My Stripboard and Production Calendar

This blog will be talking about my group's thought process and application on scheduling the shots we wanted to shoot on each film day. It'll also contain info on our shooting scheduling as well and how it tied into the production calendar.

Stripboard

The stripboard was the first part to this two part process. First we picked out the scene we knew was going to take the most amount of time and put it in our first day of production. For my group ours was a scene in a bedroom, but we knew that it would take too much time to film in an actual bathroom so we incorporated a green screen and made it easier on all of us. The stripboard was split up into 4 days. The first day was the one I previously discussed. The second day was mostly composed of a few abandoned shots and one tying into the previous scene. Day three was focused on more abandoned shots that my group incorporated into our opening scene and our last day for shooting we shoot the two last shots that introduces our main character.

Result

Production Calendar

The production calendar's was the same idea as the stripboard. All we had to do was input the shots for each day we were going to film them. So what we did was just input the shots we were going to shoot for each day. Once we did that we revised and edited a few things and we have the product.

Result

My Script

In this blog I will be talking on the process my group and I went through to create our current script. The script had a certain format for things such as locations, character dialogue, transitions, etc. In our script we followed what information from the observations we made on other thriller film scripts such as Get Out and Annabelle.

Process

What me and my group did to create our final script was look back at thriller film scripts we reviewed and looked at the ways they introduced their dialogue and setting and mimicked it. So our script should look similar, but rather with our opening scene. In the beginning we did our script based on our short story not paying attention, but then we looked over it and saw we had made a dire mistake. The script was supposed to be based on our opening sequence. So we altered, deleted, and added a lot of things to our script and it is completed the way you view it now. The picture shown isn't the full script, but a preview of how the rest of our script looked.

Result

Storyboarding

Storyboards are visual representations of what you want your shot to look like. You must describe each shot with details of the cinematography, mes en scene, sound, and editing; Although, there are storyboard must-haves you need to include: Shot number, shot duration, composition sketch, camera movement, and a brief description.

Location

The locations for our film will be abandoned buildings, bathroom, school, classroom, and maybe hallways. These locations were picked out based on the plot of our film and how we want our story to build up. We chose the bathroom as this would intertwine with the beginning of our film. The school because it's where the main character is introduced begins. Classroom as this is where the conflict is introduced and builds up and some shots in the hallways as certain parts of our story happens in the halls.

Actors

The actors in our film will b made up of my group members Shonna and Aiykiera as well as myself; moreover, I chose these people because they're the ones I'll be working with so I think it would be natural to go with that. We may also include other people as background characters so the shot doesn't feel so empty. Some considerations I must make is the time my group members may be able to film. One may not be able to film at night so I have to think about that when planning out my shot.

Mes en scene

The type of feeling we want our film to give is an uneasy, worrying feeling. We also want the lighting to be sort of lowkey. Enough to see the character, but less so that the viewer is always on edge. We'll also use a monochrome filter in some of our shots to give it a more eerie look. To add on to that feeling we'll add music that is subtle, but builds up over time.

Sound

Of course the film will contain sounds. The most common method we'll use is probably voiceover as it's much easier to use and doesn't require much effort. The sound will be a mix of both diegetic and non diegetic sounds like crickets and some owls to give more emphasis on the eerie factor. We may also include some sounds naturally as well if we really need to.

Storyboards

My current story board as of now isn't completely finished, but we have few good and completed storyboards done for the first few.

Schedule

Our schedule hasn't been set, but we are working on it. What we were thinking was that if some people have access to a good area then that person could take a few shots and if we can come together as a group then we could get some shots together.

Technology

Our tech won't need to be high just the basics like our phones which everyone has and maybe some use of the camera.

Production and Distribution

Scrptwriting and Funding

 What did I learn about scriptwriting

The Script Itself 

This post will be focused on scriptwriting. The main aspects I'm focusing on is what I learned, what other scripts look like, and an example of a script I did myself. After all this I want to be able to write a script correctly without any use of references or any type of help.

Annabelle Script

Script for Annabelle

 

Get Out Script

Script for Get Out

These are the two scripts I chose for reference. These scripts both relate to my thriller genre and give be a good foundation on how my script should look and helps if my script may need some tweaking. The two scripts had a lot of dialogue. The Get Out script had a lot of dialogue and including talking. I noticed that when the characters would get back to speaking it would say cont'd right next to their name. Also when the character spoke it would have their name and the dialogue below. These are some things I feel are crucial to creating a good thriller film script.

Funding

Ma Case Study

I am continuing my research on thriller films, but I am going to be going more in depth. Talking more about the production, distribution, marketing, etc. This is known as a case study which I am going to do on the the film that came out 2019 called Ma. I also learned a few new terms and their definitions.

• Synergy- when companies want to work with other groups or companies to get a product Ex: Video games, DVD, CD  
• Cross media convergence- when they use different forms of media to promote Ex: Radio, magazines 

The target audience for a horror/thriller like Ma is most likely young adults. From ages probably 16 and on up. This is because the twists and turns as well as the gore and violence may be too much for younger audiences to handle. Rated R pushes this information even further proving that it is for mature audience only.

Production

To start off with the production we need to go into a few key things during production. They are finding the idea, writing the script, pitching it to a studio, setting a budget, casting stars and employing a crew, filming, and editing. These are the key pieces of production that I will be talking about for the thriller film MA. The director Tate Taylor in one interview says it was based on a true story. He had said that back in his childhood when he was 8 his neighbor was stabbed to death, but in another interview it says he walked in and met his friend Jason Blum who is the Blumhouse president and they were suggesting genres when Tate said he wanted something messed up his friend was in shock, but had recently bought Scotty Landes' script Ma and he pitched it to him and he liked it so they hired Octavia Spencer to be the killer and she was thrilled to see that she wasn't killed in the first 7 minutes of the film and that she would get to be the killer herself. The script itself was never written, but was bought by Jason Blum from Scotty Landes. The script was then tweaked with the woman changing from white to black and the background of the character being much deeper based on being treated poorly from bullying to sexual abuse, Tate had gotten this idea from a girl in his school who had been bullied constantly so he took that into his head and mixed it with the character's background. The budget was 5 million and the cast was Octavia Spencer. Diana Silvers, Corey Fogelmanis, Luke Evans, and Juliette Lewis. They chose Ocatvia Spencer as the main murderer because they didn't want the normal black person dies in a few minutes type of situation, but Tate didn't want that and asked if she would be the killer and she agreed without a second thought. For the filming and editing pieces he doesn't speak on it whatsoever. He just discusses his thought process throughout the making of the film and throughout the interview just sways off topic. Although on imdb the filming locations were put out. They were:

• Natchez Veterinary Clinic
• 404 Liberty Rd
• Natchez
• Mississippi, USA

Distribution

The distribution companies that worked with Tate to create the thriller film Ma were:

• Blumhouse Productions
• Dentsu
• Fuji Television Network

These companies were very big helpers to the making of Ma. Big companies known for making well known horror and thriller films are companies like Blumhouse Productions and Twisted Pictures. Companies like these are perfect helpers for throwing out ideas for a thriller or horror film which is why the film Ma prospered. If the right production company isn't being worked with your film may not gain as much profit as you would like it to. If you pick a company known for producing well known musicals like Playwrights Horizons you may not get the film you were imagining. And if you wanted the best film for horror or thriller it doesn't really matter if it's big, small, or independent, but if you're wanting the best you should go for a big company known for producing well known films of you're genre.

Marketing and Cross-media convergence and synergy

    I also chose these companies because they were the companies that produced it. The companies that helped distribute and market the film weren't stated, but based on what I've seen they've used many ways of synergy with DVD's, CD's, as well as the Blu-Rays. Cross media convergence was also used. The film was promoted with radio's as well as commercials showcasing the film's trailer. The trailer could also be found on platforms like YouTube and Instagram. The films wouldn't be in the nontheatrical category as the film is going to be displayed in theatres so I feel the way majority of films now would be theatrical as most films are in theatres and the world as gone mainly online.

The script of Ma is available, but costs money so the script will not be available.

“MA.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 31 May 2019, www.imdb.com/title/tt7958736/.

Deckelmeier, Joe. “Tate Taylor Interview: Ma.” ScreenRant, 30 May 2019, screenrant.com/ma-movie-tate-taylor-interview/.

 Cea, Max. “Q&A: Tate Taylor on Directing the Year's Wildest Horror Movie, 'Ma'.” GQ, 30 May 2019, www.gq.com/story/ma-tate-taylor-interview.