Red Riding

Cast

Eddie Dunford - described as youthful, ambitious and lustful, wants to be the posts new crime correspondent (News reporter), I would cast Eddie Redmayne to portray this role as I believe he fits the bill quite nicely.

Bill Hadley - Grey Hair and beard - I would cast Jeff Bridges in this role as he gives me the impression of the strict boss type, "Hadley looks pointedly at his watch" (this gives an impression of authority on Eddie Dunford)

Barry Gannon - Skinny Single Obsessed appears to be a mentor figure to Eddie - Bruce Greenwood When I think of a mentor character I am reminded of Bruce Greenwood in his role as Captain Pike in star trek.

Detective Superintendent Maurice Jobson - Owlish Bespectacled - Alan Alda has had a long career in film and tv, I believe he would look and be able to play the part of Jobson quite well.

Kathryn Tyler - Ex Girlfriend of Eddie - Emma Watson - Described with Spaniel eyes which isn't clear, does the character have dark eyes, or sad eyes which Barry Gannon refers to. I chose Emma Watson for this role as she needs to be young around Eddie's age and if Eddie is Lustful or Libidinous as the writer put it I believe she would have to be beautiful to garner his attention.

Detective Chief Superintendent Bill Molloy - late 50s, a big man, a dangerous man. - Steven Lang - When I started thinking of intimidating older men my first thought was of the actor from Terranova 

Mr Kemplay - Crumpled - Martin Freeman - in my mind I am thinking of an average man, Martin Freeman has played that role before and would be a good candidate for the role.

Mrs Kemplay - Crumpled - Emma Stone - With the speech on her missing daughter I would need an actress who has a good range and skill, Emma stone has played many roles and I believe would play the part well.

Clare Kemplay - Angelic - only seen in one scene plus images, can be an unknown actress. To save on money I would probably cast a relatively unknown actress for this role.

Police Woman - not described -  can be an unknown actress as she is not given a name in the script and can be played by an extra.

Crew - Director Of Photography - Wally Pfister - Capable of getting beautiful looking shots and being able to set the moods of scenes through colour and framing.

Production Designer - For production design since the story is set in 1974 I would try to get Matt Gant or Brian Sykes, who both worked on Life on Mars which was set in 1973, thus giving them invaluable experience and give them the ability to add whats needed to make Red Riding look as if it is 1974.

Composer - John Debney - He has worked on dozens of different films and television shows, spanning a variety of genres, many composers seem to focus on one area or only compose for films. I believe Debney would be a valuable addition to the crew.

Editor - Charlie Phillips, Edited for shows such as Sherlock, Monroe and Psychoville, he is exprianced and able to create interesting and gripping edits.

Locations

Leeds - A public Field in which we could get a Drone shot for the establishing shot of the episode.

Construction Site - I would contact a few construction companies who are hopefully building some new houses and request to do a night shoot, I would also look into scrap yards and abandoned housing to achieve a similar location if that failed.

Motorway M1 - I would contact Kent Film Office to discuss closing down a roadway to film, if that was not possible I would green screen the outside and film the motorway to hopefully achieve the same effect.

Conference Room Police Station - Dover ATE this location has the appearance of a police station and has an open layout, however If possible I would try to get permission to film at the real Leeds police Station to add realism to the project.

Tone and syle notes

To help symbolise the age of the project I could desaturate the image slightly to give a more greyish tinge to the image, I will use 1970 specific music and items to help sell the fact that this is almost 50 years ago.

Directions Unit 14/12/16

80% of directing is paperwork, 4 months pre production and 14 days of production

Most exciting, most stressful, most exhausting part of directing is calling the shots

When does the wor

What does the director consider?

1) What is happening in front of the camera 

2) Where is the camera positioned.

The script is the blueprint for every decision the director has to make,

how a director interprets the script is what makes one different than the other.

How - style, mise en scne, mood

Who - Cast, Crew, Collabortors

Where - Locations, Set Build

What - Production Design, Costume Design, Sound  Design, Editing

Download Red Riding script from teaching materials UCA

Read it break it down

on blogger in a single post decide on Cast

Crew - DOP

Production Designer

Composer

Editor

locations

Tone and syle notes

My notes on screenwriting

Joss Whedon is my role model for screen writing, I enjoyed the majority of his work starting with Angel and then moving on to the Avengers movies and when Channel 4's Talent magazine asked him ten tips of film writing I went to see what he said.

1. FINISH IT
Actually finishing it is what I’m gonna put in as step one. You may laugh at this, but it’s true. I have so many friends who have written two-thirds of a screenplay, and then re-written it for about three years. Finishing a screenplay is first of all truly difficult, and secondly really liberating. Even if it’s not perfect, even if you know you’re gonna have to go back into it, type to the end. You have to have a little closure.

2. STRUCTURE
Structure means knowing where you’re going; making sure you don’t meander about. Some great films have been made by meandering people, like Terrence Malick and Robert Altman, but it’s not as well done today and I don’t recommend it. I’m a structure nut. I actually make charts. Where are the jokes? The thrills? The romance? Who knows what, and when? You need these things to happen at the right times, and that’s what you build your structure around: the way you want your audience to feel. Charts, graphs, coloured pens, anything that means you don’t go in blind is useful.

3. HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY
This really should be number one. Even if you’re writing a Die Hard rip-off, have something to say about Die Hard rip-offs. The number of movies that are not about what they purport to be about is staggering. It’s rare, especially in genres, to find a movie with an idea and not just, ‘This’ll lead to many fine set-pieces’.  The Island evolves into a car-chase movie, and the moments of joy are when they have clone moments and you say, ‘What does it feel like to be those guys?’

4. EVERYBODY HAS A REASON TO LIVE
Everybody has a perspective. Everybody in your scene, including the thug flanking your bad guy, has a reason. They have their own voice, their own identity, their own history. If anyone speaks in such a way that they’re just setting up the next person’s lines, then you don’t get dialogue: you get soundbites. Not everybody has to be funny; not everybody has to be cute; not everybody has to be delightful, and not everybody has to speak, but if you don’t know who everybody is and why they’re there, why they’re feeling what they’re feeling and why they’re doing what they’re doing, then you’re in trouble.

5. CUT WHAT YOU LOVE
Here’s one trick that I learned early on. If something isn’t working, if you have a story that you’ve built and it’s blocked and you can’t figure it out, take your favourite scene, or your very best idea or set-piece, and cut it. It’s brutal, but sometimes inevitable. That thing may find its way back in, but cutting it is usually an enormously freeing exercise.

6. LISTEN
When I’ve been hired as a script doctor, it’s usually because someone else can’t get it through to the next level. It’s true that writers are replaced when executives don’t know what else to do, and that’s terrible, but the fact of the matter is that for most of the screenplays I’ve worked on, I’ve been needed, whether or not I’ve been allowed to do anything good. Often someone’s just got locked, they’ve ossified, they’re so stuck in their heads that they can’t see the people around them. It’s very important to know when to stick to your guns, but it’s also very important to listen to absolutely everybody. The stupidest person in the room might have the best idea.

7. TRACK THE AUDIENCE MOOD
You have one goal: to connect with your audience. Therefore, you must track what your audience is feeling at all times. One of the biggest problems I face when watching other people’s movies is I’ll say, ‘This part confuses me’, or whatever, and they’ll say, ‘What I’m intending to say is this’, and they’ll go on about their intentions. None of this has anything to do with my experience as an audience member. Think in terms of what audiences think. They go to the theatre, and they either notice that their butts are numb, or they don’t. If you’re doing your job right, they don’t. People think of studio test screenings as terrible, and that’s because a lot of studios are pretty stupid about it. They panic and re-shoot, or they go, ‘Gee, Brazil can’t have an unhappy ending,’ and that’s the horror story. But it can make a lot of sense.

8. WRITE LIKE A MOVIE
Write the movie as much as you can. If something is lush and extensive, you can describe it glowingly; if something isn’t that important, just get past it tersely. Let the read feel like the movie; it does a lot of the work for you, for the director, and for the executives who go, ‘What will this be like when we put it on its feet?’

9. DON’T LISTEN
Having given the advice about listening, I have to give the opposite advice, because ultimately the best work comes when somebody’s fucked the system; done the unexpected and let their own personal voice into the machine that is moviemaking. Choose your battles. You wouldn’t get Paul Thomas Anderson, or Wes Anderson, or any of these guys if all moviemaking was completely cookie-cutter. But the process drives you in that direction; it’s a homogenising process, and you have to fight that a bit. There was a point while we were making Firefly when I asked the network not to pick it up: they’d started talking about a different show.

10. DON’T SELL OUT
The first penny I ever earned, I saved. Then I made sure that I never had to take a job just because I needed to. I still needed jobs of course, but I was able to take ones that I loved. When I say that includes Waterworld, people scratch their heads, but it’s a wonderful idea for a movie. Anything can be good. Even Last Action Hero could’ve been good. There’s an idea somewhere in almost any movie: if you can find something that you love, then you can do it. If you can’t, it doesn’t matter how skilful you are: that’s called whoring.”

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i also read a few screenplays, I read the script for the first episode of Buffy the Vampire slayer by Joss Whedon,the second episode of sherlock and the script for batman begins, something I did notice is that the film script was different to the film, the version I read may have been older or it could signify the more changes are made in movies in terms of artistic choices whereas a TV show script is adhered to more strictly.

The scripts also read like  a book in places, using hyperbole and more intricate descriptions rather than being simple and to the point, this could mean that scripts should be fun to read, maybe to interest potential producers or to engage the more creative side of actors and directors.

I have also been watching interviews online and have been watching you tubers along the likes of D4darious and Film Riot to get tips on writing scripts, their advice is to practice, even If i don't make the scripts I may try to write a short film or episode once a month or more often.

Production Review - Rush

Production Review - Rush

Script Writing
Writing the script was quite difficult for me, I found it challenging to get into the script and there was never a point in which I was happy with it, The feedback I was given whilst disheartening in some areas was also helpful and allowed me to make changes to improve the story, I found it difficult to show rather than tell as there are a few moments in my script where I needed to get information across with little or no way to  visually show it.

I also found it difficult to write the dialogue in different ways, such as Jason being younger I tried to write more expletives and slang into his dialogue and Daniel I tried to make him more polite and composed, however when he is angry or upset he uses expletives. Where I was putting myself in their shoes I also found that their reactions were similar. Next time I might ask others how they would react in certain situations.

Location
I had lots of issues in regards to location, I called, Emailed and asked places in person however I would either get a negative response or none at all, When I went online to Kent Film Office and applied for a location I was told I would need a location fee of a few hundred, unforunetly I did not have the funds for that.

I have previously used a location at my old college which is a roadway with heavy bushes to one side, I decided to ask them and was told it was fine. I went down there the same day to take pictures and do a location recce. However I deleted the images when I formatted my SD card for filming another project.
Actors
Actors was actually something I sorted very early on, originally I was going to get Jason Efstathiou to play Daniel and an actor I know to play Daniel, this worked since they were both around the same size and Jason can dress up to look a bit older than he is.

My filming days were the 17th & 18th of November, however the camera and equipment was needed by someone else on the 17th, I had everything planned and I didn't think it would take me more than a few hours to film so I changed the date to the 18th only.

On the 18th at 00:24 I get a text message from my actor telling me he can't film, this was quite stressful as I had 11 hours until filming and no actor, I asked around with the plan that if I couldn't find anyone I would do the part. Luckily my Dad stepped in and offered to help. Since he works in IBM he fit the role of office worker quite well.

Planning
In regards to planning I made a rough story board and a shot list, since my dad needed to leave for an hour to take my mum to work I worked around that scheduling all of Jason's individual shots in that time.

I borrowed some traffic cones from my aunt to block of the road and packed together some of my own equipment in case I needed it.

Production
I picked up Jason and Callum in the morning and got to the location a bit late due to traffic, which I need to plan for in the future, we got to the location and met up with my dad who had brought the traffic cones in his car.

We put two at each end to stop cars, even though the road was never used as it was inside the campus,  once we had this done I began filming my dads shots, which is when we run into our first two problems, the first was that the camera's batter was at half, leaving around an hour and a half of shoot time, we kept the camera turned off when we were not using it to save power and I framed up the shots with my own camera to get the look rather than using the Sony camera.



The second problem was the strong wind and heavy clouds over head. The wind mean we couldn't put up the green screen as it would blow over, however we needed the green screen to make it look like our characters were driving. To rectify this I improvised and using a expandable light reflected I was brought for my birthday, I wrapped and clamped the green screen onto it.

 This meant all we had to do was get someone to stand on the other side of the car and hold up the green screen, this had good points and bad points, the good was that it wasn't affected by the wind and also gave us much more freedom in where we set up. the downside was that it didn't completely cover the window, It would have been much better to use the big screen.

Therefore I made sure that the green screen was behind the actors head as this would be the hardest to mask and I would mask the windows by hand.

 After I got the green screen shots I then got the conversation shots of Jason and Daniel, I got a wide shot and and two over the shoulder shots since I thought Jason should be feeling trapped and stressed.

Then once we got all the shots with "Daniel" my dad left to do his errands. I then filmed all the shots I needed with Jason, at this point the battery was getting lower and lower.

When we filmed the shot at the beginning of the video the camera started to beep, indicating it would soon run out, we rushed to get the last shots, such as the key turning in the ignition. We got that shot done and a few seconds later the battery run out.

Then the rain started, It began to rain quite heavily as we packed up the equipment and put it into my car, I looked through my checklist and found I had missed out one shot of Jason fiddling with the SatNav and it falling. I decided I would film that at a later date as we didn't have any battery.

This wrapped up our shoot and I dropped Jason off and went to the studios to download the footage, onto my laptop and back it up to the hard drive.

Editing
Editing the video was reasonably easy, what I spent the most time on was the green screen, the footage of Daniel went smoothly, the keying worked and looked clean and the masking was simple and there was little to do.

Jason's footage however was a challenge, since the clouds had made the ambient light darker and even though we hadn't touched the shutter speed settings on the camera the was a lot of motion blur, which isn't good with green screens, i did my best to work with this and tried to place the cutaways and other footage over those moments and kept them short.

I also wanted to add some movement to the shots as they were both filmed on the tripod, I did this by using an expression on the footage's position called wiggle, such as wiggle(10,10) this means the footage moves ten times a second by a factor of ten pixels, I used a smaller number for Daniel to show a smoother ride and a higher number on Jason's to show a rougher ride.

To help the dialogue look smoother I used L-Cuts to have their voices overlay the next scene. When Jason is trying to turn on his engine and you hear the ignition squealing I had it carry on to the next shot with Daniel, when it cut I lowered the volume to show that Daniel could hear him having issues.

I didn't do much in the way of colour correction, I only made sure the shots looked similar in colour temperature.

What I learnt
In my next project I will make sure to get definite confirmation from actors, I will also think about location when I am writing a script, even though a road wouldn't be much of a problem the nature of a "fake car crash" put many people off, even with me explaining that the cars wouldn't even be near each other.

I will make sure the camera battery is fully charged and the memory card wiped, with the green screen I will try to find a location thats blocked from the wind and also film at a higher shutter speed so I do not get the ghosting effect.

I also learnt that improvisation is a necessary skill in the toolbox of any film maker as nothing ever seems to go as planned, If it wasn't for the idea of using the pop of reflector I would likely have not gotten the footage I needed, Being well prepared is also useful, the planning in regards to the storyboard and shot list organised the shoot, having extra equipment on hand also helped, next time I will try to think of contingencies before I start filming and plan accordingly.