This document provides an overview of the pre-production for a microdrama project. It discusses influences and references for the plot, costumes, props, and style. The microdrama takes place in a school setting, with costumes including school bags and glasses for a teacher. Inspiration was drawn from a previous microdrama involving a protagonist with a mask who kills people with kitchen utensils. Proppian archetypes and binary oppositions are used in the narrative structure, with a protagonist, prize/princess character, and villain. Research influences included a TV show opening style and Western movie techniques.

1. PREPARATION FOR MICRODRAMA

2. PRE-PRODUCTION
• Like our prelim, this piece has quite a strange plot line
• We wanted it to be set in school with 5 characters, a teacher and 4 students
• To portray this, we used schoolbags as a part of the costume as well having
it set in a school location (shown with the establishing shots)
• Other parts of the costume were glasses for the teacher and a cowboy hat
for another character
• We took inspiration from a previous microdrama (which is linked below) as
theirs had the protagonist with the mask and killed people with kitchen
utensils
• Other props we used were Terrance the dinosaur and the tinsel as a comedic
signifier of blood
• We spent a little more time considering the pre-production on this rather
than the prelim, but on our actual film opening, we will be doing a lot more
research and consideration
• The call sheet is below

3. RESEARCH/INFLUENCES
• As stated before, we took influence from a previous year’s microdrama
• The main influences were the plot line, being the protagonist with the
Proppian archetype of the prize/princess, then her being taken away by the
Proppian archetype of the villain and then the protagonist (Proppian
archetype of the hero) kills him to win the prize/princess back
• We took inspiration from the costume and the props with the mask and the
kitchen utensils as weapons
• We also took inspiration from a number of other things. For example, the
Friends intro to the microdrama, using the same theme song as the show
‘Friends’ and the same sort of concept with all the characters on the bench
like the sofa in Friends and then an introduction to each character. Another
example is the inspiration from old Western movies. We used the
stereotypical Western music and did the typical extreme close ups on the
eyes and the hands.

4. NARRATIVE THEORY/STRUCTURE
• Narrative Enigma – We show the protagonist and the prize/princess
quite early on not giving a lot of narrative enigma, however there is a lot
with the Proppian archetype of the villain as we didn’t reveal what he
looks like immediately.
• Binary oppositions – There are quite a few examples of binary
oppositions in this, for example, between the prize/princess and the
teacher character (being male and female, old and young, teacher and
student etc.)
• Proppian archetypes - I’ve already stated that there are Proppian
archetypes involved like the protagonist being the Hero but with some
elements of being a Villain with the evil laugh, the girl being the
Prize/Princess and the cowboy as the Villain