The Preliminary Task

The Task:

We had to film and edit a sequence of a person entering a room and exchanging brief dialouge with someone else. The sequence had to include 180 degree shot, match on action and shot/reverse shot.

Planning our Ideas:

As a group, we all wanted there to be some form of plot and not just somebody walking in and talking. We went into a small media suite to brainstorm our ideas. It was there that we began to think about our plot, a small window looking out onto a field gave us the idea for a person to stand dramatically at the window, waiting for the another person to walk in. We then progressed onto the idea of a strong business-woman and a hitman discussing their next target, our plot then evolved onto a comic element. Originally a Thriller idea, the plot was now taking the form of a Thriller parody, the hitman's targets were going to be of a feline variety, that was going to be the main plot twist. We all really liked the plot-twist so we set about storyboarding for our parody.

Storyboarding:

 Shot 1: We wanted to fade into the shot, an over the shoulder shot was going to be used so that we could see Daniel (The Hitman) approaching from behind, this part of our short film was filmed in the foyer of the media suites. The diagetic sound lets you know that the setting is a place of work.

Shot 2: This shot was going to have Daniel entering the space, then on cue I was going to turn around and tell Daniel to "Just go straight in". We wanted the idea of a receptionist so it would show Lizzie's character was a successful business woman. We were influenced by the TV show 'The Apprentice' the receptionist serves the role of showing the employer's success. We had a twist, a male receptionist shows how hegemonic (dominant) Lizzie's character is. Daniel then walks away towards the door.

Shot 3: This shot was going to be framed by the door, the window in the door in of the media suite would be the centre of the shot. Daniel was going to appear at the window as he got closer, this is the first real look we get at the hitman.

Shot 4: We wanted a close-up of the door handle, to emphasise Daniel's entrance, this also served as our match on action, the pace was kept by the speed of how the door handle was opened.

 Shot 5: Usually the waiting powerfull character is looking out of the window, for the parody element we closed the blinds, so it looked like Lizzie's character had been staring at the blinds all that time. Daniel was meant to slide in the shot at the opposite way the door opens and at the same pace. Lizzie was meant to turn her head and say "I've been expecting you!" this is the parodical element coming through again, it is almost a stereotypical line.

Shot 6: We had included a close-up of Lizzie's hand crushing a piece of paper (a photograph of the hitman's target). We included it to show the stress and frustration that Lizzie's character was going through.

 

Shot 7: Lizzie turns around and sits down looking opposite Daniel in one swift move.

 

Shot 8: To carry on with the Thriller part of the genre we had a close-up of the over-turned hitman photos to keep the hidden-identity element and to add to the shock and humour when they are revealed. The shot will end just as Daniel's character turns it over - to tease the audience.

Shot 9: This consisted of an over the shoulder  shot of Lizzie, with Daniel's character saying "So how shall I do it?" this line implies how should he kill the target but then it's not made explicit. So there is still an air of mystery.

 

Shot 10:  We reversed the shot and had an over the shoulder shot of Daniel with Lizzie's response "I don't care as long as it's done" this was to show her impatience.

 Shot 11: We wanted to include a slightly higher angle reverse shot, so Lizzie stayed within in the frame when she stood up and to make Daniel look much more vulnerable and smaller. The dialouge to spark Lizzie's anger would have to be impertinent/probing so we made the line "Why do you want him dead?"

Shot 12: Here we used the 180 degree shot to show Lizzie's height and dominance over Daniel's character and the diagetic sound of her hands slamming on the table. The dialouge was going to be "That is none of your concern! So are you in... or not?" this was later changed on the day to "That is none of your concern! Now kill him" this soinded much more aggresive and flowed better.

 

Shot 13: The final twist was going to be revealed in the last shot, with a slight tilt to keep the tension and then thr revelation of the collection of photographs of the Hitman's targets, this would then fade to black for the credits.

 

The Run-through:

 

In order to see if the shots would work and if the lines would work well, we decided to have a run-through practice of our preliminary, we were then also able to see if our film would fit within the time constraints. At first we wanted the over the shoulder shots facing the people not speaking to see their reactions but then realized it did not work very well so we knew we had to change it in our final Preliminary film. Below is the video of our run-through (bloopers included):

 

Costumes:

 

After filming the run-through of our preliminary, we then thought about the costumes for each of our characters. My brief scene as Secretary would involve me wearing a shirt and tie to look adult and professional. Daniel was going to wear some worn jeans and a hoodie to look more thuggish. Lizzie was going to wear a skirt and blazer to look intelligent, professional and wealthy, also wearing heels to make her taller. Even though we were filming in black and white, Lizzie was going to wear red lipstick to look more mature and dangerous.

 

Editing:

 

Upon completion of our filming for our final Preliminary film, we set about editing. We chose to fade into our establishing shot, so the audience would be eased into the narrative. We then proceded to use cuts to keep the pace, with the timinngs we used though the editing is almost seamless such as when Daniel walks across the the secretary's desk. It gives a professional and well made feel to the film. We decided to use black and white for the film to give it a darker film noir look and also as a parody it would add a funny edge and tribute to classic old thrillers. between the second from last and last shot we used a dissolve to keep the suspense and intruige before the hitman's target was revealed and also to experiment with different types of editing. For the credits we used traditional rolling credits and used music from the blooper reel to add to the comeidic effect of the film. However we originally had planned on using the rather melodramatic "O Verona" by Craig Armstrong but it would have meant that the credits would need to be longer and we would also need copyright permission. Here is the audio for "O Verona"

 

 

The Final Film:

 

From storyboard to screen:

 

Along the way we made some changes between storyboard and screen, these were often made on the day when we had new ideas and methods of filming. Examples of such changes are:

-Shot 1: We split a would-be tracking shot into two shots, to show Daniel's charater getting closer to his destination and also to try a hand at making 'invisible editing'.

-Shot 3: Since it was a quick shot and also to keep the pace of the film we changed it to just a mid-shot.

-Shot 12: We altered the dialouge to "That is none of your concern! Now kill him!" which was originally "That is none of your concern! So are you in... or not?" this was to make it sound more blunt and aggresive and also to add humour

 

The Blooper reel:

 

This contains all the original footage for our preliminary film. At the begining we realized we had left the door open and this would conflict with the continuity of the film so we had to redo the scene with the door closed, there is a point where I realised that if I left the room with the camera that I would be able to fit Daniel and Lizzie into the shot frame a lot easier.

 

 

The Final Edit:

 

After all the hard work of planning, storyboarding, filming and editing our film I was extremely proud and happy with the end result. The film is everything we wanted it to be, we wanted it to be well edited and put together with a funny parodic element to it and we all had a lot of fun producing it (evident from our blooper reel):