Evaluation of the Roughcut

There are a few obvious problems with our rough cut. the most clear one is that there is no sound. There is no music, or the monologue which is essential to the plot of the opening. We also need to make all of the titles and perfect the font, size, effects and timing of them. We have a list of the titles and need to make them. We have also made a Soundtrack and it will be added to the final cut. We need to finish writing the monologue and need to record it, the put it onto Final Cut Express and put it onto the Soundtrack. We will then need to prefect everything as much as we can.

Credit List

The following credits are in Chronological order:

1. Twinstone Studios Presents (against black, blurry at first fade out)
   
2. A Partydawg Production (Against Black Fade in across the screen, fade out)
3. Derek van de Ven
4. Chris Cooper
5. Jennifer Garner
   
6. With Morgan Freeman
7. Directed by Christopher Ramsden
8. Assisted by Adam Taylor-Creek, Tom Winter and Derek van de Ven
9. Produced by Tom Winter, Adam Taylor-Creek, Derek van de Ven and Christopher Ramsden
10. Screenplay by Jean-Luc Baptiste
    
11. Sound editor Adam Taylor Creek
    
12. Assisted by Derek van de Ven
13. Executive Producer Jan Itor
14. Grim Reality
    

Evaluation of Filming

There was one very obvious thing that went wrong with our filming, We assumed that we would be allowed to film on site at Addenbrooke's, However, 10 to 15 minutes into our filming someone came and told us that as we had not got permission we had to leave immiedietly and record over everything we had filmed. Next time we need to make sure we have permission as it was a good location. After that we came back to School to film and found a location that was ok, but it was not ideal, but we had no choice due to time. We were able to get suitable footage, which could be better however. I feel it is obvious that it was very rushed. Next time we simply need to be better organized. The filming at my house took a little longer that i first anticipated, but I was still able to get a lot of footage to work with. There were only a couple of hitches, my cameraman was too short for the camera, but that was easily sorted, setting up the scenes needed more thinking than I thought it would, and the camera ran out of battery and it took a while to work out how to plug it into the wall. Overall I thought it was stressfull but successful, need better organization.

Shot List

Location 1: Day Filming - Addenbrooke's Car Park

Shot 1 - Jeff Grim (main character) is smoking a cigarette. We see only his hand tapping the cigarette. For this we need a fake cigarette or real unlit cigarette. We need only Derek to act, as he plays Jeff. We obviously need the camera and need to make sure there is nothing obstructing the shot. We only see Jeff's hand, so Derek will need to have his white shirt and his winter jacket.

Shot 2 - Jeff Grim takes a drag on his cigarette, but as Derek does not wish to really smoke, if necessary we should adjust the camera angle so that we do not see him put the cigarette in his mouth, but it looks like he is, half of his face will be in view. We will need Derek to be in full costume , this is suit, black tie, black shoes and winter coat. There should be no background noise, and we need to make sure that there is nobody in the way of our shots. we will need the camera, tripod and fake cigarette.

Shot 3 - Here Jeff stubs out the cigarette with his foot. For this we will have to only have the black trousers, coat and black shoes.

shot 4 - Here Jeff leaves the scene, walking slowly, being filmed from behind, from a low angle to make Jeff seem more powerful. Derek will need to be in full costume (suit, black shoes, winter jacket) The setting is still the Addenbrooke's car park.

shots 5-7 is Jeff walking around in the car park, as the whole group has not seen the setting we will decide on what is best to do at the time. These shots will last a couple of seconds.

shot 8 - This shot will be of Jeff cocking his gun . The audience will only see him holding the gun down and the n cocking it. The audience will see most of his body so Derek will need to be his costume. We will obviously need Chris's fake pistol.

There should be a shot of Jeff Grim standing still, with a blank expression. In the editing room we will make this look better with effects.





Location 2: Night Filming - Derek's house (a.k.a Partydawg's crib)


shot 1 - All these shots will be of Jeff Grim discovering mysterious things in his house. The first one will be of him discovering the TV on, with no one around = and the TV is on static, or a news programme about a murder. Jeff will be in his suit, and there should be little lighting for a spooky effect.

shot two - This shot will be of Jeff discovering a light turned on in a room where the surrounding rooms have no lights turned on. Jeff will need to be in full costume, but adjusted slightly, as this is a flashback, but the style should be the same.

shot three - This shot will be of Jeff walking into a room discovering a CD playing depressing music on it (e.g. Gregorian chant). Jeff will take a look around, walk up the the CD player and turn it off. Jeff will need the same costume as shot two. The lighting should be dark.

shot four - This shot will be of Jeff Grim discovering a window in a room open wide with the curtain flappping. Derek will need to be in full costume for this. The Lighting should be as dark as possible.

shot five - This shot will be of Jeff discovering a trail of blood leading to the back door. He then hears a distant scream and realizes that his family has been taken.

Prop and Costume list

Props

• unlit cigarette
• fake gun

Costume

• White Shirt
• Black Tie
• Black Trousers
• Black shoes
• Black Trench Coat
  

Location Infomation

Our First location will be a car park at Addenbrooke's. We feel this is a desolate looking location and it will be easy to film in. We will film all the daylight footage there. The desolate location should work with our character's personality. We do not know if we need permission to shoot there, due to time we will have to hope, if we do and get thrown off we will film it at school, for example on the basketball courts or outside the gym, or on the back field.
Our second location is Derek's house. all the nighttime footage will be there. Whilst it is not a desolate location, it is easy to make it look spooky at night. We think it may also show that our character had a family before he searched for Gangs.

Storyboard Animatic

More Thoughts

We have changed our idea, instead of one man discovering things in his house, he is walking around a "desolate landscape" reminiscing about things in his life that he should have done or gained. The main source of communication with the audience is not through sight, but sound. There will be a running monologue, where the main character, Jeff Grim talks. He will be dressed in black trousers, white shirt and tie, black shoes, black suit jacket and a trench coat.
The soundtrack will be mysterious,using a lot of synth, dark instruments, a little piano and various other instruments. There will be no clear beat, as we feel that will ruin the mystery of the sequence.

Our Preliminary Task

Here is the preliminary task for Derek, Chris and Tom.

Idea Summary

After discussing our ideas the group came to agree on a few ideas which will be included in our project. We came to the conclusion that our sequence would be a mixture of our protagonist walking and clips of an event from his past, we have decided to mute our footage and will be putting a monologue and music over the video.

After sharing our idea with the rest of the group it was criticized for being more action than thriller. Although our idea for a narrative may seem like an action film, it will be the way that it is presented that will cement it as a thriller.

My first idea for plot

My opening shot would be a man coming home after work to a house with odd lights on, by this, I mean dark rooms surrounding a room with one light on. The garage should be three quarters open, and the front door unlocked. As he walks in he can smell dinner, and walks into the kitchen expecting to see his wife, but all he sees is the table fully set, except for for the cups, which are on the counter, one cracked. he then walks around the house, puzzled by the lights, and sees only a couple of odd items on the floor (such as a sweater, purse, phone etc). He then notices a tap was left running, with a toothbrush with toothpaste by it. He also goes into the living room where the T.V has been left on, and his wife's glasses are on the couch next to it. He then hears a scream from the kitchen and runs toward it. Once there he sees an open door, moving forward and backwards, and an open window, with the curtain flapping and the wind moving slightly as well. after three seconds the phone rings.

Welcome

My first thoughts of "Welcome" before even looking at the detail of shots etc was that it looks like a really watchable film which i think is important. Another feature of the opening scene i thought was good was the soundtrack. The soundtrack is crucial to buliding tension in those first few shots which they managed to do successfully from my point of view. The film also contained most of the shot types neccersary to add diversity to your film. Establishing shot, close-up shot, match on action shot etc. A slight criticism i would add about the filming is that I think the lighting could have been made better. I know they wanted to create a tense thriller like atmospere but i just think it was a bit unclear and sometimes hard to establish what was going on. Overall I rate the film well and give it 53/60

Max Bromley