We was asked to think of an idea that we could then write a proposal letter about.
Phoenix
Act 1 - Beginning
Dave the woodcutter is out late one night, he lives alone and for the last 13 years he has been in a rut doing the same thing everyday and finding no real joy out of it. He longs to find somebody to love, he finds this when a meteor falls from the stars with a Phoenix in it which makes her immortal.
Act 2 - Middle
Dave now hates that he cannot die and fuelled with hatred of this curse that this girl has placed on him he then attempts to kill her so that he can then also die.
Act 3 - End
after finding out that her life is in danger the Phoenix then runs away from her home and from Dave, she gets lost in the forrest and it catches on fire, Dave runs out to find her after feeling guilty for what he almost did and now tries to save her.
Dear Sir/Madam,
My name is Connor J Sadler and i am here to pitch my idea of a Romantic Drama where the main protagonist falls in love with a woman from beyond the stars.
'Phoenix' will be a great film for an audience of 16+ as the story unravels you find Dave and a girl who was found unconscious during a meteor shower who he called Lucy both fall into a loving relationship, this later leads to problems because Lucy is not only from beyond our world but is a Phoenix and has the power to give immortal life to anybody she falls for, it is because of this that Dave has to watch all his friends and family grow old as he is stuck in the same routine day after day which fuels his hatred for her and his obsession to kill her so he could finally rest in peace, the story ends by Lucy making a dash attempt to run away to try and get away from Dave which leads to the forrest around their home to catch alight as Lucy runs Dave is trapped under a tree and left there to waste away.
The film started with an extreme close up of a persons hand, it is not explained whose hand this is but it is believed to be the Russell Crowe, the eerie music in the background and the way he moves through the fields while feeding his hands through the corn field could imply that he is either remembering back to a time when he was once tending to his fields or he is thinking towards to the future and that would be his own version of Elysium.
The shot is then cut to a medium shot of Russell Crowe, very few dietetic sounds can be heard and it feels as though he is in the middle of an empty field, before walking off Russell looks towards a robin and smirks at it, which could mean that he almost wishes that he was as free as the bird and that he wants to just fly away from everything. As he walks away there is a wide shot of the Roman army he has to command but as he walks through it a lot of the dietetic sounds are muted and all focus is on Russell as he walks through his men, this could be as a way to not drown him out in the noise or as a way to show the real importance of the character by making him the only real sounds that are heard.
As the looming threat of a fight gets closer the music also gets more intense and powerful and keeps building up from when the horseman rides back with his head cut off, it is also important to add that the music dips as Russell goes over to give the cavalry their talk where he says "if you find yourself in a Field of green, you are in Elysium." This could be referencing that first scene that was shown where he runs his hands through a Field.
After when the armies are readying their weapons and lighting their arrows the music progresses, this could be reflected in the movement of the soldiers, as they run around and get themselves ready the music gets more intense with bass notes with some brass coming in when they engage the bandit, for a short moment the music changes and sounds like the theme from 'Pirates of the Caribbean.' As they get ready the cameraman takes a lot of establishing shots so the viewer can really get a feel for how big this conflict really is in comparison to the location. The bass notes give the feeling that a large force is coming towards them while the brass give more of a uniformed feel like how the soldiers stand together unwavering
As the soldiers start to fight the bandits Russel Crowe and his horsemen charge in from behind, the fire illuminating their surroundings in a reddish glow which could show how fierce and dangerous they are at that moment. The camera takes more close shots showing some emotion form the troops and for the remainder uses hand cam as a way of showing how unrefined and hectic the battle is now getting and as a way of trying to get the viewer in the fight itself so they can relate more to the soldiers.
After the battle is over there is a momentary victory chant with brass and horns which is then changed to long and mellow tunes of strings as they remember what they have also lost in this fight, all dietetic sounds are turned down almost as if Russel Crowe is having a hard time of hearing or if it is just to show his relief that it is now over.
In conclusion the opening few minutes of the film 'Gladiator' is very well executed with some very subtle parts which the viewer may never actually understand fully, an important point which i picked up on is that in initial fight in the opening sequence plays out a lot like the movie does but just condensed down, Russel Crowe starts off on his horse as a proud and high ranking person but is soon taken down and left to fight with the rest of the soldiers, after fighting off a few of the bandits he then has his back on his own ally and is about to fight with him but stops himself, a few moments later he is pinned to the ground as a bandit covered in fire runs at him which could be about the religious views at the time with the devil represented with fire and flames which he is spared by later, finally at the end as i mentioned before the chants of the soldiers around him as they had won are faded out which is as if he is having a hard time at hearing or as if he had died which in the movie he dies after accomplishing his final goal and ultimately 'winning the fight.'
50164986 Connor Sadler Level 3 Film and Television
Stage 1 - Preproduction
- Scripting
- Budgeting
- Shooting Schedule
- Getting the Props together
- Scouting out locations
- Getting location permission
Stage 2 - Production
- Directing
- Acting
- Special Effects
- Cinematography
- Makeup/Costumes
- Getting the Props on set
- Continuity
- Lighting
Stage 3 - Post Production
- Editing
- Colour Correction
- Composing
- Foley Sounds
- Visual Effects
- Additional Dialogue Recorders (ADR)
- Distributing
Stage 1 - Scripting
When writing a story it a useful tool to use the 3 Stages when structuring it, these are the Beginning, Middle and End, In more detail they can establish a location and the characters in it.
Beginning
- Equilibrium, Introduce the main location and the main characters
- Goal, Should explain what their goals are
Middle
- Conflict, What is going to stop them achieving their goal
- Dilema, Something happens what disturbs the peace
End
- Resolution, How the film is going to be resolved
Stage 2 - Cinematography
As a group we looked at the types of shots used when planning and shooting a film and the roles a Cinematographer has to do, some common shots that a Cinematographer could use are...
- Long Shot
- Wide Shot
- Establishing Shot
- Full Shot
- Medium Shot
- Medium Close up Shot
- Close up Shot
- Extreme Close up Shot
They can all be used in different ways to show different emotional responses, most often a scene would start with a Long, Wide or Establishing shot which shows the location and lets the viewer know where they are and what is happening, then Full or Medium Shots can be used to show off a character from different angles to give different responses e.g A shot at a high angle looking down on the subject will make them look feeble but from low down and looking up makes them look imposing. Medium, Medium Close up, Close up and Extreme Close ups can be used as the story and scenes build up to give more emotional responses, as the tension builds up the shots often get closer and sometimes faster or slower depending on the situation.
Stage 3 - Composing
We watched the short film "Sign Language" which is a documentary about people who hold up promotional signs by the side of roads and listed the all that needed doing during Preproduction.
Things Needed
- Location Permission
- Costumes
- Shooting Schedule for the right time of day and weather
- Music, Sounds
- Actors
- Theme and Script
- Camera and Cameraman
- Health and Safety
- Budget
- Props
- Lights, if needed
Validation (Film)
After that we watched another short film called "Validation" which was about a man who gave compliments to people and gave them validation on their life instead of parking validation, we looked at how they could of budgeted the film and how they saved money in places.
Budgeting
- Costumes, Charity shops / Ask around to see what people have
- Cars, Borrow or Hire a car
- Equipment, Bring your own / Borrow / Make do with what you have
- Actors, Art Schemes
- Props, Make your own / Art Schemes / Junk Sales
- Road Signs, Make your own or rent a special printer
- Backstage Crew, Art Schemes / Friends
- Extras, Friends / Family / Art Schemes / Random people
- Cameras and Microphones, Borrow or buy your own
- Land Permission, Ask very nicely
The Fallen Soldier
By David Neale, Ellis Bishop, Franky Brown & Connor Sadler
The Fallen Soldier is a romantic drama about 2 people who fall in who fall in love during their campaign in syria, the conflict between these is from their respective armies at war with one another so they are unable to see each other often, they meet as the woman from England is hurt/knocked out and the syrian soldier takes care of him, the woman from England wants to repay the syrian man for what he has done and they meet up a number of times and over time they fall in love.
This film shows how a romantic film is about the conflict within a relationship and how it is overcome or dealt with and how being a "Fish out of Water" creates tension or a dilemma.
After the break we looked back on the films we created and then found other movies that contrasts them in their story so we could see their movie posters and see how they differ. My film The Fallen Soldier is a lot like, Pearl Harbour by Michael Bay and For Whom the Bells Toll by Sam Wood because both are in war zones and puts the main characters life in perspective to what is accually happening around them.
The poster which I created is using the same techniques as Pearl Harbour and For Whom the Bells Toll becuase it has both of the main actors centered and next to eachother, while the background shows a helmet stuck on a rifle which is how they show when a Solider dies or is missing or so I am told. If this was to be made at the bottom I would put the Crew Credits and if I could of gotten better pictures of the 2 characters next to eachother that would of made it look better and really show what the film was about. The red in the titles is ment to give the impression that somebody will eventually die in this by making it blood red.
