Make-up for Dead Girl

We need very realistic corpse make-up on the girl, in order to give clues that she is dead, however not to exaggerated to distract from the other elements in the scene.

For her face, we would like to use grey, blue, and green tones to give a dead-look to the girl.

We will also use small hints of red and purple to show signs of bruising and cuts.

On her limbs, fingers/ nails, I want to use deep blues and greens to show her cold body and also when a person dies blood leaves the limbs thus giving a blue tinge to the skin. We will also use make-up to give the impression of gangrenous fingers and nails. 

I really like this video tutorial because the make-up is very close to how I want it on the shoot. 

I think the make-up for the finger is perfect to use on the girls toenails:

Costume: Why we chose it

Why:

We chose the colour white because it is pure and it represents her innocence. We also decided this dress because it is realistic that she would be buried in this. This also gives the audience a feel of sympathy towards her because the dress shows her being very angelic.

We made the man wear ordinary clothing to show the audience that he is no different to you or the people that surround you. We made him wear gloves it tells the audience that he wants to leave no trace. 

We also decided for the man to wear a fedora hat because for at the end of the thriller there will be a silhouette of him with the hat showing, and by having the hat connotes that he is going out.  

Costume: Back-up

Back-up for Costumes

In case we cannot buy the items of clothing, we will ask the actor to bring their own clothes, e.g. gloves.

In case we do not get the dress, the actress playing the dead girl would bring a white dress which she would wear. Mia is aware that we will dirty and stain her dress if we use it.

Additionally the school’s theatre department would be useful to source costumes for the scene. 

Costume: Cost

Girls Costume:

Overall, the girls costume would cost £15 if we ordered online.

Man’s Costume:

For the man we would buy the gloves, hat, tie and coat, these main items of clothing would cost £90 altogether. Other items of clothing such as the black pants, white shirt, and black shoes would be brought in by the actors themselves because they are items of clothing most older males would have. Additionally it saves money of our budget.

Costume: What are they?

What:

The girl will be wearing a white gown that she is buried in. It is a white long sleeve chiffon  maxi dress that we will stain with mud. In order to give an aged effect and to make it appear that she has been dug up from her grave.

The man will be wearing a simple white shirt with a dark olive green tie with black trouser. His main item of clothing will be a black thick wool coat. He also will be wearing a hat called a fedora as he leaves and black leather gloves.

Inspirations of Girls costume

                                                                                             

Inspirations of Man’s costume

Picture of Actor (Mike)

This is a picture of Mike. He will be playing the older psychopath, he will be dressed in a black coat with black gloves and hat.

Picture of Actor (Mia)

This is a picture of Mia she will be playing the dead girl. She will be playing the 16 year old girl and will be dressed in a flowing white maxi dress.

Hair Brushes Research

I have researched various types of antique hair brushes that would inspire the design of the hairbrush in the opening sequence. I think that the use of an antique hairbrush, creates a classic romantic tone to the scene and also connotes a sense of femininity, purity and beauty; this juxtaposes with the idea that the girl is dead and the dark nature of the opening sequence. 

These are various antique hairbrushes

Casting

Casting:

Girl: Mia McCallum - We choose Mia because we believe she has the right look for the thriller opening.

Our backup actress would be Edwarda Agunita 

Man: Mike Timson - I feel that the contrast between older and younger characters create an uncomfortable juxtaposition. 

Our backup actor would be Mike Niland

How I would Market my Film

To garner a profit from the film, I would issue a wide cinema release, across large chain cinema’s such as Odeon in the United Kingdom, Cineplex in Canada and Regal Cinemas in the USA. After a wide cinema release the film would go to pay per view for viewers to purchase or rent at home. In addition, I would have the main cast go on tour in many countries to premier the film. In the case of merchandising, I felt that in Halloween we should release make-up set and a costume replica of that worn in the film’s opening sequence.

Paramount’s SVP of Marketing has stated that the company target audience are males and females aged between 21 to 29, because they represent a vast age group in the population and as well have a more varied interest of films to watch than the generation before them.

Overall I feel that due to Paramount Pictures history in producing ground-breaking films and their status in the film industry, they would be most suitable in producing my thriller.

Paramount's Ethos/Budget and Speciality

Paramount is known for its big budget films, such as Titanic (1997) which had a budget of 200 million. Their films are also known to be some of the highest grossing ever, for example Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011) which grossed over 1 billion.

 Due to being one of the film industry’s biggest companies, Paramount, has worked with a long list of high profile actors, such as Leonardo Di Caprio and Angelina Jolie. Hence, I feel that Paramount would be a good company to produce and distribute the film, because we would have the possibility to cast big actors; additionally the companies notoriety in the film industry would help in marketing the film and increase profits.

 Paramount also produces a wide variety of films, of different genre’s, therefore I feel that our thriller would fit very well with the companies ethos, as it would open them to a larger market of young people and as well add to the companies varied portfolio.

Paramount try to grasp a large demographic from their films, therefore they release films of various genre’s in order to appease the varied consumer interest.

Here is a link to Paramount Pictures website: http://www.paramount.com/

Films that they have produced and are releasing this year

Which Institution would Produce my Film

The film company that I would choose would be Paramount Pictures. I decided this from researching the films they have produced and the critical reception of the audience.

One film that was produced by Paramount and is similar in its conventions to my thriller opening sequence is the movie Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock . In the ending of the film it is revealed that Norman Bates mother is dead, he keeps her skeleton dressed up in his basement. This is very similar to our thriller where a dead girl is being dressed up by a ‘Psycho’ . When the film Psycho was released it was ground-breaking in its conventions and themes and I feel that Paramount would be the right company to take on a project like ours and deliver a shocking and re-vitalised film of the thriller genre.

Our Storyboard

This is our storyboard for our Thriller Idea 'Dammia'

Storyboard drawn by Amr
Edited and Written by Natasha, Olly and Naomi

What is and How Are Storyboards Used in the Film Industry

Since the production of movies storyboards have become a fundamental process of the pre-production stage.

A storyboard shows shot to shot of what happens in the scene and shows what is inside the frame, it also allows to plan the timing/duration of a shot, location, Camera angle/movement, Sound and Lighting

Storyboards are visual aids for the crew and director of a film, they simplify the scenes into a simply and comprehendible structure. They help plan the ideas of a film and as well are easy to re-arrange and experiment with in case the director wants to try something differently. Additionally, it helps give a sense to how the scene will be filmed and what will be inside the frame. It also saves a lot of time and money in pre-production instead of doing complicated CGI storyboards; it allows more time for changes to the scene and is cost-efficient. It also is helpful for the editor in post-production because it gives them a sense of the directors perspective. Lastly, It helps everyone to be organised on the same page when filming.

Nowadays, films are becoming much more expensive and technical to film and storyboards help save time and money in pre-production. It gives a simple and clear of the directors views and intentions.

Here are some famous Storyboards:

The Bridge

Psycho

Harry Potter

Star Wars

'Dammia' Thriller Pitch: Outline, Casting and Location

Test Shoot:

Feedback and New Scene Outline

Feedback:

After pitching our idea we received various feedback to improve and fix a few elements to the opening sequences:

• The girl should be dead , in order to avoid the stereotype of a girl being drugged up. We decided that the girl will be the man’s dead sister, which he has dug up from a grave

• We have removed the teddy bear and the shots of the clock ticking.One of the points was to show more parts of her getting ready instead of just the face. E.g. nails painted, corset being tied.

• We were also told that the man should show more affection towards the girl. More care and love like a brother and sister relationship.

• Additionally, the needle of the record player should hit the end of run. 

New Scene Outline:

•       Sink, water coming out

•       Brushing teeth

•       Dribble it out

•       Hair in sink, mud washing out

•       Pan of dressing table 

•       Eyelashes being curled

•       Hair Dryer blowing hair

•       Eyeliner being put on 

•       Mascara being put on

•       Record player

•       Brushing dirt of nails

•       Brush hitting powder

•       Powder putting on girl

•       Lip stick being taken out

•       Lip stick being put on lips

•       Dress/corset being tightened

•       Brushing of hair

•       Needle of record hits the end

•       Nails being painting  

•       Curling hair

•       Mans hand record being turned off 

•       Picking up leather gloves

•       Cotton swab cleaning dirt of toe nails

•       Leather gloves being put on by man

•       Girls blue feet shown.

•       Man walks out

•       Black out.

The parts highlighted in gold are the addition and changes we have made to the original scene outline

Reflection of test shoot

Reflection on test shoot:

During our shoot and after editing, we discovered some changes we would like to make to the opening sequence.  Overall, I felt that our test shoot was a really gave the sense of a thriller, the shots we took conveyed a very tense and eerie vibe. The shots we filmed (e.g. lipstick being applied on lips) kept the audience on edge. Additionally, the ambiguous situation placed the audience in a threatened situation, thus amplifying the tension.

The pace of the opening sequence could be faster, we could cut between shots faster, and slightly extend some shot s in order to create a contrast and variety between shot lengths. The length of the test shoot was 1:45 minutes, therefore we could add more shots of make-up being applied and shots of the room to increase the length up to 2 minutes.

The idea we are trying to convey is clear to the audience to a certain extent. I feel that we should add more clues that she has been kidnapped. However the challenge, would be to give more information of her being kidnapped, however maintain the mystery and tension of ‘who is applying the make-up’. We could re-organise the shots in order to start giving very small clues mid-way through the clip, so by the end it the audience would understand that she is not applying her make-up.

I believe that tension was successfully created in our test-shoot. This was especially seen with the diegetic sound of the hair-brush pulling her hair and the toothbrush brushing her teeth. Small elements and details within the clip created a tense environment.

We would prefer to have more variety of camera angles to create a more interesting aspect to the footage. When filming our real thriller we would like to use a Macro-lens in order to get closer to the subject (girl) especially when filming details such as the eye-liner being applied and blush powder floating in the air. We need to include different camera angles and movement to give another dynamic to the clip rather than use many close-up shots focusing on the girl. This would also affect the pace e.g. close-ups tend to make the pace faster whilst long-shots generally slow down the pace.

We need to add more hints that she is not getting ready herself in order to create a more uncertain and mysterious element to the clip. It would also confuse the audience more which will keep them intrigued until they discover that she is being dressed up by the grown man.

I think generally there weren’t any major problems that we encountered whilst filming however there are many features that we could develop, for example: The sound of the brush pulling her hair. We could extract this sound and amplify and stretch the sound to make it more dramatic and emphasis the moment.

Overall, I feel that the test shoot has efficiently used the thriller conventions to create a suspenseful tone to the piece. We have all the elements to create the opening sequence; however we just need to develop some of the ideas and increase the length of the clip, in order to get an impactful, opening sequence.

These are photos of the filming process

 (photos provided by Natasha Hall):

Test Shoot Video

Footage of the Rehearsal Shoot:

We carried out a test shoot, for our thriller idea to give us an understanding of what our idea would look like on camera. We had to prepare all the props (make-up) and as well figure out the layout of the set. We planned, and understood the logistics of filming at extreme close-ups; and the lighting angles to use, because when the make-up was applied the shadow of the other actor covered the girl. It helped us to learn how to film the subject because the make-up being applied is a very awkward movement to capture when you are at very close proximity to the actor.  The test shoot also helped us in pitching our idea and giving people a visual understanding of our thriller. 

Below is the attached test shoot, that we filmed and edited.

 By Olly, Natasha, Naomi and Amr

Outline of Concept Idea and Pre-production plans

Dammia Thriller

It starts with a close-up shot of a girl brushing her teeth. It then cuts to the girls eyelashes being curled with an eye-lash curler. It then cuts to of a shot of a pill bottle which is spilled with pills on the table, this connotes she has been drugged . Then it cuts back to the girl putting on mascara, putting on blush and then lipstick. Then you see a man’s hand reach out and turn on the radio. All the make-up is put on very badly and messy. It cuts to a shot of the girl brushing her hair. Then the hand of a man turns the radio off. The audience then realizes that the girl was being dressed up by the man. There is a dolly out of the room. The man walks out, leaving the girl behind. 

(Dammia is Arabic for Doll)

Pre-production:

List of locations you need:

·       Bedroom (substitute school common room)

·       Later on we plan on constructing a bedroom in the studio.

Characters you need:

·       Girl aged 16-18 (used Naomi 16 years old)

·       Man aged 40+ (used Amr, 16 years old)

Is there a way around a difficult shoot:

·       We needed a bedroom, we used a common room instead. We used an old DVD player, but we wanted to use a record player.

What props do you need:

·       Hair brush

·       Tooth paste

·       Tooth brush

·       Mascara

·       Eyeliner

·       Lipstick

·       Eye Lash Curler

·       Blush

·       Make-up Brush

·       Eye-liner

·       Record Player