Psychological thriller's are often made fun of for their typical conventions predictability with characters like the impulsive one who goes towards the ominous noise or the unreliable narrator . For my production I don't believe I intended to utilize typical conventions that often make the storyline predictable and less impactful. Though, I did follow the convention around the "loner" character who is socially distant due to their disturbed and distorted view of reality as its utilized to enhance the paranoia and edge the characters social instability. This distance and tension between relationships will be most prevalent in scenes that represent character dynamics, so the examples like the student and teacher, or son and parents, will be a distilled cold feeling using lighting and distance in shots.
This is my podcast script:
For this project, I wanted to use a total of 3 locations, the bathroom, the school classroom, and the kitchen. Anymore locations and I feel like it would derive too much from the film opening. Each location is significant and they portray a different element to each character. The bathroom room presents his over compulsive nature through his getting ready process. I want to make sure to capture angles of the sink and corner shoots of the mirror without revealing the face, yet.
Then it would switch to a dimly lit classroom, for this I would need to utilize one of the rooms in school although I do face complications filming this as the week 2/23/26-2/27/26 is my tech week as I am currently the understudy Sophie in our schools American Musical Theatre production of Mama Mia tech week runs after school from 2:45-6:30 meaning by the time it is over classroom usage is limited. This had led me to consider either changing the scene, creating a new setting or filming during class periods. I'll have to update you guys on that one.
Lastly my kitchen/dinning room if there is time I would like to create a sound blend of quick decisive actions like chopping and slicing that can create some unsettling vibes. The kitchen would just be used to demonstrate the cooking so it's focused on appliances while the dinning room table would represent the families dynamic and the characters isolation and differences to them. Like the bathroom I would be using my own kitchen and dinning room as it is easily accessible to me and modifiable.
For the mise-en-scene element of my film opening I would like for my character to appear similar to the AHS season 1 character Tate Langdon played by Evan Peters. His character is mentally challenged by the traumatic memories of his assault on his peers. Additionally JD from Heathers portrays an emotionally challenged teen overwhelmed with the extraneous factors of life that cause his outbursts. I like how the following characters Tate Langdon, JD, Billy Loomis, Stu Macher, and Donnie Darko appear dressed as regular high school students yet they posses an unsettling element to their character that solidifies a difference from their peers.
I made this collage featuring various characters with the same aesthetic I want to re-create. Although, some of them are more extreme like Norman Bates and Sweeney Todd I appreciated the makeup aspect of the characters instead. While the rest of the following characters I would like to utilize a similar high school student appearance, though let it be noted how most of them appear more covered.
My character is going to be more organized in his physical appearance, wearing minimalistic clothing that is very covering. Longer slacked dark washed pants, a grey or white T-shirt, and a dark colored hoodie layered over.
Overall, I would like to achieve an aesthetic that makes what is considered normal, slightly unsettling and different from stereotypical behavior.
As I previously summarized my film opening, I find it that my character is where I drive my inspiration from. As a horror/ thriller fanatic I have seen several different troupes surrounding children with large ranges from Hereditary, The Boy, Poltergeist, Sleepaway Camp, Sinister and Alice Sweet Alice. I wanted to capture that element of tension these children portray as they are mostly misunderstood or overlooked characters some with mental health issues situational variables that influenced their actions.
I want this to be seen when I include elements to make the main character stand out in a "odd" and isolated way. Having him perform questionable and over compulsive actions like nail cleaning and flossing. The introduction of his behavior and drawings are also used to draw his malicious character, lurking in plain sight.
*This is the idea behind the script though until filming occurs there are things that might change.*
Hey bloggers, I just had my first feedback session on February 3. We were organized randomly in to assigned groups of 5 or more, my group consisted of Bella, Isabella, Felipe, Paula, and Chase. Each of us taking turns sharing our blog links, ideas, and our feedback. I enjoyed hearing the ideas of my peers as some had different genres I was interested in learning about, while others had genres similar to mine like psychological horror, thriller, or suspense. I found it helpful to learn from the actions and mistakes of others, for example group member Paula informed us how her team reached out to the owners of "The Weston Dinner" to utilize the space for filming.
The feedback I received on my piece was additionally helpful as they are all things I would now consider doing to enhance the quality. Bella encouraged the idea of using a grey scale to further the intentionality behind coloring, as there is a scene I wanted to use a bloody steak for the red being pivotal. Felipe also suggested I quicken the pacing of my initial scenes the increase the tension, while Paula agreed I should take account of the pacing. Chase's commentary was also insightful as his genre was similar to mine and he agreed with my content being representative of my genre.
