Today I finished planning my Main Task. At first I did a rough idea of what shots to include and where; I then developed these ideas into a final shot list. This is my shotlist:
As the final stage of my pre-production I have illustrated my shot choices etc by making storyboards for the film. These storyboards include a sketch of how the shot should look, with a description of the shot below, detailing the shot type and what happens in the shot.
Before I can film I have to choose the location, cast, costume & the props I'm going to use.
Location
I've decided to film at my house as it fits really well with the genre of the film and the ideas I've had. My dining room for example is perfect as it's dark red giving a scary and sinister feel, perfect for a horror. It also has some great gothic looking items like a grandfather clock and a old, black fireplace. My garden should work really well as well for any of my potential garden shots as it will seem quite scary at night with the trees etc.
Cast
I've decided my film will be starring a young girl and I've decided to cast my friend Anna Molesworth. It doesn't matter too much about who plays 'Mandy', just as-long as they are young and female.
Costume
I want Anna to be wearing something quite girly, like a skirt, to give connotations of innocence.
Props
I don't need to get anything specific for props as anything that's needed I already have. The things I will need from my house:
Having gained some experience of pre-production during the preliminary task I have now started the pre-production for my main task. I found doing a brainstorm of initial ideas for the preliminary task very useful so have decided to do the same for the main task.
Through doing my brainstorm I managed to get some general ideas of how I wanted my film beginning to be. Firstly, I decided I wanted the genré of the film to be Horror. As the task is to create the opening scene of a film, I decided to get some inspiration and ideas by watching the opening scenes of a few horror films, looking out specifically for choices of mise-en-scène, shot types and camera angles.
These were the film openings I watched:
(Scream - from Youtube)
(The Ring - from Youtube)
Watching these opening scenes really helped me and gave me a lot of inspiration, as it helped me to gain a much clearer understanding of the conventions often used for horror films. I got many ideas for shot-types and mise-en-scène.
After doing this I decided to do another brainstorm of ideas for shot-types:
Having brainstormed my initial ideas I decided to do a detailed shotlist, describing what shots I would use, as well as explaining dialogue, etc. This is my shotlist:
Following this I did a storyboard for my Preliminary task film. This included rough sketches of how I imagined the shots would look, shot-type details, and any dialogue. This is my storyboard:
Today, I've brainstormed ideas for my preliminary task film. The film is a practise to prepare me for my main task. The film has to include a character walking through a door, sitting down, and talking to somebody. I will be using a match cut of the character walking through the door to help form continuity. When the two characters are sat down I will do several shots cutting between the two characters, illustrating the 180 degree rule & match on action.
The 180° rule is a basic guideline that states that two characters in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other:
Match on action is a simple technique used when filming to show continuity. An example of this, and what I will be doing for my preliminary is somebody walking through a door. I will be getting a shot of the character walking through a door and then a shot 'matching' the other of the character walking through the door from the other side. This is called match on action as it matches the action together.
