Day 57 : Casting Flora

Introduction

Me and Priscilla carried out a casting process to find our main protagonist of Insanity Flora. This was extremely important as actress who plays Flora needs to fit to cute and mature image we are looking for as "encoders" but also have a convincing acting ability in which both can impact whether or not the audience wish to go and see the trailer or not. In the video below we gave participants the same script and gave them the same guidance and direction on how to perform their role as Flora. Some participants were better than others in terms of image and acting ability which enabled us to pick our actress.

Casting meant me and Priscilla had to be extremely organised. This involved both of us setting up a camera to record each participant, directing the potential Flora's when they didn't understand the script and gaining permission to use the drama studio at lunch time. As producers of our media products we are in charge of what message we place in the magazine, trailer and poster which is why we must put a lot of effort and time pre-production.



Conclusion

1.  In the end me and Priscilla choose Jalisya to play Flora Black. We agreed she had the best acting ability and aura which we want Flora to have in our trailer. This meant our original plan of having a blonde white girl to play Flora had changed highlighting a subversion of Flora's image in The Turn of the Screw (we based Flora Black on Flora from Turn of the Screw). Flora being an ethnic minority enables us to target a wider audience as postmodernists film makers create difference in the name of making a genre more exciting and appealing to the audience, which in terms of our media products will be more exciting as ethnic minorities aren't often presented in the Horror industry.

2. Jalisya was also willing to be committed and take time out to take part in our production, she has also taken part in school productions as well as being able to take directions and criticism on her performance. These are the skills we need for our production process to run effectively.

3. In terms of improvements in the future I could have been more organised in terms of bringing the narrative and storyboard for participants to see so they understand their role better, as some who signed up last minute didn't understand their character properly which could have impacted their performance. Also due to me and Priscilla sharing a lot of roles on our own it was often difficult, which is why in the future we could gather anyone willing to help us in terms of making sure participants are quiet when others are performing ext.

Day 56 : Clothing/Mise en scene for Cast

Flora and Jean are the main characters within our narrative, this why I believe we should mainly focus on what their clothing connotes as we want our audience to see straight away they are more monumental characters in comparison to other characters.

Here is a Glog below made using Glogster which highlights key elements of clothing and the reasoning behind it e.g Jean wearing casual clothes to highlight a time of normality and well being from the outside perspective, which is ironic as she was a victim of domestic violence by her husband James.

*If you highlight over "Glogster" on the image you can view it full sized
- Also if you click any image it zooms in 

 When producing our trailer, magazine cover and film poster it will be important to consider what each character will wear if featured and what we want it to communicate to the audience through colours, facial expressions, body language ext which is why exploring what we plan Flora and Jean to wear as main protagonists is important.

What the other characters are wearing are presented below:

Megan is Flora's older sister and we plan to conform and subvert typical
Horror representations of women, for example our actress Francesca who is
playing her is an ethnic minority which is a subversion of the lacking
representations of ethnic minorities in Horror, but also she will be portrayed
through male gaze due to what she wears however we will subvert it as she
will be intelligent. (Slut trops are usually "ditsy" and stupid)

James will be wearing casual jeans to present a typical family orientated
man, however it is ironic as he is violent towards his wife Jean. In terms of
the doctor he will be wearing a lab coat or formal suite to connote authority
which is often presented in Horror. 

Daisy Flora's friend will appear much sweeter, innocent and cute in
comparison to Flora which is why we will make sure her outfits
are bright and bold colours in contrast to her bully Flora's dark dull clothing.

Day 57 : Character/Cast List

Through casting me and my group made sure each character portrayed a specific vibe/aura to conform or subvert representations in the Horror industry. For example in terms of Flora through the casting of several Yr 7s we agreed Jalisiya would be perfect for the role as she was a natural when performing the script, as she highlighted the innocence but hidden bitterness we wanted Flora to have. Not only does she conform to the traditional Gothic creepy children portrayed in novels such as The Turn of the Screw, she is also a subversion of the lack ethnic minorities getting roles in Horror. 

Reasoning behind Decisions

Me and my group felt it was necessary to include ethnic minorities in our Horror trailer as audiences are generally more interested when something unique and different is portrayed in Horror, this was evident in my market research (Qualitative questionnaire) on final girls as most participants felt they should be portrayed more compared to "damsels" and "slut" trops. Are whole cast are ethnic minorities which is a statement we hope to make as postmodernist film makers, as "encoders" we place a diverse cast for a positive reaction and more interest hoping our target audience will "decode" with good intentions.

Summary of all Characters

I used Bubbl.us.com to create this mindmap of all the choices and consideration which went into the casting of each sub character minus Flora who was described above.

*Please click image to see a more zoomed in version

Conclusion

I believe it is important to consider what you want each character to portray pre-production so that decisions you make communicates effectively to the audience in terms of what you make them wear, what they say in the trailer and how they look (make up, clothes, hair, ethnic background ext) as these elements can impact the audiences perspectives on the characters but also their understanding of the narrative which needs to be clear. In our Horror trailer everything presented on the screen needs to have a purpose whether it makes the audience feel relaxed or uncomfortable, which is why putting great effort in the casting process can contribute to how successful our trailer is in terms of conveying a clear narrative, the genre of Horror and the main protagonists appropriately.  

Day 55 : Prop list, Locations and Shooting Schedule

*20th of January is a typo. (We plan to do most of our filming the week of the 6th of January)

Summary/Conclusion

Creating a prop list, location list and shooting schedule allowed me to gain a deeper sense of what will be required in this production process. Afreen is away so she was unable to take part in the confirmation of each aspect, however when she comes back we will update her on all these aspects to maintain conhesion within our group.

Day 54 : Test Shots Mise en Scene & Setting

Me and Priscilla took test shots which we could possibly use in our final trailer. They relate to mise en scene and setting and illustrates some of the ideas we have demonstrated on our storyboards, e.g the use of a doll to connote the decay of Flora's sanity with the use of media language as it starts of clean and ends up dirty showing dark side of her character.

Day 53 : Theorists included in narrative process

Whilst developing and planning our ideas for our final trailer me and my group hope to use a variety of theorists as inspiration through media language, representations, narrative and audience. 

Overall I hope I can use different theorists to entertain my audience in unique and exiting ways but also reinforce the element of fear which is evoked in Horror movies. 

Day 52 : Recreating scenes

Me and Priscilla decided to practice shooting a variety of angles in which we hope to use in our final trailer.
Both of us took turns being in the footage aswell as directing and recording the shots and scenes. Not only will this give us an idea of what works well and what we could do better in our final, but it also enables us to refer back to this trail when reasoning for potential changes in angles and camera techniques in group discussion.

Best bits of process

Overall I think our use of focus pull was the most successful within our trails. The voyeuristic shots of Adelina watching Priscilla was made even more effective due to the menacing aura reflected through the airy music. This scene was inspired by our narrative within "Insanity" as our main protagonist Flora watches Megan getting changed, thus giving us a stronger sense of what the scene may look like within our final trailer.

Day 51: Storyboards

Me and my group members created detailed storyboards to represent all the angles, camera techniques and movements but also sound, mise en scene and transitions which we can include in our final trailer. When creating our trailer we will refer back to these storyboards pre-production but also postproduction when editing using Adobe Premier.

Here is our storyboards below. Due to our original storyboards lacking diversity of angles we created more which is why there is aspects numbered like "7.2" as it symbolises the angle that comes after 7.

These storyboards below represent more scenes which we included within our trailer

Day 50: Update

On Friday we finally conducted the casting session to find our main protagonist Flora. This involved me and my fellow team member directing and leading the sample of year 7s on how to deliver their lines and filming their performance of the lines. This was an extremely fun experience as the year 7s were fun to work with and full of energy, which is exactly the qualities our actress needs in order to captivate the audience whilst making the innocent and evilness of Flora's personality believable. In the future I will post a video of the audition process and evaluate what went well and who we have chosen for the role of Flora.

Day 49 : Reasoning behind decisions within narrative

Whilst developing our narrative we discussed various different themes we could present in our trailer, ranging from religion, mental health and fearing the unknown. We then decided to use all these themes, however the main theme I will be talking about today is mental health. 

In films like Psycho (1960) societies general perspective of mentally ill people was limited which explains the representation of Norman but also the insensitivity through the name choice.  As it is now the contemporary age being "encoders" of our own media texts and the effects it can have requires us to have detailed knowledge of Schizophrenia. Having an understanding of Schizophrenia will also allow us as directors to guide our potential Flora's in acting auditions on Friday how to portrayal her character. I will update my blog about this process in the near future. 

Whilst researching we was able to find what age people generally developed mental illnesses. Previously Flora was 8 years old however when given feedback from our teacher, we realised it was unrealistic as mental illness mainly starts at age 14 in youth but also 8 year olds are less likely to take medication of the same level as a teenager or adult.  

Here's the hyperlink below:

Mental Illness and Age [Development]

Initially we were exploring split personality disorders in terms of behaviour and symptoms, however we thought it would be more interesting if we could portray a different mental illness as throughout Horror the villains often have split personalities which arguably won't be as exciting for the audience if we recreate that convention. 

Here's the hyperlink below:

Split Personality Disorder [Symptoms-NHS]

I also did further research on my own on Horror movies which portrayed Schizophrenia. Here are a few of the Horror movies I found the most effective. I could refer back to these trailers/clips for inspiration throughout the production period of our final trailer.

Identity (2003) was a particularly interesting trailer as it appeared to be paying homage to Psycho with the use of a motel and an unexpected killer. The man being questioned by a form of social order, was cleverly done as there wasn't alot said by the him but it was just enough for the audience to know he is the killer but also there was still a  sense of enigma surrounding his personality as not too much of the story was displayed. I also liked the use of text to build tension between each clip, e.g "Identity is a Mystery"

Shutter Island (2010) stood out to me as it subverted the use of dialogue which reflected the hybrid of the genre being a Horror/Action film. The trailer included a lot of dialogue, however it highlighted the idea that if dialogue is used well it can inform the audience straight away what the film is about. Dialogue is often used more in the action genre of trailers.

Doing research on Schizophrenia enabled me to gain a sense of  what the illness involved in terms of behaviour, but also learnt about some of the dominant portrayals of the mental illness which exist in the current Horror film industry of today. In our trailer we need to consider how we could subvert or gain inspiration from trailers and research.

Day 48 : Writing scripts for Flora & Megan

Me and my group are planning to hold a casting session with a variety of different students who are good at drama. This will enable us to find an actress to play Flora but also Megan. Within the process of auditioning for Flora they will have to perform a script.

I found writing Morgan's script easier in comparison to writing Flora's, as when writing Flora's I had to imagine how she would speak and restrict myself from portraying certain aspects of her character so that the audience will be curious to what her secrets are.

Here is the script for the potential Flora's :
 
Audio and voice recording >>







Here is the script for potential Megan's
 
Record and upload voice >>