The New Storyboard

After our opening title sequence was shown to the class, and assed by our peers, it became clear to us a group that we need to make a lot of changes. Some of the changes that need to made are things like; in some of the shots the lighting was not adequate, some of the panning is not smooth enough and we cut a bit of the protagonists head out of the frame. So we decided to take a step back and re-think our storyboard. The reason we chose to improve our storyboard was so that we knew exactly what we wanted it opening to look like, and exactly what we had to film. I feel that this is going to really help us to make a better more well put together piece of media.

Here is our new and improved storyboard:

Update

When we all looked through and began to edit the shots that we had recorded, we had noticed that it was no where near long enough and also a few of the shots that we had recorded we not satisfying enough. As a group we all got together and came to the decision that we HAVE to improve on what we already have, and that on the 5th of February that two members of the group and the actor (Callum Carroll) would go Westminster in London to film various shots near the Houses of Parliament. We have also agreed to bring in a new character, who is going to be the wife of the protagonist, but we have not decided to just use an clip of audio (so you do not see her) or wether she will be seen. She will be unaware of what her husband is really up to and thinks that he is just going to work as normal.

Things that we will be filming: 

• The protagonist on the train. Impatient and agitated mood.
• The protagonist walking amongst the public.
• An establishing shot of the protagonist smirking and gritting his teeth (with the Houses of Parliament in the background).
• Shots of iconic buildings/ landmarks in London.

Things to re-film: 

• We need to redo a shot where we cut some of the top of the protagonists head out of the frame.
• We need to redo the panning shot of the bottles, because it is jumpy and not smooth.
• Some shots need to last for longer, the idea of doing this to create suspense. 

The re-filming will take place at my house as that is the location for a lot of the shots. After we do the filming in London we hope that the film will look far more professional, and with the re-filming the title sequence will be the adequate length (time scale for this task is two minutes)

Development of Idea

Development of Idea

This is the developed idea which we have chosen to cut down:

• The Prime Minister being interviewed explaining why he has chosen to visit the Chalfonts Community College.
• The over the shoulder shot of the assassinator turning the television off. 
• Zooming out from the television screen, turns to a close up of the assassinators face (to create an intense and angry tone) dressed in a smart suit and tie. 
• He then walks down the hallway (silence except for his footsteps).
• Stops 'Welcome Prime Minister, Mr David Cameron ( sound of applause)
• Assassinator opens door, then cuts to a black screen and titles appear. 

Props

In the room where the television is, on the wall there will newspapers cut outs of David Cameron and every thing that he has done, since he was elected Prime Minister of England. Key information will be circled with red pen to show the audience that he is obsessed/ angry.

We need a room with a television.

An actor who looks like he is determined and stern.

Throughout the process of filming we are bound to make small alterations to end up with the best out come possible.

The Filming Progress

The Filming Progress

When the group was all together at my house on the weekend we had a lot of fun filming, and most importantly we managed to get the majority of the filming done which is a huge relief. Due to the weather circumstances (snow) we were very fortunate that everyone in the group were able to attend, and we got a big section of the filming done. I think we all had a great time filming as we all helped with the filming, setting up props and directing. Here are some photos to show you us doing so:

Me having a go at filming.

Melissa having a go at filming.

All of us watching back some of the footage we filmed.

 When we were all together filming, we had to make sure the camera angles were all correct and that there was a sufficient amount of light, so that it was perfectly clear to see what was taking place. We took a number of shots for each of the clips so that we could choose the most well put together and use that in our film. Our actor Callum Carroll did a wonderful job and he carried out all of the acting tasks that we asked of him, and I believe that he had a fun time playing a part in our opening title sequence.

We decided that some parts of our animatic did not look quite right and were not very practical, apart form these minor tweaks we made I feel that on a whole the filming was a success, and if there is any re-filming to do, we have enough time to do so. On a whole I feel that I have gained a lot of  knowledge and experience from this process, and I had a great time doing it which is a nice added bonus.

Our Animatic

This is our animatic which is a short video summary made up of the storyboard clips, it contains every single shot that is going to be in our opening title sequence. What we did was we imprted the pictures that we took of our storyboard into Adobe Premier Pro, this is application we placed the photos in order and made it last the correct amout of time. We added in some diegetic scripting (the speech from the interview) and we also added some non- diegetic music, transitions , effects and titles.

Through this process of making the animatic helped me to understand how to use Adobe Premier Pro, which will come in useful when we begin to edit our actual project. The task of making our animatic was extremely helpful to allow my group mates and I to have a rough understanding of what our final opining  title sequence will look like, it also enabled me to see possible problems that we might have. an example of this is; we were going to use a shot reverse shot in the interview, however we thought that this would not create realism, as in real life interviews, the interviewer and the person who is being interviewed are usually sitting or standing side by side looking towards the camera. After this I feel confident about beginning the filming process for the actual opening title sequence.

Shooting Schedule

Shooting Schedule

Currently at this point the group and I are preparing to begin the filing process for our final piece. As a group we have collectively agreed on specific dates in which we are hoping to get the majority of the filming done. We decided that as this is our coursework we shall begin early so that if we have to take a step back and re-film some of our scenes we are able to do so over a substantial time period. The idea of starting early will allow us to take our time and not rush to and get the whole project done before the deadline for the rough cut which is 15th of February. We have planned to film the interview which will be the opening of the title sequence today (16th January).

This scene is an interview which takes place out side the front of our school (Chalfonts Community College), where the Prime Minister (played by Reece Garside) is being interviewed by the interviewer (played by Millie Warren). 

The process of filming this interview will require us to film it in a few chunks as one of the shots is the Prime Minister having blood and bruises on his face (this is to show the teacher who plans to kill him imagining the Prime Minister in pain), then we plan to have a shot of his face normal again to make it clear to the audience that the teacher (played by Callum Carroll) is imagining it. 

Unfortunately my group mate Hannah Dunsdon and I we unable to be present during this section of the filming as we had to attend classes. However we handed over the task to Melissa and Finely to direct. 

We have planned to all meet and film the rest of the scenes, which will include the montage sequence on Saturday 19th January. This section of the filming will take place at my house which is located in Beaconsfield, and everyone in the group will be present during this process. Callum Carroll will be wearing a smart tie and smart clothing to resemble a teacher. We will be using props which will be set up before the filming begins and we are hoping that all of the filming will be finished by the end of the day. After the filming process we will put it all together on the editing software (Adobe Premier Pro) and this will allow us to see if there are any scenes that require re-filming.

Political Aspect

Political Aspect 

When we were talking to our teacher about the angle that we are approaching our film from, we came to a group decision that we had come from the psycological instead of a political based route, which is not what we had intended to do. So Melissa decided to go back and research the codes and conventions of Political Thrillers.

From the research that Melissa has found it is clear to see that we need to make a few changes in our storyboard. For example we need to add some political information that is occurring that is happening at the moment, we could achieve this by looking at recent news and gaining ideas from this. Our film wont be giving a reason as to why the protagonist wants to assassinate the Prime Minister, we will denote what the Prime Minister is giving the interview about and that's what the audience will assume has angered the protagonist. The protagonist believes he's helping the world by attempting to kill the Prime Minister, not causing trouble. As well as this we may be including another character (the teachers wife) so that we have an innocent character creating a juxtaposition between the protagonist and his wife, connoting the wifes innocence and the protagonists dangerousness.