First day of editing

Re filming

Last night we filmed all of our film again and this time it only took us an hour and a half, which is a complete contrast to Friday when it took us 3 hours! This time, filming was much smoother and definitely less stressful and I enjoyed it more. I am really pleased with how the film has come out and I am pleased that we all worked better together this time which is why we was able to film so quickly. All that we have to do now is three more shots, one point of view shot of the knife, one close up on a picture and a close up on Michaela screaming.

The shots that I thought were really good was an extreme close up on the knife covered in 'blood' and it showed the blood dripping off the knife. This looked really effective because it was implying horror and it showed the fact that Michaela had just been 'murdered'. What also looked really good was a mid shot of 'Jack the Ripper' holding a knife and following Michaela and as Michaela walked past the camera, he followed her and there was a slight glint on the knife which looked very effective and it was just by luck. When we filmed inside the conference room all the shots were effective when he circled and crossed the pictures with 'blood', this again implied horror. However, we did have some difficulties with this as we hadn't pinned Michaela's picture properly, so when the actor playing 'Jack', went to circle it, the picture moved with his finger so we had to re shoot it. I thought the fact that it was an over shoulder shot also looked good because we are still keeping him mysterious and secretive.

When we filmed 'Jack the Ripper' about to 'murder' Michaela we used a high angle shot which really worked well because it made Michaela look very vulnerable. We used an extreme close up on 'Jack's' eyes when he watches Michaela walking away, which looked good on the camera and it made it look scary. We also did an extreme close up of his feet when he is about to walk after her and we hope this will draw attention to him and build dramatic tension. We have shots of lampposts which looks really good in the dark, especially when he hides behind one of them when Michaela turns around, he blends into it.

Diegetic and Non-diegetic

In our film we would like to use non-diegetic sound, so we would like to add creepy music on top of the film. We hope this will add to the dramatic tension of the film as the characters will not be able to hear the sound, only the audience will. This creates vulnerability which will be very effective.

Filming Action Script

-[The first shot we see is an establishing shot of a lamp post and a pub.]
- (Wide shot) Woman coming out of a rich looking building/house.
- (Pan shot) She then begins walking down into the alley.
- (Close up/Extreme close up) Jack the Ripper hiding eye following woman.
- (Mid Shot) Woman still wallking through the alley unaware of being followed.
- (Close up) J the R feet coming out as going to follow.
- (Pan shot follow) Woman turing around thinking someones following her.
- (Wide Shot) Empty street no-one there.
- (Long shot) J the R standing by a lamp post with knife in hand.[to be continued]

Take 2

Our first attempt to film went terribly wrong and the shots were very bad, so now we have to redo the whole thing tonight. Hopefully it will go to plan this time and we now know that there is a night cam switch on the camera, so we will be able to see everything this time. We hope to finish everything tonight and because we have already had experience filming, we should now be quicker and more organised with the shots and everything should go smoothly, if not we could be in trouble. We want to do some inside shots tonight when 'Jack the Ripper' crosses out his victims, that he has murdered and then circles his next victims. We wish to do this in our school conference room and I would like it to be an over shoulder shot but whether it works out or not, we shall have to wait and see. I would also like it to be over the shoulder because we need his identity to be kept a secret as he was never unmasked, we are also going to do it in the dark to keep it mysterious. We are including a picture of Michaela as she is playing a victim so this will be really effective. Hopefully when we edit this, we can add our names into one of the newspaper articles for the credits, but we will have to wait and see how it all comes out.

To end our 2 minute film we were thinking of having loads of close ups on newspaper articles about Jack the Ripper and maybe have him looking at these articles like an over shoulder shot. We were also going to have a picture of his victims and victims to be and show him crossing the person he has just murdered out and then circling the next victim. What we also thought would be a good idea would be to put our names on the articles as credits it might be really effective but we will have to wait and see. I think we would have to make the articles look more aged though because of the time era.

Location

We decided to film on Gentleman's Row in Enfield because there was a pub nearby, there are lots of old fashioned lampposts and it looks really effective at night. It really worked with our time period and the pub nearby was an added bonus because that is where most of Jack the Ripper's victims were last seen.

Filming first day

Yesterday we started filming and we discovered that we has chosen the worst weather conditions ever. It was freezing cold, there was non-stop rain and it was very dark which was the biggest problem. This is because we now think that the lighting may have been too dark and we won't know until Monday, when we upload, whether we need to re-shoot any parts. It also took longer than we thought it would, because we would rather have filmed too much than too little. I think we worked really well together and I am proud of most of the shots taken. I am also hoping that our continuity is alright, even though we did use masking tape to mark where the actors were last standing. It was quite weird how we didn't film chronologically, I actually found this quite difficult, as I was loosing track of what we had and hadn't filmed , even though we did stick to most of our storyboard.

Another problem which I wasn't expecting was our Location to be so busy, as there were people walking past quite often, even though it is normally quiet. We still have one more shot to do but I am relieved that the majority is finished. What I also found challenging was being the director. I am really not used to bossing people about and having everyone waiting for my direction.This is the first time I have fully taken charge of something and in a way I am quite proud of myself but it could have gone a bit better but I am blaming the weather for that. I am now looking forward to uploading and seeing how everything looks and hopefully it is all fine.

Se7en

In yesterdays lesson we watched 'Se7en', it has got to be one of the best thriller films that I have seen. Although I did find it quite gruesome, even though it was only implied horror ,it was made so well. What I found really effective was when 'Brad Pitt' was deciding whether or not to kill the murderer at the end, his wife's face appeared with a quick flash. You had to watch this carefully, otherwise you might have missed it. I thought the implied horror worked really well and in some ways made it even more horrifying to watch, because I began to imagine what had happened. I really enjoyed this film and I would watch it again, but not on my own of course.

Costumes

Seeing as we are setting our film in the 1800's, in the time when Jack the Ripper was around, we needed to find costumes suitable for that time. We have decided that the male playing the part of Jack the Ripper, will wear all black, as he will blend into the dark night and it will make him more mysterious and scary. He will also where a top hat to make him even more mysterious, as we will not see the whole of his face. Michaela will wear a long black skirt and a corset, as she is playing a prostitute and this is what they would wear in the 1800's. The images above, roughly match my description.