This document discusses the development of a student film project titled "Mute" about a deaf girl struggling to fit into society. The student chose to do a social realism drama and researched genres including horror, romantic comedy, and social realism. After deciding on social realism, the student describes the plot, character, locations and equipment used. The student also discusses casting, costuming, music and learning sign language for the film. Production challenges are noted along with plans for print promotions of the finished project.

1. Film Development
Kristy Lai

2. Introduction to Film
• Film Name: Mute
• Genre: Social Realism/Drama
• Synopsis: A girl who’s deaf faces the struggles
to fit into society. She struggles to
communicate with the people around her,
hence her life feeling empty.

3. Development of Production- Stage
one, research
• Before starting production, I have short-listed
a few potential genres that I was going to
work on
- Horror
- Rom-Com (Romantic comedy)
- Social Realism

4. Developing on the topics
• Social realism urban setting, focuses on
issues that the society faces bullying,
violence, drug use (A-B2)
• Rom-Com typical love story between
lovers how they met the hardships they
face end up living happily ever after (C2-E)
• Horror Gore, blood, violence very sinister
atmosphere (C2-E)

5. Final Decisions
• I decided to choose social realism for my film genre
• Rom-coms and horror are to typical, I want to create
something unique, that stands out
• I wanted to focus on the growth and development of
the character
• Social realism films usually surrounds one character
• People can relate to the issues raised in film
• Focus on topics raised in modern society
represented in different ideologies can be negative
or positive

6. Final Decisions
• Even though this film is produced my me, I will state
that it is by Shane Meadows, who’s famous for
producing Social Realist Films (Dead Man’s shoes,
This is England)
• Meadows didn’t experience bullying/isolation
himself, but a friend of his did which lead into suicide
• Because of such a tragic event , I’m thinking that he
would be inspired to create a film that surrounds
isolation and bullying raises awareness of the
consequences, helping victims and people to help
the people whom are suffering from hardships

7. Final Decisions- Production
• The film I’m producing is a independent film with
a small budget
• Half or more of the funding will go to production,
ensures high and good quality filming
possibility of film festival awards
• Film will be produced by Film4 productions and
distributed(funded) by Pathe
• Distributed through digital distribution and the
web 2.0 (due to limited budget for marketing and
exhibition)

8. Final Decisions- Film Name
• I named the film Mute, and it’s very
straightforward name
• About the struggles the protagonist (Macy)
faces because of her disability
• People around her treat her as an invisible
figure because of her disability
• People just assume she’s quiet and don’t care
about her

9. Target Audience
• Class: A-C1 income bracket
• Race: Any race
• Age: 20-30
• Gender: Both female and male
• Sexuality: Any
• Innovators, Thinkers (Well educated,
sophisticated audience, hedgehog thinkers ,
own individual taste, very independent)

10. Target Audience
• Professional rewards, Suburban Mindsets,
Hardworking Families (Mosaic Audience Type)
• Trying to find more sophisticated and mature
audience, to understand the ideologies and
representations raised in the film

12. Location
• As I’m a boarder in Ratcliffe College, I’m limited to
go to different locations to film my shots
• Therefore filmed most of my shots in school
• Since the film is based on a teenaged girl facing
her struggles, she spends most her time at school
• The main areas I used are the corridors around
schools and the school’s sixth form center

13. Equipment used
• Canon 6D (known for it’s full frame sensor and
1080 video quality)
• Dolly
• Tripod
• Flash

14. Music Choice
• The whole atmosphere of the film is quite sad,
and it talks about how Macy longs to talk to
others but she cannot
• The music bed I chose is a song called “Touch”
by Mattia Cupelli
• The song has a soft piano tune to it, gives out
a rather sad tone emphasizes the
hopelessness and loneliness feeling of the
protagonist

15. Actress Chosen
• Christy Yeung
• Chinese (Hong Kong)
• Age: 16
• Has prior acting experience, studies drama in
GCSE and A-levels
• Not sticking to conventions (traditional ideologies
of having the perfect body or beautiful face)
• Rarely see ethnical minorities in film productions,
predominantly Caucasian

16. Costumes Chosen
• Grey Hoodie, Blue Track Pants, Grey Sneakers
• The choice of clothes are rather baggy, shows that she
is insecure of her own skin and body
• The grey hoodie connotes her detachment towards her
surroundings due to her disability
• The color also connotes the quiet and dependable
nature of the protagonist
• Grey is between white and black, it’s not luminous or
does it attract attention nobody cares about her or
knows that she is there

17. Learning about Sign Language..
• Sign language does play a huge role in the film, as
the only way how Macy communicates with
others is through sign language
• I had to learn BSL (British sign language) through
youtube videos
• It was quite hard memorizing them, so I drew
pictures of them.
• I had to teach my actress how to say the phrase
(Hello, my name is Macy, nice to meet you)

19. Production Process
• Filmed in few days, tight schedule
• It was raining and really cold
• Filmed during school days, (lunch and after
school most crowded)
• Lots of students waving and making silly faces
during time lapse filming inevitable
• I had problems with the Dolly that was used to
track the Protagonist when she was walking

20. Production Process
• Planning on filming exterior shots, roads to
bumpy for the dolly to move smoothly
• Not enough lighting, can’t see face of the
protagonist clear enough
• Raining as well…gear might get wet…

21. Video Clip

22. Plot Blocking/Shot List

23. Finished Product- Video Clip

24. Print Productions
• Regional Magazine
• Leicester Lookbook
• To promote that Leicester City Centre isn’t a
boring and old-fashioned region, there are
loads to do there
• Cover Page, Double Page Spread, Contents
Page and Billboard Advertisement

25. Cover Page

26. Contents