Planning - props

Props are an important part in making a production seem realistic, we thought about specific props that would make the trailer seem as professional as possible.




We took the initiative to order some police tape online, we found that whilst researching conventional props in thriller films this was a popular choice. The use of the police tape makes our production much more realistic to the audience, we weaved the tape through a park fence to keep it in place.

Another prop we will be using is an empty alcohol bottle, we decided we would film an aerial shot of the bottle smashing on the floor - this begins to represent the instability of Sarah, it starts to show that she is relying on alcohol/drugs to help deal with her issues. This idea once again reflects the idea that she is irresponsible as she turns to an unhealthy habit that reflects her young age.

In our trailer we will be including shots of our main character researching and flicking through other missing children posters, she does this to try and find similarities between other missing children cases and Rosie's - this perhaps shows her intelligence and determination that contrasts with other actions and opinions throughout the trailer.
















Another important prop is this clock - we plan to show two shots of the clock, a before when it is intact to an after where it has been smashed. Time is an important concept in our trailer and is what our whole trailer is based on - a game of hide and seek counting down from 10. The smashed clock builds on the frustration of the main character as it will be implied that she is the one who smashed it. It also implies that Sarah is becoming more and more impatient and feels that time is becoming continuous.

Planning - change in cast

Finding a day to film when Alissa, Trinity and Trinity's guardian were all free was extremely difficult and could not be done, due to this we decided to change the cast of the young girl from Trinity to a 5 year old girl called Bluebell. Bluebell is Alissa's (our main character) younger sister, this solved many problems with filming. By changing to Bluebell it meant Alissa could act as her guardian and bring her when we film, it also means Bluebell has a familiar face to work with which will hopefully make her more comfortable resulting in a overall better performance.

Planning - finding a day to film

Finding a day when everyone was free to find caused more difficulty than we first thought, everyone in our group has a part time job plus sixth form work to do, this meant finding a day everyone was free took some time. To help sort this issue we created group chats between the cast and the group.

Communicating with the cast:

Communicating with the group

Planning - editing photos of suspects

A prop we decided we would use a lot throughout the trailer are suspect pictures in the form of prisoner mug shots - we would use these as a prop for the detective/mother to use and on a evidence board that we will also be creating.

To make the mug shots as real as possible we took photos of 3 potential suspects in our trailer - 2 men and 1 women. This adds variety and also shows that the capturer is still unknown in the investigation, we took photos of the 'suspects' facing both forwards and sideways as they do in real life. Once we took the photos we use Photoshop to manipulate these images onto a height chart and add a name plaque.

Planning - casting the roles

As a group we found the process of casting the roles extremely important, with some changes to the age of the main character (the mother) we decided to cast a younger female lead to portray the character of a young mother who is potentially irresponsible, leading to the incident of her daughter being taken. Casting was a difficult process as it involved trying to cast someone who fit the part but could also be available to film on the days the group can.

As a group we decided to cast Alissa as Sarah (the mother). Alissa is an A level drama student - we felt this would be beneficial for her and us, this would provide her with further experience and would allow us to have a believable protagonist. Alissa is 18 years old, our main character was decided to be 18 also, this also makes Alissa a good fit as Sarah. As Alissa attends the same sixth form as us, it means we can easily communicate with her and film any part at sixth form if needed.





The role of the daughter was a much harder process than casting Sarah. The daughter (Rosie) is suppose to be 4 years old, this meant we needed a young girl to portray her  - this created an issue of needed a parent or guardian to also be available the day of filming. Another factor was that Rosie needed to have similarities to Alissa.

We decided to cast Trinity as Rosie, she has blonde hair and blonde hair  which makes her become more believable as Alissa's daughter. Trinity is also a cute and likeable young girl, this means the audience will become more concerned when she disappears and desperate for her return - creating more anticipation.

Planning - changes to orginal character ideas

Originally we had discussed possible characters; a mother, child, grandmother and detective as the main characters that would be featured. We had discussed casting and originally planned to seek a women in her late 20's/early 30's to play the mother, however we later came up with a new twist to include due to casting issues.

As casting issues became apparent for the casting of a female adult for the mother we decided to change her age and make her an 18 year old mother - by doing this we created a new angle for our trailer that focuses on the fact that she is very young and perhaps irresponsible. From this we were going to have the grandmother character displaying her thoughts and disapproval of having a baby too young, however we now decided to add in numerous voice over's from unknown characters saying "we all told you not to have a baby that young" etc. By doing this it adds extra layers that build on the disapproval and struggles the main character has.

Planning - discussing possible locations

https://soundcloud.com/sophie-tonks-950389374/discussing-location-possibilites

Planning - mise en scene

Pitch of idea to class

https://youtu.be/Qg5UrvCnLf0?t=7

Target Audience

https://youtu.be/PmrqykLL180 

Planning - script for mother and detetive footage

Alissa (desperate and angry) - Detective Moor you HAVE to help me, I will do anything to find her, I mean anything

Detective (calm, cool and collective)- No Sarah, you will do nothing. As much as I hate to say it, this is not your business now.

Alissa - Not my business, how dare you! This is my daughter, my everything.

Detective - If you want to find Rosie, you must leave it to the police. They know what they are doing.

Alissa - what exactly do I do then? sit here and wait?

Detective - No you can help us. So how old was Rosie?

Alissa - she IS 4 years old.

Detective - and you are 18 I believe yes?

Alissa - yes, is that a problem?

Detective - no of course not...


This is a first draft for the short scene between the detective and the main character, the script needed to reflect the panic and concern the mother had over her child being missing.

Planning - script for news report voiceover

"Rosie Jones, aged 4, was reported missing Thursday the 13th of October. She was last seen at Priory Park, St Neots in Cambridgeshire, where she was seen with her Mother - Sarah Jones. The police have been looking for five days and are still appealing for witnesses to come forward with any information"

Towards the end of our trailer we plan to add in a voice over of a news reporter nationally reporting the disappearance of Rosie Jones. By doing this it creates a sense of panic and reflects the severity of the situation.
To create this short script we took inspiration from previous news articles and reports of missing children, by doing this it adds realism to the voiceover and makes it overall seem more believable to the audience.

Planning - Possible clip ideas

Clip Ideas

 

 

-  Mid Shot Mum and Daughter hugging, laughing- equilibrium

-  Close-up gloved hand taking young daughters hand

-  Extreme close-up hand over girls mouth

-  Handheld shot, perspective of hidden antagonist in bushes watching Mum and Daughter in park

-  P.O.V view out of car, pouring rain, pathetic fallacy.

-  Close up of police tape around park scene

-  Close up of Mums hand around man’s neck

-  Establishing shot of park

-  Two shots at beginning to establish

-  Camera placed on floor, little girls feet walking past

-  Teddy Bear on floor

-  Close up of torn clothing

-  Extreme close up of phone calling 999

-  Shot-revere-shot used in detective office- detective questioning the mum

-  Long, tracking shot of car driving-mum looking

-  Take pictures of suspects- mum looking at them

-  Two shot of Mum interrogating suspects-tied to chair-knives?

-  Over the shoulder shot Mum watching News-explaining daughters disappearance

-  Shot of Mum drinking alcohol, smoking etc- going crazy-desperation

-  Mum in street showing picture of daughter to strangers/passers-by

-  Aerial/crane shot of Mum in bed- not sleeping

-  Close up of someone smashing window

-  Close-ups of Mum picking up weapons etc

-  Two shot of Mum revealing the situation to her Mum- Diegtic conversation-Shouldn’t have had a child so early

-  Bible?

Planning - Initial ideas for our trailer

 

1) Mum and daughter go to the park

2) They start playing hide and seek - the mum counts and the daughter hides

3) The countdown from 10 begins

4) The daughter gets taken/ goes missing

5) Mum realises she is missing - calls the police etc.

6) Throughout the trailer is clips of the mum searching for the daughter

7) title = Ready or not here I come

Research - Conventions of the thriller genre

Gone girl trailer analysis

Gone girl was brought out in 2014, it is a crime thriller involving the disappearance of a man's wife, the high media attention and suspicion turns to Nick when he becomes a suspect.

 At 0.11 a clip of the main character nick appears, he is standing in front of a poster of his missing wife Amy, this is an important clip as it gives the first indication of the plot. The lighting of this clip is very dim, this begins to set the mood of the trailer, low key lighting works really well with thriller/horror films and has become a key element for this type of genre.

At 0.15 the first glimpse of the other main character appears, this shot shows Amy looking lovingly up at her husband whilst laying in bed. This gives the audience a first impression of their relationship, it shows love and affection, a happy marriage. However, low-key lighting is still used in this shot, reflecting that this is not a love story but a thriller.

This is another shot that builds on the idea that Nick and Amy are in a loving marriage, he has his finger on her chin pulling her up for a kiss, the setting is low key, this is implying a romantic setting.

At 0.24 we see a shot of Nick walking into his house, the mise en scene of this clip implies that Nick is an average man who led a normal life, his costume of jeans and a t-shirt accompanied by an open shirt is casual and is a typical outfit for a regular man leading his day to day life. The setting of his house is also that of an average house, from this shot it is clean and tidy - no indication of an issue.
However, at 0.26 there is a shot-reverse-shot of Nick to the living room to Nick again. The living room shows a smashed glass coffee table, this is the first clip that shows signs of a struggle and danger. This constrasts with the normalisation of Nick and his life from the first shot.

The shot at 0.32 is a slight high angle shot of Amy in the bath, she is looking at her husband storming out on her in a hostile manner, the angle of this shot gives the impression that Amy is vulnerable and has less power than Nick. The argument taking place in this scene gives the impression all is not what it seems between the once happy couple and thickens the plot by adding suspicion.
Another shot to add to this idea is at 0.45, the over the shoulder shot is slightly low angled towards Nick, this is once again implying that Nick holds the power, he also has his arms spread wide, this can be seen as threatening and the audience begins to suspect he could be responsible for his wife's disappearance.

 At 0.50 there is a mid shot of Nick, once again in front of the missing poster of his wife, however this time instead of having a concerned look on his face he is smiling, this is abnormal behaviour for a man with a missing wife and creates further suspicion for the audience.

At 1.01, half way through the trailer, it is put clearly that Nick is the prime suspect for his wife's disspearance by displaying a news report titled 'Nick Dunne wife killer?'.

Nevertheless, by 1.09 there is a point of view shot showing an envelope labelled 'clue one' in women's handwriting, this adds mystery to the thriller and makes the audience question the plot, did Nick kill her? Is this a game? This is the response a thriller wants from the audience as it keeps them interested and questioning.

Towards the end of the trailer is a close up of Amy underwater, this is implying she is or was drowning, adding more suspense to the plot of this film, contradicting the earlier message that the shot of the envelope gave, this is another plot twist that keeps the audience engaged.

One of the final shots is an establishing shot of a setting, it looks like a lake at sunset when the title 'gone girl' appears followed by 'October 3' in simple white text. The titles are simple yet effective at relating the same message that was given throughout the whole trailer that not all is as it seems. As the titles appear there is a non diegetic sound of Nick pleading his innocence, whilst eery music plays quietly underneath to add an uncomfortable vibe to the words.

Reseach - conventions of magazine covers

 

Research for film posters

As I will be creating my own film poster I have researched other film posters of the same genre -  thriller. Whilst researching the different posters I came across the main conventions, typically the colour scheme is kept with black white and red - this was the same for the examples shown on the left. Red is a typical convention or horror as if reflects blood, anger and revenge, all qualities linked to a thriller. Black is another obvious convention, black reflects darkness and the unknown and white is the colour the text is usually written in, this helps the information stand out. Another typical convention was low lighting to disguise the image on the poster, this adds mystery and intrigues the audience. As for the main image itself, the two most typical ones used are either a close up of the protagonist/antagonist or a long shot of an important location linked to the film, all of the images give a hint to what the plot is, a good example is scream, as it shows her covering her mouth as if she was going to scream. The last house of the left also shows the location of where the film is set, this intrigues the audience.

The information on a horror film poster is usually kept to a minimum, consisting of the title - this is typically made to stand out and the biggest text on the poster, the release date;on thriller film posters these are typically written in numbers rather than letters. Other details of the film, such as actors to add star influence and the crew are also included Another convention of a poster is a star rating and quotes such as "terrifying" from critics, this also intrigues individuals to watch the film.

Research - Creating a film poster

 

For this task I needed to make a poster for my opening sequence, prior to this task I conducted research on horror film posters - whilst doing this I found the detail was kept to a minimal with an image as the main attraction. I decided to again use the Photoshop as the software.  I chose this image again as it gives a hint to what the film was about but does not give too much away - this is what I commonly found with the image on the film poster.

 

I decided to have little detail - I chose to put the release date at the top so it stood out amongst the rest of the information. The title of the film is the biggest wording on the poster as it is the most important information - for both the date and title I decided to make them red, this is because red is commonly linked to a psychological thriller and it also stands out with the main image as the main image consists of different colours. The typical conventions of a film poster also include information of the cast and crew included in the film, this is found at the bottom of the poster. I chose the colour of this information to be white as it still needs to stand out but it is not directly linked to the horror genre such as the title.  The different text styles on Photoshop are limited but I managed to find one that both stands out and reflects the genre of the opening sequence.

 

 

Research - Creating my own magazine cover

 

For this task I had to create a magazine cover for my own opening sequence that I have previously made, my opening sequence was called stillborn and was a psychological thriller. Previous to this task I had conducted research into the conventions of a magazine cover, these were the typical conventions shown on a cover. For my own magazine cover I decided to make the cover a 'horror edition' to fit in with the genre of  my opening sequence - due to this I made the colour theme red and white. I chose these colours as I feel red is a typical convention of a psychological thriller/horror film as it is linked with blood and gore. Originally I was going to chose black as my second colour as black is also associated with psychological thriller/horror but I felt black did not stand out as well as white - this was still a magazine cover to I felt it needed to have clearly visible writing to attract the readers. 

 

There was a selection of different photos I could have used for this cover I chose this one as I like the angle the photo was take from and that it was a mid shot of the main character from my opening sequence  - whilst conducting research I found that the typical image on the front cover was a mid shot of the main character from the feature film.  

 

To add to the realism of the front cover I added extra information like cover lines of different horror films that would also be featured, a banner stating 'film magazine of the year' and little details such as a barcode.

Research - Recreating a magazine cover

 

For this task I had to recreate the FILM magazine cover featuring Sherlock as the main cover story. To complete this task I used the software Photoshop as it allowed me to manipulate the images and text to match the original cover, however this was my first attempt at using Photoshop and found some difficulties along the way. Photoshop was a little complicated to first navigate but I became familiar with the software quickly. The task I had some trouble with was attempting to match the text on my cover to the original - Photoshop did not have an identical text type so I found close matches and manipulated the style and size to best fit. My recreated magazine cover is not an exact match for the original but it was a good start and allowed me to become familiarised with the software for later tasks.

 

What makes us scared?