May 09, 2022

Foundation Portfolio planning

Our Roles:

Tiana

script
early technical decisions for effect
Talent & Script
Weather check for filming day(s)
Camera operator
Director/time-keeper

Deborah

Storyboard
Location recce
Filming equipment
Call sheets
Lighting/Fleccie
Location shot setup

Mackenzie

Shot list
Props & costumes
Film schedules
Audio operator
Equipment final check
logo

Dream Boards

character-Lily by tiana wijohn

Concept (Deborah)

Title: Swing
Target audience: Mature students/people interested in thrillers about abductions

GENRE CONVENTIONS

Character: Through our film, we aim to reveal the suspense of the character through how she is dressed and what she is doing in the moment of when she gets distracted off through the woods. Having her playing with her toys or doing something normal and not unusual lets the audience think that nothing is going to happen to her. An advantage for creating suspense through our character is also by her being a young child. Audiences really don't intend for the first death or abduction to be a child, especially a young innocent child like our main character in our film.

Setting/Time: The filming of our short thriller film will take place during the evening time. We plan to film at this time because the golden hour and natural light from the late sun will help create that natural suspense we aim to send towards the audience when watching. We set to film at our main character's real house, this also helps our character to feel more normal when acting the suspenseful scenes because she will be reminded that this is her own home. The glow from the evening dusk time will bring suspense through it's shadows and stillness. This will also help create that dark shadow theme we will be looking for when filming our thriller. We have chosen our film 'Swing' to be shot in the woods because of the contrast of how safe and secure the little girl's home is to the space and feeling you feel when your in the woods. The are in the woods are more crowded, especially by the tall trees, and it becomes harder to see anyone following you or creeping up behind you.

We looked at this video which helped set the idea of how we want the woods to look like or almost look like in our film:

Plot: Our film's plot involves a little girl as our main character. She is playing outside with her toys and things, and her mother tells her to not be too long outside and to not go into the bushes. She then ignores her mother's wishes, by getting distracted with her playing and wonders right into the bushes. She then sees a swing set, which was just swinging mysteriously by itself. She walks towards it and that is when dark shadows of a bigger figure shows. She notices, but ignores it. Until someone swipes her away from the scene.

Props/Costumes: The props and costumes used for our film are all going to be related to the themes of suspense and darkness. We intend for the colours of black or dark grey for the stalker/kidnapper that watches over the little girl, our main character. For the little girl in our film, we aim to have her wearing colours of brightness, usually pink or purple is what a young little girl would wear. But we want her to wear this just to symbolise that she is a young child. Same goes for the stalker in his dark black clothes, which will also help them hide in the dark shadows in the bushes/forest.

Filming/Editing choices: For our foundation portfolio, we will be aiming to use a lot of establishing shots and wide shots of the area where we are filming. We really want more of the naturalistic image of our scenes to help with the advance of suspense we aim to build throughout our film.

Sound: The sound that will be added into our film in the background will contribute with the making of the suspense theme we aim for this film. We look to have some background effect sounds, especially for the establishing shot scenes.

PLOT SYNOPSIS

Our film will be 2 minuets and 30 seconds. We aim to have a variety of different kinds of shots such as, a lot establishing shots to show how our scenery will be looking like, especially in ways to help create that suspense feeling we are looking at for our film. More shots in hand held movements, we are aiming to try use the camera in a hand held position to follow the area of the house around till we see the little girl playing with her toys outside. Using shots like these and more, we aim to show our thriller full of suspenseful, edgy themes through the slow movements of the camera. Almost as if we are the stranger following her into the woods even though we aren't. Our little girl as our main character will be sitting outside playing with her dolls and toys in the evening time, around 4-6:00. Her mother will then be shouting out to her to remind her that its almost getting dark and to not walk away into the bushes that is out of her sight. Our little girl will then start to get distracted by her playing with her toys that she starts to wonder off into the bushes without really realizing that she is disobeying her mothers wishes. At this moment, the sky will be darker but not too dark where its pitch black, we intend to film this during the late evening when the sun is just setting down and it has that dark "glowy" during the golden hour sky. She will then see a swing set that appears in her eyesight just in the middle of the woods, and that is the moment where shadows of a bigger figure is seen sneaking around near her, trying to get closer to her every time she takes a step closer to the swing set. We are looking into having this film have a slow pace, especially when filming it. This is just to create that eerie, abduction feeling for our audience watching.

CHARACTERS

Main characters:

Lily

a 9 year old little girl
acted by Libby Armstrong
her mother is also mentioned in this film
Lily's outfit/costume in this film will have a lot of pink and "girly" colors just to show more of how she is and how her personality is. Through these colors we chose for her, this will help symbolize a clearer image of what kind of little girl she is and how innocent and young she is
Her teddy/doll will also help symbolize her age and innocence to the world
When she wonders off into the bushes, this also does help show to our audience of how much of an explorer she is as a young girl

Stalker

a older man
acted by
he is a character that is a very important part to this film
he has no relation to Lily
we necessarily have no name for our stalker
he is first seen creeping up in his shadows behind Lily when she is wondering off into the woods on her own
his outfit/costume will be all black. This will help represent his darkness and his deluded mindset

Minor characters:

Lily's mother

not an important character as much
acted by Stephanie Armstrong
she is only seen when she is yelling out to Lily from the house to remind her to come inside soon because its starting to become dark and also to not walk into the woods especially all alone

(Tiana)

A Treatment for SWING

Prepared by DTM Productions

It is proposed that the film will be of 2-2:30 minutes duration, and it will be filmed at the following location, Steph Armstrong's house as our main actor lives there so it was easy to get access to as well as it has area for a forest that our main events are in as well as being a house, where we want our setting to be set at. The house also has a swing set which will be used for our abduction scene.

The film will include the following processes of thriller films, being set in a forest, using an innocent child as a protagonist, being set at night, an abduction scene, hand held shaky camera filming, long takes to establish the scene for audience (Using Hitchcock's of idea of giving the audience an expectation of what's too come without the actor knowing, creates more anxiety to the audience as they almost are busting in their seats wanting to warn the actor what is to come). Draws the interest of our target audience as they like abductions so if they're suspecting one in the start they can be drawn to watch the rest to find out what happens.

After watching this past students foundation portfolio

I've been interested in the technique of using child-like structures to come off as something scary. I've also been interested to try use long shot takes instead of quick edits as shown in this video

as I believe that through this way I can create more suspense through telling the audience what is going to happen before it actually happens.

Problems we may encounter will be to film in the right time of day as first of all it's getting into winter so the weather might become a constraint, as well as we want the lighting to be dark but we will film during dawn as there will not be plugs for us to plug lights into whilst filming in the forest.

The Film will include the following:

Characters- This film only really includes one character, Lily who will be played by Libby whos 10 years old but will be acting as a 5-7 year old. I chose a young child as the main actor as it can create more anxiety to an audience as they see her as a young child by herself, and can be more worried to what might happen to her than if she was older. The little girl will be perceived as very innocent as she will be in a cute dress with pig tails and holding her stuffed animal, very cliché look. She will be shown to be quite adventurous linking to how she could even end up in the forest. Examples of how she will look:

Ideology- The aim of this film is to create a cliché message to not go into the woods alone especially a child, and to watch you kids with a very close eye because you never know what could happen to them. I represent this through the mother not actually visually watching her child and the forest is portrayed as not a good place to be alone in as she gets abducted.

Mood and Tone: The mood and tone will be eerie through the forest seen as I'll use slow paced suspenseful music as well lots of forest sound effects, trying to create an alive creepy feeling. Also when the child approaches the swing as it's already moving I want a scary tone to be built so the audience can feel the presence of another being.

Camera/lighting- Long camera takes are going to be used to really put all the details of the setting and whereabouts for the audience to know. Slow pacing tracking shots, with no editing in them, to create the tension of waiting. The film will will filmed during dusk hours so the lighting will be darker than normal daylight but not too dark that we can't see what's happening. We're also trying to avoid using the artificial light's as it can make it seem less realistic.

Themes and Motifs- We will use lot's of child-like themes through the girl and the swing set. The teddy bear will also relate to this as it can relate to how she innocent

The forest will be represented as a place that all people know as being represented as almost dangerous. A no-go zone. The photos below are photos of the actual forest to be filmed in, obviously though we will create the vibe of the forest in a more daunting way, without the rainbows. (Photos of the forest being filmed inside)

The House will represent being the child's safe place as it's her home.

Narrative- The story line will be quite cliché as a little girl wonders off into the forest after playing outside her house. She walk through the forest and ends up at a swing set. This idea is very simple, which we were aiming to make it, so we can try our best to create the best quality piece of work, with this very achievable storyline

Mise-en-scene- The forest in this will represent the abduction coming up, as audiences watches her walk through the forest they can know it represents bad things.

Sound and Music- The music I'll use will be eerie and quite dramatic however It wont be that quick pace as it needs to match with the long action shots. I'll use lots of forest sound effects, essentially aiming to set the scene effectively.

Use of Logos- Mackenzie will be creating a group logo which will be incorporated into our film

Editing- The editing wont include lots of quick cuts, instead it will involve a lot of quick takes with very few edits in between

At the Beginning of the film it will start with a wide shot of the house which eventually turn into lily playing on the driveway of her house next to the forest. She stays there playing with her dolly, running around leading closer and closer towards the forest. Her mum call her in for dinner however she decides to stay playing for another five minutes, after some negotiating with her mother. Lily then continues on playing until she finds herself somehow in the middle of the forest. She looks around hesitantly, going deeper and deeper into the forest. All sorts of forest noises surround her. She continues her way through until she approaches the end of the forest. She comes across a swing which is already swinging. She approaches the swing slowly before being completely snatched. Lily is no where to be seen, the only trace of her is her little dolly lying on the forest floor.

Weather for Wed 26: (Tiana)

Camera (Tiana)

I'm Going to the start the film with a very long shot on a steady cam to establish the scene while the girl is outside of the house. Then I'm going to switch to hand held during the forest scenes to create the camera as being like the 'stalker'.

This video is an example of how I will portray this.

Story Board (Deborah)

Location (Deborah)

We will be filming at Libby's house. Around late evening time from 4-5pm or 5-6pm.

This is our location:

script by tiana wijohn

Lighting (Deborah)

For the lighting of our film 'Swing' we have planned to shoot our filming during the dusk hours of the day, close to the late evening but not when it is too dark. We want the natural dark glow from the sky when we film, so it is still very clear enough to see through the camera what is going on because in our last film it was hard to capture some scenes properly due to the darkness.