Studio Idents - Research and Planning

This Ident had an instantly recognisable colour scheme - blue and gold - which gives it a familiar look and makes it appealing to me (as a point of interest, it has been modified for several films - black and white for Inception, blue-tinted for The Dark Knight. These I feel are interesting stylistic choices to throw off the viewer, which suggests their familiarity to the original colour scheme). The symbol is also very bold and recognisable. I feel that we should attempt to make an Ident with a similarly recognisable colour scheme for our studio logo.

This is a simple, bold and iconic studio logo which also has an powerful theme. This logo often draws me into films due to its own timelessness, so I feel that we should also attempt to make an eye-catching Ident, simple yet iconic.

Like the other Idents I have posted, the main colour scheme of the writing on this Ident is gold - unless we would like to give our studio Ident a more understated look, I feel that we should consider using gold. What I particularly liked about this was the use of spotlights, which is very eye catching.

This is a more understated logo which I imagine that our Ident would look more like. It is, however, as eye-catching and interesting as the other more prestigious Idents I have posted due to the bold font and recognisable logo. This Ident has been frequently used in films which have had it modified or have played music/sound over it. It is possible that we could do the same for our Ident if we were to have one similar to this.

For our Ident, I would like to design something similar to the Legendary Pictures logo. I do not feel that our Ident symbol - if any - should be overstated and large, in order for it to reflect the somewhat low-key nature of our film. Ideally, I would simply have text giving the name of our studio logo, though with a sleek animation to it which would also reflect the stylish and urban atmosphere of our film. Like the Idents I have researched, I would like to possibly have a gold font to our Ident in order to make it stand out, though have the font style itself fairly low-key, perhaps even like the Bank Gothic font we have chosen for the titles themselves.

Recce 1 and 2 - Comments

Our original plan for a recce, which involved taking the DLR from Canary Wharf to Deptford Bridge on the 11th of January and filming on the latter station did not work out at all. Upon boarding the DLR and setting up to film our first shots, we were told by a steward that we could not film on the DLR without permission which, unfortunately, we did not have. Furthermore, we were not allowed to film on the station which we had originally intended to.

After some discussion about where we could re-film our sequence, we decided that we would film the station sequence at Lewisham, the train scene on the overland service and the alleyway sequence in it's original location - near Deptford Bridge station. However, when we began shooting on the overland train, it became apparent to us that filming on this train would be equally problematic, as there was very little space to film and a fair amount of co-passengers. At this point, we decided that we would have to scrap the idea of filming the first half of the opening on the train and would film at another location.

We decided on filming the first half of the opening on London Bridge, as it had a modern, industrial feeling, similar to the one we hoped to achieve by filming near Canary Wharf. We found that we could transpose the narrative from a train to the bridge easily, with very few changes - the most notable ones being shots of the surroundings of London Bridge to establish the more vast location rather than shots of the train moving and arriving at the different stations. The second half takes place in a river walk rather than a station, which has many interesting paths and staircases that would make good locations. The main problems that we will need to iron out include lighting and sound. Many of our low angle shots or close ups often result in the actors being silhouetted by the natural lights. This will mean that we will have to strongly light our actors in the actual shooting. We are also intending to use a microphone for both dialogue scenes in the opening. As a point of note, we also hope to film the final alleyway scene in a car park - however, the lights in this particular car park only seem to turn on after approximately 4:45, and our recce footage of that location, which we filmed before the lights were turned on, was particularly grainy. We may consider waiting until the lights have turned on to film in that location so as to avoid the grainy effect.

Narrative for Thriller Opening

Screams are heard over a black screen, they get louder and bridge into the screeching of the DLR on the tracks. A man is sleeping inside one of the carriages, in the third row from the front. He wakes up and exchanges a few ambiguous words with an unseen stranger sitting next to him. This second character is never shown fully and remains a mysterious figure for the audience. The first character turns to look out of the window, and when he looks back, the man is gone. The train doors shut and the second character is shown leaving the train. The first character notices a book that has been left on the seat next to him by the mysterious man. He opens it and it contains a piece of paper with the name of the station where he presumes he is supposed to get off, consequently it is the one approaching. He exits the train and asks a man on the platform for the time, who replies ‘yeah, you’re late, red hat’ suggesting he isn’t a stranger and is fully aware about what is going to happen. The first character looks around the platform, and turns back to the man, who is already gone. He then notices three men leaving the station, one of which is wearing a red arsenal hat. He also notices a young girl, mid-teens, wearing a red hat, leaving the station. He takes his chances and decides to follow her. She doesn’t realise and walks on; it is getting darker by the minute. She crosses a dark street and the man drags her down an alley. The screams from the beginning are played again, and the screen fades to black.

Storyboard

Order of Shooting

1. Shot 5
2. Shot 2
3. Shot 4
4. Shot 3
5. Shot 8
6. Shot 9
7. Shot 12
8. Shot 10
9. Shot 11
10. Shot 13
11. Shot 14
12. Shot 15
13. Shot 16
14. Shot 6
15. Shot 7
16. Shot 17
17. Shot 18
18. Shot 19
19. Shot 20
20. Shot 21
21. Shot 22
22. Shot 24
23. Shot 23
24. Shot 25
25. Shot 26
26. Shot 28
27. Shot 29
28. Shot 27
29. Shot 30

The shot labeled 1 should be filmed first, as it contains the area surrounding the DLR journey. The shots numbered 2 to 12 should then be filmed together as they take place on the DLR itself. Shots 13 to 16 should also be filmed together as they occur on the platform. The rest of the shots, with the exception of the ones numbered 22 and 23, should then be filmed in chronological order.

Cast

The character of the young teenage girl will be played by Alice Alphonse. We have chosen her because we believe that she has the most physical resemblance to the character we imagined in our heads

For the role of the murderer we have chosen Callum as we believe he could portray his character very well.

For the role of the man on the platform, we have chosen Gus Grant, due to the fact that he will physically resemble the character we had in mind a lot.

For the part of the mysterious man on the train, we have chosen Ollie Brenmann because he has acting experience with roles such as this one.

Locaiton Plan

This is the interior of the kind of DLR train that we will be filming the first half of our opening on. We will position the character on the third seat away from the front of the carriage as it would mean that we can get the views out of the front windows of the DLR we wish to have while still having the character far back enough from the camera to achieve our wide angle shots. We intend to take the train at around twilight, as this would look cinematic and impressive for our film.

This is the kind of view we would like to have when we see out of the windows - a few of our shots may be from the point of view of Frank, who is looking out at this location. I feel that Canary Wharf is a particularly impressive area and so I would like to have shots of it within our film at around twilight, when the characters will be on the DLR.

Here is the Deptford Bridge station, where Frank will get off and meet the suited man. I imagine the suited man to sit on one of the benches on the left side of this station, and that Frank will meet him here. I imagine that the young girl will be standing near the stairswhich are at the far end of the left hand side of this station, and that Frank will begin following her there.

These are the stairs which Frank will follow the young girl down. I would imagine that by this time, it would be almost dark. However, the station is well lit, meaning that this should not be much of a problem - if we do not feel the natural lighting is adequate, then we should be able to use some of our own lights.

This is where the station meets Deptford. On the right of this photo, there is a fence which runs adjacent to a river walk where Frank will follow the young girl.

This is the part of Ravensbourne River where I imagine Frank will kill the girl. I originally imagined it to be in an alley, though this location seems to be more eerie and ominious, and in my opinion would work better in the film. The two characters should arrive on the left hand side of the photo, where he will kill her for the film.

Shooting Schedule

• We will be meeting at 3pm outside Canary Wharf Station.
• Christoph is responsible for collecting the equipment from school and bringing it to location on Saturday.
• We will be filming our piece in chronological order, as the scenes take place at different times of evening, and therefore natural light will change as the piece progresses.
• If it is raining we will film regardless, but take necessary precautions to protect the equipment.
• I envisage our filming time to last around 2 to 3 hours, but our reccee to last slightly longer, to ensure we are prepared.
• Every crew member has the telephone numbers of both other crew member and the cast members, which can be used in the event of an accident or tardiness.
• In the event of illness or emergency unavailability of a cast member, we will proceed to film the scenes which they are not in, and either find a suitable replacement, or film their scenes at a later date. 
• In the event of illness or emergency unavailability of a crew member, the other crew members will proceed to film the piece regardless.