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.