STORYBOARD Part1:SEEK REVENGE!

CASTING: SEEK REVENGE

This is my friend Dakarai,(BELOW) who I casted as the protagonist, from the limited choice I had he appeared to be the most well-suited for the role as he some what appears to be out of place in this sequence, but due to his facial expressions fitted the role perfectly! I also thought he could best relate to the audience! (with direction)
RACHELLE NUNOO x

COMING UP WITH THE IDEA

My group had lots of disagreements about our opening sequence should be about, and because of that we lost lots of time to produce our sequence, and split up. I came up with the idea that the film should centre knife crime from watching films like ‘Kidulthood’ and ‘Bullet Boy’ I came up with what I thought would be a really good, engaging idea. I storyboarded it to gather a rough idea, and casted the actors, to make it realistic I thought a big group of black boys would best stereotypically portray danger! So I asked 8 of my friends to be in the sequence, it was hard with a big number of people to find a date that suited all of them, which is why I initially had so many problems. I debated between having a gun or a flick knife, but I thought a gun would be too complicated and then in turn make things unrealistic due to sound affects and the actors. So I opted for a knife, I researched gang culture and asked around for characteristics of a gang member, and I that’s when I found out a knife would be placed in a sock! I’m familiar with the theory that different colour bandanas within gangs have different connotations, I found black was seen as the most dangerous, and even to the eye of someone unfamiliar with the connotations associated with bandanas it looks mysterious and very dangerous of course! Along with a black bandana, I wanted him to be dressed in black, more specifically a black hoodie! I basically looked at all the stereotypical things associated with a black gang member and incorporated it into my opening sequence! ... To find an idea that was interesting, I had to find something that everyone could sympathise with not just the direct target audience, so I decided his best friend would have been killed and he wants revenge on the people who prematurely took his life! Teamed up with a good voice over this should be really affective!
RACHELLE NUNOO x

RE: seek revenge.

As a group we decided to create two seperate films, as the original idea we had wasnt progressing very well. And we had some creative differences, but it has taught us alot; that maybe working with friends isnt always a good idea, because you get on with someone socially doesnt necessarily mean that you can work together professionally. So we ended up creating two seperate films, Robyn created "Withdrawal", me and rachelle created "Seek revenge". Me and Rachelle wanted to create a film which reflects the reality of the society we live in, alot of young people feel failed by the system..and our film is concentrating on the hardships of the criminal underclasses. Concentrating on young black males; as we all know black knife crime has recently got alot of media exposure..and so we thought this a relevant issue to convey. Also, we thought it would be effective as young people could relate to it thoroughly, and we all know the young generation makes up a huge proportion of cinema go-ers. We based out inspiration on films such as "Kidulthood", which was a huge success, and has also an effective opening sequence. We even studied the opening sequence in a media lesson.

Robyn's new idea.

Due to little progress made on the second idea, independantly I made a concious effort to ensure we would have enough filming to edit and meet our deadline. I felt the second idea was very limited and the shots didn't flow consistantly and With only two weeks left I was worried that the work wouldn't be ready to be handed in on time. I decided that something actually had to be done towards our film. With a different idea in mind that I'd brainstormed, I rented the camera on my own and filmed some shots myself with a new cast in vain that i would be supported by the rest of my group. I learnt that working with friends isn't always the best idea, which is something that i'll remember when it comes to carrying out the next task. I chose to create the opening title sequence to a thriller due to wanting to discover the process of producing a film. By attempting an opening thriller sequence I was allowing myself to be creative and experiment with various ideas and techniques as well as furthering my knowledge about the world of media. Playing with the camera appealed to me more and I was willing to broaden my skills whilst learning more in depth about editing. I hope to create an opening title sequence that is definatly psychologically thrilling. I want to succeed in making an impressive squence that looks apealing and reflects my camera skills and knowledge, creative ideas and editing techniques.

Robyn Bostock

Old Idea

We started our planning on Psychological thrillers, and gathered ideas together on how we could acheive a good opening sequence. We got some inspiration from different abstractt music videos, such as Rihanna - Disturbia. This was useful as we used some of the shots, costumes and lighting for inspiration. We designed a mind map, with all our ideas summarised together. We planned out and organised what times we were available and a suitable location to shoot. Our plan for our opening sequence; A disturbed girl, who has had a difficult childhood, lost both her parents and is abandoned from a young age. She has a lack of parental guidance and blames her grandmother for leading her a stray. This results in her living her life isoclated in a metal home. However she has her own flat, yet she always seems to have reoccuring relapses and being readmitted to the unit. She is an alcoholic and also takess drugs to numb her pain, she feels like she has nothing left and nothing to live for. Also whilst she was growing up her grandmother blamed her for her parents deaths, and so whenever she would look after the girl she would treat her very spitefully. The opening title sequence ends on a cliff hanger with the girl resenting her grandma and is plotting to kill her. We thought this idea would be easier than we expected. This is because our planning ran smoothly and we had plenty of ideas which we thought would be easy to film and would look effective. However when it came to the actual filming, we realised it was a lot harder to pull our opening sequence together without it looking unrealistic and amateur. We filmed over a period of two full days and two half days but how ever much we tried our overall result failed. The lighting we wanted to use was too dark and the quality was extemly poor. As well as this we were sharing a camera with another group, yet we never recieved the tripod which meant the camera work was shakey and out of all the footage we filmed we were not satified and did not want to use it. This was a real disappointment because all three of us put a lot of time and effort into the filming and included others in the seqence which meant they had also put a lot of their time and effort in for us as well. We didn't let this hinder us and didn't retaliate negatively, instead we rose above this situation and started planning an alternative idea straight away. We sat down together and though of a more simplistic idea which would work better for us and was more realistic for our means. This idea consists of a more fun approach including some elements of our previous idea. The opening sequence involves a young teenage girl 'Ziggy Clements' who lives with her parents but rarely see's them due to her rebellious lifestyle and unbothered attitude towards members of society. The film follows the story of Ziggy's life, highlighting all the good and bad times she experiences including the boy she falls in love with and the troubles she faces. So far our idea has gone to plan and we are satisfied with what we have filmed. We are still working on aspects of the opening title sequence and have considered editing and different ways in which we can make the movie look interesting and appealing. We are still thinking about what we should call our movie and what genre it should be labbeled under.

Michelle Whitney and Robyn Bostock