Exploring our genre...

With our Preliminary Task, we set out from the beginning to create something that was definitely based around the Action genre. We stuck to conventions, added over emphasised references and generally made sure we were rather cliché! Contrastingly, when it came to our main task, we began thinking of narrative and the shots that would come from the this before considering genre. For that reason, our film turned out as more of a mix of genres; Action, Drama and Thriller. I think that this allowed for us to create a more believable piece that captured the story rather then just conventions. We used the convention from these multiple genres to both enrich our opening and make it a little different.

We looked at a range of films, not only from our genre, but from those we thought would help us represent character, plot and cinematic style the best. These were some of the films that influenced us the most...

Inception (2010) 

This films opening was very influential to us in the idea of playing around with Propp's Theory of Narrative. The penultimate scene of the film is echoed in the start, instantly building enigma and a riddle that wants the audience to solve it. Here, we also see the idea of not initially introducing the main character and leaving many narrative aspects open ended. Inception has the same kind of cinematic feel that we wanted to capture and therefore, we also looked at a lot of the shots used, such as the extreme close ups, slow motion shots and the use of contrasting the still camera with shaky cam effects.

The Hunger Games (2012)

We first looked at The Hunger Games because it shared a simlar narrative convention as ours. Or rather, it was simlar in the way it went against convention - by casting a female lead in a male dominated genre. In the opening of the film, not shown here, the camera follows Katniss on her journey through District 12, a similar style we used to track Ari's journey through the station. They also used shaky, but we decided to use this more subtly to create the same idea of being followed.

 

The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

When we first came up with the idea of having our film set on the London Underground, we realised that we had certainly been inspired by this particular scene set in Waterloo. The crowds and expansive setting make for a far more cinematic style and we thought this would be a good way to represent Ariadne's sense of isolation. The chase scene is also a noted convention of the Action genre, and whilst we went against that in our opening, we still took elements from it, such as the over the shoulder shot following our character and the establishing wide shot. Also, we once again went against the theme shown in this film of having a male lead.

An Inspiring Shot...

Good Will Hunting (1997)

Despite not being from our main genres, this shot specifically form the film Good Will Hunting inspired us to use a similar shot in our own piece, in which Ari looks down at her blank map. We thought this was very good at drawing the audience into Ariadne's view and also makes her seem small in comparison to her surroundings.

Forrest Gump (1994)

Once again returning to both Forrest Gump and Love Actually, we turned to these films as excellent examples of how to handle voice overs in an effective and interesting way. Forrest Gump see's the main character introducing himself, and in some ways this is what we wanted for our film, yet with a little more anonymity surrounding the narrator. Love Actually provides more of a sentimental outlook on the voice over, providing a description of what the film is about, rather than a character narration. It acts as an addition to the visuals and music and doesn't provide a specific focus point. It is relaxing. We wanted to use some of the same features, yet when I recorded the voice over, we tried to invert some of them to provide a more unsettling tone.

Love Actually (2003)

Music in Film

Music, to me, is one of the single most important parts of a film. It helps to create to correct mood and emotion, and amplifies everything seen on screen. When we began editing or final project, I knew that I wanted to get the soundtrack of non- diegetic sound we used exactly right, as it could make our break everything that we had worked so hard to create and portray. In many films, the music is scored in conjunction with the film, sometimes even whilst the film is playing. The composer writes the music to fit what he see's on screen and what the directors vision is for the film or specific scene. A common feature used when writing programme music is the idea of character leitmotifs. These are short, memorable melodies that are played to represent one character, often interweaving into other themes or with other leitmotifs. A film usually also has it's own main theme that becomes an integral part of mood and plot. Take the Harry Potter film series as an example. The theme "Hedwig's Flight" by John Williams has now become iconic all over the world, symbolising all eight films even though he only composed for the first three.

In our film, whilst it will sadly not be possibly for us to compose a new track with a full symphony orchestra to match our opening, we do have many resources availiable to us. One of these is Moby, a website containing a great number of copyright free music tracks specifically designed for film. We want to try and capture Ariadne's sense of isolation, frustion and sadness in the music, whilst also not having it become too distracting from the voice over.

The videos on this post are all of music tracks that stand out for me from particular films, although there are many, many more I could put here.

 

  

 

Main Theme - Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986) - Joe Hisashi

 

 

 

One Strange World - The Host (2013) - Antonio Pinto

 



 

A Window to the Past - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) - John Williams

Production Journal

30th March 2013
Location: Paddington Underground Station, London

Finally, the day of filming had arrived! We had planned everything meticulously before the day, from the weather at key times to maintain lighting continuity, to meeting points and a shot list scheduled to benefit us when deciding which shots would be the most appropriate to film in which order.
The first obstacle we hit was one we hadn't anticipated. When deciding upon the place to film our opening, as well as considering the look of the station and whether it fit into our plot, we also considered the practical aspects of the location - would it be easy to film there, would we be given permission and would it be convenient for all members of our group to get there? Paddington was chosen because we could take a direct overground train from Maidenhead to the station, without the additional underground travel. However, due to works at Reading Station that were unforeseen until it was too late to change our plans, this direct link was not possible. In the end, we took a train to Slough, at which we caught a rail replacement coach service to Hayes and Harlington. From there, we finally got a train to Paddington. This meant that a journey that should have taken 45 minutes resulted in lasting 1 hour 30 mins. Luckily, this didn't put us too far off schedule for filming.

When we arrived at our filming location, we met up with our actor who was to portray Isaac, who had luckily not been affected by the travel disruption. After the initial introductions, we headed off to find the station supervisor to sign in and let them know we would begin filming. It took as while to find the correct office, but once signed in and fed with lunch, we discussed what shots to film first. It was decided that we would begin with all the shots which contained Isaac so that the actor could leave after they were completed. So our first location were the circle line platforms one and two. There, we managed to complete a good number of shots:

• Shot reverse shot of main characters on opposite platforms.
• Close up of Isaac.
• Shots of the map on the floor.
• Ariadne arriving at the platform.
• Shot from the bridge.

This took nearly 2 hours to complete but was done rather quickly when compared to what we had achieved with our preliminary task. At this point, we returned to the main area of Paddington as everyone was a little cold from waiting around for so long. The actor playing Isaac left us, leaving us to decide what to do next. We moved on to getting the exterior shots of Paddington that we needed for establishing shots in our two minute sequence. First, our director suggested we go to the exterior entrance to the underground platforms to get this shot, but upon arriving, it didn't have the crowds that we wanted. So we returned to the main area once more, taking a long shot of the exterior as we left.
It was at this point that we began to consider the various options for the location of our next set of shots. I began reviewing some footage and thankfully noticed in time that we had not turned on the microphone when filming on the platform previously. Whilst this was a bit of a hindrance, it was not crucial to re-film the shots we had, due to our plan to have the voice over being present throughout the entirety of that sequence, along with non-diegetic music.
Our filming crew the proceeded to film on a staircase that led directly to the underground platforms we had filmed on before. There we executed many shots, having to alter some due to the lack of crowds that we had not anticipated:

• Shots of Ari in crowds, walking down the stairs.
• Low angle shots of crowds feet.
• Ari's bag being knocked from her hands.
• Close up of papers being shoved back into bag.
• Still of Ari face and frustration.

We also improvised a little here to get the kind of shots we wanted, as we were not able to get some of the ones we had drafted into our storyboard. However, with this filmed, we decided to film to extreme close up shots at a later date, to make sure we had the time and space to achieve what we wanted, especially when it came to the drop sequence.


7th April 2013
Location: Home of director.

We scheduled our next filming day after we had produced our rough cut in the editing suit the day prior. Here we intended to film the extreme close ups of Ariadne, the drop sequence and any pick up shots that we needed to thread some scenes together. Two of a group members could not make it on the day but luckily this did not effect our productivity. We successfully captured:

• Various takes of Ariadne looking at the map.
• The main character seeing Isaac for the first time.
• The close ups of the map.
• The tickling water line on the map, turning red.
• The drop from the ceiling, using a pipet.

With this done, we had enough that we were pleased with to make our two minute opening. The voice over will be recorded later and added to the opening, fitting to the visuals and eventually, the soundtrack too.

Audience Research...

Gender

We wanted our film to appeal to both a male and female audience and hopefully achieved this through the narrative and genre. Due to the genre of Action/Thriller typically being aimed at a male audience, and we have made it more accessible by adding a female protagonist, which opens up the audience to female viewers. We also included elements into the storyline that would appeal to a mass audience; action scenes, suspense and also the drama and relationships.

The addition of the the female lead is similar to the film 'The Hunger Games' in which the main character - Katniss Everdeen is female. This possibly lead to females still being attracted to the film despite its action tendencies and evidently, did not effect the male audience either.

"According to a recent tracking report, 73% of young women surveyed had definite interest in seeing the movie, a "staggering" figure on its own, according to a former studio executive. But male interest could boost the box office for "The Hunger Games" exponentially, with 48% of young men saying they're definitely interested in seeing the movie." 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204603004577267832212316716.html

Upon the release of the film, both men and women showed an interest in seeing the film due to the genre being male-aimed and the protagonist being female.

Age
The main protagonist is a teenager, which determines the audience, because she is around 17/18. Having this younger age means that that we could still explore mature themes but did not have to focus on adulthood. It also allows the target audience to include many ages.
Verisimilitude plays a part in the target audience. The more relatable that character is in both age and gender, the more likely the viewers will be the same age or alike in gender.


Characteristics
Again, verisimilitude plays a large part in the audience that will view it ultimately, the more relatable, the more likely the audience will see it.
Ariadne is isolated and cut off, which is a trait that many people experience at one point or another, and this will help the audience to instantly identify with Ari, because they know what she has gone through.

We want the film, much like Inception, to be open to any age, but not rate it as a PG so that teenagers are prevented from seeing it because they think it's too general or even aimed at a younger audience, and not aimed at teenagers.

Lighting and Colour Research

Lighting in film is crucial when trying to convey mood and setting in a film. Both work in conjunction with each other to create the feel of a scene, whether the colours are cold and lighting dull, or the colours are warm and the lighting bright. We knew that we wanted to create these effects as naturally as possible and to not make any radical colouring decisions until post production, to allow us to change and alter whatever original shots we obtained.

The lighting for our main task had to involve no additional light sources to meet the terms of our permit from Transport for London. For this reason, we have decided to use natural lighting of the underground stations as we also feel that this would be more effective for the films realism. We will hopefully be using Paddington Underground as our location, but in case something goes wrong, we have also chosen two other other underground stations to act as a plan B.

The lighting of Paddington underground is very light due to the open roof that is directly above the trains coming through. We can use this to our advantage in using it as our main light source, meaning we will have no need for additional, artificial lighting. However there is a downside to having too much light as it could take away the impact of the eerie half darkness we previously envisioned.




Angel Underground is fairly well lit due to the fact that the station is completely underground. This gives us a good advantage as we won't need to add to the light already available, and the yellowish lights give it that familiar underground feel. It also has that creepy effect as the lights aren’t as bright due to the yellow tint, but does look more modern and in some ways, safe.




Baker Street Underground is fairly lit as well, but some times can be very dark as it is one of the oldest stations on the network. It has the opposing platforms that we need, and it has an unsettling effect because of the darkness. The only thing is it might be too dark with no additional lighting which could affect our filming.


Colour

The colouring of the film will be simple and natural, with darker tones to replicate the main themes of our narrative. It also helps that the stations we plan to use have an aged look to them which gives of mystery and enigma, and also fits more to the conventions of our action/drama genre whilst providing us with a more cinematic feel. For the first few shots we have Ariadne in the crowd, but the audience are not supposed to know that is our main protagonist. so we are going to have her blend into the crowd by wearing clothes that will blend her in. This will also be similar to that of Isaac's character, yet he will hopefully have a more intimidating feel, with dark clothing that mimics Ariadne's colour scheme. This will mean that although he could be seen as an antagonist, a connection between the two characters is also faintly evident.


We will also explore colour grading when it comes to post production to decide on the colours that will effect the tone of the film.

Full Shot List...

The shot list was written up with filming schedule in mind. We later had to split the shot list into two shots on separate days due to time constraints. All shots where location was critical were filmed on location at Paddington Station, whilst close up shots were filmed a day or two later.

• Shot 26 - Over the shoulder shot across platform to Isaac 
• Shot 9 - Soft focus crowds, Isaac amongst them 
• EXTERNAL SHOTS -Shot 1 - Paddington exterior establishing shots 
• Shot 2 - Long shot of stairs 
• Shot 3 - Long shot of crowds with focus line 
• Shot 4 - Ari in crowds, bumped by passer by 
• Shot 5 - Mid-shot of feet, Ari picks up papers 
• Shot 7 - Cut shot of Ari refilling bag, lower body 
• Shot 10 - Bridge, set up shot of platform, Ari in frame 
• Shot 11 - Mid-shot, Ari walking near platform edge 
• Shot 12 - Long shot, passing trains 
• Shot 13 - Low body shot, Ari should sit 
• Shot 15 - Pulling out papers still on bench 
• Shot 19 - Close up, Ari fiddles with hands 
• Shot 20 - Drops the map to the floor 
• Shot 6 - (could be filmed in conjunction with 5-8) 
• Shot 8 - Ari close up, head raises 
• Shot 14 - Over head shot of face 
• Shot 17 - Extreme close up of eye 
• Shot 18 - Extreme close up of mouth 
• Shot 16 - Map close up, Ari traces route 
• Shot 21 - Map lies on floor, long shot with focus on map 
• Shot 22 - Reaches to pick up map close up 
• Shot 23 - The drop shot 
• Shot 24 - Close up, extreme, water mixes with red ink 
• Shot 25 - Following water trail

After we had everything we needed on each day of filming, we allowed our selves to improvise around our ideas and to modify any we already had. We maintained throughout all our filming that it was better to have too many shots than not enough.

Finished Storyboard

Drawn by Cary, this is the full storyboard for our two minute opening, shot by shot.

Shots 1 -4

Shots 5 - 8

Shots 9 - 12

Shots 13 - 16

Shots 17 - 20

Shots 21 - 24

Shots 24 - 28

Researching Acting...

Through our many discussions as a group and researching various existing film openings, the other group members chose to cast me in the main role as Ariadne. This was for numerous reasons, one being that they believed I could understand her character motives and that I would be able to portray the character accurately.

One of the best ways that we have heard of that helps actors to portray the character to their best ability is method acting, in which the actor uses various different practises to get into the characters mind.

An example from film... The Iron Lady (2011) 
In preparation for her role as Britain's first woman prime minister Margaret Thatcher, actress Meryl Streep carried a bag similar to that of Thatchers with her before filming. In this bag, she placed items that she believed her character would have carried. By doing this, Streep effectively created a link between herself and the person she was portraying, trying to understand their motives and thought processes whilst also learning more about the person.

Of course, as I could already empathise with some of Ariadne's struggles as a character, I was able to pull from my own experiences and apply them to the way I portrayed her on screen. Costume and prop design worked intrinsically together to improve the verisimilitude of on screen character to on page/script. Although they were not essential to filming, we filled a bag with all the things that we thought she would carry with her to help me get into character: water bottles, some snacks, various different maps of London, the handwritten map and lots of scrap paper, covered in writing that showed her thoughts, escaping onto paper as they cannot escape her lips.

Key to our film is the use of voice over to convey the main characters thoughts as she cannot speak. This meant that body language and facial expression were at the forefront of how to act as Ari. Long looks to show frustration that she works hard to suppress, a sense of hopelessness at some points as well. This should definitely be evident in the close ups that we have of Ariadne fiddling with her hands in  nervous hesitancy or pushing back her hair when it gets to be too much. At times, we also had her tense up in fear, or contrastingly looking around frantically, skittish and wary of her surroundings even though she goes unnoticed by many around her. The constant switching of all these mixed emotions had to be clear to the audience and therefore, the acting could be somewhat exaggerated to a point to back up the voice over affectively.

Location Research

Location scouting  is crucial to the  pre-production of film. Not only are the location department required to match an ideal location to the visual image that the director and various other creative managers share, but it must also account for practical feasibility.
The process of location scouting generally involves a location department  that will communicate with the production department to find the right place for filming particular required scenes.
Location scouting is done through photography, research and visiting the chosen areas to ensure they are ideal for the film. The department then creates a short list of all the possible locations and allows other members of the film crew to decide on the best place place.


A little more about location scouting can be found here...
http://locationmanagers.org/lmga/2011/11/who-we-are-and-what-we-do-a-4-minute-video-about-location-managing/


When we were first exploring the possibilities of what we could do for a two minute opening, the idea which we had in mind already came with it's location of the Underground. Initially, we thought of this location because of it's visual impact on screen and from that we drafted what would eventually become our full narrative. We saw a girl sat in the corner of the station, dishevelled from running or being pursued. From that first idea we looked into shooting on the Underground and applied for the permit that gave us the permission to do so. It has been a long process to get the required permissions but hopefully one that will be worth the effort when it comes to the mise en scene of our film.


In the application for the permit, we summed up why we wanted to use the London Underground as our setting...

"Within this opening, we hope to capture to urban environment of the bustling London city and we believe that the London Underground is perfect for presenting this theme. The tube will appear in an audio-visual way on camera, appearing as our main setting for the opening of our narrative. The passing trains should add a sense of depth and urgency to the filming as well as providing atmospheric lighting. All of this is essential to our opening to present as much meaning as possible through visuals, given the fact that our main character does not speak. Our production group believed Paddington to be a good station to choose as it is a mainstream station, meaning crowds will be abundant and it is also easy to commute to being an central location. Further to this, the circle line platforms offer as a good mix of natural and darkened light, reflecting many aspects of our films plot and main characters struggles. The footage we can acquire from this shoot will depict our characters actions as her main thought process is shown through voice over. Therefore, the shots will match the monologue that is spoken by our character  The setting of the underground also works well with emphasizing how lost this character is compared to the moving world surrounding her. The great thing about filming in a station such as Paddington is the feeling that everyone seems to have a destination, contrasting to our lost protagonist, Ariadne, who is trying to discover hers."

After research, we considered three possible platforms to use on our shoot: Angel, Baker Street and Paddington. From previous experience we all decided that these were the underground stations that evoked the appropriate mood we needed for our footage due to the versatility of the lighting, crowds and layout of the stations. Initially, we thought that Baker Street would be most ideal due to the low lighting that brought to mind a sense of isolation and also had more of a cinematic feel, but after more consideration we were reminded that Ariadne is meant to be presented as a very quiet character, shown through her contrast the the London crowds. We thought that of all three stations Paddington would be the most crowd-filled there is, not to mention well-known, therefore the viewer would identify the location more so than the others. We ruled out Angel because although it had the right atmosphere, it lacked the opposing platforms needed for a crucial set of over the shoulder shots between our main characters. Our final decision was to film on platforms one and two of the London Underground at Paddington, as they retained some of the architectural features of Baker Street with opposing platforms and also should provide us with more crowds and cinematic presence..

Angel:

Baker street: 

London Paddington:

Props Research

Props are often an essential part of a films mise en scene and can sometimes also be part of a characters representation or plot. In the film industry, special care is taken to get props looking as authentic as possible to make the film world easier to get pulled into.

We decided to use a minimal amount of props for two main reasons: firstly, as our character was technically on the run, we thought she would only carry the essentials with her. And secondly, there was only so much we could take to filming due to practicle reasons. We had two main props that we included for a reason, so as to save on the ammount we had to carry and also to focus the audience more on these things.

The bag was not only a key part of costume but also as a stand alone prop. Discussed in my post on acting earlier, with Meryl Streeps portrayal of Margaret Thatcher, the bag was also important to showing who Ariadne was as a character.
The bag was filled with more props - many sheets of paper filled to the brim with writing which echoed her thoughts. It was meant to symbolise her way of getting all the thoughts trapped inside her unspeaking mind and how they escaped. The way in which people can see and understand her state of mind through film. The bag also contained essentials for living, such as a little money,
                                                      some snacks and water.



In our opening two minutes, we use a map blank of names, a rough out line of London, as a McGuffin. This sparked a sense of enigma in our film, raising questions that the audience will hopefully want answered. The map has red dots placed on it, and pencil-marked ticks, plotting out her journey. The red marks symbolising key places that she will visit were also useful in providing focus points for our slow motion drop sequence.