Production Concept: The Package - Book

From the start of the unit, we all knew what we expected for the book and what we wanted in it. Most recently though we have found a website which lets you customise your book, which seems quick and easy to use for quite a cheap price. So what our plan is, is to have most of the written work (including script) finished up by the end of the week so the book is delivered in good time. This also gives us time to focus on more visual aspect of the package and making it look as nice (and creepy) as possible ready to hand in.

Production Concept: Scripting changes

In the past two weeks me and Sam have been editing the majority of the script. This meant going over smaller issues like grammatical errors, capitalising names, actions and sounds, and numbering scenes and some bigger issues such as act structure and character individuality.

The smaller issues are ones that are easily addressed and corrected, however the bigger ones did take some time. With act structure we have brought the monster in a lot sooner, as well as Tommy and Rachel disappearing earlier so Legrasse has a goal much earlier on in the film. We have also made Legrasse's breakdown a lot more serious, which effects his relationship with Webb, Gustaf and especially Fiber which leads into the final act. Legrasse turns to more violent ways of doing things after he sees Cthulhu and his character makes more drastic decisions.

With character individuality, we have made Fiber alot more cheeky with her dialogue and gave her a more sarcastic personality. Webb has a new characteristic where he tries to tell almost everyone his stories and tales (which mostly gets bumped off or ignored by Legrasse and Fiber). We have also made Legrasse and Fiber's relationship alot more tighter which is put to the test a lot more later on in the film. This was needed as most characters sounded too similar and needed to be more individual.          

Production Concept: Casting Profiles

Over the Holidays I started writing up complete casting profiles for some of the main actors in the film. This already included the 5 or 6 that we already planned to cast from the start, but I have improved on this tenfold by casting a lot of the minor characters as well.

For main actors I have written up what their previous roles they have acted in (the name of the film/series, their role and year they appeared in it), their age, the part they will play in Cthulhu, how they will need to act, why we have chosen them, a head shot and other pictures of them and finally their agent details. For minor actors this may not be as in-depth but I have summed all these points as much as I can briefly, as well as including agent details for each and every one of them.

Below is an example of one that I have made for Edward James Olmos and example (format may have changed from the original document).

Name: Edward James Olmos

Sex: Male

Age: 67

Occupation: Actor

Part in Film: Professor William Webb

Edward James Olmos is an incredibly experienced performer and has worked with a lot of big names, therefore he will be the biggest known actor taking part in this film. Olmos has appeared as a main character in a well known Sci-fi programme which is regularly broadcast on The SyFy channel, this should bring in demographics who are fans of Olmos’ work on the channel.

His appearance is also what we’re looking for, for the part of Professor Webb. We were looking for an older gentleman who has a good head on his shoulders and knows what he is talking about, but who can also come across as a bit of a “quack” on first appearance. Because of Olmos’ experience he is able to portray a variety of different characteristics in the roles that he has played over the years which is why we think that he would be perfect for the role of Webb.

As mentioned before Olmos has featured in a popular programme on the SyFy network, and has played roles in many theatrical released films, however he has never featured in a SyFy original movie. This would be a first for Olmos and as he has the ability to appeal to certain demographics from his links to the SyFy channel, we do believe that this would be a great and new experience for him as well.

Previous Roles played by Edward James Olmos:

Highlighted Film/Series	Role	Year (Appeared In)
Battlestar Galactica (TV Series)	Admiral/Commander William Adma	2004-2009
Blade Runner (Film)	Gaff	1982
Miami Vice (TV Series)	Lieutenant Martin Castillo	1984-1990
2 Guns (Film)	Papi Greco	2013
Dexter (TV Series)	Professor James Gellar	2011
The Green Hornet (Film)	Mike Axford	2011

Agent Details:

Creative Artists Agency (CAA)

http://www.caa.com/

+1 424 288 2000 phone

info@caa.com

2000 Avenue of the Stars

Los Angeles, CA 90067

USA

    

Production Concept: Brand/Title

Before we broke up for Easter, I asked a friend who does graphic design to create me a title which would fit the brand of Cthulhu as well as match what other Syfy original movies use for their title. I sat down with him looking at what fonts and effects Syfy use for their Original Movies, I told him that I wanted a font that is similar to these but is also unique in a way. Below are some of the samples I said were similar to what I wanted.

 
After going through many fonts and effects we came up with a couple of ideas which we narrowed down together. Here were some of the ideas below.

As I mentioned together with my graphic designer we narrowed the title down to the two which we thought would be most effective.

In the end we decided that the one with the white border would be better suited for merchandise and other branding factors. With this we implemented features from the different Syfy Original Movie titles so that it is similar but also has some unique aspects to it at the same time.

This title will feature on multiple products within the production package, including the web page, stfy merch page, poster, dvd cover and hopefully alot more.