Titles Test 2

For our titles I ventured onto dafont.com whereupon I encountered this font, Mocking Bird.

We like this font because of the handwritten feel and we thought it would be simple to create this in after effects for our inter titles.

I used after effects' Stroke effect to draw a mask in the shape of the text and reveal it, following the shape of the original text. I have taught my partner how to do this too (she did the 'Emma' one) and we both really like the effect it creates.

Script - First Draft

Here is the first draft of our script. We use Celtx, an online script writing and production management software, to make our script look like the real thing. We will also be using this to create our shot list.



EB and GH

Ident Testing

This is my initial attempt at an ident. It consists of a grid made of an Advanced Lightning effect, with the Lightning Type set to Bouncey, Forking to 100%, Minimum Fork Distance to 10 pixels, Complexity to 2, and Glow to 0. I then added some red glow over the top and a gold title to give it a cool effect.

After talking to my partner, we decided to make the ident redder as we thought it would fit more firmly into the thriller genre. I did this by decreasing the green and blue Curves adjustment

I was dissatisfied with the result, as I had initially liked the more golden flash. I added this back in and my partner and I agree that this looks much nicer. I also made the background more red so as to distinguish it from a title.

Here is my first attempt at what our titles might look like - the 'dust' is made of 50,000 particles per frame and this took a very long time to render. It will be a consideration going forward.

We like the font for the ident as we think it fits with both film and genre but the text for the titles is too generic and doesn't really match the thriller genre.

GH

Casting Notes

EVE - For the main protagonist of my tailer I have chosen her to be played by a friend of mine Ruby Ballantyne who is currently a drama scholar at her school and is applying to study drama at university. She also fits the age and character demographic that I was looking for.



NOAH - For the second main actor I chose another friend Robert Jones, who me and my partner agreed would loo good on screen and fit well alongside Ruby. Also the actors got along well which would make it easier for them to act their on screen relationship realistically.



THE PARENTS AND SISTER - For Eve's mother and father are initial plan was to ask two friends of my partner who were professional actors however they had prior commitments in a West End show so instead we asked a friend Olivia Bremner's parents, Tessa and Geoff Bremner as they looked similar enough that they could be Ruby's parents but also we decided to have Olivia play Ruby's sister to make her seem even further out of place in the on screen family, as the rest of her on screen family is a real family with her the only odd one out.



EB

Certification

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) presents the following guidance for film classification:

Discrimination

"The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour, although there may be racist, homophobic or other discriminatory themes and language." 

Our film definitely conforms to the guidelines here - women are not explicitly discriminated against, Eve's mental health problem is not explicitly stated and no other minorities are obviously present.

Drugs

"Drug taking may be shown but the work as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse (for example, through instructional detail). The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable."

Drugs are not used in our film.

Imitable behaviour

"Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Whether the depiction of easily accessible weapons is acceptable will depend on factors such as realism, context and setting."

The closest thing to imitable behaviour in our film would be when Eve decides to commit suicide at the end of the film - however, since we only see her decide to kill herself, it is not shown in any detail so does not really fall under imitable behaviour. Easily accessible weapons are portrayed (for example the knife scene, just before killing her mother) but are looked upon generally disapprovingly. The knife is not glamorised so falls within this bracket.

Language

"There may be strong language. Very strong language may be permitted, depending on the manner in which it is used, who is using the language, its frequency within the work as a whole and any special contextual justification."

Some strong language may be used, but very strong language will not be applied. Strong sexual expletives will not be used at any stage.

Nudity

"There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context. There may be nudity in a sexual context but usually without strong detail."

There will be little to no nudity in our film - it is unnecessary in our case. Any nudity will not be in a sexual context.

Sex

"Sexual activity may be portrayed, but usually without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable."

No sexual activity is portrayed. No verbal references to sexual activity are made. Our primary purpose is not to arouse or stimulate.

Threat

"There may be strong threat and horror. A sustained focus on sadistic or sexual threat is unlikely to be acceptable."

There will be strong threat in our film but it is not sexual or sadistic - the threat is Eve, but we don't know why she is threatening people in this way.

Violence

"Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but the depiction of sexual violence must be discreet and justified by context."

Our film will contain strong violence, for example when she kills her mother, but we will be careful to portray it in such a way that little gore is present.  Sexual violence is not present.

In light of all these, we have chosen to give our film a 15 – Suitable only for 15 years and over rating.

GH

Locations - After Scouting

We went on a recce and made a short film of our location shots to give some more depth to the location on screen and see if they worked out. This helped us to find locations for most of act one of our trailer as well as a bus stop and an alleyway.

GH

Character and Costume

Above you can see a powerpoint I have made to plan the characters and costume that will be involved in my film.
I have decided since making it to replace the Aunt character to with the father of the girl but have chosen to leave the Aunt in here to display the development and changes made to my initial idea during the planning process.

EB

Target Audience

To help decide on our target audience I had a look on IMDB at the age demographics on people rating some of my similar media texts.

Here is the rating breakdown for Get Out


And here is the rating breakdown for Killing of a Sacred Deer


In both of these it can be seen that they are most enjoyed by a younger audience, this backs up what we thought from the results of our questionnaire, leading us to chose 15 - 20 years old for our target audience.

EB

Questionare Results

Below you can see the results from our questionnaire

1. A large majority of the people who answered were in the 15 - 24 age range, which suggests that this will be the most common age range in the audience of our film. This means we should attempt to target it to this age group
2. We managed to get a very even split between women and men which is very helpful as it gives a blackened perspective and me hope to target or film to both females and males
3. The most popular genre of film was thriller, followed by drama. This works well for us as we plan for our film to begin off as a drama but over time progress into the thriller genre
4. The most popular aspect of a trailer was the cinematography followed by the music choice so we will attempt to put most emphasis on these features of our trailer when in production 
5. Here we have all variety of different aspects that we could get inspiration from to use in our film, such as
• Music choice
• Not revealing too much of the film
• Using colour to represent the mood
• Mixture of longer shorts and high editing speed
• Cinematic locations

EB

Questionnaire - Plan

I have decided to use Survey Monkey to produce a questionnaire to help me and my partner make key choices in our film based on our taggert audience's opinions. We will distribute this to friends, family and teachers to get responses from a variety of ages as we hope our final product will be able to fit all age groups.
Here is the link to it https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/Y53WNHR
See below screenshots of the questions...



EB

Locations - Plan

We plan to go scouting our possible locations later this week and take trial shots with the camera we plan to use for our final trailer, to get an idea how it will look. See below our list of possible locations along with photos of them taken from google maps street view....

Park - Dulwich park?

House - INT

Basement - Emma's Cellar?

Will need to take trial shots of these ourselves

House - EXT, here are three different possible uses we could use

Dark alleyways - Firemans alley?

School

Bus Stop

  

Tunnel - Possibly Herne Hill Station/ Brixton/ Balham

EB

Trailer Analysis - Virgin Suicides

Camera

•  The trailer begins with a series of scenic wide shots, setting the picturesque location for the film
• The first close up shot of a young girl, who we assume to be the protagonist, is coloured a deep blue, juxtaposing the shots surrounding it giving a sudden feeling of uneasiness, especially as she is shown sleeping, portraying her as vulnerable
• Throughout the trailer there is a clear divide in the shots between the female and male characters, with little cross over, hinting at how the boys are putting the girls up on a pedestal
• The shots right at the end show several close ups of the girls followed by a wide landscape shot, all back in the bright yellow colours and scenic locations of the beginning of the trailer, providing a cyclic narrative and adding more ambiguity as to what happens to the girls after they disappear

Mise en Scene

• The trailer begins with a wide establishing shot of a large house in summer with a lens flare across it creating the peaceful feeling of a comfortable middle class family
• The colours in the trailer are used evidently, as said above, to depict the mood. Browns are used within the safety of the home and school, pastels such as yellows and pinks are seen out in the fields, however the occasional crosscuts to shots in a deep blue represent to underlying danger.
• The girls are dressed in white, highlighting how the boys see them, as angels to be worshiped
• After the climax the shots largely become a lot more darkly lit and far more low key than previously
• The body language of the girls all dancing, or lying peacefully is shown in juxtaposition to the audio, a news briefing saying how they have gone missing, creating a feeling of confusion in the viewer

Editing

• The ident is shown before the trailer begins, breaking the convention of a more modern trailer
• There is a slow editing speed with fades placed between each shot, giving the trailer a slow pace
• The shots are colour graded to unusual colours such as blues and yellows, giving a surreal, dream like feel
• The inter titles are in a swirled childlike hand drawn font, giving a youthfulness to the film and making it seen innocent, nothing more than your stereotypical teen romance film
• The inter titles begin to tell a story of their own between the shots adding another layer to the trailer

Sound

• The non diegetic music begins simple, it seems harmless of the surface but with undertones that something may not be quite right
• This is occasional moments of diegetic speeches, every time to highlight the relationship between the males and females in the trailer
• This continues being the only audio until just before half way through (1:12) when the trailer takes a sudden turn
• We hear a thunder clap, making use of pathetic fallacy to highlight the sudden mood change
• The non diegetic music cuts out and is replaced by a far more orchestral, dramatic piece
• Synchronous to the inter titles displaying the actor's names beginning the music changes once more, becoming faster with added drums, giving the feeling of time running out
• A flash is edited onto the shots synchronous to a non diegetic crash followed by a voiceover news briefing explaining the situation
• The trailer ends with a single voice leaving a very ambiguous message making the viewer want to watch the full film to find out what is meant by it.

EB

Conventions of the Film Poster

After my research into several film posters in the horror/ psychological thriller genre there can be many clear conventions seen across most, if not all of them

• Colour Scheme - Nearly always in just the three colours white, black and red because of its connotations with blood, danger and passion
• Title - Usually placed in the bottom third of poster in the largest font of any test on the poster to draw your eyes. It is nearly always in red to make it stand out though sometimes, such as in the poster for Awake, white on a black background is used
• Key Actors - Their names are normally found in the second largest text to bring a guaranteed audience to the film
• Background Image - One image will take up the whole background, frequently showing a close up of one of the stars of the film
• Release Date - This will be likely at he bottom of the poster and highlighted in some way, whether that be red or slightly larger
• Memorable Slogan - Where this is varies but usually in the top two thirds of the poster there will be catchy 3/4 word slogan to sum up the film in an easy to remember fashion

EB

Magazine Front Cover Analysis - Little White Lies

EB