Shot list with pictures

 

Credit to Matthew Bostock

Final Production

Boys and girls, prepare to be amazed!

Summary of filming days

Day 1) On this day we filmed all our shots that comprise our "present day" timeline in addition to all the shots of trains that we used in our production.
For the present day timeline we filmed inside Bourne cemetary, we started at 8 o'clock and we were planning to stay there until 11; however we managed to get all the shots we needed very quickly and with no problems. The shots we took here were those of our original idea for the title screen that was to have the credits roll on the gravestones. We later abandoned this idea as it proved to be impractical and didn't look good or in theme with the rest of the production.
In addition to the gravestone shots we also filmed our intro that consists in Connor Marshall walking towards a gravestone (not showing the name) while carrying flowers and placng them at the base of the grave.
Subsequently we moved to the Tallington level crossing and took our shots of the trains to use in the production; it took from 1 till 3 to get all a wide variety of shots that we could use n the film.

Day 2) In this day we filmed all the shots from the flashback that is the main bulk of the production. We filmed at a discontinued train line in Rippingale, here we managed to get all our footage and came up with our current idea of the credits that consisted of writing our credits on the track sleepers. However this idea was discarded as the tracks were wet and we couldn't write properly on them, however we modified this idea and wrote the credits on some planks that Matthew had the good idea to bring. These planks were then positioned on one of the abandones train locomotives that were present on site. We also used the same planks to write our title on.
Overall the day went without any major problems.

Questionnaire results explained

I asked 10 people, including both males and females, aged between 11-17 a questionnaire to help us improve our thriller opening. The results can be seen below:

The results from question one show that people like Comedy films the most, followed by Horror films and Thriller. This shows us that although we are not making a comedy film, we could try and add an element of comedy into our thriller opening, to try and attract a wider audience. 

Question 2 shows that people in our target age group go to the cinema quite frequently. A large proportion went to the cinema just 2-4 weeks ago, and so we should bear in mind that our film does not need to be in the cinema for too long. 

Question three shows us that over 3/4 of the people like films to be 1 1/2 and 2 hours long. This shows us that the film cannot be too long, as the audience's attention might diminish if it is any longer. Also, it shows us that fast editing and fast-paced action need to be included to maintain the audience's enjoyment. 

The large proportion of our target audience do not stream movies online. This shows us that making the effort to make our film available on services such as Netflix would perhaps be a wasted effort, and that people would prefer to enjoy our movie via more traditional media methods. 

Question five shows us that the majority of people would like to go out with friends given t wo hours leisure time, instead of watching a movie. It shows us that we should work on promoting our film on posters, billboards, in taxis, buses and resturants, instead of working on promotions in the cinema. 

The last film the majority of people watched was Skyfall, the new James Bond film. At the time our survey went out, this film was extremely popular, and so it shows that people watch films that are 'in trend' - films that other people are watching and talking about on social media services such as Twitter and Facebook, and on the television and the news. 

100% of the people we asked said that they would like to watch a film involving death. This shows us that we should ensure we involve death in our film, and this is something that we have included in the opening of our thriller. 

Around 50% of our audience would spend between £5:01 and £10 on a film. Again, this shows our group that if we were working on selling our film, this is the price range we should base it on. 

This shows that most people would prefer to watch films where they have to concentrate on the plot. Therefore, we should work on making the plot more complex, and perhaps slightly twisted, so that it slowly becomes apparent to the audience how the film will end. 

Question 10 shows that the majority of our sample agree with the statement that they are a film enthusiast. It shows us that the people who we are targeting our film at are people who watch films on a regular basis, and therefore they will be experts at analysing and watching films. Therefore, we should work to ensure the film is as good as it can be, to provide the audience with the maximum amount of enjoyment.

 

 

 

These results give us an essential background knowledge of thrillers and how to make ours an effective thriller; we can extrapilate these results and apply them to ours to show that we have used this market research to improve our production. These results also give us an interesting insight how people react and respond to thrillers and how much they actually enjoy them, it also shows how the latest trends in the film industry are setting.

 

Rippingale shot plan

We have found a fantastic stretch of disused train track to use for our production. The former train house is still on site, and runs alongside the train track, so it will give the impression that the girl is waiting for a train to come. However, there are two trains on the tracks that cannot be moved, which may present us with some issues. The map above shows how we will overcome this issue.

Reviewed props and equipment list

Our original props and equipment lists have had to be reviewed because our initial ideas differ from what we ended up doing and using. Our first props list told of how we were going to use the materials from Branch Brothers and create our very own train tracks to use for the filming of our production. This is not the way we did it in the end as we found a much better solution in using an actual inactive track in Rippingale instead of going through the painful experience of trying to build our own tracks even if it would show more imagination. Because of this, we ended up using completely different props to that which was mentioned in our previous post for the props.

Props:

Gravestone - For the mourner to put the flowers at that would give the indication of death which is a conventional theme for thriller films.

Flowers - To indicate that the mourner actually cares for the person who has died, allowing the audience to fell at least some sympathy for the person that had died and channel more hate towards the killer.

Balaclava - To hide the identity of the killer and make it even more effective when he pulls his mask off and reveals his true identity.

Torn piece on beclloth - To act as a makeshift gag to use to prevent our victim from screaming or causing any loud noises that could give away what is happening.

Handbag - For our victim to be holding to give a sense of realism and to be thrown away dramatically by our victim to show that she really is fighting for her life and that is all she cares about at that moment in time.

Planks and Chalk - Used to create our credits and titles using clever filming and inspired ideas to create good titles to flash in and out throughout the film.

Equipment:

2 Tripods
2 Cameras
1 Video Camera Dolly
2 Umbrella's
1 Clipboard

Problems

Some problems we could've faced are: as we were filming in three different locations and on two different days we could've encountered many different problems such as: different weather conditions could've drastically affected the continuity of our production, we used different trains in our production; this could've also affected continuity as the may audience may have noticed the difference between the trains, the trains were also going in different directions but quick editing has ensured that the audience doesn't notice this. In one of our original ideas we had planned to make our own train track with some borrowed supplies, we soon realised that this idea isn't viable as many problems would've arisen from making our own train track, which would've had adverse affects on our continuity. Another issue with relying on trains to film our production is that the train times could've been quite sporadic and we wouldn't be able to get the amount of shots that we wanted, there's also some health and safety concerns as we were filming on a crossroads above a live track; we could've been seriously injured if one of us fell onto the track or into oncoming traffic. As we filmed some of our shots at a cemetery we ran the risk of upsetting some mourners, our time at the cemetery could've also been very limited as there was the possibility of disrupting a funeral service.

Problems that we did face: luckily we actually faced very few of our potential problems, but there was still a few minor ones; when we got to the cemetery the weather conditions were very poor as it was raining very hard which also made the ground very wet and soft, but when we commenced our filming the rain subsided so this never really created much of a problem for us. Another problem that we faced was that we didn't know when the trains were coming and their times were quite sporadic, however we were well prepared for this and setup our cameras in the correct position for the oncoming trains, as we were at a crossroads the flashing lights and closing gates gave us an accurate indication of when they were on their way so this problem was easy to overcome. A more serious problem we faced was the poor battery life of our camera, but we prepared aptly for this by taking a spare camera with us so this was another problem we overcame.