Opening two minutes - Another possible location

Another possible location for filming

This location hasn't been visted yet by any members of the group, but it has been discussed as we are all aware of the location, and have agreed it's potentially a good one and is worthwhile visiting to take some photographs. Mo is going to go there tonight to take some photo's and will hopefully be able to upload them to his Blog within the next couple of days (I will then upload them too).

The location we have been talking about is a foot bridge in the Ashtead/Leatherhead that crosses the M25 moterway. There will be plenty of light around as the evenings are getting darker from the street lamps along the moterway, the only worry I have is that on the film you won't be able to hear the dialect over the noise of the traffic, as during the evening is when the moterway will be at its bussiest.

 
Above is a picture of google images of the footbridge we are considering as a location, this photograph is taken from the road but Mo will take some from on the footbridge to give us a better idea of what the location is like.

Another Possible Filming location

Possible Filming Location

 

As in a previous post you may have seen, as a group we are considering a variety of different locations to film our opening two minutes, and within the group individually and sometimes as a group we have visited various different locations to take some photographs. Mo visited this walkthrough in Waterfields, Leatherhead to take some photos.

 

The cut through from the outside showing the length and visibilty available as we would be filming during the winter evenings.

The view when standing inside the cut through

Graffiti on the walls of the cut through which is similar to the Alley way on Kingscroft road, as it links with the theme and genre of gang related Crime.

The view of the cut through from a distance showing the larger amount of lighting and also showing how isolated the location looks when at night.

The view from inside the cut through facing the other way helping us to establish which way we would film from were we to use this as our location for the opening two minutes. 

Opening two minutes - Possible location

Possible location for filming

For our opening two minutes we are considering a wide variety of locations, and within the group have individually visited differnt sites and taken some photgraphs of the area. The one I have visited is the alley way at the top of the road that I live on (Kingscroft Road).

 

The lampost in the picture above will provide us with light as we are filming during the winter meaning the evenings are much shorter, it's also on the corner on the alley way so lights up both paths  

 

The entrance to the alley way from Kingscroft road lookimg up towards the corner where the lampost is based  

 

Another shot of the lampost giving an idea of the amound of light we will have available

 

A deralict house at the top of the alley way which may or may not be used in our opening two minutes, the problem we have found is it conveys to much of a spooky genre as opposed to the crime/action genre our opening two minutes is based on  

 

The alley way from the corner leading to the deraclict house at the end on the left

 

The garden of the deralict house

 

Graffiti on the walls of the alley way linking in with the theme of gang related Crime

 

The alley way from the corner looking back down towards Kingscroft Road

 

 

The front garden/driveway area of the deralict house, which as I said above may or may not be featured in our opening two minutes

 

The entrace of the alley way taken from just next to the driveway of the deralict house looking back down the alley way to the corner

Research & Planning - Actors & Props

 

Criminal

The one who is commiting the crime (a stabbing/mugging) in the alley way at night, the meeting between the two characters when it comes to actually filming, may be presented as a planned meeting which leads to an attack. Potentially there is going to be more than on criminal as the element of a gang makes the victim of the crime look more intimdated from the audiences prospective. In our opening two minutes the Criminals are going to played by Mo, and if we go with idea of a gang, Aran will be as well.

 Victim
The person who the crime is commited against (mugged/stabbed) who we are going to present as a weak, easily scared character by using costumes and body language. As I said above we may also use more than one criminal to make the character of the victim seem more intimidated and outnumbered which also presents their weakness to the audience. In our opening two minutes the character or the victim is going to be played by Nadib.

If we end up with more characters than we have actors, Matt Creasy has agreed to appear in our opening two minutes to fill in the role of what is needed. Matt overall got a B in his GCSE drama, and his currently taking the subject at A level as well partaking in drama activites outside school, so is a reliable back up actor to have if we need one.

Props
For the props in our opening two minutes there is going to be a weapon, most likely a knife or a gun, we are also going to have the item that gets stolen such as a wallet or a watch, possibly both, as we porgress in the filming we are almost certain to have more and more ideas about props for various different parts of the opening two minutes that aren't quite fully planned yet.





 

Research & Planning - Costumes and Location for opening two minutes

Costumes

As our film is an urban action crime genre, we will be looking to use costumes the connote gangs, such as black clothing as a basic, but in more detail are looking to use costumes for the criminal such as tracksuit and a hoodie, possibly a balaclava, as this symbolises crime and gang related themes. There is possibly going to be more than one criminal as we are thinking about planning a fight scene where two individuals meet in an ally hoping to exchange an unidentified object, there is a disagreement, and both people unbeknown to the other have back up who emerge and there is a fight scene between the two.

Location

As I mentioned above we are hoping to have two individuals meeting each other in an ally way. I live on Kingscroft road and at the top there is an ally way with just one streetlight on the corner, this could be used to our advantage as we could film the scene at night as its winter the nights are getting darker earlier, this could have a good effect for a meeting point.

Here is my mood board previously posted on my blog with themes for our opening two minutes including props and costumes we are going to potentially use -

 

Shaun of the Dead Opening two minutes

The genre of Shaun of the dead on the surface is a comedy, but in more detail there are shades of fictional horror and gore. In the opening two minutes they have the cliche of the lazy 'dumb' flat mate played by Nick Frost, who when you see him is sat in a messy living room, slumped on the sofa with three days stubble, playing a games console. Mise-en-scene in the costumes (scruffy clothes) and appearance represents the comedic cliche.

The genre of Horror is ever so slightly represented in the opening two minutes as the genre is often hard to establish at the beginning of films, but the scene at around 39 seconds when Shaun (played by Simon Pegg) is getting ready for work in the bathroom, looks in the mirror as he straightens his tie, he tilts the mirror ever so slightly to reveal the reflection of their other flat mate, who is tall, dark haired and smartly dressed. The fact that they show this character in the mirror as opposed to panning the camera to him, suggests a slight spookiness about the film and at this point in the film could act as a sign of things to come.

The scene after this is a series of close ups at fast paced, beginning with a spreading knife being pulled out of a draw, spreading jam on a slice of toast, and then to spoon stirring a cup of tea, and finally a carton of milk being placed back into the fridge. The fast paced series of shots suggests the gore and shock of the film at the early stage, and the jam being spread on the toast could represent blood, and for first time viewers they may not know it but there is a lot of blood in the film, so the jam could act as an early hint.

Apart from the cliches of the lazy flat mate, there isn't any hints that the film is a comedy up until Pete, the most mature of the flatmates puts his blazor on ready to leave for work, but then turns around to reveal pieces of paper that have been stuck on his back to reveal the words 'I am a prick'. This is the first hint that suggests the film is also a comedy.

Research and planning - Film Certificate research

Film certificate  research
		Universal -all ages admitted, nothing unsuitable for children.
		Parental guidence - all ages amitted but some scenes may not be suitable for young children, such as moderate violence.
		This was introduced by in Cinema's only in 2002. This is where persons under the age of 12 can view a 12 rated film at the cinema when acompanied by an adult. Films under this category can contain mature themes, discrimination, soft drugs, moderate swear words, infrequent strong language and moderate violence, sex references and nudity. Sexual activity may be briefly and discreetly portrayed. Sexual violence may be implied or briefly indicated.
		Nobody younger than 12 can rent or buy a 12-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game. The content guidelines are identical to those used for the 12A certificate.
		Only those over 15 years are admitted. Films under this category can contain adult themes, hard drugs, frequent strong language and limited use of very strong language, strong violence and strong sex references, and nudity without graphic detail. Sexual activity may be portrayed but without any strong detail. Sexual violence may be shown if discreet and justified by context.
		Only adults are admitted. Films under this category do not have limitation on the bad language that is used. Hard drugs are generally allowed, and explicit sex references along with detailed sexual activity are also allowed. Scenes of strong real sex may be permitted if justified by the context. Very strong, gory, and/or sadistic violence is usually permitted. Strong sexual violence is permitted unless it is eroticised or excessively graphic.

Taken opening two minutes

Taken came out in 2008, and is about an ex spy played by Liam Neeson, who's 17 year old daughter and her friend go on holiday to Paris with permission for her Dad despite him not liking the idea of her going away. He later finds out that she is not only going to Paris but are following the rock band U2 on tour around europe. The accumulation of Neeson at first not granting his daughter permission to go on Holiday, the precautions he takes such as requesting the address of her hotel, giving her an international cell phone to call him on, is used as the suspense and build up to her and her friend Amanda being kidnapped from their hotel room minutes after arriving there.

The film begins with an old family video of a young girl, which imeadiatly suggests that something at some point in the next upcoming scenes. The film is of an action/thriller/heroic/Crime fiction, but this is not massviely obvious at first, it takes until a few scenes later when Neeson protects a popstar from being stabbed when working as secturity at a pop concert until the audience can establish what genre the film is. The film uses the cliche of the rich stepdad, when Neeson turns up at his Daughters over exhaggerated birthday party to give her a kareoke machine for her present, only to have this overidden when his ex-wife's new partner emerges with a horse as his present for his stepdaughter. This immediately puts Neeson in  lower position than him and doesn't at first make him out to be the hero of the film.

The use of mise-en-scene gives us this first impression about Neeson too, the next scene on from the home video is him waking up in a dark fairly small empty apartment immediately gives the cliche of the divorced father. The film then uses juxtaposition from Neeson to his daughters stepdad at the birthday party, being held at his white stone colored palace like settlement, along with his fresh, smart clothing matching the color of the house instantly presenting wealth.

Moodboard

This is a moodboard inlcuding pictures based around our opening two minutes.

Audience Profile

Green street

	Age:	%:	Gender:	%:	Class	%:

	4-6	0%	Male:	71%	AB	26%

	7-11	0%	Female:	29%	C1	35%

	12-14	0%			C2	24%

	15-24	38%			DE	15%

	25-34	39%

	35-44	10%

	45+	13%

Released:	9th September 2005
Genre:	Drama
Price:	C
Estimated box office:	not specified
Director:	Lexi Alexander
Film cast:	Elijah Wood, Charlie Hunnam, Claire Forlani, Marc Warren
Certificate:	18
Distributor:	UIP
The Story:	Elijah Wood continues to move away from his Lord of the Rings characterization in this tale of modern-day football hooliganism. He plays Matt, a student at Harvard who takes the fall when his room-mate's drug habit is discovered. He visits his sister in England and is drawn into the ultra-violent world of the football hooligan.