Todorov and storyline

I have decided to use the basic todorov structure as my short sequence fits within this todorov structure. 

Equilibrium-  The short sequence will start by introducing the protagonist in her normal day life. For this I am going to show her room and use mise-en-scene to represent her values and beliefs as well as using a phone call conversation between herself and her father to show why she's in the house on her own and to establish that she's more mature then normal teens her age. 

The antagonist will not be introduced to the characters in depth as I want to focus more on the protagonist. I will show that the antagonist is 'bad' by using dark colored clothes in contrast to her bright bedroom and also show the  scene were he breaks into her house and abducts her. 

Disruption- In my short sequence the disruption will be when the protagonist is locked in a warehouse after been abducted. In this scene I will try and engage the audience more with her emotions of been scared and alone as well as confused. 

This scene will also have a flash back to show why she's been put into the situation that she has. The flash back with be voiced over using the antagonists voice as if he was narrating a scene.

Quest-  In my short sequence I am not showing the quest part of my film, but overall the film will include a quest. The quest will be that the father is informed of his daughter  abduction and return  to England to face his past. It will be a race against time as his daughters life comes into threat from the gangsters. This will highlight my story type of 'The Debt That Must Be Repaid' in terms of seeing the father paying the debt to his enemies. 

Resolution-  This will be a new equilibrium were the father and daughter are finally free to live the lives but the daughter is haunted by her fathers past and can't get over the fact that she was his second option and not his first priority. The new equilibrium will be that the daughter excels in her career but her father looses all her had including her. 

The gangster will return to normal life but there pasts catches up on them and there killed by a rival gang who want revenge. 

I would show the new equilibrium using an epilogue to show the audience what became of the characters.  

To stick within the todorov structure I have incorporated many codes and conventions, for example in the gangster genre the antagonist's past always catches up with them and they end up dead in a shoot out of some kind, therefore by using the deaths of the antagonists in my film I have stuck within the codes and conventions of the gangster genre.

Story line 

Lola is  daughter to wealthy CEO Harrison Smith who works away most of the time leaving Lola to raise herself, because of her upbringing she is more mature then normal sixteen year old's  and thinks she knows how the world works. In reality her life is based on lies inflicted on by her father who made a 'deal with the devil' back before Lola was born. This secret that he's kept from Lola will soon become his future as one night Lola is abducted from the family home in exchange for Harrison's return to England were he must face his past in order to make a future for himself and Lola. 

Harrison arrives back to England were he must race against time to stop mobsters killing Lola who is paying the ultimate punishment for his decisions. Harrison takes his punishment and gives everything he has for the safe return of Lola, the gangsters except his offer and Lola is returned. 

Months after her abduction, Lola is struggling to come to terms with her new life and finds it hard to trust her father who she once thought was the only good person in her world. Lola ultimately can't forgive her father and moves in with her grandparents before excelling at becoming a top lawyer in New York. Her father is left with nothing and must make a new life for himself knowing that he failed his only child. Meanwhile the gangsters are all killed during a shoot out with a rival gang. 

Audience

The film short sequence I have chosen to film will be aimed at an audience of 16-25 year olds, mainly aimed at men who enjoy the gangster genre as well as action movies. The social class I am aiming my short sequence at will be middle class males who have a regular income and have access to technologies such as a television and a DVD player. My audience is interested in films and enjoys going to the cinema on a regular basis but also likes to watch movies at home.  My target audience can be summarised in the following ways:

• Males aged 16-25 years 
• Social group E to D
• The favorite genre is the gangster genre
• Enjoy going to the cinema 
• Have a regular income or/ and can afford to socialise at least twice a month

I have aimed my short sequence at people in demographic group E to D because my sequence won't be hard to follow and therefore won't need an extent knowledge, other then the obvious. I chose my target audience at 16-25 years because I am hoping to reach an audience of my age who attend college and live with parents, the reason for choosing 25 years was to broaden my audience and because a lot of males aged 25 would fit into the demographic group E to D. 

I chose males as it is a gangster genre and there isn't going to be any added material to make it aimed at the female audience, however I am not absolutely restricting women from seeing the sequence and in my evaluation I will ask some women to view and give their opinion.

Location mise-en-scene

The location of my film sequence will be shot at my house. I have decided to shoot it here as it fits the criteria for my film location and has bedrooms were one of my scenes can be shot.

This is the bedroom where I shot my first and third sequence. In this bedroom there are various posters of teen pop acts therefore adding to the idea that she is a typical teenaged girl.

This is the location of the stairs were Luca walks up to the room to kidnap Lola. This location was easy to film as I didn't use a tracking shot to be able to track Luca's steps up to the room.







These posters were visible in the film and reinforce the idea that Lola is a typical teenaged girl.

 

These folders were used in the film to reinforce the idea that Lola was in fact revising for her buisness exam. The folers are used in the first scene were Lola talks on the phone to her father.

 



 This t-shirt was used to reinforce the idea that Lola in fact goes to college. The 'Wyke College' print is both on the front and the back of the t-shirt.

 

 

These phones are used in two seperate scenes. The black phone is used in the car scene with Luca talking on the phone and the white phone was used when Lola is on the phone to her father.



These items are used during the last scene when Luca puts the red cloth over Lola's face. I used a red cloth to connotate danger. The spray was used as a visual to show what it was that made Lola fall into a deep sleep.

Shooting script

Shooting script

1.       Establishing shot of bedroom (2 seconds)

2. Medium shot of door opening and Lola enters then walks out of shot (2 seconds)

3. Medium shot of Lola working at laptop (5 seconds)… phone rings

4. Close up of Lola’s confused face (2 seconds)

5. Close up of Lola getting her phone (2 seconds)

6. Medium close up of Lola talking on the phone (10 seconds)

7. Long shot of the Lola getting into bed (3 seconds)

8. Close up of Lola asleep (2 seconds)

9. Goes to black (4 seconds)

10. Fades to black then fades up from black (5 seconds)

11. Long shot facing the front door, Luca try to get in (3 seconds)

12. Close up of Luca entering and looking towards the stairs (2 seconds)

13. Pan of the Luca quietly wondering up the stairs (4 seconds)

14. Cuts to a medium shot of Luca pulling the handle down slowly (2 seconds)

15. Cuts to a long shot of Luca quietly entering the room.

16. Tracking shot of Luca in a medium close up (3 seconds)

17. Long shot of Luca hovering over Lola (2 seconds)

18. Tracking close up of Luca’s hand been placed over Lola’s face (2 seconds)

19. Extreme close up of Lola’s eyes looking terrified (2 seconds)

20.Close up of Lola dropping into a deep sleep. Image starts to blur then her eyes close and fades to black (4 seconds)

21. Fade to black- fade up from black (5 seconds)

22. Establishing shot of the warehouse and a girl centred in a wooden chair (3 seconds)

23. POV shot- bright light in Lola’s eyes, light pointed at her (1 second)

24. POV shot- shot of desk in close up (1 second)

25. POV shot- shot of ropes in close up (1 second)

26. POV shot- shot of tools in close up (1 second)

27. Quick cut to shot of the door opening, long shot as man enters (3 seconds)

28. Close up of Lola’s terrified face (2 seconds)

29. Medium close up of a man laughing (2 seconds)

30. Over the shoulder shot of guy talking in a tracking shot (10 seconds)

31. Low angle of Luca leaning into Lola’s face as she tries to move away (2 seconds)

32. Close up of the guy laughing (1 second)

33. Medium or long shot of Luca pulling tape of Lola’s mouth. Lola’s back to the camera.

34. POV low angle of Luca talking to Lola [“There’s no point in screaming… no one will hear you now!”] (5 seconds)

35.Close up of Lola’s face with sound of Luca’s feet walking away from Lola to sit at his desk [“Why are you doing this to me?”] (3seconds)

36. Close up of Luca replying (5 seconds)

37. Lola interrupts {quick cut}. Close up of Lola as she talks to Luca (3 seconds)

38. Close up of Luca laughing- Lola stops talking and Luca starts (5 seconds)

39. FLASH BACK: Establishing shot of an office (3 seconds)

40. Over the shoulder shot of Harrison sitting down (3 seconds)

41, Close up of Harrison talking [we can’t hear them talking as voice over is put over the top] (3 seconds)

42. Close up of Vincent who replies (3 seconds)

43. Shot reverse shot (3 seconds)

44. Shot reverse shot (3 seconds)

45. Shot reverse shot (3 seconds)

46. Shot reverse shot (3 seconds)

47. Long shot of the two men handshake (2 seconds)

48. BACK NOW: Close up of Luca who finishes talking (3 seconds)

49. Close up of Lola who replies (3 seconds)

50. Close up of Luca who replies. Pan up as he stands up and finishes talking (3 seconds)

51. Close up of Lola as she panics that Luca is leaving. Begins to talk [“What’s going to happen to me?] (3 seconds)

52. Medium close up of Luca standing at the door, smiling then replies (5 seconds)

53. Tracking shot of Luca walking over to Lola in medium shot or close up (3 seconds)

54. Long shot of Luca bending down in front of Lola to talk to her (2 seconds)

55. Close up from the side of Luca’s head as he talks to Lola (5 seconds)

56. Close up of Luca as he stands (2 seconds)

57. Tracking shot of Luca circling Lola (5 seconds)

58. Long shot of Lola screaming “No!” as Luca walks out the door (5 seconds- 8 seconds)

59. Fades to black (5 seconds)

3.20 seconds (estimated)

Influences

To help me with inspiration I have looked at films that follow my gangster genre. I have also looked at films that follow the theme of abduction and liked the idea of mixing the gangster genre with the theme of abduction. The films I have looked at that follow the gangster genre are Goodfella’s (Martin Scorsese 1990), Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino 1992). The films I have looked at that follow the theme of abduction are Taken and Abduction.  In Reservoir Dogs the scene that was most useful was the ‘Ear scene’ this scene reminded me of a typical gangster movie with violence but with the theme of abduction.  I also liked the use of a closed in location as it reflects the feeling of having nowhere to run and being alone, such as the warehouse in Reservoir Dogs.  Another piece of text I looked at was the Venetian blind affect, I wanted to use this within my project to give the sense of been trapped an example of this would be in the classic film noir 'Double Indemnity' were an insurances salesman gets lost in the trap of a fem fatal (typical code and convention of film noir). 

 As producer and director I have thought about issues that could arise. For example in FM1 I had many issues with lighting and location, however for FM3 I have thought about such issues and have decided to use artificial lighting as I am filming at night and lighting would hinder the desired effect of the sequence I am filming. As of location, in FM1 there were issues with the location as it was in a public place and this meant that the shots were disturbed by passers-by.  However in FM3 I have chosen a location that will make filming easier as well as being able to have time to set up the sequence.  For FM3 I have chosen two locations, the first been a bedroom setting and the second been in an empty warehouse/ garage, I have chosen the bedroom location so that the audience can get to know the protagonist without using a scene to do so, to do this I have to focus mainly on mise-en-scene to tell the audience of the protagonists likes therefore showing her personality. The second location was chosen to create the effect of been trapped in an unfamiliar location, and to create the sense of uneasiness among the audience.

As a part of planning I have considered ways to provoke reactions from the audience. As a part of this planning I have looked at other films which follow the same theme and genre as the sequence I intend to film. The film that helped the most was Reservoir Dogs in the warehouse scene, this scene helped most because the location was similar to the one I am using and I liked the way that the scene made the spectator feel uneasy and had the effect that the spectator wanted to look away, also the scene made the spectator feel uneasy from the start and this added to the feeling of wanting to look away. After analysing this scene for a while I realised that as well as the performance by the actor, the cinematography and editing added to that sense of uneasiness, with slow camera movements at the beginning and faster editing throughout the ‘Stuck in the Middle’ dance routine to show the reaction of the hostage and provoking nature of the antagonist. Throughout the planning process it was clear to see that all I had learnt in AS Film Studies was going to need to be applied to FM3, especially the work of spectatorship as this is what I feel is most important when considering a hostage situation.  Although I have to apply knowledge already learnt I do hope to learn a lot more from this project and be able to see how both previous knowledge and new knowledge can be linked and applied to all texts relating to film.


This is video of the 'ear scene' in Reservoir Dogs. In this scene the character uses psychological torture as well as physical torture as a way of getting the young police officer to talk. This makes the audience feel terribly uncomfortable and therefore feel like they can't watch anymore. 

In this scene the camera often pans around which shows the empty space around the victim this is done to reflect how alone the victim is and how helpless he feels. It often pans around him in close up, this could be used to reflect how his world is spinning and he has no control over his life at this point because the gangster is in control of what happens to him.

The close ups in the ear scene make the graphical tourture harder to watch, because we can see it in close up it makes the audience want to look away.

 














Also in this scene we are show mid-shots, this is to show the audience how the gangster has power over his victim and the victims reaction to the torture he has to endure.








I like the idea of the Venetian blind effect as it gives the impression of been trapped and is often a code and convention of gangster genre. 

Aims and context

For my FM3 creative project I am going to produce a short sequence from my imagine film ‘Deal with the Devil’. The genre is the gangster genre and I hope to use the codes and conventions. This is to appeal to my target audience of 16-25 year old males, who fit into demographic group E, my target audience have a particular interest to the gangster genre.

My aim will be to introduce the learning about the creation of meaning by micro features studied in FM1 to explore codes and conventions of the gangster genre.

In order to assist with this project I have been studying films such as ‘Reservoir Dogs’ and ‘The Godfather’.

I intend to direct the piece as well as write and edit the piece myself. I have looked at director Quentin Tarantino in his gangster films such as ‘Reservoir Dogs’ in particular I looked at the ‘ear scene’ in ‘Reservoir Dogs’ to help me get an idea of the kind of persona I want my characters to hold. 

Deconstruction and Reconstruction of Maltese Falcon

Jobs list:

• Script: Harriet Harrison
• Storyboard: Hollie Andrews
• Costume director:Harriet Harrison
• Props director: Harriet Harrison
• Editor: Hollie, Harriet, Hollie, Chloe and Jasmine
• Director: Chloe
• Producer:
• Camera work:
• Cast: Joshua Wright, Jasmine Davies and Chloe

Locations:

• Oak 36 (first location)
• Oak 4 (second location)
• Oak 37 (third location)

Props:

• Two black suits (Spade and Archer)
• Toy gun
• Blazer and fur scarf (Miss Wonderly)
• Old black telephone
• Bowler hat 
• Desk props: pens, paper, books etc.
• Desk and chairs
• Cigarette

Locations for Maltese Falcon:

Oak 37- This location was used as our first location was taken up for a lesson. For our scene we had to hide the computer and use the window in far wall to represent the 'Spade and Archer' window. We also had to arrange a desk in the corner to represent Spade's desk and move the other chairs and tables out the way.

Maltese Falcon Evaluation

For my deconstruction and reconstruction of Maltese Falcon as a group we all faced challenges which we had to overcome together and resolve as a team in order to meet our deadline.

The first challenged we faced was the fact that we were an all girl group therefore two of the members of the group were willing to dress up as Spade and Archer to overcome the problem, however another group were also struggling with casting and decided to use two of our girls for there project and we used two of there boys. The first challenge was overcome easily but it did teach me that casting is important and should be thought of in the planning and research stage so problems like this do not occur.

The second challenged we faced was that we lacked a storyboard. Initially we decided to go against making a storyboard as we believed that it would save us time if one wasn't made. This proved to be the wrong decision and ended up taking us more time as we had to keep stopping to replay the clip of Maltese Falcon to see the different shots that were used and to also consider mise-en-scene, editing, sound and cinematography. From this mistake I learnt just how time saving and how crucial storyboards were to production, they make sure that shooting runs more smoothly and that all cast and crew knows that is asked of them.

The third challenge we faced was with the continuity of the reconstruction. Initially we decided upon Oak 36 for our main location however that proved a problem when the room was already book out and therefore we had to make a change of location to Oak 4 which didn't have the characteristics as Oak 36 and made the filming a lot more challenging to try and replicate the old set, this proved to difficult and the continuity failed because of this. 

On the second day of production/ filming our third problem occurred which was that not all the crew turned up for filming and therefore footage was lost temporarily. Because of this problem we lost vital filming time and decided we would have to resume filming for another day, so this put us back a day in production. From this mistake I learnt that production schedules are important and finding reliable cast and crew is essential to making a successful end product and to sticking to deadlines in the allotted time given from production. If time isn't managed properly then other aspects of production will fault such as editing.

The third day of filming went without hitch but afterwards we all realised that the continuity had again been broken as the clothes we wore for each day of shooting were different and therefore I learnt that it was vital to consider everything from previous days of filming if production lasts more then a day.

Overall I have learnt that post-production is a vital part of the production process as it helps make sure production runs smoothly and that time is spent wisely to meet deadlines. Also continuity has to be kept in mind as the production process evolves.