Storyboards

These are the storyboards I drew which we worked from. They've been posted so late predominantly because, not only did they take around a month to complete, but we also had trouble bringing them in piece-mail between filming the past three weekends. In the end, although the quality of the drawings deteriorates, I think these were a great educational experience for me, driving me to draw on a far more regular basis than usual. There are some shots in here that we were, in the end, unable to accomplish, and some of the shots we ended up with weren't actually planned, either. I look forward to creating an animatic from these and seeing what our work would have looked like if we'd actually stuck to exactly the shots we'd planned. 

DY

Sound

Dialogue will be sparse in our film; the only time we'll need to worry about recording truly clear sound will be towards the end of our feature, as that's when all the talking happens. This shouldn;t be difficult to do, considering the fact that the scene takes place in a dead-end alleyway out of the way of crowds or cars.

In terms of soundtrack, the beginning of our film features a music box, and so we'll need our composer, Clara Mallon, to write a lullaby song for the first few scenes of our opening. Following that, the music should become more "solid" using the addition of an increased amount of backing instruments, until it leads into the chase sequence music which ought to accompany the moments leading up to the culmination and ending of our footage.



Davy Jones's lullaby from "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" is a good example of the kind of soundtrack we'd like. The atmosphere is austere and wistful, which is exactly what we want, considering the fact that the song from the music box and the corresponding necklace are what links the two main characters together, transcending the boundaries of their respective parallel universes.



The tone of "Woolworm / Angry Son" by Indian Summer, however, is even closer to the sort of ambience that would suit our film. It's slightly more surrealistic and urban than the above track, and so something like this would, in my opinion, suit the dystopian theme of our film even better. However, having to blend the staticky guitar tone of a song like this with lullaby notes may be difficult or sound terrible. Nevertheless, it's certainly worth a shot!



Another very inspiring lullaby-like song is the main theme of "Interstellar". This song is, like the first one, composed by Mark Zimmerman. It has a similarly mournful but somewhat dreamy tone (reminiscent, of course, of space travel, due to the theme of the film). This track is nevertheless rather suitably melancholic and, most importantly, memorable; something that any film soundtrack from a piece as serious as this should naturally strive for.



"King's Meadow" by Mogwai perhaps lacks the feeling of purpose and pace we'd want in our opening scenes, but is nevertheless a good reference point for our lullaby song because it has a very melodious tune. The rhythm also evokes the feeling of travel, which is apt in regards to our plot, wherein the two protagonists would have been forced to leave all they'd known behind in order to save our planet.



However, for both our lullaby and our chase sequence, we would also like the music to have slightly more creepy undertones in order to highlight Alesandese's origin stemming from a parallel world. A good example of the sort of atmosphere we'd like to highlight at certain points throughout the piece would be that of Bernard Hermann's "Twisted Nerve" soundtrack from the film "Kill Bill".



Similarly to the above, "Pater Noster" from "American Horror Story: Asylum" is another excellent example of a creepy soundtrack. The introduction of the violin about 40 seconds in is an accurate representation of the sort of solidifying mood-change we'd like to happen in our lullaby music. Of course, this particular song is too centred around the intervening church choir to be a fully accurate model for our lullaby, but it's a fairly cohesive template nonetheless.

Apart from changing the shape of the actual tune, another widely used technique of creating a surrealistic or scary atmosphere is that of subliminal messaging within both audio and video. A film that makes good use of this is "The Exorcist". When creating the voice of Satan for the girl to speak in while possessed, many sounds were blended into the voice to make it more unnerving, not all of them human.

Still more [sounds] came from hundreds of other recordings of an array of diverse sounds, including croaking tree frogs, and bumblebees. - The Independent on compiling the voice of Satan for the film "The Exorcist"

Some enthusiasts of the film even claim that these sounds, including others (such as the squealing of slaughtered pigs), had been added to the infamous soundtrack, "Tubular Bells" by Bassie en Adriaan. I didn't find particular video proof of these being included in the soundtrack, but I did find several articles and videos pertaining to the visual subliminal messaging in the film, making it seem more likely that the audio messaging is present too. It seems as if, to terrify viewers subconsciously, scary images had been cut into the film for 0.002 seconds at a time.

 

(Source)

A lot of these things come from fan-run websites so could possibly be completely false, but even if these conventions we'rent used in "The Exorcist", the importance of underlying noises and images is nevertheless indisputable. Therefore, in terms of ambient sound backing, it may be safer to stick to roughly the sorts of techniques used in other horror media, such as video games. Of course, we won't use the strength of beat or extremity of sound effects shown here (because we're working in the thriller genre and not in horror), but nevertheless some valuable lessons can be gleaned about creating a surrealistic atmosphere from the sorts of tracks shown here. The first one is especially useful as a reference to us, as it is taken from a chase sequence.

In conclusion, soundtrack will be of paramount importance to our piece, especially the tone and pace of the music and the ambient sounds we mix into it in post-production.

DY

Costume: Girl B

The versions of outfits for girl B are significantly less varied than that for girl A simply because showing her as homeless is a significantly more clear-cut and simple message to put across than illustrating girl A's otherworldliness. The plaid shirt remains a constant throughout the designs both due to its affiliation with  grunge and due to its use by typically rough-tough types of characters both in film and television. An example would be Sam and Dean Winchester from CW's "Supernatural".

Costume 1


This version of the costume has both a sturdy water-proof coat (which girl B is of course likely to wear all the time, considering the weather here in London) and comfortable green cargo pants, which are a classic movie cue for someone usually either living outside or participating in combat. As with all the consequent outfits, layering a hoodie or a black beanie hat under the coat could further emphasise that being homeless is an especially difficult feat in winter. This is quite possibly the most likely costume we'll use due to its simplicity and hence its more authentic feel.

Costume 2

This version of the outfit has ripped blue jeans instead of the cargo pants, which would accentuate the fact that girl B's life on the streets has made its mark on her clothes. However, the problem with this is that the rips, having been originally made as part of the clothing itself, may look too obviously superficial on film. We may have to do a test shoot with the actress to see if we can get away with having these jeans as part of her wardrobe whilst maintaining comparative integrity.














Costume 3

This final version of girl B's outfit could be matched to the coat shown in the post detailing girl A's costume, as the black jeans pictured here would match the colouring of that coat well. To perhaps add bulk to the outfit, a sweater of a dark colour such as brown or black could be worn underneath. Furthermore, as with the rest of this list, the addition of something like fingerless gloves would further drive home this character's need for functionality and warmth in her clothing due to her position.















DY

Props

1) Music box and set of matching necklaces

This is the most important prop, considering the fact that it symbolises the two girl's (as yet unexplained) connection with each other despite living in separate universes until this point in their lives. The ideal music box to illustrate this would be something like the one from the animated film "Anastasia", in which the music box and winder necklace serves as a gateway and reminder for the main character of her life as Russian royalty before she got amnesia. This prop is further very important because it's the reason for us playing a lullaby song at the beginning of our feature. Therefore, procuring one for later filming will be of paramount importance.

The real-life ideal for the style of the music box would be something similar to this photo. The colouring is suitably macabre and dramatic (gold on black) and the ballerina figurine at least appears to be well-made. However, realistically, it will probably prove impossible to buy something this high-quality at a reasonable price. The only option  would be to miraculously find someone who owns such an object already and is willing to part with it for a while in exchange for one of our less important organs, such as a kidney. 

Assuming we are unable to find such a person (or are unwilling to take part in illegal organ transaction), it is possible to buy a music box similar to the one pictured here instead. It isn't perfectly made but, considering the range from which it will likely be shot, it shouldn't matter too much. This particular model boasts a fair price and a decent (if somewhat overly bright) interior, not to mention that the image on the lid is surprisingly well-painted. A final plus is that the matching necklaces can be pretty much anything, considering the ambiguity of the box's design.

2) Wallet (for Girl B to pickpocket)

This prop doesn't need much detailing; we simply need a reasonably cinematically recognisable wallet and a respectable citizen to carry it until they get robbed by one of our protagonists. 

3) Girl A: Backpack

Since Girl A, being from a parallel universe, is able to feign affluence, her 'school' backpack should probably be satchel-shaped. The appearance of leather should give her middle-class image an initially more believable and recognisable feel.











However, to accentuate her strangeness and to highlight her in the shots more (since we will be manipulating colour), a brighter shade of leather should probably be used, such as blue, green orange or red. Any other colour would be too far removed from the natural tones we see on our planet and, as this girl is trying her best to blend in, colours too bright or superficial wouldn't make any sense for her to wear.

4) Girl B: Backpack and sleeping bag

Girl B's backpack should be simple and functional, as well as big enough to fit her things; in her case, her entire life, as she has no home. However, a proper travel backpack would be impractical, so a neat cloth or canvas one should do instead.














The sleeping bag should provide only the bare minimum of comfort and can be clumsily strapped to the backpack to further underline girl B's necessity of living on the streets. I actually own usable versions of both of these props myself, so they won't exactly be difficult to procure for later filming.
















5) Optional: Shopping cart and camera

The shopping cart, if we could find an abandoned one (I personally have seen a few around my neighbourhood for no good reason, for instance), could be used by the homeless girl to cart her things around in conjunction with the backpack. It may be a hassle to organise, but I believe it would put a more interesting, creative finish on our final product. Again, the sort of effect we want to achieve is perfectly depicted in our film influence "The Road".


The camera is relevant to the scene where girl A takes photos of girl B on the high street. The only reason I list it here is in case our idea of having her use her eyes as a camera doesn't look effective or cohesive once we test it out. At the very least, the camera won't be able to be normal, and so either a futuristic one or a more steampunk one will have to be cheaply bought or even made.

Those are all the props we should need. The rest of our film language ought to be able to bring out anything else we want to show or say.

DY

Character Names

Names are very important in all media, and so in order for the names of our characters to be significant to their personality and purpose, we used the website 2000-names to compile lists for our two leads.

Girl A (from parallel universe)

Since this girl is from another world, we wanted a slightly unusual and uncommon name. We picked from the categories of names linked to Angels/Messengers, Celestial Bodies/Planets, Character Traits, Dreams/Sleep, Ghosts/Spirits, Guardians/Defenders, Secrets/Mystery and Goddesses.

1) ARIEL: Means "lion of God". One of the moons of Uranus. Androgynous spirit in William Shakespeare's "The Tempest".
2) LEIA: Meaning "weary" and "child of heaven".
3) CAELESTIS: "Heavenly". Epithet associated with the god Jupiter and the goddess Diana.
4) AISLINN: Meaning "dream" or "vision".
5) ALESANDESE: "Defender of mankind".
6) CALYPSO: "She who conceals". In Greek mythology, the name of the daughter of Atlas, who holds up the world on his shoulders.
7) KALLISTO: Means "most beautiful".
8) IRIS: Meaning "rainbow".
9) NYX: "Night".

Girl B (from Earth) 

To make this character more relateable and believable, we wanted to pick out a name that was fairly common but nevertheless had a meaning that linked in with her personality and history. The full names on this list all sound fairly stuffy, however, so it's likely that this girl would opt for a nickname instead. We looked at the categories of Character Traits, Colours, Emotions, Luck/Fortune, Sacrifice, Shadow and Victims.

1) ALICE: Meaning "noble sort".
2) SARAH: "Noble lady" or "princess".
3) AURELIA: Means "golden".
4) MALLORY: "Misfortune".
5) GISELLE: "Pledge", "hostage" or "noble offspring".

Analysis

Girl A: My personal favourites for this character are Ariel, Caelestis, Alesandese and Calypso. Alesandese is especially relevant, considering the the fact that this girl is on Earth trying to save all of mankind. It also has a pleasing, almost fairy-tale-like ring to it.

Girl B: Alice, Aurelia and Mallory sound like possibilities for the homeless girl to me. However, the first two can only be used if we make it clear how deeply ironic it is that this character has to live on the street despite being given a name linked to wealth. Mallory is my favourite option, especially as it can be shortened to Mal, which translates as "bad" from Latin.

In the end, we really did decide on the names Alesandese and Mallory, just because they seem to suit the characters best out of all the ones we went through. It'll be a relief to finally be able to call them something other than girl A and girl B.

AF & DY

Ident Practice

As said previously, we wanted to try a video in the style of stop-motion animation. Before doing that properly, however, it seemed logical to try and film a practice run using an iPhone and its pre-set time-lapse setting (which took a picture every few seconds). 

We wanted to use a lightbox and clear, coloured plastic cut into mosaic pieces to form our ident. There was no pre-tinted plastic available to us, and so instead we made a circle out of plain plastic and covered it in different shades of acrylic paint ourselves, using a sponge to avoid overly visible brush strokes.

 The original intent was to make the four colours represent the four elements, consequently naming our studio something along the basic lines of "Elemental Studios". However, as we initially wanted to spell the name of our company at the end with the pieces of plastic, we decided that name was probably too long. We still need to think of a solid idea for what to call our studio but, as this is only a practice, this doesn't pose too much of a problem at the moment.

 After we finished sponging the paint onto the plastic, we tested what the circle looked like on the lightbox. The smudges of the sponge actually looked significantly better like this; the plastic has an obviously handmade feel, suiting the overall independent-production ambience that our finished film will likely have,

 We then cut the circle up into piles of vaguely triangular shapes to form the mosaic. At first, we thought we might try to keep the relative shape of the circle, but that soon proved impractical.

We ended up with four piles of coloured plastic shapes just like these. As they were smaller than the original circle, any smudges or imperfections mattered even less.

We put the piles of pieces onto the lightbox to see how they looked andm in fact, the streaks of paint have a nice streaked effect reminiscent of bamboo paper. In all, we were pleased with the aesthetic value of our idea, and so proceeded to test the more mechanical part of it; actually filming the time-lapse sequence, albeit without the title of our company actually coming up.

Here are the three pracrice runs we did. The one that seems to work best is the first version, because it isn't too fast (like the second one) or badly centred (like the last one). In the real thing, the name of our company will come up once the circle of mosaic is formed. 

AF & DY