Wednesday, 30 March 2011

Focus Group Findings

We made a focus group of three adults and three 16 year olds. We chose these ages because it spanned our entire potential audience, bearing in mind our film was predicted to be a 15. This revealed that the people we interviewed and gave our questionnaire to most wanted:
  • Suspense
  • Chase scenes
  • Elements of comedy
  • Scare scenes
  • Romantic elements
  • Horror elements
They listed their favourite thrillers as:
  • Shutter Island(2010)
  • Salt(2010)
  • Sherlock Holmes(2010)
  • Silence of the Lambs(1991)
  • Psycho (1960)
Using this information, we will try to craft our thriller to meet the needs of a modern audience by watching these films and studying the elements they liked.

By Bart Lang

Thursday, 24 March 2011

A Diary Of A Days Filming

We started off our day in Brentwood High Street. We all met there at 09:00 and then immediately moved onto our first location; an industrial estate just behind a petrol station.  When we walked onto our first location we checked for any hazards and they were in abundance, so we tried to lower the risk of getting hurt by the glass and industrial traffic by warning every member of the group and then clearing away the majority of the glass that we would be walking on. After we cleared some of the hazards we got the camera set up on a tripod and scouted out where we were going to run and how we would frame the shots to get the best effect possible.  On our first take of the first scene it ran smoothly but we decided to try it again to see if our second attempt would look better than our first.  On the second take I ran again and turned sharply onto the pavement and ended up slipping in the middle of the road inches away from a moving car. This shook me up so we had a five minute break while I calmed down and another member of our group (Josh Thomas) went back up to town to get some anti-septic wipes for the minor injury sustained in my left leg.  After the incident was resolved we went to film our second shot which consisted of my character jumping over a concrete block and running away. This gave the impression of a high tension chase scene.  Our next scene was of me running down a straight road, we obviously couldn't do this without it getting boring so we had to do some intense tracking shots and a close up of my face as I was running. This also added to the atmosphere.  These shots served the purpouse of filling the gaps and keeping up the tention in between important events. Once we had lots of footage ready for editing, we decided to go and speak to the local Police force as we were attempting to film in a public area using a fake knife. After speaking to the Police Sargent he told us that we could film as long as there was no public in the vicinity which could become distressed.  Once we had talked to the police we realised that we had run out of time in wich to film, so we went to finish our last few shots and made arangements to continue shooting another day.  After this we went back to our original location and found a shot which we could make look like CCTV so we set up the camera and filmed and then later edited with black and white blur and harelines in the footage to give the impression of CCTV. The last scene we had was difficult as we had to film in the woods. This was awkward because we had to make sure we did not trip over branches which provided health and safety hazards That we had not foreseen.  We come up with the idea of doing point of view shots which was difficult as i had to stay still until Bart got to me and stood in my place.  The last shot of thriller proved tricky because someone had to jump out from behind a bush, grab my back and pull me into the undergrowth. This took several attempts as we had to find a place where the man wouldn't be seen. Also to make it life like the other actor (Ian Slade) had to yank me back hard.  This took several attempts to make it look believable, whilst avoiding injury. After all this we went back to school and imidiatly edited it.

By Scott Cawkwell   

Friday, 18 March 2011

First Location – Brentwood Industrial Estate

For the first day of filming and for the start of our thriller our group and Alex Wright went to Brentwood Industrial estate to shoot our first shots of the thriller. We immediately found a great place to start filming; a small car park in front of a disused warehouse which had been boarded up and had smashed windows. This provided us with the perfect setting to start filming. The warehouse is supposed to be the location of a poker game but obviously the warehouse is supposed to look like it is all done up inside with the perfect facility for playing poker. In our thriller we have tried to portray “The Boss” as a proliferant gangster. As the warehouse looks very abandoned and smashed up with broken windows and glass everywhere, it was very helpful to us portraying  the character of “The Boss”. As the industrial estate is quite large we did have some trouble with cars which Scott found out about quickly. Other shots we took were just outside the Car park and onto a road which leads through, then out, of the industrial estate. Another shot we took was at the bottom of the location; a walkway to a busy road. This was another good spot to carry on our chase scene, however we made sure to be carefull of the cars. The last location in the industrial estate we used was a small wood just behind the warehouses. This was a good place to film as we could show that Jason (played by Scott) had escaped the bouncers which were chasing him. The woods made Jason look very vulnerable because it looks like he has nowhere to run to, which was shown as Ian or Derek catches him unexpectedly.


This Industrial estate is where we filmed.
By Joshua Thomas

Why We Should Have Listened to Our Health and Safety Risk Assesment

The location for our first scene we filmed outside an abandoned warehouse.  There was glass all over the place and the floor was damp and slippery.  When I was running in the first scene, I tried to turn the corner and slipped onto the floor, just skimming the bumper of a moving car. This was painful; I was in shock for a while and left leg was grazed.  We sent one of the members of the group back to the highstreet so he could get me some antiseptic wipes so I could disinfect and clean the wound.  We were lucky as this was the first scene of our thriller so we could easily do it again. My jeans were ripped and i had the big cut on my knee the whole way through the thriller so this kept up the continuity.

By Scott Cawkwell

Wednesday, 16 March 2011

Character Details

Bouncers
There are two bouncers, Derek and Graham who are employed by “The Boss”. The two bouncers are there to protect the boss in case of emergencies.  Both of these bouncers are very strong and both smoke cigarettes within the film. Derek is played by Ian Slade and Graham is played by Alex Wright.
 Main Character
The main character in this film is called Jason. Jason is involved in a real poker game which is worth a lot of money. In the poker game Jason cheats by dropping a card under his foot and replacing it with another card up his sleeve. This is why Jason is in trouble with “The Boss” and why he is running from him. Jason is played by Scott Cawkwell.
“The Boss”
The Boss is a very wealthy and powerful man within the film. "The Boss's" name is Mr Kowalski. He is after Jason as Jason cheated in a game of poker which “The Boss” was involved him. We can see that “The Boss” is powerful as he has two bodyguards and also smokes cigars throughout the film. The Boss is played by Josh Thomas.
By Joshua Thomas

Planned Locations for our Thriller

Brentwood Multi-Story car park: We plan to film the scene where the bouncer is dead on the floor, with the main character standing above him with a knife.

Bond's Snooker/Poker Club in Brentwood High Street: We plan to film the poker scene here, where the main character cheats the mafia boss out of his money.

Brentwood Industrial estate, behind police station: We plan to film the chase scene here, where the main character is on the run from the bouncers and gets dragged into an allyway.

By Ian Slade

Tuesday, 15 March 2011

Risk Assessment

Where we have chosen to shoot poses minimal risks for our group. However, certain risks are unavoidable. Such as:
Industrial Estate:
  • Broken glass on the floor- Risk: Medium- We will kick any broken glass out of the way before we start to film.
  • Risk of tripping during chase sequence- Risk-High- We will also remove any trip hazards and be careful to look where we are going.
  • Risk of accidentally tresspassing on private property- Risk: Low- We will make sure to stay off any privatly owned areas.
  • Risk of falling off various ledges- Risk: Medium- We will scout the area first and make sure that we know where any ledges are.
  • Risk of bieng hit by a car- Risk: Low- We will make sure to not film in the road and if we need to film there, we will make sure to have someone looking out for traffic.
Multi-Story Car park:
  • Risk of being run over- Risk: High- We will film on the top level of the car park where traffic is at its minimum. We will also have someone to spot for cars.
  • Risk of being thought to have commited a real crime- Risk Medium- We will talk to the owners of the multi-story car park first before we film.
  • Falling out of the edge- Risk: Very low- We will be careful not to wander towards the edge and will employ the use of common sense.
By Bart Lang