Updated Storyboard, Animatic, Treatment and Script!!

Here are all of the newly updated documents for our film that we have had to do due to problems with location and gaining new creative ideas. All of the posts above will be referring to the shots on the storyboard on this post and not the previous one. 

Behind Closed Doors Treatment 2

Behind Closed Doors Script 2

Behind Closed Doors Storyboard 2

 

1st Day of Filming

Brief Information:

Date: Wednesday 10th December
Location: 57 Ramillies Crescent
Time of Day: Night

Time filming started: 4:00pm
Time filming finished: 7:30pm

Scene: 2
Shots: 22-24 - Interior

Crew Present:
Deanna Hopps - Director, Make-up Artist and Stunt Co-ordinator
Cameron Hargreaves - Cinematographer (Camera) and Set Layout
Daniel Springthorpe - Sound, PA and Stunt Co-ordinator
Charlotte Smith - Lighting and Cinematographer

Cast Present:
Rebecca Chapman - Alice
Ryan Witton - Richard
Millie Russell - Stacey

Equipment:
DSLR Camera + Tripod
Tracking Dolly
Sound Recording Kit
Large & Small Reflectors
LED Light

Summary of the Day:

Practising with the focus

Myself doing Rebecca's make-up

On the whole, today has been very much an eye-opener for myself and my team as we have realised that it is not going to be an easy ride this time to get our film finished. We have encountered some technical issues such as lighting and location size, which affected the shots we desired.

However, we have also gained experience from today because we have been able to work out which shots are easier to do and which we may have to alter, and in doing so allowed us to come up with better creative ideas to replace our previous ideas.

We started off the day by setting out the table exactly as we had set it out in our plans and made sure we had photos of everything to stop any continuity errors from occurring later on in the filming process. Our actresses, Millie and Rebecca, went upstairs to get changed and once they were done it was time for make-up. The make-up went well, took rather long to do as I was deciding what looked best to represent the characters and helping sort the set out downstairs at the same time. I have chosen to make the eye shadow of Alice much more paler and less sparkly than I had originally planned. 

We decided to kick off filming with scene 2: the main highlight of our short film which shows the argument as the past/flashback. The first shots we did was 22-24 which was of Alice sitting at the dining room table, waiting for her boyfriend, Richard, to come home after he stood her up and was late from 'work'. Rebecca was brilliant at the scenes and as soon as we told her what to do, she understood and carried it out with not protests. Shot 22 took about 3 takes due to disliked camera movement and framing. Shot 23 took 2 takes, mostly because we wanted two different angles on her hand and shot 24 took roughly 5 takes as we wanted to really get the emotion and angles/framing perfect because it was the scene where Richard 'makes his entrance' when the door slams.

The lighting made it incredibly hard for the camera to create a crisp clear shot and caused us to retake them many times to try and get the right shot as well as the small gaps between walls made us have to think on our feet and alter the camera angles and use hand-held camera instead of tracking etc...

Overall, we have decided that the current storyboard and animatic isn't working out for us due to the narrow hallway and stairs and the bad lightning so we have decided to redo our storyboard and start from scratch, taking the negatives and positives of this experience into consideration.

Transportation:

We transported the equipment to our location by car, along with two of our cast members going in the car with them, while the rest of us walked to the location due to not much room in the car being left for all of to fit in (there was 8 of us in total today). 

Crew Roles:

Cameron was mostly in control of filming the shots as he is the most experienced in the field. He made sure each shot was filmed correctly and perfect before we went onto the next shot. He made sure the focus was clear unless we used a focus pull, and tried to make the exposure as best as possible for the location, which proved a challenge due to the camera struggling with the lightning. 

Charlotte also did some cinemotography along with Cameron as well as being in charge of the lighting of the shots. She made sure that the lights we used, be that the LED or a lamp, suited the light from the ceiling lights - for example, if we filmed in the hallway, Charlotte would make sure that the light we used to get rid of the shadows and to make the exposure better matched the orange light of the ceiling lights etc. She also helped direct certain parts of filming and gave ideas to give the film more of a creative edge if scenes got boring.

Daniel was in charge of sound recording every little thing that we filmed. He made sure that every sound was clear and suitable. He also was the PA (a joke around the team) as he constantly served us food, often running to the chippy, and making the teas for the cast members and production crew. He also was the one who rounded up the cast and helped to clear up the sets and make sure that every match-on-action was the best we can make it because he seems to have the best eye for noticing if something was not quite right. 

Myself was in role of directing the whole thing, as well as helping in lighting (mostly holding the reflectors or LED in the place that Charlotte has appointed). I decided which shots we were going to do next, which shots were the best ones or whether we needed to re-shoot them as well as telling the actors what they must do and say to get the best performance. My other role was make-up and SFX make-up. I was in charge of making sure every time I did the girls' make-up, it looked exactly the same every time and was affective to the girls' personalities. 

The stunt co-ordinators of the team were myself and Daniel. More on this later on in the filming process. 

The Auditions & Introduction to our final Cast Members

After finally finding the actresses and actor that we needed for our film, we decided to audition them to find out whether they were a good choice so that we could  access how they acted with each other and whether they looked the part when side-by-side. We also took a camera to film them acting the parts out as proof to put on our blogs.

The Auditions:

Introduction to our final Thespians (Cast Members):

Rebecca Chapman - Y10

Rebecca plays the leading female role in 'Behind Closed Doors'. We thought Rebecca was the best fitting actress to play Alice because she looks the part of an innocent and mature woman who is settling down with her boyfriend. She played the role of Alice more effectively than the role of Stacey because not only does her appearance give her the edge but the way she presented herself and also her voice, being more adult-sounding, just matched the persona of Alice. 

On top of this, Rebecca matched the appearance details that we wanted for Alice such as her hair colour being dark brown instead of blond or highlighted. She is also tall for her age and matches the height of our leading male role, which is vastly important. 

Millie Russell - Y7 

Millie plays the secondary female role in 'Behind Closed Doors'. For the role of Stacey we needed somebody young looking but at the same time looked very much old enough to go alongside our leading actor and actress, and Millie fits the role perfectly and is willing to do it. Although Stacey isn't a leading role she is incredibly significant to the story line and is important she is played correctly and during the auditions myself and my team decided that Millie had the right look and character to be our Stacey. 

Millie's appearance details match those of Stacey much better than we had hoped for in the beginning. Her long highlighted hair really helps bring out Stacey's character, as well as the clothes Millie has picked out really helps make her look older than she is and match the part even more. Her voice also matches the idea we have of Stacey because it has a soft and almost shy edge to it, which can be used to create the promiscuous and sympathetic tone that we sought. 

Alex Marks - Y12/College

(Alex isn't present in the footage above, as he was chosen after the auditions because our previous actor Ryan (present in the auditions) didn't quite fit the given part and also became grounded by his mother the first day of filming - which put a halt on filming once again.)

Alex Marks plays the leading male role, Richard, in 'Behind Closed Doors'. Being a year younger than myself and my team, Alex best fits the role of Richard because he looks mature and intelligent. His glasses make him look much older than he actually is and once dressed in his suit he looks much more like the character we need. 

Actor Release Forms

These documents are important to have signed by each of the actors in our film as they are proof that the cast members have agreed to being in our film by their own free will and that they are okay with being on youtube and having others watching them in our film. Before they sign the documents they must read the terms and conditions at the back of the release form, and also must have their parents or guardians sign the form as well. 

Alex Marks = plays Richard

Rebecca Chapman = plays Alice

Millie Russell = plays Stacey

Daniel Dabbs = plays Newspaper Boy

Terms and Conditions are agreeing to

Obstacles We've Faced So Far

So far, we have been hitting a couple of obstacles that have impeded our progression towards our final goal. The most prominent of them is finding the actors and the timing issue.

Casting Issues

Our film needs three main actors - 1 boy and 2 girls. The actors/actresses needed to be able to express emotions as our film consists of both wrath and sorrow, which also needs to be mixed in with love and lust. 

The two actors we first 'hired' told us they could do it and then both pulled out a day before we needed to complete our animatic and couple of days before filming began. This left us with no actors and a mad rush to get more on time. 

The following two agreed to do it, and then again with a matter of 4 days the girl pulled out saying she didn't want to do it anymore. This left us without a main character. Therefore we had to go hunting again for another girl that would match the look and age of our boy actor. 

This had proven difficult and so we have had to search for complete new actors that are all of similar ages that stand a chance of pulling off the look we need. We have found three; two girls that are eager to do it and a boy who is also eager however he is still to tell us whether he can do it or not. 

Timing Issues

Another issue we now have, and time is running out to film, is the amount of time the actors are giving us to film as they all have things to do after school and weekends. So far we seem to only have  2 days during a week to film our footage and we are worried that this will not be enough time, as last year it took us a week and a half to film for a 2minute film = and this year it is a 5 minute film so we feel we need much longer than 2 days a week and a possible weekend.

Preparing for the Shoot

So now everything is complete, this post is to quickly cover the fact we are all ready for shooting on location starting next week. In the post we will be showing evidence of booking equipment for our filming sessions, whether or not transport is sorted, who is responsible for printing documents (namely scripts), if crew roles are are sorted etc and if there are any shots or effects we need to practice.

Equipment booked:
It's important that every production team in my media class book out what equipment they need and when so that they defiantly know the equipment they want will be there and ready to use to film whatever their shooting schedule has in store for them.
Here, a member of my group has booked at all of the filming equipment we will be needing through scene 1,2 and 3. Should their be any problems like the other teams need a piece of equipment (as their is only two of everything and there are 3 groups) then we may be able to surrender an item for a while to help them out.

Screenshot of the equipment list my group have booked out for filming

Transport:

As of yet transport hasn't been discussed as the location we are filming at is rather close to the school and everybody lives more or less within walking distance apart from 3 who may need to be picked up and brought to the location, as it takes longer than an hour to get there. However, we will probably get a lift off Daniel's or Cameron's parents to get the filming equipment up to our filming location to stop us hefting it through the streets. 

Printing Documents:

All important documents have been printed out by myself and handed out to the actors and actresses already so that they can now learn their lines a little more before we start filming. Shooting schedule I am printing out multiple copies so that we have back up should we lose one or it ends up a mess.

Crew Roles:

Crew roles have been sorted out mostly: myself will be taking on the role of Director and making sure everything is going well and on schedule, directing the actors/actresses with help from my team and making sure there are no problems during filming. 

Cameron will be filming most of the time, possibly switching with somebody else if they are slightly better at a particular shot type or camera movement. Last year during the AS media course, Cameron did majority of the camera work and he is much better equipped at it then most of us in our group as it is one of his strongest qualities in media.

 Daniel will be in charge of sound recording as he did last year. He understands the equipment perfectly and seems well suited for the task. 

Charlotte hasn't got an assigned crew role as of yet as she sort of floats between all three however we may need her to take control of lighting if we use reflectors and artificial lighting in our shots. she will also most likely be helping to direct the production alongside myself.

Practice for specific shots &/or effects:

Myself and my team know that focusing in general could be our hardest challenge throughout filming, constantly making sure that every shot is in full focus and not slightly off. We may also need to practise with the crane shot, but we are not sure if we are going to use the crane in our film any more as we have altered the story line a little and the story board seems to work well. 

We may need to play around with the new FCP X again to get ourselves used to where everything is on it just in case we mess something up while editing our film.

Shooting Schedule

The shooting schedule is a very important document that all the members of the production team, and quite possibly the cast also, need to be aware of so they know what props to bring, what equipment is needed, when and where the shots will be filmed and of course, they need to know what shots/scenes are being filming on what day.

The shooting schedule was one of the last pieces of production work that we needed to complete, as we couldn't do this before we had the storyboard. Myself and my group will be filming for roughly two weeks, of which we are hoping - if everything runs smoothly - only seven days will be needed. This means the next week can be used for touching up any loose ends or changing camera angles or dialogue used. 

For my AS media course myself and my production team had to come up with a shooting schedule also, if you want to check out this you can do be clicking this link: Jarlinc's Shooting Schedule.

Example of a shooting schedule

Shooting Schedule Part 1:

This part of the shooting schedule is initially consisting of shots from scene 2 which will be the first scene that myself and my production team will be filming as this is the most important scene of our film, and it is more convenient for us as after school this time of year it gets darker quicker - and so because we need a long period of time to film when it is dark outside, the weekdays are the best suitable time. These scenes will be filmed from 4:30pm till 9:00pm.

Shooting Schedule Part 1

Shooting Schedule Part 2:

This shooting schedule is carrying on from the part 1 but it consists of scenes 1 and 3, which are the slightly smaller scenes to shoot and the ones we are going to be filming during the weekend as we will have the time to get up early and film from the morning through to either when we feel we can stop filming or when it begins to get too dark for the scene we need. Scene 1 will be filmed from 8:00am (roughly) - 1:00pm while Scene 3 will be filmed 12:00pm - 3:00pm.

Shooting Schedule Part 2

Animatic for "Behind Closed Doors"

Now the storyboard is completed, myself and my production team were able to create and complete our animatic. This is our storyboard in motion with a rough soundtrack over the top, foley noises (such as the sound of a door slamming) and also, a new addition this year is dialogue. Last year in my film "Shadowed" for my AS course, we never used dialogue so this year we wanted to attempt it.

Example of a real film media animatic:

My AS Media Blog Animatic Post This is a link to my last years media blog if you want to find out more research about animatics in general.



I have used this example of a real media film animatic because I think it's the best one as you can see the storyboard and how the film actually turned out right next to it so you can compare.

Our Animatic

Evaluation of our Animatic

Overall, I feel that our animatic really resembles what we want our final film to look like. I think that the drawings tell the story well and are detailed enough so that the viewer has a rough idea of what is going on in each shot. The soundtrack chosen goes well with the genre of the film and helps to set the mood and tell the story as it goes along. The gentle, sad classical piano music at the start "Mary" helps to portray the carnage that the scene shows and really goes hand in hand with how Richard is meant to be feeling and the tragedy of Alice's death. The loud ticking sound of the clock as well as the tense soundtrack alongside it in "Approaching the Hour" adds to the effect that Alice is waiting for Richard to come home and is feeling tense and angry that he isn't back yet. In "Celestial" the slow to intense and frantic beat helps portray how the characters went from calm to angry to violent throughout the course of the argument. At the very end of our animatic in scene 3, we are using the end of "Mary" again, because the end has a more intense sound to it and the music ends on a perfect note a little like a "boom" noise which we felt suits the shot where Richard drops the necklace and picks Stacey over Alice. The "boom" almost symbolises the idea that its a shock to the audience and the wrong thing to do. 

The dialogue went really well when we recorder the voices, however due to unfortunate happenings, we had to ask two people from our media class to fill in for the actor and actress so that the sound recordings were completed for our animatic. The way both of them did their character was brilliant and really helped us to get a feel for how our film we look like when we actually come to film it. It also helped us make changes to our script and adapt how the characters could say certain parts. 

The animatic is 4 minutes and 28 seconds long, which is a little close to our cut off point of 5 minutes, so we are hoping when we film the rough cut it will either come to the same length, only a little bit longer to give room for our Volcanic Productions ident, or if possible a little less time. If it goes over 5 minutes we will need to do a lot of cutting and getting rid of needless shots. 

Storyboard for "Behind Closed Doors"

This post is the storyboard for our 5 minute short. Each drawing is an idea of how each of our shots will look throughout the 3 scenes of our film. The next post will be our film's animatic which is the drawings from our storyboard put into motion with soundtrack and sound recordings of our actors reading their lines.

Storyboard Research:

Storyboards are a time-consuming process that takes weeks to do properly, especially for those million dollar films out there which could have other a thousand shots (much more) for their entire film. For our film we only have five minutes and so our storyboard isn't as long as some of those of real feature films. Storyboards allow any improvements to be made to the film before it begins to be produced, any problems can be found out much easier on the paper and if there are any new ideas new shots could be added in or old shots taken out to create the perfect film.
For more research on Storyboards again you can check out my AS media blog where I did a little more research: Jarlinc's storyboard for "Shadowed".

Storyboard Conventions:

- The Scene Number: This is needed to sum up exactly which part of the film the shot is in. Within our film "Behind Closed Doors" there are three scenes altogether and so having those scene numbers in allowed us to quickly figure out where each scene belongs. It stops any confusion from happening also.

- The Shot Number: This section of the storyboard is important because it tells us exactly which shot it is: near the beginning, near the end etc, instead of having to name every single shot. It makes things a lot quicker and easier for when we do our animatic also because if you have loads of shots (films will have thousands) numbering each one is vital to keep track of them.

- The Shot Type: The shot type displays how the shot will be portrayed in the film, whether its a mid shot or a close up etc. This is shown in the drawings of the story board and is often wrote underneath as well.

- The Drawings of the Scene: These drawings allow the producer to see what the film entails way before production/filming properly starts. The drawings allow your film idea to come alive on the page and you are able to see if something works or needs improving or completely changing.

- The Camera Movements: Camera Movements refers to such things like panning, tracking shots, tilts etc and is often displayed as an arrow on the drawing or written underneath the box as a little reminder type thing. You would use the camera movements on a storyboard if you want to show that the camera will be tilting to follow somebody bending down for example.

- The Extra Details: The details box is where you can put a very brief sentence or two about what y that particular shot includes so that any drawings the producer or production team cannot understand, they have the writing underneath to refer back to.

Behind Closed Doors - Storyboard

Next on my blog I will be posting my animatic for Behind Closed Doors.

Production Review

This post is basically an overall update on the goings on within Volcanic Productions on the subject of production. I will be stating my opinion on whether my group is ahead or behind schedule, truthfully, and what we are doing to maintain or improve it.

What's happened so far/ How's it going:

Okay so, assuming you have followed my journey through my media course so far you will know that myself and my team have had to learn how to use new equipment: DSLR training post and new software like FCP X: FCP X training as well as already producing a small documentary on the subject of litter as an extra part of the training. 

So now we are pretty much left to our own devises to sort out everything we need before we start shooting: that is everything from the treatment to the animatic and storyboard as well as making sure we have actors and the actor release forms all before the 28th November when we are sent out to film our rough cut. 

I am enjoying this media course and am really looking forward to filming however it is becoming very stressful and panic is really setting in, especially as I am hoping to live up to the same standard myself and my team achieved in AS last year.

Are we ahead or behind schedule:

Honestly, at this moment in time I think we running behind schedule because certain posts that are assigned to people are not being done when they are meant to be completed by, which then effects the rest of our team as they are waiting upon those posts. We are still yet to complete our storyboard, and animatic which takes a while to finish, especially if you want it at high standard. I am starting to panic as the deadline for R&P posts is in 11 days - rather a nerve raking thought - so I will be assigning extra hours after school either with my team or on my own to make sure everything is done by the 28th November. 

Some sleepless nights are on the horizon I see :) 

Our group discussion with Mr Hood

Each production team went in for a discussion on how we were getting on and Mr Hood identified/agreed with us that we are behind. He also pointed out the fact that I could be becoming rather bossy and controlling because I want things done straight away, which could mean that the rest of the group could be feeling a little unsure about doing anything without my say-so or worried its not done perfectly. 

He also said that because in our group there is myself who is the control freak and another who is a lot more laid back, which means because we are opposite ends of the stick, there could be problems that could occur which means we need to find a way of balancing it out to make it easier for us to manage as a team and get things done.

The following days after discussion/Areas to improve:

I am trying not to be as controlling and giving the members in my team a little more space to do things without worrying about me turning into some demon, however while in doing this I am still making sure everything is done and helping them if they need help.

We have now completed our storyboard, which gives us a week to complete our animatic... with all hands on deck, we should get this done - no, positive thinking, we WILL get this done :).

Special Effects & Make-up Research

After last year, myself and my group wanted to push the boat out just a little further and try out some special effects in make-up and actually doing realistic looking wounds and doing make-up to do that final touch for our actors and actresses to get into their roles and to help represent their characters more. This post shows you the rough ideas that we have about how to go about this and what they will look like. 

Alice's Make-up

As I have said in my previous post on costume research, Alice is a very natural and innocent looking girl, so the use of bold colours like reds and blacks are out of the question. We want soft warm colours or the gentle pinks and blues and only a small amount to highlight her features just a little. 

Idea 1 - Warm Neutrals

This is a rough idea as to how Alice's eyes would look

The natural warm colours would simply give our actresses eyes a glow that makes her eyes stand out. This make-up idea seems to have more of the natural look that an innocent, christian girl would go for instead of the intense rich colours like deep red or brown.

A gentle shade of pink maybe

The pale pink lipstick is perfect for a nice natural glow for our character Alice. It again gives that innocent look and strengthens the fact that perhaps Alice is a quiet girl who doesn't want to make herself stand out with bold colours. Could symbolise how she is the less superior of the couple.

Idea 2 - Soft pastels, most likely pink

Another rough idea for the second look

The soft pink eyeshadow seems like the colour make-up that our character Alice would wear, instead of the bold colours like red or black. It adds to the girly, innocent look of our character. 

Stacey's Make-up

Deep red nails and lipstick

Because Stacey's characteristics are that of a promiscuous office lady, we felt that doing her nails and lipstick as a deep red would bring out the stereotypes due to the connotations of red being promiscuous and lust. 

The Wounds

So for the wounds I thought what would be best would be to use some scar wax and realistic fake blood which you can get from more face-painting or special effects shop. We thought this would make Alice's death look more realistic and any cuts and wounds on Richard's hand would just give our film that extra authenticity. Also, using the scar make-up and fake blood would look much better than buying a wound already made and sticking it on - sometimes they can be a real pain.

One drawback with this is that we would  have to make sure the wounds are done in the same place and the same way each time - however we are aiming to get all of these shots done first as to not have to worry about that later.

The video above is simply showing how we would go around creating the wounds using the wax this lady uses in her tutorial. The wolf marks on her cheek are one way of doing the cut marks on Alice's forehead from where she hits her head on the stair banister rail, however it would only be one cut and wouldn't look so wolf like.

This fake blood is perfect for realistic wounds as it doesn't dry or drip - its stays moist which gives that perfect look for our film

Example of the scar wax used

For Richard's knuckles, if we don't do the cuts on the back of his hands, I was thinking about simply using a type of blusher to make them look rather red and sore looking. This would stop the hassle of recreating his cuts to look old when it comes to the end of the film when he is waiting for the funeral, because red marks fade over time. 

Special Effects & Make-Up research by Deanna Hopps

Next post will be the Location research and the risk assessment

Prop Research

Myself and my group now had to come up with a formal prop list of what props we are using in our film. This post shares this list and for each prop I have put why exactly we have chosen that particular prop item. All of the images displayed are just an example of what our props will look like.

Necklace

 

We wanted the girlfriend, Alice, in our film to be an innocent christian girl, somebody very sweet and pure looking. The symbol of a cross on a delicate chain seemed fitting for her characteristics, and the silver colour itself represents her innocence. Furthermore, after a little research, we found that Christians don't were gold much as it seems to have connotations connected to greed and mixes with the devil a little. 

We also wanted this necklace to seem dear to her - a present off her boyfriend, Richard. Through this we are going to have her clutching it a lot, and in her death scene we are going to draw attention to it a bit more. Furthermore, we want Richard to be holding it near the end of the film while he is waiting to go to the funeral, and also have a match-on-action as he drops it to the floor before he leaves.

Engagement Ring

 

The engagement ring was a new development in a narrative, however we think it really works well. We want the ring to again be silver because of the whole innocent look and the connotations of gold. The reason behind the ring in the first place is to show that Richard had actually been out late buying an engagement ring for Alice, but she thought he had been out late cheating on her: hence the argument. The idea of the engagement ring gives that extra twist at the end because it looks like he meant the ring for Alice, but he could actually have bought it for the female friend that we will have enter at the very end.

Book

 A minor prop that we felt actually had a strong impact on the film; if you noticed it. The front cover is a foreshadow of what is to come in the film and we wanted Alice to be reading a book while waiting for Richard to come home. The front cover of a man fallen down the stairs foreshadows to the audience that Alice at some point also falls down the stairs.

We also thought about placing the book at the bottom of the stairs during the argument so that when Alice falls down the stairs, the book is laid upwards revealing its cover once again; making the subtle foreshadow a lot clearer. 

Plates

 

Although these are more of a set piece rather than a prop, I felt I'd put it on the prop list also because the characters throw them during the argument. Richard mostly does this as he loses his temper. This display of shattering plates is typical during arguments, along with photo frames etc, and we felt the shattering noise the plates would make against the wall would be perfect during the argument as it sound violent and angry itself

Keys

The keys are going to be used in two shots of our film in two different scenes. The use of the keys in the first scene will be to signify that Richard has just come back from work and it just gives it a casual look. In the second scene the use of the keys is signifying the fact that Alice is leaving Richard and giving him back the keys as if to say this is actually final.

Football

The football will be used in the very first shot of the first scene within the establishing shot of the house. It will be kicked around by two young girls as they walk past the house laughing - this is meant to demonstrate the idea that they don't have any clue of what is going on behind the door of the house we are filming in - they think everything if fine when really, in our film, it turns out it really isn't fine. The football adds to this carefree look on life that children have, because they are simply having fun.

Newspaper

The newspaper will be used in the first scene, where (this was a new idea we came up with) a newspaper boy will bring the paper early in the morning and post it through the letter box - which really links to our films title and meaning which is that he, the same as the two girls, doesn't know what is going on behind that door, he's just got a job to do. It really shows how we have no idea what could be happening in somebody's house at any time.

Another idea was that we could do another foreshadow of Alice's death within the paper itself, somehow. Whether we mange this is yet to be seen but it is an idea. 

Formal Prop Plot 

Costume Research

Onto the costume research now. This is where you can find out what the Protagonist and Antagonist will look like in our film and exactly why we have chosen for them to have this particular look.

Antagonist - Richard (The Boyfriend)

First Costume

We are aiming for the Antagonist's clothes to be the typical office worker uniform: the formal, smart look. This hints on wealth and importance - perhaps of high rank. The office clothes are meant to give off the sense that perhaps he was late because of work - office jobs tend to cause those working there to work late - or maybe because his work clothes are already formal, perhaps he went out on a late night date: which starts off the argument with his girlfriend. 

We wanted the colour red for his tie - just like in the image to symbolise two of the seven deadly sins that are major centre points; Lust and Wrath. The black slacks, white shirt and black shoes are the other typical office look that we want to attempt at getting our antagonist to wear.

                                     

These image of Ryan Reynolds is the look we wanted for Richard - we wanted somebody who looks manly, but with a potential to do harm to people and lose his temper. The clothing he is wearing in the image is also a good representation of what we want Richard's office look. 

Second Costume

This costume will be worn at the end scene of our short film, where Richard is sitting on the stairs waiting to go to his girlfriend's funeral. The typical clothing he will be wearing is a suit that is completely in black apart from his white shirt. 

We are thinking about still getting him to wear the red tie, however after a little more think, I'm wondering about changing the tie's colour to something more subtle or simply just black.

Protagonist - Alice (The Girlfriend)

To coincide with the characteristics of Alice we wanted her attire to be innocent looking - almost childlike. To do this we wanted to use soft, pastel colours instead of bold. This represents the fact she is rather a quiet and meek woman. The innocent and childlike look links to the fact Alice is a sweet religious girl with a good background and links to the main theme in our short.

       

We wanted to find an actress who could portray the look we wanted for our actor: Zoey Deschanel, from the E4 series New Girl. She has the same wide-eyed and innocent look while looking very natural and simple. 

Antagonist 2 - Stacey (The Work Colleague)

Stacey is Richard's work colleague that he has had an affair with. Because of this simple piece of information and the fact she works in an office we wanted to follow the stereotype of the promiscuous female office worker that sleeps with everybody in the work place. To also go along with stereotypes we wanted to try and make Stacey blonde. 

The costume Stacey will be wearing is completely black as its funeral wear but we want to still keep that promiscuous theme so we may dress her in a little black dress. The black is both related to funerals and death as a sign of respect AND a little black dress is often associated with a confident ego and promiscuous ideas.

Second idea

To keep with the promiscuous and revealing costume idea, we thought that instead of a little black dress - should the actress not feel comfortable wearing one for example - then a small black skirt, white blouse and black blazer. 

Formal Costume Plot

Real media products that share our costume ideas:

The Jennifer Lopez film"Enough" is the main inspiration for our film as it follows the same theme of 'domestic violence'. Within the film the main antagonist Mitch Hiller often wears a business suit which makes him look superior to his wife as well making him look professional and also can give him an evil look. This is what we wanted to portray with our character's costume.

Screen shot from "Enough"

The female from "Enough" backs up our protagonist Alice's costume choice as she is often presented when she is in her marriage wearing thin, pastel coloured clothing which makes her look smaller, weaker and more innocent than her husband. 

Men in Black

The main characters in Men in Black, more importantly the men, are all dressed in formal suits which represents the idea of "men on a mission" and they are normally serious and professional. We took this costume idea because the men in the film work in an undercover job and this normally involves an office for headquarters, this links to our character Richard because he works in an office and the fact he dresses in a black suit conforms to the stereotypes of formal uniform.

Veronica from 'Heathers'

Veronica from the film Heathers shares the same characteristics as Alice with the fact she is the innocent girl of the group. She starts off wearing clothes that don't actually reveal anything. She also wears subtle clothing/pastel clothing instead of the bright colours which makes a statement.

The next post will be on the special effects & make-up we will be using within our short film. :)

Risk Assessment

Following the location research, myself and my group had to come up with a risk assessment that states all of the possible hazards that could occur while shooting on set. 

The importance of completing a risk assessment as it allows everybody in the production company and the cast to be aware of possible dangers that may occur and know how to control them should they encounter them.  

A2 Media Risk Assessment

Location Research & Set Pieces

In this post I will be showing you the locations that will be used within our film short and I will also be adding in the set pieces that will be used within each area of the location.

Exterior image of our Location:

The location for our 5 minute short is a house setting - somewhere that many arguments take place between couples and it also relates to our film's title which is "Behind Closed Doors" as in you don't know what happens in somebodies home once their front door is closed. 

The stairwell created the perfect death scene idea as it could be both an accident or on purpose should somebody fall down the stairs and its something so simple. 

The house's look itself looks like a family home, which is the atmosphere we want for our film. 

Although Richard works in an office and the audience can assume he has money, we feel that having our characters still living with Richard's parents allows us more give on the ages of our characters and the actors we get to play them.

Kitchen/hallway:

   

The hallway & kitchen are one of the three rooms we chose for our film to be set. We included the kitchen because not only do many arguments often start there, it has that element of danger in it - especially if there is somebody - like in our film - who is getting incredibly angry. The sharp objects like knives add that extra aspect of suspense - especially if we have Richard standing right next to some while the argument is going on, because at any moment he could reach over and grab it or for the woman to use it as defence. This won't happen in out film, however that aspect is still there and makes the kitchen one of the best places.

The hallway, although it is rather narrow which could cause us a slight problem with the filming equipment, is where we will be filming Alice lying at the bottom of the stairs and using it mostly at the end of our film when the female arrives to take Richard to the funeral.

Set Pieces

A photo frame will be needed for a film short so that Richard can pick it up and hopefully smash it on the floor. Inside will be a photo of Richard and Alice which he will then tear in half and let them fall to the ground.

Living Room:

We chose the living room as another area of out location to shoot because it is meant to be a place where you can sit and relax and many memories happen within a person's living room more than any place in the house. By using the living room as a place for our argument we are subverting this idea of tranquillity and replacing it with the sense of hostility and an idea of being trapped.

 The table in the background is where we will be staging the romantic meal by using set pieces.

Set Pieces

These wine glasses are what will be placed upon the table for the romantic meal that Alice has made ready for Richard to come home from work. They are also one of the things that Richard will be throwing and smashing during the argument.

Obviously we won't be getting our actors to really drink wine and we don't want to have the glasses with wine in them due to one of them being smashed, so we are going to have the wine bottle placed near the centre of the table between the two meals. I thought red wine would be best as it links in with Christianity. The wine bottle in the picture won't necessarily be the wine brand we use - it's just an example. 

For there to be a romantic meal set out, we thought Alice could either have laid out the food just before he was meant to arrive home OR we simply have clean plates where they are supposed to be sat. The second idea may prove easier so we don't have to worry about serving up food and making it look exactly the same for each scene and cut that we do. 

 The digital clock is what we will be using for Alice to be monitoring the time. It's easier to film the time changing on a digital clock rather than a 24 hour clock. This will possibly be somewhere rather close to the sofa where Alice will be sitting at the start of the film.

Cutlery will be used to lay the table for obvious reasons. We don't want the audience thinking our characters eat with their hands - especially not at a romantic meal. 

 A romantic meal wouldn't be the same without candles, however these candles will be melted down rather a lot to show the length of time Alice has been waiting for Richard to come home. The candles we will use will most likely be in jars or candle holders as to stop the mess.
We decided later on that we would make a link between christianity and the candles through using the Christian's Advent Wreath which includes 4 red candles and the white candle that is lit on Christmas Day. We felt that using 2 red candles and 1 white candle would subtle symbolise Alice's religion but still keeping the romantic theme.

The flowers in the centre of the table are needed to just set the scene and to make sure the reader understands that this meal is certainly a romantic occasion at first glance, and that it is obvious Alice is angry at the fact that Richard has missed it. 

Stairwell:

The stairwell is probably one of the most important locations in our short and possibly the most difficult. This is where we will be shooting the climax of our film where Alice falls down the stairs - of course we won't literally be getting out actress to throw herself down them. They are also important as they are where Richard is first seen sitting on the them and the last place you see him at the end of the film before he gets up to leave the house.

Script for "Behind Closed Doors"

After completing our treatment, we are now able to move on to writing our script (screenplay). This is another important document myself and my group had to complete because it allows us to give them to our actors for them to learnt their lines and to know what they will be doing at which points. It's a simplified version of our treatment basically; with all the long narrative cut out. It makes it easier for the actor/actress to find their lines instead of hunting through lines of text.

Behind Closed Doors Screenplay

Treatment for "Behind Closed Doors"

'Behind Closed Doors' Treatment

Okay, so now our film idea has been commissioned we are now able to get on with writing the treatment, auditioning actors as well as looking into locations, props, costumes and also thinking about our script, animatic and storyboard. It's busy-busy from now on.

This post is the treatment for our film idea, allowing you to have a good understanding of the narrative of our film short. 

Behind Closed Doors Treatment

Target Audience Research and TAP

Just like last year, our film idea needs to have a target audience: people who would be interested in watching out film. It needs to be appropriate: we can't produce a horror film for example and aim it for 5 year olds - that would be silly. The same as aiming a romance film solely at males is also not a good target audience. We also needed to come up with a rough idea of our age certificate for our film, just so we have a guide line while we are shooting and planning.
In this post I will briefly be covering the BBFC Certifications again, whilst also supplying a TAP (Target Audience Profile) of our typical target audience member.

BBFC Certification 

British Board of Film Classification

Films that fall into the age 15 certification have certain aspects within in them that make the film suitable for people above the age of 15. These include:

- Strong violence - the violence can e strong within a certificate 15 film, however incredibly strong gory images are not likely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic violence is also unacceptable in these films.

- Frequent strong language

- Strong verbal references to sex

- Drug taking

- Sexual nudity

- Portrayals of sexual activity - sexual activity can be portrayed within a 15 through subtle ways - nothing too graphic and detailed

- Only brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal reference to sexual violence

- Discriminatory behaviour or language.

If you want to read more about the BBFC certificates then you can either go to their website: BBFC Certification Website or you can check out my AS media blog from my previous film where I looked further into the different film certificates: Jarlinc's Target audience research & BBFC Certification research.

Our BBFC Certificate for our film:

We were thinking about putting the age rating of 15. This is because we researched and found one film I have watched before: "Enough". The age rating for this film is PG13 - so the closest we could get. We believe our film to be a 15 because it contains a sensitive issue that could be distressing to younger viewers, however we could always use 12a instead should our film turn out not so bad.
We are using "Enough" as a guideline because it is about domestic violence and an argument between a wife and husband, which links to our story plot.
We also feel that our film falls into a 15 because of the topic that it is based on, which is a domestic argument that results in death which we were unsure about whether this would be something that would be given a 12A of not, so we went for 15 as it does have some scenes of violence in it and rather heightened emotions that could disturb younger viewers.

Our Target Audience

     'Behind Closed Doors' is aimed to a young age group, nameable those between the age 17-30 of both a male and female gender - possible couples. This is because we feel that this is the age group where domestic violence is the most common, because this age group are still finding their feet in the outside world, stressing over everything and its the time where relationships are often not as solid: they can be rather rocky. 

      We thought that by aiming this type of film at this age range, not only does it raise awareness to what can happen, it also gives the audience a sense of thrill, tension and suspicion which is often what people within this age range is looking for in films.

TARGET AUDIENCE PROFILE (TAP)

This is an idea of what our typical target audience would look like for our film "Behind Closed Doors."

Couples that are young and often have silly arguments over silly things 

 This is Katie West and Adam Smith. She is 20 years of age while Adam is 22. They have been together since college. Adam studied business and maths which then lead him into an office job while Katie is still looking for work. She studied Drama through college. 

Katie and Adam both have hobbies: Katie enjoys going to the theatre, art and reading books like "Murdoch Mysteries" and "Mortal Instruments" while Adam enjoys watching tele and a bit of sport like football and gold while he sometimes enjoys some time to play musical instruments like the keyboard.

 They both enjoy watching thrillers and horrors that have good twists at the end that they never see coming or have good jump scares. One of Katie's favourite films stars Jennifer Lopez: "Enough",which is a suspense film, as its the woman who takes a stand while Adam rather likes "Taken" where the man goes out to save his daughter and is the hero at the end of it. 

Being still young and at the start of their relationship Katie and Adam have many arguments about many silly things that often cause huge heated shouting matches that can make either Adam or Katie storm out or throw something because they are under stress from work or money problems. They have just moved in together, Adam owns a BMW which is his pride and joy, while Katie owns a small mini which she likes as its simple and gets her from A to B: which is often shopping.

Real film media that backs up our choice of target audience:

Fifty Shades of Grey

Screen shot taken from the Pearl and Dean website

So this film hasn't got the same theme as my film but it does share connections: for example the bloke in it is portrayed as the more dominant character, while the woman is less superior. Its genre is drama which I felt went nicely with our film which I feel falls into both drama and suspense genres. The target audience for this film is females around the age brackets 15-24 + 35-45+.

The Gambler

Screenshot taken from the Pearl and Dean website

The Gambler comes under the drama, thriller and crime genres and is mostly aimed at males 15-24. This could be used as evidence that boys around this age bracket are interested in dramas ad suspense films, which matches my own film.