Group Planning

Group Planning

In my group there is Ollie, Ella and myself. Within our group we have several group meetings. This is important and essential as we get to discuss and improve our group ideas, evaluate ideas that have been discussed and altogether helps with organisation of our opening thriller sequence so it is clear to each individual what we need to do. Which will help to improve our narrative.

Within our first few meetings, we have discussed ideas such as the narrative idea and who had inspired our opening sequence, in which Aristotle inspired my group. Additionally, in our group we have discussed ideas about our opening sequence such as cinematography, mise en scene, soundtrack, editing, target audience, research carried out/thriller film inspiration, codes&conventions and representation of characters. 

At each meeting with our groups, we planned and discussed a different topic each time. To plan and discuss each topic thoroughly we planned on an A3 sheet of paper to get structured, clear notes which would help us to develop ideas and helped us to follow conventional thriller aspects. Our first A3 sheet was based around cinematography within our scenes and wrote about them. An example of this is a panning shot and a close up shot. 

In our next meeting we then discussed sound. We divided our page into four and wrote about diegetic and non-diegetic sounds that could possibly feature within our opening thriller sequence to intensify the scene and help to create as much suspense and tension as possible. An example of the sounds that we planned was the diegetic sound of rustling leaves
this is also an parallel sound as it is a sound that you would expect to here within the forest. We will use this when both characters are walking at the beginning of the forest with their dogs. This won't be an exaggerated sound, it will be a noise in the background but will be enough to create an eerie sense and create suspense as it shows how isolated the setting is, making the audience fear for their safety.Another sound we will use is the non-diegetic sound of an exaggerated heart beat. The heart beat helps to intensify the scene as it shows how scared the character is. The audience will then sympathize for the characters as they are a similar age and can not help but imagine themselves in the same situation and how scared they must be. We will use this when the two characters first spot the dark figure in the series of montage clips. Not only does this give the audience a sense of uncertainty but it also builds suspense and tension as the audience think something will happen or jump out at the characters at the end of the sound.

Next, we discussed mise-en-scene which is everything that is within the scene. To make sure our thriller opening scene contain conventional mise-en-scene thriller aspects we again used an A3 sheet to plan. Two of our ideas were the setting and characters. Within our opening thriller sequence the setting we will use of a forest is conventional to the thriller genre. This use of mise-en-scene will be used when the girls enter the forest, to find a boy tied up looking possessed, and are unsure of the reason why. The entire scene will be mostly filmed within the dark forest. This is conventional to the thriller genre because not only is the forest isolated, to give a scene of danger to the scene, but it also keeps the audience on the edge of their seats as it is unknown whether the protagonist can reach for help in time. Another reason why the use of a forest is conventional to the thriller genre is because at the time we will use the forest it will be dark and gloomy. We wanted to use the forest at this time as it creates a sense of fear as it is unknown what lies within the forest, and creates a sense of foreboding as it is unknown what will happen next. In addition we planned our characters which are also conventional. In our thriller opening sequence, there will be 4 characters. Firstly, there are two school aged girls around 16 years old. This is conventional to the thriller genre as the female is always portrayed and seen as the victim as they are perceived to innocent and vulnerable. In addition to the teen-aged girls there is also a boy around the similar age, which is the character tied up in the middle of the forest, looking possessed. I think that this age for the characters works well as the audience begin to sympathize for the character as the target audience of the thriller opening is of a similar age range. Not only this, but the younger the character, the less dominance they have in the situation as they are more vulnerable, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats wanting to watch on until the end.

The next meeting involved discussing characters, which helped enable us to understand and create the characters together which helped as we could create something that would help the audience relate to the protagonists, making them want to watch on. 

In our last group meeting we discussed which editing techniques we were going to use. Firstly we will use is making the scene faster, this is when the pace of the editing is increased. This would most likely be used alongside the montage editing and when the hand held camera is being used to show that the pace of the unidentified killers walking has also increased as he follows them. In addition to this I think it would be effective to have a non-diegetic heart beat over the top of this scene as it shows how frightened and scared the two girls are. Not only could the fast paced editing of the scene represent the woman's heartbeat but could also represent there desperation to escape the forest they do not know what is going to happen. I think that this will make the audience sympathize for the girls as the target audience will be of a similar age range, meaning they will put themselves in this situation.Furthermore my group will also use a reaction shot in our thriller opening. We will use this when the two girls are in the forest, the wind will begin to pick up hearing the rustling of the leaves on the ground and the movement of the trees. Not only does this create tension and suspense as usually something or someone jumps out at the end of the loud noises. 

Date	Meeting	What We Discussed and Achieved	By Who	Discussions
17/10/2014	1	Ideas & Plan our intial Group Narrative	All	Discussed ideas for narrative on a group mindmap.
24/10/2014	2	Ideas and Planning for Cinematography	All	Mindmapped & finalized Cinematography on A3 paper.
06/11/2014	3	Ideas and Planning for Sound	All	Mindmapped & finalized Sound on A3 paper.
07/11/2014	4	Ideas and Planning for Editing Styles	All	Mindmapped & finalized Editing Styles on A3 paper.
07/11/2014	5	Ideas and Planning for Opening Credits	Individual	Planned Individually our Opening Credits
13/11/2014	6	Ideas and Planning for Characters	All	Mindmapped & finalized Characters on A3 paper.
14/11/2014	7	Planning and Finalising Group Storyboard	All	Mindmapped & finalized Storyborard on 5xA4 paper.
17/11/2014	8	Planning and Finalising Filming Schedule	All	Planned our Schedule on Edexcel to follow.
23/11/2014	9	Planning Risk Assessment	All	Planned our Risks to avoid them during filming.
01/12/2014	10	Filming our Opening Thriller Sequence	All	Took into account all of our planning & filmed sequence.

Altogether I think that group meeting have helped to keep my group organised and has helped us to understand what needs to be done next. In addition to this it has helped to expand and broaden our ideas to develop them further helping to create a better opening thriller sequence as this is all of our ideas combined.