Alice - Shoot 4 - Multi Storey/Car Park Scene

Today we shot what is the second scene of the film. The scene comes after the opening credits, which themselves follow the opening scene of the film. This was a very important scene because it either confirms or denies our suspicions which arise from the opening scene. The opening scene leaves us with a few questions which need answering, then transitions into the opening credits before pulling us back into the reality of our main character, Alice. After the credits which involve Alice driving, she pulls up at one of the top floors of a multi-storey car park. The way we shot this scene was extremely frantic, but very fun. We had essentially an hour to shoot everything we needed from this top floor, as the car park had agreed to keep it open until 9 o'clock, whereas they usually shoot at 8. We set up and our actress turned up around ten past 8, so that left us 50 minutes, or so we thought. We began shooting and about 15 minutes in a pair of wardens turned up to tell us we only had another 20 minutes or so as they had to lock the car park up at 10 to 9. Great, so now we had 25 minutes max to shoot the scene. As we were without dialogue and the sound was incredibly loud with us being next to a motorway, we ditched the digetic sound. My sound operator informed me of the difficulties on set, but we both agreed it would be very easy for us to get atmos sound and sound effects to cover what it was we were shooting. 

We hastily continued to shoot without sound, and myself and my cinematographer worked swiftly to reposition the camera to get the shots we desperately needed. We opened the shoot with a shot of the car pulling up at a wide, and from that we shot the scene chronologically to avoid the unwanted pressure of going back after we had missed a shot from the sequence. Given the fact we were working under the most hardcore deadline of half an hour, we were hesitant to make any mistakes that would set us back time-wise. I was really happy with how the wide shot looked, and as this shot was the most important to me in establishing the scene coming out of the title sequence, a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. This then enabled us to shoot the closeups and tracking shots of the character exiting the vehicle and walking toward the railing overlooking the car park below. 

We came toward the end of the shoot feeling that we had accomplished what we set out to achieve, only myself and my cinematographer did feel the shots were lacking real quality in terms of lighting, especially those facing away from the lighting sources at the location. The lights within the car park worked nicely for us on the wide shots, but on the close up shots we were really struggling and evidently from the footage, the shots of the subject of Alice are heavily silhouetted because she blocks out the lighting sources from behind her. Admittedly this is all down to a combination of poor planning from ourselves but also the fact we had very little time to work with. We got the last shot of Alice acknowledging that the man she is photographing has noticed her, then the wardens showed up as promised at ten to nine to shut up shop. We couldn't argue with this so we quickly packed the equipment as we wrapped on the scene, then we moved outside to the exterior car park to shoot the next scene. 

Following our dismissal from the multi-storey car park we moved down to the car park situated right outside, to shoot the next scene, and the scene which directly follows and intertwines with the multi-storey scene. From the original concept to the script and storyboards, I ideally wanted a multi-storey car park overlooking a lower exterior car park or area, which the character of Alice could spy on others with a camera in the style of James Stewart in 'Rear Window'. When we found this location as part of a recce I was ecstatic. Never before have I imagined a location only to find one exactly how I imagined it straight away, and it was right on our door step in Middlesborough. Despite the location being perfect, that was only half the battle, we then had to get there and actually shoot the film. On the day of the shoot we had the character of Alice there for the multi-storey section, and then she was dismissed following so that we could concentrate on the lower level scene, which was to be shot with 3 actors, two young and one older actor who play the films three main 'villains'. 

Alice - Shoot 3 - Party Scene & Post-Party Scene

The party scene was what felt like the penultimate scene of the film. The party scene was to be a large choreographed scene which sits in the middle of the acts. I always intended the scene to be a big lively event which has the atmosphere of a real party. The scene picks up where a previous scene leaves off with the main character of Alice feeling a sense of isolation. From that scene we hear the faint sound of a muffled bass vibrating through walls. From that slight shift in momentum we can gather we are heading into a new area and a new scene. 

We then transition from that sound into a long tracking shot of the character of Alice approaching a house as the music gradually builds until she enters a room. As she enters the front room we see a range of bright colours illuminating the faces and walls around the scene. At this point I think we really start to feel the party vibe as we hear the sounds of people partying and drunkenly chatting amongst a large crowd in the centre of the room. Practically this scene was very difficult to shoot, as we anticipated. Despite the difficulty we had on set, we would always have faced much more of it if we hadn't continuously prepared for it with numerous tests. The tests for this shoot came in extremely handy as we already knew what we had to do, it was just a case of pulling it off under the pressure of time and with lots of people around us all asking questions etc. I felt as director this was a very challenging shoot but it also feels like it is essential to my growth. By stepping up a notch with these type of lively scenes which require extreme attention to detail and planning, I feel I am growing immensely in confidence and ability as a director. 

The shot continues as one interrupted take throughout the full scene. As I previous discussed above, the camera follows the character of Alice as she enters a house party. She then ends up standing alone in the middle of a room before she is greeted by a young woman who appears to be a previous acquaintance of hers. A conversation ensues which helps give us even more of a context as to who Alice is. My primary intention with the script was to have scenes which gradually peeled away at the layers of who Alice is. With each interaction a part of her past is revealed, but more importantly a part of her present self is brought into focus. The images below show the part of the scene I am discussing. The two below images show the green lighting we used to enter the scene with, as it connotes a sense of peaceful tranquility. At this point in the scene Alice is under no threat of danger, she is seen to be conversing albeit cautiously with old friends. 

We then transition again into a new area of the scene. As Alice comes under threat from two young men who follow her through the party, she turns and makes her way down a corridor which is illuminated with a deep red light, removing the peaceful connotations of the green lighting with a sense of impending doom. This was strictly difficult for my director of photography and sound operator, who were up until this point on a linear journey into the house from the outside. At this point it all changed, and they had to constantly manoeuvre around a small corridor to change the direction of the shot. This took a lot of precise decision making from myself and the crew as to how to get the best result possible. We figured this all out in test shoots, but it instantly became apparent that with actors there that we hadn't had in the tests shoots, we had to reach another compromise. We used doorways to rooms to manoeuvre the crew around the moving characters. As the scene continues Alice must find a way to escape. As she is walking down a long corridor, there is no immediate way she could escape the men following her without a crafty plan. As she walks she grabs a wandering drunk and kisses him up against a wall. The following men then walk past her unaware. Practically this was very difficult to shoot because we had to switch focal points and follow others as they passed, this was hard primarily because of the width of the corridor. It was often a squeeze for the actors to get past myself, the cinematographer and the sound operator to make their way down the corridor. Despite all of this after around 20 long takes we made it through and got into a rhythm that allowed us to work effectively. At the end of the corridor the camera spins round and begins tracking Alice again as she pushes the character she was kissing off of her. 

At this point shown in the above picture the colouring changes again. From the red we transition at the end of the corridor into a deep blue which allows us to see Alice leaving the party. She leaves the danger of the red, passes the cool of the blue and leaves behind the vibrancy of the green. Once we had transitioned from following the characters who were chasing Alice, and back to following Alice, we were on the home straight. This was then the easiest part of the scene as Alice just walks straight ahead, there was no repositioning of the crew to capture dialogue or internally motivated movements like the kiss. We then moved on to the after party scene which we shot at an exterior location. 

The shots below are of the after party scene, where we are allowed to follow the events of the party into the street as we see the two characters who were following Alice. The two young men wander out into the street, one holding himself together and one struggling from how drunk he is. Evidently, from the images below, the scene was entirely lacking in lighting. I am disappointed at how this scene looks because we have gone from such a high standard of the party scene into a flat student-looking production within seconds. Without any exterior lighting sources we almost completely fail to light the subjects to a point where they are recognisable. We will learn from our mistakes from this shoot for the next time we work on exterior shoots. The context of the scene is that the young men get in a car and drive away from the party as we hear the faint sounds of music still playing from the party. As they drive away, Alice follows. 

Professional Studies - Introduction

This is an introductory post for this Professional Studies module. During this module I will be writing a 2000 word report on my chosen topic. I will also be producing a range of documents and works around my personal development planning aswell as the report. This includes digital catalogues, and different variations of CVS such as academic and educational. 

The chosen topic of my report is based around the nitty gritty side of being a screenwriter. I will be looking at the financial side of the life of a screenwriter, outlining the positives and negatives of the occupation. I have chosen this topic specifically because it is to be an educational process to me as an aspiring screenwriter. Following my studies at University I plan to complete a masters degree in screenwriting. Over the course of my studies as a student filmmaker I have found the creative side of screenwriting very enjoyable and something which has become a passion. Despite this I now wish to know more about how a screenwriter goes about making their living. This entails research into how much screenwriters have made from scripts but also how and why. But also how often scripts actually do sell. In discussing and gathering evidence for my topic I will be primarily basing my findings around screenplays from the UK. The screenplays I base my findings around will also be from domestic and independent films, opposed to mainstream blockbusters. This is a decision made based on the fact that when I write screenplays in the future I will aim to sell them to smaller production companies initially. The plan upon completing my masters degree in screenwriting is to come away with a feature length script which will hopefully sell. 

Within my preliminary research I decided to look at the history of screenplays that sold. Doing so has given me an idea of how much major films have sold for throughout the history of film. This research has also given me a base to work from, as I can now understand that the importance of the screenwriter has grown exponentially, as has their pay-grade. In this small section from Wikipedia, sold screenplays are given a brief history dating back to the first screenplays ever written in 1900. Back then, screenplays only existed as story scenarios. That is ultimately all that a screenplay boils down to, however. A writer writes a scenario for however long, and attempts to make money from it. I have also gathered from this small section that larger studios tend to pay a lot more. 

Alice - Shoot 2 - Dark Room Scene

The second scene we shot in the film happens to be the third scene in the film. Unfortunately after shooting the first scene of the film first, we could not continue chronologically as I'd hoped due to actor and crew availability. This scene is a scene set within a dark room. In this scene we learn more of the identity of the enigmatic main character Alice. This scene was in place to bring together some loose elements of the story. From the opening scene and the scene which follows it the story is very fluid and without a solid enough structure for the audience to follow and understand what is happening. Although I believe the opening scene and the scene following it communicate what is happening in the context quite concisely through visuals, I felt like the narrative needed a scene to answer some obvious questions. The most obvious of those being A) Who is this character and what is she doing? B) Why? and C) How does this relate to the other characters (e.g. the voice of the man in the opening scene). 

We lit the scene very traditionally as you would expect a dark room to look. I knew that dark rooms have a red-heavy aesthetic for a completely valid reason - so we could not abandon that. The very purpose of a dark room is to minimise light to avoid damaging the photographs. Due to these reasons we decided it would be best if we kept the lighting read heavy, but added a light somewhere in the room to balance out what would appear to be too much red. I found that the red lights of the dark room alone were not enough when it came to defining the characters and objects in the room etc. Therefore we ended up adding a cool light to the corner of the room which provided a little bit of extra light we needed to bring out the characters from the shadows of the room. Without extra light everything seemed flat and two dimensional which was either red or black. 

Going into this scene through the opening shot I very much wanted it to feel like we were gaining insight into the life of someone from a place where we weren't meant to be. I'm a huge fan of a frame within a frame in cinema, and is something I have always admired the use of through my favourite filmmakers. The frame within a frame technique can be used to great effect given the right context. To transition into this scene I used two thirds of a wall opposed to one third of a visible character to create an extreme sense of isolation, but also that as the audience we are perhaps seeing something we aren't supposed to be seeing. The image below is the opening shot from the dark room scene. 

The images below are also from the dark room scene. The first image below is a shot of the two characters of the opening scene, Alice and Mark, finally meeting face to face for the audience to see. In this scene the character of Mark is given a face to match the voice of the opening scene and this leads us to understand Alice and Mark are in some sort of agreement or shady job situation. I had hoped that the opening few scenes combined with the musical score would really drill into people that what is happening is really behind closed doors stuff, and that it was in fact all part of some shady process that was in no way legal. The second shot below is a shot of Alice attempting to hide a photograph from Mark, as she has evidently messed up the job she was sent to do. 

Alice - Shoot 1 - Opening Scene

We shot the opening scene in the art cafe of the University yesterday. We turned up to the shoot around 3pm to set up the lighting and then to wait for the actor and actress. It was set to get dark around 5-half 5 so we gave ourselves plenty of time to set up. Due to the previous tests we had done in the art cafe, we knew exactly the look we were going for with the lighting and how to achieve it. It took us half an hour to an hour to be fully set up then we were ready to go once the actors arrived. 

The compression of the shot is down to our choice of lens. In the previous lighting tests we found a way to bring the background closer to the subject of our actress. As the entire scene is a mid shot of her, we wanted a way to make the image easy on the eye and to bring the focus into her more by blurring the background. Because of this we decided to shoot on a 70-300mm telephoto lens. We shot on a zoom of around 150mm from a few metres infront of the subject. In person, the bar behind her is at least 3-5 metres away, whereas with the use of a telephoto lens the image becomes compressed and makes the bar seem only a metre away. As director this was my way of introducing people to the close and atmospheric world of that character, where there it little room for movement and little freedom to call her own. Below is a screenshot from the film where you can see the results of our technique. 

We used a two point lighting set-up for this scene opposed to a traditional three-point lighting system. We decided against three-point lighting because it came across as overbearing, and ultimately washed the image with too much light and left the actress and her surroundings with no definition. The light which we removed was to the left hand side of this image, and was angled at a 45 degree angle from the corner of the bar in the back left of the room. The result was as I stated earlier, too much light coming from the left hand side of the room to hit the actress on the left side of her face. Combining with the key light which was infront of her to the right at a 45 degree angle, I was unable to achieve the sinister and shadowy aesthetic I was looking for. When we removed the light, as you can see from the image below, that we created shadows on the left side of the characters face. This is a subtle and frequently used technique to imply that a character has something to hide, or that there is another side to her beneath the prim and proper surface of a normal looking girl. 

As I stated often in my early research and pre-production stages, I had a shot as a primary source of inspiration for this whole scene. The shot is from Steve McQueens 'Shame' (2011). This shot of Carey Mulligans character singing a rendition of 'New York, New York' is shot primarily using one take, allowing the audience a huge amount of insight into the emotion portrayed by the character and allowing us to be part of their world for an extended period of time by the usual standards of a shot length in a film.

This is one of the parallelisms within the film that is what I would call a multi-dimensional influence. The shot above from Shame influenced me on a visual level, a performance level, an emotional level and it is a shot which summarises the context of the entire film. From this I wanted to create my own establishing shot which would do all of these things. Following the opening scene I wanted to transition into a visually stimulating and atmospheric credit sequence. At a later point in the opening scene, one character leaves, and this leaves the main character of Alice alone. I then wanted to transition into the glowing lights of the 'bokeh' effect to communicate that it is night time, and that the character is potentially driving. From that shot we then officially transition to a shot of the character driving to confirm the previous connotation of the bokeh effect. Below are a few shots from the opening credit sequence.