Where I Am Now

Where I Am Now - Coursework 

Mise-en-scene: 

Costume: With one (kind of two) character(s) in the film there are three outfits worn by them. The first being black jeans, black top, and a black coat. This is to symbolise his grieving over his sister, with black having connotations with death and also foreshadows him being haunted by his inner demons  The next costume is a set of pyjamas that he wears in the night-time scenes, to highlight to the audience the time of day and also provokes an emotional reaction within the audience as his innocence is shown. Finally, the doppelganger will wear swimming trunks and a top that will be dripping wet to show the audience this is the outfit he wore when he nearly drowned. 

Setting: The first setting is at Cromer Beach where the incident happened, and the boy is shown looking out and remembering the tragedy. The second setting is the boys house, where the audience will mostly see the boy's bedroom and the hallway - as this will emphasise the horror genre as it creates a familiarity with the audience and a false sense of security.

Hair and Make-up: The boy will have his hair naturally to show that he isn't a particularly confident person and doesn't want to draw attention to himself. He may have dark under eyes to show that he's been losing sleep due to nightmares. However, the doppelganger will be soaking wet including his hair and he will have blue undertones to his complexion to reiterate how cold the water was and how he was losing his breath

Character Movement and Expression: The boy will mostly have a melancholy, vacant expression to emphasise how empty and numb he feels inside. However, when he begins to be haunted he will have a more terrified expression and will hardly be able to move because of shock. The doppelganger will have a sadistic smile to show that he is tormenting the boy, as his inner demon that represents the guilt the boy feels, and he will move in a slow and creepy way in order to create tension in the audience

Cinematography:

The camera will be at the boy's eye-level for the films entirety to highlight how he has to come face to face with himself to over come his false sense of guilt that he carries. It also means the audience will be manipulated in sympathising and relating to the boy as they see the world through his eyes, ultimately making the scary parts scarier. It will be filmed on a tripod to avoid the shaky-cam effect as I want the film to look professional. There may also be times where the camera is placed on something that can move during tracking shots of the boy. There will be a mixture of close-ups to show the facial expressions of the boy as he reacts to certain events, medium shots to get a sense of the background and setting, and a wide shot at the beach to highlight how lonely the boy feels after his sister is gone. 

Editing:

The editing will mostly consist of shot-reverse-shots between the boy and his doppelganger however I will also include a more challenging editing technique of duplicating the same person twice in one frame. I will also try to include one jump scare so this will involve a longer shot than the others to draw out the tension. Most of the other shots will be cuts and a jump cut from the beach scene to the boy back at his house.

Representation:

With only one character in the film the representation will be solely of a white, middle-class, 10 year old boy, living in a suburb in the UK.

Genre:

The genre of this film is predominantly a horror and this will be shown through the sound, low-key lighting and mise-en-scene. Such as: shocked facial expressions and costume. There will be also elements of the drama genre as the boy struggles to cope with his guilt and grief.

Narrative:

I think I want to use a linear narrative, following Todorov's theory of equilibrium, as it's only a five minute film so it would be difficult for the audience to follow the story otherwise. The film will start with a wide shot of the beach and then a cut to a close up of the boys face, there will then be a jump cut to the boy at home going through pictures of him and his sister whilst sitting in her room. This will be the equilibrium then the disruption will begin as the boy wakes up from a nightmare and goes downstairs to get a drink, he will then start to hear the bath being turned on and other odd things. He goes to investigate but can't find anything so he climbs back into bed, this will be when the jump scare appears as he turns around and sees his doppelganger. There will be shot-reverse-shots between the two of the showing both of their reactions. At this point I don't know where the film goes from here but I do know that the new equilibrium will be the boy coming to terms with his guilt and moving on but still remembering the good times with his sister.

Audience: 

The people most likely to watch the film are A-level students who are watching other people's coursework for inspiration and they will watch it on YouTube.