First storyboarding ideas for our final treatment

We all came up with some ideas afor our first storyboarding. We decided to locate it on school grounds to emphasize that she is isolated in a busy environment. We decided to start of with a tracking shot of a clock that would zoom out to a shot of our character sitting down in a classroom with her work out, the shot then changes to a over the shoulder shot of her writing. The fourth shot is a close up of her fidgeting with her hands to show she is stressed, we then decided on having a extreme close up of her staring at her watch. A high angled shot to show her looking down at her exam timetable to a close up of her timetable. We then chose to do a close up of her facial expressions looking nervous and stressed out, this shot then changes to a close up of a alarm display on her mobile phone reminding her of her exam. There's then a mid shot of her putting her headphones on to a close up of her hands, packing away her things to a longshot of her going through the door to the corridor. When she is outside in the corridor there is a high angled shot of her standing whilst she has her headphones in. Whilst she is standing in main focus everything around her (school children) is blurred. There is then a intercut between her music and the ticking sound of the clock in her mind. When the corridor is empty there is a longshot of her walking, as she gets to the end of the corridor there is a back view of her walking. There is then a over the shoulder shot of her looking into the classroom to a view from inside the classroom of her looking in. Lastly we decided to have a tracking shot of her walking into the classroom and sitting down with the clock in view, we then end with a close up of the clock and everything else out of focus.

Clockwork Orange

Clockwork Orange

You are lead into the opening shot by what appears to be distorted, haunting and slightly disturbing piece of classical music. The music sounds futuristic which suggests the director's movie takes place in some impending time.

The opening shot is focused on what appears to be a young male dressed in a bowler hat, but your attention is fixed on his menacing stare which is highlighted by one eye with mascara streaks. The imbalance of the stare imposes a disturbing hint of femininity to the air of threat. An essence of innocence is preserved by the youth putting a glass of milk to his lips instead of a stronger drink such as whiskey. The scene continues with a dolly out shot which shows a group of four similarly dressed youths in a uniform of bowler hats and white suits. As the camera moves away from the strange group of youths, they are seen to be drinking around a group of naked female manikins being used as tables.

As the shot pans out to show a futuristic milk bar a non-diegetic voice comes who calls himself Alex. Alex himself sets the scene, by explaining that he is in a milk bar one evening with his three 'droogs' which is Russian for friends. He describes a menu of milk+ and all sorts of other ingredients which hint at being drug like stimulants. He states that his beverage of choice is good for violence which he hints will form part of his evening.

Film Treatment - 'Mind Clock'

Annie Moore is a 17 year old London student. With her exams coming up, Annie is feeling the pressure, and an internal clock starts ticking in her brain. Annie conjures up the idea that she has to complete daily tasks, such as walking to school, in a certain number of minutes. If she doesn’t complete these in the time her brain has set, a chain of bad events will begin to happen to people around her. In reality, these ‘bad events’ happening are usual daily tragedies which Annie thinks are down to her losing track of time. As Annie’s time keeping gets worse and the chain of bad events get more life threatening, she confides in her family and teachers, who blame this ‘internal clock’ on the stress of the upcoming exams, leaving Annie isolated and alone with this clock still ticking. As one bad event takes a turn for the worse, it enables Annie to work out the conspiracy as to why these clocks are only ticking in her mind - is this just her fantasy, or is she the only one in reality?

Possible Titles:
Time
Ticking time
The Trick of Time
Mind Clock
Time control
Timeless

We came up with a few title ideas for this treatment, however all decided on 'Mind Clock' as we felt it was the best fit and the simplicity of it is quite intriguing.

Film Certificate '15'

As our target audience are between the ages of 16-18, we felt a certificate of 15 would be the best for our film to keep them hooked, as we could include certain elements we wouldn’t be able to in a 12A, for example, however won’t include explicit things you would find in an 18 rated film. We've looked on the bbfc (British Board of Film Classification) website to determine what we can and can’t include in our film, and picked out the guidelines we felt would link to our project the most:

Discrimination:
The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

Horror:
Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

Imitable behaviour:
Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Language:
There may be frequent use of strong language. The strongest terms may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme:
No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

Violence:
Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury.

Ideas for Final Treatment

Me and Conor spent our class time today coming up with a range of ideas for our film treatment. As our audience research conveys a ‘Psychological Thriller’ is the preferred sub-genre, we have tried to come up with ideas that suit this style. Along with this, our knowledge of watching other Thriller films have helped us develop our ideas, and so when we come together as a group of four in our next lesson, we will discuss the ideas on this sheet and decide on a final one so our planning can begin.

The ‘number obsession’ idea came to me after watching a few clips from ‘The Number 23’ (2007) starring Jim Carrey – a humorous actor, something that entertains our target audience. The opening credits of this film are by far the best I’ve seen, as I found them to be very clever, and the blood flicked across the sequence could be easily replicable for our product, as it could be done with paint, something resourceful and easy to use. The secret facts incorporated into the title such as ‘There are 23 letters in the Latin alphabet’ and ‘The witches Sabbath is June 23rd’ flash by very quickly, possibly missing them in a blink of an eye. This secrecy intrigued me and the constant facts surrounding 23 sets you up for the rest of the film, in which is centered around the protagonist’s obsession with the number.

Treatment Task

Harry is a school teacher, who grew up in Yorkshire. His parents worked full time when he was young which led him to be brought up by a nanny. He now lives alone and has formed a close bond with one of his students named Sarah. One afternoon he shares a bus ride with Sarah, the next day it's reported that she's missing. A detective is hired to find Sarah, on his journey he discovers shocking information about Harry that reveals the deep secrets Harry holds.

Audience Research Results

Audience Research Questionnaire

We decided to carry out our audience research using a self-completion questionnaire, as it would be quick to tally up results and we could compare answers effectively. We came up with 16 questions we felt were the most important and useful to help us with the planning process and find out exactly who our target audience are in order to appeal to them to a full extent. We each handed out a number each, totaling to 30 questionnaires altogether.

A History Of Violence 2005

The director/editor in A History of Violence has chosen not to add any non-diegetic sounds in the opening scene, until the second scene. However, what intrigued me was how they have increased the diegetic sounds which in my opinion was to create suspense and uncertainty. This uncertain/anxious feeling provides us with a clue towards the narrative, which something brutal and inhumane is going to be foreshadowed. We later find out in the next scene that all three motel workers have been killed cold blooded. They've chosen to use white and bold credits in the opening scene. These credits seem almost peculiar to use in a film like this. We could even suspect the plain bold credits are linked to the two character's very eccentric behavior.

Hard Candy (2005) Opening Credits Analysis

I came accross the opening credits to Independent Psychological Thriller 'Hard Candy' (2005) and felt intrigued by the simplicity of it. They've used a compressed pallette of white, red and black and the straightforward font helps to convey the low production Independent feel from the beginning. The melodic piano playing creates an uneasy feel, hinting at the narrative, and such a sound would be practical to create ourselves in our own production. I also found it interesting how the credits come onto the screen in an interior fashion, possibly conveying the inside of a house - interestingly, the setting of the film takes place in a house - and so offers hints. Although the simplicity of it draws you in, I felt the credits dragged on for too long and didn't allow any form of narrative into the sequence and so after a while, it began to get repetitive and boring.

Time Management Timetable

Our free periods are incorporated into this timetable in which we will refer back to during our production work in order to organize our time stress-free. The yellow boxes convey the times when all four of us are free and can work as a full group.

Preliminary Task

Storyboard for task:

Title Sequences

I had previously looked at the openings of thrillers such as panic room, fight club and reservoir dogs. Thought these all have very different title sequences, i found reservoir dogs and the panic rooms opening sequence the most intriguing and fight club the least interesting as I felt it was an over modernised title sequence.

In the panic room the use of the city back drop, style of titles and non-diegetic orchestral sounds were the key aspects of this opening. The titles look almost like they are a part of the building making me wonder that if we could go about making titles similar to this and think about what shots would be appropriate to pair with such titles and also would have to consider the story line because it seems more appropriate in this case as there is a metal panic room within the narrative making the titles perfect and to symbolise the room itself and the size of the titles to represent the idea of being trapped in a confined space . I thought that the lighting was quite clear in this sequence symbolising that there is a form of “trouble in paradise” and perhaps there is a normal lifestyle in the begging which is threatened by some-one.

I also considered what sort of sound we used as in the panic room opening its an eerie orchestral sound which builds a crescendo to a more piercing notes when the title is shown

http://www.artofthetitle.com/?s=panic+room+

I also found reservoir dogs opening sequence interesting as it starts with a voice over which I thought seemingly unnatural of an beginning sequence however this contrasted with the group of men as they seemed very comfortable in there atmosphere. e elt that the titles were very simple which I quite liked about the opening sequence characters as the titles are not that big or colourful and are contrasted on a black background with red-ish titles possibly symbolising the amount of bloodshed .I also liked that it brought you straight into the narrative with the bloody man in the back seat showing what the movie was about and I thought this could be an option for out story board rather that building up the narrative from normal life to a crisis.

http://www.artofthetitle.com/?s=resovoir+dogs

Product Research Analysis: Thriller Conventions (Inception (2010) opening sequence)

By Rochelle Thomas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VXkUzf1

The opening title sequence is plain but suggests a lot, the idea of using white and black creates the sense of fear and conflict. These colours create the idea that the film is going to be climatic.White connotates goodness and purity as opposed to black which is associated with power, evil, death and mysteriousness. This could be trying to express to the audience the idea of good vs evil, in the western culture it was traditionally said that white and black are colours that depict opposition.

The opening music sounds emotionally intense, it creates the sense of fear and pain. There is a sense of implied horror to the sound because of its haunting element suggesting a dark past. It starts of sounding gripping and mysterious then as it becomes louder it sounds deathly and ghostly. I notice that the sound shows aspects of a credcendo as it starts of quiet and ends loudly. There is a variety of repeated bass sounds at the begin and double bass sounds contrasting with the urgency to the beat throughout.

The strong waves crashing and dull weather helps to emphasise pathetic fallacy and the sense of lack of hope.There is a sort of enigma being implied to the audience at the beginning as we are trying to makesense of whats going on, creating suspense.The panning shot of the waves, emphasises the setting and the isolation of the particular area.

The film cuts from the a low-angled shot of the protagonist on the shore signifying helplessness, to a establishing shotof the strong waves crashing against the sea bed. The close up at the beginning, of the protagonist helps to reveal the emotions of the character. From this it is being revealed to the audience that he is in pain and is defenseless.

The fade out at the beginning from Dom Cobb at the shore to the flashback of the two small children playing in the sand presents a sense of mysteriousness and confusion to the viewer.It suggests there is a strong emotion between the scenes. The idea of this flashback being present at the begin suggests there is something the audience have not yet been revealed to. The protagonsit blacks out and the opening scene continues to a unknown character finding him.

The high angled shot of the protagonist on the shore being pointed at by a gun symbolises power and authority.The fact that this shot is high angled tells me that the protagonist is now powerless and incapable of helping himself.

This low angled shot suggests that this unknown character has a higher status and authority opposed to Cobb.

There is a extreme long shot of the building, although the location is still concealed the director wants to emphasise whats happening amongst the setting. The location is purposely a mystery to have the audience questioning and drawn into what is going on.

Just as this unknown character is about to turn around the protagonist is dragged into the scene creating a build up. It cuts from this particular shot to a close up of Dom Cabb eating leaving the audience questioning as to what just happened. The cuts are being used to create an atmosphere and leaves the audience with unrevealed answers.

We are not revealed to the identity of this mysterious character. A point of view shot of character helps to create tension about the identity of the character and his relevance. The low lighting helps to conceive this

tension.

The two midshots of the protagonist and this unrevealed character as they start talking is done to explore how they interact with eachother. Mulitiple view points are presented to the audience as a way of inviting them to understand whats going on. The bassy non- diegetic sound used in this scene helps to create dramatic tension. It shapes pur response to the actions of the characters and links to the narrative because it helps to make us more aware when something good or bad is going to happen.

The extreme close up of the spinning top tells me that this is symbolic in some way, it removes the distraction of the two characters

conversation suggesting it is important. It builds up tension to the scene as we do not understand its relevance. The endof this scene to emphasise that he is more incontrol and isnot helpless as opposed to how he was first introduced to us.

This tracking shot gives us a change of perspective. The fact that it is a mid-shot suggest that the body language of these characters is important as it helps the audience understand whats going on. Over the shoulder shots and point of view shots are used in this sc

ene. A wide shot is used at the begin of this scene to make it evident to the viewers that the protagonist is in the same location. A high angled shot of the protagonist is used towards to show he is no longer powerless.

This extreme close up of our main characters watch ticking creates a climax as the time slows down, a build up is created until the camera cuts to the bomb outside. The continuety of the two shots creates dramatic tension as we

didn't expect a bomb to explode. There is a immediate transition from the over the shoulder shot of the

man inside the flat to a shot outside the flat, being present at the location of the bombing. This is effective as this type of editing specifies what are main focus should be on.

Product Research: Thriller Conventions

Thriller Conventions on Prezi

Product Research: Analysis of Donnie Darko (2001) opening sequence

Choice of typography and colour:
· The gothic and 'mysterious' font has a dark edge to it, hinting at the genre and possible characters. The white credits on black creates a strong contrast and suggests the theme of good vs. evil and corruption of innocence.

· Thunder at the beginning conveys the darkness of the film and seems to foreshadow Donnie’s death later in the film. It also represents power, however such a sound effect would be difficult to record ourselves when it comes to our product.

Camera and Mise-en-scene:
· Panning shot used works well to establish the setting and emphasize the isolation. The long empty road accompanied by crowds of trees portrays the setting as out of the way, with Donnie at the midst of it, making us question him as a character from the very beginning due to such mystery. It works well to create an uneasy atmosphere and makes us feel anxious.
Sound:
· The natural surroundings convey isolation and a sense of heat and discomfort, and such sounds would be easy and practical to record, and so could be something to draw into our own piece.
· The slow melodic piano playing creates a feeling of sadness to reinforce the loneliness of the protagonist, which helps us sense his character traits.
· The 'angelic' female vocal adds innocence and serenity, however the key changes as Donnie grins to himself, suggesting him to be an ambiguous and mysterious character with a possible dark side and so the soundtrack enables us to get to know his character - something to think carefully about when constructing our own opening.

Lighting:
· The naturalistic lighting used creates shadows and is suggestive of good vs. evil. The only light hitting him here is on parts of his t-shirt, whereas his face is in the shadow, making us question him as a character. This use of lighting would be practical when it comes to our own product, and also works in a simple yet dramatic way.

Editing:
· The title disappears into a bright light, and links to ‘the light’ in which signifies death; foreshadowing what will occur in the film – Donnie’s death. This use of editing enables the transition from one scene to the next in a smooth way - something to consider when editing our own product.

· Song ‘The Killing Moon’ by Echo and the Bunnymen is introduced to help us engage with Donnie's bike journey. The mournful and emotional tone with ominous lyrics such as ‘killing time’ link exceptionally well to the events in the film, which are to do with lack of time, and so it's important our soundtrack links relatively well to the message we want to get accross.

Narrative hints:
· The series of shots tracking Donnie riding his bike home enable us to see he will make a journey in the film and establish his neighbourhood, in which appears to be untouched and serene. This hints that such an idyllic setting will be corrupted, conventional of thriller openings.

Sound:
· As we meet Donnie's family, the vocal picks up, conveying him as a downbeat character in comparison as the music becomes less chilling when the camera is off him. Techniques like this are effective in establishing characters in an opening, and we could go about this approach in our own sequence if we use a strong set of opposite characters.

Characters:
· This opening introduces both the central character and other key characters. Donnie is still an unclear character, however the Darko family are portrayed in a simplistic way that allows us to understand their personalities – dad Eddie is a prankster, Elizabeth is a typical teenager wanting to use the car, mum Rose is quietly reading whilst younger sister Sam is playing in the garden, and so from this we can see they are a normal, average family - conventional characters in Thrillers.
· We are also introduced to Frank (but are unaware it is him) who drives past Donnie in a red car, almost disturbing the idyllic setting. The music drops as he drives past to draw our attention to the car and so the music has conventionally directed the audience to a particular detail, something that I feel works incredibly well.

Overall, this opening sequence is very gripping for an audience and leaves them asking questions about the main protagonist, something an opening sequence of the genre should do. The themes of mystery and isolation are present, along with hints of a complex narrative and a range of innocent and ambiguous characters. Many of the techniques used, including the gothic font and the soundtrack, will be useful to think about exploring further when it comes to creating our own product.