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: