In my AS year of Film Studies we looked at Internal and External characters- especially in Dracula (1933) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). In 1933 the villain is external as he is not in the 'normal' society where as in 1992 he is both internal and external as he an outsider living in a house away from everyone but he also enters the society as a normal man.
I thought that we could apply this theory to our film trailer: the villain will be seen as an external character but also internal as he has been in the victim's life at one point. The external element will come from shots we see of them over looking the victim in her day to day life.
Sunday, 21 October 2012
Research and Planning: Treatment
- Montage of main character/victim with friends and doing other various things that she enjoys doing- this is before the stalking begings so this is a happier time. However, there will be a few very short shots that will include quite odd things happening to the main character.
- POV shots from the villain's point of view in the shed scene as they are not going to be revealed.
- Ambiguity over the stalker- there is three possible villains: A past tutor who is obsessed with the character, a member of the friendship group who begins to act stranger, a creepy ex-boyfriend who hasn't quite got over the break-up.
- Close-up of the masked stalker
- High key lighting at the beginning and then switches to low key to show the shift in mood and events.
- Ending: Struggle between the victim and villain in an underground car park
- A wooden shed includes pictures of the victim that the stalker has collected- he has a shrine for her.
- Medium shots and long shots so that we do not give away the identity of the stalker.
- Jump cuts towards the end of the trailer that show the villain being in one place and then another in a short amount of time- it shows that they are everywhere and there is no escape for the victim.
Research and Planning: Word It Out
I used this website to document some of the themes associated with our film.
Research and Planning: Screen Stockport Film Festival
On 19/10/12 myself and a few other members of our media class attended a local film festival where student films were being shown and judged by a panel of professions in the industry. First of all we had a talk from the co founder of IMDB which I found very interesting. Then the films were screened and i used this as an opportunity to get inspiration for my group's trailer as we are in the same circumstances as them. Most were filmed on location which is what we plan to do as we do not have access to a studio. Some of the storylines were very interesting for example there was a human-like take on 'Winnie The Pooh' which in the end won the competition. There was also a short film where two characters were inside a video game- I though the idea was simple yet effective.
Thursday, 18 October 2012
Research and Planning: Masked Characters
After having a discussion with my group we decided that we did not want the villain to be revealed so thought that using a mask to hide their identity would be appropriate. By using mask we cannot see the characters facial features clearly so there will be ambiguity surrounding them. Personally, I think that the character's above are frightening so involving something similiar to this in our film trailer will be effective. I think that the masks from 'The Strangers' or similiar would be easier to use as we do not have the tools or money to create mask like from 'Saw' and the mask from 'Scream' is used to scare more than it is to hide an identity although it does this very well also. I think the masks from The Strangers are easier ago use as it seems as though the women characters bought them from a local shop and the male is wearing a bag but they are frightening which is effective. The stalker in our film mainly wants to hide their identity so that the victim and the audience do not know who they are.
Research and Planning: Title design ideas
This is my favourite of the possible names we have come up with so far so i decided to see what it would look like as an actual design for the trailer and film poster. I used a deep red as this is the main colour that was mentioned during our audience feedback. The font is from dafont.com and it is from the typewriting section of the website, the capital letters make the text stand out more and it makes the plot line seem serious and scary.
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