Audio Visual
My first initial idea for my independent film after working on RAD0002 was wanting to make a studio look like another location.
I am inspired by RAD002 for this project because for a lot of the shoots it was making locations such as a living room, boiler room and bedroom in a studio space. This is something I found really interesting as if you were just watching the film, you wouldn't really be able to tell that its a studio and if you take the shot out slightly you begin to see the studio space, breaking the illusion.
From this I know I want to do the same thing. However, I don't have a lot of money to spend so I know I need to do something simple but effective.
The first thing that came to mind was making some sort of dark and dingy place where someone is being held captive. I decided to try and find some pictures that looked like what I was envisioning.
Idea Development
News
Brekaing news!
Child has been kidnapped
4 breaking news scenes
All hope is for finding local girl
Long corridor - She walks through. Can see kidnapper in the background
Why kidnapped?
Daughter of local business man?
Stepdad?
Redundancies - one of these people could kidnap them
Hired someone to kidnap son
Reward has gone up to £100,000 for finding local school girl . No ransom has been asked for.
Crime watch
Interviews with family?
Reward for any information regarding my son. Please help us find him
Mentally abused
What you mean you only got a ‘B’
Show him deteriorating over the weeks of being in captivity
Dad has watch, ring?
Hand on knee
Shown in previous clips so you know it’s him at the end
Could made a news room studio?
Green screen?
Articles
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping_of_Shannon_Matthews
https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/229933.pdf
Reports
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi_Yxvklp70
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh79ygufXxE
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=missing+persons+news+report
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RazOGuQ_r8E
Films
News broadcast of something good that the dad has done in the city. Establish that he’s a well known presence within the community
Shot Development
News broadcast showing a local businessman has done something good for the local community
Teenager walking in on the phone
-How does he get kidnaped?-
Show passing of time in between news broadcasts
Newsreader in different suits
Walking into the door
Close ups of everything he’s doing
Close up of his face talking to dad
Do some storyboards to help get a better idea of what the shots could look like
Pick locations
Look into news broadcasts to see what they look like
Inspirations
Chiaroscuro lighting techniques
Chiaroscuro basically means light and dark which just means high contrast light or dark.
This technique/style is used in Renaissance paintings before later coming popular in modern cinema.
It's usually very bold which adds to the striking and dark effect. It's meant to be distinct.
The most common style of film you will see this technique in is film noir.
The examples of this in this particular style are endless. While it is still used to this day, it's not as popular.
This is partly because it way more effective on black and white film.
It's effect is wasted on colour. It loses it's boldness when it's meant to be obvious.
This technique is meant to increase the dramatic feel of a film and this is why I want to use this technique in my own film.
Renaissance paintings
When looking at Chiaroscuro in Renaissance paintings I loved that half the face
is in darkness and the other half is well lit.
I immediately knew I wanted to have a go at replicating this style of art in my own film.
I really like the dramatic flair it adds to the painting.
You just know it wouldn't be as visually striking had it all been well lit.
Hugo
I've watched Hugo a fair few times in the last couple years but after watching it at the Arts Centre for the film
screenings programme it made me think about my own independent film.
This is because of the excessive use of green screen and the impact it has on the film.
While watching I don't really think about what's gone into making it as I'm so immersed in how beautiful and magical it looks. However, with the independent RAD film looming over my head I did begin to think about what's
gone into making this film so visually striking.
Now I knew that they probably weren't in Paris and that Asa Butterfield who plays Hugo wasn't
dangling from a clock that high up.
But it still manages to make my jaw drop from amazement
at how it's all made up by green pieces of material.
I knew that I wouldn't be able to create anything close to the scale that it's used in this film
but I knew I wanted to get the green screen out and experiment with it for my film.
Don't Breathe
When looking for inspirations I remembered back to Don't Breathe by Fede Álvarez. This is because I know it's a film about robbing a blind man and I remember it being very dark in the house.
I decided to look back over the trailer to see if anything looked similar to what I wanted to go for with my film. It did.
The two close ups of Jane Levy's character Rocky is exactly what I want to go for with the scenes of Dan in the basement.
This is very similar to the chiaroscuro lighting technique that I looked at previously.
Having light and dark contrasting.
Fight Club
I'm inspired by a few close ups of Brad Pitts character Tyler Durden. This is very similar to Don't Breathe with having half the face in darkness and half the face lit. I love how it immediately makes the scene more tense and dramatic.
I like this style of lighting as you can still see the full detail and emotion on the characters face even though most of the shot is dark.
My Cast and Crew
Director: Me
Cinematographer: Annie Deane and Me
Lighting: Jess Hunt and Me
Sound: Grayson Prentice and Matt Baker
Production design: Matt Baker
Editor: Me
News presenter, Martin Price: Tip Cullen
Dad, Mark Allen: Steve Lay
Son, James Allen: Dan Earl
News reporter, Liam Jones: Louis John Brzozka
Friend of James, Mika Evans: Deborah Couch
Storyboards
Screenplay
Click to see full
From doing all of my shoots I realised how much things can change from the screenplay. I'm not the greatest at screenplay writing, especially news broadcasts. I did spent a lot of time researching into kidnapping news broadcasts and just news channels in general to see how they open a breaking news section and how they lead into news reporters/interviews e.c.t. Also, from watching loads of different news broadcasts the first news broadcast after he goes missing will be an early this morning breaking news because he went missing in the evening time and because the character lives alone no one will really know until the day/morning after. This is why the first news broadcast is early this morning.
I knew that they wouldn't be absolutely accurate but I knew in the right setting, costume and photoshop elements It would look pretty realistic.
Working with the actors also really helped as they suggested things that news presenters might say and what they might not say and gave suggestions towards the script which really helped push the newsbroadcasts to be just that more realistic.
My script did change a fair bit from what I planned to what actually happened during the shoot. This worked out for the best as I find it difficult to really let me imagination run when writing a script on a computer screen. Once I was in the location/set I can think more creatively which meant changed did happen. This did work out for the best.
Equipment, costume and props list
Shoot One - Tip - 11/01/18
Shoot Two - Steve - 13/01/18
Shoot Three - Dan - 17/01/18
Shoot Four - Louis and Deb - 18/01/18
Shoot Five - Dan - 18/01/18
Equipment
1x Canon 700D DSLR
2x Battery Canon 600D/700D
4x Bowens Limelight LED Panel
1x Extension Lead - 4 Way
2x Lighting Stand Kit (x2 stands)
1x Zoom H4n Audio Recorder
1x Libec Tripod Video
1x Sennheiser ME67 Microphone Kit
1x XLR Male - XLR Female 10m
Boom pole
Costume
2 suit blazers
2shirts
4 ties
- to show different days
Props
Glasses
Paper
Equipment
1x Canon 700D DSLR
2x Battery Canon 600D/700D
1x Bowens Limelight LED Panel
1x Lighting Stand
1x Zoom H4n Audio Recorder
1x Libec Tripod Video
1x Sennheiser ME67 Microphone Kit
1x XLR Male - XLR Female 10m
Boom pole
Costume
White shirt
Black trousers
Props
No props needed
Equipment
2x Canon 700D DSLR Kit
2x Z96 LED Onboard Video Light
3x Battery Canon 600D/700D
1x Libec Tripod Video
2x Tungsten Filter for Z96 LED Onboard Video Light
2x Diffuser filter for Z96 LED Onboard Video Light
1x Zoom H4n Audio Recorder
1x Sennheiser ME67 Microphone Kit
1x XLR Male - XLR Female 10m
Boom pole
Dedolight 80wt 3 Head LED
Costume
White t-shirt
Black skinny jeans
Props
Brick wallpaper
Tape
Rope
Old pillow
Old sleeping bag
Paper plate
Bread roll
Brown powder
Chair
Equipment
1x Canon 700D DSLR Kit
2x Battery Canon 600D/700D
1x Libec Tripod Video
1x Zoom H4n Audio Recorder
1x Sennheiser ME67 Microphone Kit
1x XLR Male - XLR Female 10m
Boom pole
Costume
Louis
Suit
2 different ties
Coat
Deb
Jeans
Jumper
Coat
Props
Microphone box
Umbrella
Equipment
1x Canon 700D DSLR
2x Battery Canon 600D/700D
1x Libec Tripod Video
2x Bowens Limelight LED Panel
1x Lighting Stand Kit (x2 stands)
1x Zoom H4n Audio Recorder
1x Sennheiser ME67 Microphone Kit
1x XLR Male - XLR Female 10m
Boom pole
Costume
Normal clothes
Jeans, jacket
Smart swear
Suit blazer
Suit trousers
Shirt
Props
Phone
Keys
Newspaper
Other post
BBC News photoshop
Creating a news bar for the main news broadcast.
This is different from the news reports but will be the same for each broadcast.
Creating a news bar for the news reporter doing a live report from the scene. This will slide in from the left side and disappear after a few seconds.
This is one of the 4 time bars for the main news broadcasts. Each time has to be different to really make them authentic and to show the time difference between each news broadcast.
This is a small animation I made for the news reporter. I did this by having layers of white rectangle bars and having them in slightly different places and when it's played it creates the illusion of the bar moving up. This is reversed for when it disappears.
Colour Correction
Darkening the edges to visually show the darkness around the characters emotions. He's feeling confined so darkening up make's his feelings come to life visually.
Half of his face is in shadow and half is lit. This is doing the Chiaroscuro lighting technique by having light and dark contrasts making it immediately more dramatic.
Adding a blue tint to create a cold and metal like atmopshere to emphasise a confined space
Before After
One of the problems I faced over this project was getting all my actors in the same place at the same time. I had one scene where I needed 3 actors. This proved quite problematic as they were not all available on the various dates. I had to make the decision to cut one of the roles to enable me to film that scene. This meant I had to rewrite the scene to fit 2 actors instead of 3 which wasted time.