"Dislocation" Horror/Thriller Film: An (Almost Completed) Evaluation.

Like the documentary, even though the process isn't exactly over, I wanted to write about my experience and what I have learned throughout.

Hearing Andy's idea from the start was interesting: it wasn't something I completely understood at first but I think if you understand something the first time, it doesn't give you time for it to grow on you and develop into something much more. I was surprised but happy when Andy asked me to be his producer, he trusted me to help him carry his project from beginning to end which was quite a big responsibility but it helped my confidence massively because I had done a number of things that I hadn't done before, in quite this capacity. I organized meetings with the crew, I posted the advertisement online and communicated with a large amount of people about auditioning and in this, I set up auditions giving the actors the time and a place to turn up and audition for us. We had over twenty people email us altogether and had around eight people turn up for auditions, which anyone else would think was quite poor but when you get people telling you they will be at the audition, not many decide to show up, so eight was a large number for us and Andy and I were very impressed with everyone that came.

Andy is a very creative guy so when he came to me with his pitch idea (which I have written about before), I was over the moon because it was so fantastic. Again, like my documentary, we were going for a pitch that would stand out and would be memorable, and we achieved that. Everyone knows "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" and I feel because we did a pitch that was out there, that gave our tutor the confidence that we would pull off this film off. If we were able to make the pitch fun, our idea for the film would blossom just as the pitch did too.

Our shooting days went well in my opinion. The first day we did run out of battery which wasn't the best thing to happen and we didn't end up shooting as much as we wanted that day. It was my responsibility to make sure we had at least two batteries and I didn't deliver on the first day but before we went to shoot on the second day, I went to our college technician to pick up another battery to be on the safe side, and while we missed out on a few shots towards the end of the day, another battery would have been good, but we thought two batteries would have been good enough. The shots we did get on the first day however, were great thanks to our camera man who specializes in getting beautiful shots. All the actors got on great, and cast and crew got on well too. There was a lot of standing about on the second day for a few of the actors so I made sure I was with them for the majority of the time (when I wasn't doing sound) just to be there and make sure they weren't on their own, but there was always someone talking to someone, so the waiting around didn't seem like too long.

This was my first true experience of being a producer and taking control on certain aspects, it was scary and out of my comfort zone but looking back, I'm glad I done it because it's given me the confidence to do more things like this. When Andy and Conor tried to get the contact information for the man that owned the house that we wanted to shoot in, I finally got through the man's wife the next day and I tried to explain to her what we wanted to do. This meant explaining the situation a number of times, she didn't seem suspicious of us but I would have felt a little strange if I got a random phone call out of the blue from students wanting to film in my other property too. She gave us her husband's mobile number and I explained who we were, where we were from, what we were doing and what we wanted to do and he was completely fine with it. He came up to see us filming along with his wife and they were totally at ease with the situation because they could see we were doing no harm and I made sure to let them know that we wouldn't be there too long and we would clean up and obviously be respectful of the property. I'm usually the person standing behind the person giving other people information, just there as a backup so to be the person asking to use this place and reassuring this couple, was a big step for me.

Being producer, sometimes you do have to balance on a fine line and some may think I have crossed this line when communication with the camera man had almost been cut completely. We couldn't get through to him, no number of Facebook messages, text messages or phone calls we made to him where going to get him into class. I had asked for a shot list weeks before we shot, and still on this very day, I do not have one. I understand that everyone works differently and sometimes people don't use them, but when you're on someone else's production and you are asked to make a shot list and give it to the producer even just for the production folder, I don't think it's too much to ask and should been done because it will help both the director and producer, in this case. I have had to send a few messages over Facebook to the camera man to get him to send me this list but it still hasn't appeared. It may not seem like a big deal but I asked him to do a job and not a particularly large one at that, it still wasn't done. The same can be said for the edit and when I sent another message about the edit, we were told by the camera man that he wasn't editing and why did the director think this, even though Andy has proof that he would do a rough cut for him. There was a brief deadline for the rough cut last week and Conor did not deliver, or even come in to explain. I understand completely that he has his own film to do; if I didn't understand, I would have to be very unreasonable, and I'm not. But to completely not reply to us both, then tell us when the director isn't in the country that he didn't know he was doing that, I personally think is unreasonable. I would rather that he had told us that he couldn't do it because he had too much on his plate or he didn't want to, rather than leave us in the lurch and only give us information when we had to badger him for it. It is my job to get information out of both my cast and crew and I don't think Andy or I were unreasonable, but we have both learnt a valuable reason from this experience.


Overall, like my documentary, this has also been an exciting but stressful experience but I am quite happy with how this production went, despite the problems. We had the majority of our actors nailed down quite early and we only had to get one person last minute but she turned out great. We had been organized from the start with sending out the advertisements online, sending scripts out, setting up casting calls and talking with the actors throughout the pre and actual filming process. The footage that Conor shot was fantastic, and that's why Andy chose him because he is so good at cinematography and bringing the right tone and visuals on screen. Andy knew what he wanted from the start and sometimes things just happen; most of the time you yourself can't control them and that's how the film and television industry works, so I don't believe that the things went wrong could have been controlled 100% but I'm very happy with how Andy held the production together. He didn't lose his cool, he has kept a calm and cool mind throughout even if he did feel frustrated at times, it is a real testament to how he works and I would happily work with him again.

The Darjeeling Limited.

After "Hotel Chevalier", we researched further into the short film and the next week we watched "The Darjeeling Limited", the film leading on from HC.

It follows the story of three brothers; Peter, Francis and Jack and their journey to find their mother to find out why she didn't attend their father's funeral. It ends up becoming a spiritual journey for all three of them unexpectedly and we discover how each character is dislocated in his own way.

Peter is expecting a baby back home (But he only told Jack this information) and he didn't tell his wife that he was going on the trip before he left. As the story progresses, you can see him worry more and stress about what will happen when he comes home.

Francis has bandages on his head for a majority of the film and we come to understand that he was in a motorcycle accident. He later on says the accident happened on purpose which made me believe that he was trying to kill himself. 

Jack (who was the character that appeared in Hotel Chevalier) is obsessing over his ex-girlfriend (who also appeared in HC) and to try and take away this pain, he sleeps with the stewardess on the train.

The characters are very dislocated within themselves, they think they know what they want but when they look at each other, they can see that no-one knows what they want or how to fix it. They go to India in search of their mother who they have always been very distant from, and they simply think they are going to jump on a train and see her, but like every film, things aren't as simple as you plan them. The film comes with twists and turns, and with each twist, the characters start to question what they are doing with their lives.

(to be updated)

Hotel Chevalier.

In class, we watched "Hotel Chevalier" and "The Darjeeling Limited", both written and directed by Wes Anderson.

Starting off with "Hotel Chevalier", this is a short film shown before "The Darjeeling Limited" as a lead in to the film. As someone who didn't know either of these characters, I feel like it was very dislocated from the beginning. Wes Anderson is known for being very arty and in my opinion, he used this to push the art and not focus so much on the story. If you didn't do research into the film afterwards, you may be confused about what the relationship between the two characters is. You can take the film two ways:

• You can take it as a slow short film to start off with but then becomes very rushed that brings two characters together that have been very disconnected and by the end of the film, they will always end up regretting sleeping together.
• You can see the art of the two characters being divided by their feelings for each other, you sit and try and figure out their relationship and are unsure where they both stand with their feelings towards each other.

I drew two theories (before further research):

• They are two best friends who sleep together on a regular basis but they always seem to regret it the next morning.
• They had been in a relationship before and are currently off/on and both don't know what's going on between them but they have sex anyway and hope their feelings work out.

Wes Anderson is also known for using a lot of yellow throughout his films and "Hotel Chevalier" is no exception. Even from the screenshot above, there is a large amount of yellow on screen and this adds to 'the arty factor' I spoke about earlier.

Once you watch "The Darjeeling Limited" you come to find out that the woman had in fact been Jack's girlfriend and they weren't together anymore.

I think it's the perfect example of 'dislocation' and I'm glad we got shown this piece of film. I wouldn't necessarily say I loved it but I watched it about three or four times and thoroughly enjoyed it. I liked the mystery of what their relationship was and as I done more research each time, some of the lines they were saying to each other made more sense each time and all started to make sense once I found out that they had, in fact, been in a relationship before.

Fictional Reality Twist Proposal

Original Thought (Initial Ideas)

A story about a young woman around sixteen years old talking to a friend or a therapist (adding a therapist could make this story cliche however) about what she's been going through lately. She's fallen out with one of her best friends, she's falling behind in school, she's fighting with her parents, she's just broken up with her boyfriend. As she explains what's been going on, she says how if she was a character in a TV show, it would be so much easier because things on TV are always easier. She then turns into a character on her own reality show and she discovers the real pit falls of some of her favourite shows, and tries to hide away from her problems. The cameras pointing in her face, the sound mics always been hooked up, the director forcing her to face people she doesn't want to; all these problems make her face the real problems she's had to deal with lately.

Characters (Names, Descriptions, Personal Profile, Sketches)

Young woman: sixteen years old, appearance and name hasn't been decided yet, dresses like a normal teenager girl coming into her own. She's had a lot going on in her life so I want to give the impression that she hasn't been sleeping and she's been worrying a lot.

Director: man aged between thirty and forty, stubborn, bossy, wants everything his way. Forces the unnamed teenage girl to call her ex-boyfriend, call her best friend that she's just fought with, even though she doesn't want to. He wants the entertainment and isn't concerned about how she feels.

Friend/Therapist: age unknown at this point, friendly, understanding, good listener, doesn't really say much throughout the story.

Best Friend (who she fought with): very much like the main character, she's been going through a lot but decided not to tell anyone. This comes out and the main character then realizes that she didn't understand why her friend was acting so weird but now she knows and understands, but she's going through the same thing.

Ex Boyfriend: We don't see him on screen, he just hear him on the phone, he doesn't sound like an unreasonable guy, he's a little older than her, she was giving him mixed signals and he didn't want to do that anymore.

Story (Start, Middle, End or Conflict and Resolution, or what happens to whom and what's the result. If a poetic idea, then talk about theme and emotion.)

(This is my first initial idea that I wrote in my notebook. I haven't fleshed out a middle or an ending yet)

• A girl is talking to a therapist or a friend about everything that's going on in her life, she says "my life's like a TV show" and says how everything on TV looks/sounds so much easier. As she puts her head into her hands, she sighs. She lifts her head up to see a camera has replaced the person she was talking to. It's clear that she's on her own reality show; she's been asked to adjust her mic, someone has come in to fix her hair; she walks out of the room to the director and he tells her that she needs to go home and ring the friend that she had had a falling out with a few days before.
• The end of the story comes when the girl walks into the original room complaining about what she's been through with the director; constant cameras etc. and she's asked by the camera person (who has now turned into the original therapist/friend she was talking to) "TV's harder than it looks isn't it?" She answers with a line saying yes and puts her head into her hands. She lifts her head up again and the cameras, scripts, sound mics, are gone' the therapist/friend then says something inspirational like "Now let's take this one step at a time. Soren Kierkegaard once said that 'life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced'."

Genre

I want this to be in the comedy drama genre. I don't want to say it will be completely dramatic because I feel like I would be limited in where I could go with the story if it is just drama, but if I'm able to add little comedic effects to it, the audience could connect with it more.

Audience (Who are they?)

I want my audience to be a range of people. I want to attract young people who are interested in reality shows like Keeping Up With The Kardashians, The Hills etc. and show them parts of the reality world that they may not seen or may not be aware of. I also want to attract people who themselves are going through things in their lives, and feel like they have had new problems hit them  to realize how to fix their original problems.

Why you think this is a good idea (Interest to audience, ease of production, simplicity of idea)

This reality twist on a fiction is a good idea in my eyes because it gives you the best of both worlds. It's not exactly a documentary but it has elements of documentary and things being staged as well as it being a fictional story too. For the production, I will need quite a few cast members and just as many crew members; which sound daunting but if I am able to flesh out the story and make it exactly how I see it in my head, I think it could be an interesting experience for everyone because we will be doing two formats (fiction and technically behind the scenes of a documentary style show).

Second Idea: Fictional Reality.

Although not that many people like to admit it, I'm one of those people who watches reality shows. I don't watch the British ones, mainly because I find them over the top which is strange because the American versions are just as bad. I think it's because our generation especially, are so used to watching American programming that we don't see the cringe and the over dramatics as much like we would the British version.

In my spider diagram, I had a few categories connecting to my second idea. I had entertainment linked with TV to start off with. I'm a big television person; I haven't got around to watching the big shows like Game of Thrones, House, House of Cards or Orange is the New Black yet, because there isn't enough hours in the day. I am however a massive fan of shows like The Office (The American version, not the British) and Parks and Recreation, to name two that I thought of as soon as I first came up with this idea. Both shows are mockumentaries, following characters around their daily lives; one being a parks department and the other being an office environment. They both have 'talking heads', where a character will sit or stand in a room and talk to the camera directly and I wanted something similar to this for my second idea.

Another aspect taken from the world of television was the thought of reality shows. There have been numerous reports of former reality stars like Lauren Conrad for example who came out against "The Hills" (One of two reality shows she had been on) and said that the show was in fact for the most part set up. Phonecalls were set up, if you got in a fight with someone, that person would then be at the same restaurant a few days later and you weren't made aware until they came up to your table, meaning the camera could catch your first reaction, whether you wanted the person there or not. There has always been a lot of spectulation about these types of shows and of course, we all know that they're not real, but how much of your actual life is ACTUALLY on these shows? I wanted to use this as a fake behind the scenes of this type of thing and show the audience that it can be just as fake as a fictional show.

Going back to the spider diagram, I wanted to include 'trapped' and 'emotional' in the story too because this girl feels trapped in her own life which is why she is opening up to someone but then she suddenly gets trapped her own reality and doesn't know why. So I want the story to be fictional but with a reality aspect. Below are notes that I wrote down when I first initially thought of the idea to give you more of the story itself (because I hadn't exactly explained that yet):

• A girl is talking to a therapist or a friend about everything that's going on in her life, she says "my life's like a TV show" and says how everything on TV looks/sounds so much easier. As she puts her head into her hands, she sighs. She lifts her head up to see a camera has replaced the person she was talking to. It's clear that she's on her own reality show; she's been asked to adjust her mic, someone has come in to fix her hair; she walks out of the room to the director and he tells her that she needs to go home and ring the friend that she had had a falling out with a few days before.
• The end of the story comes when the girl walks into the original room complaining about what she's been through with the director; constant cameras etc. and she's asked by the camera person (who has now turned into the original therapist/friend she was talking to) "TV's harder than it looks isn't it?" She answers with a line saying yes and puts her head into her hands. She lifts her head up again and the cameras, scripts, sound mics, are gone' the therapist/friend then says something inspirational like "Now let's take this one step at a time. Soren Kierkegaard once said that 'life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced'."

I understand that this story has a few points that I need to address first. It could be very cliched and there is only a small possibility that that could work in my favour. I am also aware that the ending needs to be worked on; she needs to breakdown, or have something happen to make her realize that she needs to be happy within herself and find a way to do that, so that's why she gets taken back to her 'old life' essentially. This is still a very basic idea, but I'm hoping over the next few days I can flesh it out and even if I don't get to make this, I still think I will keep it in my notebook for future reference.

Even though I can see a few problems with the idea, it fits into the theme of 'dislocation' quite nicely. The girl is stuck in her own problems, and she feels dislocated so to help her fix her old problems, she has to face new problems with the cameras being stuck in her face and being told to see people that she doesn't want to. As she does these things, she learns that she's not the only one going through this situation.