Location - Images & Description

In order for us to film a proficient opening sequence we need to find suitable locations for each shot. In our opening sequence we have a variety of different locations to exemplify the different set used to set an atmosphere. We decide to take pictures of the location we are filming becuase we needed to see whether they were appropriate for different shots and also for us to establish which areas we are going to use.

This is a long shot of Forrester park's playground

This is a long shot of the woods Alicia (juliet) and Jermaine(Toba) run through

This is a shot of the road Alicia (Juliet) and Jermaine (Toba) run down when they exit the park.


Swings where Alicia (Juliet) and Jermaine (Toba) converse


Area where Alicia (Juliet) calls Ashley (Olu)

Casting - Images & Description

The Main Characters

Juliet Ayisi - Alicia

We chose Juliet to play the character of Alicia because Juliet is quite attractive and she also has experience as an actress as she is currently studying perfoming arts. We felt her acting skills were suitable as the character of Alicia needed to be portrayed by somebody with experience in acting so the emotions of Alicia can be conveyed to the audience so that people ca relate more to the character.

Olu Oladokun - Ashley

We decided to use Olu as he comes across as a confident, assertive person who is a bit of a player although he appears to be a practical joker. We thought he would fit perfectly for the role of Ashley as he has simialr characteristics and looks a bit like a lady's man.

Christina Adedeji - Shaniqua

Although Christina is nothing like the character of Shaniqua we chose her because she is quite good friends with Olu and she would be the perfect person to do the bedroom scene with Olu(Ashley). Also she is also a media student so she understands the importance of the filming stage so she would be a good person as she would take it serious whereas others may not be as reliable.

Toba Folaye - Jermaine

We chose to use Toba because he is a warm hearted person who is quite innocent and he seems like somebody who would do anything for a friend which is similar to the chracter of Jemaine as Jermaine is the type of charcter who would even kill for somebody he loved.

Analysis - On Filming Session Part Three

Friday 26th February 2010

After looking at everything that we filmed the last two sessions, RLNC decided that we had a few things that we needed to re-film as some shots didn’t turn out how we expected and also the lighting in the house was too dark. We also had to film the fighting scene and the washing of hands.
Originally RLNC and the cast planned to start filming at 6pm, we planned on getting everything completed by around 8pm, as we didn’t have a lot to do this was a realistic target. Unfortunately a few people were running late, causing us to have to start filming an hour later, this meant we would finish a lot later than we planned. Once everyone had finally arrived, it was time to start filming.
One of the main problems we had at our last filming session was lighting, as Olu’s house lights were extremely dim when we watched what we had filmed it was too dark and we could hardly see what was happening on screen. This time we wanted to make sure our lighting was perfect, so in order to achieve this we used tea lights and a lamp to make the room a little lighter, this also helped 2 create romantic effect for the phone call scene.
After the last filming session we realised that the camera was a bit tilted during some of the filming, so this time we ensured that all shots were aligned straight and that all shots were steady. As we were now more experienced with the camera we were able to get alot of different shots for each clip.
In previous filming sessions we had problems with the camera battery going dead, so this time we made sure we had a spare battery with us. This worked in our favour, as our battery did die but thankfully we had the spare one, so we were able to carry on filming as normal.
We managed to successfully film everything that was needed by around 9:30pm. We are all extremely pleased with what we achieved in our last filming session, and also relieved that we have now completed all of our filming. Thanks to all the help, time and cooperation of RLNC and the cast.

Saul Bass - On Titles

We were advised by our Media Studies teacher to watch a documentary on titles by Saul Bass to give us assistance on formulating our credits effectively as this will be another aspect that we will be graded on. Although the video was extremely outdated, Saul Bass still managed to enlighten us to the much thought that must go into the credit process referring to font and symbols.

Saul Bass informed us that we must break away from the traditional unattractive titles used for 'popcorn time'. Audiences must be attracted to the film from the very first frame of the film in order to create the necessary climate for the film. As our film is an urban drama, it is also advised that we use a symbol within our credits that can be associated with our film. Handcuffs would be a reasonable symbol as it is assumed that someone may be arrested in our film and Saul Bass repeats that the content of the film still remains a big issue in the credits.

Saul Bass mentions that metaphors can also be used in the credits to set a scene for what is to come. The metaphors must be simple and direct eye catchers such as a baby in a prisoners uniform to symbolise the possible consequences of Alicia's aggressive behaviour. She may have her baby in prison.

Titles should be long enough to catch the viewers eye and accomodate the film. The font used should also be appropriate to the film, a typewriter font or a cell broken font will be ideal to symbolise the prison aspect of Love Lockdown. This title Love Lockdown will as Saul Bass advises help to establish a prologue for the motion of the film which is the prison sentence for Jermaine which he takes due to his love for Alicia.

Finally, Saul Bass advises to use ordinary objects and take them out of the ordinary in order to achieve another understanding of them. For example a baby crawling around in a prisoners overalls in a cell will put an ordinary baby in a strange environment (prison cell) allowing the audience to later understans why this metaphor was in fact used.

Saul Bass' documentary allowed us to understand that there is more thought put into the process of Titles that one may think. We must use an appropriate font to connote our film and if required, a reasonable metaphor that establishes the mood and attitude of Love Lockdown.

Analysis - On Adulthood Opening Sequence

We previously mentioned that Adulthood was a significant influence for our opening sequence. Adulthood begins with Titles and then moves on to silent flashbacks of its prequel Kidulthood. This allows memebers of the audience who have watched Kidulthood to be reminded of how the story ended and informs new members of the audience of the last major event. Although we are not reminding our audience of a previous film, we would like to inform our audience of the events that have taken to land our characters in their current state.

The shots used are short and often flash from scene to scene, this is an excellent idea for us to ensure that our flashbacks establish the main scenes of Love Lockdown. It is vital that we establish our characters in our opening sequence with shots focused on their faces to signify their importance. Characters such as Jermaine and Alicia must be shown clearly to identify their importance whereas short term characters like Shaniqua do not need to be shown as clearly.

The opening scene of Adulthood not only introduces us to the characters and their urban setting but immediately it informs us that the film is based around violence. It begins with a harsh encounter with a male and the boyfriend of another. There are a variety of effects in the opening scene of Adulthood with split scenes to show different areas of the club and the occurances within and speeding and slowing down of pace to echo the club like atmosphere in which many are intoxicated and therefore disorientated like the effects used.

The flashbacks in Adulthood not only give a brief history of the story line but establish the main characters, setting and mood of the scene. We must ensure that we mirror this effective use of flashback to ensure that we obtain the best results.

Analysis - On Filming Session Part Two

Monday 15th February 2010 - 11am
The time had come to start some serious filming. The cast were at Ashley (Olu)'s house, the whole of RLNC were present, the props were ready but where was the screenplay and storyboard? I had left it at home. Luckily, I only lived 3 minutes away from the park. RLNC, Jermaine (Toba) and Alicia (Juliet) and a few extras walked to the park leaving Shaniqua (Christina) and Ashley (Olu) home to get ready for filming later on.

We arrived at the park and as it was quite early in the morning, there were not as many children in the background as our last filming session..What would we do? Leaving my team to improvise and set up, I ran home to collect our Filming Folder including the necessary paperwork and a few treats for our cast. I ran back to the park to see my team fully set up with our extras in the background posing as children.

From our last filming, we realised that again framing was a problem and often the tops of heads were cut off. To ensure that this did not occur again, we did practice shots with the movement to get our camera in the exact correct place where body parts would not be chopped off unnecesarily. We then began to film.

Surprisingly, we managed to get through filming a lot quicker minus a few distractions (hunger) probably as we were now "professionals" with the camera. Following the storyboard, we did point of view shots, close ups, mid shots. Definitely a good range.

We switched off the camera when it was not in use so managed to do our running shots which went well although our cast did get quite tired running back and forth in the same spot. Finally we had finished our outdoor shots so we walked back to the house.

It was now time to use Ashley (Olu), we filmed a scene of which Alicia ran through a crowd of girls and barged into Ashley's house, Jermaine soon followed and punched Ashley to the ground. Although the punching scene was especially humerous, we managed to get the filming for this short part done quite quickly. We used our fake blood to zoom in on the unconscious state of Ashley.

Filming inside was difficult as the lighting was not as good as natural sunlight. We managed to film the running up the stairs and barging through the door. Filming from the bedroom was challenging as the room was cluttered and finding space to film was almost impossible. We experimented with handheld shots for birds eye view shots and a close up of Alicia's incoming phone call.

The majority of filming was now complete but unfortunately the camera battery was low and the charger was no longer working. We could not film anymore. All that was now left to film was the fighting scene and the washing of hands. It had been a long day but worth the hardwork.

We left the house around 6pm pleased with what we had achieved. :) Wooop Go RLNC

Own Comment: Again we were pleased with what we had done that session, we managed to get soo much done and only had two scenes to film. Although my mother had given me money to treat the team to lunch :), however that plan failed because we had over 5 unexpected guests, Ashley's (Olu) house was like a mini festival and I was not ready to feed 5thousand Lool, so that plan failed. Instead I treated myself and Jermaine (Toba) to some snacks from Tesco Express around our area, Yummy!
On the whole the session was a BLAST :)!

Analysis - Running Scene in Adulthood

This running scene in Adulthood shows a character running away from the police. As the chase begins, non-digetic sound in the form of music is used to reflect the intensity of the scene. This mirrors our running scene as the neginning of the chase is the signal for our music to begin. Unlike our running scene of which we include many different angles and points of view from the characters, Adulthood remains in an angle keeping up with the pace of the character running with us as the viewer able to see him running at all times.

Analysis - On Filming Session Part One

Saturday 7th February 2010 - Midday
We arrived at the venue of the character Ashley's house and discussed where we would begin our filming. We had our props ready and prepared for filming. It was now time to decide where we should begin filming.

Due to the fact that our filming was to be done in the daylight, we thought it best to film our park scenes first of all. We took a considerably long journey to Forster Park and to our luck the swings were available with happy children playing in the background. Perfect.

We set up our tripod and referred to our storyboard to begin our filming. We planned our shots and gave our cast the screenplay to learn their few lines. Filming began, the sunlight was perfect although we soon became freezing cold. As we shivered through the scene, we managed to get to grips with the camera and experiment with different shots and zooms.

Becoming more familiar with the camera was especially helpful as Coretta was able to grab an excellent zoom shot of the pregnancy test displaying the Positive icon. We also managed to film a little bit of Jermaine (Toba) running after Alicia. The battery was running low and so we began with our running shots. This required the most concentration as we wanted to have numerous angles and lengths. Unfortunately we only managed to gilm a shot of which Alicia (Juliet) filmed her feet as she ran. We did not manage to see the success/failure of this idea as the battery soon died.

We left the park to Ashley (Olu)'s house proud of filming but disappointed that we did not manage to get as much done as possible. Thankfully, this allowed us to come up with the following aims for our next filming session:

1)Switch the camera off when not filming
2)Bring gloves to set to avoid frostbite
3)Film quickly and effectively
4)Continue to work well as a team

Own Comment: As this was our first filming session, I have to say we did well (shockingly), however after the session Lydia did an evaluation and came up with some aims (as shown above) inorder for us to overcome mistakes, obtactles and challenges we experienced etc in our next filming session.

Animated Storyboard

StoryBoarding

We will do a storyboard to act as an initial aid and a guideline for when we are filming our opening sequence for our film 'Love Lockdown'. It will show the different camera angles we will use in each frame, character movements and camera movements; which we can use to organise the actors and save time. It is a general plan of how we will film the different shots so we are clear about it and we don't have disputes whilst in filming process because it has already been set. The drawings will include any sounds/dialogue we require, the shot durations, any camera angles and character movements. We will look at different types of storyboards e.g. animatic storyboards and we will decide which one suits us more.

As you can see below we have done an imagery storyboard to illustrate the different shots and camera angles we plan on using in the production process of Love Lockdown. It was a tedious process as all of us do not have artistic experience; but luckily Nickie (Myself - The creative artist) had amateur drawing skills. Although we have to many shoots we feel as though it is more beneficial because whoever said less is best ;).
This is the first draft of our storyboard:

Analysis - On Office Space

Instantly the viewers are given a sense of what type of genre it is with the bubbly, funky music and with the opening title credits the font used is quirky which enhances the funny comedic genre. The shots used in the first 54 seconds are quick and snappy, eg. a shot reverse/shot is used when the driver uses his brakes, then a mid-shot is used to enhance his facial expression. We are shown a birds eye view and long shot of the traffic, this enhances the lack of movement and also shows the frustration the male driver is going through due to the lack of movement in the traffic. In the 57th second a close-up is used as the driver is stuck in traffic and the old man walks by, this technique is used to exaggerate the fact that there is a severe traffic jam that even a slow old man is literally moving faster than them.

The male tries to avoid the traffic by switching lanes but is unsucessful, which humours the audience. The repeated shot of an elderly man in the distance overtaking this character helps to heighten the humour of the scene. The audience are aware that this character is in a rush to go somewhere and although they find ridicule in his poor attempt to get out of the traffic, they also sympathise with him as there is no way for him to get out.

Then we are introduced to another male character, who is dressed rather "geeky" but yet is singing along rather deeply to a gangster rap song, who is also stuck in the traffic however, is dealing with it in a totally different aspect compared to the previous character. This is another humerous aspect as it is rather odd for a male of this type of character to be deeply interested in gangster rap, to highlight this aspect, a coloured male approaches his vehicle and almost immediately the character locks his car and reduces the volume of the music, which draws laughter to the audience as it is very clear to them that the Geek is aware that his behaviour is rather unusual.

Then we are shown a long shot of the traffic, which is not making any movement but then we are zoomed slowly into the car of another male character who seems to be cheesed of by the traffic-jam. He is seriously annoyed to the extent that he takes his anger out on his steering wheel and uses abusive language, the way his character is presented creates more laughter from the audience as he is acting so irrationaly.

This opening scene quickly introduces us to 3 characters who seem to be important and within the first few minutes of the movie we're given an overview of their personalities, so far being rather serious, geeky and exaggerated.

This makes it very clear to me how significant it is to introduce my main character(s) in an opening sequence and to make it clear what genre the movie is, through different techniquies i.e. the font of the opening credits, background music etc.