How research ha benefitted us

Final Script

Final script from NuzhatMA

Script Feedback

Script feedback from NuzhatMA

Radio Proposal

Radio proposal 2 from NuzhatMA

Poster research

We used Instagram to gain an insight into what our target audience like in a horror film poster. We chose Instagram because it is a popular form of social media amongst our target audience, therefore they can easily access it. We asked our audience which poster they liked best and why. From the responses we learnt that our target audience find the Annabelle film poster the most appealing

Draft Radio Proposal + Audience feedback

Poster concept 1

Generating ideas for poster & Concepts

Concept one:

The image will contain an image of a tattered doll in a close-up shot, in a tight frame attached to puppeteer strings. We’ll see two large hands on the top of the poster controlling these strings with the doll slumped at the end. We’ve chosen to have a doll in the poster to illustrate our film will revolve around a child. The poster will be darker on the top, using low-key lighting to hint to the audience the person controlling the strings is the antagonist and is controlling the protagonist in the film. The doll will be made from fabric and will have dark hair, wearing a black and white dress. The top will be black to show whatever the antagonist has done to the protagonist is influencing her, forcing her to give into her past darkness, whereas the bottom of the dress will be white to symbolise innocence and purity as well as create an idea of a fight between darkness and light. There will be stains of blood on the bottom of her dress to hint at our FGM idea. The colour of the strings is going to be red connoting danger and violence. The doll will use a direct mode of address with an emotionless, straight face, almost as a cry for help, as a symbol of the little girl in our film. The title of the film will be in capital letters at the bottom of the poster, placed in the middle. The tagline will be slanted, in smaller font, embedded into the puppeteer strings.

Concept 2:

The image will contain a big hand at the top of the poster. It’s going to be wearing white or blue hospital gloves and making a grabbing action. Below the hands and in a smaller size will be an image of Madeline. The fact that she’s smaller than the hands will connote her inferiority and powerlessness. Madeline will be making a direct mode of address with the audience and have a vulnerable facial expression. She’ll be wearing a white dressing gown that is stained with blood at the bottom. White will connote her purity and innocence, the use of the red blood at the bottom of the dress will indicate to the audience her innocence has been tainted and she’s been violated in a way. Madeline will be clinging on to a ragged doll. The doll will be dangling from Madeline’s small hands. The title of the film will be in capital letters in italics at the bottom of the poster, positioned in the middle. The title of the film will be in black or red to connote evil and danger. Below this, in smaller font will be the tag line.

Concept 3:

The poster will have a black background. The image will involve of a ball of white knitting yarn. As the yarn goes on the color will become darker, symbolizing our character Madeline’s, journey from innocence to evil.  The end of the yarn will be unfolded and will be in red, indicating that it’s been used in a wicked way. The tag line of the film will be repeatedly, embedded in to it in black, in small font. The title of the film will be at the bottom of the poster, positioned in the middle. This will be in large font. The title, Indelible will be in red to symbolize violence and danger. There will be a pair of hands above this holding a sharp, pointy, silver needle.

Concept 4:

The posters main image will be a ragged, scruffy doll, lying on the floor. The doll will almost resemble the main character, Madeline. The doll will be wearing a white dress and have dark hair. Where the doll lies there’ll be a puddle of deep red blood to connote forcefulness and endangerment. There will be a spotlight on the doll to create an idea everyone’s watching her. The rest of the poster will be in low- key lighting, symbolizing the badness of the world. The title of the film will be placed in the middle at the bottom of the poster. It will be in black writing, connoting evil and wickedness. Below this in small font and curly writing will be the tag line.

We have decided to go with concept one. After speaking to our target audience we believe this image will be the most powerful, in indicating our message. By having a puppeteer image we’ll be able to symbolize oppression and domination as well as show how peoples past can control their present lives and future. thus, giving our audience a hint about out film.

Audience Profile

Audience profile from farheen180

Draft Script

Draft script from farheen180

Final proposal for Print Ad

Draft Print Advert Proposal + Audience Feedback

Treatment for Film

Title of Film: Indelible

Tagline of Film: TBC

Production Name: Grimm Productions

Medium: Audio-Visual

Duration of Product: 5 minutes

Certification: 15

Target Audience: Psychographics:  15-30

Explorer – A person who likes to try out different things such as exploring new brands, films, books etc. They also like to be adventurous and gain new experiences. By watching our short horror film they will gain awareness about the unspoken social issue that is FGM. In addition a large group of our target audience will be students, students regularly visit cinemas to escape reality and relieve stress from schoolwork.

Reformer- A person who is curious and conscious of social issues. As our film is about a very taboo issue it should attract the attention of these members of our target audience who are in higher education and are very curious and conscious of social issues, they should also be capable of working out the title. They’d be excited for a film referring to social issues like FGM, as it’s not a common film topic.

Demographics:

E- This would include students and casual workers who are suited for our target audience. This is as they would want a break from work and studying and our horror film would be perfect for a night of relaxing.

B- Our film would target these people because it’s for those who are creative like media studies teachers. They can watch our film and be critics in a way as they’re interested in a new film that’s adventuring to a serious social issue and see if it’s controversial or misrepresenting anyway.

Synopsis of Film

                Start – A young girl, Madeline takes in her very last moments of being an orphan as she awaits to be adopted. Her social worker and new parents discuss her difficult past as she nervously waits. She walks out of the orphanage for the last time, hand in hand with her parents. They soon make it to her new house. Her parents welcome her into their home and show her the room they prepared for her.

                Middle – Settling into her new room, she begins to unpack some of her boxes, when she comes across a ragged doll, a reminder of her traumatic past. As she looks at the doll, a series of flashbacks are triggered. She attempts to forget the evil of her past but eventually gives in.

                End – A few months later she’s settled and eating her dinner. As her mum serves her some food she tells Madeline she’s going to be a big sister. She decides to leave her new sister a gift, a gift she was given in her past. Madeline leaves a note and her doll on the bed of her sisters. An evil symbol of her past, indicating the dark cycle of torture hasn’t ended just yet.   

Main Characters:

-          Character 1: Madeline the main character, a quiet and reserved young girl, barely speaks. Wears loose clothing.

-          Character 2: Man that performs the procedure on her, evil, despicable

-          Character 3: Mother that adopts her, kind, caring, loving, soft voice, stereotypical mum

-          Character 4: Father that adopts her, similar traits to the mother

-          Character 5: Social worker, cares for the young girl, has seen many bad things

Key Scenes:

Key scene 1 – The film begins with a tracking shot of the camera going down a dark small hallway in a loose frame. Lights will begin to flicker in low key, mid lighting. You’ll occasionally hear the diegetic sound of lights flickering. This will be the only sound in this scene, other than the ambient sound of the lights flickering; there will be an eerie silence, building anticipation and suspense. The camera will then smoothly stop. At this moment the camera then comes upon a rusty, filthy metal door with a bloody door handle. Our titles and opening credits appear, embedded and scratched into the door, ending with the title of our film.

Key scene 2 – The camera then cuts to a hand held shot of the inside of the room, in a distorted loose frame. The shot will be shaky and blurry. The scene will be very dark, with distant lights flickering. We hear the diegetic sound of muffled voices and footsteps as well as the ambient sound of tools clanging against the metal surface and each other. The camera shot becomes slightly clearer and then pans over numerous tools, covered in dry blood. We repeatedly see glimpses of these tools and splatters of blood on a surgery table. A larger pair of hands then appears in the frame, wearing a pair of white gloves, cleaning a scalpel articulately; he then drops the scalpel. This shot merges into the next scene.

Key scene 3 – The camera cuts to a bird’s eye view of the social worker picking up a pen from the floor, she walks out of the frame. The camera cuts to a close-up shot of Madeline’s legs swinging on a chair as she fidgets, connoting her nervousness. Her body language is uneasy as she plays and fiddles with her hands. We hear the diegetic, ambient sound of muffled speech in the background. The speech becomes more clear as we hear the social worker in a diegetic dialogue say “She’s been through a lot”, indicating to the audience Madeline has had a traumatic past. The camera slowly pans up to Madeline’s face as the parents and social worker continue to converse. Madeline’s face is revealed for the first time. Her facial expression is straight and emotionless. We see her stand up slowly and stand in between her foster parents and social worker in a mid-four shot. We hear the social worker say “I’m sure you’ll love your new home, Madeline” and her new mum say “yeah, honey your bedrooms all set, come on you’ll love it”, in a diegetic dialogue. The camera cuts to a close-up of the mother squeezing Madeline’s shoulder. The speech turns muffled again as Madeline and her parents walk away from the frame. The camera zooms into Madeline’s face, showing her expressionless face as we hear a quiet, distant “bye Madeline” from the social worker. The camera fades, continuing to the next scene.

Key scene 4 – The camera reveals an establishing shot of Madeline’s new home, during the day, making the audience aware of where most of the film is going to be set. As we see this shot, we hear her mum say “this is your new room”, in an excited, soft tone. The dialogue acts as a sound bridge, carrying onto the next scene, which takes place in the house.

Key scene 5 – As we hear her mum say “this is your new room”, the camera cuts to a close-up of the back of Madeline’s parents, showing her into her new room. We hear her dad say “why don’t you get settled, while we prepare lunch”.  The camera cuts to a wide-shot of her parent’s hands softly placed on her shoulder, as her dad says this. The camera tracks Madeline into her room as she looks around the room. In a long shot we see her turn the lights on and off repeatedly, the camera tracks her into a close-up of her looking at some items on her dresser. The camera pans over these items, it cuts back to her flicking through a book.

Key scene 6 – The camera cuts to a long shot of Madeline slowly sitting on the floor, we see her struggle to fold her legs. The camera cuts to a loose frame of her sitting on the floor in front of her unpacked boxes. In a wide shot we see her pick some items out. She then stops and stares intensely into the box, indicating to the audience something has grabbed her attention. We see her slowly bring out a doll. The camera cuts to a close-up of the tattered doll, connoting to the audience the doll holds some significance to her. The camera cuts to a close-up of Madeline as she closes her eyes tightly. The camera sharply cuts to the next scene.

Key scene 7 – The camera abruptly cuts to a flashback, from Madeline’s point of view. We hear the diegetic sound of her breathing heavily, as well as the ambient sound of metal clanging as we see blurry shots of the setting around her.

Key scene 8 – The camera rapidly cuts back to her sitting in her room as she opens her eyes, startled. Her eyes grow wider as we hear the diegetic sound of her breathing heavily.

Key scene 9 – The camera tersely cuts to another flashback. In a close-up shot we see Madeline’s hands being held down against a surgery table. The camera tilts upwards, showing one of her hands tightly clutching onto the doll. The camera pans to her other hand, shaking violently.

Key scene 10 – Another flashback shows a close-up of her feet being tied down as we see her reluctantly shake her legs, trying to escape the bonds. We hear the diegetic muffled screams of Madeline.

Key scene 11 –  The camera then cuts back to present time. In a close-up, we see tears rolling down her face as we continue to hear her breathing heavily. The camera swiftly cuts to another flashback.

Key scene 12 – It pans across the tools on a table surface, covered in blood. We see blood dripping down the table and surgery bed. The camera cuts to a close- up shot of needles and sewing equipment, hinting at our FGM idea to the audience.

Key scene 13– The camera cuts back to a present day, we see her squeezing and gripping the doll, she holds her head as she cries in frustration.

Key scene 14 – The camera suddenly cuts to the last flashback. In a close-up shot we see a hand over her mouth, while we hear the diegetic sound of muffled weeping. We see tears coming out of her eyes, while she shakes her head weakly. We hear the diegetic sound of her say no, in a quiet volume and defeated tone.  

Key scene 15 – The camera cuts back to present day. In a wide shot we see cry heavily as she scratches her face in frustration.

Key scene 16 – Her breathing slowly calms down, she grabs the doll tightly with both hands and wipes away her tears and then smiles creepily at the doll.

Key scene 17 –The screen fades to a wide shot of leaves falling of trees, while text appears on the screen, reading a few months later. This shows a change in time for the audience.

Key scene 18– The camera cuts to a long shot of a dinner table, with Madeline sitting at the head of it. Her mum is standing next to her serving her afternoon tea. In an excited tone, she tells Madeline “your father got caught up at work so he couldn’t join us for dinner; It’s just us tonight and I guess I get the lovely chance to tell you that you’ll have a little sister soon”. The camera zooms into Madeline’s face. She stops what she’s doing and freezes. Her facial expression is blank. In a diegetic dialogue, we hear her mum continue to say “isn’t that great, now you’ll have someone to play with you and your doll’. Madeline glances at her doll, then directly looks at the camera.

Key scene 19 – The camera cuts to a Dutch angle shot, it tracks her walking up the stairs, holding her doll by the hand as it dangles around. The camera tilts downwards, showing a close-up of the doll swaying.

Key scene 20 – In a wide shot we see Madeline walk into her room. She rummages through a draw. We see her pull out a pen and paper and scribble something down forcefully, from the back. The camera circles around her, stopping at a close-up of her looking down at the paper.

Key scene 21 – The camera cuts to her entering the new Childs room. From the back, we see her place the doll on the bed and then she places the note in the hands of the doll. The camera cuts to a side view of Madeline smiling at what she’s put on the bed as she takes a couple of steps backwards. The camera zooms into the note, revealing her message for her new sister. The camera cuts to a long shot of Madeline staring at the note from outside the room. Staring at the camera Madeline shuts the door. At this moment, the screen darkens, indicating the end of the film.

Draft Treatment for film

Draft treatment of film from NuzhatMA