Evaluation of Production

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the forms and conventions of real media products?

Our product does not challenge the forms or conventions of thrillers, but uses them. The main focus of our film is on human psychology, an important part of a thriller that is exhibited in films such as Fight Club and Psycho. Our film focus' on the psychology of the killer, and what drives him to kill. Had the film been full length, there would likely have been flashback's or insight into the killers childhood, as hinted at in the police investigation room scene. And so our film conforms in this respect. Our protagonists, the police detectives, fit the thriller convention of a fairly young, normal male. However we do subvert from the convention of there being a puzzle for the audience to solve, as we show who the killer is from the start. However this would allow the audience to know something the protagonists don't, and can help create empathy for the protagonists and raise the tension. Had we made a full length film, I think we would've had much more mystery involved, but with the time constraints of this piece, I think we made the right choice for an effective beginning.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

There are two main social groups in our production - The authority, in this product the Police, and the minority, shown in this as the killer, who is also a schizophrenic. In our piece the police are shown as hard working and determined, as they have been working on this case for months and made no progress, yet they still keep at it and haven't given up. This is also reflected in their costume. Mike's character particularly, with no jacket or tie and just an untucked shirt. This shows that they're only concentrating on the case and aren't bothered with trivial things such as personal appearance. The killer in this film is a schizophrenic. Our film isn't intended to show schizophrenics as bad, or killers, but to show the inner struggle suffered by people with such afflictions.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Considering the popularity of the thriller genre, it would probably be distributed by a large company that could get it to many cinemas, rather than to dvd's or shops. Thrillers are one of the more popular genres, and is considered to be more adult than genres such as action or comedy. Therefore they would pull in much of the fairly high earning young professionals.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

As the majority of the average thriller audience are males, are audience would obviously be predominantly male. As the BBFC rating of 18 often means a film get seen by very few people, we would try to have our film rated at 15, opening up our product to an audience of teenagers and students. This would be a good move as these are the type of people likely to be interested in seeing a psychological thriller. An audience of 15 and above would also be more likely to understand and appreciate the film than the audience if it were rated at 12, as 12 year olds probably wouldn't fully understand schizophrenia.

How did you attract/address your audience?

The very nature of thrillers attracts a large audience as it is - people enjoy being held in suspense and trying to solve a mystery. We added to this with the introduction - leaving clues to what has happened to characters before the start of the film, showing polaroids of the victims. It isn't immediately apparant that they're photos of victims, however clues are dropped throughout the film, such as the 'x-ray' flash over the next victim, and the picture flashing up as Sam walked past Joe, and the dialogue between the police officers.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Through making this product I have mostly learnt about editing software and digital cameras. Use of the cameras has shown that they are not machines that can make anything look proffesional, but require much more thought into positioning, angles and framing to produce an effective shot. Mike was responsible for most of the editing, although we all helped and so I have grasped an understanding of how to use such software. Using it has shown me that it is in the editing that a film really gets pulled together, and everything made to fit in a place where it will be most effective.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking at the effectiveness of some of the shots from our final piece, I have learnt the importance of framing characters in a shot to the overall feel of the film. In many of the shots in our preliminary task, we didn't think about where to position the camera or people within the shot carefully enough, and as a result it looks and feels much more basic than our final piece. I have also learnt the importance of planning and time management. In our preliminary task, we had a plan of what we wanted to do, but it was always open to change. This worked in some respects, making us more flexible with what we would do, however it also meant that as a group we were less sure of what we were trying to do. This changed when we made the final piece, as we decided to make a concrete plan of what we were going to make. This made it much easier to decide on locations, actors, and edits. This also effected time management, as with our first piece we found ourselves taking many recordings of the same thing which we weren't going to use. Whereas with the final piece, we knew exactly which shots we wanted and where we wanted them. This allowed us to know how many takes we were going to have to do and so significantly cut down on wasted time.

Production: Bound by Blood

This is our production, the first 3 mintues of a thriller named 'Bound by Blood'.

The first part of our production was meant to show two different rooms with the same pictures. one room would have the pictures annotated in blue ink, and the other annotated in blue ink. This was supposed to show the killer planning his next kill-the room with the red ink, and the police investigating the murders-the room with the blue ink. If we were to do it again, I would put more emphasis on the fact that they were two seperate rooms to make the opening scene more effective. We chose the music used - Mad World from the Donnie Darko soundtrack. We chose this by uploading many songs onto iTunes, and playing a selection alongside the film in iMovie. Some of the songs we looked at were 'The Artifact and the Living', also from the Donnie Darko soundtrack, 'Cemistry' by Unkle, 'Welcome Home (Sanitarium)' by Metallica and of course 'Mad World'. We found that Chemistry was too fast paced and didn't quite fit it, and after the trouble we'd had with using Metallica on our continuity piece, we weren't going to use them again. The Artifact and the Living suited it quite well, but in the end we decided that Mad World was the most suited.

In the final scene at the coffee shop, we had to change some of our plans. We initially planned to do that scene at Caffe Nero, as there was a fairly run down road around the corner from it that we thought would look good for the film. However, after phoning them up we were told to ask their head office for permisssion. We did so, but got no reply, and so decided to look for a new location. We chose Costa Coffee, as this was positioned with an alleyway running alongside it. We called them up and were told we would have to ask the manager for permission, which we did and were allowed to film the scene there. This worked out quite well, as having Joe drinking his coffee outside allowed for him to follow Sam down the alleyway much easier.

Feedback
In the first version of our thriller, the police investigation room scene was much longer, featuering 2 more characters. However when we showed this version to people, they felt that this scene dragged on too long, and we recieved feedback such as,
"I think the police scene is too long. The start and end is good, but the middle drags on a little"
After watching it through a few times we decided that we all agreed with this feedback, and got to work editing that particular scene to help it flow more. We cut out approximately 30 seconds, and replaced certain shots with more close ups. The feedback we recieved afterwards was,
"I really liked it. The sound was really good and the editing was clever, and I think the story is good and I would want to see the rest if it was an actual film."
"I like it. I think it's really good and the ending's reminiscent of The Silence of the Lambs and good editing."
"It's much better now you've cut it down, it keeps my attention for longer. I'd want to see the rest of it."

Thriller Script

This is the script for our thriller, it reads as follows:
Scene one: Killer in the hotel (bathroom scene)

Voice: You don’t have to do this; you do know that don’t you?

It’s not going to change anything.

Killer: Shut up! Just get out. I’m not listening to this again.

Voice: You know I’m right.

Killer: That’s it. I’m going, and you’re not coming with me this time.

*Killer walks out of bathroom

Voice: Do you really think I’m that easy to get rid of?

Oh, c’mon, it’s been years now. Besides, you’d be lonely without me.

*Killer walks out

Scene two: Police investigation room

Detective one: I dunno jack. We’ve been at this case for two months now and we don’t seem to be getting anywhere. We’re missing something, I’m tellin’ you.

Detective two: Look, talk like that’s gonna get us nowhere is it? We need to look more carefully. What is it about these people that makes someone want to kill them? Is there anything we’ve missed, anything that they all have in common?

Detective one: Well, they were all in the same year at school, we’ve established that, and James Greenwood was in their year, Phillip Mason was in the year above.

*Pause

Hang on; Jason Crook was in their year as well. It was his third school in two years. Says here he was removed for unusually disruptive behavior, looks like there were quite a few serious incidents he was involved in.

*Head officer walks through door accompanied by detective three.

H.O: Afternoon, you two. This is Thomas Green, he’s a specialist who’s been assigned to help you on the case. I’ll leave you to it.

Detective three: Right, what’s the story so far gentlemen?

Detective Two: Well, we’ve got a list of suspects that we’ve managed to narrow down to the 6 that are on the board. Three of those went to the same school as all four murder victims and it seems that Jason Crook had a bit of trouble in his school years, it could just be teenage behavior, but it did state that he was unusually disruptive... could be a lead, so we’re gonna check it out.

Detective three: Sounds like a plan.

*Pauses

Would I be able to have a mill over the papers and files? So I can get all the details and what have you.

Detective two: Sure.

Detective three: Thanks

*Walks out the room

Scene three: outside the police station.

Detective two: Not sure what to make of that guy really.

Detective one: He seemed a bit, odd. Anyhow, I don’t like the way they made it feel like we couldn’t handle it

Detective two: No, but I’m welcoming help. He just didn’t seem quite with it. Ah well, maybe he’s just awkward with new people.

Thriller Storyboard

The following pictures and annotations show the plan of our introduction to a thriller.

The opening scene will be of a collection of polaroid photographs scattered over a desk. There will be several cuts between two desks with the same pictures. On one of the desks the photos will have red writing on, and the other blue. The room with the red writing will be the killers room, and the room with the blue writing the police investigation room. The pictures will be those of the victims that have been killed before the film takes place.
The camera will then pan from the police desk up to a board in their room with mugshots of suspects. The camera will then go into a close up on one of the pictures. Unkown to the police officers this will soon be shown to be the killer.

The close up of the mug shot will then fade into a close up of the person in the mugshot standing in their bathroom. The killer will then hear voices in his head, which will be done with a voice over. We will have different camera angles on him for when the killer's talking and when the voices in his head are.

We will then watch the killer walk away from the voices in his head, leave the bathroom and turn out the light, as he goies towards the stairs.


The killer will then walk down the stairs, whilst being talked to by the voices in his head. He'll then walk towards the door and leave, and the shot will quickly fade out to the next scene.

In this scene 2 police detectives are discussing the case. We will have 2 shots as they talk to each other, and close up reaction shots as they exchange dialogue. Reaction shots will show the emotion of the characters in relation to what the other is saying, and so will be good for this scene.

A third detective will then be introduced to the case. He will be a new detective and seem peculiar to the other detectives. The 2 original detectives will then leave the police station after discussing the case with the new detective. They will talk to each other about what they thought of him.

When the police officers are outside the police station, unknown to the police the next victim walks past them. The camera will then track after him, and follow him down an alleyway.

We will then cut to the killer sitting in a coffee shop. If we can get permission to film there, we will use Caffe Nero in town, because there is a chair next to the window which would be in a convenient position for the shot. The victim will walk past the killer drinking his coffee. He will then stand up and follow the victim, and the introduction will be left on a cliffhanger.

Initial Planning of our Thriller

When we were set the task of making the introduction to a thriller, we first decided in our group to discuss which sub-genre of thriller we wanted to produce. I wanted to pursue a mafia/gangster thriller set in the 20's, as it seemed like the type of film which you could get lots of atmosphere and emotion into. However it became apparant that things such as costume and finding somewhere that wasn't obviously filmed in modern day would be too difficult. Other sub-genres we decided against, for reasons such as costume and special effects, were the horror and action thrillers.
In the end we have decided on doing a crime thriller. This allows us to create a 'case' that can absorb the viewer, and use locations available to us. Thinking about locations, we decided there were rooms in school that could be made to look like police rooms, but we didn't have a solid idea that we were definately going to go ahead with, and so can't decide on locations at this point.
Thinking of actors we could get to star in our production, the only people we could think that would be available to film at similar times to us that would be willing to be in are film were our friends. We decided on a few friends who we thought would look more fitting for the part that we could ask to be in it.

Research on Thriller Sub-Genres

To decide on which sub-genre of thriller to make our film, it seemed fitting to research a few popular ones.
To look at the sub-genres of thrillers we must first look at what makes the broader thriller in general.
"A Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film and television that includes numerous and often overlapping sub-genres. Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more powerful and better equipped villains."
This is the wikipedia definition of a thriller. From my own knowledge I can also say that common thriller forms and conventions include a protagonist that the audience can associate with, a mystery for the protagonist and the audience to solve, and action sequences.
Popular Sub-Genres include:
-Action Thriller
-Conspiracy Thriller
-Crime Thriller
-Disaster Thriller
-Drama Thriller
-Science-Fiction Thriller
-Horror Thriller
-Legal Thriller
-Medical Thriller
-Political Thriller
-Psychological Thriller

Psychological thrillers are considered to be one of the smarter types of film, often playing on human instinct and psychology. They also often cross over into the horror sub-genre, creating suspense through fear. They often tend to have a focus on the development of characters over the plot, and so result in there being more about the psyche of characters rather than intense action.

Crime thrillers on the other hand usually have a focus on physical action rather than psychology. They often follow the criminal to give us an insight into their life, and allow us to follow their crime spree. Crime thrillers feature murders, robberies, chases, shootouts, and double-crosses as central topics.

Continuity Exercise

This is what we produced for our continuity exercise. I think for our first piece it worked quite well. We ran into difficulty getting permission to film in particular rooms that we wanted to, and some shots being difficult to get into position to get, but we managed to work around these problems by finding alternative locations, and ways into places for the camera to go.

Continuity Exercise Story Planning

We were set the task of making a short video, keeping continuity specifically in mind. First we decided on a storyline. We went with something simple that would allow us to experiment with camera angles and positions and get a feel for what the camera could do. We decided to go with a short comedy film about a man who walked down an office corridor into another mans office and asked him for a pen. He then gets thrown out of the office, but is proud of having gotten the pen.

We would open with an over the shoulder shot watching the main character walking down an corridor. He would walk away from the camera.

We would then have a shot facing alongside the corridor, through a gap in the wall. We were able to plan this as we had decided on locations as we decided to do this piece all in school, as it was a practice exercise.

The next shot would be in the opposite direction to that which the character was walking in, so we could see his front.

For the next shot we decided to do a high angle shot, creating a CCTV like feel. We got this shot by placing the camera and tripod high in a window and Mike climbing up with it to adjust it.

Not shown in the storyboard, as we decided to do it as we were filming, to improve continuity, was an over the shoulder shot of the character opening the door form behind. This shot shows the character coming in through the door and closing it behind him. It was a mid shot from across the room.

This shot was an over the shoulder shot as the first character asks the new character for a pen. The second character is at first hidden behind the first character, but when the first character has spoken, he sits up and is visible.

In this shot, the second character shows his anger at being asked for a pen, and stands up and grabs the first character. We used a mid shot and a 2 shot to show both of them fully.

In this shot, the first character is thrown out of the office. It is implied that the second character did this by his anger in the previous shot, however we did not actually have him throw James over, as this would create potential health and safety hazards. Instead we positioned the camera facing down a wall, and had James roll backwards from behind the wall, to appear as if he'd been thrown.

We then had a sequence of close up shots on the first characters face as he walked away from the office, gloating from his success in getting the pen. For this we had to have one person hold the camera pointing at his fave and walk ahead of him, whilst another person guided him around the corners to make the shot as smooth as possible, which was quite difficult to do. We then placed the camera in a few positions as He walked towards it, to allow us to do several cuts.

In the final scene, the character walks towards a set of stairs. He then jumps off them and we froze the image in the editing and used a fade-to-black.

Psycho Analysis

Psycho is one of the most well known, and well respected thrillers of all time. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock 'the Master of Suspense', he used many techniques to create a film that has stood the test of time.
The 'Shower Scene' is perhaps one of the most famous scenes in cinema history, often being copied and almost always being used as an example of his works. In it, lead character Marian is killed by what appears to be an old woman with a kitchen knife. However, as we can see in the picture, the woman is silhouetted , meaning that no details can be made out. This means that anything the audience sees is entirely down to what they believe they percieve. This technique can be a powerful one, as it plays on the imagination of the viewer, and so can feel more frightening to them. This is played with even more, as Hitchcock never actually shows any violence during this killing. We are shown the knife bearers hand drawing back, and going fowards, but then it cuts to Marian's face. The only gore shown is in the small amount of blood that flows down into the drain.
What adds even more to this scene is Psycho's incredibly famous musical score. Using muted violins, Hitchcock has some of the most effective tension raising music used in cinema. It puts the viewer on edge with its unusual sound, whilst letting us know that something key to the plot is soon to happen.
The killing takes place at about 47 minutes into the film, which is 109 minutes long. This is unconventional, as up to now, we are in the belief that Marian is the main character, and the plot of the story is focused on her stealing the money from her workplace. However when Hitchcock kills her off, it confuses the viewer as to what they thought was going to happen next. Up until that point the audience would likely have presumed that Marian would have either figured out a way to give back all the money and make up for her crime, or made a successful escape with it. However her death leads the viewer to a new state of suspense, as they truly don't know what's going to happen next. This was a truly revolutionary move by Hitchcock.
What follows the 'Shower Scene' is a period of no dialogue, where Norman Bates cleans up the murder. Normally this would be seen as a dull, pointless scene, however with the viewer having believed the film was about the stolen money, we find ourselves throughout this scene wondering whether Bates is going to discover the money and/or what he's going to do about it. Throughout the scene the camera often hovers over little details we believe Bates hasn't spotted which could lead to the discovery of this murder, but then he turns back and corrects them. It also lingers over the disguised stash of stolen money, which we belive Bates will find. However he sees it only as a rolled up newspaper, and sinks it with the rest of the evidence that Marian was there. Therefore we can see that from this scene, through small details, Hitchcock has turned what would normally be a dull event for an audience, into a tense scene.
From all this we can see that the techniques Hitchcock used to create tension and suspense were a powerful musical score, and unconventional time in the film for the death of the main protagonist, and using the viewers imagination to make the killing more effective.

Fight Club Analysis

I have decided to analyse both a modern thriller, and a classic thriller, 'Fight Club' and 'Psycho' respectively.

Fight Club is considered one of the greatest thrillers in modern cinema, with Brad Pitt's character 'Tyler Durden' being considered one of the most absorbing and influential characters created. A brief synopsis of Fight Club is that an insomniac office worker (Edward Norton) meets a soap salesman (Brad Pitt), and together they create a fight club, which soon spreads to many other cities. Pitt's character then uses this club to wreak havok across the city.

As you would expect from a film of this name, there are many fight scenes. The pure brutality of these scenes is enthralling to watch, as we see men who willingly go into fights wanting to hurt people and also to be hurt. It is this that makes the fight scenes stand out from fight scenes in other films, as in Fight Club they have an added psychological factor. In most films a fight would occur because a character was angry at another one, however in this film it is merely because the men are bored with their lives. This makes them much more interesting, because it adds a factor of human psychology, something which helps to make a thriller gripping, as I pointed out in my essay about 'Taking Lives'.

What really makes Fight Club stand out as an incredible film then, is not its fight scenes, but it's take on human psychology. It gives us a view of the mentally unstable from their perspective. However it does not reveal it's doing this until near the very end, and this massive twist in the plot is what has helped make many people see this film as a modern classic.

At the start of the film, it looks at human psychology through Norton's characters insomnia. It shows us how it affects his life and his work. It then goes on to show us how he eventually finds his own cure for it - going to support groups for the terminally ill. This gives us an interesting look at how someone can pretend to have a terrible illness around those who actually do.

Towards the end of the film, it looks at how someone deals with discovering they have a serious mental disorder that not only threatens themselves, but many others across the whole city.

Alongside its gripping, realistic fight scenes, it is this look at human psychology that really makes Fight Club stand out as an landmark thriller, that can stand alongside films such as Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.

In What Ways Does ‘Taking Lives’ Conform to or Subvert From What you Consider to be the Forms and Conventions of the Thriller Genre?

The typical forms and conventions of a Thriller involve the protagonist who achieves great tasks, puzzles and mysteries which surround the story which create a need to find in both the protagonist and the audience, psychology and human nature which intrigues the audinece into finding out bout our basic instincts, action sequences to excite viewers and suspense to make the audience want to keep watching.
The protagonist in 'Taking Lives' subverts from the normal convention of starting off as an average, normal looking man, as seen in Edward Norton in 'Fight Club'. Instead Angelina Jolie stars as an FBI profiler drafted in to help catch a serial killer. The convention of a normal man is because it allows the audience to sympathise with the character. When a character starts off extraordinary, the audience finds it hard to feel connected to them. This is why in a typical thriller the protagonist will start off normal, then become extraordinary in order to overcome the challenges they face - when they do extraordinary things, the audience can sympathise with them better. However in 'Taking Lives' Angelina Jolie's character starts off already extraordinary - an FBI profiler, and both beautiful and clever. Also it is unusual to find a female lead character, possibly because there is a larger male audience and the director/scriptwriter believes they will empathise better with a male character, so here again 'Taking Lives' subverts from the thriller genre in terms of forms and conventions.
Puzzles and mysteries feature heavily in the thriller genre, and as 'Taking Lives' is about an FBI agent trying to find a serial killer, it clearly conforms to this idea. Puzzles and mysteries faeture in thrillers because they allow the audience to get drawn into figuring it out along with the protagonist, allowing for more empathy. The mystery in this film is to figure out who the serial killer is, which not only conforms to the genre in having a mystery, but is a very standard mystery featured in many films. Almost all thrillers feature murder, perhaps because it evokes strong emotions of sympathy in almost any viewer, which allows the film to feel more effective and suspenseful. A thriller without a mystery would likely feel slow and dull, therefore puzzles and mysteries are naturally a part of thrillers which must be conformed to , and 'Taking Lives' is no exception.
Thrillers often focus on human nature and psychology, and 'Taking Lives' conforms to this aspect too. Angelina Jolie's character is brought in to assess the murder and make a profile of the killer. During this she draws out certain character traits to expect from the killer, showing a focus on psychology as she puts herself in his shoes. Through her investigation, the killer is shown to have become a killer because his mother loved his twin brother more. This twisted his mind, and he became a murderer, living the lives of his victims for a while before killing again and moving on. This shows a focus on his psychology, and therefore 'Taking Lives' conforms to the thriller genre in terms of psychology.
Thrillers often have action sequences, however 'Taking Lives' is quite short on these, having only a car chase and an on foot chase through the city centre. Thrillers have action sequences because it allows for shows of physical finesse, showing extraordinariness in the characters. They also heighten the tension, showing that the 'good guys' are close to catching the 'bad guys'. The chase scenes in 'Taking Lives' are quite good, as they are fast paced and make good use of effective camera angles. However, they're short lived and the film would lose none of its effectiveness without them, so in terms of action sequences, 'Taking Lives' subverts from the forms and conventions of thrillers.
Thillers must have suspense and tension, otherwise they're just not thrilling as such, and so 'Taking Lives' does conform to the conventional thriller here. In one particular moment the tension is slowly built up until the killer attacks Angelina Jolie. The tension is also built up by the stories told by the mother, which is very effective it creating suspense. When Angelina Jolie is exploring the hidden basement, it is poorly lit. This plays on the human fear of the unknown, as the mise-en-scene allows us to see very little scenery. In these scenes, tension is slowly built up and layered until the audience is very tense and then the climax occurs. This shows that 'Taking Lives' conforms to the thriller genre with tension and suspense.
From this we can see that in three of the five criteria I chose, 'Taking Lives' conforms to the thriller genre, and only in the criteria of the protagonist and action sequences does it subvert, although not in the way the action sequences are done, but in the quantity of them. Therefore we can see that 'Taking Lives' conforms to the forms and conventions of the thriller genre.

Camera Shots

This post is to show various camera angles used in the film industry, their effects, and when they are commonly used. Camera shots are the angles, zoom level and the placement of the camera in relation to the subjects of the shot.

Establishing shot
An establishing shot is a very zoomed out shot, generally showing a large area or landscape, and sets the location of the scene. They are usually used at the beginning of the scene.








Long Shot
A long shot genereally shows all of a character or characters and also show the surrounding setting they're in. Long shots are often used to show a group of people and their surroundings, or to give a profile of a character.









Medium Shot
A medium shot is at a zoom level which shows a character or characters from about the chest or waist up. They draw the attention into certain points more than a long shot. They also allow the audience to see some of the setting.








Close Up
A close up draws attention onto very specific details, usually a hand gesture or a facial expression. They are often used in reaction shots, to show a characters emotion in detail between exchanges of dialogue.







Extreme Close Up
Extreme close ups are zoomed in to the extent that something small, such as someones eye, fills the screen. This allows the whole screen to be filled with the emotion of the character.











Over the Shoulder
An over the shoulder shot gives a perspective of the point of view of a character. Usually they are also a 2 shot, as they are often used during dialogue, as they show the talker and the reaction of the other character.









High Angle Shot
High angle shots are used to make the subject of the shot look inferior, or powerless. They do this by looking down on the character, giving the audience the feeling they are above them.


















Low Angle Shot
Low angle shots are used to make the subject look powerful. This effect is created by placing the camera beneath the subject and looking up at them, making the audience feel they are beneath the subjects.

Practicing Camera Shots - Stills

For our first task, we had to take a series of still photos using different camera angles and shots to get used to positioning the camera. We had to plan these photos ahead, and arrange them into a storyboard. For this exercise we chose a very simple storyline, where a drugs deal went badly and resulted in a fight.

We started with an establishing shot, to set the scene and introduce the characters. We found a location within school that we thought looked quite run down and suitable to the story.

This shot shows the 2 characters from the previous shot involved in a drugs deal. This is a mid shot and a 3 shot.

This shot shows the dtugs dealer talking to the 2 'druggie' characters. It shows one character in a particularly weak position in relation to the others, sitting on the floor, and the drugs dealer in a much more authoritative stance than the others.

This shot is to improve continuity. In the storyboard this would signal the end of this scene, as the characters having finished the drugs deal would walk away, after helping one another up.

This shot is reflected in a mirror for a number of reasons. Firstly it creates an interesting effect, which improves the whole feel. And secondly because it gives the effect of watching something around a corner. This fits in with what is happening in the story, as the 2 druggies are about to take their drugs, and wouldn't want to be seen, so this creates a sort of spying effect.

This shot shows the druggie taking drug off of a toilet seat. This shot was better for our excercise than showing it from the front, as we would've run into difficulties with making anything look real from the front.

These shots show the characters going up the stairs, they show are establishing shots, as they show the new place the scene is located in.

These shots show the drugs dealer walking towards the druggies. One of the druggies is passed out on the floor already, because of the drugs they've taken. The first shot is an establishing shot, the second and over the shoulder shot, and the third and fourth long shots.

In this scene, the druggies have been unable to pay the dealer, and so a fight breaks out. Being high the druggie clearly loses. The first shot shows a mid shot 2 shot, and the second shot show a mid shot with the camera placed at a very low position, to show the druggies place next to the dealers feet.

After dealing with the 2 druggies, the dealer walks away. In the first shot we have a mid shot, and in the second we have a long shot, to show that everything is finshed. Throughout all of the shots the druggies face is never shown, either hidden by his hood or the camera. This is because it adds an air of mystery to him, and also implies that in their drug fuelled state, the druggies are unable to descern any features from him, and gives us an in sight into the characters.