Camera Angles (Revised)

Below is a list of all the camera angles and camera techniques we have planned to use in our opening scene; explaining what each of the camera angles are and why we want to use them in our media product.

Camera Angles:

The camera angle marks the specific location at where a camera is placed to record a shot. A scene may be shot from several camera angles and produces different shots which in effect leaves us with a different feel of the overall film, characters and elements of the filming.

Close Up Shot:

In film, a close up shot tightly frames a person or an object. Close up shots are one of the standard shots used regularly with medium shots and long shots. Close up shots display the most detail, but they do not include the broader scene. Moving in to a close up shot or away from a close up shot is a common type of zooming.

We are planning to use a close up shot in our opening scene in order to distinguish our main character as well as to show detail; such as the characters emotion. This shot should help to create atmosphere and tension for our opening scene causing it to be more dramatic and successful.

Medium Shot:

In film, a medium shot is a camera shot from a medium distance. A medium shot is usually a shot of a person from the knees up/waist up, however in some standard texts and professional references, a full length view of a human subject is called a medium shot.

We are planning to use a medium shot in our opening scene as they are relatively good at showing a characters facial expression and body language, depending on where the character is placed in the shot. This again will create atmosphere and tension for our opening scene causing it to be more dramatic and successful. We are also going to use a medium shot to represent the importance of the character in our opening scene to an audience.

Long Shot:

In film a long shot typically shows the entire object or human figure and is usually intended to place it in some relation to its surroundings. It has been suggested that long shot ranges usually correspond to approximately what would be the distance between the front row of the audience and the stage in live theatre. It is now common to refer to a long shot as a "wide shot" because it often requires the use of a wide angle lens. When a long shot is used to set up a location and its participants in film, it is called an establishing shot.

We are going to use a long shot in our opening scene to show shots of thrilling action in order to create atmosphere and tension for our opening scene causing it to be more dramatic and successful. We are also going to use a long shot to establish different locations to an audience which all have significant importance to the rest of the film, hopefully creating un answered questions and confusion among an audience, captivating them from the very start of our film.

Two Shot:

A Two shot is a type of shot employed in the film industry in which the frame encompasses a view of two people (the subjects). The subjects do not have to be next to each other, and there are many common two-shots which have one subject in the foreground and the other subject in the background.

We are going to use a two shot in our opening scene to introduce an anomalous character to our opening scene and showing the emotional reactions between the two subjects. Again this will create atmosphere and tension for our opening scene causing it to be more dramatic and successful and create un answered questions and confusion among an audience, captivating them from the very start of our film.

High Angle Shot:

In film, a high angle shot is usually when the camera is located above the eye line. With this type of angle, the camera looks down on the subject.

We are going to use a high angle shot in our opening scene in order portray our main character to an audience as vulnerable or powerless. This should help us mislead an audience by conveying a false message on screen, making them believe our main character is a victim. This therefore will help create a bigger impact on the audience for the climax of the film when they finally realise the truth.

Dutch Angle:

Dutch tilt, Dutch angle, oblique angle, German angle, canted angle, or Batman Angle are terms used for a tactic often used to portray the psychological uneasiness or tension in the subject being filmed. A Dutch angle is achieved by tilting the camera off to the side. Many Dutch angles are static shots at an obscure angle

We are going to use a dutch angle shot in our opening scene so that we can portray psychological uneasiness to an audience. This psychological uneasiness relates to the genre of our opening scene that we are going to produce and would give an audience an awareness and realisation of our genre. It will also help to create atmosphere and tension for our opening scene causing it to be more dramatic and successful.

Camera Techniques:

Tilting:

Tilting is a technique in which the camera is stationary and rotates in a vertical plane. Tilting the camera results in a motion similar to someone nodding their head.

We are going to use the technique of tilting in our opening scene in order to create atmosphere and tension for our opening scene causing it to be more dramatic and successful. We would do this by showing one part of an object or subject and slowly revealing more and more.




Panning:

Panning refers to the horizontal movement or rotation of a still or moving video camera. Panning may also be referred to as the scanning of a subject horizontally on video or a display device. Panning a camera results in a motion similar to that of someone shaking their head.

We are going to use the technique of panning in our opening scene to create atmosphere and tension for our opening scene causing it to be more dramatic and successful. We would do this by showing one part of an object or subject and slowly revealing more and more.

Plot Synopsis (Revised)

Our plot synopsis remains unchanged as we were all still happy with our storyline and plot. We only needed to edit the name of the main character.

Below is our edited plot/opening scene synopsis.

Plot Synopsis:

Mitchell is a young man with a disorder unknown to others as well as himself. Mitchell has a split personality doppelganger disorder where he possesses two very different personalities and wakes up thinking that he has just encountered another nightmare, when in fact he has enacted it. Furious families from Mitchell's unknown victims plot for their revenge, leaving Mitchell fighting for survival whilst discovering the truth behind there actions.

Below is a synopsis for the opening scene that we are going to produce with an included summary for why we made these decisions.


Opening Scene Synopsis:

A series of flashbacks combined with premonitions(Which will reveal parts from scenes that will come later on in the film.)visually inform the audience by showcasing short snips of Mitchell captivated, running and tortured portraying a 'damsel in distress-in theory.'(This will force the audience to sympathise with Mitchell creating a false sense of security, making Mitchell the last person the audience pinpoint to be the killer, creating further mystery and curiosity and leaving the audience in a trance wanting to know who? Why? Being drawn in and captivated from the very start. This will create a bigger impact on the audience for the climax of the film when they finally realise the truth.)Mitchell's other personality will also have his turn in the spotlight, as the audience will see short snips of this side of him taking action.(The audience do not know about Mitchell's personality disorder and therefore will be mislead from the opening scene thinking that they are seeing Mitchell getting some sort of revenge, not realising that Mitchell is in fact the hunter; not the prey.)The opening scene finishes with Mitchell waking up thinking that he has just encountered another nightmare.(Again misleading the audience in order to create a bigger impact on the audience for the climax of the film when they finally realise the truth.)

New Time Plan

We again finally came to the point in the development of producing our own media product where we needed to start the filming for our opening scene sequence.

The first problem we needed to overcome was 'time management.' Therefore we created a new time plan that we could use, which would again inform us when all three of us are free to film as well as myself being free to act. Our media coursework deadline was drawing nearer so we made sure all of use cancelled any plans we may have had in order to complete all of our filming. We also decided to include our own personal deadline that we could stick to in order to make sure our filming didn't drag out longer than it needed to. The new time plan we produced is shown below:




After re-creating our time plan you can see we have created a deadline for our filming to be finished by the 25th February. The days we have made sure we are all free to film and in my case act are:
- Saturday 20th February
- Sunday 21rst February
- Monday 22nd February
- Tuesday 23rd February
- Wednesday 24th February

Filming Process Two

Below is the updated letter to the local police authority and the poster with the latest filming dates on.






Below are pictures that are of our actor when he was costumed and had his make up applied:







Also below is the weather overview for our updated dates:

Charachter Profile (Revised)

Below is the charachter profile of the final actor for our main role.

(Click to Enlarge)

Acting Conflictions & Changes

Due to undisclosed circumstances we now cannot use Victoria Thurston for our acting, due to time constraints and availability of Vicky we decided to make an informed decision to use a fellow group member (Hayden Simmons) to be our main character.

Changing the main character at the last minute is hard work and means we have to rethink everything and make sure that it all works. We thought everything through and think all of the main aspects will work with the new actor, a new character profile and a new plot synopsis would probably be needed but other than that it all fits in with what we want and have previously planned.

Filming Process

We have came to the point in the development of producing our own media product where we need to start the filming for our opening scene sequence.

The first problem we needed to overcome was 'time management.' In order for our group to film we had to create a time plan that we could use, which would inform us when all three of us are free to film as well as the actress we are using. Each of us have different plans on different days of the week making it hard to distinguish when all of us would be free together so that we could film. therefore we created a time plan on excel where we could visually see when all of us are free and that time plan is shown below:


(Click to Enlarge)


After creating our time plan and looking at the days we are free to film, we decided that we wanted to film on the days were all of us could be present, these days are:

- Sunday 7th February
- Monday 8th February
- Tuesday 9th February
- Wednesday 10th February

We chose to do this because we each wanted to have the same amount of inclusion and input for the production of our media product in hope to create an opening scene with the best possible outcome.

Another thing we had to look at was the weather and times on sunset as we want to film around the time of dusk, as this is england we do not always get the best weather and the times of sunset varies throughout the year dramatically, so we thought it was vital we checked it to see if it ios predicted to be ok for the set dates we have planned to film and luckily the day we are outside the weather and lighting is meant to be:

(Click to Enlarge)

To find out the weather predictions I used BBC Weather

Health and Safety:

The locations we are using at the school had certain health and safety procedures that we had to go through before we are allowed to film. Underneath the stage and the school basement are both out of bounds for students due to health and safety. This meant we had to get permission from the head teacher as well as the school caretakers. We were each taken through health and safety risks we had to take into account whilst filming in these areas, some of these factors were:
-Removing the trap doors that lead to underneath the stage
-Walking down the stairs leading to the school basement carefully
-Entering and Exiting underneath the stage safely.

We also had to consider other health and safety factors involved with the filming for our opening scene. Screaming, crying, shouting and blood are all being used in our shots that will be filmed at the nature reserve. We realised that a passing citizen may assume someone could possibly be in trouble or hurt and contact our local police service not knowing what is going on. To overcome this problem that may occur we wrote a letter to the local police station indicating filming dates and where we will be filming just in case, as well as creating signs which we would place around the nature reserve whilst we are filming for any passing citizens to indicate that filming is going on. The letter we wrote to the police station and the signs we created are shown below:

(Click to Enlarge)



Camera and Tripod:

Now that we figured out the dates we were all available and free to film we needed to book out the equipment that we intended on using. The equipment we have booked out are:

- Digital Camcorder

- And a tripod

We booked both pieces of equipment out on Wednesday 3rd February which we are allowed to keep until we have finished filming.

Budget:

Our budget is obviously very low as we are students and are not receiving funds by anyone. All together it has cost us around £20 for any of the equipment and props that we needed.