PLANNING: MY TARGET AUDIENCE

 I have planned what my target audience is likely to be:

Having found several surveys from a widespread audience, I found a general idea for my audience. A total of 32% of respondents watched horror films. Of that 32%, 36% are males under 35. 33% are males over 35, 44% are females under 35, and 22% are females over 35. The majority of watchers were parents and fit the social class C2. 

My target audience is likely to use social media to find films that they are interested in, in particular the visual platform Instagram. They are risk takers, as evident by the amusement when watching jumpscares, and they often watch these films in order to get a thrill. Similar films they have watched include The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity. They often watch films on streaming platforms, rather than in cinemas and live on a lower wage. They can have any career but are likely to hang out with a tight knit group of friends.

(ADD RESULTS OF AUDIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE)

CONSTRUCTION: SMASH CUT

 (As GIBBY finishes his tirade, the camera focuses on the spill of coffee on the table, and it fades to an identical stain of blood in the grass in front of the Belvedere. Suddenly, the music swells as the audience get flashes of scenes, of EMILY possessed in front of the Belvedere, a pin of an article about Claremont being haunted, EMILY leaving the boys to use the bathroom, EMILY possessed again, a pin of a ghost, EMILY staring in the mirror, a pin of the interior of Claremont, EMILY's reflection shifting and distorting, EMILY possessed again, a pin of ghost hunting equipment, EMILY touching the violin player on the shoulder, a pin of their plan, the boys running out of the mansion, EMILY presenting a book to the boys, EMILY's torch laying on the ground up to the Belvedere, the passage about demons within the book, the boys running up to the Belvedere, the book being closed with a slam, revealing the title (Daemonology), a black screen. Suddenly the audience see EMILY at the top of the back balcony, about to enter Claremont, looking back at the boys, as she says the words:)

This passage in our script utilises smash cuts, as shown in Cinematic Storytelling by Jennifer Van Sijll. We aim to increase the pitch and volume of our soundtrack, potentially with a violin, to create an impact and create the tension of the scenes while the scenes smash cut.

This technique was modelled in films such as American Beauty, within the alarm clock sequence, and Psycho, where the mother kills. We looked at these scenes for inspiration in forming our own sequences.

CONSTRUCTION: WEBSITE

 (Fill this out later!)

https://cbtaylor1238.wixsite.com/charlotte

PLANNING: LOCATION RECCE

 

As we are using Princess Charlotte as an established historical figure, and we currently attend the school in which she lived and died, we felt it would be accurate for our filming location. We were met with the challenge of having school supplies, and the layout of a school rather than an abandoned set. Therefore, we decided to still use our own school to film, but to make it canonically a school which is abandoned due to the 2020 pandemic.

PLANNING: PROPS

 For our props, I found 6 key ideas. I put some images into a collage to show the rest of my production team. 

We decided to use a pin board to mimic the crime investigation plots as this is what Emily wants to do. We will need electronic devices, of which, the camera is obtainable. We may need to use a similar looking prop to mimic the EVP recorder. We will need a baby's christening gown, and  a georgian style night gown for the ghost plot line as we need to establish the characters of Princess Charlotte and the baby who died in the horrific incident, which left them both dead. Lastly, we will need torches, to set the scene, and a fake daemonology book for the same purposes.

PLANNING: INITIAL DEVELOPMENT

 

PLANNING: PINTEREST

 As a production team, we felt creating individual pinterests based on characters and social groups within our piece. After discussion, we felt that the social issues we would cover would be: strong women, the role of the male (subverting and adhering to the stereotype), the paranormal, the belief in evil, and the female victim, royalty and the absent social group of the absentee school population. There are also two more social groups; people who believe in the paranormal and the teenage risk takers.

The Main Group;

This covers the social groups of people who believe in the paranormal and the teenage risk takers. I used Buzzfeed Unsolved and Loey Lane's YouTube for inspiration. These teenagers are mostly not afraid of anything, a common feature in horror movies- the characters become too arrogant and take too many risks. They also believe they are experts- especially Emily, which then becomes their hamartia. As we have decided to use paranormal characters in our trailers, I decided I needed to look at why people believe ghosts exist. I went onto YouTube to research the sort of encounters people have had with ghosts. The majority of the channels and their videos are by ghost hunting teams, professional and amateur. Many channels, such as Sam and Colby, AndrewTMI, Hailey Reese, Loey Lane, and other smaller creators, have been around for a while and built up quite a library of ghost hunting videos. In order to get the sense of the dynamics, I looked through the catalogue of videos and found a few common areas of interest. All these channels started off as amateur detectives, that have honed their videos and become more professional with the equipment they use. Loey Lane and Hailey Reese started off using mobile apps to talk to the ghosts, but have since bought official spirit boxes and evp recorders to communicate properly with ghosts. All of the channels feature more than one person if investigations happen. Loey Lane, Hailey Reese and AndrewTMI used to go together in a group called the soul siblings, although it has since been disbanded. Hailey Reese will take her mum and sister often to hunt for ghosts, and many paranormal youtubers collaborate on videos such as the Sam and Colby channel and the TFIL channel. All of the channels go to spaces that conventionally look scary, such as old churches, creepy old castles, or places such as Griffith Park- where serial killers took many of their victims, or tragedies have happened. Often these buildings will have more than one death in their history, and the channels have always done their research. I found it significantly easier to watch Loey Lane, Hailey Reese and AndrewTMI's videos, as the mix of gender, as well as mix of attitudes works very well as a dynamic. Therefore, if possible there should either be 1 girl and 2 boys or 2 boys and 1 girl. There should be one confident ghost hunter, the leader of the pack, one hesitant member who will be timid but still go ahead with it, and one totally scared member who in turn will freak out the other members with their antics. They should be almost total amateurs, using rudimentary ghost hunting tools.

Princess Charlotte;

Princess Charlotte is the ghost figure in Charlotte. Her pinterest takes inspiration from the real figure as well as Claremont, where she lived and died. This board highlights the royalty of the time, especially through the clothing and paintings of her at the time. She also presents as the female victim, although the main story reveals she was the victim before, and that's why the demon chooses her persona. She appears innocent, and taken too early, which highlights Emily's supposed fate.

Strong females/Female victims;

Emily subverts expectations by being the expert within the group that pushes the group to their limits. However, she also fits the category of female victim as she is taken by the demon, and the trailer insinuates that she does not survive the events of the movie. This pinterest shows posters and images of these two ideas around women in media and life.

The Role of the Male;

The male stereotypically comes in to save the female. In our trailer, the boys actually are the cowards in the group although they pretend to be brave. They also do not reach Emily in time which subverts the stereotype of the male saviour. The pinterest highlights the stereotype that the boys do not fit.

The Belief in Evil;

The reason the demon manages to succeed is because the group fears the demon. They have to believe the demon is real because otherwise Emily would have taken herself into harm's way. Emily also is very knowledgeable about daemonology so she would know the demon is real, therefore believing in evil. I took examples about demons in literature and drawings to highlight that demons have been recognised for centuries.

PLANNING: TREATMENT

 'Charlotte', our film, follows a group of teenagers who enjoy ghost-hunting to an extent. On the anniversary of Princess Charlotte's death, they decide to visit her death place, a school abandoned in the midst of a pandemic. Emily, the avid paranormal expert, pushes Gibby and Jack to the limits when communicating with what they believe to be Princess Charlotte's ghost. However, when Emily becomes separated from the amateurish boys, she finds that the once friendly spirit may not be who she first thought after all. It becomes a challenge for the boys, a race against time, in order to save Emily from the demon and get out of Claremont before they are lost forever. 

This treatment acts as a baseline of our film that explains the narrative simply. It is concise but allows directors to see the vision of the film.

We watched Frank Ash, a BBC Creative Consultant, and learned of the topline and big questions.

I decided the big question for our film was 'Will they make it out alive?' which stemmed from questions such as 'Will they find Emily in time?' and 'Will they discover the demon's true nature?'.

PLANNING: CASTING