Coursework Progress

Two of our original actors couldn't refilm, so we had to recast the main character and henchman. Yesterday we filmed the scene again and it went really well and there were some good shots. Today we finished editing the footage including titles; however the overall time only came to a minute or just under. The maximum time for the opening sequence is 2 minutes 30 seconds, so the overall time being under a minute isn't good enough for the coursework. 
To increase our time and to develop the story I wrote another scene to add.
This is the new scene:

OWEN walks into the room. Sitting at a computer is a MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER who is centred in the middle of the shot; she/he gets up and leaves in a hurry pushing past OWEN. The MYSTERIOUS character leaves the room (match on action), they look in their bag and realise they’ve left something important behind, she/he looks into the room watching OWEN as he discoveries the memory stick. (Point of view shot from MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER)

OWEN goes to the computer and realises a memory stick has been left behind, he turns back but the MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER hides out of the view of OWEN, OWEN then turns back to the computer and the MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER comes out of hiding looking in nervously. To look for clues OWEN looks in the files (and out of curiosity) to figure out whose memory stick it is.

As he is going is looking in the files he stumbles upon something that shocks him and gasps. The MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER leaves and walks down the corridor and makes an important phone call whilst walking to MR G.

MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER: We have a problem.

The scene then returns to OWEN who is typing into Google ‘The Hendermann Deal’ but there are no results. OWEN then types in ‘The Search Engine.’

End of scene.

Production Process:Filming

Today we filmed these two parts, the first part:

OWEN walking fast to booth, clearly tense about something.

OWEN enters the phone booth and tries to make a phone call but the number isn’t available.

OWEN clearly frustrated

OWEN: (frustrated and distressed) Come on work!

OWEN forcefully puts down the phone, brushes hand through hair, he then rips a page out of the phonebook

Camera zooms out, point of view shot from HENCHMAN 1’s view

Firstly did a long shot of the protagonist walking to the booth getting straight into the action and establishing the urban settings and the ‘hero.’ Using a panning shot to follow the protagonist as he enters the phone booth to keep continuity, by following his continuous actions making it seem more natural. Stopped recording and got into place to do the next shots which were a mixture of close-up and extreme close-up shots so the sound was accurately captured. Stop recording again and then set up for a medium shot to capture the protagonist’s frustration and him leaving the booth. Due to amendments of the script the “he then rips a page out of the phonebook” was taken out. Then the camera zooms out gradually, stop recording and moved into place of where the HENCHMAN 1 is and capture a shot from his point of view.

And the third section:

HENCHMAN 1 (hesitates and then answers): Yes, sir

End of call.

OWEN comes out of the phone booth. HENCHMAN 1 approaches him pretending to be a normal citizen so he doesn’t give away his true identity and cause panic.

OWEN: Have you got a phone, I need to make an important call

HENCHMAN 1:  looks in his coat pocket looks up (Reverse shot) HENCHMAN 1 punches OWEN

Close-up of HENCHMAN 1’s face then of him saying his line and he then hangs up. After the camera was repositioned, so we see HENCHMAN 1 approaching OWEN the protagonist. Repositioning the camera again to capture the first shot of OWEN talking, then repositioning again to capture the reverse shot of HENCHMAN 1, to show him looking in his coat pocket then pretending to punch the protagonist. For this shot, firstly took the ‘pretend punch’ shot with the camera on HENCHMAN 1and then to get another shot/reverse shot and diversity of angles we re-filmed that part with the camera on OWEN.

The second part of the script was filmed last:

HENCHMAN 1 is on the phone, on the other end of the phone we hear MR G his superior speaking on the other end.

MR G: The Hendermann deal is going through. It’s too much of a liability to keep him alive. Get rid of him. No evidence.

The name and character of Mr G was inspired by Quentin Tarantino’s villains as I am a big fan of his films so I persuaded the rest of my group for ‘Mr G’ to be this cool, sophisticated and ambiguous villain. To capture the speech clearly a microphone was placed just underneath the camera. Making our mastermind villain still mysterious, the scene was shot with the antagonist facing the opposite way so all we see is him speaking on the phone, keeping his identity still hidden.  

Filming experiment

Whilst filming the opening scenes and titles we tried many different ideas, even though we are re-filming, this clip I especially liked when he's typing the title of the project on the computer screen. For the thriller coursework we were going to include this but when we started to film, our ideas took a different path.

Titles Font Ideas

Now the filming is getting on, it's time to think about what fonts to use for the titles and the title of the film. Using this website, that let's you download free fonts, on www.dafont.com helped to give us an idea of what kind of font we wanted to use for the titles. Because our thriller is about computers etc, I suggested to use a standard recognisable font then adding to that Luke suggested to use a type effect using LiveType.

Revisions

When filming to make actions smoother and to improve quality as a group we decided to change a few things within the script. After editing this is now the new imprved script!

OWEN walking fast to booth, clearly tense about something.

OWEN enters the phone booth and tries to make a phone call but the number isn’t available.

OWEN clearly frustrated

OWEN: (distressed) Come on work!

OWEN forcefully puts down the phone, brushes hand through hair

Camera zooms out, point of view shot from HENCHMAN 1’s view

HENCHMAN 1 is on the phone, on the other end of the phone we hear MR G his superior speaking on the other end.

MR G: The Hendermann deal is going through. It’s too much of a liability to keep him alive. Get rid of him. No evidence.

HENCHMAN 1 (hesitates and then answers): Yes, sir

End of call.

OWEN comes out of the phone booth. HENCHMAN 1 approaches him pretending to be a normal citizen so he doesn’t give away his true identity and cause panic.

OWEN: [close-up shot] Have you got a phone, I need to make an important call

HENCHMAN 1:  looks in his coat pocket looks up [Reverse shot] HENCHMAN 1 punches OWEN

Black shot (text: 24 hours earlier …)

Updated planning details

Originally published 26/01/2012, updated 16/02/2012

The characters that will feature in the opening titles are:
Owen- the protagonist
The voice of Mr G- the antagonist
Henchman 1- who is Mr G's right hand man who does the 'dirty work'

Locations, locations, locations...
Ict room 2 for the Mr G filming and then we're going to use a public phonebooth for a more modern day realistic effect.

Music and sounds:
Decided for the sound effects we're going to use Final Cut Express, for the ident and the anamatic I used Garage Band to create the music it was really easy when I got the hand of it after a few learning curves. For the music we signed up for mobygratis.com and we're looking and seeing what would work well and give the most effect to the coursework.

Blog Poll results

Finally got round to reviewing the poll results on my blog and here they are,

And the winner is the Spy Thriller, so love the fast paced action and violence hey? Well then guess you'll just as excited as me about the new Bourne film coming out in August, uncovering more information about the anymonous operation Bourne and others like him were enrolled in.

Review of footage

After reviewing the scenes we filmed on Tuesday, the shots were shakey so after half term we're going to film them again. 

Hopefully after half term the weather conditions will be better also as the snow and ice will have probably melted.

Filming!

Today we started to film our opening sequence for our coursework. Recently there has been lots of snow and ice but thankfully the ice had mostly melted so we took the opportunity to film. We filmed the first part up to the phonecall then the third part after the phonecall.
To save alot of time going to start editing the film that we already have, and hopefully soon we will get all the filming done, start to edit and thinking about how to present the titles.

Risk Assessment

1. No filming in inappropriate locations.
2. Check safety of locations e.g. roads.
3. Minimise risk of theft or equipment.
4. When filming on location ensure teacher or responsible adult know where you are and have a telephone number and a time of when you will return.
5. Check all equipment is working before you leave.
6. Ensure you have permission for filming if necessary.
7. Always film with at least one other person.
8. Ensure you have permission of those you are filming

Risk Assessment Sheet

Programme Title: The Search Engine

Client: AS Media Studies Coursework

Writers: Ezekiel Ignacio and Jessica Pye

Producer: Colin Chafer

Director: Luke van Gelder

Date: 31/01/2012

Major Issues:

Filming at:

Robert Clack Upper site A18

Local phone booth at Fiddlers

Solutions:

We made appointments with actors to get ahead of their busy work schedule and to book when to film, which is at morning times between 9-10:30 and after school times when students (and other background) won’t cause too much of a disruption.  

Contacts:

Mr Johnson Head of Media Studies

Emergency services:

On Site Services: Going to be accompanied with and adult at all times as actors are adults (teachers)

Local Police: Metropolitan Police at Dagenham East

Local Fire: near Central Park

Local Hospital: Queens’ hospital in Romford

The Art of the Titles

The Art of the Titles is all about honouring as well as going into detail of film opening sequences and titles seeing how they're made and key elements that make them memorable.

The Art of the Titles is "a compendium and leading web resource of film and television title design from around the world. We honor the artists who design excellent title sequences. We discuss and display their work with a desire to foster more of it, via stills and video links, interviews, creator notes, and user comments. 

Featuring opening title design for film and television from Croatia, New Zealand

The British Board of Film Classification

Our thriller opening sequence for coursework, including film titles, must be aimed at 15 or 18 certifcate audience. Knowing that I did some independant research into what makes a film a 15 or 18 certifcate on the http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ website.

Suitable only for 15 years and over

"No one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work."

Discrimination

The work (as a whole) must not approve or support discriminatory language or behaviour.

Drugs

Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.

Horror

Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

Imitable behaviour

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Language

There may be frequent use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’). The strongest  terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Nudity

Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

Sex

Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme

No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

Violence

Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.

Suitable only for adults

No-one younger than 18 may see an ‘18’ film in a cinema.
No-one younger than 18 may rent or buy an ‘18’ rated video.

Crime

If the material is in breach of the criminal law, or has been created through the commission of a criminal offence.

Behaviour
Where material or treatment appears to the BBFC to risk harm to individuals or, through their behaviour, to society – for example, any detailed portrayal of violent or dangerous acts.

Drug use
or of illegal drug use, which may cause harm to public health or morals.

Violence
This may include portrayals of sexual or sexualised violence which might, for example, eroticise or endorse sexual assault.

Sex
There are more explicit images of sexual activity which cannot be justified by context. Such images may be appropriate in ‘R18’ works, and in ‘sex works’would normally be confined to that category.

Film Language: Thrillers

Every different genre of film will have its own conventions which help us to identify what type of film it will be. Film language is a big part of this as the scene is set, props in place and actors ready - these features help to foreshadow what's to come.
So what features do we see in thrillers?
Themes:
- action
- violence
- horror
- tension/suspense/shock

Camerawork:
- slanted camera angles
- tilt shots to show disorientation
- angled shots
- extreme close-ups to show fear


Editing:
You could use:
A straight cut which is most used in any editing/films
A fade-out to show time passing
A dissolve which is the blending of two scenes creating a linking sense in the story
A wipe cut; but these are rarely used
or finally a jump cut to draw the audiences attention and create tension/disorientation as an object/character is brought to our focus attention

Lighting:
Normally low key lighting would be used to create shadows and give a chiaroscuro effect to create a dark foreboding effect. However high key lighting may be used to create a contrapuntal effect by having a normal setting which is more effective as it's more realistic.


Sound/music:
Something minor or discordant sounding  to add suspense/uneasiness and prepare the audience for what is to come or to mislead into a sense of security using contrapuntal music to contrast the events to come.
For example one of the most famous pieces of film music of all time is in Psycho in the famous 'shower scene'

Ident

Interviews

For further target audience research we interviewed seven media studies students and one of our media studies teachers. We asked six questions and filmed the responses.
After editing in Final Cut Express the video is now complete, here's the video: