Locational Report

Locational Report

when we filmed our media piece, we speculated a load of different locations where we could potentially film.

in the end we came up with three different locations in where we where going to film;

1) originally for the first scene we was going to shoot it in Rochester with the vast array of dark ominous alleys. however due to the fact of  the group unable to get out and shoot in this area we had to get out to a more local area in walderslade village. this picture below shows the beginning of the alley we found. as you can see it is exceptionally dark and is the perfect place for us to film, it fits in perfectly with the idea we had in mind for filmed.  

2) The second location where we filmed was a creepy looking woods coming off robin hood lane. this was the perfect place for us to film this scene and we didn't look to film anywhere else, we found that it was exceptionally handy as it was local and ticked  all the boxes on what we wanted. we looked to get the feel of a over the top looking forest obviously due to the fact that it meant to seem as though he is in a coma and in a sort of dream world in his head. as you can see it definitely looks lush and green and portrays what we had in mind.



3) the third location where we filmed was at walderslade girls schools medical room, it was meant to signify where drew actually was and not in the dream world, we tried to get access to something that looked most like a actual hospital and not just in some school. as this scene was only for a few seconds it wasn't imperative for us to get everything spot on.



Possible Location Research

For our film we encountered a few difficulties with finding the setting for our film. we speculated a few ideas on different locals where we was going to shoot our scenes. These are the ideas we had in mind:

• First of all the original scene where we was going to shoot the alley way scene was in Rochester, to emphasise on the dark noire feel we was going for. However this was inconvenient as we did  not have the ability to travel here due to our age restriction and inability to have a driving licence or funds to travel by other means. we did however have to adapt our theory to a more suitable environment which meant finding a similar location closer to where we live, which was easily to locate as there are a lot of ally's in our location.

• The was another issue we encountered whilst filming this scene, this was to do with the lighting we had and the equipment that we used while filming due to the fact that we didn't have the correct equipment such as a light so the scene was far to dark than what we had expected, meaning that had to do the scene again at an earlier time ensuring that the lighting would be brighter and bringing the right equipment with us.
• In our imagination we had this big idea of our main character waking up in a field location, completely deserted with little else around. We found the perfect location in Rainham but yet again due to transport issues we couldn't fulfil our expectations and had to re locate again.. We went to a woods a team member suggested which still took a while to get too and filmed the scene there. We did have a few issues as where we walked for the location could have been anywhere as it was an ordinary field.

Filming locations

Locations-

Due to our starting filming sequencing being set in a number of different settings, we’ve decided upon filming in a number of best suited locations.

One of the locations we have decided upon, the starting sequence, before the title, is an alleyway in Rochester. The path is narrow and secluded, being rather dark to the lack of light post after the sun sets, giving the location a dangerous eerie feel. This is needed for our starting scenes.

During this sequence our main character Drew meets a drunken man and gets into a fight, knocking him out to the point of unconsciousness. The setting needed for this needs to be dark and feel dangerous, linking up with the situation. Because of the fact we have decided to film during the night, there will be very little light, making it difficult see the detail of the attacker’s face and full appearance, giving him a dangerous edge. The idea behind filming in an alleyway was that we wanted Drew, when meeting the drunken man to feel lonely and trapped, having no way out of the situation and escaping.

Our next number of shots are to be filmed in a hospital/medical room. This is when the whole idea of the coma comes into play. By this point in the sequence the audience have been made aware if the severity of the previous attack and can now link the title of the film to the situation. Filming in a hospital seemed to be the best option for us as it would result in a much more professional effect rather than if it had been filmed in a classroom. These shots require some brief filming in the hospital corridor, as well as a room where we can use the bed to make our actor playing Drew look as if he is actually in a hospital bed, asleep in a coma. This way we can have a clean and professional look for these specific scenes.

Our last location that we are to shoot in is a wood/field. This is the last part of our film sequence, where the dream fantasy kicks in. The idea behind the dream sequence being in a field started off with the idea of the modern age and how there a towns and cities everywhere with no genuine nature and beauty. We (the director) decided that Drew’s character would have been born and bred in a busy city (a superficial setting), surrounded by buildings and cars and noise. With this being the only thing Drew knew growing up, whilst in the coma his subconscious took over and created a land to which Drew was totally not used to. This concept challenges the character by throwing him into the deep end into a position he is not used to.

Loction Scouting.

Location Scouting:

Location scouting is a key part of the pre-production as it allows us to find where we are going to be filming our short film. This outing was aimed at scouting areas for us to film the main bulk of our film, i.e the dream world. For this sequence we aimed to find a quite bleak and isolated setting, this was the first thing that came to mind. We also have an idea for another area to shot in but this area is quite far away.


We now have all the locations set for our filming out film
will start in Rochester at dusk, we are to discuss a date, as a film starts in an alley we choose and alley in our local medieval, town Rochester. This location is ideal as the alley has a slated building on one side. We could use this to our own cause as looking down it looks incredible surreal.

We came across quite a few pits that we think would be good to have the first shot of the dream world in. This surreal woodlands environment links in the idea of the unexplored.

Script

The original script-


The script shown below is the original script we had written and decided on using in our film. After discussing exactly what our film was going to be about, two of our group members took it upon themselves to come up with a believable script that fit in with our film concept and gave a background into the reason why the main character ends up in a coma; what exactly caused an altercation between the main character, Drew and another.

The reason why this isn't the script we used in the end product of the film was because we encountered a slight problem whilst filming. Only when we were at the specific location need to shoot the alleyway film did we realise that we did not have the script. None of the group members present had remembered to bring a copy, so filming required thinking on the spot and coming up with a script we though was roughly similar to the original.

Though the script presented here would have been preferred, as a group we felt that the fact we had to think on our toes and come up with a script from scratch was effective in creating a good script and we wanted to keep the improvised lines due to them having more of an organic feel and not sounding like rehearsed lines.



Storyboard- full

INITIAL STORYBOARD-

The image above is the collection of storyboard shots, forming our initial storyboard idea. I have written an explanation/analysis of each shot on another post, explain the idea behind each one and what is happening. As you can see, we have 20 shots, with the majority of these taking place in the alley, the initial beginning location and the reason for this film and how this whole idea pans out.

Storyboard 1+2

STORYBOARD shots 1,2,3,4

The shots presented here are the first 4 shots we drew out, deciding to start our film with Drew, the main protagonist walking towards the camera in a dark alleyway. As you can see, the first shot shows Drew walking toward the camera from a distance, in the centre of the screen, surrounded on either side by fencing, closing him off from the rest of the world and making the whole scene look more atmospheric in the sense of having nowhere to run. The scene was to start after the opening sequence, starting just as the last image faded and the film title appeared.
The seconds shot below shows the scene where the protagonist meets the drunken character, the 'villain', if you will, of the story. The scene here was showing the first encounter, the appearance of the drunkard, with the audience noticing him before Drew has. As he comes closer to the camera with the shot, you see more of the character, being able to see his appearance. The audience can easily see that the man is drunk and possibly homeless, straight away setting off alarm signals that he is trouble.

The third shot displayed above shows a mid length shot of the drunken man coming up closer to Drew, our main character. The mid shot provides the audience with a much more closer representation of what the man looks like, his clothing and general appearance. The beanie hat and the jacket he is wearing are notably old and worn out, giving more of the impression that this man has had it rough recently and is most likely unemployed. As he carried on moving closer to the camera, his facial hair and stance is more noticeable. The idea here was to show just how threatening the man looks and how intimidating he is to Drew. To say the least, he has imminence power over the weaker main character. As the next shot progresses to an over the shoulder shot of the drunken man, now we can see Drew's reaction to the new character. His shoulders are meant to be tense and rigid, suggesting discomfort and fear brought on by the intimidating drunkard.

The over the shoulder shot once again provides the audience with a more clear picture of the character, showing more detail; their facial expressions and body language/posture. By now the audience should be able to tell that the man Drew has just came across is very drunk and is about to cause some sort of issue.

Storyboard 3

 STORYBOARD 5,6

The first presented shot is a 3 seconds long cut and is placed directly over Drew's head, showing the facial features of the homeless man, as well as the alleyway behind him. This angled camera shot means that we get to see the drunk from a higher angled, creating an intimidating atmosphere and showing an air of power that the drunken man seems to have over Drew. This shot, as well as the previous and next shots show the drunken man more than Drew, giving the audience the idea that he plays an important role within the film. The angle of this shot is supposed to show the alley way continuing behind the drunkard. Because of the straight on angle, the idea was that the alley way would continue on, narrowing until it disappears into the distance. This would create a claustrophobic like feel, making the audience feel exactly like Drew feels; like he has nowhere to go and like he is trapped. The narrow alley way and the drunken man do not make a good location for Drew to be in, further extending the discomfort Drew as well as the audience is supposed to feel.

The next shot, shot 6, shows the drunkard once again in another over the shoulder shot. The idea here was to go from one shoulder, over the top of Drew's head and onto the other shoulder, giving all angles and aspects of the drunkard's character. By this point in the film he would be much closer to Drew, finally building up to the point of the altercation that is now definitely bound to happen between the two men. The shot here last a few seconds longer than the previous shot, leaving room for dialog/ a conversation to take place.

Storyboard 4

STORYBOARD 7,8

The shots above are the next two shots, showing more action and finally the physical altercation that is the soul reason for this film and it's title; KOMA. Shot number 7 shows Drew and the drunk man from further away, more of a wide length, far away shot, showing more of the surrounding rather than the characters. The setting of this scene is supposed to take place in a dark alley, so the surrounding should be dark and gloomy, giving off a sense of danger. The audience should know that something is about to happen simply because of the setting/location. The wide shot is almost like a step back away from danger before the action happens, a normal human instinct to get away. This shot also makes more of a note of the height and body language difference between the two characters; a tall rugged drunk guy and a tense young teenage boy who in lack of better words is terrified.

At the point of the 8th shot, the majority of the dialog has been spoken, signaling that a fight is about to take place. The drunkard reached out towards Drew, pushing him against an fence with force, overpowering him easily even when Drew makes it clear he isn't looking for troubled. The angle of the camera is intended to be tilted to not only furthermore imply the drunken state the thug attacking Drew is in, but also to suggest the complicated and twisted situation Drew has found himself in. The tilting of the camera at such an angle that the the drunken thug finds himself center of attention helps in suggesting that the alcohol the man has obviously consumed has such an empowering effect on him that he has such anger and violence towards someone who is plainly much weaker than himself. The daze of the alcohol has taken all aspect of sense away.

Storyboard 5

STORYBOARD 9,10

The next shots in the storyboard sequence shows the last of the dialog between the characters, with Drew on the ground up against a fence. The push from the thug in the previous shot has caused Drew to land on the ground from the impact, knocked down by the sheer force of the blow. If the drunkards power hadn't been established beforehand it, definitely had been now. Drew falls to the ground, crumpled showing his weakness and vulnerability. The low angled shot we decided to use here furthermore outlines this idea that Drew is completely under the thug's mercy. The low angled of the shot meas that we are now longer at an eye level with him, and neither is the drunk thug, taking away any sense of equality that might have been there before. If the power the drunkard has over Drew hadn't fully been established before hand, it had defiantly been now. Drew is to feel unsafe and in danger and I feel like this shot comes across with that emotion well.

The next shot, shot 10, shows a close up of the drunkard's boots, showing their detail and how they are getting much closer and nearing the camera lens, closer to the struggling Drew on the ground. This up close shot shows detail, showing more of who the thug is, in a way. The shoes are old and worn, as well as dirty. Normally, a person who cares about themselves and in turn their appearance would make sure they are wearing intact shoes, or that are at least somewhat clean. This isn't seen here. These feet belong to someone who doesn't care and if he doesn't care enough for his appearance or himself, he will definitely not care about someone else, currently the fallen, weak Drew.

Storyboard 6

STORYBOARD 11,12



The shots shown here, are the next storyboard images, this time incorporating the credits. The first shot shown here, shot 11, is the follow up of the boots shot seen previously in shot 10. This is a close up shot, showing fast paced movement and  action of the drunk man kicking the fallen Drew. Each kick would be hard and create a loud impact, which when edited would have probably needed to have impact sounds placed over the top to make the hits louder and seem like the caused even more harm. This scene would last a seconds, and consist of the drunken character kicking Drew repeatedly in the stomach. This was a good scene to use to present the credits. We played around with the idea of having the credits come up as Drew was beat, almost in a representative way of each hit Drew receives. The next shot 12, is when the first credits appears showing our company title. This was originally intended to appear here to link the rest of the credits to each other however now after further examination we decided to move the company titles to as a way of introducing the film. The original intent for this, like shown here was to have a white flash and the company title to fade in and then quickly disappear to be replaced by the next shot.

Storyboard 7

STORYBOARD 13,14

The shot shown below is the next shot in the sequence. Very similar to the previous shots 11 and 12, the scenes would play put exactly the same. After the first credits/titles, the 13th shot shows Drew still being repeatedly kicked and beat at a fast pace and relentlessly. The shot would once again be short and over very quick, highlight the fast pace of the action and just how fast this action is taking place. A way that this could be interpreted is by the idea of adrenaline. When a person is under stress or seems to find themselves in a position where the only two choices of action are flight or fight, adrenaline will build up and almost cause everything perceived to the individual to slow down. This is often seen in action films or even video games, when the character receives an adrenaline boost during a particularly intense moment. The adrenaline in the drunkard's system is causing him to repeatably lash out. The close shot of the boot kicking the body of Drew shows the exact detail of where and how the kicks are being delivered, making this action seem even more real then it is.

This fast, short shot will once again flash white to be replaced by the next shot of the credits, this time showing the director. This shot wouldn't last much longer than the previous, just enough time for the titles to appear/fade into the screen and then fade out again, back into the white, only the be replaced again by another shot.This constant fast pace increases the tension and action.

Storyboard 8

STORYBOARD 15,16



The storyboard above shows more shots, 15 and 16, showing more of what is happening to Drew as the action continue. The first presented shot, number 15, in once again a short, fact paced shot, this time showing the drunk's torso as he grabs a fallen Drew and punches him. When before the kicking had been more at a further distance away from Drew, now crouched in front of Drew, this seems more personal and upclose. The drunkard is now getting into Drew's face, almost in a showoffy way as if to show Drew that he's not scared and he knows Drew won't/can't fight back. This can be interpreted as a sadistic move, a mixture of anger and pure aggression shown by his tightly fisted hands and tense shoulders. The drunk thug has definate power over a helpless Drew.
Once again fading out into a white flash, the next shot appearing shows more credits, the writer of the film. (After later evaluation and discussion we decided that this thriller opening needed more credits, so in the finished opening sequence not only are the director and writer introduced but the assistant director- me, and the costume 'designer') This shot, like previously doesn't last long and fades in as quick as it fades out, leaving enough time for the audience to read the name but not long enough to become boring.

Storyboard 9+10

STORYBOARD 17,18,19,20

The first shot shown below show a new setting, the hospital. These scenes were originally intended to appear here to show the audience that what the beat up Drew received previously resulted in him at a hospital. These scene here was very ambitious, now looking back not something that would be easy to do, showing Drew laying in a hospital with two other, shaded, transparent, ghost like versions of himself  either side of his hospital bed. The apparitions were supposed to be representations of Drew in his current state, one apparition more clear than the other; the completely ghostly looking apparition to symbolise him in his dream state, the real Drew to represent his real life self and the in between apparition being to symbolise the in between dream state and awareness. Looking back on this shot now I have no idea how this would have be edited or filmed, not surprising me then that we never even got round to filming this part. We tried filming an alternative few shits of various people in hospital beds, tossing and turning as lights flickered on and off but this once again didn't match any vision and we scraped the idea.

The next shot shown here is the extreme facial close up, showing just the forehead and eyes of Drew. The idea of this was to have Drew, the character in a coma, dramatically wake up after experiencing a vivid vision/ dream that we see in the next few scenes. The idea here was to create a sort of panic, the audience turning uncomfortable from the intense stare Drew is giving the camera.

This idea was ambitious, and now looking back, we realise just how silly it was. It is unrealistic of someone to wake up so easily and quickly from a coma, especially after such a nock to the head. We also though that the whole dramatic eye opener was too cheesy and cliché.

The next final shots below are the last shots, showing the ending of our opening sequence. Drew, the main protagonist, in his dream state is waking up in a a mysterious field, a completely different location from the dark alley way that he last remembers being in before he was knocked out. The field surrounding him was meant to be misty and an off colour, looking somewhat realistic however still not completely realistic enough to seem real life.

The last shot before the film title is to be shown here, shot 20 shows Drew walking and exploring the mysterious field, coming across mysterious objects and sounds, looking around. The music to be put in this shot is to be dramatic and eerie, almost static in tune. At this point the shot is to fade, allowing the film title KOMA to fade into the screen, completing our film opening. 

Mise en scene- our film

KOMA- mise en scene

Here is a spider diagram of the mise en scene we decided on before filming and before we had even drawn up the storyboard. As you can see this was even before we had settled on our final film name, with Eyes of Darkness being a title idea we had at the current time.

The spider diagram here shows all aspects of mise en scene we could think of, going from lighting to props that we were going to use. By this point we had the general idea of what we wanted our film to look like and definitely what we wanted to capture. We analyses both characters; Drew and the drunken thug and how we wanted to them to look and act. Drew's appearance was very important to us as we wanted him to come across as a 'weaker' character. Though I do not think we met this in out film, the idea of Drew was a 'geek with very few friends' that we thought we could present in how he was dressed. The hoodie and the skateboard were going to represent his age and general youthful nature, reminding the audience that he was indeed still a kid. The earphones were going to give him a sense of independence and were going to be used as a way of him closing of the world, showing him as a loner. The glasses were going to give him that 'geekiness' and vulnerability that we though he needed to seem as much as a target as possible.

The drunk character on the other hand was going to be the complete opposite and present a much harder personality. The cloths of choice for this character were basically worn out cloths and shoes, a hat and an unshaven face. The actor we settled on using had the facial hair that we felt would fit this character well, so we in a way based the drunken character in this film on the real life person we knew. 

This character was going to be tough and the stereotypical drunk. He needed to have power over Drew so the casting and costume was very important that we ended up with a character that matched this description.

As you can see we discussed various locations we wanted to use, by this point knowing what scenes we wanted and what types of locations to shoot in. The dark alley way and field were very important to us, those begin the basis of our film; the opening and closing scenes of the thriller film opening we are shooting. The alley way needed to be dark and dingy enough to seem unsafe and uncomfortable, so that the audience could relate to Drew in the sense of unease he was feeling whilst in the alley. The field was part of the the 'dream' idea that we decided on. Whilst being in a coma, Drew would have the dream of being in a mysterious field, a field that looked realistic enough to be an actual field yet slightly off looking, highlighting that thus was indeed an illusion.

The lighting we were going to use was also very important to us to create the specific mood of the situation. In the alley way scene we wanted Drew to look innocent where as the drunkard to look threatening. Using different positioning of lighting would create this effect. For Drew shots the idea was to have above lighting, illuminating Drew as if he had a halo above his head. The drunken character on the other hand was to have below/ under lighting to make him look much more sinister. The below lighting would cast shadows and shading on his face, defining his threatening facial features. The below lighting was intended to make him look powerful and freighting, an evil force in the shadows.