Feedback

After the first draft deadline we then showed our opening sequence to the rest of the class. We gave them each a sheet and asked them to comment on both the good and bad things that made our film. From this we could recognise our strengths and try input these back into the weak parts of our sequence.

The strongest part of our film was definitly the flash backs that were recognised by all the clas. Many also commented on the editing techniques and how they worked well in creating atmosphere and tesnion.

However many also commented on the first part of the sequence in which the news reporter is summarising what has happened. Although they said it helped explain the storyline the sound was unclear and had unwanted noises in the background. they also criticised the reaslism of the news reporter. From this we went away and researched different news prgrammes to see what it was we needed to do to make them look more realistic. We found that along the bottom of the screen there were other news bulletins and when talking a corresponding picture would appear on the side of them. We took these ideas and i then incorporated them into our report.

We also made other changes to the sequence and then showed it to friends aged on average of 17 as this is our intended target aduience.

Treatment

The opening sequence starts off with a live news report explaining the recent kidnappings. This helps to evaluate the story so far to the viewers so it was clear and easy for the audience to understand the rest of the clips.

We then fade to a black out and the camera fades back to a long shot of a wall, of which is covered in newspapers all featuring the kidnaps. A series of super imposed shots then appear on screen which close ups of the previous news stories.

The camera then fades out to another long shot of a hooded man staring at the paper covered wall. He is tense and still apart from some slight movement of him touching / admiring the papers. This is done to introduce the audience to the kidnapper who is one of the main characters in out film.The camera zooms in to the back of his head and snaps to a series of flashbacks. These are made up of both the kidnapper running through a wood and different children he has kidnapped.

During the past 2 scenes backing music will be played.The camera then blacks out again taking us in the title sequence. This is made up newspaper articles in which our names are edited into. The camera pans across the appropriate article, then freezes and the name will fade to red. This will be repeated for all four group members (Caroline Lauren Natalie and Robyn)
The sequence finished with an extreme close up of the kidnapper’s eyes and a voice over is in the background. (This will consist of a few line read by the kidnapper)

Risk Assessment

Above is a copy of my risk assesment sheet. I did the risk assesment to ensure each of our locations were as safe as possible. We gave all possible situations a mark out of 5, including acts of God.

Script

Below is a copy of our scripts -

Scene 1;

Fade to female news reporter who is reading about the latest kidnapping.
This will be filmed whilst being played back on t.v


News Reporter

Good evening, I am Penny Hartley and this is your evening news.
Another girl is missing in the Yorkshire are, making this the fifth
disappearance of young children in the last 2 months
Nobody can certify who is responsible for these disturbing
disappearances and police have said they feel there is an obvious
link between all five kidnaps.
We now go over to John, our correspondent in Otley where the latest
kidnap took place.

Camera fades to black


Scene 5;

Extreme close up of the kidnappers eyes. Script is read as a voice over.

Kidnapper:

The look in their eyes, I can feel the fear.
I just cant help myself. Im loosing control......(laugh)
When the bough breaks the cradle will fall,
down will come baby cradle and all.

Camera fades to black

Shoot List

After finishing all of the planning for our Opening Sequence we had to create a shoot list which would help us with the following;

The day of the shoot
Which scenes would we be shooting
Who would be needed
Infomation on the location/studio
The props
The actors/ actresses involved and
The camera equipment

Below is a picture of part of our shoot list. We have aimed to complete the filming over a course of 4 days and although we will try stick to this it may be it takes longer due to any set backs such as lighting issues, re-takes ect.

Location

We visited a many different locations in order for us to find the best setting for our opening sequence.
We took pictures of the all different places and then as a group decided which locations we thought would be most appropriate for our film.

The majority of our filming takes place in a small dark room, however it is just one of the walls
of the room that will be seen on video;

As you see from the picture below our first thought was to use a plain wall from a room of someones house. Although it would have been convenient to use it someones house it was important that we found a setting that fitted all the asoects we were looking for. The lighting and colours, were not exactly what were looking for and therefore it was not be suitable for our film.

Our next idea was to use a room from a local block of offices, however the only rooms available may not have been large enough to cater for the types of camera shots we intended to use.

Finally we found a reasonable size room at school that would again give us easy access and was also a good match to the kind of setting we had talked about earlier on in the project.

Our second main setting for our opening sequence is for our news reporter. Again our first instinct was to put a table and chair in front of a white wall at one of our homes however after a quick screen test we found this too wouldn't be suitable for our sequence as is just didn't look professional enough.

Instead we have chosen to use our media classroom at school as there is a drop down projector screen will work perfectly for the background and the large desk in front makes it look much more realistic.

In rest of our scenes it is made up the flash backs which kidnapper is experiencing. To film this we simply used the houses and gardens of in which our actors/actresses live. We will also use the local parks and forests for any other shots that may need to be taken.

Auditions

Natalie had the job of finding characters for our Opening Sequence and she decided to hold some auditions on people that could be right for the parts.
The auditions were held for the two main characters in the opening sequence; The News Reader and The Kidnapper. The audience consisted of them reading a several lines from the draft scrpit to see how they acted infront of a camera.Some of the people who tried out were asked to repeat the scene once appropriate feedback had been given. After all the auditions had finished we then had edited the clips together and sit down as a group and discuss who we thought would fill the part the best.
By auditioning people it ment we could see a wide range of people and then choose those who best suited the part for our opening sequence.

Below are some screen shot of some people who auditioned but unfortunatly we didnt think they would fit the part of the news reader or the kidnapper.


Name; Mary Abberton

Role; News Reporter

Reason for rejection; Mary was one of the first to audition and one of the last to be rejected, however dispite her excelent performance marys age was the main reason to her rejection.

Name; Emma Talbot

Role; News Reporter

Reason for rejection; Emma was one of the people who were asked to repeat the scene. Our cast manager gave he some points in which she could improve her performance, however after a second take we found her performance just the same, including the faults we first pointed out. This is reason Emma was rejected.



Name; Natalie Bates

Role; News Reporter

Reason for rejection; Natalie is part of our production group and for that reason alone we decided that it would not be suitable for her to take part in the acting when she would be needed behing the camera, something we felt was more important




Name ; Sam Drake

Role; Kidnapper

Reason for rejection; Although sam played this role very well at the audiction, we felt his age caused a problem. To make the film realistic we need to have realistic characters, and therefore due to his age was the reason for his refusal