Planning for production - Initial ideas for our plot synopsis

Now that we have finally been put in groups and I was in a group with Morgan and John, it was time to come up with initial ideas for out plot synopsis.

In this task we had the privilege of being able to attend a after school film session where we were helped by industry professionals to come up with our initial ideas on our plot synopsis, with the goal of coming out of the session with a clear idea on what the synopsis of our film was. This was made much easier by the fact that we had the help of industry professionals (Scriptwriter Jesse O'Mahoney and Film Producer Hugh Spurling) who gave us direction and information on what sort of things to include to make a great synopsis, which as a result means the work we produce will be of much better quality.

Scriptwriter Jesse O'Mahoney came in to give us help and guidance on our work

First of all in my group we all had previously made our own synopsis and so now we decided the best thing to do was to look at all three and decide which one was appropriate and fitted in with everything we had been researching on horror (like Burton's Genre Theory, applying horror conventions to a trailer etc) and would then take any particular good elements from the other two synopsis' to make our one even better. After deep deliberation we decided to use my original synopsis (which centered around the idea of cheating and fear of failure) blended with John's and so now had to think of ways to make it even better.

This where the help of the industry professionals came into good effect as with the help of Jesse O'Mahoney we was able to take our original and add a significant amount of detail to it, his help allowed us to create a synopsis which reflected on contemporary fears and also had a emotional hook to it, whilst adhering and even at points challenging typical conventions of horror movies. With the help of Hugh Spurling we were also helped massively as with his help and experience we were able to create a synopsis that should fit within the budget given us to create our film trailer. 

Due to the help of the industry professionals we were able to produce real detailed ideas.

Afterwards we had a Q&A session with scriptwriter John O'Mahoney in which he answered any queries we had about our project. One particular thing he discussed which I think will help me massively is the importance of having a emotional hook to your film so audiences can identify with it, he explained that having a emotional hook to your film is one of the main elements of creating a really good movie. Me and my group plan to take these comments and use them to further develop our emotional hook of cheating and fear of failure.

How has this benefited you?

There is no doubt that this task has benefited me a lot and due to the session working with industry professionals has probably been the most beneficial task so far. This session helped me too how you would go about creating a film from the eyes of experienced industry professionals. Their contribution will help me and my group into taking a more professional stance into creating our trailer and has also helped to expand our ideas further, seeing that as well as having all the conventions of horror movies in our trailer, we need to also include a emotional hook that audiences can identify with. For these reasons I believe that this task has been very beneficial for me and my group and will be seen by the high quality of work we hope to produce.