More Filming and Starting to edit - Mori's Post

In the last few weeks we have managed to complete most of our filming, the only scene needed to be completed is the torturing scene which we have researched and decided exactly how we are going to do it, so it should be done efficiently and smoothly. 

Just recently we have filmed the scene which the kidnappers are moving through the boarding house on their way to get the boy. I think we did this well as you never see the mens faces until the last shot, right before they go into the boys room, this is very effective as it builds up suspense well and once music has been added the atmosphere will be full of suspense and will make audiences want to watch on to see what is going to happen.

We have also started to edit the earlier scenes of our film, we chose to do this because our actors were unavailable on one day so we had a look at what we already had and started to edit the scene which features the car and then interchanges with the boy doing some work in his room. This was a very useful lesson as it showed us the standard at which we were operating as well as how much more we needed. So in the next week will be finishing the filming and we can therefore put our full concentration into finishing the opening titles and the editing.

1st Day Of Filming - Mori's Post

Yesterday during the lesson we started the filming of the coursework. After reviewing the storyboard we found the hardest scene to film and decided to execute it during the lesson, the scene is also the first sequence of the film. It is the car scene where the kidnappers are driving into the school to capture the son. So we managed to organize a car for the first scene and we went to the location that we had chosen to film this scene at and started. It was difficult for a number of reasons, we had a limited amount of time with many different shots to take. It was cold and the driver didn't want to do too many different shots. We also had to arrange for students acting in the film to sit in the car to give the impression that there are people in the car, especially for the shot from within the car. This was another aspect of this days filming which was difficult, we not only had to take shots from outside the car of it driving but of the inside of the car and what it looked like from the characters point of views who were in the car, this mean that we also needed two cameras and we needed the car to be driven along the same route twice so that the shots from out side the car didn't see the camera man inside the car and vice versa. We then had to go back to the classroom before the end of the class and put all the film onto the computer. 

In the lessons to come we will be filming the rest of our sequences, always remembering to film double the amount as we think we need, as not having enough material to work with was a major problem which we faced during a short piece we filmed and edited at the end of last year.

Research: Torturing Scene - Mori's Post

Today and yesterday I have been working on the second half of our short piece, this is going to be a torturing scene, of the boy who is captured. So i decided to go onto youtube and look at several different films with torturing scenes in them. I took screen shots of some of them and have analyed them below.

This is a screen shot of the torture scene is Casino Royale, this is similar to tyhe one which we would be looking to do, the lighting in this scene is very effective and the old chair also makes the scene look more sinister.

This is a screen shot from the film XXX, I picked this shot because having the victim hanging, it gives the impression that the victim has even less control over the situation and it is more convienient for the torturer t do thing to the victim. Although this is effective I think it may be too difficult for us to do.

This screen shot is from The Tudors, a TV drama showed on the BBC last year. This is the most graphic shot that I found, the man being tortured is being stretched, again this may be too hard but if consideraable time was taken to do it, it could be very effective and realistic.

Things we need for our Scene (Aaron)

After allot of thought, Mori and I have come to decide the outcome of our storyboard. The main difficulty in our task is not the filming but in fact it is the planning. We need to plan so much that even at this point we have not filmed anything but the Mise - en - Scene.

The things that are most vital to our film is the props, this makes the film look as realistic as possible. The props we shall acquire will be:

Torture Scene

• A Gag that goes over the mouth
• A wooden chair
• A bucket with iced water in it.
• Rope for the hands to be tied around it.
• A head Bag.

We are also going to have a scene with numerous shots in it to show the build up to the torturing scene in which we will need a room with a table and bed and all the essential day to day items and a car.

What we have dont in the last week - Mori's Post

In the last week we have been working very hard on coursework paperwork. We really want to get on to the actual filming of the piece so we have been working especially on the storyboard and the treatment.
During the making of the storyboard we have been discussing all the different shots which we want to have in the scenes which we are filming, so we ran all the different ideas we have in our heads past each other and then writing them all down on paper, we then decided on the best possible shots for each situation to produce a high quality piece of film.
The storyboard consists of two main parts, the first is shots in colour with no music as the men are going to capture the boy and the second part is going to be in black and white with music.
Also we have been discussing music for the piece, when the torturing scene is happening, we are aware that we may not have any music which has copyright on it so we have come up with two solutions which we will choose between when we have to put the music in, we are choosing later because we would like to experiment with different music when the filming is done, this means we can create different moods more easily. The two ideas are:
1. Get music from sites on the Internet which is not copyright, music written simply for short films similar to what we are making, sites such as 'www.freeplaymusic.com'. Advantages of this choice is that there is a wide range of different music and it could be easy to create any mood and even change at the last minute if we didn't like the piece we had chosen earlier.
2. Our other option is to ask friends taking A-Level music to write a piece, the advantage of this would be that they will be able to personalise the piece to whatever we would like, and we can always fall back on the music sites if we don't like the piece that is written.

The Synopsis of Our Project & The storyboard & Treatmant (Mori and Aaron)

Our Main Idea is to do an action/thriller movie.

A son of a famous and rich Businessman is sent to a boarding school. However his father has made deal with the wrong people and tricked them. Now the boy has been kidnapped to get back at his father. He is tortured close to death and has no will left in him and his father. His father makes one correct decision and hires a private detective who has been recommended by Scotland Yard to find whereabouts of his son.

Storyboard:

Treatment:

Main Coursework (Aaron's Post)

The coursework that we have to create is to make an opening scene from our storyline.

What am I thinking for my two minute opening Scene?

Ideas of a storyline have ran by, however none of them seemed convenient until, me and my partner, Mori thought that we should create a Teenage Genre as we already are in a school surrounded by other teens and teachers. We have a few ideas about the credits, what we really want to do is to play the movie whilst the credits are on. On the other hand, we want to make the movie stop at points when the character is introduced and have narration over it, sort of like in Reservoir Dog's when they introduce Mr Green, Mr Blue etc... however, today we ran over our storyline and only to notice that it wasn't really a story, and so we thought of another story. a sneak preview of what may is to come: A boy in his senior year at school realises that he has achieved nothing and then decides to create a list to do before he leaves so that he does not regret himself for the rest of his life.

What is the Genre, Target audience?

As told above, the genre is a Teenage Drama. As teenage ourselves, we want other teenagers to watch and enjoy this clip, however if adults wish to watch they are, but of course welcome to observe our clip. We shall make this available to all the viewers by posting the video onto this Blog or the trusted You Tube.

The things that we require to create the opening scene:

The main things that we shall need is our actors. Mori and I have come to the conclusion that it is better and to our benefit if we chose actors from our own class rather someone not from our class. We thought that it was better to so as we can work together on our film seeing as it is just not us that is doing so. We would of course need some props such as schooling equipment and books to show the fact that it is a school, we would of course need a camera and a tripod for steady filming.