The Disciples: Back On The Block

Showing posts with label Planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Planning. Show all posts

Film Poster

The next step in my process was creating a poster for the movie. This was much harder than i first thought it would be due to the difficulty with fonts on the Mac. The font i used as the primary title was native toWindows meaning i had to externally install it on the Mac. Once i had, i found it difficult to manipulate due to the slowness of the Mac comprehending what was asking it to do. Eventually i found a way to speed this up: by converting the text to a picture and changing it from there. The end product can be seen below. It draws inspiration for the Dark Knights film poster with aspects of it being imitated.


Second Render

Today I taught myself a couple of new effects in Premier and implemented them into my video. I firstly learnt how to create professional zooming in my titles using motion and key frames. Although initially finding the zooming tricky, I mastered it which came in handy for my next effect. After overlaying a .png picture on a background I learnt how to make an effective movement scene where the background moves one way and the .png the other. The final trick I taught myself was how to input a moving scene behind a stencil to create an effective title. All these effects can be seen below on my 2nd Draft.


Feedback (First Draft)

Our feedback was very pleasing as most of it was very positive. Here is what some of the feedback said.

1. Can the genre of the film be identified and how?

Many people could identify our film genre being a documentary by the opening which was very pleasing. However some people did say that they thought it was a mockumentary which it is almost bordering but people still knew it to be some sort of documentary which was good.

 2. What went well?

Most of the feedback said that the editing was 'outstanding' and that the concept was very good. Also we were told many of our shots were good too.

 3. Even better if?

Many people did not like our interview but that was because it was not filly edited. I now think that we are going to take it out of the film opening and put something else in instead.

 4. Does the film present an adequate enigma?

Most of the feedback said yes The average of the overall grade was between 40-50/60.

First Render

With spare time and an exciting idea, I took it on myself to create a potential opening to the film. This opening includes the production company's, sound and music. Lacking any raw footage, the template is to be edited adding footage at a later date. The following video is a TEMPLATE which I have created, the final edit will bare resemblance but shall be edited with greater attention to detail.

Newspaper Article

Today my attentions focussed around creating social media which I could include in our film, i felt this would play a strong roll in showing our characters comedown from the peak of society, to just another failed band. Choosing a popular Newspaper: The Sun, I created the below article.


Special Graphics

When creating the opening I decided to challenge myself and create a visually stunning title to the movie. This would feature the bands name: The Disciples, with the film name underneath: Back On The Block. I researched many films and how their main title was portrayed. After enough research I found a type of title which would work best on our film.

This title I chose to create requires creating an image with a hollow title which would allow me to place a video behind the picture, creating the effect of a moving title.


To go about this I firstly created the template. A black background with a normal title on, as if it where a poster. The next thing I did was change the 'Back On The Block Title to as vibrant colour as possible to make the hollowing as easy as possible. Due to a tight schedule didn't have time to create the hollowed image on a program like Photoshop. Although it would create a crisper border for the hollowed text, I felt a faster creation would be more beneficial to our production process. I imported the image into PowerPoint and use the 'Remove Background' function. This allowed me to remove the vibrant coloured text leaving a transparent effect.



Once I had created this image, I transferred it to Premier. I then laid it over a video which I had chosen. Choosing the correct video was difficult but I felt it was essential to chose one that had frequently changing 'Disco' colours.

The final creation can be seen below.


Shot List

When filming we wanted to include as many different shots as we could.

Here is a list of the shots we have chosen to film and hopefully include in our opening sequence:

1. Close up of Connor
2. Close up of Nathan
3. Panning shot (right to left) of Connor and Nathan in recording studio
4. Long shot of Connor standing
5. Mid shot of Connor sitting
6. Medium shot of Connor at the mirror
7. Close up of Connor looking in the mirror
8. Close up of hands by the tap
9. Medium shot of Connor washing his face
10. Close up of chain on tap
11. Close up of chain in sink
12. Medium shot of Connor and Nathan (at church)
13. Extreme long shot of Nathan walking towards the camera
14. Panning upwards of Nathan standing
15. Panning downwards/ birds eye view of Nathan lying on the grass
16. Close up of stepping in a puddle
17. Close up of Nathan's face
18. Long shot of Nathan walking towards camera
19. Close up/ panning left of Connor and Nathan

 We will be adding more shots and we may not include all of the shots listen above in our film opening.

Timeline


Original Music: Live For God

From the start of the production we always knew that we wanted to make a song to accompany the production. Even though we couldn't sing well if we wanted too, it is intentionally bad. This adds to the characters persona's by showing to the viewer the reason why our characters are on the slope to the bottom. Sadly, we didnt get to use the song in the final film but i felt it should be uploaded due to the effort (or lack of) put into it. Here is The Disciples comeback single: Live For God.



[Lyrics]

 [Keith]

 Live for god,
Shake his hand,
Praise the lord for this holy band,
Live for god,
Shake his hand,
Praise the lord for this holy band,

 Like a bird soaring high,
Reach to god and touch the sky,
Thank him for the life we live,
And a passionate prayer ill give,
Thank god for this land of heather,
I just wish that i could live forever,
COME ON

 Live for god,
Shake his hand,
Praise the lord for this holy band,
Live for god,
Shake his hand,
Praise the lord for this holy band,

 He took my dreams and made them true honey,
Gave me the fame and the money,
Showed me love and made me funny,
Everyday he clears my sky and makes it sunny,
His son was born in December,
And on the 25th we shall remember,

 [Connor]

 Coming up from the hood man,
Where the druggys kill each other for a tin can,
Mad 8 year olds cruising with they hoods up,
Drinking special brew from their old sippy cups,
If a boy ever threatens me they better run,
Cos a gangster never leaves the house without a gun,
Come from the city repping shit like everyday,
Cos you know in chelmsford that we get paid,
Keep it thoro I've never been a fake g,
On my own style like the boys mobb deep,
You clowns fuck around and die today,
Shots through you like a motherfucking x-ray,
 People ask me when the next album drop,
They wanna hear that chart motherfucking hip-hop,
Paired with chief Keith and his mad pop,
Next album diss-ciples back on the block,
Go ahead Hit em up Keith

 [Keith]

x 2 Live for god,
Shake his hand,
Praise the lord for this holy band Live for god,
Shake his hand,
Praise the lord for this holy band

Production Diary



Here is our production diary, we kept a record of what we did day to day for 2 weeks whilst we were planning, filming and editing our opening sequence of our film, The Disciples. This will be useful for us to look back on as we can see what we did wrong and also what went went well and how well we used the time given to us to film.
We had already been assigned our groups and i was put into a group with Nathan Lorenzo and Connor Healey.


10th November
We had previously made individual film pitches which we were able to show to our group, we then decided on one of the films to make an opening to. We decided to go with Nathan's idea which was about a once famous duo called The Disciples who were a major musical hit back in the day and now making a comeback. We all decided that this would be the best idea to film and would be the most fun to plan, film and edit. We had to make sure the film pitch was perfect and make any alterations we though it needed before we were to present it to the class in the next lesson.

11th November
This lesson we presented our film pitch to the class as a group and we asked people to give us feedback on what they would do differently and what they would change to make it better, we then used that to make out film pitch perfect so we knew exactly what we were going to be filming.

12th November
Today we looked at films that were similar to the ones that we would be making the opening to. We has 3 films that we thought were most similar to our film that we wanted to make, these three films are One Direction's 'This Is Us', Michael Jackson's 'This Is It', and also one other 'Spinal Tap' which was most like our film as it was more of a mock of a band rather than a serious film about singers and their travels. We focused on how the titles were presented and how they opened the films and noted down anything that would help us with ours.

13th November
We carried on looking at similar films again today and continued making notes on anything that we could include in our film opening.

14th November
Today we were all individually working and keeping our blogs up to date and making sure our lap charts were up to date too.

15th November
[weekend]

16th November
[weekend]

17th November
We all wrote in our lap charts all of the tasks that needed to be done in order to prepare and plan for the film, we then split these up so we all had a equal amount of work to do.

18th November
We were all getting on individually with our tasks given to us, I was doing audience research whilst Nathan did market research and Connor started making a script.

19th November
This lesson we were carrying on with our tasks and we also came up with the name for out film - The Disciples Back on the Block. The Disciples being the duo that is making a comeback.

20th November
Today we were all doing another one of the tasks we were all set. Nathan was doing the institution task and Connor was carrying on with the script that he was previously working on. I was making the storyboard for our film opening which I found quite challenging.

21st November
Today we were all making sure our blogs were up to date and had everything it needed on there.

22nd November
[weekend]

23rd November
[weekend]

24th November
We started filming today as we felt we had done enough preparation to be able to start shooting.

25th November
We were carrying on filming and I made a few alterations to the storyboard I had previously created as we wanted to change a few things as we were filming.

26th November
We spent today finishing off all our planning for the film opening individually and making sure we would be prepared to film for the next few days and know what we are filming.

27th November
We were filming for all of today's lesson, we found it quite easy as the shots we had to get were easy to film indoors.

28th November
We were filming again today, this time it was more difficult as we were shooting outside and we found it harder to get the perfect shot without being interrupted.

29th November
[weekend]

30th November
[weekend]

1st December
We were filming again today and making sure we had all the shots we needed and making sure that they were perfect for us to start editing.

2nd December
Connor started to edit the footage today, we used the green screen to film another part of the opening and Connor was working on some edits that would be included in the opening.

3rd December
We had started adding in the footage to the Premier software, me and Nathan went out to film again as we were not happy with one of the shots that were taken so we did that whilst Connor stayed inside editing and creating more edits.

4th December
Connor continued editing and me and Nathan were catching up with our planning that we missed and also making sure our blogs were up to date.

5th December
Today was the first deadline for the first draft of our film opening, unfortunately we had not got very far with our first draft but the teachers and peers were all very impressed by how well edited and timed it was.

6th December
[weekend]

7th December
[weekend]

8th December
After receiving feedback from the first draft we started making changes and making the opening scene more completed than before which was one of the improvements that needed to be made.

9th December
Me and Nathan we continuing with any research we missed before and Connor continued editing.

10th December
We all made sure our blogs were up to date today.

11th December
Connor got a lot further with the editing and the opening was nearly complete, me and Nathan we making sure all the shots were there and telling Connor if there was anything wrong with what he had done.

Film Certification


For mine, Connors and Melanie's film 'The Disciples: Back On The Block', we had to decide what film certificate to give it. When in the planning stages for our film, we decided that giving it an age rating of 15 would be most appropriate as from the outset we chose that our film will involve some traces of drug abuse and some scenes that younger viewers may find offensive, such as when Connor raps in the beginning of the open sequence, a swear word can be heard and generally his language when rapping is considered offensive. After doing some research i found that drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. I believe we do not do this however we do show this openly and talk about it.




Institution


The Island Def Jam Music Group (IDJMG) was an American record label group formed in 1999 when the Universal Music Group (UMG) merged two of its daughter companies Island Recordings and Def Jam Recordings. In 2011, Motown Records was split from the Universal Motown Republic Group and was subsequently merged into The Island Def Jam Music Group. Barry Weiss served as Chairman and CEO of the company. As of February 2014, artists on the IDJMG roster included Mariah Carey, Rihanna, Kanye West, 2 Chainz, and Iggy Azalea.

On April 1, 2014, it was announced that Island Def Jam will no longer be running following the resigning of CEO Barry Weiss. The label will now be reorganizing Def Jam Recordings, Island Records and Motown Records all as separate entities. Being as our film is about a singing duo who is as big in the music industry as Rihanna and Kanye West, my group thought it would be ideal for our film to distributed by our 'record label' and a lot of films that are produced by music companies we have taken inspiration from, for instance One Directions movie and Lady Gaga's tour movie. We took a lot of our creativity from these two films in particular. One of the main reasons that we decided to chose this distributor is because they have had precious experience in producing films like ours.



Interscope Communications (also known as Interscope Pictures) was a motion picture production company founded in 1982 by Ted Field. Its divisions included Interscope Records (which was founded in 1990 as a joint venture with Atlantic Records).


Moodboard


In this particular lesson Nathan was assigned a task to make a mood board consisting of all the sorts of things we would either like to show in our opening scene or something just to give us inspiration to work from it. A lot of the images are from other documentary films such as One Direction's This Is Us and Michael Jacksons' This Is It.


Script for Interview with Keith


Mel - So what have you been up to since the split?

 Nathan - Prison mainly, it was quite therapeutic really. I found Jesus, shared a cell with him. Lovely lad, hispanic, went by the name hey-zeus. [pause] In all seriousness though, i did find the church. i was born again.

 Mel - Weren't you born again before the band? 

Nathan - Yeah but this was more like an afterbirth 

Mel - Have you been in contact with C.Dot?

 Nathan - [looks into the distance] I wonder where he is now

Script for Interview with C.Dot

Before this interview there will be a shot of Nathan and Connor turning to look at each other after Nathan's interview.

 Mel - people might look at the two of you and think it's quite an unconventional partnership

Connor - [pause] what are you trying to say?

 Mel - Well it's a gospel singer and a rapper

 Connor - Thats racist and there is no placism for racism in the music industry.

After the interview it then goes on to the first film Logo coming up and the titles will start.

Synopsis Planning

What we will need:
 Gold Chains, Sunglasses, Bandana, Snapback. Green Screen, Lighting. Room to interview in. Microphone. Recording Studio. Sink, Tap and Mirror. Brink Wall. Pathway, Trees, Greenery. 

Characters:
Keith Abraham Lovesworth (Nathan) In this I will be playing a religious, eccentric character who cannot sing but has made it big in the music industry with his singing partner C.DOT (Connor). He is a calming influence on Connor and the two are completely different personality wise but when they come together and sing, something just feels right.
Callum C.DOT Flewers (Connor) In this Connor plays an offensive, serious person who finds it hard to control is anger. He is the one that has the offensive lyrics which offends Keith's church but Keith overlooks this as he sees good in C.DOT.

Costume: For myself, the group felt as if he needed to always look formal, with various white or black shirts and formal jackets as we felt this would represent me as a religious figure, in one shot i dressed in all black with a white dog collar and a gold chain with with the symbol of Jesus to represent me as a 'Vicar' or 'Priest' which hopefully some people will find comical. Connor decided to dress in lots of gold chains with various hoodies, bandana's and snapbacks to represent him being from the streets of London which people will also hopefully find comical because it illustrates that we are two completely different people from different walks of life.

 Location: Our film opening will be located in various different locations such as recording studios, walkways, brick walls, interview rooms and an almost bathroom looking area. Audience: We have pitched our audience to be between the ages of 15 and 30 however not excluding any ages over the age of 30. We did not think anyone younger should be able to view this because there will be traces of drug abuse and offensive language also our group envisaged our fans being older than 14 years or younger as they would be too young to be around when we was big. The film certificate is 15.

Possible Opening Script

Keith's Monologue when being interviewed.

'As the new generation, my artistry and my faith and creativity is nothing to do with making it because we had kind of already made it, right? I mean when we were playing for nothing in the church it was still like we have made it, we still felt like we were superstars. I look out into that crowd and im like when the fuck did this happen? How did this happen? Who created this? Because I didn’t create this, its for sure, it must be God, its for sure Jesus because it is'nt me because im not ridiculous enough to think for a second that I am not powerful. We woke up one day and we were like, we made it… it worked... I told so many people for so long that I was a star and but I wasn’t and one morning I woke up and the delusion was real. I get to live my dream I get to hopefully live the dream in a way that inspires other people to live their dreams. I always knew it was my destiny but I didn’t know what destiny meant until I saw my fans, God and C.Dot until I saw the birth of the The Disciples. We are destiny, the fans are the truth and they are my reason for waking up in the morning to Moses my pitbull. I'm still the same person that I was, before all of this happened I still walked down the same streets, go to the same Church, I drink my camomile tea with extra shot of basic.'

My group thought it would be a good idea to include various shots of me walking round a city, sitting in different places and just shots of me in various locations. This was all inspired by watching a opening to Lady Gaga's MonsterBall DVD. It will occasionally go back to the interview which will include myself as Keith and Mel as the interviewer from HBO

Planning Stages

Approaching the creative stage of the task, me and Mel took it upon us to plan some of the key attributes. This included the plot, the setting and potential props and things we made need to set up the production. In the picture below we are discussing the potential fonts that may be used in a variety of texts that will be associated with the film. We are discussing in particular the band which our films based around, The Disciples' logo.