The Ruin's Mist: Mise-En-Scene

Mise-en-scene being key in every film made, was considered while making this film opening, in order for it to be successful. We analysed the aspects of mise-en-scene in this film opening: costume, lighting, actors, make-up, props and setting .

Shot List

This is the shot list for 'The Ruin's Mist'. It shows the shots and camera movements we will use and it gives a brief description on what will happen during each shot.

Shot list from megabytes301198

Shooting Schedule

This is the shooting schedule for our film opening of The Ruin's Mist, this plans out our actions during filming and helps avoid confusion. Using this, we will be able to successfully film in an organized manner.

Shooting schedule - The Ruin's Mist from SeyiiO

Job roles

Megan and I shared the job roles of directing, producing, editing and camera operation according to our ability to excel in the tasks appointed to the jobs. This presentation states who does which job:

Job roles from megabytes301198

Storyboard

This is our storyboard for The Ruin's Mist, showing the shots, angles, settings, sounds, character actions, etc. Both a draft and final draft are shown in this presentation, both are different as some ideas were removed, placed and changed to construct the final.This was constructed to make filming and planning easier.

 Storyboarding from SeyiiO

Script

For our film opening, Megan and I produced a script which was drafted a few times in order to come up with a sense of enigma using lack of dialogue, create a storyline which is not to complex for the minds of our audience, and also have simplistic directions for our cast to follow.

The Ruin's Mist Script from megabytes301198










UPDATE
Megan had left the course, so new changes were made. This includes changes made to the script. Here is the new script:

New Script - The Ruin's Mist from SeyiiO

Pitches

Here, Megan and I are pitching our ideas for our film opening to the class in order to receive feedback. Even though they were not our target audience, they helped us choose which pitch was best and point out the flaws in our ideas.

 

 

We produced three ideas to pitch, excluding much detail to establish a sense of enigma and anticipation. The presentation includes the synopsis of each idea, our target audience, film title and genre.

 

Questions asked:

• Who came up with the ideas?
• Which pitch do we prefer?
• Do we know where all scene's will be located? 

This is the presentation we gave:

Pitches from SeyiiO

 

First pitch: Libra - who had kidnapped one half of the duo: Rayne and Ethan. She is seen using Ethan as a guinea pig, inflicting dark magical pain onto him. When Rayne finds him, she is confronted by Libra’s henchmen/girls.

Feedback: It is rather unrealistic and difficult to show the antagonist is practicing magic - in order to create a successful Fantasy/Thriller film effort will be needed in the special effects aspect so it does not end up tacky, and we need better resources which we don't have, to do so.

 

Second pitch: From a young age, Trinity is nurtured by the creepiness of her mother. On her first day of a new school – no one speaks to her. She finds a ring in the playground and puts it on: This ring transports her to the woods - where she ends up fallen on the ground. Someone appears in front of her.

Feedback: slightly difficult to do, but is a realistic idea. Is able to be fit in 2 minutes and has a good storyline for a film opening, it keeps the audience anticipated. a good transition from the school scene to the woodlands scene will create a more magical effect and help establish the fantasy in the film opening, it also needs little effort and be counted as the special effect aspect. A low angle shot should be in use to make the girl look more vulnerable after she is found on the ground in the woods. It may be slightly difficult to film on a playground with so many people around.

 

Third pitch: A group of friends go into the woods to play a game of truth or dare. There is a rustle in the bushes and a few of them gets suspicious. Suddenly, Marcy, clutches onto her leg and winces, everyone rushes to her side in order to help her. Rayne screams. Marcy has a large cut and blood dripping down her face.

Feedback: Good storyline, although too much like a horror film. It might be difficult to find as many actors to act in it. Creating fake blood it quite difficult to do.

 

The class had voted on their preferred pitch and chose the third idea. However, Megan and I overlooked the pros and cons of each pitches from the feedback given, and noticed the second pitch has minimal flaws compared to the others, and there was a good amount of people who voted the idea. So we chose the second pitch to do.



TA Member Profile

Name: Stephen Bunney

Age group: Over 35

Gender: Male

Occupation: Head of Boarding

Mr Stephen Bunney is a suitable member of our target audience because he is a male over 35 and likes thriller films as well as fantasy films.

Films:

He likes many genres and has a few favourites. His favourites are fantasy, comedy and action films. He says he still enjoy film noirs, older films were done more tastefully in his opinion. Romance films are also entertaining to him, he says he enjoyed The Notebook, not the 'irritating and tacky' romance in Twilight. He likes comedies, however he thinks it's almost as if they are not as funny as before, and they are just full of cheap and forced jokes.He loves old musicals like Grease and legendary action films like James Bond. Mr Bunney spends time watching films suitable for the age of children during his supervision and bonding time with children. This has developed his love for fantasy films, because they are popular amongst young people, and are the least inappropriate out of most genres, it keeps the children interested rather than distracted and bored. It also helps him relate with them as he feels there is no boring conversation one can have about a fantasy film. He says they satisfy his young soul.

Music:
He says the best songs are those with meaning and genuine feeling. His favourite songs are from the 50s and 60s, He loves them because they have a sense of humour and playfulness to them. He says their best characteristic is when they tell stories and jokes in the songs as if it isn't a song. He dislikes the music of this generation, like the music on the top 40 - to him they are noisy, and full of swear words and lyrics without meaning, moreover all the beats are copied. He says his favourite artist of this generation is Justin Bieber because, his new music is quite honest; Other than his music, he completely dislikes music of this generation. Jazz is one of his favourite genres, to him the sound of the saxophone is very calming.

TV:
He hates British soap operas like Eastenders, Hollyoaks, Corrie, Emmerdale and Holby City. He said likes cartoons, but not the 'rubbish' they have on Disney or Cartoon Network now. He prefers cartoons from the 50s - 70s, like Tom & Jerry, The Jetsons, Top Cat and The Flinstones. The most appealing part about them to him is subtle humour, in a sense of it not being obvious that one is meant to laugh. I don't think there is one person in the world who can watch one of those cartoons without genuinely wanting to laugh - there is humour in that kind of violence and insults.

Hobbies:
He said children have also increased his interest in entertainment. Not just to be entertained by things such as films and music, but to entertain others. He likes story telling, telling jokes, and dancing, however he claims 'he is not the best dancer,' but In events such as the Christmas dinner disco, he usually makes the party lively by gracing the dance-floor with his dance moves. He gets the children to join in and ends up teaching them the waltz and folk dances from when he was young. His story telling and jokes get me closer with children and reminds them that he is not a grumpy old man or a soulless disciplinarian. He likes mixology, he does not practice it, but simply appreciates the art, he feels it makes everything classier. Although he may really like jokes, but he absolutely hates racist jokes, he further commented - 'they are not amusing in any way and films like that should not be produced.' He hates cooking., but he likes reading the newspaper and playing Sudoku and crosswords at the back of it also. He likes taking care of children as it is in his job description and he is really good at it.

Target Audience Interviews

Megan and I conducted interviews with people in both our primary and secondary target audience:

• Primary: Males over 35
• Secondary: Females under 35

We had constructed a series of questions:

1. What are your opinions on fantasy films?
2. How do you feel about special effects?
3. Do you think added suspense to a fantasy film makes the film more interesting, and why?
4.  What aspects of fantasy/thriller do you most enjoy, and why?
5. What is your favourite fantasy/thriller film, and why?
6. What would you like to see more of within fantasy/thriller genre?
7. What are you tired/bored of in fantasy/thriller films?
8. What character types do you like most?

...and a few impromptu questions were added to receiver the best possible answers from our interviewees.

We had chosen two males and one female from our school to interview - these people told us a lot about what to include and exclude from our film opening according to their knowledge and opinions on our genre, in order for our target audience to enjoy it:

One of these people being Mr Hotchin who is of the age of our primary target audience (learned from our secondary research). However, he does not enjoy the aspects of fantasy/thriller films nor the already released popular fantasy/thriller films - for the only fantasy/thriller film he remembers he has watched is Lord of the Rings, which he found too long, too many killings and unrealistic. He felt fantasy/thriller films were boring, although he believes a good storyline can make it worth watching. He thinks a good fantasy/thriller should not be too reliant on special effects.

Another being Mr Johnson, who is also of the age of our primary target audience. He loves fantasy thriller films because it's less serious aspect makes him feel like a younger person at heart. He feels the storyline and the types of characters; heroes and villains make the film worth watching. He wants fantasy films to have more special effects, suspense and more 'fantasy' - over-the-top unusual ideas. He does not watch fantasy/thrillers for escapism but for the simple enjoyment and relaxation that comes with. He wants to see the villain have the positive outcome for once in a fantasy/thriller.

We also interview Miss Waterfall, who falls under the category of our secondary target audience. She likes fantasy/thriller films because it gives her a sense of escapism. She loves Harry Potter, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings - their involvement with being adapted from books contributes to the reason why the storyline is always interesting. She did not like Oz: The Great and Powerful because the storyline was rather 'messy.' She likes fantasy/thriller films which are filmed as if the audience is following the protagonist on an adventure, for example: The Hobbit.



The outcome of these interviews had taught me:

• not all males over 35 would want to watch a fantasy/thriller film
• our film opening should be straight to the point, this can be done by filming it in a quick pace - but should not exactly end at the point, instead add suspense at the end.
• our audience should get familiar with the villain's character
• our storyline should be well organised to avoid confusion and frustration of our audience
• our special effects should be minimal, but not easily forgotten
• we should avoid clichés, and overused ideas
• a mystical location aids to the escapism factor of fantasy/thriller films
• we should avoid the idea of mass killings and gore

Target Research - Secondary Data

 Target Audience Research - Secondary Data from SeyiiO

Using data from www.imdb.com and www.the-numbers.com, I was able to research my genre's target audience and view the success of Fantasy/Thrillers.

Target Audience Analysis - UK Film Council Data

Target Audience Analysis from SeyiiO

Generic Conventions of Fantasy/Thriller Genre

This is a presentation by my group analysing our genre - Fantasy/Thriller. Using mise-en-scene, themes, sounds, etc, we gained more knowledge on our unique genre.

Ideas & Chosen Genre

For the film opening task, I have decided to work in a group with Megan Gardner because our ideas are similar and can create a unique hybrid genre - Fantasy/Thriller.