Task 19: Sound

Sound



The following track is something we feel is suitable for our film and it is quite slow. It fits well with the nature of the abuse and will give the audience an idea of what is happening. It is also not too quick or upbeat and will be played when the father is walking up the stairs and abuses the son.

bensound-tomorrow.mp3

Another possibility is this track called 'Better Days'. We have considered this because we feel it really reflects the mood of the opening sequence and it is very slow and mellow which is perfect. It is similar to 'Tomorrow" but has subtle differences.

bensound-betterdays.mp3

The track below is for the latter stages of our opening sequence when Mckenzie finds the letter from his mother. The track represents hope which is perfect for what we want and is contrasting to the rest of the production. It is faster and more upbeat which makes it a happier song.

bensound-anewbeginning.mp3

• We are thinking about having the tense music building up when he is the bedroom and abusing the son. Then, when he walks out the room and closes the door the music cuts. 

Our actors are going to be making the sound effects as we think this will be more realistic and powerful. In films I have researched poor sound effects have a massive impact on the tenseness of the film and the dramatic effect it effects. They often sound too fake so we have decided to use real ones as our actors are experienced.

Learning comment
From research I have found that soundtrack is very important in opening sequences as it sets the tone of the film and needs to represent the mood of the film. For the soundtrack we have chosen to use a sorrowful and sad track to reflect the mood of the film as it is quite depressing. A happy and upbeat sound wouldn't be appropriate because our opening is quite depressing so we decided to use a more mellow sound.

Task 18: Typography

After using the font 'bad coma' we realised it wasn't an appropriate font as it looked too apocalyptic. We have decided to use the font called 'Courier New Bold' as it looks more relatable and realistic. It is simple and down to earth, as our film is a small production, so we didn't want something that was too excessive. The other ones look to  apocalyptic for our genre and wouldn't look right.

Learning comment
I have learnt that the font of the titles is key in reflecting the mood of the film and it needs to suit the style and genre, otherwise it looks out of place. If films have typography that isn't appropriate for their film, it often distracts the audience and would take their attention away from the content.

Task 16: Character Profiles

Character Profile

Name: Keith Tate
Age: 36
General physical description: 6'0ft Ginger haired male with short ginger beard and moustache. Stocky build.
Hometown: Thornbury.
Type of home/ neighbourhood: Council estate.
Relationship status: Single.
Current family: One child.
Family background: Divorced parents. Separated with partner who is mother of his child. She is dead.
Other close relationships: Keith has close finds who he goes drinking with regularly. They are all drunks.
Job: Currently unemployed because of his disorderly behaviour and alcohol abuse. Often turns to         crime to make money.
Dress style: Very simple unbranded clothing which is often worn out and dirty. Can't afford new clothing and struggles to wash clothes.
Attitude to religion: Atheist and doesn't think God is real.
Favourite pastime: Drugs and alcohol to forget and numb the pain.
Consideration for others: Doesn't care about his family and treats them badly. Isn't bothered and doesn't realise how his drinking and drug taking affects people around him. He is selfish and ignorant and only think about himself.
How other people see him: Other people have little respect for him however feel too threatened and scared to stand up to him. They want to help him but he doesn't want to change and they are scared how he will react if they offer him help.
Other traits: He is very stubborn and arrogant and isn't willing to change for others which is shown later in the film. He is malicious and short tempered which causes him to lash out at people.
Readers will dislike this character because he is abusive.

Name: McKenzie Tate
Age:16
General physical description: Small and skinny boy with curly brown hair. 5'6 ft. and comes cross very vulnerable and submissive.
Hometown: Thornbury.
Type of home neighbourhood: Council estate.
Relationship status: Single.
Current family: Mother has died leaving just his father and himself. No other siblings.
Family background: Father is abusive and mother is dead. He had a close relationship with his mother and now feels isolated as she is not alive. His father doesn't respect for him and he feels threatened when he is around him. Life is hard as his dad spends all their money on drink and drugs He isn't close with uncles, aunties and cousins and feel ostracised from them because of his family situation.
Other close relationships: McKenzie has a very close female friend who he expresses his feelings to. She's the only person who listens to him problems and when he is around her is the only time he feels safe and free.
Job: Works at local grocery store in order to support himself. His dad doesn't agree with his son working because he's a control freak towards his son.
Dress style: Typical teenage clothes, plain, simple and casual.

Task 17: Props, Location and Fashion Planning - Risk Assessment

• The above image is myself asking our actors if they could provide jeans as we think that this is suitable clothing them to wear to represent the characters and their backgrounds. All the actors in our production have consented to being featured and filmed and all agreed that jeans were a good choice of clothing for their characters part. We will only need to think about clothing for the legs as we are only going to reveal the bottom half of the actors, although for the character called McKenzie we will show his whole body so we have asked our actor to wear suitable clothes for our representation.

• We are going to use alternative cigarettes instead of real tobacco cigarettes and all alcohol will be purchased by a consulting adult and will be consumed before we use the leftover bottles and cans as props.

• We have asked a woman to do the make up for our actors as this is a really important for our production and we wanted someone who has expertise in the area to do it. The make up artist will be making the bruises for our actors.

The above image is me confirming with my mother that she can supply us with empty cans and bottles as props.

It was important that we had a risk assessment before filming our film to prevent any possible injuries and difficulties. Potential hazards included fires caused by cigarettes, injuries sustained from falling downstairs and hands being cut on glass. To prevent these from happening we agreed to put out any cigarettes as soon as we used them and wore gloves when handling glass. During the production there were no injuries sustained and our studio was left how we found it.

This is where some of the filming will take place. We chose this location as had the perfect physical features we wanted, including a hallway, a bookcase and a door to a bedroom. It also has low key lighting which fitted the mood we wanted to create, as the narrative of our film is dark and mysterious. We wanted a hallway so that we could film some match on action and we felt this location was appropriate as 

Task 15: Storyboarding and Shot lists

Above is the shot lists. We have used a variety of shot angles and frames to show certain things. For example we have used a low angle shot to show the power the father possesses and close ups of McKenzie's face to show his facial expressions and express how shaken up and distraught he is. From research I have learnt that a range of shots is important to avoid it being boring and to show mood and power/vulnerability.

Below are our first drafts of the storyboards. This is not finalised yet and we have still got improvement to make however we are happy with most of it so far. They show what happens in each part.

Task 14: Draft & Final Script

Escapism script from Tom Constable

Here is the script for our opening sequence. We do not have a lot of dialogue in our script as we feel this wouldn't suit the dark mood of the sequence and will disrupt the mellow tone. Too much speech would also make it too long and wouldn't create the effect we were looking for. I have learnt how to write a script and how to include stage directions.

Task 13: Audience Profile

Audience profile from Tom Constable