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. 

 

Film title running order (Courtney)

This is the running order for our titles for our film opening.

• 0:00 - 0:05 Suit and tie productions logo
• 0:05 - 0:10 Finger gun studios logo 
• 0:11 - 0:13 Jeremy Kendall
• 0:13 - 0:16 Olivia Brook
• 0:16 - 0:19 Ruby Holland
• 0:19 - 0:21 Jack O'Neill
• 0:21 - 0:23 Morgan Mandell
• 0:24 - 0:29 The Battle of Melbourne Tower
• 0:31 - 0:33 Stunt Coordinator - Harry Smith
• 0:34 - 0:37 Cinematography - Charlotte Briggs
• 0:38 - 0:42 Producer - Courtney Mandell
• 0:43 - 0:46 Director - Ben Kendall
• 0:46 - 0:49 Dave Attenbro - Presenter
• 1:32 - 1:37 Lewis Harold - Corporal
• 1:38 - 1:42 Molly Baxter - Private
• 1:44 - 1:48 William McKenzie - Chief Liar
• 1:49 - 1:53 Brian Muggs - Very Private

We put the titles in this order because generally in films the Institutional logos are shown first, followed by the actors (they are shown in order of most well known to least well known). Everyone else that took part in making the film opening we put after the film title because we wanted to separate the people from the actors names, and the directors name was shown last because it is the most important. After the directors names we added in the character names because we felt that it was necessary to introduce the characters to the audience.

Our chosen institutional logo (Courtney)

These are the institutional logos that we have chosen, we chose them because we believe that they were the best representation of what we thought the logos would look like. We believe that the logos are fairly formal and that they would represent the company well.

Our institutional logo designs (Courtney)

Our institutional logo designs

These are the institutional designs that we drew as a group. The first logo is the logo for the company name Suit and Tie productions only two of the group thought of a design for this logo and when we had finished drawing the logo it turns out that we had very similar ideas.

These are the other institutional logos that we drew, this time all four people created a design for this section and again we all have similar designs but these did vary a little more.

 

Group research on the institutional logo (Courtney)

We chose to be an independent film company so therefore we need to look into different independent film company logos to see if there is any similarities between them. Institutional logos for independent film are normally static and don't move around the frame. Below are the different independent institutional logos that we have looked at.

Film 4

Film 4 productions is a British film production company owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The company has been responsible for backing a large number of films made in the United Kingdom. It has produced:

• 12 years a slave
• 127 hours
• A field in England
• American Honey

Pinewood studios

Pinewood studios is a British film studio and television studio located in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England. the studio has been the base for many productions over the years for big budget films to television shows, it is well known for the home of the James Bond franchise. They have produced: 

• Superman II
• Little shop of horrors
• Mission: Impossible
• Jesus Christ superstar
• Love, Actually
• The Da Vinci Code 

Studiocanal

Studiocanal is a French film production and distribution company that owns the third largest film library in the world. It has produced:

• Free willy
• JFK
• Notting Hill
• The ninth gate



Celebrity Casting (Charlotte)

Character 1: Brian Muggs
Celebrity cast: Nick Frost

We would have Nick Frost in our film as he is a well known actor known for playing 'dumb one' characters. He has also appeared in films such as Shaun of the Dead, showing that he can play funny roles in serious settings.

Character 2: William McKenzie
Celebrity cast: Harry Treadaway

We would have Harry Treadaway in our film as William McKenzie because his appearence in films such as Cockneys vs Zombies and Fish Tank show that he is good playing comedic roles with serious undertones.

Character 3: Edd Newell
Celebrity cast: Tom Strode Walton

We would have Tom Strode Walton in our film as he has the stereotypical appearance of a goofy teenager, with the large haircut and freckles making him look more childish. His role as a teenager in Shaun of the Dead also shows that he has acted as a childish teenager before and would be good for the role.

Character 4: Lewis Harold
Celebrity cast: Chris Sheffield

We would have Chris Sheffield in our film as he fits the stereotype of the chiselled-blond-hero and because his appearance in Maze Runner shows that he is good at acting in action/adventure films.

Character 5: Molly Baxter
Celebrity cast: Kate Mulgrew

We could have Kate Mulgrew in our film as her appearance in Orange is the New Black shows that she is very good at playing the tough-but-secretly-kind character, and because her appearance fits the stereotype of a middle aged but tough female character.

Character 6: Dave Attenbro
Celebrity cast: John Simpson

We would have John Simpson in our film as he is credited for looking a lot like David Attenborough, and since his character is meant to be a David Attenborough ripoff, having an action that looks a lot like him but is not actually him just adds to the humour.


Charlotte Briggs