Character Inspiration

To get inspiration for my groups main character Jodie I looked at a couple of posters that focus on women's facial expressions, 'Black Swan' is an example of this as the movie poster focuses on the main actress and her facial expressions as she's giving the audience direct address. The jagged lines in the woman's face connote that she's not as perfect as she seems, she has imperfections that she's not very happy about. She's not smiling which connotes that maybe she has nothing to smile about, she looks serious and flawless which doesn't seem to fit in with the fact that she has a huge crack in her face. I also looked at the movie poster for 'Girl, Interrupted' as this is similar to 'Black Swan' due to the title going across her face. This suggests that she's a secretive kind of character and that the target audience is young females as the posters are female based and direct to them.

The Main Character

The main character in my opening sequence is kind of vulnerable as she doesn't quite know what's happening to her and why she behaves in the way she does. She doesn't show a lot of emotion and she tends to keep herself to herself as she finds it's a lot easier and safer. She loves music as it helps her to get away from the stresses of her life and her schoolwork, she has a huge heart because she used to care a lot about other people until they all went against her. She wears simple clothes because she doesn't see the point in wearing named brands and making loads of effort in the way she looks just to go to school, she doesn't care if people don't like her. She wears comfortable shoes as she walks everywhere because she finds public transport exceedingly awkward and frustrating.

Props, Clothing and Location

Location:

An art classroom at Jo Richardson Community School- Easily accessible as my group attend this school and have been given permission to film in it.
Gale Street- Easily accessible as it's right near our school.

Props:

Paintbrushes- Easily accessible as we're filming most of the opening sequence at our school, they'll need washing up when we're finished with them.
Paint- Easily accessible as we're filming insdie our opening sequence takes place in an art classroom but will need cleaning up if my group make a mess with it.
Headphones- Easily accessible as I already have a pair.
School bag and folders- Easily accessible as I'm a student myself and I have lots of folders.
Canvas and easel- Easily accessible because we're filming in an art classroom, but we may not be allowed to use an easel as they're expensive and the art students use them. As a group we must take care when using these props to make sure they don't get broken.

Clothing:

Smart casual clothing and any type of shoes- Our main character is also a student which makes the clothing requirements easy to get and use.

Pros of our props, clothing and location:

• No cost
• All are easy to get hold of
• No time is wasted trying to look for/buy any of this

Cons of our props, clothing and location:

• We need to be extra careful with the art equipment as we're borrowing it from the schools art department
• We need to be careful when using our own things to not get paint on them, if we do this may be a problem for a member of our group

'Speed Dating' Pitch

In todays lesson we sat in our production teams and analysed different genre's of film, each person circulated around the room so we could learn about the different codes and conventions from each genre. After this we then presented our teams chosen genre to the class, so others could learn more about the it, Dylan and I analysed the thriller genre.

The Mood Board

My Mood Board

I have chosen these specific images for my mood board because they represent my main characters personality, she loves art and this is why I have chosen the paint, paintbrushes and the art classroom. I feel that these reflect what she enjoys doing and how she expresses her emotions without words, she loves colour which is why I've chosen all of the colourful images to go on here. The one image that isn't colourful is the one in the bottom left hand corner and this image represents her loneliness as a person, because she doesn't seem to have any friends and she doesn't really speak to anyone while she's at school. It seems like she'd rather paint. The headphones and music notes represent her love for music as another way to express feelings/emotions, this fits in with the representations that she doesn't use words to tell people how she feels.

My Psychological Drama Questionnaire

This is what my psychological drama questionnaire looks like, it is important for me to use a questionnaire in order for me and my group to develop the ideas for our opening sequence depending on the feedback we receive  This will make our opening sequence appeal to a wider range of people as we are going to use their feedback from this questionnaire to make our ideas better. Click here to take survey

An Idea For The Rest Of The Story

In order for the audience to understand our opening sequence more, my group decided to go over what would happen in the rest of the movie, if we were to film it.

We came up with certain stages that would take place in the movie:

Following on from the opening scene, Jodie becomes hospitalised.

-After getting well, and returning to school, a new girl transfers to her school.

-Jodie becomes friends with the new girl.

-The new girl finds out about Jodie's mental problem and begins to distance away from her, and eventually, turns against her and joins the bullies.

-Jodie is in a frustrated state and ends up starting a fire, and as a result, the new girl dies.

-Everyone suspects Jodie killed her and calls her a murderer.

-Even Jodie's mum doesn't look at her in the same way.

-Jodie ends up killing herself, by starting a fire in her own home.

We decided that throughout the movie, there would be flashbacks to her past to describe how she got into the state she was in at the beginning.

Jodie's Past:

-Her parents were struggling financially.

-Her father left.

-Her mother and Jodie were homeless.

-Jodie begins to get bullied at school, and her friends leave her (Jodie gets itchy whenever in a frustrated state).

-Eventually, Jodie's mum got back on track with money, but Jodie was left with no friends.

My Groups Screenplay

Screenplay:SIXTEEN

Setting: Jo Richardson Community School, Gale Street

Location: Art Classroom

Time: During school time and after school, just as it's getting dark

Character: A young girl (Jodie)

Dialogue: A voiceover spoken by Jodie, there is no proper dialogue

Music: Diegetic rock music

(EXTREME CLOSE UP) (ZOOM OUT) An extreme close up of one particular colour on a painting, the camera then zooms out and focuses on the character; Jodie as she puts her headphones in and starts to paint. (DIEGETIC MUSIC) Rock music can be heard from her headphones as she paints, (LONG SHOT) A long shot is used to show her painting.

(VOICEOVER) "Why me? What makes me different from anyone else? I am normal! Just because of this, everyone treats me like an animal. Don't they understand, it's not my fault!? Ever since that time, even my friends turned against me! Why?! Why me?"

(VARIOUS CAMERA SHOTS) There are different camera shots and angles of Jodie as she paints while her voiceover is being spoken she starts to use darker paints which end up covering all of the bright colours that were originally on her painting. The screen fades to black.

(VOICEOVER) Whispering of people insulting Jodie are heard, other little noises are heard too and certain words are heard more than others. The screen then returns to Jodie painting. (MID SHOT) A mid shot is used to show Jodie ruining her painting, she's covering the bright colours in black and purple, she's getting frustrated and angry now. Paint is going everywhere, she gets some on her arm. (DIEGETIC MUSIC) Her rock music is gradually getting much louder and the pace of it is getting faster, Jodie begins to scratch at her arms. (ZOOM IN) The camera slowly zooms in onto Jodie's arm showing the audience how red it is and her viciously scratching at it.

(VOICEOVER) "Who needs friends anyway?! I'm safer when I'm alone!" (VARIOUS CAMERA SHOTS) She carries on painting aggressively and various camera shots are used to show it. (CLOSE UP) There is then a close up of Jodie's eyes which show the audience how angry and upset she is with herself, she throws the paintbrush and paint to the floor. (POINT OF VIEW SHOT) A point of view shot is used to show the audience the paint and paintbrushes on the floor next to Jodie's feet. (EDIT) A low angle jump cut is used to show Jodie gathering her belongings and seeing her walk out of the classroom.

(EDIT) (ESTABLISHING SHOT) Another jump cut is used to show an establishing shot of the street, Jodie is walking down the street with her headphones in and her music still very loud. (ZOOM IN) It gradually starts to fade and the whispers of people insulting her return, she begins to scratch at the paint on her arm again then drops her belongings and falls to her knees in frustration. (EDIT) The screen fades to black and the whispers carry on.

-End of the opening sequence-