Research & Planning: theme- religion

As last year I used a colour to symbolise danger this year I suggested we used a theme, however instead of portraying the theme obviously, show it through symbolism.

Our theme is Religion.

At the end there is a shot of an apple rolling into the pool of medicine. This is taken from Adam and Eve. The apple was the temptress, it rolling into the pills shows the end of not just the story but of the couple.

When Ryan gets into the bath we use the water as it is washing away sins. He goes for a bath because he needs to clear his head of paranoia.

Also the marriage is a very obvious theme of religion, however the viewer decides the time span from which the couple met to getting married because of the graphic match. This decides whether it was too fast to get married or not.

Through most of the filming Grace will be wearing white clothes which symbolise innocense.

Our most relevant religious symbolism is when Ryan has his flashback and see's himself hanging like Jesus did.

Lastly the soundtrack that we use at the end while Ryan has his flashback is a gregorian chant. This sounds like it is religious, sung by monks.

Research & Planning: Location

For the house scenes we decided to pick Kellys grandparents house. It was a good set up and there was enough space to film. The door to the kitchen was perfect for our last shots and with simple mise en scene it would be easy to decorate to make modern, for a young couple.

For the street scene we have decided to use Walsall High Street because it will be busy due to the January sales.

The Gym, Outside will be Fitbods in Walsall

http://www.fitbods.co.uk/

I also used their contact page to email them asking if we can use their gym for filming.

Inside will be the school gym

Hospital, Outside will be Walsall Manor Hospital.

Research & Planning: Costume plot

These clothes are examples of what I feel Ryan should wear to portray his character. The wedding suit should be smart but modern to suit his age. The casual clothes will be provided by the actor so it will be whatever casual clothes they wear, however the ideal will the center picture of everyday clothes. Gym clothes with be baggy, that are easy to wear. No particular style however they wont be flamboyant.

Here is the actual suit we will be using.

Graces wedding dress also needs to be modern, the black against the white shows her dark side against her innocense. The casual clothes arnt going to be quite like the picture as she will be wearing a white tio, to symbolise her innocense even more. The patient dress, brought by me will be paper, real dress that they use in hospitals.

Here is the actual dress we will use

Research & Planning: risk assessment

Research & Planning: Prop list

Research & Planning: Shooting schedule

Research & Planning: animatic

Research & Planning: camera work

My camera shots and editting techniques.

Graphic match

Two successive shots joined so as to creaate a strong similarity of compositional elements (eg. colour and shape). We will be using this at the beginning to show time progression. As the two characters bump the fall (graphic match) in wedding clothes onto a bed.

Match on action:

A match on action, a technique used in film editting, is a cut that connects two different views of the same action at the same moment in the movement. By carefully matching the movement across the two shots, filmmakers make it seem that the motion continues uninterrupted. For a real match on action, the action should begin in the first shot and end in the second shot. Our match on action shot will be showing Grace walking through a door.

research & Planning: Storyboard

shot 1. A close up of Grace running past the camera- this shot really emphasises the menacing look in Graces eyes.

shot 2. Establishing shot

shot 3. establishing shot of the gym

shot 4-9 mid shots of characters walking

shot 10. graphic match shot- these two shots link together to create time change from the couple meeting to their wedding night. This shot is perfect for the scene, it is an easy transitition and the best way to show the time.

shot 11. close up of cup

shot 12- 13. mid shot of Ryan eating his sandwich at the gym

shot 14. close up of food

shot 15. close up of face

shot 16. mid of ryan walking to bed

shot 17. mid of grace walking to bed

shot 18. POV shot of pillow- this shot is typical of a thriller, POV shots show the view from the victim

shot 19. mid shot of grace putting pillow down

shot 20. close up of alarm

shot 21. close up of hand with knife

shot 22. close up of hand chopping meat

shot 23. close up of ryans face

shot 24-25. match on action walk through door

shot 26. mid of eating at table

shot 27. mid of running to toilet- this shot is perfect to show the expression and panic on Ryans face. A long shot would be too vague yet the close up will be too intense.

shot 28. close up of grace

shot 29-34 mid shots of attack

shot 35. mid of kitchen

shot 36. close up of clock ticking

shot 37. ryan alone.

CHANGED SCENE>>>

Ryan walks ups stairs with a mid shot. runs a bath and gets in. close up of his face submerge under water. A series of 'reality' scene of what really happens among quick shots of Ryan hanging like Jesus. He then gets out of the bath and continues to shot...

shot 47. mid of Ryan eating pills

shot 48. grace walks back in. sees whats happening

shot 49. close up of dropped shopping in slow motion- this shot will emphasise the shock of Grace, and the religious theme as the apple falls outs.

NEW SHOT

shot 50. close up of apple rolling to the pills.

We chose to change the scenes after we had created the storyboard and animatic. We felt this is a more appropriate ending. Which also gives symbolism and more meaning throughout.

Research & Planning: storyboard

Research & Planning: Script

When we knew what actors we had to work with we made a script for them.

Research & Planning: Auditions

Last years failed attempt to recruit Actors to take on our roles caused me to put foward the idea of getting friends, who study Performing Arts, to audition to act for us. We agreed, so i sent out a general email asking the actors to audition.

After this email I had two people offer to take part. Grace Foulkes and Ryan Gilbody. I made a small information pack explaining what they need to bring, script and animatic.

Research & Planning: Treatment

Treatment- all in red is our development

Although we all had our own ideas which were all equally very good, there was no way in using one, or using ideas from all three to create one new idea. Instead we all decided to come up with a fresh idea together. To do this we talked about shorts, what they are about and why they are made. Shorts spread political and cultural views. We though of issues that affect us, whether we could make a story out of it, but couldn't. I then said that shorts have a twist on the story, making the audience believe one thing then changing it at the end. This is where we got our story from. We then picked our genre, as we had never done it before, we decided on a psychological thriller. This made it easier to create a twist at the end as thrillers are well known for their mysterious endings and sudden changes to the plot.

Psychological thriller

Grace, a young woman in her twenties is seen coming out of a hospital, her hair is matted, makeup run with all but a paper hospital gown covering her. She runs out of the hospital laughing hysterically, she has a menacing face and is awkwardly walking, as though she hasn't been free for a long time. The scene then switches to a young man, Ryan, also in his twenties coming out of the gym, its obvious he has been working out, with gym clothes and sweaty hair he flings his gym bag over his shoulder oblivious to what he is about to meet.

The action switches between the two characters walking down a busy high street until they bump into each other.

Time then fast- forwards through the means of a graphic match to their wedding night.

A series of events then show Ryan suspecting Grace trying to kills him. Poison in a sandwich, a pillow smothering him, knives in his dreams and poison in his meals all lead to Ryan breaking down.

Grace see this happening and tries to comfort him in the kitchen but does not know what to do. She leaves to go shopping leaving Ryan in the kitchen alone. He begins to panic,he runs to the bathroom to run a bath, after washing he submerges under the water, through a series of flashbacks Ryan realises that it is himself that is hurting him not his wife. Out of the bath he runs the the kitchen, opening the cupboards filled with various medicines and pills. He collapses on the floor, rolling round in a fit. Grace comes in and sees him as he grins and spills all the pills out of his mouth. Throughout this scene there are quick cuts of Ryan hanging in the style of the crucifix.

Grace screams and drops he shopping.

Research and Planning: Preferred Audience

After viewing the comments from film reviews off sites such as YouTube and lovefilm.com I found that the preferred audience for psychological thriller are a mixer of males and females, with males being slightly more. All ranging between 16-30s. However this is only from reviews off the Internet. I thought the only way to get a more rounded result for the preferred audience is to make a questionnaire.

I left 25 copies in each years area of the school including the staffroom. When I got them back there were only about 15 from each year group. To make it fair I threw away the equal amount so each year group had 15 questionnaire. I also left questionnaires in the local pub, library and social club in Rugeley.

From the results I found that girls are more likely to watch comedies and Chick Flicks than Horrors or Thrillers. Boys results were very pleasing as they wanted to see thrillers more than any other genre. This was average over all ages.

My audience will be men and women, educated with a love for film and mystery. They will be regular short viewers, for instance from the short channel in YouTube and have an interest in thrillers.

Research & Planning: Directors

Directors of a Psychological Thriller




Dario Argento
Born: 7th September 1940

Bio: He is an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in the horror film genre, particularly in the sub-genre known as giallo (thriller), and for his influence on modern horror and slasher movies.

Films: The Bird with the Crystal Plumage

The Five Days

Inferno

The Phantom of the Opera

Giallo

M. Night Shyamalan

Born: 6th August 1970

Bio: Born in India however raised in Penn Valley Philadelphia. Son of two doctors.

Films: The Happening

The Village

Unbreakable

Praying with anger

The Sixth Sense

Research & Planning: What we're doing and Conventions

Out of all the options we decided to make a short. This challenges our abilities.

Definition of a short: A short is a film no longer than 40 minutes long. Most are found to be 3-10 minutes in length. When shorts were first invented their name was a short film, only recently did the name turn 'short' into a noun.

Here are some examples of shorts;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzg2jjH2z8E
This is an animation, which we do not have the abilities to do. However it gave us an example of how short stories are made, and what they mean.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Un20p1NGuw
This short is a perfect example of what we want to do. Except for the graffic skills needed I feel that the simple story, with a twist at the end is perfect example of what we want to achieve.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5CePvJo0O4
This short film is a psychological thriller. Although the story is not the kind of we are going for, the short clips between long clips give it variety, again exactly what we want to achieve.


Conventions of a Psychological Thriller

Film:

• Narrative:two character point of view 1.that of the protagonist, which involves the audience and creates empathy for the character 2. point of view of the villain, leads to empathy of villain.The story can also be told from the view of an onlooker. This shows both the characters sides to the story.



• Clothing: For the victim the clothing is usually feminine but sexy. The villain will be in casual clothing. The hero is usually in smart dress, like suits or casual.



• Setting: this can be anywhere. Urban, sub-urban, countryside or cities.



• Camera shots: POV shot is very common



• Mise en scene: threatening weapons- kitchen knives, dim lighting



• themes: current fears

To challenge the conventions of this are hard without making it into just a simple thriller. We wanted to keep the genre as much as possible. The challenge is the female at the beginning. Usually a man is seen as the main character at the beginning being psyco.

Review:

• Original poster for the film or the main character slightly over the top of the magazines name



• quotes from the review



• bright colours



• Bold important sentences



• SPECIALS
  


• questions asking what they know in the review

To challenge this I will only use one picture editted on photoshop instead of many like on the example.


Poster:

• A large title which attracts the eye with bold colours standing out form the background
  



• Picture of the main character(s) with the locations around.
  



• Dark colours such as red, black and browns




• persuasive language




• Use of the main characters status. 'Brad Pitt'




• The weapon used in the movie




• simple, it doesn't reveal too much about the film, this makes the viewer want to find out about it.




• A question. 'Would you turn the light on?'

Research & Planning: Photoshop & Quark training

In training I learnt how to use the two programmes properly and effectivly.
Heres what I produced:
Photoshop:

Following easy step by step training websites we went through the basics of photoshop which is what i used to create the 'Last house on the left' poster, we then improvised around each piece of software to see what we could do which is how i created 'Limit' the poster above.

Quark:

I found Quark much easier to use and more fun to practice with. However to make the posters we still have to use photoshop.

Research & Planning: 2 Hour Test

As a test our teacher gave us a 2 hour test to film a journey. In the two hours we had to plan film and edit a shot film about a journey. We were put into the groups we are going to work in for the main task. I found this very informative, I remembered everything I learnt last year and was able to learn more, coming up with ideas for our main task during the test.This is what we came up with...

Research & Planning: Pitches

Before we got put into groups we had to make a pitch for what we'd like to do ourselves. this is how our teacher put us into groups.

Research & Planning: Genre

I researched genres before discussing what our story was for our film with my group. I wanted to know as much as i could to give the group the chance to explore new genres. Below are some examples of the genres i studied.

Action- usually high energy, big-budget films with stunts and chases. They often have two-dimensional 'good-guy' heroes who battle 'bad guys'. These include films such as James Bond, and martial art films. A major sub-genre is the disaster films like 'The day after tomorrow'.

Adventure- These are usually exciting stories, with new experiences or exotic locations. They are very similar to action films. They can include searches or expeditions for lost continents, 'jungle' and 'desert' epics. treasure hunts, or searches for the unknown.

Comedy- These are light-hearted, deliberately designed to amuse and provoke laughter from the audience. This is done by exaggeration of the situation, language, action or relationship. Throughout cinematic history the type of comedy has changed, from spoofs, screwball, slapstick, paradies, black comedy to the recent favorite of romantic comedies.

Crime and gangster- developed around sinister actions of criminals and mobsters. The story is usually based around criminals operating outside the law, stealing and murdering.

After seeing all these genres, as a group we decided to create a psychological thriller. Its something we are all interested in and gives us chance to show our creative sides and show our technical abilities.

Psychological thrillers- Thrillers focus on plot over character, this emphasises the intense, physical action over the character's psyche. However Psychological thrillers tend to reverse this formula to a certain degree, emphasising the characters just as much, if not more so, than the plot.

The suspense created by psychological thriller often comes from two or more characters preying upon one another minds, either by playing deceptive games with the other or by trying top demolish the others mental state.

This is what we are concentrating on. We based our story on this statement taken from http://www.includipedia.com/wiki/Psychological_thriller

Research & Planning: My group

This year our teacher decided to put our groups together himself.
My group; myself- Sarah Aitken
Fallon Dyer
Kelly Greaves

To me this was good news. I had already worked with both people before putting us at an advantage of knowing we can easily work together.