Foundation - Final Edit

Foundation Rough Edit

Rough Foundation Portfolio

Shattered

Planning for Foundation Portfolio

Foundation Portfolio Planning 

Our basic plan went through 2 renditions:

Rendition 1:

BASIC PLAN

PTSD:

Characters:

Christian - Addison

- excels at everything

-has PTSD from early childhood experiences

- Has a voice in his head

Gets an A* in his test and looks up to see his teacher tormenting him, however, he is not really but is actually praising him for his good work. he turned to his right and left and where his peers are admiring him, he sees in place them ridiculing him, and making fun of him.

Leaves class and in hallway voices start going on in his head he fights with them and he turns to his left where he sees his reflection (evil) talking down to him

Enters locker room a peer is making fun of him, talks about something sensitive he lashes out and punches him. 

looks up and everyone is shocked 

Cut to him sitting on the edge of his bed, hears in background parents arguing about him

-talking about his PTSD what they did to deserve this etc, cut to parents actually talking about how precious he is and how to help him. 

Walks to his bathroom washes face looks up reflection returns and start bickering, sink waster turns in to blood and the reflection pulls out a gun Christian screams and punches mirror breaking it

Zoom into him hand covered in blood clenching into a fist.

Location:

School

Max's house

Rendition 2:

BASIC PLAN ver.2

PTSD:

Characters:

Christian (Theo) - Actor changed due to personal reasons, came back to act as an extra

- excels at everything

-has PTSD from early childhood experiences

- Has a voice in his head

Gets his report card with all A's and looks up to see his teacher tormenting him, however, he is not really but is actually praising him for his good work. he turned to his right and left and where his peers are admiring him, he sees in place them ridiculing him, and making fun of him.

Leaves class and in hallway voices start going on in his head he fights with them and he turns to his left where he sees his reflection (evil) talking down to him. reflection explains everything of his past etc (backstory)

Enters locker room a peer is making fun of him, talks about something sensitive he lashes out and punches him. 

looks up and everyone is shocked 

Cut to him running to the bathroom. fumbles pills and when he's about to take one notices in the mirror his reflection. torment him so much hears in the hallway teacher explaining to someone about his predicament reflection uses that so extreme, he punches mirror.

In the fragmented mirror, his reflection smiles  

Location:

School

Teacher and Peers= people staying back on Wednesday

Concept:
Title: PTSD (changed later to shattered)

• this name was chosen due to us not wanting to over complicate things and use a name that clearly states whats wrong with the character and thus gives the audience straight away a basic understanding of what wrong with Christian. This name is called a disorder increases the impact and meaning of not just the name but for the title itself.
• We changed the name of our title afterwards as we felt that although Christian was showcasing symptoms and attributes of person suffering from PTSD, he was not clearly stated to have been suffering from it.This plus the realisation that we did not truly understand the full spectrum of PTSD, we decided to play it safe and avoid calling the film PTSD and rather Shattered to reflect the theme of reflections, as ultimately us calling our film PTSD felt rude and wrong as we knew we would not be representing the severity of the illness enough justice.

Target Audience: Teens 16 -21

• Our target range for this film much similar to that of our other 2 attempts at a short film (PT1 &PT2), with that consisting of a more mature audience/demographic of ages 16 and up. This rational is due to the fact that our film consists of themes of darker and significantly more mature themes that is simply not to be expected in the films targeted towards a demographic of 15 and under. Our films backbone is that if the main character suffering form a mental illness and this in itself is a theme that wouldn't be understood or appreciated by a younger audience. For mature audiences however, they would understand the full impact of this theme and thus would be able to relate it to the actions of Christian. Themes like violence although with the absence of common items like guns, gets an added emphasis as a result of the knowledge that the violence was a result of Christians unstable perceptions and built up anger. We see his mental deterioration reach its peek when he begins to argue with his reflection that he perceives has become sentient for the purpose of tormenting and torturing him. The dark lighting we use in this short film gets contrasted to the natural light that we see a snippet of when we witness the establishing shot in the beginning sells Christians inner conflict and demons that would only be truly noticed by a mature audience. Ultimately, we leave the film with a cliffhanger, as Christian is seen running out of the bathroom whilst he reflection is left motionless, thus raising the question of what happens now?, enticing the audience to want to find out the conclusion of the story.

Character(s):

• Christian: Christian was our only main character in our short film. He needed to be complex and had to have something that could compensate for the lack of usual thriller conventions like guns, violence etc. We gave him a mental disorder that was at first PTSD but we decided to veer off from that path due to us not having actual real-life encounters our experiences with such a heavy issue as that. In the end, his illness is not covered but we feel like it didn't have to as the audience would only be focusing on his actions and less of what was causing them.
• Christian's Reflection: This is the embodiment of Christians mental instability. It mocks and insults him and causes Christian to believe he has been defeated and that his illness has won over him. Or at least that's what the audience is supposed to fell when they are left at a cliffhanger, Christian having ran off whilst his reflection remains deadly still wearing his cynical smile.

The thriller conventions I will include in my film are:

• Mirrors/reflections: to show inner conflict.
• Quick cuts: to imitate racing thoughts 
• A character that is mentally unstable.
• Darkness/shadows: represent an inner darkness
• Blood: to represent pain.
• Distorted voices 
• Loneliness/Isolation

Plot:

• Christian is in class and his teacher is giving the there report cards. His teacher is telling him how well he did and congratulating on all of his A's, but he hears other voices telling him what a failure he is. As he walks down the corridor he looks at himself in the window and his reflection begins to move on its own and talk to him, discouraging him. As he enters the locker room one of the other boys begins to congratulate him, but he imagines the boy tormenting him. He punches the boy and when he comes out of his hallucination he sees everyone staring him and realises what he had just done. He walks away confused and angry, with himself, into the bathroom. He walks up to the sink and begins to take his pills, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), wash his face. He looks at himself in the mirror and his reflection once again takes its own form and once again begins talking to him in a demoralising way. Christian gets angry at his reflection and throws his pills container at the mirror. The mirror cracks he stares at his reflection then he runs out of the room. His reflection is still there and we see a disjointed psychotic smile.

Themes:

School: highlights his fragmentation and his slow but sure progress of losing his mental stability, shows its progress. An interesting location to be used to showcase a characters mental battles and deterioration. This is usually shown at home in a more private setting but we felt that if we had decided to use a public setting where most of the surrounding extras were people of his age, this would increase the impact of his breakdown and thus cast a stronger emotional feel over the audience and the impact would also be increased dramatically as well.

Day: Shows the contrasts and fights the convention that bad things happen at night. His slow deterioration is happening despite the time. In daytimes, we do not usually expect to see dark themes like a reflection sprouting its own personality or a mental breakdown, however, we felt like choosing a day setting would highlight that such problems do not wait for a certain time but actually progress throughout the whole day, respective to day or night. This also highlights the power the reflection and the voices have over Christian as he is unable to fight it off even in the presence of light which may cause the audience to think how he fares of at night or even in sleep, or is he even able to go to sleep.

Prop List:

Fake Blood:

This is used to replace the water in a sink when Christian hallucinates, this adds an additional layer to the complexity of his disorder and creates a more sinister view of his deteriorating mind. We found out that since it was easy to do online, we chose to do this to save time and money. 

Prop Report Card:

 This was done in order to add an additional layer to the realism of our portrayal of the character being a student and is also an efficient way to highlight his intelligence. The report card is important as we as the audience get to see that he is a straight a student, and thus adds a layer of complexity to his character, almost being the perfect student but with one outstanding flaw.

Pill bottle label:

This adds once again to the realism of our film up to the point where I photo-shopped the name of the actual medication a person suffering from PTSD takes. The pill bottle also adds onto tension on the mirror scene when we see him attempt to take it to calm down but rejects it in anger, lashing the bottle out at his reflection.

Pill Bottle:

With fake medication in the form of candy, we are going to use this mainly for realism but also for storytelling practicality. It highlights his illness and that it needs medication. It heightens tension when he decides not to take the pills but instead smashing it into the mirror with his reflection, ultimately showcasing the reflection having had won. the pill bottle also implies the situation of his illness, being so dire that he requires to constantly take pills to suppress his illness and deteriorating mental state.

Mirror:

The use of a mirror, holds many possible themes and symbolism. Firstly, the reflection it creates becomes conscious and this is what really starts to torment Christian. The impact the reflection has is symbolised when he breaks the mirror at the end. The fragmentation of the mirror probably holds the most symbolism for the prop as it shows us as the audience how fragmented his mind and personality is, and that his reflection still being present in the mirror and as he smiles, its confirmed to the audience that he has taken over.

Costumes/Attire:

Originally, we decided that the actors were going to wear casual wear instead of a school uniform. However not only saving time but choosing instead to have the actors wear their school uniforms highlights the idea that this situation is a outlier in a rather ordinary setting. The uniform causes the audience to truly appreciate the severity of whats happening to Christian as the school uniform, similar to that of his peers shows how ordinary and normal he look at surface level but underneath that, lies his dark secret.

Script (Vernnon):

I did the script and was able to nail it my first try with a slight edit in order to cut it and save time.

Film Inspirations:

BLACK SWAN:

In Black Swan, we see a character that is slowly losing their mental state due to the pressure of her needing to be the best in order to gain two parts, the "White Swan" and the 'Black Swan". We see her slow mental deterioration when her reflection in the mirror starts to move on its own, even causing the light to go out in one of the scenes, sacring our main character. I used this as inspiration for the morro scene that we are going to use to emphasise our characters mental deterioration.

SPIDERMAN 1

In this film, the protagonist Osborn, suffers from the torment of his reflection taking up the alter ego of the Green Goblin. He is seen in this scene to be arguing with his reflection, and we intend to implement it in our bathroom scene where our main character Christian, fights with his reflection that is tormenting him slowly, insulting him.

THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER.

In this film, the main character Charlie suffers from PTSD. We see it come up at random times in this film but it is fully expressed near the end where his friends leave him. I feel like this representation of PTSD is the most realistic presentation of the disorder on film that I have seen. We tend to use this example and try to portray our character in the way Charlie acts.

Preliminary Task 2

Why?

Max's Edit

Vernnon's Edit

Concept

Why?

The target audience for this film is a mature audience of around 15+

The thriller genre conventions that I will include in my film are:

• Darkness/Shadows: In one shot Dylan is standing in a dark room. The darkness conveys a very secretive feel, as no one knows that he is alive so he his hiding away in the shadows. He also wears a hood when he walks past Olivia this also casts a shadow over his face, adding to his new secretive nature.
• Gun: In this film, Olivia murders Dylan with a gun. The gun is used to create fear. It also makes the audience pay more attention as they want to find out what will happen. 
• Blood: Blood is a sign/symbol of death. When Olivia finds the note written in blood it creates confusion as we question if Dylan is dead and what will happen to her.

Institutional/Genre Conventions: 
*Characters: Olivia(Isabelle)- Wife of Dylan, killed him now has to face consequences for him coming back
             Dylan(James)- Husband of Olivia, was not killed by Olivia despite her attempt, he's come back to ruin Olivia's life and to find out why she did what she did
             Mysterious figure- con-conspirator to Dylans attempted murder, gets killed by Dylan and has his phone used to establish meeting time with Olivia

PLOT

Olivia has killed her husband Dylan. She goes to sleep. When she wakes up a picture of her and Dylan is missing, but she doesn't notice. As she is leaving she notices that the corner of a rug has been folded over but she ignores it and leaves the house.

When she gets home there is a note written in blood that says "WHY LIV". She runs inside sees the rug goes into her room and notices the picture missing. She freaks out. She calls an unknown man. She asks to meet him they agree to meet at the usual. It is secretly Dylan who she is talking to.

Olivia is waiting at the spot when a man walks past. They exchange eye contact and she realises that is Dylan. She chases Dylan. He runs down an ally but when she gets there he is gone. There is an envelope with the picture (Olivia is crossed out), Dylan's wedding ring, and the gun that Olivia used to kill him.

*Setting/Time:
- Olivia and Dylan's house(Maryann's house)- Changed later to Max's house
- Park(flashback)
-Street(chase sequence)

*Props/Costumes: 
 -rings
 -couple photo and frame
 -fake blood (paper) 
 -paper bag/envelope
 -gun decorated
 -hoodie
 -fake scar

*Key Genre Elements: 
-Chase sequence
-Driven and a recurring reason for going a bit                                                                             psychologically unstable 
- The person you thought was dead is now coming back to                                                         haunt you with a vendetta (ring, photo and gun inside an                                                         envelope) 
- Plot Twists
- Flashbacks'
- Lighting(twist convention)

*Filming/Editing Choices: 
- Quick cuts/ long drawn out scenes- quick cuts create tension heightens heartbeat, long drawn out scenes causes heightened inquisitive and thus we want to know more but the movie purposely makes us wait for it and thus when it happens it would catch people off-guard
-Bright light/dim light- bright light creates the effect of making it relatable if it's in the day it will be bright which emphasises the relatability and realism. Dim light creates the effect of tension as we see very little of what goes on which puts an emphasis on the scary side of a thriller
-Sound: I will most likely use a mixture of high pitch and low bass music in order to get the right mix of the 2 extremes which I think is highly important for the action and psychological thriller sub-genre

PRACTICALITIES OF CONTENT:

-This film is quite realistic. We use real people in a scenario that could happen. We also use realistic looking fake blood.

-The only health and safety issues are that someone could trip over in the chase scene.

-We will be filming at my house and the areas around my house. We have asked for permission from my parents to use the house.                                                                        --We are filming after school as the actors will be in class.

Priliminary Task 1

The Interrogation

Max's Edit

Vernnon's Edit

Planning

Initial Plan:

The initial plan was created by me and max after a quick brainstorm. We knew that we had to use the theme of a thriller and thus chose an interrogation where one character is clearly dominating the other. We made many changes to the basic plot and to characters later on, as we made progress through cutting scenes for time or the changing of the cast due to time differences
 1)    Miss Donavan (Izzy) gets dragged by 2 henchmen (Tina&Rhys) cut to scene POV duffel bag to the opening of the door. 

 2)    Henchmen push Miss Donavan on too chair -> dialogue

è Mr pink comes from shadows gun in hand smacks Miss Donavan in the head, cut to a scene of falling to landing

è Slowly climbs back up to the chair

3)   Mr pink sits down clicks finger pulls out a pink handkerchief wipes gun, puts on the table, the bag comes off match on action. Cut to scene of bright camera shot shaky POV of Donovan, pinks body slightly visible but the head is completely white. Cut to scene of over the shoulder shot of Donavan face tears, bruises cuts, act blinded & confused dazed due to not seeing light in a while

4)   Dialogue(pink), blue comes up serves water cleans table dialogue(Donavan) pink smacks table water spills over blue shocked retreats back into shadow. Dialogue (pink) Donavan spits in retaliation, pink clicks fingers henchmen come out of shadows pull Donavan back into shadow pink straighten jacket swipes shoulder push the chair in, walks off into shadow camera follows.                                                                                                                                        

Talent:

The picking and establishing with the talent was my job and at first, we had five characters: 

• Mrs Donavan (Isabelle Managh)
• Mr Pink (Tristan Holland)
• Blue (Joshua Leaman)
• Henchmen 1 ( Rhys Holland)
• Henchwoman 1 ( Christina Low)

Throughout the process, we had to cut all the actors and the characters of the henchwoman and blue. and now we were left with just three characters.

• Mrs Donavan (not established will edit when done so)
• Mr Pink (Teacher Marcus)
• Henchman (not established will edit when done so)

Shot List

For the shot list, we identified the time needed for each shot which we actually helped establish together however he solely identified the different shots we would use for each scene and he also listed the different props required for each scene, which gave us a quick and easier reference for each scene.

Script

 At first, we had a made a script based on our rough plan.

For the first draft of the script click here.

This first draft was changed a lot as we progressed on with the planning of our storyboard, realising that one of the characters (Blue) despite his minor role had an individual shot that was just unnecessary and thus we decided to cut him and I made the changes to the script respectively.

For the second draft of the script click here.

With this second draft, we used it to shoot 2 scenes however we realised that many of our cast had clashing schedules and thus we had to cut another character (2nd henchmen) who did not really have a big role in this film and we also had to change the cast around. We also had to change it from henchwomen to henchmen.

For the final draft of the script click here.

For our final draft, we finalised it as our finished script and we used it for the filming of our short film. The changes mad really helped our film, as we were able to have more time to film more important scenes and fewer characters, meant fewer actors we had to worry about and also helped decrease filming time.

Overall, what the main characters Mr Pink and Mrs Donavann say, did not change throughout the drafts and finalisations as I felt the dialogue itself, despite having only 2 sentences being exchanged, they really conveyed the theme and tone we were going after. May it be the change from addressing Mrs Donavan to just Donavan, shows the anger coming from Mr Pink and the potential familiarity between the two characters.

Storyboard 

I was in charge of drawing up the storyboard although Vernnon also had a say in what we put in it. We had to change it by taking some of the shots out as it was taking us to much time.

 

Location:

Max was in charge of scouting and the decision for a filming location and at first, we steeled for the double classroom however after our major overhaul in changes, he decided that the double classroom was next to classes and a common walkway and thus, would naturally be very loud and noisy. It was also too big and there were too many unnecessary signs and sources of light and thus we decided to change and use the salvation room which was significantly smaller but more practical and quiet

Props

-Gun: the gun is a key convention in a thriller film. It is used in our short film only by the head of the bad guys, Mr Pink, this gives him more control and power over Miss Donovan and the Bodyguard. 

-Bag: the bag is used in this film to cover Miss Donovans face. It disorientates her so that she does not know what way they are going or where she is when it is taken off. 

-Cups: the cups sit evenly spaced in the centre of the table thus showing Mr Pinks OCD side. It is also used to show the force at which he hits the table as some of the water spills over the side, this is emphasised when Mr pink wipes up the spilt water.

-Chairs: we have to chairs one on either side of the table. We gave Mr Pink a big pillowed office    chair this represents him as being the big boss. We gave Miss Donovan a more simple chair to represent her treatment as the person being interrogated.

Costumes 

-Miss Donovan: she wears a wight t-shirt with a reporter style outfit. The white T-shirt represents her being on the good side as white is often assumed as being good. The reporter represents how she has useful information as she is a spy.

-Mr Pink: he wears black suit clothes and a black blazer with a pink handkerchief in the blazer pocket. he is wearing black to represent that he is from the bad side. The pink handkerchief   represents who he is (Mr Pink). 

-Bodyguard: he wears plain black clothes but has a yellow handkerchief. The black represents that he is from the bad side and the yellow represents who he is.

Logo Design & End Credits Design

Logo and Rational:

For the logo, I decided to keep it simple but packed with symbols that represent us as a group.

For the final product, I took the sketched renditions and I trace them in Photoshop, add the stylised underline and add the film reel symbol. Once I was happy with my trace, I imported it over to After Effects, adding a shattered effect to it.

The signatures represent me and Max and also adds a layer of professionalism to our group. Our names first letters also being used in the name of our company, MV Films, this creates a personal touch to it, rather then if I had chosen to use an impersonal word to represent our group. The symbol of the film reel signifies that we are a film company and adds a descriptive element to our logo. The shattered effect symbolises the title and theme of our film and I took inspiration from Warner Bros. who allowed developers to take the Warner Bros. logo and adapt it to the themes of their film. Taking this in mind, I not only added the shattered effect but I also changed the colour of the mirror background to a tinted red version, symbolising blood and thus reminding us of the thriller theme the clip is based on.

First Rendition:

Originally, I decided to go with a theme of flowers, for they represented death and life. The separation would have highlighted one of the major themes in a thriller, with that being Deaf and life, the separation shows that our company would and have explored both spectrums, implementing them in our films.

2nd rendition:

In my second edit, I decided that I would go for a more recognisable symbol rather than roses. The depiction of a girl next to a skull makes a clearer and bolder statement about the themes of life and death. The addition of 2018 at the bottom was to add a feeling of professionalism as it highlighted the date our group/company was founded.

3rd rendition:

In my third rendition, I decided to completely remove the symbol of life and death and was going to put up once again, a ladies face that was split in half but this time, one half would have been behind a shattered mirror, going with one of our major themes in the film being shattered mirrors and reflections. However, due to time constraints, I returned to photoshop and decided to use this as a template and work and create the logo of there, using after effects later to cause the logo to shatter like a mirror.

Credits Sequence:
For the credits sequence, I decided to use this template as I felt that it fitted incredibly well with our film and its themes.

It had the themes of a shattered mirror and when I followed the tutorial, I only had to make a few changes, that being a slight change to text placement and the photos used in the background of the film.

Final Edit:

I used these images as I thought that they would convey or summarise most of the movie up. I decided to use the bathroom floor as it would symbolise the location of the final mirror scene. For the pill bottle, I emptied it as then it would symbolise the potential of him having discarded the contents and having no use for it anymore, thus symbolising once again the possibility that he has gone to far to recover. The report is scrunched up as I thought that it would symbolise a fitting end to his "Smart and Perfect" image that the report card represents. Putting these images behind shattered mirror in the end credit, summarises the film completely and thus leaves the audience with a fitting image.