26 • Who Would Produce your film? Part 3

• When it comes to distribution, I believe that I would pitch to Lionsgate that our film, is released to the online streaming services. Lionsgate have already experimented with this form of distribution, with their film,

• There are several streaming services to approach, e.g. Netflix, Amazon Prime Instant Video and YouTube.

• Also Lionsgate have several online channels in which to distribute the film. 

• Being in a new digital media age, we need to look to new platforms in which to share the content we make. And by using these new online services we can get our film scene by millions of people and make great returns on our investment, for example, the Netflix original 'Beasts of no nation' was made for $6,000,000 but has already been seen 9,000,000 times on Netflix alone. So there are huge un-taped audiences that our film needs to penetrate. 

• Although Lionsgate may not specialise in a particular genre of film, I personally believe that thrillers are there strong point. They seem to Really successfully portray the dark and tense themes that we see throughout thrillers. And this is the sort of direction we want to take our film.

• Another great thing about Lionsgate is that there hardcore audience is female, quite surprisingly. There two biggest franchise being, 'Hunger Games' and 'Twilight' both of these have a majority audience being female. This is the demographic our film is aimed at. Showing that women can have power over men. The main character in 'Hunger Games' Is female and she is a strong female role model. That women can look up to. This is the same in our thriller. Which is why the Lionsgate audience is great for us, we have a demographic that already can believe that a woman can be powerful and the hero of a movie.

25 • Who Would Produce your film? Part 2

Other Thrillers By Lionsgate,

• These thrillers show that Lionsgate have great experience in creating amazing thrillers, with one even getting best picture. But what is amazing about these films is that not all of them had massive budgets in fact 'You're Next' was produced for just $1,000,000. A tiny budget compared to some holly wood blockbusters.

• I think that our thriller really works well with the whole Lionsgate production style, We only need a small budget in order to pull off our thriller.

• Also the whole premise around our film is the idea of breaking the stereotype that women cant fight back against men. This is the experimental and subverting attitude that Lionsgate are known for and so I feel our piece should really fit into the current Lionsgate family.


                  

Lionsgate, have always supported Independent films. One look on their website ( https://www.lionsgate.com/ ).

24 • Who Would Produce your film? Part 1

                  


Lionsgate Films is a Canadian-American film production/distribution studio. It is the largest and most successful mini-major film studio in North America. It focuses on foreign and independent films and has distributed various commercially successful film series, including The Twilight Saga, The Hunger Games, The Divergent Series, Saw and The Expendables.

Lionsgate have always been seen to support small independent film makers, Although they now have made several commercial successes growing well over 400 Million dollars for each of the hunger games movies. They still produce films that small indie directors and foreign film makers want to do. And this is why I think our thriller would benefit greatly from Lionsgate production.

Bellow I have included some of Lionsgates most successful films.

The thing that attracts me to use Lionsgate is the fact that Its first major box office success was American Psycho in 2000, which began a trend of producing and distributing films too controversial for the major American studios.

And before Lionsgate became 'Lionsgate' they were, Cinépix Film, founded in 1962 by John Dunning. CFP was a leading Canadian independent motion picture company, releasing both English- and French-language films and making ten to 12 modestly budgeted titles annually and distributed art-house films like grunge rock documentary 'Hype'.

23 • Our Story Board

22 • What Are Story Boards

Once you have written the script or outline of a short film or movie, the next step is to make a storyboard. A storyboard visually tells the story of an film panel by panel, kind of like a comic book.

Your storyboard will should convey some of the following information:
What charaters are in the frame, and how are they moving?
What are the characters saying to each other, if anything?
How much time has passed between the last frame of the storyboard and the current one?
Where the "camera" is in the scene? Close or far away? Is the camera moving?

Why make a storyboard?

Creating a storyboard will help you plan your animation / film out shot by shot. You can make changes to your storyboard before you start filming, instead of changing your mind later. You will also be able to talk about your film and show your storyboard to other people to get feedback on your ideas.

Storyboard Language
( that might be useful to include in story boards )

CLOSE-UP SHOT: A close range of distance between the camera and the subject.
DISSOVLE: A transition between two shots, where one shot fades away and simultaneously another shot fades in.
FADE - A transition from a shot to black where the image gradually becomes darker is a Fade Out; or from black where the image gradually becomes brighter is a Fade In.
HIGH CAMERA ANGLE: A camera angle which looks down on its subject making it look small, weak or unimportant.
JUMP CUT: A rapid, jerky transition from one frame to the next, either disrupting the flow of time or movement within a scene or making an abrupt transition from one scene to another.
LEVEL CAMERA ANGLE: A camera angle which is even with the subject; it may be used as a neutral shot.
LONG SHOT: A long range of distance between the camera and the subject, often providing a broader range of the setting.
LOW CAMERA ANGLE: A camera angle which looks up at its subject; it makes the subject seem important and powerful.
PAN: A steady, sweeping movement from one point in a scene to another.
POV (point of view shot): A shot which is understood to be seen from the point of view of a character within the scene.
REACTION SHOT- 1.: A shot of someone looking off screen. 2.: A reaction shot can also be a shot of someone in a conversation where they are not given a line of dialogue but are just listening to the other person speak.
TILT: Using a camera on a tripod, the camera moves up or down to follow the action.
ZOOM: Use of the camera lens to move closely towards the subject.

Different Examples of Story Boards...

21 • Our Pitch Feedback

We pitched our idea and received some useful feedback that we will develop on for when we film. Our main piece of feedback was about location. In our pitch we had proposed a few different locations. Our feedback loved the location of the shipping yard accept it would be too hard to film there.  Our feedback was also that our group could film in the school dining room at night this would make the setting very creepy and it will have high suspense. Our feedback did not like the idea of the woods at night just because of lighting issues as well as it being very cliche so if we were going to film it here we would have to do it during the day. So the dining room at school is our main location idea, the sensor lights in the kitchen will also make it creepy. The props around the kitchen as well could look the fight scene look more realistic. Our feedback was also to establish the characters of the bad guys for example what costumes will they be wearing as well as what they are doing there. The feedback was that they could be baddies disguised as cleaners.

We were worried that by dressing our main actress in the clothes usually you would find in a workplace that this would imply the idea that the woman is a professional. When in fact this is the complete wrong connotation that we are pursuing. We need innocence and pure. Although this costume bellow may have fit in better with the environment and setting of the film. The piece is based of contrasts and subverting what people would expect. It is why we have decided to go against the usual work place attire.

Another issue we had while choosing our costume was the fact that Crerar needs to be able to move in her costume, she performs stunts and does a lot of big and dramatic movements. So her costume had to be aesthetically pleasing but also practically useful. This was an essential balance that we had to get right, And so i did some research into films that require this sort of movement and studied the costumes that they wear.

20 • Our Film Pitch

19 • Reflection Of Test Shoot

I think overall our idea translated well into the genre of the film. The rough film we created is definitely a thriller. We worked really hard on making sure we added a lot of tension and suspense into the film. The pace was ok for our first attempt but I think the fight scene will have to be a lot quicker and smoother, so this will need to be choreographed. I think our idea is clear to the viewer, however, we decided that the characters need to be made clearer and that the look of the actor/actress will be very important. I think tension has been created well accept we could definitely add more suspense and tension in with longer pauses. The camera angles we used weren't as varied as we would like. So when it comes to actually filming our thriller we should used a more diverse range. I think that close ups will be important especially for the audience to become closer to the characters. I think our idea of the men being police can taken away- mainly due to the fact that we forgot in our test shoot to add them in but we decided as a group that this concept wasn't needed as it might confuse the audience- therefore it doesn't add anything to the plot. The most important elements of our thriller idea is the actors and actress that will play the characters and the sound that will be used. We thought that we should have no dialogue in the thriller as that will take away from the mystery and suspense so therefore the soundtrack and sound effects are important. I think we need to clean up the idea a bit more as I think certain elements can be added to the story so the audience have a clearer understanding of what is going on for example that the girl who we are supposed to be liking is actually a brutal killer. Therefore, we will have to develop how we are going to show this in the real filming of the thriller. Overall, I like our idea and I am looking forward to filming it with my group. I also think that the action scene could be really realistic and cool if we find the right actress.

18 • Behind The Scenes Of The Rehearsal Shoot

// Behind The Scenes //

( Using Motion Picture Technology )

                    

17 • The Rehearsal Shoot

// THE REHEARSAL SHOOT //

( Using Motion Picture Technology )

                   

16 • Scene Outline + Pre-Production

   

Scene Outline //

( A Comprehensive, Un-Detailed, Description Of Events )

- [ Rough clothing. 

Her car breaks down, won’t start. 

Another car pulls up behind. 

Hears the door open. 

She get out and sprints into the thick of the wood. 

Two men follow her, the other stays- with the car running. 

The two men have flash lite guns and chase after her. 

She stops and looks back- out of breath. 

She takes a deep breath to compose herself. 

She prepares herself stretching and limbering up. 

She can see the flashlights piecing through the woods. 

And we then follow the two men walking. 

They walk on passing trees she takes out the first man using, karate type kung fu, uses his gun to take out the other man, she then walks back to the man in the car takes him out and drives off ] -

Pre-Production //

Location

We really liked the idea of originally filming in the forest but when it came to filming it was too dark to film there. However, at the end of editing the test shoot the filming in the car park looked really effective and helped to add lots of tension. This was because the fact that the girl was hiding behind the van and the audience and the men chasing her had no idea which bus it was therefore the audience was left on the edge of their seats trying to figure out what will happen next. We will decide later on where we will end up filming.

Characters

We need 2 large men and a younger looking innocent girl. The actors in our thriller are one of if not the most important part of the thriller. Without good actors the thriller could easily turn into a comedy. The girl we used in the test shoot was very good however she doesn’t do gymnastics therefore the martial arts type scene would not work. The two boys in the scene are not old enough as they look younger than the girl as well as the girl character being taller than them this takes away the element of intimidation that the audience should be feeling

Using Ways Around Difficult Filming

We are still wanting to use a car in the real filming of our thriller, however we could not do this in our test shoot. Therefore, we used a table and bench. The girl was just sitting there and the men walk up behind her. We left the right amount of time that it would take for the men to walk up (drive up behind her) and her to realise and run. We think that the cars will add tension and look more realistic as it looks odd that the girl is just sat on a bench not doing anything.

Props

Gun- One of the men will have a gun as it would be unrealistic that a girl who is smaller that the two men would be able to disarm them. Therefore, one of the men will have a gun she will be able to sneak up on him like what happened in our test shoot. She will take him out using a martial arts type routine and then use his gun to kill the other man.

We didn’t intend for the girl to dispose of the bodies, yet when filming, we decided we would. This added the element that the girl knows what she is doing and that she is clever. We think that we will need to add more subtle hints throughout the film that she is actually a brutal killer. We forgot when filming to show that the men were actually police however after filming we decided that this is not needed as it just adds a pointless element that would need explaining to the audience, therefore we will not add this due to it not adding or taking away any tension that would be needed.