Influences on our film

The biggest influence on our film would be the film 'Shutter Island'. We are wanting our film to be set in a mental institute just like in this film. Although, our mental institute will be different to this one as we don't want it look look as creepy, we just want ours to look more mysterious. Also in our film our main character will be put in the mental institute because he became mentally ill and then kills his partner. Whereas, in Shutter Island the man kills his wife because his wife had become mentally ill and killed their children. The man then becomes mentally ill through grief and pain, causing him to be taking to the mental institute. 

Another influence on our film would be the film 'Memento'. This film has the main male character having flashbacks of his wife in black and white, as his wife has also been killed. In our film we also want this effect as the male character unravels what is happening and why he is in the mental institute. 

Questionnaire 1 results analysis based on synopsis

Synopsis: The film starts off with a man, Damian looking at a photo of a woman who is his wife, Lily (its a wedding photo).

There are small flashbacks of Damian and Lily together, talking and embracing.

He then says he will find her and she isn't forgotten.The film then switches to a vision of the woman speaking to the man saying all is not lost and that she isn't far away. 
Same scene of his wife getting beaten up from earlier but you see that it's him doing it. 
Damian then sets off in search of his wife by walking down a corridor, following shadowy figures with her back turned to him then the screen darkens. (then the screen comes back to a different location in his mind) his wife is not there. But there are fast flickers of her presence, that go into her being beaten up and killed. But you don't see who it is.

Damian then follows Lily into a room and goes through the door where he sees Lily and she's stood next to Doctor, he looks at the table and sees a file. There are snippets of information saying that he killed his wife and he's got bipolar/schizophrenia.

Damian never left the mental home and it goes back to reality. He goes under his bed and pull out a knife. Close up Knife on shot then goes off shot and comes back on covered in blood, to show he has stabbed himself. 

Damian is dead, blood on his hand that goes onto the photo of Lily and then the audience sees a tear of blood run down Damian's face and onto the face of his wife on the photo.

As our first questionnaire was based on the synopsis of the film, we expected to gain different responses as obviously people have different ideas about a psychological thriller and what the film involves.

Link to results: results
The questions we asked were there to receive feedback in order to match our film to the genre we decided on which was a psychological thriller. These were the following questions and responses:

1. What genre do you think the film is?

As all the responses told us it would be a psychological thriller, we were content to class the film as this as that's what we hoped it would be, showing we know all of the aspects that make up a film of this genre.

2. What certificate would you give the film? As the results were half and half, we decided that because our film was supposed to be a 12A, to research the conditions of the certificate 15 just in case we leaned towards this rating, however as both age ratings were quite similar, it wouldn't make very much of a difference about the rating of the film.

 
 3. Would you watch our film? As this question is based on personal film preference as well as how good our film sounds, we couldn't make it 100% accurate, however our results showed that 1/6 who answered said they wouldn't watch it, meaning our film was mainly popular among the rest who answered. This gave us a good idea about who our audience would be.

4. Do you think the story line is easy to follow?

Only 1/6 said our story line wasn't easy to follow which is a good response as it means our film wouldn't be too complicated to understand.

5. What do you like about it?

The feedback gave a varied mix of responses, giving us a vague idea of what we need to improve when we created the film and what was good enough to stay the same.

6. What kind of music would be played on the film?

Our responses were thriller sort, classical, mysterious, tense and suspense music, which all fit to the genre of our film so we were happy with the responses.

7.  Where would you expect to see this film?

Most said YouTube, meaning our audience would be able to access it easily

Analysis of Short Film: "Let's Be Civil, Kenneth!"

"Let's Be Civil, Kenneth!"

                        
                                   Let's Be Civil, Kenneth! from Eric Pumphrey on Vimeo.

Here is a film called Let's Be Civil, Kenneth!. It is about a couple who don't seem to get along. Throughout the film the male character starts to loose control over his temper and become very aggressive towards the woman. Someone ten knocks at the door just as the male is about to beat the woman with a typewriter and all of a sudden everything goes back to normal.

---

Here is a film called Let's Be Civil, Kenneth!. Some aspects of this storyline are similar to ours. The male character in this has all of a sudden had enough and starts abusing his wife, but the difference is that he manages to calm down and not kill her. The music on here is quite calm but also very mysterious, so we could use the same style of music for our film.

The mise-en-scene here doesn't appear to be very homely. The walls are white/cream which seems very plain. If the house was wanted to be seen as happy home atmosphere, warm colours would have been used such as red or orange. Therefore, something already seems odd about the scene.
Although, some of the objects in the house seem to create a cheery effect, such as the flowers and the pictures of animals.

---

Here the man hears his wife coming home and unlocking the door, so he pretends to be asleep as she enters the room. This shows that they already have a dis functional relationship as this implies that he doesn't want to speak to her.

---

The music in this short film gets louder and shaper as the drama rises. Also, there isn't a lot of dialogue. Again this could suggest that they don't communicate with each other. When the woman is talking the man replies in a tone that suggests that he's doesn't really care what she's saying. for e.g he says "oh, that's nice".






   

Film Questionnaire

Questionnaire results

Click here for questionnaire results

Changes made to film idea

Our film script has changed throughout and we've made various changes to our script due to coming up with more creative ideas to involve in our film.

We have decided to incorporate a voice over into it due to feeling we didn't have enough speech and needing to let the audience know a deeper story behind Damian and why he's in the asylum.

We have added a scene to the script as it started off as Damian finding out his wife had been killed by him by simply seeing a visual image of beating his wife up as he began to remember but then we thought it could be better to add in a scene where he saw snippets of information explaining he was mental as its would give the audience more information.

We added a character of the doctor to emphasise he's in an asylum.

Lastly we changed the genre from thriller to drama as we felt the whole story was more dramatic than thrilling.

Possible film names

Possible film names

• Turn Back Time, This idea came from the fact that we believe that Damian would want to turn back time to before he killed his wife and make different choices to change the future. We have decided not to choose this name as the title of our film due to the fact the if Damian did turn back time due to his bipolar condition he would still have killed his wife.

• The Forgotten, This idea has come from the fact that all the way through the film Damian is trying to find out the truth of what happened to wife. 

• The Awful Truth, This idea has come from the fact that the truth in this film is awful. The fact that Damian has a mental condition that has caused him to kill his one true love is awful and it is also hidden until the end of the film.

• The Hellacious Truth, came from the idea that this truth is an hellish ordeal.

• Gone Astray, This idea has come from the fact that Lily has died but to Damian's wife has to him 'Gone Astray' and he is trying to find her. We decided not to use this idea as it sort of gives the film idea away that is is 'Gone'.

• The Forgotten Truth, we have chosen to use this name for our film as it is create and links well with our film idea. The fact that all the way through the film Damian is trying to find something he has lost which is the forgotten truth. 

Film Certificate before questionnaire

Certificate Classification for The Forgotten Truth

Our film The Forgotten Truth idea we believe to be the film classification of a 12A. This is because the audience my feel like there is a dark unsettling tone to the story as Damian kills his wife and then himself. I believe that our film The Forgotten Truth will be a 12A  as there will be weapons used during the killings and there will be blood and cuts shown however, there will not be any gory.

The exact classification path that films must follow is by the BBFC. There definition of a 12A is  'The overall tone of a film or video, and the way it makes the audience feel may affect the classification. For example, a work which has a very dark or unsettling tone which could disturb the audience would be less likely to be passed 12A even if the individual issues in the film were considered acceptable under the BBFC Guidelines.' 
12A, moderate violence is allowed but it should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if they can be justified by their context (for example brief sight of bloody injury in a medical drama).

Action sequences and weapons may be present at 12A or 12, and there may be long fight scenes or similar. Weapons which might be easily accessible to 12 year olds (such as knives) should not be glamorised in 12A and 12 works.

Other BBFC information on 12A certificates.

Script

Iconography of Psychological drama films

Iconography of Psychological drama films

There is sometimes the mystery of having the main character not knowing what situations have occurred and they have to find out. Like in the film Shutter Island and Memento. In both of these films the truth is not what it seems the the main characters and they try and find closure but there ends up being a twist at the end.

Shadows are commonly used to try and make the audience feel uneasy as they don't know what else could be lurking in the dark. 

They can be used when the main character catches a glimpse of the shadow of the villain, to make the audience feel uneasy and the sense that someone/something else is watching.

Small rooms are commonly used to make the character look/appear trapped. It can also make the audience feel claustrophobic as they know they character won't be able to run any where in a small room.







Weapons are commonly used. This would be used to make the films more dramatic and tense and to add danger to the scene. Like in the film Memento, a gun is used.

Time limits are often used to make the film more on edge and suspending as they have to solve the dilemma before the time runs out. For example, in the film Shutter Island, a time limit is put on to save his friend.

Psychological disabilities are often used for both the protagonist and antagonist, this makes the film more tense as the characters may not have full control of their own mind. For example, in the film Shutter Island, at the end you find out that it's the main character that has psychological problems. 

Genre - Psychological Drama - Similar films

                                            Genre - Psychological Drama - Similar films

          

Here is a trailer of the film Hard Candy. It is about a 14 year old girl who meets a man online. They decide to meet up, but the man is a lot older than the girl. The man Invites the girl over to his house where the girl then drugs the man. At this point it is realized that the girl appears to be crazy. She had planned everything all along. She had suspected that he was a paedophile that had killed a girl in the past. She makes the man choose between killing himself and telling him that she'd get rid of the evidence that he had left behind, or to stay alive and let the police find the evidence. After some torturous events the man chose to kill himself, knowing that the evidence would be destroyed. Yet the audience then find out she was lying; she did not destroy the evidence.

This is similar to our story line at there are elements of the character being crazy but also having a sympathetic side to them, and it also has a twist at the end.

             

Here is the trailer for the film Inception. The film is about a man who goes into peoples dreams but at the risk of loosing his whole life and family. He chooses that he wants his real life back. But his plan to make everything right again is very risky.
This is similar to our storyline as it is about what is shown as real life or made up, and our main character sees what is in his mind as he has mental problems.




           

The film Shutter Island is about a man who used to be in the war and has recently lost his wife, which has lead to him being mentally unstable and is now in a mental institute for the criminally insane, although he doesn't know that's the reason he's there. He thinks that he's a detective who is investigating the island. A prisoner there then goes missing.The man starts to find fault in his memory. Everything is not what it seems, They later become to realisation that they are stranded on the island. and finds out that he is there because he killed his wife.
This is similar to ours as the main character in it is in a mental home and doesn't know exactly what is going on.

Storyboard for title sequence

Title sequence - Hand of god

Title sequence - Hand of god



I like the idea of this title sequence as we could do ours similar to this. It gives the impression the the film is going to be different to other films with the old looking pictures in the sepia colour effect and the black background. We could have shots of the films in the sequence of the scenes of the mental institute and of the couple having fun.

                     
                                      Hand of God Title Sequence from MK12 on Vimeo.



Here the title of the film is in Big bold white writing with a white dove in the background. Doves usually symbolise peace and happiness, but the filter/colours in the surrounding picture suggest otherwise as there are shadows being created by the window bars and the rest of the room has been blacked out.

Here the shot shows two separate pictures of red flowers. Red could have connotations of danger and blood. Also, the colour of these shot are foggy/mystic, they also look old as if they could be shots from the past.




Here in the shot there is a picture of a statue. Stone angel statues could be seen as scary.
Like in the episode of Doctor Who where the angles move when they aren't being looked at.










Also, here there are more picture of old statues/artwork which look a little abstract, which could be seen as "creepy"

Similar short film

A short film similar to ours would Be INSiDE due to this being about a man who has multiple personality disorder and so lives in a mental asylum, the story line shares the same qualities of the film Identity which I spoke about in an earlier post.

We would use similar clothing as these characters to highlight their role in the hospital e.g.- main character in white clothing

And the doctor in a lab coat

When the character is walking down the hall at a fast pace with the guards/doctors I think we should do this in our film when our character Damian is searching for his wife down the corridor as the lighting in this clip fades from dark to light showing the mans multiple personalties as the light comes on, making the scene look ghostly and creepy to the audience. We could use the lighting in our short film to make it look as though the character is going to a new location when he goes through the door when in reality he's imagining going through the door and imagining seeing his wife when he never really left the room.

Storyboard

Storyboard 1:

Storyboard 2:

Storyboard 3:

Storyboard 4:

Storyboard 5:

Storyboard 6- extra scene:

Credit Sequence Ideas

Credits Ideas For Film




These credits off Alan Wake Walkthrough are very simple and plain. This simple ending could have a good effect at the end of our film as it would mean that as Damian dies the simple music would seem like he is drifting off into his endless sleep.

 

These credits from kadhal psycho are done in a really good way as between the credits there are clips of extra information about the film. This wouldn't really work in our film as we want it to end when the main character dies. I also like the wobbly affect of the writing/ text, I would like to use a effect like this to show Damian's split personality.





These are some opening credits from a variety of films. I like the simplicity of of the watchmen title as it is affective and clear to see. It also fits very well with the films storyline. I think that this idea of having a picture behind the bold colourful text, works really well and it is something that could work well for our film The Forgotten Truth.


I like the idea of the credits falling away as the images move towards it. This affect of having the text fall away could look good as the truth has fallen from Damians mind.

This very simple credit of having a dark image with a light text is affective but might not be appropriate for our film as the dark effects could make the audience interpret our film idea in the wrong way.

Storyboard Drawings

Title sequence analysis

As our film is a bit of a thriller I think our title sequence should be fast paced but stalled in bits such as adding props we will use in our film like the knife and blood and slowing the title sequence down at the beginning to see a still of the props with the title in the center of them, showing the audience from the start what's involved in the film. The props could re appear on the screen, teasing the audience to give them clues as what could happen in the film like on Dexters title sequence.

Using different frames of pictures to highlight the main objects in the film to foreshadow what's going to happen, this not only happens in Dexter but also happens in the psychological thriller Se7ven, showing a pattern in films similar to ours.

 It should be fast paced as that's what features thriller films tend to have. Though our film is also a bit mysterious and dramatic so I think it would be good to have the font of the title in a scary looking print, maybe it could surround the main character and then fly off screen to attract the audiences attention and make them question what happened, this could foreshadow the film as the audience would question the main characters actions due to his mental illness.

The title could also appear underneath the location of the film such as a mental asylum, already showing the audience where the main characters location is such as on the film shutter island.

These are a few title sequences that we would take inspiration from to create ours Title sequences. The titles of the film make the audience instantly gather an opinion of what's going to happen in the film and what genre it is which is why our sequence would have to fit to the conventions of a psychological drama film Aspects we would have to consider to do this would be the use of characters in the sequence to highlight the main people, shots of the location to show where it is, lighting to show the movie is dark and props to show the plot of the film and what type of film it is.

Similar films to my film idea

Similar films to my second (main) idea about the vanishing of the two girls would be firstly The Lovely Bones even though it's more of a supernatural drama I feel that the fact that there's an elderly male who looks like an average innocent person who is capable of kidnapping Susie would be similar to my idea as I'd like the character of the man to be quite like the character who plays in my film idea...

His whole nature is deceivingly friendly which is how my character would be portrayed. This would gain the audiences attention as only they would see that something is wrong like we naturally do in The Lovely Bones where as my two girl characters would have no clue and would just assume an old man needs help.

The setting would be comparable to my idea as it's very secluded in Lovely Bones, the man lures the girl to an underground attic which he's obviously been working hard on to seduce girls to go there which could be similar to my character as he puts a lot of effort into making posters of girls claiming they've gone missing

As in The lovely Bones we are aware of the male character (George Harvey) from the very start however we don't see him as a threat to the soon to be victim which would be like my film, their existence is known but we don't know what they're capable of which would also be similar to the film Psycho

The film that's similar to my first idea of a mentalist escaping from an asylum and killing the whole film being from his point of view and him never been seen is Dexter the tv show as it's a show from a killers point of view even though there are slight differences as you know who Dexter is and his reason for killing whereas my film idea would be a bit more mysterious and thrilling as you never find out who the killer is. 

This film idea would also be slightly similar to Peep show as the camera technique would be the same, Peep show inspired this idea of a killers point of view as it would be thrilling for the audience to never know who the killer actually is.

Lastly I think a film called The Resident is related as in this film the killer is watching and so you get a good perspective from him during the film as in my idea the killer is watching his victims.

Similar films

Our film is a drama/mystery thriller. The genre of drama and mystery gives an overall feel of the film shutter island as the characters are going through similar experiences in a mental institution.

The mystery of our plot is that the main character doesn't know he's in a mental asylum and the audience think that the man is just looking for his wife, when in fact he can't face what's happened to her and so makes a story up to protect his feelings whereas the plot in shutter island concerns a male whose wife murdered their children and so he murdered her and convinced himself he had no children and was a detective searching for the missing 67th person in a mental asylum who had gone missing, even though he was the 67th person and played a role of another identity to protect himself from the pain.

I think the idea of a person not knowing who they really are is good as these films tend to hold mystery and make the audience intrigued to watch. This Review of the film highlights why the film is so good which is why it has inspired our group to do something similar because everything is foreshadowed and disguised it effects the senses and makes the audience want answers

Another film with a similar genre is identity due to the mystery of the plot and the thrill behind the murders happening as in the film a group of people come together during a night of bad weather and murders begin to happen, at the end it turns out a character who is in the group of people has multiple personality disorder and only one of his identities is a murderer however he doesn't know which one. This would be slightly the same as our film as our character doesn't understand who he really is or who he's looking for.

Thirdly there's a series called lost which could be similar as all the characters believe that they're stuck on an island when in fact they died in a plane crash and can't face the fact they're dead as they still have important things to do. Our character is similar as he cannot face knowing his wife is dead and so creates a story that he himself believes so he doesn't have to continue hurting. The series involves many people searching for their loved ones who were also involved in the plane crash whilst ours involves a man searching for his wife.

Genre of our film

Our film would be a psychological drama which would make the audience emphasise with the emotionally unstable main character due to their obsession with a task and the audience seeing them perform this task throughout the film. The film would have characters who aren't totally in reality so they're a little bit censored  from the world as their thoughts are in a haze. The film should involve an unreliable character as our main character is supposedly mental and therefore the audience knows that they shouldn't believe his thoughts but they can't help but do.

Our character would be similar in this way to Francis from The cabinet of dr caligari where he finds out he's a patient in a mental asylum and Jane who he claims to be his wife is also a patient in the asylum. The twist of this is comparable to how our film is also.

Themes of our psychological thriller/drama

• Perception- our character can't see what's really there

• Identity- he doesn't know who he really is

• Love- he loves his wife so much that he has to search for her

• Guilt- covers up the fact he's murdered his wife because of the guilt he feels 

• Obsession- obsessed with finding out where his wife is- this theme would be similar to the film Zodiac which involves a cartoonist acting as a detective whose so obsessed with finding out who the Zodiac killer is that he becomes alienated from his family and friends

• Factual- the ending is left so that you have a very good idea of what happened and why the character is reacting the way they are in the film similar to shutter island

'Which would be worse to live as a monster or to die as a good man?'

• Mental illness-which is also similar to shutter island as he doesn't know he's got a wife and doesn't realise that he shot her