Filming Day 1

We wanted to get ahead with some of the filming and so I decided to film the panning shots of the London skyline at the beginning of our film. This was our first major piece of filming and so I wanted to make sure that we had lots of different versions of the skyline to choose from when it came to the editing stage. I did experience some problems, such as the lighting due to the fact that we wanted it to be nightime, in order to work with our cross-fade into the alleyway scene.

Overall, this stage was successful for us as it allowed us to begin editing straight away, when we got back from the Christmas break. We are now underway with our filming and I am certainly excited to see what the rest of the film making process has in store for us.

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Filming Schedule

Location 1 - Shots of London, Buildings etc
Date: TBC
Actors Required: Not needed for this scene
Notes: We will need to take quite a few different shots in order to have a lot to draw from at the editing stage of the film. It will be easy to organise due to the fact that actors are not needed. Have to be careful when taking the panning shots of the London Skyline, because we can run the risk of panning too fast and or too slow. We will also have to try out different buildings to quite a wide variety of different locations when it comes to editing. Must also be nigh-time so will need to chose quite a clear night.

Location 2 - Alleyway
Date: 2nd - 5th Jan
Actors required: Protagonist and Antagonist 1 ( Michael & Harry)
Notes: This scene should also be relatively easy to film as the location is extremely close to my house. The two actors needed also live close to me, which will make it easier to organise. Lighting is key for this scene so it will be difficult to completely set a date as we are not sure what the lighting/weather will be like outside. We are hoping some time between 2nd - 5th of January.   


Location 3 - Car Park
Date: TBC
Actors Required: Protagonist and Antagonist 2 (Michael & Albert)
Notes: We are hoping to start the filming for this scene over the christmas break but realistically this might not happen due to timing constraints of the christmas break. We are both pretty busy this holiday and so will make sure that we perfect the previously mentioned locations.

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Casting

Protagonist:

Our friend, Michael Hajiontonis will be playing the protagonist in our opening sequence. He fits the criteria for our role perfectly. Due to the fact that the protagonist is saying the voice over throughout, he must have a wide range of different voices that he can do so we can try them out and find out which one sounds best. Michael is excellent at doing different voice impressions and so will be great in our short opening to a film. Michael lives close to me, which will certainly make the filming process easier as many of the locations we use are also near to my house. The protagonist should appear dangerous but not as a 'bad guy' and we feel that Michael will fit this role perfectly. Michael is in my drama class so I am well aware of his brilliant acting skills and this is why I would like to use him in our film.

Antagonist (A):

Albert Wayman Scarlett, will be playing the second antagonist in our short opening sequence. This antagonist is very confident within himself and is certainly high up on the so called, 'Criminal food chain' and after working with Albert in my drama class I am certain he can fit this role. Obviously I am not suggesting that Albert is over-confident, he is actually a very 'nice guy', but is a very good actor. Due to this, I know he will fit the role well. He will be dressed in a 'classy' suit and will need to be quite tall in order to highlight the authoritative presence that he holds. 

Antagonist (H):

Harry Wheeler, will be playing the second antagonist in our short opening scene (the alleyway scene). He is a somewhat arrogant who thinks he is high up in the, 'so called' criminal food chain and often has 'notions of grandeur' but nonetheless knows that this is not the case and this is shown by his nervousness in the alleyway scene. He is constantly looking behind himself towards the protagonist and  I think that Harry can fit this role perfectly. He is another member of my drama class (a talented bunch), and so I am confident that he can play the nervousness of this character in the right way to create the desired effect.

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Sound Practice

I have learnt many things from this sound practise that I didn't realise from before. The first thing I learnt was the importance of where the boom pole is in relation to actor on camera. The sound pole has to be close to the actor in order to hear and understand what he is saying but you obviously cannot have the sound pole in shot. I also experienced some problems with the micro-tracks, in relation to the sound that we heard. The sound was too quiet during our first test run and so I learnt to check the sound level before filming each shot. I realise now how frustrating it would be to get back after a whole day of filming to find out that the sound is too quiet. We also learnt to start recording before the scene starts as you often miss something and or as you can see from this video, someone is still in shot when the filming begins. This sound practise has been invaluable to us as it meant that we could get to grips with how to use the different equipment (lighting and sound) and mean that when we film our actual opening sequence, we hopefully shouldn't make any mistakes.




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Sound Influence

Sound Influences - for panning shots (2nd influence)

'The Third Man' directed by Carol Reed in 1949, has a much more unconventional soundtrack to your more usual 1940's film noir. Usually, you would hear heavy orchestral music, but Reed decided to use a solo Zither (played by Anton Karas). This creates an extremely interesting sound and stands out amongst many other Film Noir movies of the time. Although, this soundtrack is slightly different to what we have decided on doing, it was certainly an influence in the deciding stage. We strongly considered using similar style music in our panning shots of London scene, but decided to go with the more classic film noir Jazz music, as we felt it fit in better with our opening sequence. 

    

Sound influences - Rest of Film

One of our influences when thinking about the soundtrack was music to, 'Psycho'. Not only is the soundtrack excellent, but the film is directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Alfred Hitchcock is a major influence due to the fact that he is often known as, 'the master of suspense'. Films, such as 'North by North West' and 'The 39 Steps' have been big influences for Charlie and I, when deciding on what type of film we want to do. The 'Psycho' soundtrack is very good as it creates suspense fantastically well, which is what we want to do in our film. The survey we took showed that many people like films that create tension and suspense and 'Psycho' undoubtedly does this, especially through the soundtrack and so making it a strong influence for us.  

 Bernard Hermann, the writer of the 'Psycho' soundtrack is another influence as he has written the music for many of Hitchcock' movies. One of the movies he wrote a fantastic soundtrack for is,'Vertigo', again directed by Hitchcock, which similar to, 'Psycho' creates suspense and tension all throughout. The part from 24 mins onwards is especially good at doing this.

  

Sound Influences - rest of film

Another influence for our opening sequence was the soundtrack to, 'The Maltese Falcon'. It has some very suspenseful moments in it and would be great for the more dramatic moments of our opening sequence, especially the parts leading up to the killing of the Antagonists. However, Charlie and I are having problems deciding on the pace and volume of the music and the one issue coming from this piece of music is that it might be a bit too fast paced for our movie. Nonetheless, it is still an important influence as, "The Maltese Falcon' is one of the more famous Film Noir movies from the 1940's and has had a big effect on many of our choices for our short film.  

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Opening Sequence Sound

For the start of our opening sequence, we want to have some typical Film Noir, 1940's style Jazz music, similar to the style of the Ella Fitzgerald who is known as the 'Queen of Jazz'. One of our main influences for this part of the sequence is the soundtrack from LA Noire, which is written by Stephen Coates. LA Noire is a video game based in 1940's Los Angeles and uses Jazz music throughout, which perfectly fits with the storyline. This part of the film is a bit more glamorous and high tempo in comparison to the rest of the opening and the Jazz music will certainly show this. We want to show this sudden cut from classic film noir jazz music to more ominous gloomy music, and the locations will help define this without it looking too out of the blue.

Sound

Ambient Music:
Much of our ambient music will be diegetic sounds, such as the sound of a gun and the phone ringing. All of the diegetic sounds that we need for our opening sequence can be found on final cut pro and Charlie and I will have to make sure that the sounds are edited well in order to fit in with the scene and not break the suspense that we want to create. We have to be careful when editing in the sound of the phone ringing as it could be quite tacky and ruin the atmosphere of the opening sequence and similarly with the sound of the gun shooting during blackout, but we will probably test this before we start filming to make sure it works. 

Due to the panning shots of the London skyline and the Car Park scene, we might have to deal with the issue of ambient noise coming from the cars and or people in the background. It is important for us to deal with this in order not to loose tension in the scene, as it could be very distracting. This is where the soundtrack is important as final cut will allow us to remove these natural sounds and leave the backing track to create the different moods that we want. Suspense and tension are the key elements to our film and we have to be especially careful when editing in the sound to keep the suspense of the film where we want it, otherwise the whole mood and atmosphere could be lost in a split second.

Our opening sequence doesn't just use diegetic sounds. We also use the Non-Diegetic sounds of the voice over, which goes on all throughout the opening sequence. We have already done some research into films that use a voice over and seen that it can work extremely well and we are sure that we can create a similar effect. Voice overs are not used very often in movies and so we want to make sure that it works well to create our desired effect.

Charlie and I have a couple of friends who may be able to write us a soundtrack for our opening sequence as we are not skilled musicians ourselves. We are not allowed to use copyright music in our opening and so will need to look elsewhere for our soundtrack. One place we could use is Sound-cloud. However, the music Charlie and I want to use in our film is not something, which is often created in today's modern music world and so might be difficult to find the style we want.

This is the kind of thing Charlie and I are going for:

Last FM (non-copyright) have some good examples of Jazz tracks that are easily downloadable. In an ideal world, we would like one of our friends to compose a piece for our opening sequence but this is the kind of idea that we are going for:

Jazz music

Jazz music (version 2)

Jazz music (version 3)

Charlie and I will want to have something similar to these playing for the first part of our opening sequence, where the titles will be coming up on screen during the different panning/establishing shots of London. If our friend/s are not able to write us a piece of music for our opening sequence then these links along with a few others are the kind of thing that we want to use.

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Title - Shadowman

We have decided to call our film 'Shadowman'. This name is striking, and also relatively unusual for a mainstream release, which creates intrigue. It is indicative of our narrative, or at least links with it, without being overt about the plot. The term 'Shadowman' could refer to the protagonist who has become a darker figure due to his circumstances, even a 'shadow' of his former self - a darker, lesser version of himself. The title is also fairly evocative of the Film Noir genre - one can almost picture a black and white image of a brick wall with 'Shadowman!' splayed across the screen to an orchestral crescendo.

Other than appropriateness, we feel that our title is successful as it is impactful and dynamic, due in no small part to the fact that it is a neologism of sorts, and that it is a single word. Many modern thrillers have single word titles, as they are engaging and dramatic. Examples are films such as 'Drive', 'Zodiac', and 'Insomnia'. A prime example of the effect that we are trying to achieve with this title is 'Se7en', which is eye catching and attention grabbing due to it's alteration of words and it's single word.

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Graphics & Titles

In terms of influences, our three key places of inspiration have been the openings to 'North by Northwest', BBC's 'Sherlock', and 'The Wrongs Mans', also a BBC production. A combination of the bold titling and placement of text that is found in 'North by Northwest' and 'The Wrong Mans' is perfectly representative of what we would ideally like to achieve, as is the striking use of London imagery and skyline that is used in the 'Sherlock' opening.



The effects shown in the above video would be extremely difficult to achieve, although effective. Due to this it would probably be an idea for us to go with something more akin to 'Sherlock' in terms of text dynamism. Alternatively, we could keep the dramatic movement of the text, but lose the feeling of tracking or laying the text over the video. Our example titles shown below give an idea of the sort of thing that we could achieve with relatively little problem, but retaining the Film Noir style and dynamism that we would like to capture.



In terms of font, we have two options for style. We could use a more classically Film Noir style font as found in most older Noir titlecards, my preference being 'Montgomery', a free font that is downloadable from the Internet, and that I used in the first example title sequence above. The other option is to go with a more modern typeface such as that used in the second example title sequence, and our three key influences. This could be effective as it makes the text bolder, especially if in white over the darker background that we intend to use.

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Graphics - Influences

North by Northwest

The opening titles of Hitchcock's 'North by Northwest' are the main inspiration for what we would like to do with our title sequence. Our film opens with panning shots of the London skyline, which we would like to place the text onto. This is difficult to do in terms of getting the text to lay over a moving image, and move at the same pace, so we may need to simplify it by laying the text over a still image. This would allow us to make it fit more effectively and would be far simpler to achieve. The effect used in the 'North by Northwest' opening is visually effective and sets the scene as metropolitan. Ours would need to use slightly slower movement and less dramatic music, in order to achieve a more suspenseful feel than the fast paced and exciting 'North by Northwest'.

Font Influences

In order to achieve the 'Modern Noir' tone that we would like to, we need to use a bold type, so that it will easily show up against our backdrop and be visually strong. Examples 1-4 here are likely too modern and stylized to work with our film, but are successfully bold enough to be very visually effective, especially in their pure colour form. Examples 5-7 are based around Film Noir, and are bold but perhaps too whimsical or tailored for certain films for our use in a more modern film. If we can find a font that has a balance between boldness and stylisation, it will give us a very effective title sequence. (Example 1 is from 'Avengers Assemble', 2 from 'The Hunger Games, 3 from 'Iron Man', 4 from 'Transformers', and 5-7 are all from various font designers that have made their work available for download online).

Still Image Influences

In terms of still imagery, the titles ought to be in a bold, single colour type over strong imagery. The influences here in terms of strength of image are the titles for 'Batman Begins' and 'The Silence of the Lambs', although the latter uses two colours in order for the text to be legible over the complex background. 'The Wrong Mans' titles are a good example of the use of titles interacting with surrounding that we would like to use, with the titles laying flat to the path in the example here. The titles of 'Sherlock' make use of the London setting, as we would like to do in our film, although we are unlikely to use the London Eye as we will be filming from further away, in order to preserve our dual settings of both a more central London car park and a suburban alleyway.






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Production Company Name

We have spent a long time deliberating on a name for our ident and have done much research into possible names that we could use. After a few days of searching the internet for interesting name that haven't already been taken, we have chosen upon PARANOIAC PRODUCTIONS. We have chosen this because we feel that it works well with our film. There is a film called, 'Paranoiac', which came out in 1963 and is a british suspense film. This was our influence for the name as the genres of the film (drama, thriller, suspense and mystery) are extremely similar to our openings different genre's. As soon as we saw the name, we instantly fell in love with it and have chosen it as our ident name. 

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Ident Influence - Number 9

I was watching Great Expectations the other day and became suddenly aware of the different film production companies at the start of the movie. Maybe it's because I am doing Media Studies now or not but i certainly became interested in what they look liked as i was thinking about our own one. I took a liking to, 'Number 9 Films', which is a British film production company that have produced films such as 'Byzantium'. They were also interesting to me as I have never seen them before. I thought that, although it was quite simple in comparison to the likes of 'Lionsgate', it still stood out among the rest and has undoubtedly influenced me when thinking about our own Ident. 

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Ident Influences

Our film, despite our best efforts is not going to be similar to the like's of transformers, Batman and other big budget movies. Due to this, we will not attract companies such as 'Twentieth Century Fox' and will not want to have ident that is too glamorous and showy, like the 'Big Six'. Despite this, we still did look into some of these companies to get an idea of what we could strife for:

These are just four of the 'Big Six' and have certainly been influences when researching for our own ident. However, we want to go for a more lower budget look with our Ident. This is because we do not want to present the audience with an image of a high budget movie before they start. We are more interested in producing an ident that looks stylish but is certainly more 'low budget' than the 'Big Six'. 

Some examples of lower budget idents:

However, Charlie and I are patriotic and were extremely influenced by some of the UK top production companies ident's:

We certainly want to make our ident interesting to look at but are aware of our limits and so will go for a more low budget looking ident in order not to confuse our audience.

The final ident is similar to the style Charlie and I are interested in. Lionsgate, at the start of this video is also an extremely interesting motion ident and was another influence for us, when thinking about what to do with ours.

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Draft Titles 2

These are three examples of the style of titles that we would like to use, these were relatively simple to create, and all use the correct sort of dynamism that we would hope for in our title sequence, even if they don't quite adhere to our former plans of laying the titles over the London skyline. This would have been very difficult to achieve, although may still be doable, time permitting, in the editing stage of construction.



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Graphics & Title Influences

Ident/Title - Similar to the kind of style Charlie and I are interested in.

We realise that this is a bit far-fetched in terms of what we can do ourselves but were instantly drawn in by the X-men opening titles. We want to create a similar style with our Ident, despite the fact this is the opening titles to x-men. It still was an influence for us when looking upon how to start our ident. We are not the most artistic group the world has ever seen and so will do our best to create something similar.




I was watching the film ParaNorman (2012) the other day and liked the opening title' very much. The almost 'Cartoon style' of the words on the screen are similar to style that we would want to go for. We will probably not use the bright colours that this film used due to the style and tone that we want to go for. However, the font style is very similar to the style that we would like.

I also watched the film Crave (2012). The titles were extremely interesting and were an influence when looking at our own titles. The words appear on the screen in a very similar style to how we want them to in our opening. The font is again very interesting and the mood that these titles create is comparable to what we want in our short opening sequence.

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Draft Titles

This title sequence is fairly representative of the visuals we would like to use, although does not necessarily fit our original plans to have the shot panning and titles on buildings. However, this is far easier to make work, and is fairly effective.



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Representation

Gender

Our film opening portrays a very male-dominated world of organised crime, as both of the antagonists/victims are men, as is the protagonist/attacker. The very foundation of the narrative is the murder of the protagonist's (implied) wife and daughter, which perhaps indicates that they were unable to protect themselves and that he was. This could be argued to be not equal in representation of gender, although in fact the likelihood of a mother and daughter being able to defend themselves against the calibre of criminal that killed them is very slim, and the male dominance of the world of organised crime is fairly accurate.

Social circumstances

There is a clear social hierarchy evident in our film, although this is existent in the crime world, where the two antagonists are at different tiers of the criminal hierarchy. This is denoted by their clothing and attitudes. There is evidence of wealth in the second antagonist, and this can be said to be categorising people based on income. As mentioned earlier however, the characters in which this is seen are both in some form of criminal organisation, which distances it from reality and social hierarchy in the workplace or generally.

Ideology

The overall message and moral signposting in the film is not positive, hence it's certification. This is due to the acts of the protagonist, who takes revenge on the criminals who played a part in the death of his family. This is obviously not an appropriate reaction, and as such may promote the message of revenge, although to say that it promotes murder is likely overstating the situation. There is obviously a strong anti-criminal message in the film, perhaps too strong given that they are murdered.

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Certification

Our film would likely be classed as a BBFC 15, although not necessarily for the content shown in our opening. In order for our film to achieve the Neo-Noir genre and engage audiences, it would likely need to include features such as 'frequent strong language', or 'strong violence'. A lower certification than 15 would potentially put some of our audience, particularly fans of horror-thriller and psychological thrillers, off the film. The lack of 'moral compass' in our film would also separate it from the 12 and 12A certifications, as our protagonist is shown to kill two people in the opening, in order to avenge his family. This could be said to condone vigilantism or a sense of violent justice and eye-for-an-eye that would be unhealthy to instil in younger audiences. There could be said to be minor glamorisation of the gun used by our protagonist, but as he is using a firearm and is not in America it cannot be said to be 'easily accessible', and thus remains within the parameters of the 15 certification. There would not be any discriminatory language or behaviour, drug use, sexual violence, or overt nudity in our film, and this keeps it well within the 15 boundaries, even if vigilante justice and vengeful violence play as key a role as they do in the narrative.

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Film Industry: Part 5

Choose an actress from the list. What would they bring to a role in a film?

- Anne Hathaway is a bankable actress, due in part to the variety of films that she has starred in, which spans many genres and audiences. Examples of this are 'The Dark Knight Rises', 'The Princess Diaries', 'The Devil Wears Prada', and 'Les Miserables'.

- Hathaway is also critically acclaimed, having won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, a BAFTA award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.

- She is also known for having a large acting range, having played characters such as Catwoman, The White Queen, and Fantine. All very different characters in terms of personality and storylines, demonstrating Hathaway's ability to adapt to different roles.

Think about films you have recently seen in the cinema. Which ones were recommended by word of mouth? Why did you go and see other films?

- I went to see 'Gravity' due to both word of mouth (ie friends saying it was very good) and also because of a review of it that I read in 'The Week', which gave it 4 stars (the most I have ever seen them give).

- I went to see 'Thor: The Dark World' based on my enjoyment of other Marvel films in the same or related franchises such as 'Avengers Assemble', 'Thor', and 'Iron Man'. Had I been uninterested in the story of Thor and Loki, I would likely have still gone to see the film, as it is part of the Avengers series and thus will be referenced in future releases either in passing or as a plot point.

Find out the budget and box office for the following films; 'The Blair Witch Project', 'Paranormal Activity', and 'Avatar'. Which of these has made the biggest profit?

- 'Blair Witch Project' had a $60 thousand budget, and made almost $15m at the box office in the UK.

- 'Paranormal Activity' had a budget of just $15 thousand and made almost $108m at the box office in the USA.

- 'Avatar' had a budget of $237m, and made over $760m at the box office in the US.

Find out the producers and budget for the following British films; 'Never Let Me Go', 'The King's Speech', and 'Skyfall'. How has film production changed in the UK since the 1990s?

- 'Never Let Me Go' had a $15m budget, and was produced by Film4, Fox Searchlight, and DNA Films.

- 'The King's Speech' had a budget of $15m also, and was produced by Momentum Pictures, The UK Film Council, and the Weinstein Company.

- 'Skyfall' had a $200m budget, and was produced by Eon Productions and Danjaq.

- The main changes in British film production since the 90s have been in budget, and calibre of production companies (from television companies like Film4 and BBC, to larger production companies based in foreign countries, notably the US). Financial backing remains less obtainable than in America, due to the lack of production companies that are not subsidiaries of American companies.

Can you think of any more recent film soundtracks that have proved popular with audiences? Why?

- 'The Hunger Games' and it's sequel have had successful soundtracks due to tie ins with successful artists such as The Civil Wars, Taylor Swift, and Jake Bugg. The addition of songs by these artists to compilation albums promotes the actual soundtrack and generates hype for the film.

- Musicals often have successful soundtracks, for obvious reasons. Examples of this are the soundtracks to 'The Muppets' and 'Les Miserables'.

- 'Skyfall' had an Oscar winning song by Adele that opens the film, which hit No.1 in the UK. This is a good example of a successful soundtrack in recent years, as it does not come from a musical, but is successful in it's own right rather than as a tie in from a compilation album.

How has Lionsgate attempted to survive in the cut throat world of film production?

Lionsgate bought Artisan, which gave them an excellent back catalogue of films like 'Resevoir Dogs', 'The Blair Witch Project', and 'Requiem for a Dream'. The company also built a reputation for releasing popular horror films that gained a number of sequels, such as the 'Saw' franchise, and this gave them the ability to diversify into more critically acclaimed films such as 'Crash' and 'Girl with a Pearl Earring'. Since building its diverse catalogue, Lionsgate has been able to release large budget, box office hits such as 'The Expendables' and 'Kick Ass', and to break into the TV industry, with hits including 'Mad Men'. The key aspect behind the success of the company is it's diversity, as it has both allowed expansion into new genres and audiences, and a powerful reputation due to a huge back catalogue of successful films. This diversity has been achieved through strategic acquisitions and shrewd choice of genre, which has been done with an expert hand throughout the company's lifetime.

Storyboard (WIP)

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Animatic

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