The Last Lane - Final Video

The Last Lane Shot List

1) P.O.V. shot following Emily playing with the leaves.
2) Production Company transition.
3) Low angle shot pointing upwards at Liam cycling past.
4) Same shot further down the driveway and following Liam with the House in the background surrounded in mist.
5) Low angle shot facing the pool house, towards Liam.
6) Extreme close-up of Laim's face with a handheld shot.
7) Low angle shot facing the pool house, towards Liam.
8) Panning shot of Liam walking towards the pool house.
9) Extreme close-up of Laim's face with a handheld shot.
10) Shot panning to the left to see a flash of Emily running behind the wall.
11) P.O.V. shot following Emily playing with the leaves.
12) Mid-shot from inside the pool-house facing Liam looking into the window shot pans to left afterwards.
13) Low angle shot following Liam walk back to his bike
12) Low angle close-up shot following Liam walking to the right.
13) Wide angle shot of Liam walking up and about to get on his bike.
14) P.O.V. shot following Emily playing with the leaves.
15) Wide angle shot of Liam riding up on his bike towards the house.
16) Shot panning right as Liam riding towards the house, panning upwards with Emily in the window above.
17) P.O.V. Shot from EMily looking down through the window towards Liam.
18) O.T.S. shot following Liam's perspective as he walks up and presses the doorbell.
19) O.T.S. shot of me (Ed) opening the door and sharing dialogue with Liam.
20) O.T.S. shot of Ed opening the door and sharing dialogue with Ed.
21) Low shot of Emily through the window.

Rough Edit Questionnaire Feedback

1. Could you estimate the time of day during the film?
   Morning: 7
   Noon: 4
   Evening: 9
   Night: 0
   We mostly got good results from this question as the majority of people who answered believed it to be evening which is what we were looking for although a moderate amount also believed that it was the morning but the amount wasn't enough to consider re-editing the film and moving it into Adobe After Effects.
2. Were there smooth transition between shots?
   Yes: 15
   No: 1
   Didn't Notice: 4
   We found that most of the audience did in fact think that the transitions were smooth which was great as one of our main concerns was that the 'bittiness' of the shots was going to come across as a lack of editing skill rather than adding to the effect of the movie. One person said that our transitions weren't smooth but when asked for a reason they simply wrote “Some panning shots are a bit”. So we looked at our panning shots and decided that after the fairly useless comment we wouldn't change it. And lastly 4 of our audience didn't notice our transitions which was okay as we know they aren't the most prominent feature of our film, also it is important to remember that we simply screened the film to a group of our peers and not film critics or experts so it's fairly normal to not pay complete attention to our transitions.
3. Did you find the opening effective in drawing you into the story?
   Yes: 18
   No: 1
   “Sort of”: 1
   Most of our audience found our opening did want to draw them into the story, for such reasons as they wanted to see what would happen next, there was a cliffhanger, the use of music was effective and it simply kept them interested. This was obviously great as Jack took a long time on the music making it work alongside the visuals, and we also took time to frame the shots well using the weather we had i.e. mist etc. One person said that it sort of found it effective in that it left lots of questions unanswered which was good but it was in fact too slow so therefore didn't draw them in.Lastly one person said no as it was they didn't really understand it. So we looked at our thriller and to perhaps make it more clear of the times that the videos were taken we put dates and times on the video of emily as a child and also of Liam cycling up the driveway. This also solves the problem of people thinking that the video is taking place early in the morning.
4. Do you think the ending of our opening was appropriate for a thriller film?
   Yes:17
   No:2
   'Kinda':1
   We found here again that most people thought that the opening was appropriate, reasons people gave were, there was a cliffhanger, it was mysterious, leaves questions unanswered and because you're completely focused on it. One person said yes and no, because of slight continuity errors such as when Liam gets off his bike then back on the go up to the house, we decided that perhaps it wasn't clear enough that Liam saw something then went up the house, but in all honesty we couldn't think of any way we could change this without re-shooting. So we decided to risk it and leave it a it was as it wasn't the majority who were concerned about why he got off his bike.
5. Would you pay to watch the entire film?
   Yes: 12
   No: 8
   Here we had the majority who would pay to see the entire film but also quite a few who wouldn't, while at no point am I trying to make excuses I think maybe the question should have been worded better. As it may have come across as “Would you pay around £5-7 to watch this 2 minute clip at the cinema” rather than “If this were made into a feature length film would you pay to see it”. I also think this as one comment was 'No, I wouldn't because it's 2 minutes long”
6. Do you feel this film is true to the thriller genre?
   Yes: 18
   No: 2
   With this question it's important to remember that not everyone in the audience would know much about the ideas of thriller genres, but I think it was important to see if the people who would be watching the film and paying to see it thought it was.
7. Which gender are you?
   Male: 6
   Female: 14
   This was just to see if there may have been a correlation between the amount of people there and whether it was the gender difference that made some of them like the film and others not. Stereotypically males would like thrillers more but here we saw that we got mostly good feedback even though the majority of our audience was female.
8. How old are you?
   15-16: 5
   17-18+: 15

Thriller Opening- Conventions

In our opening we aim to incorporate many of the conventions of the thriller genre. With only the opening to go by, the girl could be a choice of characters, she could be a victim, in that she could have been killed and merely wants people to understand her and help her. But also she could be evil, a criminal in that in the opening she seems quite vicious and it looks like she aims to harm the other characters, so she may be a killer.

We also aim to make sure the narrative conforms to the conventions of a thriller, we are going to attempt to get across to the audience that someone is being watched i.e. the pizza delivery boy, also death is shown in the opening, both by the dead body in the swimming pool in the implication of death when the girl is standing behind the father, with her body language showing sinister intent.

In addition, we aim to include the usual themes of the thriller genre, one of which being revenge, at least that is what could be suggested to the audience in that we see the girls body and then she seems to be out to make someone suffer when she is suspiciously standing behind her father in the shadows. Linking in to that, shadows is part of the thriller iconography we want to use, this helps to create suspense and tension, it also adds to the malice of whatever is in the shadows, in this case the girl. To help with the darkness we plan to edit our filming on a computer so that it has a night time effect. This is easier, and leaves the film with better quality, than filming in quite dark conditions.

Following on from the shadows iconography, we also plan to use water in the film, both by the swimming pool and rain, which, unless raining anyway, we plan to use a hose to create.

All these things we have decided to include I think will help us greatly in creating an effective thriller.           

Thriller Storyboard

Click Here to see our first storyboard for our Thriller Opening. This is mainly just a preliminary storyboard but we will hopefully do a more detailed one involving shot times which will let us check how long our film will be and whether it will be within the time limits.

Blog Labels

Only just realised I haven't added labels to any of my blog posts so this is very overdue.

Our complete Thriller Plot

There is a general plot for our thriller which is the idea that after being told that his dead daughter is in the house the man tries to find her but to no avail, later in the movie it is found that many people see the girl in various positions of danger for instance the delivery boy sees the girl drowned in the pool. But later on all of the people that claim to have seen her all are found dead in the ways that thy claim to have seen the girl die, for instance the pizza delivery boy is found drowned in a pool. The father is first suspected and it his job to prove his innocence while not getting caught in the process.

Thriller Opening Synopsis

Click here to see the opening synopsis for our thriller. We realise that the amount we plan to film seems like a lot but after we finish our more detailed storyboard we will be able to look at shot length and see if we can fit it all within the two minute time limit.

Thriller Location

We have sourced a location which is a large house with a long driveway which will be good for building up the tension and for getting plenty of footage on. Click here to see the blog with the pictures of the location from Google Streetview. We will also later post more detailed pictures not just from google streetview which go all the way up to the house to get a better idea for the landscape.