WEBSITE IDEAS- BLACK SWAN

1. The navigation of the site looks simplistic yet due to the house colours of a traditional white and black match, the site looks quite effective and matches to the element of its genre of a psychological thriller. The navigation system is laid out as the main image on the homepage is which makes the page look 3D and adds more of a special element as to making it stand out in appearance.

2. The changing comments made by critics of the film looks really interesting and catches the eye because it is the only thing on the homepage that 'moves' by itself. This has a double job, as well as looking effective it also informs the browser of the success of the film and is not giving anything away to the viewer if they have not yet watched the film.

3. The main links to the main social networking sites 'Facebook' and 'Twitter' are the best links to have personally because they are the most frequented social networking sites and people will have access to the pages if they have accounts which will gain the film more popularity.

4. The reflecting image of Natalie Portman looks truly amazing and this would be an ideal type of thing to create for our own website. The simplicity of it again makes it even more emotion provoking and the facial expression on the protagonist's face encapsulates the whole theme of the psychological thriller. Because it looks like she is looking into a mirror and sees a lot of reflections of herself, this leaves the homepage open for interpretation as to deciding what the meaning of it actually is. The cleverness of the main image for the website could and I hope be accomplished by our own group.

EXTRAS
When you click on the protagonist, flashing images of a ballerina show up and this is a connotation and denotation of the film. By having the quick flashing images, the website offers something different and I hope we achieve this too.

The lighting coming from the corner of the page makes it look a whole lot more realistic and the browser can perhaps relate to it. As it is flickering, this creates an eerie feel to the whole webpage hence conforming to its genre.

SHOOTING SCRIPT- Sunday 2nd December 2012

Videography Plan - Shooting Script

We scheduled more days for shooting the trailer:

The next shoot days will take place on :

Day 4: Extra Shots
Date: Sunday 2nd December 2012

Location: Sophie Rice's House

Start Time: 3.00pm
Approximate Duration: 1Hour 30Mins

Finish Time: 4.30pm

This shooting day is for more extra shots we intend to use as fast paced shots to fill our trailer. Mostly shots without our protagonists and close ups of the computer, iPad, and Social Networking e.g. Facebook chat shots etc.
This will be set in Sophie's house again for the sake of continuity but different rooms to suggest Jake and Shammael are in two different locations.

Aim:

Everyone to be involved (excluding actors) in the actual filming, lighting etc and everyone will contribute to the directing of the actors and shots to successful get the correct shots we need.

Props:

iPad
Laptop
Hand drawn pictures of Shammael

Mise En Scene

(Same as previous shoot)

Equipment:

Tripod

SLR Digital Camera (Filming)

Digital Camera (Pictures)

Costume

(Same as previous shoot)

Make-up

(None Necessary)

People who need to be Present:
Shahnaz
Tosin
Sophie

(Jake/Shammael)

Other
Artificial Lighting (Low level room light)

POSTED BY TOSIN

MISE EN SCENE: Locations

Matt's Bedroom
We feel this room would be suitable for Matt. We will adapt the mise en scene further to fit the characters individual persona. A bedroom is a suitable location in our teaser trailer as it will help to show a realistic portrayal of a teenage boy. Teenagers are stereotypically seen as spending their time in their rooms, away from their family, isolating themselves. This will make the depiction of our character more accurate in today’s modern society. We also want to isolate the character of Matt as being slightly obsessive and mysterious.

Desk

As our film trailer is based highly around the use of technology, a computer desk area (in a bedroom or living room) would be greatly suitable for one of our locations. We will need to make this area look as masculine as possible by placing suitable mise en scene about the desk, although, we also need to consider the characters age when doing so. Using this location in a shot would be very effective for portraying aspects of the trailer such as social networking as we can create clear shots of the screen. This computer screen in this shot would also be suitable for the close up shots we need of facebook etc as the character communicate.

School Corridor
A school corridor will strongly show the age of our characters, which will be supported by their clothing. This location will be used to show Jacob and Matt having an argument, isolating them in the school environment.

Boys Changing Rooms
The changing rooms will be used in our teaser trailer as Jacob gets changed for a football match and Matt watches. It depicts a school environment, helping to portray the age of our characters as sixth form students. It will also help show the relationship between the characters as Jacob gets changed.

Jacob's Living Room
We included a living room to show another location within a home, as opposed to the bedroom, for Jacob to be on his laptop/iPhone/iPad while looking at his facebook.

Busy High Street
As we wish to include a time lapse of Matt standing in a busy high street as a large number of people walk past him, this location would be suitable. It allows us to portray a sense of confusion and mystery within our trailer and is an interesting shot to include.

SHOOTING SCRIPT: Sunday 25th November 2012

Videography Plan - Shooting Script

We scheduled more days for shooting the trailer:

The next shoot days will take place on :

Day 3: School Shots

Date: Sunday 25th November 2012

Location: Sophie Rice's House

Start Time: 3.00pm
Approximate Duration: 1Hour 30Mins

Finish Time: 4.30pm

This shooting day is for the extra shots we intend to use as fast paced shots to fill our trailer. Abstract shots of our protagonists (e.g. low angle of footsteps etc). This will be set in Sophie's house again for the sake of continuity.

Aim:

Everyone to be involved (excluding actors) in the actual filming, lighting etc and everyone will contribute to the directing of the actors to succressful get the correct shots we need.

Props:

No Props needed

Mise En Scene

(House Hold Items)
(Blank white wall)

Equipment:

Tripod

SLR Digital Camera (Filming)

Digital Camera (Pictures)

Costume
Jake- Checked Coloured Shirt, Jeans, Canvas Shoes Shammael- T-shirt (Collared), Dark Jeans, Black shoes

 

Make-up

(None Necessary)

People who need to be Present:
Shahnaz
Tosin
Sophie

Jake

Shammael

Other
Artificial Lighting (Low level room light)

POSTED BY TOSIN

SHOOT UPDATE: Wednesday 7th November 2012 SHAHNAZ

CHANGING ROOM SCENE

This was our first day of filming: overall it went well. The group got together for the first time and there were no problems as we all coincided. We followed the storyboard and filmed the scenes requiring the boys to be having a casual conversation in the changing rooms which signified their friendship firsthand in our trailer. This was literally just a few shots that included a medium/long shot of the boys in the changing room. We filmed a variation of clips and these consisted of the main medium/long shot of our protagonists but then we also got some extra shots of 'Matt' turning his head to the side as a close up shot looking towards 'Jacob'. We got our actors to talk about something casual such as football to make the scene look and sound more realistic.

POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENTS

We could have improved on giving our actors better direction as sometimes they seemed to be quite unsure of what to do and has to improvise for most parts. Also, we could have filmed more shots so that we had a greater selection when choosing clips to edit.

HALLWAY SCENE

This scene required quite a few retakes because people were walking by from time to time. However, filming went well generally. This was to create the equilibrium in the start of our trailer (Barthe) and again we got the actors to talk about something random that would flow and also something that would signify the  intimacy of the two friends.

POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENTS

We could have obtained voice clips of the dialogue produced by our protagonists to fit into the trailer later on to ensure optimum sound quality.

'SHIRT GRABBING SCENE'

This scene was one of the hardest scenes of the day to get right. This was because the reflection in the window in the clip allowed the viewer to see us filming in it and the space was quite compact, so getting this right was essential. We needed real passionate anger from one of our protagonists and we got him to shout loudly whilst grabbing the other by his shirt collar to create the disequilibrium. The background noise present in the filming was also an issue as the place was silent so even the smallest sounds were picked up.

POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENTS

Next time we need to ensure that there is no sound at all from either us giving direction or from people if they passed by. We could also choose another location to film in because the filming quality wasn't at its best I don't feel with the lighting and the slight awkward angle. 

SOCIAL REALISM- Psychological Drama (Shame)

With new wave film production in social realism, a common genre is pyschological drama. These films leave the audience questioning the meaning of the film and is left for interpretation (Barthe) and the meaning remains open. Because social realisms are mostly based on character rather than plot, this helps provoke a more of a sense of sympathy/empathy/happiness or whichever emotion is trying to be portrayed hence enables the audience to be more intrigued with the film as they can relate to the character.

An example of a social realism film that has the genre of a psychological drama in it is Shame.
The film illustrates character very well which is a common feature and purpose of social realism films and we wish to do this in our own trailer.

The lightning used in this film looks slightly like the one we hope to use which is 'incandescent'. This seems to be ideal because it creates a serious yet moving type of atmosphere which provokes so many emotions from the audience. We also hope to achieve this in our trailer.

The sound used in Shame is heavy classical music. The use of the orchestra acts well with the theme of the film which is romance but also is hard hitting because Michael Fassbender is being a romantic in the wrong way almost. The music makes the role of Fassbender almost justifiable because sometimes we catch glimpses of him in his purest form and we can see that he is indeed quite a confused character. We obtain of all this from the trailer, and we hope to make as much of an impact as that trailer does.

Time Lapse- (One Person Static)

Time Lapse- One Person Static

(Close up of the time lapse shot on our storyboard)

 

One of the clips in our trailer is what is called a One Person Static Time Lapse. To effectively achieve this I researched into how and we practised the technique of time lapse videography. I found out that actually no advanced or super high technology is necessary but rather just a good digital SLR camera, which we already have and a reasonable amount of shooting time.

I also found some useful tips:

Tripod is a vital piece of equipment because considering the camera needs to remain in the same position for a prolonged period of time, the tripod prevents shakes or rolling- essentially avoiding shaky takes.

Framing is also very important. This helps to visualise the scene and the best composition for the camera.

Another tip is that it's best and advised to leave the camera in use, a basic setting because changing the settings beforehand enables the camera to automatically try to correct every little detail and change the light or colour temperature; which wont give us much control in post production.

(www.enriguepacheco.com/10-tips-for-shooting-time-lapse)

(An example of a street time lapse)

(An example of a One Person Time Laspe)

POSTED BY TOSIN

AUDIENCE RESPONSE SURVEY ANALYSIS

We consider it important to analyse our target audience's answers to our survey to acknowledge the aspects they are interested in viewing and if its something plausible for us as a group to produce, in terms of location, character style/age/gender, sub-genre, sound etc. 

"We’re making a psychological drama. What would you prefer to see to give an insight to the main deranged character’s mind?"

In terms of the first question, when gathering footage we have collected most of what the audience has requested to see: weapons- fighting, different shadowing techniques with lighting differentiation, and we have created a collection of pictures of the male victimised protagonist in our trailer as the source of obsession.

"What editing techniques work best in a psychological drama trailer in order to make it more fit for genre?"

According to the statistics, it appears that our audience would prefer for there to be flashbacks

"What would be the best locations to set this kind of trailer in?"

"What type of music or sound would you prefer to hear in the movie trailer?"

"The film should start with a..."

"What do you expect to see in a psychological drama movie/trailer?"

"Select one possible film name we could utilise for our own trailer"

"Which one of these do you usually use to access social networking sites?"

"What medium(s) of communication in terms of social networking do you usually use? "

AUDIENCE RESPONSE SURVEY

AUDIENCE RESPONSE SURVEY

The purpose of our audience response survey was to find out what our target audience (15+ year olds) would want to see in a psychological drama film. Although our group has already thought out a structure and plot features of our opening, the audience response would still definitely be beneficial towards the production decisions we will have to make.

Since we indeed chose homosexuality and technology as the basis of our plot; we subjected our questions in the below survey to it. This is to really narrow down exactly how our audience wish to see homosexuality presented and how they utilise technology themselves.

1. We’re making a psychological drama. What would you prefer to see to give an insight to the main deranged character’s mind?

MIRRORS SHADOWING/LIGHTING WEAPONS SOURCE OF OBSESSION STUCK ON WALLS OF A ROOM

2. What editing techniques work best in a psychological drama trailer in order to make it more fit for genre?

FLASHBACKS QUICK EDITING BLACK AND WHITE COLOURATION

3. (SELECT THREE) What would be the best locations to set this kind of trailer in?

HOUSE BEDROOM BASEMENT QUIET ROAD CAFÉ SCHOOL STAIRWELL

4. What type of music or sound would you prefer to hear in the movie trailer?

SILENCE VOICE OVER OMINOUS/OFFKEY PIANO ROCK OMINOUS/OFFKEY VIOLIN OR STRING

5. The film should start with a...

VOICE OVER FLASHBACK MONTAGE (collection of unrelated clips in a sequence)

6. What do you expect to see in a psychological drama movie/trailer? (SELECT 2)

SEXUAL ENCOUNTERS MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE SUSPENSE HIDDEN MESSAGES UNEXPECTED TWIST

7. Select one possible film name we could utilise for our own trailer

ALTERNET FAKEBOOK PROFILE PROFILED CH@

8. Which one of these do you usually use to access social networking sites?

DESKTOP LAPTOP IPAD SMARTPHONE

9. What medium(s) of communication in terms of social networking do you usually use? (Can select all if appropriate)

MSN TWITTER FACEBOOK TUMBLR