Certificate

The film we intend on producing (Fatal Motive) will be a 12 or a 12A. This is based on the following

• Drug use (Smoking)
• Violence and Gore (Gun, Blood)
• Implied Sexual Content

Were we to produce the full film, These issues would be shown more frequently, but not intensified or glorified. The decision to certify the film as a 12 or 12A is based on the list from the BBFC website (mentioned in this post: http://asmediastudiessamshepherd2013.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/bbfc-and-guidelines.html)

This does not affect our target audience in any way as we are producing the film for people our own age. This does not restrict the audience from viewing the film in any way. 

Props Continued

The Kershaw Penguin

 Since I have started to find out about where I can source the props for this film, I have found several potential candidates. The camera is the biggest example of this as I have been able to get hands on with several cameras from the era that I need. The first is a kershaw penguin eight 20 camera which is pretty much mint condition which is essential to make people believe it is in that time period. The second example is a Seagull 120 film camera which is also in excellent condition. These are both from the photography department within the school so these are easy to borrow.

The Seagull 120 film Camera

The issue is that the seagull was originally made in 1964 which is way past our proposed timeline and whilst it does look like a vintage camera, it does not fit into the timeline we had hoped and we have therefore decided to use the Kershaw camera.  This is quite a good decision in my book as the seagull is nowhere near as iconic as the penguin.

The gun has also been re-evaluated and we have found a viable alternative to the one we had before (which Max pointed out was unobtainable in the United Kingdom). I shall be obtaining this within the next few days.

Copyright

Copyright is the protection of intellectual property, this can be any form of media from songs to literary works. The use of said property without authenticated permission from the owner is breaking copyright and law.

This is no issue of ours as we are creating all the logos, film and sound ourselves. I have proof of this in terms of music as that is all we have produced. This proof documents me writing and recording the piece. We also intend on doing this sort of thing for all other pieces that we produce.

Studio Name and Animation

From the beginning of the storyboarding process, we have established that our company name is SMAX studios. We tried to play around with logos but we didn't really want to stray from the initial design shown to the right. This is because it looks classic and is a quintessential logo design. We couldn't come up with any other drafts that we were any happier with. We knew we wanted to adapt it but we couldn't think of a way to improve upon it. Max came up with the idea of someone shooting something to complete the x and we were given time to think about it. I created this picture to show him what it would look like:

This is when we started playing around with the idea of a live action sequence. We started to think about starting the film with a clip as most studios do. This is when I said it would be much simpler to create using animation rather than live action as we would not need to use green screen and we could always go back and edit minor details whereas live action would require filming again. We then drew up this storyboard:


This adds a bit of fluidity to the beginning of the film as well as establishes the genre. The easiest way to carry this out would be to animate it. I know someone that could produce a high quality flash animation for us or I could attempt it myself. This depends on the time I have and commitments to other sections of the production of the film. I still feel that if I tell the Animator exactly what I want and give him a detailed description of the look of the models as well as the storyboard, it will still be considered our idea and work.

UPDATE: I have chosen to get my good friend Ben Lynch to animate the opening, I briefed him in the video here: 
https://vimeo.com/82369598

This is the first draft he sent me a day after I briefed him: 

I sent him feedback and he quickly returned with this: 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByI99hlaIcanQ1pHdnYwX2JjdWs/edit?usp=sharing

An addition that he came up with and informed me about was the light movement and it add a slight feel of realism as the light would definitely move if shot.

Location

As Max is in charge of location, he has found several potential locations that we both want to use. The post can be found here: http://asmediastudiesmaxshearman.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/locations-for-filming.html

the locations are exactly what I hope we'd find as they are not very modern and fit in with our film's timeline.

Fatal Motive: Genre (draft)

Our film went through several changes (from Film Noir to Neo-Noir) so the evidence o the blog seems rather unclear. We are creating a faithful Neo-Noir piece. We are trying to remain as authentic as possible in terms of Mise-En-Scene and atmosphere. This means we want to use a similar sort of music. In a previous post (Linked here) I composed a piece of Jazz to fit with the ilm which was very successful. I may experiment with other pieces but I feel that this is a fit for purpose piece of music for the genre.

We will however be using less conventional camera techniques (such as Reverse Tracking) which I believe to be good looking shots. I experimented with reverse tracking (on a post here) and believe I can achieve a good effect. We will also be using flash animation for the introduction.

Animatic: Fatal Motive (draft)

In today's lesson, Max and I produced an animatic for the shots we have in mind as they appear currently. This helped the ideas we had in terms of flashes, credits and camera movement come to life and we were very happy with the results.

Fatal Motive Animatic from Sam SheepDawg-OEight on Vimeo.

We came across an issue with the music which I'm glad we flagged up as soon as it was. The jazz I came up with does not work for the scene I wrote it for. This is not an issue as with a couple more bars of drums at the beginning, the music fits perfectly for the later scene in which the credits start and it ends really well. In the animatic, the music is placed where it should end as opposed to where it starts. Apart from that, we are very happy with the results and we think that nothing major needs to be changed.

Music Consideration

I have created a piece we both believe to be suitable, I have footage of me creating it so that the examiner is assured it is all original.



Max wanted some jazz that built up to a climax, and I believe this does that quite well. Therefore, I think this piece will work.

UPDATE: Since the production of the animatic, we have found that the music works well as the end scene but doesn't fit well as the establishing scene. I will rerecord with an actual Bass guitar and maybe add more guitar layers.

Fatal Motive: Audience and Distribution

We needed to decide on an audience for our film and we were quickly on the same page. The audience we decided upon were teems (predominantly male) that have a relative disposable income. This is because of our proposed distribution method. We have said that if we were to produce the full film, we would stream it. This is due to the lack of hugely expensive equipment and lack of budget to distribute it elsewhere. We talked about art house cinema but we decided against it in the end.

Props

The list of responsibilities shows that we need a few props, so I have done some research into vintage cameras, I found a website that shows cameras first produced in the 40's.
http://licm.org.uk/livingImage/1940Room.html
This website is a vital resource for helping us get the right looking camera for the time.

I have looked at a flash for these cameras as this would improve the scene and found this:
http://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/166389687/1940s50s-pocket-flash-gun?utm_source=google&utm_medium=product_listing_promoted_en_gb&utm_campaign=vintage_low

This would add an aesthetic touch to the scene and would make in more believable. I do however believe that this is not an essential component.

I have found a potential prop for the gun:

http://www.airyear.com/revolver-shaped-windproof-lighter-with-jacket-p-38600.html

This is a cheap way to get an appropriate prop and I think it looks rather realistic.

I have emailed my friend James Ivett about a rotary phone as he was able to get hold of a replica last time one was needed, I have not got a reply as of yet.

The Zippo lighter will be courtesy of my friend Benny Herrington who has one and will happily lend me the item.

I will purchase herbal cigarettes so the smoking will look realistic.

The fake blood will be made with the techniques and items shown in this video:

The furniture, is something I am relying on people I know already having or worst coming to the worst, furniture will be hidden in darkness to stop anyone seeing that it is modern

Further planning

After last lesson's rough story plan, we decided to spend some time thinking about everything we will need to get before we can film. We have made some mild changes to the story just to establish a link between the shooting and the antihero (which will be evidenced in the storyboard) but this really doesn't affect the narrative. Here is a list we came up with all the things that we will need for the filming:

I have already emailed or contacted several people about music and props and I am now awaiting a response.


Initial story planning

Today, we decided who we were going to be working with and creating our final production with. I chose to work with Max as he seemed focused and capable and I believe that we work well together. The problem I thought we were going to encounter is his lack of media experience but it has yet to hinder us. He seems to be the driving force in terms of narrative and the storyline he has proposed is a really solid plot. We have made changes to weaker points in the plot to make it fit better with the noir theme but I really like the idea of the proposed plot as I think that we can experiment with lighting and produce a great looking piece.

The initial proposed storyline. We have added places for credits to go and changed minor details.

We then decided to plan the shots in the form of a condensed, brief storyboard. This was to get the narrative plot in our heads and to start to visualise the piece. Also, we got a better idea of how the shots would fit with one another and we could build upon our ideas from here. I found this helpful to grasp exactly what max wanted from the storyline and I could see what I liked and didn't.

 This is an example of changes we have made, I felt the knife wasn't in conjunction with the film noir genre and Max agreed. Since this photograph was taken, we added several shots that link the narrative better.

This will be the sequence in which the credits roll over, This is shown in the previous sheet with the post it saying 'Credits'. We have since refined what we want to put in here and there is more of a narrative flow. We have also decided to use a rotary phone and an old style film camera to cooperate with the expected mise-en-scene of the genre.

This is one of my proposed ideas for how we could introduce the street and the pictures could have replaced the jump shots. We discussed it's advantages and disadvantages and we decided there were too many impracticalities and it wouldn't have been a great aesthetic improvement. For this to work, we would have to either take original pictures or source photos from a third party and then style them as actual 40's photographs, then decide on how to film. For little benefit, it is a lot of work and we don't think it is worth our time.

All in all, I think this was a very productive lesson and we worked efficiently and effectively as a team. I am genuinely excited to get this sorted out and cannot wait to see the final film.

Foleying

Foleying is a simple process in which you recreate the sound effects of films. For example you can tap objects repeatedly against sand to produce a similar sound you expect to see along with horse riding. 

This is a video showing that example by a professional Foley artist called Gary Hecker:

I had a go with foleying a gunshot effect to see the ways in which I could use different objects for a sound effect completely unrelated to the sound needed. I chose the gunshot because you have to be creative if you want a gunshot effect as guns are hard to get original footage for and even harder to obtain one. The video shows the attempts I had at creating the sound effect:

I left some weaker attempts out of the video, for example an empty crisp packet as the sound was nowhere near enough to drown out the sound of me smacking it and the bang itself was weak. I chose the air packets as they had a nice echo that seemed like genuine diegetic echo and the bang was full and loud.

From this, I have learnt how to think creatively about objects and generally how important foleying is when considering sound you cannot create on the day of filming. I shall have to consider any foleying attempts necessary when planning and filming the final production.