LO5: Reflection

 
1) Have needs/ expectations been met for the client brief and target audience?
In this assignment, we were asked to create a script for Unit 41, in which we are creating a short film, ours being called 'Silent Captive'. To do this we had to research into scripts that were based in the same genre, such as 'The Silence of the Lambs' and 'Shutter Island', to see what is successful and conventional in those types of scripts. Our script is a psychological thriller, which is about a brother who searches for his missing brother in a mysterious forest, whilst having haunting hallucinations. After creating the script, we would present it to the client “The Writer’s Group” where we would receive feedback to help us make amendments to the script. Our target audience is the majority of a male gender, with a 60% Male to a 40% Female ratio, the age is around the range of 16 to 21 years old. The demographic is a local to national audience and the social grade we went with was a D and above. The brothers we describe in the script are both male and are both 16 and 17, this can make it easy for them to be an ideal self to someone who is also male and in this age range, the two main characters are also unemployed and don’t have a well-paying job, this puts them in their parent’s social grade, which could be as low as a D, but most likely a C1 or C2, which is most of the population nationally, and so would maybe be quite relatable for the late teens who watch this.

2) What were the clients likes and dislikes (be specific here)?
The Writer’s Group, didn’t really give us that many improvements, the only improvement that stood out was that we needed to make it clear that the main protagonist is having hallucinations by stating when it happens in the script and what GFX we’ll use in a dream sequence to indicate it’s happening to the audience. This is important because it’ll help the creation of the short film be clear to the crew so that the narrative and what’s happening can be clear to the audience so it avoids confusion and doesn’t distract the audience from the diegesis and immersion we are trying to create. A minor improvement would be to make sure the incidental music is placed in the right places of the script, this is important because this would also help towards creating immersion and tense feeling we want to create. On the other hand, the client gave us a lot of positive feedback that they liked about our script, such as; our protagonist is very relatable as they are 16 and 17, which makes them easy to be relatable to with our teenaged target audience, as our BBFC rating is a 15. Our script shows that our narrative has enigma throughout and that our narrative structure is different as it starts off with a disequilibrium. Our location choices are also very relatable to the iconography of the genre we had chosen, a psychological thriller.

3) What are the relevant changes that need to be made to the script?
The only big changes that need to be made to the script are to add when the dream sequences are in the script, this is in the main part of the plot where the main character faces his fears and hallucinations of his dead brother and what GFX we’ll use to indicate it to the audiences in the film, this will be justified to the right of the script. This is important because it will help the editor create the dream sequences to make it clear to the audiences that he’s hallucinating, we would probably also indicate it being a filter, such as a murky green, which will make it seem like an hallucination. We also need to relocate our incidental music queues in the script to the beginning of scenes to introduce the setting, or when there is the chase scene to create tension as effectively as we can to make it immersive to the audiences. This is important because of our genre, which is a psychological thriller that is supposed to ‘thrill’ the audience, and with our music in the correct places it would create tension for the audience.

4) Is the content of the product correct (based on form and style)?
In the case of dialogue, the language that this script is written in is a peer-to-peer mode of address; this is, for the majority, an informal language that would be used. The characters are basically teenagers and it makes sense that they would talk informally to each other as they are brothers and that's how they typically talk to each other. For example, when Oscar and Sam are talking and Oscar says, "Sam, it was my fault. I need to find him. I have to go back to that forest" and then Sam replies with "You're starting to sound crazy. Not the forest again. What are you talking about?”. The text is presented in a size 12 font that is big enough to read, and small enough to not take up a lot of space. The font is in the courier font, this resembles the type of font used in typewriters, which before printers would have been the alternate way to produce the script. This font is a conventional feature in almost every script. The main features used in our script, which are seen in all scripts, are the dialogue, which is justified to the centre, such as the text that says "Excuses and lies, you only wanted to save yourself", the stage directions, these are also justified to the centre, we made sure that the names of characters were also capitalised in the stage directions as well as when it indicating who will speak the dialogue such as when it says "SAM now closes the rest of the gap between him and OSCAR, OSCAR looks around the forest briefly". Justified to the left we have the location information, which indicates if it's internal or external and if it's day or night such as when it says "6. EXT. OUTSIDE FOREST. MORNING" And then we have the transitions justified to the right. Before our script can finally be a shooting script, which makes it suitable for shooting and creating the film, we would need to add camera directions, angles and movements, this would help the camera man understand what he needs to do, this would, just like the transitions, be justified to the right such as when it says "CUT TO. CLOSE UP OF SAM. LOW ANGLE. GFX: GREEN SHADOW FILTER". The location descriptions and time of day would be suitable for the whole crew as they need to know so that they know where they need to be.

5) Does it meet legal and ethical requirements?
Censorship is about removing things that would be inappropriate depending on the context an audience it's been shown to, scheduling comes into this as things that are censored are never shown on prime TV during the day, but as it gets later into the day, censored content is shown a lot more. In our scripts case, it wouldn't need to be censored and so can be scheduled to be shown in the day. Our film script adheres to BBFC by being appropriate for children under 18, as our script I believe fits into the BBFC rating 15. BBFC asks that the script must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour and ours does not. Drugs being taken can be shown, but again cannot be endorsed or intrigue the audience to take them, our film script doesn't feature any drug usage and so adheres to BBFC. Dangerous behaviour is another thing we have to adhere to, and it must not dwell in detail, our film script does feature one event and it's when one character is picked up in a choke hold by another, but this only happens for a second and doesn't go into detail. There may be strong language, but again, our film script doesn't show any sign of this. Nudity and sex is definitely not shown in the film script. Threat is one thing that can be seen in the film script such as when one character, Sam, threatens his brother Oscar. "You can't save me. It's too late for that. The real question is... who will save you?" but it's not a strong sense of threat that BBFC still allows. Finally, Violence is again, something seen in the film script, such as when it's stated by a screen direction, where Oscar is lifted up in a strangle hold by Sam "SAM lunges at OSCAR's throat and holds him up in the air" but it doesn't dwell on pain or injury and so adheres to the BBFC. The pre-watershed is the time on TV before 9pm, and so for our film to be appropriate for pre-watershed scheduling, it must be appropriate for children, our film doesn't feature anything that would prevent this as talked about in us adhering to the BBFC rating 15. Finally, copyright is the law that forbids you from using someone’s own intellectual property, such as; music, photos and videos etc. without their consent. So to get their consent, I would have to email or get in contact somehow with the owner and create a deal, typically with money, to use their intellectual property, and then all I have to do is indicate it is copyrighted material. In the case of music, we were thinking about creating our own music, which will be played at the specific parts that the script says, our incidental music queues in the script will be placed at the beginning of scenes to introduce the setting, or when their is the chase scene to create tension as effectively as we can. But if we can't produce our own by the deadline we will have to seek permission to use another person's music and then credit it in the end of the actual film. If we use graphics made by someone else then we also need to seek permission before we can use it too. We will also need to seek permission for locations that are mentioned in the script, although if they are public, which all of them are, we don't need to seek permission and so can use the locations when filming.