Initial planning - make up

As our film opening only contained two female characters, we didn't want them to be fully made up as this would detract from the true emotion that they were feeling, but instead quite minimal, neutral make up. We wanted to have the main female lead to be wearing slightly smudged make up to represent how she is upset with the situation that she is in. To do so, we decided to use masarca and eyeshadow when creating her make up look as we wanted it to emphasise that she is in a stressful situation that is causing her to be upset. The second female character isn't present through the whole film opening and there are any close ups of her, so make up isn't necessary

Initial planning - Props

For our film opening, we have chosen some props that we feel would benefit the film by providing realism which would make the film more believable. One of the props that we are going to use is a bunch of flowers; this will be tied to a tree trunk to symbolise a memorial which links into our narrative. The flowers will represent the death of Alice, and will be the place that the main protagonist visits during her time on the woods. With the flowers stereotypically connoting grief and loss, it is a suitable prop to add to our film as it relates to our narrative.
We will use the flowers and tie them to the tree to recreate a memorial scene.

We are also planning on using a photograph of both the victim and the protagonist together to represent the friendship that the two characters had. It will help the audience to establish the relationship between the characters without explicitly stating it. Having the photo will show that the person in the photograph is the memorial of the person that Martha is visiting, signifying how she is thinking of the memories they had together.

Other props that may be used is make up for the two female characters, and a possible face covering for the antagonist depending on how much we want to conceal his full identity.

We also plan on using a pair of black gloves as this will connote danger and that something bad may happen.

Initial planning - costumes

When we were researching our genres (thriller and horror) we found that the protagonists and/or victims wear normal clothes that represent reality, as well as signifying how unsuspecting they are that nothing is going to happen. For example jeans and a coat. We are going to follow this convention because it is stereotypical of teenage girls, which is the image we are trying to portray. For the victim, we have chosen these clothes for her to wear as they signify normality and are stereotypical of the character.

The protagonist will have a similar outfit.

For the antagonist, a black hoodies and trousers will be used because black connotes danger and death, therefore will conform to the genres we are using. The characters face won' be shown as this will create suspense and mystery in our film opening, which is stereotypical of the genre, and we want  to keep his identity hidden.

Initial planning - casting

For our opening scene, we needed to find three different actors/actresses to play in our film. Two of the three castings will be females aged between 16-18, as this is the age that we feel will be appropriate to play the characters. One will be the protagonist, while the other will play the murder and abduction victim; using females as they can be represented as vulnerable which will link in with our narrative.

A male will be used as our third character and will be the antagonist of the film opening; he will need to wear all black, with something dark covering his face so that his identity isn't revealed - this will help to keep a mysterious feel for the audience. Physically. he will need to be tall and strong in order to portray the character that we have in mind, and also to intimidate the audience so that it meets the audience pleasure.

We have chosen to use people who have experience with acting as we feel that this would help us to make the best film opening as possible, therefore two of the people we have chosen studied drama at school, one of them studying full time at college. The male in our film won't have a dramatic acting role, as he will only be used in POV shots and over-the-shoulder shots.

Miah Kirton 

Miah studied GCSE drama, getting an A*, so we thought that she would be perfect to play the victim of the crime.
Miah will be involved in some of the most dramatic scenes, so her acting skills will really help to make these realistic. Although she won't be the main character, her experience in drama will assist in creating a convincing opening. Her character will be called Alice.

Lauren Bricknell

Lauren will be playing the main character, the protagonist, who experiences the flashbacks and was present at the event of her best friends kidnap. She is currently studying drama at Stratford college, so has a lot of experience with this type of acting. 

Her experience will be used to help make some of the most challenging scenes, where the conventions of thriller ad horror really come into play. 

Lauren will be playing the character of Martha

Luke Macdonald 

We decided to cast Luke as the antagonist because he does not fully feature in the opening of our film. Small shots of his back, hands, and hooded head will be seen, but there is no physical acting required to do this. 

Initial planning - detailed story board

We created this story board before our filming so that we would know what shots we are planning to do, and when editing it will help us to put the right sound in above the footage. The story boards that we have made are a lot more detailed than the ones we made previously as we need a clear guide of what we are filming and what type of shots we are going to use.
During the actual filming day, we may need to add or remove some of the shots that are on the story board in order to benefit the film opening.

We haven't completed a detailed story board before as with our preliminary film we decided to focus our time on the camera and editing skills. The 6 shot basic story board that we created for our initial planning outlined the narrative that we had planned, where as this detailed all the specific shots that we wanted to use in our final film. Having the story board will allow us to make and additional shots so that we can see which one looks better in the place of our planned one.

Initial planning- basic storyboard

This is a 6 shot story board that we have created to show the basic narrative that we plan to follow. A more in depth story board will be completed in the future to show a detailed plan that we will stick to.

The first shot is an establishing shot of a girl walking in a dark woods holding a photograph. This will give the audience an insight as to the location as well as the characters included in the film
The extreme long second shot shows the same character with a different girl, in the same location as the shot before, only it will be shot with a blurred effect to mimic the idea of a flashback.
The third shot shows a long shot of the original character looking upset, at the site of a memorial; through doing this it foreshadows what will happen in the rest of the film.
With the fourth shot we decided to use a second long shot as it includes the introduction of a third character (the antagonist).
Our fifth shot is the first close up we will use, as this will show the emotions of the two females when they realise something bad is about to happen.
The final shot in this story board shows a close up of the antagonist from behind, while showing the face of one of the female girls. It will show the emotions of the girl as well as creating suspense for the audience.

Initial planning - the treatment

Planning our opening sequence

We have decided to base our film opening around an abduction and murder of a teenage girl. The opening will gradually introduce the idea of the abduction and murder with the use of dual narrative; flashbacks and the present. Through doing this it will ensure that the audience are instilled with suspense in order to meet the stereotypical conventions of the genre thriller/horror. Within the opening, a 'déjà vu' effect will run throughout, with the previous events recurring in the present.

With our opening using dual narrative, the events of the past and the present will be linked through flashbacks of the same place, just at different times. The two contrasting time frames but the same location will build tension in the audience as it almost foreshadows what will happen in the present, and will help us to create a narrative that meets the conventions of our genre. The transition between the past and present will be made using the stereotypical effect that portrays the shot as being old or previously filmed. Eventually the two time frames will link, as the events of the past will replay in the present, but the audience will be able to detect this happening before it is actually shown as the type of shots will create tension. Also the frequency of the antagonist in the shots will be increase with more focus on him, showing the audience the possible danger that he may pose, making them anxious for the protagonist. We aim to have the narrative shown through the point of view of the protagonist, as we feel that this would help to engage the audience, as well as show the audience how they are feeling, evoking more sympathy and allowing them to connect to them more. 

Our film opening will have three characters in total, one of them only present in the flashbacks. They include a protagonist, antagonist, and a female victim (friend of the protagonist). The protagonist and the victim will be aged between 16-18 as this age includes the target audiences age, so we felt that this would help them to relate to the characters. As well as this, we chose the protagonist to be female as conventionally they are men so by defying this it will appeal to more people. The antagonist will be male, and will wear all black, as black connotes danger and darkness, which is reflected by the location as well; he will wear something to cover his face as this will conceal his identity creating more tension as the audience are suspicious of who he is. Men are stereotypically stronger than women, so this is why the antagonist is male, linking well with the narrative. The protagonist and the victim are of a particular age, as well as their gender, where when alone conventionally are vulnerable, hence the murder. 

For the location of the opening sequence, we have chosen a woodland area as it a space that is open for use, but also hold all the suitable connotations of horror, for example isolation which would create a sense of fear in the audience as they would know that there is no help near, signifying that something bad will happen. The lighting will be all natural, which would reflect nature and how nature will also take it's cause. The darkness that the trees will bring will represent the mood of the film as well as tension as darkness often has connotations that something bad is going to happen, linking into our narrative. Filming in the woods will give us no control of the environment or any changes we want to make, but it will reflect the mood we want and comply with stereotypical conventions of the genre we are following. 

We will mainly use over the shoulder shots and POV shots to introduce the antagonist as his identity will not be revealed during the opening 2 minutes of the film which will create a sense of mystery for the viewer. In order to establish the antagonist's location we will use panning shots and tracking shots when following the victim. Close ups of the two girls will help the audience to establish their emotions and understand how they are feeling through facial expressions and body language; this will also create tension.