Section 10- Log Sheets and Edit Decision List and Diary

Edit Decision List
We first captured all the recorded clips we wanted in our film from the tape to the PC, then using the recorded clips we put them into chronological order and played it through to see how it went, once we decided the order in was in was ok, we started editing in the order start to end, we added just a few transitions but our main editing purposes were to change and tweak the audio but also add our own music as well as keeping the natural sounds, we also had to crop a few shots and shorten them also.

Our main concern was in our original first finishedfilm the actual body bag being dropped over the bridge didn't look like it was human size, so we cut the whole dropping section, then instead have a close up reaction shot of the boy on the embankment then quickly changed shot to just see the bag creating the splash into the stream, the outcome was much better.


DIARY

Saturday 11th December 2010 - Filming commences on location at The Dingle, Appleton, Warrington. Approximately 3 hours filming in fine weather with no major problems.

Thursday 19th December 2010 - Capturing begins in edit suite. However all is not captured and is put forward to the new year.

Tuesday 4th January 2011 - Capturing re-starts and all footage is captured onto the computer and imported into edit suite. Also the editing and putting together of the footage begins. Here is the full of our induvidual clips.

Wednesday 5th January 2011 - Before editing takes hold, we made and produced some logos and titles for our film. Such as browsing fonts for E Block Productions, and a suitable font for the title of our production, Perception. The font we chose looked quite sinister and slashed, foreshadowing the events to come later in the production.

 Friday 7th January - Wednesday 12th January 2011 - Editing process, and the production is put together. Transitions are used, such as a white flash, symbolising a flashback of sort, possibly foreshadowing something to come.

Monday 10th January - Wednesday 12th January 2011 - Also the typography choices for general type, such as the credits, we used a simple, professional sans serif typeface, with a slight mysterious/western looking feel to it. This added to the feel of the production. Here is us searching for the right one:

Wednesday 12th January 2011 - Editing process is finish and production is ready to be rendered out as a different file format. Here is it playing.

Section 9- Production Scheduale

Section 8- Production Material/ Thriller Storyboard

Section 7-Reece

Shown here is the location for our thriller, just off Dingle Lane, Appleton, Warrington. This is a suitable location for our film as it is hidden away, it is included in a forest, it is quite and eery and mysterious place with landmarks such as an old stone bridge, sandstone cliffs, old rickety trees, streams and valleys. This would suit the format of our piece as we aim for the feel of the production to be mysterious and shrouded, which will be suggested by the location. The vast change in ground level suggests characters may be looking down on other characters, foreshadowing events to come later in the film.

Section 6-Character Outlines and Shooting Script

This was a combination of all our ideas developed in a brainstorm session, I then wrote up the script as my 3 group members added input.


Script

EXT-FOREST-MIDDAY-WINTER
Forest is shown, location is revealed. Two children run out from behind bush and through forest. Laughing and giggling – one chasing another in play.

Young boy (Simon) In dark clothing hands behind tree in a winter time forest, his hands are positioned to imitate a gun. He turns 180 degrees on the spot and pretends to fire into the distance

Simon: Bang Bang

His friend (Sean) keels over pretending to have been struck, move down slowly and laughing that rises in intensity.
Simon: hahaha, you count and ill hideSimon darts of in a hurry, excited and buzzing with anticipation. Occasionally looking back. Sean’s hands are over his face and then loud noises can be heard in the distance, his hands separate to reveal shocked face. Begin to tremble and look around nervously

Sean: Simon, I think we should go! (Shouting)

Sprints away looking anxious and looking for any route out of forest. Simon still happily running, emphasis and his excitement until it slowly changes to anxious looks.
Sean keeps running through forest paths, looking back occasionally.
Sean's facial expression turns to worry and despair as he checks the other paths to see which way he can go.
He eventually comes to a stream, with a road over a bridge and seeks safety.
Sean's foot splashes through the stream as he quickly crosses.
He clambers wearily up the bank. Revs of an engine are heard and Sean becomes scared and hides against the wall.
Car comes round the far distant corner of road at high speed, travels directly onto bridge, where skids/screeches to a halt.
Figures foot is shown coming out of the vehicle when the door opens.
Figure, disguised with black hat, gets out of car and walks hurriedly towards the boot. He opens it and retrieves a large black bag, he then walks towards the edge of the bridge and slyly throws the bag off, in which it lands in the stream and causes a large splash
Figure urgently shuts boot and returns to car.
He enters the car and screeches away in a hurry.
[UNDER BRIDGE – BELOW]
Sean, with the black bag right in front of him, is intrigued and cautiously moves down the bank towards it.
He hops down the bank, crouches and kneels forward to within touching distance.
He slowly feels around the bag, with a confused, yet slightly scared facial expression.
Suddenly, a dirty, brown and scruffy hand rips a whole in the top of the bag and extends upwards scaring Sean.
Sean falls back into the bank in horror, his facial expression scared and his mouth wide open.
Sean tries to clamber the bank, but the mud prevents this and his feet continuously slip.
He decides to run the other way through the stream, and under bridge.
(In the mean time the figure is slowly rising, however out of shot)
Sean is continuously looking back to check out the situation.
The figure from the bag slowly rising, crooked and jolty. He then wanders slowly the opposite way to the boy down the stream.
Sean keeps running until he feels he is safe and far enough away from the events that have just unfolded. [FURTHER INTO FOREST]

[END OF OPENING]


CHARACTER PROFILE

Anthony Thatcher- Thatcher is a hard working, loyal and fair District Attorney who is committed to aiding justice and seeing those who partake in tyranny behind bars. Although modest about his abilities, Thatcher receives praise and recognition throughout the state and in the Media. He is charming, selfless, professional and determined. However following the events of his assignation Thatcher becomes paranoid and corrupted within his mind. He no longer has any trust in the justice system and turns his back on the hope he once preached. He is now inflicted with depression which in turn presents anger and ultimately breeds a disregard for any values resulting in his mission of hunting down and murdering the justice Hierarchy for their deceit. He is 24 when the incident takes place and has clean cut dark hair with stubble and a strapping physique. With age Thatcher’s hair becomes thin and wire like, his face is waxy and thin (showing the signs of his torment).

Detective Roach/Young Child/Sean- In youth, Roach is scrawny and slight. He has glasses and a flop of brown hair with bandy legs. When we next see him in his post as detective he has grown considerable, appearing lanky. He sports a large brown overcoat over a suit and has maintained the use of glasses. Following his experience with Thatcher’s body in the stream Roach’s mentally completely changed (he was a care-free child) and he discarded his youth to pursue a career in law having never truly got over the event he witnessed. Much like Thatcher he rapidly propels up the justice ladder. His qualities are his cunning, keen eye and ability to never leave a loose end. This leaves many to believe he takes his job to seriously as he has no real social life or close family, leaving his intelligent mind constantly on the job.

Roach as a child (TOP PICTURE) and Anthony Thatcher after his attempted murder (BOTTOM PICTURE)

Section 5- Treatment and Sypnosis

Synopsis 
In this synopsis we were aiming to strike the balance between effective use of words and phrases and being informative without revealing to much, I felt this was executed well as phrases such as "Yet the scars of his experiences run deep" combine well with phrases that set the plot and tone, such as "who has recently caused quite a stir by locking up a number of high profile criminals".

Anthony Thatcher is a successful district attorney who has recently caused quite a stir by locking up a number of high profile criminals, however he soon becomes a target of their attention and is taken from his home with the plan of execution in a nearby forest. However Thatcher manages to survive and sets about to bring down those who conspired his death. Yet the scars of his experiences run deep and his revenge becomes a personal blood lust against those in legal power causing his mind to become unstable and fragile , making him one of the most dangerous men in New York. It’s the job of experienced Detective Roach to hunt down and capture him yet the detective is the final piece of Thatcher’s puzzle thus making a captivating and twisted game of cat and mouse.

Film Title: Perception

Treatment

The scene begins with a distant shot of a ere winter time forest, two young males can just about be seen below. Initially it is thought the focus will be on impending circumstances between these boys. The shot changes to behind the boy (Sean)  as he turns on the spot and fires toy gun in the direction of his friend (Joshua) opposite. The two boys revelling in there game get the giggles after one keels over as a joke. Sean’s friend then suggest a game of seek and hide and Sean obliges by heading off out of shot. The next shot is a XL close up of Joshua’s hands over his face as he counts, the camera zooms out until loud voices can be heard in the distance and Joshua’s facial expression turn to shock and he acclaim’s “Sean lets get out of here” before hurriedly running off, which is captured by a shot from behind him until he departs through the trees. We then cut to Sean and see a close up of his excited face as he runs looking for somewhere to hide. Then a distance shot of the forest landscape as Sean continues to jog along a path. The next shot is a close up low angle of a small stream, Sean’s foot plunders past as he continues to run, acceleration faster and faster and breath getting husky and heavy to show his fright at the apparent loss of his friend. Tension is building as the boy reaches what is small bridge with two embankments on either side. Suddenly the screeching of a car and distant voices growing louder Sean into panic and this is noted by his change in facial expressions and sense of physical awareness. Feeling uneasy and anxious he seeks cover and scours around heading towards the embankment. At this moment Sean is trying to remain as quite as possible and shot is medium close up showing Sean’s whole body and setting around tracking his movement until the shot becomes distant and a whole view of the bridge and stream/Sean/embankment below can be seen. The car comes into view and the camera once again switches to a close up of the car bumper and licence plate. After a few seconds of uneasy tension the car door opens and an ominous foot steps onto the gravel, before more can develop the camera cuts back to a landscape distance shot. Sean is aware of human presence above and voices can still be heard, a close up of his face expresses the concern and fear he is experiencing, shaking wildly and biting his top lip in an attempt to stay quite. The figures above are carrying a large load in a bin linear, they are about to dispose of young and successful district attorney Anthony Thatcher, who until recently was taking down the criminal hierarchy. The distance shot of the whole scene is repeated as the body is tossed over the side of the bridge and the camera pans down accordingly. Another close up of Sean’s face reveals his shock at witnessing this and is alert to what has happened as the assassins exclaim the job is done and a shot of the rear window is shown as they re-enter the car, giving a mysterious element to their character. The car shoots off in the distance and the camera switches to Sean who is frozen and clinging to the embankment. Another shot of the forest landscape is shown to give the impression of Isolation for Sean. Who now slowly makes his way toward the limp body in the stream below. The camera zooms out as Sean edges closer to show both figures followed by a shot from the opposite bank reflecting on the Sean. The next shot is a intense close up from behind the body bag at ground level, looking up to Sean as he arrives. A trembling hand stretches out from a curious and fearful Sean. Then the climax of all the tension as Thatcher’s arm thrusts out the bag and a terrified Sean slips backward (close up of legs and ground) before we see him running under the bridge away from the scene, the next shot shows him sprinting all out along the stream displaying his desperation to get away and this is finally achieved as the camera tracks Sean as he escapes into the distance and safety of the outside world. With suspicion over this incident rising we cut back to Thatcher plundering out the bag, stretching upwards and beginning a slow and weary walk, limping up the stream, this is captured by 3 similar length shots but from different angles.

Section 4-Audience Research

IntroductionMy group consists of myself, Tom Caldwell, Matthew Plumb and Sean Austin. Over the past few weeks in class we have watched and analysed Thrillers and taken on board plenty of aspects that we can incorporate into the planning on filming of our own Thriller opening scene. This gives us a chance to develop our knowledge into a practical piece of work and import our own ideas to themes we have picked up from the study of stimulus films. Firstly, to better connect with our audience and gain an audience standing of what we are aiming out we created a questionnaire that would give us a more specific idea of what we should be producing.

Thriller Questionnaire

How old are you ?

15-20          20-25          25+

Are you Male or Female?

What is your favourite characteristic of the thriller genre?

Crime - Murder – Violence – Disaster – Legal – Psychological – Historical – Medical – Conspiracy

Why?

What are your favourite thriller films ?

Which is the best location to film a thriller?

Dark woods, caves, natural..  – Urban environments – In the home – Abandoned environments

Lighting ?

Dark, dim, dull   -   Bright, revealing and clear

Weather?

Rainy and dull  -  Misty and foggy – Sunny and Bright

Victim?

Male  -  Female

Victim Age?

15-20          20-25          25+

Villain?

Male  -  Female

Villain Age?

15-20          20-25          25+

How much would you pay to see a thriller?

Up to £5  -  Up to £10  -  Up to £15

What appeals more?

Fast paced, action  -  Slow paced psychological disturbance

What do you think is missing from the thriller genre/ or like to see more of?

THANKS FOR PATRICIPATING

RESULTS: