Find My Past copyright

We have decided that the ideal website to film, if possible, would be Find My Past, as its layout is clear and its headings such as "Discover Your Ancestors" would convey that part of the storyline to the audience quite easily. We have therefore contacted Find My Past in order to get their permission to film the front page of their website; if we were to film it without getting permission, we would be breaching copyright, so it was essential that we got consent. Fortunately, Find My Past replied with the email below, giving us permission to film the website:

Ancestry website

We have decided that an effective way of demonstrating that Sarah is researching her ancestors is to have a shot of an ancestry website. Websites we could look into include:

• www.findmypast.co.uk  

• www.ancestry.co.uk 

• www.genesreunited 

•  www.genealogy.org

New addition to storyline

We have been concerned about the fact that our storyline is still a little vague, so we have created a few new elements to it which we believe have improved it dramatically, and made the overall plot a lot more exciting. This is the new storyline:

• A girl in the 21st century decides to research her ancestors, and finds out about the life of her great great grandmother, who lived in a stately home and was a woman of nobility (close-up of ancestry website)
• She reads a newspaper cutting with a headline explaining that a Lord has been killed in an "accidental fire" which also damaged the stately home where he was staying (her great great grandmother's house)
• She then reads a contemporary newspaper cutting, with a headline explaining that the house has been restored to its original state with government funds
• She goes to the house and finds letters that were previously undiscovered, and are between her great great grandmother and two different men, one a poor butler and one a Lord (who was killed in the fire)
• Through these letters she discovers the dark romance she had with each of these men, which resulted in a turbulent love triangle between the three of them, born of jealous and bitterness. Such a thing would be scandalous beyond belief in the 19th century.
• She also discovers a dark secret that her great great grandmother kept to the grave: the jealousy and confrontation between the men, as well as their attempts to hide their own secret love, cause the butler to burn down the lady of nobility's stately home, in which the rich man is residing; this has always been believed to be an accident until the discovery of the letters.
• The lady of nobility, however, manages to escape the fire, and runs away with the butler, throwing away her title and creating an uproar of scandal. 
• The 21st century girl is shocked and upset to discover these dark family secrets, and the fact that her great great grandfather is a murderer. 

This kind of narrative is a lot less vague and a lot more complex, which is more conventional to typical period dramas, which can be full of twists involving scandal. This will also mean that our trailer will look a lot more dramatic, as we will be including shots of fire. We plan to do this with simply quick shots of a match being dropped and paper burning, as this will be of the least risk and will also look effective spliced up in our trailer. We will also be making a modern and an old newspaper cutting.

Text in trailer

In terms of the text we are going to be using in the trailer, we have decided to have a combination of modern and old text (in modern and old fonts); the modern text will give information about the plot, and the old text will be more atmospheric and will fade in and out, superimposed on a few of the shots. We think that this will create synergy between the modern and old themes of the trailer, and will look atmospheric and effective.

Filming drunken scene

We have now filmed the drunken scene. As we had not already used the maid's outfit we decided to change our idea slightly and make it so that a maid (Lucinda) approached Peter to flirt with him, only for him to push her away emphasising the regret he would feel if he was involved with two women. The fact that he is drunk shows isolation, as well as the fact that there is no one else around. The darkness will also give off connotations of loneliness. We used an empty bottle of wine for Peter to drop, and as it was one that did not break easily it meant we could get him to drop it several times without a problem. If it had broken we did have a spare bottle we could use.

Drunken scene

We have decided to film the drunken scene outside my house, as it is surrounded my tall stone walls that would look authentic and effective in the shot. We have asked Peter to come in the same clothing he was wearing when we filmed at Aske and Kiplin Hall, so as to create continuity and authenticity, and Lucinda will also be dressing up as a maid, as we feel that a shot of a maid flirting with the poor man (and him then rejecting her) shows that he is very emotionally attached to the lady of nobility.

Font of text in trailer

After watching lots of trailers for period dramas, films set in the 19th century or simply films based on classic novels, one of the main things we noticed was that, in the past few years, modern interpretations of such films tend to include a fairly modern font for the text used in the trailer and title. This has become a recent trend, and, in our opinion, is extremely effective.

The 2011 adaption of Wuthering Heights (see above), for example, includes a title font that is written in an extremely modern typeface. This is to make the film (which, as an adaption of a classic novel set and written in the 1800s, may not appeal to a large target audience) more accessible to a larger range of viewers, and helps to encourage a younger audience to go and see the film. Furthermore, aesthetically, it looks a lot more dramatic than if an older-looking, fancier font was used. This is demonstrated in the poster, which is consequently a beautiful poster, and incredibly persuasive towards a younger audience to watch the film.


This is also true of the font used in the 2011 adaption of Jane Eyre (see above), and (to an extent) in the extremely popular period drama, Downton Abbey (see below). The font used in the title and opening credits of Downton Abbey is, despite being made to almost resemble a typewriter font quite modern. As Downton Abbey has started to become quite popular with a younger audience as well as an older one, this could be a contributing factor.





We have therefore decided to use a modern font for the title of our film, as well as for the text in the trailer. This will help it appeal to a younger target audience, and, as our film is essentially a flashback into the past from the modern day, it will relate to the modern protagonist as well.