Final Product - ' A night at the dance '

Flora BA Clarke - Question 1

The title of the film:

Our original name for our film was going to be Prom Night but not only has this title been used but it has also been reworked so many times it have become more of a cliché. So ‘A Night at the Dance’ became our title which works better as it gives the audience less clues as to the content as prom night would have. We used red font contrasting with the white font we used for the rest of the credits. This was to represent blood- cheesy though that sounds we were playing on the way many teenage films make there clues overly obvious. The red also ties in with the red tinge on all of the shots.

Setting/Location:

Our location need to be somewhere the character could be alone, typical of a thriller film, it makes the character seem more solitary. The use of the dark room makes the character seem less mainstreams and more out of the ordinary and so straight from the beginning she stands out from crowd as being abnormal. Using a darkroom also allows us to make good use of the shadow and light convention allowing us to cast shadows on certain areas to give an effective sense of mystery.

Costumes and props:

Our Costumes were simple-just a black dress to show how unlike the rest of the girls in the film she is. We wanted the makeup to stand out- smudged almost slept in mascara with pale skin contrasting the either red of black surroundings and then red lips with a bitten shadow showing an attempt at beauty yet giving off an eary unsettling feeling this was important as her lips are a motif throughout the extract. The scrapbook was another significant motif show our characters need to list he past killings and also gives and insight into what will be happening in the future of the film.

Camerawork and editing:

Similarly to Pulp Fictions all our movements were slow and calculated, thought out, this represented how our main character thought and moved. Originally we had planned fast paced shots to give the audience an uncertain feeling however after trying to do this a couple times we changed our shots as we felt we did not have the skills or equipment to get it looking good enough to work.

We made some of our shots speeded up and some slowed down and made use of the camera going in and out of focus and blurs to show the characters mental state and her own lack of awareness of her surroundings, this was also shown by the many close ups.

Title font and style:

The title font was the same as the font the credits and was also the same font used to create the cut out from the prom invitation, it was a girly calligraphy type font called Edwardian Script and it tied in with our storyline greatly but also challenged the conventions of a classic high school killer by making her appear to aspire to be more girl like.

Story and how the opening sets it up:

The use of the scrapbook shows the audience what is going to happen and so therefore shows that what is important is how it happens rather than the details of the plot. The fact that the characters face is only seen at the very end of the clip shows the mystery surrounding her and also builds the tension for the big reveal.

Genre and how the opening suggests it:

Using the black, white and red colours as bases we were able to easily show the characters complexity in a simple way and the use of shadows and light let us show the battle of good and evil. The close-ups let us explore the theme of identity. The character looking in the mirror let us use the theme of seeing, reflection and mirroring. The scrapbook made it clear the narrative centred on murder which is often used for thrillers.

How characters are introduced:

The whole sequence is building up to introducing our main character, this was particularly prolonged to mirror the film, a prolonged look at a short period of time builds the tension and suggests a big climactic twist at the end. 

Flora BA Clarke - Question 2

This shot challenges views of how girls are typically seen as. It says- girls only care about their image-even if they are physco killers. This is also seen in Orphan when the girl dresses ‘sexy’ to appeal to the dad. As if by putting abit of makeup on its okay to kill people.  In orphan the shot shows the expression, we chose not to do this as it makes the make up seem more mask like and its more of a question as to what is behind the mkeup and therefore makes it even more important that shes putting it on

Flora BA Clarke - Question 3

We decided to make our own distribution company- Rancid Films, this came from the t-shirt I was wearing one day that we took a picture of and made up on Photoshop. If we had made our full movie we all agreed that it would be distributed by a mainstream distribution company like universal or Warner Brothers Both these distributors are very large and so would be able to invest a lot of money to get our film out as far as possible.  We thought that the film would be based in America as having a Prom themed film would be most popular there as it would seem more real to the audience because in America prom is a reality rather than something you watch on TV or in Films. Many films are made in America and so it would be a great starter point for our film. Our film can compare to films like Carrie, Dance of the Dead and Prom Night.

 

Flora BA Clarke - Question 4

Audience on Prezi

Flora BA Clarke - Question 5

We used our product research to cast our main character- white female but made her more accessable to the audience by putting her on the outskirts of any social group therefore applying to everyone and including a thriller convention in one swoop. We provided an inside look into the mind of a tortured teenager which is a person every adolescent can relate too. If this were to be a real film we would cast someone very good looking as the main character to pull in both genders. the girl in the film is very obsessed with the way she looks and is constantly comparing herself to other girls and so this again will allow people to relate to her.

 Putting on makeup much like most teenage girls do- helping them to put themselves in her shoes.

The other cast member would also be typically good looking most people to relate to at least one of that characters in the film. 

Flora BA Clarke - Question 6

Technology on Prezi