Make-Up - Final Decisions

I could not create the make-up effects that I initially wanted to due to lack of equipment to do it with so I had to cut out the blood from cuts on the oppressed's (joe) face, and just give a bruised effect around his left eye and give him dark brown smudges over his face this is to represent the effect of being beaten by the oppressor.

We could create the oppressor's scar as it did not need much detail or make-up for me to create it.

Posted by Sonja Moss

Whats the score?

When doing the shoot, we had an external member of our class practising piano on set. During sequences Marcus played atmospherical music that helped get into character. So we asked him if he fancied writting the music and he accepted. He gets a credit and will most likely be asked again when we come to do our proper project. We gain original soundtrack and the wow factor of 'we did all this'. By using Marcus he can create his own moods for the film changing pace and tension at will, instead of having to hack at pre made sound tracks and run the risk of breaching copyright laws.

Posted by Daniel Shambrook

Rough cut feedback

Before adding SFX or music Luke showed the piece to a few friends. I was unaware of this until people started coming up to us in corridors telling us it looked great, they called it that 'sin city thing', so that suggested we cracked it. We took this in and decided that all that was left to do now was add the monolouge and hand it over for the wonderful Marcus to add music.

posted by Daniel Shambrook

Pre-production mock shoot

During the initial stages of our pre-production we did a mock shoot of the sequence; getting an overall feel for the piece and experimenting with various angles and shot sizes. Below, at the bottom of the page, are some stills taken from that shoot-

No foul language WTF!

After doing the mock shoot, we enquired about the use of naughty swear words. We were told that we cannot use them as it can be tracked back to college and abused by local press. In order to overcome this problem, we looked other ways in which intimidation can be achieved. By going with a graphic novel we opened up the opportunity to create a really eccentric in your face character. We then altered Joe's character as to be the lead and wrote a un diagetic monolouge to be said throughout the film.

posted by Dan Shambrook

the 180 degree rule-we dont break rules- we destroy them

The 180 degree rule is a rule that states once a characters position has been established a 180 line goes through them. Once the camera has filmed from one side of this line we cant cut to a shot from the other side, in order to use camera positions on the other side we must show a shot of crossing it.

When shooting we broke this rule on more than one occasion. for several reasons.
1.To represent the dizzyness and disorientation of Joe's character.
2. As this is a graphic novel based shoot, it detracts from the realism adding the atmosphere.
3. It heightens the pace and tension of the piece.
4. It looks awesome!

POsted by Daniel Shambrook

At the start...

When we were thinking about the interrogation idea in a bit more depth we thought about having 3 people so we could do a 'good cop bad cop' scenario. However to keep it simple we decided on 2 people as this would decrease the amount of filming time and make keeping to a minute easier. Choosing a storyline was quite hard because we wanted something comical and imaginative. We initially went with possibly a ridiculous law or maybe a fairy tale theme but we wanted it to be simple.
We then thought about why the victim was being interrogated. The ideas consisted of many different themes but the main one that the whole group liked was something being stolen and off someone high powered within the college. This lead to possible ideas of the use of flashbacks.
However once again to keep it simple we all decided on no definition of where or who was involved specifically and kept it to one time space. This gradually took a 'Sin city' feel and we felt it worked really well.
To achieve the police and suspect theme, we decided to use one of the pods or the dance studio. We tried filming in Pod 2 for the mock shoot but it was too light and didn't give the effect that we wanted. So we used the Dance Studio for the final production.
Props were easy as we changed what we needed to just suits/shirts, a table, a chair and a hat. This was also a change as we initially wanted plain cloths, an ID card on a necklace and paper, as we were going to go for a student teacher interrogation.
Lighting was easy when we decided on our location as it was already there and we just had to adjust brightness and how many lights we wanted on.

Ideas

We made a spider diagram of ideas so we had a range of locccations and senarios to choose from for our film piece. After creating this we all sat down and disscussed which senario we would alll prefer to create for our piece, we decided to do a police interigation scene as we knew we could create the right location and atmosphere for that kind of senario.

make-up sketches (Initial ideas)

I initially sketched these ideas for the make-up for the two actors in our piece. i thought these ideas would go well as we were going for the sin city/clockwork orange feel in our piece. I gave Dan a scar as it would be a tell tale sign that he is the oppressor in this piece. I gave Joe a black eye and dirty smudges as it would show that he is the oppressed and that someone has great physical power over him and that he has been badly beaten by the oppressor.

Posted by Sonja Moss

Progress- Characters

Dan

In the mock shoot, soon to be uploaded i played the character as a serious hard as nails cop. Rather plain, little boring. When we brought in the graphic novel idea it opened up the opportunities as to what i could do. when in the studio made up, in costume i saw myself as an eccentric Joker (Batman), Alex (Clockwork Orange) type character and decided to play on that. I became a deranged psychotic with no boundaries as to what i could do. i also played on the bad guy cop like Jackie Boy (sin city).

Joe

Joe is a character brought in to show, the sheer madness in the character of Dan, such as the spin off novel associated with Dans character. I dont wish to go into to much detail until the film is uploaded as it may spoil the plot, but Joe represents the element of normality within the film.

Posted by Dan Shambrook

Make-Up - Initial ideas

These are the initial ideas that i had come up with for the two different characters:

For the part of the oppressor (dan) we all came to the conclusion of having a scar running from just above his eyebrow to the top of his cheek bone.

For the part of the oppressed we came to the decision of giving him a black eye with blood running down towards his cheek bone and having dirty grazes with dabs of blood through them over his face to show he has been badly beaten outside by the oppressor. It also adds the feel of the film ideas (sin city, clockwork orange and batman) that we were aiming for.

Posted by Sonja Moss

Location, lighting, props etc

Location: Dance studio
We blacked out the whole of the studio by turning off the lights and closing the curtains. We then spotlighted the table and chair using the dance studio lights. We were going to use redheads, however we preferred the single overhead spotlight in the studio, as we felt it was efficient enough, good lighting and in the area we wanted to film in. Also there were no convenient sockets.
On the high angle shots we used a ladder to achieve these, otherwise we used a tripod.

Props:
A chair
A table &
A hat

Costume: Dan (oppressor)
Black pinstriped shirt
Black overcoat
Jeans
Bowlers hat

Joe (thief/victim)
White Pinstriped shirt
Jeans
(to achieve a black eye and the brown smudges we used eye-shadow)
messy hair

The Script- The planning and the final script

When we decided to do a graphic novel it required an authentic style of speech. Graphic novel speech normally consists of a lead characters internal monolouge describing thoughts and feelings throughout the film. The desricptive parts often contain a metephor of some kind so i decided to play on this. This is my attempt.

Int. Deserted room (Dance Studio)

Joe (voice over): I awoke in a cage of light. A fiery burning sensation in the back of my head as my eyes became accustomed to the light. (SFX-footsteps) My heart stopped as the door opened (SFX-Door open) and the angel of death emerged from the darkness. Sweat trickled down my neck the condensation resting on the window. (Dan starts laughing) His cackle raised the hair on my spine, i was trembling as if standing in an earthquake. He struck (Dan hits Joe) like he had before knocking me back in my chair. I lowered my head daring not to look into the deep blackness of his eyes in the fear that within them my soul would be drained.

Dan: Know why you're here Joe? Cos you stole from me?

Joe: (Voice over) questions i had no anwsers too. I begged mercy and forgivness for a crime i felt innocent too. I was a puppet, and he held the strings that controlled me. I thought long and hard whilst he beat me for an escape. amongst the pain and torture i had only one wish. It was ironic that my grasping for life had led to the feeling felt by so many others before me. The sweet satisfaction, the freedom brought by death.

Written by Dan Shambrook

The back story- Joe

There i am, the needle in a haystack, alone on the cobbled streets of Haywards Heath. An insignificant pin prick on this earths crusted surface. I walk the streets searching for the gift of life as i feel my chest starting to close, pulsating, throbbing with every gasp. What kept me alive that long? the pictures of a young girl within my solemn unloved mind. I grabbed for the instrument that would raise me, like Christ from the grave. I tore through it using the untamed beast within me. Its juices of life pasted through to my veins as the adreniline kicked in. Then came the blow. With the power of a thousand fists crashing through my head, I dropped to the crisp cold pavement my head still floating in the vasteness of space. I felt as the stranger clawed my head back, i felt like an old Pez dispenser as his talons struck my eye. The warm blood trickled down my eye like a rain drop on a window. I awoke surrounded by the light.

Written by Dan Shambrook

A little info about the team

Name:Daniel Shambrook

Age:17

Occupation:Student

Top 3 films: Airplane!, Naked Gun, Sean of the dead

Interests: Acting, film, theatre

Name: Bex White

Age:17

Ocuppation: Student

Interests: Gym, Music and socialising

Favourite Genres of film: Thrillers and comedy

Name: Luke Graham

Age:17

Ocuppation: Student

Intrests: Film, Music and Kicking animals

Top 3 films: Pulp Fiction, Dodge ball and Hunger

Name: Sonja Moss

Age: 17

Ocuppation: Student

Interests: Music, Performing arts, Hair and make-up artistry

Top 3 Musicals: Fame, Cats, Les Miserables

Cast/ Crew

Detective- Dan Shambrook

Hostage- Joe Dorman

Directors- Luke Graham, Rebecca White

Written by- Dan Shambrook

Storyboard Artist- Luke Graham

Makeup/Costume design- Sonja Moss

Make up/ costume artist- Sonja Moss

Initial story- Rebecca White, Dan Shambrook

Camera Operator- Luke Graham

Location Scouts- Rebecca White, Dan Shambrook, Sonja Moss, Luke Graham

Music score written by- Marcus Power

The story so far

We did a practice run of our storyboard idea, seeing which shots worked and which didn't. We didn't do this in costume or with the final decided actors. We filmed this practice in Pod 1, however we are contemplating using The Dance Studio instead as it can be blacked out, the table can be spotlighted and its better lighting.

We decided to go with the interrogation idea as we thought this would work best, we can also work humour into this. We have yet to decide on definite props, actors and costume. We do know the rough story line now: door opens, Dan walks to table, slams prop down, dialogue, he sits down, more dialogue, stands up again.