Brief

Final Product




Opening Scene

- An Action Thriller
- In South London
- Opening vredits being shown through the opening scene
- The title of the movie will be displayed before the opening scene
- Lots of phsycial action
- Main character will be male
- The main character will be more of a good guy which is pulled into the world of gangs
- 1 main characters
- Name of movie: Bleak
- Name of main character (1): Damien Taze
- Ethnic background of character: Both are Black where main character 1 is Nigerian and main character 2 is Ghanian
- Age of characters: 15-18
- Length of opening scene: 2 mintues

Treatment

Our main character Damien leaves his house, very early in the morning. We see him walking out of his house and says he'll be back to his mother and leaves his house. We have a match up shot of his mp3 player and as he presses play, we hear music in the background as if we are listening to his mp3 player. The opening credits are played while he is walking down the road. He then arrives at an alley way and sees a young youth getting robbed by two black youths. Damien then thinks to himself contemplating whether he should help the youth but instead decides to walk away and leave the young boy to get robbed and beaten up. As he continues walking he then stops and regret the choice he makes and then decides to turn back and help the young boy who is in trouble.  We see a close up/mid shot of him to see his reaction and that he has established the problem.  Music comes on as we see Damien turn back and enter the alley in preparation to fight the two young boys.

MOOD BOARD

Example of films:
Shank:
This is an example of a film that has helped in us being able to gather ideas to help to create our opening scene for our film.

Shank is set in the decaying future of London which shows the gap between the lower class and the upper class where each territory is owned by a gang fighting for survival in order to obtain food succesfully.



Kidulthood:
Kidulthood is a brilliant example of how we want our opening scene to be portrayed as it represent fully the hardships a lower class family or youth todays lives their lifestyle through the media. Kidulthood is based on the two days in the lives of a group of fifteen-year old teenagers from a rough area of London.





Fish Tank
 

In the film fish tank we see that it is set in an urban setting where each person is either in a group where they feel they belong. The main character is on the other hand is portrayed as an outcast in the film. This type of film helped in us planning our opening scene as we can relate our main character to her.

Music Research Plan

As our film opening is based of a youth living in a urban area we have thought to have some grime music as our background music.
JME Serious:
This is an instrumental from the track of JME Serious, this instrumental helps inspire us to create something similar for our film opening as it represents the urban lifestyle of the character.



POW! 2011:

This is an instrumental taken from the soundtrack of lethal Bizzle, this a brilliant example of an instrumental that should be featured in our film opening aswell as it holds the sense of urban life for the youths of today.



Wiz Khalifa Black and yellow:
This is a brilliant instrumental for our film opening as it is slightly fast paced and it helps also depict with the story that we are trying to create as a youth living in an urban area.







Nitruzz Grime Instrumental

This is an instrumental that has made and produced by a music producer who has given us tyhe permission to use this product in our film. This is a brilliant instrumental as it carries the right purpose for our film product, that it is urban, quite dark and is also fast pace.

 

Script/Shooting Script

Original Shooting script

NOTE: shooting script may change depending on location

“Filming in progress” sign needs to be made and placed before the alley way so people don’t think its actually real.

This was our original shooting scrip, however during production the bike was no longer available so we had to shoot the footage but with Damien walking hence the reason the storyboard is different. 

 

It’s a cloudy day with little sun. Damien is about to leave his house but is making sure his bike is good and running just outside. Currently, his bike is upside down while he makes some adjustments.

PICTURE	TIME (aprox)	AUDIO
Low angle shot of back bicycle wheel turning. Camera is facing upwards at an angle of approximately 45 degrees.	0.02	Pleonastic sound of clicking of bottom bracket in back wheel
Cut to: Damien picking up bike so that it is the right way up. Camera starts from low angle shot from handle bars and slowly tilts up	0.04	Natural Diagetic
Cut to: Back wheel of bike falling on the floor, (possibly in slow motion)	0.01	Pleonastic sound of tire hitting ground
Low angle shot of Damiens hand testing brakes. His hand and brakes are at bottom left corner of screen and at first camera is focused on his hands but with manual focus we loose focus of his hand and can see his face at which we see him give a nod of satisfaction to his work.	0.03	Pleonastic sound of brakes tightening.
Damien then gets onto his bike. Shown with Low angle shot 1 foot away from rear of bike, highest point in the frame that is visible of Damiens body is his waist and lowest point is the ground. Damiens hand reaches into his pocket.		Diagetic
Cut to: Close up match on action shot of Damiens hand getting his phone out. Cut to: Damien using phone, low angle shot, phone is close to camera but we can see Damiens face and body above. Cut to: Back to Match on action close up of phone in Damiens hand as he chooses the song he wants to play.	0.01 0.01 0.02	Pleonastic Music turns on in sync as he presses play. The audio soundtrack is all we can hear at the moment.
Damien puts his phone back into his pocket and rides off. Low angle shot from waist as Damien rides past camera	0.02	Soundtrack
Damien starts riding his bike on the pavement. Tracking shot can be done by using a bmx with stunt pegs on back (one person riding bike and camera man standing on pegs on back of bike)		Soundtrack
Cut to tracking shot: Camera tracking shot is on road filming Damien as he’s riding his bike.	0.03	Soundtrack
Cut to: Over the shoulder shot from Damien looking at a group of youths on other side of road. Cut to: low angle shot from group of youths talking, camera rises upwards until we see the youth notice Damien and turns head towards him. In the shot we see Damien riding past in the background but two youths are in the frame. Cut to: Close up of Damien’s face, staring at the youths (remember to use rule of third) and Damien then looks away and continues riding.	0.02 0.04 0.02	Soundtrack
Damien approaches the end of the road and stops, ready to cross and is looking for traffic both ways.
Tracking long shot going past Damien as he is at the end of the road.	0.03	Soundtrack
Damien crosses the road, and starts riding on road 2 (Bensham Manor road) Tracking shot on road showing Damien riding his bike on pavement.	0.5
As Damien reaches the alley way he realises his shoe lace is undone and stops to do it up and as he goes to do his shoe lace he sees a group of youths bullying a girl. Over the shoulder shot of Damien as he’s riding bike, camera tilts downwards to show his undone shoelace. Cut to:  low angle shot of Damien looking downwards at his laces. Cut to: Match on action of Damien stopping the bike with the brakes. Cut to: Mid shot of Damien getting off bike and kneeling down to the floor and gets his phone out to stop music Cut to: Match on action shot close up of phone in hand showing him pressing stop Cut back to: Mid shot of Damien about to do shoe laces but looks up Cut to: over the shoulder shot of Damien looking up to see the 3 youths bullying the younger youth halfway  down the alley way. Cut to: Wide shot (a quarter way up the alley way) showing Damien looking at the youths.	0.04 0.02 0.01 0.05 0.03 0.04 0.03 0.04	Soundtrack Diagetic Voices of youths and younger youth
Damien gets back onto his bike but keeps glancing down the alley way. Medium close up shot from his head height as he gets up to go on his bike and rides away it turns into a mid shot.	0.06	Diagetic
As Damien is riding away from the alley way he has a sudden change of mind and pauses while his conscience battles with his feelings whether he should go back and help or not.
Mid shot of Damien riding bike, camera is slightly tilted upwards and his face is very clear. Cut to: Match on action close up of hand pulling brakes Cut to: Match on action of back tire skidding Cut to: Close up shot to extreme close up shot of Damiens face as he gets closer to the camera. Sudden pause of around 5 seconds as he decides what to do.	0.05 0.01 0.01 0.06	Diagetic Pleonastic sound of tire skidding
Damien turns around and starts riding the other way, As he does so the camera tilts upwards and the name of the movie is revealed through editing.	0.03	Soundtrack

STORYBOARD

Damien leaving his house in his council estate

Damien (mid shot) outside his house getting ready to walk out

(Match on action shot) Damien presses play on his phone which is synchronized with the non diagetic music

Damien is walking through his town roads

Damien sees two youths trying to rob a person

Damien walks away but he stops for a moment and has second thoughts on whether he should help or not

Damien is about to intervene with the confrontation and this is where the opening scene cuts and we see the title of the movie

I used an electronic smartboard to create these images as they would has stood out much better than pen and paper when put on the computer.

Location Research

In our film treatment and opening scene description, the first part of the movie ends with Damien going  back to help the struggling youth in the alley way. So we need to find a convinient area which would be quiet in the day so our filming will not get distrupted and so we dont have to ask the council for permission to close the area because that may take months and could cost us money as we would have to pay businesses in that area the money that they would ussually earn for that period of closure. Also, because our opening scene involves a group of youths confronting a young teenager, people may become startled by this and may intervine in the situation or they may call the police. So a few filming in progress signs so the public do not become frightened by this event and we would have to research or possibly ask the council about rules of filming in our local area.

Conviniently, the members of our group all live pretty close together in Croydon and we cannot pick a location which involves travelling far, for example, in Central London because first of all theres many people there so our filming might be distrupted and if mistakes are made then it would be very costly and time consuming to keep having to go there again. Also, we would have to ask permission because there are many cameras in London and the camera operators may not be aware of the filming going on and Police may be callled.

A possible location is near my house which is located on

Swain Road

in Thornton Heath and one road away, there is an alley way which is ussualy very quiet.

 

This is the route that our group has decided for our actor Damien to take, and it was also chosen to match the shooting script. So the initial planned route is that Damien starts in the middle of Marion Road, crosses the road to Bensham Manor road, sees the group of youths confronting the younger teenager in the alley way and then decides to carry on, and then turns back. The alley way cannot be seen on google maps, but it's litterally just in front of Swain road.

Thornton Heath doesn't have the greatest reputation and isn't the most safest area in London, so we will need to take care of our equipment. Also, it would be wise to film very early in the morning, just after sunrise so there's less chance of our filming being distrupted by the public, and also our group needs to keep an eye of the weather so we don't miss any good filming opportunities as we dont have artificial lighting for the dark and also so we don't get caught up in the rain. 

Filming in progress sign

It is essential that we create a sign to make the public aware that our film is taking place. Because we are filming very early in the morning, we are less likely to encounter people trying to cross the alley way. However, incase there are a few people, a sign is there to ensure that they don't become alarmed by what is happening. Our group doesn't have priority of the area because it would take too long to phone the council and ask for permission, so priority is given to any public member who decides to walk across the bridge. 

This is a sign i created on microsoft publisher to be printed out in A3 so it is easily viewed by anyone deciding to cross the bridge which leads to the alley way. 

These are pictures of our Location.

Production Planning

Time and date of filming

Monday 28th February 2011, 2:00pm onwards

Actors and crew

• Damien- Michael Oddoye
• Boy getting robbed- Shey Hinds Meikle 
• Robbers- Graham Oddoye, Savion Bepot 
• Camera Man- Anid Bytyci
• Assistant Camera Man- Kayan Patel

In what ways does your product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real products?

All in all, the beginning of our movie starts off very well. Our inspiration came from movies such as Kidulthood and One Day where directors such as Noel Clarke are well known for using simple yet effective camera shots. As you can see in the video below titled "Kidulthood-blinded by the lights" there are many shots which are deliberately blurred to correlate in with the emotion through the song used. 

Here in our opening scene we have created a head and shoulder shot which is deliberately blurred due to the footage being recorded with no tripod or dolly support. This gives it a "rough and grime" effect which the viewer will associate with Damiens personality.  

The mise-en-scene was very important when filming our location. As we could not shoot it at night due to not having the correct lighting equipment this meant we had to shoot the footage in the day thus meaning colours would appear much brighter on screen. For example on the picture above there is a billboard displaying bright red and yellow colours. This would would intervene with the mood our scene has created before this shot as bright primary colours are associated with happiness and joy therefore it might cause the viewer to take the scene less seriously. Had this been thoroughly organised, the sign could have been temporarily removed to create a more authentic mis-en-scene.  

The equipment

In order for our film to be a sucess we needed to use the right equipment in order to produce it effectively. some of the resources we used was:

• Final Cut Pro
• Camera
• Youtube

This is the camera that we used to do our filming

This was the production logo that Graham created using adobe after affects using a tutorial from VIDEO COPILOT. This is a sight where they teach you how to use the software in order to create many different pieces. Graham used the original piece which is copyright free and then changed the bottom name to Astro Productions which we decided would be the name if our company were to be real.

Making of Bleak  

Audience Research



To research what type of opening scene and genre of film that would satisfy our audience, I created a questionnaire on survey monkey and gave the link to 42 people between the ages of 15 to 18 years as this is the age range that we want our target audience to be in. By using websites such as Facebook and Twitter I could recieve quantative data from people which could be very valuable.




This picture shows an example of what one of the questions looked like on survey monkey after all results had been collected.

 

By our results we have found that the majority of people enjoy action, thriller and horror films because the results were equally matched. As a team we thought of doing a crime, gangster genre type of film and put in the elements of an action/ thriller film into it. Also, due to the environment that we live in being near the suburbs of South London, it would seem more realistic for this genre of film to take place here.

We found our that the majority of people (54.8%) preferred if the opening credits were being shown throughout the opening scene of a film, so this is what we will try to achieve in the editing process.

78% of people that completed the survey preferred if there was lots of physical action involved so during our opening scene we will try to include some physical action, i.e, a very short fight scene.

The majority of people preferred if the main character would be male, but this could be an anomaly due to the fact that a higher percentage of male participants completed the survey. But the sex of the main character would be decided by the group depending on what type of film it’s going to be.

A vast majority chose for there to be 2 to 3 main characters in the film, so we must take this into account when creating our story.

So from this we have established that we want…

In my survey I was able to put in a few questions such as this one where I could collect qualitative feedback from my peers. This meant the information would have meant people could express their personal opinions however it would have been much harder to analyse. 

• An action/Thriller type genre
• The film will be based in South London as this area is very easily accessible to us and we all live near each other
• Opening credits to be shown throughout the opening scene
• The title of the movie will be displayed before the opening scene
• There will be physical contact involved, e.g. a short fight scene
• Main character will be male because a male character is more likely to represent our type of movie

Scene starts of with our main character Damien riding his bike through his hometown. He rides past an alleyway and he sees a group of youths hassling/ robbing another young youth. Damien stops, stares for a few seconds but decides to ride off. Then after riding about 25 meters, Damien stops his bike and and while he's facing the camera, we have a close up shot of his face having second thoughts of turning back. 

The link for my Evaluation questions
http://micahelmediastudies.blogspot.com/