Sound

We won't have much dialogue in our opening as we only have a couple of lines towards the end this means that we don't have to worry about recording clear sound. Recording this sound shouldn't be too difficult to do considering this scene takes place in a dead-end alleyway out of the way of crowds or cars.

In terms of soundtrack, the beginning of our film features a music box, and so we'll need our composer, Clara Mallon, to write a lullaby song for the first few scenes of our opening. Following that, the music should become more "solid" using the addition of an increased amount of backing instruments, until it leads into the chase sequence music which ought to accompany the moments leading up to the culmination and ending of our footage.


Davy Jones's lullaby from "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" is a good example of the kind of soundtrack we'd like. The atmosphere is austere and wistful, which is exactly what we want, considering the fact that the song from the music box and the corresponding necklace are what links the two main characters together, transcending the boundaries of their respective parallel universes.


The tone of "Woolworm / Angry Son" by Indian Summer, however, is even closer to the sort of ambience that would suit our film. It's slightly more surrealistic and urban than the above track, and so something like this would, in my opinion, suit the dystopian theme of our film even better. However, having to blend the staticky guitar tone of a song like this with lullaby notes may be difficult or sound terrible. Nevertheless, it's certainly worth a shot!



Another very inspiring lullaby-like song is the main theme of "Interstellar". This song is, like the first one, composed by Mark Zimmerman. It has a similarly mournful but somewhat dreamy tone (reminiscent, of course, of space travel, due to the theme of the film). This track is nevertheless rather suitably melancholic and, most importantly, memorable; something that any film soundtrack from a piece as serious as this should naturally strive for. 


"King's Meadow" by Mogwai perhaps lacks the feeling of purpose and pace we'd want in our opening scenes, but is nevertheless a good reference point for our lullaby song because it has a very melodious tune. The rhythm also evokes the feeling of travel, which is apt in regards to our plot, wherein the two protagonists would have been forced to leave all they'd known behind in order to save our planet.

However, for both our lullaby and our chase sequence, we would also like the music to have slightly more creepy undertones in order to highlight Alesandese's origin stemming from a parallel world. A good example of the sort of atmosphere we'd like to highlight at certain points throughout the piece would be that of Bernard Hermann's "Twisted Nerve" soundtrack from the film "Kill Bill".

Similarly to the above, "Pater Noster" from "American Horror Story: Asylum" is another excellent example of a creepy soundtrack. The introduction of the violin about 40 seconds in is an accurate representation of the sort of solidifying mood-change we'd like to happen in our lullaby music. Of course, this particular song is too centred around the intervening church choir to be a fully accurate model for our lullaby, but it's a fairly cohesive template nonetheless.

Apart from changing the shape of the actual tune, another widely used technique of creating a surrealistic or scary atmosphere is that of subliminal messaging within both audio and video. A film that makes good use of this is "The Exorcist". When creating the voice of Satan for the girl to speak in while possessed, many sounds were blended into the voice to make it more unnerving, not all of them human.

Still more [sounds] came from hundreds of other recordings of an array of diverse sounds, including croaking tree frogs, and bumblebees. - The Independent on compiling the voice of Satan for the film "The Exorcist"

Some enthusiasts of the film even claim that these sounds, including others (such as the squealing of slaughtered pigs), had been added to the infamous soundtrack, "Tubular Bells" by Bassie en Adriaan. I didn't find particular video proof of these being included in the soundtrack, but I did find several articles and videos pertaining to the visual subliminal messaging in the film, making it seem more likely that the audio messaging is present too. It seems as if, to terrify viewers subconsciously, scary images had been cut into the film for 0.002 seconds at a time. 

(Source)

A lot of these things come from fan-run websites so could possibly be completely false, but even if these conventions we'rent used in "The Exorcist", the importance of underlying noises and images is nevertheless indisputable. Therefore, in terms of ambient sound backing, it may be safer to stick to roughly the sorts of techniques used in other horror media, such as video games. Of course, we won't use the strength of beat or extremity of sound effects shown here (because we're working in the thriller genre and not in horror), but nevertheless some valuable lessons can be gleaned about creating a surrealistic atmosphere from the sorts of tracks shown here. The first one is especially useful as a reference to us, as it is taken from a chase sequence.

In conclusion, soundtrack will be of paramount importance to our piece, especially the tone and pace of the music and the ambient sounds we mix into it in post-production.

DY

Costume Design: Girl B

The versions of outfits for girl B are significantly less varied than that for girl A simply because showing her as homeless is a lot easier that showing that Girl A is from a different world. Along with that as Girl B is living on the street whereas Girl A is shown as fairly rich, the amount of costumes that Girl B can wear is limited. The plaid shirt remains a constant throughout both designs though due to its affiliation with  grunge and due to its use by typically rough-tough types of characters both in film and television. An example would be Sam and Dean Winchester from CW's "Supernatural".

Costume 1
This version of the costume has both a sturdy water-proof coat (which girl B is of course likely to wear all the time, considering the weather here in London) and comfortable green cargo pants, which are a classic movie cue for someone usually either living outside or participating in combat. As with all the consequent outfits, layering a hoodie or a black beanie hat under the coat could further emphasise that being homeless is an especially difficult feat in winter. This is quite possibly the most likely costume we'll use due to its simplicity and hence its more authentic feel.











Costume 2
This version of the outfit has ripped blue jeans instead of the cargo pants, which would accentuate the fact that girl B's life on the streets has made its mark on her clothes, this is something we want to try and incorporate into which ever costume we pick however as it will give our opening a more realistic feel. However, the problem with this is that the rips, having been originally made as part of the clothing itself, may look too obviously superficial on film. 











Costume 3
This final version of girl B's outfit could be matched to the coat shown in the post detailing girl A's costume, as the black jeans pictured here would match the colouring of that coat well. To perhaps add bulk to the outfit, a sweater of a dark colour such as brown or black could be worn underneath. Furthermore, as with the rest of this list, the addition of something like fingerless gloves would further drive home this character's need for functionality and warmth in her clothing due to her position.












DY

Props

1) Music box and set of matching necklaces

This is our most important prop, mainly as it will also act as our music, playing a lullaby song at the beginning of our film. but also acts as the connection between the two girls as of yet unexplained connection. The ideal music box to illustrate this is from the animated film 'Anastasia', in which the music box and necklace are are reminder for the main character of her life as Russian royalty before she got amnesia. As each of the characters will have a necklace, it will also be one of the nods that will show the audience the connection.

The ideal music box in real life would be something similar to this. The colouring is suitably dramatic (gold on black), and this also suits in with Girl A possessing slightly unusual things. However it would be virtually impossible to buy something of this quality at our price level. The only option would be if we find someone who miraculously owns a music box similar and they let us borrow it.

A more realistic option is a music box such as this one. It obviously isn't as well made by considering how long it will be in frame and from the distance that it will be shot from that won't be too important. This music box will work quite well because of the  design on the outside, which will look beautiful when filmed and also suits in with the girl, the matching necklaces can also be anything because of the box's simple design. 

2) Wallet (for Girl B to pickpocket)

This prop is self explanatory, all we need is a simple looking wallet that anyone would easily be able to spot as a wallet. It won't be one the screen for much time at all, so it doesn't have to be flashy in anyway. I have several at home that I could.

3) Girl A: Backpack

Since Girl A is from a parallel universe her 'school' backpack should be slightly odd. A satchel shaped one would be perfect as it doesn't look too out of place but also isn't too normal. The appearance of leather should give her middle class image a more believable feel

However to also show her strangeness more, and to enhance the colours in her shots more, a brighter shade of leather should be used, such as the ones shown below. We have gone with these colours as they are slightly more normal as the girl is trying to blend into society and the too bright colours wouldn't make sense to wear. 

4) Girl B: Backpack and sleeping bag

Girl B's backpack should be simple and functional as well as big enough to carry all her things, as in her case that is all that she has. However a proper travel rucksack would be impractical and I think a large canvas one should do the job.













The sleeping bag again should be simple and functional, it should only provide the bare minimum comfort and could strap clumsily to the backpack to further show how bad her situation is. Diana owns both these items so it won't be difficult to get hold of them for filming.











5) Optional: Shopping cart and camera
The shopping cart we we can find one to use (Diana says she has seen a few around her neighbourhood) could be used by Girl B to transport her belongings. It may be a pain to organise and get a hold of, but if we can it should be very visually appealing. A perfect example were this is used is in the film 'The Road'.

The camera is for the scene where Girl A is taking pictures of Girl B, we may not need this prop though as our plan is for her eyes to act as the camera, though that may not work when we test it out. If we do have to use a camera, it certainly shouldn't look normal, so either a futuristic one of a steampunk one will have to be bought or made.

DY

Character Names

Names are obviously very important and so we wanted our character names to be significant to their personality and purpose. We used the website 2000-names to compile categories and names for our two leads.

Girl A (girl from parallel universe)
Since this girl is from a strange different world, we wanted an unusual name that would stand out. We picked from the categories: Angels/Messengers, Celestial Bodies/Planets, Character Traits, Dreams/Sleep, Ghosts/Spirits, Guardians/Defenders, Secrets/Mystery and Goddesses. Mostly all for obvious reasons as she is from a parallel world sent to protect Girl B

1) ARIEL: Means "lion of God". One of the moons of Uranus. Androgynous spirit in William Shakespeare's "The Tempest".
2) LEIA: Meaning "weary" and "child of heaven".
3) CAELESTIS: "Heavenly". Epithet associated with the god Jupiter and the goddess Diana.
4) AISLINN: Meaning "dream" or "vision".
5) ALESANDESE: "Defender of mankind".
6) CALYPSO: "She who conceals". In Greek mythology, the name of the daughter of Atlas, who holds up the world on his shoulders.
7) KALLISTO: Means "most beautiful".
8) IRIS: Meaning "rainbow".
9) NYX: "Night".

Girl B (from Earth)
Since we wanted to make this girl relateable and believable, we wanted to pick a common name that would nevertheless stand out and also be linked to our character. The categories we picked from were: Character Traits, Colours, Emotions, Luck/Fortune, Sacrifice, Shadow and Victims. Many of the names that we found on these categories were too strange so we think that this girl we also opt for a nickname which would also be consistent with her character.

1) ALICE: Meaning "noble sort".
2) SARAH: "Noble lady" or "princess".
3) AURELIA: Means "golden".
4) MALLORY: "Misfortune".
5) GISELLE: "Pledge", "hostage" or "noble offspring". 

Analysis

Girl A: From that list my favourites were Ariel, Alesandese and Calypso. I think from this shortened down list my favourite is Alesandese as I think the name has the best meaning and also nothing comes to mind when thinking of this name unlike Ariel, which makes me think of The Little Mermaid and Calypso which makes me think of Greek mythology. 

Girl B: From this list the only one I like is Mallory. I'm not keen on Sarah and Alice as I don't think the meaning is relevant, as she is living on street and don't think it would work in an ironic sense and I also don't like Aurelia and Giselle as I think those names are too strange to be Girl B. I especially like Mallory because as Diana said it can be shortened down to Mal, which in my opinion suits Girl B perfectly as it also means 'bad' in Latin.

We have decided on the names Alesandese and Mallory, I think it was a very easy decision as they were both out favourite names from the list. 

AF/DY 

Ident Practise

As said previously are plan is to make our ident using stop motion. We felt as if we had to have some practise to see how it looks when filmed and whether it was worth doing. We filmed our practise using Diana's Iphone which has a very useful time lapse tool, which takes a couple of pictures every second and then pieces it together for you. This was very useful for our practise and saved a lot of time, however I feel as if we should use a proper digital camera for our actual ident as the picture will be a better quality and we can alter the amount of time between frames.

 Our plan was to use a light box and clear, coloured card cut into smaller pieces to create our ident. When we started we found there was no pre coloured plastic, so we had to create our own. We made a circle out of plain plastic, split it into quarters and then covered it in different colours of acrylic paint (red, blue, green, white). We used a sponge to to not show any brush strokes, and it ended up giving it a rather cool effect.

 We originally wanted the four sections to represent the four elements and then name our studio 'Elemental Studios' or something similar. As our plan was for the four sections to come together and spell out the name of our studio, we decided that this name will probably be too long to do this. This means we are still thinking of a name for our studio, which isn't too much of a problem at the moment. We will still stick with the four coloured quarters though as I think they stand out extremely well.

 After we had finished all the sides, we put it on the light box to see how it looked. We were rather pleased as the colours really shine through and because of the spudges due to the sponge, it gives the plastic a hand made feel, suiting the overall feel of an independent film studio

 We then procceded to cut each quarter into smaller triangles to form the mosaic, as Diana's vision was for the smaller pieces to start in the shape of the quarter. This soon proved impractical as it was impossible to keep them in the correct order, so we ditched this idea.

We ended up with four piles of triangles of coloured plastic. As each triangle is fairly small it makes it harder to spot any imperfections or missed parts.

We put the piles in the four quarters of the light box to see how they looked. When taking a picture, you can see the light moving underneath the light box, we were unaware this would show up when taking a picture but were happy with how it looks as it makes the background more visually appealing. We were extremely happy with how this section of the practise worked out, so then we proceeded to try a film the time lapse, although without our production company appearing.











Here are our three practise runs that we did. In our opinion the one that worked best was the first one as it wasn't too fast (like the second one) or badly centred (like the third). In our actual ident, the name of our production company would come up after the circle is formed.




AF/DY

Graphic: Traditonal Billing Order

We also have to think about the order of our graphics. According to wikipedia the traditional order is:

1) Motion Picture Company (Ident)
2) Producer ("A _____ _____ Production")
3) Director (if prominent)
4) Starring Actors (Clara, Yasmina)
5) TITLE OF FILM ("De(i)fied")
6) Rest of Principal Cast
7) Other Significant Personnel (eg lighting supervisors)
8) Other Producers/Screenwriters etc.
9) Director (instead of before OR again)
10) FILM STARTS

We will have to alter this slightly for our opening to fit the shots, but as this is the traditional billing order, I feel as if we should follow this as much as possible.

DY

Audience Research Conclusion

The maximum allowed certificate for our film is 15, our target audience has to be above this age.

Certification

According to the BBFC website, a 15 has no prohibited themes as long as it is appropriate for a 15 year old. There is also no restriction of strong language provided it is used in the correct context, however an over load will result in a higher rating. There may also be discriminatory or offensive terms as long as they are shown to not be endorsed. Nudity is restricted to not strong detail, unless it is for educational purposes. There can be many strong references to sexual content however. Horror/threat and violence are all allowed as long as it's not focused on sadistic or sexualised content. Many things such as dangerous behaviour that teenagers may copy, such as suicide or self harm are allowed as long as it isn't considered to not dwell on the detail which can be copied.

Target Audience
This is a conclusion to our Audience Research, although I have done this before underneath the online survey this gives a much more precise insight into our audince along with the results of the vox pops which we then link together.

Most commonly, thrillers are seen as aimed at men in the usual target age of 15 to 30. The reach of our online survey, however, showed that our audience will most likely be predominantly female (over 55% of responses were from women) and hit the age range from 15 to 21 (83% of responders). The fact that our responders mostly saw films at least once a week (34%) and went to the cinema every few months (44%) is an important sign of the fact that the people responding are fairly knowledgeable about films as they clearly enjoy them. The most popular genres in this demographic were Comedy (given, on average, about 4 points out of a possible 6), Thriller (given about the same) and Sci-Fi (given just above 3.5 points). This seems like a good match, considering that it hits two of our main genres, ranking them 2nd and 3rd. Our film has two female protagonists, and so the near-80% answer of "Yes" to the question of whether an audience member would see a film like that is also an encouraging sign.

The responses in the Vox Pops revealed the wide range of tastes that we will be expected to cater to within our target demographic. The most common response for people's favourite thing about films was the expectation of either amazement or other strong emotions; something we plan to attempt to evoke with our work anyway. The sampled people also seemed to be more concerned with filming style/directors than with actors, which was surprising to me, but pleasing considering the fact that we are running a very small-scale production and so style and production is more significant to us than an unobtainable Hollywood cast. Predictability and cliches were the most commonly disliked features of films; in short, the audience obviously doesn't like it when film makers treat them as stupid or try to force-feed them things they've seen many times before. This is, naturally, something we will try our best to avoid.

DY

Costume Designs: Girl A

        

After looking at each of the costumes, my favourite is Costume 4, this is mainly due to the off pattern on the shirt which give her the oddness that we want and that was missing in the other pictures. However it isn't as bright as I was perhaps expecting, I'm sure it will be fine as we can enhance the colours in post. My second favourite is Costume 2 as the kimodo over the top gives the oddness that we are looking for, this costume also has got the bright colour that I was hoping to get. I feel though that costume 2 may be too normal for Girl A to wear. From looking at Diana's reports under each photo, it seems like she is leaning towards Costume 4 as we so it is looking likely that, that is the costume that is chosen 

DY

Graphics Placement

We also had to think about where are title would go during our scene, as we havent done us storyboard yet this is hard to plan out, but one of the shots that we are most looking forward to is when our two characters are on opposite sides of 'Lovers Road' and are walking towards each other, after they cross paths the richer girl then proceeds to turn around and follow the other girl. This will be one of my favourite moments if we can film it, as it is the first moment the two characters see each other, with is why we are thinking of putting our title here. With each of the fonts, as the two characters are walking towards each of the letters with fade away as the characters walk past them.

This is around what we want the shot to look like, with the two characters on opposite sides of the road. Obviously, in the actual shot there will be trees and bushes surrounding them, so we will have to take that into consideration.



Dreaming of Lillian
Idea 1

This is one of the simplest ideas that we have, this is just putting the font, right in the middle of them, and then fade it out as they walk past it.

Idea 2

This was one of Diana's ideas for how we could show the title. In this idea, it follows the same font but the I has been followed down to the pavement. Creating a barrier, which they then walk towards, and as each letter fades away it just leaves the long line, which then fades away once they pass it.

When this idea was suggested, I though it might be intriguing to try as it would be quite different and interesting. However once I had made this plan, I have a different opinion and think it will look too out of place and weird with the line going down likes it shown.

Alien League

Idea 3

 In this idea, the font, is in the middle. I have used the bracket edit for ease reasons, but it could just as easily be the non bracketed one. This idea is slightly different to all the other ones as in this idea only the brackets or the 'I' fade out and then the other letters push in to reveal the second word.

Idea 4

 This is certainly the hardest idea, shown by how it may be quite difficult to understand from my drawings but the idea in this one is: as they walk towards each other the letters fade out like in my other examples.

This then just leaves the brackets which stay. These brackets then turn into an eye, which is shown by the third picture. The eye then fades away as they walk past it.

This idea would certainly be challenging, as it would be extremely difficult to get it to turn into an eye but Diana and myself are very happy to give it a go.

If we could get this idea to work it would be brilliant, as it fits perfectly in with our theme of being watched.

Those are all the idea's for the moment, we'll have to look at them and discuss between ourselves and our teacher and friends which one we think is the best. We also will have to wait until we actually have filmed the shot to make our decision as we don't know how it will look. For each of these ideas we could also use the different fonts, so we need to experiment and see what looks best

AF/DY

Ident Research

An Ident is a logo that is used to show that a certain studio worked on this film. Some idents are instantly recognisable, some of the biggest names in film make up the 'Big Six'.

Obviously are film will never have an ident similar to these, but I think it's important to be looking at these to see what the biggest studios idents look like.

We obviously don't have the budget like these studios have. Diana and myself both don't have any experience working with Motion, the program used to make idents. This is why we are thinking of making one in real life. A style that Diana is interested in, is stop motion. I think this could be easily achieved, if we have the patience for it. It will also give it a unique style that we are trying to achieve. A student in previous years, has also done a stop motion animation for their ident, to some great effect. 

Another ident that Diana particularly liked was in a trailer for a video game called 'Alice: Madness Returns' . We hope to use the idea of the triangles moving to form a new image in this case the Cheshire cat. Ours obviously wont be as complex, but we definitely want to use that idea.

We wish to do something similar but using coloured card and a light box, an inspiration of this would be Pathe's ident. We are going to attempt it early next week and then we will see how it looks

Looking at other idents, I have found that many include circular symbols or have bright colours, which you can see in the 'Big Six' idents. We are going to implement these ideas in our own ident. Other idents that include circular that I won't show again are Paramount and Universal. I think circles are used so often mainly as they look appealing as it's a very visually appeasing shape. 

Looking at the last two idents shown from Firefly Entertainment and Criterion Collection, both include a feature that I certainly want to implement is the spinning circle as I think it looks very stylish and professional. Along with the stop motion and triangle shaped card, I think that our ident will look unique and stylish whist being at the same time not as hard to make as it would have been using Motion. 

AF