test shoot review

 review of our test shoot:

After going over and watching through the test shoot, it does make sense but it also has a few flaws that we need to change. For example, the ending our main character runs away from some sort of 'creature'. When we looked back at the shoot it didn't really give off the fact that he was being 'chased'. More running away from 'something'. So that is something that we would need to look over to change or morph into something better. For example the change we could make could be the camera coming at him and then a blank screen and screaming, or we do a pov camera shot of the camera following him to portray that stalker like/ creature chase type idea.

When looking over the opening scene and the way the narrative works, I think the plot is quite clear. But at times it can get quite repetitive. As mentioned I think the ending is slightly blurry but that can be fixed. But overall the plot is quite clear in the sense that a man goes walking with his dog but they come across a dead body. Its quite ambiguous so allows the audience to have their own perspective and opinion on what they have seen. The scene worked well with the location, and because it was a large forest area it was easier to take establishing shots and longe shots. it made it more effective and brought an element of realism to the location and opening scene.

The things that need to change is definitely the ending as it isn't practical. As well as the dead body, having a dead body is really hard to do and make it realistic. So instead of this we are going to use meat and fake blood to portray the remains of a body. And changing the ending to something more efficient and better quality. with the time limit it does need to be 2 minutes, we did quite well at sticking to the time but was short of 15 seconds. This means extending parts of the clip as we need to make it longer. Within the shoot of it the shots look quite quick and cut at a fast pace. To improve and extend the actual shoot I think extending the shots to make them longer will improve it by far.

Looking at the way it engages its audience I felt at times it was a bit repetitive. The one set location makes it quite repetitive but, something like adding in the symbols in the ground as well as the weird piles of rocks etc can interest audiences if we add it in sooner. Adding in the props sooner (like 10 seconds in) can improve the quality and meaning of the scene as well as overall more engaging. And lastly looking at the way tension is created within the scene. We managed to use a variety of high and low angled shots but again too many shots were cut short which is why the opening scene was short. As an editor I made a choice to add a non diegetic soundtrack of creepy music. I felt this was an active way to keep the tension high as well as just generally keeping audiences engaged as again it can get repetitive. The tension was also created by reactions of actors; so as mentioned before I think trying to add more close up shots of our main actors facial expressions will be a good way to connect with our audiences and keep them engaged in what they are watching. Overall I think the test shoot went really well and our idea has been translated efficiently. But I think it definitely helped us identify what we need to change or morph in some way.

Test shoot

 This is our edited test shoot:

test shoot plan

planning our test shoot:

The reason we are doing our test shoot is prodominantly so that we will be able to see whether or not our idea works. We would never want to get to the main shooting and have it not work. Having a test shoot planned and done meant that we were prepared for what we needed to do (what would take time, what didn't work, what worked etc). For example preparing the rock piles and large stick shapes on the ground took time to set up, so next time on the actual day of the shoot we will go before hand in preparation so that we can use the time that we have to get on with the shooting. The planning in which we did before hand included preparing the difficulties and possible cautions of the shoot. Difficulties included the set up and whether or not the location is going to look good as well as lighting, props, sound quality etc. The planning which we also took in hand was how much time it was going to take and what bits were easy to film. Majority of the shooters successful but now that we have done the shoot we are able to identify what difficulties we are going to face next time and what we need to focus on mainly.

Due to this only being a test shoot we didn't have all of the props necessary or the items that were required to make our scene, so we had to substitute a few of the props. For example within our scene we need a dog, but that is obviously something that needs to be organized and time to get done. Within our test shoot we had our actor saying "come on boy" connoting to the audience that there is something friendly (dog) with him. Looking at props and what we used instead was tree branches and rocks that we found in our location. Obviously in the real shooting we will have a more efficient and elaborate set up that is more realistic. Overall the props we actually have are quite minimal and so it makes it easier for us in general. The roles in which I took in the production and making of this shoot was the filter and editor. I had to take the required shots on set as well as putting it together and adding the sound (non diegetic) in post production. Our scene only needs 1 official actor and we are still in the deciding to wether or not we need a bad girl (body) or just the remains of a body. To do this we will use meat or clay or in genera attempting to make or buy the organs of the remains. We used one of our group members (tom) as the main actor walking through the woods, Jemma as the dead body and Olly who was in charge of taking behind the scenes photographs. 

Overall the shoot was quite successful as it gave us a main idea of what we want it to be and what we want to achieve with the opening scene. It also gave us a time Frame of what everything is going to take and just a general idea. Although looking back at the final edited shoot, the quality wasn't amazing and we could thought out the type of shots we wanted to use due to the fact that we had a tight schedule it does look slightly rushed at moments. But these are all things that can be fixed and without this test shoot it would create further difficulties within the actual shoot. So in my opinion I think the test shoot went quite well. The shoot was able to present whether or not the idea translated well. Some of the things that went well was our character type. We were able to identify what type of male character we want walking through the woods. Someone who is nice, oblivious to what has happened. Stereotypical man walking with his dog 'the normal'.  That was quite successful in the fact that we are aware of what we want, whereas before we wouldn't of known without this test shoot. Something else that went well was the set up, it took a few tries to work out how the 'weird' objects (rock piles, mysterious tree branches etc) would look and be set up. But in the end we got the types of shapes and things we wanted to create.

The things we struggled to film was the dead body. The reason for this was because we wanted it to look dead and that is quite hard to do at times. This is why we have made the active decision to not use a real body and attempt to use the 'remains' of a body with a mass amount of fake blood. This will most likely look more realistic than a body that we ave to try make dead. I think this was one of the difficulties as the body didn't look very dead or creepy. Another difficulty that we found was the man being chased, we wanted something that looked good and like he was being chased which we didn't communicate very well in the test shoot. So to develop this we will most likely not have him running away but just him screaming and the screen going black.
The things we could develop or do better next time is the camera shots either being longer or in a different way. As we didn't capture his reaction well. I would want to include more close ups of his facial expression so that the audience are able to have a more personal view of our character. 

camera workshop 2

 Camera workshop 2

Firstly looking at the 180 degree rule, it is used so if you have 2 characters. They could be anywhere having a normal conversation. One person will always stay on the left while the other always on the right. By not abiding by this you can mess with the continuity of it, but if you follow it there is a natural flow to the scene and will be more clear for an audience.

By getting a variety of shots it means there is back ups and more elements to each scene. The rules of third rule is the 9 grid which shows the placement of people and objects (or anything) within a scene. This overall makes the scene look better and more organized. Continuity is extremely important. Marks are used in filming to indicate where the film should stand to say their dialogue, usually its be marked with an 'X' on the floor. This is so they know where to stand. 

Within filming there are different stages that need to be followed within the process. This includes stand by, get ready, roll camera etc. This is a communication system between crew and the actors as they are about to start their scene. Then the most common communication is 'cut'; this allows everyone on set that the scene is over or shooting is stopped.

You keep it rolling at the start and wait until everyone hears the word action to check if the camera is working and there are no faults. At the end you carry on filming just incase there is anything else that can be added to the scene.

When on a set you shouldn't watch the footage back, this is because when shown to the actors it makes them insecure or they will attempt to do something different. It also makes them act in an unnatural way which is the opposite of what we want. It also stops the rhythm of shooting and the main goal is to get the shooting done.

Camera workshop 1

 Camera workshop

From the workshop today, we were shown camera equipment that we will be using throughout the rest of the year from our opening scene. The equipment in which we will be using is:

- black magic ISO 4k (camera) mini URSA

- microphone

- tripod

The 'yours' 'mine' rule must be used when handling camera equipment, this is to avoid dropping the expensive equipment, by simply saying to the other person in the group "yours" and whilst they receive the equipment say "mine". This way we are able to avoid mis communication ensuring that the passing along of equipment is safely handled and done efficiently. Loosening the height adjustment, meaning that we are able to change the height. With tripods there are 3 on each level, 3 on the base which needs to be turned anti clockwise. Once the height is adjusted you turn the nobs clockwise in order to lock the height in place, this process is repeated for the next level or any change.

On camera it is extremely important that you give time to the focus and what you want in focus in the scene. In order t focus and zoom at the same time you have to zoom all the way into your shot, then change the focus until it is clear. Once this is done you zoom out to the correct distance you want for the shot. The zoom lens is adjusted at the end of the lens and the focus is adjusted further back.

Lighting is one of the key importances to camera works. White balancing is one of the key components and its important to make sure the white balance is correct for the atmosphere and location that you are in. The white balance is adjusted on the touch screen; if you don't change the white balance (or haven't done it correctly) then the shot will be incorrect.

You have to zoom all the way on a person first and then adjust the focus because if you focus first then the zoom in the camera will go out of focus, this is due to the lens view being changed. The focus point of a person is their eyes, this is because within a persons eyes is the most detail, and when focused on the eye you can easily infer whether the shot is clear or not.

Lastly the clean up of equipment is one of the key components as we are dealing with expensive high tech equipment. Putting away the equipment is also know as striking the kit, this includes making sure everything is put away properly and that it can be used again quickly and efficiently.

Independent study 2

 How to make fake blood:

Within our concept idea we talked about the fact that we would want to use fake blood on different items (rocks, twigs, trees etc) as red communicates a sense of danger and communicates to our audience that something has either happened or is about to happen. So watching a small simple video on how to make easy fake blood was something that would hep us progress further.

To make this blood it needs simple ingredients such as corn starch, food coloring, cocoa powder and syrup. All things accessible and easy to get. Things like age and budget need to be considered, so this video massively helps in costing basically nothing to make mass amounts. We will be able to use this fake blood across different objects within our opening scene.

Independent study 1

How to film in specific locations (e.g. the woods):

Within this independent study our opening scene is filmed within the woods. There is no other location required so I thought it would be good to do one of my independent studies on how to film in a 'boring' or specific location. Within the video there is multiple conversations on what to think about when doing this.  It helped me create a focus on what is important for filming and what is easy or simple to achieve. Something like taking multiple shots at a variety of angles of the same thing comes In handy when editing; if something doesn't work you don't need to re film, you can just use a different shot. This saves time and enforcing progress into your project. Something like a woods location is a 'mass' location, theres so much of it that it needs to be thought out what you actually want in the shot (foreground and background)

Through this video it highlighted that a space that you don't think looks good can, you just need to think about the locations. This had a huge impact on how I then wanted to try film our group project. We went into a woods location behind the school and used the darkness of the inside wood to our advantage. It had a creepy effect and ended up helping us. We were able to film the 'red body' in darkness and get the other actors reaction to this which made it even better.

Something else the video discusses is the idea of 'revealing'. What to reveal and what not to. If the location isn't what your looking for shorter shots and shots that aren't wide tend to improve this and don't give too much away. That way an idea of realism and naturalistic location is demonstrated, and your not ruining what you have. I found that close ups were more useful doing so. Not only did this highlight emotion from our actors but also kept what we wanted in the shot. 

Although the video does include the use of a camera, we did just use our iPhones for the practice shoot. Within the actual shooting of our concept idea, we will be using professional cameras and be able to use these techniques efficiently. Something like the camera movement is specific and useful, tripod or no tripod? Moving the camera and panning the actor as if the actor is being followed. All things to consider when filming. Keeping the camera steady is something we considered. But as we were portraying this man being followed we decided that hand held camera movements were more efficient. And communicated those signs of danger.

Concept idea mood board

Mood board analysis:

Within this mood board I included the basic information of our concept idea. For example I have included the pictures of location, characters, props and other key ideas.

The first image I have used is a man running through the woods. This connotes the danger as well as the fact that he could be being chased within this moment. The woods location is our only location so most of the camera shots are going to be of wildlife, which is why the mood board is filled with wood like scenery and location. 

The reason I have used this image and why it is significant to the story is because within our scene its almost like a non verbal warning. Red has many connotations of danger and death. As well as blood being the signifier of death and violence. Our character seeing something like this warns him that there is something weird going on. And the blood also portrays and begins to tell the story to viewers watching

The reason why I have included this image is because we are going to use ritualistic type objects to communicate the weirdness or danger of whats about to happen. Rituals have a huge link to dead bodies, blood etc and tend to be in specific locations and a lot of the time it is in the woods. They all have links to each other which is why it makes sense. We wouldn't use something like this as this is quite extreme; we want to use subtle hints and versions of this. But this is the main idea of what it would look like.

It is quite hard to create a dead body with blood and scratches etc and to make it realistic. Within films it is a priority to bring a sense of realism to the story and so we can't produce something that looks fake and inefficient. That is why we are still in the deciding to whether we are using a real person or parts to a body like the use of meat from a butchers covered in fake blood. This can still have the same effect it will just be easier to do. The idea of using a young girl adds a twist to the story and creates a juxtaposition within it. A young cute girl in a pink out ft is very stereotypical of what a girl should be but covered in cuts, blood etc shocks audiences and is not something normal. Which in the end communicates that something out of the ordinary has definitely happened.

Group idea presentation

Group presentation on 2 ideas:

With Jemma, Tom, Olly

Group plan

 Our test shoot plan:

Location: The location in which we are going to film for our test shoot would be a wood like location around school. As our school is surrounded by woods its quite easy to do and achieve. We will only then need 1 location so this makes shooting easier.

Narrative: The scene will play out as a low camera angle on the man walking his dog within the woods. He comes across symbols and weird stacks of rocks within the woods. As he goes further there is more good on these items. They then encounter a weird smell and the dog smells out something and leads his owner. He then comes across what is the remains of a body and hears a sound in the distance. The scene ends with the man being chased and then blank. 

Characters: We have 2 characters and an animal, its simplistic but can be effective if used affectively. One dead girl, and old man and his dog.

Props: we will not need any props apart from the dog, costumes and a lead so again this makes filming quite easy. But we will need to make sure the the filming is good because there won't be a lot of props to prompt or reinforce the narrative and story of the scene. 

Difficulties: Some of the difficulties will include trying to make this realistic and capturing the scene properly. The lighting in our location is also going to be limited so we need to make sure that we are able to capture the scene without it being too dark. As well as the fact that we don't have an actual dog to use within this so we are going to have some sort of rope or collar to communicate that there would be a dog in the real shooting. Carving things in to trees and setting up rocks and things takes time so we are going to have to go to the location before hand or do a scruffy set up because we aren't going to have enough time to do this before.

Our group development

 The groups progress and development:

After we were put into our group, we started to plan and work through our ideas and what we wanted to achieve. We had 2 ideas that we wanted to pursue; one of which was my idea 1 thriller based on an obsessive psychotic wife. And our idea 2 based on a man discovering a dead body and gets chased by an ambiguous creature. We ended up going with the idea 2 and taking it further, that an old man walking his dog discovers the remains of a young girl. He then hears this noise, and starts to run getting chased by this creature. 

We have a few ideas of what the man finds. It will either be a young girl found dead or the remains of a human which will be done by special and practical effects. The use of meat and clay to create some sort of body organs which the dog will then find. We've started to look at the plan and what props we are going to need. Considering we are in an easy shoot location we can shoot in the woods quite easily. We've come to a final conclusion of the concept and what we want to film. 

Idea Feedback

 Within my idea 1 (Thriller genre) I included the use of a couple who have been together for a while. I talked about part of the location being in an office which has multiple photographs on the wall being of the couple. Part of my feedback is needing to put some consideration into the fact that it can be quite hard to build or fake a couple. Especially since you would need to include some sort of evidence that the couple is real. With movies the point is to reinforce realism into it, and some of it can't be forgiven by audiences if it is inaccurate or not correct. Which is why it is important to remain factual or include some sort of realistic evidence on these characters. 

Was in which I can reinforce this would be through taking different photographs of the two actors in different locations, anything casual does work and doesn't over dramatist or make the two unrealistic together. The focus will not be on these photographs but will be noticed at points by audiences. which is why it is so important to include some sort of realism into it.

IDEA 3 - Drama

 Concept Idea 3 - Drama

The genre: The next genre that I have researched into is the drama genre. This narrative will be different and will connote different ideas, narratives and atmospheres within the opening scene. I want it to communicate modern realities and ideas of todays societies. The drama genre helped me develop ideas and different messages that are maybe more relatable than the horror and Thriller genre to niche audiences, and make it feel more real. The story I have wanted to develop in my opening scene is real and looks at events on the ideas of struggling families. Focusing on 2 parents who are struggling and arguing with 2 kids, we as viewers see the opening that communicates one event of this poor family. Many audiences old and young can probably identify with the subject matter. 

Location: This location will take place in a normal home, nothing spectacular or large just something thats simple yet communicates home. I want the inside of the home to be filled with pictures and memories of the family members. Doing this will communicate the history of this family, and that this is a long time coming. The happiness of the photographs will create a juxtaposition of something that presents as loving and together is actually falling apart and not as loving anymore. The location will be the outside of the home and inside, keeping it minimal and simple will connote the simplicity of the family.

 
Props: The props that I would want within the opening title sequence would be anything that communicates the idea of a typical family. Things such as clothes on the floor, toys, messy papers on the table. As well as pillows placed in a quick messy way across the sofa. Anything that communicates an attempt to keep the home together but not done successfully. I want there to be an emphasis on messiness because through the arguing the home is falling apart as well.

Opening scene: The opening scene will start with a view out of the window from the parents bedroom, linked with the diegetic sound effects of birds chirping. It will be quiet and peaceful. We then get a view of a women sleeping (mother). This will then go into her slowly waking up and the realization that her husband isn't next to her, yet her expression is not shocked. As she slowly gets up we see the children wake up in their bedroom which they share. And all 3 members head downstairs to the kitchen where they make breakfast. After this the kids head outside to play and thats when we get the view of their father layer across the bench outside. From a night out he is tired and slowly starts to get up hugging the kids. The kids are happy yet don't massively understand to why he is there but continue to play. As he entered the house him and his wife do not speak and only few words are exchange. An argument then starts to break out and the kids start to hear it slowly walking inside watching their parents argue. Their father yells for them to leave and go upstairs, and the scene ends with the kids sitting leaning against the wall outside the kitchen. The scene ends with the mother screaming "I cannot do this anymore!" - End of scene and scene goes blank.

Future narrative: The future narrative will be the after affects and how everything drastically changes within the couple of months after this argument. It will present how the kids feel and how they react at such a young age. It would be a representation of the year after their father moves out and how they begin their lives differently. We see the pain of both parents and how they still argue and face the troubles after their split. We also encounter the slow realization that the kids make, and what they can and can't handle. Overall the film is a raw and real narrative of real life situations which people go through all the time. 

IDEA 2 - Horror

 Concept idea 2 - Horror

Outline of narrative: The second genre that I wanted to work with was the horror genre. Horrors tend to follow a more stereotypical narrative and tend to be predictable and can be considered more gory than thrillers at times. The opening scene is located within a boarding school. There is multiple boarding houses across a very lonely country side area. The scene starts with with multiple kids leaving the location saying goodbye to all their friends. They push their way across the stairs and completely disregard the old lady cleaning the stairwell.  She stays silent while she is pushed about and litter is thrown next to her. Although she doesn't react she remembers who this was. What is left is darkness and a boarding house, it is quiet and there are very few kids who are actually staying at this house for the weekend. There is then a small clip of the transition from evening light to complete darkness. We then as a viewer get a close up of a clock which reads 1am. The house is silent and the only thing heard is a few pieces of laughter from teens upstairs and the ticking of a clock. Suddenly the lights of the whole house go off and everyone loses electricity. The only people on campus are 9 kids and an adult supervisor who is no where to be scene within this current moment. There is a scream from a boy and the scene goes pitch black. The electricity is back on and all is okay. But when one of the girls of the house heads down to the kitchen at 3am to get some water, the kitchen is covered in blood. Walls, surfaces and the door which has blood running under it. This is the ending of the opening scene, and the viewers are left on a complete cliffhanger.

Location: This scene is located within a boarding school and one of the boarding houses which is old and mysterious (setting the scary stereotypical horror narrative). There is two set locations where the scene take place, outside the boarding house and within the boarding house. It is simple yet effective. The darkness of the scene connotes an unknown effect and the idea of mystery. I want there to be a few clips of the boarding house itself and a large look around of inside so that viewers are able to get a sense and awareness of the atmosphere. I want it to be slow with some dark non diegetic sound behind it so that it can make watchers uncomfortable and anxious so that theres not a nice feeling around it. My aim of this atmosphere and location is to connote a sense of danger so that people feel its unsafe to be there, again creating that uncomfortable juxtaposition somewhere thats stereotypically safe is not at all.

Props: The use of props is quite simplistic within the scene, but I want everything within the house to look old and make viewers feel uncomfortable. When the young girl finds the blood filled kitchen, I want there to be an emphasis on the knives within the kitchen. This connotes the danger and overall creates a juxtaposition as somewhere which is suppose to be safe and loving for children is actually the opposite and puts them in danger and at risk of their lives.

Future narrative: The future narrative of this would be the life of a 'normal' boarding school which actually isn't as normal as it comes across. I want the opening scene to be a scary opener that leaves our viewers with many questions about what happened and who is behind this. The story goes on as a murder mystery where kids continuously go missing on the weekends when there is less staff on hand and less teenagers around to catch it. In specifics there is a focus on the female cleaner who is quiet but turns out to be the killer of this narrative. It is unexpected and goes against the stereotypes of what a killer and smart murderer is like. The grumpy house master is accused as he isn't very smiley or happy when it comes to the care of the teenagers. It turns out to be that teenagers who die and are never seen again, are kids who have disregarded the hardworking cleaners of the school and disrespect her. Kids who don't treat her respectfully end up gone.

Opening scene: It starts out where we only get a small glimpse of the cleaner which makes it even more unexpected when we finally find out who did it to these kids. As no one pays attention to her its more expected that a focused upon character did it. Thats why I think its so much better to have an unexpected character as then it could be anyone. The kids come across as careless and full of energy paying no attention to the elders around them, which reinforces the narrative and their future.

IDEA 1 - Thriller

Concept Idea 1 - Thriller

The genre: The first genre in which I am looking at is the Thriller genre. The opening scene will be a main focus of the female Protagonist, who would be the main character for the future narrative. The opening scene will be a focus of this beautiful young women doing 'normal' activities within her home (cleaning the kitchen, moving bits around, watching tv  etc). It would be early evening, getting darker as we start to notice peculiar and concerning behaviors. We see her enter an office location within her home which we can assume is her personal space, there is a lock on the door which we see her with a key  (implicates no one else goes in there but her). Within the office space is the main part where we as watchers begin to notice key props which start to connote her psychopathic tendencies. she starts to walk over to a secretive area where she pulls out a black locked box. Within the box are a collection of items

Props: The key props in which I want to include are: A large stack of files with male names on it, A box which she pulls out from a secretive place. This box includes photographs that have been taken, cut out of one particular Male figure. We start to notice other objects within the box, a bloody piece of fabric which she then smells and places back in the box smiling in a loving way. I think that including props that are weird and make an audience feel uncomfortable are effective and can help reinforce the future narrative. We want to immediately enforce her psychotic behaviors 

Location: The locations that would be used in this opening scene would be a 2 location set scene. The first would be a home space which also has an office type location within it. Its simple and easy so is easier to resemble some sort of 'normal' to this couple. Yet we discover slowly that they aren't as normal and that the wife is not 'normal'. This creates a juxtaposition overall. As the couple seem loving (which they are) as well as living a stereotypical normal lifestyle, in a nice house and doing well for themselves. Yet the wife is slightly weird and has obsessive traits.

The narrative: Looking at the possible future narrative beyond this opening scene is something that would reinforce the thriller genre even more. The story would be that this couple have been together a while, they love each other a lot and are completely faithful to each other. Yet there is something mysterious and weird about the wife. She shows signs of obsessiveness over her husband and has slowly planned out their life together. The viewers are exposed to weird things she has done, and presents stalker like traits. We begin to learn that she actually knew of her husband before he knew her. The minute she met him, she fell in love and mad it her mission for him to love her too. We start to be exposed to her use of mood boards, photographs taken of him completely unaware, items of his etc. On the other the hand the husband is utterly unaware of his wife's obsessiveness and just believes that she is high maintenance which he kind of likes. He is aware of her erratic behaviors and how quickly she can get mad but just believes that she has a set way of living and that when she gets angry its normal. When actually when he doesn't follow her way of what she wants she has outburst of rage but leaves the house for an hour and it is unknown what she does. The ending of the narrative would be that we find out what she does and its a real cliffhanger for the audience and also links to the stack of files in her office which are not mentioned or talked about at all.

The opening scene: The scene is an exposure to the house they live in, where she is moving about seeming perfectly fine. After that she goes into her office where she starts to open 'the box'. after all this weirdness occurs we then hear the opening of a door (front door) and a Male voice say "im home". After this it then goes into her slowly putting things back into the box (very comfortably, and not afraid) this gives the attitude that what she is doing is a normal activity for her and doesn't seem weird. We don't want her to come across as scary, just weird and showing there is clearly something wrong with her and her attitudes. 

It is statistically proven that more men have been stalkers but there have been a great share of women who have performed these actions. It is also not been used where a wife is a stalker and has an unhealthy obsession with her husband and goes against the stereotypes of a stalker. She never physically hurts him which makes this story so weird. The stack of files are actually list of male names that she knows that look similar to him, and when she gets angry at him or he goes against her plans and ideas, she goes out and kills one of the men on the list. The rest of the narrative would be a slow realisations that as multiple men in their town have died it doesn't see to be a coincidence when he finds things in her office.

The title: Overall I think a good title of this narrative or opening scene would be something like "its just love". It has connotations that downgrade and normalize the way she loves. Presenting that everything she does if for him, and for their love. So in the end everything she does is 'practical' and makes sense because she's done it for him. And her killing these men is her release of anger.