Filming Begins... Again

On 19/03/10, we began filming our new idea 'Carter'. During the lesson we filmed the scene when the mystery character makes his way to the interrogation room. After the filming of that sequence we uploaded the footage onto the Macs but after reviewing it we realised that we had made some mistakes (e.g. there was quite a lot of wasted spaces), so we did the sequence again.
For the sequence Constantine had to come in with black trousers and a pair of black shoes. The use of those props/clothing had connotations of a mysterious, shady and powerful figure. As our sequence was influenced by the Thriller genre these connotations were essential for us to use because those connotations are key to the conventions of the/a Thriller genre.

After College we went to our filming location (B137). The room was small, simple and there was hardly any big furniture (apart from chairs and a small table which could all be easily moved). Due to the room's appropriate features we thought that it was adequate for use as an interrogation room. When we had finished rearranging the room we began filming for our other sequence - the interrogation scene.
Due to unforeseen circumstances one member of our group couldn't make the after school filming session, this meant that we didn't have someone to operate the camera. Fortunately Eugene's friend (Connor) was able to help us out and we managed to get the filming for our scene completed.

This is what our filming location looked like before we rearranged it to make it more suitable for filming.

This is what our filming location looked like after we had rearranged the furniture.

New Production Treatment

Programme: Wednesday

Duration: 2 minutes

Audience: The opening sequence will not contain any elements of physical violence. The main target audience will be teenagers to young adults/adolescents (15-24 yrs). Those who enjoyed thrillers such as 'The Usual Suspects', the 'Bourne' Series and 'Double Jeopardy' should be able to enjoy 'Wednesday'.

Resume: An individual called Carter is being interrogated for a certain incident (which is never specifically explained or identified). While Carter is being interrogated a mystery man is slowly making his way to the interrogation room and when the mystery man arrives at the room he opens the door. Carter and especially the interrogators are surprised to see him. The mystery man's face or identity is never revealed.

Suggested Elements:
- Use of shadows and low lit locations to implement the generic conventions of a thriller genre
- Use of short shots to emphasise tension
- Use of thriller genre props e.g. black suits, black shoes.
- Use of thriller genre characters e.g. a mysterious male who is never identified

Filming Locations: B137

Recording Days: 19/03/10.

New Idea

On 12/03/10, we finally came up with a new idea but we decided to keep the genre as a Thriller meaning that we'll still use the production research for our earlier seeing as it is compatible (we just have to adjust it accordingly). Our new opening involves an individual being interrogated for a certain incident and while he is being interrogated a mystery man slowly walks up to the room the individual is being interrogated in and when the mystery man opens the door everyone (including the interrogators) are shocked to see the mystery man but the mystery man's face is never revealed in the whole sequence. I know this may not sound interesting in written form but it will look better when the filming has finished.
We started the storyboard today but we weren't able to finish it, we'll finish it in the next lesson.

Wake Up Call

On 9/03/10 we were meant to carry on our filming but two of our group members never showed up so in the end we never did the filming. However, their absence may have been a good thing. On that day we were shown 'A grade' examples of movie openings. When we saw how good the examples were compared to our own movie opening we realised that our opening sequence needed improving or a complete reboot. We referred this to experience as a wake up call.

After deciding to alter our opening sequence we struggled to come up with ideas to use in the new opening sequence. By the time the lesson had finished we still hadn't come up with any new ideas.

Beginning of Filming

On 05/03/10 we began filming our film sequence. It was a cold day especially for Rita as she was wearing clothes that weren't suitable for cold weather as part of her role in the sequence. We also placed fake blood on Rita's face and clothes to make it look like she really had been attacked. When we were filming we experienced a few issues such as interuptions from the public (locals of the area) as they sometimes walked through our scenes, there was also unwanted background noises such as children playing (from a near by primary school). Despite some of the difficulties we faced, we managed to get a significant amount of the filming. The reason we didn't finish all of the filming was because it got too cold and Rita (who has a big role in the sequence) could not cope with it so we had to postphone it for Tuesday (09/03/10).

This is the prop (fake blood) that we used for our sequence filming. We got it from a small costume shop in Manchester.

Pilot Study and Location Photos

Today (2/03/10) we took pictures of the location we're going to film from. The reason for this was that we needed to see if our ideas would suit the location (e.g the practicality of making sure the area was secluded). In a way this was a pilot study as we were making sure that everything would go to plan before the actual filming of our main project. The pilot study we did today helped us improve the quality (e.g. when we get to the location for filming we'll be aware of what the location is actually like and where certain aspects of the location are) of our pre-production planning and it also assured us that everything we planned to (i.e. from the story board) was plausible in our location. Due to the fact that we got to know our location today, we won't be wasting any filming time getting accustomed to the area on our filming day (Friday 5/03/10).

Although everything went well today, it was difficult to carry out. For example, in the beginning there was a missing member from our group so we had to wait for them to show up and then when we finally got to the location there were a few moments of light friction between some members of the group. All the disagreements that were experienced were fairly minor (most lasted for two minutes) and dealt with quickly.

Location Photos