P1. Character Biography's

JAY

When Jay first starts at Merriweather Academy, his goal is to learn as much as possible about his power, and how he can control it. He wants to befriend pupils similar to himself, and finally feel normal in his new environment.

Later on in the story, Jay's goals and motifs begin to change. Firstly when the students start to disappear, his goal is to find out what is happening to them without being caught, and avoid all obstacles. When he discovers what has happened to them, his goal is to recruit a team, rescue them and escape from the island.

The reason Jay wants to come to Merriweather academy, is because it’s what his step mother wants for him. He also knows he'll have a better chance of fitting in here, as although Jay was never picked on in his old college, he knew people with powers who were, and decided not to tell anyone about his gift. His motivation to find out what happens to the students who go missing finally kicks in when his roommate Mike and his friend Sarah disappear. This motif is then enhanced when he finds out what exactly is happening to them, and gets the motivation to form a rescue team.

Although Jay is courageous, he is also fairly shy and reserved, making it hard for him to communicate with people and make new friends. This is an obstacle for him, as Sarah and Mike are his only friends, and once they go missing, he needs to not only make new friends to form his team, but convince them of the dangers that are taking place.

As well as Jay being shy and reserved, he is an extremely curious character, and when one question arises in his mind, he can't get it out. Most of the time Jay jumps to conclusions, but unfortunately not this time.

Jay is 16 years old and raised in Cambridge England. His mother died in labour and his father died 2 years ago, leaving him in the care of his step mother. Jay tries to respect his step mother’s wishes, although he doesn't think she cares about him much and thinks of him as a burden. All the deaths in Jay’s life have contributed to him being cautious of coming to close to people, and made him more reserved. Jay is fairly tall and skinny with brown hair and eyes.

RECEPTIONIST  

We don't find out much about the receptionist, but she is fully aware of the experimentation that is going on under the college grounds. This is why her tone of dialogue is sometimes described as 'insincere', as to the students of the college; she attempts to put on a happy and welcoming tone, although she couldn't care less about their well-being. Although she is aware of the disturbing actions taking place, she doesn't take any part in it, and her goal is to simply watch over the children and appear as a typical college receptionist.

The reason she is pursuing these goals, is too earn some extra money, witness the science and experimentation taking place and impress her father, who works in the labs and takes part in the experimentation.

Her weakness is her need to impress her father, as he is the main thing keeping her there, and no good comes from her job as a receptionist.

The receptionist is 27, and she only has one living parent, as her mother died when she was a child. She was born to a wealthy family, and raised in Oxford, England. She's never had many friends, as back in her college days; her number one goal was to study hard (to impress her father) and therefore was bullied for it. The receptionist is tall skinny, with brown tightly combed back hair placed in a bun and bright blue eyes. The majority of the time she wears a black blazer and long black skirt  

MIKE

Mike's goal when he first joins Merriweather Academy is to expand his popularity. When he first encounters Jay, he is aware that he is his roommate, and can automatically tell Jay isn't the most approachable characters. Mikes goal is to befriend his new roommate and also similar to Jay, grow in his gift and learn to control it. As the story continues, mike is taken for experimentation. Whiles he is in the lab, his goal is to escape, although he is very much helpless in this situation.

His motivation to befriend Jay is from the fact they're going to be sharing the same room for 2 years, and wants to get along with his roommate. When Mike is first taken, he has a strong motivation to escape, but the longer he is trapped there the less hope he has.

Mike's flaw can sometimes be his sarcasm and his habit of teasing people, as although this attracts a lot of friends to him, it also encourages certain people who take offence easily to dislike him. Another flaw Mike has is that he never thinks before he acts.

Mike is 16 years old. He is spoilt by his two parents, although their love isn't enough, as Mike strives to make as many friends as possible; this is because he got bullied as a young child. He is an extremely confident character, and will talk to anyone without hesitating. Mike's way to make friends is to tease them, and often speaks in a sarcastic tone. He gets this personality from his father. Mike is also from Cambridge, England, although he and Jay have never met each other before coming to Merriweather. Mike has dark blond hair and blue eyes, he is a similar weight to Jay although is slightly taller. 

P1. Screenplay First Draft

Hannah Gautrey First Draft from hannahgautrey

P1. X-men

Sound Analysis 

Music: 

00:00 - 01:32

Dialogue:

00:04 - 00:05 - Logan

00:06 - 00:15 - Boy playing basketball

01:06 - 01:06 - Storm

01:06 - 01:07 - John

01:12 - 01:13 - Bobby 

01:14 - 01:15 - Bobby

01:16 - 01:16 - Rough

01:28 - 01:29 - Bobby

Voice over: (Professor Xavier)

00:07 - 00:11 

00:15 - 00:18

00:19 - 00:22

00:23 - 00:30

00:31 - 00:40

00:41 - 00:53

01:18 - 01:28

Sound Effects:

00:05 - 00:15 - kids running and jumping, basketball bouncing, teleporting (wind), ball hitting goal

00:22 - 00:29 - clay pigeons flying though air (wind),  ray hitting them, clay pigeons smashing

00:49 - 00:51 - lighter flicking on, fire sparking,  

00:57 - 01:03 - frost (high pitched whistling sound, subtle sparkling sound, and ice smashing

01:04 - 01:05 - gasp

01:05 - 01:05 - subtle laugh

01:29 - 01:30 - clothes moving

Music is constant through out this clip. The music helps to set the mood of the scene, in this case creating a happy and peaceful atmosphere, displaying the school positively. If it wasn't constant, the areas where the music stopped would be significant, but the entire scene is significant, therefore the music runs through all the time. The music links the sequence together, as the music starts at the beginning of the scene, and when it stops, its a change of scene. Although the duration of the music remains constant until the end of the sequence, the volume and pitch changes; for example, when Professor Xavier introduces the name for the mutants 'X-men' the pitch changes from high to low, making the word stand out.

The reason the voice over doesn't over lap the dialogue, is so we can concentrate on what the individuals say, meaning the characters talking doesn't  distract from the narration. There is very little dialogue in this sequence, and the dialogue that is used is used to introduce the characters names and personality, for example, we first meet Bobby in this sequence, and he has cleverly introduced himself to the audience by in the clip introducing himself to Rogue.

The sound effects, such as the basket balls bouncing, and children running, make the sequence seem more realistic, drawing you into the college atmosphere. They also exaggerate and bring more attention to the visual aspects of the clip. For example, when the frozen fire falls to the ground, this shocks and has a larger impact on the audience because of the sound effects.

P1. Visual Effects

Test: Visual effects on Adobe After Effects

P1. Story Pitch

Film Idea based on a short opening

In a world where 1/20th of the population has supernatural abilities a young boy is finally old enough to go to a school dedicated to teaching youth how to use and control their abilities. Only students with the most powerful gifts get accepted, so although Jay’s step mother pressurised him into applying and it’s located far away on an isolated island, he accepts the offer.

Once he arrives, everything seems to be going perfectly, he's made friends who can relate to him, and the lessons are exiting and productive. The school is huge, and takes up almost the entire island, although the boy has only explored a fraction of it.

Once settled in, Jay makes a friend with a similar power to his, although this girl is far more experienced  then him. Sarah agrees to teach him what she knows outside of lesson hours.

Questions start to arise, when his roommate doesn't turn up to lesson one evening, and never returns back to the dorm. He doesn't think into it,assuming he dropped out of college, but when more students disappear including Sarah,  he begins to get suspicious.   

The boy decides not to turn up to lesson one evening, and instead decides to go snooping around the college grounds, entering the restricted half. The truth is revealed to Jay, when he discovers the students are being experimented on underneath the college grounds, and the school is just the waiting room.

Jay rushes back to the dorms, quietly gathering a group of students who combine their powers to save their friends and diverse an escape plan.

#TWEETPITCH 
A boys step mother persuades him into attending a school which is aimed at youth with supernatural ability's on an isolated island. Slowly the students start to go missing, and the boy begins to ask questions, and eventually seeks answers. The boy discovers that the missing students are being experimented on due to their powers, so secretly begins to round up a group of students with different ability's to help him rescue the others and escape from the island.

P1. Top Trumps

Personal Top Trumps Card

P1. DRIVE

Analysis of Sound Effects 

The sound effects used in this clip are extremely effective, as they add to the tension of the clip, to inform the audience of information they haven’t picked up visually and to emphasise the content of the scene.

In this scene, a get away driver (Ryan Gosling) is waiting to pick up 2 burglars, although  he only gives them 5 minutes do to the job, otherwise he'll drive away.

The first diegetic sound we hear are the police sirens, this automatically tells us that there is a crime taking place, and that the police are on the look out. This is effectively told though sound, as the sound effect over laps the shot through an L – edit, meaning it wasn’t necessary for the cinematographer to film the actual car passing by. This sound effect is used purely to inform the audience of what is taking place and add to the action.  The sirens are repetitive and irritating, although fairly quiet and faded into the background, this tells us that they are still relatively far away.

We then hear the radio, when we see the main character (driver) in the car; this is effective, as with out actually having to see the police (which creates more tension and fear) we can hear about their whereabouts and movements and later on in the sequence, that they suspect the characters car.  We can also hear the basket ball game in the background, which foretells where the characters go in the end of the scene, but also shows that the driver is calm and relaxed enough to listen to the game, showing he is probably experienced in what he does.

The sound effects we here such as the crickets in the back ground, and the traffic, add to the atmosphere and surroundings and also re-enforce the fact that its night time and still busy.  The environmental sounds of the car engine and the tires moving also help the audience to focus on the movement of the car.

In this sequence one of the most important sounds effects are the ones coming from the watch, we firstly hear the driver fiddling with the watch, which draws our attention to it.  We then hear him adjusting the time; this then reminds us of the rule that he follows, which is to stick to 5 minutes of waiting for the burglars or else he drives away. Lastly, we hear an over exaggerated noise of the watch ticking, this tells us that time is running out and creates even more tension for the audience. 

The alarm which goes of in the building that the burglary is taking place in, tells the audience that the characters are in trouble, and the police are soon to be on their way. This is a constant, high pitch and repetitive noise, which irritates the audience’s ears, causing them to be tenser. The sound gets louder when the driver opens the door, making it more noticeable and realistic.

Other sounds, such as the car driving in and coming to a stop, the gate opening, doors opening, and the door open alarm, emphasise the actions that are taking place, so the audiences attention is specifically drawn to those actions and not distracted by anything else on the screen.  These sounds as well as the breathing, tires moving and car engine, are also used to bring a more realistic feel to the clip. 

Lastly, the sounds blend together to create an effective sound mix. It's effective as the scene starts of with a large and loud variety of sounds, this then grips the audience making them pay more attention to the scene. While the driver is waiting for the burglars, there is a lot less sound, and it is much quieter, this works well, as we can feel the awkwardness of the driver waiting, creating tension and also allows us to concentrate on specific sounds, such as the watch with out being distracted by other noises.