This blog is to document our development over year 13 as we progress in our skills & style. To exhibit our creative platform & manifest our ability to form an original piece we are proud to have constructed.
We used Silvia last year within our piece 'Psychosis' and decided to use her again, as due to her dramatic training and aspiration within the theatre industry: Silvia has a personable, gripping and in some cases haunting skill when expressing emotion in her authentic performances. As an actress of a skill level that is incomparable to any other actors we know, she is always a priority within our coursework pieces due to her convincing acting through our camera lens. Always ready to do anything and everything to ensure our pieces are the best quality possible, she will not hesitate to put her full effort into each second of shooting to make her footage incredible.
Since we wanted to have our location within the woods, to film our match on action etc when she is remembering the ordeal that she went through. We decided it was essential to have a woodland that was surrounded by nature, to ensure that within our footage that she is immersed in her surroundings. Further we needed there to be a great amount of shrubbery such as trees above to create a sense of claustrophobia within the shots, and the sense of entrapment not only within the location but in the past where the event took place. Therefore, we decided to film in Oxleas Woods based in Eltham which is 8,000 years old and over 8 million square feet, a wild woodland that is a complete contrast to the concrete jungle that surrounds it. Not only is it a commutable distance for filming for both us and our actress, but due to its sheer size it loses the likelihood that we will be interrupted within filming by dog walkers etc. meaning that we can film longer shots of our actress especially in her disjointed state. Below are some photographs from our location scouting of Oxleas Woods:
Initial ideas of colour:
Red- American beauty and hard candy
Blue- blue is the warmest colour
Yellow- the lovely bones
Pink- the grand Budapest hotel
After considering the initial ideas of colour and looking into the work of Wes Anderson, we decided that our colour palette for our film trailer should slightly subvert the usual conventions of a film like this however still be creepy and off-putting to the audience.
Blue is often seen as a colour of sadness and therefore would be particularly useful for us. Our original idea of subverting the stereotypes and using a yellow colour palette as "The Lovely Bones" did was altered by our idea of a colder, blue scheme. Once our filming started, we found that our footage was mostly suited to a blue tungsten filter. With this applied, our colour scheme became easily recognizable and more effective.
The location of the sexual assault was to be in a public place that can normally be associated with innocence, to show a subversion of our chosen location.
The Bunker was used to create a burst shot that consists of POV shot of the opening and the surrounding clearing. We filmed this multiple times in a similar fashion and through overlaying of clips we were able to create a burst of shots, each a split second apart from one another.
We added a tungsten-colour tint to our frame to create an eerie and cold tone to the shot. This allowed us to present the view as an uncomfortable shot. This location is the implied location that our actress finds herself in after her attacker leaves her. The distorted shot shows her dizziness and lack of stability after her attack.
Below are a number of teaser trailers varying in plot, budget, production company and genre. However, all are unified in the same use of modern acoustic soundtracks of popular songs to appear hopeful, sinister, suspenseful, or just add to the overall ambience and tone of the teaser itself. We originally had the idea to use either an instrumental of a popular piece, however after assessing the below teasers we found that a cover using vocals would be far more compelling and compliment our piece as a whole.
BIRDMAN - "Crazy" Gnarls Barkley
This Gnarls Barkley cover of his own original track "Crazy" takes on a far more empowering and sinister tone as it is slowed down with background percussion in the form of drums to create a distinctive almost military beat. However, since the piece is ultimately stripped of its previous optimistic tone, but also stripped instrumentally, primary focus is on the actual lyrics of the piece which are to compliment the theme of mental deterioration apparent within both the teaser and the film. The action and images are almost surreal especially in the teaser, causing the viewer to wonder whether such action is due to an action movie, or whether as the contrapuntal soundtrack evokes, an underlying irony is present.
GONE GIRL- "She" Richard Butler
The almost beautiful cover of Elvis Costello's "She" has a background choir to appear almost angelic connoting marriage and ceremony, however is contrapuntal to the establishing shots of crowds holding missing posters. The entire teaser lacks any dialogue other than the beginning and the end where the male protagonist speaks on both occasions: the start highlighting that his wife is missing, compassion pity being evoked from this... yet, by the end of the teaser, he is proclaiming his innocence that he did not kill his wife. The mix of clips between juxtapose atypical images of the perfect relationship: dates, dinners, kissing, POV shots of the wife, with that of scenes of corruption and crime: police, interviews, evidence, blood spatter. These are asymmetric to the music as it constantly develops from a beautiful soundtrack to that of a sinister melody.
BRICK MANSIONS- "Stand by Me"by Ki:Theory
Alternatively, an action genre adopted this use of contrapuntal soundtrack with the use of an almost rock/ punk version of "Stand by Me" obviously to evoke the underlying message of this film, which is the concept of brotherhood and community. The eerie voice of the male vocalist further produces a sinister aspect to the teaser, evoking ideas of betrayal and corruption often within action.
THE SOCIAL NETWORK- "Creep" by Vega Choir
Highly one of the most infamous teaser trailers due to its use of sound, the extremely suspenseful choir cover of "Creep" produces tension from the outset. The connotation of 'Creep' itself with the establishing shots of Facebook profiles, make it appear as a piece based on perhaps a stalker or has a far more sinister plot. It is ironic then that it is a social realism piece based on the life of the creator of Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg. It has almost spiritual or religious connotations due to the choir, but instead of appearing hopeful or uplifting it is actually almost frightening.
THE GALLOWS- "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Malia J
Another eerie use of an acoustic cover, but not so much contrapuntal but corresponding to the horror genre, the fact that it comes into the teaser trailer late as well when the dialogue is least important and the plot has already been established necessarily uses the soundtrack to emphasise the actions of thrill and suspense. The powerful beats synchronous with the slamming of doors or throwing of bodies, developing the action even more.
ENDLESS LOVE- "Addicted To Love"by Skylar Grey
The only romantic genre within this blog piece, where the acoustic track is synonymous to the pure relationship central and integral to its plot. It utilises a feminine female voice due to the innocence associated with women, and due to the female protagonists characterisation that is only emphasised more with the lyrics "Addicted to Love". This matches perfectly to the tagline of the teaser (found on its poster also) "Say Goodbye to Innocence".
After creating our pitch we put them forward towards to a group whom we discussed, utilising audience feedback to develop and change our ideas before our shooting began.
The feedback was mostly positive, but there were some queries that they had, due to them being unsure as to certain aspects, it demonstrated even before we began filming certain cinematography aspects needed to be altered for the clarification of the audience.
Question: How will you imply the rape scene?
Answer: Due to the level of extreme close up shots we can imply the sexual assault but we do as a group want it to not be too clear with details due to leaving it to the imagination of the audience. The shots we will use however, will be extreme close ups of hands gripping dirt, feet embedded into the dirt, wide eyes etc (these have been sketch within our storyboard). Development: We created more clear visuals (within our storyboard) and studied implicit rape or sex scenes in other films such as 'Once Upon A Time In America': these were to not only have greater clarification for us pre-shooting, but determine how the audience would have our Preferred reading.
Question: Will you film it in the style of British social realism or American social realism?
Answer: Stylistically we're attempting to embody the British 'grit' associated with their social realism pieces, examples being 'Trainspotting', 'Cherrybomb'. Our reason for this is that we believe these are heightened in their realism portraying a honest representation of the central issue in our plot. The macabre nature of attempting to heal after sexual assault we believe cannot be dramatised in a hollywood format... this would turn it into an entertainment piece, instead of attempting to raise a real issue. Development: Pre-shooting we need to study stylistically British social realism films in order to understand the cinematography aspects to ensure that we can make it appear like the British social realism e.g. the lighting.
reference: trainspotting
Question: How will you utilise the symbolism of the egg and candle?
Answer: We thought that we could do extreme close ups of both when they are broken or melting but stylistically this may take away from the symbolism aspect (thus at this point we were open to suggestions), here we were suggested the idea of stop motion which we adopted due to the fact that it is a message further on the progression of time, as is our piece the progression of our protagonist in the time post attack. Development: We instead intend to use stop motion in our symbolic pieces to emphasise them amongst the shots that demonstrate the narrative.
Question: You described you wanted echoing of movement... how will you attempt this?
Answer: What we will do is that we want to attempt to demonstrate that amongst her daily life she still experiences flashbacks as if she is within the attack still. Therefore we want it to appear as if she cannot escape from the location of her rape, therefore we will do a graphic match of however she is positioned within her daily life then have her like that in the location of the woods. Development: From advice to ensure it is accurate we need to take pictures of her in the position so that the frame is an accurate match.
reference: Psycho
Question: What is the bigger narrative? Where will the climax be?
Answer: We will create a larger narrative arc to construct our narrative (refer to blog post for an actual deconstruction of it). Development: Create a narrative arc before filming to ensure the plot can be determined from the teaser.
our narrative arc
Question: How will you be able to integrate your colour palette?
Answer: Due to the fact that we will be unable to have a grading studio, pre-shooting we need to have our mis en scene planned meticulously to ensure that blue items are bold within our scene. As we have decided to have our colour scheme as blue, we can further add post- production a blue tint or filter especially to our establishing shots to ensure that there is that fundamental colour scheme throughout. Development: Pre-shooting we have our mis en scene listed and planned out to ensure that there are blue aspects within each scene, where these are absent however we have found blue filters and tints to add to the footage.
We was inspired by this music video and its small subtle changes that build to a greater picture, (in this instance the greater picture being the entire plot & story). Thus we are using stop motion in our piece but rather with the symbols than our actual characters.
Here is an screen shot of our Final Cut Pro where we have the stop motion of the cracking of an egg. We had it placed within wooded ground (to match the mis en scene of our location), but it was cracked at 10 second intervals with a mobile phone. Then we split into a segments of approx 0.7-1.0 seconds in groups of 4 clips. This is all revolving around our symbol of the egg as a means of vulnerability and delicate destruction of a fragility.
Here are some screen shots of what these shots look like. As you can see they are high angle close ups enough to get the detail of the cracks on the eggs, but far enough that the whole egg fits into the frame (we used a large egg, so that it could sustain shape despite being cracked).
This is the penultimate frame and image of the egg, as we previously noted on past posts this inevitable destruction is a mirror for our protagonist's mental state and psychological decay.
The blue tint is post production element which is to fit our colour scheme of blue, (see the tag 'colour scheme' to find posts in relations to our reasons why) we managed to produce this with the 'Tint" video effect in the "Color" section of Final Cut Pro.
In order to show progression from our editing in our AS film opening piece, we attempted new editing techniques to make our music more effective and to create new visual effects on our clips, in accordance with the conventions of the social realism genre.
Our music was an acoustic take on "You're the one that I want" from Grease that provides an eerie atmosphere for our trailer. We cut different parts of the song out to emphasise certain lyrics that we decided would subvert the usual themes from the song. Where the piece is typically childish and comically romantic, we used it to be quite the opposite, serious and gripping, the music that we put together reflects the harsh acts visually depicted
To combine these clips to make sure that the timings were not affected when moving different clips around, we created a compound clip out of the three cut pieces. This allowed us to have one whole piece of music making it easier to match with the video clips.
We used the same technique with the video clips. This was to make it easier for us to view our clips together and to establish where we had these 'burst' of clips next to each other. To create a visual effect that was difficult to watch, we overlaid the same clip multiple times with each a split second after the previous one. This created a motion blur that is hard to watch but effective at achieving what we imagine as a POV shot of someone who has been drugged/is groggy after having been attacked and left in the woods. One code of social realism is that the films are often hard to watch, this effect on these clips makes a shaky walk out of a bunker in the woods an uncomfortable shot that people found themselves feeling nauseous watching.
Here we will deconstruct aspects of the trailer which we are intending to take inspiration from.
The first two shots use childhood footage, established with the "It's a Girl" sign, obviously connotes the gender tension within cases of sexual assault. Using the footage within a white frame of her as a child highlights her purity and vulnerability by originally establishing her as a child.
This nostalgic element is then interrupted by a black screen, where a non diegetic social media bing is synchronous to a "#liar" in blue (the Facebook logo colour).
Again we have the childhood footage of her as an older child within toddler age, with pigtails and a pink dress to aid to the femininity of her. Since it is real footage it is necessary for a documentary, but creates a sense of a relationship with the people as we watch them develop.
We then return to the black screen where again the non diegetic bing reveals a new # which is "#skank" these lexis being connoted to the victims of rape or sexual assault whom people assume are being dishonest about the event.
At this point we are still unaware that we are about to learn the story of two girls, the only hint at this being the reveal of a brunette girl which doesn't correlate to the blonde child we had seen prior. Yet, as we only see one girl at a time it is still ambiguous.
Again we return to the # motif, as the insults progressively grow. We identify one name "#ihatedaisy", and have the use of "#herdrunkstory" again ambiguous to only thinking it is one girl.
We then see the same brunette girl in a bathing suit, in a pool in a high angle family footage shot, acting in a juvenile manner by spitting out the water.
These hashtags grow until they fill up the screen, with the use of "daisy" or "uknew" allows the viewer to understand these were real hashtags and not fictitious to add affect. This highlights an introduction to the grim reality of technology.
These three establishing camera movement shots, ranging from pans, to aerial pieces, demonstrates the small city, to identify the location as a rural town within an American state, however as it is empty it highlights some tension as if there is a valid reason for the people not going outside. It creates the idea of the town having secrets.
The black screen with "two different girls" in a rustic style, then fades to a Facebook profile of "Audrie Pott", then fades to a photo of her with her father, then fades to a Facebook profile of "Daisy Coleman" then fades to a photo of her in the same style. There is still the sense of it being a camera viewing a computer as if you are the person viewing it on your own laptop screen. It introduces us to the two girls, and answers the question that we were confused about with the home footage.
It then fades back to the black screen where in the same style and font it displays "two different communities", one identifies a youthful town with the high school football team and its subsequent cheerleaders. The second is a more rural village identified by the long shot of the sign, and the mid shot of the group of men in caps (further highlighting gender tension). Up until now genders have only been revealed in groups with no integration of the two.
The use of "night" then reveals low key establishing shots of the domesticated settings likely where the attacks took place, this then reveals a blonde girl in an interview close up shot that the audience are already aware are one of the victims of the attack.
Low key lighting of the cars again creates ambiguity to the attacks as the use of the POV close up of the wing mirror makes us feel as the audience as if we are staring into them. This suggests the assaults both occurred at night, since these dark wasted space shots contrast to the past establishing shots in daylight.
Throughout aiding to the realism, documentary aspect we have images of the crime scene where we see bottles of alcohol, demonstrating the importance of this as evidence likely instigating the girls were probably drunk or intoxicated.
More POV shots of the facebook messenger, acting as Audrie Pott, since it is 'Chat with Bob Z' those who know about Facebook messenger and how it works can determine that this has been altered to keep identity hidden of the assailant, further aiding to the ambiguity.
Here the contrast from the long eye level shot of the corridor in the school, full of children, to the low angle shot of the sign depicting "Nodaway County Jail" recognises the ages of the people who are being presented as doing the crime, yet further emphasises the age of the victims also.
We are then shocked as viewers at the use of animation, this is in the same style as a police interrogation, this highlights the same ambiguity as to the identity of the individual and why it is hidden behind an animated figure instead.
Again we return to close ups of the Facebook chats, understanding social media's presence in both cases yet the audience are see 'Joe X' the use of the other identity further emphasises that there was perhaps more than one assailant who will know about what happened.
As previously mentioned, we see crime photos, yet this is alarming for the audience since it is a high angle shot of a females underwear scrumpled up in the corner. As it is still at the crime scene, we realise that the victim did not go home with them on, meaning they were removed from her. As they are pink with smiley faces on, very youthful and feminine to understand more about the victims.
The assailants are presented within the police footage of the interrogation, and the yearbook photo, as the audience never see them filmed by the documentary team, aiding to the ambiguity further, but it also prevents the audience from creating any relationship to them as we do with the interviewees, thus we disassociate ourselves with them.
The low angle tracking shot of her running on the track field, then cutting to an eye level mid shot of her running still, aids to the idea of her being a strong individual despite being the victim (a characterisation aspect for our social realism).
Birds eye pans likely within a drone of the villages where the attacks took place with the post production of tweets such as '#ihatedaisy' '#matt1daisy0' this establishes again the use of twitter and other means of social media within the attack.
The shots of the news stories demonstrates the scale of the national issue that these sexual assaults and rapes became. With the first shot being the use of a twitter hashtag, which is oddly insensitive as it seems cold within the context of sexual assault,
The social realism aspect is highlighted even further with the reference to Anonymous, including the aspects of politics, but this is to highlight the injustice of the female victims for the need for Anonymous to get involved. Using their video publication so the audience feel as if they are part of the news stories, at the time.
We are taking inspiration from these three shots that establish her bedroom to highlight the 'normality' and typical nature of the victims, to demonstrate them as relatable as people, necessary in the social realism genre. Since this is a documentary, looking into their private space of their bedroom is oddly invasive, and we are questionable as to the inhabitants absence.
Yet, this question is answered with this facebook message within an extreme close up, "My life is over." In this finality, the audience become aware that one of the victims committed suicide, a devastating subsequent action of rape with some individuals which we will include within our plot.
