Title Reference

We found that a lot of our film references, i.e. Haywire, Hanna, SALT etc. had titles that were simple with (black or) white writing: e.g.

From "Hanna"

From "Mr & Mrs Smith"

We found that the most effective one we saw was from "Kill Bill". We wanted to also fade to black between the shots for the titles, allowing us a slower, more mysterious pace and more continuity between shots as time passes. We wanted a black background with a simple white font, as we saw from our references that this was very effective and fitting for the mood. This is seen in the opening sequence of "Kill Bill Volume 1" and illustrates what we wanted to develop for our opening sequence:

Progress Following Our First Main Shoot

Once we had captured the footage from the first main edit, we realized that lighting was still an issue. We wanted to make the lights darker and more sultry, but when looking back at the footage during the editing process, we noticed that this dark lighting made darker objects, such as Rose's dress, and shadows appear grainy. This made our footage look unprofessional, and conflicted with our aim to create a Hollywood blockbuster film.Therefore, we came to the conclusion that it would be sensible to do a reshoot in which we would make the lighting brighter in order to eliminate the grainy affect.

We realised that our main issue has been lighting throughout, and so, as our last shoot was coming up, we took the opportunity to do a lighting tutorial. This was led by our technician, who set up a room similar to our set, i.e. with a mirror, desk, chair etc. He then talked us through lighting, and we redid the lighting ourselves and found solutions for our problems. The main things we took away from this, was the fact we must light from one direction, and try to keep all the light coming from this direction only as that will help with continuity between shots; the second thing was to light from very high up, and this gave the shots a more naturally lit look, as it could be lights from the ceiling.

We also realized in our shots that we needed to make sure there was no product placement whatsoever in the shot and gave us another opportunity to correct shots we were not particularly happy with. We had a second shoot on Sunday 9th March 2014, which was more consistent with regards to lighting and therefore closer to our desired affect and we will edit the footage this week (Monday 10th March - Friday 14th March).

Film Research: Lighting

We took inspiration this scene from the American TV series Revenge. The lighting in this scene is dimly lit, which would add to the ambiance of our scene and create a sultry atmosphere - which we wanted. There are shadows over sides of their faces, which we also wanted, mainly in the scenes where our female protagonist is getting ready. These shadows created a more mysterious atmosphere, and our lighting is also symbolic - as our character is hiding in the shadows so to speak, by withholding her true identity; the darkness prevents all from being revealed, and also brings a more seductive ambiance, reflective of our protagonist Rose.

The lighting is also quite natural, clearly, as we see on set, coming from lights, candles, lamps and the fireplace in the room, which we, as we do not have the sufficient amount of lamps etc., cannot recreate unfortunately, however we are going to use candles around our set.

This obviously comes with safety precautions, and so we are going to light them in each shot, and put them out between shots (also to ensure they stay the same size for the duration of our film opening. To ensure that the candles are stable, we will be using ones in containers, like these:

Main Edit (1) Reflections

After we completed the edit of our second shoot, we went through it shot by shot in order to see what needed changing, so we were prepared for our next shoot:

Shot 1: Too shaky, should hold on Yssy longer at the end, work on framing- having less space on right hand side.

Shot 2: Turn bottles around, no product placement.

Shot 3: Make sure no product placement with objects we see in drawer.

Shot 4: Two strokes for blusher, looks unnatural.

Shot 5: Unnatural stroke of blusher, work on speed- bit too slow.

Shot 6: Light in bottom left corner, continuity of where she places blusher-make sure its the same positioning in the next shot, decide where the focus should be

Shot 7:  Buy new lip gloss, so drip is accentuated.

Shot 8: Apply lip gloss to whole of bottom lip, be careful where it is placed, mind the corners of the lip so it doesn't look messy.

Shot 9: Work on the turn movement, should flow more, either decide on no head tilt or a more subtle head tilt.

Shot 10: Continuity of head tilt and smile, make sure what we see in the mirror doesn't include unwanted stuff like lights, and stuff on the bed.

Shot 11: Slower movement of the hand, work on how the ring is put on so it looks more natural, have the fist clench more central of the shot.

Shot 12: Dust on perfume, make sure all the bottles are turned around to avoid product placement.

Shot 13: Make the shot closer up to focus on perfume spray, take the hair all the way round to the other side instead of just to the back.

Shot 14: Too dark, add a light at the front.

Shot 15: Experiment with angles, to see what is most effective and not dis-orientating to audience.

Shot 16: Work on movement of camera, make outside dark by adding black paper to windows, clear stuff in hallway, hold the camera on him looking at her at the end for a bit longer. Maybe have him closing the door for continuity later.

Shot 17: No changes needed.

Shot 18: No track of camera needed, hold still.

Shot 19: Continuity of door (one shot closed then one open).

Shot 20: Use the tripod instead of handheld as shot is a little shaky. Conversation slightly unnatural- Yssy should stay looking at him when talking, then go to turn around, see him checking his watch, then turn around to re-assure him in next shot.

Shot 21: Grainy- work on lighting

Shot 22: Work on framing- have more of her in mirror, maybe have shot closer up to focus on his speech.

Shot 23: No changes needed.

Film research: Characters

In order to develop our characters, and therefore find appropriate ways of representing them within the opening sequence we decided to look further into similar characters, and characteristics of them.

 

When thinking about props, character and costume, we decided that it was important to gain inspiration from other films and television programs that we were aware of.

 

First we considered the characteristics of our characters:

 

Strong:

In order to succeed in her quest to find her sister our character must be strong, physically and within the mental games of manipulation she must play on others.

 

Influence: Carrie from Homeland, Kill Bill.

 

 

 

Caring:

Her devotion and care towards her sister is displayed within the extent she goes to to find her.

Influence: Kill Bill

 

 

Seductive Nature:

She must manipulate 'the boyfriend' and the boyfriends dad in order to find out more information about her sister.

Influence: Revenge, Emily Thorne.

 

 

Framing:

Our final line is a very important part of our sequence, and representation of our film because it probes into a lot about our character.

We decided to have our main female character to say the line 'oh it will be' behind her boyfriends back, in order to represent the way she is doing many things 'behind his back' due to her deception front she is putting on. WE wanted to capture her displaying an expression he couldn't see to represent the lies/ side to her he is not seeing. We were influenced by the following framings from Vampire diaries:

 

Other Framings we were influenced by involve the mirror shot, in which we see her display a certain emotion. The costume of a black dress is also inspired by the following image:

The female appears strong, but there is a slight consideration of doubt within the way she is almost questioning herself in the mirror. We want to reveal the slightly weaker side to our strong female character in the same way this image does.

Main Shoot: Costume and Props List

For the Set: 

• Various natural occurring items on the dressing table such as make-up and jewelry.
  
   

Props Yssy uses:

• Perfume

• Photograph

• Red lip gloss

• Blusher + brush

• Ring

• Dressing gown

Costume:
Yssy (Rose):

• Black dress with zip

• Heels

Jurgen (fiance)

• Smart shirt
• Watch

Film research: Representations of the Femme Fetale

The definition of "Femme Fatale"
A femme fatale is a stock character of a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetype of literature and art. Her ability to entrance and hypnotise her victim with a spell was in the earliest stories seen as being literally supernatural; hence, the femme fatale today is still often described as having a power akin to an enchantress, seductress, vampire, witch, or demon, having power over men.

The phrase is French for "fatal woman". A femme fatale tries to achieve her hidden purpose by using feminine wiles such as beauty, charm, and sexual allure. In some situations, she uses lying or coercion rather than charm. She may also make use of some subduing weapon such as sleeping gas, a modern analog of magical powers in older tales. She may also be (or imply that she is) a victim, caught in a situation from which she cannot escape; The Lady from Shanghai (a 1947 film noir) is one such example. A younger version of a femme fatale may be called a fille fatale, or "fatal girl".

Although typically villainous, if not morally ambiguous, and always associated with a sense of mystification and unease, femmes fatales have also appeared as anti-heroines in some stories, and some even repent and become true heroines by the end of the tale. Some stories even feature benevolent and heroic femmes fatales who use their wiles to snare the villain for the greater good.

Definition taken from Wikipedia

Other websites used for the definition of Femme Fatale:

• "An alluring or seductive woman, esp one who causes men to love her to their own distress", taken from The Free Dictionary
• "An attractive and seductive woman, especially one who will ultimately cause distress to a man who becomes involved with her", taken from Oxford Dictionaries
• "An irresistibly attractive woman, especially one who leads men into difficult, dangerous, or disastrous situations; siren", taken from Dictionary.com

Our Character/Protagonist

Using the information we found out about the Femme Fatale, we decided that we wanted the name of the character to subtly reflect these characteristics. We chose the name Rose because a rose is beautiful and most commonly red (which is one of the character's main colours) and can be alluring. It is the symbol of love, which we thought was ironic, but also it has thorns which can cause pain to unsuspecting people, which is what the protagonist in this film does to her partner.

Although our protagonist uses her sexuality and her partner's affection, we also wanted to make her more human and show that she is a three-dimensional individual. Therefore, in the opening sequence we wanted to portray her guilt at having to use the boyfriend to gain what she wants. We aim to achieve this by the shots: showing her reaction when he is speaking in the opening sequence.

Throughout the rest of the film, we would aim for the other sides of her character to be revealed:

• Actually falling in love with her partner
• Being able to fight in the action scenes
• Showing that she is also an intelligent woman
• Her love for her sister
• Her relief upon finding her sister

Our Femme Fatal references are:

• Emily Thorne/Amanda Clarke from Revenge 

• Beatrix Kiddo/The Bride from Kill Bill 

• Mrs Smith from Mr & Mrs Smith 

• Mallony Kane from Haywire 

• Evelyn Salt from Salt

And others such as:

• Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games 
• Hanna from Hanna
• Julia Russel/Bonny Castle from Original Sin

Treatment: Dressing the Set

One of the most important things to do when preparing to shoot was to dress the set appropriately for both the mood of the film opening and the personality of the protagonist. We wanted to create the impression of a sophisticated environment due to the fact that our actress, Yssy, is younger than the part she is playing, as our character is an adult (in her early twenties). By dressing both her and the set in a more sophisticated manner and keeping the dialogue mature, the audience would be more likely to suspend their disbelief and ignore her actual age. As well as this, we wanted to create a very sultry ambiance which we thought would be ideal for establishing the genre in the opening sequence and would add to the fact that the protagonist is a femme fatale.

In order to dress the set, we started by removing anything we believed to be too childish or not appropriate for the desired mood of the sequence - as the set was in the room of a 16 year old. This included removing dream catchers which were hanging and cards, unplugging any cables which were in the frame, removing objects of certain colours (such as bright pink) which we believed to be childish as well as getting rid of any photographs which were not of the characters in the film. This was the set:

From there, we realised that we wished to show that the protagonist, Rose, is an organised person and decided that this would be displayed through the fact that her dressing table is kept neatly, as visible in the picture below. Apart from this, however, it was also important to make sure that the dressing table contents still looked natural: as if she had used them before as opposed to being too neat. We wanted to fill up as much of the space on the dressing table whilst maintaining the impression of organisation.We also had to arrange the dressing table very specifically, as some shots were of the perfumes; and we wanted to show perfume bottles that were in coherence with our colour theme (red, black, but also other colours that looked mature and not too stereotypically 'girly'), and that 'looked the part' - mature and alluring. Having said that, we had to ensure that there was no product placement, and simply did so by turning the product labels away from our view.

During the development of our initial idea, we had decided on two main colours which we thought reflected the personality of the character: red and black. Red to depict anger, danger, revenge, passion, love and desire and allure. Black depicts the darkness within her, and her secrecy/the fact she is hiding 'in the dark' - not revealing her true identity etc. The black we decided to incorporate in the costume choices, but the red is more evident in the objects around her. We used colours throughout the set in order to create our desired effect::

• Despite there not being specific shots where the bed is in view, we decided to dress it with a deep red quilt. This would be in case part of the bed was ever caught in the shot. The bed initially has a white blanket, which we did not feel was suitable for our desired ambiance due to the associations between white and purity, virginity or innocence, all of which we felt would go against the personality and actions of the character.
• Many of the perfume bottles were red. We had one which was in the shape of a heart, which we decided would be symbolic if we partly hid it behind a darker perfume bottle. This is because of both the fact that she is manipulating her boyfriend by using his feelings for her to find out where her sister is hidden and also because she does not expect to actually fall in love with him later on in the film.
• Other perfume bottles are darker. One of the more prominent ones is black and is in the shape of a moon, which symbolises darkness and night. This is in front of the brighter bottles, which gives the sense of foreshadowing what is to come later on in the film, and even later on in the opening sequence when the audience is given the impression that she is not genuine when speaking to her boyfriend.
• The photograph our protagonist was looking at (of her and her sister) has lots of red within it:

Again, although we had not planned for it to be seen, we made sure to also dress the bedside table in the event that it is caught on camera. We decided to put some motivational books there in order to give more of a sense of her personality.

Main shoot: Adaptation to our sequence

After constructing our second edit, we needed to constructively criticise what we had created so far, in order to know where to go next. We decided to go through our sequence shot by shot, listing all the things we needed to improve. This was to make the next shoot a lot easier, as figuring out what wasn't quite right in our sequence pointed out what we needed to focus on, giving things like camera angles, framing, prop use and chronology of our sequence a direction.

Overall adaptations:

·         Find bigger version of Lionsgate video and consider other production company

·         Lighting: Start filming later so that there is no natural light or black out the window so that lighting is consistent. We will also have all three lights. Especially in dialogue scenes.

·         Remove dream catcher and ensure product names aren’t visible. Adjust perfume section too.

Shot by shot adaptations:
 

1.      Good angle, but need to adjust the speed and smoothness of the tilt upwards.

2.       Good angle, must be more careful about product placement (turn around). We need the actual picture. Turn over the photo and place in drawer more naturally.

3.       Good angle, speed and movement.

4.        Good angle, need a bit more speed and new lipstick, with deeper red colour.

5.       Good angle, speed, but more natural handling.

6.       Adjust the angle of the camera so that the actor doesn’t need to turn. More sinister then a quicker transformation to the smile which needs to be more superficial/ get across the message more (so that the second the camera is on the mirror, a smile is shown).

7.       CUT to continuity shot of getting the ring (old angle).

8.       Good angle needs more speed and real ring. Clench of fist needs to be more natural and brooding/suggestive.

9.       Good angle, no product placement – turn around (and different items in background) and different perfume.

10.   CUT to next shot.

11.   Good angle, need to be quicker on the actual spray and need to adjust the lighting so that the spray is more prominent.

12.   Good angle but need to ensure lighting is not in the scene.

13.   Good angle, no charger in background, and good focussing.

14.   Good angle but needs smoother movement of camera. Do not get the wire from the light in. Need new dress.

15.   Good.

16.   Good angle. Actress needs to have hands in same position as they were in previous shot, i.e. up after moving hair to side.

17.   Good angle. Actors need to act properly. Make sure eyes finish off down, so that next shot can be continuous. Turn more naturally

18.   Good angle, needs faster pace.

19.   Good angle. Keep hands down.

20.   Good shot. In this shot, actress must start fiddling with blazer, and look up a bit more.

21.   Adjust angle slightly, (act properly) and ensure hug is done in the exact same way for each shot.

22.   Slightly more central and closer  in terms of actress, sort out lighting, and adjust eye-line to be more central/towards the camera.

Rough edit: Group reflecions

As a group, from the test shoot itself (such can be seen in previous posts) and whilst editing and putting together our rough edit, we made many reflections.

Speed/Timing:
Firstly, when putting all our good takes onto the timeline, we realised, even with the extra time in each shot excluded, our footage was much too long. This was due to many things; firstly, our pace was much too slow in shots, both in camera movement and within the acting. Secondly, we underestimated how many shots were needed for good continuity, and so found ourselves having to add in many more shots than anticipated. After a consultation with our teacher, we came to the conclusion that in order to not exceed the time limit and waste time on shots that we merely there for continuity, we would dissolve to a black screen where titles would appear between shots. This would allow or time to pass, and so our continuity would not be affected, but also it would help us with our pace.

Continuity:
We found that editing within the rules of continuity were more simplistic than we expected in some parts, for instance the lip gloss shot. It was just merely time-consuming ensuring that each last shot and first shot of the next shot matched up, i.e. the hand was in the same position when starting a new shot. In other shots we found this more difficult, for instance, the hugging shots. In our chosen takes, the first is a mid shot from a side-angle, and the actor reaches with her left hand coming over the other actor's shoulder. However, in our second shot the actor hugs with her right hand coming across over the other actor's shoulder, and her left arm stays quite low. This made our task very difficult, as the two shots could never match up continuously, so we spent a lot of time trying to make it as unnoticeable as possible, by showing less of the first shot, so less of the first hug is seen.

Set/Mise-en-scene:
We found that in several of our shots, lights, tripod legs or slight reflections/shadows were in them. We scaled some shots so that this wasn't an issue, but this was not idealistic at all. This again made it very hard to edit our shots together realistically, but was an issue with our test shoot.

Lighting:
As we've had many issues with the lighting on the test shoot, we found editing to make our shots look continuous difficult, as many of our shots were slightly different lit. However, the dissolves to the titles in-between our shots helped us very much to conceal the discontinuity of the lighting between shots.We now know the importance of lighting carefully and not changing the lighting over the filming process. As well as this, we discovered the effects of filming with the interference of natural lighting and have decided to black out the windows for the shoot so that we can film at any time without much variation in the lighting

Dialogue:
We realized when watching our dialogue that it doesn't work well, and so have begun to redraft our scripts to suit a more realistic and spontaneous conversation between the two characters. We discovered that the dialogue we had originally intended to have in our opening sequence was not natural enough and appeared as if we were just adding it in to set the scene.  In terms of editing together our conversations, we had one or two difficulties due to continuity. We realised we had to get the actors to repeat their movements exactly for continuity reasons, for example match on action.

 

How we have planned for the next shoot:

We have edited our shoot board to incorporate the adaptations we have thought of for the next shoot on Saturday 1st March and are now finishing prop lists for each individual member of the group so that there will be no confusion on who is bringing each prop on the day.

Development of our idea

At the beginning of the project, we wanted to produce a film opening for an action film with a female protagonist. We wanted to defy three of the usual stereotypes with regards to the main character in the film:

1. The idea that women in action films tend to be the damsel in distress. We discussed the fact that women in related films seemed to be weak and vulnerable and the man would come to her rescue. We noticed that a female character is ignorant to what is going on and therefore at a disadvantage. However, in our own film, we wanted to turn this on its head by having a strong female character who is manipulative and a man who is less aware.
2. The idea that strong women in actions films tend to be cold and heartless. We found that the women who are not vulnerable can come across as having no feelings and can be unapproachable and sometimes rude. We decided that, to combat this, we wanted to have the woman fall in love with the man she is manipulating and also to give her an understandable cause for doing so: the kidnapping of her younger sister.
3. The idea that women in action films tend to purely use their sexuality to get what they want. Although we wanted her to be engaged to the man she is manipulating to get what she wants out of him, we also wanted to show that this was not the only means by which she is going to find her sister. We wanted her to be able to fight and be more physical.

From this, we came up with the idea for the whole film: a young woman searching for her sister who has been kidnapped and is being used for her body in a brothel. She is going to use the son of the leader of the human trafficking ring that kidnapped her sister in order to find her and save her. She does this by dating him and eventually becoming engaged to him, which benefits her as she finally gains some information about the location of her sister.

We were able to formulate an idea for our target audience from the initial story outline. We realised that the themes we wanted to cover in the story, such as human trafficking, would be exclusive to an older audience and therefore established the fact that we would aim for a certificate rating of 15 or 18. Understanding that an appeal of a strong, independent female protagonist would lure in a female audience and the sex appeal would draw in a male audience, we then established our primary and secondary audiences.

After this, we began to brainstorm for the actual opening sequence. We initially planned for it to be a series of flashbacks, but after a conversation with the media department, we realised that this would not work for multiple reasons:

• Filming all the flashbacks in different locations or dressing locations differently each time would be too time consuming
• We risked going over the time limit allowed for the film opening
• Flashbacks are difficult to edit during the editing process
• It was possible that the audience would find these too confusing and therefore it would make the opening sequence less interesting
• Creating a tense atmosphere at the start of the film would be more fitting for our particular character

With this information, we went back to the drawing board. Our biggest aim now was to create a visually appealing opening sequence for our target audience. We wanted to make the character more interesting and mysterious by showing her getting ready through a series of close-ups and extreme close-ups and metaphors which would be influenced by the opening sequence of Dexter. We came up with many normal things she could be doing that could possibly be perceived by the audience as suggestive and creepy, such as dripping blood-red lipgloss and decided that we would use slow motion in order to make these shots more creepy and unusual.

Our changes in the opening sequence seemed to change the personality of our character. Initially we wanted to use iconography in order to show that the woman was a well rounded individual, but after realising that we ran the risk of making her seem too young, we decided to make the sequence more sophisticated until she took on the role of a femme fatale. It wasn't until we realised this shift in her personality traits that we decided to choose a name for the character. We chose the name Rose, as we thought it was metaphoric: roses are beautiful but they have thorns that can cause harm. We thought that this was a subtle way of revealing the type of person she is.

The Animatic

Once we began to take the stills for our animatic, we realised that some of the shots we had initially planned for were not practical considering the space that we had and the cameras that we were using. As well as that, we identified continuity errors in our shot list as well as more exciting camera angles that were harder to think of when planning the shot list. We were able to identify the fact that, while shooting the stills, we had broken both the 180 degree rule and the 30 degree rule when planning the shots for our film opening and were able to quickly change these issues. Putting together the animatic was a vital part of the development process as it meant that our ideas had materialized and were much more realistic.

The Test Shoot

During the test shoot, we realized we had to edit some of our shots in accordance of the dimensions of the room, e.g.

We noticed even more instances where we had not fully thought about all the continuity issues related with our opening sequence and were therefore able to add extra shots which we thought were relevant and helped the opening make more sense. Furthermore, as these extra shots added too much extra time (of which we did not have) after consultation with a teacher, we decided that dissolving into black shots of titles, which helped our pace and hence the mood, and also helped time pass so our shots were continuous.
As well as this, the test shoot was a key opportunity to experiment with the lighting techniques and use shadows in order to add to the mood. We eventually achieved the right atmospheric lighting for our sequence and were able to identify set places Shani's bedroom for the positioning of the lights. We were, again, able to experiment with our camera angles in order to make the sequence more visually interesting.

The Rough Edit

During the rough edit we were able to identify the final continuity errors in our opening sequence and were able to correct them swiftly. We also decided to fade to black between certain shots and have titles in order to show the passing of time, which was different to our opening sequence idea prior to the start of this week. We had initially planned to have the titles placed around the action of the sequence, but realised that our opening sequence made more sense when we faded to black and it added to the tense atmosphere.

Our idea changed substantially throughout the planning process to what it is now. We discovered the fact that many of our ideas were not achievable and now fully value the importance of abiding by continuity rules in order to create a believable and effective opening sequence.

Treatment - Opening Sequence

The opening sequence focuses on the routine of a woman getting dressed to go somewhere. Her usually innocent actions appear to be extremely suspicious, which puts the audience on edge. Her identity is not immediately revealed.

Her boyfriend comes in and zips up her dress. We do not immediately see his face, which adds to the tension and suspicion felt by the audience.

The identity of both people is revealed and we hear a short dialogue between them which suggests to the audience that the woman is after her boyfriend’s father. There is dramatic irony as the boyfriend does not see the double meaning in her words. It is along the lines of:

Boyfriend: “Are you ready to meet my dad?”

Woman: “I've been waiting so long for this”

The soundtrack would add to the tense atmosphere.

The iconography in the opening sequence would be:

• Mirror, make up, perfume, heels to represent femininity 
• Black dress and silk dressing gown to show that she is a strong female character who has maintained her sexuality 
• Water bottle, iPod, running gear, yoga mat to show that she is a strong character who is in shape 
• Picture of her sister to emphasise how important she is and to give her incentive

Treatment - Original Shot List

Setting

A sophisticated bedroom with a dressing table and a bed on the other side of the room, with a red throw on it  – red being the symbolic colour of the woman, symbolising passion and sexuality as well as anger and danger. The lighting in the room will be artificial – symbolic of the artificial world the woman has created (iconography to support this is the make-up and seductive clothing and shoes); it will also allow for detail to be seen, for instance in the perfume spray and zip. The lighting in the hallway is dim, as the man is there, and it is symbolic of him 'being in the dark' with this woman, and also will keep the mystery and ambiance needed for our thriller/revenge drama genre. 

Soundtrack

Vicktor Taiwo Ft. Solomon - Digital Kids (0:00-2:00)

Location

Shani’s house (stairs, landing, bedroom)

Actors

Yssy and Jurgen Kumbulla

Shot 1: low angle close-up of the back of a woman’s lower legs showing that she is wearing heels. Her stance is very strong and she is facing the door she is about to open. She opens the door and walks in. The camera tracks her movement. Low-angle to signify her status and to make her appear intimidating and powerful to the audience. Iconography of the heels signifying her femininity and sexuality and her stance signifies her power and determination. Position of the title (A Lionsgate Production) is: middle right of the frame. She will be standing still; the title will appear and then fade. She will walk off.

The first shot is a good indication that this is an opening sequence and not any other scene from the film as it is clear from the fact that the audience does not see the protagonist’s fact until later on that they have not been introduced to them yet.

Shot 2: Fade-cut to a high angle close-up of a man nervously wringing his hands. High angle makes him appear to be vulnerable and juxtaposes the low angle of the woman in the previous shot. Position of the title (Produced by Enya Phillips) is bottom left of the frame. It will face on the next shot.

Shot 3: Fade-cut to a high angle close-up of the woman’s heels as she walks over to a dressing table and sits down. The camera will tilt up to reveal the back of the woman as she is sitting on the seat. Position of the title (Directed by Shani Thanki-Franklin) is on the bottom right of the frame. It will fade on the next shot.

Shot 4: Fade-cut to an extreme close-up of the woman applying blusher to her face with a brush. The granules of makeup will be caught on the camera in an eerie fashion (reference would be Dexter. Normally mundane, normal actions put the audience on edge). Position of the title (Starring Yssy del Amo) is in the middle left of the frame. It will fade on the next shot.

Shot 5: Fade-cut to the man coming up the stairs. Shot taken from a low angle, to gain depict his powerlessness, and from behind the man, so as not to reveal his identity and keep the mysterious and tense atmosphere - as the audience is still unaware of this man identity or objective, which connotes the genre of thriller. Position of the title (Jurgen Kumbulla) is: bottom right of the frame, and will fade on the next shot.

Shot 6: Fade-cut to an extreme close up of the woman using blusher on her cheek, camera slowly pans out to reveal the smile on the woman's face. Style: Very slow and mysterious, again depicting genre. Red lipstick on the woman's lips and blusher are all to show her femininity and beauty. Position of the title (Alexander Roman) is: bottom right of the frame, as the camera pans towards the smile, fades.

Shot 7: Fade-cut to a low angle over the banister shot of the man coming up the stairs – he is nearly up them now. Again, no identity is revealed, and movement is slowed down, again depicting the genre. Position of the title (Stacy Wade) is bottom left of the frame, fades on the next shot.

Shot 8: Fade-cut to a close up of the woman spraying perfume on her neck; the close-up will be close enough to see perfume bottle and the woman's neck, and will again be slowed down so that the detail of the spray will be shown clearly. The pressing of the perfume bottle will be in time with the soundtrack. Style is almost like the Dexter title sequence, very intense and suggestive. The perfume and red painted nails will again depict this femininity; the nails are painted red along with the lipstick as red represents seduction and passion, but also anger and danger – to which the woman represents all of these.

Shot 9: Fade-cut to the boyfriend walking towards the doorway. The pace is slow, building suspense, making the audience feel on edge. For this shot should it be a high angle of the camera following behind him, or a low angle of just his shoes? (Reference the music video)For the shoes one the camera could be positioned in the doorway at a low angle with him walking towards it (symbolising the mess of woman’s situation he is walking into).

Shot 10: A close-up eye-level shot which only involves the back of the woman's head and upper back. As her shoulders are revealed, it becomes clear she is taking off her dressing gown. The slow pace in which we see this happens accentuates the sexuality and represents the themes of sexuality and vulnerability in which she will use herself and sexuality later on to get her way.

Shot 11: Cut to a close-up of just the boyfriend’s mouth. No identity is revealed, all we see is his mouth gradually form a suspicious smirk. This builds suspense, leaving the audience to question how the two cross cutting images relate to one another, feeling on edge as to why he is smirking just after we see her take off her dressing gown. This represents the thriller genre portrayed in our film, as throughout the film the audience will constantly be ‘edge of their seats’ as it is a story full of dramatic irony, uncertainty, cliffhangers and surprise.

Shot 12: Cut to a mid-shot of the women pulling down her dress, in a way that suggests she has just put it on and is adjusting it to make herself presentable. Only the lower body is seen. From the waist downwards Her dress will either be black or red, which are striking colours to represents her strength emotionally and physically. However the seductive nature of the dress also represents her sexuality and femininity.

Shot 13: The man is now walking inside the room – the camera tracks his entrance into the room from behind him, and the shot ends as he reaches towards the woman’s – who appears unaware of his entrance- back, which has the undone dress on it. Style: again very slow and intense and suggestive and the identity of these characters are still not fully revealed to depict the genre and keep audience in suspense. This shot will also reveal details of the room; the desk will have several things on it to reveal aspects of the woman. Lots of make-up and perfume to reveal the feminine aspect of the woman. There will also be a picture of her and her sister placed very prominently to show her driving force and importance of family/her sister. Also there are lots of books piled up on the side of the dressing table to show her intellect. The dressing table is very organised to show her neat and organised nature.

Shot 14: Cut to a mid-shot of the man grabbing the zip of the undone dress on the woman. Style is again very slow and tense.

Shot 15: Cut to an extreme close-up of the zip being done up – with the camera tracking the zip being done up all up the woman's back. Style is again quite slow and intense – again depicting the thriller genre.

Shot 16: Cut to a mid-shot, from a side-angle, of the woman, with the man behind her, in the mirror. The woman will be smiling slightly deviously and the man will be looking admiringly at the woman. The woman will then turn around to face the man. The fact the woman is smiling deviously at herself in the mirror shows that she is up to something, and the man will look very susceptible to her seduction, by looking lovingly at the woman; this will establish their relationship, and also be the first time their full identities are revealed.

Shot 17: Cut to a slightly closer shot, focusing on the interaction of the women fixing the boyfriends tie. This is done in now hurry which strengthens and emphasises the chemistry between the women and the boyfriend. Her alteration of the tie suggests her control of their relationship, and his willingness of her control suggests his admiration and love towards her. Their interactions establishes their relationship once more.

Shot 18: Cut to an over the shoulder shot, where the boyfriend is in view and we can only see the back of the woman. The soundtrack gradually becomes quieter to focus on our first line of dialogue,of the boyfriend lovingly questioning the women as he says “are you ready to meet my dad?”.This dialogue suggests the extent of their relationship, as meeting a parent of your partner is considered a large step. The fact he is asking her if she is ready, suggests that the woman has put in time and effort to the preparation of meeting him.

Shot 19: The shot type remains the same as the women goes into hug him. The soundtrack gradually becomes louder, back to its original volume, the pause of her response builds suspense and makes the audience question as to what exactly ‘meeting his dad’ actually resembles.

Shot 20: Cut to a reverse shot, the woman's face and expression can now be seen, and only the boyfriends back is in view. She closes her eyes and she tightly squeezes him and opens them to say, “I've been waiting a long time for this” into his ear in a very suspicious fashion. This suggests that what she is saying has a double meaning, and what the boyfriend will interpret from this is is not what she means at all. As the boyfriend cannot see her as she responds, introduces themes of deception of the women and their corrupt relationship.

Proposal - Genre

The following post offers a more detailed description of our ideas for the proposal.

We have chosen the thriller and revenge drama genres for our film as thriller is extremely popular as a genre in the USA and the UK and therefore we have a bigger chance of making our film reach a global market, subsequently giving us more of a potential to make a profit.

Although we aim to defy normal conventions in our film with regards to having a woman as the strong protagonist, we will keep the convention of Hero Vs Villain in order to make the characters more identifiable and therefore comfortable for the audience. The protagonist is physically strong, however we will also keep to some of the stereotypical representations of women as she will use, to some extent, her sexuality to get what she wants.

Our main reference points for the genre are:

• Revenge 
• Kill Bill 
• Homeland 
• The Hunger Games
• Haywire 
Hanna 

Proposal - Audience

The following post provides a more detailed description of the ideas we had for the proposal.

Target Audience

Our target audience was young adults, male and female, most likely interested in the action genre. We would be aiming for the film to be a certificate 15 due to the moderate violence, swearing and sexual themes.

The film provides sex appeal and action for the male audience and a strong, independent female protagonist for the female audience.

Secondary Audience

Our secondary audience is a more mature audience – men and women – who would find the gritty topic choices interesting.

Global/ National?

The film has the potential to reach a global audience due to the nature of the themes. Human Trafficking and kidnapping are issues that could occur anywhere in the world and therefore are identifiable by a wide audience.

Making a profit would be important due to the fact that it will be a Hollywood film so we would want to appeal to a wider audience.


Films and television dramas that we would use as inspiration/would have a similar audience are:

• The Hunger Games 
• Kill Bill 
• Hanna 
• Revenge 
• Homeland 
• Haywire

Proposal Notes

This post contains the notes that we used during our proposal presentation. This involved setting the guidelines for our project by trying to consider different aspects of our film that were necessary in order to create the opening sequence.

 

1) Audience

Target and secondary audiences:
Male: from young adult to mature audience sex appeal and action genre

Female: Same age group for the strong women protagonist The age range is aimed at a mature audience due to the thrilling story-line which involves depth and gritty themes. Targeting worldwide audience, due to lack of particular nationality themes, makes it universal. Because it’s a Hollywood film it would have to appeal to a wide audience to gain profit.

References: Revenge, Kill Bill, Homeland, Hunger Games, Hanna

 

2) Institutions 

As our institution we chose Lionsgate Entertainment.

 

Lionsgate Entertainment has produced and marketed various films of similar themes and genres. Themes include self-development, exploitation and violence. For example films such as Abduction and The Hunger Games

Lionsgate also focuses in foreign films, such as in North America and the UK. This is where a lot of our audience would lie, as themes and genres of violence and action are very popular in US.

UK Distribution: Lionsgate UK

USA Distribution: Lionsgate Entertainment

 

3) Genre

We have chosen Action- Revenge Drama as our genre. This is because it is very popular in big branch cinemas and US and UK audience, making it have worldwide potential as a Universal drama.

Our convention is the Hero vs Villain. However within our film the woman is the hero against the male villain. But we keep the comfort ability as the women still uses her sexuality within the film to try and get what she wants.

Main reference points: Revenge, Kill Bill, Homeland, Hunger Games, Hannah, Haywire.

4) Representation:
Woman: hero up against man. Woman is using the man, using her looks and sexuality to be manipulative (this is stereotypical for women in action films).

But, the women is conceived as a very strong, but not heartless character, perceived from her drive to save sister and falls for boyfriend.

Doesn't lose femininity but is still strong: shown through iconography. E.g: perfume, make-up and other accessories shown in opening sequence.

 

WOMAN references:
Carrie Homeland, Emily Thorne/ Amanda Clarice Revenge, Katniss Everdeen Hunger Games, The Bride/ Beatrix Kiddo Kill Bill, Hanna HannaMallony Kane Haywire

 

 

 

 

 

Boyfriend: innocent, being  manipulated by the woman.

Impact on audience: Inspiration and empowering to women/ girls due to women protagonist character. Her character is identifiable.

Film character references:

 

BOYFRIEND references:
Peeta Hunger Games, Daniel Grayson Revenge 

5) Basic Film Narrative
Unlike film theories such as Todorov, the film begins with recognition of disruption. We begin with a disruption because it is suitable to action and revenge drama genre.

Basic structure:

• Begins with disruption: Sister is missing
• Attempt to repair disruption: Attempts to find sister
• Resolution: Finds sister
• New equilibrium is reached. Sisters are back together. The boyfriend now knows the truth yet chooses to stay.

 

Narrative references:

-Revenge:However the resolution has not been found yet as revenge is a TV series. 

-The Hangover although the genre and themes are not relatable as the hangover is a comedy, the structure is similar. Both the hangover and our film begin with a disruption and then follow onto to an attempt to solve this disruption and finally reach a new equilibrium. 

-Kill Bill

-Haywire 

 

6) Opening sequence
Structure:

The opening sequence focuses on the routine of the women getting dressed/ ready with a very suspicious nature.

The boyfriend comes in, does up her dress, emphasising the tense and suspicious atmosphere within his nature.

The identity of both of them is eventually revealed, and we hear dialogue between them which suggests the women is after the boyfriends dad. 

Something along the lines of:
Boyfriend: “Are you ready to meet my dad”

Woman: “ I've been waiting all my life for this”
Music: add tense atmosphere/ ambiance.

Iconography:
Mirror, make-up, perfume, heels represent femininity. Black dress, silk dressing gown strong character vs sexuality. Water bottle, iPod, running gear, yoga mat strong character, active, in shape. Picture of her and her sister emphasise how important the sister is to her. Books intelligent, research

Titles integrated: Nothing fancy because of the tense atmosphere.