Mise-en-Scene

Costume:

For our first scene, we had the woman wearing a suit, and immediately it contrasted with the voice over which is explaining that the character has psychosis. However it worked well, because of the juxtaposition and it emphasises the confusion behind the character. The attacker then enters, yet the audience can only see the bottom half of his legs, he is wearing black trousers and smart shoes, this portrays the idea that he is businesslike and is going to kill her almost instantaneously, which he does. The briefcase again shows that he is a business-like character and also implies that he has various tools in it, for his 'work'.
To show diversity, the second scene shows the same woman in jogging clothes, this is to show the variation of settings in which the woman could be killed. The clothing is emphasising a normal day, a day in which you shouldn't be scared for your life, and yet this woman lives in fear of everyday. Again, you barely see the attacker in this scene, just an off shot of his shoulder, however he is once more, smartly dressed, with a suit jacket on.
In our third scene, the woman is wearing pajamas, and for the first time in one of her visions, shows actual fear in it. the pajamas intimate safety, which again contrasts with the end of her vision. The attacker is briefly shown in this scene, face on, but he has his face covered with something to obscure his features, this enhances the mystery of his identity for the audience.

We have used the stereotype of a murderer, with the black clothes and a covered face, and the costume connotes murder films, as well as thriller films.

Location:

We chose random locations for our shots to show everyday situations which were unlikely to end in a death, and I think it was more effective because many murders do take place in the home, and places where you least expect it, so that aspect involved a small piece of realism, which is effective because then the audience feel they can relate with the story. For example, your bedroom is supposedly your sanctuary, so we set our final scene in the one place this woman feels safe, and infiltrated it with visions of her own murder, this increases her fear of death and hence she feels there is no safe place anymore. Which combines with the fact that all she sees is actually in her mind, which is no longer a safe place for her either.

Our filming schedules:

Open publication - Free publishing - More schedule

Open publication - Free publishing - More november

The majority of the filming took place between two members of our groups homes, in Chorleywood and Beaconsfield. This was due to ease, accessibility and the locations we chose in the end, fit into the scenes we were creating. We also found that the we could oppose 1the denotation of the settings, such as a bedroom, which was turned into a place of fear, rather than the safe haven it should be.

Look and Feel:

We felt that the whole film should be in black and white, because it gives a better view of distorted reality. It also gives the visions a sense of authority, because they are in plain sight rather than getting mixed up in all the colours, you have the simplicity of two colours, black and white, and only the range of tones between them, rather than a colourful spectrum, which helps the audience concentrate more on the storyline. We felt that with a simplistic colour scheme, the film shows how the audience knows very little at the start and as the information bleeds in, so does the colour, it also shows a clear separation between reality and deluded fantasy.
The lack of continuity within the settings shows how disjointed the perspective from which we are viewing the whole scenario is, it also shows the heightened fear of everyday life the woman has.

Voice:

We chose not to have any dialogue for the characters on screen to again emphasise that it isn't real, however we als chose to do a voice over for it. The voice over describes the mental instability of the woman character, it shows how the doctors can not quite figure out what is wrong with their patient although they believe that her visions are linked to some sort of past event. The voice over is essential to our piece as it explains that what the audience is seeing is in fact the womans imagination, without this explaination, there would be utmost confusion regarding the swift change of scenes and the repetition of the same womans murder. The voice sounds professional, as it is supposedly a doctor analysing this patient, and the use of technical jargon adds to the overall feel of the piece.

Storyboard:

Open publication - Free publishing - More storyboard

Synopsis

At first we thought we would do a thriller/horror based on films such as 'The Happening' (a thriller) or 'The Village' (a psychological horror) both films were directed by M. Night Shyamalan, and neither were hugely successful, however they incorporated ideas that we had originally wanted to use. Ideas of blackouts and memory loss combined with increasingly suspicious circumstances; we soon found difficult to show on film, as well as making sense of a chronological order and a continuous story line. For these reasons, we decided to move in a slightly different direction, although trying to use our previous research and apply what we had already learnt into our current project.

Our film is a thriller with a psychotic twist, it is aimed at teenagers however can draw an older audience due to the depth of it's subject. The film takes place in unremarkable settings, however the juxtaposition between the subject matter and the surroundings gives the film a sense of mystery, as the audience never know where and when the next murder will take place. The film's key focus is of a mentally unstable young woman, and her 'murderer'.
This woman lives in fear, for she has recurring visions of her own death caused by a hooded figure, however due to her mental instability, the audience are left to decipher whether they are seeing into the future, and the discovery of the hooded figure must also be discovered before it is too late for our protagonist. the audience is kept in suspense, and tension fills the air as we discover whether the visions come true or if another story will unravel from this woman's dreams.
It is unique, as the past, present and future merge into one, and the line between reality and fantasy is never clear, and because it is from the point of a woman with psychosis, many details come to light, which may have otherwise been left unnoticed, and one woman is finally able to tell her story.

The Team

Julia Pendered

Becky Nagle

Robert Wells

Preliminary Task

Our first media task was to create a short preliminary film. The basic guidelines were to have shots of somebody entering and exiting a space with some simple dialogue.

My group filmed in an empty classroom and the film had a slightly confusing story, however we learned how to operate the camera properly and the correct way in which to use angles when filming. Overall, I was very pleased with the outcome for a first task. I learned a lot about using the right camera angles, camera movement, and the importance of continuity in a scene, which is essential, and shall be applied when shooting our final film.

I found the editing process quite enjoyable, although getting it precise enough could be quite frustrating, putting the footage together in Final Cut was a learning curve, as none of us had ever used this software before. I found that the role of film maker and editor were both difficult roles, as although the filming process must be carried out, and is obviously an essential part of the procedure however I had not realised that the editing was just as important.

Our Preliminary Storyboard:

Open publication - Free publishing - More as

Here is our final preliminary: