Evaluationz; Part 5 - Reminiscing

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Let's face it, the preliminary task was bad. To put it bluntly. I've learnt a lot between the preliminary task to evaluating my final piece. The preliminary task was one of the first experiences I'd has of coming up with an idea and making that idea into a short film, and it probably wasn't Oscar winning. I've learnt a lot about the fundamentals of film-making and the story a film tells.

I've learnt a lot about how I work when being a director and what I can do to improve my work and my productivity and therefore other people's productivity on set. I've learnt about editing and what products to use in editing and what is best for my style, or the independent style of the film that I'm looking for.

Overall making the introduction of Four Walls has definitely been a massive learning experience for me, covering pretty much everything there is possible to learn about in film making. Four Walls was really fun shoot, I'm pretty happy with how it looks and definitely how it feels, but I think that it could look even better with more experienced people behind it. I will be sure to return to Four Walls sometime in the future.

Captain's Log, April 16th 2012.

Evaluationz; Part 4 - Thinking big

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?


I would prefer Four Walls to be made independently because I wouldn't think it would practical to have a massive crew with only two actors, so I think just the bare minimum of crew would be best suited when making this film. I started looking through independent movies that have had funding from relatively large distribution companies, I looked at films that didn't get a massive distribution and marketing campaigns, like Monsters, which did get shown in some bigger brand cinemas, but was mostly shown in cinemas showing independent and international films. Monsters is a feature film which focuses on the travels of two characters, this is much like the confined character range of Four Walls but has a big scale in the locations of their travels.

The distribution company of Monsters was Momentum Pictures Home Entertainment, for the UK DVD & Blu-ray distribution. The film didn't get any major theatrical release in the UK, but did get a DVD & Blu-ray release. I think that this film would a be a good place if the film was popular enough to get to DVD, but as merely a small theatrical release I don't think there would be much chance in it.

Lionsgate release many horror, crime and mystery films every year and pick up mostly small scale films that are popular in the aficionado audiences but also breaching into bigger audiences. A few Lionsgate films have become much bigger grossing films when getting a major release into big brand cinemas, such as The Hunger Games, Saw and Transporter 3. Lionsgate release many independent films to bigger audiences every year, and pick up films that have been made and finished, then release them to much bigger audiences than would be possible on small budgets.

Evaluationz; Part 3 - Naaah

How does your media product represent particular social groups?


It doesn't. There's only two and a half characters. Never do either of the characters interact with any other characters than the other two. And well Geoffrey?... Geoffrey just gets killed and that's about it from him. Jason and Johnathan have an hour and a half long conversation, but it isn't a social occasion, it's for work.

Jason is a psychotic killer. Not really sure if that's a social group. Nothing is ever found out about Jason's life other than he does work, he has money but we don't know what from, and that he kills people on a regular basis. From this, it's hard to tell what his social group is.

Detective Spencer is a working man who sticks up for his colleagues a time of need. So you could say he is very friendly and caring. He has a family, but not much is found out about them other than he has a wife and a daughter of 4 years old.

I could ramble on about the characters, but in the end, there isn't any social interaction between them besides objectives and such.

Evaluationz; Part 2 - Creatively Challenged

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I think that Four Walls more develops and challenges current conventions such as the size of a film; major Hollywood films and even smaller independent films take place over massive distances, with a never ending amount of effects shots, story lines that include many main characters and what sometimes seems to a never ending amount of sub-plots including many smaller characters.


Four Walls takes place in just one room, few shots outside of it. I think that this is more challenging modern conventions of film in the sense of its location and characters, as using just one room is something that is rarely used in modern cinema. I don't see how this challenges it a sense of creating a character, because surely for most films the audience are wanted to have a good sense of the character, but moving location and having many different characters makes this quite difficult. Having the characters in one room with nowhere to go and to distract the audience it will make the audience have nowhere else to focus.


Four Walls also challenges the forms of modern films by having to keep the attention of the audience for a feature length film with only the characters to do so. Other films, for instance, like Transformers take the action around the globe meeting different characters, having the character change their objectives and such. This is not an option for me in Four Walls, the action will have to take place in one room and be intense enough or intriguing enough to keep the audience involved.

Evaluationz; Part 1 - The Hipster Diaries

From Geoffrey himself...

So I wondered if I was actually any use at all on set as a director. So I asked Andrew Heard, who plays Geoffrey in Four Walls, if he could give me his opinion on what I was like on set and what he found it like working with me. This is what he had to say;

"Working on set with Ben was really straight forward; he knew exactly what shot he needed from all the angles before we'd started and had obviously planned in advance. He told me exactly what to do, even for a very small part, which I'd perceived as insignificant, and there was very little question as what was needed to be done. He'd planned the shots, some in and out of focus for effect, he'd planned the style of how the character ran and told me the emotions the character was feeling, even if I couldn't perform them to his standard. Overall it was a very informative experience, with the man that is Ben, and a great insight into his project and the amount of effort which is put in, not only by Ben, but obviously anyone in that business. It wouldn't have been as easy without his planning."

Well, I was rather flustered when I read what Andy had to say. I didn't think that I planned it that much, in fact I thought the project wasn't planned as much as it could have been. I thank Andy for his work, and for his small, but great performance in the production.

Audience Feedback

So we showed most of people's work to the class last and here's the feedback I got from it;



"Really effective narration - good choice of varied shots. Good ident logo! :)"

"OMG- I really love it. It's amazing. Jake's acting is very convincing. Ident is very professional. Well done dear."

"Cool Ident. Really good shot selection, framing. (Steady and flowing) Love the way it flashes back. Good narration and awesome titling. Like how Jake is allways in focus and the lady opposite was out of focus. It's so good, well done! :)"

"Jake's character is scary but I like him! Love the plotline, very intriguing, keeps the audience guessing. Very effective dialogue. Love it! :)"

"The dialogue was really effective. The close up of Jake's eyes was really good, daunting."

"I didn't watch this because I have an aversion to my face and voice, but what I can say is that the script is masterfully written and assumes the voice of a real hollywood film. Titles are really slick."

"Good range of shots - the extreme close ups were especially effective. Got the audience asking lots of questions. Good use of make-up. Want to watch rest of film to find out why he's covered in blood. End was a little sudden."

"Oooh the ambience! Very enigmatic. Your protagonist is very mystic. Ok, it's really good, like the fast shots & the lighting, everything gits really well, other than some of the dubbing needs a little syncing & some noise."

"It was poo! I joke, twas very good! I think the voiceover was really effective especially over the title credits. Really want to find out what happens next! Liked the ident - looked really professional Well done!"

"Intriguing! Wants to make me watch more. Only thing is that the sound dubbing is a bit obvious. Other than that, I liked it. Well done."

"Really good. Love it :D Blood was pink!"

"I love yours. I like the eye close ups and how you didn't show everything. Is it 2 minutes? It seemed shorter but maybe because I was enjoying i! Is it you blurred in the background over the head? I liked that effect. Could you of had the title at the end after it goes black? Anyway I loved it."



I also got some feedback from a film night the Media department held at the school to show work of Yr 11 diploma students and also Yr 12 work.



"Jake has nice eyes. It was well good."

"Really good close-ups - Draws you in too with a good story."

"I was really good."



Overall I'm really happy with the feedback. Everyone seemed happy with it. The constructive comments like the dubbing being out of sync I agree with, but couldn't change them because of time constraints. People seemed to really like the idents, which I found quite surprising, as I created three different versions after the original as they were deleted off my computer all the time for some unknown reason and therefore the remakes became gradually worse and worse, but I was still happy with the final one, and especially happy that it pleased so many people.

The comments about people wanting to watch more, for me, means that I've done my work well in creating a compelling and interesting introduction to a movie. Which is what the introduction of a movie is all about, surely? All in all; I think my work is done here.

Editazzling

I have recently discovered that technology sucks. The computer was using crashed every 5 minutes because the footage I shot in was apparently too big to render. Even though I edited it down from full 1080p down to 720p. But throughout all this shanigans I got through it and got to my eventual final cut.

The audio wasn't the best quality, so me and Jake Brownbill had a dubbing sesh where we covered the audio for both of our work. The only things that I'm not happy with are;

• The first Geoffrey shot covers some of the narration of Jason, which was because the audio messed up between us recording it and me placing it into the final project. I don't know why, but it still worked okay.
• The dubbing isn't on the right lines for the first shot of Jason's mouth, which was also to with the audio messing up.
• The chest shot is a bit wobbly, but I can live with it.

I haven't changed these because of time constraints, and would be incredibly fiddly, or add more stress in AS life.

Overall I love my intro. And it loves me too.

Ryan Reynolds In A Box

Watched Buried the other day, and it got me thinking even more about what I would want Four Walls to end up like. Somehow I got from thinking about Buried and how it relates to Four Walls for me, by Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds) having different objectives and calling people, and I thought that this is what I want Jason to seem like; he has objectives. But unlike Paul Conroy, Jason has control over how the conversation plays out with him and Detective Spencer.

Buried is a 90 minute film that takes place entirely in a box. This may seem like a really boring concept, but it's one of the only films that I've had a real sense of the character. I think that keeping the story within a confined space without flashbacks or other techniques that take the audience out of the box make it difficult to not notice the character's traits. I think that putting two characters in a room will lower the audience's attention to what the character's motives are and focus more on the conversation between the two characters.

But because Jason is going to be in control for the the first two acts, it may be that the script is more of a monologue with some arguments placed to bring tension between the characters and to bring the build-up to the climax.

Because Jason has schizophrenia I want it to make it hard for the audience to know what his motives are for his actions. Also that his motives and emotion change quite drastically throughout, not so much as that he goes from crying to ecstasy within a minute. But so much that he goes from being quite aggressive, to very introverted. Or cooperative to ignorant. Changes like these will add to the fear in Jason and also make it very unpredictable as to what will happen next. I should be careful not to make his emotions repeat throughout the script though, cos no-one likes a boring movie.

12 Angry Dudes

So I thought to myself, 'what if Four Walls was made into a film?' How would the story fold out, and how well would it work with it just being about 2 people in a room. So I started to go into more detail in watching 12 Angry Men. I started to pick out things that make it a story that works so well with it only being about 12 men in a room.

Throughout most action films, there are three main actions scenes, becoming more and more 'intense' as the film plays out. In 12 Angry Men, there are three main scenes that, throughout the film, become more and more intense as the amount of Jurors turn towards making the defendant 'not guilty'. I think that that is the best way to go through Four Walls, with the points on what Jason has done and revealing more about his character throughout the film.

The three points I've decided would be;

• Revealing how and why he killed Geoffrey
• That Jason knows about another killer that the police are still looking for
• Jason escapes from the room and the detective is left alone to chase Jason back to the forest in which Jason killed Geoffrey.

I think that these points would give a gripping story that would keep the audience interested as it has a very simple plot but the characters seem very contrasting. This story is similar to 12 Angry Men as the storyline goes from one extreme to the other. Jason being captured to being free and it is left to the audience's imagination on what he is going to do to the detective and how the detective deals with the situation.

And God said; "Let there be editing!"

Started editing a couple weeks ago after sorting through all the preposterously long shots that I took, and I started to realise that it is a fudge-load easier if you have a specific idea of what you want the film to look like and how the shots unravel. I went into shooting with a set shot-list of what shots I wanted and added a few more shots while I was there.

Sorting through the shots was tedious, to say the least. But after it was all done I could finally start on some proper editing. I think that the sorting would have been easier if I had done every shot within one take instead of resetting the shot and continuously recording. Although after all the sortingness it was easy to find a shot that wasn't an outtake and put it straight into the project.

Another problem I encountered was the computer not being able to cope with the copious amounts of resolution that I shot in. It seems that 2GB of RAM is nowhere close to enough to needed to edit 1080p footage on Premiere Pro or After Effects. I've now learnt that it's better to shoot in something like 720p when having limited computer power.

Getting to the state of a rough edit took a long time, but I'm almost there just a few more snips of footage and I'll have a rough cut to get some feedback on from ma homies. The rough cut will be a close match to what I want the final to look like, but if people suggest something that could be better or just say that it doesn't work, then I'll change it.

The other things to add in after that are the over-dubbing as some of the audio isn't of great quality, but once that is done I hope to have a finished movie-intro.

The Andes

Today I did the final shots of the movie, quite quick and mostly done improvised. We went to the Rhettham Nature Reserve, I took Andy Heard, whom I was employing the services of to play Geoffrey; Jason's latest victim. The name isn't really important, it was more of a joke than anything. If the film was made, Andy's name would be beside Geoffrey just as a little in joke, but if anything the character is more of a device to get the audience to be more feared of Jason.

As you can see, Andy is another great addition to the crazy people in this movie. Andy didn't have that much acting experience other than primary school plays, but now? That is an entirely different blogpost. The acting required for today's shoot wasn't much more than running and looking tired, which isn't exactly hard to do at the same time. Andy's input into the shoot today was unexpected, he helped with producing more shots and additions to the shots I had planned to shoot. With the style I have tried with directing which involves not saying very much and letting the actors produce their own interpretations of what I want them to do. Even though the acting on Andy's part wasn't very much, I still felt that it was very good with what the shots are going to be in the context of the two minutes.

The shots I got were great. We did the same shot of the side of Andy's face whilst running in 4 different backgrounds at Rhettham. The first shot was a bit edgy but it was only the first one to get an idea of how everything worked and how to get the best results. I'm happy with the shots I got, and I think are going to really add to the energy of the two minutes. I plan to use the shots of Andy in a way that will give a jump.

Shooting Jakes

Today I finished the majority of my shooting. In the great school's conference room, which looks a lot like a large bland cupboard with a big table in it. With the paintings taken down it would look more like a bland room that could possibly harbor a murderer being interviewed by a detective.

The room was really good, we had to get rid of some paintings on the walls, but after that it looked really great. As bland as it could be, with nothing more than wall nails to disrupt the bland-ocity. The chairs in the room were a bit annoying, but we got past them without any trouble. Only having to move them to the opposite side of the room that we were shooting in. A trophy cupboard in the corner of the room was a big obstacle for shooting as it meant I couldn't shoot towards that side of the room. Although the one shot that does have the trophy cupboard in is out of focus, which I'll got into why when I've finished it and given my reasons for why I set the shots up.

This was what Jake's face looked like. The blood we made was a lot better than yesterday's batch. It actually looked red this time and didn't crystallize when it got heated up by my arm. I really liked the way that the make-up looked after it had dried up a bit. It kept it's redness, and also because of it having constant heating it gradually moved down Jake's face until it dried up. I got the kind of splattery effect by using a spoon and just splattering the fake blood at Jake's left side. I pretty much did the same thing to get the shirt a bit bloody aswell. I thought the look was quite realistic, which was pretty lucky for how little preparation I'd put in to getting the blood looking good.

The shots have turned out great, all the shots I wanted to get; I got. Plus some extra ones on top. My only worries are that the smooth panning shots that I have got, aren't as smooth as they seem to be. Even if this is the case, I have shot everything in 1080p, which will still be able to be in HD after I have stabilised the shots in After Effects.

Overall the majority shoot was brill. Got everything needed, and some extras. The make-up was great, the room was great, the acting was great (even though most of the audio will be done in overdubs.

Bleeding Pink

Testing out some blood recipes.

Locationings

For the location of the interview scenes, I wanted somewhere that seemed very cramp, unwelcoming and artificial. I also wanted somewhere that was authentic, both me and Jake Brownbill wanted to use somewhere like this, and seeing as we were both actors in each others' productions, it made sense that we should have just one session between us that we could both get our shots.

We got in contact with Norfolk Constabulary by first asking at the reception of the Wymondham Police Station, I gave them my details and a couple days later I got an email from the Communications Officer of Norfolk Constabulary. I called him up and he took down some basic information of who I was and why wanted to use the interview rooms. They also called up my Media teacher to confirm that I was a Media Studies student. The Communication Officer was very helpful, he sent along with some other emails a link for a short film which basically showed off the facilities they have at the police station for interviewing suspects.

This is the video here;

Around 3 minutes in, there is a short 10 second clip of the interview rooms that they have at the station. Although this does not give a great view of the room, it did immediately put me off using it as it has virtually no room to one side and behind either side of the desk. This would mean that if I wanted to use this room, I would have to completely change the shot list and therefore the interpretation of Jason. I talked with Jake and he also had the same views. We then tried to think of any other place that we could use for the location. Even though we won't end up using the official police interview room, the Communication Officer did say that we would have to wait for around a week for the Chief Inspector to come back from a trip, and until then he couldn't get any idea of whether we could use the facilities.

Both me and Jake asked our Media teacher if he had any idea of somewhere where we could use that would be suitable under being bland, artificial and still have enough room for a tripod and camera. He suggested the school's conference room, which is quite small, but if paintings and photos are removed from the walls, would provide that artificial and bland look. We have booked the use of the room for a couple hours tomorrow, and if it is too short a time for both us to shoot, we can still book it for another day in the next week.

For another location I have to shoot in, it would be a wood/forest in the near area. I've got an actor lined up who is going to play Jason's latest victim; 'Geoffrey'. The shots I wanted to get would show to the audience what Jason is capable of, without showing him doing it, which will help to provide the fear in the audience. The forest will help to provide a feeling that the character has had to run miles on end to try and get away from Jason. What I plan on doing is going to a few forests so that I can choose the best one what suits the rest of the shots, and also it can't be any harm to have the same shots in different locations.

Scriptings

Haven't really added that much to the script since last time, but this is the finished script. Not entirely sure of the length of this, but that can be changed in post-production with how I wanted to do this. I'll go over this again soon to see how my perception has changed and whether the script will need to change because the that change.

INT. Interrogation Room - EVENING

Artificial lighting shines down to the centre of the room. A man, JASON WARD is sitting covered by the pale light. On the other side of the DESK a detective, JONATHAN SPENCER, is sitting cross legged, with his pen held in his hand. A COFFEE sits steaming on the desk just in front of SPENCER.

JASON has half of his face spattered with blood and his entire chest and leg also spattered with blood. This is never suddenly revealed until the ending of this sequence.

JASON (V.O.)

(Stuttering)

It was around a, month ago. I met this man. In a bar. We, got talking on about his life. Mostly his, bad times. It was pretty obvious he had had a really bad day. He had been drinking for most of the two hours. Constantly. He ordered a new drink, every time he finished one. He finally said after the, two hours that he should probably go home. He left with a bit of a stumble, didn't really annoy anyone else. Most people had left. He got in his car. A 96' fiesta. Navy blue. He turned the key. I watched him as he went on his way. The next day I took the day off work. I went to his neighborhood, he said the night before, he said he lived on Greenway, went to the exit and saw him drive out in his car. I drove behind him until he got to his work. Found out from the receptionist he finished at, quarter to two. I was back at his house. He pulled into his, drive at quarter past two. stopped and waited for something. I don't know what, made me so angry. It was just him.

Jason is a character who should scare the audience, even from the outset his appearance should provoke fear or unease into the audience. Jason is covered in blood - the questions provoked in the audience are; why? how? It also makes the audience think that he has been involved with death, along with him being handcuffed makes him a murderer most likely. 

The camera shots of Jason are also going to increase the suspicion of what Jason has done to be in the jail cell. Slowly revealing characteristics of him to give the audience one new thing to focus on in each shot.

Jason; Mark II

I've been talking to my sister, who is studying Psychology in her final year at the moment. She's been specializing in multi-personality disorders, but also in schizophrenia. I asked her if Jason's disorder was feasible and turns out it more into the schizophrenia side of things; when some one 'hears voices', as my sister put it. She said that it is very common for a serial killer to have schizophrenia, when someone with the disorder does kill someone, it is very hard to charge them under the same charges as someone without the disorder. Most of the time the killer will end up having to go to an asylum.


Other films that involve a serial killer with schizophrenia include the recent Australian true story film; Snowtown. The character of James Vlassakis, who is currently serving a life sentence for being involved in four murders between '97 and '99. In the film, James finds out from his doctor that he has mild schizophrenia, although the real James Vlassakis isn't publicly known to have the disorder. In Snowtown the James is perceived as someone that could have something wrong with him. 

James Vlassakis in Snowtown [2011]. Played by Lucas Pittaway

The character of James is someone who just seems to go along with whatever really happens to him, he never makes his own decisions, he is told what to do and does it, and when someone wants something from him, James doesn't hold any will to stop them. James' schizophrenia may have been caused by many different things; growing up the rough suburbs of Adelaide, in his early life his father had left, leaving his mother to find another man who can supply money for the family and also care for her three children when she isn't around. Within the first 20 minutes of the film, the first man she puts her trust in, turns out to be a pedophile who abuses James and his brothers. Throughout the rest of the film, James is surrounded by things people of his age shouldn't be, his mother introduces a gay man into the friendship of the family, a new man (John Bunting) marries James' mother, John's son (Troy) from another woman starts to live with the family, Troy rapes James, eventually James gets involved with a series of murders that Troy and one of his close friends plan.


These events that have occurred throughout James' early life have tortured his mind into having schizophrenia. From this film it is easy to understand that the perception of schizophrenia is normally always associated with murder, and in it's worst cases serial killings. Schizophrenia always perceived as part of a villain in most films, with films like Silence Of The Lambs and Donnie Darko viewing it as a downside, but still the characters are the interest of the film.


I want Jason to be somewhat of a character like James from Snowtown, Hannibal Lecter from The Silence Of The Lambs and Donnie Darko from, er, Donnie Darko. These characters have always been the focus of the film, never has anyone said to me that they remember The Silence Of The Lambs for anything other than Hannibal Lecter or Buffalo Bill. Jason should be a character who has a control over the rest of the characters, where he knows the entire story of what the detective is trying to discover, whether or not he knows the man Detective Spencer is trying to find. Hannibal Lecter is a character who is scary because not much is known about him, other than he knows who Buffalo Bill is (possibly) and he also has leverage over the protagonist, yet he is in a jail cell. He is generally a scary character for how he is capable of so much, not much known about him and how he has such a reputation of a mass murder and a cannibal but seems like a relatively normal person.

Character Bio: Jason Ward

Kinda stuck on the rest of the script, so I thought that coming up with a better character bio of Jason would help come up with the rest of the opening speech. It's given me a bit more to think about on why Jason would want to kill his victims. I've thought that maybe there's something that Jason sees in every victim that he doesn't like, or that part of him sees something that reminds him of his rough(ish) upbringing and therefore tries to get rid of it i.e. the person. I think that quite a complex motive would make the story more interesting for people as they would want to see the film again to understand Jason's motives and what is wrong with him.

Jason is a serial killer who is only roughly 20 years old. He has a job as a an financier at a local communications company. He doesn't have much of a social life, but tries to get out to pubs or restaurants to meet people. His hobby's include painting, photography and hiking. Not much is known about him by anyone else, as he tends to keep to himself except when he is interested in someone else and they ask about his life. He hasn't spoken to his mother in a few years, and his father died when Jason was just four years old. Jason was clever from quite a young age, but never seemed to do anything besides work, he gets his relaxation and peace from doing mental exercises or working on something a little less complicated than his normal work. Jason has never been close to anyone in a relationship sense, mostly because he would never be sociable with anyone outside of his work, and was never interested in girls as a young boy. At university no-one ever mentioned him in conversation as he always stayed in his flat, and never left other than to go to classes or to get food. He's always had a job since he got out of high-school. After he left high-school, he took a gap year, then applied for a economics course at Oxford university, Southampton and Manchester. He was turned down at Oxford, but the other two accepted him, he ended up going to Southampton and doing a Post-Graduate course at Manchester university. After this he went back to where he was working before University.

Jason has a type of Multi Personality Disorder where one personality is thinking that the person should be killed because they have something that has reminded him on his younger life. This side of his mind cannot take full control of Jason's actions, so he is left with emotion that he doesn't know why he has it. He ends up killing people, mainly without knowing, yet still accepts that he has done it.

Four Walls II

I've finally got a pretty much finished logo of the movie;

It's only a first draft, but pretty much close to the final logo that I'd like to have, it needs a little more tinkering to get rid of the mechanical movements, but besides that I really like the blur effects I've added in, which was made by having three separate video layers and applying a fast blur on all of them in After Effects. One layer with a horizontal and another with a vertical to get the box blurring together, then another layer with an overall blur to get a fading in blur on it.


The font was blurred in and set to come together as it gets closer to the centre, the movement is still a little jerky, which I'll change to become more smooth.


Really happy with this draft, got everything how I wanted it, now moving onto the actual film...


I've started to write a bit of the script for it, not really in detail but I'm getting a set piece for the dialogue in the opening. Here it is so far...

INT. Interrogation Room - EVENING

Artificial lighting shines down to the centre of the room. A man, JASON WARD is sitting covered by the pale light. On the other side of the DESK a detective, JONATHAN SPENCER, is sitting cross legged, with his pen held in his hand. A COFFEE sits steaming on the desk just in front of SPENCER.

JASON has half of his face spattered with blood and his entire chest and leg also spattered with blood. This is never suddenly revealed until the ending of this sequence.

JASON (V.O.)

(Stuttering)

It was around a, month ago. I met this man. In a bar. We, got talking on about his life. Mostly his, bad times. It was pretty obvious he had had a really bad day. He had been drinking for most of the two hours. Constantly. He ordered a new drink, every time he finished one. He finally said after these, two hours that he should probably go home. He left with a bit of a stumble, didn't really annoy anyone else. Most people had left. He got in his car. A 96' fiesta. Navy blue. He turned the key.

JASON moves his jaw to make a liquid clicking sound.

This is just a little bit that I've put together, not much but it's early days...

It's a start...

I wanted to get a feel of what my movie might look like, of course this is only a rough animation of the first minute or so, but it gave me a helping hand for the order of the titles and how long the credits would take. I made this on Vegas Pro 9 so it isn't the best quality of animation and such that I would like, but that's why it's a draft.

I've included my false production company logo, the rough movie titling and the director's credit, but I've still got to think of what will go into the rest of the intro.

The shots I wanted the film to start with are;

• A close up of Jason's eye; to show that the person narrating or just talking over the shots is most likely this man. The following shots gradually reveal more about the situation and personality, which have an immediate impact on the audience as to what he is compared to everyone else in society and why the film focuses on this man.
• A close up of the handcuffs on Jason's wrist to show that he is a criminal or some sort of suspect in a case, but nothing else is known about him or what crimes he has committed.
• A pan downwards on his torso to show the blood from Jason's crime to let the audience know that he has been close to someone being hurt badly or killed. But because he is in handcuffs the audience immediately assumes that he has killed someone. Along with his calm demeanor it could suggest that something is mentally wrong with him
• A low angle shot of Jason's entire face to suggest he has power, but also revealing that he has blood over his face as well, which he hasn't bothered to clean off.
• The final panning away shot of Jason sitting in the middle of the room with the detective towards the left of the frame to reveal the entire situation and setting; an interrogation room in which Jason is the suspect and the detective is interrogating.

I also want to include a flashback to the killing of Jason's last victim, but only showing the chase between Jason and his victim to imply that Jason has killed this person. These shots will be interlinked with the other shots and used in a way to shock the audience and imply that he has killed this person.