Props // Pre-Production

The props we are going to use for our opening are as follows;

Boy doll - We chose to include a doll in our opening as it has connotations of someone's childhood and this can give off quite a creepy, nostalgic feel when the doll is in shot. As well as this the fact that a doll has human features makes it feel like someone or something is watching you as the doll can easily be placed in a part of the scene where it wasn't there before. This doll is owned by Wilhelmina's Mum who has a collection of dolls. Out of her collection we chose to use a boy doll in a sailor outfit because we believed he looked the most innocent but also the most sinister. We thought it would be more effective to choose a boy since both of the characters in our opening are female.

Clipboard & Pen - Every estate agent is likely to have a clipboard and pen. The choice of these props are to make the character, Suzanne, more convincing and the overall opening scene seem more professional. By showing that Suzanne owns a clipboard and pen it will give to the audience the preferred reading that she is prepared for her job and organised.


Estate Agent Documents - This is another prop we are intended to use to make our stock character seem more realistic. If you look at the storyboard you will see that in shot 7 there is a close up that shows the estate agent documents, because of this close up we decided to make up a sheet to show on the front of her clipboard with some paper behind to make it look like Suzanne has a lot of important documents.


Bag/handbag - Suzanne will also have the prop of a bag. This bag is black and white and looks very formal giving connotations of professionalism. This, again enforces the idea to the audience that Suzanne is a proper estate agent and she is actually in doing work in the house (instead of acting and just being there to take part in some media students film opening).

Newspaper Cut Out  - We also decided to produce a pretend newspaper cut out from 1972 as at the start of our opening we will give some context to the audience about how people died in the house back then and the house has been empty since. This will enforce the idea of the situation in the audience and they will see how it is still thought about in the present time as Suzanne has a newspaper cutting of it. It will also make the opening more effective as an image of the house is shown back in 1972 (even though it was just a photo I took the other day and added a filter on). Indya and Wilhelmina both wrote the story for this prop and I put the layout together and chose pictures.