Evaluation Activity 2

The character played by Tabi was inspired by the character of Nina Sayers in the film Black Swan. They both struggle with schizophrenia, suffering from hallucinations and self-harm, Throughout Black Swan, Nina generally has a natural appearance, lacking make-up and having her hair slicked back, whereas Tabi has more eye make-up but still in keeping with her hair tied up. Nina tends to be seen in her ballet attire, wearing a pale cream knitted shrug to cover up her wounds; Tabi wears a large knitted jumper in a white colour to reflect her innocence, just like Nina. Nina hallucinates about real people, and sees blood on her body which is non-existent, in the end she sees herself grow feathers and become the black swan for the finale; she also battles with another character, Lily, who turns out to be a figment of her imagination when she is actually stabbing herself causing her death. Tabi hallucinations consist of a young girl, dark eyes and a blood-stained white dress, destroying the innocence portrayed by the white dress. Tabi’s character runs away from her hallucinations instead of battling them like Nina. Both of these characters are protagonists, the films are both focussed on a part of their life, in this case, the end of their lives. Black Swan is based on the struggle of a professional ballet dancer dancing the part of a hybrid between two characters which also reflects her life, she has been split into two people, however The Existence is about a young girl being haunted by a young dead girl of her past. Tabi is playing a girl of her age (teenager) as opposed to Nina Sayers who is a woman in her late 20s. Each film has a dominant female cast, this could be down to their genre both being psychological thrillers which usually have females presenting themselves in a possessed way, and this is clearer in The Existence but more subtle in Black Swan.

Soundtrack possibilities. (Not finished)

We looked at a variety of different music for our thriller. Using http://www.freeplaymusic.com/  it allowed us to find a variety of different styles of music that isnt copy write, therefore we could see what one would be most suitable. Initially, we decided on a classical music soundtrack, as this involved violins which created a fast pace tone for our thriller. It also involved certain music stings which would have been suitable for our thriller. However, once our thriller had been filmed we decided the classical music did not fit as our thriller was too modern. Now, we are looking at other soundtrack possibilities

Tester Film

This was just me testing out shots and angles that would be useful for our film, this is a clip of the very first shot of the film. It was filmed on the camera built in on an iPhone 4 for easy upload to YouTube.

Pitch of The Existence

Textual Analysis: Donnie Darko

During the opening credits you can hear the sound of a storm, which acts as contrapuntal sound when you realise that it is not in fact raining, the sound stops within the first few seconds of the scene starting. The titles are on a simple black background with bold white writing, the gothic style font gives away the genre. The use of an establishing shot gives an idea of location; here it is a shot into a valley where it pans across to reveal a long shot of Donnie laying in the road, although it is not yet clear that it is Donnie.

 The ambient sounds of birds reflect the time and place; it is shown to be dawn. As the camera moves closer it sparks an enigma, making the audience ask “what is it?” this is key to creating suspense in a thriller. You can begin to make out that it is a person in the road, and laying on a bend on the road – a very dangerous place to be, this could symbolise the danger of Donnie’s condition, which is schizophrenia, intertwined with the big open space around him showing that with this mental illness, he is alone. A non-diegetic soundtrack begins to play matching a classical genre with choral singing, tying in very much with the psychological thriller genre. As the camera moves around Donnie, it makes it clear to the audience that he is the main protagonist, this leads to the first cut of the movie, the use of this first long take creates suspense and possibly representing that Donnie is currently calm. You then see another pan of the location and when the camera stops, Donnie stand up and the back of his is revealed in the shot, this suggests he is in the middle of it all.

                When Donnie turns his head and we see him smirk and laugh it gives the impression he is unstable interlocking with his mental illness. We can see that he is wearing pyjamas, giving viewers an idea of the time again but also symbolising that what he does is out of his control, it’s not classified as a social norm to cycle to an unknown place and sleep in the road.

After the shot of Donnie laughing and walking out of shot, the title of the movie appears in the same gothic font but what’s really affective is the sun getting brighter and creating a blank screen to move on to the first cut of the movie, the use of this first long take creates suspense and possibly representing that Donnie is currently calm. Donnie begins riding his bike and the editing becomes more rapid, fitting in with the different non-diegetic soundtrack that has begun to play fitting in more with a rock genre but still creepy. Some of the shots are from Donnie’s perspective going along the road; this represents the journey he has to go on to get home or to be ‘normal’.

Many of the takes throughout the opening are shot with a handheld camera, this makes it feel more real, and like you’re there with him or observing him, this makes the audience feel more involved. I chose to analyse this film because it’s a psychological thriller which is what our film will be, I also like the story and the soundtrack throughout.

Script

The Existence: Script

Written by Charlotte Mackenzie & Alex Fresco

Scene 1

Lucy walks down the lane with her iPod in, she looks down at the ground as she walks

Georgia enters and the two meet, Lucy begins to engage in conversation

Lucy: …Are you okay?

Only looks up when she finishes her sentence

Once Georgia is recognised, she begins to run away, tripping over she cuts herself

Scene 2

Lucy walks into the public toilets and begins to wash her wound

Georgia is already behind

Lucy looks up and sees Georgia in the mirror, she moves frantically looking around

Lucy: *breathes heavily*

Georgia is removed from the scene as if she has disappeared

Scene 3

Lucy wakes up

Lucy: *breathes heavily*

Georgia: Shhhhhhhhhh

Lucy turns to see Georgia sat in a chair, staring at Lucy

Film Poster Ideas

For the poster we felt we wanted a basic and raw background and a simple portrait of the protagonist and antagonist with inspirations from Francis Bacon. This style is demented and twisted suiting the theme of our psychological thriller; the text would be layered on top with a scratchy style and a more readable font for other information. A plan for the poster is below:

The two circles will be portraits of the characters.

Initial Sound Ideas

With our non-diegetic soundtrack sorted we felt we needed to think about other use of sound in our film. I believe that music stings will make the actions in the film exaggerated and more dramatic, a sharp violin noise will do this job well, still fitting in with the classical non-diegetic soundtrack. The soundtrack will only be as a background noise and the original sound will still be audible and possible some accentuated sound to show the significance of some parts of the film.

Non-Diegetic Soundtrack

As a group we decided we wanted a classical soundtrack so I went on various sites and went through the variety of tracks available, i eventually found something suitable on http://www.freeplaymusic.com/ with a classical genre and a mixture of tempos. We are slightly basing the pace of the film to the soundtrack so it fits in perfectly. I've uploaded the soundtrack below:

Cape Fear Analysis

Immediately we are introduced to the contrapuntal sound of a brooding thunder storm however what we are shown is a calm lake. The diegetic sound of the storm creates a thriller setting however the close up of the lake takes away that feeling. When the non-diegetic soundtrack begins to play it soon reinforces that this is a dark film. The titles by Saul Bass use a simple bold font but it’s also jagged, representing the thriller genre. The exposure of the eagle over the top of the lake shows the audience that this film involves some sort of predator, when the eagle appears on the screen the music becomes more dramatic exaggerating to the audience that this use of iconography is important to the watchers.

Further exposures show one eye that is determined and then the second is scared, showing that one is the antagonist and the second is a protagonist, or the “killer” and “victim”. 

When the water appears to turn into a lake of blood is follows the film’s thriller genre, creating a sense of fear and death.

The close up of the girl shows she’s a main character in the story, when she talks, she talks into the camera which involves the audience, the non-diegetic soundtrack stops when she speaks, showing what she has to say is important. Her costume shows a white shirt buttoned right up to the top, symbolising that she is innocent and pure, making the audience believe she is the victim.



The cut to Cady’s cell shows a tilt down through the pictures on the wall and his, the pictures themselves say a lot about this character, the image of Stalin is particularly interesting because Stalin took revenge on Ukraine through forced famine, could Cady take revenge too? Notice the eerie non-diegetic soundtrack from the start has begun playing again; perhaps the music only plays around danger?

The camera zooms out to reveal Cady exercising, the mid-shot shows the tattoos on his back, the cross represents his Christian religion and the scales represent justice, this signifies his old fashioned values, for example “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” which gives a sense that he will always get revenge. When Cady walks out of his cell downstairs you notice the inmates are silent and watch on as though he holds power over them, they respect him, also the prison guard walks behind Cady even though he is escorting Cady, it shows he has more power than them in this prison.

The long shot of Cady walking from the prison shows the Thunder storm behind him in the sky, this shows Cady as a force of nature, unstoppable and dangerous. As he continues to walk he walks straight into the camera and looks into it, give the impression that he is after the audience too making them scared and on edge throughout the film.

By Charlotte Mackenzie

Title Sequence

Most, if not all, films have a title sequence. Whether it is at the start or near the end, sometimes in the middle! Typically, a title sequence is used at the beginning, it introduces the audience to what they’re watching, and the title often gives clues as to what the film is about. They have changed drastically from the beginning of films; previously it would be a plain black background with the writing expressing the name of the film and producers etc., however, nowadays the titles appear as layer on top of the moving film. The purpose of the title sequence is to make a first impression, which can result in whether a person continues to watch the film properly or not.  The 1950s saw the title sequences become more creative with the likes of Saul Bass and Maurice Binder who have become the biggest inspirations for title sequences since.  The soundtrack that goes with the title sequence is an important factor to it being good, for example, if a romantic comedy opened with a blank screen title sequence and in the background had an eerie soundtrack; it’s going to give the wrong impression for the film.

Saul Bass was an American graphic designer and one of the biggest trend setters for movie title sequences. Some of his greatest works include ‘Psycho’, ‘Goodfellas’ and ‘Cape Fear’, two of which are thrillers, this makes Bass’ work significant and relevant to our project. Most of Saul’s works include a plain basic background with just names appearing and then finally the title, but the use of font completely changes the genre of the film.

For example ‘Goodfellas’ shows a bold basic font in caps lock but immediately we know this reflects the film.

In ‘Cape Fear’ the slight change in font (it’s more jagged and italic) completely changes the genre.

I think for our title sequence we’ll show part of the film for around 5 seconds, then a blank screen will appear and the title of the film will fade into the screen in a contrasting colour, lasting around 3-4 seconds. The film will continue for a few more seconds and the blank screen will appear again and only showing the names of the actors, then the directors. We want to keep it basic and raw because I believe it’ll add an edge to the film making it more of a psychological thriller with the use of a particular font.

‘Donnie Darko’ has been a big influence on our film, and the title sequence is again basic, with the title of the film simply appearing on the screen and then fading out into a white screen, without being to state of art, it still says a lot about the film, we like the use of simple impacts.

By Charlotte Mackenzie