Understanding camera shots/angles/movement in general

Extreme long-shot:
Used to express the setting of the scene that will be used as the setting throughout a movie (e.g. by showing the "Hollywood" sign in the picture above in an extreme long-shot for a movie, it is clear to the viewer that the movie will be indeed set in Hollywood/Los Angeles).

Tracking shot:

A 'tracking shot' is when a shot is taken by keeping track of something in particular (e.g. if somebody is walking, the camera will keep movement but also keep track of the person's own movements -- this is a tracking shot).

Bird's Eye View:
Filmed from a top-down perspective and, once again, more likely to be used to show the atmosphere of the setting (e.g. if a bird's eye view was taken of NYC and Miami -- they would use bird's eye view shots to highlight the gritty streets or the busy metropolis of NYC/humid and sun-filled beaches of Miami etc.)

Low Angle Shot:
Filmed from the ground looking upwards -- for example, a camera shot which is taken of a person but from the ground looking upwards therefore making him appear as some sort of 'giant' or having some form of superiority.

Close-up:

Panning:
Movement of a still/video camera but in the motion of a person shaking their head to signal a "no", meaning that panning is the horizontal movement of a camera.

Tilting:

In a simple explanation, tilting is the movement of a still/video camera yet it moves as if a person would when nodding his head (in other words, the camera stays stationary yet it rotates in a vertical plane).

Crew and Cast of Opening Sequence

Nile O'Meally-Newell: Bradley "Keano" Kean (protagonist)
Shingai Manungo: Cameraman
Liban Ali: Tyreese Lewis (friend turned into the main antagonist)
Omar Abasi: Editor

Production Company Name/Logo

The production company name that we are going to use is a custom production company name that is called Eagle Eye Productions. The reason that I wanted to create a production company that hasn't been used before or is an existing production company is because our movie, Split, takes inspiration from a mixture of movies with different types of genres such as Goal (which takes on an aspirational football genre) and the Kidulthood/Adulthood film series (which takes on a drama genre) and since Split is a movie that takes on a storyline that hasn't been duplicated or used in any other film before, I decided to also invent a production name for the movie too so that it could blend well with the refreshing feel that Split would give to the audience.

The colours are pretty much simple which is what I had tried to go for with the production company logo since the mood, atmosphere and synopsis of the movie are all pretty simple and to create a complex production logo would contrast the film and opening sequence itself so this is why I had decided to go with red and black with a white background in my production company logo as these three colours are not only primary colours but also plain colours.

Background Music for Opening Sequence

We searched for songs that would blend well with the purpose and genre of Split as it is a drama/football movie so we were thinking of choosing a particular song that would represent the main character, being Bradley "Keano" Kean, as a person who wants to be the best in the world at what he loves to do (which is football) yet he also wants to finish his education by passing all of his exams with results that would take him on a sailing boat to University but the gang life he wants to leave is slowly pulling him back in so in other words, a motivational song would best suit the opening sequence as it would motivate Keano to leave his 'crime life', aspire his 'football' lifestyle and revise for his exams so that he can exceed his expectations.

The first song that sounded like it would have fit with our description of the BGM for our opening sequence was 'Kanye West - Runaway' but the instrumental without the hook. However, when we actually used it as the background music for the opening sequence, it didn't really work well with it as the instrumental had a slow but brutal beat to it whereas there is the football scene in the opening sequence that shows a change of pace as Nile O-Meally Newell is swiftly dribbling his way around football cones so we realized that we needed a faster instrumental.

Opening sequence ideas

After group discussions and agreements, we had decided not to go with the initial opening sequence ideas at all and had decided to think of a totally different plot, characters and genre in particular. The reasons that I felt that the initial opening sequence analysis would not have worked is because the "thriller" genre is particularly difficult to nail and considering that there were some parts of it made little sense meant that we needed to think of an opening sequence that the audience would fully understand and be engaged in from start to end.

The opening sequence is going to be filmed in different areas in comparison to my initial opening sequence idea (which was simply going to be filmed inside the school premises only) and the locations for the opening sequence will be in the Astroturf, the Pool Meadow alleyway and the school cafe which will be used for when Keano revises for his upcoming exams. 

The scene will start off with the production company logo (e.g. "Metro-Goldwyn Mayer presents") and then that brief production company scene will lead to the next scene being Nile (Keano) who will be fixing up his tie as he's ready to go to school. The next scene will be followed by a different production company presenting the opening sequence (e.g. "An Hourglass Times Production") and then the brief scene will lead to the next one being Liban (Tyreese) walking towards Keano as Keano's revising for his exams and Tyreese will try and convince Keano to finish revising at that moment and go with him but Bradley will refuse which leads to Liban leaving the scene. The scene after that will be the introduction of the characters' names (e.g. "NILE O-MEALLY NEWELL and LIBAN ALI") for a mere number of seconds before Nile will be putting on his football kit before looking in the mirror once more as the camera takes a tracking shot from top-to-bottom showing his Nike socks. 

The next scene will be him dribbling over 7 football cones before taking one more step and then blasting the football into the back of the net. The introduction of more characters' names will appear after that scene which will then lead to Keano dressing up in a black bomber hoodie as he is ready to rendezvous with the gang and the next scenes will be him meeting up with the gang before the title of the movie appears as the final scene ("SPLIT").

Mood Board

This is the mood board for the topic we are doing as "Split" will include football themes which are evident in the pictures of the Nike kit which Nile O'Meally Newell uses in the opening sequence and throughout the start of the film before he digs in deeper by trying to get into Arsenal and the football pitch which is similar to the Astroturf where we had filmed our football scene from the opening sequence that will also be used as a location in the 'Split' movie as Bradley Keano attempts to rise from being the school star player to superstardom by playing in the Emirates Stadium.

Other themes are also present in this mood board such as the gang pictures which represent Keano's life as a gang member and the Union Jack flag which represents the fact that the filming will take place in Britain and the gangs that will be present in the movie will be British gangs. This means that the 'Split' movie will not take on different gang cultures but attempt to include British gang culture in the movie only.

Audience Expectations from Genre of Film

Since our genre of movie will be particularly hard to execute and keep refreshing as the same ideas have been recycled and used in previous movies such as Kidulthood, Adulthood, Anuvahood and Shank and over the time that had passed, each movie had been receiving less favourable reviews from the audience meaning that there is nothing new brought to those movies as even the storylines of those movies bear many similarities. 

With that being noted, that is why Split's storyline is a storyline played from three 'perspectives' but all played by the main protagonist (Bradley Keano) where an equal amount of time will be spent fleshing out the football character, gang member character and academic character so that none of these three personalities are felt by the audience as not being able to be fully fleshed-out or leaving any 'plotholes' in the movie as any questions that are unanswered about any of these personalities would leave the audience being questionable too.

Health and Safety Info -- (Split Opening Sequence)

As part of our health and safety, we ensured that the environments/areas that we had used in our opening sequence would be beneficial to us and would not harm us in any way. An example of this includes the Astroturf football scene -- we ensured that Nile used football cones since if we had other characters be included in the scene, he may suffer from an injury of some sort whereas with football cones laid out as he's dribbling his way past them; he would be more comfortable doing what he can with the scene as there are less restrictions and it would be fully safe since he is the only character apparent in that scene.

Furthermore, in the football scene; Nile O' Meally-Newell made sure that he was not wearing the actual football boots but casual Vans since there would be a slight risk of him injuring himself (e.g. spraining his ankle -- this would cost us since he has to use his feet to dribble the ball in this scene so a character replacement would blow the whole opening sequence out of the water since we would have to replace Nile as the main protagonist with somebody else) whereas with Vans, the shoes have no studs and are simple sneakers so this means that Nile has little-to-no risk of spraining his ankle etc.

Font Analysis

Calibri is a font that is simple and bold yet it also oozes professionalism and would more likely be found in letters and documents on softwares such as Microsoft Word etc. It is proven to be more professional in comparison to other fonts by the fact that it replaced Times New Roman as the default typeface in Word on Microsoft Office 2007 and replaced Arial as the default on PowerPoint, Excel etc..





Century Gothic is a more rounded font in comparison to fonts such as Arial etc. and gives that sense to the viewer that this font would be less likely to be found on letters and professional documents and more likely to appear in magazine articles, leaflets and on video game covers etc. (as it is the font used for both BioShock and Battlefield Heroes).


#Omar Abasi

SPLIT story board

Props List

• 7 Football Cones 
• 2 Footballs 
• 1 Folder 
• 1 Pen
• 1 Phone
• 1 School Bag 
• 1 Set of Headphones

Costumes

Costumes

Mirror scene 1 (football kit)

For this scene the character will be looking at his reflection in a mirror, when we film the character we will film him wearing:

·      A football kit complete with football shirt, football shorts and football socks.

Mirror scene 2 (smart dress)

For this scene the character will be looking at his reflection, we will see himself wearing smart dress as this is what he will be wearing when he in his 6^th form this will include:

·      Smart trousers (grey), smart shirt (white) with a skinny tie (black).

Mirror scene 3 (gang clothing)

For this scene the character will be looking at his reflection in the mirror; the character will be looking at him before he is about to go to his gang, in this scene the character will be wearing:

* Dark blue jeans, white t-shirt black jumper and a black bomber jacket.

SPLIT initial Idea

The film would be about a teenager called Bradley Kean/ keano (Nile O’Meally- Newell), Keano lives with his mum and his little brother his mum, his dad left when he was 5 which left his mum to bring him up on her own as well as his younger brother and working two jobs, it doesn’t need to be said that he grew up seeing his mother struggle and as soon as he was able to he joined a gang and made a little bit of money of which he told his mum that he was making from working in a shop.

 He is a gifted footballer but he also has been included in gang culture for a long period of time. But he has decided to focus on his football and education, after he experienced what he could be facing if he keeps on including himself in gang crime.

But keano will find that it isn’t that simple, as he is very high up in the gang and the other gang member don’t want him to leave and if he does he has been threatened with all sorts of threats on his family and his life, and to show Keano that they (the gang) aren’t messing around they have kicked the front door of his house and stole most of the valuables, with now other choice he has to explain what he has been doing and why this has been happening, after the shock of this Keano’s mum kick him out. Keano then goes to stay with his best mate Sam Walters  who is still involved with the gang. After this keano has started to miss schools and has not been training for a long time.

He finely manages to get everything back on task and is revising for up and coming exams and if in training for trials that he has been given for Arsenal. Meanwhile the gang have found out that Keano has been living with Sam and they beat Sam up so badly that he gets rushed into hospital, after hearing this Keano goes to see Sam who tells Keano that the gang are going to his mums house, keano runs to his mums house to find the door kicked in again and his brother on the floor in a blood puddle, keano gets his little brother to a hospital and finds that the doctors are worried that his brother will not be able to walk again, upon this his mother arrives at the hospital SLAPS Keano, who then kisses his little brother and his mother on the for head.

He then goes to the leader of the gang and beats him to near death, the gang then decide instead of killing Keano they phone the police the and report the event. When keano arrives home he receives two phone calls one from his mother telling him that the doctors got it wrong and his little brother will be fine, the second call is from his school saying that he has passed all of his exams and should decide on a university to apply for after hearing this keano thinks that life is starting to look up then he finds a letter on the floor addressed to him when he open it he finds a letter from Arsenal asking him if he would sign for the youth arsenal reserves. Now Keano thinks that things are finally looking up,  he sits down on the sofa at his mums house, he closes his eyes and then police lights are seen through the door and then the door is heavily knocked (by policeman)

Iconic sounds connected with the genre

Lupe Fiasco- Show goes on


I thinks this song connects well with the genre of our film because it is motivational/inspirational. The words and instrumental chosen go well with the rappers flow and the singing voice in the chorus. The Rapper puts across an inspiring message which says: 


"No matter what you see when you look outside your window, brown grass or green grass, picket fence or barbed wire, never ever put them down, you just lift your arms higher, raise them till your arms tire, let them know you're there, that you're struggling,surviving, that you're gonna preserve"

Certificate ratings – BBFC

 

The Film SPLIT will be rated 15, which means that only people aged 15 and above would be allowed to watch this film whether at home or in the cinemas. This then restricts us from using discriminatory language or behaviour as it might influence some children the wrong thing. However because our film is drug related we will be allowed to show scenes of drug taking but we will not be allowed to promote or encourage drug misuse. We would not be allowed to use easily accessible weapons within the film as some people within the audience might be facing the same problem causing them to do some self harm with a similar weapon. However we will also be allowed to use strong language (swearing) but it restricts us from using it  repeatedly. Nudity is allowed, as long as we do not use an strong detail. Lastly violence would be allowed but we would not be allowed to focus on the pain received or any disturbing injuries.

Existing film production company research

Warner Bros. Pictures 





Warner Bros. is a film production company which was first founded as Warner Bros. Studios in 1918 and the name was later changed to Warner Bros. Pictures in 1923. It is a subsidiary of Time Warner and its headquarters are in California. The corporate name honours the four brothers Jack, Harry, Albert and Sam Warner. The three elder brothers first began in the film theatre business after they managed to get their hands on a Film projector which they started of using to to show films in a small mining town in Pennsylvania,Ohio. They then managed to own a theatre which they opened in 1903 and was named the Cascade.

Iconic Director- Drama Films

Billy Wilder: Film Director, Producer and Screenwriter 

Career 

Billy Wilder created 60Films in a career that lasted fr 50years. On June 15 1960, he won an award for best director, producer and writer for the film the apartment. Wilder left Paris in 1920 to make his debut as a film director in Berlin. he then relocated in Hollywood in 1933 and 6 years later he co-wrote the film Ninotchka which was a comedy. His very first award as for best director for the film The lost weekend, which was a drama about alcoholism.

SPLIT Genre History

Film Name: SPLIT
Genre: Drama

The Drama Genre was formed to show emotional themes within a film. This for films with dramatic such alcoholism, Drug addiction, corruption and violence. Normally the character would be in conflict with themselves, others, the society or even natural disasters (those humans cannot control). there are different types of drama ; these are romantic drama , crime drama, courtroom drama, sports drama and period drama. The Drama Genre was formed in the 18Th century to show a particular character or characters fighting life itself and going different conflicts that people meet in general life.

Feedback

GLOVES UP! (Luke, Junuz, Titas, Ishaaq)

Positive:
Negative: who's going to play the role of Chris as a little boy?

DOLLS (Tasnim, Sarah)

positive:
Negative: have you found the location yet?
              

Virgin Media Shorts film analysis: 2.20

The Short Film 2.20 starts of with a man that seems to be the main character receiving a text message a 2.20. This makes it interesting as it hints out to the audience that something is going to happen at that time but it does not inform them the exact thing that will happen. I also like the fact that the director uses  variety of shots such as the tracking shot (when following the anonymous woman). The director also uses a close up shot to show the characters state (confusion etc.) . He then also uses another important, which is the extreme close up to show the audience that the glasses are the main object in the film. The lighting is also very useful as it is dull giving the audience a strange feeling of that something bad is going to take place but there don't know when, why and how.

Initial Treatment

My initial idea for the opening sequence for my film will be mainly shot in a school and city center. The film would be basically about a boy that was employed by a drug lord who then got arrested leaving all his possessions to his best employee (the boy). He then returns and finds out that the boy has used all the money/ shut down the business and decided to change his life around on concentrate on education. The convict then tries to get back everything he thinks he's owed. The boy then has a choice between paying back the money or working for the man again and making all the money on he faces death.

Ideas for Film Opening Sequence

My Team and I had a meeting today, discussing the ideas of  what our film opening sequence could be. Firstly we had to choose the film Genre. Everyone had their own opinion but then we ended up voting which resulted Action as our final decision. We chose this because most people that go cinemas nowadays are teenagers and most teenagers are interested in action films. We then had to plan what our full film would be, because every beginning has an ending. At first we had a few disagreements but the end we again voted for the best idea but also changing some parts for improvement. This then gave us a good idea of what the opening sequence could be like e.g. the scene(academy), how it will approach the audience etc. We also brought ideas of what kind of music/ instrumentals that would appeal to our target audience.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Opening Sequence analysis)

The opening sequence of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is old school animated (60s retro) but it is also quite amazing at the same time. Like most films, it is introduced by the name of the filming company with a mid shot of a building as the background. It then shows a very wide shot of a man jumping over a fence into a field and starts running, which could suggest to the audience that it might be a crime film. Another shot that could suggest this films genre is close up shot of a hand gun, which also relates to crime.

Extreme wide shot is also used to show people dancing inside a building  then it switches to a tracking shot when it follows a character falling from the top floor to the pavement outside.

This makes the opening sequence good because it doesn't tell you what the films about or what exactly is going to happen which teases the audience making them want to see more of the film. For example it shows someone that looks like a thief, a hand gun, people at a party, quite streets in a city then blood, which leaves which means the film could be of any genre.