The Script:
The idea to base my protagonist’s characteristics off of my target research was conceived early on in production. Suitable to movie theory, any audience of any genre will feel more emotional and attachment to character’s if they can natural project themselves onto that character. Sensationally having my protagonist be my audience made this subconscious process very easy. Through the character’s MES and on-screen decisions, after audience watches the film, they will see that the protagonists are featured to be very isolated and alone through their journey of the Short. This is presented simply and clearly in the movie poster.
In creating my movie poster I took influence from a movie from 2013 called Black Mask; in which a young girl is possessed by a demon and seeks to terrorise her family. The image keeps the poster simple and coherent with drawing the audience into a central image, to which I have achieved with my character of Contestant 2. In being a short film also, it was suitable to not overwhelm the poster with information about production companies, distribution credits of such, simply the title, the actors and the title of the movie – in which I believed I reached a similar approach to the minimalist style of editing on my poster.
Having the protagonist centre frame not only naturally draws the audience’s eyes to the character, but it also emphasise the empty space between the character and the border of the poster. What I have conveyed through various shots in my short is the concept of Absence, and subsequently having characters either fill or leave the shot; thus creating or diminishing absence.
Across my Movie Review Article print product, the colour red is simply used to connote violence and blood – both suitable to the Thriller genre. However in choosing to tint my Short in complete black and white showing no red throughout the entire film, I wanted to convey a sense that although this Thriller has violent themes it doesn’t explicitly show the violence to which it alludes to. Thus allowing the audience to associate the colour and conventional connotations of violence in Thriller to my product. As I have stated various times on my Blog, during the pre-production stages I wanted to leave the final Act very much up to the interpretation of the viewer – allowing their own imagination to decide on an ending for the character of Contestant 2. This envisioned ending can be completely filled with red, staying true to a Thriller ending in which the antagonist subsequently gets the big payoff; or there could be no red, in which the protagonist narrowly escapes the ordeal and has grown from it, completely their character arc.
In taking great inspiration of colour schemes from movies such as Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson), or even Her (Spike Jonze) it became important to me that the colours and MES evoke certain psychological feelings among audience members. As referenced earlier, the Red was used in my print products but was absent from my main product – thus conveying violent themes to audience members who see my print products; to which the idea of violent themes lingers in their mind and the anticipation of the violent acts renders them in suspense of the imagery on screen.
The style of clothing for both my lead characters in Snap both connote the Thriller genre. In the protagonists wearing a grey hoodie, it suggests the stock character of the Underdog or even the down on his luck character. This character type further being suitable to attach emotion to as it is established early on that the character is a lonely person. This same feeling is expressed through my Poster again in being central of the poster and on his own.
In choosing to use a Sony HD camera to take the photos, as oppose to a professional camera, for both the poster and the movie review article, it adds authenticity to the feel of how a short film should look throughout all ancillary texts. I felt it important to emphasise these points as it helps aid the narrative, the premise and overall believability of what is possible of these characters. For example, the movie review article does exhibit a little about what “The Club” does, further expressing words from the director about how the idea came to fruition. However most of the audience’s expectation and thoughts about “The club” come from the perspective of Contestant 2. However it emphasising these points on the Product being a short film, the audience is less expletive of a clearly developed and laid out a plot for them to be able to follow. This allows me to create certain ambiguities throughout and leaps in character development – for the purpose of progressing the story, without jeopardising the integrity of how a Short film should be presented and structured.
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