Filming

We have now one all our filming, and are currently in the process of editing them. During the filming i have taken some pictures to show what props we used during the filming, and what the location looked like. I have taken more pictures with the first crime scene than the second. The reason for this is because all the things we used for crime scene one we also used for crime scene two.

Crime scene 1
The first of our crime scenes was filmed in a field, right next to the woods. We thought this is a realistic place for a murder to happen, and so we had to make sure that we picked a good field. And we were able to do this, and it was the one which i have previously talked about in this blog. The props we used was the police tape, and a body bag. The body bag was to small for the body, and so what we had to do, was make it look as though it had been opened up by a police man. Another change we had to do was that, instead of having an actual body in the crime scene when the main character was there, we decided to take photos of them instead of filming. This way it would have been more realistic. 

The picture show some of the stuff that we worked with. We has our own police tape and our own body bag. The police tape is real because it was from the police station and the body bag did look similar to an actual body bag, and so didn't make it look unrealistic. We are also pleased with the fake blood for our mise en scene, because it really does look like blood. The ingredients we used to make the fake blood was, golden syrup, red food colouring, and Nesquik. The Nesquik was to add thickness to the blood and it really helped. As you can see it looks real and that is what we wanted to achieve. In terms of location it looks appropriate and doesn't make the story seem unrealistic.  

       









Crime scene 2
The other crime scene was the stone poles which was next to the beach. The reason why we chose this is because we wanted to have somewhere which was in the middle of nowhere, and we thought this would be a good place to show this. We also thought that it would be good to show a horrible murder next to a beautiful bit of art to show juxtaposition. The props we used for scene were exactly the same for scene two, however we did use a luminous jacket to put on one of our actors. We also made sure that they wore appropriate clothes (they are wearing a suit).

This pictures shows the location that we used and the background. We think it is good and doesn't make the movie seem unrealistic. It also shows the jacket which we used for the actor to wear to show that he is part of the police. We are happy with how the filming went, and in the background you can see Dan who used the camera. We had to film this part on different days, because on one day Dan was the body.

Changes made

Since my last post, we have made some changes to our film story, and he cast team. We felt like we had to do this in order to make the film more realistic, and to make it as good as possible.

The storyline
We have changed the story from the original, and made it more realistic. Instead of having two crime scenes with two bodies their, we have changed it to only one of the crime scenes having the body, and then the other to having pictures of a previous murder which is slightly older. The character then looks at the pictures and notices that their is a cut towards the neck. He will then walk over to the other crime scene (where the body is) and notice that this one also has a cut to the neck.

The two crime scenes we are using will be, the field and the architecture. We think these are the most appropriate places, because they aren't near busy places where someone would hear screaming. So we are no longer having three crime scenes. We think this is too many, and a bit unrealistic.

On the second crime scene, where the body is, we think it would be a good idea for their to be a few people around the body, in order for it to be realistic. This is because the murder would have just happened and so people would be investigating it.

We are also thinking of adding a voice over to help people understand what it going on. To some people it might be hard to understand what it going on because you don't really know what the character is like. And so with the voice over the audience would be experiencing what he sounds like and what sort of guy he is.

Casting
We have also changed the actors in our film. The reason for this is because on the days where we originally planned to film, the actors we wanted were not available, and so we had to work our way around this by sorting something else out. We stuck as one of the bodies being Dan, but we had to have the other one as Aaron. This is because our original person wasn't available. We also had to use people like Kieran and James in order to make it seem more realistic.

Film Schedule

This is our film schedule. This is to show what we are planning to do when we come to actually filming it. We have included things like dates, times, camera shots, and the contacts of our actors. In terms of following the schedule, we want to stick to it as much as possible. The only thing that might change is the actors on each day. Dean and Aaron are our two other actors, and they might have to switch days. Also days in which we are filming the crime scenes might have to change. The reason for this is because of the light outside. If it gets to dark outside, then we will have to film the next day.

Storyboard

Storyboard
We have made a storyboard to help us when it comes to filming the actual opening sequence. We had to draw the storyboard and make it as accurate as possible so it can help us as much as possible. We had to draw each shot that we were going to do and describe what camera shots and angles we were going to use.

Above is the storyboard for our opening sequence. As you can see we had to draw each shot that we were going to do. First we had to come up with a story for our opening film. Me and my partner had some discussion into what sort of story we were going to do. This is when we had the idea to have crime scenes and have murders. We then expanded on this by saying that all three murders should be linked. We then had to figure out how we could show the murders being linked, and we thought the best way would be through showing a specific cut on the neck of each victim.

To start of we are showing a phone ringing on the table. The main character then picks it up and speaks. It is hear that we start to learn who the main character is. We then use a range of different shots to show him leaving his house and walking to the crime scene.We then have an establishing shot of the first crime scene to show the location. We then show the main character walking their by using a long shot, and will edit it to jump him moving forward through the editing. We will then follow him walking into the crime scene, and looking at the body, showing a close up of his facial expression.

Then we do different camera shots to show him walking down to the next crime scene. again, we follow him into the crime scene, and we will be using an over the shoulder shot, using the 180 degree rule because their will be dialogue between 2 characters.

We then see the main character look at the body, especially the cut, and i want to show an extreme close up expression of his face, because he has just realise the murders are linked. At this point i want to try and add a flash back of the cut to the body of the previous crime scene. He then leaves this crime scene to go to the last crime scene. Here, all he does he look to see if this body has the same cut (extreme close up) and it does. At which point we will do a long shot with the body on the floor and the main character standing up next to the body speaking on the phone. I want to try and use the rule of thirds for this.

Film title

One of the most important things in film is the title of the film. It needs to be catchy and relate to the plot of the film. We came up with a few names for our film. These were: Chain link, crime in the street, linking murder, loose link, neck on the line and to catch a killer.

We asked some people into what they preferred out of the titles above. And we tallied them into what they preferred. The results are below.

Chain link - 2
Crime in the sheet - 0
Murder chain - 2
Loose link - 6
neck on the line - 10

These were the results which are audience came up with. As you can see the most popular film title was 'Neck on the line'. The reason why i think people chose this is because of way it describes the plot of the film. In the opening title we are showing the after scenes of 3 murders and all three murders are linked due to the specific cut on each of the victims neck. And the film in general could be about who the killer is going to kill next. So with the title 'neck on the line' this could refer to the fact of who's 'neck' is going to be cut next.

So the title of our film is going to be 'Neck on the line'. The deciding factor being the fact that the cut to the neck is what is making all the murders linked.

Ginger Snaps

Ginger snaps (2000)
The opening film to Ginger Snaps has given us a real inspiration into what we are considering doing for our film. Me and my partner decided that we should maybe do a murder scene investigation for our opening scene. And the reason why i want to look at ginger snaps is because it shows things like dead bodies, and this is what we have in mind. We don't want to show the murders, just the bodies and maybe like an under cover detective trying to find who the murderer is.

This shot (left) is a good example of building up the tension and the nerves. It shows a dead body underneath a car. As the audience, you want to know why shes there, how she got their, who killed her and who is she. Like i said, we want to use murder in our movie, but we don't necessarily want to show the murder. We want it to be a little like this shot, where you do potentially see the body, and it makes you ask questions like who, what, where, when and why?


I also like this shot. Because this film is a horror, they had to try and make it look as spooky as possible and i think this shot represents it's genre best. It shows the body far away so the audience know where about the body is kept but out of nowhere, a close up sees to dissolve into the picture and overlaps it. To me this is quite spooky because it is a really close up image of the dead body. And this made us me realise how you really have to make the camera shots suit the genre you are doing and what you are trying to achieve.

This shot showed me the importance of props if you need to use them. This shot here shows a body bag, and it tells us a lot. It tells about that someone has been murdered and left in the boot of a car. You get all this by simply looking at the fact that there is a body bag and the body is in the boot. It has showed me that if we are to use props, we need to make sure they look realistic, and fit in with the story.

What is needed

What we need

Props: We will be using props in our opening scene. We want the bodies to be realistic so we will want to use things like fake blood and put them on the bodies, to make it look as though they have been murdered. Because we want the murders to be linked, we need to have something on the bodies which is distinctive on all of them, and we could do this by using the fake blood.

Another prop which we might need is a body bag. This would be to cover the bodies in a scene where the main character is with them. This way it would make it seem more realistic, in the fact that it will look like a crime scene. We can either use a proper body bag or try and use things like bin bags.

http://www.eventprophire.com/themes/halloween/authentic-body-bag

Another prop we will need is police line tape. Again, this is to make each scene as realistic as possible. The tape will make it seem as though the area inside is off limits because of what has happened.

We will also be using a phone for the beginning of our sequence. We are going to use the film to show one of the texts to say who the company. For example we could say companies like Warner Brothers or something like that. The phone we will be using is the Samsung Galaxy S3. The reason for this is because when someone calls it says their name and you can out a picture, and so we are going to do that.


Another prop we will need is a boiler suit for the forensic scientist. This is the one we are going to use. The reason for this is because we think it fits in with the genre well, and it looks quite realistic. 
















Location
We are going to be using different locations in our film. The reason for this is because we want all three murders to be in different locations. This is to build tension and the fact that the main character believes that their is a serial killer on the lose. 

One of the locations is in a field, and we think something like this (left) is a good location. The field is a big size and would be a good location because of this. It is also right next to other fields so if this one happens to be unavailable then we can use any of the others. It is also right next to houses, and because we are starting in the characters house it would make it tense because the murder would have been near his front door. Location is very important in films, and so we have to make sure that we have chosen suitable locations and i think we have done that for the first crime scene.

Another location we had in mind was to use a car park. The car park pictured (left) might not be the car park we use though however. We have another one in mind, but because it is on a new premises it is not on the internet to screenshot. But we think a car park like this is a good place to shoot one of out scenes. This is going to show the second murder case for the opening, and the size of the car park doesn't matter too much, as long as there aren't that many cars. Because they could make it seem a bit unrealistic in the fact that they wouldn't be there in a crime scene.

We are hoping this is the third and final location for our crime scene. The reason why i think this is a good location is because it is in the middle of nowhere, and so a perfect place to commit a murder. Another reason is because it is quite it is quite spooky and looks a bit rough, and these are things we need to build up the tension, and get the audience to ask questions like, who murdered them?, why did they commit the murders?...

Equipment
The equipment we will need are things like camera's and tripods to actually do the filming. This is obviously the most important piece of equipment because without this we will not be able to film the opening scene. We need to make sure that we do a range of different camera shots and heights in order to show our skills. We will also need a mac or a computer in order to do the editing once we have finished filming. We will use a suitable program in order to do this.

Actors
We will need different actors to play different roles in our opening sequence. Our main character will either be me or my partner, which leaves the role of three people to play dead bodies, and maybe someone to play the forensic scientist. The reason why i say maybe is because i am not sure if their is going to be any dialogue yet. If their is, then there will be one, but if their isn't, then we don't need one. We have got some actors sorted for out for when we need them, because we will be filming different scenes on different days. So far with have a main character and a 3 dead bodies.

Music

Potential music

We want to have music in our opening scene. We will have it as background music when there is dialogue, but when there isn't, it will be the main thing that the audience hear. We want to make sure that the music fits in with the genre of the film, so it has to represent crime and have a dark/tense beat to it. We have narrowed down our choices to two. These are 'Dirt Rhodes' and 'Groove grove'

Dirt Rhodes

This is the first of the two that we have narrowed it down to. The reason why we like this is because the tempo of it felt like a crime. The music genre is blues and i think blues is what best fits in with crime. Dirt Rhodes to me felt dark and mysterious which is what you want in a crime film, and that fits our story quite well. To me it also feels quite gangster, like something you would use to show gangsters or someone of a high power, walking a long a street or something, and while we don't have gangsters, we will show our character walking and i think this music fits in well with that, as it's got a walking beat to it. It adds a bit of mystery to it, and i think with the walking shots, or the shots where we show the character getting to the crime scenes, the music fits in really well to it, and so i think this could be the better form of music. Also it is exactly 2:00 minutes long, which is how long our opening film has to be, and so we can use the whole song which is a benefit.

Groove Grove

We also liked this tune. We felt that this tune was similar to 'Dirt Rhodes' because they both had a mysterious but adventurous tone to them. This also has a good tone to it. Again, you could use it in the walking scenes, and it does have a sort of crime/gangster feel to it. However the reason why we are not using it is because of the fact that it is longer than 2 minutes. This is bad because when are opening sequence is over the music wouldn't have finished and too the audience it will feel as though it has just stopped all together, and it wont feel professional. And so because of this reason alone, i don't think it is a good idea to use this tune.  And so because of that we are going to use 'Dirt Rhodes'.  

Order of opening credits

One of the most important things to do in an opening sequence is the order of the credits. Films made usually follow a certain method on which the credits are shown and whenever they don't follow this, its only changed by a small amount.
A Good film to show the order of which the opening credits should be is 'Raging bull'. The order which films usually follow by is: Name of the studio, name of the production company, producer name, starring, film title, featuring, casting, music and then production design. The film its self isn't a crime film but the text is really good. The colours don't clash and the text is easy to read.

This is the name of the studio which is distributing this film. They need to be in the film not only to promote themselves but also because the film would be out if it wasn't for this company and so they need to be credited. When we come to make our film because we wont have had a studio we will have to make up a name.


This is the production company which was part of the raging bull. The production company like the studio are what makes the film so big and successful  They deal with the film in many ways and help with the budget and scheduling of the film, so they too need to be credited. Again when we come to edit our film we need to make up a name for ours. Also notice how it is easy to read and the font colour doesn't clash with the background at all.

They then mention the director. The director is one of  the most important person in a film. You need to put the director before the the actors because of how important he/she is. It is a hierarchy of people and the director is first. On this film it is a piece of text with a plain background but you can put it anywhere, even on a moving picture, as long as you can read it.

This shows the main character in the film, and not only that but also because they are a big name and they want to get the audience exited by the fact that their is a big named movie star involved. It says 'Robert De Niro in' which tells you that the name of the movie is about to come up. So far it has just been text and music showing, but this is about to change  and it sets the audience up for what is about to happen.

This is the main money shot of an opening scene, the title. You want it to stand out from the rest and make it visible. Some films make it fill most of the screen but 'Raging bull' is in a completely different colour to the back ground and really makes it stand out. It is also in eye-line view to the audience who will be watching it because it is in the middle of the screen. It also isn't interfering or clashing with the background, as it is inbetween the rope.

Next was who the film was featuring. these are the others actors involved in the film and what the character they are playing is called. Everyone needs to be credited who is important in the film at the start and all the actors which play a big role in the film need to be shown. Again like above, the colours do not clash and the text is easy to read. It also shows casting which are the people who cast the actors and tell them what to do and trains them through routines, they are usually shown after the featuring list of actors. 

Finally you have who the production design are. These are the people that are responsible for the overall look of the film, in games, advertisement and the film itself. These are important for promoting the film, and so you also want to credit them for the start. again the colours don't clash too much and on the big screen you should be able to see it. In our film we might have to add some names in order to make it seem professional.

So that is the order in which you should show the opening credits. This is what we will hopefully do and will make sure that things like the size and colour of the font are view able and in a suitable location. We might need to make some of it up, like the studio, in order for it to make it seem professional.

Audience analysis

The questionnaire results
Below are the results to the questionnaire.

 These are the results of the first two questions asked. In terms of Gender is shows us that we asked 3 more females than males but i don't think this makes it too biased. Age in my opinion is the most important part of these two and it shows us that are target audience are in fact teenagers. Of the 17 we asked 10 were aged between 10-19, and so we now know who to target.

The results to find out what people best like about crime films were interesting. They show us that people tend to like the action and tension side best. These two are closely linked though because with action you get tension. The idea of what we are thinking of doing doesn't involve any action but it does involve tension, and so we are going to listen to what the audience want. The next question also showed us some useful information. The one which people showed to be the most important was the location. 76.5% said it to be very important when filming and the rest ticked the 'important box'. We now know that we have to choose the right location in order to keep are audience happy and maybe to help them understand the plot of the story. Costume was also ticked at very important or just 'important' highly as well, and again this tells us that we have to be wearing the right costumes in order to make it realistic. The only thing that was marked as not needed was music. This shows us that people care more about the viewing side rather than the listening side, but because only one person said this i don't think we should take it into account to much, as we want to use tension and music can help us with that.

I wanted to get people's ideas on what they thought would be a good location and what sort of location they represent with crime. And with the results it is clear that a majority of people thought a building would be a good place to shoot. This could be like an apartment or a house of some sort. However the reason why i chose these locations was because i liked them all, and with the idea i have got in my head i think it would be good to try and use most of these locations. The next question shows us what people expect the opening scene of the crime film to be about. Action, and showing who the character is were the most popular answers. What i want to do is to kind of show who the character is and what he does so i am going to take into account the answers. I asked how i can do this as well and the answers were black and white, murder, no talking and text to explain. All of these were good and i liked the idea of having no talking to build tension.

If we need to use props in are opening sequence then i want to use the correct ones, and so wanted to know what sort of things are represented with crime. The options i put down seem to be accurate as they all have very high marks, so if props need to be used i know that these are acceptable. Other answers were drugs, alcohol, cars, anything linked to gangsters in some way. Music is very important and if we are to use any even if it is very faint then i needed to know what. And from the results i know that tense music is what people want, and quite fast. So when looking for music i know what to look for and i do think i am going to use one of the two.

I wanted to know what films they watched last just to get an idea of what sort of films they consider to be crime. This isn't to important in the outcome of our opening film but it was nice to know. Some of the answers were bad boys, James Bond, pulp fiction, and Batman. The next question was important because once you have made the film you want it to be watched by as many people as possible so i needed to know who i would send it to in order for people to watch. The popular answers were DVD, TV, Cinema, and online (Netflix). I would send the film to all of these if i could because they are obviously the methods in which people watch films, and so that is where i would send my movie.

So overall this has helped me a lot decide what i need to add or do in my opening sequence to please y audience. I have not got ideas which i can use and put on a story board, and then decide which one to use.

Questionnaire insight

Questions asked
To find out who my audience are and what they want to see happen in the opening scheme of the movie i created a questionnaire in order to get answers to these questions. I made the questionnaire online and in order to get the answers/information i sent it to people i knew. I made sure the people i asked the questions to where different in terms of things like age, gender and anything which might lead to the information being too one sided.

These were the questions that we asked. The first 2 questions was to get an idea into who are target market was and what age we need to consider when we make our opening scene.

Question 3 was to see why people watch crime films, and what they like best about crime films. This was to just get an idea on what the typical view of a crime film is.

Number 4 was to see how important people ranked the following. You want the opening sequence to be up to standard and you want your audience to like it and so this was to see how they ranked the following.

Location is one of the most important things in film, and i wanted to get people's opinions on what they thought to be a acceptable location to use as the opening scene.

Question 6 was to find out what the people who i asked wanted to see in the opening scene. I wanted to get ideas and a general over view into what people expected. The choices were what was in my head at the time but new ones are always being thought of.

Question 7 is asking about props. Props are an important part of mise en scene in film making, and i wanted to make sure that i had the right props if i am to use some. So i wanted to see what people associate crime with.

Question 8 was all about the music. Nearly all films at the start have music in the background. This can be really faint music, or it can be really loudly, but like number 7, i wanted to see what type of music people represent crime with.

Number 9 isn't too important but it was useful to find out because if i ever needed to get any last minute inspiration i could look at the films that people wrote down and watch them.

The last question was so i know who to send the film to once it is done. This is important for film makers to find out because this can affect your target audience, and how you make the film.