Filming!

I successfully managed to film my scene. It suprisingly didn't take very long, I don't fancy going to have to re-shoot so it was important I got lots and lots of material to work with. A quite ridiculous amount to work with, the more the better, I don't want to waste precious time later on in the year to re-shoot something that I could have shot there and then. I will start editing as soon as possible!

Prop List.

I have already found a suitable place to shoot the scene: I will shoot inside a garage.. the stone/brick walls and floors will look perfect for a dirty looking scene.
The props and other things I will require for my scene:

• One male actor - to act out the character of Leon, the films protagonist.
• Face paint - to emphasize the actor to look pale and ill.
• A strong light source - such as a torch to highlight shadows in the scene.
• Empty bottles/cans of alcohol - to make the scene look even more dirty and to show how the character has resorted to drinking to cure his drug addiction
• Various random rubbish - that would be suitable for the feel of the scene, such as empty cigarette packets and smelly bin-bags.

Storyboard/Animatic

Here is the animatic for my scene. At the start of the sequence, the shots are pretty long and drawn out to build tension. Then it begins to get quicker and more panicked. I have added the music track I chose to accompany it as it gives you more of an idea of where I'm coming from with this!

Music in the scene

I have decided on no dialogue in the sequence, I wanted to go for more of a thought-provoking montage with non-diegetic music playing over it. Of course there will be diegetic sound coming from the protagonist such as heavy breathing and sighs, maybe the odd calling out in distress, swearing, but no actual speaking which would be important. For the music choice I was thinking about a dark piece, with depressing sounding synthesizers. I found this one which I think is very suitable for the scene: A drum 'n' bass track which gets fast-paced about halfway through. I want my scene to go from slow and depressive to quite hectic and panicky, so the song suits my needs for the scene. Here is the song.

B Negative (Skc and Chris.Su Remix) - Black Sun Empire

Shooting Script

Shooting Script
Addict

Location:
A dirty room filled with empty beer cans, bin-bags and a filthy sheet.
Props:
• Dirty clothes
• Bin-bags
• Empty bottles/cans of alcohol

SHOT No. 1
Camera:
The scene opens with a fade-in from black. There is a high-angle LS of Leon sat on the floor. He flicks a cigarette to the floor.
Length of shot/LOS: 15 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut
Audio: Track begins; Leon coughs.

SHOT No. 2
Camera:
MS of a beer can. A hand comes to pick the can up and the camera lingers for a few more seconds afterwards.
LOS: 8 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 3
Camera:
MCU of Leon drinking out of the can and then throws the can to the floor.
LOS: 6 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 4
Camera: Continuity from Leon throwing the can. MS of the can falling to the floor.
LOS: 3 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 5
Camera: MS of Leon sat on the floor. When Leon cups his face in his hands zoom in and fade to black.
LOS: 6 seconds
Edit to next shot: Fade-out to black and then a cut
Audio: Leon: for God’s sake.

SHOT No. 6
Camera: High angled MLS of Leon sat on the floor getting a lighter out of his pocket.
LOS: 3 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 7
Camera: A MS of the side of Leon’s face.
LOS: 2 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 8
Camera: A CU shot of the side of Leon’s face.
LOS: 3 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 9
Camera: MS of Leon throwing the lighter away. Zoom in and fade to black.
LOS: 6 seconds
Edit to next shot: Fade to black and then a cut.
Audio: F**cking thing, why does nothing work?!

SHOT No. 10
Camera: High-angled shot of Leon on the floor, rubbing his wrist.
LOS: 2 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 11
Camera: Very shaky camera CU of Leon rubbing his wrist.
LOS: 4 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 12
Camera: CU of Leon running his hands through his hair.
LOS: 3 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 13
Camera: ECU of Leon’s wrist.
LOS: 2 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 14
Camera: CU of Leon running his hands through his hair.
LOS: 1 second
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 15
Camera: Very shaky camera ECU shot of Leon rubbing his wrist.
LOS: 3 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 16
Camera: Very shaky camera CU of Leon and then fade-out.
LOS: 4 seconds
Edit to next shot: Fade out to black and then a cut.

SHOT No. 17
Camera: CU of Leon looking around in fear.
LOS: 2 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 18
Camera: MS of Leon with his hands cupping his face.
LOS: 4 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 19
Camera: ECU of Leon’s face looking fearful.
LOS: 2 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 20
Camera: Very shaky MS of Leon.
LOS: 3 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 21
Camera: ECU of Leon’s eye.
LOS: 2 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 22
Camera: ECU of Leon’s eyes.
LOS: 1 second
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 23
Camera: ECU of Leon’s eyes.
LOS: 1 second
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 24
Camera: ECU of Leon’s eyes.
LOS: 1 second
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 25
Camera: ECU of Leon’s eyes.
LOS: 1 second
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 26
Camera: MCU OTS shot of the back of Leon’s head.
LOS: 3 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 27
Camera: MCU OTS shot of the back of Leon’s head.
LOS: 2 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 28
Camera: ECU of Leon’s eyes.
LOS: 2 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 29
Camera: ECU of Leon’s eyes and then fade to black.
LOS: 3 seconds
Edit to next shot: Fade to black and then a cut.

SHOT No. 30
Camera: Very fast pan across of a room and then more shaky movements.
LOS: 2 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 31
Camera: CU shot of Leon’s face moving sharply.
LOS: 1 second
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 32
Camera: Very fast pan across of the room.
LOS: 1 second
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 33
Camera: CU shot of Leon’s face moving sharply.
LOS: 1 second
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 34
Camera: Very fast pan across the room.
LOS: 2 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 35
Camera: ECU of Leon’s eyes.
LOS: 1 second
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 36
Camera: MCU of Leon’s face.
LOS: 2 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 37
Camera: CU of Leon’s face.
LOS: 2 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 38
Camera: Low-angle MS of Leon with his hands on his head in distress.
LOS: 3 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 39
Camera: MS of the back of Leon.
LOS: 2 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 40
Camera: CU shot of Leon’s face looking frightened.
LOS: 2 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 41
Camera: Low-angle shot of Leon covering his head and then a pan down
LOS: 7 seconds
Edit to next shot: Fade out to black and then a cut
Audio: Music fades out.

SHOT No. 42
Camera: High-angle CU tracking shot of feet.
LOS: 5 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 43
Camera: MS of Leon with his hands cupping his face in distress.
LOS: 4 seconds
Edit to next shot: Cut

SHOT No. 44
Camera: Tracking shot of Leon’s feet and then zoom in as he lays down in distress and begins to drink alcohol. Fade out to black.
LOS: 20 seconds
Edit to next shot: Fade out to black then fade in from black.

SHOT No. 45
Camera: After fade in, slow panning shot across Leon’s body.
LOS: 15 seconds
Edit to next shot: End.

Feel of the scene

Obviously in my scene I can't have the character hallucinating things, I wouldn't be able to pull it off without it looking absolutely awful, so I'm just going to have the character looking like he feels absolutely awful. I want the scene to be quite dark, I will film it in a dark room with lighting to highlight the characters face in a creepy kind of way. I like the idea of overlaying a colour over it, but maybe not such a good idea keeping in with the gritty reality theme of British films. I cannot decide whether now it would be a good idea or not.

What I want my character to look like is the kind of person you would call a 'yob'. I want him to be wearing a hoodie and looking quite dirty. My character has strong emotional ties to his family, is a pretty confused guy about what he does is right or wrong, but gets too caught up in having fun. In the scene I'm going to film I want to show him really suffering.

Synopsis

Addict

The film is about a young man in his twenties, his name is Leon. He lives his life addicted to drugs and alcohol, partying hard with his mates and scraping by.. just. He soon realizes he can't keep abusing his body like this when he witnesses his brother Andy killed by a heroin overdose. Emotionally stunned, he vows to give up the drugs and make his life better, and seeks help from his sister, Molly, who managed to become clean a couple of years ago. He attempts to go cold turkey, but finds it too difficult and uses up the last of his supplies. Desperate for another fix, he resorts to violence and robbery. Things turn on him though and he ends up battered and bruised. Molly helps nurse his wounds and bring him back to health. Leon feels that all that is left to now is to give up, and begs Molly for some money to buy more smack. Disgusted, she brands him a failure and how Andy would be ashamed to call him his brother, and throws him out. Crying, he realizes she is right. This time round he manages it, but feels like he has been driven to hell and back. The film ends with him in a job center, and then walking out smiling to meet his sister, laughing and joking.

Creative Ideas!

This is a scene from Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (1994). It shows the two main characters in a drug store. These characters are cold-blooded murderers who kill for kicks. What I wanted to show was the green overlay in the scene. I really love the effect, it creates a more mysterious and tense feel to it, and of course in mise-en-scene terms, it portrays the sickness in the male characters head (Mickey). This shade of green has been shown in other parts of the film too, associating with Mickey.

It would be great to have something this creative in my film, but I will decide on this later on in the creative process.

Researching into the theme.. Trainspotting.

This is an iconic scene from the movie Trainspotting. It shows the main character, Mark, has gone cold turkey off heroin. Although this film has a strong comedy influence, and the film I intend to create holds nothing comic about it, I thought it was well worth showing this scene for how the character acts when cold turkey.

Aims & Context

I aim to create a short three minute scene from my imagined film which is titled . The scene itself will be a montage of the protagonist of the film enduring giving up drug use. The genre of my film is drama, it is a serious comment on drug abuse. The full story of my film is to be found in my synopsis.

I want it to look and feel gritty, in the style of typical gritty British films which are in the style of social realism, such as Kudulthood (Menjaj Huda, 2006) and Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 1996), which looks back to the tradition of social realist films in British cinema, examples such as Saturday Night, Sunday Morning (Karel Reisz, 1960), Kes (Ken Loach, 1970) and more comtempory films, such as Sweet Sixteen (Ken Loach, 1999). It will appeal to a maturing audience that are of college age, - 18 onwards. The audience will have a mature intellectual level, to be able to appreciate that the film is a comment on drug use in a negative attitude. It will appeal to young men mostly as it's not often young women are attracted to realistic films about drug abuse.

I aim to use the skills and techniques learned in FM1 to create a scene from my film, fully demonstrating my capabilities and skills in mise-en-scene and cinematography. I will direct, film and edit the film myself. I will not be acting in it.

Final idea! What I want to film.

The scene I feel I want to film is a slightly paranoid, painful scene from this gritty drug-based film I have thought-up. The main character in my film will have come off drugs through a realization of some sort, a wake-up call you could say. So, this guy goes cold turkey and is sat in his room/flat drinking, and shows him being depressive, agitated and paranoid. He acts jumpy, breathes heavily and his eyes are wide. At first the camera shots will be longer, building the tension and nearing the end they will be incredibly short and dramatized and jerky.

I found this video on YouTube.com about someone going cold turkey. It's fictional, but shows it as real as possible. If you notice, the colours shown in some scenes are blue and red, possibly showing the 'cold' in cold turkey, and red for pain.

More Initial Ideas

I was thinking, instead of creating a film with very slight horror elements included, I want to create something to be taken much seriously, with a not so fantastical theme.

-Instead of focusing on paranoia, have something with more depth.
-Something with a meaning.
-Possibly with a serious theme, like drug addiction or alcohol addiction, with someone who is obviously suffering from this.
-A montaged scene?
-A scene with non-linear time?
-Loads and loads of close-ups of a face in distress. --- Emotion.
-Want the scene to look dirty, I want to film something do to with someone at their lowest.
-Have non-diegetic music?

Initial Ideas

This is just some rough ideas I was throwing out. Note form.

Genre: Paranoia (subtle horror), thriller, drama.

• Starts with someone in house.
• Something is watching them.
• PoV, ceiling shots, creeping up behind them.
• This could last around 1.30 to try and bring out the feeling of fear and paranoia in the audience. (Unsettling).
• Wakes up with a shock.
• Dexter-esque getting ready scene, short, paranoid, feeling sick.
• Dark, minor-sounding music playing as he leaves his house. (Mad world?)(Nick Drake?)
• He’s walking to shops to shoplift.
• Feeling of someone watching him, hallucinations, strange camera pans/shots.
• Flashbacks to him taking drugs.
• Needs a moral/meaning.

Genre: Drama Conventions

Drama Conventions
A drama is a film that deals a lot with human emotions. They are usually very serious, tense and portray realistic characters, of which the protagonist and/or others are usually in confliction with themselves and other people. The themes of which these films are based upon are just about anything, as long as it’s realistic/a real-life situation, no such themes that include aliens or monsters… generally nothing super-natural. Some of the more popular themes to depict are injustice, drug addiction, poverty, mental illness, the corruption of power and racial prejudice. They usually link to something topical, such as politics or poverty. But dramas don’t have to have such explosive dramatic themes, some have basic themes which are simply human emotions, films dealing with themes such as failed romances, loss, family issues, broken friendships and affairs of the heart, these are often classed as melodramas. All drama films are very tense, often the soundtrack/music playing an important part in the overall feel of the films, with mysterious intense scores to provoke emotions in the spectator.

In early Hollywood drama films, instead of blaming society as a whole for topical subjects taken on (as such as social problems in society), they would shift the blame of it all on an individual rather than the institution, as to protect the society as a whole, and usually the individual would be punished for his or her actions. Usually these kind of dramatic films are dealt with in a very frank and realistic manner, this is not always the case for these types of films.

There are many sub-genres of drama, as the genre itself is a very very broad genre, with a wide spectrum of different films with different ideas and approaches of cinematography, but are essentially still classed as drama. Here are some examples of the different sub-genres you will find in drama films.

Biopic
A biopic (or biographical film) is a film which portrays the life of important historical person or group of the present or past era. Although biopics cross the genre boundaries, for example the film may focus on a Western outlaw, so thus will have more of a Western influence to it than drama, but is still considered a drama. Biopics were most popular in the 1930’s.

Historical Drama
Films that focus on dramatic events in history. Not to be confused with Biopics, where the films revolves around the person, whereas in historical dramas it’s more based on the real events that happened, such as WWII.

Period Drama
Period dramas, or costume dramas are dramas which focus on life in eras such as the 1700’s or 1800’s, for historical purposes, (very similar to biopics) romances or adventure films. Quite often based on books written in these eras. Very elaborate costumes, sets and props used to capture the feel of these time periods.

Dark Comedy
Although this genre has obvious comedy influences, it is still considered a sub-genre of drama. These films have serious, usually taboo themes, as such as rape, murder, war, insanity and terminal illnesses. The comedy element of these films usually provoke thought about the serious subject matter, but also used to shed light on these topics.

Comedy-Drama

Very similar to dark comedies, apart from the subject matter focused on in the film is less tabooed. An equal amount of comedy and drama. In these films the protagonists pasts are more likely to have an effect on the film than their current actions, their past catches up with them.

Political Drama
Very topical films, based on the politics of the past or near present. Political dramas are usually made after it has been some time after the subject matter has passed in the news, as could be seen as bias or influential.

Tragedy
A drama in which the protagonist’s downfall is caused by a flaw in their character or by a major error in judgement. Often end well and end bad, or start bad and end bad. Very tense, sad and depressing.

Romance
A drama which focuses on the elements of romantic love between two protagonists. These films usually have happy endings, or at least bittersweet endings. Often tearjerkers and more popular with women. Can be linked to other genres, such as romantic comedies, or rom-coms, which still have the element of drama but not as strongly as just a romance.

First Meeting

In our first meeting we all discussed genres for each of our films. We made notes on each of our ideas, and for my genre we all agreed drama was the best choice for me as I wanted to do something realistic, but not a romance or anything genre specific.

Ideas!

In Film Studies this year, our coursework consists of creating our own short film or sequence, three to five minutes long and have all the research and writing up to go with it. The film can be a genre of our choice, as long as it is do-able!

Thinking of an idea from such a broad spectrum of film genres is difficult, in fact just choosing a genre is hard. Comedy is difficult, I hate horror, romance is a no-no, so I've come to a conclusion it has to be a drama. But then again drama is a very very big genre as it deals with human emotions, which when it comes to the conventions, themes and stories... it is very diverse indeed.

The idea that I initially came up with was characters running through some trees, running away from something or someone, but you never full saw what it was that was chasing them. Once they had escaped I would then have a short emotional ending to the scene, which would be a good opportunity for some close-ups. But then I thought that this wasn't very interesting or exciting. I think a serious scene would be interesting to do, possibly with elements of paranoia. I was thinking about making it quite gritty, like a really British urban film feel about it... a whole short movie with an ending to make people smile, or maybe just film a nasty dperessive scene. I want to make it quite realistic, I love the idea of making it 'gritty'. Either a really slow, angry conversation between two British gangsters, or someone who is paranoid and angry, maybe on drugs or even coming off drugs. I will keep posting up more ideas for this!!!

I think making just an extract from a film would be much simpler to do, rather than over-complicating things by making a whole short film... I would much prefer to focus totally on one scene.

The people in my film group are Jade Playle and Keeley Lawton. I will now do some research on the Drama genre, and post it up on here soon!

FM3 Coursework Objectives

Develop an extened sequence from an imagined feature

or

Develop a complete short film of between 3 and 5 minutes.

This is our objective(s) for our creative project. We plan, film and edit our own short film or sequence, use the skills and knowledge developed in FM1 to demonstrate our understanding of stylistics and how cinematography and mise-en-scene creates meaning.