Film Treatment

We plan to produce a bildungsroman/drama genre film, following the rite of passage of two very different lifestyles of the characters William and Jack. The film will be starting in their early adolescence viewing their individual storys through life. There are only going to be two main characters as this will enable the audience to become engrossed in their life, consequently empathising for them.

William is a privileged private school boy, brought up by a loving, wealthy family. However, Jack is an only child living in a bed sit with his drug abusing mother. For years Jack hasn't received any education as he is more focused on stealing and caring for his mum. The twist to the film is that both these boys are now in their mid-teens however are actually brothers both adopted by different families. William was 2 years of age at the time, Jack no more then a few weeks. Neither boy having a clue either one exist, not even knowing they are adopted. Their real parents had tragically died in a car accident leaving them with no other relatives. As the story goes on, Jack enters into different crimes in attempt to earn money in order for him and his mother to survive, eventually ending up in prison and his mother sadly passed away. However William was an intelligent popular boy living life to the full, partying as any other boy his age would. Tragically things took a turn for the worse for William as he begun to take drugs and was on a slippery down hill slope, so bad his family couldn't help him. However at the same time in prison jack got a degree in being a doctor. The film has a controversial ending as William the once upon a time 'intelligent popular school boy' dies in a hospital bed from a heroin overdose, as his long lost brother who was once nothing but a thieving youth, is sitting next door in the hospital canteen as a doctor.

Inspirational Film Trailer

This is England;


This is the sort of British made cross edited film trailer i am looking to construct.

New Ideas- Inspritational Film Trailer

Somers Town;


Somers Town is about two boys living a different livestyle one from up north and one from down south they mix and become friends.

This is also a low budget British film which we find inspirational and effective.

Institutional Research

For our opening production logo we are looking at a low budget style. Below is a youtube video i have uploaded as an inspirational style production opening.



The UK film council and Film supported by the lottery are both ideal production, institutional companies to aim my film at, as i don't have aspirations of any high budget.

The UK Film Council (UKFC) was set up in 2000 by the Labour Government as a non-departmental public body to develop and promote the film industry in the UK. It is constituted as a private company limited by guarantee governed by a board of 15 directors and is funded through sources including the National Lottery.

It has 3 types of funding schemes. Development Funding, which has £12 million to invest over 3 years , with a £25000 maximum award. The New Cinema Fund supports emerging talent and established filmmakers working outside the mainstream, focusing on the most innovative writing and the most gifted directors. The fund has £15 million of Lottery money to invest over three years and funds eight to ten feature films each year.The Premiere Fund invests £8 million of Lottery funding per year into mainstream, commercially-driven films encouraging the involvement of British creative talent in a range of films that can attract audiences the world over.

Costume and Make Up Ideas

My current ideas for costume are going to be maybe a dark robe or dark clothing, idealy were going to keep close ups on the clothing to a minimal as i want the audience to 'fear the unknown' more of mysterious horror opening.
Wereas with make up i believe it can help imply a mysterious figure, with minimal emotions. Maybe use dark eye make up to contrast with the daylight glaring through.

Inspirational Location Images

This is a video of a derilict mental home in epsom these images portray a spooky 'fear of the unknown'. I believe this would be an ideal place to film our opening;

Title Orders Within Film Openings

Fight Club- Starts with a CG effect of a realistic imagery of inside of the mans nerve system sparking as the titles appear this is slowly zooming out ending with an unsettling view of the sweating obviously disturbed man with the barrel of a gun down his throat. This is the order in which the opening titles appear:This is the order in which the opening titles appear:This is the order in which the opening titles appear:

• Production Company
• Its Associates
• The Producer
• Main Characters (Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter)
• The Film Title
• More Actors
• Casting By
• Costume Designer
• Special Make Up Effects Supervisor
• Sound Designer
• Music By
• Film Editor
• Production Designer
• Director of Photography
• Executive Producer
• Based on the Novel (Chuck Palahntuk)
• Screenplay by
• Producers
• Directors

The Incredibles- This opening scene was a very energetic cartoon display of CGI setting the mood and scene for the audience, whilst introducing the titles very skillfully showing off the use of CGI. This is the order in which the opening titles appear:

• Title
• Written and Directed
• Produced
• Executive Producer
• Associate Producer
• Music by
• Story Supervisor
• Film Editor
• Supervising Technical Director
• Production Designer
• Character Design
• Supervising Animators
• Directors of Photography
• Art Director and Shading Art Director
• Character Supervisor
• Hair & Cloth Simulation Supervisor
• Sequence Supervisor
• Effects Supervisor
• Rendering Supervisor
• Production Manager
• Sound Designer
• Casting by & Casting (In order of appearance)

Smokin' Aces- The opening scene of 'Smokin' Aces' is very unique having a flow of pop art coloured shots of the film including specific characters. This is the order in which the opening titles appear:

• Written and Directed by
• Produced by
• Executive Producers
• Main Characters (starting with most popular)
• Director of Photography
• Production Designer
• Editor
• Costume Designer
• Music by
• Music Supervisor
• Casting by
• Film by
• Title
• In Association with
• Unit Production Manager
• First Assistant Director
• Second Assistant Director

I chose three different genres to look at the opening scenes of to see if there was a difference within the order of which the opening titles appear. They all had very different opening scenes the first two with CGI but with very different aspects. From this research i understand that the most important, therefore titles viewed first are; Who it was produced by and Main characters. Although these were popular with my choice of openings i believe that many openings are very different and are prefer to be mixed up, depending on the audience the film is aimed at this will give the viewers a better, positive understanding of what the film will be like without it even starting.

Opening Analysis - Horror - Scream

The opening of the film started with a sharp, tightly cutted flash fade out of the production company logo - Dimension Films. Following with an unsettling image of the title 'Scream' this shakes causing a realistic unsettling effect as changing glowing colours red to white with sound effects of locks slamming and the notorious non diegetic screams with a phone call ringing throughout, this illustrates an on edge opening to the audience. Zooming into the blood red writing of 'Scream' with a heart beat building up pace. This then cuts to a close up of the phone an obviously important prop used within the film as the first object introduced. Meanwhile the now diegetic over tone of the phone still ringing suddenly cuts as a womans hand enters the shot firmly gripping the phone introducing a realistic feel of tension. The camera then pans at an upwards angle to then establish a character, almost imediately stereotyped as a dumb blonde american typically taken advantage of and assualted within the horror genres.

The opening of the film started with a unsettling series of effective angles, faded tones, close-ups and quickly cutting to intense non diegetic sound which were all so unusual and disconcerting catching the audience off guard. I immediately felt both mesmerized and at risk. And that was just during the opening credits.
This style of opening credits really appeals to me, i think this is a really effective technique and i believe i could use this within my opening trailer. The shaken view of credits with disconcerting noises over the image, i found really effective, making me feel uneasy, this is how i want my audience to feel when watching my film.

Research & Planning - To do list

- Upload and analyse a variety of genre openings (Done)
- Film treatment
- Storyboard opening scene
- Photos of locations (Done)
- Images of costumes and props
- Images of inspirational actors
- Mind map - using ICT skills
- Powerpoint presentation on ideas (need to upload)
- G321 OCR blog research
- Upload music ideas (Done)
- Draft script if theres dialogue
- Upload and analyse practice scenes
- Visit and get images of location

Preliminary Task & Evaluation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hx1Hhh93GY

Film Analysis & What I have learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this project?

The technologies used in the process when constructing this ‘Preliminary Task’ have been very useful and I have tried to use them to the best of my potential. Reflecting back to my storyboard when possible, I used this to keep me on track and guide me through the editing and filming process. Although next time when constructing another project I would definitely go in to much more detail when constructing my storyboard this would help us to recognise potential mistakes or errors before hand. I think also next time I should go into more detail when presenting characters within the film, this would then help the audience identify the persona of particular characters and construct a better understanding of the film, by incorporating a better understanding of ‘mise en scene’ next time I think I would much prefer to include props and a more detailed set and conversation.
The 180 degree rule is a basic guideline in film making that states that two characters in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two characters, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle. This was one of the main technologies we involved whilst filming; this effect is a basic but effective tool, very useful as a foundation when building on new complex skills for future filming.
We used many uses of continuity techniques when filming and editing to let the film run smoothly and realistically. One of the main continuity techniques is; Match on Action – this is when two shots cut together by having a character finish an action in the second shot begun in the first shot. We gave an example of this popular technique as Dave walked through the door into the class room, we had a shot on either side of the door walking through, and this was then edited to make a match on action shot.
We start our film straight away with a mid shot of Dave entering the doors – this helps frame the shot, and introduces the character vaguely, consequently hooking the audience to keep viewing the film to find out what’s going to happen and who Dave is portrayed as. We then pan around to the bottom of the stairs as Dave starts to walk up the angle then increases then flowing the mid shot into now a low angle looking up at Dave to present as maybe a more powerful character. Next we have a fast paced range of cutting as this is a fast moving scene, involving lots of movement. We then view Dave from a birds eye high angle shot contrasting a mixture of who is in power adding a glimpse of confusion interesting the reader to have a better understanding, whether or not there is a character looking down at him.
We next cut into a mid shot high angle with Dave walking into the camera incorporating a close up view involving expression and current emotion. This then reverses as he travels past we then appear to be looking up the stairs at him moving away at pace, the camera then follows Dave as hand held to give an act of realism maybe a suspicious effect on whether there’s someone following him. The camera then jumps ahead to around the corner as Dave travels past then panning round to view him travelling through the corridor containing a level mid shot view then containing a stationary shot letting Dave enter the class room ahead alone. We then cut to a close up shot of Dave’s hand compressing the door handle; this is then when the camera is at a view from inside of the classroom this is our match on action shot. A continuity technique to emphasize the complex editing skills we can then add to for our following coursework. Once Dave has entered the room we have a Long Shot at a mid shot level acting as an establishing shot introducing Dave to the unfamiliar setting. This shot then pans around to the table of which I am sat at, once Dave is placed on the seat an over the shoulder shot is taken as I introduce myself with a conversation starting topic. We had to involve this over the shoulder shot rather than leaving the long shot zoomed in, as we noticed after the first time the acoustics of the room was an issue as the cameras microphone could not detect my voice clearly enough. We overcame this issue with involving an over the shoulder shot. This shot then reverses to over ‘my’ shoulder as Dave reply’s to my topic issued. The camera in from this view then flows into a smooth zoom shot and close up of Dave’s face implying the expression and emotion portrayed from the topic raised. Our ending shot introduces a high angle looking down on the both of us implying the scene is coming to an end, with a fade out ending the film.
I think next time we should involve the many technologies of the Adobe premiere elements such as effects this then can add a more professional finish.
I overall felt that I have learnt many new technologies and definitely used them to my full potential and am willing to use these basic skills to build on a more complex and professional film for my coursework.