Preparation for shooting

Due to illness within our group we have been given an extension on our filming which will allow us to film over easter. Our plan is to shoot at a beach, a restaurant and at Emily's house.

 We are going to film at the restaurant first as this is our first scene and is close by. For the restaurant scene we just need Jenny (main character) to wear a waitress outfit, this will include a white shirt, black pencil skirt and black shoes. Jenny and Sophie will be supplying this. We will also need Emily's cousin  Sam to be in the film as he will be playing Jenny's boss.

We will next film at Emilys house, here we will use the bathroom. We have chosen Emily's bathroom as it has a white background which will contrast with the red we will be using. For this scene we will need a white shirt, fake blood, red eye contacts and make-up. The fake blood, white shirt and eye contacts will be supplied by Jenny and the makeup will be supplied by Sophie.

For the main scenes, we will be travelling up to Thorpeness, Suffolk and will be filming on the beach. For this, we will need red eye contacts, fake blood, white shirt and vest. From conducting a risk assesment, we have learnt we also need to take protective shoes, warm layers and towels to prevent hypothermia. Jenny will supply the red eye contacts, fake blood, white shirt and vest and we will all bring our own shoes, warm layers and towels. Whilst at the beach, we will also be using a sculpture we know is placed on the beach to create a scene with our victims arm coming out of it. For this, we will need Emily's arm and the make up included in the previous post "Practice for Scar Make Up".

Character Profiles

Name: Rachel Hunter
Age: 20

Occupation: Waitress
Family: No close relatives known, in and out of care homes
History: Abandoned by mother as a child
Known Facts: n/a
Hates: Justin Bieber
 





Name: Unknown

Age: Unknown

Occupation: Unknown

Family: Unkown

History: Tortured and murdered innocent women

Known Facts: Witnesses quote red eyes, pale complexion

Hates: Physical Contact

Risk Assesment

Practice for scar make-up

In our thriller we wanted to show that someone had been killed without showing their face this is because it adds to the mystery of the film and can later be explained. In the end we decided on making a scar for an arm which can be sticking out to hint at the dead body that is hidden.

We did a practice one to see how effective it would look with the tools we had. The items we used were:

-Fake blood

-Flour

-Eyeshadow (brown for the wound and purples, reds and yellows for the bruise)

-Vaseline

-Brushes

Overall we think that it looked very realistic and will be recreating this for filming. One thing we need to think about with this is continuity as it needs to look the same throughout.

Promotional Photo Comparisons

 This promotional photo from the Ju-on: The Grudge 2 could be viewed as similar to one of ours. The way in which the hands are placed in both images makes the audience think the characters are almost creeping around. In both images, the eyes are staring right into the camera although a difference being in the Ju-on image the expression is scared and confused where as in ours it has more of a sinister feel. Both images incorporate the use of blood which is stereotypically used in thrillers letting the audience know it is infact a thriller. They both have a underlining gothic theme that hints further to the fact these films are thrillers.

This promotional poster from The Dark Knight has many similar attributes to the promotional image of ours shown above. The way in which the images are blurred into black around the edges of the faces in both images adds mystery to the images and it is as if the person in the picture is coming out of a hidden place. Both faces have heavy eye make up making the eyes the focus point of the faces.  



Analysis of Potential Poster

Our first potential poster follows the main thriller colours white, red, black and grey. The text is mainly in white to stand out against the black background and then certain words are in red to stand out further and hints the importance.

For example, the use of red here emphasises the word danger, as red is seen as a colour that symbolises danger.  The choice of text here is hinting at the fact the danger is infact the main character herself. It enables the audience to conjure up their own rhetorical questions and makes them want to find out what it is implying, in turn making them want to see the film.

The choice to have the picture in a night vision effect hints that there is darkness and secrets within the film. Although it is not as clear as if would have been in colour, the use of the red contacts is still affective as it gives the eyes an unnatural tint. The use of the faded edges also adds to the effect that there are hidden twists within the film. The dark smudged make up around the eyes add a dishevelled look to the character showing she is insane, this is emphasised further in the slight squint in the eyes. The fact that one eye is slightly more squinted than the other hints to the storyline of the character having to sides to her personality. Having the picture central of the poster, makes the poster more eye-catching, attracting more of an audience.

The choice of text works well with the rest of the poster, as with the picture, it does not give away too much but is still stern enough to attract attention.
Overall, I think our first potential poster is effective enough to attract audience and engage them enough to want to see the film. It is not exactly as we had first planned, but still think it works just as well as the first plan and was a little easier to achieve.

Possible Poster Idea

Promotional Photos

Makeup in our film

In our actual thriller, we are choosing to take makeup inspiration from Disney villains. Even though our target audience is older now and are no longer frightened by these characters, dramatising and adding a more realistic edge to their looks will build on a fear they had when they were very young. Furthering this idea, the cosmetics company MAC have brought out a makeup range dedicated to Disney Villains, so we will also analyse this with regard to the look we'd like in our film.

MAC Vemomous Villains

The Venemous Villains collection from MAC focuses on 4 villains who have featured in Disney cartoons throughout the years. These include The Evil Queen from Snow White (1937), Malificent from Sleeping Beauty (1959), Cruella De Vil from One Hundred And One Dalmatians (1961), and Dr Facilier from The Princess and the Frog (2009).



These Lipsticks are from the Evil Queen collection. Both are based on the colour red although one is bright and the other more of a burgundy. Red would be a good choice for lipstick for the main character in our film as there are so many different shades which give off different impressions. The Colour red also has connotations with danger, so when the audience sees the lipstick they will associate it with evil, either conciously or subconciously.

 The two 'Dr Facilier' eyeliners on the left are very dark, and would be useful to create a creepy 'tired' look. Inspiration for this would be The Joker from batman. The dark rings around his eyes have become a trademark since their appearance in The Dark Knight. If we did use this idea it would obviously be a more toned-down version, perhaps the main character could have mascara and eyeliner smudged round her eyes when she's in the bath.  

The black eyeshadow in the middle of this photo is from the Cruella De Vil section of the makeup collection. Black eyeshadow is incredibly versatile when creating a 'stage makeup' look. Coupled with purples, blues and yellows it can be used to create very convincing bruises on the skin. It can also obviously be used on the eyelids and under the eyes, this creates a look similar to the eyeliner above, and using them together will intensify the look further.

Lipgloss is really useful when trying to create the illusuion of tears, i know from experience that when taking photos it looks particularly realistic. Although the two 'Maleficent' lipglosses are a bit dark for use that way, lighter or clear gloss would be ideal around the eyes and nose for creating faux tears for a film.

Possible font choices for titles and poster

The font can be important in giving the effect of the film as it sometimes sets the tone of what is to come. Our film is a physcological thriller called Dissension so we wanted something that isnt tacky and looks quite classic.

We decided to try different fonts to be used in the poster and for the titles, This would be so people could recognise our font as something that relates with our film.
When we went through the fonts it was between Stencil and Reprise Title. Eventually we decided on Reprise title which is a stamp style font which looks quite bold and hints at the type of thriller it is.

Storyboard

Questionnaire Responses.

We asked 20 people between the ages of 15 and 30 to complete our questionnaire. Our target audience is 15-20, however we wanted to get a range of answers. When asking our applicants what their favourite type of thriller is, the majority the over 25's chose conspiracy. Whereas most applicants under the age of 25 chose psychological. As this is our target audience, this is our first choice of genre. We then went on to ask if they expect to see violence in a thriller, they all answered yes, so we have decided to include this when thinking about our thriller.
Next we asked what kind of characters they expect to see in a thriller. All 20 applicants said they would expect to see protagonistic and antagonistic characters and 5 mentioned having a woman in distress who is rescued by the protangonistic. We took this into account, however we decided to contrast the norms of a thriller by having the woman as the antagonist.
The next question we asked was whether the poster of a thriller influences their choice to watch it or not.  17/20 of the people answering the questionnaires agreed that if a poster was not sufficient they would not go see the thriller. Because of this, we will take the time to come up with an effective poster so that people will want to watch our thriller.
We then asked what they think makes an effective poster and the majority agreed a simple, shocking image makes the most effective poster. A couple used the example of the Black Knight poster, so we will use this as an influence when deciding on our poster desgin.
We then asked them to think about what would make a good setting for a thriller. We recieved a vary of answers to this question. About 10 people mentioned using an abandoned or rural place where as others suggested a place like a city as people can relate to it. We took all this into consideration, and think we will choose a setting in which the audience can relate to so that it seem more real and shocking for them.
The last question we asked was what film rating they expect a thriller to be. 15 out of 20 agreed on a 15, 2 agreed 12 and 3 agreed 18. From this, we have decided to create a 15.
Overall, by getting people to complete our questionnaire, it has helped us understand what our target audience looks for in a thriller and what we need to include to create the best project possible.

Film title

As our thriller is about someone with a split personality we wanted to show this within the title but not make it too obvious. We also decided to do a one word title as from the research on top thriller titles, the one worded ones stood out the most.
When brainstorming ideas for our thriller we just thought of words that we would associate with it as a starting point.
Split
Break
Crack
Riven
From this we went on to look at synonyms of the words. We went through a few until we decided on Dissension.Dissension means a disagreement among those expected to cooperate. We thought this fit well as inside the main characters head she has conflict with herself. But like Inception the title leaves the audience guessing and doesnt explain the title until watching the film.

Poster influences

When marketing our film we need to think about the poster that will advertise the film.As we want something eye-catching and a poster which relates to our film.
The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight released different posters of Batman and the Joker to raise interest in the film before it is released. The Joker images in particular have stuck in peoples minds. The poster on the left shows the Joker holding up one of his Joker cards so it is the main focus. This represents the importance of the cards in the film. However it doesnt give anything away.
The Joker behind the card has a very menacing look and this is added to by the costume and use of make-up. The gloves he is wearing have connotations that he doesnt leave any fingerprints, which implies that he can never be traced. The make-up adds to this as it is covering his face. It is also quite scary and menacing with the dark eyes and blood red lips. This can be seen as a sign of danger.

The lighting in the poster is also very important as it is focused only on the main parts. The effect of it fading into the darkness is one i think we could use as it shows that this is a thriller.
The Black Swan
For our poster our idea is to just focus on Jennys face so the Black Swan poster is a good one to refer to when positioning and capturing the picture.
One thing from the poster we are going to be taking influence from is the use of contact lenses. We think that his would give it a more scary effect as she wont look ordinary, which is part of our aim for the poster.
The image itself is quite simple and people remember it becayse of that. The colours in it as well adhere to the conventions on thriller colours.

Make-up plan for poster

For our thriller Jenny is playing the part of a normal person who has a split personality, we wanted to show this by the main focus of the poster being a picture of her face close-up and the split down the middle shows both her personalities.

Left side:
The main focus of this side is her eye to make her look something out of the ordinary we are going to use a lot of smudged black make-up to give the effect that shes not in control of whats going on. This will be added too with the use of zombie-like contact lenses to further show the audience that she isnt herself.
From our poster analysis lesson we found out about the main thriller colours; white, red and grey. So we have decided to do the lips red as it has connotations of danger. This will also be smudged to add to the overall effect.

Right side:

For the right side of the face we want Jenny to look completely normal, so for this we will just use basic make-up. Mascara, natural blusher and natural lips.

Possible Film Titles

On the left is a screen shot of the top ten thriller films according to the Internet Movie Database.

I will analyse a few of these film titles, as looking at them will be helpful when we come to choose an effective title for our own thriller.

Pulp Fiction ( 1994)

The term 'Pulp Fiction' derives from the paper (pulp) magazines of the 19th century, which showcased stories mostly about people struggling with dark and powerful forces beyond their control. By the early 20th century, Pulp Fiction had launched a new genre of fantasy movies, with compelling alternative of parallel realities.

At the start of the film Pulp Fiction, this definition is shown on the screen: “pulp:” 1 – A soft, moist, shapeless mass of matter; 2 – A magazine or book containing lurid subject matter and being characteristically printed on rough, unfinished paper.
When Quentin Tarantino named his film he was implying that the story was a piece of pulp fiction, and should not be taken too seriously.

Inception (2010)

"inception" - an event that is a beginning; a first part or stage of subsequent events.
The whole story of the film Inception is about where ideas come from, and the name relates to this. For instance, the main storyline is about entering people's subconcious minds to extract ideas. Two of the main characters are asked to perform an 'Inception'; planting an idea in somebody's mind.

The meaning of the film (in particular right at the end when the audience doesn't know whether the spinning top falls over or not) is that life is a dream. You can control it most of the time but you can never really 'wake up'. I think the title is very appropriate for the film as a lot of the audience will not know the meaning of the word 'inception' (like me) and this will entice them into going to the cinema to find out. The film raises questions in the audience's mind right from the off, which is a good technique to use when marketing a film.

The Dark Knight(2008)

"The Dark Knight" - a common nickname for the DC comics superhero Batman.

The Dark Knight is the second Batman film directed by Christopher Nolan. Rather than follow in suit of other sequels (Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets, etc.) and use the word 'Batman' in every film title, Nolan instead chose to go in a different when choosing the name. Using 'The Dark Knight' was a good move by Nolan as fans of the comics were mostly the only ones who knew Batman by this name, so the fans will have felt that the film's producer's were thinking of them when making the film.

Initial Ideas

Props

These are the props that we are planning to use. The first prop we thought about was the waitress uniform. We wanted to create a uniform that the audience would recognise and relate to the character through. By using a mix of black and white it portrays that this characters has two sides to her, a light and a dark, a good and a bad side. We then thought about the car this character would drive. We chose a small, middle value car so that the audience could relate to her situatuon and it also is a believable car for a waitress to be able to afford. In one scene, we will be using a bed in which our antagonist will be seen waking up in. By doing this, the audience will again relate to this simple action, making it feel more believable to them. As our piece includes a murder, it was important to think of what weapon to use. We decided on a knife as we did not think a gun would be a believable weapon for our antagonist to use. We are are planning on using a lot of fake blood to emphasise the thriller factor of our peice and so show the violence. It will also hopefully make the audience feel uncomfortable and unnerved.

Another important prop within our play is the use of red contact lenses. We will use them to show the switch of personality within our main character. We decided on red as it hints danger and will make it obvious to the audience this character is not to be trusted.

Location

 For our opening we decided to use a beach as our main location of the thriller. It will be used when we film the antogonist washing the blood off of themselves. The idea was inspired by Cape fear by using the idea of the waves at the start as the audience doesnt know what is underneath. We also thought that it would be a good setting as the audience can relate to a beach and the area itself is quite eerie and secluded.
The beach itself is in Aldbrough in Suffolk as we wanted a quiet beach so that we wouldnt be interuppted while filming.

Some things we need to think about while filming here are the lighting, the weather and also the tide.

We also need to get confirmation on the restaurant we will be filming in as we would need it when it is quiet as we dont want to disrupt the restaurants customers.