Planning For Final Film: BBFC Rating

For this task, we had to find out what our BBFC rating would be for our whole film. We have done this to further our understanding of our whole film in general and to let the audience know of what would roughly be the content shown within our film.(I have used the official BBFC website to gather this information).

 

The different BBFC ratings are - 

Uc/ U - This means that the film is suitable for all. 'The "U" symbol means universal. A U film should be suitable for audiences aged four years and over. However, it is impossible to predict what might upset a particular child, especially at this lower end of the category range.'

PG - This stands for parental guidance.This means a film is suitable for general viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for young children. 'A PG film should not unsettle a child aged around eight or older. Parents should consider whether the content may upset younger, or more sensitive, children.'

12A/12 - 12 A stands for cinema release suitable for ages 12 years and over and a 12 is for video releases suitable for 12 years and over. 'Films classified 12A and video works classified 12 contain material that is not generally suitable for children aged under 12. No one younger than 12 may see a 12A film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult. Adults planning to take a child under 12 to view a 12A film should consider whether the film is suitable for that child.'  

15 -  This means only suitable for 15 years and over. '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 under 15 years of age.'

18 - This means a film that is suitable for adults only. No-one under 18 is allowed to see an 18 film at the cinema or buy / rent an 18 rated video. No 18 rated works are suitable for children.

 Our film BBFC rating - 15

 Typical content shown within a '15' film - 

• 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 references to sexual             violence
• discriminatory language or behaviour
• drug taking

With our film being a psychological thriller, it would most likely fall under either the 15 or 18 certificate (as they often contain strong disturbing themes and graphic violence). We gave it a 15 because we felt that our film would just naturally not exceed anything stated in the list above and therefore that rating would be appropriate. Within our film, we have based our '15' rating on the whole film as opposed to just the opening scene as there are many elements of a '15' film that will not be shown in our opening scene but will be shown throughout our film. For example, no scenes of drug taking or sexual violence will be shown in the opening scene, yet they could be shown within the film itself.






Intended audience

The intended audience for our film is universal, however, the audience would have to be older than 15. We would want to create a film which could be enjoyed by all genders, ethnicities and ages. The film would not be intended for a conventional gender or age, if we were to continue on from the opening scene we would create more of an emphasis on  strong and independent female characters - we would want to create a positive representation of both class, sexuality, gender & ethnicity. This is important because there is a severe lack of positive representation of these groups in cinema and we would want to go against the conventions that are primarily seen amongst films.

Planning For Final Film: Costume Design

For our final preliminary task, we had to think about how/what the characters are going to wear and dress. The clothing is an important element of the film as it helps to reflects the characters and the personalities that they have and could foreshadow later happenings in the film which surpass the opening scene that we are going to construct.

How are your characters going to dress and how will this affect their representation?

The main character will dress in dark, bland, earthy colors as if to have the intention of drawing attention away from him.  The colours will shift towards khaki, moss green, navy blue and tan. Thus, hhighlighting the sense of him blending in to his surroundings and to avoid unwanted attention from others. The main character will follow a grunge- like appearance, possibly reflecting the dark mood or his imposition that he may/may not be carrying with him. Thus, helping to characterize and exemplify characters that are found in typical psychological thrillers.

The person who contributed to the kidnapping of his girlfriend will wear dark clothes, depicting him as being a shifty, deceitful, untrustworthy character. The character we have got inspiration from is Tate from American Horror Story, he is a character who is psychologically disturbed but hides behind this hides behind his gentle and kind personality. The clothes that he is wearing in both of these pictures helps to characterize and exemplify his personality as the top picture shows Tate as rather calm and relaxed but judging by the earthy colors that he is wearing, this could portray that he is having some dark thoughts about something or someone. The bottom picture shows Tate just before he goes on a mass-murder within his school, we can see that Tate is wearing a black coat and a black top, helping to portray his 'inner evil' and his 'dark side' that has came out to help him to wreak havoc amongst the school showing that he is a very psychologically disturbed person and the clothes help to portray Tate in this way.

How will this affect the way the audience engages with them?

The audience are given little information about the main character and therefore make assumptions based about how the costume design depicts the character. This creates an air of mystery and suspension surrounding the character which helps the audience to really try and engage with the character whilst wanting to watch on to unravel the mystery. This also helps the audience to feel a sense of anger towards the kidnapper and see him as someone to distrust as well as to feel a sense of empathy towards the main character to have his girlfriend so viciously taken away from him.

Planning For Final Film: Non-Digetic Sound

For this task we had to decide what music we wanted in our final preliminary task film. Within our film, we decided to not go for the high tension, eerie and rather generic music that is found in common psychological thrillers but to use some electronic music made by the film's main character (Burt Cope). By using music made by Burt, we don't have to worry about copyright being an issue, thus helping to keep the film very original and authentic. We also may ask Burt to make slight alterations within this track to help to add more depth to the characters and to the setting/ environment of the film.



The music that will be playing throughout our film -

Planning For Final Film: Script and Plot

For this task, our group had to create a script and a plot for our final preliminary task film. This has been done to further our understanding of the film that we are going to be filming and to help us think about where in the plot our film is going to take place in. 

Plot:

After his twin brother goes missing, all that Jesse (Burt Cope) is concerned about is spending time with his girlfriend, Alexa, who he sees is becoming more distant everyday. His attempts at keeping them together are causing his school work to fall (apart from his best subject, IT) and his friends to drift away. His mundane life soon develops into danger when his girlfriend is kidnapped and family secrets begin to unravel.

Jesse is online in his room when a pop up appears on the screen. As he goes to close it he notices that it shows Alexa, tied up and crying, with a large note resting on her reading 'HELP ME'. At the bottom of the image is a phone number which he quickly writes on his hand before running out the door. Jesse then finds the nearest phone box, not wanting his mobile to be traced, and calls the number. A deep male voice answers and shouts 'Listen!', followed by screaming in the background. The man hangs up just as a car pulls up next to the phone box and Jesse is told to get in. The driver then explains what he has to do to stop all this, telling him that the organisation killed his brother and in order to make it look as if he is still alive and simply running away from home Jesse needs to carry a bag through the centre of town, making sure that lots of people and CCTV see him. Jesse agrees, knowing that if he does not, he will loose Alexa too. He is then pushed out of the car, told to get the bag out of the boot and take it to Dex who will be waiting for him at the elevator in the multi-story car park.

As instructed, Jesse walks through town with the bag, clearly showing his face. He reaches the car park and gets in the elevator. Just as he goes to look at what is in the bag, the doors to the first floor open revealing Dex, who gets in and takes the bag. Jesse gets out and tries to phone Alexa's mobile to see that they have stuck to the deal and released her straight away. We then hear a ringing from the bag as the doors close. Jesse turns and runs to the doors, banging on them and shouting but he is too late. After running up the stairs to the roof, he looks down searching for Dex who is running to a car and driving off.

Jesse has to find Dex, the bag, and his girlfriend - dead or alive. The rest of the film consists of him hunting down Dex and trying to collapse the organisation that has torn his life apart. This includes returning to look at the pop up to find clues in the background of the image that reveal where they are keeping Alexa and hacking into a system that reveals what user created the pop up. When he has finally hunted down the organisation's HQ he poses as an employee, modifies the security and hacks into their computer system. He finds out that his brother is listed as an employee, but in the section of people that have been deleted (due to the fact that they have been killed by the organisation). He also finds that his parents are on the system too, with different names, and finally he finds himself - listed as a target. A linked file on his page shows a series of messages between his 'family', girlfriend and the organisation, feeding information and instructions back and forth. As the world he thought he knew crashes around him he runs out of the building, but on the other side of the main door that he entered not long ago is simply empty space, with the group of people who have deceived him all this time. They explain to him that his life has been an experiment to test a chip that creates whatever world the user wants to believe, his brother didn't agree with the test and created a group to trigger people being tested; they sent the pop up to him to crash his mental world and send him on a path that would reveal the truth. When Jesse asks why he is being told all of this, Alexa replies "Because none of it matters anymore. We need to continue working on the chip and make the mind less sensitive to triggers.". When he still doesn't understand she says smiling "You're our monkey. Now we don't need you, you can be put down". Two men appear behind him and drag him back through the doors.

Script of scene to be filmed:

Jesse grabs the bag from the boot of the car and begins to walk. 

Man in car: Drive.

The car pulls away quickly with wheel spin.

Overlaid audio:
While Jesse is walking, the sound of sections of the phone call and the instructions are repeated over the top of the visuals:
Man on phone: (Shouts) Listen! (The sound of a girl screaming)
Jesse: (Desperate) What do I have to do?
The man hangs up, causing a long beep.
Man in car: Take the bag to the elevator. Dex will be waiting for you.


Jesse reaches the car park and gets in the lift. The doors open and Dex can be seen. Jesse passes Dex the bag and walks away. Phones Alexa and ringing comes from bag. Jesse turns and runs to the doors that have just closed.

Jesse: (banging on the doors, shouting) Stop! Come Back! Come BACK! (hits doors again harder)

Jesse runs towards the stairs and up to the roof.

How does Todorov's narrative theory link to our chosen film genre

In this task, we had to describes Todorov's narrative theory and explain how it fits/ doesn't fit our chosen film.

These 5 steps are;

- State of equilibrium
- Disruption to that equilibrium
- Recognition that disorder has occoured
- Attempt (or attempts) to resolve a situation
- Return to that equilibrium or establishment of a new equilibrium.


The film I have decided to do is flight plan. Flight plan is a 2005 psychological/ slow boiling thriller film directed by Robert Schwentke and starring Jodie Foster and Peter Saarsgard. It is about a mother (Kyle Pratt) who was living in Berlin with her daughter (Julia) who is traveling home to Long Island in America to bury her husband who fell of the roof of their Berlin apartment. Within the  flight back to New York,  Kyle and Julia each decide to have a rest for their flight back home. When Kyle wakes up, she realises that Julia is missing and is nowhere to be found. This film does link to Todorov's narrative theory as there is a State of equilibrium, disruption to that equilibrium, recognition that disorder has occurred, attempt (or attempts) to resolve a situation and return to that equilibrium or establishment of a new equilibrium.


State of equilibrium -

Kyle Pratt has just boarded the airplane for New York from Berlin with her daughter, Julia and are now trying to find there seats. At this point in the film everything seems calm and nothing seems to be wrong.


 

Disruption to that equilibrium -

At this point within the film, Kyle wakes up from her nap and discovers that her daughter (Julia) is not in her seat. At this point we can see that there is drama and suspense being built as Kyle thought that she would be taking a nap and she isn't - which is making Kyle anxious. Thus, causing suspense and drama to be built and to cause a disruption to that sense of calm that was apparent throughout the beginning of the film.




Recognition -
 









After noticing that Julia is nowhere to be found. Kyle starts searching all of the cabins on the airplane in order to find Julia but to no avail. Kyle then goes back to Julia's seat and realizes that her teddy bear is still in Julia seat. Within this scene, there is a close up of Julia's teddy bear which reflects how valuable and sacred it was to Julia. This makes Kyle start asking questions as she knows that Julia would not go anywhere without her teddy bear. So then Kyle starts to get even more nervous and starts to panic even more then. Which then creates more drama and suspense.




Attempted resolution -

After not being able to find Julia herself, Kyle informs the captain that her daughter is missing. The captain then orders the cabin crew to turn on the fasten seat belt sign and to search every crevice of the aircraft in order to find Julia. At this point, Kyle starts to feel a little bit less anxious as she knows that the cabin crew will find Julia.




Return to that equilibrium -

After being claimed that her daughter died with her husband and that she was mentally ill. Kyle started to search the plane herself in order to find Julia but to no avail. Carson (the air Marshall) then goes and tells the captain that Kyle is a terrorist and the airline must pay Kyle 50 million dollars into a bank account or she will blow up the plane, although this was not true and it was Carson all along. The plane has to then make an emergency landing at goose bay airport in Newfoundland and all the passengers and crew have to deboard the plane but Carson stays on board with Kyle. Carson then admits to Kyle that he has kidnapped Julia. Kyle then hits him over the head with a fire extinguisher and begins to search the plane for Julia. She eventually finds Julia within the nose of the plane in avionics and discovers that there are bombs in the nose of the plane so when Carson comes inside the nose of the plane, Kyle and Julia hide within the cargo hold with the non-combustible walls to protect them and detonate the bomb killing Carson. After this Kyle, then departs the plane with Julia and proves to the passengers and crew that Julia was alive and was missing. This then helps to return to that calm stage that was apparent throughout the beginning of the film.