costume/prop ideas

These are our ideas for props and costume. 

Costume: the main character will need to wear dark mysterious clothes to hide their identity  untill the end of the opening when the eyes are revealed. We will borrow a cloak, it will be black and have a hood .
The other piece of costume will be some contact lenses we will buy some yellow snake ones and they will be used for the graphic match of the dice and the eyes.http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?q=yellow+contact+lenses

Props: The props we will be needing are:
A board- we will need a board as the location we plan to use does not have a concrete floor we can draw on so we will get a piece of plyboard, paint it black and cover it in dirt on location.

Chalk: we will use some white chalk to draw out the board

Candles: we will get some tea lights and place then around the board and use a large candle for the centre, we will alos uses matches to light them. they will contribute to the lighting and will make the atmosphere seem spooky.
Dice: we will use an ordinary pair of dice and repeatedly film then rolling untill we get the required numbers

Snakes: We will find a reptile centre near by and  ask to film some snakes, we will need close up shot and far away

Location Ideas

For our location we wanted to use a very derelic and dark building, in which was room we could use to film ithe main section of our thriller. The room needed to dark enough to look mysterious and gloomy, however we would still need some light perhapse through cracks in a wall so the filming quality would be good.

This is an old barn house we found, it has several room which we could use, however we are plannign to use the largest room with brick walls as it has a small window for light , it also has a large space on the floor wich we could uses for the board and candles. The overall feel of the place is very spooky and cold.

This location wil also be good as we do not need permission to film here and it is out the way of traffic and civilisation so there will be little back ground noises.

Final Idea

For our chosen idea we have chosen to incorperate all our ideas into one, the main narative will revolve around idea one: snake eyes, this will be an opening which uses ideas of a boardgame and chance (dice), it will also use the idea of peoples fears (snakes) and we will use flashes of a snakes to build suspence, finally we will use snakes eyes as a graphic match from dice to some eyes with contact lenses in.
We will then incorperate idea two into the costume as we will make the main character wear a dark cloak to disguse their identity and make them mysterious. we will also use the idea of a shrine and lots of candles to create an eerie atmosphere for the setting. We may also use religuos sounding chants and hyms in the background music.
The thrid idea has been added by the overall uses of fear and fobias, to make it pyschological rather than an action thriller etc...

Thriller Idea Pitches

This is a powerpoint presentation we made to show 3 ideas we have come up with, we presented it to the class to get some feedback on what works well and what may not be practical.

We also took inspiration from films such as 'Jumanji' as we though with a twist the idea could be thrilling as it would all depend on the luck of a dice.

We thought about using contact lenses to create a realistic effect of snakes eyes on a person and we also will find a local reptile centre to film at.

for this idea we took inspiration form costumes and props used in films like 'The Da Vinci Code' as we agreed it gave a very mysterious effect.

One of the key elements of this idea we would focus on is the idea of fire and candles as they would create a very spooky lighting effect, especially if reflecting of a face or other props.

The overall ideas for this idea was to focus on the idea of different peoples fobias and bring them  to there worst nightmare.

We then decided that childhood fears are particularly scary as they can affect many people and  would make a good thriller as music could be made form nursery rhymes etc...

BBFC

The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) are incharge of classifying films into age catergories. They do this to prevent young children watching a film that is unsuitable for them to watch. The main things the bbfc look for when deciding on the classification is:

-Discrimination, against either race or gender etc...

-Drugs, drugs should not be glamourised and if they are seen should be taught as a bad thing.

-Horror, frieghtening things which may upset or disturb.

-Imitiable behaviour, acts of violece or crime, these should not be shown as a good thing and use of weapons should be limited.

-Language, offensive launguage, swearing, discrimination.
-Nudity, nudity with no sexual content is often allowed.
-Sex, rated highly, adult catergories.
-Theme, problematic themes such as drug abuse and paedophilia.
-Violence, how much injury is caused, and valid reasons needed.

The catergories used to rate films in suitablility are as follows:

-U, Films classified with this should be suitable for everyone, therefore it should have no discrimination, drugs, acts of crime children could copy, mild violence (such as threats), and very little bad laguage.

-PG, suitable for unacompanied children upto the age of about 8. similar to a U, but with possible unsuitable theme for very young children.

-12, suitable for children aged 12 and over. However a 12a may be watched by a child younger than 12 if accompanied by an adult who thinks the film will be suitable. Use of violence, language, horror, sex, drugs and imitable behaviour can be shown, however must be brief and not influence or be shown in detail.

-15, suiable for people aged 15 and over. similar to a 12 however more detail may be shown.

-18, suitable for anyone aged 18 or over. all areas can be shown in detail such as violence, laguage and sex. 18R, is suitable for anyone over 18, however may only be shown in licensed cinemas.

Institutions

A media institution is a company which will help fund the movie, provide equipment, find suitable cinemas for the film and distribute the film (around the world/to local DVD store).


Different institutions tend to specialise in different genres. For our thriller production we will need to find a suitable institution such as one who has provided for and distributed many thrillers/horrors before.


Miramax is an institution which has worked with many recognisable thriller and horror films such as No country for old men, Reservoir dogs, the scream and kill bill. The institution would be good for our film as it would help develop the film into a successful one as well as have a lot of experience and knowledge about the correct market to distribute the final product to.

Prelim evaluation

our prelim went very well. we used a range of camera shots  such as extreme close ups to show characters emotions and long shots to introduce character. We also used a graphic match in our prelim between the mug and the biscuit, it was used to show time passing. We also used cross-cutting to show the two characters meeting in the corridor. When editing we used straight cuts for most of the shots and fade to black transitions. i also edited the pace quicker towards the end to build tension. The props we used were mugs, a biscuit, a plate,spoon and coffee, these were good because they were realistic for the setting. The costume used was also realistic, however if our actors were adults it would have looked better for the staff room environment. We didn't t really use much lighting as the indoor lights were good. The only sounds we used were two music tracks for which worked very well and were very effective with the western theme. The main problem we had was the 180 rule as when the characters walk into the room we can see mugs on the wall, when they then sit down you can see a different wall. overall it went well.

Prelim Task - Biscuit Showdown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8rVA0YRe7U