Why we have chosen the male gaze for Megan Black

We decided to include the male gaze, due to the fact that we wanted to attract a wider range of audience. By doing so, we aim have larger market (through promotion) which could make our production much more successful. In the same way, we wanted to reinforce the conventional 'typical blonde' who are often presented to be sexy, for the pleasure of men, where they are also seen as promiscuous and thus are unlikely to survive (slasher genre). 

 We were inspired by 'Cabin In The Woods' (2012), however we will not be going to such an extent of male gaze, as seen in 'Cabin In The Woods', nevertheless we will be using some element e.g. mise-en scene (e.g. clothing). Furthermore we will be using some speed manipulation (slow motion), to further sexualise such character, allowing the male audience to become closer to such character (Megan), while possibly distancing the female audience. This comes down to the fact that, they (female audience), are likely to have more morals and thus may not agree with the way in which this particular female character is presented, hence why they become distant. We plan on using low angles, point of view and close ups to reinforce this sexualised female, however we will subvert some element,by making our character well educated and thus well spoken. Also she will not the the first one to die, but rather survives at the end until she is killed, which is unconventional within horror films. Lastly she will not always sexualise her, as she will be covered in some scenes highlighting the idea of her not being conventional 'typical blonde' character.

Why we have change our actress for the role of Flora

Safia 

This is our new actress, who will be playing the character of Flora. The reason being as to why we had to change actress from Jalisa to Safia, comes down to the fact that unfortunately Jalisa became seriously ill, which meant that she was unable to feature in our production. However due to Safia being her understudy, we were able to replace Jalisa without much damage caused to our production, in terms of delaying our shooting schedules. In the same way, Safia fitted the role of Flora quite well, due to her being likeable without anyone expecting her to be sinister (unexpecting for our audience), which our narrative explores. 

Casting of Flora

Here me and my fellow team mate (Chloe), took turn in both directing and filming this particular casting section. Due to there being only two of us, we had to constantly run back and fourth in terms of organizing who's up next, and how they should read the monologue.We decided to give them directions, due to the fact that many were shy in front of us as well as the camera being present, also they were unaware of how to read or portray the particular emotion required for the character of Flora.We decided to film this process, we a way of  referring back when making a decision, as to who fits the role of Flora this was used when we finally made our decision for the character of Flora.

Why we chose who we chose:

• Originally, we wanted a white blonde girl for the character of Flora, however due to this particular race being a minority, we were unable to find one that fitted the description nor the acting capability. This meant that we ended up casting an ethnic minority (mixed race) girl as the character of Flora. 
• Also this particular girl (Jalisa), was the most organised meaning she will be available for our trailers when we needed her.  

What have I learnt from this?

• For future reference, we should choose our characters (casts) before conducting our story board. This comes down to the fact that, we ended up making some changes to our cast. This can be seen with Megan who was originally supposed to be white, however again due to such race being a minority, we couldn't find one to fit the description we needed in our trailer. Yet we did have a 'white girl', who fitted this role, she nonetheless due to her being in year 12, she should be extremely busy and thus cannot make it when we needed her. 

Characters and cast list

These are our casts that we will be using for our horror trailer 'Insanity', as you can see they range from different ages, from 11-18 years old.

Locations, prop list and shooting schedule

Due to one of our team member not being present (on holiday), me and my fellow team mate (Chloe), have to over look all roles hence why we have occupied all four of the roles. However when she does return, we will split the roles more evenly, ensure we all have part to play. 

Clothing & mise-en scene for cast

Test shots: settings and mise-en scene (part 2)

Test shots Settings/Mise en Scene

Casting of Flora (where we are so far-update)

In order for our horror trailer to be successful, the actors play a significant aspect of this, due to their ability  to act. For this reason, I have been hunting for actors to play the role of Flora, this led me to go to different age groups, where I pitched our narrative to them to see if they were interested in auditioning for the role of Flora. After finding a variety of actors, me and my fellow team mate (Chloe) then put a notices in their register. Once our actors received their notices, they were instructed meet us in the drama studio, where we directed them on how to deliver their lines. We directed them, due to the age range (11-13), and thus didn't always know how to portray the particular emotion we needed for the character of Flora. During their delivering of their monologue, we filmed this process as a way of referring back to it when making our decision. It is also helpful as to why we didn't pick a particular actor (on our blogs). We will edit this and upload it soon!

Our storyboard of 'Insanity'

Follow the (red arrows- narrative order).

These are the theories we followed (those not mentioned above):

• Todorov basic narrative structure- we are planning to use most aspect of his theory, including equilibrium and disequilibrium. However we chose not to show the 'new equilibrium', as this is unconventional for horror trailer to show the ending of the narrative. This is for marketing reasons, whereby it attract its audience to watch that particular movie, hence why  horror films differs as a way of attracting audience (unique selling point). 

• Alvarado et al (ethnic minorities representation): With their theory suggesting ethnic minorities being presented as 'humorous, pitied, exotic and dangerous' we as a group wanted to subvert some element of this. The obvious subversion is the idea of having our cast a mixture of all ethnic groups, with two of the protagonists being from ethnic minority background. This differs from the conventional horror films, as ethnic minorities  are often killed off during the early stages, however we have chosen to have our ethnic minority characters to survive till the final scene. In the same way, we chose not to include the idea of them being 'humorous and dangerous', nevertheless we kept with them being presented as 'pitied' (to a limited extent- can be seen with the character of Jean) and 'dangerous' (Flora).  

• Clude Levi struss (binary of opposition). Where we took up on his theory of narrative, being 'driven by conflict'- this can be seen with conflict unfolding the events of the narrative. Here conflict is the reasons behind why certain characters act sinister. 

Recreating scenes from our narrative/storyboards

Here I have edited the different camera angles we tested out, using 'Adobe Premier'. Here due to us not knowing how to use a  'poor focus pull', me and Chloe wanted to test this out hence why we have conducted this test.

Exploring our narrative, issues covered

For our narrative, we as a group wanted to explore issues in which is a current concern in our contemporary society. With this in mind, we wanted to ensure that this was highlighted in our narrative, in a sense as a way of raising awareness of such issues. In order to do this, we as a group began to think of how we could include these with supporting evidence, (need to justify why we have focused on such issues). These were the issues we chose to highlight:

• Mental health (Schizophrenia). Here due to the age of one of our character (Flora), who has developed such illness, we wanted to ensure we had done in depth research as to when such illness begin. Before any research was done, we had we stated that Flora was 8, however after research we decided to change her age to 13. This comes down to the fact that research by NHS suggests 'illness begin by age 14'. Although NHS suggests such illness begin at the age of 14, due to the character of Flora we wanted to make her slightly younger to fit in with the child-like aspect, whilst evoking audience reaction with her sinister behaviour. This was also due to the classification of our production, which we are targeting the age range of 15, and thus needing to make the audience relate to the character of Flora.  http://www.nimh.nih.gov/news/science-news/2005/mental-illness-exacts-heavy-toll-beginning-in-youth.shtml

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/news/science-news/2005/mental-illness-exacts-heavy-toll-beginning-in-youth.shtml 

           
Here I looked into children with such illness and how they may act, to ensure I get accurate representation. This gave me an in depth understanding as to what courses schizophrenia, without giving false statement.Lastly this this gave supporting evidence that children do in fact have Schizophrenia, and thus enabling us to show why we chose to have Flora have such illness.  




          
Again I looked further into the illness of Schizophrenia, to have more understanding.

·         We also looked at the case of split personality, where we were influenced by ‘Psycho’ of 1960. However by making Flora to have this disorder would cause for too much confusion, along with having Schizophrenia. Furthermore there were variations of ‘Personality disorder’ ranging from A- C, because we didn’t want to portray the wrong image we didn’t want to offend anyone by making inaccurate portrays in our narrative. Such ‘disorder tends to have difficulty relating to others and usually shows patterns of behaviour most people would regard as odd’, which fitted in with this particular character. Contrasting this, other areas such as ‘feeling they cannot really trust their friends and associates’ didn’t portray Flora as we has imagined.

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Personality-disorder/Pages/Symptoms.aspx



            

Although not directly linked with the case of 'schizophrenia'. This gave me an idea on how we could direct our our actress, who would be playing the role of Flora (we may be taking some ideas from footage). I will be showing this to them during their auditing, which we would be conducting on Wednesday (4^th December) on how they could possibly play this role. The reason as to why we’re doing an audition is due to the fact that, there has been much interest where I have pitched our narrative to drama students who have also expressed their interest in playing such role. 

·         Lastly with the rapid increase of domestic violence, where is suggested by BBC news ‘70,000 people suffer domestic abuse...every year’, which sadly affects children. We wanted to show this in our trailer, demonstrating the full effects it has on children, hence why we included this in our narrative through the character of Flora.  

Ironically research suggests those affected by domestic abuse go unreported due to the normality of it. However a woman who was in a former abusive relationship stated ‘It's imperative that the word of abuse, mental and physical, should be known all over the country just to make everyone aware of what's happening.’ Supporting our reasons as to why we wanted to include such act in our production, however in a horrific manner to make a point. Such take on events could support ‘Postmodernists’ interpretation, which is a theory that undermines the conventional narrative, which our group aims to achieve.

These are the links for reference (feel free to have a look)
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/192104.php

http://www.rethink.org/diagnosis-treatment/conditions/schizophrenia?gclid=CIzegsnH87sCFTMdtAodET8AOA

·         http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-25181546