Final Plot Narrative

We have changed our plot narrative for the last time finally. We had to sort out a lot of issues which we had due to time restrictions and getting permission. This is the final one and which we hope to do on the day. Some of the final plot narrative are the same as the previous ones but bits of it have been slightly changed.

The thriller starts with a oldish looking boy placing the package with the poison in it into a letter box which is attached to the wall. 

He looks around as he opens the letter box to place it inside and then walks off looking around at all times. Then an older man, middle aged, pulls up in a car. Doesn't turn the engine off as he wants to show that he isn't stopping, opens the letter box, takes the package and drives off at a rapid speed.

The man who collected the poison from the letter box is now sat in a cafe looking around consciously.  There are a few other people sat around but not with him. He then looks around before pulling the package out of his coat. He places it on the table. When the waiter comes over to take away his empty coffee cup he places the package onto the tray.

The waiter then goes to the other people sat in the cafe, one being another young looking boy and another being a middle aged man with his back to the camera. When he goes over to him he leaves the tray on the table and the oldish looking boy looks around before placing it into his jacket.

The older looking boy then goes off with the package. He places it onto a car tyre confidently. Then another slightly older looking but still young man comes along and picks up the package off the tyre. He then carries on walking until he reaches the kitchen.

He walks in the back entrance of the kitchen to shake hands with the chef. The chef is already preparing the food. He then opens the package and reveals the poison inside. We have decided that to make it clear to the audience that it's poison we shall use tik taks as they then look like tablets. 

The chef will then crush them into food, we will be soup, stir it and give it to the waiter to take to the table. We will finish it here. Left on a cliff hanger.

Filming Locations for Shere Vice

We had at the very beginning of our meetings a rough idea of where we wanted to film our tittle sequence and why we wanted to film there. We had to re-think a few things due to getting permission to film there, it going dark early and the amount of time we had to film. 

Our first location which we are going to use in our tittle sequence is one of the Hurtwood House boarding houses, Peaslake. We are using this because it has a letter box there and its the type which hangs on the side of the wall, this means that the audience will be able to see clearly what is happening, We are also going to start the passovers from here. This is where we are going to have one of our actors 'Adam' drive off in his car with the package inside it.

Our second location will be the pub which we have agreed since the beginning 'The William Bray'. This hasn't been a problem as the daughter of the owner is in our group. We are going to use the kitchen there and the restaurant which is the main scene in our sequence. We can also use the outside of the pub as a cafe which is perfect as then we don't need another location. This helps as we are very tight for time. Shere village which is where the pub is, is only about 5/10 minutes away from Peaslake which means that we won't waste time driving around.

The third location is our school. We used this for one of the passovers, where the package is going to be placed on a car tyre.  You can see this passover very clearly which makes it easy for the audience to understand. It also looks very realistic. We didn't have to get permission for this either which meant not much had to be prepared to film this scene in our tittle sequence. 

Rough copy of our tittle sequence.

This is a rough copy of a tittle sequence which we have edited. It is very very ruff but it gives the basic outline of the story and the order of how we would like it to go. We have had to use people, us, as the motorbike and the continuity is very very bad. We realise this though but it was just to see how the story line would look. It has also taught us that we need to keep a very special eye on continuity on the actual day of the shoot. You don't actually realise what a big part it plays until you see it when it goes wrong. We have also put music into this but we are not sure what type of music we want to use in the real thing but it will most likely be up beat mainstream music. We will try and keep our real tittle sequence along the same lines as this as we like it but it just needs a lot of work.

Narative Events and Basic Camera Work:Updated

 As we were not able to film in the corner shop we had to rethink and adjust the beginning of the title sequence. Consequently we had to re write our narrative:

• Over the shoulder shot of the post man approaching the door and posting a letter through the flap.
• Cuts to the opposite side of the door inside to see the letter fall to the floor using a close up
• Cuts to over the shoulder shot of a man standing at the window peering past the curtains, watching the post man leave through the gate.
• Camera follows the unknown man to the door where he stops and looks down at the letter.
• Imediately cuts to close up of the mans feet next to the letter, he bends down to pick it up
• The man then leaves the house with the letter, displayed by an over the shoulder shot that shows the door slam shut behind him.
• Wide shot of the man crossing the road suspiciously with the letter in his hand. However behind the man there is the spy getting into his car (crossover point). Both men are oblivious of one another.
• An over the shoulder shot shows the man approaching a cafe coffee table where two old men are sat playing cards, they greet the man and he sits down with them.
• Wide shot shows the three men sitting at a coffee table.
• Cuts to close up of the unkown man passing the letter across the table to another old man.
• Cuts once again to wide shot of the old man passing the letter behind him to an oncomer. This oncomer is a young thuggish looking man.
• The thug walks onto a crowded street surrounded by lots of people. An over the shoulder shot of the thug portrays a biker man in leathers. The biker is in focus but all the people around him are out of focus, this ensures that he stands out.
• Cross cuts to the spy on his was to the restaurant. Wide shot of the car passing, short time in the frame.
• Cuts once again to the view of the spy from the drivers seat of the car looking over the bonet (filmed with a go-pro camera).
• Changes back to the passover taking place on the busy street between the biker and the thug. Mid shot shows the letter pass from the thug to the biker, who imediately puts it in his leather acket pocket.
• Over the shoulder shot of the biker shows him walking towards his motorbike which is in focus.
• A mid shot of the biker as he accelarates off on his bike.
• Cross cuts back to wide shot of the spy walking into the restaurant showing his car parked behind him.
• Mid shot shows the spy being shown to his table and sitting down.
• Over the shoulder shot of the waiter walking towards the spy sitting at the table.
• Cross cuts back to the biker entering a back ally on his motorbike with wide shot.
• Mid shot of biker walking through a door at the back of the restaurant
• Wide shot of the biker being greeted by the head chef of the restaurant. The biker withdraws the letter from inside his jacket and passes it to the chef, leaves.
• The chef walks to the counter in the kitchen where all the freshly cooked food is. This is shown by another wide shot.
• Extreme close up on the envelope as he opens it up and removes the tube of poison.
• Close up onto plate of food as the chef pours the crystals (poison) onto the food.
• Wide shot shows the waiter swiftly pick up the plate of food and walk through the kitchen doors out into the main restaurant.
• Mid shot shows the waiter placing the plate of food onto the spys table.
• Close up on the plate of food. The food is in focus evrything around it is not.
• Mid shot of the spy taking his first mouthfull of the food. The camera follows the food into his mouth.
• Mid shot shows the spy look up at the chef standing at the counter as he realises something is wrong. The chef smirks at him and turns to go.
• Cuts back to mid shot of the spys face showing his sudden distress.
• Wide shot from the spys point of view shows his vision go blurry and he passes out.
• Titles begin to come up.

Sorting Out Issues for Filming

We have been discussing as a group about all of the filming issues. However, there inst many but  our main issue with filming there is that when filming we may be disturbing the business by setting up the cameras, lighting and having the teachers, actors and ourselves on site. This would mean that we would take up quite a significant amount of the pub consequently would be stopping more customers coming into the pub and this would ultimately frustrate the owner.

As a result we have decided that our teacher Adam will call the owner of the pub and confirm that its still okay for us to film and to establish a time in which to film at so that we don't end up upsetting anyone at the pub, so we can get on with our filming swiftly and leave. We have also decided between us that we will go and set up the day before filming as if we don't get as organised as possible the whole process is going to take a lot longer and we have to take in to consideration that we only have a day to film. For example the day before we will load up the van with the cameras, lights, props etc.

This is the dining area at the William Bray in Shere. It is reasonably small and not particularly open so it is important that we plan out where exactly we are going to put all the equipment. When we are filming we have to remember that it gets dark around 4 30 which means that we need to be quick and efficient.

Updated Plot Narrative

The thriller starts with a man delivering a letter though a home letterbox. 

The letter has the poison in it and the audience will begin to recognise that this is an important package as it makes its journey. The man inside the house then goes to the window to check who the man delivering the package is and see's that he has already departed. Bending down to pick the letter up, he picks it up and leaves the house.

 As he is leaving the house, a few steps down the road, we see the ‘spy’ behind him getting into his car, and leaving the location, this is over the shoulder of the man holding the package, showing that he has not seen it. He then continues on to a café further down the road, but in sight. The man carrying the parcel near the café and joins two elderly men playing cards, before anything is said; he slides the envelope across the table to the man on his right. Then an on comer (random man) passes behind the elderly man whose just received the envelope. The elderly man lowers his arm with the envelope in it behind him and the on comer takes it out of his hand. He then turns a corner onto a busy street.

The camera then flicks from the guy walking along the street to the spy driving in the car. Cutting back to the street shop, a man dressed in leather starts to approach drawing closer to the man with the package. Until they purposely collide with each other suggesting a pass over. The camera then follows the man dressed in leather near to his bike, mount it and drive away. Camera follows the road that the bike is on.

The camera cross cuts again to the ‘spy’ leaving his car and entering the restaurant. The camera follows the man through to the restaurant, sits, and a waiter approaches and takes his order.

Camera then cuts back to the man on his bike turning a corner down a back alley; he dismounts his bike, and approaches the back entrance to what appears to be a restaurant. He enters a kitchen area, being greeted by a large cook, through a handshake, the envelope is exchanged.

We then flick back to the spy walking into the restaurant. He walks into the restaurant and is given a seat at his own table. The waiter comes and takes his order and then goes to the kitchen. The chef is in the kitchen organising all of the food and we see him put the poison on top of the food when it’s cooked. The other cooks aren’t aware of this,and neither is the waiter, as they don’t see. 

The waiter then collects the food from the kitchen and serves it to the spy. The audience can then see him eating the food. In the corner of the spy’s eye he can see the chef and realises that he shouldn’t eat anymore because of the facial reaction he was given and attempts to stand up. He can’t make it and his vision goes all blurry and we see this through the camera use. We end our prelim with the title appearing after its blurred.

Changing our idea AGAIN!

As we carried on thinking about our shop issue, we came up with the perfect idea. We decided that instead of using a cigarette packet we should package the poison up in a envelope. This will then make the audience wonder what the package contains, which will makes them ask questions! We also thought that one of the actors taking part in the passover could put the package into a letter box. This would also help with the issue of the shop. This  makes it easier to film and also it's a lot easier to get hold of a post box rather than a shop. So we have agreed as a group that this is the best idea and that we would like to take this idea further and use it in the tittle sequence.

Where we are going to film our tittle sequence

We have now got to really think about where we want our prelim to take part. We need to actually think about where its suitable to film. We have come up with lots of big and wonderful ideas but filming them is an issue. This is due to the places being public and we will have to get lots of permission to film, which is hard for us to do. To get ourselves out of this situation we have decided to change the beginning part of our tittle sequence slightly.

One of our group members Mariella has a family restaurant in Shere, which is perfect. We have already decided that we are going to use this. It's not the pub which is an issue, its filming in places such as the shop and be able to film on a busy street. We had decided to use a shop at the very start of our prelim but this is a hassle and so we are now currently coming up with ideas to change this.

So our definite places we are going to film are:
The William Bray pub, Shere - Where poison happens, used as cafe.
Radnor Road - Change over, motorbike and cars driving.
Cranleigh high street - walking change over’s

Shop Issue

At first we had the idea that we would be filming inside a shop in Shere and that this would be part of the changeover. We never thought of the problems that we might experience when we were discussing using it. If we had decided to use the shop we would of had to of written a letter asking permission to film. We haven’t had much time to do this and we were also worried that they may not reply in time. As we would have needed to use the till and possibly a packet of cigarettes it would have made it far more complicated for us. 

We have changed it so we don't have this problem anymore. We are currently thinking as a group what would be a better idea. We also think that using a packet of cigarettes should be scrapped.

Down the streets of Shere

We have decided to use a range rover for our change over’s and for the very beginning of our tittle sequence. We thought this was a good choice of car, as it looks slick. This also makes the man look very important. The only difference is that we are going to use a normal grey range rover so slightly different to the one in the video. 

We thought we would use this car as it signifies that he has a wealthy and important background. We use another signifier in our tittle sequence. The main guy who gets poisoned is going to be wearing a suit, which shows his importance. We also want him to have a driver instead of driving his own car. One of the main reasons for this is we wouldn't be able to get a young person to drive a range rover because of insurance issues. 

New ideas and changes

Today we discussed our tittle sequence again thinking about the new research we had done. We then decided that there are still many ways to improve upon it. We thought using our research that we can film it differently to how we thought. We are thinking of flicking backwards and forwards between the guy buying the cigarettes and the main character (the guy that gets poisoned). We thought this way it will make it clearer to the audience who they need to follow. At first we were just focusing on the pass over of the cigarettes, as that is what the poison is carried in. Normally in tittle sequences the camera will follow the main character and that is what we need to do to make sure the 
audience don’t get confused. 

When we realised that we needed to change it we started a rough copy of another storyboard. From this we could then see the changes clearly and draw in what we were changing. 

Characteristics of Characters

We have got 7 characters who aren’t counted as extras and we have had a long old process of deciding who should play who. We have also chosen the final people who we want to be in our prelim. We knew a while back what characters we needed and what they needed to look like. 

·      Spy – Large well built

o  Foreign look to him (dark skin, dark hair, stero typical)

o  Well dressed (suit)

o  Actor – Mike

·      Passover Man 1 – Large

o  Dangerous look

o  Skinhead

o  40’s ish

o  Actor – Adam

·      Oldman 1&2 – Old (50’s/60)

o  Stereo typically dressed (hat, jacket, etc.)

·      Passover man 2 – Young man

o  Hooded

o  Stereo typical teenager thug dressed

o  Actor –Theo

·      Passover man 3 – Biker

o  Leather jacket

o  Tattoos

o  Large

o  Biker boots

o  Matt

·      Cook – Large

o  Coloured

o  Chef outfit

o  Whites / hat

o  Actor – Habib

·      Deliever – waiter outfit

o  Young 20/30’s

o  Normal cooking

o  Actor - Hendrik

Our Characters

Character List

• Shopkeeper- short, quite large, has stubble (looks a bit rough and scruffy), middle aged, possibly Indian or Pakistani to eradicate suspicion by using a stereotype

• ·  Old man- quite tall, smart, takes care over appearance, woolen jumper with white shirt and corduroy trousers.  Neat well cut moustache, spectacles with large thick lenses that are quite dated
•   Young man (student)- around 24 years old,  stylish, slim, good-looking, fashionable clothing like, skinny jeans, jacket, smart shoes, well shaven and neatly combed hair
•   Biker- mid 30’s, beard, skinny (slim), sleeve tattoo, piercings, black leather clothing, dark glasses.
•    Chef- large man, late 20’s early 30’s, kitchen whites (clothing), white chef hat
•   Waiter- Tall, young, smart, lean, combed back hair, black trousers, black jacket, waist coat, and white shirt, looks clean generally

•   Spy- Broad shoulders, dark slicked back hair, olive skin (tanned), big eyebrows, big noses (almost has a jewish look to him) slim, healthy and kind looking man

Now we have brainstormed what we want our characters too look like, we can think about the sort of people that will fit well to the part. 

Prop List

For our prelim we need a variation of props in order to make it look the way we want it to. The start of our list is below but we may need more.

Prop List

·         Corner Shop

·         Packet of Cigarettes

·         Deck of Cards

·         Café ( chairs, café, tables, drinks)

·         Syringe (poison)

·         Biker helmet (whole biker costume)

·         Slick black motorbike

·         Restaurant

·         Plate of food

·         Waiters

·         Well dress spy-man (suit)

·         Slick car (range rover)

·         Alley way

·         Full restaurant

   
 This is just a rough draft of what we may need. We haven't decided how we are going to get  everything yet eg.range rover. By having a list written out we can look out for certain things that we may need and as we have done the list early, we have time to look for them.

Storyboard No.2

Updated Storyboard for Shere Vice by dautadra

Confession of a Dangerous Mind

This could also be a good way to help our filming techniques. How the camera focuses on him, allowing the audience to realise that something isn't right. This builds tension in the audience because the audience knows that he he been poisoned  But we thought that if we took inspiration from the Sherlock Holmes scene, where we haven't seen the cook poison his food, until he has a flashback type thing. We could make it so that, like in this, the man begins to realise somethings wrong, and the audience then also like him,  do not know what is going on,this could build confusion and suspense in the audience until it is revealed that the man has been poisoned.
Then from the close up of his realisation, through his slow suffering, having the cook,in her placement, over the shoulder, blurred into the background, but is still visible.I think this would be a good camera technique because it suggests that the cook did it, if the audience didn't already know,and created a more visually interesting screen, because it is setting up the rest of the film in the audiences minds, that the cook has a main part to play.