The title of the film with font and style
The title of our film is Fading Fast, because it has a darker narrative where a girl is killed. It is also titled this, because we also used a lot of shadows to create effects and set the mood of scenes the way we wanted. For example in the shot where the dead girl is first shown, we filmed in a pitch black room and only used our phones to focus light onto me so that I could be seen and stand out in the dark room. We chose to use this font, because it was bold and easily read. We also added a slight glow around it in order to reflect our use of lighting once again and to give the film a sense of eeriness, drama or mystery, which is what our intended film genres were. It is central and stands out against the completely black background, therefore making the audience focus on it and set it apart from the rest of the film. A film that has a similar title style to ours is Psycho as it is a white title in all capitals and is on a plain black background, again making it stand out.
Setting/location
Our film is set in a school location, in classrooms, corridors or stairwells. The majority is filmed inside the school building, however some scenes were filmed in the playground or outside the front, as shown above. In this particular shot it is made clear to the audience where we are and they are able to understand more about our film's narrative. We also filmed several shots on the school field where there is a small area of woodland. We filmed the shots that show more of the decline in mine and Sian's friendship in these areas with trees. We filmed a scene, where we were laughing together, in the canteen. Our argument scenes, the continuity shots and the shots where the body gets dragged into a dark place are all filmed under two different sets of staircases. We also filmed a couple of shots in various classrooms and the drama room. Some films that are set mostly in a school much like our film are: 10 Things I hate about you; Clueless and The Breakfast Club.
Costume and props
We wore our own clothes, so they were modern clothes that real teenagers would wear, therefore making it easier for our target audience to relate to our film. For the most part I wore jeans, a jacket and converse shoes, however in several of the scenes, including the ones where I was acting dead I wore a tank top instead. In the shots where I wore a jacket, it was always zipped up, showing that my character is more closed of towards other people. When I did wear the tank top, it shows that I was more open but more vulnerable, since this is shown when my character died. Sian mostly wore leggings, boots, a jumper and a coat, showing that her character could be deemed popular. These are typical outfits that teenagers would wear in winter months when at school. A film that uses similar costumes to ours is Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, due to it also being a film aimed at teenagers and being set around a school.
Camerawork and editing
Ollie was the one filming all of the shots. We experimented with various angles and shots while filming in order to fit it to our genre and keep our film interesting. For this shot Ollie started with the camera half behind the tree and slowly moved out as we walked past, so it appeared to be tracking us and it looks as though we are being watched, so gives the shot a creepy, dramatic and mysterious feel. We took another shot like this later on when we are filmed from a low angle walking into school. We also have some shots from a birds-eye view to show the dead girl, so that the audience can see the whole scene and understand what has happened.
Most of the editing we did was cutting the shots together and also using transitions. We mostly used a cross dissolve to show time skips between some shots and to give our film that sense of mystery and drama. We did use one dip to black after the title is shown in order to fade the shot into the next. We also had several scenes which included continuity editing, so that the audience could see the characters journeys. We used a variety of sound effects and music tracks for the background of our film to create tension and suspense. We faded these sounds in and out and overlaid some audio sounds on top of others to get the effect we wanted.
Story and how the opening sets it up
Our film is about two girls, one that gets bullied and eventually killed by the other. They begin as friends, but as the film progresses we slowly see that there is more to them than first appeared. We start to see the decline in their friendship, as Sian's character proceeds to bully mine more and more. Throughout there is a few shots where I can be seen dead, which hints to how the film will end, but the audience will be questioning how we got to that point, therefore our film fits to our genre of mystery. The dead girl is shown in the opening shot, which allows the audience there first insight into what our film is about and how it will progress, therefore setting up the story.
Genre and how the opening suggests it
Our film's genre is drama and mystery. These are conveyed in the beginning of the film opening, as the audience can see a body being dragged under some stairs. This creates drama, since there is someone dead and being pulled into a dark location, enabling the body to become hidden. Mystery is created, because this shot leaves the audience with questions. They don't know who the character is; who is dragging them away; if someone killed them; what happened to them or why they might've been killed. We also filmed in a lot of dark or dimly lit places in order to fit the mood and tone of our scenes. This is both dramatic and mysterious, because the audience sometimes can't see the whole picture clearly, which leaves them intrigued and curious.
How characters are introduced
Our characters are first introduced in the first shot of our opening, but no much can be said about who they are or what they are like, because one girl is dead on the floor and only the feet of the other one can be seen standing wordless over the first girl. Because, we don't see the face of the one standing over the body, the audience doesn't yet know who either of the girls are. After the title fades out however, there is a shot of the girls talking and laughing together in a canteen, the audience can now start to work out and understand more about the characters. As the film continues, it is clear that our characters aren't they way they originally seemed to be and they are shown to no longer be friends. One film that uses a similar scene to ours in order to introduce the characters is When Harry Met Sally.
Special effects
We didn't really use any special effects, but in our whole film opening we made the footage black and white coloured. We added this effect in during our editing process in order to make our film fit better into the drama or mystery genre. This also fits the mood and tone of our film. A couple of films in the same genre of ours that are also in black and white are Schindler's List and Psycho.
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