Progress report: Week beginning 02/03/2009

This week we have finished storyboarding our opening sequence which will be posted on Monday. We have also found the car we will be using, an actor to play the Caretaker and Mindy. We haven't however found a person to play the disturbed gynaecologist as it has proven quite difficult to persuade someone to play that role due to the type of character and the necessity to dress up. However on the whole, we are happy with the progress made and are due to start shooting next week.

Character Profile

We have produced a character profile so that we are able to have a clearer understanding of the characters.

Mindy

• 14 years old
• Dressed in school uniform - long skirt, dolly shoes, bow in hair, blonde hair
• Bright student, teachers favourite
• Polite, pleasant, well spoken
• Sometimes stays after school to help out

Stanley Parker

• 30 years old
• Qualified gynaecologist
• Living in central London with his ill mother
• Fathers absences leads to deep rooted frustrations
• Obsession with young females

The care taker

• 46 years old
• Introvert personality
• Has been working as the care taker for nearly 20 years
• Very layed back

Treatment

After recieving feedback from the previous Treatment Leena and I have come up with the second and final Treatment.

Stanley Parker is a 30 year old qualified gynacologist living in central London with his terminally ill mother. His traumatic upbringing in the constant presence of his mother's frequent lesbian lovers and lacking a father figure lead him to his present obsession with female bodies.

In the basement of his Edwardian house where he spends most of his nights, is a private laboratory in which he undertakes indepth research and inhumain opperations. His usual subjects being young innocent girls.

Progress and plan: Week beginning 02/03/09

So far, we have completed the Treatment, composed a character profile for the two main characters, storyboarded the openning sequence and completed our audience and product research.

This week the plan is to have the Film treatment posted, along with the character profile. We also want to begin to approach people asking them to partake in our production. Due to our character profile we have a firm idea of what type of person we need, this has made desicion making clearer and we have a good idea of what exactly we are looking for.

We will also begin to collect props, and organise which teacher's car we can use for our shooting.

Product research

After watching the opening sequence of Gothika several times, I noticed the use of camera movement and long shot duration were used when introducing Halle Berry, the protagonist. We have decided to adopt the long shot duration, panning movement and mid shots in order to introduce the character. We feel that not only will the mid-shot set the setting and act as the establishing shot, but it will also allow the audience to familiarise with Mindy.






Although I am aware I was requested to discussed one film only, The Collateral demonstrates good use of sound (2.28 minutes into the clip). As our opening sequence includes a car we are likely to borrow this technique, we feel the sudden silence would add greatly to the atmosphere and act as a symbol for the isolation Mindy is about to experience. This will also provide us with the opportunity to contrast the silence with louder music to indicate danger as the car is shown driving off.

Audience research

We each composed a questionnaire in order to find out what our audience find appealing in the opening of a Thriller. We have decided that our Thriller would be certificate 15, therefore I handed out my questionnaire randomly to 13 people aged between 16 and 37 with an interest in Thriller movies. My results are as followed:One of the questions asked "What type of music do you find most effective in creating the atmosphere in the opening of a Thriller?" They had a choice of Classical, Current, Pop and Incidental music. No one chose Pop, whilst the majority chose classical. This will influence the desicion we make when adding music to our opening sequence. "Q7. Do you prefer to have an understanding of the main character or do you prefer them to remain enigmatic. Please state why" The majority of the people asked prefered the main character to remain enigmatic.

Other people said "I prefer to develop an understanding as the film goes on. You don't have to understand everything about the character- some should be left to interpretation" and "I think it's useful to have a little understanding of the main character but for there to be an element of their personality/ history to remain enigmatic and mysterious"

This question has informed us at to what dialogue to include in the opening sequence, It has also influenced our choice of shots.We have decided to allow the audience to familiarise with the victim in order to encourage the viewer to feel sympathetic towards them, the protagonist, who is psychotic is left enigmatic to the viewer. However if the film where to continue then his history and background (as written in the Treatment) would be uncovered.

The majority of people said they preferred a mentally disturbed character. Meanwhile one person said the preferred if the character was "three dimensional," as they where "believable". Although it could be argued that 'Stanley' the protagonist is not entirely believable (according to the Treatment) nothing dramatic happens in the opening sequence and nor do the viewers obtain a good opinion of him that could suggest his character in not believable.

Our questionnaire allowed us to make informed decisions, with the audience research available we can now ensure we cater to the wishes of the viewers.

Half-Term: Treatment

Unfortunately after receiving feedback from my teacher I've decided to start my treatment again. My treatment does not show any features of a psychological thriller. I misunderstood the purpose of a treatment, I later learnt that it is to show the director in a bid to sell the script to them. Below is the first draft of the treatment:

Mindy is a young enthusiastic student, always coming top of her class and offers charity in her free time. Mindy Brown, one of three children to Elizabeth and William Brown (both successful doctors) spent the first five years of her life in east Africa whilst her parents worked voluntarily for the impoverished.

However despite being a bright young girl, coming from a humble background. Mindy's naivety can lead her into grave danger.

Once a week on a Thursday, Mindy stays behind to tidy up after book club. She is usually the last person to leave the school and eventually Mindy befriends the caretaker.