Dear Moderator,
Hello and welcome to our group Foundation Production blog. The best way to navigate around our blog is by clicking the labels on the right hand side of the page.

Under the Research and Planning label, you will find evidence of the all the research, planning and development work we did as a group during the pre-production, production and post-production stages of our project.

In order for you to see exactly what each candidate contributed to this process, we have also included individual contribution labels named for each group member. All research planning and development posts contributed to by the named candidate will appear when you click that label.

Each member of the group has also completed their own evaluation. You can access our responses to the evaluation questions under the individually named Evaluation labels.

Our finished Film opening sequence is at the top of the blog, and each candidate has posted their preliminary task video sequence as part of their answer to Q7 of the evaluation.

You can also filter our posts by label or date and there is a blog archive if you want to look through it chronologically.

You will also find a link to the class film blog which contains links to other group blogs from our school.

Thanks for your time I hope you enjoy the content of our blog.

From Sam, Yadash and Chris.

This shows us on our shoot, preparing our props and our roles as actors. We also took these shots to make sure that our costumes were fine and no imperfections showed up on camera.

While trying to find royalty free music, we first looked blindly through google, to little success. We then found this video:


Which informed us more about copyright free music, as well as linking us to many useful sites.

The website which we found most useful was incompetech.com as it had a lot of music and a useful search engine which allowed you to search in moods and paces as well as just by genre or name.

To match our genre, we decided to search the website using the keywords 'action', 'suspense' and 'agressive', and we managed to pick 3 tracks to narrow down the choice, and we have listed them below with their descriptions:

Mechanolith:
Superlatives abound in this giant orchestral/industrial piece. To be played loud. From the original soundtrack to "The Last Stand of the Mechanolith".

Satiate:
This track just never lets the audience rest. There are a lot of uses for this sort of piece. It is also available with just the percussion, and just the strings... both of which are quite different from the combined.

Steel Rods:
Smashing on a dumpster while pulling off some imitative counterpoint. Dark, mysterious and unnerving.

In the end we chose to go with a subtrack of 'Satiate', which was the same track but without the melody, aptly named 'Satiate Precussion'. The balance of suspense and action makes it suitable for our piece.

The track can be listened at:

http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/?keywords=satiate

In order to prepare for our shoot we made a storyboard so as we could see all our shots. We colour coded each type of shot with a different colour post it note so that it would be obvious by colour balance whether we had too many of one type of shot.
Key:

• Green - LS
• Orange - CU
• Pink - MS
• Blue - Title

This helped us to make sure we could all were on the same level in terms of what would happen in our sequence and it gave us a clear minimum as to what to shoot. Of course when we were shooting we knew that we had to shoot more than just the shots on the storyboard just in case something didn't work as well as we had hoped but having the storyboard as a reference point helped to make sure we filmed something that could become coherent in post production.

We looked at the opening sequences to "The Matrix" (1999) and "Attack the Block" (2011) to look at how they constructed their narratives.

The matrix opens with numbers as visuals. As audio you hear a conversation between two characters. They make reference to a main protagonist "Morpheas" before hinting at a greater danger by saying "Are you sure this line is secure." The visuals then transition into the high contrast shot of a city cop with a flash light  A fight scene then breaks out between Trinity and a set of cops.







Attack the block opens with a shot of the sky with an asteroid of some sort in it, which then pans down onto a London tube station  as fireworks go off, this shot lasts and astonishing 53 seconds. The camera then cuts to a character walking while on the phone. She talks about it being fireworks night, further establishing setting, and then puts away her phone when she see's some youths, who then mug her.



What we found from looking at these sequences is that they both consisted of a conversation which establishes some plot points and then are followed by some sort of action or fight scene. For this reason why made our opening sequence follow the same structure

As we were acting ourselves we wanted the script to seem natural to us and hence only planned a rough gist of what was going to be said:

Sam: Who steals a government project, and hides it in this dump?
Yadash: Somebody stupid enough to steal a government project
Sam: What are we looking for anyway?
Yadash: Intel wont tell us, we don't have the clearance, that's what I've got the tracker for anyway
*Gets out tracker*
Yadash: It's just round here
Sam:Ok You ready?
*They both get out guns*
Yadash: Yeah
*Turn corner*
Sam: There's nothing here
Yadash: Tracker says there should be
Sam:Double check it's right
*Yadash checks*
Yadash: 'Da hell?,It's gone haywire
Sam: Somebody's messing with us
Sam: Come out
*Chris appears and kills Sam*
Yadash: Stop, I will shoot
Chris: Try me
*Chris gets shot at, before shooting Yadash*

This progressed into the final script on the day of the shoot, when we fine tuned it:

Sam: So you're telling me that this guy steals a top secret government project and hides it in a place like this?
Yadash: well if he's stupid enough to steal from us he's stupid enough to hide it here
Sam: How are we meant to know what to get if we don't know what it looks like?
Yadash: That's what I've got the tracker for
*Looks at tracker*
Yadash: Should be round this corner
Sam: Ok, get ready, we don't know what's round there remember
*They get out guns and turn corner*
Sam:There's nothing here
Yadash: tracker's definitely right
Sam: Double check
*Yadash checks tracker*
Yadash: Crap
Sam: What is it?
Yadash: Its gone haywire
Sam:Some one's messing with us
Sam: Come out, come out and we might not kill you
*Chris appears and kills Sam*
Yadash: Stop or I'll shoot
Chris: Try me
*Chris gets shot at before shooting Yadash*

Reasons why we thought the second version of the script was better:

• The start seems like it has flowed on from another conversation, making it seem as if the two characters had been talking before they enter the scene, as would make sense.
• It seems more conversational, the first script seemed like Sam was asking a continuous stream of questions and Yadash was giving pre thought of answers
• It flowed better and seemed more fluent
• The second one builds up more tension when turning the corner, as opposed to them just walking around the corner, the sharp turn allows them to turn in a way which seems professional.

Initially we failed to plan for weather and had to cancel a shoot because of it, however as we had the entire half term free to shoot we made sure to look out for the best day to film according to the weather, and organised our schedule based on that.

In the end we chose "Coalition" for our main title, as it has Sci Fi lettering style, while having a grungy texture. We chose "Birth Of A Hero" for our superimposed titles as it was simple and easy to read, while seeming grungy and epic.

The location we chose to shoot in was a set of garages which were secluded from the street. The reason we chose this was because it provided the required outdoor setting, but it was very secluded.

The corner from the alleyway to the garages is very sharp and so provides us with a point from which the conversation can go from talking about the package they are about to pick up to looking for the package.


The garages themselves are very run down and deserted, this will give a grungy, dilapidated feel to the scene's setting. The garages themselves clearly indicate an urban setting, while the seclusion gives us the space and isolation required to film, meaning we wont be interrupted much during the shoot.

In order to be able to show our film to the target audience of 16-24 year olds, we had to conduct some research into certifications.

We looked on the BBFC website and found that to be certified as a 15, a film must meet the following requirements:
We then applied this to our film :

Grading was the last stage in our production process and it involved fine tuning our sequence by adjusting sound levels, contrast and brightness and even color correction in some shots.

In order to Grade  our film clips, we used Adobe Premiere pro  and watched our sequence through noting the points where sound and color looked and sounded off.

After we had noted the points that we had to improve and gathered feedback from our teachers, we then continued to use the inbuilt fast color correct feature in Premiere Pro as well as using the brightness and contrast feature to adjust video. To change sound levels, we clicked on the sound clip and were able to change the dB level through Adobe Premiere Pro.

We had to take care not to over saturate our shots and not to change colour so much that it was very noticeable and detracted from the viewing experience. We also had to put in some background noise in order to keep our sequence continuous as before grading, the noise would come on and off with dialogue which was too intrusive, so by having it in the whole way through, the audience won't keep getting distracted when it comes up.


         Before                                                                            After

>Click here to take personal info survey

>Click here to take sequence survey

During our shooting we had to use props to portray guns. We used two different types of guns during our main shoot. One of these types of guns we had two of, one for each government agent. These guns had a short, compact look:

In order to portray the characters in the sequence correctly, we thought about the costumes which each of them should be wearing. In order to demonstrate that our characters were all professionals we wore suits.

As can be seen in our rough edit, we had some issues with camera focus in our long shots, as well as acting and costume. Therefore we've decided to reshoot and below is the complete list of shots we plan to retake:

1. Wide Shot of gates
2. Wide shot of garages
3. Voyeuristic shot through holly bush
4. Both tracker shots
5. Mid shots during the part of the script after turning the corner
6. POV shots to put HUD on
7. Shots of Chris during the action 
8. Uncloaking Including BG 
9. CU of Chris' hand when he shoots
10. CU of Sam's face when he dies
11. Action between Chris and Yadash
12. Shot from the other side of the garages
13.  

After discussing the problems with our current idea with our teachers. We decided that we'd need a new story-line to accommodate the action that we wanted to incorporate into our sequence. After much consideration we decided that our idea would be based around a stolen weapon prototype that would make the wearer invisible and give them integrated graphics. The story would be about a developer who steals the suit when he finds out the makers want it for bad, the film follows him as he tries to escape from the company and get the suit to safe hands.

Our opening scene now goes like this:

> Two agents walk in a garage area are talking about what they're looking for
> A tracker is pulled out and the agents start looking for the item, not knowing exactly what it is they are after
> The tracker goes haywire and the agents aren't sure what's going on
> One agent pulls out a gun and starts panic shooting
> The invisibility on the developer is shut off and he appears behind the agent with the gun and takes him out
> He then moves onto the man with the tracker in his hand
> The sequence cuts to the film title as a bullet is fired

The things we've had to change:

The roles of our characters have changed to two agents and a developer instead of the previous character roles of three teenagers, one of whom steals the weaponised suit and kills the two friends.

The plot is a lot less complex allowing us to film it more easily and also allowing the audience to understand the sequence without having to explain the background of the characters and the reasoning behind their actions.

While looking for inspiration and ideas for our sequence, we came across this how-to video on gunfights. 

Although our idea was modified and does not include an actual gunfight of this type, the video still gives valid insight into spacing and proximity when filming a visually exciting action scene.

The video highlights key points of any action scene, especially one where there is lots of movement. When characters are moving about on screen, it is especially important to cut to master shots and establishing shots in order to establish space between the characters, as this is changing. The 180 degree rule is also of utmost importance, as breaking this rule would confuse the audience. The video puts it in simpler terms, explaining that one character should always be pointing his gun the same way, and the same goes for the other character

Furthermore, this guide video shows how over the shoulder shots can help establish space and can be used to view someone in the distance from the perspective of the character, while also showing the gun and its line of sight. Another similar technique used is point of view shots, which also help establish the scene to the audience.

The most relevant point that applies to our sequence is the idea of cutting back to the master shot to establish spacing, especially if characters have moved. between these cut-aways it would be fine to add a variety of close ups and more complex framed shots such as tracking and panning, as long as the 180 degree rule is adhered to and the master shot is shown when appropriate.

With the information gathered from this video, we are now able to revise our shot list in order to make our sequence coherent to the audience

Our idea is comprised of three characters, our protagonist, and two agents.

These agents would be looking for a government project which they did not know of, and had been stolen by the protagonist. They pull up outside the block of garages, and exit their car, after which they notice that their tracking unit has failed. They then proceed to scan the area for computer bugs and get killed by our protagonist creeping up on them.

We presented our idea to our teacher and our class using a Power Point presentation, outlining key information such as the plot, the characters names, the actors, the location and the type of genre we were going for. We also presented the current films that influenced our production and our idea, these films were Shooter and James Bond.

We were "amber-lit" by our teachers, who permitted us to go out on a test shoot and see if the setting and the plot would work. We soon discovered that filming with a car was extremely difficult as the windows had a slight tint and reflected greatly meaning we couldn't see the characters inside. We also had issues with who could legally drive the car in the shot and therefore decided to ditch the car in favour of the agents walking in to the garage compound.