Our Final Draft (Courtney)

Rough Cut 4 (Charlotte)

Feedback

Sound is better at start

Add in drone shot

Sensor mini cheddars

Edit sound at the end - too loud

"Mc" - Donalds change to "Donalds"

We have improved our work by adding in the final versions of the institutional logos and adding more effects to the film overall. We have also scheduled the drone shot to be filmed and it will be added in the final cut.

Charlotte Briggs

Rough Cut 3 (Charlotte)

• Institutional logos - make it faster paced and sort out the sound.
• Add SFX to the 1st scene.
• Try adding slow motion on the end sequence.
• Fly?

We have improved our work by fixing the running order of the titles and adding the institutional logos. We have also done more editing on the film to make it feel more professional.


Charlotte Briggs

Rough Cut 2 (Harry)

Feedback

Fix the running order of the titles

Drone shot needs to be added

Add in the institutional logos

We have improved our work by adding the institutional logo placeholders and editing our shots so they are timed better. We also changed the running order of the titles, though work still needs tio be done.


Charlotte Briggs

Rough Cut 1 (Harry)

Feedback

Titles - Director wouldn't be first

Nice Film Title

Shot on first man is too long - intergect it with other shots

Lovely Mise

Filming diary (Courtney)

These are some photos from our time filming. It is a more visual version of the filming schedule. It is in order from when we arrived to when we finished filming.

This was taken just after we had arrived at the location, Ben and Courtney we trying to organise the actors/actresses and let them know exactly where we wanted them and when we wanted them there. Everyone was dressed up in their costume and eager to start the filming process.

We started off by checking the sound quality because it was quite windy at the time. Luckily we chose a day where it wasn't too windy and the actors could still be heard over the weather conditions. The camera itself was a Nikon D4, with a wide angle lens and a rode videomic shotgun microphone, the microphone contained a wind shield which increased the overall sound quality when we were filming.  

In this photo Ben was directing the actors for the first scene. We needed to make sure that they weren't standing at the edge of the frame when the presenter was talking at the start but also that they weren't too far away because they needed to run along the length on the frame. 

  

In this photo we are filming the intro scene for Jack's character, William McKenzie. We needed to make sure there were no parts of him cut out of the shot and that we could hear everything he was saying, while also making sure that there was as little wind interference as possible.

In this photo Ben and Charlotte are directing Morgan on how to say his lines. We have to make sure that we can hear everything he's saying clearly and that he doesn't stammer or forget his lines, as well as coaching him though how he has to act.

Filming Schedule (Charlotte)

Date of Filming: Sunday, 5th of March. 2017.
Time of filming: 12:00 AM to 02:00 PM.

Actors present:

• Morgan Mandell (Brian Muggs)
• Jack O'Neil (William McKenzie)
• Olivia Brook (Lewis Harold)
• Ruby Holland (Molly Daxter)
• Jez Kendall (Dave Attenbro)

Group members present:

• Charlotte Briggs (Camera woman)
• Ben Kendall (Director)
• Courtney Mandell (Assistant director)
• Harry Smith (Acting supervisor)

Misc:

• Antony Briggs (Assistant cameraman)

Actors Consent Forms (Ben and Courtney)

These are the signed actors consent forms.


Ruby's consent form:

Olivia's consent form:

Morgan's consent form:

 Jeremy's consent form:

Jack's consent form:

Final Costumes (Harry)

Final Costumes

These are the costumes that are actors will were when we make our own film opening.

Brian Muggs

Brian Muggs will be wearing this standard army kit with a green sweater and DPM camouflaged trousers and black boots. We decided to choose this costume because Brian is the character in our film who is carrying too much gear.


Will McKenzie

Will McKenzie will also be wearing black boots and some DPM camouflage trousers. But Will McKenzie will be wearing a DPM Flak vest to show off his muscles and his hard man image that he has. He was also wear an olive green beanie to show of his gym physique even more.








Molly Baxter

This character will have a basic costume which includes DPM camouflaged trousers, black boots, a green jumper and a camouflaged cap. The reason we chose this costume was because we wanted one to be more simpler than the other three and that this would make the others feel more significant and unique to the audience.





Lewis Harold

This character will also wear DPM camouflaged trousers and black boots like all of the others. He will also wear a green jumper that has an insignia badge on the front of it. This character will also wear a beret to fully show his officer role within this group. The reason we chose this costume was that the officer of a group would usually have some insignia and wear a beret.

Final Mise Decisions (Charlotte)

Props:

• (1) nerf rifle, painted black.

We decided to have this prop as it makes the film feel more realistic due to the characters having realistic looking weaponry. 

• (3) fake pistols, painted black.

We decided to have these props as it makes the film feel more realistic due to the characters having matching and realistic looking weaponry, like real army soldiers would have.

• (1) fake handgun, painted black.

We decided to have these props as it makes the film feel more realistic due to the characters having realistic looking weaponry.

• (1) fake grenade, painted black.

We decided to have this prop as it makes the film feel more realistic due to the characters having realistic looking war equipment.

• (1) mini cheddars bag, empty.

We decided to have this prop as it makes the Brian Muggs character seem more childlike and humorous, while also giving the audience something recognisable to make the film feel more realistic.


Charlotte Briggs

Mise:

• Location

We decided to film our film in it's current location due to it being a realistic location for our film to be set in. It was also a practical choice due to it being within reach of all people present for the filming.

• Lighting

We decided to film using natural lighting as it makes the film feel more realistic and becuase adding any non-natural lighting would have made the film feel fake and polished, rather than looking real and funny.

Final Sound Decisions (Harry)

http://freesound.org/people/LunarThePunar/sounds/322030/

The reason we chose this tension building intro is that this background fits well into the start of the film to build a little tension among the viewers.

The other sound effects we used in our film were all from the apple mac during editing and they were called thunder and lighting and the typewriter sound effect over all of the names. The reason we chose the thunder and lightning was to build tension at the start of our film opening and the reason we chose the typewriter sound effect was to have the titles look like they are being written out on a typewriter during a war.

This well help us with our film opening because it shows us the sounds we are going to work with on our final cut.

Our Cast (Charlotte)

Character 1: Brian Muggs.
Cast: Morgan Mandell

We decided on casting Harry for this role as he has the general appearance of someone that is friendly but naive. He is also quite short, which matches our description of Brian Mugg's character, and can act act in a dumb and confused way.

Character 2: William McKenzie
Cast: Jack O'Neill

We decided on casting Jack for this role as he matches the character description by being tall and semi-muscular, as well as having a haircut that matches the role. He has also demonstrated that he can play the role of someone that tries to act tough but fails. 

Character 3: Lewis Harold
Cast: Olivia Brooks

We have decided on casting Ben for this role as he matches the character description by being tall and skinny and generally cleaner/smarter dressed than other people, as well as being a generally organised and responsible person.

Character 4: Molly Baxter:
Cast: Ruby Holland 

We have decided on casting Courtney for this role as she matches the character description by having curly hair and by being shorter than the person playing Lewis Harold. She can also be very loud and very intimidating when necessary.

Character 5: David Attenbro
Cast: Jez Kendall

We have decided on casting Tony for this role as he has a voice that is similar to David Attenborough's voice but not so similar that it is noticeable. He also dresses a lot like him and already owns clothing he could wear as his costume.


Charlotte Briggs

Our shot list (Courtney)

Below is a list of the shots we included in our film opening:

• Drone shot/ Establishing shot
• Close up
• Mid shot
• Handheld shot
• Long shot

Final Location (Harry)

The reason why we chose this location is because it is a big field and there are not many roads around it so we won't get car noise in our film opening. Another reason why we chose this location for our film opening is that there are plenty of trees around the field so it  will shield us from most of the wind when we do our film opening.

Sound Ideas (Charlotte)

1: Machine gunshot: https://www.freesound.org/people/ShawnyBoy/sounds/165394/
2: Machine gunshot with pauses: https://www.freesound.org/people/fennelliott/sounds/380349/
3: Machine gun bursts: https://www.freesound.org/people/CGEffex/sounds/101962/
4: Grenade explosion: https://www.freesound.org/people/knova/sounds/172334/
5: Grenade explosion faraway: https://www.freesound.org/people/klankbeeld/sounds/344686/
6: Rifle gunshot: https://www.freesound.org/people/ShawnyBoy/sounds/165390/
7: Faraway rifle gunshot: https://www.freesound.org/people/Jakesapp23/sounds/221640/
8: Multiple low power rifle shots: https://www.freesound.org/people/ALLANZ10D/sounds/235427/
9: Faraway bomb explosion: https://www.freesound.org/people/NoiseCollector/sounds/6721/
10: Faraway bombing, heard by dazed person: https://www.freesound.org/people/ALLANZ10D/sounds/235426/
11: Close bomb explosion: https://www.freesound.org/people/unfa/sounds/259300/
12: Broken radio/tv: https://www.freesound.org/people/Timbre/sounds/253666/
13: Faraway building collapse: https://www.freesound.org/people/onteca/sounds/197775/
14: Exploring abandoned/bombed
area: https://www.freesound.org/people/onteca/sounds/197771/
15: Muddy footsteps: https://www.freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/sounds/329603/
16: Army whistle: https://www.freesound.org/people/Adam_N/sounds/324539/
17: Faraway warfare: https://www.freesound.org/people/Cheeseheadburger/sounds/170478/
18: Plane flyover: https://www.freesound.org/people/Suz_Soundcreations/sounds/351587/
19: Chatter ambience: https://www.freesound.org/people/WingsOfIrony/sounds/326967/
20: Bombing/forboding ambience: https://www.freesound.org/people/Filo_Rossi/sounds/342136/
21: Cheesy war music: https://www.freesound.org/people/adeluc4/sounds/125347/

We found all of these sounds on freesounds.org and they are all copyright free to use in our film opening. All of these are free to use and we do have to credit some people in our film opening if we decide to use their specific sounds.


Charlotte Briggs

How we organised costumes (Ben)

For costumes we needed 5 military uniforms for our squad members. We chose to use the DPM (disruptive pattern material), which was the British Military standard from the late 60s to the early 2000s, we chose this because it looks good and works as a generic camouflage type and is extremely readily available and affordable in the UK. We also chose to use these Jumpers as they're iconic British military standard ones and are a good compromise between chav and soldier.

We purchased most of our costumes on Ebay as it allowed us to get job lots of trousers and jumpers, which was more cost effective than purchasing them individually. We also used Ebay to purchase a Beret (with cap badge) and a couple of DPM caps . I myself also own a helmet, webbing set, and trousers, so we used those as well to save cost. After we have finished filming some of our group members are going to buy some of the costume parts off of the group and the rest we will sell on as a job lot on Ebay.







Brian Muggs
This character will have the standard uniform of a jumper, DPM camo trousers, and black boots. They are also meant to have too much gear and so will also have a webbing set, oversized helmet, and backpack.

William McKenzie
This character will have the standard DPM camo trousers and black boots, however won't have a jumper and instead a DPM camo flak vest and short sleeved top. This is to show off their muscles. They will also have an olive green beanie instead of a DPM camo cap as it is more suited to gym-like attire.

Molly Baxter
This character will have a fairly basic costumes, simply with DPM camo trousers and caps, black boots, and jumpers. This is because we need this character to have a simple uniform to make the uniforms of the others' feel more significant and unique to the audience

Lewis Harold

This character will have DPM camo trousers, black boots and a jumper with an insignia badge on it (red, corporal). He will also have a beret instead of a cap as they look more officer-like and suits the role.





We used Excel to make a budget to figure out how much each group member needed to pay before we sold the costumes back. This ended up that each group member paid £12 (before selling the costumes off).

Initial costume and prop ideas (Ben)

Here are some initial ideas on costumes and props. For props we have thought about wooden rubber band guns, painted nerf guns, and painted toy guns. RiF firearms, such as airsoft guns, would look better on screen, however the laws are much stricter and it would be difficult to ensure complete safety. For costumes we have looked into various military uniforms, mostly cold war era. The cold war era uniforms are suitable as they don't look too modern whilst still using camouflage and being quite affordable.

Casting the Film Opening (Charlotte)

Potential casting ideas:

Character 1: Brian Muggs:

• Harry Smith
• Daun Worcester 
• Morgan Mandell

Character 2: William McKenzie

• Ashley Bagley 
• Joe French
• Jack O'neil

Character 3: Lewis Harold

• Olivia Burton
• Charlie Dury
• Olle Gentry

Character 4: Molly Baxter

• Ruby Holland
• Charlotte Briggs
• Olivia Brooks

Character 5: Dave Attenbro

• Tony Briggs
• Jez Kendall
• Harry Smith

Audition plans:

We are going to do auditions with the people shown above to determine which people would be willing to fill the role and would be able to do it to a high enough standard. We will film the people auditioning reading out a line from the film in character and go over the clips collected as a group to discuss and determine which people to feature in our film opening. We will do our auditions this way so that everyone in our group has a say on who will be an actor/actress in our film, and also so that all auditioning actors/actresses have an equal chance to shown us their acting skills.


Charlotte Briggs

Photographic Storyboard (Courtney)

 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Draft script (Ben)

Fade in:

Field - Day - Cloudy

DAVID ATTENBRO:
(Monologue, authoritive voice)

When the Second World War was over, we

were one of the great powers of the world.

We had an enormous force

that had been built up,

we had the greatest

Army in the world.

Today, the latest weapons,

Coupled with the fighting skill

of the British soldier,

Stand ready on the alert

all over the world

To defend our country,

We, the British people,

from harm.

The privilege of serving

the British Army in uniform

Is no small undertaking,

but a true test of one’s

courage and determination.

These are certainly not

Ordinary men

CHAV SQUAD BEGINS RUNNING IN BACKGROUND

This is a story about the seen

and the unseen...

And about things

hidden in plain sight.

It's hard to say when

this story began

Interview - Lewis Harold

OFF-CAMERA SPEAKER:
(authorative)

NAME

LEWIS HAROLD:
(sarcastically/mockingly)

Lewis Harold

OFF-CAMERA SPEAKER:

RANK

LEWIS HAROLD:

Uh, Corporal obviously? This Beret is not for fashion purposes

Interview - Molly Baxter

OFF-CAMERA SPEAKER:

NAME

MOLLY BAXTER:
(unimpressed)

Molly Baxter

OFF-CAMERA SPEAKER:

FAVOURITE PLACE TO HANG OUT

MOLLY BAXTER:

Outside McDonalds

Interview - William McKenzie

OFF-CAMERA SPEAKER:

NAME

WILLIAM MCKENZIE:
(boasting)

Will McKenzie, also known as... the sharpshooter

OFF-CAMERA SPEAKER:

RANK

WILLIAM MCKENZIE:

Professional badass

Interview - Brian Muggs

OFF-CAMERA SPEAKER:

NAME

BRIAN MUGGS:
(naive/enthusiastically)

Brian Muggs

OFF-CAMERA SPEAKER:

RANK

BRIAN MUGGS:

Private

OFF-CAMERA SPEAKER:

FAVOURITE SNACK

BRIAN MUGGS:

Mini Cheddars of course

DAVID ATTENBRO:

(voicover)

They've never had the best track record

LEWIS HAROLD:

(Shouting, on William McKenzie's back)

To Melbourne!

Mise consideration (Harry)

Here is our post on mise consideration, in this post you can see all of the mise we have carefully thought about using in our film opening. Because our film opening is a war mockumentary we thought about using these props because they go with what are film is about. The guns used are air soft and Nerf guns for the chav squad. We are going to use mud to put on our four army characters to fit their descriptions.

Our draft storyboard (Ben)

This is the draft for our storyboard. It has 4 sections, each of which should last around 30 seconds (so the whole thing is 2 minutes). This will help us as we can then make a more accurate one off of it instead of making the accurate one the first, giving us more room for refinement.

Locations scouting (Courtney)

The location for the opening scene is very important. It sets the atmosphere and it helps the audience to know where the film is going to be set. If the location is right the film will look better whereas if we don't choose the right location and we end up filming in someones garden the overall film isn't going to look very interesting.

We began with looking at the locations of a few pillboxes, as we are making a war mockumentary as well as taking the mic out of a certain aspect of history, we wanted the location to look right. Pillboxes are concrete dug-in guard posts, they normally have loopholes which allow weapons are allowed to be fired through.

The first Pillbox location we looked at was in Great Waltham, it was surrounded by some fields and it created a nice atmosphere for the film opening. However it was right next to a busy road and that would create a lot of noise when we were filming.

The second Pillbox location we looked at was in Broomfield. The field that it was in was connected to a busy road, but it wasn't that close and it was quieter than the first location. The field also contained more grass than the first location which would mean that the second location wasn't as muddy as the first.

The next location that we looked at was Pleshey mount. It used to be home to Pleshey castle and it is the remains of a Mote and Bailey castle, it is a large grassy area where we could film a lot of the film opening. It would also have the right atmosphere because of its history. Within the area there are very steep walls and that would provide and enclosed space for us to shoot the film without being interrupted.

The last locations we looked at where just normal fields. These fields were located in and around Pleshey, because Pleshey is located in the countryside it provided us with a lot of fields for us to potentially film in. However some of these fields are very muddy, and we may have trouble filming there because of that factor. But the do provide a pretty background for the film.

Our film title (Charlotte and Ben)

 

For our film we decided on the title 'The Battle of Melbourne Tower'. We chose this as it combines the documentary style of titling, chav icon of Melbourne (a local area renowned for it's chavs), and the war-themed 'battle'. The definition of a Chav is : A young lower class person typified by brash and loutish behaviour. A lot of younger people react negatively towards this word because they believe that people of an older generation use this term to place all young people into a stereotypical category. 

We also think that our film title will mean audience members that live in or nearby Melbourne will identify and/or relate to the film and think that the film is more entertaining because it applies to them.