Budget

We have decided on a budget of $55 million, it is quite high in comparison to other thriller films, but this is because we have a handful of well known actors and actresses, such as Morgan Freeman. The film is located in New York –and the protagonist is rich, living in a high class apartment.

Production log

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Animatic

Animatic for group title sequence 

https://youtu.be/0Cwn4XpjS5I

Saul Bass questionnaire responses

Saul Bass questionnaire

6.Storyboards

First drafts of storyboard for title sequence 

Part 1 - Starting from top left box, continues across to the right for all pages

Part 2

Part 3 

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Part 6 

General research for group title sequence

American Psycho

American Pyscho is a drama/slasher film. It is about 'Patrick Bateman is handsome, well educated and intelligent. He is twenty-seven and living his own American dream. He works by day on Wall Street, earning a fortune to complement the one he was born with. At night he descends into madness, as he experiments with fear and violence.' - IMDb. 

The film was adapted from the original novel and produced by Lionsgate. The story is set in New York amongst the 1980s Wall Street fall. Patrick Bateman plays an investment banker but is also the film's narrator. The film stars Christian Bale, William Dafoe, Jared Leto, Reese Witherspoon, Josh Lucas, Chloe Sevigny, Samantha Mathis, Cara Seymour, and Justin Theroux. 

Dexter

'Dexter Morgan, Miami Metro Police Department blood spatter analyst, has a double life. When he's not helping the Homicide division solving murders, he spends his time hunting and killing bad guys that slip through the justice system. He spends his sun-drenched days solving crimes - and moonlit nights committing them. But not to worry, our cool-blooded Dexter doesn't kill just anyone. He reserves his homicidal hobbies to taking only the lives of other killers.' - IMDb

Narrative treatment in Todorov

Todorov's narrative structure

Equilibrium:

Our main character lives with a strict family and is ruled over by her wealthy parents. She is forced into doing feminine activities such as flower arranging or gardening etc. 

Disruption:

She becomes interested in this one particular flower called Wolf's Bane. Otherwise known as Women's Bane or Devil's Helmet and her interest soon brings her Father his death because of its deadly poison. His case of death is masked as a natural heart attack instead of poison which saves her from being suspected. Our main character was not affected because she wore gloves. 

Disequilibrium:

In her future life, as a successful woman now, she coincidentally comes across the same flower again which triggers the memory of killing her Father in the past. She becomes curious again about the flower again and ends up killing another man. This gives her pleasure and satisfaction so she chooses to continue killing. She decides to only target men and lures them in by seducing them. 

Attempt to restore equilibrium:

A detective starts to watch her and tries to catch onto her and her serial killings to prove of all her crimes. She soon realises that she is being watched so she tries to keep them away. 

New equilibrium:

Our main character chooses to end her own life by using the same flower on herself so that she can keep control on her own life because she doesn't want to be dominated by others. The cause of our main character's death gives the narrative an ironic ending because the film ends how the film has started. 

Continuity Sequence (Group work)

Continuity Sequence 
by Maddie Hodge, Maddie Brownlow, Niamh McHugh and Kelly Loi 

The link below will take you to our video:
https://youtu.be/lQ6vC-Uoh0I

Our continuity sequence revolves around two girls (Kelly as murderer and Maddison H as victim). The story begins when the two girls pass each other coincidentally and barge though one another. Maddie then mysteriously gets a text message saying 'Run' after and is forced to try and find a way out in order to escape from the unknown. 

Typography

Potential fonts for title of title sequence (Group work)

(meant to be *Women's instead of Woman's)

Because of our film's narrative, as a group we thought that it had an American-noir feeling to it therefore I thought that it would be fitting for the font to be thick and bold. Considering the serious and dark narrative, the typography for the title should also connote that and it's genre. However, it was suggested amongst the group that it would be interesting if the fonts changed orderly and be different, depending on each scene specifically. For example, if our main character was drinking coffee, the font shown for that scene would be elegant and handwritten. This would help the credits to blend in better with the actual scene and become part of it but it would also make it more interesting for the eyes of the audience because of the variety of sizes and texture of the fonts. 

Research into title sequence designer

Kyle Cooper powerpoint by Kelly and Maddie B 
Shown with print screens from powerpoint

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Saul Bass powerpoint by Niamh and Maddie H
Shown with print screens from powerpoint

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Genre

Codes/conventions of slasher/drama genre

Slasher

Slashers will always have a monster, or killer whom is usually unknown until right till the end of the film.The killer is often to been seen as understandable and pitiful, which is typically backed up by a background story of the killer's past that usually reveals a traumatic event and that would explain the reasons why and how the killer chooses to kill his victims.

The killer is also placed in a quiet settlement, or in a suburban town, and this helps to keep a sense of fright into the audience because it is a place where you would consider to be guarded in. The location is commonly isolated and far from civilization where there would be lots of crowds and noise. The lighting is used to add suspense and is typically dark, or of low-key lighting, and this helps to emphasize mystery by manipulating the shadows of the characters. The victims are often young adolescents that are either being punished for being involved in illegal activities or activities that make it easier for the predator to prey upon them such as being unaware of their surroundings. 

Drama

Drama films will exhibit real life situations with realistic characters, settings and narrative. It generally portrays journeys of the main characters and the narrative's purpose is to move the audience emotionally. The heart of drama is the conflict and that includes realistic struggles depicting hardship and pain and usually, dramas will have relatable characters so the audience will eventually build an emotional attachment to them. The drama genre can be interlaced with other genres such as comedy, romance, etc. 

Dramas will use low-key lighting to give it a gritty and dull nature and will use a lot of low angles and high angles due to the amount of conflict. Typical props that you will nearly always see are guns, knives, phones, and other violent props because this helps build the tension and sense of danger within the scene. Settings that are commonly used are tall, dark flats, streets, neighbourhoods, schools or workplaces because conflict is easily and regularly found in these types of locations.