R+P Post 10: Reflections so far/ looking ahead

So far I feel that my group has worked very well together, using our time effectively to stay organised and ensure that we are consistently on top of what we need to do. The weekly meetings that we organised were very helpful in ensuring this as they allowed to come together and reflect upon and discuss any issues or things that needed resolving. For example, we had a few disagreements during the planning stage of our project. Consequently, we allocated half of one of our weekly meetings to resolve it. In the end, we were able to move on and successfully complete the planning stages that were required for the up and coming test shoot.
Looking ahead, I am very excited to start the production of our 2 minute opening sequence and I believe the test shoot will help us to judge whether our idea for the opening sequence will be successful or not.

R+P Post 9: Our script

For our opening sequence, we constructed a script in which the dialogue that would be included in our sequence was contained. Our script is as followed:

We decided to use as little interaction between characters as possible because of the fact that the main focus of our opening sequence is to illustrate the abnormal routine that Grace carries out in her mornings. By having little dialogue, we were able to effectively present this to the audience and thus convey a real sense of Graces unusual lifestyle.

R+P Post 8: Our opening sequence idea, to include sound and titles

Opening sequence:
The opening sequence follows the main character, Grace, and her routine in the morning right from the moment her alarm sounds when she wakes up. Once awake she immediately reaches for her phone and throughout the sequence she is repeatedly seen using her phone. In the later part of the sequence, she is seen doing very weird things such as checking her mood-board of her target, packing her bag with unsual things such a latex gloves and applying cosmetic products to look like the girl she is stalking. Whilst packing, we hear a small exchange of dialogue between Grace and her brother about how grace is taking too long to get ready for school.

Sound:

At the start of the sequence, there will be no music playing. The first sound will be the sound of an alarm ringing for a few seconds until Grace reaches over to turn it off. After this, a heavy breathing sound is heard and this is plays until the music then begins to play as she gets up out of bed.

Titles:
For the creation of our titles, we were sure to do some research into the titles already used in some other films. To do this we referred to the website Art of the Title (www.artofthetitle.com) where we were able to look through a numerous amount of title sequences.

One title sequence that especially stood out to me was that for the film Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant. This film is an adventure, fantasy film that has many themes connoting that of a supernatural and slightly horrific nature. With such an abstract genre being portrayed, I was taken at how successful the titles used were in connoting this, and as a result I knew that whatever the genre, it is a necessity for the themes and ideas present to be thoroughly connoted in all aspects of the film including the opening titles.

As well taking the above into account for the creation of our titles, there was still a need to conform to the codes and conventions of film opening titles and this means the inclusion of titles that are there to inform the audience of elements of the film such as the institutions behind the film, the star cast/actors and the film crew to name a few.

Below is a list of the titles used in our film opening:

• Film 4 presents
• A Bugle Films Production
• Starring Celine George
• Ella Thompson
• and Joshua Oranu-Noah
• Directed by Prudence Carter-Phillips
• Produced by Gabriel Meytanis
• Follow

R+P Post 7: Our film's title and plot outline

As a group, we came together and during our meetings we decided on a title for our film and the main plot that the film would follow.

Title: Follow

Plot Outline: The film follows the life of the main character Grace who is a 'mixed-raced' 18 year old British girl whose lust and obsession with anther girls' life sees her push the boundaries of a harmless desire. Grace becomes very envious of this other girl who in Grace's mind has the perfect life, perfect looks and a boyfriend that she wish she could have. In order to try and be like her, Grace goes to extreme lengths such as following the girl's every movement via numerous social media platforms, and the saving/printing of images of the girl that would then be put up on her mood-board. With an ever-growing obsession, Grace attempts to kill the girl to her life over and pretend to be her, however the Graces attempt is unsuccessful and with ever growing gossip about her attempt she runs away from home to another town.

A film that greatly inspired out ideas for the plot outline was Single White Female. This film has a similar plot of two female characters, one of whom becomes obsessed with being exactly like the other. The main protagonist had a huge obsession with the other girl and this saw her resort to violence and an attack on her life.

R+P Post 6: Our chosen genre and how we plan to connote this

The genres we have chosen : Psychological thriller, horror

To effectively connote our genre in our films opening sequence, we ensured we researched into films that also had a genre psychological thriller and/or horror. This allowed us to identify a key convention which is for the film's story line to be centered around the life of one character who is either the stalker or is being stalked. In our case, the main character is the stalker and from our research into films of a similar genre and theme such as One Hour Photo, we were also able to identify the conventional characteristics and behaviors such as weirdness and an obsession to things or people. In One Hour Photo, the main character is a seemingly ordinary old man who turns out to have an obsession with a family and he stalks and follows their movements via a mood-board. We were inspired by this and so our main protagonist follows these conventions. She is named Grace and at first appears to be your 'average teenage girl' however it later becomes evident that she is not. Through her addiction to her phone and social media to stalk, and her use of a mood-board to store images and information about the people she stalked, her unusual nature becomes clear.

R+P Post 5: How we plan to attract/address our target audience

To setup a successful appeal to our target audiences, we will ensure the genre is well connoted throughout the sequence. We will:

• use many shots of a closed frame to really immerse the audience in what is taking place
• use several close-ups and extreme close-ups to bring a real sense of intensity and unease to the audience.
• ensure a gripping story line with a strong sense of genre to keep our audience 'on the edge of their seats'
• include things familiar to the audience; social media is well known and used by young people

R+P Post 4: Representation of social groups in our opening sequence

The social groups that we are representing are British middle class teenage girls. This is represented through the main character who is an 18 year old girl who is British and mixed-race.

To effectively appeal to the teenage audience we are going to include lots of social media elements in our opening sequence. Social media such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook is heavily used by young people. This is likely to be because these platforms are easily accessed from their smartphones. Our main character grace will follow this, and be seen constantly checking her phone throughout the opening sequence.
In addition to this, Grace will have a british accent and scenes will be set in locations that are relatable to the audience such as a teenagers bedroom. This familiarity will allow our audience to be able to relate to our sequence and therefore further immerse them in what is taking place in the sequence.

R+P Post 3: Our production and distribution institutions

Bugle Films production company logo

Production Company:
Our production company is called Bugle Films and it is a British independent film company based in London. Bugle Films is a production company that specialises in films of a thriller and horror genre.

Distribution Company:
Our chosen distribution company is Film 4. We decided to make Film 4 our distribution company because not only are they a company also based in London, but they are notorious as a company for the distribution of British independent films like our own such as The Inbetweeners, Shaun of the Dead  and The Woman In Black. 

R+P Post 2: Our target audience

Core target audience:
The audience that we decided to primarily target was:

• Fans of psychological thriller films 
• Boys and girls aged 15-24 years old

We were inspired by a number of films when deciding our core audience for the film but the film that we referred to the most was Stalked at 17. We used this film as our main reference point because of how similar the themes and ideas around film were in comparison to our own. This included a similar thriller genre that was focused around the concept of stalking, the same target audience of psychological thriller fans/'thrill-seekers' aged between 15-24 and the certification of 15 which we wanted our film have.


Secondary target audience:
The secondary audience that we decided to target was:

• Fans of horror films

We decided to also target fans of horror films as after looking into other thriller films, we found that they included elements of horror. Films such as One Hour Photo were able to widen their appeal and successfully increase their reach by doing this and we were inspired by this hence why we planned to include scenes reflecting a creepy and somewhat anxious nature to connote a horror sub-genre.

R+P Post 1: How we intend to work as a group

At our first group meeting, we agreed on the times for our weekly meetings. We wanted to have at least 2 hours worth of meeting time a week, and so we decided on the following times:

Week 1

• Monday 1:50-2:20pm and 4:00-4:30pm
• Thursday 2:00-3:00pm

Week 2

• Monday 9:00-9:20am and 4:00-4:30pm
• Thursday 11:30-12:30pm

Our meetings were to be held in the Media Department and we agreed to arrive to the planned meetings on time and with the relevant materials needed for that meeting. In addition to this, we also set up a Whatsapp and Facebook group chats which we would use to communicate effectively and share any ideas or information with the whole group.