Filming

Today I went filming to shoot Lauren (the victim) running from the killer.

Chosen Loaction

Chosen Location
The decided location to shoot the opening for the thriller is in three places (inside and outside shots): Blackheath Common, my house and my aunts house. Out of all our possible outside locations, we chose Blackheath because of it's numerous strengths offering us a lot to work with. We also chose to go with both of our options of possible inside locations, we hope to split it in a way where the switch in locations won't be obvious to the audience. First I'll discuss our decision for choosing Blackheath. This location is very easily accessible for me (who will be doing the filming) and also offers a lot of the feature we were looking for in our setting. The storyboard of the opening shows that is essential that we have quite long roads, a bus stop and a few passing vehicles (for a sense of normality). Not only this because most of the opening will consist if walking and running/chase scenes, the specifics of the location needed were a must. Due to Blackheath Common having multiple long, quite deserted paths, lengthy roads (with minimal cars), old, deserted nearby houses and plenty street lights to help lighting and emphasise loneliness, this location was the best environment with ideal mise-en-scene. Below is a collection of pictures, experimenting with where in Blackheath we  the location we may use and different shot types with one of the characters in a few shots.

 

In the storyboard there are plenty shots of Lauren walking alone on these long pathways with a few cars passing by. This long road with the advantage of a gate for a sense of 'where does she go from here', and cars passing could build tension in the audience as it not only shows normality but also could frustrate them into wondering why no one is noticing what is happening. Blackheath Common is an ideal location for these elongated paths and minimal cars at evening times. 


We also chose to do our inside shots in both of the locations we originally decided. We decided that we could easily split them, using the strengths alone to film to our advantage. Firstly we will be shooting at my aunts house. The storyboard shows we need shots of Ronnie getting out of bed and shots of him in the bathroom looking into a mirror. These shots are the shots we plan to do at this location. 



For the other inside shots, we chose to film at my house. Here, we will be filming Ronnie getting dressed, going to the kitchen and getting the knife. As my aunts house has a joint kitchen, it would have been harder to get that sense of a complete kitchen and harder to film him coming into the kitchen without getting the other room in it. Also there is more bedroom space here to film him getting dressed.

Possible Problems With Solutions When Filming

I am aware that when filming, there are plenty of things that could go wrong. As a result of this, I have composed a list of things that could possibly disadvantage us in a variety of ways (e.g. sticking to out shooting schedule) with solutions to overcome these problems. Considering we take each solution with precaution, this should eliminate us not being able to film on the days allocated, prevent us having to film on additional days, not have us waste time trying to come up with the solutions on the spot etc.

What Could Go Wrong When Filming

Production Name

To decide on my production company name, I chose three words as a starting point to brainstorm ideas from. These words were 'timing' as we thought this could convey that we do things quickly and don't like to waste time, 'thriller' as is a thriller that we're producing, also there was an option for more 'universal/personal' production names. From these three categories, we came up with relatable words for possible production names. To make it easier to compare and contrast the names, as to which ones I think are better for production company name, is put them into a table format. This would help and allow me to easily, quickly and effectively come up with names that relate to our film or what we're trying to get across. After doing some research into other existing production company names I found out that not all of them are specifically tailored to one type of film or theme, for example, "20th Century Fox". This name isn't aimed at any specific type of film nor genre, however it is a very big production company. For this reason I have a category for personal and/or universal names which can be for any type of film or genre. The other categories I come up with is one for thriller production names as it is a thriller we are producing for this project and the other is timing because within any production company it's good and useful to be accurate with the time to get things done within an efficient timespan. Also that other reason I've got the category timing is because I can easily add effects to make it more into the cinema type of production company when doing a production logo. Using this method of a table with three overlaying topics allows me to experiment with a variety of different words and terms as well as this it allows us to see which compliment our film the most.

After composing this table of names, I began to choose which one was best suited for my film and what I'm trying to get across. The names I liked the most were Sixty Seconds Studios, Paced Productions, Tic Toc Productions, Time In, Global Danon, Scream Out Productions and WhoDunIt for various different reasons. I like both 'Sixty Seconds Studios' and 'Paced Productions' for their alliteration. The triple 'S' and double 'D' would not only make the production name unique, but also give a different feel to the name. However I won't be using any of these as my production name as neither of them portray what my film or what I'm trying to get across. For example, although 'Sixty Seconds Studios' was a nice idea, the name is heavily focused on 'sixty seconds' which doesn't connect with my film, or the production of it. I also liked the name 'Time In' it is phonetic with 'timing' (they sound similar). However this also doesn't portray my film or what we're trying to get across. The concept of 'Global Danon' was to add my personal touch to the name of my groups production company. The name 'Danon' derived from putting 'Daniel' and 'Shanon' together. This name doesn't particularly portray our film, but it does portray unity which we would love to get across.

In my opinion, 'Scream Out Productions' is a good production name simply because it allows us to easily add a relatable sound effect that could eventually become recognisable alone. This name also portrays thrillers as the 'scream out' allows the audience to think of things quite scary, like someone being chased and screaming due to fear (highly common feature in thrillers). For the reasons mentioned above, 'Scream Out Productions' is an option for my production name. Another option for a production name is 'Tic Toc Productions'. I think the name is really productive and unique. The name itself brings many creative ideas to mind, about the background noise, word movement, pictures to use and picture movement. The name allows the individual and their own perspective to take control of the meaning. In general, people will gather that it has something to do with time or a clock due to the onomatopoeia of 'Tic Toc'. However, because that is pretty much all there is to the name, any deeper meaning would be due to how each individual views it. Some may interpret it to be something different than others. For this reason, and the ones mentioned earlier, I would like to have this as my production name. The final production name I really like is 'WhoDunIt'. Many production names have 'Production', 'Studios' or 'Titles' in the name. However I believe this name sounds better without it. For this reason, this name is also different and unique to not only most of the other production names I've chosen, but also other existing production names. The name implies inquisition, but if we continued to make films and the name became known, the implied inquisition will not be needed as people would know 'who done it' without questioning it. Also, the change in the word 'done' to 'dun' means the target audience for this name is more likely to be for a younger crowd that use a lot of 'text language' where shortening and abbreviating words is done often. I also decided to make the name 'WhoDunIt' rather than 'Who Dun It' as it gives the name, this giving the company as sense of unity and fluency. Having each word together metaphorically represents the togetherness and unity of the company making a film.

Overall, from all the names I originally came up with, my final favorite are 'WhoDunIt', 'Scream Out Productions' and 'Tic Toc Productions'. After following careful consideration, I will decide on my production name.

Production Schedule

 

Preliminary Task

Story Board

Interesting Shots

Chosen Film Name

In our proposal, we mentioned a few initial ideas of what we should call our film. These were "The Last One", "Mad House", "Who?", "There's Always One", "Countdown", "My List", "Wrong Headed" and "It's Up To Me". Below, you will see a brainstorm that I composed of each name and reasons why we should and shouldn't use it.

After careful time and consideration we have decided to name our opening "Mad House". Some of the reasons mentioned on the brainstorm as to why we chose if is because it doesn't reveal too much about the film, it's short and to the point and it gives the audience some insight to what the film is about. This name tells the audience instantly the genre of the film, letting them know it's quite a scary film. A name like "Mad House" is unlikely to be used for a family/children's film, science fiction film, romantic film, comedy etc. Another reason decided to show the title of the film after the shots of Maudsley Hospital to show the link.