'The Lumberjack' Completed Film Opening

Our Evaluation

 As a group we have put the answers to the 7 different evaluation questions onto a website.

Click here to view our website containing our evaluation.

Construction : Evidence of filming taking place

We filmed on the 16th January 2016, on this day we filmed with a Canon HFR106 camera however, when we filmed with this camera it was not formatted correctly. So the footage did not store on the camera or the memory card. Therefore, we had to film are 2 minute opening again, are second filming  took place on the 2nd March 2016. This new footage was filmed on a Canon EOS100D camera. 

The photos below are showing are group filming different shots: 

This photo is of a close up of of the boy shocked from an axe being thrown towards him. 

This photo is of a low angle shot of feet running, so the camera was positioned on the ground to ensure it was a low angle shot, this shot is also a close up of the feet to ensure that the audience understand the characters are scared and are running away from someone or something. 

This photo is of us filming a long shot of 'the lumberjack'. This shot is of the lumberjack in the background behind the girl and the boy when they are looking around, this is when the camera then focuses on 'the lumberjack' in the background, this shot is called focus pull.  

Above is some raw footage, this footage has not been edited and no sound has been removed or added, this is all just random shots straight from the camera that have been put together. 

Planning - Filming Schedule

This is the filming schedule for our teen horror movie. The purpose of a filming schedule is to make sure that when it comes to filming we are able to go through this and get certain shots done in a certain order because of their importance within the film. The filming schedule is important because it ensures that the whole group knows what is happening and when it will happen. 

Saturday 16th Of January:

At 12pm on the 16th on January, our group will meet in location 1 (the forest) to start filming. At 12 we will do the establishing shot which will set our scene (shot 1).

Quarter 1
From 12:05 till 12:20, we will film all of the running scenes in our first quarter (shot 2, 3, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14) giving u around two minutes for each shot. These will be no longer than 5 seconds long so most of our time will be used getting the actors in place and making sure we have the right angle for the shot.

From 12:21 till 12:30 we will do the point of view shots in the first quarter (9 and 15). These will take longer to film than the first 9 as the angles will have to be placed more strategically and make sure that the focus of the camera is on the right part on the scene and the correct characters.

From 12:31 till 12:50, we will film there shots of the girl using her phone (shots 4, 5 and 6). These will need a lot of direction as this involves the correct expressions from the actor and the props will need to be used appropriately so that the scene flows properly.

Quarter 2
At 1pm, we will move onto the running shots in quarter 2 (shots 20, 21, 22 and 24). These shouldn't take too longs we will have already done some running shots and will know how to maximise the use of the camera and the actors will know what they are doing straight away. This should take 15 minutes.

At 1:15 we will start filming the first axe scene. This will take some time as we will have to use shot, reverse shot to make sure that this scene flows properly and have all the right angles in the scene. We will need to film his scene at least twice so that it when it is edited it will look realistic. We will also have to place props in the correct place as in this scene the axe has to be place in the tree properly. This will take 30 minutes.

Quarter 3
From 1:45 till 2:30, we will be filming the scene where the girl gets killed by the lumberjack (shot 23, 25, 26 ,27, 28, 29, 31, 32 and 33) this will take time as we will have to film this scene 2-3 times as we will be using shot, reverse shot to make sure the audience feels like they are the actual characters and in the scene itself.

Quarter 4
At 2:45, we will start with the running, long shot (shot 34) and then move onto the point of view shot (shot 35). These shouldn't take too long as they are easy to do and we will have previously done similar ones to this. This will take 10 minutes. 

At 3pm we will do the scene where the Lumberjack chases the boy into the abandoned house (shot 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43 and 44). This will take around 1 hour as we will be moving locations and will be using shot, reverse shot to make the audience feel involved in the scene.

Planning : Shot List

The reason for shot listing is because you need to have an idea of what is going to happen within your film and the order in which it happens. Shot listing allows you as a group to make choices about what is going to be done and how it is going to be filmed, so it is effective for the target audience.

Planning : Mise-en-Scene

Character One:

Ben -

This character is the male character in our film who is a  student who is coming home from school, this will be portrayed in the costume they are wearing. The character will be wearing their school uniform, the uniform will consist of a white shirt, a tie, smart shoes and black school trousers. The character will also be carrying their school bag as they are coming home from school. This bag will be a fairly dark backpack, this is because our character is a teenage male who enjoys hiking and outdoor activities. This style of bag suits this because it is good for practical use and is quite resistant which is good for someone doing a large amount of practical activities. The character will be walking back from school and this bag is also suitable for a school bag.

Character Two:

Erika -

This character is the female character in our film who is a  student who is coming home from school, this will be portrayed in the costume they are wearing. The character will be wearing their school uniform, the uniform will consist of a white shirt, a tie, smart shoes, a pair of tights and a skirt. The female character will also need a school bag as they are coming home from school. This bag will be a typical teenage girls bag, this is because our female character is portrayed as the weaker between the two and giving her a more feminine bag shows this. The character will be coming back from school and this bag could be used as a school bag too. This type of bag is also common among teenage girls in school which helps portray the character. She will also have a phone and headphones, she will have an iPhone 6 and apple headphones as these are typical of a teenage girl.

         

Character Three:

The Lumberjack - 

The Lumberjack is the main villain in our opinion, he lives in an abandoned house in the woods so his clothes will be quite muddy/dusty. The Lumberjack will be wearing an old dirty checked shirt, dirty red braces an old pair of black jeans and black army boots. We chose this costume because it is the generic clothing for a lumberjack and after it has been made to look old and dirty it will have the connotations that he lives in the wild. The Lumberjack will carry an axe which will be the main way he kills his victims. After killing the first of the characters we will put fake blood on the end of the axe to create the illusion that it is the blood of one of the characters. 

Planning : Casting

Why is Casting important?

I believe casting is one of the most important tasks in Pre-Production and requires a high amount of care when taking on this challenge. Casting involves auditioning potential actors to find the most suitable person for your film. It is important that you find someone who is not shy in front of a camera, someone who will not burst out with laughter when filming, and someone who can create verisimilitude within the production.

To find suitable actors for our production, our group will run short auditions for the potential actors. We will give the actors short scripts to perform, and use these performances to decide whether they will be suitable.

The Female Character:

Below are the two females that auditioned for the role of Erica in out two minute opening. Our female character is a girl that enjoys using social media and texting her friends. She is still in school and walks home with Ben after school everyday.

India would suit this part because she is a 16 year old female and is still at school studying  her A-Levels which are Art and English Literature. She has a good personality and is not camera shy. She has two pet dogs who are named Candy and Eric. India dislikes people who moan and don't grab every experience that comes her way.

Toyah Jones is 18 years old and is doing her A-Levels at the same school as India. However she is studying English, Business and History. Georgia like watching horror films with friends and going to parties. She loves to be in front of the lens but she doesn't liking getting dirty or walking.

Black widow productions chose Toyah over India because Toyah would the part more because of her height and the age she looks. She lives near the location and wouldn't need travel and has clothes that will suit the role.

The Male Character:

Ben is also a 16 year old male who loves to play xbox at home . His best friend is Erica and they spend a lot of time together round each others house's. Ben loves to be social and love to attend house parties.

Ashley is a 16 year old male who loves to party and go to town with his friends and family. Ashley is very bubbly and is always up for a laugh. Ashley loves hiking and camping out in the wild. He has completed 1 out of 3 of the three peaks challenge. 

Dan Smith is a 17 year old male who like to attend the gym with his friends. Dan like keeping up with the fashion and likes going out to parties. Dan is also a clean freak and doesn't like things being messy or disorgaised.

Black Widow Productions chose Ashley to play the part of Ben because he will need to get dirty and Dan said he wouldn't do that. Ashley also looks close to the age of Ben. Ashley does live further from the location but one of our group would have to drive pass his house to get to the set so this isn't a problem.

Kye is 17 years old and enjoys playing games on his computer and Xbox. He likes to chill with friends on a weekend and play games with them including Call of Duty and Halo. Kyle loves acting and wants to uptake this part.

Aaron  likes going to a local music venues as he loves heavy metal. Aaron is in a band and like to record new songs that he creates. He likes to attend venues on a weekly basis and likes to go with his friends as well. Aaron also has an Xbox and likes to play Destiny as well as Skyrim.

Black Window Productions chose Aaron because of he likes and dislikes. His hair would suit the part and he said he wouldn't mind having make up on where as Kye was more hesitant. Aaron lives less then five minutes away from our filing location which makes him an ideal actor for our role

Planning : Location Planning

Location planning is very important this is because without the right location, the horror film will not seem like a horror film. For example if we set our opening in a playground in the middle of the day it would not have the same effect as having it set in the woods during the hours of day where light begins to fade. Below is the main locations that we will be using while filming our opening.

The picture below shows the main two locations that we will be using. Highlighted in red is Brambleside woods. We are using this location because filming in the middle of the woods allows us to make it seem as if the two characters are in a secluded location, we will do this by making sure that we are not near the road nearby so that the audience can not hear cars, if they could hear the cars it would ruin the illusion that they are in the 'middle of nowhere'. We chose to use the woods because the woodlands is where you would expect a lumberjack to be, also the woods has connotations of being eerie and dangerous during later hours. Many  different films use the woods as their set location an example of this is in the opening of 'Dead Mary'.

Highlighted in pink is an abandoned house. This will be the home of The Lumberjack. Below is a more detailed picture of what the house looks like. We think that this building is suitable because it is an old destroyed building which when looked at is instantly perceived as quite creepy. Another reason this building is suitable is because the inside is quite dark and some of the walls have burn marks on which makes the building look even more creepy. An example of where an abandoned building has been used in a horror film is 'The Abandoned' The trailer for 'The Abandoned' is below this picture.

           

Planning : Producing A Storyboard

This is our storyboard for our opening 2 minutes to our teen horror movie 'The Lumberjack'.
The process of creating a storyboard was rather simple, as a group we discussed how the  Main Task is going to take place. For each storyboard we had to state the following: 

• Location 

• Camera Shot

• Camera Movement 

• Camera Angle 

• Cast Required 

• Dialogue

From doing this I have learnt that your plan is the most important part because if you don't have this plan then the production of the film will not flow, then when it comes to editing the film you will not be able to combined all of the shot and make it seem realistic to the audiences eye. 
The purpose of doing this story board is so that we can see how our opening 2 minutes will look like and have a plan for the shots that we will use in our film opening. It will also help us plan out when we are having some of the opening titles on the two minutes. All of this will make it easier for us when we come to filming and editing our teen horror movie opening. 

Planning : Writing A Treatment For Your Chosen Opening

This is our treatment for our opening to the horror movie. 

• We are going to start off with an establishing shot of the forest.
• We are then going to have a tilt shot from the feet going up, the shot is of two school children walking home on a Friday afternoon. 
• There is then a tracking shot of them walking through the forest. Both of the students are listening to music through there headphones so there will be diagetic sound of the music they are listening to, however, both of their phones die, this will be use of a horror film convention. 
• There will then be diagetic sound of wood being chopped but the sound will increase as the students come closer to The Lumberjack. 
• The students then stop and look around to see where the sound is coming from. This will be a point of view shot and which pans around their location you will be able to see The Lumberjack in the distance. 
• The Lumberjack then begins to follow them, there is a close up/tracking shot of their feet as they run away, whilst running away there will also be a point of view shot of them running through the trees to try to get away from. 
• The male character stops because he is fatigued but as he turns The Lumberjack throws the the axe towards his head. This is when a reverse shot will be used to show that The Lumberjack is behind them, in the background you will see The Lumberjack preparing to throw his axe. The camera then follows the axe with a quick panning shot and then the male character ducks as the axe hits the tree. He then runs in a different direction abandoning the girl.
• The girl continues running away from the Lumberjack but then using a horror film convention the girl will trip and fall, this will be shown by a closeup of her feet as she falls. The Lumberjack appears above her and at the camera cuts to a point of view shot as The Lumberjack swings the axe towards her head. For effect we are going to hit a watermelon with the axe to create the sound effect of her head being hit by the axe.
• The camera then cuts back to the boy then spots an abandoned house and tries to escape to it, the shots used are point of view and tracking shots. When the character approaches the house he hides behind the entrance of the house. When stood in the doorway he looks around the house. He then turns and looks through the doorway to see if The Lumberjack is there, he sees him run past so he is relieved and the non-diabetic music loses tension. However, when he turns to look again the lumberjack is standing there and the non-diagetic sound will be a jumpscare sound which will be loud and quite high pitch to add to the effect of the jumpscare. The camera then cuts to a point of view shot of the axe being swung at his head, then the screen will cut to black.

Planning : Producing A Shot List

Shot	Shot type	Actor	Description
1	Establishing		Of forest
2	Close up	Girl and boy	Tilt of characters
3	Long shot	Girl and boy	Of the characters walking home
4	Close up	Girl	Of the girls face and phone
5	Extreme close up	Girl	When phone runs out
6	Close up	Girl	Girl taking earphones out
7	Panning/tracking	Girl and boy	Of them walking home
8	Extreme close up	Girl and boy	Of their feet walking
9	Point of view		Looking around area
10	Mid shot	Boy and girl, lumberjack	Lumberjack in the background
11	Long shot	Girl and boy	Girl and boy walking fast
12	Close up	Girl and boy	Feet walking fast
13	Long shot	Girl and boy	Long shot of them running
14	Close up	Girl and boy	Close up of feet running
15	Point of view	Boy and girl	Point of view from the lumberjack
16	Long shot	Boy	Taking a breath by the tree
17	Close up	Boy	Close of the face and the tree
18	Mid shot	Lumberjack	Lumber jack throwing the axe towards the boy
19	Mid shot	Boy	Axe in the tree and boy shocked
20	Long shot	Boy	Long shot of boy running away
21	Close up	Girl and boy	Feet running
22	Mid shot	Girl and boy	Of the girl and boy running
23	Close up		Of twig
24	Long shot	Girl	Girl running away
25	Close up	Girl	Close up of feet when girl falls
26	Mid shot	Girl	Girl on the floor
27	Point of view	Lumberjack	Lumberjack standing above the girl
28	Close up	Girl	Close up of face in shock
29	Mid shot	Lumberjack	Lumberjack about to swing the axe
30	Black out		Title
31	Mid shot	Lumberjack	Lumberjack and the axe with blood on
32	Point of view	Boy	Lumberjack watching the boy standing there
33	Long shot	Boy, girl and lumberjack	Boy running and lumberjack following
34	Long shot	Boy	Boy running away
35	Point of view		Lumberjack looking through the trees
36	Mid shot	Boy	Boy stopping again
37	Point of view		Boy sees the house
38	Long shot	Lumberjack	The lumberjack running
39	Long shot	Boy	Boy running
40	Long shot	Boy	Boy running into the house
41	Point of view	Lumberjack	Lumberjack runs past the window in the distance
42	Mid shot	Boy	Him looking around the house and breathing in relief
43	Mid shot	Boy	Boy looking out the window again
44	Close up	Lumberjack	Lumberjack jumping up at the window