Brief!!
Name of the Film : Badge (used to be named Beguiled)
Genre : Thriller/Crime (At first we had decided upon using the gangster genre for our film, however; we changed and edited the plot and then realised that it was no longer of the gangster genre. Therefore we decided upon thriller/crime.)
We have chosen to make a sequence of the film, the sequence we have to chosen to do is the beginning. We are working in a group and producing one sequence, however we all have different roles. Our group consists of:
Director - Josie Robinson
Cinematographer - Sophie Thompson (Me :)
Editor - Kate Mulligan
Thriller/Crime Genre!!
Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, television, and gaming that includes numerous and often overlapping sub-genres. Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more-powerful and better-equipped villains. Writer Vladimir Nabokov, in his lectures at Cornell University, said that "In an Anglo-Saxon thriller, the villain is generally punished, and the strong silent man generally wins the weak babbling girl, but there is no governmental law in Western countries to ban a story that does not comply with a fond tradition, so that we always hope that the wicked but romantic fellow will escape scot-free and the good but dull chap will be finally snubbed by the moody heroine.
-Wikipedia
An influence for our beginning scene, which includes the main character throwing her police badge over her back, was influenced by the end scene from the film 'Dirty Harry'. We decided however, that this would have been to hard for us to film so the character just drops her badge. Unfortunately the scene could not be embedded so I will post the link instead:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zPyEVeGb80
Another slight influence for one of our scenes we are including in our sequence is a scene in 'Goodfellas' when a character walks through a busy restaurant. However our scene will include a tracking shot from behind the main character, showing her walk through a busy office. Here is the scene from 'Goodfellas':
Aims and Context!!
As our film, 'Badge', is of the thriller/crime genre our target audience is mainly males aged between 16-30. Our target audience would most probably be interested in genres such as action or gangster and would most likely be in the social classification of working class.
Our film is to include stylistic and formal influences from the French New Wave and Film Noir film conventions. It will also follow some of the genre conventions of thriller and action films.
My role within my group and our film is to be the cinematographer; I hope to learn how to shoot a film in a variety of ways in order to successfully create meaning through our stylistics used.
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Narrative Structure!!
I created the narrative structure for our film:
(The narrative shows that we used the character 'Harry', however due to the lack of actors we could we had to change the character to 'Harriet'.)
Synopsis!!
Harriet Stewart is assigned to the case of Nigel Flynn’s (Harriet Stewart’s mentor) murder; Nigel Flynn’s wife (Lily) is consequently kidnapped. This gets her into Nigel’s previous case before he died, a criminal drugs baron. Harriet has to get Lily back as he feels that she has a duty to Nigel’s memory. Whilst investigating the murder, through interviews and CCTV etc, the forensics of the charred body come back and they don’t match Nigel’s dental records. Harriet orders a second test but these only confirm that the body is not Nigel. Shocked by Nigel’s disappearance, Harriet starts to investigate the possibility that both Nigel and Lily have been kidnapped. Later a ransom note is dropped off at the station stained with blood. Harriet decides to trace the person who left it through CCTV. It leads her to a derelict building, she enters alone but armed. As soon as she enters she is shot at. She engages in a shoot-off with the attacker whilst trying to get closer; eventually she recognises him as Nigel Flynn. Nigel reveals that he was attempting to take the ransom money and leave the country with his wife. He shoots at Harriet but misses; consequently Harriet shoots him and Nigel is killed instantly. Soon after the police arrive and arrest Lily. Harriet is offered a promotion for her work but she refuses to take it because she is disheartened by the police force; she then leaves the scene for the police force to deal with.
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Script!!
Harriet slowly walking away, over her shoulder she throws the badge.
Harriet Voiceover: I was always told to keep my friends close but my enemies closer. Whoever told me that was an idiot.
Secretary: Captain Carter will see you now Harriet.
Harriet gets up and walks through a busy main office, opens door and walks in office.
Captain: Ah! Stewart come in, take a seat.
Harriet sits down.
Captain: I don’t know how to say this, but you have to know before everyone else. Pause. Harriet, Nigel has been killed on duty. I’m sorry.
Long emotional pause.
Harriet: Does Lily know?
Captain: Deep breath. That’s the main reason I brought you in.
Dramatic pause
She’s been kidnapped.
Harriet is shocked. Silence.
Captain: We want you on the case.
Captain slides a photo of Nigel and Lily across the desk.
Captain: We know this must be hard for you, but the fact you were close with them means you won’t fail.
Harriet is leaning on a barrier overlooking the river with a cup of coffee in one hand, she gets the photo out of her pocket.
Harriet: (To photo) I won’t fail you.
Slowly walks away, putting the photo back in her pocket. She gets her phone out and calls her new partner.
Smith picks up phone
Harriet: Smith, meet me at Nigel’s, we need forensics. Have the forensics come back on Nigel’s body?
Smith: No, but the body was pretty messed up. They should be with us within the next two days. God it’s hectic, down here. Where are you?
Harriet: Collecting my thoughts
Harriet hangs up phone and leaves Smith in a busy office
Smith waits outside a house as Harriet pulls up. Harriet gets out of car and walks up to Smith. Smith hands her a cup of coffee and starts to walk towards the house.
Smith: (talking to Harriet) Forensics are already in there.
We have finished the storyboard plan and made an animatic using Windows Movie Maker. (During the opening credits scene we have left some parts black for a while. This is because the names of our actors are to go on there, however we have not yet decided upon any actors to go in our our film). We then uploaded it to Youtube in order to embed it:
We initially had the main character as a male named Harry, however due to the lack of actors we could use we had to change the character to Harriet.
Evaluation!!
I worked in a group of three in which we created a synopsis to our film ‘Badge’. We then decided upon selecting a sequence from our film and made a short film clip of it. We each had one specific role during the process of making our film clip, though we each aided in each of the different areas. My role was to be the cinematographer, my main involvement in the production of our film was designing the storyboard and I was behind the camera when filming. The other two roles my group members undertook were the roles of director and editor.
Our film is about a police officer (Harriet, the protagonist) whose partner/mentor dies (Nigel Flynn, the antagonist); her mentor’s wife is then kidnapped. Harriet is sent on the case to find out what happened to Nigel. Through extensive investigative techniques Harriet finds out that Nigel is alive and attempting to gain a large amount of ransom money through his wife’s kidnapping. Harriet is forced to kill Nigel and then his wife is arrested. At the end of the film, Harriet is offered a promotion for her work however, she refuses the opportunity and leaves the police force as she is disheartened by all the events in the film.
We created a film that was designed for the thriller/crime genre. Early in the stages of writing the synopsis the film was originally of the gangster genre; however, we changed this to its current genre as we altered the synopsis and soon realised that the film would not suit the gangster genre any longer. We designed the film to be aimed towards mainly males aged roughly between the ages of 16 – 30. We decided our target audience to be very interested in genres such as action, thrillers and gangster and would most likely be in the social classification of working class. We designed our film to include stylistic and formal influences from the French New Wave and Film Noir film conventions. The most prominent way we followed Film Noir conventions was the way we edited it to be in black and white; this gave our film a more gritty realism and made it more visceral. There is one point in the film where there is colour being used; it is during the first scene where Harriet drops her badge, it slowly fades into colour. This scene was supposed to have happened after all of the film’s events, it fades into colour to show that Harriet has found her identity. It also followed some of the genre conventions of thriller and action films; such as our use of fast paced editing and music that helps to create tension in our opening scene.
As my role was the cinematographer, my main involvement with the production of our film clip was during the storyboard designing and I was behind the camera during filming. During the storyboard stage I came up with ideas for different shots we could use that would help to convey the atmosphere and mood of the different scenes. When we were designing the storyboard I insisted we used many medium and close up shots (especially during the scene in the office); this is because the main mood of our chosen film extract was poignant, the medium and close up shots were to show the deep emotions of the characters, it also closes the distance between the audience and the characters not physically but emotionally, it helps to create an understanding towards the characters.
During the storyboard stage we decided to use tension building music during the opening scene; this is also another example of how we used some of the genre conventions of thriller and action films. There is also another use of non-diegetic sound during the office scene; the mood of this music is gloomy due to the context of the scene. Apart from these two instances of non-diegetic sounds the rest of the film is mainly diegetic sound; this created the sense of realism we wanted in the film. The problem we faced with the sound in our film was to do with the diegetic sound. The camera caught sounds that were not intended to be in the film and some proved to be problematic; such as the sound of the wind, this was especially problematic during the scene at the harbor. It did however catch sounds that sounded good, for example in one scene the sound of sirens can be heard; this helped add to the sense of gritty realism we were trying to create. So the problem with the diegetic sounds were both an issue but also helped.
During the end scene especially we used fast paced editing. This complies with the genre conventions of thriller and action films. It reflects the state of Harriet’s mind during this point of the film, the editing is fast just like Harriet’s mind rushing through all the different emotions she’s feeling but also all the different explanations for Nigel’s death and Lily’s disappearance.
We used two different tracking shots during our film extract. One very near the beginning as Harriet is walking through the office building’s corridors and then again at the end as Harriet and Smith are walking in towards the house. The first tracking shot was filmed from behind the actor following her through the corridor towards the office. The purpose of this tracking shot was initially to show the busy work place with people walking past and towards the camera. However, this effect proved difficult to create for two reasons; we couldn’t have the winding corridors that we first wanted because we didn’t have any location available to film that, the other problem was that we had a lack of actors’ that could have been in that scene to create the busy, hectic feeling we were going for. Another problem with this particular scene and the way it was filmed was that we didn’t have the correct equipment in order to successfully perform a smooth tracking shot, so instead we opted to use a handheld camera technique which did, however, prove effective as it still managed to create the effect we were aiming for. The same problem with the equipment was apparent during the second tracking shot when Harriet and Smith are walking towards the house; but again the handheld camera technique we had to use still created the effect we were looking for in this scene, it helped to create a gritty realistic atmosphere.
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