Filming Over, Editing Just Beginning

Myself and Frank have now completed filming for our task and have started to edit the footage.

Filming was a bit of a trial as, after our first session, a lot of our footage corrupted. This meant we had to go and refilm everything, which in turn meant asking our actor, Nick Albiston, to kindly reshoot the shots. Luckily for us he agreed to.

Finding a time when all of us were available was a bit of a problem, and filming the second time round therefore proved more troublesome as there were no tripods available at the time we required. Conscious that we needed to begin editing soon though, we went ahead and did our best to hold shots steady, despite this obviously being a lot more difficult.

Having begun editing we feel that most of our shots are steady in the main and some shots are actually made intentionally unsteady anyway, and so these were easier to film.

I think we may require some assistance with editing in the coming days as we both have a somewhat limited knowledge of the features in Final Cut Pro. We both wish to bring our vision to fruition though and so this will require some slightly more advanced editing. The shot that I am thinking about in particular is the zooming in on Gary's (Albiston's) eye, which ends up providing a transition to the next scene.

Actors & Props

Here are the two actors we have chosen to be part of our film. The other two pictures are of the main props we will use during the filming. The newspaper is particuarly important as it will tell the background story to the film, clearing up any confusion that the viewer may have had after seeing the initial sequences.

Location Scouting

After much debate we have decided that these two areas are best for our film, offering connontations of the key points we want to get across in the scenes that we intend to shoot here.

Crime Thriller Genre Questionnaire Answers

Chloe

1. Yes
2. Less often
3. An old detective like Morgan Freeman or Brad Pitt
4. Mysterious and creepy
5. A typical crime scene

Sophie

1. Yes
2. Less often
3. An old and experienced detective
4. Mad and mysterious
5. Dark, few characters and a sense of mystery

Josh

1. Yes
2. Monthly
3. A policeman who has personal interest in a case. He is quite intelligent and doesn't take long to work things out.
4. A criminal trying to smuggle or something of the like. Either a 'hard' man or someone who owns a nightclub.
5. An introduction to the main criminal and their life.

Seb

1. Yes
2. Once every two months
3. Strong and mysterious.
4. Evil and manic.
5. Dark. Sense of death and mystery.

Crime Thriller Genre Questionnaire

1. Have you ever watched a Crime Thriller film?
Yes/No

2. If yes, roughly how often do you watch a film from this genre?
Weekly/Monthly/Once every two months/Less often

3. How would you describe a modern Crime Thriller protagonist (hero)?

4. How would you describe a modern Crime Thriller antagonist (villain)?

5. How would you describe a modern Crime Thriller opening scene and setting?

Script

Gary and Steve shake hands to signify a job well done. Gary notices police presence.

Gary: Alright mate, looks like we're good to go (pushes him slightly)

Steve: Okay (turns around and goes to walk out)

Gary: (Firmly grabs his shoulder to stop Steve) Pass me the bag

Steve: Why?

Gary: You've carried it this far. Let me take some of that strain for a while.

Steve: (Passing Gary the bag) Oh, okay. Thanks mate.

Gary: Let's go then. I'm right behind you.

Gary remains where he is as Steve unknowingly walks out to the police officers.

Title: 10 Years Later

Gary - (Reading newspaper) We'll see (puts newspaper down on bench)

'Hollywood' Narrative Structure

This picture shows evidence of planning in preparation for filming. It is our 'Hollywood' Narrative Structure for a whole film. I decided to take this task on and left Frank to focus on other areas of planning and research.

The story is basically about betrayl and Steve's quest to bring his ex-partner, Gary, down.

My vision is that, at the beginning of the film, you see how the betrayl was made and the consequences of it. The 'meat' of the film would involve a number of violent scenes and chases between the network of people in between Steve and Gary. The conclusion of the film would see Steve taking Gary down, but only after it had appeared that Gary had got the better of his ex-partner.

Once I had finished devising this storyline I couldn't help but relate it to the film Max Payne (2008: John Moore), another film of the genre we are making. This helped to give me a better idea of how our opening scene should look.

I found thinking about the film as a whole made it a lot easier to plan the for the finer details of our opening scene, as it poses questions like, (looking at a specific scene later in the film) what would the watcher need to see in the opening moments to make them understand that particular part of the film?

Storyboard

This picture shows evidence of our storyboarding in preparation for filming. We completed this together, myself scribing and Frank illustrating, after I had written up the Narrative Structure.

Having considered the film structure, as well as our Crime Thriller questionnaire responses, which I will be writing up to my blog tommorow, myself and Frank constructed an opening scene which we both believe satisfies the needs of a film opening from this genre, and which we can both visualise in our own heads.

Deciding on shots and shot distances could have potentially caused conflict, what with two of us having our own ideas, however I personally think that we managed to construct a better opening scene than either of us could of on our own because there were numerous points at which we were able to build on each other's ideas. For example, I suggested the shot zooming into Gary's eye. Frank, having thought about this suggestion, came up with the idea that we could actually zoom right in through the eye, as if we were going into Gary's brain to see the image of what has caught his eye.

These boards are essential to our success in the making of this film opening and so it was of paramount importance that we came up with a decent initial structure. These boards will mean we can get straight on with filming, knowing exactly what we are shooting and why we are shooting it.

Bullitt

http://www.artofthetitle.com/2008/04/04/bullitt/

This is a link (which for reasons beyond my control you may need to copy and paste) to the opening title sequence of Bullitt, a film of the same genre we intend to produce.

The Taking of Pelham 123 Intro & Credit Analysis

Credit Analysis
00.13 - Columbia logo (Production Companies)
00.21 - Columbia Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures
00.27 - In association with Relativity Media
00.34 - A Scott Free/Escape Artists Production
00.40 - A film by Tony Scott (Director)
00.45 - Denzel Washington (Actor)
00.49 - John Travolta
01.16 - The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (Title)
01.21 - Rail Control Center - Midtown (Location Information)

Decision Time

Myself and Frank have decided that we will make the opening sequence of a Crime film, specifically a Suspense Thriller.

We came to this decision after having looked at three openings from a genre of our choice. As you can see below, I looked at Western films, whilst Frank looked at Prison films.

We believe that crime is a key feature in both our genres and so we have decided to 'meet halfway' so to speak.