Test shot evaluation

This is the first shot that the audience will see in our film, we think that this will be effective as it introduces the character as a shady type and makes the audience curious as to where the antagonist in the film is going

This test shot worked very well, first of all, we learnt that we will need good lighting inside the car for this shot and that it will look very good as the first shot of the film when filmed with a good camera and some better camera work and angles. we will work on the camera angle closer to the film shooting day. This shot will put focus on this character and build the tension to seeing him later on in the film

Location Recce

The location of the film will need to be considered, as we will need to get from one location to the next, but within this keep continuity, so the film keeps it's tension which will be ruined if the audience notice continuity errors. The location also needs to be accessible to my group and be a place that the audience will recognise and relate to.

The location of the first scene will be in the car park, this will be at night, so the lights in the car park will add the to the effect of it being a shady deal. However this will be hard to obtain when there are no people in it, therefore we would have to email the owners to see if we can use it after closing time.

Location 1-Car park

The location will at maximum take our actors 15 minutes to get there, this is ideal as well as the equipment is located a 5 minute drive from the location, there will also be no continuity errors from the car park to the canal as they are directly next to them

Location 2-Canal

Casting Callout

Protagonist

We are currently casting for a male protagonist aged between 15 and 18, who is between the height of 5"10 and 6"1, they will need to be quite dominant and at audition improvise a short scene. They will need to have strong athletic abilities and be any ethnicity.

Antagonist

We are currently casting for a male antagonist who is middle aged and of a height of 6" or more. The audition would include improvising an exchange between another character and this character, this will be done in a shady manner. The character must be dominant, be able to assert authority well and be of any ethnicity.

Extras

We are currently casting for 2 male henchmen to play a minor acting that are of middle age and of a height above 6". In audition the actors will need to improvise a dominant walk with a package and a small scene in a car.

Character archetypes mind map

Structure

The narrative structure of our film will be linear, this is because we feel that this will be easier for the audience t follow, to grasp the story line and the narrative of the film. It will also be easier for us to create tension in the film, because if you had the start of the film at the end, the tension that is created all the way through the film would be given away at the start of the film as there is more mystery throughout the film as to where it can end up and the paths that are taken to get there.

Representation

Costume
For our film, we will use very smart clothing, such as suits for the gang members, then we will use quite casual wear for the main protagonist, this represents the separation in class between the different type of characters, with the gang members looking like the Mafia in their suits and the protagonist looking like an average teenager, this will have an effect on our audience, being predominately teenage boys, over the age of 15 this will make them feel as if they can do as the teenager has just done in our film.

Setting
The setting of our play being a dark an empty car park represents the shadiness of the situation, putting emphasis on the fact that what the gangs are about to do is out of the ordinary and is undercover. This then moves on to the canal, which is where the chase happens, this could symbolise the danger of the situation and the courage of the teenager stepping in to stop the deal 

Lighting

The lighting in the film will be natural lighting from the car park and the street lights along the canal, from this you will be able to denote the danger and seriousness of the deal, this is from the lighting from the car park, the car park will be derelict, so maybe have some flickering lights on the ceiling, these lights will also be gloomy so it will add a atmosphere and tone of danger to the scene 

Genre

The genre of our film will be Thriller, with the sub-genre of Action, this sub-genre of thriller includes films such as The Dark Knight, The Bourne Ultimatum, and Casino Royale, these are all very entertaining films, which is one of the reasons that we picked this genre and sub-genre, another reason for this genre is that there is a high level of tension in the genre, which we believed that all the people in our group are very good at capturing, and we think that it will be our best fit for filming and editing.

Camera Angles

Aerial Shot -A shot taken from an airborne device, generally while moving. Close Up -A shot which is close to the person or an object which tightly frames them.

Medium Shot -The shot that utilises the most common framing in movies, shows less than a long shot, more than a close-up. 

Long Shot -A shot that depicts an entire character or object from head to foot. 

Dutch Tilt -A shot where the camera is tilted, it is called this because of its frequent use in Dutch and German thrillers 

Establishing Shot -A shot, at the head of the scene, that clearly shows the locale the action is set in.

High Angle Shot -A shot looking down on a character or subject often isolating them in the frame.

Extreme Close Up -A shot which usually shows just the eyes of a character, this captures their emotion  

Eye Level - A shot where the camera is placed at the subject's height, so if the actor is looking at the lens 
Two Person -This shot is of 2 people 

Dirty Shot/Dirty Two/ Three -This is where there is something obstructing the view of the main focus of the shot.

Deep Focus -is a photographic and cinematographic technique using a large depth of field.

Over the Shoulder - A shot of someone or something taken from the perspective or camera angle from the shoulder of another person.

Shot Reverse, Shot - One character is shown looking at another character, and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character.

Cowboy Shot -A shot framed from mid thigh up, so called because of its recurrent use in Westerns. 

Time Planning

Mood Board

Story Boards

Film Script

Fade in:

                                                      INT. CAR - DAY (1)

                                                 

                     Driver of the car adjusts front mirror to align with subjects face in the  

                                  back seat, as he travels towards the exchange. 

                                                               DRIVER 

      

                                                         Where you off to? 

                                                                DEALER 

                                                Just another business meeting. 

                                                   EXT. STREET - DAY (2) 

                            

                          Low angled camera shot of the cars passing through the street. 

                                  No characters are shown. 1-2 second shot. 

                                                EXT. UNKNOWN LOCATION - DAY (3)

                          Extreme close up of a phone showing a time and location. You 

                             don't know who is receiving this text or who its came from. 

                                                                                         Fade out: Blackout to:

                                                TITLE SCREEN: THE EXCHANGE 

                    Black screen as the title of the film appears suddenly in bold, jumping 

                                                out towards the camera. (5 seconds) 

       

                                                                                       Dramatic music fades in:

                                                                                                                     

                                                                                                      Dissolve to:

                                                EXT. IN THE TOWN - DAY (4)

               

                      Tracking shot of the interceptors feet as he walks towards the 

                      location he's just received. Extras in the background as he walks 

                      through the street. Dramatic music becomes added to create tension 

                      and add anticipation to the audience. 

                                                

                                                INT. CAR PARK - DAY (5) 

                                                 

                Close up of a car pulling into the undercover car park to complete the 

                exchange. The music gets higher in tension and opening credits appear 

                on the side of the screen over time, gradually introducing everyone 

                involved in the film.

                Camera cuts to establishing shot of the car park with two cars facing 

                each other ready to do the exchange. The camera then zooms in onto
                the cars gradually.

                Camera cuts to a shot of the subject in a low angled shot, showing their
                feet as the step out of the car. The music begins to increase in tension
                as the audience see the briefcase for the first time. Tracking shot of the
                subjects feet as he begins to walk towards the deal.

                 As the receiver of the briefcase and the giver meet there is a over the
                 shoulder shot as the character passes the briefcase over, the camera
                 doesn't show who receives the briefcase during the exchange.
                                             
                                                EXT. STREET - DAY (6)

               High angled long shot of the subject walking away from the deal,
               music still continuing, camera slowly zooms into the subject and begins
               to track him, as if someone is stalking him.

               Cut to mid shot of the subject walking away with the briefcase. The
               subject walks past the camera and then the camera focuses on a person
               following him in a suspicious way, the subject is unaware of this.

               Cut to side shot of the characters as the subject becomes aware of the
               follower and he begins to up the pace to try and get away from him.
               Camera doesn't move, the characters pass by it.

                                               EXT. ALLEY - DAY (7)

              Close up of the subject's face with the briefcase held up to it, he's hid
              behind the wall trying to lose his follower and get away with the
              briefcase. Shows the emotions of the character.

              The camera remains in a close up of the subjects face, the interceptor/
              follower grabs the subjects face and covers their mouth.

                                                               DEALER

                                                              (Screams)

Peer evaluation of Pitch

Pre Production storyboard and script pitch

Film Task - Creating and Developing our Film Ideas

For our main film, we have to make a 2-minute film opening from a genre of our own choice, containing the main conventions and editing styles used in the genre. In our small group we came up with a few Ideas, one being an action thriller where a main protagonist hijacks a gangs exchanging of a briefcase. Another idea was a horror, the main premise in this short film is a woman walks into a old mansion, which is filled with creepy dolls and lit candles, this would finish with the woman being haunted by a ghost and ending with a jump-scare at the end of the 2 minute start of the film.

In our group we decided that the action thriller would be a better opportunity to show our best skills, this would make the film 16+, even though the 2 minute introduction to the film won’t have much violence and profanity, the rest of the film if it was made would include quite a lot of violence.

Log Line 25-word summary - Two opposing gangs exchange a mysterious briefcase in a sketchy setting, but a stand-alone hero appears to have other ideas.

The main premise of the plot is that 2 people are getting ready in their bedroom/car, dressed in a suit, with sunglasses, the audience can presume that these 2 different people are from 2 different gangs, but this is kept a secret throughout the 2 minutes of the film, to end the film on a cliffhanger. after the scene of the people getting ready, the film cuts to a person receiving a text message of coordinates or an address, the second part of the film is the two people exchanging a briefcase in an empty car park, the audience still don't know who the people are or what is in the briefcase.

In the end part of the film opening, the person that receives the briefcase is walking away from the car park, however, the protagonist that received the message about the location intercepts the mission, and has a foot chase with the person holding the briefcase.

Evaluation of preliminary film

What is the purpose of the preliminary film?

The purpose of this first task was to help us, as students to understand the importance of continuity editing of short clips to make them fit well together, we understood that this has a great deal of effect when it comes to the enjoyment of the film. This task also helped us understand the key rules of match on action, the 180 degree rule, and shot reverse shot, using these helped us gather an understanding of how to use them.

What difficulties did you face?

We had difficulties slotting the shots together to create continuity as when we were filming, we didn't understand that the shots would look weird, if we had hoods up in one shot then down in another, so we had to film the shots multiple times to make sure they matched up in continuity with the other shots. The conversation shots had to be re-filmed because they didn't look right as we didn't follow the 180 degree rule. We also had an idea to show the character blinking in the POV shot, this was achieved but didn't look as good as we hoped, if we were to film and edit this sequence again we would develop this to try and make it look more professional.

How did you plan out the shots?

We spoke in a group about how we wanted the story line to go, we then developed this by writing a storyboard on how the camera angles would work and we considered the 180-Degree rule, match on match action and shot reverse shot. we then planned the dialogue of the film, which wasn't too complicated, this used over the shoulder shots, which we thought would be an effective way to make the audience feel involved in the film. After this, we discussed how we would make the film more emotive and thrilling by adding music and editing in post production. We also planned to take the shots more than once, so we could choose which one fitted better in continuity editing, and then eventually it would look better in the final stages and in the film its self.

What did you learn about continuity editing?

We learnt that all the shots had to flow smoothly for the film to look good in sequence, and for it to work properly, this is because if the film shows a hand on the door, then, a close up with the hand approaching the door again, this will look rubbish to the audience, which will make the film a lot worse immediately. You need to make the audience know that continuity editing was thought about when editing the film. we also learnt that one of the main problems of editing is trying to make the film to not look really choppy and not well edited.

What did you learn about the demands of filming a sequence?

You have to plan the shots on a storyboard to make sure you don't mess up and waste time filming the first set of shots for your film, it also helps to get the shots right the first time so you don't waste time filming the shots again with time you could be editing to get better continuity, this creates a time shortage, that you are racing against to get your film in on time, this can lead to panicking and losing quality in the editing of the shots, an example of this with our film is the blinks in the POV shot, for this we only had a short amount of time to achieve this in the editing, this meant that the quality of it was decreased

Hot Fuzz Film Opening analysis

Hot Fuzz is a 2007 British satirical action comedy directed by Edgar Wright, also written by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg and starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. It had a budget of £12.2 Million and made £80.7 Million at the Box Office. The film is about 2 police officers, who try to investigate a series of murders, in a rural village in the middle of England called Stanford.

The silhouette walking towards the screen at the very start of the film creates an intense atmosphere, this is at the very start of the film, so it gets the audience ready for the rest of the film. The fact that the light is on the back of the characters head creates the effect that he has a halo, there for being the hero of the police force in London. When the character gets close to the camera, the silhouette fades to a coloured picture of the police constable, this image is very powerful as it is the first time you see the character close up, he has a straight face, you can connote from this that he cares about his job and is very serious. The snap close up shot of the police officer's badge, is very effective as it gives a variety of information about the character.


The background narrative from the character is effective as it gives a backstory to the film, and it shows what sort of a character the constable is. The monotone but sharp voice of the character gives him personality, but doesn't over accentuate his character.

The graphic match from the character in training to the character on the field as a riot control unit, this is very effective as is shows his progression from his training to the field and how he has grown as a person.

The sound match from the pen clicking and the camera flashing makes the film very fast paced and intense, this adds to the whip pan effect every time the scene changes or even during the scene, making a really fast paced and intense few minutes of the film, there are also very sudden pans which make the screen very busy, these pans look very good when switching from one shot to another.

The sound of the tyres screeching from the bike and the car shows that they are the same thing to him, and very easy, which he shows with the comedic face this is a change from the majority of the other clips from this scene, which are very serious, this contrast, shows the funny side of the film.

The quick pan for the special commendations is very effective as it shows how good the officer is at his job, and is proud to show off his medals and certificates.

The montage of close ups of the police officer getting arrests is very effective as it shows how good he is at his job. The way that the clips overlap is good as he gets so many arrests, that it is not possible to put them all in the same clip.