Molly La Fosse's Media Blog

A shot list is the best way to organise your filming. It is a document that outlines and describes each shot, in chronological order, that you want in your sequence. It includes shot types, ie over the shoulder, as well as location.  An example of a detailed shot list

Now that we have got feedback on our idea from both Luke and Matt, this is the revised scene outline for our thriller THE CHANGES Before : The female character was a secretary Now : The female character is the wife of the man who has been kidnapped. Why? : We changed the character because both Luke and Matt explained that the setting of 'Office' was problematic because it is much harder to create the 'world' of an office in the limited studio space we have at our disposal and the limited time we will have on the actual shoot day. Casting this character as the Wife instead of a secretary means that we can use the setting of a kitchen for her end of the phone call. This is better because we can use the kitchen in the Ewhurst boarding house which is where we are filming the rest of the thriller. This will save time and effort on the day. Before : We did not have much character development for 'The Killer' Now : We plan to include a shot of 'The Kil...

For our thriller we will need some special effects makeup done on John as we want him to look like he has been badly beaten in order to immediately show the audience how serious and brutal the Henchmen and the Killer are and to make the scene more scary. I did some research on how to create fake bruises using makeup and found some helpful videos on YouTube : I don't think anyone in our group is skilled enough at makeup to do this ourselves and so we will have to find someone who can.  A possibility is one of my friends who is practiced at doing makeup for shows and could give it a go.

As well as having a chat with Matt, we presented our idea to another teacher, Luke. He had similar opinions to Matt and liked our script. At first he thought it sounded like there was too much action until he read the script and saw how we had condensed it. He liked our script and the idea of the phone call.  He also had helpful opinions on casting, giving us ideas of appropriate actors for The Killer and The Wife. He felt the Ewhurst basement would be a great location for the torture scene. He also suggested that we use Adam's kitchen as the other setting and so we have emailed Adam to ask for his permission to use this in our shoot. So far I feel as if our group has been working efficiently and we have produced some excellent ideas and research. We have used lessons productively and have been able to make best use of our lesson time by dividing up tasks for each member. 

I did some research on fake blood online and found that we could buy it for a fairly cheap price (£4.50 for 0.5oz) ( https://www.redcarpetfx.com/products/ben-nye-dark-blood?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=googlepla&variant=19620925189&gclid=CjwKEAiAyanCBRDkiO6M_rDroH0SJAAfZ4KLXQIMBM57mgntuuh24MxDTrqLij5NLFoo0rkZ3IDOWBoCbdHw_wcB )  However we would need about 8oz which would amount to  £20 - this is a bit out of our price range. Also, my research showed that it is much better to make your own fake blood if you want it to be on peoples skin or in their mouth because then it is non toxic. Therefore I then googled 'How to make fake blood' and found some very helpful websites, one being ... https://www.google.co.uk/amp/m.wikihow.com/Make-Fake-Blood%3Famp%3D1?client=safari . After discussing it with my group we decided it would be cheaper and safer to make the fake blood.

THE KILLER - Black turtle neck - Black suit -Smartly polished dress shoes (inspired by the character John Wick from the 2014 film, John Wick) THE WIFE - Piper - Red nail polish - Smart, sleek hair - Jeans - Plain jumper THE HUSBAND - John - White short sleeved shirt - Tie - Beige trousers -Brogues THE HENCHMEN - White boiler suit (that becomes splattered in blood.) - Plastic shoe coverings 

- Gun - pistol. The media department have a prop gun that we can use. - Chopping board, vegetables, knife to chop with. I will bring these in from home. - 2 mobile phones. Sean has bought 2 nokia phones from Singapore for the actors to use. - 1 chair. - Paracord to tie up The Husband. We will buy online - 2 Boiler suits - will buy online. - Wife's costume - just jeans and jumper. The actress will bring her own. - Accountant's costume - short sleeved white shirt, tie, trousers. The actor will bring his own. - Killer's costume - smart suit, black dress shoes. The actor will bring his own. - Paper and pen - Scalpels and knifes, power drill, general torture-like instruments. I will bring in my dad's DIY tools and the media department have some fake ones we can use. - Silencer? - we may just construct a makeshift one to save money. - Specific costumes on the 'Costumes' blog post.

This is the first draft of our script for the thriller sequence... Wife cuts vegetables in skilful way – fast cuts between knife movements. Phone rings Piper answers her phone The killer: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers Piper: what? The killer: But if Peter Piper Picked a peck of pickled peppers – where is peter Pipers husband One of the men punches John Piper: Let me talk to him John: I’m here, I’m okay Piper: how many are there? The husband hesitates to answer John: 4 One of the men in a white boiler suit punches john – blood lands on the killer’s shoe – close of the shoe – the killer wipes the blood off the shoe – shoots the man in the white boiler suit The killer: make that three. You have 12 hours to wire 5 million dollars to the offshore account number 56789865. Shots of the wife writing this information down on a pad of paper she had next to her. The wife: where are you john? The killer: he’s ...

This is an email we sent to the owner of the Ewhurst basement to ask if we could use it as the location for our shoot. Dear Ian, Hi, I'm Molly la Fosse and I'm in Katie's AS media class and I was just wondering if my media studies group - myself, Sean Canning and Vova Solovyev - could possibly use the Ewhurst Basement for our coursework video? We would be shooting in January.  Kind regards, Molly, Sean and Vova

The scene with the Wife in is going to be set in a kitchen where she is chopping up food. We are hoping to use the kitchen in Ewhurst House for this location. We want the torture scene to be set in an unfurnished basement, that looks generally unpleasant and dodgy. Luckily the Ewhurst House basement is perfect for this location. The clip below shows a Hurtwood thriller sequence from a previous year that was set in the Ewhurst House basement to give an idea of what it looks like...

This is the list of characters we will have in our thriller sequence. 1. The Wife - middle aged (late 30s/early 40s), intelligent, level headed - even during this frightening phone call. She is a housewife but secretly a spy and married to the accountant that has been captured. That is the reason that The Killer has captured him, in order to get back at the spy. In this scene she is shown in her kitchen, skilfully chopping up vegetables. In the rest of the film she will use her intelligence and spy knowleddge to beat The Killer.  Of average height, shoulder length brown hair. 2. The Killer - dressed smartly, in a black suit, all very polished and smart, well groomed. Think Keanu Reeves in John Wick... He is evil, ruthless, an assassin. Obsessed with cleanliness - kills a man when he gets blood on his shoes. Is depicted as unstable (shaking, taking pills).  3. The Torturer - dressed in a white boiler suit with a mask on. Say...

In our recent lesson we presented our idea to Matt who gave us helpful feedback and some constructive criticism. We pitched our idea to him using a powerpoint that Shaun had constructed. He explained that in the very first scene of a film you have to create the 'world' of the film and introduce the personality and skillset of the protagonist in order to show what they are capable of and set up the action of the rest of the film. He also pointed out that the fact that our idea requires 2 different locations could be slightly tricky since we get a limited amount of filming time but that it should not be a huge hindrance. However our setting of 'Office' is problematic because there isn't a feasible location we can use for it and therefore we decided to change the character of Secretary to the Accountant's Wife. This way we can just set her end of the conversation in a kitchen in one of the boarding houses. He liked the idea of having a phone conversation as the...

Made by Sean Canning

This is a step by step outline of our initial plot idea, including shot types. 1.  Secretary is typing.  High angle shot. 2.  Secretary gets up and walks out. tracking her feet 3.  Secretary walks down stairs.  High angle shot. 4.  Secretary walks to door and knocks, then enters.  C lose up shot 5.  Shot from inside the room showing her walking in. She walks towards the flashing phone and picks up.  C lose up shot 6.  Cut to room where man is being tortured. Camera  tracks over man on phone's shoulder , showing the torturing, mid shot to show full extent of torture 7.   C lose up  on torture implements but sequence is unbroken 8.  Cut back to secretary on phone, panicking.  Ex treme close up  9.  Cut back to man on phone, pulls out gun, shoots the two men.  Tracking shot. 10.  Push through past bodies to killer. Z oom shot 11.  Close up  on face of killer 12....

As a clear visual aid, storyboards are the best way of presenting your idea to other people. They are also helpful for when you come to film your idea as they help you to keep in mind how you want your thriller to look and how you want the action to progress. Only once you have established your characters, location and shot list can you create a storyboard. My group will be making one shortly to make sure we have a useful visual aid when it comes to filming our thriller.  an example of a storyboard

This Thursday we did a test shoot of our idea. It took us about 30 minutes to film and then we spent the rest of the lesson roughly editing it. Obviously when we shoot and edit the real thing it will take us much longer and we will use a Black Magic camera instead of our phones, so we knew this test shoot would not be fully reflective of how our actual sequence will look. However it was still a very helpful process as it   gave us a chance to practice our filming skills. It also meant that we developed our teamwork skills and we were able to see how well our idea worked in practice rather than just in theory. Now that we have edited this test shoot (which is shown below) we can see that our idea may be too basic and thus boring to watch and so we may need to think of a way of building up more tension for the audience. However thanks to this test shoot we now all have a much clearer picture of how our sequence will look and it will be useful when we present ...

The contact details for our group... contact sheet Name | Tel | Email Sean Canning                            +44 7393 …… Sean.Canning@hurtwood.net   Molly LaFosse                           +44 7725 …… Molly.LaFosse@hurtwood.net   Vova Solovyev                          +44 7468 …… Vova.Solovyev @hurtwood.net made by Vova Solovyev

THIS IS THE SHOT LIST WE USED FOR OUR TEST SHOOT.  1 .  Wife is cutting vegetables in the kitchen.  High angle shot. 2.  Secretary gets up and walks out. tracking her feet 3.  Secretary walks down stairs.  High angle shot. 4.  Secretary walks to door and knocks, then enters.  close up shot 5.  Shot from inside the room showing her walking in. She walks towards the flashing phone and picks up.  close up shot 6.  Cut to room where man is being tortured. Camera  tracks over man on phone's shoulder , showing the torturing, mid shot to show full extent of torture 7.   close up  on torture implements but sequence is unbroken 8.  Cut back to secretary on phone, panicking.  extreme close up  9.  Cut back to man on phone, pulls out gun, shoots the two men.  tracking gun  10.  Push through past bodies to killer  zoom shot 11.  Close up  on face of ki...

In order to prepare for our test shoot, we were given a document called a 'Shot List' and we had to chronologically write down each shot that we needed in our sequence, from the angle to who the subject is and what action they are doing. This was very useful as it means that on the day of the test shoot we will be able to film the sequence quickly and efficiently. It also helped us to discover flaws or parts that would be tricky to film and we figured out solutions for these. It is important that we do a test shoot because it brings the idea to life and reveals any major flaws in the idea. Also it means that when we pitch the idea to Matt he will have a visual representation of the sequence. Our test shoot is shown below : 

I am in a group with Sean Canning and Vladimir Solovyev.     During the brainstorming process we were inspired by the Dexter opening sequence, the YouTube channel 'Biting Elbows' and previous thriller sequences done at Hurtwood. I was pleased with how we worked as a team and we managed to come up with a plot which is a hybrid of everyone's ideas that we are all happy with. This is it... Secretary walks to door (see only her high heels, pleonastic clicking of heels), knocks, enters. Room in complete disarray (blood on walls?), room is quite dark – illuminated by the vibrating phone on table. Secretary picks it up, no voice on other line. Cuts to room where one man is being tortured. Behind them is a man on the phone, staring at it. Cuts back to secretary, she’s saying hello who is this etc, getting more and more panicky, we can only hear his heavy breathing on the other line. Cuts back to man who, whilst still on the phone, shoots both the torturer and man b...

Shaun and I got inspiration to film our sequence in the first person from the 'Biting Elbows' series on youtube. Their videos are awesome and their unique-ness is due to the way it is shot with a head cam. We also did some research on successful opening sequences for thriller films and TV programmes. Our favourite one we found was the Dexter opening sequence, where someone's normal daily routine is shot and edited in a way that makes it seem like something far more sinister and bloody. Even ketchup looks like blood, his breakfast bacon looks like human flesh, etc. This gave us inspiration for one of our backup ideas which was to show the morning routine of a serial killer.

This is my initial idea for our thriller. Next lesson my group is going to present our ideas to each other and come up with one together. Set in an English boarding school, one of the housemasters is kidnapped. The pupils of the boarding house find clues around the house which tell them how to find their housemaster. They follow these clues which takes them on a crazy journey across Europe whilst communicating with the kidnapper, who gives them 5 days to find their housemaster. Opening scene : Camera follows a trail of blood to the door of the housemasters office. Shows the room which is in complete disarray, moves around the room taking in its contents. Knock on the door, a student enters, notices the mess and the blood by the door. Looks out the window and sees a dark shadow run past, then hears a car speed away. She steps outside to see a note on the front step that says 'you have 5 days...follow the clues...' or something to that effect.

The thriller genre is defined as : 'being characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving viewers heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety.' Successful examples of thriller films are those directed by Alfred Hitchcock, such as Rear Window and The Birds. The plots of thrillers usually slowly build to a dramatic climax. Suspense is key in thrillers and is very successful at keeping the viewer hooked through the whole film. Alfred Hitchcock, the 'master of suspense', explained that suspense was the difference between giving the audience 15 seconds of surprise - for example the actual explosion of a bomb - or giving them 15 minutes of constant suspense and tension - eg the bomb has been underneath the table for 10 minutes and the viewer is aware of this, thus continually on the edge of their seat waiting for the bomb to go off, urging the characters to get out of the room, etc. Common sub-genres include ac...

To edit our preliminary task we used adobe premier pro.  We followed the storyboard to guide our editing. The first thing we did was look through all our footage and select the shots that we wanted in to be in our final piece.  We chose to mostly show the shots where the female actor looked angrier so that the audience would sympathise more with the other character. This is a way of manipulating the audience through editing.  In order to build tension we decided to make the first shot the one of Ben running to the room, followed by the other actor biting her nails to show her anxiety.  Interspersing slower, calmer shots into the more fast paced ones was effective as it slowed down the pace of the sequence and meant it didn’t look so unnatural and overly fast paced. We learnt various things from the editing process, one being that next time when we are shooting we should try to ensure there is no background noise, eg giggling or shouting, as it dis...

 On Friday we had the opportunity to shoot our preliminary task, which involved filming two characters having a short conversation. We were split into groups of four and given the storyboard above which we had to shoot in at least five different shots, including close ups and over the shoulder. My group also chose to do some extra shots to make the sequence more interesting. My group was composed of myself, Kristien, Ben and Stacey. Firstly we set up the camera on the tripod, 'bubbled' the tripod, and ensured that settings such as the focus, exposure and white balance were correct. We had learnt about the 180 degree rule in a previous lesson so one of the first things we did was set the line, marked it on the floor, and made sure to adhere to it throughout the whole process. This was especially important when filming our over the shoulder shots. The first shot we did was the long safety shot of the whole scene because this was the most important and basic shot so...

In today's lesson we worked in the editing studio and learnt how to use an editing programme called ‘Adobe Premiere Pro.' We were first taught about the layout of the programme . We learnt that folders which you put your edited work in are called 'bins'. Also, unedited footage is called 'rushes’. This is because at the end of the day the unedited footage would be rushed off to be reviewed, edited etc.  Matt told us that in order to shorten or lengthen a clip you should place the mouse on the edge of the clip, where the 'trim handle' is.  To chop the clip in half - which will separate one bit of footage into different parts - you can either use the 'razor' from the tool bar on the side, or as a shortcut you can just press the key 'C' on the keyboard. There are various other shortcuts, including pressing 'V' in order to get your cursor to go back to the normal arrow. Matt reminded us to continually press 'save' on ou...

In our second studio lesson we learnt more about the basic principles of film making, including the '180 degree rule'. The 180 degree rule is the fact that if you film something from the left then you can not go 180 degrees past otherwise you look like you have switched the direction of the object which you are filming. Matt used the example of a toy bike which he moved from left to right, right to left repeatedly and the camera made it look as if two different bikes were colliding with each other. Continuity is ensuring that all the shots are consistent throughout a sequence, ie the actor uses the same hand to pick up the object every time. This is very important because otherwise the sequence will look messy and unrealistic. We also learnt how to shoot sequences by going through various stages of taking different shot types to put together in a sequence. My group and I shot a simple sequence of someone walking into a room, sitting down then walking o...

Last week in class we learnt about the meaning and use of ... Denotation - This is just what the audience sees , for example a word, colour or image. eg the blue sky It can also be called the 'signifier.' Connotation -This is the concept/meaning/associations that we can take from the denotation. eg the blue sky signifies calm. It can also be called the 'signified' Mise-en-scene - This is everything that is included within a frame, including... Setting and location Props and costumes, hair and makeup Actors, performances, facial expressions Lighting and colour 

In the studio last Friday we worked with the Black Magic cameras, learning how to set up the tripod and camera, as well as how to use specific settings on the camera. We learnt that to focus a zoomed-in image, you should zoom in first and focus next. Also, exposure decides how light or dark the image will be and to adjust it you had to move the small blue button -down to make the image lighter and up to make it darker.  The ISO setting is about how sensitive the camera is to light. On the cameras that we used, the ISO should always be 400. We were also taught how to 'bubble' the tripod. This was important because it ensured that the weight of your camera is evenly distributed to all three legs and levels the tripod. To do this we moved the camera until we could see that the bubble on the spirit level was in the center. We learnt that SA stands for 'shutter angle' and adjusting it can make a moving image less blurry, for example a running person or speeding car. O...

‘Alien’ is a 1979 horror/science fiction film about a crew member of a space merchant vessel who is attacked by a mysterious life form which emerges later on to hunt down the rest of the crew one by one. The target audience for this film would be an older demographic due to the scary nature of the film which makes it unsuitable for children. Therefore this poster has to make it clear what genre this film is and has to attract the target audience of teenagers and adults who enjoy a good scare. In my opinion, the film poster for ‘Alien’ does this very well. Firstly, the poster for this film includes the iconic tagline, ‘in space no one can hear you scream.’ This chilling sentence automatically establishes the terrifying tone and genre of the film -  full of fear and death -  and creates a lot of suspense, making the audience eager to watch the film. The predominant colours in the poster are green and black which are very effective. Green lighting and mist is comin...

Bastion of blood from Katie Emily -This was a group presentation. 

One of my favourite films is Good Will Hunting, which was produced by Miramax, directed by Gus van Sant, and written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who both also star in the film. Other cast members include Robin Williams, Stellan Skarsgard and Minne Driver. It was released in January 1998 and had a budget of $10,000,000. The film centres around Will Hunting, a young mathematical genius who works as a janitor at MIT and leads a fairly uninspiring existence in a sparsely furnished flat in an impoverished area in South Boston. He had a traumatic childhood as an abused foster child and as the film progresses we as an audience begin to see how he subconsciously blames himself for how he was treated. When he solves an extremely difficult maths equation in the hallway of MIT, his immense talent is noticed by Professor Lambeau, who ends up bailing him out of jail when he assaults a police officer - under the condition that Will agrees to study mathematics under his guidance and see...

I’m Molly La Fosse and this is my Media Studies coursework blog. I’m sixteen years old and live in Billingshurst. I last studied at Cranleigh School where I did GCSE drama, spanish, geography and classics, english, maths and science. My interests include watching films - my favourite directors being Alfred Hitchcock and Quentin Tarantino - and reading. I am also interested in feminism and environmental issues, as well as fashion. Media is an essential tool for me as all my hobbies and interests depend on its use. I can find out about issues, petitions, world events etc through the use of social media and newspapers. I also love photography, using digital cameras and Diana film cameras.  I think films are one of the best forms of entertainment as there is a genre and director for everyone and there are new films coming out all the time.   I also love acting and watching plays. I use media a lot, including Netflix, YouTube, and Instagram. On netflix I watch TV prog...