The Poster

The Poster

We decided to create a poster for our film.  Posters are important because they help potential customers understand what the film is and what it could be about. The poster has to represent our film, so I decided to look into posters for other action/thrillers. Below are some examples of posters from various action/thriller movies.

     Poster conventions

I can see from these posters that there are lots of conventions for action/thriller movie posters. Here are the things I noticed:

• Dark electric blue colours
• Dark colours
• Occasional dashes of red/orange
• Lots of shadows
• Includes pictures of main character(s)
• Title in red or white
• Action shots
• Often creates an idea of excitement and mystery
• Generally fairly simple (e.g. just a picture of one man)

     Ideas for posters

We decided to come up with a few ideas of what our poster could look like. The first one is a picture of one of the main characters with the symbol of Arc Death projected over the top of them. This could work because it would be dark and shadowy, and would create a sense of mystery. However, it may look quite horror-esque, which is not the feel that we are going for. The other idea is of a hooded figure with squares instead of a face, creating the idea of a hidden or concealed person. The squares are all some shade of black and white except for one, which is red with the symbol of Arc Diath inside of it.

We decided to go with the second idea, as it creates the idea of a 'veiled facade', a hidden and unrecognisable person. Below is a sketch of what our poster could look like:

The Title

The Title

I decided to look into different film titles to find ideas for what we could call our film. The name of our film is really important, as it needs to sum up the film, give a clue as to what sort of film it will be, and encourage people to watch it. Most action thriller movie titles fall into certain categories. Below are the categories, and examples of movies in those groups.

     Titles relating to character

• The Bourne Identity
• The Dark Knight
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• Sherlock Holmes

     Sophisticated words relating to plot

• Memento
• Inception
• Prisoners
• Psycho
• Taken

     Words relating to a place/organisation

• Casino Royale
• Spectre
• Everest
• Shutter Island
• Fight Club

     Ideas for our title

We decided to brainstorm ideas for titles for our film, focussing on the areas highlighted above. Since our story beyond the opening is very vague and unknown, we decided not to use a name for our title but instead focus on words. We thought of words that might relate to words in our film, used a thesaurus to find more complex synonyms for them, and even tried translating a few into different languages. Below is our brainstorm:

We decided to base our title around the word 'hidden' coming up with words such as 'veiled', 'private', and 'cover'. Crystal then took the best words and started trying out different variations of them to see what titles we could come up with. Below is the refined list of titles we have come up with:

     The title

After a discussion in our group and a small vote, we decided that the best, most intriguing and most suitable title for our film is 'Veiled Façade', as it has an air of mystery to it and creates a sense of suspense. It also sounds like a title for a professional action thriller film.

Sound Effects

Sound Effects

As well as having music in our film, we also needed sound effects. These are important as they make the film feel more real. We watched our film through and wrote down every sound that we expected to hear, e.g. footsteps, thuds, fabric noises. We then went through and thought about how we could get each sound, deciding whether we would get it online (providing it was royalty-free) or make it ourselves using foley. In the end we decided to make most of our sounds using foley, as getting them online would be hard due to copyright, plus we could tailor sounds we made ourselves to the exact way we wanted them. Below is a list of the sound effects we needed & how we could get them, and a short behind the scenes video of us recording foley.

A Conversation About Continuity Editing

A Conversation About Continuity Editing

When making a film, continuity is very important to ensure a film makes sense and can be enjoyed without the viewer being distracted by issues with continuity. We made an audio recording of a conversation we had about continuity editing within our opening, discussing techniques such as match on action, shot/reverse-shot and the 180 degree rule.

The Conversation

Research into Symbols

Research into Symbols

As part of our film, we need a symbol to be left by the assassin that links to the organisation he is fighting. I decided to research into symbols in order to create one that we can use in our film.

     Potential Symbols

     Some Ideas

Here are some early designs for our symbol. Most of these are based around the Jupiter symbol, as it has many relevant meanings, plus it looks quite good.

     The Symbol

We chose some of these symbols and added them together to create our symbol, which we have called Arc Diath.

The symbol is a combination of Aries, a circle, and a diagonal thick line. The symbol represents ambition, determination, potential, beginning, strength, tension, and uncontrolled energy. These traits very much represent our evil organisation, and shows what they stand for and their aims. The name was a combination of all the names of the symbols, and we have decided that it will be the name of the evil organisation.

Costumes

Costumes

     Initial Ideas

We decided to design some potential costumes for our film that our characters could wear. Of course, the costumes may change depending on availability and actors involved. For now, however, these are good ideas to base our final costumes around.

We decided that the spy should wear plain, normal, nondescript clothes in dull colours (brown, beige, blue, etc.). We decided that he should wear a plain shirt, jeans, and a dark overcoat. The assassin, on the other hand, would wear black, comfortable clothes that she could move in. We decided that she would wear black trousers, black shoes and a black hoodie or cloak.

Here are 2 mood-boards of clothes/costumes for the spy and assassin. I found pictures on google relating to my idea of how the spy and assassin could look, then added them together with some keywords relating to their character.

     Costumes

Here are the costumes we used in the actual filming. For the spy, we decided on a blue denim shirt, jeans and some plain black shoes. This works as it gives the idea that the spy is just any random stranger that you could pass on the street, making it seem like he is blending in. My one wish with this costume is that a different shirt had been used, as the one in the opening is still slightly different and unusual, whereas the spy should blend in completely. For the assassin, we decided on a black hoodie and trousers, with a flowing long black sheer shirt over the top and high heels. I think this is a really good costume, as it creates a sense of dark and dangerous mystery. 

Props

Props

     What We Need

• Fake knife - for assassin to stab spy
• Fake blood - for the stabbed spy
• Poker - for the spy to grab when they feel threatened
• Top secret file - for the spy to rifle through
• Papers - for the spy to rifle through, and to create mess in the flat

     Where We Will Get Them

Samuel is going to get two fake knives for us to use in the film. They work by the blade retracting when it is pressed against an object. They look quite fake close-up, but they will pass for actual knives if seen from a distance in the dark for a quick flash of time.

Crystal already has some fake blood in her house, so we will use that for our film. She has tested it out to see how it looks, and it passes for blood pretty well, especially in the dark.

I have a fire poker at home that looks fairly dangerous but is actually pretty non-lethal. The only issue is that there is no fireplace in the flat - however, it could be in a room we don't see, or the spy could keep it in his house for protection.

Crystal has some plain brown paper envelopes in her house. We can write a 'TOP SECRET' sign on top of it in red pen, to make it look like an important package of papers.

My family keeps scrap paper in our house, so we can scatter them around the flat and put them on the table for the spy to look through. Several of the papers we own look very professional, important, and serious, so as long as no-one reads them, they will be perfect for the scene.

Cast

Cast

For our scene, we need a spy and an assassin. These are the only characters in our scene. We ideally want the spy to be a nondescript young adult male, and the assassin to be a young, athletic female. We have cast people that match up to these characters, and that suit the role well.

     The Spy

We looked into actors to play the spy. One actor we considered was my friend Reuel James, who acts in some of his own short films. We think that he would be good for the part because he can act well. He also has experience acting in short films, so he should know what to do and understand the process. Below is a picture of him.

Video of him acting

The second person we considered for this role was Oliver Nicholls. He is more of a theatre actor and has been in several plays. He would be good because he has experience and will be used to working in a group situation. He also has the advantage of looking older and more mature, which is a plus for our film.

In the end, we decided to cast Oliver, as he looks more the part of an ordinary unrecognisable spy that could easily be passed in the street without a second glance. He also looks older, which is an advantage because this suits the type of person we would like our spy to be more. Therefore, we chose him.

     The Assassin

We have decided to cast Crystal as the assassin. This is because she has a relatively slim build, and can move around well. She is a very good actress, especially when it comes to slightly scary characters. She can also run in heels, which is an advantage as it makes the assassin seem more professional and dangerous.

Locations

Locations

We decided that our film should be set in an urban location, which fits in with our genre. We decided that the opening scene would be set in the spy's living quarters, which the assassin has broken into and searched. We decided that the spy would be living on his own, due to his dangerous profession, and would probably not be very rich. He would also want to live in an inconspicuous place that is easy to miss. We therefore decided that the spy would be living in a small flat in an ordinary neighbourhood.

A friend of Crystal's was willing to let us use his flat, and it is the ideal place to film. It is relatively small and fairly homely, plus we have permission to cause a mess. The area around it is also very normal and unextraordinary, and there is an alley way that can be used during our film. Below are some pictures taken of the location.

      Exterior

     Interior

     In our film

Most of our film is going to take place in the living room, as this is the largest space in the flat. We are going to film it in the wall opposite the window (shown in the left photo) as there is a door there that the Assassin can come out of. For the starting continuous shot, we are going to go from the window to the door to the living room, covering most of the room. Below is a plan of how that will look in our film.

Storyboards

Storyboard

For our film, we created a storyboard. This allowed us to visually see what the film will look like. It also made us consider which shots to use, why we should/shouldn't use them, and what meaning making we can make with the shots. This storyboard gives us a plan to work with, although there will likely be some improvising on the day. Below are our storyboards with descriptions of what the scene will look like. Note that pages 1 - 3 all cover the same continuous shot.

Screenplay

Screenplay

Samuel wrote a screenplay for us to use in our scene. It is very good, and really helps  to demonstrate the atmosphere in our scene, and the action that will take place. It is good because it provides a basis for us to visualise the scene, and to understand what will happen.