Dexter

Dexter

The opening sequence for this Emmy and Golden Globe award winning show had a significant affect on our main task. Although a television series, Dexter falls under the genre of Crime Drama, Mystery and Suspense and deals with serial murders and a psychologically effected killer. This was a perfect stimulus for us to work from as the our task follows a similar genre with a psychologically effected killer.
However, although the content of the show is similar, it is just the opening sequence that counts. The slow pace,editing cuts and unique extreme close ups are what first attracted me to this sequence. I had previously watched the televisions series and always remembered the sequence so once researching for Silent Play, i thought thsi would be perfect inspiration. As you can see we adopted the pace and camera angles whilst developing on them by adding in faster cuts to the sewing machine in real time, and we feel happy with the influence it had on Silent Play's final sequence.

One Hour Photo

One Hour Photo

This was one film that we researched and that also has some influence in the our main task. We wanted to capture the loving side of our Toymaker, as altough he was a serial killer, we wanted to portray him as someone who cares about his victims on a personal level. The Toymaker and Sy Parrish share similar backgrounds and characteristics as they are both living alone, and seem to have no family support. Due to the lack human interaction, both opt to pasting images onto their wall; Sy has the Yorkin family photos, whilst the Toymaker has images of little girls. This collage of photographs can be seen as the backdrop on set for our main task.

MoodBoard

Pitch and Treatment

Tagline:-Her parents didn’t know; now they never will…

Pitch:-

When a young and neglected Amy is taken, her parents go on a mission to find her, only to find themselves in a twisted game of neglect and perversity leading to the shocking truth of her daughter’s whereabouts. Will the Toymaker win more importantly will the parents lose?Treatment:-Amy, a pretty young girl neglected by her hardworking parents, has a daily routine. When her parents leave for work every morning she would make her breakfast and feed the cat down the street. Lonely and isolated she is easy prey for a deranged Toymaker.After he takes her and leaves an “Amy-like” doll in her place, her parents, race against time to find their lost daughter and to win the game of the Toymaker. The Toymaker leaves a clue on the back of the doll left in Amy’s place that leads the parents to more doll’s and shocking revelations about their daughter’s location. When her parents find the last clue it chillingly reads “I Win”.After conceding to the belief that Amy is gone forever her parents realise that they didn’t do the best by her, they leave to live with family in Scotland to grieve for their daughter. Some time later they see a news report of a series missing girls from their home town generating the need for them to help the other parents and hopefully get closure about their daughter.The mother, soon returns to her hometown and is haunted by uncanny doll of her daughter in an abandoned toy shop window. Curious, she breaks into the shop, only to discover dozens of these life-size dolls hanging on the old shelves. When she goes to get a better look at the replica of her daughter, she notices the exact beauty spot, which Amy had on her cheek. Stunned and scared she alerts the police, and they discover the sick truth behind the disappearance of Amy in the Toymakers deadly playpen.

• White British male
  
• Only child
  
• Mind of a child
  
• Psychologically affected in childhood as father died and mother neglected him. She only gave him one doll each year on his birthday, to keep him company.
  
• Rarely interacted with others
  
• Grew bored of dolls as he could never have a conversation with them
  
• Became obsessed with finding something better and 'doll-like', and found that little girls were perfect. But they soon, wanted to go home but he wanted them to stay so he would kill and turn them into dolls with hot wax- much like Bo and Vincent in House of Wax (2005) who turn people into waxworks to make their figures more realistic-
  Occupation- Toymaker, he owns a rundown toyshop in which he stores and hangs his dolls in.
• Our opening sequence shows his workstation which would be situated within the toyshop.

Feedback - Silent Play

FEEDBACK – Before the final changes
- The shots look confusing
- The music doesn’t flow in exact time with some of the shots
- A sound bridge is needed at the very beginning to split up your production name and the start of the actual opening
- Each shot needs to be cleaned up so it all runs nicely together

FEEDBACK – After the final changes
- It works better when it’s simplistic
- All you need is a title and then it will be perfect
- The house looks really good down the street you chose as it stands out from the others
- Really detailed shots made the whole thing look like it wasn’t even shot in this school

Silent Play Shooting Schedule

Shoot 2