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.
