Risk Assessment

We completed a risk assessment to ensure all of our scenes were safe for our actors to perform, and that none of the equipment was put into a dangerous situation.

Different Interpretations

We feel our opening sequence can we interpreted in many different ways. We took the idea of the obsession from One Hour Photo, however, we realise this may give the wrong impression to our audience, therefore we have come up with a different meaning to our film. The man does not necesserily have to be stalking the girl, from the opening sequence we can then create a film based on an astranged father trying anything within his power to see his daughter. This would make the film less sinister and more audience friendly.

We realise that one of the interpretations of our film is that the man is a sex offender. We, as a group, think this is an important issue to raise as it is a growing fear in todays society. We wanted to show the true feelings behind both sides of a sex offence, the wants and desires of the 0ffender and the trauma caused by his actions. We wanted to portray a true issue that people are faced with.

the shocking climax

Our group Mad dogs are aware that at the end of the film there is a shocking climax with a man under the bed and the girl starting to lie down and then we see them both parallel with each other. This idea came from "One hour photo" and we wanted it to seem real and that would be in a real thriller film. We think as a group this is a very strong image that is given out but this will be solved throughout the rest of the film.

Focus group

We encouraged a group of student in our class to watch our film and comment on it. All believed the climax was effective and shocking. They commented on the editing techniques.

Opening sequences importance

The opening title sequence of a film is that film’s opportunity to make a good first impression on the viewer. A well-shot and edited title sequence introduces the audience to the tone and theme of the film as well as the cast and crew. The opening sequence also introduces the genre. Setting up the narrative is key to introduce the characters and all in all start the film on a good note so the audience will know that the film will be good enough to enjoy.

We studied the opening sequences of one hour photo and the shining. We picked up some key features from these sequences that helped us to provide a decent background information to what is needed for a good opening sequence that will engage with the audience and draw them directly into the narrative so that we keep their attention right from the start.

One hour photo draws us into the narrative by creating an enigma around the man that appears. the audience is constantly asking themselves questions "why is he here? who is he? is he any importance to the narrative?" And this is what draws the audience into the storyline - wanting to know more, and this is an effect that one hour photo shows perfectly.

Story Boards

Before filming, we decided the easiest and most professional thing to do would be to create story boards laying out the shots we then used in the film. We found this a great help during the filming and editing process as it put everything into an easy to read format, understood by the whole team. However, when we came to film some of the more complucated shots we found that the planned shots were not possible or not as detailed as we would have liked. Therefore, we had to change some of these shots to keep a high standard of film. You can find our story boards in our planning folder.

Location and Chracters

We got Alice Burnam to play a young teenage girl
–This conventions of children and females are seen as the weaker section of society.

–Alice, the teenage victim, is a representation of an innocent young woman who lives a normal life

Chris Nelson - an older man
– which is seen as the stronger, more powerful and aggressive section of society and therefore conforms to the conventions of a villain

- Middle-aged villain, represents the typical men of his age, in that he has a passion for photography (a hobby) and will later be shown to enjoy the normal activities of his social group

Music choice and description

The first song that we chose to use was by Radiohead and we thought it fitted into it well with the piece, it was eerie and soft which created enigma and shrouded the atmosphere with a chilling mood. Later on we used a song named "Bad old man" by Babybird. We thought this fitted in well as it is also a very eerie song choice and relates to the narrative. We changed the effect of the music so that when the girl heard it outside the room it was quiet, but when she walked into the room it gradually became louder and ultimately when she pressed the button the music stopped with fits in with the continuity of the piece. We think that the music choice was quite clever in the fact that we did not rush in with loud adrenaline-pumping music, but kept the audience on the edge of their seats leaving emotions and the enigma of what is to happen right until the end of the piece where it finally climaxes with the image of the stalker underneath the girls bed. The music used was soley for a school project and no copyright infringements were intended.

We realise our song choices are copyrighted and so we will not exibit our work in any public place or enter the piece into any out of school competitions.