Location scouting - House



 Here you can see the house we have chosen to use to shoot all of our inside scenes. We chose it because of the very cinematic feel we felt it had, especially at the table that we plan to shoot scene 2 at, it is next to large French Windows which will create the bright open shot we want for the first act of our film. In contrast to this, the hallway that can be seen on the right, to be used in scene 10, will work well for the Dutch angle silhouette shot of the father. The bedroom at the top above will be used in scene  8, 13 and 16, it looks like a very stereotypical teenage girl's room which is the look we are going for and we will be able to play around with a combination of natural lighting from the window and the bedside lamp see above. 

Narrative Initial Plan

Film Premise

It follows the life of a young girl with a syndrome that we have created based off a variety of existing syndromes such as Alice In Wonderland, Capgrass and Cortard syndrome. It starts by appearing as a drama displaying the struggles that she has to go through living her every day life and how her syndrome affects her relationships with friends/ family. However as the film progresses it develops into the thriller/ horror genre as it is made clear to an audience that her brain is affected far worse than it first appears and her desire to harm those around her with limited remorse becomes increasingly evident.

First ActEverything appears niceA girl is shown doing normal daily activities

• Park with boyfriend/ friend, having a picnic? Playing catch?

• Breakfast with family

• School etc.

Slow editing speed, brightly lit high key shots with a large use of colourHappy but haunting music. Starts light and simplistic but becomes increasingly creepierPossibly have a female singing voice throughout the first act/ trailer? Singing Ring around the Rosies, sounds innocent at first but with creepy undertones.

Second Act
Things start to take a turn, quick flashes to display her trauma are intercut between happy moments, highlighted by changes in lighting and colour
Change in music, gets more intense with added drums
Scene of her telling her mum, "I don't know why I'm like this", can cut to dialogue as voice over
Start to hint at her not being okay mentally
Muttering to herself
Being evasive
Hinting her desire to hurt those around her
Start to show the cause, how she has undergone trauma at a young age, possibly from a split with her parents

Third Act
See a family member (Aunt talking to mum), the Aunt tells the mum "I think she's got something wrong". Mum defends girl to Aunt, tells her to back off, that she has no idea what is going on leads to family disputes
Editing speed increases, shots get a lot darker as they show how badly his mind is affecting her life, her quiet muttering to herself becomes yelling, she get's paranoid all the time, thinks everyone is staring at her and out to get her.
Mum finally realised something is wrong with her daughter from seeing her diary filled with thoughts of hate, cuts to girl walking into the room, carrying knife, then cut to black and voiceover of mum saying final line.

Shot List Second Draft

Here is the second draft of our shot list. We have added more shots into the first scene to make it more sinister and we have tweaked shots throughout the document to (hopefully!) finalise the shot list. Of course we will continue to alter this as we shoot.

Location and Property Breakdown

I have used Celtx again to create a location and prop breakdown. This is an easy to read breakdown of each scene, clearly displaying everything we need.

Act I Sound Testing

Here you can see the musical test composition for our first act - This is made of three tracks, the bass piano, piano melody, and flute. Originally this was just the two piano lines but the piece sounded empty inside. I added the flute to give it some character without detracting from what I'd already made.

Script Third Draft

Here is the third draft of our script, we changed the first scene to add in dialogue between EVE and NOAH hinting at the sinister to come with her seemingly innocently asking hi if he'll always love her.
We have also added an extra line of dialogue into scene two as we realised we have too many shots in our shot list to fit in with only the two previous lines. To make time for this we shortened some of the later dialogue in the film in scene 11, we hope now apart from very minor changes that are script is complete.

Target Audience

To help decide on our target audience I had a look on IMDB at the age demographics on people rating some of my similar media texts.

Here is the rating breakdown for Get Out


And here is the rating breakdown for Killing of a Sacred Deer


In both of these it can be seen that they are most enjoyed by a younger audience, this backs up what we thought from the results of our questionnaire, leading us to chose 15 - 20 years old for our target audience.

Script, Second Draft

Here is the second draft of our script - we have increased the size of the script, adding in both where our indents will go and replacing the 'Placeholder Scene' seen in the last version with an actual scene. We have also made other minor changes. We have also changed the placeholder name of the film to 'We all fall down', after the song 'ring around a rosie' which may or may not feature in the finished product.

Generic Conventions of the Film Poster

Having looked at several film posters, there are several conventions particular to the thriller/horror genre.

• Colour Scheme - Predominantly red, white, and black, because of the connotations of danger, blood, passion, violence, purity, etc.
• Title - Usually in the bottom third, uses a very large font to draw attention to it. Often in red, although sometimes white on a black background to make it stand out.
• Key Actors - In larger films, these are a way of guaranteeing an audience for the film, so you want to sell this to the viewer. As such these are usually at the top of the screen. This can also include famous directors or other creative crew members, e.g. "from the director of..." or even sometimes "from the producer of..."
• Images - usually one image taking up the whole background, almost always of one of the stars of the film. There will often also be one or more smaller photos in the frame, such as the silhouetted figure in front of Cameron Diaz above.

• Slogan - This varies, but usually in the top two thirds of the poster will be a 3 or 4 word slogan to sum up the film. 
• Release Date - Often placed right at the bottom of the poster, the release date will often be highlighted in some way, either being slightly bigger, bolder, or in a different colour to the surrounding billing block.

Shot List

Here is the first draft of our shot list - we used Celtx's script tagging feature to start and then filled in more shots as and when we needed them. This is of course a working document and the copy below is not final.

Script, First Draft

Here is the first draft of our script. We use Celtx, an online script writing and production management software, to make our script look like the real thing. We will also be using this to create our shot list.

Questionnaire Results

Below you can see the results from our questionnaire

1. A large majority of the people who answered were in the 15 - 24 age range, which suggests that this will be the most common age range in the audience of our film. This means we should attempt to target it to this age group
2. We managed to get a very even split between women and men which is very helpful as it gives a blackened perspective and me hope to target or film to both females and males
3. The most popular genre of film was thriller, followed by drama. This works well for us as we plan for our film to begin off as a drama but over time progress into the thriller genre
4. The most popular aspect of a trailer was the cinematography followed by the music choice so we will attempt to put most emphasis on these features of our trailer when in production 
5. Here we have all variety of different aspects that we could get inspiration from to use in our film, such as
• Music choice
• Not revealing too much of the film
• Using colour to represent the mood
• Mixture of longer shorts and high editing speed
• Cinematic locations

Recce

We went on a recce and made a short film of our location shots to give some more depth to the location on screen and see if they worked out. This helped us to find locations for most of act one of our trailer as well as a bus stop and an alleyway.

Generic Conventions of the Trailer

Production Information

• Trailers regardless of genre show the production companies' logos, for a higher budget or mosaic-funded film there can be more than one. This is usually fairly early on in the trailer. This is done because audiences for production companies will be similar across films. For example Pixar released Cars 3 earlier this year - next year their tentpole production is The Incredibles 2, a much-awaited sequel to the 2004 family hit. Audiences for the Cars film will likely want to see the Incredibles 2 so displaying the Pixar logo during both the Cars film and the Incredibles trailer will show the audience that this is a similar film and that they will likely enjoy it.

Film Title

• Almost always appears at the end of the film, in large, distinct font. This tells the viewer a lot about the film genre - A thriller title will follow the general thriller convention of white, red, and black, while an action title will likely be accompanied onto the screen with some form of explosion or special effect, with a dramatically large title and an overly dramatic voice announcing the text as it appears.

Plot

• Trailers try to give the audience an indication of the plot without giving too much away. This is a fine line however, as too little plot will be seen as boring and too much plot will reveal too much of the story. Good trailers usually contain the funniest, most visually stunning, and scary parts of a film without giving the whole thing away.

Famous Actors

• Much like the poster, trailers will place their most famous stars at the top, in the first scene. This can be seen in almost every trailer. Their names will be displayed in large font across the trailer as well, to bring more attention to it.

Character and Costume

Above you can see a powerpoint I have made to plan the characters and costume that will be involved in my film.
I have decided since making it to replace the Aunt character to with the father of the girl but have chosen to leave the Aunt in here to display the development and changes made to my initial idea during the planning process.

Generic Conventions of the Magazine Cover

In general on a film magazine poster, there are certain conventions. For example:

• Masthead - the name of the magazine, displayed large at the top and distinct from the background. This tends to be identical across editions, to identify the magazine.

• Background Image - Generally a simple image to do with the main film featured in the issue, be it publicity shots, a still frame, or an artists rendition, it usually portrays one or more of the lead actors from the film. It takes up the whole of the page and is designed to draw the viewer's attention.

• Film Title - Often in the very centre of the page, roughly the same size as the magazine title and telling the viewer what the feature article is about. This convention is often subverted however, as above.

• Skyline - a catchy slogan to grab the reader's attention on a magazine rack in a shop. Normally it's about the magazine itself (see Sight & Sound) or about the film (see Empire. Note, however, that Empire do still have a slogan about the magazine, but below the title).

• Other Features - This is probably the most changeable element of a magazine, even from issue to issue. This is usually some text and/or a pictures describing other articles in the magazine. This is in black text on the Empire magazine cover above.

Casting Notes

EVE - For the main protagonist of my tailer I have chosen her to be played by a friend of mine Ruby Ballantyne who is currently a drama scholar at her school and is applying to study drama at university. She also fits the age and character demographic that I was looking for.

NOAH - For the second main actor I chose another friend Robert Jones, who me and my partner agreed would loo good on screen and fit well alongside Ruby. Also the actors got along well which would make it easier for them to act their on screen relationship realistically.

THE PARENTS AND SISTER - For Eve's mother and father are initial plan was to ask two friends of my partner who were professional actors however they had prior commitments in a West End show so instead we asked a friend Olivia Bremner's parents, Tessa and Geoff Bremner as they looked similar enough that they could be Ruby's parents but also we decided to have Olivia play Ruby's sister to make her seem even further out of place in the on screen family, as the rest of her on screen family is a real family with her the only odd one out.

Narrative Theory

Narrative Theory

I will have a look into five narrative theorists and how my media product matches or subverts each of their theories.

Joseph Campbell

Campbell, said to be one of George Lucas' main influences in the Star Wars films, argued that all films are essentially a battle between good and evil, that 'eternal myths and stories are shared by all cultures'. Looking at our film we have taken a slightly alternative approach to the traditional idea of a battle between good and evil, we placed both of these archetypes into our main protagonist, to represent how no person can be truly could or evil. Throughout the film you still see Campbell's war between good and evil but it takes place as an internal struggle within Eve.

Vladimir Propp

Propp argued that whatever the story was it is possible to group the characters into eight 'sphere's of action' as he called them, to indicate how intertwined he felt character and action are.

These are:

• The villain
• The hero - seeks something, carriers the events of the story
• The donor - provides a magical object
• The helper - aids the hero
• The princess - often object of the villians schemes
• The father - rewards the hero
• The dispatcher - sends off the hero
• The false hero
  

Our film does not quite match up to these, but we still have some of the key roles in ours:

• Eve
• Noah - It could also be interpreted that Eve still is the main hero of the story throughout
• No one - As it is not a fantasy there are no magical objects or anything with similar connotations
• Ben - Is there to support the hero throughout and aid him
• The Mother - Is the vulnerable one who is targeted by the villain
• No one - Despite our story having a father figure in the form of Eve's dad he is not the traditional caring father and is not there to reward
• Noah
• No one - As our hero is never on a journey any where there is never anyone to set them off, it could however be seen as Eve setting him off on a metaphorical journey from the beginning of the film
• Eve - At the beginning of the film you assume she is the hero

Tzvetan Todorov

Todorov was a structuralist and he believed that every narrative started with an 'equilibrium' where all of the forces are 'in balance'. This is then disrupted causing a chain of events ending in a new 'equilibrium' In our film we have:

1. Equilibrium, where Eve and Noah are happy together, or appear to be so and the same goes for Eve's family.
2. It begins to be shown the Eve is not a usual teenage girl, her outbursts become increasingly frequent. It is also revealed to the audience that Eve's father walked out on them when Eve was a young child because he could not handle Eve's 'moods' and he could not deal with Eve's mothers refusal to seek help for their child.
3. The recognition comes far too late when Eve's mother discovers her diary and realises that those thoughts she had been suppressing her whole life that her daughter was not like other children were right. However, as soon as this realisation takes place we seen Eve entering the room with a knife, preparing to kill her mother.
4. With the mother dead the father enlists the help of Noah as they decide something has to be done to limit any further damage from Eve.
5. Here is where our film subverts from Todorov's theory as it does not end with a new equilibrium, instead the final shots of the film show Eve deciding to kill herself, leaving it ambiguous whether it was an act of thoughtless rage or her all consuming guilt from the murder of her mother. 

Roland Barthes

Barthes suggested that all narratives make use of five different codes which the reader has to work to understand. He argued that the readers themselves have a role in making the meaning of a film. Barthes also discussed how all films have one of two endings:

• Closed - Everything is sealed up with all questions answered
• Open - Questions left unanswered

Our film has a very open ending as the viewer never truly understands what is going on inside Eve's brain and why she commits these atrocious acts against those she cares about the most.

Claude Levi-Strauss

Strauss argued that all narratives is dependent on binary oppositions such as East and West or good and evil. In our film there is a clear binary opposition within Eve, manifesting in to good and evil. She spends her life either taken over by an unquenchable anger and desire to inflict pain on others or an all powerful guilt for the acts she has committed and a fear for what she is yet to do. These fit exactly with Strauss' ideas as they could not be more polar opposite from each other.

Titles Test 2

For our titles I ventured onto dafont.com whereupon I encountered this font, Mocking Bird.

We like this font because of the handwritten feel and we thought it would be simple to create this in after effects for our intertitles.

I used after effects' Stroke effect to draw a mask in the shape of the text and reveal it, following the shape of the original text. I have taught my partner how to do this too (she did the 'Emma' one) and we both really like the effect it creates.

Sound and Music

For the first act in our trailer we have decided that we want light and piano-heavy (perhaps some strings also) music to create a relaxed atmosphere. It should have a summer feel, as well as being as minimalistic as possible.

In the second act we want the music to be more dramatic, have more instruments, and be much less relaxed.
The third act has three parts:

• The first part of the third act will be similar to the second act, but yet more dramatic and very rapid. The music should build to a climax.
• The second part of the third act will be much slower, but still share motifs with the first two to link it all together. We will add some violin (or similar) at this point to increase the creepiness.
• The third part of the third act will consist purely of the girl singing, with perhaps one instrument (A xylophone or glockenspiel if I can find one) to increase the creepiness levels.

Throughout the piece we want to have a few motifs that knit the whole trailer together.




In terms of sound, we want a range of diegetic sound to build verisimilitude throughout the piece, as well as some dialogue-as-voiceover to act as a sound bridge between scenes. We will do this because it is a convention of the trailer form.