Black Sands Treatment

This is my film treatment for 'Black Sands'. In it I have given a detailed explanation of what the world in which 'Black Sands' is set would be like and who the characters are.

Background Info

• The night is the only time when the world is safe anymore. 
• People are too scared to go outside due to the infected who roam the ruined world and the people fear that they will also be turned. 
• Most children have never seen daylight 
• Day is cold and the Night is warm 
• People have fled the main cities due to the disease 
• The first symptom is temperature and fiery itch that leads to a maddening temper and self-harm 
• People have given up on hope 
• The world has become barren due to the temperature and only winter plants have survived 
• The infected are known as ‘the broken’ as their minds are broken 
• Even though the night is safety, people are afraid to fall asleep - especially around twilight - as that is the time when ‘the broken’ come to shelter and can attack (fear is safety) 
• The world has been ruined after the apocalypse and caused an eternal winter 
• Along with it, a biological weapon was released during the tremors and destruction of the apocalypse therefore releasing a disease which drove people mad and slowly killed them. These people were known as the Broken 
• Black Sands is a nickname for the last surviving, uninfected city which it was given by the outside people due to how it continues to pollute the world and the bank of the river where it is turned black

Characters And Personalities

As we have now begun planning for our opening film sequence I decided that I needed to know my characters before I could start detailing my synopsis.

 I decided on a selection of teenage characters because that would appeal more to the age range that I have chosen for the film's rating (see this post). I then decided to have an all female cast because girls are easier to sympathise with in difficult situations instead of boys.

I then began gathering ideas about my characters. I knew that I couldn't have a lot of characters because it would confuse the audience and be too overwhelming at the beginning of a film to meet so many characters. That was when I came to the conclusion of 3 characters. It would be easier to direct with a small cast and also I would be able to work on the detail of the characters in more depth.

I started to focus on teenage characteristics and decided that I wanted to use a variety of different personality traits, making sure that none of the characters were the same. Of course, they needed to have similarities but I thought I would use this variety of characteristics so that it would be easier for a wide range of the audience to empathise with.

I therefore came up with the following characters:

ROWENA HEMLOCK

SKADI STORMBORN

ALYS WEST

I then explored their personalities and traits so that I could focus on how they would behave in the story in order to show how they would act in the situation that they are in. This was the outcome:

ROWENA HEMLOCK

(pronounced row-e-na)

Rowena is a troubled teenager who likes her solitude. She, along with Skadi and Alys, is one of the few survivors from her clan. When she was ten, her mother was infected and Rowena blamed herself for her mother's condition. She eventually shot her mother and this haunts her everyday making her very conscious of her actions. She is an intelligent individual and taught herself to read and write from books she found in the old libraries. 

SKADI STORMBORN

(pronounced scar-d-ee)

Skadi is a force not to be reckoned with. She's a stubborn, badass teenager whose tomboy attitude constantly gets her into sticky situations. She and her family joined the clan when she and Rowena were young but once they became infected her aim was to protect her younger cousin, Alys.

ALYS WEST

(pronounced like Alice)

As one of Skadi's only remaining relatives, Alys has always lived a life in the shadows, protected from the creatures of the day. Due to this she is generally a shy individual who is normally too scared to voice her own opinion. She never knew her parents as they were killed when she was young and was raised by her Aunt. She is very dependant on the other girls, especially after her brother, Nimrod left camp and never returned. 

These are just the basics of my characters and I may develop them further. However I believe that this will help design my storyboard for the opening sequence due to my understanding and knowledge about my characters instead of making their stories up as I go along. 

Back to the drawing board!

Audience Research & Expectations

Recently I auditioned some of my classmates as audience research for my opening film sequence.

I asked them the following questions:

1. What is your favourite film genre?
2. What is your favourite film?
3. Who is your favourite character in that film?
4. What are your hobbies?
5. Have you ever watched a dystopian film?
6. What did you think of it? Would you watch another? 
7. What makes you watch a film?
8. What makes you turn off a film?

After I did this interview I decided to consider how I would entwine this research with my research that I have already collected. 

From the information I had collected I realised that the audience would empathise with all three of my planned characters (hint hint) therefore being able to link to both the main character and the two other side characters. This will help develop these characters further because I now know what the audience to my film will be like as it will be a variety of people and I want them to be able to empathise with certain characteristics in the characters. It also stressed how most people expect it to be different and challenging to everyday life. I also learnt that you mustn't dawdle whilst doing a film opening. The audience wants it to the point and likely wants the film to begin. It mustn't be boring or cliche either and not full of too much action.

Back to the drawing board!

P.S: Yes I attempted to use the green screen and it failed miserably due to the lighting on my interviewees who looked a bit strange when the green screen was actually used...

My Film Synopsis And Planning

Recently, I have been looking at different film synopsis' and taking inspiration for my own. Now I have come up with my full synopsis and logline for my opening film sequence. 

LOGLINE

The apocalypse was only the beginning and now the Broken roam the planet. Night is day and day is night. Rowena has never seen daylight but once Skadi is infected, Rowena and Lays have to fend for themselves in a world that hasn't seen the day since 2056.

SYNOPSIS

The film is set after an apocalypse which left Earth fixed in an eternal winter. The world is ruined and all the major cities have been abandoned. Now pockets of surviving humans are hiding in the wilderness outside 'Black Sands', the last city that has remaining power and supplies but most importantly it is uninfected. The small group of friends must survive the barren world that they call home and work together to survive when 'Black Sands' decides to close it's doors. 

Typical Dystopian Synopsis

WARNING: This post contains spoilers

Whilst writing my film synopsis I decided to analyse four of my favourite dystopian films and TV shows.

The Scorch Trials

The Gladers escaped the Maze, now Thomas, Teresa, Newt, Minho and the other Gladers face a deadly disease called the Flare and their so called rescuers aren't who they made out to be. With fellow teens being taken to the 'Safe Haven' each day Thomas and his friend, Aris must figure out everyone's fate. The Gladers' journey takes them into the Scorch, the wasteland which was once our world. After teaming up with the resistance they challenge WCKD itself, resulting in a worse fate than they had already been. 

The 100 - Season 1

Set 97 years after a nuclear apocalypse that wiped out most of humanity, the surviving human race live in space in a large space station formed by many called 'the Ark', where about 2,400 people live. Due to having been in space for so long, resources are scarce and all crimes are punishable by death unless you are under 18. 

When the Ark's support systems begin to fail, one hundred juvenile prisoners are declared expendable and are sent down to Earth. On arrival, the teens find the Earth as the beautiful planet they always dreamt it was but struggle to form a close community. However, they discover that there were other survivors and are quickly called 'grounders' by the teens who quickly realise that they are not welcome to the 'grounders' and must group together to survive. 

Moon

Sam Bell has a 3 year contract to work for Lunar Industries. For the contract's entire duration, he is the sole employee based on the lunar station. His primary job is to harvest and periodically rocket back to Earth supplies of helium-3, the current clean and abundant fuel on Earth. There is no direct communication link available between the lunar station and Earth and therefore the only interaction he gets is with GERTY who is an intelligent computer that tends to his every day needs. With little human contact he believes that three years is too long to be in complete isolation and begins to hallucinate near the end of the contract. All he wants is to return to Earth to be with his wife, Tess and their infant daughter, Eve who was born shortly before he left for the lunar station. Two weeks before he goes home he has an accident at one of the mechanical harvesters. Injured, he awakens back at the station in the infirmary, he assumes assisted by GERTY. GERTY tells him that a rescue team called Eliza will come to help after the accident. After recovering he goes back to broken harvester and finds an unbelievable discovery causing him to doubt his sanity and then his own identity. GERTY's willingness to what is best for Sam tips him over the edge and the only thing he cares about is getting back to Earth on his own. 

V for Vendetta

In the not too distant future, Britain is filled with torture cells, unfair punishments and prejudice against minorities. However in the midst of the chaos, one man by the name of V dares to stand up to the government and is labeled as a terrorist. One night V rescues an innocent woman called Evey Hammond and an unlikely bond is formed between the two which results with Evey becoming V's ally. But though V may be charismatic and have a passion for justice he is also bitter and has his own personal hatred against the government after what they did to him in the past. As November 5 approaches V and his followers decide to stand up to the government. Meanwhile, Detective Finch becomes more and more determined to uncover the truth about V, leading him to question if he's on the right side or not - especially after the truth about the St Mary's virus begins to surface.

Throughout all of these I noticed the main things that these films had in common are that they are aimed at a young adult audience, contain a plot line with an incurable or dangerous disease in it, main characters are struggling to fit in or are in some way excluded by society and things are never as they seem to be. 

I have considered these things for the synopsis of my own 2 minute film opening. 

Iconic Sounds

[Image from 'The Day the Earth Stood Still]

1. Instrumental genius
Because science-fiction and dystopian films were supposed to be something used to horrify and scare the film audiences at the beginning, the use of creepy sound effects are very common throughout science-fiction dystopian films to this day. One of the most unusual around the time the first film of 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' (in 1951) was the sound of the theremin which is now closely linked to otherworldly beings and aliens due to it's eerie high pitched sound.

[Image from 'Terminator 2']

2. All found at your local pet store
In the dystopian film 'Terminator 2' during the prison break and unusual sound was made when T-100 was morphing through the prison bars. This was a slurpy metallic sound - which is a weird noise for a dystopian film.The sound designer, Gary Rydstrom revealed that this sound was achieved slowly sucking dog food out of a can!

3. Apparently pistachio nuts sound like skulls?
This is also from the film 'Terminator' where a terminator operative crushes a skull under his foot. Actually that was someone crushing a pistachio nut with metal plating.

[Image from 'Jurassic Park']

4. Anyone own a zoo?
In the dystopian film 'Jurassic Park' a iconic sound is the T-Rex's terrifying roar. This was achieved by combing the sound of a baby elephant, an alligator growling and a tiger snarling and slowing it all right down before mashing it up to make a scary growl out of some very normal noises!

[Image from 'Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings']

5. Cement and Balrogs...an interesting combination
When the fellowship enter the Mines of Moria in the film 'Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring' they enter a dystopia of their own. In that they meet the Balrog, a demon like creature. Want to know how it's noise was made? It's just a cement block being dragged across a wooden floor. Who knew Balrogs guarded building sites!

I would use some of these noises because I intend to make the Broken have an unearthly noise that would detach them from the rest of humanity. I intend for them to loose all links to humanity and the power of speech is one of the most common features.

Certificate Ratings

As we have started to plan for our opening sequence I wanted to look at different film certificate ratings, so that I can rate my own opening sequence. I looked at the British Board of Film Classification and this is what I found:

U - Universal

If a film is rated as a 'U' it means that all ages can watch it. In a 'U' rated film there is almost nothing unsuitable for children aged 4 and over.

PG - Parental Guidance

If a film is rated as a 'U' it means it is suitable for all ages, however some scenes can be unsuitable for young children. It should not disturb any children over the age of 8 years old. It is also allowed to contain mild language or sex/drug references. They may also contain mild violence as long as it matches the context such a fantasy violence which the children will know is not real. 

12 and 12A

Films under the category '12' and '12A' are considered unsuitable for young children under the age of 12. However, a film under the rating of a '12A' means that as long as a child under 12 years can view the film as long they are accompanied by an adult. These sought of films can contain mild mature themes, discrimination, soft drug use, infrequent strong language, moderate violence, sex references and nudity. 

15 - Only suitable for 15 years or older

Films that are rated as a '15' are only suitable for people who are 15 years or older. These films can contain adult themes, hard drugs, regular use of foul language and limited use of strong language, strong violence and sex references and mild nudity.

18 - Only suitable for 18 years or older

A film rated as an '18' means that it is only suitable for adults. This means that there are almost no limitations for the content in the film and can contain things such as strong violence, sex references, strong language etc.

After looking at these ratings, I think I would rate my film opening sequence I am going to produce as a 15. This is because I believe that it may contain moderate or strong violence during some of the scenes. It may also be a bit scary for children who are 12 years old.

Film Experience || 'Change The World'

At the moment, I am currently getting to grips with using iMovie on the computer. Over the weekend I decided to experiment with some clips I had on my computer, edit them and see what happened. The final outcome looked something like this:

Overall, I'm actually very pleased with this - for my first attempt anyway!

Even though this has nothing to do with the theme of my opening sequence, I posted this on my blog to show how I am getting to grips with the new software on my laptop and to show my progress with it.

Nine Frame Analysis

Hello to my readers. I haven't blogged for a while - I'll admit that - but we've started planning for our 2 minute film opening! Yay! For inspiration, I have been looking at some opening sequences but I have been looking at their nine frames and I analysed these clips using the website:

 www.artofthetitle.com/

I first took a look at the film that I have already posted on my blog called 'Moon' which was directed by Duncan Jones. I have also a included the opening from 'Moon'. 

Throughout this, every time I have seen this opening I always like how the opening introduces us not only to the world that the character lives in but to how the character lives in that world. I like this idea and have already got an idea of introducing the world my characters live in during the opening sequence. 

I then took a look at another nine frame sequence and analysed it from 'The Walking Dead'. I have never seen this TV show and took the advice of someone to look at it after I told them I was doing a dystopian film opening and my ideas that I had at that point. 

Throughout this opening sequence two things were brought to my attention: a) don't use music that overpowers the action and b) do not focus too much on the world the sequence is set in. This also made me realise that I wanted to know more about the characters and was given no information.

The opening to 'The Walking Dead' is below:

Overall I like the opening sequence to 'Moon' the most and have taken some ideas for my own opening sequence from it. 

For precise information on these two opening sequences click on this for 'Moon' or that for 'The Walking Dead'

Top 10 Camera Shots in Dystopian Films

Mid Shot

A shot that shows a character - or characters - from the waist upwards. An example of this is  in the film 'V for Vendetta' where the character of V is introduced to the audience.

Close Up

A shot that uses the face of a character to fill the frame. An example of this is in the TV show 'Humans' with a shot of Niska in the back of a taxi cab.

Long Shot

A shot that shows a character - or characters - from head to toe. An example of this can be seen in the shot above from 'The Scorch Trials' of the characters on a sand dune. 

Point of View (POV) Shot

A shot where the camera shows the point of a view of a character. An example of this is seen from a shot in the film 'The Scorch Trials' from Thomas's perspective. 

Over-The-Shoulder Shot

A shot positioned over another character's shoulder. This can be seen in the shot above from the 'Hunger Games' where Katniss stands waiting to see who the candidates will be for the Hunger Games.

Panning Shot

A shot where the camera follows the character/s from right to left or left to right. This can be seen in the shot above from 'The 100' where the 100 prisoners leave their camp to flee the attacking grounders.

Establishing Shot

A shot that establishes a scene, showing the location. An example of this is in the film 'The Maze Runner' where the shot introduces the audience to the Glade.

Tracking Shot

A shot that follows the character/s from behind or alongside. This can be seen in the film '12 Monkeys' where you see Jeffrey and James at the psychiatric hospital. 

Handheld Shot

A shot that is filmed by holding the camera instead of using a crane or tripod. This can be seen from 'The 100' when the shot shows Jasper being dragged away unconscious. 

Panning Shot

A shot where the camera follows the character/s from right to left or left to right. This can be seen from the photo 'The Maze Runner' when it shows the Gladers are shown escaping the ruined council hut to witness the destruction of the Glade.

For more camera shots visit this website!

Opening Scenes from 'The 100'

WARNING: This blog post contains major spoilers

If you're one of my constant readers then you'll know I'm a big fan of the TV show 'The 100'. For my short film opening I decided to have a look at some of the opening scenes from the series that I could find online.

'I feel the sun on my face; I see trees all around me, the scent of wild flowers on the breeze. It's so beautiful. In this moment, I'm not stranded in space. It's been 97 years since a nuclear apocalypse killed everyone on Earth, leaving the planet simmering in radiation. Fortunately, there were survivors. Twelve nations had operation space stations at the time of the bombs. There is now only the Ark, one station formed from the many. We're told the Earth needs another hundred years to become survivable again. Four more space locked generations and man can crawl home, back to the ground. The ground, that's the dream. This is reality. Reality sucks'

'On the Ark, every crime no matter how small is punishable by death, unless you're under 18. Juvenile offenders get put here: Lock-Up. We call it the Sky-Box'

I took this opening scene from the first episode of the first season of 'The 100'. I think Clarke's monologue at the beginning is very effective as it sets the scene. I also like how throughout the monologue Clarke is still being the central character and that it is focused on where she is now instead of the past (which is the typical 'monologue flash-back' cliche).  Also, I like how there is action in between her monologue. An example of this is when she pauses between 'reality sucks' and 'on the Ark...' where she is disturbed in her cell by two guard officers.

Although I wouldn't use anything as dramatic as this. The use of the title at the beginning is something that I have taken note of. I also like throughout the credits there are important shots of places such as Camp Jaha or the main camp in the first season. 

The use of the characters trapped in a small army-like room is effective because it immediately identifies the main character/s. Also, the use of immediate action captures the viewers attention 49 seconds into the opening scene by the guards bursting into the room - making the characters the main point of the scene.

Lastly, is another clip from season 2. The use of action whilst the credits are still playing is something that I have kept in mind. I also like the sense of mystery in this, for instance Finn's ghost playing tricks on Clarke's mind. If someone was watching this series for the first time it would still explain a lot about what is going on and this all within one minute and fifty-four seconds! It also sets the scene for the main theme of this episode: the treaty between grounders and the hundred.