Closing Post.

This blog is now closed!

We hope you have as much fun looking through our blog as we have had making it and completing this project :D

Colour Grading Research: Underworld Awakening

As we are currently starting to finish the basic edit and focus on the smaller details now, we have decided to do some research into colour grading.

We want to use the colour wheel on premiere to give the film a blue tint, to make it seem colder and therefore more menacing.

We found an example of an action film that has similar blue grading: Underworld Awakening. This film is similar to ours in genre (although it has horror and fantasy elements as well) and the fact that it has a female hero. As you can see in the image and clip below the blue colours makes her character seem harder, tougher and more sleek and professional.

However this clip is slightly too strong in it's colour grading in our opinion and we would be more subtle in our film, as we don't want it to be noticeable, just to influence the audience's impression of Lotus and the events taking place subconsciously.The snapshot below (from the same film) is more illustrative of the type of grading we might use.

Poster

We have designed a poster for our film! We have built on the theme of shadows in our film which creates enigma, however it is clear the figure is a female assassin our major selling point.

This poster's appeal will be put to the test when we host our opening sequence premiere in school.

Last Minute Name Change

After teacher feeedback sessions, we decided as a group it was best to change the name of our film, mainly because of the misleading oriental connatations of Lotus. Instead we have decided to name our film "Deadly Shadow." This is beacuse the main motif in our opening sequence is the use of shadows. For instance:
The first thing we see of Lotus is the shadow.
When the guy is killed we see his shadow on the wall.
Her shadow crosses his dead body to get the briefcase.
The shadow theme would also be used in our marketing campaign and the rest of the film.

Re-shoot: FOR ATTENTION OF NICO AND NATASHA

Hi Guys it's Francis, we need to re-shoot the shot, as the gun shot does not look good without any make-up and we can't edit around it.
If possible can we do today during the media lesson. Chris (technician) can drive us down to mine.
Please reply on the blog. Thanks.

Shoot Permission Form

This is our shoot organisation form which everyone had to sign, including our teachers, to make sure our arrangements were clear and that we would all stick to them.

Real shoot organisation sheets

As one of the main problems in our test shoot was the lack of props. Here we have written up a comprehensive props list with who is getting what. Secondly we have written up a list of things we ned to do better this time around to make sure the shoot goes smoothly as well as the changes we intend to make.

Teachers Improvements

After our test shoot we showed our teachers our rough cut and we recieved feed back which we took o to make sure our real production is successful.

These are the notes we made when running through the rough edit with Mrs Blackborrow, Mrs Dymioti and Chris, our technician.
Many points and issues came up. The main ones were:

• Changing the opening shots so it did not include as many shots of knives as this is a genre convention of horror, not action/thriller. Focus more instead on items like cigars and whiskey to create the uneasy image we are going for.
• Making it look like the action is continuing beneath the titles.
• Lingering the shot where he picks up his briefcase and replacing the match on action of the door with a new title.
• Including more camera movement.
• Making the gun scene less static by shooting from more angles.
• Get rid of jumps
• Use more interesting framing in the gun scene to draw in audience
• Include shots such as CU of money in briefcase (match on action), assasin picking up briefcase and possibly her taking off her gloves
• Using better lighting to get rid of the grainy image.
• Make things faster-faster shots and possibly a cut down script.
• Use make up and effects for the gunshot.
• Use better props for better mise-en-scene e.g briefcase, whiskey glass, whiskey bottle.
• Making the gun scene a lot more dramatic. Possible ways we discussed were non-digetic sound effects, zoom in to the guys face see a change of expression then zoom out to see the gun, or even a fade to black of the guy in his relaxed state with a sudden jolt back to the image as the assasin appears.

Behind the scenes

Here is a behind the scenes view of our test shoot. We are setting up for shot 6, the focus pull of the man washing his hands behind the drugs.

Group 2 LotusTest Shoot

This is our test shoot footage edited into a rough edit which matches our animatic.
The test shoot itself went pretty smoothly. We started quite slowly however and found ourselves a bit rushed towards the end. This meant we didn't use the clapperboard towards the end, something we need to do for our real shoot. We alos didn't have access to the proper lighting kit for this shoot and also had some stand in props but all these issues will be sorted out for our real shoot next week.
There were many great shots and positives from the test shoot, in particular the general style of the opening CU's and the idea of the shadow in the shooting scene. However there are also many things we need to work on and improve on our next shoot. This is all detailed in the Teacher Feedback post above.

Costumes

Here are the final costumes we will be using:

For Lotus we went for simple, practical clothing. We wanted it to be dark to contribute to the "shadow" idea. Not photographed is the leather jacket she wears which makes her look sleek and classy as well as hard and professional.

As for the "businessman" we wanted him to be in a shirt, tie and suit, formal trousers and formal shoes to connote the ideas of money, greed and dodgy business (which the iconography helps with.) This is shown in the photo above.

Shot log

We made sure we were organised and kept to our schedule by noting down everything on the table.  It also will help us when editing when using time codes. Here are our shot logs:

Shoot Schedule

This is our shoot schedule.  We have planned when we will film each shot throughout our day of production, giving it structure and organisation.  Surely nothing can go wrong now??
Set-Ups:
11:00 Dress Set and Walkthrough
12:00 Sink Setup: 1, 5
12: 20 Knife Setup: 2,
12: 30 Sharpening Setup: 3
12: 40 Radio Setup: 4
12: 50 Kitchen Setup: 6
13:00 Briefcase Setup 1: 7, 8
13: 20 Briefcase Setup 2: 9
Lunch
14:20 Walkthrough setup: 10
14: 30 Long shot Front Room Setup: 11, 25
14:50 Chair Setup: 12, 15,16,19,22
15: 40Drink Setup: 17, 20, 21
16: 10 Headshot Setup: 18, 23, 24
16:40 Picking Up Briefcase Setup: 27, 28, 29
17:10 Money in Briefcase Setup: 13
17:20 Flicking through money Setup: 14
17:30 Glove Setup: 26
17: 40 Outside setup: 32
(Hour allowance means 19:00)
Hollywood:
Hollywood Chair setup: 30
Boss ear to phone setup: 31
Lips Boss Setup: 33
Walk out hotel setup: 34
Walk down Hollywood Boulevard setup: 35

Animatic for opening sequence

Here is the finished animatic for our sequence.  It has really helped us visualise how our final product will turn out, and has enabled us to consider shot duration and timings without yet filming, definitely worth the time doing! One thing we need to change is the script, as it isn't sounding quite right yet. After talking with our teachers we've also decided for the purpose of this opening sequence, it's best not to use bad language.

Locations Addition

In addition to shooting in the kitchen like we posted earlier, we are also going to have the character cross into the front room, as the glass doors work well, and here is a more suitable place for him to sit and relax.

More script Drafts and final script

We went through a long process of scripting. We initially had quite a long speech from the guy, however this was too long-winded and dragged the sequence on so we cut it down again.

Draft 1:

MAN:

(He releases a deep breath, as though a weight is lifted off his shoulders)

So he decided to send someone with a little class.  You’re fresh out of the farm, aren’t you?  Only time a mark gets to talk is if the asset is a little green.  Should have shot me before I said anything.  Now that bastard gets to know that I had time to think about the fact I was dead.  What kind of twisted asshole does that?

Silence.

            MAN:

Pour me the rest of that scotch. 

She pours.

Someone once told me it “takes the edge off”.  Doubt that applies to a 9mm to the skull though. 

He drinks.

Fuck, that’s gonna hurt.  You should do it when I’m not expecting

She shoots.

Draft 2 and 3:

We eventually went with Draft 3 but cut the third line and Lotus's dialogue to make her character more mysterious.

Audience Research

Having decided on a target audience the group asked me to do some research into our audience:
Target audience: 16-24 Male and female


I found the BFI's 2011 statistics yearbook which focused on the year 2010.
Here are some statistics I found:

As this data shows we have chosen a lucrative audience, as they visit the cinema the most. We have also chosen a good genre to target them with as many action films (e.g Kick Ass, Inception, Iron Man 2) made the list of the most popular films within that age group.

However the thriller aspect of the film might appeal to the 25-34 demographic more as the most popular film for them was Green Zone, a thriller. Most of our film is action however, but the 25-34 year olds could well be a strong secondary audience.

Film pitch feedback sheet

 Year 12 film pitch feedback group 2

We pitched to the class and our teachers today, however we didn't quite get the green light as several changes are needed, and lots of points need to be more clear. The feedback is listed above.
Individual reflections of this are on our individual blogs.

Revised Film Treatment

We have created a treatment for our film so that when we pitch it to the teachers they they can use it to support what we are saying and visualise the film better.

Treatment

Title