Planning: Props

As our production is going to be a post apocalyptic genre film, it would be conventional for characters to have some form of protection as they navigate through an inhospitable environment with potential threat around every corner. Here, pictured left, is a toy rifle replica with detachable stock and barrel (in order to act within the law). Guns connote action, danger and risk which will all be part of our production - it can also be used in the trailer as an enigma code; why is the gun being shot? at who? It is also noticably worn, connoting years of use in a harsh environment, and is typically found in farmhouses and lodges - making it conceivable that it has been scavenged following the cataclysm.

We have ascribed different weapons to different characters for specific reasons; here we have Curtis as The General brandishing a toy replica of a Raffica because it is far more sophisticated and expensive piece of weaponry than the hunting rifle, leading us to infer that he is more affluent (in addition to the smarter clothing). Obviously in the production the toys will appear real.

Then we also have a brief shot where Tom has a broad metal pipe as a makeshift weapon. This further applies to our genre as real weapons will be sparse and more of a commodity than anything. It also bares connotations of survival, as you would expect integral in a post-apocalyptic environment.

 

We also utilised gas masks, opting for the cheaper industrial masks that don't fully cover your face so that you still gage who the character is and reduce connotations of horror and mystery, as gas masks are fairly disconcerting to look at, which we didn't want to be attributed to our main characters.  Again, this decision was made in congruence with aforementioned props chosen to illustrate the world as inhospitable. Numerous props are needed for this purpose considering we cannot simply show a wasteland environment as we haven't the means nor the manpower to create these. We have to interlink the few locations we have chosen with the props in order to generate the desired meaning for what is going on i.e. we cannot as effectively portray the world as ravaged and desolate with just a location but must accentuate survival and risk with weaponry and provisions for safety in order to stress that it is a post apocalyptic setting.       

                                                                                                    

When the group was searching through the abandoned factory location for areas to film in, we discovered a shattered box and an assortment of pictures flung across the room. Some of the pictures seemed to be family photos, most beset with water damage or worn by age. Considering they were just left there and neglected for years, we believed that taking one and using it in our production was justified as we planned to catch light to the picture with fire (in our garden/garage with plenty of water nearby) and film it slowly immerse with flames - and we couldn't do this with our own family pictures! It wasn't that we just wanted to pointlessly set things on fire like hoodlums since we had the idea since before filming. Not only is it quite an arresting shot, but it would provide significant character exposition within just a few seconds (ideal for trailers) but it creates strong, and equivocal, interpretations in the audience from it being symbolic of the main characters tragedy to it being a sign that his delusions of a reunion is diminishing, and so on. 

We incorporated a map into the Curtis scene to create connotations of management, strategy and tactics, all qualities an audience would expect of a 'villain' leader of the same ilk as government executive 'baddies' in espionage thrillers such as in the Bourne Trilogy. There are also photos pinned up to the board behind him, which we used to suggest that he and his organisation are taking a deductive approach towards capturing the hero characters, further reinforcing the inference that he is meticulous and wilful.

 However, contrasting from typical villains and calculated killers, we also, from the inception of the post apocalyptic idea, decided to implement subtle, and not so subtle, props to imply that the 'villain' is not as black and white as he may appear, and is in fact quite an idiosyncratic villain archetype. We added additional homely novelties and commodities from every day life nowadays to accentuate that Curtis's character is just a human being, a human being that enjoys a cup of tea in his favourite mug reading ''I <3  football'' every day, whilst laid back on his chair supported by a novelty cushion with a union jack printed on it (the irony being that he has had some part to play in Britain's remnants misery as his organisation are out for themselves and have little to no interest in aiding them, to the point that he will hunt down people that risk their discovery). They are existential, and hopefully poignant, reminders of world lost; a symbol of humanity enduring when there is so little left. 

 We didn't want to go overboard with props of this intention as it would risk making him risible as opposed to fearsome, and that is the complete opposite of what we wanted to go for. Instead, they are in juxtaposition to his real quite malicious actions and act as a glimmer of humanity, and sanity, which only makes his actions appear worse since the suggestion is that there is some hope for him - I got inspiration for this from The Governor character in The Walking Dead series and he is portrayed similarly.