Rough draft midterm

The rough draft went well. We already started to break it down and see what things we need to fix.

Scouting locations

We went and scouted our locations before filming. the good news is we never had to switch location as the people that owned each property gave us permission. we chose a bank looking building out east at a friends warehouse which made it super easy to use. then we went to a parking garage downtown that was close to the school which gave us easy access. The drag racing scene was done out east on a long open road owned by a church. as stated before everyone gave us permission.

Schedule filming

Due to time crunch and how fast this had to be due. this blog post is after when we already filmed. we scheduled for December 17 around mid day. Everything went well though. it took a little longer than expected but besides that everything went smoothly. we got permission to film on all of our locations. and kept everything we did within reason,. overall i say that our filming day was very successful. Everyone got to use the camera and be in the film, at the end everyone had a blast!

Casting

All of the people in my group except for Jane ford wanted to have a lead roll within the film. We all have a passion for cars so it made it very easy for us to fit in character. Cierra is very beautiful with a fun attitude which made it very easy to fit the roll of the girl within this video. Trey is a very rebellious type of person so he fits perfectly with the roll of Austin. I love being the bad-ass main villain that runs the show.  We chose the rest of our car friends as extras as this will solve two problems. the people who would be hanging around with the villain and the cars for Don (the villains) Crew. No other better options presented themselves to us.

Story board

3 out of the 4 of us cant draw at all. so we decided as a collective to have Jane ford draw it. She did an absolutely remarkable job. I couldn't have imagined a better job. We are ready to move on with this project!

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Shot list

After making the script now it was time to make a shot list. the group as a whole broke down the scenes and evaluated each shot. I know a lot about cameras and filming so i held the leadership role in this activity as well. i made sure that the group was headed for a successful film creation.

Shot List

1.    Mid shot: Tyler and Trey running

2.    Low angle: Front of car

3.    Close up: Tyler when speaks

4.    Shot reverse shot (close up): Trey when speaks

5.    Low Angle (of rear): s550 leaving bank

6.    Pan: s550 entering garage

7.    Low-angle mid-shot: Camaro and the s550 in the parking garage

8.    Long shot: Camaro pulling into meet

9.    Low angle tracking: Door opening Trey gets out (feet)

10. Transition over the shoulder: trey walking towards Josh

11. Shot reverse shot (over the shoulder) mid shot over Josh

12. Two Shot: Trey & Josh talking (Josh drops duffle)

13. Low angle: 2 cars pulling up to drag race line

14. Insert shot: exhaust (revving)

15. Low Angle: cars from front

16. Shot Reverse Shot (low angle): cars driving away

17. Tracking (inside civic) at Camaro

18. Low angle of finish line (Camaro winning)

19. Wide shot: cars pulling back to meet (both get out of cars)

20. Mid Shot: Josh cocks gun

21. Eye line match: (Josh looking at Trey)

22. Hand held tracking: Josh walking towards Trey (everyone rushing in)

23. Insert Shot: bystander handing Trey keys

24. Over shoulder of Trey: Cierra walks up to him

25. Two Shot: Cierra & Trey

26. Close Up: Trey “Austin, Austin Jones”

27. Transition to over the shoulder: Cop car pulling up behind

28. Over the shoulder shot: police officer and Trey slowly turning around

29. Two shot: police officer cuffing trey

30. Tracking shot: Trey being put in the back of the police car.

31. Downwards pan: police station entrance stop at mid-shot of trey walking out

32. Close up: Trey answering the phone

33. Insert shot: letter in back pocket of jeans

34. Insert shot: open letter transition to pan up from the letter

35. End scene

Script

Over the series of the past week our media studies group met to work on the script. The group gave a lot of input but i took the leadership roll in this one. I set the scenes up for everyone and gave a lot of the dialogue ideas where the rest of my group edited my inputs. They also added some missing dialogue that could further the meaning of the scenes.

1. Ext. Bank – mid day

Austin and Steven run around the corner with duffle bags to be picked up in Mercedes s550.

Trey: (yelling) Lets go! Lets go! Lets go!

Tyler: (worried) I’m freaking out! We’re going to get caught.

Trey: Don’t worry we’re fine.

They speed to a parking garage to change and switch cars.

Cut to: Car meet

2. Ext. Car Meet – mid day

They pull up to the car meet

Trey: You said come back when I have enough to risk.

Josh: You think this is some sort of joke? Even if you had the funds there’s no way you could beat me in a quarter mile.

Trey:(confident) I got a hunnid racks I’ll win.

Josh: Bet it’s on

Don pulls out a matching duffle bag and drops it on the ground. They get into their cars and the race begins. Austin wins. The cars pull back up to the main meet and get out. Don pulls out a gun and cocks it and aims it at Austin. Everyone at the meet swarms Don and takes the gun from him.

Random car person:(screams) WOAH! WOAH! WOAH! NOT COOL.

The guy then takes his keys and hands it to Austin.

Brittney: What’s your name again?

The girls walk over to Austin and he places his arms around them.

Trey: Austin. Austin Jones

Immediately squad cars pull up with sirens and lights

Cop: Are you Austin jones?

Trey: Yes?

Cop: Place your hands behind your back you are under arrest.

Cop reads Miranda Rights while he throws Austin into the back of the car.

Cut to: Jail

Austin walks out of jail.

His phone rings saying unknown. He answers.

Unknown caller: There’s a letter placed in the back pocket of your pants. It contains all of the men that set you up. You decide what to do.

Film Research: The Town

The scene opens up with a security camera footage of 3 masked men running into a bank. A man quickly jumps over the counter and takes control of the people behind it. The other men get control everyone else in the bank and make sure no one tries anything crazy. They now remove everyone's cell phones and get to work on the safe. They get a hostage to open the vault but she keeps stalling. Once its open the men proceed to take all the money and all the security camera footage. all of the sudden someone tries to enter the bank. After the person leaves the men take the hostage to their van were they make their escape. not much of the movie is told in the opening, all it does is set up how the hostage they have got with them in the first place. During the first part of the scene a bunch of short takes occur as a bank robbery has to be fast passed to beat the cops. so in this case the short takes emphasize the time crunch. unique camera techniques used were the security camera footage which made it feel a little more real. also an insert shot towards the end of the scene which shoes one of the robbers tattoos on the back of his neck. this also is an eye-line match between on of the hostages on the floor. it then cuts to some over the shoulder shots of the men pouring bleach over every surface in the bank. The ambient noise of people screaming shows the intensity and fear the civilians had. the guns used in the movie create a sense of reality as the props used dramatize the bank robbery. There were no opening credits in the opening scene. i believe this is done so you can focus all your attention. The budget for the movie was 37 million USD they made 154 million USD worldwide. awards they received includes the movie of the year at the AFI awards.

Film Research: baby driver

During the 6 minute opening of baby driver a young kid is behind the wheel of a red Subaru wrx. accompanied with him are two clean cut men and a sharp edge women. all of them but the driver exit the vehicle and enter a bank across the street. baby driver begins listening to music and jamming out in the car until a cop car with sirens sets his attention. he looks over at the bank and waits for them to exit. once all the bank robbers are in the car baby driver goes through a dramatic scene of events where he escapes the cops in the most insane way possible. Not much of the story is told, but it does give a baseline of what the movie is about. Some cool camera angles used was a handheld cam following the 3 people into the bank. this kinda makes it feel as if you are walking with them about to rob the bank. The majority of the driving scene consists of short takes with many camera techniques like tracking, pans, and many action shots to emphasize that quick escape. The opening credits only list the star actors in the film with no description (names of people you are supposed to know). the budget was 34 million and they made 105 million domestically. won at the golden trailer for best action. international online cinema awards best film editing, best sound mix, and best sound editing.

Film Research: Death RACE

The opening scene of Death Race opens up with a black screen and a quick description of the current time period.  It then cuts to a camera rolling through an animated car engine. Their use of special effects and incidental music heighten the intensity of what is going to happen. It suddenly makes you aware that a lot of blood, sweat, and tire tread will be shed during this movie. The first two minutes don't ruin the movie for you but instead takes its time to explain to you how America has crumbled economically. It then explains that due to this economic decline the prisons were now having to make their own money to support themselves. in order to do this they hosted fights to the death. But this new death race idea on terminal island has struck the minds of many police officers taking place in this movie. The opening consists of no camera shots instead it consists of special effects of an car engine. The camera starts on the outside of the engine with the pulleys and then works its way deeper into the heart of the growling engine to unveil the true power of a car. No opening credits were given only background information on the actual story was given. the budget of Death Race was 45 million USD in the box office it made 75.7 Million USD.  nominated for Academy of science fiction, fantasy & horror films for best actress. It won DGC Craft award for sound editing. At the world stunt awards the movie was nominated for best fire stunt.

Film Research: Point Break

In the opening of Point Break it starts off with a closeup of the water moving into shore. It then cuts to different scenes of  a man out in the waves surfing. Using non continuity editing they also add in shots of a guy shooting multiple guns at targets. hes practicing very intensely based on his quick movements and sweat all over his body. Within the first two minutes not much of the story is told. it kinda gives you a background. As if you have seen the movie you would know its about a gang of surfers, which can possibly be inferred from the opening scene. One point to highlight in terms of film making techniques was the opening credits. they did an amazing job at blending the credits into the waves in the scene. as the water came in one name would flow with the water into shore. then when the water recited a new name popped up and started moving that way. Then point break pops up but backwards and mixed up with each other. As the water comes from the beach back to the ocean it mixes with the other wave that's coming in, unveiling the title of the movie. The dim color design and incidental music do a great job a setting a sense of a suspicious and up to no good mood. The opening credits include the producer, who castes the film, the co-producer, the music supervisor, editor, production designer, director of photography, executive producer, and some main characters. The budget of the film was 24 million USD, in the box office it made 83 million USD worldwide. It was nominated for 2 awards at the MTV Movie awards. Most desirable male and best action sequence.

Research: Fast and Furious 5

The opening of Fast and Furious 5 starts with a long shot of a bus traveling down an empty road in the desert. Suddenly it cuts to another long shot this time from behind the prison bus. This gives the views the setting and time of the scene. While the camera is still focusing on the the bus from nowhere 3 black cars come from behind the camera and the focus changes to the black cars. The incidental music then starts a something big is going to happen. It then cuts to many interior closeups on the drivers faces and also the faces of the prison inmates in the bus. This creates a sense of intensity coming from the drivers and a sense of confusion of the prisoners as they have no clue what is even happening. lots of digetic sound of engine noises and tires screeching are played throughout the entire scene. This emphasizes the power that these cars are putting down and the speed they are travelling in order to pursue the bus. A tracking shot of one of the cars occurs as it moves up way in front of the bus. It then cuts to a point of view shot from the bus drivers perspective, as the car stops in front and cause the bus to ram into the back of it, it flips over. as the bus is continuously flipping it switches to an aerial shot from a drone that pans around the crash. Not much of the story is produced in the opening scene at all. it looks to me that the whole purpose of the first scene is just to catch the eye of the viewer. I mean who doesn't like to watch a bunch of fast cars cause a huge bus to flip over 5 plus times. Fast and furious 5 had a budget of 125 million dollars in order to shoot it perfectly. it made a total of 626.1 million in the box office. They met and exceeded all of the goals they set in terms of revenue from the movie.

Project Selection- My Decision

The decision has been made....
I have decided to go with the  film project. I chose the film project because i have a greater interest into the film process and how to gets to the end product. Also the affect the film can have on someone inspires me to create one of my own. I have experience using cameras for filming and also the whole editing process. these skills will be very valuable when heading into the film project. Personally i have a huge passion with cars and filming/photography of them. In our particular  project my group is deciding to do a sort of Fast and Furious inspired film. This intrigues me more as my personal passion of cars will find this project more fun than work which will work out in the long run. My personal experience with cars includes filming and making edits which will directly show on my filming especially when the film is orientated around cars. The film will be an action film with small hints of fast and  within it. For this project i will be working in a group.  Jane- i see her having a big part within the acting of the film as she is good at on screen acting. Cierra- I see her being more of a directors assistant as she is proficient in all skills needed to film this. Trey- has skills with editing so i see trey doing more of the editing for the project.

Project selection-Film

After viewing many examples of film production, out of the two different choices the film project has my interest. The film project composes of planning, filming, editing, and many other skills that i have some sort of experience doing. Also i have a real passion for cars and taking pictures and filming and making edits. The camera skills and the editing skills are already there in order for me to take an advantage of it and confidently succeed at this project. The way a short video can portray a message or meaning and personally affect someone on how they think about something has me intrigued to dive further into the film project. Some challenges i might face are the adaption to this different editing software. Plus the whole process of finding a shooting location and so on. But all of these things can be over come with persistence.

Project Selection-Magazine

For our aice project we were given the decision of a video project or creating a newspaper. Recently we have been viewing material like all the presidents men and the news room in order to further investigate our interests between the two. For the magazine project, printed journalism has some aspects that interest me. the interviewing of people would fascinate me due to the fact that if they are worth interviewing then there is some valuable knowledge you can gain from the subject. I also like the aspect of diving deep into a story just as the magazine project would entitle you to do. On the other hand this project wouldn't be the best fit as i am not one who enjoys writing and typing a huge explanation on a story. I'm more of a visually orientated person. Also not very proficient in graphic design and would have trouble making the final product perfect. Although i have those quirks it still doesn't completely turn this side of the project away.