Initial Ideas - Planning

Group: Ana, Raissa and Maheni

My group consists of three people; Me, Maheni and Raissa. On our first meeting we started discussing fairy tales we remember from our own childhood and the moral to the story etc. We did not choose straight away what story we’d be working on as there was so many stories to choose from! This step was discussed and openly worked on as a group, so we was all sharing ideas as what we would like from our trailer no matter what story we chose to do.

We then decided to go with Thriller genre; but of course as we develop our thoughts and idea there will be some sub genres. We was all aware that fairy tales are known by everyone due to their happy ever after endings so we decided to make a twist to whichever story we chose and work on the idea that it had to be thriller. We chose this because, if we did a thriller based on a fairy tale – it’s like showing the audience a side they never knew or even recognise for that matter, and this is what makes it interesting; the fact we can ‘surprise’ the audience and give them something they’re not expecting using the conventions they unconsciously know about.

We was aware of the limited number of characters we have access to, but we also discussed to speak to people in Maheni’s Drama class to act in our trailer. This would be great, not only because they have experience about acting but also because they must be pretty good at it.

Initial Ideas = First meeting

Possible choices...

Firstly, as a group we looked at all the possible fairy tales we could use and interpret it into our own. For example, Red Riding Hood, Cinderella , etc

And many more...

Decision!

After researching in depth various fairy tales, we decided to do Hansel and Gretel. Our decision was mainly based on the fact we knew not many people would actually go for a story like Hansel and Gretel and also because we was aware (due to our research) that there has not yet been made any recent interpretation/adaptation of Hansel and Gretel… Unlike, Red Riding Hood (Most recent adaptation is Red Riding Hood – out in 2011, which the name was kept original) and also to the story of Snow White (which there now is Snow White and The Huntsman – out in 2012)

After we chose the fairy tale and we was determined about what we was doing, we then discussed changes we would make to the original story. We all discussed and equally decided that we would keep loyal to the original story as much as possible. Reason for this is that, although everyone knows the story as said before there has not been any interpretation made so we don’t really have anything to challenge or work on to make it different. Meaning, if there was already an adaptation we would have to look at ways to make it different (our own) so we could just say that our trailer is just an up to date Hansel and Gretel, nothing more as we are not planning to change much apart from the fat that obviously it would be more modernised and perhaps the props used.

Background knowledge – The Story

All of us in the group knew the story which made it easy to work with. The highlight of thestory is that the kids are abandoned by the father – influenced by the mother, which causesthe two kids to get lost in the woods by themselves and come across a witch.

CHARACTERS:We focused on how many characters we need (this was a priority, as we have limited people who would be willing to be doing it) and based on the people we have, we have to make it as realistic as possible i.e.: The family – all characters must be the same race, at least the two kids because we decided we only need three characters – Hansel, Gretel and the witch.

Yes, the father will be present in the story especially when he leaves them in the woods but we decided we can have an ‘unknown figure’ and just use a manly voice. This is ideal because the less people we have, the better! Meaning, there will be less hassles for when we meet up to film and so on and we won’t have to worry so much about people turning up.

Group organisation - Roles

So far, all decisions that have been made regarding the planning, initial ideas etchave been made as a group which shows good skills of teamwork and independentwork at the same time; as each individual researches one thing and then feeds

back.But during one of our meetings, we have briefly discussed the roles. So far we

settleddown for, Maheni would be the director, Raissa would be the editor and I would bethe Producer.

The Director - Maheni

The roles and responsibilites of the Director are...

Firstly they have the most authority/overall control over the project Works closely with the Editor and the Producer Responsible for turning the script into a sequence of shots Decide camera angles with the Editor They work both with the crew as well as the cast May conduct rehearsals Work on the storyboards and make adjustments where needed

The Editor - Raissa

The roles and responsibilites of the Editor are...

They also work both with the cast and the crew Selects shots to create a finish product Most arty side to the production Make final decisions along with the Producer and the Director They work with sound, image, dialogue, visual effects, actors perfomance

etc They must have knowledge with the programs/softwares that are going to

be used

The Producer – Ana (Me)

The roles and responsibilites of the Director are...

He/she deals with budget and financial issues Works with both Editor and the Director Works with the cast too Deals with props etc Organises meetings (for shooting), time and location