Characters and usage.

For our media filming we used a total of 6 people, we all had different uses and we all came into the filming and productions in different ways. Having 6 people was definitely effective as we felt that we were sure we had enough people in case there was a problem and someone couldn't be in it. Another reason it was effective is we were all on the same level and understood what each other wanted so we planned what we wanted to happen in advance and then we went out and filmed it with no distractions or confusion.

The people involved were:

Kiera McLean
Ellie Payne
Emma Payne
Jai Daniel
Annaleigh Mann
Caitlin Mann

The uses for the actors/actresses:

Kiera McLean - I was one of the main characters. I was used throughout the whole filming process and I was a major part of it. As the main character there was a huge responsibility and I felt the need to get everything right and perfect as it all seems to be down to you and if I got it wrong and we had to re-film it, it would have frustrated me and I would have lost character.

Ellie Payne - Ellie was also one of the main characters, also being filmed and a part of the whole filming process. Ellie thought differently and still felt the huge responsibility but she didn't get as frustrated as I did when I got something wrong. Ellie was just positive and said "its fine, we can redo it, its not your fault."

Emma Payne - Emma wasn't one of the main characters and wasn't in the whole of the filming process but was still a really important part; Emma was playing the dead body that Ellie and I come across during our stroll in the woods. It was a bit of a struggle to get Emma to stay still the whole time we were filming and as it was cold and she was laying on the floor still we had to rush that scene as she was getting cold and quick. If we hadn't of had Emma we wouldn't have had the same outcome for the film.

Jai Daniel - Jai was also a main character; he's the antagonist which was the part that causes the horror, he was the creepy man that was in the bushes and behind tree's when we were walking towards the woods and just after we came across the body. We asked Jai to wear dark clothes so he wasn't as easy to recognise in the trees and bushes. Jai got into character quickly and didn't come out of character until after we had completely finished. If we weren't to have had Jai our movie wouldn't have been as scary as it was and we wouldn't have found anyone that could play that part.

Annaleigh Mann - Annaleigh was the main photographer/filmer; she is taking GCSE photography we decided that she would be best for the part of filming. She came up with quite a few good angles that we used and she knew where to stand to get the best view of the characters and the part of the filming that we were doing.

Caitlin Mann - Caitlin (KK) was also a photographer but she didn't do as much as Annaleigh; she was filming and she was a reserve so she could cover for someone if they were unable to be in it. She wasn't as useful as the other characters but she was still useful.

Final Location Analysis

The 3 pictures I have inserted above are pictures that I have found on Google Images of our location during the day. The main reason we used this location is because its easy to access from home, its got the perfect setting with everything we need and want in the background and when its dark the lighting from the lamp-posts is perfect and gives off an eerie feel which causes the spook to come into the filming more. Picture 2 is a long shot of our location; we filmed near the sand bank which is in the background, the weather was fine throughout the day, but the day before it had been raining and everywhere was muddy and we were slipping. We may have had to re-film some of the scene's but to us that was fine; we didn't mind as long as we came out with best solution at the end.
As the setting is quite large; if we were to film in another part of the location it wouldn't have worked as the lighting was really bad and there were no lamp-posts anywhere in any other part of the pond. The specific part we filmed in had the lamp-posts and was the best part to use for the horror film.

Costumes

As we didn't all want to look the same  we all decided separately what we were going to wear. We all decided something that is just casual and fits in with everyone else.

Ellie's Costume

Ellie chose this costume as she found it was most comfortable to wear and she wears clothes like these on a daily basis. She chose a Nike jumper, black leggings and Nike Roshe's with a bomber jacket. The reasons behind her wearing these are because they're all comfy and are just everyday casual wear that most of the youth wear. We had to wear suitable coat/jacket as we didn't know if it was going to rain and because it was really cold.


My Costume

I came up with the conclusion that I was going to wear a star tracksuit - this was a hoodie and tracksuit/legging type bottoms, with a bomber jacket and Nike huaraches. I chose this because they are comfy everyday type clothing that fit in with what the youth are wearing and one of the most comfortable outfits I have.

Emma's Costume

Emma has a straightforward costume which is a Christmas onesie which she is wearing because she was a child that went missing in the middle of a cold Christmas night. She was wearing this as she had to pretend that she was dead and this is what she would have been wearing in the middle of the night.

Jai's Costume

Jai's costume is straight forward everyday wear. He decided to wear a black hoody with black jeans and black trainers. We all needed him to wear all black clothing as he needed to stand in the bushes and we only wanted to see his face so wearing black would be the easiest idea.

Problems We Had During Filming.

During filming Ellie and I did come across quite a few problems with our other actors and camera directors. All of our crew were going through the same struggles as everyone else in the group. Having problems is normal when it comes to filming and dealing with everything when one simple thing can become 10x harder when the weather changes or when people aren't around to do the job they signed up for.
The first problem we had when getting ready to film and the filming part was the weather. I had done a weather analysis already but the weather can change very easily and I was updating the website every hour or so. When we had gone outside to start filming we realised that it was a lot bitter than we thought it was going to be so we had to take a few scarves and pairs of gloves.


Secondly, the lighting was another problem that was very hard to resolve. In reality it was light and didn't get dark until about 4:30 but as we started filming at about 3 we knew it was going to get dark but on Ellie's phone which is what we used to film it came out a lot darker than we had thought. We added effects on to our footage on Adobe to try to make it lighter but It was a struggle. It shocked us all because in reality it wasn't even dark but on the phone it was so dark it was like it was the evening.


Thirdly, trying to keep stable when running around on the mud was definitely a struggle. It had been raining the night before so all the mud and what was mud, had gone all soft and was slippery and the mud path was extremely hard to get a grip on. We couldn't do anything to resolve this so we just had to be very careful on how we were running and walking around.


Lastly, getting someone to play a dead body on the soft runny mud was another struggle. No one wanted to lay on the runny mud as they didn't want to get dirty. As it was right next to the pond it was extremely muddy and no one (who wasn't already a main actor) wanted to be laying on the floor for almost half of the filming as it was freezing cold and the mud was going everywhere.


We resolved most of these problems with ease, for the weather problem I checked up on the weather every hour and made sure that we all had enough to wrap up in, for the lighting that one was one of the hardest as we couldn't personally change the lighting but we could change the footage after which is what we done by adding effects. The staying safe whilst running around and walking everywhere was the hardest one in which we couldn't resolve, we couldn't change the path way for us to use. Finally, we resolved the dead body part; we got Emma (Ellie's little sister) to do it as she didn't mind getting dirty or laying on the floor. It was easily done as she was wearing a onsie and had the hood up with a plastic bag on her feet so she was literally covered from head to toe.

Weather Analysis

We done some weather analysis to make sure the day we done filming had suitable weather without rain or snow so that no hazards were caused during filming which could have caused any reason for the filming to not have gone fully to plan with all the characters we needed to be there and not injured.

Monday 2nd January 2017

The temperature was:

Highest was 4° and dropped down to the lowest of -2°.

The weather of the day before (Sunday 1st January) it was raining and for our setting to be in the woods it caused us to have to film certain scene's over and over again to make sure that we got it close to perfect. Monday started of being sunny but as the day carried on the weather dropped and it suddenly got really cold; as the darkness fell towards 4o'clock we had to think things through and use flashlights and lamp-posts in the background to get the lighting brighter so that you could see us in the filming.

We filmed a scene at a bus-stop at 2o'clock when It was lighter but suddenly it got really bitter and we decided not to use that scene as we weren't wearing coats and as it was cold we didn't want to jump in the filming and then have a coat on. The bus-stop scene didn't go to plan; this was because we were waiting for a bus so that it looked like we were getting of the bus on our way back from shopping but as it was a bank holiday the bus times had changed and no buses even turned up so we changed the start of the filming slightly to make it fit perfectly with the theme and the music we are going to add in.

Planning Feedback

Your planning needs evidencing fully - so upload everything you have for submission.  Schedules, interviews with actors, video diaries, storyboarding and scripting, soundtrack research, title research all need in depth consideration from you.

Characters Detail.

So you know how the characters in the opening 2 minutes are and how their personalities fit together I'm going to talk about each character in detail.


Ellie.
Ellie is the quieter one out of the 2 main characters, she puts others before herself to make sure they are ok. Ellie is an amazing friend, people can easily relate her to personality because she has the personality everyone wants. Ellie is the main one to get attacked in the footage and this makes her feel helpless.


Kiera.
Kiera is the loud one of the 2 and speaks her mind. She is the one that has all the drama on her hands and had to help Ellie. Kiera would do anything for Ellie, which is why Kiera goes back towards the crime scene to get Ellie. Kiera gets concerned and would do anything make sure Ellie is ok.


Jai.
Jai is different from Ellie and Kiera; he is the attacker and murderer and he's the one Kiera has to stay clear of. Jai doesn't care what people think and he does what he wants. Being like this makes him different in a good and bad way, good in the sense of he does his own thing and doesn't care about the thoughts other people would give him and bad as he kills people so he would be classed as a psycho.


Emma.
Emma doesn't have a large job in this but is essential and is needed. Emma doesn't speak or walk around but that's the creepy part. She is a dead body and then as people approach her she's alive and looking into her eyes which could mean she's trying to catch people for Jai to kill or she's just very weird.