Costume (Neve)

Costume 

Main character (Sam)
For our main characters costume as he is in a mental hospital he will be wearing the usual white gown or pyjamas, With slippers this will suggest to the audience that he is poorly and unable to look after himself due to his illness. We are using the stereotype of the patient gown in a mental hospital because we think it will best suit our story costume like this would be ideal.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Unisex-PATIENT-GOWN-Reusable-Style-Wrap-Around-Hospital-Supplied-Night-Dress-/131519106627. This will cost us £6.85 and the postage is free.





Dog walker (Ben)
The dog walker will be wearing casual clothes this portrays to the audience that he is a good person, However in the ill mans head he is appearing bad, This makes him seem crazier because he is making up in his head that the walker is bad. Our dog walker will be Allan Gomez we will ask him to wear his normal clothes to fit a dog walker character. As this character doesn't need a particular 'look' we can dress him casually without any extra costs. An outfit like the one shown in the picture would be ideal maybe more casual as he will be in the woods. 



The dead person (Charlie)
The dead character will also be wearing casual clothes however these will be covered in mud and blood we can make the blood following the instructions below And use real mud for the mud. Using blood and mud on our actors clothes suggests that there was a struggle before the murder.
I have embbeded a video on how to create fake blood, I chose this one because the blood looks real and dark unlike some bought fake blood. I can buy the ingredients from Sainsburys. As this fake blood can stain we will make sure that it doesn't get on any of our clothes and make sure that the actors clothes are able to get blood on them (old ones) I can test this with some ingredients i have at home to make sure that the blood looks the way we want it, The actors skin is okay with it, and it wont stain.

Framing the Shots (Dan)

The shot composition is always a vital part of any film, and when done incorrectly, can lead to disastrous looking scenes.

This opening is no exception. We need an establishing shot when we first show the protagonist escaping the mental hospital, and another when he has arrived in the wood.

If we can get even half the appearance of the man on the right, we're set

Showing the protagonist's mental state through body language and make-up is easy, but we do have to make sure that these are shown through camera angles and shots. Close-ups will be needed to show red eyes with bags underneath, greasy hair and rough skin. The protagonist hasn't been too fussed about his appearance since his schizophrenia development, and the implication of drugs through his eyes will allow us to communicate easily that this man is very distressed.

It probably won't be this happy

A particularly difficult shot (that will look pretty good if pulled off) would be the talking tree. We will have to have 2 shots of the same thing, but one with a person in front of it, and one without. If we merge the two shot layers and have one at maybe 50% opacity, we can get across that the protagonist is hallucinating the trees talking to him, and criticizing him.


Another possible shot that would be very effective would be in the scene where we see the noose. Any shots viewed from the Protagonist's PoV would be shot in black and white, and when he sees the noose, the only time he sees colour is through that circle. This would emphasise his desire to escape life, and leave his horrible thoughts behind. The only way he can achieve true happiness is to assure that he can't be hurt any more.

These are only a few of the important shots, and we will still have to make sure we can keep the standard consistent throughout the opening.

Storyboard and Synopsis

Our storyboard

Updated synopsis
In our opening 2 minutes we decided to add a few more shots, Our character goes through flashbacks and hallucinations, Showing us the previous killing and how his illness has affected him. The synopsis is a schizophrenic man that kills a boy because the voices in his head tell him to however once the boy is dead, The voices in his head tell him that he is a terrible person for killing the boy, So he tries to kill himself however this is a failure as he gets taken into a mental hospital. He escapes from here and finds himself in the woods nearby where he has flashbacks and hallucinations of dog walkers saying horrible things and talking trees. The last shots are of the dog walker looking after the man.

Edit:
Our story has to communicate that our protagonist has been suffering from mental illnesses for some time, without explicitly saying it through dialogue or otherwise. We have studied various mental disorders and have decided that schizophrenia would be the most accurate one to portray in the film, given his hallucinations, murderous rage and suicidal tendencies.  

Hallucinations in particular are fairly easy to show through visuals alone. Close to the end, we depict a man seeming to tell the protagonist that he's a terrible person, but later on we find out that it is just subjective filming, and the objective scene is just the man walking his dog. Point of View shots tend to be the most popular when showing something subjective, as it becomes obvious to the viewers that this is only what one person sees. 

We also show a talking tree, which may not be PoV, but is right after one, and what with talking trees not existing, it is clear that viewers are still being shown subjective footage.

The murderous rage is shown in flashbacks. This is shown as something that the protagonist truly regrets, and is what triggers his suicidal tendencies. The story goes that the protagonist stabs another man multiple times, for reasons unbeknownst to the viewer during the flashbacks. We do not show any piercing of skin or flesh, but during the quick flashbacks that the protagonist remembers, it is very clear what happens. The first flashback shows him creeping up on his victim, with emphasis on the knife in his hand. The second flashback shows him above his victim, about to thrust the knife downwards, likely into the victim's chest or back. The third and final flashback shows the dropping of the knife, signifying the realization of what he's done and the regret and guilt he feels.

The suicidal tendencies were the most difficult to show. At the start, we show him escaping and running away from a mental hospital, which could make viewers ask a few questions, such as "Why and what is he running away (from)?" The viewer is not meant to know if he does not want to be cured, or whether he has unfinished business, or other reasons. A possible issue with our storyboard is that none of our shots answer these questions truly, but it does help to show that he has a mental disorder, and that is what we wanted to get across.

However, we continue to enforce the idea of him being scared of suicide, and heavily imply that he has attempted it before. When he sees the noose in the wood, he has the flashbacks and runs. Viewers gather here that he is definitely not cured, and should still be in the mental hospital. This does not confirm nor deny that the noose in the wood was one used by him, which again leaves the viewers with questions, but in this case it is not necessarily a bad thing, as it does create enigma.  

Setting - Butcher's Wood (Dan)

We've chosen Butcher's Wood for a location for multiple reasons.

Reason A being the fact that it's public. There are no permissions required to walk in and film, thus making it easier on us.

Butcher's Wood in the spring/summer

Reason B would be how easy it is to access. Literally down the road from my house, and 2 minute's walk from the station. This reduces the amount of distance to carry equipment, and also allows for an easy to access storage area, thus reducing risks of damaging or equipment.

Reason C is the wood itself. It's called "Butcher's Wood" for a reason, and it would work well with a thriller for the connotations to murder. It can also get some very nice lighting through the trees, as well as some nice soundscapes from the breaking of twigs to the trains passing nearby.

In full bloom

The risks would be getting lost (which shouldn't happen, it's not too large), dropping equipment in water/mud, and slipping on wet wood or ground. We will need to be mindful and make sure to keep everything safe and in sight.

Our storyline centers around our mentally ill protagonist finding a noose that he may or may not have used to attempt suicide, and being triggered to the point where he sees hallucinations and experiences dysphoria. This wood has plenty of sturdy trees that would be able hypothetically to hold up a man's weight without snapping, which would mean someone committing suicide through hanging is not an entirely unrealistic scenario. Woods also give us a few hallucination ideas, such as judgmental dog walkers and talking trees, both of which are in our storyboard.

Garageband Sound Project (Ross and Dan)

Here is our sound project. If the video itself goes over a minute, I don't know why. We did do the sound for the first minute, however.

Some of the sounds that we were looking for did not exist, so we had to make do with what we had. Examples include truck engines, tyre screeching and Harley motorbike engines

Nevertheless, we still think it's pretty good.

Make-Up

Make-Up

Red Eyes

Our character will need to have red eyes because of the previous drug use. There are a few ways we can do this: One way is to peel an onion and rub a small piece below the characters eye. Onions produce sun-propanethiat-s-oxide, a chemical irritant that causes the eyes to produce tears and turn red. Another way is to use red and brown make-up to draw around the eyes. We also need to have red marks around the characters neck, we can use brown and red make up to do this too. I will use this video to help me with the red eye make-up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1AXBiTTruQ

Aged Skin

Our character will also need slightly aged skin, this is to show the previous drug use as it makes skin age quicker. To do this I will need to get dark coloured powder to change the face shape and certain bits of the face. I got some ideas from this blog: rochellebarlow.com/how-to-look-really-old-with-stage-makeup/

We will also need our character to be fairly sweaty, which I would use water for. They also need to have a pale face and pale lips, therefore we can use pale foundation for this.    

Characters - Ross

Characters play a very important role in any film, they have to fit the genre, we must choose the correct characters to fit our genre and actors to go with them, we will need 2 characters.
The actors I will choose will be based on how the genre and the characters interact. Due to the nature of our character and the illness of Schizophrenia he will need to embrace the character and adopt some of the effects. We will need an actor who is experienced as adapting and comfortable with playing a mentally ill character, its a strong demand.

Whilst we are not directly marked on the acting, having a film looking fully professional with a very high quality of acting is one of our main ambitions, we are also marked upon other aspects of the film so whilst not the acting, the quality of acting will make the film much easier to edit, and we will be much more satisfied.
When the task of choosing our characters came around we took to the ideas of deciding who may fit the part based on natural looks and identity. Whilst this was important we also had the makeup which proved very effective in achieving the right looks.

Our characters
Main character- Tom (Dan's friend) fits the look we are looking for and can achieve with his appearance.

Dog walker- Allan Gomez will be our dog walker in the woods. Allan fits the look we a looking for (regular teenage boy)

Dead person- Dom (Sophie's boyfriend).

Sound management - Ross

Sound Management














































































We will need a variety of sounds throughout our introduction to our thriller film.
The film will last 2 minutes and will have both diegetic and non diegetic sounds, including dialogue, and music.


One example is the rustle of the leaves and he moves slowly through the woods. This is vital as it all contributes to the opening as a whole. In order to gather the sounds we will separately record the sounds whilst out, we will record the shot and then do the same thing again but instead record the sound using a lapel microphone. This will help as it can extend our range of sound and also accuracy of sound. This drastically improves the quality of our film. Sound plays an important role as if you have weak sounds that don't sound even remotely realistic it gives off a very un-professional feel.









Our particular film will need a variety of sounds, some generic however some which may be hard acquire without recording manually, one generic sound is footsteps however a more difficult sound would be screeching of shoes as they travel through our location.


I have experience using garage-band so this is why I put myself forward for sound management, during the task for our research process I decided this would be in the best interest to take the role.

Setting Research- Millview Hospital

Our location is Pavilion Ward, Millview Hospital.

Millview Hospital is a psychiatric intensive care unit to assess and treat patients with severe mental health conditions, including schizophrenia, Bi-Polar affective disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and drug induced psychosis. All patients on the ward are considered to be at risk of harm to themselves or others in the context of their mental health condition and have been detained under the mental health Act. There has to be an enhanced potential for risk to self or others to warrant a bed on the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). Patients can leave it given agreed section 17 (MHA) but mostly escorted. Until they are well enough to do so, they can use the large garden which is surrounded by a high fence to prevent absconsion. We want to use this area because we think that using the fence and the front of the hospital in low key lighting would be really good for the opening of our thriller. We have permission from the manager and the communications team at the hospital, as my mum works there and emailed them to see if it we could use the grounds.   

The Hospital

The Hospital Entrance

Permission 1

Permission 2

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia Research

Schizophrenia is a long term mental illness that causes a range of different psychological symptoms including:

• Hallucinations - hearing or seeing things that do not exist
• Delusions - unusual beliefs not based on reality that often contradict the evidence
• Muddled thoughts based on hallucinations or delusions
• Changes in behaviour

Doctors call schizophrenia a psychotic illness, this means sometimes a person wont be able to distinguish the difference between their own thoughts and reality. Most experts believe schizophrenia happens because of certain genetics and environmental factors.

Brain Development

Studies of people with schizophrenia have shown there are subtle differences in the structure of their brains. These changes aren't seen in everyone with schizophrenia and can occur in people who don't have a mental illness, but they suggest schizophrenia may partly be a disorder of the brain. Stress and drug abuse can also be a factor.

Pregnancy and Birth Complications

Research has shown that people who develop schizophrenia are more likely to have experienced complications before and during their birth, such as a low birth weight, premature labour, or a lack of oxygen (asphyxia) during birth. It may be that these things have a subtle effect on brain development.

Does our Protagonist have Schizophrenia?
 Our idea of our protagonist fits schizophrenia much better than anti-social personality disorder, as he displays all of these symptoms, and almost all at once. He sees hallucinations such as talking trees and judgmental dog walkers, the delusion that he needs to escape from the mental hospital, muddled thoughts through flashbacks and hallucinations, and changes in behaviour when he sees the noose in the woods.

Anti-social personality disorder research

People with Anti-social personality disorder have a trait of not caring about things or people which makes some of them dangerous. Especially when they have the empathy emotion but don't care about what they are doing (sociopath). They are also fearless, Which makes them able to do anything other humans wouldn't be able to do making them dangerous.

Mental illness research 

Anti social personality disorder (psychopath) - This mental illness in people makes them unable to feel fear or recognise in other people. They also know what they are doing is wrong but still do it and pretend to be sorry. ASPD characters are clever they hide their problem from others to appear normal when in fact they are very calculated individuals. For our film we have decided to go with the story about an ASPD character because we can really show the characters personality and create fear and suspense for our audience through, Mise en scene.

http://www.sociopathicstyle.com/psychopathic-traits/

Here are some traits 
- Fearless
- Lack remorse
- No empathy
- Disarming
- Fake charm
- Disregard of rights for others
- Disregard for law and rules
- Tendency to display violent behaviour
- Unable to form relationships of any kind
- Calm
- Charismatic
- Meticulous 
- Organised 
- Calculated in crimes

Our protagonist shows lack of fear, disregard for rules, violent behaviour and does tend to be alone. These don't really show enough for viewers to conclude that he has this disorder, and our film would not be an accurate portrayal of the disorder if we said he had it.

Assigned Roles:

We have come up with the roles for each person to take for the Research and Planning phase. They are as follows:


Dan:
Props
Shot frames/research
Wood setting (blog post)


Ross:
Get characters
Lighting and sound research


Sophie:
Make-up and costume
Hospital setting (blog post)


Neve:
Make-up and costume as well
Storyboard
Mental illness research

First plot idea

First plot idea
Our first plot idea is, A mentally ill man escapes out of hospital and finds himself alone in the woods in the middle of the night, the man with anti social personality disorder has previously killed people. We were inspired by the movie 'Shutter island' where a man is sent to work on a secluded island full of psychopathic people, That manage to escape their hospital rooms. We liked the idea of creating a thriller through a very mentally ill person to create the feeling of darkness and fear. our character will be filmed walking out of the mental asylum and into the woods where it all began. we will create flashbacks and a distorted/disorientaion effect to make the audience feel as if they are the character

The American - Textual Analysis - Ross

This scene begins with a slow moving camera angle getting closer and closer to their cabin which seems to be in the wilderness, there is snow but the location is unknown to the viewer throughout.

The sound of this scene is very different to your typical thriller scene. The music is a slow, piano piece, and this upon being combined with the slow editing pace due to the nature of the scene makes you wonder what could be thriller at all about this.

However throughout the opening few minutes you notice the man shown always has a straight face, he simply either looks un-interested or how I see it, very anxious knowing danger is not far away. One of the ways this is shown is with the low angle looking up at him in the bedroom when the women involved raps her arms around his neck. In this shot he is sat with an uncomfortable facial expression.

The location also adds to this as they are in the middle of nowhere and use the some extreme long shots and wide shots show us this throughout the scene. Another way the setting provokes danger is because their cabin is surrounded by hills, this means that anyone attacking has the height advantage right away and has many places to hide.

The slow pace editing soon comes to an end as they are walking across the snow, a silenced sniper shot is heard, the women is in instant panic however as I said earlier the man involved is seemingly prepared as if he might have been expecting something, he has a gun on him and is clearly experienced in warfare.