Post 9: Production

Whilst we were making our opening we had a couple of problems. We started off with filming the scenes with Carlson leaving for work. The very first problem that came up was that we were missing a prop, it being the suitcase that Carlson is supposed to put his documents in. Here we realised that we were in fact missing it and that we hadn't checked before hoof to see if any one actually owns one. This meant that we ended up going for a laptop bag which whilst working, it didn't have the same effect as the leather briefcase would have done with the number combination clasp that is conventional in spy thrillers. From this we learnt that it is very important to have all props accounted for before we start filming as it can lead to time being wasted during the time we are supposed to be filming.

Another problem that we came across later on was that when we came to film the terrorist scenes, we had misplaced our script somewhere along the way. This meant that we weren't able to shoot the dialogue scenes that day, when we wanted to get it all filmed at once.
To get around this we organised the same ponies to come back a week later so that we could re-write our original script and film the missing scenes. Here we encountered another problem because we had to compromise our original storyboard and miss the last couple shots due to us not being able to get hold of a van or even a car in such short notice. This meant that we also had to change parts of our original script in which they would talk about how they had changed the plates and how it was parked outside. Instead of using these lines we chose to not mention any vehicle and instead leave it open. I feel that this did work but at the same time it would have added to the mise-en-scene to have a van or at least a car in some of these shots.


One other problem that we encountered when we were filming inside the garage was that it didn't have any power outlets, this meant that we couldn't use any artificial lighting. Having artificial lighting inside the garage, especially towards the back would have been very useful because our shots were all very dark meaning that we would have to try to enhance them in post production, making them look less natural than they otherwise would and also possibly compromising the video quality.

One thing that went well with our filming was that we didn't have to retake many shots. There was a couple mistakes such as Joel (The terrorist wearing the balaclava) dropping the guns magazine and also a couple of framing mistakes here and there but over all we didn't have too much excess footage that we have to sift through. This means that we are able to save a lot of time when it comes to editing because we wont have to choose which shots are better than others and edit the wrong shots out.

Overall i feel that while we did have a few problems and revisions but i feel that we dealt with them successfully and still got what we needed to a good level of quality and polish.

Post 8: Pre-Production Documentation

Full Plot Synopsis: Agent Carlson is getting ready for an interrogation into a recent mission uncovering the true intent of a higher up member of MI6; agent Darwin. At the same time a squad of terrorists are getting ready to kidnap Carlson and his daughter.

They get them away successfully and take them to a secure location.

Months earlier, Carlson was on an assassination mission in Iran were he was ordered to kill a high valued target. Through a misunderstanding with his head agent, Darwin, he killed the wrong pony without knowing and got home to find out that he had been punished for failing the mission, although he thought he carried it out successfully. This led to him getting demoted to a desk job.

In the terrorist’s captivity, Carlson starts planning his escape whilst the terrorists confirm that they have captured him and his daughter, they then realise that they have been double crossed by not being paid for kidnapping Carlson so that he couldn’t get to the interrogation. This makes the terrorists feel a vendetta towards the agent that hired them, Darwin. Instead of keeping Carlson in their captivity they choose to get onto MI6 and get a ransom for agent Carlson. Carlson escapes and frees his daughter leaving on his way to MI6.

While the terrorists start coming to terms with MI6 one of them realise that they have escaped, leading the terrorists to panic and choosing to go after them. On his way Carlson finds a payphone and he contacts Darwin asking to meet in a private area, Darwin agrees and then Carlson and his daughter turn up at MI6, rushing up to the head office, knowing that Darwin isn’t in the building.

Carlson gets up to the head office and sees the Director looking confused about why he is in such a rush. Carlson tells him about the whole affair, telling him about Iran and what has just happened to him and about how Darwin is working against the MI6. After some thought the Director believes him and they send out a task force to track him down.

Darwin arrives at the private location, confused that Carlson isn’t already there, shortly after the terrorist group also arrives, confused as well because they were expecting to find Carlson after following him on the run. During a confrontation the terrorists find out that it is Darwin that’s in front of them and they kill him in revenge for double crossing them. As they escape the task force that was set out to track down Darwin sees them escaping and manages to arrest them.

Opening Sequence Outline: Agent Carlson is getting ready for work at his job in MI6, feeling sad that he cant be with his daughter, at the same time a group of freelance terrorists are getting ready to kidnap him because they have been hired to by an anoymous source. The 2 scenes cut between eachother at different paces, with the terrorists having a fast and intence feeling, against Carlson who is relaxed and lethargic.

Risk Assessment:

 
Crew List:
Hugo King-Irwin: Camera Operator, Terrorist and Director
John Brookes: Camera Operator, Terrorist and Assistant Director
Max Halcomb: Camera Operator, Agent Carlson and Writer
Conor Westlake: Camera Operator, Producer and Co-Writer

Storyboard:

Pre-Production Report:

Our idea is to do a Thriller aimed at the target audience of young adult males. We had to do a number of different drafts of the script, so that it was more thrilling, engaging and so that it had a solid conclusion. One problem that we have encountered is that our cast is going to be somewhat younger than the ones that are presented in the script. We will try our best to solve this problem by casting people who look and sound a lot older than they actually are; we are also able to manipulate their appearance by using makeup and lighting to our advantage.

Another thing that we have found during our preproduction is to use lots of shots. This will benefit our piece because it will give it a good sense of pacing, something that we have found to be very important in the openings of thrillers. We have listed our shots in the shot list and illustrated them as well in our storyboard. This is so that we have something that we can easily refer to whilst we are filming.

Post 7: Focus Group

http://youtu.be/teCDFdWjW3w

For our focus group i went for 4 17 to 18 year old boys, who fall in our primary demographic. Over all i feel that our small focus group made up of our target audience all agreed that it was something that they would be interested in watching and paying bits for. This means that if it looks good for these members of our demographic it will probably look good for many other members of my target audience.

Post 6: History of Chosen Genre

Crime and Gangster Films are developed around the sinister actions of criminals or gangsters, particularly bank robbers, underworld figures, or ruthless hoodlums who operate outside the law, stealing and violently murdering their way through life. Criminal and gangster films are often categorized as post-war, film noir or detective-mystery films, because of underlying similarities between these cinematic forms.

Some iconic crime thrillers:

Scarface (1932): One of the earliest crime films to deal with the subject of a man’s rise and fall from the top. Widely received upon its release and still regarded as a masterpiece it led to the 1983 film of the same name, which in turn was also highly successful.

The Maltese Falcon (1941): One of the first and most successful book adaptations of a crime novel, it was nominated for 3 Oscars and is number 109 in the IMDB top 250 today. It is also still reference even today I TV, Films and also Videogames.

The Night of the Hunter (1955): A very successful film that showed a darker and more serious side to the crime thriller with it focusing on manipulation and subterfuge rather than straight up violence. To this day it is still seen as an iconic piece of cinema with it being number 190 on IMDBs top 250.

 Bonnie and Clyde (1967): One of the first films to show bloody violence in colour, it showed that women can also be seen as violent figures. It won 2 Oscars and is still seen as a defining cult film for its genre as well as others.

The Warriors (1979): One of the most successful cult films of all time with a huge following, it showed a stylised and glamorized depiction of 80s gang culture along the east coast whilst depicting violence against both police and other gangs.

The Untouchables (1987): A remake of a 1959 film of the same name, is has become one of the most iconic films surrounding the fall of Al Capone in the 1920s, with an all star cast and acclaimed director Brian De Palmer it went on to become very successful and win an Oscar.

Heat (1995): A highly successful film about robberies and organised crime it had an ensemble cast including Val Kilmer, Al Pacino and Robert Di Nero. The film is well renowned for being incredibly action packed and having phenomenal shoot outs.

Task 5a - Macro/Micro Analysis of an Opening Sequence from Your Genre

“The Green Mile” directed by Frank Darabont is based in modern day and 1930's Louisiana during the Great Depression. The Great Depression was a time that had devastating effects in virtually every country in the world, rich and poor. During this time entire crops failed due to the the farmers not being able to keep their crop nourished, rich and successful people were living on the street in complete poverty and people all around the USA were going on journeys looking for work anywhere in the country (as seen in “Of Mice And Men”). The film got very high critical acclaim when it came out with 13 awards and 23 nominations. Now 10 years on it is still very much recognised as an excellent film with it being number 83 on IMDB's top 250 films list, between “Once Upon a Time in America” and “Amadeus”.

From the very second that the film starts we can hear very tranquil music. This is used to set the scene of a very open area. It does this by slowly entering the film with the picture then fading in also, it helps set the scene of vast open fields and marshland by echoing with what is happening on screen. Another thing that this music does is contradict with what is happening on screen. It does this by letting the viewer hear a very chilled out and relaxing piece of non-diegetic music whilst being accompanied with a large group of men with pitchforks, guns and sniffer dogs trying to find a man who has murdered two small girls. This is called contrapuntal sound, it is where what is being shown conflicts with what is being heard. The reason why they would have done this is to give the viewer a sense of mystery as to what is going on (at this point the audience wouldn't have known that they were looking for a killer), and therefore keep them interested in what is going to happen, the way that the contrapuntal music has this effect is because it also distorts the other sounds as well, such as the the dogs barking and the stallion shouting for his two daughters, Katie and Cora.

After this very small introduction it fades to black revealing the title card. The title card reveals the name of the film in a smart white on black style that a lot of films also do. The reason as to why it's white on black rather than black on white is to show the tone of the film. For example the film is about death and prison meaning that it isn't going to be very positive and happy. This is why black would be used as the primary colour because the colour black is used to symbolise darkness, darkness being a common fear in children and therefore it subconsciously brings up memories of those childhood fears. This is also reflected with in the film, where John Coffey asks “Do you leave the light on after bed time?”.

After the title card fades to black again you hear some mysterious words uttered and then it jump cuts to the protagonist Paul Edgecomb in the modern day with a big close up if his eyes jerking open from his sleep. This shows tension because of how frantically and suddenly his eyes open. The ambient music stops right before the words are muttered and then the audience is greeted with a very fast cut to his eyes, this makes the audience know that there is a change in tone because they are no longer hearing the music. The reason why I think that Darabont chose to do this is to show that Paul Edgecomb is a character that has picked up a lot of haunting memories from the past, therefore giving him a deeper back story along with a stronger connection with the audience.

The film then continues to show Paul Edgecomb go about his morning routine in the old peoples home in which he lives. The reason why we see him do these mundane things is to show that he is a character that the audience can relate to and that by seeing him do these things that most ponies would do brings them closer to the character. The reason for this is to show us that although he has experienced a frightening past he is also a normal human being.

After he washes his face and combs his hair he walks out into the hall of the old peoples home where some non-diegetic classical music is playing, and where he greets a couple of other inhabitants of the old foalks home. The classical music is used to show that they are old and that it's the music of their generation. The reason why the director made him greet people when he was walking down the hall was so that he would be more likeable by the audience and seem like a loving and kind character.

Task 5: Title Timeline

I watched the opening of Se7en, and took note of the time stamps from where certain audio and visual ques took place, but most importantly i was looking for where the credits came in and in what order.

This is useful because it shows us good points in the opening where to put our titles and in what order, it also shows us that we should include important genre conventions, alot like what Se7en did.

Post 4b: Narrative/Character Research

Dispatch – Carlson character research.

Carlson is a Mi6 agent as I researching mi6 agents threw the internet I was confronted with page upon page of mi6 agents following the James bond look. A very clean cut man with a suit and tie. Also very well built. Seeing as there is so much information on mi6 agents looking like this it will be hard to create something different.  However seeing that Carlson is more of a darker character therefore depicts him having a bit of a shadier look.

Life as a MI6 agent is obviously a very hard and lonely job. In October 2007 Alexander Litvinenko ( a ex Russian spy) was poisoned and died 3 weeks later.  Litvinenko was rumoured to have been trying to persuade ex Russian spy’s to sell secrets to mi6. The whole event was publicised massively however nobody knows fully what went on even 5 years later. This story has made me think about how we want our story to develop rather then Carlson being taking by force they will have to do something cleverer then just using guns in the day light.

Of what I can find on the internet a typical mi6 agent will be making at least 16k a year at the low end of the scale. Therefore I want to depict Carlson to have an image of a typical everyday worker. But of course we know that he is a mi6 agent.

As we know Carlson has served over 4 years in the English army in Afghanistan.  In a risk assessment taken 3 months ago Mi6 and SiS are still in a tier one risk in a national security risk assessment.  With Al Qaeda still marinating the main threat, meaning it would be hard for them to operate in England; therefore our terrorist group will most likely not be Al Qaeda or the Taliban.  However Carlson would have gained experience from fighting in Afghanistan near Helmand province.
 

Carlson would have learnt this from an early stage.

• Prevent- to stop people becoming terrorist or supporting violent extremism
• Pursue- to stop terrorist attacks
• Protect- strengthen our protection against terrorist attack
• Prepare- where an attack cannot be stopped