Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow..

Due to the sudden downpour of snow we are unable to film this week, as we were hoping to film on Wednesday 1st of December. Yet, since we have not been able to get into college to book a camera, and the fact that college is closed on this day then filming is a no go. However, we are hoping that the snow will be cleared up by next week and we will be able to film on Wednesday 8th of December. Since Wednesday is our only day that we are all able to film then we are hoping that we can do it on this day. We are just needing to film the final part of our film, which shouldn't be a problem, if the weather clears up.

Behind The Scenes - Entwined

Just a little behind the scenes footage, it involves a tour around Connor's house where a large portion of Entwined is Set.

Enjoy.

Filming Update 3

Filming at Connor's house today went well, we got all shots needed for the first two scenes of our film.

Editing of them has now commenced, Any updates about filming and editing will appear here on the PCF Productions blog.

Filming Update 2

Filming on Friday 12th November went without a hitch, as of yet we do not need to re-film, but if it is needed , the blog will be updated.

Equipment that we used

The camera that we use for editing is a SONY HVR-1000 which is not a cheap piece of equipment. We did have a slight advantage of using this camera last year in our AS project so we were already aware on how to use the camera. We have very minimal problems, and due to us only filming in one location, which is inside, the microphone on this camera was more than good enough for the quality of our film. Ergo, this meant that we did not need to use a Zoom Recorder to record sound separately.

One slight problem that we have had this year would be the amount of tape space that we have used. Despite only being a 5 minute film, we did manage to fill our tape more than once, meaning that we had to over ride some of our previous footage. However, since our shots which we had done previously were already on the computer ready for editing, this means that we were able to rewind the tape and go back over previous footage. However, if we would have had it our way then we would have had more than one tape, so there was no risk of actually over riding footage.

When it comes to editing our film, we use Final Cut Express which is already installed onto the mac computers at our college. One thing that I like with final cut express is the ease of being able to just cut shots and put them next to each other, and if it wasn't for Final Cut Express we wouldn't have had the effect that allowed the character of Ryan to disappear. It allows us to export in the highest possible quality and we very rarely have problems when it comes to editing our film.

Film Poster Research

Our research into family films has shown quite a few conventions that stay the same, but of course they aren't always present.

Family films generally have a bright , happy and sometimes humorous look, This suits the film genre very well. The example i found is for a decently recent film named "The Spy Next Door" which follows the conventions i have found very well.

Whereas there are a few differences for a film in the Family/Drama crossover genre, My example is that of Twilight , Which has lost all of the standard conventions such as Bright colours, Humor etc. And instead sticks with a dark and moody look.

Our film Poster may end up somewhere between both of these posters, With a dark and moody look yet with glimmers of hope such as smiles, and colour etc.

Filming Update 1

Our group are due to start filming on Friday 12th of November, Our first scene will be in the large back-room in college and will be a scene consisting of a news presentation, The only actor on set will be James Allen whom will be playing the Newscaster.

Any updates for filming will be shown on this blog.

Costumes

Below, I will go into depth about what costumes each character will be wearing. This will be pretty easy, compared to last year, as since we are making a modern film in the present day then it's just a simple matter of wearing the clothes that we would normally wear. However, some clothes will have to be planned, and it may be an idea to use certain colours on certain characters to show a feeling or how the character actually is.

Ryan Fogg

One thing that we have to make sure during the filming over the 2 days, is that Ryan's character wears the exact same clothes. Because he is turned invisible, he is unable to get changed, meaning that to keep continuity, he will have to have the same clothes he has on when he disappeared. An idea for Ryan's costume would be to have him wearing darkish clothing, some grey/black jeans and a grey/black top. This can then relate to Ryan being in mourning over the death of the grandfather and also that he is quite a dull and depressed character.

Lewis Fogg

For Lewis, as we are filming over 2 different days, he will have 2 different sets of clothes on. Lewis will be wearing a bright and vibrant coloured t-shirt on the first day, and a more neutral colour on the second day. Again, this relates to the death of the grandfather as him wearing a colourful t-shirt then it shows that the death no longer affects him and the colour shows that he is a generally more happy and popular character compared to Ryan.

Jayne Fogg

This character will again require two different costumes as we are filming over two different days. Jayne will be required to wear neutral colours, to show that she is the neutral character within the film and the link between the two brothers.

Robert Sutton

This character is probably the hardest character to plan for, in terms of costume. A news-presenter is stereotypically wearing smart clothing, so we plan to have the character or Robert Sutton wearing a shirt and a tie. Since the shot of Robert Sutton reporting the news, will be a Medium Shot sat at the desk so it is not too important about what this character wears on the lower part of the body.

Genre Research

Our particular film is hard to designate one particular genre. Below are 3 different genres of film which I believe are present in our film idea. These genres may well change when we look at the final product.
Drama
Our film sort of fits into the genre of 'Drama' as we see something problematic happens within the story, and it has to be resolved. A drama is typically revolved around real world characters looking at real world problems. You could argue that the invisibility part of our film is not something that is a real world problem, yet the idea of the twins being an argument and having a rivalry after the death of a family member is a real world problem.
Examples of drama films would be;
Citizen Kane, Forrest Gump, The Shawshank Redemption.

Family
A family film is specifically designed to appeal to everybody in the family. The film entwined could well be this as we have younger characters, (around age 17) which young children could relate to, but also adults could see their point of view. Family films are designed to be bright and happy for the younger audience, but also have wittier jokes that can attract an adult audience. Again, our film not be considered 'bright' and 'happy' but with little 'pranks', this could keep a younger audience interesterd, as well as having a serious audience.
Examples of family films would be;
Dr.Dolittle, E.T, Home Alone.

Mystery
The main storyline behind a 'Mystery' film is that something out of the ordinary happens, and one of the other characters has to try and 'solve this mystery'. An other key aspect of a mystery, is that the audience knows what is going on, where characters in the film do not, and this is something that we will be doing with our short film. This genre relates most to our film, even though the characters in 'Entwined' don't know that Ryan has disappeared, it is eventually the emotion of Lewis that brings him back. The genre of 'Mystery' can relate back to the family and drama genre.
Examples of mystery films would be;
Freaky Friday, Inception, Psycho.

Filming Schedule

The current days in which we are planning to be filming are:

• 12th November 2010 - College

• 17th November 2010 - Connor's House

• 24th November 2010 - Connor's House

These are subject to change, and any filming changes or added days will be updated here.

Location Photos

Since we are filming the entirety of our film inside, with a few shots outside, then our location photos are pretty limited. Here are some of the rooms within the house that we will be filming in;

Ryan's Bedroom

This room shall be used throughout the film but the most important time that it will be used will be at the end of the film. When Lewis looks at the photo which he will pick up off the drawers on the far left picture, and then walk over to sit on the bed. As he looks down at the photo, with his elbows on his knees, he begins to cry as he is missing his brother. At which point, Ryan appears sat on the other bed, looking straight at him. They embrace in a hug before running back down the stairs to stop Jayne from ringing their Mum and Dad.

Garage

The garage will be used predominantly at the start of the film and will probably not be used again. It is used in our film when an argument occurs between both Ryan and Lewis in which Lewis storms out. A good thing about using the garage, is that the stairs can be used for some good camera angles. This is the exact room in which Ryan disappears after finding a pocket-watch. At which point Lewis returns to look in the garage for Ryan, to find out he is not there.

Front Room

This room shall be used quite a lot throughout our film. It is used at the very start, and then used again when they are watching the news in this room. The room is quite dark, but we should be filming it in the afternoon so if light is a problem, we will have to do the conventional methods of turning the light on.

Lewis' Bedroom

This bedroom shall be used mid-way through the film when Lewis shuts the door and then opens it up straight afterwards it, as it is a few days later. In which he then walks across the hallway, from his bedroom into the bathroom. No shots will be taken from inside the bedroom, but there will be some looking outside the bedroom.

Risk Assessment

Click To Enlarge all pictures.

BBFC talk

Today we attended a talk by the BBFC regarding certain age ratings in films, at the showroom in Sheffield. In our short film, we were hoping for our film to be a certificate 12A. However, when planning our script, near the end of the film, we used the word 'shit'. We were debating on whether to use this word and whether this swear word alone would push the certificate up to a 15. We also added this question into our audience research in to whether would expect any swearing in a 12 rated film, and the majority of the answers were either mild or in the right circumstance, so again this justifies the swear word in our script.

During the talk, we learnt that as long as we were not to use the 'F' or the 'C' word and every other swear word used, such as 'shit' is not used frequently then we are able to class it as a 12A.

Also, it was noted that the swear word should be used in the right circumstance and not involve any racial or discriminative remarks. In our script, the word is used to show a state of panic as Jayne is on the phone to Mum and Dad explaining that Ryan has gone missing. We believe, that this is a reasonable time to use this language and that it would not offend our audience, as it shows a state of panic.

Will there be uses of strong language in a ‘12’ or ‘12A’ work?
The BBFC's Guidelines state that there may be strong language (eg 'f***') at ‘12’ or ‘12A’, but it must be infrequent. The context of the strong language is important and aggressive uses of strong language may result in a film or DVD being placed at the ‘15’ category. There is some allowance for puns on strong language at this category. There may be moderate language (uses of terms such as ‘bitch’ and ‘twat’ at ‘12’ 0r ‘12A’.

Discriminatory language may be present but will not be endorsed by the work as a whole. Aggressive use of discriminatory language (for example homophobic or racist terms) is unlikely to be acceptable at ‘12’ or ‘12A’ unless it is clearly condemned,

Will there be uses of strong language in a ‘12A’ work?
The BBFC's Guidelines state that there may be strong language (eg 'f***') at ‘12A’, but it must be infrequent. The context of the strong language is important and aggressive uses of strong language may result in a film or DVD being placed at the ‘15’ category. There is some allowance for puns on strong language at this category.

This was taken straight off http://www.sbbfc.co.uk/categories_1212a/

The Grandfather

The Grandfather in our film is the hardest character that we have to fill in for. He won't be in the film, as he had died a few months previously. But, we have to have pictures of him in the film and also some little stories of him. I recently asked my Grandma if she had any photos of my deceased Grandfather and she has provided me with about 40 photos. Below are some of these photos.

Since my Grandfather served in the RAF, we will have to work this into the story-line. By creating a character profile on him, we can explain that he was in the RAF during the war and then after leaving the RAF, possibly due to an injury, that he became a clock-maker.

These photos will be used in our film at the very start, when Ryan and Jayne are looking through the photos and Ryan cries at them, as he misses his Grandfather. There could be a possible theme of these being found in a drawer as their Mum and Dad have told them to tidy out the garage, so we could work it into the story-line that these are found in the garage.

I didn't see much point in uploading all the photos that I got, onto the blog. Yet, it is worth noting that on the back of the picture below reads the message;

'Lots of love sweetheart

I'm always thinking of you

Love George x x x x x x x'

Again, this is another part which we could work into the story-line and could actually make it sentimental.

Last years work

Last year, when creating our 2 minute film we could have encountered some slight problems but luckily we avoided them. The biggest example of this would be that we didn't get enough shots and that we were relying on one shot to be good, and if this particular shot either didn't work, or was not in focus or the sound wasn't right then it could have ruined the entire film.

This year after planning part of our shot list we decided that we would like to do a minimum of 2 shots per every shot that we are wanting to do and then we can have the choice of which one we want to use. In some cases we may have 3 or 4 shots just for one little section, but at least this gives us some variety and we are not stuck if one shot doesn't particularly work.

This is the project that Josh and Connor completed last year (along with 2 others);


This is the project that Luke and James completed last year (along with 2 others);


Both videos were completely different but both had good ideas and good shots. A problem that Josh and Connor had was that the storyline was quite complicated and had to get the right costumes and the right location. A problem with Luke and James was that some people didn't turn up on the particular day. In this project, we have tried to combat these problems by having a modern day storyline, and also by only relying on one other person who is not part of our media group, and everyone else is part Pigs Can't Fly Productions. This way, the costumes are not hard to do as we can wear just our normal clothing, and if an unfortunate coincidence does happen, and people can't make shooting, then it will not be too hard to rearrange.

Camera Shot Research

This is our camera shot research we conducted, just as a practice before we do actual filming. Below us in detail, what we plan to do with each shot, how well it went, and what we'll change.

Shot 1 - Change Clothes.

We are going to try to encorperate this into our storyline and we originally got the idea for the shot off the trailer for the film 'Freaky Friday'. It is be used in our film when Lewis will close the door as to be going to bed, in his pyjamas and then in a split second and change his clothes, as to indicate the next day. A slight problem that we had when practicisng this shot would be that the door we were using was not great, and Connor had to dig his fingers in to open the door. However, when we are actually filming, it will be a proper door, with a fixed handle, so won't be a problem.

Shot 2 - Walk through camera.

This shot is going to be used when Lewis walks from his room to the bathroom, and the following shot is where 'HELP' is wrote on the mirror. A slight problem we had when filming this would be that it struggles to focus when Connor walks away from the camera. We talked to our teacher about this and a way to fix this would be to zoom the camera lense in, so that were not having to walk so close to the camera.

Shot 3 - Stairs shot.

In our film we are going to have the scene in which one of the two boys runs down the stairs. This was just a simple exercise of having the shot at the top of the stairs and then cutting half-way down to a different camera shot. The shot worked fine and was quite easy just to cut both of the shots, get them both in the right position and then merge them together.

Shot 4 - Writing Help.

This is by far the hardest shot that we will have to do, and we have only put together a rough edit of what we are planning to do. By simply writing Help on the board, and doing it stages, then stepping back and drawing another line, we are hoping to create the effect that somebody is writing but actually nobody is there. This is by far the most ambitious shot that we plan to do in our film. We originally had a problem with the practice shot as the floorboards were not very sturdy and caused the camera to move. This will not be a problem for when we are filming as we are doing it on tiles, so the camera will not move. Also, we will be turning the shower on and writing the message on the condensation on the mirror, so this may be harder because we may get drip marks but using a whiteboard was the best way to test it.

In our actual film, the writing on the board will be done by a series of wipes which will either wipe vertically or horizontally to give the effect that the 'HELP' is actually being written by Ryan, who turns invisible.

Overall all shots seems succesful and we are planning to use all these shots in our final piece.

Audience Research

This is our audience research we have conducted as to provide an insight into a target audience for our 5 minute film. We asked the questions which are on our Audience questionnaire, and on the video we have shown the best 3 answers which we received. The answers will be used in the shaping of our film and have a final effect on some aspects of the Storyline, Dialogue and Age rating. Here is the video that we have made;



We gathered a lot of results from our audience research, and used only the 3 best answers for each question (apart from the last question; 'what would you do if you were invisible for a day?') We will try to correlate some graphs with some of the results which can be put into graphs, as said before, this audience research will have a shaping in the overall making of our film.

Film Name Design

This will be our logo for our film title. We think that this works well as it highlights the twin within the title and since the film is all about a set of twins and the fact that their lives are entwined. As a tagline, we are going to have 'The Fate of One, Rests With The Other'. This will appear on our film at the start shortly after our production logo is shown.

I decided to add the pocket-watch behind the logo as it makes it more relevant to our film. In our film, Ryan touches the Granddad's pocket-watch and becomes invisible. After doing this design, I realised that it would be ideal to add the tag-line to the logo, so I set about doing this.

I added the tag-line 'The fate of one, rests with the other...'. Connor originally came up with this tag-line and it fits perfectly with our film. When possibly adding this to our film, it might be ideal to introduce different parts of the title, at different times. Maybe, firstly showing the pocket-watch, followed by 'Entwined', followed by the tag-line.

After re-looking at this particular logo, I am undecided on whether to have the tag-line as 'The fate of one, rests with the other...' or 'The fate of one, lies with the other...', this could be a possible thing to ask some of our target audience.

Shot List

Scene 1- Living Room scene
POSSIBLE SHOT of the car arriving at the house.
Shot 1 - POV Shot from a boy walking into a house, looks down the hallway and then turns round and enters the living room.
Shot 2 - Looking up Lewis stood in the doorway, from the POV of Ryan and Jayne.
Shot 3 - Medium shot of Ryan and Jayne, sat on the sofa. Camera is level.
Shot 4 - Long shot from corner of the room, establishing characters positions, as Lewis walks over to stand in front of them.
Shot 5 - POV shot, looking down on Ryan.
Shot 6 - POV shot, but shifts to Jayne.
Shot 7 - Revert to shot 5.
Shot 8 - Low angle shot from behind Ryan and Jayne, focusing on Lewis.
Shot 9 - POV shot from Jayne, looking at Ryan.
Shot 10 - Revert to shot 8.
Shot 11 - Long shot, Lewis only just fits on screen.
Shot 12 - Shot from behind Ryan and Jayne, as Lewis walks off. Jayne follows, shouting after him.
Shot 13 - Revert to establishing shot 4, showing Ryan sat on himself looking at the photo album, isolating his loneliness.
Fade to black.

Scene 2- Garage scene
Shot 1 - Long shot, establishing the scene, Lewis stood there texting.
Shot 2 - Pan to door, and see Ryan enter.
Shot 3 - Tracking shot as he walks down the stairs.
Shot 4 - Pan shot of Ryan walking to something heavy, which he tries to lift.
Shot 5 - Close up of Ryan.
Shot 6 - Shot Reverse shot of both Ryan and Lewis talking.
Shot 7 - Over the shoulder shot.
Shot 8 - Close up.
Shot 9 - Pan shot.
Shot 10 - High angle shot of Lewis
Shot 11 - Pan shot of Lewis walking out.
Shot 12 - High angle shot of Ryan carrying cleaning up
Shot 13 - Establishing shot looking through garage, at the different parts of the garage.
Shot 14 - Zoom to pocket watch sat on a shelf.
Shot 15 - Low angle shot of Ryan Fogg
Shot 16 - Close-up of the pocket-watch, with Ryan looking at it in the background.
Shot 17 - Close-up of hand touching the pocketwatch
Shot 18 - Long shot of Ryan stood there touching the pocketwatch.
Shot 19 - Long shot of garage, exact same position, but Ryan has now disappeared.
Shot 20 - Pan to the top of the stairs, to Lewis standing in the doorway.
Shot 21 - Close up shot of Lewis.
Shot 22 - High angle shot of Lewis walking down the stairs
Shot 23 - Pan of him looking around the garage
Shot 24 - High angle shot of him walking up the stairs
Shot 25 - Medium shot as he reaches the top of the stairs.
Shot 26 - Long shot of Lewis walking down the corridor.
Fade to Black

Scene 3- News Studio
Shot 1 - Standard medium shot of Robert Sutton, sat at a desk, reading news.
Possible different shots as he turns to look at different angles.

Scene 4- Living Room
Shot 1 - Long shot of Lewis and Jayne sat on the sofa.
Shot 2 - Medium Close up at a low angle of Jayne speaking to Lewis.
Shot 3 - Long shot of Lewis and Jayne on the sofa.
Shot 4 - Medium Close up at a low angle of Jayne Speaking to Lewis.
Shot 5 - Long shot at a slightly low angle of Lewis Speaking to Jayne
Shot 6 - Medium Close up at a low angle of Jayne Speaking to Lewis
Shot 7 - Long shot with both Jayne and Lewis in frame speaking, Lewis stands and the camera pans upwards.

Scene 5- Hallway scene

Shot 1 - Medium Long shot of Lewis walking through the door into the front hallway as Jayne follows behind him.
Shot 2 - Medium shot of Lewis walking into the hallway towards his door, Jayne follows and they have a short exchange before Lewis walks into his bedroom and slams the door , and Jayne walks around the corner out of shot.

Scene 6 - Bathroom Scene

Shot 1 - Medium shot panned slightly to the right as Lewis goes out of shot, removes his clothes and throws them underneath the mirror.
Shot 2 - Long shot of "Help" being written on the bathroom mirror by the invisible Ryan Fogg, then Lewis exits the shower walks over to the mirror and rubs the message out accidentally.

Scene 7 - Hallway Scene

Shot 1 - Medium shot looking down the hallway as Lewis walks into shot closes the door and walks towards the camera.
Shot 2 - Medium shot as Lewis walks into his bedroom turns around and closes the door.
Shot 3 - Medium shot as Lewis re-opens the door fully dressed creating the effect that he changes instantly , he then starts to close the door and walk out of shot.
Shot 4 - Medium shot of Lewis walking towards the front hall past the picture hung on the wall.
Shot 5 - Medium shot of Lewis walking towards the sticky note in the front hall.
Shot 6 - Close up eyeline match of the sticky note as Lewis picks it up.
Shot 7 - Medium shot of Lewis in the front hall as Ryan appears in the mirror and then subsequently dissapears and Lewis looks at the stairs.
Shot 8 - Eyeline match as Lewis looks at the stairs for Ryan.
Shot 9 - Close up of Lewis from the side as he rubs his eyes in disbelief and walks out of shot.
Shot 10 - Medium long shot of Lewis walking into the kitchen, the camera zooms in as he walks.

Scene 8 - Kitchen Scene

Shot 1 - Medium long shot of Lewis walking towards the counter then reacting to the static on the radio and walking to switch it off.
Shot 2 - Close up of Lewis's hand switching off the radio.
Shot 3 - Medium long shot of Lewis reacting to the microwave switching itself on and walks over to switch it off with a beep.
Fade to Black

Scene 9 - Bedroom Scene

Shot 1 - Medium close up of Lewis lying on his bed as he reacts to his alarm sounding , he rolls over and the picture of him and Ryan falls onto the back of his head in slow motion he grabs it and starts to sit up.
Shot 2 - Medium shot of Lewis sitting up to look at the picture.
Shot 3 - Close up of Lewis looking at the photo and a tear running down his face.
Shot 4 - Medium shot from the side of Lewis sat on the bed, then in a slower version of the appearing effect from before Ryan appears "Did you miss me"
Shot 5 - Medium long shot of Lewis jumping across onto Ryan while smiling.
Shot 6 - Medium shot of Lewis and Ryan sitting up and starting to talk.

Film Distribution

Whereas we could not find much information written about films on the BBC, we did find that they show short films on the bbc website, which means that anybody can upload their own short films to get noticed and rated, and it would not cost anything for them, apart from the actual filming.

The website that shows these films is on the main page of the BBC website and personally i think this can be a great way for amateur filmmakers to show off they're work and get noticed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/

I Watched a few films on the site, and they are all of reasonably high quality showing that a lot of work went into them.

Film Distribution

I Researched on the internet for any information on Tv channels and their criteria for showing films, I researched Channel 4.

CHANNEL 4'S STATEMENT OF PROMISES:

FilmFour

Film4 Ltd will continue to provide original British films to the core channel. The
FilmFour Channels provide an unparalleled range of films in the subscription market, including the only dedicated non English language channel FilmFour World.

FilmFour lab provides an entry point for new film makers. These films will come to air as a season in 2003/4.There is £.5m to support short films, and funding for a number of low cost feature films in production during 2002/3.

This information was copied from the Channel 4 webiste, below is the link of the website I used:
http://www.channel4.com/about_c4/promises_2002/promises_filmfour.html

Age Rating - 12/12A

We are planning to make our film a 12/12A. It could not be made an higher rating as we have no reference to sex, drugs,nudity violence or offensive material as it isn't needed in our film. There could be psychological horror references with our film idea being based on someone turning invisible and freaky things happening, younger viewers could be a little disturbed by this but only those of an immature nature. The theme of our film is definitely appropriate for audiences over our age rating of 12 but also the theme of our film is also appropriate for ages under the age rating, following the consent of the parent/guardian.

Storyline Edited

When writing the script we struggled to fit the priest character into the storyline, so we have had a good think about it and decided to cut that part. We also decided after reading through our finished script, it is not actually a 15 certificate and more like a 12A, and the genre is Drama / Family and not a Thriller.

Script

Audience Questionnaire

1. Do you watch films regularly?

2. Is the genre of Drama/Family appealing to you (such as Freaky Friday)?

3. Would you ever watch a short film, or have watched one previously?

4. What do you think of our pitch?

5. Do you like happy or sad endings?

6. Do you like special effects in films?

7. Do you often watch a film more than once?

8. Do you like music to set the mood in films?

9. If the film was 12, would you expect any swearing?

10. What would you do if you were invisible for a day?

Props

Photographs

These old photographs will be used within our study at the very beginning when Jayne and Ryan are looking through them, in which Ryan begins to cry. In total, there are 37 photos, and they shall be shared between Ryan and Jayne in the scene, in which we will get some nice close-up shots of some of the photographs.

Pocket-watch

This is the pocket-watch in which causes Ryan Fogg to disappear. I acquired the item off an elder relative within my family and within our movie it will be used within the garage scene. Ryan will spot the pocket-watch and pick it up by the string, when Ryan touches the watch itself, is when he disappears. The pocket-watch originally belonged to the children's Grandad, so we would have to mention this in the dialogue somehow.

Mobile Phone

This is the mobile phone that belongs to Lewis Fogg. It will be used in the film when Ryan has disappeared and possibly used before. Lewis will receive phone calls and texts off his brother Ryan after he has gone missing. But when he answers, there is no voice. And in the texts, it is just black.

Film Analysis - Connor Asquith

Seen as it was so hard to find films that were related to our films treatment, but one of the films we did find related to it very well, Joshua and I will both be analysing the film separately.

The Film is 'The Fall' which was found on the BBC Film Foundation website, created by Michael Chandler, which relates to our film in many ways. The story line is about two brothers, one with a mental problem (Darren) and the other takes care of him (Jason). But one night the brother with the mental problem goes missing, and it is up to the other brother to find him. Whilst looking for the other brother, strange things happen on the way.

The film begins on a black screen with the title of the film "The Fall" this then fades away to show an establishing shot of the area where the film is taking place. As the camera pans from left to right to show the surroundings, it quickly cuts to a close up one of the brothers and it becomes apparent that we were looking from his perspective. The music is slow and sounds almost depressing, giving the impression that the character may be upset or have something on his mind. We then get a close up of this characters hand holding a cup, which then cuts to a medium shot of the brother about to drink whatever is in the cup but stops and sighs instead. This shows that he does has something on his mind and may also be fed up.

We then cut to a change of scenery, which seems to be an apartment with an older man asleep with beer cans around his head, this could represent that the man is an alcoholic. It then cuts to the doorway and we see the man from the first scene, it is a medium/long shot of him shaking his head at the man who has fallen asleep and been drinking. The music has carried through from the first scene and continues to set a sad tone. The camera then cuts to a close up of the sleeping man, and we can see all the cans of beer he has drank. The camera moves back to see the man now cleaning up this drunken mans mess, sighing as he does it. At this point we do not know who this drunken man is, but we can see that the man cleaning up seems to take care of him even though it seems like a chore. The camera then cuts to a close up of something very important to the film, a photo of two young boys who could be brothers. This is similar to what we planned in our film, as the photo of the two brothers will bring back the one who goes invisible.

We then change scene again, we see a younger man sat on the bed and seems to be restless. The location seems to be within the same apartment, which seems slightly run down and messy. The music is still playing from the first scene - sending out sad and depressing vibes. We then see the man from the first scene walk through the door and into the room with the other man sat on the bed. We then see the first sign of something strange going on, there is a single piece of graffiti on the wall in the shape of a goblin. We then see a match on action as the man who walked in sits down on a chair from a long shot showing both men, to a close up of the man sitting down. He then turns his head to look at the graffiti again, and the camera cuts to do a eye line match to show what he is looking at.

A conversation starts and we now establish that these two men are brothers as the one sat on the chair says "How many times bro", regarding the graffiti. The camera uses a shot-reverse shot technique as the conversation progresses saying that if the council see that we will get thrown out. But we then see what seems to be the older brothers nurturing side towards his troubled brother as he tells him that it "Looks good though". This sentence shows how much he cares for his brother, we then see him reach for a tablet on the counter from a long shot. The camera then cuts to a match on action of the hand grabbing the tablets to give to his brother. This shows that he is his brothers guardian, and that it is his responsibility to watch over him.

The music at this point has died down and just occasionally increases in volume when nothing is being said. Once he hands the drink and tablet to his brother, he makes sure that he takes the tablet. We then get a close up of the seemingly younger brother as he says his first words of the conversation "Why are you still here?". We then cut back to a long shot of the two brothers, as the one sat on the chair begins to stand up and says "Am gunna be late" quickly cutting back to the other brother as he says "That's not what I meant" in an angry tone. The camera moves to show the other brother now stood up from low angle shot, this shows that this brother is the stronger of the two, and that is why he is the protector or care giver to his brother. Which he then side steps what his brother says and replies with "Am going to be a little late tonight, yeah" and carrying on to say "There's food in the fridge" which also shows that he is the provider for his brother and that he really cares for him. The final thing we see in this scene is the hand of Jason resting on his brothers shoulder to attempt to reassure him and set his mind at ease.

We then cut to Jason walking down the stairs as he gets a phone call from his sister. We can only hear Jason's side of the conversation but we can figure out what is being said. He explains to her that that nothing has changed with their brothers state, and that he doesn't need any help looking after him. The camera then cuts to the man asleep again, while the conversation on the phone carries over from the other shot. We then cut back to a close up of Jason saying that he has to go now as he is going to work. As he closes the door behind him as he leaves, we then havea complete change in location as we cut to the inside of a local shop.

The camera then cuts to show two men who appear to work at the shop as they are wearing the uniform accompanied by a name tag. We then cut to a shot that pans with the movement of Jason carrying a box, also in the uniform. The camera goes back to the shot before, and one of the men says to Jason "Slow down Jase, your making us look bad" while laughing. We then see Jason from one of the men's perspective putting the box down, shaking his head and laughing back. The camera then goes back to the two men as a medium long shot to finish up the scene. The man on the left asks if the other man has asked Jason about going on holiday with them, the other man then replies by saying "Yeah, he still ain't coming". The two men sigh and shake their heads, we can guess that these two men are close friends of Jason as they've asked him to go on holiday with them, but he wont as he needs to look after this brother.

The scene quickly changes, we are looking up at a apartment block from a long angle shot at night. There is some non diegetic music over this shot, but is very quiet with a sombre, mysterious tone to it. The camera slowly pans down to show Jason walking, and we can guess that he is walking home from work. We then cut to see the room where his brother usually is, but he is no longer on the bed. Jason walks through the door and turns on the light, we see a shocked look on his face as the camera pans to match his eye line and show the audience what he is looking at. As Jason leaves the room to go look for his brother the camera cuts to what looks like a kitchen and the door opens, Jason quickly turns the light on. We can see that Darren is not there, so the light gets switched off and Jason closes the door.

The scene then changes back to the living room to see a long shot establishing the setting. We see the older man now awake watching a woman, who appears to be drunk, dancing for him. We can tell this women is intoxicated because of the can in her hand, and the way she is stumbling as she dances. The music in this scene is diegetic, and is more up beat than any of the other music that has been in the film so far. The camera quickly cuts from a close up, low angle shot of the woman dancing, to a close up of the man smiling back at her. It then cuts back to the establishing shot to show Jason walking into the room, saying "Dad". We know now who this drunken character is, and we now also know why Jason has to look after his brother. His dad ignores what Jason says, so Jason walks over to the Record Player, and the camera matches the action of his arm lifting the needle off the vinyl. The editing becomes much quicker and the cuts sharper, because Jason is getting angry that his brother is missing. He asks his dad if he has see Darren, the camera is shifting between the two not keeping steady to show the strong feelings of Jason. All we get from the drunken father is "Why did you turn of the music" we then see a close up of the women saying the same thing. Jason tries to explain that Darren needs his medication, but all he gets from his dad is nonsense, this shot is a medium shot of the dad but we can see Jason looking over to him, to show that he is the bigger and more responsible man.

We can see that Jason's temper is escalating, as the women attempts to put the music back on we hear Jason say "Who's this, your new girlfriend? How much are you paying?" which is showing us that Jason is about to snap. The camera is jerking around and keeps showing the Father and his "new girlfriend", once the father hears what Jason says, he starts standing up saying "Watch your mouth". The tension is building up in the room, as the father says "He is your brother, your the one who is supposed to be looking after him", which in some cases is true, but it is the fathers responsibility in any family to look after the children and not pass it on to one of the children. This shows the audience that this father is no father at all. Finally the women makes Jason explode - she says to him "Hey darling, dint ya mother teach you any manners?". The camera quickly pans to the women making the screen blur, as Jason replies "What did you say" in a very angry tone. The camera then cuts to a low angle shot of Jason with his dad grabbing him and spinning him around, with him shouting " Why don't you pick on someone your own size, eh?" and then swings to punch Jason but misses. The camera then switches sides to show the front of the father, behind Jason as he swings back at his father hitting him in the jaw. The camera quickly matches the action of the father from a long shot, to a medium shot of him falling onto the sofa holding his jaw. The camera is looking down at him from a high angle to show how pathetic he is at his moment of the film, then moving to a close up low angel shot of Jason's face looking shocked at what he has just done. The camera then does a shot reverse shot showing the dad rubbing his jaw in pain, then back to Jason walking out the room saying "Just don't". This makes the audience feel sympathy for Jason because they see what he has to put up with. The final shot is back to the close up of the father still rubbing his jaw, also looking shocked as to what just happened, as we hear the door open and shut.

We then see a building at night, landscape as the camera rotates to stand the building up as it should be. We then establish that Jason is outside with a shot looking up, 90 degrees, at him standing underneath a street light, making him glow. This shows that Jason is Darren's guardian angel, and he will do whatever he can to find his brother. The non diegetic music kicks back in at this point, and is of a mysterious tone. The camera goes through a montage of shots of Jason looking for Darren. The shots are all edited together quickly to show the panic of Jason, but then slows down as Jason starts getting tired and sits down. In the background there is some graffiti of a man sat exactly like Jason. The music stops and strange noises can now be heard, but are still non diegetic. We then get a close up of the graffiti, the eyes of the man blink and the head turns to look at Jason. The camera quickly cuts back to a close up of Jason looking back towards the graffiti, but it has moved back to its original state.

As Jason stands up to carry on looking, as he is halfway stood up the camera cuts to him walking down an alleyway. The camera its tracking him walk towards it, as a noise is heard Jason turns back and the camera matches his eye line to show nothing but a gate. The music is starting to have a creepy tone to it, to set a strange mood to the scene. As he turns a corner he walks into a trolley, and the camera again matches the action of the trolley rolling backwards, also at this point the music spikes in attempt to make the audience jump and get immersed in what they are seeing. Another corner is turned and we see Jason's face go from worried to curious because of something he sees. The camera follows his eye line, showing a man who could be his brother spray painting on the wall.

As Jason shouts "Darren" the man stops what he is doing and walks away. We see Jason run after him, the camera cuts round the corner where the man walked around and we see Jason run around the corner looking around frantically. The music picks up in volume, as Jason looks to the wall where the man was spraying, we see the same little goblin figure that was in Darren's room. Jason reaches to touch the painting, the camera follows his hand as he rubs the paint on the wall. Then quickly cuts down to show green paint on his fingers, he then looks around again to hope to see the man again. As he looks back to the wall where the painting is, the camera again matches his eye line to show the graffiti moving, this time allowing Jason to see. The camera quickly does a shot reverse shot to show Jason's reaction, then back to the graffiti beckoning him to follow as it smears across the wall. We then cut to a long shot of the graffiti moving down the wall towards the screen, and a dazed Jason slowly following it. We follow the Jason around the corner to see more graffiti moving, we cut to a close up to again see how confused Jason is. He starts saying to himself "Am going crazy, first Darren and now me" as the graffiti carries on beckoning him to follow. The graffiti then moves left off screen again and Jason follows. Another montage takes place of Jason following the graffiti, with the strange music getting louder. They then stop at the end of a tunnel and point for him to carry on. The camera cuts to show Jason walk out of the tunnel, with the sound of water now taking over the music, gradually getting louder but then dying down to merge with some soft more up lifting music. The camera cuts to show a long shot of a building with the image of a waterfall projected on it.

As we then see a close up of Jason looking up at the projection, we hear a voice say "Alright bruv". He quickly looks down to a bench, and the camera matches his eyeline to show the man who ran off earlier, who is his brother Darren. Jason sits down and the two brothers have a conversation on why Darren had ran off, the camera uses close ups and shot reverse shots of the two talking, and occasionally showing the projection on the building. The conversation is about Darren escaping from what he is normally at home, and feels normal at night. He starts explaining to Jason "We all need to find our escape" and saying "Remember that time you find yours?"Jason then says back, "It's not like I can go off and leave you" and goes on to say that he cant do that beacause of their father. We now see the true side of Darren, as he is feeling bad that he is taking over his brothers life and wants him to go off and enjoy his life. After the conversation is over, the camera cuts back to show the projection on the building, then slowly fades to black.

The camera then fades back to show Jason asleep on the same bench from the night before, a close up of his face as his eyes open and starts sitting up. When he is halfway up the camera matches the action and cuts to a long shop as he carries on sitting up. We see Jason looking around confused as his brother is no longer there, he stands up and it fades to show the apartment again.

We are back in Darrens bedroom, and he is asleep in his bed wearing what he was last night, with his spray paint cans next to him. Another montage occurs of Jason packing his bags taking his brothers advise, the camera cuts back to the drunken father asleep again on the sofa. Jason comes into the room, seeing that his dad is back asleep. He walks over and sits next to him, and the camera shows a close up of the fathers hand, and Jason's hand grabing it softly. This shows that even though his dad has put him through so much, he still has compassion for him and didnt want to leave without saying goodbye in some context.

The music gradually comes back, again with a slow and slightly sad tone. Jason stands up grabbing his bag and leaves the appartment, the camera cuts to a high angle shot of Jason walking down a corridor within the building, but Jason is a silhouette, this is to show that he is feeling bad for leaving his family but knows that he is doing what is best.

The camera cuts outside the building to a low angle shot looking 90 degrees up at the sky, showing the building and a plane flying. The plane flying past the building is to represent Jason finally leaving the nest to live his life. The music now has a more uplifting and fulfilling tone, the camera cuts down to Jason showing him looking up. Helping the audience establish that it was his perspective looking up at the building, matching up with how the film started looking through Jasons eye's. Jason starts to slowly walk off into the distance, and the camera pans to follow him. The camera also starts to over expose so that the sun's light start to take over most of the screen. This is to represent the kindness in Jason's heart, but also that he is off to start a brand new life with a bright future. The piano from the earlier scene starts up again, as the screen fades to black to show the credits.