Preliminary Task 1

As a group of three, including myself (Brianna Hodder), Chloe Managh, and Carol Joseph, we have distributed all the tasks needing to be completed.

Below is a list of the roles each of us have been assigned:

Pre-production:

All:

1: Brainstorm

Brianna Hodder:

1: Location recce, permission where necessary

2: Film schedules

3: Weather-check for filming days (plus alternative location if needed)

4: Callsheets

Chloe Managh:

1: Storyboard

2: Props and costumes sourcing

3: Early technical decisions for effect, revise storyboard as necessary

4: Filming equipment and organisation (with Carol)

Carol Joseph:

1: Script

2: Shot list

3: Talent

4: Filming equipment organisation (with Chloe)

Production:

Brianna Hodder:

1: Equipment final check

2: Lighting/fleccie

Chloe Managh:

1: Camera operator

2: Location shot setup

Carol Joseph:

1: Director/time-keeper

2: Actors

Mood Board:

There are elements of frustration and an overall sense of helplessness in some of the photos selected to illustrate what the main male character is feeling internally. Though he may be smart and act like he has everything together in his life, he is struggling on the inside. The peek moment where we see this will be when he is looking at himself in his reflection in the mirror and doesn't like what he sees and who he has become. Other photos are self-explanatory in that they are school students both aiming for the dux award and naturally have this rivalry that comes with it.

Location:

Location 1: Senior Classrooms

The classroom will be where we see majority of the rivalry between the two students build. While the male lead (played by Kevin Harris) is so desperate to gain the approval of his teachers, so much that it affects his life and mental state of mind, the female lead (played by Luci Crawford) is the complete opposite. In this setting we will see her calm display of character and she easily is approved by those surrounding her and is a very likeable person naturally. The classroom is the main location for the film and the establishing shot takes place here. It is also where the male lead's life slowly starts to build up with tension and stress as he keeps getting low grades on tests and assignments , and it is here where we catch a glimpse of where and when his life begins to crumble as his mental state declines while the female student's life gets better and better with each passing day. It is interesting to note that while this place is meant to be one where people learn and enjoy themselves, it is anything but. Here, it is a competitive place where ego can become the students' downfall in their attempt to excel in their work.

Location 2: School Field

The second location is at the school field next to the school cottages on campus. This is where the peak of the action takes place as we see the male lead chase after the female lead on her way home and injure her. This is also the final scene before it cuts to black and the film finishes. This specific location was chosen as it will replicate the action of the girl walking home after school, but due to the boy's mental health deteriorating in such a way that he allows this constant feeling of failure to get the better of him and eventually is what causes him to lash out and take his anger out in the girl, whom he feels is the main problem. The field gives us a large space to work with and we can get different shots there easily as it will not be occupied by students and teachers on campus.

Location 3: Church Bathrooms

The third location we will be using is the church bathrooms. Here we can get a concept of the male lead's inner thoughts he has towards both himself and the girl who he is competing with. The lighting will be dark with half of his face covered with shadows, almost a 'rim' hue so the audience grasps the idea that he is not okay and mentally stable. The filming here will be slightly challenging as we don't want the reflection of the cameras to appear in the shot and any lighting devices used.

Location 4: Auditorium Stage

This location is only minor and is only used for one part of the scene, which is when the male lead is dreaming about the moment when he receives the dux award for all his hard work, and seeing the look on the girl's face when she sees that he won their little 'competition'. It is simply him daydreaming but still links to his dreams and what he aspires to be like. This location represents the bright future we can achieve if we try hard enough is we try to achieve this for the right reasons. Unfortunately, he does not want this for the right reasons and we will see the effect of this come to fruition later on in the scene.

Weather Check:

Date of filming: Original: Monday, March 15

Updated: Thursday, March 18

Predicted weather:

High of 23°

Partly cloudy with south-westerlies.

Rainfall exceedance probability forecast:

1+mm: 34%

10+mm: 2%

Date of filming: Wednesday, March 17

Predicted weather:

 High of 23°

Partly cloudy. Easterlies.

Rainfall exceedance probability forecast:

1+mm: 19%

10+mm: 0%

Since majority of the filming (three out of the four locations used) are inside, the need for an alternative location is not vital. However, if it is raining on the selected day of filming, the alternative location will be used or filming will have to be postponed.

Film Schedule and Call Sheet (Part 1):

Wednesday Afternoon:

13:25                   Meet in the Media Studies Container

13:25 - 13:35      Collect filming equipment and walk to School field (first filming location)

13:35 - 13:50      Set up equipment (camera, lights, audio, etc.)

13:50 - 14:00      Team briefing, talent arrives, discuss with talent details of the briefing

14:00 - 14:45      Shooting begins (Kevin Harris and Luci Crawford)

14:45 - 15:00      Shooting ends. Pack up and walk to next location (Auditorium)

15:00 - 15:15      Set up equipment (camera, lights, audio, etc.)

15:15 - 15:35      Shooting begins (Kevin Harris and Teacher Bianca)

15:35 - 15:45      Shooting ends. Pack up and return to Media Class

This will include: (Location 1)

1. Extra wide shot showing the back of Kevin and Luci
2. Hand held shot and over the shoulder shot as the boy approaches the girl
3. Wide shot as she notices the boy
4. Mid shot of him running
5. Close up of girl's face as boy chases after her
6. Over the shoulder shot
7. Wide shot

This will include: (Location 2)

1. Wide angle of boy receiving the award
2. Mid shot as boy is holding the award in happiness and excitement

Thursday Afternoon:

09:00                   Meet in the Media Studies Container

09:00 - 09:15      Collect filming equipment and walk to School bathrooms (first filming location)

09:15 - 09:25      Set up equipment (camera, lights, audio, etc.)

09:25 - 09:30      Team briefing, talent arrives, discuss with talent details of the briefing

09:30 - 09:45      Shooting begins (Kevin Harris)

09:45 - 09:55      Shooting ends. Pack up and return to Media classroom

This will include:

1. Angle showing boy's back
2. Match on action as he walks through the doorway
3. Mid shot from behind as he looks into the mirror
4. Over the shoulder shot, showing his reflection
5. Extreme close up of his face as he stops daydreaming

11:00                  Meet in the school classroom (second filming location)

11:00 - 11:10      Set up equipment (camera, lights, audio, etc.)

11:10 - 11:15      Team briefing, talent arrives, discuss with talent details of the briefing

11:15 - 11:25      Shooting begins (Kevin Harris,  Eshloe Roberts, and Teacher Bianca)

11:25 - 11:30      Shooting ends. Pack down and return equipment to classroom.

This will include:

1. Hand held shot zooming in to mid shot
2. Over the shoulder shot as teacher walks by
3. Close ups of previous failed tests and assignments layered over top of each other
4. Wide shot of class as the teacher announce that the girl has, yet again, achieved the highest grade.

Call Sheet: (Part 2)

Crew:

Sound: Carol Joseph and Chloe Managh

Director and time keeper: Carol Joseph

Camera: Chloe Managh

Production Assist: Brianna Hodder

Vehicles:

N/A

Lighting:

We plan to use three point lighting. The above pictures serve as a reminder as to demonstrate what three point lighting is.

During the bathroom scene, we will have a shot that has a rim setting to show the darkness that starts to develop within the character.

Yesterday we practiced different techniques of lighting including three-point lighting and silhouettes. We learnt how to white balance using a lighting fleccie, and today we went outside to demonstrate our understanding of this. In the photo below we used red gel filters to create a red hue and the lighting fleccie can be seen on the left as the light bounces off it and is redirected onto the subject who is, in this case, Chloe Managh.

We hope to achieve a similar shot to this during the scene where Kevin receives his award and a back light is used to create this feeling of a sense of achievement

Here is us positioning the lights and fleccie.

Here we are experimenting with the gel filters.

In the photo above Kevin's silhouette can be seen on the whiteboard by the positioning of the lights.

A Treatment For:

CBC Studios

Prepared by Brianna Hodder, Chloe Managh, and Carol Joseph

07 March 2021

…

It is proposed that the film will be of one to two minutes duration, and that it will be filmed at the following locations: Senior Classrooms, School Field, School Bathrooms, and the Auditorium, as the film is based on a school setting and the auditorium will be used for when the male lead dreams of receiving this award.

This film will include the following conventions of thriller films: the antagonist makes their actions person to the protagonist, the aim to create suspense, a chase scene, mise-en-scene in which the antagonist wears dark clothing, the tempo is slow to begin with but slowly builds and becomes faster in tempo, hand held camera to give off the illusion of a mindset that is shaky and unstable. 

This will interest our target audience of teens to young adults, as it creates suspense and ends with a cliffhanger that will hopefully have the audience wondering what will happen next.

…

Ideology:

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Ideology is sometimes identified as a body of ideas reflecting the social needs of an individual, group, class, and culture. 

The ideology for this film is implicit as  the protagonist and the antagonist represent conflicting values, but these are not dwelled upon in extreme detail.  Obviously the director slants the message in a particular direction, for example, the male lead here allows his own self-confidence, ego, and overall desire to be better than anyone, but that is what causes his downfall, but consent maybe transparent in that we accept the system--particular world views--as normal or the way the world works. That is, various ideologies get played up without question (without audiences seeing the whole picture); thus the film subtly serves the interests of the dominant classes and transmits dominant moral and intellectual codes.

The ideology for this film is not explicit as it does not have any major intentions to persuade the audience into believing certain things, and it is not constructed in a way that aims to teach or enforce our own personal ideologies onto the audience.

Any ideology expressed is subtle and left down to interpretation, and is not stated outright, as it would if the ideology were explicit.

Mood and Tone:

The overall mood and tone can be interpreted as pretty dark as it catches a glimpse of the reality that some students may face in their overall desire to succeed. Obviously, students in real life will not go so far as to injure other students due to continuous let downs and failures on their behalf.

As of now, I am currently unsure of the fps of the cameras we will be using (Sony XD cameras), but it would be a better result if the shutter speed was 60fps as opposed to 30fps.

Lighting is a huge concept in making our film succeed in drawing interest from the target audience, so the use of three point lighting, key and rim lighting will play a huge part, especially for creating suspense and tension between characters and the struggles they face.

Location:

The four locations used will be the senior classrooms, the church bathrooms, the school field, and the auditorium. I have already discussed the location earlier in detail, the reasons for using them, and any symbolism or meaning associated with each location.

Use of Credits and Logos:

The credits and logos have not properly been discussed in detail yet, and we have only just been introduced to using Adobe Premier Pro 2021, so we haven't been able to look into how to create a logo like GCH Productions did  in the previous year for their preliminary task.

This being said,  the idea so far is to have our name, 'CBC Studios' displayed against a black background as well as a symbol which has not yet been discussed that can be associated with the theme and tone of this film.