Treatment

A treatment is basically a ruff version of a screenplay in that it outlines the story line. Its exact definition, and complexity, varies across the industry. A treatment should sell the film, and is sent to potential producers.


Here is our treatment;

This film has the fantasy aspect of Lord of the Rings, but sinister aspects (in the titles), of a Tim Burton creation, Alice in Wonderland for example. It contains a variety of creatures capturing Peter Jackson’s Hobbit audience, but sufficient narrative enigma to entice more psychologically enthralled Burton fans.

The sound of thunder breaks through the sombre soundtrack, as a storm erupts around the protagonist. With the crack of thunder idents break through the shot. A creature's character, (an “Anidone”) lies shivering in the shrub, heavy rain cascading down accompanied by flashes of light. She lies  partly covered by the undergrowth,  slowly she awakes. This character dressed in an elaborate costume. The shot then shows  the character clumsily standing  (as if dizzy).

Weather starts to resolve as the protagonist begins to stumble forward, the gravity/ sturdiness of walk increases. Sturdiness of walk increase and rain has stopped, light is increased and  the characters costume becomes cleaner, they walk grandly as the soundtrack supports the sense of power and authority. Leaves fly from the protagonist.

As the protagonist is walking, numerous other elaborately decorated faces appear from out of shrubs and bushes and more characters join the The camera cranes up to show the group of characters stood overlooking a valley, the music is triumphant and ends with the shot.

Script

Here is an up to date plot, which will be updated as I work with Sophie to develop ideas. For example; our analysis of other fantasy film openings may also impact ours.

Update 15/12/16 - Echoing the success of "Harry Potter", Sophie and I have decided to name our film "Anidone", after the protagonist.

We will be filming a fantasy opening. Set on Lord of the Rings inspired scenery, ideal to re-create on Ilkley moorland. 

Whilst indents play the sound of a storm would play. The sound of thunder will accompany each new indent when it comes on screen during the first scene. 

After watching similar openings to films from the same genre. We decided that along side the soundtrack a mystical/deep voice performs a few lines of script to give context to the opening. This was inspired by the opening to the Hobbit (see genre analysis blog).

The opening shot is a close-up shot looking down on a characters face in a storm (this could be achieved on a rainy day, at low light, and thunder like effects added in editing). 
The characters face would be creaturesce and the character dressed in an elaborate costume. The character can be partly covered by moss/shrubbery to emphasise time (props available on moor).


Titles will grow from the undergrowth within shots; this will be digitally created. For example a branches and vines could move to form a title. Each title accompanied by a sound, representative of the growth of a plant.

A violin solo starts the soundtrack in a minor key, hence a sombre atmosphere is created. 

The camera zooms out from above, showing the character in by lying unmoving in the dirt. The camera stops moving and the character starts shuffling as if wakening.  New camera at medium shot goes from looking down on the character to looking up as character clumsily stands (as if dizzy). 

Weather starts to resolve as a handheld medium-long shot shows the character stumble/walk. Sturdiness of walk increase and rain has stopped, light is increased and music is in a major key. The camera is handheld and clumsy at the start of the following shot, however becomes more steady as the characters walk does.

The characters costume becomes cleaner, they walk grandly as the soundtrack supports the sense of power and authority. Leaves fly from the character (digitally added afterwards).

A medium-long shot follows a character walking, whilst other elaborately decorated faces appear from out of shrubs and bushes. 

Update 25/1/16 - After scouting the moor scenery we have decided on a different way t introduce "Zosil" into the scene. A medium close-up shot shows a face erupts from a near stream, gasping for air. This creature then clambers out of the stream, shrugging of the water like a dog. This character proceeds to walk alongside the protagnist.

As the piece of music develops, and more characters join the frame, more instruments join, hence it gains in volume, until it sounds full. As the screen becomes full - the sound is also full. 

The camera zooms out to a long shot, whilst which characters join the protagonist to form a straight line of walking creatures (the protagonist plus 4 others). The growing amount of instruments corresponds wit the amount of characters now walking - hence the more characters there are, the more powerful the music becomes. The protagonist is centre and leading the other characters. 

The camera cranes up to show the group of characters stood overlooking a valley, the music is triumphant and ends with the shot. 

Difficulties; 

• The creation of moving titles may prove difficult, and the addition of digitally created leaves flying from the main characters costume.
• At least 5 actors required
• Filming in the rain, and at low light

Strengths; 

• Filming outside so light in most shots will be sufficient.
• Set is readily available 

Sound

The Soundtrack

2/12/16

The soundtrack can only be concluded after the footage has being but together, however knowing the characters and how we wish the filming to go, the writing of the score can begin before hand. 

The score will be written on the program Sibelius. 

As outlined in the plot, each character will have a leitmotif (a phrase/ group of notes representing a character, that repeats and develops in the piece). These phrases will surface  as the character appears. 

Today I wrote the first draft of this motif. As the "Phex" this is a pixie like character the motif is meant to sound mischievous, but harmless. This phrase should compliment the jittery character that cautiously emerges from behind a rock. 

The piece will start in A minor, and end in D major.

2/3/17

The soundtrack should compliment the wild storm that blankets the first scene. To do this, I have opened the soundtrack with bold dynamics, and stark violin tremolo chords, this should create the tension required for the scene. 

5/4/17

It has being difficult to keep the soundtrack up to date with small last minute edits on the film, as changing just a few seconds of footage can mean several bars have to be rewritten. However I am happy with how it has turned out, however there are some timing issues due to last minute editing. 

Foley

Foley is every day sound added in post-production, in our case this will be necessary as ambience varies between shots (the sound of wind, birds etc). 

Some ambiance effects were readily provided on the software we were using (Final Cut Pro), theses include the sound of rain and lighting. However the sound of our characters footsteps crunching against bracken were not accessible, and so, having collecting a large amount of dried fern, we recorded these sounds ourselves. Below is a short video made by Sophie and myself, showing the recording of some of our foley. 

Voice over

For this role we wanted a voice like Brian Blessed's (powerful, domineering, mystical), so on the off chance he would reply I used Facebook to message him. In the meantime we have a backup actor who Sophie has previously worked with in a theatre performance. 

Below are our conversations with Brian. 

 

With no conformation to Brian we ave resorted to our back up Narrator, Scully. Whom Sophie has acted with in the past. 

4/4/17

Unfortunately we have being unable to contact Scully, and so another reserve, with experience in the industry, has had to step in. Despite this setback we are very pleased the result. 

To ensure our voice-over artist sounded authoritative and grounded we slightly edited the sound using a pitch shifter to create a deeper tone. Below is a screen shot from this process. 



Here is the voice over after editing: grizlek.aif