Collective Productions

 Here i created a Production logo, but we have not chosen to go with this logo because it doesn't go with our film genre.

Four Fingers and a Thumb Productions

I have created this production company logo, because it gives the viewers a sense of what our films is about, but  unfortunately we aren't using this production logo for our film. 

List of props

List of props

• ·      Alarm clock

• ·      Comb

• ·      Photographs

• · Chair       

 

 

 

 

 

• ·      Rope

• ·      Knives

• ·    Cloth

• ·      Light

Title Sequence Font - Typewriter

This is a possibly font that we could use in our title sequence. It has a creepy and old theme to it, which fits in with the character of Gilbert Anderson. Typewriters have a very neat edge also and this adds to the emphasis on Gilbert’s OCD tendencies.

Title Sequence Font - Bordini

Bordini has a very classical and neat appearance. This reflects Gilbert Anderson’s personality and the music that will be playing throughout the title sequence.

Title Sequence Font - Levi Brush

In red these brush strokes will mimic blood. That is quite sinister and juxtaposed against the innocent seeming title sequence will look out of place and suggestive of something odd or wrong within the man.

Script

Storyboard

This is the first draft of our storyboard. Any changes or alterations will be added to the final draft.

Treatment 2

Length: 2 minutes

The film opens to a close-up of an alarm clock playing classical music at 08:30am. A man (Gilbert Anderson)  is shown in a close-up putting his feet into some slippers as he gets out of bed. It then cuts to the bathroom where there are various close-ups of him preparing for the day. He is shown putting toothpaste on a toothbrush, combing his hair and straightening his tie. From what the audience can see this man is very tidy and co-ordinated. His face is not revealed but a medium shot shows him walking out of his bathroom and into another room where there is a huge collage of photographs of the same girl (Sky Harrison) plastered against one wall. The photos are neatly and almost obsessively placed so that there are no gaps. Here the audience first begins to realise that there is something a little off about this seemingly average looking middle-aged man.

The camera then cuts to a medium close-up of the same girl from the photographs in a dark room. The music is heard vaguely from another room but is much quieter. Her eyes appear hazy and half closed. The background is not revealed but it is safe to assume that she is being held captive by the middle-aged man. The camera then cuts back to the man whose hands are shown in a close-up wiping knives clean and laying them out onto a surface. He is very precise and the knives look immaculate. The camera then cuts back to the close-up of Sky who is starting to look frightened as she hears boots descending a near by set of stairs. The camera cuts to a close-up of boots slowly walking down a set of stairs in a very dark environment. The camera then cuts back to the same close-up of Sky who looks increasingly more frightened and confused as the sound of boots walking across the floor draws nearer.

Suddenly a bright light illuminates Sky to reveal slightly bruised face and dishevelled hair. She appears disorientated and blinded by the brightness from the light. The man's hand carefully strokes her hair in a very lovingly fashion causing Sky to wriggle and try to call out for help. Her efforts are futile as it's obvious from her slurred words and lack of energy that she was probably drugged beforehand in order to keep her from escaping. The camera finally cuts to a low angle point of view shot from Sky of the man, revealing only a black silhouette.

Treatment 1

Our target audience for this film will be young adults, and the certificate will therefore be a 15. The main genre is Thriller, with a psychological sub-genre that determines our psychotic male character, Gilbert.            
The film opens with a man preparing for a normal day at work. He then goes into another room, turns on the light and then reveals a wall covered in photos of a girl (Sky Harrison). At this point, the audience realises that this isn’t a normal situation, so the camera cuts to the Sky, tied up in a dark room. The audience then sees the same man wiping knives clean, before laying them out on a surface. Knives are typical props used in thriller films, intended to instil panic and fear into the audience. The visual effect of juxtaposing a shot of a man cleaning knives and a shot of a girl tied up in another room implies that something terrible is about to happen to her. The camera then returns to the dark room where Sky hears the sound of boots descending the stairs, and so the camera cuts to a close-up of the man's boots. The audience hears the man walking across the floor, and then a bright light illuminates her, showing her vulnerability and making her disorientated. Using a light in this way, isolates the character and instils a sense of panic in the audience. The man has drugged her beforehand to keep her quiet, and so when she calls out, her voice is slightly slurred. In response, the man steps boldly in front of the light, revealing all but a black silhouette. Typically in thriller films, 'bad' characters are dressed in dark colours to represent their evil personalities, which is why this is a good way to present the man to the audience.

Following this, the girl's brother, Ben Harrison, is introduced, along with Sky's family, who believe the girl is on holiday abroad with friends. Unknown to Ben, the Sky's friends received a text from her mobile telling them that she cannot make it. Meanwhile, Ben notices there are things in his sister's bedroom that she would never leave behind, and is therefore certain that something is wrong. With no support from family members, he sets out to find her himself. During a frantic search of her bedroom, he finds her latest photos on her laptop and notices a similar figure in the background of each one. Almost immediately, he recognizes the stalker as Gilbert Anderson, and tracks him down to a house nearby. Unaware of the exact location of his sister, Ben waits for the stalker to leave the house, and then breaks in to find any kind of evidence that might lead him to his sister. In the midst of his snooping, he discovers the room filled with photos of Sky and too late hears the stalker re-enter the house. Slightly disturbed and anxious to remain unseen as he is the only one aware of his sister’s true whereabouts, Ben hides and leaves at the first opportunity, determined to go to the police. Once again, this relates to the theme of the thriller genre, because on of the main characters is commonly about to embark on a quest, either to seek revenge, or to justify a bad character with no sense of morality.

Sometime later, Ben returns with the police, who take a look around the basement, and find nothing. Again, unknown to Ben, Gilbert heard him leave the house, and immediately moved Sky out of the basement. The police leave, and Ben steals up the courage to break into the house alone again. He knows the police won't help him now, and so he must resolve the situation alone. A taxing fight scene ensues, another typical element of a thriller film, intended to instil panic and a sense of 'thrill' into the audience, and ultimately the fight leads Gilbert's death. Ben saves his sister, and Sky is taken to the hospital to recover.

Character Names

We needed to choose some first names and surnames for the characters in the whole film, although in the first two minutes we  are filming we only show two characters. The female and the stalker/kidnapper, but in the whole film there's another main character the females brother. So we decided to name him too. The names in red are the names we decided on.

First of all we thought of Female names and chose Sky for the main female in the whole of our film. 

Character Names

Character Names

Questionnaire

This is the questionnaire we have designed for our audience research. It will give us the feedback we need to make sure our plot is suitable for our target audience, and interesting enough that they will want to watch it.

Any feedback we receive will go toward developing our final ideas.

 

Questionnaire results

Click to go to: Questionnaire results


Summary
Overall, the response from our audience research questionnaire has been very positive. Our target audience seem to like our storyline, and most guesses regarding the certificate for our film were correctly guessed at a 15. We received feedback from people who enjoy a range of different film genres, including Action, Comedy, Horror, Thriller, Crime and Gangster, Romance, Historical and Musicals. We also found that a lot of those people watch films at home on DVD, at the cinema, download them from online, or watch them on games consoles.

Most people said that they thought our plot was interesting, and the only constructive criticism we received were about how to improve our full film storyline:

• Sounds a little rushed at the end
• The plot needs more twists
• A twist could make the ending less predictable

We have taken these comments into consideration, and if we were going to make the full film, we would definitely look into applying more twists to the plot to make the film more original and less predictable.

Se7en title sequence video

Research into Title Sequences - Se7en

This opening sequence clearly depicts something unusual and frightening. The close-up images are very disturbing and this goes with the theme of the film. Unlike our opening sequence it clearly shows an unusual routine but follows the idea of a series of close-ups and extreme close-ups. This is more similar to our opening sequence with its use of darker and more bleak colours. There are a lot of greys and shadowing. In our film this type of colouring could represent a darker side to what the audience is actually seeing happen. Also the text is shown in different areas in each shot instead of being placed in the same spot.

Dexter title sequence video

Research into Title Sequences - Dexter

The opening sequence of Dexter and our opening sequence have a lot in common. They both show a seemingly average looking man preparing for a normal day. They go through their morning routine which is shown through a series of close-ups accompanied by text which includes the cast. However, the title sequence doesn't reveal the whole truth. In our film, the man that appears average at first is revealed to be a stalker who is holding an innocent girl captive. In Dexter, the man is actually a serial killer and the normal morning routine disguises his sociopath like nature. Although, his morning routine is suggestive of something a little more sinister. There are many references to blood and violence, through how he is cut shaving and the harsh way the orange is sliced in half. In our opening sequence the text is red like Dexter, but the font is different. 

Location Recce for the TV Studio

Location Recce Template

Location Recce

Name _______________________________________________________________

Contact Details _______________________________________________________

Address ______________________________________________________________
     ______________________________________________________________

Check-list -
Props                    []                                                                    Scene: __________________________
Physical Items      []                                                                    Script
Power Supply       []                                                                     Page No. _______________
Entry/Exit            []
Set                       []
Camera              []
Light source       []
Artificial Light   []
Depth of focus   []

Description of Location - Second Location

We used a fellow Media students home based near Barnsley town centre to film the majority of the beginning morning routine shots. The first place in the house we used was the bedroom. We needed this to show the alarm clock and Gilbert getting out of bed to put his feet into slippers. The room was very spacious so we were able to fit all of the lighting equipment and camera in easily. The next was the bathroom to film Gilbert washing his hands, combing his and putting on a shirt. The room was quite small so it was difficult to fit in all of the equipment. The sink was a fair size and so the shot did not look too cluttered or messy. We also used the stairs leading to the basement, they where very narrow, dark and steep. This added to the fear and creepiness of the shot. The stairs where not cluttered either and the basement looked as though it was filled with shadows and dark corners. We chose this location mainly because we needed dark, basement stairs. It was also very spacious, so we where able to fit the entire cast and crew without difficulty.

This is the bedroom

This is the bathroom

This is the sink we used

These are the cellar steps

Description of Location - First Location

Barnsley College TV and radio broadcasting room


We filmed the scenes from shot 12 onwards mostly in the TV and radio broadcasting room at Barnsley College. The room was very dark and resembled a basement as it had an electric box on the wall. Black curtains covered the perimeter of the room to conceal the walls and doors so we could manipulate whether or not we wanted parts of the shot to be very dark. Lighting was already fixed in the room, using a fuse box in an adjoining room we where able to easily fade lights. Because the controls for the lights were in a different room, this was helpful because no one had to be in the room while we were filming. They where also attached to poles on the ceiling. We could move the lights around or take them off and do something entirely different. The room was also very spacious so we had a lot of room for props and other cast members to do their part. Any equipment that was already in the room was movable, and the cables were already taped down to the floor. The only prop we did use in the basement scene was a single chair that the main character, Sky, could sit on and be tied to.

This was the room where we filmed

This was the electrical box on the wall

This is the adjoining room that had all the
light switches and control

This is some of the equipment that was also
in the control room

This is the part of the room that was in the shot
during shooting

This is the whiteboard we used in the studio to
make our wall of stalker photos

 These are the lights that we used during shooting.

Location Photos

TV Studio!

This is where we filmed our basement scenes and the spare room with the photo's scene. We used this location because we could make it look like a basement, and it already had lights in it ready for us to use. It had black curtains which meant that the room could be made even darker and covered up any part of the rooms we didn't want in the shot.

This is the electric box we used so that it did look more like a basement rather than a TV Studio. This is also how we had the light set up behind the character Sky Harrison to give it more effect so you could not fully see Sky's face.

This is what the room looked like before we set up the chair with the electric box.

This is how we set up the chair with the electric box in the background/

This is the second room joined on with all the light switches in.

This is also part of the room with the light switches

This is how we set up our pictures on the wall , the first few pictures are there.

This is the lights we used for our film.

This is where we filmed the first half of our storyboard. In the house, we used the bathroom, bedroom and cellar. The house was easy to get to and had good filming conditions.

This is the bedroom. It was well-lit and had a lot of
room so that we could film easily.

This is the sink that we used to show Gilbert getting ready for the day

The bathroom



These are the cellar steps we filmed Gilbert coming down
as if he was going into the basement