Feedback, 31 January.

I'd echo Mz's points and add that some of you need to be more precise in your analyses of your research, too: what does "fast" camerawork mean - movement or editing? When you talk about music, you need to describe it (pace, instrumentation etc). Again, this will stand you in good stead for the exam.

Feedback Fri 30 Jan

Intriguing and has potential.  You need to avoid the potential to have horror here though.  The murderer in the mask could remind viewers of 'Scream'.  Try to complicate it a bit.  What is the enigma for the audience - for use of brain as well as emotion?  Perhaps follow the witnesses or the murderer but not both?

Atmosphere/Sound/Lighting

The group has decided that we would want to shoot on a gloomy day, with preference we would want it to be quite chilly or crisp. Time of shooting shoot be mid-morning so that there is a consistent amount of light throughout the whole shooting process. 

Our location has to be quite dense (depending on angles of shots) due to the fact that the audience should only be able to see more forest in the distance rather than a road with moving cars etc...

Lighting wise, each member of the group is going to prepare something to help get the essence of the shot completely correct. For instance, a large piece of cardboard covered in tin foil might be suitable for this.

For next lesson:

Each member of the team has to take a photo of a good location and also has to prepare a possible additional outside lighting device. 

Feedback Wed 28 Jan

You need to be more selective in your points.  The descriptions of what you see in the films should include use of terminology (eg: the protagonists are on a train, rather than 'they are'; a seductive female in her early 20s rather than 'she'; panning shot rather than 'it goes to' etc).  Practise this from the start and you will be more successful in exams and evaluations.

The Final Plot

Two teenage friends (the protagonists) are kicking a ball around in a forest. There is also a woman walking her dog in the background.

As one of the teenagers answers a phone call, he kicks the ball slightly off course, meaning that the other person has to go collect it.

When the ball has been collected the other teenager turns round and drops his phone in disbelief and stares, in the shot, the person collecting the ball then turns round, and stops as well. Just before this, there is a slow motion shot of the slide up phone landing on the floor.

The camera tracks round the two of them to the back of their heads, and in the distance you see what they were surprised about.

They see the immobile body of the dog walker sprawled across the forest floor with the dog sniffing around the body. They see a plain white mask with a smeared red handprint diagonally across on the face of the mask.  

As the two look on, they see a dark figure (the antagonist) strolling casually away from them, further on in the woods. The person then turns round slightly and stares at the protagonists for what seems like an eternity, and the protagonists notice that he is wearing the same mask, only without the handprint. 

The camera zooms-in in cuts to a close up of the eyes of the mask on the antagonists, as he turns away the shot is blackened from his hooded top, the title credits then come in.

Plot Idea

A man walks into an office, you don't see his face, just from his hands holding his briefcase down to his recognisable shoes.

He is handed a piece of paper and a mask in an envelope, from someone who's face is also not seen. The audience can see a small list of names and addresses on the paper.

As the man walks out of the office, you see him place the mask over his face, the shot of this will probably be from behind, so his real face is still not visible.

It then cuts to a shot of a woman (who is coincidentally the first person on the list), after seeing what she has been doing for about 5 seconds, the camera focus pulls to a darkly dressed man wearing the distinguishable mask in the distance. The next shot is then of the woman dead.

This continues, but then, when it comes to the last person on the list, the method of killing is shooting, but, the killer misses the shot, and the chace is on. The opening sequence that the group are creating can then end here, setting the plot up for any given happening.

Plot ideas

The first plot we came up with together was ;

A mum and a son are walking through a forest. The small boy runs to fetch a ball which he loses in the leaves. As he turns around to look at his mum he sees her lying on the floor with a man standing over her wearing a white mask, at this point the killer does not know the kid is watching. As the is standing over the body the kids gasps, this alerts the killer that the boy is there, the killer turns to look at the kid with the mask on. He slowly takes it off and puts it over the mothers face and walks off. The film then goes forward in time and zooms out of the mask where the kid who is now older is staring at the mask, while staring at the mask on his friends face he hears the same whistling tune.