Christmas Holidays

We are now off school for Christmas break for two weeks! Our plan over the holidays is to attempt to finish our shot list for our film and also a filming schedule.

Equipment

We will be using a digital camera similar to the
photo on the left. We may need two digital cameras to capture two different angles of a shot.
The advantage of these is that you can carry them around easier and they are not heavy to hold, therefore improving the steadiness of hand held shots.

We also are using two tripods to hold our cameras on instead of doing all hand-held cameras. This is to improve the steadiness of the shot.

We may be able to use a dolly for certain scenes where we want to create the illusion of following, which is helpful as our film is about stalking and following. We will need only one of these.

-Sophie

Updated Gantt Chart

Gantt Chart


Since we began our project, we have continually updated our gantt chart. So far this has helped us to keep the work equally contributed between us, making the work easier to finish on time with everyone's take on it.
-Sophie

Location Scouting

As a group we discussed the key places to shoot the first two minutes of our film. These included Chelmer Valley High School, around the school in Broomfield and also in Chelmsford town. We took pictures so we could easily explain the concept of our idea. To begin with, below, we have images of the school itself and locations around the establishment.

Here is an image of a stairway inside Chelmer Valley, we would use this location to show Katie perhaps following or watching Mr Jones. The stairway itself is rather old and worn looking, giving the effect in the film that it is actually a school environment. In the film, either a lot of school children will be rushing down these stairs or the scene will be focused on Katie and Mr Jones.

This location is a long pathway leading into fields and a forest, it is literally one minute away from the high school. The location pictured is ideal for our film as it can give off a sense of horror and fear in certain light. The pathway is next to the school fence on the right and has a small ditch on the left hand side. Katie will be seen following Mr Jones down the pathway on one occasion whilst he is on his way home.


This image shows the other end of the path, with the school fence. This time you are able to see the school fields from up there. This is the same location as above and we will use it to show Katie continuing to follow Mr Jones. As it will be winter when we film, the bare trees and muddy ground will make the location seem dirty and as a whole, not very safe.

Here is the field and path that follows after the previous pathway. The gravel path shown in this location has been key in our minds as when we have both Katie and Mr Jones walking along, we should be able to hear the crunches of the gravel. We feel this will be highly effective as it will give the scene more of a horror effect, with diegetic sound effects. As the location is rather bare, the focus will be entirely on our characters emphasizing the situation at hand.

This image shows a spare room in Hazel's house, we will be using the room as Katie's bedroom for our film. We will clear as much as we can from the room, not including the tumble dryer, this will be covered with a white sheet. In the room, there is already a spare mattress, we could use this as Katie's bed to show that she may be deprived. Other than the covered tumble dryer and the spare mattress, the room will be bare.

This image shows a part of Chelmsford town, although it is not in the centre. The road shown is nearby the central park and a few shops as well as a few bus stops. The reasoning behind this particular location is that we would be able to travel from one location to another easily enough to get our film prepared quickly. Another possible location for our film is also near this road, a cafe called 'aCanteen' where both Tamer, our chosen Mr Jones, and Hazel our group member both work. Filming here would be an appropriate location as well as being easy to get to.

Here is the outside of 'aCanteen', it is a cafe on the outskirts of the town centre. Whilst filming here we will have to make sure that it is not busy, because although it may be on the outskirts, it is still rather popular. The inside of the cafe is rustic and family friendly, so it will seem more like the place Mr Jones would like to visit. As we can all get the bus or even walk to 'aCanteen' it would be ideal for our scene with Mr Jones and his friends.

Final Cast

As a group, we looked through our auditions and decided and thought out who would be best for each role in our film. We looked at points such as:

• Appearances closest to the ideas we had about the character.




• Dramatic performances and being able to adapt to the conceptions of Katie. So we looked especially at the A-Level Theatre Studies class for these.




• The availabilty to film. So whether their free periods coincided with our Media Lessons and also would be available to film during lunches, breaks, after schools and weekends and will be 100% commited.

We looked at three girls, as we have stated before; Jennifer Pike, Hannah Blakemore and Rachel Short. For Katie we have decided to cast Jennifer (Jenni) Pike. With furthur group discussions today we have decided to cast the other two girls as a "Star Pupil Of The Week". Below are photographs of our female cast.

Jennifer (Jenni) Pike.

Jenni is a member of the Theatre Studies class, of which Sophie and Jo are also a part of, so we know on a educational level that Jenni is more than capable of playing this role. She also has the same colour hair for the idea we had of Katie and also the slight bodyframe we imagined her to have.

Hannah Blakemore. - Again, Hannah is part of the Theatre Studies class and is capable of acting the part. We felt that Hannah related to the part in the calm but threatening manner in which we wish the part to be portayed, but physically she didn't fit our ideal description. We will use Hannah's approach to the role and apply it to Jenni. We have cast Hannah as a "Star Pupil".


Rachel Short - Like the others, Rachel is part of the Theatre Studies class. We decided not to cast Rachel as Katie because we were decided on Jenni . We decided to use Rachel as one of the four "Star Pupils".


Jasmine Lee - We didn't audition Jasmine, but she is another student from the Theatre Studies class. We cast Jasmine as a "Star Pupil" also.


Catherine Turner - We didn't audition Catherine either, as she missed our actual auditions but we casted her as a "Star Pupil" also. We originally were thinking about using Catherine for the role of Katie, but after auditioning Jenni and Catherine was being used by another group in our class.



Male Casting

Tamer Saleh (right) - We decided to use Tamer mainly for his appearance. As the role we need him to play involves an older man, we needed someone who could easily pass as someone older. Furthermore, as Tamer and Samuel (our other male casting) are friends, it was simpler for them to engage in conversation, illiminating any awkwardness.

Samuel Hickey - We decided to use Sam because again, the friendship between him and Tamer. Also, Sam is an able actor and we know this from outside experience.

-Sophie

Audition Video

Yesterdays Auditions

Yesterdays auditions were a total success. We were pleased with the turn-out of people willing to audition and the results of this will be posted on our blog later today with our final decisions and reasons behind them. We thought that everyone was extremely adaptable to the role, unfortunately we cannot cast them all. Due to there being only a certain number of roles all 6 auditionees will recieve a letter explaining whether they have the part or not, giving it a more professional feel.

-Sophie and Hazel

Update On Location Scouting

We've decided the main location for our film will be in and around Chelmer Valley High School, Broomfield. We discounted using Clacton Beach for now, as the journey to get there would be extremely time consuming and we only have a limited time in which to make and edit our film but we may decide later on that we do want to use the idea. At the moment, another location for our film includes Chelmsford Town Center and places in Town. Also, our group member Hazel Clifton's house which is only 5 minutes away from school by public transport. Sophie is going into London this weekend and will try to aquire some photos of places that are similar to our own Town or either places we would transfer up to London to use in our own time.

So far, we have been unable to aquire the correct photographs for our Location Scouting this week because of lack of personal time and transport, as we cannot take time off from other lessons during the day. We, as a group, hope to have these done and completed by next week.

-Sophie and Hazel

Audition Information

Auditions are taking place tomorrow (Thursday 10th December) over the break and lunch period of the school day in our Drama Studios. We have put our posters up around the school and we have 3 auditionees for each character. As a group we spoke about using the other 2 males as the friends of Mr Jones for the pub scene, so everyone auditioned for Mr Jones will be involved in some way.

For Katie, we also have 3 auditionees but these are all students from the A-Level Drama class, so we know them personally quite well and to the extent they can act and relate to our part. For Katie, there is only one part so unfortunately we can only cast one part, unlike with the Mr Jones auditionees.

-Sophie and Hazel

The Character - Katie

As a group we have had a discussion about what we imagine Katie to look like, we have explained how we imagine her and our descriptions are very similar.

We all agree that she would look pale faced with dark hair and big eyes. The big eyes would make her look desperate and more psychotic. I imagine her to be quite slim and small so she gives off an innocent vibe however she is sick and twisted making her character more ironic and interesting. We all agreed that her hair would be messy and greasy, it would look better if it was dark so then when it looks greasy it will drape over her face, showing insecurity.

I looked for an image to show how we want Katie to look in our film. This image is how we imagine her but not as young as this. This is Samara Morgan in the film 'The Ring'.

By Jo

Costume

Mr Jones
When Mr Jones is not working, for example when he is at the pub with friends, he will wear casual clothing this will consist of jeans, a polo shirt and trainers. We think this would be the best as that is a typical casual clothing for a middle-aged man. The polo shirt could be red to signify danger.
Mr Jones will wear either a suit or a shirt and a black cardigan or jumper with smart grey or black trousers when he is at the school teaching. As he is a middle-aged (late twenties) man we think this would be good for him to wear as he looks smart and young at the same time.


Katie
When Katie is at school, we think it would be best if Katie wore just a plain black V-neck jumper with a white shirt underneath and black trousers. This is simple and smart, which is realistic because some school uniforms consist of this type of clothing. Her shoes will be plain black, we think it would be effective if her shoes were boys shoes and her clothes were either too small or too big making her look uncared for and neglected.
Then when Katie is at home she could wear an over-sized white t-shirt which will be dirty to show neglect and red pyjama-like bottoms, the red signifies death and blood which symbolises her murderous character.

Minor Characters
The 'star pupils' will be in a white shirt and v-neck jumper which will be the school uniform. The top half of their body will only be seen so the trousers are not important.

Mr Jones friends will just wear casual clothing similar to what is pictured for example a polo shirt and jeans, just something that a middle aged man would wear to the pub or out for lunch.

Props

The Knife
I have been looking at different types of knives that we could use in the film, because the murderer is a young school girl the knife would have to be realistic in the way that she could of actually got it and used it. For example a knife found in a kitchen would be the best idea as it would be easy for a young girl to take and use.
These are some of the knives I have been looking at;

The knife at the bottom of the page is a bread knife it would look realistic as most households have a bread knife however, I think the knife looks more threatening if the blade was just straight without the serrated edge.
The middle knife looks threatening because it is big and looks dangerous however, I think it would look better if the knife looked more plain with just a black handle.
The knife at the top is a kitchen knife which is often found in households, it looks threatening and its simple at the same time.

We will not bring the knife into school it will just be filmed at one of our houses.

Other props we will use are:

A white board

Chairs

Fake blood (tomatoe ketchup)

A camera

Photos and blue tac

Receipts

Post-it notes

A box of matches

Tables

A car

Mr Jones Character

Mr Jones

We chose this image to show how we pictured Mr Jones in our film. We would like the character to be a young person that looks old enough to be a teacher, preferably with a clean, simple appearance. Mr Jones will have smart mannerisms and will wear glasses throughout the film, this will give the character a sense of intelligence.

Auditions Poster

Poster

This is the poster that will be placed around the school to convince people to audition for our film. It has clear details about when the auditions are. The poster also gives details about the characters we are looking for.

Idea of poster by Hazel. Made and posted by Jo.

Location Scouting Information

This week we have been thinking about possible locations we could use within our film. Locations such as Clacton beach have been discussed, whilst considering this we thought about incorporating a new scene where Katie would be at the beach. To include this we would need to go to an empty part of the beach to reflect the emptiness of her character. This would work out nicely as the weather will be cold and damp during January when we film.
The main location for our film will be within our school to make the filming more believable and realistic. This will also aid us in completing the filming on time. We have looked at alleys around our school also as they are shaded by trees and the path is quite worn and muddy creating the illusion of darkness. Also through January the weather will be dark still, playing on the pathetic fallacy.
We are going to look around Chelmsford town centre later on in the week, for photos of normality which we are looking to include into our film.

Written by Sophie & Hazel

Consent Form

Dear Respondent,


We are looking for someone to play certain roles in our A-Level media film and we need footage of people that we can use and work with.

The footage will be made public for people to watch on “youtube” and also for it to be marked later on in the year by examiners.

You need to be aged 16 or over to be used for our piece, if you are under 16 let us know immediately but you can consent yourself.

Because of legal reasons, if you are under the age of 18 you also need parental consent to be given.

There will be no information about you that can be found by anyone apart from us and everything will be confidential. If you wish to be discredited from this, please let us know as soon as possible.

Thank you for all your help and co-operation.

I understand that I have given permission to be filmed and used for the above project. By giving consent, I know that this footage can be used in any public environment and seen by anyone.

I ……………………………………………………………………… [Insert full name]
Of……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… [Insert full address]
Age: _______
Signed: ____________________________
Date: _________


I give permission for the above student to be used in the above context.
Signed by student: _______________________
Signed by Parent: ________________________
Date: _________


Sophie Tindall, Hazel Clifton and Jo Peplow-Revell
A Level Media Students
Chelmer Valley High School



This is our consent form that will be used for our auditions and then our chosen actors. This will go home with the students with a school letter.
Sophie wrote the consent form.

Our Animatic Storyboard

This is our animatic storyboard. This is our first main draft of our storyboard and we will use this as a framework to now aid us with other ideas.

With thanks to Samuel Hickey for some voiceovers.

Hazel & Sophie made an editted the storyboard.
Added by Sophie on behalf of the group.

Target Audience

Target Audience

This is our target audience document which all three of us contributed to. It includes all of our research and other information on the audience.

The script

This is the script that will used when we audition our actors for both Katie and Mr Jones.

Script


Set in a quiet pub in the corner where Mr Jones is sitting with a group of friends, camera comes round the corner then there is a close-up on Mr Jones face. There are beverages on the table, Mr Jones and his friends are deep in conversation.

Mr Jones; (whisper) I think I’m being followed.

Friend 1; (laughs) don’t be so ridiculous.

Friend 2; Are you being serious? You’re a middle-aged man with a kid and a wife, who would be interested in your life, come on!

Mr Jones; No really guys its really weird, I have no idea who’s doing it but I have this odd feeling.

Friend 1; Like what? Have you seen them?

Friend 2; No he hasn’t he just said he doesn’t know who it is.

Friend 1; So what gives you the idea?

Mr Jones; Oh, your gunna think I’m crazy.

Friend 2; WHAT?

Mr Jones; I constantly hear a camera. I’m worried.


The scene then skips to a dark bedroom lit with red lighting. There is a loud scream as the bedroom door slams.

Katie; (heavily breathing) Just stop it, please stop it.

Katie stands up in rage and screams throwing stuff off her shelf. She then stops and picks up a picture of Mr Jones.

Katie; (kisses the picture) Why are you doing this to me? Just tell me the truth, we can run if you want. My life is f**ked and I can see your unhappy, lets run, I love you. Please, please please. Stop playing with me! Stop f**king playing with me Please stop playing, I hate this. PLEASE! (her whisper fades out) Please please please I love you.

Target Audience Questionnaire

Target Audience Questionnaire

I made this questionnaire to find out what audience would be best suited to our film. From this questionnaire I have realised that some females don't like horror films, the females that don't like horror films were over 40 so this shows that the audience is more likely to be aimed at the younger generation. From the questionnaire i also found that both male and females are more interested in watching a film with a complicated but clever storyline rather than just for gore and enjoy the thrill of a scare. However, there were more males interested in this particular factor of the horror film, which would constantly make them jump more so than women. I found that the majority of males and females would usually watch a horror film with a group of mixed friends, most of the people who said they would watch a horror with a group of mixed friends were around the ages 16 and 17 so this shows that younger people are likely to watch horrors. However a few males said they would watch horrors on their own this could mean that girls are less likely to want to watch horrors with them. I also asked what peoples preferred genre is and the most popular genre was comedy however women 40+ chose romantics which makes it even clearer that they are less likely to want to watch horrors.

Finally I asked what would be an ideal horror for them the answers were very similar mainly they wanted it to be: scary, jumpy and interesting.

From this research I can now feedback to the group what I have found out and then add what i found to the target audience profile.

Research on the genre 'stalking'

'Scream' was created in 1996 and it was the masked-killer film that revitalized the stalker/slasher genre. From this example you can see that usually in the subgenre 'stalking' that it is usually a male character that is used as the antagonist. The antagonist in this particular film isn't only a stalker he is also a killer, this is not always the case in the genre. Below is the synopsis of the film and also the trailer.
'Sidney has more than her share of teenage angst to cope with. Her mom was murdered a year ago, her dad is perpetually away on business, and her boyfriend Billy is pressuring her to go all the way. As if that weren't enough, a brilliant serial killer has begun to terrorize Sidney's quiet hometown, including her highschool classmate Casey Becker.'


An older film from the 1970's is 'Taxi Driver' released in 1976. This particular film, again a male antagonist is used as the stalker throughout the film. The film begins with Travis Bickle, a lonely, unstable vet with insomnia taking a job as a taxi driver to pass the nights. After the rejection of a love interest, Bickle is driven to violent thoughts and an intense physical training regime to prepare for a war on the moral decay of society. Bickle ends up trying to kill himself and to also assassinate a senator. This particular film follows the conventions of a typical stalking horror. Below is the trailer from the film.

Film Classifications

As part of our film and planning we need to decide what age rating we will put our horror film. We decided to look at the BBFC website at the different age ratings and which we could relate to our film to help us decide. As most horror films are a 15 rating this is where we are focusing, but as our film doesn't involve much gore we are looking from 12 upwards.
Below are the definations of the age ratings from the BBFC website, from age rating 12 to 18. I looked at the subjects that may be involved in our horror films, such as the horror, violence, language and the theme. Subjects such as nudity and sex will not be involved in our film.

12:
- Horror; "Moderate physical and psychological threat may be
permitted, provided disturbing sequences are not frequent or sustained."
- Violence; "Moderate violence is allowed but should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if justified by the context. Sexual violence may only be implied or briefly and discreetly indicated, and must have a strong contextual justification."
- Language; "Moderate language is allowed. The use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’) must be infrequent."
- Theme; "Mature themes are acceptable, but their treatment must be suitable for young teenagers."

15;
- Horror; "Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised."
- Violence; "Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification."
- Language; "There may be frequent use of strong language (for example,‘fuck’). The strongest terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable."
- Theme; "No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds."

18;
- "In line with the consistent findings of the BBFC’s public consultations and The Human Rights Act 1998, at ‘18’ the BBFC’s guideline concerns will not normally override the principle that adults should be free to choose their own entertainment."

All information taken from http://www.bbfc.co.uk/downloads/pub/Guidelines/BBFC%20Classification%20Guidelines%202009.pdf

Extended plan for this week.

Today we decided how we are going to plan out the rest of our time. Jo has made a start on the questionnaire for our target audience profile. Hazel will be looking into research of stalking films to help us with the target audience and also the questionnaire. Sophie is going to be researching film classifications and linking them to our own film and to help us decide what rating we need by using the BBFC website.
Our voiceover for our storyboard will be done as a group on friday and uploaded the same day. Also we will write the target audience profile together as a group tomorrow and aim to complete it.

Storyboard

Storyboard Page 1
The pictures on this page were taken by Jo, Hazel and Sophie, however this page was put together by Sophie.

Storyboard Page 2
The pictures were taken by Jo, Sophie and Hazel again and the page was put together by Sophie.
Storyboard Page 3
The pictures in shots 17,18 and 19 were taken by Jo, Sophie and Hazel the rest were taken by Jo and Hazel. Sophie put together shots 17,18 and 19 and Jo did the rest of the page.

Storyboard 4
The pictures on the page were taken by Jo and Hazel and the page was put together by Jo.

Storyboard Page 5
The pictures on this page were taken by Jo and Hazel and the page was put together by Jo.

On the storyboard we could not take the pictures in the desired destinations for example katies bedroom, the supermarket and we couldn't use appropriate characters so we have a female for Mr Jones which obviously wouldn't happen inour film. The reason for this is becuase we only had 2 lessons to go and take photos. Also we haven't used blood where we plan to for example on the knife picture in the film there will be blood on it.

Similar Media Works

Similar Media Works

This has taken two extra days to upload due to home internet issues.

We all have had an input into this piece of work;
Jo - Slides 1 ,2, 3, 4, 10, 11
Hazel - Slides 5, 12, 13, 14
Sophie - Slides 6, 7, 8, 9

Added by Sophie on behalf of the whole group.

Actor issue

Today we spoke about who we could have to act in our film. Our horror film has 2 main characters, one who is a middle-aged male teacher the other is a teenage girl around 15 years old. We were originally going to ask a teacher in the school to play the male teacher but we realised there was issues with using a teacher for example we would need to film scenes outside of school, in a supermarket for example and we wouldn't be able to rely on a teacher as they would have lots of work to do plus we would need to film at weekends when we couldn't film scenes of the teacher.
So instead we have decided we are going to have auditions for the male teacher. The person who will be the teacher will have to be willing to spend their free time filming. Also we have realised that it will be easiest to auidition people our own age, friends etc, so we can meet up with them at the weekends to film. However they will look younger than a middle-aged man but he will wear a suit to make him look the part.

Film Brief

A horror based on a teenage girl called Katie, who becomes obsessed with her maths teacher, Mr Jones. He is unaware of her obsession and carries on with everyday life. This includes spending time with his wife and children, going to the pub with friends and teaching his many students, whilst he continues with these kinds of activities he does not realise he is being followed. Katie's stalking of Mr Jones seems innocent at first. With the obsession ruling her life she begins to harbour a feeling of jealousy and fear when Mr Jones picked ‘star of the week’, as she becomes more unstable she begins to focus on the ‘star pupils’. Further on into the film Mr Jones fears he is being followed, but he has no clue as to who may be following him. Every week in January leading up to his birthday, 31st January, each of his star pupils are killed. Suspicions start to rise throughout the school, however Katie is not suspected. On the 31st January, Mr Jones receives a birthday package. Eager to find out what it is, he opens the package in a rush to find a box of his favourite chocolates and a knife covered in dried blood with a note. The note covered in bloody fingerprints is signed by Katie, who thinks Mr Jones will appreciate her effort, also thinking this would be the moment she would win him over. However Mr Jones goes to police and Katie ends up in a psychiatric ward where her twisted childhood is unravelled.

We created the film brief which is a short synopsis of our whole horror film that we are going to create. We introduced the characters briefly and included names of the two main characters.
Added by Jo on the behalf of the whole group.

New Gantt Chart

Gantt Chart

This is the updated version of our Gantt Chart. I updated it today to aid us with the remaining tasks we still have left to do in the remainder of next week.

Our remake of 'The Shining'

Here is our remake of the hallway scene from the horror film 'The Shining.' We did this to gain an insight into horror films and the way they are made and how you would go about making one, we knew this would help us with our overall final piece.
We created a shot list to help us with the filming, this shot list is below the remake. The shot list helped us to develop the right timings although we did not follow it completely, this is because parts of the scenes were too long for what we needed to create the right effect. Whilst we were filming the shot list helped us to know what to film when and where, and when it came down to editing it helped us to put the footage in the right order.
If we were to improve this we would change the character of Danny and use a young male to keep the consistency of the original film. We would also try to make the setting more believeable, but as we were in a school environment, we not able to do so, and this would be a main factor that we would change.
Filming was done by all of our group, and we all had equal input into it. The majority of the editing, which was putting the clips in order and cutting the clips mostly to size, was Jo Peplow-Revell. The final editing, titles and music were done by Hazel Clifton and Sophie Tindall.

Added by Sophie and Hazel on behalf of the group.

Shot List for our Horror Re-make

shot list

We created a 'shot list' to aid us whilst remaking our horror film. We chose to recreate the hallway scene from The Shining, we recreated this scene in a set of hallways in school. We worked together to get the correct timings to make it as realistic as possible, for this we watched the scene seven times on Youtube. Whilst we were watching the scene we took notes and discussed as we were going through it.

Gantt Chart

Gantt Chart

Sophie has been in charge of updating our Gantt Chart. This is to help us manage our time efficently and that everybody in our group can contribute to tasks.

Initial Ideas

Finished on 10th November 2009.

Initial Ideas Media[1][1]

This is our initial ideas plan, we all contributed equally with our ideas, trying to cover as many different aspects of horror as we could.
To begin with we were wary of the genre chosen, but soon after we looked into horror in more depth we saw the many conventions available. Such as, we could choose to take more of a pyschotic angle or the well known 'slasher' horror. We as a group would prefer horror as a genre as it gives us more substance for a shorter film, rather than a genre such as a romantic comedy.

Added by Hazel on behalf of the group.