Planning: Layout of the Titles

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Layout of the Titles

We analysed film title and found that action title background are normally black so the text stands out. The text is written in capital letters and its 3D to make it look bolder. The colour is silver giving it a steel/metallic effect connoting clarity making it easy to see the clearness and crispness of the text. We chose the Cambria font because there’s an emphasis of the ending strokes making it eye-catching.  


The background of the production title is black so the text ‘International’ is eye-catching so it’s the first thing the audience will see. We researched film titles where we found that majority of action text in 3D. Then I added another layer then added the shattered glass effect to represent a bullet going through the “O” so it gives the action element to the title so the audience are informed straight away about the genre. The text was overlayed as it’s significant.

We made the production titles by using Adobe Photoshop to create a design of the title so we can make it animatic afterwards. This plan gave us a brief idea of what the title will look like.

Planning: Questionnaire

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Questionnaire

Age: _ 0-10  _ 11-15  _ 16-20  _ 21-30  _ 31+

Gender: _ Male  _Female

How often do you watch Action films?

What aspects of horror do you like?

Chase _

Suspense _

Cars _

Violence _ 

Guns _

Love Interest _

Other _________

What other genres do you like?

-

-

-

Why do you or do you not like Action?

-

-

Action is the best genre

_ Strongly agree

_ Agree

_ Not sure

_ Disagree

_ Strongly disagree

What's the best setting for Action?

Whats your favorite Action film + Why?

Do you prefer a male/female lead

Feedback

0-10 = 9%  16-20 = 72%   30+ = 19%

Male = 28%  Female = 72%

33% of people said they never watch action films which is interesting as that's a third, which is not what I expected as I thought action was a very popular genre that appealed to all ages, I was stunned to see that amount of the people questioned never watched action. 

Interestingly it wasn't just the males who said they watched action the most which subverts from the stereotypes that action has a mainly male audience as a quarter of females also said they watch lots of action films.

The two most popular features people look for in action films were love interest (hot man) and guns/cars, this is what i expected as they are the cliche parts of a film that make it a action film. Violence was only said 15% of the time which surprised me as I thought more people would look for that in action, guns was the most common aspect with 55% of people saying they looked for it in a action film, this is something that we can use to our advantage and include in our film to appeal to a larger audience and make more people want to see our film.

When asked what other genres people liked, so we could include the aspects of other genres people like to create a more appealing film to a larger audience, Comedy was third most popular with 36% of people saying that was another genre they liked - this doesn't really help us as we feel it would be quite hard to incorporate a comedy aspect into our action film, this is something we will have to consider at a later date but I feel it's something we won't end up incorporating in our film. Drama was the most popular with 65% of people saying that was the other genre they liked, interestingly this was most popular with people who didn't like action suggesting as long as you incorporate one of these two your trailer will be liked by audiences. This will help us when making our film as we now know to attract a larger audience we should include a physical side of things, as previously established people do like a chase scene so to optimise our films attraction to people. 

90% said city was the best setting which is interesting as we had anticipate to use city (London, NYC, Washington) as we thought it was most grand and, for production purposes, most accessible and easy to achieve a big budget look. 

Overall this questionaire was helpful in identifying what people look for in action and the aspects/location to include in our film.

Planning: Film Diary #4

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Film Diary

Date: 01/11/15

Location: Leatherhead

Cast: N/A

Today we went to shoot a time lapse in Leatherhead to use as part of our trailer, we went at around lunchtime hoping to get the most people walking past as possible. We originally shot sat on a bench with the camera facing down Leatherhead high street, there wasn't as many people as we had hoped and we weren't sure if the angle was right so we decided to get another one as a reserve. For this we felt a high angle would be good and so we figured if we went to the roof of Leatherhead shopping centre we could get the right angle, we managed to get 2 good time lapse's and will hopefully be able to incorporate them into our trailer successfully to add to the value of the trailer and make it look more expensive and professional. 

Planning: Updated Location

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Updated Location

This is an update of the locations we want to use and the collection of shots we hope to shoot at all of the locations, by having everything organized and clearly written out if should help us when we are on location to get all the shots and not have to spend valuable time trying to remember what we're supposed to be doing.

Locations:

•   Washington

•   NYC

•   London

•   Shot of Kingsley brothers getting into car (back alley – safe, good lighting, easy exit, phone signal for police)

•   Airport?

•   Running after train (Southbank)

•   Train station - Epsom

•   Them at a party?

•   Miller researching (Clarks café/

•   Colleagues explaining brothers are back

•   Bump into him down street – drive off

•   Prepare weapons, Briefcase from under bed

•   Holding Rashmi at gun point (collecting money)

•   Graveyard

•   Taking pills

•   Angry at people

•   Throwing stuff

•   Fight with someone

•   Car park

•   Flashback

Filming dates:

27/10/15 – 11am – back up shots in front of St Pauls, shots of them getting into car (alley), Phone call, step outside, running down Southbank, they get on train, me trying to catch them, train leaves, hit wall, bump into him down the street – drive off,  graveyard, fight with someone, car park, holding Rashmi at gunpoint,

After school one day – garage scenes (beaten up), researching media, taking pills and throwing things, gun being shot (scream)

Café scenes – reading newspapers, meeting with colleagues

Car park – racing up to top/stand off

Shots of America – establishing shots, Lincoln memorial, picking up package, looking at pictures     

Planning: Representation Of Stereotypes

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Representation Of Stereotypes

In an Action/Spy genre films Men are normally portrayed as the protagonist due to the stereotypes that represents them as independent, muscular and dominant therefore giving them more prevalence in the films than the female characters. However our trailer undermines the stereotypical male action hero, as our protagonist is a strong, intelligent and fearless woman who tries to get revenge by herself, subverting the “damsel in distress” characteristics.

The antagonists in an Action genre are usually males who give off a mysterious aura because their identity isn’t revealed; we will use this effect for the beginning of our trailer. The twins “Kingsley Brothers” connotes evil and will be represented as the stereotypical villains who have committed a crime which then has an impact on the protagonist. Due to their first impression the audience will be notified about their role in the film.

Planning: Script

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Script

• Establishing shot of Washington, long shot of Lincoln memorial, cut to shot of Miller walking and sitting down on the steps out the front of the Lincoln memorial, match on action of her looking at her phone reading an article about the Kingsley brothers who are on trial for murder. She places her phone down whilst looking out to the horizon - finally has there been some justice? Her phone rings, it’s her friend
• A.M: hi (low angle shot just phone and part of the face)
• F: have you heard?
• A.M: (looking confused, fearing the worst) what, no why
• F: (interrupting) they got out. (Cut to shot of them getting into car) 5 witnesses, finger prints on the murder weapon (shot of murder weapon, gun going off), hair found on the bodies (shot of them walking away pull focus onto hair on top of dead body)...and they walk free
• A.M: (MS put face in hand, trying to conserve anger, exhales)
• F: and a report just came in,(flicking through report - pick up photo) same style, same weapon, same marks of their hands - they've killed again
• A.M: (distraught) 
• F: Mccolin is in New York waiting (stands up angry, marches off), he anticipated this news and he has something for you
• Cut to NYC establishing shot, shot of A.M picking up package from Mccolin, open it up and see pictures of twins meeting with a lawyer - the person who has helped them manipulate the system, also pictures of them murdering a man (the piece of evidence that went missing from their trial) - too good to be true. On plane - looking at picture of mother, finally there might be justice, plane landing, establishing shot of London, cut to inside shot of boat party, phone rings Miller steps outside to answer
• A.M: agent miller
• F: they're there. They’re at the party (shots of party, chaos)
• A.M: (looks around quickly phone still to her ear, panicked, eager to catch them)
• F: we've been tracking them since they were released, they were spotted leaving the building a few minutes ago
• A.M: (still looking around POV shot) okay 
• F: they were seen heading north up South-bank a few minutes ago - heading towards Waterloo, if they get on that train we lose them
• A.M: shit (hangs up phone starts to run down South-bank after them)
• Shots of them walking casually down South-bank (low angle shot of their feet) cut to fast paced shots of Miller running, dodging past people trying to catch them, shot of them arriving at Waterloo walking through, Miller not far behind, shot of them getting on train, Miller running onto platform just as train leaves, shot of train leaving, Miller out of breath hits wall out of frustration 
• *change in music* shots of Miller researching previous cases, flashbacks of person beaten up, Miller drinking, flicking through sheets, typing. 
• F: 68 cases, over 227 murders over the course of 18 years and the number of successful convictions - none. (SRS Miller and F sat in cafe/office/train) This isn't just about your family - they've murdered in Philadelphia, Sydney, Cardiff - they're killing on an international level.
• Cut to establishing shot of MI6 building
• A.M: look at these, this is what we've been waiting for, this is good evidence
• B: have you not seen the news? It's good but...(shakes head, looks speechless) it'll never be enough
• A.M: (angry, kicks something over as she leaves) 
• Out on the street bumps into one of the twins (flashback of shooting, gun going off) realise who he is, sees him again follows him, he meets with his brother, she spies on them from behind a wall, they drive off and see her in rear view mirror, try to follow them but lose them, angry, decides to take justice into her own hands
• At home she pulls out a briefcase from underneath a bed and pulls out her gun, clears it and places bullets down on the table, walking down the street see she’s holding a gun, pan up to her face as she holds Lawyer at gunpoint, cut to shots of lawyer picking up large sums of money from the twins
• A.M: how did you do it? How did you manipulate the jurors? 
• Down back alley ends up fighting with someone, seen sneaking into building to find files
• F: Miller, you need to stop...you're not well
• Looking at picture of Mum, seen visiting grave, unwell – obsessed with the case, taking pills, stressed, being shot at, angry at everyone, throwing stuff, throwing paper of table, fight with someone, Miller racing in her car 
• A.M: (dialogue over the top of montage) I can’t, I need justice

Planning: Film Diary: First Filming #3

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First Filming

Data: 21/10/15
Location: Chloe's sister's house (Fetcham)
Cast: Amy Knight and Rashmi Sen Thakuri

After School today we decided to film some scenes so we went to Chloe’s sisters house to shoot some scenes inside the house of Agent Miller researching about the Kingsley’s Brothers. We also shot fillers in e.g. garage scenes showing someone (me) getting beaten up which we will use as a flashback. We got most of the desired scenes and changed the camera angles as we had some extra time. We wanted more fight sequences however the camera had low battery.