Production Schedule: Version 1

Sophie was also allocated the job of creating a production schedule as she is a very organized person. It was quite hard finding dates that all three of us were free on, however we have created a schedule that we are all happy with and that we think will work well.

24th of November - Deciding on exact costume of the girl choosing her exact clothes and make-up (stereotypical girl, wearing pink possibly heels as well)  

26th of November - Creating the 3 photos that the girl will hold in the "Auchan scene" (taking pictures with the girl and her friends, guy/stalker wearing black in all of them. 

28th of November - Starting the filming procedure in Auchan (doing as many shots as possible in the Auchan scene) + filming the scene in the parking lot.

1st + 2nd + 3rd of December - Editing in class - seeing if there are any shots missing 

5th + 7th + 8th of January - finishing the exact costume and mise-en-scene of the psychologist and the girl - creating a contrast/binary opposition of what she used to look like and what she looks like now (creating this contrast with the use of make-up and costume)

9th of January - filming in the psychologists room (finish it and get all the shots) 

12th + 14th + 15th of January - editing of the psychologists room scene (fitting everything together and create a smooth transition)  

Screenplay 1

Sophie was appointed the role of creating the script for our film opening. We decided on this because she created the script for our preliminary filming task and she performed very well on that. Below you can find the link to our first script.

http://www.slideshare.net/Sophie2401/script-for-insanit

Call Sheet 1

I created a table consisting of the frame, what was in it, and the mise-en-scene, which relates to the storyboard, I tried to make it as detailed as possible in order to make it more clear what was in each scene.

Frame	Shot and movement	Sound	Costume	Props
1	Establishing shot, = sense of location.	Very girly song, stereotype of teenage girls e.g. One Direction
2	Over the shoulder shot. Main character is in it, but can’t see her face. Follows the character as she walks forwards.	Non-diegetic music continues.
3	Long shot of character going up escalators. Camera is still.	Music continues.	The top half of her body can be seen, she is wearing a white dress. This represents her innocence.	She’s holding her phone, and has a black handbag
4	Rat’s eye view of her shoes on escalator. Camera is still.	Music continues, diegetic sound of escalators.	She is wearing black converse.
5	Over the shoulder of her using a photo printing machine. Camera is still.	Music continues. Sounds of her operating the machine.	Her nails are painted pink. This reflects her girly nature.	The printing machine is already there, in a shopping centre.
6	Close up of her hand, holding a photo. The camera cuts closer in on the photo, where a guy in the background can be seen.	Music continues.	There are 4 friends in the photo, linking arms, smiling, wearing dresses.  The person in the background is wearing black, and a balaclava.	Would need the dresses, also guy in background is holding binoculars.
7	Close up on her face. She looks nervous, eyes darting around. Camera is still.	As she pulls out her earphones, the happy music stops, and there is dead, eerie silence.		White earphones, classical and also emphasizes her innocence.
8	Long shot. She begins running.  Camera moves with her.	Very quiet, dramatic music begins, drums.	We see her costume in full, white dress and black converse.
9	Long shot, her walking through turning doors. Camera is still. She is going into the underground car park which is dark and dramatic. Low key lighting.	Dramatic music continues to build up, getting slightly louder and more insistent, building tension.
10	Character bends down, out of breath, looks up and looks around. The dark background looks intimidating.	Music gets much louder and more dramatic.
11	Cut to a medium close up of her face. A figure appears behind her, and pulls a sack over her head. A handheld camera is used to reflect her unsteady state of mind.	Music get the most dramatic and as the sack is pulled over her head it stops suddenly, loud and scary.	The character is flushed from running, which can be achieved through blush. She could also be sweating, from fear/ exertion, through some water on her forehead.
12	Black screen.	Voice of the character talking about her kidnapping, “It’s been 9 months.”
13	Long shot of character slumped in a chair. Looks upset. No camera movement. Opposite her is a psychiatrist, sitting straight in contrast.	They are talking about the character being kidnapped and tortured.	The main character is wearing grey joggers and a black hoodie.  She is wearing no makeup although a light foundation would be used to make her pale, and bags under her eyes – brown eyeshadow.	We would need the location of the psychiatrist room or a normal room that we could make look like one.
14	Over the shoulder shot,   Camera is still. Psychiatrist’s shoulder, main character can be seen.	Some very gentle but dramatic music in the background.  Diegetic sound of them speaking to each other.	Looks sad and upset, depressed.	Painting on the wall, modern art, geometric shapes.
15	Over the shoulder shot,   Camera is still. Main character’s shoulder. Psychiatrist can be seen.		Psychiatrist wearing long earrings and perhaps some glasses. Dressed in white = connotations of medical work/ contrast to main character.	There is binary opposition between these two characters, Psychiatrist look healthy and happy. Glasses and earrings = props.
16	Close up of main character’s face. No camera movement.	The music becomes more urgent and dramatic, the psychiatrist’s voice fades out/becomes distorted = reflection of her fear/discomfort.	Again, character is dressed in black dark grey= binary opposition to her formal self, innocent, wearing white and also to the psychiatrist.	Makeup/ face paint to make her look tired and upset.
17	Repeated flashbacks. Flashing between past and present. Close up of the girl tied up, very harsh, flashing lighting.	Uncomfortable high pitched noise, music is distorted and confusing=her mind set.	She is wearing a grey t-shirt. There is blood on it. She has a lot of cuts and bruises on her face, a black eye. Sweating a lot.	She has a gag around her mouth.
18	Long shot, main character stands up and sprints out of the room.	The music and high pitched noise have reached the peak.	She is wearing the same converse.
19	Extreme close up on the door handle.
20	Mid shot, door slams, title appears in a red font.

Audience Feedback 1: Creating Questionnaire

I created a questionnaire that we handed out to 20 different people, to establish if our target audience liked our idea and to get some good ideas for a title.

Here is a link to the questionnaire:

http://www.slideshare.net/Sophie2401/audience-feedback-questionnaire-58756636

  

Film Opening Analysis 6: Texas Chainsaw Massacre

In order to get a better idea of the horror/slasher genre conventions, we decided to each pick a film opening to analyse. I picked the film Texas Chainsaw Massacre as I think the mise-en-scene in the film is a very good example and something that we could take inspiration from.

Evaluation Question 1

This is an film/image that inspired us for the basement scene. Although we have put our own twist on the scene, the idea of having a small, creepy room with low key lighting, and a wooden chair inspired us.

This image is from the film Texas chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974)

another image is this one from Creature (2011)

although she is more of a scream queen character,

Self-Distribution

Self-Distribution  is when a filmmaker distributes the film their selves rather than getting a different company to do it. This option is only really popular amongst Indie and lower budget films, also it allows more creative license with the advertising etc.


"The beauty of self-distribution is that you cut out the middleman - the much loathed and feared distributor. These days it doesn't mean that you have to do all the work yourself. You can hire publicists, theatre bookers and so on. But it does mean that you have to do more work." -Raindance



An example of a self-distributed film is Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter (Lee Demarbre, 2002, estimated budget of 100,000 CAD)

 

Practice Shoot 1 TBC

We got together and filmed most of the interior scenes.
Jon then edited them together for a rough cut. This gave us a good idea of what needs to be changed/added and if any of the scenes need to be re-shot.

(set in video of practice shoot) 

I think that the scenes we shot are quite effective and the variety in camera angles and positions works well. The shot that I think is particularly effective is the last one where a shadow of my hand can be seen and the red nail polish spills onto the surface. The way that we used the shadow to show my hand I think works really well and it is also a good use of foreshadowing, and a good place to insert a flash forward.

We also discussed the things that didn't go quite as well. At the moment, the editing is too fast paced. However this can be fixed by trimming the clips less, so having them shown for a longer amount of time. The establishing shot of the house at the beginning lasts for too long.
Also in the low angle shot where I am holding my hand above the camera, we did a focus pull from my face to my hand and this is barely seen as the shot is too short. We could perhaps choose a different shot of me looking into the cupboard and taking out the nail polish as we filmed this multiple times so there is possibly one of those that we could choose that would work better.

SR: Choosing the name for our "Final Girl"

One of the first slasher movies, is called Psycho from 1960. In this movie, Janet Leigh played the stereotype "final girl" as the character Marion Crane.
In the movie Scream from 1996, Drew Barrymore, who's character was called Casey played the stereotype of the "Scream Queen".

In most horror movies, the Scream Queen is portrayed as sexually active, blond, unintelligent and someone who is always going to make bad decisions.
Scary movie, managed to break this stereotype down in a very good way. The character Drew Decker, played by Carmen Electra is running away and can decide whether to run towards death or safety. A final girl, who is portrayed as smart and resourceful would run towards safety. However, a scream queen, like the one in this movie, runs towards death, because she is portrayed as dumb blonde.

A scream queen, usually ends up being killed, whereas the final girl always survives. However, in our movie, we are counter typing and our character is therefore the final girl, who ends up getting killed.
Because we are counter typing the main character, played by Bronwen, we decided to choose a name that is linked to the slasher/horror genre and links to the two movies, Psycho and Scream. We therefore took the first name from Scream, Casey, and the last name from the movie Psycho, Crane.
Our character's name is therefore Casey Crane.

Distribution: What is a Wide Release?

Wide release is when a film has been shown in a large range or number of cinemas across a country. This a really important factor as if the film is going to be a big hit, it would need to have wide distribution.

Below are the box office results for the 29th of January to the 1st of February 2016 In America.

As you can see films such as Kung Fu Panda 3 were shown in 3,955 different cinemas. These films had a large Theatrical Distribution, which is key in the success of the film.

 

The Gant rule suggests that if a film is a hit in Britain, it will make 10x more money in America, and be shown on 10x more screens.

The Revenant has grossed around £12m in Britain and $140m in America so you can see that this rule is pretty accurate.

To make a lot of money, it's really important to make the film appeal to/ be popular in America.

...