Research: Credit Order 2

This is the opening credits of 2010, $80 million film Shutter Island. It is interesting to analyse these credits also, as like ours it is a thriller. However, it is on a completely different scale to our thriller in terms of budget and concept. This would possibly lead us to think that the credits are slightly different because of this.



.A Film By Martin Scorcese

.Produced by Mike Medavoy, Arnold Messer

.Screenplay By Laeta Kalogridis

.Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane

.Director of Photography: Robert Richardson

.Ben Kingsley

.Leonardo DiCaprio

.Mark Ruffalo

.Edited By Thelma Schoonmaker

.Music by Robbie Robertson

.SHUTTER ISLAND



As we can see, the makeup of this credit order is different to the one prior. Unlike with 'This is England' the order doesn't have a wave of importance. It is quite clear that it starts with the most important by mentioning world acclaimed director Martin Scorcese. The order then continues down of less importance until finally finishing with the title of the film, also unlike the British independent film where the title arises around the middle. What particularly interested me about these credits is that the writer and novelist were considered more important than the films world famous stars such as Ben Kinglsey, Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo. One could only assume that this film would have a fairly large marketing campaign. This would mean that if the audience had reached the cinema to watch it, they would almost certainly already be aware that these actors are appearing. Their faces being plastered on the posters has already gone some way in selling tickets, and may even be the soul reason that some bought those tickets. This would be reinforced by the fact that the credits are relatively short and no other actors names are mentioned other than the big three, suggesting that this is a film reliant on the performances of is big names with little other supporting cast members.

Research: Credit Order

As research for our editing process we thought it would be useful to look at the credit order of films of a similar vein to what ours would be. Credit order can communicate a lot about the scale and importance of both film and those working within it. It can help my group construct our own list as something that is realistic.



.Film four and the UK Film Council Present
.In Association with EM Media and Screen Yorkshire
.A WARP Films Production
.In Association with Big Arty Productions
.A Shane Meadows Film
.THIS IS ENGLAND
.Thomas Turgoose
.Stephen Graham
.Jo Martley
.Andrew Snim , Vicky McClure
.Joe Gilgun, Rosamond Manson
.Andrew Ellis, Perry Benson, George Newton
.Jack Harper, Jack O'Connell, Kris Dosanjn
.Kieran Nardcastle, Chanel Cresswell, Danielle Watson
.Sophie Ellerby, Hannah Walters, Michael Socha
.Script Supervisor: Diarmid Grimshaw, Casting: Louise Meadows, Des Hamilton Hair and Makeup Supervisor: Donald McInnes
.Costume Designer: Jo Thompson Makeup and Hair Designer: Catherine Scoble Production Designer: Mark Leese
.Music Supervisor: John Boughtwood Origional Music: Ludovico Einaudi
.Direcotr of Photography: Danny Cohen
.Editor: Chris Wyatt
.Line Producer: Julia Valentine, Co-producer: Louise Meadows
.Executive Producers: Tessa Ross, Peter Carlton, Paul Trijbits
.Produced by Mark Herbert
.Written and Directed by Shane Meadows



As we can see from this list there is a general wave of importance that flows throughout the sequence. It starts with the most important names such as nationally know Stephen Graham and director Shane Meadows. With these being the biggest names they are accompanied by no other names on screen. Thomas Turgoose also has his own screen time despite being a relative unknown at the time of making it because he is the lead. Various actors are mentioned suggesting it is an ensemble cast. The list then gradually becomes less important when reaching the supporting cast and crew as the text gets smaller and the screen time is shared amongst a few names. Eventually the importance grows again towards the finish of the sequence as the lists of producers arise.

Editing - Day 3

Today was a far more successful day in the editing suite. We immediately addressed our fight scene in order to try to catch up with what we deleted the previous day. It is here that we realised that it is unnatural to have too many fast cuts in a 30 second scene. It got to the point where these cuts were becoming disorienting to the audience. We discovered that the fast cut-together sections were more effective when contrasted with one or two shots that are held for a longer. We tried to choose these shots when the dialogue was most intense and then use fast cuts on movement. This also helped with disguising any theatrical fighting mistakes. We managed to get a lot of work completed in the session and have almost completed our fight scene. This is the real challenge and we anticipate the rest of the edit should run smoothly after this.

Editing - Day 2

In the second editing session we set about continuing the good process made in the previous session. Early on we finalised some of the walking shots and made them more crisp and snappy and even visualised possible places in the frame that we could queue our titles. We then tried to do some more work on the fighting scene which is of course the key moment of our sequence. We wanted to break this section up into short snappy cuts to make it impactful and frightening. However, despite making decent progress with this method in the previous session we struggled. Because of the dialogue differences in different takes we got ourselves into a bit of a muddle. The clips became very disjointed in the sequence and we decided that for this section it would in fact be better to revert back to what we had saved before this and start moving forward again. This was of course frustrating but it was not a failure. In relation to editing, we learnt to be slightly more cautious when adding different footage in order to not loose track. We also got a demonstration of why always saving your progress is vital.

Editing - Day 1

Today brought the first day of editing meaning we had to recoup some of the things we learnt at the very start of the school year when editing our pre-lim's. We started by putting our footage into a newly created 'rush bin'. We then simply sifted through all of our footage made an assessment of clips we were likely to use and put these into the 'log bin.' Now our footage was organised we set about editing. We initially made an extremely rough cut by following our storyboard and putting everything we were certain would be in there, in an order that we could predict. This gave us a very long film but at least an idea of the direction it would take. From this we could then cut, move, and delete clips to form a more realistic cut.

Some little tips we picked up from our first session in the edit suite was that clips should be introduced at the last possible moment and cut from at the first possible moment. This stops the film from dragging and becoming boring. We found it amazing how much difference cutting a few seconds off can make a difference. We are now excited for the next session and picking some real momentum with our edit.

Shoot Day - Evaluation

In the days leading up to the day of our shoot, I completed various tasks in order to prepare the group as well as possible. Being the only Drama student in the group and having assumed the responsibility of our cast and their performance, I gathered our four actors together for a short workshop in which we ran over the fight scene which is undoubtedly the crescendo of our opening sequence. This gave them a clearer idea of what we wanted and allowed us a chance to actually choreograph the fight in order to ensure that it would be safe for all involved. This also gifted us with more time on the shoot day to focus on shots knowing that it had been sorted prior to the shoot. As well as this, I also personally contacted the schools theatre department and arranged a list of costumes that we would require meaning I could then pick them up the evening before. Myself and Brandon also visited Cranleigh in order to scout for a definite location of the shoot. We took pictures helping us to devise possible shots.

On the morning of the shoot there was of course an element of nerves as the day had been anticipated considerably. However, I was confident in the planning actions we had taken and believed we had conceived a good idea making me excited to get going. Before shooting, myself and Brandon arrived at the schools editing suite to have our final production meeting. This gave us the opportunity to iron out a confirmed plan of the day and discuss any potential issues. It was here that we made a late change of direction and decided that the actual fight scene would be shot in an alleyway in the school's campus. The reason for this was that the alleyway was perfectly suitable for what we needed and it would save precious time in terms of the entire day. Another key factor in the decision was that being in school allowed the cast to give less self conscious performances without the awkwardness of pedestrians surrounding them possibly affecting their conviction. This may seem trivial but we knew that them being embarrassed would be heavily impactful on the drama of the scene. We would still be making a trip to Cranleigh but this would be relatively quicker as we only planned to shoot our walking shots there.


When arriving on location we were delighted with what we found. The location thankfully looked identical to when we visited it a couple of days before. We were also happy with how in the shots we were able to make the quite rural village look much more industrial in order to conform with the films urban plot. It was not raining at the time which eliminated any weather related problems and the puddles left on the ground actually gifted us with what was one of my favourite shots of the day, in which we see Ethan walking down the round but only through the reflection made in the water. This was great as it made what was essentially an uneventful shot so much more visually interesting.

A major problem the group encountered was that only two weeks before the shoot day our group of three was cut down to two with Arabella unfortunately leaving the school putting the impetus on myself and Brandon. Despite some doubt from our teacher initially, we were determined to continue as a group of two and felt confident we could still compete the task effectively. On the shoot day we divided the camera work evenly with me and Brandon taking it in turns to shoot. However, for the fight scene I had a very clear vision of the way in which we needed to shoot it. It was intended to be shaky and noisy in order to give an element of distress. It is an unconventional way of shooting but I believed it would be effective to the audience. For this reason I shot the entirety of the fight scene with Brandon focussing on sound as this was our only scene that included dialogue. Being the more confident speaker in the group, we also agreed that I would communicate any direction to the cast in terms of performance and staging. I believe I did well shooting the fight scene and working with the cast. From what we have seen thus far, both of us are delighted with the what the scene looks like and it is this section of the sequence we look forward to editing most. I also think I managed to create a good mixture of hard work and enjoyment amongst the cast and I could visibly see that they felt comfortable and were willing to continually go for more takes which was fantastic.

The fight scene may appear to be the obvious answer for what went best during the day. It is true that this is what I enjoyed the most. However, I was actually most satisfied with the walking scene. I was originally quite nervous about this series of shots as I felt they would be boring to watch and would just seem as though they were there to pass the time. However, I think we managed to shoot various shots in quite an innovative way that made it visually interesting as well as establishing the setting and mood of the film. The part of the shoot I felt could have gone better was the classroom scene. Prior to the classroom scene we spent a long period of time setting up the tracking shot outside of the classroom. Setting up this kit removed a large period of shooting time and meant that when it came to shooting within the classroom we were loosing light and for that reason had to rush in some cases being forced into getting shots in only one take. This removed the element of security in shooting.


In conclusion, I was delighted and even surprised with what we managed to come away with from the shoot day. I felt myself and Brandon worked excellently as a team in the way that we were completely comfortable with each other allowing for honest contributions during the shoot which are important. If I were to do the shoot again the only thing I would alter would be slightly better time management in order to avoid the issues we encountered in the classroom scene.

Shoot Schedule

‘Food Chain’ Shoot Schedule

8:45am - Meet at lower car park.

9:00am – Leave Hurtwood House

9:15am – Arrive at Cranleigh

9:40am – Be set up for walking shots

9:40am to 10:00am – Shoot walking shots. Storyboard number 7 (others to be decided on location.)

10:10 am to 12:30am – Shoot all fighting shots. Storyboard numbers 8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17 (Others may be added on location.)

12:30am to 1:00pm – Lunch.

1:00pm to 1:20pm – Set up school shots.

1:20pm – 3:00pm – Shoot school shots. Storyboard numbers 1,2,3,4,5,6.

3:00pm to 3:20pm – End shoot. Pack up.

Location

Location proved to be one of the trickiest elements to plan for our shoot date. We only actually storyboarded two shooting locations one of which is a school. This would appear easy considering that we are in a school. However, this school sits in the heart of the surrey hills whereas our film is set in a urban area. Adam (teacher) was doubtful when we originally suggested to shoot on school grounds because of this. He thought the audience would clearly be able to see that we are not in a built up area. However, we have demonstrated to him the places in the school we shall film and assured him that every effort will be taken to ensure that no woodland areas a featured in shot meaning the audience will be none the wiser to our actual shoot location.

Our only other location is the one Ethan is to be beaten up in. This had a lot more versatility as it can be anywhere on his journey walking back home. There were various different suggestions such as using a section of school premises. However, we wanted this event to be detached from his school life. There was also the possibility of using the scrapyard featured in a former Hurtwood House music video named We Are From Venice. Eventually, we found out that there is a car park in local village Cranleigh. This would give the bullies a realistic place to hang out and also gives us the opportunity to make the film look as urban as possible.

I actually then made the decision to travel to Cranleigh one afternoon to scout our location. This gave me a sense of relief as I could see that what we had in mind was appropriate and suitable to shoot in. It solidified our decision on location and meant we could start working on other things. I took some photos while there to show my fellow group members.

Costume / Props

Costume

Ethan - (Glasses, black trousers, white shirt with school tie, school blazer, black shoes.)

Bullies - (Black trousers, white shirt with short/fat tie, tracksuit jacket and hoodies, trainers, baseball caps.)

Props

.Fake Cigarette's
.Credit Card
.Phone
.Fake Blood

Thankfully, all the costumes and props are can be brought in from either by us or our cast members. The only exception to this would be school uniforms and fake blood, both of which are easily acquirable from the schools theatre department.

Casting

In any film making casting is key. The cast are the individuals responsible for making the idea or vision come to life. This is especially true with our idea. Our idea and storyboard is certainly not high concept or overly reliant on the visual. It is a British, independent drama/thriller that if it were to be made for real would most likely be constructed on a small budget. It is reliant on the acting performances to be successful.

 

For our young protagonist (Ethan Bailey), we had to find someone who is not overwhelming physically with an element of vulnerability. For this I came up with the idea of using my friend Jake who is small in height and has a history in acting having appeared in various West End shows and television. Knowing him on a personal level is something we also thought was important. Unlike on drawn out film productions, we are shooting for a single day. This is not enough time to establish a creative, working relationship. So for us it is important that we already know our cast on a personally so we feel comfortable directing them.

 

For the three bullies we obviously decided to go for individuals in the year above. This is so they are more physically imposing and have natural awareness of status. However, it was not simply a case of choosing the most intimidating looking people. We attempted to choose those who do Drama A level and therefore have experience in performing. The most important cast member was the girl bully as it is her reckless antagonism that carries the conflict. 

 

On reflection we are happy with who we have managed to get on board and had no trouble in doing so. We look forward to creating the sequence with their help.

Cast List

Ethan Bailey - Jake Pratt

 

Girl Bully - Elena Saleh

Bully 1 - Johnny Packer

Bully 2 - Owen Carey-Evans

Bully 2

 

Bully 1

 

Girl Bully

 

Ethan Bailey

 

 

 

Character List

Ethan Bailey - Ethan is a 15 year old boy living urban area in a large British city. He is an only child and his heavily neglected by his parents, one of which is an alcoholic. Ethan would be regarded as a social outcast with not many friends. He suffers from extensive dyslexia and finds school personally challenging because of this. This is a strong contributing factor to the bullying that he receives. Visually, Ethan is small, wears glasses and has brown hair. However, there is an endearing element to his look which allows the audience to sympathise with him.

Bullies - The bullies are rather brutal and unrelenting in terms of their demeanour. They are verbally horrible to Ethan in their attack and shocking with their physicality and the methods they choose to harm him. They are rather stereotypical in their look e.g. baseball caps, hoodies, tracksuit bottoms. They are obviously far more physically imposing that Ethan.