The Actor

In our piece, we need an actor who can present certain things which will help clearly show the type of character we have in mind. To do this, the actor needs certain qualities, the first and most important quality being that they have to look like an everyday teenager. This is crucial as the piece is going to be focusing on a young person trying to survive and if we make the character seem they only belong to one specific social group, it will be hard to relate to. Another quality needed is for the character to look fairly sinister. By this, I don't mean in such a way that they look evil, but instead in a way that makes them look like they have been through a lot and has maybe seen some things that you wouldn't want to. This will help emphasise the whole post apocalyptic feel. With these sort of qualities in mind, we then had to find somebody who fitted this role as well as somebody who would actually be up for playing the character. So far we have the option of two people, these are me and a friend called Daniel Cadoret. Both me and Daniel would fit this role as we do not fall under any physically distinctive social group so we can be related to easily and we can both look sinister if we have to! At this point in time, we are probably going to get Daniel to act purely so I can focus on the direction of the product. Underneath are a few key features about me and Daniel which can help determine who is better for the role.

Name: Abel Clarke                                       Name: Daniel Cadoret

Age:16                                                        Age:17

      Height: 5'6'                                                Height: 5'7'  

Hair: Brown                                                Hair: Brown

Availability: Whenever needed                   Availability: Weekends

     

Props

In nearly all media productions, props are used for many different reasons and they can sometimes have some sort of meaning behind them. In our piece, there are not many props which are needed, in fact there is only one. This is the weapon which the main character will have throughout the opening sequence. Although this sounds like a pretty basic prop there was some thinking that had to go into what the weapon will be. Stereotypically, weapons in films tend to either be firearms, knives and so on but this isn't going to be the case in our piece. We want the weapon to be something that realistically will be found in a post apocalyptic environment, as there wouldn't really be guns lying around. Therefore we decided to think along the lines of the sort of thing you would find in a typical house, shed or garage. This gave us a massive list of choices although some were not appropriate such as a cleaver or kitchen knife as we would be filming in public and we didn't want to look suspicious. Here are a selection of potential tools which could work as weapons in our piece along with the positives and negatives of both.

     

Hammer - Is a good example of a household item which could be used as a weapon and in many films does just that. However we want the audience to clearly see the weapon throughout and this can be hard to do with such a small object.

Knife - This is also something which is stereotypically seen as a household weapon and would work however it is also too small and if I was seen carrying a knife then there could be trouble. 

        

Spade - This is something that may not always be seen as a weapon but will work perfectly within our piece. I think this as it is something that could be found in any home and is easily visible to the audience. We will probably use this in our piece unless we can find anything better. 

The Pre Production shot list.

This is a list of the shots, angles and movement that the camera will do in our production. This is useful to have as it makes it clear when each shot will bed used and in what order. It mainly means you don't have to remember if the storyboard is unclear. In the far left column there is the number of what the shot is, the next one along is the type of shot and/or camera angle or movement used. the next one is the description of whats going to happen in that shot and finally on the far right is how long each shot will be.  

Shot Number	Shot Type	Description	Time
1	Establishing pan	The camera will pan over the hole area and establish the location	8 seconds
2	Medium shot of main character	The camera will look at the main character (D) who is stood at the side of the road	3 seconds
3	Over the shoulder long shot	The camera will show the car driving towards D	3 seconds
4	Mid shot with focus on character	Main character jumps and hides in bush	4 seconds
5	Medium close up	Character hides as car drives past	5 seconds
6	Long shot turns in to a medium close up of character	Car drives past, character climbs cautiously out of bush	6 seconds
7	Master shot	Character continues to walk down road	3 seconds
8	Mid shot (tracking)	Character continues to walk down road (Camera at side)	5 seconds
9	Long shot	Character walks around corner to confront gate	4 seconds
10	Medium shot (low angle)	Character starts climbing through gate	2 seconds
11	Medium shot (high angle)	Character finishes climbing through gate (Camera on other side)	2 seconds
12	Establishing pan	Character looks about and walks towards building.	8 seconds
13	Pan (High angle), (medium long shot)	Character enters building and walks in	5 seconds
14	Medium shot focus on character	Character starts scavenging for supplies.	4 seconds
15	Worms eye	Perspective of creature moving towards building	3 seconds
16	Close up	Main character continues to scavenge	4 seconds
17	Worms eye	Creature gets closer to building and enters the building	3 seconds
18	Close up	Main character looks at item	3 seconds
19	Worms eye	Creature behind character	4 seconds
20	Close up	Character senses something behind him	2 seconds
21	Low angle( worms eye)	Character turn to hit creature with weapon	2 seconds
22	Long shot	See character putting creature in bag	5 seconds
23	Mid shot	Character walks and looks about in building	4 seconds
24	Mid shot	Looks some more and leaves building	4 seconds
25	Long shot(pan)	Character walks toward the gate. (ref.12)	8 seconds
26	Medium long shot	Character climbs back through gate	4 seconds
27	Close up of main characters face, focus on car and other character	Character steps into view and looks right to reveal car from earlier with new character next to it	6 seconds
28	Close up of character, focus on end of prop(gun)	New character looks at main character and raises gun into view, aims and shoots.	7 seconds
29(extra)	After gun goes off cut to black	Title revealed	4 seconds
30(extra)			seconds

Location

Location.

This was a tricky heading to cover. We have had a few ideas of what we think would suit the opening. Ideally we wanted an abandoned street but that is very hard to find, and people will probably be hanging around there making it difficult to film. We then thought a forest may be a suitable location but we figured it was too generic and we want it to be different. I then thought that they're is an old sewage works in Yarnton, behind the Turnpike which would be ideal as it has that abandoned atmosphere about it as well as being a quiet location for filming. The only limitation is getting access to it. Below is a selection of pictures I took of the area, I think its ideal. This is because it will give the whole ambience of the film a chilling feel which is exactly what is needed for a thriller film.

Costume

Costume.

This was fairly easy, as I had already got a clear idea of what I wanted the costume to look like. For an ideal costume, I thought that it would be a mix of everyday clothing and sort of survival like accessories, like a bandolier for example. The clothing would also be quite dirty but also fit the characters personality. Such as if its quite a dark character, they will be wearing a trench coat and a bandana. Below is a very brief idea of the type of clothing and costume we're wanting for the best effect.