Pre-production report

During the course of the preproduction we have created the storyline and all the paperwork that was needed to create the opening sequence to the film we have created. We have made a plot of the film we have called “The Woods” in which we have defied the stereotypical murder villain of a male to be a female. We initially had the choice of thriller, horror and action. We decided against action because it would be very difficult to film the areas of action that we would need in the opening sequence. We would also need a larger budget to perform all of the scenes to create a decent action film. We also decided against horror because there are very few aspects that we could cover without going along with traditional conventions. So we decided to go with thriller because there are the physical and psychological aspects to cover. In the decision to create a plot we began thinking about how we could break traditional conventions of a thriller. We decided we should create the plot around the setting and began thinking where we could create a decent thriller that would leave viewers in suspense. We decided to use an area that is close to school and would be easily accessible with the equipment. We created a list of where we could film and whether it would be a good location. We decided we could use the woods, the common or the school. We thought against the school because it would be too noise and would not be a suitable location because there would always be people moving around. This left us with the common or the woods; we decided that the woods would be more suitable because it would create an eerie and daunting atmosphere. Although we decided against the common we thought that it would be a good area to start filming because it shows him moving into the woods and not just appearing there. Both of these are easily accessible with equipment and would be easy to film there because there would not always be people in the way. There was also the big decision that would influence the plot of the characters. We wanted to break away from conventions and have a female killer and a male victim. Then we created a plot revolving around the characters and the location. We decided initially to have the victim walking and just getting hit and waking up to see his would be killer at the top of a ridge. But from feedback we discovered that people did not like this idea and would prefer a psychological thriller in which the victim would psych himself out before he meets his killer. This caused us to have to re-create the storyboard, plot, treatment and shot list. This was a process that took a lot of time and caused a lot of time to be wasted in which we could be filming and editing. Overall I think that the decisions that we made were easily done and didn’t cause any major issues other than the one stated. The creation of the documents was a long process and had to be adapted to the standards of other group members and peers. This was a major time consumer and allowed a lot of time to be wasted. Overall I think that it went well but took a long time.