I've e-mailed Clare and Mike to make sure they remember about tomorrow. I've also asked Clare whether it's comfortable for her to meet at the top car park tomorrow, as she's offered to drive us to Peaslake.
Wednesday 25 January 2017
*Thriller Interview*: discussing the mise-en-scene.
In this video I'm talking about why did me and my group made certain decisions about our thriller.
Similar products: films.
Looking for films, that are similar by theme to our thriller - is actually quite helpful, as you get a sense of confidence that your product has a place on the market, especially if the previous films with the similar idea had a bit of a success.
'Sleeping with the enemy'
'Julia Roberts and serious drama may not exactly go hand-in-hand. On top
of that, this movie tends to veer into "not so good" territory. But
there are several scenes that are downright frightening, as the story of a
woman who faked her death to escape her abusive husband only to have her
husband track her down, takes center stage. Julia's demented husband is
rele
'Burning Bed'
''For its time, this movie tackled an issue that many people were uncomfortable
talking about, leading many women to suffer in silence. Based on the true story
of abuse victim Francine Hughes, who suffered thirteen years of abuse, this
movie is about the night she set fire to her husband as he slept. She was later
found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. The bruises on her face were
reason enough to justify her actions.'
'What's love got to do with it?'
The story of Ike and Tina Turner has been well-documented. Tina
eventually plucked up the courage and strength to leave Ike, the man who had
helped elevate her music career. In the process, Ike robbed her not only of
every penny she had earned, but also had robbed her of her humanity. There are
a number of scenes in the movie that make for tough viewing, but Ike's brutal
beating of his wife in the back of a car stands out in particular.
A scene from the 'What's love got to do with it?'
'Private Violence'
'Private Violence' is a 2014 American
documentary film directed and produced by Cynthia Hill. The film is a gripping
story of domestic violence survivors. A domestic-violence victim turns advocate
to seek justice for all violence survivors. The film premiered in the U.S.
Documentary Competition program at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival on January
19, 2014, and it ended up winning the Candescent Award!'
'Love, Honour and Disobey'
'Domestic violence in
all forms—from physical abuse to forced marriages to honour killings—continues
to be frighteningly common worldwide and accepted as “normal” within too many
societies. Getting to the heart of current multicultural debates, ‘Love, Honour
and Disobey’ reveals the issues around domestic violence in Britain’s black and
ethnic minority communities through the eyes of the Southall Black Sisters, a
small group of women who have been working to combat abuse for more than 25
years.'
A shot part from 'Love,
Honour and Disobey'.
Overall, all of those films are only similar with what we're planning to do by the main idea: domestic violence and women abuse.
However, most of them are not what we're planning to do in terms of camera work + most of them are documentaries, whether we are filming a thriller film.
Similar products: books.
Unsurprisingly, when I was researching books about domestic violence to find similar products for our thriller - I've found lots, what means this problem is quite common in society today.
Some examples of the books I've found:
'Why does he do that?'
Only on Amazon this book was reviewed 314 times, and 284 out of these people gave it 5 stars.
"In this groundbreaking bestseller, Lundy Bancroft - a counselor who specializes in working with abusive men--uses his knowledge about how abusers think to help women recognize when they are being controlled or devalued in a relationship, and to find ways to get free of abuse."
He says he loves you. So...why does he do that?"
'Abused men: the hidden side of domestic violence'
What's really interesting - on the same platform it was reviewed only 35 times, what suggests to us that men are less likely to become the victims of domestic violence than women.
"When most people think of domestic violence, images of battered women or abused children come to mind. But there is another side to this issue that is not as familiar―abused men. This unique book is the first to comprehensively examine this important but neglected social issue. Already praised by a diverse spectrum of readers―from Dear Abby's Abigail Van Buren, to the nation's leading domestic violence researcher, to those in law enforcement and counseling―this work is sure to spark controversy and discussion."
'Surviving domestic violence'
It's a wonder for me why this book is the least popular of all three - I find it's concept the most attractive. This is the kind of the book that could have helped our heroine in my opinion.
"'SURVIVING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE' tells the stories of twelve women. Each was a victim of domestic violence, escaped from her abuser, reclaimed her dignity, reconstructed her life, and rediscovered peace. Domestic violence doesn’t just happen "out there" somewhere. It happens in our town, in our neighborhood, on our street. It happens to women we see at work, the supermarket, the movie theater, the ballet and the PTA board meeting. Every woman who has left an abusive man—every woman who has yet to leave—will find encouragement and hope in the voices of these women who broke free."
______________________________________________________________________________
To sum up: Books seems to be the most popular source of making people aware about this problem. This may tell us that maybe be films about domestic violence may not be 100% appropriate as it may be a really sensitive topic for some people.
Similar products: video games.
In the process of finding similar products to our thriller - I've also looked at games.
Overall, there are a lot of female characters in games - both protagonists and antagonists - and most of them represented as smart strong women, who don't need help of men, which is similar to our lead villain.
On the other hand, most female characters in games are extremely oversexualised even when males from the same game are dressed normally.
Just compare the outfits of male and female characters from Mortal Combat! How is Ivy even supposed to fight in that?
Other examples of women being oversexualised in games:
Lara Croft from 'Tomb Raider':.
Kasumi from 'Dead or Alive 5'.
Quiet from 'Mental Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain'
This simple short research shows that even when people want to create a strong, independent female character - they still make her sexually attractive so that more people want to watch a film with her or play a game. Good for us we didn't do it.
However, I appreciate there are still many and many strong female characters in games, which you can look up too.
Personally, my fav female character in games is - Sarah Kerrigan.
She is a strong character, confident in herself. She also wears normal army suit:)
She becomes even more beautiful after the reborn. Which is kind of what happens to the female character in our thriller (apart from being infested by the Zerg Swarm, of course), but she starts new life!
Visual shot list: cartoons and gifs.
Shot 1: close-up of female's hands cutting vegetables.
Shot 2: mid-shot of her taking the wooden board and walking towards the frying pan.
Shot 3: close-up on her hands swiping the veges into the pan.
Shot 4: close-up on the pan, vegetables sizzle in oil.
Shot 5: mid shot of her putting the knife and cutting board down, the bruises on her hands are revealed.
Shot 6: close up on her face, we see a cut on the lip.
Shot 7: mid shot she takes a wooden spoon and starts to stir vegetables.
Shot 8: mid shot, she puts everything down and starts walking across the kitchen.
Shot 9: long panning shot, following her when she's walking to the cupboard
Shot 9: same long panning shot, but now there is a blurry figure on the background.
Shot 10: mid shot, she walks back to the pan with a lemon.
Shot 11: close up on the pan, she squeezes the lemon in.
Shot 12: mid shot of her taking the wooden spoon and mixing the vegetables, some ambient sound interrupts her.
Shot 13: close up on the woman, she is slightly frightened.
Shot 14: the sound repeats and she turns of the radio - a close up on her hand.
Shot 15: mid shot of the woman taking a knife and walking towards the sound - handheld shot.
Shot 16: long shot of her walking round the corner and seeing blood on the floor.
Shot 17: she sees a man on the floor, he is wounded and slowly crawls towards the door.
Shot 18: close up on his hands, which are nearly reaching the door handle.
Shot 19: close up on the woman, she looks angry and disturbed.
Shot 20: handheld shot, she throws away her knife, takes him by two feet and starts dragging him back.
Shot 21: long shot, she drags him back to the kitchen and throws on the floor next to the chair.
Shot 22: she takes the silver tape out of the cupboard and ties his hands to the chair.
Shot 23: over-the-shoulder shot from the man tied in the chair, we see the woman stepping back from him with the tape in her hands.
Shot 24: she walks back to the kitchen and turns on the radio.
Shot 25: she stands next to the pan and starts to chop - close up on her hands.
Shot 26: mid shot of the man, tied to the chair, he is still bleeding and looks terrified.
Shot 27: long shot, the man is trying to free himself from the tape.
Shot 28: close up on the woman, she hears him moving, she looks annoyed and irritated and throws the wooden spoon on the table with a loud sound.
Shot 29: she takes a knife from the table.
Shot 30: she turns around and starts moving towards the man.
Blackout.
Shot list: final draft.
1. Close
up, side shot from the right of the hands holding a knife (right hand) and a
capsicum, stretched from left to right, and quickly chopping the pepper on a
cutting board. Other vegetables, spices and mushrooms are lying around. After
the pepper is cut into small pieces, the board is lifted and moved to the left
above a frying pan. The sauce pan, comes into focus on the background as the
board is moved away.
2. Close
shot from the front of the hands, left hand holding the cutting board, right
hand the knife and swiping the pieces off the board onto the sauce pan, they
sizzle in oil. The board and the knife are then put down. Zoom out, the woman's
face is revealed, there is a big bruise on her right temple and a wound from a
punch on her bottom lip. A wooden spoon is picked up. The woman stirs the food
in the pan. Vegetables, spices and other cooking materials are lying next to
the stove.
3. Long
shot, of the woman from behind, she puts down the spoon, dries
her hands and walks to the right, tracking shot, the bruise on the temple is
visible. She reaches a cupboard, opens it to take out a lemon, when she closes it
we see a white figure in the blurry background in place of the cupboard's door.
The woman walks back to the stove, tracking shot, the figure is still there.
She stops by the stove and puts down the can to the left side.
4. High
angle shot, close up on the sauce pan, the right hand gets above it and
squeezes the juice out of half a lemon on the sauce. Then stirs the sauce with
the wooden spoon, holding it in the same hand. The woman licks a wooden spoon
to taste what she cooked. A tumbling noise comes in as an ambient sound, she
stops.
5. Close
up of the woman, she is mostly in the left side of the frame, looking ahead, a
sign of fear in her eyes. Another tumbling noise, she turns her head to look to
the right.
6. Close
up on the radio from the front and slightly the right side, the hand approaches
it and flicks the switch.
7. Medium
on the woman, she takes a knife out of the holder on her left side behind her,
uses right hand
8. Close
up of the woman from the same angle as in the shot 9, she walks in the
direction of the sounds, tracking shot.
9. Long
shot, very slow glide to the left, she walks around a corner, camera pushes
out, there is a curved trail of blood on the floor.
10. Medium shot from behind, tracking shot, she walks to the blood trail, it is on
her left side, slows down for a moment to look at it, then goes on until she
can see the door and a wounded man leaning against it, holding his left side
where the bleeding is, a pool of blood around him, very slow glide to the
right.
11. Close up on him, he is raising the left hand to pull the handle.
12. Close of the woman - she realises what he’s doing, she looks really angry and
disturbed, moves towards him, tracking shot and a push out, she throws away the
knife to her right side, grabs really angrily his feet and pulls it.
13. Close on the man, he falls on his back as he is moved away from the door and
hits the head, moans as he is dragged further, tracking shot. Blood trail is on
the floor under him.
14. Long
shot, stable, the woman enters the frame on the left side, her back to the
camera, dragging the man by two legs.
15. Close, side shot from the left of his hands on armrests of the chair, she wraps
the silver tape around each hand, tying himself to the armrests.
16. Over
the shoulder shot of the tied up man on the left part of the frame and the
woman on the right part of the frame stepping back with the tape in her hands,
looking at him, smiling. She then turns around to her left side, walks to the
kitchen in the background, turns on the music and continues to chop.
17. Mid shot of the man, slightly from the left, he is pale and sweating, staring
on the woman with horror, then glancing down on his taped hands. The blood
still flows out of the wound.
18. After a pause the man starts to move, as if attempting to free his hands from
the tape, and moans. Close up on the woman – she looks irritated. Throws a
wooden spoon on the stove with a loud sound. Grabs a knife, turns to a man and
starts walking towards him.
Blackout.
Shot list: second draft.
I've told George everything we need to correct in our shot list and he said he'll do it himself. Yesterday, he's send me a second draft of the shot list, where he added some of the points we've made during the meeting. He's also send a copy to our group chat, so that Aidan and Harriet could read it as well:
"1 Close up, side shot from the right of the hands holding a knife (right hand) and a capsicum, stretched from left to right, and quickly chopping the pepper on a cutting board. Other vegetables, spices and mushrooms are lying around. After the pepper is cut into small pieces, the board is lifted and moved to the left above a frying pan. The sauce pan, with yellow sauce inside (like a curry) comes into focus on the background as the board is moved away.
2 Close shot from the front of the hands, left hand holding the cutting board, right hand the knife and swiping the pieces off the board onto the sauce pan. The board and the knife are then put down. Zoom out, the woman's face is revealed, there is a big bruise on her right temple and and a wound from a punch on her bottom lip. A wooden spoon and a half full bottle of red wine are picked up, bottle in the right hand, spoon in the left hand. The woman pours the wine into the pan and stirs. Vegetables, spices and other cooking materials are lying next to the stove.
3 Long shot, of the woman from behind, she puts down the spoon and the bottle, dries her hands and walks to the right, tracking shot, the bruise on the temple is visible. She reaches a cupboard, opens it to take out a can, when she closes it we see a moving white figure in the blurry background in place of the cupboard's door. The woman walks back to the stove, tracking shot, the figure gets out of the frame. She stops by the stove and puts down the can to the left side.
4 High angle shot, close up on the sauce pan, the right hand gets above it and squeezes the juice out of half a lemon on the sauce. Then stirs the sauce with the wooden spoon, holding it in the same hand. A tumbling noise comes in as an ambient sound, she stops stirring.
5 Close up of the woman, she is mostly in the left side of the frame, looking ahead, a sign of fear in her eyes. Another tumbling noise, she turns her head to look to the right.
6 Close up on the radio from the front and slightly the right side, the hand approaches it and flicks the switch.
7 Close up of the woman from the same angle as in the shot 9, she walks in the direction of the sounds, tracking shot.
8 Long shot, very slow glide to the left, she walks around a corner, camera pushes out, there is a curved trail of blood on the floor
9 Medium on the woman, she takes a knife out of the holder on her left side behind her, uses right hand.
10 Medium shot from behind, tracking shot, she walks to the blood trail, it is on her left side, slows down for a moment to look at it, then goes on until she can see the door and a wounded man leaning against it, holding his left side where the bleeding is, a pool of blood around him, very slow glide to the right.
11 Close on him, he raises the left hand to pull the handle
12 Extreme close on the hand grabbing and turning the handle
13 Close of the woman staring at him coldly and angrily, she moves towards him, tracking shot and a push out, she throws away the knife to her right side, grabs his left leg and pulls it.
14 Close on the man, he falls on his back as he is moved away from the door and hits the head, moans as he is dragged further, tracking shot. Blood trail is on the floor under him.
15 Long shot, stable, the woman enters the frame on the left side, her back to the camera, dragging the man by two legs. She picks up the man and puts him on the chair next to it.
16 Close, side shot from the left of his hands on armrests of the chair, she wraps the silver tape around each hand, tying himself to the armrests.
17 Over the shoulder shot of the tied up man on the left part of the frame and the woman on the right part of the frame stepping back with the tape in her hands, looking at him. She then turns around to her left side, walks to the kitchen in the background, turns on the music and continues to chop.
18 Close up on the man, slightly from the left, he is pale and sweating, staring on the woman with horror, then glancing down on his taped hands
19 After a pause the man starts to move, as if attempting to free his hands from the tape, and moans. The woman stops chopping and turns around to her right side to look at him, holding a knife in the right hand.
Blackout."
However, there are still some parts I don't quite agree with, or which were somehow changed from our original story, so I replied him in Messenger with some corrections:
1) I don't think we need to add curry. Just let it be an empty pan before she throws veges into it.
2) I think we should reveal bruises a bit later, after she uses vine and just before she walks to the cupboard to build up the tension
3) When she comes to the cupboard the man doesn't move - he just sits there
4) We may add a shot where she licks the spoon to check the taste of the sauce - another shot where we can show her face and she still looks like a normal housewife
5) You also didn't add that she's quietly singing along the radio - I think it makes her look innocent and relaxed so the contrast then is bigger
6) She already walks after him in shot 8, but take a knife only in shot 9 - there must be a mistake
7) I don't think we need an extreme close up on the handle - it's not important + we may not be able to film it due to location
8. You wrote she looks coldly and angrily, but I think it was "she looses it"? She goes completely mad when she sees him
9) "he falls on his back" - if he's crawling on his stomach and then she grabs him he can't fall on his back, he'll fall on his stomach
10) guys, honestly, A WOMAN CAN'T LIFT UP A MAN and put him on a chair - he'll be too heavy for her, even if he doesn't resist. Clare wouldn't be able to lift Chris, or this would look terribly bad and unnatural. We have to re-think this part. Maybe, she just ties him to the chair with one hand, but he's still on the floor? Or, she just throws him on the floor - CAUSE HE CANT RUN AWAY ANYWAY - in reality she doesn't need to tie him up. And then she turns the second time when he tries to crawl away again - that's much more realistic.
11) I think we need to make the ending more horrible - lets do a black out when she starts to walk towards him. So he moves - she can do something like throwing a knife really angrily, then she turns to him, starts walking, and then a black out.
I don't want to be that picky, and I think George's done a good work, but I really want to make a good thriller sequence and to do that - we have to have a really good and detailed shot list on which we can rely. So we have to work hard and stretch ourselves further every time if we want to create something beautiful :D
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