Season's Greetings and a Fond Farewell.

"As you may well see by the date of post, we are approaching the season of goodwill and merriment. This, however, sadly means there will be a period of a couple of weeks where this blog shall receive a measure of neglect. There may, however be bits and bobs popping up every now and again. So, cheerio and we'll be back in full throttle in the year commencing 2009. Merry Christmas to you all, and a Happy New Year." - Simon Cardy

Posted by Daniel, on behalf of the group.

Editing Update

We know have a complete sequence of shots that match together well. We have captured and incorporated the shots taken on the re-shoot. We will hopefully (fingers crossed) not have to film in the cold, dark, murky alley again. We have added some snazzy titles which include ourselves and a few star-studded friends. We will now try and polish off our opening by tinkering with lighting effects and contrast to achieve a better sense of continuity. After Christmas we hope to have an epic soundtrack in place and accompanying sound effects. That's all Folks!

Simon

Sound Effects

Some sound effects we may need to acquire:

• Gunshot
• Footsteps
• Better Doorbell?
• Heavy Breathing?

Simon

Oh dear!

Calm down, Nick.
Damn those inactive actors.
Daniel.

DANIEL YOUR PHONE IS OFF!

Tried ringing you today to say that because of weather and lack of actors there will be no shoot today but we will be having one tomorrow evening.
I hope you get this before you leave the house!

Nick

Miss B Feedback

Today Miss B gave the group some very detailed and important feedback. A lot of it was based upon making our sequence more believable which is a very important part of film and I researched this on my individual blog for stage 1.

-When the villain attacks the detective, at the point where the light turns on and off it looks awful as it makes absolutley no sense and everytime the light comes back on the camera needs to focus. Miss proposed the idea to do it without the light flickering on and off and maybe focus it around a POV shot of the villain coming up behind the detection as he's working.

- Also the build up isn't quite right. The villain just appears out of no where and is presented to the audience with out any infomation of how he got in. This is important as it needs to be realistic and if the detective puts the latch on the door how does he actually get in? I came up with the idea that the villain is already in the house and all we need to show is him hiding or just his feet to let the audience know the detective isn't alone. It thus creates the effect that you know something the main character doesn't. Miss also suggested him coming in the way he goes out, however, I think the first idea is better and it wont make our opening sequence drag on for too long. She also suggested having the detetive hear something as he's working and getting startled just to let the audience know that something isn't quite right and they are more prepared for the scene where he gets hurt. We might shoot both so we have options in the edit room.

- The shot where the detective puts the post-it note on the board needs to be closer so the audience can see it and acknowledge whats going on. Then also in the flashback.

-The gunshot at the end of the sequence maybe a little too unrealistic as he is a private detective and that maybe a little too unprofessional. Miss suggested that maybe the gun goes closer to his head and he says something like 'Don't move'.

Matt

Titles

Well, today we've successfully managed to put some titles into "The Case." We experimented with the available effects, and we'll need to discuss with Matt and the absent Simon whether they are happy with the placement. We're also yet to make a permenent main title.
Nick and Daniel.

Re-shoot list

We have a few shots to re-shoot this weekend and the group went through every shot we had done and evaluated critically if it would need re-shooting.

Shot 4 - MCU, pan of the door closing in opening scene
Shot 9 - Birds eye view of the table - althgough in our sequence this shot works nicely, we decided it would be worth re-shooting it just to see if we can get it even better.
Shot 42 - POV of the villain as he is about to kill? our detective.
Shot 15 - The shadow on the wall by the house - this is the nshot where there is a light in the corner of the screen but we have decided to mask it as it is surrounded by darkness and this method would work effectively.
Shot 28 - OTS, mid-shot at desk
Shot 36 - The watch shot
Shot 38 - Fixing his tie
Shot 39 - The climax shot where the gun points towards his head
Shot 42 - Walking round the corner to the final scene - we need more angles because at the moment it is too long of a pan

I realise that now we have edited most of our sequence together a few of these re-shoots may need to be re-evaluated as some of them look perfectly fine in the sequence.
Matt

Miss Thrasher Feedback

Today we showed Miss Thrasher our opening sequence and she seemed to quite like it, however, there are some things we need to take in to account for the next re-shoot.
-There are a few lighting continuity issues in some of the shots which we will need to re-shoot.
-A light can be seen in one of the shots but miss proposed a simple masking solution to hide it which should be easy as its a still shot.
-The cut to the watch doesn't quite look right and needs evaluating, which we have and it looks a lot better. Also, the villain looks at his left hand when it is natural for someone to look at their right.

However, miss was very encouraging about the project and it at least made me realise that we got a lot of quality filming done at the weekend and there's a lot of filming that I myself am quite proud of. :):):):) :D:D:D:D

Matt

Important Documents

Storyboard sample, Shooting Script, Shot Log, Marked Script

Camera

Helloooooooooo Matt,

I've heard from my sources that you may not be in school. I do not suppose there is anyway that you could get the camera to us so that we can do some capturing in period 6.

Ta for now.

Simon

New Logo

Enjoy

Nick

Lovely stuff

Turns out there's going to be decent weather over the weekend. This could be useful seeing as we're filming outside. It makes a change to hear some good news.





Nick

Storyboard 1

This is part of our storyboard for the first 4 shots of our sequence:

Troubleshooting

We decided in light of previous weekends, that realising now the possible difficulties we could face in the filming process, we could hopefully avoid these this coming weekend. Here are some notes on that meeting.

• Everybody knowning what time and where we are meeting to film
• Actors not being prepared for the film
• Broken equipment
• Leaving equipment at school
• Disobedient actors
• Not looking after the actors
• Not preparing the costume and props properly
• Messing around/time wasting on the shoot
• Not preparing a proper shooting script or shot log to make filming and editing easier
• Weather (please don't rain please don't rain please don't rain/snow)
• Thinking ahead with transport (bus strikes, breakdowns, traffic)
• Batteries running out
• Tape running out
• Not leaving enough space at the beginning and end of shots
• Lighting, too bright/too dark?
• Background noise
• Preparing against background noise (e.g. making sure phones don't go off (put phones on silent!))
• Not doing enough takes/not having enough material to edit
• Keeping equipment tidy, e.g. making sure cables are out of the way so nobody trips
• Distribute jobs evenly so everybody gets a go
• Keeping warm in cold weather
• Not leaving equipment on longer than needed (Jack, Kris and Shaun...)
• No late nights before the shoot!

We could continue for a while with pointless, over specific, pedantic points but we feel we covered all the main issues.

Nick, Simon, Matt, Daniel

List of Shots in script.

This is a list of all the shots, not counting the black screens at the beginning and the end in the new script. From this we can create a shooting script, which will be posted soon.

• Long Shot of corridor, probably tracking.
• Mid Close Up of door from outside being opened by detective; detective looks around.
• Possibly Long Shot to show that there is nobody around?
• Back to LS in corridor.
• CU/VCU of detective putting the chain on the door.
• LS from other side of the corridor, detective crossing to back room.
• MCU of detective in back room as he enters, pan around room.
• High Angle MS as detective sits down at desk.
• CU of cork board with post-its, etc.
• Back to the High Angle MS, detective writing.
• CU of cup of coffee, tracking it from the desk as it is raised to the detective’s lips.
• Pan left across desk, MCU, HA, showing papers scattered across the desk.
• Pan right across the desk, horizontal at desk level showing picture, corkboard, and hand enter to stick post-it up.
• Back to CU/VCU of door chain, now off.
• MS of detective in back room, light flickering on and off, almost total darkness when light off, detective is assaulted by the villain.
• Canted angle, minor zoom to detective’s head on desk.
• Low Angle LS of villain leaving through back door of house, into garden.
• LS of villain walking through garden, tracking shot to back gate.
• CU of villain’s hand attempting to unlock gate, shaking gate in frustration.
• LS of villain and gate; villain grumbling, shaking gate, then leaping over gate.
• Close Ups of villain on top of gate: hands on gate, pushing self up.
• Continued CUs: leaping over gate.
• LS of villain landing on other side of the gate.
• MCU of villain straightening jacket with rose pinned to it.
• CU of post-it note on cork board.
• Back to MCU of villain, he moves out of shot.
• CU of villain’s hand pulling at tie, loosening it.
• VLS of villain, canted angle, breathing heavily, moves into and out of shot.
• LS of villain at corner, stopping and looking around him.
• MCU of villain’s hands being wiped on jacket.
• CU of hand reaching into pocket getting out packet of cigarettes. LS of villain rummaging in pocket for a lighter. There are two shadows projected onto the wall.
• CU of villain’s face, Low Angle, lighting cigarette. Gun in shadows behind him.

Daniel.

The Case, rough script

Here is the new revised script for the new film idea. It is a lot simpler than "The Streets Run Red" but follows the same general storyline with similar characters.

Matt, Nick, Daniel

The Case

We start with a black screen and the film company logo is shown. We hear a door bell and the screen fades * in to a long shot of a corridor with a door at the end. It is night time and there is low lighting. We are in a house. A man in his 20s walks towards the door. He is wearing a shirt with rolled up sleeves and a black tie. He is scruffy and looks very tired. As the screen fades in the music starts (Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven)

[We fade from black into a slow track towards a door at the end of a corridor. We hear a door bell ring.]*

He opens the door and looks outside. We get a MCU of him looking around as nobody is there. He goes back into the house and we revert to the first shot as he closes the door. We then go to a close up of him putting on the chain. We change to a LS from the other side of corridor and watch him walk to the back room. Now inside the back room we get a match on action as he enters the room and pan across the room with him (MLS). He sits down at a desk which is lit only by a lamp. Match on action as it changes to a MS (HA) looking down on the desk. It is covered in papers; badly organised, showing that he is obviously stressed. He has a mug of coffee which shows us that he is tired, and we see a cork board up against the wall with evidence on it. A CU of the board shows us that he is working on a crime case, therefore telling the audience he is some sort of detective. We cut back to the MS and see him writing.

We now get a brief character building montage. We get a CU and track of him picking up his mug and taking a swig of coffee. We fade to a pan left across the desk from a Birds Eye View which is a MCU, this shows all the paperwork scattered around. We fade to a pan right which is horizontal view of the desk seeing a picture of the detective and his girlfriend and then onto the cork board where we see his hand enter frame and pin up a post-it note (currently illegible).

We cut back to the CU of the front door and the chain is now off. *

Now back in the room we look from beyond the table with a MS. We see the detective working still. His lamp starts to flicker and turns off. When it turns back on again we see him fiddling with the light bulb and if you look carefully in the door way there is now a tall dark figure standing there. The light goes off again and when it comes back on the man is now standing right behind him preparing to strike. The light goes off a third time and we hear a slam, when light returns we see the detective has had his head slammed into the desk and is unconscious/dead? The villain is making his exit out the room.

We now get a canted angle and a small zoom from MCU to CU, of the detective’s head on the desk. It cuts to a LA LS of the villain leaving through the back door. He walks down some steps and into the garden. Match on action to forward track following him power walking down the garden towards the back gate. (Take lots of different variations of this to cut between?). He reaches the gate and we cut to a (match on action) CU of his hand trying to unlock it. He shakes it a bit and grumbles in discontent.

We cut to a LS of the gate and do a montage of quick CU cuts of him hopping of the gate, starting with his hands on top of the gate, pushing himself up, foot on the gate, and then jumping over to a match on action on the other side as he lands.

We then get a MCU of him straightening his jacket at which point we see a rose pinned to it. We cut back to a black and white version of the pan in which we see the crime board. There is a sudden CU on the post it note which we can now read to be saying:

“Villain known to have rose as calling card”

Next to this is a Polaroid photo of a rose. We cut back to the MCU and he walks out of shot. Match on action to a VLS of him walking down the alley. As he is going down we cut to a CU of his hand pulling his tie loose and we can see him breathing heavily. Cut back to the VLS slightly canted angle this time and he continues past the camera, match on action to a LS from the corner as he stops and looks around. We get a MCU of him wiping his hands of sweat on his jacket. A CU where he reaches into his jacket and pulls out a packet of cigarettes. We cut to a long shot and he has a shadow cast against a wall as he searches for his lighter. We realise there is not one, but two shadows on the wall. We cut to a slightly low angle CU looking at the villain’s face for the first time as he brings up his lighter to light the cigarette. He lights the lighter and we see a gun appear in the shadows behind him.

The screen fades and the music comes to a sudden halt and there is a gun shot. The title logo fades and zooms into the screen.

END

New Idea Treatment

1. The Action: identify the event your idea is based around; what actually happens (discovery of a body, an illicit meeting, a witness seeing a crime being committed, a criminal act taking place)?

A detective is assaulted is his own home and appears to the view to be dead. The villain then escapes the scene of the crime via the garden and an alleyway before being confronted by he detective who now has a gun in hand.

2. The theme(s): what should it make the audience think about or feel, what 'issues' will it raise (revenge, sexuality, voyeurism, stalking, obsession, greed ect). The opening is associated to:

crime, enigma, suspense, death, motive, justice and retribution, secrecy.

3. The narrative: how is it structured - classic narrative pattern or break with convention, different time zones, flashbacks/forwards, dreams etc. Will there be dialogue? What about diegetic/non-diegetic sound?

It will be a linear sequence set in one time frame and filmed in real time except for one brief flashback that explains the link between the characters. There will be no dialogue as we feel that this would ruin the atmosphere. All sound will be diegetic except for the doorbell at the start and the gunshot at the end.

4. The character(s) who are they, identify their roles, what are their characteristics, including gender, appearance etc?

Anti-hero, villain, detective/gangster, male, trench coats and matching hats, red roses, guns, violence, calm and collected, slightly nervous.

5. The setting and choice of location: where is it set?

The setting is the villains house and specifically his office space where he does his work and has all of his evidence and files around him. The alleyway will be dark and creepy with low key lighting as opposed to the inside. The actual location is Nick's house, back garden and alleyway. We stumbled over this location after brainstorming new ideas at his house.

6. The mise-en-scene: identify colours, lighting, dress codes, the overall visual look.

Low saturation but contrasting colours which stand out e.g light and darkness. The outside shots will have a low saturation mixed with various filters such as a low glow effect which brings out the white/light in the shots, also maybe some colour correction to make it look exactly as we want. The characters will be dressed as gangsters with trench coats and the overall feel will be very 1970/80s to create a traditional film noir look.

7. The camera work: the style you are aiming for.

The camera work will be quite slow paced with lots of close-ups on the characters in order to show little background as this will clutter the shot. We only need to focus on the protagonist and his workspace anyway. This will help to create a montage sequence in th emiddle which we are looking to include to show time passing. As the villain starts to escape, however, the camera work and cuts will quicken up slightly to build tension and to be able to keep up with the action.

8. The editing: edited as a continuous sequence, use of cross cutting, use of montage, or combination?

The opening will feature non-linear editing, edited as a continuous sequence which focuses more on the aftermath of the attack rather than on the event itself. The editing will be quite slow paced and we want a lot of the shots to linger on-screen to create a relaxed and artistic effect so the audience has time to take all of the mise-en-scene in which is important in an arty film. As we mentioned before we will be looking to include a montage sequence.

9. Has your idea been 'tested' against the question on the previous brief sheet?

Yes, it has and it appears to be very workable provided we work hard and focus on every detail to create this film noir genre. We have had issues with the story and are correcting them but there is nothing wrong with the general idea of the film.

10. Group responses?

We all agree that the idea is a very good one, considering that we thought of it in one day and that if done right it could potentially look very good.

11. Teacher responses?

We contacted Ms Blackborow while at Nicks house at the weekend and she agreed that it would be wise to now put our efforts into this idea as our other seems dead in the water. This one seems equally strong if not better than our previous idea as it is simpler but should still contain a good story and eventually a good sequence.

The Detective

Today when doing our new test shoot/reccy, we tried out my brother Jon as our protagonist, the detective. He is meant to be in his late 20s/early 30s and constantly overworked. He looks rough with his sleeve rolled up, tie loosened and top button undone and will constantly be seen drinking coffee to stop himself falling asleep. In our clip he is obsessing over a serial killer who he has been following for weeks. He has evidence about the killings up on his board and the whole desk is a total mess of papers and notes he has discarded. He works in dim light so as not to be distracted by other things, and this makes the location look more sinister. It will also mean we will not need to use much artificial light in his scenes as he is illuminated by the lamp.

The first minute or so of the film will focus on him and his paranoia about the house as he tries to solve his impossible case.

Nick

From Daniel to everyone else.

Daniel did NOT get Matt's post before he left. Daniel will get a bloody phone ASAP. What's the situation? How much have we changed the story to fit the location?
Daniel.

New idea!!!

Me, Nick and Simon have gathered at Nick's house and are waiting for Daniel to arrive. We hope he got my blog post before he left for Enfield. We have successfully adapted our idea to a more workable location which involves the inside of Nick's house and a really good alleyway which is just behind his house. Things are looking much more promising and we are all a bit more optimistic instead of being completely depressed.

We were unable to use our previous location which was perfect for our idea and it left us stuck as we needed to find a new location which worked with our idea.

At the moment we are re-storyboarding and talking through the idea, making sure it's clear in our head. We have decided that it's not wise to do filming this weekend and are going to plan through the idea in a lot of detail so that next weekend everything will hopefully run smoothly

We have done a reccy and tested some lighting in key locations of our story. We also tried out our main character with the actor and will do a post on him soon!

We thought it could work very well in a thriller type film to add suspense by using some very calm classical music as contrapuntal sound. For this we had the idea of using the first movement from Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 in C# Minor. It is a very calm relaxing piece and would therefore give a sense of contrast to the visuals adding tension. We have consequently decided to scrap the voice over as it no longer works with the style or mood of the film. We have however stuck to the detective/killer aspect.

We made some props for use in the office scene like some polaroid pictures and evidence for the detective's desk. We will upload posts about this separately.

Very sorry to Daniel who didn't get our post. If you read this and the following few posts to come hopefully the new idea will become apparent.

Matt, Nick and Simon

DANIEL

Daniel come to nicks house. You've been there before but here's his address anyway: 145 ladysmith road

come as soon as you read this and GET A BLOODY PHONE! :D

Matt

location

yeh i agree with simon meet in enfield at 3:30 and go do a reccy of it and come back and plan loadssssss

matt

oops

I just found out we need to pay quite a bit of money to use location 2 so we might as well check out the athletics stadium which I know how to get to and isn't far away from Enfield Town. I suggest we check it out today.

Location stuff

Yeah I'll try and call but its a Sunday so I don't know if I'll get an answer. The first one definitely has no security there so we could go but it may be locked.

Response to locations post

Well I agree with Matt, the second one looks fantastic.
We'd have to do LOADS of adapting. But it looks like it could be hopeful. I think we need to contact Ms Blackborow today and see if we can phone up and ask for permission to film there.
Also, does anyone know how to get to it. I've been looking at maps and can't quite work out exactly where it is haha.

Whoever posted the links initially needs to put labels on them.
Thanks

Nick

Yeh that second one is really good can we call them up straight away and see what they say? If they say ok we need to reccy it and then adapt the story to it (storyboard, shooting script) ie. make everything go really smoothly next weekend.

matt

Possible Locations we can check out

These may work for our current idea. Follow the links:

http://www.reelfilmlocations.com/Search/res_Detail.php?Location_ID=46&Borough_ID=3

This one could be amazing if we call the website, http://www.reelfilmlocations.com/Search/res_Detail.php?Location_ID=129&Borough_ID=3

Response to Simon's post

I'm cringing as I write this guys, but even more bad news (I hate to be the bearer).

My mum who used to work at that Middlesex university has told me that they no longer own that site and have sold it (even though they haven't updated the signs).
So, what do we do guys.
I'm racking my brains and currently getting really grim responses.

I don't want to say it but we may need to start from scratch;
New idea, new location, new script etc.
Because this is looking hopeless.

Good night, good luck with ideas and god bless, we need it haha.

By the way, meeting at the car park around 3:30pm tomorrow unless anyone posts otherwise.
Nick

A response to Simon's hopeful solution:

Hmmm, could well work. We should get permission from the University. So, what's the plan for tomorrow?
Daniel

A Solution to Our Problem (hopefully)

I have had a brainwave! We might be able to use the carpark in Ponders End (Location 1 on reccy) that belongs to Middlesex University. If we ask them they should let us seeing as it is for educational purposes. There is no lift there, but we can easily shoot our lift sequence in the Enfield Town carpark without security knowing as they do not patrol this area. We could do this tomorrow if we got our villain actor for an hour or so. Let me know what you think.

Posted by Simon

Reccy of Waltham Cross multi-storey.

Well, I've had a brief look around. No security guards, just large signs WARNING YOU OF CCTV CAMERAS IN LARGE IMPOSING LETTERS, and it's not crowded, quite a bit of space, but there's no actual decent locations. The only really good "murky corner" alternative is in the residential area above the shops, which the general public can't get to. Unless we want to start climbing out onto rooftops and that, it's not a viable location, really.
So, anybody have any other suggestions?
Daniel.

guys im super duper ill and so wont be coming to todays lesson but if you need to contact me you can just ring my mobile.

Matt

Responses to ideas.

I can't even be bothered to think of decent titles for my posts at all. The script is good, the language in the voice-over is a bit daft and cliched, but this complaint would sound better if I had an alternative monologue to offer. I'll think about it. The fight will work with good choreography, but it might spoil the mysterious nature of the characters somewhat. Erm... not too sure about that proposed font for the titles, I had in mind something simpler and more dynamic. It sounds like I'm complaining a lot, but there wouldn't be much point in me just singing your praises.
Daniel.

Lights, Camera, Actors!

I thought I'd be like one of those cool bloggers who thinks of witty puns for the title...sadly I failed.
However, very good news everyone. My friend Andrew says that he is all OK for both shooting days as is my brother so we have our two actors ready. I have shown both the dummy script and they are happy with it and Andrew says if we do have a fight scene he is happy to choreograph it for us (he is very good at this and I have seen him do some impressive fight scenes in the past both for my GCSE coursework and other productions.)

But of course it is up to you guys. Now we have actors and a dummy script secured I'm feeling a lot less scared about the whole project, and also the music is coming along nicely, I should have a couple of samples up for you of the atmospheric sequencing by the weekend. I'm using lots of loops which will make it easy to edit the sound to fit with the time line.

Hope you've all had a good evening and done lots of brainstorming. We should definitely discuss all this tomorrow.

Nick

In response to Nick's entire first draft using new ending

Hey Nick, I pretty much like the whole script up until the fight scene. I don't think it should be a fight scene I think it should be a lot more simple, eg. a gunshot to the head (The villian realises the protagonists isn't there and then a gun gets put to his head, the screen goes black and we hear a gunshot). I think that is a lot more powerful than a fight scene which in my opinion would end up looking a bit clumsy and ametuer.

By Matt

Titles appearing throughout film

I though I'd do a quick idea of the sort of font I'd like to see the titles in.
Tell me your thoughts guys.

Nick


Here's an example;

Entire script first draft using new ending (Nick)

Could we possibly use the comments function to have a discussion about this script so we can try and get a final draft finished by the end of this evening. Thanks

Nick

THE STREETS RUN RED

There is a black screen and we hear a gun shot. Nothing else is heard for a few seconds.

Voice-Over: How did I get here?

We hear sirens start to fade in and so does the screen into a fast motion track into a dark, damp corner where we end up in an over shoulder shot of a tall man in a coat standing over another man on the ground. The surroundings are an old city rooftop, we can see large industrial fans rotating nearby and it is dark, the only light source from small lamps on the walls nearby. During this the music builds up with some very fast strings into a very grand chord when we reach the OTS shot. The tall man is wearing a trilby hat and is holding a revolver. The man on the ground has a gun shot wound near his heart, his hair is messy and his tie is wonky. It is obvious there has been some sort of struggle. The standing man goes to put his gun away. The music is now very calm and atmospheric.

We cut to an ECU of the gun being put in his holster/pocket and see his arm start to move up his coat.

Voice-Over: Here in the filthy, desolate…

We then cut to a MS of the man pulling a rose out of his jacket pocket.

Voice-Over: …Back alleys of this…

We then go back to the OTS shot and see him drop the rose which we can safely assume from general stereotypes is his calling card.

Voice-Over: God forsaken town.

We cut to an ECU downwards track of the rose falling which will be in slow motion. Over this there are titles appearing in the corners of the screen. The music is slowly but surely building up.

We get a Low Angle, LS of the killer from the man on the floor’s perspective and his face is difficult to see due to the lighting.

Voice-Over: Shot, in cold blood…

We go back to the OTS shot and see the villain lift up his foot to stamp on his victim.

Voice-Over: …by a man I no longer know.

As the foot comes down on the word “know” we cut to a close-up of the victim’s face as he cringes in agony. We can tell that the villain is stepping on his wound showing no remorse or mercy in his shooting. We go back to the Low angle LS of the killer and see him turn and start to walk off screen.

We now get a low angle wide shot of the pathway that the villain is walking down. We see him walking off away from the camera.

Voice-Over: It’s late…

On the word “Late” we change to a side-on LS from behind the industrial fans looking across at the villain walking.

Voice-Over: …the disease ridden rodents…

On the word “Rodents” we cut to a high angle VLS, from a few stories up in the building nearby looking down on the villain walking away past a staircase. He continues until he turns a corner.

Voice-Over: …have scurried back to the gutters from whence they came.

We see a LS of the villain turning a corner and entering a stairwell and then cut to another LS of him walking towards a lift. We get a CU of his finger pressing the button then change to a MCU of his head as he stares at the numbers above the lift awaiting its arrival. Over this the voice-over continues. As he enters the building the sirens fade out slightly but the music continues to build up.

Voice-Over: Their sinful ways have driven me to insanity, to the depths of hell itself.

We see the lift doors open from a LS looking at the villain’s back and he enters the lift. The door’s close. We cut to inside the lift where we can hear the mechanics working as the lift ascends and then cut to a MS of his chest where he reaches into a pocket to check if he has any cigarettes. We get a High angle OTS shot as he looks into an empty packet and puts them away again. Over this the voice-over continues.

Voice-Over: He should have listened. Can’t he see his destructive ways have brought about his own demise?

We cut to a MLS of outside the lift doors on a new floor and as they open he walks out.

Voice-Over: One thing’s for certain…

He exits the room and is now outside in a car park (VLS from far off). He walks in the direction of the camera and then turns right, the camera pans to follow him as he goes to the edge to look over. The music has almost got to a frenzy now of dissonance and very odd synthesized noises. The sirens are getting ever loud becoming almost disorientating.

Voice-Over: …as long as I’m alive…

We cut to a MLS where we track his movements as he looks over the edge and then gasps in astonishment. We track past him and look over the edge down to the dark corner to find the corner empty. The music comes to a stunning climax and suddenly without warning stops.

Voice-Over: …THE STREETS RUN RED!

The music now goes into a furious theme which is very fast paced to represent the fight that follows. We pan back to suddenly find our protagonist behind him who grabs the villain and shoves him against a wall. We cut to an OTS shot from behind the protagonist and see the villain struggling against the wall. We then cut to a VCU similar to the third shot of the film but this time he is trying to retrieve his gun, but we see the protagonist’s hand go in there and grab his wrist.

We go to a MLS of the two from side-on and the villain head butts the protagonist making him fall to the ground. We cut quickly to a high angle MLS of the protagonist on the floor and then to a low angle MLS of the villain. The villain pulls out the gun and the screen suddenly goes blank. At the very same instant there is the sound of a gun shot. The music yet again stops without warning.

There is silence again except for the sirens which carry on as the title logo “THE STREETS RUN RED” fades and zooms on the screen and then the sirens and title slowly fade to black.

END

Test Shoot Thoughts

Our group decided to split the test shoot up over 2 days, Sunday and Monday from 3:00 till about 7:30. Although it didn't go completely as planned seeing and experiencing the location through the eyes of our camera did help us massively in progressing with our film opening.

Sunday started off well with us testing out the lighting in the area which worked really well and created a beautiful location for our film. As we were shooting in the dark we thought there might be problems and planned to do Sunday in the darkand monday in the light if I didn't go well. However, at the location there are lights on the wall which light the area up just enough to make our shots visable and that coupled with our light makes it a perfect location.

After checking everything out we decided to shoot shots from multiple angles and heights of the villians escape route which turned out very well. I did the filming on Sunday, Simon was in charge of the lights for a large portion of the night, Nick started off acting and daniel was in charge of the paper work (storyboard, shooting script, and shot log). After a while Simon and Nick swapped roles. The villains escape route worked very well as the location allows us to get a massive variety of shots which we can then cut between to make the scene more interesting.

Just as we were finishing on sunday and while we were shooting the villain going through the gate a security guard informed us that we were on private property and so we took a phone number of the manager to call and ask if it was ok to shoot at a later date. We realised that we had stepped out of the car park and in to a loading bay and therefore assumed that it was only through the gate we were not allowed to go and so returned on Monday.

Monday was a short day of filming as we entered our location set up our equipment and were then approached by 2 more security guards. They told us that we were only allowed to shoot inside the car park when infact our location was just outside it, we took the same phone number of the manager again and left. Instead of wasting the day we went back to Nick's house and started to develop our ideas even further and started an annotated, detailed storyboard which allowed us to think about how the whole scene apart from the ending would play out.

By Matt

Response to Simon's 2nd Half Of Sequence Thoughts

The second one is the best one Simon, as the last is too dramatic and I'm not sure a fight scene would look well done. The first is too boring as it would mean nothing would happen in our opening.

I think the second version needs altering in my opinion. I think at the point the villain notices the protagonist isn't on the floor we should see his worry and then end it with the protagonist pointing a gun to his head from off screen (i.e. Just see the gun next to the villains head in a close-up shot). I think it should end their as that and the 1st half of the opening will be enough to fill 2 minutes.

I still think we should still incorperate a voiceover but instead of rambling off about the storyline keep it much more to the point of whats happening in that scene. It works brilliantly in Sin City and can work well for us but we will have to re-write it which to be honest isnt a problem as we can write it after we get our footage.

By Matt

2nd half of sequence thoughts

To fill the remaining time left in our sequence after the interaction between the two characters I have been thinking of a few possible solutions:

1. Revert back to the zoom. This would fill the time left nicely, but may well make it quite boring and disrupt the flow of scene by integrating it amongst the action.

2. Add a chase scene to it. Instead of our villain walking down the steps and leaving the area he could walk up to the next level of the car park via the lift and notices that the protagonist is no longer in the corner. He then starts to get worried and we see a look of anguish on his face. He starts to briskly walk away and looks around frantically through paranoia. He then goes down the other set of stairs and returns to the corner and notices that the rose is on the floor and is crushed. He then walks down the stairs and pushes on the gate which is locked shut. The sequence then ends with him being shot or struck to the ground from behind by the protagonist. He slides down the gates onto the floor revealing our hero behind.

3. A full-on fight scene. The same as the previous up until he looks down to notice the good guy is gone and turns around and is punched. Combat ensues and it continues across the car park until it looks like the villain has been pushed off of the edge. The protagonist looks down and sees the villain on the floor in a crumpled heap. He then goes down the check the dead body, but discovers that it has gone.

I believe that the 2nd is the strongest and the 1st the least. We can, however, incorporate bits from each.

Posted by Simon

BLK feedback

hope it went well today boys - looking forward to seeing the footage :-)

can we have a group photo please . . .

Ideas and practicality.

Well, yes, that structure is the most sound, and we can get a competent sequence out of it. I do want to see as much made of the villain's escape as possible, but do we have enough of an escape route for the villain to fill the required amount of time? The villain walks off from the "murky corner," down the fire escape, along the alleyway away from the car park, then what? Will that fill enough time? Mind you, at some point in his escape we'll have the rose shot/ cigarette shot/ something along those lines.

Meeting tomorrow!

Meet at the car park ramp about 3pm?
Me and Simon have all the paperwork and lighting sorted, he's leaving it at mine overnight and I'll just take it tomorrow.
Think about shots from the location today. We especially need the interaction between the protagonist and the villain and the start of the clip.

Really struggling to think it through
If people are on tonight we could try exchanging some thoughts about that part?
Are we definitely going to follow the structure;

-2 characters
-Villain escape
-Protagonist close ups
-Villain escape part II
-Protagonist gone & title

Also, I might have a go at coming up with what titles to have throughout the clip if no one else minds and post some rough ideas?

Try and post back tonight so we can have more stuff for tomorrow!
Thanks

Nick (with Simon sitting close by!)

K-Lite Codec Pack

There you go nick.

http://www.free-codecs.com/K_lite_codec_pack_download.htm

By Matt

Early thoughts on Test Shoot Day One: 23/11/08

More detailed accounts of the somewhat disastrous first day of the test shoot will follow, I'm sure, but in brief, here are things to think about:

• The weather: It rained heavily. Very heavily. So, in future, we've got to check the weather forecast, and be prepared for delays on the filming process. Somebody's got to lie down on that ground.
• The temperature: Filming at night means conditions are bitter, and it's not going to get any better as we move further into Winter. I for one will be wearing two pairs of socks from now on. And gloves. And a hat. And generally any clothes I can think of. It's our responsibility to keep any actors we're getting in dry, warm and alive.
• The storyboard: Now that we've all seen the location, storyboarding has become much easier. Well, that's one good thing.
• The permission: Yes... well, hopefully by tomorrow afternoon we'll be able to film at our location without getting chucked out/ locked in. Both of which almost happened.

By the way, if anyone (by which I mean Nick, Simon or Matt) reads this, where are we meeting tomorrow?

Logo

Just a brief note to remind myself later that the logo needs a bit of editing. Some of the white blood isnt in the writing and so covers up some of the shadow. I can edit this by using a square rubber tool and alligning the different layers. Also some of the blood splatters on closer inspection look like snow, could make them more solid to look like blood. Just a thought.

Will post an updated version this evening.
Maybe with some ideas of the font for the titles and credits throughout the sequence

Nick

My Vision Of The Opening Sequence

I havent gone in to as much detail as I could of because I just wanted to write how I see the opening playing out Eg. I havent stated every camera shot just the ones that matter to understanding my vision.

The film opens with the sound of a gun shot and some atmospheric music which quietly starts and lingers in the background of the scene, while we are seeing a black screen with our film company logo/name. The audience is unaware of what is happening but the sound would imply that someone has been shot.

The sequence dissolves in to an atmospheric shot of the industrial area and within that shot we see two characters below on a roof top, one with a gun in hand and the other lying on the floor. There is blood splattered on the fans/surroundings nearby. And within this shot the police sirens start in the background adding to the music.

The camera cuts in closer to an over the shoulder shot of the villain with the victim lying on the floor with his eyes open and mouth slowly breathing (emphasis on the white of his eyes as its contrasting to the darkness around him). The villain begins to put his gun away and the voice over starts ‘Shot in cold blood… there was little I could do as this grungy dog peered over me and dominated the scene.’ (Something along the lines of that… I think the voice over should start by setting the scene and then diverge in to the whole story plot- politics, tyranny etc).

The camera changes to a close up of the villain who quietly sneers as he takes a cigarette and lights it with a smile on his face. (Voice over still going on describing the situation of the dirty streets and how thing came to be the way they were).

We cut to a master shot of the villain standing on the wound of his victim as he screams with agony; we change shot to a mid-shot of the villain as he pulls out his gun again and shoots his victim one more time. The camera focuses on the gun firing and the recoil of it and we cut back to the master shot which slowly moves back away from the scene and at this point the villain walks away and we (the camera) follows him down stairs which gives us a chance to do some match on actions.

Meanwhile the camera cuts back to the scene of the man lying on the floor and he has disappeared but there is a blood patch where he has been lying. The camera cuts about the scene and we change the style of editing to a faster pace of cuts which is in sync to dramatic music which has built up over the sequence and finally cuts to the main title sequence (THE STREETS RUN RED) and at the point it comes on to the screen the music cuts out but not totally out, just back to background atmospheric music. The opening fades out and ends.

By Matt

The Treatment: Planning Your Opening Sequence

1. The Action: identify the event your idea is based around; what actually happens (discovery of a body, an illicit meeting, a witness seeing a crime being committed, a criminal act taking place)?

A body is lying on a rooftop and has been shot in the chest and the audience doesn't know whether he is dead or alive. The killer/villain is seen leaving the scene of the crime and a voice over is hinting at the plot while this is all happening. The villian lights a cigarette and walks away. The person on the floor has disappeared and it is made clear that he is not dead.

2. The theme(s): what should it make the audience think about or feel, what 'issues' will it raise (revenge, sexuality, voyeurism, stalking, obsession, greed ect).

The opening is associated to: crime, enigma, suspense, death, motive, justice and retribution, secrecy and politics.

3. The narrative: how is it structured - classic narrative pattern or break with convention, different time zones, flashbacks/forwards, dreams etc. Will there be dialogue? What about diegetic/non-diegetic sound?

It is a linear real-time sequence, with use of diegesis on and off screen, such as police sirens in the distance. Also the use of a voice over to explain the film idea/story.

4. The character(s) who are they, identify their roles, what are their charactaristics, including gender, appearance etc?

Anti-hero, villain, detective/gangster, male, trench coats and matching hats, red roses, gun shot wound, hero on the floor who appears to be dying, blood, smoke from a cigarette, no remorse from the villain (has killed before)?

5. The setting and choice of location: where is it set?

It's set in a 1970s dark industrial area on a rooftop, it is night time and the surroundings are dark. The rooftop is surrounded by taller buildings and we are given many atomospheric shots from high above giving the audience an impression of desolation, these two characters are setterling business where they are free to break the law.

6. The mise-en-scene: identify colours, lighting, dress codes, the overall visual look.

The look is very Sin City - esque with low saturation but contrasting colours which stand out e.g light and darkness. The shots will have a low saturation mixed with various filters such as a low glow effect which brings out the white/light in the shots, also maybe some colour correction to make it look exactly as we want. There will be a strong emphasis on the colour red as it is of blood and we will want to make that visually striking the the audience. The characters will be dressed as gangsters with trench coats and the overall feel will be very 1970/80s to create a traditional film noir look.

7. The camera work: the style you are aiming for.

There will be some atomospheric master shots from tall buildings which will set the scene and create the look and feel for the time period. The camera work will be quite slow paced with lots of close-ups on the characters in order to show little background as this will clutter the shot. Since we have already established background through atomospheric master shots there's no need to when we want to focus on the characters and what their feeling.

8. The editing: edited as a continuous sequence, use of cross cutting, use of montage, or combination?

The opening will feature non-linear editing, edited as a continuous sequence which focuses on setting up the story and background infomation on the story eg. what is happening on the streets or in politics within the film, so in essence we are creating a whole new world where things are in chaos and are going wrong (no sign of democracy). The editing will be quite slow paced and we want a lot of the shots to linger on-screen to create a relaxed and artistic effect so the audience has time to take all of the mise-en-scene in which is important in an arty film.

9. Has your idea been 'tested' against the question on the previous brief sheet? Yes, it has and it appears to be very workable provided we work hard and focus on every detail to create this film noir genre. We have had issues with the story and are correcting them but there is nothing wrong with the general idea of the film.

10. Group responses?

We all agree that the idea is a very good one and that if done right it could potentially look very good. However, we also agree that the story needs more work in order for it to be understandable.

10. Teacher responses?

Daniel has posted the teacher responses to our initial proposal and we have taken all of it on board and are changing it eg. simplifying the story - No flashbacks, but instead a continuous sequence.

By Matt

Voiceover 1st Draft

“How did I get here?
Here in the filthy, desolate back alleys of this God forsaken town…
Shot in cold blood by a man I no longer know, whose evil intentions have stained these sordid streets.
It’s late; the disease ridden rodents have scurried back to the gutters from whence they came,
Their sinful ways have driven me to insanity; to the depths of hell itself.
This persistent pain…it burns with the fire of a 1000 suns.
My purpose is becoming obsolete… fading away.
There was a time when people looked up to me with respect, with repute. Now they look down on me with resent and find nothing but deceit in my eyes.
They should have listened.
Can’t they see their destructive methods have brought on their own demise?
One thing's for certain, as long as I’m alive…..
THE STREETS RUN RED!!!"

Posted by Simon

18/11/08 meeting

In our meeting we proposed our idea to Ms Blackborow, and she pointed out some problems that she had with it.
She told us that it was too complicated for a two minute scene, and that it was not thought through properly. As a result of these criticisms, the sequence has undergone these changes, decided by the group:

• No flashbacks.
• The whole sequence will be kept in real time.
• The sequence will start with a gunshot, and end with the protagonist's body disappearing.
• Sirens start with gunshot at the beginning- the issue was raised that the police wouldn't know that the gun would be fired before it happened, but we decided that the sirens were part of the "lawless" theme of the town/city.
• There should be more interaction between the characters- the antagonist kicking the protagonist's body, etc.
• We should show more of the antagonist's escape; more use of Match On Action and continuity.
• The Voice-over needs to have background.
• The zoom was questioned, and we now may not use it.

Also, we will be making a physical storyboard using post-it notes, so we can now have an easily editable timeline.

Also in the meeting we looked at potential costumes, and found a good beige trenchcoat and dark brown hat. A possible source of blood put forward was getting animal blood from the butcher's.

Finally, the time for our test shoot was set as 3-7pm on Sunday, with a possible further shot in the daylight on Monday.

We are extensively rethinking the sequence.

BLK feedback

Good discussion today boys, lots to think about.

Can you please post up a summary of what was said and any agreements you made about moving forward. What happens next?

Matt or Daniel - can you do this one??

Location Reccy ; 16/11/08; Location 3

Fire escape, Old Car Park, Enfield Town

Location Reccy ; 16/11/08; Location 2

Alley by Old Car Park, Enfield Town

Location Reccy ; 16/11/08; Location 1

Alley by Quasar, Ponders End

Colour Vs Saturation : The pros and cons

For our film, rather than filming in black and white like most Film Noir, we want to try filming in colour and then editing the saturation later on to give it a more dark feel seeing as the storyline is quite dark in itself. We took some photos and then showed the contrasts between them.

Colour Vs Low Saturation

Here we have taken some random photos with sets of colours and then shown examples next to them of how they would look in low saturation. We noticed that it gives the same dark feel as black and white however at the same time the main colours are emphasised such as the picture of the orange.




















Colour Vs Low Saturation Vs Black and White

Here we have taken our favourite two shots that we took and shown examples in colour, low saturation and black and white. As you can see the saturated and B/W ones are very similar but we feel that the low saturation adds to the picture by not removing all the colour. It will also give a slightly more modern feel than film noir. Although our film may not be set in present and have a more retro feel (1950s detective or 1970s gangster) we like the extra colour added.

Once we have sorted out the photos from our reccy we will also show examples of some of these in low saturation.

Simon and Nick

Character Comparisons

For individual research, we have found three characters who we think relate to the main protagonist of our film in various ways. No single one is identical but we have taken attributes and traits from each to create an ultimate character. We have done a brief analysis of each.

Hartigan -'Sin City' 2005 directed by Frank Miller

Hartigan may be described as the main protagonist in the whole of the Sin City and is noted to be noble and heroic. He is almost always dressed professionally, most commonly wearing a shirt and tie along with his signature trench coat. A veteran police detective of Basin City, Hartigan is cynical. He is also completely selfless; he cares little about his own well-being as long as he can protect others. He risks his own safety and reputation to achieve this throughout the film. This process eventually destroys his life.

We want our character to be an ex police officer so his role is very similar to Hartigan's. His costume will be much the same as his and his general mannerisms will reflect Hartigan's.

Deckard - 'Blade Runner' 1982 directed by Ridley Scott

Rick Deckard is the main protagonist in Blade Runner and is also a police officer like Hartigan. He uses violent methods and a ruthless attitude towards his enemies. He also shows a caring side which gives him emotional depth and makes him a likeable character for the audience. He also dresses in a similar fashion with a trench coat.

As a rule bending cop he relates well to the character we wish to create. We also want to give our character an extra emotional dimension to make him seem more human like Deckard.

Rorschach - 'Watchmen' Graphic Novel 1986 by Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons, Film 2009 Zack Snyder

Rorschach is vigilante in a book which is set in a post-Vietnam war world where Nixon is president of the United States and the world is on the brink of nuclear war. Heroes are banned by the police and only he is still active trying to rally others to his cause. He is secretive and an excellent detective. He wears a trilby and trench coat and so is similar in this aspect to Deckard and Hartigan. However, unlike them, he has no remorse for killing for his cause and is totally obsessed with his aims for uncovering the sinister plots of those in power. He is ruthless, violent and even disgusting in his methods and uses the things around him as weapons.

We want our protagonist to be a mix of all three of these characters. From Rorschach we want pure brutality and a lack of concern for those around him. We want him to be a vigilante who almost sees himself above the law and is constantly criticising those in a higher state of power than himself.

Mood Board

Here is a Film Noir mood board created by Simon and Nick. It depicts typical images to do with the conventions and costume associated with the genre.

It shows various images including a trench coat, a trilby hat and a revolver. It also shows some black and white images from Film Noir films. In the bottom right corner we have also shown a dark alleyway similar to the idea we wish to portray in our film.

Nick and Simon

Welcome

This is our media blog for our 2008 AS Level coursework task in which we have to create a 2-3 minute opening sequence of a feature film, following typical conventions and using shooting methods practiced in the industry. The film needs a soundtrack, dialogue, and demonstrations of various different shot types and conventional methods.

For our film, we have chosen to do a Film Noir/Action Thriller. It will be called "The Streets Run Red".

You have been warned.


Matt, Nick, Daniel, Simon