George Zenin
B324
CLAREMONT FAN COURT: 64680
GCSE J526 UNIT B324 PRODUCTION P0RTFOLIO IN MEDIA
STUDIES
Production Log:
17/09/2014 | PLANNING | THE BRIEF
09/09/2014 | RESEARCH | THE ART OF THE TITLE: The Detectives French TV
series
10/09/2014 | RESEARCH | THE ART OF THE TITLE: Sherlock Holmes 2009 by
Warner Brothers
15/10/2014| PLANNING |
PRODUCTION COMPANY NAME: Burnt Bridge Productions
09/09/2014 | PLANNING | BRAINSTORMING
09/0/92014 | RESEARCH | THRILLER FILMS
09/09/2014 | PLANNING | TREATMENT
09/09/2014 | RESEARCH | THE ART OF THE TITLE:
09/09/2014 | PLANNING |
DRAWING THE FIRST STORYBOARD
09/09/2014 | RESEARCH | TV FILM OPENING ANALYSIS
THE BRIEF:
I am working in a group of three pupils: Milo
Mulvaugh and Hamza Syed. We have decided to pick 7 (video), the opening to the
new film including titles, in any genre or mix of genres such as comedy or
thriller together with a storyboard. Maximum length: 3 minutes.
In today’s lesson we have thought about the genre
of our intro and some of the characters that will be in it. After some time we
have decided that our genre will be a steam punk based thriller with 6 actors
playing the roles of the 4 victims, the detective and the murderer. We also
decided that the key point in our text will be a lake in which the murderer
disposes of his victims and which serves as a link to other worlds, since we
decided to include the multiverse theory as another point in our film, for which
we already planned a couple of locations such as Virginia Water. Because the
whole movie is based on steam punk, we decided to use some sepia/ monochromatic
filter for some of the sequences to give it a more Victorian feel. We also
thought about the font that we are going to use. We believe it would’ve been
best if we use a handwritten like font which is tilted and written on a yellowy
piece of paper.
RESEARCH:
1.
Today we watched the intro sequence of
a crime drama television show on The Art of the Title. We knew that it would be
based on a modern crime drama motif because we saw that the first couple of
slides were very dark and gloomy, which they did using a dark blue filter. When
we started watching the actual clip we noticed that the clip was very short,
which is because the studio wanted to start the actual episode as quickly as
possible so that they don’t keep people waiting. We also noticed that the music
had a fast pace to it which promised action and excitement to the audience.
In addition, I saw that some of the CGI
looked as if it was we were looking through the eye of one of the detectives
because we got a red pencil arrow going towards the doors and cars of every
detective and we also have something that looks like a CSI computer interface
that shows the names and roles of each character that we’ll meet during the
series.
This is typical for series such as
this, as we see it in other TV such as friends and how I met your mother.
2. Today we
watched the intro sequence to the Sherlock Holmes movie which was created in
2009 by Warner Brothers. From the first couple of slides which we see before
the actual text starts we could already see that this movie will have a lot of
drama in it because we see a lot of conflict, e.g. Sherlock and Watson aiming
their pistols somewhere, spectacle, an example of which we could see in the
slide when a person is flying backwards from an explosion, and mystery which we
can see from a close up of the faces of Dr Watson and Holmes.
We could
also see that this is based in the Victorian time from the type of font that is
used. It’s a cursive handwritten with a quill, which we could see from the
slight slant of the writing which has different thickness at different points.
We could also see some ineligible notes at the bottom of the slide which look
like they have been part of a letter once which was the only way of
communicating during that time. This is used to emphasize that this is during
the reign of Queen Victoria.
Also we see
the real moving image transfer into a still image and then into sepia sketch or
photograph which is like watching the photographic cameras which were used
during those times. However, it may as well be an ink wash drawing because we
see ink blots and splatters. CGI was used so that they morph through different
cycles of photography. They also look faded and mildewed which makes it seem
like the story that is being told came from a long time ago.
In
addition, we know that this is going to be a crime detective, action and
adventure movie because we have some conventions such as; drama, which we could
see from the slide which has a winking woman who looks like she’s up to no
good, and we have conflict, which we see when Holmes is fighting a man with
mallet whilst he’s wielding a small hammer, and we see adventure when Holmes is
flying through the air after an explosion.
PLANNING:
09/09/2014|DISCUSSING
INITIAL IDEAS
Today we joined into groups and discussed of what we may do
for our projects. We started to develop roles within the group and the plot
points that we may use. I also showed my skill as a 3D animator when I showed
an animated film company logo.
16/09/2014| EQUIPMENT,
PROPS, ACTORS
Today during the lesson we discussed actors, props and
equipment that we may use. Because we figured out the plotline over Skype in
the evening we decided that we needed four actors to be the victims, because
anymore would be just silly, a detective, which will be me, a murderer, who we
decided will be a girl so that it will be more unexpected. We decided that we
are also going to bring some equipment such as: cameras, tripods, microphone,
etc. We also decided that all of us are going to invest into costumes, as one
of our key themes is going to be steam-punk, and into accessories such as a
monocle and BB pistols.
23/09/2014|RESEARCHING GENRE
Today we
decided to research our genre, which is going to be thriller. We knew that we
had to collect material from other movies that were made in that genre. For
that we decided to use a piece of internet software called Scoop.it which is
basically a search engine that creates a database on what you need, for us
being past thrillers. Thus we can gain some ideas of what we’ll need to do in
order to compete with other film production companies.
25/09/2014|COSTUMES
Today we
discussed the final costumes the two main characters are going to wear and the
soundtrack. Milo found a lot of items of clothing that really suited the theme
of steam punk so we decided that we’ll order those things and split the costs.
He also has an aunt who has a lot of things which are dated quite far back into
the past that she wouldn’t mind us using.
Because Milo
is the only one who is doing music we let him find the soundtrack that he
thought would suite our clip the most. He presented us with Everybody wants to
rule the world by Lorde and some anonymous music from the Victorian era. He
wanted to use both pieces but I noted that our clip can only last for 3 minutes
so in the end we decided that we will use only Lorde’s song.
14/10/2014|PLANNING THE ENRTY SEQUENCE CREDITS
We needed to
research how our entry credits will look like, because this will set the pace
and image of the film. For inspiration we decided to research what has been
used in existing past films and for that we decided to go to a website called
the Art of the Title as it has entry sequences from hundreds of film titles
which can be useful to our cause. We looked at Agatha Christie’s Poirot movie
entry sequence as we wanted our movie to also look quite old and which can be
related to Victorian Britain/America. Poirot featured a nice big font at the
end that could be used by us as it had a detective code in it as it was big and
in capital letter. The only thing that would need changing here is the size as
we don’t want it dominating the image sequence.
15/10/2014|COMPANY NAME
We thought of
a company name quite early on when we started the project, since I created the
introduction animation and I needed something that would be quite punchy and
easy to remember. I came up with two names; Blue Wolf entertainment and Burnt
Bridge production. We discussed with the group which name would be best and
decided on Burnt Bridge Production because it fit in with our companies ethos.
FILM
TREATMENT:
·
The Detective: GEORGE HOLDING 23
A tall young man with narrow eyes and sharp nose indicate that this man
doesn’t trust anyone and is sly and of high intellect.
·
The Murderer: JENNIFER ELIAS 25
Like the detective she’s tall but slightly older than him which shows
because her face is slightly more rounded. She has almost raven wing hair which
indicates to her dark personality.
16/10/2104| PLANNING SHOT TYPES
During today’s lesson we
discussed the order of shots that we are going to take because we had a bit of
confusion within the group about the current plan of action but then we sorted
it out and almost completed the shot plan.
CONSTRUCTION:
ANIMATION:
EVALUATION:
(to be completed after the filming)
