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Stuck - draft

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL6MKRVED_w

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Snowpiercer Analysis

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Dystopia’s

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Poster Cards

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Web Page

https://sophiekotykklaasje.wixsite.com/stuck

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Critical Reflection

• How do your products represent social groups or issues?

My short film aims to touch on the topics of mental health. I felt that it is an important thing to discuss and has become something that many people are experiencing much more during this pandemic than ever before. However, I wanted to place myself in the position of someone who already deals with extreme mental health issues and try to portray what they might have felt at the time of the pandemic. I didn’t intend on making this a negative representation but I still wanted to go in the direction of horror. So, in turn our character is shown having illusions because the lockdown sent her schedule into a downwards spiral. • How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?

My website is a form of branding, as it is advertising the short film for a short film festival. It has the intention to get people to support my project and help me win this fictional award. My website shows behind the scenes of the production and things about our cast as a form of promotion of the short film. I wanted the site to capture the themes of ‘Stuck’ so I repeat the use of colours that I did for it as well to create a greater relation between the two. These colours are very important to the story, which is why I use them again for the postcards. I made three, each representing one color and one emotion. The postcards also create a sense of branding since those postcards are what would be spread in order to attract an audience.  • How do your products engage with the audience?

I intended to try and use multiple different story telling features that I have learned in the past year for this short film project. These include breaking the fourth wall which is a feature of contemporary media that I find interesting and know an audience would feel attracted to as well. The use of colour was also intended to provoke interest and to make the watcher feel certain emotions. The yellow I used is supposed to give a dizzy/sick feeling. The red is used to portray fear. The blue is supposed to represent tranquility. Another thing that would attract my audience would possibly be the topics. Mental illness. Nowadays, people are more curious about the mind and how it works. We are also more open about talking about our mental health. It’s become less of a taboo. Another thing that may attract the audience is relatability. Whether or not they have extreme mental health issues they can still relate to the feelings that the character is experiences because the pandemic is something we all had to go through and still causes us stress to this day. • How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

I did research on different forms of mental illness because I wanted to be as well informed on the topic as possible. I researched how to use the fourth wall and incorporated it into my work as well as I could (want to improve). The conventions I challenge are the standard conventions of horror that state that the features of horror entail darkness, dim lighting and shadows. Instead I chose to portray this genre with bright colours. 

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Who said terror couldn’t be colourful?

There is yet another convention I wish to take an attempt at breaking. Who said that horror = an absence of light? Because, in my opinion seeing horrible things occur under a bright light where you can see absolutely every terrifying detail would make things all the more scary. Donn’t get me wrong I understand why that convention exists (because the inability to see clearly creates intrigue and increases the suspense), but I believe that it would be a cool way to deceive your audience. If they see bright colours they may think it’s a comedy or will have a sort of happy out come so this will lead to them lowering their guard. Then when something frightening happens they will be way more shocked. 

So...

Or?

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Idea 4 - stuck

I wanted to start experimenting with the fourth-wall for this short film. I’ve seen this being used in media texts fairly often lately and wanted to attempt this as well. The story I want to tell is of someone who feels trapped because of the circumstances she finds herself in. In the early days of the pandemic we all had mixed feelings but the main character of this story already finds herself trapped inside her mind and being trapped in a house definitely enhances that overbearing feeling. You can only imagine how someone with a mental handicap would have responded. I want to do this because I feel like it’s something we haven’t spoken about enough. 

I want to use colours to express certain emotions. One thing that occurred to me is that she should constantly be seeking the colour blue and bodies of water because water expresses cleansing and a certain tone of blue represents calm and tranquility.

Sulfur Yellow is the colour that represents pain, anger, a lack of peace and illness. So, I thought this would be a great colour to use for her character. It will be used for her clothing and overall the colours that surround her in general.

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Update

The past 2 weeks I’d been kept in confinement due to my pulmonary issues that have been a lasting problem ever since my pneumonia last year. To avoid hospitalization it was decided that I would just stay home for my recovery. In order to get any further advice from a doctor I first had to take a COVID-19 test, which as a result meant I had to stay home for 10 days. So, my idea for my coursework became quite difficult for me to do because first of all I was very ill and in a lot of pain and I wasn’t allowed to leave the house. Because of this I developed a new idea that I will write about in another idea post

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Jordan Peele’s Advice on writing thrillers

“The power of story is one of the few ways we can build empathy” “Built into the idea of story is the idea that you have a protagonist, when you have a protagonist the whole trick that all of us are trying to do is bring the audience into that protagonists eyes” “A good crafted story is one of the few ways we can not tell somebody to feel for somebody else but make them feel because they are experiencing it through entertainment” “That sort of dance between showing something weird and over the top and then showing how easily it can be placed with how weird reality is” “You just have to be very conscious of what the audience feels, of what the audience knows, what the audience thinks is going to happen” “Part of the reason the thriller genre, to me, is so alluring is because you’re almost not doing it right if you’re not pushing the boundaries of good taste and darkness”

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IDEA 3 - Rose-tinted glass

Similarly to idea 2, the theme is fantasy and illusion. The character uses ways to cope with hardships in their lives. However, the difference in this one is that the coping mechanism isn’t something physical, it’s the metaphor of “seeing through rose-tinted glasses”. This means that you are looking back at a nostalgic period of time that may have not been as amazing as your memory makes it seem. 

Atmosphere

Throughout the atmosphere is entirely happy looking, with a pinkish hue to show that things are seen through rose-tinted glasses. While everything is visually happy we see horrible things and much despair. I want it to have the contents of a horror movie that looks like a fairy princess made it.

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IDEA 2 - Glitter Galore

To create a false illusion of a good life our main character develops an unhealthy obsession with glitter. She uses it for everything. She bathes in glitter, wears glitter and even... eats glitter. Her belief is that if she shines brightest she will be happiest. It serves as a way for her to ignore her insecurities with a sparkly mirage. 

Scene 1

Detail shots of different glittery themed things. Stepping into a shower stream of glitter/washing her hands with glitter soap. Slipping on a sparkly t-shirt. Applying some glitter lip gloss. Sprinkling some glitter into her breakfast like a condiment. Finally zooms out to reveal her sitting at a table eating her egg, contrastingly everything around her is much darker.

Throughout the short she appears to be this bright beam of light surrounded by darkness and always wears a smile on her face.

Scene 2

Walking to school, skipping happily, with soft and serene music playing through her earbuds. She enters the school building. She’s extremely happy and talks mindlessly to people she runs into even though they are visibly not interested, nor want to converse at all. 

Scene 3

In the hallway she gets stopped by a bully who grabs her by the hair and threateningly closer any distance. The bully says some harsh words but she smiles happily as if oblivious to what just happened .

Scene 4

Confidently, she walks to the bathroom, where she smears on a thick layer of her lip gloss and pulls a bottle with pills from her bag. A glitter pill. She pours many into her palm and then a close up of her throat as she swallows. She looks back at the mirror and smiles before leaving. Camera follows her until a spot outside the bathroom where its possible to see her enter a classroom.

Scene 5

Now she arrives at home and beer cans and alcoholic drinks are littered everywhere but she just picks them all up and begins cleaning around the area. She smirks at the result of her work. A loud bang is heard and a loud voice shouts “What did I tell you ‘bout touching ma things, woman?”, followed by the sound of glass breaking.

Scene 6

The main character goes to her room quickly, accidentally slamming the door. “Keep it down!” says the male off camera and she flinches slightly before stepping into the bathroom. She opens the faucet and doesn’t wait long before sitting clothed in the bathtub rocking back and forth, knees against her chest. Extreme close-up of her face as she looks into the camera and smiles as a shining tear escapes her eye.

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IDEA 1 - Zombiefication

As a metaphor for depression in teenagers I wanted to express this through the usage of zombies. Imagine a society where as people grow up and begin to experience just how horrible life can be step by step they go through a process called ‘Zombiefication’. This short film would follow the main character as she experiences hardships and begins to turn into a zombie. The twist is that in the end the audience will discover is that we are seeing a family watching a documentary about teenage ‘Zombiefication’. 

The society

Zombies are basically the people that deal with depression or anxiety. Everyone is born a human being, normal and happy. As kids grow up and begin to experience the downsides of life and the demands that society has on them they start to go through a process called zombiefication.

Scene 1

Have a compilation of quick videos and footage from the actresses childhood. Smiling and being happy and then she shoots up from her bed as if it were a dream. She yawns and goes to the bathroom. She comes running out with a toothbrush in her mouth as she rushing around the room trying to get ready fast as possible.

Scene 2

When everything starts to go wrong for her. Step1: Parents getting a divorce. Step2: Pressure to reach to high in her lessons Step 3: Friends growing distant.

Scene 3

The first time she starts to get symptoms of turning into a zombie 1. Bad headaches 2. Paleness 3. Extreme sadness 4. Itchy skin - leads to irritated and peeling of skin 5. Emotionless.

Scene 4

Finally a full-fledged zombie. Seems like all the rest of them. Sequence of her wake up routine like the first scene but a complete zombie version.

Scene 5

Goes black then shows a couple statistics of teenage depression (in terms of their society)

Statistics: In 2017 13% of teens have gone through the zombiefication process/ In 2007 the number was 8%/ One-in-five teenage girls go through this process/ 7% of teenage boys have passed 3rd stage zombiefication in the last month.

Scene 6

Camera zooms out from TV screen to show a family with father, mother and child all as zombies staring blankly at the screen.

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Hi i’m back

This is my blog. Welcome back and i'm glad to be back. After a very crazy summer we're finally back in school, ready to learn. I'm excited to see how the year goes

A quick introduction

For those who are meeting me for the first time, I'd like to introduce myself to you briefly. First of all, my name is Sophie Klaasje Kotyk.

 I am a 16 year old media student who loves to create things. I love to write, I love to make music and I love to make movies. In the media the area I'm most interested in is film. I started out as a young girl wanting to be an actress so I joined a drama club and was one of the only students of that club to be selected to perform monologues for my town to see. When I got older I wanted to be a screenwriter, but I soon realized that the path that was truly meant for me was film directing. For this last school year, I hope to prove that.