Starting To Edit

To start our editing, we clearly labelled each shot and gave it a rating out of 10. This allows us to easily decide which clips to include where as well as utilising the best parts of each shot for our final sequence. We have kept even the seemingly 'useless' shots in a folder labelled outtakes as futher in the editing process there may be a shot we desperately need in a tiny snippet of the outtakes.

Aims for today

Today as a group we would like to complete our second animatic and upload a blog post on the success and weakness of our filming. In addition we are deciding on our titles for our sequence and where they would fit etc.

In the future lessons will we begin editing, next lesson focusing on organising the clips and beginning to edit them in final cut pro.

Filming the Sequence

Here are some short outtakes from 16th of February, our day of filming, as evidence of our shoot, without revealing too much.. Enjoy!

White Collar Complex - The Name of Our Film

White Collar Complex

White-collar crime refers to financially motivated nonviolent crime committed by business and government professionals. Within criminology, it was first defined by sociologist Edwin Sutherland in 1939 as "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation".

This makes the name relate to our storyline of embezzlement, also there is a pun as our characters are female and spend a lot of the money they steal on clothes. Therefore the 'collar' of 'White-Collar' connotes the collar of an item of clothing. 

In addition to this, 'Complex' defined is:

1. - consisting of many different and connected parts.

   - a group or system of different things that are linked in a close or complicated way; a network.
2. and

1. PSYCHOANALYSIS

   - a related group of repressed or partly repressed emotionally significant ideas which cause psychic conflict leading to abnormal mental states or behaviour.

All these definitions relate to the story

The alliteration "Collar Complex" also makes it catchy, rolls off the tongue!

Narrated Animatic Storyboard

Health and Safety

Before we start filming, it is important that we take a risk assessment of the area that we will be working in. This is to make sure that the place is safe for our actors, actresses and crew to work in. After we got permission from the Café we will be filming in, we looked all around the area to see any potential dangers to us and everyone around. We figured out how to remove any possible dangers and decided how we would keep ourselves safe from any hazards we could not remove.

Before we even start filming, it is important that we understand that there is a busy road outside of the café, so even just crossing it is a hazard that we need to be aware of. When we film inside the café, we will be filming very close to a window which could get quite cramped for the camera operator. We could move the table away from it, even if it is simply a few inches, but only if we get permission from the owners of the café. Some of our actresses will need a mug to drink from which will include real hot coffee to make our sequence more realistic. The hot coffee could be a danger to them as one of them may accidentally spill it and burn themselves.

The Animatic Storyboard

Setting

- Our first location for shooting would be Starbucks in Haywards Heath. As we want to give the spectator that our characters are both rich Starbucks is perfect as it connotions of rich White females. A common slang term/joke of 2015 when someone is seen drinking Starbucks is 'typical white girl'. This is a prime location as it is near to all of us and college located in Haywards Heath, and is perfect space for us to be able to film with ease. In addition to this, it is attached the Sainsburys, our second location making it convention to film within the restricted time.

- Our second location for shooting is inside a car. We will be using Ella's fathers friend Keith's Range Rover as it is an expensive car yet again connoting their expensive lifestyle. Also it is convenient as we will be using Keith's kitchen as our fourth location as "Natalies kicthen". It is a large expensive open kitchen making it easy to film in and furthers the impression of wealth. It is also located near to us and is free to use,

- Our third location will be within Sainsbury's Hayward's Heath. It is practical as it is close to us and it attached to our first location so is time saving.

We are still waiting to hear a reply to our permission to film within Starbucks/Sainsburys. 
1:  Starbucks, Bannister Way, Haywards Heath RH16 1DG
2:  Inside Range Rover
3: Sainsburys, Bannister Way, Haywards Heath RH16 1DG


Permission:

Lighting for our sequence

For our lighting in our opening sequence we will use natural lighting for when we are filming Maggie and Natalie when they are in the coffee shop and just generally when they are outside, to make it look like a normal day so it doesn't make our sequence look dark or mysterious at first. When we are filming inside Sainsbury's we will try to create a typical gloomy shop scene to make our scene look more interesting and try to add enigma. For when we are filming inside the car when we have to use natural lighting as the car is small and will appear dark and make our shots not clear and unfocused to our plan of using bright light. For our scene in the kitchen we will use a candle as a prop but actually use low key lighting, we will do this to create a mood of darkness and again try to create enigma for our scene. We will have to experiment on the day with lighting as we wont be able to get to our location beforehand to try it out

Characters & Costume

The character of Maggie is a manipulative , ruthless, attractive young girl who will do anything for money. She's spontaneous, fun and can charm almost anyone she meets. She lacks responsibility and has no regard for the consequences of her actions, shes careless and outgoing, always living in the moment believing she is untouchable. We have taken inspiration for this character, and for our whole opening sequence, from the movie 'The Bling Ring' - 2013. In this film based on a true story about a group of young teenagers breaking into celebrities homes and stealing from them. Emma Watson plays a girl called Nicki. Nicki is very similar to the Maggie character we have created.

Here is a short clip of 'Nicki' which has inspired our Maggie character: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI_or4VukLI

Maggie will be extremely well dressed, with a designer bag and lots of 'bling'. She will be wearing flashy revealing clothes to connote she has been living the 'high life'.We will most likely have her in a dress and high heeled shoes.  She will have quite heavy makeup, emphasis on the eye makeup and blusher and her hair down.This will ensure she looks like a stereotypical White rich female. This will ensure the audience can see she has a lot of money. We used Paris Hilton, who herself connotes money, as inspiration for Maggie's costume, who ironically was one of the celebrities robbed .

 Natalie is more innocent, she had to be really convinced by Maggie and has more of a conscious about they've been doing. She's smart however naive and easily manipulated as she is bored of her mediocre life. She's a kind good person who, at first, falls for Maggie's out going fun nature, wanting to be more like her. Not realizing what she is truly like. Natalie is mostly sensible however, boring most of the time, up until Maggie she was invisible, average and all her days were the same dull routine. For inspiration the character 'Iris' played by Kate Winslet in the holiday, although there situations are different. Iris decides to do something reckless and swap houses with someone in America to get away from her day to day life, this is similar to Natalie deciding to go with Maggie. 

Here is a clip of the scene before Iris becomes reckless, which in our opinion replicates a boring day like similar to Natalies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4qVRABb5ic


Natalie as previously mentioned, has some guilt about stealing the money. Therefore she's less flashy and although she will be well dressed in nice clothes they will not be as extravagant as Maggie's. She will be wearing a smart/classy shirt and modern skirt, high heeled shoes, she is stylish and young. Her makeup will be simple and her hair will be down with the front clipped back. We have taken inspiration for her character from Emma Watson, who is known for her classy style. 

Lighting Experiment

Lighting is a very important aspect for shaping meaning in films, lighting creates the atmosphere of a scene for example if you want to create scary and mysterious scene you will need to think about your location, (i.e. a dark room) you need to place your lights in such a way to produce shadows where you want your light your subjects as you want them to appear. Using bottom lighting will enhance features as it creates terror and horror suitable for thriller sequences. You need to interrupt some of that light so it won't spill all over the room. You want to control where the light goes and where it doesn't go. The easiest way to do this is with large "flags" which are placed in front of your lights to create hard-edged shadows. 

For our task we tried to recreate a scene from the film 'Drive' starring Ryan Gosling where he is in a dark room looking out of a window and the light reflex's onto the dark window as he is standing there of his face and upper body; the only prop used is a lamp but, during the filming of that scene the cast crew would've used special light equipment such as back lighting, key lighting and fill lighting , as a class we tried to create that same scene using the lighting in the media and film office.


We  split the class up in half and worked all together to try and recreate the image shown in the opening scene of 'Drive' we used Ben to become our test subject of Ryan Gosling and sit down on a chair while we used low key lighting as it generally it only uses 2 of 3 lights on, one of the front lights is low or off the fill light is off back light may be off. We placed the key lighting around Ben and used flags placing a dark yellow/orange colour sheet over it to create the light for the lamp prop in the room; we didnt have a window to use as it was during the day and there was too much bright light coming through it , therefore we decided to use a mirror instead to create the same effect. This is our end result:

Props

-          Coffee: When drinking in 'Starbucks' In the first scene. We could buy this on the day of filming from Starbucks.

-          Designer Shopping Bags: For when Maggie enters after shopping. We have various of our own bags, such as Victoria Secret bags and we can borrow some from the props cupboard o
f our college.

-          Phone: For Natalie in the second and final scene. We could use our own phones for this, in addition Ella has some old phones at home we could use.

-          Dog: For when Natalie is walking her dog. We will use Ellas dog 'Ringo'.

-          Knife: For when Natalie is chopping vegetables. We will use Naomi's sharp kitchen knife for this.

-          Vegetables:  For when Natalie is chopping vegetables. We can buy some from Sainsburys on the day, which is also our location.

-          Glass of “wine”:  For when Natalie is chopping vegetables, We can use cranberry juice as we are underage which we can also buy on the day.

-          Chopping board: For when Natalie is chopping vegetables. We can use Naomis chopping board for this.

The Script

Scene One: / - Interruption

1.       Maggie: Hi, sorry I’m late was just doing a bit of shopping.  Went out to buy a top for tonight, got a bit carried away

(Shows bags.)

2.       Natalie:  Hey, no worries. Looks like you’ve bought quite a bit.

3.       Maggie: Yeah so?  Who cares? We’re rich now remember

so, what did you want to talk about?

4.       Natalie: I got you coffee

5.       Maggie: oh thanks

(Pause. Takes a sip of coffee.)

What’s going on Natalie? You’re being really quiet. Its freaking me out.

6.       Natalie: Well

(pause)

Just don’t get angry okay?

(pause)

Hannah knows.

7.       Maggie: What?

Knows what?

8.       Natalie: Everything. She’s going to the police.

9.       Maggie: Everything!? You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. How could you let this happen?

How did she find out?

10.   Natalie: I don’t know, she just guessed. /

11.   Maggie: Fuck. Fuck.

12.   Natalie: Maggie please, we can fix this right?

You can talk to her yeah? convince her to keep quiet?

13.   Maggie: Pull yourself together Natalie, “We” aren’t going to do anything. You’re going to fix this mess you’ve created.

14.   Natalie: But Maggie /

15.   Maggie: Seriously you better fix this

Or I will.

Scene Two

(Phone rings)

Caller: (Soft sobbing)

16.   Natalie: Hello?

(Pause)

Hello?

Caller:

(two gunshots)

17.   Problem Solved.

(hangs up)

Storyboard Plan

Storyboard: Shot by Shot Breakdown

Natalie tells Maggie about her sister and Maggie is furious, she refuses to go back to the life she had before, saying to Natalie “If you don’t fix this problem, I will”. Natalie struggles through the day terrified that any minute the police could burst through her door. When she is cooking dinner the phone rings, she answers and immediately hears two gun shots followed by the words “Problem solved”. Instantly believing her sister has been shot she breaks down.

1)            LS of Café, resting on Natalie sitting at a table. (Pan)  - 4 seconds.

2)            ECU of Natalie’s mouth, biting her nails. (Stationary) – 3 second.

3)            LS of Natalie, sitting looking nervous, at a table in a café waiting for Maggie. (Slight sideways track) – 3 seconds.

4)            OTS from behind Natalie as Maggie enters and sits down holding lots of designer bags and greeting Natalie, positive and talking about what she’s bought. (Stationary) – 5 seconds.

5)            CU of Natalie faking a smile as Maggie sits down. (Stationary) – 3 second.

6)            Two shot LS, slightly OTS from behind Natalie. As they continue to sit down holding lots of designer bags and greeting Natalie, positive and talking about what she’s bought.  (Stationary) – 5 seconds. *L1

7)            MCU of Natalie talking. (Slight zoom) – 3 seconds. *L2

8)            MCU of Maggie talking. (Stationary) –  3 seconds. *L3

9)            CU shot of Natalies hands, she’s nervously playing with them. (Stationary) – 2 second. *L4

10)         MS of her looking at coffee (Stationary) – 3 second *L4

11)         CU shot of coffee (stationary) – 2 second

12)         MS of Maggie, picking up coffee and taking a sip (Tracking her  movement) – 5 seconds *L5

13)         MS of Natalie (Stationary) – 3 seconds *L6

14)         MS of Maggie (Stationary) – 3 seconds *L7

15)         MS of Natalie (Stationary) – 3 seconds *L8

16)         MS of Maggie (Stationary) – 3 seconds *L9

17)         MS of Natalie (Stationary) – 3 seconds *L10

18)         MS of Maggie (Stationary) – 3 seconds *L11

19)         MS of Natalie (Slight movement) – 3 seconds *L12

20)         MS of Maggie(Slight movement) – 3 seconds *L13

21)         MS of Natalie (Stationary) – 3 seconds *L14

22)         CU of Maggie (Stationary) – 5 seconds *L15

23)         LS of Maggie leaving coffee shot whilst Natalie sits and looks extremely nervous. (Stationary) – 5 seconds.

24)         MS Natalie in car attempts to phone Hannah, no answer. (Answer Machine plays over the top of shot.) (Stationary) – 5 seconds.

25)         MS Natalie in Sainsbury’s attempts to phone Hannah, no answer. (Answer Machine plays over the top of shot.) (Stationary) – 5 seconds.

26)         MS Natalie walking the dog attempts to phone Hannah, no answer. (Answer Machine plays over the top of shot.) (Stationary) – 5 seconds.

27)         LS of Natalie in Kitchen chopping vegetables with glass of wine. Phone rings. (Slight Track) – 5 seconds.

28)         CU of phone screen reading “Incoming Call Hannah”. (Stationary) – 2 second.

29)         ECU of hand placing phone to ear. (Stationary) – 2 seconds.

30)         CU of Natalie, hears soft sobbing, speaking on the phone (Stationary) – 3 seconds. *L16

31)         LS of Natalie when first gunshot is fired. (Slight movement) – 2 second

32)         CU of Natalie hearing second gunshot (Slight movement) – 4 second

33)         ECU of Lips speaking into phone (Stationary) – 4 seconds. *L17

Fade to black.

34)         “1 year earlier” appears on screen. – 3 seconds.

We have highlighted where we plan to have our shot reverse shot sequence.
The *L references to a line from the script.