Film ideas for the opening of our film (Planning)

Film ideas

Malevolent Phantom

Opening - Beginning: Two friends together walking home down the street after an evening out, as one leaves for her house in one direction the other decides whether or not to go a quicker route through the woods, her mother contacts her telling her to get home, she feels rushed and enters the woods feeling on edge. The girl drops her phone and as she goes to pick it up we see the monster lurking in the background, she carries on walking through the woods and hears rustle of leaves, as her phone dies she becomes more scared and anxious for what's going to happen. A final close up shot of her as we see the monster approaching her in the background before she cries out with terror and the screen switches to black.

Mise-en-scene

Setting - We will use woods as the location for our film and shoot there to give us the stereotypical spooky setting we need for our opening to a horror film, the dark lighting, rustling of leaves and isolation from civilisation are perfect ingredients for creating an eerie setting to put out characters into. This will make the audience feel on edge and tense for the characters as they fear that something could attack them at any moment. We will also shoot late in the evening to make sure the setting is dark and hostile rather than light and inviting - the opposite of what we're trying to achieve as it would make the audience relaxed and possibly bored as when seeing a horror film people like to be on the edge of their seats, they like to be scared.

Costumes - they are also key, subliminal messaging on how the audience should feel are perfect to use in a horror film as without them even realising the audience begin to imagine all the gruesome things that could happen. Settings are predominantly used to create this feeling but costumes can be too. The girls friend will wear plain, neutral colours as nothing happens to her, she is unimportant in the narrative and so her clothes reflect this. It could also suggest why the other girl gets attacked instead of her as because her clothes are dull her life may be too and that isn't interesting narrative and wouldn't interest a serial killer - especially in our story it's key to show that they want something interesting, they're not just murdering people randomly, there's something about her. This is an enigma that draws the audience in and leaves them wondering what's so special about this girl, why did she get attacked. The main character will have a red scarf to connote danger but also to connote the fact she has a more vibrant, interesting, maybe controversial life that would attract a serial killer far more that the other girl would. The malevolent phantom will wear dark clothing so he can blend into the spooky surroundings, he will also wear large items of clothing that cover him completely so there's a sense of eeriness around him - the clothes represent the fact his character is well hidden and we don't know much about him.

Camera
Shot types - the first scene of our opening two minutes is a medium shot of a busy road showing the hectic side of the city that's contradicted by a high angle shot of the two girls walking down the street showing their vulnerability and isolation. A low angle shot of their feet walking and coming to a stop shows them to be of higher power as, as long as they're together than they're relatively safe despite the environment they're in, as they're not alone. As soon as the friend leaves and the girl is now alone the camera pans up and around from a low to high angle to show her vulnerability has now increased as she's alone, this pans to an over the shoulder shot of the phone as her mum is calling her. A point of view shot shows the hard decision she faces in whether to go the long way round on the roads or the shortcut through the woods, this shot places the audience in her shoes and makes then empathise with the main character. High angle shots of her in the woods show her to be vulnerable and at risk as the malevolent phantom could be lurking in the background and could attack her at any point. The final shots of her are close up and create suspense as we can't see what's behind her or what's hiding in the background, the final shot of Lucy being grabbed by the malevolent phantom should make people jump (a key convention of horror) and climax the scene well to draw a close to this high tension scene before we flashback to 48 hours earlier.

Editing - The editing of our opening will be fast paced and build suspense, a few longer shots at the beginning will show the safe surrounding Lucy and her friends were in before and will leave room for opening titles. Especially as she enters the woods the editing speed will increase to create a sense of tension and show how on edge Lucy has become, we as the audience will feel what she is feeling and be constantly scared for her safety. 

Moon Board (Planning)

Malevolent Phantom

Moonboard

Here we complied a collection of images to do with our opening two minutes, the main image is of a woodlands - our setting, looking dark and mysterious and conforming to horror stereotypes. There's two separate images of a man lurking in the woods creating suspicion and tension as we don't know who he is - this represents our malevolent phantom. He is mysterious and creepy, hiding in the back of shots and stalking our innocent main character - Lucy.

Our main character will wear a colourful coat to connote interest and show the main character to be more vibrant than the other characters who are of less importance. The malevolent phantom on the other hand will wear a big, dark, black coat to hide under and to almost blend into the background of the woods so he is not as noticeable. He could also possibly be wearing a balaclava to cover his face and hide his identity even further.

A long shot of a person in the woods, all alone shows that our character will end up alone in the woods, surrounded by only darkness and lurking somewhere is the malevolent phantom - this builds suspense and links to the other picture 'suspense'. One of the main parts of horror we hope to achieve is suspense, making the audience scarred, feeling like this is actually happening to them.

A low battery picture shows that as Lucy's phone dies she is left alone and isolated in the woods (a key factor of horror) with no way of contacting people and is therefore truly alone in the woods. This makes the audience nervous and scared for her as they worry whether she will be killed by the malevolent phantom.

Why we picked horror (Planning)

Why we picked our genre
Horror

The first part to decide about our opening two minutes was the genre, from there we could develop a story line and characters and shots but first we needed to pick a genre. Picking a genre is key as some can't be done as well on a low budget, some require great amounts of acting which would be hard to acquire whilst others require a more experienced and refined film making to be able to execute effectively. Having said that, this was a much easier process than i had imagined as we quite quickly ruled out several genres and weren't left with many to choose from by the end, here's a list of all the obvious film genres:

- Action

- Comedy

- Crime

- Documentary

- Drama

- Horror

- Musical

- Period & Historical

- Romance

- Science Fiction

- Fantasy

- Thriller

From this list we were immediately able to eliminate comedy, crime, documentary, musical, period and historical,  romance, science fiction, fantasy and war for these given reasons:

• Comedy -  Although we thought for a moment about doing a comedy as it wouldn't require a large budget like some of the other genres would and you could choose from a variety of locations it's downside is trying to actually get the comedy aspect into it. What i find funny or my friends find funny may differ from other people so the risk in doing a comedy is that nobody else will find it funny and your opening could be met with unsatisfied silence. If comedies aren't funny then they aren't good and I don't think my group would be able to nail the comedy side of the opening and therefore we're not doing comedy.
• Crime - A brilliant genre, possibly one our group didn't think too much about when maybe we should have done, but it can be similar to action but just harder to achieve a realistic, interesting plot line and therefore we chose not to do crime.
• Documentary - documentaries limit your creativity more than any other genre and don't really stretch the boundaries of film, they're good in the sense you can do them on whatever you want but that was too simple, too plain - we wanted to create something almost everyone could enjoy watching.
• Musical - Just no. None of my group are musical gifted nor care too much about it, having to write songs and choreograph dance sequences on top of everything else would just be too much. Also I feel it wouldn't work for an opening two minutes as it's not long enough to portray a good opening in the musical genre.
• Period & Historical - As much as I would have loved to do an opening in this genre it simply wasn't practical, these are some of the most expensive films ever made and require extensive research and planning, more than most other genres. The clothes, language, settings, everything has to be perfect and historically accurate along with the fact the sets would cost ludicrous amounts of money we simply don't have. Although you could just hire costumes and shoot in a woodlands I don't think this would be the best opening we could create and the amounts of planning is un-doable in the short amount of time we have.
• Romance - This genre was one of the main possibilities as I really like this genre but I don't think I'd be able to have a good enough plot for the opening two minutes and wouldn't be able to demonstrate enough film making techniques nor do I think it would stretch me enough. To add on to that getting two characters to act 'in love' and have to do kissing scenes would be far too awkward!
• Science fiction - This genre is just so expensive with the extensive amount of CGI and SFX needed and it's hard to make it so it doesn't look cheap. I think for a student project science fiction could end up looking very cheap and unprofessional.
• Fantasy - simply too expensive and elaborate for a student project.
• War - just like period and historical as much as I'd like to do this genre they're just too expensive.

So after ruling all of those out I'm left with 

- Action

- Drama

- Horror

- Thriller

Between these genres I think we'll choose horror as it's not expensive but still needs a lot of planning to make sure it's not a pathetic flop. My second choice would probably we drama as I'm not find of fight sequences as I think they're hard to get right so maybe wouldn't choose action and a drama could be shot in the city and have vibrant settings and it would be interesting to develop characters in the opening.

Costume (Research)

Malevolent Phantom

Costumes

Costume of the protagonist: The protagonist will be wearing something that makes her stand out from the other characters; this could be many different things such as a coat or a scarf. We hope to use a red piece of clothing so it hints to the audience that something bad might happen and foreshadows future events. The red colour would stand out in the darkness and creates a sinister effect. Other characters which are in the same scene will be wearing neutral colours so the audience can tell that 'Lucy' is the main character.

Costume of the antagonist: The antagonist's costume will be very straight forward, the clothes will be black all black which means it wont be seen easily. The black colour will blend in with the darkness, which in turn will create more fear and tension. The antagonist will be wearing a hood which covers their face to keep their identity hidden. What influenced us to have this was films like scream, where the identity is hidden from the audience and the characters, and creates suspense through the whole film.

Interview with Actors (Research)

Malevolent Phantom

Interview

Settings - Location, Location, Location (Research)

Settings

Malevolent Phantom

For a horror film you could say settings are rather limited and I would agree to some extent as in order to achieve a scary, haunting, isolated environment there isn't that many choices for location. We went with arguably the most obvious horror location - the woods when it's dark and scary, hopefully we can use this to our advantage as it was a relatively easy location to find and with extensive planning we can still create a professional looking opening.

For a horror opening the conventions are that there aren't any long shots establishing setting as they don't want the audience to become too comfortable in the environment they're in, also gruesome creatures or blood and death and predominantly featured to give the audience an insight into what's to come. Characters aren't really developed as simply from the word go it's about keeping the audience hooked and on the edge of their seat, as I said before a plot is key but in horror as long as someone's being chased or murdered then the audience seem to love it. Therefore going somewhere like London would be a waste as we would want to have low key lighting so would be filming at dusk/night and so wouldn't see he beauty of the city and without long shots of the iconic parts of London it seems a waste to go all that way to shoot when a woods would probably work just as well. This ruled out places such as Trafalgar square, Tower of London, Big Ben, Hyde park etc.

Going to an abandoned church or building could have worked but finding one we could film in and creating a plot to fit with it may have been far more difficult that it needed to be. Isolation is also key in horror settings so London or and city/town would be too populated to create the eerie setting were after and are not conventionally used in horror. 28 days later starts in a shed of some kind with low key lighting, isolated from society (with good reason) whilst the purge starts on the streets at night also with low key lighting and a fair amount of desertion on the streets (again for good reason).

So after some time thinking about different settings we could use it seems we're back where we started with the woodlands, a stereotypical setting for horror: dark, isolated, eerie and perfect for scaring the pants of the audience as the setting does a lot of the work for you. Having said that one of the main problems we will probably face is lighting, too light and it's not scary enough but too dark and there will just be figures moving slightly on a screen but not really visible. Artificial lighting could be used but placing it so it doesn't look fake and could be quite hard, street lamps should help with the roadside shots but in the woods we could become slightly stuck - this is something I'll have to look into before we begin filming.

Soundtrack (Research)

Malevolent Phantom
Soundtrack Research

The expression soundtrack generally refers to the music in a movie or television program, and to an album sold containing that specific music. Sometimes the music has been recorded just for the film, often but not always depending on the genre of the movie the soundtrack album will contain portions of the score, music made for dramatic effect s the movie's plot occurs. There are three different types:

- Musical film soundtrack (not relevant to our genre)

- Film scores (background music)

- Albums of pop songs heard in whole/part of non-musicals

All the different genres of film have different styles of soundtracks with different elements to them, I will analyse a few of the genres that we may pick for our film:

• Action: usually include high energy, big budget physical stunts and chases, possibly with rescues, battles, fights, escapes, destructive crises (floods, explosions, natural disasters, fires etc.), non-stop motion, therefore a soundtrack with spectacular rhythm and pacing as well as being fast paced and having a high tempo would be suitable to carry the audience on this physical journey and to get them feeling energised like the characters. 

• Comedy: usually light-hearted plots constantly and deliberately designed to amuse and provoke laughter by exaggerating the circumstances, the language, action, relationships and characters. For this genre the soundtrack should be more upbeat and happy to make the audience feel in a more positive mood, there shouldn't be any dramatic beats or sudden loud flashes as you don't want to make it over-serious or too scary that it turns away views. It should be a simple soundtrack that keeps the mood upbeat and shares the characters humor and joy with the audience.

• Horror: designed to frighten and to invoke the audiences worst fears, repeatedly in a horrifying, scandalous finale while captivating and engaging the audience at the same time. From the screeching violins of Psycho to the crashing chords of Jaws, film-makers have long relied on disturbing soundtracks to heighten suspense and terror, therefore the soundtrack for this genre should have much more of a suspenseful element that draws in the audience and keeps them anxious and on the edge of their seat at all times. At less eventful moments it can be more subtle and slower but it should constantly climb and build to a moment of terror with increased tempo and volume. Loud bangs and harsh, discordant and unexpected sounds should make the audience jump and heighten their fear whilst watching the film. It's scientifically proven that he "non-linear" sounds, often created by pushing brass and wind instruments beyond their natural range by playing them too hard, exploits the human brain's natural aversion to sonics that signal fear or distress. (Noise is associated with horror and fear), abrupt frequency shifts are associated with sad dramatic scenes. To use this to my advantage I will include high pitch 'non linear' sounds to tap into humans primal fear and make the audience even more scared.

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Research Feedback

A fantastic effort so far with theoretical and detailed responses to media texts. Be sure to begin to document every stage of your planning towards your film now – use technical terminology and take us on a journey to completion of your film project. Well done!

Certificate Research

Malevolent Phantom

Certificate Research

U:

·         Suitable for audiences aged four years and over

·         At U we only allow infrequent use of very mild bad language (e.g. ‘damn’ and ‘hell’).

·         Characters may be seen kissing or cuddling and there may be references to sexual behaviour

·         Violence will generally be very mild. A U film may include brief fight scenes or moments where characters are placed in danger.

·         ‘Baddie’ characters may carry or use weapons, but there will be no emphasis on these.

·         E.g. Curious George, The Bee Movie

PG:

·         PG stands for Parental Guidance

·         A PG film should not unsettle a child aged around eight or older

·         A PG film will not contain any theme which is inappropriate for a child. PG works can explore challenging issues such as bullying, bereavement or racism.

·         There may be mild bad language (such as ‘shit’ or ‘son of a bitch’)

·         Sex references are unlikely unless they are undetailed and infrequent.

·         Violence will usually be mild.

·         E.g. Saving Mr. Banks, Shrek

12A

·         12 contain material that is not generally suitable for children aged under 12

·         The 12A requires an adult to accompany any child under 12 seeing a 12A film at the cinema

·         The BBFC's Guidelines state that strong language (e.g. 'fuck') may be passed at 12 or 12A (Non Aggressive)

·         Moderate language (e.g. uses of terms such as ‘bitch’ and ‘twat’ at 12 or 12A).

·         Sex may be briefly and discreetly portrayed at 12A or 12. Verbal sex references should not go beyond what is suitable for young teenagers also there may be nudity

·         At 12A, moderate violence is allowed but it should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood,

·         Some horror films are passed at this category. Moderate physical and psychological threat is permitted at 12A or 12A.

·         E.g. Hancock, The Switch

15:

·         Strong violence

·         Frequent strong language (e.g. 'fuck). Occasionally there may be uses of the strongest terms (e.g. 'c***'),

·         Portrayals of sexual activity

·         Strong verbal references to sex

·         Sexual nudity

·         Brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence

·         Discriminatory language or behaviour

·         Drug taking

·         E.g. 21 Jump Street, Bridesmaids

18:

·         Very strong violence

·         Frequent strong language (e.g. 'fuck’) and / or very strong language (e.g. ‘c***’), There is    no limit

·         Strong portrayals of sexual activity

·         Scenes of sexual violence

·         Strong horror

·         Strong blood and gore

·         Real sex (in some circumstances)

·         Discriminatory language and behaviour

·         E.g. Taken, Kill Bill

Considering all the features of each certificate we have decided our film is a 15 as it will contain some use of strong language, although there will be no sexual  activity we still feel  is should be classed as a 15 as that’s the  most appropriate seen as it may affect a 12 year old.

Institution Research

Malevolent Phantom

Institution Research

Twentieth Century Fox Film is one of the six major American film studios. The company was formed on 31 1935. Twentieth Century Fox distributes various commercially successful films such as Avatar, Stars Wars. The majority of popular films that they have created are comedy and family for example Alvin the Chipmunks, Diary of the Wimpy Kid. They prefer to make these film genre as it’s most profitable however when it comes to horror movies they distribute it rather than producing them because they’re not specialized.  They have also created some horror movies such as The Omen and Jennifer’s Body. As they are a large corporation they have made a worldwide gross of $31,556,061 by distributing Jennifer’s Body, the film was particularly males aged 17 however it earned a disappointing $2.8 million on its opening Friday and $6.8 million on the opening weekend at North American box office. As we’re producing an opening scene to a horror film, the 20^th Century Fox is suitable institution which can distribute the film however as they’re only good at distributing   the film we may look elsewhere.

Lionsgate is a Canadian-American film production and distribution studio and a division of Lions Gate Entertainment. It’s the largest and most successful mini-major film studio in North America. They produce and distribute motion pictures, TV programming, home entertainment and family entertainment. Majority of their films are similar genre and the genres they produce/distribute are Drama, Action and Thriller. Liongate has some of the best horror films in the decade; these include Saw, The Last Exorcism, and My Bloody Valentine. Its first major box office was American Psycho; it earned $4,961,015 (USA) and £749,526 (UK) in the opening weekend. After researching horror films from Lionsgate I have found that they are not specialized on the horror genre because they mainly focus on Drama, Thriller and Action.

Hammer Film Productions is a company founded in 1934 which based in the UK. It is known for a series of gothic horror films produced in the mid-1950s until 1970s. During the late 1960s and 1970s there was intense competition in the horror film market which causes the institution closing down in 1980s. The company then in 2000 announced plans to being making film again but they weren’t produced until 2007. Their well knows films are The Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy and The Phantom of the Opera. They have also produced the feature film Let Me In and The Woman in Black. During the opening weekend, the Woman in Black earned $20 million which was the biggest US opening for the production in their history. It was put second place in the box office behind Chronicle; the film became the highest grossing British horror film in 20 years earning $127,730,736.  I think that Hammer Films suitable intuition for our film because they have the best experience with creating horror films. They are an independent film company so it would be cheaper to produce the film as they’re specialised in this area.

Blumhouse Productions is an American movie production company, founder and run by Jason Blum. It produces micro and low-budget genre movies like the Paranormal Activity, Insidious and Sinister franchises. The company produces these movies independently and release them through the studio system. Blumhouse has a first-look deal with Universal Pictures. Paranormal Activity grossed over $193 million worldwide when Paramount Picture released it. The partnership with Universal Studies allows Blumhouse Production gain more profit when their budget was only $15,000. The Blumhouse production makes different film genres and their horror film is popular however I don’t think this institution is great because they haven’t released many horror film and the theme of their films aren’t very broad; paranormal activities has similar plot line in their prequels.

Genre research

Genre Research

Horror

Horror films are unsettling movies that try to bring out the emotions of fear, disgust and horror from viewers, they often feature scenes that startle the viewer. The main colours featured in Horror movies are: black, white and red, the colour red signifies: fire, blood, danger, strength and power, the colour black is associated with power, death, evil, mystery, fear and the unknown; it usually has a negative connotation. Whereas, the colour white connotes: light, goodness, innocence and purity. The lighting in Horror films is usually rather dark (low key) and dim to give the viewer a sense of fear and mystery.

History of Horror Films:  Horror movies have been around since silent movies (Nosferatu). Obviously being scared is something the audience want. The horror movies received a huge lift in the late 70’s and early 80’s (e.g. Nightmare on Elm Street) but it died a sad death in the late 80’s and throughout most of the 90’s. Although, due to the success of the 1996 film 'Scream' (the horror smash parody) the genre again became very popular. Horror movies have drastically changed since the period of the silent movie; this is because what was frightening in the silent movie days and what is frightening now may well have changed. For example, when moving image was first invented footage of a moving train caused fear in the audience because people really believed that the train would come straight out of the screen. However, nowadays that would barely evoke fear out of the viewers.

Codes and conventions of horror: Blood, death, killing, villian, victims, haunted houses, isolated settins, monsters, evil, weapons, darkness, storms, chase sequences, gore, violence, screams, ghosts, naive teenagers...just to name a few

Camera angles commonly used in horror films: 

Close up shot - this is where the subject fills the frame, it shows emotion, it also hides a lot of the setting keeping the surroundings hidden and building suspense

Dutch tilt - this is often used in horror films to create disorientation

Extreme close up - these type of shot are usually used in horror films to emphasis something

High and low angles to connote fear and power

Point of view to allow the audience to see from the characers view-point and put you into the world of their terror

handheld shots to create a more terrifying experiece and bring the audience n=into the action

Also editing is important as it creates moods through the build up from slow cutting and transition to action through quick cuts and transitions.

Sound: Music adds tension. There is an audio sequence in horror films that most people recognize. A long eerie musical build-up of strings or horns as the victim, for example, approaches a closed door, then this is followed by a violent orchestral hit as the victim opens the door to encounter whatever is hidden behind it. This is a type of musical cue that seems to be quite common in horror films. Whenever the audience hears this build-up, they know that something is going to happen. There are many examples of other musical cues that are almost subconsciously recognized and identified by the audience. A long deep tone might indicate tension or a rapid and bright sequence played by a set of strings may indicate stress or panic. Sound effects are also an exteremly important feature to create fear through the use of diegetic sounds such as heartbeats or heavy breathing. 

Visual: Often dark tones and highlights within the visual style of horror as well as consistent relations between red and black to connote fear and death within the film itself – a common convention of the horror genre• 

Lighting: Lighting is a very important component of the iconography of a horror film/trailer due to the way in which it expresses fear and horror. Low lighting is mainly used within the horror genre to represent the ‘unknown’ and create shadows to spark the audience imagination and create fearful emotions• 

Props: Props are used within the horror genre to help identify the particular genre and the style of horror – common props associated with horror are religious symbols, knives and masks which connote the fearfulness and horror of the movie and represents the horror genre through its common convention• 

Monsters: The monsters iconography within the horror movie connote the fear, disgust, supernatural and extreme nature of the horror movie and the frightening emotions that are portrayed within the movie

Target audience for our film (Research)

Target audience

Malevolent phantom

Statistically it seems that horror movies apply to predominantly males, which I would have expected as its a common convention that men like to be scared and seek a thrill. Violence is also a convention of horror films which is often loved by males not females as they seek the thrill of violence, blood and got whereas females are more likely to seek love and security. Horror films are therefore more attractive to males as they seek the thrill horror films supply. To attract females more the three main characters are females, something that hopefully the female side of the audience can relate too, also it may lead them to believe this film will have a softer, more emotional side to it making them more likely to go see it. As long as there is enough horror clichés (dark setting, jumpy parts, blood etc.) then the men will want to come too.

They want to rush into life without being guided and therefore seek all thrill they can get, horror movies provide this thrill and can excite the young audience easier than an older one. The young audience are also less susceptible to being put off the film by violence or unnatural images which may make older audiences feel negative towards the film. Therefore in my film I may include a more violent, gory side to attract the younger audience but maybe have a more complex sophisticated plot to attract older audiences, something they have to piece together. 

The relation of the character also puts the audience in the shoes of the characters gaining a stronger horror effect - I've used this effect in my film as many of the shots are close up or point of view, putting the audience in the characters shoes.

Initial ideas (Planning)

Initial ideas

Malevolent Phantom

Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task

Evaluation

For our preliminary task we wanted to incorporate more of a story than just someone walking into a room and wanted there to be a subplot. Although with more planning it could have been longer and included a wider variety of shot types I still believe we did a good job. I think it was helpful to get our head around what filming a scene was like and If we had all the time in the world we could have been more creative with the setting and plot but I think it what we filmed and edited was enough to sustain the audiences interest and put into practice the different rules we had learnt. We also realised how key dialogue was as well as how important acting is as it's got to be believable or people will get bored and be paying more attention to the fact some students who can't act or write made this rather than the story on screen.
For such a basic, relatively boring scene we knew we needed to vary the shot types to sustain interest but also show the basic shot types we had learnt (shot reverse shot, match on action). The opening shot was a high angle one showing our character to be vulnerable and maybe worried as she entered the room. In an ideal world I would have loved to have shot this from the other corner and have the shot like it was from a CCTV camera but this wasn't practical so we stuck with what we had and I think it is a more interesting opening shot then in some other openings.
The second shot was a contradicting low angle shot as our character walked across the room, the camera panned round tracking the character to show she was important and highlight the fact she may be about to do/see something that affects the storyline. A low angle was used to vary shot types and showed the character in a higher position, maybe because now she's in a classroom she has returned to her high status (teacher) or feels more at home in her classroom.
We then used match on action to show a close up of her phone ringing, tea setting the idea that something bad may happen and it draws in the audience - proving  having a plot is key.
Initially we were only going to have one character but we realised in order for there to be dialogue, a reason for her to verbalise her problems, we needed another character (we also needed this to achieve shot reverse shot). Up stepped character number two who we initially see from inside the room from behind character ones shoulder so we are still inside the environment we know and can see the problem (her phone ringing - who is it?). We then go on to use shot reverse shot whilst using the 180 degree rule and trying out the rule of thirds - highlighting our camera techniques. Using cross cutting could have been a good idea, showing the two different characters in their settings before they unite but we could use this in our opening two minutes so are learning from our mistakes.

The final shot is off character one, the main character, as she delivers her dialogue that's supposed to build suspense and drama, leaving her as he final shot reinforces the idea that she's the one with the issue to be solved and she's the one were supposed to feel empathetic towards.

Filming continuity - Techniques

180 rule

The 180 degrees rule is a filming guideline that participants in a scene should have the same left-right relationship to each other, filming should only take place on one side of this imaginary line. For example if I were to make a war film the audiences viewpoint would be constantly facing southwards - the soldiers walk from left to right to the frontlines and right to left when they return home, creating a continuous sense of direction. This makes sure the audience doesn't get disorientated and allows them to have a greater sense of location in the scene in terms of what may be off screen in some shots (for example shot reverse shots)

The 180 rule can be violated for effect, like in lord of the rings, to cause confusion or to highlight a characters mental instability and show multiple personalities. Gollum stays in the same place throughout the scene but the camera moves, crossing the 180 line, which would confuse the audience. At the beginning of the scene though the viewer can see the camera cross the line, so this helps orientate the viewer and then once again it gains the audiences trust  - it violates the rule for effect.

Match on action

Match on action is an editing technique, to give extra attention to a certain event in the story, in which one shot cuts to another highlighting something important, like a door handle as a door opens or a phone as someone rings. This creates a sense of continuity and creates a 'visual bridge', it portrays a continuous sense of action rather than matching two different things. The audience is so focused on what's happening on screen they fail to notice the editing and are immersed in the drama that's occurring on screen. It shows a more advanced level of filmmaking where the action in the shot needs to be filmed more than once to achieve all the camera angles necessary. It creates a more visually exciting scene for the viewers to watch.  

Shot reverse shot

Shot reverse shot is a continuity editing technique used in conversations or simply characters looking at each other or objects. A shot showing what the character is supposedly looking at (either a point of view or over the shoulder shot) is followed by a reverse angle shot of the character themselves looking at it, or of the other character looking back at them, for example. Shot reverse shot often ties in with the 180° rule to retain continuity by not distorting the audience’s sense of location of the characters in the shots.

30 degree rule

 The 30 degree rule is used by filmmakers with the purpose of creating continuity between different shots within a larger sequence. It states that the camera should move more than 30 degrees between shots of the same subject occurring in sequence. If this rule isn't followed then the film making can look sloppy and unprofessional and can draw the audiences attention  away from the story line to the filming techniques. Its used to create tension and interest the audience as shot types are varied to create a more aesthetically pleasing film.

Rule of Thirds

This suggests that each image should be divided up into nine equal sections (two evenly spaced horizontal lines, two evenly spaced vertical lines) and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections. This technique is useful as it's claimed that placing a subject with these points creates more tension and interest in what's on screen that simply placing the subject in the centre of the screen. In most "people shots", the main line if interest is the line going through the eyes and they are to the left or right of the screen (1/3 or 2/3 - vertical).