Production Diary - Week 7

This week has been half term, where I have produced my full production notes, with them being uploaded onto my blog, as well as have the completed plans and ideas for my film, including the locations and props - this can all be seen in the Prezi labelled 'completed production notes'. I feel like this idea for my film will be good and hopefully will turn out the way I hope, as I begin to prepare for filming.

Completed production notes

Production Diary - Week 6

After having trouble with my idea with my film, I feel this week I have reached my final drafted idea which I published on my blog earlier this week. In the following week, I am going to look at creating my storyboard and script, which I hope to upload as soon as possible.

Beginning of Film idea

My beginning thoughts for my short film, were going to be about a missing girl returning 10 years later - although this would be a great film idea, I tried to follow the idea through, however came to some difficulties, especially in terms of actor, where I couldn't find anyone fitting the description or age range which I needed for my film. This would of included 2 parents, 1 sibling and the returning daughter.
I now have some more ideas of a film I would like to produce, which involves the life of a couple. This is an idea I would like to follow with, as I feel it will be much more productive for me, as well as being able to gain actors to play my roles. I will be following my idea, as well as completing production notes and writing what my idea is about in the following week, which will help start to begin my production.

What is my film about?

Changes of my film idea:

I have decided to make a short film focusing on the life of a couple - 1 male charactor and 1 female character. The film will focus on their relationship, showing the couple living together and being happy. The girls is approximately between 17-18, while the male is a little older around 21-22. The film will then introduce a female character who befriends the girlfriend and comes over for lunch with her at their home. The neighbour begins to manipulate the girlfriend over her boyfriend. Their relationship begins to fall a part. At the end the girl is seen running with blood down her. I have decided to make my film this way, as it gives me a chance to focus on the emotions of the character, the aim of a conventional psychiological thriller does. The film will show how the relationship changes, alongside the attitudes of the characters, leading to the murder!

Production Diary - Week 5

This week, I have come up with the main overview of my short film idea, looking at the life and emotions of a couple. I feel that expanding on this idea will make a good film, as it fits with the conventions and definition of what makes a psychological thriller, by focusing on the emotions of the characters. It will also show how a life event will change a character, in this case the female, where it will take her to the muder of her boyfriend. This week, I have also looked at the props I will need for my film, as well as listing the locations I intend to shoot at.

Locations

There are two locations that I will be using for my film:

• A house - where the majority of the short film will be held
• A dark pathway - the pathway is located in the middle of Homestall Road and a access rights for filming will not be needed as it is a private road for residence living there - so I have my own rights to it.

Props needed for film

Here is a list I created of all the props I needed:

• Fake blood - shop
• Knife - scene in film
• Tea set
• clothes - for the actors

Gone Girl (2014)

Gone Girl, was originally a psychological thriller novel written by Gillian Flynn (2010), to become a 2014 movie release, receiving positive reviews. I used the trailer in my blog as it is relevant to my research, by looking at old and recent films that meet a conventional psychological thriller, as well as possible examples of how my final production plot could be about.

Link for trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym3LB010J0o 

Shutter Island (2009)

This is the Trailer for Shutter Island (2009). I wanted to show this as it is the film I will be using for my analysis, as it has many criteria which fits a conventional psychological thriller, which I can link to the theorists and readings I have studied. I believe this to be one of the best psychological thrillers I have watched due to the conventions used and the techniques, as well as it holds a massive twist in the plot. Unless you read the novel before hand - Shutter Island (Dennis Lehane), you won't predict the twist that happens.

Production Diary - Week 4

This week I spent time looking at a variety of different psychological thriller examples, which are seen on my blog from uploading the trailers. I wanted to focus on conventional psychological thrillers this week, to get an insight and compare the similarities and differences between them, such as the tone, music, lighting and so on. This was to help me prepare for producing the storyboard plan for my final production.

Edward Buscombe - The idea of genre in American Cinema

The Idea of Genre in the American Cinema, written by Edward Buscombe starts to look at what the term 'Genre' actually means. Buscombe produces three important question in the beginning paragraph of the article "Do genres in cinema really exist, and if so, can they be identified?", "What are the functions they fulfill?" and "How do specific genres originate or what causes them?" These three questions open the start to a detailed article, which looks at genres in American cinema, the idea around them and how you identify each film to fit in a specific genre. 

Looking at the History of genre criticism, Buscombe, started identifying genre in literature, which was first developed by Aristotle when looking at different techniques and subjects. Aristotle examined how he could find ways to separate out poetry "into a number of categories, such as tragedy, epic, lyric, etc." Aristotle's purpose was how each of these categories can then create ways to identify literature to fit, "what were the distinctive qualities of each distinctive kind", as a way to 'establish their relative importance.' From the idea Aristotle created, systems of rules were put in place, to distinguish each subject and analyse the 'precise styles and forms'. Through the sixteenth and seventeenth century, more and more theorists, extended on Aristotle's idea to find more categories to divide literature.  Each new category, had its own tone, form and subject-matter, which could link similar literature together to produce a "species" as it was known back then.

As Buscombe develops the article, he begins to look at 'platonic ideal' - forms meeting with the idea/ perfect ideas of what an object, subject or being was to be. He does this to look at different elements of the definition. He uses the Western movie genre as an example of American cinema. Using the theory of Wellek and Warren, Buscombe, quotes the two "Genre should be conceived, we think, as a grouping of literary works based, theoretically, upon both outer form (Structure) and inner form (purpose, subject, audience, etc.)".

Linking with what I know as 'Mise-en-scene', Buscombe notifies the criteria needed to identify the genre with what is presented on screen, such as the setting, the clothes, how male and female are presented and the various tools we see on stage. The noticed criteria we see on screen, can identify the subject of the movie and identify what the audience know it to be, to place it in a specific form.

Continuously throughout the Article, Buscombe, quotes and uses theories from other theorist, who have focused on the similar subject he is referring to. Throughout the article, with my understanding, I feel Buscombe is saying that without knowing the history of a film and the usual criteria used within the film, we would not know the genre, without being told. Through the years of Cinema, the audience is able to identify what a specific film has to meet to be fitted with a genre.