Jimmy Beaton (Jimmy Beaton)
Most
Haunted
(2002-2010)
Throughout the duration of our production process we used a Canon Legria FS200 camera for the filming process. The camera is a SD memory platformed camera and is of a high qulaity when it comes to filming.To record diegetic sounds during the production, we used a microphone. The microphone offered us the a high level of audio quality compared to the microphone built-in to the camera. We used the microphone to the diegetic sounds such as the forest noises, nature sounds, the rustle and snapping of leaves and branches beneath foot and the sound of passing cars. During the editing stages of our production, we used a software called Adobe Premiere. This software enabled us to trim, add effects and other editing processes with the video files we had capture in our filming stages of production. It then allowed us to place these seperate files together and use transitions such as "additive dissolve" to create a smooth flowing continuous production. However, before this editing could take place, all of our video files had to be transfered from the SD card in the camera, onto which they had been originally saved, to the computer/hard drive we were working on. The next step once this had been done using an SD card reader plugged in to the usb port of the computer. Then the files had to be converted to a format of which the editing software, Adobe Premiere, recognized. So we used ‘File Converter’ in order to convert our files to mp4, suitable to be used with Adobe Premiere. Once the files had been converted, we imported them over to ‘ Adobe Premiere’ and went about editing them into our production work using the many facilities and features premiere has to offer to our full advantage. Before this production i had very little use or knowledge of the majority of softwares and programmes we used during the course of our production. So throughout both filming and editing our production, i expanded my knowledge and skills in using programmes and hardware such as Cameras, Tripods, Adobe Premiere, File Converter and the majority of others.
Our target audience would be predominantly male orientated. Young adolescence demographic. Those viewing our will be mainly be of a working/middle class and view our film genre type of film with their friends, it will not be aimed towards many females. The ethnicity of the
viewer will not be specifically targeted towards any type of specific ethnicity as our genre of film is set and aimed at any ethnicity. Those viewing our film will not have to be of a high education standard as our
film is aimed to be easy to understand and follow and will not require to much work by the viewer to do so. They may however, have to be able to understand what is going on and
remember, as the film will cut back and forward in time. The film
will start off with difficult to access and will only be released at Indie and a few
mainstream cinemas e.g. selected cineworlds. It eventually will be released
on general sale DVD and this should enable it to be a lot easier when gaining access and it will then be shown on
channels such as BBC three. An example of a film similar to ours is Kidulthood. It is targeted towards a similar audience and was accessed the same way ours
will. 
As a group we made the decision that our film would be produced on a small budget. It would be a small budget, England based film. Then two members of our group were allocated to go and conduct various forms of research into the numerous different small production company's that were out there, allowing us to see and decide which would be the most suited towards our film and our needs and requirements and be willing to distribute our film under their name. We went about researching four companies, these were 'Pathe' 'BBC Films' 'Film 4 Productions' and 'Revolver Entertainment'. We then sat down as a group and discussed which one we felt would be best suited to our needs. We decided that Revolver Entertainment would be the best company for us and our film. This was mainly due to the films they have previously produced. The majority were very similar to what we were aiming for ours to turn out like. These films included low budget films such as 'Ill Manors' (£100,000 budget) 'Kidulthod' (£600,000) and 'Shank' (£385,000) and 'The Imposter'. We then looked into another option of funding. We looked at the "The National Lottery' funding via the 'British Film Institute'. Due to our film being solely based in England and using mainly British actors, we hoped that our film would score more than sixteen points and therefore qualify for the funding the "British Film Institute" had to offer.
However we later decided that due to the murder taking place within a forest it would be more likely they live in a small remote town compared to the busy city of east London. This then influenced our other decisions. We decided that instead of the originally planned lower class status, we believed it would be more believable and better suited for them if they were from a working class status. We then had to find a way in whcih we could show this in our project. So we decided it would be more appropriate if they were wearing jeans and other clothes that represent the middle class instead of the hoodie and joggers attire By making the two murders working class, it makes the story more interesting. These teenagers had not previously committed a crime, never previously been involved with crime. This was just an accident that wasn't meant to happen, a plan that went horribly wrong for all involved. We as a group believed that this would be far more unexpected and would help keep the audience on the edge and keep them watching to find out more and waiting for anymore twists in the plot which make take place.Inspiration for this new characters came from UK drama and comedy shows such as 'Misfits' 'Skins' and 'The Inbetweeners'. By having middle class mureders, it also now linked nicely with the boy who is murdered. He is clearly a geeky middle class boy who would more likely be found in a small town rather than in the big city of lower class London.
| Title of film |
 ”It never happened” is the title
of our film. The title is shown in our opening sequence with the use of a
text message. The title suggests that there is a secret between the two main
characters, common in the thriller genre. E.G. ‘I’ll ALWAYS know what you did
last summer’ is also a film in which an important line of the film is used as
the title. |
| Setting/Location |
 Our
film is set in the woodland, a remote location in conjunction with many other
films of the same genre were numerous murders in happen in forests, and other
remote locations, out of sight from other people where nobody else will see.
With our film, as the two characters run out of the forest there is a sign that
is deliberately put in the shot showing that there is CCTV in operation in
the close proximity area suggesting that they may have been spotted by
someone and it is eminent that they may be caught. For example, in the
film 'Severance' there are murders that take place within the forest and also
in 'Cabin In The Woods' set within the woods where murders occur. |
| Costume/Props |
 Both me (Billy) and Matt
who play the murderers, wore fairly simple and stereo typical UK working
class teenager clothes. Matt wears hoody and dirty jeans, with Billy wearing
a coat and some blue coloured chinos. They both use old clothes and muddy had
trainers on to keep continuity throughout the entire costume. Evidentially
not challenging the age stereotype or usual convention. A prime example of how
they dress is shown in the film 'Attack the Block'. The murder weapon we used
however not a typical murder and does unlike our costumes challenge typical
convention. Our weapon of choice was not
the ordinary stereo typical weapon such as a knife or gun but instead was a
broken street sign found in the woods and was later changed to a brick. |
| Genre |
 We
chose to use a drama/thriller genre for our film. This links in with the
murder that happens within the film. Unlike many conventional murder based
films, our film is not a murder mystery or a case that has to be solved by
detectives, instead it is not about solving the case that the story line
follows but hiding evidence and those who committed the crime. The film 'Se7en'
is good example of a murder film based solely around attempting to figure out
who the murders are and why, how and when they committed the murder. |
| Camerawork and Editing |
 Through the duration of our opening scene, we follow the typical convention set within numerous other film openings of films with similar storyline's. At the begging in various murder based films the victims (murdered) body is the main focal point. In our opening scene this is very much the case. With a pan and zoom out of the body lying helplessly on the floor within our opening sequence. With many action thriller dramas there are quick cuts flashing back and forth at a high speed. This is again very much the case in our film introduction keeping with film convention. |
Once we had showed our peers our first draft, they gave use feedback on how they thought the project was going so far and how exactly they would recommend we changed it to make it better. We soon decided with the feedback we received that we needed to film more to add to our project. So on Wednesday the 9th of January we went out to get film more footage to optimise our film opening to the best of our ability. For this section of filming, we went to jimmy's house. When there, we went about filming a numerous range of shots, enabling us to make sure we had a substantial amount of footage to look through and choose from when we were editing. The shots included a medium close up of Matt looking in the bathroom mirror and then slowly taking down his hood to show the feelings he had after the murder. Anger, frustration and confused all shown in the one shot. There was then another shot of him splashing water from the sink up into his face in the bathroom. In an attempt to show him attempting to wash away the blood and mud he subconsciously feels on his skin and the sins of the murder. We then went and range of numerous other shots. Those included a match on action shot of Matt entering the kitchen and then walking over to the washing machine , a medium shot of him taking his items including his phone out his jeans pocket and throwing it on the top, a medium close up of him taking off his jumper and then another match on action of him placing the jumper in the washing machine, the second part of the shot being taken from inside the drum of the washing machine. Then linking on from him placing his phone on the work top earlier, we filmed a final shot of Matt's phone and him receiving a message from billy (me) effectively only stating three single words, the title of our production 'it never happened, which will symbolise the end of the introduction opening scene and then can be linked into the transition to our title coming up on the screen and then the film will begin.
After our first draft was assesed by the class, the feedback and our own analysis showed that the murder weapon we had originally been using had to be changed as it wasn't clear to see in the production. We decided that instead of a pole which had been soemhow broken off of a road sign being used as a weapon, we were going to use a brick. The feedback we received made it clear that it was not clear enough or at all what the murder weapon was and that this somewhat went about making our storyline slightly unclear. So we decided that we were going to make it clear to the audience what the weapon was. We did this by reshooting all of the shots in which the weapon was and should be shown in. One of the main weapon shots is when there is a high angle shot of Matt and Billy (Me) standing on the mud ledge above the lifeless body. Billy (Me) then drops the brick which then is clearly followed by the camera and you can clearly see it fall to the foot of the body not only suggesting but this time showing that the brick is the weapon which was used to kill the boy. 