DEPLETION Edit 5 - FINAL

DEPLETION Edit 4

DEPLETION Edit 3

DEPLETION Edit 2

DEPLETION Edit 1

G321 AS: Main Task - FILMING AND EDITING LOG

Friday 20th January 

• Filmed flashback scenes.

Director: Amy Green

Cinematographer: Rhiannon Millard

Actors: Emily Bullock & Chloe Hughes

Took roughly 1 hour to film abut 20 minutes of footage. This will be edited down to about 10 seconds in between shots from another location. 

Sunday 22nd January 

• Filmed first half of the opening sequence.

Director: Rhiannon Millard

Cinematographer: Amy Green

Actors: Emily Bullock & Rebecca Bradley

Due to the location used there was a lot of background noise so this audio is unable to be used. There is no speech but some foley sounds that we will record at a later date. 

EDIT 1 

3 hours work for the first 1:39 of the opening sequence.

Potential music added - “Suspense Music - Seeking the Truth”

Monday 23rd January 

• Played EDIT 1 to our focus group

Feedback:

‘Music is too dramatic for an opening scene. You can see the crew’s shadows in one shot.’ - Mrs Mallet

‘I can tell it is a flashback because of the colour and close ups used but I don’t completely understand what is happening. Thought it was the protagonist’s arm - not clear enough’ - Rebecca 

Responses:

We have removed this music and will find another more suitable track. We are unable to re-shoot the scene with the shadows so we will attempt to hide them with colour correction but it is unlikely to be completely hidden.

We have decided to remove the flashbacks from the opening sequence as they are confusing and aren’t crucial to the storyline. This will also help fitting our film opening within the time restraints.

• Filmed second half of the opening sequence. 

Director: Rhiannon Millard

Cinematographer: Amy Green

Lighting: Zoe Whyte

Actors: Emily Bullock & Rebecca Bradley

Filmed in school so there is background talking and other noises - again no speech but we will still need to record foley.

EDIT 2 

2 hours work for the last 1:06 of the opening sequence.

EDIT 3

2 hours work for the last 0:16 of the opening sequence.

Wednesday 25th January

• Played EDIT 2 to focus group

Feedback: 

‘I want to know what happens next. So many unanswered questions, need a full length film’ - Chloe

‘I like the colour palette and the camera angles’ - Abbie

‘Liked the editing style’ - Mr Kerrigan

‘Light switch is at the wrong timing. Close ups show tension and make it more clear that she is in danger.’ - Rebecca

• Played EDIT 3 to our focus group.

Feedback:

‘Voice announcements should come in quicker to keep up fast pace of scene. - Rebecca

‘Builds tension better than the last edit.’ - Sarah

Responses:

We will change the timing of the light switch so the click happens in time with the light coming on, despite the delay being on the actual light rather than an editing mistake. We will change the timings of the voice announcements so they happen more often and with less of a gap in between. 

EDIT 4

The flashbacks has been removed from EDIT 1 as per our focus group’s opinions.

We are then going to use the first 33 seconds of EDIT 2 and the remaining 16 seconds from  EDIT 3.

Wednesday 1st Feb

• Played EDIT 4 to focus group. 

Feedback: 

‘Story is clearer now with end section. Love the ending and I am intrigued to find out what happens in the rest of the film. - Chloe

‘Sounds needs tidying up. Opening credits?’ - Mrs Mallet

Responses:

There are a lot of gaps in the sound as we still need to record voiceovers and foley. The opening credits and title animation will be made in Final Cut Pro and then chromakeyed into the Adobe Premiere file.

EDIT 5

Recorded voiceovers and other foley.

Added credit overlays and title animation.

Friday 3rd February

• Played EDIT 5 to focus group.

Feedback:

‘It’s really good. I like the tension and the cliffhanger at the end.’ - Chloe

‘Like the style of editing and the titles at the end - they fit in well with the genre.’ - Abby

‘Amazing. I like the end but where it cuts to black and then the title appears.’ - Rebecca

Monday 6th February

• Final edit (EDIT 5) due.

Friday 10th February

• EDIT 5 uploaded onto the school youtube channel.

G321 AS: Main Task - MUSIC AND SFX

Music:

When choosing music, we wanted a track that provided a highly tense atmosphere. However through researching royalty free music with the keywords 'tension' and 'action' we deciphered that a large majority of the music we found, had an incredibly heightened dramatic atmosphere reminiscent of the horror genre, rather than the action genre. Therefore we ended up deciding not to use music, as it didn't fit effectively to the visuals of the opening scene, and instead replaced it with a loud hum or buzzing noise which underscored the entirety of the piece, in coherence with the sound effects. 

Sound:

Post-production we used a microphone to record the layer of sound and edit it separately. This ensured we would avoid hearing muffled or static sounds through background noise; (particularly when we were filming outside in the sounding arch, with a high wind velocity) which makes our piece sound more professional and this post production technique is heavily utilised in the industry. We recorded sounds such as Emily struggling to escape from the ropes, the guard's footsteps as he walks away, a phone conversation between the guard and finally the radio transmission narration at the beginning.

We had to use some sound effects found online as we were unable to record them ourselves, such as a rock scraping on the ground. We then edited this effect to make it fit with the stone onscreen.

Certain sounds, such as the radio transmission, we then edited to sound 'muffled' and 'static', the narration mirroring the sound of dialogue from an old radio. This was particularly effective, as it formulated a tense atmosphere to the opening of the film and provided narrative background to the story, allowing the audience to easily interpret the action that occurs throughout the opening. 

G321 AS: Main Task - TITLE AND TYPEFACE

Initial Ideas

Our initial idea for a typeface, for our Action film opening, is a typeface that is capitalised and striking but is evidently representative of the action genre from its appearance. The reoccurring motif of 'coding' that will feature in multiple shots, emphasises the secretive nature of the hidden governmental plans; metaphorically speaking Hayden (the protagonist) is the fault in the government's hidden code. This, therefore in-sighted the idea that the typeface should mirror this 'fault' which would have an appearance that is 'jagged' and with a significant 'glitch' effect. Upon research on typeface's using the keyword 'glitch', we decided on the typeface "Hacked Title". This is particularly effective as it's capitalised and relatively large kerning distance between the letters creates a dramatic appearance as it elongates the time taken to read the title. It also takes up more space on the screen when superimposed. The jagged serifed edges with horizontal lines aligned to one side of the letter sticking out, or areas within the letter itself missing segments of the side. 

How we will achieve this:

We hope to achieve this text style by using a 'prism' preset and adapting the extent of the movement of the text using a 'ripple' preset, by modifying the key frames; we will add new keyframes in quick succession in order to create a coherent piece of animation. This will appear after the blackout (with fade to black transition) and gunshot sound, in order to build tension and entice the audience to want to continue watching.

Throughout the opening scene, credits will appear superimposed on top of the visuals, however the text will appear using a fade transition, aligned at varying places within the frame. We will use the same typeface as used before ('Hacked" Title).

G321 AS: Main Task - LOCATION RESEARCH, PROPS & EQUIPMENT LIST

Our opening scene features three different locations:

1. The first is the room in which the protagonist Hayden, is held captive by the government for attempting to share their secret euthanasia plans. This location must be dark and dismal looking to infer to the audience that the protagonist is being unjustly locked up in a secret location that is out of sight from the public. Being the joint director of this film opening I would like to use low-key lighting, as I want to portray to the audience that the darkness and shadows cast connote the secrets that are being concealed from the population. According to our storyboard this location will be featured for 55 seconds of the opening scene. 
2. The second location is the long corridor where Hayden (after her escape) is seen peering around a wall watching the guard exit before running down it in order to reach the 'control room'. This will be featured for 20 seconds.
3. The third location is the Control Room. This will be again a dimly lit room, with computer monitors on every available surface. This is where Hayden will collect the hard drive containing vital information, before being shot by the guard. 

Potential Locations:

• Maidenhead ‘The Sounding Arch’ 

This is a potential location for our opening scene, as underneath the bridge there is a wall which if shot from a close up angle, could mirror an abandoned area. 

• Newlands Girl's School Art Room Corridor

This is a potential location for the corridor scene. The hallway features static lighting and white walls which could portray the senile 

• Newlands Girl’s School ‘Dark Room’

This is a potential location for the computer room scene, with the dark low-key lighting nature of the room perfectly creating a tense atmosphere. The red lighting (as evident from the photo below) is perfect for the final scene of the opening, as the protagonist is shot before she exits the room. The red light cast on the room from this light connotes blood and danger fitting with the mis-en-scene of the shot. This will create an abrupt ending and a cliff-hanger in order to entice the audience to continue watching. 

Props List:

• Rope - Which is used to tie up Hayden

• Tape (Silver Duct Tape) - Which is placed over Hayden's mouth. This is stereotypical symbolism of a hostage within action film.

• Sharp Rock - Used by Hayden to cut the rope in order for her to escape.

• Contract Paper - Handed to Hayden by a man in a black suit, she then signs the contract.

• Pen - Used to sign the contract.

• Radio - Old vintage looking radio which is shown in the first shot, after we have heard the radio transmission.

• Computer Monitors - Placed at the end of the dark room with coding onscreen.

Equipment List:

• Camera Rig

• Camera - Canon 700d

• Tripod

• Rode Microphone

• Umbrella Lights

G321 AS: Main Task - CASTING, COSTUME AND MAKEUP RESEARCH

Characters required:

• Hayden - Female aged 18 who due to her superior intellect in the scientific field she was invited by the government to work on a project to ‘increase resources for a growing population’. However unaware to the deceived Hayden the project took a more sinister turn, a vaccination causing instantaneous but painless death, in order to decrease the population and protect vital resources. Upon discovery of this, she attempted to publicise the information she knew in order to prevent the programme from being put in place. She is strong willed, quick witted, intelligent, determined and brave. Idealistically we want the actor playing Hayden to look younger than she is, to enthuse the audience that despite being young she is willing to stand up for what she believes in. This age would be more relatable to our certificate 15 and above age group. Due to our choice of having a female protagonist in the action genre that is stereotypically overrepresented by men, we envisage Hayden having shorter hair; this more boyish cut in coherence with a more feminine mannerism will emphasise that she possesses masculine traits such as strength and agility.

• The Guard - The actor playing the guard must appear threatening, as he will be representative of the stereotypical ‘bad guy’ or ‘goon’ within the action genre. Ideally, he will be very tall and of a strong build. The guard is middle aged, this age is representative of power and being in the prime of your strength, therefore meaning he will transgress a menacing view. 

Who have we cast?

We have decided to cast Emily Bullock as Hayden. We felt that she would be an excellent choice as she has vast drama experience. She has featured in many productions at local theatres, including Hairspray and received an A* at Drama GCSE. She was also our main actor in our preliminary task, therefore we know that she works to a professional standard, and performs well in front of a camera. 

We shortlisted Gareth Millard to play the Guard. We felt as if he would be an excellent choice as at his height of 6ft 6 he physically appears much larger than Emily, displaying his higher power and authority in the opening scene; this will also make him seem more threatening, due to his towering height. He has also featured in short film's that I have created before and listens well to instructions, following them to a good standard. 

In cessation, we decided to cast Rebecca Bradley as the guard. Primarily we chose her as she is an excellent actress, who works to a high standard in front of the camera, with evidencing of her skills of drama shown after she received an A in her Drama GCSE. Logistically she was the best choice for the piece, as she was available on every shooting day, and was also available for post-production recording of foley sound. She is quite tall and when trying on the costume, she appeared threatening and convincingly portrayed the guard. 

Costume:

Hayden's character is required to give the impression that she has been forcibly tied up and therefore possess some scratches or bruises on her face and arms; from this, I believe that she should have slightly ripped clothing as a result. However her character is eighteen therefore, her costume must be stereotypical of a teenager that age and be recognisable for our fifteen-year-old target audience. 

She will be wearing a dark blue hoodie, the connotations of blue includes strength, stability, confidence, intelligence, and truth. We decided primarily to use blue because of its association with truth, which is an important theme in our opening scene as Hayden is attempting to reveal the truth. She will then be wearing ripped knee jeans, as the pre-ripped holes will allow us to create fake gashes as if the guard has created those rips through force. Ripped Knee jeans resemble the age group we are primarily targeting. The most important part of Hayden's costume is the rope covering her mouth. Rope over a hostage's mouth is featured in various action films and is a well-known concept, therefore we decided to incorporate it into our opening. Upon assessing the health and safety precautions of our opening scene, we knew that it may be a risk to Emily tying rope around her mouth, so we will ensure it is tied loosely, Emily is able to speak and alert us if there is a problem, and it is removed between takes to allow her to recover.

One option for the Guard's character will be a black t-shirt and black motorbike leather trousers, or long dark black trench coat. The colour black will emphasise his evil nature and in coherence with the low-key lighting creates a darker and more ominous appearance. Another idea is that the Guard wears a black suit, as this is a representative feature of the action Genre. 

Makeup:

Hayden's makeup will feature scratches and bruises on her face and arms. On her face, we will use face paint and special effects makeup to place one cut on her left cheek, or a purple bruise under her eye. She will not use any other makeup on her face, to display that she is stressed and highlight her pale complexion and enraged state, that has caused her to lose the care for anything apart from the desire to stop the euthanasia programme.

The makeup will be done by Rhiannon, as she has experience of fake special effects makeup from taking classes, this will not affect our budget as the makeup used will be our own. My sister, Ella, is also extremely good at makeup and could easily aid us. 

G321 AS: Main Task - SHOT LIST

G321 AS: Main Task - STORYBOARDS

G321 AS: Main Task - RISK ASSESSMENT

G321 AS: Main Task - SCREENPLAY

Depletion

Production credits on a black screen. We hear a crackly radio transmission.

Radio:                                                                      Our main news tonight, the reported mass disappearance of a group of young people in Essex has caused an outcry for witnesses to come forward, police are treating this as suspicious and are looking for suspects. This comes after only a week a group of pensioners were reported missing in a retirement home in East London. These events don’t appear to be linked at this time.

Straight cut to Hayden tied up and abandoned underneath a bridge. Head in hands, clearly in distress and trying to escape. There are flashing cuts to what she is thinking; shots of busy and empty train station, feet walking, hospital, screams etc. Cuts between this and close ups.                                      Flashback to signing a contract. We see Hayden hunched over the contract, clearly torn. Straight cut to her sitting under the bridge again in the same position.  

Finds rock on the ground, cuts rope and slowly stands up. POV shot looking round the corner to see the guard standing facing the other way. She escapes out another way and runs off. She runs down the hallway and into the computer room. She goes straight to the computer, shots of typing, looking at screen etc. Short flashes to door opening, footsteps. Overlays of computer screen over front view shot. Guard walks into shot behind her and raises gun. Black with gunshot noise. Title appears onscreen. 

G321 AS: Main Task - TREATMENT

Central Theme

• Dystopia - unnatural and inhuman events, uneasy and unsafe feeling shown using low key lighting and slightly desaturated footage.
• Saving the world - shown through the determination to ensure the world knows the truth, despite the consequences it may have on the protagonist.

Context & Synopsis

• Due to the overwhelming pressure on the worlds limited/depleting resources, the United Nation’s organisation has instructed that a mass population euthanasia programme be initiated; in an attempt to decrease the worlds population by half, by eradicating those with undesirable characteristics until the perfect human race is designed.
• The basic synopsis of the overall film: the protagonist trying to alert the rest of the population to the impending disaster.

Pitch

• Our target audience is primarily male orientated (ages15-30); as our conducted BFI research depicted that this was the average age range that watched action films in 2015.
• Our film is different to others in this genre because it has an original storyline and explores rarer themes. This would make it more enjoyable for viewers as it is something they haven’t seen before. We are also potentially having a female protagonist which sets our film apart from others of this genre, because action is a primarily male-dominated genre.
• It uses cliffhanger opening (protagonist dying) as the audience will feel an emotional connection to the first character they meet in the scene, therefore it will persuade them to keep on watching.

Characters

• The protagonist is a young person who knows the truth behind the false cover up the government has told the population. After an attempt to tell people, she was arrested and tied up.
• A guard whose sole purpose is to prevent our protagonist from escaping, but fails. He then shoots the protagonist at the end of the opening sequence.
• We have shortlisted actors who would be suitable for these roles.

Film Opening Sequence

Radio Transmission of announcements of people going missing on a black background. We see the protagonist tied up and abandoned, head in hands, trying to figure out how to get out, they’d previously agreed to this concept but upon realising what it really entailed they attempted to cause public outcry and tell others. They envisage how life would be, flashes in head of bustling tube, then empty, overlaid screams. Flashback signing contract world euthanasia project, pan down seeing them signing it, shot of them sat down signing, straight cut to them in the same position sat in the cell. Escapes, runs to computer room in order to steal microchip with information. Gets shot by a guard. Dramatic irony as the audience can see the guard with the gun before the protagonist does.

Film Techniques

• Match on action
• Tilt
• Pan
• POV shot
• Over-the-shoulder shot
• rule of 3rds
• Low key lighting
• Diagetic sound
• Filmed on a Canon 700, using a 64GB 10 memory card.
• Partially filmed with a steadicam or tripod, partially handheld.

Production Considerations

• Assessing laws surrounding filming in public areas.
• Finding a suitable and realistic location for filming.
• Choosing actors that suit the genre.
• With the violent nature of the opening scene, we must consider what age rating our film will be.
• Making the film opening enticing to our target audience.