DIY Camera Cover

 

 

Below are pictures of how we sheltered the camera from the rain- David's hat! We wrapped it around the camera and hooked it round the bottom of the steadycam so that it didnt fall off when we were shooting.

 

 

 

Characters: Introduction

Even though it is brief, we thought an introduction to each character would be better than none! So here is Nick, Anthony, James, David, and I introducing each of our roles in the film and the story line linking us all together.

Nick plays the dead body in the film. We only see a quick shot of him as the detectives are walking into the shot, and the second shot is from his point of view, but this builds the tension about what has happened to his character.

Anthony plays a CSI detective, and is featured a few times throughout the footage. He is mainly seen dusting for prints on the nearby furniture, but Anthony also films the footage of Alex Cross walking onto set.

James plays Detective Jack Walker, the more experienced detective. He is in every shot of the footage, as he has the main role. He is seen talking to the CSI detective at the start (me) and is then the main focus of the scenes afterwards.

David plays Detective Alex Cross, the new detective. He is in every shot, just like James, but Alex Cross is not the focus of every shot, as he is portrayed as having less authority than Detective Walker, so we needed to potrtray that through camera shots and camera angles.

I play a CSI detective at the start of the scene, and I talk to Detective Walker about finding some witnesses. I then operate the camera for the rest of the shots, and operate the light and make sure each shot represents the detective in the way me and David had agreed.


Below is the video of us introducing ourselves (excluding me as I am operating the camera!)

https://vimeo.com/85436430

Behind The Scenes!

As a little preview, we filmed a tour of the set and described our plans for the shoot and the meaning behind a lot of our props.

Here is David talking about the setting and basically why we did what we did to make the scene more realistic and crime screne-like.


behind the scenes clip

Script

Opening Scene : *Main character exits the car and walks into the building/house of the crime scene*

(Main character walks proposed route through the crime scene until he locates the man he is looking for, mid conversation with a CSI specialist)

Jack Walker: I want you to see if there are any witnesses in the area- ask next door and across the street.

CSI Specialist: Yes Sir.

(Jack Walker turns around and notices Alex Cross; they begin in conversation)

Jack Walker: *Brief pause* You must be Cross.

Alex Cross: You would be too, Sir. Just call me Alex.

(They shake hands)

Jack Walker: Alright, I'm Jack by the way. Well, this isn't the nicest case to start with, I'm afraid- or so I've been told. (The detectives begin walking through the scene) This all started with an anonymous call this morning; the call was made from a phone box so unfortunately we can't trace the caller.

(The detectives come across a set of windows along the building frame, none of which are broken- everything is clean and tidy)

Alex Cross: Hmm, no broken windows, no mess; awfully clean.

Jack Walker: Yeah, strange. The method of murder seems more radical than the method of entry. You don't seem much like a rookie to me.

Alex Cross: I think one thing you learn from this job is the wonders of perception.

Jack Walker: Quite so.

(The two detectives begin to walk over to the dead body)

Alex Cross: Damn, they don't tell you about the smell.

John Walker: Don't worry, it grows on you. Hmm, it should have been a clean kill but this is peculiar; such a violent method but then the body was placed so neatly.

Alex Cross: Wait...What's that?

(Detective Cross pulls a piece of paper, which is covered in blood, out of the victim's hand and hands it to Walker; he begins to read the note)

Alex Cross: Well..What is it?

Jack Walker: I have no idea...It's jumbled. Letters and numbers, symbols too. But it doesn't look like any code I've seen before.

(Jack Walker puts the note into an evidence bag held by a CSI Specialist)

Jack Walker: *heavily exhales* This is looking like it's gonna be a long one.


(The scene continues with a time lapse of the crime scene being investigated)

Alex Cross: (Narration) And that's how it started; putting a young detective like me on that case was a big mistake. It just made no sense. Nothing this killer ever did made sense. This case was just the first of many; every week we'd just see more and more bloodshed, with a new note each time, and each time just a mess of letters and numbers. We interviewed suspects left, right, and centre, but none of them fit. This case didn't work with police guidelines, and so, we weren't going to either...

Storyboards

Here are the original storyboard drawings, compared with clips from the actual film. They may have changed slightly from the original drawnings because of difficulties with filming and  editing difficulties

We wanted to start with an establishing shot of the surrounding area, and make the house look remote - a stereotypical setting for a crime thriller. However, as this was too hard to do, we settled for a low-positioned close up shot of the detective exiting the car. This worked to our advantage, however, as we tried to hide the face of the detective until a scene inside the house, and this high angle shot allowed us to do this.

Again, this shot was used to hide the identity of the detective until we see him for the first time talking to the older detective, and this creates a sense of mystery amongst the audience.

 

 

This shot is of the detective walking up to the house, and ducking under some police tape at the bottom of the steps. Just like the previous shot, the audience cannot see the face of the detective until he is talking to the older detective inside of the crime scene, and this is mysterious for the audience.

 



This shot is of the detective inside the house, walking towards the crime scene. The audience cannot see anything apart from the back of the detective and the inside of the house, and this creates a sense of mystery amongst the audience.

 

This scene is the first glimpse the audience get of the older detective. We use an over the shoulder shot of Alex Cross looking onto the crime scene, where John Walker is talking to a CSI Specialist, to make the audience and the younger detective see the crime scene for the first time, together.

 

The shot is just before the detectives start walking towards the body. They both converce as the camera changes position from behind Alex Cross to behind John Walker.

 

 

The shot-reverse-shot is used to get the reaction of both characters when talking to eachother about the crime scene and

 

 

 

 

Lights, Camera, Action!

Today was our one and only day of filming, so we were praying it would go well! 20 minutes after we scheduled to shoot, one person bailed on us, so we had to make do with the characters we had.

Here is a rough idea of what our credits will look like:

David Smith - Alex Cross
James Appleby - Jack Walker
Nick Bowyer - dead body
Amy Washbourne - Crime Scene Investigator
Anthony Allan - Crime Scene Investigator 2
Director - Amy Washbourne and David Smith
Camera Operators - Amy Washbourne and Anthony Allan
Costumes - Amy Washbourne
Props - Amy Washbourne

etc etc.

Below are a few pictures of the set, and some bloopers too!

Now You See Me by Louis Leterrier - Opening Scenes Analysis

As we see from the opening titles, the film is produced by Summit Entertainment, Lionsgate, and K/O Paper Productions. These are all very well-known companies and are therefore expected to produce a film up to the standards of the production companies.

The film starts with an establishing shot of a dark room in a flat. The darkness created a mystery, and there is non-diegetic sound used in the form of a voice over, which is the voice of the man whom we see standing in front of the mirror with his eyes closed, about to do a card trick. As he has his eyes closed, it shows the audience that he has done this before and he knows what he is doing, so we expect the trick to be good and to shock us. As the voice utters "Closer.....come closer", the camera moves in towards the character, which makes the audience feel as if they are there and they are involved. The man in the room is central, which makes him the focal point of the entire scene. The non-diegetic music playing throughout the opening scenes builds the tension as the tricks are being shown to the audience, and then the tempo crescendos as the trick is revealed.

 

The next scene opens with an establishing shot of Chicago:

We then see the character we saw in the flat, playing a card game with a women with a crowd of people surrounding him. The fact that he is playing a card game could suggest that, later in the film when they turn to theft, they think crime is just a game to them. The position of the camera makes it look like the character is showing the cards to the audience and not the character behind the camera. This gets the audience involved and as if they have a part to play in the film.

 

The character throws the cards up in the air after asking if her card was in the pack, and when she said no, her card appeared on the side of the building in lights. The large-scale trick sets the plot for the rest of the film.

 

 





We then see a hooded figure stood in amongst the crowd; this creates a mysterious atmosphere and makes the audience want to keep watching to find out who he/she is. This character appears in each of the 4 scenes which introduces the main characters, so we know that there is something connecting them all.

 

 


 

 


 

Final Locations

As no industrial estates have gotten back to me about being able to film there, my partner has suggested that we use his garage as the crime scene, and his living room for inspecting the corpse.

I will upload pictures of the location before we start shooting.

Industrial Estate - Hunting

Below are the names of the industrial estates for which I have enquired about using a plot for filming the crime scene, along with a picture of them. I chose these locations because they are easily accessed and they all look very professional and are great sites for a crime scene re-enactment.

 

 I am going to email each of the industrial estates and enquire if any have a free plot for which we can film in. Updates will follow.

Music Copyright Update

We recieved an email back from the management of The Heavy, with very specific requirements for the use of the song in our project. Unforunately, this means we can no longer use the original version of the song we first hoped, but, instead, my partner has found a cover of the song we can use.

Below is a printscreen of the email recieved and the reply we sent:

Location Scouting

For the crime scene, I pictured an industrial estate-type setting. I have contacted Sacriston Parish Council about hiring one of the blocks for filming, and I will update my blog when I get a reply.

I am also going to contact other industrial estates in the area and enquire about using an industrial estate block in the shooting.

Music Copyright Enquiry

In one of my previous posts, I expressed my wish to use the song 'Short Change Hero' by The Heavy in the opening sequence of my final project.


I got in contact with the management of the band and send the following email: (Updates will follow)

Audience and Age Rating

In terms of the age rating, we are aiming for a 12A as this would increase the size of our target audience and allow us to branch out to a lot more people. However, this would also mean we have to be wary about the amount of violence, blood, and the nature of the language we use, so we are able to qualify for the 12A rating.

Most crime films are 12As, as it opens them up to a larger audience and will result in a larger profit as more people are able to see the film.


The following link is the BBFC website which states the classification of 12 and 12A films:

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/12a-and-12

Music

I suggested to David, my partner for this project, that we use Short Change Hero by The Heavy, as it has a Rock / Blues theme to it, and I thought it would fit perfectly within the Crime / Thriller genre. The music can be easily overlayed by the opening credits, which makes it such a good song for us to use.

Screenplay

This is taken from my partner's blog, as we are working together on the project.


SCREENPLAY:

OPENING SCENE: FILM STARTS WITH A STING OF A CAR DOOR CLOSING QUICKLY. THE SOUND ACCOMPANIED BY WHICH IS IN LINE WITH THE FILM STARTING INSTANTLY.

Someone dressed in smart office wear is seen from ground level exiting a car (Ankle Level shot), He then is shot from a side angle closing the door and walking away, the camera follows him and pans up to reveal a crime scene complete with Police Line Tape. The camera then starts from a later point and starts to follow the detective into the building which is lined with Yellow Crime Scene tape; on occasion the CSI team can be seen walking around. We continue on with and over the shoulder shot where we can see another detective talking to someone, the first detective calls to him and he turns around revealing his face. The first detective is now seen in a series of shot reverse shot conversation which starts to have the two of them walking around the crime scene. During this they converse with each other about the case and how the first detective is a “Rookie” to the crime scene business. The scene continues on with a shot from the point of view of the dead body, the two detectives walk over him and crouch slightly, from here it turns back to shot reverse shot from side to side  where they look and notice a small piece of paper in his right hand.  Upon noticing it the camera is slightly higher over them as they pick it up. The camera changes to show them level height reading the note for a second before we change to a shot of the note in his hand. The first detective bags it and hands it to one of the CSI team for analysis. The camera changes to a long shot where a series of shots fade from one to another in a proposed time lapse, the narration from the first detective talks about how nothing in the scene seemed to make logical sense. The scene fades out, one last piece of narration gives a dramatic close to the scene and then the credits for the opening begin.

The credits are essentially crime scene evidence next to titles or police equipment or even newspaper articles.

Shopping!!

Whilst David is in the process of writing the script, I decided to do some online shopping for props for our final project. The total came to £12.47 which we will split the cost for.

I am also going to bring some makeup brushes with me when filming the 'crime scene' scene to make it even more realistic.

These should all be delivered hopefully by Thursday, ready for filming next week!

The Main Plot

In terms of a basic film description, we have a story driven by two detectives investigating a string of mysterious murders. The deaths themselves are very interesting because they each hold a series of numbers that lead to the next murder scene. The two key detectives are against the clock as they attempt to delve into the mind of a man who stands on the brink of genius, grounded within insanity.

The footage shown in the first few minutes will revolve around seeing one detective visit the first case before it was deemed a serial case. It will then explain in narration, accompanied by scenes of office work and interrogation, the difficulty of the case.

Film Distribution Companies Research

Below are a list of film distribution companies and a few examples of films they have distributed:

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
This distribution company focuses mainly on animated films, but also only distributes Disney created films. We will not use this distribution company for our film as Disney does not tend to do crime / thriller films, but focuses on U, PG, and 12A films. For these reasons, we will be using a company which focuses more on distributing films in the genre we are using, as it means they will have more experience with distributing these films, and therefore might be able to increase our audience and our profits.

• Marvel's The Avengers
• Iron Man 3
• Pirates Of The Caribbean
• Toy Story
• Alice in Wonderland

Columbia Pictures
This distribution company produces a very varied and wide range in genres regarding the films they distribute, so they have experience and knowledge in all areas of films. However, for our movie, we are looking for a more specialised company which focuses on just one or two linked genres, rather than a wide range of genres.

• Robocop
• Spiderman
• The Smurfs
• Skyfall
• 21 Jump Street

Warner Bros
This company is possibly the most famous, which is one of the reasons as to why we are not using it for our film. Even though it is highly likely that our film will be reached by more people with this distribution company, our film is too low profile and low budget for it to 'fit in' with the other films it distributes.

• The Hobbit
• Man Of Steel
• The Great Gatsby
• The Hangover
• The Dark Knight (Rises)

Momentum Pictures
This company would be great for our movie, as it produces films which are in or related to our genre of choice. With the help of this distribution company, we are able to use not so well known actors or directors and get the film recognised and in cinemas throughout the world. For example, Insidious has no famous actors in it and the director is not necessarily one which we would immediately recognise, but the film has been seen all over the world, and is now onto its 4th sequel.

• Movie 43
• The Woman In Black
• Lawless
• The King's Speech
• Insidious

Icon Productions
Alike Columbia Pictures, this distribution company is involved with a wide range of genres, which could potentially restrict its knowledge of a particular genre, i.e. crime / thriller.

• Bridge To Terebithia
• Nowhere Boy
• What Women Want
• Braveheart

Entertainment Film Distributors
This distribution company works with different types of films, but mainly sticks to crime and its sub genres. This makes it a definate possibility for distributing my film.

• American Hustle
• The Butler
• The Inbetweeners Movie
• Spy Kids
• Scream 4

For my film, Entertainment Film Distributors or Momentum Pictures would be the best company for my genre, as it has experience with producing very famous crime-thriller films which have went on to sell well in the box office.

'Credits' Research

Every opening sequence has credits either during or at the end of the sequence, which is why I am researching them- so that I can choose which titles will fit my project best.

I started by simply googling 'crime film opening titles' and then 'thriller film opening titles' and these are the results I found.

 

 

I concluded from the pictures that there is a common theme within these; the titles tend to be over a series of images- either running into the actual film itself, or just simply as a totally separate sequence itself.

For a trailer, I would use a similar technique, but I will wait until I have edited my work until I decide which style of credits would be most effective.