Law and Order style empowerment

(sourced from www.ew.com)
I was busy thinking about ways that I could convey the tension in 2 minutes to hook the audience. Circular narritive is one way to do this as it shows a later stage of the film, where the audio and visuals all would indicate tension. I discovered another interesting perspective created by the program Law and Order, in that the criminals perspective is shown in addition to the protagonists trying to catch them. This is a very unique point and something that I could use in my film.
Showing the apparent enigma (the psychotic teacher )early will cause the audience to constantly watch what he does and suspect him. It doesnt mean that he would necessarily be the killer as he would always seem suspicious but it could be other reasons for his presence in the scene.
On the opposite side of things, if he was the killer, it would create a large amount of dramatic irony as the audience would constantly be in a position of empowerment from the scene shown in the OTS. They would constantly urge a protagonist, ignorant to this information that was given to the audience and in a way be infuruated by them

Titles, credits and some notes on sounds

Finally finished editing and its been a mixed bag of emotions, at some points theres been joy, laughter, tears and　some crindge　worthy peices of editing early on　. To be honest despite all that its been really good. Maybe next time if done better the last 2 points could be avoided! Anyways enough of that stuff, just thought I'd give a little bit of notice into the title credits and sound.
　
To be honest the placement of titles and credits wasnt something I had thought about much untill they actually had to be put in.　They were placed just offset to the film so not to detract away from what was　happening.　There was nothing too fancy about the text type either with a basic　　Ariel-esq typeface being chosen. In addition to the teacher writing the title on the board which was an idea ive always liked, because it might not become clear that that was the title, we decided to include a title credit afterwards. I think it could have been smoother however there was little time by that point but i do not think it will detract too much from the actual film.
As for the sound we put into the non diegetic soundtrack, there was not much besides the twisted baby-ish lullaby music, which was taken from a copyright-free sound hosting website. To be honest i cant remember the site which it was taken but another group also used the same site. [CHANGE WHEN CREDITS STUFF IS DONE]

The Happening Deconstruction

Havent posted for awhile so just a quick update:
Just started editing　and its going okay, there are alot of clips that need to be scraped and i can see the light from under all the deadwood that was cleared. To be honest the editing has had me stumped but I am getting there slowly but surely.
Also before editing we were all shown the OTS　 (opening title sequence) of The Happening which we were told to deconstruct to describe what makes it an effective opening.

2nd and 3rd Filming Opportunities

During a previous media lesson I booked an English room to shoot the key scene of which the main character finds the collage and speaks with the teacher. Although due to timetabling in our original actor filming was done Monday at a point in which I couldn’t be evident. so I didnt manage to film any of those scenes which sucked.
That said, next week,running through what I have done so far, I decided to re shoot the newspaper shots which turned out reasonably well. The night vision feature of the camera really working well in that case. I also managed to get a panning shot through an open corridor but there was a problem in that the time I chose to film was parents evening which meant that I could not cover some other shots and angles which had been planned but nevermind, because the filming went okay!

After Filming Opportunity #1

The shots I chose to film were:
Newspaper shot and shots from the starting point
Corridor shot
And possibly shots on the stairs.
In filming I only managed to do the first set of shots, but in honesty, there was problems with providing sufficient lighting and lack of experience with the camera worked against me. That said, this mean I was a little more confidence with the camera and now i know how to master the positioning of the camera.
Next time I will try to be a better director because as the storyboard artist it was mainly my job to direct the actor and I did not succeed in that role too well. That said I redeemed myself with the film shooting and the construction of lighting was okay.

Light and sound

In one lesson we watched a scene from the thriller, Dead Man’s Shoes, and were told for a task to deconstruct the Special Brew scene, looking out for how the director illistrates several key points through mainly Sound and Lighting . It was quite intresting because in deconstructing the lighting and sound from a personal viewpoint it meant that when watching other media productions I took more notice how they affect them and it also got me thinking about sound in the production.

Early study into style and content

When determining what aspects to look at when developing ideas about thrillers in general we decided to deconstruct two thrillers and compare them separately, with how their Style and Content affect the audience. I chose the films ‘Signs’ and ‘Diary of the dead’ because they are contrasted in many aspects and in analysis, it can broaden understanding in a less narrow way than comparing two similar films.

Locations and timing

The film in location terms will need the following:
A school room
A blackboard (for the write title on board idea)
Corridors or stairs for the character to run along
And a starting room with table space for them to hunt for an item
　
All of these things would suggest that a school would be an optimum point to film from however the main question was as Kett 6th form covers 3 separate sites, which school to shoot from. I choose Sprowston over the other two sites because it is purely a lot simpler as I am there most of the time
Also after some thought I think it would be best to shoot the film in the evening. This means that the natural lighting works to built tension in a very conventional manner. However due to the inconvenience of where I live, most of it will be filmed after school

Shot layout (how it turned out and original ideas)

Originally the shot lyout was going to be a little different but heres a rough idea of how the shots are going to be layed out:
Light over Collage , Zoom in on picture , Collage again,　Running　 up stairs,　Newspaper shot, ‘Lucy’ looking at paper, running again( slowed), someone (not shown) looking at the collage, running up to room with cuts in on person, over shoulder as she walks in a classroom, her walking into classroom, teacher writing title on the board.
From the original idea to how it turned out the concept remained the same although a different atmosphere is created in the shots now. Its a combination of quick cuts with rushed, fast pace and longer quieter shots but still remain tense. I am quite happy that through filming the idea of the teacher writing the title on the board (and date) and the zoom in on the date of the paper to signify the circular narrative.

Conventions (ideas and general studies)

Another key aspect to consider when thinking about filming a thriller is conventions; be it what they are, or how they can affect the audience. To research this everyone was told to describe various key conventions that form the general make up of most thrillers in a set essay. In doing this we also looked at character stereotypes and other conventional forms. The relevant notes page and essay pages are below (Click to enlarge)