Research Into Genre

After reviewing our film idea, we found that our film could came under the genre of psychological-drama rather than a thriller. Research into how psycho-dramas are conveyed has and will be conducted. Elements and/or techniques of some films of this genre may be applied into our film because they are more suitable for the story and plot to our film

Some examples of psychological dramas are on this website that show a list of the top twenty in that genre.

http://www.flickchart.com/charts?genre=Psychological+Drama

After looking at these films the most common way the film is structured is how there is one focal character and the audience follow their life over a period of time, usually at a time where their life changes such as Mark Zuckerberg in the social network; the film documents the rise of Zuckerberg as he creates the popular social networking site facebook. Similarly in the wrestler, the film shows the fall of the focal character as his life descends into a mess of health problems and loneliness. Our film is similar because it documents our focal characters life as he stalks his love interest and also has a twist in the film as the feelings are shared by the girl but no one else knows it.

This short film is a psychological drama which focuses on 'Angel' and her struggle to cope with losing her boyfriend/husband. It uses many close-up and extreme close-up shots. In our film, we also plan to use many of these shot types as it creates tension and suspense. The lighting used is quite dim. The use of dim lighting creates shadows which create a tense atmosphere. There are several out of focus shots used in the beginning of the film, these shots then go into focus on particular objects and things such as the doorknob. This is used to indicate something is about to happen as well as creating a distorted atmosphere - the audience become aware that something is not right. The mood is also set by the non-diegetic sound - music - which is quite at first then slowly becomes louder. This also indicates something is about to happen as tension is created.

Internet advertising/marketing of films.

The internet is a rapidly growing medium to advertise and market an abundance of different products. This is a massive audience to effectively 'sell' your products to; this market is expanding onto new media devices such as smart phones and tablet computers. The ability to market your product via the internet is a good way to enhance the views of the audience. Since the start of the internet many film companies have used the internet to advertise their films using trailers.

Product placement of films onto the internet has grown tenfold in recent years, the ability to get your product to millions of people is a brilliant opportunity to expand your customer base. Other than movie trailers alone, there are vast number of other ways how a company may market their film. There are also website's reviews and reports of the film which creates a general buzz about the film, assuming that the film gets a good rating. Websites such as Metacritic and Rottentomatoes do these analytics of the films and their ratings/reviews of these products are widely accepted as correct. If they have a high score, the users of these websites are more likely to want to view the film.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/single_white_female/

Social media is also an increasingly large audience for films, 'word of mouth' creates a buzz about the film and a desire to watch the film in question. Friends/family can also arrange a trip to the cinema using these social media websites which also encourages people to go and watch the film.

But with the growth of the Internet's proficiency to share films, so does the ability to pirate those films illegally. Many films lose millions of pounds due to the lost sales of films due to pirated copies of their product. Although the crime of piracy has slowly been brought down over the years in disk form, the intangible form has been increasing tenfold. Illegal downloading and streaming of these products lead to lost sales for the film companies.

Storyboard

This is our hand-drawn storyboard in video format. The music used for this won't be used in the film but I thought it was a suitable song for this particular showreel.

Script - Unrequited

Click the images to enlarge.

Film Poster Ideas (Incomplete)

This is just an idea of what the film poster would look like. If we use an image of a porcelain doll, it will be the doll which is used in the film. The font for the text on the film poster will look handwritten. The image of the doll will look quite menacing which will represent that the female character in the film is menacing and 'creepy' herself. The image may also mislead the audience into the thinking the boy is really the strange character who has the strange obsession, which makes the twist more surprising and unexpected.



Treatment - 5 minute film (2nd draft)

Title: Unrequited

Synopsis: At first glance of the short film the viewer is given the idea that the film is yet another cliched stalker film, but there is a twist that is least expected. The idea for our short film involves two characters and possibly one or two very small roles. Having a small number of characters allows us to more easily acquaint the audience with the characters which are mainly involved in the storyline, this will allow them to be more easily understood as to why they do certain things; although a sense of enigma must be maintained so that the twist at the end is a shock. The main character, a male, is obsessed with the second character, a female. the male follows her around the village where they live. The male has a cupboard filled with items/mementos dedicated to her, as he opens the cupboard for the first time where these are stored there may be a crescendo to notify its importance. We may also use a pot doll that can be seen as a scary or eery object in order to reflect on the male character's actions; although the male himself isn't a mentally unstable person, his naivety and inexperience with the opposite sex leads him to doing things which isn't socially acceptable, the audience can feels a sense of sympathy with this character, or they may just portray his actions to be perverted. This uses semiotics and iconology because it may be a fear of the viewer and adds an extra dimension of the male's creepy behaviour. This also adds another ominous effect, further adding to the eeriness. The climax to the film has an unexpected twist where the girl is actually in love with boy and has an obsession with him; she also has a diary where she writes about him.

Audience: The film will be a 12A as there are infrequent, if any expletives, and there is no usage of drugs. There are mature themes in the video, but these will be acceptable for viewing by a younger audience. Although we should take imitable behaviour into consideration as the audience could copy the acts in the film, although this is very doubtful. The audience will be aimed at the majority of cinema goers; the age range will be between 12-28 primarily, although the film will also be viewed by people older than that. This short film could attract both male and females, giving us quite a large target audience.

Summary: We are looking to produce a short film that is both enjoyable for the viewer and technically a good film, consisting of a variation of shots and a storyline that can hopefully be fully understood.

Duration: The length of the film should be 5 minutes, or as close as we can get to that length. 5 minutes is the time we have been given for the film's length. This is an acceptable amount of time for our short film idea but careful timing of shot length should be carried out to avoid excessive over-running. We may go over the 5 minute mark, but it isn't a set limit, just an idea of how long it should last.