Friday 11 December 2015

Film Script

Our film begins in media res, we do this to immediately capture the audiences attention and start asking questions. 
To accomplish this there needs to be a sound bridge starting a couple of seconds before the visual filming is displayed.
The first ten seconds of the scene will be in a forest. 
It cuts from the black to a shot of the girl running past the camera as it is a closeup shot of her feet. 
It tracks and follows her from behind trees. 
You hear panting and her footsteps. 
(This scene is made to be very intense and fast pacE)
It makes a sudden cut to a still, silent room with the same girl in the middle of the frame using an open shot making her look small and weak.
The camera is still hand held and pans around the room showing the girls room, it cuts to close ups of the toys placed on the bed. In the background you can slightly hear the noise of the front door opening.
Using crosscutting it shows the man closing the door after himself.
It cuts back to the girl with the overlapping sound of the door shutting as the turns her head.
He walks through to the kitchen and opens the fridge door.  
Portraying himself to be domesticated as he makes his dinner. 
It name cuts to her knocking over a glass on the desk where she is sat, the glass smashes creating a loud sound.
Cutting to the man again he takes notice of the sound as he looks up.
The man is filmed walking up the stairs. 
Using continuity filming.
There is a small bit of dialogue of him calling for Lily.
"what have you done now? you stupid girl" - expressing his frustration.
Cutting back to her face looking frightened (extreme close up). 

In the background you will here the man walking up the stairs, getting louder.

Audience research (age/gender)



This is a Psychological Thriller as it is between two characters battling against each other's minds, though the mental state. This means it can be aimed for older people as Psychological Thrillers are more mentally challenging.

Should be aimed for females as they may feel more emotion and empathy for the girl due to motherly connections to the girls in the film. And also because generally, if the main character is a girl then a film will tend to be aimed to girls. Also there is research to show that females are more interested in psychological thrillers as they generally have more empathy and boys.

15 rated rather than 18 rated audience certificate means there will be a wider audience, meaning more people can go. Therefore a higher profit will be mad. This means it  must fit the 15+ guidelines. 




According to the BBFC...


15 rated: No-one under 15 is allowed to see a 15 film at the cinema or buy/rent a 15 rated video. 15 rated works are not suitable for children

Limits - No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

15 rated film can have; 

  • strong violence
  • frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***').
  • 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
AC

Wednesday 9 December 2015

Costume: Girl

Costume: Girl

The main girl who has been kidnapped, needs to clearly portray her emotion, and this can be shown through her dress.  As she is probably going to be in her early teen (14+) then we want her clothes to be stereotypical of that age group and gender.  
When thinking of inspiration the main girl form the film ‘Lovely Bones’ inspired us as she gives off an innocent feel, and as her character as a whole seems to work with the plot of her getting kidnapped, we thought she would be good inspiration. 


This is a mood board of the types of things the girl should wear.   Aswell as looking at the girl from Lovely Bones, we took inspiration from what teenagers commonly wear, but also referring to our interpretation of the sterotype of a teenage girl.  To make the scene look more creepy, and to exaggerate her youth, we were thinking of making her clothes more similar to what a 5 year old girl would wear(pale pink, dungarees, kids brand logos)

The mood board was quite easy to create as we based it off our own clothes when we were younger and also from the clothes we see young children wearing, nowadays.  The jewellery and frilly socks give off an innocent feel that would suit the girls character.  I tried to get accesroies that little girls would want, from what I've seen in shops aimed at this age group like 'Claires'.  

Our other idea was that the girl has been dressed by her kidnapper in his scruffy baggy clothes.  This would add to her vulnerable look and make her seem more exposed.  It was also make the connection between the man and the girl more obvious.  Again, this is slightly exaggerated as we really wanted to portray the manly look.
Our main inspiration for manly clothes came from what characters in tv shows such as 'Eastenders' and 'coronation STreet' and what the builders tend to wear.  We also based it off what our dads wear as the man in our film is going to be around the same age as our dads.  They are quite baggy clothes and details like the socks being mens which add to the first impression of the girls state, which is very important.

IW

Tuesday 8 December 2015

Portrayal of gender

The Young Girl

We have collectively decided to name the girl starring in the opening Lily, this is due to the femininity and delicacy of the name. It is a very english name which also means a type of flower. It is thought to represent purity and beauty. This means that the audience will automatically warm up to the name and not feel threatened. Although in the beginning she is trapped by a man it is important that we show her intelligence and bravery which will automatically go against stereotypes of a dominating men as she outsmarts him.

Older Man

We want to call this character of the older man Mark. Mark is a very masculine name originating from both England and Russia. It is a very ordinary and normal name which does not attract much attention. This represents the man in all and his personality.

EB

Location: Woods

Woods

In the beginning of the opening we are planning to have a fast pace scene set in the woods, this occurs in many films which creates a fast pace, thrilling start to a scene. The scene should be set in the dark making it seem like it is very late creating a mystery as some shapes and figures are not fully seen by the audience. Due to this being set in December and January the sun goes down at around five which is very help as we can shoot it as soon as it gets dark. These next screenshots are ones from films and give off the same camera shots and feeling that we are aiming for:






The woods where we want to shoot are in Dulwich park, it is a public park making it easy to shoot in and has various different clusters of trees around it. Here are some images of it in the day time:





EB

Location: Kitchen/TV room

Downstairs of the house

Following the modern theme of the bedroom we are thinking of using a 'regular' modern day house creating a normality to the scene. The whole idea to the opening of this film is to make the audience feel like it could be based on a true story or that it is a plausible tale. This also makes it a lot easier for us to film as we can use one of our own houses as we film the man downstairs completing domestic chores and watching television.




This setting would be the most ideal place to shoot in although I am still debating whether it would look very out of place in the scene due to it being very graphic. There is also a lot of contrast from light to dark in areas.

EB

Location: Girls room

There are three main locations in the opening scene that we are creating, these are three plans and ideas for each of them:

Girls Room


Due to the idea of the opening that we want to create, I am picturing the teenage girl in a very modern stereotypical, young, childish style room. Making the room resemble a child's room of today makes the rest of what is going to happen a lot more realistic and therefore more thrilling. The photos above is my interpretation of a young girls room of around 12 years old. The idea of having an older girl aged around 17 placed in a room which resembles a young girl will immediately look out of place and suspicious. This is the type of effect that I am trying to portray. It should slightly unsettle the audience and create questions. A lot of the bedrooms I looked at it is mainly pink with toys and posters on the walls.
As we do not have access to this style of room we are discussing if we could transform a bedroom temporarily to accomplish this look. This would include posters being stuck on the walls, pink accessories, a diary, and different subtle additions to the room. This means that we can have an establishing shot as the camera pans around the children room creating an eery environment. This effect is fairly easy to establish due to the audience taking in other horror and thriller films shooting in a child's bedrooms, this means that they will automatically anticipate something to happen. The following shots are from different films using similar ideas:

This first screenshot is from a horror film called 'Women in black' and is taken in a young girls room just before they are made to commit suicide. Although the set does not resemble the bedrooms above, it shows similar ideas but is set much earlier in time.

This is from a film called 'Ouija', again it is a fairly scary film which is about a young girl reaching out to spirits, a lot of the beginning of the movie is set in her bedroom where she first finds the board etc. The room is of an older girl but still gives off a very innocent characteristic which contrasts to the film making it eery.

This is a young girls room which stars in 'Annabelle' which is a horror film, this room is made to resemble a nursery room and is where the doll, and main features of the film are located.

I have only given three examples but this idea of using a child's room to create a sinister ambience due the fact that it is meant to be a safe and innocent room as it is where your child is at its most vulnerable state. Using this knowledge which the audience have prior to watching the opening of this film it means that we are able to suggest that something is wrong without spelling it out leaving a slight mystery to the scene.

EB

Sunday 6 December 2015