Prelimary Task - Progress Diary

On the 11th of Febuary we began our main editing task; creating the basic storyline set up ready to be cut. This was quite a complicated task because we had filmed so many shots from different angles and left the camera running while we disscused shots,. We believed it would be helpful when we came to choosing the best shots however it also caused us to have to look at every clip and then deleate the un-needed ones; which wasted time. Soon we over came that problem and edited as usual; spliting the clips and creating the sequence.

Today we finalised the editing however we had to over come the problem with the software we were using, as it crashed causing our clips to be placed in the trash. Eventually we solved the problem and got our clips back into place, finishing the sequence.

Finially we changed the colours on the film to make it black and white, in the style of film noir. Also the sound was completed and we are ready to present our triller to the class tomorrow.

-Charlotte Matthews

Preliminary Task - Storyboard

In this scene two Mobsters confront each other.

We had quite a few initial ideas for this task, we all agreed that we wanted a confrontational scene with the mob as our main focus. We came up with lots of ideas for settings such as park benches, a church confession box, stepping into a pulled up black car, but we decided that we would use an office building as our location.

We knew we wanted a confrontational scene, but we had to decide what the confrontation was about, topics that we considered were drugs, a drugs raid gone wrong, or drug smuggling; mob leaders, arguing about who will become the the leader in charge of the mob organisation; murder, members of the organisation committing very serious crimes such as murder. For our final idea we almost merged most of our ideas together. With the synopsis being shown in charlottes post.

I have attached images of the storyboard that i have produced, outlining camera shots, angles and movements; sound, dialogue, diagetic and non diagetic and ambient sounds; mise-en-scene showing objects around the locations, and the costumes of the characters. we followed the storyboard today whilst filming and will continue to do so tomorrow.
Using high angle shots to connote Bates' feelings, showing he is powerless, towering over him; Bates' confused and muddled mind is amplified through the mixture of shot types and constant cuts during the first clip showing he is in distress and worried.

Whereas Johnson is shown as a very powerful figure, not seeing his face until the end, using low angles shots, showing how in control he is, slamming the photos down on Baits' desk, threatening him.

However the break of the 360 degree rule in shot 9 shows Baits turning the situation around, threatening Johnson's authority as he pulls a gun out. This switches the two characters positions on the screen putting Baits on the left hand of the screen confusing the viewer. This breaking of the rule amplifies Baits being the protagonist of the scene, with protagonists typically approaching from the left.

Using a typical film Noir convention, with the antagonist breaking a lamp as he dies, amplifying his face, but i have turned this around in the storyboard, breaking the lamp to remove the light from Baits' face, creating a silhouette of his face, as though he doesn't know who he is, not being a killer.

During filming the location of the scene was very important, as we wanted our scene to be in the style of film Noir we were looking for venetian blinds, but we had to settle with vertical blinds, although this would give us the same effect. We found the perfect office, with the setup almost identical to what we had in mind, but the office was only approachable from then right, whereas in the storyboard Johnson approached from the left, but this created a good effect, as typically antagonists approach from the right.

Filming the over the shoulder shots did cause complications as the desk was fixed, and there wasn't a lot of space behind, but we got around this by holding the camera by hand, this created quite a shakey effect, not being fixed, which amplifies Baits' distress as Johnson walks in which created a look that we found effective.

But other than these minor setbacks the storyboard was followed very closely and filming was successful.

- Laurence Sturla

Preliminary Task - Progress Diary

Today we began our filming in the office setting that we had chosen beforehand and were given permission to film for two lessons, however this was not possible as the owner of the office needed it for our second lesson. This has caused our filming to fall behind schedule meaning that we will have to film next lesson and concentrate on some of the editing for the rest of this lesson. So far we have the first few shots of our storyboard filmed, ready to be edited. We have roughtly used about eight minutes of tape so far; which should edit down to a few seconds of our opening, before dialogue.

- Charlotte Matthews

Preliminary Task - Script and Backstory

Backstory: Two members of a highly successful but treacherous drug trafficking organisation have been involved in a drugs trade that went hideously wrong. The first man we come to focus on in the clip (Bates) is sat working at his desk when a very distressed and angered second character enters the room (Johnson). He flings some photos of what appears to be murdered women onto Bates' desk and we learn that they were the hostages taken during the trade. Seemingly not according to plan, the hostages were brutally killed by Bates and other fellow members of the organisation and Johnson has come to demand why. This is because he is in charge of keeping the illegal organisation's activities as far away from the public eye and authorities as possible; but the murder of these hostages will undoubtedly have put the organisation directly underneath the public spotlight.

(Not much of this is given away in the short clip we plan to film as the 4 lines of dialogue we include are quite cryptic and not very revealing. However this is how we want it because we want to withold information to hook the audience's interest.)

In the final few seconds of the clip, Bates completely unexpectedly pulls a gun from underneath his desk and shoots Johnson. This is because unknown to Johnson (and the audience) the organisation's leader has ordered Johnson's murder because he is becoming a burden and threat to the organisation's progress.


SCRIPT:

Johnson - (Quietly but with authority) This wasn't supposed to happen...

Bates - (Calmly) I had no choice.

Johnson - (Angered and slamming fist on the table) There is always a choice! (Pause) You were supposed to stick to the plan.

Bates - (Menacingly) This was the plan ... (Brings out a gun and shoots Johnson dead.)


Over the next few days we will provide a storyboard of the way in which we intend to film our clip, and then hopefully we will have fully completed the filming and editing of our preliminary task by the end of this week.

- Kim Rayner

Preliminary Task - Planning

We have decided that we want to film our preliminary task in black and white (inspired by the Film Noir work we completed). However, our brief film clip is going to be set in modern day rather than the 1950s era of Film Noir, but we do still plan to try and recreate certain conventions of this 'style' of film.
As a group we have so far planned the script and basic plot structure that our prelim task is going to be based on. We brainstormed several ideas but the main idea that we all agreed on I will outline later on. We chose this idea because we felt it had a strong sense of mystery and suspense as well as an unexpected plot twist, which we felt captured the essence of a thriller very effectively in the short clip we have been asked to film.

- Kim Rayner