Filming Day 1/ Developments

Today, we started to film the trailer for our film Revenge. We started with shooting scene five, which is where Gene Tyler smashes his radio, as he realises that the book he wrote is coming to life and getting more press then what his book did.

.

After we had done that, Sarah and I shot scene nine. This is where the character Mia (played by Teri) is murdered by the killer. We decided to change this scene considerably from what we had originally planned to do. Once we arrived at the set, we realised that it would look better if Teri was walking up the stairs, and we see the killer running after her and almost kill her as she falls over. We continued, we our idea of filming the scene with a handheld camera, this was used to make it appear as if the scene was shot from the perspective of the killer. Once we had completed the first take, Sarah and I watched the footage back and we saw that by using a handle held camera and also using a tracking shot, it gave the audience more of a chance to feel sympathy towards Teri’s character as we were able to capture her last emotion in a close up shot.

.

After we had filmed Mia’s death scene, we asked Teri if she could become a camera woman whilst, Sarah and I ran down an empty corridor for the filming of the scene where the main characters Mary-Alice and Robin are killed. (Appear to be in the trailer, but this scene would not be included in the actual film.) We thought that by having this scene it would trick audiences into thinking everyone dies simply and quickly; whereas, in the feature film their deaths are very slow and disturbing.

.

For this scene, we make it appear (will when the shot is edited) that Robin will die. It involves the two main characters Mary-Alice and Robin, running down an empty corridor, whilst we use a tracking shot to make it again appear to be taken from the perspective of killer. I thought an easy way to make appear, as if Robin had been killed, would be if she fell whilst running away. This would then be followed by having the camera (still tracking) move in towards her face. This is the same technique we used for Mia's death; Sarah and I, thought that this would create a sense sympathy from the audience, as we thought that in the edit we could freeze on their faces, in order to make these killings more dramatic. This is almost the same for Mary-Alice's death, (which we shot after Robin’s death,) we see her running into a dark corner, screaming "NO!” just before she goes dark we can see her face which will allow us create the same effect.

..

Once we had killed the two main characters, we decided that due to the fact that the rest of trailer will be heavily female based that further into our shot we should allow some time to kill some male students. This will show that the killer does not care about whom he kills, but rather that he wants everyone to be killed. So whilst we still had some time left with the cameras, we decided to kill four male students, in a classroom. I came up with the idea that they could be in detention. In edit, we thought that it would achieve maximum impact and shock on the audience if we were able to see these students just before they were murdered. Then cut to seeing lifeless bodies lied across the now destroyed room. What was different for this scene; was that we got to use some fake blood, this made the scene appear to be much more lifelike and more a part of the horror genre. It also highlights how brutally they have been murdered.

.

After all the killing we asked Nick Mahy, if he could play the part of the radio reporter, which only consisted of voice-over, which will be played over the radio shot just before Gene smashes it. The script for the scene is as follows:

“It has been reported over the past couple of days a number of murders, targeting students at the local College. The police are currently investigating and no suspects have been discovered. The Head teacher of Curtaintop High had this to say- BANG!”

..

Developments

For scene four, this is where the character Charlie is killed in the male bathroom. Sarah and I, decided to give the character Charlie a reason, for why he would be in there and allow the audience to see a bit more of this character before he is murdered. For this we added a new character; (Charlie's girlfriend) called Rose. The scene goes as follows:

Its break time and we can see Mary-Alice, Robin, Charlie and Rose sat around a table talking; we cut to Charlie who turns to Rose and tells her to meet him in the bathroom. We then cut to see Rose walking into the bathroom and who finds Charlie's body propped up against the wall. She taps him on the shoulder, and he then falls to the floor leaving a trail of blood on the wall. She screams and turns to run away at that moment the killer jumps out of a bathroom cubical and kills her.