Deptford Bridge + DLR Photos

These pictures were taken of the cityscapes surrounding the DLR. It is easy to see how they would look impressively cinematic in our film, especially at night time when we would be able to capture the lighting and reflection of the buildings.

These are all pictures of the DLR station. It seems to have a good view over the streets in Deptford, which we may be able to use to add impressive aesthetics to our film.

Though the stairs of the station will not take up much of the film, these pictures demonstrate how it is an impressive, cinematic location and could make the film more visually thrilling, especially when it is darker and there are artificial lights.

British Film Companies Research

BBC Films produce and co-produce around 7 or 8 films a year. Previous projects include Eastern Promises (2007), a British thriller about the secrets surrounding a Russian mob family, and Brighton Rock (2010), another British thriller about small-town gang violence. And more recently, We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011), a psychological thriller based on the novel by Lionel Shriver, and The Awakening(2011), a World War I thriller depicting a woman who is haunted by a child ghost.
BBC Films aims to showcase the best of British talent and British independant films. They commit themselves to finding and developing new talent.
I think they would be a good company to produce our thriller, as we are still fairly new to the process and they could help bring publicity to our film as they already so well established in the production industry. Their films also tend to be low to mid budgeted, and I believe our film falls comfortably into that bracket. Although they don't limit themselves to thrillers, they seem to specialise in them, therefore they would have the capacity, resources, and expertise to produce our film, as it will be a thriller.

Film4 don't appear to made a lot of thrillers but have made many dramas so I will look at those as well.
One of the thrillers that Film4 have made is Dead Man's Shoes, a psychological thriller starring Paddy Considine and directed by Shane Meadows (who went on to direct This is England). It had a very small budget - £723,000 and was all shot in England. Although it seems a bit darker than our film and is rated an 18, it seems similar to to our film in some ways and thus I think Film4 could be a good company to produce our film.
Film4 also made the drama This is England which had a medium budget of £1,500,000. It was all filmed in England, although not in London where our film will be filmed. It did well in the box office, grossing $8,176,544.
Clearly Film4 specialise in films that are low-mid budget and are not averse to thrillers. I think they would do a good job with our film if they were to produce it and that they would be a strong choice if we were to look for a production company.

Film London are a film and television production company who's credits mainly include low budget British films such as Shifty. They have also been involved in the production of films such as My Week With Marylin, a popular Oscar contender, and Is Anybody There?, starring Michael Caine. Aside from being involved in films as producers, Film London also offer resources to aspiring or independent film makers. They can offer application or permission forms for directors to film in certain parts of London and help independent film makers with advice on and what to film in London.

We would most likely aim for this production company as many of it's resources would most likely be of use to us. Half of our film is set on the Docklands Light Railway and the stations surrounding it, meaning that we would be able to use Film London to secure permission to film on it. Furthermore, some of the films it has produced seem to be of a similar budget and style to the one we are currently making, meaning it would be a useful production company for our film.

We have chosen BBC Films in association with Film London and another independent company of ours to produce our film. This is because we feel that BBC Films will give us the right production budget and value, while Film London will aid us with filming in areas of London.

The French Connection (1971)

The French Connection is a police thriller based on true events, directed by William Friedkin and written by Ernest Tidyman, starring Gene Hackman. The two production companies involved in The French Connection were Schine-Moore Productions and D'Antoni Productions. Both production companies were only involved in the production of this film, though it's distributor, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, is highly renowned, having been involved in many big budget films year in year out.

Bullitt (1968)

Bullitt is a police thriller directed by Peter Yates and written by Alan Trustman and Harry Kleiner, starring Steve McQueen. The two production companies involved were Warner Brothers/Seven Arts and  Solar Productions. The Warner Brothers/Seven Arts partnership stopped producing films in 1970, though in it's time it made some reasonably popular and critically acclaimed films such as Cool Hand Luke and The Green Berets - all these films notably star popular leading actors. Solar Productions was solely involved in the films of Steve McQueen, including The Thomas Crown Affair and The Getaway.

The Long Good Friday (1980)

The Long Good Friday is a crime film directed by John Mackenzie and written by Barrie Keeffe, starring Bob Hoskyns. The three production companies involved in the film were British Lion Film Corporation, Calendar Productions and HandMade Films. British Lion Film Corporation has mainly been involved in independent projects, while Calendar Productions was solely involved in the production of The Long Good Friday. HandMade Films has also largely been involved in independent projects, though it produced the highly popular Withnail & I.

Thriller - Definition

A thriller is a genre of literature and film which is based around evoking an atmosphere of suspense, fear and tension. We are attempting to achieve the effect which most thrillers have by making a story which is based around danger, being the story of an assassin, and introducing tension and surprises from the story's beginning, through using ambiguous screams heard over the opening titles.

November 24th/22nd Production Meeting

Tuesday - progress was reasonably slow, as the majority of the lesson was based around completing the shot list for the film. We completed around half of the shot list by the end of the lesson and began re-drawing the storyboards of the opening shots.

Thursday - we finished the shot list at the very beginning of the lesson and began working on the finalised storyboards for the entire film. During the second half of the lesson, we began to discuss specific films and studios which we felt would be similar to ours. Films brought up included The French Connection and Blue Velvet.

DLR - Reccy 1

Having taken the DLR route (through Canary Wharf) which is where we intend to film our sequence, I now have a better idea of what to expect. The DLR itself was not monumentally busy, meaning it should be easy enough to film on board the train. However, we may not be able to achieve our desired effect of having the train empty unless we go later at night, when the line is presumably emptier than it was in the afternoon, as there will be no difference in the light (now that the nights are earlier). The stations themselves are also not particularly busy, and there are some particularly cinematic locations surrounding the DLR such as Canary Wharf, which I have taken a few shots of with my camera to gain an understanding of what filming will be like. The video can be found through this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3jQH4jp-Xs

Shot List - Table

Number	Cut	Type	Visual Content	Sound		Colour	Time			Actors	Drawn By
1	-	-	Black screen	Muffled sounds, then a sharp scream		Black	5 seconds			-
2	Quick cut	CU on face	Main character wakes up on DLR, looks to his side as other man speaks	Dialogue ‘You alright mate?’		High key – DLR lights	6 seconds			-
3	Straight cut	MS on both characters from behind	Both characters seen from behind, partially obscured by seats	Dialogue ‘Yeah I’m fine… long day’		High Key – DLR lights	4 seconds			-
4	Straight cut	Revert back to shot 2	Character looks back out of window	Diegetic		High key – DLR lights	3 seconds			-
5	Straight cut	Long shot	Canary wharf +surrounding buildings	Diegetic		Low key – night time, with ambient lights	3 seconds			-
6	Straight cut	Revert back to shot 4	Second character has gone	Diegetic		High key – DLR lights	2 seconds			-
7	Straight cut	Wide shot	Empty carriage, apart from main character	Diegetic – train sounds	High key – DLR lights			4 seconds	-
8	Straight cut	Revert back to shot 3	Character looks down to seat	Diegetic	High key – DLR lights			2 seconds	-
9	Straight cut	High angle, book on chair	‘Heart of Darkness’ by Joseph Conrad	Diegetic	High key – DLR lights			2 seconds	-
10	Straight cut	Low angle of main character	He looks up from book at closing doors	‘Stand clear of the doors’	High key – DLR lights			4 seconds
11	Straight cut	Wide angle of DLR	DLR leaves platform	Train begins to start up and leaves	Low key – ambient lights of station			6 seconds	-