Pinterest board.
I made a Pinterest board to develop a character profile for my protagonist. These pins present the stereotype of our protagonist in our film opening. These connote her secondary school age, her current situation (school) and the style which she wears. This therefore allows my group to understand our audience profile; most likely young individuals just like our protagonist.
My
primary target audience ages 15-35 because these are ages I believe that will
enjoy thrilling and horrific scenes and perhaps older generations would enjoy
this less. This is not a family film as it includes distressing scenes and
themes and therefore is not appropriate for younger individuals.
Most likely they will prefer to watch
thriller, horror or drama production. These genres are relevant to our film
because it fits into these genres. They will enjoy films such as 'Scream' and
'It' which is a psychological horror, and TV programmes
which are similar to the Netflix Original 'You' which involves the theme of
stalking and following, such as what we are portraying in our film.
Most likely my target audience will use Netflix to watch content or perhaps Amazon Prime. I believe this age group is more likely to use monthly subscription with streaming service instead of watching films/tv live, such as older people probably would. They will find their information most likely from Instagram adverts or physical adverts found on places such as busses and at train stations.
I think that the target audience will prefer younger clothing brands such as Topshop, Urban Outfitters, Zara. Secondly, they will prefer apple to other brands such as Microsoft and I believe will be very involved with their social media. I envision that the audience will use apps such as Uber for transport and public transport. Although our interpretation is hightened by the horror genre, the film also explores current issues such as death and mourning which can be relatable for audiences.
Original idea:
My film stands out because it is very
modern, including the fairly new app of Uber which creates a horrific take on
what could go wrong when traveling with strangers.
New idea:
My films stands out because it has an emotive angle of a poor teenage girl mourning the death of her beloved sister. This is accompanied by the horrific style of a ghost who is lurking in the darkness, haunting the protagonist. My audience should watch my film to be scared and thrilled by the drama and the action taking place.
CYNIC
Film name: CYNIC
For our film we considered different storylines that could be used. At first we explored using the concept of a 'stalker.' We then decided to explore more of the aspect of the paranormal and spirits. We adapted our idea, to still fit our theme of horror.
Our film will be based around a young girl, Mary, and her experiences with paranormal activity.
Her sister died a few years previously, her death was unclear but just before she died the two girls had an argument. Emilia did not seem herself; this frightened Mary. A few days later, Emilia’s body was found in the local woods.
Mary attempts to contact her sister, Emilia, who died, through the use of a Ouija board. However, she uses the board on her own and it breaks. She thinks she was unable to contact her sister and is now aware of the fact that she has contacted a spirit.
Mary hears voices constantly; they do not leave her alone. Eventually she realises that the spirit is her sister, except the sister is evil; corruptive and wants to take her sister’s soul in order to live again. The spirit visits Mary by her bedside, where she awaits her fate.
The history of the Ouija board
The ouija board was first advertised in 1891. It was originally a toy created in Pittsburg and the adverts appeared in local newspapers. It was advertised as a 'Ouija, the wonderful talking board.' It was described as being able to answer questions about the 'past, present and future with marvellous accuracy.' It even had a novelty shop for the magical toy and it supposedly promised 'never-failing amusement and recreation for all the classes.' The board is similar to what is sold in stores today. The board is flat and letters of the alphabet are arranged in two semi-circle shapes. Above the letters; 9 and 0, the words 'NO' and 'YES' are displayed. 'GOODBYE' is written at the bottom of the board and the board also contains a planchette. A planchette is a tear-drop shaped device which can be used to manoeuvre around the board. To play the game two people are meant to sit at opposite ends of the board. They would then propose a question to the board and with their hands on the planchette they would look dumbfound as it appears to move across the board, letter by letter, as if by magic. It is supposedly dangerous to play a Ouija board on your own.
INHABITION
-a restraint on the direct expression of an instinct
The theme to our film opening is supernatural and paranormal horror. the 'man' is portrayed as an ambiguous figure, almost demon like. it is up to the audience's interpretation to make assumptions about what the 'man' is.
The plot line is about a girl, called Paisley, getting in an Uber with when a man with a face mask due to coronavirus but can't really see his face. She always ends up with having him as her driver. The driver is mute and never talks to her but is constantly looking at her a in the rear view mirror but yet he is driving normally. Every time she ordered an Uber it was always him but with different names.
She got a Uber to school and it was the same driver so when she arrived she went to go talk to her friend Tilly. She starts to think that something isn't right. One day she decides to walk home and a random car starts following her. Every time she stopped and turned around the car would stop. it would happen again but then he turned his lights off. One evening she got in the car with him again and she felt very uncomfortable and unsafe. She told him to drop her off not at her chosen location. he then starts to follow her and she ran into the woods. He then pops up on the opposite side of the woods when she is coming out.
Storyboard of our opening film
Opening scene is the main character running late for school and ordering an Uber.
She gets in and the man doesn't say anything to her and she thinks it's a bit weird but doesn't think much of it.
*finishes school day
She orders another Uber.
She gets in and it's the same driver. And, she doesn't think much of it; just a strange coincidence.
Once again she orders another Uber the next day to go to school and it's the same driver. Now she begins to get freaked and worried that he might be following/ stalking her.
She tells her friend at school and she just tells her maybe its because she accidentally keeps requesting him to pick her up, so at the end of the day her friend orders her an Uber to make sure it wouldn't be the same driver. yet it was.
She didn't realise it was the same one because each time she orders it he has different names.
She gets in the car and tries to get out but he has locked. She starts to freak out. His eyes keep catching hers in the mirror. He then starts to stare at her while still driving.
The opening to M. Night Shyamalan’s Split is successful in presenting the menacing, ominous feel of the film. The opening sequence initiates the theme and genre through the visual codes of the titles, intertwined between the footage of what appears to be a girl being taken accompanied by the foreboding music which sounds like scratches and low-level alarms or perhaps sirens in the distance which connote that danger and threatening obstacles are to come in the narrative of this movie. The typography is the focal point of this opening sequence with only a black screen and white text in the font of Helvetica, which is a traditional way of presenting information. Not only is this sequence simple with its colour scheme, but the use of the colour black also signifies danger and darkness. The white writing could connote that hidden things are coming to light, and the text stands out against the blackness. The unpretentious, plain but effective opening focuses mainly on the cast list, directors, producers etc. In this sequence, the most prominent aspect is the text not the visual codes, but the visual codes do give an insight into the narrative which is important when attempting to captivate an audience.
Little fires everywhere
Title Design and Production Studio: Imaginary Forces
Designers: Katherine
Liang, Isabell Hacker
Live-Action Director of Photography: JR Kraus
Editor: Lexi
Gunvaldson
Flame Artist: Rod
Basham
Producer: Renee
Robson
Line Producer: Evan Jones
Executive Producer: Wandie Kabule
Head of Production: Melody Alexander
Coordinators: Jackson
Kerr, Nicole Gutzman
Composers: Mark
Isham, Sharyn Gersh
Music Editor: Mauricio
Balvanera
Scary stories to tell in the dark
Title Animation Studio: IAMSTATIC
Creative Directors: Ron Gervais, Dave Greene
Production Company: IAMSTATIC
Executive Producer: Andria Minott
Art Direction / Animation: Steven Hollman, Ron
Gervais, Dave Greene, Chris Crozier
Modeling: Chris Crozier, Dave Greene,
Compositors: Steven Hollman, Ron Gervais, Dave Greene
Music: “Season of the Witch” Lana Del Rey
Research: Watch in
class the title sequence
of Delicatessen (Jean-Pierre Jeunet,
1991)
To
Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962)
The President (Heidi Berg, Felix Soletic, 2019)
Soundtracks for inspiration: Emily Barker's Nostalgia (the Wallander theme tune), Banana Pancakes and Christina and the Queens Five Dollars.
Session 1: Filming Table Top
For this exercise,
I decided to work with Tom. In class, we began by watching various tabletop
openings suggested by our teacher to inspire us for our own opening. After
listening to the various soundtracks, Tom and I decided we were partially
captivated by the song Nostalgia, which we believed would complement our film
successfully. We set the tabletop with background cloth, arranged the chosen objects
to tell a story that fits with our soundtrack (we used Emily Barker's
Nostalgia) and used a sturdy hand to glide the camera above the table top from
the start point to the end point. (INSERT VIDEO HERE NEED TO UPLOAD STILL) 
Session 2: Live action shoot
This completes the
opening sequence and launches the narrative. We kept this simple by only
including a short 2 second clip with a close shot of a man opening a briefcase.
This suggests what will happen next by creating enigma. Perhaps drama, conflict?
The short opening suggests that these questions will definitely be answered
once the audience continue to watch the film and is used to engrossed viewers
into the exciting narrative.
Photos from filming:
Aim:
storyboard and film a brief conversation / confrontation between two
parties.
For this exercise, I worked with Jess, Charlotte, Tom and Preesha.
We began by brainstorming ideas for the continuity exercise – we landed on the
idea of a ‘who wants to be a millionaire’ We drew a storyboard which revealed what
we would include, including the mise-en-scene, the camera angels and the
editing.
We made sure to include all these:
1. establishing
shot (= where the action takes place, to
'establish' it for the audience) for us, we did a wide angle shot of Charlotte
and Tom in the studio.
2.
mid
shot of character A already in place – Tom sitting
in place
3.
character B arrives, making a two-shot (a shot
with two characters) – charlotte as the guest on the show.
4. A series of shot-reverse shots delivers the
dialogue (over the shoulder shots
that will be edited together in order) – the conversation
between Tom and Charlotte discussing the ‘millionaire questions’.
5. another two-shot bring the narrative to a close in any way that fits – the introduction of Jess’s character who gives help to charlotte for the question.
7.
In post-production we edited
the scenes together and used the ‘who wants to be a millionaire’ studio for the
backdrop for the green screen.
From this exercise
I further developed by skills of editing and using a greenscreen which taught me
many useful techniques which I can successfully use for course work.
