R+P Post 16: Casting

For our main shoot we created a cast list. This included the names of the characters, a brief description of their background, a head shot of the actor and details of the actor.

We chose Celine to play our main character, Grace, because we felt that due to the fact that she did A-Level drama, she would be a confident and capable actor. Furthermore contributed to the racial diversity that we were aiming for in producing our sequence.

Josh and I were chosen to play the characters with brief roles, Ella and Anthony because we decided that it would be easier to organise rather than have to rely on two extra actors. It would be also be easier as due to the small size of the roles, it would not be worth asking two people to give up their time for.

The cast list was useful in briefing our actors as it helped them step into the character and gain some quick knowledge of them.

R+P Post 15: Our planned filming location and set design

For our filming, we chose to use Gabriel's house as our only shooting location. We felt this would enhance our project as it would be easier than transporting the kit around, which meant we could spend this valuable time on our shots. Additionally, the bedroom we used was quite simply decorated which would help us as it meant we didn't have to make any major changes to the set, apart from adding a few props.

We created a prop list in order to organise which props we needed to bring to the set on the shooting days. The props were essential for our sequence as they connoted the personality and motives of our main character, Grace. For example the mood board which we created showcased the extent to her stalking, and the knife, camera and gloves suggested the murder that would occur later in our film.

On the right is the set and prop list which we used for the main shoot.

R+P Post 14: Our call sheet

We created a call sheet for our main shoot in order to help it run smoothly and provide information to our group and cast. We included our location address, mobile numbers for our cast and production team, health and safety precautions, and call times for both our group and our cast.

Please click on the call sheet to enlarge to a detailed version.

R+P Post 13: Our shoot-board

We created a shootboard to organise our shots chronologically and add more detailed information to them. We added the location, timings, description, actors and props, and roles for our group. Additionally we included space to note down how many takes of each shot we took and which one was the best to help us while editing. The storyboard significantly helped us coordinate ourselves efficiently while we filmed our opening sequence.

R+P Post 12: Our animatic

To create our animatic we took still images based off the drawings on our storyboard and edited them together using Adobe Premiere Pro. We also added rough dialogue and the soundtrack which helped us visualise our sequence and trial the timings of each shot.

The animatic was useful because we were able to adjust the timings of the shots for the length of the dialogue, and ensure that our sequence fulfilled the correct two minute length as briefed to us.

R+P Post 11: Our timeline and storyboard

Our timeline
The first thing we did in order to plan our opening sequence was create a timeline. We did this by gluing pieces of A3 paper together and splitting it into three tracks: video, audio and dialogue. The timeline was used to plan out the rough events that would occur in our sequence and the duration of them. We found the timeline to be extremely useful to refer back to when we created our storyboard.

Our storyboard
We created our storyboard using a large piece of sugar paper and coloured sticky notes, with each colour denoting a shot type. The colour key went as follows:

• Green - Close up
• Orange - Mid shot
• Yellow - Long shot
• Pink - Titles

The colour coding was useful as we could assess whether we had used a variation of shot types, as stated in our task guidelines. We drew the basic shots in pencil on the sticky notes which made it easy to rearrange the order of them and add and remove shots.

R+P Post 10: Reflections so far/looking ahead

Reflections so far:
I think so far we have worked well as a group and come up with an exciting idea for our opening sequence. We have encountered some minor problems along the way while drafting and planning the idea for our opening sequence, but I think the final idea we have come up with is something we will be able to execute well given our constraints.

Looking ahead:
The test shoot will be a great chance for us to trial our ideas and see if they work within the setting and the shots and are actually feasible, and also if they look good. Some of our shots we aren't 100% sure about but I believe that once we complete the test shoot we will be able to rectify them and have a solid opening sequence by the end of it.