The things to fix are our storyboard and script. We did this in the same class after we were rejected. We added an extra 6 shots to our storyboard and added 3 lines to our script. This would reduce the times of the other shots, which was the main concern, as our shots were around 10 seconds each. The script was also revised for the existing scenes, to make it more smooth to read and act with.
Doing it in class was definitely a bonus. It allowed us to work more efficiently, and voice our ideas while giving criticisms and we had access to the document at the same time. When finished, I had taken a picture of the documents with my phone and sent it to my teammate through Outlook, allowing him to copy and paste the improved documents straight into the new portfolio.
Our production proposal was rejected. This is because of the storyboard and script. The storyboard should have been longer while the script was arranged strangely. We were given a chance to redo our mistakes. This will be fixed by us in a timely fashion. Actually we are working on it in the same class. This rejection will let us improve our craft and will allow for a better production in the end. The news was given on 2/26.
After me and my teammate finished our documents, I had to compile them together into a single word document, per the teacher's request. This was easier said than done, as I had finished my documents earlier so I had to wait for my teammate to finish it, as I could not turn it in without his documents. We still got it in on time, barely. These documents were ordered in the order of mine first, then my teammate's.
Finally, the call sheet and casting report are left, arguably the best for last, as this sets the basis for our actual production setting and our actor. We will be using one actor, one of my teammates friends, to play the MC. This casting report helps us with on scene shooting.
Call Sheet- This sheet helps note out what we need on the shooting day, things such as the specific actors who will be present (we only have one), the costumes/outfit for that shooting day, special props, and the equipment needed to shoot. This helps keep it organized and not just by word of mouth.
Call Sheet, Class Document
Casting Report- Helps to justify the actor choices, what do they have that we need. Also helps note the contact information for the actors. Also, I found that it is useful to gauge their availability, we found it correlates with ours, sometime in the weekend.
Continuing with the portfolio, there is still the shot list, genre statement, call sheet, and casting report to do. However, on a good note, these are significantly shorter than the storyboard and script, so it was good to get those out of the way first.
Shot List- The shot list was honestly just the storyboard but without the visuals, so it took way less time, though, it still helps with the production by giving a quick overview of the shots we will take. This one only took roughly 20 minutes.
Camera Shot List, Class Document
Genre Statement- This one was just clarifying what our genre will be for our opening will be. Since we decided this since the first day, this was a breeze to do and it gave me further insight on the genre when I did this document, which will aid us in our production to stick to our genre. The genre we picked was horror. This was chosen over our next runner up, thriller. Thrillers take too long to build up suspense and we want to get straight to the point.
Our production portfolio is underway and we were both assigned specific documents we have to complete to be able to even begin filming. I had 6 documents while my teammate had 3. This difference is because his job will come later on as he is editor and sound designer, while I am the director and the cinematographer. The documents I was assigned were the script, storyboard, shot list, genre statement, call sheet, and the casting report.
Script- The script was straightforward as it had 2 columns. One for audio and one for visual. However, the story must be mutually decided by team members. We decided to do this in class in order to avoid potential instances outside of school. The script took around 1.5 hours to complete. I will not post the completed one in order to maintain privacy for me and my teammate, but here is the format we were recommended to use.
AVS Script, Class Document
Storyboard- This document took considerably longer to do. It took me around 3 hours give or take. It is a collection of the shots we plan to take, drawn out and meticulously planned. There should be multiple pages to the storyboard. We completed 3 pages for it, it is organized by scenes and shots, and also specifies the shot size for the given shot. This will help us while filming, as we can just refer to the storyboard for how we should shoot our opening.
Production Storyboard, Class document
These documents lay the ground work for what our opening will be and how it will be carried out, however these are just the first two from my part.
Director will be my focused role in the group, while my sub-role is cinematographer, our group is fairly easy to direct. Since there is only one other person, and we have already decided on someone who can be our actor. The main thing is getting our documents together for the portfolio greenlight. This determines if our teacher lets us film or not. It is a total collection of 10 documents which need to be completed to even start production. Since we are 2 members, we each do 5 of them. They correspond to our roles. The documents take an average of 30 minutes to 2 hours at the highest. I have to then collect all of our group's documents and put all of them into one file. Most likely a word document where I will just paste all images of completed sections. This is the main priority as director, organizing the portfolio greenlight, so we can begin filming and blogging what we do further on. I have already begun some of the documents. Pictured will be all of the ones that need to be completed.
Following the main character calling the police, it will cut to a police questioning, showing the main character escaped from the original setting. During this questioning. The police will ask questions about the incident which will be answered truthfully by the main character. There will be around 3-5 questions. However, he is not sure if the person in the trunk is alive. After those, since the crimes match up with other recent ones, they will show a sketch of the killer and ask the main character if that was the one involved. The main character will look shocked and confirm that indeed, that is the person that chased him and had a person in his car. This will lead to some further questioning and during that, the film opening will cut.
Since the film should end randomly, we chose this as the perfect spot to do it.
Completed Storyline Draft made by me, 15 Feb. 2024
Beginning: Our story will begin in a parking lot where the main character will be approached by the killer. The reason for him being approached is because he wants him to help with a tire issue. The pair will casually talk before the killer requests him to retrieve something from the trunk. When the main character approaches the trunk, he will hear knocking and yelling from inside the trunk which will frighten him. At the same time the killer will charge him to try to subdue him.
Continued: The killer will not be successful and a chase scene will follow until the main character eventually runs out of his sight and hides behind a building. While he is hiding, he will call 911 and describe the entire situation to the operator, the killer will not be in sight during this, but we know he is looking for the main character.
This will cut to a police interrogation/information scene. Location already pre-scouted for these scenes.
We are now deciding the main setting where we will shoot the film opening. Writing it out is a good way to state all possible places and their characteristics. So that is what we did, we made a Possible Locations chart with 4 possible locations. The ones we chose were Local Park, Abandoned Building, Library, and the Beach. The first to go was abandoned building. It was way too dangerous, and we did not choose it for that, as we did not want to be attacked mid production. Another easy one to go is the library. The library will not work out as there is no way we can take good quality diegetic sound as libraries are always quiet and enforce that. Also, it requires a membership.
It is now between Local Park and Beach. They are both free and have a lot of open space. The beach always has a lot of people, but this can be fixed by going at night. The park is always decently empty with at most 5 people there. The beach is really far away from us meanwhile there is at least 3 parks in walking distance. We can also film in multiple parks without the difference being noticed. This is why we have picked public parks as our main setting.
"Possible Locations" Chart Made in Class, 9 Feb. 2024
We have decided to watch 3 openings of films to grasp an idea of how films start and see how we can apply that to our project. The 3 that we chose all come from different genres, to see how that affects the openings of the films. The films that were chosen were The Killer, 2023, Napoleon, 2023, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2, 2022. The films we chose are all recent as to avoid any old media trends that could interrupt our film. I will be writing what I see while viewing these introductions.
The Killer: Somewhat of a mystery as to where the character is at. The camera pans over the character but does not show his face until later. It leaves us unsure if this is the main character or not. The character's voice is non-diegetic and gives oversight while I'm assuming the same character sits in a room looking out of a window. The character's hearing of the Smith's song is also played into the audio like we are the character hearing the music.
Flix Vybz, "The Killer (2023) - HD Opening Scene" YouTube, 10 Nov. 2023
Napoleon: This opening gives us background through text which underlines what is going on in France at the moment in history. Also shows royalty panicking which creates some suspense. Also tells the name of main actors in title cards. This movie begins with the execution of Marie Antoinette, who was a part of the royal family.
PaPa Strudl, "Napoleon 2023 - Opening Scene (HD Clip) YouTube, 13 Jan. 2024
Sonic the Hedgehog 2: Starts off with the Paramount intro but sonic rings instead of stars. Then shows the producers and finally begins with an establishing shot in the woods somewhere. Tails then jumps out of a portal and introduces he found somebody. Most likely referring to Sonic. The camera stays in position while Tails flies away out of the woods in seconds. This position shows the immense speed at which tails is going.
Clips N Stuff, "Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - (First 3 Minutes)...YouTube, 3 Apr. 2022
Using what we learned from these videos we can apply that to our film and make it work.
We have come to our conclusion by elimination. The first to go would be romance. Our crew wouldn't feel comfortable doing that so that was an easy out. The other 2 that followed suit would be musical and sci-fi. Those both would require a sizeable budget and musical creativity to pull off. Also making the lore for sci-fi would be pointless for the first 2 minutes. Some others that fell out were action and comedy. Action too requires quite a bit of budget and comedy you are never sure how the audience will react, so we would not like to take that risk. Documentaries would be pointless as the first 2 minutes would cover nothing and probably not even reveal the genre. This leaves thriller and horror as the final two.
Deciding between the final two was tough, as they were quite similar in style and both could work considerably well for our group. Our deciding factor though, was that thrillers always build and build anticipation until the thrill finally happens later on. This cannot be well portrayed in a 2 minute timespan. Horror though, the villain can be introduced from the start and those movies usually get straight to the point. This leaves one clear winner, horror.
Self-made graph of Horror vs. Thriller genre, 8 Feb. 2024
For deciding our genre, (arguably the most deciding factor of our film opening), we have decided to make a chart so that it is easier to clump together our ideas. It is arranged in a pro and con fashion which helps weigh the options against each other better. Before we made this chart, we had no clue what our genre or story would be. But, after getting our genre, the story will be easier to piece together. This chart did not take us long and saved us time if we would just sit there and aimlessly brainstorm what we would do.
Genre Chart made in class by our group 7 Feb. 2024
Since we have only 2 members and there are 4 roles, we must both take 2 roles. At first, I had the cinematographer and sound designer roles while my group member had director and editor. This did not work as the roles were better switched around. This is what we did the following day. I now had director and cinematographer while my group member had sound designer and editor. This helps better separate our roles to distinctive parts of production. This could also help my group member during production as he can act in the film. Through this it was learnt that roles should work with each other before they cause issues for the group as a whole.
Having only 2 people greatly limits our group. It means we both have to take 2 roles out of the 4, while only focusing on one of them for this. However, it will not be greatly difficult as there is a multitude of equipment provided to us by our teacher. Also peer review from classmates will help greatly.
4 Roles needed for production, taken from a previous assignment
