Stills from filming

When deciding the storyline for our trailer, we were inspired by the Se7en opening, we quite liked the POV shots of the killer sticking down images of victims and corpses in his scrapbook so we Inco-operated this theme into our trailer. We wanted to get across to the audience of who the victims are and gave them some indication on how the victims will be killed. We only decided to show the killer’s gloved hands as we wanted to create suspense of who the killer could be, making the audience want to go to the cinemas to watch the film at the cinemas.  We thought that it would be more appropriate and realistic to show what could possibly happen to the victims rather than showing the audience the victims getting murdered in the trailer. We also decided to shoot these shots in a slightly dark lighting as it shadows the victims, making the audience think that the girls are in danger and that something bad is going to happen to them.  

We wanted to create suspense and mystery throughout our trailer; we felt that having a scene in a car with Tovia running to her car trying to escape the killer would create this as she is unaware of who is lurking in the car. We were inspired by the opening of ‘Ils’ (Them)when creating the car shots as we wanted the audience to sympathise with the character in the trailer to make them want to go to the cinemas to watch the film to see what will happen to her.  Also, we decided to set the car scene in a rural setting to create further ambience of the trailer being scary to show the audience that Tovia is away from society and there is no-one about to help her.  

Possible problems on shoot/difficulties encountered, reflections & changes to plans:

Day 1:

On day 1 of shooting for our trailer, we decided to start with Rizwana’s scene, which involved being tied to a chair with brown tape.  However, a problem we faced was that the storeroom cupboard we filmed out was quite small which we found difficult doing high angle shots of Rizwana to make her look vulnerable and weak. But we overcame this by taking the camera off the tripod and standing on a chair to get this effect which we found worked out well, making Rizwana look scared and confined to a small space. Another problem we faced was as we used a torch in the cupboard so we could see Rizwana; however, we could see the shadows of Emily when she was filming, which didn’t look realistic as the killer was standing beside her with the knife. We overcame this by re-filming the parts where we could see Emily’s shadow to make it look more professional.  

Day 2:

On the second day of filming for our trailer, we filmed the car scene and Emilys scene, of her walking in a car park and getting caught by the killer.our original plan was to film on a main road however, we decided to change the location to a car park which is off the main road. we were worried that members of the public will see Emily getting strangled by a hooded killer. Also, originally we were going to film Tovia's running scene in the Plunge woods in Edenfield, however, we decided to change the location to the cemetery as we felt that this location would create a better ambiance of  creating a mysterious yet spooky feeling. We thought that the cemetery would indicate and symbolize Tovia's death and show the audience what could happen to her.

Day 3:

On third day of filming we decided to film my scene (Rizwana) on a hilly field for the beginning of the trailer. We wanted to create a sunny/light atmosphere to contrast with the dark/eerie atmosphere which we later created in the  trailer to make the trailer interesting and make the audience think about what has happened and to create mystery. As we filmed near Waterfoot primary school, we found it difficult to do the 360 degree angle of establishing shot of the field, so we decided to change this shot to a 180 degree shot which we felt worked out better. Also, the grass was wet and muddy from the previous night as it was raining, so we had to be careful so we didn't slip when filming and acting. Also, there was a path which I walked on whilst I was acting to avoid slipping in the mud.

Risk assessment

Health and safety on set is very important when filming as accidents do happen, equipment can be damaged and cast and crew can be severely hurt. Despite our film being set in a forest which has lots of dangerous elements which could harm our actor, we marked out a path where it was safe for Tovia to run for the running scene as the Plunge forest it quite muddy and slippery.

Orginally we were supposed to be using a kitchen knife, however for legal reasons we could't bring in a kitchen knife to school so we will be using a subsitute knife which consists of plastic, this is so that we don't harm any of the actors. As if we used a kitchen knife it would be dangerous as we could cut someone.  Also, we used duct tape on Rizwana’s mouth. We had to be careful not to pull of her skin, to prevent this we placed the on some fabric to make the tape less sticky so her face is not harmed from the tape.

Also, we used a baseball bat for the beginning of the trailer. We had to be careful not to hurt the person who was holding the camera for the POV shot of the bat coming towards me (Rizwana). We decided to swing the bat in from quite a distance from the camera and we used the zoom on the camera to still create the same effect but in a safe manner.

Props

To create our horror thriller, we used a range of props. We felt that the props helped enhance the trailer as the props we used were quite violent and dangerous which creates a chilling feel; this will also create enigmas and make the audience wonder about how the three girls will be treated creating mystery and suspense.

One main prop we used was a kitchen knife and other tools including scissors and crowbar, we wanted to create a tray with all the torture tools to show the killers fantasy. This would indicate to the audience that the ‘killer’ will be using these instruments to torture the three girls when they are caught. We felt that showing these props in the trailer will make the trailer appear thrilling and creepy as the audience will get an insight into how brutal the killer is and how far he could go to get his revenge. We also used duct tape for Rizwana’s character as we wanted to get across to the audience that Rizwana has been kidnapped by the killer and to show her being vulnerable. We had to be careful not to harm any of characters, so we made sure that the all equipment was handled carefully and responsibly. We also made sure that the duct tape was not sticky so that it doesn't rip of Rizwana' skin so we stuck the duct tape to some material to make it less sticky.   

Another prop we used was a newspaper article of the killer escaping the mental asylum. We made this prop using an existing newspaper and added headlines using Microsoft Word and images. To make the newspaper article old and dingy we used teabags to create this effect. We wanted to use this prop as we felt that we wanted to get give some knowledge to the audience about the killer and his background. We also created newspapers clippings of the three girls/victims this is where the killer cuts out the girls pictures one by one and sticks them in his scrapbook.

We also used a baseball bat at the beginning of the trailer to get across the violence and brutality the victims will face. We wanted to use a baseball bat as we wanted to get a contrast of the trailer being sunny and playful to violence. As we was creating a POV shot of the bat hitting the victim. We had to be careful not to hit the person who was filming as we were swinging the bat towards the camera.