Our new actress

Georgia Gerstein

We hope to use Georgia Gerstein as the actress in our new finalised version of our opening sequence. She received an A* in GCSE drama, has+ gone on to study it at AS level, and has experience playing the part of a wild, 'off-the-rails' party girl for a piece she did for her AS examination . Furthermore, she fits the requirements of the 'look' we want to create for our main character, and says she would be free and willing to shoot whenever we need her.

Key signifiers of a rapist

  

We wanted to show that rape isn't just about sex, or about passion or enjoyment for the rapist. It's often violent, abusive, demoralising and brutal, and victims are left not only emotionally but physically scarred by the experience. Victims take years and years to overcome the experience, and some never do. It's far more then just sex being forced upon someone. It's hard to define a 'stereotype' of a rapist - obviously we all automatically think of a hooded youth hanging around in a park to pounce, but really they can't be generalised so easily, and are people driven to rape by all different sorts of experiences - abusive childhoods, drink and drugs problems, and so on. The only stereotype or 'key signifier' i could think of personally of a rapist was that they may wear a balaclava or hoodie to conceal their identity.

Re-thinking Our Idea

Our old idea was too complicated and didn't work nearly as effectively as we'd hoped, so our group decided to really simplify the idea - we noticed that the shots that we'd kept straightforward and simple were the most effective anyway. After discussing our new ideas with each other, our actors, and our teachers, here is the new idea we put together:

• A video diary style opening, involving the rape victim talking to the camera about her experience.
• The first 20-30 seconds will just be a CU of her talking directly to the audience.
• Fade to black, before a 'flash-back'.
• Flashback will include her walking up the path, smoking a cigarette, receiving a text and so on.
• She enters her flat, and as in our test shoot, will be attacked by the rapist from behind.
• Fade to black, and time flashes forward
• The last 20-30 is her talkign directly to the audience once again about her fears etc.

Background information:
The rest of the movie would be about her coming to terms with overcoming the rape.
The rapist is a 'serial rapist' who has a history of raping many other women, and leaving a trade mark 'calling card', disguised as a funeral directors business card, hinting that his victims will in turn be murdered.
She has the made this video-diary as evidence to provide the police with, but is in hiding, from her rapist.

The Test Shoot

This is a clip of the part of our opening sequence we liked the most.





The test shoot opened our eyes to a lot of things we need to do differently in the actual shoot, for which reason we're all relieved we had this oppurtunity to trial-and-error our ideas. There are however some things that went really well and that we're pleased with.


Things that went well:

• All actors and members of the group showed up
• We managed to shoot everything we had planned to
• The weather was good
• All equipment was brought
• Location was perfect for what we wanted to shoot
• There were no arguments, everyone got along well

Things that didn't go well:

• Some lighting issues - There was continuity problems with whether we had the lights on/off. There was also some problems with glare when we filmed outside.
• The effect we were trying to create with the flashbacks from the therapist room just didn't go as well as we thought it would, for which reason we have decided to rethink how we go about our idea.
• Some continuity errors
• Forgot some props, eg. high heels, glasses for the therapist
• Cannot use swearing.

key signifiers or stereotypes of a typical 'off-the-rails' party girl

short skirts

fishnet tights

red lipstick

high heels

smokes excessively

drinks excsessively

takes drugs

stays out till early hours of morning

goes clubbing

has lots of sex/boyfriends

Final Idea

We decided unanimously at our first group meeting that the genre of our opening sequence should be 'horror/thriller', and decided on the following final idea:

• a rape scene, committed at the girl's house.
• the girl is aged around 18, and lives in her own flat.
• she has had a difficult, troubled childhood, and turned to drink, drugs, partying, and sex as a form of escape.
• because of what she has been through, she has been in and out of therapy from a young age.
• one night, after a particularly heavy night's drinking, she is followed home, and brutally shoved through the door to her flat and raped there.
• the emphasis would be on the fact that the rape is very physical, violent, aggressive, and angry as oppose to sexual or passionate in anyway.
• the story will however, be told through a series of flashbacks, as the girl tells the story to her therapist.
• there will be some kind of hinting or insinuation that her therapist is in fact her rapist (we thought this would be a clever play on the word 'therapist' breaking down into 'the rapist'). The therapist will maybe suggest to her that it is down to her provocative style of dress and loud, drunken behaviour.

Initial Idea

Despite the opening sequence being open to any kind of genre we liked, I decided to focus my initial idea on the genre of 'thriller/horror', because it meant I could gain inspiration from looking through past projects on YouTube. I started playing around with the idea of drinks being spiked at a party/date-rape drugs and formed the following suggestion to put forward to my group:


Clip showing a teenaged girl, aged between 6 and 18 at a house party. Camera follows her movement around as she socializes, drinking shots, etc., and the picture steadily becomes blurrier as she gets drunker. The 'blurry vision' effect of the camera then starts being cut-up with clearer shots of a guy sitting next to her, spiking her drink as she gets up to sort her skirt out. Suddenly the pace speeds up and there is fast-paced, choppy CU cuts of him forcing her into a bedroom, forcefully pushing her up against the wall, etc. insinuating the build up to a rape.

Research into Todorov's Theory

(the subtitles and weird music stop after the first few minutes)

1. The main agents are 'Anna' or Lindsay Lohan, the protagonist, and her mother or Jamie Lee Curtis, the antagonist.

2. The Equilibrium is a state in which the mother and daughter are both frequently fighting. Lots of MCUs and CUs can be identified, as these give a good sense of expression and get us right up close with the chracter emotions being conveyed. For example on the way to school in the car, the camera frequently does CUs on each characters face to show their reactions to what the other is saying, and then cutting back to a main MLS of the whole conversation. Two contrasting types of mise-en-scene are used to show the mother and daughters very contrasting lifestyles. In Anna's room we see all the chaos of an ordinary teenagers room: a parental advisory sign, lots of mess everywhere, and on the other hand, in the mother's room, everything is very serene and neat and orderly. The mother dresses smartly for work, where Anna dresses scruffily and with messed up hair and rebellious clothing for school. In fact even the way in which they start the day shows a contrast, with Anna moaning and refusing to get out of bed, and the mother bright and chirpy.

3+4. Although the Disruption or Disequilibrium is neither introduced or hinted at, we can gather almost straight away that the mother and daughter's clashing relationship is going to play a massive role in the film. We are aware from the beginning that this is what the focus is going to be. Also we get the impression that some of the significant characters that they both mention for example Anna's enemy Stacey, and her crush Jake, and the mother's client Eric are going to come up again in the future, perhaps involved in the Disequilibrium. I also think it is clear that the wedding ceremony rehearsal is going to be a key event.

5. The equlibrium will obviously be restored when Anna and her mother have learnt to co-exist or to try and see things from each other's point of view, as it is clear right away that they do not see eye-to-eye on certain key issues, much like any mother and daughter. The new equlibrium may be an environment in which they try to understand each other better and argue less.

Legally Blonde/Seven Comparison

Legally Blonde Opening Sequence
ECU of a girl brushing her hair - this gives the impression that we are about to meet the main character. Her hair is peroxide blonde and her nails are neatly painted which already gives off the impression that she is going to be a very girly character. The song 'Perfect Day' is playing in the background of the opening sequence so we are already led to believe that the main character leads a perfect, untroubled life.
LS and VLS of students on campus - 'establishing shot', sets the scene, so we get an idea of the sort of All-American atmosphere that the film will be set in, showing the 'jocks' and other character stereotypes.
CU of a letter adressed to 'Elle' - we get the feeling that this might be the name of the main character which is confirmed as the camera follows the 'journey' of the letter to Elle's room. All of the other characters we see at the sorrority sign it and kiss it which gives us the impression that Elle is very well liked and popular.
The letter's 'journey' is broken up by further ECUs and CUs of Ella getting ready, putting on high heels and jewellery, painting her nails etc. but all without us being shown her face. This means that her identity is delayed for quite a long time making her seem even more important. Everything in her room and her life, it seems, is very pink, girly and perfect. A tracking shot of her dresser shows a mirror which says 'Elle Woods - president' on the back, and all of her magazines and nail varnish and cosmetics, everything very in-keeping with the girly-girl image we have formed in our mind.
Se7en
CUs and MSs of Morgan Freeman introduce him to us. We can see at once that he is a very immaculate, neat character. He is very efficient at getting ready, straightenig his tie, folding up his sleeves, collecting his posessions one-by-one, picking hair off his jacket, all in a very precise, practised way. A Tracking MLS takes us outside with Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt, making it immediately clear that they will be the two main characters. The camera follows them as they walk, like the third person in their conversation. The atmosphere is quite dark, gloomy, and sinister, with the rain, sirens and passing cars etc., already setting a tone for the rest of the film, and Morgan Freeman reveals to us when he says 'over the next 7 days' that this will be the time period of the film.
Narrative Expectations
Legally Blonde - we know the film is going to be very girly from the first couple of seconds when we see the character brushing her hair and her manicured nails. We know it's going to be set on a college campus or sorrority because of the teenagers and because of the 'Delta Nu sorrority' sign. We know its going to be upbeat because of the music. There is however an underlying hint that everything is going to go wrong, because it seems that everything is almost too perfect and that something is destined to mess up.
Se7en - there is no music at first, the film just starts straight away, which is almost inkeeping with the efficieny of the next shot, which is Morgan Freeman getting on with his daily morning routine. We can tell he is going to be a very precise, efficient, almost OCD like character because of the way he goes about it. Brad Pitt is more excitable and slap-dash and seems younger. We know its going to involve crime because of the crime scene, and also the eery music that starts playing as lots of gory looking images start to flash across the screen.
Comparisons
Both films open by introducing the main character(s), predominantly with a mixture of CUs and MSs, in the case of Legally Blonde, Reece Witherspoon, and in the case of Se7en, Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt. They both also set a 'tone' or atmosphere for the rest of the film, for example in Legally Blonde, the backing music is upbeat and joyful - 'Perfect Day' - and everything seems very cheerful and bright and over the top. In Se7en on the other hand, there is no music in the first few opening shots, and the colouring of the shots is very dull, mute and almost gloomy.