Proposal for the Thriller

Thriller Proposal

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Lighting and microphone workshop

Before we started filming for our project, we had a workshop on lights where we were shown 3*lighting is set up and what it is used for. The Three Point Lighting technique is a (professional and standard) method used in visual media such as video, film, still photography and computer-generated imagery. It uses three lights called key light, fill light and back light.

The big lights are called ‘Redhead’ and the small one is called ‘Lilliput’. The flaps covering the bulb are known as ‘barn doors’.

The key light is the main light as it is the strongest and has the most influence on the look of the scene. Fill light is the secondary light and it is kept on the opposite side of the key light. It is mostly used to fill the shadows created by the key light. These two are the direct lighting in the technique unlike back light that is placed behind the subject. Its purpose is to provide definition and subtle highlights around the subject’s outlines which helps separate the subject from the background and provide a three-dimensional look.

We set up the three lights on the tripods as shown in the paper which I (have to admit) was quite scared to touch as they were quite big and expensive. We tried different colour gels for the cameras (which are the thin sheets of polyester or polycarbonate), to get different effects that enhance the mood in photographs. Colour gels have the tendency to melt if kept in heat for a long time which might possibly result in fire so we had to be really careful while using them.

(My group had decided to film everything outdoors so the studio lights weren’t necessary for this project.)

We were also told about microphones and headphones, for example, mono mic (puffy mic) which has the windjammer to block out unwanted noise and the usage of ‘fish pole’ to record interviews and such without showing the microphone. We are to use the headphones while recording sound (interviews) so that we can change settings while filming: some things can be quite difficult to edit later in the post- production stage. 

BBFC Age Certificate

Here is what I summarised (and printscreened) what I found out about BBFC and what age certificates depend on:

As a director, I'll be aiming to get my film classified as suitable for 15.

Recce

After deciding our final idea and planning what we want to show in the opening sequence, we three met on a Sunday to look at the places Paris had on her mind- her neighbourhood in Greenford. We first looked at the path near a community school and thought we can start the sequence from that location where our character Grace is shown walking.

This paths lead to a church and we decided to include some ‘graveyard scenes’ in our production because they are associated with horror, creepiness and silence. It’d also seem a bit enigmatic as we see Grace walking into the graveyard for no apparent reason and then come running out looking very scared.

Lorraine who had agreed to be ‘Grace’ lived very near the church and we didn’t have to worry about anything like where to use the bathrooms, change outfits (not that we wanted different clothing), place to stay and keep the equipments if it started raining and so on.

 

We wanted some scenes at a cafe/restaurant where Grace is seen writing in her notebook with untouched/hardly touched food or coffee on the table. We asked the cafes in Greenford whether they’d allow us to film for a little while later in the week. One of them agreed and we were told to come after 3 on Tuesday or Thursday which is when we’d planned on doing filming.

We wanted a place to show Grace crossing the road and chose this place which is near the school. It was Sunday and all was very quiet. It seemed likely that there would be school children and other people on the day we film so we’d chose the road in front of the church as an alternative.

We choose an empty bus (Upper deck backseats) as one other place to film and finally Paris’s living room where Grace is seen writing and then tearing her notebook.

We have altogether chosen 6 locations and we’d be all set to start filming once I finish making the storyboard.

Mood Board

This is an example of a mood board I created to display initial thoughts of our subject matter.

I decided to show the different emotions commonly associated with mental disorders such as :

• Schizophrenia
• Bipola
• Multiple personality Disorder ect.

OCR AS Media Preliminary Exercise (Harrow College)

Our final piece for the OCR AS Media Studies Preliminary Coursework, demonstrating Continuity Editing, Match-On-Action, Shot-Reverse-Shot whilst following the 180- Degree Rule. Practice for making our Thriller Opening.

Preliminary Exercise Storyboard

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