Initial idea 1

Initial Idea-1; By Ami King, Gaia Brooks, Annie Sperryn

Genre-Romantic Comedy

Story line idea:

The opening will show an attractive, strong man , who looks like the fun, layed back type. Contrasted with a slim, attractive, smart businesswoman. Our opening shots ideas were to have the two characters doing their morning routine, half the screen the man's, the other half  the woman's routine,  reflecting contrast between the two different personality's.

The idea behind it all is that they have both come out of relationships. The man has had many partners and can't keep a stable relationship, however the woman had a fiancee who left her, she now doesn't believe that she will ever find love again.

Characters Appearance:

• The woman- dresses in a light, smart, suits, with neat, silky brown hair whilst he has messy curly hair.
• The man- dresses in casual clothing (jeans, T-shirts etc) . He has a scruffy messy, but yet attractive appearance

Setting:

Women's setting:

• Tidy, smart rooms layout, contain white surfaces, white floor, large, pristine bed, limited colour patterns (whites, greys, pastel colours). Her Routine shown as very time scheduled, whereas the mans is contracted with a lazy, unorganised, morning routine.  

Mans setting:

• Messy background, containing basic colour schemes (browns and blacks greys). Cluttered selves, desks etc. We want his routine to reflects his image, so we would have him spread across a single bed, ignoring his alarm (reflects him o be lazy).

Foley Sound experiment

Example of a Foley sound experiment:

Conventions of Horror

Setting:

• Huge cities or run down ghost towns - anything that connotes isolation.
• Something with history behind it. For example, an abandoned house which a family died in.
• Stereotypical locations: Old house, the woods, the desert, a run down hospital, an old mental institute, a church yard, a summer camp, a large house (lots of hidden areas with large doors),a farm, underground and many more

Cinematography:

• High and low angles can connote fear and nightmares.
• POV shots are often used as they allow the audience to gather a greater feeling of fear. This could be done through the protagonists perspective (creating a feeling of tension and fear) or through the antagonists perspective (creating an anxious feeling for the audience).
• Hand held shots are popular within horror films as it makes it harder for the audience to work out what is going on - creating the feeling of terror.
• The use of depth of field makes it harder for the audience to spot the protagonist creeping up on the antagonist.
• A good use of sound is vital within a horror film.
• Sound effects, when used correctly, are very effective on the audience. Diegetic noise, such as foot steps and non-diegetic noise, such as a heartbeat combine and create a horror-like mood and atmosphere.
• Editing can create unsettling tension and suspense.

Narrative Structure:

• Always a hero/protagonist that has usually embarked on a mission to solve/kill problems.
• An event takes place which turns the killer insane (e.g. their childhood). The antagonist returns to their home town and stalks teenagers. The teenagers represent the immoral and usually come across stupid. Most the teenagers are slaughtered whilst there is usually one survivor, a female character. Character types:
• The main hero/protagonist
• The antagonist, often a monster, serial killer, mutant or alien.
• The immoral teenagers (always killed)
• Eerie children which are against the protagonist
• Good or bad police officers

TECHNICAL CODES:

• Camerawork is expressive and not natural. High and low angles can connate fear and nightmares.
• POV SHOTS; allow the audience to see through the protagonists eye. * Handheld shots are effective as it makes the shit difficult for the audience to make out what's happening.
• Disturbing sounds are highly important. For example ambient diegetic sounds and non diegetic sounds.
• Types of shots used; for example the use of ECU on a victims face can help the audience identify with fear.
• Editing can create suspense and tension.

Talent Scouting

Talent Scouting

CHOOSING OUR ACTOR AND ACTRESSES:

·         We were looking for 3 girls; considering their looks, body type, age, and the level of acting capability;

·         The type of actresses we were looking for had to look plain average teenage girls. In terms of features we wanted pail faces and dark haired actresses. This would help reflect that protagonist has victimised certain types of victims that have similar features. We wanted to find girls that could act out being a victim effectively, showing; fear, anxiety, and being able to act traumatised.

The actresses we chose, Maeve Wighmam, Lily Fulton, and Ami King; all achieved GCSE Drama, which meant they fulfilled our acting standards.

·         For the male Actor, we struggled choosing the correct protagonist. We wanted a male figure with large body features; e.g. hands, face, wide shoulders. Who also had the confidence to act with strong facial and body language. We had to re pick our actor as the first, Alfie Scopes had the correct features however wasn’t confident enough to fulfil our protagonist as this role centred our whole opening. The actor we used in the end was Archie King, who fulfilled all our standards.

CHOOSING YOUNG GIRLS FOR OUR LULLABY:

·         When finding girls to record for the lullaby we ensured we chose girls of a very young age, with quiet and innocent sounding voices.

• We decided as a group it was probably easiest to get the girls from school as outside of school it may be hard to get enough of the specific aged girls especially all at the same time. We collected a group five helpful and egger students from year seven, who would be reliable and fit the criteria. The girls we finished with were; Bo Buckley, Francesca Searle, Ife Odubela, Kaia Noble, Annabelle Hales. 

Props list

Long in advance of filming (to maintain organised and so we had all props on filming days) , as a group we collected the following props;

Prop	Where we got hold of prop
·         Bones	·         Science lab at Weald of Kent
·         Teeth	·         Science lab at Weald of Kent
·         Skulls	·         Science lab at Weald of Kent
·         Black desk chair	·         DT department at Weald of Kent
·         Old science/ history books	·         Collected from all our houses
·         Wooden Shelves	·         Ami’s House
·         Nails	·         Ami’s House
·         Plyers	·         Ami’s House
·         Spades	·         Ami’s House
·         Syringe	·         Gaia’s Mum’s hospital
·         Petri-dish	·         Gaia’s Mum’s hospital
·         Needles	·         Gaia’s Mum’s hospital
·         Plastic Gloves	·         Gaia’s Mum’s hospital
·         Fake Blood, toilet paper & bandages	·         Home-made, ingredients bought from supermarket
·         Necklaces, Rings, Bus passes, Passport photographs, personal possessions.	·         Collected from actresses playing the victim’s

Some of our props and resources used in our final product that would be too expensive to buy in a store, our group borrowed from the science labs at Weald of Kent (our school). We had to sign out the props in our names, in case any were lost or damaged. Other props used we found lying around my house and garage, that were easily accessible. For some of our props we had to gather; personal possessions, hair, old teeth, makeup etc from our houses and friends.  Conveniently Gaia's mum is a nurse in a hospital so she could get hold of some props that would be hard to access otherwise, for example syringes. From the local supermarket near my house we bought; Coco powder, Flour, food colouring for the fake blood. We had to buy; Bandages, white plasters, and lots of toilet paper from Boots for some of our costumes. With all these props our group could create an eerie and dramatic mood and atmosphere of our horror movie opening.  

Planning our film's title; "Grind"

Mind map; By Ami King (me)

The mind map shows how we came to the conclusion of the title "Grind". We felt that it related to our narrative being based around young girls taken into captivity. The title "Grind is short and precise and grabs the audiences attention.

Title in our film opening;

Iconic Sounds of Horror

Storyboard alterations (FINAL STORYBOARD)

FINAL STORYBOARD

The original storyboard bellow looked very basic; black and white, little depth, no colour scheme. We felt this didn't fully represent our initial ideas. I scanned through the original storyboard and added full colour and black marker pen to define the drawings, and changed any alternations. This enabled our work to be presented in the highest standard, and more professionally.

ORIGINAL STORYBOARD

UPDATED FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT

Scene Number:

1   Moving mid POV shot showing actress Maeve Wigwam and Protection symbol zoomed in on over the shoulder shot. 
     (Duration; 3 seconds)
     (Sound; Lullaby verse 1 introduced)
     (Location; Garage, shot against brick wall)

2  Extreme close up of victim's (Actress Ami King) face& upper body wrapped in bandages (Eyes open)

     (Duration; 4 seconds)
     (Sound; Lullaby Continues)
     (Location; Garage, shot against brick wall)

3  Moving Close up POV shot of Actress Lily Fulton
     (Duration; 1 second)
     (Sound; Lullaby continues)
     (Location; Garage, shot against Brick wall)  

4   Close up of plyers with blood stains on them

     (Duration;1 second)
     (Sound; Lullaby Continues softly) 
      (Location; Garage floor)

3   Moving Mid POV shot Of Actress Maeve Wigwam trembling. 
     (Duration; 4 Seconds)
     (Sound; Lullaby continues)
     (Location; Garage, shot against brick wall)

 4     Close up shot of petri Dish with blood and syringe in. Teeth falling into the dish.

      (Duration; 3 seconds)
      (Sound; Lullaby continues)
      (Location; Garage floor)

5    Mid Continuous POV shot... of Actress Lily Fulton looking terrified.
      (Duration;1 second)
      (Sound; lullaby continues)
      (Location; Garage, shot against brick wall)

6    Continuous Ariel close up shot... of table full of victim's personal belongings

      (Duration; 11 seconds)
      (Layered sound; lullaby continues, heavy breathing introduced.)
      (Location; Inside house, shot against wooden table)

7  Extreme close up POV shot of victim (actress Maeve Wigmam)
    (Duration; 0.5 second)
    (Sound; heavy breathing continued)
    (Location; Garage, shot against brick wall)

8  Close up shot of hand (lily Fulton's) grapping chair handle.

     (Duration; 0.5 seconds)
     (Sound; heavy breathing continued)
     (Location; Garage, shot against brick wall)

9   Close up shot of 1 victims personal possession's  

      (Duration; 2 seconds)

      (Sound; 1 second= heavy breathing, 1 second= young girl saying "SHHHH")
      (Location; inside house, shot against wooden table)

10  Continuous close up POV shot of victim (Lily Fulton) looking terrified.
       (Duration; 6 seconds)
       (Sound; Girl 1 "Daddy won't like that" Girl 2, "STOP, He's coming",)
       (Location; Garage, shot against brick wall)

11  Mid Shot of cluttered shelf with; photos, nails, hammers, gloves, blood, plyers etc.
       (Duration; 1 second)
       (Sound; heavy breathing).
       (Location; Garage)

12  Continuous Mid POV shot revealing 2 victims (Maeve& Lily).
       (Duration; 11 seconds)
       (Sound; Heavy Breathing, Lullaby verse 2 over layered.)
       (Location; Garage, shot against brick wall)
       
13  Layered shots; 1)Antagonist clenching fists 2) Shot of the shelf. 
       (Duration; 3 Seconds)
       (Layered Sound; Lullaby continues, Heart beating, Heavy breathing) 
       (Locations; Shot 1) woods, Shot 2;  Garage)
         
14  Mid Shot of cluttered shelf with; photos, nails, hammers, gloves, blood, plyers etc.
      (Duration; 6 seconds)
      (Layered Sound; Lullaby continues, Heart beating, Heavy breathing) 
      (Location; Garage)

15  Close up Shot of area on a shelf showing; victim's photograph, Nails, Blood, Plyers.
       (Duration; 2 seconds)
       (Layered sound; "Help me, Help" continuously played, heavy breathing)
       (Location; Garage)

16  Low angle 360 turn of shot of sky
       (Duration; 3 seconds)
       (Layered sound; "Help me, Help" continuously played, heavy breathing)
       (Location; woods)

17 Close up Shot of area on a shelf showing; victim's photograph, Nails, Blood, Plyers.
       (Duration; 1 seconds)
       (Sound; Young girls humming, Heart beat) 
       (Location; Garage)

18  Over layered shots; Shot 1) Close up shot of antagonist taking gloves, Shot 2) Close up shot of nails
       (Duration; 4 Seconds)
       (Sound; Humming continues)
       (Locations; shot 1) Woods, Shot 2) Garage)

19  Mid shot of petri dish containing; blood, syringe, teeth, with more teeth being dropped in.
       (Duration; 4 seconds)
       (Layered sound; humming continues, Heavy breathing)
       (Location; Garage floor)

20  Close up of plyers
        (Duration; 0.5 seconds)
        (Layered Sound; humming continued, heavy breathing)
        (Location; Garage floor)

21 Close up shot of massive plyers opening with blood on.
       (Duration; 0.5 seconds)
       (Layered Sound; humming continued, heavy breathing)
       (Location; Garage floor)

22  Mid shot of hand gripping chair
       (Duration; 0.5 seconds)
       (Layered Sound; humming continued, heavy breathing)
       (Location; Garage, shot against brick wall)   

23  Mid shot of Victim (Actress, Lily Fulton) looking anxious then running out of shot. 
       (Duration; 4 seconds)
       (Layered Sound; humming continued, heart beat)
       (Location; Garage, shot against brick wall containing photos and spades hung on the wall)   

24  Mid shot of petri dish containing blood, syringe, teeth
       (Duration; 6 seconds)
       (Sound; Heart beating)
       (Location; Garage floor) 

25  Low Mid shot of antagonist dropping plyers and walking way
       (Duration; 9 seconds)
       (Layered Sound; humming continued, heart beating, screams)
       (Location; woods)

26  Mid Shot of cluttered shelf with; photos, nails, hammers, gloves, blood, books etc.  
       (Duration; 8 seconds)
       (Layered Sound; humming continued, heavy breathing)
       (Location; Garage)

27  Close up shot of massive plyers with blood on opening and closing.         (Duration; 4 seconds)
       (Sound; heavy breathing)
       (Location; Garage floor)

28  Continuous shot moving from close to mid shot of victim (Actress Ami King) screaming wrapped in bandages.
       (Duration; 5 seconds)
       (Layered Sound; Screaming, heart beating)
       (Location; Garage, shot against brick wall)

29  Extreme close up shot of spade with blood dripping off it      
       (Duration; 2 seconds)
       (Sound; silence)
       (Location; Garage, shot against brick wall)

30  Continuous Low angle shot, from the ground to the sky, 360 spin of the sky

       (Duration; 8 seconds)

       (Layered Sound; footsteps, screaming, heart beating)
       (Location; wood)