QUESTION ONEIN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

Title

The title, ‘[TERROR PLANE]’, is a departure from the normal titling conventions of thriller films. This is a more playful title than would perhaps be normal when considering the serious nature of the subject. However, the romance dimension will take over from the terrorist plot so it is not wholly important as to what the title explains, it just needed to be to be eye-catching.

The title was originally designed to be nothing more than a working title, intended to be replaced at the earliest opportunity but as we kept using ‘terror plane’ to describe the project, it grew on us and we elected not to change it.

Setting & LocationsOur setting in the foreign, war-torn land of Iraq brings a new dimension to the story, being in a war zone with militant radicals as a constant threat, creates tension and adds atmosphere. Naturally, our actual locations couldn’t actually be in the middle east so we attempted to stay inside as much as possible in order to maintain plausibility.

Our locations challenge forms and conventions by attempting to confront an issue that is usually reserved for more serious drama, whereas our film attempts to bring in some humour and romance to an otherwise cold an evil issue. To be successful, the locations had to be at least vaguely plausible so as not to be distracting to the storyline whilst also being easily accessible and fully controllable.

In the end, we economised on the amount of locations whilst maintaining variety. In order to differentiate between the characters of ‘Brian’ and ‘Susan’, we had to have twice the amount of locations in some cases. For the bedroom and bathroom scenes, we ended up using 4 different rooms of the same house, this gave us sufficient variety with a great enough difference between the rooms for the concept of these two characters being in different buildings to be sufficiently believable. The airport turned out to be our school, which worked well enough for our purposes after Bournemouth Airport refused our request to film. Our request to film at Bournemouth Aviation Museum was accepted, who very kindly did not charge us extra to use them as a location, providing us with a fully furnished aircraft interior.

There is added stock footage from genuine middle eastern locations and airports that make our airport and exterior shots more believable. Similarly, there is footage shot in the Egyptian resort of Hurghada that is added to make the car interior shot believable.

Costumes & PropsThe costumes help to show the casual nature of the story that is unfolding. The choices of their clothing denote both their similarities and their differences, they both wear casual clothing but with Susan dressed brighter than Brian.

The only real difference between the two characters is Brian’s leather jacket. We feel that a black leather jacket helps to show his malicious intent when compared to Susan’s lighter coloured t-shirt.

One of the most important props that really helps to establish the plot of our film is the bomb, however it had a much shorter amount of time on screen than it perhaps needed to due to the 120 second time constraint and the need for the story to advance quickly. The added audio and soundtrack add to the gravity of the situation to a suitable degree to make up for the lack of screen time.

The smaller props help to add unity to the two storylines. The boarding passes that are clearly for the same airline and also have consecutive seat numbers and the same flight number, show that these two are destined to meet. Similarly, phones that show the same time indicate that these storylines are simultaneous, whilst adding Susan’s new love interest and Brian’s continued admiration for Susan.

Camerawork & EditingThe film was shot using two different cameras but in a single-camera setup. The only reason for using two was the first camera was damaged.

The film contains large amounts of low-angle and high-angle shots because of the need to conceal unwanted parts of the setting. For example, the plane interior restricted our options greatly as we could only shoot to the ceiling or the walls of the fuselage as the other parts contained museum materials. This meant that we could not shoot down the aisle or have a great amount of movement. Similarly, our lack of available extras meant that we could not have a full complement of passengers as would be normal in larger-budget films and in real life. This was repeated throughout the film as we tried to make it look as foreign as possible.

The editing challenged conventions by using split-screen throughout the duration of the film, having two different character storylines converge presented its own challenges and gives a very different experience to the viewer as they have to ingest the happenings of two different people. Additionally, the use of stock footage being used so frequently and prominently is not normal in films, in an ideal world we would have used all of our own footage but we were forced to use video sourced from Videoblocks to help add to the realism and plug any gaps we had.

Title Font & StyleThe title font chosen, after much deliberation, was ‘Roadway’ This font gave us a clean, sans-serif look that also gave us options with differing but uniform sizes. This font was chosen above the others on our shortlist because it was slimmer and more angular than the others; we felt that we needed this in order to be in line with our genre and the overall feel we wanted.

The title is bookended with square brackets and entirely in capital letters. We also felt that italics gave it motion, which is appropriate for the basis of our film. Also added as a caption is ‘Terror Plane’ in Arabic which both adds some flesh to the logo/title and gives further indication of the middle eastern nature of the film.

ROADway

Story Set-UpOur story develops the idea of terror plots in films, a frequently visited subject. We try to develop a romantic relationship between the two characters, based around radicalisation and a failed marriage.

As more and more foreign fighters join the so-called ‘Islamic State’, we believe that this is a topical issue. The people that are left behind are as much of a story as the people that have actually left to fight.

Our full film would chronicle the before, during and after radicalisation to the point where these two meet on the plane that Brian is intending to blow up as shown in the opening.

GenreThe opening to Terror Plane brings together three different genres: a thriller, a drama and a romance. As thrillers and dramas are very similar in their content and style, it’s natural for these two to go together. The broken relationship between the two characters adds another dimension to the story, one which we think gives greater character development and reliability to the audience.

Character IntroductionOur two main characters are introduced simultaneously, one the of the advantages of split-screen is the ability to present more than one event at the same time.

We see Brian shaving and Susan brushing her teeth, both typical tasks of the daily routine that people can relate to, not giving any indication that these two are in any particular place in the world. As we move on, into the bedroom and see what they pack, differences in their motives and intentions become apparent. Brian has his bomb and Susan has her typical clothing.

These differences are also shown in the props, Brian has many phones and some abnormal objects whilst Susan travels lighter with only some books and normal travel documents.

Brian’s interactions with shady characters and suspicious phone call also help to show his motivations in contrast with Susan’s loving conversation.

Special EffectsThere were no groundbreaking special effects used, it was practically not possible to achieve this in terms of budget and timeframe.Chroma keying the green screen to make the car journey appear plausible is the most obvious special effect used. The split-screen is an unorthodox strategy, not often used at length in many films.Grading the colour to be orange was the most significant post-production effect, designed to make the idea of being in the middle east more plausible. Added titling and the black divider are fundamental to making the film work.Realism was very important for us and our genre, so the fewer visual effects used, the better.