Creating Charlotte Westbridge

Choosing our characters

These pictures show the particular characters we will use in our film. At the top there are the group of friends that Summer will be chatting and laughing with. This is not yet the definate group as we will cast properly near the time, but we wanted some shots of boys and girls laughing and having fun together. The next two pictures are of the popular girl, Summer, who is followed and imitated by the psychotic character, Charlotte. The picture shows the confident side and the other picture shows the more arrogant and 'knows she's popular' look. The next picture is of the teacher who asks Summer to befriend Charlotte. The next picture is of Chris, Summer's boyfriend. He looks friendly and also conserved 'knows he's popular' look. The next picture is of Summer's best friend, a template of what her friends should act like however Charlotte wants to take over this label. The final picture is of Chris's best friend, Ricky. He is a person who alike Chris, does not warm to Charlotte and sees her from Chris's perspective.

Our location shots

Storyboard

This shows pictures of our storyboard in a drawn out fashion to show a shot by shot description of what will happen in the trailer. The description is included to but hard to make out so I will describe below.

The trailer begins...

-Fades in from black. An establishing shot of the classroom with a voice over of Charlotte introducing herself to the receptionist. The classroom door opens and Summer is there with a group of friends laughing and joking.

-The teacher is seen asking Summer to look after Charlotte as she is new.

-Summer is then seen introducing herself to Charlotte and tells her friends they have to be nice to her as she is new and will have a hard time settling in.

-(Two shot) Summer speaks to Charlotte and asks her about her past such as why she moved but Charlotte doesn't reveal very much.

-A mid-shot is then shown of Charlotte looking in the mirror and putting a wig on which is identical to Summers hair. She has a look of a psychotic character with a hint of craziness and a sinister side. While this is happening there is a voiceover of Summer's boyfriend, Chris, saying "The girl is kinda weird", "She's not that bad, give her a chance".

-The growing obsession of Summer is becoming evident in Charlottes behaviour as she follows her everywhere. This will include a reverse shot of Charlotte stood outside Summer's house and this is when the music will intensify further

-A similar shot is shown of Summer and her mother talking explaining that Charlotte is starting to act weird and obsessive but her mother thinks she is being silly and ignores her.

-A scene of Charlotte getting jealous when Summer is with anyone, in particular her boyfriend. Summer begins to ignore her but this just aggrivates Charlotte further.

-Charlotte drugs Summer's boyfriend in an attempt to distract him from her and takes pictures of the two of them in the same bed as she wants to be exactly the same as Summer.

-The cuts then begin to quicken as the audience are still unaware of the conclusion. A shot of Charlotte crying hysterically with slashed wrists is shown.

-Another cut of Summer crying in a dark room..."Why are you doing this?!", "Because, I love you." - This doesn't give too much away to the audience but still makes them realise the situation by thinking what is she going to do...Kill her? By this time the music is becoming more and more rapid, possibly strings in a high pitch growing in intensity

-Another cut of Summer screaming is shown as she is being dragged away but by a darkened background

-The final shot is of Summer's boyfriend laying down on a bed, opening his eyes. Then suddenly Charlotte's crazed face is shown and looks as if she is going to kill him by either stabbing or strangling him. The music stops suddenly and the title of the film fades in. This will work effectivly as the audience do not see if he is actually hurt or killed and how it pans out. Fades out to black.

The Roommate Trailer 2010

This trailer is a more recent remake of the film Single White Female and it shows a more modern take of the style of the film being set in University. It is a typical American style film being cheesy and unoriginal but our own film would like to use some similar camera shots for example, the last shot when the girl is laying in bed and suddenly the psychopathic girl creeps up behind her and touches her face as she opens her eye. Another shot is when the camera looks at her once the guy she is stalking has taken a book out of the library as it is an effective way of portraying her persistent and creepy personality.

Scriptwriting - Planning & Deciding Our Final Plot

(This information was taken from The Guardian's leaflet How To Make Films)

When you have an idea for a film, the next step is to write a treatment (also known as a synopsis), which summaries the key events in

the story. A simple story line can be broken down into a 5 step structure.

1. Exposition - opening premise and setting of the scene.

2. Development - the situation is built on and moves forward.

3. Complication - An event changes the situation

4. Climax - A decisive point where everything comes together

5. Resolution - The outcome is reached. However, a resolution is never shown in a trailer

otherwise it defeats the object.

The protagonist is the central character in a narrative whose actions propel the story forward. There are three classic protagonist:

Dramatic - They succeed due to their efforts

Tragic - They fail in spite of their efforts

Comic - They succeed in spite of their efforts.

This information is mainly used for films, the audience wouldn't be able to tell what kind of protagonist our actress is because the whole film isn't shown. However, some aspects of the Dramatic and Tragic character may be shown through some of the script. A comic character would not be appropriate in this film genre.

More than initial ideas...Our synopsis of the trailer

We have decided to go with the idea of the psychotic character taking an interest in a particular girl at school.

The trailer will begin with an establishing shot of the popular girl, Summer, in a classroom laughing with all her friends and boyfriend. This would be aligned with a voiceover of the new girl, Charlotte. A voiceover would consist of one of the characters at any time during the film, providing insight into who they are and what they think. Charlotte then is seen at the office coming in as a new girl at the school, so the audience see the contrast between the confidence in the two characters.

It then cuts to a teacher talking to Summer saying something along the lines of 'There is a new girl coming to the school and she needs someone who knows the school well to show her around' Reluctantly, Summer agrees as she is scared it will ruin her reputation. Surprisingly, Charlotte is actually alright, with slight hints of social unawareness here and there. Charlotte starts impersonating Summer by wearing similar make up and buying a red wig in private. Reverse shots are used here in the mirror. Summer's boyfriend, Chris, is reluctant to welcome Charlotte as she seems odd to him. Summer reassures him that she is a friendly person even if she is a bit weird, so he has to be nice to her. He agrees until, she makes a move on him and he rejects her so she drugs him and takes photos of the two of them when she is impersonating Summer. In the trailer Charlotte goes to kill Chris but there isn't a resolution so not too much is being given away at this point.

We will aim to build suspense while showing this throughout the trailer with effects such as music and slow fades to make it seem more building in tension.

Trailer Single White Female and possible ideas?

This trailer shows a particular idea we got from our teacher in that we could have our film based round a psychotic character who 'would kill to be her', that is her room mate. This would be fairly easy to film and the trailer would conventionally follow the rising tension as it progresses. This would mean we would need to cast 2 young girls to fit the style of this story. This would mean finding a girl the same age as me as we could use myself as an actress in this. film.

The Conventional Psychotic Character

The first recognised psychotic character was Alfred Hitchcock's character Norman bates from his film Psycho. He was originally based on a real character who impersonates his 'dead mother' due to his split personality. This idea has been used greatly in future films from this as he lets this character take over in situations he cannot control. Most psychotic characters have a hint of Norman.

The Shining is another greatly remembered psychotic thriller films and has been claimed to be one of the best films ever made. Due to alcohol and writers block the character 'Jack Torrence' slowly changes from a caretaker in a hotel to become a neurotic character who attempts to kill his son 'Danny' through the dark spirit. The famous picture of Jack Nicholson, the actor of Jack, shows the psychotic side through desperation and anger.

The Uninvited, a newer horror film in comparison also contains the mentally disturbed character, Anna. After her mother died in a fire, Anna was admitted to a mental hospital, and was released 10 months later having no recollection of the incident. She then has dreams once she's been released with 3 children and the strong belief that her mothers killer is the carer and her fathers new girlfriend constantly reoccur. Strange occurrences mount and the ending has a very big twist to the film, she is the killer all along without realising it. This character is different to the typical middle aged man so it make the film even less conventional yet works just as well showing that we don't necessarily need to stick within the conventional boundaries.

From doing this research, I have found that the psychotic character can vary widely, even though most films tend to show them as behaving and acting perfectly normal at the beginning of the film then the audience sees the change usually just before halfway when the character starts doing things that make them seem psychotic ending with them finally doing something irreversible or evidently paying for their behaviour as another character realises what they have become. Within a trailer however, the chronological order is the same however only the smaller more obvious points are shown so not too much is given away therefore making the audience want to see more.

Choosing our character

These photo's are general screen shots of a character that could be considered as psychotic. The woman could be an abused or confused ,for some reason, and evidently has a vacant look in her eyes; this is an effective character as it leaves a lot of room to move around in the psychotic style, she could quietly do things to make her like this or could change at certain points. The other character looks clearly disturbed and has a slight twitch in his eye. We asked Mr Swain to look a lot like Hannibal Lector fro Silence of the Lambs as there is a famous shot of him close up to the camera with a similar facial expression. He fits this conventional middle aged disturbed man, so we could easily use him for our film if we decide to go down that route.

Mood Board

Here is a mood board showing all of the particular films that have inspired and changed our ideas for our own trailer. These show a wide range on psychological thrillers we have personally delved into and learnt about their own conventions. Films such as One Hour Photo, Obsessed and Silence of the Lambs have been included. Either the film poster or an action snapshot has been taken and used here. It is an overall summary of the main ideas we want reflected in our own trailer.

Fatal Attraction Trailer

This particular film is a great inspiration to Carly and myself. This has given us the idea of having, not necessarily a girlfriend, but some sort of 'psychotic' character, possibly a boyfriend, mother or a character who has a close relationship with the main character. I love this film as it starts off like a rom com, however slowly changes into a more sinister thriller and becomes more of a slasher style towards the end which works very effectively