Group Stroyboard - Miss Georgiou

The purpose of a group storyboard is the concept of our three combined ideas pieced into one final narrative. Another purpose is that when filming our final piece, we can use the storyboard to portray what we want to see in each frame. There will be a narrative, sounds, shots, locations, lighting, editing, characters and iconography. The story board also makes it a lot easier for us as we don't have to think on the spot as it is all planned out.

We took everyones idea and adapted them into one storyboard, by doing this we gained a range of ideas and techniques we didn't think about using before. We all had different mes - en - scene ideas as well as location and characters.

However when asking to look at my groups storyboards to look for inspiration, I found out that one of the members had not bothered to make one. This made us limited to ideas to incorporate into one storyboard. Although we did manage to produce a fair amount of detail to add into one.

My main idea was to put a twist on the fact that the girl is always the most vulnerable and tends to be killed off first, therefore we made it so the man did instead. I found it would give a twist in the scene and make the audience want to know what the girl is going to do next.

Another key idea we wanted to portray was the low key lighting and background noise. Starting on low key lighting, I feel this is used to keep the audience guessing to what is going on in the scene. The less they see the better as it helps keep up that element of surprise. This is  why many thrillers are set at night as visibility is reduced. Secondly, we found background noise key. Natural noises such as leaves or birds can easily send people into a false sense of security as the audience can relate to those noises and almost feel at home with them. 

To conclude, I feel we all icorparated our ideas well into one storyboard and we are now all clear on what our narrative is and how we will conduct each frame. 

Opening secretion - Miss Georgiou

The scene starts with me and Noah walking through the woods chatting about school work. Noah indicates that he needs to talk to me about something important, therefore we go for a walk in the woods and come across an abandoned building to sit in. As we are walking, we decided to use a number of high angles and straight cuts. There is a dark gradient placed over the scene as we walk through the woods. Throughout the first shots a light piano music is played to build suspense. As we continue to walk through the woods, the camera switches to a handheld shot used in the sense of a point of view angle and shows the camera moving down from a tree to the floor and the stalked hides in the leaves. At this point Noah turn around to see if anything is there, as he is cautious that he could be being followed. The audience start really feeling that they are in the stalkers shoes at this point.

With the music still playing,  a mid shot of Noah and I shows us walking into the building. The music lowers and the room is covered in candles. Noah states "so we can finally have that chat now" and suddenly there is a bang on the window. Noah go outside to check while the camera follows him. We tried to use a good use of low key light is used here and blurs and fades are used to try and keep continuity as Noah leaves. 

Next Noah walks into an open forest and asks "is anyone there?" The camera angle then cleverly changes to a point of view shot of the stalker who we see hiding as Noah walks. The stalker follows me walking behind me using a point of view shot and not changing the angles to keep it current and real. We can see a blade of screen as the stalker walks and we decided to do this for quite a while to build up tension among the audience. He then runs up to Noah and just as he strikes a flash comes across the screen and the camera cuts back to me.

I then continue to follow the same path that Noah did and we keep the light, noise, angles and shots the same as when Noah walked out to show the similarity of movement to keep the audience engaged. I am now in the forest and a canted angle is used while she shouts "Noah" continuously, showing my worry and concern. I suddenly stop and a panning shot is used as the camera moves around her so the audience can see what she sees. Hopefully at this point the audience are shocked to see Noah dead over a tree with blood dripping off me. 

There is then a jump cut to the front of me and the music suddenly builds and becomes a lot more sharper.  The stalker is seen rushing up behind her and just as he strikes once again the music and film cuts suddenly. Hopefully this cliff hanger will leave the audience in a great deal of suspense.

Rough cut - Miss Miller

Within film making, a rough cut shows the first stage in which the film begins to resemble its final product. It still needs to undergo many changes before being released. It is always important to consider looking through audience feedback as, it gives you a chance to see if the work is credible. Audience feedback is key as it allows the editor/director/producer to see what part of the film, needs further work and possible adaptation. 

Our main way of receiving feedback, was after we presented our rough cut to the class. My peers produced very helpful and insightful comments, which is going to allow us to change and improve our thriller opening scene. We were given feedback after doing a presentation to the whole class which allowed us to receive a massive range of feedback. The group provided both negative and positive feedback.

Heather explained to us how the camera is too shaky in one part of our thriller, therefore we had to come up with a  solution to improve it. Therefore we asked our Media teacher for advise,  she suggested that we cut the part up and incorporate different effects over the top. 

On the other hand George liked the fact that we had a dull wash over the whole of the opening scene, although it was filmed in the day it made the thriller look as if its night. He said it was very effective and made the thriller more intense.

Although we did have another negative point said about our opening scene. The titles over the opening scene are out of time which takes your eye off the scene and distracts the audience. Its key that we make sure we change and improve on this as soon as possible. 

Overall the feedback was quite good, the viewer seem to enjoy it and felt a bit scared but most of all wanted to see what the film was about. This is what a opening scene is supposed to do, I am very happy that we are near to achieving this.