costumes, hair and make-up

 The man's costume 

- wedding ring 

- black turtle neck 

- blue jeans 

- glasses (Ezra's, if he is able to play the role)

- black dress shoes 

- black socks 

For the man's costume we wanted to create a costume that fits in with the air of mystery around the man. Therefore, we have decided that the man's costume will consist of a black turtle neck, and regular blue baggy jeans which will give the idea that the man comes from an ordinary background and that this may be his regular attire. We have asked if Ezra might be able to wear the glasses that he wears every day. However, if Ezra ends up being unable to perform in our opening sequence then we will need to provide our own glasses. An example of the style of glasses that we would like can be seen below. Furthermore, the man will be wearing black dress shoes with black shoes which will also help for the main focus of the audience to be on the procedure he is carrying out to kill the man as opposed to the man himself. The man will also be wearing a redding ring, which will be provided by Ezra, our actor. Matthew will organise the man's costume.

The actor will wear his hair naturally with no make-up.

Below are some pictures of inspiration for the character's costume: 

The woman's costume 

- white slim fit t-shirt 

- grey cardigan 

- jeans - skinny blue/straight leg 

- red shoes 

The woman's costume would consist of a white t-shirt, which will provide a stark contrast to the red berries, symbolising the woman being destroyed and interfered with by the man. Furthermore, the woman will wear a grey cardigan over the white t-shirt which will provide some neutral tones to avoid any garish colours drawing tension away from the procedure. The woman will also wear blue jeans, most likely slim fit which would subtly establish the connection between the two characters as brother and sister. We have decided that the woman will wear red ballet pumps which will subtly draw a connection to the man's method of killing the woman. I will organise the woman's costume.

The woman will not be wearing much makeup as this won't be seen with the funnel over her mouth. However, she will be wearing smudged mascara as the character will be crying in the opening sequence. Additionally her hair will be slightly teased. This will indicate that she has been held captive for a few hours before the murder. However, she will appear reasonably put together so as to indicate that she has not been held in the man's house for much longer than a day. 

Location 1 recce

 On Wednesday, Meadow, Matthew and I visited Beatrice Webb so that we could look around the garden room in person. Whilst we were there, we discovered that there is a separate smaller room connected to the room. This has led us to consider using this room. We are currently considering the woman being tied up in the chair in this separate smaller room and the man entering the room to poison the woman. We think that this might make the reveal of the woman more surprising for the audience. Alternatively, we could film the entire opening sequence in this one room. However, the windows in this room face the house master's apartment as opposed to the garden which would take away for the desired greenhouse effect. Additionally, it is quite a small space which could make filming quite difficult. 

Below are some pictures of the room from our visit: 

The room has red curtains which could be used to create some interesting shadow and silhouette effects.

                           

 The room has an array of windows which let lots of natural light in.

Below is a picture of the smaller room connected to the garden room. Much of the room is occupied by shelving units which means that space is limited. Furthermore, we would need to remove everything in the room as it is currently being used for storage. 

Editing workshop write up

 On Tuesday, we had an editing workshop in which we learnt how to use Adobe Premier Pro. There are four different video sections. The first section, located on the bottom of left contains the rushes and bins. The top left is where you can play the clips from the rushes and bins. The top right section is where you watch the product and the bottom right is where you edit the clips. 

                                         

You should constantly save as you edit the footage to ensure you don't lose any changes you have made. A shortcut for this is pressing command, then s. 

Rushes is the term used to the original footage. In contrast dailies is the footage as it has been modified on that day. 

                                               

The cutting tool is used to cut down the clips to your chosen duration. The short cut for this is pressing command, then c. The arrow is used for selecting the clip you want to edit. The short cut for this is command and then v. The plus and minus keys are used to zoom in further and zoom out to adjust the footage and audio you are editing. The in and out points mark where the editor decides the clip should begin and end. You do this to modify a clip which leaves you with the desired section. To mark the in point you select a part of the footage where you want the clip to begin and press "i". To mark the out point you decide where the clip should end, and then press "O"

                                    

The plus and minus keys can be used to zoom in and out on the footage you are editing. To undo, the shortcut is pressing command, then z. This is used to erase any changes you have made that you no longer want. When placing the footage in the timeline, you must be careful in order to ensure that none of the footage overlaps with the other clips or audio, which would cause them to become cut. Therefore, leave gaps between each video and audio clip.

Our group storyboard

 As a group, we allocated between twelve and fourteen shots to each person to form a storyboard for opening sequence.

Matthew's section:

 

Meadow's section:

 

my section of the storyboard

 Below is my section of our group storyboard:

Making of my storyboard

 First, my group composed a new narrative sequence based off the feedback from the test shoot which helped us to plan out the opening sequence shot by shot. I then began adding descriptions of the shot. After this, I began the process of sketching each shot as best as I could to show the desired composition of each shot. 

I began by sketching the drawings I was most certain about before moving on to the more difficult drawings which required more thought such as ones that included the man's hand holding the bag of berries. I finished by filling in any details about the shot I wasn't sure of when I started 

What is storyboarding?

Storyboarding is a visual representation of the narrative sequence of a film. Storyboards contain a range of information including shot types, any camera movements, location, characters, action, sound, lighting, transition, timing and mise-en-scene. They are organised by shot number. Storyboarding is important for the film industry as it can have a number of benefits both before filming and after filming. It is helpful before filming as it can help to plan out camera work, creates a visual plan and helps to organise and direct a crew around the director's vision. This saves time on set, allowing the crew members to be efficient and take full advantage of the time they have on set. Furthermore, it also allows the director and other members of the crew to make mise-en-scene choices, which also helps to save time. Creating a storyboard can also have a number of benefits for after filming. It can provide and editing guide which is helpful for the editor during post-production.

Many successful films have had storyboards created as part of the film-making process. Below is part of the storyboard created for the film Jurassic Park (1993), which was directed by Steven Spielberg and stars Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern. The storyboard was created by the artist David Lowrey. 

For our opening sequence, our group will be creating a storyboard as it will help us to plan out our shots before we arrive on set so that we can make sure all of our time us put to use. It will also help to ease any anxiety as we will be sure of exactly what we are filming.