Planning For Final Film: Final Draft

After making some alterations to our video, such as adding some credits and cutting some shots we have re uploaded it to YouTube. I think that these alterations will make the piece more refined due to the amount of detail that we have put into it.

CAGED Group Representation Within Our Film

To follow on from our previous post in our group evaluation entitled "How does your media product represent particular social groups?", I have decided to use the 'CAGED' group to further display and go into more detail as to how our film - 'The Illusion Experiment" have either met, or rejected the stereotypes of these different social groups.

Class

We aimed to construct characters of a range of different class backgrounds in the film: 'The Illusion Experiment'. Whilst this may not be explicitly shown in the opening sequence, the main character may have been depicted as being from a middle class background whereas the people who have tricked the main character, who are slightly more wealthy would probably have been from a high middle/ upper class background. However, this was only a brief idea that we came across and is something we probably would have changed to avoid class stereotypes. We would possibly have thought through including more characters who have a range of different social classes to add to the diversity of the characters and to make our plot-line more original and compelling. We would also be adding many working class characters in throughout the film - we would be defeating conventions with these characters as they would tend to be the 'good' characters throughout the film and would not get into any trouble, thus defeating stereotypes of the conventional working class person that are portrayed this way explicitly in the media today.



Age 

Our film is targeted, primarily, at young people therefore all of our actors are of a young age; this was done intentionally so that our characters would be easier to relate to, in terms of our target audience. This may be seen as biased as our production has not succeeded in being age diverse. We encountered this as a problem as it was difficult to find people willing to act in our film who were of different age ranges. However, if we had completed our film, the audience would've found that the voice of the man on the phone was of an older age than of the main character. We aimed to defeat the conventional stereotype of young people as they are portrayed as being 'innocent' victims of a crime and to reveal that they had their own secrets and problems that would've been shown later on in our film. We also didn't want to give the audience the impression that the older people are the more menacing characters and the perpetrators of the film, however it was hard to portray this in the two minute opening sequence of our film, if the film was to carry on it would have been more apparent that our characters would not fit the stereotypes that society may have given them according to their age.

Gender

Our opening sequence only includes two male characters, however as our film progressed we would've entered female characters too, hopefully as many as male. We wanted to create a production that wasn't gender-biased and to avoid complying to gender stereotypes that are often used in high budget films. We decided to make sure that none of the characters in our film were 'innocent' victims of a crime, and that first impressions of the characters aren't always correct. This inludes the main character's girlfriend who is seen to have been kidknapped , however it would've later been revealed that she was a key part in ensuring that the main character was tricked and led into a sense of false security in their relationship. It would've also been revealed that the main character had also led a life where he had been involved in crime, which would have led him to being blackmailed. To improve on our opening sequence, we should've included characters of different genders and possibly including the voice of a woman on the phone rather than the main character being tricked by someone of the same gender. This would avoid the audience having a negative impression of our film in the first few minutes and assuming that our film is male-orientated rather than promoting the inclusion of different genders as characters. However, we would have predominately used female characters as the main characters if our film was to carry on - thus, defeating the stereotypical, conventional high-budget film where the main characters typically tend to be male. 

Ethnicity

We aimed to avoid stereotyping different social groups in our production 'The Illusion Experiment' however, we possibly didn't include as much diversity as we should have done as everyone involved in our production was of the same ethnicity. We found it difficult to find enough people willing to take part in our film and subconsciously, the people who were happy to be a part of our film, were of only one ethnicity. We didn't include many actors in our opening sequence, however we would've hoped that if we finished our film we would have included people across a spectrum of different ethnic identities. We would've also had to keep in mind that we should stray away from the stereotypes people often lean to in films, e.g such as stereotypes of black people as being 'thugs', fiercely independent or extremely angry. We would aim to portray the characters of different ethnicities as equal to one another and give them just as valid parts and characters. This would be a big step in beating the often negative, and offensive stereotypes that characters of different ethnicities in movies are associated with.

Disability

The first few minutes of our film doesn't appear to include characters who have a disability, however it is important to mention that the majority of disabilities aren't necessarily physical. However, after thinking through our plot-line we did decide to include characters with disabilities. To do this we would have to avoid negative stereotypes associated with disabilities, we would want to present people with disabilities as being just as able and have just as interesting characters as the characters without disabilities. We would construct a character based on their unique personality and mannerisms rather than their limitations that their disability may cause. This would be done to ensure that our production was un-biased and not offensive or rude towards people with disabilities, because at the end of the day they are equally as valid and important as everyone else.


Sexuality 

Within the opening scene of our film: The Illusion experiment, it appears that our characters within the opening scene of our film were most probably heterosexual - as the film's protagonist (Jesse) is trying to rescue his girlfriend, Alexa. However, if our film was to carry on we would have included characters from the LGBTQ+ community to make it diverse, we would have also made sure that these characters would have defeated the stereotypes that are associated with the LGBTQ+ community within the media. For example, when portraying gay characters - we would have made them look and act exactly the same as the other characters and we would have defeated the stereotypes by not making them act 'camp' and 'flamboyant' as this is predominantly shown within the media, the same goes for our lesbian characters as we would have made sure that they don't look 'butch' and 'manly' as these are not accurate descriptions of gay and lesbian people as you cannot determine what someone's sexuality is just by the way they dress or by the way they act - although this is how the media has constructed gay and lesbian people. There will be many elements of the LGBTQ+ community in our film as the majority of the relationships shown in the film would be LGBTQ+ ones, we would also have characters who are gender fluid within our film - meaning that they can move between genders and that they can have a fluctuating gender identity. We will also represent other types of sexualities that are not predominantly seen in the media, such as pan sexuality, asexuality, bisexuality and transgender people - these different forms of sexuality will be represented in a very positive way and will not be shown as being deviant and we will also ensure that it doesn't show LGBTQ+ as being a stigmatized identity as what is shown explicitly within the media today.



Regionality 

Within the opening sequence of our film, the two characters that were shown were from the South of England - most probably Oxford. However, if our film was going to carry on we would have included characters from other parts of England as well - typically the North. The characters who would be from the North of England would predominantly be the 'good' characters within the film and they would not be getting into trouble, thus, defeating the conventions of a stereotypical Northern character as they are shown to be ruthless, dumb and always getting involved in crimes and within the media. Although this would not be the case in our film and it would be the characters who were from the South that would be the ones that were getting involved in crimes - defeating the stereotypes that are explicitly seen in the media.

Planning For Final Film: Group Evaluation video

Planning For Final Film: Group Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

We took inspiration from the film Drive, directed by Nicholas Winding Refn  for our opening credits, mirroring the order in which the credits appear as well as the ambiguity of the opening scene. For example, Ryan Gosling is seen driving whilst the audience is unaware of where to and why.



There is also no significant introduction to the character. In our film, the audience is unsure as to why Jesse is being told to take the bag to the lift as more of the storyline will be revealed later on in the film.

We also took inspiration from the TV series American Horror Story, dressing Jesse in a similar way to the character Tate in season 1. The two characters are juxtaposed due to Tate's role as an evil killer and Jesse's role as the protagonist. Tate has an almost military style, with large boots and a dark coat using an earthy colour palette. Both characters present a disturbed persona of a young white male.






When watching the 2001 Sci-Fi K-Pax we noticed how prominent the use of lighting is throughout the film, due to Kevin Spacey's character, Prot, claiming to have travelled to Earth through a beam of light. At many points in K-PAX the lighting technique Bokeh can be seen. We decided to use this technique when creating our film because of the word and its connections to our plot: Bokeh comes from the Japanese term Boke meaning a sense of mental haze, relating to the instability of Jesse's mental world.

For the shots where Jesse is running up the stairs, we looked into some action sequences online and found a scene from The Bourne Ultimatum. The scene shows the main protagonist running through hallways and jumping out of windows etc. with fast cutting. In order to achieve a similar effect we filmed lots of short clips from different angles, cutting them all together using match on action.


In order to develop conventions of other psychological thrillers we decided to use a realistic urban environment as the location for our opening sequence with only a low budget. This meant that we had to rely on natural lighting and focus on continuity between shots. For example ensuring that the lighting was not drastically different. We also had to film in the order that the light would change naturally in the scene, getting darker as the sequence progresses.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our opening sequence we represent white males only. If we were to create the rest of the film we would attempt to subtlety represent as many other social groups as possible.
For example we would like to use a variety of extras who represent different groups. This would include different genders, couples of varying sexualities, people with disabilities, people with different body images, different ethnicities and different ages. We used a white male to play Dex so as not to use the negative stereotypes of gangsters that have been formed by films of similar genres. Due to films such as Adulthood (2008), teenagers have been labelled with a negative stereotype; we wanted to subtly conform to this stereotype by involving protagonist in what he thinks is illegal activity. Contrary to this, we are challenging the stereotype of women as weak and vulnerable by initially making the audience believe that Alexa has taken by a group of men and needs to be saved by Jesse, when in fact she was involved in the organization from the beginning.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? 

Our film could be shown in local cinemas as well as film festivals. To reach young adult audiences it could be shown at small independent cinemas with a low ticket prices and encourage them to use social media to advertise our film. It could also be available for downloading as this is a popular way for young audiences to purchase films. In order to advertise our film to this audience, we will attempt to promote online using social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We would also like to film magazines such as Empire and Total film, we would also take this further by trying to get interest from art based magazines such as I-D and Dazed & Confused which represent an underground and alternative style - similar to the style we want our film to convey. Through our film we would like to promote new emerging unsigned talent, this can be seen within the opening sequence through the actors and the music used.

Who would be the audience for your media product? 

The age of the protagonist might mean that an audience of a similar age would be attracted to our film because they feel they can personally relate to the experience of adolescence. However, we would aim to create interest in a audience of a universal age range. The grungy and underground feel of our film would also change who would have interest in our film.The genre of our film would mean that we could attract an audience that are psychological thriller enthusiasts. It may also attract people who are involved in the art scene because of the artistic elements within our film. although we cant generalize and expect all young people to enjoy this film; due to a massive variety of interests that they could have. For example two people of the same ethnicity, gender and age group may have completely differing interests in film. We should have a premiere with a specially selected audience consisting of different social groups. We will also facilitate a question and answer session at the end of the premiere - We would do this to gather feedback on what other social groups we could include and continue to target through new marketing schemes.

How did you attract/address your audience? 

We used various ways to attract and address our audience. We wanted to capture the audiences attention through both subtly and the more obvious elements to our film. One example of something we used was the music which created tension for the audience and made them want to continue watching. We also used point of view shots to include the audience within the action of the film, this allowed them to see through the eyes of the protagonist and therefore would enable them to feel as if they are at one with the motion and the narrative. We didn't use any birds eye or worms eye perspective shots because we felt that this would make the audience feel distant from the action. Most of the shots we used are at a 'human' level and therefore mean that the audience can picture themselves being apart of the film.

The use of realism induced by the location and film style has allowed us to possibly attract an audience who are drawn to films with a lower budget with a focus on artistic shots/lighting etc as well as a sense of authenticity; as apposed to multimillion pound hits.

 What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? 

As mentioned previously, we used natural lighting when filming our opening sequence. However, looking back it would have been less of a challenge to ensure continuity had we used professional lighting equipment. Although, this may have sacrificed the realism  that is now one of the vital aspects of our film. In order to create a slightly surreal and grungy atmosphere we altered the exposure, brightness, contrast, saturation and white point of each shot. We put the techniques learned in media theory into practice when editing, ensuring our match on action was as seamless as possible, adding pleonastic non-diegetic music (made especially for the film), recording and editing voice overs, also adding the diegetic click of the boot lock over the visuals (ensuring the sound was synchronous with the visuals).

When filming we focused strongly on shot composition as this is a vital technique for making the shots aesthetically pleasing for the audience. For example, throughout the film we used asymmetric composition with Jesse on one side of the shot and empty space on the other, suggesting that he is about to move into that empty space. This is a subtle technique that makes the audience believe they know what is about to happen, when the narrative holds surprises.

 Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

We have learnt that the planning stages of filmmaking are key to creating a quality piece. When creating the preliminary task we did not focus on creating a plot or script which meant that we lacked in content. By correcting these mistakes with the final film we were able to achieve a more smoothly run filming process. Also, the audio was really bad quality in the preliminary task, with quiet dialogue and lots of background noise. This was something that has drastically improved with the final task due to more skill and more time spent checking the audio. Using a high quality microphone to record audio to be overlaid later ensured that the audio was clearer.

Due to the film being devised by us, we felt more inclined to make it a high quality piece of work. The potential possibilities of what we could achieve with the film motivated us to create something unique and extraordinary; we crafted a piece which we felt demonstrated our artistic perspective. Improved technical skills during the filming and editing process helped us to achieve this finished product.

Planning For Final Film: Movie Posters

Here is our poster for our film, we decided to make the font the same as the one we used in the film for visual continuity.

Planning For Final Film: Self Assessment

For this task we had to write up a self assessment of the role that we had within our film. We have decided to do this as this gives us each a chance to speak upon the contributions that we have had to our film.

Official role within the film: Costume Designer

Within the making of our film, I was assigned the role of costume designer. This role was very crucial in the making of our film as the clothes that the characters wear within films help to reflect their personalities and helps to foreshadow later happenings within the film.  A lot of the inspiration that I had for the clothes that were shown in our film came from American Horror Story - specifically the psychologically disturbed character "Tate". Within American Horror Story, we can see that Tate usually portrays a very "grunge - like" appearance - helping to characterize and exemplify his psychologically disturbed personality. This is where I got the inspiration to dress the film's main character "Jesse" from as we wanted him to wear very "earthy" colors to help him blend in to his surroundings to and to avoid unwanted attention from others. The other main character in our film "Dex" was dressed in dark clothes - helping to portray him as a shifty, deceitful and untrustworthy character.

Also, I helped in the creation of the title of our film. This was a very crucial role as the title of the film paints a picture in the audiences mind from the outset and this helps them to create a brief overview as to what will happen within the film. Within our group, we started brainstorming ideas as to what our film name should be; we started looking up psychological thriller films on the internet to try and find some inspiration as to what our film's title could be. After a couple of minutes of looking online I stumbled across a short psychological thriller on YouTube called "Illusion" - I immediately thought that this would be a great title/ addition to the title for our film; I thought that this would be a good fit for our film as the protagonist believes that the organist couldn't have took his girlfriend and threatened to kill her, he finds this whole experience extremely surreal - especially with the fact that his life is on the line too; This helps to emanate the element of psychology that is ridden within our film as Jesse (the protagonist) believes that the organization is playing with his mind and he is not able to see or think clearly as to what he is doing and he does actually think that what he is seeing is 'illusions' and not his real mind. The word "experiment" was thought up by another member within our group (Sophie Hodgson); this word paired very well with "Illusion" as one could argue that the "illusion experiment" was a film about the protagonist being a "guinea pig" to an organisation trying to recreate the brain and see if you could 'artificially manufacture' an illusion and if so to what extent could these illusions become a reality. On the other hand, one could argue that this film was about someone who had imagined all these "illusions" were a reality and that in fact he was someone with a severe mental illness that just thought it was all true although it wasn't. That is why it was good that we chose a name such as "the illusion experiment" as it opens up a myriad of possibilities as to what the film could be about and it makes people develop preconceived judgements as to what the plot and story of the film is by just looking at the name - that's why the name of the film plays such an important role in capturing the audience's attention and will help to get more people interested in the film when you have a very original and mind-opening title that helps to directly relate to what the film is about.

Planning For Final Film: First Draft

Here is our fist draft of our final film "The Illusion Experiment". We are open to constructive criticism as to how to make this better and more refined in order to make sure we attain the highest possible mark we can.

Planning For Final Film: Risk assessments

For this task, we have had to create risk assessment that we are going to do when we are shooting our film. We are doing this because our films location is taking place within a multistory car park (which is private property) and we have to make sure that we have carried out the correct safety precautions in order to ensure that we are safe and that the people that could (potentially) be in the background of our film are safe too. We have also decide to do this just to be able to identify the dangers that could take place when we are filming and how we can manage these risks if they do occur.

Risk 1: Traffic/ cars/ public - we are at risk of coming into contact with other members of the public, also because we are filming in a parking lot we have to be careful of the cars. We will prevent this from happening by keeping alert of the environment around us and ensuring that we are filming in an area where there is much going on . As well as that, we have chosen to film on a Sunday when it will be much less busy because there will be less shoppers and cars.

Risk 2: We will also need to be careful of where are filming and what is in the frame, because we might accidentally capture someone's number plate. This is something we need to be especially careful of considering we are filming in a parking lot. We will manage this by looking over the clips after we film and making sure that no one/nothing is in the frame that could cause problems. 

Risk 3: Because we are filming late at night in a area which we don't know very well there is a slight risk of being faced with people who might interrupt what we are doing. In order to prevent this we will make sure one person is at least with another at all times to make sure if anything does happen they will have back up. We will try and stick together, however for some shots it might require the actor to be in a completely different place to the person with the camera. We will make sure we look out for one another.


RISK 4: We are filming at a local multi-storey car park which is private property. This could mean that we could get in trouble if we were taught filming there. To avoid getting caught we contacted the owner/manager of the car park and we have negotiated with them about filming on the property. They wanted to support us in our final film and therefore they are allowing us to film there. Contacting them was a positive step and this has allowed us to gain experience in the wider world and conversing with other people in order to be able to achieve what we want. 

Planning For Final Film: Song change

For our film, we have decided to make alterations to our song (non - digetic sound) that will be playing within the background. Our lead actor (Burt Cope) has decided to make alterations to our song so that it helps to fit our films intended genre better, the new song that will be being featured in our film has a lot more bass in it - thus, helping to keep the film suspenseful and original and also helping to make the audience immerse themselves in our film even more and to keep them on edge. The new song being featured in our film also helps to exude a sense of eeriness - thus, helping to make our film fit into our intended genre (psychological thriller) even better.

Because we are using music made by our lead actor (Burt Cope), we don't have to worrying about copyright issues arising within our film. Also, by making the alternations that we have made to our song (non - digetic sound) this will help to add more depth to our characters that will be starring within our film and to the setting /environment in which the film will be taking place in, which is good as it will help to make our film more gripping and engaging to the audience that are immersing themselves within it.

Planning For Final Film: Opening Credits

For our opening credits we have decided to base them on the opening credits shown in the film 'Drive'. Drive is a 2011 American neo-noir arthouse crime thriller film, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, starring Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Oscar Issac and Albert Brooks. Drive is about an unnamed Hollywood stunt performer who moonlights as a getaway driver.

The opening credits for our film may be seen as being random, disjointed and 'all over the place' but we wanted it to reflect a similar order of the credits shown in 'Drive' because this film covered and portrayed similar themes that are apparent throughout our film and we also felt that the order of the credits shown in 'Drive' was different, authentic, original and not conventional, thus helping to reflect the themes shown throughout our film. The order of our credits was intentional, even though it may not appear that way.

Although we have had a lot of inspiration and direction from the opening scene of 'Drive', there are some differences in our order of the credits compared to theirs. For example, we have decided to have the title of our film at the very end of our opening credits, we did this to help create suspense for the audience as more and more is revealed about the situation of the protagonist.



The order of our credits....(thus, similarly reflecting the opening credits of 'Drive)

Order of our credits -

Actor: Burt Cope
Casting: Milly Cope
Costume: Marco Milković
Music: Burt Cope
Editing: Sophie Hodgson
Director of photography: Milly Cope
Sound by: Sophie Hodgson
Produced by: Milly Cope & Sophie Hodgson
Screenplay by: Sophie Hodgson
Directed by: Milly Cope and Sophie Hodgson

Planning For Final Film: Storyboard(s)

For this task we have had to make a storyboard for our final preliminary film. We have decided to do this to further our understanding of what is going to happen within our film and to make sure that the story and plot make sense and to make sure that there is nothing that we need to add to the film e.g a prop to make the film more gripping and original and to make sure that there is also nothing that we have to take away from the film.

Planning For Final Film: Actors

For this task we have had to decide what actors that we want to be starring in our final preliminary film, actors serve a very crucial role to a film because the right actor can really help to make an opening scene a more gripping and suspenseful experience for the audience and to make that the opening scene flows and has the correct effect that we intended it to have on the audience. 

For actors, we needed people to fill 3 roles: we decided to have a young male lead role, a older male as a speaking part only to depict a telephone conversation and someone who would have a small part of retrieving the bag in the elevator when our protagonists gives it to him. For the lead part it meant we had to find someone who would be able to adapt easily to playing the part of someone who was both doing something severely wrong as well as wanting to only do good. Someone who was struggling to find out the truth about his current situation, We wanted him to be interesting looking with a natural sense of good style and confidence this was more important than having someone who was full of experience in performing. We decided it would be best to find someone who at least one of us knew well, this meant that it would be more easy for them to perform in front of our small team and in front of cameras and would mean they didn't have any reluctance throughout the filming process, We also needed someone who was going to add a unique and strange sense of dislocation to the opening scene.

Planning For Final Film: Props

For this task we have had to decide what props we want to show within our final preliminary film. We have decided to do this because it will give us a rough idea of things that we have to purchase and/or borrow before we start filming our preliminary film. Also because props will be needed to add to the drama and climax of the scene or to amplify the tension or atmosphere of a section from within the film.

What props will we need for our "15" film -

• Fake severed hand
• Large black duffel bag 
• Two mobile phones

Where will we get our props from? - 

• Large black duffel bag - Milly
• Mobile phone - Sophie 
• Fake severed hand - Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Smiffys-12-inch-Hand-Severed-Rubber/dp/B003BGIN3G) 

 How will they confirm your genre or show the representation of your characters?

They add to the threat of violence and add to the sense of a 'murder mystery' surrounding the main character's twin brother and the mystery around the disappearance of his girlfriend.

Planning For Final Film: Location shots

For this task we have had to determine where the location of our film is going to take place and to take some pictures of the location where the film is going to be set. We have decided to do this because a film's location can have a dramatic effect on the audience and can make a film seem a lot more dramatic and suspenseful and can really help to grip the audiences attention.

For the location of our final preliminary task film we had many group discussions about what we wanted the film to be like within the opening scene and what effect we wanted it to give to the audience viewing the film, both aesthetically and artistically. We have decided that we want our film to have a very dark feel throughout it with an underwhelming sense of eeriness, maliciousness and spite. Even if their was nothing explicitly on the screen which depicted a sense of evil, we wanted it to be inferred through aesthetic elements within the background such as lighting, the location and camera shots/angles. We decided that we are going to shoot our opening scene at night time as this would depict a sense of vulnerability  for the protagonist who is in danger because of what the situation he is in and the people that he is dealing with. Also, because the film will be filmed and at night time this helps refer back to the protagonist and helps to depict his "inner evil" that is usually characterized and exemplified by the protagonist within common psychological thrillers. We decided to shoot our film in a multistory car park and we will also be including a few shots of within town throughout the film. 

The multistory car park was an appropriate location for our film as it tends to exude a sense of dark and danger within the night time hours, thus helping to emit a sense of eeriness to the audience to help build up suspense and tension throughout our film. This location is also a very practical place to shoot our film because as most of the filming we do will be within the car park, it doesn't matter what the weather conditions are like outside. Within my childhood, I always felt of multistory are very interesting, complex and dynamic places. I always remember the overwhelming smell of a very strong chemical disinfectant (such as bleach) and human urine wafting throughout the dark, dismal and desolate environment that is the multistory car park. This smell was never was never comforting and always made me feel a bit nervous and on edge. What I also found very fascinating about this location was the fact that they have a sense of enclosure and interior while being partially unprotected and exposed to environmental exposure (there is a ceiling for the most parts, yet their is no door, no windows...this says something about the place if we looked into it in more depth rather than just capturing a location). Multistory car parks are also often very old, dank, grimy and dilapidated places that seem to have an essence of art ridden within them which would be able to be recognized within our film and would help to add another dimension of corruption and malfeasance to it as well as enabling us to capture something using composition, placement and the use of colour from within the building. 


The lighting within multistory car parks is also something which would add to the atmospheric effect - the lights are often covered within a thick layer of dust and cobwebs and are sporadically flickering. The fact that a multistory car park is a place which is used every day and not seen as a place which embodies a lot of character and uniqueness makes it even more fascinating and intriguing. I also liked the idea of shooting in a multistory car park because of the myriad of levels that it has. Thus, allowing us to be very experimental with our camera angles and shots because we could test on being on different floors and by using its different features such as the stairs and the elevators this would allow us to engage in a sense of in between (both of which would be a key part in showing the storyline and showing transition within the protagonists placement within the environment - the stair cases and elevators in particular admit a sense of insecurity, lack of instability, complexity and entrapment. The levels will also enable us to shoot in the same place however meaning that we could explore how different elements looked and if these elements would look better on another level/part within the multistory car park etc. It would also be interesting to see how a different sense of emotion and feeling is created when we shoot on different levels. (For example, what effect is created on the top level in which is fully exposed and how is this different to a level which is in between two others?) In addition to this the overall environment of the multistory car park feels perfect for what we are attempting to create within the few moments captured for the opening sequence and would allow us to use the complex and fascinating environment to our advantage and would create the effect needed for the underlying psychological themes which will be heavily induced throughout our film.

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.