Brief for my film trailer for ''Bound.''

Annie Forrest is a 15 year old girl, she has long dark hair and bright blue eyes. A very pretty girl, with very little confidence. She lives with her widowed mother. The two don't get on very well. Annie is a bit of a tearaway, she likes to go out with her friends and she usually doesn't stop to ask permission. Annie's mother just wants the best for her, like any parent, but Annie takes this for granted. Annie reacts to being bullied at school with anger and is often in trouble.

For her birthday, Annie is given a laptop. Now Annie can use the internet in the privacy of her own bedroom. Since Annie doesn't have many friends at school she very quickly, like many others, turns to making friends in internet chat rooms. One evening, when Annie is in a chat room, she is approached by a boy who's screen-name is 6thformboyChris. In his pictures he is a tanned young man, with dark hair and dark eyes to match. He comes across very caring, always in tune with how Annie feels and checking up on her. They talk on private chat until the early hours of the morning and at the end of the convosation, exchange email addresses so they can keep in touch.

The next day, Annie tells her friend Jenna that she has met Chris. Jenna is initially weary, but over the coming weeks she comes to realise how much happier Annie is, as if Chris is keeping her on the straight and narrow. So, she keeps her thoughts to herself.

Eventually, Chris begins to send Annie pictures of him. Playing football, hanging out with his friends. And so, Annie does the same. They talk about everything and Annie feels as if she's finally met someone who understands her and truely has the time for her.

But, when Chris asks for pictures of Annie in her underwear, Annie is weary. She again confides in her friend Jenna as she feels that her mother would take her laptop away and she'd never be able to speak to Chris again. Jenna tells Annie that she thinks that it's a bad idea and once a picture is sent you can't get it back. However, that night, Chris tells Annie that he loves her, and as she spiralls into a love for him she sends him the pictures. He tells her that she is ''so beautiful'' and she feels like the luckiest girl in the world.

Annie's mother notices a change and asks Annie if she has met anyone. Annie tells her mother about Chris, but not about the pictures. Annie's mother begins to check on Annie more and more compelling her to shield away from her mother even more. Annie's mother is an anxious woman, she questions everything Annie says and rightly so considering Annie's mother is never aware of who she is.

But when Annie arranges to meet Chris in real life, he is not what he at first seemed. He is a small, brutish man with small eyes and salt and pepper hair. His voice isn't soft and nor are his hands and his eyes burn into you, you can just feel them staring at you. It wasn't easy to say no to him and I doubt that anyone ever has. He had been married and has children of his own. He'd never done something like this before, but the idea of spending the afternoon with a beautiful young girl was too much to resist. Chris has always enjoyed child pornography and had one conviction based on his collection. He was not charged. He's a very lonely man and his isolation from personal relationships has forced everyone out of his life. Chris has Annie wrapped around his little finger and after a small amount of persuasion Annie agrees to join Chris in the room he has booked for the both of them. The elevator closes.

When Annie returns home, she isn't sad, she is angry. Her mother notices her anger and asks her what's wrong but Annie simply coops her self up in her bedroom and spends more and more time asleep. Jenna, Annie's caring best friend who always gives the best advice, comes round for Annie. Annie lets her know everything, and Jenna suggests that they get a day out, Just them, to come to terms with everything. Annie doesn't feel as if she was raped, she gave into him and until she met him she wanted it just as much as he did.

When Annie and Jenna are out, Chris walks round the corner as an instinct Annie and Jenna run. But, maybe, they should have just stayed still... Because avoiding the truth has devastating consequences.

Initial location planning

Because Annie and her family are middle class, I need to find middle class locations - apartment blocks etc. to produce a reiki for my trailer. I will need both a young boys and a young girls bedroom which is easily accessible to me because of my age and I have many friends who would be willing to lend me their bedroom for an hour or so to complete the scenes that need to be shot in these locations.

I also plan to have a pier as I want Annie to be from Herne Bay, in Kent. The reason I wish for Annie and her family to be from a sea-side town is because I feel that the seaside is a very macabre place, many bad things could happen. I wish for many small aspects of my trailer to hint at the impending tragedy of my trailer.

I also plan to call a hotel and use a corridor and room. I will hopefully be able to use the Chaucer Hotel in Canterbury so that these shots can be completed ahead of time to the shots in Herne Bay - which may take longer and keeping the hotel in Canterbury helps me to go back if I need to re-shoot.

I have looked into locations that are commonly used in Social Realist films such as Trainspotting, This is England, Fish Tank, Shifty and Ken Loach film's such as ''Poor Cow''. Social Realist film's tend to use every-day locations such as schools, housing estates etc. in order to be as true to life as possible.  

Primary Research.

I asked a few people if they would be comfortable with answering a few questions for me about their experience in online chat-rooms/online dating.

Question 1 - Have you ever met anyone in an online chat-room/online dating website?

Question 2 - Have you ever proceeded to meet one of these people you have met in person?

Question 3 - If you answered yes to question 2, how was your experience? Did the person turn out to be someone different or who they said they were?

Because the semi-interview's were one on one I feel it helped them to open up more than they would have. After answering the questions - they tended to elaborate on their experience. It seemed as if they almost needed to justify their actions at the time they met a person from the internet in real life.

I found that most people I asked had at least met someone in an online chat room  if not met them in real life. The general response to question 3 was that the person was who they said they were. However, for one person it was a case of personality difference rather than physical. When meeting the person from online, the interviewee suggested that the online acquaintance became physically and orally violent. The interviewee feared for their safety and fled. When returning home that night, the interviewee de-activated their online dating profile and has not used it since.

I think that the answers I received to these questions point me in the direction that many people do turn to online dating in a bid to meet someone when they think they can't meet anyone in real life. For teenagers, it seems as if the internet is a wall to hide behind and to meet people who feel the same as them - to have someone to confide in.

This research is Qualitative. Qualitative methods are ways of collecting data that focus on the meanings and feelings of the respondent. Qualitative methods tend to be high in validity, this means they are true to life. I decided to use qualitative methods as I feel it is better to build a rapport with your interviewee and make them feel more comfortable. 

Secondary Research.

My Topic - Internet Predators.

An American study conducted by The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children funded a study by the Crimes Against Children Research Center in 2006 of youth Internet users over a five-year period. They found:

• An increase in encountering unwanted exposures to sexual material (from 25% to 34%).
• An increase in cases of online harassment (from 6% to 9%).
• A decrease in those receiving unwanted sexual solicitations (from 19% to 13%).
• 40% of all youth Internet users said online solicitors asked them for nude or sexually explicit photographs of themselves.
• Only a minority of youth who had unwanted sexual solicitations, unwanted exposures to sexual material, or harassment said they were distressed by the incidents.
• One-third of the solicitations (31%) were aggressive, meaning the solicitors made, or attempted, offline contact with youth.

I found these statistics at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_predator.

Organizations such as CEOP highlight the issues of anonymity on-line and the effects of this. The CEOP website has many videos and documentaries of real life stories of victims of cyber bullying and internet predators. 
You can read more into the organization and find videos linked to these topics at - http://ceop.police.uk/.

Research into Social Realist genre.

I first decided to watch several social realist film trailers in order to gain a better understanding of their forms and conventions.

Here, is the film trailer for ''Trainspotting'' a 1996 social realist film directed by Danny Boyle about the lives of heroin addicts in Edinburgh.

 

This is the film trailer for ''Fish Tank'' a 2009 film directed by Andrea Arnold, about a 15 year old girl, growing up in a council estate and having to deal with her mothers string of boyfriends.

 

And this is the film trailer for ''Junkhearts'' a 2011 film directed by Tinge Krishnan about the relationship between an ex-soldier named Frank and a young single mother who immerses herself in the party scene.

 

 

All three of these films highlight topical issues happening in society today. Trainspotting gained fame for it's soundtrack, which resinated heavily with the youth at the time. I feel that this would help for my film too, as I wish to appeal to a younger audience and so should cater to their music tastes.



Initial Planning and Ideas

The type of film we are focusing on is Social Realism. Social Realism is a genre that focuses on topical issues happening in society today. For instance, political or social. In order to create a social realist trailer, I needed to decide on topic to research and produce a film trailer about. Social realist trailers generally consist of topical issues happening in society today such as domestic abuse, politics etc. For example, films such as Shifty, Poor Cow and Fish Tank.

Initially, I created mind-maps of what types of issues I would like to base my film trailer on. I thought of as many as possible such as the issues of animal cruelty, bullying, internet predators, dog fighting etc.
I chose to go with the topic of internet predators as I feel that this is an issue which is for the most part ignored in the media and am interested in the topic due to my watching of television programmes like Dateline NBC's ''To Catch a Predator'' and MTV's ''Catfish: The TV Show''. Both of these programmes deal with issues with online relationships and though Catfish is not about sexual predators, it is about people who disguise their true identities and make friends/relationships in online chatrooms.

I decided to perform some secondary research, that being looking for research already conducted by others to educate myself on the nature of these crimes. I have found many blog posts with the help of google, such as this website - http://www.katiecouric.com/on-the-show/2012/10/10/online-predators/ - which highlights the way in which predators work when they approach children on the internet. It seems to me as if many predators gain the trust of their victims, giving them compliments and seeming to be entirely in tune with how they are feeling. When triangulating - this means cross-referencing - my research, alot of the stories I read and heard had similar patterns. They tend to prey on young, vulnerable girls and through conversation the get to know about any problems the girls/boys are suffering and play on these.

It interests me now to go out and do some primary research, perhaps in the form of a questionnaire, to ask people if they have ever spoken to people they don't know online.

UNIT G324

Trailer for a Social Realist Film

A promotion package for a new film from the social realist genre, to include a trailer, together withtwo of the following three options:

• a website homepage for the film
• a film magazine front cover, featuring the film
• a poster for the film

You will be marked on :

Research
Construction
Evaluation

You must show evidence of storyboarding, drafts for print materials, location research, design research, casting process outlining reasons for choices, shooting schedules, risk assessments, treatment or brief.