Saturday 29 March 2014

Script

Script

INT. Day, flat.

[VOICEOVER]

LUCY: ‘Infamous’. That’s my favourite game at the moment. It’s right good, you play as a man who gets superpowers, and you can choose to either use ‘em for good, or evil. I always choose good though. That’s what I’d do if I had superpowers.

[AT THE SAME TIME]

Enter a girl of about seventeen; she looks withdrawn as she crosses over to the table in the room. The room is decorated with drawings.

There are games consoles around the flat; the flat looks lived in, maybe slightly messy.


It’s obvious they are either her drawings or they are ones that she has collected. On the table she continues her drawing as the voiceover carries on. She looks deep in concentration, her eyes tracing every movement her hand makes.

LUCY: People say I play games too much. And that I spend too much time drawing and that. I don’t get out enough, they say. I’m going out today, like, with my friends. Don’t want to, though, rather just stay here.

She picks up the finished drawing from the desk and places the piece of paper on the wall. She stands back to look at it, a somewhat awe-inspired look on her face.


Her phone rings, snapping her attention away from the drawing that she’s been sketching. She has a frown on her face as she does so, as if she has been interrupted.[Listening] MM, I’M SETTING OFF NOW.

LUCY: I wish I had superpowers.



She takes a last look at one of the pictures - a fight scene replicating the videogame ‘Infamous she was just talking about, but with her as the superhero - as she leaves the flat in a hurry, pulling on her shoes and coat in a typical last minute way.



SCENE

EXT. STREET; DAY. PRESUMED TO BE NEAR THE FLAT.

Listening to music, the girl is walking along, once again in her own world. She has just put her headphones in and is oblivious. She passes by an opening and witnesses someone assaulting and mugging another person, who is on the ground. There is a moment where anything could happen.

FANTASY SEQUENCE 1.

The mugger pulls away from his victim, wallet in hand, and makes a break for the exit. The girl is the only thing in his way. Suddenly, the girl jets forward toward him and lands a righteous punch into the mugger’s chest. He stumbles back and steadies himself, before taking on a fighting stance. The girl chuckles to herself, a cocky grin on her face, and the two duke it out theatrically, with the girl eventually coming out on top. She takes many blows herself, but none seem to have left noticeable damage, not even a bruise or cut. The victim runs towards her, and she returns his wallet. He thanks her.

VICTIM: Thank you so much!

LUCY: No problem!

The girl then runs off triumphantly.

Cut back, she has not actually moved an inch and the mugger is starting to run towards her, like before. She still has the same, shocked expression on her face, the previous sequence being just a fantasy.   

FANTASY SEQUENCE 2.

This time, the girl runs forward again, albeit less keen. She attempts the punch from before but is easily stopped in her tracks by the mugger, and although they fight again for a moment the girl is at an obvious disadvantage. The blows she suffers seem to be effecting her greatly this time, too, to the point in which she drops to one knee from a blow to the head. The mugger then pulls out a knife and puts it to her throat as a warning. They share a tense moments before the mugger attempts a final escape, but as he does so the girl refusing to be beat, stubbornly grabs his leg and makes him fall to the ground. In frustration ad blind rage, the mugger quickly turns and stabs the girl in the stomach. She gasps, shocked and with wide eyes, before falling onto her back as the mugger pulls his knife from her belly and runs, leaving her for dead.

Cut back, once again she has not actually moved and the mugger knocks into her and past her as the victim shouts to stop them. Again, the previous happenings were a fantasy, this time more realistic. In her daze, the mugger runs right past her, shoving her as he goes. She blinks a few times as this happens, as if she is snapping backinto reality. As this happens, the victim runs up next to her and yells in frustration, his head in his hands, his nose bloody.

She goes over to attempt to console the person, placing a soft, supporting hand on his shoulder…

LUCY: I’m sorry…

…but she is shrugged off immediately, and the victim turns to her, angry and upset.

VICTIM: Why, we’re you planning on stopping him with your mind powers?

He storms off, and as he gets halfway he turns again and points at her.

VICTIM: You’re not a superhero, you know!

A moment passes where the girl is left on her own to reflect on what happened. She looks at her hands, then around her, a confused look on her face. Her phone rings again and she picks it up with the same dazed look.

LUCY: I won’t be able to make it anymore, something’s come up. Sorry.


She then puts down the phone and sets off quickly in the way she had come.

SCENE 3

INT. FLAT.

Back at the flat she shuts her door gently and looks up at the ceiling with a pained expression. She sits down in her living room chair and stares at the wall in a different expression, like it should not be the way it is. Her hands are on her lap, shaking, and her mouth is open as if gob-smacked in disbelief.


She tears up the picture she had previously put on the wall and takes down a few of her others in distress, then stares at the empty wall.

Friday 28 March 2014

Kick-Ass

Kick-Ass


One of our main inspirations for the film was Kick-Ass by 






Tuesday 25 March 2014

Script Reading

Script Reading

Today we were told to have  a draft of a script ready for our seminar session with Martine as there would be three actors coming in - first year drama students - and they would be reading through our scripts to give us an idea of how proper actors would take to it and what feedback they could give us; as well as giving us the chance to direct real actors as some of us might not have had this opportunity.

We were - as a group - concerned about the script reading because we thought we would have no script, this was because our film didn't have any speech at this point. Apart from the mumbling and shouting in the mugging, Conor didn't want any speech. Sarah and Conor did the script for our reading, as soon as we heard the other group's scripts we realised ours was very different. When the actors had finished reading through it, they said that it was more like directions for the crew than for the actors as it involved a lot of camera instructions. We got to go through the script with the actors and they told us how to change it and where we could actually add in speech. They asked if we had considered adding a voice over as a sort of internal monologue for Lucy so the audience would get to know the character more; but we had considered this and already ruled it out as we felt it would seem sort of childish and we could show things on screen just as well as we could by saying things out loud in a voice over.



Tuesday 18 March 2014

Pitch & Tutorial

Pitch & Tutorial

Today we pitched our idea to the group and it was in my opinion received really well. We explained the story, the characters, the location and the sound we wanted in the film and how we wanted it to look, giving examples of similar films and styles to compare it to. We also showed some pictures of the location we planned on filming in.


                                     

After we had presented the idea, people asked questions and gave their opinions on it; including both positives and negatives. Some people were confused at first about the fantasy sequences and what would be real and what wasn't, but these were hard to explain. One main point that we took away from the session was that the ending was slightly weaker than the rest of the film so we should reconsider what would happen. We then had time to talk as a group before we had a short tutorial with Martine. She too said that the ending could be worked on, along with some character development as the focus is on Lucy - the girl, and so we as a group needed to work on her as a person and find out; - who she was
- what stands in her way
- what does she want.
Martine suggested that we were focusing too much on the fighting aspect of the film rather than Lucy, because after all the film is mainly about her and the fighting just comes after.

Wednesday 12 March 2014

Drama Project

Drama Project

Roles: 

Conor Allen-Roberts - Director
Sarah Rich - Producer
Saul Allerton - Cinematographer
Sebastian Wray - Sound Recordist
Tom Slater - Editor
Hannah Cross - Sound Design

The idea for the film, which Conor had already thought up was that;

A young woman looks longingly into a mirror at herself, we're led to assume in a depressed, incomplete way.

She decides to go on a jog, or to go to the local shop. On the way, she sees a man being mugged/ganged up on, etc. She stop and stares. Then suddenly, she runs at the muggers and beats them up, heroically defeating them and running off after being thanked by the victim, whom she saved.

We then cut back to when she was staring. The scene was all in her head. Again, she walks up the assailants, this time less confidently, and attempts to stop the mugging. She, herself, is turned on and beat up and left crippled on the street.

Cut again to her staring. This, again, was a fantasy, and a more realistic one at that. The girl then carries on walking, leaving the man to be mugged.
On her way she notices a man drop his shopping, and helps him pick it up. Alternatively, she could help an old woman cross the street, a man start up his car, whatever. Just a good, simple deed. The message behind the film is that, although we can't all be heros, we can all still do good.

The idea instantly made me think of Kick-Ass, with a particular scene in mind; where the main character tries to help someone for the first time and just gets beat up. At first I was unsure as to whether the idea was too similar to Kick-Ass, but after our first group meeting and we got to discuss the idea properly and gave our own inputs, I was excited to start the project. 


Thursday 6 March 2014

Editing Overview

Editing Overview

The editing process was long because, as director, I felt that each time we thought we had finished and no more could be added in fact it could and it could always be improved. We had a structure in mind when we left Liverpool but found that when editing it wasn't always easy to stick to what we originally planned. 

Debbie had told us in our tutorial in Liverpool that we should aim for 5 small portraits of different characters linked together with montage shots of the city; this being our own idea from the start. However when we had typed up the transcripts and reviewed the footage and sound files properly it was clear that this wouldn't be possible for a number of reasons. One was that we simply didn't have enough time to include everybody in small bits because it would move on from each person too quickly and would be difficult to link them together so it flowed, and the other main reason being that with the interviews, the buskers hadn't elaborated in the way we had hoped they would. As our voices as the interviewer wouldn't be heard we couldn't include answers that simply answered the question straight without including what we had asked in what they said. 



Andrew's first edit included Bolshy and Billy McGuiness because he felt he had the most to work with from those, but after reviewing it I felt there was two much from each person and the audience would be engaged at first but then lose interest as each person talked for a while. The next edit saw Ise the balloon maker in between the two but still there was too much talking and it wasn't how we had planned with little inserts from people rather than three separate interviews. After a tutorial with Debbie she agreed that the audience would loose interest if the film stayed as it was with the big chunky interviews, so after convincing Andrew it was a better idea he changed it again and split the interviews up, providing a much easier viewing. We agreed Ise wasn't relevant and that it focused more on music so to have him wouldn't fit, and he was replaced with Ian McIntyre. 

Wednesday 5 March 2014

Shot List

Shot List

SHOT NUMBER
LOCATION
TYPE AND DESCRIPTION OF SHOT
1

Liverpool Town Center
Fade in establishing shot of a busy street
2

Liverpool Town Center
Establishing shot of iconic Liverpool building
3

Liverpool Town Center
Close up of iconic sign
4

Liverpool Town Center
Establishing shot of iconic Liverpool building
5

Liverpool Town Center
Shot of people walking by
6

Liverpool Town Center
Mid close up of Busker 1
7

Liverpool Town Center
Close up shot of busker 1
8

Liverpool Town Center
Focus on busker 1 on the right of the shot – out of focus town background
9

Liverpool Town Center
Extreme Close up of Buskers instrument (cutaway)
10

Liverpool Town Center
Focus on busker on the right of the shot – out of focus town background
11

Liverpool Town Center
Shot of busker performing (Cutaway)
12

Liverpool Town Center
Focus on busker on the right of the shot – out of focus town background
13

Liverpool Town Center
Shot of Busker 1's money collector (Cutaway)
14

Liverpool Town Center
Focus on busker on the right of the shot – out of focus town background
15

Liverpool Town Center
Iconic shot of Liverpool
16

Liverpool Town Center
Shot of people walking by
17

Liverpool Town Center
Close up, profile shot of Busker 2
18

Liverpool Town Center
Pan up of busker 2
19
Liverpool Town Center
Close up of busker 2's instrument
20
Liverpool Town Center
Focus on the busker on the left of the shot – out of focus background
21
Liverpool Town Center
Shot of busker playing/singing
22
Liverpool Town Center
Focus on the busker on the left of the shot – out of focus background
23
Liverpool Town Center
Pan up of busker 3
24
Liverpool Town Center
Close up of Busker 3's face
25
Liverpool Town Center
Long shot of Busker 3 playing/singing
26
Liverpool Town Center
Focus on the busker on the right of the shot – out of focus background
27

Liverpool Town Center
Shot of crowd reactions
28

Liverpool Town Center
Shot of iconic Liverpool building/attraction
29

Liverpool Town Center
Mid shot of iconic Liverpool building/attraction
30

Liverpool Town Center
Mid shot of Busker 1 on the right of the shot
31

Liverpool Town Center
Mid shot of busker 2 on the left of the shot
32

Liverpool Town Center
Close up shot of busker 2 playing/singing
33

Liverpool Town Center
Mid shot of busker 3 on the right side of the shot
34

Liverpool Town Center
Wide shot of busker 4 playing
35

Liverpool Town Center
Close up shot of busker 5 playing
36

Liverpool Town Center
Crowd reaction – wide shot
37
Liverpool Town Center
Mid close up shot of busker 2 on the left of the shot – fades to black