Today we are going to film the scene where Chloe is in her media lesson, where she writes in her diary, and voice overs for the diary, and finally, the graveyard scene where Chloe visits Amy's grave, and then it is revealed that, in fact, it is her grave.
Filming locations: College, Graveyard
Storyboard for this filming day:
Location photo for this filming day:
Script:
Shot list for filming:
The props needed for this scene are general school equipment, such as pens and paper, flowers for graveyard.
The only risk assessment for this scene is to make sure that no one trips over the camera equipment and ensure that members of the public (other college students) do not get in the film, in order to help with continuity.
Flashbacks are an alteration of story order in which the plot moves back to show events that have already taken place earlier than the one already shown. This way the scenes that interrupt the sequence can explain what the characters are talking about in the current scenes. They have multiple purposes within the film genre. It can help to illustrate a character's back story as it applies to the plot called character origin flashbacks. Flashbacks can occur before the film's narrative to fill in back story or to fill in another character on what happened while they were not around to witness the events for themselves.
How can you distinguish a flashback in a film?
There are many different techniques in order to distinguish a flashback from the rest of the film. One technique in order to make the flashback obvious is to blur the outer edges of the current scene leading to the first scene in the flashback. Another technique that allows the audience to understand that a flashback is happening is to have a departure from a normal colour format. This can be shown by having flashbacks in black and white, while having present day in colour. Another technique that shows that a flashback is about to occur is while the scene changes the sound from the previous scene follows into the next one, by using a sound bridge. An example of this is demonstrating a car crash flashback by the character hearing the sound of this in the present day and visualising the scene.
Examples of flashbacks within film and television
The first example of a flashback is from the film, The Help. The Help is a book to film adaptation, American period drama, about the story of a young, white woman, named Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, who aspires to be a journalist in the Deep South state of Jackson, Mississippi in the Civil Rights era of 1962. The film focuses around her relationship with two black maids, Aibileen and Minny. It also reflects her own relationship with her family's ex maid, Constantine, who raised her as a child.
There are a variety of different scenes within the film, many that give insight into Skeeter's life, and her relationship with her maid. There is one scene, where Skeeter gets into an argument with her parents about what happened to their maid, Constantine, and as she angrily leaves the house, she paces to a bench in the garden, where she re-calls her as a young teenager, as she hides from her mother, as she didn't get asked to the dance. Constantine gives her some advice and they leave together until the dance is over.
The scene starts as Skeeter is pacing out of the house, and going into the garden, where she comes to a halt, and she glances over to a bench in the garden, with a longing, sad expression.
The camera cuts back to Skeeter again, as she continues to look at the bench. When she looks back at the bench, there is a younger Skeeter who is sat on the bench, feeling sorry for herself, before her maid, Constantine finds her and asks what she is doing all the way out in the garden.
The scene continues as they have a conservation about why Skeeter is sad that she didn't get asked to the dance. The flashback comes to end, as Skeeter and Constantine go back to Constantine's house until the dance is over.
In order to show that the flashback is over, as the two characters walk away, they fade into the scene, until the audience can just see present day Skeeter walking through the garden.
Here is one way that we can distinguish that a flashback is happening in our film, by having a character in the present day, where something previously happened, in order to address a flashback and then completely fade out the flashback.
The second example of a flashback or flash-forwards are from the American mystery drama television show, LOST. LOST is a television show about a group of survivors, from Oceanic Airlines flight 815, who crash on a mysterious island, 1,000 miles off course. The survivors from the crash all have shocking secrets, about why they ended up on Flight 815. The island is very mysterious, with a strange monstrous security system, underground bunkers and a group of permanent residents on the island, who call themselves 'the Others'.
Flashbacks are a major part of how LOST tells its story. In particular, this is because within the show, in some way or another, all the characters are connected, as they were brought to the island for a reason, by Jacob, the Island's protector. Some of the characters had met each other before they had gotten onto the flight, for example, Sawyer and Jack had a conversation in a bar in Australia.
There is a general format that the show follows during episodes that have a series of flashbacks, which usually relate to a single character in each episode, in order to show their life before they had got on the plane, including why they were on the plane. In order for the show to convey that something is a flashback, and not in present day, the flashback will usually begin with a "whoosh" noise. This allows the audience to know that it was a flashback and not the present day.
For some flashbacks in LOST, there sometimes will be music that plays over the flashback, which can be used in order to emphasise that a flashback is happening. The original musical soundtrack plays a big part into LOST, as the same soundtracks are often used in different scenes, to convey the mood for that particular scene, such as in character death scenes, where the song "There's No Place Like Home" will play throughout the scene. In certain scenes, where a flashback is present, a soundtrack will play over.
Here is an example of the soundtrack that plays over flashback or flash-forward scenes in Season 3 of LOST.
Another film which uses flashbacks effectively and are very noticeable is Kill Bill. The centres on a female character known as the Bride or by her alias Black Mamba, who was a ruthless killer for the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. There are many flashbacks featured in the film and are easily recognisable, as the colour of film changes to black and white to signify that the scene is from the characters memory.
After researching into different forms of flashbacks used in films, we are considering to use the technique of making our flashback scenes be in black and white, or a colour that differs from the present day in our film. This is an effective method of easily conveying to the audience the shift in time and how it can be perceived as a dream or memory.
Another method we are considering is putting an echo effect on the shot to convey it's a different period of time. This may also distort the shot, which would convey the confusion of our character.
Idea for a Viral Ad
An idea I have for a viral ad for our film is to create a missing poster which details the dissapperance of our main character. This is simialr to the viral ad for the film The Blair Witch Project, whereby missing posters of the characters were created, which led people to believe they were genuine, as the actors were relatively unknown and the film was a found footage film, making it seem like a documentary, rather than a fictional film. By using this technique in our film, will make the film seem much more realistic and could create a greater impact on the audience viewing our film, as the sense of realism could heighten the tension and fearfulness of the film itself.
Just like Chloe, she is also a student at Sixth Form, studying A-Levels.
Amy looks like quite a regular teenage girl, she likes to wear fashionable clothes and has confidence in her appearance.
Amy is quite a confident girl with a sweet personality. At the end of the film she is seen as being very caring and loving of her family.
Throughout most of the film, however, she is portrayed as being the antagonist who Chloe is trying to get away from.
Amy is Chloe's cousin. Chloe believes that Amy has been killed and is mourning her death. However, in reality, Chloe is the one who is dead and Amy is mourning her. Amy goes to Chloe's bedroom, daily, to mourn her, however Chloe interprets this as Amy haunting her. Amy is also seen around sixth form, going to her classes, and looking in on classes that Chloe would usually be, to mourn her. Amy plays a significant role in our film as she helps create the illusion that Chloe isn't dead and is being haunted, this helps enhance the effect at the end of the film when the twist is revealed, that Chloe is the one who is dead.
For our short film, we will be required to have a title sequence within the film, and so, it is useful to conduct some research into other thriller-esque films to analyse what techniques other film producers have used, so that we can make a successful title sequence for our own film. During my research, I found a few different similar films, on the basis of the genre and storyline, and so I have looked at the title sequences for these films, to see how they play out, and if they are effective for the film.
The first film that is similar to ours on the basis of its storyline is The Others. The Others is about a family, composed of a mother, and two children, who are living in a remote mansion in Jersey, in the aftermath of the War. Supernatural happenings begin to occur in the house, such as doors being unlocked when they were previously locked. The daughter, Anne, says that there is a young boy, who lives in the house, Victor, with his family, and originally, from here, it is assumed by the audience that they are 'the others'. At the end, it is revealed, the mother and her children are actually spirits.
The title sequence to The Others gives a foreshadowing into what could happen within the film, as it progresses. As the title sequence plays, there is a candle lit light glowing throughout the clips, which gives it an old fashioned, creepy feel, which could be useful in order to set the mood of the film.
The non diegetic music that plays throughout the title sequence gives it an old feeling, as it is orchestra-esque music, which for some psychological films, can be effective in making the film seem creepy, which, during my research into similar films, when I looked at the reviews, for The Others, people commented on its atmosphere as being creepy, due to its era, and therefore, the music in the opening scene can contribute to this.
Here in the title sequence, it shows something that actually happens during the film. There is great emphasis by the mother on that one door must be locked, before the next door is opened, and when the supernatural elements enter the film, the family notice that doors that should be locked where actually open. When Anne says she has befriended a young boy, who lives in the house with his family, she scares her brother by saying that Victor is in the room, which is seen here in the title sequence.
Towards the end of the title sequence, there is a clip, which shows a doll in a nightgown with angel wings. This could be a subtle hint that the children in the film are in fact dead, as this is only revealed at the end of the film. However, some reviews of The Others say that the film is predictable and many knew the characters were dead before it is actually revealed, and this could be why.
For looking into ideas of what we can do for our title sequence, I have looked at the Netflix original, Stranger Things, title sequence. Stranger Things is a television show about a mother who lives in a small town, whose son goes missing. When she launches an investigation into his disappearance with local authorities, it takes a mysterious turn as they find various mysteries involving government experiments and supernatural forces.
The title sequence for Stranger Things is very basic, and involves the letters of the title slowing
coming in from different sides of the screen in a slow manner, before it forms the title of the show. The font of the title sequence is in a red colour, which could convey the mysterious vibe.
The Stranger Things title sequence is good for inspiration of what we can do for our own title sequence, as it is short. The title sequence for our own film should be quite short, as our film is only five minutes long, therefore our title sequence cannot take up too much of the film.
Another film I have looked at is The Dark Knight, which is an action/thriller film. The film is set in the DC Universe of Batman, and involves Batman keeping a lid on the level of crime in Gotham City, along with the help of Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent. However, this becomes disturbed when a young criminal, who goes by the name of Joker throws the city into chaos. The title sequence for The Dark Knight is slightly long, however, at 2 minutes of screen time.
The title sequence starts out with a figure looking at a picture in a photo frame. This could give a hint into the characters who are going to be in the film. While this shot is ongoing, there is also a manic laugh that can be slightly heard in the background.
The text for the title sequence is simple, and shows the information on screen in a grey text.
As the title sequence progresses, the background noise begins to build, with the sound of a manic laugh, and the sound of a ticking clock grows, which is then shown on screen.
There is then a manic laugh, and non diegetic heavy music begins to play at a fast pace, which conveys the mood of the film, as The Dark Knight is an action, thriller film.
There may be a few different shots in our film that may be difficult to achieve. The first shot that may be difficult to achieve is the scene in which Chloe walks to the bus stop and gets the bus to college. This will be difficult because bus services are public transport, and we do not have permission to film on a bus, unlike a professional production company. It will also be difficult because we may wish to film a shot of Chloe actually getting on the bus and then having the bus drive away. In order to film this scene, the actor playing Chloe may have to get off the bus at the next stop and meet back up with the group, in order to be able to have a scene where Chloe gets on the bus and drives away.
Other shots that may be difficult to film are any shots that are filmed outside. This is mainly because of the weather, if one scene is filmed over a few different days, due to the fact that the weather may not be the same every day that we film and this could potentially affect the continuity of the scene. Therefore, in order to maintain continuity, we need to make sure that the weather is the same, for example, if we film part of the scene when the weather is clear, and then we go to continue filming the scene and it is raining outside, this would not match for continuity.
Another tricky shot that may be difficult to film is all the shots with blood. This is because we had to be careful where we put the fake blood so it wouldn't stain the floor of the house we was filming in. This means we may have to change our storyline and have Chloe run out of the house before falling to the floor so we can have a pool of blood on the pavement. Also, we are unable to get fake blood on the knife so a solution to this could be putting the blood on some tissue and then putting the tissue on the knife, however this may not look realistic.
Another tricky shot we encountered was when we were trying to film the POV shot of Chloe walking under the arch. This was because it was hard to move forward (as though the character is walking) and tilt the camera steadily, while not doing it too quickly so it doesn't look to abrupt and out of place.
