RESEARCH - COSTUMES AND PROPS

We began to think about how our costume and props could influence our piece's aesthetic as a whole.

We wanted a change in costume for the protagonist to show the change and threat that has taken place in her life. Since our opening shots are of her running, we probably want her in sports leggings and a hoodie with running shoes. Later to turn into tracksuit bottoms and a zipped up hoodie over her head and a big duffel bag containing all her belongings.

It is vital that we characterise our antagonist as powerful and wealthy. We thought a long dark smart coat would enhance this.

RESEARCH - IDENT

Idents are an important part of the marketing towards a productions company and also can be used with a sound bridge to enhance and the atmosphere set up for the film that is about to happen.
Whilst researching ideas for our own ident concepts we came across a selection of 'Film 4' idents as shown above. Ewan and I liked the composition of these indents though we know it isn't possible for us to create our own ident in a similar way. We liked the concept of a dark graphic, cleanly cut ident that was simple. We liked the motion animation of the film 4 indents which worked to create a slick, professional and thrilling ident. We aim to achieve the same effect with our own ident; though it is graphic and simple we want to make it edgy. Here are some indents we liked and thought would influence our ident design well:

RESEARCH - SOUND

Ewan and I decided that there won't be a lot of dialogue within our opening, but we want a tense and fast soundtrack, consisting of piano and maybe some brass to get the instrumental type of sound. We looked at several film trailers and soundtrack but found that Maze Runner and London to Brighton had soundtrack similar to what we wanted, but ones that are still reproducible at our level.

We want the soundtrack to build the tension, and we will be looking to use aspects of atmospheric and folly sound in our film opening.








What we liked about these soundtracks were that they fitted the aesthetic of the films whilst still being exciting, thrilling and fast pace. Since our film is urban and thrilling, we want a modern bass soundtrack that's still exciting and fast pace, perhaps with a piano or guitar track as the base of the track.

RESEARCH - LOCATION

In the process of researching for potential locations, Ewan and I looked for urban, rough buildings to portray London realistically and symbolise the threatening world that our Protagonist lives in.

Ewan and I looked at buildings such as the Trelik Tower, Southbank and the (now demolished) Heygate Estate in Elephant & Castle.

Trelik Tower looked interesting but provided difficulty with travelling given us having to carry a lot of filming equipment there. We also were worried about whether the Trelik Tower would be able to provide the shots that we had imagined in our storyboards. For instance, we want shots of our Protagonist running up stairs inside the estate, shots of our protagonist's footsteps as she runs towards the building. Having never been there before, we didn't know whether this would be possible.
However, Trelik Tower's aesthetic perfectly matched the rundown urban theme that we aimed to capture.

Southbank looked more manageable in terms of travelling there. Having been there before, Ewan and I could imagine specific locations on the Southbank and particularly on the steps of the Southbank that would work perfectly in the shots of our Protagonist. We liked the urban street filled with many people, and started to consider involving shots of our Protagonist running towards the camera through many people. This would work well for our opening sequence as Thrillers usually contain elements of establishing the normality of the Protagonist's life before the worrying threat takes place. 

Though Heygate Estate is now demolished, Ewan visited there last year and took photos. We found these photos interesting and they provided inspiration for our piece as a whole. We developed some of the photos in photoshop and came up with looking at how we would brand and identify our own piece if we were releasing it to a wide range of cinemas.

AUDIENCE RESEARCH - OUR RESPONSE

Ewan and I decided to make a video of our response to our box pops and what we've learnt because we thought it was easier to share it in discussion instead.

AUDIENCE RESEARCH RESULTS - VOX POPS

Here are the responses to our Vox pops audience research. We had some questions in mind that we were interested in asking and interviewed people in a variety of ages (15-26).

SHOT LIST FIRST PLAN

Ewan and I came up with a plan for the shots we want to use before starting the story board. These are just simple shots of the rough ideas we wanted to use, and this gave us a good idea to the overall plot, layout and shots needed for the story board and for when we shoot the shots. 

Our film opening consists of interspersed shots of past and present.

A rough plan, more shots of each point will be seen in the story board.

Italics = past

Normal = present

Fade from black

Cut to footsteps running 

Cut to protagonist present footsteps running (chase)  

Close up running away

Close up protagonist looking back (the chaser) 

Close up keys unlocking the door

Running to push open the door

Footsteps climbing stairs

Footsteps running up cement staircase (estate stairs)

Enter room, calm, dump bags

Enter room, frantic, lock door

Close up head against door

Profile in darkness looking up at estate

Shot of here running around

Shot of her moving to draws

Draw opening

Shot of moving around the room

Close up looking under / around her room

Cut to tilt upwards of antagonist entering estate

Bend down under bed and find package

Backing bag

Close up of zipping bag

Leaving room (door open)

Running through tunnel

Skyline ots of London

Hand on shoulder

Titles

STYLE AND TONE

The overall style and tone of the opening that Ewan and I want to achieve is that of an edgy and urban environment, where for young people their atmosphere is a place of threat. The style will be similar to several films, especially Kidulthood, where there are a lot of urban shots, much more simple camerawork than other films and  an edgy feel with lots of close ups and point of view shots. This will present a feeling of personal connection between the audience and the character. This will also be achieved through the presentation of the protagonist in the past, as the audience (as discovered by audience research) finds a film more intriguing when they know elements about the character.

The setting will play a huge role towards tone, being dark and tense. The contrasting light between the past and present is what will really emphasis the present as being atmospheric and grungy. The buildings and locations we use are what will really present the realism feature of our film, and will set the edgy feel that we are working for.

Another film we were also inspired by was London to Brighton in particular the rough, destroyed edgy look of the shots in the bathrooms 

OUR DECIDED NARRATIVE/PLOT

After discussing together, Ewan and I decided to edge our narratives together to form the plot of our opening sequence.
We decided upon following the life of a girl (our protagonist) and the change that has taken place in her life ( like a before and after). Her life used to be simple and normal but it now seems obvious that a person has come into her life who has put her life at threat.
We wanted to set up a a parallel between two moments in time; matching and cross cutting between different locations and shots.
It seemed that we wanted to leave the ending to our story undecided, a cliff hanger: where will she take her life after this moment? Whilst still we found from our Audience research that it was crucial we established an emotional attachment between our protagonist and our audience.
We came up with the idea of a package being involved, shots of our protagonist searching for the package unable to find it, interspersed with shots of our antagonist figure searching for her.
We hope this will create a sense of pace, rush and an awareness of time; just as time has lapsed and changed our protagonists life completely.