Moodboard for Themes of 'When We Wake'

A collage of different movie scenes relating to a post-apocalyptic setting. This is how we pictured the world to be like in the era our film is set, when Daisy wakes up to a world torn apart by a war and the world is in chaos as the small group of survivors try to stay alive. The green forest representing the woods in which we first see Daisy, and where the other survivors are hiding. The various images of ruined cities, nuclear explosions and cities on fire are the image of what the world is like now (in our film) after the attack, which is what the survivors are escaping from. The top left and right pictures represent the mood of the survivors as their hope wavers and they start to give up. The centre left image is a representation of their dream of freedom, escaping the attacks and finding a new peaceful life for themselves. Finally, the centre image, it represents the survivor's need to stay together and protect each other, their closeness and unity.

How I Live Now - Poster Analysis

 

         This is the official poster for another one of film's inspirations - 'How I Live Now'. Taking up the majority room of the poster, under the title we have it's tagline "Love will lead you home". Straight away we have an insight into one of the film's themes, love. Next to the title and tagline is an image of the main character, played by Saoirse Ronan. A teenager who's life has been torn apart by world war. She is depicted as a typical teenager full of attitude, no different to any other teenager but that's about to change. The tagline and title tell us that she has been ripped away from her home and her normal life. A main part of the story is her trying to get back home to her family, so if love will guide her home, it has to be a very strong aspect of the plot.

          The colours used are very heated, with use of reds, oranges and yellows to create an almost nuclear look. Hinting to what might have happened to have Saiorse's character ripped away from her home. The font of the text used is quite damaged-looking and worn down, by the effects of war and neglect. I like the use of the colour to reflect the themes of war and danger, something that we will have to use for our film as it is set in a post-apocalyptic future, damaged and beaten by war.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - Poster Analysis

          In this poster of the second instalment of The Hunger Games, Katniss is portrayed as significantly more heroic and less innocent than she was depicted within the first film and poster. She is the only character on the poster, indicating that she is the main character in the film. Her expression and stance, with weapons drawn and loaded, show she is back and this time, she's ready to fight back against The Capitol. The colours she's surrounded by, the blazing red flames, represent the colours of rage and fury; recurring emotions for Katniss in this film. Here in the poster, she is standing in front of the same Mockingjay symbol that is on the Catching Fire book.This is another way to link both the film and book through other means than just the story and plot. The tagline reads "Remember who the enemy is", a direct reference to the book as this is what Haymitch says to Katniss in the book before she enters the arena for a second time. The line is also key to the story as it foreshadows the dark and dangerous twist of events that are to come. Not to mention it acts like a hook for the fans who have read the book, as it shows that the film is following the book with detail, compared to the first film.
       I love the use of the colour within the poster and the way it matches the theme of the story and how the main character is placed at the front in the centre, showing her importance and significance. This is something I would like to with our main character, Daisy, as she is the main character in the film. I would also like to use colour which communicates the feel of the film in the poster, for example dark, gloomy colours which set an apocalyptic feel before even watching the film.

Start of Storyboard

    

     Here is the start of the story board I created for the scenes in the opening of our film, using fine liner. I have yet to add the last 3 shots which involve a close up shot of Daisy's face as we see her wake up. Closing in on her eyes for 5 seconds until we see them open. Similar to the last shot of Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1, when Bella awakens from her transformation from human to vampire, as shown below:

Dates for Filming

We've decided to film on the 7th and 8th of December; this weekend. This way, we can take full advantage of our time and get plenty of filming done so we have more footage to edit and analyse.

Soundtrack

    What we would love to do would be to create a soundtrack inspired by The Hunger Games's soundtrack. It is a brilliant soundtrack and suits the style of the film perfectly. What i love most about it, is that it is natural. No electronic sounds, just instruments, such as the guitars, piano, violin and drums. Here's an example of the style of music we're aiming for:

Costumes for our Characters

Here are the costumes that we decided on for our characters. Picture compilations by Kayleigh Cooper. We decided to go for colours that would blend into our surroundings, not clothes that would stand out and make our characters vulnerable.

Examples of our Costume Make-up

Here is an example of the make-up our friend Laura Deveson created and applied for us. A few cuts and bruises to show the ware and tear of our characters as they try to survive.

Location Shots For Film

                           Here are the shots from the farm where we would have been filming.

 

Interior shots around the tipi in the woods.

Length of Film

Originally we were going to shoot the entire film and then select which sequence we wanted from the film to goo towards our final piece. Unfortunately, we don't actually have enough time on our hands to film all of it yet, so we have decided just to film the 2-4 minute opening to the film, 'When We Wake' instead.

Location Change

We've decided to change our shooting location from my farm to the woods in Eastry. As they are far bigger and provide a vast area of shooting. Eastry woods are more appealing in their appearance compared to my farms's woods. The new location should provide us with better shots and more space to work in.

Filming progress

In the first week of the holidays, our group met up to begin filming on site. Unfortunately, we were short of two of our actors so we could only shoot a few of the required scenes. We managed to shoot the opening scene which involves the main character, Daisy, awakening from a mini coma in the woods to a post apocalyptic setting. We got a few little scenes from the discussion on Daisy's whereabouts around the tipi. We tried our best as we were short of an important character, Joe.

    Nevertheless, we still managed to get as much footage as our cast shortages allowed, and we even improvised with an on-the-spot back-up plan just incase we didn't manage to complete filming.

Character Profiles

Lucy (Played by Rosie Lines) - She is the friend that finds Daisy first and leads her to the other's hide-out. She makes herself the natural leader whilst Daisy was missing, with no-one's objection.

Daisy (Played by Kayleigh Cooper) - She awakens to find herself lying on a forest floor, with no recollection of what happened during the past 11 days that she was missing.

Sarah (Played by Hannah-Rose Wood) - Daisy's best friend. She holds the 'motherly' title of the group and everyone respects her.

Charlie (Played by myself) - Joe's sister. She sometimes scuffles with her brother and holds charge over him.

Joe (Played by Joe Dunn) - Charlie's brother. He can seem a bit pessimistic at times, but claims that he is only being realistic.

Laura (Played by Laura Comerford) - A teenager whom we only see at the very end of the film. She has had the same experience as Daisy. We see her running from something, and then she blacks out. We then see her awaken, just like Daisy.

Feedback on Video Analysis

Focus on the costumes used and cinematography for the next video analysis.

Update on Film Ideas

After Lucy helps Daisy to her feet, she takes her back to a camp of other survivors in hiding.

The camp is in a woodland area, overgrown and well-hidden. The camp inhabitants are well secluded and out of sight of anyone who might be looking for them. At the centre of the camp is a large, white, battered tipi. Nearby, is a small stream running through the trees, leading down into a water-filled pit.
The pit is used later in the film to dump the bodies of attackers.

As the woodland area we will be shooting in isn't that large, we will either have to travel to the other woods in the opposite orchard for more shots, or change the angle of our shots in the same location. Using a range of cinematography, we should be able to give the effect that we are in a completely different area of the woods.

Ideas and Brainstorming for Short Film Project

In our group, we've been brainstorming ideas to put towards our short film. Main inspirations for the film are The Hunger Games, How I Live Now, and other films set in dystopian/post apocalyptic eras. As we were planning on the film being set in a dystopian future.

Our current idea focuses on the opening sequence to the film. In the opening sequence, we see a young girl (Daisy) dazed, regaining consciousness in the aftermath of what could possibly have been a nuclear blast. She is in shock, confused and possibly hallucinating from her trauma. The surrounding scenery is foggy, cloudy and Daisy is surrounded by smoke and ash in a farm-like setting. People are running from something in the distance, in chaos. Daisy's friend Lucy runs over to her after finally finding her since the chaos started. Lucy then helps Daisy to her feet and tries to explain to Daisy what she already knows about the event.

Characters: 4 Girls 1 Boy (undecided)
                  Possibly a male character, most likely female majority
Location:    My family farm
Setting:       Plain marshland/bare cornfield shrouded in smoke and ash.
                  Weather is cloudy, foggy and misty.

Paramore - Now

This is one of my favourite music videos as it shows a new start for the band and that they have put all of the struggles of their past behind them, ready to start fresh. I love the post-apocalyptic themes and the chaos of the battle, a different turn form their other music videos. The opening scene reflects the lyrics that play at that moment. "Feels like I'm waking from the dead, and everyone's been waiting on me", is very relevant to the situation. While Hayley's been unconscious, a war has been waging and her side have been waiting for her to wake and help them.
       I love that throughout the video, Hayley is determined to get to the enemy leader. She walks through the fight, shaking off attackers, while her allies defend and protect her, prioritising her. She is not violent towards any other enemy, she just calmly makes her way through, with an expression of determination to reach her target and end the war. The whole theme of both the song and video is having the hope and determination to to start over and pick up the pieces.
         At one point, it seems like all hope is lost as her bandmates have been defeated and restrained, and Hayley has been struck and is on the ground looking at the hopelessness of the current situation. She still has hope, picks herself up and runs at the general. Even though she gets caught, she still fights and struggles, it's a tense moment as she's about to be struck by the general. As she breaks free just in time she does something no one sees coming. She charges at him and hugs him. As she does so the sky immediately turns bright and the general, shocked, hugs her back and the war is over.
      That scene is putting across a message that you do not need to use violence to end a war that was ignited by violence, you can instead use peace.

Evanescence - Everybody's fool

I like this video more than Evanescence's others because it is very hard-hitting in some parts and touches on issues of society that many people, especially students, can relate to. For example our constant tendencies to hide behind a mask, put on to please other people so we can feel like we fit in somewhere. Or the constant pressure to try and be perfect all the time, because it's all that is expected of us and nothing less.

      In the beginning of the video, it shows the lead singer having to put on a fake smile and hide how she's actually feeling. She has to lie about the pizza she supposedly made to seem like she did a good job and try to be perfect. We are shown the truth as the display shows the repetition of the word "LIES", A recurring theme throughout the video. Similar occurrences are shown in the video, such as the scene where she rides up on the motorbike and drinks from a can with the word "Lies" written on it. Again when she is in an advertisement for a child's toy, there are the words "lies" on the screen.

      Between the Ads, we see scenes that show Amy breaking down under the pressure of being someone she's not, having to hide behind a mask a fake smile and the pressure to be perfect and do everything right. Something everyone can probably relate to as we are all constantly pressured, criticised, and ridiculed if we don't do something right, or not to someone else's expectations.