RECRUDESCENCE - is a term for recurrence and is often used to describe a reappearing infection. We though this would be an appropriate title because the stalker's return is unfortunate and potentially fatal like an infection. By using the online editing service "picnic" I was able to create a background with the word "RECRUDESCENCE" repeated to reflect the idea of recurrence and overpowering persistence. The letters "R,U,N" I made red in order to spell out "RUN" to foreshadow danger, also the colour red serves as a warning.

FILMING TIMETABLE

PROPS

• TV from sixth form common room
• DVD player
• DVD of dance performed by Grace
• character costumes (written on character profile post)
• giant sticky note saying 'PLAY ME'

OUR CHARACTER PROFILES

GIRL (Grace):
rucksack
black dance leggings
black dance leotard/ t-shirt
Parker jacket
hair tied up
ballet shoes

JANITOR (Immad)
baseball hat inspired by ''Prom Night'' killer
blazer
jeans (smart ones)
plain t-shirt
smart shoes or dirty builder ones

The Locations

RECRUDESCENCE - final storyboard

CHANGES WE MADE WHEN FILMING

*SHELDON'S DANCE*

We started filming our first idea and experimented with filming Sheldon in the drama  hall dancing. After spending a lot of time filming a dance she had choreographed she had a small injury. We then kept filming her and she carried on enough to get one take of the dance. After a lot of discussion and a few comments from our Media teacher, we were both worried she wouldn't be able to carry on and concerned about the typical stereotype we created of the character in our head that we didn't think Sheldon fit.

After much discussion we decided to ask a dancer in year 11 who was the typical 'prom queen' girl look, she has blond hair, blue eyes and petite. 

Coming to this decision made us think more about our opening and how confident we were when it came to actually filming and making our ideas come to life. We started to think if our idea had enough material in it and wasn't too boring. This was the moment we started developing our idea and adding more to it without giving too much away. After lots of discussion we added more shots and more material for a good opening, we need to make a new story board and then start filming with Grace as soon as possible.

AGE RESTRICTIONS

Most thrillers have age restrictions. The age restrictions are certified by the British Board of Film Classifications (BBFC), but in the end it is the County Council to put an age restriction on the film. It is possible for the BBFC to put an age restriction of say age 15 and for the County Council to lower it to age 12. Furthermore age restrictions for the same film can be changed whilst they are at the cinema and when they come out on DVD.


As we are making a psychological thriller, we cannot show all the content to everyone. Therefore we are going to have an age restriction of age 15 to ensure that everyone who does watch it, is able to understand it without complications.
The age restriction of 15 indicates that: 'Suitable only for 15 years and older. Nobody younger than 15 may see a '15' film in a cinema. Nobody younger than 15 may rent or buy a '15' rated video ( these films may contain offensive or emotionally harrowing scenes or strong language and violence).

MUSIC 'PROM NIGHT'

The film starts off with the sound sounding as if it had been broken or damaged with a heavy drum beat. The song had lyrics 'its the time for the season of loving' - this song was a cover and has changed to a slow yet creepy version. I like the way the song is a classic love song but changed to give the audience an anxious and scared feeling. The music is like this when the camera is on an Ariel shot of L.A and is playing over a tracking shot travelling through the city. When we are introduced to a character in a car that had been followed by the camera the music changes, there is speech over the faded out yet creepier music. Then when she enters her house the music changes to a classic thriller high pitched uneasy beat that makes the audience aware something is not right in the house. This effect is something i would like to incorporate in our opening as i like the change of music to give a different effect to what the audience should feel. 

COMPANY PRODUCTION IDEA 1

THRILLER OPENING INSPIRATIONS

In order to develop ideas of the characters age, costume, gender, setting and props, we watched trailers and opening sequences of films. As a group we were intrigued by the stalker character from 'Prom Night' and wanted to make our obsessed character similar to him.  We thought it would be best to make our opening scene simple and not reveal too much of the plot or the stalkers identity. So we created a character profile.  We wanted him to be believable as Venesssa's terrifying stalker, without crossing over into monster.

CAMERA SHOT INSPIRATIONS

As we have studied many thriller openings, we were told to research about the conventions of a thriller. We have thought of some conventions and are using them to highlight to the audience the genre of the opening (psychological thriller).
As shown in earlier posts, non diegetic sounds are obviously conventional of thrillers, as they build up tension and suspense.
In the previous post it was emphasised that our main inspiration was The Black Swan, however in terms of directors we used Stanley Kubrick as an inspiration. Stanley Kubrick in several of his films used close ups of eyes in order to build up tension and enigma. The fact that it was the eye made it significant because it allowed us to be in the character's place and see things from their perspective. It was almost as if we were the characters.
We are going to use Stanley Kubrick's motif of close-up of the eye in order to build enigma and to keep the audience interested in our thriller. Examples of these are in 'A Clockwork Orange'

THRILLER OPENING INSPIRATIONS

Before creating our thriller treatment and storyboard, we studied many thriller openings for inspiration. We acquired and developed thoughts and ideas from thriller openings: Black Swan, Prom Night, Loved Ones and Cape Fear.

Black Swan: Initially we had in mind that Vanessa's passion would be swimming and that she would be the captain of the swimming team. After discovering that the pool was inaccessible, we were forced to reconsider our options, though we still wanted Vanessa to have some sort of athletic passion. Then dance (ballet) came to mind. After having studied Black Swan we realised how effective, opening with a dance routine could be, in substitute of her swimming. There is two characters in the opening of Black Swan; the woman in white and the male in black. The man is very creepy, the completely black costume establishes him as a dangerous, enigmatic character which contrast the innocence and fragility of the girl in white. We liked the idea of this subtle, symbolic distinction between the villain and naive victim and we are applying this technique to our own opening title sequence.

THINGS TO COVER 5/03/12

• Re-do final storyboard to perfect every shot
• Scan the story board and post it on blog

PRODUCTION COMPANY EXPERIMENTATION

We have decided to call our production company 'Fox Light Production', Below are a few ideas for our logo.

This logo is very simple and unique. We decided to do it in black and white to keep it easy and simple. The fact that the font is easy to read and the film reel is there symbolizes film making. We did not want our production company to reflect Fox Productions because they usually produce very mainstream films. Our thriller is psychological and therefore is quite niche comparatively. Therefore our production company reflects more towards Lionsgate as that is the most niche production company and usually does thrillers. Lionsgate too have a very monotone logo so we decided to maybe do something that is similar.

The above logo is also efficient to use as it is also simple. We only used few colours. The fact that there is a background light reflects our production company's name. The camera's lense is the focal point whereas the rest is blurred. This suggests a more technical production company and looks more mainstream than the first one. However we feel that because we have used a simple font it doesn't complicate things.

Although the above logo is good as it does hint at the 'light' for 'fox light productions', it looks more like a musical production company rather than for film. Therefore we don't feel that this will be sufficient for our production company. However the fact that there are only three colours used is good because it does not complicate things and like most production companies it remains simple and effective.

Finally this was our last idea. The fact that there are typical drama masks, suggest it to be a dramatic drama production company. We used earthy colors to make it seem more natural. We used an easy readable font too. However this might not suit our film's story line, it seems more for theatre or like a drama production. It doesn't look professional enough for a film's production company.

TITLE EXPERIMENTATION

We have experimented with few font styles, to see which will be appropriate for our thriller. Below is the analysis of few fonts that may be worth looking into for our opening sequence.

This font is quite child like and immature, and for our title sequence it may be useful, as it comes across as quite innocent. The fact that it is quite messy and not perfect, symbolizes the confused state of mind of the protagonist and it also enhances the importance of the story line. It is written in a paint like form, and suggests a chaotic story line.

The above font is similar to the first one but it gives a more thrilling feel. The fact that it has hinges at the end of every letter implies a disturbing feel to it. Similarly because there are straight lines, it makes it seem very structured. This is ironic as the stalker in our treatment has a very structured plan, he too comes across very neatly and thus it could be suitable for our title sequence.

This is one of our favorite fonts styles for the thriller because it is the most age appropriate and it also attracts the audience the most. The fact that it is easy to read, and looks like someone's handwriting is sufficient as it suggests the story line is about someone who is either a teenager or in school. It also will attract more of the youth as it looks 'hippy' and almost graffiti like.

Finally this is also quite an appropriate font, as it hints at the story line. The fact that it looks like calligraphy suggests a very delicate story line. It looks quite feminine and therefore the audience will be expecting a girl to be the protagonist. It resembles the font of 'Black Swan' and you can kind of tell it will be about ballet or something very ladylike.