We created a scene outline to confirm exactly what is going to happen in the scene and let Charlie know what he needs to do.
He wakes up from being unconscious.
He gets up looking confused tending to his wounds.
He sees 4 keys infront of him and picks them up from the floor.
He walks over to the padlock and begins to try the 4 different keys.
The light flickers above him which makes him look up.
He then sees hundreds of keys dangling from the ceiling.
A gunshot happens making him jump and he starts to panic.
He grabs 1-2 keys and starts trying them in the padlock but they don’t fit so he drops them.
He goes to try another 3 keys and puts them in the padlock but one of the keys he keeps dropping from his hand because he’s shaking. Gunshots continue to get louder
He then gets very frustrated and grabs between 10-20 of the keys from the ceiling and runs over to the padlock.
He fumbles for each key in his hands and starts trying each key in the padlock.
Because he’s panicking he starts to drop 4-6 keys from fumbling for the correct key.
A pile of keys is now on the floor, he drops down on the floor and starts looking for the key in the pile from the floor. He’s really panicking as the gunshots are really loud. He is by now breathing deeply and shaking. he starts shaking the door, trying to break it open
he looks around and sees one key still attached to the ceiling and grabs it,he inspects it closely and then fits it into the padlock and turns it
scene cuts into title card
Today we found out that Ben can no longer be in our thriller, therefore we need to start re-searching for another actor who would be available to take the role. We needed someone who we could make look around 20 years old: so we considered an A2 student Max, and an A1 student Charlie. If neither were available we considered perhaps using a heroine instead.
Fortunately Charlie was available and willing to do it, so we now have a new actor. This means that I no longer need the suit I borrowed, as it would not fit Charlie.
I sent a quick email to confirm that Sasha, our special effects makeup artist, can still make the shoot. I included information such as the date of the shoot.
I received a quick e-mail from Ben, who is playing our protagonist spy, confirming for availability.
After this we discussed meeting up at a certain time for him to try on the suit I have for him. This is to change the suit in advance incase it doesn't fit.
Today I emailed Elizabeth, the wardrobe mistress in the Drama department, to see if she has a suit that we can borrow. In particular, one that would approximately fit Ben.
Later on that day I went to pick up the costume and began to arrange a time for Ben to try it on.
This is currently the amount of keys we have, with many (around 150) more on it's way. In this lesson we began to hang the keys to fish wire loosely, so that our actor can tear them off easily. We hung them on paper clips and pinned them to the board to prevent them from all getting tangled
We then discussed the new setting with Paul, the set builder. We discussed using a grey breeze block texture on the wall to make the cell look realistic and concrete.
We also discussed using the studio doors for our shoot, we needed heavy duty doors and these were appropriate for what we required.
We decided to stick with our original idea of using gun sounds to stimulate the panic. The gun noise is going to be the sound of the fire and then perhaps some sounds of dragging people. This is to show that the protagonist is in one of many of these rooms, and that one by one, each room is being taken out. This tells the protagonist that he's going to be next if he doesn't hurry up in time.
We are going to add in the gunshots in post-production, and instead during the shoot we will use another sound as a symbol. In which we can remove and replace with our desired gunshot in editing.
Although this was only important in the post-production section of our thriller, we decided to start looking towards different sound effects and music as support to the action. We began searching into royalty free tension music and explored what came up.
We were looking for something that will build up tension as well as keeping the action alive. We wanted a climax at the end to leave the audience on the edge of their seats at the cliffhanger.
However we found this extremely difficult as we could not find any particular piece what we want, it was also very difficult to find music that is copyright/royalty free.
When searching for music, I learnt that the music has to completely fit the theme and style of the footage, otherwise it could potentially ruin the whole atmosphere and effectiveness of the sequence.
We decided to leave that for when we get round to it. And considered perhaps asking someone to compose our own music for us.
I found this particular website was very useful when trying to find a piece: http://www.beatsuite.com/music/category/tension-and-suspense/377
We updated our set design to visualise exactly what we want to do with the lightbulbs idea, as well as the set in general. We drew in the additional lightbulbs to show this.
As we had decided to have the keys hanging from the ceiling, we began to discuss lighting in our video. We thought it would be quite effective to have a few lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling, additionally to the keys.
We thought about tying these into the story by considering them be the cause of the protagonist to panic and get frustrated. We discussed using sugar glass to perhaps have the lightbulbs exploding into the room, causing the protagonist to duck and hurry up - however this is very difficult and expensive to do so, furthermore we would have to buy many for each take.
lightbulbs made of sugar glass
We then considered using the lightbulbs as a countdown - each lightbulb flickers off at equal intervals to show that time is running out. However this may not be clear and it would be difficult to film, particularly towards the end of the sequence when there would only be one light remaining, as it would result in lots of noise.
Generally, a film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects, and visualizes the script while guiding the technical crew and actors in the fulfillment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, production design, and the creative aspects of filmmaking. The film director gives direction to the cast and crew and creates an overall vision through which a film eventually becomes realized. Directors need to be able to mediate differences in creative visions and stay in the boundaries of the film's budget. There are many pathways to becoming a film director. Some film directors started as screenwriters, cinematographers, film editors or actors. Other film directors have attended a film school. Directors use different approaches. Some outline a general plotline and let the actors improvise dialogue, while others control every aspect, and demand that the actors and crew follow instructions precisely. Some directors also write their own screenplays or collaborate on screenplays with long-standing writing partners. Some directors edit or appear in their films, or compose the music score for their films.
To do this role, you will need to:
have exceptional artistic vision and creative skills
have unerring commitment
have a deep passion for filmmaking
be a strong and confident leader
make decisions
delegate and collaborate with others
have excellent communication and interpersonal skills
inspire and motivate the team
have an extensive understanding of the entire filmmaking process, from both technical and creative points of view
work intensively for long hours
pay attention to detail
remain calm and think clearly under great pressure
have great self-belief
be determined to succeed
Steven Spielberg - The highest-grossing director of all time
In this setting, a camera operator is part of a film crew consisting of the director of photography and one or more camera assistants. In documentary filmmaking and news, the camera is often called on to film, unfolding unscripted events.
To do this role, you will need to:
know how to operate the camera expertly
have good working knowledge of all camera systems, lenses, support equipment and accessories
provide creative input
have artistic ability
be patient
have a good sense of visual composition, perspective and movement
have physical co-ordination and strength
combine creativity with technical skills
pay precise attention to detail
communicate effectively
be able to collaborate and work as part of a team
be diplomatic and sensitive when working with artists and crew
know about health and safety legislation and procedures
We started to consider how many keys exactly we would need. Effectively we wanted to fill the whole floor with keys, like the paper cup prank we wanted that daunting effect of him thinking that he's never going to find the right key in time. However we looked at our keys and how much we have already spent on just those keys, and realised that it would take thousands of keys to do that. Therefore we thought maybe to hang the keys on the wall, except this style would not be as effective as they are all neatly hung and out of the way. From this, we thought to perhaps hang them all from the ceiling with string. This will still create the daunting effect of a lot of keys without having to get thousands. We will put these keys onto fish string and tie them loosely so that our protagonist can pull them off easily. This will also give the effect that the keys are floating as the fish string is translucent.
The paper cup prank - we wanted the keys to have the same effect as this
Today I received all the keys I had ordered in the mail, including the padlock, however looking at them I don't believe that this will be enough therefore we may perhaps order some more keys.
Also some silver keys arrived that were just too small, so i returned them and used the money to buy some larger ones. Silver keys will not pick up well against a grey/white background, especially when they are 1cm in length.
Our thriller sequence storyline involves the villain's trick of placing hundreds of keys for our protagonist to rummage through and find the correct one - therefore to make this effective, we were in need of over 500 keys.
After some discussion, we decided the keys to be all antique keys. These will contrast well against the modern setting, and the camera will pick them up better than modern silver yale keys. We decided not to have a mixture of both modern and antique as it would not make sense to have an antique padlocks and yale keys in the mixture: the protagonist would realise that the modern keys will not fit the antique lock and therefore the whole "trick" concept will not be as effective.
We ordered a massive variety of keys from Ebay and Amazon, ranging We chose a large, bulky padlock, as we wanted to show that it would not be possible to break out without the key.
We originally ordered 8 packs of these keys, however when they arrived they were incredibly tiny and especially as they were silver, they would not be seen on camera. We decided to return these and that all our keys would be gold. This means that the silver functional key will be spray painted gold to blend more into the mixture.
For makeup we asked Sasha to create special fx makeup on our actor's face. We sent her email asking her to confirm that she is available to do this.
We are looking for simple shallow cuts and scrapes on the face to show that he has been previously beaten up.
INSPIRATION:
As we had discussed earlier we were looking at a black tie suit or a tuxedo. We will originally ask the actor whether he has a suit, if not we will order a suit for him. Here are some possibilities where we can find a suit under budget. We want a suit to show that our protagonist is classy and stylish like a spy.
