Set Design - Why and what are we picturing

We want it to look like an old recently deserted factory. This should help set the scene which is really important when filming an opening as you only have a short time to get across the atmosphere you want to the audience. 

We decided building a set would make our opening appear more realistic and make our scene look as professional as possible. 

  

Here is a sketch that I have found on the internet showing a clear, organised layout of a set design. We are aiming for something as organised as this for our set design build. 

Set Design - Possible problems?

Budget – As we want it to look professional but preparing a good set like this could be tricky. We therefore need to be money conscious making sure we buy things and cut corners where at all possible, for instance finding instead of buying new rope and making it look dirty and old we actually use real old rope which shouldn't be to hard to get hold of. 

Building it- to look realistic might be hard as we are not professional’s and therefore it could easily end up looking amateur.This means we need to be realistic about what we can achieve in the time we have. 

Time – We will have a pretty short time frame to build this set due to high demand of the studio therefore we will need to have our set up very quickly and with all this detail it could be tricky. Therefore as a group we need to be well prepared making sure we have everything ready and organised. 

Set design - what we are planning to build.

We want to build a basement for a factory. 

So we either want to have a brick wall or cement wall with splashes of dirty old paint around. We also want paint peeling off the walls with one large water pipe where are character is strapped to and maybe two smaller ones to help set the scene.

We need to get Oil drums, as well as have a pile of rope on the floor and old pots of paint. 

Costume - Policemen

We wanted the dress the policemen in a black polo shirt with black loose trousers, so they are easy to move in. We would have ‘police’ printed on the shirt so it is obvious who the two characters are. They would also be wearing black boots. Underneath the shirt they would be wearing a bulletproof vest for protection.

I think we would get this costume from either amazon or eBay, as they are cheap websites.

The back up fro this costume would be black trousers and black t-shirt and if possible a florescent vest over the top. 

 COST:

Costumes - Main character

Main character:

We were thinking about having this character dressed in a black and white tie suit without jacket with black work office shoes.

The shirt would have rips and holes, his tie would be falling off, which shows the audience that he is a professional however has been caught and beaten.

To make this look seam much more dramatic we decided to add some blood and cuts to the head. 

We would order the suit from amazon or eBay as they as cheap websites that would be about to supply us with exactly what we are looking for.

If the costume (the suit) did not turn up on time for the shoot them we could supply black jeans and a button up plain shirt, so the character still looks start.

Cost:  

We have chosen this costume because we wanted the character to look professional and well dressed however we wanted rips and cuts to make him seam battered and hurt so the audience immediately feel sorry for the character.  

Casting

Main Character

For our main character who is the victim strapped up unable to escape with a bomb on him we wanted to cast a younger man as we feel the audience can sympathise more with a younger, innocent looking character therefore they feel more, making it more tense to watch.

Who? Gabe Jackson who is an A2 student we feel like he fits our criteria as he is 17 years of age however looks like he could be in his 20’s. He is also a good actor which is important as a lot of the tension in our thriller relies on the acting being very realistic and tense.

Police men: We ideally want to have two policemen who enter the room where our victim is trapped and these characters need to look like realistic professional men who have experience in their field of work.

Who? We wanted slightly older adults to make the contrast between victim and policeman larger. So we have chosen to use Mike and Adam who we feel together could look strong and serious. As well as professional with a gun in their hand.

Backup

It is possible that because of people’s schedules they may not be free at the time we need them for filming so we have chosen other options in case this does happen.

Main Character: Ezra who is a drama teacher therefore very experienced in acting and would be able to pull of the main characters role we were looking for very well.

Police men: Jake and Etienne who are A2 students but appear older and therefore could create the professional look we are trying to create.

Ideal actors if we could have anyone we wanted:

Main character: Would have to be Tom Hardy who looks rough and ready but also can be smart when in a suit.

Policeman: We would have Russell Crowe and Alex Pettyfer as they both look strong and serious therefore they would be ideal for the dominant role that the policeman need to have. 

Suggested Target Audience

Based on my thriller idea I would say that our target audience would be targeted mainly at males due to the fact that our idea involves a rescue hostage mission with lots of potential danger. They are walking into a factory that has a bomb set up which they have no idea about, therefore there will be danger and potentially violence as the likely hood the hostage has people watching them is pretty likely. We also thought there are no females in our thriller it is a totally male orientated opening scene and therefore women might not want to watch it as there is no one they can relate to. We decided our target audience would be males of the age of around 30 plus, due to the fact there is danger and potential violence therefore it is a very thrilling scene to which the older male generations would enjoy. Generally speaking the stereotypical male of 30plus enjoys thrillers with lots of suspense and the feeling of the unknown, which is what our thriller contains and therefore why we chose them as our target audience.  

Final Scene Outline

New Scene Outline

To begin with we have a man who is tied to a water pipe (the ones you see in a factory) at the beginning of our shoot he is unconscious and he gradually wakes up and comes around, as he does this the camera shows us the bomb which is tied around the man’s body with a timer on it that is counting down from two minutes. Gradually he becomes more and more aware of his surroundings with this the ticking of the bomb increases in volume. We then hear the background noise of the factory for instance machinery and muffled foreign voices soon after this comes the gunshots from above him. The man’s mouth is taped shut so that when he tries to scream for help we just hear muffled breathing. The camera pans around the room showing us oil drums, dirt and old pots of paint everywhere. 

To end with a police officer and his backup team (2 or 3 men) is banging on the door oblivious to what is on the other side and the man again tries to shout and warn him but he slams open the door and we see them storm in however being cautious of the trip wire on the floor one police man goes over to the victim to remove the tape covering his mouth, which then unfortunately alarms the bomb and we hear a high pitched ticking sound increasing in speed then a sudden blackout leaving the audience in shock.

Answers to targets:

1. We have decided as a group that we will look up bombs used in movies and how they are wired up and shown on screen.

   

2. This is shown in our new outline.

3. We have decided to add backup (2/3 men) plus the original police man. 

   

Institution part three

   MGM do not specialise in a certain type of film specifically however they do excel in Action/Adventure which is one of the reasons I chose it as these have many similarities with thrillers such as mine. However I would say our film would be on the lower side of the budget but MGM have done the occasional cheaper less extravagant film which would suit my idea.

   I would say the great thing about MGM is the vast range in their audience from male and female, from teenagers all the way to older adults. Weather it be 22 Jump street or a classic such as the Bond films which everyone enjoys particularly family’s MGM cater for all different types of people meaning my film would be seen by lots of customers hopefully making it as successful as possible. 

               

Institution part two

    MGM have a variety of costing films with many famous actors starring in them such as John Travlota, Channing Tatum, Anthony Hopkins and of course Daniel Craig with directors such as Martin Campbell. They make high budget films such as Casino Royal and Spectre but do have some films particularly thrillers and sci-phi that are a lot less expensive. My product could definitely be advertised in the thriller section of their website. http://www.mgm.com/#/our-titles

 I think the way I’d make money out of my film would be to advertise it firstly using the trailer and release that say around the end of summer in July so that all the teenagers and young adults see while on holiday then want to watch it in cinemas around October when winter comes so there is nothing more enticing then a trip to your local Odeon on a rainy day. It could come out in through chain cinemas such as Odeon as it provides a huge range of an audience with lots of different ages coming through also I would want it on pay-per-view so people could purchase it in their homes to watch as it’s a thriller that leaves you on the edge of your seat encouraging friends to purchase it and watch in on their movie night In I think would really help its sales. 

Institution I have chosen for my thriller

I have chosen the company Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) to make my film as 

they have done many successful thrillers over the years.

    They have made other films similar to mine such as Billion Dollar Brain which involves secret agents on dangerous assignments with lots of different areas to the film including people being blackmailed. I like this film particularly as I think It contains a lot of similarities to our thriller as both films place emphasis on trying to prevent the “bad”. In Billion Dollar Brain a man called Harry has the ability to save everyone likewise in my thriller the FBI/COPS are in charge of preventing the bomb going off in my opening which also foreshadows more crime that may continue in the rest of the film.

 The second film I thought was quite similar was Out of time which focuses on “Matt” in a race against time to solve a bunch of suspicious murders and finds he cannot rely on the police for help, similarly in my thriller the police end up setting the bomb off and prove to be unhelpful and arguably just ‘get in the way’.

Feedback for final pitch

Feedback

As a group we pitched our idea the feedback we got was that the basis of the idea was good we just need to work on developing the plot through the mise-en-scene. First of all we need to think about how we will portray the bomb so that is does not look like an 80’s cartoon bomb, so we need to change that so that it is realistic and helps to add tension. As well as this we received feedback about the ending of our scene when the police officer storms inside we need to consider how realistic it is, if he enters alone. We need to decide if it’s better to have him as a bomb diffuser making it more professional or at least that the police officer enters with back up of maybe two or three others, or we could have a mini backup team of about five people.

Target 1: Decide on what type of bomb to use, which will help add tension to our thriller.

  

Target 2:Expand the ending to make it less cliché by having a moment after the “rescuer” enters instead of the scene just going black we see both characters realising their situation.

Target 3: Decide whether we want to use a bomb diffuser, swat team or stick with the policeman but give him back up.

Main Pitch

   Test shoot footage 

 https://youtu.be/_cbnlq4hej4 

Our story board

Finally the reason using a storyboard is useful for our group is because it means like the big production teams we can organise ourselves and all get on the right side with our idea. It will come in particularly handy for a less professional team like us in that it will hopefully prevent us from forgetting any shots that could be crucial in our final shoot.

Use of a storyboard and Why people use them

A storyboard is when you draw each shot into a box with a brief description underneath it explaining what is happening in that box. The storyboard allows the directors to see what angle and perspective they need to create, it also prevents people forgetting shots whilst out filming and when you are back in editing it serves as a guide when you’re trying to piece together your shots. 

 Here is an example of a professional storyboard done by Warner Brothers. 

They save time and money as everyone involved in the production and filming team can look at the storyboard and create one great idea that is clear and in a good order giving people a shared vision. In your brief description you want to be including the estimated time of that shot as well as the camera shot required and the action that is taking place you could even be specific  about what type of lighting you plan on using.

Reflection of test shoot

Having filmed our first version of our thriller idea we definitely have a more precise idea of what we need to improve. The genre is easily identifiable and through the use of the bomb and surroundings it should be obvious to the audience it’s an opening to a thriller. We did however find the pace of our opening doesn’t quite work it is currently a bit to slow which is bad as it results in a lack of tension which can often leave the viewer uninterested. As well as this our opening is much to short and is only a minute and 8 seconds when it needs to be much closer to 2 minutes long. 

To give it more tension and add anticipation we need to make it faster by adding a larger variety of shot’s which will help to give us an opening scene in which the climax rises. However even though it lacks in tension at the moment our two characters being the girl strapped to the bomb and the police women storming in are made to be clear so the audience understand the situation and who is involved.  

The camera angles in which we used have some good qualities but we need to develop further and incorporate them which should also help with the pace improving  in our final film adding more tension overall. In filming our test shoot we learnt that in our final shoot we want the police officer who storms into the room at the end to come through a door which is located directly opposite to the girl strapped to the bomb as it will make it more dramatic as we can get some good camera shots such as the over the shoulder shot so we see what it would look like from the victims perspective. The second major thing we discovered through filming our test shoot is that we need to add sound, not only to add the tension but also to help the actor out as it’s much easier if we pre- record it so when it comes to filming we can play it aloud and they themselves can hear the police sirens and the general chaos of the outside sound. Also meaning it is more likely to be realistic then if we just add it in the editing phase which leaves us facing the struggle of matching the sound to the actor. 

I think once we add further shots to the sequence the tension should come with that. The thing that has worked well is the two characters remain clear and it is obvious to the viewer the situation that is unravelling before them. Overall I think we have a good basic idea and with the introduction of sound while filming and more shots we will have the opportunity to build real tension making a good opening scene for a thriller.