Post Production - Main Task

The editing process went mostly smoothly, the only thing that seemed to cause the most struggle was the sound. Firstly, we had no sound in most of our original shot and so we had to take some of the 'white noise' from one of the shots that actually had sound and copy this to the remainder of the shots. Luckily the fall out boy diegetic music which we later overlaid made this seem rather smooth and not jarring, which we were worried about. With the music we adjusted the sound levels to make sure that when the camera was nearer the computer that the music would be louder, and when it was further away, like in the close-ups of the objects, that it was quieter - as to replicate the way the sound would be if you were in the room with the character. However, what caused many problems was getting the audio of typing in sync with the typing on the computer screen, the titles, and on the keyboard. To get round this problem and to make sure that it was clear, we recorded the sound of the typing after the shooting day and added this in with the visuals. After quite the struggle with matching up each sound clip to the visuals, it did however pay off in the end, some of the typing shot even had to have each, individual typing noise added in to each letter that appeared on screen, this was quite frustrating but it did pay off in the end.

Once all the sound levels were appropriate we wanted to make sure that the title shot lasted long enough, in particular we wanted to make sure that the main title differentiated from the rest, to resolve this we made the main title larger and stay on screen longer. We also made the titles in a typewriter typeface in order to reinforce the idea of our protagonist tying out a letter and hence give a little away about the story, as well as fitting in with it. The length of each shot also caused some struggles as we didn't want it to drag out each clip, but at the same time we did not want it to be too short and seem jarring, we also needed to fit the 2 minute boundary. Despite his, in the end I think we came to the right conclusion of having shots long enough for the meaning to come across successfully. 

Production (Shooting Journal) - Main Task

Filming day went rather smoothly. But we did have a few expected problems. We were filming in someone's loft which meant that setting up was a but of a hassle since we had to keep going up and down the stairs, clearing what we did not need from the bedroom and assembling the set. All together filming took approximately 5 hours, however it did not at all feel like it (and we got pizza to break up the day). What caused the most difficulty was, what we called 'the troublesome tracking shot' but we did build a rather nifty mechanism for it.

We managed to balance the tripod on top of a small penny-board, despite not being able to get the circular movement around the head of 'Peter' it did enable us to get a relatively steady shot. We also used this to carry out the pull-in shot however, this did not work out since the camera was too shaky and it was hard to focus since we had to position it right against the wall in order to get a wide shot. This was a little frustrating since I think this would have made a really nice opening shot. But it was great that we managed to get a steady enough shot for the tracking shot so we could use this as the alternate opening shot. 

The location was perfect since we did actually take over a teenage boy's bedroom, which was perfect for our 17-year-old character, Peter. As for making the set appeared as if it was in America, we simply dressed the set with American sweets, American CDs (bands). Finding these was relatively easy since now most shops seem to sell American sweets (albeit for more money). It took quite a lot of time to dress the set since the stairwell was so narrow and getting things up to the loft was quite hard. We also wanted to make sure that everything was in a good position so that it would appear in frame and just look how we envisaged it. Overall I think that it did look how we wished it to from the desk point-of-view however, the bed just didn't look right and felt a little neglected. This was a shame as it can be seen as not even a bedroom but just a 'study' space. Despite this, I do not think that the bed is really needed to imply that it is a teenage boy's bedroom since I think with the way we dressed it with all of his things, that it did look like a bedroom in the end and the shot of the bed itself was not necessary and would look like quite a 'flat' shot.




















Another obstacle which we had to tackle was being able to film shots as wide as possible since it was a small room, with five people in. This lead to me squeezing into awkward small spaces and trying to focus the camera without actually being able to see the screen however, it worked out in the end. This also caused some struggles when it came to the tracking shot and so we had to compromise and not have a tracking shot of the whole bedroom, but rather just the desk. The desk was actually hand-made by one of our group member's dad who specially made it for the film opening, with the main character in mind.

Lighting and Colour Research - Main Task

We wanted to have the light in the room to be quite dark, reflective of Peter's depressed personality. In this way, having a room with limited light source, other than a skyline, small window, was perfect. Having one small, desk lamp meant that it was not too dark and allowed us to see the room with all the things in it effectively, as well as being able to see Peter's character. However, we wanted the colouring to be high in blue, reflecting Peter's dull, dark room along with his personality. 

Despite this we did not worry too much about the colouring since much of this would be completed in post-production using the software colour.  During this process we wanted to increase the blue colouring to imply that the protagonist is sad and depressed. As well as this, we increased the red to signify that the character, Peter, also has a lot of anger as in fact capable of doing anything in order to get revenge for the bullying which he received at school. Thus, hinting at what is to come in the rest of the film and also creating enigma, as we would want in a conventional film opening.

To keep the lighting in the room quite dark we used the black-out blind that was the only source of light in the bedroom: the skylight. However, even with this drawn it was still quite light so we ended up sellotaping the blind to get rid of any light streaks coming form the side of the blind. The only problem with sellotape is that it is not very good at sticking to walls and so it kept falling down and so the lighting changed slightly throughout the different shot types. However, this was resolved in post-production where we used the software 'colour' to adjust the brightness and exposure of each shot to make sure that the light levels were all the same, thus making sure that each shot didn't look like a different time of day since we wanted it to be around 12 pm.

With 'colour' I wanted to create something partially stylised, however we did not want it to be overly stylised as I think it would shade the meaning of the piece. In this way I made most of the shot seem naturalistic, increasing the contrast of the colour to just heighten them and make them look more appealing than the initial shots.  Increasing the shadows also made it seem more threatening, relfecting Peter's character. 

Influences for the Main Character - Main Task

The main character Peter in 'Nineteen Minutes' and our actor, Tom also reminded me of the character 'Charlie' from 'Perks of Being a Wallflower' and 'Oliver Tate' from 'Submarine' due to their character's having similar in vulnerability. Tom also came across as quite quiet and thus fitted the role perfectly. Not to say that he is the kind of person who would be bullied, he just had a sense of perhaps hiding things behind the surface as with the character 'Oliver' and 'Charlie' who also share traits which Peter (the main character of Nineteen Minutes'). In this way,  think this drew me to the character more since I love those films so much. 

Also, similarly both Charlie and Oliver have an interest in writing which also relates to Peter's character (despite his writing perhaps being more sinister and suicidal). In particular near the beginning of the 'Perks of Being a Wallflower' there is a scene of Charlie writing a letter just as Peter does. Also, Oliver's character in 'Submarine' is introduced though a tracking shot which reveals the interior of his room beforehand. This is similar to how we wanted our film opening to be. 

Charlie from the 'Perks of Being a Wallflower' was quite influential in creating Peter's character initially since the characters were very similar and both struggle from depression. 

Similarly, 'Oliver Tate' was an influence due to the character being portrayed as isolated due to the affects of bullying and perhaps not being perceived as 'normal' by other people the same age.

Actors Research - Main Task

Since our film opening only required one character, a 17 year old boy, it was fairly easy to fit the role since we were not planning to have them being explicit acting, nor have their whole body on screen. However, we chose a person, Tom Downey, who did have experience in acting and in fact took media studies themselves, so they knew what to expect (in a way) when it came to shooting day. As a director, I wanted to be able to communicate effectively with the actor so that we could shoot effectively and efficiently, in this way it helped that I already knew the actor previously. It also helped that our narrative did not rely on his acting and so he was not heavily required other than just sitting and typing in the scene in which we wanted to conduct. We mostly wanted to rely on the message created by the note he was typing out as well as his surroundings, in order to create appropriate meaning about his character in a coherent way.

However, I thought that Tom was perfect for the role as being a 17 year old boy himself he could relate to his character, Peter (except the school shooting plot-line...hopefully). The only thing that was perhaps different would be relating to being an American boy however, the social issues tackled in the opening are perhaps thing that many people have been affected by. Mental issues being a serious problem in today's society. 

We also wanted the character to have quite a small frame, since the main character is no 'soccer' player but rather one of the kids who sits in the library and reads throughout his breaks to stay away from all the people who bully him for perhaps being 'different' or just a target. In this way, Tom was the perfect size to portray this character in the right way, displaying his vulnerability. 

Tom also reminded me of the character 'Charlie' from 'Perks of Being a Wallflower' and 'Oliver Tate' from 'Submarine' due to their character's having similar in vulnerability. Tom also came across as quite quiet and thus fitted the role perfectly. Not to say that he is the kind of person who would be bullied, he just had a sense of perhaps hiding things behind the surface as with the character 'Oliver' and 'Charlie' who also share traits which Peter (the main character of Nineteen Minutes'). In this way,  think this drew me to the character more since I love those films so much.

Charlie from the 'Perks of Being a Wallflower' was quite influential in creating Peter's character initially since the characters were very similar and both struggle from depression. 

Similarly, 'Oliver Tate' was an influence due to the character being portrayed as isolated due to the affects of bullying and perhaps not being perceived as 'normal' by other people the same age.

Costume Research - Main Task

We wanted Peter's character to be dressed plainly, since it would be odd if we conveyed  a depressed character like Peter's by having him wearing a yellow t-shirt or a Hawaiian shirt. In this way, we dressed Peter in just a black t-shirt and jeans. Thus, implying that Peter is a saddened character as well as not really caring what he wears, just as long as he doesn't stand out and hence blend in with the rest of his high school. We also dressed Peter with black rimmed glasses to imply that his character was perhaps seen as 'nerdy', 
stereotypically.


Similarly we wanted to imply that Peter is perhaps disturbed due to the effects of the other people at his school, that he was bullied. His black t-shirt may also imply that he wants to remain anonymous, so that no one will suspect what crime he eventually commits (a school shooting). The black t-shirt also connotes depression and perhaps a sense of suspicion.

Inspiration for Peter's character also stemmed from 'Charlie' in the 'Perks of Being a Wallflower' who tends to wear dark, monochromatic clothing. In this way, we wanted to portray his character similarly to Charlie's in the way that their character's are being bullied.

Props Research - Main Task

The use of props in our film opening was key in signifying certain aspect of Peter's character as well as displaying the setting in which the film its set. We knew that Peter's character was very much the typical perhaps 'nerdy' 17 year old boy. In this way, we attempted to portray this through his glasses, the type of books such as 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' and 'The Hobbit'. We also placed what is often perceived as 'nerdy' DVDs such as 'Star Trek', 'Lord of The Rings' and 'X Men'. 

As well as this we wanted to signify that this film opening was set in America and so we placed half eaten, American chocolate bars. We also placed an left over cereal bowl, which we wanted to have been marinating for a while, along with a glass of water and a can of monster. We wanted to imply that Peter's character was dis-organised and perhaps didn't really care if his room was dirty and messy since only he abodes there.

Our props perhaps took inspiration from the opening and room of 'Oliver Tate' in the film 'Submarine' since we hoped to create a room with was full of all 'nick-nacks' like Oliver Tate's. Despite the locations of the character's being in Wales and America, the concept of a teenage bedroom was very much the same. We thought the rooms should have the personal touch of the character. The only different being that Peter would have more American-themed items in his room.

Props List:

• Death Wish poster
• DVD’s (Star Trek, Superman, Doctor Who, X-Men etc.)
• Bin (which is overflowing)
• Laptop
• Laptop Mouse
• Chair
• Desk
• Metal Frame Bed
• Pot of Pencils
• Desk Lamp
• Dirty Socks
• Bowl of old, uneaten cereal
• Monster Energy Drink
• Books (fiction, non-fiction)
• Superman tin lunch box
• Black dressing gown
• Clock
• American sweet wrappers
• Newspaper cuttings (linked to shootings)
• Glasses
  

  

  
  

Location Research - Main Task

Finding a location for our film opening was surprisingly easy since we already had a location in mind in the development of the screenplay. We wanted a location that would be dark and preferably be something you would expect from an American boy's bedroom. We came to the conclusion of using a loft bedroom, with sloping ceilings, and one skyline window. This window had a black-out blind and so perfect for a dark, depressing bedroom. In this way, we wanted to imply that Peter's character is a little different and disturbed as well as suffering from depression. Thus, implying that perhaps something disturbing will occur later in the film and hence creating enigma. As we only had 2 minutes, we did not feel it was necessary for us to change locations since we also wanted to create a very closed-off feel, making the audience feel as if they are trapped as Peter is, almost in his own head. The low ceiling helped to give us this feel of being stuck and confined.

By having the location of the bedroom being so confined it helped to convey how the main character, Peter, was isolated both at high school and at home. Thus, we wanted it to be evident that as well as being physically isolated in the attic room of the house, out of the way from everything else that is going on, he is also psychologically isolated in that he feels he is the only person who is truly effected by bullying. Personally, I think that the location was perfect in representing an isolated, 17 year old, American boy's bedroom since it was so isolated in itself as well as being confined, as Peter's character is throughout the narrative.

Shot List - Main Task

Shot List -

A list given to the film production crew which indicates the sequence of scenes being shot for the day. This list may include the scene number, the location of where the scene is being shot, a description of the scene, the length of a scene (listed by number of pages from the script), a list of actors who will be involved in the scene, and, special notes to all departments of what will be needed or required for a particular scene being shot.

Shot Number	Shot Type	Storyboard Number	Shot Description
1	Tracking Shot	2,5,8	Tracking Shot of Peter from the desk, revealing parts of his bedroom gradually.
2	Medium Close-up	3	Hand on mouse and pot of pencils on the desk.
3	Close-up	4	Close-up of a mouse clicking on the music. Switch focus from the play button to the title 'Fall Out Boy Golden' - of music.
4	Extreme Close-up	6,7,9,111,13,14,16,17, 18	Close-ups of different objects in the room. Switch from out of focus to in, focus on the object.

Although shots are simple, if the tracking shot works out it will hopefully turn out well and look effective. As well as this difficulty, achieving the extreme close-up with Peter's eyes with the reflection in his glasses may be hard, since we need to have the gun which he is looking at on the computer -achieving the right angle for this may be difficult. We also wanted the extreme close-ups to go from out of focus to in focus in order to achieve a little ambiguity and therefore we wanted to reveal about his character gradually, but enough so that it meets the conventions of a film opening: creating enigma, establishing time, place and introducing character. We wanted to make sure that the meaning was clear as well as being creative with our choices of shots.

Similarly, we do not want to over complicate the number of shots/shot types since when t comes to production day we do not want it to be over-complicated but it still needs to be challenging enough. In this way if the tracking shot works out it should hopefully look more impressive. The influence of this tracking shot stems from Wes Anderson's signature of using tracking shots, with not cuts.

Storyboard - Main Task

Storyboard

 

noun

1. a sequence of drawings, typically with some directions and dialogue, representing the shots planned for a film or television production.

              

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Coming up with a storyboard felt like a daunting task, yet after doing various film opening deconstructions, we managed to come up with shots we thought would be effective, as well as doable with the equipment and budget we had. We came up with the idea of perhaps having one tracking shot, and then entering various close-up shots of the room, of objects, to be able to give us an introduction to Peter's character, as well as creating enigma about the rest of the film, in particular him as a person. In this way, we thought it would be effective if you did not see his face as a whole, but rather bits, fragmented, leaving the audience to piece together parts of his character, without giving too much away.

By having diegetic sound, we thought that it would enable us to be more effective in our music choice, having something that Peter would listen to, and American band, in order to ensure we were portraying the character in the right way.

The text/typing will contain the whole letter, but focus will be on the main words - 'Don't blame yourself;', these being the only ones being still typed out, to draw the audience's attention to it.

Close-ups will ideally start off unfocused and become focused to gradually reveal objects.

I also compiled an alternative storyboard, in case the tracking shot did not work, since we did not have the equipment to create the shot, we may have to use something with wheels with a Steadicam to enable us to conduct this. But, just in case we came up with an alternative, in this way if things did not turn out well on filming day we had something else to follow:

Ideally we would like to have a bird's eye view shot of Peter typing, however we thought it would be hard to could to camera still without having a shaky camera, however we would have to come up with a solution of being high enough to be able to capture the shot -but, it would be effective.

We thought that we could perhaps overlay the typing in post, if the shots on the computer did not turn out well.

Film Treatment - Main Task

Film Title: Nineteen Minutes
Production Name: MAGC Productions
Film Duration: 2 Minutes

Roles:
Director: Chloe Kennedy
Assistant Director: Grace Chambers
Production Manager: Andrea Simpson
Camera Man: Maisie Baker

Characters:
Peter Houghton: Tom Downey

Costumes:
Peter Houghton
Peter will be wearing wire rimmed glasses, as described in the book. He will wear the typical clothing of a 17 year old boy, a black t-shirt, a pair of jeans and some trainers. His hair will be very neat 

Synopsis:
Sterling is a small town in New Hampshire, and the home of Lacy Houghton, whose job as a midwife is to bring new life in to the world. But on March 6th, her son Peter did the complete opposite, when he walked into his high school with a gun instead of books, shooting down 10 people. The book travels between the time before and after the shooting occurred, showing the knock on effect that the shooting has on everyone around Peter. As the narrative continues, we begin to realise that despite Lacy’s every efforts, she barely knew her son at all, and we follow the turmoil as Lacy wonders if there was something she could have done to stop Peter. The novel creates many questions in our head, especially, is the victim ever allowed to strike back?

Setting:
We have chosen to set our film in a bedroom location, and then dress the bedroom to fit Peter’s personality, perhaps with posters over the wall, and a computer in the corner on which he will write his letter.

Props:

• Death Wish poster
• DVD’s (Star Trek, Superman, Doctor Who, X-Men etc.)
• Bin (which is overflowing)
• Laptop
• Laptop Mouse
• Chair
• Desk
• Metal Frame Bed
• Pot of Pencils
• Desk Lamp
• Dirty Socks
• Bowl of old, uneaten cereal
• Monster Energy Drink
• Books (fiction, non-fiction)
• Superman tin lunch box
• Black dressing gown
• Clock
• American sweet wrappers
• Newspaper cuttings (linked to shootings)
• Glasses

Writing a Screenplay - Main Task

noun

noun: screenplay; plural noun: screenplays

1. the script of a film, including acting instructions and scene directions.

Screenplay example:

Notting Hill (1999) movie script

by Richard Curtis.

EXT. VARIOUS DAYS

'She' plays through the credits.

Exquisite footage of Anna Scott -- the great movie star of our

time -- an ideal -- the perfect star and woman -- her life full of

glamour and sophistication and mystery.

EXT. STREET - DAY

Mix through to William, 35, relaxed, pleasant, informal.  We

follow him as he walks down Portobello Road, carrying a load of

bread.  It is spring.

WILLIAM (V.O.)

 Of course, I've seen her films and

 always thought she was, well,

 fabulous -- but, you know,

 million miles from the world I live

 in.  Which is here -- Notting Hill

 -- not a bad place to be...

EXT. PORTOBELLO ROAD - DAY

It's a full fruit market day.

WILLIAM (V.O.)

 There's the market on weekdays,

 selling every fruit and vegetable

 known to man...

EXT. PORTOBELLO ROAD - DAY

A man in denims exits the tattoo studio.

WILLIAM (V.O.)

 The tattoo parlour -- with a guy

 outside who got drunk and now can't

 remember why he chose 'I Love Ken'...

EXT. PORTOBELLO ROAD - DAY

WILLIAM (V.O.)

 The racial hair-dressers where

 everyone comes out looking like the

 Cookie Monster, whether they like

 it or not...

Sure enough, a girl exits with a huge threaded blue bouffant.

EXT. PORTOBELLO ROAD - SATURDAY

 

The purpose of a screenplay is to adapt them from original works or for a new piece. In them, there is a description of the movement, expressions, actions and dialogues of the characters.

The challenge with our screenplay was that it was perhaps hard for us to come up with a script without any dialogue. However, it was a little easier since we had a novel of which we could base our adaptation of, it was a rather daunting fact of being able to turn a novel into a moving image. In this way, we had to come up with movements to compensate for the lack of dialogue, and make sure the narrative made sense. We also had to make sure that the setting would be appropriate for a relevant teenage bedroom. In terms of coming up with the screenplay we found it hard to perhaps pick the right part of the novel to start the film for our opening since the book initially starts with a letter about perhaps why events occur later in the book. In this way, we decided that this would be a good place to start and adapt into a piece of moving image. Visualising the character in his surrounding was actually not that difficult but we did have to think carefully about what his room would be like and how this would apply to the character, in order to portray him in the right way, as well as not giving away too much about the rest of the film.

However, in the end it was produced:

Nineteen Minutes

INT. BEDROOM –

MID-DAY

A typical messy

teenage bedroom in Sterling, New Hampshire. It’s around 1pm in the afternoon.

The room is very messy, with a bowl of half eaten cereal on the bedside table,

and dirty socks on the floor.

There is a young man

sitting at a desk in the corner of the room, whom is named PETER. He is typing

on a laptop, and the audience can see the screen of his computer, as he clicks

on an album on his screen, and music begins to play.

At this point, PETER

continues to type away on his screen, as the audience realises that he  is in

fact typing a letter.

PETER

(typing on screen) By the time you read this,

I hope to be dead.

PETER continues to type on his keyboard as we

see other areas of his room.

PETER

(typing on screen) Don’t blame yourself

The typing continues as we see more of his

room.

PETER

(typing on screen) That would be a lie.

The typing continues as we see his cupboards.

PETER

(typing on screen) You’ll cry at my funeral.

The typing continues as we see a clock, and

hear it ticking.

PETER

(typing on screen) Will you miss me?

The typing continues, and we see a shot of a

gun in the reflection of PETER’S glasses