Planning: Soundtrack

Me and Laura were searching for different soundtracks on imcompetech. They need to be intense and have rock theme to the soundtrack so it is epic and dynamic. We have found a few soundtracks that match this and we are deciding which ones to include and if we should edit some soundtracks together or alter.

Planning: Reflectors

We will be using reflectors which will help light our scene in the shots we need to take. We need to make sure the shots we take have a lot of light and each scene apart from the beginning and the end needs to be equally light as light beamed everywhere.

I will be making the reflector from cardboard and tin foil. I will be making this reflector as big as i can and i will try to make it durable so we can use it several times in our shoots.

Planning: Meeting about storyboard

Me and Laura discussed with miss that we are going to alter our scene lengths as we have found that if we go along with our current storyboard the film opening would be around a minute so we need to add some scenes in and increase the time in the shots we need to take to make our film longer to around 2 minutes.

Planning: Health and safety

Risk or Hazard	Risk or Hazard rating (low/med/high)	How to avoid risk or hazard.
Falling over, tripping on branches etc.	High.	Issue shoes with good grip, remind all crew members etc. to look where they’re going.
Getting to location	Low.	A reliable designated driver will be acquired for all filming days.
Stings or various other wildlife themed disasters.	Medium.	Ointments and bandages etc. will be brought to location in the form of a health and safety kit.
Rain and mud.	Medium.	If rain has been substantial in

Planning: Storyboard

Planning: Target audience research

Question.	Response.	Extra Notes.
Do you think that the name given to our film is appropriate?	Yes: 5 No: 2	·         Could be more specifically relevant to story line. ·         Could chose a name to have darker connotations.
Does the synopsis given suit the Supernatural-Thriller genre?	Yes: 4 No: 3	·         More accurate to an action genre. ·         Comes across as more Fantasy based.
Does the opening synopsis suit the age rating of 15 – 18?	Yes: 6 No: 1
Do you think the pitch heard is an accessible idea for the time frame and budget we have?	Yes: 3 No: 4	·         If representation is simply but adequately done it will look effective. ·         Seems like a lot of content to fit into two minutes.
Would you be interested in this film?	Yes: 5 No: 2	·         Not their sort of genre. ·         If they were interested in this genre of film then they would have agreed.
When should the main plot line be introduced in a Supernatural-Thriller?	Immediately: 4 Beginning: 2 Middle: 1

Planning: Call sheet

Date.	Crew members.	scene	shots	props	Location
Sunday 11 January.	Jake Haines, Laura Harris, Ton Wentink and Joe James.	Scene 2.	Running/chase shots 3 - 10	Camera equipment. Angle and two demon costumes.	Newbottle woods.
Sunday 18 January.	Jake Haines, Laura Harris, Ton Wentink and Joe James.	Scene 2.	Cylus dialogue shots  11 - 22	Camera equipment. Angle and two demon costumes.	Newbottle woods.
Sunday 25 January.	Laura Harris, Jake Haines, Ton Wentink and Alfie Russell.	Scene 1 and 3.	Opening haze and closing angel-demon interaction.	Camera equipment. White feathers, fake blood, rope chair.	Near Chipping Warden.
Sunday 1 February.	Laura Harris, Jake Haines, Ton Wentink, Joe James and Alfie Russell.	Missed shots.	Anything previously missed on filming dates.	As needed at the time.	---

Planning: Location permission

There is no direct owner for new bottle woods so i contacted Northamptonshire county council  and informed them on my plan and requested permission for filming.

Planning: Make up

Our makeup is going to be very important in our opening as our characters all need a lot of makeup to add to their characters. Joes characters (demon) is going to need to make his jaw bones sharp and give him a pale and ghoulish look yet not too over the top so it doesn't look silly. Tons character will need to have some fake blood sprayed across him as there will need to be a lot of blood over him as he has been tortured. Me and Laura are both going to apply fake cuts and applying blood to the right places on his body. I will be making the fake blood on my own and will be posting a video of me making this very soon on my blog.

Planning: Special effects

For our special effects we are going to be planning ahead a lot as we need shots of a demon running extremely fast which will be achieved in after effects. We will need to make sure we have a clean plate (a completely blank shot of our location) and we will not move the camera so that when the actor is shown in the shot we can mask around his character in after effects and give him super speed to add to the supernatural vibe increase as we exploit a supernatural element/power these demons have.

We will also include special effects like a disorientated effect over the angels face to show that he is disorientated and not in a good condition. It also puts the audience in the angels shoes and will help add to the atmosphere of the scene by giving this totally mysterious location to the audience and giving this bizarre scenario.

Planning: Scripting

 Here is a copy of our script we created using adobe story. We tried to put as many directions in as we could. In filming we will probably alter a few lines to the character and the actor but this is the very basic outline.

Planning: Classification

For the classification of this film me and Laura have decided it will be classified as a 15 as it some scenes which shows pain inflicted on an angel which shows blood and cuts. I researched into the classification of a 15 on the British board of film classification and found a list of things a 15 includes and this best fits our films atmosphere.

Our film will show blood and scenes of inflicted pain by torture so this fits better into a 15 than a 12 or 12a. The whole film has a dark feeling and has a very upsetting theme to it all as there is no hope shown in the opening.

Planning: Location scouting

For our location I went to Newbottle woods and took some pictures for reference and now I have a better understanding of where I can take what type of shots I want. The location is perfect for what we need as it is isolated from main roads and has enough clear space for dialogue and enough small arcs and logs to jump and duck through for an exciting chase scene. Here are some images that I took demonstrating places of interest.

I have also included some test shots of what heaven may look like with a couple of effects made in after effects.

Planning: Props

The props we will be using will be things such as old rope to tie up the angel against an abandoned house. Also instead of just buying fake blood i will be making my own fake blood so that I can get the right consistency which needs to be made for our film. We will be using feathers to emphasise the fact that this character is an angel that has fallen from heaven. We are also considering other props and these will be implemented during storyboarding.

Planning: Lighting

To light our scene we will be using natural light as we are filming outside yet some DIY reflectors will probably be made to help light the characters and help light the scene exactly how we want as we will be using high key lighting and we want to eliminate the shadows on peoples faces so reflectors will help hugely with bouncing light to prevent the shadows forming on the characters face. We will be trying to get as much light as possible as this opening needs to be set in heaven and to emphasise this we will be intensifying light using after effects and by hopefully using as much practical effects as we can.

Planning: Costumes

The costumes for our characters is very specific as we need the two demons to wear black or dark clothing to represent a modern take on a demon and show their evil within their costume. We also need to have a very bright clothed angel with either white or very bright colours on them to show that they are an angel.

This picture shows one version of a possible angel costume but if we were to take a much cheaper option we would go for something more like the one on the right which will be most likely.






We may possibly use this type of costume for the demon on the left but for a much cheaper version of this outfit would be something like we have on the right.

Planning: Casting

For casting we thought long and hard to decide on people we knew well enough and people capable enough of pulling off such a serious performance. We knew we couldn't just pick our friends so we thought of people we knew either distant or close to us that would fit the characters perfectly.

Me and Laura decided that our friend Joe James would be a great actor to play our demon Cylus as he has long dark hair to give an extra aesthetic look which would also be easy to work with for the demon make-up and also he is able to be very serious and act very well for a very sinister but sleek demon.

We are currently in the process of asking our friend Ton Wentink to be our angel as we know he takes drama and can act seriously for our performance. Also he has the features to be a great good guy in our opening and perfect for making a convincing angel. We are discussing these things with him and showing him the requirements asked of him and he does seem very up for it and says he is available we just now need to confirm his place in the role and we will be set for actors.

 In our opening we will be using two demons but the other demon will be for a much shorter role as Laura will be exchanging some small dialogue with the angel. We felt like this role didn't need to be cast as we already have a good understanding of what needs to be said and Laura is capable of taking on this very minor role in the film.

Planning: The treatment

The action

The opening is based around a chase between a demon and an angel in heaven due to the demons breaking into heaven and hunting down the angels to cause them to fall from heaven like they did thousands of years ago. The action cuts from an interrogation to the chase and back again.

 Themes 

The themes of this opening is meant to be quite dark and chilling but also adrenaline packed to excite the audience and put them on edge throughout the opening hooking them in more and more. The opening will also explore old mythology of angels and demons giving the audience some knowledge in that area.

Narrative

The narrative shows an interrogation scene but then flashbacks into how the angel is captured. The scenes will be taking place in different time zones and there will be diegetic sound and non diegetic sound for emphasise of sound effects.

Character

There will be a demon called Cylus which will be wearing all black to represent the fact that he is a demon but in a modern way, He will act very sinister and will be very sleek and professional showing that he isn't this creepy deformed creature but he is a very formal sinister maniac. There will also be an unnamed demon which pushes the angel for a small scene and they will use dialogue to explain more to the audience and they will wear all black.

Setting
The location will be set in Newbottle woods as we wanted the location where we film to be isolated and enough space to have a small chase scene. We will be also using another location very close to Chipping warden to film the interrogation scene where it will be filmed in an abandoned house.

Mise en scene

The whole film will be brightly filtered and will have a heavenly feel throughout to emphasise the fact they are in heaven apart from the interrogation scene. When the interrogation scene cuts in the scene will be made to look as gritty as possible. The dress code will be for demons to wear black and angels white or bright colours.

Camera
We hope to use the camera in a very dynamic way to make the characters seem unnatural and ultimately supernatural. We hope to achieve this by showing them at different angles and in the chase scene we will show how much power they have as a supernatural creature. So the aim to show the audience the characters aren't normal through camera work and a few other slight hints to really emphasise this.

Editing
We hope to use the same thing with editing as we will with camera as we want to show these characters aren't normal and have extraordinary powers. In the chase scenes we will use short snappy fast paced extreme close ups and long shots to empathises their power and speed. Also we will use some special effects so we can make the demon show his supernatural powers such as extreme speed by using after effects to implement this effect. We will be editing the scene with a lot of lens flares and light intensifiers to make this scene really look like heaven. We will also show panning and tracking shots following a story. We will do this by showing the audience something which causes intrigue and then track across this and show how it happened. We are planning to show this by tracking across a puddle of blood leading up to the tied up angel.

Planning: Presentation for initial ideas "The big pitch"

Planning: Mood board based on Film opening

Planning: Discussions about our film idea

Me and Laura discussed our film idea and developed on our original ideas and came up with new ideas for our concept such as: The angel starts off on the floor tied up with blood and feathers covering the floor around him clearly showing they are an angel. The demon will be wearing black or just dark clothing to represent the fact they are a demon.

We show extreme close ups of blood and feathers on the floor tracking up to the angels hands following the blood trail making the transition a lot more smooth. Also we decided that a few video effects will be added in to give us a strong supernatural vibe. We will also strive to give simplistic editing for effective outcomes.

Planning: Our initial film ideas

The first ideas me and Laura had for our film were a very specific type of thriller as we both agreed that we needed to incorporate a supernatural theme to the film as we wanted this mystical fantasy vibe to portray throughout the opening.

Our first idea was about a demon breaking into heaven and hunting down angels so that they fall from heaven just like they did which also expresses a lot of supernatural and religious mythology  behind this film concept. We thought about representing the demon as a demon by showing it through his clothes as we would dress them in all black and show the angel in bright colours like white.

Our second idea was to show a man in a post apocalyptic world being chased by an unknown creature across very run down streets and through abandoned houses. The man would be fighting for survival and have very DIY weapons and tools he clearly made himself and very scruffy clothes to show how long he has been surviving.

Our final idea was to show a ghosts perspective on the world and show the emotional effects of what the dead person feels. The audience would be made to feel what the ghost feels and go through an emotional experience with him as he discovers his own death.

Out of these ideas we chose to stick with the first idea as we could develop this idea much more than the others and we both feel that we could make this opening effective and professional looking as we can put a lot of depth in the opening. We are developing the ideas as we discuss them more so this idea will be fully developed by the time we storyboard.

Planning: Timeline of events

Planning: Mood board

Planning: Amazing spiderman 2 opening analysis

Amazing Spiderman 2

• 2nd of May 2014
• Production company: Marvel enterprises 
• Distribution company: Sony pictures
• Director: Marc Webb 
• Gross: $202,853,933
• Opening weekend: $91,608,337
• Nominated for 12 but won none.
• PG 13

At the very start of the film it starts off with a cobweb and a spider crawling across it so it shows already the key to the film being about spiders and of course it is referring to spiderman the main character. Also the typography in the opening has a very stylised typography of the title of the film as it shows the title made up from cobwebs showing us more stylised spider references.

The scene starts off by making a transition from the logo of the film (a spider) and transitions from the logo to the back of his suit as he plummets down into the city. The music is a very heroic score and it sound bridges from the end of the titles into the clip. As spiderman swings down it shows a wide range of dynamic shots as it zooms across the city whilst spiderman swings from web to web.

The first scene is an establishing shot of the city as it shows all the skyscrapers around spiderman as he plummets down further. Spiderman is clearly shown as the hero as he is introduced with this heroic score of music and the way he is rushing to the police chase shows he is going to help and of course when he gets there he stops the gunmen. 

In the opening it cross cuts from spiderman to a police chase with a very stereotypical villain as he has a big scar across his forehead and looks very tough so the audience is immediately shown who is the hero and who is the bad guy. Also to add to this when the villain is shown the music drops to very thundering and tense incidental music to show that he is a danger to people and he is clearly doing something that needs to be stopped.

As spiderman swings around we get another establishing shot as spiderman flies into the air and helicopters come into shot with a policeman speaking through a radio saying there is a police chase. This introduces the idea of the police chase and gives the audience information that spiderman is going to the police chase to save the day.

Camera 

The first shots that are shown are always fixed onto spiderman as he is the main hero of the film. Mainly the shots are long shots of spiderman as it shows his acrobatics of swinging from web to web. Occasionally spiderman moves back and forth as the camera concentrates on him so they vary from extreme long shots to long shots. When the narrative switches to the police chase they show a lot more close ups of the bad guys as it shows that what they are saying or doing is important to whats happening. As the story progresses it shows another narrative with a guy with blueprints called Max and his blueprints fly across the road from his hands showing close ups of his character and then when the narrative switches back to spiderman and the bad guy it shows establishing shots of the locations they are driving past. Then switching back and forth until the narratives join and spiderman saves Max. 

Sound

The music starts off heroic as spiderman is in shot and has very a happy and inspirational score to it. The music then becomes a lot more tense when the police chase is show in the cross cut and incidental music makes the scene more and more tense as the bad guy shows up. As it cross cuts to spiderman the music instantly changes back to heroic showing that spiderman is the hero and has come to save the day. A lot of diagetic sound can be heard from the scene as police car sirens are blasting through the city and crashes and bangs are from the cars being smashed to pieces. Some non diagetic sounds like spidermans web noise is added in to make a better swishing effect and gunshots and some crashes are added in to put emphasis on the noise. whenever spiderman is going to do something heroic the music switches to heroic to emphasise that he is doing the heroic thing.

Target audience

The target audience is geeky boys and girls ageing from around 11 to 30 because the fans of spiderman are around that age group and would go to see this movie in the cinema. Either fans of superhereos or fans of marvel would wanna see this movie or even someone who likes action packed movies.

Planning: Source code Film opening genre analysis

Name: Source code
Director: Duncan Jones
Production company: Vendome pictures
Distributor: ACME film
Gross: $54,696,902
PG 13
Date released: 1st April 2011

The film starts off with a man waking up confused and startled. The sound effects of explosions are played to give the audience a hint as to what he was dreaming about or the events that have happened or what will happen. A loud horn of a train fully jolts the character into action as he becomes more and more frightened as to where he is. The audience are made to feel confused at this point and it really hooks the audience in as they want to know why he is so frightened and confused as to why he is on this train. As he looks around he sees a woman sat with him where he has no idea who she is and the audience are as confused as the character making the audience feel for him and slowly learn with this character as to what, why, who, when and how.

As everything seems so abstract and weird for the character experiencing this. Yet the scenery is quite normal for an everyday person but because of this confusion this character has the audience is also confused. This fits in perfectly with the thriller genre as it conveys a certain rush of emotions and seems very fast paced with its dynamic narrative. Normal things are converted into fast paced actions and as the mystery grows with him having a different reflection to what we see grows the woman tries to calm him and says its going to be okay which slightly calms the character down and in turn the audience.... And then suddenly a huge ball of fire bursts through the room as the train explodes making the audience look in shock and it makes the audience fear for the characters life as they cant see them in this explosion and feel for the character they have developed this knowledge with. As this is set in the present shown due to mise en scene with costumes which fit current fashion and trends and locations which fit current day it really makes the audience relate with these people and the film opening puts the audience through so much emotion in the first 5 minutes which fits the code of thriller very well.

Planning: My chosen genre

I have chosen thriller as it will give me a wide range of things to work with and it is easier to hook in an audience with this genre as it can be very fast paced and action packed which is what i am aiming for in my opening. thriller can also be easily paired with sub genres such as fantasy which is also what i am aiming for in my opening.
I hope that i can incorporate a supernatural vibe with thriller as me and Laura want to create an action packed tense supernatural thriller.
I hope to achieve this by using a range of dynamic camera shots making the scenes as fast paced as possible but keeping this emotion filled feel.

Planning: Genre research

Genre is used to define a particular film for audiences.

Different genres are: Thriller, Romance, Comedy, Action/adventure, horror etc

Horror: Horror typically is a story of a creature or threat to a group or one person where they are killing people of the group or posing a major threat to someone.
Thriller: Typically a fast paced emotion filled film with a lot of shocks and surprises thriving with excitement for the audience.
Sci fi: set in space or alien planets with futuristic weapons and technology.
Romance: Typically between a girl and a boy who fall in love with each other.

Overtime filmmakers realized they couldn't just do one fixed genre and they had to incorporate other genres (sub genres) so a thriller might also have a romance sub genre within the narrative of the film. This adds more dynamic to the narrative.
genres define audience pleasures also as someone who goes to watch horror would get pleasure from being scared and adrenaline. Someone who goes to see a thriller would get pleasure from getting a rush of adrenaline and a rush of different emotions. With someone who watches a romance they want to see heartbreak and see feel the emotions the characters feel and feel joy when they get together.

My chosen genre is thriller.
Thriller is a very emotion filled genre and thrives on excitement for the audience and the adrenaline it gives them. A lot of thrillers have action in them or an exciting plotline which puts the audience through a rush of adrenaline.

Films which use the genre thriller are: Source code, Now you see me, the dark knight, taken,gone girl and many more. Many films use the genre for action packed films but some use it cleverly like Now you see me and put the audience through a range of emotions mainly exciting the audience.

Planning: Now you see me film opening genre analysis

Name: Now you see me
Director: Louis Leterrier
Production company: Summit entertainment
Distributors: UMN
Gross: $117,698,894
Awards: none

The scene starts off with an unusual beginning as the character is looking directly at the camera and it seems like he is talking to us personally which makes the audience seem quite connected to the scene. Soon to cut to the woman who he is actually talking to. This scene really involves the audience and gets them into the scene and hooks them in to play along. Some people will also have picked the seven of diamonds so when the seven of diamonds shows up on the the skyscraper the audience would be amazed. This scene really involves the audience and perhaps amazes them which gives them this feeling of shock and amazement. The scene switches to a hypnotists face but zooms out to be a poster and an older version of him is shown. This makes the scene veery fluid and allows the narrative to switch to different scenes smoothly. As the hypnotist finds out about an affair the audience is made to feel sorry for the woman and dislike the man who cheated on his wife so this is a different feeling conveyed as with the next scene with a magician who is caught out and then steals a mans wallet. Lastly a woman who is doing a magic trick but then it seems to go completely wrong. All these scenes make the audience feel different things for each character and in each scene a certain emotion is conveyed. This is very typical of a thriller as its meant to convey a rush of different emotions which this opening accomplishes perfectly.

The opening is very dynamic and shows no definite location which makes the narrative very dynamic and it keeps everything very fast paced and has no time to linger on a trick you're straight onto the next trick preventing the scene from getting boring.

Planning: Genre film opening The dark knight

Name: The dark knight
Director: Christopher Nolan
Production company: Warner bros
Distributors: Warner bros
Budget: $185,000,000
Awards: Best performance for a supporting role, best sound editing

This film starts with dramatic incidental music playing as the camera in an establishing shot zooms into the city. A window explodes and a weird looking man with a clown mask on is scene with the weapon which smashed the glass. As the incidental music rises the man fires a grappling hook. The sound is probably empathized in post and it cuts to a man creepily holding a clown mask identical to the other guys showing this is a plan organised between them. As the incidental music plays there is no sound until the car pulls up with a huge screech. The two men who smashed the window zipwire down and then ambience is introduced to the scene. This shows a classic villainous plot to do something that breaks the law. This scene establishes that these guys are the villains which is very typical in a thriller movie as a lot of the time especially in action packed thrillers the format of a thriller is a villain against a hero.

This scene shows them plotting to do something bad and usually within thriller the bad guys are the ones smashing things and shooting things so already this film has introduced the key elements of a thriller. the clown masks are used to cover their faces and make them creepy and sinister as the bad guy to a thriller needs to be sinister or at least evil.

The music really makes this scene tense and gets the audience hooked into the action. As the scene progresses the clowns explain their plan so now the audience know their plans of what bad things they are going to do. The clowns also have guns which is a very typical element to a villain in a thriller movie.

Planning: Lord of the rings Opening film analysis

Name: The lord of the rings: fellowship of the ring
Director: Peter Jackson
PG 13
Production company: New line cinema
Distribution: New line cinema
Gross:$36,116,967
Date released: 19th December 2001

Titles
The idents start with the most important company first (newline cinema) and then wingnut films which is still important but less important compared to new line cinema. This is very typical with films. As a voiceover is introduced the screen is completely black and after a fair amount of time the title of the film "Lord of the rings" fades in.

Camera/Editing/Sound
As the titles begin a low volume hum is played (non diagetic) a voiceover is played throughout the black screen the audience is given. As the title fades in the soundtrack of the film is played over it. As the camera cuts to different close ups of the rings creation then an extreme close up of three hands with the rings on.As the camera cuts and pans up three elves are seen with their rings. It then cuts to 7 rings on a table with the camera zooming out as seven dwarfs pick up their rings. As the voiceover keeps on explaining things about these rings and the soundtrack playing a long shot of 9 men with rings are shown as the camera zooms out. The transitions used are fades and cuts throughout these scenes. The camera then cuts to a map and pans across it and fades out. The camera zooms onto a specific place on the map (Mordor). An establishing shot is shown of Mordor and the camera zooms in on the volcano. The incidental music is introduced and raises tension showing the audience this is a bad place. As the music rises and the womans voice heightens the camera cuts to a close up of an evil looking figure (Sauron) zooming in and fire suddenly bursts up the camera cutting to a long shot of the figure.

Location/ Atmosphere/ Narrative
The location is set clearly in a time long ago in the past. But also it is established this is a fantasy world with dwarfs and elves. The atmosphere is quite chilling and has a very old feel to it emphasizing this is in the past. The narrative shows us that these rings are of great importance and the other ring is the most important as it has its own story which no one knows. Also the location of where it is made is very dark and stereo typically evil as it has a huge volcano firing out lava and the land is all charcoal black. When Mordor is introduced the calming peaceful atmosphere disappears and Mordor is shown to be this sinister evil place. The mise en scene also shows a lot about this time era as the characters costumes are very old fashioned and seem to be very roughly made and certainly not clothes like we have in the present. Also instead of lighting like we have, they have candles for their light source showing that they have no electricity.

Target audience
The target audience for this film  would be for ages from around 12 to 40 as a lot of people love the franchise lord of the rings. The production company knew that lord of the rings has a very big fanbase and would like to see this movie. Also people who are fans of action adventure or even fantasy as this film is strongly held in these categories.