Test Shots

These are the two shots we tested to show Reece coming up the stairs. We tried recording him from the bottom of the stairs and then from the top in order to see which one looked better. In the end we decided that using both shots and cutting and editing them together was the best way to do it as it showed continuity and the two shots followed on from each other well.

For the mirror shot we tried recording him from both sides of the room. When looking at the shots we decided the bottom shot with the camera on the right side of Reece looked better because the lighting was better, you could see him turn and walk towards the door and also we liked the fact that you could see his reflection and him. The fact that its an over the shoulder shot is another positive thing as its a good technical shot.

For the shots in the car we had to try recording from two different angles as the lighting made Reece look very unclear. Even though the bottom one is still very cloudy it worked better as it is a closer shot and allows him to be seen a bit better.

Target Audience Profiles

Target audience profile from charliemerry

Typical Order Of Credits

After the studio and production company logos all titles in a film opening are usually shown whilst the film is playing. They are placed in places where nothing important is being blocked on screen but where they are still easily readable. They are usually shown in plain fonts and capitals in a colour that stands out well from the background. Not all films show there titles in this was however it is a convention of many. The order shown below is the typical order that credits are shown in for the opening of the film however this can sometimes vary and be shown differently in different films. 

1.    Name of the studio that is distributing the film.

2.    Name of the production company responsible for making the film. 

3.    A (Producer’s Name) Production.

4.    A Film by (Director’s Name).

5.    Starring, followed by the names of all principal actors.


6.    Film title.

7.    Featured cast members.

8.    Casting by.

9.    Music, composer, or original score.

10.    Production designer.

11.    At this point it can vary; you might see makeup, costume, or visual effects credits here or skip to the next few credits. At this point it should vary based on what is most important to the movie. 

12.    Edited by 

13.    Director of photography

14.    Producer, produced by, and executive producers 

15.    Based on the (media name or title) by (Author’s Name)

16.    Story by

17.    Writer or written by

18.    Director or Directed by


Here is an example of the opening film credits from a film called Nightcrawler

Character, costume and props

Reece will be the main character for our film. We thought this because it isn't usually heard of that men have OCD. Also, it is stereotypical that a male is more likely to kill someone.
We will also need somebody to be used to show a body on the road to show that the main character has killed somebody and another person to be crossing the road at the end who is Reece's next target.

For our film opening, we first see the characters getting out of his car. For this, we will need to show a car, this will be fine because a member of our group has a car and we will be filming at the same house that the car is at. 

Another prop that we will need is paperwork and office equipment as we see him rearranging paperwork on his desk. For this, we will get some paper with something printed on it so it looks like important documents. 

This is what Reece will be wearing for the film as we think it makes him look smart and neat. It is important for him to look like this as he has OCD so therefore he wouldn't be looking scruffy and untidy. The black trousers and blazer also connotes that he is a business man. The costume makes him look like a grown man which is important as through the film opening he is shown as a grown man who works, has his own house and drives a car. 

Risk Assessment

The only risk in our film opening would be to do with the car however as Reece isn't actually driving the car there will be no risk. The car will be stationary on the drive or parked on the street in a safe place causing no risk to Reece, pedestrians or other cars on the road. When the person who is acting like they have been hit is lying on the floor the car engine wont be on and also they will actually be on the drive to avoid any risk there may be if another car were to drive up the road.

Gritty Realism Films

Top 5 Gritty Realism Films on IMDb:

  

1. Pixote- A film about a boy in the streets who gets involved in crime.

 2. The Son-A film about a joinery instructor at rehab who refuses to take on a new apprentice but then begins following him through the streets.

3.

Ballast- A film about how a mans suicide affects people.

4.

Breaking The Waves- A film about a man who is paralysed in an accident who's wife then has an affaire. 

5.

Gummo- A film about lonely residents in a town a tornado has hit wandering the deserted land trying to fulfil their boring lives. 











As you can see all of these films have the same theme of a horrible realistic event happening which is quite rare and often not thought about by many. Looking at different types of things that happen in gritty realism films helped us come up with our idea as OCD is a mental health issue which people do suffer with but is often ignored and not thought about by many. The effects of what happens in these peoples lives is often unknown by many people so we think our film idea is a good way of showing the reality of the lives of people who have OCD yet in a quite dramatic way.

After looking at different gritty realism films I then made these flash cards showing the conventions of things found in the genre. Click each card to reveal the typical conventions of each area.

Flash Card Deck created by Emily Proctor with ExamTime

Shot List

This is a shooting list we have made showing the order in which we will shoot different parts of our film opening. We have decided to do it in the order where we film the flash back last in order to keep continuity with things such as the lighting and it will make it easier as he won't have to keep changing clothes. We are going to try and film it all on one day as it will be quite easy as were only in one location however if we run out of time we will do shots 10 onwards on a different day.

Location Shots.

This is the car that the male with OCD will be sat in. The side of the car will be filmed showing the male in this.

The front door will be shown in a few shots as this is where we see the male running in and out of the house.

 This is showing the view from the front door showing inside the lounge where the light switch is that he always has to check, and the porch where we see his shoes.

 This is the view of the lounge that we will see the male walking through avoiding the rug.

 This will be the angle at which we see the male walking around the rug.

 This is the stairs that we see the male running up from this angle.

This shot is clearly shown on the animatic storyboard where we see the man coming up the final steps.

This is also shown on the storyboard as we are going to show where the male walks into the bedroom and then back into the bathroom.

 This is the view that we will show the man reinforcing his OCD with the messy paper making it back into a neat pile.

 This is the angle of which we will film the male washing his hands and looking into the mirror.

This is the mirror that the male will be looking into before and after the flashbacks of murdering someone. 

Target Audience

This is a graph I have found on the BFI website showing ages of people who go to the cinema. As you can see the age group 15-24 is the most popular and has been since 2003. This means that in order to gain a large audience for our film it would help if it was mainly targeted towards this age group.

Taking this into consideration, we have chosen that we are targeting our film opening to around the 18 to 30 year olds. The reason for this is because we believe that this is the age group that will understand our film opening. We thought that a younger teen will not understand what is happening in our film. Also, there is an ethical issue of exposing murder to younger children.  

When asking our target audience what they thought of our chosen age group, this is what they thought:

Indi, 17: I think that the target audience suits the basis of the film because if the film was exposed to younger children, they would maybe be psychologically harmed and would not understand it.

Emily, 17: I think the film could be shown to younger people that 20 as i think 15 year olds would understand the storyline.

Josephine, 16: The storyline can be very hard to understand, especially with the younger aged not knowing what is happening, so i think the age group that you are targeting really suits the film opening.

This is a map showing different tribes of teenagers/ young adults. It is a way of putting individuals into groups depending on what they do, wear and like. Everyone in their tribe will be very similar to them and enjoy the same things. Using this we will find the group of people which are most likely to enjoy our gritty realism film helping us to find out what types of people our target audience is and helping us to aim our film opening towards these people.
Young Alts are one group I think would enjoy gritty realism films. They want out of the mainstream things other people enjoy such as your main stream films in cinemas. They are therefore more likely to go to art house cinemas and watch gritty realism films made for the niche audience.
Another group I think would be our target audience would be creatives as they like new creative things which haven't been done before. Gritty realism films are about things you don't hear a lot about therefore I think creative tribes would enjoy our film.

Sound experiment

One sound we needed to create was the sound of someone being hit by a car during the flashback. We searched and listened to a lot of car crash sounds on free sound and decided that these two were the best two.

 

This is the first sound we found which is the sound of a car screeching and then the sound of someone closing a kitchen drawer filled with cutlery. We thought this was a good sound for what we needed it for as you could hear the car trying to break and stop and then the drawer which sounder like the car smashing into something.

This is the second sound we found which is a car again screeching and crashing. We thought that this one sounded more like a car crashing into another car as it was much louder rather than a car hitting a person. Therefore, we have decided that the first sound is the one we will use as its more realistic and fits the purpose we need it for.

Animatic Storyboard

This is our animatic storyboard showing our initial ideas for our film opening. 

Production Company Logo

We first had to think of a name for our company. We wanted something short and easy to remember which was clearly linked to a film production company. We came up with many ideas eg 22 studios, Act fast productions and box movies. We thought about it, asked other people and researched whether any of them already existed. We then finally came to the decision that Box Movies would be the name of our company. Then we started thinking about a logo and the font of the writing. We wanted a font that was quite simple and easy to read but not just plain and normal, it had to have some kind of special look to it. After looking at a few we decided on this font.

We then had to think of a fancy logo to show the company name on. With it being called Box Movies we decided to base it around a box. To make it look like a film company we also had to add something film related to it eg a camera or film strip. In the end we decided to use a filming camera and put it on the side of the box. We thought it would be a creative idea to have the box open and show the letters coming out and to make it even more interesting we added a yellow glowing background behind the letters and made it look like a glowing light coming from the box. 

This is our final design.

Typography Ideas

Our idea of the title was to make it feel hand written. This would stick to the idea that the character feels at home with himself and his surroundings. Each title we chose had a neat feeling towards it, we wanted to show this to show the balance the character needs to live in. We didn't want to use anything too creative as it wouldn't fit the genre of gritty realism; the hand written style create the effect that the film could be based on a true story and hasn't been adapted on any part to make the film unbelievable. Thin, tall letters add a serious sense to the title and would increase the tension of the audience as it is shown on screen. We want this effect so that the audience can understand that this film shows a realistic side to a mental illness and shouldn't be taken as just an everyday thing. All in all the title need to shown the audience just how serious our film should be and how sensitive the life of the character is. With this in mind, we decided to use the 6th title as it shows the formal and clean side of the character's life whilst it looks hand written to add a personal touch to the character as well.

Audience Feedback

Initial Ideas

This is a mind map showing our initial ideas of different genres we considered. We thought about 4 genres and some things relating to them that we could produce a film opening about. From this we will decide what genre to do and create a storyline based around it.

We finally came to a conclusion that we were going to do a gritty realism film. This shows a prezi of our ideas and thoughts.