Innocent Until Proven Guilty Final Cut

Rough cut 3 with feedback

Mrs Wilcox
The font does not fit the genre of the film and it is a little bit too big

Tom

Rough cut 2 with feedback

Sam skinner 

·         There’s a bit of shaky camera at the end 

·         Maybe use a couple of different sound effects for the punches so they don’t all sound exactly the same

·         Phone disappears as it’s dropped

·         1:33 it looks like it buffers slightly where the cut is completely smooth  

·         The music fits really well

·         The colour (weather stays consistent all the way through which looks good)

The teacher's improvements

·         Add in titles

·         Add back in the lovely low angle long shot of Ben

·         Change the shot at the end – it’s too wobbly

·         Look at the steadiness of the shot in the phone call. 

·         Good non diegetic sound

·         Engaging to watch

·         It looks like an action opening!

Tom and Nathan

Rough cut 1 with feed back

Teachers feed back

• Emu Productions logo is nice - can you add some form of sound to it?

• Tower Productions logo could be a little more clear - or is this your actual one? Again, could sound be added?

• Nice fade into the film opening

• Can you make the transitions between cuts of Ben walking toward the camera a little smoother?

• When Ben is on the phone/the phone scene the camera can be wobbly and sometimes the focus is lost (after the phone is dropped) - can this be rectified?

• Good camera movement when Ben walk toward the camera with gun in hand.

• Camera a little wobbly on antagonist and phone call

• Lovely shots and camera movement as Ben nears the antagonist

• Excellent focus pull when Ben has gun to antagonists head

• Brilliant fight sequence - well done with the foley sound effects - it feels very realistic!

• Wobbly camera coming from the head up to Ben again after he has been hit

• How will it end? Needs to be a little more professional.

Olivia's Feed back

• In the phone call scene, the camera movement is wobbly

• Pull focus = beautiful!

• Fight sequence is extremely realistic and the foley effects are literally the best thing I've ever experienced.

• As Ben stands up following the fight scene, the camera is very wobbly

• Lovely tracking shot

• Love the scene of Ben walking through the field, lovely way of showing passing in time

• Very professional logos at the beginning

Sophie Hughes-Narborough's Feedback

• Needs some sort of soundtrack to go with Ben walking to engage audience

• When Ben is holding the gun to the other guys head, the camera is wobbly

• Add sound for Emu Productions logo

• As Ben is walking away from the fight scene the camera is wobbly

• Focus issue after Ben drops the phone and walks away

Luke's Feed Back

• Tower Production logo stay's on screen too long.

• Phone call scene has a lot of extra movement from camera man.

• Silencer scene again has got a lot of extra movement from camera man, also ben isn't centred within the shot.

• Dom phone call scene I think could be made more fluent, as there is a lot of delay between caller and recipient.

• With Ben's second approach scene, Ben mainly is at the right of the shot with a lot of distance between him and the left of the shot.

 Tom and Michael

The Crane Shot

The final shot in our film opening is a crane shot. We originally recorded this shot by holding the camera upside down on the steadicam and lifted it up. This was to allow the camera to get as close to the floor as possible for the shot. However, this shot was very unsteady. In the end we decided that the shot was unusable and that we'd need to reshoot it.

To solve this issue, we decided to make a DIY crane, shown above. It is made from pine, MDF and a ball head. In order to be able to get a smooth rotation we used a lazy susan bearing.

We decided to use these materials because they are lightweight but also durable. In order to keep the weight of the crane as low as possible, we routed five holes into the top beam. Doing this helped to cut down on weight, without compromising the strength.

In order to get smooth shots with the crane, we had to counter-balance the front. This was done by attaching a sandbag of the same weight, to the crane.

The crane was assembled at the location. The crane arm attaches to the legs with a central bolt. We decided to make the crane into two main parts to make it easier to transport it to and from locations.

Here you can see that the camera can be attached to the top or bottom of the crane arm. This allows us to get shots from very close to the floor as we can then flip the footage in post.

In this picture you can see our DP, Tom, ensuring that he is happy with the framing of the shot. We decided to get a variety of movements for this final shot and then we could decide which shot to use later, in post.

Nathan and Tom

Action Moodboard (Click to view)

This is our mood board for the action genre. We made it to gain an idea of what typical action films look like and to gain an idea of the generic conventions in the genre.

Nathan

Independent Research – Film Openings

Independent Research – Film Openings

Film openings help set the scene to a movie and try to give the audience a clear idea of the genre of film. These tend to be around 5 minutes and during this time give the names of main actors and crew who played a key role in the making of the film. The names of the cast of the movie are normally in order of importance in the movie therefore the main characters will come first, on top of this famous actors will also have priority over lesser known actors. These names are normally are shown or an opening scene or a short animations.

An example of a film that has titles over the opening scene is “Children of Men”

 

An example of a film that is over an animation is Tintin

 

The names can sometimes be “integrated” into the scene which means they are part of the environment. This is evident in some openings like “Catch Me If You Can”, but these tend to be higher budget films since these have more money for opening credits and normally have a dedicated team to work on them.

 

Film openings also display institutional logos or names at the very beginning. This displays who it is made by and from these logos people can normally see whether it is made by an independent film company or a mainstream film company. An example of this is evident in the Children of Men clip above since the initial logo shown is the Universal logo which has a impressive animation and bright colours which stand out whereas after the Strike logo appears which is less impressive and therefore a clear contrast can be seen between the mainstream and independent institutions.

 

Michael

Final Casting Decision

Our final casting decision is…

·         Ben Seager as John Craig (the protagonist)

Insert casting vid

 

We decided to choose Ben as we felt that he had good camera presence and has had previous acting experience. He responded well to what we asked during the audition. As a group we decided that he had the right look for the role due to his younger age.

·         Dom Light as the mercenary (the antagonist)

Insert casting vid

We decided to choose Dom as we thought that he had the right look for the character. He is around the same age as Ben and therefore the fight scene would be even. Additionally it is more realistic as it seems more like they would be in the same agency.

Michael and Tom

Audience Figures and Popular Films within the Action Genre

1.       Avatar

Grossed - $760,507,625 (USA)

2.       The Avengers

Grossed - $623,357,910 (USA)

3.       The Dark Knight

Grossed - $534,858,444 (USA)

4.       Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace

Grossed - $475,456,382 (USA)

5.       Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope

Grossed - $460,935,665 (USA)

6.       The Dark Knight Rises

Grossed -$448,139,099 (USA)

7.       Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Grossed - $423,315,815 (USA)

8.       Iron Man 3

Grossed - $408,992,272 (USA)

9.       Spider Man

Grossed – $403,706,375 (USA)

10.    Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Grossing - $402,111,870 (USA)

Tom and Michael

Film diary

The day started with all the crew arriving at Tom's house as it was close to the set. We had the actors turn up around 15 minuets later so we could have everything sorted out and ready to go. We split the equipment up into each section - camera, sound and other. We also set out all of the props and extra parts to the costumes, such as the balaclava and tactical vests. The actors turned up in the clothes they would be wearing for the shoot as we had pre-arranged this with them.

Here you can see that Michael, our Director also helped with things like lighting. As we were unable to light the scenes, we decided to use a reflective bounce. We only used this in a few shots but it helped to light the shots nicely.



 

Here you can see that Tom, our D.P and Dom, one of our actors, are listening to Michael as he is telling Dom what he wants him to do. Michael was telling Tom what shot type it is and if there is a specific movement required, as he had the shot list. We decided to use a slate at the start of each take. We did this for a few reasons. One reason we used the slate at the start was so it would be easier to sync up the audio in post. we did this as we were recording sound separately. Another reason we used a slate was so that we could find the right scene and take in the editing program. If we hadn't done this, we would have had to scrub through lots of footage to find the right clip. 

Here you can see our DP, Tom, Sound Engineer, Nathan, and our slate assistant, Amy, preparing for a shot. Nathan is getting the best quality audio he can by using a boom pole. This allowed him to get the microphone directly over the action. using a boom pole means that it can stay just out of frame. At the start of each take, Amy will read out what scene, shot and take we are filming, to aid matching clips to audio in post.

Here is an example of how we started each of our takes. Our DP, Tom, tells people that the camera is rolling, Nathan tells people the sound is rolling and then Amy reads the slate. Once this has all taken place and our Director, Michael, is happy, he will then say action. The scene will then play out how it has been practiced.

Here we can see our DP, Tom, and our Sound Engineer, Nathan, discussing the 'edge of frame'. Tom is telling Nathan how low he can go with the mic on the boom pole before he enters the frame. This is important as we do not want the mic to come into frame during a shot but we want t.

Here you can see our Michael listening back to the last recording to make sure he was happy with it. This is because Nathan and Michael had a particular style of sound in mind that they wanted to capture. Michael checked back each shot to make sure he was happy with what had been recorded.

 

Here we see Tom getting his framing right for one of the first shots. This is the second shot in the opening, in which our protagonist, John, calls the agency. Tom decided to use a shoulder rig for this shot as it meant he could get a more natural looking shot which would follow our actor, Ben, to his spot. Using a tripod would have taken more time to set up.

Tom

Group Discoveries of Title Timelines or the genre

As a group we have learnt that…

·         There are more sub-roles than we have initially thought.

 

·         Placement of the names are important, if done incorrectly they can distracting.

 

·         Transitions between names are important to keep the audience’s attention.

 

·         Order of the titles are critical for example the director is normally at the end of the title sequence.

 

·         Each title is only shown around for 4-5 seconds. Exceptions to this may include title of film or important crew/cast members.

 

·         Normally the title will only be shown up to 45 seconds into the film.

 

·         Font size may change depending on what is the title is (e.g. title of film or important cast/crew members).

 

·         Song artists may also be mentioned in the titles (Quantum of Solace and Back to the Future).

 

·         Actors that play main characters will be mentioned first.

 

Tom and Michael

Institution Logo Research

At the beginning of a film the institution that made it will show a short logo or animation that highlight the name of their company. There are two types of intuitions in the film industry. Independent film companies that make independent films aimed at a niche audience and normally have less funding and mainstream companies that make big blockbuster films that are aimed at a wide mainstream audience. Sometimes during the beginning of a film you can tell by the animation or image if the company is mainstream or independent. Usually mainstream companies will have big animations and add "flare" to their logo using bright colours that catch the audiences eye. Whereas independent companies tend to have animations with dull colours. This is the usually but there are exceptions to this. Here are some examples of logos...

20th Century Fox (Mainstream)


















Universal (Mainstream)













Paramount (Mainstream)
















Film4 (Independent)




















Working Title Films (Independent)

Strike (Independent)













Michael

Filming Schedule

Scene and actors needed	Time and location
Scene 1 - Ben	Sunday 15th March 2015 – 2:30pm Field
Scene 2 – Ben and Dom	Sunday 15th March 2015 – 11am Field/Farm Complex
Scene 3 – Ben and Dom	Sunday 15th March 2015 – 3pm Farm Complex

Tom and Michael

Target Audience Moodboard

 

Our target audience to 15 to 35 because this is the age range that watches action movies generally. Additionally we are making our film within the 15 certificate criteria. This means that all of our target audience will be able to see it. 

 

Tom and Michael



Final Decision for Logo

Final Decision for Logo

We have decided to use my logo since we have agreed that it highlights our institution best. We all think it is simple and both shows the name of our institution and a memorable logo.

 

In the final version of our logo we have added sound since when asking people about it they said it would be better with sound. So we have added both a zooming in sound as well as a emu sound to make the logo seem more professional and therefore of a better quality.

 

 

Michael

Why we chose the Action Thriller Genre

We chose the action thriller genre because we’ve seen many action thriller films and have an idea about generic conventions featured in films in this genre. For example:

·         Car Chases

·         Explosions

·         Gunfights

·         Tough/manly Protagonist

Although these would be impractical to recreate, most of these are not necessarily shown in the film openings since film openings tend to give the audience an idea of genre and where the film is set.

When deciding on the genre we took into account that we had to find a suitable location. We already had a location in mind for the action thriller genre which had a large influence on our decision.

Storylines of action thriller films are often very similar. Some common storylines include:

·         Revenge

·         Escape

·         Assassination

·         Oppression

·         Kidnap

Our storyline would fall under ‘Escape’, but this will not be expanded on very much because this is the opening first two minutes of the film.

Michael and Nathan

Script

INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY

 

Ext. FIELD

 

Establishing shot of field to show where they are. John is on the phone calling the agency to tell them that he has the package and is at the DZ (Drop zone).

 

BEN

“The package is secure, I’m at the DZ”

 

VOICE ON PHONE

“It’s a set-up!”

 

John hears gun shots over the phone and drops the phone.                       

 

EXT. INSIDE THE COMPOUND

 

Dom gets a phone call from the agency telling him that plans have changed and that his new mission is to kill John.

 

Agency Voice Over

“You have authorisation for code 6”

 

Dom

“Copy that”

Ext. FIELD/OPENING TO COMPOUND.

John starts to walk off as the camera pulls focus to show cracked phone in foreground with the title on it. 

 

EXT. INSIDE THE COMPOUND

Dom is standing there with his rifle waiting to take out John and recover the package.

Ext. OPENING TO COMPOUND.

John takes out his gun as he moves up into position against a wall. He takes a quick look over the wall and then pull a suppressor out of one of his pouches on his vest. He then screws the suppressor and then cocks the gun.

EXT. INSIDE THE COMPOUND

Dom is waiting for Ben to arrive and is slowly walking (few steps) and looking around, he takes a slight look at his rifle and makes a good grip on the hand grip.

EXT. INSIDE THE COMPOUND

 

John starts to make his way through the compound checking corners and sweeping the area as he goes.

EXT. INSIDE THE COMPOUND

Dom is in the compound facing away from the entrance. John drops his bag down and moves into position and puts the gun to the back of Dom’s head.

Ben

“Drop it”

Dom looks lightly to the right and puts the gun on the floor. He then whilst spinning, swings his right arm down knocking the gun out of John’s hand. John’s body follows the way of the gun and bends over to the left. Dom the throws a right hook and hits John in the face causing John to step back one step. Dom follows with a left jab to the stomach. John stumbles back and Dom advances. John is bent over and takes in a deep breath. Dom then goes to throw another right hook and John blocks it and returns it with a right jab. Dom stumbles back. When he gathers himself he sees John coming at him and John grabs Dom and tackles him to the ground. Dom cracks his head on the floor.

EXT. INSIDE THE COMPOUND

Dom is lying on the floor with a pool of blood, as John picks up his bag and gun and walks off.

The end

 

Tom