Research and Planning WEEK 1

We first begin with different types of fairy tales that we could adapt, starting with ‘Beauty & the Beast’. ‘Cinderella’, ‘Snow White’, and ‘Goldilocks’. From here we decided upon Little Red Riding Hood. When we were looking at these particular fairy tales we found that they all used a particular narrative, they all stuck to a typical structure of beginning, middle and end, there wasn’t a particular part in the stories were there is a crescendo. We then decided that we wanted our fairy tale to be heightened in suspense and excitement, this is where we decided that we wanted to use quicker transitions, faster pace music.   The fairy tale my group has chosen as a production team is Little Red Riding Hood. We have chosen this and we are going to adapt the story. The story in actual fact was an innocent way of presenting paedophiles raping little kids, so we have decided to really present by using the thriller genre. The thriller genre consists of excitement, suspense and tension as its main elements, in addition to this the primary sub elements are mystery and crime. We felt that the thriller genre and the story go hand in hand; there are many parts of the story where a lot of suspense, excitement and tension have been created. Another thing in which I and my group have decided is that we shall create a trailer.

Cinderella Potential Fairy tales

Snow White

Beauty & the beast

Goldilocks

Little Red Riding Hood

• In our next meeting, we then decided on how we shall adapt the fairy tale, we discussed all the genre’s and then decided we wanted to use the thriller genre. We decided to use this genre because we felt the narrative of Little Red Riding Hood, uses some aspects from this genre already. In addition to this we wanted to make this more apparent to the audience.

• After this we made a list of macro and micro elements such as:• Representations

• Props • Mise-En-Scene • Camera angels

• Music • Codes and Conventions of the thriller genre.

• Narrative • Lighting

• Sound (diegetic/non diegetic/sound bridges/voice overs) Whilst discussing this, we then came up with the idea, that as we adapt the fairy tale, there will be some aspects we shall keep the same such as the colour red, the use of younger actress for the character of Little Red Riding Hood, the grandma and the mother. The use of the forest, we did this because we felt it was essential in understanding the narrative.

Changes we made to the original narrative:•We decided to change the narrative structure to non-linear narrative, we didn’t want the narrative to follow a typical structure, in which we all find boring. We wanted to be able to captivate our audience through the narrative, if we followed a non-linear narrative the audience will be more likely to concentrate on the trailer, they will be more likely to watch the actual movie so the true meaning of the film can be unravelled. •Another adaptation we made to the narrative is the use of a wolf. We felt it would be easier to portray and will act as a way of modernising the fairy tale. We felt that due to the fact we don’t have the resources for the wolf costume etc., it will be easier to use a witch for obvious reasons. We didn’t want the trailer to look cheap, this is the main reason why we decided to change the wolf to a witch. •With the actual narrative of Little Red Riding Hood we have only taken parts of the story in which we find particularly interesting. Such as the death of Red Riding Hood, but rather we shall never reveal the true resolution of the trailer.

ADAPTATIONS

Why change the wolf to a witch?We decided to change the wolf to a witch because we wouldn’t have the necessary resources to actually execute the wolf correctly. We didn’t want it to be done poorly, so we decided to change the wolf to a witch, we felt we could portray it more, and also it will act as a way of adapting and modernising the fairy tale.

How would you adapt the fairy tale?We will adapt the fairy tale, by changing the costumes worn. Red riding Hood would wear a red dress, to modernise the fairy tale. The witch will be wearing black and the huntsman will be particularly younger than usual. We did this as a way of appealing to our target audience, we wanted to represent to younger generation through our use of characters.

What does the thriller genre consist of?The thriller genre consists of suspense, excitement, slight horror and mystery. This can be established through the use of characters, props, lighting, and camera angles. As a producer, I overlooked all of these variables, I looked at how real life media texts create the thriller genre through the things that they do. Lighting I found out was a big part in establishing the thriller genre.

How did you find your characters?When looking at potential characters, we first of all decided on the ethnicity. We decided we wanted only white characters, we know this will be not completely representative of our target audience, but we felt that we didn’t want to drift too far away from the original story line. We then looked at the age group 17-18, when looking for Red Riding Hood, we wanted a dark haired attractive white girl, we looked at those in a college and found the girl we wanted. When looking for the huntsman, we wanted the same age group and someone with a motor bike, we then found the individual we was looking for.

ROLES As my role is being a producer, our budget is £100, to buy a red dress, make-up, props etc. we looked at different locations whereby we found out the use of these locations will be free. As the producer I am in charge of looking over the whole project. I made a decision to change the scene from the huntsman at the pub, to a huntsman riding a motor bike, I did this because I felt we could play on this more, it will be more representative of our target audience, and also it will appeal to them.

Through my role, I helped make critical decisions during our productions meetings, I helped establish many different decisions, were we looked at things such as costume, I helped form the red dress idea as a way of modernising the fairy tale, also as a way of modernising the fairy tale, we wanted to change their costumes completely and also the idea of the wolf.

Through my role I also helped my director when it came to looking for locations and shot list. I overlooked these variables and made sure, it will best suit our target audience.

When allocating roles I was allocated the role of the producer. The role of the producer is to initiate a project and oversees it from the conceptual stage through to completion. As this is my role I will be in charge of making sure we follow story boards. Making sure we have the correct equipment we need i.e. camera, costumes and scripts. This role requires me to find the characters, costumes, the kind of shots we will use, the type of location.

NARRATIVEIts typical of trailers to give too much away, with our trailer we have decided to hide the ending of the trailer. We didn’t want to give too much information to the audience, so we have decided to make the ending ambiguous. We aim to establish our genre through our trailer, through the way in which we use lighting, we want very dark lighting, we aim to use lighting which is dark, it is form of establishing genre. The structure of our narrative follows thisOpening: which establishes where the trailer is set.Build up: we develop the characters through the use of dialogue. Problem: Red Riding Hood doesn’t heed to the warning of her mother. Events: we have a chase as a way of speeding up the trailer, also the true fact that the grandmother has been attacked by the witch is never solved and also the audience will never know whatever happened to red riding hood. Due to the fact that this is a teaser trailer, the real objectives or resolution are never given away. We don’t want to give away too much, but we want to give enough for the audience to actually watch the full movie.

Camera Shots

When thinking of camera shots, we decided to use a range of shots, such as medium shots, close ups, establishing shots, over the shoulder shots, just to mention a few. We decided to use many shots because we felt to capture the genre it would be best represented by the shots we used. By using a range of distances means there are different emphasis placed on expressions and body language according to the type of shot. Again when using different camera shots we can pay close attention to body language, body language will be a clear indication of how the character feels and what they are thinking. By situating Red Riding Hood in the foreground in the shot we automatically assign her as being important.

Similar to the way in which this real life media text has used a close up, with a moon in the background to show the supernatural element of the trailer, we aim to imitate this, but we would have a close up of meaningful objects such as grandma’s hand, to exaggerate the extent of her illness, this will keep the audience

We looked at real life media text, they used a low lighting establishing shot, we aim to mimic this in scenes where we want there to be suspense, or where we want the audience to establish the scenery or the environment. We aim to use low lighting as a way of

Lighting

Lighting can aim to give a particular scene a very realistic look or bring out the dramatic nature of it and we associate these different lighting styles with different genres. The use of dim lighting in different scenes will create suspense; the use of luminous colours will create a mythical effect to the scene. Also by highlighting important characters such Red Riding Hood and the Huntsman would draw attention towards them by using a bright light source. Again the connotations that colour carries is an important influence, when using scenes where the witch is in the frame, using darker colours would create a scary effect on the audience, whilst using brighter colour on Red Riding Hood it would have brighter connotations.

As a whole we looked at the real media text of ‘Wolf’, here it used dark lighting and only natural sources of light from the fire, this successfully adds mystery to the scene, drawing the attention of the audience.

‘Red Riding Hood’ also uses low lighting, we aim to imitate the use of lighting and we have taken into consideration of lighting within trailers, by using low lighting it is more interesting and we are in control of what we want the audience to see, we can manipulate this and allow them to only see ‘frightening’ images which will keep them intrigued, wanting to watch the full movie.

SCRIPTING

When we decided to script we didn’t want there to be too much dialogue, also we wanted it to look professional, similar to a real life media text. We used “Courier New” text and we split the page into two. We also adapted a real script, and took major points of it for scripting.

We researched how real media texts are scripted, we used the same format when scripting. Through research we found that SFX stood for sound.

Characters

We wanted to modernize Little Red Riding Hood, we decided instead of using a red cape, we would rather use a red dress, we felt that if we did this, we could create more suspense due to the connotations of the colour red. By using the colour red, the audience can establish the characters status, personality and job. By focusing on costume we aim to modernize the way in which all the character are dressed so the audience can establish the time period of the trailer. Certain types of costume are identified closely with the individual genres, for example the witch dressed in black. Black is a negative colour and normally represents something dark and mysterious. This will be a great way of representing the witch.

Especially when looking for the character of Red Riding Hood, we wanted a dark haired young girl. We used this as a way of adapting the narrative of Red Riding Hood which fondly uses a ‘blonde’ haired white girl. Also we wanted the actress, to be between the ages of 17-18 which will suit our target audience more effectively. We wanted to break the representations associated with ‘blonde haired’ girls, which was typical. We wanted