Rough cut

Today we used the clips we filmed last week to create a rough cut of our final project. We edited the clips together and asked our teacher what he thought. It was obvious that we would have to go back and film shots again, such as an establishing shot.He gave us ideas about where to put our titles and to put a gap or freeze to split up the acion of our chase, seen in films such as Trainspotting and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Next week we will go back and re-film scenes that were not good enough for our final cut, and will have to think about continuity, especially the unpredictable weather.

Filming

About a week ago now we set out and filmed for a rough cut of 72 Hours. We faced varius problems concerning the use of actors (we changed our actor for the lead part after he didn't fit the role), and other team members turning up a tiny bit late; but once filming began we developed our ideas on the basic storyboard including the use of a car. The filming went smoothly and our actors were very professional, overall i think our rough cut will look quite good. I took some pictures while we were filming as you can see above.

A New Storyboard

We finally decided on a new storyboard for 72 Hours that involves a chase scene through town, and finishes in town car park with someone getting shot. However, this idea is not realistic because we would not be able to gain permission from the council to have a gun in a popular car park. We decided to have the chase through a nearby area because of the narrow winding alleys we found when going on our second location scout. We made a path that the chase would follow and applied our already made storyboard to this.

Soundtrack and Credits

A huge part of our first two minutes of our film will consist of opening credits, either behind or ontop of the action already happening in every frame. I had to find out what order these came in, so studyed various films before coming up with an order to suit my film:

• name of studio
• production company
• a film by __________
• cast
• edited
• producer, executive producer
• story by __________
• directed by _________

We want the credits to appear in some sort of timer, like the digits seen on a watch, in order to reinforce the idea of 72 Hours being timed. However, before I can finalise this we will have to look at our editing software to see if it is capable.

Whilst studying the four different parts of a extract in our practical lesson - sound, mise en scene, editing and camera angles, I started to look for suitable music to feature in my film. When I was looking through youtube and personal favourites, I found a three and a half minute techno song called Walk Through by Frances White that would be perfect for the chase scene we will be filming. The song builds tension, but starts quite quickly, therefore I am thinking of having diagetic sound until the chase begins, then adding this song in over the diagetic noise of the streets and car chase.

This is what the editing software looks like when creating a new title:

Another storyboard

We made another storyboard, this time including a chase scene, to make the opening two minutes more exciting. This storyboard was only rough, and was originally based in the car park in town, however we faced issues using a BB gun in a public place, so moved our idea to the local streets around our school. We went on another photo shoot, to assess potential locations and camera angles and this was very successful. The tiny alleyways and tight corners will provide some good shots for our piece, and we planned a route so the shots will all have continuity.

Potential locations

We went on a potential shooting location trip around our school, taking pictures of anything that could be used in our film. We had to think about genre, and how this would affect what location we could use. For example the stairs would be good for someone to jump or run down in an escape or chase scene, but the stairs and squash court were too dark, and would have made our film look like a horror/thriller.

Original storyboard

This is a few pages of our original draft storyboard for 72 Hours. After a couple of meetings we decided to change our storyboard, as we had no where to film that fits in with this storyboard.

Synopsis and target audience questionnaire

We have decided that our film will be a thriller/gangster called 72 Hours. It will be about a man that witnesses a violent mob murder, and is dragged into two warring gangs feud. He is given 72 Hours and a couple of leads to find something for one of the gangs, what it is the audience do not know until the end of the film. The quick paced plot and narrative take many twists and turns along the way, but eventually the witness to the murder finds what the gangsters are looking for and double cross both gangs, single handidly bringing both mob boses to justice.

Our Target Audience, Questionnaires, Responses and Certifications
To enable me and my group to see whom the target audience is going to be, we created a questionnaire which we shall hand out to the general public asking them if they would like to take part. We split the questionnaire into age group and gender so we were able to generalise on age and gender. The questionnaire was anonymous and included closed and open questions so the public could give their opinion in detail on some of the questions.

Here is an example of the questionnaire that was handed out;

1. Are you are Male or Female (circle appropriate)

2.What age range do you fit in to?

15-17 18-23 23-30 30-50 60+

3. What is your favourite type of genre (circle all that are appropriate)

Comedy Horror Thriller Love/Romantic Chick Flick
Musicals Science Fiction Films Crime & Gangster Films
Action Films Adventure Film

4. Could you please state when the last time when you watched a crime and gangster film was? And where did you watch it i.e. at home on DVD, cinema or internet download?

5. What would attract you most to watch a crime and gangster film? (Select more than one if necessary)
Actors Location of where film was being played

Director Advertisement and Previews

Storyline (Synopsis) Reviews

6. If a new blockbuster film came out which was a crime and gangster genre, had famous actors in what would be the chances of you going to see it at the cinema? Circle most appropriate.

Not Very Likely

Maybe If It Involved My Favourite Actors/ Actresses

Maybe as A one off

Very Likely

7. Is there anything that you would find inappropriate in a crime and gangster or anything that you would expect to see?

Would NOT expect

WOULD expect

After we collected all the questionnaires my group sat down and went through the questionnaires and found that our target population is ages 18 - 23 (with the exception from a few 15 - 17 years of age) and mostly males.
Going with this as our target audience we found that the last time they had watched this type of genre was at home on DVD or on the internet.
The actors and storyline we found on all of the questionnaires is what the general public circled as well as our target audience.
When it came to question 6 the majority of the questionnaires said either if it contained their favourite actor or actress or very likely.
The other questionnaires said that it wasn't very likely for them to go and watch a film of this genre. In question 7 our target audience as a whole said that they would expect killing, blood, good plot/storyline, money and a lot of 'gadgets'.
They said that they wouldn't expect friendship, strong moral values and to be viewed by children were the most popular answers that came up on the questionnaire.

Looking at the results of the questionnaire we now know that our target audience is going to be either a 15 or 18. We looked at what we can contain to make this film a 15 or 18 certificates and this is what we found.
• 15 = Ages 15+
Allowed to portray the following;

Strong Violence, Frequent language, Portrayals of Sex, both verbally and actively, Nudity, Brief sexual violence scenes, Discriminating language and behaviour, Drug taking, Occasional Strong terms, Horror can be strong but not strong in gore and Only strong substance drug abuse will not be in a 15.

18 = Ages 18+
Allowed to portray the following;
Strong issues, Violence, Sex in real time not brief cut scenes, Sexual Violence and activity, Horror, with blood and gore, Discriminating language and behaviour, And Drugs as long as they are not promotional.

As we assessed these certificates our film would mostly come under a 15 certificate as it will include drug taking, discriminating behaviour and language and strong violence. But if we wanted to make the film an 18 this would be easy as we would just make the scenes that include drugs more in detail and would include more discriminating language. However within the opening of the film, drug taking isn't shown, and no language is included as all the sound is Non - Diagetic.