Planning for our final piece

After we had decided to base our piece upon Myra Hindley, we came up with an idea of what the plot could be based upon.

Synopsis

The piece is based around Myra Hindley and is set in a situation when Hindley is planning and committing a child murder. The piece is set in 1960’s, the time when the Moors Murders took place. Throughout the piece we will follow ideas of Fritz Lang where Myra is never seen fully, only shadows and close ups of certain parts of her body, so her true identity remains a mystery to the audience throughout the whole opening sequence. The beginning is Myra planning the murder, frantically writing notes and showing the sickening paper cuttings she has placed as a focal point in her attic. The piece then moves a little in narrative where Myra is watching a little girl on a swing, swinging happily with her teddy bear which Myra burns; this is clearly Myra’s next innocent victim. The girl is then taken by Myra as the audience as shown pictures of the little girl and she is forced to lie down on a blanket and Myra undresses her and then sexually assaults the child. The child is then killed by Myra, and she is relaxed as she washes the blood from her hands. Then Myra puts the dead body into a cardboard box and takes the box to a field where she burns the box and then buries the remains. The opening sequences end in a cliff hanger and the audience will be left on the edge of their seats to what happens Myra.

This was our first idea into the Myra Hindley plot, but everyone in our group was really enthusiastic about the idea so we stuck with the oringinal idea and continued with the planning stage.

After we had thought of the basic plot and planned our synopsis, we brainstormed a selection of different shots and elements that we wanted to include in our piece.

After we had thought about all the shots we needed we wrote a shooting script of all the shots we needed to film and all the sounds we needed to record to put over the fillm when editing it in the later stages of production.

Shooting script

Shots
· Mid shot of typewriter
· Close up of Myra’s hands typing
· Over the shoulder shot of Myra taking the paper out of the typewriter
· Close up of words on the paper (credits)
· Close up of “Myra” film title superimposed
· Mid shot of Myra pinning the paper on the wardrobe
· Close up of paper cuttings
· Panning along all pictures and tilting to see all (close ups)
· Close up of the Myra’s lips smoking
· Close up of a paper cutting of a childs face
· Mid shot of clock
· Long shot of swing with close up of half teddy bear in foreground (low angle)
· Same shot as previous, but with the girl disappeared from the swing (low angle)
· Close up of the child’s face looking sad· Mid shot, high angle of child lying on blanket
· Close up of paper cutting of a baby
· Mid shot of Myra washing blood off her hands
· Close up of plughole with blood
· Close up of newspaper cutting of words
· Long shot of Myra walking across drive
· Jump shot to a mid shot of Myra next to the car
· Close up of the boot slamming
· Long shot of box through a close up of the spade handle
· Zooming through to a close up of box
· Long shot of Myra walking towards wardrobe
· Mid shot of items on the blanket
· Close up of burning box
· Zooming out to long shot of burning box
· Over the shoulder shot of Myra walking towards the box with the spade
· A rear view shot of Myra walking with spade
· Close up of ash, remains of the box
· Mid shot of burnt teddy bear with “burnt to death” paper cutting
· Close up of jack in a box from a very low angle
· Crackly film

Sounds
· Typewriter
· Child singing “1, 2 she’s coming for you...”
· Ticking of clock
· Whirling, mysterious sound
· Birds tweeting
· Girl laughing· Fire burning and crackling
· Girl singing Twinkle twinkle with crying in the middle and Myra mocking her
· Running water
· Sink clogging· Creepy music
· Myra laughing
· Jack in a box sound

Story-boarding

Once we had thought of all the shots, we drew up a storyboard to put all our ideas onto paper so it is easier to read and therefore easier for us when we come to filming;

For the first few shot we decided to use a mid shot of the typewriter and a close up of Myra’s hands typing. This insinuates immediately that she is frantically typing and planning something. As the audience will not know exactly what she is typing, it captures them as they are inclined to watch the sequence. Over these shots, the sound is of the typewriter loudly and quickly clicking, which adds immediate suspense for the audience.

After this, an over the shoulder shot to introduce the focal character, even though the audience will only see the back of her head, adding a level of mystery. Through the first shots we will use this time to show the opening credits typed on the typewriter. Also, this opportunity will be used to superimpose the title of “MYRA” in a typewriter style font. The typewriter sound carries on until the title appears, where the sound changes suddenly to the 'Freddy song' sung by a young girl. This sound is creepy, and draws the audience in further.

The freddie song continues throughout as the audience see a long shot of the woman pinning cuttings on to the wardrobe. This lets the audience understand that the woman is a odd and mysterious, creepy and has psychopathic ways. The camera then pans along a variety of the cuttings which includes the audience in the piece and gives them more information about the character of Myra.

After this, the audience see another feature of Myra; her lips. For this shot, we will edit it so that it is black and white apart from the lips which will be red. We will also reverse the shot too, as the woman is smoking and we thought that the smoke going into her mouth backwards would be an interesting idea. Following this there will be a quick flash image which introduces the girl, but not in an obvious way.

The next shot is a steady mid shot of a clock. The shot will be speeded up a lot so that it gives the audience a sense that the narrative time within the sequence is passing. Over this shot we will add a sound effect which emphasises the speed that the clock is moving. The audience are then introduced more clearly to the victim; the little girl swinging on a swing. This is a long shot, with a close up of a burning teddy bear in the foreground. In this we hear the little girl laughing and birds tweeting which contrasts with the darkness of what is to happen.

The audience then see the same shot, but with the teddy bear burnt more and the little girl disappeared from the swing. This gives the them the idea that the girl has been taken and that she will disappear, because Myra will do something to her. To make this eerie, you will just hear the sound of fire crackling away at the bear. Following this the audience will see a close up of the girl looking sad from a high angle, which makes her look innocent and like a victim. When this shot appears, the nursery rhyme "twinkle twinkle" begins with the little girl singing it, and crying in the middle.

The next shot is a mid shot of the little girl lying face down on the blanket with her dress open at the back, where the audience can make an assumption that the child will, or already has been sexually assaulted. Then another quick flash appears of a baby’s face which insinuates the level of Myra’s sickness if she will harm a child, let alone a young baby. Throughout this, twinkle twinkle continues to be heard as it fades when the baby’s face is viewed.

The time then cuts to a mid shot of the sink, with a knife covered in blood on the side, where Myra is washing blood off her hands. During this shot the diagetic sound of the water running will be used. After this, a close up of the plug hole with the blood running down will be used where the shot is black and white with the blood emphasised through red. Then we will zoom in further to an extreme close up of the plug hole. The sound will be of the sink clogging during the close up and zoom to extreme close up.

After this, another quick flash of a newspaper cutting will be seen; this time of a word rather than an image. This is when twinkle twinkle fades back in. The scene then cuts to outside where Myra is walking along a drive with a box in her hand towards a car, from a long shot view.

Then the same scene outside near the car is established further through a mid shot of the woman using the technique of jump shot where she then appears closer to the car. The use of the jump shot insinuates that Myra is very fast, physically and in terms of intelligence with the murder. After this, there is a close up of Myra slamming the boot, with the box inside. Throughout all of this, twinkle twinkle continues to play.

The scene then changes again to a field where the audience are introduced to an interesting shot. It is of a long shot of the box, with a limp arm hanging out, through the handle of a spade which appears as a close up. The use of a zoom is used to establish what the arm is and to make it clear that the girl is dead in the box. During this section a creepy soundtrack will be added to create tension.

The narrative time then changes and goes back in time; where Myra is hanging up the girl’s familiar purple dress on her wardrobe. This is a long shot of her from behind, which keeps the idea of mystery as the audience does not see her face even now. After there is a mid shot of the child’s blanket with various disturbing props on like a vodka bottle and pills which emphasises Myra’s odd nature. A combination of panning and zooming out will be used so all the props can be seen. Throughout this, the sound of the nursery rhyme is played again.

The time changes again, moving forward in time to just after the audience saw the box with the limp arm. The close up of the box burning is used which zooms out to a long shot of the box. During this we hear a burning sound with the creepy music heard slightly quietly in the background. An over the shoulder shot is used to show Myra walking towards the box and then a mid shot into a long shot shows that she has a spade over her shoulder and intends to bury the remains of the box and the child. After this, the eerie shot of an extreme close up of the ash into a mid shot of the burnt teddy bear with a newspaper cutting on it which says “burnt to death”. Throughout the eerie shots, the audience will hear Myra laughing.

The final shot is a close up of a jack in a box popping up from a low angle. The creepy jack in a box sound will be used to reveal Myra’s evil personality; showing how she is superior to the victim as she managed to kill her for pleasure. This then cuts suddenly to a fuzzy, crackly film with the crackling sound.

Props and Costume List

Props
· Typewriter
· Clock· Childs blanket
· Heart lights
· Images of children
· Newspaper cuttings
· Spade· Pills
· Fake Blood
· Knife
· Teddy bear
· Jack in a box
· Matches
· Blue tack
· Children’s clothes
· Wardrobe
· Hangers
· Bottle of vodka
· Polaroid camera
· Polaroid photographs
· Cigarette

Costume
Myra
· Red Lipstick
· Red Nail varnish· Black Heels
· Black dress
Child
Pretty children’s dress
Warm winter coat
Dolly shoes

Location Report and Risk Assessment

We decided to base the parts of the piece when Myra is planning the murder and when she has the little girl in Jess’s attic. The attic has a creepy feel and is very basic which we thought would be ideal for the filming of this section of the piece. The lighting is very dark which creates a level of mystery, so to add to the piece we used additional lighting from a lamp to place emphasis on certain sections, but to keep the feel of mystery and tension through the dark lighting which was natural in the attic.

The swing section was obviously based in a park, because it has a swing! Also because lots of children play by themselves in a park so it was a realistic situation of where a child could get ‘kidnapped’ from. The park was near houses so we would be able to get assistance if anything went terribly wrong with the burning of the teddy bear.

We used a piece of field in the back of our school for the field parts initially because there is a large tree which again, looks quite creepy. Also, as we had to burn the box, we didn’t want to be in an unknown empty field where there would be no help if anything went wrong with burning the box.

We had to get permission to film April and further permission to film her for a whole day of filming. Once we had got permission, we would take extra care of her as she would be in our supervision. We will try and shoot the shots which need the child character in first so that April could get home as quick as possible. Apart from the shot which requires the teddy bear to be burning, we intend to film all the shots which have potentially dangerous elements when April is not there because we wouldn’t want to cause her any harm, for example, the shots with matches and the knife in.

Character Representation

Myra
To create a representation of Myra, we will use a variety of shots which will cleverly hide the identity of the character. The audience will only see her on shadow or through close ups of various different parts of her body or shots of her back. This creates the representation that she is mysterious and possibly a dangerous woman from the beginning. The way which we dress her in complete black adds another level of mystery and unknown to her personality. The audience will never hear her talking naturally, only her evil laughter and her mocking the child, emphasising her psychotic state. The disturbing things Myra does in the sequence will establish the character as evil.

Child
The representation of the child we intend to achieve is that of an innocent child victim. The child will be seen happy initially and then the audience can see her change I personality once Myra has taken her. The child will be laughing at the beginning to show her initial happiness and crying towards the end to emphasise the change. We will dress the young girl in a cute dress to make her look innocent and extremely child like.