Mise en Scene consideration

Lighting

During the filming we will need to consider the lighting to ensure that the lighting in each shot suits where it is being filmed and the atmosphere in each scene. In the shots right at the beginning of the film opening where Agent Thomas is being held hostage and where Grant is being filmed there will be low key lighting. This is to suit the film of being a genre and so that there is a negative atmosphere that is created which informs the audience that Agent Thomas is in Danger whilst being locked up and that she is being held somewhere that she is not likely to be found. Also the low lighting on Grant shows that he is bad and not an easy man to find (he is a criminal).

(form photographic storyboard)

During the scenes filmed at the location MI5 headquarters there will be high key lighting. This is so that the audience know that it is based during the day (working hours as they are at work) and because nothing too bad has happened yet, they are just about to receive their mission statements.

Décor

When filming in each location we will need to ensure there is nothing irrelevant in each shot as this may takeaway from the seriousness of the film. For example when Agent Thomas is tied up in the dark room, it will be filmed in Sophie's garage. Therefore we will need to move anything that might get in the scene that is often in a garage e.g. a bike. But we will need to ensure the props are relevant for each scene. This means that when Agent Thomas is tied up that there is a chair for her to sit on and that real rope is tying her up and that she has a realistic knife that she cuts the rope off with.

For the scenes set in Sophie's parents office we will have to ensure that there is no office specific items to their company in the background e.g. the company logo as this would look unrealistic and not like MI5 headquarters. There will need to be props that suit the MI5 headquarters theme though such as folders with the mission briefs in them and a boardroom where missions would be assigned including a smart boardroom table and chairs and that there are desks and computers in the office so that it looks like a place where MI5 important admin/ information is stored/carried out.

Costume

Costume for each scene will need to be considered as well. When Agent Thomas is held hostage her clothes will be messy and her skin will be bruised so that it looks like she has actually been held hostage and tied up in a horrible place as if she looked clean and smart then it would be unrealistic to the context of the scene. When Agent Thomas and Agent Wilson are in MI5 headquarters they will be dressed in smart wear as the headquarters is an office and therefore they need to be dressed appropriately. As Agent Thomas is an 'Agent' she will be wearing a trouser suit instead of a skirt as if she is set a mission to start straight away that is dangerous a skirt would not be suitable wear for her especially if she is fighting. As the MI5 officer does not work out on the field and only works in the office, she is wearing a suit which is appropriate for her job role.

When Agent Wilson is at the gym during the scene near the beginning he will be wearing gym wear as it is what someone doing a workout would wear as it is easy to move in and light so people exercising can cool down. Grant will be wearing a dark top as he will be being filmed in a dark location to make him appear dangerous and bad as the darkness has connotations of bad things.



Sophie Thomas

Initial hand drawn storyboard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sophie Thomas

Location Decisions

We thought as a group that this place for our Thriller would be a good place to film. However we found the lighting was really difficult to portray as we would have to purchase a lot of lamps

We have decided not to film in the picture below because we were do not have permission to film here however this would have been a good location to film our thriller movie in because it is an rural place and normally thrillers are filmed in either an urban or a rural place. 

We had considered filming a small section of our film down this corridor when taking the shot of the hit men walking. But we decided not to film here because it is based in our school and there are a lot of posters on the wall with information on educational topics which we wouldn't be allowed to remove.





 We also considered filming our MI5 headquarters scene in school because this classroom is set up in this manner. However, we decided not to film here because it didn't really meet our criteria of what we had in mind for our MI5 office.

We considered filming Grant in the movie here but, we decided not to film it here as it would be too dark.

We decided not to film it round Erin's house as the tiles were too light and weren't ideal to create a dramatic feel to the scene. Instead, we wanted a rather run down look of the floor preferably in a dark colour.

 We also decided not to film Grant's scene here either as the lighting is too dark in result of this we cannot see the actor and therefore is the reason we decided not to film in this location.

Holly Putt

Title Name - THE ESCAPE

The name of our film is 'THE ESCAPE'. The reason we called our film 'THE ESCAPE' is because during the film when Agent Thomas is trying to steal the device off of the bad people there are connotations that she will be kidnapped. When she is kidnapped the audience want to know whether she is going to escape or not and try and get the device back from the people that should not have it. Therefore the name of the film is called 'THE ESCAPE'. Although at the beginning of the film the audience do see her escape which is later shown again in the film when the film is set in present again (film starts in present, goes to 6 months earlier, returns to present showing the audience why she was locked up in the first place) and the audience see her escape, the audience want to know what she will do once Agent Thomas has escaped and whether she manages to find the device and find out what the consequences would be she didn't escape and the device stayed in the hands of the wrong people. This is why her escaping has big significance in the film and why the title is 'THE ESCAPE'

Sophie Thomas

The Escape - Titles timeline

Erin Parkhurst and Sophie Thomas


We have done this film title order for our film 'The Escape' so that when we edit our film opening we know what order each title goes in and the names of each person we are crediting. By doing this we also know the duration of each title and at what time they come into te film opening. By knowing this we know at what point in our film opening all the titles will have played by and consider what part of the screen we would like the to put each title on (e.g. centre, upper left etc). We can now also consider the font of the titles, the size and the colour. We managed to come up with the order of the film titles by looking at many different film opening title sequences of the genre thriller.

Sophie Thomas

The chosen instutitutional logo and why

The chosen institutional logo is Sophie's penguin productions logo. This is because there is an animation of a penguin sliding over the words 'Penguin Productions'. Both of these words are written in white and therefore it looks like the penguin is sliding on an ice cap. The background is blue which represents the blue sky as well. Although this is quite a positive happy logo we have created 'Ranger Productions' as the company to be in connection with Penguin Productions. This is so that the logo suits the genre of our films more being an action thriller with spies in it, as the Penguin Productions logo may be too bright and jolly to be the logo just before the film opening. The reason the Penguin Productions logo is a moving animation is to show that it is the main production company for example 'Universal', 'MGM' and 'Walt Disney Productions' all have a moving production logo.

 

 

Sophie Thomas

2nd Production company logo

 

Our film company is an independent institution so therefore there is more than one company involved in the production of our film, which meant we had to create another logo for the second production company that will be involved in our film. Our actual production company is called Penguin Productions and our logo is quite bright and cheerful, this did then not flow well into our film  opening so when creating our Ranger Productions logo, we thought more about how it would look with our film opening. We used darker colours and a more mysterious design and image for this logo as it worked well and fitted in with the genre of our film which is a action thriller.

Erin Parkhurst

Sophie's idea for institutional logo

 

 

Erin's idea for institutional logo

Holly's idea for institutional logo

 

 

 

 

 

Penguin Production

Institutional logo research

Institutional logos

Film production companies use a logo so that the audience know who they are and that they produced the film that is being released. Each production company has a unique logo therefore it makes a film more appealing to the audience if there is a recognisable production logo as people assume the film quality will vary depending on what production company made the film.

Mainstream 

Sony Pictures














Time warner (warner brothers)










Twentieth Century Fox

Walt Disney Pictures

LionsGate





Independent






Film 4   









Warp Films










EM Media






Blum House Productions

UK Film Council


This research will help us decide on what our institutional logo will look like now that we have seen examples of current institutional logos. Now that we have seen different institutional logos from mainstream and independent institutions it will also help us know what to look for when making our logo. For example, because we are an independent production company we will not have loud music in the background of our logo as well having a logo with a very long duration such as '20th Century Fox' or 'Walt Disney Pictures', but will have a logo with a smaller duration time and a little bit of sound.

Sophie Thomas

Characters in our film

Main Characters in Film:

Agent Thomas

Agent Thomas is an MI5 agent in her 20's who has been set a mission to find a device that has been stolen by a group of people that are dangerous and would misuse the device and cause harm to people. The reason it is important that Agent Thomas is in the film opening is because the film starts with a part of the film that will also be played again later in the film as after this short part of the middle of the film is played at the beginning it then goes to six months earlier. In this part of the film based where it tells the audience what will happen in the future 6 months, Agent Thomas is tied up as she has been kidnapped while trying to gain access to taking back the device. It then becomes evident that this is what has happened to her when it goes back to six months earlier and her mission statement is set telling that the mission is getting back the device. It is also important that Agent Thomas is in the film opening to show to the audience that she is the main character.

Agent Wilson

Agent Wilson is an MI5 agent in his 20's who has been set the same mission as Agent Thomas as they are to work together to get this dangerous device back into the hands of the government so that it is used in the correct way and not by dangerous people. It is important that Agent Wilson is in the film opening to show that he is one of the main characters. Also, when the scene is based 6 months into the future and Agent Wilson is talking on the phone to grant (main leader of the dangerous group of people who have stolen the device), initially people think that Agent Wilson is a bad person who works for grant as one of his men that get the jobs done for him. However, then It goes back six months where Agent Wilson gets his mission assignment and the MI5 officer tells him that he will be working under cover. Therefore for the audience to understand who Agent Wilson really is it is important he is in the film opening.

MI5 officer

The MI5 officer is the women who sets the mission assignments to who she thinks is up to the job. She runs the MI5 headquarters and ensures that everyone knows what they are doing. She is slightly older then some of the agents as she is in her mid 40's and has gradually worked her way up in her job and is a former agent herself. When the MI5 officer was made aware of the situation in which the device had been stolen she wanted two of the top agents that she knows working on the case to get the device back. It is important that she is in the film opening as she informs Agent Thomas and Agent Wilson that they will be working together on the mission and explain what it is about etc.

Grant

Grant is a man in his late 40's who works for himself. He is the main leader of a group of people that work together to try and steal this device which will gain them power. Grant is a man with money and therefore when it comes to violence or getting the job done he often employs henchmen/ he's top men to do the job depending on what it is so that he does not get caught. It is important that Grant is in the film opening because when it is at the very beginning and is based 6 months into the future, Grant tells his men to go and get the girl, this is because he does not want to go down into the dark horrible place that he has been holding Agent Thomas hostage but does want to be the one to interrogate her for once (instead of having someone else do it) and find out what she knows about this device and who sent her to come try and regain possession of the device. When Agent Thomas kills two of his men and manages to escape from Grant, he wants to get one of his top men to try and kidnap her again and stop her from trying to get the device as he's other men clearly were not good enough to fight against her however, the audience then sees the man they think will then help Grant and soon see that its Agent Wilson and that he clearly won't actually help Grant.

Minor Roles in Film opening and are not in the whole film:

Henchmen

In the film opening there are two henchmen that work for Grant. Although these men are killed very shortly into the beginning of the film and will only be in the film for the small scenes including the scene in the film opening and when it is replayed later on in the film (when the 6 months later become present in the film), they do have a significance in which the audience is able to see Agent Thomas have better strength and skills than them where she stabs one of them and manages to fight and then snap the neck of the other. This then connotes to the audience that Agent Thomas is smart and is good at her job as she has physical strength (as manages to snap ones neck and find out how to leave the awful place she was held captive).

Receptionist

Although the receptionist in the MI5 headquarters has a very small part within the film opening it is very important that she is in it. This is because we hear her talking to the Prime Minister on the phone and is clearly talking about the mission that is being set to Agent Wilson and Thomas.  The fact that she mentions she is talking to the Prime Minster shows the audience that whatever the device is that has been stolen, it is very serious as even the Prime Minister is involved ensuring the secret service do everything they can to regain possession of the device. It also shows how dangerous Grant is, as the Prime Minister is clearly in fear of who has the device.

Sophie Thomas

25 word Brief pitch on our film opening

Spy is set a mission to steal device - kidnapped - Fighting - escapes - falls in love with another spy - steals device with other spy - set another mission.

Sophie Thomas and Holly Putt

What we need to consider when developing our film opening

When developing our film opening we will need to consider what will attract the audience and encourage them to watch the film. By adding in short, fast paced shots and having low key lighting it will create an intense and gripping atmosphere that people want to know what will happen in the rest of the film. All aspects of the film will be there to ensure that the target market will want to watch the film, including the actors we use, the props, location and costumes.

It is important that when developing our films the costumes worn by the characters are relevant to what they are doing in the film. For example when the character Alex is in the gym training at the boxing bag he will need to be in gym wear as if he were in a suit it is not suitable to what he is doing and may confuse the audience. The location is a key part when making the film. If the location is unrealistic to where the scene is supposed to be set then it will not create suspense and the audience will not sympathise with the character or feel worried for her situation. For example, when the character Laura is locked up in a dark, damp room the audience should worry for her safety but if the room was a bright room and does not look very dangerous this would not have the same effect on the audience.

Dark Room (worry about the safety of character)

Light Room (does not suit the genre, or create worry for the character)










It is clear in this image that a man is training at the gym.

A man in a suit but wearing boxing gloves confuses the audience to what the character is doing.







The props used in our film will also have to look realistic otherwise the film will look like a low budget student film. Therefore, because of this we will not be using guns as we do not have the budget to have very good quality fake guns that look real as we are an independent film company so will have an action scene and may use a knife as a weapon instead. Although we cannot afford Hollywood actors, we still need to ensure that our actors suit the role, as if they are not good at acting their part and do not suit the role of their character the audience may not want to watch the film as it would be uncomfortable watching people that are not good at their job.

Cheap fake gun that does not realistic (for a fake gun that looks realistic it would be too expensive for our independent institution and therefore we will not use one)

With a fake knife, it is not too expensive to buy one that looks quite realistic, therefore we will use one of these in our film.










Sophie Thomas