FILM OPENING [ SNIP ]

Evaluation [6]

How did you integrate technologies - software, hardware and online - in this project?

Everything was made and designed to work together therefore making the process of the coursework easier. Transferring files from hardware and primary sources from camera using DSLR cards into the computer then importing the files into Premiere Pro were easily done as the files are compatible in the form of ‘.mov’. Composition and effects can be done in After Effect the file exported from After Effect is also compatible with Premiere Pro. Once the project is completed it can be exported in ‘.mov’ file and can be easily uploaded on Youtube, a social media, youtube then allows us to embed it onto blogger.com. 

behind the scenes

showing how we integrated hardware, software and online as this project develops

Evaluation [5]

How did your production skills developed throughout this project? 

2014 PROUD

2015 PROUD

I think most of my skills have improved;

Codes and conventions, I feel like I am not that familiar with psychological thriller because I am too scared to watch it. However after I received this project, I started watching more psychological thriller, my first and favourite one is 'Se7en'. By analyzing films such as Mr & Mrs Smith (thriller and Seven in great depth helps me understand how thriller and psychological thriller convey their genre through micro-elements in the movie.

  For several days I could not get it out of my mind and I continuously think about it. Moreover I have done researches on the codes and conventions of psychological thriller and created a booklet for each aspect of it, this makes me understand the psychological thriller and know how to apply it and challenge it in my coursework. 

Planning and Organisation, for the one minute film challenge I did in the first term, we only did storyboarding as a plan and we went to film, it took longer than we think it would as the pre production is not considered and think of carefully before actually filming it. For the film opening we discussed plan, storyboard it carefully, wrote a script found location contact the location and made everything smoothly. However when we shot out first idea, "Home" we were not prepared enough, the SD card was broken and the camera ran out of battery in the middle of shooting therefore it was problematic. Fortunately for "SNIP" everything was planned and we filmed accordingly therefore it was smoother and we finished the shoot within 3 hours. 

Camera Work, my camera work have not improved since for this film opening I am not the camera man, since our camera man is very talented I have learnt how to take pictures more interestingly learning from the shot I have seen while editing. 

Editing, at the start of year 12 I didn't even know that there is an application called "Premiere" but now I can edit very easily using the short keys; "c" for blade, etc. For each editing work I think each one makes more sense. From the one minute film, "heist" I have not make much effort with the audio, therefore the emotion could not be felt that strongly. 

Creative Confidence, I feel like I just blurt out whatever comes to mind since when I was young, but due to this project, I gave it more of a thought and elaborate ideas with other team members to make it better. I think I have improved listening to my team members and we collaborate the ideas, listening to each other I think that is the most important key to our success in producing the film opening. 

Evaluation [4]

How would it be distributed as a real media text?

Film of which features are similar to ours

"One Hour Photo" 

The character and plot is similar to SNIP, 

these are similarities that is written by IMDb for the synopsis

 "mini-lab photo technician at SayMart's one-hour photo""leads a depressing, solitary life outside the department store""He labors to ensure his customers get the best quality photos possible; his life is truly his work, as he has no one and nothing to go home to at the end of each day.""feeling out of place in a world where nobody seems to understand the precious gift of friends and family."

"Sy tends to immerse himself in his own fantasies to escape the pain of his existence" 
"Sy secretly makes his own copies of the Yorkin's photos from  the film negatices and puts them on a wall in his apartment"
"He fantasises about being a member of their family and sharing in the love he assumes they must feel."

Distribution Strategy 

PLAN A

First promote the movie in local magazines and newspapers. We can set up our own gallery of our favourite shots of the film and open it for free for film students and art students to study and critique our work; moreover students are spreads the news really fast therefore could generate more interests. Do our first screening at the indie film fest award 2015, since our film is independent and has a more artsy feeling to it, as an independent film, critiques at the film festival would be helpful as to what aspects we need to improve in. The film can be purchased online as our target audience serfs the internet more than 50 hours a week.

PLAN B

If a distributer is interested in our film whether from the online buzz or the film festival, presumably 'fox searchlight pictures' as they distributed "One Hour Photo" in 2002 generating the same idea as our film. The movie will in be in cinema the 28th of September. this is because most psychological thrillers including, "Se7en", "Psycho" and "One Hour Photo" are all in cinema on september this is because it is prior halloween. Halloween, even the day sets its own ominous mood therefore I chose 28th of September as our release date. Prior the releasing date the promotion will start 4 weeks before hand. First promoting with an abstract painting of hair, or an abstract painting to express the feeling of the artist (that we trust not to distribute the film elsewhere) on a canvas, as our target audience's hobby is to go to exhibitions. These canvas will be placed at odd places to generate interest, for example bus stops, public transport station or in the middle of a shopping centre part of the canvas covered with real hair which is the name of the movie and screening time, people who are curious can touch the hair and know the movie information. Afterwards in the cinemas in the middle of a trailer section shut all the lights, stimulating a power cut and play a snipping audio for 10 seconds and put the trailer back on as normal, this will create a buzz on the internet. After that start inserting more and more parts of the trailer using white screen so that it feels like a glitch in the system, until a week where the full trailer is on after the snipping sound with a black screen.

Evaluation [3]

How does your product engage with audiences?

Psychological Thriller's function to serve its audience

The film tries to make the audience become appreciative of what they have in their lives and show them the worse side of life. The audience will become aware that not always the best people will come out on top. Richard Dyer says the psychological thriller makes them worry about their own lives. The point of this genre is that the audiences are challenged and has to think about what is going on in the film. The psychological thriller is like a leading question, it leads us to expect one thing and then flip us over with an unexpected answer. These problems, conflicts or cases are usually unraveled in many ways. Usually the audience will leave the film thinking about it. 

Target Audience

Gender: Female

Aged: 25 - 39

Social Grade: ABC1

I chose this target audience according to the target audience of "One Hour Photo" since it have similarities both plot and main character to our movie, "SNIP". However as the protagonist is now female it would attract more female, moreover women will relate more easily to this movie because it is about a hair salon. Their general interests are exhibitions, websites and movies. Their niche interests is photography, watching movies at home and doing human rights charities. Suggesting that they are interested in people, how they think and how they were effected this is why I chose this age and gender group as our target audience. 

They would describe themselves as sensitive, gentle, perfectionist, but on occasions insecure, neurotic and dizzy. This might be the reason they would want to watch our film since it is relatable to how they described themselves, they might see a part of them in the hairdresser, making the audience more engaged in the movie. 

we asked ms. Baily to watch our video and comment on it;

this shows how and why we chose this target audience in relation to similar films (turn the annotatioon 'on');

Evaluation [2]

How does it represent social groups or issues?

Main Character - Hair dresser

she's a middle age working class and European women. She is hardworking like a machine she seems like a normal hair dresser but behind the walls of the salon she has her fantasy of hair. A Strand of hair that is a part of some one else's body. 

The actress that we want is someone who is willing to learn skills as a hairdresser, as there will be close ups of her skills. Actress should be experienced as there are two different identity needed to be portrayed. Character has a complicated and delicate personality as the audience should know that the hair dresser is not normal. however it also have to be ordinary, as the customers sees her as normal.

Dream Casting Requirements

• wide eyes - when she hallucinates her pupil dialates
• middle aged women
• acts in an indy film, not that well known
• does not mind looking ugly
• experienced actress

Real Life News Story

Even cannot resist pulling hair out of the drain up to three times a week, as it relieves his stress. This addiction started six year ago when he lost his father and he started inhibiting anxiety. He said "It has to be in the drain" his favourite hair is brown, long and slimy hair. His favourite place is a house where he's never been before when he sees the bathtub it generates his curiosity and he would guess how much hair there is in there.

SNIP's storyline would somewhat be similar to Evan's story as the hairdresser experiences anxiety from the salon, its disturbing ceiling wall and flickering light. The scene that portrays this anxiety the establishing shot where she stood looking out into the darkness, seeing nothing but the reflection of herself whilst she is exposed to everyone else. Just like her work as a hair dresser, no one seems to care about her, but the hair dresser's job is to care and serve the customer to beautify them. The establishing shot also establishes her loneliness as she is alone in the salon. Both the feeling of no one caring for her and her loneliness contributes to the cause of her hair fetish.

Representation

The main character is a representation of a working class female who lives a menial life. She is alone in isolation with the world as portrayed with the establishing shot. In contrast with her job, to beautify the customers the hair dresser lacks beauty as her hair is in a mess and her mouth is dry. The loneliness of the hair dresser, due to her fleeted relationship with her customers come in to beautify themselves, the hairdresser cares for them while the customer does not even notice, talk or even acknowledge their existent, as portrayed once again in the establishing shot, where she looked out in the dark, the only one she can see in this whole world is herself. Hairdressers are actually a fearful job as they remove a part of the customer's body. In this character's case her customer's hair is her procession, she collects it, cherish it unlike the customer who wanted to abandon their own. 

We used a female hair dresser as it is conventional, as there is 60% of female hair dressers in LEDC (Less Economically Developed Country), therefore it is more representation of hair salons. Having a male lead as a hair fetish would give another impression towards the movie. A female lead gave a more creepy feeling as women are more complicated and more delicate than men. They are more likely to be trusted as they are looked upon as fragile and feminine. 

Location of this salon is a representation of Bangkok city's nightlife. Some might imagine Bangkok being a party place, however if we look on the other angle, there are people who is working their hardest to earn a living. The hairdresser, a working class women who tries her hardest to accomplish her work, however ended up having anxiety and her only relief from it is hair. In Thailand over 20% of the population is mentally ill, but only 3 million went to the hospital and 1 million received treatment. The character does not know it herself that she is mentally ill, even the customers as being mentally ill is a subject of taboo in Thailand, moreover the school does not educated about the mental illness therefore they would not know what it is like to be mentally ill. Only the extreme cases are recognised. 

Evaluation [1]

How does your product use or challenge conventions?

SNIP second draft

After watching over this film opening. "Prae Weissman" 's name needs to stay on screen for as long as the shot goes. I feel that the extreme close up shot of the eye after the close up on the hair dresser taking the scissor out from her pocket does not allow the story line to flow and it does not make much sense. Moreover the music stops before it should. 

New Font Analysis

We stuck with the same font as before but added a different effect. The angular shapes that are seemingly cutting through the bold letters symbolises a disturbance within the mind of the hairdresser. It could also suggest that her insanity is episodic, allowing her to hide her obsession from the public eye. The other effect that we used was with the light, which gives off a hallucinatory quality, allowing the audience to somewhat see into the mind of the hairdresser and understand her on a deeper level through the same experiences (fantasies/hallucinations). 

For the name of the production company, we decided on this font. Being half bold suggests, again, an episodic insanity and how easily the hairdresser can unknowingly slip in and out of the two states of mind, symbolising instability. 

We changed the font of the credits to a typewriter font as we felt like it would hold more weight to the story since the previous font was too thin and looked like it could not really convey the story as well as this one. A typewriter font could suggest that the hairdresser is a perfectionist due to the fact that typewriters are much neater than if something was handwritten. As well as this, the slight slant to the font could also suggest that the hairdresser is making room in her mind for the obsession and it may soon completely take over. 

Soundtrack Analysis

We chose to use the first minute and a bit of this clip.

• Disconnected, piercing sounds
• Constantly shifting stereophonic sound makes it sound like it's moving around like a mind that is lost
• Pitch drop at about 10 seconds could symbolise lowered brain power/decreased sanity
• Droning sound at about 30 seconds makes it feel like it's dragging on and will last forever
• Volume of sound varies constantly and randomly, suggesting that insanity leads to a disconnected, disordered mind without direction or purpose 

Title Design

Shapes have a variety of characteristics,

each conveying different messages to the audience.

ANGULAR SHAPES 

Shapes with sharp edges connotes a violent and threatening feel. This can be seen in animated cartoons where the antagonists that have a more triangular face appear be cruel.

 . CIRCLES .

Circles or rounder shapes gives more of a feminine and friendly impression.
Most protagonists in an animated film usually have a round feature to their face.

For the title, there are triangles and rectangular shapes running through the word 'SNIP' since it symbolises violence and can be referenced to a blade from a scissor. The light shining through contrasts a hairdresser shop's seemingly bright light compared to the night. This is represented once again with an establishing shot filmed outside where the hair dresser standing in her salon. The zooming effect embedded in the title represents the hallucinations by the eldritch hairdresser.

Snip Rough Cut Feedback

I worked on the "things that could be improved";

"hint of the killer/psycho" 

I added a shot of the hair dresser pulling the scissor out in slow motion, so that it might suggest to the audience that the hairdresser has the ability to take their life away, she has got the weapon to do so in her hands and she using it next to the customer's necks. There are two scenes at the end where I feel that it suggests the morbidity and the composition of the shot is awkward, a disruption in the equilibrium and suggests death as the customer lied down, closing her eyes, she trusts the hairdresser and then a cut to the water whirling scene which is used in the movie "Psycho" and "Dexter" which suggests the mental instability of the main character and the psychological genre. Moreover this scene can suggest the uncertainty of the customer's life.

"Font too tmblr"

I do agree that the font used here is too fashionable and modern which does not go along well with the setting and the tone we are trying to set. Therefore I changed from "basic title" to something similar to a "courier" which is a typewriter style font, it gives a robust and neat but at the same time dirty, just like the salon. 

Character Research

Obsession: the state of being obsessed with someone or something

We drew some of the elements of each of these characters together to form the character of the hair dresser.

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille - Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)
Grenouille was born in a fish market in Paris with hyperosmia, an abnormally strong sense of smell, which eventually leads to him becoming a serial killer. Over the course of the film, Grenouille is taught a method of distillation and the preservation of scents. Since he was born with no scent, Grenouille decides to create the perfect perfume to prove his worth, killing women whom he deemed had the perfect scent and attempting, and failing many times, to capture their scent.

Portrayed by Ben Whishaw 

Jame Gumb (Buffalo Bill) - The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Gumb was born in California and abandoned by his mother, then taken into foster care at the age of two. In the movie, Lecter summarizes Gumb's life as so: "Billy was not born a criminal, but made one by years of systematic abuse." Later on in his life, Gumb becomes obsessed with wanting to become a woman but being too disturbed to qualify for gender reassignment surgery. Thus, he kills overweight women so he can skin them and create a "woman suit" for himself.

Portrayed by Ted Levine 

Francis Dolarhyde (The Tooth Fairy) - Red Dragon (2002)
Dolarhyde was born in Missouri and abandoned by his mother, then cared for in an orphanage until the age of five when he was taken in by his grandmother, who subjects him to emotional and physical abuse. As a result, he began torturing animals at an extremely young age to vent his anger. Dolarhyde begins his killing spree by murdering two families. He becomes obsessed with the Red Dragon, having a large tattoo of a dragon on his back, and believes that, by killing people - "transforming" them, he calls - he can fully "become" the Dragon. He also has two sets of false teeth; one for his normal day-to-day life and the other, which is distorted and extremely sharp for his killings, in which he earned the nickname "The Tooth Fairy."

Portrayed by Ralph Fiennes 

Sweeney Todd - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1936/2007)
Todd is a barber who dispatches his victims by pulling a level as they sit in his barber chair, causing them to fall backwards down a trapdoor into the basement of his shop, breaking their necks or skulls. In case some of his victims survive the fall, Todd goes to the basement and "polishes them off" (slitting their throats with his straight razor).

Portrayed by Johnny Depp

Gollum - The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-3)
Originally known as Smeagol, a hobbit of the Shire, he became corrupted by the One Ring, which he found at the bottom of a river by chance. The Ring, which Gollum referred to as "precious," extended his life for another 400 years. Under centuries of the Ring's influence, Gollum became obsessed with it and after Bilbo Baggins found the Ring and took it for his own, Gollum pursued it for the rest of his life. His obsession is further highlighted at the end of The Return of the King (2003) when he willing fell into the fires of Mount Doom just to be reunited with the Ring.

A CGI character voiced and performed by Andy Serkis

Font Analysis

For the title, we chose this font because of how it looks as well as its symbolic connotations. Its boldness could suggest the main character's confidence in her ability to hide away her obsession from the public eye while the black splashes on the white characters could symbolise the deterioration of her mind and how insanity will ultimately stab her in the back and expose her when the obsession becomes too strong to control. 

For the credits, we chose this font because of it creates a stark contrast with the title. Its thinness could suggest the main character's (the hairdresser) thinning sanity and how she is slowly but surely falling and succumbing to the darkness that lurks in her head. Since the font is all capital letters, it could symbolise the forcefulness of this obsession with hair. Not only is the hair dresser becoming insane, she is subconsciously forcing herself to fall further down. This is why we feel that this font was the best in order to convey the overall atmosphere of the opening as well as the main character's state of mind. 

SNIP (first version)

After watching this over and over again. I thought that the 'film opening' that we made does not look and the story line does not develop as smoothly as I hoped.

The progression of this film opening is very crooked. It seemed more like a short film rather than a film opening. Since there was too much going on with customers going in and out of the salon. Moreover we spotted that the shot where the customer supposedly goes out of the salon, in the shot the door that was reflected in the mirror does not have a customer going out. By cutting customers going out of the salon scene also creates more enigma to the film opening of whether the customer left or is still in the salon. 

Character representation was too bold in this first version in the establishing shot where she stood and waits for customers and says "welcome". However, we wanted to set a subtle and ominous tone that the hair dresser would seem normal, the customer would not know her true identity, having a hair fetish. This will make the audience feel edgy whether the customer would know and protect themselves or not. Therefore I relocated the scene and cut the hand held and "welcome" scene out as it is too bold and somewhat like an ending of a short film, instead of leading the audience to the actual film. 

Shadow scene is removed because it looked too peculiar as if it is an art movie playing with shadows. 

The panning shot at the beginning is also removed because it is not necessary in creating and setting up of tone.

The new opening scene will be shorter with a smoother flow and a better title effect as this title does not stand out and does not feel cinematic. The progression of this opening film will give more clues and hint in the character without giving away too much information that there are no enigmas. Shots are rearranged so that everything makes more sense all together,

22.1.2015

Today we finished filming. Due to time constrains and short in people we decided to combine two shots together and playing with the shadow and reality. I am in the process of editing the video, what I found most challenging today is using the effects to create the same tone for continuity.

Scene / Shot Numbers

NEW STORYBOARD - SNIP

21.1.15

After watching the rough cut critically over and over again. We all agreed that it does not have the codes and conventions of psychological thriller, it was more like romance. Therefore we decided to change the storyline and prepared everything within one day; story board, props, costume, make up and fonts.

SNIP SCRIPT

Rough Cut Feedback

Ppt 2 from Histmedia

Ppt 3 from Histmedia

Rough Cut

Shooting - 18/1/2015

Start - 11am

End - 6:30pm 

Tan

Script Draft 2