Storyboard Animatic

This is a short animation of each shot from our storyboard. It has helped us to make sure the shots are in the most appropriate order and that the sequence makes sense to the audience. The shots that show flashbacks to the characters child hood have an effect to make them appear older, hopefully this is an effect we can use in our final piece.

Costume

Our costume plays an important role in our sequence. We have two characters that are the same person just at different ages. To show that they are the same person we will need to show similarities between them. To do this, costume is one factor where we can show the audience they are the same.
For our main 'adult' character, Owen Haynes, he needs two sets of costumes, as he is in different places on two occasions. In his first scene, he is in a gym so the sort of costume he needs is going to be; shorts and a t-shirt, or tracksuit botttoms and a vest top or mix and match them all. This is to show the audience that he is in a gym not out on the street. The costume will instantly make the audience know where he is. His footwear will be simple training shoes, such as trainers.
For his second scene, he will be outside and will be wearing clothes that suit his standards. So he will be wearing jeans and a hoodie. The hoodie is an important element as he will put up his hood in one scene, to mirror what he does as a child. So hopefully watching this contrast it will indicate to the audience that they are the same person. His footwear in this part will be trainers also or something similar.

For our other character, the child version of Owen, he will have similar clothes to the Owen that walks around outside. So he too will have jeans and a hoodie on. To symbolise their similarities the hoodie will lift over his head. As well he will have trainers on or something similar. As this character comes on before his older version the audience will not have an idea who he is until older Owen does the similar things mirroring his younger version.

We have one more character who gets hit by adult Owen. He plays a more imortant role in the whole film but for this opening sequence he doesn't matter too much. He will be wearing just casual clothes, so either a tracksuit or jeans and a top and jacket, or something that will indicate a lot of questions to the audience about who he is and why he got punched.

Props

For our opening sequence props isn't one of our biggest issues. It's more about location rather than having a lot of props. However we will need a couple, which are:

1. Pair of Boxing Gloves - For our main character to have whilst hitting the punch bag.
2. Hand Tape - Also for the main character to use before he puts his gloves on.
3. Possibly a Mobile Phone - To have when our character is walking down an alley way, not to symbloise anything just to have as an extra prop.

Because we don't have many props, it doesn't mean we're not incorperating a lot into our sequence. The location tells more about his life than the props do.

Production Schedule

Production schedule:

Thursday 4th February- filming the boxing scenes in Worle School gym
Tuesday 9th February- filming the alley scenes
Thursday 11th February- recording the voice over and child scenes

Changes in Production Schedule (due to unforeseen circumstances):

Tuesday 9th February- filming the alley scenes
Thursday 25th February- filming in the gym
Wednesday 3rd March- Voice over and child scenes
Thursday 4th March- Boxing scenes and murder scene

Final Story Board

Fonts

Font 1: We thought that this font could be good as the small lines surrounding the letters look like lines you would see in a picture to show something was moving. We thought this would relate to the theme of boxing, as there is a lot of movement, like his gloves and the punchbag.

Font 2: We liked this font because we liked the way in which the letters were all slanted in different ways. It makes it not look quite stable, like our character. The letters slanting different ways could show that our character does not know which way to go- revenge, boxing, forgiveness, etc? Also, we liked the way in which the letters seem to fade out at the top/bottoms. We thought that this could represent the way in which the aspects in his life are fading- like values, family, and even his ambitions.

Font 3: We really liked this font because we thought it was different.There are a lot of slashes through the words, looking like a knife has been through or suggesting violence which relates to our film. Also, on the 'R' there is a cross going straight through it. This stands out and links to the title of our film which is religious; ''Eye for an Eye''

Font 4: We liked this font because it gives a sense of danger and suspicion. It could look like graffiti on a wall, which matches one of our locations; the alley. The letters are not placed in line, corresponding with the character who is also out of line in many respects.

Font 5: We thought that this font was good because it hides some parts of the letters, which could represent the character of Owen hiding behind his boxing and anger. The font, like the film, asks a lot of questions.

Font 6: We thought this font looks like it could have been written by a young child. This corresponds with Owen's personality as he is still living in the past, and is obsessed with his childhood.

Font 7: This font reminds us of prison, which links to our film as Owen ends up in prison by the end of the film. The way in which the letters are not linked up could represent how he is not complete as he feels he still needs to get revenge.

We narrowed down these seven choices to two possible fonts; Font 3 and Font 4. We decided that one of these fonts would be the most appropriate for our film opening sequence. After debating over which font to use, Font 4 was our final decision. We chose Font 4 as it looks like graffiti which relates to our character growing up in a run down area and the film itself.

Analysis of Legally Blonde

The first frame fades into an extreme close up of the main characters' (Elle Woods) blonde hair, waving from side to side. The score immediately starts of ''Perfect Day'' by Hoku. The score automatically represents the genre and feel of the film, and appeals straight away to the target audience. The close up of Elle's hair means that the audience can only focus on one thing- exactly that. The audience can only see her blonde hair, which straight away brings up the first and maybe main issue of the film- blondes. It also gives us a clue to how her character i going to be. Titles fade in and out, with pink swirly writing. This writing again appeals to the target audience, as it is pink and girly, with things like hearts incorperated in it. The camera then starts to slowly zoom out to a close up of the back of Elle's head, still focused on her hair. It shows Elle brushing her hair. Her nails are manicured, giving the audience more clues about her character- that she is ''girly'' and cares a lot about appearance.

It then cuts to a long shot of a girl riding a bike. The camera tracks along side her giving the audience a clear view of the mise-en-scene. There is a water fountain, showing that it is not a poor area. There are a lot of people around, with diegetic sound of laughter and talking. This adds to the happy atmosphere in which everyone seems to be in and introduces us to where we are. But still, because the camera is following the girl on the bike, we are focused on the story, too.The score is still playing.

Next, it cuts again to a mid-shot of Elle shaving her leg. We still cannot see her face, which forces the audience to concentrate on what we can see and put these things together to work out her character. Her leg is leaning on a pink chair of some sort, and in the background we can see a pink curtain. Again, these things contribute to what the audience think of her character- we can see that she is definitely a ''girly'' girl, maybe even more so than we first thought. The camera is still, showing no intention of showing us her face yet. This causes more suspense. The score is still playing.

It then cuts back to the previous scene, in which there is a water fountain, greenery and lots of people. The camera is moving around the setting, showing the girl on the bike and the other people in the mise-en-scene e.g people playing frisbee. This camera movement adds to the lively and fun atmosphere of the place and emphasises the happiness. The girl on the bike is wearing shorts and a small T-shirt, with her hair down and she has a basket on the front of her bicycle. She looks like another ''girly'' girl. The camera carries on moving around the setting until it is a long shot of a group of topless young guys messing around, playing sport. They all stop and turn around, and the girl rides into the shot. There is diegetic sound of the boys cheering and shouting at the girl riding past. This shows what life is like where they live, and suggests one of the main focuses of the film- love.

The camera then cuts to a close up of Elle Woods putting on a silver heart necklace. It also reveals the top of a pink dress, and again shows her manicured nails. It again, forces the audience to think about her character and creates tension of what she will look like. The score is still playing underneath.

Sound/music

We have been deciding whether to have music in our opening sequence, what music and where in our opening sequence to have it. Our opening sequence starts off with our main character taping his hands. This would not have any diegetic sound, so we think that there should be some sort of non-diegetic sound. However, in the next part of our sequence, there would be diegetic sound of the natural sound of the character boxing- e.g the sound of the punchbag being hit, panting.These sounds would be effective as the main focus of sound in our opening sequence, but we still feel we would need a soundtrack for the silent parts of the opening sequence. The next part of our sequence is when our main character hits another character, and cutting to see that the victim is dead. We definitely would need music which has a change in pace, pitch, etc to signify some change. After this, it cuts to the main character walking down an alley, which seems to be more into the beginning of the film rather than the opening sequence. Because of this, I thought that there should be another change of music. We thought we could have the music only just starting here, but then decided that there needed to be some sort of music in the beginning too. Also, the voiceover begins at this part so it would be too much sound starting at the same time.

Script

Ideas for Script

My name is Owen Haynes. I'm 23 years old. Ever since I can remember I've not had a father to look up to. It's just been me and my mother living in our little council house in London's East End. I have not had a good childhood. I got pushed over and beat up a lot. My mother suggested telling teachers but I'd get battered from head to toe. She told me how my father was an amateur boxer which inspired me to start lessons. As I became older, the anger grew on me, and I wanted revenge.

My name is Owen Haynes. I'm 23 years old and training to be a boxer. My father was an amateur boxer and his career inspired me. Ever since I left school I didn't see why I should put up with bullies any more. I wanted to be on the other side of things; I wanted to be a boxer.

We put these ideas together, with other ideas we had thought about to create a final draft:

Final Script

Owen Haynes: My name is Owen Haynes. Last summer something happened in my life to make me realise I gotta make something of myself; my mate, Danny, from school, convinced me to join his gym. Little did I know it was specialised in boxing. Boxing really wasn't my thing, you only had to look at me to know that; when I started I was the same small, scrawny little bastard as I was when I was a kid. I was constantly looking over my shoulder, I didn't think that anything could be worse than my childhood. I always wanted to get something out of life, i think now is the time for that to happen...

Title Ideas

Worked Up - This was just a simple idea thought of as the phrase 'Worked Up' has a double meaning. The first is our character working up as a boxer to achieve his goal. Secondly it could refer to his emotions getting worked up and losing control.

Justice - We thought that this could be a good title as it sums up what the character is aiming for. The character believes what he is doing is getting justice, but the family of the victim end up with the justice when he ends up in prison.

Retribution - Retribution is another way of saying 'revenge'. The character wants revenge on his childhood bullies, but him and his victim both end up paying for their actions.

Eye for an Eye - This title is from a quote from the Bible- ''an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth'' meaning that ''what goes around comes around''. Our character believes that the bullies should have a taste of their own medicine.

We have decided to use Eye for an Eye because it best fits the moral of the film which is ''treat others how you wish to be treated''.

List of Titles

An AllStar Production

Director - Lewis Hancock

Producers - Mitchell Windell, Tabby Jones

Editor - Julie Evans

Featuring - Unknown

Unknown 2

Unknown 3

Title - Eye for an Eye

Reasons For Certificate

The BBFC permits the following within the bounds of the 15 certificate:

Theme: No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate to 15 year olds.
Language: There may be frequent use of strong language; the strongest terms are only rarely acceptable. Continued aggressive use of strong language and sexual abuse is unacceptable.
Nudity: There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.
Sex: Sexual activity and nudity may be portrayed but without strong detail. The depiction of casual sex should be handled responsibly. There may be occasional strong verbal references to sexual behaviour.
Violence: Violence may be strong but may not dwell on the infliction of pain, and of injuries. Scenes of sexual violence must be discreet and brief.
Imitable techniques: Dangerous combat techniques such as ear claps, head-butts and blows to the neck are unlikely to be acceptable. There may be no emphasis on the use of easily accessible lethal weapons (in particular, knives).
Horror: Sustained or detailed infliction of pain or injury is unacceptable.
Drugs: Drug taking may be shown but clear instructive detail is unacceptable. The film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug use.

This is from: http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/592478/

Actor

For our opening sequence we need someone who isn't necessarily a professional boxer but has a good, strong build and will suit the part well. The character of Owen Haynes will need to have some sort of body which will show the audience that he cares about what his body looks like, for example having bigger Pecs and/or a Six Pack. It is a very steriotypical view of what we are doing but we think that this sort of character, who grew up on an urban estate would have these features. Also his face would preferably need to be quite stern and serious he can't have baby face because it will not look intimidating enough, so the audience will lose the sense of focus for the character. As we don't see his face til towards the end of the sequence, it is possible to have two actors, one for his body and muscle, which we will not see his face, and the second for his stern face. As we do not have the whole film it isn't essential to have the same actor and his body, we can use two. However this is still under working process. We can still only use the one actor who has it all.

As we have a voice over at the end of the sequence we would like to have someone who has a London sort of accent, which we thought would suit him best. Again it may be another steriotypical view but it shot straight to mind. Simular to the actor, we could use another person's voice which isn't the actor on screen because we arn't finishing the film so the audience will not know that the actor hasn't got the accent. However we may just find an actor who has got it all and would solve our problems, this is all under construction and will be 100% decided soon.

Draft Storyboard

This is our draft of our storyboard. We have not put the title credits on as we have not decided whether to have them on seperate frames to the actual sequence, or on top of the images in the sequence.

Shot List

• Close up of Owen's hands
• Over the shoulder shot of Owen's hands
• Mid shot of the back of Owen boxing
• Long shot of a child on a swing
• Close up of Owen's boxing gloves against the punch bag
• Mid shot of Owen boxing- from the chin down
• Long shot of an unhappy child walking
• Low angle mid shot of Owen swinging at the punch bag
• Low angle mid shot of Owen hitting a man
• Mid/long shot of a victim falling onto a stretcher
• Mid shot of a victim on a stretcher, extreme close up of Owen's face (translucent image)
• Mid shot of Owen walking in an alley

Location

We are basing the location of the film on our main character, Owen Haynes. We thought about the type of character he is and decided that part of portraying this would be his environment. We thought that it should be set in a small rundown part of a town which has always had a bad reputation, and is struggling to change it due to things like vandalism, gangs, theft, drugs, etc. This is so that you can see where some of his violence, and of the childrens' violence in his childhood, have partly come from. It also adds to getting across his overall character.

We thought about places in which we could go and film in which match our specification. We have found a place to film, which has a long, vandalised alley leading to an area with some buildings and a park. The park could remind the audience of the references to his childhood, and also add to the effect of the area as it is stereotypical of gangs of teenagers to hang around in parks. The alley has connotations of crime, too.

We also would need a gym to film in, for the boxing parts of our sequence. Boxing is one of the main themes of our film so it needs to be strongly conveyed and would show the passion our main character has for it. Additionally, it needs to be in a gym to make it realistic and believeable, so we have thought about using quite a small gym to make sure it fits in with the environment and the lack of money that the area would have to spend on it.

General Ideas

-We want to incorporate black and white transposing images in our opening somehow, to represent the difference between past, present and future. We also thought that the whole film could be in black and white, but darker for a change in time period. This would give the whole film a dark and edgy feel to it.

-We thought that it would look good to use a translucent effect in part of our opening sequence, to show that two ideas link in our film, but that they are not physically together.

-We thought that it would look better and more realistic to use real home videos if we can of our main characters' childhood, rather than filming a child specifically for our sequence.

Film Treatment- Outline of Target Audience

Our target audience would be mainly males aged 15+. We think it would be mainly males as the film is about boxing and violence, which is stereotypically more masculine. Most of the characters found in the film, also, would be males, making it appeal more to a male-orientated audience. The culture references in the film would also appeal to men. It would be for aged 15+ as it would be within the certificate rating, but we do not believe that there would be a more specific age limit as sport is something that would appeal to a wide range of age groups.

Preliminary Exercise

Film Treatment- Certificate

We think that our film would suit a certificate rating of 15. We think this because our film would contain various amounts of swearing and scenes of a violent nature. The swearing would be quite frequent but the violence would be more suggestive rather than being shown on screen. There wouldn't be any scenes of a sexual nature.

Film Treatment- Description of Characters

Owen Haynes is our main character. He was bullied as a child, which has shaped his adult life. Because of his childhood, he decides to start boxing as defence mechanism to incorporate some confidence into his system. As Owen grows older, his emotions get the better of him and he chooses revenge as a motive to use his boxing outside of the ring. His medium sized exterior gives the belief that he is confident, but on the inside he is still the little boy that was bullied all those years ago. His rage is spiralling out of control making him do things which he never thought that he could never possibly imagine.

Danny Mitchell is Owen's close and only friend. Having known eachother since school, Danny knows everything there is to know about Owen and almost idolises him, although Owen rarely acknowledges him. Danny has a small frame which makes his love of boxing difficult as he finds the physicality of the sport too much. He is unemployed and wastes all the money he gets on drugs. He is not the brightest crayon in the box and his mouth can sometimes create awkward situations which may lead to himself and Owen becoming under threat from troublesome circumstances.

Steve Quick is Owen's personal trainer and boxing coach. An old man with very wise stories who not only helps Owen with his boxing, helps him with his life. His childhood isn't too dissimilar to what Owen's used to be and whilst his wise words could help Owen, Owen chooses to ignore his advice which may lead to undaring consequences.

Ben Stewart is a man who went to school with Owen Haynes. Back in the day, Ben was the main culprit for issuing abuse and pain onto Owen and was often called the ringleader of the bullies. Since their encounters at school, Owen has felt that Ben, a man of a large build, has had the upper hand over him but once Owen's revenge excells, the tables turn and things turn nasty.

Jake Johnson also went to school with Owen. He was an accompliss to Ben when he used to bully Owen. Jake didn't realise the seriousness of what he was doing and merely conformed to what his best friend was doing. Having forgotten about what used to happen at school, he is unable to help Ben when he come running for help which leads him into a whole lot of trouble.

Film Treatment- Detailed Description of Opening Sequence

The opening sequence starts with a black screen then slowly fades into a close-up of the main character (Owen Haynes) taping up his hands. Whilst he is still taping his hands the camera then moves into an Over The Shoulder shot of him and then putting on his boxing gloves. After this we then cut to a Mid-Shot of Owen boxing against a punch bag very aggressivly, this is from a backwards perspective still not showing his complete face. It then flashes to a short clip of a young child on a swing, in a little park, on his own showing his facial expressions which are upset and downhearted. Straight after this it shoots straight back to the image of Owen boxing a punch bag but this time it is a Close-Up shot of his gloves against the bag. It quickly shows a mid shot of Owen boxing, however it doesnt show his face, it only shows his waist to his chin. Again it flashes to the small child being unhappy and sad. A final Mid-Shot of Owen Swinging for the punch bag but at a slightly lower angle, which merges into a Match On Action shot switching to from him going to punch the bag to him hitting an actualy person, all of which is at the lowered Mid-Shot. Right after this has happened it cuts to a Mid/Long-Shot of the victim falling onto a stretcher. This then turns into a translucent image of the man on the stretcher which is a Mid-Shot and a Close-Up of Owen's stern face. The camera zooms out off of the translucent image, to a man walking in a solid image down a round of house either side of him. This then finalises with a Long-Shot of Owen walking down the road whilst a voice over is being played explaining his life and who he is.

Film Treatment- Synopsis

Our film begins by introducing the our main character Owen, a boxer. It introduces the setting too, which is a rundown urban area, where Owen is walking the streets. Skipping to the future, there is a dead body revealed, which creates mystery for the audience about the story behind the body. The film continues to show Owen's life, then showing Owen kill a man (the dead body in the beginning of the film). His obsession of revenge and aggression gets worse and worse, until he is out of control. He then realises the situation he is in and attempts to change- but it is too late. He is put into prison, which is where we realise that he has been telling the audience his story from his prison cell.

Research into other media products

Legally Blonde-

The way in which the opening of Legally Blonde introduces the character of Elle Woods is good as it shows the audience parts of her lifestyle without actually showing Elle herself. We think that this is good as it probably tells you more about her character than if it showed you her face straight away. It also makes you wonder what she will be like, creating suspense.

Dead Man's Shoes-

We like the way childhood photographs and images are used in Dead Man's Shoes. We could use this in our opening sequence as we need references to our characters' childhood.

This is England-

We like the way in which the title credits are not on separate slides and are placed on top of the footage. The way in which the footage is dated from the 1980's is a technique we think we could use, as we may need old-looking footage of our character when he was younger.

Green Street-

We would like to incorporate a voiceover into our sequence similar to the one in Green Street which starts 46 seconds into the sequence.This is because we would like our character to introduce him/herself and the situation, like Matt Buckner.

Snatch-

We like the transitions between characters in Snatch opening sequence, and would like to try something similar in ours if we can. It has influenced our ideas, for example when one of our characters swings at a punchbag, but the shot changes to him swinging at a man.

Initial ideas

1) Our first idea is a drama based film about a middle-aged man who was taunted and bullied at school as a child due to his scrawny exterior. After a childhood full of neglect and physical harm, the middle-aged man results to boxing to protect his dignity and reform his reputation. The man's idea of protecting himself soon turns into revenge which results in several men being injured and one man being murdered.

2) Our second idea is a thriller/action based film about a girl who is taken hostage. She assumes that whilst she is there a man is going to come and kill/rape her. What she does not realise is that her stereotypical view is far from right and that her real kidnapper is her worst enemy, Lindsay Baker.

3) Our third idea is again, a drama based film about a traditional family living in Peterborough. The mother is a idolised domestic housewife, determined to keep up appearances. But as her obsession spirals out of control, her husband cannot take it any more, and her world falls apart.