Filming Schedule

Half Term

Monday- Organise actors, e.g. costumes, locations, script
Tuesday- Filmed a short sequence in the school corridor of Jay and Nina
Thursday- Filmed Jay/ Laurie in the boys restroom scene
Friday- Filmed a short sequence of Nina crying and rocking back and forth on the floor (post- body switch)

Monday- Filmed Jay/ Laurie driving with a hint of a car accident, suggested suicide.
Wednesday- Changed location to a bathroom at one of our group members house to film Jay/ Laurie in the bath, inspired by the 'Black Swan' bath scene, in which a video blog is filmed and a frequent image of him drowning.

*Additional photos are needed of the two main characters in order to create the film magazine cover and film promotional poster.

Main Characters of 'The Fear and Desire for the Strange'

                                                               Jay Dee

                 The main protagonist for our film trailer is 'Jay Dee' and is portrayed by experienced performer Laurie. The character will be an ambitious student council member who will be shaken to the core when he switches bodies with his female friend 'Nina'. He will be an empathetic character of whom the audience can relate to as he is seemingly a ordinary young man at school, however he faces extraordinary events.                                

                                                          Nina Green

      Secondly is the character of 'Nina' who will also be a great focus of the trailer. She is portrayed by drama student Harriet and will be the other member of the student council who will trade bodies with Jay.

                                                         Eva Grant

             Eva is a sub character to both Jay and Nina but will feature in numerous shots and mainly in her own video blog where she expresses her experiences of The Switch.

Sasha Fierce

Sasha is also a sub-character and will feature in the same way as Eva Grant and will have her own sequence of a video blog. All four characters are part of the student council, therefore they are all commonly linked together when they experience the body switch.

The Body Switch Format

Jay-------> Nina

Nina-------> Jay

Eva-------> Sasha

Sasha-------> Eva

The Fear and Desire for the Strange Genre

'The Fear and Desire for the Strange' is a school based drama that focuses on body swap between four characters of whom are students at the school. The trailer will show the psychological damages that effect the individuals as their minds become tortured by the uncertainty at when and whom they will change with. The two main characters Nina and Jay will be the main focus and the twists and turns of their experience will range from panic attacks at school, terrified video blogs and dangerous driving with tragic consequences.
The genre that includes a 'Body-Swap' theme is not uncommon in the film industry, however in research it appears that these predominately are Comedies/ Romantic-Comidies (for example here are the Top 10 Body Swap films; http://www.starpulse.com/news/Matthew_Newlin/2011/08/05/top_ten_body_swap_movies of which support the research that show the typical genres. This makes a great Uniques Selling Point for 'The Fear and Desire for the Strange' as it is in fact neither comedic nor romantic and rather focuses on the psychological torment of 'Body-Swappying'. This factor would make our film a more exciting and new idea for film distributors and would be seen as a different angle that many would find interesting. The more detailed and unique a film is, generally the success is greater shown by my case study on the 2011 thriller 'Black Swan'.

The examples of other 'Body-Swap' films:

                                                             
                                                               The Change-Up

                                                             
                                                                 Freaky Friday

                                                               The Hot Chick
                                                             

Images of Locations

Before we began filming our trailer we explored the potential locations of which would suit the film best. We considered many different restrooms of which would feature for both the main characters 'Nina' and 'Jay', and we conclusively chose the centre image shown.
Secondly we needed a classroom that would ensure we introduced all four characters that would feature (shown in our script- http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5965119027022544223#editor/target=post;postID=6772785288844345178) as it essential that an audience can associate with each individual character.
A numerous number of school corridors were set to feature and therefore the bottom left and top right shows the basic look of which we were looking for.
Lastly we considered a scene that could briefly feature just to confirm the school setting however on reflection we decided to cut this idea from planning as it did not add anything to the storyline and could waste valuable space in our trailer.

The courtyard that briefly appears in our first cut of our film trailer adds to the atmospheric feel we aimed to capture- a short of edgy school based drama.

This bathroom scene was filmed showing the character of Jay Dee to be submerging himself underwater and filming his own personal video-blog, expressing his fears of switching with Nina's character.

This location is outside of the restrooms shown in the practice shots many times as the script originally had Nina swiftly leaving them in search of Jay as she is terrified after switching bodies with him.

'The Fear and Desire for the Strange' Script outline

Audience Feedback comments:

'' I like the overall script however I wouldn't like to see the line- ''it all began when...'' as that's quite cheesy and it would put me off seeing a film if it sounded too unoriginal''.

''I really like the idea of a mix of music in order to suit the build up, I think that may come across really effectively''.

''The part about using video blogs sounds really good because it would be an element of modern technology that teenagers especially will be able to relate to and is a really interesting idea to include it in a film trailer''.



This is a basic outline to what we will film in the process of making our film trailer. The foundation of the storyline, characters and locations are stated and we found this extremely useful as a guideline when we began filming.

Script Outline:

Jay Dee: Hi... Its Jay Dee... 
I can't explain what's happening to me... 
It happens at school... I don't know where it's coming from... 
I feel as though I'm going crazy...''
''I was in Nina's body... I was in her... I was her...''

We have chosen to keep the script/ voice over minimal to compliment our simple theme ( alike those found in UK indie film trailers). We structured the ending statement from Jay Dee to read- ''I was in Nina's body... I was in her... I was her''.
Significantly Jay is the main character and we therefore chose for him to say all the diagetic sounds in the trailer so the audience can associate his role in the trailer to the main role in the actual film. Also from feedback from class members, a student said that our original idea of Jay's dialogue was too childish and predictable and would put off many people (''It all began...). Therefore we changed his lines completely to suit the edgy drama that we wanted to portray and comments of the new script have been a lot more positive.

Film-Pitch Research

Before pitching our film 'The Fear and Desire for the Strange' to our class, I explored this site-

http://filmmakeriq.com/2011/06/top-25-most-successful-kickstarter-film-pitches/

It evaluates the most successful film pitches of which received a great amount of support from its investors. As these are all professional film creators it is expected that their presentations and appearance are slightly more polished than the quality that my group were able to produce. However following these examples is the video of my group 'ClockWork pictures' pitch of 'The Fear and Desire for the Strange':

Black Swan

'Black Swan' has been a great inspiration in the making of my trailer as its edgy, thriller feel is hugely successful in enticing an audience. I first saw the film on the big screen without reading any critic reviews before hand, and had a very open mind about what to expect. I had no idea of the storyline or how the director would take the 15 certificate stance very seriously. Through out the film I was in awe of the physiological twists and turns and left me with a buzzing brain as to what scenes were reality and which weren't.

The trailer above is incredibly effective in attracting an audience without giving too much away-
It begins with a beautifully cinematic image of a ballerina alone on a dark stage which contrasts perfectly with her all white demeanour- significant as the story of black swan follows an innocent creature that merges with its own dark side.
In the next 3 short sequences Natalie Portman's character 'Nina' is revealed as the main protagonist of whom is a professional dancer at a dance company with many members- showing the intense pressure of competition they must be under to be the lead.

A scene that features within the film is one that gave much inspiration for my own trailer. 'The Fear and Desire of the Strange' focuses on psychological unstableness and therefore it is essential to portray the characters in the trailer to be experiencing this.

This clip shows the character Nina to be hallucinating and can be interpreted by the audience in many different ways, for example:
1. It could be due to the drink and drug abuse that appeared in the sequence before, where Lily convinces Nina to let loose from the pressure of her life.
2. It could be her psychological descent.
3. It could be symbolic of her dark side- given the supernatural elements.

The target audience of this film was initially received as mainly for women who enjoy the arts and cinematic imagery. However the controversy once the film was released came from the shocking content of which the audience that saw the film may have found too much. Personally I perceived it as pure genius to lure in an audience and then to shock them to the core with the basics of ballet but with a supernatural twist. The certificate being 15 was considered too low by many reviews, as it was the most complained about film to the BBFC of 2011.

Unfortunately I am unable to post the bath scene on blogger as it is blocked by YouTube- however I would just like to add how much of a inspiration the scene was when creating our own version.