Constructing and Gathering the props

As part of preparing to film we needed to make sure that props and costumes were in place so that we were ready to film.



The Costumes:
Whilst most of the character who would appear in our trailer only appeared very briefly, one of the characters who we really needed to think about the costume for was of course Mya Brown (Evie Brookes-Payne). Unlike some film genres we wanted Mya to wear casual clothes meaning that making sure she was wearing the right thing was more complicated than it might have been for other genres in which the kind of thing you might expect certain characters to wear in different situations is much more clear cut. Added to this complication was the fact that, unlike creating scenes for a new film in which costumes need to fit the traditionally more linear plot line, as a trailer we needed to mix Mya's clothes up for different shots so that it was obvious that there was a timeline of different scenes and that they happened on different days.

The Props:

There were five major props that we needed to make sure we had when it came to the filming of our trailer.


1) The Family Photo

One of the most crucial props to the first half of our trailer was one that I was not personally responsible for sorting out. This was of course the family photo, for which Evie needed to find seeing as it would have to be a picture of her when she was younger. As to why this prop is so important, that is because its the very first thing (after the opening logos of course) that the audience is going to see in the trailer, and its purpose is to present a time in Mya Brown's life in which she was happy so as to both show what she has lost as well as well as to contrast with how she is now. Therefore we needed to make sure that the photo that Evie should choose would be perfect for the role it is intended to play in the trailer. 





2) The Office door sign

In putting the sign I needed to establish two different important pieces of information. 

The first was the traditional dimensions for such signs (which varied between 200mm by 60mm to 300mm by 80mm) and the dimensions that I went for in this was 250mm by 50mm. 

The second was the actual job title for DR L Church's character. As Mya is suffering from Mental Health difficulties I decided that the best job title for her would be a "Cognitive Behavioural Therapist" which is someone who is likely to deal with clients who are suffering from poor mental health conditions such as Anxiety, Depression, PTSD and phobias - conditions of the like which fit Mya's difficulties.

3) The Suitcase

The suitcase was a much simpler item to put together in getting all the props together. I believed that, in order for the suitcase to fit the job we needed, it needed to appear full whilst also not being too heavy so as to make using it considerably easier - this suitcase fit that job description where others, if they contained little or no physical content, would visibly be emptier. I also liked the idea that, with the buckles/straps on the top to help seal this case shut, this case appears to be more closed off in holding its contents like Mya would be.

4) The Keep Out sign

Again, a much simpler one to put together than some of the others. The key question that I had discussed with Evie (the producer) was whether, given the fact that it would be attached to a set of double doors, we wanted to have one sign or two. As we decided that it would be printed in A3 this was deemed not necessary.

5) The File

Coming up with a tag for the file was by far the most challenging to do, as it was where we needed to make the most decisions. Coming up with the Project name was interesting because we didn't want to go with anything cheesy like Project X or anything like that, which is the stereotype for names of secret/questionable scientific projects. In the end we decided that the Greek alphabet would be a good place to look seeing as it is used for codenames from time to time. One of the things that I really liked about putting Mya's file together was the fact that her name, whereas on something like a medical form it might come right at the top of the file, can actually be found at the bottom and what I found interesting about that was the connotation it gave that she as a person does not truly matter as an individual, as we see here it lists her subject number first meaning that they think of her as little more than a lab rat.