STYLE AND TONE

The overall style and tone of the opening that Ewan and I want to achieve is that of an edgy and urban environment, where for young people their atmosphere is a place of threat. The style will be similar to several films, especially Kidulthood, where there are a lot of urban shots, much more simple camerawork than other films and  an edgy feel with lots of close ups and point of view shots. This will present a feeling of personal connection between the audience and the character. This will also be achieved through the presentation of the protagonist in the past, as the audience (as discovered by audience research) finds a film more intriguing when they know elements about the character.

The setting will play a huge role towards tone, being dark and tense. The contrasting light between the past and present is what will really emphasis the present as being atmospheric and grungy. The buildings and locations we use are what will really present the realism feature of our film, and will set the edgy feel that we are working for.

Another film we were also inspired by was London to Brighton in particular the rough, destroyed edgy look of the shots in the bathrooms 

OUR DECIDED NARRATIVE/PLOT

After discussing together, Ewan and I decided to edge our narratives together to form the plot of our opening sequence.
We decided upon following the life of a girl (our protagonist) and the change that has taken place in her life ( like a before and after). Her life used to be simple and normal but it now seems obvious that a person has come into her life who has put her life at threat.
We wanted to set up a a parallel between two moments in time; matching and cross cutting between different locations and shots.
It seemed that we wanted to leave the ending to our story undecided, a cliff hanger: where will she take her life after this moment? Whilst still we found from our Audience research that it was crucial we established an emotional attachment between our protagonist and our audience.
We came up with the idea of a package being involved, shots of our protagonist searching for the package unable to find it, interspersed with shots of our antagonist figure searching for her.
We hope this will create a sense of pace, rush and an awareness of time; just as time has lapsed and changed our protagonists life completely.

AUDIENCE RESEARCH - ONLINE SURVEY - RESULTS

From our Online Survey, we've found that most people were more likely to watch films at home and were more inclined for those films to be blockbusters. However,100% answered that they do go to the cinema and more over, almost 45% go once a month and almost 17% go every week.

In terms of thrillers, 89% answered that they often watch them and 34% said that they have seen over 30 thrillers.

However, 100% of our audience that answered our survey was in the age category of 13-17 and only 3 persons out of 18 that answered said that they prefer social realism or psychological thrillers; the , majority (50%) said they preferred Action thrillers.

From this we can conclude that our target audience of 16-24 years old is perhaps too young. Meaning our social realism, psychological, urban thriller should be targeted at an older audience ( maybe 24-35 year olds).

Though our film would be certified a 15 and we are keen for it to appeal to young ages above 15 as well, we think that perhaps we should continue with our other Audience research to target our audience at an older age.

However, we will also interview some younger people to get their point of view and understanding on the concept of thrillers, especially social realism ones.

AUDIENCE RESEARCH

Yesterday Ewan and I created Facebook page for our film. We named it 'To Be Decided' as the film's name is yet to be decided! We hope that by creating a Facebook page we will be able to target our film at our target audience easier (16-25). We are posting photos and updates of our film's progress but also uploading links to our Online Surveys in hope that everyone will fill it out and give us the information we need to find out about our Audience's Likes and Dislikes.

We've already reached 75 likes!

We are also in the progress of compiling Vox pops, questionnaires, interviews and focus groups.

Here are some screenshots of our page:

PRE PRODUCTION PROPOSAL

PRE PRODUCTION PROPOSAL

THE PITCH

• Upon watching the opening sequences to films like London to Brighton, Kidulthood and especially Bullet Boy I was inspired to create a sharp, raw, edgy and urban film opening sequence for my coursework
• The aim was to edit it sharply so the action was continuous and always flowing but the shots themselves were raw and edgy with urban settings, setting up a space to project an image of social realism thriller.

NARRATIVE/PLOT

• My plot is still not entirely clear, and will depend on the actors I will use and the locations I am able to use. 
• However, I have a rough idea that I am interested in a plot where the protagonist's life has dramatically changed (for worse) and is now under threat. I would like to cross cut between two locations ( past and present), creating a world of perspective and contrast between the relaxed banalities of their life before and the panic of their thrilling life. 
• I picture the film beginning with an establishing shot of a room with the protagonist in it (their life before) cutting to a close tracked shot of them trapped in a room, someone (the threat) banning on the door of the room. the sequence continues to cut between these two locations, varying between steady calm camerawork in the past and many extreme close ups of action cut closely and quickly in the present so there is a sense of chase and intensity.
• I'd like to finish the open sequence with the interspersed shots of two footsteps running ( of the same protagonist but for two different reasons - the past shots are running for exercise but the present is running for escape) ending with the title of the piece.
• I hope the juxtaposition of these two locations, two different works of camerawork and editing and the contrast between fast pace action in the present and less action in the past.

STYLE AND TONE

• I'm aiming to create a thrilling atmosphere in my work, something that is gripping because it's real and very stripped back rather than a flashy over dramatic blockbuster type of film. 
• in order to convey a thrilling sense of social realism, both with the plot and interspersion of shots filled with action and with less action, I hope to present a sense of stripped back edgy raw urbanism through the camerawork
• although including important shots like close ups, two shots, point of view shots, establishing shots and pans, I aim to create a very real perspective from the camera work, as if the audience is there in the room with the characters.
• I'll do this by changing the style of camerawork depending on the shot and the narrative of the scene it's filming: camerawork filming the past with be steady and simple including more mid shots as a posed to close shots whereas the camerawork used in the present may be a little more shaky including more quickly cut close up shots of action (e.g fingers fumbling) and point of view shots 
• the lighting will differ between settings, either lighter in the past and darker in the present or more vibrant in the past and more dull in the present. either way i want the darkened threatening lightening of the present shots to reflect the intense thrilling action that is happening.

CHARACTERS - COSTUMES - PROPS

• at the most there will be around three characters, to keep the focus centred on the protagonist
• PROTAGONIST - can be male or female -  mid/early twenties or late teenager (18 or 19) - appearance does not necessarily matter as long as there is a definite between a scruffy, rough, desperate look for shots in the present and a more well manicured perfected pristine look for the shots in the past
• ANTAGONIST - can be male or female - older than the protagonist, an adult, appearance should be threatening, perhaps subtly dark make up, dark clothing and a scruffy, tough/rough appearance
• FAMILY MEMBERS / FRIENDS- (optional) could be included in the background of the shots of the past but would not be crucial parts and what ages and how many of them does not necessarily matter

GRAPHICS

• I aim to include titles of all the actors and production units but would not like to reveal the title of the film until the end of the opening sequence, cutting the action with the shot of the title probably timed with an ominous cinematic boom swell
• the fonts I'm interested in are as follows: i'm looking for a plain edgy stylish angular look with my fonts, nothing too dramatic but still ominous at the same time. i liked these fonts in particular as they seemed to convey the presence of something ominous as well as being urban and edgy which fits in with the style of my film opening sequence.
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

SOUND

• dialogue will be included in the interaction between the family members/friends in the past shots and possibly a voice over will be included depending on how practice shots of these sound.
• non diegetic soundtrack will be used in my opening though i'm not entirely sure how it will sound, probably a beat-like sound 
• However I'm also keen to keep the sound effects of what is happening in the scene ( e.g running footsteps, glass smashing etc) 
• the soundtrack will parallel to my action on the screen, as the action increases, so will the tempo of the soundtrack and the volume.
• I'm keen to keep the footage with no soundtrack at the beginning and just use the natural sounds of the scene perhaps enhanced with foley sound but possibly for the title sequence non diegetic sound effects could be used to create a sense of suspense and tension

AUDIENCE

• My target audience aims to be 16-24 year olds, the film may appeal to people older or younger than that, in fact most crime drama thrillers and social realism thrillers are aimed at 15-40 year olds
• this also applies to my film and so it can be aimed at 15-40 year olds but I suspect that the age range that would be most interested in it would be 16-24 year olds
• From looking on the BBFC website, i think my film would classify as a certificate 15

RESEARCH - OPENING SEQUENCES

Collateral - opening sequence

• Begins with extreme close ups of actors faces hidden between the movement of the crowd - we are constantly looking for their faces lost in the crowd 
• we get a feeling that there is something else going on other than the open frame of movement we experience. 
• tilts and handheld rolls give an effect of movement so we become part of the crowd 
• camera is constantly pulling in and out of focus - what is real and what isn't? what is about to happen?
• we're very unsure of where the characters are going or who they are, camera is shot at eye level to give a realistic feel of ourselves in amidst the crowd following the characters
• the speed contrasts between slow motion and real motion to distort what is happening 

Group work - first task - THE PACKAGE

THE PACKAGE


THE PACKAGE is my first group task for Media Studies. Each group was given the same objective: to create a film with the narrative of a package arriving and being placed on site at school, we were able to  form our own story though.
Once we had decided on our plot for the film we got to filming, making sure that everyone had a go at being in front of the camera and behind it. We figured out that for each scene and shot, we had to film several takes from different angles and perspectives in order to have enough footage to put together a 1 or 2 minute clip; in order to put together a slick film you have to film more then edit down so you end up with a film that doesn't in fact use all the footage. However, we found this concept difficult; often getting too impatient to reshoot certain scenes or not having enough time. We tried to use a range of techniques for filming, allowing each person's 'vision' of the scene to come through their shot whilst still making the film coherent and flowing.
Editing was some what simpler, although it was difficult for us all to decide on each transition and music choice when we found have preferred to make our own choices for our own film. We aimed to keep the editing simple so that it looked more professional but with a comic twist (the audience are meant to laugh) by making it slightly overdramatic especially with the use of tension building music that we used from copyright free sites. One the whole however, we were proud of our end product, considering it was our first task.