Coursework : Planning - Character

COURSEWORK PLANNING: CHARACTER

First Ideas:

We now have a rough idea of our idea and what we want our film opening to be. Next, we need to discuss and figure out who we want our character/s to be. The film is a suspense/drama/horror genre film, so we knew the character had to fit into this kind of area so that the plot also fit. First we made a list of attributes that we wanted the character to have: lonely, weird,  quiet, disturbed, historic past, unusual, creepy. These are all characteristics that the range of characters have in the mind map to the right. However, after a rather heated debate of who would suit the film best? Where we could go with each character? What's the message we want to give to the audience if we were to carry this on? we chose the 40-50 year old man (in the bottom left hand corner on the mind map), an artist, who was abused as a child and enjoys being alone the most.

For our opening two minute film for our coursework we have decided that this is our character profile:

Name - Jayne Doe

Gender - Female

Age - Between 15 to 20 years old. We chose this particular age as we thought it linked well with our reference to being disturbed and weird. If the character were too old, we would feel sympathetic towards them, and if the character were younger, it would make for a cliché plot. The only other age that would work for our idea, is a middle aged (man), because it would still come across as creepy. 

History - As a group we decided to make the history of our character destructive and disturbing which ultimately links to the personality traits. Therefore, we decided that the character was bullied and abused as a child, mostly because she was interested in things that the other children weren't. Moreover, she was abused by his parents, and in turn had the most effect on her and her personality. This continues the idea of the character being strange.

Profession - An artist. My group and I chose an art student for the profession of our character as it draws them away from any social environment. Nowadays, it can be construed that artists are expressive, creatively unusual, and wayward (traits that are perfect for our character). Also, we wanted to film them painting and sewing strange and peculiar things, so it fits well. 

Likes - Considering our character is an artist we thought she should like being in her workshop/studio making art, and also have the idea that that's the only thing she likes doing. It continues the idea of her being obsessive and unusual. Our character, also, likes to be alone and away from the society. This is due to the fact she has no social skills as she was bullied when a child.

Dislikes - A dislike of our main character is people, considering our characters upbringing, we thought it would be fitting if she liked being alone because doesn't like people. Another dislike of our character would be seeing happy families. We thought this would be an interesting dislike due to the idea that she was abused when she was younger, and therefore doesn't like to see families that are content, because it reminds her that she had a rough upbringing.

Personality Traits - The personality traits for our character are: strange, quiet, wayward and creepy. We chose these personality traits as we need to portray weird aspects of a character to continue to the rest of the film, and therefore she needs these traits in the opening two minutes to portray this idea.

Three words to describe our character - Disturbing, lonely and abnormal. My group and I chose these three words to describe our character because we think these are three words that describe her best.

D.G

Coursework : Planning - Location Research

LOCATION RESEARCH

Potential locations/settings of our film opening (+ photos):

We plan to create a film opening of a suspense/drama genre, with the idea to focus on specifically the characters, the props, the setting and the titles. Therefore, the location to get the correct setting, the location is particularly important. There are several options and various locations that we can choose to set our film in, but from the start, we have something specific in mind. Ideally, we want a home studio/office in the home of the character (depending on the character we want to have). For instance, the first idea we had was to film somewhere unrecognisable to the audience, so any landmarks were a big no. Instead, we thought the locations had to be personal to the character, somewhere familiar or at least a place where only the character could access/no public outsiders. Going with this theme, our first ideas below are in order of our importance:

- A Home Art Studio:
This could be any room at any of the group's home to act as the characters own personal art studio. This choice is the most realistic as the art studio at school is always busy so we will probably be interrupted which isn't ideal.
- Our School's Art Studio:
Our school has a wonderful and expansive art studio that we could ask to use after school or on a Saturday if the caretakers have opened the school. If this is not possible then between the four of us, we have more enough art products and objects to build a smaller art studio (below).
- A Dark Cellar/Basement:
Any basement that could also act as the characters basement space to work. This could act as more creepy as the other locations and would go with the genre much better.
- A Converted Shed:
This would require more effort as we would actually have to convert a shed if we couldn't already find one.
Weather conditions, schedule, availability, timing, sequences etc...

The film opening location (we hope) to use is only one location, a dark room in a pretend art studio in one of our group's house, where the charcter is to make strange notebooks and other 'things'. We are sure that only one location will be enough, becuase its only the opening to the film, and therefore we shouldn't be giving everything away. Yet, our location also depends on several other factors such as the weather conditions, schedule, availability, timing, sequences. For example, to decide the location we need to know that that place is indeed free and meets the needs in terms of availability, and ideally free for the entire time of our shooting so that when we return to the location, it hasn't changed, and therefore achieving continuity. As for the schedule, all of the crew and cast need to be available and all can get to the location in time, as well as all of the crew knowing the schedule for filming. I think that the schedule will be determined after the dates for filming have been decided so that we know where and when it is happening. The film will be shot inside, so the weather conditions do not affect us in any way, yet they could play to our advantage if we wanted to create a certain atmosphere e.g. if it was raining and we had a shot of the raindrops on the window. The sequences, again, are all going to be shot inside in the relatively same location so the sequences going through each shot and telling the story aren't dramatically going change in terms of location.
Why are these locations so good for what we are trying to achieve?

As we aim for to create a film of the suspense/horror genre, there are several conditions that make this location good. For one, the flexibility of our location is excellent because we can use it at any time of day, especially at weekends. The location has also several lighting options that we can alter and use for how we want it. The area of the room we want to use, also, is enough space for us to try and experiment with what the character can do.
Are we using interior and or/ exterior locations?

We won't be using any exterior locations, only interior settings. This is because we want the feeling of the character being isolated or loneliness in his house, and perhaps not confident to go outside. Only using interior locations creates a feeling of secrecy of the character, and, for the audience, an atmosphere of being alone. The conservatory we are using for the location will have no curtains on, and we plan, to film at night time. This will create a creepy element of the house because it will be black outside while the character works in his art studio.
Do we have back-ups?

We plan to use Daisy's conservatory for the setting of the art studio, with the props surrounding him. However, if plans change and we need to use another location, then any of the homes of our group can be a location if we need to. All of our group have other options we can use, including other rooms, houses, and our school. It also depends on circumstance, availability, schedules and timing on whether everything goes accordingly or something happens to go wrong.

L.R

Coursework : Planning - First ideas

COURSEWORK: FIRST IDEAS

For our coursework, we have been given our task to create a two minute film opening. We actually were given this project a few months back to start preparing, researching and thinking about 50% of our AS grade. But now we start it. Our group, (Megan Lansdell, Lily Mitchell, Daisy Gilbert and I) started by researching about all of the mise-en-scene conditions you find in a film. This would help us find out more about the things we would need to consider for our coursework, and also so we could start to gather ideas from the examples we studied. The research includes: Narrative, Sound, Setting, Dialogue, Narration, Breaking the fourth wall, 

Target audience, Attracting the target audience, Camera shots and angles and Character. All of these you can find in previous blog posts. We split these posts into four, so we each had three to do and everyone didn't have to do as much. I had the Dialogue pt.2, Breaking the fourth wall and Character. Each Blog post will have the initials of the person who completed it at the bottom of the page, so it doesn't go uncredited. 

The next stage is the Planning section, which we have, again, just split into four so that we each have two planning blog posts to do; I have Plot Synopsis and Location Research. But, before we carry on with our coursework, we need to have a couple of ideas. Yesterday, the four of us sat down to start to discuss and mind map some ideas:

We like the idea of going very simplistic with a plot that can develop into the rest of the film, seeing that it is only the opening 2 minutes that would continue into a feature film that would last approximately 1-2 hours. We would also want something challenging but achievable so that, when finished, it would seem respectable, not 'cheesy' but realistic as it might come out as a little childish if the idea was difficult. Doing a mind map really helped identify the kind of film we want to produce, considering the conditions needed and the possible ideas each of us are thinking of. Regarding the genre, we are leaning towards the suspense/drama area where we think we can pull together our strengths and interests best to plan, shoot, edit and evaluate our opening more than any other genre. Other specifics about the coursework such as characters, setting, dialogue and plot are all ideas in the works and haven't been decided yet, but we for now we continue with our blog posts on planning whilst going through the mentioned details in planning lessons coming up. 

LR