Preliminary task 2 planning

Pointe

Brainstorm

Mood Boards

(Tiana)

Brown Minimalist Aesthetic Moodboard Inspiration Instagram Story by tiana wijohn

Concept

Title: Pointe

Target Audience: Matured audience who are into psychological thrillers

(Tiana)Genre conventions:

• Character-In the psychological genre through our characters the suspense is built up within the classic heroin character, who will be a dancer played by a girl, and the scary Villain, who will most likely be played by a girl, however she wont look as kind and delicate when compared with the girl. Together both characters can build tension to the audience through the likely outcome we can expect.
• Setting/time-The filming of our thriller will be shot during the night, as that way we can allow tension to be built through the heroin to be alone at night, foreshadowing the likely hood that something bad will happen. We will play with the minds of the audience and create suspense through the darkness. The setting will most likely be in a dance studio, to establish the girl is a dancer, though we may play around with using someone's home, as it can contrast to the safeness a home usually feels to someone.
• Plot-The plot involves a girl dancing and is interrupted by the sense of someone's presence though after turning around twice she soon notices nothing is there watching her, but when she turns around for the last time the stalker is right in front of her with a knife.
• Props/Costumes- Our costumes are all connected to the color black, as going with are dark setting it plays with the psychological genre and gets in the minds of the audience. Audience can feel uneasy by the color black as it's dull and can hide ones identity. The props are used to establish our scenes further, like a ballet barre and knife as the barre can be associated to the dancing taking place and the knife can be known as a murder weapon.
• Filming/Editing choices-We will be using lot's of establishing shots of the environment to allow the audience to be given a lot of information of the surroundings. This can build the tension of the audience as they most likely know the outcome and are squirming in their seats to help the heroin from getting hurt. Through the editing I will approach this having many shots taken from filming so that I can make quick edit cuts switching between different film clips.
• Sound-The sound will incorporate suspenseful music which will play with the audiences emotions, however I'm going to incorporate, ballet music as it fits in with what the dancer is doing. 

Storyboard 

(Mackenzie)

Plot Synopsis 

(Deborah)

We know that our film will be between 1:30-2 minutes. The shots for our film will be a variety of extreme close ups to low angled shots to over shoulder shots, etc. Using these shots, we intend to show a lot of the ballerina's emotions she starts to feel when the stalker begins to show. Close ups and extreme close ups will help introduce the themes of mystery, crime, mental illness, substance abuse and suspense. We intend to capture all of the ballerina's emotions between the time she is practicing her dance and the time she starts to notice that someone is stalking her. For example, using a extreme close up of her facial expression when she gets that feeling of someone creeping up behind her sends emotions of curiosity, eagerness and frightened to the audience watching. From this, we can create that thrilling feeling we intend to aim for the people who are watching our film. Not only will the camera be doing all the work for creating that feeling for the audience, but the lighting and sounds behind the filming will help make a huge influence in that mysterious suspense we are aiming for. Sounds such as, diegetic and non-diegetic will make a big difference in our film with introducing the themes of our psychological thriller. The natural dark shadows in the dance studio when the light isn't on, adds more effect to the stalker stalking our ballerina. With that natural shadow/light, we'll also have the lighting equipment used in some scenes when we're really trying to show our ballerina's face, and her emotions of when the stalker is introduced into the film and when she is consistently bothered by the stalker throughout the whole film.

Sound (Tiana)

The sound will be mostly non-diegetic as I will use ballerina music, however I will use a boom to capture sounds of movements, breathing, talking etc.

Script

(Deborah) 

- Dialogue occurs in scenes where Sasha hears something and begins to sense that someone is getting closer behind her back every time she turns around.

Sasha (ballerina): 

[Stops and looks confused and worried] 

"Who's there??"

                 ~Silence. No one is answering back~

[Starts to look scared, but ignores it]

~Continues to dance~

[Turns around when she starts to sense that someone is creeping up behind her]

[Begins to walk towards her bag to grab her water bottle]

"AHHHH!" *Drops water bottle*

[Sees her a a shadow of someone in the corner through the mirror]

Treatment

(Deborah)

A treatment for: POINTE

Prepared by DTM Productions

7/04/2022

...

It will be proposed that the film will be of 1:30-2 minutes duration, and it will be filmed at the following locations:

Outside Carpark-Here we we will establish that the girl is alone at night time, through different establishing shots. (Maybe even show last car leaving?)

The Hallways- More establishing shots, to build suspense/create tension of the dark building and the sense she's alone.

The Dance Studio- This will be where the main action takes place. The dance studio helps recognize she is a dancer as well as the big empty room creates suspense.

The outside window- This is where the stalker will be looking through, we use this area as it's the window looking into the dance studio.

This film will include the following conventions:

• Suspense

For our film we want to create that suspenseful "edge-of-seat" type of feeling for the audience when watching Pointe. We intend the audience to not be scared or fearful when watching, but to be full of eagerness and curiosity for when they feel that suspense entering our film.

• Fear

In our film, our ballerina will show some form of fear through her actions or emotions or voice. This adds to that suspense, psychological feeling we aim in our film.

• Tension

Tension will mostly occur in the parts of when our stalker gets closer and closer to our ballerina, stalking her, copying her every dance move without her knowing.

• Domestics setting

We hope to have this domestic setting when the stalker gets closer to our ballerina and she eventually turns around to see her stalker standing right there. This will bring more to that tension feeling our film is aiming for, especially in the scenes of when the stalker and the ballerina meet eyes.

Treatment 

(Mackenzie)

The storyline that takes place in this opening sequence, is based off of a dancer who is left "alone", well at least, that's the given message we try to get across to our audience as our establishing shot includes the last car leaving, with an empty car park remaining. We then get some more shots of the dark building that is all quiet, until e show a shot establishing there is one room with light, and that is the dance studio. We then show our dancer practicing her routine alone with classical music in the background, until we see a dark figure behind her on the other side of the glass windows watching her. Our dancer then feels the presence  of the stalker and turns around to see nothing, so only our audience is informed, building tension in our psychological thriller as our dancer is unaware of the stalker as she continues t dance, but because our audience has seen informed, it makes it more full of suspense. We get a theme of innocence as the dancer seems to be clueless, or at least, after she saw nothing. As she continues to turn around multiple times, once to a tap on the glass, she continues dancing, which links to the psychological aspect. However, the third time she turns around, the figure is right behind her.

Film Influences:

(Tiana)

Beginning-In the beginning we will create the scene though a series of establishing shots, trying to achieve a build up of suspense through, hints of the location. An empty carpark will be shone, as well as empty halls and rooms surrounding.

Middle-The middle of the story involves a ballerina dancing in a dance studio, she feels a sense of the presence of another being but as she turns around no one is their. the audience knows of the stalker standing outside the window of the dance studio whom is mimicking the dancers movement. She then again turns around when hearing a knock, but the stalker has disappeared once again by the time she turns around.

End- At the end of the film the dancer turns around the last time as her senses are yet sure of a person being there. When she turns around, the stalker is standing right in front of her with a knife.

Props and Costumes

(Tiana)

Costumes:

For our two characters they will both consist of wearing black clothes however in the form of their characters. The stalker will wear "baggy" clothes in which hides his identity and make him more of a mystery, unknown. The Ballerina will also be wearing black clothes as the color black can make the audience feel uneasy and can foreshadow something dark or scary. Though she will wear a ballet attire, so a clear distinguish that she is a dancer can be easily seen and made.

Props:

A ballet barre will be needed to set the scene of a dancer, so perhaps the location will needed to be considered for this very reason. Pointe shoes will also be needed, ideally we want pointe shoes that are 'used' or 'old' just as we aren't trying to create a poised and clean feeling, so dirty pointe shoes can play along with the all the suspense and mystery we're trying to create. A knife is most likely going to be used as a murder weapon, though we haven't fully established if any weapons will be needed.

Moodboard Instagram story by tiana wijohn

Talent:

• Sasha(Ballerina): Talia Armstrong
• Stalker: Paris Langridge