Inital ideas of casting of actors, location and props

I need to start thinking about my finished production now so that I can work out a time schedule to get everything done by. I am quite happy with my film opening because it should be quite easy to shoot - i only need one actor, one set and few props.


ACTOR:
To play Lia, I need someone who can act (obviously) and really get into the character of Lia. Lia is a rather unusual individual and so I need someone who can fulfil the quirky need I have for my character and not be embarrassed about the costume I'm going to make her wear. I am using my friend Tricia to play Lia. She does drama, so can therefore act and get into the character's mindset. She isn't easily embarrassed and because we have a good relationship, it won't be awkward for me to ask her to do something differently or for her to ask questions about the character.


SET:
I need to shoot in a bungalow due to the fact that I will need to have someone outside flashing a light into the room, possibly on top of a small stepladder so that the audience can see that the light is coming from above the house - where you would expect a UFO to be. Luckily, Tricia lives in a bungalow so using her bedroom as Lia's bedroom is very possible. Also, she lives close to me so it would also be convenient. If we needed more space, I have another friend who lives in a slightly bigger bungalow. Problems would be that I will probably have to rearrange the rooms as I vision Lia facing away from the window when writing, not side on to the window, which is what it would be if I left the room as it is set up.


PROPS:
-Newspaper articles (print off internet or find actual news articles on UFOs and outsider beings)
-Desk
-Fountain pen
-Paper
-Powerful torch(es)
-Bed
-Chair
-Quirky pictures or ornaments (to show that she is different)
-Clothes (to scatter around the room)


COSTUME:
At the moment, i vision Lia wearing:
-A khaki green short sleeved jumper
-Black leggings
-Either denim skirt or tutu
-Long stripey socks
-Ankle-high Converse


Her hair is plain, hanging limp around her shoulders. On her face is intricate black patterns around her eyes.


CREW:
-Director
-Producer
-Editor
-Cameraperson
-Actor
-Person(s) to hold torch(es) and make it/them flash outside

Script: First Draft

Today in class, Miss Brogan gave us a document which told us about how to layout and write a script. We then pushed on writing our own scripts for our film openings. My first draft is below. I will probably come back to it and edit it many times before I actually shoot as no doubt i'll get new ideas.

“SOUL BENEATH”

FADE IN:

INT. BEDROOM – NIGHT

A hand writing on off-white paper with a FOUNTAIN PEN.

LIA (V.O)

Mum, we both know I don’t belong here.

View of the bedroom. Lia is hunched over at the desk against the back wall. NEWSPAPER ARTICLES are clearly identifiable on the wall though their contents cannot be read at this distance. It is visible that Lia has mid-length brown hair and is wearing a short sleeved khaki jumper. From behind the camera, BRIGHT LIGHTS are slowly flashing and illuminating the articles on the wall.

LIA (V.O)

Normal girls wear make-up and have girly gossip session. Normal girls watch movies together and go out shopping. Normal girls read magazines and flirt with boys. I’m not like that at all. I’ve always known that.

Side shot of Lia. Her red trousers are now visible. Around her head is a neon headband. Flashing LIGHTS are becoming more frequent.

LIA (V.O)

I know why now. And I’ve finally found where I belong.

Close up of the LETTER. Words ‘I’ve finally found where I belong’ highlighted.

Shot from the desk surface looking up at Lia. Her face is decorated in black patterns. Bright lights flashing behind her.

LIA (V.O)

Don’t come looking for me. I’ll be happy there.

Shot back to letter. Lia writes, ‘All my love,Lia xxx’

Shot of the room. Lia gets up from the desk and walks to the camera.

Side shot of Lia walking to the window. The flashing LIGHTS are brighter and more frequent. She smiles to what she sees on the other side of the window. Lights become brighter and so frequent they envelope the scene.

OPENING TITLES

Ident ideas & development

I have been working on creating different idents for my production company – phénomène industrie and been exploring different techniques on After Effects. This process has given me lots to learn on After Effects and will help me when I come to create my opening credits in my final production.

IDENT 1:

The first ident I created, which I have already posted before. I like the transformation of the smiley face into the accents of the production name and I thought that the random smiley face could signify the mysterious and unknown identity of the outsiders in my film opening.

IDENT 2:

For this ident I stuck with the simplistic black and white colour scheme but added a 3D effect to the word  ‘phénomène’ by creating another text layer and putting it slightly off centre of the previous text. I think this depth shows that my production company, and therefore the films I create are different from the norm and can be interpreted in different ways by the audience.

IDENT 3:

Again, for this ident I stuck with the simplistic black and white colour scheme and added a circle which I thought could perhaps signify the moon or planet beings I want to create sci-fi movies. I am not so keen on this ident as I think that the animation is quite amateur and that isn’t the opinion that I want to convey about the types of films I want to make.

IDENT 4:

For this ident, I tried to see how it turned out if I added some colour. While I think that the changing colours look quite cool, I don’t think that it looks very professional or relevant to the types of films I want to create. I think this ident gives off a ‘feel-good’ vibe which the films I hope to create aren’t really ‘feel-good’ movies.

IDENT 5:

My fifth ident is again black and white and very simplistic. While I want to go for the simplistic look, I think that this ident is a bit too simplistic and looks almost amateurish. The animation isn’t very developed and the text is boring and not engaging as it is all one size and one font.

After deciding that my first ident is the best one, I decided to develop it a bit. I added pupils to the eyes to give it a little more personality and had them fade out as the accents moved down over the E’s. I think these changes make it look a little better.

Also, I have decided that I really like the finishing image of the second ident so I will use that image for posters and other things like that while I will use the full animated ident 1 for the start of my films.

Audience Research

In order to gather an idea of what kinds of films people like, I did some research by interviewing a few people about their film preferences. Because my film will probably appeal to older teenage boys more than any other demographic, I mainly interviewed teenage boys but also interviewed a boy younger than my demographic and a woman older than my demographic to give a more generic picture.

Soul Beneath: A Synopsis

Title: Soul Beneath
Genre(s): Sci-fi, action, thriller

Logline: A teen girl, always thought of as strange, gets her wish to leave her home, but with earth-shattering consequences.

Synopsis: ‘Soul Beneath’ tells the story of Lia, an eighteen year old girl living unhappily with only her Father for comfort. Her father earns enough money for himself and Lia to live comfortably and he often treats her to new clothes, but Lia just isn’t interested. Her interests lie in something far more intergalactic.

The film starts with Lia leaving home, leaving a message for her father about how she is different and cannot stay. The audience is left unsure of how she left due to the bright flashing lights from outside her window enveloping the scene and dissolving into the credits. Throughout the film, there are regular flashbacks from Lia’s life showing the audience how she is different from everyone else and they are made to sympathise with Lia. The audience find out that Lia has left her home to travel the stars on a spaceship with extra-terrestrial beings. She finds comfort with them and through their subtle indoctrination methods, Lia is lead to believe that she is an alien born in a human flesh to observe the human race. She is also given the ability of telekinesis from her new ‘family’ and her ability to feel sadness and empathy are removed from her brain. This indoctrination makes Lia despise her own people and she helps to lead a bloody war against the citizens of Earth. This makes the audience torn about what to think of her. The flashbacks provoke sympathy yet they want to see her as a villain due to her violent actions against her ‘loved ones’. When she sees the bloody corpse of her human father, despite the fact that she has been indoctrinated, she mourns over her father, showing that she is still part human. The film ends with her looking angrily towards the sky and insinuating that she shall take revenge for what the extra-terrestrials did to her.

Introduction in detail: The first shot is a close up shot of a hand writing from the left side of the hand. The camera then cuts to a rear view of a girl sitting hunched over at a desk with a slow zoom towards her. The audience can see newspaper articles pinned to the wall behind her desk though the content of these articles cannot be made out. A voiceover (the audience presumes it is the girl) commences of a girl’s voice reading what sounds like a letter. She is explaining to somebody that she is different, she cannot stay where she is. She is saying how she always knew that she was different somehow and now she finally knows why. As the voiceover is going on, the camera cuts to a shot in front of the girl as she is writing and the audience can see flashing bright lights through the window behind the girl, there are a few cuts between shots to close ups of the girl’s written words on the piece of paper to be a subtle indicator to certain significant points to the later story. Once the voice over has finished, the flashing lights are much more frequent and the camera follows the girl as she walks over to the window. She looks out and smiles, though what she is smiling at is unsure to the audience. Then, the flashing lights get so frequent that the individual flashes merge until the screen is totally white, obscuring the scene, and the titles commence. I’m not quite sure yet how I will do the titles, i.e. will they be in a style that gives away little indications to the story or have them so they give nothing away and the audience are left with a cliff-hanger that (hopefully) wants to make them watch the rest of the film.

Film Audiences

Objectives: to understand the in which audiences are classified and understand different approached to concepts of audience (audience theory).

We can catagorise audiences into groups based on:

-          Age – it sounds obvious, but a film with lots of talking animals and cheesy musical numbers won’t appeal to an older, more mature audience in the same war that a war film won’t attract the attention of a young child.

-          Gender – it is really stereotypical to say this but men tend to like action and thriller films while females like romantic-comedies and feel-good movies. There are, of course, exceptions to the stereotypes such as myself but unfortunately, the industry tend to base their audience profiles on stereotypical ideas.

-          Class – the film industry have two classes of audience based on their economic status, ABC1s and C2DEs. The ABC1s are the more middle to upper class people who have more money to spend on leisure activites. The C2DEs are lower middle to working class people who have less money to spend on leisure activities. Abraham Manslow defined the class system by a hierarchy of needs with people earning less income dubbed less likely to see films or more independent films and people earning more income dubbes more likely to see films and more experimental movies.

-          Stereotypical groups (chavs, emos, goths, indie kids etc.) – depending on your social status, there will be certain types of films that you will not see. For example, goths don’t tend to watch musical films.

-          Educational or leisurely films will be watched by different people – e.g. a documentary may be used more in a classroom than a horror film

-          Culture/beliefs – Culture and beliefs hold a big influence into what people will go to see, for example, a devout Christian probably won’t watch films like Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels due to the large amount of swearing and use of violence.

-          Personality – a person’s film taste is based on their personality usually. Happy, bubbly people may like rom-coms, funny, down to earth people may like thrillers etc.

After learning about how audiences are catagorised, we (in our pairs) had to come up with a couple of audience profiles based on the different stereotypes of people that the film industry uses.

-          Actualisers: successful, wealthy, dynamic people for whom image is important as an expression of their individuality.

-          Fulfilleds: mature people who are well-educated professionals. This group values order, knowledge and responsibilities.

-          Achievers: successful and career-orientated people. They are politically conservative and value the status quo. Image is important to them and they tend to buy established, well known products.

-          Experiencers: young, impulsive and rebellious. They like new products and styles but soon tire of them and search for new novelties. They spend as much as they can afford on clothing, fast food, music and films.

-          Believers: conservative people who believe in traditional institutions, such as the Church, and in the importance of the family and community. Their lifestyle tends to be very routine. Their income is small but sufficient.

-          Strivers: tend to be unsure of themselves and have a low income. They are striving for approval from others, which the fell they could gain by ownership of possessions, most of which they can’t afford.

-          Makers: do-it-yourself enthusiasts and tend to live a conventional family life.

-          Strugglers: on the lowest income and tend to be loyal to their favourite brands.

Audience profile: CATHY: a believer

An idea of Cathy with husband, John

Cathy, 45, is a mother of four and lives with her 49 year old husband, John in a small village away from bigger towns. John runs a small but successful shop in their village selling organic produce to the villagers while Cathy volunteers in her children’s primary school as a classroom assistant. Because her children are young, Cathy has to get up at half past six every morning to make her children’s lunches and pack their bags before sitting down at the table and eating Bran Flakes while reading the EDP to catch up on local events. While not volunteering, Cathy likes to knit and she is currently making new cardigans for her children to wear to school in the cold winter weather. She is Christian but not devout though tries to go to church with the rest of her family at least once a month. Now and then, she will treat herself to a copy of Good Housekeeping magazine to read when she gets some alone time at home.

Audience profile: LAURA: an experiencer

An idea of Laura

Laura, 19, is a first year fashion student at the University of Teesside in Middlesbrough. She is very fashion conscious, sociable and likes nothing more than going out with her friends to nightclubs in the city. Because she likes to maintain the image of the latest fashion, Laura doesn’t save up much money and is rather reliant on her parents. She will go to the cinema a few times a month with her group of girlfriends to watch the latest rom-com or feel-good movie.

Because I have a basic idea of what my final production is going to be like, I made an audience profile for what the audience of my films may be like.

Audience profile: DYLAN

An idea of Dylan

Dylan, 25, is a graduate music student from the University of East Anglia. He now works full time as a shop assistant in a music shop in Anglia Square in Norwich and this job is enough to pay his share of the rent of his flat, food and other necessities and still have a little left over. He lives in a flat in Norwich with his girlfriend Sarah who is training to become a primary school teacher. They met at University and have now been together for four years. Dylan goes to the cinema twice a month, once with his mates and once with Sarah. Him and his mates go to Cinema City more than Odeon as they like to watch more independent films and are not concerned about whether a film is confined to a genre or not. With Sarah, Dylan will usually go to Odeon or Vue as Sarah is a far more mainstream fan though he will sometimes take her to see something less mainstream.

Phénomène industrie

I have created my logo for my Production company and animated it using After Effects. I’m not sure make of my company name being French when I am English but I thought that it would be unusual and different, just like my films would hopefully be. I think the French is also more elegant and I have a dream that one day if I make it big in the film industry, I will direct a French film. I chose to keep the logo a simple black and white that will hopefully reflect the simple style of film that I will make. Below is the first animation for my Production Company. I quite like it but will probably make more in the future before I edit together my final production to see which one is better and best reflects what kinds of films I hope to make.

Collaborative Creative Writing

In class with Mr Cole on Friday, without being told why, we had to arrange ourselves in age order. We then sat down and were told to write the opening paragraph of a story starting with the line ‘Ross, a 36 year old male woke and looked around him, he was…’ Apparently being in age order was purely to mix us all up so we wouldn’t be with people we were usually with though that didn’t really work as I was next to Jake who I am usually only two seats away from. Once done with our opening paragraph, we had to pass it around the room every 2-3 minutes with each person in the chain adding something to the story. The first person had to develop the description of the character Ross. The second person had to introduce a prop. The third person had to introduce another character. The fourth person had to create dialogue and the fourth had to end the story. Here is what myself and my class mates created.

Ross, a 36 year old male woke and looked around him, he was…

ME: somewhere he had never been before. The light was bright and hurt his eyes. When his chocolate eyes adjusted to the light, he saw that he was in a hospital. He looked down at himself on the white hospital bed to see his tall and skinny form covered in wires. Either the bed was very small or he had grown somewhat as his legs, from his knees downwards, were hanging off the edge of the bed. Ross’ face was long and thin, his skin pale and his short curly hair so dark brown it was almost black. He sat up, wincing at the pain in his chest before looking down at the floor. His widened eyes were met by the gaze of a small creature standing at about two and a half foot tall. Its skin was bright purple.

ALICE: The creature outstretched his arm, in his webbed hands only the size of a small child’s, is a sphere glowing a soft white light. The man reached down, his quizzical personality wanting to touch it, a magnetic field attracting him to this strange ball.

CAITLYN: The purple creature started to walk towards him and pressed a button behind his head. A door opened and a woman was pushed through the door. Ross looked at her - she looked vaguely familiar. She looked pleased to see him and ran over to him. He just stared blankly at her. She embraced him; he just sat there unable to move. “Ross! I’ve been so worried about you.” She said. Ross tried to reply but he just spoke in French. “Bonjour, comment t’appelle tu?” She stared at him in amazement.

GEORGIE: Speechless, and having no idea what to say, the woman passed a phone to Ross, with the intention of getting Ross to communicate with his family. A young voice at the other end of the phone said “Ross, I’ve missed you. Are you ok?” To which Ross replied “Yo no entendies.” (Spanish for ‘I don’t understand’).

MEGAN: He had no idea where these languages were coming from or how he could fluently speak them. The purple creature took the phone from Ross’ hand as Ross gawped in amazement and confusion. The creature hung up the phone and placed it on a nearby surface. Ross slowly stood up, his gangly legs weak at first, but able to hold up his stick-like body. His curiosity got the better of him as he reached forward to touch the glowing sphere in the palm of the creature’s webbed hand. He touched it lightly with his finger first but nothing seemed to stop him delving further and further in. Soon, his entire arm was gone inside this shining ball. With a quick and random ‘Aufwiedersehn’, he disappeared entirely.

My Perception

My perception of my opening was rather different than the perception of the others. While they developed a story about what seemed like Ross being a mental patient and having the main focus on him, while having the small creature as a side normality. I say this because they didn’t really highlight the creature in the story, he was just, sort of there almost unnecessarily. I pictured having the focus more on the creature than on Ross and how it appears that Ross is an outsider of a distant planet/ship/race etc when it turns out to be the creature that is an outsider on earth. My opening paragraph made it seem as though Ross was the subject of tests, what with wires attached to him but I visioned having the creature as the real subject of an experiment. I have written out my version of the whole story below.

Ross, a 36 year old male woke and looked around him, he was somewhere he had never been before. The light was bright and hurt his eyes. When his chocolate eyes adjusted to the light, he saw that he was in a hospital. He looked down at himself on the white hospital bed to see his tall and skinny form almost naked apart from a pair of shorts and covered in wires. Either the bed was very small or he had grown somewhat as his legs, from his knees downwards, were hanging off the edge of the bed. Ross’ face was long and thin, his skin pale and his short curly hair so dark brown it was almost black. He sat up, wincing at the pain in his chest before looking down at the floor. His widened eyes were met by the gaze of a small creature standing at about two and a half foot tall. Its skin was bright purple.

The creature’s large green eyes blinked at him like a playful puppy’s might do and Ross noticed the small syringe the creature held in its strangely human-like hand. The creature stepped towards Ross, climbed onto the bed and put a hand on Ross’ chest. He raised the syringe and looked at Ross. Ross went to question the creature’s actions but something made him stop. The creature nodded to Ross and proceeded to puncture the syringe into Ross’ chest. The creature drew a clear liquid from Ross’ body into the syringe, removed it and then placed the tip of his finger over the puncture in Ross’ skin. The creature’s eyes flashed silver and when he removed his fingertip, it was as if the syringe had never entered Ross’ chest. The creature nodded to Ross again and put the blood into a golden tube. Ross noticed that the agonising pain in his chest was now gone.

A door in the corner of the room opened and another creature, just like the one who had just healed Ross only this one was blue, entered the room. On closer inspection, Ross noticed that the blue creature has strange markings all over its skin, as if it had been cut and stabbed many times. The blue creature hurried over to the purple creature and said something in a language that Ross didn’t understand. The purple creature replied and before they could get into a conversation, Ross tried to speak to them. “Who are you?”

The two creatures looked to each other and the blue one nodded to the purple one. “I am Resgram and this is Necrop. We are creatures of the Nmodli. We don’t wish to harm you Ross, we only ask for protection.” Ross raised an eyebrow but continued to question them. “Protection? From what?” “Your people of power. They are coming after us.” “Why?” “We escaped from their testing facilities.” “So that’s why you have all those markings.” Ross said to the blue creature. “We were both tested on frequently. My scars don’t show because I have healing abilities. She has the power to move objects with her mind. You people want to extract these powers from us and plant them in humans but we escaped.” Said the purple creature, Resgram. “So where are we now? And how am I here?” Ross asked. The blue creature’s eyes flashed and the white lifted from the room. “We are in your living room.” Said Resgram.

A knock at the door stopped the conversation. Ross looked to the door. “Ross Hartley, CIA open this door or we will break it down.” Said the voice behind the door. Ross then looked to where the creatures had been standing but they were no longer there. Suddenly, the pain in his chest returned and he fell flat onto the bed, the darkness claiming his consciousness and his gangly legs dangling off the end of the bed.

Evaluation

I visioned a loop like story structure and bizarrely, after we got our stories back from the person who finished our story, Mr Cole showed us a video called ‘Loop’ in which a man wakes up, drops his tea seeing the outline of where a body was, slips on the liquid, bangs his head on a table and ends up within the outline. Needless to say I was a little spooked.

I don’t really think that this would make a good short film because I think that it is a bit too strange for modern mainstream audiences. Plus, to be honest, it’s just a kooky little story a weird girl came up with in a minute of class time. I didn’t really think it through or develop anything. If a short film had to be created using one of the two stories above, I think the collaborative story would work better mainly because it’s slightly more plausible than my idea.

This exercise was good as I had fun creating different ideas for different stories and it’s taught me that collaborative working can be really good and helpful for producing more successful work as if you work with someone else, not only will you get more ideas but you will also have a critic for your own ideas which I really like to have as it helps to separate my mad ideas from my even madder before I reel off on a totally ridiculous idea that would never work.

IMDb's Top 250

In class with Mr Cole, we looked at IMDb's list of the top 250 films. We then had to highlight the film titles that we had already seen. I went a little step further and also highlighted the film titles that I wanted to watch at some point in the future.

The films I have already seen are in brown and the films I want to watch in the future are in blue.

RANK	TITLE
1	The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
2	The Godfather (1972)
3	The Godfather: Part II (1974)
4	The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
5	Pulp Fiction (1994)
6	12 Angry Men (1957)
7	Schindler's List (1993)
8	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
9	The Dark Knight (2008)
10	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
11	Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
12	Inception (2010)
13	Fight Club (1999)
14	Seven Samurai (1954)
15	Goodfellas (1990)
16	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
17	Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
18	City of God (2002)
19	Casablanca (1942)
20	Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
21	The Matrix (1999)
22	Rear Window (1954)
23	Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
24	The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
25	The Usual Suspects (1995)
26	Psycho (1960)
27	Se7en (1995)
28	Forrest Gump (1994)
29	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
30	It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
31	Memento (2000)
32	Sunset Boulevard (1950)
33	Leon (1994)
34	Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
35	Apocalypse Now (1979)
36	American History X (1998)
37	North by Northwest (1959)
38	Citizen Kane (1941)
39	Toy Story 3 (2010)
40	American Beauty (1999)
41	Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
42	Saving Private Ryan (1998)
43	Taxi Driver (1976)
44	Alien (1979)
45	Spirited Away (2001)
46	Vertigo (1958)
47	City Lights (1931)
48	The Shining (1980)
49	Paths of Glory (1957)
50	Amelie (2001)
51	The Pianist (2002)
52	M (1931)
53	WALL·E (2008)
54	Double Indemnity (1944)
55	The Departed (2006)
56	The Lives of Others (2006)
57	A Clockwork Orange (1971)
58	Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
59	Aliens (1986)
60	To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
61	Modern Times (1936)
62	Requiem for a Dream (2000)
63	Life Is Beautiful (1997)
64	Das Boot (1981)
65	Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
66	Back to the Future (1985)
67	Reservoir Dogs (1992)
68	The Third Man (1949)
69	L.A. Confidential (1997)
70	The Prestige (2006)
71	Chinatown (1974)
72	The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
73	Cinema Paradiso (1988)
74	The Green Mile (1999)
75	Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974)
76	Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
77	Rashomon (1950)
78	The Great Dictator (1940)
79	Raging Bull (1980)
80	Amadeus (1984)
81	Full Metal Jacket (1987)
82	Some Like It Hot (1959)
83	Singin' in the Rain (1952)
84	Gladiator (2000)
85	All About Eve (1950)
86	Bicycle Thieves (1948)
87	The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
88	Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
89	Braveheart (1995)
90	2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
91	Metropolis (1927)
92	Oldboy (2003)
93	The Apartment (1960)
94	Unforgiven (1992)
95	Downfall (2004)
96	The Sting (1973)
97	Inglourious Basterds (2009)
98	Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
99	Princess Mononoke (1997)
100	Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
101	Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
102	The Elephant Man (1980)
103	Gran Torino (2008)
104	Up (2009)
105	The Maltese Falcon (1941)
106	On the Waterfront (1954)
107	Die Hard (1988)
108	Rebecca (1940)
109	The Great Escape (1963)
110	The Seventh Seal (1957)
111	Batman Begins (2005)
112	Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
113	The Lion King (1994)
114	Sin City (2005)
115	Yojimbo (1961)
116	Heat (1995)
117	For a Few Dollars More (1965)
118	The General (1926)
119	Blade Runner (1982)
120	Fargo (1996)
121	Black Swan (2010)
122	Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
123	Snatch. (2000)
124	Ran (1985)
125	Wild Strawberries (1957)
126	The King's Speech (2010)
127	Jaws (1975)
128	Hotel Rwanda (2004)
129	Touch of Evil (1958)
130	No Country for Old Men (2007)
131	The Big Lebowski (1998)
132	The Wizard of Oz (1939)
133	Toy Story (1995)
134	The Deer Hunter (1978)
135	The Sixth Sense (1999)
136	Cool Hand Luke (1967)
137	It Happened One Night (1934)
138	Annie Hall (1977)
139	Strangers on a Train (1951)
140	Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
141	Scarface (1983)
142	Platoon (1986)
143	Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
144	High Noon (1952)
145	Drive (2011)
146	Donnie Darko (2001)
147	Ikiru (1952)
148	Into the Wild (2007)
149	Trainspotting (1996)
150	A Separation (2011)
151	The Gold Rush (1925)
152	Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
153	The Wages of Fear (1953)
154	The Kid (1921)
155	Million Dollar Baby (2004)
156	Notorious (1946)
157	The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
158	Gone with the Wind (1939)
159	There Will Be Blood (2007)
160	The Secret in Their Eyes (2009)
161	Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
162	Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
163	Amores Perros (2000)
164	The Thing (1982)
165	Groundhog Day (1993)
166	Life of Brian (1979)
167	Casino (1995)
168	Ben-Hur (1959)
169	Finding Nemo (2003)
170	The Graduate (1967)
171	The Big Sleep (1946)
172	The Terminator (1984)
173	District 9 (2009)
174	The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
175	Les Diaboliques (1955)
176	Stand by Me (1986)
177	The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
178	How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
179	My Neighbour Totoro (1988)
180	V for Vendetta (2006)
181	Twelve Monkeys (1995)
182	Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
183	The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
184	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)
185	Good Will Hunting (1997)
186	Judgement at Nuremberg (1961)
187	Gandhi (1982)
188	Network (1976)
189	The Wrestler (2008)
190	The Night of the Hunter (1955)
191	The 400 Blows (1959)
192	Mary and Max (2009)
193	The Battle of Algiers (1966)
194	8½ (1963)
195	The Princess Bride (1987)
196	The Killing (1956)
197	Ratatouille (2007)
198	Dial M for Murder (1954)
199	Persona (1966)
200	The Hustler (1961)
201	La Strada (1954)
202	Avatar (2009)
203	Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
204	The Exorcist (1973)
205	The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
206	Star Trek (2009)
207	The Wild Bunch (1969)
208	A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
209	Stalag 17 (1953)
210	Fanny and Alexander (1982)
211	The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
212	Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
213	Barry Lyndon (1975)
214	Rocky (1976)
215	Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
216	The Truman Show (1998)
217	All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
218	Sherlock Jr. (1924)
219	Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (2010)
220	Mystic River (2003)
221	The Incredibles (2004)
222	Let the Right One In (2008)
223	Rosemary's Baby (1968)
224	In Bruges (2008)
225	Nights of Cabiria (1957)
226	Infernal Affairs (2002)
227	Roman Holiday (1953)
228	Magnolia (1999)
229	Festen (1998)
230	Big Fish (2003)
231	Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
232	Rope (1948)
233	Ed Wood (1994)
234	Manhattan (1979)
235	The Social Network (2010)
236	The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
237	A Beautiful Mind (2001)
238	Ip Man (2008)
239	Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
240	Shutter Island (2010)
241	Tokyo Story (1953)
242	Stalker (1979)
243	Children of Men (2006)
244	Monsters, Inc. (2001)
245	Patton (1970)
246	Sleuth (1972)
247	Rain Man (1988)
248	Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
249	Beauty and the Beast (1991)
250	Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring (2003)

I have seen 55 films out of the top 250 which I don't think is too bad but I still have a lot of film viewing to do!