New Movie - The Playhouse

10.0: Risk Assessment

10.0: New Production Schedule

New Production Schedule

Production Schedule - The Playhouse

Filming Date: 15th January

Meeting Time: 4pm-8pm

Address for Cast and Crew to Meet at: Walk from Tamworth Sixth Form to Antonia's house.

List of Crew and Contacts:

Antonia

Cara

Stevie

Props:

Fake Blood

Apple

Clothes to hang up

Knife

Equipment:

Camera

Tripod

Time	Location	Scene	Shots Needed	Cast & Props
4:00pm	Landau Sixth Form to Antonia's	N/A	N/A	Antonia Cara
4:30pm	Set up and briefing (House)	N/A	N/A	All Cast All Props
5:00pm	Antonia's House (downstairs)	All downstairs scenes; cutting the apple, the phone call, hearing the footsteps.	1-15	Knife Apple Fake Blood All Cast
6:45pm	Antonia's House (upstairs)	Looking for the noise, in the young boys bedroom.	16-29	Clothes to hang up All Cast

10.0: Old Production Schedule

Production Schedule – The Cellar

Filming Date: 29^th & 30^th of October

Meeting Time: 2-4pm

Address for Cast and Crew to Meet at: Town Centre Wilkinsons

List of Crew and Contacts:

Cara

Antonia

Friends

Props:

Fake Blood

Car

Handbag

Car Keys

Coat

Equipment:

 Camera

Time	Location	Scene	Shots Needed	Cast & Props
2:00pm	Wilkinson’s to Fletchers	Three friends walking from the nightclub having a good time.	1,2,3.	Handbag Coat Camera Friend 1 Friend 2 Main character
2:30pm	Street to the car park	Girl walking on her own to the car park.	4,5,6.	Main character Handbag Coat
2:50pm	In the car park of the cellar	Girl walks to her car in the car park and drops her keys.	7,8,9,10,11	Car Car Keys Handbag Cellar door

9.0: Recce

PICTURES PLS.

Recce

For our old movie, we decided on using the cellar and the town center for our settings.

Pros;
- Needs no permission to use.
- Looks realistic so no setting needs to be created.
- Own property so we could use the space freely (cellar).

Cons; 
- The lighting becomes an issue as it can get dark with working outside. 
- Permission may be needed off any general public with accidentally getting faces in shot, names of places or licence plates.
- There will be background noise which will be hard to edit out.

For our new movie, we decided to film in a house.

Pros;
- Adequate lighting levels for a good definition of film.
- No unwanted background noise.
- Own property so we can use the space freely.

Cons; 
- May be difficult to make the house look creepy (horror movie) as it might look to homely.
- Windows may give off reflections.
- No open spaces so longer shots may be hard to achieve.

8.0: Casting

Casting

We have two actors in our new movie.

Antonia Georgiou - The Mother
Stevie Georgiou - The young boy/ghost

The Mother;
The mother is the main character. She should be seen as mature and older. She is the one who unravels the mysteries in the house.

The young boy/ghost;
This is a foil of themselves. The young boy sets the innocence of the role and the opposing character he plays is the evil force. 

Props; 

- Fake Blood 
- Knife
- Apple
- Clothes to hang up in wardrobe

7.0: Role Allocation

Role Allocation

Director;

The Direct quite simply directs people what to do when making the film, almost like a manager of a workplace. They help control a movies artistic and dramatic effects as if they were viewing the production through the audiences eyes. They need to be able to visualise the production from the script and order the camera workers, the actors to make this become reality.

In our production, I played the director meaning I had to instruct our actors and how the audience would be best from seeing the action from their view.

Producer

A producer has overall control on everything about the film. They approve the directors ideas and everything that is going to happen. They will need to create the environment where the whole team is happy and can show their talents.

Me and my partner Antonia took a shared role as we created this movie and put together our ideas on how we want it to look.

Cameraman/woman

They see the action through the camera lens. This role involves getting the best view for the audience and having advanced knowledge of the equipment they use. 

I decided to take this role as Antonia worked as an actress. With some skill, we created good angles and some that needed improving. We had a medium level of technology so we managed to execute two decent movie opening sequences. 

Editor

Editors create a sequence by editing what they have filmed together in a professional format. They also edit sound, filters and any effects. They use high quality software and technology to do so. 

Art Department

The art department is in charge of creating all props and setting to give a visual scene for the film. They create the overall look of the film. There are many different roles within this department such as concept artists, set decorator, etc. 

We didn't need to create much set and props as we already had everything in the House for The Playhouse. We created/bought props such as the knife in the sink in the first movie, The Cellar. Other than that we used the fake blood as blood is a convention of horror movies, in both films.

Costume Department 

The costume department take the role of organising outfits for the actors and actresses. They also can design significant outfits per role. 

We decided we would both have input as we needed a young boy costume and a mature adult outfit so we decided on just casual wear. In the first movie we created, The Cellar, Antonia wore business ware to make the actress look more older and serious. This consisted of a blazer and a female suit. 

Hair and Make-Up

Hair and make-up artists are in control of the actors and actresses appearance. For instance, face make-up might need to be more horror based such as monsters or aliens. Hair might need to be styled to suit the character also. 

We decided to do our own make up. The young boy had no make up or styling but Antonia used casual but noticeable make-up for the camera to pick up. No horror make up was needed as we didn't show anything such as monsters or ghosts. 

Special Effects

The special effects team is in charge of adding anything during the editing process such as explosions or anything to change the image of the scene. This adds to dramatic effect. Such as in horror movies we would need maybe changed to an actor/actress, or gore. They can also create any add ons to the actors/actresses costume such as mechanical masks for transformations such as in The Werewolf. 

No special effects were added to our movie, except a blue filter to make the movie look more cold and abnormal to the viewer. 

Stunts

Stunts are actions that are potential dangerous so professional stunts people that look alike the actors/actresses perform these instead such as falling from a height or in a fight, etc. 

We needed no stunts people as we did no dangerous activity in either movies. 

Sound Production

These are the people that create music, sound or add sound to the movie. They might create object sound such as a car door slamming or create music for theme tunes or soundtrack to add to the dramatic effects. 

We was both in charge of this. Antonia found sound clips using a royalty free websites for sounds such as doors slamming and car engines for our first movie. I edited the sounds and added them to the movie. In the second movie, we found it easier to record any needed sound affects while on set so they sounded more realistic such as the footsteps that you hear. 

Feedback - Miss Spencer

You have worked hard to get four analysis blogged Cara, you have discussed the conventions and thought about the elements of DISTINCT at times. There is a tendency to describe the action rather than to analyse the elements I have asked you to look at, but on the whole you are showing a good understanding of the conventions of the genres.
At the moment your work is at a level 2/3 border, in order to improve:

• Put the Easy A film opening in the Easy A analysis post
• Give all of your posts a title, otherwise it just picks up the first line of the text as a title and looks messy and disorganised!
• Your blog needs to be tidied up - use the same font throughout and get the film openings and screen shots in to illustrate your points and break up the blocks of text.

Please reply to this blog when you have tackled this work, then I can reassess your grade.

6.0: New Storyboard

New Storyboard

6.0: Old Storyboard

Old Storyboard - The Cellar

5.0: New Script

The PlayHouse

[The house is lit in the night, and cuts to a view from outside the window. Inside, Mother is in the kitchen what appears to be preparing dinner. She begins to cut apples for dinner hastily. As she does so she slips and cuts her finger. While washing the cut her phone rings which appears to be her Husband on caller ID. The voice on the other end cannot be heard as it is insignificant to this opening]

Mother: Hello? [4s pause] It looks like it's getting there I guess. [4s pause].

[The phone call pauses as footsteps are heard banging upstairs, with the lightshade shaking]

Mother: Oh sorry, I think Stevie's messing up... [footsteps continue] around upstairs. I-I'll see you later. Bye.

[Mother walks upstairs, aware and confused. She ventures into every room and notices no one is actually upstairs. She sees the state of the presumably young boys room and begins to tidy. She hangs clothes onto coat hangers and opens the wardrobe. As she steps away, there is a small figure in the wardrobe which isn't obvious. She continues as if oblivious to the figure. She walks out the room and knocks on the bathroom door to find the son making the noise.]

Mother: [Knocks on bathroom door] Stevie, you in there? [Knocks again] You left your clothes on the bed. [Knocks again].

[The young boy appears at the bottom of the stairs showing there was no one upstairs at the time.]

Stevie: [Appears from downstairs] What?

Mother: I thought you were upstairs?...

Stevie: I've been down here?

[The mother looks around upstairs confused by the noises shes been hearing and proceeds downstairs. As she walks downstairs, the figure appears at the top of the stairs and vanishes again, cutting to a black screen]

5.0: Old Script

The Cellar

Casting

Antonia Georgio - Damsel in Distress (No Name Given)

Coming home from work on a dark night, the streets are lined with dim streetlamps and city like settings. Cars pass by on the road. 

DiD: [ locking up a door to the workplace, and walking through the streets casually. Types a number in her phone and talks on the phone to a relative]

DiD: Hello, I'll be home soon. Did you want anything from the shops while I'm out? [continues to walk into the car park towards her car.] Okay, see you later,... bye!

DiD: [enters into the car and tries to start it. It fails to do so so she leaves and looks into a frosted window, seeking help. A worried expression appears on her face as she goes to knock on the cellar door. The door creaks open, and she enters inside. She turns on a torch. A knife is seen in the sink inside, covered in blood. A door with a white glowing light is seen, and she decides to enter. The door slams shut behind her.]

DiD: Help! Let me out! Arghhhhh! [She bangs on the door viciously, trying to escape.]

*End*

4.3: Characters

Characters

We decided to keep the number of actors to a minimum. We chose to focus on the mother and son in the opening film as this lets the audience realise that these are the protagonists in the movie.

Our first protagonist we see is 'The Mother' played by Antonia Georgiou. She features as the protagonist. The actress playing the character is of 16 years of age but could pass off as a few years older. We couldn't get any slightly older actresses to play the character so we used more mature costume and mature make up to make the actress look older. If we was to do this task again we would spend more time on casting more older actors for more a more authentic approach. We decided on a female protagonist due to when doing target audience research we discovered that females were the main viewers of horror movies. This means by casting a female protagonists, female audience members could relate more to the situation especially those with families of their own or younger siblings.

Our second protagonist is the foil character to the doppelganger. This young boy is performed by Stevie Georgiou who is of 11 years of age. We decided on this age as they become aware of what is happening in a 'horror situation/traumatic situation' so makes more of a story instead of casting more immature ages. We decided to base the horror on a young child as many horror movies with large box offices have young children as the evil within. This is because we see children as innocent and cheerful so by showing them as evil or dark creates fear of the unknown. We chose a young boy as young boys try to be older and more brave in horrific situations. This creates a sense of sympathy for any mothers in the audience. We also decided to cast siblings as they would look alike and more believable of being related.

4.2: The Storylines

The Story Line

Opening the story with a female damsel in distress which explores the depths of the cellar. Her death leads to many murder mysteries and what is actually happening in this cellar. A group of archaeologists uncover the secrets of the catacombs that lay beneath the cellar. 

Who

At the start we decided on a young female role to show the damsel in distress side of the horror conventions. This sort of character would be played by Emily Perkins who features in films such as Insomnia (2002) and Ginger Snaps (2000).

For one of the archaeologists we was thinking of an actress such as Jodie Foster as she appears in physiological horrors such as The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Panic Room (2002).

Where

We chose a cellar as many horrors such as The Conjuring and The Hole. This features many horror conventions such as dark places, cobwebs and white bed sheets. 

When

It doesn't specifically have to be dark as in the night time as the cellar/basement usually is a dark gloomy place anyway so the filming can be done whenever we need. The room should be dark with low lighting to set the dramatic horror mood. 

Our New Storyline

During editing our first movie, we decided to change the plot as it didn't work and didn't look like a horror movie. We changed all of our old work and started from scratch with a new plot and setting. The plot is as follows;

A new family have moved into a regular house. Little do they know that they have moved into a nightmare. When the mother starts to notice strange happenings in the house, she begins to investigate finding out her son is causing all the problems. The family begins to fall apart, but is it really the son or someone else?... 

In the opening scene, we will show the mother and son as the father isn't a protagonist in this film. We decided this because it narrows the actors down so the audience can become more attached to two protagonists rather than a lot creating a more emotional bond. By portraying a female protagonist, this brings the females which we researched to be the main viewers of horror movies like our new movie, creating a bigger chance for a bigger audience. By casting a female as the main person, this gives chance for the female audiences to relate to the character as many viewers were between 14 years - 24 years which may be the age for young mothers or having siblings of the same age as the boy cast with the horrible curse. The audiences will see glimpses of the 'doppelganger' type ghost which haunts the house in the wardrobe and the stairway which isn't obvious but when seen will create a jump scare, a main convention of present horror movies. This will create tension and make the audience want to know the history of the house or what the doppelganger is, or what it is. This will make them want to watch the hidden boy again meaning more views for our movie and also the jump scares will make audiences want to share it with friends for the nervous laughter which horror movies bring when scared in a group.

Instead of the original actors we would cast someone like Ty Simpkins who stared as the possessed boy in Incidious (2010) making him 4 years older in our movie.

For the mother, we would cast Lili Taylor who stars as the mother in The Conjuring, a horror movie a lot like our new plot. She looks like a mature normal mother which is why we chose her.

4.1: Plot Mindmap

4.0: Presenting to a Class

This was our original ideas for our first movie. We changed these to a more easier approach when coming to filming. We changed the plot to fewer actors so production was more efficient and a different setting for the film went from a cellar to a house due to lighting difficulties.

Old Movie - The Cellar