Planning - Filming Schedule 

(created by my partner Cordelia and I in class)

Timings	Stages of production
10:00	Arrive at chosen filming location.
10:05	Discuss with our actor (John) our intentions for the day.
10:10	Set up camera equipment. This includes our camera, tripod, correct lens and spare battery in case the other battery pack runs out.
10:15	Move unnecessary household props out of the frame to allow a clear crisp shots.
10:20	Begin test shooting, this may involve altering the lighting within the room by perhaps adjusting thee synthetic lighting within the room and/ or drawing up the blinds. Myself and my partner could possibly consider setting our camera to a manual setting.
10:25	Check over test shoots and make any adjustments if needed.
10:30	Begin shooting, this requires absolute silence.  We plan NOT to give out instructions whilst recording just in case we decide to have uncensored sound playing in certain parts of our film.
1:00	Up until 1.00 we plan to film with the inclusion of a 20 minute or so break! A break is needed as we do not wish to overwhelm our actor. However filming in this certain time of the day is essential as the lighting needs to stay the same brightness.
1:05	Discuss with our actor ‘John’ what time he is available the following weekend to film. Note down time and location, and perhaps research the weather as a this is a large factor which we are depending on.

 Screenplay Research

Noun

Screenplay;plural noun:screenplays

The script of a film,including acting instructions and scene directions

A screenplay or script is a written work by screenwriters for a film, video game, or television program. These screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing . In them, the movement, actions, expressions and dialogues of the characters are also narrated.

examples of scripts from famous films:

   STAR WARS
 
                                       EPISODE VII

                                    THE FORCE AWAKENS



           Luke Skywalker has vanished. In his absence,
           the sinister FIRST ORDER has risen from the
           ashes of the Empire and will not rest until
           Skywalker, the last Jedi, has been destroyed.
           With the support of the REPUBLIC, General
           Leia Organa leads a brave RESISTANCE. She is
           desperate to find her brother Luke and gain
           his help in restoring peace and justice to
           the galaxy.

           Leia has sent her most daring pilot on a secret
           mission to Jakku, where an old ally has
           discovered a clue to Luke's whereabouts....


          PAN across the star field to a bright moon. A RUMBLING is
          FELT. A VAST STAR DESTROYER -- unlike any we have seen --
          HURTLES PAST US, of seemingly endless length, eclipsing the
          moon. After a long beat, FOUR TRANSPORT SHIPS fly from a
          hangar. We HOLD ON THEM NOW, as they fly off toward a distant
          planet. Jakku. MUSIC BUILDS AND WE...

          CUT TO BLACK.

          A GROWING ROAR of MEAN ENGINES -- gnarled RADIO CALLS, the
          SHUDDERING of a ship's hull. Then FLASHES OF LIGHT: for an
          instant we see a STORMTROOPER -- then BLACKNESS. Then ANOTHER
          STORMTROOPER, then it's gone.

          The FLICKERING CONTINUES until the LIGHTS ARE CONSTANT. We

                         ARE IN:

          INT. TROOP TRANSPORT VEHICLE - NIGHT

          TWENTY STORMTROOPERS. Holding on at attention, moving to
          the ship's rhythm, in the tense moments before a raid. A
          FILTERED COMMAND and they LOCK AND LOAD their heavy blaster
          rifles. The BRUTAL NOISE is replaced by SUDDEN, SHOCKING

 
                            THE FAULT IN OUR STARS

                         


                                  Written by

                      Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber

                         

                         
                             Based on the novel by

                                  John Green
                         

                         
                                                          May 1, 2012

                                                          FIRST DRAFT




          HAZEL GRACE LANCASTER (16) lies in the grass, staring up at
          the stars. We're CLOSE ON her FACE and we hear:

           HAZEL (V.O.)
           You have a choice in this world, I
           believe, about how to tell sad
           stories.

          CUT TO a SERIES OF QUICK IMAGES:
          - Hazel and the BOY we will come to know as AUGUSTUS "GUS"
          WATERS (17) at an outdoor restaurant in some magical place.
          [They look very much like the perfect Hollywood couple.]

           HAZEL (V.O.)
           On the one hand, you can sugar coat
           - the way they do in movies and
           romance novels.

Location Scouting

 When finding a location there were a few problems, which was really frustrating! Originally we wanted to film in a house in London and have shot of john playing 'The agoraphobic' looking out onto the busy streets. However, when my partner Cordelia and I started sharing ideas and thinking more realistic about the filming we came to the conclusion that having London as the location may not be the best of ideas.

Reasons why not to film in London
Originally I thought London would be a great place to film as it has lots of interesting places and great filming opportunity amongst the city however the negatives outweighed the positives for filming.

Negatives

• To start off with me and partner didn't know anybody who lives in London. As we didn't know any house to shoot in we looked online at filming sets. From some of the photos on the websites the houses were beautiful and just what we were looking for, because we're both students we thought we'd get the studio at a very cheap price as we only needed it for a day. However, after a phone-call to the manager of the business the prices he was offering were ridicules and way over our budget! so we immediately scraped that idea.    http://www.shootfactory.co.uk/locations-london-houses.html (link to the Shoot Factory website)
• Getting transport to London can sometimes be difficult and pricey!
• When filming if me and my partner miss something out or have to re-shoot we wouldn't be able to do it as easily because we would either have to arrange the date in advance or one of us would have to go up there on their own.
• The people around us can be a big issue as they can unpredictable and may not want us filming the back of them.
• Would our actor be willing to go all the way to London?

Positives 

• There are amazing arsty places you can film and explore in London
• You would be able to see a big contrast between the lonely house of the characters and the people rushing on the claustrophobic streets
• We could make the reasoning to him not wanting to leave his house because of something that happened to him on the streets
• We could also background score the music or the people chatting to themselves in the crowds 

As you can see its not worth us even attempting to film there. To be honest we could always film the streets of our local town (Maidenhead) as it would have the same impact. Also our audience watching won't even be able to tell the difference between the two. I think filming in London just sounds 'cooler' and more professional, when actually its not really ideal for both of us and our actor.

Inspiration

 These are types of settings i'm looking to recreate.I want my characters house to be quite cluttered and considered old fashioned. I thought it would be a good idea to try and find a house with white walls therefore the clutter inside looks more obvious. A big statement i'm looking for is a bookshelf as my character reads a lot.
 The only difference between my house and the inspiration photos I collected is that I want the house to be tidy, I don't want the characters image to be of lower class as I don't want it to distract you and take away the impact of his illness. I just want him to have a lot of items in the house from years of collecting and hording.

The next stage of Location Scouting

After dealing with the massive palava about London we thought it would be best to leave the location scouting for a couple of days just give us a break and to make us think sufficiently. We thought we'd go back to the basics and ask to look at friends/families houses between us. To much of our surprise the first person we asked was John our actor. As i'm not that familiar with John I had no idea what his house was like however once he invited me over to look at the different rooms I then realised it was just what I was looking for. 

John lives in a white three story house. The fact that it's three story lets us be able to explore different angles and rooms within it. What I found really interesting and was my favourite feature of the house was the garish cabinets in the kitchen. As they are so bright it makes them look old fashioned and outdated which relates to our character. There are some features of the house which links to my inspiration such as the busy bookshelves and the cluttered dinning room. As the house is North facing the back of the house captures a lot of light which is just what we needed as the majority of shots we are going to shoot will be at the back end of the house.

Shot List 

Shot list also known as shooting schedule.

The purpose behind a shot list is to record the different shots to be filmed. A shot list is normanlly done in chronological order however it doesn't have to be as it's only a draft to let the producer know roughly what shot to use. 

Whats normally included in a shot list

• Character 
• Shot Type
• Camera Movements 
• Major Actions 
• Important Objects

Shot Number	Shot Type	Storyboard Number	Shot Description
1	Medium Low-High	2,5	Introduction shot of ‘The Agoraphobic’ opening the blind in the bedroom.
2	High Angle	3	Hands rubbing together.
3	Slanted Low level	4	Focus on the shoes at a slanted angle so it makes you feel tense.
4	Horizontal High Low Panning Shot	6	Establishing shot of the house.
5	Medium-Shot	7,9,10,12	Medium shots of different rooms.
6	Panning Shot	8	Panning shot of the outside window.
7	Close-Up Low Angle	11	Focus on the books on floor to show he has a lot of spare time on his hands.

These are the current shots we are going to use for our final piece. We plan to explore a lots of different angles as the man is suffering from Agoraphobia and is in a rush and a panic. For the majority of shots we are looking to make them jerky and at a fast paste. As each shot will be relatively quick it will hopefully create enigma as we wont be watching the clip for long which will hopefully make it more tense.

The issues which we may have is that we don't want to over complicate the shots as it may make the movie seem more like as film trailer and not unfolding a story. Also, when we first make the shot list we didn't include many panning shots. Most of the clips were originally still shots of the man moving to different parts of the house which we then realised would make the film opening feel too jumpy and hard to understand.

Costume Research

Costumes play an important role in creating the Mise-en-scene as it can reflect class, gender, profession, ethnicity, nationality, activity or epoch. As our topic which we are studying is Agoraphobia we plan to dress the actor in a costume which would stereotypically symbolise somebody living with it, therefore we are going dress him in 'scruffy' clothing.

 1. A scruffy worn away navy cap. The purpose of using a cap will create the discomfort to the audience from who’s behind the cap as some shadows will hide features of his face creating a hidden identity. As he is suffering from agoraphobia the hat symbolises his protection from the outside world as he's hiding himself away.

2. Plain white T-Shirt with a few dirty stains/marks. The reason why we want to choose to dress him in a white T-shirt is because we plan to make it contrasted against the black trousers and navy cap. As the top will be a boring white colour it will make the audience think that he has a boring lifestyle and follows the same boring routine every day.

3.fleece with a company logo. As the fleece will have a company logo it will show that he once lived and communicated with people from the outside world creating enigma to why he acts the way he does now.

4.Black trousers. Black trousers will show us that he does own some smart clothing which will inform us that he once had a serious profession that he still cares about as he values the trousers.

5.Trainers. the trainers will be old and worn away showing that he doesn't get out much as he hasn't brought new clothing, it will also suggest that he has nobody to impress therefore he doesn't care about the way he looks.

Storyboard

Noun

A sequence of drawings, typically with some directions and dialogue, representing the shots planned for a film or television production.

Benefits of story-boarding

• Best way to share your vision
• Makes production easier
• Saves time

As Storyboards play an important part in Pre-Production when creating one I didn't want to over complicate it as I wanted it to be clear so us or anybody else could look and understand it. Also the other reason why the drawings are basic stick men is because my drawing abilities aren't that strong, We tried to explore various angles and movements of the camera which can hopefully express his illness through it. Currently the storyboard isn't the full length to what we want would like it to be as we are currently unsure on the ending of the intro.(if we want to leave it on a cliff hanger or not...)

Storyboards

For the opening we thought it would be a good idea to add a bigger production company so it creates a more realistic opening. Throughout the storyboards we have changed some of the filters of the transitions to fade in and out as we didn't want the clips to be too jumpy and forward.

Film Treatment 

Film Title - THE AGORAPHOBIC

Production Name - FEATHERWOOD Productions

Film Duration - 2 minutes

Directors - Danielle Whitelaw

                   Cordelia Gayler

Characters - The Agoraphobic: John Storrie 

Costumes - 

The Agoraphobic

John playing the character of 'The Agoraphobic' will be wearing scruffy clothing suggesting his entrapment in the house. The clothing we think would be best suited to the character would be joggers, a zip up hoodie and plain trainers. For accessories we wish to put him in glasses,watch and an old hat which will represent his age. The costume isn't a massive part in the film as we don't want a distraction, we just want him looking normal as a man never leaving the house. 

Synopsis - 

The scene opens with The Agoraphobic drawing his blinds. There are sudden changes to quick closeup shots of different body parts twitching and tracking shots of the agoraphobic walking at a fast paste around his house. The quick shots will suggest his panic and unsteadiness. As the clip goes on the agoraphobic rushes over to his pill box to take his daily medicine when there's a sudden knock on the door. the door scares the man making him drop his life saving pills. But that's not his worries, his biggest problem is who is behind the door? 

Setting -

We have decided to film in a three story house in Maidenhead because it is most convenient to me and my partner as it is only a walking distance away. As the house is big it will allow us to explore a variety of different angles and shots.

Props -

• Medicine Box
• White Pills
• Books 
• Glass Of Water
• Wrist Watch
• Glasses

 Ideas

After doing research it was time to get our ideas down onto paper. As we were unsure what phobia to pick for our final piece we decided to write the pros and cons of each phobia we were debating on choosing. In the end we decided the phobia best for us would be agoraphobia as the phobia is not as common as phobias like amnesia and claustrophobia. The next thing we did was to make a mind-map about our ideas on our future film into about agoraphobia.

How Research Will Inform Planning

Researched has helped us find a lot about film genres and target audiences that we never knew about. When gathering up information we found out that the genre, thriller/ suspense is in the top five most popular genres to watch dating back to 1995. As we were interested in picking this genre for our film opening we then carried out a survey asking people mixed ages if they are interested in this genre or not, the responses were really positive which only made us more keener to pick the genre.

From  anaylising the film openings of 'The Stepfather' and 'divergent' I found out that they both have a different ways of creating enigma. With The Stepfather the enigma has been creating through the mystery of the hidden identity whereas Divergent's enigma as been made through the abandoned city and the separation of the community. This will help me a lot with my future planning as I now have a rough idea of how I want to create the enigma. I've also decided on the font i'll be using for my final piece which is helpful as it makes me and my partner more organised!

Typography

What is typography? 

Noun

The style and appearance of printed matter.

The art or procedure of arranging type or processing data and printing from it.

As we are to create an opening to a film typography needs to be used for the production company, opening credits and film title.

Typography is very important as it a visual language. It gives the audience a direct message to what genre the film is and a vague understanding to what the film will be about. As the saying goes, typography speaks louder than works! 

Sinister film opening:

      

One of the many popular iconic Thriller/Horror films is sinister. Everything about the typography on the film poster and the opening credits has been used to create the emotion of fear and terror. The typography on the poster on the left is bold and spaced out which suggests that the film will have powerful/ striking moments within it. Also, the writing

 shadows underneath the letters suggesting that its meant to relate to blood which would foreshadow the blood bath scene later on in the movie. 

The typography on the opening film clip is very small and positioned towards the right of the screen. As the writing is not center of the image and is smaller than most film opening credits is because the director has wanted the viewers attention to be on the people and not the writing. However to make the writing stand out a special text box is used around it, enhancing of what you can see of the writing. The typeface used within the text box looks vintage indicating that the scene is dated.        

Inspiration of typography used for thrillers:

The positioning of the film title is very clever here. the reason why I like it is because the word roommate has been divided into two different words by the use of the boldness which implies the film is going to be about friendship. The colour of the writing also contrasts against the black/blue tones of the doors making the opening title look powerful.

Thinking ahead

When looking at these few movie titles what I think is really successful and would fit perfectly in my upcoming project on Agoraphobia is the contrast between the background and the colouring of the Typeface in the titles, as they stand out more. what I also like is the way the letters are spaced out and have been put into upper case lettering, I think this would have a great look on my film  as it is being based about a man suffering with agoraphobia so the  individual letters can reflect his independent ways of life and how controlling the condition can be, and by using upper case letters it would show to the audience that it is a important and powerful film about something serious and very heart hitting to some people.

After hours of me and my partner 'Cordelia' being undecided about a Typeface we finally came across one which would fit best into our movie genre. The Typeface in which we are currently going to go by is called 'Baskerville'. We specifically chose this font as its thin lettering create a classic English look which suggests that his metal issue is of a serious matter.

Like I mentioned earlier we want to incorporate the other titles use of spacious letter into our opening. We plan to put the lettering center of the image so it portrays of how overwhelming the condition is. However, unlike the other movie scene we decided we don't want to make the font as bold because we still want the audience to be interested in watching the man and not just the Titles. 

                      

Online Article

For our classes overall film opening brief we all got given an exiting twist we had to include. The twist being that we have to base and incorporate ideas from an article into our production. Me and my partner decided straight away together that we wanted to base ours off of a mental illness for our movie opening as illnesses can be varied and powerful, if understood and approached in the right way.

After doing research on the internet me and my partner came across this article about a man suffering with Agoraphobia and how he dealt with it.

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/13877853.Too_afraid_to_leave_his_home_for_20_years___Man_s_agoraphobia_cured_by_hypnotherapy/

Once reading this me and my partner 'Cordelia' decided that we want to pick Agoraphobia as our mental illness to study.
The reason why I thought this article was such a powerful and inspirational article is because we find out how Jeremy managed to cure his Agoraphobia.
In the interview Jeremy says "It felt as though I was suddenly upside down, dangling from the earth by my feet and that I was going to fall from the ground" he also mentions that the illness affected his relationships between his family, friends and most importantly his self esteem. I find interesting that he described his illness as the feeling of dangling of the earth by his feet, being that he would feel shaken up and sick to his stomach about it.

 When reading the article I had a clear vision in my head for a beginning idea, the idea being that we would film somebody at home in their own environment struggling with this illness and not wanting to go out. As we are only going to create an opening scene we would have to focus the condition at its worst point to get a inside to how people deal with it or at least try to.

Agoraphobia definition

Noun 

An abnormal fear of being in crowds, public places or open areas. The illness is sometimes accompanied by anxiety attacks.