PLANNING: AARON TAKEN TO CUSTODY SCENE

On Tuesday of this week, my group and I filmed a scene of Aaron being taken into custody by Detective Gibbs. we filmed this next to the school lift in the mansion and we felt it suited this type of scene because there was a narrow pathway and the camera was able to be in a position where it could really capture the emotion of the characters in a small space and the action takes up all of the camera frame. Although the shot is a few seconds long, this part of the trailer is leading up to more of the intriguing aspects of the film as Aaron in the next scene is pinned down into telling the truth and all suspicions flail onto him.

Our group also consider this shot to be a turning point in the film because questions begin to rise and suspicions begin to rise as all the fingers are pointing at Aaron as the killer. In the few seconds we see, this raises potential ideas without spoiling the film. This technique is used to make the audience wonder and want to learn about what is going to happen next by watching the film.

The location of the film is Claremont Fan Court School in Esher. The interior where we filmed looked very much like prison because the radiator and the lift shutter looks very much like prison bars and this looked very convincing. We also felt that this area was very eerie and vacant as there was no disturbances during filming and just by the visuals of this area, we felt it really set the tone for a uneasy atmosphere. Whilst filming this scene, we wanted the atmosphere to be consistently uneasy and full of suspense full of mise-en-scene and synergy. We also wanted to convey a haunting and empty fell with the characters emotions feeding off that vibe.

AUDIENCE ADMISSIONS

Mark Kermode, writing in the Guardian (December 2015), offers a review of film in 2015. Mark Kermode is a British film critic, musician, presenter and writer, whose article draws conclusions about what types of film were successful in the past year and what trends he notices. This interested me because I believe our own production features certain aspects of successful filmmaking that Kermode references.

First, we are a small independent production. Kermode notes that indie films have ways of securing distribution nowadays through alternative means. Our film is based on a small scale, independent production and it is therefore unlikely to have a standard theatrical release. However, notes Kermode, many platforms are used to compensate for no traditional cinema release. For example, Netflix released Beasts Of The Nation and Netflix was the provisional tool for its release. Furthermore, smaller productions, such as ours, use social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. 

The film website is important in attracting audiences. They give the audience exclusive content and more information about the film itself. In terms of viewing the short film and trailers, Youtube and Vimeo are two of many other platforms that are perfect for audience viewership as Youtube and Vimeo are used daily with a sixth of the population using these platforms. For example, Magnolia and IFC release films on most platforms simultaneously, but they are limited on a number of theatres they can book their films and the technical ability is lacking to release films simultaneously. 

This is the path my group and I are going to take, releasing the film on various platforms as it gives room for flexibility for the audience to view our product at home, the cinema or any other place of comfort. In the Guardian article, Kermode emphasises that this is going to be a re-occurring theme in the future and this creates synergy, offering access to online platforms and social media networks, giving the audience the best experience possible for viewing our product.

Secondly, our film features women's issues, with its narrative of trafficking and its tale of vulnerable females and an assertive female business woman. Mark Kermode talks about the 'role of women in film' and it links into our film featuring females in strong leads as the article is pleading for equity for women in films. For example, Suffragette was a film in which the majority of the cast was females and the film is about women's right and the historical content behind this. This is a prime example of Kermode's points, that 2015 was a big year for women in film roles and are becoming more dominant. Another example of female domination on the big screen is Girlhood written and directed by Celine Sciamma and is about a celebration of female friendship which was a top-grossing film of 2015. This leaves us with the fact that we have predominant female roles in the casting and crew. 

The films talked about are Inside Out, Spectre, Mad Max: Fury Road. These films are prime examples of having very strong female protagonist leads and these films also cover women's issues, such as the Bechdel Test. The Bechdel test is an example used in most film productions. Our film does not pass this test because we do not have two women talking to each other at all. Although this is the case, we do instead have a majority of strong, independent female cast and crew. Our film trailer has a strong and compelling female characters who play big roles.

Our film production A Question Of Identity is a smooth-running, rapid paced and enticing film with a lot of suspense and crisis. The genre is an action/thriller, which audiences of 18 years of age and above both female and male we believe will be most interested in this product and is our target audience . Furthermore, we feel that it can compete with the current and continuing audience fascination of high productions because we have critically assessed these films' criteria and we think that our film has fast paced action, strong storylines and dominant female characters.During the process of making the film, I learnt that many films base their stories on current affairs, which we believe we have achieved throughout our storyline.

Mark Kermode has stated in the Guardian article that the appearances of women have been steady but progressive throughout the course of 2015. For instance, Suffragette was a very successful and high grossing film and this covered women's historical struggles throughout the 20th century. This had cast and crew full of strong women. It included actresses such as Meryl Streep and Helena Bonham Carter. This film also had a very strong female production team, emphasising the sheer dominance of women in the film industry and imprinting their mark. A Question Of Identity takes a similar structure and it shall be a product that we feel will attract both genders. The female qualities speak for themselves in the film, which we feel will show the significance of women's qualities. 

Kermode stated in the Guardian article that for blockbusters and superhero films, independent cinemas were a catalyst to it's success because the Kodak 35mm film stock is able to allow independent film makers to upload their films onto current online technologies such as Youtube, which is a heavily popular website. Tom Antos is a perfect example for this. He makes indie films on his Youtube account. He is a film director and cinematographer with twelve years of experience in animation and has 193,963 subscribers and on top of that, a total of 49,615,900 views on his Youtube account alone.  

•   Paragraph 3: target audience and different platforms besides cinema. Comparing Facebook, Twitter and marketing with the main large franchises. Intending on putting our film on different platforms such as Vimeo and Youtube, Synergy. 

Paragraph 4: Talk about the Bechdel test. Strong female production cast and talk about the year of female domination.  

CONSTRUCTION: THE MOVIE WEBSITE PROCESS

I am in charge of the movie's website and I have the responsibility of making the website as efficient and intriguing as possible for our audience. I am currently still making the website, however, as promised I have made steady process as I am focusing on the quality of the visuals and the language that I am using. Below is a rough idea of what the homepage for the website shall look like:

This is the homepage in edit mode at this time. I needed some meat on the bone for the homepage so I decided to show the poster of the film, but It is not finished yet. I wanted to put what I have done so far of the movie poster to have a template in place. I looked at TAKEN, the website for this movie and the homepage shows the poster for the film so I thought that I would take this concept for my website. 

I have also worked on the character bio's on my website. It gives a clear understanding of each of the character's backgrounds and what role they play in the trailer: 

There is definitely room for improvement as I think the bio's are short but they are useful. To act upon this. I am going to add more writing for the bio's and I am going to improve on the overall layout as it looks like it was thrown into the page with no care. 

Overall, I am happy with the progress so far and it was a learning curve for me as this task was a little out of my comfort zone. In the next few days I shall implement more content as I have learnt while making the movie poster that content is key. 

CONSTRUCTION: CHARACTER HOT SEAT QUESTIONNAIRE: SYDNEY

This was our third and final choice for the hot seat questionnaire. I thought this would be the most intriguing yet most important character hot seat because the story mainly revolves around her. But Sydney only makes a small cameo appearance in the film trailer. Also, I think that this would compensate for her absence in the trailer, as we get to ask her personal questions and get more information out of her own mouth without giving too much away.

Below are the questions that we brought up:

1. Do you have any fears?
2. Do you have any secrets?
3. What would you say your skills are?
4. Do you have any hobbies?
5. Did your parents' death affect you?
6. Who do you hang around with? good or bad influences?

CONSTRUCTION: HOT SEAT QUESTIONNAIRE: FEMALE MIGRANT

Alongside my own character. My group and I hot seated two other characters that were key characters within the storyline. Kate grabbed some ideas from the website FilmEscape and made up questions that would be best suited for her character. The questions were as follows:

1. What objective do you have?
2. How much does a passport mean to you?
3. What kind of education do you have?
4. What is your ethnic background?

Moreover, We filmed the interview on Sophie's phone. Here is the hot seat for the female migrant:

PLANNING: CHARACTER HOT SEAT QUESTIONNAIRE: AARON

Last week, I constructed a hot seat questionnaire for my own character in the film. After observing our film trailer, we needed to learn and explore our characters and give a clear insight for our characters. I decided to do the questionnaire based on my character because he is the main character and the film revolves around him and he carries the narrative through the film.

Below is the typed version of my written questionnaire. The following questions were asked in the interview:

1. How are you coping with the death of your sister?
2. Have you ever been suspicious of the fact that she was hiding things from you?
3. Did you have a strong bond?

I wrote answers to these questions and it reads as follows:

1. Answer: It has been an absolute nightmare. A nightmare I cannot wake up from. I have not been able to sleep at night as my constant urge to find the murderer who did it has been overwhelming. I will find out what happened as long as I have breath in my body because she is my blood and I care too much to let this slide. 
2. Answer: Of course. Over the past few months everything was a dead secret and it was total silence about where she was going. I knew something was up. I've known her my whole life but I stupidly let her go off. I should have put my foot down and acted. 
3. Answer: Yes, we were like two peas in a pod. Sure, we had our arguments but don't we all?. But I have noticed over the course of 3 months or so, our relationship has been a downward spiral. 

I based this idea on Pen Densham, who is a successful award-winning screenwriter and producer. His website contains all his accolades and shows the purposes of his work. For example, In his successful work, Moll Flanders His ideas originated from the loss of his mother. By his loss he was able to channel his inner focus and produce a really successful script and work. 

I also researched Denshams' book Riding The Alligator He talks about how he turned his dreams into his movie ideas. he explained further that Hollywood is known to be The Dream Factory. He also explains that when we watch films, we go into a trance-state and Observing the characters' s strategies and that we convert it from our Dream-receptors to our knowledge.

Below shows the hot seat for my character Aaron. 

RESEARCH: INCEPTION MOVIE POSTER ANALYSIS

RESEARCH: THE DARK KNIGHT MOVIE POSTER

CONSTRUCTION: MOVIE WEBSITE

I am currently working on a movie website and I am making it on Wix.com. A very reliable website which has vast tools and guidelines to help me construct a web page for the audience to look at and get exclusive information to grasp the concept of the film and what it is all about, followed by photos from behind the scenes.

Above shows the gallery section of the website. This is in the making and I will be adding more photos along the way. But I have been focusing of the main attraction which is the information of the film. This has been a learning curve for me as it has helped me understand why film productions make these websites and how significant they are for the product. I also learned that this helps keep the audience interested and will give them the right information that does not give away the story of the film.

PLANNING: DURING THE PROCESS OF MAKING THE MOVIE POSTER

Over the holidays I started planning the movie poster. Below will show you the poster I have made so far:

I wanted the poster to be basic yet striking. I added rhetorical questions in the poster to keep the audience interested and intrigued about the film. The progress I have made is steady but I am on course to finishing. So far I have put in rhetorical questions, the cast of the film and the main title. I still think there is work needed for the text as everything is the same font size. After I sort this issue out, I am going to add the production company along with the cast and crew information underneath the main title.

I have been using photoshop as a guideline and provisional tool to help me create a well made poster. It has a vast sum of tools that I can use to help enhance the quality of the poster. I found InDesign too difficult to use and was too advanced for my computer literacy.