Group Planning
The group I'm working in consists of myself, Chloe Eustace and Miranda Simpson. My group and I have meetings regularly to discuss our progress with producing our thriller opening sequence. During meetings we talk though what we as a group need to to do produce our opening sequence, we record each others ideas and planning and each contribute our own ideas and debate the pros and cons.
In our first group meeting we discussed narrative ideas and inspirations. Myself, Chloe and Miranda all had different ideas for a narrative.
My narrative idea was about a group of friends who go on a camping trip for a Alice Morgan's (the main character) 18th birthday and little does she know the females in her family have been plagued by a curse since the 1800s. Every once in a while, a female in the Morgan family on their 18th birthday, usually of good nature and innocence, are said to have been taunted by a young ghostly figure before mysteriously vanishing and said to be claimed by an demoniacal being. Alice is unaware that during the 1800s, William Morgan, a relative of Alice, broke the heart of a beautiful young woman named Elise Elliot, she was a young maid working for William and his wife Anna. Elise and William had a whirlwind affair, and eventually called their relationship off, explaining to Elise he never loved her, only his wife. Unknown to William, Elise was of Romany decent, she was in fact a gypsy. Elise was riddled with unbearable heartache, excruciating grief and anger, so much so she cursed William before taking her own life. She cursed the whole Morgan family because she wanted William to pay for the pain he had caused her and wanted her suffering to be remembered for all eternity. Alice, leading up to her 18th had been having what she considered of odd dreams, she had been vividly dreaming of a young woman weeping over a man she had loved and lost, a woman eventually revealed to be Elise Elliot. Alice reveals to her friends the strange dreams she has been having while camping in the woods by her house, shortly before the ghostly taunting's commence.
The group and I thought it would be easier to decide on a narrative if we weighed up the pros and cons of each. We decided that an advantage of my narrative idea is that the location (a forest) would be convenient to film and still remain within the conventions of a thriller as the setting would be remote, eery and dark which would be typical of a thriller film setting. Another advantage would be the use of a female victim, this would again fit conventions of a thriller and enable the audience to sympathise with the character as she's portrayed as young, innocent and vulnerable. Also we came to the conclusion that a sub-theme of supernatural activity in regards to a curse, demons and hauntings; would produce excitement, apprehension and fear. These are three audience reactions which would be typical of the thriller genre. The main disadvantage of my narrative that my group and i decided was that its far too detailed and would be challenging to portray in just a short opening sequence therefore the part filmed may not make sense and confuse the audience. Also, It may be unrealistic to expect to film a portion of the opening sequence as if it were set in the past in addition to generation a convincing atmosphere of an 1800's time period.
Chloe's narrative idea was about a girl (One of the Victims), whose parents are away for the weekend and decides that she could have a party with friends. She lives in a pretty abandoned place in the town where there is only the neighbours. The party gets out of hand when everyone starts bringing there own friends and there is actually a murderer been brought to the party. They try to work out who is the killer (antagonist) but people keep dying one by one leaving only the females alive, the males at the party are being killed first. As the group and we thought it would be easier to decide on a narrative if we weighed up the pros and cons of each we discussed the advantages and disadvantages of Chloe's narrative idea. We decided that an advantage of Chloe's narrative idea was that there is the use of a female victim, this would be typical of the thriller genre. Also, The victims parents are away and she lives in an abandoned area, instantaneously the victim is seen a vulnerable and the audience are likely to sympathise with her. Another advantage would be that a murder occurs at the party, this would be conventional of a thriller and would be effective in generating shock, fear and apprehension We as a group came to the conlusion that the final advantage of Chloe's narrative was that only a group of females survive, the advantage of this would be the audience feeling sorry for them as they are portrayed as vulnerable as all the men have already been murdered so they are left to fight off the killer on their own. My group and I decided that some disadvantages of Chloe's narrative idea is that the may not be realistic to film as to find a location that is in a secluded area would be challenging. Another disadvantage would be that it would be difficult to find enough people to partake in filming the party scene, which would be necessary to make the film realistic. We decided that it would also be challenging to fit the main points of the narrative into 2-3 of an opening sequence.
Miranda's narrative idea was about a house in the middle of the Countryside. She decided there would be 3 female victims who wake up locked in different rooms scattered around the basement of the house, banging on the doors screaming trying to find a way to escape thinking that it is abandoned. However, with out them knowing the antagonists family are living in the house, not aware of the victims being there as all the walls are sound proof. Miranda wanted the audience to question whether the victims escape before it is too late or if one of the family members become suspicious as the antagonist keeps heading down to the basement? The group and I found three advantages to Miranda's narrative idea, they were; the location, as is presumed to be in a isolated area, this would be conventional of a thriller as it makes the characters within the sequence that much more vulnerable as help is too far to reach, again this would be deemed as a convention of the thriller genre. Also, the use of 3 female victims is also a convention of the thriller genre as the the audience feel sorry for them when things go wrong, generating sympathy for female victims is very typical of a thriller. Finally, theme of being trapped if used would make and effect opening sequence for a thriller as this would generate a lot of enigma and excitement from the audience and fit conventions of a thriller. Two disadvantages we found when discussing Miranda's narrative idea were that would probably be unrealistic to find a isolated location, with a house that has a segregated basement to film and it would be challenging to be able to film both parts of the narrative i.e. the antagonist playing 'happy families' and the ordeal the victims go through.
Following our group discussion regarding a narrative for our thriller opening sequence, Chloe, Miranda and Myself concluded that, possibly, writing a narrative together after discussing all the advantages and disadvantages of our own single narratives may actually help us to produce a narrative with a many little disadvantages as possible and that we could all have some input into.
Therefore after brainstorming various ideas, My group and I came up with our final narrative.
Our narrative is about two girls on the way to a party, who had were being followed by someone, and they didn't notice, so when they break down on the way to the party the stalker is behind them, (the stalker of which is the main antagonist and has a hidden identity from the audience and the girls, no body knows who this antagonist is as the scenes with him in we will use the camera shot Point of View.) which creates tension for the audience and dramatic irony because the audience know that they are being followed but the characters (girls themselves: Holly is the driver and the story bases around her. Gemma dies in the forest when she walks away from Holly at the car and she gets murdered by the hidden antagonist) are unaware of this. One of the girls gets out of the car and wanders off away from the forest to get signal, and the other girl stays behind and freaks out when she hears her friend get murdered in the forest, the camera will jump back to her and her reaction to this moment. It would be set in an abandoned street where there is no one around and in the middle of the forest.
Once we had decided our narrative as a group we diverted our attention to the planning of mise-en-scene, sound, editing and cinematography. Collectively as a group we came up with the key elements of our mise-en-scene and what we wish to include within our thriller opening sequence, these included a conventional use of iconography - knife, low key lighting, a forest setting, costume and makeup, props we wish to include e.g. car and radio, and the facial expression and body language we wish to convey. Below is a copy of the brief plan we made on miss-en-scene, sound, editing and cinematography.
While discussing sound with Chloe and Miranda, we came to the conclusion that we would all like to include non-diegetic fast paced eerie music in our thriller opening sequence towards the end as the antagonist's back is turned from the camera and he is seen by the audience calmly walking away from the scene of the murder, diegetic sound of upbeat music playing on the car radio in addition to having the two female characters singing along just prior to the car breaking down on an empty isolated road late at night, parallel sound of the antagonist walking through the forest stalking the girls prior to the murder and on screen sound will be used in our thriller opening sequence when the car engine starts to make noises when the car breaks down and the audience can see the car come to a halt, as the engine makes strange noises when the car comes to a unexpected stop.
Myself, Chloe and Miranda while discussing the cinematography of our thriller opening sequence all suggested that we include a mid shot in our sequence when the two girls Gemma and Holly (the two main victims) are in the car, a P.O.V. shot which will be used as the antagonist is watching the girls from behind there car and whenever it is the antagonists perspective, also when her follows one of the victims into the forest and kills her, again the camera will still be front the antagonists point of view, we will use panning in our opening sequence when the car breaks down the camera will pan and follow the car along the road and a long shot in our thriller opening sequence when the antagonist walks away from the the scene of the crime where he has killed Gemma and the camera will catch a long shot of him walk away.
When discussing editing we decided as a group that we would like to include a jump cut in our opening sequence when Gemma (the driver and 1st victim) has walked off on her own to find help while her friend Holly is left alone in the car, a reaction shot when the first victim, Gemma, is murdered and slow editing when the antagonist is seen by the audience walking away from the murder he/she has just committed.
Chloe's narrative idea was about a girl (One of the Victims), whose parents are away for the weekend and decides that she could have a party with friends. She lives in a pretty abandoned place in the town where there is only the neighbours. The party gets out of hand when everyone starts bringing there own friends and there is actually a murderer been brought to the party. They try to work out who is the killer (antagonist) but people keep dying one by one leaving only the females alive, the males at the party are being killed first. As the group and we thought it would be easier to decide on a narrative if we weighed up the pros and cons of each we discussed the advantages and disadvantages of Chloe's narrative idea. We decided that an advantage of Chloe's narrative idea was that there is the use of a female victim, this would be typical of the thriller genre. Also, The victims parents are away and she lives in an abandoned area, instantaneously the victim is seen a vulnerable and the audience are likely to sympathise with her. Another advantage would be that a murder occurs at the party, this would be conventional of a thriller and would be effective in generating shock, fear and apprehension We as a group came to the conlusion that the final advantage of Chloe's narrative was that only a group of females survive, the advantage of this would be the audience feeling sorry for them as they are portrayed as vulnerable as all the men have already been murdered so they are left to fight off the killer on their own. My group and I decided that some disadvantages of Chloe's narrative idea is that the may not be realistic to film as to find a location that is in a secluded area would be challenging. Another disadvantage would be that it would be difficult to find enough people to partake in filming the party scene, which would be necessary to make the film realistic. We decided that it would also be challenging to fit the main points of the narrative into 2-3 of an opening sequence.
Miranda's narrative idea was about a house in the middle of the Countryside. She decided there would be 3 female victims who wake up locked in different rooms scattered around the basement of the house, banging on the doors screaming trying to find a way to escape thinking that it is abandoned. However, with out them knowing the antagonists family are living in the house, not aware of the victims being there as all the walls are sound proof. Miranda wanted the audience to question whether the victims escape before it is too late or if one of the family members become suspicious as the antagonist keeps heading down to the basement? The group and I found three advantages to Miranda's narrative idea, they were; the location, as is presumed to be in a isolated area, this would be conventional of a thriller as it makes the characters within the sequence that much more vulnerable as help is too far to reach, again this would be deemed as a convention of the thriller genre. Also, the use of 3 female victims is also a convention of the thriller genre as the the audience feel sorry for them when things go wrong, generating sympathy for female victims is very typical of a thriller. Finally, theme of being trapped if used would make and effect opening sequence for a thriller as this would generate a lot of enigma and excitement from the audience and fit conventions of a thriller. Two disadvantages we found when discussing Miranda's narrative idea were that would probably be unrealistic to find a isolated location, with a house that has a segregated basement to film and it would be challenging to be able to film both parts of the narrative i.e. the antagonist playing 'happy families' and the ordeal the victims go through.
Following our group discussion regarding a narrative for our thriller opening sequence, Chloe, Miranda and Myself concluded that, possibly, writing a narrative together after discussing all the advantages and disadvantages of our own single narratives may actually help us to produce a narrative with a many little disadvantages as possible and that we could all have some input into.
Therefore after brainstorming various ideas, My group and I came up with our final narrative.
Our narrative is about two girls on the way to a party, who had were being followed by someone, and they didn't notice, so when they break down on the way to the party the stalker is behind them, (the stalker of which is the main antagonist and has a hidden identity from the audience and the girls, no body knows who this antagonist is as the scenes with him in we will use the camera shot Point of View.) which creates tension for the audience and dramatic irony because the audience know that they are being followed but the characters (girls themselves: Holly is the driver and the story bases around her. Gemma dies in the forest when she walks away from Holly at the car and she gets murdered by the hidden antagonist) are unaware of this. One of the girls gets out of the car and wanders off away from the forest to get signal, and the other girl stays behind and freaks out when she hears her friend get murdered in the forest, the camera will jump back to her and her reaction to this moment. It would be set in an abandoned street where there is no one around and in the middle of the forest.
Once we had decided our narrative as a group we diverted our attention to the planning of mise-en-scene, sound, editing and cinematography. Collectively as a group we came up with the key elements of our mise-en-scene and what we wish to include within our thriller opening sequence, these included a conventional use of iconography - knife, low key lighting, a forest setting, costume and makeup, props we wish to include e.g. car and radio, and the facial expression and body language we wish to convey. Below is a copy of the brief plan we made on miss-en-scene, sound, editing and cinematography.
Myself, Chloe and Miranda while discussing the cinematography of our thriller opening sequence all suggested that we include a mid shot in our sequence when the two girls Gemma and Holly (the two main victims) are in the car, a P.O.V. shot which will be used as the antagonist is watching the girls from behind there car and whenever it is the antagonists perspective, also when her follows one of the victims into the forest and kills her, again the camera will still be front the antagonists point of view, we will use panning in our opening sequence when the car breaks down the camera will pan and follow the car along the road and a long shot in our thriller opening sequence when the antagonist walks away from the the scene of the crime where he has killed Gemma and the camera will catch a long shot of him walk away.
When discussing editing we decided as a group that we would like to include a jump cut in our opening sequence when Gemma (the driver and 1st victim) has walked off on her own to find help while her friend Holly is left alone in the car, a reaction shot when the first victim, Gemma, is murdered and slow editing when the antagonist is seen by the audience walking away from the murder he/she has just committed.
This post demonstrates some evidence and understanding of why group meetings are essential to carry out. You have made a start on commenting on some of the discussions, but you need to ensure that you have covered all of the meetings that have taken place.
ReplyDeleteTherefore, you need to refer back to the meetings table and your planning sheets to complete this post.