Full Narrative Pitch - Kiss of Death

The movie opens with a date scene between Katie (the protagonist) and her Boyfriend. This love story slowly develops whilst revealing the psychological disorder of schizophrenia the protagonist suffers from, and what affect it has in terms of her relationships with her friends and family and the impact it has on other things such as school. Around the third act/climax of the movie the protagonist kills her boyfriend, however through various shots explaining the reality of all the events that took place previously in the movie reveals that her boyfriend was in fact a fragment of her hallucinations. This movie ends with the protagonist jumping of a building, supposedly taking her life, due to society not being able to provide her with the support she desperately needed.

Finalised pre-production

Project Schedule & Mise-en-scene;

Script ;




Shot List;




Storyboard;

MEST2 Print brief

Research


Write an analysis of this BFI Film Festival programme front cover. How many of the 12 key conventions of magazine covers can you see? In what way does this print product differ from a traditional magazine cover? How have the designers made this programme visually interesting?

The title of the publication's typography is carefully chosen and placed in the center, this helps it act almost like a central image highlighting that the key focus is on the actual festival. 
This therefore differs from the typical 'top third' location of the title and a more interesting central image of a key aspect or article of the magazine. 
This is made visually interesting by the front colour containing an image of what seems to be eyes which works in synergy with the concept of it seeing of a 'film' festival. 

Another aspect of the above print is its carefully thought out colour scheme which consists of a fairly greyish background to the title colours which consists of the colour scheme of the BFI logo which we can see in the top left. 

Much like magazine front covers it is so that it is easy to read and aesthetically pleasing having a direct appeal to the audience. 

The leaflet also has the date right underneath the title. This is an important aspect to the leaflet as it is giving the date of the festival which probably has the most importance in the whole leaflet therefore carefully placed in the front.

Magazines also have the date on the front however it is seemingly so the audience can understand if it is the latest issue or not rather than giving a date for a certain event. 

There is also the BFI logo in the top left which is a lot like magazines and their headers. 

This product is mostly different from a magazine print due to its simplicity regarding how much information is given in the front and has more text than actual images. It therefore seems much more sophisticated without parts of what may be found in the text and trival things such as competitions as the audience targeted with the leaflet is vastly different from a magazines target audience. 

This simplicity is therefore also the aspect that makes the design so appealing and interesting. 





Find at least 5 arts centre or cinema programmes/brochures aimed at a similar target audience to your project (arthouse cinema). For each one, pick out one design idea that you could use in your own print work.

Find at least 5 contents pages from arts programmes or magazines. How are contents pages designed? How do they use a combination of text and images to create an effective design?

 
Planning and sketching

1) Create a spider diagram or bullet point list of all the things your target audience might be interested in. How can you use this information to create a main feature about your film that will appeal to your target audience?

Main aspects of Target Audience- 

• 15+ (or more specifically 15-32) 
•  16-24 year old's being prone to mental health illnesses 
• secondary target audience of parents to help 
• broad aspect of mental health, and the equal balance of male and female characters 
• idea of romance, therefore suggesting a 52% female 48% male target audience.
• Aspires as it is a young audience
• mainstreamers as the idea of psychology is becoming fairly mainstream especially within young audiences
•  reforms as the seek knowledge on all issues
• explores as they would willing like to explore the human mind and emotions.

What the Target Audience may therefore be interested in -

• psychology
• romance
• society
• complex issues
• mental health illnesses
• support/help/aid
• knowledge
• tumblr (huge psychology fans)
• films like black swan
• photography/art/writing 

Main Features that could appeal well to the audience interested in the above-

• Artistic(through both photographs/art and writing) layout
• Detailed article on schizophrenia 
• inspiration for the movie
• any emotional attachment present to the movie
• main message of the movie

2) Produce an A5 sketch of your front cover including the key conventions and design tricks you have studied in existing programmes and then planned in planning task 1 above.

3) Produce an A4 sketch of your double-page spread contents page. In terms of the text for your contents page, you will need to find out the names of the films of other groups in your class. The other films in the class will make up the rest of your contents page.

4) Create a spider diagram or bullet point list of ideas for your double-page spread feature. Write a list of potential headlines and sub-headings for the article you choose to go with.

potential ideas; 

• Reasons for the shadows - inspiration for writing the script
• I am not my disorder - mental health issues awareness campaign 
• Perception of it all - my take on the mental health illness

4) Produce an A4 landscape sketch of your double page spread design now you have chosen the subject matter.




1) Which of your main characters will appear on the front cover of your programme?

The Protagonist, Katie. 

2) What image or images do you need for the contents page?

Side pose of Katie blowing (gently) with a lost and distant look to her. 

3) What image or images will you use for the double-page spread?

Standing in the distance with long shot, wind blowing her hair
Shadow over Katie's face


4) Write a shot list for the photoshoot. Make sure you plan a variety of camera shots you will look to capture - medium shots, close-ups etc.

• Long shot - Katie's hair blowing as she stands in the distance (back view)
• Medium Close up - Kaite's red lips with half her face in the shadow
• Medium close up shot - Katie holding her face in frustration.
•  MCU - smirk 
• MCU -  fear 
• Medium shot - Katie holding a piece of paper allowing only her eyes in view  
• Medium shot - Shadow over katies face. 

5) What costume, props or make-up will you require for the photoshoot?

• Red lip stick 
• Black hoodie
• Black jeans
• Black laced trainers
• Mascara 
• Eye Liner
• Hair spray 

The Kiss of Death - Planning

Shot List;




Script;




Project Scheduled / mise-en-scene




Storyboard;

Audience research focus groups: blog task

In class we had the task to present our idea to the class where we gained feedback from both our peers and the teacher. Our group presented our idea; the name, tag line, log line, outline of the full narrative as well as introducing our characters and describing our inspiration and what we picked to do for the 3 minutes of the clip. 

(all quotations from the following extract are reference to the comments the focus group made regarding our film pitch) We came to a final decision regarding our tagline as the focus group agreed that "the voices in my head is a better tagline" than the falling in and out of love one. 

An important thing we learnt was that we "refer to this as the 3rd act - the denouement (the unraveling of the plot like most narrative structures particularly thrillers)" and due this comment we will be more careful to make sure we answer most the enigma codes we had placed earlier in the narrative. 

Also, we received the advice to "provide a little bit of, a bit of a recap of whats gone before // without it seeming too patronizing to the audience" which we will try to do with only small snippets from earlier scenes.

Moreover we received advice on  "how to communicate the mental state" and that was through "jumps cuts to changing filters, and the kind of the basic colour, brightness or contrast setting, to the sound." We will act upon this by making sure we use these various techniques in the sequence. Further advice on this point was to 

"research dream sequences in movies" in order to "communicate the surreal element" as we were also advised to "look into surrealism and how different mind states can be portrayed," which we will do so as it would "suggests what it may feel like to feel those symptoms" which is an important aim of our production. 

 

A strong part of our concept was the "emotional power, a lot of emotional intensity" so the group thought we should play on this strength and make sure to keep the emotional power going throughout the whole movie without it slipping, and making sure there is an extra emotional impact in the sequence we are producing out 3 minutes on. 

However, "the danger is this can stigmatise people with mental illness" and therefore "you can be reinforcing that negative stereotype of mental illnesses" which isn't want we want to do. But we also received the comment that "if you do it sensitively, actually it can be people are more sympathetic and more understanding of the condition, your raising awareness, your making people understand the emotional reality more than anything else so there are two ways to go about it and your going to have to tread a very careful path to make sure your reinforcing that negative stereotype." We will therefore try to avoid the negative stereotype by making sure we include dialogue sensitive to the feelings of the individual why trying to provide the message that these individuals feel more emotional pain rather than inflicting pain on others - they don't, they hurt themselves more if they feel they have done so which we are going to reflect by her emotional response to the 'death' of her 'boyfriend' 

We also received the important comment that, "i think you guys will need exceptional acting skills" which we were told to try to overcome the issue by asking "what are the best ways to portray mental distress" by getting "professional advice from someone who knows about performance" 

Regarding the audience we where told that "its really right for arthouse" as well as "great for teens" due to the fact that "16-24 year old's have the worst rates of mental illnesses" and that it is a "real threat to people your age" as it is "something they might have experience of from either first hand experience of through people they know." We will therefore make sure to keep this a strength of our concept by making sure we provide a teenager perspective (which will obviously be done as the protagonist is a teenager.) On top of that we were told that it was also very suitable for the art house audience as they would be "interested in this from a liberal minded perspective from their concerns about society and well being and," the message to "support people who are vulnerable." We will also make sure to keep this as a plus point for our production by trying to make the end product providing a strong emotional message that would motivate individuals to support people who have all forms of mental health illnesses, not just schizophrenia. 

"deals with a very deep emotional issues, its not just action but its the internal world, its about feelings and how people" "whats going on inside their head"

From the feed back we found that our original target audience from around 15+ (or more specifically 15-32) is suitable as the focus group consisted of teenagers (around 16) seemed fond of the idea. Moreover the 16-24 year old's being prone to mental health illnesses would attract the target audience but because it is a young audience it can have the secondary target audience of parents to help them achieve an understanding of children who may be unwell. 

The broad aspect of mental health, and the equal balance of male and female characters, means that it will have a close percentage of male and females in the target audience but it may be more female due to the female protagonist and the idea of romance, therefore suggesting a 52% female 48% male target audience.

Due to the wider perspective of teenagers the audience who are still in education or graduated, AB social class also. We aim to attract a more working class audience through the wide scope of audiences targeted.

The psychographic group   Aspires as it is a young audience, mainstreamers as the idea of psychology is becoming fairly mainstream especially within young audiences. Also reforms as the seek knowledge on all issues and explores as they would willing like to explore the human mind and emotions.

MEST2: Film pitch and audience focus group

MEST2 Film Pitch

Complete the following film pitch in time for your audience research focus group in class.

Title and tagline: The Kiss of Death - I always loved falling, even if it was just in and out of love.

Topic from brief (e.g. Modern-noir, Urban Life etc.): Its a lot like a secret/friendship/romance

Genre (and sub-genre if applicable): Psychological thrillar/ drama/ horror(ish)

Logline – one sentence that sums up the film and hooks people in (25 words or fewer):

A girl with Schizophrenia, reflecting the challenges she faces with the love of her life's death.

Other successful films that are similar to yours: Black Swan

Narrative structure for full 30-minute film – what happens and in what order (max 100 words):

The movie begins with a date scene between the protagonist and her boyfriend, this love story slowly developes keeping a steady pase but slowly revealing the psychological disorder of the protagonist. Around the middle of the movie, a dispute happens between the two and she kills her lover. This pushes her over the edge and her schizophrenia gets worse and she sees hallucinations of him. She then confesses everything to her friend yet things only get worse and she decides to finally take her life.

Main protagonist, their desires, the conflicts they encounter etc.: The main protagonist is a young adult and wants to just be loved and to love, shes a slight thrill seeker and very impulsive. The conflicts she accounters are mainly against her own internal thoughts.

Other characters and their role/audience appeal:
Her other half - to provide a core to the story and a sentimental attachement
Friend 1 (female) - a tom-boyish laied back attitude to provide a resting point yet add to the ambigiousity of the film.
friend 2 (male)- very likable personality adding hints of humor there and here.

Target audience for your film (age, gender, social class, interests etc.):
15-26 years
working/middle class around an AB audience prodominalty
Psychological interests/drama, more emotional and have acounters with individuals with psychological problems and there severity.

The three-minute extract you will make and where it would appear in the film:

Its going to be the climax of the movie(half way), where the audience becomes fully aware of her instablility and she confesses all her 'sins'

MEST2: BBFC Institution research

1) 

The BBFC

• Is a non-profit organisation therefore meaning that fees are only to cover the costs that they have. Also they never receive any subsides from either the rest of the film industry or the government. 
• Was set up in 1912 (videos and DVDs since Video recordings Act since 1984)
• They were set up as an independent body to bring uniformity of film classification on a national level.
• They serve as a 'guide to media content' providing a trusted regulation of the UK labeling system. 

Mission statement has the following points(reflecting their responsibilities also); 

• The aim to protect the public from harmful media content 
• Help the public to make informed choices regarding media
• reflect changing social attitudes through consistent research.

The BBFC have the following links to the government; 

• The Video standards council 
• The Film distributors association. 
• Federation against copyright theft

2) Hows the film rated

The board reaches decisions by consensus (with the director, president and the 2 vice presidents) but use solo viewings to rate material. In cinemas they asses the cinema effect and for dvds they see the 'home view feeling.' They pay close attention the the general context, timings of moments, cinematography and things such as bad language and sex etc. If a decision cannot be made a senior team get involves. Through this process scenes may be rejected of the whole film may be. 

3) issues faced

• Whether the material is in conflict with the law, or has been created through the commission of a criminal offence
• cause any harm at the age rating concerned.
• Whether the availability of the material, at the age group concerned, is clearly unacceptable to broad public opinion
• The context in which an issue (such as sex, language or violence) is presented is central to the question of its acceptability.
• The overall tone of a work may also affect the final decision. 

4) Dark Knight

The potential issue was that the movie was too violent and most the audience though the rating was too low with 30% rather than the 1% with too high. This however also means that 69% of people thought it was okay. Therefore i think it was an okay rating considering the majority vote.

5) 15 Rated

The following can take place in a 15 rated film/video; (quoted from BBFC official site)

• "strong violence
• frequent strong language
• portrayal of sexual activity
• strong verbal reference to sex
• sexual nudity
• brief scenes of sexual violence/verbal reference 
• discriminatory language/behavior
• drug taking" 

Amount of strong language allowed - a great deal. 

• dependent on manner of use
• justification required
• however continued or 'aggressive' use wouldn't pass as a 15 rated 

Discriminatory or offensive terms- racist , homophobic or other. 

• however, overall the media text shouldn't be full of discriminatory language/behavior. 

Sex and Nudity- portrayed but without strong detail 

• some scenes can be fairly long
• cannot be in very strong detail 
• no constraints on nudity in non-sexual/educational contexts
• cannot be strong or crude
• irrespective of sexuality 

Violence- strong but without lingering on pain/injury

• strong gory images are not accepted
• sadistic violence isn't acceptable either

Sexual violence- verbal but portrayal mjust be discreet and justifiable 

horror- cannot focus on sadistic/sexual threat

drugs- cannot encourage usage

6)
Adulthood (drama rated 15 uncut)

The teenagers are now adults and he has been released from prision and deals with those who want revenge for the death of theirf.

 Sams attitude for a bright future and realistic protray of the urban areas allowed it a 15 despite the strong violence. There is also a good moral stance regarding the weapons use and violence doesn't dwell on the pain and suffering of individuals. Moreover darker themes aren't promoted and are still portrayed realisticly.