My Film - Production Schedule

As my cast and crew had three members (myself, Charles Verfuerth, and Rose BlackBurne,) communication over shoot schedules was made entirely via text message (to Charles,) Facebook messenger (to Rose,) and whenever I managed to talk to them throughout the school day.

I knew from the beginning that filming would have to take place predominantly on Wednesday's after school, as filming on weekends was almost impossible due to other commitments. Also, as the majority of filming was set to take place outside in December/January time, I knew I'd be battling the sunset. As we finish school at 2:15pm on a Wednesday, at became my golden window of opportunity.
(It should be noted that filming didn't always take place during this time, as sometimes our schedule's allowed for other opportunities.)

(Added on 21st February)
While I had initially hoped to finish my filming before the Christmas holidays (admittedly this was very wishful thinking,) my ultimate deadline for the completion of filming was by January 31st. This date allowed me a wide window of opportunity to avoid feeling stressed if something(s) went wrong (and they did,) as I'd given myself this time period to fix it. January 31st also gave me approx. 2 weeks before the February half term (our deadline) to tidy up the editing of my first completed version. While I had been editing the footage as I went along, this time was still vital.

My Film - Storyboard

*Note: The darker numbers in the top left hand corner of each box depicts what order these frames are to be shown.

My Film - Initial Screenplay

The Capgras Delusion - Screenplay from ngalvin99

Tyrannosaur Swede: Reshoot

In our Wednesday (25th November) lesson we carried out the reshoot of our "Tyrannosaur Swede".
This time round we had divided up the roles of director, cinematographer, screen-play writer, storyboard artist, and producer (who was in charge of the call-sheet,) prior to carrying out the shoot; this allowed us to be significantly more organised and efficient.

I was tasked with being the cinematographer for scene 1, and with writing the screen play for scene 3 (as shown below.) In total there were 3 scenes.
We changed certain shoot locations for our reshoot, as the original locations lacked the lighting we needed. We exaggerated the killing of the dog, (for which we used a more realistic prop this time, which helped the verisimilitude,) as this added extra comedic value. We also followed the advice to take multiple shots of each scene, as this would help with our editing process (and it certainly did.)

Screenplay (Sourced from Milo Davis)

Tyrannosaur

By IGS AS Media Students

POST PRODUCTION SCRIPT - 22nd November 2015

OPENING:

1. EXT: Bookies - Night

Posh upper class looking man leaves bookies in a drunken manner (stumbling about) The man stands with his hand out like he is to receive something. The butler quickly follows whilst arguing with people inside.

BUTLER

Mr Cross apologises profusely for his behaviour

PROTAGONIST

William! Champagne now!

BUTLER

Right away Mr Cross

PROTAGONIST
Oh good heavens William where the fudge is fido

TITLE CARD: Dog Death

2. EXT:

The Butler promptly gives the protagonist the champagne flute whilst the butler is looking round for his beloved dog. The butler quickly spots the dog coming around the corner. And crouches down to greet it

BUTLER

Come on! Here boy!

PROTAGONIST

Where does he think he's been

DOG
*Barks*

3. EXT:

As the dog is running towards the butler the protagonist intervenes in his drunken state and kicks the dog before he can reach the butler and consequently kills it.

PROTAGONIST

Stupid, deluded dog (slurring words)

BUTLER
*Stuttering words* s s s s s i r

The butler turns his head to look around to see if anyone noticed the brutal murder and promptly picks the dog up and they both exit the alley with the butlers arm around the protagonist helping him walk.

BUTLER

Come on sir lets us depart this wretched place

The End.

(Sourced from Tom Atkinson)

Tyrannosaur 

By media students 

POST PRODUCTION SCRIPT – 23/11/2015

Scene 2:       The Funeral 

1.      EXT: front lawn – DAY

Dark/dim environment (setting the scene). A slightly depressed atmosphere arises during this scene. Various cries and tears bake out. 

VICAR

People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that’s what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that is holding you back, the person who brings you to your won attention so you can change your life.

TITLE CARD:          TRANNOSAUR

The End.

Tyrannosaur: Swede (Screenplay) from ngalvin99

My Film - The Pitch

For my film opening I have decided to work within the Psychological/Horror genre (with sic-fi elements.)

My opening begins as follows:

• Montage of teenage girl ("scream queen" type) getting ready for a run & texting her friend 
• Girl sets off for run, friend has not yet replied
• Girl runs through cemetery 
• (Lighting begins to dim) Girl gets more and more uneasy, keeps checking her phone (hopeful moment when it gets a text, but its just spam (with a 'seemingly random' message))
• (Heart rate raisers: girl realizes cemetery is abandoned and it's darkening, feels uncomfortable, something in the peripheral (turns, nothing is there,) an out of place noise, non-diegetic music changes pace, camera switching from close-ups of the girl looking panicked to p.o.v shots of something watching her.) 
• Tension reaches climax with the girl breaking into a blind-panic sprint, becoming confused, breathing heavily and on the verge of tears, before getting tangled and tripped up
• Suddenly out of nowhere, the friend she was texting appears. 
• Her friend calms her down, they talk briefly ("Sorry i didn't reply, my phone was out of credit",) and she laughs it off, but still feels slightly uneasy. She tries to ignore the feeling of something still not being right.
• Both set off to finish the run 
• As the camera watches them disappear around a corner, a text alert goes off
• The camera pans down to the ground to reveal the girls phone (which she dropped amongst the leaves in her panic) 
• The text on the phones screen is from her friend, ("Hey! Super sorry, just got ur txt - cn't run 2day 'cuz i'm baby-sitting. Wanna run 2morrow? xxx") 
• The scene ends with a (non-diegetic) slasher noise as an audio bridge and a cut to a black title screen with the main title ("The Impersonation Game") 

Tyrannosaur Shoot (p.2)

What needs to be shot

• Dog race
• (reshoot) Killing of the dog
• Protagonist entering Apple Shop 
• The protagonist coming out of hiding ("Sir, you'll have to come out or I'm going to call the police.)

We need to reshoot the killing of the dog as we did not have the appropriate toy dog. We also need to film more of each scene from multiple different angles, as it allows us to have more footage to edit in post-production. We've learnt that it is vital to have a schedule pre-prepared for what to shoot, as this saves time during the shoot.

York Film Festival Notes (November 2015)

Talk: Calling the Shots - Where (and who) are the women?
By: Dr Shelley Cobb, and Professor Lindo Ruth Williams

• 11% of directors are female
• 16% of screenwriters are female
• Examples of women helming the way on films like: Mamma Mia, Bridget Jones' Diary, 50 Shades of Grey, Nativity, and Suffragette
• Main focus questions for this research task: "What challenges do women face when entering and maintaining careers in film?", "Once established, do they still have distinct stories?", "Do women have a better track record at employing other women?"
• The answers for this research project were obtained through statistical analysis, and interviews with 50 women within the industry
• Statistical Analysis: Box office numbers between 2000-2015 were examined - gender balance was explored (and women of colour was noted as well)
• 2 Year Microcosm (2009-2010) Totals: All films = 18% female leads on crew, Top 20 films = 14.5% female leads on crew
• Joanna Hogg: 'Male crew tend to be unhappy with a female director'
• Clio Barnard: Her children affect her choices (she can't just leave them for a shoot,) writing coincides more easily with child care, she 'put her blinkers on' and pushed past sexism she faced (people attempted to push her into producing.) 
• Carol Morley: The 'wanted' stories feature men (male narrative, male protagonist, able-bodied, white - lack of diversity,) Scripts are more often offered to male producers (so women directors have to be writers for themselves,) Morley once got a supermarket deal where her film would be sold within supermarkets but her name could not be made obvious on the front of the box
• Jane Campion: At films schools the gender balance is about 50/50, women do well in short film competitions, men trust men for business so then the women get ignored
• Lynne Ramsey: Class-bias exists - people who went to the 'right' schools and know the 'right' people

Talk 2:
By:

• Film is not dead & digital is making people lazy
• Rehearsal is a necessity
• "You're only as good as the people you're working with" 
• "Don't fix it in post"
• Directors must be clear/work with their actors and crew throughout
• Using a full camera crew is always advisable
• Do not take on more than one job at a time or else you will find that you have to make compromises that could spoil all your efforts
• "Film making is a collaboration"
• Spielberg - Film, Lucas - Digital
• Forget the tech and focus on the story
• Shoot as much as you can while you are in school, because when you leave, the work you've done becomes your calling card
• Big screen & good sound system = cinema is a magical experience
• Female on film - proper lighting, black stocking over the lens
• "If you do PC, stay off the film set"

My Film - Location Scout

The location I want to use in my film opening is one that is commonly associated with the horror movie genre...

A Cemetery!

Having walked my dog through the local cemetery many times, I now know it well, and I'm writing the screenplay specifically with it in mind. The Cemetery is perfect because there's no better way to create the verisimilitude of a graveyard, than by actually filming in a graveyard!
Also, its quietness, easy accessibility, and beautifully eerie scenery will provide a perfect and convenient location for my project.

The first thing I did to prepare for my film project was a location scout of Ilkley Cemetery.

These are only a few of the dozens of photos I took, but they gave me the confirmation I needed that the cemetery was the perfect location for my project.

For the scenes set inside the girl's house, I decided that I would simply use my own bedroom and bathroom. Being a teenage girl myself, my room is already conveniently set up and displays the appropriate anchors for the protagonist being a teenage girl, building verisimilitude.

My Film - Audience Research

To create a successful film, it's crucial to make sure that there's an audience for it.
I decided to look at the BFI's Audience Research and Statistics to find out more.
(I took screenshots of the information that was most relevant to my film, and the general state of the market.)

I intend for my film to be in the hybrid genre of horror, thriller and sci-fi, meaning that the target audience for it would typically be teenagers and young adults (ranging from approximately 15-24 year olds.)
Usually the audience for these film genres is predominantly male, but I want to target female viewers as well to expand my audience base (hence having a female protagonist and antagonist.)

Therefore my primary audience is going to be 15-24 year olds of both genders, while my secondary audience is 25-34 year olds.

The research I did helped to confirm my ideas.

As I didn't want my film to appeal to a specific gender, I wanted to make audience age my primary focus for target audience. These statistics show how the 15-24 year olds made up the largest percentage of audience; as people of this age also tend to prefer movies from my chosen hybrid genre, this meant I was setting myself up with a substantial potential audience.

General Notes 

• "The overall audience for the top 20 and top UK films in 2014 had a slight bias towards males who made up 53% of total cinema-goers for these films."
• "25-34 year olds make up the second largest percentage of film consumers at 18%."
• "Films with a strong action element were particularly popular among male audiences."
• "Female audiences were drawn to a broader range of films."
• "Black and minority ethnic groups were over-represented among cinema-goers."
• "UK films were popular among all social groups in 2014."  
  

As males make up a slightly larger percentage of the cinema-goers than females, it's important to look at what types of film's they're attracted to.

The AB social group (e.g. people in high power jobs - they make up about 20% of the HRP UK population) make up 30% of the survey population and found most appeal in the independent UK films, suggesting my film has a fair chance of appealing to them.

I also looked at the rating system by the BBFC.
 
Due to the theme of horror, and the violence that usually accompanies it, I predict that my film would be given a 15 rating, (even though I don't intend to include anything explicit in my opening.)

How To Download A YouTube Video

Link

My Film - Thriller/Sci-fi/Horror Hybrid Genre

Scream 1996

 The opening of Scream 1996 shows the company ident, followed by a black title screen, with the word "scream" written on it in white faded looking block letters. There is a building droning sound in the background ground and the screams of a woman can be heard, as the letters flash red.

This is the end of the title sequence, and the movie begins immediately after with the opening murder sequence.

I liked the minimal use of titles as it helped to immerse the audience immediately within the film world; I want to use a similar style in my own film opening.


Body Snatchers 1993

This film opens with the production company names in a red font, over a moving galaxy background with eerie sci-fi music. The film's title appears last, and is bigger than the other names. The "Body Snatchers" title then fades out slowly, while the names of the cast and crew appear in white over the screen. The scene then transitions to a panning shot over ominous looking countryside while the titles continue. As we see a car driving down the road, a voice over from the protagonist begins. 

From this opening I liked the font used for the main title, and plan on using a similar font in my own film.

Codes and conventions of the thriller genre from JasonsA2Media

Science fiction conventions from Nikky Bain

Horror genre conventions from marine18

Film Openings Analysis - Peer work

Tom Atkinson - Ali G, Opening Analysis (P.1) (P.2) (P.3)
Tom Cross - Bridget Jones's Diary, Opening Analysis
Milo Davis - Atonement, Opening Analysis
Alex Hey - Burn After Reading, Opening Analysis
Will Laing - About a Boy, Opening Analysis
Louis Rose-Fall - The Boat That Rocked, Opening Analysis
Rian Scaife - Wish You Were Here, Opening Analysis
Charles Verfuerth - Le Donk & Scor-Zay-Zee, Opening Analysis
Robbie Watson - Napoleon Dynamite, Opening Analysis
Niamh Wormald - Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Opening Analysis

My Film - Initial Ideas

1.) Main character in bed, ^^^, tries to sleep again - nightmare(?)(jump cut images of a nightmare) - wakes up sweating - rolls over to sleep again, eyes open to the sound of shattering glass. 

2.) Lots of jump cuts - character keeps waking up in different places. Could use a specific item or effect in the peripheral of each scene. Voice over/non-diegetic sound.

3.) Normal bathroom routine - bends to spit out toothpaste, reflection doesn't move, (blinks - eyes change colour) just looks down at real person. Real person looks back up, reflection is smiling - holding scissors. Real person looks in confusion, then terror - reflection slits throat - real person's blood splatters window, drops to floor. Reflection smiles - bloodied teeth, blood dripping from neck - turns to look directly into the camera, tilts head, smiles wider. 

Influences

• Scream (1996)
• Scream (Netflix Series, 2015-) Opens with shot of a lake and dock at night, non-diegetic music playing "Daisy Daisy.." - cut to make out scene and then montage (with non-diegetic music) of social media sharing before a close-up of a character's face, then cut to an antagonist and murder scene commences

"Four Lions" Titles Analysis

Four Lions

(Chris Morris, 2010)

Produced by Warp Films, (+ Film4; Wild Bunch, Optimum Releasing)

Budget: £2.5 million

Overall, the opening sequence is about 3mins20secs long, with two company idents and four titles. It seems that the lack of titles for this opening is done deliberately so that the audience will focus on the story and characters right away. The film seems to be trying for verisimilitude, as it doesn't start with a montage and non-diegetic sound, but with a long-shot of one of the main characters. There isn't much of a narrative enigma, but this works as it fits with the characters (who seem rather unintelligent) and are rather unsubtle.

The film opens with the company ident for Wild Bunch (10 seconds in length.) As "Wild Bunch" is a German Film Distribution Company, we understand this company ident to mean that they were the distributors for "Four Lions"

"Film4" is a production company, so this company ident (10 seconds in length) reveals to us that they produced "Four Lions".

Both company idents keep their original sound.

This is the first shot of the film. There are no titles - it simply cuts in with a static medium-long shot (that shifts ever so slightly) of one of the characters in the middle third. All the sound is diegetic. It can be denoted that the character looks middle-eastern, is wearing dark, khaki clothing, and a head band with what appears to be islamic writing on it: this exposition shows us that the character is islamic, and given that the audience is likely to have seen videos of terrorist propaganda on the news (intertextuality) we understand that this character is meant to be a terrorist. A narrative enigma is created briefly as an audience wonders what he is going to say and what's going to happen next. The lack of titles seems to have been done to create a strong sense of verisimilitude (as if this were really a terrorist demands video, as that wouldn't have titles.) 

In the next shot (cuts to a long shot - which is important as it increases the shot variety) the rest of the main characters are revealed, and it becomes clear to the audience that they are not actually a serious terrorist group, but just four Pakistani's from Sheffield, West Yorkshire (exposed through their accents.)  However, there is a slight narrative enigma as we (the audience) are left wondering what they're trying to achieve by being terrorists. We can denote that the room they are in is shabby and sparsely furnished, which has connotations of our main characters being lower-middle class. 

However, there is a jump-cut to a medium shot of Omar's (the protagonist's) family, but now the room in which they are in is a lot cleaner and nicer, a direct contrast to the place in which we first met Omar. This creates a binary opposition; the terrorist, and the family man. It must be denoted that his wife is a nurse, and that he has a young son; these two facts both make the audience more connected to Omar, despite his attempts to be a terrorist. All sound up until this point has been diegetic, but non-diegetic music begins to fade in (providing an audio bridge.)

This is the 1st title to appear in the film, however it doesn't appear until 3:01. The word "presents" shows us that Film4 produced this film. Non-diegetic music (which sounds middle eastern and quite serious) has begun to play by this point. This footage provides the transition (with the aid of an audio bridge) from the introduction to the main film, and also gives anchorage to help with the context (e.g. that it takes place within a city.)

This is the (2nd and) main title (the name) of the movie. It's written in sans-serif and is easy to read; fonts like this are commonly used in comedies and dramas ("Four Lions" being a combination of the two.) It's small, and in the lower middle third of the screen, however as the camera zooms in on the Mosque with fairy lights (center, middle third) we understand that this movie is to focus on Islam; the mosque is being used as anchorage. As we've seen the four Jihadi terrorists by this point, we understand the title "Four Lions" is a direct reference to them. 

Just as with the 1st and 2nd titles, the writing here is small, sans-serif style and pale coloured, meaning it is not eye-catching. Again it's also in the bottom two thirds, almost as if it was not meant to be seen (or at least focused on.) This title mentions the production company (Warp Films) and the director (Chris Morris - who is only mentioned once within the titles; this is unusual, as normally the director is mentioned twice.) The mise-en-scene here depicts an empty shopping center, which is revealed to be the place of employment of Omar. The use of the empty shopping center is to anchor the fact that Omar lives in the western world, which makes his involvement in a Jihadi terrorist group all the more confusing for the audience.

This is the final title for the opening, and it simply names two companies involved in the majority of distribution of this film; Wild Bunch and Optimum Releasing. Again, the writing is small and difficult to read, especially as it's placed in the bottom third. (The non-diegetic music ends here.)

*Each title lasts approximately 5 seconds (and they fade in/out,) with the overall title sequence stretching from 3:01 to 3:20. 

(Main) Props List

• Camera
• Toy Rifle
• Laptop

Location

• Shabby living room
• Modern kitchen
• City at night
• Empty shopping center

TASK 1: The role of researching film opening conventions in our coursework

"Using either a printed copy or an online version, look through the assessment criteria for all three marked sections of your coursework and note in this post any and all elements of this that are linked to researching the conventions of film openings (and film/genre conventions more broadly). Include any of the relevant 7 Evaluation Questions in your list."

Research and Planning

• There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience
• There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning

Evaluation

• Excellent understanding of issues around audience, institution, technology, representation, forms, and conventions in relation to production
• Excellent ability to refer to the choices made and outcomes

Production

• Using titles appropriately
• Editing so that the meaning is apparent to the viewer

Mark Scheme

"Pretty in Pink" Film Opening Conventions

DB Blog Post

My Prelim - Final Cut

My Prelim - Breaking the 180 Degree Rule

In this edit of my prelim task, I have used shot types in an editing sequence that breaks the 180 degree rule.

My Prelim - Rough Cut

This is the rough cut of my prelim task.

My Prelim Task (Parts 1, 2, & 3) - What I Did

PART 1 

• In our Prelim Task, we were told to film a series of shots where a person opens a door, enters a room, and has a conversation with another person. We then had to use Final Cut Pro to edit these shots into a short film.

First, we had to set ourselves up with a new library within Final Cut Pro so that we could ensure our work would not get lost or deleted.

Next, we had to take the SD card (from the camera we used to film with) and place it into the computer where we could upload our footage to Final Cut Pro.

(This is where all our footage appeared in Final Cut Pro.)






*It's very important to eject the SD card before you physically remove it from the machine.




The footage we uploaded could be seen and played in its original form in the window to the top right of the screen in Final Cut Pro.

To begin editing our footage into a clip of film the would run smoothly, we had to drag down the footage clips we wanted into the bar at the bottom of the screen where we could place them in the correct order (and where we could begin to edit them.)

The image above (^^^) shows where the footage was placed.

The image to the left shows the "zoom" controls that allowed us to control how big/small the footage in the above image could be viewed as. The bigger the footage, the easier it was to have a very clear view of how we were editing it (helping us to avoid mistakes.)


The first (and most important) part of our editing was our use of the "blade" tool, which allowed us to cut out the unnecessary bits of footage the were detracting from our film.

Next, I began to play around with the volume setting because when we filmed our footage there was a lot of unnecessary background noise, and I wished to eliminate this from the film.

I also went on to edit the speed of the final clip; I had to prolong the clip as it was meant to show emotion, but this emotion had been lost because it was too short (I'd had to cut out some unpleasant sounds.) To solve this problem, I edited the speed at which the clip would be played, basically putting it into slow-motion.

As this is only the prelim task, at this point I had to save and export my project. Once I had checked that there was no "slug" and I'd highlighted the footage, I had to export it.

I had to select "share" (as master file) as the file was video footage.

(There were various settings that needed adjusting.)



PART 2

• "Breaking the 180 Degree Rule"

In the second version of my Prelim task I used a shot where I broke the 180 Degree Rule.

The "180 Degree Rule" - an imaginary line called the "axis" connects the characters, and by keeping the camera on one side of this axis for every shot in the scene, the first character is always frame right of the second.
Breaking the 180 Degree Rule causes it to appear to the audience that the characters have switched places (as evidenced below.)

PART 3

• "Sounds & Titles"

In the third version of my Prelim Task I had to add Titles and Sound Clips.

To add a Title I had to select the "T" icon from the inserts bar. Once I had selected the type of title that would work best for this project I went on to change the text, the colours, the font, the size, and the positioning on the screen.












It was important to me find font styles and colours that fit with the style of the film and with the type of music I selected.   (An example title is shown below.)

(My Title: "SILVERSALT STUDIOS PRESENTS")

I also had to add sound to my film. To do this I had to click on the musical note icon in the inserts bar, and then select the "iLife Sound Effects" file; from here, i had access to all the sound effects and music I could want. To fit with the style of my film I selected a piece of music called "Tigris" from the "Jingles" folder and placed it in the work bar beneath my footage. I used it to cover the unpleasant background noise, but I had to make sure that the dialogue could still be heard.
At the end of my film I have adjusted the volume settings so as to have the music fade out, as an abrupt stop would have seemed unprofessional.

I also added end credits; I used a pre-made option from the "T" tab in the inserts bar.