Music

There are two types of music, diegetic and non diegetic. Diegetic sound is when it exists in the “world of the characters” for examples the dialogue between the characters and music which can be heard by characters. Non-diegetic sound is music that is there purely for the audience for example, atmospheric music, soundtracks, voice over and narration.
One great example is Taxi driver. The music director uses non-diegetic music to create haunting atmosphere while the voice over tell us, the audience, the main protagonists thoughts.

One piece of music that we would have used is the first 19 seconds of big dreams, sung by bow wow as it would create irony.

Or group 1 crew as it creates an atmosphere in the first few seconds and in the chorus (56 seconds – 1 minute 20 seconds)

For copy right reasons we are unable to use these so we have chosen some music from the CD’s in which our media teacher provided us with.

Hannah

Props

Props are a vital part of video production. It gives a sense of realism to the film. Everyone has heard of props but what does it mean? Well the term prop refers to any movable item which is visible on a film. There are many different types of props, these include:

· Dressing props – things that are used to dress the sets (furniture drapes, flooring etc.)
· Hand props – items that are used or held by the actors
· Hero props – objects central to the action in a scene
· Stunt props – replica items made of soft materials
· Mechanical props – move or illuminate

Other props also include:

· Weapons – knife, gun, saw
· Greenery - plants, trees, flowers

For our project we intend to use

Scissors

Glue

Headlines

Black book

Crafting knife

Robyn

Actors

While filming, a lot of students in the past (and most likely in the future) have made simple mistakes that have severely affected their grade. This could be due to:
· Costume changes
· Haircuts mid-sequence
· Poor lighting
· Drastic contrasts
· Poorly chosen and unconvincing props
· The characters performance

Although we are not being marked on our acting skills it could still affect our project as poor acting skills will undermine the overall flow and the realism of the mise en scene.
Although we had a 'student double' to help with our running scene, the rest of our acting (which isn't much) was performed by 2 of the members of our group. This saves time because there will be no need for screen tests, but their are limitations with this as they haven’t done any previous acting lessons other than the ones they did in drama in high school.

As you probably already know, although your not marked on them, simple things like having on a different top if you end up filming on seperate days (costume changes), or having unrealistic props that look homemade or like children's toys could seriously affect your grade as it seriously downgrades the look of the entire film.
Hollie

Camera shots

During the making of a film, a director has to decide where to position the camera in relation to the action that is taking places. He/She has to consider the camera angle, camera level, camera height and camera distance. This is vital because the framing of the shot has to create atmosphere whether that is joyful or terrified.

Camera Angle
There are three general angles that are used in film these are-
1. Straight on
2. High angle
3. Low angle
By using the high angle it makes the character look vulnerable and powerless, this would be used during an emotional scene when the character is having a “mental breakdown”. The low angle shows superiority and this is useful for scenes such as bullying in a children’s programme.

Camera Level
This is when the frame is “level” or wonky”. For a level shot the camera person would use either a vertical shot (straight up and down) or a horizontal shot (side to side). However to create a shot which appears distorted or weird you would use diagonal angles (canted shot).

Camera Height
It is important to frame a shot from all different heights so then it keeps the audience intrigued because it changes their perspective. The camera can be positioned
· Close to the floor
· Shooting straight on (impression of low height)
· High up in a room
· Very high up in the sky

Camera distance
Typical camera distances are:
· Extreme Long shot (framing landscapes)
· Long shot (character in the distance)
· Medium shot (character from the knees or waist up)
· Close-up (show extreme detail or facial expressions)
· Extreme close-up (part of the head)
· Over the shoulder shot (shot made from over the shoulder of a character)
· Point of view (seen from the character’s point of view
· Two shot (shot with two characters in it)

This is all useful however it is very tempting to believe that a “low angle” always means superiority. This is not always the case; framings don’t have absolute or general meanings. It means different things in different contexts.

Below are the shots which we intend to use in our project:
· Long shot from behind the character running
· Close-up from behind
· Close up from the front (x10)
· Long shot of teenagers in town centre (x10)
· Medium shot of the desk (x2)
· Close up of the headlines (x6)
· Close ups of the hands (x6)
· Close up as camera flicks across pages in the book
· Medium close up of front of the book
· Long shot of teenagers in town centre again
· Medium shot of teenagers in town centre
· Close up of killers feet
· Close up of the victims head

Hannah

Lighting

One limitation that we have is that, we don’t have access to industry standard professional lighting equipment. This is unfortunate because it is harder to make our visions become reality. However, there are things we can do to improve the quality. These are:


Use natural light – such as sunlight, in the shadows, in the mist, through rain.


Use cheap and cheerful artificial light – use of candles, firelight, torches, car headlights, security lights, neon lights and street lighting


Create colour filters – shine light through coloured liquids, vases and ornaments.


Position the light source for effect – light from above, below or in obscured way which creates different kinds of atmosphere.

“Once you have explored what light sources can provide, experiment with the interaction of with the objects in your frame.” Michael Massey (2004)

The mise en scene is all about atmosphere and continuity. This means that we have to carefully choose costume, lighting, location and props. So if the lighting goes wrong then the performance will be affected drastically.

So our project we will be using low key lighting. We will accomplish this by using natural lighting during the park scene and then using table lamps during the desk sequence.

Here is an example of low key lighting. It is the murder scene taken from Disturbia (2007)

Robyn

Risk assessment for the park

Robyn

Risk assesment for the college

Hollie