Music is going to be a key component of my film opening and I have planned to have my brother compose some music to run throughout my film opening. I've asked him to come up with a slow and melodic (yet sad) tune for the parts of the opening with footage and something 'in your face' and dramatic for the titles. He has come up with a melodic melody for my footage but is really struggling to compose something for the titles. I am motivating him to try and come up with something but incase he cannot manage to come up with something then I have planned an alternative.
An act fromKà
I've seen many Cirque du Soleil shows and their 2005 show, Kà, was one of my favourites. In it, there is a song called 'Battlefield' composed by René Dupéré that would be perfect for my film opening. It is very 'in your face' and dramatic and conveys the premonition of a war. I have sent an email to the makers of Cirque du Soleil enquiring as to whether I could use the song 'Battlefield' (if I need it). A copy of my email can be seen below:
Dear members of the Cirque du Soleil team,
First of all, I am a huge fan of the Cirque du Soleil productions. I only wish I could be as talented as the acts I’ve seen both live and on the television. I am currently creating a movie opening for my AS level in Media Studies and I would love to use the song ‘Battlefield’ from the show Kà for my opening credits. It is perfect to give away the mood and the premonition of a coming war that I need for my film. Because René Dupéré has composed the song, I am aware that it is not free for use and so I am asking for your and/or his permission to use this song in my film opening. It is for educational purposes only and will not be published in any way.
It would be appreciated if you could respond as quickly as possible as my deadline is in just under three weeks.
If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me.
Thank you for your time, Evie Calaby, Norfolk, England
Here is the song 'Battlefield' which I may use for my titles:
George Lucas is my one of my favourite directors and because he is so successful (particularly with the best films ever made - Star Wars) I thought that it would be appropriate to research him...
George Walton Lucas, Jr. (born 14th May 1944 in Modesto, California) is an American film producer, screenwriter, director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones. Lucas is one of the American film industry's most financially successful directors/producers, with an estimated net worth of $3.2 billion as of 2011.
Long before Lucas became obsessed with film making, he wanted to be a race-car driver, and he spent most of his high school years racing on the underground circuit at fairgrounds and hanging out at garages. However, a near-fatal accident in his souped-up Autobianchi Bianchina on June 12, 1962, just days before his high school graduation, quickly changed his mind. Instead of racing, he attended Modesto Junior College and later got accepted into a junior college to study anthropology. While taking liberal arts courses, he developed a passion for cinematography and camera tricks. Lucas then transferred to the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. USC was one of the earliest universities to have a school devoted to motion picture film. During the years at USC, George Lucas shared a dorm room with Randal Kleiser. Along with classmates such as Walter Murch, Hal Barwood and John Milius, they became a clique of film students known as The Dirty Dozen. He also became very good friends with fellow acclaimed student filmmaker and future Indiana Jones collaborator, Steven Spielberg. Lucas was deeply influenced by the Filmic Expression course taught at the school by filmmaker Lester Novros which concentrated on the non-narrative elements of Film Form like color, light, movement, space, and time. Another huge inspiration was the Serbian montagist (and dean of the USC Film Department) Slavko Vorkapich, a film theoretician comparable in historical importance to Sergei Eisenstein, who moved to Hollywood to make stunning montage sequences for studio features at MGM, RKO, and Paramount. Vorkapich taught the autonomous nature of the cinematic art form, emphasizing the unique dynamic quality of movement and kinetic energy inherent in motion pictures. Lucas fell madly in love with pure cinema and quickly became prolific at making 16 mm nonstory noncharacter visual tone poems and cinéma vérité with such titles as Look at Life, Herbie, The Emperor, Anyone Lived in a Pretty (how) Town and Filmmaker. He was passionate and interested in camerawork and editing, defining himself as a filmmaker as opposed to being a director, and he loved making abstract visual films that create emotions purely through cinema. After graduating with a bachelor of fine arts in film in 1967, he tried joining the United States Air Force as an officer, but he was immediately turned down because of his numerous speeding tickets. He was later drafted by the Army for military service in Vietnam, but he was exempt from the draft after medical tests showed he had diabetes, the disease that killed his paternal grandfather. In 1967, Lucas re-enrolled as a USC graduate student in film production. Working as a teaching instructor for a class of U.S. Navy students who were being taught documentary cinematography, Lucas directed the short film Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB, which won first prize at the 1967–68 National Student Film Festival, and was later adapted into his first full-length feature film, THX 1138. Lucas was awarded a student scholarship by Warner Brothers to observe and work on the making of a film of his choosing. The film he chose was Finian's Rainbow (1968) which was being directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who at the time was revered among film school students of the time as a cinema graduate who had "made it" in Hollywood. In 1969, George Lucas was one of the camera operators on the classic Rolling Stones concert film ‘Gimme Shelter’. Lucas then created his own company, Lucasfilm, Ltd. and directed ‘American Graffiti’ (1973). His new-found wealth and reputation enabled him to develop a story set in space. Even so, he encountered difficulties getting Star Wars made. It was only because Alan Ladd, Jr. at Fox Studios liked American Graffiti that he forced through a production and distribution deal for the film, which ended up restoring Fox to financial stability after a number of flops. However, Star Wars quickly became the highest-grossing film of all-time, displaced five years later by Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. During the filming of Star Wars, Lucas waived his up-front fee as director and negotiated to own the licensing rights (for novelizations, T-shirts, toys, etc.)—rights which the studio thought were nearly worthless. This decision earned him hundreds of millions of dollars as he was able to directly profit from all the licensed games, toys, and collectibles created for the franchise. This accumulated capital enabled him to finance the sequel himself.
FILMOGRAPHY:
1971 THX 1138
1973 American Graffiti
1977 Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
1979 More American Graffiti
1980 Kagemusha
1980 Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
1981 Body Heat
1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark
1983 Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
1983 Twice Upon a Time
1984 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
1985 Latino
1985 Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
1986 Howard the Duck
1986 Labyrinth
1986 Powaqqatsi
1988 Willow
1988 Tucker: The Man and His Dream
1988 The Land Before Time
1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
1991 Hook
1994 Beverly Hills Cop III
1994 Radioland Murders
1999 Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
2002 Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
2005 Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
2008 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
2008 Star Wars: The Clone Wars
2012 Red Tails
AWARDS:
Lucas has won 24 awards overall. All of his wins and nominations can be viewed here:
Because I am choosing to make a science-fiction film, I thought that it would be a good idea to do some research into the history of science-fiction...
Science-fiction or ‘sci-fi’ has been around in science literature since the early 10th century, and always had a large role in the media industry. Sci-fi deals with the implausible, and attempts to make it sound plausible via science
Fantasy and Sci-fi are often confused, as they both look at the impossible; the difference is that sci-fi being Science-fiction often has a believable or scientific explanation as to what is happening and why, such as aliens from other planets, whereas fantasy often contains unbelievable and very imaginative (yet fun) concepts of magic & portals to other worlds full of fluffy animals.
The norm of sci-fi contains ideas of either the future of computer technology (flying cars, artificial intelligence, spaceships etc) or aliens. One of the first sci-fi movies as we see them today, with evil aliens etc., is ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ (released 28th September 1951).
‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ was directed by Robert Wise and starred Michael Rennie as Klaatu, Patricia Neal as Helen Benson and Hugh Marlowe as Tom Stevens. The whole movie was filmed from 9th April 1951 until 23rd May 1951 and had a budget of just over US$1 million. The film was moderately successful when released, accruing US$1,850,000 in distributors' domestic (U.S. and Canada) rentals. The IMDB plot summary of ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ reads:‘An alien (Klaatu) with his mighty robot (Gort) land their spacecraft on Cold War-era Earth just after the end of World War II. They bring an important message to the planet that Klaatu wishes to tell to representatives of all nations. However, communication turns out to be difficult, so, after learning something about the natives, Klaatu decides on an alternative approach.’ Below is the trailer for 'The Day the Earth Stood Still'.
Most often a Sci-fi movie will be tied in with other genres, Sci-fi is a lot broader than some other genres as any movie can be made a sci-fi, a comedy, or a horror, or a mystery, could just as easily be set in the future or even the modern day and be called a sci-fi, as they can be called a comedy, horror, or mystery.
I decided that I needed an establishing shot for my film to give the audience a sense of location and to tell the audience a little bit about Lia's lifestyle and give them an indication of why she doesn't fit in. I thought that a vertical pan down from the starry night sky to 'her bedroom window' would be an appropriate establishing shot as the stars would give a subtle indication of what was to come and the view of Lia's house would show what kind of environment she has been forced to live in. I used a window on the side of my house instead of the window that my brother shone the lights through because I didn't want to reveal the balcony as I think that the audience would immediately click as to how I incorporated the flashing lights into the scene. I shot from a field adjacent to my house to try and get the vertical pan that I was aiming for. It was a beautiful starry night and there were no clouds what so ever. It was perfect and it was freezing. I wrapped up warm and braved the cold only to fail in my endevours. The camera couldn't pick up the stars so what was meant to be the starry night sky was a dark blue grainy mess. I was not happy....
This failure means that I am going to come up with another idea for my establishing shot but itf all else fails, I will just have to start the film with my original idea.
I think that it would be a good idea to do some interviews with people of my target audience about my film idea and see whether the film sounds interesting to them and whether they think that would be a success or a complete flop. I will pitch the whole film to them individually and then run through the opening of the film in detail and record their responses.
My first interview is with my brother. He is the younger element of my target audience but I suppose that if my film were to be released in the cinema, a lot of teenage boys would see it with their mates as a social thing. My brother generally has a good taste in film (i.e. not rom-com drivel) so I thought that he would be a good person to ask about 'Soul Beneath'. Here's what he had to say (by the way, I'm not sure why the camera seems wobbly as it was sat still on a tripod for the whole interview and try and ignore the annoying slapping - he's a drummer):
Hopefully I will be doing some more interviews soon and I will post them up as soon as possible.
Today I started filming for my final production. My actress got to mine at about 5.15 and we had a thirty minute brief about the character, the script, the camera movements and I answered questions that she had. She had brought with her some interesting clothes that she thought could represent the character of Lia rather well and when she put on all the attire, she looked a lot like the original Lia that I had thought of. She brought with her a black poofy skirt with lots of netting, green leg-warmers and a dark green vest top. I added some blue accessories and black Converse so that I was able to stick to the original colour scheme and keep all the connotations of those colours. When it came to hair, I thought that something a little immature might suit the character and so my mum styled my actress' hair into bunches and I then tied silver ribbons around each bunch into a bow. For Lia's make-up, I decided to have dark blue eyeshadow with black glitter liner on the top lid and black eyeliner on the lower lid. I then extended the line from the lower lid across on of my actress' cheeks so that it expanded into a pattern which I then highlighted with more glitter eyeliner. Overall, she looked pretty weird, and very much a social outcast.
My set looked like a proper bedroom although there were a few problems with where to put everything that I didn't want in shot.
Lighting was another problem. Because it needed to be dark, to then get the lighting right so that it didn't look obvious was very difficult. If it was too dark, the footage was grainy and if it was too light, it didn't look like night time. In the end though, and with the help of my brother, we got the level of light pretty much perfect. Every detail is still visible and yet it is obviously night time. When it came to the flashing lights from outside, my brother (crazily if you ask me) volunteered to go out onto the balcony off the room, into the cold and dark with a powerful torch and shine it into the bedroom. He discovered that using a newspaper to cover and uncover the light beam looked more realistic than turning the torch on and off. Flashing the torch by turning it on and off looked a bit amateurish and the newspaper added a bit of fading and a professional touch to the light. I noticed that when the light shone into the set, it looked like a searchlight. At first, I thought that the light should be more dispersed but then I thought of the connotations of the searchlight image. The outsiders are looking for Lia, waiting to take her away. She's wanted by them. So in the end, I left it as more of a searchlight.
Filming went pretty well. I got a good performance from my brother with the lights and my actress as Lia along with a few outtakes that I can laugh at later. I had to do most shots more than once as I wanted it just right and I could tell that after a while, everyone was getting a little bored of me being so pernickety. However, I managed to get most of the shots done and only have a few more shots and my titles to do. I think that I may need to lengthen the footage a little with some cutaway shots and establishing shots so I will do them another time.
Because I changed the location of the set for my production from my bedroom to my parents' bedroom, I drew out a new set plan to see how my props will work in this location. A drawing of my new set plan is shown below:
I've certainly got enough room to film but my only concerns are about how it will all look in the dark. I'm due to start filming in a few hours so hopefully all will go to plan. I have moved the furniture around and am now beginning to put in my props.
My parents' bedroom before:
My parents' bedroom after (unfortunately, the dents in the carpet where the bed used to be are quite prominant so I may have to adapt my camera shots so that they are not seen):
And this is the balcony that I'm using to my full advantage to shine bright lights through into the set so that they are at a level or slightly higher height to the set and so it should look more realistic.
I've not got long now until it gets dark so I need to put in my last few props and wait for my actress to arrive. I am also going to try out a few camera movements before she gets here so hopefully it won't take as long to shoot as I will know exactly what kind of shots I am after.
I should have a post about how filming went posted within the next few days so hopefully, I won't have to report about any disasters.
Here I am showcasing a few of the pictures from filming. Left you can see Tricia in costume. Granted, the picture isn't very clear but you can see that I managed to stick with the original colour scheme that I wanted (black skirt, green top & blue accessories). I put her hair in bunches to convey Lia's immaturity and used silver ribbon to give an extra childish touch.
To the right you can see the make-up that I decided on. I managed to use my original idea of drawing a strange pattern on the side of her face to show Lia's 'unusualness'. For this I used black eyeliner and a touch of glitter eyeliner so that it glimmered in the light coming from outside.
To the left is a shot of the set with 'Lia' sat at her desk writing her letter. On the board in front of her you can see the newspaper articles that I made to show Lia's interests and commitment to her hobby.
For my film opening, I need to have lots of newspaper articles about aliens and alien-related stories to show Lia's obsession with the extra-terrestrial life forms that could be outside our atmosphere. Because i couldn't find any real newspapers with stories about aliens, I turned to the Internet for stories. I found lots by just looking on Google and found a surprising amount on the BBC website. I printed off several articles that I found onto grey and yellow grainy paper which I found lying around (i thought it would look more authentic than plain white paper) but it looked far too clean cut to be from a newspaper. I ripped around the edges of each article and screwed them up but they still didn't look very realistic. For some reason, I thought that screwing up an article and chewing it would make it look a little more like a newspaper. It tasted disgusting but it actually worked! The paper looks a little more like newspaper paper and the text is a bit smudged like it is in a normal newspaper. This unfortunately meant that I had to chew all of my articles to make them look more authentic. It wasn't pleasant... I've now left them on the windowsill so hopefully the sun will fade them a bit to make them look like Lia has been displaying them for a long time and has therefore been an unusual being for quite a few years.
ACTRESS: I'm almost ready to start filming. I am currently arranging a date with my actress to film and am arranging with her about what she will be wearing and doing in this role. I sent her the script and Lia's character biography so she has a little while to try and understand the character and how I vision the final cut.
LOCATION: I will be using my parents bedroom as Lia's room. It is bigger than my bedroom which will give me more to work with and it has a balcony opposite a wall so that would be perfect for the flashing lights. The lights will actually be level (or even slightly higher) than the room and so it will look more authentic. I am going to have to move a lot of my parents furniture around to make the room how I have planned it to look but my parents have given me permission to ruin their room for the day.
COSTUME: The pictures of the costume that I posted will probably not end up being the final costume as my actress is a different size. I would like to keep the same colours in the final costume as I think that they reflect the personality of my character well. Currently, I am arranging a costume with my actress.
PROPS: I have almost all of the props that I need. I have all of the bedroom furniture required and a fountain pen, paper and school books. All I really need is some magazine articles about extra-terrestrial activity. I can't imagine that I would be able to get real news articles about such things on proper newspaper paper so I will probably end up making my own. I will try and get articles off the Internet and then crease and stain them to try and make them look real and a little decayed to show that Lia has always been different.
LIGHTING: My dad has a powerful 'million candle' torch which he is kindly letting me borrow and my brother has volunteered to operate the torch even in the knowledge that he will be standing outside in the dark for a while.
MUSIC: I need music for both my action and the title sequence and while I have found some music on the Internet from stage shows that would fit well, I am not sure about the rules for using music that has already been released. So, my brother and I were talked about how we could collaborate and produce our own music for my movie. My brother plays guitar and drums and I have a very clear vision of the kind of music I am after so together, we may be able to produce something that fits both the action and the opening credits.
Name: Lia Hurton (In Italian, the name Lia is considered to mean ‘uncertain’ which is perfect for the character of Lia in my film. Because of its meaning and the unusual way in which it is spelt [usually you see ‘Leah’], it gives my character individuality and a sense of uniqueness.)
Age: 18
Hometown: A small village in rural England. (It had to be set in a rural village as I need somewhere where there aren’t a lot of houses so that when I film, the flashing lights won’t disturb anybody. It is set in England, purely because my actress, Tricia, is English and I don’t think that putting on an accent is a good idea as is would probably not flow like a real accent.)
Personality: Lia is an unusual girl with unusual interests. She doesn’t conform to the norm of teenage girls in the sense that they go out, enjoy shopping, getting dressed up and hanging out with their friends. Lia is a loner, alone in her own world. She tends to be in her room studying, but not for school. She has a passion for the worlds beyond ours and is fascinated with the thought of extra-terrestrial life forms roaming the universe. She longs to be away from society and be free to explore her passion, a passion which worries everyone who knows her. It envelopes her life, much to the dismay of her mother who longs for Lia to be normal. Lia is a quiet individual but focused on what she wants and believes in. However, she is also a loving being and longs to find somewhere where she feels that she belongs.
Clothing: Like her personality, Lia’s clothing style is also unique and unusual, some may say weird. She has no sense of fashion and that is clear in her choice of clothing. She mixes and matches random colours that often don’t go; but that reflects her quirky personality. Her look is quirky and laid-back, a style that doesn’t take a lot of effort to achieve. However, I think that there should be an element to the costume that shows that she tries to be like every other girl her age and that she tries to be fashionable.
Below are a few photos of a type of outfit that I think Lia (if she were a real person) would wear.
This is a random mash of clothing from my mum and my wardrobes. I think that it shows a laid-back personality of the character wearing it (in this case, Lia) and I also thought that the colours reflect her state of mind quite well. According to http://crystal-cure.com/color.html, the colours black (for her skirt), blue (for her top), green (for her jumper) and yellow (for her tights) mean the following things:
Black is a concealing colour and is misunderstood. It is said that in times of fear, black contains the energy of the unknown. It is also mysterious, providing a sense of potential and possibility. You dress in black if you want to become inconspicuous.Blue is a calming colour and is the colour of truth and moderation. Blue gives a feeling of distance and therefore, the energy of the colour blue allows us to look beyond and increase our perspective outward.
Green symbolizes self-respect and well-being. It is a healing colour. Green contains the energies of nature, growth and desire to expand or increase. However, the colour green is often linked to jealously. Yellow symbolizes wisdom and brings clarity and awareness. It provides relief from panic, nervousness and exhaustion. I therefore think that these colours in the costume reflect Lia rather well as a character. It subtly lets the audience know almost everything about her character but you, as a viewer, would really have to think deeply about it. I think that this outift for Lia also shows how she is laid-back (with the jumper and t-shirt) as it is a bit frumpy. Yet the skirt with the embroidered hem shows that she tries to make an effort to be girly.
Below you will see how I visualise the set of the opening few minutes of 'Soul Beneath'. It shows the bedroom of the protagonist, Lia, which will be the location for most, if not all, of the opening few minutes. I have shown the layout of the set with how I think the lighting effect will work and in red are where I think I could have various camera shots. Because Lia is an unusual girl and this film would be unusual also (in the sense that it doesn't conform to the mainstream mould), I want to experiment with camera shots and have some that you won't typically see in a mainstream movie. Also, I think that I need a lot of different camera shots that I can cut up during editing so that one shot is not too long and monotonous.
After drawing this plan, I took some photos of the kind of set that I was after. I took the photos of my room and while I don't have the right props yet, all the main things were in the right place as shown on my plan. The main thing that has to be with my set is that the window needs to be behind the desk so that the flashing lights come from behind Lia's head. My room would be ideal to film in but because it is on the first floor instead of the ground floor, it would be very difficult to do the lighting unless someone brave was willing to stand outside, in the dark, on a ladder, turning a very bright torch on and off for a while. I may be able to use my living room if I can rearrange it to look like a bedroom as that is on the ground floor but it would take a lot of work to move out the TV and sofas and bring in a bed and a desk. Also, my living room has a woodburner in it which would probably give away that the location isn't really a bedroom.
This is the first storyboard for my film opening. I’m only showing the main eight frames though I am sure that when it comes to shooting I will add various different frames so that there are not lots of long frames which could make the opening seem boring and monotonous. Also, after drawing the story board, I thought that it would be quite interesting to have some cutaway shots to subtly highlight important props or characters in the film. Maybe I could have a brief shot where the audience see Lia’s mum but I’m not sure yet as I don’t want to give too much away in the opening.Also, i apologise for the terrible drawings.
