Research into our film's genre

The original idea for our groups film was a thriller, this was because of our advanced knowledge of genre from AS media studies. We wanted it to be psychological and cerebral, a film which was action based but made you think, immediately we decided on researching films of this sub genre.

The butterfly effect was just one of these films. Its cerebral message of chaos theory made the audience think and we took several ideas and conventions from this film.

• We liked the whole parallel universe idea and thought that it would place the psychological idea nicely in our film.
• The entire trailer seems to be action packed and much like a chase.
• The music score is typically thriller.

We didn't end up taking all the thriller conventions, because it just wouldn't suit the plot of the film but we did take the parallel universe idea and made it a major part of our production.

Donnie Darko was once again another cerebral film, although not technically a thriller it still contained many conventions of one and was important to us nonetheless.

• The thriller convention of the knife, which we used in our AS film, was a good idea.
• The psychiatrist element would also be a good plot for a protagonist Chris to encounter.
• The use of sound bridges was also something that our film could have.
• The theme of fire was also nice and shows insanity of Donnie Darko.

Once again we didn't take many of the conventions or ideas of this film rather challenged them, we decided that the knife was so typical in a thriller so we decided on scrapping it and replacing the knife with an unusual weapon, wulfurin which is poisonous and after research into euthanasia we chose that to be our weapon, which is extremely unorthodox.

We also decided that we didn't want our lead protagonist (chris) to be seen as mentally unstable but confused, and mentally exhausted about looking after his mother once again deciding against the whole psychiatrist element.

After much review of our treatment we thought adult drama or 'kitchen-sink drama' seemed a more appropriate genre for our film.

The plot is very realistic and is a genre typical to england, the themes are relativity similar to our film's and that is mainly it, the conventions are from psychological thrillers though.

Shooting schedule

Here is our shooting schedule required for filming, it gives us an idea when we can film, sadly due to debbie's illness and various other hurdles we couldn't keep to it all the time.

Shooting Schedule Binary Productions

Costume, cast and props.

In our film based upon the character of rose, we chose Debbie sweet to play her, due to her knowledge on the character and illness and her looks/features suited the role perfectly. The character 'chris' was some-what harder to cast due to lack of interest when we were looking for actors, and the person best suited for the role dropped out on us, chris was meant to have dark hair and wear smart workwear. So we went to a back up plan and chose an actor who was interested in the role, and he was good at playing the character too.

Rose will be wearing a blue dressing gown, slippers, an oxygen mask, and she will have messy bed hair. We chose this because we want to present her illness to the audience, as soon as she is on camera she immediately can be seen as ill.

Chris will wear a white shirt with black pinstripes, tie, black trousers, smart shoes and a messenger bag, to show he is going to work.

The main props in our film are the dinner tray, cups, sugar, milk, laptop, folder and papers. But there are 3 significant props, the rose, which is the inanimate symbol of 'rose's character, keep calm and carry on which is a prominent prop as it is symbolic of chris's thoughts, and the phone which shows a picture of rose, and makes chris feel regret and remorse.

Location research

When filming it important to research the locations you will use, although in most major blockbusters many scenes are staged and don't rely on weather conditions, acts of nature e.t.c. And also it is used to perfect the scenes. Shorts on the other hand, due to usually a small budget would rather shoot on location, due to cost effectiveness and the chance factor that lighting may be perfect for the scene e.t.c.

The American television show 'Lost' used the beaches of Hawaii and then staged scenes for a large majority of the series, due to an extremely large budget it could afford these areas. This compared to the 'blair witch project' which had a very small budget, it was all shot on location, in a forest.

We decided to use my house for filming, this was due to my house containing necassery props e.g. Oxygen machine and set requirements such as a large garden containing flowers. Sadly i cannot upload the images required due to technology fault.

Film Treatment first and final draft

This our first and final draft of our treatment for our short film, 'Passion Of A Bleeding Rose'. Our treatment contains, a full storyline and information which we help guide us throughout the development of our film.

A passion of a bleeding Rose film treatment

Workflow for film construction

Here is a workflow for the contructuion of our film which includes what order we will take to create our masterpiece!
Binary Productions Workflow

MY GROUP!

Hello, my group this year consists of Samuel Beckett who is our movie director. We decided this because he has an excellent command and awesome ideas on how the movie should run its course and finally he understands what an audience wants to see.

Sam B A2 Treatment Pitch from Gavin Hood on Vimeo.

Tom Fisher, who will be scriptwriter and storyboarding, this is because his ideas are extraordinary and is very good at presenting his ideas.

Tom A2 Treatment Pitch from Gavin Hood on Vimeo.

Demi Alcock, will be costume and artistic director, due to her excelling in dramatic theatre and her knowledge of stage e.t.c.



And finally, I, Josh Clarke will be chief editor/lighting/sound in post-production. I felt i should take up this role because of my knowledge of mac's and final cut editing software.

Josh A2 Treatment Pitch from Gavin Hood on Vimeo.

We have several ideas in mind which will be posted shortly.

A basic storyboard to accompany my treatment for film.

Passion of a Bleeding Rose-1

A film treatment for the passion of a bleeding rose

A Film Treatment for Passion of a Bleeding Rose

My film ideas

Over the summer I have contemplated several film ideas, from party related movies to murder, however I hit a writers block when developing my ideas. So to counteract this I took note of current events in the news and documentaries that could be adapted and changed to create a short film. They are as follows.

London riots. (troubled youth)
Libya crisis (conflict)
Women that kill (murder and psychological problems)
Stalkers.
Global warming.
Global economy.

My first Idea was about a down on his luck banker contemplating suicide, however I felt this may be too dark and too emotional and seeing as though It's still too hot to touch.

I deceided to go with the stalker idea. But challenging the convention of a male stalker who harasses the woman, I changed it to a female stalker. I did this because I felt a woman could portray more anger and emotional issues and can actually be much scarier than the male counterparts.

Chanllenging Conventions.

Having a female stalker than a male.

Inciting fear without any weapons.

Powerless male.

The change of roles from the impenetrable untouchable male to weak degraded male.

The sympathy to the villain, in this case the stalker.

Advanced Camera techniques to put to use in A2

Crane shot- Typically a camera on a crane, although it is quite common to be attached to poles and boom arms this is much cheaper than being placed on a crane, and is much easier to maneuver but at the cost of reach. They are most commonly used during emotional and end scenes. They are not just used in films but are now used in sports, in boxing arenas e.t.c.

An example of a crane shot is in Richard Attenboroughs Oh! what a lovely war, in an emotional end sequence there is a shot of single grave and the crane is pulled backwards to reveal many identical ones.



Camera panning- basically, the horizontal movement or rotation of a video camera it is used in almost every film created and can be combined with several other techniques such as zooming to emphasize or de-emphasize a subject.

Tracking- Using a dolly (a small wheel vehicle with a tripod included on top, attached to a track) they are often used in running sequences and car chases. the shot itself has to be perpendicular to the camera lens axis. it provides a sense of realistic motion. the table below shows example of human motion at different speeds, including camera frames.

	Miles per hour	Feet per second	Number of Frames to move 10 feet at 30 fps
Casual stroll	2	2.9	102
Average walk	3	4.4	68
Brisk walk	4	5.9	51
Average jog	6	8.8	34
Average run	8	11.7	26
All out sprint	12	17.6	17
Car	30	44	7

Zoom- Zoom lenses on cameras allow cinematographers to give close up shots of subjects without moving the camera, however using this technique you submit clarity, definition and focus. However it can be used to create a very interesting effect known as the 'vertigo' effect. To create this shot you must synchronize the movement of the subject with the zoom so that the subject is always the same size but the background changes. Here is an example of the technique used in alfred hitchcock's vertigo.

First post: learning and experience

Hello again blogger! From studying AS media last year I learnt a variety of things such as camera techniques, for example panning, tracking, field of view and 3 point lighting techniques. I also learnt how to write a script and a treatment, for a feature length film, I have also become very capable using post production editing suites, final cut, livetype, adobe Photoshop and soundtrack pro on Apple iMac.
The most valuable skill however was time management, learning how to manage filming time to editing time and create the final film within two weeks.

This year I am going to provide triple the effort especially with my blogging and it's technique, this is why I am going to post during the holiday we have off to practice and hone my skills.