Explanation Of Planning

All of the group planning tasks have been equally distributed between myself and my partner Anna Dunbar. When deciding who did what we discussed and took into consideration what our strengths and weaknesses were, and the workload of each task so we would have a balanced workload between us. The individual tasks were both done with minimal consultation as we needed to use our own ideas to complete these tasks. In terms of group tasks Anna did the shooting schedule, the plot synopsis, the script, the selection of actors. I did the pitch, costume planning, location decision and the storyboard. We both took on the role of creating the initial ideas mind map, as we did it when initially discussing our ideas for the film. 

This post has been written by Mattie Goddard.

Costumes

In terms of planning costumes, we wanted completely opposing looks for the two characters. At the beginning of the film, in the bathroom/'funeral' scene we want the character Angelo to be dressed smartly, as if dressed for a funeral, here is a sketch of the potential and ideal costume:




We managed to source the clothes to create this costume; a white shirt, a red tie, black trousers, a black pinstriped jacket with a black fedora hat.

This is what Arthur's character, Angelo will be wearing as well as the jacket
and fedora hat.

We have chosen this costume idea as it links with the narrative of the film. We have the idea of the bathroom scene being Angelo's own personal funeral for his victim. The darkness of the suit he is wearing correlates the darkness of his character and his past and future actions. The white colour of the shirt under the jacket is symbolic of his underlying purity that gets consumed by the darkness of his suit and the metaphorical darkness. Furthermore, the red tie is symbolic of the danger he is about to be engrossed into, almost as if it is a indistinct symbol. 




For the character Annie Floyd is playing, we decided to let her chose her own costume and wear her own clothes. This is because she is playing a more vulnerable 'normal' character that the audience are hopefully going to relate to as she is a realistic character. This is why we made the decision for her to choose her own costume, as it would appear more naturalistic as she is essentially playing a character not majorly different to herself.

This post has been written by Mattie Goddard.

Inter-Textual References

A pivotal text that has inspired our idea for the plot of our film is Ben Wheatley's psychological thriller, Kill List (2011). The part that inspired us is the plot of a cult controlling people and interrupting/ hindering elements of everyday lives. We chose this film because we were interested in the contextual links it held, such as the exploration of religious cults, yet in a modern day, contemporary setting. 

Furthermore, the distress and discomforting unpleasantness I felt while watching some of the scenes in this film otherwise inspired me to replicate a similar effect on our audience when they watched our thriller opening.  Our personal aim is to simultaneously make the audience feel disturbed yet create a hooking opening to our thriller film so despite their discomfort they continue to watch the film. A specific detail from kill list we plan to use is the protagonists discovery of a cults symbol on their personal property, which triggers a climax and the realisation for the protagonist of what is happening. Furthermore, we have taken inspiration from the literal design itself. 

This post has been written By Mattie Goddard

Title Sequence

The font of the opening credits in a film is crucial when introducing  the film in the opening sequence. The font type compliments the introduction of factors such as the genre, themes and mood of the film. In addition, there is also a strong correlation to the plot of the film as well as links to the narrative.

As said before, it is crucial that the correct font type is used. If the wrong type of font is used then it may create a opposing or a misleading impression of the film. For example, if we were to use a light and soft font with a low density (see below) it would convey the wrong meaning. In addition, it wouldn't correlate with the simplicity of the shots and the colour balancing 

ASCENDANCY 

After experimenting with a variety of font types and styles, we decided on using a simplistic font found on microsoft word called 'Adobe Fan Heiti Std B'. We chose this font because of its bold yet simplistic appearance, it also compliments and correlates well with the connotations of the word. By placing spaces in between each letter it increases the coherence associated with the word in a subtle way. 

A S C E N D A N C Y

This post has been written by Mattie Goddard

Shooting Schedule

Shooting schedule 1 from Anna Dunbar

This post was written by Anna Dunbar

Soundscape

From the beginning of our planning process, we were certain that we wanted to include non-diegetic sound. We ideally wanted a specific score for the film as we felt it would be more effective.  Furthermore, we knew a score would be crucial in terms of setting an atmosphere and mood for our film. We have decided to use the score in the opening scene of the film and are debating whether to cut and edit parts of it in the rest of the film. 

The score will additionally contribute to the elimination of any background noise, as we are shooting on a road in part of the film and it is inevitable that there will be mass background noise of traffic and so forth. By being able to mute the natural sound of some of our footage, and then editing on a score, the focus will be on the visuals; as there will be no distraction of irrelevant background noise, therefore our film will look and appear more professional. 

We are using a score that a friend has produced himself, (https://soundcloud.com/prodot) in response to the title, 'Ascendancy'. He has produced this piece specifically for our film, therefore has given permission for us to use it. The themes behind this score is to create a tense and eerie atmosphere, in order to both conform to the thriller genre as well as creating a intense effect on the audience. By using it in the opening scene, it will hopefully foreshadow the dark plot of the film. 

In addition, we will also be using silence as part of the non-digetic soundscape, this enables the atmosphere to be contributed as well as the audience being left with a feeling of unpredictability and cautiousness. Silence is crucial to building tension and adding effect to simplistic shots, and makes these stand out more, in terms of narrative and camerawork.

The piece of music we are using is called 'Ascendancy' : 

(click on the sound symbol)

Media from Mattie Goddard


This post was written by Mattie Goddard

Location and Mise-en-scene

Location from Mattie Goddard

Written by Mattie Goddard

The Script

Opening scene: Angelo enters the bathroom, dead girl is in a bath, Angelo stairs into mirror – blank expression, turns to girl, lays flowers on her and strokes her hair and leaves room.

(2 WEEKS PREVIOUS)

Second scene: Leaves house, walks down street, bumps into women and he drops his wallet on the floor

Woman: Oh god, I’m sorry

(Both lean down to pick up wallet, woman hands wallet to him, he stairs intensely at her)

Finn: No need to apologise…it’s completely fine

(Finn stands there watching as woman hastily walks away, whilst there is a man in the background of the shot, carefully watching)

Third scene: Angelo is walking back from the shop, carrying shopping bag in empty car park, he walks towards the corner of the car park and sinks down into the corner and begins to play with the stones on the floor and using them to make specific symbols, he then picks up a child’s toy and crushes it in his hands, tries to pull it apart, walks back to house

Fourth scene: Angelo is sitting in his bedroom surrounded by candles, staring at pictures of his family, when he picks up a picture he hears voices of his family

Written By Anna Dunbar 

Selecting the Actors

We chose two a-level drama students for our film to achieve a higher level of realism of the characters that we wanted to portray. We chose Annie Floyd to play the more vulnerable character due to the fact she looks more innocent and therefore will provoke more of a reaction from the audience if the innocent looking character's life is in jeopardy. For our second character we chose Arthur Vaughan-Myhill who we believe could play the more sinister role of the film due to the scruffy appearance and cold emotion he could show.  

(Written By Anna Dunbar)

Arthur Myhill

Arthur as 'Angelo'

Title Explanation - Ascendancy

By definition,our title, ascendancy means 'occupation of a position of dominant power or influence'. This was decided as our group mind-mapped ideas around power, evil and authority. We explored different words, themes and phrases surrounding these themes. Due to the plot having a theme of cult influence on a innocent, vulnerable boy we thought this title connoted the plot and themes of our film well. The image we wanted to create was the power shift between the protagonist and the invisible antagonists. The sibilance of the word Ascendancy creates a harsh, irregular and rather prominent sound when spoken aloud which compliments the mysterious, unknown plot of the film. This would ensure the audience are intrigued yet nervous and cautious due to the element of 'unknown' surrounding the title.   

This post was written by Mattie Goddard

Initial Ideas

Initial ideas from Mattie Goddard



By Anna Dunbar and Mattie Goddard

The Pitch and Plot Synopsis

A S E N D E N C Y

This film is about a severely troubled boy who gradually gets influenced in daily life by a cult. The consequences of this are relentlessly drastic.

Angelo is a young adult, troubled by past traumatic experiences in his life which has now impacted him for the worst. This troubled boy is deeply involved with an unnerving cult, which leads him to being forced into horrific and psychologically disturbing crimes. Who is the leader of this sinister cult? Will Angelo ever escape from his traumatic thoughts and the unknown cult group?  Encountered by chilling murders and horrifically dark tasks forced upon Angelo, is this enviably the end of his psychological wellbeing? And what does this entail?

Pitch Written by Mattie Goddard

Plot synopsis written by Anna Dunbar

Introduction