Behind the scenes photos!

These are photos taken from behind the scenes during the filming of 'abandoned' Some of these photos show the filming of footage that were cut from the final opening sequence to make the time shorter, and more in the 2 minute time zone then it would have been. This is unfortunate as some of these scenes were good, and i liked the camera shots, and the introduction of a third character. I like the use of behind the scenes photographs as it also helped to give more of an insight to how interesting and what the abandoned house is actually like. It helps to get more of an idea of the setting for people who have never been there.

Who is the film aimed at?

I'd say that the film is generally aimed at teenagers, as this is who it foccuses on in the actual film. As a result teenagers will be more interested and could generalise and relate with the film more than older adults. Particualrly with the characters, and the storyline. It also relates to teenagers with the whole 'party lifestyle' as orignally thats what the abandoned house demonstrated to teenagers. This links in with real life as it's clear in the actual property and surroundings of the abandoned house that teenagers do use this place to get drunk e.t.c which was a strong influence for the film. I'd say the age that this film targets is from the age of 15-20. As a result this means that the film would also have a 15 certificate, and i think it falls withing this catergory of a 15. The age target is demonstrated as the characters are also around that average age, (17 and 19.) Therefore this age group tend to have similar lifestyles of parties and drinking e.t.c steriotypical teenager. I'd say that the film targets the genders of both male and female, especially as the leading characters at the beginning, are male and female. This shows its targeting both genders through the use of characters and roles.

Production schedule

Friday 11th March 2011- Start filming
Action taken:
At 11:30 i will book a camera off Celena, and then set off towards town to meet up with the people helping me with the filming. At 12:30 we will then get picked up and taken to the abandoned house in Priorslee, where we will start filming. We will be filming most of the film with scenes 6-24 as we have a lot of hours at the house in order to film. It also means we can edit as much as we can when we get back. And then there's only a bit of filming we will have to do next time and any re filming if anything goes wrong. I chose to not film the opening scenes of 1-5 because if we get caught sneaking into the house we may get into trouble and as filming takes time we decided it was best to to the filming in the house first, and then at least thats done if we got in trouble filming the opening sequence next time.

Action completed by: Our objectives were pretty much met. Filming of scenes 6-24 were pretty successful and at least a good 5 hours of time filming in order to complete everything we wanted to.

Amendments to schedule: We need to re film scene 9 with the running to the house as it doesn't look good, it's too fast, jumpy and doesn't look very professional.

Wednesday 16th March 2011- start editing
Action Taken:
I will upload the film onto the computer and transfer it to final cut express, where i will begin putting the film together, by re-arranging, cutting e.t.c to get a rough edit which we can build on afterwards. I will also produce music for my film using garageband.

Action completed by: I managed to get a rough cut of the film to edit more precisely at a later date when the entire film has been put together. The music was pretty successful using garageband. Objectives have pretty much been met.

Amendments to schedule: Create more music using garageband.

Friday 18th March 2011- complete filming
Action Taken
At 11:30 i will book the camera with Celena and meet up with the poeple helping me up town, like last week. Filming will have to start at a later time, however as we wont be getting picked up until half 1. We will then be taken to Priorslee, where we will complete the filming, ready to edit next media lesson. We will be filming scenes 1-5 and re doing scene 9.

Action completed by: All scenes have been filmed, and objectives have been met.

Amendments to schedule: Filming is complete, i now just have to put everything together to look at timings and see if things need to be re-filmed however i may run out of time for re-filming as my time now needs to be concentrated on editing the film.


Wednesday 23rd March -
Action taken: Upload film footage two from friday the 18th and upload onto macs. Edit and join with orginal edit footage.

Action complete by: Everything has been edited and put together. Certain scenes have had to be cut for timing issues.

Amendments to schedule: Certain parts of the film are jumping so i need to concentrate on correcting this.

Wednesday 30th March
Action taken: Make the film run smooth by putting in video transitions to make it look more effective and professional with a cinematic edge. Also create more music for different scenes.

Action complete: The video transitions definitely improved the film and made it flow better between scenes, i also stylized scenes whenever it was the point of view shots of the creature with a distorted and blurred look to show it's something abnormal. Experimentation with music also helped me to produce a second piece of music to make the movie more dramatic and interesting.

Amendments to schedule: Need to add in text transitions for credits of the opening sequence.

Friday 1st April -
Action taken:
Include working text titles for the credits stating actors, film production, camerawork and the actual introduction to the title of the film. Edit these with transitions so that they also fade in and out and look effective. Stylize them in a thriller manner such as adding noise to the writing so that they flicker or something.

Action complete: Objectives were successful and now the film is pretty much complete. The use of the noise transition was effective for a thriller movie as it looks distorted.

Amendments to schedule: Nothing.

Costume and Props list.

The costume and Props list isnt actually important in the making of this opening sequence. For example as we are focussing on teenagers and their lifestyle and fashion, then the characters can neccessarily wear what they want being teenagers anyway, they're not acting and pretending to be someone different where a costume would be neccessary. However if we did film at a later date, then everyone will have to wear the same clothes as on that day for continuity. In the script props dont really come up, however we will need mobile phones as Jack and Dean have their phonecall conversation. This is easily accessible as its guaranteed that they will both have their mobiles with them. With the writing on the wall which is meant to be blood, this means i will have to compensate with something that similises blood. As a result i will need to bring red acrylic paint to write the message on the wall myself so that becomes in exsistance. This prop of acrylic paint however will not be displayed in the film. The message will just appear and will still be wet, however this is an important prop in the plot and suspence of the opening sequence. There are no cost implications with costume and props as everything needed is accessible already.

Cast list for production

There are two main characters for the opening of the film. These involve a boy and a girl. Dean will play the role of the boy and i will play the role of the girl. We then have Jack who is the friend that Dean rings to arrange the party later on in that night. Also in shot with Jack are people in the background which will relatively be like extras as their role in the opening sequence isn't important. I've come to the idea that everyone starring in the film will keep their own names as characters. As a result we dont have to make up characters names, and theres also no chance of getting confused between the characters names and our real names which we know so well.

script

Script:

Starts with a blank screen. Phone call.

Hayley: I found a place. Meet me in 10 minutes.

Setting one

Opens up to girl ( hayley ) standing by an alleyway leading to the abandoned house. Boy  (dean) walks towards her.

They greet each other.

‘Come and look, its perfect’ quite excited.

Dean follows Hayley down the path towards the house, jumps over fence, follows hayley who directs him.

Setting two

Exploring house.

Hayley: So what do you think?

Dean: No way obviously someones had the same idea as us.

Hayley: I know yeah but we can really make this place our own.

Dean: Are you sure no one else is in here?

Hayley: Well obviously, i mean take a look around - clearly it's abandoned.

Dean and Hayley go seperate ways.

Dean: Yeah i guess your right - plus we can be as loud as we want. *Loud so Hayley can hear*

Hayley: Yeah exactly..... * Screams*

Dean comes running into the room.
Dean: Are you okay?

Hayley: Yeah im fine sorry, i just tripped over.

Dean: You scared the shit out of me- right im going to call Jack - you stay here and be careful

Hayley: Okay


Setting three

Outside house. Dean makes a phone call to his friend. Hayley stays inside.

Cross cut between two settings.

Jack with group of friends. Cuts to them pratting about.

Jack – aha exactly mate (something along those lines directed to someone in the group) Oh hold on…. ‘Hello, you alright mate’

Dean: Hi mate, we found a perfect location for those parties we always talked about. A sanctuary all to ourselves.  Yeah an old abandoned house. Its perfect.

Jack- Sounds great, ill get the lads the girls and the booze, you just tell me when and where.

Dean: Cant wait mate, * tells him the address * Cya later. *Hangs up*

While the phone calls going on, camera angles set up to look like Deans being watched.

rusteling/ movement of some kind/ heavy breathing. Camerwork all angles as Dean looks around.

Dean: Come one hayley stop messing around.....hayley?!'

Something grabs Dean - the person/creature is unknown to the audience. Deans cry is muffled by the person and he gets draged off. 

Camera goes back to Hayley still inside the house oblivious.

Still exploring house and comes across writing on the wall (something she didnt notice before - in red (blood). 'Thee who seeks, prepare for God'

Walks closer to the writing - touches wall. 'it's still wet' *shock/confusement fear.*

*shouts* 'Dean... Dean!' * stumbles through house. 

About to go passed the stairs... someone grabs her, drags her up *screaming* Into darkness. Camera cuts. Darkness.

....

 

Location Report

The setting used in the opening film sequence is an abandoned house in priorslee. The main issues we need to think about when using this abandoned house is peoples safety as there are lots of things for people to fall over. Aswell as it being an unfamilliar place we will also have to be cautious for peoples health, and avoid unneccesary dangers such as going upstairs as it is particularly dark and we dont know how strong the downstairs ceiling is as their are holes in certain areas in the downstairs ceiling. We may also need to look at permission, as i dont know about the possibility of using the abandoned house without authorisation, however i also cant see how we would get permission either. Access is permitted through a whole in the fench that people have already kicked down, which is another issue as clearly at some point people are going to this house. This is also evident by material in the inside. The abandoned house is ideal for our film because the oepning basically centers around it. Its also the best choice as priorslee isn't that far to get too, and is resonably local since my initial idea was to use an abandoned house in Newport which would be harder to access. The abandoned house links in with my research into thriller movies, as it's an ideal location in which to cause suspence just by the setting and location with broken objects, and impressionlistic lighting, as its rather dark with light coming through boarded windows and broken glass windows too. The use of broken objects produces a threatening environment in which to produce a good thriller.