WELCOME MODERATOR

Welcome, moderator! I am Alfie Tony Wolstenholme 1462 and I worked with Francesca Tarpey 1476.

I hope you enjoy my blog, which contains my work on my G321 Foundation  Portfolio. We chose the video brief, the titles and openings of a fictional thriller film which we named Asylum. My preliminary exercise follows immediately underneath. 

I took specific responsibility for directing and editing the film, however we both split the amount of work we did equally. I have directed 

My evaluation questions are above.

CONSTRUCTION: VISUALISING OUR OUIJA BOARD SET

• Night Lights
• Ouija Board
• Glass
• Flowing Robes
• Swaddled baby
• Victorian Newspaper

In this scene we are going to suggest that all three teenagers think they are daring, thinking that using a ouija board will make them feel good about themselves as they are 'not' scared. To their surprise using the ouija creates a evil spiritual atmosphere in which we see paranormal activity take place with the mother ghost scaring the teenagers while a new born baby is crying, sound effects are crucial in this scene, as it creates a very suspenseful atmosphere. 
Two of the major sound effects we will use is a lullaby and a humming voice of a mother. In the edit we intend to capture glimpses of a ghost mother singing a lullaby we achieve to do this by lowering to opacity and creating cross dissolves swell as ensuring in our initial framing that we have a very restricted frame. Glimpses of the mother's bearefeet, her hand on the bundled up baby, a glimpse of the ghost's hair. 

EDITING: OUR FILM OPENING CREDITS

Opening credits (title sequence) are used in many different films and it is a way of listing the main names such as actors, novelists, directors, composer, producer and many more. Below is the correct order in which the credits should appear. The distributor and production company always appear first.    Me and my group have created a production company called Echo Studios. It is important to include a logo as it allows the audience to identify the company which is important as distribution is a highly competitive business. My group have decided to use verve as a distributor for many reasons. 75% of the films that they distribute are directed by first time film makers, as I am a first time film maker I feel as though this would be helpful when it comes to distributing the film.

Studio Distributing Film: Verve
Production Company: Echo Studios
Main Artist Credit: A Wolstenholme Tarpey Film
Principal Actors: Alfie Wolstenholme, Francesca Tarpey
Film Title: Asylum
Featuring:
Casting by:
Original Score by:
Production Design:
Edited by:
Director of Photography:
Screenplay written by
Director: Alfie Wolstenholme

PLANNING: PADLET

Today me and my group decided to use a different approach and created a Padlet board. A Padlet is some sort of digital noticeboard that allows people to collaborate with each other. This is part of our character development for the film opening that we will be creating as it allows the audience to get to now the character more.

Open Source Here

RESEARCH: BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM AWARDS

BIFA AWARDS

I have been interested in the BIFA which is an award ceremony for many different independent films across Great Britain.

I particularly became interested in this due to the BFI study day I had because I was introduced to American Honey on that trip in November 2016. The BFI study day was delivered by Rob Miller and was about Independent films versus Mainstream films.

I wanted to see how well American Honey did at BIFA's. It came to my attention as my film is going to be a British independent film with a low budget as well, therefore I thought it would be a good idea to research the awards.

I also retweeted many tweets from after the awards which show which films won what awards. When I clicked on the American Honey link on the first screenshot, it took me to a page that displayed the awards that they have won, and the trailer to the independent film that I have watched. I am particularly interested in American Honey due to the similarities there are between my film and American Honey; they are both low budget, featuring almost unknown actors. It is promoted as defining our generation according to the BIFA website.

At the BFI study day on November 2nd I learned that American Honey counted as a British film because it has British directors, cast and the key organisations involved. Andrea Arnold is also famous for producing the film Fish Tank in 2009 at a cost £1.3 million (this is in comparison to Star Wars' budget of £230 million). American Honey's key themes involve young people and their lifestyle, and how they live in the moment in a carefree way, which are themes and issues not normally screened in mainstream cinemas. there were no expensive sets as it was all filmed on location which is very similar to my film as I have used no sets, but used locations that I found. Part of the social realism of the film they used handheld camerawork which gave it a certain style to the film depicting urban youth, which gives it a sense of cinema verite. 

PLANNING: INTERVIEWING OUR CHARACTERS

OPEN SOURCE HERE

I was inspired by the Film Escape website which talks about the book 'Riding the Alligator' by Pen Denham. In one of the chapters of the book he provides a checklist of questions every writer and director show ask themselves when they are developing their characters. I feel as though creating an interview/ text message scenario will allow myself to get the audience to understand the characters personalities in more detail.

In order to pursue with the development of my film production, I decided that it would be a good idea to stage our characters in a interview situation in which they would undergo several questions that would give the audience a better understanding of each character.

I also decided to link the question that were asked to the stereotypical teenager in which they are represented as dangerous, outgoing and in some cases criminal. I have decided do do this as the basis of the film opening is based on breaking the law and danger.

The situation for the interview is going to be Emma who is one of the teenagers entering the mental asylum. When she is in the mental asylum her dad starts sending her text messages making sure she is okay, and the dad starts questioning her telling her to escape. Until the daughter (Emma) does not reply and the dad calls the police.


My Character Interview

One of my central characters in my short film is a mid teenage girl who has entered a mental asylum that is reportedly one of the most haunted places in Great Britain. We decided to create Whatsapp message conversation between the father and daughter to give the audience an idea of what Emma's character is going to be like.

PLANNING: THE TOP LINE AND BIG QUESTION

I recently watched a short presentsation in which I saw Frank Ash who is a creative consultant talk about what audiences want to see. He has taught storytelling and creativity techniques to teams across the BBC. I learnt the top line and big question is a very important factor of identification.

My Big Question: Will the Teenagers manage to escape the mental asylum alive?

My Top Line: A group of teenagers stumble upon an opportunity that is life threatening and could haunt them for the rest of their lives.

Our Treatment

A group of young teenagers decide to visit an abandoned haunted mental asylum. Shortly after arriving they notice they made a massive mistake, as all the surrounding walls have been blocked by the spirits who live in the mental asylum and there is no way out. After searching for potential escape routes they encounter some paranormal activity and experience hallucinations, what they don't know is that the spirits that lie within the mental asylum are still alive, and kill. They use a Ouija board in order to communicate with the spirits for clues on how to escape the mental asylum, but if they get the clues wrong. They die. They must work as a team to escape, they must stick together otherwise they will be killed. They must find a way out, otherwise they will be killed by the paranormal activity that haunts the mental asylum.