Ident Experimentation

Frankie and I decided that our ident would be a short clip of a film photograph developing; the image with our production name will appear in white on top of the image which would slowly develop from the paper.

We decided to test this with an unrelated photo in order to see if the red light of the dark room would allow enough light in to the camera for it to be captured.

After discovering that this worked so well, we have decided that we will use this video and impose graphics on top in FinalCutPro. The image is a photo of a woman looking in a mirror, therefore we will call our ident 'Mirror Image Productions'.

Storyboard

M.H.

Shot List

M.H. 

Ident - fade to black. This black screen will have a sound bridge of cars driving. The first shot will then be seen.

1. Wide shot. Cars driving across the screen from both sides of shot - camera on the side of a busy road, with the protagonist sat at the bus stop on the opposite side. All diegetic sound is heightened.

2. Medium close-up. We are on the same side of the road as the young woman now, the camera at positioned at the end of the bus stop bench. Protagonist seen on left, traffic seen driving past on the right.

3. Close up. The woman's face is seen, her eyes glance to the right. She stands up and begins to walk, her face hence removing itself from the frame.

4. (Soundtrack begins here, there is now no diegetic sound). Medium wide shot. Road on left, woman on right - walks from the right to the left of the frame.

5. Close up. Back of head and body - camera follows closely as she walks.

6. Close up. Face and front of body - camera walks with her.

7. Medium wide shot from behind as she turns corner to walk down her road.

8. Panning shot of feet walking.

9. Medium wide shot of her slowing down and stopping to look at the cafe sign.

10. Match on action to close up of face as she looks. (Different soundtrack begins here).

11. Eye-line match to the cafe sign.

12. Same shot of cafe sign, different light (golden hour flashback begins here).

13. Over the shoulder shot (from man's POV) of laughing/smiling face of the woman.

14. Close up of man's hands holding a coffee cup, pans up to his happy/smiling/talking face.

15. (End of flashback). (Soundtrack stops here). A key being put in the lock of the front door, key twists and unlocks door. All diegetic sound is now heightened.

16. Match on action shot to inside - camera is positioned in hallway, protagonist seen walking in.

17. Wide shot of woman walking through hall - camera positioned on left, she is seen both in the hallway and in the hallway mirror.

18. Long shot of the woman walking down the corridor to the kitchen; centre framed, silhouetted by the light from the kitchen.

19. (New soundtrack begins here). Medium wide shot as she enters the kitchen and takes her phone out of her pocket.

20. Close up. Match on action of her taking phone out. Looks through contacts and pauses on a man's name, then presses 'call'. (Diegetic sound can still be heard.)

21. Close up of head as she puts the phone to her ear. Dialling can be heard.

22. Medium close up of head and upper body - eyes move suddenly to focus on something behind the camera.

22. Eye line match to the kitchen side where a knife glints in the light.

23. (Second flashback begins, soundtrack becomes louder.) Medium close up of dark figure seen with a utility knife.

24. Extreme close up of blade/weapon.

25. Close up. The hand of this figure wields the weapon with an obvious intent to harm - the hand moves out of the frame.

25. (End of flashback). Close up of hand slamming on kitchen side, pans up arm to protagonist.

26. Close up of phone at ear - voicemail message is heard.

27. Sound bridge to black screen and film title as the answer machine sound beeps.

Graphics

We used dafont.com to source the fonts that we are going to use.

1. The font for the credits that will be shown on screen throughout the opening.





2. The font for the film title which will flash up on a black screen as the voicemail beeps.

Costume and Props

Costume

• 

  Present day protagonist: grey tracksuit bottoms, Nike trainers, tight black vest and a puffer jacket coat.

• Protagonist in first flashback: fitted t-shirt, hair off the face.
• Male in first flashback: shirt, necklaces and a leather jacket.

Props

• Coffee cups: used in the cafe flashback.
• House keys: used to get into the house.

• Old nokia brick/flip up phone: this will be the phone the protagonist uses in her attempt to call the male character.

• Kitchen knife: this will glint in the sink and trigger the second flashback.
• Utility blade/knife: this will be the weapon that’s used in the second flashback.

Characters

1. The main character - the female protagonist. We do not find out her name in the opening.

She appears to be strong and angsty, verging on early adulthood. Her age will be used to make her seem vulnerable at points in the film, however she will appear to be very independent in the opening; it is ambiguous as to whether the house she walks into is her own or her parents. I have used Kristen Stewart’s character from Welcome To The Riley's as inspiration - as well as Katie Jarvis’s character in Fish Tank - as Stewart portrays a girl who is self-sufficient but in such a way it makes the audience question her morals and stability. She may therefore be susceptible to trouble and crime which makes her a perfect influence for my protagonist’s role. As for Jarvis, her character fits the social realist aspect of the film as her character is gritty and unedited which I like as it builds intimacy with the audience from the very beginning.

 

2. The male (who appears to be either a close friend/friend/possible ex-boyfriend. This is left ambiguous in order to keep the audience hooked and wanting to know more information.) His name will be shown on the phone as the contact the woman tries to call - Tom. He appears to be slightly older than the woman and seems well put-together, which suggests that the protagonist seeks comfort in his stability.

Sound

Frankie and I will be using tracks and sound bites from the film ‘Shifty’, as we have copyright permission to use this soundtrack.

Shifty is a social-realist drama/thriller, meaning that the style of the music fits perfectly with our opening.

Track one: 'Shifty'.
This song will play at the beginning of the opening as we see the protagonist outside in the street and will continue to play as she walks home. We like this track as it slowly sets up the scene.

Track two: soundbite.

This soundbite will play in the golden hour flashback. We like this track as it is calm and can be interpreted as nostalgic but not sentimental.

Track three: 'Tough Call'.

This song will play near the end of the opening, when the protagonist gets out her phone when she feels compelled to call the man from the flashback. We like this track as it is subtle; the audience will not be distracted from what is going on within the scene in order to concentrate on the music. However, this track builds tension and sounds very ominous and disconcerting, which is the mood we want to achieve. 

Locations

M.H.

1. We are planning to film the beginning of the opening on Camberwell Road by a junction, as this crossing will have the most street lamps and traffic which will give us the effect of a busy, all-purpose road. There is also a housing estate which we can include in the shot, building on the social realist concept.

• Potential opening spot - busy junction therefore lots of traffic, giving almost the feeling of a motorway

• A clip of film showing another potential spot - this one seems more appropriate as there is a bus stop which the protagonist will be able to sit. The shot will also be set up more nicely and symmetrically as the cars/traffic are driving past square on to the camera.

2. The second location is the road leading down to Jonah’s house. It is a small, intimate street which the protagonist would be able to walk down the centre of.

3. The third location is the cafe, which is seen in the first flashback.

• The first shot of the cafe will be the sign at night (as pictured.) This will then be matched with a daylight shot of the same image to begin the flashback.

4. The fourth location is Jonah’s house; the hallway and the kitchen will be seen.

• The close up shot of the lock (and key) after the cafe flashback

•  The grand mirror in the hallway which will be used for some shots to create confusion and a sense of enigma

•  Potential long shot of the whole hallway including the door

•  Potential shot with the banister - could provide interesting/unusual framing

• Another potential long shot - interesting curved architecture 

• Shot of the kitchen which is the POV of the protagonist as she walks in

• Quirky detailing if there is a pan / tracking / wide shot of the kitchen

•  The view  of the kitchen if a shot-reverse-shot is used

•  A shot of the knife rack in focal point of shot which triggers second flashback.

Style and Tone

Our film is going to be a social-realist style. Therefore, our atmosphere that we are attempting to create is one of harsh, gritty reality; there will be no glamorisation or dramatising of the issues that are being addressed in the film - i.e. dealing with the consequences of violence and loss.

We will do this by using a combination of diegetic and non-diegetic sound; some points will have a subtle soundtrack but there will be parts with the absence of a soundtrack with purely heightened diegetic sound in order for the reality to be brought to the forefront and focused on. This will build the intimacy and personal relationship between the audience and the characters.

We have been influenced by Fish Tank, a social realist film which follows the life of a teen girl. It bares to the audience the true relationships she has with her family, herself and the new people she meets in her life; nothing is glamourised, and this heightens the harsh verisimilitude. Frankie and I hope to achieve this tone with a combination of mis-en-scene to define the characters and their backgrounds, and a mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic sound to create both tension and a more intimate, empathetic relationship with the characters.

For example, we have taken inspiration from the way Mia has been filmed walking through streets; even though there is no dialogue, we are able to see her emotions through her body language and stride. This is important as social realism relies on techniques such as emotion and camerawork rather than CGI and expensive sets/locations. 

The scenes shot in the street will be very dark as we will rely on the light from cars, shops and street lamps, giving the scene a dark orange tinge.

       Shutter island has influenced our opening as we are going to include a flashback. The lighting is similar, as the present is dark and bleak, whereas the flashback will be set in the light with the sun throwing golden light over the ethereal scene. 

We also used the golden-hour scene from The Virgin Suicides as inspiration for our flashback.

Our original interest in strong colour semiotics will be included in the second flashback, inspired from We Need To Talk About Kevin. The colour red will also be hinted at in the house, as the walls of the kitchen will, too, be red. This will give the flashback a stylised tone, connoting blood, danger and death. 

Film Pitch and Narrative

Change of ideas after collaboration:

I have changed my ideas for my narrative since collaborating ideas with Frankie - the film is still going to be an urban crime thriller revolving around a murder investigation, but we decided it would be set in the present day as we felt this would be much more appropriate for the social realist aspect. Furthermore, we decided to not show a dead body in the opening and instead only hint at the murder which will leave the audience guessing but will also make film more creepy as less tends to be more. However, Frankie and I both had similar ideas to do with amnesia and memory loss, so the concept of the protagonist not being able to remember how she is involved in the murder is still the central plot line. We also chose to portray the male as a close friend / possible lover as this way the audience are able to form and invest a stronger relationship with him.

However, we both had strong ideas with colour and lighting - we wanted a scene in the golden hour (which we will use in the cafe flashback), and a scene with block colour (deep red will be used as a semiotic of danger and violence in the murder flashback).

Change of ideas after audience research:

1. As very few people liked the idea of having a romance within a thriller we decided to make it uncertain as to whether she is in a relationship with the man in the flashback or not.
2. In the survey, people seemed very interested in suspense, so we decided to end the opening with the sound of an answer machine and a sound bridge as a cliffhanger.
3. In our second flashback we want to make it very ambiguous and not have to rely on gore to make it dramatic, which was an aspect highlighted in our Vox Pops.

Final narrative: 

The opening wide shot will be from the side of a busy road at night - cars and traffic will be driving past, and the protagonist is seen on the other side of the road. The light will come from car head/tail lights, from buildings and lampposts. There will be a sound bridge in our ident into the opening shot of the heightened sound of the cars driving. There will be no non-diegetic sound in order to establish the social-realist genre.

We then follow her down the road to a house (it is unclear whether it is hers or her parents.) Her walking will be filmed from different angles and edited to be fast paced. There will be soundtrack in the scene here.

There is a cafe outside her house which triggers the first flashback of the golden hour with a man (it is ambiguous as to whether he is a close friend or a lover). There will be no diegetic sound here, only soundtrack. 

We are then brought back to the present with the protagonist entering the house - she walks in to the kitchen and brings out her phone to ring the man from the flashback (we will show this by the protagonist looking through her contact names and pausing at the man's). The diegetic sound will be heightened (e.g. keys jangling, the door opening/shutting, footsteps). As she brings out her phone, a new soundtrack begins, bringing an ominous sense of foreboding.

As the phone is ringing, her eyes notice one of the knives glinting on the rack, triggering the second flashback - the red, violent snapshot of potentially a murder but is kept too short and ambiguous to tell for sure.

The scene ends with the phone going to voicemail and a sound bridge of the answer machine beep onto the title frame of our film.

Certification

After researching the classification for both 12 and 15 rating films, I have decided that my film opening will be a 15. This is because there is depiction of an easily accessible weapon (a knife/blade) in the opening, and this will be shown in further length and detail throughout the film. Even though there will be no bad language in the opening, as the film unfolds and the tension begins to heighten it is very likely that strong language will be used to intensify emotions. Threat and violence are central themes of my film as it revolves around a crime - even in the opening, a suggestion of bloody violence is briefly seen.

Audience Research - voxpops

F.L. 

Frankie and I used structured interviews to obtain more qualitative, detailed responses from our target market. These voxpops have given us a more comprehensive insight in to what our audience is enticed by and interested in.

Audience Research - surveymonkey

M.H.

Film Questionaire 

Frankie and I sent out an online survey to our target market (15 - 25 year olds) in order to find out what aspects of film interests young, contemporary audiences.

Qu.3. What are your three favourite films, and why?

Qu.4. What is your least favourite film, and why?

Qu.6. What makes a good thriller film?