Research and Planning

G324 Research and Planning

Hi, how you doing? I'm Leo, nice to meet you. Make yourself a nice tea, sit down and enjoy my blog.

Alright, I'm just gonna mention some things you should know before you carry on reading.
1. Anything in RED is something I've gone back and edited
2. Anything in ORANGE is a key areas/terminology (Gonna show off my intelligence)
3. Anything in BLUE is linked to our film
4. I'm gonna mention a good dad joke & dead meme every now and then, (which will be in PURPLE), to help brighten the mood because marking blogs all day must be kinda painful. (If you hate the jokes or the memes please don't mark me down)

11/09/17 - THE BEGINNING OF THE END (BLOG RESEARCH)

JOKE #1

Did you know that french fries weren't originally made in France?

They were cooked in Greece!!!

We have now officially started the coursework part, an area that I love but causes to much unnecessary stress. Last Wednesday we had our first lesson where we were introduced to the coursework and what it contains. "Create a short film the of any genre that lasts approximately 5 minutes, in groups of 3 or 4."

Fortunately, I was put into a group of 4 with 3 talented media students Maddy, Jordan & Cameron

(Cheers Sir), once put in our groups we had to research students blogs from last year. Personally, I decided to research and critique Charlotte Holland & Ebony Palmer.

RESEARCHING OTHER BLOGS

Charlotte Holland

Link to Charlotte's blog

One thing I noticed when looking through Charlotte's blog, is that she tends to use colours to highlight titles, names, key words, etc... I thought this was a brilliant idea as it allows the reader to easily see what she is talking about making it very clear and easy to read and understand.

Another thing I noticed is that she tends to show her word through text, making it very boring to read as she rarely uses any other form of displaying her work e.g. videos. This makes her blog look very robotic and doesn't show a lot of personality.

One thing she could improve on is the consistency of detail in her blog, overall her blog contains a lot of detail. But at certain points she has a lot waffle which doesn't have a lot of purpose and then at other points she has very little detail, which makes it hard to understand what she is trying to say.

Ebony Palmer

Link to Ebony's blog

One thing I liked about Ebony's blog is that she is very precise with what she wants to say and doesn't unnecessarily waffle about pointless things. This makes her blog very interesting to read and it gets straight to the point.

Another thing I liked about her blog was that she went back an updated parts that had changed throughout her 'journey', this helped showed the problems she faced and how she solved them. Also by using a colour to show an update makes it really easy to see what she changed.

One thing she lacked in her blog was visual evidence of what she was talking about, this made it hard to visualise what she was talking about in certain parts of her blog. By adding photos or videos it would make her blog more easy to visual thus making it easier to understand the effects she wants to create

After looking through the candidates blogs, I decided to create a do's and don'ts for my blog. By doing this I believe it will help me stay on track in being creative and original with my research and planning.

Do’s	Don’ts
Be creative, I noticed with some blogs they were very creative in how they displayed their information. They used many videos but they were all different, they wasn’t just vlogs.	Don’t over use the same videos, pictures, etc… One thing i noticed was that the candidates tried turning everything into videos (trying to be creative). It becomes boring very quick due to it being repetitive
Be yourself, it’s a very small change but makes a massive difference. Majority of blogs felt very robotic and that they were just writing stuff down for the sake of marks, but some had personality making it more enjoyable to read.	Don’t add your own pictures/research without analysing. I saw blogs that had a lot of photos that weren’t annotated, making them very irrelevant as they have no meaning to the viewer
Highlighting the important parts of the blog (Keywords, changes, etc..) This just adds colour and makes it easier to read.	Don’t waffle, this was very common across all blogs, the candidates just waffled on to make it look like they added extra detail but in reality it was useless waffle that had no purpose.

RESEARCHING SHORT FILMS

After looking through a range of blogs, we decided to watch some short films both a level and independently made to help give us a clear understanding of what we need and what we can do within our time frame.

These were:

IMAGES

I enjoyed this film for several reasons. Firstly, I feel the cinematography is fantastic considering it's simple narrative, which restricts its creative in many aspects. Throughout this film it uses brilliant close up shots and reaction shots which helps the audience connect to the main protagonist and allows us to understand hes situation. Another thing I liked about this film was the colour grading used to show the main protagonist different states of mind, (the warmer colours representing his memories and the colder colours to show hes present emotions). One thing I didn't like about the film was the acting/voice of the actors, throughout the whole film they stayed very monotone and didn't change when there was a clear change in emotion.

The Life of Death

I feel enjoyed this film for the sole purpose of its creative. This film was very original due to it giving this antagonist like character which most people fear, human like features. If a normal character was used within this film it wouldn't of given the same effect, as it wouldn't of given the same comedic feel. The idea that 'death' having a life like any other human makes this film very entertaining to watch. Furthermore, I felt that for each scene displaying death's life were a very good length, this is because they were long enough to keep the audience engaged and show in detail what death's life was like, also they didn't drag at all making it more entertaining to watch.

Brent

Personally, I was a fan of this film for many reasons. Firstly, I felt that the narrative was very clear and simple for the audience, it wasn't over complicated like the mainstream films of today. Furthermore, I enjoyed the music (Classic 50's music) which was used throughout, this song gave a relaxing feel to the film, it helped showed the state of the character and that he is slightly different to a normal person due to the "niche" style of music. To continue, the cinematography used within this film was excellent even though being restricted with a simple narrative they were able to use brilliant shots to give a different perspective on certain scenes. One thing I didn't like about this film was that the acting at some points was very flat, which made the film boring at some points.

MY IDEA

Before me and my group came together and started creating narrative idea, I decided to think of my own narrative which i could present to the group, which would help give a boost to the group and give us something to work off of.

My favourite types of films are ones that challenges the audiences mind, and makes the questions whats happening and what will happen next. From this I decided to create my own type of psychological film that would challenge the audience. The idea i came up with is based around the idea of lucid dreaming and the fact that can we tell the difference between a dream and reality.

Below is a rough copy I wrote of the narrative: (Sorry for my terrible handwriting)

I decided that it would be a good idea to go back and add a video that explains my idea. You don't have to watch it but its there if you want to.

Bless.

18/09/17 - POTENTIAL IDEAS

JOKE #2

Why can't your nose be 12 inches?

Because then it would be a foot (I hate myself for doing this)

Alright, today I was pretty hyped for this lesson, cause you know I was dying to create a mad narrative that me and my group would love. After putting our thinking caps on and brainstorming every single thought we had, we came up with two ideas that we could potentially use for our film:

1. Basing our film around lucid dreaming (pretty happy my group liked it)

2. A film about a man trying to find he's real family (Movie version of who do you think you are)

Below is two brainstorms we created of each film idea:

Lucid dreaming

Finding the past

I like both of these ideas for a numerous amount of reasons:

Having both the city and the countryside so close to us, it would be silly not to use these two very different locations within the film
Only having one main protagonist makes the film a lot easier to film and makes it easier for the audience to watch. With us only having a small budget and deadline it would be silly to have an over complicated story with many main protagonists.
The cinematography has no restricting with these ideas and locations, allowing us to be as creative as we want.
With these ideas they are very open and are not restricted to certain story line, allowing us to change the narrative whenever we want to make it more engaging for the audience.

22/09/17 - FINALISING OUR IDEA

A visual representation of me and my group trying to decide what narrative to use.

OK, so today was a successful but very stressful day for the group, due to us having to decided what narrative to go with after spending over an hour discussing, agreeing and arguing. Once we weighed up the reasons of why we should use a certain narrative and why we shouldn't. We came to an agreement that we would use the "Into the wild" narrative.

After all the blood, sweat and tears (sort of) we went on to discuss and brainstorm the whole narrative of the film, we then created a video (which is shown below) where discuss the ideas and which narrative we went with and why.

24/09/17 - A CHEEKY DATE NIGHT

On the weekend we decided that we would all go on a date night to a fancy place called "Skype" (highly recommend it). On our date we discussed our narrative, where we finalised our idea making it clear to us what the beginning, middle and end are. However, we are still missing some of the finer detail of the story but I'm sure that will be discussed when we go on another date (do you know any good places, I'm looking to impress!!).

25/09/17 - GETTING THE BALL ROLLING (TREATMENT & NARRATIVE RESEARCH)

JOKE #3:

Humpty Dumpty had a bad summer, but it's okay

He's going to have a great fall... (No? Okay, I don't blame you for not laughing)

When we finally got our film idea settled.

Finally!! We have a solid film idea with some what a decent twist within it (oooooooooo), now we have it all settled its time to move on to the finer details of the blog e.g. character research, theorists, etc... We decided that we would all individually write a treatment for our film, just so we all knew the story exactly and how it plays out.

TREATMENT:

LUCY a 38 year old woman with flowing blonde hair and piercing blue eyes so strong any man could be persuaded. The film beginnings on a autumn morning in the year 2025. Lucy conducts and terminates a serious meeting with two secretive but powerful men (THE OBSERVERS). After a successful meeting she heads off to get a coffee, on the way she bumps into GARY HENDERSON where their romance starts to blossom, a few years past and their love stays strong to this date. 19th of October, Lucy's birthday. Gary creates a college of all their memories to show his romantic side, but as he looks through the photos he notices similar faces in the background, he's suspicions start to rise and questions his wife about, who avoids the conversation and changes the subject. Days past where Gary comes across a file what Lucy left behind, with his face and name on it and discovers he was a paedophile. He confronts his wife with the truth, wanting to know more. She confesses the truth that she works for the government and he is part of a program to that aims to wipe people's memories and give them a second chance to live life as a good person with a new identity. Gary lashes out in violence and attacks his wife. Before he can hurt his wife and a loud bang comes from the door, Gary opens the door where the observers are standing. It then cuts to black, into the next scene where The observers are talking to Lucy about the next person she must fall in love with and observer their behaviour. The final shot of the film replicates the opening shot.

12/10/17 - EDITING THE TREATMENT

I say the word "so" 34 times within this video. Yes I went back and counted... (I have no life)

EDITED TREATMENT

16/10/17 - FINAL TREATMENT

As a group we came back to the treatment with all our own edited versions of the treatment and choose the best bits from each one to create the perfect one. (Which we have created)

NARRATIVE RESEARCH:
With our narrative finally set I want to discuss which films inspired us to create the narrative with now have.

Shut up and dance

The first film/programme that inspired us was an Episode from Black Mirror called "Shut up and Dance", a British science fiction television series, which focuses on dark and satirical themes in our society and future society. This episode represents our own film idea, but with a few changes to the narrative, characters, etc...

This is the final scene of shut up and dance, this is where all the blackmail victims get "trolled" by the anonymous character who is blackmailing them. This scene has a brilliant twist. As throughout the film you feel sorry for the main protagonist, as he is being punished for watching adult movies (well that's what you think). Until its revealed that he is watching underage children, acting as a very big twist within the show. We we're inspired to use a similar twist, as we want to make the audience believe that the male character is an innocent man who plays the victim within the film, until close to the end where we reveal a twist where we show that he is a sex offender/paedophile who is part of a new government programme.

Unknown

We were also inspired by a film called unknown, a film based Dr Martian Harris who is in a serious car accident, when he awakes his wife does not recognise him; another man is using his identity, and mysterious assassins are hunting him. He leaps into a perplexing situation that forces him to discover how far he is willing to go for the truth.

This film is very influential, as we want to follow the same idea this film uses, that you follow a character and discover stuff with them throughout, making you feel like you're part of the journey they take, furthermore, the female character within this film has the same traits and characteristics we want to use for our female role, e.g. blonde hair, blue eyes, independent, strong physically and mentally, etc..

Shutter Island

Another brilliant film that inspired us was Shutter Island, this is a filmed based on Teddy Daniels and his new partner who has to investigate an disappearance of a patient in a mental asylum. As their investigation deepens, Teddy realises he has to face he's darkest secrets if he wants to leave the island.

This film was very influential due to its amazing story line, we love the idea that the audience are made to believe a false narrative until a twist at the end that explains it all. This film executes it brilliant, showing a detective working a case in this asylum only to find out that he is a patient of the hospital and that its all an illusion of his minds. We've decided to use this same idea, by having the audience believe our main protagonist is completely normal and is some what the victim of the story, until the end where it shows that he is the complete opposite and that he is just an experiment and that everything around him is a lie.

The Mirror
This film "the mirror", depicts the thoughts, emotions and memories of Alexei, and the world around him as a child, adolescent, and forty years old. This is very influential due to the
use of it's memory scenes and flashbacks, this film is brilliant delivered, with its non linear story line that unfolds through the use of memories. It has influenced me, as we want to follow the same idea of being able to tell a story through the use of memories, in this case we want to show the journey of Gary & Lucy and how their romance has blossomed, while always being watched by the observers.

White Bear
So the other night I decided to re-watch black mirror and I completely forgot about this amazing episode. So this episode based on a woman who wakes with no memory, only small flashbacks that she has no recognition. In a world where everyone is controlled by television signals. She must stop the "White Bear" signal while be hunted down. (Well thats what you think)

After watching this I realised how influential this episode is, the ending of this episode is truly amazing and is executed perfectly. The best part is the twist within the episode, due to audience seeing her perspective and then the perspective of the "The hunters". This allows the audience to have different emotions based on the characters actions. We want to use a similar plot idea in this case we want our main protagonist to have lost his memory of certain dates (when he committed the crime) and be controlled/observed by a character he doesn't know in this case his wife and the observers. Lastly, we want to use the idea that the narrative is replayed at the end, but with our film we are going to use the same beginning but a new target for Lucy's character.

27/09/2017 - GENRE RESEARCH:

After doing my narrative research, I thought to myself that it would be a great idea to research our genre, so guess what I did. Your boy Leo only went and researched our genre!!

Okay, so the genre we have gone for is a drama with the sub genre being political, this is because we felt that this drama wasn't over used by A level students. So in a quick summary the drama genre is mainly used to create an effect on the audience emotionally through the use of characters and and narrative. To continue, the story itself needs to build up to a climax that normally wraps up the whole story and fills in some of the gaps the audience wants to know. In addition, one of the biggest factors of a political drama is that is needs to be based on politics,the government or controversial topics (who would of guessed it!!).

In this case our film is based around the controversial subject "Should prisoners be tested on instead of animals??"

CONVENTIONS:
Very simple/realistic camera shots and angles
The protagonist vs their problems
Based on human emotions
Natural lighting/low key

Cinematography:

Drama's usually consists of a lot of close ups, medium and reaction shots to portray the characters emotions and the reaction of characters. These type of shots are very effective as they help boost characters emotion helping drive the films narrative. Typically the cut length for each shot varies, normally long takes are used to help the audience focus more on one characters but if there is more than one character present cuts will occur a lot quicker to help the audience feel the emotion of each character. For our film we will be typically using simple shots to help show off the main protagonist and to help give the audience hint towards the story line, we will take longer to cut as we want the audience to be solely focused on the main protagonist.

Example:

Mise-en-scene:

Within a drama the Mise en scene plays a vital role in helping established and highlight the characters personality and emotions. Typically each matches the main character within the scene, either showing how they really are or their problems. To continue, lighting is natural lighting or very low key which normally highlights the characters face helping heighten the facial expressions. In this case we will use natural lighting in our film to help create a natural feel to it and to help highlight characters emotions within certain scenes e.g the argument scene.

Example:

Editing:

The editing within the drama genre is normally used to display characters emotions when engaged in a conversation or reacting to the conversation, as typically emotion drives film thus by using these techniques it will boost emotions thus boosting the narrative. In addition, continuous editing is used to help create a more natural feel to the scene and help the audience feel like they are part of the scene. In this case, we aim to drive the film through emotion of boy Lucy and Gary Henderson (the two main protagonist), so we will use close ups, reaction shots and long takes to help show odd the character. Furthermore, we aim to use continuous editing within the argument scene to help make the audience feel like they are part of the scene.

Example:

Sound:

Majority of sound used within the drama genre is diegetic as it helps create a most realistic feel to the film as both the audience and the characters can hear and react to it, making the audience feel like they are part of the scene as they can react with the characters. However, non diegetic is also used with the film to help build or boost and certain emotion presented in the scene, normally orchestra style music due to it being able to create a wide range of emotion. For our film we likely not going to use much or even any music as we feel that it would be useless and that it would ruin the emotions we are trying to create

Example:

28/09/17 - THEORISTS COMMENTS

With the narrative and its conventions set in place I decided that it was time to do some research on different types of theorists. Even though we did some research on theorists last year, we didn't go into a lot of detail, but this year its gonna change!

Personally, I felt that the best way to research theorists would be to research the very basic theories of narrative, genre, etc.. and then home in on the specific theories that relate to our film.

GENRE

STEVEN NEALE THEORY

From researching Steven Neale, I have learnt that genre itself is a key element in the making of your film, for your audience to understand your film it must have similar conventions to the specific genre (repetition), this allows the audience to follow the story easier due to it allowing them to match the film with a genre. In addition, it must have unique story, characters, twists, etc.. (difference) to allow the audience to become engaged with the story.

This video sums up how Steven Neale's theory fits with our genre.

RICK ALTMAN THEORY

NARRATIVE

CLAUDE STRAUSS THEORY (BINARY OPPOSITION)
After editing and uploading I noticed that I made up a random name, instead of using Claude Strauss. I don't know why, but you know just go along with it. Cheers!!!!

BATHES THEORY

Barthes condensed the action of the text into 5 codes that are woven into any narrative:

The Hermeneutic Code

This refers to mystery within the narrative. Small and subtle clues are dropped, but have no clear answers are given. This entices the audience into the piece as they become frustrated as they want to know more.

The Proaireitc Code

This refers to other major structuring principle that helps build interest or suspense for the audience that leaves them guessing on what will happen next.

The Symbolic Code

This refers to symbolism within the text, it exercises opposites to show contrast and create greater meaning, creating tension, drama and character development.

The Cultural Code

This refers to any element within the narrative that links to the external body of knowledge such as scientific, historical and cultural knowledge.

The Semantic Code

This refers to areas within the text that indicate or suggests to a additional meaning. Elements that are part of these code are called "Semes". A seme has a connotative function within the text. It adds an extra layer of meaning to the text.

I feel that Barthes Theory works with our film idea, especially "the Hermenutic Code", as within our film we will be showing hints to the viewer that there is something not right with the male character, an that he isn't truly the man shown within the film, we want to show this by having the observers always in the back ground of images and them having a meeting with his wife, this will be hidden in plain sight and explained at the end of the film by repeating the same shots.

AUDIENCE

KATZ AND BLUMLER THEORY (USES AND GENTRIFICATION)

STUART HALL (RECEPTION THEORY)

GROUP RESPONSIBILITIES

If you were listening to the video or just couldn't be bothered to watch I'll quickly sum it up for you.

Leonardo Gilbert: Director/Actor (Gary Henderson)

Maddy Ross: Editor/Actor (Lucy Henderson)

Jordan Sollof: Cameraman/Actor (The Observers)

Cameron Currie: Sound/Actor (The Observers)

Organising who will being doing what wasn't that hard to decide, we all knew each others strengths and weaknesses so deciding who does what came really easy. Even though we've all got selected roles we all know that we are going to help one another throughout the process to help benefit the whole group.

Hey ho, it's your boy Leo and I'm from the future. Anyway I wanted to come tell you that we did change the roles in our group, this is because we discovered that we are going to be using Final Cut Pro for editing instead of the usual IMovie, with this we decided that I was going to be editing the film, as I've had the most experience with this software compared to the other members in the groups. With this one change it kick-started a massive change. These being:

Leonardo Gilbert: Editing/Sound/Actor - I have great knowledge of music pieces and where to find the most original ones, plus music is a major part of my life, so the role was meant to be.

Jordan Sollof & Cameron Currie: Director/Cinematography/Actor - We decided that it would be best if both Cameron and Jordan had director and cinematography, this is because it would allow them to be more free and switch roles constantly to get the best results

Maddy Ross: Producer/Screenplay/Actress - this is because Maddy has had experience before with screenplay/writing making her a far more suitable candidate compared to the rest of us.

30/09/17 - THE ONE AND ONLY, SKYPE!!

That's right! Good old Skype has returned. We decided to stick to what we like and not cheat on Skype. Anyway in today's session we decided to talk about all the stuff above (Narrative Research, Theorists, etc...), and go into more detail with each one. Just to help all of us get a better understanding of the characters and the narrative itself. Personally, I felt that today's session was a very beneficial not just for me but the whole group.

01/10/17 - KNOWLEDGE IS POWER (AUDIENCE RESEARCH)

With our idea set, I felt that it was time to do abit of audience research, but not your typical questions about what they like and don't like about genres and narrative. Due to our film idea already being decided between the four of us, I wanted the audience to influence the smaller details in the film, helping create a more enjoyable film for the audience.

Before diving into the world of questionnaires, we decided that our film was most likely to be a 15 due to their being mild violence and it being based around the government and other subjects. Our target audience will be around 15-35 year old men and women, this is due to our film being based around controversial subjects which we believe that younger audiences will enjoy more compared to older audiences. With this sorted I wanted to look into Demographics and Psychographics, so before venturing any further I looked up the definitions of demographics and Psychographics.

Demographics:

I believe that the audience we are targeting are in code C1 and E, this is because these two codes is where the younger audience predominantly sit, e.g. students and junior managers. Therefore, these two codes would watch our film due to our film targeting their age group.

Psychographics

The two "main streamers" we are targeting are the ASPIRES AND EXPLORERS as these two would typically be linked to a younger demographic, e.g. students. For example, Explorers "seek discovery", this links with our film as you learn about the story at the same time as the main protagonist, having a greater effect on the story line and the attachment to the main protagonist.

After looking into demographics and psychographics and gaining an understanding of what our target audience is. I decided that it would be a good time to ask a young audience about our film and see if i can learn anything about the audience. Due to social media being at an all time peak, I thought it would be a clever idea to create an online survey for my friends and family to answer. I created a questionnaire on Survey Monkey and shared it on to Facebook.

These were the questions I asked:

What age rating do you think is appropriate to explore the idea of convict rehabilitation?
With politics currently being the main focus of the media, do you think now is a good time to release a political drama?
Should the ending of the film be a cliffhanger of should it be resolved?
Do you think that the sub-genre of romance could hinder or benefit the film?
In a montage would you rather hear music that compliments the visuals or the sounds from the actual clips?
Would you prefer a male or female protagonist?

A cheeky 33 people answered my questionnaire and these were the results!

As you may know, anything in red is something I've gone back and edited/added to. So yes I have come back to inform you on how the results effected our film. (YES I'M TECHNICALLY FROM THE FUTURE)

With the main idea of our film being based around rehabilitation, I wanted to see what the participants believed was the correct age rating for this film, I found out that they believed that 18 years old was the correct age, with 15 coming very close. This is useful for me to know, as it will reinforce our choice when choosing an age rating for our film.

When choosing an age rating I look at the BFFC and the results from this question, after researching we decided that 15 was the right age (which 39.39% of participants believed was the right age). We did consider 18 due to these results but our narrative on a whole doesn't fit the age rating.

Secondly, I wanted to see if the participants believed that it was the right time to create a politic film, due to politics being the main focus of media (Brexit, Trump, etc..). From the results I can see that they believe it is a good time to release a politic film, this has given both me and my group confidence that our audience would enjoy our film.

With most participants believing it is a good time to release a politic film, we decided to add more aspects of the government and politic ideas to our film, due to the participants believing it is a good time to release a politic film.

Thirdly, I wanted to know what type of ending the participants would rather see, due to us having an ending which we can easily change from either a cliffhanger or a resolved narrative, as you can see they prefer a resolved narrative. With this we now know which is the preferred ending, meaning we are able to create a more enjoyable film for the viewer.

With our original narrative ending on a cliffhanger, we deicded that we were going to change it, to fit the participants choice, however we decided that we were going to resolve half of the narrative and leave a little cliffhanger. just to annoy the audience :)

With our narrative showing a romance between the two main protagonist, I wanted to see if the participants believed that the romance benefited the narrative or ruined it, from the results they believe that it would benefit the story line.

With this result we decided that we was going to show more of the romance side of Lucy and Gary, we done this by adding a part where we show their memories with one another leading up to the present day.

I decided to ask this question, due to a segment of our film showing a montage of the main protagonists morning routine, I want to see which the participants would enjoy more music, diegetic sounds or both. From the results they enjoy a mix of both, with this I will experiment when editing and see how both music and diegetic sound sounds.

This resulted effected our final result as the orignal idea was just to use music that compliments the actions, however I experimented with a mix of both and the results were good. Without this questionnaire, I would of never considered to using a mix of both.

Lastly, I asked probably the most common question, male or female protagonist? I wanted to ask this question as both Lucy and Gary can be considered as the main protagonists of the film, but with minor adjustments we can create only one main protagonist. From the results it is very clear that the participants don't care who the main protagonist is, with this it allows us to be free with our narrative and our characters.

This result didn't really effect our narrative, as both Lucy and Gary are the main protagonists of the film and its how you view the view, decides on who the main protagonist is.

02/11/17 - BECOMING THE CHARACTERS (CHARACTER RESEARCH & PROFILES)

JOKE #4

I hate when people ask me where i see my self in 3 years

It's not like i have 2020 vision (Do you get it because in 3 years it 2020, no? ok...)

In today's lesson I decided that I was going to research our characters by first finding researching the influential characters and seeing the common characteristics and traits that make the characters which then I will apply to our own characters.

CHARACTER RESEARCH:

Lucy Henderson:

Unknown - Elizabeth Harris (January Jones)

Within the film Unknown we first see Elizabeth Harris as some what of a damsel in distress figure, due to her typical looks (beautiful, blonde hair and young), furthermore, she has less power than him due to her having to go with him onto these trips for his work. However, as you venture further into the film the audience realise that the roles some what reverse and that she is a very powerful and dominant figure that is part of an organisation, that uses him for her mission. This is very influential to us as we want to create a similar character who appears to be a normal woman who supports her husband, but by the end of the film we want to show the audience that she is a lot more powerful than him and that she had to manipulate him due to him being just an experiment.

Mr and Mrs Smith - Jane Smith (Angelina Jolie)

In Mr and Mrs Smith both characters believe there other half lives and work a normal life, however they are both living a lie due to both of them being deadly assassins who find out about their other half's job due to them being assigned to kill the other. This follows the same idea of the "Unknown" and that the they live a lie and keep away from their loved ones, however in this film its presented different by the audience already knowing and the characters not. This has influenced our character as we want to present Lucy as a weaker character compared to Gary and that by the end of the film the truth is revealed and the Lucy is a lot more powerful then Gary.

Gone girl - Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike)

Last but not least is Amy Dunne from Gone Girl, one of the main factors that attracted me to this character is the fact she gets revenge on her husband by framing him for her murder because he cheated on her. In this film the characters think that Amy is the victim and the her husband is the antagonist of it all, however, in actual fact she is the more dominant one out of the two due to her manipulating her husband and the public. This is similar to our character due to the fact that she manipulates Gary and the public that she loves him and that they are a happy couple but in reality Gary is just another number to Lucy.

Gary Henderson:

Unknown - Dr Martin Smith (Liam Neeson)

One of the biggest factors that pulled me towards Liam Neesons character is the fact that he is shown to be a normal man with a successful job and a loving wife, but when he is involved in a car accident everything changes. The audience are shown to believe that he is the victim of the story due to his wife not knowing him anymore and that he knows nothing about himself. However, as you venture further into the film you discover who him and his wife really was, changing the audiences view on both him and his wife. This concept of memory is used in our film and that Gary believes that him and his wife are normal people within society but by the end of the film it is shown that his wife is not actually his wife and that he is a convict part of a programme.

Shutter Island - Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio)

Another inspiration for Gary Henderson's character is Leonardo DiCaprio's character from "Shutter Island", Teddy Daniels. We were inspired by him because of how he is presented in the film at the start and who he actually is by the end of it (Let me explain). Teddy Daniels is a detective sent to shutter island to investigate a disappearance of one of the patients, as you venture through the film you side with Teddy and hope that he escapes the island back to safety, however by the end of the film it shows how he is one of the patients on the island and that everything that happen was a game. This links to Gary as we want to show him as normal person in society and make the audience feel for him but by the end of the film we want to show his real identity and his past, having a greater effect on the audience.

Observers:

Men in black - Agent J & Agent K (Will Smith & Tommy Lee Jones)

The Observers were two characters that wasn't really inspired by anyone, more just of a hint used for the narrative. But if i'm gonna do inspiration for the main characters I've got to include them. Anyway, they are an influence due to them being both very secretive but very powerful characters that work for a very large organisation. In this case, the observers are part of the government and are working on a experiment to wipe the minds of convicts. So yeah they are similar but the observers deal with prisoners and the men in black deal with aliens.

CHARACTER PROFILE:

After researching into the characters I decided to create some characters profiles, which explain our characters in detail. By doing this it allows me and my group to understand our characters more, allowing us to alter the film to the characters.

Name: Gary Henderson
Age:44

Nationality: English

Hometown: Hastings
Current Residence: Chigwell
Occupation: Accountant
Salary: £50,000

Parents: Never really knew his mum and dad due to his mum being murdered by his father at a young age, where he was put into an orphanage where he had to fend for himself.

Siblings: An only child

Grandparents: Never knew who they were

Spouse: Lucy - wife

Relationship skills: Clingy, touchy, obsessive

Educational Background: Failed GSCE'S
Intelligence Level: Lower then average

Mental Illnesses: Paedophilia
Learning Experience: Think before you act
Short-term goals in life: Get promoted
Long-term goals in life: Have a family
How does character see himself: Confident and hard working
How does the character believe he is perceived by others: As an outsider
How self-confident is the confident: Very confident
Does the character seem ruled by emotion or logic or some combination: Emotion

Name: Lucy Henderson
Gender: Female
Age: 38
Nationality: English

Hometown: London
Current Residence: Chigwell
Occupation: Government Employee
Salary: £90,000

Parents: Her parents are an upper class couple who live in Kensington, always wanting the best out of their child and accepting failure from their child

Siblings: Only Child

Grandparents: Passed away

Spouse: Gary

Relationship skills: Housewife, organised, loving, secertive

Educational Background: Degree in Psychology and Criminology
Intelligence level: Above average
Mental Illnesses: None
Leanring Experiences: There is not permanent expect change
Short-term life goals: To fix people
Long-term life goals: To rehabilitate Gary
How does the character see herself: Smart and cold hearted
How does the character believe she is perceived by others: A normal woman
How self-confidnet is the character: Very confident both in the working environment and in general
Does the character seem ruled by emotion or logic or some combination: Logic

Name: Unknown
Age: Ranging from 40-50

Nationality: English

Hometown: London
Current Residence: Unknown
Occupation: Government employees
Salary: £100,000 +

Parents: Unknown

Siblings: Unknown

Grandparents: Unknown

Spouse: Unknown

Relationship skills: Unknown

Educational Background: Unknown
Intelligence Level: Very high IQ

Mental Illnesses: None
Learning Experience: Unknown
Short-term goals in life: Unknown
Long-term goals in life: Unknown
How does character see himself: Unknown
How does the character believe he is perceived by others: Unknown
How self-confident is the confident: Unknown
Does the character seem ruled by emotion or logic or some combination: Logic

09/10/17 - LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

What a show this is.

Anyway, enough about that show, lets get into business. So in today's lesson I wanted to do abit of research into settings and find some influential settings we could use in our film. So the first setting I wanted to do is the most important in my eyes, (the home) especially when Lucy and Gary argue.

THE HOME

I went on the old inter webs and searched around abit until I found these two very effective but very different argument scenes. (One from Sinister and the other from Revolutionary Road).

Sinister (Horror)

Alright so Sinister is a horror film, if you didn't already know that anyway. Lighting and positioning in this clip is used brilliantly and is very influential to our piece. Firstly, at the beginning the location is very dark and dull, giving it a more creepy feel to the scene, however as we venture into the next room where we see Ellison and Tracey break out into an augment, we can see a clear difference in the lighting as this setting is a lot brighter making it easier for the audience to see the characters facial expressions. To continue, the camera often cuts to other parts of the room but stays stationary but being controlled free hand making it unstable, personally I think this is great as it keeps the argument alive and makes you feel like your apart of it. In addition, there is a very big contrast between the characters, Ellison stays hidden in the only dark spot within the room and rarely moves, while Tracey is more in the open and uses the space around her to express her emotion. This is very effective as the two constant clash very hard, giving the audience a clear view in the differences between the characters and helps make the argument more split.

Revolutionary Road (Drama/Romance)

Wow, wasn't that just a lovely argument, to be honest it actually made me feel kinda of tense due to both characters being so unstable making it hard to know what they were going to do next, were the gonna kill each other?? Who knows. Anyway, the first thing that stands out to me is the lighting of this scene, it is extremely bright due to it being flooded by natural light, this highlights the characters emotions more and helps create a natural feel to the scene (which we wish to do). To continue, the camera movement plays a very big role as it makes you feel like you are part of this explosive argument and keeps it interesting by allowing the actors to explore the location giving the audience a different background every 20 seconds or so. Lastly, by the climax of the argument we have ventured into a darker room, that helps give this argument more of an effecting ending, it makes the audience feel uneasy at the fact that one character is dominating that argument and that we don't know what will happen next

INFLUENCES FOR SETTING (THE HOUSE)

Some of the main factors I picked up when researching into the home setting I noticed that they were fairly big homes. What I mean by this is that the characters aren't being blocked by furniture and our free to move smoothly around the room, especially when pacing around the house and arguing (Revolutionary Road). Secondly, I noticed that windows within the home are greatly used for natural lighting, either blocking it out slightly so you can manipulate the light or allowing it to be fully exposed to the room lighting up the setting and the characters.

In our film we want the characters to be allowed to move freely when they are having the argument just like in (Revolutionary Road), so with this we are going to use a lot of lighting, allowing the audience to see the characters expression more clearly throughout the scene.

As there is only four of us we only have four options for a home.

These being:

Leo:

Maddy:

Cameron:

Jordan:

After looking through our potential settings, we've decided to use Maddy's home, this is because it it open planned meaning we are able to film freely and not be restricted by furniture. Secondly, Maddy has large windows throughout her house meaning we can have a lot of natural lighting in the scene which will help create the effect we want. Lastly, Maddy's home is the most modern/business like out of the four, which I think fits our main protagonist perfectly (so in a way this is a great bonus)

THE CITY

Next place I want to research is cities however, we only have one city that is reasonably close is London, so what me and my group decided to do was to go up to London for the day and scout around for potential locations we could use in our film, ranging from coffee shops to churches.

16/10/17 - SPLASHING THE CASH (PROPS & COSTUME)

JOKE #5

A friend of mine just lost his job at the mint factory...

His wife went absolutely menthol

So as you can see from blog we've completed the narrative, treatment, characters, etc etc.. So in today's lesson we thought why don't we get our props and costumes finished??? If you can't guess what we decided to do, we went to the most famous and handsome prop/costume shop owner in the world 'LEO'S PROP SHOP'.

Unfortunately, I was ill for this and Jordan and Maddy went with out me

(Weird isn't it? That we both have the same name and are both stunning.)

LEO'S PROP SHOP

Wow what a guy, that Leo looks like an amazing bloke. Anyway, these are the props we are going to be buying/using in our film.

PROPS

Laptop 2x

We need two laptops one for Gary when he's at work and notices the faces within the pictures and one for Lucy when she spies on Gary throughout his day, these two laptops play a very important role in developing and explaining the story line.

Alarm Clock

We need an Alarm Clock simply for the morning scenes to help start the scene for both the characters and the audience, furthermore, it is a typical item used by people so by using it in our film it will help create a more natural feel the scene.

Panic Button

We want to use a panic button (or something that looks similar), in the argument scene. This will be used by Lucy when Gary finds out the truth and becomes angered. This device will help create tension as Lucy will secretly use, trying to hide it from Gary.

Folders/Paperwork

We will use these when Lucy and the observers and constructing a deal, these will be used to hold the information of each target Lucy has, these will contain background details about who the prisoners really are, helping the audience gain some information about the character.

Picture & Frame

We want use a picture of Gary's boss in the office scene, this is where Gary looks at the picture of his boss and family and grins at the picture (hinting to the audience that Gary is attracted to children).

SHOPPING LIST:

After deciding what props we need and what we already own we decided to create a list of the thing we are going to be buying with our budget. With a £50 budget we decided to spend half our money on equipment and the other half on props, in this case we are buying a portable light, windscreen for the microphone, panic button & alarm clock.

Portable Mini Round Soft Shooting Tent Diffuser

We are buying a portable light as we noticed with last years films was that the lighting at certain points we poor, making the film look less professional and making the quality of the film fall. So by buying a light source it allows us to be more flexible when filming certain scenes.

Microphone Furry Windscreen Muff

We are investing into a windscreen as we are going to be doing a lot of filming in London, which is normally windy especially coming up to winter and due to the microphone being very sensitive with sound, it would pick up the sound from the wind, making our audio quality very poor. So by buying a windscreen we will prevent the noise from the wind making our audio quality a lot better.

Panic Button

We are buying a device which looks similar to a panic button, as it is a very important prop for Lucy Henderson's character as it is used to warn the observers when Gary realises what has happened. This prop will also be used to help build the tension as she tries to use the device without Gary's knowledge.

Alarm Clock

We bought a alarm clock as we need to one for our morning scene and unfortunately no one owns a digital clock, we will be using this when the coupe are getting ready in the morning, where we here the alarm go off and a radio station comes on helping create a positive feel to the scene.

COSTUME:

Whoa, you think we were done there? Nah mate you can't do Props without costume, it's like ying without yang, Ant without Dec, Seth Rogen without James Franco. You get the point...

So as a group we sat down and created a mind map for the costume for each character, before we started even mind mapping the costumes we already knew roughly what we wanted each character to wear. We want Gary to be very smart and groomed, Lucy would be in very formal and dark clothing and the observers would be once again very formal (matching clothing).

Gary Henderson:

The idea behind Gary costume is that we want he to be perceived as being a normal person within society, so by having him in plain normal suits it will you off the fact that he is just a plain person, due to our film being set on several difference days we will use several different suits to help show that time has passed.

Here is a collage of the outfits that I think that would suit Gary's character

Lucy Henderson:

With Lucy's character, we want to show her as an innocent and caring woman, with a slight dark hidden side to her. We will achieve this by having in formal work clothes that are typically made of dark colours, to help show that she is a formal wife but with a hidden images of her being a hidden woman with a secret power.

Here is a collage of the outfits that I think that would suit Lucy's character

The Observers:

With the observes we want to present them as very powerful but secretive, we will have them in matching suits to show that they are both very serious and professional. Furthermore, we will have the observers in the same suits throughout the whole film as we want them to always be recognised within their suits.

Here is a collage of the outfits that I think that would suit the observers

17/10/2017 - A PLEASANT SURPRISE (1ST DRAFT OF SCRIPT)

JOKE #6
A cement mixer has collided with a prison van.

Motorists are asked to look out for 16 hardened criminals

So today, Maddy surprised us by giving us all a copy of the script she had written within her own time, with this i decided that i was going to analyse and edited her one. Both giving me an influence to write my own and advice on what things she could improve on.

18/10/2017 - CALL ME SHAKESPEARE (2ND DRAFT OF SCRIPT)

After editing Maddy's script I decided to wrote my own version of the script. Which follows the same ideas as Maddy's but has the smaller details added and the slight structure change.

31/10/17 - FINALISED SCRIPT

With the group all writing their own versions of the script, we decided that we were all going to show off our scripts to one another and choose the best bits from each one, allowing us to create the ultimate script.

After much debating, arguing and writing we finally created the final script.

19/10/17 - LITTLE BIT OF RESEARCH
(SHOTS)

So today I decided that I was going to do some individual research on potential shots we could use for our film, by doing this it will broaden my knowledge on film shots, and allow me and my group to become more creative with shots within our film.

THE AERIAL SHOT

This shot is filmed from the air and is often used to establish a location (usually exotic and/or picturesque).

EXAMPLE: The opening of The Sound Of Music (1965).

OUR FILM: We could use an aerial shot at the beginning of the film to help show the audience where the film is set, furthermore, with London being very grey it would help set a dark tone to the film which we are aiming for.

THE ESTABLISHING SHOT

This shot is at the head of the scene and establishes the location the action is set on, whilst also setting the tone of the scene(s) to come.

EXAMPLE: Tom’s Restaurant in Seinfeld (1989-1998).

OUR FILM: We will use this shot when Lucy and Gary bump into each other, this is because it is a nice shot that allows us to break away from the story for a small amount of time and allows the audience to understand where the next scene will take place.

CLOSE UP

This shot is usually framed from above the shoulders and keeps only the actor’s face in full frame, capturing even the smallest facial variations. As it eliminates any surrounding elements that may be relevant to the scene’s narrative.

EXAMPLE: A Clockwork Orange(1971).

OUR FILM: We will use close up shots when Lucy is talking to the observers, as it would help show off Lucy's emotions when she is talking to them, helping the audience understand that The Observers are powerful men and that Lucy works for them.

EXTREME CLOSE UP

This shot is traditionally used in films and focuses on a small part of the actor’s face or body, like a twitching eye or the licking of lips in order to convey intense and intimate emotions.

EXAMPLE: Citizen Kane (1941).

OUR FILM: We could use an extreme close up, when Gary is having flashed within his head, as this sort of shot is very abstract and would help show that mentally Gary is very unstable.

MEDIUM SHOT

This generally shoots the actor(s) from the waist up and is typically used in dialogue scenes. It aims to capture subtle facial expressions combined with their body language or surrounding environment that may be necessary to provide context.

EXAMPLE: The Shining (1980).

OUR FILM: We will use medium shots within our film, especially within the memory scene section, as we want to show off both Lucy and Gary and their surrounding to help show that time has passed and that their relationship has grown stronger.

DOLLY ZOOM

This shot sees the camera track forward from the actor whilst simultaneously zooming out, or vice-versa. So the foreground generally stays the same while the background increases or decreases across the frame. Use to create a dizzying, vertiginous effect.

EXAMPLE: Jaws (1975).

OUR FILM: We could potentially use a dolly zoom, when Gary finds out about his past life through the use of the newspaper article, when he reads the article a dolly zoom could occur showing a sense of panic and realisation.

OVER THE SHOULDER

This is where the camera is positioned behind a subject’s shoulder and is usually used for filming conversations between two actors. This popular method helps the audience to really be drawn into the conversation and helps to focus in on one speaker at a time.

ICONIC EXAMPLE: Amistad (1997).

OUR FILM: We will use an over the shoulder shot when The Observers are talking to Lucy, we want to use it from The Observers as we don't want to show The Observers face and gain Lucy's reaction from The Observers talking.

LOW ANGLE

This shot films from a lower point and shoots up at a character or subject, making them appear larger so as to convey them as heroic, dominant or intimidating.

EXAMPLE: Inglourious Basterds (2009).

OUR FILM: We could use a low angle shot when Gary has flashes of past memories of when he is taken by the observers, as it would show that the observers have alot more power and control over Gary

HIGH ANGLE

This one films from a higher point and looks down on the character or subject, often isolating them in the frame. Basically the direct opposite of the low angle, it aims to portray the subject as submissive, inferior or weak in some way.

EXAMPLE: Matilda (1996).

OUR FILM: We could use a high angle shot when Gary or Lucy meets the observers, to help show that the observers are a dominant force and that they are the most powerful characters within the film.

TWO SHOT

This is a medium shot that shows two characters within the frame. Pretty straight-forward but can be pivotal in establishing relationships between the characters.

EXAMPLE: Pulp Fiction (1994).

OUR FILM: For our film we will use a two shot when presenting the observers as we want to show that they are one and that when using a two shot we want them to be the centre of attention, showing that they play a main role within the narrative.

WIDE SHOT

This allows for other smaller shots like close-ups or mid-shots to then be interwoven into the master, showcasing different angles of the same scene.

EXAMPLE: Rebel Without A Cause (1955).

OUR FILM: We will use this shot within the memory scenes to help show off both Gary and Lucy and their surroundings, helping show different time periods and different stages within their relationship.

23/10/17 - STORYBOARD

Yes this is the full film of a Christmas story in a GIF. I was pretty amazed when I found it and that's why it's here.

ANYWAY NOW TO THE FUN STUFF.

So yes, today we decided as a group we were going to get loads of pictures, put them in order and make a wonderful storyboard, to help us all visualise the film more clearly making sure that we are all on the same page. With this we decided that we was only going to to the essential shots for the film as it would of taken to much time getting every little shot, plus the idea is forever changing slightly so we thought it was best not to get every shot.

But don't worry, there will be an finalised storyboard that includes every single shot!! Yep that's right, every single shot!

1. 2. 3.

4. 5. 6.

7. 8. 9.

10. 11. 12.

13. 14.

FINAL UPDATED STORYBOARD

30/10/17 - THE SWEET SOUND OF MUSIC

JOKE #7

I've been a limo driver for 25 years and haven't had a single customer.

All that time and nothing to chauffeur it...

Now to one of the most frustrating but achieving bits of creating a film, the music. When looking at music I broke it into two parts as there are two main sections where music will be used. The first piece of music will be used when Gary and Lucy's memories are being shown and the other piece will be used in the morning routine.

With the memory scene, we want it to be very romantic due to it showing how Lucy and Gary's romance blossomed over time. With this we want a romantic song to go with it, that is not to up tempo and fast paced but not slow to the point where it becomes depressing. With me being a huge Beatles fan, I decided to trust my homeboys with their music and I had a look through all their albums to see if I could find a potential song.

After looking through every Beatles album (yes I'm dedicated), I chose these 5 songs that I thought would fit the memory part of our film.

BABY IT'S YOU

SOMETHING

OH DARLING

TILL THERE WAS YOU

LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED

After looking at each song, I got it down to just two songs (Baby its you & something). I chose these two songs as I believed that the other songs were to upbeat and happy to fit our film, as we want a romantic which is positive but not to positive and fast paced.

After looking to find covers of songs we could use, (as we cant use the real song because its too complicated and we don't have thousands of pounds spare). I found this cover by "BarkStudioSessions" on sound cloud, I feel that this cover is brilliant (even better than the original version).

BABY ITS YOU

With the music for the memory scene set, are decided to look at the morning routine music. With this I want a piece of music that fitted more of the editing style we want to use instead of it being based on emotion, due to it being a montage of their morning routine. So with this lyrics don't really matter but instead more based on the music e.g. cuts.

FLY LIKE AN EAGLE

I decided that we were going to use this cover, as out of all the covers I could find it was easily the best one, (quality wise and music wise). To continue, the music itself is perfect due to the amounts of cuts within the song allow us to cut with the music, making it look more professional.

FLY LIKE AN EAGLE

PROOF

So with these being the songs we wanted to use within our film, I decided to contact both bands and ask them if we were allowed to use them, because without their permission we could get into abit of trouble.

Fly like an Eagle (Big Sweater) - Conversation

So this was the conversation I had with one of the members from the band, overall he was a pretty decent bloke.

Baby its you (BarkStudioSessions) - Conversation

This was the conversation I had with good old David. It was tricky finding away to communicate with the band due to the lack of sources, but your boy Leo pulled through as per usual.

07/11/17 - RATINGS
JOKE #8
A man just assaulted me with milk, cream and butter

How dairy

With us only having an hour lessons, I decided that I was going to look at the age rating of our film, and see which category our film fits into. Before venturing into the world of ratings I decided to look into ratings themselves and see what makes each rating different from the other.

To find out more about rating I went onto the BFFC (British Board of Film Classification), and looked into each rating to see which one fits our film.

Link to the BFFC website

When looking through each rating, I believe that our film wasn't a 12 as our film contains both swearing and hints of violence, furthermore, they wouldn't understand the plot due to it being based around the government. On the other hand, I believe that our film wouldn't be an 18 due to it not being overly explicit with violence, drugs, etc..

This is why I believe that our film would fit into the 15 character due to the characteristics of a 15 matching with our film. (This is directly from the BFFC website).

Discrimination - The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour, although there may be racist, homophobic or other discriminatory themes and language.

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

Imitable behaviour - Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Whether the depiction of easily accessible weapons is acceptable will depend on factors such as realism, context and setting.

Language - There may be strong language. Very strong language may be permitted, depending on the manner in which it is used, who is using the language, its frequency within the work as a whole and any special contextual justification.

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

Sex - Sexual activity may be portrayed, but usually 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.

Threat - There may be strong threat and horror. A sustained focus on sadistic or sexual threat is unlikely to be acceptable.

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 violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but the depiction of sexual violence must be discreet and justified by context.

08/11/17 - EQUIPMENT LIST

Now before we set off into the big scary world, to film our masterpiece. We have to choose the equipment we are going to be using throughout the filming process. So without further ado, lets begin!

CAMERA:

These are the four camera we have available to use for filming, these are the Canon Powershot SX30, Panasonic DMC-FZ72, Nikon 1 J1 & EOS 700D Cannon. Out of all of these cameras the EOS 700D Cannon is the best one out of all of the cameras, due to it possessing the best quality video, furthermore as the majority of our shots being filmed on a tripod the weight and handling of the camera doesn't come into account.

TRIPOD:

We will be using a "hama" tripod for the majority of our shots in the film, as we want to have steady/still footage.

SHOULDER MOUNT:

We will use the shoulder mount, as certain shots in our film contain movement, and instead of cutting to a different shot we want the shots to be continuous, for example the argument scene between Gary and Lucy.

BOOM POLE:

We will use the boom pole, so we are able to pick me sound clearly especially in scenes where there is conversation, as if the microphone is on the camera it will be harder for the microphone to pick up the audio.

10/11/17 - PRODUCTION NAME AND TITLE

JOKE #9
What do you call a belt made out of watches?

A waist of time

Now we probably should of done this along time ago, but oh well better now then never. So when you create a masterpiece of a film, you have to have a masterpiece title and a production company name. Before jumping into the deep end, I decided to do some research into film titles, to see what actually makes a good film title!!

Upon doing some research I found a great website by a man named "Chris Jones", a film-writer, scriptwriter and author. So personally i think he is the real deal, not just some buzz-feed writer.

A link to the website

Some of the things I learnt from my boy Chris Jones about titles were:

The shorter the better, as it then becomes easier to remember
It should link to the genre
It shouldn't be a mystery, as the audience will move on from it if they don't get it
The title should infer the central conflict

After discussing with my group about potential title ideas, we narrowed it down to 6 different titles, these being:

A second chance
The Unknown
Fraudulent
The Observers
Illusion
The Henderson's

Here is a video of me discussing each title and why we decided to chose one of them. Oh yeah, if you watch the video you cant see the titles on the paper due to the sunlight. Sorry..

Yes guys we've finally got a title, if you didn't watch the video we have decided to call our film The Henderson's, due to it being able to tell you about the story without giving anything away, also it being short and sweet makes it easier for people to remember and because it helps trick the audience into believing that Gary Henderson is a real person and that it is based on he's character and not his old one.

PRODUCTION COMPANY NAME & LOGO

With the title of our film finally being settled, we decided as a group that we were going to move onto our production company name, with this production name we wanted to have a creative and original name. With this I done some research into production names allowing me to feedback to my group.

I decided that I was going to look on websites where they randomly generate production company names, to help influence me on potential company names.

The first website I used was called "Getsocio", this website allowed you to put in a keyword in which would then create many names linked to that key word, in this case I used production as my keyword.

After researching on this website I decided to create a few of my own which I would present to my group, these being:

After discussing with my group we decided that NEW VISION PRODUCTION, was the best production name, as we thought that it was the most creative one out of our selection.

With the production name chosen, we had to create a logo for our production name, I decided that I was going to research production logos and some influence and potential ideas for our own logo. After looking at production logos, I decided to create an collage of production logos I liked.

When it comes to our production logo, I want to have scenery within the picture instead of it just being a still image of a logo, for instance like 20th century fox and paramount. Furthermore, for our logo I want a crystal ball to be the main centre of attention, as I want it to represent our "New Vision".

With my idea set of what I want our production logo to be, I looked on the internet for any logos that match my criteria, with this I found these:

This crystal ball with the lights in the background, really caught my eye. This is because it creates a sense of peace due to the rippling water within the crystal ball, furthermore where the ball is in fell focus it links to our name our "NewVision" and that our views are different to others.

The crystal ball with the milky way in it, is also another good choice. This is because the crystal ball is the main centre of attention and that the space represents our idea that we are think above and beyond.

This one is probably my least favourite, this is because it is very dull compared to the other ones, e.g. the dark grey background, however I do like how it shatters into dust, creating this magical feel to the clip.

This crystal ball will be the one we will use as our production company logo, my reasons for are explained above.

17/11/17 - CREDITS

JOKE #10
What did 20 do when he was hungry

28

As I'm going to be the one editing our film, I decided that I was going to do some research on credits including which ones to use, where to put them, etc.. I decided to do this as I believe credits are a very important part of the film as poor credits can ruin the film visually.

Link to credits guide
When researching I found this brilliant website that explained each role where to include and why, furthermore they also have a video where it gives you an example for both a short film and a feature film (an added bonus).
This is the video:

After gaining abit of knowledge about credits, I decided that it was time to look at more examples, to help broaden my knowledge and to see if there are any common things that occur in each one. With this I decided to go and watch last years films, I wanted to use these films as our film will be of similar quality in terms of filming and editing.

These are the four films from last year:

Right so here is a video of me talking about the four films and their credits. I talk about the good and bad things, and also how they have influenced me with my own credits. Enjoy!!

FILMING LOG:

12/11/17 - FILMING (DAY 1)

So on today's lovely cold Sunday morning, me and the amigos ventured off to the beautiful city of London (true dedication) to film the opener to our film and a section of our memories. (We were aiming to get about 40 - 60 seconds worth of footage.)

17/11/17 - FILMING (DAY 2)
We are back again and instead of filming on a cold Sunday, we filmed on a cold Friday instead! This time round we filmed at Maddy's house where we planned to film a few more memories and the morning routine, however with a few props missing (cheers sir) we are not going to be able to film some shots, but we will come back and film them another day.

24/11/2017 - FILMING (DAY 3)
So guess where we are filming again? That's right we are back at Maddy's we her two demon dogs. This time we are not going to be filming with the dogs (thank god). Instead we are filming the big ARGUMENT SCENE!!!!! (DUN DUN DUUUUUUN). Oh and of course we are going to being filming some more memories and morning shots, as we now have our props!
26/11/2017 - UPDATE (DAY 3)
Well... The footage we got of the 24th was very bad, not only was the continuity of each shot pretty poor but the audio was beyond bad. Every shot had a hissing sound making it unbearable to listen, also some of the shots the audio was so poor it was unbelieveable. So yeah we are going to have to re-film the argument (which we have planned) and we have found out how to make the audio very clear!

8/12/17 - FILMING (DAY 4)
Right for this day I didn't video it because it was a very bad day and it was very depressing. So basically we went to Westfield to film a scene, the first problem that happened was that someone jumped on the track delaying us for two hours, after making it to Westfield the area where we wanted to film was blocked off for construction. However, we did end up finding somewhere else to film the scene. After filming we decided to go to Maddy's to re film the argument scene. HOWEVER, when we started setting up the equipment to film, the microphone wasn't working as another group in our class dropped it and broke it, with this we wasn't able to film the argument scene making the day a very big waste.

13/12/17 - FILMING (DAY 5)
Hello, I'm back again and yes there is no video again, I'm sorry. Right basically today me, Jordan and Daniel filmed the office scene. The reason I didn't film a vlog was because we were on a very tight schedule (1 hour and 30 minutes to be exact), so I thought it wouldn't be a smart idea to waste time by filming a vlog. Anyway, this filming day went very well, we had no problems and near enough done every shot in one take because Daniel is such a great actor. So yeah that's what happened that day. Bye!!

14/12/17 - FILMING (DAY 6)
I'm sorry once again, there is no video as again we was in a rush and had a very tight schedule to film our whole argument scene (it is the biggest part and the most important part of the film, so there was a lot of pressure). Anyway, the filming went really well this is because the majority of the final scene is filmed in one long take, with this I planned out the movement for me and Maddy (the actors) and Cameron and Jordan (cameramen). So when it came to filming it was pretty easy as we knew exactly what we were doing.
15/12/17 - UPDATE (DAY 6)
Well.. I didn't think I was going to have to do this, so basically majority of the footage was perfect. However, there were one or two things that were not perfect, and with me being a perfectionist I couldn't deal with them as I know the we would get marked down on it. The biggest mistake was in one of the shots you can see Jordan in the reflection, this mistake was very obvious and ruined the shot. So guess what, we are going to have to re film :)

22/12/17 - FILMING (DAY 7)
So I'm back again with no video, as once again we were in a rush to re film the argument scene. Anyway let me get straight to the point, today's filming went very well we had two hours to film and we finished with 30 minutes left, which was a nice bonus. So yeah the filming went really well as we knew what our mistakes were last time so we were able to over come our issues very easily. So guess what... WE ARE DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

08/01/18 - AUDIENCE FEEDBACK

By gaining audience feedback, I learnt that the the audience typically didn't like the ending scene due to it not showing enough and ending very abruptly and lacked information about the story itself, furthermore, they felt that the office scene was very bland and almost pointless due to the lack of personality within the environment.

With this audience feedback me and my group decided that we was going to go and re film the office scene and adding more personality to it and more information about the story itself, furthermore we decided that we was going to add another scene to the end where we explain the story by letting Lucy explain who Gary is, with this both Gary and the audience discover what is going on.

16/01/17 - FILMING (DAY 8)
Right back again, so today we went and filmed our new ending scene (this was a car scene where Lucy explains everything to Gary), with this we went to Maddy's and waited till it got dark (it was great we just sat there and watched Netflix). Once it was dark we went and found a quiet road where we was able to film, the only problem we faced when filming this scene was the battery life on the camera, as when we came close to the end of the filming we was very low on battery, however we was able to be efficient with our battery life.

17/01/18 - FILMING (DAY 9)
So today we went and filmed our new office scene, with the office scene we changed it so it's more focused around Gary making it look more natural, furthermore we changed it so it was more focused round the idea of Gary and his headaches.When it came to filming the day went very smoothly due to us freeing within our free periods, meaning that not many people were about. The only problem we faced was when people were walking and talking near us, but we would simply just wait for them to stop. Overall, our day went very smoothly and proved no difficulty to us and. Finally, once again WE ARE DONE FILMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CHECKLIST:

With everything done here's a list of everything my blog consists of..
Enjoy!!!

Blog Research
Short Film Research
Potential Ideas
Finalisation of Idea
Treatment
Narrative Research
Genre Research
Theorists Comments
Audience Research
Character Research
Character Profiles
Location Research
Props
Costumes
Script
Shot Research
Storyboard
Music
Ratings
Equipment List
Production Name & Logo
Credit Research
Filming Log

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Leonardo Gilbert G324

Research and Planning

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