Sample script

This is an example of the dialogue that we will have in our opening between the men.

Sample 1

Man 1

Have you got the address?
Man 2

(pause) Got it. Let's go.

Sample 2

Man 1

We've only got 24 hours. She signed out at 22:20.

Man 2

Did you tell her we're coming?

Man 1

She knows. I'm her fucking agony aunt.

Both

(laugh)

To Do List

This is just a list for myself so I can check off things that I have done (delete them from my list). This list will be deleted once I've done everything..

- development of a group treatment
- feedback on the treatment from other media students and teachers
- final revisions of the idea, creation of final agreed treatment

Stage 1 evidence for group blog: research targets and findings, comments on individual treatments, group treatment, notes from meetings, summary of feedback

Stage 1 evidence for individual blogs: own ideas and treatments, own reflections on this stage

For a successful test shoot, you will need to work on the following
- A plan of action, including targets, times and meeting point
- A list of WHAT you plan to test out: shots and sequences, lighting, location, actors, props, costumes
- anything practical that should be thought through and tested out in advance
- An agreement of who is responsible for what
- Comments and reflections on the day

You will also need to meet with Miss B and Mr Deans for your equipment to be released to you. This takes about 20 minutes, and can be done in a lesson. For this, you will each need to print an EQUIPMENT RELEASE FORM (see production paperwork linked to this blog)

Evidence for group blog: action plan, lists, uploaded test video clips, photos to document the day, group comments and reflections

Evidence for individual blog: your own reflections on the day, list of what you actually did, and what you still intend to do.

Evaluation of your own contributions so far.

The Treatment

The suicide website idea:

I know that we have to do a final treatment, and one each, so since I thought up the initial idea of the suicide website one (I'm not really twisted, honest!) I'm going to do a treament for it..


1. The action: identify the event your idea is based around; what actually happens (discovery of a body, an illicit meeting, a witness seeing a crime being committed, a criminal act taking place, a telephone call, a chase, a short journey etc)?
A criminal act is taking place, and it is not a one-off. Two men have set up a suicide help website/forum where they befriend vulnerable girls, gain their trust, and then rape and kill them, making it look like suicide. They do this because they have been treated badly by women all their lives (mothers, sisters, girls in general). They decide to try a challenge because it has become too easy. They target the daughter of the chief detective investigating their most recent murder (which is the murder that the opening sequence is working towards). In the rest of the film, they are trying to get the girl, but she is wiser than the others have been. They get her onto the website by leaving little messages in her locker and home, cryptically telling her to go onto the website, so she goes on it "out of her own choice". She is unhappy because her mother just died of cancer, and so they talk to her through the forum. Eventually they get round to her house once her dad is out of the house (at another murder they committed to draw attention away from the detective's daughter). The daughter knows they will kill her because she has figured it all out, but her dad won't believe her because she has been acting differently since her mother passed away, more paranoid, so he thinks its just her being silly. When the two men force her to write a suicide note, she spells things wrong so that the mistakes spell out a cryptic message telling her father the truth of what happened.


2. The theme(s): what should it make the audience think about or feel, what ‘issues’ will it raise (revenge, sexuality, voyeurism, stalking, obsession, greed etc)
There is definitely revenge against the female race, and the issue of sexuality and violation, as well as paedophilia, suicide, rape and murder. It addresses a lot of issues, and could also show people the importance of internet safety, and not giving strangers your home address, no matter how long you've "known" them. The audience should feel frightened and paranoid the next time they go on a forum about serious issues. We don't want the audience to boycott forums, but to be cautious of who they could be talking to.


3. The narrative: how is it structured - classic narrative pattern or break with convention, real time or different time zones, flashbacks/forwards, dreams etc. Will there be dialogue? What about diegetic/ non-diegetic sound?
We won't give everything away. I think a nice idea would be to show part of a scene, then later on from a different point of view, and with the previous part of the scene before it, we show that again. I think this effect is really clever and it is used in certain films such as The Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind and was used in a Desperate Housewives episode recently where they showed four short clips of major events that didn't really make sense, and in the rest of the episode they showed how and why these things happened and how they related to each other. There will be dialogue, in the opening scene and during the film, but I would like to use a lot of silence too. I think this creates a creepy atmosphere as well as the soundtrack. I will be using lots of diegetic sound, such as footsteps, a printer, typing, however the printer won't actually be printing in the shot because we can't connect it in the cellar, so we will record the sound before, and add it in when editing. The only non-diegetic sound will be the soundtrack, the rest will be naturalistic to make the film believable. It will skip forward at some points, (ellipses) because we don't want the audience to see everything, and we will flash back at some points to give more information to the audience, and make them try and work out things.


4. The character(s): who are they, identify their roles, what are their characteristics, including gender, appearance etc?
There is the victim girl in the beginning, who has a small part. She is pretty, vulnerable, and temperamentally suicidal. Her role is to show what the men have been getting up to, and to provide the trigger for the detective to enter the film, with his daughter on the scene because she has the day off school.

There is the detective who has recently lost is wife to cancer, leaving behind a teenage daughter, just when she needs her mother the most. His work is stressful and all-encompassing and he feels he is slightly neglecting his daughter as his mind is always on investigations. He is cynical and stubborn, and when he has a hunch about something, he sticks to it, no matter what the evidence may say. He is considered a very good detective, however some people question his methods.

The detective's daughter is also pretty, and vulnerable since she has just lost her mother. One of her best friends has just emigrated to Australia, and she feels alone in the world. She gets lured into the forum, and the two men appear to help her (even though she thinks they are agony aunts). After snooping in her father's folders, and looking at the recent suicides that have been registered with the police, she connects them and realises that it doesn't make sense, and that maybe these suicides were in fact murders. She then starts to question everything, and realises the person she has been talking to is not a woman, but the two men. Her father doesn't believe her. She spends the film trying to gain evidence, to avoid being caught by them, and trying to convince her father. Her role is a massive one, as she is their target yet seems unattainable.

The two men are both creepy and twisted (obviously - according to their behaviour) but they are both fairly normal looking. They were bullied by girls when they were younger, and are fed up of women dominating them. They will either wear suits, or casual clothes, I haven't decided yet. Their role is the villains, and the audience should be afraid of them. Later in the film we have flashbacks of their childhoods, so that towards the end of the film, we slightly pity them as well as fearing them.

Those are the main characters, with a few disposable ones such as other investigators and extras, maybe a weapon seller or something.

5. The setting and choice of location: where is it set?
It is set in London, which means that the style is more grimy and naturalistic, unlike Hollywood. A lot of the film will take place in my cellar, (their den) which will be a bungalow type place (which I have on my road). Some of the action is in the girl's bedroom, such as the conversation between her and the men, and the investigation after her death. The film is all set in London in the present time, but the actual locations for scenes vary, mostly indoors, but sometimes outside to show them plotting, or stalking her.


6. The mise-en-scene: identify colours, lighting, dress codes, the overall visual look
It will be a contrast of pink and black. This could potentially be the theme colours although we haven't discussed that yet. The lighting will vary according to the character and location; for example, the victim girl will have high key lighting, but in a naturalistic way, whereas the men will have low-key lighting to make them look sinister, evil and scary. The girl will wear either jeans and a girly top, or a skirt and a plain top, so that she looks attractive yet modest. The men will either wear suits or casual wear in dark colours such as navy, grey, khaki and black, so that they look ominous. The casual look may be better than suits because we want this film to be classically British (with influence from Guy Ritchie's films such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. The overall visual look will be very real and almost grimy (in their den). We want to get away from Hollywood, and make a real horror film that uses clever filming and plotlines to make it scary as opposed to special effects.


7. The camera work: the style you are aiming for
We want quite an edgy style, which may involve some hand-held/steadicam shots as these make the scene look less staged. We will try and vary our shots to make them interesting, such as different angles, arcing, and point-of-view shots. We want our sequence to make sense, but not to be boring and normal.


8. The editing: edited as a continuous sequence, use of cross cutting, use of montage, or combination?
We will use cross-cutting for our opening, with some continuous sequences intertwined. If the rest of the film were to be made, I would want to have some flashbacks that make a kind of montage so that the audience are given more clues and can try and work out what is happening. I like films that make you think, which is why our film will be horror/thriller. We have some continous sequences so that we can show off our continuity skills, such as when the men are talking to each other and getting ready to leave their den.


9. Has your idea been ‘tested’ against the key criteria (the 8 questions)?
Yes it has, I did the testing and it passed all of the questions, which I am happy to hear. If not, I would've had to change ideas or modify it, but thankfully our idea is very doable and should be impressive by the time we've finished with it.


10. Group responses?
Our group really like this idea, and have chosen to go ahead with it. We did like the drug idea too but this one seemed more original and challenging.


11. Teacher responses?
Our teacher liked this idea (despite it being quite disgusting and twisted) and I've asked other people for feedback and they all say it sounds really good, but very twisted (which is what we were going for). I am very pleased with this idea and I think it would make a great film.

Research into similar genres

Again, I had put this on the group blog, so refer to that if there is any stuff you want to see, (look for the "Laura" label..) We watched a few openings, but it was hard to find the actual openings that weren't remakes by random people. We looked at films with suicide as a theme, and there were only about 20 or so.
This is a list of "films about suicide" according to Wikipedia.

• 2:37
• The Bridge (2006 film)
• Dead Man on Campus
• The Happening (2008 film)
• Harold and Maude
• Hatter's Castle (film)
• Heathers
• The Kovak Box
• Last Days (film)
• Leaving Las Vegas
• Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
• On the Beach (1959 film)
• Psychomania
• Rails & Ties
• The Sea Inside
• Suicide Club (film)
• Taste of Cherry
• The Chumscrubber
• Der Todesking
• The Virgin Suicides (film)

We chose three of these to watch clips from (the openings) and we looked at the trailers to get an idea of the feel of the film. Surprisingly the ones we watched didn't have a very sinister air about them in the opening.. (this is all on the group blog)

The 8 Key Questions

I had posted this on the group blog, but then I realised that I needed some evidence on my individual blog, so I thought I'd put it here aswell :-)


Even though we have chosen an idea to go ahead with, and got teacher feedback, I thought I'd answer the 8 key questions just to check.

1. Is it practical?
Yes, the sequence we want to film only involves two locations - a den (my cellar) and a girl's bedroom (my bedroom). Both of which I have permission to use. We don't need much movement or dialogue, so it won't be too complicated, meaning we can focus on the camera work.

2. Is it an idea that works to the strengths of the group?
Yes, we are all good at acting, filming and editing and are very creative. We haven't done the screen tests of us yet, so we don't know who will be playing the role of the girl, but whoever we choose will be great. I think we all know someone (a friend, or a friend of a friend of a friend) who has been affected by/thought about suicide, so we will handle the subject delicately.

3. Will it show off the skills you have learnt so far on the course?
Our sequence will include some continuity sequences (such as when the two men are talking to each other) and some cross-cutting (between the girl and the men), so this will allow us to show off the skills we've learnt. The preliminary exercise helped with understanding continuity, so I feel much more confidant about it now.

4. Is it something you can reasonably shoot and edit in the time available?
Yes definitely. As both of our locations are at my house, it makes it easier and quicker than if we used many different locations. Also, Holly lives near me, which makes travel easier. Amelia could always stay round one of our houses if we were doing a massive shoot one weekend. As the sequence is fairly simple, hopefully it shouldn't take too long to film, however we are not going to be stingey when it comes to footage; you can never have too much, so we will keep the camera rolling for a bit longer than necessary.

5. Can you get access/ permission to shoot in the chosen location at the chosen times?
As I mentionned before, I already have permission to shoot in those locations, and as they are in my house, I have easy access. The only major thing we will need to do concerning locations is to clear the cellar of my mum's art materials, or at least clear the area in which we wish to film in.

6. Can you organise lighting to use in that location?
Yes, there are plug sockets in both my room and the cellar, so we can use the big lighting if we need it, however we probably won't want it to be very bright, so we can use one of the many spotlight lamp things that I have around my house.

7. Have you included dialogue? If so, will it work to shoot conversation in that location?
Yes we have, although we haven't finalised what they are going to say, we have only devised a few samples for our screen test. Conversation will be fine to shoot in the locations, and as some of our conversation is through the "forum" we will film the screen (which we need to test that it looks ok on film).

8. Do you have guaranteed high quality reliable actors to play the characters?
Yes, as they are us and our dads, there is definite reliability and enthusiasm.

So, our idea seems to have passed the test.. YAY!

Chosen idea

We chose the first idea, but decided against the title "The Aunties" because it connoted old women and bingo, whereas when we thought of it it seemed cleverly ironic because the "agony aunts" were infact murderous men. But since people wouldn't know the story before they watched it, it wouldn't work.

We were all pretty happy with this idea, and could think of many different storylines that the rest of the film could take.

Group meetings

Well, we've had a few group meetings now, I just forgot to document them on my blog...
We've made quite a bit of progress so far :-)

First of all, we talked about genre, and we all wanted to do horror/thriller (which was lucky!)

Then we each came up with an idea.

Our three initial ideas were:
- A group of men set up a suicide forum/website in which they befriend vulnerable girls, then rape and kill them, making it look like suicide. They appear like agony aunts, but really are getting their revenge on the female race because they have always been treated badly by women. The posts on the forum/website are evidence that the girls committed suicide, so the men keep getting away with it.
- Two people (most likely men) are packaging up cocaine, wrapping it in children's wrapping paper to make it appear innocent, and they have added poison to one of the packages. They all have labels on, but we don't know which person will be poisoned. The rest of the film shows those 2/3 characters, all the while with the anticipation of one of them dying.
- A man who's father was a Nazi is seeking revenge against Hitler's ideal race; Aryans. He murders every person with blonde hair and blue eyes that he can find. His father being a Nazi ruined his life, so he wants to get revenge.

It seems that all of these ideas are about revenge! Hmmm...