Monday, 14 December 2009
Old Storyboards
After reading through our storyboards and discussing with Luke and Matt, we decided as a group that we needed to work a lot harder to make our narrative more realistic and origonal. 
Friday, 11 December 2009
Group Logo
This is a possible idea for our production logo. We want to have a logo which stands out but also goes with the concept of children.Taking this into acount we have come up with this idea, using childish pastel colours in a messy but effectivly placed way.
In addition to this we also have other ideas, however we need to have a further group discussion to allocate a logo for our group.
Locations
On Thursday afternoon during our media lesson, we went out as a group in the minibus with Adam to take photos of the locations for our sequence.
This is a photo of the house we are going to use in our thriller shoot. As a group we decided this location was perfect as the house looks very eery and creepy looking. As director of photography, Tom Cunningham, a member in my group, was in charge of taking the photographs for the group to reflect back onto. we choose this building in particular because it fits in with the horror/thriller stereotype. Also, they use a similar building in 'The Others' and 'The Orphanage'.
This is a photograph of a door on a side building of the house which the group liked, in particular Stephanie. we thought that it could have worked as the entrance to the cellar. However we decided that it would not be good to use as it did not fit with look of the house and we wanted stairs going down to make it more thriller-like and effective.
This is a photo of the house we are going to use in our thriller shoot. As a group we decided this location was perfect as the house looks very eery and creepy looking. As director of photography, Tom Cunningham, a member in my group, was in charge of taking the photographs for the group to reflect back onto. we choose this building in particular because it fits in with the horror/thriller stereotype. Also, they use a similar building in 'The Others' and 'The Orphanage'.
This is a photograph of a door on a side building of the house which the group liked, in particular Stephanie. we thought that it could have worked as the entrance to the cellar. However we decided that it would not be good to use as it did not fit with look of the house and we wanted stairs going down to make it more thriller-like and effective.
My Opinion of My Group Version
In my opinion our new idea is better. Although, when we first found out that our idea would not work well, we were upset. However, I now feel that our new idea will work better because it is much more effective, it makes sense and includes all the aspects of a thriller. It is interesting because we explore the theme of schizophrenia which builds tension and as a group we have learnt about the condition and applied this knowledge to our sequence.
Another factor which makes our sequence effective is the way that the main male character behaves. It builds tension and is scary because the audience does not know how he will act next. Another thing that makes this sequence good is that his wife doesn’t know that he has another life, but we do and therefore it gives the audience a sense of excitement. It holds together because the man does what he does because of the disfigurement of his brother’s face.
I think that with more money, more time, and more development, this film would get the ‘green light’. I think that with these resources it could reach Warner Bros. in Hollywood. The use of CGI for the man’s brother’s face along with a bit of makeup would help to build an effective disfigurement. I think that with more development of the narrative, explosions may fit in well which could be made using models and CGI. Although A British Film Company would be able to produce this film I think that it is Hollywood who would do this more effectively.
Another factor which makes our sequence effective is the way that the main male character behaves. It builds tension and is scary because the audience does not know how he will act next. Another thing that makes this sequence good is that his wife doesn’t know that he has another life, but we do and therefore it gives the audience a sense of excitement. It holds together because the man does what he does because of the disfigurement of his brother’s face.
I think that with more money, more time, and more development, this film would get the ‘green light’. I think that with these resources it could reach Warner Bros. in Hollywood. The use of CGI for the man’s brother’s face along with a bit of makeup would help to build an effective disfigurement. I think that with more development of the narrative, explosions may fit in well which could be made using models and CGI. Although A British Film Company would be able to produce this film I think that it is Hollywood who would do this more effectively.
Three Act Treatment
ACT ONE
1. Man steps out of his car in front of a scary looking building. He is isolated and in the dark. He walks into his ‘workshop’ where all of his tools are laid out neatly on a table. He starts ripping bed linen up, stabs knifes through to make eye holes and stitching them back together again to make masks.
2. The man picks up the mask, and walks down a corridor towards a trap door. He opens the trap door and walks down the spiral staircase. He lights a match which lights the candle. Then we see a girl tied up against a wall and she is whimpering. She wets herself and then the camera tilts up to see the girls face. Suddenly the man pulls the mask over the girls face and the title appears.
3. The man puts the child into a cage with lots of other children who are all wearing masks. Suddenly one child pulls off his mask and the man gets very aggressive. He takes out his knife and pulls the mask back over the head of the child. Full of anger, he runs out to his workshop where there are family pictures on the wall. In one, he and his brother are standing between his parents. However his brother’s face is deformed. Next to this photo there are newspaper articles about a car crash.
4. The man looks to the left and we see his brother sitting in a corner, unable to move with a mask in front of his face. However we can see his face is deformed because there are holes and rips in the mask. Suddenly we see lights flash down the corridor and the man grabs his brother and runs away.
ACT TWO
5. A female police officer called Annie comes to rescue the children in the cage and sees the pictures on the wall, but the pictures of the man are gone. The police officer is angry and says ‘There’s nothing I can do right now, we can’t find him’. She steps into her car and drives home for dinner with her husband. However when he greets her, we see that in fact it is the man who captures the children.
6. At that moment we realise that the man is a schizophrenic. The man says very nervously, ‘Did you find anything new?’ while having dinner. His wife answers, ‘No not yet, but we found a picture of a family’. The man gets very scared and tells his wife that he isn’t feeling very well. He gets up runs outside and jumps into the car and drives away.
7. On his drive, he gets flashbacks of himself with his brother. He is disgusted at the sight of his brother’s disfigurement, so he takes the bed sheets covers his face to hide it. Suddenly his phone rings and his wife is screaming ‘Look, look... I know it all of it – your brother is here... HELP!!’
ACT THREE
8. The man is driving the car and suddenly stops, he doesn’t know what to do, but then he spins the car around and goes back to the house to rescue his wife.
9. As he enters back into his house, he sees his wife tied up on a chair unable to move and his brother is standing in front of her, no longer wearing a mask. His brother smiles at him and says ‘Hello Brother’. The man is still close with his brother, so he thinks of ways to save his wife. However, as he looks into the face of his brother, he changes mind and looks back to his wife with an evil facial expression. He looks at the knife in his brother’s hand and says ‘Give it to me, let’s do it together’.
10. Annie screams and tries to get away as her husband says, ‘Let me do it’. The man hands the knife to his brother and he walks towards Annie. However he sets her free and they both walk towards the main male character (referred to throughout as ‘the man’). His wife says, ‘I’ve always known who you were Tom’. She walks towards him and cuts his face open, leaving it bleeding. She rips up bed sheets which were neatly folded after coming out the tumble dryer just hours before, and places it over his face.The man’s brother says ‘Good job darling’, kisses her, then stabs her in the heart and leaves the house.
1. Man steps out of his car in front of a scary looking building. He is isolated and in the dark. He walks into his ‘workshop’ where all of his tools are laid out neatly on a table. He starts ripping bed linen up, stabs knifes through to make eye holes and stitching them back together again to make masks.
2. The man picks up the mask, and walks down a corridor towards a trap door. He opens the trap door and walks down the spiral staircase. He lights a match which lights the candle. Then we see a girl tied up against a wall and she is whimpering. She wets herself and then the camera tilts up to see the girls face. Suddenly the man pulls the mask over the girls face and the title appears.
3. The man puts the child into a cage with lots of other children who are all wearing masks. Suddenly one child pulls off his mask and the man gets very aggressive. He takes out his knife and pulls the mask back over the head of the child. Full of anger, he runs out to his workshop where there are family pictures on the wall. In one, he and his brother are standing between his parents. However his brother’s face is deformed. Next to this photo there are newspaper articles about a car crash.
4. The man looks to the left and we see his brother sitting in a corner, unable to move with a mask in front of his face. However we can see his face is deformed because there are holes and rips in the mask. Suddenly we see lights flash down the corridor and the man grabs his brother and runs away.
ACT TWO
5. A female police officer called Annie comes to rescue the children in the cage and sees the pictures on the wall, but the pictures of the man are gone. The police officer is angry and says ‘There’s nothing I can do right now, we can’t find him’. She steps into her car and drives home for dinner with her husband. However when he greets her, we see that in fact it is the man who captures the children.
6. At that moment we realise that the man is a schizophrenic. The man says very nervously, ‘Did you find anything new?’ while having dinner. His wife answers, ‘No not yet, but we found a picture of a family’. The man gets very scared and tells his wife that he isn’t feeling very well. He gets up runs outside and jumps into the car and drives away.
7. On his drive, he gets flashbacks of himself with his brother. He is disgusted at the sight of his brother’s disfigurement, so he takes the bed sheets covers his face to hide it. Suddenly his phone rings and his wife is screaming ‘Look, look... I know it all of it – your brother is here... HELP!!’
ACT THREE
8. The man is driving the car and suddenly stops, he doesn’t know what to do, but then he spins the car around and goes back to the house to rescue his wife.
9. As he enters back into his house, he sees his wife tied up on a chair unable to move and his brother is standing in front of her, no longer wearing a mask. His brother smiles at him and says ‘Hello Brother’. The man is still close with his brother, so he thinks of ways to save his wife. However, as he looks into the face of his brother, he changes mind and looks back to his wife with an evil facial expression. He looks at the knife in his brother’s hand and says ‘Give it to me, let’s do it together’.
10. Annie screams and tries to get away as her husband says, ‘Let me do it’. The man hands the knife to his brother and he walks towards Annie. However he sets her free and they both walk towards the main male character (referred to throughout as ‘the man’). His wife says, ‘I’ve always known who you were Tom’. She walks towards him and cuts his face open, leaving it bleeding. She rips up bed sheets which were neatly folded after coming out the tumble dryer just hours before, and places it over his face.The man’s brother says ‘Good job darling’, kisses her, then stabs her in the heart and leaves the house.
Thursday, 10 December 2009
What is a Film Treatment?
Today, we learnt about Film Treatments. What they are and why they are necessary.
A Film Treatment is necessary because it allows the screenwriter to communicate their screenplay idea in a brief but compelling way, it is also a powerful and creative tool. Writing a Treatment is a fast way to test out an idea before it is transformed into a script because it allows a screenwriter some distance between the idea and the script.
It can also help the screenwriter to work out problems and determine if the narrative holds up. Also the narrative can then be developed according to what the people want to see. The length of a treatment is appropriate to the final product. It is necessary to communicate the narrative and the treatment should tell the whole story and focus on the highlights.
A treatment is a document which is a scene by scene breakdown of the actual script. A Treatment should read like a short story and should be written in the present tense. It should present the entire story with its end and maybe even use key scenes and some dialogue from the screenplay that it’s based on.
It should include a working title, name and contact information of the writer. Also an introduction to the key characters and answer the questions ‘who, what, when, why and where’. Another important aspect is that it should break up the story into three parts which are the foundation stores for the making of the narrative.
· Act 1 - Situation, characters, conflict is introduced.
· Act 2 - Conflict begins and expands until it reaches a crisis
· Act 3 - Resolution; conflict rises to one more crisis and then it is resolved .
A Film Treatment is necessary because it allows the screenwriter to communicate their screenplay idea in a brief but compelling way, it is also a powerful and creative tool. Writing a Treatment is a fast way to test out an idea before it is transformed into a script because it allows a screenwriter some distance between the idea and the script.
It can also help the screenwriter to work out problems and determine if the narrative holds up. Also the narrative can then be developed according to what the people want to see. The length of a treatment is appropriate to the final product. It is necessary to communicate the narrative and the treatment should tell the whole story and focus on the highlights.
A treatment is a document which is a scene by scene breakdown of the actual script. A Treatment should read like a short story and should be written in the present tense. It should present the entire story with its end and maybe even use key scenes and some dialogue from the screenplay that it’s based on.
It should include a working title, name and contact information of the writer. Also an introduction to the key characters and answer the questions ‘who, what, when, why and where’. Another important aspect is that it should break up the story into three parts which are the foundation stores for the making of the narrative.
· Act 1 - Situation, characters, conflict is introduced.
· Act 2 - Conflict begins and expands until it reaches a crisis
· Act 3 - Resolution; conflict rises to one more crisis and then it is resolved .
The Process of Development Which lead to our Final Version
Today we were criticized for the group thriller idea we initially had. Therefore we had to adjust our idea to make it better and less clichéd. The most important criticism was the fact that the storyline didn’t really make a lot of sense. Therefore, recently we have had a lot of work to do. As a group we had a long think about our new idea. Before the criticisms we were going to have a man get out of his car in front of a creepy looking house. Then, for the man to look around, hear scary noises and see flashing lights in front of the house. Then he would go back to his car scared and have flashbacks of children in potato sack masks which are being stitched. Then he sits back in his car and drives away until his car headlights hit a child with a potato sack mask in the centre of a road. The man blinks and the child is gone. Then the camera tracks into the windscreen of the car and the masked child is sitting in the back seat.
We were criticized a lot because it was felt that the idea was clichéd and had happened too often (Friday 13th, The Orphanage, Strangers). Another criticism was that potato sacks didn’t fit into our environment. Potato sacks are more used for a farmer environment.
Our new sequence consists of:A man gets out of a car and walks towards the creepy looking house. He walks down to steps towards his ‘workshop’ with his tools. Then we had a montage of the man ripping bed sheets up, picking up a knife and stabbing it through the sheets for eye holes but then sewing these back up. During this sequence the titles will be flashed in. After he has done this, he walks along a corridor and opens a trap door to where he goes down a spiral staircase. It is pitch black and he lights a match. The light from the match catches girl’s legs and then the girl is so scared that she wets herself. The camera tilts upwards and we see the girl’s face. At this point the man pulls the mask over the girl and the girl scream. Then the title of the film appears.
We were criticized a lot because it was felt that the idea was clichéd and had happened too often (Friday 13th, The Orphanage, Strangers). Another criticism was that potato sacks didn’t fit into our environment. Potato sacks are more used for a farmer environment.
Our new sequence consists of:A man gets out of a car and walks towards the creepy looking house. He walks down to steps towards his ‘workshop’ with his tools. Then we had a montage of the man ripping bed sheets up, picking up a knife and stabbing it through the sheets for eye holes but then sewing these back up. During this sequence the titles will be flashed in. After he has done this, he walks along a corridor and opens a trap door to where he goes down a spiral staircase. It is pitch black and he lights a match. The light from the match catches girl’s legs and then the girl is so scared that she wets herself. The camera tilts upwards and we see the girl’s face. At this point the man pulls the mask over the girl and the girl scream. Then the title of the film appears.
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