Changes Made Through Planning (1) - Alice Nutter

Credits List

Produced By

Alice Nutter 

Erin Surkitt

Rebecca Moorbey 

Script Written By

Alice Nutter 

Edited By

Erin Surkitt

Costumes By

Rebecca Moorbey

Music

…..

Camera Work By

Alice Nutter

Erin Surkitt

Rebecca Moorbey  

Props List

Props we will include when filming our Teen Angst Film Opening.

Bikes - use of transport/leisure 

Coke Can (when Ash kicks it during her walk to school)

Mobile Phones - relatable to the target audience 

Headphone - adds a sense of reliability but also allows the audience to understand that Ash feels isolate from the world due to her illness 

Backpacks - emphasises the idea that the characters are of school age and also helps to set the scene

Storyboard for One Night, One life - Erin Surkitt

Voiceover Script

Voiceover script

Scene 1

Ash - “I may look happy now but this wasn’t me 24 hours ago…”  

Scene 2

(No voiceover)

Scene 3

Ash - “I’m Ash and… I’m an Art student at Longsands sixth form.”

Ash - “I would say that I’m the dullest person you will ever have the misfortune of meeting, sorry about that…”

Ash - “You know that unpopular kid that everyone considers a weirdo, yeah that’s me,”

Ash - “That girl you just saw that’s Darcy, I hate everyone with the exception of one person and that’s her. At age 14 I was diagnosed with major depression disorder and Darcy was the only one there to help me through it.”

Ash - “College… well that’s another story,”

Scene 4

 Ash - “The schools queen bitch Helen spread the news and ever since then my life has been hell.”

Ash - “Teachers on my back every second, I soon realised that you have three types of teachers when it comes to news like mine, the ones who just stay away, the ones who try to help but just make it 10 times worse and the ones who simply don’t care”

Ash - “Art class has always been my reason to keep going.  There is something therapeutic about painting or drawing you heart out on a blank white page, ruining something so fresh.”

Ash - “Another competition to add the endless failed activities he desperately wants us to be involved in. Little did I know that this competition would change my life.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Planning of Fonts - Erin Surkitt

This image show the way in which we want to present the title of our film to the audience. We decided to put the title in the sky as the camera is going to pan up tot he sky when Darcy and Ash are on their bikes enjoying themselves. This is significant as the sky could connote freedom which is what Ash now feels after the "one night". I think the position of our title is important as it emphasises this and also contrasts the dark, restrictive feelings that Ash feels throughout the majority of the film. The font we have decided to use is capitalised sans serif font as this is bold and has a big impact as it connoted something significant. This is important in relation to our film and its title as it emphasises the importance of the one night. Also the repetition of the word one also enables the audience to understand how significant this one night is and how it is going to impact her one life. We finally decided to put this title in white as it signifies Darcy's innocence and purity and also contrasts the hate and destruction that Ash is feeling and how Darcy tries to help her through everything by being there for her. This title is counter typical in some respects as it isn't abbreviated and doesn't include words that are associated with teenagers such as 'mean' or 'wild', however on the other hand, there is no set stereotypical title for teen angst as they are all very random and have no particular themes.

This image shows a possible credit for our film. We wanted the credits to appear in a creative way, such as when an object moves a credit will be displayed in its place. The example above shows that when Ash is walking to school she kicks and coke can and as she kicks this the first credit will appear in its place. We decided on this because it combines a usual random activity of a teenager with an informational piece of text.

Planning of Settings - Erin Surkitt

Here is a series of locations that we would like to use when filming in order to tell the story and also appeal to the target audience which is teenagers.  

The opening of the film will begin with Ash and Darcy biking past Ash's house laughing and giggling which makes the film relatable straight away as they audience may be able to recall a time when they were biking with their friends having fun.

The next shot will be of Ash and Darcy continuing to bike down the street, again following up with the reliability aspect.

The next shot that the film will use will be an edit with a rewind symbol appearing on the screen. We decided to include this as it will appeal to the target audience and it also adds a sense of ...

After the rewind the film will start off back at a house belonging to the main character, as she begins to make her way to school. We decided to include this because straight away it makes the film relatable to teenagers as it is mimicking their daily school routine.

During her journey to school she will walk through the streets, listening to music, looking quite glum, potentially due to the fact that it is common for teenagers to not enjoy school, but it may also be due to the mental illness that Ash has.

This is the area where ash will kick the can and a credit will appear, adding to the stereotypical features of our main character (mischievous behaviour)

The last setting that will be used will be the school. We decided that this was a must for a teen angst film as it appears in most, if not all teen angst films, due to the reliability of this and the success it is known to have if included.

Production Company Logo Annotations

When deciding our production company logo with had several suggestions such as; A.R.E productions and life productions, however we felt that these were not very effective as the first one was simply a combination of our initials and the second had no particular meaning. From this we came up with ‘Snowball Productions’. We settled on this because we liked the idea of combining the snowball effect – where things start off small then gradually get bigger with our film. We combined this with linking the snowball effect to depression - the fact that if our main character Ash kept everything to herself and did not seek help then things will gradually get worse and worse.

Now that we had the name of our production company we had to create a logo in order to reflect this message in some way. The logo on the left is the first attempt. We used the idea of a snowball rolling downhill which would cause it to get bigger as it gathered up more snow. We then needed a clear and particularly large title so that our audience knew which production this film was. The way that we incorporated the title would be that we used capitalised sans serif font at the same angle of the ‘hill’ behind the snowball, with a thick black line above it, which almost creates the illusion of the snowball moving at a significant speed. We kept the logo in black and white as we thought that this would be most effective, as the white connotes the innocence and sweetness of our character Darcy and the black connotes sadness and depression that could be linked to her best friend Ash. The contrast of these two colours could show how they are total opposites. On the right is our final production company logo. The ways in which we changed this from the previous one would simply be the fact that we made the ‘hill’ or block 3 dimensional. This created dimension which we thought looked more effective as it didn’t just look like a random black block anymore. 





Title (One Night, One Life) Connotations - Alice Nutter

“One Night, One Life”

Connotations:

The word ‘One’ could signify a new start, a fresh beginning.  But alternatively it could connote a once in a life time chance, something rare or uncommon. It’s the uncertainty that you may never have the opportunity to do something ever again, and the urgency to get the most out of it.  Which links in with the film because Ash has a once in a life time opportunity to enter an art competition and win it for a trip to New York. The one in this scenario could connote how everything changes, but also how hard it would be for her to win this competition and how lucky she is to be able to take part in the trip in New York.

The connotations of ‘Life’ are one of new beginnings, of moving on and taking everything in your stride.  This could link with Ash’s situation of her depression, this competition gives her the opportunity to change her outlook on life on her disorder, and therefore make her a happy individual. It’s a journey we as the audience have the privilege to be a part of and watch. It connotes growth in herself and her capabilities, to be able to beat her depression to be able to get better, and see the positive in each situation, and also see the greatness in her art skills.

This isn’t a stereotypical Teen Angst film title, it isn’t abbreviated, it’s not slang, but that was the whole idea behind it. Our movie although containing a fair few conventions of a stereotypical Teen Angst movie, it is a countertype. It’s not about silly girl drama, or friends falling out, it covers a serious issue amongst teenagers, that being mental health and the effects of this on others and the individual.  The double use of the word ‘one’  really emphasises this, basically we’re trying to convey in our film that everybody has one life, we all only have one shot at it so what’s the point if you’re not really living, that’s the question we’re trying to answer.

Our title will be in sans serif font because we are covering a serious issue within our film, we wanted that to be reflected in our title form the very beginning. But it will also connote the harsh reality teenagers have to go through, with the awkward first encounters, and embarrassing life fails. The font will be White as white connotes purity, innocence and that’s what Ash and Darcy are, Ash might not be innocent to the hate and destruction the world can bring and create, but she is to the happiness and love you can feel.  It also connotes new beginnings and fresh starts which is an idea our film is very centred around.

 

 

Shot List

Scene one

Shot one – The first shot will be a panning long shot of the main characters (Ash and Darcy) biking down a street laughing on their way to school.

Shot two – The next shot will be a front facing long shot of the same activity in order to allow the audience to see the short part of dialogue.

Shot three – The next three shots will be a shot reverse shot, however the first shot will be a mid-shot and focused on Darcy laughing and occasionally looking at Ash. 

Shot four – The second part of the shot reverse shot will be a mid-shot of Ash looking back at Darcy waving and smiling.

Shot five – The last part of the shot reverse shot will be another mid-shot back focusing back on Darcy in order to involve the audience in the exchanging of laughter and happiness between the two characters.

Shot six – Long shot of Ash and Darcy biking, but this will be front facing.  This will then pan upwards to the sky and begin a fade to black.

Shot seven – This will be a rewind over the previous shots at increased speed as the voiceover during this part will be “I may look happy now but this was not me 24 hours ago”.

Scene Two

Shot eight – The next few shots will be match on action of Ash leaving the house, starting with a close up of a door opening.

Shot nine – Mid/long shot of Ash coming through the opening door.

Shot ten – Close up of Ash putting in her headphones.

Shot eleven – Close up of Ash’s feet as she is walking from her front door to the end of her drive.

Shot twelve – Long of Ash walking down a street (Ash goes off screen).

Shot thirteen – Birds eye view shot as Ash kicks a can – as the can moves credits will appear.

Shot fourteen – Mid shot of Ash walking down the street with her headphones in.

Shot fifteen – Panning long shot of Ash crossing the road.

Shot sixteen – Extreme long shot of Ash walking into the car park of the school with students surrounding her.

Shot seventeen – Long shot of Darcy on her own, until she sees Ash come into school then she waves and shouts after her.

Shot eighteen – Mid shot/close up doing a slight smile in response to Darcy.

Shot nineteen – Extreme long shot of Ash meeting with Darcy and towards the school.

Scene Three

Shot twenty – Long shot of Ash and Darcy walking through the doors to the school.

Shot twenty-one – Panning Mid/long shot of Ash and Darcy walking down the corridor to class.

Shot twenty-two – Mid-shot of Hellen in order to introduce her into the film. From this she will be looking over at Ash and saying “smile today won’t you?”

Shot twenty-three – long shot of Ash and Darcy walking past Hellen after the comment she just made.

Shot twenty-four – mid-shot of Ash and Darcy walking into class.

Shot twenty-five – Long shot from the perspective of a student already sitting in the class as Ash and Darcy enter.

Shot twenty-six – Close up of Ash’s face from behind the whiteboard (Ash’s face starts off blurred then it gradually comes into focus.

Shot twenty-seven – Close up of the board showing the audience what is written on it – from Ash’s perspective.

 

 

Script - One night, One life - Alice Nutter

 

 One Night, One Life Script:

Scene 1:

A long shot panning of the street with Ash and Darcy zooming past on their bikes, then we cut to a long shot straight on to Ash and Darcy on their bikes, down the street with their hands in the air screaming “wohooo” laughing and generally being happy. The voice over takes place in this scene with Ash saying “I may look happy now but this wasn’t me 24 hours ago…”   We pan upwards to the sky and rewind into a fade transition (Fades to black) which then provides a smooth transition to the next scene.

Scene2:

At the front door of Ash’s house. Cuts to Mid shot of Ash opening the door and then to a close up of Ash’s face putting her earphones into her ears. Then the music begins to play. Finally you then see her closing the door and beginning her journey to college.

Scene 3:

 As she is walking to college we cut to a close up of ash’s feet walking to the end of her drive. Followed by another voice over of Ash saying;

“I’m Ash and… I’m an Art student at Longsands sixth form.”

Whilst the voice over is taking place you have a long shot of Ash walking past the camera on her way to college;

“I would say that I’m the dullest person you will ever have the misfortune of meeting, sorry about that…”

Followed by a birds eye view shot of Ash kicking a can and a credit will appear where that can once was, another Mid shot of Ash’s continuation of walking to College.  

 “You know that unpopular kid that everyone considers a weirdo, yeah that’s me,”

 We then cut to a long shot that’s pans Ash crossing a road, An Extreme long shot of Ash walking into the college grounds and surrounded by cars and students this is where she will meet Darcy and the voice over pauses and Darcy shouts “Ash!” whilst waving at her, voice over starts again where it left off.

“That girl you just saw that’s Darcy, I hate everyone with the exception of one person and that’s her. At age 14 I was diagnosed with major depression disorder and Darcy was the only one there to help me through it.”

  Followed by a midshot of Ash smiling at Darcy but it looks forced almost like it’s hard to smile its actually hurting her to smile.

 “College… well that’s another story,”

Whilst Ash and Darcy are walking past the camera into college.

Scene 4:

Mid shot /Long shot panning of Darcy and Ash walking down the corridor to class (As it pans it turns form a long shot into a mid-shot.) The voice over continues;

  “The schools queen bitch Helen spread the news and ever since then my life has been hell.”

 Mid shot of Hellen leaning against the wall saying

“Oh smile today won’t you” In a sarcastic tone.  Carry on with Ash’s voice over. Whilst there is a long shot of Darcy and Ash walking pat Hellen both of them being agitated from her comment.

 “Teachers on my back every second, I soon realised that you have three types of teachers when it comes to news like mine, the ones who just stay away, the ones who try to help but just make it 10 times worse and the ones who simply don’t care”  Mid shot/ Long shot of Ash and Darcy walking into class.

Long shot of Ash walking into the centre of the class room as the voice over continues.

“Art class has always been my reason to keep going.  There is something therapeutic about painting or drawing you heart out on a blank white page, ruining something so fresh.”

Cuts to a close up of Ash’s face from behind the screen (Her face starts off blurred but eventually becomes focused.)  Silence a break in the voice over to emphasise the significance of this moment. 

Cuts to a close up of the board showing the competition to the audience.

“Another competition to add the endless failed activities he desperately wants us to be involved in. Little did I know that this competition would change my life.”

End of Opening sequence.

 

Risk Assessment

Location	Description of risk	high/medium/low risk?	How do you prevent it?
School	There could be a risk of someone tripping or falling down the stairs within the school whilst filming or moving location. This could result in the individual being mildly injured with only bruises or it could potentially be more severe such as broken bones.	As there are a lot of sets of stairs in the school, I would say that it is a fairly medium risk.	In order to prevent this risk, l we must make sure that we are looking where we are going at all times, walking slowly and not trying to carrying too many things down or up the stairs that would obstruct our view.
School	Slipping on the floor could be another risk. Due to the fact that we would be filming in the winter, it means that the floor outside and inside will more than likely be wet and/or slippery which creates a risk of slipping over. This could result in the same injuries as falling down the stairs but will tend to be less severe.	High risk as we are filming in winter.	In order to prevent this risk, we must make sure that we are walking slowly and not rushing around as this will increase the chance of slipping. Another way to avoid this would be to put up signs if the floor is slippery in order to warn people of the risk of slipping.
School	Trapping your hand/finger in a door is another risk when filming as there are lots of classrooms in a school where this could potentially happen.	Medium risk	To prevent this risk, we need to make sure that we are paying attention to where our hands are in terms of door frames when people are closing doors or even coming in and out of them.
Car park/streets	There are some parts of the film which we will be filming in car parks and streets meaning that there will be a lot of cars present. The risk of this would be that someone could be hit by a car.	Low risk as when you are trying to film there may be a lot of cars moving around you, which you may not notice.	To prevent this, we must make sure that we are paying attention to the world around us and not just focusing on what we are filming and trying to get this complete. This is also important as we need to make sure that when filming we are including and excluding all aspects that we want to be in the shot.
School/streets	Due to the fact we are using bikes in our film, there is a possibility that someone could fall off of a bike. This risk is increased as we are filming in winter when the pavement will be very slippery.	Medium risk due to the season of filming.	In order to prevent this we need to make sure that when riding the bikes, we are very slow and careful as riding quickly will increase the chance of skidding. All locations
All locations	There is a risk of dropping a camera or in fact damaging the camera when filming which could occur in all locations	This is a medium risk because there could be various factors that could cause us to drop the camera, however most of the time we will be filming using a tripod that will reduce the risk of the individual dropping it. Also the weather could damage the camera because if water gets into the lens it could cause significant issues.	To prevent the camera from being damaged it is important that the tripod is secure and sturdy before starting to film, the lens cap is on the camera when we are not filming and that when we are holding the camera manually we are walking slowly and we have the strap around our necks.

Planning of our Characters

Ash

• A 16 year old female
• Suffers from depression
• She isn't popular but she isn't not popular either
• Gets bullied by Hellen (but soon realises that she is looking at this from the wrong perspective - About her mental illness)
• Hates everyone, but Darcy is the only exception

• Ash will be wearing a flannel top with black jeans and black boots

Darcy

• 16 year old female
• Ash's best friend
• They are complete opposites which is why they work so well as best friends

• Darcy will be wearing a light coloured top in order to connote her innocence

Hellen

• 17 years old
• Popular girl in school
• Bullies Ash
• Stereotypical teenage girl with blonde long hair, wears a lot of makeup, bubbly and sociable, British/White

• Stereotypical so maybe wearing a lot of pink

Pitch PowerPoint

A few images from the PowerPoint we created for our pitch in order to display our initial idea for our film.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pitch Video

Below is a link to our pitch video;

Pitch video - Rebecca, Alice and Erin

Teen Angst Settings Moodboard

In this moodboard I look at the different types of settings used throughout teen angst films. From this I found that the most common setting was in fact a high school. I think this is because it is the biggest part of a teenagers life so by including it, it would attract the audience as they would be able to relate to the film, simply due to this aspect. The next popular setting would be the characters home/bedroom. This is again due to the fact this is where a teenager will spend a lot of their time, adding to the relatability. However, this is also important to the film as it enables the audience to get a better understanding of the character. This is because their bedroom/house will usually reflect their personality. An example of this would be that Cher has a very big house and bedroom in clueless, this reflects her as she is a very confident girl who is not afraid to stand out, which can also be seen through her choice of outfits. 

Teen Angst Main Characters Moodboard

I created this moodboard of Teen Angst main characters in order to explore the types of characters created in order to attract the audience. From this I discovered that the majority of the characters were female. One reason could be that the main audience for teen angst films is intact teenage girls, meaning that if the main character was female, they would be able to relate to them more. However, on a few occasions where one of the main characters is shown to be male is where there are more than one main character. This is shown in Footloose, Grease and the breakfast club. The reason for included both female and male main characters in Footloose and Grease would be because the storyline revolves around them falling in love. It also shows both of their points of view in the film, which enables all audiences to have some element of relatability within the film. 

Discussion about Mean Girls

When talking about the film Mean Girls with another student, we discussed the use of a variety of different personalities in the film. There are the mean girls, the sport guys, the stereotypical gay guy and the nerds. The fact that they used all of these different stereotypes was extremely important in the film, as it allowed the characters to develop and express their individual personalities separately and allows the audience to see how sometimes these different personalities can clash but also how sometimes the differences can bring people closer together. It also made the film very relatable to the teenager audience as they can apply these situations to their own school life, which is one of the reasons why this film was such a big success.

From this we then discussed what else made this film such a huge success. We figured out that it was also down to the humour used throughout the film from the different individuals and also due to the very memorable quotes. Some of these quotes include;
"You can't sit with us"
"Stop trying to make fetch happen Gretchen"
"If you're from Africa then why are you white?"

Character Mise-en-scene Analysis

Teen Angst films include varieties of the stereotypical teenager such as, being lazy, anti-social, mean/rude, school focused (nerdy) and also the sporty stereotype. Whilst looking into teen angst films I realised that each of these stereotypical groups is established mostly through the clothes that they wear and the props that they hold/use. Due to the importance of the mise-en-scene in Teen Angst Films I decided to annotate some of these conventions.

Regina George - Mean Girls

In the picture below, you can see that Regina is wearing a lot of pink which is a stereotypical girl's colour and it emphasises her feminism. She is also wearing a white top, which is very contradictory of her personality, as white usually connotes innocence where as her character has a mean, judgemental personality. Another stereotypical factor of a teenage girl would be the fact that the skirt she is wearing is very short, which is a common theme throughout all of her outfits in the film as they are all fairly risqué.

Wesley - The Duff

In the Duff there is a character that could be defined as sporty. The character Wesley is usually shown in the film in a sporty background such as a field where he is shown playing American football. This is further supported by the fact that the picture is set in a locker room, which is associated with sports. The clothes that the character usually wears are muscle tops and shorts or stylish clothes such as simple hoodies and jeans. The reason he wears a mix of these clothes is because although he is identified as being a jock he is also one of the most popular guys, thus meaning that he needs to keep up with the trends. An example where he is keeping up with the latest trends would be the continuous appearance of a mobile, which supports the fact he is also technological - another teenager stereotype.

 

Princess Mia - Princess Diaries

The picture above shows Mia from the princess diaries before she is given a make-over form her grandmother. This is significant as this then emphasises a huge change in her appearance from this nerdy character to a princess. When she is presented as a nerd, the mise-en-scene is very stereotypical as it includes, immaculate uniform that consists of a blazer, glasses and her big, frizzy hair. The hair is not the strongest stereotypical aspect as it does not appear in all films where a nerd is present, however it can be argued to be an aspect as it shows that she is not too bothered what other people think of her appearance. This can be supported in Harry Potter with Hermione who also has very frizzy hair and is presented to the audience as an extremely smart teenager.

 

Titles of Teen Angst Films Mindmap

From this mind map I learnt that Teen Angst film titles are completely random; some of the titles have long names such as "10 things I hate about you", whereas some have only one word such as "Juno". It could be argued that some are linked to stereotypical teenage emotions such as mean, wild and clueless but not all of them which suggests that there is not a particular pattern when creating a teen angst film title. From this I have learnt that when I am creating my own teen angst film title that it doesn't have to follow a certain theme and as long as it has some relevance and link to the film itself.

Target Audience

Demographics

• Age - 15 to 25 years old
• Location - Town
• Gender - Female 
• Income level - Minimum wage 
• Education level - Student in sixth form/college to university
• Occupation - Student 
• Ethnic background - Caucasian British/American

Psychographics

• Personality - Lazy, pessimistic, confused about their sexuality, confident
• Attitudes - Negative view on life, always wanting what they don't have and not appreciating what they already do have, don take responsibility for their own actions and usually blame other people, sometimes ambitious but don't necessarily show it externally. 
• Values - Family, friends, education
• Interest/hobbies - Using technology (social media) to remain updated constantly, hanging around their friends/boyfriends/girlfriend, attending parties, watching television/Netflix, listening to music
• Lifestyles - Part time job, in education, stay up to date with the latest technology/gadgets, conflict between friends and family and boyfriend/girlfriend, balancing social life with education