Preliminary task

Within our group we have decided to do the first couple of minutes of a horror movie. We analysed the key aspects of a horror movie and thought about what we could do and use. We thought about the characters and what they would wear and who they could be, the setting and where we could film the shots, the music, the sound effects and the lighting.

Film genres

For our film, we have chosen to create the first 2 minutes of a horror movie.

The setting will be on in a wooded area such as Ashtead Common and a house. At the very beginning we will use fast and short shots to create tension.

We will have our main character putting a sign up on a tree for a missing cat. We then show the main character walking into their house and their parents asking them if they are going to go out and look for the cat. So they then go outside and into the woods to look for their cat when our main character gets mysteriously attacked. We then see a pair of hands sticking a 'missing' poster of the main character.

We will use a few silences and maybe muffle the sound to add effect and make the opening more intense for the audience. Our main lighting will be using a torch as it will be in the evening. We will show a point of view shot of someone walking with the torch to create tension. We might use some music too but it will mainly be sound effects.

Preliminary Exercise Stills

This still shot has the CCTV effect as it looks like the camera is situated in the corner of the room. We stood on a table to get the high angle effect. You can see from Steves face that he is quite angry looking with his fists clenched. However Rob Looks fearful because he is pulling away. We can tell that we are focusing on Steve as the camera is facing him and not Rob. This is also a twp shot wherewe can see two people in the shot.

Preliminary Exercise Stills

This is an extreme close up of Steves eyes so it shows his emotion and expression. The main focus is on how he is feeling as there is nothing else to take out attention away. This is the shot when Rob has just broken up with Steve and it shows Steves feelings and his eyes start to water as if he is going to cry. This is effective as people can clearly identify how he is feeling and his reaction to the news.

Premliminary Exercise Stills

This is an over the shoulder shot to show that we are behind Steve and focusing on Rob. This is the part in the clip where Rob is breaking up with Steve.This is where the main action and focus happens. They exchange a couple of lines of dialogue sitting opposite each other on the table. We can also see from this shot that it is a office kind of environment by the desks and chairs.

Preliminary Exercise Stills

This is a still shot of Steve, our main character entering through the door. We filmed a close up shot of his hand opening the door from the outside and this is just as he walks in and is shutting the door behind him. This is a medium shot of our character to show partly what he is wearing so we can tell a bit about his character and so we can identify what is happening in the image. From this shot, we then focused on him and panned across the room to show where he was walking to and this lead on to show our other character. We attached the camera to a tripod and as the character walked across the room we turned the tripod to make a smooth shot so the camera did not shake or tilt.

Preliminary Exercise

For the preliminary task, we were practising our skills which are needed for our main practical assignment. The task is to film and edit a character opening a door, crossing the room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. For this task we had to demonstrate Match on action, Shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.

Match on action requires a character to be in the same position in one shot and to be in the same position in the next if the scene is going to flow on from each other. Otherwise it is a fault in the film because for example someones arm might be reached out on the table in one shot and in the next it may be on their lap.

Shot/reverse shot is used for dialogue so when one character is speaking the camera will be focused on them and when the next person is speaking the camera would move and focus on the other person so whoever is speaking, the camera is on them and changes for when the next person speaks.

The 180 degree rule is when you have to film from one side of the action. All of the camera angles andshots have to be taken from this one side throughout the task.