...Change of Plan

I have just received a message from Sarah-jane telling me that she is no longer available for filming today. This means that we have had to reschedule for tomorrow afternoon, but due to having lessons tomorrow, unlike today, we will have less time to film as she begins work at 6 o'clock tomorrow evening. Therefore, we will only have about three hours to film, which is less than I wanted. I will, however, work very swiftly and efficiently tomorrow to get everything shot.

Luckily, my stalker is available this afternoon and so I am going to see if there are any scenes I can shoot with him, without having to shoot in his bedroom because I don't have any of my photos available today to create the "stalker effect". The majority of his scenes are in Sarah-jane's/Emma's house or in the stalkers bedroom, so it might be difficult to find things to film but I am determined that I will find something to film today so that my preparations do not seem like a waste.

Potential Risks of Today's Shoot

I will have to tie Sarah-jane's wrists and legs together today, and possibly put something in her mouth to 'silence' her. This could potentially hurt her and I have to ensure that I do it in a safe and comfortable way, while still looking like she is uncomfortable and cannot move. I will also have to tie her waist around a chair, meaning she will really seem like she cannot move from her position.
I will take extra caution and care to ensure that she does not suffer from any loss of circulation from the ropes being tied too tightly, or any friction burns from the ropes.

VLOGS!

I am going to try and have a mass-Vlog uploading session later on tonight. I am going to take some shots of preparation of filming and create a video to upload. I also have a Vlog that I created a few weeks ago that I haven't been able to upload yet because of the amount of time it takes to upload, so I will give myself a couple of hours tonight in which I will able to upload all of my video footage.


It will take a couple of hours because when I have tried uploading videos straight to my blog in the past, it has not worked. This means that I will have to upload the videos to my YouTube account, AbiDF2007, and because my camcorder is a high-quality camera, it takes over an hour for each video to upload to my account. I will then post the links to my blog in order for my followers to watch the videos.

This Week...

This week will be my main week of filming and production. Of course, today I am filming my scenes with Emma, but on either Wednesday or Friday, I will be filming scenes with the stalker. Depending on the day, on Tuesday or Thursday, I will create my "stalkers bedroom", decorating the walls with the photos and articles I have found and will borrow from Sarah-jane, my main actress. I have stocked up on Blu-Tac and am just waiting to print off the photos in the school library. I am going to shoot some scenes of Emma walking through school, if allowed.
As well as filming, I will also begin the editing process of the scenes I shoot today, and will hope to hear back about the music I would like to use.

Today's Plan...

Today, I will start filming properly. I'm beginning a lot later than I would have liked but today is the first appropriate day for me, due to illness and my main actor having been in Paris! I will be filming snippets of Emma Greene tied up in her shed, and shots of her being watched through various windows of her home. I will also film the scene before she is taken hostage, in which she arrives home to an answer phone message from her housemate, making the audience aware that she will be home alone for quite some time (meaning a matter of weeks, if not months). Considering that "secret shots" of Emma take up the majority of the opening, I feel that I will get a lot done today and so will not be as behind filming-wise as I am currently.


For today, I will need a video camera (which I have), my actor's house and my main props for today, which will be some rope, a phone, a laptop and a guitar, all of which I have!

Music!

I have decided on the music and sounds I want to use for my opening, but will not know how well they fit until I begin the editing process. The two songs are quite contrasting; the first is Call On Me by Eric Prydz because I wanted a happy, dance-y song from between 2004 and 2006 to represent the "teenage life" back then. The other is purely the orchestration of a song, What I've Done by Linkin Park. I chose it because I feel that the G minor key helps create a very tense atmosphere in which you feel that you are not aware of quite what is going to happen next.
I have researched into the copyright issues behind both of these songs, and am waiting to hear back from the institutions that produced them. 

Information and Research

Foreword: Due to not having been at school last week, I hadn't been able to post some of the posts I had brewing on my school account, so here is my information and research on stalking that I completed two weeks ago!

 Stalkers….

Praise the Lord for my mother! Her job requires her to attend a two-day course, once a month, in various places around the country, about all kinds of horrible and criminal things. Recently, she attended the part of the course that focuses on stalking and has been letting me in on all kinds of details and facts about stalking, stalkers and the reasons behind the things they do. Here is some of the stuff I found out…

• -        Stalkers tend to make themselves known in some way. This is usually in a very subtle and secretive way, like leaving one flower on the victim’s windshield every day, or moving things in their house, moving them back, and then moving them back again. There have also been cases when the stalker would plant a flower in their victim’s garden at night, and then would dig it up the next night, replant it the next night, and then dig it up again. This can go on for some time.
• -        A lot of stalkers know, or have known, their victims personally. They like to make their victim’s notice strange things happening around them, and then, even though they are actually the cause of such things, offer themselves as sources of comfort to their victims, who do not know that these things are actually down to their comforters.
• -        Looking into the histories and backgrounds of convicted stalkers, a lot of them have been raised in violent families. This could mean that they were attacked themselves, or that their parents/guardians had an abusive relationship, which they could have witnessed, whether accidentally or not.
• -        Some stalkers justify their actions by thinking that their victims should be flattered by their “immense appreciation” of them.
• -        In "A Study of Stalkers" Mullen et al.. (2000) identified five types of stalkers:
• o   Rejected stalkers pursue their victims in order to reverse, correct, or avenge a rejection (e.g. divorce, separation, termination).
• o   Resentful stalkers pursue a vendetta because of a sense of grievance against the victims – motivated mainly by the desire to frighten and distress the victim.
• o   Intimacy seekers seek to establish an intimate, loving relationship with their victim. To many of them the victim is a long-sought-after soul mate, and they were 'meant' to be together.
• o   Incompetent suitors, despite poor social or courting skills, have a fixation, or in some cases, a sense of entitlement to an intimate relationship with those who have attracted their amorous interest. Their victims are most often already in a dating relationship with someone else.
• o   Predatory stalkers spy on the victim in order to prepare and plan an attack – often sexual – on the victim.
• -        Stalkers can be referred to as “secret admirers”. A secret admirer has an unrequited love and feels adoration, fondness and sometimes love for somebody, without making their feelings known. Sometimes, this admiration can get out of control, which is how they are associated with stalking. Other times, and most often, however, it is purely harmless and is even encouraged in infant and junior schools on Valentine’s Day!

UPDATE!

I haven't really been blogging this week because I've been laid up in bed ill since Tuesday! I was told not to "over-do" it, so I've been sneaking around with a notepad, taking notes and organising things without using my laptop, which was taken from me so I'd rest!
I'll be back at school and "real life" tomorrow, and I intend to begin filming tomorrow as well! I have made all of my preparations, and as I only have lessons in the morning, I am going to start filming at eleven o'clock in the morning now that Sarah-jane is back from Paris!


Being ill has really put me behind in everything I should have had done by now, but I intend to work very hard in order to catch up, and will do a lot of my filming over the next three days.

UPDATES!

My main actor, Sarah-jane, is currently living the life in Paris, meaning that I can't start filming any scenes that she is in until next week. Luckily, however, I have a lot to do without her, including scenes with my stalker, Jayson, and tracking down props. This weekend, I am going into town to print photos of Sarah-jane and then will decorate Jayson's bedroom with the pictures (which will be a mixture of mug shots and photos taken from Sarah-jane's Facebook profile and her blog) to make it look authentic and real.
I've also been doing a lot of research into stalking, which I will type up and upload when possible. My mum, with her job, has recently attended a course and learnt about stalkers and the way their minds work, including things stalkers tend to do. She has been filling me in on ways to make my film seem more realistic and, therefore, scarier. I want my opening to be eye-opening and mentally terrifying, without showing any kinds of violence and my research, I believe, will really come in handy.

Character Profiles...

Emma Greene


Emma is a twenty-something blonde who lives in a small town just outside of London with her best friend, Carrie Redman. She works as a finance manager in central London, and graduated from Warwick with a first in Economics.
When in secondary school, Emma was one of the "popular lot"; she was a cheerleader in her school team, and always had the "coolest friends and the hottest guys'. The popularity, however, did not go to her head; Emma was a kind and friendly girl who got on well with everybody. Her intelligence meant that she was in a lot of classes without her usual friends which meant that she was chatty and sociable with almost everybody at school.
Emma is a smart girl with large dreams; she breaks the stereotype of popular, pretty girls by being intellectual, studious and driven by her dreams to be an accountant.

The Stalker (Unnamed)


Unknown to Emma, she has had an admirer since she started secondary school. He has been fascinated by her kind yet popular ways since he first laid eyes on her, and spent all seven years of their secondary school life trying to gain her attention and her friendship, to no avail. Once they reached the ripe old age of eighteen, he followed her to Warwick, where he studied photography at university.
He follows Emma almost everywhere she goes, and his bedroom has been decorated by photographs of her that he has taken, telling himself that it's okay because he is a photographer and is only "practising" his talent on her.
When around Emma, he tries his hardest to make her notice him: dropping things, wearing the same clothes as her boyfriend, and generally making a fool out of himself to gain her attention. He fails every time.
Eventually, his obsession grows too strong and when he discovers that Emma is seeing someone new, his jealousy outweighs any sane part of his mind and he takes Emma hostage, locking and tying her up in her own garden shed. Her housemate and best friend, Carrie, is traveling in Australia, and Emma had taken some time off of work to surprise her family in Wales with a visit, and so nobody notices when she disappears.

What Do I Need To Have a Successful Shoot?

In class, we made a list of all things that we thought we would need to have a successful film shoot. We had two minutes to think of as much as possible, and then conferred with the class to come up with more ideas.

I came up with...

• A tripod
• A camera!
• A camera bag (with leads and cables, such as chargers)
• Your script
• Any production notes
• Protective equipment for the camera, and other equipment (in case of events such as rainfall, etc.)
• Tape (if your camera is not digital)

Through discussion, as a class, we decided that we would also need...

• Props, costumes and make-up
• Your storyboard and shot list
• Actors!
• An appropriate location/setting with maps to show you how to get around (and, of course, permission to use such areas)
• Portable lighting, if available
• Health & safety checks, and a First Aid kit
• Refreshments
• A crew, including director and stylists, if possible
• A schedule/time frame to stick to
• A base (whether it is a trailer, a house or anywhere else) for the actors to stay in whilst they are not filming
• Transport
• Money
• Gaffa tape! (This is to mark where actors are going to stand, props are going to be held, etc, so that there are no continuity issues in the finished product)

The Ninth of November!!

Today, we worked on understanding different functions of camcorders, mainly focusing on white balance and focus.
We grew to understand how lighting can be altered manually on the cameras we will be using, and also learned how to focus on specific things in shot. We had a practise session, holding pieces of coloured paper in front of the lens to practise adjusting the white balance of the shot, manually through the camera's functions.
It was very interesting, and quite eye-opening, to study the different functions of the camera, without which my film could be very low quality, aesthetically. Knowing how to improve my shot means that my film will look more professional and of a much higher quality than it would have before.

Audience!

I have recently asked a number of people different questions about thriller films, in order to research what they do or do not like to see in thriller films. I decided on my questions by studying other people's questionnaires online, and considering questions that I would like to know the answer to myself. Here are my questions and my results!
- Are you male and female? 
                           4 males, 6 female
- How old are you?
                           11-15 (4), 16-20 (5), 30-40 (2)
- How many thriller films have you watched in the past six months? 
                           0-5 (4), 5-10 (4), 10-15 (2)

- How much gore do you expect to see in thrillers?

                           A lot (3), a bit not not too much (3), only a little (2), none (2)
- Do you like films that make you think and piece clues together yourself, whether during or after the film?

                            Yes (4), sometimes (3), no (3)                              

- Do you like a cliffhanger even if there isn't a second film? 
                             Yes (6), No (4)

- How do you think a good thriller should open?
                            Death (2), chase (3), everyday life (1), flashback (4)

- Do you like to see violence during a thriller film?

                            A lot of it, yes (3), some but not a lot (4), no, I prefer everything to  be psychological (3)

- Do you prefer to see men or women as the victim/s in thriller films?

                            Men (4), women (6)

These results have helped me a lot with the decisions I have made about my final piece, and have changed my perspective and point of view on a lot of things. If anything, I want to create a film that thriller fans will enjoy and so I need to acknowledge their opinions and use them in my work.

My Imperfect Synopsis!

Apparently AS Media is going to really challenge my "perfectionist" side. I've always been a perfectionist when it comes to school and studies, and as much as I'd love to not be, it's just who I am. Today, however, I've learned that you are supposed to be imperfect to do well in Media. I like to think of something, and then rethink, and then make adjustments, and then rethink it, and then, eventually, create a final draft that will be the only thing I show people. I've been changing my mind a lot about the synopsis of my film and so I've been hesitating uploading any of my ideas, or the images of my location scouting. But... I have to. Here goes...

- My main character is going to be a 20-something graduate, living in a small town on the outskirts of London. Her name is Emma Greene, she works in an office and lives alone in a house that she usually shares with her best friend, who is away travelling during the time the film is set in. We know this because when Emma enters her house, she checks her answer phone machine and has a message from her friend. Unknowingly, Emma has been followed by a man for the past few years. This man, whose name remains unknown, went to school with Emma when she was younger but she had no idea of his existence. He was the boy who, when he wasn't being bullied terribly, was completely ignored by everyone; she was the girl every girl wanted to be. He had come to grow obsessed with Emma and even attended the same university as her. After graduation,  he followed her everywhere, taking pictures of her and stalking her social networking profiles, creating the usual photo collage all over his bedroom of various photos of Emma from various different locations and times. One day, the stalker becomes insane. He follows Emma home from work and breaks into her house, trapping her and tying her up, forcing her to notice him. When she still does not know who he is, he maddens and tortures her, keeping her as a hostage for weeks, before eventually taking his own life, and hers in the process.

What Do I Need?!

I've spent a bit of time recently making a list of all the things I will need during the production of my film, and here it is........

(Those highlighted are locations shown only in my montage; if it is only half highlighted, it will be used in both a montage and the "present day")

Locations

• The area near the Astley Cooper subway/bus stop
• The dance studio
• The library
• Sarah-jane's house, garden & shed (possible)
• Friend's bedroom

Props Needed

• Rope!
• Vicky's camera (her Canon, not her Samsung)
• Photos of Sarah-jane (some black & white, some colour)
• Blu-Tac
• Guitar

Sounds & Music

• Tainted Love - Sarah-jane's version
• Cheerleading chant, accompanied by an old, but well-known, track, from between 2004 and 2006, perhaps Call On Me by Eric Prydz
• Echoed laughing and jeering
• A happy song, associated with happy teenage years

Costume (Emma)

• Smart trousers, blouse, cardigan & smart (but obviously comfortable) shoes
• Vest top, shorts and possibly a ra-ra type skirt over the top, with white plimsolls
• Pretty, girly dress under a man's jacket
• Sweats and a baseball shirt or an over-sized jumper, looking like an outfit someone would wear to bed
• Jeans and a jumper/cardigan (this will be teamed with a pair of reading glasses, whilst Emma does work or practises some songs, perhaps even writing a new one)
• Wavy hair
• Rosy cheeks, pink lips, eye liner and mascara
• Waterfall braid
• Crown braid
• Ponytail
• Natural make-up; mascara but no eye liner

Costume (stalker)

• Large, black coat with black, anorak-material-style tracksuit bottoms & white trainers
• Comic t-shirt under a shirt, and smart trousers with Converse, perhaps "accessorised" with glasses to give a 'geeky' look
• All black (going through a goth phase)
• Jeans, t-shirt and the same "man's jacket" Emma was seen to have been wearing earlier; he wanted her to compliment/notice it but when he saw her again, she was wearing a different jacket (from the same guy as the last) and walks right past him without noticing him at all

Week Five....

The main plan for this week is...

• To confirm my actors and try out hair, costume and make-up ideas (and take trial shots with these)
• To check the times that my actors are free, taking into consideration their college times and their jobs
• To finish, scan and upload my storyboard (and analyse it too)
• To take some practise shots in my locations
• To confirm the music/sounds I want to use, and to talk about composing some pieces myself with Mr Brown
• To choreograph the routine that will be shown in the school section of the flashback montage

Costume and Hair!

I am fairly certain I know who I am going to use as my main female actor in my film. My best friend, Sarah-jane, is an actor and, so long as I can get her to cover up her septum piercing and her shaved head, I'd like to use her in my film!
My character is going to be in "working clothes" the first time she is shown, meaning she will be dressed in smart trousers, comfortable pumps, and a smart shirt and cardigan. I'd also like her to have a waterfall braid in her hair, which I will do, to show innocence in her character, as I always associate hair-braiding with children.


This is what I do not want on my character...


In my opinion, a ring through the nose does not suggest innocence, and reminds me a bit of a rebellious teenager, which my character is not.

The shaved hairstyle that is so "fashionable" these days also, to me, does not imply the innocence of a character. I want my character to look like a sweet woman, like somebody who couldn't hurt anybody if she tried. I think this will then make the film more shocking because it will make the audience realise that bad things really can happen to anyone.

Instead of the 'rebellious' look, my character will rock the office worker look. She will be dressed in smart clothes, will wear natural make-up and her hair will be styled in a very neat and formal way. She will not, however, look too smart that she could be assumed to be quite posh and pompous. She will purely look like a relaxed woman, living her life the same way, day in, day out. The cardigan helps suggest that she is relaxed for cardigans are typically things that one wears when "lazing about" and not wearing heeled shoes implies that she does not take herself too seriously.

This is my costume idea...