Filming evidence (30th December) - Practice shots

These are a couple photos from our practice shots, in these shots we were at our final and main filming location in Woolf Mews where we decided to take some test shots of the car accelerating forward towards the camera from different angles. We did this to get a feel of the type of lighting and space we will be dealing with as well as how well the shots from the storyboard work in a real life environment. We also got back to grips with using the camera and equipment as it has been a while since we have filmed a full on scene.

Task 43 & 44 - Feedback and Evaluation (Hamod)

Location scouting (Nathan)

Location scouting is a vital process in the pre-production stage of filmmaking and commercial photography. Location scouts also look for generally spectacular or interesting locations beforehand, to have a database of locations in case of requests. Location scouts often negotiate legal access to filming locations.

30th November. we are scouting the location Woolf mews. we will bring along filming equipment just incase we need to film a scene. we will try to film all the scenes that require for the car to move just for today and then leave the rest for friday, saturday and sunday.

Filming Day 1 Reflection (30th November)

Filming Day 1 Reflection (30th November)- Shakeel by Shakeel on Scribd

Pitch Evaluation

This is Louisa's evaluation for our pitch:

'Your pitch was very disorganised and as a result took 45 minutes, making us late and me cross! However, although this made me cross as you had time to organise the order of your presentation before we started this morning or even during break, I did say that I wouldn’t focus on presentation style but on content and feel that I focused on your disorganisation rather than the content in my feedback, so I want to apologise to you for this. But, I am also emailing to let you know what was good and what you need to focus on together with some expectations that we have for group work if your project is going to be a success.

I have looked back through my notes of the pitch and feel that you have a very good idea that is grounded in some very nice research with the following tasks being very good:

Task 1 – film idea (very clear, a great idea and well explained Fred)

Task 2  - type of title sequence (very clear)

Task 3 – genre & sub-genre (some lovely research to show your understanding of conventions)

Task 5 – Institution (contextualised very well with your research)

Task 6 – Audience (research is lovely but needs a target audience profile for your own film)

Task 11 – Storyboard (very cinematic and good range of ideas)

Task 13 – Risk Assessment (Hamod this was lovely!)

Task 4 was missing. Sound design and titles need to be developed but we can do this over the course of filming. . Other than Fred, you haven’t written in the blog title who posted the pitch task – you MUST do this so please go back and do so – write your name in brackets in the title.

However, although your location ideas were very well researched, they’re not finalised and as your filmic ideas are based on the location and props, it is essential to finalise what you are filming , where and when. Otherwise you won’t be able to use the short amount of time that you have effectively so you need to be very clear, organised and focused about what you are going to do. I have spoken to Nathan about what you need to do before you can go and film and I would like you to be able to go filming on Wednesday.

To make your coursework the success that it promises it could be, you now need to make sure you work better as a group. You MUST set up and use group chat – you can post your chats to the blog and I can make this as evidence of organised use of time and planning.  Communication, reliability and team work is key to this project being a success.

I would like to see any outstanding planning finalised and on your blog by Tuesday morning ready for filming on Wednesday. I would also like to see you working more cohesively as a team – please communicate and make sure you are all aware of what you think about the film and what your expectations of it are.'

I think some good points of our pitch might include how we clearly showed where we were inspired from. Also we did a very good storyboard which presented our ideas clearly. 

Our lack of organisation was clear throughout the pitch as we were unable to flow through the pitch as well as some of the other groups. I think we should have organised the pitch tasks in some way where they'd be more clear to read through beforehand.

We also faced some problems with our ideas, e.g. the car. However we have come up with a solution where someone older is able to drive the car for our shots. We were also told a few of our ideas may not work but we intend to take the risk and try them before we get rid of them completely because if they work they will make our final production much better.

Location scouting

Location scouting is a vital process in the pre-production stage of film making and commercial photography. As we are still in search of a definite location to film we our exploring different locations to see if they will fit in the type of film were making and the type of scene.

On the 30th of November my group and i will be heading to Woolf Mews. Which is a private area which has a car park which we could use. Also we have asked the local residents permission to take few test shots. Also we are planning to film on 

• 2nd of December 
• 3rd of December 
• 4th of December 
• 7th of December 

We are planning to film all the footage we need and start to edit out film, but however if we need to film more or re shoot we will do that. We want to film as much as we can and now so that we have more time to film if needed and to edit.

Plannning- extension task: Alternate location and additional costume (Nathan)

Unfortunately I was unable to secure a location to film at the Upper street underground car park. Luckily I had already chosen an alternate location just in case. This location will be Woolf mews, I have posted evident pictures on the E-maze post before. this will also mean that only a few camera shot will change slightly but the concept of each shot will not. Although our original location was compromised, I do believe that now I will have a lot more options available and I will be able to film for longer hours in this new location.

As the location has changed so has the costumes. originally I was going to have the killer wear a janitor outfit, however I have now come up with a different outfit. the killer has now become an undercover bin man. there are many bins in this car park so it is only fitting for him to wear this to blend in. The killer will now wear a ...
High visibility vest,
high visibility gripped gloves,
Glasses,
Hat.

Task 47: Blogging Health Check 2

Planning- task 46: final production schedule (Shakeel)

Task 44: Pitch Evaluation

This is the email my teacher has sent me which includes what needs to be improved on 

Overall the feedback we got from our pitch was good. Our story board, risk assessment, audience detail was good because it was detailed and easy to understand. However their was a few areas were we was lacking such as the production schedule, sound design and location. Also we need to improve on our presentation skills and our organisation skills because the pitch was disorganised.

Three Targets we must complete before filming
1. Complete sound design task
2. Finalise the production schedule
3. Finalise the props task

Polishing- extension task: Finalizing story board/cinematic ideas

Polishing- extension task: Finalizing Equipment (Nathan)

Lighting:

Just in case we will need to bring along the lighting equipment as it may be too dark to film, as the car park will be located underground. we would prefere if we could have lighting that can vary at different brightness as we still want our film to have a few shadows just like in other existing thriller films. The shadows can really bring together the film and create tension, mood and atmosphere in a scene. As this title sequence results in someone being killed, and the killer needs to be discrete about it, the   shadows will add to that lack of identity within the killer.
Camera
Tripod
Skateboard

Polishing- extension task: Finalising titles and orders (Nathan)

Titles Font: 

Polishing- extension task: Finalizing props (Nathan)

Finalizing Location (Nathan)

Pitch-task 44: Pitch Evaluation (Nathan)

pitch-task 43: Pitch feed back (Nathan)

Task 43: Pitch Evaluation

Task 42: Collate all pitch Tasks

The way we collated all the pitch tasks was we created another label in blogger and added all the pitch tasks into it. So if you want to see all the blogs all you have to do is view our blog and select the pitch ideas label and all the tasks will be there.

'Pitch Ideas'

Here is a screenshot of the 'pitch ideas' label.

Pitch task 37: Location (nathan)

Alternative Locations:
Angel car park
Camden sainsburys car park

Planning-task 4: Full storyboard (nathan)

The Pitch Task 2-What type of sequence is it? (FRED)

As a group we have decided to do a stylised title sequence as we think it would work well in comparison to simple titles that could actually be quite boring.

Here is the title sequence to 'The taking of Pelham 123' which has been a real inspiration for the titles which we plan to use in our title sequence. We plan to merge the titles so the fit into the surroundings so not a lot of attention is taken away from the action the background.




Another title sequence that inspires us is a previous example i have used which is 'Jackie Brown' as we like the way the camera is following the character. We intend to use a similar technique although we want to hide the characters identity until the end of the title sequence to show a mysterious feel to him.

I think we plan on using some good editing to merge the titles into the background and make them blend in well.

Task 36 - Title Credits

Task 36 - Title Credits

The Bongolo Department

Our title credits will be similar to that of the above as it is sharp, easy to read and matches our genre of thriller, some letters are also laid out differently than usual giving it a mysterious look a common convention of thriller films. The writing will be white and we have decided to make the writing bolder for more important parts of the title sequence such as main actors and production companies.

Our credits will play over the action on our film as the scenery on our film is likely to be dark the white credits will work well with it.

The Pitch Task 1-The film (FRED)

The title we have chosen for our film is 'The Bangolo Department'
The basic storyline would be a secret government department called 'the bangolo department' which has the job of killing people and covering up. Our film will contain most likely typical male characters (unsure whether they will be shown in a good or bad way yet).
The title sequence will feature a carpark and 2 characters and I think it would work well if we used a simple font with the actual titles as it wouldn't take away too much attention from the action in the background.
In the first 2 minutes,  the film will feature 2 men in the carpark, one being the main bad guy character that will be in most of the film. the bad guy appears to be stalking the other character. the victim exits his car and heads toward the shopping centre. the bad guy breaks into his car and hides inside. the man comes back from shopping and enters his car. the man in the back begins to strangle the victim. this will include a long 20-25 second shot of the man being strangled. the bad guys face will not be shown. this lack of identity is what most films of this genre uses, so we decided to do the same.

Research- task8: Conventions and order of title sequences (nathan)

Political thriller title sequence

Task 38 - Production schedule (Shakeel)

We plan to film on the whole in stratford centre, using around 3 different locations within the centre (the carpark, the entrance and the stairwell). As it's all in one location and the action will be happening slowly as seen in something like jackie brown, the filming won't be very difficult. As we will not have to make lots of effort to go to different locations, we can focus on spending lots of time on getting the shots to look perfectly how we want them.

Location 1: supermarket car park or westfield car park	Location 2: Moving through part of the carpark.	Location 3: where the characters are together (2nd part of the carpark)
Shot 4, 5 date: 27/11/16	Shot 6, 7, 8, 9 date: 27//11/16	Shot 10, 11, 13, 14,  15, 16, 17

Summary of Locations 

Location 1: Car park
-supermarket carpark
-westfield (back up)

Location 2: A bridge
to film the two characters meeting and exchanging items
- Tower bridge

Location 3: A cafe
Local cafe
or
starbucks
costa


The dates on when we will shoot are not confirmed. We will mostly film on the weekends because everyone is free and during lesson we intend to look at our clips recored and see if we need to reshoot anything. 

Task 30: Sound design (Shakeel)

SOUND DESIGN 

We intend on using a mix of diegetic and non-diegetic sound in our opening sequence. The genre of the title sequence i will be making is a 'Political thriller'. We will use non-diegetic sound to set the atmosphere and tone of the film. As we having a killing scene in our opening sequence we want non-diegetic music that will creat suspense.

Also at the beginning of our film we will have some establishing shots and we will want to set the atmosphere with some windy creepy ambient music. Here is an example of an non-diegetic music we might be using.

Task 40 - Risk assessment (Hamod)

Risk Assessment

While filming our shots there are many possible risks that could occur, because of this I have come up with a list of both the risks that can occur as well as their solutions. We plan to follow these at all times during the filming.

Risk	Solution
Damage to the camera	-          Keep the camera secure at all times -          Use the equipment in the correct manor -          Don’t use the camera in hazardous weather conditions, or allow water t be spilt on it
Being robbed	-          Avoid filming at night unless you vitally have   to, in this case make sure you are with multiple people -          Avoid dodgy areas and people -          Keep to highly dense areas
Loosing equipment	-          Make sure you know where all equipment is at all times -          Do not leave the equipment lying around un attended
Being arrested for props	-          Do not carry around unnecessary props which   could lead to your arrest such as knives and guns
Arguments with the public	-          Do not film people that do not want to be filmed -          Make space for the public -          Respect others wishes, such as not wanting to   be in your film if they accidently walk past
Wet Weather (e.g. slipping over, damage to equipment)	Make sure we are careful when walking on wet ground. Keep the equipment out of rain at all times.

Task 31 - What genre (or sub genre) of film is it? (Hamod)

Task 31 - What genre (or sub genre) of film is it? (Hamod)

Task 32 - Distrubution

Our film is a hybrid thriller, therefore I believe it would be distributed by Warner bros as they have released many successful hybrid thriller films. An example of two would be Inception which was a Sci-fi heist thriller film and The Dark Knight which was a Superhero thriller.



These films both went onto be very successful with inception grossing a n amount of 825.5 million while the dark knight made a staggering 1.005 billion.

Below is a few other thriller films Warner bros has released:

Task 32 - Distrubution

Our film is a hybrid thriller, therefore I believe it would be distributed by Warner bros as they have released many successful hybrid thriller films. An example of two would be Inception which was a Sci-fi heist thriller film and The Dark Knight which was a Superhero thriller.



These films both went onto be very successful with inception grossing a n amount of 825.5 million while the dark knight made a staggering 1.005 billion.

Below is a few other thriller films Warner bros has released: