Script - Sleep Tight

Fred - Evaluation

• This is my evaluation from last  year, it focuses on weaknesses as well as my strengths and explains how i could of improved my film.  

Mind Map - Fred and Caroline

• This was a mind map we created to show our thought process in reference to planning our idea.
• We had two main ideas: one around the idea of voices, and believing someone is there when they aren't, and the other around dreams becoming reality subconciously. 

Evalution from last year - Emily

• This is the evaluation from last years AS video. In this video we speak about the negatives and positives and what we could have done to improve our thriller opening. We speak about how we could have improved the editing, the filming and various other things that had an impact on our video. In the opening, we focused on a story within which a young child gets abducted, and the initial impact it has on the mother and the child, yet we made sure not to give too much away so that the watcher was still drawn into watching the rest of the film. Overall we felt we did a successful job with the short opening, but we recognised and acknowleged what we could have improved on.

Evaluation - Caroline

•  This is my evaluation of our final piece last year. We made the opening to a thriller, and focused upon the plight of a young girl, who has been abducted, and also the plight of her mother.
   

Sacrifice - Caroline

•  The mise en scene in this film is very represenative of the two boy's and their story. they are fed up of crime and having no money and are planning a new life in Wales. The mise en scene in the first sequence is very dark, they are both dressed in hoodies and jeans which connotes a cheaper kind of clothing, and hoodies have connotations of crime and violence. the bridge they walk underneath is dirty, and there are tall gates behind them that shows an urban, inner-city, built up area.

 The low angle shot of the boys as they come around the corner again the location as being dirty and run-down but also shows them trying to rise above their situation.

•  The parralel cutting between the boys when they are inside the building and the security guard creates suspense as the audience can see both situations and them starting to meet. As an audience we feel sympathy for the two boys who wanted a new life, and so suspense is caused here too as we are scared that they will get caught.

• The non-diegetic soundtrack builds suspense as it forebodes that something is going to happen. It also creates pace further into the sequence.
• The represenatation of the boys in this sequence is very interesting also. In the media generally the youth get a fairly negative represenation, but this sequence shows the wrong that this generation are seen to be doing, but instead of just showing the negative actions, it shows the reasons behind them, and represents the boys in a different light. It doesnt just depict the crime, but the drive behind it and in this way it challenges stereotypes of young people and the working class.

Cold Blood - Fred

Aspects of the short film that we inspire to use

• Again we see the use of sound to represent feeling, throughout the short film, it begins quietly and slowly, then slowly builds in tension and volume, till eventually revealing something. 
• At the beginning the main character is breathing heavily, this is heightened, sounding a lot louder and clearer. This is effective at representing fear. 

• Another useful effect when wanting to captivate an audience use attention is using non-diegetic sound, this is effective when we here the screaming and the chainsaw, this is because although we cannot see where the sound is coming from, our minds begin to imagine what is happening, therefore   the audience gain a need to see who/what is doing this all. 
• Throughout the short film there are changes in tempo of the music, theses different tempos create different feelings and moods e.g slow = tense, fast = indication that something relevant is going to happen.
• Near to the end of the short film we see the attacker stroking the woman's neck and smelling it, feeling aroused by it, these are good signs that the man is not mentally well which is also supported by his murderous ways. 

Love Hurts - Fred

Aspects of the short film we inspire to use

• In this short film the creepy girl is some sort of metaphor representing the heartbroken girl's suicidal thoughts after her lover had hurt her. In turn, the cleaner seems to represent the main guy's suicide too. Suicide is dark and brutal and this short film was perfect to illustrate it through creepy visual and auditory cues.

• The opening pan of the mirror with the writing is effective as you are given names on the screen, but you are already fixed on wanting to know what comes after the creepy writing on the mirror, this could be a useful practice for our group to use in our short film, when wanting to slowly reveal something.

• When the cubical door closes in the reflection of the mirror, lighting is cleverly used to show a change of emotion, for example when she is crying and upset the lighting is more light to represent a calm section of the short film, this is faded into darker lighting, but we are still able to make everything out clearly, this could also be used to represent her feeling of fear.  

• Another way in which the main characters emotions are shown is through non-diegetic sound, when the character becomes nervous a track is played quietly to give more suspension until something is revealed, where a loud snippet of sound will be added, we hope to achieve this in our short film as it gives great indications of the characters feelings. 

Narrative Structure

• The narrative structure of this piece is standard in most short films, it begins with the character seeming under no threat.
• There is then a slow build up towards the revealing of the threat, that is shown towards the women. 
• We are then suddenly shocked by a quick change in atmosphere, emotion, pace etc that places us at the edge of our seats. 
• Finally it finishes with a conclusion, this can be presented in different ways e.g. weather we find out if shes dead, who is going to find the body, why has this happened. 
• However quite often a film is not explained at the end which is effective in creating a sense of mystery. 

Audience

• This film would be aiming to attract a more sophisticated audience that would be able to work out the message of the short film as well as the representation of death and suicide. 
• This film would not be targeting a young audience due to the scare factor, blood and gore. 

Bon Voyage! - Fred

Aspects of the film that we inspire to use in our short film

• A slow tempo at the beginning of the text is used to make the audience feel relaxed but aware, it also gives an indication that eventually something relevant is about to happen. This is an effective method that we could use in our short film, as it creates a successful build up 
• Quiet sounds e.g. key turning in the door, are hightened in volume, this is to put the audience more on edge and alert them as to what is happening, this is effective when trying to build a tense scene.

• When the character wakes up the music is heightened in pitch and volume, this is effectively done, so that the audience know something is not right with the character or something is about to happen. We want to use this same method in our short film as there are 2 scenes where the character is waking up. 

• A close up of the character is effective in showing us his emotions, which are quiet obviously scared, the use of sweat and his shifty movements are also good indications of someone who is feeling scared or anxious.
• At 1.33 good lighting is used to show the unwanted characters shadow in the curtains of the house, this shows that lighting can make a big impact on scenes, and that it should not be seen as a inheritance but more like a gift. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTt-dYe24zU 

Narrative Structure 

• The narrative structure of this short film is quick in pace in tempo, this is used for several reasons:

- Used to build suspense and tension

- To present a whole story in a short amount of time 

- To keep the audience intrigued by not having a long opening

- To show the character as being uneasy 

• The Narrative structure of this short film is very unpredictable, its an up and down structure where one second the main character is calm the next he's panicking, this is effective in representing the main character as being under the influence of drugs. 

Audience

• This short film would be aimed more towards a youth audience, due to the mentioning of magic mushrooms which are more commonly used by today's youth, along with other drugs. 
• Also the use of a gun would attract a more stereotypical male audience, as a stereotypical female audience would not like the use of guns and the scare factor of an attack at home. 

About A Girl - Caroline

• A short film about a young girl's troubled life in Manchester in the 1990s. She does not get along well with her parents, and they have very little money. This is clear through her mother's use of scratch cards, the mise en scene (the locations, costume, and accents), and her references to her mother asking if she looks like "a fucking bank?" and saying she drinks "cheap lager". The locations enforce this through the use of graffiti and falling down vuildings, suggesting a very unkept community.

• It is shot in a parallel format, between the girl walking down a canal bank talking to the camera in an informal, chatty, colloquial way and different events in her life - presumably in the last few years. These set her up as a typical young girl through her obbession with being a popstar, and also this shows her naivety, as in reality that is very far from her life.

• In the shots of the girl talking to the camera walking down the canal back all the shots are medium close up of her face and at eye level. This creates the sense that we are at her level and prompts us to sympathise with her and what she is saying. The only shot which breaks this is just before she throws the baby into the water and we view her from a bird's eye view which gives sense of judging of not just the girl but the whole situation as the mise en scene of the location of visable also. I feel this is less a comment on the girl, but a comment on her life, and the way that many girl's must be brought up.

• There are also many more cuts during the flashback sequences, creating a sense of pace to the film. The shots in which she  is with her Dad at the Café and at the football all cut to and from each other quickly, in contrast to the shots by the canal in which there are few cuts. Also during the canal scenes there is a handheld style to the camerawork, and it tracks her walking. This again draws the audience into feeling sympathy for the girl as it feels like you are there with her, and that she talking directly to you.
• Whenever the girl shows emotion about her Dad the scene cuts to show how she cannot deal with her emotions due to the suggested fact that her Dad isn't really bothered about her and thinks that she is "hassle", and he Mum is too worried about money to worry about her.

Psychological Thriller - Caroline

Psychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the broad ranged thriller and might have horror elements. However, it often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre, in addition to the typical traits of the thriller genre.


Reality – The quality of being real. Characters often try to determine what is true and what is not within the narrative.
Perception – A person's own interpretation of the world around him through his senses. Often characters misperceive the world around them, or their perceptions are altered by outside factors within the narrative (see Unreliable narrator).
Mind – The human consciousness; the location for personality, thought, reason, memory, intelligence and emotion. The mind is often used as a location for narrative conflict, where characters battle their own minds to reach a new level of understanding or perception.
Existence/Purpose – The object for which something exists; an aim or a goal humans strive towards to understand their reason for existence. Characters often try to discover what their purpose is in their lives and the narrative's conflict often is a way for the characters to discover this purpose.
Identity – The definition of one's self. Characters often are confused about or doubt who they are and try to discover their true identity.
Death – The cessation of life. Characters either fear or have a fascination with death.

Symptoms of Schizophrenia - Fred and Caroline

A person diagnosed with schizophrenia may experience:

• Hallucinations - most reported are hearing voices, visions,  often bizarre or persectory in nature, and disorgainsed thinking and speech. The latter may range from loss of train of thought, to sentences only loosely connected in meaning, to incoherence known as word salad in severe cases.
• Social withdrawal, sloppiness of dress and hygiene, and loss of motivation and judgment are all common in schizophrenia.
• An observable pattern of emotional difficulty, for example lack of responsiveness.
• Impairment in social cognition is associated with schizophrenia, as are symptoms of paranoia; social isolation commonly occurs.
• Late adolescence and early adulthood are peak periods for the onset of schizophrenia, critical years in a young adult's social and vocational development. In 40% of men and 23% of women diagnosed with schizophrenia the condition manifested itself before the age of 19.

Caroline & Freddie