11. Title Sequence Planning

Opening Title Sequence

Name of studios:

Polar films

Production company: 

Polar Productions

Director or writer of book: 

Sam Mabb

Starring: 

Sooriyan Kailasanathan, Mark Wrobel, Lemuel Asiedu

Featuring:

Flynn Hallman

Casting by: 

Sam Mabb

Music and composed by: 

Lemuel Asiedu and Sooriyan Kailasanathan

Costume Design: 

Tian Isidore

Editor: 

Lemuel Asiedu

Production design: 

Flynn Hallman

Director of photography: 

Lemuel Asiedu, Sam Mabb

Producer:

Lemuel Asiedu

Story written by: 

Lemuel Asiedu, Sooryian Kailasanathan, Sam Mabb

Director or directed by:

Sam Mabb

Film Title:

The Outsider

We have decided that we would leave the title until the end of the sequence with the reason being that it's more likely for audiences to remember the last things they see. Additionally, in most thriller films the film title is often found at the end of a sequence, placed on a dark background with an example being 'The Dark Knight'

10. Storyboards

DRAFT 1

DRAFT 2 

9. Common Codes and Conventions of Thrillers

Most thrillers follow a set script in order to be classed as one. Here are the most common conventions:

Setting: Busy environments in urban or suburban areas

The Plot: Is often very complex and is pieced together as the story goes along, it's the job of the protagonist to figure it out along their journey. The final explanation would be very rational regardless of however long it took to come to that point.

Tone: Often a crime has/will occur and they usually have a high level of tension, suspense and excitement.

Protagonist: Seen as an outsider and quite often alone but very brave and willing to give up what they have. Hero-like

The Antagonist: Works to put the Protag. in jeopardy, however they often share very similar characteristics. (Background and past) hidden identity and is slowly revealed as the film progresses. Their motive is usually a revenge plot.

Key Elements: Low Key Lighting, Tense Music, Montage of shots, B&W shots, props (guns, weapons)

8. Institutional Research

Films Festivals

Nowadays it has become much easier to get your film shown at well known film festivals such as Sundance, Rain-dance and BFI with sites such as "withoutabox.com" which send your submissions to over 5000 different festivals and "filmfreeway.com" with over 800 listings. However, for us a more suitable festival to exhibit our sequence at would be Cambridge Film Festival who focus more on Action, Thriller and Crime films. They've been around since the 70s and operate nationwide and they aspire to "reveal new talents" who they feel will "shape the future of cinema". An example of this is the exhibition of a short film directed by Christopher Nolan who is now well known for his role in films such as Interstellar, The Dark Knight Trilogies and Inception which have grossed a total of over $1.6billion.

Institutional research

Lionsgate mainly look for independent British films as well as American blockbusters. For example "Brotherhood" is an independent film produced by "Unstoppable Entertainment" and distributed by Lionsgate themselves. Director Noel Clarke aimed to represent London as a place of crime. We plan to have our film have similar properties to the likes of "Brotherhood", using cool tones and low contrasts to create that gritty feel.

Vertigo Films is another example of a company that would be of great help in the production of our opening sequence and would also assist us in successful distribution as they have also made a similar film to us called "The Sweeney". Similar to Brotherhood the film also aims to capture that ugly look to London being filled with foot and car chase scenes and packed full of action, explosions and violence. We want our opening sequence to be a clear representation that and be very clear our film will also be full of chase scenes and also thrills.

Working Title are one of the worlds leading production companies producing a wide array of British blockbuster films in co-operation with the likes of Universal Studios, Studio Canal and Film4. An example of one of their films is "Legend" and it is set in a less economically developed region of London with the plot being based on two of the biggest gangsters England's ever had. Working title would be a good company to produce our film as they focus a lot more on the British audience whilst still attracting a wide US audience base

Online Distribution

Distributor/Site	Filmmaker Cut	Description
Amazon Video Direct	Filmmaker Cut: Varies	For each title, customers can choose to earn royalties based on hours streamed by Prime members, a revenue share for rentals, purchases, monthly subscriptions, or ad impressions—or any combination of these options.
CreateSpace (Amazon)	Filmmaker Cut: 50%	Make your film available as a high-quality download on Amazon Instant Video. The customers can choose from Download to Own or Download to Rent purchasing options while they earn royalties from each sale.
Vimeo On Demand	Filmmaker Cut: 83%-96%	Vimeo On Demand, a totally open platform that enables filmmakers sell their work directly to their audience. Becoming a Vimeo PRO member means they can distribute their work the way they want, with all the power of Vimeo’s HD player, easy-to-use tools, and wildly passionate audience. 90% of revenue after transaction fees is kept, and we cover all delivery costs. The work of filmmakers is available online, as well as on mobile devices, tablets, and connected TVs, all in HD quality.
Youtube	Filmmaker Cut: Varies based on Google ads	Becoming a YouTube partner allows content producers to monetise videos on their channel and make money from the ad-revenue earned.

7. Opening Sequence Analysis

Casino Royale

Being one of the best films released in 2006 ... I feel that Casino Royale best represents our motives for what we want from our opening sequence, as we also intend to go with an opening chase scene. What really separates this sequence from others is how the director has uses camera movements, mise-en-scene and the soundtrack in unison to build suspense and tension within the audience and the scene. From the beginning the audience are introduced to the surrounding shot through a wide establishing shot. The use of overwhelming movement through the flailing arms of the crowd and ambient noise helps develop a sense of disorientation. However despite all this movement there is one man that stands out drawing all the attention to him, we're then introduced to another character, the agent who's brought into the side of the frame. In conjunction with dialogue and a focus pull the audience are able to identify that the initial character is being watched.

Moving on to the main chase sequence just it proceeds there is an example of the director singling out the agent and other character in which there is are quickly cut reverse camera shots in which to build tension and as the runner begins to move his sudden turn is emphasised with the initial heavy drums of the soundtrack. This is something were likely to incorporate into our sequence as this is a really effective way of drawing your audience in.Additionally the director has ... this is represented through the fact that the runner does parkour. As we don't have those skills, the use of jump cuts and fast paced camera movements will illustrate a more active and lively feel to each scene and motivate the feeling that our runner is more than capable of escaping his chasers.

Vertigo

6. Target Audience Research

Typically the target audience for action thrillers are the 15+ age group or young adults as they find the plots interesting and enjoy the blood pumping action violence which for some children below this age can make it very disturbing. However this can be seen as a main attention grabber for more mature teenagers and a jackpot for young adults and those under 30. Currently the likes of "Brotherhood", "Inception" and "The Dark Knight Trilogies" try to grab similar target audiences. Gender wise, they appeal to both males and females with the women enjoying the trivial moments of the film that make them wonder whats going to happen next.

We conducted a survey to find out the preferred film genre of a 15-18 age group and the results were as shown:

From this data I've been able to create a profile for our perfect viewer based on demo- and psychographic research:

5. Audience Demographics & Psychographics

Demographic information is used in media marketing to classify an audience into age, gender, race and other categories and is separated into bands depending on peoples jobs or status seen here ------>

However due to its wide audience, thriller films could fall under any one of the codes. But falling deeper into thriller sub categories psychological thrillers would not be able to appeal to the E code as they could be less educated and have less interest in a psychological thriller.

Psychographic segmentation divides the market into groups based on social class, lifestyle and personality characteristics. It is based on the assumption that the types of products and brands an individual purchases will reflect that persons characteristics and patterns of living.

4. Synopsis

A boy is on the run and he's in grave danger.

The train arrives at Waterloo Station, he receives a message from a friend of his, instructing him to go to an address nearby, they'll be waiting.

Uses his ticket to get through the gate only to be confronted by 2 boys, the chase begins. he's chased through the station and out onto the overpass one takes out a gun and takes a shot (misses) but the boy manages to lose them into the commercial district. The shooter redials an 'unknown number' reporting to the voice of the recent even with the an angry voice replying, instructing them to find the boy and the bag. They split up in search of him.

The boy finds himself exhausted and takes a break. He checks his phone and sees multiple missed calls and messages. He calls back and says he's nearby but before he finishes the line cuts out with no reply.

He's later spotted again by the initial shooter and grabs his bag as he gets up to run but the strap breaks and he ends up leaving the bag, realising the gun barrel pointed in his directoin. The chaser doesn’t follow him as he has retrieved what he came for.

The boy continues to run, looking around for the street but eventually he finds the street, the corresponding door and knocks. The door opens and a man is standing there, the boy tries to run but he's grabbed and dragged in.

3. Preliminary Task Evaluation

Quality of summary	My honest evaluation – what was done well and what was not of good standard? Try to cite specific examples and moments from your video	Examples of strategies, good practices and skills that my group and I will put into place to ensure a main production of high quality.
Quality of holding a shot steady	To begin we had our actor run up a set of stairs, unlocking it and going through a doorway. In terms of camera work, the actor was walking into frame. However going up the stairs the footage became very shaky and even post photography in editing, the eagle was even too much to be fixed using software stabilisation. Even despite using the tripod to minimise this it wasn't enough. The other shots (apart from one) didn't require tracking and shot steadiness was not a problem.	We will be investing in an inexpensive camera stabiliser which will drastically help improve the stability of our footage. We could go as far as using Steadicam rigs, gimbals or drones but a high production budget is something we do not have. Good practices would consist of constantly analysing our footage and capturing multiple takes of possible.
Quality of the framing of shots	In general our character positioning in frame was at a standard level with the exception of one or two moments where our initial character during the dialogue was too far out of the frame. Using the rule of thirds concept also helped out shot framing quality where we would ensure for example a character's face would cross over one of the points.	In the long run a more visually descriptive storyboard would help us as a team get the right idea of what we want into our heads. I drew the storyboard and as a group it would be useful to analyse storyboards from high production value films to see what we need to change.
Quality of shooting material appropriate to the task set, i.e. the content of your film pre and post editing was consistent with the exam directives	We were more or less on task with the required scripting elements, however there was a bit of confusion with the 'shot, reverse shot’ section where we ended up having four lines of back and forth dialogue within one continuous shot. We thought this would help create a flow to the scene and slow the pace down from the fast tracking and previous cuts.	Good organisation and time management will allow us to set timeout to really understand what we have been told to do and what is required of us.
Quality of selecting mise-en-scene including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting	We managed to get a blazer for the 'boss’ to wear to help establish his character to the audience as very formally dressed and serious. He also had his folders and phone out to show he has a very busy character. The other character was more of a worker for the boss who would go and run his errands for him. Here we had him wear more casual clothing (hoodie, bag). As time was very tight (and we'll work on that through planning) and we weren't so flexible with our location, being it a school with restrictions) lighting and other objects were hard to obtain or change.	We will spend plenty of time planning what outfit our characters will be wearing and what else will be in the frame.
Quality of editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer	Out of the three in our group I was chosen to edit the footage which was done at home. The only limitation this left us with was the ability for the others to see first hand what I was doing. However we we able to discuss what we were trying to achieve with what we had and in the end it didn't turn out bad but neither was it up to our standards. For example there is an edit that does not appear continuous where the sign on the door saying “The Fish” was out of focus. To tackle this I had to take another shot that was in focus but that had different lighting and positions so it didn’t fit well regardless of that we thought it best to be able to read it than not especially as it was part of the criteria we had to meet. Overall the meaning would've been conveyed to the viewer. I was able to also show continuity in the scene during the over the shoulder and reverse shot of the character coming through the door. And this was down to the camera man recording extra seconds before and after the event has taken place and the actor being able to match on action.	Organise time for us to be able to edit together. The media rooms are available but final cut can be tedious to use.
Quality of using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set	We chose to use the instrumental track to the song Wet 'Dreamz' by J Cole as we needed a backing track that was upbeat and mellow at the same time and brought up by Sam we decided on that. And this song was perfect and fits well as our character runs up the stairs we know he’s in a rush, the music helps emphasise this. It also continues to when he then walks through the door and fades out into diagetic sound as the dialogue begins. I could say that because we didn't use an external mic (smartphone) the audio quality was a bit poor in terms of hearing the dialogue well and so we had to increase that in editing which would result in a faint hiss.	Dubbing over the video would help keep the volume levels constant however this could lead to problems if syncing is done incorrectly. Methods such as getting room tone and clapping with help with audio control in editing
Quality of positioning and movements of actors	I think we could have had better positioning but I wouldn’t know how to do this.  I just feel like some of the frames aren’t in quite the right place.	Improve through the use of a well planned story board.
Quality of group planning, meeting targets and organisation	I think our planning was way to vague and quick but I feel our group consists of people who understand each other very clearly and can easily tell each other their honest opinions as to whether they like the idea or not. And this helps, but that’s no reason to not plan as much.	We plan to keep in contact and meet out of school hours ( Skype, face to face)
Group dynamics i.e. how did your group work together?	We worked well together, we all understood each other's ideas and all agreed. We also had difficulties, when we first tried to film it we had a different actor and we only had an hour with him and we were silly to spend 30 minutes finding an appropriate set(room) and after 39 minutes we weren’t finished. So we then found another actor and found a better room very quickly and so we had more time to do it and it ended up better than the first attempt as we knew what not to do. Other than unfortunate timing with actors and room availability we worked pretty well and quite quickly considering the problems we faced.
Other points of evaluation (e.g. equipment related, etc)

2. Preliminary Task Storyboard

1. Preliminary Filming Task