Rough Cut 3

After altering, and developing our film opening from our 2nd Rough Cut, we have made a 3rd Rough cut with the changes that we agreed on. Moving forwards we must improve, and add the following:

• Our production Ident to the start of the film opening.
• Change the titles so that both the Name, and the persons role are seen at the same time - this is much less confusing for an audience and is much more clear.
• Alter the sounds of audio within the film opening.
• Add into the end of the opening the shot of the Train coming into the station and stopping, improving the narrative for the audience. 

Rough Cut 2

After completing our second Rough Cut, we analysed what we needed to alter to improve our film opening and therefore come closer to achieving a Final Cut.
For our next Rough Cut we must:

• Add identical Sounds to all Flash back transitions.
• Take out first 2 voicemails, leaving the third. We have decided that the 3rd is only relevant, as it gives enough information of where 'Molly' is going. Deleting the other 2 allows an increase in narrative enigma, and allows us to focus the audience attention on the visuals rather than audio.
• Add the Soundtrack that we have made on 'Logic Pro'.
• Add in the Titles.
• Take out Flashbacks in Train Scene.
• Film and add shots of 'Molly' walking out of the Train Station, and down a country road, as well as a shot of a Train pulling into the station.

Production Update - Train

19th March 

On the 19th of March, we organised to meet and film the Train Scene from our film opening. Although the weather was not what we initially expected, or wanted, we agreed that in actual fact the rain played to our advantage in creating a pathetic fallacy of Molly's emotions. With this in mind, we were very happy with the shots we filmed inside the train, of Molly looking out the window, travelling away from her home town. However, due to the weather, and the awkward timing of Sunday train times, we were unable to film the vital shot of Molly walking from the station platform, onto the Train. This is however planned to be filmed very soon.

In the evening, we managed to film a couple more shots that we felt we needed to improve the Car Crash flashback at the start of our film opening. A specific one was filming car headlights traveling towards the camera, so that we could composite the shot onto the windscreen of a shot of Molly's Parents driving (replicating a car traveling directly towards them). 

Production Vlog 1 - So Far

Ident

Producing our Initial Idea

For our Ident, we would like to use either ink or paint to digitally, or literally reveal our production company name; GHK Productions.

To achieve this we used both the applications Illustrator and Premier. Firstly we designed our Production logo on Illustrator, choosing font and text size before lining up the text in a box-like fashion. Illustrator also allowed us to remove the background of the image, saving the picture file as a 'png'. This is important as a 'png' file allows pixels to be transparent, unlike a normal image file. We then searched and found an ideal clip of black ink, falling onto a white white background. After downloading this free clip, we used Premier to merge the two - so that when the black Ink fell into sight, it would reveal our white production company name. Finally we selected a suitable sound effect on Final Cut Pro, to put over our Ident.

Production Update - Molly's Bedroom

7th March 2017

On the 7th of March, after being unsure how to approach and improve the filming of the car crash, we decided to move on to 'Molly's Bedroom' scene - where she wakes from the car crash and packs her suitcase to leave home. Prior to any of the main shots - we began with filming some cut away shots of objects around Molly's bedroom, introducing the viewer to the Mis-en-scene relating to our protagonist character. We then moved onto our main shots. The lighting proved a difficulty at the beginning of filming, when filming Molly asleep (as it had to be relatively dark). To solve this we altered the white balance, and also selected a 'night' filter - making the picture colder and slightly lighter. After this we filmed a variety of shots (from different angles) of Molly opening her curtains, and also packing her bag. I feel this was a very successful shoot - learning from mistakes, we ensured we would have a lot of footage to choose from and the edit.

Rough Cut 1 - Car Crash

On the 2nd of March, we got our 3 actors together along with the driver of the second car, to film our first, rough, shoot. A lot of problems arose. Firstly it was very difficult for the actors to convincingly be angry at our character 'Molly', and the small amount of footage we were relatively happy with only made up a few seconds of the opening - not allowing the tension of the argument and atmosphere to build. This is not what we hoped for and taking this into consideration, we are considering not having any narrative instead purely focusing on the visual aspect of the scene. The visual side however also proved challenging as it was harder than we thought to get the right angles and shots to try show a car crash was happening. We will film again, this time getting a lot more footage than the first time - so that we have more to work with whilst editing.

Influences - Car Crash

The Car Crash

Our first scene involves a car crash. Knowing how difficult it would be to film a convincing car crash, without damaging any cars or injuring any people, we looked for insperation from different films. When seeing the car crash from 'The Vow', we thought we could attempt to remake some of the shots, before the crash actually happens (it is obvious that there will be a car crash, even before the cars hit).  Something that we particuallry thought looked good, was the slow motion effect on the shot of the oncoming car.

Time Planning and Organisation of Actors

Shot List

Before the start of our production, we have produced a shot list that we will keep with us during shoots to ensure good organisation when arriving at locations. Using this sheet we will know prior to the start of filming, what shots we need to complete.

Organisation of Actors

Prior to meeting at our set locations in Ilkley, as a group we communicated with each other and with our actors to ensure they knew the time and place we were meeting. There is also an example below of a message sent to one of our actors (Molly's Mother) with a link of the screenplay so she was able to familiarise herself with her lines.

Key Directors

David Fincher

David Fincher is an American film director and music video director. David is noted for his speciality in this genre - psychological thrillers and this is why he has achieved his biggest successes within the genre, including the directing of the films 'Fight Club' and 'Se7en'. His films possess plots of mystery and twists and also follow the conventions of psychological thrillers. For example many of his films often have low-key lighting with green or blue tinted colour temperature. David Fincher has had multiple nominations for awards as well as impressively winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Director and the BAFTA Award for Best Direction.

Key Films

Gone Girl

This film is a key film from our particular genre as Gone girl is an example of a successful modern day psychological thriller, incorporating conventions of drama, mystery and also crime. Its budget was $61 million and the overall box office was $164 million. Although psychological thrillers are not the most popular of films, Gone Girl is a great example of a psychological thriller that has captured audiences in the modern day, changing their initial opinion on the genre. This is personally one of my favourite films of this genre - it is gripping and keeps you constantly calculating the situation as the mystery unfolds throughout the film (just what a psychological thriller should make you do). It is interesting that in this film you follow the protangonist and antagonist, Amy and Nick, through their journey of mystery and crime, and also hear them both narrating different parts in the film.

The Shining

Noted as one of 'The Top Psychological Thrillers of all time' this film is a famous in this genre category, and is widely known as 'one of the greatest horror films ever made'. It is a 1980 British-American psychological thriller based on the book by Stephen King. Its budget was $15million and its overall Box Office was $44.4, for the time this film was made this was very successful indeed. This film never fails to strike fear into audiences - as they watch a once nurturing father and husband warping into a murder. The question is asked 'where can their safety lie, if not in the ones who nurture?'.