Saturday, November 28, 2009

Preparation

This preparation will carry on until i start filming the actual film.
i feel that it is important to get all of these things together as it will make the process of the filming a lot easier to handle.
Props List:
Moving boxes
backpack
bed
Table
pencil
diary
Location
A suitable house - suburban area
A near by street
Music/sound affects
slow/mellow music to fit the mood of the film
background sounds of parents arguing
Cast:
James Alculumbre

Editing -
in terms of pace i want the tempo of the editing to be slow 'contemplative ' this will reflect the mood of the main character.
i looked at the film Elephant - Gus Van Sant and the pace of this movie is very slow and introduces as to characters by holding a steady cam and just following the character without any dialogue. I will use continuity editing (invisible editing)

Mis - en - Scene + Character analysis
Daniel a geeking looking kid
hasn't got any friend
clothes - Geeky stereotype

House - Middle class home
Location options:
we wanted the house he lives in to be in a suburban area to suit his lifestyle. We were aiming to juxtapose his family issues and school problems with the fact he has a nice middle class house. As you would normally stereotype someone who is alienated and isolated to have come from a working class background.
These are a couple of options:
after taking these photos and analysing what house would suit the best we picked one out of the top two as there was a possibility that we could use the balcony.
we then came to the conclusion that the one on the top left was a more modern house than the one on the top right so we thought this would be the better option. alienated/isolated


pre-production

Researching Voice overs:
This is the voice over from “About a boy”, a movie staring Nicholas Hoult who plays the role of Marcus- a similar character we are aiming for.
This is the script of the voice over of Marcus:
Story board:

Credit story Board:
Script:
Shot list:

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Film Production

Key Roles
- Director
- Producer
- Writer
- Editor
- Cinematographer
- Sound recording

Equipment
- Is the camera charged?
- Do you have the charger cable?
- Do you have enough tape?
- Is the tripod working?

Props/Costumes/Make-up
- Who is responsible for props?

Director
- Storyboard/shot list
- Directs actors
- Ensures you get what you planned

Producer
- Overseas
- Ensures project is delivered on time
- Schedules + plans the shoot and post production

plan for my voice over

During my first 2 minutes of my feature film i have planned my voice over. In one of my shots i want to zoom into daniel (the boy) by his window. As i have chosen to zoom into him this is to show that we as an audience are about to hear his thoughts. 
This is what i think i want the voice over to be: 'there is people out there that had a good time in life i definitely wasn't one of them. I just didn't fit. I've never fitted in at school. Dads got money issues and now i have to move house. All I ever hear going through one eat and coming out of the other is arguing. i don't have many friends. but each day i write in my diary as i feel this is what i can confide in. As he's saying this voice over i want to have a shot of all the boxes in his room and then possibly pan over them to give a feeling of clutter. Then i want a close up of one of the labels to again associate him with moving house again. The label on the box might be robots to give a feeling he has a lot of toys to play with as he hasn't got many friends. i want the music in the background to be quite mellow possibly with no words to give the feeling of loneliness. the next few shots could maybe him getting dressed and we can see in his cupboard as he hasn't got much money he only has a couple of clothes.  

Monday, November 16, 2009

The outline story for my feature film

I based my feature film on a story my sister wrote called 'The man with no face' The genre of this film is a drama/thriller. The outline of the story is about a young boy who has a bad family background and a difficult time at school. His grades are poor and his dad has money issues. I would imagine him to be a young boy of about 12 or 13. After school one day he decides to go to the park to have some time by himself. He brings his diary with as his diary is the only thing he can confined in and he ends up seeing a man on another bench wearing a black arabic cloak covering every section of his body including his face.  The only thing not covered are his striking grey eyes. although its not usual for a man to wear these cloaks its normally women and this confuses the boy. 
He sits there for hours just watching the man. the man is just sitting there with a piece of paper writing non stop. His hands are very worn out and have scars on them. he continues to watch this man until his parents call him asking where he is and saying he has to come home immediately. When he gets home he gets shouted at and abused. This section of the story will show the boys home life and possibly flash backs of when he gets hit. 
The next day he goes back to the park and the man is there again this time the boy sits on the same bench as the man and tries to see what he is writing but he cant understand it because its in Arabic. 
The man notices the boy looking at his writing so the boy turns to him and they sit face to face. the man staring at him with his striking grey eyes. the boy says 'hi i'm daniel what's your name? but the man decides to ignore him and continues writing on his paper. Daniel turns to him again and asked him why he is alone and why he comes here all the time to write. the man looked as if he was getting impatient and suddenly turns to one side and gets a clean piece of paper and starts writing something down. He passes the paper to daniel and then gets up to leave, and leaves daniel alone on the bench, daniel watches this man walk off out of the park and notices he has a limp... so Daniel stares at the paper reads what it says it is very bad english due to him not being English 'My name is Omar Adle, I am alone this is because of no family i dont talk because i cant talk i come here for quiet and on my papers i write my life' daniel goes home and has the parents shouting at him... the next day he returns to the same bench and waits for the man. the man comes back a few hours later and sits next to daniel, takes out his pad  and continues to write so daniel interrupts him and says 'how come you have no family' the man begins writting on a plain pice of paper that he was on holiday with his family when he was a young boy of a similar age to daniel in 1971 and he was on holiday in bangkok - Thailand, in the hotel he was in a massive fire erupted in the kitchens and the hotel went up in flames, he explains how terrified he was and his father and mother tried to protect him and his brother didnt think about them. They ran out of the building but his mother stayed inside to help other people so his father had to run back in and save his wife. Him and his brother stood outside for aeys expecting the worst as the people came to calm the fire, men went in to the hotel to collect bodies and his parents were among the bunch of bodies collected from the hotel.  
daniel gets a phone call from home, with his parents shouting at him to get home straight away. But he asks Omar to meet him again at the same time again the next day. Omar nods in reply.
 
The next day Daniel is delayed by his family and is late to the park, and is terribly worried that Omar will not be there, evenually he gets to the park and the man is there waiting for him, he walks over to the bench and a piece of paper is waiting for him so the paper explains how one night many years later, he was on his way home driving through a rough part of thailand and he sees a gang of boys approaching this young boy, they all had lighters in their hands and were getting closer and closer to the boy, Omar had a phobia of fire since the incident in the hotel and he didnt want the boy getting hurt by such a horrific weapon, os he stopped his car and went up to the boys telling them to stop, the gang just laugh at him and Omar didnt realise what they were laughing at until he could smell the familiar burning smell that had haunted his thoughts ever since his parents died. 

They set fire to his clothes he was on fire, he was pushed and fell over backwards itting his head against a loose brick on the wall, he blacks out and then next thing he knew he wakes up in hospital not being able to smell or move his mouth. All he could do was see people watching him in concern, he couldnt move any part of his body. and he didnt understand why. he couldnt express his feelings in any way and couldnt talk, he could only see and hear miffled voicesm a women comes up close to him and tells him to come to the bathroom because its time to see himself he gets lifted into a wheel chair and pushed into the bathroom he looks in the mirror and the sight he saw would poison anyones mind, he was given a large black cloak  that covers everything but his eyes and only removes it when he is alone. 

Once daniel finishes reading the paper he burst into teats and asks what happened to Omars brother so he carries on writing and says when his brother came to visit him he looked at him in concern not known whether he was going to live or die so he committed suicide shoting himself in the head, he couldnt tell him not to because he couldnt talk he left him all alone and now he's here so daniel says to him 'Omar please may i see your face you have told me so much about it you have to show me, i care about you, i will always be here for you, im going to place my hands on your face and pull down your robes if you want me to stop then pull my hands away okay?' so omar nods and daniel places his hands on his face and starts to pull down the robes and Omar didnt stop him, it was an awful sight, his eyes were watering and his face was covered in burns he had scarred lips and his nose just blended in with the rest of his scars when daniel said 'can i see your face' he had no face he was the man with no face. 

Sunday, November 1, 2009

My sister's Keeper - Title Sequence







This is the story board for My sister's keeper as this movie is a very depressing movie the music is a very quiet instrumental and played very low in the background of the girl narrating. She tells her past and it shows a montage sequence of when she was little and we get emotionally effected as we have to imagine what she went through. The writing is very small in each board and is in a font colour white. This might show the purity of this girls life and how she has to deal with an emotional situation. This film's Genre is Drama it deals with family relationships, rebellious daughter, tragedy,cancer and the film is based on a novel. The second frame on this board is of the main girl when she is older upset as she is being forced into something she doesn't want to do. In the last frame it is her when she is younger enjoying herself and laughing which shows how much has changed during a short period of time in her life.

The boy in the stripped pyjamas - Title Sequence






This is the story board for The boy in the stripped pyjamas. This movie is set during world war 2 which is why the credits are quite plain and one of them has the flag with the writing in front of it. This is to give us a good impression of what the film is about. The film is seen through the innocent eyes of an eight year old boy who is the son of the commandant of a concentration camp. The last of my pictures on the story board is showing Bruno the son pretending to be an airplane and enjoying his time with his friends. It shows the naivety of the boy as he doesn't really have any idea what is going on in the world.  The music played behind these pictures is a very slow instrumental and makes you feel instantly connected to the way they want you to feel. on the second board there is a quotation that says 'childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows' my interpretation of this quote is that when your a child nothing matters and all the worlds faults don't affect you until your grow older and everything becomes clearer to you. This film shows exactly what this quote is referring to as the child doesn't really know what's going on in the world and the innocence of that is show when he meets a jew who he becomes friends with. This quotation is done on a black background possibly to show the dark world that is out there.
The font seems to be small and white. The genres of this film are drama, thriller and war. The target audience for this film could range from about 14 years and older this is because it might be to confusing and intellectual for a younger audience but it could teach children alot of things. 

Mean girls - Title sequence

The start of this sequence begins with the convention of the opening titles with institutional information. Candy colours are used on the fonts and one can immediately tell it is aimed at a younger audience. The titles are split in half with respect to the font on the left a thicker more masculine font and on the right a finer more feminine font.

The first scene fades in and it captures the moment a family is moving into a new home and we are introduced to the protagonist who is freeze framed in MCU. The combination of Mid, long and close up shots in these pictures shows the immediate and close relationship the audience should get with the characters in the film. We see the family outside their new house having a family photo. There is many different shot sizes. In the next 5 seconds the music becomes more upbeat as if a drum is being hit. Then the rest of the two minutes of the film we have some dialogue so we can get to know the characters. This is the parents talking to there daughter in a patronizing way. The fact that it is a low angle shot shows that the parents are making the daughter feel small and that they are superior. Then we have the main part (lindsay Lohan) narrating telling her past so that the film has a clear story line from the beginning. The font for Lindsay Lohan's name is 'Lindsay' in a bold green colour and 'Lohan' in a thin lining font also green but a darker shade. The font for 'Mean girls' is white for 'mean' maybe to show there is some innocence in the film  and then pink for 'girls' which shows the stereotypical colour connected to females. We get a photo montage to see her family's past. Then we get a scene of her starting her new school and her parents saying bye to her. 
The genres of this film are comedy and drama. the film is aimed at teenagers as it gives the point of view of a new school girl.