Creative Proposal Decision

We have decided to go with Ewan's Proposal. We thought that the style and tone along with the general narrative of a heist is extremely intresting. We have chosen however to go with a smaller main cast and instead have only around 3 main characters.

AF

Creative Proposals: Style and Tone

My Proposal

Each Act of the film and the trailer would be of a slightly different style and tone


Act 1 - pre abuse

• Light/friendly - show the beauty of the robot
• Slow paced editing
• Camera doesn't move much
• High key lighting
• All to portray an idealistic world which isn't actually real

Act 2 - abuse

• Still high key lighting
• Camera shaking
• Robot should always appear lower in frame than the humans, show how she is worthless - Ex Machina utilised this throughout the middle of thefilm to portray Ava as weaker than the other characters as did Silence of the Lambs when Clarice is talking to Hannibal
• Chiaroscuro should be used more to show the darkness
• Faster paced editing during the hit - come out  of nowhere
• However linger on the shocked expression for a bit longer than the other shots as it would be a shock to the audience as well

Act 3 - fight

• Montage - therefore fast editing speed
• Different lighting used - interesting to viewer
• Chiaroscuro used as parts of the fight would take place at night
• Camera should shake at points during the fight as well

The Ex Machina trailer has similar first and third acts, in terms of lighting and editing

Atmosphere - Should showcase a certain creepiness and darkness towards the end of the trailer to go along with the very serious themes
It should be a commentary on humans/what the future is like - which is what science fiction is all about and therefore it can go to dark places

Ewans Proposal
I want the style to be almost like modern film noir, examples of which being the Matrix, as well as Night Crawler, where they both include a lot of chiaroscuro in the way they are lit, and filmed. This should make the mood and atmosphere clear, in that I want it to be dark, sinister and mysterious. 

The atmosphere will be made by the setting mostly being at night time, which in the given trailer will contrast lighter scenes to present an element of horror. The atmosphere of night crawler is what I am aiming for, with the serious, almost scary narrative plot, and low key lighting.

The mood will be set in a similar way, as the dark shots, mysterious characters and plot will set it to be sinister and intense. I have been influenced greatly in this by the Matrix, as well as the Dark Knight (mostly the opening to the film).

Emma's Proposal

I would want the trailer to have a feel of film noir it. This would create greater contrast in the scenes and thus make the character being followed even more vulnerable.

I also like the style of welcome to the punch, where scenes shot at night have high contrast lighting and make the film feel very urban. As our own film will be set in urban London, this may be good to use this style and take advantage of the London architecture and lights.

Creative Proposals: Narrative

My Proposal

Outline for the plot of the film

• AI is created, extremely lifelike does all your own bidding
• Film centres on a normal family who get one, contains mum, day, children?
• At first all is perfect, AI is doing its job well and family are happy
• One day makes a mistake and the father hits her
• This continues for a while
• Eventually the creator finds out and tries to help/offer support to the robot
• Gives the robot the ability to defend itself
• Next time it happens, it attacks back
• A fight breaks out, the robot easily overpowers them
• Accidentally kills one - doesn't know it's own strength
• Then runs away OR decides to kill itself

Trailer Narrative - Follows a three act structure

Act 1

• Starts with a press conference, creator introducing the robot and what it can/can't do. VO through parts of Act 1
• Shows the family buying a robot and bringing it home
• Robot doing its job well; shown cleaning etc

Act 2

• Show robot make a mistake and being hit, show a scared expression on AI
• Robot with creator, looking at each other with an emotional hug

Act 3

• Montage, including:
• shots of the fight
• creator rewiring the robot
• different shots of abuse; maybe different forms?
• shots of screaming/crying etc
• final shot of montage would be the robot running directly towards camera
• Cut to black
• Titles come up
• Past titles scene? - back in confrence with creator answering a question, foreshadowing the film

Ewans Proposal

The overall film

• One heist leader brings together 4 other strangers
• They are set together with the mission of completing the given heist
• The setup and planning is followed closely
• They run into trouble before starting the heist with the police and small crimes
• They begin to execute the heist
• Key point of the film: never go in with someone who has more to lose then you do
• They get caught, shut into the shop they are robbing
• The one who has more to lose gets nervous… kills and runs
• Fights break out between the heist members
• Two heist members end up shooting the other two heist members
• The two escape, but it is unclear how

The Trailer

Structure

• 3 Acts
• Act 1: The characters are established, as well as the heist job
• Act2: Shots from the heist are shown, presenting the problem the heist members face
• Act 3: A suspenseful montage of action scenes to end on the outline of a body collapsing

Storyline elements to include:

• Relations between characters
• The planning of the heist
• The problem they are faced with
• Death of several characters… but not sure who
• Action scenes of the heist
• Never go in with someone who has more to lose then you do

Emma's Proposal
For my narrative I want to expand on the idea of obsession, having a character being obsessed with another. I believe that following a teenage girl would work best for this as it would emphasise her sense of vulnerability.

The USP would be that the Best Friend is actually the one with the obsession



Summary

• unknown antagonist has an obsession with the protagonist 
• Protagonist continuously notices a shadow following her and senses someone is there.  She receives calls and messages from an unknown source 
• Frequency of attacks increases
• Protagonist locks herself in at home and calls her best friend in fright as she feels someone may want to hurt her
• Discovers the best friend is the one that is obsessed with her 
• Screen goes black, screams can be heard

Act 1

• Middle of the night, we see someone cutting up photographs of the same girl and stroking them
• we are unable to see the characters face and the interior room is dimly light with a single spot light
• It is the next morning, we are introduced to the female protagonist, possibly a teenage girl, who is in her room getting ready to go out 
• She leaves the house with her headphones in, we see a figure in the far background walking 
• That night when she gets home, she answers a phone call from an unknown number, the line is silent 

Act 2

• The protagonist is curious as to who had called her the previous night 
• Friend comes round to her house 
• She tells her what happened 
• They sleep in separate rooms 
• Protagonist surfaces during the night to suddenly see the faint outline of a figure in the corner of her room, frightened and unable to move she closes her eyes thinking it must be a dream 
• Wakes up next morning frightened by the unnerving dream she had last night,  the friend thinks she is seeing things 

Act 3

• Now everytime the main character goes anywhere she feels as if she is being followed 
• We cut back to the dark room we saw in the first act and see a wall covered in photos of the protagonist and the silhouette of someone sitting in a chair staring at them.
• That night protagonist is home alone and gets freaked out by small things, relieved to see her friend knocking on the door and lets her in 
• They talk for a while until the friend says she has to go home, as she leaves the power cuts
• lights turn back on to see the 'best friend' is the one obsessed with her 
• Screams can be heard as the camera slowly pans back from the house and into darkness

Creative Proposals: Sound

My Proposal
Act 1

• In this act non-diegetic sound would be a piano, calm, soothing, shows the beauty of the AI and the technology. This is done is numerous other trailers and sci-fi trailers in particular
• Voice over in this act as well. The dialogue from the press conference would carry over through out the other shots in the act. This dialogue should be taling about the AI what it can do/and can't and show the shots of the robot helping

Act 2

• The music would stop completely during the hit, to be replaced by a screeching sound?
• After the hit it would start up again but faster and a much creepier tune

Act 3

• Fast paced - drums to go along with the montage, should be at the same beat - heartbeat
• screeching sounds used during montage? (classic sci-fi convention)
• Music getting faster and faster
• Then stop as the titles come up
• No music while the title are shown

Ewans Proposal

I want to include a series of sound bites in my trailer, where the explanation of what is happening is played alongside the footage of it actually happening. For example I wish to have part of the 'planning of the heist' to be a soundbite while footage of the actual heist are shown. This should allow for suspense to build up, before the soundtrack that has a bass like rhythm plays as soon as the heist fully begins.

As for the soundtrack, I want it to be similar to the Dark Knight, as shown below in the opening scene of the heist:

As well as this, I hope to include lots of sound effects, where there are deep 'booms' and cuts to allow for the sound bites, something that is used a lot in the trailer for the Dark Knight, as shown below also:




Emma's Proposal

Thriller trailer music has a varying style, to create a different mood. When the audience is required to be scared, eerie children's nursery rhyme music is often used to create a juxaposition to the images on screen. In comparison some thrillers, primarily action thrillers, have upbeat music following the images on screen. This builds suspense and makes the audience greatly anticipate what will happen next.
 

However this style of music may be hard to achieve as it is very advanced and as students we would struggle to produce such professional work. We would more likely be able to produce something such as the music below as it is compositionally much more basic, yet it is still able to create an unsettling feeling.
 

Creative Proposals: Characters

My Proposal

Creator -

• Most likely male however could be a female
• Needs to be extremely well spoken, can tell that he's extremely intelligent straight away
• Should wear a casual suit
• Examples for what he should act like are: Johney Depp in Transcendence at the start of the film and Indiana Jones
• He should also dress similar to the character in Transcendence with a suit and an open shirted suit

Robot - 

• Female
• Should be young, around early 20s
• Should act exactly like a human, even though she's not
• Just like Ava and Rachel in Ex Machina and Blade Runner where even though they are robots act just like humans
• Should wear normal clothing, dress?- should be innocent, nothing provocative, again see Ava

Father/Mother -

• Should be middle aged 30s/40s
• Middle class family
• Both wear different clothing in different shots - formal wear, suit/dress and casual wear - jeans, t-shirt to show progression of time
• Father should be a heavy drinker?
• Father should be loud/aggressive
• Mother perhaps a bit more passive but still horrible, abuses her in a different way?
• Example for the father is one of the dad's in Boyhood or the military father in American Beauty
• Or the father in Radio Flyer

Ewans Proposal

5 Key characters: 

ALL CHARACTERS ARE STRANGERS WHEN MET
But, not initially known, two join together and plot to kill the other members after the heist is complete.

1) The heist leader:
His identity is unknown, though is met through the phone and messages. His voice is deep and husky, and he has the element of being creepy and sinister. He should be played as though he is slightly insane, much like the Joker from the Dark Knight, dressed in smart, dull clothes. - creepy, scary, intense. (minus the face paint)

2)Heist member (1) - The guy with everything to loose

He plays a young, nervous man who is desperate for the money. Though it is not initially clear, later the rest of the heist members learn that he is a single father with a young child - desperate for expensive medications that will save his daughters life. His character should be like Mr Pink from Reservoir Dogs, yet slightly younger, and slightly more unsure of himself. He needs to be dressed more casually and speak in a hesitant voice. However along with these faults, when he is pressured he need to be aggressive and violent. 

3)Heist member (2) - The good looking, relaxed guy (1)   

Much like in Reservoir Dogs, this character needs to resemble Mr White, in that he is cool, relaxed, yet intelligent. He should be handsome, muscular and clearly the one in charge of the game. He is dressed in a smart suit, and his mask resembles that of a gas mask. He speaks calmly and collectedly. 

4)Heist member (3) - The good looking, relaxed guy (2)

Much like in heist member (2) this character needs to resemble Mr Blonde, in that he is cool, relaxed, yet intelligent also, but he is younger than (1). He should be handsome also, but with blonde hair, muscular yet knows his place beneath heist member (2).  He is dressed in a smart suit also, but different coloured, and his mask resembles that of a gas mask also. He speaks calmly and collectedly., and his character is very similar and gets on well with heist member (2). 

5)Heist member (4) - The smart one

He plays a slightly older and mature heist member, who resembles that of Jacob from Welcome to the Punch. He should be dressed similarly to relaxed guy (1) and (2), and talk clearly with an under tone of superiority to an extent. A mark strong kind of character. Mark Strong

 I want all main heist members to be wearing suits, similar to the style that of welcome to the punch:

Emma's Proposal

PROTAGONIST

I think the main character should be like your 'everyday girl', wearing informal clothing and acting relaxed.  An example of this is in Scream, with Drew Barrymore wearing relaxed clothing, mimicing a typical teenager at the time. Another example is 'Single White Female', which follows a very similar story plot to what i would like to create, having a female character obssessed with her friend. An adaptation of this film was made more recently called "The Roommate". Both of these film contain young 18-25 year old characters who are the target of the obssession.

ANTAGONIST

The anatagonist, whether male or female would be hooded when following the protagonist in all black clothing. This would make the audience less able to see the characters face, particuarly if shown at night.

Creative Proposals: Titles/Graphics

My Proposal

• Titles would appear at the end after a fade to black
• no actors/directors name shown throughout the trailer as they are not bankable stars and therefore wastes time. Can show them at the end along with the titles however as seen in Moon
• Festival awards should also be shown at the start to get the audiences excitement

Title

• Due to being a science fiction film, the text would most likely have to be futuristic or computer like
• However I would like to keep it simple as I feel thats much more effective
• As the film is about AI it perhaps could introduce some thing along those lines? Computer code?
• Moon (as seen above), Enders Game and The Phoenix Project all contain these ideas

Ewans Proposal

For my titles, I want the graphics to be plain and simple, with some sort of distortion, maybe a blur or have them fade in from some flare. Examples of these are trance: as shown below, where the use of the blur on the grunge background makes for the text to be clean. 

I also want to look at the use of motion graphics, such as the 'welcome to the punch' titles, as they fade in from distortion caused by flares as shown below. 

Emmas Proposal

To begin my research on graphics, I first looked on artofthetitle.com, who have an extensive range of stylised and famous film graphics. I particuarly liked the title artwork for 'Manhattan', a TV drama.  It is the use of the thin black font that i believe would look nice for the title of my proposal as for the title graphics, i am interested in this stylised slick font.

I then looked at film titles and posters, examples of this would be the title of Taken. This graphic looks much more furturistic and harsh than others i was looking at as it has a much thicker wording and the orange font colour lifts it off the primarily black background. I also like the main title of Inception, primarily the use of spaced out lettering.  This creates a much more imposing and professional feel as it consumes much of the screen.

I also like the idea of using yellow combined with either black or white. I believe this makes a statement  and also creates a sense of unease though the punchy colours and bold graphics 

Using this for a graphic, would make it look very unusual however would fit with the thriller nature of the film.

Trailer Narrative Notes

Suicide Squad

• Been told that they've caught the villains and put them in a prison
• Also that they have special skills/powers and the government wants to use them for good
• The government is for this as when it goes wrong they can blame them
• Large ensemble cast shown, Harley Quinn, Deadshot are shown as the key characters due to their extended screen time and more dialogue
• Shots of them out on missions
• Flashback sequences are also shown of the characters before they were in prison
• It appears as if the film incorporates a romance sub plot as well

The Martian

• Shots of them in spacesuits, along with shot of Mars. Viewer instantly knows it's set in space
• Watney is hit by a rock during a storm and gets stranded on Mars with the crew leaving him believing him to be dead
• Watney is then shown to get up and get back to the base
• Works out that it would take four years to get rescued, therefore he has to make food and water to survive
• Contacts Nasa to let them know that he's still alive
• Nasa finds out a way of saving him but it includes using his crew mates and risking their lives
• Nasa turns the proposal down, but the crew decides to do it anyway

Memento

• Immediately introduced to the main character, Leonard and his condition which means he has no short term memory
• Also introduced to the characters he's familiar with in his life and how he remembers information, tattoos on himself
• Says the last thing he remembers is his wife
• Act 2 is shown in a non-linear fashion, like the film and therefore it's hard for the audience to understand what is going on
• Story elements shown through his tattoo and dialogue
• Tries to find out who killed and raped his wife

AF