My pitch

Many class mates had various comments to share on how they thought my pitch went. Oner of these was a comment from rain stating that " it was clear and well conducted". Others stated it was " a good idea and well presented , clearly thought pout and the idea was clear to understand and follow." 

I found the pitch hard in the respect that I'm not a good public speaker , i enjoyed planning my ideas and creating the powerpoint but when it come to presenting to the class i didn't enjoy it. My ideas were clear to me snd i think that i presented tat well in my pitch , i partnered up with Rian that has very similar ideas too me , together we were able to improve our ideas and create an interesting , easy to follow sorry line leaving the viewer interested and intrigued.

Heathers

Box Office: $1,110,000
Budget: $3,000,000 (estimated)
Running time: 3:06 minutes
Summary: In order to get out of the snobby clique that is destroying her good-girl reputation, an intelligent teen teams up with a dark sociopath in a plot to kill the cool kids.

The first shot that we see is a shot from behind - a girl tying her hair up with a red scrunchie. This suggests that the colour red has some significance throughout the film. The colour red represents the colour of love, but also blood. We can connote that the film may be a romantic film with a twist. There is non-diegetic music playing in the back ground. The music playing is called "Que sera, sera" which in translation is "what will be, will be". This suggests that that anything could happen - often later on in the film the protagonist dent want to kill the girls but ends up doing it anyway. The title 'Heathers; is in serif text. This suggests it is a romantic genre. It is almost as if the title has been written. the fact it is in pink suggests it is about the female generation in high school.

There is then a panning shot over to a clique of girls, in what looks to be a high class setting. We can donnote that the girls are surrounded by a white picket fence and are sitting surrounded by red roses, another symbolism of love and blood. Each girl is wearing similar clothing but each has their own colour. The establishing shot here gives us an idea that they are a group of upper class girls who are very close friends.

This screenshot shows a different angle on the girls. There is a panning shot getting closer to the girls. Giving us an idea that they are surrounded by the little white fence. Everything seems normal and nice- typical high school clique.

The girls then stand up simultaneously and walk together in a line. As the audience we wonder how they are going to get out of the surrounding plants and fencing. They find an easy solution. The girls simply walk on top of the flowers. Killing them. We see a medium shot of their legs standing on the flowers carelessly. We can connote from these violent actions that the girls may not be what they seem.

There is then a tracking shot from the left of the girls. From within the bushes. Almost as if we are watching the girls from the bushes. giving a sense of creepiness. We see they are wearing different colour. we can connote that the girl in the middle is the 'main girl' because of her placement in the scene. The middle. she is also wearing red, which seems to be a main colour of the film. We can see the title beginning to come up on the screen throughout. It is is sans-sarif text which is different tot the title 'Heathers'. The titles are white with a red shadow. White symbolises perfection and innocence. however the colour red shadowing the white letters suggests something twisted about it, we can make a connection between the 'Heathers" clique and the text type of the titles.

The camera then pans over to front facing the girls; however we still don't see their faces up close. We see their feted croquette balls and sticks, each in their own colour. The titles are surrounding the the balls. The smaller ext is much like the initial text in a writing font. Showing the contrast. 

We see yellow heather go first. Suggesting she isn't the most important. We can connote that the film was set in the late 80's due to the clothing. All wearing very feminine bright coloured clothing. 

We then get a close shot of the yellow heather with the red heather in the background. She is in every shot. Implying that she is a main character. The hair is a key suggestion of what era this is set in. The hair is large. There is also the first sound of diegetic dialogue. "Dammit". you don't expect this word to come from an upper class girl from the 1080's. Again giving a hint of a a twist on the typical clique in a high school in America. 

Yellow heather then says "It's your turn Heather". the girl in the red then laughs and says "It's not mine!" as if they should know she was going last . The order of what they hit the ball could give us an insight to what happens to each character.  (Which dies first). 

The green heather is distracted by reading the book "Moby dick". The intertextuality here suggests that a character has a distinct connection to the main character of 'Moby Dick'. The protagonist goes insane about trying to kill the whale. The book is about obsession and insanity. What we don't know yet is that the main character of 'Heathers' interacts with a boy who has psychological issues and becomes obsessed with killing this group of girls. It ends up driving her insane and she tries to kill the guy she is with. We don't see where the two heathers who have been hit the ball. This is narrative ignigma. We assume that they are hitting the balls through he gaps. However we find (after the red heather goes) that they are aiming the ball for the protagonists head.

The red ball hits her right on the head, where as the other two miss. This suggests that the girl getting hit on the head and the red heather will be the two contrasting characters.

The next piece of language is "dear Diary". This links back to the sans-serif text of being writing. The girl is centre screen, which we can connote means she is the protagonist. Or what seems to be the protagonist.

Completed by Rian

casting

Cast 

Protagonist One - Sarah
Protagonist Two - Izzy
Side Pink Girl one - Tia
Side Pink Girl two - Amy

Sarah getting ready (scene one) - Niamh directing
Izzy getting ready (scene one) - Rian Directing
Girls running through field (scene three) - Niamh directing

Co-Directing throughout all other scenes.

Screen play - Niamh and Rian
Story boards - Niamh and Rian
Call sheet - Niamh and Rian

No sound person - only non-diegetic music in the background and sound effects

places for filming

For scene one we are filming the protagonists in their bedrooms. We are using Niamhs house and Izzys house. Even though they are in different locations when filming the girls coming out of their houses they will be neighbours.

 This is where Niamhs house is. It is in Ben Rhydding.

The house to the left and the house to the right are the houses we are going to use to give the impressions the protagonists are neighbours. As you can see there is an ally way in between the houses - this is where the girls are going to walk next to each other and make eye contact. The first scene and the last scene are filmed here

For scene three we are filming in the graveyard in Ben Rhydding. To be respectful we are going to use a family members grave. They will be looking down at the grave, and we chose this grave because there are many bushes and Sarah will able to hide in the bushes and over look the girls.

screen play

Scene one 

Girls getting ready
 Sarah  (Niamh's room)

• View of bedroom panning over to her bed.
• We hear the alarm going off. 
• Hand homes out from under the duvet and knocks the alarm off the desk along with other objects.
• Moves duvet from over head and sits up abruptly. 
• Stands up and film a tracking shot following her downstairs to the kitchen.
• Shoot her back seeing what she is wearing.
• Gets cereal out spills it - giving us a title 
• Gets milk out - shuts fridge - note on the fridge another title
• Slump walk back upstairs and goes back to bed 

Izzy (Tias room)

• Shot crosses over - creating a split screen
• Her alarm goes off. 
• see girl with face mask on laying neatly in pink duvet
• Places hand on the alarm clock
• Gets up smiling 
• Tracking shot to back room - looking in mirror

Sarah (Niamhs room)

• Looks in mirror 

(See both girls looking at camera - we see their faces)

Izzy (Tias bathroom)

• Does make up into camera

Sarah (niamhs bathroom)

• Brushes hair and walk out 

Izzy (tias bathroom)

• does make-up
• switch shots to behind izzy - spills make-up showing another title

 Shown alarm clock, both actors on screen ( split screen )
The screen showing Sarah widens, we then see a sequence of her getting up, walking to the bathroom. 
Titles possibly in makeup, clothes and breakfast - cereal -
Through out this showing glimpses of Izzy getting ready.
Camera shots on clothes and semiotics - not showing protagonists faces.

Scene two 

(Extreme long shot - both houses in shot)

Walk out of their houses simultaneously - different walks showing different personalities 

• Sarah walking at a pace putting rucksack on shoulder 
• Izzy walking out strutting and looking around
• Both exit driveway at the same time - not making eye contact.
• Walk separate ways

We then see that the live next to each other, leave walking opposite directions.
Both on screen (shared driveway - walk out together)

Scene three 

( in school reception )

• Izzy, Amy and Tia walk through the entrance as the doors open. In triangle formation. 
• Keep walking towards camera 
• Walk past we see the doors shutting in Sarahs face - sarah looks panicked.
• someone lets sarah in she then walks in towards the camera (front on)

Scene four 

• We see girls (izzy, tia and amy) surrounding a grave (Ilkley cemetery)
• Sarah hidden in a bush around the church, dressed in normal clothes watching the girls. 
• While we are shown the the group looking down at graves; we see flash backs of girls in a field and old photos that give us the indication that they used to be friends.

(Faded shot) Sarahs face - then continues with her business. 

• two small girls running in a  field
• faded screens
• sketchy playing of old videos

Scene five 

• Girls walk through the drive way
• stop
• make eye contact then continue walking next to eachother 
• Black out - bang title of film appears on screen.
• Flash on screen - photo of girl getting crossed out 

Both girls walk into shared driveway - make eye contact (shot reverse shot)
continue to walk into house - tracking shot of sarah into her house
(Low shot) Sarah - crossing picture of wall of girl

Screen play and shot list

Scene one 

Girls getting ready Sarah in Niamh's room and Izzie in Tia room. Shown alarm clock , two on screen ( split screen ) then the screen showing Sarah widens , we then see a sequence of her getting up , to the bathroom , makeup , clothes breakfast. Though out this show glimpses of Izzie getting ready , not showing faces through hole thing.

Scene two 

Walk out of their houses we then see that the live next to each other , leave walking opposite directions.

Scene three 

( in school reception )
Pink girls walk into school , flick hair shots and on phone shots. No diegetic sound involving laughter   and the sound of phones going off. Sarah then walks in late to the slow and loud sound of a clock ticking that matches her footsteps. we then see the girls sat in a class together all talking , and Sarah looking through the door window at them , she follows them and listens in to their convocation.

Scene four 

We see a funeral and Sarah hidden in a bush around the church , dressed in normal clothes showing no respect. while we are shown the funeral we see flash backs of girls in a field and old photos that give us the indication that they used to be friends.



WE shot in the order of ; scene five , scene 4 scene 1 scene 2 scene 3 and then the extras.
This was because a lot of our scenes were based outside and therefore weather dependant. We also had to take into consideration the timetable of the girls , as they had revision and personally matters that may have propound our filming. The "extra bits" were bits that i included to give the opening more narrative enigma and signifiers through the opening they also helped the reader to understand clearly.

Filming Tyrannosaur Swede

Wednesdays shoot of tyrannosaur 

We change the traditional WARP from into a working title film by making the main actors posh and snobby dressing them in suits and dresses and drinking champagne.

Our first screen was to imagine a man shouting while walking out of a bookies , he then proceeds to walk down an alley and kill his dog. We copied this by having Will ( William ) walk out of a door near the gym that had an alley type pathway running down the side , we showed him walking out then talking to his butler and then kicking his dog killing it. 

The second shoot was the funeral of the dog. We filmed this on the front lawn of our school by an ache of willow that looked appropriate for the situation. We had 2 rows of 3 actors with will and his butler ( Thomas ) and a girl to his left and the priest was in front of him. As the priest said his peach will laughed which contrast with the real film as he was crying. 

The third scene showed will running into an app stores and diving under the table , the girl ( Niamh ) tries to help him and convinces him to come up from under the table , he then invited her out for dinner and she accepts his offer. 

When we first shot the scenes we had difficulties with filming because the areas we choose had limited lighting and it was noisy making the audio hard to hear. We solved these problems in the second attempt by making all the scenes in open out side areas that wouldn't be too loud.

We had three scene in which each group member had part to play and a role to fill while we filmed , we had 2 cinematographers , a director , a producer and actors. Before we started filming we all helped out to create call sheets , screenplays and sorry boards to help the process pf filming easier and quicker.  

I was responsible for the screenplays for all scenes , i also helped with filming and directing , i also acted in it as i was the blonde girl ( Niamh ). I then edited my own final cut . 

Production Script 

Scaife Studios and Brightness Studios 
Bradford, Ilkley
Tel: 07825241194
Email: scaifestudios@gmail.com
Brightnessstudios@gmail.com

Opening: Ident - production Company and titles

Starts with extreme long shot of new house - sign outside "sold" introducing the new girl (protagonist).

(Moves inside house)

Extreme close ups of the females getting ready - don't see all detail E.g Faces

(Showing the contrasting between stereotypical and counter typical females at a high school)

Throughout we are showing the title through props E.g makeup on the mirror - lipstick and cereal.

Film girls walking around the house and out the front door - learns they are neighbours - long shot can see their full body - comparison

Male walks past shouting "hey" at the stereotypical female, the counter typical then thinks he's waving at her - disheartened 

Opening ideas , pretty in pink opening analysis

Pretty in pink opening scene. 

Opening Weekend ; $6,065,870 (USA) (2 march 1986) (827 Screens)

Production Dates : 1985 

Filming Dates: 22 june 1985 - 12 october 1985

imdb

After the paramount ident we are the first title " paramount pictures presents " , the white sans serif font on the black background signifies a documentary style film. It is smart and sophisticated which could convey the type of it is soon to be.

The opening shot shows an extreme long shot of a wagon driving down the street of a run down dark not very well maintained neighbourhood. This is an automatic signifier to the type of lifestyle that the protaganist may live. 

After we are shown then wagon the camera pans around the area that the opening is set in. We are shown a rail way line that seems to be abandoned and unused and an uncared for 'field' which really just looks like concrete with occasional patches pf grass. The contrast between the title " pretty in pink " and the background image contrast immensely. The background id not pretty and is not pink , "pretty in pink " also makes you think of very proper upper class ladies that live in big houses in wealthy neighbourghoods , but the background could not be any more far from that. 

                           

After we are introduced to the protagonist through a sequence of extreme and close up shots . The shots show her getting ready for example getting dressed , putting jewellery on and putting makeup on. After around 15 extreme close up shots of her getting ready we are finally introduced to her along with the first dialogue in the opening scene. 

This shot is a medium shot showing our protagonist from the waist up. She is typically wearing all pink which links to the title " pretty in pink" . As she walks out of her bedroom she shouts " Dad its seven thirty". The act of her shouting her dad to get up and not the parent shows that she is responsible and that maybe she looks after her dad more than he looks after her. The use of dad and not parents also signifies that she only loves worth her dafd and that the mum is not present at this time in the film.

WE are shown the girl making coffee and the proceeding to here farther room where she wakes him up and begins tho talk to him. we see shot reverse shot of them engaging in conversation which is broken up by a long shot of the bedroom. The bedroom is also a signifier to the sort of person and the lifestyle that the protagonist lives. The bare coloured walls and chairs with clothes on shows a lack of money, and as we watch we learn that the daughter us persuading her farther to go take a full time job in contrast to the past time job her currently has. 

Top 10 Feminists films

A Question of Silence (1982)

The criteria for the films in this list are that they are fictional, made by women and feature female protagonists. Finally, all are made in the spirit of liberation. There are many notable films that provide stark and uncompromising images of women living under patriarchal law and male order, among them Barbara Loden’s Wanda (USA 1971) and Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975). I wanted, however, to focus on films that provide images of celebration rather than endurance. Films directed by men, in spite of there being some key titles, have been excluded as female filmmakers are too often absent from this type of list.

Availability for feminist classics is scarce. Feminist films are frequently ‘disappeared’ from film culture. Where, for example, are the films of Stephanie Rothman? Why can’t we get Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust (1991) on DVD?

Other filmmakers that should be mentioned in the context of feminist filmmaking are the Hollywood directors, who in the late 1970s and early 1980s were part of a new wave of feminist film, among them Joan Micklin Silver (Between the Lines, 1977), Claudia Weill(Girlfriends, 1978) and Susan Seidelman (Smithereens, 1982 and Desperately Seeking Susan, 1985).

The directors working in Britain today must also be acknowledged. Their films provide examples of interesting and often inspirational female characters. Filmmakers like Gurinder Chadha, Andrea Arnold and Carol Morley are in their own ways keeping the tradition alive.

The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928)

Director Germaine Dulac

The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928)

It is a generally unrecognised fact that women played a significant role in the development of filmmaking. Like the Suffragettes, whose marches are recorded on early 20th century newsreel, women were activists behind the camera as well.

Germaine Dulac was involved in the avant garde in Paris in the 1920s. Both The Smiling Madame Beudet (1922) and The Seashell and the Clergyman are important early examples of radical experimental feminist filmmaking, and provide an antidote to the art made by the surrealist brotherhood. The latter film, an interpretation of Anton Artaud’s book of the same name, is a visually imaginative critique of patriarchy – state and church – and of male sexuality. On its premiere, the surrealists greeted it with noisy derision, calling Dulac “une vache”.

The film features a central female character, who is deeply subversive and resists the power of the king and the desire of the priest. In one memorable sequence she holds aloft a burning bra – prefiguring a much later activism! The film was banned by the British Board of Film Censors in 1927, who wrote: “this film is so cryptic as to be almost meaningless. If there is a meaning, it is doubtless objectionable.”

Marianne and Juliane (1981)

Director Margarethe von Trotta

Marianne and Juliane (1981)

Margarethe von Trotta started making films as part of the New German Cinema wave in the 1970s, that typically dealt with the repression of the state. Her early films explored the psychology of relationships between women, often sisters or very close friends. In Marianne and Juliane (aka The German Sisters) von Trotta explores the twin themes of state repression and family guilt.

The film is loosely based on real-life sisters Christiane and Gudrun Ensslin – the latter a key member of the Red Army Faction. The film documents in a series of flashbacks the childhood and the changing bond between the two women, one a journalist, the other a street fighter. Von Trotta’s film provides a unique female perspective on a violent period in West Germany’s postwar history, as well as representing the contribution of female militancy.

A Question of Silence (1982)

Director Marleen Gorris

A Question of Silence (1982)

The premise of this Dutch radical feminist film is that men and women inhabit different universes. It is a female conspiracy film built around a central incident in which three women, a mute housewife, a garrulous cafe worker and a business secretary, unite to batter a male shop assistant to death.

While the women await trial, a female psychiatrist is employed to assess their sanity. The film charts the psychiatrist’s gradual journey from complete incomprehension to knowing identification with the three defendants. In the film’s denouement, which takes place in court, the psychiatrist, the female witnesses and the defendants themselves, spontaneously join together in hysterical laughter, which results in them being ordered out of the courtroom. As they are led out of court still laughing manically, representatives of the male judiciary look on bewildered. At the time of its release, audiences were similarly divided along gender lines: women understood it, men hated it!

Born in Flames (1983)

Director Lizzie Borden

Born in Flames (1983)

Made on a shoestring budget, Lizzie Borden’s film weaves a loose and freewheeling narrative that incorporates home movies of local demos and pickets, video reconstruction and TV newsreels, to provide a heady flavour of activism in a futurist New York City. This patchwork of low budget footage, matched with the pumping soundtrack coming from women’s pirate radio stations, and the fact that the cast are mostly non-actors, gives the film a raw edge, as we follow a diverse range of female characters all struggling to survive.

When Adelaide Norris, a black lesbian feminist and trade unionist, dies in police custody, the women, individually and in groups, get together to fight back against state oppression. Their organisations and the creativity of their militancy is at the heart of the film’s concerns, as it pays tribute to the pivotal contribution of women of colour in the political struggle: “Black women, be ready. White women, get ready. Red women, stay ready.”

The Gold Diggers (1983)

Director Sally Potter

The Gold Diggers (1983)

Sally Potter’s film mixes a range of genres including the avant-garde, arthouse and agitprop in a rigorous look at the power of patriarchy and the relationship between capitalist economics and women as icons and exchange objects. The film is also concerned with the power of the image, mediated through an examination of cinema itself – its history and its ideological power.

The film was shot in stunning high contrast black and white and filmed on location in Iceland. Its stark images reference moments from early cinema, such as the silent shorts of D.W. Griffiths and the Hollywood musical Gold Diggers of 1933, from which it derives its name. Additionally the film incorporates aspects of feminist film theory, including notions of the male gaze. The relationship between the two female protagonists, one black and the other white, highlights the complex relationship between gender and race, which in turn throws into relief the relationship between capitalism and colonialism.

The film is notable for its all-female crew. The three screenwriters, Sally Potter, Rose English and Lindsay Cooper, were also responsible for the artistic elements – dance, art design and music, respectively.

Vagabond (1985)

Director Agnès Varda

Vagabond (1985)

The frozen body of a young woman is discovered in a ditch in the middle of the French countryside. This opening enigma introduces an investigative narrative that presents a series of vignettes – flashbacks of people during their encounters with the young woman, Mona (Sandrine Bonnaire), in the last few weeks of her life. Shot in a sparse rural landscape, the film explores people’s attitudes towards a vagrant who is female. From most of the men she experiences sexism, whereas the women are generally more sympathetic. Some characters actually envy her freedom.

Varda’s films always feature strong women, but in creating a female character who chooses to live outside society, she has produced her most revolutionary character. Mona’s role actually represents gender trespass, because the kind of freedom she claims is only ever the province of the male. In this radical reversal, the traditional image of the female is liberated from the patriarchal order.

The Company of Strangers (1990)

Director Cynthia Scott

The Company of Strangers (1990)

This film uses the true-life stories of its all-female cast to construct its narrative, which revolves around a group of senior citizens thrown together for a coach trip. When their coach breaks down in the middle of the Quebec countryside, they are forced to get to know one another and work together in order to survive. The women are all over 70, apart from the younger black coach driver, and come from an assortment of cultures and backgrounds, including a Native American woman, a middle-class widow, an out lesbian and a nun. Discussions between them, many of which are improvised and based on the actors’ own experiences, deal with issues such as ageing, racism, celibacy, love and marriage.

The spirit of the women, who endure exhaustion, extreme heat and hunger, is truly inspirational. This is a feel-good movie that focuses on a female group sorely neglected in cinema – namely, older women.

The Watermelon Woman (1996)

Director Cheryl Dunye

The Watermelon Woman (1996)

Like Cheryl Dunye’s previous shorts, The Watermelon Woman is a combination of real-life and fictional recreation, with some of the characters, like Cheryl and her mother, playing themselves and others acting. Her term for this original genre is ‘Dunyementary’.

The narrative typically revolves around Cheryl, the filmmaker, who is on a quest to find the mythical black female character she has seen in films made in the 1930s, (the so-called Watermelon Woman). Cheryl gradually uncovers the presence of a number of African American Hollywood actors, hidden from history (some of whom the film constructs, some of whom are authentic).

The film is both personal, about Cheryl, and political, about the lives and contribution of black people to cinema. The merging of the real and the imagined, the mixing of persona and performance, the combination of genuine archival material and recreated archival footage all function to throw into relief the philosophical problem of representing the real, and the political importance of reconstructing a history that has been neglected.

The Day I Became a Woman (2000)

Director Marzieh Meshkini

The Day I Became a Woman (2000)

Marzieh Meshkini is one of a number of women directors working in contemporary Iranian cinema. The film is structured in three episodes and each segment tells the story of a female at a different stage of her life. First, Hava, who is approaching her ninth birthday – traditionally the moment she must leave childhood behind and stop playing with boys. The second, Ahoo, is a young wife who is a contestant in a woman’s bicycle race, against her family’s wishes. Finally, Hoora is an old woman who goes on the ultimate shopping spree to buy all the things she has never had. Each vignette shows the disappointment and thwarted desire that women experience.

The setting of Kish, an island in the Persian Gulf, with its vast stretches of sand, provides the film with its visual impact. The imagery in the second and third episodes becomes surreal. The young woman on a bicycle, one among hundreds of women clad from head to toe in black, speeding along the coastal road in an empty countryside, with her husband’s family galloping after her on horseback, is unforgettable, as is the image of the old woman with her purchases – the entire contents of a new home, floating on a raft out to sea.

The Headless Woman (2008)

Director Lucrecia Martel

The Headless Woman (2008)

On one level this is the story of a middle-aged, middle-class woman, who has a car accident, suffers concussion, and later worries that she has hit, maybe even killed a young boy. On another level it is a political parable, dealing with the question of the ‘disappeared’: the thousands of trade unionists, activists and left-wing students who went missing under Argentina’s 1970s dictatorship.

The film is structured so that the audience shares the confusion and frustration of the central character, Vero (María Onetto). Her husband, realising that she may be responsible for the death of an indigenous boy, covers up the evidence, leaving her in the dark. The film links the disempowered position of women within the family to that of racism within the society.

Much of the action is filmed through glass, or in the rain, or slightly out of frame, keeping the audience, like Vero, in the dark. The film systematically withholds evidence – the audience, like the central character, never finally knows for sure what has happened. As with the disappearance of evidence in the case of those murdered during the dictatorship, truth can only be grasped by piecing together what remains in the form of traces and half-truths. This is all Vero is left with, but in the process of trying to uncover what she has done, she finally comes to an understanding of the mechanisms of power and control in the world.