Assessment - Planning SJA 18/12/11

Teacher Assessment

Second Half of the Storyboard

Peer Planning Assessment

Casting

Who we chose for casting, and why we chose them:

For our victim, we chose to use a female character.  This is because stereotypically women are presented as being weaker and more vulnerable then men, therefore she has a low status.  Also, our female character is small and has a light hair colour which suggests that she is innocent.  The innocence of this character is effective because it makes the audience sympathize for her, and want her to overcome what she is going through or about to go through. We chose Nicole to play the victim as she was willing to play the part in our opening sequence. 

Our murderer is a male character, with dark hair and tall.  This is because men are stereotypically stronger, and more powerful then women so have a higher status over them and control them.  As this character is more powerful and aggressive the audience feel less sympathy towards this character, and concentrate on what they think the character is doing, who they are, and why they are doing it. We chose myself (Matt) to play the killer as I am willing to be in our opening sequence.

Credit goes to Becka.

Killer Costume

-Dark Clothes - Connotes bad character.

-Lack of Colour - Could show that this character is cold (links with killer). It could also show that he wants to blend in and not stand out. Maybe he isn't bothered about clothes and grabs what is there.

-Not much of his body is revealed (Mystery) and this suspends the audience and instantly makes them ask questions. In our opening sequence you may only see the killers hands and feet, maybe his body.

Victim Costume

- Jennifer, 20.

- Bright clothes with colour gives the character some personality. It also makes the audience focus more on this character than the killer, making her the main protagonist and the killer the antagonist.

Props

These images show the props that we will be using in our opening sequence. 

Chair - This is where our victim is tied down for the entirety of the opening sequence.

Rope - This will be used to tie down the victim to the chair (shots will show her hands and feet tied)

String - We will use this to connect the photos of the killers victim, to show they have a relation.

Pin Board - This will be used for our killer 'Hit List' and will show pictures of his past and future victims.

Pins - This will be used to pin the photos into the pin board.

Location

This will be the room that the victim is tied up in. We will take the unnecessary items out of the room so it is just a chair in the middle of the room. The pin board will be on one of the walls on the sides so the victim can clearly see the past and future victims. The location looks uncomfortable and this connotes that this is a eerie place where bad things have and will happen.


Credit goes to Nathan.

Titles

These fonts are fonts that interest us as a group. The name of 'A Childs Nightmare' may be a temporary or permanent name, were not sure yet. They all link with the handwriting idea, like the kidnapper is writing in a diary about his victims or killings, and he is hunting down his childhood friends to punish them links with 'A Childs Nightmare'.


On Screen Titles:

The Wire (All Due Respect, 26/09/04, US)

This is how we want our titles to look. We think that having the text over the shots looks better than having it over black. It allows the audience to ask more questions and want to know more, rather then the 'fake world' they are seeing to be interrupted. This example from The Wire is perfect as the font they use is very similar to the font we want to use and the positioning of the titles too. The close ups are going to be used in our opening sequence too.

Over Black Titles:

The Sixth Sense (Shyamalan, 1999, US)

Even if we did want to do titles over black it would be hard as our opening sequence has to be under two minutes and the titles may take 3-4 seconds each, narrowing down the time allowed for the opening sequence. Although this works for The Sixth Sense, I don't think it would work with our opening sequence. 

Credit goes to Me.

Character Description

The following video is a short 'chat show that we created to show the characters description and relationship. We blurred the killer/kidnappers face out to hide the identity. We also didn't state the name of the film as we haven't fully decided on a film name.


Bubbl credit goes to Nicole.



Credit goes to all of us.

Animatic of our Opening Sequence

Storyboard Analysed

This storyboard gives us a basic outline of what will happen in our opening sequence. Our main character will wake up in a room, filled with clutter and mess. She will be tied to a chair and begins to look around the room, whilst trying to discover where she is, who captured her and why. During this she begins to panic and tries to escape. Random clips of children in plays and home videos of children will be playing to show that the killer/kidnapper knew this girl as a child. This links in with the psychological side of the thriller.

We've had to change some shots as we have now decided that the only time we will see the killer/kidnapper is when he opens the door in the final shot. This means our focus is now mainly on the killer/kidnapper.

  

Storyboarding

Drawing credit goes to Nicole. Colouring and text credit goes to me.

The three following videos are of me and my group putting together the storyboards and listening to each others ideas.

Sound Effects/Music

- This sound would be perfect for when we show the clips of children in christmas plays, old photos etc. This links with the fact that the killer is punishing the parents of his old childhood friends, by killing them. The screeching sound chills the audiences spine and makes their heartbeats race. Mix this sound and photos of young children and juxtaposition is created and makes the audience ask a lot of questions.


- This sound could be used whenever the victim is on screen. Her heartbeat could be heard and the weird synthesised sound also makes the audience nervous, wanting to learn more. The sound changes half way to a sort of cricket bug sound, this shows the character is in a place they don't want to be in.


- This would be a good backing track that can be played quietly throughout the opening sequence. The underlying sound mixed with whatever musical score we pick would create a sinister evil feel that would make the audience worried about what is going to happen.

Peer Assessment

Shot List

The following images are tester shots of what we will use in our opening sequence.

This ECU (Extreme Close Up) will be used in our opening sequence as we want to hide identities and not give anything away. This will create mystery and build in tension at the same time. This will be our victim and they are tied down looking around, so her eyes will be moving.

This is a mid-shot of the killers feet, it will show him tapping his feet, waiting for a moment in time. This again creates mystery and hides identity which is what we want to achieve in our opening sequence. We also don't know what he is waiting for, could it be sinister or just a simple idea?

This is mid-shot of the victims feet that will be tied up. We learn from this shot that she is tied down and can't escape, supplying the audience with a new piece of information. We don't know where she is or even who she is. I think seeing parts of the surrounding asks the audience more questions, making this composition well laid out. 

This close up will be of the killers hand tapping away, looking at the victim form afar. This will create tension and mystery for the audience as well as to make them ask questions. The sinister tapping sound is a typical convention of a thriller, the slower the tap the faster the audiences heartbeat as it is really creepy and eerie.

This mid-close up (similar to the earlier photo of the legs tied up) will explain further that the girl has been tied up. It will also show the characters confusion as she doesn't know where she is. This helps the audience understand more about the scene but also makes them ask more questions like 'Who is she?' 'Where is she?' etc.

This close up will show the killer pinning up pictures of his victims that he has already killed. These pictures will be on a pin board and will have big red crosses through them to show the killer is murdering them one by one. This creates an eerie atmosphere for the audience and makes us worried for the victim who is tied up.

This POV (Point of View) shot will show the killer looking at his hands and thinking about what he has done. The fact that the killer has something psychologically wrong him might mean he has a split personality and one side of him regrets what he has done, whereas the other side doesn't feel guilty. This helps the audience understand the character more and also puts them in the shoes of the killer and lets them feel what the killer feels.

This close up shot of the victims hand shows her personality without even showing her face. The coloured nail varnish could show that she is a quirky character who stands out from the crowd. This makes the audience question 'Why is she there?' 'What did she do?', creating mystery and tension. It could also show she is quite young an the audience instantly side with her as from her nail varnish she looks innocent and we want her to escape.

Film Synopsis 'A Child's Nightmare'

The Film Synopsis on Prezi

Audience Research

From the answers of this question our group now know that our main target audience is maybe the age range of 16-30 as they are both the most popular responses from this question. Now that we know this we can research into what genres this age group mainly go and see in the cinema and can maybe ask future questions just to this age range.

 As the majority of people who answered this question like Thriller/Horror the most it means that all of the following answers would be more accurate then a person who prefers comedy, meaning that their answers can really effect our opening sequence and gives us very important information.

This helps us define what musical score to use in our opening sequence. From the responses our audience would prefer a high pitched musical score, an example of this would be Jaws, that sort of screeching sound that chills your spines.

These responses have/will greatly help my group and I with our opening sequence. It has given us defined detail into what our audience wants to see and what they don't. We now know what type of music our audience will prefer to hear, this will change the concept of our opening sequence. We were going to create a hybrid thriller/sci-fi genre opening sequence, but from this questionnaire we now have decided to just create a thriller opening sequence, changing the entire concept of our opening sequence. This research really has helped us in as many ways possible and we now will begin to develop a more in depth opening sequence to what our audience want to see.

Initial Ideas

Questionnaire

This is my groups Questionnaire.

Location Research

Conventions of a Thriller/Sci-Fi

This type of scream is a typical convention of a thriller as the majority of victims in thriller films are female. When we create our opening sequence we won't have any dialogue, and this could break the stereotypical convention of the thriller genre.



This ambient sound is used to underlies the musical score. The majority of thriller films always have this, making it a convention of this genre. This type of ambient sound is heard in films such as:
- Taken (2008, Morel, UK)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0936501/
- Disturbia (2007, Caruso, UK) 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486822/
- Phone Booth (2002, Schumacher, UK) 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0183649/

Se7en (Fincher, 1995, US)

These are the first four shots of the opening sequence. They consist of extreme close ups of items that could be seen as creep or deadly. The use of editing is montage as it jumps from one shot to another without a fade in or transition. The titles look like they are literally scratched into the film, showing that this film will be violent. It could also be psychological as the stereotypes of people with schizophrenia carve things into walls or their own body.

The title 'Se7en' appears in a very interesting way. It looks like an old fashioned film reel is rolling and displaying the titles, we can see scratches (linking with the earlier images), it also jumps from corner to corner of the screen - appearing in different sizes, fonts and colours. This could represent that the thoughts inside the main character head are all scrambled and they are psychologically disturbed. The final 'Se7en' that appears link us into another shot of the film.

In the next few shots the editing has been used to a high standard. Subliminal messages appear for a fraction of a second every so often, these messages can be words or images of dead/injured people, this shows that the killer does in fact have a psychological problem. The character goes over and over memories or what he wants to do to someone in his head constantly, meaning this opening sequence is in the perspective of the killer.

The images in this opening sequence are violent, gritty and can be scary, instantly making the audience tense and leaving them to expect that something will happen in the near future. The musical score literally sounds like it has been scratched on the disk, leaving this horrid screeching noise that sometimes appears, this again links with the mental issues that this killer may have. The image of the razor blade and scissors also feed this portrayal of the character by showing that they may have a fascination of knives.

 

28 Days Later... (Boyle, 2002, UK)

Conventions of an Opening Sequence

Titles in an opening sequence

Hollywood Pictures: This is the first distribution company.

Spyglass Pictures: This is the second distribution company.

These two appear again but just in text form - 'Hollywood Pictures and Spyglass Pictures Present'

Production Company:  'A Kennedy/Marshall/Barry Mendel production'

The main actors name now appears: 'Bruce Willis'

Title of the film: 'The Sixth Sense'

Now the secondary actors/actresses names appear: 

'Toni Collette'

'Olivia Williams'

'Haley Joel Osment'

'Donnie Walburgh'

The supporting (least important of the main characters) appear:

'Glenn Fitzgerald

Mischa Borton'

'Trevor Morgan

Bruce Norris'

After the actors comes the post-production team

'Casting by Avy Kaufman'

'Costume Design Joanna Johnston'

'Music by James Newton Howard'

'Edited by Andrew Mondshein' This person edits the entire film.

'Production Designer Larry Fulton' This person makes the sets/props/lighting basically they design how the film looks.

'Director of Photography Tak Fujimoto, A.S.C.' This person chooses the camera/lens/filter and the position of the camera, they manage the camera for the director.

'Executive Producer Sam Mercer' This person invests in the film.

'Produced by Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy and Barry Mendel' These people are the boss of the film, they ensure it makes money.

'Written and Directed by M.Night Shyamalan' This person is the most important person in the film production, they control the set and people on it.

The Spiderwick Chronicles (Waters, 2008, US)

Copy and paste the link for the Opening Sequence of The Spiderwick Chronicles - http://youtu.be/9o-KoV_P0vo