Progress Report: 14/03/11 By Naomi

This week we planned to record 'Elisha' falling down the stairs, the mother scenes and pregnancy scenes. Overall felt more comfortble experimenting with different angles and we acheived to finish preghnancy scenes, mother scenes, both evil and normal expressions and lastly the beignning of throwing down the stairs scene.

Also, contiuously been editing the scenes that we recorded, and making it more realistic. Still got more to record and edit, before we start experimenting with the music and how it will fit together.

For Next week, we will aim to finish all recording and just focus on the editing.

Things to film:
Boyfriend and Elisha in Park
Mother, Brother and Elisha Fight
Rest of stairs scenes.

Progress Report -Rabia (:

week beginning 14th March

Progress

Naomi and I was able to record the scenes of the girl writing some of the riddles and also we was able to record the scene of her posting the letter, when filming we were very creative towards the camera movements, as we had the whole say to focus on this scene therefore it allowed us to be more creative .

Action Plan

• Film scenes of the mother
• Falling down the stairs
• Continue editing.

Progress Report -Rabia (:

Half term
I was able to record the girl and Elyica scene in the park, due to some actors being unable to attend due to revision or work, we was not able to complete the rest of the filming, this was with some help of a year 13 student as Naomi and Ramita were busy with personal reasons. However, this did not stop me from going out and recording as i knew if i did not start we would be in a very difficult position now.
By shooting the beginning scene I had shown Naomi and Ramita, for some feed back and whether or not we should re-shoot, fortunately it was approved by both and then we was able to re-shoot the scenes Mr Bush said, which were the bath scene as they were cut quick.

Action Plan

• To shoot the mother scenes 
• The writing of the riddles
• Also to start editing the scenes shot already.

Progress Report- Ramita

Progress Report:
Rabia and Naomi met over the weekend to do some filming, however I wasn't able to attend and film with them. They filmed Rabia giving a letter someone and they filmed the scene with the riddles on the sheets. Also we stsrtaed our editing and have edited the beginning of the trailer.

Action Plan:
Have to finish of filming final scenes
Continue Editing
Choose possible music

Progress Report - Ramita (:

Progress Report:
We were all planning to have most of our production filmed over the half -term and to come back to school and start with editing the scenes. However we weren't able to meet this target as some of the actors were busy and we weren't all free on the same days.

We all all met up we reshot the bath scene and recorded different angles of Rabia in the bath as the scenes we recorded before we not up to scatch. We also recorded the hand scene of the person who is unknown to the audience pushing Rabia into the bath from different angles. I was not available on the day we had to film the park scene. However Rabia filmed the scene with te help from a year 13 student. This scene will be the opening scene of our trailer which Rabia sucessfully filmed.

Action Plan:
Re- do a schedule for which days we all will be able to be present and film.
Inform oustide actors.
Get props for the scenes that we will be filming.
Record park scene again.
We will need to speed up with filming and begin editing soon, and think of possible sound/music which we will be using in our trailer.

Progress Report - Half Term Naomi :)

Half Term Week

Initally we were all excited to get on and finish our filming for the trailer however there were a lot of circumstances where we all busy, but the days where we were free, our outside actors were busy so was hard to juggle.

However, we still managed to reshoot the bath scene mainly focusing not making the camera shake and different angles where we see the hand coming to push the main character in the water. we did repeat the shot several times, and we are now all 100% confident that one of them a successful enough to be in the trailer.

Although not present during the park scene where the main character and little sister go out as a way of bonding and relfecting a happier time in trailer, Rabia successfully filmed with help from a Yr13 student the beginning of our trailer. after veiwing the footage, i was again confident that no further reshooting was needed apart from one shot which can easily be done.

Action Plan!

Get all filming done and organise characters with date and time and sticking to decisions and ensuring all props are bought and ready to use so we can start editing as soon as possible.

Test Screening Report by Naomi

Average Grade Scores

Media Language: B

Conventions: B/A

Creativity: B/A

Attention to Detail: B

Technical Proficiency: B

Cinematography 

Through all the comments, two very clear positives came out from the cinematography of the scenes we shot. Firstly, the use of camera angles and most close ups were used effectively which primarily the reason why the other positive came out from this was that, the emotions of the character were clear and interacting with the audience. A quote ‘strong scary emotions’, is an example of what we wanted to achieve in the trailer overall.

A common criticism that came through was being able to capture more angles within the shed. Initially we did find it quite hard to get a variety of angles as the setting was small, but trying it again, we can implement more high angle and long shots. Lastly, some shots need to be clearer as they sometimes went blurry and ensuring that the right message is put across. Need to show two legs during build up scenes of bath room shots.

Mise En Scene

Overall, everyone mentioned that the use of props and unwanted objects in the scene created good attention to detail and made the scenes more effective and intense. Our audience liked the use of candles in the bathroom and the teddy bear in shed alongside the random tools in order to create the dangerous mysterious look. Overall we will continue to think about the use of props in appropriate scenes. 

The main point that came through the feedback was that during the shed scene, the main protagonists clothing didn’t represent a real actor that supposedly meant to be psychologically disturbed. Next time when re shooting this, we need a purer colour that is dirty to represent her class and how her appearance reflects her emotions rather than joggers and a t shirt. 

Lighting

Within the shed scene, we experimented with a torch to create a contrast between dark and light to create low key lighting. From the feedback it was quite successful and created a good image which we will therefore continue to do. 

A room for improvement would be to create a way to keep the torch still as through the scenes we could acknowledge shakiness which made the scenes look unprofessional and unclean. We are hoping to reschedule to reshoot the scene in order to accomplish and correct this criticism. 

Sound

Through the scenes we showed, they were non dialogue hence no sound was being experienced by the audience however through one of them where the main protagonist was singing, it created a real psychological effect which was successfully portrayed. These scenes are going to be used during random moments of the trailer to confuse the audience what the real narrative is about.

For future shots, there will definitely be more dialogue as we have more characters to create this. After these shots are taken, hopefully our audience can experience and comment on how it they are successful or not. 

Conventions

As our genre is psychological horror, it was successfully connoted trough the various facial expressions and close ups, alongside the settings. Our audience felt that it met the horror conventions of being twisted and scary which is a big compliment to our production as we know what to continue doing.

As a whole, using the conventions of horror, our audience would like to see more shocking scenes that crate engagement and fright for example a stare in the mirror and someone entering behind with sudden music.  Also, during the bath scene, we could try to make the hand more shocking with the sign on the hand. 

Summary

Overall, as a group we achieved many successful and creative aspects through lighting and settings. We need to just ensure that we capture all the conventions of horror and use different techniques, more soundly and make sure all camera work is not shaky or blurry as it was common through some practise scenes.