Below is our finished music video

My Outside Digipak Panels

My Outside Digipak Panels

My Inside Digipak Panels

My Inside Digipak Panels

Please click the image below to view our finished website

Monday 16 January 2017

R+P Post 10: Reflections so far/ looking ahead

As a whole, I believe our group worked well throughout the research and planning stage and in turn was able to produce a film opening idea which exceeds the initial expectations we had set ourselves. Furthermore, I believe everyone in the group was able to have their say during group meetings and overall allowed good group harmony.

R+P Post 9: Our opening sequence's soundtrack

The soundtrack that we decided to use in our film opening is 'Isle of the Dead' by Rachmaninoff. We choose this particular music track as we believe it was one of the most effective at building up suspense for the entire 2 minutes of the opening. Moreover, as 'Isle of the Dead' was produced in 1886 it allows us to use it due to the fact that it is too old to be copyrighted.



'The Shining' was an inspiration for us when choosing the soundtrack as it's music was also suspenseful. From this we came to the conclusion that a classical soundtrack was an effective and conventional feature of thriller films.

The sound effects we chose to include are:

  • a phone ringing
  • a long beep sound to signify news footage cutting out
  • TV static when camera cuts out
  • the introduction of BBC London news
"freesound.org" was the website we used to download and find our chosen sound effects

R+P Post 8: The credits in our opening sequence

When choosing the designs and placements of our titles we used three well known thriller/horror films for inspiration.

1) American Horror Story

Our titles will fade onto the screen in a way which makes them seem as if there is a technological failure. We believe that this will add to the tension in the sequence and keep up the eerie atmosphere created by the camerawork. This disturbing feel was also used by American Horror Story which is one of the most successful horror TV shows.

2) The Shining

Our titles will for the most part be super-imposed onto the screen and in turn take some of the audiences attention. The way in which they enter onto the screen is inspired by The Shining which enabled the titles to add to the tension of the sequence through a slow entrance whilst also making them clearly noticeable for the audience.


3) Don't Breathe

We decided to make all our titles white in order to contrast with the dark background and in turn help them stand out within the action even more. Don't Breathe was a great example of this in use.


The titles we plan to include throughout our film opening, in order from first to last:
  • Laith Lyster (actor)
  • Abigail Tegene (actress)
  • James Ramsden (actor)
  • Kodie Nmecha (actress)
  • Screenplay by: Sailesh Shah
  • Producer: Ray Baker
  • Executive Producer: Aisha Farah
  • Director: Hugh Teesdale
  • DISTURBANCES (Film name)

R+P Post 7: Our opening sequence's planned mis-en-scene

Our opening sequence's mise-en-scene will be split between dark, dreary and bright, modern. The purpose of this is to create a stark contrast between the setting in which the news anchor is placed, which seems safe and the setting in which the news reporter goes missing, seemingly haunted.

Camera:

In the beginning of the film opening we will make use of a variety of angled shots, tracking shots and OTS shots to follow the antagonist as he walks through the house and into a room. This will also allow us to express continuity while also building up the tension and suspense of what the antagonist is going to. Moreover, the camera will be strategically placed in each shot to ensure the identity of the antagonist remains a mystery as we believe this is an effective way of creating a sens of danger and fear around the character. In contrast to this, towards the end of the film opening we will incorporate a shaky hand-held camera to mimic a cameraman's actions; we also think this continuous POV shot will immerse the audience into the sequence and in turn make them feel fearful for themselves as well as the characters on screen. Below is an example of film which makes use of shaky hand held camera shots:


Lighting:

At the beginning of the film opening will use low key lighting as this will add to the mystery of the scene an in turn make the antagonist seem even more dangerous as it will help cover up more details of his figure. We will then use high key lighting for the news anchor as this will add familiarity of what the audience would expect to see. In addition to this it will make the news room seem almost 'heavenly' in comparison to the house of the antagonist and therefore make the audience even more wary and fearful of him. To end the opining, the forest scenes will have natural lighting as this will provide realism. 'The Dark Night' was a major inspiration for us when it came to indoor lighting with the antagonist as we thought that the low-key lighting placed on their antagonist, 'The Joker' made him even more menacing. 
The Joker, under low-key lighting, in 'The Dark Night'
Settings:
1) My house- Within my house we will use a staircase and room leading off of it. This will act as the antagonist house and to ensure the scene still looks eerie on camera we will creatively position the camera and adjust the lighting to a level that suits the scene.

The room in my house
2) School- We will use a media classroom in our school to film the news anchor scenes as it is convenient as well as having many props which we can use for the scene.

The classroom we plan to shoot in
3) Enfield Island Village Forest- This is where the news reporters scenes will be shot; this was inspired by 'The Blair Witch project' from 1999 as this setting is what made this thriller film iconic.

Enfield Island Village Forest
 'The Blair Witch project' forest setting







Props:

1) Microphone                                                                  2)Laptop






                           

    3)Phone                                                                           4)News Report Notes
                                                                  

R+P Post 6: Our opening sequence's characters and how we plan to represent social groups

In our film opening we only show 3 characters, our main antagonist (who's identity is not revealed till a later point) , a news anchor and a news reporter. However, later in the film the audience would be introduced to our female protagonist.

Protagonist:

Name- Rory Johnson
Gender- female
Ethnicity- Latina
Age- 18
Traits:

  • Analytical
  • Proactive, rather than reactive
  • Intelligent
  • Courageous
  • Studies Criminology at University
  • Middle Class
Moriarty from 'Sherlock' was our major inspiration for this character.
He is  cunning, manipulative and enjoys causing fear within society.

Antagonist:


Name- Damien Brooks
Gender- male
Ethnicity- white
Age- 19
Traits:

  • mysterious
  • cold-hearted
  • has physiological issues (feels isolated by society)
  • vengeful
  • OCD

News Anchor:

Name- Richard May
Gender- male
Ethnicity- white

This character is only prominent within the opening sequence to help introduce the overall plot. In turn, he will have little opportunity throughout the rest of the film to display any characteristics and in turn develop his character. Thus we decided that he must seem young and successful as this will provide some aspiration for audiences and at least give the character another dimension from which he can contribute to our film.

News reporter:

Name- Jean Smith
Gender- female
Ethnicity- Asian
Fatima Manji is a real life news reporter who is a part of the demograph we are trying to represent, thus she was a great inspiration for us when creating this character
This character will act as a representation of an ethnic minority group and in turn will fulfil the audience's needs of character diversity. Furthermore, due to the character being apart of the female demographic, she will also double up in helping meet a very common convention seen in horror/thriller films of being a 'damsel in distress'.

    R+P Post 5: Our opening sequence idea

    Beginning:

    The beginning of our opening sequence begins with our antagonist, whose identity is unknown, walking up the stairs in house and then entering his room. From this, he then opens a laptop from which a news feed begins to play. A full screen male news anchor will introduce the story of two teenagers going missing in a forest. After which, he will introduce a female news reporter who will be placed at the forest.
    Quarantine inspired our idea of how to incorporate a news channel into a thriller film

    Middle:

     A short question and answers session will follow in a split screen format, however, the reporter will not be able to finish as she will see something behind the cameraman which will make him pan around. After seeing nothing, the camera will pan back only to see that the reporter has disappeared and in the following seconds he will drop the camera and imply to the audience that he has also been kidnapped. Once the camera is on the floor two feet will walk past, just before the camera cuts out and footage is restored to a full screen of the news anchor apologising for what has just happened live.

    This scene from the 'Blair Witch Project' influenced our idea to have the cameraman fall after seeing something terrifying.

    Ending:

    The sequence will end with the antagonist picking up his phone and saying "it's done". Thus implying he is behind the disappearances in the forest. The screen will then fade to black where the title "DISTURBANCES" will appear.

    R+P Post 4: Our film's genre, title and plot outline

    Blair Witch Project(2016) was our main inspiration for our plot outline

    Genre: 

    Horror/thriller

    Title: 

    Disturbances

    Themes: 

    Last Girl, psychological issues

    Plot outline: 

    When making our plot outline we followed the three-part structure.

    Set-up:
    Two teenagers go missing in a forest but the reason for this is unknown. To cover the story a news reporter ventures to the scene and while giving her account live she and her cameraman are seemingly kidnapped, with the cause of this only hinted at with a mysterious figure passing in front of the cameras.

    Confrontation:
    From this point the forest is thought to be haunted and only a small group of university students, studying criminology, were actually brave enough to enter with an aim to use their new found skills to discover the cause of the disappearances.

    Resolution:
    Ultimately, only one girl out of the group, the film's protagonist, survives and in turn creates the 'Last Girl' theme.
    The script we plan to use for our film opening




    R+P Post 3: Our production and distribution institutions

    Production Company:

    Hammer Film Productions logo
    For our production company we chose Hammer Film Productions as we thought that this was the best option available which could matching all the traits we are looking for. In our film opening we would like to introduce an idea which could make a great horror/thriller film; we believe a production company which is responsible for iconic titles such as, Dracula, Frankenstein  and the Woman in Black would give us the best opportunity to do this and automatically give our film a reputation. Furthermore, Hammer Film Productions is a British company, in turn helping us still to British culture which will give an appeal to our targeted British audience.


    Distributor company:



    Warner Bros. logo
    We chose Warner Bros as our distributor as they are one of the most globally well-known production/distribution companies out there, as shown by there 2015 revenue being in the upwards of $12 billion  and having more that 20 films reach the $400,000,000 mark in global box office revenue. Moreover, this fully integrated has had three successful collaborations with our production company in the past, in turn providing our film with a good reputation to work. Finally, Warner bros is also globally known for its involvement in the distribution of previous hit thriller/horror films, such as The Shining and The Dark Knight.

    R+P Post 2: Our target audience and how we plan to attract/address them

    Primary Audience:

    The primary audience of our film are young adults, primarily in the age category of 15-24 year olds. This is mainly down to the fact that this is the age range who are most appealed to by thriller/horror films (as backed up by the following diagrams). Furthermore, the age of our characters will most probably be within this age range as well, henceforth making them more relatable to our target audience. The certification for our film will be '15' as we believe this will help appeal to our target audience who are in the 15-24 year old age range; they will also enjoy the content that makes this film a '15', such as violence and strong language. As well as this, some of the audience towards the lower end of the age range may actually be attracted to the film due to the fact that it's a '15', i.e. they think that makes the film cool.




    Gender:

    Both genders will have aspects of our film which appeal to them, however, we have decided that the film will be more skewed towards the male gender as they have proven to already form the majority of the core fan base for thriller/action films, such as The Dark Night and The Shining, as they enjoy the suspense and common conventions usually employed within this genre. An example of this in our film opening will be two people suddenly going missing on camera but the antagonist is not revealed; the tension on screen will create anxiety amongst the male audience as well as the thrill of watching an entertaining scene.

    Females will also be attracted to this film due to the 'last girl' theme which we will incorporate into the new equilibrium of our plot outline. We will do this by making one girl, out of the original group entering the forest, survive against all odds; this will fill the female audience with empowerment as it will give them a protagonist/hero to look up to/aspire to become.

    The purpose of our film appealing to both genders as it ensures we do not rule out half of our potential audience as this could severely reduce the films revenue, which is the primary target an action/thriller film. However, as data shows the male gender are more likely to watch the film as this genre is commonly more skewed towards them.


    R+P Post 1: How we intend to work as a group

    Me(left) and Aisha (right) writing the script
    My group consists of myself Sailesh and Aisha. In order to ensure that we are maximising our output during our sessions, we delegate our roles (as seen in the above pictures). This means everyone has had at least some input into every group decision whilst the work we are required to do in completed efficiently and to our high standards. Every week we have two group sessions where we meet for an hour at lunch; these are written into our planners to make sure everyone shows up on time , also giving us the best opportunity to plan a great film opening. I addition to this, we have a Facebook group chat which allows us to communicate our ideas easily to each other, as well as resolving any issues with the least hassle.