Production Process - Shoot 3

Todays shoot was another early start. I got up early enough to bring back the equipment to the university which was kept in my flat overnight, from the previous nights shoot. The equipment was returned to the studio for 9 o'clock for us to set up for the shoot commencing 9:30. The actor was due to arrive at 9:30, so I waited at the door to greet him while my crew set up the lighting equipment and camera. We were slightly over schedule due to issues with acquiring the slider, we eventually had to settle for the use of the tracking dolly which took us a while to set up. The crew continued to set up while I had a sit down with the actor Gary, for a quick chat about the content and what was expected of him. He was very professional and mature about the whole thing. It was great to make contact with another actor for future reference. We continued with the shoot which took just under two hours. We experimented with a lot of the shots, but at the same time we managed to tick off everything we needed from the storyboards and shot-lists. We were finished in time to wrap up the shoot and pack away by 12 o'clock. Just as yesterdays shoots had gone extremely smooth and on schedule, todays was no different. The crew were fantastic as was the actor. We even had to call on a fellow Film student to play a small role in the scene we had shot today which worked very well. Following the shoot and the clear up of the equipment, we went up to the editing suite where our editor was logging the footage onto the editing system from the previous shoots. I sat in with the editor for a few hours looking over the footage to see what worked and what didn't. Also to place the footage in some sort of small and brief timeline to see how much footage we already had and how much we still needed. I gathered a lot from this meeting with my editor. I will be going away over the weekend to examine my storyboards and create some new ones from scratch of the shots we need at the arcade location specifically. Below are some shots from todays shoot of the actor and the crew at work.

In the afternoon, following a short lunch break, myself and the crew decided to head to Seaton Carew arcade to ask for filming permission. After weeks of rejection from many local arcades we decided it would be better to turn up and ask in person. Not only that as earlier this week I had asked the lead singer of the band, Dan, if he knew the owner of the arcade. Turns out he did, and we were able to make that the point of conversation instantly. We figured it made more sense to let the guy know we're filming for a client who he is familiar with opposed to a mindless group of young filmmaking students. We took one major positive away from the visit as we did not receive a no or any rejection. It was very loud and busy so the owner instructed us to return next week when the schools are back to speak about it then. That is our plan at the minute, but we will continue to try to confirm more locations in the meantime. We did manage to get a few pictures which captured the overall look of the arcade. I am very pleased as this is exactly what I want for the visuals of the video, and the arcade is so large there are many different opportunities and positions for us to film. 

Professional Studies - Report Initial Ideas and Concepts.

My initial idea for the report was to look at the opposing success of original screenplays and adapted screenplays, particularly in Hollywood. I will be looking at the financial success of original screenplays in the face of conglomerate studios who are recycling franchises and converting existing novels and literature into films. 

Below is a link to a site discussing the highest grossing movie adaptations with numerous percentages given for evidence of this. 


https://stephenfollows.com/highest-grossing-movie-adaptations/

• 51% of the top 2,000 films of the last 20 years were movie adaptations
• The most common source for movie adaptations is literary fiction.
• 2012 saw five times the number of sequels released compared to 1999
• Romantic Comedy is the genre with the highest number of original screenplays (79%)
• Only 16% of Musicals were original screenplays.
• 18% of Horror films were remakes
• Between 1994 and 2003, original screenplays outnumbered adaptations every year but one, whereas in the following decade (2004-2013) the opposite was true, with adaptations outnumbering original screenplays in eight of the ten years.

I will also be looking at examples from contemporary cinema. I will be looking at what original screenplays made the most money and which ones won awards, opposed to adaptations released around the same time. 

Original Screenplays - 2013/2014

Both of these films were highly successful original screenplays both critically and commercially  Her won an academy award for best original screenplay in 2013, and made a total of 47.4 million at the box office. Whiplash is a film with similar notoriety, earning 49 million at the box office, also being nominated for best picture at the 2014 oscars. 

On the other hand, the highest grossing screenplay adaptations of 2013 and 2014 were: The Hunger Games Catching Fire which is based on the bestselling novels (424 million) and Frozen, based on the original fairytale The Snow Queen; (400 million). 

Opening Weekend 2013 Gross 

1. Frozen — $31.6 million
2. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire — $27 million
3. Out of the Furnace* — $5.3 million
4. Thor: The Dark World — $4.7 million
5. Delivery Man — $3.8 million
6. Homefront — $3.4 million
7. The Book Thief — $2.7 million
8. The Best Man Holiday — $2.7 million
9. Philomena — $2.3 million
10. Dallas Buyers Club — $1.5 million

Production Process - Shoots 1&2

Today was a day of two halves, and two shoots. The morning and afternoon shot spanned from 9 in the morning through to 3 in the afternoon. The first task at 9 o'clock was to set up the mannequin room to shoot in. The original idea behind the concept was to create a room filled with all sorts of miscellaneous wires and prosthetic body parts to give the impression it was a twisted dark room. We designed and dressed the room to how I imagined it, creating a large circle of mannequins with spare arms and hands at their feet alongside the scattered wires. We dressed the set the best we could within two hours to hide all of the unwanted sights such as the washing machines and sink. The lighting through the window was also an issue. A large window was at the side of the room, and as we were shooting during the day the room was drowning in natural light. I wanted the exact opposite of this. As director I aimed to have complete creative control over my environment. I needed use of the red lighting to create the dark and sinister tone of the location, so we made time to cover up the window with two heavy black boards to block out any natural lighting. We finished up and we had time to get a few cutaway shots of the surrounding mannequins and props we had around the room. This acted as coverage for the final edit. 

The actor and actress became available between 2 and 3 o'clock where we shot their scenes very quickly and efficiently. We were fully aware that these actors are also students, and that they are essentially helping us out by acting in these videos. This means we have to consistently respect their needs to turn up to lectures etc. This gave me a reason to not mess around, get the shots, get the coverage we needed and keep moving on. We got around 15-20 shots we needed, with a few extra takes in there to take away from this mornings shoot. This was all done inside of an hour. I am extremely pleased with how my crew acted on set, despite being two crew members down. 

Below are a few images from the first shoot, showcasing the final effect of our lighting equipment and positioning. I personally adore the outcome of todays shoot in terms of the visuals. The colouring is exactly how I wanted it to be despite the problem with the natural lighting, and I believe that this lighting only adds to, and sustains, the effect and illusion of a sinister room of robot creation.  

The second shoot commenced between 5 o'clock through to 9 o'clock. This shoot required a change of location and a whole load of shipping equipment around from the Uni to the location down the road. Following our morning and afternoon shoot, the rest of my crew had a small break whilst I continued to work on preparation for our shoot on the next day, Thursday. I contacted our actors and made further plans with the shot-lists. The crew returned, as did the other crew from the second group who we had planned to shoot with. This shoot had acted as a double shoot. Two crews, one location, two cameras and two sets of equipment. All there for the same purpose, to get shots of the band playing. After all this was a music video for the band, we wanted to include them. We invited them to the studio, a small music venue just around the corner from the university. They agreed and the shoot went ahead from 5 o'clock. We arrived at the location following a tedious equipment haul. We set up the lighting, prepared the actors and worked out a shooting system between both crews. I believe this sort of preparation helped us when it came to shooting as we allowed ourselves to take turns with each camera. This system involved one crew getting the wide shots of the band playing on stage while they played their song for the music video. We then swapped, and the other crew got the wide shots for their video as the band played their song. We did this again for mid shots and close ups. At the end of the shoot as the band packed away, by 9 o'clock we had a lot of coverage of the band which will help us out again in the edit. Below are some images taken from tonights shoot in the studio venue. 

In conclusion today has been an extremely successful day. Two shoots down, we have a lot of useable footage and we've made great progress into our storyboards and shot-lists which we spent a lot of time preparing for. These shots came on the same day as we lost our Producer. I am glad this did not negatively impact us, as we went ahead with both shoots professionally and efficiently. We can now look forward to tomorrows shoot and eventually the final edit with great optimism.

Studio Lighting Tests

Lighting and Smoke machine tests 11/02/16. 

Today we had some lighting and smoke tests in the studio in preparation for our upcoming shoot. The shoot is to take place in the studio with an outside actor. We decided this exercise would be very useful as it would prepare us for the day of the shoot. We tested the lighting we were going to use with specific gels and we also experimented with others to see what effect we could achieve. In the end we settled for all red, a gel which was to be placed on the lighting rig above the character. This created a very sinister and deviant atmosphere, one which we aimed to create. We also used this test shoot to figure out how we were going to dress the set and then frame our character depending on that. From the images below you can see how we used the tv as a prop to work out the distance of the character to the tv. This way we were able to position the camera between the desk and the chair to get some low angle shots and close ups of the character. We also practiced using the smoke machine to discover the effect it would have. Below are some images of the smoke and lighting test.

Black Cabbie Script Breakdown

Over these past few weeks I have entered the process of breaking down my script. Following the completion of the script the next step was to begin breaking down the script into eighths to work out the timing of each page and each scene. This would help me figure out how long it would take over a day or the course of a few days, or even a week, to film a scene. I also worked out all of the elements of my script in relation to production values. This allowed me to work out what I needed in terms of locations, props, costumes etc. With that information I was able to work out a rough budget for the script. Below are some images of the technique I used amidst this exercise. I found a technique most suitable for me, a one I found easy to follow and easy to work out on each page. I colour coded the elements, as shown below on the cover page of the script. This technique was the most time efficient as it enables me to go back and skim through the script, and when I find the page or scene I specifically need I can instantly see the colours and know what element is being referenced. 

Below are some examples of the separate scene cards we made in a professional studies session. These cards are very useful as they are very small, they contain the basic information needed to communicate what is needed for a scene and they are very easy to make. Each card represents a scene, below are examples of ones which I have made for my Black Cabbie script. Each card contains the basics as I previously referenced, the cards will show whether the scene is INT or EXT, it will tell you the script page, and also which actors/props/locations are part of the scene. As my cards show below, I have given all of this information but I have also made room for some extra notes which may be key elements of the scene that are not particularly related to things such as actors/props/locations/script page etc.