Filming of Our Sequence.

We filmed the sequence today, so it is now ready to be edited and put together to create the final thing before peer analysis.

The filming only took about an hour and a half and we got all the footage that we needed. However, whilst filming we encountered some problems:

1. House set up: because Anna was a stalker, we had to find a way to make sure she was seen by the audience but not obvious to the main characters, Teddy and Mandy. This was hard as there was no bushes around the window so Anna had to angle herself at the side of the window so that she could 'stalk' the couple in the front room. 
2. When filming the murder scene outside, we had a man come up to us and start yelling expletives and threatening to call the police on us. We handled this by walking away and leaving the situation, however when we walked back that way to leave home he followed us for a part of the way. However, no harm was done except for a man in New Malden hating us. 

Overall, the filming was very successful and as a group we are really proud of what we created. We also took some photographs of the filming in process!

<---Lucy and Catherine setting up the camera outside the house, preparing to film the establishing shot of the location.

<---Lucy and Catherine having problems with the camera by the looks of things!

 <---A photo of our friend Perry's house where we shot our opening sequence.

<---Anna in role playing 'the stalker' spying on Ted and Victim Mandy.

<---Preparing to shoot a scene with Mandy and Ted.

<---Perry and Lucy getting into role, ready to be filmed.

<---The cast, Perry Vazquez, Lucy Findlater and Anna Wylde, all friends in real life however this is certainly not the case in the film!

<---Catherine did the majority of filming the sequences.

Meeting 3 - Storyboarding/Planning

This week we spent our lessons on creating the storyboard which will direct us on the day of filming, and we decided we would film on sunday the 29th of January. We discussed where we would film we decided to film at our friend Perry Vazquez's house, Perry is also playing the character of Ted in the opening.
We concluded that during filming we will take photographs of; the location, props, costumes, characters, a group photo and the filming in action.

Meeting 2 - Week 2 Planning

In the second week of planning our sequence we continued brainstorming potential concepts and fortunately we all agreed on an idea. We decided our opening would be set in the 80's era and we would show this through appropriate costumes, makeup and music. We agreed our storyline would focus on a jealous stalker who watches the boy she obsessed over through his frontroom window and she sees him with his girlfriend. She waits for the girlfriend to leave, follows her, and kills her with an axe.

So far our planning had gone well, all 3 of us work well together and listen to each others ideas without disgarding them or laughing at them. When Lucy proposed this idea we all put our own ideas into it and adapted it to its final concept.

Meeting 1

Before we could begin planning or filming anything we had to discuss ideas such as what genre our opening would be, what style we would use, when and where it is set, who is going to be in it, and most importantly what the storyline would be.

We immediately decided that our genre was going to be horror, however this eventually changed to thriller rather than horror. We were keen to so a victorian style film by using costumes and victorian settings, however we decided that is would not be viable as we do not have the budget, time or expertise to be able to make this idea a reality.

Prop List and Costumes for Opening Sequence

Prop List/Costumes

1. An Axe: used for the murder of Mandy by the Stalker. 
2. Fake Blood/Ketchup: used to create the blood coming from Mandy's body after the murder has taken place.
3. 'Alcoholic' Beverages: drinks that appear to be alcohol (but actually aren't) to set the mood that they are a couple having a nice night in together.
4.  80s music: sets the era, creates the mood of what is happening within the frame. 
5. Stalkers costume: long black coat, black jeans, black Dr Martens and a black top so she is camoflaged when she is peering through the window. 
6. Mandy's costume: a polka dot dress, denim jacket, Dr Martens, bright make-up (lots of blusher, bright eye make-up, bright lipstick) Big hair and hair accesories, fingerless gloves. These will all give the 80's feel as these were worn in that era.
7. Teddy's costume: Hawiian shirt, shorts, boot, big hair. 
8. 80's music. Sussudio by Phil Collins.

Characters

Mandy

Mandy is a 18 year old girl played by Lucy Findlater and the opening sequence is centred around her. Her style is very 'pop' and she has a giggly and mischievious manner. She represents the stereotypical 'bimbo' who has little substance to her, however is blessed with very good looks. She is very popular and girls long to be just like her (although this isn't outright shown in the sequence, it is implied by her appearance and the fact the stalker is envious of her). When she visits her boyfriend's house she is followed and when she leaves she is brutely murdered by her boyfriends jealous stalker. In most typical teenage thriller films the murder victims are made to be unlikeable and the audience tends to feel no pity when murdered, though they are interested to find out who has done it and why. This is what we have intended following in the creation of Mandy's character.

Ted

Teddy is also 18 and is Mandy's boyfriend played by Perry Vazquez. Ted is an important character because the stalker character is obsessed with him and is green with envy when she see him with another girl. Ted has similar characteristics as his girlfriend and also comes across as a silly teenager. Despite this, there is clearly something that fascinates his stalker, so much so to the degree that she murders his girlfriend out of jealousy. Ted is supposed to represent the obviously 'good-looking' teenage boy who girls are infatuated by, he knows this and uses this knowledge to his own personal benefit. In the opening scene it is not established why the stalker is so obsessed with him, however this is what remains part of the mystery which would be solved if the rest of the film was continued.

Stalker

Anna Wylde plays the stalker is also about 18 years old and could go to the same school as Mandy and Ted although this is not revealed in the opening sequence. The reason we have decided not to give her a name and refer to as the 'stalker' is to create a mysterious, dark and fascinating persona. The fact we have intended not to reveal her name is to interest the audience and keep as much hidden from them in order to encourage them to watch the rest of the film. The opening consists of her watching Teddy and Mandy through a window and obsessing over them. Then she follows Mandy and murders her with an axe that she keeps with herself all the time and keeps inside her coat. The stalker is a psychotic and derranged caricature, clearly mentally unstable and what psychologists would consider abnormal. The rest of the film would be the investigation of who murdered Mandy and why, the discovery of the stalkers true idenity would reveal why she is so obsessed with Ted.

Target Audience

We have decided that our target audience would be for young adults and teenagers. If this movie was to be released we would give it a rating of 15. We have given our film this target audience because we are aware that many young teenagers and young adults love the genres of horror, drama and thriller.
This style of our film can be related to by teenagers and young adults as it explores the feelings of jelousy. People experience jelousy at all ages of life but it can be most prominent at a young age.
The characters can be related to by the audience as they are young and enjoy drinking and having fun.
Another theme that this movie explores is lust, and we are aware of how much young people experience this feeling. Mandy the character in this opening sequence is very unaware of what is about to happen, which again relates to hw unaware teenagers can be.

The main reason that the target is the same of the characters is that some of the feelings can be related to, it will entertain this audience as these are the extremes that happen when these feelings are introduced to someones live, and maybe the audience has felt as if they would want to do something like this in there life but would never take anything to those extremes.