Zoe and Charley has just thought about using a method similar to 'Paranormal Activity' ( a film which uses similar horror elements to our film) in the bedroom scene by the usage of time being fast forwarded to show that it is passing quickly and to signify that Ana is asleep. This is because our bedroom scene is extremely fuzzy with a dark contrast to show that it is nighttime, which is why we thought about the comparison to 'Paranormal Activity'. However we are not sure if it is even possible to input this mechanism as we have limited resources but we can certainly try and perhaps we can generate even more ideas for this.   If we use a mixture of fast paced editing in this scene and contrast it against the dream sequence (usage of slow and fast editing) then this will result in the increase of tension and suspension which is exactly what we are looking for. If we end up using this systematic method then we can provide a sense of normality, which contrasts against the abstract and surreal nature of our other scenes. At the end of this lesson we looked at editing effects which we may want to use ( since our cutting out of footage is more or less completed), which included the wave( especially good if we use it to transcend into the dream sequence) and the swirl ( again dream sequence or perhaps we can use it to end the film).

Next lesson we need to do the following, again using delegation:

• Finish cutting our footage - Zoe , Charley and me
• Get Hannah to attempt to start the animatic- Charley has uploaded it together but she is not sure how to create an animatic
• Look at more editing effects and try them out - all of us
• Get headphones and listen to our footage to see when it is nesscary to blank out sound and when it is appropriate to increase/add level of sound compenents

TIME MANAGEMENT

During  the past 2 lessons, we have been experimenting within editing techniques. Primarily we have begun to cut out the footage which we don't want to use in our film, although by doing this our footage is quite jolty and jittery. In our next editing session we could perhaps use transitional methods, such as continuity editing or perhaps a sequence shot, to make the film more professional as well as resulting in flowing sequences. This can then be contrasted against jolty footage to show we are able to work with new ideas, although we want a clear balance between the two. Perhaps footage with Zoe's character's in can have this effect whereas mine can be gentle and composed to express my characters characteristics. Similarly  we could reverse it by using  the distorted footage for my role to show my nerves and hysteria in comparison to smooth transitions for Zoe to signify her sly character.

We also been delegating different roles to each person in our group:
Charley - camera work, editing and ideas
Hannah - Blogging, time management and ideas
Ana - Blogging, editing and ideas
Zoe - Editing, director and ideas

However we had a minor problem in this lesson as our work had technical difficulties and we were unable to open our footage. We then realised that we had accidentally deleted windows media player which is why it resulted in this problem. Now Zoe and Charley are editing the rest of our footage, which Ana and Zoe did last lesson (dream sequence).

The dream sequence part 2

Today we finished off filming the rest of our footage presumably for now( as we may add or deduct footage when playing around with editing), during second lesson again. As previous we kept the black and white hue to our filming which ties in neatly with our easel scene which Hannah is in as it gives an artistic feel to the film as well as conveying to the audience that Hannah the puppeteer ( thus the name Puppet Strings) is altering reality leaning towards fantasy elements. Prior to filming we helped alter Zoe's cape which is a yellowy-green colour (ideal for blending in the green environment) , with a rough almost cheesecloth texture, which we cut up with scissors at the bottom. This made it raggedy and chaotic looking which was idealistic as it displays barbarity and overuse, adding to the scary effect of her character. As well as the jagged edges we used safety pins to fashion a hood, giving a red riding hood feel to fool the audience into thinking that she is an ordinary person. That way we can create more suspense and tension between the audience and her.
Primarily our first shot was an overhead high angle shot from the back of Zoe, hunched over in the grass, waiting to come and possess me. By being hunched over it can contrasted against the earlier shot of me hunched over in the long grass to display the differences between the characters. The fact that she is shrouded by a cape could also suggest to the audience that although she may be adopting a red riding hood persona, she doesn't possess the same innocent, child like qualities. What I liked about this shot was that the weather was perfect as there was high wind speeds, making the cape billow out beneath her as though she was about to take off. It looks even better in black and white as it again conveys the unreality of the sequence footage. I also liked how the audience couldn't see Zoe's face which gave her a sense of ambiguity and mystery , making the audience being allowed the opportunity of open ended imaginings as to what is about to happen . This also has a better effect of capturing the readers attention. The wind was extremely apparent in this shot both in appearance and audio, with blustery wind noises that we can perhaps edit in production, enhancing the sound more. This could perhaps be contrasted against murmurs in the wind, which could symbolise her mumbling to herself, almost plotting what she is going to do to me. I feel that if we put this in as a voice over it can portray how I'm oblivious to Zoe's presence, symbolising the immaturity of my character personality.  Because we got this shot correct in the first go, we moved on to our next shot: a front view shot of Zoe again shrouded by the cloak, with her pale hands clasped around her throat which the audience could perceive as what will happen to me. This time however you could see her hair, moving in the wind alongside the cape, which almost seems as though the further the film goes on the more of Zoe we get to see. At this point the camera was quite jittery and slightly tilted which looked really effective as it evokes the chaotic nature of Zoe's character, as well as displaying the negativity that she possesses. At this point we could perhaps in editing darken the contrast and perhaps if we can, lighten the clouds to contrast and increase vividity. Our tertiary shot was of me again hunched over in the grass, my back to the camera to display continuity, Charley using a tracking shot to follow Zoe as she creeps towards me, slowly and slyly to increase tension. At this point we can enhance the sound of her footsteps with the addition of enhanced erratic breathing, pragmatically giving both me and the audience a shared understanding that something is about to happen.As she approaches me , she moves elegantly around me in a semi- circle and I tremble with fear, with glances to the left and right. I believe that fast editing would be really beneficial at this point in the film, for example perhaps the use of juxtaposition as we could have me looking terrified in comparison to Zoe's sinister demeanour.   This transcends immediately into Zoe facing me, with an eyeline match between us to show the severity of the sitiuation and the malfeasance of her character. Perhaps at this point we could emphasize the colour of both our eyes in the eyeline match shoe ( mine is brown and Zoe's is blue) by not using black and white for several seconds. We could also darken Zoe's eyes to represent her evilness whereas for me we can lighten the hue to represent the purity and innocence of my character. Once Zoe has turned to face me, we could slow down editing, to make it seem as though the world has gone still for a moment. After we can resort back to quick editing when Zoe engulfs me in her cloak. Perhaps the use of flash editing transition could be useful. I also think that we can add non-diegetic sound in this shot, for example enhanced audio of the swish of Zoe's cloak and then a sound bridge perhaps of  me screaming. We can play around with altering the tempo as the sound bridge increases, so my voice becomes louder each time. In our next shot the audience sees Zoe toying with my emotions as she hastily takes her cloak off me and the previous shot is repeated again to show particular emphasis. This time however i realise that something is about to happen and back away cautiously, with a low side angle shot of me backing away, primarily to express my vunerability and secondarily to get away form Zoe, which hopefully will make the audiences breath quicken as they wonder what is to become of me. Another sound bridge could be placed here with the sound of footsteps as Zoe comes towards me. What we have to make sure is that it has a steady paced rythm so the film continues to flow. A transition follows into a high angle of Zoe to show her dominant power as she looks down on me to show her superiority. What is good about this frame is how we captured me looking up at her to represent my realisation that im inferior compared to her an there is nothing i can do to stop her, but i continue persisting anyway . Despite my attempts to escape her wrath, she catches me in her trap by stepping on my stomach and i yelp both in fear and pain. Here we could use a sound to emphasis this e.g. a thud sound, repeated twice. This is again an example of  a high angle, to remind me that im nothing compared to her. At the same she is doing this i grip the grass frantically, with a canted angle shot of this, to show the change of norms and unreality. Again continuity editing is used as she drapes me in my cloak, with a close up of my face looking a mixture of pensive and perplexed . Our final shot is a 2 shot of me and Zoe with the apparant use of synchronization, to show her possession of me. It also shows how we are both just objects of slavery as Hannah the Puppeteer has ultimate control over us. A centered angle shot is used firstly as we are both  crouched on the ground, our hands pressed in the dirt, with our heads bent down. We then used a time scale of how long each movement would take. We slowly rose up for 4 or so seconds our arms rising in harmony, mine ending in front of me whilst Zoe differentiates by doing something else. At the count of 7 or so seconds we go into a tilt to the side, our arm outstretching opposite ways( mine to right and Zoe's to the left) into a click for one second and then resulting in a quick transtion into our head becoming upright.

things to do

• Create an animatic
• Experiment with editing
• take photos of the props which we have used within our film
• find rice powder for Zoe or white face paint to make her seem death like and possessed
• devise a structured timetable detailing when we will be filming and when we will be editing, to display organisation skills
• Ensure that our film follows the requirements of a horror genre
• Devise a questionnaire and see how the answers compare to our own understanding of horror( which we have also interspersed with fantasy elements

FILMING

Today during 2nd lesson we filmed part of the dream sequence , however we didn't film it all due to Zoe not having her cape. We decided that we would contrast it to our bedroom scene by entailing the colour usage of black and white, which almost made it seem more surreal and overall gave the scene an intriguing feel. It also conveys to the audience more clearly that it is visibly differential in comparison. I did also think of perhaps filming Zoe's scene in colour but then I realised that it would look odd and perhaps unprofessional seeming. Our primary shot was of me in my pyjamas lying in the long grass, hunched over my knees , visibly shaking with trepidation, as I was unaware of what was happening. In terms of Mise-en -scene  I was bare foot to display my primitive nature, with dishevelled 'wild' hair to evoke a sense of realism as I'm supposed to be asleep, as well as giving the audience the impression that I'm different from the innocence portrayed in the previous scene which I was in. This appeared to be even better due to the grass which was extremely long , adding to the barbaric nature of the scene. This was a good day to begin capturing this scene as it was slightly overcast, stormy grey and would look excellent, especially if its used against shots of Zoe next week when it is sue to start raining. Despite being hunched over with my knees clenched tightly,I made sure that the camera was enabled a slight view of my face looking frightened to ensure that the audience can sympathize with my character. We tried this shot several times with various techniques to show experimentation and how we can differentiate to the norms to which were accustomed to. The shots we tried included :panning in which I ensured I looked startled and used jerky movements to the left and right to clearly provide evidential basis for the audience to infer, an over the shoulder shot to show my insignificancance and vulnerability, again hunched over to represent this and finally a high angle shot of roughly 3 seconds to symbolise my fear of the unknown. During these particular shots we could exaggerate the sound of  my breathing[ e.g. making it more ragged as if I'm out of breath].Perhaps we could also slow down time during this shot to make it seem as though time has gone still. This could perhaps suggest loneliness and how no one can help me, as I'm alone.  My personal favourite shot was the panning shot as it was something which we had never attempted before and I feel that it is good to have a variety of shots. Our next shot was of Zoe's feet encased in brown lace up boots, walking towards the camera in the grass, which we felt signified clearly to the audience that something was about to happen to me. I thought it would be especially effective if during editing we played around with effects like for example enhancing the sound of Zoe's footsteps[ e.g. use of synchronization]. Finally we captured a shot of me running. We started off with me looking over my shoulder with the camera directly behind me, in which I looked intently at the camera, my eyes dilated with fear, as though I was asking the audience to help me. This makes the audience feel empathetic and worried in terms of my welfare. Again we could enhance the sound of my breathing but this time making it even more erratic and out of rhythm as though i was hyperventilating .I then quickly ran off without looking behind me to show that I was to scared to do so and stopped at a certain vantage point, ensuring that we didn't get the school pylons in the footage. I then looked warily behind me for several seconds and then ran on a little further before collapsing in the grass. I felt really pleased with our progression of filming as we have plenty of footage which we can use, resulting in less of a possibility of having to film again. This also gives us more of an opportunity  to work on our editing skills, which we can start on after Monday which will be our next filming session hopefully. On Monday our remaining scenes are Zoe's scene with me as well as her own separate scene. I have also just realised that we need to go to Charley's house again as we need the scene where I wake and Zoe is there, watching over me.