WELCOME MODERATOR

 

Harrison Allman-Varty 1701

Claremont Fan Court School 64680

I worked with Jacob Cooper 1720

Our brief was to make the title and opening sequence for a film. The title of our film is 'The Hong Kong Files'. It is based on the currently occurring event of 'The Coronavirus'. The movie is a political thriller/ drama. Throughout our film opening we included the necessary credits and gave the audience an in sight to what characters will be the main focus for the film to follow.

Camera work

Filming was a joint effort between myself and my partner. The camera was a mix of the Cannon 650D, iPhone X and iPhone 8. The iPhone allowed us to shoot shots quicker and on the scene, due to its easy to use interface and accessibility. It also allowed us to take multiple recordings on one shot from different angles as we had more than one camera.

Editing 

Being responsible for most of the editing of the production my skills obtained previously came in handy. From making movies at a young age I was able to fluidly navigate iMovie untile taking it to Final Cut Pro when iMovie wasn't accomplished some of my advanced tasks. My partner and I worked well to draw up a storyboard which we were able to follow and possibly improvise some last-minute ideas along the way.

Directing

Before diving straight into taking shots we made shore we could walk before we could run. An example of this was one of the main scenes with the health minister on the steps. We evaluated the lighting and the type of weather for the day to make sure the type of environment is put across clearly to the audience.

LINK TO OUR FILM

SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS FOR OUR FILM

We have different social media accounts with one of them being on Twitter. By creating an account on twitter, we are able to share our film online and generate hype and suspense for the upcoming film, free of charge and open to the public, but more importantly, those who are intrigued by the upcoming production. Creating a social media profile for our film allows for us to be adventurous when communicating online. it can be used to promote our film, answer questions via tweets and even post sneak peek clips of what is to come and when the movie release date is. 

You can view the twitter page here.

CONSTRUCTION: FILM IDENT

When it came to creating our film's ident, we took certain things into consideration such as, the speed, sound, and effectiveness of the ident. We chose to base our ident on the 'Film Five' ident. We were pleased with how it looked and wanted to reproduce it when creating our very own ident.

We were pleased with the final product as it was how we expected it to be before we had begun creating it. It is laid onto a sound of thunder in the editing process then used iMovies 'Ken Burns' to give the still image some movement. When creating this ident, photoshop was used in order to bring our ideas to the screen. We continuously added layers of different colours so that we were able to achieve the 3D looking effect. When putting it into iMovie we decided that it needed sound, and movement to give it a greater effect. We added a thunder sound effect followed by zooming in on a black area of the ident which then set the opening scene for us.

CONSTRUCTION: FILMING

FILMING: BROKEN DOWN

As our filming environment was office like; school seemed like a good fit for our filming needs. In the pictures, we used school landlines and the main building in order to capture each scene. The kitchen used was in the Sixth Form Centre with the rest of the scenes being filmed around the school site. This is not due to financial reasons or our own convienice, it is due to a perfect match with our filming needs.

Due to us working at school, there was not any pressure to get the shots at a specific point in time, however, there were potential issues in place with some of the actors, the main one being they're uniform. One problem we encountered was when actor would come in different uniform the next day which delays the process. This was out of our control as we were not able to dictate what they choose to wear to school on a day-to-day basis, but guide them on what days we will most likely film.

BBFC RATING: 12A

Choosing an Appropriate BBFC Rating For Our Film Opening

As our film opening is a British film, we created a BBFC certificate, which shows the age rating. I went on the BBFC website and looked at the requirements that would make a film age rating 12A. The list below shows these requirements.

Dangerous behaviour

No promotion of potentially dangerous behaviour which children are likely to copy. No glamorisation of realistic or easily accessible weapons such as knives. No endorsement of anti-social behaviour.

Discrimination

Discriminatory language or behaviour must not be endorsed by the work as a whole. Aggressive discriminatory language or behaviour is unlikely to be acceptable unless clearly condemned.

Drugs

Misuse of drugs must be infrequent and should not be glamorised or give detailed instruction.

Language

There may be moderate bad language. Strong language may be permitted, depending on the manner in which it is used, who is using the language, its frequency within the work as a whole and any special contextual justification.

Nudity

There may be nudity, but in a sexual context it must be brief and discreet.

Sex

Sexual activity may be briefly and discreetly portrayed. Moderate sex references are permitted, but frequent crude references are unlikely to be acceptable.

Threat and horror

There may be moderate physical and psychological threat and horror sequences. Although some scenes may be disturbing, the overall tone should not be. Horror sequences should not be frequent or sustained.

Violence

There may be moderate violence but it should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if justified by the context.


Here is our final product created in photoshop:

CONSTRUCTION: SOUND

SOUND IN 'THE HONG KONG FILES' 

When creating our film opening, we came across some challenges which made it difficult for us to have perfect audio when filming. In the second scene in the 'hospital' we came up against a very difficult area as the location was perfect, however ran into a problem when realising that there was much reverb which made it hard to understand what the actors were saying. We recorded audio separately on the iPhones voice memo app which when then aligned to the movement of the mouths to make it easier to understand. By doing this, we had the opportunity to eliminate some echo in the building as it was large and spacious. After doing this, we used the background noise tool on our editing software to eliminate any further reverb from the audio.

PLANNING: CASTING

PLANNING: FINAL CALL SHEET

CALL SHEET

CALL SHEET - THE HK Files

Shoot Date: Wednesday 15th January 2020 - February 7th 2020 

Location: SCIENCE LABS, KITCHEN

CREW (1): THE AGENT 

JACOB COOPER

06j****bc@****

0780*****

CREW(2): THE ASSISTANT

HARRISON ALLMAN-VARTY

06ha****@****.co.uk

07*****

CREW(3): STUDENT 1

LIAM WILSON

06li****@****.co.uk

077*****

CREW(4): STUDENT 2

HARVEY SHELTON

06ha***s@*****.co.uk

07535 ***

CREW(5): HEALTH MINISTER

BEN SWEENEY

06b***@****.co.uk

0759***

CREW(6): Dr. Lynford

CHRISTINA TAYLOR

06ch**t@****
0789***

CREW(7): Dr Jones

CASEY DREWETT

06c**d@**.co.uk

0757***

CAMERA EQUIPMENT:

• Canon 650D
• Manfrotto Tripod

LIGHTING EQUIPMENT

-NATURAL DAYLIGHT

-DIM LIGHT LAMPS

PROP LIST

• Lab coats
• Newspaper
• Telephone

CHARACTERS

Nigel Phillips (Ben Sweeney) 

Outfit one: 

-Grey Blazer, Grey Trousers (to match).

-Minimalistic tie (grey/black)

-Perfectly neat with ironed clothes and black polished shoes. 

 Dr Jones (Casey Drewett)

Outfit one:

- Grey Suit with blazer and tie

• Dr Lynford (Christina Taylor)

Outfit one:

- Checkered Skirt with White Shirt and Lab Coat 

PLANNING: MINDMAP & LOCATIONS

CASTING AND CHARACTERS FOR DIA

PLANNING: CALL SHEET

CALL SHEET

CALL SHEET - DIA (Death in Action) 

Shoot Date: Wednesday 15th January 2020

Location: School, laptop/ workspace setting.

IMAGE : MAP (FOUND RIGHT)

CREW (1): THE AGENT 

JACOB COOPER

06jacobc@clar***.surrey.sch.uk

07803***

CREW(2): THE ASSISTANT

HARRISON ALLMAN-VARTY   

06harrisonav@clar***.surrey.sch.uk

077112600**

CREW (3): THE COFFEE RUNNER

LEILA SAVILLE

06leilas@clar****.surrey.sch.uk

075****

CREW (4): HEALTH MINISTER, NIGEL PHILIPS

BEN SWEENEY

06bens@clar****.surrey.sch.uk

‭7591 0298**

CAMERA EQUIPMENT:

• Canon 650D
• Manfrotto Tripod

LIGHTING EQUIPMENT

-NATURAL DAYLIGHT

-DIM LIGHT LAMPS

PROP LIST

• Police/ detective badge
• Shades
• Black car/ moped
• Fully blacked out pistol

CHARACTERS

Richie Knight (Jacob Cooper) 

Outfit one: 

-Grey Blazer, Grey Trousers (to match).

-Minimalistic tie (grey/black)

-Perfectly neat with ironed clothes and black polished shoes. 

Kevin Radcliffe (Harrison Allman-Varty)

Outfit one:

• Casual leisurewear: scruffy tracksuit
• Messy hair 
• Stain on t-shirt

Outfit two:

• Switch to suit: Navy Blue, pristine condition

PLANNING: DEVELOPMENT OF TREATMENT

FINAL VERSION OF TREATMENT

• Title:  THE HK PAPERS (working title)
• We reviewed our treatment as we wanted to make the subject matter more dramatic and topical. Newspapers are currently full of the unfolding story of the Coronavirus drama which has offered us a rich source of the material.
• Our cast is now bigger and we will be bringing in footage taken from overseas but despite the more ambitious scope, we believe we have an achievable and much more visually rich text.

FIRST VERSION OF TREATMENT

• Title:  DIA (Death in Action

• Logline:         A powerful one or two-sentence statement of the idea being proposed (about 25 words).
• Synopsis: The agent is a UK MI5 personnel who has died in action and the film opens with the last person standing near the graveyard paying last respects. A movement behind a tree  suggests that someone is watching him. As he peers closely, they disappear. back at the office, the death certificate and post mortem details don't add up.
  when he phones to ask about the autopsy, there are clearly discrepancies in the reports.
  The rookie has to investigate his death and in the process he discovers...?
  Cross cutting at the end to old times with him like laughing with his buddy and he asks whats on your mind for him to respond oh its just something at the office and flashes back so he puts the clues together.
• Characters:  
• Rookie Agent: Agent who is required to uncover secrets relative to an agents death.
• Autopsy Scientist: Scientist who explains that there is no longer access to the body. 
• MI5 Executive: Gives brief of mission to be completed.
• The Agent: On hiding throughout the whole movie. Using death as an escape from the role.

PROPS LIST

Props I need to use:

- Prop handgun such as a pistol.

- detective badge
- Blacked out sunglasses
- Small mobile black car or moped

Outfits / costumes:

-Black suits (grey acceptable)
-Police uniform