Consent Form

Consent Form:

In order for our actress to be able to star in our film opening, her parents will need to sign this form- as the actress we are using is under the age of 18. The form gives consent for the child's image to be uploaded online, and therefore onto the internet. It is important to do this because we wouldn't want to put anything onto the internet that the actress/ her parents would not approve of.

Casting

At our school drama department, our AS level theatre studies students prepared a short monologue to show me and the rest of my classmates in order to be cast in our film openings. Although their pieces were fantastic, we needed someone who looked like they were from the 1920s so that our film would be more realistic. Fortunately, Pip's friend Iona, who has had previous experience with acting, looks exactly right for our opening.

To cast the wedding guests, we will be using Pip's family members: her parents, her nan and her two sisters. We will also be using Pip's neighbour to increase the number of actors and make the wedding scene more realistic with more people in. We are going to do this because they live next door to our filming location, so it is much easier to ensure that our actors are there on time and are ready to shoot, so that we can get the filming done quicker and more efficiently than bringing in lots of actors who may live far away from Hadlow Tower.

I think that we have cast our opening very well, and I am excited to work with them when we begin filming for our final opening.

Sound Effects

Sound Effects for a Crime Investigation/Thriller Genre

I have created this video including some examples of what you would expect to hear in a crime investigation/thriller genre, with a twist of a 1920s theme:

 

I chose these sounds because I felt that they were classic 1920s sounds but were also relevant to our film genre. Some of these sounds will be in the final opening scene.

Our Adaptations

After reviewing our plans and our storyline for 'The Wring', we have made a few changes:

• We have decided to add in a pre-scene to our film opening, so that we give the audience some background context as to what has happened in the past so that they understand why the protagonist does certain things in the getting ready scene (e.g. finding her marriage certificate and quickly slamming it back into a drawer to shut out her past).
• We have decided to call the film 'The Ring' without the 'W'. This is because we felt that it was too much of a pun and could contradict the genre of the film and be too comedic as opposed to its real meaning: the 'ring' signifying that the ruby ring is an important element of the film and the 'w' to imply death- death by 'wringing' someone's neck.
• Because we are adding in the pre-scene, we have made a decision to shorten down the outdoor car scene where the woman is arriving at the tower, so that we won't go over the time limit set for this piece of work (2.30 minutes).

The pre-scene will be set at the wedding of the protagonist woman and her ex-husband. There will be close up shots of champagne glasses, and various shots of people, to show that it is a significant event. From there, we will have the protagonist going off to find her husband (after he had excused himself from the party to go inside for a few minutes). The protagonist woman goes inside to find him with a knife in his hand and blood dripping from his fingertips. There will be a blackout and a scream, then the title of the film will appear on screen before we fade into our original opening scene. The credits will be rolled on the screen throughout the pre-opening scene.

We were inspired to make this new scene after watching the film opening 'Woman in Black' as the pre-scene is telling the audience what the context of the film is so that they understand certain character's motives and actions. (skip to 0.12)

Another film which has a simple but effective pre-opening scene is sinister: it is filmed all in one camera angle, and supposedly all in one shot- yet it tells the story and gives the audience a full preview of what the film will be about and what sort of atmosphere it will have:



We were also inspired by a couple of Lana Del Ray's music videos, and here we have created a small film clip to show what sort of atmosphere we want to create to set up the rest of the film:



We are very lucky because the Canon camera which we are using has a supported slow motion setting (MXF) which will produce very high quality slow motion clips, so we can make it look really professional.

Test Shoot

Test Shoot

The test shoot took place during the Christmas Holidays. Its purpose was to be a practice shoot to see what we could improve on and what steps we would take next in creating the final piece of our Opening Scene.

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the practice shoot so Pip and Issy very kindly did all of the filming. I contributed to editing the practise shoot so that as a viewer who has not seen any of the footage before, I could input some suggestions and improvements that we could make when we do our real filming.

Here are a few key points that we need to take into account:

• The Lighting: Make sure the rooms is lit up brightly so we can have the full effect of the black and white filter.
• Dolly Zoom: Make sure we get a smooth and effective shot.
• Continuity Errors: There were only a couple of minor continuity errors, such as the actress needs to put down the powder before picking up the lipstick.
• Costume: We are going to use a white dressing gown, because the black one was too dark and merged into the shot too much.
• Movement: We have decided that the actress will not walk to the chair and put on the gloves after getting up from the dressing table, as the shot was too long.
• Sound: We will create our foley sounds and dub them over the video edit so that there is high sound quality. We are working on finding the correct type of music to use in the background for the first part of the opening. I have done some research and found a song called 'Do Something' by Broadway Broadcasters, and I have slowed it down in Garageband to make it relaxed and slow, which is what the pace of the first part of our opening is.

In conclusion, the test shoot was a great way to put our imaginations and visions onto the screen so we could see what we could do to improve it and how we would shoot something and where the camera would be.

The Ring

Here is a picture of the ring which I found on Amazon.co.uk and I have brought in order for our actress Iona to wear.

Foley Sound Experiment

For our film opening, in order to enhance the non-diagetic sounds within the opening we can use foley sounds. 

Here is a quote from Wikipedia explaining what foley sound is: 'Foley is the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to film, video, and other media in post-production to enhance audio quality.' 

Below are some experiments of making ordinary sounds sound better on film.

To make the sound of knocking on a door, we used a window to knock on rather than an ordinary wooden door. This sound is more effective because it is more of a clear, precise knock sound compared to the wooden door which is slightly muffled and not very clear:

We used a deodorant can to make the sound of perfume spraying. When we recorded the sound of normal perfume spraying, it was too faint to hear so we used deodorant instead. This example sounds a bit too fake, so to make it sound better we could change the volume so it is not too loud.

These are only a couple of examples of what sort of sounds we will use Foley for. There will be other sounds such as: shutting a door; opening a car door; shutting the car door; and the sound of footsteps on a gravel drive.

Camera: Canon XF205

We have been very lucky to get hold of a Canon XF205 camera to use to film our opening scene of 'The Wring'.

This camera has many advantages that a normal handheld camcorder may not have:

• You can change the rate of frames recorded per second, we will be recording our film at 24p
• There is a time code input so that if we record sounds separately then we will be able to sync the sound to the video footage easily with a clapper board
• There is an easily adjustable zoom, iris/exposure and focus
• There is a 'Zebra' setting which tells you whether your shot is too exposed or not- indicating this by moving black lines across the brighter objects
• There is good quality sound recording system installed in the camera if we didn't want to record the sound from an external microphone- although there is a microphone input too...
• The overall quality of the camera is excellent- cameras like these are used in the professional industry sometimes
• There are colour bars, however we most probably won't need to use them, as they are normally used to sync up multiple cameras to make sure that their colours are the same and not brighter/darker than another camera's, so that it doesn't look odd cutting from one camera to another in a TV live broadcast show and the colours suddenly changing

Animatic of Storyboard

Here is the animatic for our opening scene of our fictional film: 'The Wring'.

Visit to University of Kent, Canterbury

On Wednesday 14th January, my Media Studies class and I spent the day at the University of Kent in Canterbury. Whilst we were there, we took part in various activities which enhanced our knowledge of the filming aspect of our course.

Firstly, we were introduced to some of their present Film Studies students in one of their lecture rooms. We were split into two groups and were taken to do different activities. My first activity was looking at screenwriting and scripting.

We watched a clip from the film 'Barton Fink' and compared it to the shooting script that we were given.
  

We saw how the script was not exactly what was on the screen, as the film producers and directors would have changed certain things when they were on set, for example, Pete the elevator man was supposed to enter the hallway from the lift and fall to the ground, however the only character that emerges from the lift is Charlie (the mass murderer). It was interesting to see how even a professional film production changes and adapts its ideas on set to suit the tone of the film and not to add in anything that is not necessary, e.g. Pete coming out of the lift.

Next it was our turn to create a small script for an adaptation of a fairytale of our choice. Me and my friend Chloe recreated the scene of 'Let it Go' from the famous film 'Frozen', however the main character was singing the song in the middle of New York City as opposed to in a magical land on a snowy mountain. It was interesting to see how descriptive and atmospheric the scripts were, for example, in the script of 'Barton Fink' it sets the scene: "Tacky yellow fluid streams down. The walls are pouring sweat. The hallway is quiet". This exercise showed me how descriptive and precise you have to be when setting the scene so that when you bring the script to life it is exactly what you pictured it to be like.

Afterwards, we were given a camera with a tape to record all of the film on. This meant that when we were filming we only had one chance to get it right so we had to be fully aware of every single continuity error that may occur, because we are so used to filming onto a memory card then uploading the footage onto an editing programme and editing out the parts that are not needed. This taught us that careful and long planning was the key to a successful film (a film opening in our case).

Our next activity was a seminar based on how certain actors are type-cast, for example Natalie Portman is type-cast into characters that have a connection with royalty, such as 'The Other Boleyn Girl' and 'Black Swan'. It was interesting to see how some actors/actresses change roles and try to avoid being type-cast, for instance Meryl Streep, who plays a variety of characters ranging from evil (The Devil Wears Prada) to good (Mamma Mia).

In conclusion, I have learnt a lot of things from my trip to the University of Kent, such as how to write a screenplay for a film, and what the impact and significance of typecasting has on our views of certain actors/actresses. I have also learnt some skills to help me with my practical coursework too, such as the critical importance of sustaining continuity throughout any piece of film and how by planning, one can save lots of time whilst filming on set if they plan exactly what is going to happen on the screen well, and how it will happen.

Health and Safety Risk Assessment

In order to keep the risks of accidents to a minimum when we are filming, I have created a health and safety risk assessment which covers all the possible hazards and how my group and I can prevent these from happening.

BBFC Rating for 'The Wring'

Using the BBFC guidelines for the rating of films, we have decided to rate our film a '12'.

Here is the criteria for a 12 rated film from the BBFC website:

• In the rest of our film, there will be some scenes of mild violence. This means that it is not suitable for a 'PG' rating- and as the violence will not be very explicit, it will not be bad enough to make the film a '15' rating. There is a component of threat used within the film which correlates with the violent aspects, so the threat included will be unsuitable for viewers under 12 years old.

• Even though this specification allows the use of some strong language, there will be little to none included in our film. This particular element within the criteria does not apply to our film, however because of the violent scenes that will be included in the movie, there has to be a suitable rating for the overall film and so the violence and threat aspect will raise the age limit to a 12 rated film.

• There may be a hint of imitable behaviour, but this will be very limited in its context throughout the course of the film. One example of when imitable behaviour may be used is during some of the flashbacks when we are slowly finding out why the woman has been killed at the party. 

• The other terms have not influenced our decision of the rating of this film. This is because there is no nudity, sex, drugs or discrimination in the movie, therefore these points were not considered when we were looking at which rating we would give our film. 

In conclusion, the reason why my group and I have decided to rate our film a 12 (using the BBFC guidelines on their website) is because of the violence and threat which will be included in our film to help create the mood and atmosphere of the film according to our genre, which is a crime investigation thriller.

Shooting Script

‘The Wring’

Shooting Script

1) Fade into ring, extreme close up. Camera at a tilt- downwards.
*2/3 seconds*

2) Pan round, horizontal to the right. As pan round, recover from tilt. Pan
over the bed so we see woman at dressing table.
*6 seconds*

3-6) Stop pan and zoom into woman at dressing table, until it is a medium shot.
*4 seconds*

7) Camera at a tilt looking down on dressing table, close up. Dutch angle shot.
*2 seconds*

8) Medium shot-girl looking slightly above camera, as if camera is just below her eye-line reflection in the mirror.
*2 seconds*

9) Shot back to tilted birds eye close up of table
*2 seconds*

10-11) Over the shoulder medium shot-positioned so we can’t see camera in reflection
*4 seconds*

12) Pan over to the right side of the girl
*4 seconds*

13) Camera at a high angle-medium shot
*4 seconds*

14-15) Camera at bird’s eye (no tilt)
*2 seconds*

16) Back to mirror shot (where camera slightly below mirror-mirror perspective)
*1 second*

17) Over the shoulder shot (right side)
*2 seconds*

18-19) Start at close up of picture, zooming in until extreme close up
*4 seconds*

20) Dutch angle shot of drawer
*2 seconds*

21) Camera back to over the shoulder shot of woman looking at reflection in mirror
(we can’t see camera)
*3 seconds*

22-27) Camera in between bed and door to changing room, panning and following woman
*35 seconds*

28) Camera to right side of woman, looking in reflection and focus onto red ring
*3 seconds*

29) Dolly zoom into red ring
*4 seconds*

30) Medium shot, positioned on other side of bed, panning woman
*5 seconds*

31) Low angle shot right in front of bedside table, so ring higher than camera
*2 seconds*

32) Close up of hand-at slight tilt
*3 seconds*

33) Extreme close up of face
*2 seconds*

34) Camera positioned at a high angle shot above wardrobe.
*6 seconds*

35) Blackout as soon as door shuts
*2 seconds*

(End Scene)
...................................................................................
36) Bird’s eye from top of tower-following car around corner
*4 seconds*

37) Extreme long shot, low angle of car driving (from bottom of lake)
*4 seconds*

38) Long shot of car (from field)
*3 seconds*

39) Over the shoulder shot of woman looking out of window to tower
*2 seconds*

40-41) By panning, follow car as it goes into drive
*10 seconds*

42) Zoom into a medium shot
*5 seconds*

43) Mid-close up shot
*2 seconds*

44) Extreme close up
*2 seconds*

45) Long shot
*7 seconds*

46) Low angle panning shot (upwards)
*4 seconds*

47) High angle shot
*3 seconds*

48) Medium shot
*3 seconds*

49) Over the shoulder shot
*3 seconds*

50) Extreme long shot
*2 seconds*

51) Medium shot (door perspective)
*3 seconds*

52) Over the shoulder (left shoulder)
*2 seconds* 

53-54) Extreme close up
*10 seconds* 

55-56) Over the shoulder shot
*8 seconds* 

57) Blackout
*2 seconds* 

58) -Title fades in ‘The Wring’
*2 seconds*
-Fades out

Storyboard

Production Name and Logo

Our production company is called 'New Heights Productions'.

We have created a still image of what we would like our opening animation sequence to look like:

We have done some research into different production companies logos, such as the famous Lionsgate and 20th Century Fox animations below:

I have been experimenting with some animations on Adobe Flash CS5, and have used various 'Youtube' videos to help me teach myself how to use the basic features of this programme.

After a few days of experimenting, the animation didn't look like what I had visualised, so we have decided to draw each frame of a crow flying by hand then upload the pictures of the drawings, put the photos together and speed up the movie clip to make it look like there is a flying bird.

We have found one animation on Vimeo which we have decided to use as an inspiration for our production animated sequence, and of which a screen shot of one of the frames is in the picture above.


In addition, I downloaded a free trial of the animation software Maya to experiment with, after speaking with someone who teaches film studies at the University of Kent:




















After playing around with it for a while, I found that it was very difficult to use and was a bit too complex for me, as I have had no experience with animating before. However, I would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in animating because it looks like an excellent piece of software to use for any animation projects that people want to do.