Planning- Costumes and props

As a group we planned the costumes for each character whilst thinking about colours and it being realistic. We decided for the character who is the deliverer played by a member of our group would wear quite casual clothes and to have the unknown character wearing red shoes, as red connotes danger, warning and bad which represents the character and to have them wearing black leather gloves, as only the shoes and hands are going to be shown to create enigma and to fit with our genre of thriller. We also put down our title of the film and production company. 

Planning- Treatment (Synopsis)

As a group we wrote down our initial ideas for the rest of the film and we then developed them into more detail

In the opening of the film a character who is packing her suitcase, leaves her house discretely to deliver a box to an unknown character at a bridge. The unknown character then comes to the bridge and collects the gift box and is known as the 'collector'. And the character who is delivering the box is known as the 'deliverer'.

In the rest of the film, certain deliveries are made for a murder and on each delivery box, there is a code on the edge of the lid. The code unlocks the database on a computer of the victims who have been killed and the ten victims who need to be killed. They need to be killed because they are part of a secret agent group organisation. She (deliverer) has packed her suitcase because she was originally part of the secret agent group organisation, but she turned against them as she was black mailed by the murderers who are part of a different organisation. Throughout the film, there is a team of murderers who will receive different deliveries which contain certain murder tools to kill the secret agents. The code on the box is the code for each victim to be accessed on a computer database to be killed. The first particular box contains a necklace which contains some sort of deathly chemical poison which will be used to kill a certain victim. At the end of the film, nine deliveries have been made, one delivery is left but they can't track them down. But that last person who needs to be killed can not be found...

Planning- Scenes of opening of film

As a group we started to go into more detail of each of our scenes, so we started to write what type of camera shots we would use for each scene to help us when we do our storyboard and shot list.

Planning: Final idea/plan for film opening

As a group we changed our idea for the opening of our film as our previous ideas contained too much elements to put into two minutes and they were quite difficult ideas to do. So as a group we came up with an idea for our film opening which was simple and easier to do compared to our previous ideas and we think that it will be effective with the use of shots and edits.
Idea:

• Character (girl) packing her suitcase in her bedroom
• Camera shots of the different objects being packed e.g. close up shots
• Hesitation of putting a gift box in the suitcase, so she puts it in her pocket inside her jacket instead
• When she closes the suitcase, the title 'DELIVERY' will be shown on top of the suitcase
• Scene showing her leaving the house discretely
• Journey to the bridge- through the alleyway, her walking towards the camera
• Bridge scene- She puts the gift box on the bridge, camera on the ground showing her walk away with her suitcase, then unknown woman walks into the scene only showing her shoes (red shoes). Close-up shot of the 'collectors'-unknown woman's hand (black leather gloves) picking up the gift box slightly and then a complete cut

So as a group we decided our basic plan, we included some camera shots and costume ideas for the characters but we will continue to make it more detailed and start on our storyboard. We have already definitely decided our cast in the film opening, title of the film and our production name and we decided to have our genre as thriller. We have also booked dates to start filming. 

Research and planning- Analysis of Bride Wars opening

After writing and discussing our ideas for the opening of our film, I decided to analyse the opening of 'Bride Wars' as it relates to our ideas, and as a group we could get inspiration or further ideas for the opening of our film.

All of the scenes above show elements of wedding and it is in the context of the storyline of the film, in which two young girls have dreamt about their wedding since they were young and whilst these scenes are shown, non-diegetic music is playing which is happy and calm music, most of these shots are close-up shots to show more detail but there is not too much going on within each scene. Each scene also includes the credits of the film.

The scene on the left shows a picture of the Plaza Hotel whilst a voice over is put in the scene which then goes into the actual scene of the Plaza Hotel. So the picture goes into reality.

These two scenes show pictures of what happened to the young girls in the Plaza Hotel, whilst the voice over is still being played.

Research and planning- Initial ideas for film opening

As a group we produced a spider diagram of initial ideas for our film opening. We initially wanted to to do a thriller so we could build suspense and mystery, however we found it difficult producing a good idea which seemed like it was a thriller, as we originally came up with an idea for thriller which did not communicate any elements of thriller. I personally came up with an idea for a romance film, and as a group we developed it and came up with other improvement ideas on the film opening. We decided to have the film title as 'Engaged' and our original idea was to have three female characters getting ready e.g. close up shots on shoes, clothes, make-up etc. after I had this idea I realised it was similar to 'Devil wears Prada" and then have a split screen into three to show the three female characters and meeting up at a bridge, and one of them would announce that they are engaged. We then starting to think of aspects of engaged and romance, so we then developed an idea of a flashback scene of the proposal. We also tried to combine thriller with romance, however we found it quite difficult to produce an idea like that as it is quite hard to do and also it would be quite difficult to show that in a two minute opening.
'Devil wears Prada' scenes which were similar to my idea of the beginning:

One of the group members suggested an idea to do with New Years Eve, so we all came up with idea of a proposal at a new years eve party, however realistically if it were a new years eve party it would consist of many people, so I suggested that it could be a proposal at a new years even dinner with the male and female characters. So we all then developed further ideas about this. 

As a group we then developed that idea into a more detailed idea which was the basic storyline of the opening of the film. However, as a group more ideas about our film opening are being suggested, so as a group we would listen to each others ideas and may try to combine some of them. 

Research and planning- Analysis of British film openings

Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging: (comedy)

The first scene is a mid shot of the character in the car showing he is driving and allowing the audience to also see the character in the green costume, but it does not reveal the whole character outside the car as it would create a comic tone to reveal the whole character in the next scene as it shows the whole costume of what the character is wearing which is an olive. In this seven, it also shows the film company in white text which is quite a 'fun' font which relates to the genre of the film.

Long shot is used in this scene to show the setting of the film which shows the street on which the character lives. And it also shows that film it is, again in the same text in the previous scene. It also then reveals the whole character in the olive costume which is comic and clearly shows that her costume is green so it stands out, and looks funny or silly to the audience, also relating to the genre of the film.

This is a point of view shot enabling the audience to know that the character has just came to the party where everyone is looking in the same direction towards the camera, which shows that the many other characters there are shocked to see the way the character is dressed. 

Long shot is used to show the character and everyone looking at her, which enables the audience to see it from the other characters' point of view of the character.

Mid shot is used in both of these scenes to show facial expressions of the characters and to also show that these four characters are the main characters in the film.

Shot reverse shot is used to show the conversation between the two characters and allows the audience to see the facial expressions of each character, which shows that these two characters do not like each other by their dialogue and their attitude towards each other.

Shot reverse shot and over the shoulder shot is used in these scenes as it shows the conversation between the characters, also allowing the audience to see it from the character's position/view. And showing facial expressions and who is saying what. 

The camera is positioned at a low angle in this scene to show the character going down the steps outside of the house.

Long shot is used to show where the character is running to and also showing the audience the setting of the scene and film. It sets the scene for the film. 

Long shot is used again to still show the character running, and also shows the setting in which the scene and film is set. It also then shows the title of the film which is clear to read, the same font previous at the beginning, and it is white to stand out for the audience. 

Research and planning- Film certification

http://www.bbfc.co.uk

Age ratings on films are guidelines for different age groups of what they can watch and what they can not watch. It also includes certain themes for certain ages.

Horror film would include 'very strong violence', 'strong horror', 'strong blood and gore' and perhaps a few others in some cases.

A film which is rated 12 may include some strong language, but it must be infrequent.
Whereas a film rated 15 would include:

Research and planning- Film Genre

The main film genres: http://www.filmsite.org/genres.html

Main film genres but with sub-genres: http://www.imdb.com/genre/

Film genres are used so that it determines the mood of the film and the elements included in films such as setting, dialogue, characters, costumes-colours etc.