Storyboard for the Chase Scene

1. The first shot is an establishing shot where the victim is running down a path and the camera is behind her. At this point, the audience are oblivious to what/who she is running away from and that she is pregnant and the killer had beaten her before she got away.

2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 are POV shots from the victim running down the path. This makes the audience feel more involved as they get a sense of her urgency. Then the victim turns around to see how far behind the killer is, and this is the first time the audience are introduced to the idea that someone is after her. However, as this is a film opening, they will not discover why he wants her.

7 + 8. are high angle panning shots where the audience can see the victim desperately running away from the killer then pausing by a tree to catch her breath. This high angle makes her look inferior, smaller than she is compared to the killer.

9. is a close up of her arm as she is leaning against the tree. The audience see a branch cut her and she starts bleeding.

10 + 11 + 12. A mid shot of the victim and the audience see her observe the cut on her arm and squirm at the sight of it. Then, she turns around and her face changes to signal that the killer is getting closer, so she continues running.

13. is a framed as a midshot but it shows his hips and legs so the audience are able to see that the killer has just approached the branch with the victim's blood on it.

14. is the same midshot however the killer bends down to observe the branch. The audience see the killer study the blood with a sadistic grin on his face.

15. is a close up of the killer's face as he smells the blood. This emphasizes to the audience that he is a blood-thirsty killer who enjoys goriness, pain and death.

16 + 17. are wide establishing shots, framed as full body shots, so the audience see the killer rise and begin to sprint, the scent of blood spurring him on, making him more determined to get her to kill her.

18. is framed as the same establishing shot as before, but panning is included which follows the killer running, but then slows down to exaggerate his speed now that he is motivated by her blood.

19. is another establishing shot framed as a full body shot, and is at a high angle, making the victim seem inferior and weaker than the agile and fast killer. Through this shot the audience see her slowing down, she is now tiring and needs to stop. She stops running forward and moves to the side.

20 + 21. A midshot in which the audience see her move behind a thick tree in order to hide away from the killer. They see her panting, then tilting is used to follow her as she falls down to the ground, tired and frightened, and she puts her head in her hands and weeps.

22 + 23. A close up showing her upset, melancholic expression, and she takes her Cross necklace and looks up and says "Please God, save us". (We chose to include a Cross as it is ironic because she is a prostitute who is pregnant and unmarried.) The camera then tilts down to show the audience who 'us' and this is when the audience officially discover she is pregnant.

24. is the killer's POV as he approach the tree the victim is hiding behind. This will make the audience feel helpless as they know he is there, but the victim does not.

25 + 26. A low angle shot of the ground where the victim and killer's feet are visible. The audience see his feet walk up to the tree and pause, holding them at the edge where they are waiting and wanting to see what he does to her. She is crying so hard that she cannot hear him approaching her. In the same shot, the audience see him move around the tree.

27. A high angle close up shot of the victim, making her appear smaller and weaker compared to the killer. The close up reveals her reaction to seeing the killer.

28. A two shot of the victim and killer to empahsize how he has finally caught her. The audience see the killer grab the victim by her neck and drag her up so she is standing face-to-face opposite him. He then strangles her.

29. is a close up, framed as a high angle POV from the killer, displaying her distressed face as she tries to scream for help. The camera zooms onto her mouth.

30 + 31. An extreme close up of the victim's open mouth as she is screaming and the camera continues zooming into her mouth and then fades out into the operation scene.

Evaluation of Filming Chase Scene - 02.01.2014

[ADD PIC] On the day we shot the chase scene, Annie, Hayley and the 2 actors came round my house because the park is up that road. Annie began doing Jordan's make-up first; she applied liquid latex and then baby powder and make-up on his hands to make them look old and as if he had beaten the victim before she ran away. Then she put "Adore + Endure Me" and "A+E" on his face.

 

Next, Annie started work on the victim's face, making it look bruised and bloody, as if the killer had beaten her. The victim also had smudged lipstick and mascara on her face, to make her look more superficial and emphasize the fact she is a prostitute.

Annie had made the pregnant belly using a pillowcase filled with stuffing and on the day, when our actor tried it on, it was too big for her. So after many attempts, I managed to take out enough stuffing so it was fitted her but still look large as if she was quite heavily pregnant.

 

 Also, Hayley put the actor's hair in a messy bun which had loosened and strands were coming out.

 This is what our 2 actors looked like at the end of hair and make-up. Overall, the preparation went successfully as our actors looked how we wanted them to, especially the special fx make-up on the killer which looked good after Annie had tried out so many variations of it.

After, we made our way to the park and we took up a ladder so we could film the high angle shots, special fx make-up to the victim's arm wound which comes half way in the chase scene, the story board to direct the actors and the camera and tripod to film with. When we got up there, luckily we found a trolley so we used that to put our stuff in, including actors coats as it was very cold. The trolley was greatly beneficial to us as we kept moving around in the wooded area.

 I filmed the first shot, the establishing shot of the victim running away, using the tripod and this was hard because I had to partly hold the tripod as the ground was slightly unstable because it was extremely muddy. The week we filmed, it had been raining a lot, so when we were all moving around the park, it was very difficult. However, luckily the rest of our opening will be inside Hayley's shed. As well, the path the victim was running down was a popular path for people to walk down with their dogs so there was a lot of waiting for us so that in the shot there was no one else apart from the victim.


 When we began filming (around 2pm), it was relatively bright; bright enough so we did not need to use additional artificial lighting. In many of the first scenes we used natural lighting, however at around 4pm it got very dark so when we filmed the last few shots where the killer catches the victim, we used artificial lighting to illuminate the actor's faces for the camera.

We were not expecting the sky to get as dark as it did within half an hour so our last shots are quite dark. My group and I decided to incorporate this into the story - that the length of the chase had been going on for quite long, so when the killer finally caught her, it was late. This will make surprise the audience that the killer is that determined to get the victim, and will also emphasize the killer's agility juxtaposing the victim and how she tired after a while.

Before it got dark, we filmed the scene where the victim got cut by a branch and we used the ladder for this. The ladder was placed on muddy ground and I was on it so Hayley had to hold the ladder while I filmed. The ladder was against a tree and the branches were blocking the camera so I had to break off a few, but I kept some in the way to make the scene seem more realistic. Being on the ladder was not a problem as it was actually quite stable without Hayley supporting it.
Also, Annie and Hayley poured some fake blood on the branch and the leaves underneath and I filmed the killer approaching this. Meanwhile, Annie was applying the victim's wound from the branch so we saved time and when that was done, we filmed her being cut by the branch.

After we finished filming that, it began to get very dark, as mentioned, so when we found a thick enough tree for the victim to hide behind, we needed artificial lighting. Annie filmed the last few shots and Hayley and I held the lights. While Hayley and Annie were setting up, I directed the actors on what they had to do. All this saved time as we knew it was getting dark quickly. The lights were small which meant they did not project masses of light onto the actors which was good because when we watched over the recordings, the surroundings were dark and only the victims faces were illuminated, making the scene more scary and fitting with horror and slasher conventions of darkness to reflect the killer's inner darkness.

Once we had finished filming we looked over the scenes to see if we needed to re-do any however we felt they had turned out well. The filming process took around 2 hours, and our chase scene will be about 1 minute long. The only complications during filming was the muddy ground, we wanted our victim to be barefoot, then we decided she would wear heels but when we saw the ground, we decided she would wear trainers to make her seem less dignified and careless about her image. Also, the dog strollers were a minor issue which, again, we could not help so we had to work with.

Practical Investigation: Chase Scene (2)

Practical Investigation of a Chase Scene:

This was already Raman's Practical Investigation (and you can see it here) but one day after school, I happened to be staying after school and I had some really good ideas so I tried it out with my friend Catherine. Overall I felt that some of the angles were good but the lighting wasn't that good as it started to get dark quite quickly although in some of them it does look effective. If doing this again, I would definitely do it earlier in the day to get better lighting and I would also use a better camera as I recorded it on my phone, which doesn't have a high quality camera. I do however think it gave me a good idea of what to do in our final piece and what camera angles/movement would be successful.

When uploading the videos to YouTube, I chose to automatically enhance the lighting and stability issues, in some of them I think it has improved it so I decided to keep it in.

It's hard to tell from the lighting but this was in the wooded area, I'm not too sure about the darkness, I think it looks unprofessional and you can't see her running properly but on the other hand I like that fact that she suddenly appears in the light and you don't really see her coming. Although the attempt at a tracking shot didn't work that well, I think the idea of making her wear her white shirt shows up well on the video and in the darkness.



This is probably my favourite video out of the selection because I like the colour of the sky and that fact that she is silhouetted as she jumps. I also like the low camera angle used as I think it is an interesting variation from the typical angles. It also makes the gate seem higher and therefore her desperation to get away even harder. As she runs for a bit at the end, I think it would be better to either trim it down or to have the villain follow her in (but fast walking, I don't think he would run), showing that by having to jump up and then down, it has made him catch up with her.


I thought that originally this clip was one of the better ones, but the editing automatically done by YouTube has made it seem more disorientated, almost resembling her dizziness as she jumps off the gate. Obviously if we used this type of match on action shot we would have to make sure the movements she did were exactly the same for both angles, as for this one she gets stuck on the gate at one point and almost falls over.



With this one, obviously the lighting was major issue and the editing has just made it even more difficult to see the subject, however I do like the end result of the villain closing in on the victim and moving the camera right into her hair. That idea we could replicate wherever the location if we are choosing to have him capture her in such a way, this shot could easily be replicated up against a tree or a wall.



This one was okay, I liked the white of the shirt again and I felt it stood out more when she grabbed the tree, if we did decide to do this type of shot then I feel it would be more effective to have the villain follow her in almost the exact same place. We could also put more focus into the tree and have different angles but having the trees to be almost the main focus.




This angle didn't really work, the light was too dark and the subject goes by extremely quickly, however if filmed correctly with the ideal conditions, I could see that this angle would be effective, in particular for our film opening as we are hoping to have it fast paced, to show how urgent she is to get away from the killer.





Again, the editing made the film even darker than it was originally but I don't think it changed it too much. I like the idea of filming through a metal fence with the subject extremely close as it represents the target being so close but yet there is a barrier in the way. I think that this angle was quite effective but in our opening, I'm not sure if we are going to have a fence in the area or if it will just be trees but the same effect can still be applied.



The auto-fixing that YouTube did make it almost impossible to see her so this is one which I think did not improve and instead reduced the quality. It was quite quick as well and I don't think a small side angle of her running would fit in well with the ideas for our opening.

Woods location scouting

As we have decided that the "chase scene" within our film opening is going to be within a woods, my group and I felt that it would be good to get an idea of what all the woods in our neighborhoods looked like so that we have a variety of locations to choose from, creating the best final piece that we can produce, when we start filming.

Below shows a video that I took at my local woods, explaining the good and bad aspects of this location:

In the video, I stated that the following were good aspects of this specific location:

• long stretch of "pathway"
• within a wooded area
• not a busy area
• when dark, would have a good atmosphere for our film opening chase scene

Less desirable aspects of this location are:

• near a motor way so very noisy
• quite muddy

I really like this little location as it is what I imagine when my group and I talk about the chase scene, as it is the wooded area I take my dogs walking, and so I am quite familiar with it. It is quite a nice long pathway, also, so it would give a lot of area for our victim to run away from our killer without her coming out of the wooded area. Another feature that is quite nice is the patterned look of the pathway, giving the impression that it goes on forever, which would add to the emotion of confusion that we want to portray in the scene.

This is one of the possible locations I have researched, that we could use for our chase scene.

Practical Investigation of Wooded Area & Lighting of Garage

I am investigating wooded area because the questionnaire's feedback suggested the audience wanted a death scene in a wooded area. So, I went to Frank's Park and took pictures:

 In the park there were many 'clearings' in the middle of a patch of green and this could easily be acsessed. So, we could kill our victim in one of the spaces because it is surrounded by trees and bushes so it would seem more secretive.

There were many oddly shaped trees, including the biggest tree in the park. < This tree with its thick, spurted branches resembles the tree in 'Don't Let Him In' where the killer hung the victims' limbs from

Here is another strange looking tree, and the patch of grass underneath it had been worn away. This would be a perfect place to corner victim, especially with the branches enveloping that area so, again, the death scene in that spot would be secret.

 Here, there are bushes and trees and a dark spot under some bushes and this could be, perhaps, where the victims tries to hide if we were to do that in the project.











In the park, there are many pathways between large bushes and you cannot see much further because it becomes dark. This would be a very good place for when the victim is trying to run away from the killer at the beginning of our opening because it incorporates the wooded area suggestion from the questionnaire and ties in with the slasher and horror conventions of the death scene taking place in a dark and secluded area.

Here is another pathway, near the large tree. It does not have a prominent pathway like the one above so it looks more discreet, and would seem more mysterious to the audience as to where the victim is running to. However, if we were to use one of these two pathways, I would suggest the one above because it does have a visible pathway and the end curves round so you cannot see where the path will lead the victim. This will scare the audience because they will begin to wonder if the victim does manage to run away from the killer.

There are 2 light bulbs in the garage so I took a picture of them turned on individually, and then together. The second one is brighter than the first and if we were to put the desk underneath this one, the light would be able to illuminate the diary and the killer well, unlike the first light (we would bring additional lighting for filming). The first light is dimmer than the second however low key lighting is a very common convention in slasher films as it prevents the victim from seeing where the killer is - scaring the audience more as they do not know when they will attack.

Both the lights on together illuminates the entire garage and you can see everything clearly. However, high key lighting is not a typical slasher convention and also, it would not terrify the audience.

 

 

 

I changed the settings of my camera so the lighting was more enhanced. This illuminates the room very well, even the dimmest light bulb appears to be very bright. This light would make the killer's actions very visible to the audience however high key lighting is not a slasher convention so this would not be appropriate for our final project.

In conclusion, the lights which are already there would be good for the final project because a single light bulb (not both on at the same time - too bright) produces low key lighting and darkness is a typical slasher convention. We would place the desk under the dimmest bulb so the garage would be in low key lighting so to make the scene more intense.

Also, Frank's Park would be a good place to film a death scene because of the pathways leading to the unknown - this scaring the audience as they are not in the know and would wonder where the victim will end up. Also, the strangely shaped trees would create an eerie and slightly disturbing atmosphere which is what we are aiming for, as this is a slasher.