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.