JOURNEY: EVOLUTION OF AN IDEA…

This blog post covers:

• The starting point
• A look into the zombie genre
• Our 1st pitch
• Our 2nd pitch
• Some alterations
• The weather

STARTING POINT

GENRE

• Romance
• Comedy
• Rom Com hybrid
• Horror / Zombie

WORKING TITLE

• Where it all started (Rom/RomCom/Zom) 
• Back then (Zom)
• She said (RomCom)

WHERE IT ALL STARTED / SHE SAID

• Could be a teen rom com 
• The classic underdog as the protagonist who finds love
• Set in a school
• Typical Proppian archetypes such as the prize (who is the stereotypical popular girl at the start) and the hero (the stereotypical jock character in the beginning)

WHERE IT ALL STARTED / BACK THEN

• Zombie movie
• Showing what it is like now with all the zombies 
• Flashbacks to before and then when the outbreak started
• Protagonist, a female lead, rather than the stereotypical male lead in zombie movies

MOVIE INSPIRATIONS

• Mean Girls

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• She's All That

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• Warm Bodies

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ZOMBIE GENRE

SHAUN OF THE DEAD
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Things we liked (ignoring the bar scene):

• Everyone looking like zombies however they're just doing their boring jobs
• When a car would go past and it would cut into next shot
• The continuous panning from left to right 
• The use of titles such as the Shaun of the Dead on the floor
• The narrative enigma of Shaun panning from feet to head and looks like a zombie
• The quick shots of parts of his morning routine

ZOMBIELAND

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Things we liked:

• The video recorder effect
• Point of view shot with the first zombie
• The visuals of Earth (don't know if we could do that)
• The use of titles for the rules
• The funny list of rules
• The slo mo title sequence (however we thought it was too long)
• The moving titles in the title sequence

WARM BODIES

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Things we liked:

• The narrative enigma of the main character then revealing he is a zombie
• The set design
• The internal monologue
• Flashbacks
• Scenes going on behind character 
• The transition back to how it was before and then back to now

OUR 1ST PITCH (EMMA, TRISTAN AND SETH)
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Our film opening pitch from westhamwindows

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OUR 2ND PITCH (EMMA, TRISTAN AND SETH)

SETH OF THE BRAIN DEAD
Working Title at the moment.  Intertextuality with Sean of the Dead

Scene1

• Playing movie in protagonists messy living room
• Not showing protagonist immediately (narrative enigma)
• Playing Scream / Halloween / Dawn of the Dead / Shaun of the Dead
• Opening Baked Beans can with pocket knife and eating them cold

Scene2

• Protagonist in shower
• Pans from feet to head (cuts in between)
• Oblivious to zombies in bathroom
• Dropping shampoo bottle knocking out zombie
• Slipping and kicking zombie killing it
• Possible shower singing scene for comedic effect

Scene3

• Getting ready scene 
• Quick shots like in Shaun of the Dead
• Brushing teeth
• Going to toilet
• Putting on glasses
• Getting dressed 
• Putting on glasses
• Putting on badge for blockbuster store

Scene4

• Walking out of house with headphones on looking out phone
• Not looking around
• Sees girl ahead (love interest) trying to tell him theres a zombie behind him
• False scare - hand on shoulder 
• Turns out to be the best friend character who pushes him out the way
• Shouts 'get in car'
• Pulls dead body out revealing title on floor

LOCATION

PROTAGONIST

• Male
• 18 years old
• Attractive - female gaze
• Named Seth

Films/TV

• Star Wars
• Star Trek
• Indiana Jones
• Sherlock
• Breaking Bad
• Shaun of the Dead

Gadgets

• Watch (casio digital)
• Phone
• Glasses
• Spare glasses
• Pocket knife
• Can opener
• Pens

Items of clothing

• Graphic tee
• Straight cut blue jeans - thrifted - slightly worn/faded
• Glasses - taking them off and wiping them as nervous tic - helps with not seeing
• Possible button up over tee
• White high tops 
• Possible long black trench coat

Places he's been to

• Library
• Diner
• Game Store
• Home

Foods/drinks he likes

• Slushies
• Milkshakes
• Monsters 
• Hot dogs
• Pizza

Random further details

• Only child
• Love interest
• Works at blockbusters
• Really good at darts

Extra notes

• Impact on comedy to bring BBFC rating down to a 15 from an 18 
• Wears a World's End tee - direct intertextuality
• Plays video games
• Has junk food and empty cartons etc.
• To connote working at Blockbusters - name tag / card
• Blockbuster movies
• CD - possibly use as coaster or plate
• Empty cans
• Cigarettes
• Opening baked beans with pocket knife
• Box TV with playstation 2
• Set in this day and age but has all old gadgets
• DVD player - Dawn of the Dead / George A. Romero DVDs
• Link DVD - in Halloween playing movie at start - Scream played Halloween movie
• Triple hybrid rom-com-zom

SECONDARY CHARACTER

• Female
• Around 18 years old
• Attractive - male gaze
• Named Chloe
• Binary opposition to Seth
• Badass, very dominant and confident
• Doesn't let her guard down in opening
• Wears athletic, tight clothing (like Lara Croft)
• White vest top, slightly cropped, rip by neck
• Black skinny high waisted jeans
• Black leather jacket
• Love interest
• 18 years old
• Attractive - male gaze - Laura Mulvey

Films/TV

• Dear John
• The Vow
• The Notebook
• World War Z
• Dawn of the Dead

Gadgets

• Phone
• Machete
• Pistol
• Pocket knife

Items of clothing

• Leather jacket
• Boots
• Black skinny high waisted jeans
• White vest top, slightly cropped, rip by the neck

Places she's been to

• Los Angeles
• London
• Paris
• Tokyo
• Singapore

Foods/drinks she likes

• Any kind of salad
• Has a guilty pleasure for chicken wings
• Water with lemon and cucumber 
• Coffee

OUTFIT INSPIRATION

Inspiration from Zombieland

SOME ALTERATIONS

Seth has dropped media so Bright Films and Spikey Films have joined TriHard Productions and I in creating our film opening.  We are still using the zom-rom-com hybrid genre but now we can create an even better piece as we have more help.  This video is of us explaining what we discussed and decided on doing.
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WEATHER 

We wanted to make sure that we knew what weather we would be able to expect on the day of filming.  We wanted it to be cloudy as it is a very common convention in the horror genre and provides pathetic fallacy.

Monday 20 January (6 days before filming)

Tuesday 21 January (5 days before filming)

Wednesday 22 January (4 days before filming)

Thursday 23 January (5 days before filming)

We've just found out that we won't be filming outside on this occasion so the weather isn't specifically a bit deal, however when we do film outside, we need to make sure that the weather is pretty equal to this day as there may be shots with windows showing the weather outside.

Other changes:

• We've decided to have my dad play the zombie as it is easier to do.  We could have someone else but everyone we asked denied or weren't too sure about it.  
• We've figured out the soundtrack which you can find here.
• We've decided that we won't be proceeding with our hand of God opening as getting drones is quite difficult and we would also have to pay to fly it.