House Shoot.

On Saturday 30th March we went to one of our group members aunties house to shoot the main interior section of our film opening. We choose to shoot at this family members house as we knew that as they are family they would be reliable and flexible with the date and time of shooting. We had planned to use a treadmill in our opening but for various reasons we weren't able to get hold of one but our back up plan was to use some dumbbells in case any thing went wrong with the treadmill idea so that is what we did. We were on set for about 4 hours and in that time we got everything done that we wanted to do and more. To make editing easier we filmed about 3 different shots per shot that was planned on the storyboards in case we needed any gap fillers.

In the pictures above we see our camera man (Josh Barrett) setting up and taking shots from various different angles on a tripod around our protagonist. For this scene our key light was a Dimmable LED panel placed just off to the right of the laptop. Our filler light simply came from the window behind our actor but the blinds are closed so only a little bit of the light gets through.

The pictures above were taken while shooting the morning work out scene of our opening. For this scene we used our microphone on a boom pole as we wanted to get a more rounded sound of the room and its ambiance, we also wanted to get the sound of the dumbbells banging against each other and if we would have mounted the microphone on the camera the sound may of got distorted as it would of been too close. We know this because while shooting our preliminary task we found out that if the mic is too close to the source of the sound it gets rather distorted.

The image above was taken while shooting the coffee making scene. This scene was shot handheld with another simple lighting set up consisting of a practical lamp as our key light and the LED panel as our back light to light the rest of the scene.

Post By:

Josh Barrett

Metehan Hizli

Music Samples.

Above you can listen to samples of the two different copyright free songs that we plan to use for our opening sequence. We want to use song 1 because of its orchestral sound. The combination of string instruments such as violins and the soft piano really make it an emotional piece and this is perfect for our dream/flashback sequence as it is a very emotional topic and we want to make the audience feel this emotion and the music helps. We want to use song 2 as it also fits its role perfectly. We wanted this song to have significantly more electronic sounds to give it a mysterious feel that we were looking for as this is a spy film. The string instruments still keep it organic and they make it match song 1's string instruments also so that they blend in to each other better.

Post By:
Josh Barrett

House Shoot: Risk Assessment.

This is our risk assessment for the interior house shoot. There are many potential risks involved with filming and we have narrowed them down in to 7 key risks.

Post By:

Josh Barrett

Josh Shea

Metehan Hizli

Group Essay: Opening of The Dark Knight.

The Dark Knight is a 2008 British–American superhero film directed, produced, and co-written by Christopher Nolan. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film is the second part of Nolan's Batman film series a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins and a prequel of the 2012 movie The Dark Knight Rises. Christian Bale reprises the lead role of Bruce Wayne/Batman, with a returning cast of Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth, Gary Oldman as James Gordon and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox.


The purpose of the opening sequence is to:
1. Create narrative enigmas that the audience want answers for.
2. Introduce the audience to the main antagonist of the film.


The opening shot of the extract is a high very wide angle establishing shot of skyscrapers in a city. This shot continually zooms in on one of the many buildings in view. This sets the scene and shows that the building being zoomed in on might be important. As it zooms in on the building a window smashes in the centre of the frame, as the smash is heard there is a hard cut, match on action to a shot of two men in clown masks destroying the window. This creates an early narrative enigma making the audience want to know why there is two men in a clown masks, what they are doing smashing this window. After the window has been smashed one of the men fires what looks to be a wire across to the opposite building. This shows to the audience that maybe the building that these men are in isn’t actually that important to the plot. The music at this point is rather quiet in the sound mix but it is adding suspense to this rather fast paced opening.  Just After these men have fired this wire the camera cuts to a man facing the middle of the street with a bag under his arm and a clown mask in his other hand. The mask is very similar to the ones on the men that we saw previously suggests that he is with the other two men. The mask in his hand is facing the camera and you cannot see the man’s face. The camera slowly zooms in on the mask while the music builds up suggesting importance and creating a narrative enigma as to why the clown masks are so important. This shot continues on with the camera zooming out as a black van pulls round the corner and stops in front of the man standing in the street. The black van looks old and beaten up and along with the smashing of the window and these men using masks the audience start to get an idea that these guys are not the good guys and one of them may be the main antagonist. The next shot goes back to the two men in the building as they zip line across the line that they fired. The camera tracks them out and as they leave the window and then cuts to a high angled shot, showing the height and the risk of them crossing. The music gets much louder with big drum hits as it cuts to the shot of these men crossing helping the audience realise the danger of what they are doing. These people clearly know what they are doing but the viewer still wants to know what the intention of these people is.

We slowly start to find out a lot more information again as the camera cuts to the interior of the van that we saw earlier. The three men in the van are wearing clown masks. One of them is loading a gun connoting to the audience that these people are in fact criminals. There are more frequent cuts between the two men on the roof and the three men in the car. During these cuts it becomes apparent that these two groups of men are working together and they are not parallel narratives. We know this through dialogue because both sets of men are talking about working for the same guy. The dialogue also allows the audience to figure out that they are planning to rob somewhere. The three men in the car then stop and get and storm into a bank shooting their guns they prepared in the car. You can hear screams as the camera stays focused on the men suggesting that there are civilians in the building at the current time. As they take hostages there is a cut back to the two men on the roof who are about to short circuit the electrics. As one of the men short circuits the electrics the other pulls out a gun and kills him. This creates a big narrative enigma as to if this man is working with them or if he is actually against them. This man then picks up the gear and tries to break into the vault with a large drill. Again this suggests that these people have done this before because they are very prepared with all the equipment. While the man tries to break in to the vault it cuts back to the men in the lobby of the bank and someone who is dressed in a suit that looks to be one of the bank managers surprisingly pulls out a shotgun from under his desk and shoots one of the robbers in the back. At this point again the music gets faster tempo and louder as this man continues to chase two of the other robbers down the bank shouting “Do you have any idea who you are stealing from? You and your friends are dead!” This creates a narrative enigma that makes the audience question who they are stealing from and makes you think why the bank isn’t heavily guarded. Is this a normal bank? One of the masked robbers again shows a clear example of expertise as he counts the shots in the man’s shotgun until he runs out then he pops up and shots him. Everything these robbers do is worryingly perfectly timed. This makes the audience think that in the bigger picture maybe these bad guys could end up defeating the good guys in a counter-typical ending.The next shot goes back to the man trying to open the vault when another masked robber runs over to him. The main man trying to open the vault says “the vault is wired with 5000 volts. What kind of vault does that?” The other man quickly replies “A mob bank.” This reveals to the audience who they are trying to steal from but there is still no indication as to why.

The opening sequence to The Dark Knight is one that starts off very mysterious with a group of criminals clearly doing something bad but we don’t know exactly what and why. A large amount of questions are asked by the audience throughout this sequence and some of them get answered in the opening its self but many are left unanswered. In this opening we see a group of criminals that are clearly one step ahead and this creates a big question towards the plot as to whether in the end do these bad guys come out on top because of their knowledge and skill.

Post By:

Josh Barrett

Josh Shea

Metehan Hizli

British Board of Film Classification (BBFC)

The BBFC stands for the British Board of Film Classification  and  it is an independent  company that classifies the age genre of films and video games, It was formed in 1912 and only operates in the UK hence the name 'British Board of Film Classification'. The company is funded by the film industry and is responsible for every film and game age rating. The judges for the films and games look at all the different content in the film including discrimination, drugs, horror, imitable behavior  language, nudity, sex, sexual violence, theme and violence and these are the criteria's that define what age rating a game or film gets.

The 'U' logo seen on video games and movies stands for Universal which means can be viewed by Ages 4 and Over. Films for younger ages have to be generally happy and if negative scenes are shown it is important that it is counter-balanced by a happy scene afterwards. The certain areas e.g. is crimination, drugs, horror, imitable behaviour etc. have been looked at closely and here is the guideline that a U film has to follow:

Discrimination:

Strictly no foul discriminatory language or behavior 

Drugs:

Strictly no references to illegal drugs or misuse of drugs (over-dose) as young children are likely to copy actions seen in films

Horror:

Scary scenes have to be toned down and brief and always counter balanced at the end of the scene and leave the young children re-assured

Behavior:
No dangerous behavior as it may be copied by young children and no emphasis on realistic weapons (e.g. a pipe)

Language:
Very low use of mild bad language (e.g. Damn or Hell)

Nudity:
Strictly no sexual content at all but occasional natural nudity

Sex:
Mild sexual behavior but references have to be changed (e.g. kissing to making love)

Theme:
Problems may occur during the film but treatment for the problem have to be sensitive and appropriate for a young audience

Violence:
Very minimal violence




The PG logo stands for Parental Guidance which is General viewing but some of the scenes may be unsuitable for younger children. Unaccompanied children are allowed to watch and a PG film should not disturb a child aged eight or older however parents are advised to consider for their children may upset the children. The areas assessed for a PG film are:







Discrimination:
Discriminatory language or behavior are unacceptable but may be allowed in a historical or educational context.

Drugs:
Reference to illegal drugs or the possession of illegal drugs has to be very subtle or carry an anti drug message with them

Horror:
Horror scenes should not be extended throughout the film and cannot be very intense

Imitable behavior:
No strong details of dangerous or bad behavior which is likely to be copied by younger children and no references to easily accessible weapons

Language:
Mild bad language may be used but very small

Nudity:
Natural nudity may occur but no sexual content

Sex:
Sexual activity may be implied but should be very discreet and not frequent throughout the film

Theme:
More serious issues are shown than U but the treatment should not condone unacceptable behaviour

Violence:
Moderate violence but without intricate detail and is always justified by the content 

12 is suitable for the Ages of 12 and over, Although the category 12a exists it only applies to cinema films and the 12 category exists only for videos. Children under 12 are not allowed to view the film unless accompanied with an adult.
Some content in 12a films may upset the children but the responsibility lies with the adults. The areas being assessed were:









Discrimination:
Discriminatory language or behavior may not be aggressive or be shown for prolonged periods of time

Drugs:
Use or misuse of drugs cannot be frequent and should be not highlighted in the film

Horror:
Slight physical and psychological threat may be allowed but disturbing scenes should not be frequent or sustained

Imitable behavior:
Dangerous and harmful behavior e.g. suicide etc.. should not be shown for long screen time and should not be weapons used should not be highlighted to young audience

Language:
Moderate language allowed but strong language e.g. F^@K must be very infrequent

Nudity:
Nudity is allowed but sexual scenes have to be discreet and infrequent

Sex:
Sexual activity have to be brief and very discreet and sexual references should not go beyond the boundary which is suitable for young teenagers

Theme:
Mature themes allowed but treatment must be suitable for young teenage audience

Violence:
Moderate violence is allowed but no emphasis on blood or injuries during the film, occasional gory moments are permitted

Post By:
Metehan Hizli
Josh Barrett
Josh Shea

 

20 Second Opening Snippet Test.

Here is a 20 second snippet from our 2 minute film opening. We uploaded this so we could see how youtube would make the colour correction look on our video. Some of these shots are from our boat trip down the River Thames in London and some are just tripod mounted pans and tilts from other positions around the city. These shots are going to be used to set the scene and to let the audience know where the film is set. This short sequence of shots is going to also be used as a visual bridge between one setting to another as the film starts off in the protagonists house and then moves to the outside city as he makes his way to the SIS headquarters.

Post By:
Josh Barrett
Josh Shea
Metehan Hizli

Past Student Work Analysis: The Taken.

The film opening begins with superimposed text on the screen saying AS PRO with a mountain in background. This is showing the audience the production company for the video.  The film begins with some moving out of focus orbs of light being blended with some footage of a car driving at night to set an eerie tone for the film meanwhile in the background a harpsichord is being played on a high scale to give even more of an eerie effect. I think this is a very simple but effective effect to have the two video clips fading in and out over each other. It’s a very powerful effect that gives you an idea of what is going on without actually showing you fully. Next we see a girl looking over her shoulder and then walking down a dark tunnel meanwhile we hear a voice over saying  “Same girl, Same path, Same strange silhouette” this is giving a hint to the audience that this girl may be the central character in this plot of this film. A close up of the girl laying in a river with marks all over her body also signifies that something may have happened to the central character in the film but also sets a narrative enigma for the audience to ask what has happened to her and how did it happen. The camera then fades into what looks to be a drunken person getting out of a taxi and making his way to the entrance of the house. At this point the background music has crescendoed intensifying the scene and signifying the something key in the film is going to happen. We see the man then fall into his bed but still having the dream of the girl checking over her shoulder and walking into the dark tunnel, at this point the film is signifying that these two characters are linked in some way but we haven’t found out how just yet.  We then hear the girl scream and then turning around and running away meanwhile the man is still in his bed having this dream. The girl runs through the woods and then the camera cuts to the man in the bed again and super imposed titles of ‘THE TAKEN’ appear on screen in a bold red font while the music fades out. The camera then slowly pans down in the river and we see legs and while the camera is panning to the right we see the girl that was shown in the beginning in black and white lying in the river with all the same marks but this time the scene is in colour possibly signifying to us that at the beginning of the opening this was only a dream but now this lady lying wounded in the water is actually reality. As a group we really liked the camera shots and editing in this film opening but we found it hard to follow the story on the first time of watching it as we had to watch it more than once to fully understand what was going on as because of the constant cutting from setting to setting. This cutting looks cool but at first it’s hard to follow the narrative.

Post By:
Josh Barrett
Metehan Hizli
Josh Shea

9 Shot Analysis: The Bourne Legacy.

The Bourne Legacy is a 2012 American action thriller film directed by Tony Gilroy. The film is based around Aaron Cross who is a member of Operation Outcome, a US Defence Department black ops program which employs pills referred to as chems that enhance the physical and mental abilities of field operatives. Cross is assigned to Alaska for a training exercise, where he must survive certain activities and traverse rugged terrain in order to arrive at a remote cabin.

The purpose of the opening sequence is to:

1. Communicate narrative enigmas to the audience that they want answers to.

2. Introduce the audience to the main protagonist and the films setting.

The sequence begins with an underwater long shot of the figure of what looks to be a man swimming through the water. This shot is super slow mo to add dramatic effect right from the beginning. The shot is slowed down so much that you can only see the slightest movement of the water. This person is so dark on the front of his body that we can’t make out who it is and this is because the only light source in this scene is the natural lighting that is coming from the sun and this is placed directly behind him. This creates a narrative enigma for the audience as they increasingly want to know who this person is. Directly after this shot there is a close up of a tube that is tied down under the water and this instantly creates another narrative enigma for the audience as we don’t yet know what this tube is and what it contains. We know that this shot is directly linked with the previous shot because of the sound bridge between both. The diegetic sound of the water and the non-diegetic music both carry over and help the scene flow and help the audience to follow along. The shot of the tube lasts for quite a long time and for the large part of this time it is the only thing in show. To us this connotes that this tube is of high importance due to the camera focusing on it for this amount of time. After about six seconds a hand enters the frame and takes the tube. This is the hand of the unknown man that we saw in the first shot. As the man rips the tube from the rope there is ping sound that dominates the sound mix and a large amount of reverb has been added to this sound for dramatic effect in post production. The third shot in the opening sequence acts as the establishing shot. The super imposed text that comes up in the bottom right of the frame informs us that the scene is set in Alaska, it also gives us some suggestion of who this person works for and what he is doing as it says “Special operations group training site”. This unidentified person must be training for the special operations group.

In shot 4 for the first time we can really see this underwater character as he comes out of the water.  He is clutching the red tube that we can now see a lot clearer and as we know this is a training site, these kind of tubes normally contain information on what the next task for this man is going to be so as one question is answered another one is asked, what is this man’s mission? We can see that after the shot of him coming out of the water our unknown character is dominating the screen time signifying to us that this character is important in the story and is most likely the main protagonist. Also we can see that our character is well prepared and well equipped for the training site that he is currently working in, we see that he is well prepared because he has bought a thermal blanket with him to keep himself warm in the cold conditions around him and he has also created a fire to keep himself warm as soon as he gets out of the water witch is a clever move as the conditions he is in it is easy to get frost bite. These kinds of techniques are ones that a trained professional would use connoting to us that maybe he isn’t new to this.

In the next shot we see a close up of the character looking up in to the distance This intimate framing really lets us get in to this mans feelings. To us it seems like he is thinking the same thing as the audience, why he is at this training site. He then looks down and closes his eyes while wrapped in his thermal blanket looking uncomfortable, this again helps show us how cold these conditions must be. In the next shot we see the camera slowly zooming out and away from where the character is standing around the fire that he has made. While the camera is zooming out it helps give the audience a little bit more perspective in terms of where he is. As the camera continually zooms out we see that he is situated miles from civilisation in the middle of nowhere. This adds to the earlier enigma questioning why he is where he is. In the background the musical score which consists of harps and violins builds up with a drum beat to create and epic feel while the camera is zooming out and showing the audience the setting of the scene. Once the music has fully built up super imposed titles come onto the screen showing the film name ‘The Bourne Legacy’.

Post By:
Josh Barrett
Metehan Hizli
Josh Shea

Inception Opening Timeline.

This is our timeline analysis of the opening from Inception. Inception is a 2010 science fiction thriller film written, co-produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan. The film stars a large ensemble cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Dileep Rao, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, and Michael Caine.

Post By:
Josh Shea
Josh Barrett
Metehan Hizli

Mood Board For Film Genre.

As a group we established that  the films that we all like the most are Action thriller films. This is a mood board that we have created containing images of the films that have influenced us to pick the spy/espionage genre for our film. In terms of mise en scene in the films that we have showcased the majority of the main protagonists costumes consist of the shirt, tie and suit jacket combination and this is what has influenced us to dress our protagonist in a suit. These films have also influenced  us in terms of setting the film in the city. This city setting is a common spy/espionage convention that is used in all of the films above. We believe that using ideas from these Hollywood blockbuster films we could achieve a high quality film.

Post By:
Metehan Hizli
Josh Barrett

Shot lists.

1. Close up tilt down - Hands on keyboard.

2. Medium close up - Over the shoulder of protagonist typing.

3. Long shot track - bus driving on road.

4. Side shot medium close up - hands on laptop keyboard.
5. Medium shot slowly zooming out - London bus.
6. Close up tilt down - Baby monitor next to laptop.
7. Close up - Baby monitor.
8. Long shot - London Bus.
9. Long shot tilt up - Baby monitor.
10. Close up - Error message on screen.
11. Long shot - Bus explosion.
12. News clips.
13. Close up pan - Going across baby pictures and alarm clock.
14. Close up - Protagonist getting out of bed.
15. Medium pan/tracking shot - Protagonist walking out of room.
16. Close up pan - Protagonist doing sit ups.
17. Medium close up pan - Protagonist on treadmill.
18. Close up pan - Protagonist feet on the treadmill.
19. Extreme close up - Protagonist face.
20. Medium shot - Protagonist in shower.
21. Close up - Protagonist pouring coffee.
22. Close up tilt up - Protagonist putting blazer on.
23. Tilt up - Continue of pan up on Protagonist.
24. Establishing shot - Shot of Union Jack.
25. Establishing shot - Shots of buildings.
26. Long shot - Protagonist walking across bridge.
27. Long shot - Shot of back of head of Protagonist.
28. Long shot tilt up - SIS building.
29. Medium shot/high angle - Protagonist going towards gate.

Post By:
Metehan Hizli
Josh Barrett
Josh Shea

Group 4 Productions Logo.

This is our production company logo that we have created within photoshop to use at the start of our film opening to show people that this film was produced by our group. We purposely gave it the computerised look as our film opening is going to have the spy genre and we feel this is gives it a spy feel. Green glows over a black background give it a mysterious feel that is used alot in action films.

We drew inspiration for our logo and ident from the matrix's opening titles. The mysterious feel that the matrix captured is something that we wanted emulate with our logo. Below you can see images from the matrix titles. The text on the matrix's titles is white with a green glow around it and this is something that we think works really well, so in photoshop we tried this technique on our company text and in our opinion it works really well to give it the dramatic spy/action feel we want.

Post By:

Josh Barrett

Metehan Hizli

Updated Props.

These are some new props that we now know that we need for our house shoot due to changes in the storyboards.

We plan to use a laptop in the dream/flashback section of our opening sequence. It will play a key part in this as our protagonist will be writing an important email on it that in the end, due to technical failure, will not send.

A baby monitor is just as important to our narrative as the laptop is. The baby monitor is going to hopefully do two things for the story. Firstly the baby monitor is going to draw our protagonist away from sending the email about the 7/7 Intel. And secondly it is going to be the first real indication that our protagonist has a family that he cares for and lives with.

Post By:

Josh Barrett

Metehan Hizli

Josh Shea

London Shoot.

On Monday the 18th February as a group we went to London to shoot the ending of our opening sequence. As we had planned we filmed various different shots outside the SIS building in Vauxhall, London. We shot at around 7:30 in the morning so we could get that morning light look we also wanted it to not be really busy at the time we were shooting to make it clear that the opening is set in the early morning as streets in London aren't generally busy at this time.  We shot from many different angles so then we would have much more footage to work with in post-production making the editing job easier.

Here our cameraman (Josh Barrett) was getting shots of our protagonist walking along Vauxhall bridge outside of the SIS building in London.

In this picture we see the group and the main actor reviewing the footage that was shot by doing this we decided wether or not we liked the shot so we didn't have to plan again in the future to re-shoot.

This is an image of one of our group members reviewing the footage shot on Vauxhall bridge.

Picture of our cameraman shooting a long shot of our protagonist on Vauxhall bridge at the foot of the SIS building.

In this picture our cameraman varying the type of shots and angles in our film to make it seem more interesting to an audience.



In these pictures we see our cameraman improvising with a tripod as he was not high enough to get the shot we wanted.



While we were in London we also went to shoot our cinematic shots of the iconic London sites like we had planned. We went on a boat trip down the River themes to capture some of the cinematic shots that we needed and after capturing our cinematic shots we walked around London to find new areas to shoot in.

We see the cameraman here changing the setup for his camera to adapt to the style of shot we want.

Post By:

Josh Barrett

Metehan Hizli

Josh Shea

Storyboard Visual Representation.

These images are visual representations of our camera angles that we have storyboarded. Looking at our angles like this helps us visually see if we are actually following the guidelines that are required for continuity in film such as the 180 degree rule, 30 degree rule and so on. These floor plans are only for the interior scenes as it would be very hard to pinpoint where in London that we would be able to get our shots from.

Flashback email scene.

For this scene we wanted to use as many angles as possible to try and keep it interesting and fast paced. We know that the storyboards will only be used as a guideline because when we are actually on set we might come up with some new creative camera angle ideas. When shooting a no budget film it really helps to be flexible on set.

Morning wake up scene.

With this wake up scene there are far less angles as we want this scene to be slower that the flashback scene. This is because waking up in the morning is a slow thing and we want to emphasise this through the amount of cuts to different angles being very low creating a slow paced edit.

Morning work out scene.

This work out scene is also going to have some pretty slow paced editing. The shots that we plan to get are going to have some very dramatic slow dolly movements to try and give it more of an epic hollywood feel. 

Post By:

Josh Barrett

Character Casting.

We chose Daniel Barrett for our protagonist. We decided to use him as he fits the character requirements. First of all he is male and this is one of the main requirements as spy/espionage protagonists are stereotypically male. He fits the hight category (6”0) as well as being physically fit. We didn't only pick him because of these physical characteristics but also because he is related to one of our group members. This helps us a lot as he will be a lot easier to get in touch with and he will be much more reliable to. Another element that influenced our decision is the fact that he took A level Drama and Media Studies and this experience is something that would help us as he knows what is required to be successful.

Post By:

Josh Barrett

Josh Shea

Final Storyboards.

These are our final storyboards for our opening sequence. We have had a large amount of discussion about ideas that we all had for what shots we want to include and we have chopped and changed but after all this we have now finalized our storyboards. In our first draft storyboards we didn't have the dream section, that is now shots 1 to 12, before our protagonist wakes up. We have added this section to try and connect our character to the audience more. In the flashback/dream we see some clips from the 7/7 bombings and our idea was to connect our protagonist to incident. We want to show that he tried to signal to MI6 or the SIS that there was Intel about the bombings in the days leading up to the event and our protagonist had discovered the intelligence but due to a computer failure he wasn't able to get it to them.

In Total we have 32 shots down on our storyboards but during shooting this could change due to someone having a new idea to add a new shot or remove one. This is just an outline that we need to work around while on set shooting our sequence.

Post By:
Josh Barrett
Metehan Hizli
Josh Shea