PLANNING: CHARACTERS

In The Morphology of The Folk Tale, Vladimir Propp identified common themes and character types. Propp argued that stories are character driven and that plots develop from the decisions and actions of characters and how they function in a story. He claimed characters could be classified into certain roles that progress a story. Our protagonist undergoes a journey of discovery in our short film: his initial representation is a confident, self-contained and rather superficial man embarking on his early twenties with a comfortable lifestyle afforded by a secure place in society. However, unsettling experiences unexpectedly unnerve him as he encounters a whole world of poverty, insecurity and hopelessness. His appearance changes as he plunges into experiences that he cannot explain or handle.
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 The corner shop is a familiar feature of every urban high street. It a place that usually excites no alarm. However, in our film, it is the location where our protagonist experiences an initial uncomfortable and inexplicable experience.
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 The homeless man in our film acts almost as our antagonist, cursing our protagonist. However, the homeless man represents much more in our short. The homeless are a group usually disregarded by society and looked down upon, but they are still human. It shows our audience that it is important to always treat everyone well; you never know the consequences to your actions!
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 In order for our audience to grasp the genre of our short easily, we have included many visual and audio codes linked to horror films. The pictures below represent some of the aspects of our short: scary dolls, shadows, blood and the supernatural. In order to really make our film a good horror these are essential.
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PLANNING: CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

HOT SEATING

In order to develop our main character in our short film, we decided to hot-seat him. This therefore gives the audience more of an idea about his role in our short film and gives them extra information about their life and what will happen to them. To complete this I used Soundcloud which is a website which allows anyone and everyone to upload audio files to the internet. 

PLANNING: STORYBOARD

PLANNING: AUDIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE

PLANNING: AUDIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS

PLANNING: SHOT LIST

Scene	Sound/Voice Over	Visual	Actors	Props	Shot type	Notes
Street	Footsteps. Homeless dialogue.	Low lit street Homeless man sitting down with pan handling sign Protagonist walks down street on his own	Homeless man Protagonist	Pan handling sign	Establishing shot, long shot of street Tracking shot of protagonist as he walks along- glide cam – as protagonist walks past homeless the camera stops and focus’ on homeless man. (enter dialogue) Pan camera round so that protagonist is behind homeless man. (two shot) – then curse Close up, pull shot of protagonist (reaction shot)	At the end of this scene - hard cut
Corner shop	Cash register Dialogue from protagonist and shop keeper Bell as he walks into the shop. Heart beat	Contrast between outside darkness and light inside shop.	Shop keeper ` Protagonist	Wallet Money Food/ snacks	Establishing shot of corner shop Long shot from inside shot to a mid-shot as he walks towards the camera through door. Wide angle two shot from side of counter. As protagonist puts items on counter. (doll down the end of the corridor peaking round the corner, audience only see it for a second) POV shot of shop keeper looking at protagonist. As he goes down to get another item. Then over the shoulder tracking shot as he comes back up, reaches for wallet but it’s gone. Close up of his face, as he feels a curse. Steps back from counter. Long shot of him checking his pockets. Pans round to the door as he leaves. Then focus on door.	As protagonist puts items on counter shot is level with table Close up on protagonist as he losses wallet- heart beat fades in
Ext. Home	Quiet wind	House and window looking in.	Protagonist	Laptop, sofa	Long Shot from outside window zooming in on him in living room on laptop, hard cut to in house.	N/A
Int. Home	Notification sound from laptop. TV on quietly in background of news about homeless crisis Heart beat	Protagonist looking at laptop screen dark room and blue light reflects on his face TV news about homeless crisis.	Protagonist Shadowy figure		Close up of protagonists face with dim blue light from laptop. over the shoulder shot of him looking at his laptop, (possibly in background something walks past the window.) TV and window in background. POV shot of laptop as notification pops up in corner of the screen. (clicks on notification) Close up -to a reaction shot Long shot of Lights all go out in room, he screams in anger.	looking at something on laptop, then notification pops up in corner of screen about job, when he clicks on it and it pops up full screen.  After this he turns off TV. Close up reaction shot = heart beat fades in. Hard cut to finish this scene.
Int. Bedroom	Echoed Dripping	Dim lit bedroom	Protagonist	Picture frame with image	Mid shot of him in bed Track across past a picture with his daughter with a doll.	The image with the picture has the daughter with a doll
Int. Kitchen	Heartbeat dripping	Lights flicker	Protagonist Shadowy figure	Smashed plate	Long shot of door as protagonist enters Long shot showing the whole kitchen, then to POV shot, light flickers. Doll appears – hard cut to close up of the dolls face, slowly tracks down the dolls body to its hand as a single blood drop drips off its finger. Lights flick off and then the doll disappears. Close up shot of the protagonist lights headed and rubbing his eyes. As he stumbles over to the tap to get water. Echoed dripping	Light flicker on and off. Then silence Build a soundscape consisting of cutlery shaking, heart beating. (Crescendo to silence) Shadowy figure outside (subliminal) This shot makes the protagonist seem lightheaded with disbelief, slightly distorted and shaky.
Basement	Dripping	Brightly lit basement, lights then suddenly go out and red room is lit by a red light. The room is filled with old dolls, all staring at the protagonist ‘Stranger Things’ effect	Protagonist	Dolls, fake blood	Tracking close up shot of protagonist’s feet as he walks down the stairs. Longshot from down the steps (maybe use glide cam to zoom out) (look at IT basement scene for inspiration) Shot from behind the dolls as he walks past them to a single one at the end	Use a super 8 film effect. Use of red gel.
Int. House	Footsteps, heavy breathing, doors slamming.	Dimly lit stairway with straw light	Protagonist		Tracking close up shot of protagonist’s feet as he runs up the stairs.   long shot from dolls perfective as he runs out the door, camera slowly begins to slide to the right as if the doll is moving away.	Fast paced hard cuts, intense. Super 8 effect. Use of yellow gels
Int. house	Light high pitched ringing sound and echoed fast paced footsteps as he leave the house.	Distorted corridor/ visuals, hard cuts			Long shot from door of Joe stumbling down the corridor, hitting against walls.	Hard cut montage as he runs out the door (3 hard cuts of him running through the corridor to the door)
Street	Non- diegetic music	Dim Lit street, we see Joe walking down the street.	Joe	N/A	Establishing shot, long shot of street.	Same street as first scene.

PLANNING: PROPS LIST