EVALUATION- 1. In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Media Products?

Before starting our opening sequence, our group looked at typical conventions that a Psychological Thriller genre included to give us the understanding and background knowledge to create and include in our opening sequence. We considered all the possible attributes to the genre and tried to create an effective opening sequence around them.

COLOURS USED- In our opening sequence, we edited and used colours often to help emphasise different stages and emotions throughout our piece. During the start of our opening sequence, we used no added colourations, whereas during the flashback sequence of the protagonists previous night we used added darkness and a yellow colour filter. We did this intentionally, to help create a visual understanding of the difference in the protagonists state of mind and well being from the night before to the morning after. We decided on the colour filter yellow, as we felt this colour was most effective in emphasising the characters disorientation from her mind and body and was a great colour to used to show the effect of drug use. We added darkness to the parts of our sequence where the mood is changed and our protagonist starts "tripping out" and becomes scared and paranoid. Again we did this to emphasise the girls state of mind and help give a visual understanding between her mood change from happiness to fraughtness and the change in atmosphere from disorientation to danger.

LIGHTING USED- As we wanted to give off the effect that our opening sequence was filmed at dusk and wanted to create shadows and tone in our filming, we filmed at Twilight time during the day- just before the day turned into night. This natural lighting gave us clear, yet darkened filming and also gave a great tone to our chosen setting. The lighting on the trees gave a dim, shaddowed effect and was exactly what we wanting to use during filming. As our sequence includes a mood change to danger when our character becomes scared in the dark, we had to find a suitable way to portray this lighting effectively through our shots. Due to not gaining any clear shots in total darkness, we decided to take a chance when editing our piece together and add a darkness filter to the chosen parts where the mood changes. We were not sure if the added filter would create exactly what we were wanting or even suit the clip, but after experimenting we found that it worked greatly and did help set the tone of danger and disarray to our mood change shots. When filming the shot where our character physically takes drugs, we used bright lighting and blur to help again show the difference in staTe of mind and also the difference in setting.

CAMERA MOVEMENT USED- We used a range of different camera angles and movements throughout our opening sequence to help add to the intensity of our plot. At the start of our sequence we used wide establishing shots, showing our main protagonist as the centre of the screen from different angles. We felt doing this was effective, as it gave the sense of our character being a victim and produced an automatic eery atmosphere to our sequence. During the flashback part of our sequence from the girls previous night, we used many different types of camera angles and movement. When portraying in the flashback sequence the girls disorientation and happiness, we used many stable camera shots, but within the shot edited the timing to half speed or triple speed. This added to the visual understanding of our characters unstablility and also added to the wierd distortion of our sequence. In contrast to this, when it came to the mood change to danger in our sequence we used again different camera movement and angles. We used handicam, when the girl was running, to show a more realistic understanding of the girls rush and emotions whilst running through the woods and also used many close ups on her face to again emphasise the emotions present. We used canted angles when showing the mood change and also swayed the camera alot when filming point of view shots of her running to show how disorientated the character was from her body. We felt this contrast in camera movement created a clear segregation in the mood change the girl had undergoed whilst under the influence of drugs and also emphasised greatly our storyline.

GROWING SENSE OF DANGER USED- Throughout our clip we gradually built up the suspense and atmosphere intensity to help the audience understand and feel a growing sense of danger was present. We started off using the camera stable and with very little movement when establishing our setting then changed to canted camera angles and edited in darkness to help the audience understand that danger was becoming present. We then started adding in fast paced shots of the character running, building up more and more the speed of the shots to emphasise the suspense and disarray. We used sharp cuts between shots instead of fading to again help understand that danger and rush was occuring and also added a non-diagetic sound of a heartbeat becoming louder and louder to again add the the mise-en-scene and genre of our sequence. Heavy breathing and fast editing again added to the sense of danger we were trying to produce throughout the sequence.

-Comparision image between drug based Phsycological Thriller Shrooms and our media product.

LIGHTING-
As we were filming mostly outdoors, we relied mainly on nautural lighting. At first we wanted to fim in the dark, but this became a problem as we could not see anything through the camera or in reality. We tried filming with torches, but they didnt help on shedding much light on our given situation. We thought about buying LED lights and sticking them around the shots, but we could not find some that were not wired and needed an electricity source. We also tried "Night Mode" on the camera, but resulted in a more pixelated picture and again, very little help. If we wanted to carry on filiming in the dark, the only solution was to buy a high tec powerful camera light, but none of us had enough money or enough time to purchase one. We then decided to change our plans to filming at twilight, just before dusk came. We found that this gave us a gloomy, spooky light and atmosphere to our filming and helped add to our genre of a psychological thriller.

SOUND-
There were 2 different types of sound we could use in our opening sequence; Diagetic & Non-diagetic.
Diagetic sound is already present in the clip, so its the sounds that happen whilst filming like background noises and dialogue. In our opening sequence we had diagetic sounds such as, birds chirping in the background, laughing, panting and movement sounds.
The non-diagetic sounds we used were background music and a heartbeat to create suspense and tension at needed point in the sequence.

At the start of our clip, we have diagetic noises such as birds chirping and the noicse from our protagonist waking up. We also have diagetic sounds through her mini flashbacks. Then just as the big flashbackk occurs we have non-diagetic background music start. The background music was created by me, Luke and Toby on a xylophone. We chose to use a xylophone as we felt this would add again to our genre and mise-en-scene of our opening sequence as it created a quirky, spooky sound. We will also added in a heartbeat sound where the girl starts getting paranoid and tripping out- this will build tension and change the ideology of the clip as the up beat music will show her happy and free, but the heartbeat will show the change in her well-being. We also decided to emphasise her breathing and add in heavy breathing to build tension.
There isn't any dialogue in the clip, as we only have laughter and the one protagonist to film. We felt this would again add to our mise-en-scene and genre.

MUSIC RESEARCH-
We researched and looked through many different websites to decide what background music to use, however couldnt find any that was right. Instead we decided to use a xylophone to create our background music. We also looked through many website to find the perfect heartbeat, we were successful in finding a well suited typr of heartbeat and used it.

FILMING-
Filming turned out to be more difficult than what we'd thought. Our main problem was the lighting, twice we attempted to film and it was too dark. When filming we tried to use as many different camera shots and angles. We used long shots and establishing shots to show the audience where the character was and establish the setting. The panning shot we used at the begining was to establish the setting and produce an automatic outline of our chosen genre. I feel this shot was effective because the timing and pace was just right to built up tension and establish our opening sequence. We used alot of close ups and extreme close ups of our protagonists face to show her emotions and well-being and have a proper understanding of the moods she is going through. We also used over the shoulder shots and steadycam tracking behind our character when she was running to show how again her well-being and her emotions when thinking she was being follwed.

Using a variety of shots in our sequence, not only made it more interesting to watch but also helps symbolise, show importance and help the audience understand the atmosphere and narative. Also, before making our opening sequence, we were told to include as many camera shots and angles as we could, as this can increase our final overall mark. If any improvement on our filming should be done, i would say to of used more rigid and canted angles whilst filming, to add more disorientation to the filming and help emphasise the mise-en-scene of the sequence. I also think we needed more close ups of Jess when she was scared to show the emotion in her face, however we did use sound to compensate for this as the building heartbeat made it more intence.

ADDITIONAL FILMING-
After we had done allour filming and started editing all of our shots together, as a team we couldnt help but feel like something was missing. After watching what we had produced as a first edit many times, we decided that we needed to film an additional scene. The scene we felt was neccessary, was a close up over the shoulder shot of Jess taking some tablets. This represented her taking drugs, and a wider understanding that due to the drugs being taken,this was why she was "tripping out". We felt it was neccessary to add this, as we realised that it may not of been completely obvious that Jess's actions and emotions was because of the drug taking during our sequence. During our sequence, we slotted in this short clip in various places, to reinforce the subject matter, and to also add to our genre and style of filming.

The only problems that occured whilst filming this additonal scene, was we didnt have the same outfit at hand to use for this additional shot. This was a problem, as we wanted the shot to be in the same timezone as all the other shots as it could create confusion. To overcome it, Jess pulled down her t-shirt to look as if it was the same top of the previous used dress and we slanted the camera slightly whilst filming, so the outfit was not that visible or obvious.


EDITING-
Editing is very crucial to our opening sequence. It is the key element to giving the ideology we want to portray and also backing up our chosen genre. To edit our film we used a software programme called Vegas MovieMaker Pro. Its a very easy to use programme allowing us to edit our final piece with the use of colour filters, transitions, slide overlays, sound, etc. As none of us were fully experienced in using Vegas Movie Maker Pro, we firstly uploaded our filming then experiemented and tested all the range of tools that came with it. From doing this, we actually managed to produce some exceptional editing work on some of our shots and also it gave us a knowledge of what tools and editing techniques to use on the rest of our filming. We used triple time on some parts of the film sequence and added colourations to certain parts to add to the the mise-en-scene, disorientation and visual state of mind in our piece. This backed up our initial idea we decided for editing, which was using editing tools to create even more disorientation and help show our protagonists movement through happiness to fraughtness during our sequence.

MATCH CUT- At the start of the sequence we used match cutting between the clips of Jess lying in the grass, her close upson her face and her flashbacks. We did this to firstly enable that the audience could understand why exactly she was waking up in a woods, and what had previously happend for her to be laying there. The editing done makes it appear that shes thinking about her previous night as shes staring into the camera, and this is reinforced by the quick images of her night that keeping cutting in.

In the flashback parts of the sequence, we experimented with different colour effects and filters to help subtlely emphasises Jess's emotions and the state of mind she was going through. It explains to the audience that it's abnormal state of mind and the hallucination confuses the audience, which intreges them even more a creates subtle suspense.

We also used different effects to create the right lighting making it darker in places when she was becoming scared.This represented a dark and dangerous tone and feeling occuring and is also a very typical technique in a Psychological Thriller genre. When it gets darker it shows the characters mood changing from happy and giggly to scared and paranoid.

We played around with the speed and pace of certain clips and shots in the opening sequence, speeding some up to double or triple speed and slowing some shots down to half speed. We did this to again add to the disorientation of the sequence and show how our protagonist, Jess, was going through in her state of mind and emotions, and that she was not acting sane. We also felt it added more interest to our sequence, making it more enjoyable to watch.

JUMP CUT- At the start of the opening sequence we used jump cuts from the long shot of her body laying on the ground, to a closer shot of her body at a different angle, then again another angle. We also then jump cut straight to a close up of her face to signify importance and build the intensity.

We also experimented with editing techniques such as fading and over lapping sequences to get the right flow and pace to ensure the opening sequence ran smoothly. Through experimenting we came up with other creative, stange results. In the begining through over lapping and editing the speed, we had jess's image duplicated in different places, resulting in a random cut between clips and showing a distorted image that we were trying to produce. One of our biggest editing challanges was the scene where Jess appeared 3 times in the same camera shot at once. When first trying this, we found we coouldnt get the right it perfect enough so that she did appear on the screen 3 times. Overlappying the 3 images had not worked correctly, so we had to think of another way to produce our chosen clip. Through experimenting with cookie cutters and a printscreen image of just the background of the shot, we managed to create a perfect clip of Jess appearing in 3 places at once on screen, and this clip definately added and showed the disorientated tone that we were after.

Another way we used fading in our clip was at the ending, where we tried to create the point of view shot of her eyes closing looking up at the trees before she passed out. We used an overlay on the shot which made the clip look blurred and distorted, and we also a fade out, fade in, fade out experimentation where we wanted to represent her eyes closing, then opening, then closing again. We found this experimentation a success and used this in our opening sequence also.

RISK ASSESSMENT-
With any location used for filming, it is vital that you do a risk assessment pointing out all the dangers and hazars that are visible or might occur whilst filming;-
THE LAKE - The Lake is an obvious danger as there is every chance that one of us could fall in. To resolve this firstly, we did most filming away from the lakes edges and also team member Blondi is a trained and qualified Lifeguard; ensuring us even more saftey whilst filming.
BRANCHES- As we were filming in a small woods, there were many thorns, thistles and nettles about. To resolve this whilst filming in places we made sure all nettles and thorns were either broken or covered. We made sure any thorns or branches rooting along the floor couldnt trip us up by crushing them down onto the floor. We also made sure that all the team was aware of any highly risky thorns, etc.
MUDDY- The ground around the lake was very patchy with grass, resulting in most of the ground being mud. This could cause slipping if it rained or got damp to the team or to our main protagonist when at points she was needed to run. Also, as the ground is hilly, we could possibly fall and hurt ourselves whilst filming. So also, the team made sure we were careful and aware of this if it started to rain whilst filming.
STEPS- Some hidden areas around the outskirts of the Lake had wooden stairs leading to them. This again could be a hazard if it rained, as the wooden would become very slippy and any of us could hurt ourselves. There was no initial way for us to avoid this hazard, so if it were to rain, we would have to not film on the stairs.
GETTING LOST- As we were going down many hidden routes and through trees and bushes, there was a possibility that we could get lost. Also, as we were filming at twilight, with slight darkness, this increased our chances again of getting lost. To make sure we didnt get lost, all team members stayed together and we made sure we had assessed our route thoroughly so we knew exactly where we had to go to get back home.
TREE CLIMBING- For some shots, the Aerial shots, i had to climb up a high tree to properly get a decent shot. Climbing the tree obviously came with daners, as i could of lost my grip and fallen out of the tree, dropped the camera and equipment or even got stuck up the tree. To ensure me and the equipment had maxiumum safety, Team member Toby climbed halfway up the tree behind me for support, Luke sttod underneath me incase i dropped the camera, and i made sure i was in a suitable position that ensured me grip on the tree and movement to film.
BUSY ROADS- Next to the Lake, there was a busy road. As we went to film at twilight, around 5/6pm, this meant that is was rush hour and more cars would be on the road. This danger was avoided by making sure we all stayed together and when we needed to cross the road we didnt it all together and at a point in time where there was space to actually cross safely.
WEATHER- As all nearly all our filming was to be done outdoors, there was a risk that bad weather could effect our filming. If it rained, this could create more hazards visible around the Lake and also it could damage or ruin our equipment. To plan ahead from this, we checked the weather forecast and took umbrellas incase of a light shower. If we did experience heavy rainfall, then we would have to postpone all filming and reschedule.


SHOOTING SCRIPT-
We needed to write a filming script before filming to create more preparation and outline exactly how our filming could be done smoothly and as quick as possible. We needed to be over prepared and know how we were exactly going to film because we were filming at twilight and needed to use our time wisely before it got too dark to film. It also made a clear outline of what needed to be done, to make sure we didnt have to refilm any parts again or forget any of the needed shots. It also helped us remember the sequence the filming went in when editing all the shots together.
1. 180° pan, establishing shot.
2. Extreme close up of character.
3. Quick flashback of her popping pills.
4. Cut back to character and gradually zooming out showing her lying in leaves and forest area.
5. Tripple time rewind of sequence.
6. Long shot of girl skipping through woods down path.
7. Close up of face looking happy.
8. Pont of view of trees looking around, spinning.
9. Aerial shot of girl spinning.
10. Close up of girls face smilming, laughing, happy
11. Sky, spinning.
12. Forest establishing shots, girl in three different places, appear all at the same time.
13. On bridge, happiness drained, scared.
14. Long shot running down paths.
15. Over the shoulder, tracking, running.
16. Close up on scared face, panting.
17. Camera slants, show girl falling.
18. Up at trees again, fading, blurring, represent blinking and passing out.

Mise-en-scène- "When applied to the cinema, mise-en-scène refers to everything that appears before the camera and its arrangement—sets, props, actors, costumes, and lighting.Mise-en-scène also includes the positioning and movement of actors on the set, which is called blocking. These are all the areas overseen by the director, and thus, in French film credits, the director's title is metteur en scène, "putter on scene."
This narrow definition of mise-en-scène is not shared by all critics. For some, it refers to all elements of visual style—that is, both elements on the set and aspects of the camera. For others, such as U.S. film critic Andrew Sarris, it takes on mystical meanings related to the emotional tone of a film." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise_en_scene

CHARACTERISATION-
In our opening sequence we wanted our main protagonist to represent a modern young adult who had taken recreational drugs. For costume we dressed our main actor, Jessica Hutchinson, in a flowy little party dress with lots of jewellery to help represent her age and portray that she had got dressed up for an expected enjoyable night. The flowy little party dress was great at showing Jess's movement and looked great in slow motion as it shows every twist and turn Jess did. The outfit also helped build on the representation of the character's unstable mind. It also created contrast between the character and location, as the costume chosen was not typical for a woodland exploration. We also put Jess in ripped tights to show that on her drugged exploration she had stumbled, fell, and hurt herself; but she was unaware of this due to being high and tripping out. This helped build characterisation further and also added to the mise-en-scene of the sequence.

For make-up we decided to go with red lipstick and black eye make-up, as we thought this would be most effective when smudged and rubbed about on Jess's face. It helped give a clear visual outline of her moving through insanity during the sequence and helped build characterisation and mise en scene also. We decided to leave Jess's hair down and wavy, but we back combed parts of it and fluffed parts up to also show how the character was taking no care of herself whilst drugged and exploring.

PROPS-
We used very few props in our sequence as we wanted most attention to be focused on the character and the atmosphere. During the sequence we did inject experimental props such as glow sticks when Jess was spinning, to try and create added colour to the shot, but this didnt work as well as we had hoped, as no added colour occured whilst filming or when edited. We used snowdrop flowers in some shots, showing Jess playing with them to show her on a high and happy. We chose these flowers as they were pretty and gave off a positive engergy, which added to Jess's happy high in the sequence and also because they were easy to get hold of, as they were growing arounf parts of the location.

LOCATION

We needed to find a location that would be interesting, fit our genre and allow us to produce great shots and mise en scene. From our film research, we decided that we would film our opening sequence in a forest/wooded area. We decided to film at dusk/twilight time, to give us a variation of lighting, colours and atmosphere. We also decided that we wanted slight darkness to give off a spooky freaky feel to the opening sequence. Firstly, we decided to film in Maxey at Maxey Lakes, as it had a small woods around the edges of it and had a great atmosphere. A couple of problems came up from choosing this location. It took us a while to set up and our actor, Faye, came from Stamford and arrived later than expected. The torches and glow sticks we had bought didn't help produce much light, so we decided just to film on another day.

After our first failed attempt at filming, we discussed and contemplated what we could do different to ensure we successfully filmed second time round. We discussed a change in location, and changed to the local Reservoir in Eye Green. When it came to filming second time round, we again found it incredibly hard to film in the dark. I had done some research the night before second filming on how to film in the dark, but had no success on finding out how to film without buying certain camera accessories. Faye had found it hard to get to Eye any earlier than half 5, so again time had beaten us.

After further discussion on how exactly we were going to get our filming done, we decided on another Actor instead of Faye; Jessica Hutchinson. This was a better decision, as she lived in Eye and found it easy to get to the Lake and film in great time. We also decided to film at an earlier time, so instead we went out to film at half 4 and managed to finish at half 6.
Before we started filming, we took pictures of places around the lake which would fit in with our sequence. This ensured us that we culd remember and log down where abouts we would be filming.

STORY BOARD-
1. 180 degree pan to girl passed out on ground.
2. Close up of girls face, waking up, confused.
3. Quick flash backs,back to face more confused.
4. Big flashback in time showing vital scenes.
5. Beginning of girls evening after taking drugs, skipping through woods.
6. Girl jumping and spinning on hill, show abnormal behaviour and disorientation.
7. Aerial shot above girl spinning, laughing, then close up of her spinning showing her emotions in face and sate of mind.
8. Point of view shot of spinning looking at trees.
9. Point of view running down path, point of view, steadycam, show actions, behaviour.
10. Establishing shot, showing girl in 3 places at once, add to genre.
11. Sat on bridge, paranoia kicks in, heartbeat background sound.
12. Running away, thinksshes being chased, steadycam, tension.
13. Close up on girls face whilst running, scared, show emotion, suspense.
14. Running again, more suspense, tension, girl fall over at end- shown through point of view.
15. Point of view at trees, fade out, in, out, show eyes closing before passing out. Cut back to girls face at beginning, end of flashback.

Research

GENRE-
Firstly, we decided as a group we would make an opening sequence to fit the genre of a horror/thriller. But after more ideas and thoughts being produced, we decided to go along the path of a psychological Thriller/ Indie drama genre as we felt this would allow us to be more experimentive with camera angles and editing techniques.

"A genre is a loose set of criteria for a category of composition; the term is often used to categorize form of art or utterance. Genres are vague categories with no fixed boundaries, they are formed by sets of conventions, and many works cross into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conventions. The scope of the word "genre" is sometimes confined to art and culture. particularly literature and music, but it has a long history in rhetoric as well. In genre studies the concept of genre is not compared to originality. Rather, all works are recognized as either reflecting on or participating in the conventions of genre." -Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genre


"Drama films-
Dramas are serious, plot-driven presentations, portraying realistic characters, settings, life situations, and stories involving intense character development and interaction. Usually, they are not focused on special-effects, comedy, or action, Dramatic films are probably the largest film genre, with many subsets." - http://www.filmsite.org/genres.html

"Psychological thriller-
A specific sub-genre of the wide-ranging thriller genre. However, this genre often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre in addition to the typical traits of the thriller genre. Also, occasionally this genre will border into the also wide-ranging Horror genre.
Generally, thrillers focus on plot over character, and thus emphasize intense, physical action over the character's psyche. Psychological thrillers tend to reverse this formula to a certain degree, emphasizing the characters just as much, if not more so, than the plot.
The suspense created by psychological thrillers often comes from two or more characters preying upon one another's minds, either by playing deceptive games with the other or by merely trying to demolish the other's mental state.
Sometimes the suspense comes from within one solitary character where characters must resolve conflicts with their own minds. Usually, this conflict is an effort to understand something that has happened to them. These conflicts are made more vivid with physical expressions of the conflict in the means of either physical manifestations, or physical torsions of the characters at play."- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_thriller


TYPICAL CONVENTIONS WITHIN OUR CHOSEN GENRE-
COLOURS- Typical colours used and created during editing of a Psychological Thriller usually are used to represent emotion. For example, the colour red usually is used to represent anger, like in the opening sequence to Usual Suspects; the flames and fire giving off have a red a red glow to them, which gives off a sign of danger and anger. Howeverm colours such as yellow and blue are often used also, as they help portray a sense of disorientation and mood in a film.
LIGHTING- Lighting in our chosen genre is used to create shadows and create a certain tone to the film. An example of this is that in the film Gothica, the lighting is very dark and shaddowed, which makes the audience feel uneased and also gives a sence of danger, mystery and suspense to the film.
A GROWING SENSE OF DANGER- In horror films, the use of escalating sounds and pace change build up the intesity in the film, which gives off to the audience a growing sense of danger. This is produced well in the film The Hills Have Eyes.
EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS HAPPEN IN ORDINARY PLACES- The film Paranormal Activity has a prime example of the use of extraordinary events happening in ordinary places, as the setting of the film is a typical house. However wierd thins occur within the house, such as footprints appearing and unexplained movement from around the house, leading the character that playthe owners of the house to complete disarray.
CAMERA MOVEMENT- Camera movement in our chosen genre is used to relate to the intensity of plot. Sudden and fast movement usually show dramatic and out of control movements in the shots produced. Whereas slow movement and steady panning in a shot gives off a sense of danger and suspense to the shot produced.
THEMES BASED AROUND SOCIETY'S FEARS- A typical example of this would be a film like The Grudge where all the characters in the film are killed.
TARGET AUDIENCE- Psychological Thrillers are most commonly popular within the audience range of Young Adults/Adults. This could be due to the fact that most Psychological thrillers include a cast that range between this age, to do with the certification Psychological Thrillers are given and or also to do with the themes involved in a typical phsychological thriller film, i.e Graphic scenes, moderate violence, scenes of a sexual nature.


FILM RESEARCH-
We looked at certain film sequences we felt fitted out genre stlye and storyline. We looked at the camera use, editing, lighting, mise en scene, props, sound and locations shown in the films sequence.


SKINS-
We started by watching episodes of the TV Series Skins, as it is a drama about young adults experiences in life. We watched a stereotype scenario of a young girl taking drugs, with point of view shots of her paranoia and distorted vision. Non-diegetic sound is added at parts of the sequence which adds to the tension and suspense of what will happen next. We noticed during the sequence alot of shots we had already discussed had been used, which made us feel more confident in ourn planning. The lighting used in parts of the clip also help add to the distortion of vision and the young girls messy state of mind. Blue and orange tinges of lighting add to the strangeness and worked well with the use of a blurry fuzzy effect which portrayed the girls point of view.


SHROOMS-
We also looked at scenes from the film Shrooms. This film is about a group of young adults that go camping in a forest and come across "Shrooms". The film shows the effects the shrooms have on the characters and their wellbeing. The genre of the film is somewhat Horror, but certain sequences in the film were very useful and compatible to our ideas. This film also used the same unfocussed and blurred effects which works really well and makes it more interesting and help understand the situation and narrative. It also had a shot very similar to Skins in the forest, showing the trees above in a 360 degree pan. We found this effective, as it could resemble the characters on a high, spinning around or there vision and mind distorting. Another interesting shot was when the camera was put on its side. This was effective and made the sequence feel very strange and distorted again and we felt that this could be included in our opening sequence also.


DONNIE DARKO-
We looked at Donnie Darko, as the genre of this film is a psychological thriller and included very interesting camera angles and shots. Donnie Darko is a film based on a young boy who becomes possessed by a strange friend, "Frank". The lighting throughout the whol film is very dark and it is heavily edited. This makes the film seem more intensifying and wierd. In one scene the camera work is effective and we considered using it in our sequence; the camera does a full 360 degree turn from the characters point of view in slow motion. This adds the the distortion and psychological aura to the film and adds confusion for the audience.

Starting Our Film Opening Sequence

PLANNING-
When first assigned this task, as a group we all decided that the first thing we should do is brainstorm all of our ideas and thoughts on what we wanted our film to be about.

From our brainstorm, we all came up with inspiration of numberous storylines, props, and characters. This was great as beforehand we thought it would be hard to come up with an idea we would all like. We all thought in great detail about the editing techniques and camera angles we could take full advantage of to help suit our chosen genre of a horror/thriller opening sequence.

SYNOPSIS-
From our brainstorm, we formed a basic outline of how our storyline would go;

A young adult girl wakes up in the early hours of the morning in a woods, hair and make-up all messy and rough, looks hungover and down. She has flashbacks whilst waking up, quick shots flash across the screen, then a fast rewind of shots from the evening before cut across the screen. Then we cut to the start of her evening. She takes drugs the night before whilst out at a party, she ends up alone and isolated from everyone else and goes wondering into a near woods. We watch her turn from high, giggly and happy to paranoid, jumpy and scared. We see all of this from the girls perspective and overview of the scenario and make her appear to become vulnerable and unable to control her state of mind. The clip ends with the girl running and panting through the woods looking back behind her as if someone is following her.

When discussing the camera shots that would be used, we came to the idea of using basic standard shots and angles for when the girl is on a high, but then when she becomes paranoid, have the camera at distorted angles and use more close up and point of view shots to emphasis her emotions and terror. We also decided to use these angles to create a wierd/ strange ambience to the opening sequence, which would emphasise our chosen genre.