Planning: Script: Draft Number 3

This is the third and final draft of our script. We changed this one quite a lot as we had more and more ideas…

1. We decided on the name ‘DreamCatcher Productions’.
2. We decided to have clips between writing – for example, a quick shot showing 439 throwing clothes into her suitcase in between the ident and ‘A DreamCatcher Production’.
3. Although we originally thought more numbers and information in the voiceover would make it sound more official, we later decided that it actually just made it harder to follow and far too long to be read out in a slow, clear voice. The extra numbers, such as a social security number, don’t add anything important to the script. Also, just having the numbers ‘439’, and no others, highlights why everyone refers to her as Patient 439.
4. We slightly reworded some of the voiceover to make it flow more and make it sound more professional and official.
5. We now have the doctor cut the tag off her wrist, to make a point of the fact she is free and that she’s leaving.
6. We no longer have the maid discovering the medication; we felt this was an extra shot which was unnecessary, as though we were trying to fit far too much in. Instead, we just show another shot of the pillow, to draw attention to it.
7. Annoyingly, the script just runs onto two pages, but we could not edit it down more.

Planning: Script: Draft Number 2

This is the second draft of our script; we decided to call it Blackhaven, as although the opening shows her being released from the infirmary, she will end the film back in a secure asylum: Blackhaven. We added more information in the voiceover to make it sound more official.

Planning: Script: Draft Number 1

This is the first draft of our script. At this point, we had not decided the title so left it blank, and we felt it was too short so we edited it.

Friends With Benefits (Will Gluck, 2011)

The best thing about Friends With Benefits is undoubtedly the flash mobs… Witnessing a flash mob is now on my bucket list, because there’s something about them I find really exciting!

The rest of the film is just… okay. I’m never particularly excited about romantic comedies, because they never have that little spark of something different, they don’t keep you guessing. Having said that, as a romantic comedy, Friends With Benefits is well made and the ideal film for relaxing to (particularly when you’re ill, which is exactly why I watched it).

One thing that bugged me about this film, though, is that the idea behind it seems to be that life is never like a film and how irritating that can be. The film then goes on to follow a typical romantic comedy structure, implying that life is like a film, even though it never really is..?

However, despite the annoying plot, it was occasionally funny, which was a nice change because I rarely seem to find comedies funny, oddly. Mila Kunis (Jamie) is a great actress, and Justin Timberlake (Dylan), although I still see him as a singer and not an actor, did a good job in this film too. They worked well together, with some very quickly spoken scenes seeming easy and fluid. Nolan Gould, who played Dylan’s twelve year old nephew Sammy, was also a brilliant actor, playing the part of a wonderfully naïve magician.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Tom Tykwer, 2006)

I don’t know what it was that attracted me to this film… and even having watched it, I don’t know what it is that made me enjoy it. It’s brilliant but bizarre. Maybe that’s why I liked it. Nothing bugs me more than feeling as though I’ve wasted two hours of my life on a predictable film, and there was nothing predictable about this at all.

The film follows Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a man with an extraordinary sense of smell (played by Ben Whishaw, who was my favourite for the 12th Doctor… although after watching this film, maybe not). The opening was possibly one of the most disturbing openings to a film I’ve ever seen – Jean-Baptiste’s mother gives birth incredibly quickly, cuts her own umbilical cord, and pushes him away to be disposed of with the fish guts at the end of the day, before she returns to work beheading fish. Just like that. Then, amongst shots of dead animal carcasses, maggots and rats, Jean-Baptiste is shown as ‘choosing’ to survive, and cries. He grows up an orphan, before one day delivering something to a perfume shop, where he proves to the owner that he has an amazing sense of smell, and can create perfumes with ease.

When he later discovers he has no odour of his own, he feels worthless, and decides that the only way to justify his existence is to create the perfect perfume. He sets out killing several girls, presumably with perfect body odours… He gets rather distraught, however, when he fails to preserve their scent successfully. He murders other girls and practices preserving their scents, which he eventually manages with a hired prostitute. Jean-Baptiste then embarks on a killing spree, targeting beautiful young women and capturing their scents. He leaves their corpses all over the city, creating panic, while at the same time planning his attack on a pretty red-head named Laura Richis, who he decides will be his thirteenth scent – the linchpin of his perfect perfume. He follows her to an inn and murders her, and therefore successfully creating the perfect perfume.

However, he is captured by soldiers who throw him into prison to later be executed. On his day of execution, he pours a little perfume onto a hankerchief, forcing the soldiers to let him go. The executioner, and the crowd, all smell his perfume and start proclaiming that he is innocent. He later leaves and returns to Paris, back to the fish market in which he was born. He pours the entire bottle over his head, which leads to the crowd being overcome by the scent and eventually devouring him completely… The next morning, only his clothes and the bottle remain, from which there falls a single drop of perfume, ending the film.

So really, what can I say? It’s a bit bizarre. In fact, it’s very bizarre, and I actually spent most of the film thinking ‘why am I watching this?’, yet finding myself unable to turn it off.

Hidden Kingdoms

I caught the end of the new BBC documentary ‘Hidden Kingdoms’ the other day, and immediately went and watched the rest of it on iPlayer. The aim of the programme is to get amazing unique footage of animals, and to film from their perspective…

The bit I saw was the camera crew setting up a track in the hope they’d gain the trust of a sengi (or rufous elephant shrew), and be able to film it. A sengi is actually related to an elephant, despite being tiny, furry, and incredibly fast; seemingly the complete opposite to an elephant. The camera was set at the same level as the sengi, and was mounted on tracks. However, a sengi is so fast that the camera crew could barely keep up; the first sengi ran across the path quicker than the cameraman’s reactions could kick in. Even moving the camera as quickly as possible was too slow to capture the incredible creature. Eventually they got some footage purely by chance, and watching a sengi running in slow motion, in such detail, is actually quite stunning.

Hidden Kingdoms takes footage of amazing animals, including a sengi, a dung beetle, a chipmunk and a treeshrew, and combines it with other footage of animals generally regarded as predators, such as hawks, rattlesnakes, owls and lions.

One scene, which shows a mouse leaping to escape a rattlesnake, was created by filming rattlesnakes making strikes at a hot towel above a camera, which was later merged with footage of a mouse.

The programme amazed me because of the stunning camera quality, the determination and perseverance of the camera crew, and because of how naturally amazing nature is. They got some amazing close up shots, and I can’t help but think what a brilliant job it must be to work on a programme like that!

Research and Planning: Useful Websites

Some useful websites I’ve found during this process include:

www.WriterDuet.com, for collaborative, real-time script writing, which proved useful for Jess and I when we weren’t together.

www.SurveyMonkey.com, which helped to create a professional looking survey and distribute it a wide audience.

www.celtx.com allowed me a 15-day free trial for script writing, which was enough for me! It allowed me to format a script properly too, which looks better than just putting it straight onto my blog.

www.freeplaymusic.com, which organises copyright free music by genre, making it easier to find suitable music for our opening!

www.bubbl.us creates mind maps online, which I could then put onto my blog. I found it easier to get my thoughts together once they were all down on a mind map.

Planning: Locations

For our film opening, we need a maximum of four locations, although if we find a suitable location, it could be done at two.

We’re finding it difficult to find a location to film the corridor and the outside scene; we want it to have a large, grand door, a long driveway, and ideally it should be an old building (but not run down). Preferably, we’d like somewhere where there are no other people around – for example, a National Trust property might have the right look, but it would be difficult to film with so many people and cars around.

For the shot of the banister, we were thinking of using our school library stairs. We’ve checked to make sure it doesn’t look too much like a school, and we think it’s ideal. For our patient’s room, we were thinking of using our school’s medical room. However, there is a bright sofa as opposed to a bed; we will try to angle this shot so it’s not obvious, and we’ll cover the sofa with a white sheet. We want the room to look cold and clinical, and minus the sofa, the room is perfect.

Planning: Thoughts on Mise-en-scene

Props:
So far, our prop list includes:

• Pill bottle (plus pills)
• A simple bed, including plain sheets and a pillowcase
• A suitcase, including contents (ie, clothes, shoes, etc)
• A piece of paper (list of victims)
• Medical ID tag (and scissors)

Costume:
We want our costume to be plain and simple, which is the general rule with all of our mise-en-scene; the plainer the better. We were thinking of a white dress and plain black shoes and schoolgirl white socks, but because we’ll be filming in late January/early February, we’ll allow skin coloured tights and a black cardigan – we’ll also have a massive coat ready to ensure our actress doesn’t freeze!

Make-up:
Again, we want it to be plain, as though she’s wearing none; however, we do want her to be almost unnaturally pale, so we’ll do a make-up test on our actress using our new professional make-up set from eBay, bought specifically for this task! We’ll lighten her skin and add in bags under her eyes, to make her seem unnerving.

Acting/Casting:
For patient 439, we have someone specific in mind; she’s sixteen, which isn’t quite the age we imagined her to be, but this doesn’t affect our film opening particularly. We can also use make up to make her look older if we need to. The girl we’re hoping to act for us has taken AS level drama, and is a lovely, reliable person, so hopefully we won’t have too many problems when it comes to casting! I also decided to write her an official invitation, outlining what she’d have to do and when we’d need her, to avoid any unpleasant surprises later on. Jess and I will have one last discussion about whether or not she’s right for the part, then hopefully get it delivered to her sometime soon! Our film opening also features a doctor, who we both picture as being male – however, the shots we have planned don’t actually show his face in focus, it is mainly focused on his hands and his feet, so we can use someone of a similar age to us again without it being a problem. Again, we have an idea of a reliable actor; he will, of course, receive an invitation too.

Colour Palette:
We want our film opening to be mostly in varying shades of grey, black and white, and have quite a pale look to it. Although it will not actually be shot in black-and-white, it won’t be as bright as modern cameras allow… With it being supposedly in the 1970s (which is really just us making it hard for ourselves), it should look relatively old, hence why the colour palette is dull and dim.

Planning: Our Ident

We decided very early on that we wanted a simple but effective ident (like Spyglass Entertainment, for example), preferably in black and white, as the overall feel of our film opening is quite grey and plain.

At first, we thought of having a single daisy as our ident, and making it so a petal falls off, or maybe all the petals. However, after searching Google images for a suitable picture, we decided none were quite right, which is when we had the idea of the dreamcatcher. This lends itself nicely to the name ‘DreamCatcher Productions’ or ‘DreamCatcher Studios’, which we like because it implies both something mysterious, in a way, and also the idea of literally capturing dreams. We are currently working on animating our ident, so a feather falls off the dreamcatcher, or maybe turns to dust and just blows away…