Film Brainstorm

Mood board

Inspiration for my film idea

I have always had a passion for action films, The way they have the ability to remove you from the world you are living in and place you into the world of superheros and spies. There isn't a man or woman alive who doesn't wish that they had a super power of one form or another. Everything runs smoothly in an action film, if an actor has a problem they just work at it and eventually the problem gets resolved, This is never happens in real life, we as people are flawed to make stupid choices that we regret later into our lives and when we try to fix those problems, strands of unresolved tension are always left floating free. The world of film gives us hope that we will find the girl of our dreams or we will be praised for everything we have done, or even that we may get a super power and rise above everyone else. Life is rarely this miraculous.

Fight scene setting

When I first came up with the idear this is how I had imagined/remembered the setting that I wrote the script around, I wanted a nice secluded without being wiled frame so this was perfect.

 

I wanted to film on a summersday as it is bright and warm for the actors benefit and sunny picturers just look better than miserable cloudy films, but it worked well as it gave the film a healthy sense of gloom and doom.

The second part of my film will be shot on this bridge to contrast from the busy london setting that we started at, in the beginning.

 Tim Foster will begin the scene by running down the road from this side. We will have watched him running down from different angles as we see how scared he looks. We don't yet know what he is running away from.

He will fall down at the point where the bridge starts as if there was a tripwire. The camera will then cut back to show Sam Jones standing a little way away with a relaxed stance with his gun holstered.

 

We will then see Tim still furiously crawling to get away from Sam as he calmly walks into shot towering over Tim showing that he has power over him but I'm using a high angled shot to show that ultimately neither person has any real power.

 

 The fight will proceed until a sniper picks off Tim from the woods close by.

 

The camera will return to Sam and Tim  but slightly zoomed in to change the feeling and draw the audience into what is happening. Here Sam will drag Tim to the edge of the bridge and look over the side with Tim at his feet.

 

We will then cut to a wide shot showing the whole bridge With Sam and Tim slightly off centre showing their unimportance and give hopefully seeming more believable if the characters aren't in the centre of the bridge as the chances are unlikely. We will then see Tim bee pushed off the edge of the bridge and fall to the floor below.

 

We will then pull in close to see th body then go for a worm eye view handing controllof shot to Sam as we stare up at him from the bridge. He will then leave with the title falling over Tims face and allong the side of the bridge as an underline to emphasise the words.

Scene Ends

Research and Planning Targets

Your film, which needs to have been filmed by the end of term, needs to be planned thoroughly and every element needs to be written about and evidenced online. Your own research into film openings could be a lot more thorough and you need to do some more analysis using key terminology to explore mise en scene, camera, sound, editing and conventions of genre. Use the following links and upload and analyse. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCTgUq6hzUk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOLgGA-Yqc8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xPYHygck6o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OYBEquZ_j0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLeix0ZYSCE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JfS90u-1g8 Your research and planning doesn't yet showcase the independence and detail of analysis you are capable of! Push yourself! These are the things that need to be done - use us to support you as much as possible and come to me any Tuesday or Thursday after school in S18. Research Genre Research Soundtrack research (non copyright music) Costume and location research – google earth and pictures you’ve taken. Actors and props photos and interviews Audience Research and Profiling (typical audience member and similar films) Uploaded YouTube videos of openings - analysed Opening titles analysed in detail – font researched Analysed Film Openings from from your genre in particular Institution research (Paramount etc) Certificate research Planning Own film idea brainstorm Own film treatment Relevant Online Tutorials and Comment Documenting of influences on production Shot lists Consideration of representation in your film and stereotyping – use theory from G325. Questionnaire (and feedback) Get some feedback on your initial ideas! Diary of filming/editing etc with photos and screen grabs Mood board Script Practice titles created and uploaded Storyboard – animatic.

Prelimenary Task

We were set the task of doing this right at the beginning and till now it has been stored in some dark corner of the hard drive.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjvP7OfMLr4

Children of Men Opening Scene

     The film starts out with a blacked out screen with what are obviously news reporter voices over the top. I like this effect as it shows tells the audience what is going on, without just putting facts up on the screen, I also like this as there is some sub knowledge that we aren’t given as we assume is general knowledge to everyone as it is the norm to the characters. We are left to work out that people have stopped having children but we aren’t just told this, we are however told that the world’s youngest person had died at the age of 18 years, 4 months, 20 days, 16 hours and 8 minutes.

     When we eventually get a picture we are shown the inside of a shop crammed with people watching the news story all with glum faces. We have almost every type of person in this one shot; whites, browns, blacks, Asians, a police man, a young couple, a business man even an old lady and her little dog. This shot also has a TV in the background at the other end of the shop allowing us to see what they are watching while we can also see the expressions. A man breaks through to the front of the café and buys a coffee, he is standing in the middle of shot and so we are of understanding that this is our main character.  A double decker red bus trundles past the big windows showing us that we are in London, this type of hinting in films I find particularly affective; if you’re not looking for it then you don’t register it.

     We follow Theo as he leaves the coffee shop and ventures out into the street, he turns left after the door but the camera goes right to give us a view Baby Diego face on the side of an electronic billboard. At this point we still don’t actually know the real reason as to why there aren’t any other people under the age of 18. Theo pauses just outside the coffee shop to put his cup down for a moment while he fishes out a bottle from his inside coat pocket. We see him to begin to pour something from the bottle into his coffee, but not for long as the camera then pans left so that Theo’s back is shielding our view of the bottle as he finishes pouring and we see his arms moving to screw the lid back on. I like this technique as we don’t actually know for sure what it was he poured into his drink, from the shape of the bottle we are led to believe that it was some form of whisky, this opens a whole array of new questions such as why is he drinking what does he want to forget? I like this kind of hinting as we don’t know everything but we can begin to make assumptions and guesses as to what is wrong with him, and later we find out.

     But our attention is quickly pulled away from Theo as the coffee shop that he was just in explodes in a ball of flames. Everyone standing near the shop falls to the floor and all the traffic stops, the sound of the explosion created a ringing as if we were really there. The camera then gets carried towards what is left of the shop and then as the smoke clears a girl emerges holding here severed left arm in her right arm. The screaming and ringing continues as the screen goes blank and the film title fills the screen.

     Over all I like this opening as it incorporates lots of small simple effects such as only using two shots for the whole of the opening with one of them being a cut away to see what’s on the TV but other than that, the scene is uninterrupted giving a sense of realism into the opening.

Drag Me to Hell opening

     We start our scene looking at a respectable posh looking house with two nice cars on the driveway; we are told that we are in California in 1969. Then a truck pulls into shot up the driveway, but this truck has old pieces of wood in it and is covered in dust and mud. It doesn't fit in this scene, it a bit of an eye sour showing that the people driving it are from a low family. The next shot is reversed showing the back of the truck where we see a woman sitting holding a blanket wrapped around something. A small detail that is obviously deliberate is the number plate is different to the other cars showing that the family has traveled across states just to get to this house; this shows that they must be at a place that should be able to help with whatever is wrong, as they wouldn't have traveled so far.

     The mother runs to the door and calls for someone to come and help, when the woman of the house appears at the door she asks what is wrong in a foreign language, instantly alienating us from the actors and instead of feeling sorry for the people we look to see what is going to happen; this is the verfremdungseffekt. We are introduced to the boy in the blanket who has apparently been hearing voices and that he knows that something is coming to get him, these are classic examples of horror in films, all we need now is for him to start seeing scary shadows that no one else can see. We soon find out that the cause for all this paranoia is that he stole a silver necklace, from a gypsy stall, and the owner would not accept it back.

     This boy has managed to annoy a group of gypsies who have then put a curse on him, all in a film called “Drag me to Hell”. I hope he will be alright.

     When the silver necklace is presented, from a pocket next to his heart, a fly also appears and fly’s around the lady’s head, this is an association to death as flies tend to congregate around a nice rotting corpse, this hints at the boys near end.

     We then follow the woman into the house. We jump forwards a few minutes and we see the boy’s sweaty face looking up at a stained glass window, what is that on the glass? A shadow?  Hang on scary title, hidden voices, someone coming to get him and now scary shadow. We have got the lot, this is now official a horror film!

     The music turns scratchy and very high pitched we see that there are a dozen clawed hands closing in and blocking out the light. This is another hint that this boys light is about to be blotted out as well.

Something else that I expected from a film with gypsies is revers spells. But as we see the owner of the house starting the ritual with herbs and a candle she is interrupted by the door behind her bursting open as if pushed but there is nothing there. The woman is simultaneously toppled over onto the floor and the boy screams with is pupils filling his eyes. The room fills with wind; papers whirl around floor and we watch the parents of the child get beaten up by this invisible monster. These few special effects give a really good impact on the audience as we are swept up in what is happening and completely drawn in. These effects while are rather simple they are hard to make look good so I won’t be attempting to use these in my film.

Escape Plan Opening

     The film opens with a long shot of a plain brick red building that has a substantial chain link fence and barbed wire top running around the perimeter. Text appears at the bottom of the screen letting us know that we are starting the film at a prison; Bendwater federal penitentiary, Colorado. As far as I can tell this place is fictional but it is based on a similar place in Colorado Bentwater federal penitentiary.

     The camera jumps to inside the prison and we see five layers of cells each with metal bars across the back of the walkways the silver of the metal is only broken up by the orange jumpsuits that the convicts are forced to wear.

     The camera jumps between close up shots of our protagonist between his eyes and hands. We can see that he is weary of his surroundings. We see a bible in his hands, any thought that he might want the bible for religious reasons are shattered when he rips out and burs the page. This is a slight hint that he will escape as the verse that he burns is Jeremiah 15:6 witch talks about how the bad people will be destroyed, so by Stallone destroying this we see that he will try to defy what has been written, a type of reference that is insignificance but has thought behind it.

     There is no music over the film giving a feeling of solitary when we are made to feel on edge. There are low voices as Sylvester Stallone draws on the wall using the ash as paint and his thumb as a brush.  At this point we don’t know what he is drawing but later we find that it is a copy of a picture that his child drew him.

     This give a good impression on the audience with slight clever spins on simple detail, I would love to be able to put something like this in my film but it requires a lot of deep thinking and I won’t have a chance to finish the punch line as I’m only doing the opening.

Script for second part of film

Cast: Main protagonist – Agent Alex Mackles

         Good boss – Jack May

 [Jack is sitting at a local coffee shop outside looking over Trafalgar square]

[Alex is walking in a park with dog and Wife early in the morning]

[Jack uses an ear piece to make a phone call to Alex]

[Dial town is heard]

Alex:      Who is this?

Jack:      Alex, its Jack. Are you alone?

[Alex looks at his wife]

Alex:      Yes, yes I am. What’s gone on Jack?

Jack:      You remember your old partner, Sam Jones?

Alex:      Oh that’s what his surname was. He would never tell me, Cheeky little bar…

Jack:      ALEX, Sam’s gone he hasn’t been seen since Hong Kong 6 months ago.

Alex:      That’s understandable, you’ve read the file. With respect Sir, he was granted leave to recover from …

[Ponders]

                … The accident.

Jack:      I know, I issued it but in such circumstances we like to keep an eye them to make sure they are ok.

Alex:      So they don’t go off and join Al-Qaeda you mean.

[Jack splutters on his tea]

Jack:      This isn’t funny Alex. Every operative who is given leave has someone following them in this case we assigned Tim Foster, he was a kind young man, went to oxford you know…

[Interrupts]

Alex:      “Was?”

Jack:      Pardon

Alex:      You said “he WAS a kind man”

[Jack breaths heavily with a slight sigh]

Jack:      That’s the problem, he was found hanging in a tree. We need to know what happened1

Alex:      Why does it have to be me though?

Jack:      You understand how his mind works. He was your partner for 4 years. You must know something.

Alex:      I know as much as you do send someone else.

Jack:      How’s your wife doing, she started coughing blood yet?

[Alex stops walking]

Alex:      What?

Jack:      Your wife, has she started coughing up blood yet?

Alex:      Jack?

[Jack holds up a medical file with Alex’s wife on it]

Jack:      I can see from her file that she recently contracted a rare form of tuberculosis.

Alex:      That’s not right. She has a cough but that’s letting up now.

Jack:      [Sly tone] Are you sure?

Alex:      Yes. We got her checked out when it got worse, but it was just a bad cold.

Jack:      She told you that…?

Alex:      [Small voice] yes.

Jack:      [pause] Do you trust her?

Alex:      What kind of question is that? Of course I trust her.

Jack:      [low chuckle, more to himself] Well, if you find Sam. We will pay for all your wife’s medical bills, she will have the best care a person can get, and I can even get her a place at The Wellington here in London.

Alex:      She isn’t sick.

[Packs his brief case]

Jack:      If you say so.

[Jack hangs up the phone and leaves the café]

[Camera follows Jack without showing face, focuses on hands, briefcase and suit.]

END OF SCRIPT

Initial Ideas for my film

Genera:               Action

Characters:         Main protagonist – Agent Alex Mackles

Good boss – Jack May

Main bad guy – Ex-Agent Sam Jones

Bad boss – Mia Butcher

First Agent – Tim Foster

Setting:                Bridge – Opening scene

                                London– briefing

                                Woods – Hanging of Sam Jones’s previous ‘job’ and other half of briefing scene

The film will open with Tim running down Rookery Hill dressed in a casual suit and jeans clutching a piece of paper, where he will hit a trip wire, visible to the camera after a focus pull from Tim, and fall to the floor. He will turn round then in the middle of the road where he has just run and there will be Sam Jones standing holding a silenced pistol pointed to the floor dressed in a smart black suit and trousers. He will walk to Tim and ask “Where you going Tim?” in a way that the audience knows he doesn’t need to be answered. Tim will plea for a bit before being stabbed and thrown off the bridge; for this shot I will be using a high angled wide shot to show how open the murder is and show that the act is insignificant as there is very little power placed on Tim, camera cuts to a low angled close up shot to show vast difference between the people we have seen.

Scene Ends

Next scene is of Alex and Jack discussing the problem of Sam, a folder will be produced and looked through momentarily. The convocation will then continue along the lines of “he must be stopped” “you’re the only one who knows him well enough” “go and get him” and so on… This scene will take place over the phone with Alex on a hand held phone wearing casual cloths whilst walking his dog through a park and Jack using an ear piece wearing a suit sitting behind a computer at an iconic London location with two pages open, on one page is a file on Sam the other a file on Alex. Across Sam’s file is a red word ROGUE and across Alex’s file it will read SUSPICIOUS in similar font and colour. Camera shows a close up of the picture and the shot fades and changes into Alex walking along, still with his dog, in the same manner as the photo this indisputably shows that this character is the same as the file. The phone convocation ends. Alex looks to his dog “looks like there giving us another chance boy”. Scene cuts back to Jack when someone approaches him ask if that was a wise he replies “he’s all we’ve got”.

Film Ends

James bond Casino Royale Opening

     In James bond Casino Royale we open James Bond is being chased by two perusing bad guy cars, each of the bad guys are wielding guns that seem to have endless ammunition. For the first minute there are no recognizable faces only ever a close up on James eyes and different angles of the cars exhaust and wheels, we are also shown the guns and them being loaded. These scenes are interwoven with a low helicopter of the tunnel over a lake. The tunnel has an open side as it is carved through the mountain. We fly up to the edge and see that the cars a weaving through a lot of traffic. The bad guys start shooting and takeout a tire to explode sending the truck careering across the road into James.  The music that consumes this car chase begins low and is composed of largely stringed instruments with kettle drums underlying the music. The notes begin to get faster and more varied when the helicopter camera gets close to the camera the music soars in pitch and tone taking the tense atmosphere to a high. Then when we have a view of the chase close up the music stops and the sound of horsepower being abused busts from the speakers.

     These shot types and sounds such as tire squeals and guns both show that we are watching an action film as these are used in a lot of major spy films. I am planning to attempt to use some of these in my opening to try and make it seem more

like an action film and less like a character documentary.

The Dark Knight Rises Opening

     The Dark Knight Rises is as an action film with all the characteristics being used; the camera follows over a 4x4 as it ploughs over a field towards an airbase. These settings and vehicles with men holding guns pointing at three men with bags over their heads are classily seen in action genres, the next shot is off a slick black plane with more armed guards around it. It is also shot from a low angle which makes it seem bigger and shows that he has the power over the prisoners.

     Throughout the scene there is low non-diegetic music that is there to keep tension and fast. This builds up excitement getting ready for the questioning of the prisoners, the way the music jumps to me implies that a plot twist is about to arise.

The next few shots establish what kind of people we are dealing with on this plane. Firstly, we have the CIA agent played by Aidan Gillen, he his superior with an obnoxious attitude, the way he talks and interacts with the other soldiers it shows that he is probably ex-military at this point he seems like a possible main character and as he is played by a well-known actor that would lead us to believe that he will probably survive the oncoming problem, however the way he speaks is too arrogant thinking that he is on top everything that is happening it is possible that he will be killed off to show how America think that they know everything when in fact they have the wrong end of the proverbial stick. We also see that the soldiers are slightly stupid as they threaten the captives with being thrown out of a plane and with being shot in the head; it’s fair to say that at this point we don’t like the CIA. After a bit more shouting and threats, we are introduced to our antagonist, Bane, played by Tom Hardy. As soon as we hear his voice; it isn’t natural in the pauses he takes for frequent breaths and it is altered by his mask, we can tell he is the villain as even with the mask on he still has an English accent, as this is an American film; English people only get casted as villains or butlers. Unusually bane admits a way for the CIA agent to kill him effectively and with a lot of pain, but the way Bane doesn’t even flinch when he could be killed easily means that the power has moved to him and that he has the upper hand. The low camera shots on his face give him authority but when we look at the agent we are at his eye level meaning that he is either gaining or loosening power, as he did have hit we conclude that he must be losing it leading up to his inevitable demise.

    

Horror Genre Spider Diagram

Action Genre Spiderdiagram

Romantic cliches

Prince Charming – A lot of romantic film s peruse the idea that there is someone for everyone, but not just that there is someone, but that there is only one person for you out of there.

Suddenly getting ditched at the altar – This is a regally used way of showing what the characters truly want in their heads even when it hasn’t been clear to them.

Male lead has a best friend – The male lead will have a mate that when things don’t go quite according to plan he will return to and his mate will tell him to get back up and try again as he somehow knows that those two are meant for each other. This character then quite often gets left behind by his friend as the pair ride off into the sunset.

Musical montage – All romance film at some point will show a montage as the audience doesn’t need to see all the planning behind events such as them deciding to go to a theme parks and instead we can just watch them on a few rides then instantly change to a silhouette of them walking towards the sea as the sun disappears they will share a kiss to show everyone that they are together.

My Favorite Director - Tim Burton

My Favorite Director - Tim Burton

While there’re many Directors who I am willing to give as my overall favourite director there is one that in my opinion has shone through them all. With films such as Planet of the Apes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Alice in Wonderland tucked safely under his belt, you can be rest assured that he will be remaining at my top spot despite having some stiff competition from the likes of Ron Howard (The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons) and Peter Jackson (Lord of the rings and Hobbit), some of the film industries greats. But as I say my top spot has been claimed by Mr. Tim Burton.

One of the reasons that I believe that he has been so successful is because he understands how to put together a film. He was interested in film from a young age; he loved to spend time in his garden making short films with his friends, probably his most famous childhood film was “Stalk of the Celery Monster” witch he produced and stared in at the age of 13 in the shed at the bottom of his garden.

Tim has directed some of my all-time favourite films to watch. Personally I believe that his stop motion films are the best as no one else is performing in his particular style, Nick Park (director of Wallace and Grommet) is another great animator but his style is a little too … cushy.

If I do a horror themed film then I will make sure that I include elements of Tim Burton’s work in my film as I believe it gives a great effect to the film