Update: Film Idents

In today's lesson we created our own film idents for our film opening using Adobe after effects.
 
The first ident is to show the studio that the film was created in:

The second ident is to show the production company used:

Update

Today we edited all of our scenes together with music fitting in perfectly. Over the next few lessons we are planning to add in transitions and we are hoping to create our own ident.

Update

In todays lessons we were editing again. Trying to get the music that we've chosen to come in at exactly the right moments, and to make it look right. Also, we had to edit up our voice over sections, and ensure that they only overlap the specific areas which they are talking about.

Update

In our double period of Media Studies today we were editing our final piece together, picking the shots that best showed our media ability. However, we did come across a problem - one of our shots was too dark, so you couldn't really see what was going on and didn't fit the emotion/mood that we were trying to portray.
Also, we came to the realisation that we did not clearly show the relation between the siblings and Candice. Therefore, we are going to take some more shots, and create a "photo frame" of the "family".

Weekend of filming

This weekend we have carried out all of the filming that we have needed! Everything appears to have gone to plan, with our actors acting with enthusiasm and professionalism, the weather staying constant, and the evening shots, where the dark was needed, falling into place.
We organised - for the party scene - to have our group of friends come over to my house, and pretend to party, but as they already knew each other, there was no problem with them relaxing and getting into the "party mood".

Storyboard for Film Opening

Music for our opening

At the beginning of our opening, we want to create a dark, tense and intimidating atmosphere to match Kacey's attitude towards Candice. Whilst searching through Youtube, we settled on this instrumental to this song as it creates the atmosphere we want to achieve:

Further on into our opening, we want to create a depressing scene as it dawns on Candice exactly what lengths she has to go to provide for her younger siblings as her mum is uncapable of doing so herself. We decided on the song below as it creates a very dramatic and emotional atmosphere, and causes the audience to feel pathos towards Candice and her situation:

  

At the end of our opening, we want to create a carefree atmosphere during the house party scene to show how so many other teenagers are oblivious to the struggles that others may have. We decided on this song as it has been played at several house parties that Courtney and I have previously been to and has created a light-hearted and untroubled atmosphere:







Length of shots

Courtney and I have discussed that we dont want to have extremely long lengthed shots because this not only gets boring, but it doesnt achieve anything. The only time we have decided to use long lengthed shots is if we're to have estabishing shots etc.
Our other shots are up to around 6 seconds long. The longer shots being used in conversation, or emotional moments, and the short shots being used in action areas, and hectic moments - like our party scene that we plan on having. Having these shorts shots enable us to give the impression of a really big, loud, atmospheric surrounding for our characters

Prop List for Opening

Box of contraceptive pills
Mascara
Make up bag
Mirror
Bag
Clear bag
Bottle of Port
2x £20 notes
Bottles and cans of alcohol (substitute)

Lighting for our opening

During our planning, we have taken into account the lighting that will be necessary in each scene. In areas where we will be outside, we will obviously be using natural lighting, this is because that is clearly the only lighting available to us - with this we also need to take into account our outdoor filming hours, as we still need to see our characters, and for the lighting to be consistent within each shot so it makes sense.

However, when filming indoors, we are able to have much more of an effect on the lighting available. Therefore, we will be able to set moods and emotions within our scenes, as well as make the locations (events in the locations) more believable and realistic. Types of lighting we will be using indoors will be: artificial low key lighting, artificial high key lighting, and artificial medium lighting.

Character Clothing

Location 1: Alleyway: In this scene, our characters will be wearing casual clothing, like jeans and a coat, something you would just wear everyday.

Location 2: Living Room:
Wearing causal indoor clothing - jeans, t-shirt, hoody.

Location 3: Doctors Surgery:
*Similar to location 1*

Location 4: Bedroom:
*similar to location 2*

Location 5: House Party:
Party clothing - Dresses/playsuits (girls) Jeans, t-shirt (boys)

Character biography

Candice
Full name: Candice Jackson
Age: 16
Marital Status: Single
Occupation: Student at local college
Residency: Small house in crowded estate in Croydon
Family Life: Dad left before she was born, no idea who he is, lives with drunken mum and three younger siblings (two sisters, one brother - all have different fathers). Mum is incapable of looking after them, spends all her time getting drunk and having sex with men she doesn't really know. Candice has to support her siblings for the sake of their health
Close friends: Had a childhood friend (Nath), grew up together, she was close to his family, spent all their time together but drifted apart when he joined the local gang. Doesn't have any at the moment as all of her time is spent looking after her siblings

Kacey:
Full name: Kacey Brookston
Age: 18
Marital Status: girlfriend, haven't been together long
Occupation: Gang leader, drug dealer
Residency: rents a flat on same crowded estate in Croydon
Family Life: hasn't spoken to parents since starting up his gang, no siblings, girlfriend is pregnant - has doubts about sticking around
Close friends: gang members, closest friend is Nath

Mum:
Full name: Shelly Jackson
Age: 30
Marital Status: Single, has a reputation of sleeping around
Occupation: Unemployed
Residency: Small house in crowded estate in Croydon
Family Life: 4 kids all with different dads - not in contact with any of them, spends all her time getting drunk and sleeping around, doesn't support her children
Close friends: doesn't have any - only the locals that she speaks to when she goes down the pub

Nath:
Full name: Nathan Lawson
Age: 17
Martial Status: Girlfriend - only due to pressure and expectations from Kacey
Occupation: Gang member
Residency: high class estate, close to the estate where Kacey and Candice live, large, expensive house
Family Life: Only child, lives with supportive parents - too caught up in their work and each other that they don't realise that Nath's involved with a gang and that his life is going down hill
Close friends: Had a childhood friend (Candice), grew up together, spent all their time together but drifted apart when he joined the local gang. Kacey and the other gang members

Location Research: Location Five - House Party

Our fifth and final scene is the house party venue, the scene varies in location throughout the house using the living room, hallway and kitchen; this is where Candice sells her first set of contraceptive pills as ecstasy before getting caught:

Location Research: Location Four - Bedroom

Our fourth location is Candice's (Courtney's) bedroom where Candice breaks down as she realises the lengths she has to go to, to support her family:

Location Research: Location Three - Doctor's Surgery

Our third location was outside the doctor's surgery in Hethersett where Candice collects a set of contraceptive pills which she will go on to sell as 'ecstasy' at a party:

Location Research: Location Two - Living Room

Our second location was in Courtney's living room. During our filming of this scene we moved some of the furniture around to make the room appear smaller and made sure that we did not capture any technology whilst filming to make sure we did not contradict ourselves concerning the main character's backstory and financial state:

Location Research: Location One - Alleyway

Our first location within our opening takes place in an alleyway in the city of Norwich where the leader of a well-known gang intimidates Candice as he believes she is trying to take over his 'business' of selling drugs:

Who is playing the roles in our film?

Candice Jackson, played by Chantelle Cooper, age 16:

We chose to use Chantelle to play the role of Candice as not only does she fit our age for the character, but she comes across as quite a strong, streetwise person who would do anything to protect her family.

Kacey Brookston, played by Kahmal Sealey, age 18:

We chose to use Kahmal as the role of Kacey as he has a London accent (a stereotypical trait within gangs and thugs shown in films) and seems to have quite a dark side to him.



Nath Lawson, played by Josh Denny, age 17:

We appointed the role of Nath to Josh as he has quite a friendly looking face, yet can still seem intimidating. Nath's character gets into the wrong crowd, but during the film, falls in love with Candice and helps her out of her situation - Josh gave us the impression that he's a kind, caring and genuine person which is what we wanted for this character.

Shelly Jackson, played by Courtney Radley, age 30

When assigning people to play the roles of our characters, we struggled to get adults involved. Due to this we decided to assign Courtney to the role of Shelly as she looks older than what she is).

Lou Jackson played by Emily Ellwood, age 14:

Chloe Jackson, played by Georgia Banks, age 12:

Jamie Jackson, played by Marcus Mauby, age 14:

We chose to have these three children as Candice's younger siblings because two of them are relations to Courtney and was therefore easy to get in contact with them, they fitted the age criteria and because they all knew each other, it created a family bond which is reflected in the opening.

Tom Hooper, played by Harry Silvester, age 17:

We chose Harry to play Tom as he fits the age criteria, he's rather cocky and gives the impression that he only really cares about himself and having a good time, not the consequences of his actions and we wanted that portrayed in the character.

Extras at the party, ages 16-18

The extras at the party are simply mine and Courtney's friendship group as they all fit within the age criteria, they were easy to get in contact with and they are all friendly and familiar with each other, so the scene would run smoothly and there wouldn't be any awkward scenes where they didn't know what the other people were like.

Script for our opening

Script
KEY:
K - Kacey
C - Candice
M - Mum
C1 - Child one
C2 - Child two
C3 - Child three
DG - Guy who buys 'drugs' from Candice at the party
N - Nath

-- BC STUDIOS --

-- RAXIP FILMS --

Alleyway

Kacey has Candice pinned up against a wall. Candice is cowering away from his confrontation with some of Kacey’s gang members staring at her from behind him.

-- Directed and Produced by Courtney Radley and Rebecca Tuner --

K: (stares down at C intimidatingly) did you honestly think you could get away with it?

-- Starring Kahmal Sealey --

C: (starts to talk) I.. I.. I didn’t…

-- Chantelle Cooper --

K: (interrupting) I don’t wanna hear what you’ve got to say, I want you to stop whatever little game you’re playing

-- Courtney Radley --

C: (staring blankly up at him)

-- Josh Denny --

K: (shouts) say something!

C: Errr.. you don’t understand why..

K: (interrupting) I don’t care why you did it, I want my business back and right now you’re in the way

C: (on the verge of crying) I didn’t even realise..

K: (interrupting, yells) I’ve had enough of your bullshit (attempts to hit her round the face)

-- FREEZE --

C: (voice over) So I guess you probably want to know how I got myself into this situation, well let me show you..

In her house

Drunken mum passed out on sofa, all three kids sitting on the floor whining, arguing with each other.

C: (walking down the stairs) can’t believe this is happening again, for fucksake mum

M: (groans, wine slips out of glass) let me sleep

C: it’s eight o’clock in the morning and you’re already out of it…

C1: I’m bored

C2: I’m hungry

C3: Candice can you get us some food?

C: Yep with all that money I have in my back pocket..

All C: Pleaseeeeeeeee

C: I’ll sort it

Candice storms out, slamming door behind her

Doctors

Candice walking into doctor’s surgery

C: (voice over) this stupid little idea is where it all started. Now looking back trying pull contraceptive pills off as ecstasy is one of the shittest ideas I’ve ever had… it worked though

Reappears with box of contraceptive pills in her hand

Bedroom

Candice takes pills out of contraceptive box and puts them in bags

Candice sitting in front of her mirror applying her make up – stares at her reflection in mirror – breaks downs and cries.

C: (through tears) Candice pull yourself together. You can do this.

Candice hesitates when putting little bags in her purse then walks out of her bedroom

House Party

Establishing shot of party from outside – Candice walking into party

Random shots taken of party (getting off, drinking, snorting sherbet/salt, drug deals)

Hall way:

DG: (whispers, pushy) I want 3

C: £20

DG: Deal

(Close up of money and pills exchanging in hands)

DG walks off

N: (creeps up on Candice from behind) what do you think you’re doing?

Candice: (gasps)

-- ECSTASY --

Stop Motion

Stop motion is an animation technique that is used to make a physically manipulated object appear to move of its own accord. The object/s in the shot are moved in small increments between individually photographed frames which create the illusion of movement when the series of frames are played through as a continuous sequence.

An very basic example of an older method where stop motion is used is a movie called The Lost World in 1925:

The use of stop motion in this clip makes the dinosaurs appear alive and moving, even though it is a well known fact that they are dead.

More recent uses of stop motion are very common within Tim Burton films, such as
The Nightmare Before Christmas:

James and the Giant Peach:

and Corpse Bride:

From my research into stop motion films, I have noticed that the majority of relatively new stop motion-based films are aimed at audiences of younger children to fuel their imagination with the creation of animated characters and use of colour and content within the film itself.

The main target audience for stop motion-based films, such as those mentioned above, does not match with the target audience Courtney and I are aiming our coursework film opening at as well as the complex story line, dealing with mature topics such as sex, drugs, alcohol and money that children would not be familiar with and therefore does not interest us in our opening.