Attracting Audiences

When looking at other films within our genre, such as 'P.S. I love you' we would hope to follow the same basis as that company when attracting audiences, for example, the narrative.

'P.S. I love you' contains the narrative of childhood sweethearts, and her life after her partner dies of a sudden brain tumour, and his 'Easter egg' hunt of love letters. This narrative would attract audiences because it takes a very sad and negative key moment that many and most of us have experienced (the death of a loved one) and turning it into a, positive moment within a normal, middle classed woman's life (The Easter egg hunt with his, undying love for her in the letters.)

When we come to creating our film, we hope to attract audience members by the narrative, because the audience that we are aiming our film at, a niche independent audience, would be looking at the narrative more than who was playing the characters, or where it was filmed.




Jade Jacqueline Flack - 8309

Final Shot List

009- Close up into reveal
018- Zoom Out
024- Mid Shot
026- Mid Shot
028- Mid Shot
0:31 Mid Shot
0:33 Mid Shot
034: Close Up
0:36- Extreme Close Up
0:40- Tilt up
0:46- Jump cuts
0:49- Long Shot
0:53- Mid Shot
0:57 Low Angle
1:02- Mid Shot
1:04- Close up
1:06- Close up
1:11- Mid Shot
1:12 Mid Shot
1:14 Over the Shoulder Shot
1:16- Close up
1:17- Mid shot
1:18- Mid shot
1:26- Extreme close up
1:31- Close up
1:31- Close up
1:34- Close up
1:37- Close up
1:39- Close up
1:43- Close up
1:45- High Angle
1:46- Low Angle
1:48- Close up
1: 57- Extreme Close up




































Jade Jacqueline Flack - 8309

Final Film (The Dead End)

Consent Forms

We have written permission to film our actor.

Preparing to Audition

When we go to audition, we will be giving the actors the voice over script and also meeting in a local park. We are meeting within the local park because it was the easiest place for all actors to meet.

We Will be auditioning our actors by

1. Asking them to read the script given to them on the day
2. Asking what they think of the character Alex that they are auditioning for



Jade Jacqueline Flack - 8309

Our Target Audience

Jade Jacqueline flack -8309 

Photographic storyboard

By creating this photographic storyboard, we can now begin to understand how the shots will look when put to the test, and also it allows up to think about how our mis-en-scene and also lighting will be shown in the camera. Jade Jacqueline Flack - 8309

Film script

FADE IN:

Black screen and silence is revealed for some seconds before ALEX’ voice is initially heard through some sort of phone or recording device.

ALEX

It was seven months ago. I was at home doing shit all as per usual. No job…

INT. SARAH’S HOUSE - DAY

The scene displays a family photo which is slowly centred into the middle where Alex and his mum are seen together.

ALEX

and I was still living with my mum (beat) Sarah. She was working late, so I wasn’t expecting the call. It was her friend, Mary.

Sound of MARY crying at the other end of the line.

ALEX

Mum had died. She had left me with nothing. Just the bills and the rent.

Sound of ALEX hanging up.

CUT TO

INT. ALEX’ ROOM - DAY

Alex throws a suitcase onto his bed, unzips the top and begins anxiously chucking various clothes and possessions into it.

ALEX

So I ran. What else could I do? I packed up and left. 

 

THE SIDE TABLE

ALEX’s face is seen for the first time, pausing for a moment and leaning on a side table whilst looking pensively at himself in the mirror. He is an untidy looking man in his early 20s with a vague stubbly beard and untidy hair who clearly hasn’t been outside for some time.

His fists can be seen clenching and his eyes reveal a mood of aggression in him until he lashes out and hits the mirror with his fist. ALEX looks down at his distorted reflection in the broken shards of glass and then up in the cracked mirror with a face of shock.

He finishes packing and zips up the suitcase, before picking it up and leaving the room.

 

Organising Sound

When it came to using non-diegetic sounds/soundtrack in our piece, we had many ideas, and people that could help us with our ideas.


One of our first ports of call was to ask our actor (Christopher Taylor) who is also a musician to create a piece of music that we could possibly use. He did so, but when placing that non-diegetic soundtrack with our animated storyboard, we decided that the track was no good and didn't match the atmosphere that we would of liked to use.

Once we had filmed, and had our first cut without music,  we decided to ask yet another musician to help with our ideas. To this composer, we organised to meet as a group and describe to him exactly what we would need, and also have him a background of the narrative and also the characters. It was a few days before we had a track we could use, and when we received the track, it fitted perfectly with our film.

When it came to sound effects, we used a royalty free website in order to not use copyrighted material, and placed that non-diegetic sound effect on our rough cut 3. This was easy as we were able to, on the day of editing, download the track and use it directly on to our rough cut three.


Jade Jacqueline Flack - 8309

Actors we would like to use within our Film

One of our exercises was to act within our chosen company (independent) as if we were to cast our entire film, and to create a short paragraph about the characters.

Alex smith: 

Alex is within his early twenties, medium height and has a rough edge look. Acting ability is required and no accent needed.  

To play this part, we would choose,  Luke Treadaway, because of his work within characterisation would then be at ease to become 'Alex Smith.'
Physically also, Luke would be able to pull of the 'Grunge' look to the point where we, as directors would want the character 'Alex' to look.  

Amy steel-man: 

Amy is the female lead and like character Alex, is within her early twenties, medium height and weight, and also has a calm, motherly look. Acting ability is required and no accent is needed 

To play this part we would choose, Jenna Coleman as her acting carer, mostly known as 'Clara' she shows compassion, and independence that we would like to see within the character. She also, physically shows the characteristics that we are looking for.

Sarah smith: 

Sarah is Alex's mother and only appears in the flashbacks later on in the film. Medium height and weight and must resemble character Alex. Acting ability is required with no accent 

To play this part, we would choose, Miriam Margolyes because she, physically suits the character. With her other roles, including a professor at Hogwarts, with her acting carer and the type of roles she plays, we believe that she would be able to become 'Sally Smith.'

 David smith: 

David is Alex's father and appears later on in the film as a figment of Alex's imagination. Actor should be of medium/large sizing with acting ability, no accent is required. 

To play this part, we would choose, Keith Wickham as we believe, he could portray the character 'David Smith' to the capacity that we would like to have. Also with his work within Children TV, for example, his role of the voice of the 'Fat Controller' in Thomas the tank  engine, if we were to use an accent, or a differ in voice, the actor would not struggle.













Jade Jacqueline Flack - 8309

Film Diary (Part Two)

We filmed the interior scenes afterwards to avoid lighting condition problems which would affect the Mise en scene of the opening by making the exterior scenes look like they were based at a different time of day than they were meant to be.

We began filming the interior scenes after a break for about 45 minutes during which we prepared the first scene for filming while the actor relaxed. A lot of the room we were using had to be changed and replaced to look aesthetically appropriate for our character and narrative, e.g. an untidy bed, no female related products or bright pink colours, etc...

In order to save time we created the broken glass mirror first and filmed this part before any other scenes so we could clear it up and film the rest of the scene afterwards.
The most difficult part of filming we found was achieving the right angle with such little space, so some shots appeared smaller than intended. The filming took about an hour overall.


Afterwards we gave the actor another quick break so we could clear up the last scene and set up for the final one, which took roughly 20 minutes.

This was our first set up for this scene (right)which we decided looked a little plain on its own an it needed more meaning given to it.

We then found a bright building light which we wanted to use to highlight the daytime setting and give the scene a more nostalgic feel.

This lead to us finding it looked very effective when half the scene was darkened to reflect the character's path of going from light to dark.

The problem with this was when the character walked past the light there was a large shadow on the wall behind so after a few minutes of experimenting we figured a book covering the side of the light was the best option or hiding this.

Once set up was complete we began filming which took us more or less 45 minutes due to us testing angles which might work better to make the scene more interesting for the audience.

Joseph Anderson-Luck -8105

 

Film Diary (Part One)

 

Due to being organised, we were able to film on just one day (30/04/14) and we began at 10:30am and ended at 5:00pm.

 Before we began to actually film, we had to set up our equipment and also any props/special effects that we were going to use, for example, while one group member began to set up on set, the other was with the actor prepping them for the takes.

As you can see,  liquid latex was added to the actors hand, and then thickened with more layers, and red/black face paint to give the illusion of a deeper wound.

The special effect took roughly around 10-15 minutes, which was the time we estimated when creating our plan for the day. Apart from the small complaints from the actor (that he didn't like sitting still) our prep for the day seemed to be going well.

 

Later on within the day (1:00pm onwards) we began to film our exterior shots on location. Things were running smoothly with everyone involved, and we didn't seem to have a problem with filming. When looking at our storyboard we began our first shot with that of 'shot 26' which, in theory was an interesting shot, but put into practice, we didn't realise how hard the shot would be to make.

'Shot 26' included one of our group members sat awkwardly in the back of the car nearly falling out of the car itself. This shot took a lot of time to get because although we took each shot three or more times, to ensure that we would have the right shot, the camera wasn't steady, or group members, or the camera would of been seen in shot. So again, we all thought quickly and changed our seating within the car, and were then able to get the shot that we needed.

Still shooting our exterior, we can up to a hurdle yet again. When consulting the storyboard, we then realise that the actor would have to cry so we could get the shot that we wanted. The actor, although capable of our directing, found it hard to produce actual tears. Different tactics were used, such as the actor fanning his eye, and staring at a spot without blinking, but none those tactics worked. So we ended up using a bottle of water to produce the tears for him instead.  This shot was, although rather funny to film, was rather difficult, and when we come to edit,  as a group, we possibly won't end up using this shot because it doesn't look realistic and the camera was a little shaky on all four takes.

 

Our final exterior shot was easier than the others, and also was one of the final shots within our story board. This shot was at a high angle, and therefore only needed the tripod to be lifted high enough over the actors head. The shot didn't take long, and meant that we were on time with our plan for the day, and also meant that we could have a longer lunch break as we had finished slightly earlier.



*When shooting our interior shots, we also paid attention to Health and Safety on set*





Jade Jacqueline Flack - 8309

Rough Cut Three

Rough order of our Titles

Phoenix Productions

Small talk Pictures

Produced by Jenifer Flannigan and Andy Lucas

Christopher Taylor

Samantha Green

The Dead End

Casting by Jackie Black

 
Costume design by  Stella Artois

Original Music by  Chris Taylor


Editing by Xavier Jimenez

Directed by  Jade Flack and Joseph Anderson-Luck

Jade Jacqueline Flack - 8309

Joseph Anderson-Luck - 8109

Rough Cut 2

Our feedback from rough cut 2:  *Your titles are ALL in the wrong order – look at your research – Produced by does not come at the start * Is that font appropriate? *Consider placing of titles – the ones in the centre of the screen are not following institutional conventions *The jump cuts when he goes out of the door are not great The ECU of the eyes crying does not work – it needs to be longer, it looks like he is sleepy.

Uploaded by Jade Jacqueline Flack - 8309

Created by  Jade Jacqueline Flack - 8309 and Joseph Anderson-Luck - 8905

Rough Cut 1

Our Feedback from our first cut:

You need an institutional logo at the start * Framing is not great – tops of heads cut off – it makes it difficult to follow the narrative * You only use close ups and ECU’s – we need to see more of a variety of shot distances * It needs a soundtrack *Too much of the smoking shots – although the ash dropping shot is good *Not much happens in the narrative – man has a photo and drives away. He is sad – where will the film go from here?

*You need titles




Uploaded by Jade Jacqueline Flack - 8309

Created by  Jade Jacqueline Flack - 8309 and Joseph Anderson-Luck - 8905

Possible Location one, and Final location.

Before shooting the film we needed to find a varied list of locations which could be used for the film opening based on locations sketched in the storyboard and mentioned in our narrative.

The road side (5)

This scene, in which Alex is sat in/by his car taking in what is going on in his life, is set on the side of a road where he will have taken the chance to stop while he could. It needed to be in an area where he would likely be driving through in his situation and where he would easily be able to stop at but not too public.

Road Side: (Possible 4)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Final Locations:

 

 

 

 

House's driveway (Possible 3)

This scene would be where Alex is packing his car preparing to leave the house. Aesthetics weren't majorly important as most of this scenery wouldn't be shown, however we had to consider lighting effects and any scenery which may appear on camera.

Alex' bedroom (Final)

For this scene one of the main things was the positioning of objects in the scene in relation to our storyboard as the bed and mirror had to be facing each other in the correct position for our camera angles to work how we wanted.

The house hallway (Final)

Nearby park (Possible 2)

This was a park which may replace or be included in the 

Joseph. A. Luck- 8105