Change to music

After filming the first half of our opening sequence, we found that the music we had chosen did not build enough and therefore was not synchronous with the visuals. Burt then created another track inspired by what he had watched back of the film. I think that this is much more effective in creating drama and tension than the previous track.

Storyboard

We have created a storyboard to help us decide the exact shots we want to use for each scene. This will make filming more organised and ensure that things will run smoothly. This is vital for our piece as we are relying on natural light throughout, and in order to create continuity the shots need to gradually change from early evening to night. Obviously we are unable to control the weather but by filming in winter we are more likely to be faced with rain and possibly even some snow. This has it's good sides and bad sides as it will achieve the desired melancholy and dark tone, but it will also make continuity harder to achieve (due to rain drops on clothes, views of the weather through windows etc.) and may make filming difficult (ensuring that the filming and sound equipment does not get too wet in the rain etc.).

Location Shots

We went to the locations that we want to use for shooting our opening sequence and took photos of the general area. For the majority of the sequence we will be filming in a multi-storey car park:

After Effects

I found this useful tutorial on how to create a CCTV effect for one of our shots when Jesse is walking through town, using Adobe After Effects:

BBFC Rating

We have decided to rate our film as a 15. When reading through the specifications below we found that if we were grading the opening sequence, the content choices would mean that it would be a 12. However the whole film would be a 15 due to the strong violence, strong language etc.


From the BBFC website:

• strong violence
• frequent strong language
• portrayals of sexual activity
• strong verbal references to sex
• sexual nudity
• brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
• discriminatory language or behaviour
• drug taking

Costume Design

How are your characters going to dress and how will this affect their representation?

The main character, Jesse, will dress in dark, bland and earthy colours. This shows that he is attempting to draw attention away from himself. The clothing will hint towards khaki and army green, once again implying that he wants to blend into the surroundings and avoid unwanted attention. The costume will follow a grunge-like appearance, reflecting a sense of gang culture, danger and an edgy mood. We have mainly based his costume design on the character of Tate from the TV show American Horror Story.

Dex will also wear dark clothes to blend into the shadows of the multi-storey car-park at night. This will also suggest that he is a dangerous and untrustworthy character.
Although Alexa will not actually be featured in our opening sequence, we have planned that she will wear mainly light clothing to suggest innocence, with one aspect always being black (e.g boots or jacket) to imply that she is not as innocent as we would like to believe and there is a twist to her character.

How will this affect the way the audience engages with them?

The audience are given very little information about the characters in the opening sequence, meaning that they will rely on detailed touches in the costume design to help them decide on what sort of characters they are. This creates an air of mystery and suspense surrounding the characters, encouraging the audience to engage with the piece and want to find out what is to happen next.

Music

We have decided to use a song created by our lead actor, for our final video. The song is perfect for increasing tension for the viewer and create the dramatic tone that is required for a psychological thriller. However, we are going to work with him to alter certain sections in order to make it fit better with the visuals.