Cape Fear title analysis.

0:25~Amblin Entertainment
~Cappa Films
~Tribeca Productions (production companies)

0:30 ~A Martin Scorsese picture

0:45 ~Robert De Niro
0:47 ~Nick Nolte
0:50 ~Jessica Lange (Main Actors)

0:55 ~Cape Fear (title)

1:00 ~Joe Do Baker
1:12 ~Juliette Lewis
1:16 ~Gregory Peck (lower actors)

1:27 ~Ellen Lewis(casting)

1:40 ~Rita Ryack (costume designer)

1:45 ~Thelma Schoonaker (editing)

1:50 ~Henry Bumstead (production design)

1:55 ~Freddie Francis (photographic director)

2:00 ~Frank Marshall (executive producer)

2:12 ~Wesley Strick (screenplay)

2:16 ~Barbara De Fina (producer)

2:25 ~Martin Scorsese (director)

Shoot day

The first four shots show our marks for the 30 second establishing shots we did for the beginning of the film . Each one was of a bigger landscape that implied we were in a woodland area , remote from other buildings or any people. These will introduce the film , at this point we hadn't recorded any sound , as we planned on recording separate sound of the wood chopping and the sounds of inside the woods (like birds and wind) , To edit and play over these shots . The first one (below) was of a small house , which would imply this was the house the film would be based in . (At no point did we actually use this building for filming as we only had permission to shoot the outside of it).We then used around 5 different landscapes as establishing shots to imply the woodland base. For this we were at school and used different areas , but the same equipment which only consisted of the tripod and camera for still shots.

 

 

 We basically worked backwards in terms of shots , originally we were going to shoot the shots in the same order that they would occur in the thriller , due to time , light and the amount of hours we had with specific actors we needed to do the final scene first. Originally we thought we were going to need separate lighting equipment to balance out the room , in the end none of the equipment was used . For this we used the tripod , camera and microphone that connected to the camera for indoor use. we shot the kitchen scene at a separate location away from school , we only used the kitchen for the cooking/stabbing scene which turned out very well , due to great acting and progression , meaning we managed to obtain many more shots than we thought. We clearly chose the correct actors for the job along with great use of our time limit. Shooting this scene we came across many different minor problems such as food , and hiding the knife so that it wasn't seen when our male actor was being stabbed (as our female actress couldn't have the knife in her hand when hugging him due to safety precautions). We managed to overcome each of these problems with ease . This scene also faced continuity problems due to dialogue and acting , but because we were able to get so many shots , we will easily overcome this.

 We moved on to this scene in the woods , which was meant to be our first scene but was shot in the middle , this went very well indeed , we managed to get every shot that we planned and more . We also managed to get the separate sound recordings of the wood chopping and general woodland atmosphere that would be used in the opening shots. We used the props such as the axe and the logs that were pre-cut to use , and we used an outdoor microphone recorder for this scene . It began to rain slightly but this wasn't a problem in terms of continuity as it went on for the scene after which was also outside. We shot this in an area near by the first scene .

Our final shoot was the ending of the beginning scene , we had to find two different locations for the first scene as the first location had no car access , we therefore had the problem of not having an ending , this was resolved through us having to drive around near by locations , hunting for an area that could relate and work without having any continuity errors. We found a spot , perfect for the shots we needed . We got there swiftly after the middle shoot . Originally I was very worried on the time , we were running low on time for the last shoot and I didn't think we were going to get the footage . This was due to the high standard we were working at , the group set ourselves the challenge of trying to get as much footage in the little time we had with our actors . We didn't take breaks and just kept shooting . It finally paid off as we got many shots , including shots from inside the car , on the side of the car , in front of the car and behind it . (this scene involved the actor putting the wood he had chopped , into the car and driving home to his wife). Overall we did well to get as many shots as we did for this scene , before we lost our actor and before we lost all the sunlight.

 Originally I woke up on shoot day fairly worried . In honesty we were not that organised and I worried about the location our props and by this time we hadn't fully organised a female actress. We quickly got into action on the morning , we collected all of our props that were needed.

-Fake blood

-Axe for wood chopping

-clothing for the male actor

-Apron for the female actor

-The car

-The wood logs

-The knife

-The dog (not a prop (was never actually used)

We managed to secure all of these within the hour . We managed to secure our female actress who we only had a short time with , but because of our quick and hard work we managed to get more shots than we needed in such a short time . By the time we arrived at location I felt completely prepared , we had all of our equipment , all of our actors and we new our locations , shots and dialogue . Automatically seeing the first location for the first time I was pleased , it worked perfectly for the plot , it looked like an authentic home and so we didn't have to change anything about. We quickly divided up the roles where Liam was the complete director , I and Ned were camera men and advisors for new shots and ideas and Guy was on sound . Everybody worked well at there roll and this was partly why we managed with the little time we had . I am certain that editing wont be a problem , as we repeated every shot and got different angles and shots which wipes out the chance of continuity issues. Overall as a team we worked well and I will be pleased to see the final thing edited and completed.

Final decisions on costume outfits.

We decided on what our actors would wear whilst shooting the sequence , outfits that related to age , gender and class . For the husband , fairly nice warm jacket or just a cross-hatched casual shirt , with nice jeans and boots , preferably wellingtons and lastly a plain cap for outdoors, fairly outdoorsy/work clothes .The wife would be  in fairly plain clothes , tight jeans , white shirt , normal trainers and possibly an apron while she's cooking.

 

 

Some examples of what we want her to look like along with the lower outfit on the picture below.

We will show these outfits to our actors for them to get an impression of what they will need to look like.

Dog interviews

We hunted down a teacher who had three dogs , we needed a dog that could suit the part for our sequence , I interviewed three of her dogs . One was becoming old and ill , hadn't had any experience in the acting arts and so was automatically excluded from auditions (the one on the left). The one on the right was healthy , had the right looks , seemed determined to preform and had personal experience with other thrillers . This thoroughbred stallion of an animal was perfect . The dog at the bottom didn't seem ok . I selected the dog on the right , who I think was called Scrumpy , he did have a heavy price on him due to his past performances in high budgeted films , we'll be forced to pay for dog treats if we want this performing arts genius hound to work for us.

Final preparations

In fridays lesson we discussed and made lists of final preparations , including the dialogue script and props that we need to get a hold of and secure for the final shoot.Here is the (slightly messy) list we made .

We then went on to thinking about the script for our actors. so i wrote out the dialogue , i pitched it to my group who agreed that it was suitable as a quick conversation before the end . we then thought bout how we could adapt on this .

We soon realized it wouldn't make much sense if they had a perfectly normal conversation as if nothing was wrong , and then she stabs him . so we developed it so that we could build tension and create a more thrilling atmosphere by her not replying to anything he says when he enters the house .

we then secured the vehicle we were going to use , a teachers volvo that suited the part .here is a picture.

Lastly we recently discovered that it wouldn't be possible to shoot the wood cutting scene at the original place as builders would be working there every day. we soon discovered a new spot that suited the shot well.

Feedback from editing team

Once we gathered the feedback from our target audience, we had a lesson where we pitched our ideas and went through our sequence with the media editing team. We discussed what we could improve and how , also thinking about extensions to make it more of a thriller , to give more of an idea as to what this film will be about. we gave two other ideas instead of the ending of the female actress with the hoover being surprised .Both of these ideas however were rejected as they went against one of the most important things that we were told. We were told that we "shouldn't try to justify a lie" and that we shouldn't try to make something work that wouldn't work . After which we came up with the idea of completely changing our ending. We decided that once the husband returned home from log chopping that he would come in, see her , do the usual . Drop his bag , take off his boots , hang his coat , whilst trying to talk to her . Meanwhile she isn't replying , he goes over whilst she's cooking , hugs her from behind , slowly she turns around to accept the hug . In shock he looks down to  find she has stabbed him with the kitchen knife , he drops to the floor dead , and she continues to cook. We were told to watch scenes from two different films . we looked at two different scenes from "The Village" and  "Side effects" where a character is stabbed suddenly when everything seems fine otherwise. We found this ending would work much , better , with the suspense of him chopping , and her not replying , the sudden death would mix well and create a dramatic , sudden ending to the title sequence. Once we had clarified and decided on the final shots and scenes we realised all we had left was to secure a car , logs , chainsaw , axe and possibly a dog .

This is the scene from the village. from 0:00 to 1:50

Pilot wordclouds

In Mondays lesson we had a pilot feedback session , we watched each pilot and every group had to write feedback on it. we had three questions to answer on each pilot. 1.what do you think was going on in this pilot? 2.Is it suspenseful , if so why? if not , why not ? 3.What could be done to improve the sequence? we got feedback that wasn't so much negative but also not so positive , we had compliments on the first scene of the man chopping wood being quite suspenseful , but then we had negative but helpful feedback on the second scene of the knife cutting. The main feedback was that most people had no clue what was going on , we slightly blamed this on the fact that we couldn't finish the pilot which would have brought it all together. The feedback we got was overall very useful in terms of us fixing problems in time for the real shoot. When we got our feedback , in terms of answers for the questions . we placed them into word clouds , producing words which came up frequently. Here they are.
1.

2.

 

3.