Locations and Props

Location

As a group we decided to go to our first 2 scene, main locations to make a vlog. Using my car, we demonstrated roughly what we would like our shots to look like, and to get used to the location we would be filming in, before going and filming in the dark. This trip proved very useful in the final pre-production of our film opening - Hightail.

Little Miss Sunshine Film Opening Analysis

Little Miss Sunshine

Director: Jonathan Dayton , Valerie Faris

Year: 2006

Production Co: Big Beach Films 

Budget: $8 million

Box Office: $59 million 

Little Miss Sunshine is a 2006 American come-drama road film and the directorial debut of the husband-wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. The screenplay was written by first-time writer Michael Arndt. The film stars Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin and Alan Arkin.

Opening Shots

The first shot that we see is a central composition shot, where we can see a young girl. Immediately, from the mis-en-scene of the shot, especially from the characters attire (e.g. glasses) the representation of a 'nerd' is made to the audience. She switches on the TV.

This next shot is an extreme close up, where we see a reflection of what the young girl is watching (the shot below of the TV). From context knowledge, i know that a focused theme in this film is 'Dreams' and following them; the close up with this specific reflection gives the impression that the girl through the lens of her glasses is looking at what she wishes to become.

This middle shot, uses the contrasts to present the idea that the young girls dream is far from being achieved. Her age, attire and basic mis-en-scene (what looks like a living room) is a large contrast to the glamorous women that she can see on the TV. The idea that the TV is an artificial picture also develops this idea.
The woman on the TV is continued to be represented as a role model in two shots that shot the young girl imitating the women.

Sounds 

There is also sounds used throughout this film opening; a piano melody is being played. The mellow sound of the piano, links in with the idea of a dreamy idea in the young girls head. The piano is also played sharply which gives an excited atmosphere. 

We can then hear a TV presenter announcing the winner of a beauty pageant - that we can see on the screen.

Anamatic

Using iMovie, I cropped down the story board into seperate shots. I then recorded a voice over; a basic description of what was to happen in each shot. In the first scene I have added a 'driving car' sound effect, followed by a 'car crash' sound effect. In the next scene, and then continuing until the end of the film opening, I have added the soundtrack that we hope to use.

Character Profiles / Cast

Protagonist - Molly Smith 

Played by: Molly Cheetham

Age: 16

Physical Appearance: Blonde, Blue eyes, short (in height)

Characteristics: Socialite, whos trauma has left her unable to continue her high interaction with the outside world. Emotionally unstable, anxious and an introvert. 

Paul Smith - Father of Molly

Played by: Nick Hewitt 

Age: 45

Physical Appearance: Grey, well groomed haired, muscular and presentable

Characteristics: Short-tempered, traditional and firm (in terms of parenting), frustrated with Molly's reoccurring disappearances.

Sonja Smith - Mother of Molly

Played by: Georgina Rose

Age: 43

Physical Appearance: Blonde, attractive, smart 

Characteristics: Caring and understanding, the diplomat in situations. She wishes to help Molly, without loading her with negatively (unlike her husband)

Audience Polling

We used the website 'SurveyMonkey' to create a survey about Psychological Thrillers as part of our audience research. After researching in other ways, as a group we already had an initial idea of what to expect our audience to be (their gender and age). We were intrigued as to if this survey would produce the outcome we expected. We also took into consideration that the survey would be bias due to the fact that we were posting the link on our social medias, that did not allow a massive range of people to take the survey. However with about 100 responses, we were confident that the survey would definitely help us in some way.

Our Survey - https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/BK5MG58

Most of the people who took the survey had watched, and enjoyed a psychological thriller...

We then saw many responses that fitted with our target audience research. Here are a few examples

Primary Audience - Female 16-25

Secondary Audience - Male 21-35

Storyboard

This is the story board for our film opening, involving the key shots we will use. In our final cut we are sure that extra cut away shots, and establishing shots will be used. However at the moment we are unsure on what these will be...

Screenplay

Hightail

Screenplay by George Stott,

Kathryn Sammon and Harrison Lambert

EXT. ROAD – NIGHT

MOLLY, PAUL and SONJA in car. Paul is driving, Sonja in the front seat and Molly in the back. Paul and Sonja are angry at Molly for not telling them where she is. 

PAUL

So are you going to tell us where you

were?

(Molly ignores)

SONJA

Don’t ignore your father Molly. 

Why didn’t you tell us where you were?

MOLLY

My phone died.

PAUL 

Don’t bullshit us. Tell us the truth.

SONJA

We give you so much responsibility. The

least you could do is tell us the truth.

(Molly ignores)

Paul turns around to look at Molly. Car comes from a perpendicular road. Hits the car the family are in. Screen goes black; audio continues.

MOLLY

Mum?!

Pause

MOLLY

Dad?!

Pause

MOLLY

Please!

INT. MOLLY’s BEDROOM – DAY

Molly wakes up. Starts playing voicemails. Starts to pack her belongings. She packs all her clothes and places funeral brochure on top of belongings. Molly closes her suitcase and then the title appears on a reveal.

Voicemail #1

Hey Molly, hope your okay, where were

you last week? I didn't see you at school,

ring me when you can.

Voicemail #2

Good Afternoon Molly, its Mr Smith,

I hope you are well. We are concerned

of your attendance in the past week,

would you kindly have your guardian call

us back, to discuss the reason for this.

Thank you.

PAUSE

Voicemail #3

Hi darling its Grandma, hope you’re up

and packed, let me know when you are

safely on the train, me and Grandpa are

excited to see you, we have everything

sorted for your new school. See you soon.

INT. LEEDS TRAIN STATION – DAY

Molly is sat in train station waiting for her train. She gets on the train and sits down.

INT. TRAIN – DAY

Molly is sat on the train. Puts headphones in and puts on music. Puts her head in her hands.

FLASHBACK STARTS

EXT. CEMETARY – DAY

Molly stood on her own at grave. Crying to herself. Puts flowers on the grave and walks off.

FLASHBACK FINISHES

INT. BURLEY TRAIN STATION – DAY

Molly arrives at the train station. The tannoy announces she’s arrived at her destination. Gets off the train.

TRAIN TANNOY

The next station is Burley. Please take

all your belongings with you. 

Molly gets off the train and starts walking down an alley. The train doors close whilst she is walking down.

Treatment

Hightail

The writers’ name for this film is Kathryn Sammon, George Stott and Harrison Lambert. They can be contacted at their private emails.

After the tragic death of Molly's parents, with accusations being thrown in her direction, she realises that her life will never be the same. Escaping to the country to live with her Grandparents, a completely new life awaits - as she battles her own mind to persuade herself she is not to blame.

Molly proves to herself she isn’t to blame for the death of her parents.

Act 1: After the car crash resulting in the death of her parents, Molly moves to the country to get away.

Act 2: She battles flashbacks and previous life tasks to prove she’s not to blame.

Act 3: Molly finally proves to herself just because she caused the argument she isn’t to blame for the car crash that resulted in her parent’s death.

Molly (aged 16), a typical outgoing socialite that enjoys interacting with her friends and surroundings. Good grades and a perfect attendance in school however outside the gates she won’t tell her parents anything.

After being tracked down by her parents on a late Friday night, she is picked up and begins to drive home. However her perfect world is rocked when an argument breaks out causing her dad to lose focus whilst driving. Not looking whilst taking a turns results in a car going straight into the car.

After being the only one to survive the crash, she blames herself for the outbreak of the argument. Leading to her leaving her home in Ilkley to move out into the country town of Malton, York to live with her grandparents.

After battling flashbacks and nightmares of the event, she embarks a journey to prove to her own mind she isn’t responsible for the death of her parents.

BBFC Rating

We have decided that our psychological thriller will be rated a 15, meaning is suitable only for 15 years and over. We have decided this because our primary target audience age range is 16 to 21. It also fits into the criteria of a 15 rated film (using the BBFC website) this includes:

Another reason why we chose to rate our film a 15 is because most of the psychological thrillers we have studied, and reached have been rated a 15 or 18, and rarely are below this rating (12/12A for example). Due to this we decided that our film would not be suitable for persons under the age of 15, primarily due to the psychological damage of the protagonist that the audience is exposed to. As I mentioned, there are hardly any psychological thrillers that are rated PG our film also reflects this and would not be rated a 12 due to the following reasons:

•  Our film may include some strong language (this is no aloud in a 12 rated film as stated by the BBFC)


•  We may be using some scenes blood and and self harm during the film.

We believe that a 15 is the most suitable rating for our film 'Hightail' and we have decided not to rate our film an 18 due to the absence of sexual scenes - which is present may have meant we must higher the rating.

Our Target Audience

Primary Audience

Our primary target audience would be specifically aimed at:

Age - our primary target audience age would range from 16 to 21, which we decided after we had completed our audience polling (which can be seen in a separate post). This is because, as we found, this age range would be ones to typically watch and also enjoy a psychological thriller.

Gender - The specific gender for our primary audience would be a female as there is a female protagonist.

Sexuality - There is no romance in our film and the female protagonist is heterosexual therefore we will not appeal to any specific sexuality

Ethnicity - We will focus mainly on the ethnicity of white British as our protagonist is white British.

Secondary Audience 

Our secondary target audience would be specifically aimed at:

Age - our target audience age would be 21-35 as this is the same age range as the primary target audience. This is because this age range would be ones to typically watch a psychological thriller.

Gender - The specific gender for our secondary audience would be male as our primary gender is female as there is a female protagonist.

Sexuality - There is no romance in our film and the female protagonist is heterosexual therefore we will not appeal to any specific sexuality

Ethnicity - We will focus mainly on the ethnicity of white British as our protagonist is white British.

Appealing to our Target Audience 

Age- We have appealed to our target age by having our protagonist to be a 16-year-old girl which will appeal to younger ages as there is someone they can relate to.

Gender-We have appealed to our target genders by having our protagonist to be a female. This is because when girls tend to watch films they watch films with female protagonists as they are “girly films”.

Sexuality- We won’t specifically try and appeal to any one on a sexual level as there will be no sexual tension between any 2 people throughout our film as it is focused on an individual mental journey.

Character types- We appeal to our audience as we only have one protagonist meaning the story will not be difficult to understand from the audience point of view. Our film will not have an antagonist during its screen time so we will not need to worry about that. Our protagonist will be in 2 character types as they will embark on a journey which will change them mentally. We will have a few people that will be static that will help to make the plot easier to understand to the audience.

Narrative enigma- We will have a few mild narrative enigmas throughout the film to keep the audience involved with the plot. In our poll, we have results that show people have an interest in that part of thrillers.

Pace of editing- Our pace of editing will be at a normal pace with no quick jump-cuts which will appeal to the age we are focusing on as they can keep up with what is happening with the motion of the film.

Locations- The location will appeal to the audience watching as they will be looking at modern places and current times which they can relate to as it is in the present.