Mind map

For the initial step of the planning I and Sam were required to design a mind map to outline what we hope to achieve during the project, where we were going to film our opening, characters we were planning on using, initial ideas for the storyline of the opening, camera shots and angles that we were planning to use and some editing techniques we may use during the production.
After producing an initial mind map outlining our ideas for the project, it was decided that we would produce a further mind map, in more detail to describe some of the choices we made and the effect that we hope they would have on the production.
In the mind map we included these different sections.
Characters
We decided on our mind map that we were going to use as little characters as possible, so that the audience is able to familiarize with that character or characters, I do not believe that this effect is possible with more than 2 characters.
We also decided that the characters would be dressed in dark clothing, to make them appear sinister and mischievous; it also helps the audience realise that the character depicted in the action is the antagonist.
Setting
We decided that for the opening shot of our sequence we wanted a bushy woodland area, with fencing, we would use this for a high angle shot through the fence, with the camera amongst the bushes, this gives the effect that the antagonist of the opening sequence is being watched by someone hiding in the wilderness.
We also decided that we would use some raised levels for a setting, this is so that we would be able to get some low angle shots on the characters, making them appear small and worthless in the eyes of the audience.
Camera
For the camera angles and shots throughout our opening we have decided to use pans, low angle and high angle shots, all create an effect that we hope to achieve.
We would also like to use insert shots during our thriller, to add tension to the sequence as we see a crime that the audience presumes the antagonist is responsible for, however. We do not want to reveal any of the actual plot for what would be the rest of the film. We feel that this is an important convention to our opening.
Editing
Although we have not yet fully decided on the editing that we would be using, we did decide on a few effects that we hope to include in our sequence to add a sense of tension and mystery.
These include
- Eye line matches – this is so that the audience are able to see things from the characters point of view and again help them to familiarize with that character.
- Fades and dissolves- we will use these transitions to give our video a smoother flow, straight cuts throughout would give the sequence a more of an action packed feel, and this is not the effect that we require for our opening sequence.
- Slow paced editing- again, we do not want our opening sequence to feel to action packed and fast paced, despite some thrillers using fast editing as a convention, this is not our desired effect. This is because our opening sequence is mainly based around familiarisation, with the setting and the characters; we also hope to build tension amongst the audience, and a sense of mystery, as these are big features that people want we can gather from the results of our questionnaire.