BFI Media Trip - 08/11/13

Independent film:
Makes you think
Makes you ask questions
Is associated with critical success
Films more as art and cultural expression

Mainstream film:
Makes you laugh
Makes you cry
Associated with commercial success (e.g. Gravity)
Films as escapist entertainment

Mass audiences watch mainstream film.
Film is a distribution led industry, mainstream film attracts significant advertising budgets.
Sound is important, do not underestimate it.

Mainstream conventions:
High production values e.g. multiple camera technology
Saturated distribution by a major studio
Star marketing
Brand/franchise familiarity
Safe genre location = sex/chase scenes/explosions
Key focus on entertainment values
Glossy mise en scene, studio and locations
Commercial success

Independent conventions:
Limited distribution
Rarely shown at complex cinemas
Older target audiences
Limited star marketing and lower production values

The big six:
Warner Bros. The Hobbit
Paramount Pictures Star Trek
20th Century Fox The Wolverine
Disney Saving Mr Banks
Sony Skyfall
Universal Studios About Time

Reasons why Hollywood films dominate global film production:
Significant financial resources
Safe genres, star and genre marketing
Saturated distribution/marketing
Audience expectations and familiarity with Hollywood film
Merchandising opportunities
Access to latest technology
UK markets

Role of distributes:
Chooses films to distribute
Attends film festivals
Decides number of prints
Pays for the cost of each print
Negotiates the release date and site of exhibition - WHEN
Sends trailers and publicity to cinemas
Negotiates budget, pays for audience and markets

Main aspects of marketing:
Advertising in media (TV/cinema)
PR Public Relations (brand images)
POS Point of Sale (displays in cinema)
Market research

Types of UK cinema:
Multiplex (278 cinemas)
Independent
Small chain

Leading UK Multiplex chains
Odeon
Cineworld
Vue
Empire Cinemas
Anderson
Reel Cinema
City Screen

Guest speakers:
(1) Soda film productions guest
(2) Paul Webster (producer)
(3) Timothy Richards (founder of Vue Cinemas)

Title Sequence Project: Hacker

 

 

Feedback on pitch to class:

The feedback we received from the class was very mixed but all of the feedback has helped us in some way so we can make our film opening as good as possible. The main thing that was asked about our pitch to the class was how we were going to achieve the chase scenes through London. Their main problem with it was that there was going to be a lot of people where we were planning on filming. Because of this we had to think long and hard about how we could make the scene effective. After thinking about it for a while we changed the location of where we were going to film so that is would not be as busy but keep the same effect that we wanted it to have. This piece of feedback helped us a lot as without it we could have been trying to record a chase scene in the busiest part of London which would lose the effect of the whole opening scene.

Another piece of feedback we got from the class was that they liked the fact that the hacker in the opening scene was a girl. We were glad to hear this as we thought about having a female hacker because it has never been done before. To hear that everyone liked it was good as it made us feel more confident about our opening scene as people like the idea of a female hacker.

These were the two main bits of feedback we got. The rest of the feedback was smaller questions about how we were going to do certain things. A lot of these questions helped us tweak the minor things in our opening so that it visually looks good but also makes sense to the viewer.

Prop list:

Camera

Laptop

White Shirt

Black Tie

Microphone

Earpiece

Phone

Black Dress

Spy Jargon that helped Max write the script:

Dry Clean
Actions agents take to determine if they are under surveillance

Naked
A spy operating without cover or backup

Sanitize
To delete specific material or revise a report or other document to prevent the identification of intelligence sources and collection methods

Agent
A person unofficially employed by an intelligence service, often as a source of information

Black Operations
Covert operations that are not attributable to the organization performing them

THE SCRIPT:

Speech 1: Starbucks Richard and Max watching Drea.

Richard: Target sighted at 1100 hours, shall we proceed?

Beth: Proceed with caution, she may be volatile.

Richard: 10:4

Max: We need to move, now!

Speech 2: Chase scene through Piccadilly Circus

Drea: Back up is required, Repeat back up is required!

Speech 3: When Drea gets on the (bus/train) at Piccadilly

Richard: Damn we lost her!

 

Shooting schedule:

Shooting schedule: 

 

Scene number.		Internal/External.	Location.	Shot description.		Characters.	Props/equipment.
1		Internal	London Liverpool street	Drea sitting at the table on laptop hacking in files.		The Hacker	Laptop
2		Internal	London Liverpool street	Camera pans right to focus on the spies sitting at a table opposite from the hacker.		The Hacker, Spy number 1, Spy number 2.	Laptop, Ear piece
3		Internal	London Liverpool street	Camera goes back to the hacker sitting at the table on the laptop.		The hacker	Laptop
4		Internal	London Liverpool street	Close up of the hackers hand on the laptop hacking into the files.		The hacker	Laptop
5		Internal	London Liverpool street	Close up of the spy talking into his ear piece to the main office.		Spy One	Earpiece
6		Internal	London Liverpool street	The hacker has realised she is being followed so packs the laptop away and walks out of the station.		The hacker	Laptop, Bag
7		Internal	London Liverpool street	The hacker is walking through the main part of London Liverpool street getting followed by the hackers.		The hacker, Spy number 1, Spy number 2.	Bag
8		External	Piccadilly Circus	Establishing shot of Piccadilly circus showing the main title of our film.		-	-
9		External	Piccadilly Circus	The hacker coming out of Piccadilly circus and out into the street.		The hacker	-
10		External	Piccadilly Circus	The spies coming out of the Piccadilly circus station and out into the street.		Spy 1, Spy 2	-
11		External	Piccadilly Circus	The hacker is walking through Piccadilly circus trying to get away from the spies. The spies are just behind here weaving in and out through crowds of people.		The hacker, spy 1, spy 2	-
12		External	Alleyway near Piccadilly Circus	The hacker has found herself on a street; she turns round to see the spies are still following her. She turns round for the last time and starts to run away from the spies. The spies start running after her.		The hacker, spy 1, spy 2	-
13		External	Alley next to Piccadilly Circus	The hacker runs round a corner into an alleyway, follow by both the spies. She starts to run down the alleyway.		The hacker, spy1, spy2	-
14		External	Alleyway near Piccadilly Circus	Camera cuts away to the spies view of them chasing the hacker down the alleyway.		The hacker	-
15		External	Alleyway near Piccadilly Circus	Camera cuts back to the front view of the spies chasing the hacker. The camera zooms out so the viewer can see the whole of the alleyway.		The hacker, spy 1, spy 2	-
16		External	Alleyway near Piccadilly Circus	Camera cuts back to the spies view of the chase behind the hacker.		The hacker	-
17	External		Alleyway near Piccadilly Circus	Camera cuts back to the spies and hacker for the final time. This shot is more close to both the hacker and spies. The camera pans right to follow them down the alley.	The hacker, spy 1, spy 2		-
18	External		Alleyway near St Pauls.	Hacker runs up to a wall, turns round and realises she is trapped.	The hacker		-
19	External		Alleyway near St Pauls.	Close up of the hackers face as she is talking into her ear piece asking for back up.	The hacker		Ear Piece
20	External		Alleyway near St Pauls.	Close up of spy 2 saying “this will be interesting”	Spy 2		-
21	-		-	Fades to Black.	-		-

MUSIC:Our plan is to use Drea's brothers band to record a song for us that suits our genre.

The original plan did not happen, so we are now going to research other songs that could suit a spy-action film.

First draft: most people liked the two songs we chose, by Or Kribos and Assassins Creed, but it needs to build up in the right places.Final draft: the music was quite a tricky thing to get right. We went through many songs, and after feedback from our first draft, most people said they liked the music. However, we thought that it built up too quickly in not-so-action places, and this is also the feedback we recieved from the teacher. So when finishing off the final draft, we decided to not have two songs, and only use one. We also decided to have a train announcement for when the characters were in the train station, and then just use the song by 'Or Kribos' for the more action-parts, this worked more effectively and built up in the right places, making the conventions match the genre.

TITLES ORDER

NAME OF THE STUDIO: Arthouse Films/ Warner Brothers

NAME OF THE PRODUCTION COMPANY: Angel Productions

PRODUCER NAME: Drea Bunce

STARRING: Nigel Carrick, Michael Peterson, Emma Black

FILM'S TITLE: Hacker

MUSIC: Flick the Switch - Swallow This

PRODUCTION DESIGN or PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Katie Henreid

EDITOR or EDITED BY: Max Johnson

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Mathew Phillips

WRITER(S) or WRITTEN BY: Richard Jarrold

DIRECTOR or DIRECTED BY: Beth Braine


Storyboard: