PLANNING: Props and Locations

Below is a table for locations and the props needed at them.

PLANNING: Shooting Schedule

We shot our film over a five day period (Ten, if re-shoots are counted). This required a shooting schedule to be made to ensure that we could shoot scenes at times that were convenient for our actors. We made the shooting schedule after having a meeting with our group and the actors we were going to use over Skype, which enabled people to check their availability for that day.

This is the finalised shooting schedule (With the re-shoot added retrospectively).

The scene had to be re-shot because the lighting for the day was too different to the proceeding shot of Stan running towards the car... that and...in a moment of genius, we forgot to have Stan in the Driver perspective shot.

PLANNING: Final Storyboard

After reviewing the storyboard results and sorting them into categories I came to two conclusions;


- Firstly, people wanted more dialogue, especially women so I've reviewed the phone call scene between MC and SC.

- And Secondly people wanted a bit of death. This was the hardest thing to follow out as there was no death planned in the opening two minutes. I therefore decided to have a brief shot of some person in the background being taken away in a body bag. Hopefully that will do. This can emphasise imminent doom or something to that effect. Likewise we won't do this, because it's an insane idea and would take up the best part of the two minutes to do properly.

RESEARCH: Storyboard analysis

We decided to continue audience research to find out what other people thought of our storyboard idea. We did this by going constructing a questionnaire and going round the 6th form and asking people who were in our target audience. We had discussed filming ourselves asking the questions but we thought this would take up too much time and that placing people in front of a camera (even supposedly mature sixth form people) could waste our time.

1).

The first question is designed so we can divide our results in half and so we can record what men and women agree and disagree on.

2).

Similar intentions as the first question; three age groups allows us to see what different ages agree and disagree on.

3).

Sound outcome here. Personally I was hoping more people would mark it down as average so we would have something to improve on. Then again one shouldn't complain at a lack of complaints.

4).

Interesting results and a good range of answers to choose from.. At least we know that people want some dialogue .

5).

People seem to largely agree that an urban environment is a fitting place for a gritty urban drama. Shame four peoples heads weren't screwed on that day.

6).

This question was asked to see if people thought our proposed film idea was achievable. We are creative individuals; we like to think big and this was just to make sure that we hadn't made our idea too unrealistic.

"Couple of snaps"

Thomas and myself questioning the bright and eagle eyed inhabitants of the common room.

Storyboard

i. Establishing shot - Heavy breathing is heard while the shot slowly fades to a man running. The shot will last aprox. 6-7 seconds and consist only of his feet.

ii/iii. The first of the opening credits. Currently debating on whether to keep the heavy breathing over these or not. The text will fade in.

iv. Similar to i, shot of man running, this shot will last only about 3 seconds.

v. More opening titles.

vi. This shot consists of the main character making a turn to the right and going up some steps. The shot will pan slightly as he makes the turn.

vii. Group names

viii. This shot will start with the character appearing from the right hand side of the screen. He will be walking backwards so the audience can see the front of him, he will have blood on his shirt and should give the impression that he is running from something. He will then jump over a fence behind him.

ix. During the same shot the camera will move forward with the character as he jumps over the fence. Then quite loudly (probably through use of sound effects) a car will appear from the right will collide with the main character. During viii and ix smaller opening credits may appear.

x. The scene will cut to a shot of a man getting out of a car, he will ask if the man on the ground is okay.

xi. The shot then cut to a POV shot in which our main character will appear dazed. He will then get up and begin to run to the right. Smaller opening credits will stop here if introduced.

xii. The scene cuts to the main character running off, possibly telling the man in the car he is fine.

xiii. The scene then cuts back to the same angle before of the man in the car. He will mutter something under his breath and look dismayed and then get back into his car. Upon the door slamming shut the scene will instantly cut to a room with a lady in it. Not sure what she should be doing in the room, it might be a good idea to avoid her doing housework, someone might complain for all we know. A phone will ring and she will walk over to it.

xv/xvi/xvii/xviii/xix. Brief conversation on the phone, it should be understood at this point that the main character and this secondary character are or were engaged in a relationship. MC as we shall now call him for convenience purposes will more or less force invite himself round her apartment. The shot will consist him running towards the camera head on while the camera maintains distance. Before SC can say otherwise, he hangs up leaving her saying "hello?" and then looking at the phone in confusion.

xx. Scene cuts to a birds eye shot of the MC running up a set of stairs.

xxi. Shot of MC coming through the apartment door with a brief shreak from SC, the camera pans right and MC exits to the left of the screen.

xxii. From the right MC walks towards a door and goes in.

xxiii. These shot will make use of a canted angle to represent confusion as nobody other than MC knows what is going on. He will turn the tap, take off his bloody shirt and then lean over the sink until he turns them off when the sink is full.

xxiv. Over the shoulder shot as he splashes water over his face and then he will begin to dunk his head in the water.

xxv. Shot shows his face entering the water following shot xxv. He then exits the water.

xxvi. Shot then cuts to the shown shot and SC appears round the door.

xxvii/xxviii/xxix/xxx/xxxi/xxxii. Contrary to the dodgy story board pictures the couple then engage in conversation. Something along the lines of what has just taken place. The two minutes of filming should at this point be complete.

RESEARCH & PLANNING: Preliminary Conclusions

All three of the films I deconstructed had completely different ways of entering the film. Evidently it seems that the genre and possibly the year are the biggest contributors rather than the director.

Starting with Harry Brown; it is an action thriller and throws you into the plot almost immediatly, the atmosphere is rushed and dramatic so you get absorbed into the genre. If you take a handful of other action titles such as Star Wars, Quantum of Solace and Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring you see the same dramatic opening. This is not necesserily a directors characteristic which is seen in other films he/she has directed but more of what we expect. So from that we can understand that if we were to do an action genre it should have a dramatic opening two minutes.

The Unborn is a horror and follows similar guidelines. It is not uncommon for horror films to begin with a calm 'ordinary day' feel. The reasons being so the plot can develop and/or the audience find themselves in their comfort zone. I think the chilling beginning is more of a modern filming style, older titles seem more natural but the majority of modern day horrors have a very surreal calm to them.

Directors Pitch

   Grit and action have become a winning formula in the film industry in recent years. Films such as The Dark Knight and Harry Brown are good examples of the application of grit in an action film. We intend to reflect this trend with our film.

   Set in Northampton, we will be working closely with the results from our questionnaire to develop a film that suits our target audience- the young adult demographic. This will be reflected in the characters used in the film. The central characters will be in roughly the same age band as that of the target audience, which will hopefully allow them to bond with the characters better.
   The results from the questionnaire have shown that a number of the sample found aesthetics to be important in a film. We will work to this by using high dynamic range imaging, gritty camera filters, and vignetting, seen in such programmes as Top Gear to add drama to each shot. The use of vignetting also makes the scenes become more claustrophobic. We will apply this with the planned scene in the bathroom.
   The first two minutes of the film itself with focus on the main character, a young man running through the streets of Northampton with a blood covered shirt. The establishing shot will be of the running feet on a pavement and heavy breathing. Opening credits play through this scene. More credits play through the following parts but appear on the picture rather than blacking out. At some point he turns round and this is the first time you see his blood covered shirt. He then will get hit by a car, this is mainly to show that his mind is on other things, at this point the credits stop. He gets up and continues running. We may have a phone call scene at this point to show the main guy and his girlfriend talking and asking if he can come round. The idea is that he then runs into his girlfriends flat essentially to hide and to cool down. At this point we want a gritty tearing off shirt/washing face/bloody water scene. We plan to use a fair share of camera angles and techniques so that the filming style relates to the atmosphere. I will create a storyboard for the film and then a questionnaire on it will be distributed by other members of my group.