Costume Planning Analysis (Vans)

Vans are growing rapidly in the sneakers fashion trend and we wanted to ensure that our "Split" movie is consistent as well as it is current since if we included elements that felt dated and not modern-day elements, it also wouldn't really help with the fresh and innovative style we are trying to bring to our film and opening sequence. Furthermore, we picked grey Vans to be the type of footwear that Nile O'Meally-Newell (Bradley Keano) is going to wear in the film and opening sequence as it also connotes to the dark and monotonous atmosphere of the gang lifestyle in comparison to the bright and colourful lifestyle of Bradley Keano being a football star in the making.

Simplicity also links with the movie itself since we picked a simple football kit for the opening sequence, simple smartwear (typical white shirt and black tie; the white shirt being the dress code for several schools anyway) and simple casual clothing to represent the fact that the audience shouldn't be worried about if the film would suffer from complexity despite the fact we are trying to flesh out three "characters" fully, balancing out each of the three personalities so we are faced with the risk of leaving plot holes or continuity errors yet we have managed to counter this in our opening sequence since we know that the gang scenes had a slow and intense pace while the football scenes had a fast-moving pace to it so we are glad with the costumes we had come up with to fit in with everything else.

Costume Planning Analysis (Smartwear)

The colour of the smartwear, being white in the scene where Nile (Brad) is fixing his tie, can link to themes such as purity since if Bradley Keano is able to leave the gang and focus on his examinations; this could lead to him taking a pure path towards University and also being able to get the best careers out of his abilities, creating pure money for himself rather than being in a gang that would rob stores and mug the innocents to earn filthy money which would then be spent on less beneficial things.

Furthermore, the colour of white links to light so the costume had been particularly chosen to show that light has been shed upon Bradley Keano and if he is able to take this lifestyle and get the best results out of it, his future would be bright and could lead to a wider range of possibilities than it would if he was in a gang. Also, if he plays for a big-name football team such as Arsenal, his examination grades would help him since if he has an early retirement; he can use his qualifications to get a good job that will pay him good money and his life would still be bright and consistently good whereas, in a gang, Bradley would always have that same question recurring in his mind, "Will I be able to live up to the end of today? Will I go sleep? Will I be even able to have enough money to feed myself?" That is the type of atmosphere and mood we are trying to adopt for our "Split" film.

Costume Planning Analysis (Bomber Jacket)

The black bomber jacket represents the bottom of the scale as the main protagonist could not sink any lower than being in a blood and money-hungry gang that would murder any innocents to gain what they feel will benefit their lifestyles and this adds to the overall atmosphere of the"Split" movie as it adds to the grittiness and violent nature of the movie since no main protagonist could be completely perfect and all lead characters must be flawed in a single way or more than one and this is what we tried to go for with Bradley Keano as the audience could interpret him as a person who had different motives in a gang which had different personalities to him but he realizes this, at a late time, and will find it difficult to leave the gang since once you are committed to a gang, the other members would expect you to always follow their code of honor and to never betray them so it also adds to the element of suspense and surprise in the movie.

Furthermore, this also represents the dark nature of the protagonist and the gang itself which means that it also adds to the character of Bradley Keano since we did not want a one-dimensional lead character in the movie so we had decided to add different lifestyles to widen the ways in which the "Split" storyline can branch out and how his character can be portrayed by the audience since a lead character that can have various interpretations is better than a lead character only being interpreted as either a villain or a heroic person since the audience could interpret the character as being a villain in his early days but attempting to turn over a new leaf or a good character that was lost in a world in which he was unable to mold with so he tries his hardest to escape his past. It follows the same "person who tries to leave his past and create a good life while he can" type of storyline that is added in most of the drama movies yet this storyline structure can be described as much more varied in comparison to the likes of Shank and Anuvahood.

Costume Planning Analysis (Football Kit)

Although we picked particular costumes for our opening sequence's scenes, this is an analysis of how these costumes link to the themes and atmospheric feel of the movie. The yellow Nike football kit represents life and vibrance as the colour also represents the main protagonist's happiness to be rising to the top in the football dog-eat-dog world and this also contrasts the other recurring themes in the opening sequence. Furthermore, the fact that this particular costume features the least black colour out of all of the costumes that are used in the opening sequence also emphasizes how the football lifestyle of Bradley Keano is distinguished from the two other lifestyles.

The costume also represents his potential since if he wore a jersey from a licensed team such as Arsenal or Manchester United, he would have already exceeded his potential and been at the top and it wouldn't have blended in well with the storyline at all as he would have already been a successful football star yet he would still be a notorious gang leader and also still taking his examinations whereas this football kit also hints at possibilities and outcomes that will occur later on throughout the movie such as him being so close to being in a team such as Arsenal yet his gang lifestyle would be a barrier or the fact that he IS in Arsenal yet he may be kicked off of the team by the manager for his misbehaviour or may be told to leave the gang and focus on helping the team win the League otherwise he would be kicked off of the team for good. The possibilities are endless which is why this costume fits in perfectly with the style we are trying to go for with our film.

Existing Film Production Company Research

  

Scripting

We had decided to craft a script for a monologue that will be featured in our opening sequence and this is to breath more life into our character since there are voiceovers in some opening sequences (examples include Inside Man etc.) and the voiceover from our opening sequence clicked really well with the scenes and the flow as it will also give the audience a sense of what is to emerge later on throughout the movie (e.g. Nile attempting to determine himself to work harder and achieve his dreams yet the corruption of the gang, that he once banished and left behind, are trying to stand as a barrier and a threat against him)

"I say to you, that if you have never found a dream that is so dear and precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren't fit to live. Some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid.

You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you're afraid that somebody will stab or shoot you. So you refuse to take a stand...... you died when you refused to stand up for right. You died when you refused to stand up for truth. You died when you refused to stand up for justice."

Background Music for Opening Sequence (Final)

BGM for our Opening Sequence:

After some group discussions and a lot of time spent on researching which songs would merge well with the pacing of our opening sequence, we had decided to use the instrumental beat of "Jus' a Rascal" which is composed by British grime artist, Dizzee Rascal.

The reason we'd decided to use this instrumental beat is because the instrumental picks up during certain parts which blends well with our opening sequence since the pacing of it is quite slow in specific parts (e.g. the school scene where Liban convinces Nile to stop revising) before the pace starts to pick up (e.g. the football scene) but we had also decided to blend certain parts of our BGM (such as starting it from specific parts so that the song doesn't feel out-of-place or doesn't quite click with the opening sequence). This was definitely a difficult task since we had a lot of scenes to squeeze into within two minutes worth of an opening sequence that would have the right flow to it and there were, indeed, limitations to how long the scenes were (i.e. the last flashback scene before Nile meets up with his fellow gang members was too long, especially considering the fact that flashback scenes are quick and snappy) but we had managed to counter these limitations and are happy with the final result.

Split Timeline

Conventions of the Drama Genre

Dramatic conventions are the specific actions or techniques the actor, writer or director has employed to create a desired dramatic effect or style which is beneficial for research since we could compare this to our opening sequence as we had also utilized specific techniques to employ the dramatic feel to when he wears his black bomber jacket and makes the journey to rendezvous with the gang in the alleyway and specific actions in our opening sequence such as when Nile puts his hoody over his head slowly to add intensity since the viewer could actually think what the main protagonist could be thinking momentarily which is, "Does he really want to do this/Do I really want to do this?" as the camera slowly tilts downwards expressing his casual clothing.

Research - Kidulthood Trailer

Research for our Opening Sequence - Kidulthood Trailer:
When you want to accomplish bringing a tough opening sequence to life and be able to branch it using three personalities in an opening sequence only worth two minutes, you've got to look at the roots of the opening sequence first and that's exactly what we, as a group, had done as we looked at the introduction of Kidulthood (which "Split" heavily takes inspiration from) and also seen important elements that we had included in our opening sequence and, more importantly, this opening sequence had elements that were also included in ours that we did not even know about so watching this was also beneficial for us knowing that we're on the right tracks with this thing right here.

Firstly, the first thing you'd notice is how there are school pupils all doing their own thing and this element had been added into our opening sequence as Bradley Keano, the main protagonist of Split, is a teenager just like the characters in Kidulthood are so school elements are also added into our sequence and a football scene is also added into the introduction which is particularly interesting because we had also included a football scene in our opening sequence meaning that football must be a popular activity for youth teenagers as "Goal", which is another movie Split takes inspiration from, also features Santiago Munez, the main character, as a teenager who manages to get in to Newcastle United so this is super beneficial for us since we wouldn't want an opening sequence with a teenager who really doesn't seem to emulate how an ordinary teenager would live such as taking hobbies, going school and also socializing with others as the Opening Sequence needs to relate to our target audience so it was important so that it could fulfil its primary purpose.

Definition of a Synopsis

Synopsis - A synopsis is basically a summary of the entirety of the plotline/storyline as it is even described as and seen as shorter pieces of work in comparison to the actual work which would be much longer. The synopsis, being the entire summary of an entire storyline, would try its best to describe in specific detail as it is a summary so it must fulfil its purpose in just a few short sentences to be able to make the reader fully aware of what it is the synopsis is and is based on as the synopsis is even explained in visible detail in terms of the events and scenes that take place in the storyline.

Example of a Typical Synopsis:

“Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first person she meets and then teams up with three strangers to kill again.” — The Wizard of Oz

From the synopsis, it is obvious that the reader would understand that the surreal landscape is the subject as the person is transported there meaning that the rest of the storyline will take place there; the young girl is the main protagonist who kills the first person, which will be referred to later on, and it is obvious that the three strangers will be the deuteragonist, tritagonist and supporting character as it is clear to the reader that the three strangers will also play a major part in the rest of "The Wizard of Oz".

Background Sounds (Not Final Yet)

We had decided to use this as our background sound for the first few seconds of the opening sequence as it would blend well with our current production name/logo (which is "Eagle Eye Productions"). Despite this being a hawk screaming, it was the best sound effect that we could find as other videos were endless loops of sound effects which wouldn't merge well with the production name as it didn't sound like a realistic or natural sound effect that a hawk would make when genuinely screaming.

Also, this sound effect was used to bring more life to the production name and logo since we had the idea of adding an animated production logo, taking inspiration from widely-known production companies such as the Warner Bros. Company and 20th Century Fox, but we couldn't make the logo animated so we thought that it would seem more professional to add a sound effect to give it its own identity (a great comparison is how the "Metro Goldwyn Mayer" intro usually finishes off with the lion majestically roaring; straightaway, the MGM company has brought its own identity in its introduction and is now used in every movie that it is the production company of).

However, the background sounds are not final because of the struggle to find a motivational song that would suit the three personalities and also suit the pacing in the opening sequence since we realized that grime beats wouldn't blend well with the school scenes but the gang scenes whereas some types of motivational music wouldn't have suited well with the gang scenes but be more suitable for the football scenes. There will be blog posts explaining our decisions on background sounds in the meantime.

Camera Angles for our Opening Sequence

After merging video clips and being able to take a look at them during the editing process, we had realized the specific camera angles that we had used for our "Split" opening sequence as these camera angles are also significant to the sort of mood and feel we want to achieve with our opening sequence since being able to include three personalities of one main protagonist in the duration of an opening sequence worth of two minutes is no easy feat.

                                   

Long shot (Full shot):

We used the 'long shot' camera angle significantly to express the three appearances of the main protagonist, Bradley Keano, in the opening sequence as he dons a Nike football kit, a black bomber jacket w/ casual jeans and school smartwear and because of the fact that Nile O-Meally Newell had used the mirror to show him wearing these types of clothing prior to the scene that would follow up after it (e.g. Nile wearing a football kit - next scene - Nile dribbling with the football), it was important to actually use a 'long-shot' camera angle as it also shows how these three personalities differentiate from each other as being an academic student is completely different from being a notorious gang member and living the lifestyle of a gang member fighting for survival and a good-natured lifestyle is completely different from being a globally-known football star. We had really tried to express that contrast in our opening sequence despite the fact that it is two minutes so we knew that these scenes would have the chance of clashing with each other since the sequence may feel a little out-of-place.



Extreme long-shot:

We had also decided to use the 'extreme long-shot' camera angle during the football scene in our "Split" opening sequence where Nile O'Meally-Newell (Bradley Keano) dribbles his way past the seven football cones before taking a definitive shot at an empty net (which he missed once). The reason we had decided to use this specific camera angle is because it fulfils the purpose of expressing thrilling action and the fact that football scenes usually have exhilarating and swift pacing means that the 'extreme long shot' angle would have been the best decision as the 'extreme close-up' angle of the feet being used to shred its way past the obstacles (which was my initial idea at one point) would be quite difficult to execute.

In addition to that, it would be more beneficial this way as it would also show the hard work and determination that Keano is putting into his football life so that he is able to deliver with a top-notch performance which then leads him onto greater things later on in the movie so it gives the audience a sense of understanding since they would think, "Okay, yeah, this guy's training for either a school football team or trying to get into a big team" meaning that they would see the potential possibilities for the main character and they would also not feel confused with the opening sequence since even the opening sequence has to be to-the-point and addressing the audience straightaway so that the rest of the storyline is then played out in visible detail later on.

Over-the-shoulder shot:

We had decided to use this specific "over-the-shoulder" shot for the scenes where Nile O'Meally-Newell is dressing up in his costumes (being the smartwear/hoody/football kit) because it would have been a better camera angle to utilize rather than a simple shot of the main protagonist wearing the clothing and then moving onto the next scene as an 'over-the-shoulder' shot felt more immersive to us and we, as a group, feel that it would be more immersive to the audience since an over-the-shoulder shot is more of a perspective camera angle than a general camera angle which is simply taken of a person.

Bird's eye view:

We decided to use a ''bird's-eye-view'' in our opening sequence for more general reasons this time since we were experimenting with camera angles to see which specific camera angle would suit what we were trying to go for with our opening sequence as this shot was taken during the scene where Bradley is revising for his upcoming exams before Tyreese (Liban) attempts to pull him away from revision but fails to do so.

It is more clear that we were experimenting with camera angles since bird's eye views are usually taken specifically to express the scope of a setting (e.g. if the intro of a movie wanted to show modern-day LA, it would take a bird's eye view of the palm trees and landmarks/buildings) whereas we used it in different context by wanting to use this camera angle for the conversation that Tyreese and Keano have but it could also be analyzed as the ''downfall'' of Keano if he was to accept to Tyreese's offer and forget revising for his exams hence why the bird's eye view is a heightened perspective looking down at Keano to express that if he were to accept the gang lifestyle in the movie, his overall life would start descending slowly as his success would also start to decrease (so, to put it in simple words, the 'bird's eye view' shot represents how Brad may lose everything and hit rock-bottom if he doesn't leave the gang).

History of the Drama Film Genre

A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addictions, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women and corruption put the characters in conflict with themselves, others, society and even natural phenomena. Drama is the most broad of movies genres and includes subgenres as romantic drama, sport films, period drama, courtroom drama and crime.

This interested me particularly because the "Split" film uses a lot of these dramatic themes and quite heavily too such as drug addictions (as Bradley Keano battles to leave his gang life behind and focus on structuring his future out), poverty as the film would be set in modern-day London and recession would play as an integral theme in the movie as the main protagonist also follows the gang lifestyle to earn money for himself so this means that civilians in London would still struggle from poverty and corruption as the gang he leaves behind to focus on his future and potential careers (e.g. football or career-wise depending on his school grades) so this means that the gang would be corrupt and attempt to play mind games with Keano (this is explained in better detail in the "Split Storyline" blog post as the climax of the storyline highlights the corruption in the movie).

Dramatic films include a very large spectrum of film genres. Because of the large number of drama films, these movies have been sub-categorized.

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If the sub-categories are coloured in red, this means that the following will be added into the "Split" movie and hinted at in the opening sequence:-

• Crime drama and Legal Drama – Character development based on themes involving criminals, law enforcement and the legal system. (This is one of the elements that will be used in the following "Split" movie)
• Historical drama (epic) (including War Drama) – Films that focus on dramatic events in history.
• Docudrama: the difference between a docudrama and a documentary is that in a documentary it uses real people to describe history or current events; in a docudrama it uses professionally trained actors to play the roles in the current event, that is "dramatized" a bit. Not to be confused with docufiction.
• Comedy-drama: is in which there is an equal, or nearly equal balance of humor and serious content.
• Melodrama: a sub-type of drama films that uses plots that appeal to the heightened emotions of the audience. Melodramatic plots often deal with "crises of human emotion, failed romance or friendship, strained familial situations, tragedy, illness, neuroses, or emotional and physical hardship." Film critics sometimes use the term "pejoratively to connote an unrealistic, pathos-filled, campy tale of romance or domestic situations with stereotypical characters (often including a central female character) that would directly appeal to feminine audiences." Also called "women's movies", "weepies", tearjerkers, or "chick flicks". If they are targeted to a male audience, then they are called "guy cry" films.
• Romance: a sub-type of dramatic film which dwells on the elements of romantic love.
• Tragedy: a drama in which a character's downfall is caused by a flaw in their character or by a major error in judgment.
• Drama thriller: a type of drama film with thrilling plots, characters, motives and style.

Costume Planning

The main protagonist will be sporting a yellow Nike football kit in the opening sequence as this would show significance since Bradley Keano starts from the bottom of the ranks at school and attempts to embark on a journey that would get him into football superstardom in Arsenal so this football kit would show his early days as a footballer who works hard to get noticed by football scouts etc. and this would show more significance since, in the football scene (in the opening sequence), Nile (Bradley) dribbles and manipulates his way past the football cones before taking a decisive blast which expresses how hard he's working.



We're also going to include casual clothing such as the black bomber jacket and casual jeans as it would show significance to the main protagonist's "gangster" character and also contrast his other personalities/lifestyles as his other lifestyles distinguish from the gang lifestyle and it would also draw the audience's attention even more as the casual clothing would connote to a dark and moody atmosphere whereas the football clothing above connotes to a vibrant and lively atmosphere as the main protagonist would also benefit more from being a big-name football star than a small-time hooligan/hoodlum.

There will also be school smartwear being used in the opening sequence/movie of "Split" as this also represents the main protagonist's lifestyle being as an academic student who is revising for the biggest exams of his entire life as it would determine whether he is to go to University or spend his days in College (sort of a journey in which he has one chance to ascend to the top or descend to the bottom; especially when the 'gang life' is slowly pulling him back in, it would place him under more pressure revising for his exams and also have an impact on his storyline and path throughout the movie).

Furthermore, this would also attract the audience even more because of the fact that the audience knows he would benefit more from passing his school exams and going to University than following the gangster lifestyle and it would also add that unexpected feel to it as the audience would also not be fully sure of which lifestyle Bradley Keano will end up pursuing but will feel more sympathetic for the character and want him not to follow the worst one (being the gang life).

DVD Analysis

Goal Cover

The Goal cover expresses the thrill of the experience on the protagonist's face as you can see the bright and lively colours that surround him in the atmosphere and this gives you an idea of what we are attempting to replicate in our "Split" movie as we want our main protagonist to be thrilled with the footballing experience as it would make him feel under more pressure with what lifestyle he wants to pursue; especially when the storyline twist of him getting into Arsenal takes place before the big climax (explained in detail in the "Split Storyline" blog post.)

Adulthood Cover

The Adulthood cover contrasts the Goal cover above and this is another sort of atmosphere we are thinking of adding into our "Split" movie as it would also contrast the atmosphere of Bradley Keano being an academic student and a football star too. Furthermore, with our cover, we wanted to use "split" pictures with a picture of the main protagonist in his football kit and in his casual hoodie to represent the personalities and lifestyles he will encounter in the movie and the opening sequence. Furthermore, the colour of the atmosphere in the Adulthood cover is rather uninspiring which links to the character's facial expression of anger which also contrasts the joy of the protagonist's face on the Goal cover. With this analysis, we are willing to contrast each element with our poster but merging these pictures into one poster.

"Split" - Title of Opening Sequence

The reasons being for our opening sequence, and the movie in its entirety, titled as "Split" is because the main protagonist, Bradley Kean, will have to counter three different paths and it would be as if he is not a whole person for majority of the storyline; especially in the climax of the storyline (this climax can be read in the "Split Storyline" blog post) and never actually seems to know what life would be truly for him and this could be seen as him having split emotions or a 'split' in terms of desires since he would desire the pursuit of more than one thing in the movie. Since the pound will also play a theme in the movie as gang themes will be present so it is likely that drug deals will take place involving money in the procedure, the "Split" title could also be linked to how there is a split between the benefits that Bradley and the dealer has, for instance, or even the split in how he feels about his 'gang life' -- does he feel as if he deserves the filthy money he's been gaining from crime life or should he split up with the gang for good and search for his own identity?

Our Presentation & Feedback

Regarding our presentation, we received some interesting feedbacks from different groups with this one being the most-detailed feedback and the feedback that we could look back on and use as inspiration to motivate ourselves into creating that defining opening sequence :-

(Feedback from Sarah Jeena & Tasnim Khanum)
Q: it is a lot to fit into two minutes, how will you narrow it down?
A: Well, by looking back at this, we will be able to narrow down the scenes by having brief scenes of the three paths that the main protagonist takes so it does not give away too much yet the scenes are not too brief.
Q: how are you going to book the facilities, be realistic, and think about the timing.
you may have to re-shoot certain scenes, is this possible?
A: Indeed, interesting question from the duo. We do not need to book any facilities as we had managed to ask the P.E teachers as of when the Astroturf would be empty and they had gotten back to us by saying it would be a limited period of time (in fact, around 10 minutes). We have, indeed, re-shot some of the scenes with the first scene being Nile dressing up in his sports kit being re-shot for 30 minutes. We need to make sure that we execute every aspect correctly in the procedure.
Q:  Music- how are you going to include it in the scene? Will the grime suit the smart clip? why not use it as symbolism, maybe use stereotypes?
A: We are planning to include background music in the scene but not copyrighted music - more of instrumental music that does not have rights to any copyright laws as this would not be using the voice of any artists and we would not be using copyright infringement for our Coursework. Also, we aren't really going for music that would be grimy but more of motivational music -- not Rocky Balboa-style motivational music and stuff like that but obviously music that would suit all three clips.
Q: How are you going to have so many extras in an organised way? re-think exam scene.
  Camera angles need to be thought about because there are so many different things he's doing.
A: We won't be including the exam scene in our opening sequence as we feel it would be too sudden to add a scene that could easily act as the climax of the whole movie itself; it would give too much of the plot away, to be honest, and we are trying to give a small amount of it away but not too small. Just the amount that would be expected from an opening sequence.

Individual Storyboard for Opening Sequence

(Scene 6 and 8 may be removed from the final storyboard of the opening sequence as flashbacks are not necessarily needed for the opening sequence since the storyline will focus on these three personalities and the audience would know about the three pathways that the character takes on regardless. If any alterations are made, look out for a new blog spot with the finalized storyboard explaining what will happen, in detail, in each scene.)

"Dolls" Feedback - Omar Abasi

Dolls (Tasnim Khanum and Sarah Jeena):
Pros:
- Research proven and explained in presentation (e.g. Alfred Hitchcock, song choices etc.)
- The name is short and snappy and this is good considering that movies do not need complex names.
Cons:
- Due to the genre, mood and atmosphere of the film; classifying it a 12A would be more of a risk-taking choice as it is a psychological thriller so the horror genre would have more of a realistic tone to it.
- Doesn't explain if it will mainly show symbols and suggestions to emphasize its suspense (e.g. the main focus being on dolls) or the character emphasizing the suspense himself.

Understanding camera shots/angles/movement in general

Extreme long-shot:
Used to express the setting of the scene that will be used as the setting throughout a movie (e.g. by showing the "Hollywood" sign in the picture above in an extreme long-shot for a movie, it is clear to the viewer that the movie will be indeed set in Hollywood/Los Angeles).

Tracking shot:
A 'tracking shot' is when a shot is taken by keeping track of something in particular (e.g. if somebody is walking, the camera will keep movement but also keep track of the person's own movements -- this is a tracking shot).



Bird's Eye View:
Filmed from a top-down perspective and, once again, more likely to be used to show the atmosphere of the setting (e.g. if a bird's eye view was taken of NYC and Miami -- they would use bird's eye view shots to highlight the gritty streets or the busy metropolis of NYC/humid and sun-filled beaches of Miami etc.)

Low Angle Shot:
Filmed from the ground looking upwards -- for example, a camera shot which is taken of a person but from the ground looking upwards therefore making him appear as some sort of 'giant' or having some form of superiority.

Close-up:



Panning:
Movement of a still/video camera but in the motion of a person shaking their head to signal a "no", meaning that panning is the horizontal movement of a camera.

Tilting:

In a simple explanation, tilting is the movement of a still/video camera yet it moves as if a person would when nodding his head (in other words, the camera stays stationary yet it rotates in a vertical plane).

Crew and Cast of Opening Sequence

Nile O'Meally-Newell: Bradley "Keano" Kean (protagonist)
Shingai Manungo: Cameraman
Liban Ali: Tyreese Lewis (friend turned into the main antagonist)
Omar Abasi: Editor

Info on props, costume planning and locations are explained in detail in its respective blog posts.

Alterations Made Along the Way

Opening Sequence Alteration:

An alteration we made in our opening sequence is the football scene that we found sort of difficult to film in the limited time period. The alteration was that our initial idea of this scene was to have Nile O'Meally-Newell a.k.a Bradley Kean dribble his way past two players before taking a definitive shot but we decided to change this to Nile dribbling his way past football cones before taking a shot at an empty goal as this would make more sense (since the audience could interpret it as Nile being self-motivated and working hard in order to rise to the top as a footballer and also get into big-name teams whereas the initial idea wouldn't really have as much interpretations in comparison).

Costume Planning for Opening Sequence

Costume Planning:

 

Mirror Scene I (Football Clothing)

For this scene the character will be looking at his reflection in a mirror, when we film the character we will film him wearing:

·     A football kit complete with football shirt, football shorts and football socks.

Mirror Scene II (Smartwear)

For this scene the character will be looking at his reflection, we will see himself wearing smart dress as this is what he will be wearing when he in his 6^th form this will include:

· Smart trousers (Grey)

• Smart shirt (White) with a skinny tie (black)

Mirror Scene III (Gang-Esque Clothing)

For this scene the character will be looking at his reflection in the mirror; the character will be looking at him before he is about to go to his gang, in this scene the character will be wearing:

• Dark blue jeans
• White T-shirt
• Black jumper
• Black Bomber Jacket.

Font Analysis

Calibri:



Calibri is a font that is simple and bold yet it also oozes professionalism and would more likely be found in letters and documents on softwares such as Microsoft Word etc. It is proven to be more professional in comparison to other fonts by the fact that it replaced Times New Roman as the default typeface in Word on Microsoft Office 2007 and replaced Arial as the default on PowerPoint, Excel etc.

Century Gothic:



Century Gothic is a more rounded font in comparison to fonts such as Arial etc. and gives that sense to the viewer that this font would be less likely to be found on letters and professional documents and more likely to appear in magazine articles, leaflets and on video game covers etc. (as it is the font used for both BioShock and Battlefield Heroes).

Health and Safety Info

Health and Safety Info -- (Split Opening Sequence)

As part of our health and safety, we ensured that the environments/areas that we had used in our opening sequence would be beneficial to us and would not harm us in any way. An example of this includes the Astroturf football scene -- we ensured that Nile used football cones since if we had other characters be included in the scene, he may suffer from an injury of some sort whereas with football cones laid out as he's dribbling his way past them; he would be more comfortable doing what he can with the scene as there are less restrictions and it would be fully safe since he is the only character apparent in that scene.

Furthermore, in the football scene; Nile O' Meally-Newell made sure that he was not wearing the actual football boots but casual Vans since there would be a slight risk of him injuring himself (e.g. spraining his ankle -- this would cost us since he has to use his feet to dribble the ball in this scene so a character replacement would blow the whole opening sequence out of the water since we would have to replace Nile as the main protagonist with somebody else) whereas with Vans, the shoes have no studs and are simple sneakers so this means that Nile has little-to-no risk of spraining his ankle etc.

Iconic Directors

Spike Lee:

Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, writer and actor. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983.
Lee's movies have examined race relations, the role of media in contemporary life, urban crime and  poverty, and other political issues. Lee has won numerous awards, including an Emmy Award . He has also received two Academy Award nominations.

Awards, honors and nominations:

Lee's film, Do the Right Thing, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1989. Many people, including Hollywood's Kim Basinger (who announced her feelings live during that year's Oscar telecast), believed that  Do the Right Thing also deserved a Best Picture nomination. ''Driving Miss Daisy'' won Best Picture that year and according to Lee in an April 7, 2006 interview with New York magazine, this hurt him more than his film not receiving the nomination.
His documentary, 4 Little Girls, was nominated for the Best Feature Documentary Academy Awardin 1997. On May 2, 2007, the 50th San Francisco International Film Festival honored Spike Lee with the San Francisco Film Society's Directing Award. He was the recipient of the 2008 Wexner Prize.

Quentin Tarantino:

Quentin Jerome Tarantino (born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence. His films include Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill (2003, 2004), Death Proof (2007), Inglourious Basterds (2009), and the upcoming feature Django Unchained (2012). He has earned an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA and the Palme d'Or, as well as Emmy and Grammy nominations. His movies are generally characterized by stylistic influences from grindhouse, kung fu and spaghetti western films. Tarantino also frequently collaborates with his friend and fellow filmmaker Robert Rodriguez.

Audience Expectations from Genre of Film

Since our genre of movie will be particularly hard to execute and keep refreshing as the same ideas have been recycled and used in previous movies such as Kidulthood, Adulthood, Anuvahood and Shank and over the time that had passed, each movie had been receiving less favourable reviews from the audience meaning that there is nothing new brought to those movies as even the storylines of those movies bear many similarities.

With that being noted, that is why Split's storyline is a storyline played from three 'perspectives' but all played by the main protagonist (Bradley Keano) where an equal amount of time will be spent fleshing out the football character, gang member character and academic character so that none of these three personalities are felt by the audience as not being able to be fully fleshed-out or leaving any 'plotholes' in the movie as any questions that are unanswered about any of these personalities would leave the audience being questionable too.

As shown above, the trailer is of Kidulthood with the "top comment" on YouTube being that the person had actually felt a sense of nostalgia by watching the movie as it reminded him of his teenage memories; (Top comment): "This film reminds me of being a teenager. The ones that spent their time acting 'hard', behaving like these characters never went anywhere in life. This crap they come out with for being this way's nonsense. It's got nothing to do with having no opportunities, or coming from a deprived neighborhood. It's down to sheer laziness - Being more concerned with material objects, acting like their sad excuses for role models, and drink/drug taking, instead of getting your head down and working hard"

This top comment reflects how our movie will have an impact on the main protagonist and how it will be able to relate to the audience's expectations, opinions and also answer their questions about why gang societies are relentless to the innocent and won't just give up being criminals as the storyline will revolve around Bradley Keano actually wanting to leave his crime life yet he cannot banish it as it will not set him free.

Mood Board

This is the mood board for the topic we are doing as "Split" will include football themes which are evident in the pictures of the Nike kit which Nile O'Meally Newell uses in the opening sequence and throughout the start of the film before he digs in deeper by trying to get into Arsenal and the football pitch which is similar to the Astroturf where we had filmed our football scene from the opening sequence that will also be used as a location in the 'Split' movie as Bradley Keano attempts to rise from being the school star player to superstardom by playing in the Emirates Stadium.

Other themes are also present in this mood board such as the gang pictures which represent Keano's life as a gang member and the Union Jack flag which represents the fact that the filming will take place in Britain and the gangs that will be present in the movie will be British gangs. This means that the 'Split' movie will not take on different gang cultures but attempt to include British gang culture in the movie only.

Split Storyline

SPLIT STORYLINE 

The film would be about a teenager called Bradley Kean/ keano (Nile O’Meally- Newell), Keano lives with his mum and his little brother his mum, his dad left when he was 5 which left his mum to bring him up on her own as well as his younger brother and working two jobs, it doesn’t need to be said that he grew up seeing his mother struggle and as soon as he was able to he joined a gang and made a little bit of money of which he told his mum that he was making from working in a shop.

He is a gifted footballer but he also has been included in gang culture for a long period of time. But he has decided to focus on his football and education, after he experienced what he could be facing if he keeps on including himself in gang crime.

But keano will find that it isn’t that simple, as he is very high up in the gang and the other gang member don’t want him to leave and if he does he has been threatened with all sorts of threats on his family and his life, and to show Keano that they (the gang) aren’t messing around they have kicked the front door of his house and stole most of the valuables, with now other choice he has to explain what he has been doing and why this has been happening, after the shock of this Keano’s mum kick him out. Keano then goes to stay with his best mate Sam Walters who is still involved with the gang. After this keano has started to miss schools and has not been training for a long time.

He finally manages to get everything back on task and is revising for up and coming exams and if in training for trials that he has been given for Arsenal. Meanwhile the gang have found out that Keano has been living with Sam and they beat Sam up so badly that he gets rushed into hospital, after hearing this Keano goes to see Sam who tells Keano that the gang are going to his mums house, keano runs to his mums house to find the door kicked in again and his brother on the floor in a blood puddle, keano gets his little brother to a hospital and finds that the doctors are worried that his brother will not be able to walk again, upon this his mother arrives at the hospital SLAPS Keano, who then kisses his little brother and his mother on the for head.

He then goes to the leader of the gang and beats him to near death, the gang then decide instead of killing Keano they phone the police the and report the event. When keano arrives home he receives two phone calls one from his mother telling him that the doctors got it wrong and his little brother will be fine, the second call is from his school saying that he has passed all of his exams and should decide on a university to apply for after hearing this keano thinks that life is starting to look up then he finds a letter on the floor addressed to him when he open it he finds a letter from Arsenal asking him if he would sign for the youth arsenal reserves. Now Keano thinks that things are finally looking up, he sits down on the sofa at his mums house, he closes his eyes and then police lights are seen through the door and then the door is heavily knocked by policemen.

BBFC Rating (Certification)

The reason that the certification is 15 is because Split, once again, takes inspiration from drama movies that are based on modern-day gang culture and this includes Kidulthood, Adulthood, Anuvahood and Shank and all of these movies were rated 15 by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) so it would make less sense to give 'Split' an 18 certification as it wouldn't even be suitable for teenagers and Bradley Keano, the main character of Split, is a teenager himself and it would not be suitable to give the movie a 12/12A certification as it would be too suitable for the younger audience and the movie will, most likely, include weapons and scenes in which characters bleed so the violence would be too graphical for the younger audience to watch whereas by giving Split a 15 certification also means that the movie can relate to its target audience, being teenagers, even more as this movie is about the lifestyle of teenagers so it is not based on a true story but it is based on true lifestyles.

Films under this category can contain adult themes, hard drugs, strong language, moderate-strong violence/sex references, and mild non-detailed sex activity; and with the sort of atmosphere/feel we want to go with the "Split" movie, it is more likely that drug themes will definitely be used as it is a take on the gang culture and gangs usually fight for notoriety by dealing in drugs and there will be some strong language such as cursing and yelling.

The violence is most likely going to be moderate/strong as there is even a particular scene that appears in the Split movie/synopsis and this is the part where Keano's best friend, Samuel Walters, is beaten to a bloody pulp and left for dead before Keano goes back to his house which means that the violence will be strong indeed as it is also directed towards teenagers so the movie should fulfil its purpose by adding themes that would, likely, be targeted towards people from the age range of 15 and over.

Split Opening Sequence (Final)

After group discussions and agreements, we had decided not to go with the initial opening sequence ideas at all and had decided to think of a totally different plot, characters and genre in particular. The reasons that I felt that the initial opening sequence analysis would not have worked is because the "thriller" genre is particularly difficult to nail and considering that there were some parts of it made little sense meant that we needed to think of an opening sequence that the audience would fully understand and be engaged in from start to end.

The opening sequence is going to be filmed in different areas in comparison to my initial opening sequence idea (which was simply going to be filmed inside the school premises only) and the locations for the opening sequence will be in the Astroturf, the Pool Meadow alleyway and the school cafe which will be used for when Keano revises for his upcoming exams.

The scene will start off with the production company logo (e.g. "Metro-Goldwyn Mayer presents") and then that brief production company scene will lead to the next scene being Nile (Keano) who will be fixing up his tie as he's ready to go to school. The next scene will be followed by a different production company presenting the opening sequence (e.g. "An Hourglass Times Production") and then the brief scene will lead to the next one being Liban (Tyreese) walking towards Keano as Keano's revising for his exams and Tyreese will try and convince Keano to finish revising at that moment and go with him but Bradley will refuse which leads to Liban leaving the scene. The scene after that will be the introduction of the characters' names (e.g. "NILE O-MEALLY NEWELL and LIBAN ALI") for a mere number of seconds before Nile will be putting on his football kit before looking in the mirror once more as the camera takes a tracking shot from top-to-bottom showing his Nike socks.

The next scene will be him dribbling over 7 football cones before taking one more step and then blasting the football into the back of the net. The introduction of more characters' names will appear after that scene which will then lead to Keano dressing up in a black bomber hoodie as he is ready to rendezvous with the gang and the next scenes will be him meeting up with the gang before the title of the movie appears as the final scene ("SPLIT").

Background Music for Opening Sequence

We searched for songs that would blend well with the purpose and genre of Split as it is a drama/football movie so we were thinking of choosing a particular song that would represent the main character, being Bradley "Keano" Kean, as a person who wants to be the best in the world at what he loves to do (which is football) yet he also wants to finish his education by passing all of his exams with results that would take him on a sailing boat to University but the gang life he wants to leave is slowly pulling him back in so in other words, a motivational song would best suit the opening sequence as it would motivate Keano to leave his 'crime life', aspire his 'football' lifestyle and revise for his exams so that he can exceed his expectations.

The first song that sounded like it would have fit with our description of the BGM for our opening sequence was 'Kanye West - Runaway' but the instrumental without the hook. However, when we actually used it as the background music for the opening sequence, it didn't really work well with it as the instrumental had a slow but brutal beat to it whereas there is the football scene in the opening sequence that shows a change of pace as Nile O-Meally Newell is swiftly dribbling his way around football cones so we realized that we needed a faster instrumental.



Despite the mixed martial arts picture used in the video, I had also thought about using this motivational song, named "Ready for War", which is an instrumental remix that was also used for the De La Hoya/Mayweather showdown. My thoughts about this song are that it doesn't only work well with boxing or fighting sports but in general as it would work well with the fact that Keano is ready for gang warfare as he attempts to find his own identity in the movie, he is ready for a war in football since there is fierce competition and if he is able to get into Arsenal, it would benefit him heavily but introduce him into a lifestyle he would have never encountered before and he would also be ready for competition in school as it would be a war between several students to determine who the most academic student would be and Keano would not want to be a close second or even a second at all.

It would also work well because it would add more intensity to the opening sequence since the opening sequence consists of "split" clips which are video clips of him taking on different types of activities/hobbies and the music would work well with the film and opening sequence because it would give the audience a sense of how difficult it is going to be for Keano's final decision as to which lifestyle he would generally want to consider pursuing.

Props for Split Opening Sequence

Props List:

• 7 Football Cones
• School Bag
• School Folder
• School Work
• Set of Earphones
• Mobile Phone
• Pen
• Football

Production Company Name/Logo

The production company name that we are going to use is a custom production company name that is called Eagle Eye Productions. The reason that I wanted to create a production company that hasn't been used before or is an existing production company is because our movie, Split, takes inspiration from a mixture of movies with different types of genres such as Goal (which takes on an aspirational football genre) and the Kidulthood/Adulthood film series (which takes on a drama genre) and since Split is a movie that takes on a storyline that hasn't been duplicated or used in any other film before, I decided to also invent a production name for the movie too so that it could blend well with the refreshing feel that Split would give to the audience.

The colours are pretty much simple which is what I had tried to go for with the production company logo since the mood, atmosphere and synopsis of the movie are all pretty simple and to create a complex production logo would contrast the film and opening sequence itself so this is why I had decided to go with red and black with a white background in my production company logo as these three colours are not only primary colours but also plain colours.

"Gloves Up" Feedback - Omar Abasi

Gloves Up (Luke Thornton, Junuz Jakupovic, Titas Taskunas and Ishaaq Nabi):
Pros:
- Great planning.
- Great presentation in the small time given.
- The name and locations have been thought out well as the name is short but snappy.
- Presentation covers almost every piece of information needed to let the reader know exactly what is happening in the opening sequence, the synopsis of the film itself etc.
Cons:
- Despite the great planning, the amount of content they are planning to add into the opening sequence may be successful or may flop.
- The last sequence in which there is a flashback to the main character being left by his parent as a child could be difficult as a fifth and sixth character that are of different ages would possibly be needed for that scene.

Virgin Media Shorts: 2:20 Analysis

This Virgin Media short film, 2:20, definitely excels in all of the categories that are executed well in the video (e.g. the fact that the video does not rely on any dialogue to carry the short film as it solely relies on visual communication and the fact that although the short movie only has a length of 2:20, it made me draw a lot of interpretations to the two characters in the video.)

Firstly, it is the suspense and drama that is executed superbly as it is not just the tension in the video but even how viewers are suspicious about the woman who had introduced these "foreseeing specs" since the woman could very well be portrayed as the Angel of Death as she even, in the last twenty seconds of the short film, seems to stop the other character from making any movements which leads to his presumable death.

In addition to this, the lighting and imagery seems to contrast this character since she seems to have this sort of darkness in her soulless eyes while the locations around these two characters seem to show a vivid and bright atmosphere (e.g. the shops and restaurants seem to have a vibrant and colorful feel and the other characters seem to be cheerful whereas the person who only has a mere number of seconds of living seems to feel isolated; this could be due to how the woman feels isolated in comparison to the rest which links to how she felt that she needed to let the person know of his near-death.)

There are particular shots which are used throughout the short film such as; tracking shot (that is used for the "Angel of Death"-type character), the point-of-view shots (which are used when the person wears the Magic Specs and sees exactly how many years remain for the people around him and himself) and reverse angle shots (which are taken near the end of the video to give the situation a tense feel to it.) Furthermore, there is an extreme close-up shot that is used when the person is looking at himself through the car window to add tension to the situation.

Initial Treatment

My initial treatment is basically my first synopsis idea. If the opening sequences are to be executed well, there must be an original overview of a storyline that would be a complete feature-length film storyline. My overview is basically to utilize the state-of-the-art Academy building as our setting but create a science fiction-esque opening sequence merged with action.

Opening Sequences
Four university students are all revising for a particular subject after university as the atmosphere feels dark and empty (a nod/reference to critically-acclaimed Miracle Fish.) Shots such as low-angle shots will be taken to give a clearer insight into the emptiness of the building. However, there are particular sound elements that will also be used in the background as if there are other people in the building.

There will be arc shots that will be taken to show different sections of the building (e.g. university rooms etc.) and there will possibly be blood elements to add more intensity to the situation but not give away the full storyline. The students will be alerted to the background sounds and walk around the university inspecting. However, each student will disappear as the others will be cautious of this and look around. There will be sounds of footsteps and objects (e.g. slamming doors or banging on walls) and as the others investigate the situation more, they later find out their friends' bodies lying motionless on the floor.

There will be one university student left in the sequence and lighting effects/focus shots (shots that will focus on this particular person) will be applied to give an unpredictable aura. He will walk into a room and then drop his pencil as his facial expression would be of shock (a shot will be taken of the pencil drop with sound added to it when it drops.) After this shot, it will switch swiftly to a normal day in which the last person finishes to read a story of this sequence to the others and closing the book; as if the opening sequence was his story or just a dream/imagination.

Overview
The plot basically revolves around four university students from a fictional university that feel like dropping out after the amount of hard work and because of the fact that they seem to miss home.
However, there are plot twists that occur later on in the movie (e.g. characters disappearing and more clues emerging) that reinforce the unpredictable vibe of the whole film.

Ideas for Opening Sequence

To summarise it all in a blog-post, I had a group discussion with Shingai and Liban about the specific type of Genre we should pick for the opening sequence as it would help give us a clearer insight into how we can execute our opening sequence with the right music, timing and atmosphere being utilized.

We are still having thoughts about pre-production ideas but we may come to a conclusion being that the genre of our opening sequence will be an action/thriller type of opening sequence as it would captivate the viewers straight away but not give away too much of our synopsis. Our ideas included an entrance scene utilizing the Academy facilities, the elevator (as it would contribute to our plot & production values as it would give us ideas to do great shots, e.g. reverse angle shots) and reception.

The cast has been confirmed to be Shingai, Liban and I (with Nile O-Meally Newell being a possibility.) This also benefits us heavily as I feel our ideas would merge together well in a small group and our plans would come into fruition with the opening sequence we are attempting to film. We have even discussed about possible costume designs although these costumes are still early thoughts (our ideas included suits and shades. Think of Men in Black or Reservoir Dogs as a reference) as the mood we were thinking of was more of a "shady organization" type of feel; another possible reference would be to the futuristic movie hit, The Matrix.

Opening Sequence Analysis

Game of Thrones

The opening sequence of "Game of Thrones" differentiates from other opening sequences as opening sequences usually feature characters and text to help us interpret what the opening sequence could lead to whereas despite the fact it does feature the cast and song, this sequence uses animations and settings (e.g. cities and towns rise from the landscape, perhaps to show the rise/growth; as it is linked to thrones.)

This is a masterful method of creating an opening sequence as it doesn't give away the storyline much but for a sequence that does not offer a lot, it gives you an insight as to what the story could be - the main purpose of an opening sequence.

Summary:

Set in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, where "summers span decades and winters can last a lifetime," Game of Thrones chronicles the violent dynastic struggles among the kingdom's noble families for control of the Iron Throne; as the series opens, additional threats from the snow and ice covered region north of Westeros and from the eastern continent across a narrow sea are simultaneously beginning to rise.