Research: Censorship - Mr Smith

Who are the BBFC and what is their role?

• The BBFC are the British Board of film Classification. Their role is to protect the public from anything offensive or could cause any harm. They will censor and apply rules to anything they see as controversial or damaging for people of certain age certificates.  

• Why is the role of the BBFC important to the film industry?  Their role is important in the film industry as it protects viewers, especially the young when they are watching film. This also helps to advise parents into what their child can and can not watch. Finally, it provides a guideline to the film industry in terms of what they can and cant show in their work.
• What things get censored and why?
• Violence (graphic representation and realism)
• Corrupt the young
• Controversy and the Press
• Sex and Nudity
• Sexual violence
• Religion
• Class
• Language
• Shock
• Drug abuse
• Culture
• Religion
• Race
• True events
   
• What is the difference between films being cut and banned?
  Depending on the content, the BBFC will cut or ban the work. Cut is when a film is edited or has had scenes taken out of it to make it appropriate for viewing, an example of this is ‘Scream’ when the first version came out. Banned is when a film is taken away from cinema viewing completely due to indecent, harmful or offensive material. This happened to the exorcist and it was released almost 20 years after it was first made.  

The human centipede was censored as it contained such graphic and violent images. This took a while before it could be release into cinema.

This was censored for over 10 years and it made fun of people with disabilities.

I believe so as it means that it protects our viewing public, especially kids who are young and impressionable.

From this lesson I have learnt that it is important to censor films and I have to be really careful with the content I decide to portray within my narrative as it has to be suitable to the age rating it gets also from the BBFC. I will probably aim at 15 years olds so I need to find out what content I can show here and make sure I do not do anything that causes controversy.

Planning- opening scene narration - Miss Begum

Opening scene narration


The opening scene begins with the introduction of the main character, with the use of high angle camera as the female character instantly drops to the ground. The setting instantly shows the audience that she is in a dark place In her life and that there must be something wrong with the protagonist, the audience can see that the girl is holding an object that is wrapped up with a light pink blanket, the Mise En Scene of her costume shows the audience that she is mentally unstable as she is wearing light pink pyjamas connotation that she is just a young girl, as the character drops the audience is unable to see her face due to it being covered by her messy hair suggesting that she does not take care of herself.

As the scene develops into another one the audience is then introduced by the credits showing who the people involved where. The mood then instantly changes, as we are introduced to another character who looks like a news reporter as he has formal wear and he is holding what may seem like a script of information, he then begins to talk about the missing girl who ran away from a nearby maternity clinic with her baby and warns the audience about the dangers that she might bring to people If she is not found or reported instantly, as he is speaking there will be a little screen besides him showing the audience the cctv recording of the young girl trying to find a way out of the clinic. the cctv will be showing her from a high angle as it will make her seem like a smaller weaker character to the audience.

As the news reporter finishes, the scene then changes into the female character running away from doctors as she is hiding somewhere dark, giving the audience an insight on how the opening scene came about, we then have a zoom in off her face and see that she has what seems like red tears dripping down her face, and as she's crying so is the baby that she is carrying, she then whispers to the baby 'be quiet please' with a seemingly week voice as she is trying to escape from the dark room in which she has found shelter.

The scene then switches to a couple of feet walking in a fast pace towards the door of the room which the protagonist is hiding in, as they open the door, the camera then turns to the room and the audience then see that the room is completely empty, then a straight cut into another scene is used as we see her running down the stairs.

After she walks out of the clinic, we have a scene where we see the girl who is for the first time after being held in a mental clinic being exposed to the outside world as she is looking lost walking down the streets with a crying baby.

Towards the end of the opening the protagonist then finds an empty room in a construction site where she takes hostage with the baby and then begins to get possessed by supernatural beings. The scene will then completely end with her and her baby lying on the floor, lifeless.

Research: Typography - Miss Begum

Typography is the different fonts and writing you present in your writing. The choice of typography needs to be relevant not only to the genre, but to the sub-genre also. Above are some examples of thriller titles that use interesting typography to present their film.

Why typography is important:

-helps provide connotations for the film

-can reflect the tone and mood of the film

-can highlight emotions from the audience

-reflects the genre well

What to look out for:

-colour

-size

-font

-letter type

-positioning of letters

From looking at the above tiles, the ones I most prefer are the 'Seven' title, 'The Possession',  'Sinister' and 'the strangers'. The reason I like these is because the white stands out against the black and there is a good contrast between the colours. They also look quite faint and spooky which is what I think thrillers should represent.

What I plan to use:

-white

-small font

-faded/faint

-small letters

-will position some of the letters in odd positions so it looks even more spooky

Below is my favourite type and I hope to create something like this.

Research: Opening credits

Opening credits are the order of the names that you see at the start of the film, This gives credit to the production company and team who have made the product. This can vary depending on the production, but the order that I plan to use is as follows.

Order of credits:

• NAME OF THE STUDIO –

• NAME OF THE PRODUCTION COMPANY –

• PRODUCERS NAME -
• DIRECTORS NAME -

• STARRING – main characters only
• FILM'S TITLE -  
• EDITED BY -

• MUSIC or MUSIC COMPOSED BY -

• STORYBOARDED BY

I have decided to use this because from my research I found that these were the names that were mainly credited and I have given out credits to the people I think are the most important and there is a good flow to how I present the different names/titles for audience understanding.

Planning: Developing ideas

Planning ideas - Developing ideas

My idea-
There is a young disturbed female character who is being kept at a clinic due to her mental and suicidal state that developed as she was mistreated by someone who is unknown to the audience, She has just given birth she is planning to run away with her baby in order to kill the baby and herself as she personally believes that it will help her and her kid to stay away from the dangers that are soon to come, she makes this evident to the audience by the quotes she says to her kid such as 'they will find you' 'they are coming for us' 'you need to be quiet'

Title - 'Lost'

Subgenre - Psychological horror

Characters - female victim who is the protagonist/ nurses/ baby

Narrative structure- Todorov ( Beginning, middle and end) the end will have a twist as the audience wont be able to know what happens at the end they would just assume that she kills herself and the baby. I plan to end the narrative with a suspension so that It will leave the audience thinking.

MES-
 Iconography- the baby's blanket
Setting- a mental maternity clinic
Lighting- Dark lighting
Costume - white long scruffy  shirt

Joshua's Narrative-
Joshua's narrative about a young female who gets raped  and is effected mentally by the circumstances in which she found herself in, due to this she has a continuous mental breakdown and decides to gain revenge by killing the person who raped her, this then causes her to grow a passion for killing and unconsciously become addicted to killing, especially when she recalls the events that happened to her the night she was assaulted.

Sub genre - Psychological

Characters - Female Serial killer

Narrative structure - Todorov, Barthes


Shelah's narrative-
Shelah's narrative is about a group of young students who have been reported to be killed, the audience then has an insight on one of the young characters life as its his birthday and he is greeted by a text saying ''Happy birthday. Look behind you''. when suddenly he is attacked with a baseball bat, kidnapped then murdered.

Sub genre - psychological and action

Character - Antagonist

Narrative - Todorov

MES-
Iconography-Baseball bat
Lighting-Low key
Costume- scruffy, hoodie


Conclusion:
The ideas that we all had where very similar as we all had around the same subgenres and the same kind of narrative, through the ideas we had it was clear that psychological thriller was the dominant choice for all of us, so we decided to create a psychological thriller.

Planning: Final idea

Once we developed our ideas as a group, we then sat down and decided on a final idea and what conventions we would use. We also had to make key choices here so we had an idea and script to follow. As a group, this is our final idea.

• Title: The Only Child  
• Narrative/plot: It will be about a young girl who is locked up in a mental home. The audience will not know too much about her as they will just see her in distress, however they will see her having flashbacks where they will learn that she has had a baby who she trying to get back. We will also see images of the baby being in the same establishment as her, they are just separated. The rest of the film will be showing her escape to her child and finally, she finds her baby and manages to escape the mental institution.
• Narrative structure: We will use Todorov’s theory of equilibrium as I like the idea of having a clear star, middle and end so it easier for the audience to follow. At the start of the film, we will see the female in a mental home. The middle of the film will be about the female planning her escape route.  The end of the film will be her getting her baby back and escaping the building with her baby. We will also use Aristotle as we will use themes that evoke emotion from the audience such as innocence, mentality and pregnancy.
• Characters: We will have the female victim, a baby and maybe the girl’s boyfriend. This is to show the connection of the family and have characters that people can relate to and identify easily.
• Mise en scene:
  Setting: in a mental home and busy streets when she escapes
  Iconography: a teddy bear, a frame with the baby in, some important jewellery
  Lighting and colour: low-key when she is in the mental home and high-key lighting to show her flashbacks.
  Body language and facial expression: when she has flashbacks, she will look happy and content with life but when she is in the mental home, she will be upset and fragile. This will show the difference of her life.
  Costume:  she will wear light clothing in her flashback to emphasise her innocence but when she is in the mental home she will wear a white robe as it is conventional and she will be labelled to show she might be dangerous.
• Film influences: Orphan as it shows a tormented female character who is in a mental home.
• Why is this opening conventional to a thriller? This will be conventional to a thriller opening because it will cause suspense and tension amongst the audience and they will want to know more about what it happening and the themes apparent within the film. It will introduce the characters but at the same time their roles will be quite unclear which will make the audience want to watch more.
• What themes does your thriller present? The themes that will be present are childhood, innocence, family and mentality. These are all themes typical to a thriller.
• What response will you get from your audience? I hope to create fear and anticipation amongst my audience. Also, I will hope to show feelings of uncertainty which I think will be effective by my montage of images.