Chosen Location

The chosen location of where we will film our opening is Location 3 of Lauren's.  It is ideal for us as it is what we envisaged; a grassy open meadow.  It is a public place, being a Nature Reserve, so we will not be asked to leave the land as it doesn't belong to a farmer.  Also, it is fairly close to each of our and our actors' houses so we will be able to get there quite quickly and easily in comparison with the other locations.

-Lauren Tween

Second Script Draft

SHOT FADES IN and MUSIC FADES IN
Pan across field of beautiful scenery, straight past tent - bird's singing, serene music.
Camera stops panning abruptly and focuses back to tent before zooming in on tent - music changes to upbeat acoustic guitar at this point.

Camera zooms right in to tent before focusing on 'RURAL SUPERHEROES' sign, camera continues around to front of tent where friends are sitting on chairs around table. 
FARMER playing guitar.
NERD sitting awkwardly, looking around, annoyed expression at farmer.
HIPPIE drinking tea noisily, slurping, 'aaahing', clinking tea cups and saucers.

Close up shot of hand picking up tea cup and sauce.

Close-up shot of HIPPIE drinking tea out of teacup.

Close up of glasses being cleaned delicately by NERD.

Mid shot of guitar being played merrily by FARMER.

HIPPIE (DOOBIE)

Duuuuude, spare my ears, my soul is crying inside of me. The flowers are weep-

NERD (EUGENE)

-Please stop now, PLEASE! You need to take the register now.

MUSIC stops SUDDENLY.

Sad FARMER.

NERD hands register to FARMER (who sighs heavily).

FARMER (MAC)

Doobie Journey?

DOOBIE puts hand up quite slowly, taking time to register his name.
FARMER looks up from register, sees HIPPIE with hand up and looks down again and ticks name.

FARMER (MAC DONALD)

Eugine Snodgrass?

EUGINE puts hand up quickly and excitedly, waving it around.
FARMER looks up from register, sees NERD with hand up and looks down again and ticks name.

FARMER (MAC DONALD)

Mac Donald? …Present.

Y’all here, as solid as the ground we stand on.

FARMER nods head and ticks name, chuckling to himself.

Phone rings in NERD'S pocket.

NERD hesitates before realising it's his phone ringing.  He is shocked, happy and puzzled at the same time and pulls phone out of pocket, after frantically searching them all.

NERD (EUGINE)

What’s it doing?! Why’s it doing that?! IT NEVER DOES THAT!

NERD SHOWS DISTRESS AND EXCITEMENT

HIPPIE TAKES PHONE OFF NERD ANGRILY, glaring at NERD.

EVERYBODY LOOKS ON.

HIPPIE ANSWERS PHONE VERY SLOWLY (builds tension) AND PUTS PHONE TO EAR,
PHONE RINGS FOR A LONG TIME before HIPPIE finally answers:

HIPPIE (DOOBIE)

Heeeeeeeeey man, what’s up, what’s down?

….

Uh-oh.

….

Oh.

HIPPIE PUTS PHONE DOWN WITH EXTREMELY WORRIED LOOK ON FACE.

CUT TO BLACK.

-Lauren Tween, Leyla Cindil, Amy Bowman.

Consideration of Sound

For the sound used in our film opening, we have planned for there to be non-diegetic music that turns to diegetic once the farmer playing guitar is shown. This means that the music would have to incorporate an acoustic guitar and fit to our genre of rural comedy. The video above shows some music we have considered having in our film opening.

Song #1
Whilst this music does involve an acoustic guitar, the tempo and feel of the piece does not quite fit the tone we want for our opening. Preferably the music would have to be more up-beat and start out with a fade in order to be suitable.

Song #2
This song also incorporates an acoustic guitar and starts out with slow strums- however, the song continues at this slow tempo which does not suit the tone we would like. Towards the end of the twenty second clip in which the music is heard a beat starts- this is also a disadvantage for this song as it would be better off if the song included only an acoustic guitar.

Song #3
Out of the three songs considered, this is perhaps the most suitable. On the other hand, it is as not as upbeat as would be liked and does not quite have an 'urban' feel that is most suited to our film opening. Whilst the strumming is good, it would be better if it could start out slow and then speed up.

Overall, none of these songs seem suitable enough for the final chosen one for our film opening, but by considering these ones (and others) we have been able to consider in more detail what kind of music we would like.



-Sian Hayler-Magenis

Consideration of Fonts with Titling

We wanted a font to fit with our rural comedy theme, so something a bit different (not standard) but not too over-the-top, and after making a shortlist on the Mac, decided upon 'Cracked'. (Now known as 'crackhouse')  This font looks quite edgy and is interesting to look at.

 

We chose this font over others such as Arial and Impact because we thought it was more interesting to look at and fitted more with making the film look independent. At the same time, the font is not too complicated looking and can still be easily read- it is also not too distracting from the main content of the film as the titles will be placed to one side.

Although, the disadvantage of possibly using Crackhouse is that its is a sharp/edgy font that would be associated more with Horror films. As a group, we thought a more rounded font would be more suitable for a comedy film as it is plain and simple.

-Leyla Cindil, Lauren Tween, Sian Hayler-Magenis

Secondary Institutional Logo

Begin as you mean to go on.  In this sense, we wanted to start the production with some comedy value, before it continues throughout the piece.  We thought that, because our film opening is of the 'rural comedy' genre, the associated company should incorporate this theme into it's title, seeing as our Gemini Productions logo is quite unrelated to the theme.

 This is an animated gif to show vaguely how it will appear when edited in Final Cut Pro:

-Lauren Tween, Amy Bowman, Sian Hayler-Magenis

Institutional Name and Logo

 At the start of every film, there is an institutional title and logo. It allows them to brand what they produce. Normally the title and logo are combined, but its not always the case. At the beginning of films, it will normally consist of more than one of production  company. These are normally presented in the beginning film by being shown as being 'association' with another production company.

There is a major difference between Mainstream institutional logos and independent film institutional logos. The Mainstream institutional logos are more complicated as the production companies are more well known therefore they have more money to spend on technology that allows them to create a logo. On the other hand independent film production companies do not have as much as funding compared to mainstream film production companies.

History of the logo

Back in the day, logos were very simple and no special effects were used within in them due to the lack of the development of technology. More effort was put in into logos as the studios grew. Motion and sound was introduced within the use of logos. A infamous example of this was MGM using Leo the Lion.

Sian's Logo

For this logo I thought about how horoscopes and the term 'gemini' relates to constellations and stars, which I wanted to incorporate in my logo design. I chose to design it digitally as I found it easier to show how I wanted the logo to appear and animated- that the stars would appear randomly, then forming the word 'gemini'. Alongside this, I think the sound used for this logo could be slow and calm as typically independent logos are not as extravagant or complex as logos from mainstream institutions. 

I attempted to make the animation for this logo through a gif animation, using Adobe Photoshop CS3:

After much discussion, we decided to use the above logo in our movie.

Lauren's Logos

My first logo is a play on our production companies' name: Gemini; where there's a GEM IN an EYE ('Gem' , 'in', 'i').  I think, visually, it looks better without the production company name surrounding it, however it may be quite obscure to an audience without the name to reveal why that is our logo.

My second logo idea reverted back to Sian's horoscope trail of thought. Gemini, as a birth sign, is twins and so I incorporated these into the word Gemini, dotting the I's with identical faces. 

Other logo ideas:

-Sian Hayler-Magenis, Lauren Tween, Amy Bowman, Leyla Cindil  

Film Opening Scenes

1. Introduction of scenery - Audience gets an idea of where the film is set. Rural theme will be shown by the flora and fauna withinn the scene.
2. Introduction of characters - Characters are introduced through the shots of actors doing their stereotypical attributes. This is when the audience will recognise that the genre of our film is Comedy due to the hilarity of the composition so far. In our opening, the characters name are announced in the form of the register being taken. By the end of this scene , the audience are fully intergrated with the characters, are able to make their own assumptions and views about what they have seen so far.
3. Phone rings - This is the ending section of our opening, which involves firstly, the nerd character dropping the phone, allowing us to see his stereotypical reaction in this modern technological scenario. We then see the hippie character answer the phone, portraying to the audience that he is most confident from the three and his cup of tea connotes his laid back nature. This scene concludes the opening whilst furthering the storyline.

- Leyla Cindil, Amy Bowman, Lauren Tween

Picture Storyboard

We had to create a picture storyboard to allow us to experiment with positioning within a frame. It also allows us to experience giving directions to the people within our picture storyboard.

- Leyla Cindil, Lauren Tween and Amy Bowman

Shot List

Duration	Shot type	Location	Characters and props
15sec	Establishing shot turned pan	Field	Showing tent in field
5sec	zoom  to close up	Field	sign on tent
4sec	birds eye view, close up	Outside tent	tea cup on saucer
4sec	birds eye view, close up	Outside tent	saucer
4sec	close up	Outside tent	nerd drinking tea facing to the side
4sec	high angle close up	Outside tent	Hand cleaning glasses with fabric
5sec	Pan upwards with close up on face	Outside tent	Showing nerd character's costume, stopping at face
5sec	close up	Outside tent	farmers hand strumming guitar
10sec	mid shot	Outside tent	farmer happily strumming guitar
10sec	two shot	Outside tent	nerd on left, hippie on right sat at table
4sec	mid shot	Outside tent	farmer sad stopped strumming
40sec	three shot	Outside tent	sat around table talking
10sec	long shot	Outside tent	nerd in shock as phone makes noise in pocket
4sec	Tilt upwards	Outside tent	nerd pulling phone out of his pocket
8sec	Close up	Outside tent	Farmer holding phone in his hands
5sec	Over the shoulder	Outside tent	Nerd as he raises phone to answer it
3sec	Close up	Outside tent	Phone on table

Some of these shots may be changed upon filming, but we intend to stick to these guidelines as strictly as possible to ensure a quality outcome, with smooth organisation skills in order to save time.

-Amy Bowman, Sian Hayler-Magenis

Health and Safety

Health and safety is something that will need to be taken seriously whilst filming our opening in order to ensure that both ourselves, the cast and equipment are not damaged or harmed.

Equipment- such as tripods, dollys and cameras- will have be handled with great care and we will have to be aware of where certain things are placed; for example, we should avoid placing wires in a place that means it could be tripped over. Being aware of where we place things and the space around us is also important in avoiding the harm of anyone or any equipment.

Our cast will have to sign a consent form in order to ensure that we have their permission to film them and that they are allowed to do so. Permission will also have to be asked if we wish to film in a public place so that we do not get in trouble and to avoid disturbing the public.


-Sian Hayler-Magenis

Title Sequence

The title sequence will run in accordance to the normal conventions of filmmaking.  Obviously, we will not have the full amount of titles, as they go in the credits, however they still need to run in the correct order in order for it to look professional and not be mistaken for a trailer or advertising campaign.

The titles will run in the following order:

1) GEMINI Productions Presents
2) In Association With Poultry Pictures
3) A Liz Anya Film
4) RURAL SUPERHEROES
5) Mike Rowave
6) Ben Dover
7) Harrison Fire
8) Casting By Stu Pidd
9) Costumes Designed By Constance Noring
10) Music By Dan Surround
11) Edited By Kerry Oaki
12) Production Designer Pete Abred
13) Based On The Novel By Joe King
14) Screenplay By Anette Curtain
15) Produced By Sian Tween, Amy Cindil, Lauren Bowman, Leyla Hayler-Magenis
16) Directed By Knox Doors

-Lauren Tween, Amy Bowman, Leyla Cindil, Sian Hayler-Magenis

Auditions

These were the auditions we filmed of each auditionee saying particular lines for the characters they wanted to play as.



Auditon 1: Harrison
We thought his awkward-ness was more suited towards that of another character- such as the nerd, rather than the farmer.

Audition 2: Michael
We thought he followed direction well but we thought his appearance wasn't necessarily suited to the hippie character, unlike Rob.

Audition 3: Cory
It was clear to us that Cory couldn't take direction, so we didn't consider choosing him at all. This was to avoid having a plain actor in our film, which would seem unprofessional.

Audition 4: Lawrence
We thought he was good at expressing emotion but minor things he did such as closing his eyes a lot made us consider someone else- if a character were to close their eyes a lot in a film, it may seem out of place and doesn;'t draw the audience in properly.

Audition 5: Jonathan
Jonathan offered to audition but he didn't seem to take the role seriously- and we didn't want someone who messed around in our final piece. He also didn't seem to take direction too well as his tone doesn't change much even after being given direction.

Audition 6: Ben
Ben seemed like the ideal choice for the farmer character, but he auditioned for the nerd character. We have decided to choose him for the farmer character (after discussing with him if that's ok) because of his good acting qualities, plus the added bonus of the fact he looks like the celebrities we originally compared our characters to.

Audition 7: Robert
Robert seemed like a good actor for the hippie character, who he auditioned for. His appearance suited the character well and although he didn't seem to take the direction given too seriously, his perspective on it still suited the character.

Chosen actors: Harrison, Ben and Robert.

- Sian Hayler-Magenis, Lauren Tween

Audition Script

In order for the auditions to run smoothly and professionally, we have created an audition script using extracts from our draft script. We have included lines of each of our 3 characters so that we can judge the auditionees according to their mannerisms and abilities as to which part they suit.

These auditions will be filmed and then edited into small clips so that we can express our views and judge them fairly.

Here is our audition script:

Nerd
Please stop now, PLEASE! You need to take the register now.

Farmer
Y’all here, as solid as the ground we stand on.

Hippie
Duuuuude, spare my ears, my soul is crying inside of me.

-Amy Bowman, Lauren Tween and Sian Hayler-Magenis

Casting - Holding Auditions

We will need to hold auditions in order to find the ideal actors for our characters. By auditioning a range of people, it can be further ensured that the actors we have suit the character's roles and can take directions. Using an audition script (an extract from our draft script) we will allow them to interpret their lines however they wish and then give them particular directions which will hopefully change how their lines are said- therefore making us able to judge on their different abilities and manner in which they take directions.

After auditions are held, we will need to discuss as a group who we think the best actor is and politely inform the auditionees of the results. Auditions will be filmed and edited in a video afterwards to clearly express our views on each person who auditions.

We have chosen a list of possible actors that we feel would be suited for our characters and have asked them if they would wish to participate, as well as where and when the auditions will be held in advance- at a lunch time in the media room.

This is the invitation we sent the actors auditioning:

Hello auditionees!
Thank you for volunteering to audition for a part in our film opening. As you already know, there are three parts available and when you arrive a script will be provided for each character. Costumes and other things will not be needed as you will be judged solely on acting ability. The auditions will be filmed and you will be informed afterwards if you have gotten the part! Here is some information on each character so that you can choose which part you wish to audition for:

Eugene Snodgrass (Nerd)
He is a stereotypically socially awkward person, suited more to things other than social events, such as studying, computer programming and reading. Despite his lack of social skills he is very intelligent and has a wide range of knowledge. He has a very stereotypical appearance and voice.

Mac Donald (Farmer)
Being a farmer, he spends most of his time at his farm. He isn't very intelligent in the same way that Eugene is, but knows a lot about physical labour as well as how to care for cattle. He has strong views on the environment and keeping it clean as it is where he lives and doesn't want to see it ruined.

Doobie Journey (Hippie)
Doobie Journey is the loudest character of the lot, having the strongest views on environmental cleaniness and has the wardrobe to match his 'outrageous' attitude. At the same time he can be very relaxed and chill, often spending time enjoying nature and drinking herbal tea.

Hopefully these will give a good insight into the character's personalities and will inspire you into portraying the characters in the way you think they would be.
The location for our auditions will be in the media studies room up near the science office Monday 11th March at lunchtime and if this is inconvenient for you, please let us know so that we can rearrange. Once again thank you very much for volunteering as we are very grateful and good luck!
-The Gemini Team

-Sian Hayler-Magenis