Film Planning - Editing

The Editing will need to be mostly completed within the allocated lesson time and during free hour and a half lunch breaks, this allows at least 4 hours a week to complete editing tasks. As both members of the team have Mac Computers at home, it will be possible to take work home and work over weekends if required, however using this method will mean a lack of co-ordination and communication during the editing stage. Having worked on a team at GCSE level on a stop-motion animation film, I'm well aware of the time and effort that is needed to complete the editing up to a satisfactory standard.

Film Planning - Timing the shoot (result)

It's the Saturday evening and we're happy with the results of the shoot! being the first weekend of half term our actors were able to stay without worries about weekend homework, and we only ended filming for 3 and a half hours, with constant darkness outside throughout.

Film Planning - Timing the shoot

The timing of the shoot will be crucial to the effect that's created in the film. The aim would be to create an atmosphere where it is pitch dark outside the house, and all of the light is artificial. This gives the impression that the film is set in the dead of night. This will be easy to do in February, as the days get dark incredibly early, making it easier to get a 'dead of night' feel in the film. However, there is an issue with the fading light giving us away, so therefore the shoot is due to begin at 7pm sharp on the Saturday night, when it is completely dark, and the levels of outside light will be consistent.

Film Planning - Actors

The victim in this film opening film was portrayed by Claire McCoy. She'd only had a small amount of acting experience through school and drama classes, but when looking for an actress, she was able to express emotion better than anyone else who we met with. Also, her age isn't always clear in the film, and there is an impression created that she looks older than she actually is, which is a positive point for our film, where we aimed to get someone of student age at home on their own. Her height makes her seem slightly vulnerable to attack, without looking like a child.

We wanted the antagonist in our film to appear more psychotic than simply a well built killing machine, this is why we went for Alfie Shaw as the film's killer. He was the tallest and leanest person who we saw about playing the role, and we believed he was the person who best suited our image. We gave him a plain black suit as a costume, and a black wig to attempt to make him look as smart and sophisticated as possible, creating a 'slick' look for the killer, instead of someone who was a natural fighter etc. Also, his height worked well in contrast with the victim, which allowed us to make him look imposing, and generally more powerful.

Film Planning - Props

Props needed for the shoot will be -

• Knives - preferably real, due to the lack of fights/physical contact there would be little danger using real knives.
• Knife block - this is key to the shoot and allows the audience to see that there is another presence.
• Additional lighting - due to the day/night effect we wish to create, additional smaller lighting will be needed, and will probably be used in each different setting within the house.
• Bed clothing - provided by the actress this will be used to show the night time nature of the film, and also it will be a perfect fit for the actress, anchoring her in that location.
• Bedside props - as the bedroom doesn't actually belong to the actress, great care will be needed when selecting the items around her, for example there will need to be lipstick/makeup on the bedside table, to conform to the stereotype, then also modern unisex items such as an ipod, that are often associated with younger generations.
• Suit - this is required to fit the antagonist, so therefore one of his suits will need to be chosen. the best kind of suit to get would be black, however any dark colour should suit the mood.

Film Planning - Storyboard

As there was a completely new idea for the second shoot, a new storyboard was needed, and after brainstorming ideas the following was created. Most shots were implemented in the final film.