Location Permission

Planning –Location Permission

Locations Used:

The Carr Household

By asking the head of the household I acquired permission to film exterior and interior shots. The head of the household was present at all times of filming and I never strayed from the areas that were designated to film at.

The Young Household

I was able to use my household extensively for computer shots mainly, The head of the young household allowed me permission to film anywhere, interior and exterior so there were no limits.

Countryside of Richmondshire

The areas where the car shots were filmed are in public walkways, paths and roads around the town of Richmond. I needed no permission to film this countryside but i made sure to not film anyone that had no knowledge of the shoot, for example locals walked past frequently but I would not shoot when they did.

Location Scouting Shots

Shooting Schedule and Action Plan

Planning – Action Plan and Shooting Schedule

Action Plan

• Create initial ideas on a storyboard
• Transfer those ideas onto a shot list
• Pick actors and locations that fit the shot list
• Make sure to have the appropriate props and costumes for each shoot
• Do a series of shoots
• Edit down the film footage that we have
• From feedback from the initial edit make changes, add/remove scenes

Rehearsals

• Due to the limited time of access to the car for the car exterior shots rehearsals were conducted on the day of the shoot. Before each shot we would run through where the car would be travelling and we would retake shots if they were not viable.
• During the rest of the various interior shots I employed this tactic also, with rehearsals before each shot then doing the take several times and editing mid shoot with changes to the shot(s).

Actors

• I utilised in my first rough cut that was drastically changed before the final product 2 actors. The car driver was used as he had qualifications in advanced driving so he could drive fast and safely around the roads. There were no auditions for this part as the viewer would only see his face briefly in the behind the wheel and his shoes as he walked to the door so he needed little acting talent.
• The second actor I used essentially acted as a hand model, the majority of the shots in the first rough cut were close ups of someone doing actions so I needed an actor who had hands that were normal and that they could do the action whilst I filmed it, no audition required either for this part as it required no talent.
• For the second rough cut the second actor was replaced with me. This was because again it mainly consisted of filming close up hands and by using the tripod and the swivelling function of the DSLR screen I was able to do the actions whilst filming at the same time, which reduced hassle for organising times to film.

Shooting Schedule

First Iteration of Film:

• 29^th February, Scout out exterior location shots
• 2^nd March, Film exterior Carr house shots and car shots
• 5^th March, Film interior Carr house shots

Second Iteration

• 16^th March, Film computer scenes in Young house
• 17^th March, Film extra shots in Young house
• 19^th March, Film laptop scenes in Young house, replace Carr interior shots with newly filmed Young interior shots
• 20^th – 25^th March, and extra shots needed

1st Draft Film Treatment - (Scrapped)

Working Title – ‘Crossroads’, ‘Intersection’, ‘Injection’.

Writers name and contact information – Ben Young, benjaminyoung9@gmail.com

Logline – “You can’t split a prize”, when four groups go after the same goal, their paths inevitably cross.

Characters:

Group 1 – Timmy, Ash, Broker and Big Mike. – Street thugs             

Group 2 – John, Paul, James and Ringo - drug dealers                                                                   

Group 3 – Clive ‘screws loose’ Jones, Teatime, Machiavelli and Sarge – Professional

Group 4 – Herald, Windsor, Jefferson and Orson– NRS A

Mysterious overarching figure – Mr B.I.G

Hired Assassin – Dominique

Courier – Roger Moor, “the Saint”

Who, What, When, Why and Where:

4 Groups of criminals who range in capability are individually contacted by a superior power, Mr B.I.G. They are told to rob an unknown item from a location. It is set in the late 90’s/early 2000’s. Mr B.I.G is actually a group of 3 crime bosses, who wish to remove all opposition with one fell swoop, so they hope the groups will eliminate themselves but also hire a female assassin to clean up. No actual known physical location, urban run down setting to suburban town houses.

Structure

ACT 1:

Starts off with the 4 groups heading towards the location they are going to rob, first 2 groups there collide. This is the opening titles. Time goes back to a week earlier. The courier goes to each of the groups with their assignment, steal a package from a secure transit going to manor house. Each group then goes to recon out the route and the house, hints at conflict as all groups go at once, and suspicion grows as they encounter each other. Then each group plans their heist, fake reality scenes of how each of their heists take place.  Assassin reports back to Mr B.I.G with the news that they are getting on with it.

ACT 2:

Now we are up to speed with the opening titles, this time shows different perspectives. The 2 groups collide in a car crash (drug dealers and the street thugs), they are injured and knocked out (Big Mike dies). Transit van diverts its route, the other groups chase after it in vehicles, realising they have been set up but not realising that they are working for the same person. Both groups inadvertently work together to disable the secure transit. The security team escape whilst both groups argue. At this point the other 2 crashed groups wake up, fighting ensues and only Ash and Ringo survive. The security team make it to the mansion with the two groups close behind Ash and Ringo also make their way to the manor house independently.

ACT 3:

Climatic scene at the manor house, 2 groups arrive at different times and set up for attack. They both go in different ways and encounter security, one person dies from each group. Both groups converge on the package, fighting ensues, only Sarge and Orson live, with Orson incapacitated. Sarge makes his way out, encounters Ash and then Ringo storms in, Orson then encounters them, 4-way stand-off. The assassin now begins to attack them, they survive and get information that they were all set up, the assassin is killed. The new group of all 4 go for Mr B.I.G, kick down the door of his office, movie ends.

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Why I decided to not do this treatment

This was my original treatment idea, I decided to scrap it for a number of reasons. First of all it was ambitious but impractical. The ideas would have worked out well in my imagination and with a big budget film production company. The stunts such as a car crash would be unlikely to be possible. Even though I had researched the possibility of camera tricks to make a car crash work it would not have the desired effect that I want and would look potentially low rent, and I am aiming to make the most professional product I can.

The props chosen are also unlikely to get hold of at this stage, drugs, money and guns are hard to acquire for film companies so it is more or less impossible for me to get any to create the desired effect. The amount of characters I included would be difficult to manage at this level, I would need 8 good actors, which is unlikely. Even after exploring the possibility of removing characters or making some not talk, it removed my vision of the product. Also the overall plot of the film and my opening after consideration seems far fetched, and not brilliant.

The amount of work required is also very high, a vast number of innovative shots and organisation that just heightens the already impossibility of this film opening. And the overall idea is very unoriginal, it is highly influenced and based upon British Gangster films, mainly Guy Ritchie's. My new film opening is much more original.

But on the other hand this treatment has some use, I can apply the failures of this one to my new one, and avoid the same difficulties. Also the idea of action/thriller does carry across so I could potentially use ideas from this and implement them. This treatment also allows me to become more down to earth and realistic with my new opening, as much as I would like to create ambitious ideas, it is on a practical level improbable and the eventual product would not have the desired affect as it would not look as I envisage. With my new treatment the ideas are more effective, symbolism it uses which is easy to film but carries strong messages, fewer characters are used and all shots are do-able.

Overall this treatment is not a total failure, it serves as an example for me to not follow, but does still inspire me with ideas. As Coco Channel said “Success is most often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.”

Questionnaire Feedback

I created a questionnaire using smartsurvey.com. I asked 10 questions related to film consumption and the type of audience and sent the link out onto the internet to see what the responses would be.

Question 1.

As we can see there is a higher percentage of males that responded to this film questionnaire. This suggests to me that a film audience has a higher probability of having more male members in it but still a high percentage of females. This means that in the production and marketing of my film I should consider that the audience will be more make, but also I cannot neglect the female audience as they also are a large part of the audience.

Question 2.

The majority of the age to the survey is under 29, around 65%. The ages 40-60 only represent 10% because they are less likely to be interested in film. Of course because this was an online survey the older generation are less likely to be involved in online activities. Because 65% of the responses were under the age of 29 that should be my target audience age. This means that I have to produce and market a film that appeals to students mainly and also people just starting work. I would still need to consider the older generation as they represented 35% of the survey over 29 so it would be foolish to neglect them.

Question 3.

As we can see from the results of this question the majority of the responses had the occupation of student, 50%. There were very little unskilled and unemployed responses so I would not aim to market a film towards them as they would have less money and would be less willing to go to the cinema. Student and professional occupancy are the highest groups meaning that I should be more inclined to produce and market a film aimed at those occupancies.

Question 4.

The amount of times people go to the cinema will be important in marketing my film. The majority go between 3 and 6 times a year meaning that there is still a healthy audience presence in the cinema. The outliers of 10+ times and once or twice would not impact my marketing strategy. This question mainly makes me assured that enough people go the cinema that makes it worthwhile to make a film.

Question 5.

These answers to this question were just for me to see why people would not frequent the cinema. The reasons are fairly benign and would not impact my marketing campaign. These responses display a sense of ennui towards film but there is few of them.

Question 6.

Using the feedback from this question I can determine which films a contempory audience would prefer to watch, and which genres to avoid. As we can see from the results the most popular genre is the Thriller genre, followed closely behind with comedy, action and adventure. 76% of voters picked thriller as one of their favourite genres which encourages me to make a thriller film opening. This is because it will reach the widest audience and entertain the majority of people. From and economics standpoint it would also be the genre that would be the most profitable as it is the most popular genre.
The least popular genre is Horror, coming in at a measly 23%. This is most likely because Horror is a more niche genre rather than a safe one. This makes me consider not making a Horror genre movie as it would appeal to the least amount of people.

Question 7.

This question gives me some background information on my audience but also is helpful in deciding what kind of film opening I'm going to make. Because only 4% of voters go to an IMAX cinema this means that my film opening does not necessarily have to be visually beautiful. The rest of the voters either go to a local cinema or go to a multiplex. This is good news for an independent film like myself as local cinemas are more likely to stock niche films and even multiplexes sometimes wouldn't say no.

Question 8.

For  this question I put in a series of video clips of Opening trailers that each had a different USP. Skyfall had a cliff-hanger, Heat had famous actors names, Snatch had a narrative voiceover, Casino Royale had an action sequence, Reservoir Dogs had dialogue and Vertigo had a tension build up. As we can see from the results after the voters watched the trailers they decided that a tension build up would encourage them to keep watching the most. This means that in my opening titles I should attempt to build up tension as it is the best feature to keep my audience watching. a voiceover was the least successful which makes me sceptical to use a voiceover in my opening as it does not appeal to the masses.

Question 9.

I wanted to know which opening titles was the worst. Snatch was narrowly voted the worst opening and in the Why? comment section that the voters could type in the overall consent was that not much happened in the opening. This encourages me to create an opening that has action and pace and information as to make sure there is plenty happening to keep my audience enthused. No one voted for Skyfall suggesting that it is the best or the better of the openings up there. The USP used in Skyfall in a cliff-hanger and stunning SFX. This means that in my opening I could use a cliff-hanger to entice my audience.

Question 10.

This question helps me out with what kind of narrative my opening would be best to take. The most popular answers were a linear narrative or a narrative where multiple stories happened at once. Because they are both popular this allows me some creative freedom in picking a narrative between those two that I would prefer but still safe in the knowledge that it is accessible to audiences. I would not create opening titles that are unrelated to the film because the voters have decided that that is the narrative they enjoy the least.

Storyboard for final task

Costumes and Props Analysis of My Product

Costumes and Props Analysis

Costumes

First Rough Cut/Idea

Butlers Outfit – (Only arms seen, white gloves, suit jacket):

• This would match the mise-en-scene of the mansion setting. Only the gloves would           be seen in shot adding a sense of mystery as to who the character was. Instantly the audience would be able to see that they were in a higher NRC social grade area as the white gloves would indicate a butler. The gloves also carry a sense of cleanliness and potentially an air of value about the setting, the gloves could be for handling delicate, valuable items.

Suit x 2– (Black Jacket, Suit Trousers, Black Tie – only sides seen)

• Only the suit arms with cufflinks would really be visible, this would be because I would not want to reveal any characters to my audience. The visible aspects of the suit would be enough to cement the high class impression that the butler initially gives. A suit connotes power and status, a life of leisure and importance. Because the suit would be tightly cuffed the lifestyle would be more important than leisurely.

Second Rough Cut/Idea which ended up being final product

Casual Outfit, Shirt and jeans with trainers – (Only hands seen in opening titles)

• The hands are uncovered which is greatly different to the butler’s gloves, they connote a much more relatable, casual character. The shirt and jeans not seen again add the image that this character is an average man.

Suit – (Black smart trousers and black boots only seen)

• Carries the same connotations as the suits discussed earlier. Adds a sense of higher status and class for the character. The audience could assume that this is the main character. Authority is created with the use of the boots, they walk authoratively towards the door and the boots and trousers are both black, a colour associated with power, death and authority. 
  
  

Props

First Rough Cut/Ideas

Car – The silver Audi connotes a sense of a higher status, its colour emphasise the serious nature of the driver and its sleek exterior and interior add to the idea of a more wealthy character

Piano – The piano is used to synergise with the music but to also introduce subtly a new character, a piano connotes the idea of a cultured person, depending on the song. It also suggests a creative person, as music is synonymous with creativity.

Knife Sharpener – This adds a sense of menace and introduces the idea of another hidden plot below surface level. A sharpener is traditionally used by kitchen staff and the butler uses it but in a dark room with a extreme close up on the sharpener it can have foreboding connotations.

Candle – Used to highlight to idea of a more traditional higher status setting with a candle. Also used symbolically as potentially religious imagery linking a character to religion. A candle also connotes the idea of hope and survival which is hinted at when it is blown out.

Matches – Used to light the candle, connotations of sparking an idea, or the violent creation of something

Knife – Heavily connotes a sense of foreboding, the way its represented is that although its being used menially it has an undercurrent of menace

Chopping Board – Used for the knife to chop things as to not damage the table

Ham Hock – What the knife is cutting, perfectly ordinary item but can also suggest murder – the idea of cutting flesh

Plates and Cutlery – Highlight the dining setting and the supposed normality of the setting

Dining Room setting (Tables, Chairs, pictures, Shelving) – emphasises the normal occasion

Second Rough Cut/ Final Product

Car - The silver Audi connotes a sense of a higher status, its colour emphasise the serious nature of the driver and its sleek exterior and interior add to the idea of a more wealthy character

Piano - The piano is used to synergise with the music but to also introduce subtly a new character; a piano connotes the idea of a cultured person, depending on the song. It also suggests a creative person, as music is synonymous with creativity.

Computer – Used to create the digital shots of stock markets, associated with a nerdier lifestyle but the stocks suggest a mathematics undercurrent. Also suggests intelligence, being able to understand the graphs and use the computer effectively

Laptop – Similar connotations of the computer except more practical and suggests that the user is more active, on the move. Less powerful than a computer suggesting it is needed for more practical than graphical reasons, this could narrow down the user’s job.

USB – Used to show data being taken from the computer in a clear way, suggests that the person is safety conscious as they are not using a Peer to Peer File Transfer Protocol, they are not sending it online suggesting that they are doing a nefarious action.

Glass – Used to hold the rum, the shape of the glass, a small brandy glass suggests that the user has a higher status, the markings on the glass says that it is from a chateau suggesting that this person travels abroad and enjoys finer liquors.

Rum Bottle – Contrasts to the fancy glass, cheap supermarket own rum, suggests a level of low income but had higher income in the past due to the glass. The amount that is drunk could suggest levels of alcoholism, an important factor that could be holding him back

Dining Room setting – Where the laptop is and the majority of the interior shots take place. This setting is serene and not ostentatious but also not low rent. This suggests that the house owner is in the middle band of the NRC social grade. This matches with the idea that he used to be wealthy as stocks can be a lucrative business but why is he living in an understated home?

Book – Adds to the culture of the character, shows that they are knowledgeable and take in knowledge from various sources

Highlighter – Shows an interest in the topic in the book and articles, adds to the passion for stock markets. The way things are highlighted draws attention to them and a highlighter is used as a reminder to look at this again or to add gravitas.  This could suggest that the thing being highlighted are important and because there is more than one highlighted object which brings a sense of investigation

Paper/News articles – Used to add to the stock market theme. It shows that the problems go across into digital and print media which means that they are big issues.

Envelope – Used to store the USB inside, this suggests that the USB is being posted or given to a recipient. Because it is in an envelope which is designed to hide the content adds to the idea of a nefarious items being associated with the USB.

Feedback from Film Treatments

Research – Focus Group

I spoke to 2 focus groups and pitched them the idea of my film using my film treatment 1. The first group consisted of similar ages, 16-17. The second group consisted more of university students, ages from 19-23.

First Group Feedback

• Positives
• “sounds like an exciting concept”
• More interesting premise for an action film
• Multi genre makes it more interesting
• Exiting and fast paced, good slightly different take on a heist
• Negatives
• Seems to draw a great deal of “influence from other films”
• Confusing narrative
• Very hard to film and too ambitious
• Perhaps too generic, not really original
• “Not a film I would be interested in watching” – 16 year old female

Second Group Feedback

• Positives
• Genre that is popular and mainstream
• The idea of intertwining stories is more interesting
• Elements of humour keep audience interested
• Easy to relate to as the characters are regular people
• Negatives
• Perhaps too simplistic
• “hard to pull off”
• Draws too much influence from popular British gangster films
• Seems too “Guy Ritchie”
• Some of the names of the characters do not really work
• Not new or original, it’s been done before

Changes to make after Focus Groups

I went away and decided to completely the change the ideas and concept of the film. It was too hard to make and was too much influenced by other films. I kept in mind the positive feedback about intertwining storylines and making it fast paced and a different take on a heist which is how I came up with a more economic based storyline. The focus groups were useful in making me understand that careful thought was needed to plan out my film rather than a fleeting idea.