Film Branding

I really want to start thinking about the Films visual identity, its branding and perhaps most importantly its logo (going hand in hand with it's credits font?). I think that this is important to make the visuals instantly recognisable, an iconic logo which stands out, and doesn't blend in among less succesful thrillers.I have collected these two posters to show branding for two different ad campaigns very much on the same boat. The title fonts are extremely similiar and both share very similiar imagery, only different through tone, Saw being perhaps more surgical and about humans as meat. Hostel takes a darker, grittier, more sexual take on the totrure thriller genre, and is certainly more dumbed down. Both are visually similiar ad campaigns, but Saw is more iconic (maybe because hostel lacks a real plot, let alone twists or closure; or maybe its because the villain in Saw is iconic, whereas Hostel has no single villain).
On the Test Shoot I wanted to capture anything I thought could be iconic for this film. I wanted to see what could represent our film the best. So I took photos like these above. I saw the camcorder as an opton for the films icon, likewise with the blood splatter. I am very far from deciding (just showing you guys my train of thought), and I think that a photo shoot would be helpful with next shoot, by this I mean, rather than behind the scenes photos we change the entire lighting on set for photography and snap away. I hope to come out with some more meaningful photography from the next shoot (i.e. less blurry).

The Actors

For our test shoot we used Bekah Murrell for the part of Samantha Harris, and Sian Parkinson as Karen Williams and they were both brilliant! They were very tolerant of the cold, uncomfortable environment and long filming hours. And Sian didn't even comlplain when we covered her in sticky fake blood.


Bekah is mixed race with dark afro style hair and she is about 5 foot 6. Her costume was jeans, boots, and plain black and white layered vest tops. We wanted the character to be wearing virtually no make up except for quite a lot of black eye liner under her eyes, which we purposly smudged so she looked rough. We chose Bekah to act because we knew that she does some professional acting work, so knew she would be good in this tricky role to play.

Sian has fair skin, fair blonde hair and is a similar height to Bekah. Her costume was a white shirt and black trousers to giver her character a proffesional look. Her make up was quite plain again, just a bit of mascara, which we smudged to make it seem like she had been crying. But then we did use make up to create a bruise on her forehead, as well as putting fake blood in her hair, to give the appearence she had been attacked, taking a big hit to her head. We thought this turned out well and did actually look very scary and very real. The pictures from our test shoot will be up soon, so you can see what you think...

Test Shoot Photos

Are up on Facebook now. They'll be posted soon.
Note: People are in motion in nearly every shot.

Making Blood...

We've had the issue of recreating blood. We've come across various methods in which to recreate realistic blood, and we have spent some of our day experimenting with it. Trying out different tones, liquids and viscousity (it matters). We managed to recreate it quite nicely and got really good results. Here's our testing palet.

I can tell you one problem with our current formula, I reckon one of our actors has some red highlights now... Minor adjustments may need to be made.

Original Script

This is the original script for the hostage video in he beginning of our opening sequence. We plan to change and adapt this script as we go along. Its not complete. Our references were real hostage videos on youtube.com.

Bekah: My name is Samantha Harris. It is Saturday the 17th of May 2009, and I have been kidnapped and held here for 3 days now against my will. My captor is demanding £10,000 for my release. This should be payed directly to the bankaccount of Miss K. Williams, that's £10,000 to Miss K. Williams. If you do not complete the transaction within the next 24 hours, she says she's gonna kill me... (all found difficult to say, crying and sobbing throughout)

BLK feedback

hope today went well guys, looking forward to seeing your footage :-)

group photo please. . .

Test shoot

So today was our test shoot and i think overall it went quite well. We were shooting 10-6 so that meant we had 8 whole hours to film:)
Everyone arrived at mine early and so we were sure to head off straight away. Our schedule consisted of:
10am-1pm --> we finished off some written work (shot logs/storyboard) and also shot all the living room scenes. we also set up both the living rooma nd shed scenes(lighting/positioning).
1.30... (lunch&waited for our actors to arrives)
3pm-6pm---> we shot all the neccesary shots in the shed.

We managed to shoot a great amount of footage in the shed, and our actors were a major help aswell. The shots we took were very good, except i think our only flaw today was being maybe a bit unorganised. I think by the final shoot we should have a neatly drawn up storyboard, a neatly typed up script and shooting script. Because although we did have this all done i do not think it was as neat as it possible could have been.
The light coming in the shed was an issue at first, we needed to block all the windows but only had sugar paper enough for two out of the six windows. So in turn we decided to cover them up with black towels and it blocked out every little bit of light and left us with the complete darkness we had hoped for! You wouldn't think it would work but it did work very well.
Also, i mentioned as a pro that filmin inside meant no off-scene noise could interveen but in fact i was wrong, there were builders opposite my road and the noise did manage to be heard, but it ok in the end because we though of shooting all of the living room scenes first and hoped for the builders to have stopped by the time we moved onto the outdoor shed; thankfully it did!

Costume- Today we also for the first time made our fake blood, we followed the recipe exactly and were happy with the turn out. Sian a.k.a K.Williams look very very very good with the blood, and even on the camer it look realistic. We used make-up to make it look like she had bruises on her head and her wrists were hurt, the make-up looked jsut as effective and i think we will be doing the exact same at our final shoot. We also smeared eyeliner and mascara onto Bekah to make her look tired and exhausted. To conclude, i think costume and make up was exceptional and we will definitely be keeping this the same next time.

Lighting- we had to move it around quite a few times in order to get something that suited us all. After numerous times of changing the two lamps around we decided to use one as a prop on the table and ang one up on a hook to make Sian look more significant.

Camera- today we used a range of different shots, just so we could get an idea of what shots we should use more of on saturday and others that we may not need to use at all. We all took our fair share of filming, directing & sound. Some shots were harder than others but we all took a good shot at them all.

Group work- As i mentioned before we all took a fair turn in filming, sound & directing. Although some of us were better at certain things we gave eachother a chance to do everything. Tom was the only one out of the three that got shown how to use the focus but so that we could all take turns he took time to teach me and Hannah how to do it and it was a great help, now we can add to the amount we have learnt. For some of us something as easy as turning on our camera seemed a struggle but as a group we didnt waste no time in helping out, isn't that right? :]]
Today was a productive and fun day. Cannot wait to upload all our footage and start editing.

WELL DONE 'TOM'S GROUP' :]
yaayyyyyyy!!

Final Location

Ok so after careful discussion and weighing up the pros and cons we have decided to film in a shed, in fact my shed. And so I could show the group what it looks like before we started shooting I took a few pictures of it so they we could judge whether or not to use it. It is a very spacey location and at the moment does look partially run down as it is being painted. The only issue may be restricting the amount of light but we think if we stick a bit of sugar paper over the windows then we would get a nice effect on the light. The garage is indoors and so we can block out any off-scene noise and weather will most definitely not be an issue.
Also, as we need a living room to film our beginning scenes it works out perfectly as we can use my living room as well which means we don’t need to be travel here and there. Everything will be set up in one area and it makes things so much easier.
Here are a few pictures of the shed & living room we wish to film in(baring in mind we will be removing any unneccesary furniture):

And here is the living room:

Location

As one of the most important things when deciding on our idea, location, can act for a lot. Without a good location our sequence could fall through dreadfully, that’s why we have thought up some really good places to film.
A few things we came up with were: Garages/sheds, woods, derelict area or an abandoned house.

Woods
We thought woods would be a good location because it has its own environmental feel to it and the fact it feels as though you are in the middle of nowhere gives the sense of being ‘lost’.

Positive
- It has very nice characteristics
- Easy to film, as there is a lot of space
- So many different little spots, therefore a lot of choice
- Cannot adjust amount of sunlight


Negative
- dependant on the weather
- nothing we could do about the off-scene sound
- maybe slightly hard to find even floor
- quite hard to take all the equipment to
- could be quite dangerous

Garage/shed
We thought filming in a garage would be a good idea because although it shows the homely touch it cans till look quite messy and hidden. A shed is usually at the back of your house and so it still shows it’s close to home but its also where most people will keep tools and old stuff and so it shows its still quite a hidden area.

Positive
- under shelter, therefore no problem of weather
- do not have to travel far with the cameras
- can cut out all off-scene noise
- easy to limit lighting
- can position things exactly how we want them

Negative
- could end up looking too staged
- would there be enough space
- Will it fit with our genre?

Abandoned house
We think this would be a really really good venue because it would definitely have the run-down, derelict look we want for our idea. It would possibly be an ideal location for our idea, it’s the sort of location a real hostage would take place. It would mean the setting would have the unique look already and we wouldn’t have to set it up to look how we want it.

Positive
- exactly the theme we want
- would look very realistic on camera
- would fit genre perfectly

Negative
- would be very hard to find one that’s suitable
- could possibly be quite dangerous (need permission)
- there could be off-scene noise
- taking our equipment too far

Initial Idea

This idea was thought up on the premise of making an interesting opening sequence, I wanted to really try and make the camerawork interesting and original. I think that the camerawork is the most important aspect of our production.

The sequence starts with someone getting ready to leave the house, all filmed in POV. They get ready and leave the house, and start walking (destination is unimportant). As the subject turns out of the drive they plug in their headphones, and the soundtrack theme is delivered as a diegetic sfx. The credits are shown along the journey, and my vision was for them to be shown in the film world, through billboards, newspapers, bus adverts, a text to the subject, etc. Then the music would cut out and there would be a loud gunshot sfx. The camera (still POV) would go shaky and loop in and out of focus. The subject would then look towards the killer. His face would be clear. The subject would eventully black out.
The sequence cuts to the crime scene for the murder that the viewer saw. There would be the main character (a detective) standing over the body being briefed by another officer on what they believe happened (it has to be made clear to the audience they are at the scene of the same crime), the detective would continue probing and then another detectie would step into the shot. It would be the gunman.

The story would feature the themes betrayal and trust. It would follow the detective and the killer on the inside. But I have not thought about a ending or anything because it is not important at the moment.

The Group test shoot

As good media students we know that it is not a good idea to go straight into shooting and rely on a final shoot, it's just not practical or professional. So instead we have organised a test shoot on the 24th November, then we will be running through absolutely everything and ensuring everything will be ok to run for a final shooting. A test shoot is a really good idea because it is this which could determine our final idea, if part of our idea cannot be shot correctly then we will simply have to scrap it and rethink our ideas. This is why we need to have our storyboard, shooting script and script ready by late Saturday at least.
The test shoot will last for approximately eight hours, first 4 hours for our group to run through all the camera movement and positing and the rest of the time for running through from beginning to end including actors. The first 4 hours are crucial because that is when we can see whether all of our advanced camera action can work and also if we know confidently what shots come when and how to shoot them, then it will save a lot of time for when we come to shooting with the actors as well. We know we have only booked our actors for 4 hours and so we know that we really need to use that time efficiently.
So far mentally everything is ready for Monday it’s just a matter of doing our paper work and then we are good to go. Another aspect we need to test on Monday is the fake blood, if on the camera it does not look very realistic then we will have to come up with an alternative by our final shooting.

Changes and Improvements

Since thinking our idea through and getting feedback from friends, family and teachers we have made some small changes to it, to make it more realisitic and more effective;

1) We are not having the BBC news ident before our hostage video. This is because unless it is a war related one, it is highly unlikely a hostage video would be shown on the news. Therefore we intend the sitting room to be that of Bekah's parents, as the video would be most likley to be sent to the family of the hostage to get a ransom.

2)We were planning on Sian's character being dead already. However we think she should be beaten up but still alive so that a couple of lines of dialogue can be exchanged between her and Bekah. This will establish their relationship, making the plot deeper and more disturbing.

3) Finally, similar to point 2, we wanted to give the two characters a personal relationship. Therefore we have decided to place a picture of Sian and Bekah together looking happy with arms round each other in the wallet next to the bank card to imply they were close friends at one point....

Final Idea - THE TREATMENT

1. The action: identify the event your idea is based around; what actually happens (discovery of a body, an illicit meeting, a witness seeing a crime being committed, a criminal act taking place)?
Our opening scene is based around a hostage situation. It begins with a hostage video of a girl crying and stating a ransom must be paid for her release. However we soon learn that she is framing her best friend, so that she can get away with the ransom money. And she has murdered her best friend in an attempt to stop people finding out.

2. The theme(s): what should it make the audience think about or feel, what ‘issues’ will it raise (revenge, sexuality, voyeurism, stalking, obsession, greed etc)
It brings up the issues primarily of revenge and betrayal. With key themes also being murder, ransom, madness and greed.

3. The narrative: how is it structured - classic narrative pattern or break with convention, real time or different time zones, flashbacks/forwards, dreams etc. Will there be dialogue? What about diegetic/ non-diegetic sound?
It will be shot mainly in the classic narrative pattern in real time, however there will be a montage towards the end. There will be some dialogue, mainly at the beginning, but not too much as we want the tension and atmosphere to build up from our interesting shot types and music, not just by dialogue. All the sound will be diagetic, except of course for the music.


4. The character(s): who are they, identify their roles, what are their characteristics, including gender, appearance etc?
There are only two characters featured in our opening. Both of which are girls.
The first girl named Samantha Harris is played by Bekah Murrell is mixed race. She is in her early 20s and is pretty, quite tall, with dark afro style hair. At first she appears sweet and vulnerable, but soon we find out she is greedy, devious and very clever, betraying those close to her.
The second girl called Karen Williams is also in her early 20s and is played by Sian Parkinson. She is also pretty and quite tall. However she is very different in appearance as she has wavy blonde hair and fair skin. She is friendly, kind and trustworthy making her an easy target for crime.

5. The setting and choice of location: where is it set?
The very fist shot is in a living room. However the rest of our opening is set going to be filmed in Danni's garage. We are going to set it up so that it looks like an abandoned house or a basement, somwehre derelict and quite, an ideal location for keeping a hostage.

6. The mise-en-scene: identify colours, lighting, dress codes, the overall visual look
Our opening is going to have a very dark feel to it, and this will come across primarily in the lighting. This is because it will be very low key lighting in both locations. To continue this theme the actors will be wearing very plain clothes. Bekah will be wearing jeans with a plain white/black t-shirt. Her make up will also be minimal; a bit of mascara, and eyeliner that has smudged under her eyes.
Sian will be more smartly dressed, wearing a pencil skirt and smart top to show she is a professional woman.

7. The camera work: the style you are aiming for
We wanted to use intersting camera work to give our piece a modern, intersting style. We plan to use zooms, pans and a range of shot distances to achieve this.

8. The editing: edited as a continuous sequence, use of cross cutting, use of montage, or combination?
There won't be cross cutting, but there will be a montage near the end. We wanted to have a shot of a living room with a TV on, we're going to zoom into the TV and when we zoom out again, we will be in the room that was on the television - our vision was to have this as one seamless shot - lets hope it works!

9. Has your idea been ‘tested’ against the key criteria (the 8 questions)?
Yes it has, and we think it answers all of the questions positively.

10. Group responses?
We really love our idea and hope it will work well.

11. Teacher responses?
Our teacher liked our idea, but wants us to keep it simple, and add a bit more dialogue.

Initial Ideas

My initial idea was to have an opening sequence based around a hostage scene. It is a very current theme due to the many hostage videos shown on the news because of the Iraq war. This makes the idea very current and in my opinion very intersting.

It starts off with a news bulletin showing a video of a hostage crying and stating that she will not be released unless £10,000 is paid directly to K WILLIAMS' bank account. We see this through a TV screen in a living room. The camera zooms into the screen and when it zooms out again we are in the room with the hostage. The "hostage" then gets up from the chair, walks over to the camera, wipes her eyes and turns it off. The camera then pans left to show a dead woman lying on the floor. The first girl goes over to her, takes her wallet out of her pocket and pulls out her bank card. The name of it is K WILLIAMS, showing that she is framing the dead woman and planning to take the money herself (TWIST!!!).

HOSTAGE RESEARCH

As the idea we have decided on is about a hostage situation, I decided to do some research on this topic. A hostage is a person which is held by a captor.

Taking hostages is today considered a crime or a terrorist act; the term abductee only started being used in the 1970s. The criminal activity is known as kidnapping.

Hostage taking is still often politically motivated or intended to raise a ransom or to enforce an exchange against other hostages or even condemned convicts.

However in some countries hostage taking for profit has become an "industry", ransom often being the only demand. Our story is based on the main character wanting a ransom (lots of money).

Since the war with Iraq there have been many incidents of British journalists and reporters being held hostage whilst being over there. We have used the idea of this by starting our piece with a hostage video, similar to ones we have seen on the news in recent years.

There have been many films about Hostage situations, most recently the obviously titled ‘Hostage’ it featured big names such as Bruce Willis. The plot sees a failed police negotiator turned small town cop, having to save the lives of a family held hostage, which draws him into a much more dangerous situation.

Although our opening has similar themes to this film, they have very different characters and plot lines, consequently our opening will still be a highly original sequence.

Hostage Opening Sequence

This is a really good opening sequence. Ours will be nothing like this as it won't be animated, but it is still good as inspiration and example of a successful opening. It also shows how two openings with the same theme can show a huge variety, as they will be nothing alike.

Group meeting #3

Tuesday 18th November

Today we had a triple lesson and used our time very effectively. We spoke about so many things today and managed to narrow a lot of things down which helped us a great deal.
Miss Blackborow gave the class a short talk about all aspects that will need to be covered before we can head of for our shoot and spoke slightly about how important our time and planning really are, taking this into account we decided to head straight off and talk through everything.
First of all we decided to use the ‘Hostage’ initial idea as it was different and we had really good ideas for camera movement to make it the best. Having found our final idea it meant we could finalise a lot more things like actors and importantly a location.

Things we are definite on that we sorted out today are:
Actors, ideas, props and costume.



Actors
In the final idea we need two young women who can act really well. So we chose Sian Parkinson a young white blonde female who will play the role of the victim, an innocent woman who you would think could do no wrong. And Bekah Murrell a young mixed race female that will play the part of the ‘bad guy’. I have spoken to both these people and they have confirmed they will take part in out media project.

Props
Chair
Camera
Tripod
Blood
Black bag
Cigarette
Bank card

Costume
Sian will wear a pencil skirt with tights, shirt and heels. Bekah will wear a white tank top, jeans and dolly shoes.

Still yet to figure out location, title, music and company name. Out of all four things, we are most worried about the location, we need to have decided on a definite location before our test shoot or this will hold us at such a disadvantage.
Next meeting we need to do:
Why did we choose hostage?
Organise posts.
Background & links
Group picture

& talk about location!!

Group meeting #2

Friday 14th November

Today our meeting was very productive, we had all written up an initial idea and spoke about them to the group.
We also discussed about using fake blood and how we would try and do this effectively, we had two options, either buying some from a shop or mixing up a recipe for it ourselves. As a group we didn’t want to include to murder in our sequence and so we needed the best makeup/props to help the characters look as professional as they possibly can.
After hearing all the ideas we though of some locations that could work such as derelict building, garage, woods or a darkened basement. Obviously with thinking about the location we will need to consider whether or not it will be practical and if we ware actually allowed to film on the premises.
We know we needed characters for our production and that they had to be reliable and quite flexible with their time. A few names came up: Adam Hawksbee, Laurence Bush, Sian Parkinson, and Bekah Murrell. In order to narrow down our choice we had to ask each of them if they were able to attend a test shoot and the final shooting.

Group meeting #1

Thursday 13th November
Today we all met up during our private study period 6, we sat down and discussed some ideas and thoughts we each had. A few things we discussed were: genre, characters, setting, voiceover and the music. Although a voice over could have a really nice impact on the overall sequence we thought without the perfect speaker it would make the sequence look unprofessional and therefore could ruin the entire shoot. Two genres we were quite keen on were detective thriller and horror, but we decided to finalise this during our next meeting. The music we would like to be quite eerie and slow for the beginning and then will eventually pick up with a beat. As this was our first meeting I think we were all quite nervous as to thinking up a great idea.
We decided to all bring in an initial idea for our next meeting and there we would discuss them and narrow it down to one.

BLK feedback

I thought somebody should kick this blog off, come on you lot!