Group meeting today.

Today we had another gathering to try and refine our accumilated ideas. We've got various storyboards together of each scenes and different shots and transitions we could use, it's not deciding which ones to use.

the scene structure of our opening keeps changins as we're unsure wether to begin with the present tense or show a flashback. There's 3 different locations and approximatly 4 differents scenes. The latest refined structure we've decided up goes like such:

Begin with Anna in the present tense running towards her 'sanctuary' her fast running and facial gestures of deep breathing and anxiety would be shown through close ups. And the suspense and tension will be shown through her determination and speed. Though we'll have a sobre piano playing and all diegetic music will be muted.

She then stops beside the train bridge (underneath) to take a moment to 'catch' her breath, this would allow time for the audience to begin contemplation on the character, yet no direct shots of her face will be shown to keep an essence of mystery. She'll then continue on her way.

Arriving at her destination this allows us to shot our trademarked 'rooftop shots'. It will show Anna in solitude, in contemplation and in deep though. The Narration may begin here, if not now then possibly whilst she's running. The emotional script and sombre piano with the silence and emptiness of the location would hopefully draw strong emotions in the audience. After these few shots we'll see a POV shot of Anna's feet as she sits upon the bridge with a large distance to fall.

A simple fade to either white or black (undecided) will be our transition from the present to past tense.

We then see a young girls feet (Anna in the past) as she's about to open a playground gate. We then see the park through the eye's of a child. This requires a variety of complex shots and camera movements which are hard to describe with out refrencing to the annotations on the story board. This scene would signify the equilibrium stage and begin portraying a false depiction of Anna's life as a child. It's a false representation as she had a brutal and tragic upbringing which would later be revealed. We've discussed idea's wether to shot the flashbacks in black and white to show a clear contrast. This will also work well with the dark railway scene previously, as too much of a contrast could be startling on an audience and 'throw' them off.

This scene would then show Anna leaving the park holding her mothers hand. This could then fade once more to enter the next scene.

We've had breif discussions about filming the movement of clouds over several hours to then fast forward them to show an artistic backdrop to display the title (Clouds). This is still under deliberation. If it was to be done, it would occur now. Then fading to white the next scene would continue.

It shows Anna arriving home from the park at her door then running up the stairs. In a POV shot in the style of the famous film Halloween. She then hides in the closet and you see her hiding. This would hopefully add a sense of mystery and be unsettling to the viewer. The narration would have stopped at the titles and piano would fade in, yet not as a sobre peice but to be more epic and intense.

The scene would then suddenly end which a sharp anticlimatic build and which a fast fade to black.

Location test

24/3/09

As a group we've refined our idea's and storyboards enough to begin searching for our ideal location. Anna which is a main character would be away during the half term so we have to shot her scenes next week before she leaves. So yesterday we went to Alexandre Palace and Muswell Hill (the old train tracks that have been referbished into a path). For the scene we're hoping to film quite scenic views of an urban lifestyle. Preferably get rooftop shots. Both locations have different style of rooftop shots. Alexandre Palace enables you to get a very wide panoramic shot yet the view will be at quite a distance so this caused a few problems. The old train track in Muswell hill is a narrower view yet it's alot more intimate as yet get a larger range of rooftops and the distance range.

As a group we discussed it and decided to choose the old train track in Muswell Hill. Yet we're still unsure on the time of shooting i think we'll have to revisit the site to see it in other lights. The next step now is for Matthew and Khalid to do a production schedule and Prince will have to do the Recce form. We must also visit the other two locations we've chosen to visit for the other scene. This should all be done by this week.

I feel that we could possibly be a bit behind as other groups have began shooting yet we're working slowly on the pre-production process. Yet i feel after this week the confidence within the group will grow as we'll have most paper work finished and we'll be preparing for the shooting days.

Halloween opening

Opens with a POV (point of view) shot that's consistent through out the opening. This is very engaging and demands the audience's attention and would instantly grab the audience's interest. It adds a huge essence of mystery and suspence as whilst you watch it you yourself get a 'feeling' as though someone's watching you. It's also extremely eiree, the mise-en-scene contributes with this mood as it's set in a conventional desolate location and dark lighting. It creates many enigma's and situations where you feel unsettled as everything is so unexpected as the character your invisualising is extremely ambigious. You have this feeling as though you are hiding and this is a technique we're adopting into our opening. Also the use of hand held camera's, there's no fancy tracking used and we can also adopt this skill into our opening. It helps provide a more eiree and realistic POV, also the slight cantedshots you acheive helps to attract audience's attention.

For the flashbacks (in childs perspective) we can have the POV shots. This will allow full engagment and better understanding. This allows audiences to be almost involved in the voilence themselves rather than constantly showing close ups of facial expressions audience members can interpret their own emotions into the film.

The Butterfly Effect opening sequence

Opens up with an inspirational quote/saying which is quite an effective way to begin engaging with the audience and allowing them to have a broader mind set to interpret the the film. Any poetic quote or saying has can have a very vague interpretation depending on the individual so it allows a larger target audience and again it follows the theory that thriller viewers are more 'intellgient' than the standard film viewer.
In then follows by diving straigt into the devistation of the film which is a scene that is reapeated towards the end of the film. This is done quite often where a film begins with the end scene which is very effective in drawing out plenty of enigmas. After this brief chaotic scene the title appears which; is short, simple and highlights the main topic of the film which is a brain scan hilighting the physcological elements of the film.
After this it shows n flash back of the protagonist's childhood an an equlibrium stage. This is an idea we've taken an adapted into our own idea's for a thriller opening. The music is also very convention as for the chaos it has a thrilling and exhilirating ambience whereas the equlibrium showing has a more sombre mood.

Rather then having an sort of philosophical saying at the beginning we've decided to have a philosophical narration as it will work well with the abstract visuals. It would also give the character depth and add more ambiguity to her and her lifestyle. It would also help widen our audience, as drugs is a narrow path to take. The editing style is similar to what we want to acheive, showing the devistation at the beginning and having flashbacks to show the cause of effect. This works well in drawing enigmas and suspence. The sombre music is something that could work very well. As our character is a Heroin addict, Jazz is the genre that's heavily associated with the drug so this is something to consider.