The FINAL CUT!

 ...

THE FINAL CUT

This is the opening for our film 'GODLESS' produced by me (Bandit Films) and Eduardo (Eds Up Productions). This project is heavily influenced by Baby Driver. The cast for the final cut was Christian (me) as the villain character, Eduardo Shaw as the deaf brother and Matthias as the protagonist orBaby.

The plot is that the protagonist (Baby) is cooking a meal for his deaf brother when he is called by the villain character (Kevin Spacey) and is forced to help him commit a crime, his role is the driver, he is so good that the villain wont let him get out of crime.

We wanted to have the music be a big part of the film opening, and wanted to implement alot of dancing in the choreography to remain faithful to Baby Driver.

We took inspiration mainly from Baby Driver but also from some of the oceans films.

MUSIC:

The music was a recreation of Sympathy for the devil by the Rolling Stones, Created with Ableto Live 10 with vocals from Amelie Marchand.

see more on my soundtrack post

SAMPLE SCENES/ROUGH CUTS:

We tried some different shots and edits before we decided we were happy with the result, you can see them in my sample scenes and rough cuts posts.

CHANGES MADE:

• improvements to audio leveling
• added ambient sound
• better flow between scenes
• fixed rendering errors
• improved, more realistic vocals for the song
• cut out unnecessary bits

Welcome to this blog! Sources I've used...

FILMS I ANALYSED:

• '71 (Warp)
• Submarine (Warp)
• Grimbsby (WT)
• Bridget Jonses Baby (WT)
• Tyrannosaur (Warp)
• Baby Driver (WT)
• Submarine (Warp)
• This is England (Warp)
• Oceans Franchise (Section Eight Productions)

FILMS I ANALYSED:

• Breaking Bad
• Fargo
• Tess d'urbeville
• Agents of shield
• This is England
• Merlin
• 
  

SOURCES IVE USED:

Film Guardian

Media Guardian

DB Sample blog

DB Cinema Blog

DB Course work Blog

Screendaily

CCR Q1 conventions, representations

 ...

How does our film challenge or use social conventions,

- the character portrayed as the villain has facial hair which is a common way to signify a villain

- there will be a romance later on so we can increase our commercial prospects by including a female in the films cast.

- Heros involvement in crime could make him a possible anti hero

-  we would have liked to have made the brother a different ethnicity to baby (African American like in the film) in order to make the film more diverse

video taken from conventions post.

I referenced this video for the creative part of this evalutaion:

 

CONVENTIONS OF THE FILM OPENING

Film openings:

- Starts with short 4 - 10 second idents

- Distributors idents are shown first

- Idents of producers are shown last and are usually used for an audio bridge

- Narrative enigma

- Establishes an equilibrium

- Possible audio bridge (through idents)

- sometimes villain is introduced instead of protagonist

CONVENTIONS OF THE 'HEIST' GENRE:

- Features an antihero as the protagonist

- call to action (someone calling the hero to do a job)

- May open with a heist in progress (this denotes genre to the viewer)

- Known to convey themes of power and weakness (when kev calls baby and their power dynamic)

- Different characters will have set roles (in our case a getaway driver), possible proppian archetypes...

- 1990 'The Great Train Robbery' could be sighted as an archetype

- Can have themes of social class and wealth (stealing from the rich type films)

REPRESENTATIONS:

Gender/Age:

In our film opening we have two teen male characters. We are aware that gender representations are an issue but we were only able to show a limited amount of characters in the opening, and that wed have a relationship later in the film

Both baby and his brother are shown presented as teens, and the villain character is presented as more mature. Even though we do have some limited age diversity in terms of age we would look to correct that later on in the film by having baby work with an older more experienced man. 

Ethnicity:

It should be noted that our film opening only features Caucasian characters, this is a flaw that we would address later on in the film by featuring a man of African descent.

Sexuality:

All of our characters in the opening are heterosexual, making our film very heteronormative. Unfortunately we didn't account for this issue in the rest of the film

Source:

DB3 REPRESENTATIONS GUIDE

SCRIPT FOR VIDEO:

Czm ccr q1 script christian from DB3igs

CCR Q2 audiences (engagement), distribution

Here me and my friends used the format of a presidential debate to talk about the distribution aspects of our coursework opening "GODLESS":

I referenced this video for the creative part of this evalutaion:

DISTRIBUTION:

Distribution is the process of promoting films to the targeted audience through different channels and forms of media. After a film is produced it is up to the distribution company to; try getting the film in local or global theaters, get DVDs printed and generally manage the marketing or advertising campaign for the film.

TENTPOLE OR BIG 5 PRODUCTION:

Global and high budget film distribution is primarily dominated by 5 companies, these being Disney, Warner Bros, Sony Colombia, Paramount and NBC Universal. These companies essentially hold an oligopoly over the film industry. The companies market share of the North American box office is listed below.

Disney:                    26%

Warner Bros          11.7%

Sony Colombia      22%

Paramount             8.5%

NBC Universal      11%

These companies will often employ the "Tentpole/Blockbuster" strategy, which was a term coined by the economist Anita Elberse. The theory is that companies with alot of money and a high market share should focus their efforts into making high budget films that exceed the 100 million dollar mark (or a blockbuster film), and use their massive marketing power to promote the films. Some films the company cannot afford to lose money on at this budget level, these are referred to as tentpoles.

In order to demonstrate just how dominant these companies are heres a list of the top 10 highest grossing movies of 2020 and who distributed them (Sourced from box office pro):

• Bad Boys for Life. $206.31 Million. Sony
• Sonic the Hedgehog. $146.07 Million. Paramount
• Dolittle. $77.05 Million. Universal. ...
• The Invisible Man. $64.91 Million. Universal
• The Call of the Wild. $62.34 Million. Disney
• Onward. $61.56 Million. Disney
• Tenet. $57.91 Million. Warner Bros
• The Gentlemen. $36.47 Million. STX
• The Croods: New Age. Universal

THE GANT RULE/DYER/FRANCHISE:

The gant rule is a theory made by Charles Gant, stating that any American film released in America will make ten times the box office than a Brittish film released in the UK.

Then Dyer suggested that the most dominant aspect of marketing is the casting of an A-list celebrity in the film. However the Star Wars and Avatar films seem to have been able to prove him wrong, showing that spectacle in a film can be equally if not more dominant than stars on the marketing of a film. Not only this but films that are a part of a franchise or previously established IP like the Marvel movies, Bohemian Rhapsody, Mamma Mia and Star Wars.

CHINA/IMAX SCREENS:

Another key factor of distribution is weather or not your film can be distributed in China. This is because of the size of Chinas market, which is second only to America. However they have a quota system (only letting 45 foreign made films to be shown in cinemas). Their politics also play a role in weather or not your film will be shown in China, any anti-CCP or films that dont paint China in the best light wont make it through the quota system.

However this is where a publishing deal with the big 5 can greatly help as they have contacts in China with Chinese film companies meaning they are able to effectively bypass the quota system. An example of this is Working Titles film "The High Note" which was co produced by Perfect World Pictures, a Chinese production company.

Imax screens are huge (4 times the size of a normal cinema screen) high definition 4k cinema screens that where implemented as a response to the "home cinema". This means that because of convergence, high quality large TV screens have become the norm meaning that most of the target market has access to full quality screens making one of the cinema industries selling points obscelete.

This didn't only affect the cinemas however as very expensive equipment is required in order to make your film compatible with an Imax screen. This means that this form is distribution is out of the question for small Indie producers. 

INDIE DISTRIBUTION:

This subtopic is the one that is the most relevant to me and my group when taking film distribution into account. I have observed that most indie production companies will often do some distribution for their movies, this includes marketing and negotiating contracts with local cinemas.

A good example of an indie production company taking steps to market their film is Warp films' "Ghost Stories". They did this by having one of the directors, Andy Nyman use social medias like twitter to post images and videos of the behind the scenes process and interacted with the audience.

Here are some examples of his tweets:

I thought in order to imitate this marketing strategy I could setup a social media account for my production company in order to put up pictures of poster and promotional material, along with text or video insights to the production or behind the scenes process of making our film.

-examples of my account-

Even though indie films can rely on some marketing done by the producer, they will often seek help from an established smaller distributor, the most popular choice seeming to be Studiocanal. This is because even with the avenues convergence has allowed producers to utilize to market their film with next to no costs, producers still need additional support from distribution companies to do things like print DVDs. 

Most indie films have to rely on smaller distributors because the kind of low budget social realist films they typically make have an extremely low chance of getting picked up by a big 5 distributor. That is not to say that there are no exceptions to the rule for example Working Title 2's "Billy Elliot" which was produced on a lvery low budget but managed to get a publishing deal from NBC Universal. 

SCRIPT FOR VIDEO:

Czm presidential debate MEDIA from DB3igs

• 
  

CCR Q3 skills development

HOW DID MY PRODUCTION SKILLS DEVELOP:

• 1st time I used x camera
• we shot handheld
• we had lots of panning and tracking shots
• the footage was very shakey - then we used a monopod and stabilizer
• I used x manual controls (eg we found x issue with the auto focus and action shots; here's a comparison with manual)
• I tried out the greenscreen (I set it up by...; here are the results)
• we used a basic shot list
• we had detailed storyboards
• we did an animatic
• we/I did a pitch
• we/I did a re-pitch

• we had a questionnaire to test out our ideas on audience
• we researched the genre and its audience, sampling film openings and budgets, box office and marketing; reading up theories like Mulvey's male gaze and the Gant Rule
• we looked at micro-detail x [eg titles; editing to signify protagonist; idents ...] in several films
• we thought more about a wider secondary audience
• we included intertextual references (or other postmodern elements) to widen our audience
• we considered theories like the uses and gratifications model whilst planning
• we considered narrative theories, specifically... Todorov/Propp
• having previously considered narrative theory Propp we took a more sophitsicated approach by ...  including an antihero
• we shot a lot of coverage, shooting everything multiple times; looked for useful cutaway shots and interesting framing opportunites
• we relied on natural lighting 
• we shot at night and found... bad
• we researched costume + props, ordering x items online
• we gave cast detailed instructions on clothing and look
• we went location scouting and took practice footage to test out our ideas
• we sought out audience feedback 
• we did re-shoots after seeking feedback
• we found issues with sound
• we used an external mic
• we recorded replacement sound ... and over-dubbed this (including ambient sound?)
• we developed a screenplay 
• we used mise-en-scene more for exposition
• for titles we experimented with multiple fonts and FCPX effects
• we downloaded multiple font and installed it on a Mac
• we combined actual industry names with our own for titles, which had a very specific order and use of language, reflecting concepts such as the auteur theory...
• we created idents

FORMAT: CORDIOR DIGITAL 

I referenced this video for the creative part of this evalutaion:

SCRIPT FOR VIDEO:

Czm ccr q3 script and notes from DB3igs

HOW MY SKILLS DEVELOPED:

• I can use terminology
• Film analysis
• Industry analysis
• I got better at listening to my own voice
• Framing 

PRACTICE FILM (Beginning of the year):

What we practiced

• Over the shoulder shot
• Overlaying a soundrtack
• Audio leveling
• Crane shot
• Panning shot
• 180 rule
• Continuity editing
• Adding sound effects/foley
• Using the thriller conventions
• Shot variety 
• Include fast cuts to connote action
• Music leveling

What we didnt do:

• Prepare a script 
• Use a tripod

VIDEOS I WATCHED TO IMPROVE:

CCR Q4 integrated technologies

OUR USE OF TECHNOLOGIES:

FORMAT: YOUTUBE TOP 10 LIST

I referenced this video for the creative part of this evalutaion:

Equipment/Technology used:

• Panasonic lumix camera
• amazon basics monopod
• DaVinci Resolve
• SanDisc SD
• FCPX
• ZOOM Handy recorder
• Amazon basics cam bag
• Stabilizer Tool 
  

CAMERA:

We wanted to use the Panasonic Lumix camera was because it allowed for 4k recording which would be very useful if we wanted to manually zoom or use the stabilizer tool.

 We also used it because it was the best quality camera available to us.

MONOPOD:

We decided to use a monopod as we didnt have alot of time to shoot the film and we tried to shoot the film with mostly handheld shots but it was far too shaky.

So we decided to use a monopod to get some stability without having to set up a tripod for every shot.

DAVINCI RESOLVE EDITING SOFTWARE/FCPX:

We used DaVinci Resolve to edit our final cut because of covid 19, because we couldn't both physically sit together at the time we needed a free software that we could use at home. Because it was free we were both able to access the project files remotely.

We also however edited some cuts on Final Cut pro 10 when we had access to the school computers.

ZOOM EXTERNAL AUDIO RECORDER:

We wanted to record some of the audio externally just in case we couldn't rely on the in built camera mic.

 

CONVERGENCE/DIGITISATION:

I think that my coursework opening is a very good example of how convergence has made the equipment needed to make a film more accessible to indie producers.

A good example is the hand held camera that allows for 6k filming, these cameras used to be very expensive and were only accessible to large producers who have access to Big 5 funding.

Our work also reflects the concept of digitization as all the audio/video files we recorded where digital. In fact we relied on this as it made filming in a short time without it being very expensive possible.

FIRST ATTEMPT AT CREATIVE APPLICATION VIDEO:

SHOOT 3 Preparation and reflection

 PREPARATION

Key points on what I/we did to prepare:

COSTUME, HAIR, MAKE-UP: 

Villain Character:

    - full suit

    - facial hair

    - bowler hat

(reference images):

Baby (protagonist)

    - Blue hoodie

    - jeans

    - plain t-shirt

(reference images:)

CALL SHEET, SHOTLISTS: 

(no physical copy was distributed, it was given to the cast/crew online via google docs)

SCRIPT/SCREENPLAY, REHEARSAL, DIRECTION: 

Screenplay:

Eduardo, christian godless screenplay from DB3igs

This time we want to let the guy who played the protagonist improvise a dance to live music as he has experience with dancing and last time we couldn't even rehearse the choreography.

LOCATIONS, PROPS, SET DRESSING: 

what impact did you have on the 'set' (what did you add, take away, move/change)? Any particular points on framing (to avoid showing something), sound or lighting? Again, think about any influences from your research to make clear. Ppt freeze frames with bullets of tweaks made (with before + after shots) can be useful - FCPX titles can be used to even better effect for this.

Location 1: Kitchen

• We will need ingredients for what he is cooking (sandwhich)
•  Speakers on counter
• Set table

Location 2: Public Church

• All actors will have to come already in costume

LOGISTICS, H+S: 

Kitchen scene:

• We will have to rely on public transport for some of the crew
• Most of the cast lives 5 mins away from the filming location so they can walk to the shoot

Church scene:

• Were all taking the public bus with the camera equipment to get to the church
• There is no catering provided for this scene as it is currently illegal to eat in public

THE SHOOT

An overview of what happened.

RUSHES

REFLECTIONS ON THE SHOOT

Assessing what you did ... and what you didn't do. And what comes next.

CAST PERFORMANCE + COSTUME; PREFERRED READING: 

This time we felt much more confident that we had finally achieved our creative vision. This was because we were finally able to get most of the mise en scene right and had a relativley large shot variety

CREATIVITY; ACTS OF GOD?: 

Did anything impinge on your plans? 

• The improvised choreography turned out very good
• We found alot of new creative shots while we were filming
• We ended finding a much nicer hat last minute 

SUMMARY: WHAT NOW?: 

We think that after a couple re edits we will be able to submit what we have recorded as the final cut.

SHOOT 2 preparation and reflection

 ...

PREPARATION

Key points on what I/we did to prepare:

COSTUME, HAIR, MAKE-UP: 

Baby (protagonist):

- We had him come in in the same costume as the last shoot;

    - 'casual' Jacket

    - Jeans

    - Plain white t-shirt

(reference image)

Villain:

    - Full suit

    - Facial Hair

(reference image)

SCRIPT/SCREENPLAY, REHEARSAL, DIRECTION: 

We plan to do most of the directing on the shoot as we have limited time we can spend with the actors beforehand, however the things we plan to do/did:

• We spent some time figuring out and choreographing the scene 
• We made sure to send the actors the reference images
• We sent actors reference scenes so they could better understand our direction
• We made sure the cast knew that we planned to do multiple takes of the same actions
• Cast had access to a screenplay before the shoot began

LOCATIONS, PROPS, SET DRESSING: 

Location 1: Kitchen

• We will need ingredients for what he is cooking (spaghetti)
•  Speakers on counter
• Set table

Location 2: Public Church

LOGISTICS, H+S: 

Kitchen scene:

• We plan to offer some catering for the cast and crew in the form of snacks and soft drinks 
• We will have to rely on public transport for some of the crew
• Most of the cast lives 5 mins away from the filming location so they can walk to the shoot

Church scene:

• Were all taking the public bus with the camera equipment to get to the church
• There is no catering provided for this scene as it is currently illegal to eat in public

THE SHOOT

An overview of what happened.

RUSHES

REFLECTIONS ON THE SHOOT

Assessing what you did ... and what you didn't do. And what comes next.

CAST PERFORMANCE + COSTUME; PREFERRED READING: 

We both thought that the final product was not good enough and that we hadn't achieved our creative vision;

• The choreography wasnt suited to the environment so we ended up scrapping most of our ideas 
• The protagonist character has to be re-cast
• We need to make sure we have the right costumes available (Full suit)
• We need to rework the screenplay to include narrative enigma 
• Dancing needs to be much more emphasized instead of cooking, this will be done by having a simpler recipe next time (sandwich)  

CREATIVITY; ACTS OF GOD?: 

• It took us much longer than expected to film the kitchen scenes so the natural light changed throughout the scene ruining continuity
• The villain forgot the full suit and showed up in sweatpants
• The choreography we had planned out didn't work well in the kitchen as it was planned outside the kitchen
• Protagonist showed up in different clothes when we shot the church scene again ruining the continuity

SUMMARY: WHAT NOW?: 

Overall we were fairly disappointed with our final result and after receiving feedback we made plans to re-shoot and re write the screenplay. 

Heres what we plan to change:

• Were going to re cast the protagonist 
• Make sure costumes and mise-en-scene are prepared beforehand
• Focus more on the dancing instead of cooking (more cut away takes of protagonist dancing)
• Were going to change the script in order to add narrative enigma (not reveal the protagonist immediately) 
• were going to make sure we record it at a better time so we can take more advantage of the natural light (11:00 am)
•