Use of Cinematography

We have considered the cinematography for our short film very carefully. Through it we want to reflect the normal life of the girl but also be able to use the cinematography to infer that unfortunate events are about to follow. Secondly, the cinematography should reflect the genre that we have selected that is a Thriller/Psychological. It should create a dark ambience which will create the desired mood that we want to portray.

We will use Mid shots to show the young girl, this is an average shot that just portrays the girl as normal as she goes about her normal day routine. However to create that isolation that we want and a sense of danger we will use long shots or her walking the dog. This will enable the audience psychologically note that she is venerable. There will also be a range of over the shoulder shots and shot reverse shots as she interacts with different parts of the story line, for example: the dog; putting the lead on the dog; making tea. This makes the filming more interesting and keeps the viewer interested and keeps to the pace of the film.

Our aim is to be as creative as possible with our filming. We want every shot to be considered carefully to give the desired effect. Although when we come to filming various shots may be added or changed we have initial ideas.

When we see the main protagonist outside her house we want to use a point of view shot using a hand hold camera, this will show that she is being watched. The jiggered movements of the camera will infer the danger and hopefully the audience will then feel for the character wanting her too look directly at the bushes. Whilst we shoot the bathroom scene where she notices the man in the mirror we will use rapid editing. This will show the danger and set the mood, creating suspense. We will also use a variety of close ups and extreme close ups when we want the audience to feel like they are ‘in the film’ and try to build a connection with the characters. This will be mostly used around the protagonist as we don’t want to show his face straight up at first just what he is up to, and then in the opening credits. They will then be used to show the emotion on the girls face.

Using a Tri-pod will allow us create a variety of movements. We will tilt the camera up and down, tilting the camera up will create intimidation, power, triumph and determination. Shots such as Francesca walking into the house with the antagonist inside will show her intimidation. Tiling the camera down will create a High angle shot. This will be used to show vulnerability and danger.

We will pan the camera, which means to go from left to right. This avoids cutting shows the location and follows the route of a character in action.

We will use a cantered angle when Francesca the protagonist has been drugged and falls to the floor. This angles shows that she is drugged or hurt. It will show her confusion and leave her looking venerable which is what we want to create.

We are slightly limited in our choice of camera movements. We do not have access to a track or dolly if we wanted to follow a character down the street, instead we have to try and use hand held as steady as possible. A crane would also be useful in creating Arial shots so that we could establish isolation of the protagonist. One that can be used depending is the zoom/reverse zoom. On the cameras that we have zooming in whilst filming looks tacky and cheap but zooming in before filming has started can be used to show emotion on characters faces and iconography.

Costume Influence

We based our costume for Francesca on Prue Sorenson from the TV drama Bouquet of barbed wire. For Francesca as we said before we wanted to portray an innocent girl by making her character wear more natural coloured clothing. We wanted to show she was a soft, gentle and innocent character. This is similar to the character of Prue Sorenson.

We thought that the hair of Prue was very natural; it shows that her character isn’t interested in her appearance as much as to her personality. We also felt that it also gave an element of innocence as she seems to not followed the trends with hair straighteners and curlers. We thought that this type of hair would go well with Francesca and the character we wanted her to play.

The Clothing of Prue is also very important in creating her character. The clothes she wears are very earthy, delicate and create a sense of vulnerability about her. We can see in the picture of her here she wears a dusty pink cardigan which we can infer means that she is young and delicate. The pearls around her neck could also indicate wealth. We wanted to create the same kind of look with Francesca.

We Costumed Francesca to wear a light grey coat, and denim jeans. This is casual wear to carry out normal day tasks. We feel that we have created the character she plays very well and the costume played a very important role in establishing her character. We were able to make her character look innocent, and pure. This will also help the audience connect with her and see parts of her in themselves.

Iconography

Iconography is one of the most important aspects of any media related production. They are important in establishing the genre and setting, for example the use of blood with be seen and straight away seen as danger and a part of a thriller/horror. Whilst a doctors would have needles and heart machines, this would establish the setting. A heart machine would be inappropriate in the middle of the desert.
In our short film the use of props is extremely important in establishing each location, understanding the characters, and establishing the genre.

In the house of the victim, we will see normal households objects to show she lives here and give it that comfy warm feeling. A main object here is the mug. In this shot a mug is dropped and shatters to show distress, panic and danger. Destruction is also relevant to psychological Thrillers. We also see the main antagonist taking pills, this is the object that causes her fate, but this also infers that she has had some type of mental problem, as pills can be associated with illness or psychological problems. However we the see the girl walking with her pet dog, showing that she just tries to live a normal life carrying out normal everyday chores, the dog here is the reason that she leaves her house in the first place allowing the psycho to enter into her home. A lead here is also needed to control the dog when she is seen taking him for a walk.

From outside the house, there will be an Aston Martin parked. This is important in showing her social class, however this contrasts with the taking of the pills because we do not expect to see a white middle class girl taking pills as it assumes she is unhealthy.

In the psychos lair, props used are newspaper cuttings to cover the window and block the light. The scrappy cuttings and dark colours made the mood dull, dim and psychologically the audience will know that something bad is going to happen. In the room also there are to be pictures hanging from the walls of girls, they are scattered about and cut and parts of the faces of girls are crossed out. This can infer the mental state of the psycho. There is also use of scissors- a potentially dangerous object.

Institutional Analysis

Choosing Characters

Choosing who would play are main characters was an very important part that will contributes hugely to our final product. We had to consider and number of things when casting. The first most important was choosing people who we felt would not let us down, and would be able to film at various times. They also had to have the desired look that we wanted in order to portray the type of people that we wanted to show. For example we wanted to use some one with dark hair and defined features to show harshness, this would help in creating a character that would scare or intimidate the audience. We then had to consider who would be able to act, we are trying to move away from a ‘6th form’ production as much as possible. We therefore looked at people who had experience or who took Drama/Theatre as an A-level, this would also give them the confidence to carry out the scenes that we wanted to play.

The protagonist in our short film will be played by Tom Vale. He matches the brief of the character that we wanted very well. His very dark hair, pale skin and defined face, if shot correctly we can create him to be dark, mysterious, intimidating with the intention of making the audience fear this character. To make the character that tom is playing come to life we will dress him in dull, dirty black clothes. We want this character to be dark. The character does also not want to be seen by anyone or his victim to nothing can lead back to him if caught. This character is defined as a psycho, everything in terms of Mise en scene, cinematography and iconography must suggest this. Tom has also had previous acting experience as he was used in several of the Thrillers at AS, therefore he knows the expectations and from feedback we know that he is a good worker. Tom is also a member of our media group this year so he will be able to film at various time. This is also helpful as he will still be able to contribute idea’s of how he thinks it should be acted in a certain scene and whether or not he feels it works.

The second actor we used Is Francesca Thurston. Francesca plays the role of the female antagonist and the victim. Francesca will be good for the part as she has brown natural wavy hair, and wears no make up. This helps us to portray her innocence, the effect would not be the same if we had used a more artificial character. Francesca character will wear earthy clothes, again this will show her innocence and vulnerability, with the question why is this happening to her? The idea we have is to make the Francesca seem as innocent as possible and as much like any ordinary person with the idea that bad things can happen to good people. Francesca is well suited to the role because as a Theatre student who takes part in many of the school plays we do not doubt her ability to act the scenes well. Her dedication to production also ensure to us that she is a hard worker and will not let us down with filming.

Setting and Location

For our Media film we spent a lot of time discussing and deciding upon locations to film our final production, after many hours of deliberation we decided on these 4 locations:

Tom Vales house

Tom Vale lives in a private road, the houses are all nicely made and look like the place where you would expect the wealthier people of the nation to reside. This is the location we have chosen to be our Victims home. We feel this location gives our victim the look of someone doing well in life, and has very few worries, thus making it all the more shocking when she is kidnapped.

Hutton ‘Forest’

In our production there is a scene where our victim walks her dog whilst back at her home (Tom Vales House) the antagonist is breaking in and replacing the protagonist’s medication. We chose this location due to its footpaths which are commonly used by dog walkers and joggers so it gives the sense of a normal day in a normal life. The ‘Forest’, for lack of a better word, is less than 5 minutes away from our protagonist’s house which therefore gives us the opportunity to film the walk there as well, without changing locations and breaking the flow of events.

Tom’s Road

On the private road where Tom Vale lives we intend to shoot our protagonist walking out of her house onto the road where she will then begin to walk down the street. In these shots many other houses down the road will be visible, this will show our viewers more of the lifestyle our protagonist must have. We feel this is necessary because we really want the audience to see our character as a well-off, innocent girl.

Justine’s Room

In Justine Carron’s house there is a room we intend to use to film certain shots of our thriller. The room is the location where our antagonist keeps his kidnapped victims. The room displays certain qualities which could be interpreted as the room of a mentally ill person. The room looks ‘cold’ and feels secluded, the walls are a creamy white colour but due to the fact it is just painted bricks it looks like it is almost decaying, yet it is also strangely clean, thus giving the effect that the room is owned by a strange person who kept it clean for a special reason. The white could be seen as a connotation of the insanity of the antagonist, and also could display the innocence of our victims.
The shots we intend to film in this room are:
• Our protagonist bound and waking up in her new surroundings,
• A second victim is seen in the room,
• Our opening credits,
• Our antagonist frantically tearing and writing on pictures of our protagonist.

Props and Costumes

The main antagonist in our film is wearing a black jumper with a hood, dark jeans and black trainers. We have chosen this outfit because it maintains the characters element of mystery, his face cannot be seen clearly and little is known about him. Most of the shots obscure his face and the ones which don't show that his hood is up and his face is still not visible.

Props that this character uses include scissors to cut up pictures of his victims, both of these props create a sense of fear for the viewer in the way that they are portrayed. Also the shot where the pills are changed indicates that the main protagonist is in trouble.

To contradict this, the main protagonist is dressed in brighter colours and her face can be seen, showing her innocence and naivety.

She uses juxtaposing props, including a dog, which generates a joyful image for the viewer, and household objects, such as a hairbrush and a mug to demonstrate everyday life. One of the main props in the film is the car belonging to the girl, as she is kidnapped the antagonist is shown taking the keys to her car, he then throws the girl into the boot of the car, which is an Aston Martin, again showing her quality of life and what she is leaving behind.