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.
The opening eye level close up of a hand brushing a wall that straight cuts to the side profile of the boy, is under sunlight and uses the idea of shadows as a symbol of the duplicity of the world the boy thinks he is in, compared to the world that is in reality.
The POV low angle close up of the skylight further is to demonstrate the entrapment the two face within ROOM, but further acts as a symbol for the freedom that the mother strives for.
The following two close ups of the mother and the boy, acting as POV of the opposite character, but has a blue tint to the camera or grain (which we will be taking inspiration from). Whilst this is occurring the diegetic (at this point) acapella female voice of a rhyme, demonstrates a comforting whilst haunting track that continues as a non diegetic piece in the beginning of the teaser.
Between all these shots it fades to black to ensure that it doesn't appear as a fast paced montage, to demonstrate the lack of action in the film, since the film has a calm pace which is imitated in the teaser trailer. These over the shoulder close up shots make the son and mother appear very similar in their appearances, almost like match on action, this recognises their close relationship.
We then return to the shadow shot, however it has zoomed out to an eye level mid shot to allow the boy and shadow to be in the frame together, this demonstrates how both the world outside and the world in the ROOM appear to be the same to him.
Camera movement maintains throughout but this accompanies the movement of the characters. The roll of the boy on the bed, and the games of the mother and son, further highlights in the mid shots, how they do everything within the room. But the suffocation and lack of space they inhabit also.
The mid shot of the bath scene that fades to the close up of the mother, opposes the two in the bath, but has the bath positioned in the centre of the screen: this establishes the bleak nature of the setting, but by positioning the bath next to the kitchen it demonstrates the cramped nature of ROOM. Sitting opposite each other they imitate each other, to recognise the youthful nature of the mother as she acts like the child. The close up however, demonstrates the dirt around the bath tub which further shows the poverty they live in.
The low angle of the boy framed in the left third, straight cutting to the mother in the right third demonstrates still a manner of distance between them. There is a faded diegetic screaming of them both to gather attention most likely, yet as it is faint it imitates the manner of how they are not heard by others and just disappear with the wind, a fleeting sound.
The long shot establishing their location, places the shed in the centre, surrounded by trees it recognises the isolation of ROOM, yet the fence on the left hints at the fact that they may be near a domestic setting. The distance from ROOM also demonstrates the small nature of it, emphasising the confinement.
The long shot in the upper corner of the room, acts almost like a documentary shot, where it frames the entire room. Mis en scene of child pictures, and a wardrobe creates the illusion of the domestic. Yet the hanging washing recognises the claustrophobia, and how the room acts as kitchen, laundry room and bedroom all at once. The darkness and low key lighting, makes the mother and son almost invisible in the corner of the room, demonstrating how forgotten they are by the outside world.
The eye level high angle shot as a POV of the window demonstrates the whole room, to understand the poverty that she experiences and the claustrophobia of the room, further the entrapment she faces from it.
The use of low key lighting in this side profile close up alludes to the identity of the capturer, we only can notice small aspects of his facial features. This may be something to take inspiration from if we want to only allude aspects of the offender.
The high angle confined shot of the boy in the wardrobe, opposes the darkness of the space and the wasted darkness, that contrasts to the bright colourful pillow. We can only see a slight subtlety to the figure of the child almost hiding in fear.
The close up of the the female looking up uses natural light as a key light to highlight her misery, then straight cuts to her POV of her looking up in a close up to the source of natural light. This has the blue window surrounded by darkness, a symbol you could suggest of hope.
Here the low key lighting, similar in the close up of 'Old Nick' since we can only faintly recognise the child hidden behind slats, and then his POV of the room immersed in darkness. Here we can see a faint figure of the man, again alluding to the identity of the captor.
The high angle tracking shot following the truck uses the redness to allow it to stand out, but further highlights the danger surrounding it. Hence why there are no other cars or automobiles in sight so that all attention is on the moving vehicle. It appears quite daunting and a little disorientating as both the truck and the camera move together, this makes it appear more realistic as the truck isn't creating a distance from the camera but following it to keep up with the action.
These montage of extreme close up is to imitate how the child feels and experiences the escape, but is also subliminal in its means of how the audience are still unaware of what is happening outside of the rug. This we will attempt to imitate in the sexual assault scene. The lack of light only evident in key light provided by sunlight is another aspect we will use also since it adds to the realistic aspect since it doesn't require studio lights but works with the natural surroundings.
These high angle shots demonstrate the action within the truck, zooming in on the child, it reveals not only his escape, but if the shots were reversed we would be unaware the boy was in the truck until it was revealed. Therefore we do lose the ambiguity, yet it is likely to appear more factual being social realism.
These POV shots we will attempt to imitate, they are low angle shots of the nature from the child's perspective of his surrounding nature. They are blurry and dazed at first but evolve after to clarity, this is the understanding or recognition as a gradual process. It is to demonstrate the awe or even sublime the child experiences when finally witnessing nature in person, it being both an alien and new experience for him.
This is a particularly important shot, the high angle close up is almost a POV of the sky, the child lays there on the rug and its face is what makes the shot. The mixture of awe, confusion and fear is completely human, which only aids to the social realism aspect. This pure example of emotion clear facially is what we will require from our actress when scouting, as this will evoke more compassion from the viewer but further make it appear more real in order to work with our genre.
The blurry ambiguous POV close ups of police sirens we will further take inspiration from, as it is clear that they are police sirens without needing to reveal the entire car. It imitates the confusion of the child in the aftermath of his experience, that the protagonist will have also.
The pan of the close up eye level shot of the boy in the car as a low key light demonstrates the reflection of the passing lights, has the boy almost seem like a bedraggled shadow, to highlight his poverty and unkempt manner. But also to create a contrast from him to the other characters such as the officers.
The use of the red lights skimming and highlighting the mothers face, further hints at the police sirens, but reds connotations of danger can also be mentioned. The use of the surrounding darkness the mother is running from as a means of wasted space, is to illuminate how she is escaping her horrible past.
The hints of blue within these scenes is what we will attempt to utilise, as a small aspect or object of blue continues the colour palette within the scenes, these are seen on the drinks cup, his jacket and his shirt, completing a theme within the mis en scene.
The final shots of the low angle view of the snowy sky, and the long shot of the boy running alongside the beach finishes this blue theme throughout, but demonstrates a sense of freedom that they now experience after being liberated from their capture.
Here is our initial Narrative Arc, with its distinctive aspects which we've correlated with the running time of the film. Exposition- Here we would likely introduce our protagonist and establish them to the audience, this would be the victim or girl, as we said previously in our pitch we do need her to be a victim due to the offence she will suffer, yet due to contemporary feminism want to determine strength within her character, recognised both pre and post sexual offence. Further, she will likely be doing routines within the wood/ forest where the offence will take place, this could be jogging for exercise, walking to school or even walking her dog. Inciting Incident- This will be the sexual assault that takes place, the protagonist will be the victim and it will be in the location we have previously established, outdoors within the woodland area. This will be filmed as a number of subliminal shots, to act as symbolism as to how rape occurs despite the fact that we do not always see it or always hear about it. Further it emphasises how the only people who know what truly happened is the assailant and victim, which is the case in most incidents, thus we leave the actual even to be left to the imagination of the viewer. Rising Action- This is the gradual disarray and destruction of the female, despite her efforts to stay brave she cannot help but feel responsible for the event. Often reflecting on the rape, and being unable to escape the memories of it: this will be recognised by the match on action of the protagonist within her daily life, then within the location (the wood) where it happened, to emphasise the inescapability she suffers. Throughout also we will have symbolism of the egg, and candle, the egg gradually cracking in stop motion as a means of the gentle destruction she implicates on herself and the melting candle demonstrates her deformation as she loses her identity and ultimately self. Crisis- These will be a number of POV shots where she will be seeing the assailant everywhere, but as a pigment of her imagination. To recognise her psychological terror. Climax- The protagonist will attempt suicide, but this will be synchronous to a slicing of a fruit like a blood orange, as a symbol, so as not to demonstrate explicitly the slitting of her wrists. However, this attempt will fail. If we do a hospital or ambulance scene here, we will make it parallel to one she experienced post rape, to demonstrate the relationship between the two. Falling Action- This will be her slow and gradual healing process, here we could reverse the egg or candle, or implicate a blooming flower (American Beauty reference) to reflect how she is recovering. Resolution- Since we want our film to embody the British feel, we will not have a court case or even the entrapment of the assailant, instead our resolution will not be justice (since this rarely actually happens) but will be the victim eventually understanding and realising she was not to blame for the rape.
It begins with just the symbol of the production company followed by a black screen, which straight cuts into a black hole in a close up that gradually decreases in size; the non diegetic almost like wind contrapuntal sounds accompany a high frequency techno pitch, as the ambiguous shape evolves and changes spherically revealing finally a green eye (this continues for 49 seconds). This is quite an ambiguous shot which uses match on action much like in 'Psycho' with the tap and the eye, which is quite effective.
The beats then increase as the synchronous soundtrack accompanies establishing footage of car headlights, with each triplet of beats, one word reviews appear on screen large enough to determine the word, yet on their too quick for you to focus on them directly. These lay above various pieces of footage, such as established locations, fire or medium shots of the female in her underwear. Losing focus on the shots themselves to demonstrate instead the importance of the opinions from the reviews, as these are from established papers such as 'The Telegraph', 'Empire', 'LA Weekly', 'Slant' and 'Time Out'.
Once the text disappears what accompanies the footage instead are similar close up POV shots out of the vehicles window of varying men that appear on the screen for minimal amounts of time. Again occurring in the opposite window as an eye level over the shoulder shot. Not only does this skim through the film a quick paced, disorientating manner, but doesn't allow the viewer to focus on a male character for a long amount of time, meaning full focus is on Johansson (much like it is within the entire film). The use of all these unknown actors as surrounding characters, makes this teaser have a real life element, since these POV shots many of us are accustomed to, causing the teaser to lose its fictitious components.
The following three shots utilise match on action further by positioning the female protagonist within the same frame and utilising the same close up slightly low angle shot. The key light appears from the tones and colourings as if it is from street lights due to its yellow colouring, this is to highlight a more realistic tone to the shots (which we could adopt since we are doing a social realism piece). The final shot out of the 3 is a layered shot that is reddish in colour, that only slightly highlights her facial features which then highlights the sci-fi genre that this teaser is part of, so it appears surreal.
This settles then to the medium low key shot of the floating cloth, that accompanies a non diegetic contrapuntal violin piece creating a climax. The obvious colour palette is obvious here as there is a blue key light focussed on the fabric, this makes it appear almost fluid and liquid like adding to its ambiguity, especially since as it gradually floats to 'face' the camera it appears as if it has a face, which then causes the viewer to realise the way the fabric is cut and positioned mirrors the anatomy of the human body (4 limbs, fingers, shoulders etc).
Only then at the end is information revealed such as the actress, director and title, finishing with a website. This is on a bright white screen which in some hurts the audiences eyes in comparison to the prior dark footage. It utilises a plain basic font that is in block capitals situated within the middle of the screen, so that primary focus is on the information, highlighting its importance and creating intrigue as to the director, actress which eventually causes the audience to search for the website. The ambiguous nature of '2014' further provokes curiosity, which is another means to motivate the viewer to find the website.
I decided to look into the largely talked about criminal case involving Brock Turner - a Stanford student charged with sexual assault. I thought that this case fitted in well with the research I did of the documentary film 'The Hunting Ground'.
The People V. Turner criminal case was filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court which convicted Brock Allen Turner of three counts of felony sexual assault. Turner was a student athlete at Stanford University on January 18, 2015, when he sexually penetrated an intoxicated and unconscious 22-year-old woman with his fingers.
Turner was apprehended by two Stanford international students from Sweden, who testified that they intervened because the woman appeared to be unconscious. As they approached, Turner fled. The two men gave chase and restrained Turner until police arrived to take him in custody. The police arrested him on Stanford's campus, and booked him into the Santa Clara county jail on suspicion of attempted rape and penetration with a foreign object. He was released the same day after posting $150,000 bail.
Turner was indicted on January 28, 2015, on five charges; two for rape, two for felony sexual assault, and one for attempted rape. He was arraigned on 2nd February, 2015, pleading not guilty on all five charges. On October 7, 2015, after reviewing the results of DNA tests, the two rape charges were dropped by prosecutors. The trial began on March 14, 2016 and concluded on March 30, 2016, with Turner's conviction on the three remaining charges of sexual assault. The convictions carried a potential sentence of fourteen years in prison. Prosecutors recommended six years in prison while probation officials recommended a moderate sentence. On June 2, 2016, Judge Aaron Persky sentenced Turner to six months to be followed by three years of probation. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender and participate in a sex offender rehabilitation program.
In the immediate aftermath of the case, widespread public criticism emerged accusing Judge Aaron Persky of judicial bias in favour of male and class privilege leading to campaigns for his recall or resignation.
We used this case as inspiration for our teaser trailer narrative as we were intrigued to focus on the problem that occurs worldwide where justice isn't served to victims as people such as Brock Turner are not appropriately punished. In addition, we were inspired by the side to this case where opinions where divided as to whether or not Turner did commit the crimes, even with the significantly large amount of evidence. The large media backlash was also key in inspiring a narrative for our teaser trailer as the idea of various media platforms portraying their own personal image of Turner interested us.
