A website found on top ten scariest places in Wales

We had to look at spooky places so we could film the exterior of a building that looked similar to an asylum in the 1950's, to make it more believable. Looking at websites like this was a way we thought of doing it. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-19961492

Planning- The Pitch so far

Megan Sanders Advanced Portfolio Planning- The Pitch 1) Clear idea of genre/sub-genre/hybrid genre - Psychological thriller 2) Clear sense of the narrative – 5 part structure 3) A clear understanding of your audience - Profile: 18-35 - 4) Representation of characters - Father of the mother to have a mean approach 5) Ideas for locations – interiors and exteriors - In school (use props) - Exterior of castle in Newport for the asylum 6) Ideas for props and costumes - White sheets to put over tables so they look like hospital beds - Strait jackets - Nurse costumes - Older fashion (1950’s) 7) Examples of key scenes that you will include in the trailer - Someone telling the son his father has been in the asylum the whole time - Baby being given up to the father 8) References to real films that are similar to your own - Shutter Island - American Horror Story Asylum - Psycho 9) Ideas for music that could be used in the trailer - 10) Examples of scripting 11) Any other key information that will help to sell your idea

What needs to be in the pitch

Megan Sanders Advanced Portfolio Planning- The Pitch 1) Clear idea of genre/sub-genre/hybrid genre 2) Clear sense of the narrative – 5 part structure 3) A clear understanding of your audience 4) Representation of characters 5) Ideas for locations – interiors and exteriors 6) Ideas for props and costumes 7) Examples of key scenes that you will include in the trailer 8) References to real films that are similar to your own 9) Ideas for music that could be used in the trailer 10) Examples of scripting 11) Any other key information that will help to sell your idea

Idea for Mis-en-scene

 We decided to use this picture as an example of what they can wear. We thought if we find people who will lend us old karate attire, we can use it to make it look like a patients attire.

Research - Mental diseases

For my film trailer our plot was based a lot on mental diseases, as our location in the film plot was in an asylum. For this we had to research mental illnesses, and see which one would best fit our characters with these diseases. We ended up choosing schizophrenia, as it was suitable for our character with the split personalities, strange behaviour and unexplainable happenings. http://www.schizophrenia.com/family/perstory5.htm We also want to use props. We thought good ideas for this would be such as a rocking chair, straight jacket, ties, etc...

Presentation on Film Trailers that influenced by genre/synopsis

Film synopsis presentation on trailers from meg2606

Film Trailers

I looked at a number of different film trailers when first coming up with my first synopsis of psychological thriller. These include: Hide and Seek Insidious Insidious 2 Sinister Exorcist You're Next The Conjuring Paranormal Activity. However, when I decided to change my film synopsis to a crime/drama based genre, I then researched these different type of film trailers: Blair Witch Project & Paranormal Activity [I did this because of the way the whole project was documented by the characters themselves, and I felt this fit my film trailer project as it gave off a better effect for the situation]. The Impossible World Trade Center Titanic My Sister's Keeper I watched these film trailers as I felt they were very tragic in the sense that they are realistic and have/could have happened, which is what my film synopsis itself is about, as it could happen, and has happened previously before.

Film Synopsis: New Plot

I decided to change my film synopsis genre to a drama/crime genre instead. This was because I found my genre I picked was too cliche with the actual film synopsis, and I also found that to find the characters and location of that film would be tricky, whereas my new film synopsis would be much more accessible. "Megan Sanders The ShootingsQ In 2011, three 17 year old students went into school normally, like any other day. However, how their day would end, would not be in any way at all normal. Sienna, Toby and Caleb went into their lesson as per usual on Friday morning, October 15th. Toby used his phone to record the day, as he usually does to make it into some type of film project he was working on that was based on his friends. It wasn’t until the nearing of the lesson would they realise that it wasn’t the bell for next lesson making so much noise... It was the sound of children running out of their lessons to escape, after hearing gun fire shots. The three students remained in their classroom whilst the havoc was going on, and decided to hide instead of flee. They stayed in a school closet and didn’t move for about an hour. After everything going silent, they discussed quietly that it would be best to leave and try to escape the school without whoever was shooting to notice. However, as they sneak out of the classroom they hear nothing but dead silence. They slowly walk through the hallways covered in papers and folders and books that had all been dropped from the children in a rush. All three students are shaking, and the camera is also having a shaky effect because of this. As they walk half way through a long corridor, they hear a scream from the other end of the corridor, but a gun shot from behind them. Frozen and unsure on what to do, they run into another classroom and hide in different spots. Toby hides under a teacher’s desk, Caleb hides behind the long curtain, and Sienna hides in the cupboard again. They stay still and silent and it feels like they don’t move for about an hour, even though it had only been five minutes. Until they hear the door creak open. Toby could see three people walk in, but only their bottom half, in which they were wearing big black boots and black trousers. Caleb was frozen, but could hear his heart thumping. Sienna stayed still and tried to think of a way to deal with a situation, whilst she sat in darkness. The three people started talking, and they were all male. “I know I seen someone, Tom,” said one with a squeaky and small voice, sounding too young to even be capable to hold a gun. They started talking amongst themselves, when one spotted the curtain move. As they unreel the curtain, they find Caleb there. Caleb however, notices who these people are. There is shouting, as they tell Caleb to get to his knees. Sienna and Toby suddenly start worrying, ready to burst out, and as they hear the cocking of the gun, both burst out from their hiding places. Whom they see holding the gun to Caleb, however, are familiar faces. They realise that these boys are in their year, and all have a geeky approach to them. As the boy looks and is ready to shoot Caleb quickly, the police break in and arrest them before. Toby, Caleb and Sienna all walk through the school parking lot with blankets wrapped around them and holding water bottles, still shaken up. They ask the police officers what made the three boys do it, and they tell them that they were seriously bullied in school, and two of the boys had a lot going on at home too, and nobody helped them. This drove them to kill three students, and almost Caleb. "

Film Synopsis: First Draft

I decided to do a psychological thriller for my film synopsis. The target group is aimed at 18-25 year olds. "FREE -Megan Sanders It was late 2012, and Sienna had reluctantly just moved into her new home with her parents, Peter and Rose, in Ravenswood. However, Sienna starts to feel more and more uncomfortable with her new home, and it gets worse by the day. Whenever Sienna is home by herself, which was often as her parents were almost always at work, she starts experiencing sinister things she’s never experienced before. It starts off with when she comes down with, what her parents thought, was just a sickness bug. Sienna had bad headaches, feeling sick and dizzy, and fatigued. However, this would only happen whenever she was at home by herself. She goes to school, and when people ask her where she lives, and Sienna tells them, they start looking worried and they tell her about how everyone thinks the house she lives in is haunted, and it has been abandoned for the last 100 years, since a young boy died in there. Sienna then starts experiencing sinister happenings whilst alone in the middle of the night. She is laying in bed, and she’ll feel a freezing cold draft in her room, and when she gets up to check if it’s the same anywhere else, she realises it’s only in her room it seems to be so cold. Then there are lights turning off and on by itself, and television’s turning on to a child’s programme by itself. She hears cries in the night, and when she goes to follow the voice, it stops. Sienna then starts getting ready for bed, and looks in the bathroom mirror and sees a young boy slam her bedroom door shut. Sienna struggles to sleep, and has nobody to turn to. When she starts researching her house and the death of the young boy, she finds out he was brutally murdered by his mother, and they never found the body. Sienna calls a detective’s number she finds on the internet that had recently been researching into the case before they had moved in, and the detective suggests trying to find the boy’s body within the house. When looking for it, they find not only the body, but the spirit of the boy, and his mother who murdered him. She does her best to try to stop and scare Sienna and detective Nole off, but doesn’t succeed, as Sienna and Nole set fire to the basement in which they found the boy’s body, burning the evidence, therefore freeing the boy from being stuck from moving on. The film then ends with Sienna walking away from the scene with Nole, and Sienna says “My head... I don’t feel as ill anymore”. "

Introduction to A2 Media Studies Coursework

For this year's A2 Media studies coursework I am going to produce a film trailer on a specific genre. I will be put into groups and arrange with them a specific genre of film trailer to produce, and we will work together to do so. I will also be recording any research and planning, production, and also evaluation onto my blog.