Planning and Production for my film opening

When deciding what to do for my film idea, I started with deciding what genre to do, I chose thriller/horror. The next decision to make was to decide on a plot, I started to mind map some ideas which I had thought of, some of these were: murder, suicide, drug use and real life. I particularly liked the idea of starting my film off with a death. I have chosen to use the suicide plot, from here I further developed this into who the characters were, which locations to use, and who I could cast for my film. The main cast will consist of one girl and one boy, this has being used to show the different perspective from each character, and to help a wider range of the audience to relate to the characters.

The whole production started on the 15th November 2010. 

Plan:

15th November - 29th November   Planning

30th November - 4th December   Cast members and Location hunting.

5th December - 15th December   Filming

16th December - 4th January   Editing and Sound 

Shooting Schedule (Reference to storyboard):

10th December Film Shots 4,5,6,9,10,11,12 and 13 Location: Marlborough

15th December Film Shots 1,2,3,7,8,14 and 15 Location: Marlborough

1st Storyboard Draft Animatic:

http://www.youtube.com/user/KeeferBishop?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/NPZjtEcgIYo

On set pictures:

Crew

Adam Catlin, Age 16 

(Score, Screenplay writer, Editor)

Keefer Bishop, Aged 16

(Director, Screenplay writer, Score, Lighting, Editor)

Found Previous Planning of Another Idea

I have found one of my other previous ideas, which was scrapped as I couldn’t make the story develop as much as the idea I have used.

It revolves around the same concept of suicide, but it focuses on a teenage boy in school, going through his life day by day, until all of the events become too much for the boy to handle and he commits suicide. When trying to develop the story I was finding it difficult to keep the quality up after the opening, where as the opening I have made, I have developed a full storyline of where the film will end, this concept seems much more likely to fit the genre of thriller, as the other one would be filmed in bright locations to try and contrast the plot, where as this is dark and dim making people feel more for the characters in the storyline.

Plot of film opening

For the past month I have been planning and filming the opening for a film.
The plot:
The young life of Jess Collins is thrown upside down when her best friend commits suicide. She finds it strange when he was always happy. Jess will search for the answers she is looking for, with only a suicide note with no leads. Along the way she will be helped by one of the boys friends, but who can she trust? what she finds may not be easy to life with...

Garageband Lesson

The first thing I have learnt is that it works a lot more professionally if you film your video, edit it together and then add the music to the video, this is how I will create my videos in the future. When creating a musical composition to go with your video you should make the music match the mood of your video, say if you had a big tension build up in the video you would want to match that with say dark tones. My score doesn't have to have over 10 instruments or over two, you can just use one instrument as long as it feels right for the video, you can add more to the piece if you feel it is need though. I have learnt a number of keyboard short cuts these are 'Apple Key + C' = Copy, 'Apple Key + V' = Paste, 'Apple Key + Z' = Undo, 'Apple Key + G' = Grid On/Off, 'Apple Key + T' = Cut/Slice, 'Shift' = This is used to select pieces you can move.

To find audio loops you look for the 'eye' at the bottom of the window, for info press the 'i' and the 'musical notes and film reel' icon is used to import tracks of music or movies. You can use pre-recorded sounds but to be sure you don't get sued for use in a film/movie you have to use more than one different sound or you can record your own music into the program by connecting real instruments or using the notes on the keyboard. To record you have to press the red record circle. To keep your piece in time you will want to keep a grid on your composition to keep a solid layout but if you want more freedom you can take it off. The most important factor to remember is that you have to make sure the sounds fit to your video or it won't have a big impact on the viewer.

http://dorphin.com/video/relentless-short-stories-the-dark-side-of-the-lens/

The link above sends you too a video called 'Dark Side of the Lens' which is a good example of use of sound with video. The video starts off with slow sounds to give a nice calm feeling as the video goes on it becomes more intense and raises the tension slowly then as it climaxes, it brings the video to a nice calm end just as it began. The music shows variation and works well with the video that goes with it.

iMovie

When working with iMovie I have found that it is simple to use but difficult to master. Since beginning to use iMovie I have learnt how to upload files onto a new project, shorten the clips, add sound from other media (Garageband, Music Files), take the sound out of my already recorded clips, how to cut the amount of action I show in my video basically focus onto a specific person, item, or what is in my shot by cropping the clips and I have mastered how to order the clips so the video feels fluent and is in the correct order. I would say that I need to work on cropping my videos more, I feel that I am leaving too much into the shot when it doesn't need to be there.

The Breakfast Club Activity

While filming and acting out The Breakfast Club I have learnt that I have to film for a 5-10 seconds longer time than is needed to make sure the camera is working and that you don't miss any of the actions that should be filmed. I learnt that it is important to be further away from the acting as possible, because you can zoom in but once a character has got as close to the camera as possible you can't zoom out as far. I have practised the 180 degree rule more in this activity and how to work with mise-en-scene in the shots. When it came to editing I found out that the extra filming time was important because it is very easy to cut clips but when you want to add more you may have to re-film some of the important features.

Prelimary/Continuity Test

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN3UfrkTZn0

I have used a shot of the school to show the location in which is been filmed, the shot of a boy in school, you start to wonder why he is here and seems to be alone. I have used the opening door shots to show how I can create a smooth, continues video without huge jumps from different shots (match on match action). To show the 180 degree rule I drawn myself a visual line for myself in which I could not cross without showing the move of the camera, this way I also created a shot reverse shot of a conversation.

Analysis of Film Openings

Forrest Gump

Genre: Drama

Release Date: 7^th October 1994 (UK)

Budget: $55,000,000

Gross: $677,387,716

Written: Book by Winston Groom, Screenplay by Eric Roth

Directed by: Robert Zemeckis

Studio: Paramount Pictures

Film Introduction

The film opens with the studio Paramount Pictures logo once this has gone to black the shot of the cloudy sky fades in, out the corner of your eye you can see a feather floating in from the top left. The theme tune for the movie starts to play which sounds as if it is playing with the speed of the feather’s movement. The writing of the company Paramount Pictures is displayed on the clouds in the centre of the screen in clear black text, this stays for the right amount of time it’s not too slow or to fast when moving off the screen. The focus on the feather then moves the camera shots to an establishing shot of the city Savannah’s church. There are questions to be answered like why is this feather the focus of the camera?

The first cast member is introduced by writing ‘Tom Hanks’ the use of a big American star would add to the audience who like his acting in other films his name then transitions into the movie title ‘Forrest Gump’. The feather is still flying around this city as more actors/actresses are introduced. The feather finally lands on a man’s shoulder for this descent closer to the main character they use an over head shot. The feather gets blown to the character played by Tom Hank’s shoes with a close up shot. As the acting begins the pleasant music fades quieter till you can only hear bits of it. Once the character has placed the feather in his suitcase it then moves to a close up shot of the characters face and shoulders. The cars and buses that pass indicate the period of time, the bus also has an advertisement of a new car product dated 1981. The first line of dialogue is spoken by the character as he introduces himself “My names Forrest, Forrest Gump”.

The pleasant and peaceful music at the beginning is called non diegetic sound and this draws the target audience to show this is not an action or horror film this is a real life movie. This beginning connects with other films in this genre of drama by using the real life shots of the city Savannah in 1981 with no futuristic clothing or technology more than this time this doesn’t make the film a sci-fi genre.

Tom Hank has interpreted the feather to mean this "Our destiny is only defined by how we deal with the chance elements to our life and that's kind of the embodiment of the feather as it comes in. Here is this thing that can land anywhere and that it lands at your feet. It has theological implications that are really huge.”

Screen Shots of the Forrest Gump Introduction.

Juno

Genre: Comedy

Release Date: 8^th February 2008 (UK)

Budget: $7,500,000

Gross: $231,411,584

Written By: Diablo Cody

Directed by: Jason Reitman

Studio: Mandate Pictures

Film Introduction

The film opens with the Fox Searchlight Pictures logo. The background is then completely black but the sounds of a chalk board start as the word ‘autumn’ is written on the top right hand corner, and an establishing shot of a house and sun rise fades in. The writing then disappears but the shot stays the same for a bit longer this shot is quite a long shot. The camera then focuses onto a girl and a chair the girl then drinks from this massive cartoon of Sunny D. Close up of the girl who was drinking the Sunny D a narrating voice can be heard you assume that the voice is the thoughts in the characters mind. 

A fast cut to a shot of the girls feet/legs and a naked character sat in the chair the girl was looking at. A medium shot of the girl is then changed into a close up of the side of the mans and girls face, dialogue is then spoken between the two. The day dream from the girl is then interrupted by the barking of a dog. An over the shoulder shot focuses onto the chair. More narrating is heard from the girl and then music is heard as the female character walks down a path. The real life shots change into sketches of the shots that would have been in real life, this will show the whole film is not as realistic as the viewers may have first thought. ‘Fox Searchlight Pictures Presents’ is the first title to come up in the introduction sequence. 

The title ‘Juno’ this is shown next to the female character this is showing that the character is called Juno as well as been the title of the film. The actress Ellen Page who plays Juno is then shown on the sketched pictures. The song begins to finish and the sketches turn into real life again outside of a store. All these features would appeal to the target audience because it shows that it doesn’t have a complicated plot, it’s easy to watch and the characters could be related to in some ways.