Treatment: The criminal

his film will be a minimum of 1 minute to a maximum of 2 minutes as required of by AS media. As for location we will utilise the outdoors mainly in New Zealand being the focus. The story takes place in a case style so the out doors approach will allow for effective long distance movement without the problems of confinement.

Conventions being a key part of thrillers are also utilised through :

• Weapons signifying the high stakes the danger the characters face building suspense.
• Ruff clothes to show the already worn down characters battling it out for survival ( distances characters from comfort as a whole.
• the fall into night links to the huge popular convention of darkness ( being unaware of the dangers around you), this also represents a fall into a caose of sorts.
• Injuries will add to the suspense as the audience questions how long the characters have left (how far can they get before scumming to their injuries).
• Blood is also a good convention to raise suspense as blood loss is dangerous and the colour red often has a connotation of negativity/emergency.
• Money will be used to show what is to gain from the situation.

A good example of the style of film we used is the Jason Bourn films, we drew concepts and ideas from the film to produce our clip.

Character names:

• Sully
• Ben
• Nathan
• Jack

Ideology: the film focuses on the dangerous high stakes situation that stands in the way of the main character who is in possession of a large quantity of money.

The mood and tone of the film is high tension, high suspense action, their is a clear link between the fear of being caught by the antagonises and the idea of running from death its self. the mood is dark with death looming and the tone expresses a feeling of heaviness. this connects to the viewer as the story can be treated as an allegory for death and life.

Themes of death fear and danger are prevalent supported by a wealth of subtle themes such as running from something bigger than yourself as though how intend to take what he has taken chase him.another theme is theft, the idea of taking what you want and then dealing with the consequences.

Mise en scene is covered through the choice to shoot later into the day creating darker lighting setting the aforementioned lighting. the location of open fields also ironically creates the feeling of isolation as their is a limited amount of character interactions , anything can happen an not many people would know.

Symbols:

• Blood
• Weapons: knives, guns
• Cloths
• Money

Sound will be utilised to set the tone and mood by creating a heavy atmosphere and building as moments of action take place.

Credits and a logo will be placed at the beginning and at the end. Main characters at the beginning and crew at the end.

Name	email	number	role
Addison Saxby	saxbyproductions@gmail.com	027 646 1697	Actor/ camera operator
Kayla Lockington	kayla.lockington13@gmail.com/ koala4005@gmail.com	022 165 7818	Lighting
Holly Prowderley		027 497 6291	Makeup artist
Jack Lear			Actor
Christopher de Bruin	chrismediastudies12@gmail.com	021 089 54318	Sound engineer
Ngaire Greenhill		O21 676 626	Makeup artist

Schedule

Saturday (May 24th)

9:30 AM -set up

10:00 AM -start filming

12:00 PM -break/footage review

12:30 PM -resume filming

4:00 PM -2nd break /review footage

4:30 PM -resume filming

9:45 PM -pack up equipment

10:00 PM -completion

Audio operations 

In this protect, the main theme that is guiding and informing me on the type of audio that is needed is a combination of loud and quite sounds that create contrast as weapons such as guns grab audience attention the protagonists must go unnoticed in order to hide their position. the sound will be carefully alternated between the communication and weapons firing. non-dietetic music will be used to build up suspense with a high energy, high tempo song leading up to the firing. The convention of building tension using things such as whispering to express the circumstantial danger (life or death) of the situation.

Lingering Shots:

• Increase suspense by focusing on a character longer than expected, pauses bvvuild tension as the audience begins to worry about what happens next (they will become uncomfortable ).
• Building anticipation (extra second ).

Fast cuts:

• Catches the audience off guard.
• Creates a feeling of panic for the audience as they figure out what going on.
• Building up to, fast cuts are necessary in order to utilise the full effect of the suspense and then the apex of the story/situation.
• The audience becomes more aware of their senses.

Music/sound:

• The sound track must have a build up to create suspense.
• Drawn out music/sounds that have no melody will create a high tension atmosphere.

Close ups:

• Allows the audience to empathise with the character by seeing their reaction (on their faces and body language ).
• Limited information can be seen at a time creating a combination of suspense and tension as the audience must watch seeing every detail. (this works if you want the audience to draw their own conclusion). Do not rely on this technique to much.

Be aware of negative space:

• Create a  balance between location and characters, giving context to the situation that happens in the clip.
• Symbolism in the atmosphere or even foreshadowing.
• Control over space  can  create a sense of claustrophobia or minimise the character through perspective.

Action thriller

Camera angles:

High angles minimise characters making them seem weaker,inferior,and set to fail. On the the other hand low angles enlarge a characters size making them seem powerful and triumphant (confident).

Time distortion:

Erratic speeding up and slowing down of time can create a sense of unease as the viewer feels a loss of control trapped in the story. Suspense is built in pauses and tension is built characters are forced into dangerous situations

Planning for PT2 Part 2

Presentation:

Props

Clothing:

Our main character will be undercover therefore their clothes will be old and tatty, copying the image of a local or someone that is seen as none lethal. The clothes will have a 'dirty' appearance as if they have been on a long journey with an unwashed/bathed look. Our group got their inspiration from the Maze Runner series which idealised with what our group had envisioned for the characters appearance.

In this clip it explains how you can create the look you are wanting with a few easy and low budget items to help with the realism of your film. Our characters will look grungy yet adventurous look. Hiking boots may be the hardest piece of clothing to find as they are not cheap and only certain types of people own them.

Our 2nd male lead will have simple blackish attire where a normal t-short will be covering the majority of their face as if wearing a balaclava. Dusty shorts or long pants/jeans will be easy to acquire items that will be effect. 

Black vests or this type of armour may be hard to get but if we are able too it would be very effective. Our protagonists will be wearing sandal type shoes with very little 'style' in how the present themselves. 

Weapons:

Knives will be used in our hand to hand combat scene where our main characters will be seen to be in some type of brawl. Fake blood and other special affects will be added to create a sense of realism an make the film look as professional as possible. 

We will have safety controlled rifles on site where an adult will be present in order for either our protagonist or antagonist to use against each other. This will either be some type of air rifle or sniper looking gun or just a hand held pistol. 

Plot: The plot for our short film contains a agent who is tracking down a criminal that has stole $50,000 cash and the agent has to find out who the criminal is working for, this leads to a chase scene and a fight scene.  

Our film will be from 0-2 minutes in length and will be film on the North Shore and in the country side of New Zealand. We have chosen these locations because we need an inside shot and many outside shots to tell this story. Another reason being that when we are shooting outside we will have lots of space to work with.

Mood and Tone: Mood is high intensity and is very realistic. We want the audience to feel like they are in the film with our characters. We also want the relationship between our characters to be strong so that if one dies then the audience feels upset about this. 

Fill in the Gaps:

Actors:

Male Lead [Nathan] - Josh Hemus 

2nd Male Lead [Ben] - Jack Lear

Shot List:

Mood Board:

Mood Board for costumes and props:

Location:

For our location we are using a friends property that has lots of land and trees that will set our scene. It is far away from the road so we won't hear any cars on the street but it is not so far that we don't have to walk for miles. We need to incorporate a chase scene and this property has enough land to make that happen. We won't need any legal permission to film here as it is a friends land. 

Call Sheets [Includes plan for filming on the day]

Descriptions of Group Members:

Addison Saxby

Hi my name is Addison Saxby and I am 17 years old (about to turn 18) and I have a passion for film making. Ever since I was 14 (year 9) I knew that film making was what I wanted to do. I love the Thriller genre that we have been studying this year in AS Media and I really like to get my ideas onto film. I love all aspects of the film making process, right from pre-production and planning to production and being on set, and post-production and editing our footage. I love to be either behind the camera or in the directors chair, but if I am not I still love any job on a film set. I love to shoot my films in a hand held way as it gives the audience a feeling of "being there in the scene" As I head into my PT2 I am looking forward to expanding my skills and making another great film. 

Kayla Lockington

My name is Kayla Lockington, i am 16 years old, and this is my first time doing media studies. I have always had an interest in film so i took this class to see if it could develop my interest. Being in a group with someone like Addison has really shown me all the new possibilities that could be instead of just thinking inside the box. For me when i started media i struggled with some of the essay work as i wasn't used to writing such a lengthy passage, but after time my skills grew and i am now comfortable with the grades that i am getting, although there is always room for improvement. My favourite things about media is getting hands on experience when it comes to making your own film. I have learnt so many new skills like how to use audio/boom poll and how to do continuity editing on a computer. 

Christopher de Bruin 

Plan B

Our teams plan B is a simple chase scene between two main characters. There will be an assassin of sort hunting a man on the run for a crime or something that he has done. You will see the file being passed to the hunter giving a picture and description of the man. They will then run into each other at some point during the scene and this is where our chase scene will take place/begin. He will either run and hide where he gets shot/gunned down or it will be a hand to hand combat scene which we will try and make as gory as possible where you see masses of fake blood flying all over the place, adding to the realism affect and trying to make the audience believe what they are seeing. The only problem with this idea was the location as we wanted to do it in a place where there was old abandoned containers lying around in a field but the ground may be uneven and we don't know if there is enough space for us to shoot a chase scene. Our second location option is to ask a friend (Theo) if he wouldn't mind letting us film at his house as it is a controlled environment with still a lot of bush space and forestry. Overall the concept remains the same but instead of having multiple actors there will only be 2. This will save time and make a lot of the shots easier to film. The costumes will be inspired by The Maze Runner like our original concept but the location will be more densified. 

SCRIPT:

Video about making a fight scene

            

Concept

The title of our film is ‘The Soldier’

Our target audience is for anyone that is over the age of 10. There may be a bloody scene but it shouldn't be too graphic, but to be on the safe side we want to make sure that if there were any young viewers that they wouldn't get affected by the film. We want it to appeal to adults as well so that they may also appreciate the work that will go into it.

The 6-15 institutional / Genre conventions I will include in my film are portrayed through the use of props and iconography. Knives will be a main feature in our film where you will see our two main characters (the protagonist and the antagonist) have a hand to hand combat scene. You will see the blade of the knife as the shine reflects off the light. We will be filming just before dusk so from around 4pm - 6:30pm, there will be dim natural lighting but you will still be able to see the characters and the audience will be able to interpret what is happening. This is a classic thriller convention as the use of darkness or dim lighting creates a sense of anxiety for the audience as it is the sense of the unknown. At the end of our film there will be a hand-to-hand combat scene which is when our knife will be used. This is supposed to be an intense scene where there will be fake blood used to represent the danger and severity of the situation. By using fake blood this can sometimes make the film look unrealistic and fake but if executed well then it can add to the realism of the picture seen on screen. Our location is in farmland where there will be large fields and a forestry area, it is a wide landscape that is open to different possibilities of what could happen, helping to heighten the fear of viewers. The clothing choices have been inspired by The Maze Runner series, enfisising the rugged and dirty look this will be our antagonists look as we want him to look like he has been on the run for days or even weeks.

Our film will start with a shot of a car pulling up with our main character who then steps outside the car and receives a text. There is a package waiting for him in a mail box which has the details of the criminal he is trying to hunt down. Inside the package we will see some information alongside a photo and pistol / some type of gun. The character will then receive a call with a man who is directing him and the only piece of information we have about this mysterious man on the other side of the phone call is his voice and a shiny gold watch that will be shown on his wrist when he is seen holding the phone. They will exchange dialogue and the voice on the other side of the phone will inform our ‘assassin’ of the crime that has been committed / what the criminal has done. Our protagonist will see the target and start a pursuit. This will be the beginning of our chase scene which will end in our antagonist going into a hand to hand combat scene with our supposed ‘hero’. This scene will contain bursts of blood where the punches will reveal small cuts and grazes that will be shown on our characters faces. At the end of the film there is a plot twist where our two main characters at the beginning you are supposed to be the good guys end up taking the money for themselves and the whole realisation of who has done what is revealed to the audience.

Characters:

Nathan:

Nathan is going to be our supposed ‘hero’, clueless of the divine plan that is being formed behind his back. He will be dressed in plain attire e.g. just a black jacket and t-shirt with jeans or some type of rugged trousers. We want him to look as plain as possible as if he is an undercover agent who is staking out their target. He will be the one with the gun at the end scene who holds the guns barrel to another character's head (the protagonist).

Ben:

He is the one who is the identified ‘criminal’. He is on the run hiding from law enforcement trying to get away from the crime he has committed for a higher power (his boss). Ben is an important character as he is the one shown at the end in the combat scene where all is revealed. He will be dressed in dirty clothing inspired from The Maze Runner film series, as if he has been on the run for days.

Sully:

Sully is the mastermind behind both characters he has been using both Nathan and Ben, making himself look like the hero when really he is just trying to take the money for himself. All is understood when at the end we see a hand with a shiny gold watch reaching for the bag of money but this gold watch was also seen at the beginning of the film where he was supposed to be the ‘good guy’. Plot twist.

Our idea is simplistic but still effective. We will have a lot of easy shots that will be much similar to film. Our location is local and not too far to travel, this will be an advantage when it comes to transporting our equipment and getting our talent there. It has a sense of realism as it is something that does happen in real life, it represents backstabbing and how sometimes people are not what they seem. We will be shooting in the dusk so we have to be careful that no one is to trip with any of the equipment and we all know where we are going. We are also working with knives that will be blunt, even though they won’t be sharp we will still have to be responsible making sure that they equipment is treated carefully and with respect. We are filming on a Thursday afternoon as this was a time where the weather was a bit more settled and all of our cast and crew was available on this day. Most of our primary shots will be done on Addison’s (our team member’s) personal camera, which is smaller than the school cameras and will possibly be easier to work with since it is so portable and easy to move/carry.

Kayla Lockington 

A 

TREATMENT

FOR ‘THE SOLDIER’

Prepared For: DSL Productions 

By: Kayla Lockington

18/04/2020

This film will be a minimum of 1 minute to a maximum of 2 minutes as proposed. The filming location will be at the house of one of our team members as well as the basement of an old school looking house. This is we can have a contrast between the outdoors and the confidence within a battered slum house.

Our target audience is those of a more sophisticated age rage. From ages 14 and above. The use of language is to a higher extent that younger people may find hard to follow. As well as there being a small amount of graphic violence. 

After watching these are just a few techniques/ideas that would be helpful/add to our film:

Gone girl:

They have edited it so that as we see the picture of this girl on screen we can hear the voice over of a man speaking in the background along with slow eerie music. This is a good technique as it can provoke fear before the story line of the film has even begun. 

Joker:

This is a very violent and vivid scene but what they have done very well is create a realistic effect for the verisimilitude of the film. The blood squirting out of the body is a clever and useful technique that would be a good idea to use in our own film, if done correctly. 

The film will include 4 main characters alongside 3 protagonists. Our main 4 characters will be soldiers acting as our antagonists who are seen as the ‘heroes’ of this film. They will be in disguise/undercover (not wearing army uniform). We are only using male characters, which interludes with the stereotypical representation of females and males in how men are more useful in combat and dangerous situations. By using this idea we are facing a hard hitting problem that occurs on a regular basis throughout the world where soldiers and other law enforcement are losing their lives due to terrorist activity. The mood and overall tone of this film is heavy hearted and fearful. Our audience is constantly being surprised as if on a roller coaster of emotions. It has an almost Good VS Evil theme throughout the short film where our military men are risking their lives in order to eliminate a threat. We will have a lot of over the shoulder shots along with shaky and handheld camera movements. This will help add anticipation to the film and unstability. In order to capture all that is happening we will be using wide shots to capture all of our action features.The setting has been chosen so to comply with common conventions in how it is a large outdoor landscape that has an eerie feel. We will use rusted and older looking props to give the idea that it is set in a poverty area or that all life has been scared away as if a ghost town was left with slum-like houses. Things like guns and knives will be used as symbols that represent danger and conflict. A key part of our iconography is the military-like uniforms that our characters will be wearing. This is a clear sign that they are law enforcement personal, and that they should be there to help. Short sharp sounds like gunshots and loud ‘booms’ for our explosion will be used and all added in editing. A lot of our sounds will be diegetic life-like sounds that our characters can hear helping to add to the realism of the film. The title will be revealed at the end of the short film as well as having small editing techniques that will be used for e.g. when we switch between scenes from night to day a text will appear at the bottom of the screen where it will say the date, time and location. 

Opening Summary

Beginning:

The first establishing shot is of a town located in a Roman countryside. This shot is at night time and we see light shining through the slum houses. The exchange of the document between the two soldiers takes place as well as a few lines of dialogue. One of the soldiers looks through the document, absorbing the information needed. We then cut to black where we hear sounds of our military men gearing up for what we can only assume will be a battle/fight of some sort.

Middle:

We start off with a wide shot of our soldiers walking through the mountainous terrain. Two new characters are introduced, Jack and Nathan. They are seen to be talking amongst themselves making jokes which adds a comical flair to the film, easing tension for this small period of time. An explosion goes off that then knocks two of our soldiers over, as they lie there and get their breath back. The rest of the soldiers fall back and try to retaliate. Two terrorists are seen to come over the top of the hill, aiming their rifles/weapons at the troops below. Nathan (one of the soldiers) decides to take a stand and try to shoot back at the enemies, he takes a shot to the chest and is killed instantly.

End:

Jack is seen to play hero and tries to take on one of our protagonists and this then costs him his life. Our terrorist is taken out by Ben but it is not within the time needed as Jack is already gone. The men are shocked and we finish by seeing a close up shot of Jack's facials who is distraught and shocked by the events that have just occurred.

Media

Preliminary task 2

Planning (Concept)

The title of my film is ‘The Soldier’. It is correlating with the main plot of the film and how it is mostly based around our male military men.

The 6-15 genre conventions I will include in my film are certain props like knives and guns that usually evoke fear and worry from the audience. These are common weapons used in a thriller movie. A lot of quick cuts will be used alongside shaky and hand held camera movements. This will mimic the unstableness of the characters in the scene. By using unsteady film it can also trick the audience into thinking something like an explosion is happening which is what we will be doing. We will mix our camera work alongside buckets of dirt and water spray bottles to create a ‘mini’ explosion. We will have a clear protagonist ( our terrorist(s)) who is being hunted by our military ‘heroes’ who will be our clear antagonists. There will be dull lighting and little to no lighting is some shots, helping create the sense of the unknown whereas the shots that are taken outdoors will have natural lighting, helping to immerse the audience, making it almost more realistic. Our film is more following the ideas of an action thriller. During the editing process we will use loud sudden sounds but also contrasting it will be a use of eerie non diegetic music.

Plot/story line:

We will begin with an establishing shot of an isolated slum house, somewhere in what looks to be russian farmland (hills and greenery). It is set at night time and all we will see is a dim yellow light shining through the windows of our ‘slum’ house. The film will start off with a slow and eerie presence. There will be an exchange of a document between two of our main characters which will be our object being given/taken. It will then transition into hearing the two soldiers starting to gear up in order to catch our protagonist (terrorist). Editing techniques will be used here in order to create a blackout whilst we can still hear the clips and loading of guns in the background. Our soldiers will be seen walking out as a troop talking about memories and other gossip topics, this will be seen as a more comical scene that almost breaks/eases the tension for a couple of seconds. An explosion soon takes place near the soldiers front of line two characters are blown down. The terrorists are then seen from the top of the hill shooting down at our ‘troops’. One of our characters tries to take a stand and shoot back but alas his attempts are unsuccessful and ends up getting himself killed. Another soldier is then killed from acting out of impulsive decision making. Finally the target is gun downed but at the expense of two men.

Characters:

Sully (Captain)

Sully is the leader of the operation and all directions and decisions are up to him. He is in charge of his men and is the one who is ordering his troops to hunt these men.

Ben (Soldier)

Ben is our first soldier that we are introduced to. He is the one we see making the exchange with Sully in our very first scene.

Nathan (Soldier)

Nathan is our first soldier to die. He takes a courageous yet bold act that ends up costing him his life. This adds to the realism in how not all things have a happy ending.

Jack (Soldier)

Jack is our last soldier to die. He is the one who helps to end our story/film. By making a reckless decision out of anger and frustration that costs him his life. This is when Sully and Ben then have the opportunity to gun down our terrorists

Terrorist 1

Terrorist 1 is seen to be causing all the destruction alongside terrorist 2. They are the main protagonists in this film, the ones who are causing the obstacle that needs to be overcome. Terrorist 1 is the one who is seen to shoot Jack at the last moment before getting shot himself.

Terrorist 2

Terrorist 2 has mainly the same role and idea as terrorist 1. We decided to use two roles as it is more intimidating facing more than one set of manpower. Terrorist 2 is taken down somewhere amongst the shooting and attacks.

Practicalities of filming/content:

Our idea is based on real life situations that we see all the time happening around the world and it is a serious problem that can cause world terror. Re-creating that fear and the realism of the situation will not exactly be easy but we have to make sure that our camera and verisimilitude of the film appeals to the audience. Since we are using guns as props even though they will not be loaded we will have someone who is trained in handling weapons, on sight at all times. This will be one of our main and biggest health and safety issues. Most of our shooting will be done at one of our team members' houses as they have a farmland type landscape. Unfortunately this means that our travel time will be increased and we will only be able to get our shots on the weekend. All other local film that is needed can be done after school.

Lighting:

Natural lighting will be used for our outdoor shots. This will help to enhance the realism of the film and almost keep it dull, conforming to the typical conventions of a thriller film.

For our indoor shots we will use a dull yellow light to match the light that is seen to be shining through the windows of the 'slum house'.

The Yellow Birds:

In this short clip from 'the yellow birds' it shows a good example of the natural outdoor lighting and how they have been able to maintain that same contrast throughout the entire scene, even when inside. We are able to see the shadows behind the men relating back to the verisimilitude of the film.

Preliminary task 2

Props

Clothing:

Our soldiers will be undercover therefore their clothes will be old and tatty, copying the image of a local or someone that is seen as none lethal. The clothes will have a 'dirty' appearance as if they have been on a long journey with an unwashed/bathed look. Our group got their inspiration from the Maze Runner series which idealised with what our group had envisioned for the characters appearance.

In this clip it explains how you can create the look you are wanting with a few easy and low budget items to help with the realism of your film. Our characters will look grungy yet adventurous look. Hiking boots may be the hardest piece of clothing to find as they are not cheap and only certain types of people own them.

Our terrorists will have simple blackish attire where a normal t-short will be covering the majority of their face as if wearing a balaclava. Dusty shorts or long pants/jeans will be easy to acquire items that will be effect. 

Black vests or this type of armour may be hard to get but if we are able too it would be very effective. Our protagonists will be wearing sandal type shoes with very little 'style' in how the present themselves. 

Weapons:

Knives will be used in our hand to hand combat scene where our main characters will be seen to be in some type of brawl. Fake blood and other special affects will be added to create a sense of realism an make the film look as professional as possible. 

We will have safety controlled rifles on site where an adult will be present in order for either our protagonist or antagonist to use against each other. This will either be some type of air rifle or sniper looking gun or just a hand held pistol.