Costumes and reasons

In my play I have 4 main characters who will be in need of costumes. For each person I want them to be distinctly different from one another; I'm stitching together two completely different scenes together whilst only one scene has audio. There is a possibility that this may become overly complicated and so I wanted to allow the audience as much help as I can without giving information away for free, I want people to engage with it...

Alex (Played by me): wears a smart shirt, to show that he is comfortably while working. The shirt is a good fit on him as he knows that he will be wearing it and others like it regular. He is however wearing jeans showing that he is still privy to some comforts. Upon his ear he dons a blue tooth head set witch he uses constantly throughout the scene. At time of writing there is one shot, that has been filmed but still waits to be edited, that shows Alexis socks, these are the only colourful thing that Alex is seen to be wearing as i wanted him to be formal while still showing he has a "colourful" side.

Tim (Played by Zach): I needed people to not get attached to this character too much as I have him killed of within the first two minutes of the film. Tim is dressed in a ugly corduroy suit over an old school shirt, finished off with sneakers and tight fit trousers.  These items were all chosen as they were tatty or old a so didn't matter weather or not they got dirty or ripped. He carries a knife as he is a small time operative who wasn't expecting to be set upon by the person who he was assigned to watch.

Sam (Played by Ollie): This is the classic good-guy-gone-bad, for this I used a thick black coat as this is stereotypical of characters in this role. For he is also supposedly out of active service he wore smart but casual shoes to match his trousers. This was all complemented by the slick gun holster that he had by his right hip as a slight personal statement. Designing the look for this character was relatively easy as many films had already laid out the template for me to follow.

Jack (Played by Jonathan): This character was probably the hardest to dress as while he was meant to be the boss in charge he is also passably on an undercover mission as one line talks about how by him breaking character the whole of western Germany gets put in danger. I eventually settled on an out-fit similar to Sam's to show that the characters aren't too dissimilar in themselves, his shoes were smart but I don't believe that there are any shots were Jonathan's feet are visible as most of his shots are either medium to close up or standing behind a wall. Jacks phone is large and sleek showing that he can afford such a phone, I wanted this character to come across as unfriendly but direct, I'm not sure I managed it.

Opening Skyfall

Analysing an Opening Scene to a film

•       Sound:

•       Sound is very important within an opening to help set the tone mood and atmosphere.

•       Non-diegetic music is used to reflect the narrative events such as in times to look back and reflect on what has happened in the past or bringing the audience up to date with what has happened in the characters lives leading to this moment, but in the opening of Skyfall we are left in the dark about what is really going on and only fed breadcrumbs in order to work out a plot line.

•       Diegetic sound is used in the dialogue between the characters Bond and M, it reveals that we are witnessing a backup man sent in to salvage something that has just been lost. This shows that the genre is action as the characters are talking about agents and shootings all whilst obeying orders.

•      Camera Angles:

•      A close-up shot is used to show a character as he walks towards the camera from a long shot through a medium shot and stops just as a beam of light revels his face and we see who it is, James Bond.

•      An establishing shot isn’t used within the first two minutes as a bike chase leading in to a train and car chase will soon revile to us a large proportion of the city that they are in. As a result of this we have to guess for the opening and judging by the furniture and people and dead bodies we see we assume that we are in England as everything seems to be posh and old, as if in a manor house.

•      A two shot is used of the characters James Bond and Agent Ronson to show their relationship as Bond tries to help him by pressurising the wound and M orders bond to leave him and retrieve a stolen hard disk from a laptop discarded in the room.

•      Characters:

•      The main characters are introduced in the opening scene when the silhouette of James walks down a dark corridor towards the camera, the audience recognises that they are the main characters through the use of the dialogue and camera shots that they are involved in.

•      Enigma codes:

•      Enigma codes are used to tease the audience and engage them in the narrative so they carry on watching the film. Certain enigmas are included in the opening such as puzzles about what is so important about the particular hard drive that has gone missing as it seams to be very important, questions are left unanswered about why people are so prepared to just let others die for part of a computer.

•      The audience want to know what will happen to the character and so will stay to watch the film to the end, loosing the worries that have been risen by modern life and so because of this are  then also likely to tell their friends about it eventually bringing a lot more people in to see the film.

•      Symbolic codes are shown in the mise-en-scene:

•      In the opening the audience would identify symbols such as blood dripping from the corner of Ronsons mouth these could make the audience know that he will die from this as that is the Hollywood symbol that this person has gone. Because of this we deliberately don't get attached to this character and instead relate to the way that Bond feels for this character.

•      Props/ costumes:

•      The audience can see that the character is wearing a loos suit with a gun holster to the left of his stomach this shows that he is serious and prepared to kill this is typical of the genre because in action films people seam to always be killing or being killed

•      Props are featured such as guns and pieces of technology this is typical of the genre as it shows what kind of people with passably power over their fellow characters.

•      Cliches:

  Noticeable cliches are used in the opening scene such as the blood form the side of the mouth this engages the audience as they recognise these features and can predict what is going to happen in the narrative.

Targets

Well done Matt, you have clearly been working on your research and planning.


I suggest that you complete the following posts next:


Character/actor interviews - ask the actors about how they fit their character role, what stereotype do they represent in the film?

Props for Opening

 Every spy film needs guns. That's a fact. I gave Sam a silencer to show that he knows what he is doing and this kill isn't fulled with passion but instead need.

I gave Sam (The main Bad Guy) this gun to show that he thinks little of killing but complimented it with a holster that he still thinks it should be done properly.

I also gave Sam this knife only for wielding and making a good sound when it hits the floor, this knife wont be used in fighting as it is a real knife and is only there to be aesthetically pleasing.

 

Mean while I decided not to leave Tim completely defenceless. He was given this serrated knife as a way of showing that he isn't completely incompetent and he knows that he is in danger.

 

Alex is at home in the film so I didn't have many options as to how I could dress up and following a stereotypical good guy. So I had to use something basic and simple. Such as dads old blue tooth headset.

  

To add a little something and to also give a real sense of pain to the film we decided to use copious amounts of blood in order to show our characters aren't immortal.

 

As an added disturbed factor I wanted Sam to be despised by the audience and so I gave him a counter to show that he treats killing as if its a game so by showing him counting the death on a clicker we see that he has already killed 128 people before killing Tim.

 

Story Board

 Start of the opening will have the classic unedited COLUMBIA opening just like all other films that they have done.
[15 seconds]

The scene will be set with Alex and Emma walking their dog (I cant draw dogs) through a park. The shot type will be long shot in order to capture everything in the shot.
[10 seconds]

 Scene will fade to black and the we will be on a dolly shot following a new character over London bridge, The shot will be a close up of his hand so as to not reveal his face too soon.
[5 seconds]

 This scene will interrupt the London setting as Tim runs across a medium shot too fast to see who it is. All the time a phone will be heard ringing but obviously not from this shot.
[2 second]

 The phone is shown along with the back of our mystery London characters head, as the ringing tone continues to ring out the camera will pan away and focus on big Ben to reveal without a doubt that we are in London.
[5 seconds]

 The phone will be picked up by Alex as his girlfriend carries on walking a little way to allow Alex to receive the call from his boss, medium shot with Alex in the foreground and Emma in the background.
[10 seconds]

 With a quick flash to black this time we will return to Tim this time running straight at the camera as a slight jump scare. This shot will only last a second and should be a good contrast to the previous longer shots.
[2 seconds]

 By this point when we return to our London man he will be sitting at a cafe looking through various files and papers still talking into the phone.
[15 seconds]

 Showing that he is human Alex will stop to tie a shoe lace still in a medium shot but as he bends down to reach his lace the camera will follow his eye level showing that he has the prevalence in this shot.
[15 seconds]

 This isn't the camera angle. It is instead a birds eye view of where the camera will travel whth both the camera and Tim be moving forwards. In this shot im wanting to focus on Tim's Emotions and see his face for the first time.
[5 seconds]

 This is then view of a fight that Tim was running away from in this there will be multiple angles but mainly taken from places such as point "A" to show that neither person has ultimate power and that the audience is above such a petty fight.
[20 seconds]

 This shot will be taken through the use of a RC helicopter to watch as Tim's body is thrown over the edge and falls to the floor as Sam disposes of the body. This will be my example of an extreme long shot.
[5 seconds]

 This shot will be taken as if we are underground in a worm eye view, I plan to make this shot work by having my actor resting on three chairs just out of shot supporting his head and legs, he will just have to suspend his arms himself. Same will then peer over the edge of the bridge and quickly disappear from the shot.
[6 seconds]

The final shot before the Title comes up will be an extreme close up of Alex's face as he says a final line condemning his partner Sam for what we have seen him do.

[5 seconds]

[Total time 2 minutes]

Planning of Scene Two

Setting:

I am planning on using a small bridge with a back drop of woods to try and show that my characters are in a remote location and that they are alone, so that it doesn't matter if one kills the other then no one will know. I have chosen this bridge in-particular as it is low and spans a dip rather than a river, because of this I can have someone thrown over the bridge and then be easily filmed without the worry injury. I will either use a mattress or a dummy to allow our man to fall from the bridge.

The scene where a sniper picks off Tim will be timed using walkie-talkies or shouting to get Tim to fall down just as the trigger is pulled. We are able to add in noise over the top of filming such as shouting demands as these shots will be silent with music and a telephone conversation being heard instead of the diegetic sound created by the actors.

Costumes:

Tim: Big coat with baggy trousers and light shoes so that they can then be turned into dummy by joining it all together. I might do this by cutting away just the body rolls over the edge if the dummy doesn't look convincing and then cut to Tim lying on the ground looking up at were Sam is standing.

After thought: I have now tried with different ways of forming a body and nun have worked how i wanted them to. They either fall a part when stress is applied, or doesn't look real. In light of this I will instead be using just a plane white shirt and a cheep waistcoat from a charity shop. Both of witch are able to become dirty and bloody as they aren't needed for anything else.

Sam: All most all black but still looking smart despite being dressed in casual cloths. Jeans will be ironed and clean. He will be wielding a gun that is stored in a gun holster on his right hip.