1. Freddie, 21, man. Loved and appreciated by many for his genuine kindness, but can be easily guilt-ridden, and corrupted by others.

2. Pedro, 37, man. Extremely charismatic and approachable, natural leader. However, has a dark secret which doesn't affect his confidence but has to work hard to keep.

3. Sienna, 12, girl. Very academically intelligent and caring girl, but impoverished family due to father's imprisonment for fraud. Outcasted at school for this reason.

4. Maude, 60, woman. Dresses smart, cuts hair very short for practicality, doesn't care for nonsense of any sort. Wealthy widow with no children, one great dane.

After a fateful altercation in a local park, a kind-hearted man finds himself haunted by visions of the person he accidentally killed, leading him on a chilling journey of paranoia and survival.


Beat sheet:

1. The antagonist, Alex, is walking through the park on his way home from work. He encounters a very drunk man who hostilely stumbles towards him.

2. The two have an argument as Alex is too tired and unbothered to deal with the drunk man. In an attempt to get the drunk away from him, he pushes the man. Unfortunately, the drunk falls down a ledge, fatefully impacting his head. 

3.  Alex carefully runs to the man to check if he is okay. Once he realises the drunken man has died, Alex cowardly runs away to his home.

4. That night Alex tosses and turns as he regrets his decisions and can’t sleep due to the nightmares reminding him of what he did. His alarm abruptly wakes him up. He comes to the conclusion that it was just a bad dream and none of it was real.

5. As he walks to his friend's house, he hallucinates the drunken man everywhere. He freaks out and becomes extremely paranoid that he really did accidentally kill a man the night before.

6. Once at the house, he explains to his friend, Emily, about the situation which he thought was a dream, but is now paranoid. She laughs at him and reassures him that he was working really really hard at work that whole week, and that he was fully exhausted, he’s bound to have strange dreams - everyone has dreams vivid enough to be convincingly real. To fully convince Alex of his innocence they both check the news and there is nothing.

7. Later on as he is leaving Emily's, Alex gets a notification. It is a breaking news article about how a man has been found dead in the park.

Dun dun dun.

22-year-old apprentice accountant. Extremely hardworking - often to the point of exhaustion - due to his upbringing as a poor foster child harbouring his need to create a name for himself from nothing.

Emily

23-year-old friend of Alex since Primary School. A genuinely loyal person to her friends and family, caring but also blunt and honest.

Drunk man aka Stuart

A hostile drunk who just got dumped by wife, Cheryl, for another man. Thinks that Alex is the other man because he is very drunk.

• creative

• informative

• flexible

• assertive

• good listener

• leader

Characteristics of a producer:

• organised

• punctual

• reliable

• assertive

• leader

• assertive

Our group roles:

Megan: Director

Johnny: Producer

Katie: Cinematographer / Lighting

Eleanor: Sound

Tasks I need to complete as the director:

• Marking up the script

  • deciding on shot type/angle and establish mise-en-scene

  • turn it into a shooting script (a detailed script for shooting).

• Story boards

• Shot list (in shooting order)

• Floor plans (optional)

• Book out clapper board

• I had some technical issues with my script so I lost the original draft. Thus, I spent a chunk of the lesson rewriting the script.

• We made breakdown sheets for each scene, to help us organise all of the different elements in each scene e.g. who is in it, what costumes will they wear, what props are needed, etc.

Visual style choices we could make to convey meaning in our film:

Possible colour choices:

• yellow - Alex's madness, sickness, obsessiveness, confusion.

• blue - Alex's sadness, melancholy, sense of isolation

For next lesson:

As a group, write a statement of intent for your film:

• The technical details (length, format)

• Genre

• Purpose (what do you want to do with the film? Where will it be seen?)

• Intended audience

• The genesis of the idea: what inspired it?

• Theme/issue covered

• Message

• Vision (visual style, aesthetic choices)

The cool-toned, blue hue will reflect character's overall emotion throughout film. The high and low angles will show how overwhelming the situation is for Alex and how out of proportion the situation has become. Wide angles will show how detached he feels, and dutch tilts emphasise his confusion and hallucinations.

For editing and transitions, I am going to take inspiration from the director, Edgar Wright. He uses a lot of stylistic transitions in his films such as graphic match cuts; as well as stylistic editing techniques such as rhythmic relations. I would like to be able to do some of these in our film.

Edgar Wright scenes I am taking inspiration from:

• Blue Song ~ Mint Royale - dir. Edgar Wright (2003)

• Hot Fuzz Move to Sandford

• Scott Pilgrim Match Cuts

• Edgar Wright Walk By Effect Transition

• Edgar Wright Scene Transitions

Videos I've used for research on how to emulate Wright's techniques:

• Edgar Wright - How to Edit to the Beat

Alex:

• (park and bedroom) suit / business casual

• backpack

• (Emily's) jeans and hoodie

Stuart:

• roughed-up business casual e.g. tie undone, top shirt buttons undone

Emily:

• casual jeans and hoodie

Locations

• Park - Peel Park

• Streets/Campus - depending on permits either residential street or on campus around accommodation

• Emily's house - one of our flats

Props

• nearly empty alcohol bottle

• phones

• backpack

• mugs

Set Dec

• not much set dec needed - will just use one of our flats as it is for Emily's house

Director pre-production tasks:

• script mark-up

  • decide on shot types, framing and visual style

  • translating the script from written form to visual form

• Statement of intent:

  • make any changes you see fit to deliver your directorial vision

• Mood boards

  • mood boards for locations/characters/film as a whole

• Meet with your team

  • meet with your producer to discuss casting, locations, props, and costume

  • meet with your camera and sound departments to discuss visual style and sound design

TO-DO BEFORE NEXT LESSON:

• Send script as pdf to rest of group

• Print off script copies

• Start shot list and storyboards

• Make mood boards for locations and characters

• Maybe book out equipment for Thursday

TO-DO ON THURSDAY

• give everybody copies of script

• explain vision to others

• practice with camera/lighting/sound

I discussed with Johnny how the location filming permissions and risk assessments are coming along. He explained they are good and just need to be put into separate documents ready to be signed off. We also discussed casting, as we still have one role which we haven't cast yet. We have found a potential actor, but we are just waiting for confirmation that he can definitely take part.

I discussed with Katie some of the shots I had in mind when writing the script, so that she could include them in the shot list when she gets around to making that. Johnny also suggested some shot ideas which we agreed sounded good, so I combined our ideas into a list:

• Shot of Alex and Stuart’s shadows when they’re fighting - so you don’t have to actually see Stuart fall and hit his head

• Wide shot of Alex over Stuarts’s body, Alex blocking Stuart’s head - just see the rest of him. Reveals the horror of what has happened through the reaction on Alex's face rather than the conventional way of actually showing Stuart.

• Graphic match cut of Stuart lying down unconscious to Alex lying asleep in bed.

• Wide shot of the entrance to the park -> wide shot (symmetrical) of Alex staring at park hesitating to walk through it. -> A sudden quick flashback of unconscious Stuart. -> Close-up of Alex’s distressed face. -> Wide shot of him facing park again but he walks the other way.

• Maybe for the flashback he gets outside the park could be a POV shot of him pushing Stuart

• Jump cuts Edgar Wright style when he arrives at Emily’s. Knocking on the door, door opening, closing, coat hung up, kettle boiling, tv on, making tea, grabbing biscuits, then sitting down on the sofa. Then dialogue. Silence after jump cuts for effect.

• Up-close shot of Alex breathing, background gets blurry - maybe even dolly zoom.

• maybe film Stuart hitting the ground in reverse?

• Whilst he walks he could be listening to a song in his earphones so we could do rhythmic editing so that cuts and his actions match the rhythm of the cuts - song will need to be royalty free though? No one really listens so royalty free music causally so maybe classical music as if he’s trying to calm down. Need to plan song before shoot so actions can be in time.

We also hired out some camera equipment so that Katie could practise using the camera. We went over white balance, gain, zoom and focus, and also how to set up and put away the equipment.

Overall, I think this meeting was very useful and we got some progress. Our next steps are to:

• get confirmation from our actor

• get confirmation for our filming locations

• book out the equipment for our filming days

• make the shot list and storyboards

I also created a storyboard for our opening scene, as there is quite a bit of action. Thus using a story boards gives me and Katie a clear vision of what we want to capture in that scene and how. (Story boards are on separate entry.)

We finished casting our actors and sent off the documents to the council, so are just waiting for approval to film next week.

We are going to meet on Thursday to discuss and prepare for filming next week.

On Wednesday it was rainy again so we had to wait for it to stop - this only set us back an hour or two though. We filmed the majority of scene three, and all of scenes two, four and five. We all mutually decided that we would not film anymore on Thursday, as we had too much work to do for our other modules that were more time-sensitive. Thus, we also decided that we would film the rest next week.

So far reflection on directing:

• It's been more stressful that I would've hoped - possibly just because I am helping out in other roles as well as directing. I am doing the sound during the scenes that El is in, the clapperboard and continuity log for all scenes, lighting for scenes where the camera is mobile, and I've been doing a lot of producer work as I did the casting, location scouting, and sorting out all of the days we are filming, where we are filming, and communicating with our actor on his call time and wardrobe etc. So it has been a lot.

• Having an idea of all of the exact shots I want to achieve before filming is really good as it makes filming go by a lot quicker and easier.

Still to film next week:

• Few more establishing shots of the park in the dark e.g. peel park sign, creepy swing, maybe up-close shot of puddle if there is one (CLOSE-UP OF PUDDLE, POSSIBLE MOON IN REFLECTION, THEN ALEX WALKING THROUGH IT)

• Lots more close up shots of Alex as he's walking to Emily's to show his paranoid face, and him hallucinating Stuart.

• Alex pushing Stuart away and running up the stairs, Stuart following him, and then Alex pushing Stuart a lal bit too hard off him and him falling.

• Creepy shots to be used as hallucinations/flashbacks e.g. injured Stuart standing behind tree, Stuart on swing, maybe Stuart walking behind Alex

• Alex arriving at Emily's (maybe he sees Stuart's reflection in the glass door, shakes his head and he's gone)

• Alex and Emily leaving her building, they get notification, sirens and flashing lights

Possible shot to get:

shot = alex walking towards camera, positioned slightly to the right.

cut to = [match cut] same shot positioning, same place, but at night and Stuart is limping behind him. He quickly turns his head]

cut to = [match cut] same positioning, but back in day time, Alex head turned but no one behind him.

Feedback:

• More close-up shots of Alex (ZOOMED IN!!!), especially on his walk the next day to really show his paranoia.

• Maybe reshoot the handheld from Stuart's pov, on other side so that you can see his face. Also maybe zoom in rather than getting up close to him.

On Wednesday we were supposed to film the rest of our footage, however we did not get permission to film in the park in time. Thus, we were going to film the final scene which does not take place in the park. However, Eleanor who is acting in the scene came down with food poisoning so we could not shoot that scene. So instead, me, Johnny and Katie met up to reshoot some of the third scene, using Georgiana's feedback. We got some more close up shots so that the audience can easily tell how Alex is feeling at that moment in time. Even for the reshoots which were not close-ups, we still zoomed in to make it look better as Georgiana pointed out.

We are going to film the remaining scenes on Tuesday, which should hopefully wrap up our filming.

With timing, I struggled to fit everything I wanted into the five minutes. I have managed to get he film to 5 minutes and five second, after cutting out a lot of scenes of shots that I found to be not too necessary. This included a shot of the phone which Emily shows Alex at the end, showing an article saying that a man has been found dead in the park. I decided to take this out as I didn't think the shot looked very good - El's hand was shaking quite a bit, and when I tried zooming in on just the headline so that it could be legible, I found the shot wasn't fully in focus so looked bad. I realised that I could just leave out the shot and it would still work as the reactions of the characters, followed by the police siren noise and the flashing light's on Alex's face would suggest to the audience what is happening. Also, it doesn't give an exact ending, so it can be left to interpretation.

I also left out some of the shots of Alex walking to Emily's as they took up a lot of unnecessary space. I found that if i just use a J-cut of the lift sound effect, and an attempt at a match-cut with Alex moving in the same direction as the lift door, the transition between the two wouldn't look so bad.

I planned to use the jump cuts once he got to Emily's before we started filming, as I thought the film might be getting too long, and it's an effective technique that Edgar Wright utilises in almost all of his films to give the audience lots of information whilst jumping quickly through time in an artistic way, so I took inspiration from that. I wanted to do the specific technique Wright uses where he quickly zooms in during each jump cut, but unfortunately I forgot whilst we were filming. I would've possibly done this in the edit, but it didn't work with the way we filmed it. So, I'm not completely happy with that scene, but I think that might have been the best I could get it.