Short Film Poster (Rough copy)

I edited this photo with photoshop, I toned down the colours and created this dark, slightly blue tint colour to match with the ambience and the style of my short film, (dreaming.) I've came up with the name 'Delusion' for my film because what the character is dreaming really effects his day to day life.

The setting also is abig part within the short film, as the character drives into this road with the tree's leading to the forest its the realisation that its happening again and he's expecting something.

Filming

This is a post to show my current progress of filming, i've already filmed the driving shots and a few of the character's expressions and reactions. I was planning to film at night, but I don't have any money to budget the lighting to proceed with night filming. last night I filmed my friend driving around at night. The headlights of other cars and street lights gave a really good effect and went well with my chosen music and style of my film. I'm going to intertwine the night driving scenes with the daylight driving scenes to give an effect of dreaming, making the short film more surreal.

29/11/12

Today i'm starting to edit the driving scenes with Ryan in, i'm going to cut a lot of corners because I want the driving scene's to be fluent, always driving.
I'm also going to finish the film posters today on photoshop.

8/11/12

After giving it a lot of thought, i've came up with an ending. My character is going to reach the end of his dream, and after a lot of searching in his dream, he's going to find himself dead. To create this, I'm going to use 'whip-pan' and cut in between two 'whip-pans' allowing me to create the illusion that one person is looking at themselves.

Here is the example I filmed just now.

Story Board

1. The character falls asleep. 2.He starts driving in his sleep. 

3. He continues to drive. 

4. There's shots blended between him driving and POV driving. 

                         

5. Where ever the character drives he ends up in the same place. 

6. The character starts exploring. 

(The character wakes up, then it cuts to the character to falling asleep, the same thing happens in the dream before, however every time he dreams, he progresses further.)

7. The character starts searching. 

As i'm not a skillfull drawer I choose to take pictures to represent the plot. Baring in mind that its going to repeat and going to be set in night. (I didn't take pictures at night as the lighting wouldnt be right.) The short film will start with the character going to sleep and having a recurring dream of him driving, and where ever he drives he ends up in the same dark weird forest, every night the dream becomes longer. This alluring dream hypnotises him and its all he can think about during the day, he starts to become insane and become confused between reality and what he's dreaming. At the end of the film he finds out what actually happens in the depth of the forest.
Here are a few photos of the style i'm going to film it in.

Plot Discourse (Rough Copy)

(As i'm uploading this at home I haven't got the certain upgrade to edit my prezi, so the last slide is unfinished.)

http://prezi.com/wjocapkf3ryw/plot-discourse/">plot discourse

on http://prezi.com">Prezi>

I'm having trouble embeding this onto my blog at the minute, if you can't see it, click this link. http://prezi.com/wjocapkf3ryw/plot-discourse/

My Target Audience Profile:

Demogaphics i'm going to target the categories: C2/D -mainly students.

Reading Style (Exhibition and Distribution): To distribute my film, I will upload it to many websites targeting students, I will also link it to many social networking sites, I can also  enter many short film competions to try and get it publisied. Anther good technique I can use is going on forums and fan sites of films that have similar styles and linking my video and asking for them to watch.

Social/ Cultural Groups: Looking at the Buckingham article, I believe my audience will be the 'FILM FANATICS' category. (Male, Pre-plan their trip, 25-44, go in 2s, review led.

http://www.slideshare.net/ElaineHumpleby/audience-pete-buckingham-what-people-go-to-see" title="Audience pete buckingham what people go to see" target="_blank">Audience pete buckingham what people go to see

from http://www.slideshare.net/ElaineHumpleby" target="_blank">Elaine Humpleby

Demographics - National Readership Survey: Studying groups of people, the classifications are based on the occupation of the head of the house hold, grading from 'A-E' regarding social class. Typically, film noir's target audences 'D-B' and mostly male, the audience for our film noir is going to be 'D-B' but we're targeting it at a mostly female audience.

Mode of address - How does the media product talk to you? In film noir the 'MOA' is usually a warning to males to be aware of independant 'Femme Fatals.' Our mode of address is going to be along the same lines, but more of a warning to stay away from crime.

Audience Positioning - (Male gaze, Female gaze; who's perspective?) Which characters do you want the audience to support? Follow, empathise.. Mostly in traditional film noirs it's from the anti-hero's perspective. In our film noir it's going to be from both the femme fatal's perspective.

Effects models:

-The hypodermic needle model: The intended message is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver.
-Two-step flow: The people with the most access to media, and highest media literacy explain and diffuse the content to others. This is a modern version of the hypodermic needle model.
-Uses and gratifications: People aren't helpless victims to the mass media, but use the media to get specific gratifications. (Diversion, personal relationships, personal identity, surveilliance.)
-Reception Theory: The meaning of a "text" is not inherent within the text itself, but the audience must elicit meaning based on their individual cultural background and life experiences.
Obstinate audience Theory: This theory assumes that there is a transactional communication between the audience and the media. The audience actively selects what messages to pay attention to. The Zimmerman-Bauer study found that the audience also participates communication by influencing the message.

Generally, typical film noir follows 'Hypodermic syringe' (the plot is simple) and also 'Uses and gratifications' (target men by creating a movie with an action, sexist stereotype.) Our film noir is going to follow the 'Reception theory' and 'Two-step follow.'

Audience decoding:
The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies also proposed a model for the types of audience decoding. The audience member assumes the dominant hegemonic position when they recognise and agree with the full-preferred meaning offered by the media text. The oppositional hegemonic positionis established when the audience member understands the preferred meaning, but disagrees with it due to their own set of attitudes and beliefs. The negotiated hegemonic positon is established when the audience member opposes or has to adapt the preferred meaning. The forth type of audience response is reffered to as aberrant decoding. This is where the audience member reads the text in an unpredicted way, producing a deviant meaning.

In traditional film noir's they included a dominant hegemonic, where as neo noir's tend to include a oppositional hegemonic.

Film: How should my audience respond?

Tension
Interested
Confused
Curious
Anticipation
Un easiness
Tenseness
Stiffness
Startled
Shocking
Surprised

4 Sentences: Summary of my plot narrative (version 1)

My short film is going to be a psychological thriller which is going to play with the audiences mind. The main character is going to be a male student around 18 years of age, having a disturbing but also alluring dream which is constantly playing with his state of mind, to the point where the character/audience can't tell the difference between reality and dreaming. I'm planinng to include a lot of diverse driving shots/angles.

Feedback indicates: explains concept and style but doesn't explain plot summary clearly.

I focused more on the style than the location/action/conclusion/outcome.

Summary of my plot narrative (version 2)

My shot film is going to be a psychological thriller which is going to play with the audiences mind. The main character is going to be a male student around 18 years of age, having a disturbing but also alluring dream which is constantly playing around with his 'sane' state of mind. The character is going to experience a dream where he is driving around a rural country side in the dark, and it seems where ever he drives he ends up in the same, creepy and irregular place. As soon as he gets there he wakes up, where all he thinks about is the place, if it exsists and what would happen if he didn't wake up. This will end up with the character not knowing if hes dreaming of if he's awake, and hopefull will confuse the audience. I'm planning on using a lot of diverse driving shots and possibly a backing track from 'Kid A' to accompany the un natural setting/feeling.

AUDIENCES: what does the cinema do for me?

Personally, going to the cinema gives a very different experience compared to watching a movie at home. The cinema provides an 'escapism' which I don't personally get at home. At home there's distractions, interruptions, sometimes ad breaks, where as in the cinema the size of the screen, the performance of surround sound, the darkness it out performs watching movies at home.

What else do I gain from the cinema?
-excitement
-shared experience
-suspense
-inspiration
-fear
-laughs

AUDIENCES: Demographics, categories for audiences

There are 7 categories you can fit an audience into, Age, class, ethnicity, gender, religion, earnings and education. These are generally represented by using these categories:

A -100k salary
B - 50/60k category, graduates. 
C1 - 35k, employed. 
C2 - Employed with training, for example doctors, nurses. lawyers.
D - Jobs with a bit of training, till jobs, brick layers etc
E - Not in education, employment and training.

However, you can't fully represent an audience using these categories. For example you can get a wealthy person who is un-employed, or a poor brain surgeon. Demographics can give an estimate to target audiences, but can't fully cover our diverse society.
This system is a benefit to industries. Demographics are used for:

Product placement
Marketing and promotion
Focus groups
Creating a target audience

For example. an industry that produces their shows for a 'E' audience would try to air their shows during the day, as their audience isn't in education, employment or training, for example 'The Jeremy Kyle Show'. Also,  its cheaper to air a show during the day.
On the other hand, if a company has produced a documentary about a socialist/dictator leading a brainwashed cult, they'll most likely try to air their documentary during the evening, as the educated/employed would be interested in watching.

It's not just industries that but audience into categories, audiences do it to. For example:
Traditionalist
Post modernist
Hedonist
Passive
Active
Preferred
Oppostional

Genre's

To get my head around genre's, I have created theses two mind maps of 'comedy' and 'psychological thriller' genre and included what the certain type of films try to portray and represent. 

Narrative story (20th September)

I've started planning my narrative story. Like i've stated in the post above I would like to make a psychological thriller short film. My current idea is to have a male character, roughly my age to have this recurring dream of driving to the same place, and wherever he drives he ends up in this mysterious dark, un-explainable place. When the character wakes up all he can gradually think about is this dream, he starts to not know the difference to when he's awake to when he's dreaming. I haven't thought of an ending for this story yet, I would like it to be meaningful, surprising ending which would hopefully leave the audience shocked, so I don't want to rush planning the ending.
The style I would like my short film to have is very similar to the photos i've taken in the post above. Very stylized, contrasted, not very saturated and shadowed. Typically what the conventions are like in psychological thrillers. I'm also planning to have a lot of experimental camera angles, and to have a few POV shots, to give a 'Realistic Aesthetic' effect.

Here is a plan for how I would like my interpretation of 'The Last Man On Earth" to roughly be like.

I took some photos to plan in my head how i'd like my short film to be, i'm planning on making a psychological thriller interpretation.