Updated Shooting Schedule

Due to weather conditions and other factors, some of our filming has had to be postponed and is therefore not meeting our original shooting schedule. However a new schedule has been drafted that takes into account these other factors, and filming should be able to commence shortly. In the mean time, we will work on extra preparation for the footage we have no filmed, and also continue to research and plan for our ancillary tasks to go alongside our main teaser trailer production.

Changes in Casting

Over the past few weeks, several changes have had to be made to our original casting. For reasons of convenience, we had to change the actor playing our villain, and we are also in the midst of deciding whether or not we should change the actress playing the part of the child after our first screen-testing. Some of our parts are yet to be filled for definite, but these will be decided over the next week or so.

Our new cast is as follows:

• Child - Caitlin Pitts or Chloe Hill
• Villain - Russell Denny
• Mother - Laura Hill?
• Father - Freddie Meade?
• Family Liaison Officer 1 - Elizabeth Boulamatsis
• Family Liaison Officer 2 - Joe Braham-Everett
• Newsreader - Alexandra Watt

Once we have a completed cast list after any other changes and decisions that will be made, this will be uploaded immediately.

Ancillary Task Research - Amy Gallacher

Before creating our own advertising campagin, we each carried out extensive research into existing products that we needed to recreate for our own campaign.

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Props - Police Identification Badge

In preparation for filming, we had to find all of the props that we would be needing, along with costumes. An issue that arose was the badges we would be needing for our Family Liaison Police Officers. We realised that something like this would be necessary so that our audience were aware who they were, however finding badges proved to be very difficult.



We planned to find an image online of a mock police badge (used for costume purposes only) and edit the photographs online so that our actors were depicted. However, when searching for one of these cards, it was near enough impossble to find a British ID Card from the police force for security reasons. There were any American cards available, but these would not really fit into our storyline due to the UK setting. We realised that we would have to either make our own from scratch, or use whatever we could find to work with.

When it came to filming the scene with our police officers, we settled for a small black wallet with a driving licence positioned inside. We realised that from the distance of our filming, it would not be clear that this was what we had used and therefore this could easily pass as a form of police identification.

Script in Preparation for Filming

Reporters Script

(Start of news report – Reporter at desk in newsroom)

“It has now been 48 hours since (FULL NAME) went missing in the Chelmsford area. Police currently have no suspects and have made no arrests, but are asking for members of the public with any information to come forward, whether or not they deem it useful.”

(Change of shot – Rest of report audio fades out over the next scenes as the creepy/eerie music is gradually introduced)

“We are being reminded of the many publicised cases since September of the same nature, and asked not to be alarmed but to take all precautions necessary concerning our children’s safety...”





Parent/Police Script

(At door, Parents and Police converse about the lack of arrests/suspects in the case – Dialogue may not be heard, but mouthed words may be understood)

Policeman: “I’m sorry Mrs (SURNAME), we still have no leads in your daughters case. We will inform you as soon as we have any more information but for now try to stay calm for her sake.”

Ancillary Task Research - Emma Cottee

The following presentation shows my individual research into film advertising: magazine covers; DVD covers; websites and promotional posters. At a later date, we will come together as a group with our research, and create the appropriate advertising campaign that is cohesive with our trailer.

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Ancillary Task Research

As well as conducting our own research on teaser trailers, we also individually looked at many different film posters, websites, magazine covers and DVD covers. We were looking at the conventions of different genres and what we would need to include in our own productions to create cohesion with our main trailer and our other advertising. We created separate powerpoints of our research before coming together as a group to plan our own products.

We all took a particular interest in Empire magazine as it often advertises films of our genre on its front cover and is a high profile, big-budget magazine. We studied many of the issues that our Media Department has to offer, as well as past issues of Sight & Sound and the smaller magazines such as Little White Lies which is funded by the UK Film Council:

We decided that this magazine is one that we will particularly consider using when we create our own magazine covers as they could help a lot in improving awareness of our film and advertising due to their high profile.

Shooting Schedule

Before we began filming for our production, we created this shooting schedule so that we could plan the dates we would be shooting our footage, where we would need to go, who would need to be present, and what we would need to take with us. This helped us to better organise our time and stick to the deadlines we were setting for ourselves.

Below is our completed shooting schedule:

Film Title

The title of any production is important in conveying the particular genre and ideology behind the film. We decided to think of a title after we had planned the storyline of our teaser trailer so that we could specifically link the film to its title. As our film contains the journey of parents trying to find their abducted child, we decided that we wanted our title to be linked to a familiar aspect of childhood that the audience could relate to. We explored various nursery rhymes, childhood stories and games to try and find a suitable title that was not already a feature film.

We firstly looked at the story of Little Red Riding Hood, as we envisaged our vulnerable character wearing a red coat. As a group we decided that "Little Red" would be a suitable title for our film, unfortunately, this title was already taken by a film released 2000.

As the editing process began, the demand for a appropriate title grew. We needed to find a title in order to apply our desired graphics within our trailer and also to our ancillary projects. We focused more on the lines within popular nursery rhymes and childhood games to find our title. "Hide and Seek" stood out to us, as it linked with the 'missing' aspect of our plot. Yet again, this title was taken by another production. Other brief titles we considered and then dismissed were "Rock-a-bye Baby", "Snatched" and "Taken".

After finding the "Monday's Child" poem, we were particularly drawn to Wednesday's Child as we realised the potential of using "Wednesday's Child is full of woe" as a possible tagline. We checked the Internet Movie Data Base (http://www.imdb.com/) to see if "Wednesday's Child" was an existing production, and after discovering it wasn't, we decided that "Wednesday's Child" would be the title of our film.

Special Effects

Special Effects are the illusions used within film, television, theatre or entertainment industries which stimulate the events that are imagined in a story. They are traditionally divided into two separate categories:

Optical Effects: These are techniques in which images or film frames are photographically created. They can be created “in-camera” or in post-production processes using an optical printer. An example of an optical effect is the “Green Screen”, used to place actors or sets against a different background.
Mechanical Effects: These are usually accomplished during live-action shooting. This includes the use of mechanized props, scenery, scale models, pyrotechnics and atmospheric effects (creating physical wind, rain, fog, snow etc.). A few examples of mechanical effects are break-away doors or walls, or prosthetic make up used on an actor.

Since the 1990s, Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) has become one of the most used of special effects technologies. Using CGI enables filmmakers to have more control and allows numerous effects to be created more safely and convincingly. With technological developments, CGI comes at a lower cost. As a result of this, CGI has taken the place of many optical and mechanical effects techniques.

After researching numerous American SFX companies, I came across a London based company – “Double Negative”. This company was formed in 1998 with a team of 30 staff. Since then, Double Negative has grown to a team of over 500 staff, and has recently opened their Singapore office. The first film they worked on was “Pitch Black”, released in 2000.

“Over the past 12 months, Double Negative has completed work on projects including; Sherlock Holmes, 2012, The Green Zone, Angels & Demons, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, The Boat that Rocked and Fast & Furious.
We are currently in production on John Carter Of Mars, Inception, Iron Man 2, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Paul, The Wolf Man, Kick-Ass and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.”

When looking at the specific work they had done for the latest Harry Potter release, I found a brief explanation of the type of effects they had created:

“Double Negative provided stunning visual effects for the new Harry Potter film the Half-Blood Prince, including the devastating Death Eater attack on London's iconic Millennium Bridge.

Starting with the Dark Mark towering menacingly over London, Death Eaters issue forth from it, plunging down into London spread out below, where they weave furiously through the streets of London into Diagon Alley before re-emerging later back out to the city. Lightening announces the arrival of the Death Eaters as they swoop down over the dome of St Paul's Cathedral before twining themselves around Millennium bridge, becoming invisible as they do so.”

The company goes on to explain how “The entire central area of London was modeled at several levels of detail. The primary source of reference was an extensive set of aerial and ground-based photographs supplemented with street plans and manual ground surveys…Hundreds of vehicles and thousands of CG pedestrians were added with an in-house crowd tool.”

Double Negative also explains to the readers of their website how effects were created, including a specific example that the audience can relate to…
“As the bridge starts to move it becomes fully CG for wide shots and has a partial set build for close ups. Once the bridge collapses into the water, all the plate water has been replaced by CG water generated by proprietary software dnSquirt. Double Negative also worked on the opening titles, the Burrows Attack and the painfully beautiful Pensieve sequence amongst others."

After coming up with our storyline and creating our storyboard, we decided that as we have not got the technical equipment or budget to create effective special effects, we would not use them within our production. However, if we applied for funding to companies such as Screen East, we could contact a company such as Double Negative to encorporate possible special effects into our teaser trailer.

Some images of the finished work of Double Negative:

"Lava-bombs!" - 2012

"Final shot at Dunkirk beach scene" - Atonement

"Ground Zero post-collapse" - World Trade Center

Graphics

Animation and graphics are used widely within film, specifically at the beginning and end credits of a production.

VooDooDog is a London based animation and graphics company that have recently created high profile title sequences including “Smokin’ Aces” and “Nanny MyPhee”. They have also worked on music videos, short films and also Commercial Idents.

Nanny McPhee – “The movie Nanny McPhee ends with a two minute Animated Sequence which re caps scenes from the Movie using a Cut Out style animation. The Sequence is a special surprise at the end of the Movie to leave the audience with a smile on their face.”

Click HERE to be taken to the Animated Sequence.

Within our own production, we decided early on that graphics would feature in our teaser trailer. After researching existing trailers, and taking note specifically on the types of graphics used in existing productions, we decided that we would use a simple font on a plain background, with the words being in a contrasting colour to make the information presented stand out to the audience.

We will use graphics when displaying the missing statistics at the start of our trailer. This will help to introduce the genre and storyline of our film. We will also use graphics towards the end of our trailer to display the conventional "Coming Soon" along with other website and institutional information.

Representations

In our teaser trailer we have tried to represent certain demographics.

We have tried to indicate this by using effective mise-en-scene, editing and also music.

For the child we wanted a positive representation and typical of a young girl. We wanted to show her as being a usual innocent little girl.

To support this we decided to use existing stereotypes, such as:

Clothing- A little dress with tights and cardigan all in pastel colours.

Locations such as the park.

Props such as pink bikes, dolls and high key lighting enhancing the child’s purity.

Also we wanted to challenge this stereotypical girl by adding the colour red to her clothing.

For the villain we decided to keep to the typical, negative, representation.

Using existing stereotypes like dark clothing, low key lighting and eerie music to support all of this. Also using locations such as corridors and small spaces.

For the parents we again wanted a positive representation. This would be maintained by having them wear casual clothing, having them situated within a family home and natural lighting.

The Family Liaison Officers are quite sophisticated characters and as they are helping a family they are going to show a positive representation. They are upper working classes and this will be shown through their clothing, black trousers, shirt and jacket, also their badges that they will have will support this.

Casting

When picking the actors/actresses for our teaser trailer we had to be very careful with whom we chose. They had to look the part and be able to pull it off.

We needed them to meet the characteristics that we wanted and be able to act in a sophisticated manor to allow us to meet deadlines.

As part of a performing arts school that involves a variety of girls and boys of all ages we had quite a range of people to choose from. But not all had the distinctiveness that we were looking for.

Also time was a matter and we needed to think of people that we could also use within 6-form to allow us to get things done quickly.

For the child we needed a young girl between the ages of 8-12, preferably with long curly blonde hair. This image is stereotypical of a small girl.

For the villain our desired figure was a male character that was quite well built. He needed to act like a kidnapper. So a smaller man would not be able to pull this off, they would look silly and unrealistic. Also we wanted this male character to be between the ages of 19-21 because at this age men are in their prime and in shape.

For the parents we wanted a mother and a father. Hopefully having some sort of resemblance towards the child. So, if possible, one of the parents to be blonde and fair- similar to the child.

For the authority we thought about police, but not many police officers deal with the situations that our teaser trailer encounters. A more official approach would need to be shown, like FBI or undercover police. So we wanted a male and a female character with quite a sophisticated look.

Child- Caitlin Pitts- 11years old

Kidnapper- Adam Thomas- 20years old

Parents- Mum- Emily Wright

Dad-

Authority- Female- Elizabeth Boulamatsis

Male-

Ethical Plot Issues

We realised at an early stage in our production that our plot/storyline was a rather difficult and controversial one, and that we would have to approach the issue very carefully. The idea of the kidnapping and missing child theme is one that has been prominent in the countries media over the recent years and this may cause a certain amount of outcry by the audience if we were inconsiderate at all in our advertising and production.



In 2007, there was the sudden cancellation of an abduction storyline featuring a baby in the TV Soap Opera 'Coronation Street'. A source quoted by the Daily Mail said: 'We were going to have a storyline involving Freddie Peacock, who was to be abducted while he was asleep in his bed. But after Madeleine disappeared so soon after filming the scenes, we realised there were too many similarities and parallels between the plotline and her disappearance, so we decided not to run with it.'



Producers of the soap have now published how they plan to create another storyline of the same nature throughout 2010. They face a lot of criticisms over this decision, however spokespeople have stated how they feel enough time has passed so that they can use this to raise awareness of these issues and the differences in circumstances will be enough to retain a certain level of respect for those involved in cases such as that of Madeleine Mccann.



Similarly to the decisions made by the producers of Coronation Street and ITV, we had decided that our storyline will not be in any way offensive, and any references to abduction will be purely connotations and will not actually depict any violence or kidnapping. We will carefully address any ethical issues to make certain that our teaser trailer and production will be suitable for all audiences and not cause the upset of anyone or induce public outcry.