NATHAN FOSTER 1626

CLAREMONT FAN COURT SCHOOL 64680

I WORKED WITH CHARLES GORDON 1626, MAX RAGAN 1656

Our brief was to make the titles and openings of a fictional thriller film. The title of our film is Takeaway.

DIRECTING

When it comes to directing, we split this role up depending on what we were doing in order to utilise our specialities. However, for me, I had a heavy influence of the directing within filming and editing. For the main part, I took control over constructing the perfect shot: from the right angle, height and time. This allowed us to collate lots of quality footage making the editing process relatively easy. 

EDITING

I have contributed into the overall editing process of our production. However, my main role within the editing process took place in planning. For example, I created our storyboard which placed a vital role when creating our film opening. I also had the role of finding suitable music to represent what was happening in shot. 

CAMERAWORK

When it comes to camerawork, I excelled in the shots for the end of our film opening. Identifying good angles to create the menacing and imperil shot desired. This was achieved through the use of spiderwebs, the isolated, anonymous location and the use of costumes. 

CONSTRUCTION: MY FILM POSTER

Posters are created to help raise awareness of a film, a film poster shows the viewer what type of film it is and whether it is a suitable film for you, it is challenging as the demographic profile of the film must all fit into one image. I have created my own film poster in order to promote my film:

CONSTRUCTION: BBFC CLASSIFICATION

In order to make my film opening look more proffessional and thought-through, I decided to research into BBFC certificates and give my own film opening an age certificate. In order to create this image, I downloaded a template BBFC certificate screen and used Photoshop to change the title of the film, president, director and the reason for why it is a 15 rated film ("infrequent strong violence, strong language").

To find the correct age rating for my film, I visited the BBFC Website and discovered the certificate page as shown below. After looking over what defines a certain rated film, I concluded that a 15 is most likely correct for my film opening. This is because my film is of a serious tone including factors of torture and mild/strong violence. This therefore seemed too much for a 12 rated film but not enough for it to make our film opening an 18 therefore a 15 fell perfectly in the middle. 

PLANNING: CALL SHEET

LOCATION	SOUND	VISION	ACTORS	PROPS	NOTES
CHARLES’ HOUSE	JAPANESE MUSIC	TITLE SEQUENCE- WOMAN IN KEMONO TWIRLS, VIDEO FADES IN AND OUT AT DIFFERENT ANGLES, GIRL HOLDS KATANA (SWORD) SWORD. NAMES OF THE CAST IN TEXT FADES IN AND OUT.	WOMAN	KATANA, KEMONO	N/A
INSIDE THE APARTMENT	SHOWER, BRUSHING TEETH, DOORBELL	HARD CUT- MAX (THE DIPLOMATS SON) HAS HAD A SHOWER AND GETTING DRESSED TO SEE HIS FRIENDS, THIS INCLUDES A MID SHOT IN FROM BEHIND HIM LOOKING IN THE MIRROR AND CLOSE UPS ON MAX WASHING HIS HANDS AND THEN DRYING HEM ON A TOWEL. THERE IS THEN A HARD CUT TO MAX PUTTING HIS BLACK T-SHIRT ON, THERE IS THEN A HARD CUT TO MAX TEXTING HIS DAD WHO HAD BEEN MISSING FOR A COUPLE DAYS. THE DOORBELL RINGS, WE SEE MAX WALK DOWN THE CORRIDOR TO OPEN THE DOOR.	MAX	BATHROOM, TOOTHBRUSH, MIRROR.	SHOWER ROOM IS STEAMY, FAST HARD CUTS BETWEEN MAX GETTING READY.
OUTSIDE THE APARTMENT DOOR	VOICEOVER- DIALOGUE OF GREETING EACH OTHER	THERE IS A LONG SHOT OF THE TWO FRIENDS STANDING INFRONT OF THE APARTMENT DOOR, MAX OPENS THE DOOR AND LETS THEM IN.	TWO FRIENS, MAX	N/A
IN THE APARTMENT	MUSIC PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND	POINT OF VIEW SHOT FROM MAX’S PERSPECTIVE, THEY SIT DOWN AT A COUNTERTOP ISLAND, MAX CHECKS THE FRIDGE- SHOT FROM INSIDE THE FRIDGE. MAX TELLS HIS FRIENDS THAT THERE IS NO FOOD IN THE FRIDGE- THIS IS SHOT AS AN OVER THE SHOULDER SHOT WHICH THEN GOES INTO A REACTION SHOT AS ONE OF THE FRIENDS SUGGESTS A TAKEAWAY, THEY THEN GO TO THE ROOF.	TWO FRIENDS, MAX	FRIDGE, TABLE, CHAIRS	N/A
ON THE ROOF OF THE APARTMENT.	CITY LIFE- CARS. LOUD KNOCK ON DOOR.	THEY GO TO THE ROOF, SITTING NEXT TO EACH OTHER AS SILHOUETTES. THE THREE TEENAGERS ARE TALKING. THIS IS SHOT BY A LONGSHOT WITH THE LONDON CITY IN THE BACKGROUND. THERE IS A LOUD BANGING ON THE DOOR.	TWO FRIENDS , MAX	SOFA	NIGHT TIME
IN THE APARTMENT	FOOTSTEPS	POINT OF VIEW SHOT OF MAX WALKING TO THE DOOR, FOCUSING IN ON HIS FEET.	MAX		IT IS LIGHT IN THE APARTMENT
IN THE APARTMENT	SILENCE AS HE COMES OUT OTHER THAN MAX’S ECHOING FOOTSTEPS.	MAX OPENS THE DOOR OF THE APARTMENT AND WE SEE THE KIDNAPPERS FOR A SECOND BEFORE A BAG IS PLACED OVER THE CAMERA (POV SHOT).	MAX KIDNAPPER	BLACK BAG
IN WAREHOUSE	DEEP BREATH AS BEEN ALMOST DROWNED	MAX’S HEAD IS PULLED OUT A BUCKET OF WATER TO RESEMBLE DROWNING/TORTURE	MAX KIDNAPPERS	BUCKET OF WATER ZIP TIES	DARK LIGHTING
WAREHOUSE	KIDNAPPER 1 SAYS ‘WHERE IS HE?’	MAX IS STRAPPED TO CHAIR	MAX KIDNAPPER	CHAIR	DARK LIGHTING
WAREHOUSE	VOICE OVER - ‘WE HAVE YOUR SON’	MYSTERIOUS MAN LIFTS PHONE TO FACE- HIS FACE IS OVERCAST BY A SHADOW HIDING HIS IDENTITY.	KIDNAPPER	PHONE	DARK LIGHTING

PLANNING: RISK ASSESSMENT

This Risk assessment goes through the hazards which could cause potential injuries during the filming process. We have made a table discussing the precautions taken in order to reduce the risk. In our opening sequence there was very low risk involved when filming.

  

SCENES	HAZARDS	Risk Level L/M/H	RISK Posed and to whom	PRECAUTIONS TAKEN
Scene 1- montage	Katana (Japanese sword)	M	Sharp blade- woman in Kimono	We will keep sword in scabbard as much as we can so the blade is not exposed.
SCENE 2-  inside apartment	N/A	L	N/A	N/A
Scene 3- on the rooftop	Heights	M	Possibly of falling off- 2 friends and Max	There are Barriers to prevent us falling off the roof,  and we will stay away from the edge of the rooftop.
Scene 4	N/A	L	N/A	N/A
Scene 5- Brewery	Metal piping	M	Possibly hitting head- All of the cast	We will be filming in open spaces away from equipment
Scene 6- Brewery	Head in Water bucket	M	Coughing- Max	His Head will only be under the water for a second as we only film his head coming out.
Scene 7- Phone call	N/A	L	N/A	N/A

CONSTRUCTION: HOT SEATING USING SOUNDCLOUD

'Hot seating' is an effective exercise in which an actor is asked specific questions as their character's background, behaviour and motivation. We were inspired by an article written by Charlie Sierra about building the back story to film characters in which he quoted from Riding the Alligator, a book written by Pen Densham, an Academy Award nominated filmmaker. One of the chapters in the book gives an outline of the questions that an actor should ask themselves about the character that they are playing, in order to have a greater understanding of the character for both the actor and the director.

To prepare for this exercise we wrote a script comprising of questions to ask the protagonist (diplomats son) and his responses. This made the video more fluid and professional. For our interview we asked questions such as: 
• What do you know about your father’s involvement with Japanese priceless artefacts? 
• How far do you think he is willing to go to protects these artefacts? would he put your life at risk? 
• How do you feel about your father disappearing for days with no explanation of where he is?

PLANNING: CASTING

CONSTRUCTION: CREATING OUR IDENT

A production company ident creates a brand image for a company and is found at the start of a production. In less than 10 seconds, it offers a brand's visual identity to the world. As a group, we decided that a simplistic, fast ident was effective as it clearly presents our production company with little confusion. This was matched with the two simple 'whoosh' sound effects which I used to give the ident some audio effect. The 'whoosh' sound effects are in time with movements of the text and shapes.

For our production, we decided to create our own production company ident. In order to do so, we sourced a template off youtube which we thought fit our film opening well. After downloading the template, we downloaded the software Blender so we could edit the text to display our own production company "MNC Films".

After editing the text, we rendered the ident in order to add sounds and edit timings on Final Cut Pro. In Final Cut Pro we added "whoosh" sound effects. Using the transitions built into FCP, we used the 'fade out to colour' to make the ident fade out to a black screen. We increased the volume of the whoosh sound effects also to increase their impact (by changing it fro 0dB to 6dB).  We changed the pitch and speed of the first sound effect to differentiate the sound effects and create atmosphere.

Here is the final ident: