Audience Expectation from genre

We asked members of our target audience what kind of conventions and aspects of film they would expect to see in a Sci-Fi/Thriller movie. We then put the results into an organised mind-map:

Storyboard

Theme and Plot

Film theme and plot inspiration:

Alien 

28 Days Later

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7ynwAgQlDQ

Make up inspiration and ideas:

Teen Wolf

Void Stiles for face make up: dark, bruised eyes, pale and sweaty skin.

Jackson for reptile make up: scales and lizard eyes

Sound ideas 

When we were storyboarding music and sounds we used inspiration such as the music from these 3 films and I showed this to Eloise and Abi before we started composing the score.

The Hunger Games 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPnXmTa68ro

The high pitch disorienting noise after the explosion

Les Enfants Terribles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=817Powjw5Ks

The strings are out of tune and give off an eery and tense atmosphere.

Alien

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDRLtgr2T9E

I couldn't find a clip of the sound but at the beginning of this clip however, you still get a clear idea of  the eery background noise throughout the film.

Film Opening Plan

This is a description of our film opening.

Inspiration for the narrative

For inspiration for the two narratives before we chose which film opening we will create, I looked at a film as inspiration for each narrative. 

For narrative 1 -

Alien (1979)

The use of lighting and sound is similar to our idea.

The film is also very typical of the sci-fi genre which is what we are aiming for.

For narrative 2 - 

American Werewolf in London

The creature feature aspect of this was the basis behind our second narrative.

Initial coursework ideas

Both of our ideas come from the genre of sic-fi and thriller although idea number 2 depends more on the idea of creature feature. 

Evaluation of Prelim

We had a major problem with our first lot of footage for our preliminary task. It was extremely low quality and was pixilated as we filmed on the wrong setting. Therefore, we had to re-film one lunch time with an iPhone 5. This meant that we could also use the room that we planned to use, because we couldn't use it before as it was busy. Looking back, re-filming definitely benefitted us as we had a prior knowledge of just what we needed, what angles worked and we knew that we also had to extend the narrative as it was too short. Therefore, when filming we extended some shots and emphasised the match on action aspect with the door, making the footage a suitable length.

I am pleased with the finished video although if I were to do it again, I know that I would try to improve a lot of the scenery and prop use and also develop the plot. Although for a short, first try at directing and filming I think that it really gave me a sense of working behind the scenes.

I think that this task will really benefit our group work when coming to planning and making our coursework film opening as we have now worked together as a team and have had time to practice with cameras and editing.

Finished Prelim

Here is our finished Preliminary Task:

Prelim Plan

When planning our preliminary task, we had to keep in mind our brief and make sure that we included match on action and shot reverse shots. We also didn't want it to be too complex because we only had limited time and resources and it was our first practical work we had done. The basis of our preliminary task was a kidnapping which included a simple plot and only three actors which made it easier to film and direct. We also had to make a clear storyboard which we had to work from including sound, shots and plot. This helped with filming and planning. Our storyboard is quite basic but it helped us understand what is going to be important when planning our coursework. We filmed it on a school video camera using a tripod.

Preliminary Task

For our year 12 preliminary task, the brief is to create a short film, including match on match action and shot reverse shot. One of the key focuses of this piece is continuity and it was interesting working in a team with a clear focus. 
My team was Holly Cook, Charles Ryder and I. I think that we work well together and we are in the middle of editing the piece which is a new experience as I have only done simple things in the past. I am excited to see how our first piece of practical media work turns out.