COVER DECONSTRUCTION: Empire, Star Wars

COVER DECONSTRUCTION: Entertainment, Avatar

COVER DECONSTRUCTION: Empire, The Dark Knight

COVER DECONSTRUCTION: Empire, Inception

WEBSITE: Inception

Screentest: Lauren Bradley.

Why we chose Lauren:

She perfectly fit our criteria - she's very attractive, good skin, neat hair and has a clear, well spoken voice, speaks eloquently in a refined accent therefore giving her that upper middle class edge but also has an approachability and femininity to her - she can be severe, but isn't overly so. She is slightly younger than we would've liked but we thought that she fit the role so perfectly and with more make up and a business like suit could definately pass for at least twenty years old.

Mind Control

Mind control is an act of persuasion which may involve aspects of religion. It involves people are put in physical or emotionally distressing situations;

1. Their problems are reduced to one simple explanation, which is repeatedly emphasized;
2. They receive unconditional love, acceptance, and attention from a charismatic leader or group;
3. They get a new identity based on the group;
4. They are subject to entrapment (isolation from friends, relatives and the mainstream culture) and their access to information is severely controlled

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_control

Mind control is also known as brainwashing or persuading, this is linked in with advert sales and computer games.

• From the 1960s an increasing number of American youths started to come into contact with new religious movements and some who converted suddenly adopted beliefs and behaviors that differed greatly from those of their families and friends; in some cases they neglected or even broke contact with their loved ones.
• In the 1970s the anti-cult movement applied mind control theories to explain these sudden and seemingly dramatic religious conversions. The media was quick to follow suit, and social scientists sympathetic to the anti-cult movement, who were usually psychologists, developed more sophisticated models of brainwashing. While some psychologists were receptive to these theories, sociologists were for the most part skeptical of their ability to explain conversion to NRMs. In the years that followed, brainwashing controversies developed between NRM members, various academic researchers, and cult critics.

Casting an actress!

After deciding upon having a predominantly speech based trailer, our priority then was finding an actor/actress to fill the role.

Gender: I'd always envisioned the trailer with a female speaker - she is the cult's figurehead, essentially their puppet and I think females generally have more of a softer manner to them - their voice and features and mannerisms, which makes them seem more approachable I think, and more relatable. I think the Resolution would've chosen a woman because of this, wanting to recruit as many new followers as possible and she would have had her image very manipulated to their ideal.

Class: Our actress should be middle to upper class, very well spoken, Estuary accent, clean cut, eloquent,  implying a superior level of intellect - her class is appealing to other members of her class and intelligence, that upper middle class the Resolution wants to appeal to and recruit.

Appearance: I think the cult would want to present somebody aesthetically pleasing, quite attractive but not intimidatingly so. Essentially when you join a cult, to follow the leader of it, you are basically striving to become them, so presenting an attractive woman is them showing what you could become were you to join. In her costume, I think we'd like her to have an edge of severity - wearing a suit, her hair and make up very slick, just to add that degree of professionalism the cult wants to portray and again reiterating her middle class status.

Age: We thought our actress should be reasonably young - late 20's, early 30's? Any earlier than this and we risked undermining the professional image we wanted to portray, youth does have connotations of recklessness and we want our actress to appear completely stable in herself and her status.

Symbol tryouts.

" A symbol is something such as an object, picture, written word, sound, or particular mark that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention. "

First draft of cult promotional speech

            I am now going to offer you an indeclinable truth. An upsetting, distressing and indeclinable truth. The truth of the insatiable and seemingly unstoppable corruption and depravity of man, a corruption and depravity that is inside all of you, seething and breeding. As humanity further grows and grows, so does the immortality, the injustice, the criminality, discrimination, violence, insanity, baseness of our modern society – a society that you inhabit, and therefore an iniquity that surrounds you.
            I will now offer you a new truth. This new truth not merely a statement, but a proposal. A hand outstretched from our church to your heart, an offer of emancipation. We can free you from this sinful modern world; rescue you and your soul. We believe that we can create a new idyllic, utopian world free of affliction and evil. We lead the revolution of God and we need you. We offer you the key to salvation.

We drew inspiration from political broadcasts - their very clever, sometimes devious choices of words, euphimisms, double entrendes etc. We worded it very carefully - we wanted it to have religious, Biblical references - 'church,' 'free,' 'revolution,' 'God,' 'evil,' 'salvation' and wanted to express the cult's disdain for our modern soceity but very subtly. Subltety was the key to writing this, we wanted the reader to be unaware until the last minute of the eeriness of the cult.

POSTER DECONSTRUCTION: The Dark Knight

The poster uses the colours blue, red, white and black. The use of blue goes against the conventions of horror and adds a slight psychological twist to the poster. It makes the viewer aware that it is going to be a dark film and the implication people are going to be getting killed. These colours are also mirrored within the colouring of his face and the colour on the card. Blue has conotations of coldness, perhaps cold heartedness in the Joker's case, and mystery. Black has conotations of death, destruction, something being hidden and secrets. The colour red has connotations of war, danger, death, warning and anger. Together, the poster gives implications of what the film is to be about just through the colourings.  

Test Cards.

As part of our cult storyline, we have been looking into the idea of ending on a testcard, to imply that the previous footage should not have been seen. It would be combined with a monotone beep to add eerieness to the trailer. Within the test card would be a symbol of the cult, details of release and title of the film. We are currently looking at existing testcards and ways to edit and manipulate them for our film.

http://www.meldrum.easynet.co.uk/mhp/testcard/bbc_test.html

DECONSTRUCTION: Drag Me to Hell poster.

DECONSTRUCTION: Empire, The Godfather cover.

This is EMPIRE magazines 'Godfather' cover. The cover is iconic as it needs no title to show what it is about. It is similar to 'The Number 23' poster posted on this blog as it is a black and white face coming out of the darkness. The eyes are hollowed to black pits and the faces' angry expression is clear.
EMPIRE's usual red title is instead gold symbolizing that this issue is special in some way as gold usually represents winning, royalty or greatness. The title at the bottom proves this with 'The Godfather' named 'The Greatest Movie Of All Time'. Although the title being gold is a great different feature of the magazine we will try to keep the formalities of our magazine cover the same to represent to our audience the clear conventions of the magazine. We like the ides of one item whether it be the title, a face or a symbol being the hook for the movie and we will look further into this using research into symbols.

DECONSTRUCTION: The Dark Knight Poster

Make Up Trial # 1.

Following the Youtube video step by step, I trialled the black eye on a friend to see how the effects came across on camera, and which colour combinations were most effective. Although not the same materials were used as on the Youtube video, I found that as long as the basic structure, colour and idea was there, you could improvise quite a lot. I think it worked effectively, and with the exact right matte colours, it would be possible to make it look very realistic and accurate. Although this was only a quick trial, it helped us to get an idea of the look and worked well overall. 

DECONSTRUCTION: The Strangers poster.

This film poster is really clever as it puts the viewer in the position of one of the seated hostages. Its put the viewer in an awkward, uncomfortable position as you do not want to watch this.
The use of the power of three is very effective as it makes it appear a powerful force against the two seated. Their stance is also quite intimidating as they are facing inwards towards the viewer.
The use of the font colour white on the black, naturally draws the viewer down to the title after looking at the picture. It is the simplicity of it also that makes it so effective.

POSTER DECONSTRUCTION: The Number 23

The number 23 This is the film poster for the film 'The number 23'. We have taken lots of influence from this film as it follows the ideas of obsession, in this case numbers.The film title is clear and in a bold white, which stands a stark contrast to the general theme of blacks and dark greys of the overall poster.The main focus of the poster is Jim Careys face, although his face was not used as a 'celebrity pull' for the film. Instead; acting as a canvas for the scrawling of the symbolic number '23'.  The eyes are the first thing the viewer notices as the eyes are drawn to them as they are central and darkened to give a deep, mysterious look.The edges of the face are also darkened into a deep black background showing no influence of where the character is.

Film Make up Research

So I've been looking a little bit into make up research in links with our storyboard idea, to see how we can effectively make someone look beaten up. One video that I've come across on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvcePKwOgpM) is a video tutorial of how to do this look. I think it works really effectively, and I am going to attempt to recreate this look to see if it can be translated just as well to camera. It also made me think that the dark hair really aids the make up and would work effectively for our main character within the cult, as a specific when casting. I look forward to trying out this, and am excited to see the outcome.

History of Horror

1900s

At the beginning of the 1900s came the first monster to appear in a horror film. Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre-Dame who had appeared in Victor Hugo's novel, "Notre-Dame de Paris" (published in 1831).

 

1910-1940
Hollywood was influenced by the era of German Expressionist film during 1910-1920 where German film makers created many of the earliest feature length 'horror films. In the early 1930s American film producers, particularly Universal Pictures Co. Inc., successfully made horror films popluar. They used Gothic features such as: Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931). Some of the films were science fiction as well as Gothic Horror for example James Whale's "The Invisible Man" (1933)

1940-1960
Universal's success with horror film carried on into the 1940s with "The Wolf Man" (1941) which was the most influential werewolf film even though it wasn't the first. Horror films mostly have low-bugets. During the 1950s there were a lot of horror films that featured humanity overcoming threats from aliens and deadly mutations of people, plants and insects. This was most noticeable in Japanese films as there society had clear knowledge of the effects of nuclear radiaition. In 1957 "The Incredible Shrinking Man" from Richard Matheson's novel become one of the most well-known films of the 1950s.

1960-1980
Hitchcock's The Birds (1963) is one of the first American examples of the horror-of-Armageddon sub-genre. In the late1960s George Romero's film "Night of the living dead" (1968) became influential, it was direscted and produced by Romero. The 60's horror films influenced the 70's as the youths began to explore the medium.Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes (1977) and Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) recalled the Vietnam war.
 

• John Carpenter created the Independent film Halloween (1978) which became a instant success.

• Sean Cunningham made Friday the 13th (1980). 
• Among the popular English-language horror films of the late 1990s, only 1999's independent hit "The Blair Witch Project" attempted straight-ahead scares.
• Japanese horror films, such as "Hideo Nakata's Ringu" (1998), also found success internationally.
• An updated remake of Dawn of the Dead (2004) soon appeared as the zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead (2004).
• In 2009 "Paranormal Activity" another low-budget production became successful and received good reviews.

WHAT IS A HORROR?

Horror films are films literally made to scare people - to invoke our worst fears, to make us jump, incite panic, dread, alarm, disgust, fright, captivating us with tales of the forbidden, the hidden, the unknown, the unthinkable. What repels some from the genre of horror, is what attracts and enthralls others.

Many overlap into the thriller genre - that ability to makes us jump, and hybrid with several other genres - supernatural, fantasy, science fiction, making it an incredibly versatile genre and perhaps the most personal too. The horror films that scare us the most are the ones that most directly affect us, dealing with our own personal fears, what genuinely frightens us as people, not only viewers.

The conventions of horror and literally all the things you think when told to think of horror: blood, death, murder, evil, ghosts, torture, violence, screams, vampires, werewolves, curses, gore, zombies, disease, cannibals, demons, just to name a few.

As the horror genre has progressed, the more aggressive the genre has had to become to scare a seemingly unscareable generation of horror viewers. The Silence of the Lambs, Jaws, Psycho and Seven were all previously horror films but are now thrillers due to a want from the audience for more gore, supernatural and jump scenes. Newer horror films have to try harder to get that scare, leading to the creation of darker, more inventive and gory horror - Wes Craven's New Nightmare, the Saw films, The Strangers, The Ring etc.

TRAILER: Saw III

WHY IT WORKS:

This trailer is literally a 'tease' - it gives away none of the narrative of the film, but like ours will hopefully, interacts with the audience on a personal level, creating a feeling of attachment to the film through the trailer and building hype. This trailer obviously relies on a loyal and vast fanbase and an inside knowledge of the first few films, therefore not needing to reveal masses of the narrative to hook in fresh, new viewers. I think that personability of the trailer is what makes it so scary, having Jigsaw talking directly to you and that line of 'you are being watched,' taps into the very current fears of the public of constantly being watched, CCTV, government, terrorism etc. Also having shots of the video being played on a TV and mentioning the words 'YouTube' makes it very real as they wouldn't be eluded to in the movie itself and again make it all the more personal.

Brainwashing.

This is a video created by Lost, shown by the 'Others' in the eerie Room 23 for the purpose of brainwashing.


After watching the 'brainwashing' video I really liked the way at the beginning the old camera effect was used. Like the picture start text, giving the illusion the film is eerie and almost not meant to be seen by the public. I also liked the idea of using texts along with lots of different pictures that on their own stand no relevance whereas when put together create a strange sensation to the viewer of a subliminal message being passed on. By using several images flickered in our film we can create the effect as if trying to 'brainwash' the viewer of the trailer while also giving the viewer an idea that the film itself is about brainwashing and cults.
While I do like the video I didn't like some parts of the sound as the laser sound. Although the building of tension sound can be a useful tool to create suspense while also giving a build up the to the end of the trailer with a release date and title.

On the Rebound.

New narrative idea: Cult Promo Video?
 Continuing with our ideas of obsession and being controlled, we've been toying with the idea of a new narrative surrounding cults and dangerous religious sects. Our current idea is something along the lines of a promotional video, almost advertising the cult - something like the Scientology video I've embedded below except with a more sinister and eerie edge. Half way the tape would cut to a girl being held captive in the exact same room the promo video is filmed in, bruised and smeared in blood, and the tape would then cut again to an image of the cult's symbol written in blood on the wall, assumedly hers. The promo video would then continue, hopefully more sinister and eerie than before knowing the true nature of the cult and a series of shots will follow - random, disorienting images sharply edited, almost like a brainwashing video.

Scientology Commercial:

Cults

The word cult negatively refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered strange.The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices.
The word implies a group which is a minority in society.

Studies performed by those who believe that some religious groups that do practice mind control have identified a number of key steps in coercive persuasion;

- People are put in physical or emotionally distressing situations;
- Their problems are reduced to one simple explanation, which is repeatedly emphasised.
- They receive unconditional love, acceptance, and attention from a charismatic leader or group.
- They get a new identity based on the group.
- They are subject to entrapment (isolation from friends, relatives and the mainstream culture) and their access to information is severely controlled.

The idea of cult culture has inspired us as a group and we will be looking deeper into the topic soon, with reference to mind control, brain washing and rituals.
Wish us luck.

We're leaving you, Lo.

We've decided to part ways with the idea of our Lolita narrative.
Y'know, it was fun while it lasted but there was just too many foreseeable issues we just couldn't see a solution too.

• The main one being copyright laws, and we mere students quite blatantly can't afford the incredibly costly rights to reproduce Nabokov's novel. We also felt attempting to reproduce the narrative but under a different name would look just exactly like that - some students attempting to reproduce Lolita under a different name, and quite possibly not as well as the first two remakes anyway.
• We also felt actors was an issue for concern. Finding a convincing thirteen year old female actress who was versatile enough to portray overt flirtatiousness and believable distress and fear would've been hard enough, but finding a forty year old male actor who would be willing to portray a paedophile seemed like an even harder task.

So farewell Lolita.
It's wasn't us, it was actually you.

ANOTHER INSPIRATION HIT: Mouth by Natasa Vojnovic and Barnaby Roper

http://showstudio.com/project/fashionbody/video/mouth

This is a short film I found on Showstudio.com in their current project 'The Fashion Body' - entitled 'Mouth' and is focussed on, perhaps decipherably, the mouth, lips and the confusion and sexuality they can provoke. I'm quite besotted with it - every shot has something edgy or different to it, and the mash of close ups of lips and layering of speech and sound was exactly how I'd envisioned our Lolita trailer. As my friend said when she watched it, it's almost like slipping in and out of consciousness - the way the sound dips in and out and echoes and layers - and combined with the jumpy, snappy editing and caledioscope camera flares (some shots look like they've been filmed off mirrors or through water), it's almost like how I'd envisage some sort of LCD trip. There's definately something psychological about it - the section in the middle when the voices are reduced to a whisper and she seems to gasping for breath is quite intense, but oddly throughout that comforting sound of a human voice doesn't seem to make it overly disconcerting.

Lo. Lee. Ta.

This summer I've been reading Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov - admittedly a slightly obscure beach read, but the ultimate tale of fixation and infatuation, bordering into our own narrative ideas of stalking and obsession. Set in the present day I feel Lolita would've been an entirely different story - whereas child molestation in the Fifties was something grossly under reported, and purposely hushed up if revealed in that typically 1950s manner that induced panic at the thought of a tarnish to their social standing or idyllic family reputation, today paedophilia is perhaps the only social taboo left, in some cases inducing something of witch hunts in the general public, repulsed and disgusted by the thought of child exploitation. In the Fifties I feel it would've been easier for a paedophile to have operated unnoticed, taking on the guise, as Humbert Humbert did, of a dedicated and overprotective parent, whereas today it is drilled into our children's minds to speak out against abuse, and is made resolutely clear where help is available through massive police and government campaigns - this could, of course, be extremely naive of me, and is not to undermine the control and manipulation the paedophile would exercise over their victim in ke eping them quiet.

I also feel I am only interpreting the novel on a very superficial level, that this is simply a story of a basic paedophile but Humbert himself is a compassionate man - his struggle with his desire for Lolita is long and agonized and extremely contemplative and though his desires for Lolita are made clear and detailed graphically, there is nothing in the first few chapters to suggest he will act on these desires. Lolita does also appear to be something of a willing candidate - a flirtatious and provocative young 'nymphet,' though the reader can tell in her mind this is simply a girlish game toying with her new found sexuality - something if exercised with another more morale male adult that would've been brushed aside, and it is undeniable she is exploited by Humbert and unfairly stripped of her childhood. I feel Humbert's only saving grace - not that he deserves one as he is essentially a perverse and weak man - is that he is genuinely in love with Lolita and so passionately and intensely so, that he eventually destroys himself with it.

After reading the book I ventured further to watch Stanley Kubrick's version of it, and excerpts of the Adrian Lyne 1997 version too and I must admit I am quite fascinated with the narrative and its translations to screen. I think it could be a really interesting narrative for our trailer - because the actual book is written in first person, we aren't sure of the reliability of the narration and I think it could be something of shocking to show Humbert's interpretation of her actions and her actual feelings - I was visualizing lots of close ups, particularly of her lips, whispering seductively one of the book's lines - 'I've been revoltingly unfaithful to you,' and then cutting to her crying for help, maybe even screaming, and another of her sucking on that iconic heart lollipop. I also think setting it in modern day could leave us room to experiment with today's reaction to paedophilia - we could include close ups of strangers repulsed, building up a voiceover of their insults, then layered over lines from the other characters - I'm thinking Lolita's mum when she screams thats he's a monster, etc. then layered again against his diaries entries, a faint whispering in the background, detailing her constant movements quoted from the book and then the whole thing simmering down to simply him chanting 'Lolita' to symbolize his complete obsession of her.

First storyboard.