our inspiration

our inspiration for this piece is the opening for se7en.

Possible Sequence Change

On the shoot me and luke discussed maybe removing the last section of the sequence which involved a conversation, leading to a struggle between the murderer and his female victim. We felt that we should focus more on the murderer preparing for his kill because we would have too much to fit into two minutes and still make sense. We then desided to think about a possible way to get around this problem without changing our idea again.

A possible way to get around this problem is to cut out the conversation between the killer and the victim and to just show him knocking at the door and maybe when she answers the door, he says her name and she replies with 'yes?' then he knocks her over and cuts to black with a scream played over the top.

I think this would be an effective way to get around this problem and it would also stop the scene from getting boring becuase there will be a sudden change of pace. If we left the conversation in, the majority of the two minutes will be very slow and the viewer might lose interest.

James

Key Possible Problems Related to our Group

1. Time wasting on shoot.
2. Returning equipment late.
3. Not knowing what we're going to shoot.
4. Transport problems.
5. Missing props/costumes.
6. Poor lighting.
7. Poor sound.
8. Continuity errors.
9. Not answering our phones.
10. Making excuses rather than getting the job done.

James

More Music

I have also been thinking about some songs we could use for the montage. I think this this song woud be ideal: Escape From Hellview. Maybe we could just use the intro but play it a few times for the montage because the lyrics suggest a horror rather than a thriller. Let me know what you think.

James

Costume

I think the serial killer should be dressed in a white shirt, black tie, black jacket and black trousers, kind of like the main characters in pulp fiction.

He will also be holding a briefcase so that he looks like a salesman.

James

music

thinking about the music for the first bit, i was thinking something high powered and dark by the prodigy would fit the bill.

a few things i''ve been thinking about are

Break and Enter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di_LQrQKPM0
spitfire, but without lyrics http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrmf283dSXw
baby's got a temper http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwuBUnAd89c
serial thrilla http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f8xz3FdTqY (maybe too obvious of the theme, as the lyrics "serial thrilla, serial killer")


we coul'd have something eerier, with just an echo-y piano, like the music in the truman show, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq-xuQgotbQ&feature=related

Scene list ahoy!

just typing up what james wrote down in today's lesson.

1] Maps + photos - puts X on map with a red biro
2] putting on tie
3] does up jacket to cover up bloodstain (slight humour)
4] puts knife, map and photo in briefcase
5] leaves room
6] shot on tube
7] shot from rear looking up at house, shot of polaroid and map in hand, puts back in briefcase

--cut to title, white or red on black--

sound bridge of door knocking

8] ECU of hand on door knocker, knocking again
9] shot of girl coming from kitchen with wine (or something else, dress codes yet to be decided)
10] shot another knock as she approaches hall, shouts "i'm coming"
11] shot of sillhouette of man through frosted glass on the window
12] shot from outside, ELS, High angle
13] shot from outside as she opens door,
14] cut to ots from inside, see his face, tracks in slowly over her shoulder as he starts his "sales pitch"
*OTS moving to CU*
15] conversation
16]close up of foot in door
17] fight


as probably obvious, 15-17 still need looking at.

i'm going to start the shot list up until the cut to title, and james will do after the cut to title, and we will combine the two lists to have a shot list that we can use as an edit plan.

Final Idea

Our fianl idea is going to about a serial killer who poses as a salesman as a way of getting to his victims.

The sequence will open with a montage effect of the man looking through a filing cabinet, flicking through loads of polariod pictures. He takes out a picture of a young woman with an address at the bottom of the polaroid. He then crosses off on a map the place where she lives. He then puts on a suit and picks up a briefcase which he puts his map and polaroid in. He then picks up a knife and puts it in the briefcase. There is then a shot of him on the tube looking calm. Then a shot of him lookign up at the house holding a map and the polaroid.

It then cuts to black with the title of the film. There is the sound of knocking on a door while still on the title screen. It then cuts to the door and the man knocks again. There is then a shot from inside the house with the woman from the polaroid coming out of the kitchen with a dressing gown and a glass of wine. As she approaches the hall there is another knock at the door. There is then a shot of a silloutte of a man, through the frosted glass of the door. She opens the door and he pretends to sell her something. She trys to get rid of him but he puts his foot in the door. She then threatens to call the police. He rams into the door and knocks her down. Then is then a shot of the red wine hitting the floor and there is a thud. It then cuts to black.

James & Luke

Music

After our lesson focused on music and sound, I have realised how important it is to get the music right. I think if our film is goign to be set in the 50s, we should have diegetic music, with jazz music playign in the background, maybe from a gramaphone, to help set the scene.

If the film is to be set in the modern day, we could use more modern music but completely instrumental as there will be talking over the top. The only problem with using modern music is that the film might be obvious that it was made by students.

James

Development of Ideas

I believe that the final idea we have at the moment is a bit complicated and a bit unbelievable. I think that having a guy believe it is the 50s when it is infact the year 2007 would be a bit hard to take in, in such a short opening sequence. I also don't know if the guy should be a buisiness man or a gangster, maybe more of a normal guy with a mental illness.

I think we will have to choose which direction to take this idea.

Either 1. The whole film is set in the 1950s so that we get a chance to focus on the mise-en-scene. Also the fact that mental illnesses werent as easily recognised in the 50s means we would be providing something that may not have existed in films previously, created in the 50s.

or 2. Have the film set in the modern day and not complicate things by having a confusing mix of time eras.

I (James) personally would prefer the first idea but we will need to think very clearly what the film would be about and what his mental illness will lead to later in the film. We will also need to suggest in the opening sequence what he would be capable of and deside whether he will be a good or evil character.

James

Idea mk. 3.1 (addition of a gun?)

The main character could say some things near the end of the conversation that are really chilling, and say something about having to pay, and then pick up a gun, and leave, which then shows the pill bottle, and the calendar.

the gun could be one of the out of timeperiod mise en scene items, as guns from now and then look different.

just an idea.

might be making it too complicated.

costume

i've just been google images-ing and have found a few good examples of possibly the kind of clothes that the main character wouild wear.

seeing as it is alot of images, i'll just hyperlink them, not embed them.


Three gangsters round a table
gangster hat
more gangsters round a table
even more gangsters around the table


they might not even look gangstery, but more businessy, but i think this is the look we would be going for.

Telephone and pill bottle

I think part of the enigma codes could be that there are one or two objects that would seem out of place in a 1950s room, and so i think we should get some of the mise en scene not quite historically accurate.

For instance the telephone. He would obviously want a phone with a dial, and wants one of thoseold bakerlite ones, but could just get the first one he sees, so instead of the older phone, he gets the newer model.

There is clearly a difference between these two phones.

This is also the case between the modern pill bottle and the 50s pill bottle.

Again, it is blatant to see which one is the '50s one, and which one is the modern one.

To get the mise en scene perfect we need the right amount of perfectly '50s objects, and suspiciously placed '07 objects.

The thing is, we need to get a sense of the fact this guy is mentally not quite all there, and has just ammassed a collection of '50s looking objects.

One of the objects that would definately have to be the "newer model" is the pill bottle, as they would have been recently prescribed.

One problem with this mismatch of periods, however, is if we go overboard, it won't look at all period, and it will be to instantly obvious that he is just wearing old clothes, so we can maybe only have one or two objects that he would just not be able to get hold of, for instance the pill bottle would have to be new. I think maybe the phone definately has to be old, as it is too central to the enigma, and we only really get to see the pill bottle at the end, just before it gets blatantly revealed that is 2007.

James & Luke

Idea mk. 3 (aka current final idea)

Our current final idea involves just one actor, and relies on mise en scene to tell the story more than the other ideas, but uses it in such a fab way. It is the mise en scene that reveals the story more than the gesture codes, or the script.

there is one central main character. dress code of 1950s gangster/businessman. i'm not too sure on the set dress of the room, but i think that it is mostly plain with one desk in the room. The desk has an old black telephone with a dial on it, and a notebook and a bottle of pills.

It is in black and white.

We see shots of the character from different angles, and shots of in the room, maybe closeups of the phone, or the reciever when he's talking into it.

he talks over the phone about some kind of business, something along the lines of "why weren't you there yesterday when you said you would" or "the money's in the briefcase?". Businessy things like that, but slightly crooked business things, with a slight menacing threatening tone to his voice. After he finishes talking, he walks out of the room, and we get a closeup of the pot of pills, in a modern pillbottle, and a closeup of a wire from the telephone, but it is not connected to anything, it just has a frayed end.

then there is a shot of a calender in the room, which says a 2007 date, and it fades from black and white into colour.

I am just thinking at the moment of how to impliment the credits and title into this, i'm sure we'll think of it soon enough.

Idea mk. 2

The idea evolved onto the next idea after discussion, which itself had adapted from an adaptation of my idea that steph and angela had, but James and i had some good idea evolution, and decided to break away as just a pair. We thought that in a group of us there would have been way too much trying to muscle in with creative control, especially because of the characters in the group.

the second idea is this.

There is a girl, waking up in bed with her boyfriend, we see her slightly hung over, and the camerawork and framing help to add to the disorientated feel that the girl is feeling, and makes the audience identify with her.

There are some quirky, slightly comical shots of the girl getting up. All the things that girls do when getting up in the morning, like putting on lippy, struggling to get on tight boots, struggling to fit into a pair of jeans that she could have sworn fit her in the shop, etc. From this we get to see that this girl is very ordinary, and is slightly quirky, on the borders of emo but not quite, with black thick rimmed glasses possibly.

ANyway, we get shots of her trying to get dressed, all in a slightly hung over tilted kind of way, maybe going to the bathroom to put on some makeup, then she comes into the bedroom where she tries to wake up her boyfriend, and is laughing and joking that he won't wake up, then poulls off the duvet, saying something like "wake up sleepyhead!" and there is a shot of his body lying in the bed with a bloodstain on the duvet and matress as if he has been stabbed horrifically, and there is a reaction shot of her screaming, and then cut to black.


out of this idea and our final idea, personally i (luke) like this one the most, but i definately agree with james with the fact that it would be definately too hard to do as a pair of boys, as we don't have enough of an insight into the female morning ritual. We would also have to rely too heavily on an other external actress, and it is often the acting that lowers the quality of the work. Also, this idea is too complicated, and we are sure that something simple and strong would be easier to make, and may also be more effective.

Idea mk. 1

The first idea i had was in my individual blog, which i'll just lift out for time save:
(link here)


Then, the idea evolved a little bit, which, again, i blogged:
(link here)


we decided to abandon these ideas, as they are way too complicated, and would require too much story to fit into a 2 minute sequence. This idea, however, evolved into our next idea.

Fresh New blog!

Wow..! I can smell the smell of a fresh new blog.

We've had a progression of ideas, which we'll blog soon.

Watch this space...!