves to do many things.

Firstly the opening sequence should introduce institutional information. It should do this in the form of the order of titles and the beginning opening animatic production titles. It must also draw in the audience; hopefully with a strong sense of character, plot and location - an audience would be compelled to watch on and discover the remainder of the fate and misfortune of Mr Scott. The sequence should also set up a narrative and enigma. An enigma is a character or situation that is puzzling or inexplicable. Our film and sequence should introduce sectors in both of these criteria.

Animated Storyboard

To get a better idea of pace, effects and the shot length we decided to create an animated storyboard.

The animation was created using PhotoStory 3 for Windows. The pans and zooms in this are rather amateurish and in some cases don't fully comply with the sort of finished project we might create. From this we have learnt that the fluidness of shots is extremely important and that allowing the audience to have a limited view of the scene is very important.

Sound Recording

It has been commented that the quality of sound amongst similar (student) products has not been that good. Therefore in keeping with the polished and professional nature of our film we have decided to designate an external microphone to achieve a better quality of finish. If any of the sound is not to a high standard, we may re-record some of the sound and overlay it whilst editing.

Representation

When originally creating ideas for the plot, we summarised fairly quickly that we would use a stereotypical set of characters. The central character is represented to the audience in such a way that they can take control of how they feel. It is likely that the originally pomps young man will get a negative reaction similar to that of the estate agent. Some sympathy might be conjured when the woman is killed, however it is likely that her initial 'stamp' on the film will be outlived by the actions of the other character. The film is unlikely to break any serious stereotypes but might create a sense that the higher classes can 'slum it' when the going gets tough.

Variety

We ensured throughout the filming and storyboarding process that we included a variety of angled and degreed shots in order to create both a varied piece of media for the audience and a technically well accomplished piece of film. There are some big close-ups and some panning shots. This will be key to keeping a fluid piece of media. The mid- and long-shots which rule the majority of the piece are also all well considered. This is to ensure that the framing and contents of the shot add to either the enigma or representation.

Uses And Gratifications Theory

The Uses and Gratifications Theory is about what the audience 'get' from a piece of media. Whether this be escapism through reading a fiction novel or a sense of social interaction (something to discuss with peers) by watching the news.

Our opening sequence should fulfil the majority of the four theories about the uses of the media by audiences.

Information

Although it is unlikely those outside the local area will learn much about the surroundings,

the sequence, and more importantly the completed piece should inform the audience about a realistic, twisted and corrupt side to the notion of spirits.

Personal Identity

The characters acting in the piece are aged a lot older then the target audience. The idea of this is to appeal to a wider (older) target audience whilst still communicating a sense of aspiration to the younger viewers. Allowing identification with the characters and there situation will provide some level of individuality compared to films of a similar genre.

Integration and Social Interaction

This category becomes extremely difficult to comment on pre-distribution level. The film might provide a discussion platform if it was well critically received. It doesn't offer any type of companionship towards the audience however a connection with the central character does enforce the idea's of the plot.

Entertainment

The audience should definitely enjoy the piece. Most pieces of media are designed so that either the audience enjoy the experience or hate it so much that they end up enjoying it. Our sequence is likely to enthral the audience and they should enjoy watching and creating ideas about the situation.

The Uses and Gratifications Theory is great for discussing and determining if an audience is likely to accept and enjoy the piece of media that you create. It seems that the audience will enjoy Auberry Manor and this means that the sequence will be successful.

Logo Inspiration

Although filming is our main priority at this moment in time we must still consider other factors of our production. One of these is our logo for our company, 'WHATEVER PRODUCTIONS'. We consider it very important to create a great logo that is memorable and unique. We want it to look professional as well as meaning something to our group, making it personal. It must represent our group and our work (especially the genre), making it something that describes us as a team and the film that we are looking to produce in this instance.. We have reviewed many different logos from huge recognisable productions companies, some are shown in the picture presented. All of the logos are interesting and unique.

We personally like Dreamworks, because it simple, yet captures attention. This is something we would like to work toward with our logo, we want it to be fun and formal at the same time. Too be taken as a real and polished production company can be crucial to the audience outlook on the finished product. It's important however that the logo apprehends the denotations that our target audience may receive - for these reasons the logo still must be interesting and lively.
Logos are like the face of a company - they present the company and are what the people see when they watch particular films. Usually certain film companies keep to certain genres. For example, Dreamworks usually do childrens film, whereas New Line Cinema have done many horrors. This is going to be continued into the production company we create, it will have a focus on thriller/teen/horror films.

The inspiration that we have drawn from the images above will allow us to create something original. Its is likely to be a dark backgrounded, light texted logo due to the connotations of horror films. The logo and the images attached with it will be key to the production of our animated opening sequence. To be able to properly plan this, the group will have to determine the aesthetics of our stationary design.

Current Progress - Friday 12th February

We began filming the opening sequence today. The shots that we decided to look at first were those that featured earliest in the film - the estate agent shots and those of the characters entering the building. Now that those are complete we can move on to film the remainder of the sequence.
We believe the shoot went well, we incurred no problems and managed to record approximately ten mintues of film. It is crucial we film more than we need because during the editing process alot of film is discarded, or doesn't look good enough. Thankfully the weather was light and dry, allowing us to record some outside scenes as planned.

Auberry Manor

After deciding the name of the hotel, that features in our film, we decided to edit a photo of the location, with a new hotel title. This reinforces the authenticity and professionalism of our project.

Location - Estate Agents

We decided to look into the possible locations of an estate agents. We decided upon Skylight Estate Agents on the Boulevard in Weston-super-Mare. We looked at a range of possible locations in the area before deciding upon this one, both for it's upmarket tendencies and the aesthetic looks of the external of the building. We discussed approval with the company and they agreed that we could film at this location.

The building as an image:

We also took the shots that were required for the estate agents:

Storyboard

Storyboard

Storyboard

Production Company Animated Sequences

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Here are three animated production company logo's, we have chosen them because they are not only more interesting, also correspond very well with the genre of our film Horror/Mysery Thriller.
These logo's are produced using incredibly high quality software that is not available to us, but from these examples and our strong idea's of what we want to produce, we can work hard to create an interesting and unique logo.

Storyboard Imitation

When looking at storyboarding we came to a decision that the best way to create it would be by using vector graphics. We did this because we believe it is a more clear and direct form of planning. It will be easier to follow whilst filming as the pictures are more detailed. We conjured another possibility of layering images to create a look. Something like what is below:

Although this initally seemed like a good idea it looked very amateurish when we completed it. We decided to create a hand-drawn storyboard as well.

Storyboard

We decided that the storyboard we created previously in this project was not too a high enough standard. Therefore when it came to deciding the process of creating the new updated storyboard, we wanted to ensure that it was done correctly and professionally. We made a decision that we would create the storyboard using graphics rather than hand-drawn. This will appear in due course.

Location Issues

The lighting at our location is not adequate, this means that the footage recorded will not be at its best quality. To resolve this problem we are currently trying to find a powerful torch or flashlight, this will hopefully offer enough light to give a considerable improvement.

We have also decided to use slightly adaptive equipment. We have sourced an alternative camera that will offer more flexibility with filming and the lighting situation. We are using a Samsung SMX-C10 Camera. More information available at: http://bit.ly/cN1vj0

Shot List

1. Animated ‘Whatever Productions’
2. Animated ‘Jingleberry Films’
3. Long-shot of two characters leaving an estate agents, in converse (unheard)
4. A long-shot from behind of the two characters walking down a crowded street.
5. Fade out
6. Snap-in, the two characters approaching a set of steps – speech.
7. Switch angles to watch them walking up the steps.
8. Cut to inside of characters entering the door.
9. From door angle looking at characters walking across room - speech.
10. Mid-shot of characters side-by-side looking wishfully past camera.
11. Switch to a long shot of behind them looking out over the sea through broken windows - speech.
12. Long-shot as estate agent crosses room.
13. Switch to POV of purchaser looking after her.
14. Long shot with estate agent close and the other character approaching her - speech.
15. Switch angles to watch the door shut behind them as they enter corridor.
16. Long-shot down corridor as characters approach the stair-well – speech.
17. Looking up the stairs towards the top – POV of the characters. Speech.
18. Long-shot from behind of the characters of turning right into another room.
19. The characters POV towards a broken record player. Cue 50s Music and a slow paced guide around the room.

20. From opposite side of the room you see the character of the estate agent walk towards the camera side-by-side with the purchaser. Speech.
21. The angle changes and the estate agent leave the room leaving the character inside the room.
22. Speech of estate agent – POV (from buyer) pan of the room.
23. Buyer asks question no reply. Shot of the door frame – POV again.
24. Camera from door frame looking towards character approaching.
25. Close-up of characters expression.
26. Mid-shot of character (estate agent) sprawled dead.
27. Title

Filming Schedule

It is extremely imortant that all productions produce a detailed filming schedual to ensure all team members are aware of dates and times involving the project.
05/02/10 - This will be the estate agents scene. It will commence at 12:15 and finish at 3.00. Shot on location yet to be decided.
09/02/10 - This will be the conversational scenes between characters. It will commence at 9.00 and finish at 12.00. Shot at hotel
10/02/10 - This will be shots of the hotel and shots of the man exploring. It will commence at 1.00 and finish at 3.00. Shot at hotel.
23/02/10 - This is for any clean up shots we need to refilm or any add ons, we decide to use after reviewing the film. This will commence at 9.00 and finish at 12.00.

List Of Title Credits

Here is a list of titles we are planning on including in our opening sequence. They are listed in order of appearance:

Titling conforms to a set of unwritten rules determined by the industry. It's interesting that the most powerful (either in terms on 'pull' factor or money) will often appear top of the list regardless of there actual input into the film.

1) Whatever Productions
2) In Association with JingleBerry Films
3) Directed By Hannah Jones
4) Produced By Fhahima Hussain
5) Music By John Mac
6) Holly Keane
7) Jakob Lewis

Script

Estate Agent: Good afternoon Mr Scott.
Mr Scott: Good afternoon, i can't wait to have a look around.
Estate Agent: Oh, it really is a spectacular property.
Estate Agent: Here we go, be careful.
Estate Agent: This is the old ballroom, beautiful isn't it? And the bar is just through here.
Mr Scott: It's a good size, alot of potential.
Estate Agent: Yes, the building was constructed in the early 1800 and still holds many of the original features. But, no one has been here to appreciate them since the fire..
Mr Scott: It's an awful shame. Who was the previous owner?
Mr Scott: ...Hello?

Location Scouting.

Tuesday 2nd February - This is the day we went location scouting. We had three main options in mind, the aim of the day was to decide if they were suitable and safe. After a thorough evaluation and analysis of all three, we came to the conclusion that the Royal Hotel was the spot with the most potential.
The appearence inside the hotel, is dark, mysterious and eery. It is very apparent that the building has been left for many years. We have decided to incoporate the history of the building into our film story. The atmosphere created by the fire damage infuses with our story of mystery and creates a very thrilling and intense outcome.

We received full permission from a security guard on-site who said that entering the premises was agreeable.

Thorough Film Synopsis

We wanted to create a film that engages wide audiences and sparks interest and discussion, we thought it was essential to produce a fresh idea to make our film unique.

Auberry Manor was an old hotel situated along the coast of Shercombe Bay, it was contructed in 1808. The hotel was known for its lavish parties and obscenely rich visitors. During it's hey day, October 16th, an extravagant ball was in mid swing, until a raging fire ripped through the building leaving behind it a path of distruction and death. Many lives were lost and many bodies were consumed by the flames, it stayed untouched for over 50 years until a local estate agents decided to take the derelict and abandoned hotel on, thinking it was a perfect rennovation opportunity. Johnothon Scott a successful entrepenuer and convinces himself to view the property, after meeting with the estate agent, they proceed to tour the manor. As she informs him of some of the buildngs history, she abruptly disappears. Mr Scott is terror ridden and proceeds in a mission to escape the daunting hotel. After experiencing encounters with ghostly presents and encurring danger he meets the Manors history. He meets a woman who introducers herself as Marion Clark, he beleives she is real under his dilusional state. However, Marion is infact the owner of the hotel and is merely a shadow from the past. After, delving into the manor and meeting with Marion, Johnothon relises this truth and is determined to understand what happened. He goes against her wishes and explores private rooms and discovers, by a letter, her husband was killed in the war, his fighter jet was shot down and caught alight taking his life. After thrilling events of haunting and paranormal activity, Johnothon learns that it was Marion herself that burned down the hotel in a bid to be with her love.

Opening Credit Titles

Opening credit titles are a common occurence in most films, they state people and companies that are associated with the upcoming film. The titles tend to fit in with genre allowing the introduction to run smoothly. We want to overlay the titles in our opening sequence as we believe this will allow the tension to build up with no interuptions. We want the titles to stand out and engage interest, by using white text on a dark background we hope to achieve a striking appearence.

Target Audience & Certificate

Our film is a mystery thriller, we decided on this genre for many reasons. Firstly, the narrative of the film would tend to ignite curisoty or terror. The paranormal activity vents anger through violence, this therefore adding the element of terror. We believe, going by our previous research that this would appeal more to younger adults, specifically males. They can relate to the scenes in which the characters appear in, allowing them to create opinions and understand the characters. The main focus for a film is to appeal to their target audience, as this is the key to its failure or success. We must ensure the content of the film is interesting and overall enjoyable to the audience in focus.

We chose to brand the film 15, this is because we thought the content was too mature for anyone younger, we believe anyone less than 15 may find it hard to understand and relate to the scenes, they also might be disturbed by some of the images and ideas. However we didn't want to make it 18 because we thought we may miss out on a huge potential audience, and we did not believe it was necessary.

The main issue with our film that will constrict it to a 15 is the violence, the BBFC states this in co-ordance to the age 15 certifcate - "Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification." We feel that our film will obey these guidelines and be certified as a 15.

Location Photography

Here are some still photgraphs of the location we are planning to film in, we chose this location because we thought the mise en scene would contribute well to the element of mystery, also the fact is derilict and abandoned is slightly scary. We believe it is important to have a catalouge of still images because they can help with storyboarding and the overall filming plan. It allows us to evalutate places, their size, lighting and accessability.

Genre

We discussed various genres for our fiction opening sequence. We ruled out action, sci-fi and rom-com because they were either unavailable due to our supplied resources and budget or were fairly repetitive in there nature. We decided that we wanted to create a film that only loosely fitted a small genre but was conformative to having an enigmatic plot. Originally we decided upon and action thriller, but after visiting locations and compiling film schelduals we have change drastically to mystery thriller. We believe our location fits in perfectly to this convention and will contribute in the sense of professionalism and authenticity. We believe with simple camera techniques we will be able to pull of convincing thriller shots.

Film Synopsis

The beginning of the film will introduce the death of the estate agent. The rest of the film will follow the plight of the buyer looking to escape the building and report the death. Although the characters escape from the building will form a majoritable form of the plot, the scene's will also consist of police officers and families attempting to access the building, retrieve the body and look into the death. They will all experience some kind of problem within the building. The film will complete with the ghosts and spirits in the building being discovered and the history behind the resonance discovered.

Location History

We though it was important to research where we were basing our film as it may offer inspiration or useful facts.



This is a video of the day the hotel caught alight.

The Royal Hotel was the first hotel to be built in the town and was constructed in 1808 to deal with visitors that would visit for several reasons including the Birnbeck Pier (nearby).

Similar Films

During our research and planning we found it extremely useful to review films of a similar genre. Not only did this offer many inspirational factors it also gave us goals to work towards. Here are some of the films we viewed:
The Messengers
The Others
What Lies Beneath
Sixth Sense
A Haunting
A nightmare on Elm Street
They all share elements that we want incorporate into our final scene. For exampe, the titles in 'What lies Beneath' offered a great inspiration for us and we would like to create someone of a similar nature. Also 'The Messengers' opening sequence features quick snappy shots with interesting and unique camera angles, we like this because it intices curiosty and engages people interest.

Inspirational Films - The Messengers

The Messengers delivers a great opening sequence, which features thrilling moments straight from the start. We like the strange camera angles and movements and the fast edits keeping you engaged in the drama. The black and white effect works well in representing the asmosphere and tension.

Inspirational Film - What lies beneath

This film shows many conventions that we would like to feature in our opening sequence. The opening titles are much like the how we would like to convey ours, they are mysterious and eery, without appearing amature.

Portraying the right Atmosphere

It is essential that the correct atmosphere is portrayed during the first few frames of a film. The directors show this through many techniques, such as music, mise en scene, voice tones and camera edits. They all must fit together and combine professionally to ensure a compelling atmosphere. The character profiles also add to the atmosphere, their personalities must be established fairly on so people can understand their reactions to certain scenes and conversations. This adds to the atmopshere through attitudes and feelings. For example, someone may appear scared or angry. They can show this through body language or the tone of voice. Sometimes clothing and props can contribute.

Location

Location is key in establishing the correct atmosphere for the scene. The mise en scene must combine with our genre to ensure an authentic and convincing portrayal. Our genre, 'mystery thriller', constricts us to a limited amount of options, we need to obtain a site for filming that is private but still allows the audiences curiosity to wander. We came to the conclusion that somewhere abandoned and derelict would be a perfect choice, so we researched run down buildings in our local area and we found three possible places. After a visit to each we decided on filming at an old hotel, abandoned after a sevre fire that consumed half the building. This interesting fact added to our story and inspired the idea of the ghosts of the people killed by the raging fires. We believe the extroadinary and untouched mise en scene contributes to the tension and suspense, overall climaxing to the disappearence of the estate agent.

However, this isnt the only location we will be filming in, we also have to find an estate agents that allows us permission to film our character walking out the door. This just reinforces the idea that she is an estate agent. It also gives the film the chance to climax to the intesity of the hotel scene.

Sound Effects & Music

We as a group want to incorporate many sound effects to add the intensity of the actions, here are a list of effects we are planning on using:
Doors Closing & Opening
Footsteps
Wind
Heartbeat
Whispering and windows banging

Also we want to add some short music clips when focusing on certain elements of the scene:
For example, we will have a shot of an old broken stereo and hear a burst of 50's style music. (In the style of the hotel and the era when it was operating)
Another, is the shot of a broken childs doll house, we will hear a quiet lullaby, adding to the history and memories of this item.

Advanced Opening Sequence

The story of the events will be as follows:

The scene opens with the characters leaving an up-market estate agents, they will be discussing something however this will be unheard to the audience. The shots will stay steady as the characters leave the right-hand side of the frame. The camera will cut to the characters approaching a set of mysterious steps. We will see them walking up the steps - this time hearing the conversation as it is discussed. The shot will cut to them entering the room that they will have walked into at the top of the stairs. The next series of shots will follow the pair around the building as they explore the room and various places. We will use some shot-reverse-shot's to show some of the speech and a variety of angles and proximity's to create and interesting and varied series of shots. The next interesting shot will see the estate agent split from the buyer - still connected via speech. Suddenly the buyer will question the estate agent - receiving no reply he goes to investigate - only to find that she has died. The sequence ends on a mid-shot of the character lead dead on the floor.

Film Title

As a group we strongly believe that our title should ignite curiosty and attention. We think it is important to have a title that conveys a theme aswell as stimulating mystery. Here are a list of potential title ideas:
The Manor
Auberry House
Whispering Flames
Haunted Ashes
Risen from Below
Burn Out
Mutual Blaze
Solo Extinguish
Torched Dream

Props

To ensure the mise en scene and the atmosphere of the scene is authentic we must be equipt with the correct and props and clothing. Fortunately for us the location we film in is already in the theme we want it to be, and we need very little props.
Glasses - These are for the female estate agent, they will add to the sophisitcation and are common to hard working professionals.
Clip Board - This is also for the female estate agent, this will hopefully make her look realisitic and represent a serious worker.
Woman's clothing - Plain white shirt, black trousers, black heels and red lipstick.
Man's Clothing - Suit jacket, black trousers, smart shoes.

Character Profiles

Characters are key to the plot of any piece of media. They will provide the centre-piece for which the plot will revolve and should allow the audience to feel engaged with the piece. Mise-en-scene is key, but costume can make or destroy a film. The profiles below give a sense of the actors we need to source and a better idea of the plot we might end up creating.

Estate Agent
Age - 22
Gender - Female
Occupation - Estate Agent
Appearence - Sophisiticated, confident and charming. The character will be wearing black trousers, white shirt, glasses and be carrying a clip board, this look inspired by the look of professional estate agents.
Background - She is a young, intelligant, stylish woman, successful in selling run down buildings, ready for rennovation.



Johnathon Scott
(The male interested in the rennovation)
Age - 30
Gender - Male
Occupation - architect and designer
Appearence - Confident and wealthy. The character will be wearing smart, sophisticated clothes and will represent what we believe to be an innovative and intelligant look.
Background - He is a charming man, who holds a degree in mathematics and has been very successful in his developing career.