Tuesday, 11 December 2012
Photos from Filming
These photos were taken while we were filming and show us trying different camera angles and distances to get our shots.
Monday, 10 December 2012
Script for Filming
Ellie: (Barges into Georgina’s room)
Georgina:
What are you doing?
Ellie:
Well… was wondering if, you would play hide and seek with me please?
Georgina:
Don’t be silly I have better, more important things to be doing than playing hide and seek with you.
Ellie:
Oh please Georgina!
Georgina:
No, just go away and do your homework like mum told you to.
Ellie:
But I have finished it
Georgina:
I don’t care just leave me alone
Ellie:
Please just one game?
Georgina:
Fine one game and that’s it. You have till I get to 20. 1, 2, 3
Ellie:
(Interrupts) hey that’s not fair!
Georgina:
Just go and hide before I change my mind.
Ellie:
Okay, okay (I’m going)
Georgina:
4… 5… (Stops counting)
Concerns Before Filming
As we are now coming up to our filming day, we share some concerns about it, that we will only really be able solve on the day of filming if we were going to:
- We originally wanted to film when it was dark but we are aware that without expensive lighting equipment, this can result in poor quality filming. However this can put a bit of a twist on our story as it can still be frightening in daylight.
- Another concern that we have it is that we won't get every shot that we want and then when it comes to editing we may not have the shot we originally wanted. Sometimes in the past we have realised that a shot is missing only when it comes to editing, and although you can go back and refilm, this makes continuity very difficult.
- Another concern was that our chosen actresses were not going to fit the role that we have chosen for them. We don't have much drama experience in our group, and we are also relying on a Year 7 actress who we will have to direct and explain exactly what we want from her. As we all know our pieec, we know what we want to achieve with each shot, and we hope we are able to explain this clearly to the Yeat 7 actress so that she understand what look we are hoping for.
Costume
Older Sister- Casual clothing preferably leggings to show a more laid back approach. The reason for this is that during the film, she will be seen working on a bed which does not require a dressed up look.
Younger Sister- Again quite casual clothing as the film is set at a home and neither characters are actually going out so there will be no need for going clothes as such.
Younger Sister (Grown up)- This character will be in pyjamas as her scene in the film is in a bed, waking up shocked.
Kidnapper- Black clothing so we can get the full silhouette figure and create a creepy atmosphere.
We will also need a photo of the two sisters as a key prop.
Younger Sister- Again quite casual clothing as the film is set at a home and neither characters are actually going out so there will be no need for going clothes as such.
Younger Sister (Grown up)- This character will be in pyjamas as her scene in the film is in a bed, waking up shocked.
Kidnapper- Black clothing so we can get the full silhouette figure and create a creepy atmosphere.
We will also need a photo of the two sisters as a key prop.
Cast List
We have selected these actors to play these roles in our film:-
Older Sister- Georgina O'Sullivan
Georgina does drama as an A Level. She looks like she can play a good older sister as she has an edgy and grown up look about her. The audience would also be able to see the relationship between her and the younger sister.
Younger Sister- Ellie Carroll
Ellie looks quite similar to Georgina which would enable the audience to see visually the relation between them allowing a more realistic approach overall . Ellie has quite a young look about her which helps with the role she will play. She has also taken part in another Media film so she is natural around the camera and has some understanding of how filming works and how it is different to acting on stage.
Younger Sister (grown up) Shannon Dunne
Both Shannon and Ellie could look quite similar which helps with the easy actress change later on in the opening.
The kidnapper- Wayne (Georgina's brother)
We chose Wayne because we felt that he could with the right costume, look like a kidnapper. He has quite a broad build which is ideal for the role he is playing as it will allow him to give the effect that we want.
Older Sister- Georgina O'Sullivan
Georgina does drama as an A Level. She looks like she can play a good older sister as she has an edgy and grown up look about her. The audience would also be able to see the relationship between her and the younger sister.
Younger Sister- Ellie Carroll
Ellie looks quite similar to Georgina which would enable the audience to see visually the relation between them allowing a more realistic approach overall . Ellie has quite a young look about her which helps with the role she will play. She has also taken part in another Media film so she is natural around the camera and has some understanding of how filming works and how it is different to acting on stage.
Younger Sister (grown up) Shannon Dunne
Both Shannon and Ellie could look quite similar which helps with the easy actress change later on in the opening.
The kidnapper- Wayne (Georgina's brother)
We chose Wayne because we felt that he could with the right costume, look like a kidnapper. He has quite a broad build which is ideal for the role he is playing as it will allow him to give the effect that we want.
Thursday, 6 December 2012
Researching the Target Audience
Researching the Target Audience:
Psychological thrillers tend to appeal more to adults, but since the protagonist of our story is a person around our age and the plotline is simpler than most psychological thrillers, our target audience would be teenagers (16+) and above and of mixed gender. People who watch psychological thrillers are more fascinated with the mind and how the protagonist struggles with overcoming an obstacle. Rotten Tomatoes’ (a website dedicated to reviewing films in a critic’s point of view) current highest ranking psychological thriller is Alfred Hitchcock’s very own ‘Psycho’. Other films that made the list include ‘Black Swan’, ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ and ‘Se7en’. Below is a link for the rest of the films:
In this genre, people who prefer to watch psychological thrillers like to solve the mystery the protagonist is trying to solve and get ahead of them. Our film does pose a key mystery - what happened to the older sister? what did the younger sister see that can help her? And therefore I think we have the key element in place to attract audiences who enjoy this genre, which is a plentiful one we can assume from the Rotten Tomatoes poll.
While researching, I have found a great description about what effect psychological thrillers have on an audience – “The psychological thriller deliberately uses psychological tricks to create tension in the audience, for example by showing only indirect signs of a stalker or playing on the anxiety of the victim. As these stories make maximum use of suspense, action can be relatively slow, fizzing along like a slow-burning fuse. Whilst the audience may not be excited, they should be gripped by the story and glued to their seats.” The link below is the source:
having our POV filming of the kidnap and the slow reveal of what actually happens should tap into this appeal successfully.
The main conventions we applied to our film to appeal to our target audience are:
>Use of close-ups to show emotions and significant objects, long shots to keep the identity of the suspect a mystery and tracking shots to build up suspense
>Ideas of nightmares and reality – flashbacks of a traumatic event
>A protagonist searching for answers about an event that happened in the past
>Death and people missing
The film, ‘Black Swan’ is about the mental destruction of a timid ballerina who slowly evolves into an obsessive perfectionist. Below is a link of an article about the aforementioned film:
This article suggests that we like to watch someone slowly self-destruct as we can imagine it happening to ourselves and it is in some way reassuring to see it happening to other, successful people. Again, we feel we provide an element of this in the way the younger sister is traumatised by the past and cannot rest until she has solved the mystery.
Target Audience
Target Audience
Psychological thriller
Psychological thrillers are a genre that focus on issues that can be made to appear 'realistic' or could possibly even happen in real life. They also make the reader question their own judgements which can make them quite scary. Common themes in psychological thrillers are paranormal activity, deaths, stalking, someone questioning their own sanity.
We felt that our target audience should be roughly between the ages of 14 to 34. We know that this is seen generally as the key demographic in terms of spending power and leisure time, and like any film company, we need to ensure the film makes a profit. On the whole we think it would appeal to a younger age group, but there is no real reason why older people wouldn't watch it. Horror is much more targeted at younger audiences as the cast is often young, and beyond a certain age, people don;t enjoy being frightened as much as they used to. Psychological thrillers share features with horror such as the 'jump' effect but they are less violent, so we won't alienate older viewers.
We don’t have any specific gender bias in our film, therefore males and females would both enjoy our film, but I think females would be able to relate to it more as they could put themselves in the position of the young girls.
By using mise-en-scene, we will use certain costumes and certain aspects of the setting such as the girl’s room to create an 'ordinary' environment so that the viewer feels that what is happening in the film could possibly happen to them too. Many psychological thrillers are based around two people locked in a psychological struggle and the social class can vary widely as anything could happen to anyone. However the preferred class is the middle class such as the Paranormal films; they happen to a normal American family. This makes the disruption more enjoyable for the audience as the contrast between the old life and the new is more pronounced.
We don’t have any specific gender bias in our film, therefore males and females would both enjoy our film, but I think females would be able to relate to it more as they could put themselves in the position of the young girls.
By using mise-en-scene, we will use certain costumes and certain aspects of the setting such as the girl’s room to create an 'ordinary' environment so that the viewer feels that what is happening in the film could possibly happen to them too. Many psychological thrillers are based around two people locked in a psychological struggle and the social class can vary widely as anything could happen to anyone. However the preferred class is the middle class such as the Paranormal films; they happen to a normal American family. This makes the disruption more enjoyable for the audience as the contrast between the old life and the new is more pronounced.
Our chosen genre
People that would enjoy our film would like it to be full of tense moments where you don’t know what is going to happen around each corner. Many people get horrors and psychological thrillers mixed up with each other but the main difference is that horrors are more violent and physical whereas thrillers can be psychological. They both have a similar appeal - seeing characters placed in situations that reflect our fears.
The main characters for psychological thrillers are normally no older than 30 years old. I think this could be because they’re young and because they would have more energy than an older person, they would make it more interesting as they can do all the frantic running and screaming that usually takes place in psychological thrillers. Also younger people tend to think things over more whereas older people usually are wiser and wouldn’t believe in some of the stuff that could go on in the film. For example, in ‘Paranormal Activity’, the couple are young. A further stereotype in the genre is that it is usually women who are the ones that believe that something sinister is going in. In the film, ‘Orphan’, the mother is the one who believes that ‘there’s something wrong with Esther’ and the father doesn’t believe it until the end.
I agree with Wikipedia’s definition of what a psychological thriller. It is technically a sub-genre because it comes under the genre ‘thriller’ and there are a range of different thrillers such as action thriller, romance thriller, crime thriller, conspiracy thriller. Also, quite a lot of thrillers can contain horror aspects such as the film ‘Saw’ and ‘Orphan’.
After looking at a few websites, I discovered that it depends on the film who the target audience for psychological thrillers is. I found that on one website, someone thinks that horror type ones are aimed at girls of a slightly younger age whereas. Some are aimed at young men with a rating of R, but some that are normal thrillers such as crime are aimed adults and are rated PG and thrillers in general are aimed generally at ages 18 to 25.
I also found that other people had slightly different and some similar views on the target audience. Someone feels that it should be between 16 to 35 which was close to my own personal opinion which was 18 to 34 but overall they are aimed at younger people.
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