Midterm Submission

Our movie was inspired off of cheesy horror/thriller movies, specifically ones where there is a murderer on the loose killing lots of people. We mainly stuck to close ups and point of view shots in the film, especially when the murderer was stalking the victim, which is when the static wind noise played. We decided to do cuts back and forth during conversation to mimic what real movies do, it just adds a nice ascetic to the scene. The cut to black in the end also referred to the victim being killed. Overall, we stuck to a mysterious and suspenseful tone in the film, and we feel that is expressed in the final product.

Shot List

Storyboard

Scout Locations

This is the office space where we could show Miller working hard on the criminal case with Aiden and Gabby. While this is just a classroom, I feel that it looks enough like an office to provide a good representation of one. We could also possibly turn the lights off and use that for a night time scene in the office.

This is the image of the outside office that we will open up the movie with. It is the side of the cafeteria/our classroom, but I think the modernistic look is very nice and looks like an important building that could be an office.

Movie Script

This Movie is a cheesy suspense film, almost a parody. It follows an office detective as he gets stalked and killed by a suspect he's investigating.

Casting

Office Worker 1 (Miller): This is a stressed-out office worker who is obsessive over the Donovan Walter case, and ends up meeting his fate because of it. Miller is best fit to play the role because he is stressed out a lot so he can put that into a character. 

Office Worker 2 (Aiden): This is a relaxed and funny office worker who is good friends with everyone in the office. Aiden is best fit for this role because we have a real friendship so It will show in the film. 

Secretary (Gabby): This is the kind, office secretary that helps everyone around the office with deliveries, cases, and everything in between. She is best fit for this role because she’s nice and helpful in real life. 

Donovan Walter (Aiden): This is the masked, cloaked murderer who takes Miller at the end of the film. Aiden is best fit for this role because he is tall and being tall can present a menacing demeanor.  

Schedule Filming

For the scheduling of the filming, we are filming in chronological order of the events in the film. We want to film an exposition, a rising action, and the ending of the opening. We will post more during filming.

Day 1: We started by filming the scenes in the office by going into the back room and filming a conversation between the two characters. It went okay, but the interactions seemed a bit awkward. We will fix that scene later.

Day 2: We reshot some of the conversation yesterday morning, but there is still more to be done. However, I filmed the part where the murderer finds me in my house last night, and I feel like it went relatively well. I feel like I should keep it the way it is, but I’ll see what the class thinks.

Day 3: Filming is done for now and I moved on and finished editing the film. Overall it turned out pretty good for a 3 day process. Aiden and I will definitely reshoot and re-edit some things in the future before our final submission.

Genre Research- Panic Room

Panic Room is a 2002 thriller movie that is about intruders from an insane asylum break out and invade a family's home. The first 2 minutes consist of different angled shots of buildings in a big city. Suspenseful violin plays over this, establishing a somber, yet intense mood. The opening credits show the production companies, some of the cast, the casters, the costume designers, the music artists, the editors, production designers, producers, the writer, and the title. The budget was 48 million and made 196.4 million. It only was nominated for and won one award, being the Golden Trailer Awards for best Horror/Thriller film trailer.

Genre Research- The Game

The Game is a psychological suspense/thriller film which I don't know much about but I know it involves clowns. In the first 2 minutes, it shows many flashback memories of this creepy looking ginger kid, which mainly shows his birthday party with clowns and him with his father. It is entirely made up of jump cuts between memories and creepy/sad piano playing, which establishes an uncomfortable feeling across the audience. The opening credits don't show any names, just creepy shots. The budget was 48 million and it made 109.4 million. It was nominated for seven awards and won only one, being the Best Adapted Screenplay Award.

Camera shot activity

Genre Research- Get Out

This opening is from the suspense film "Get Out". Not much story is told in the opening, A man named Andre is walking down the street and gets abducted by a man in a white car. It is one constant over the shoulder shot from front and behind Andre. Creepy 1950's cartoon music plays during the abduction to set the uncomfortable mood. The job credits present the production companies and the director/writer's name. The budget was 4.5 million and it made 255.4 million dollars in box office. It has won 24 awards including Best original screenplay, Empire Award for best honor, and Satellite award for best director.

Genre Research- A Quiet Place

The second opening we watched is the wildly successful movie "A Quiet Place". The first 2 minutes of the film introduces the characters and shows us how the family must live in silence or the monster will kill them. There are plenty of different shots, including some wide and drone shots, but there are primarily close ups of the character's face's when they mouth words or signal each other, since they can't speak. There is some nature noises, like wind and bird chirping, but no music plays. There are no job credits in the beginning. The budget was 17 million and it made 50.2 million. It won 4 awards, a screen actors screen award for outstanding performance by a female actor in a supporting role, a Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Sci-Fi/Horror Movie, a Bandung Film Festival for Imported Film, and a Satellite Award for Best Sound.

Genre Research- The Shining

The first opening we looked at is the opening to "The Shining". The only bit of story that is told is that the family is driving for a long time. It is basically one 2 minute long drone shot with scary and suspenseful music playing over the drive to create an uncomfortable and intense atmosphere. The job credits shown in the beginning are producers, editors, and the directors. The budget for the movie is 15 million dollars, and it made 44.4 million dollars. It was earned 2 Saturn awards, one for best supporting actor, and one for best DVD or Blu-Ray collection.

Project Selection- My Decision

I have made my final decision for this project. I have decided to work with my friend and do a movie. I know I said it would be a lot easier to do a magazine, and I don't take back that statement. However, I feel like it will be a lot more fun to do. I'm pretty good with cameras, so that's a big advantage for me. And my partner has made videos with big cameras in the past, along with editing them. We plan to do a suspense film, that has to do with us being office workers and someone coming to try and kill us. It's a pretty loose plot, but it will tighten up as we keep working.

Project Selection- Film

Writing, filming, editing, and directing a movie seems like a massive challenge with many obstacles to overcome. I've seen these challenges in the Ferris Bueller documentary, and I can tell it is no walk in the park. However, I'm willing to go through those challenges with my peers and make a great film. I've always been quite scared doing speeches and plays in front of live people. The ability to take my time and redo the scenes as much as needed really takes away the stress of embarrassment. Even if we do mess up during a good take, the magic of editing is on our side. We can cut away audio, cut people out of frame, whatever we need to do to retain the experience of watching a film. I feel like doing the film is more interactive, immersive, and overall more fun than the magazine, and I will most likely be doing it.

Project Selection- Magazine

The magazine version of the project is a decently strong consideration for me. The ability for me to be able to express creativity without the pressure of filming it all is a major pro for the magazine. Having unpressed creative freedom is extraordinarily important to the making of a good quality project. I tend to stress over small details, so with the magazine I can fix anything I feel iffy about very easily. I'm not very artistic, so designing a magazine with colors and pictures seems like a challenge for me. However, I see it as an opportunity to learn more about expressing artistic creativity. The magazine is most likely not what I'm going to do, due to me not being very artistic and not very patient with computers. However, I'm willing to buckle down and learn to be patient and increase my art skills if I have to, so it's not completely off of the table.