The Handler- rough copy

Foley sounds that I recorded

Shooting Scheduled

Date	Shooting	Duration
4th of December	Photo shoot	60mins
9th of December 4:00pm-6:30pm	Filming inside shots because it will too dark	180mins
14th of December 2:30pm-5:00pm	Filming outside shot because we can get good light and we can re-film the shots that didn't turn out that great on monday	180mins

Script for The Handler

FADE IN

BLACK SCREEN

All you hear is a door slamming, we hear it as though it’s far away and the titles will start to appear.

INT. The HOUSE- DAY

CLOSE UP on a phone where the phone receives a text message and makes a BLEEP noise, when we see the message pop up saying

“Just took Lily to school have a great day darling,”

TENSE music starts to play

CLOSE UP of a woman placing her feet down from waking up in her bed and starts to walk towards here drawers. Pulls out her draw and there is a gun hiding in between her clothes.

EXT. OUTSIDE THE HOUSE- DAY

MID SHOT of the woman putting her top on, from the outside looking in, but a little bit blurry.

INT. The HOUSE- DAY

CLOSE UP of the woman’s hand sliding down the banister. Then as she walks past the camera focuses onto the picture frames hanging on the wall, of her and her family.

CLOSE UP of the woman tying up her shoes laces getting ready to go for a jog. After match on action will be used when she walks out the door.

EXT. THE STREET- DAY

LONG SHOT. The woman runs up the street sorting out her watch.

A person also runs past her but the woman looks nervous so crosses the street.

A man watering his garden stares at her, so she runs faster away.

She drops her watch

CLOSE UP of a manly hand picking it up from the ground. We only see a silhouette of the man giving the woman back her watch, then him turning and walking away. 

Title name comes up.

Research on what pictures to use

Overall from asking a random selected people, which three pictures makes the actors actually look like a family. The three that were the most popular were 1, 2 and 10. To make out movie opening more believable I needed pictures of the family hanging up on the wall and the three that were the most popular, I will use them so it's the public view on what looks better so I have a bigger chance of getting it right.  

Titles Timeline

Foley sounds we need to research

Door Slamming-

 

Phone message-


Footsteps-



Draws opening and closing-

Titles that we are using in the opening

Megan squires

Ross Palmer

Tom Todd

Bryony Umfreville

John Umfreville

PRODUCERS- Beth Adams

-          Dan Brady

-          Jack Lemon

-          Caroline Flanagan

CASTING BY- Ryan Umfreville

EDITING BY- Kayleigh Lomas

MAKEUP- Nicole D’Mello

COSTUME- Mollie McKechnie

Executive producer- Ryan Arnold

-          Ashleigh Hunt

-          Hayley Mcfadyen

-          Chloe Jones

Emily Lewis

Caroline Lomas

Darcy Barnes

Director- Kayleigh Umfreville

-          Ryan Lomas 

Shot List- The Handler

Movie Storyboard The Handler

Storyboard: The Handler

Research on Costume

This is what I want the main character to be wearing for the opening scene because, it’s something you would wear everyday if you are going for a run and that’s what the character will be doing during the opening scene.  This will be easy to get as most people already own a pair of jogging bottoms and a casual jumper they can through on.

Research on Makeup

The makeup that I wanted for the opening film would be simple and natural, because I wanted the audience to see the real character, not the character with make up on but just her. Hopefully by doing this the audience will get to know the main character and see who she is without having any more detail of her personality. This will be easy to do because all the actor will need is some mascara and they will look like I want them to.

When the main character is called back into the field she will become who she was. This means that the makeup will get darker to make her look more mysterious and see her fit into the spy character. From having dark eyes this will totally juxtapose from what she looked like in the opening so the audience can see the characters progression. This will be a little harder to do as I do not know how to do this. This means that I will have to watch tutorials on how to get the actors eyes like this.

Research on location

This would be a possible location for my film opening because, ours is about a ex-spy. By having her live in quite a rural place will show that she left because she wanted to settle down and wanted a family because it’s nothing like what she had to deal with in the city. Also by having it in quite a calm place it shows she wants to let go of the past and move on but also she is trying to make it hard for people who she has caught to find her. Personally I think by having it in a ordinary home it will make the opening realistic and more relate able, so as the film goes on hopefully the audience will connect with the character more. This would be easy to film here because I can get to it easily and I do not have to pay to use it and I can re decorate it to the way I want it to look like.

Another possible location for my film opening is London because; this is where most of the action will happen. London is always busy and it’s exciting. This will make our film opening realistic because the plot line of our story will fit in and it will look like this would actually happen.The only problem with filming in London is that it would be very expensive to get there and if I need to re-due any of our shots then I will have to pay a lot of money just to get there, also because it’s so busy it will be hard to get good shots of the action.

Research on Lighting

From looking at other action/thriller film opening them normally has something dark then something brighter to juxtapose it. So the inside scene should be dark to create a mysterious effect and the outside shots should be a lot brighter, which will contrast with the action that will happen in those shots. This would be even more of a genre signifies for the audience to understand what type of film this is.  

Research on props

I am going to use these props because they are the obvious genre signifies for the audience to tell the audience what kind of genre our film opening is.

A gun is normally linked to violence so that people can quickly think and understand what might happen in the rest of the film.

By having a phone it makes the film up to date, so we attract more of an audience because they younger audience normally do not like to watch old films. Also it is a type of technology that could be used in the rest of the film.

Lastly the brief case was used because it will make the character look more official and like a spy, so the audience can understand what type of person he is. 

Mood board

I chose these types of settings because from watching action/thriller film openings these were the most common settings they had. For example the Dark Knight the opening to that is in the city and an office/bank.

The makeup that I wanted was quite dark eyes so they looked serious, also if you see most spy movie they have got dark eyes as well. For example on the poster Salt the actress has got dark eyes to make her look quite mysterious, also it looks quite intriguing. The blood is up there because normally in action/thriller films there is also a fight scene and one of the characters always gets hurts so the blood is to show that they are in pain and the fighting is realistic.  

The types of actors that I have chosen to put on the mood board are actors that have all been in an action/thriller. Something that they all have in common is that they are all men; I think is because it’s usually the men that are the heroes and the women that are the “damsel in distress” This is why for my film opening I would like to have the lead role to be a women so it’s not the same as the other films.

The props on the mood board are very classic action/thriller. From all of the film openings that I have studied so far they have all included a gun, which I think out of all the props I have on their makes it the most important genre significance.

The costumes that I have included are mainly linked to the type of character that we are basing my film opening around. I am doing a spy film, which means that the costumes link in with the theme because the main clothing is black, but it’s quite stylish because spies look good with what they are wearing. Also they normally wear sun glass to hide their identity.   

The lighting that I have chosen to put on is very dark and mysterious. The surroundings are dark and have some light on the actors face to so their facial expressions but also it makes them look quite eerie. 

Titles for Drive

Art of the title

Typography is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading(line spacing), adjusting the spaces between groups of letters (tracking) and adjusting the space between pairs of letters.

The function of a title sequence is its widest sense, the title sequence covers all film titles (beginning and ending), with film’s title as its most important part, while in a narrower sense it refers to the part of the title listing film’s creators, while the title of the film and the end present separate textual parts. Therefore, title sequence is any written text marking the beginning or the end of a film, but does not include scene text, featured in the shot as part of presentational structure of film, nor does it include different kinds of subtitles.

Three films in A Brief History of the Art of the Titles. Singing in the Rain, Iron man and Social Network.

Ironman title sequence

The imagery created in this opening is that it’s like the plan of the iron man suit and the titles of the actors and directors were the labels of some part of the machine, this suggests that this machine that the plan is based on will be the theme of what the movie is about. The sound is Iron Maiden this gives the audience a sense of what genre of movie they are watching and for this movie they feel like they are watching an action movie because the music/sound is getting you quite excited for the rest of the film. You do not have a mood/feeling when you are watching titles sequence because there is no action is happening your just waiting for the film to start.

Catch me if you can title sequence

The imagery in this opening is that its cartoon/printings of the surroundings and the characters, this gives the audience the basic idea of what to expect with the movie. The titles are coming from the lines used for each shot this meant there was a fluid transition between each title. From what was happening in the sequence the audience gets a sense of what the theme though out the movie is that someone is being followed/chased. The sound though out the sequence goes from slow to fast creating tension but also the music is quite dramatic making the audience get a sense that the film will be have tension though out. The mood that the sequence creates is tense because the audience is always expecting something to happen. This gives a sense to what the rest of the movie will be like because you understand that though out you will always be expecting something to happen.

The type of nuance that Richard Morrison looks for is a subliminal energy in a film because then he can work into an idea.  

Sweeny Todd; the Demon Barber of Fleet Street

The imagery of this sequence is that it’s very dark and dirty, though out this scene we see what the barber does, he kills people and turns them into pies, we see that process. The titles are very bold and they stand right out from what is happening behind them. This suggests that the theme of the film will be about how they are making these pies. The sound in the sequence makes the audience feel nervous because the type of music used is the kind that gives you goose bumps because you’re scared. This suggests that the theme though out the film will be scary because just with the music it’s already creating the sense of what is to come. The mood that this sequence creates is scared because you do not know what will happen next, but also you know what they are making the pies out of even though they haven’t shown you yet. This suggests that the theme though out the film is that because it’s so scary because you do not know what is happening.

Title Designer RICHARD MORRISON:

“This industry is very specific and if you do a good job then you tend to be remembered by directors and producers. What I enjoyed most was coming up with the whole idea. I did not have to pitch to Tim but I turned this project into an internal pitch at th1ng. And so, a few days later, I had a room full of some truly outstanding creative work. I took it all to Tim and he just spread the pieces all over the floor and spent around a day or two looking through them. And then he just said: I really like this narrative piece (mine) and those coloured frames (Shay Hamias, director).

Animating blood and its movement became the most crucial and challenging element of the sequence. We had to build special platforms within which we imitated blood movement and filmed it. And we had to give it this comical feel, which worked really well. That was a dream project. We would love to work on something similar.”

I think that Richard Morrison did feel the title sequence was a success because he said “That was a dream project.” This is insisting that things went really well and he really liked it because he links it to a “dream” But also when he shows his work to Tim Burton he has nothing bad to say about it, which suggests that things went really well and was a success.

Vantage point

The imagery in this sequence is dark and mysterious because one half of the screen is black while the other half is of pictures/footages all layered on top of one another creating imagery. The titles had a quick transition on to the screen and by having the red light that went across the words made it look like a light that was searching for something, which we could link to assassination. This suggests that the film will be dark or unclear because of all the images overlapping each other. The sound in this sequence added to the mysterious theme but also created tension because the audience is more intrigued to what is happening on screen.

The feeling of this sequence is intrigued because we do not know what is going on or what will happen, it doesn’t give that much information for the opening.

Title Designer RICHARD MORRISON:

“It is an elegant piece. I liked the idea of random elements coming together before our very eyes, and I thought it would be very clever to use the red laser dot as a motif. It immediately introduced the theme of assassination and threat. Also, I think that the dark gold palette of these images strikes a chord with the filters used later to film Salamanca — there was this smooth transition between the titles and the first scenes shot from the helicopter. 

The sequence had to be based around the idea of perspectives. So I graphically tried to create a web of intrigue to give viewers an accurate insight into what they can expect in the movie.”

I think that Richard Morrison does think this title sequence was a success because he says “elegant piece” from him saying that he does think this was a success because he is proud of what he is done and he doesn’t mention anything that could have been improved to make it better.

Scot Pilgrim

I chose this film because it’s a movie I enjoy and have seen before, but also a part of its genre is action so, therefore, I can study this to get ideas for my film opening.

The imagery in the title sequence is based on the opening of a game, for example a game will give movie to set the scene, Angry Birds does this when you move on to a next level it shows why the birds are angry. The start is just showing the audience of what the characters are like.

In this opening sequence they have titles for the characters and actors. For example the character Scott Pilgrim they had a fact file next to him saying his name and how old he was, and each character had one of these fact files against their name. This tells the audience that the theme of the movie will be based around a game because everything is set out like a game. Also any sound effects had typography with it. For example when the door bell rang “Ding Dong” came up on the screen, almost like a comic book.  

The makers have changed the opening on the Universal to fit in with the movie. For example the sound to it sounds like game sound effects; it’d kind of like Mario. The sound comes up on screen. When they are playing their instruments the sound looks like lightning bolts. This suggests to the audience that the theme though out the film will be based on comic books and games.

The Handler Film Pitch

Questionnaire

    1.       What is your age?

5-15                     16-25                   26-35                      36-35                  46+

    2.       What is your gender?

Male                 Female                 Other

    3.       Favourite genre

Romance        Action          Horror           Sci-fi           Thriller          Comedy          Drama

   4.       Favourite film

    5.       What plot lines do you like?

     6.       What is your favourite character type?


    Some of the questionnaires that were answered:

Evaluation

What I learnt for the questionnaires that I got back was that action was the main genre that everybody liked and enjoyed. However most of the people that I asked liked action to be mixed in with something else, for example comedy or thriller. This shows me that my potential target audience for my film opening will be for mostly for every age, but it will depend on what parental guide because if my film opening is a 15 then the audience younger than 15 will not be able to watch it because it will not be suitable for them. But also it shows that the target audience will like the genre action to be linked in with another genre to make it more entertaining to watch, for example if it was just action it would mostly be car chasing and gun fighting, but if we were to include comedy it would make the film funnier and at some points lighten the mood so it won’t always be dark, by making it funnier it means that more people will enjoy watching the film. Then genre of my film opening is action/thriller which links into what the target audience’s requirements of what genre they would like.

The questionnaire also showed me what type of plot lines they like for a film, from the 12 that I got back 7 of the audience favourite plot line was having a twist at the end, this was over half which showed that this is a popular choice and it’s what my target audience likes the most. This helps to give me an idea of what kind of plot line my potential target audience would like in my film opening.  

For what type of character the audience liked 6 of them said funny and the other 6 said a superhero or a villain. This shows me that the type of person that should be in my film opening is a superhero. I can’t do someone funny at the start because I am not doing a comedy but if we were doing the rest of the film then there will be funny comments put in. Personally I think superhero will be very hard to film because this always takes place in big cities which means that for my group filming it will be very expensive to commute to the city all the time to make sure we get the best shots. However to go with the super hero theme the start could be the super hero’s secret identity which would be much easier to film.  

Action/Thriller script analysing

Features of a script

The layout is the layout of the page/ how the page is set.

Normally it will start with the transition for example FADE IN/OUT, CUT TO, WIPE TO and DISSOVLE TO.

The next line would be the Scene heading, this tells us where the scene takes place and what time of day, for example

EXT. CARIBBEAN SEA -DAY

EXT- exterior -the scene will be taken outside

INT- interior -the scene will be taken inside

INT/EXT- interior/ exterior -this would be used the scene is happening inside but being shot from outside

CARIBBEAN SEA- This is where the scene will be taken

DAY- What time of the day they will be shooting; you could also have NIGHT, DUSK and DAWN

ACTION/BUSINESS- This basically will describe what we see on the screen. This does not include any dialogue it’s just a brief description.

PARENTHETICAL- is a direction to the actor about how to read the dialogue. For example before there lines in brackets would be (sotto) this means quietly so the script writers would want the actor to say the line quietly.

EXTENSION- This is a technical indication about the character’s dialogue, placed to the right of the character name, for example;

(O.S.) - Off screen

(V.O.) - Voice over

(M.O.S)- Without sound

(P.O.V)- Point of view

(F.G.) - Foreground

(M.G.) - Mid-ground

(B.G.) – Background

DUAL DIALOGUE- This is where two or more characters talk at the same time, normally this is shown when the dialogue is side by side.

An example:

Script that I annotated in class: 

Looking at Action/Thriller openings

       Taken 

The first shots we see are from an old video recording, this makes the opening personal because, it’s from a character past, so the order of narrative is starting in the past, but also it makes the start relatable because our parents did this for us when we were little. The titles are very subtle, this suggest that the directors didn't want your attention to be taken away from what it going on. Their transitions are fading in and out which creates a creepy effect because, they are almost ghost like. The music is non-diegetic but is contrapuntal because the footage of the little girl’s birthday is happy but the music makes it sad which gives the audience the effect that something bad has happened to the people in the footage in the present, that’s why the character is remembering it. Also the sound effects put into the music makes this scene seem like a flash back because the voices are distant. When the character wakes up the lighting in the is dark. When the title of the film comes up, it comes up next to a picture of a girl on a horse, this creates an enigma because we want to know why that picture of that girl is so important, however it could be taken as a clue that then girl will be “taken”. The pace in this opening is quite slow compared to other action/thriller films I have seen, but it doesn’t make you lose interest. This film opening was successful because we as an audience was hooked to what was going on, because you wasn’t sure what was going to happen next.

  In our film opening we would like to use the subtle titles because we want out audience fully engaged with what they are watching instead of their attention being focused on who’s in the film. 

The Dark Knight

In this film opening they have changed to colour of the Warner bros. Logo normally it’s a bright blue sky behind it but in this it’s dark and mysterious. Before the movie has even started the audience are already getting a feel to the film.  This opening doesn’t have any titles in it, this suggest that the makers wanted the audience’s attention to be focused fully on what was happening because it’s the most intriguing part. Also in the first few seconds of the opening it shows the audience where it will be taken, in this case the city. By showing the audience that it will be shot in the city makes it an action because people always relate the city to be exciting because something will always happen, if it was set in   a village people wouldn’t think that exciting and thrilling things will happen there. The costumes used in this film were very dark all the main characters involved were wearing black to show they were bad. Also they were all wearing masks which gave the sense of enigma because we wanted to know who they were. We think that this makes the audience more into the opening because it intrigues them. All the actors are men which show that something violent will happen because normally girls aren’t used when there are big fight scenes or action parts of a film.  The props used in the opening are guns which always suggest violence and harm which can always be linked to and action/thriller film.  I would like to use the location of the film because it will make our film more realistic and suitable for our genre, but the problem is that we will not be able to do it. This film opening was successful because even before it started the audience could guess that it was going to be. But also because of the masks and how they were robbing, it doesn’t make it a normal bank robbery which makes it interesting. 

  The matrix

In this film opening they have changed to colour of the Warner bros. Logo normally it’s a bright blue sky behind it but in this it’s dark and mysterious. Before the movie has even started the audience are already getting a feel to the film.  Again this film didn’t have any titles in at the start, which again could mean that the makers wanted our full attention on what was happening. The first time I watched the opening I was glued to the screen that I didn’t even notice that there weren’t any titles which could suggest that it could be points for the makers to put them in when the audience wasn’t going to notice them anyway. The sound behind the dialogue was non-diegetic and this built suspense which made the audience fully intrigued with the opening.  Before there was any action going on screen the short dialogue before it with the computer screen, foley was used to enhance the typing/computer sounds. Also the dialogue that was in that part portrayed to the audience that it would be a action because what they were saying were quite violent “we’re going to kill him” The costume though out the opening  all the actors were wearing black, to make them look mysterious. The police were wearing their uniform to show who they are, but it also makes the audience this that if the police were called it shows that this is an important case. The main prop that was used in the opening was a gun, this tells the audience that this will be an action film because there will be violence happening within the movie. The lighting in this was very dark and the only way what was happening was though the characters torches this helped give the audience a sense of what kind of movie this will be which is action. All the actors apart from one were men which could show that this is a male dominated opening, this is typical in an action thriller because the women are normally the ones that will need saving. The makeup used on the women was dark around the eyes makes her look quite evil, but also she had her hair slicked back could show her character type, which will be mean. The main camera shots were close ups, this is so you can see the characters facial expressions and how they are reacting to certain situations but also it builds tension in the scene.  The set was in abandoned apartments this made the situation scarier because you didn’t know what to expect.  The enigma created was who the men in the dark glasses and what was the woman were doing in the abandoned flats. The transitions between each shot were quick so the audience wasn’t distracted from the action. Lastly the pace of the opening was fast because there was so much going on. This opening was successful because it hooked the audience in and even before the movie starts you can tell it is going to be an action.

  Jack Reacher

Out of all the films that I have studied this is only the second film to have titles. For this film the titles are very subtle, however the title of the film is not obvious because it’s the same size and font as the titles of the actors, this could be used for not taking your attention away from what is happening. The lighting in the opening is dark because here we meet the antagonist. The main camera shots are extreme close ups and establishing shots, these two totally juxtaposed each other because the extreme close up was fast pace and tension would build but that would all go when the establishing shots were on because they were calm and slower pace than the other one. The main sound was non-diegetic because they built up tension plus there was no dialogue going on at this point and without the music it wouldn’t be as exciting. However the music just stops at a point in the opening and all you can hear is the antagonist breathing this is a foley sound because it was enhanced to make it louder which added more effect because the audience felt nervous because they weren’t quite sure to what was going to happen next. The enigma though out was who was this man and why is he shooting at random people.  The prop used in the opening was a gun, from looking at all the film openings they have all had a gun as a prop, this suggest that the gun as a prop is widely known as a genre signifier to tell the audience that they are watching an action film.  The pace of the film goes from slow to fast, which was successful because it’s quite a long opening which means that people might lose interest so by changing the pace they are keeping the audience’s attention.  Overall the opening was successful because even though it was a slow start it still kept the audience’s attention, which would be  hard to do.   

Action/thriller signifiers

Colours- dark colours like black and navy blue

Costume- Dark clothes, maybe a long trench coat, leather seems to be popular

Character types- Always have the antagonist and protagonist

Props- Guns and anything violent/ harmful

Settings- City

Music- That will create tension/suspense

Sound effects- Gun shots and car/plane/train noises

Plot lines- The antagonist does something harmful to the city/someone e.g. wanting to destroy it while the protagonist has to stop him and save everyone.