Second filming day: location 1

Today Mac 5 spent our NYE finishing off the outdoor scenes, as we watched our footage from Monday back and we realized we wanted a few more shots.

Here are some pictures from our filming day:

                                                            (Ruined the cute group picture because I was laughing, as usual)

Here is a quick group vlog that we did about our day:

Storyboard so far

Me and Rhianne also finished storyboarding today, and we established the few bits of dialogue exchanged between our actresses.
It is a pretty messy storyboard, and is probably due to change but after today we have a much clearer idea of what we are next going to film, and the rough duration of our shots so that the rest of our filming process goes a bit more smoothly.

Here is our (very badly drawn, my apologies) storyboard so far:

First filming day: location 1

Today Mac 5 went out and did a bit of filming, with our main actress Hannah, for the outdoor bits when Hannah leaves the office.

 

We probably got more shots than we needed, and the filming took far longer than we intended but it was definitely worth it because we now have a range of shots at different angles which we can choose from.
Here is our setup:

We also liked the idea of following Hannah using a dolly/tracking shot, so our DIY genius Rhianne built this new contraption using some spare wheels and the lid of a box, to try and produce a smoother shot. Here are some pictures of our 'tripod trailer' which was partially successful, we hope...

We are yet to film the bits of the opening in the office, however we may have access to a few clinical offices/ rooms which we could use. Here is a picture of our possible office location in a surgery:

We made a few short videos of our filming day which we will also upload soon! 

Spellbound: plot, shot and editing inspiration

Hitchcock's 'Spellbound' (1945) is a classic psychological thriller, which also falls under the genre 'film noir'.

This film is perfect for Mac 5, as it involves the idea of a psychotic psychiatrist (who is actually an amnesiac, but we can still take inspiration) and includes many scenes which are shot in the environment of a psychiatrist at work.

It was beautifully shot and edited - this is one of my favourite shots from the movie from an interesting perspective. The scene ends with the milk rising up towards the camera and the screen then flashing to white, flowing smoothly into the next scene.

This is similar to a shot we tried to achieve when we filmed, which is a POV shot through a pair of glasses. It is also really useful now that we are editing, as we want our scenes to flow smoothly into one another, but also remain interesting for the viewer.




This very climactic scene comes closer to the end - we have filmed a few POV shots as we hope to create a similar atmosphere of rising tension and a strange intimacy between the character on screen and the audience.




Perhaps one of the most memorable scenes in the movie, is the dream sequence, experienced by John Valentine. The thrilling sequence was designed by none other than Salvador Dali and the strong sense of surrealism not only increases the mystery in the plot, but also plays on the curiosity of the characters. Here it is:

 
 

Drug research

We have been doing some more research into possible psychological disorders which link to our two minute opening and that main character could exhibit symptoms of, and the medicine we could reference within our opening. We had a look at several different types of anti-anxiety drugs:

We liked the idea of prescribing valium, as it is prescribed to "treat anxiety disorders, alcohol withdrawal symptoms, or muscle spasms" - this links to both our characters. The patient, we have decided, suffers from stress and muscle spasms, while the psychiatrist suffers from an anxiety disorder. The psychiatrist prescribes the patient with the same drug she is taking. 

Here is a really useful website which lists some of the side-effects of valium; the ones which we would like our character to exhibit are highlighted in blue:

http://www.drugs.com/sfx/valium-side-effects.html

If any of the following side effects occur while taking diazepam, check with your doctor immediately:

More common

• Shakiness and unsteady walk
• unsteadiness, trembling, or other problems with muscle control or coordination

Incidence not known

• Abdominal or stomach pain
• agitation
• anxiety
• black, tarry stools
• blistering, flaking, or peeling of skin
• blurred vision
• changes in patterns and rhythms of speech
• chills
• confusion
• cough
• dark urine
• decrease in frequency of urination
• decrease in urine volume
• difficulty in passing urine (dribbling)
• discouragement
• dizziness, faintness, or lightheadedness when getting up from a lying or sitting position suddenly
• false beliefs that cannot be changed by facts
• fast heartbeat
• fast or irregular breathing
• feeling sad or empty
• feeling that others are watching you or controlling your behavior
• feeling that others can hear your thoughts
• feeling, seeing, or hearing things that are not there
• fever
• headache
• hyperexcitability
• increased muscle spasms or tone
• irritability
• itching
• lack of appetite
• lack of memory of what takes place after a certain event
• loss of appetite
• loss of bladder control
• loss of interest or pleasure
• lower back or side pain
• mood or other mental changes
• nausea
• nervousness
• nightmares
• outbursts of anger
• painful or difficult urination
• pale skin
• rash
• restlessness
• seizures
• shakiness in the legs, arms, hands, or feet
• shortness of breath
• sleeplessness
• slurred speech
• sore throat
• sweating
• trembling or shaking of the hands or feet
• tremor
• trouble concentrating
• trouble in speaking
• trouble sleeping
• ulcers, sores, or white spots in the mouth
• unable to sleep
• unpleasant breath odor
• unusual behavior
• unusual bleeding or bruising
• unusual feeling of excitement
• unusual tiredness or weakness
• vomiting of blood
• yellow eyes or skin

We like the use of using parallel shots in our opening, to show the similarities between both the patient and the psychiatrist. However we also storyboarded shots which show a contrast in position from when our psychiatrist is on her job to when she is by herself, to imply that she would like to keep it a secret regardless of how dangerous it may be.

Title sequence inspiration

After much contemplation, our group has decided to add our titles in post-editing. We figured it would suit the film genre slightly more than filming the titles in the real world, which is more typically associated with comedy or indie films such as Napoleon Dynamite shown below:

However, rather than just having our titles roll across, or fade in and out of the screen, we would like to use elements in our setting to make the sequence a little more interesting.

We have looked at a few examples of this which we really like, such as the opening sequence of Six Feet Under:



The opening sequence for Dexter really inspired our group in producing our own sequence too. We plan to use close ups to create intimacy, and an uncomfortable viewing experience for our audience - Dexter is a great example of how our close ups could be shot incorporating the titles:

Although both of these sequences are for TV series', we think adding our titles in, in a similar way would be much more appealing for our audience while maintaining a sequence reflective of our film genre.

Title sequence ideas

Our group has been doing some research on the order of our title sequence, and after reading online and watching several examples, we have a list of common titles and the relative order they go in:

• Name of studio
• Name of production company
• A film by
• Starring
• Film title
• Featuring
• Casting
• Music
• Production design
• Editor(s)
• Director of photography
• Producer(s)
• Based on the book/ characters/ story by
• Screenplay by
• Written by
• Director

We don't plan on using all of these in our opening, so we have narrowed down the list. The potential titles we may use are highlighted in blue.

A great deal of our research was done using artofthetitle, which provided us with inspiration for potential fonts and for the position of our titles. Here are a few examples:

                                                             Grand Prix (Film)

                                                             The conjuring (Film)

                                                             Black sails (TV)

                                                             United States of Tara (TV)
                                                             (Sorry, I had to)