Planning: Character Representation

Character Representation

This post will tell who is playing which character in the opening - there are two new students who isn't studying Media but will be part of our group.




Name of the actor: Mohyadin (Me)
Character: Professor
Character role: Protagonist (The professor)
Age: 23-28
Gender Stereotype of role: (Black) British, Intelligent, Mature, Knowledgeable
Costume: The Professor will wear a formally dressed suite (without a blazer) and a lab coat showing to the audience that he is the professor.
Hair and Makeup: No make up, neat hair
Body language and facial expression: Calm expression, straight posture
Represented as: Intelligent man - a professor - whose current job is to observe the demented women. While observing her, he struggles.
Role within the narrative: The professor is observing the demented women to figure out how she became mentally unstable.





Name of the actor: Lara
Character: Demented women
Character role: Anti-hero
Age: 22-23
Gender stereotype: British, slim, split personality and dark hair 
Costume: Grey top, blue jeans etc. 
Hair and makeup: At the institution, she will have frizzy hair and smudged makeup. During the flashbacks she will have light makeup and straightened hair. 
Body language and facial expression: In the institution she will be crazy and unpredictable. During the flashbacks, first her body language and facial expressions  will be 'casual' and happy, the second flashback will be overwhelming happiness and in the third flashback her body language will be nervous and will put on a expressionless face. 
Represented as: At first she will be good but an offender, then she will be a criminal, then a crazy-mad women. 
Role within the narrative: She's a demented women in a mental institution being observed by a professor. During the opening the demented women's past story will be revealed in the flashback showing her as a home wrecker and a murderer. 




Name of the actor: Ayan
Character role Antagonist

Age: 22/23
Gender stereotype: When she's alive she is slim, British and good. When she's dead she is pale, slim and intimidating.
Costume: When she is alive she wears a formally casual clothe. When she's dqad she wears a raged dirty white dress and barefooted.
Hair and Makeup: When she is alive she has neat straight hair and plain natural makeup. When she's dead she has a messy hair, powdered face and contoured facial structure with blood contacts.
Body language and facial expression: She has a calm and casual body language in the flashback, then soon shocked; facial expression traumatized. When she's dead she has a intimidating and elegant body language and no expression to show that she's dead.
Represented as: Initially a victim, transitioning into a dead antagonist.
Role within the narrative: Sees the affair, gets murdered by the offender and comes back for the women as a dead person (ghost).





Name of the actor: Max
Character role: Lover, cheater etc.
Character role: Age 22/23
Gender stereotype: British, tall, intelligent and mature
Costume: Smart clothing (Black tie, white shirt etc.)
Hair and Makeup: No makeup, near hair
Body language and facial expression: He has a casual body language, happy facial expression and ignorance of the presence of his wife.
Represented as: The secrete lover of the anti-hero and subject of her reason's for murder.
Role within the narrative: He has a secret affair with the anti-hero.

Planning: Production Roles

Productions roles is when everyone in the crew (group) gets involves in making the film. Everyone in the group/crew must have a job role and get involve, doing this will make the process of making the film faster because it will be more well organised. In my group, each person have at least two job roles, everyone has a role that they're suited for.

Here is a list of production roles:

Director - The director is the leader of the films production, he/she finalizes the idea (film).

Producer - The producer supports the director by making important decisions, he/she is the one that runs around making sure that all the roles that each person has been assigned to are being fulfilled. Also the producer makes sure that there is a good communication among the entire team.

Camera Operator - The camera operator is the one who organizes the scenes by working alongside the storyboard using the camera to capture different shots, angles and sizes. He/she is responsible for capturing and bring the ideas alive on screen.

Lighting Operator - He/she is the one who uses and controls the lighting that is being used in the scenes.

Location Manager - The location manager is the one who's responsible of picking out the location.

Costume, hair and make up - He/She is responsible of organizing and does the hair, costume and make up for the actions in the film.

Storyboard - He/she is the one who produces the storyboard for the film - responsible of sketching the film for the film & planning it.

Editor - He/she is responsible of editing the film (Tries to use all the editing styles such as speeding).

Sound Editor - He/she is responsible of taking care/adding sounds to the thriller opening

Our Group roles:

Director: Fatma
Producer: Lara
Camera Operator: Fatma
Storyboard: Mohyadin (Me)
Lighting: Suweda
Sound: Fatma
Costume, Hair & Make: Suweda
Editing: Lara
Location Manager: Mohyadin (Me)

Planning: Storyboarding

Usually, the storyboard is done after the script has been created for the film and before filming, so it goes like this:
Script - Story boarding - Filming.
Storyboard is important because you need to know what the shots may look like and what the setting and props will be, it also includes the narrative and the micro-elements.

What do you think are the relative of a good storyboard?

- Clear images
- Describe what is going on in terms of micro-elements.
- Organisation of the story board
- List of clear movements

Why do you think storyboard are essential when planning a film?

- It helps you be sure of your narrative
- It helps you develop your ideas
- It organizes the shots

What conventions/elements go into the storyboard? (Essentials)

- Narrations
- Setting
- Costume, hair and make-up
- Iconography
- Sound
- Cinematography
- Editing
- Lighting
- Dialogue
- Actors
- Duration
- The number of the shots.

Here is my storyboard planning:

Research: Opening credits

What are opening credits? 

Opening credits is a written information presented to the audience on who produced the film, who is starring in the films and other productions roles.


What is their purpose? 

They are effective in thrillers when accompanied by sound to create tension and fear. Opening credits can be very effective when the images don't make complete sense, making the audience question about 'what is going on'.
Opening credits gives out essential information to connect with the audience, so they know more about the production.

What does the opening credits provide (information)?

Usually the films producer - the one who budgeted the film - will be the first one to show, it comes up about twice on the little logo shown before the actual film starts, after that it is said in the writings again.

After the film producer is shown, usually the director will come up next along with the title of the film following it and then the list of star actors and lead roles will be shown.

However, if the film starts & plays during the opening credits, the credits will most likely appear when the characters are being shot - this is useful because this will help the audience know who the characters is being played by (actors).

Research: Typography

What is typography?

Typography is how the writing is shown/presented to the audience, typography is is presented through font, style, size, letter case and color.Typography is the opening title for the film. When creating a film, you should pick out a correct one - the font, style, letter case and color should be suitable and fits in the film.

Examples of typography:

Thriller - A picture of a thriller (typography) is shown below, the writing looks like it's scratchy, shaky and smudgy (it's as if a rubber has been used to make it), the way it's presented makes the audience feel scared and uncomfortable, it makes them think if something violent (criminal violence) is going to happen in the film.




Science fiction - Below is a opening title of a film called TRON, it's presented as a abnormal looking letters, as if it came from another world. The title also looks like it came from the future making the audience feel and know it's a futuristic film.



Action Genre - Below is a opening title of film called The Expendables, the style is bold and think as well as big giving an idea to the audience that there's going to be a lot of actions in the film.



Conclusion

In my opening thriller, I want my opening title style to be big but scratchy looking -  doing this should make the audience have an unpleasant feeling and uncomfortable.

Research: Questionnaires

What is the importance of primary research?
The importance of primary research is that it allows you to know what the audience wants/expecting from the film, and also what kind of audience they are. Before creating a film, you must know what and who the audience are by asking questions or letting them fill out the questionnaire that you've made for you research, by doing this you''ll know who the audience are and what the audience is expecting from your film that you'll make.

Advantages of questionnaires:

- It's easy to analyse
- You can ask your own questions that you want to know for research
- Easy to collect information
- It's simple, for the person who's answering the questionnaire, to complete
- Mostly anyone can see that it's a questionnaire due to its format.

Disadvantages of questionnaires:

- It can be done by a anonymous person
- Possible for the person, who's answering the questionnaire, to misunderstand the questions.
- People can skip questions
- You cannot go back to the people if they are anonymous.

Who did you ask and why?
I've asked 12 people in year 12 and 13 and a few teachers. I've asked them because they most likely to have experience of watching thrillers because of their age they're at, and cause of that age they can watch thrillers 15 and 18 rated thrillers film. This is why I thought it was best to ask them.

Examples of my questionnaire.

Conclusion 
My research has been beneficial because it has allowed me to collect informations, from people my age and older, on their view of thriller. It has also allowed me to know what type/kind of audience are watching and what they are expecting from a thriller.