Updates from online meetings

 Over this week we have had two online meetings. One on Monday and then on Friday. We tried to list some candidates for the roles. The have established that we would have one main character who would be the victimised girl. And a chaperone character, who would also be the victims friend/someone she knows from school for example. Then there would be the driver of the car, who also later opens the door to the house. And then lastly the villain character who is an older man and a sex predator. We are very firmly stuck on Ezra, a teacher from the theatre department at our school. His presents and appearance suits the role very much. We are debating on if we should maybe include another character, perhaps a gardener. To show that this isn't completely a secret that this is happening and that people are perhaps just being payed of to stay quiet. We have also made a decision on the location where we would film the scene with the villain and the victim. We would bee located by an indoor pool at best. 

Then we talked about the possibilities of locations:

-The Lodge

-Hurtwood

-Other boarding houses 

-Someones house

-golf club resort in Cranleigh 

Then we discussed what car to use for the transport of the two young girls:

-I offered up my dads cars, depending on if they fit the style that we're going for or incase we don't find something more suitable.

-The two cars that would be available at the moment is a Mercedes or a Bentley.

The 180 degrees rule

 The purpose of this exercise was to demonstrate the 180 degree rule that we should alway apply while filming a scene. Especially a monologue/ conversation between two people.

I chose to demonstrate through these three photographs that I took of my younger sisters stuffed animals. I positioned them so that they were sitting exactly opposite ache other and looking into ache others eyes. When I was taking the photographs I didn't break the territory of 180 degrees between each shot. I was alway within the 180 degrees. I managed to sustain and not break the eye line between them.I changed positions of the camera to shoot a close up, over the shoulder shot and and eyeliner shot. This is a very useful skill, and is important to stick to it. 

American Horror Stories- title sequence

 

This opening title sequence from the series American Horror Stories was created  by Kyle Cooper. This sequence is created in the style of a montage. We can tell straight away the genre of the film thanks to the clips and choice of music. It is a  psychological crime thriller film. The clips in the opening title sequences are very dark, black and white with an old yellow sting at times, old-fashioned. They all seem to be clips of elements of murder and death and ghosts. Every few seconds we see a black screen with white flashing credits to the film. The music in the sequence is very creepy and scary. It makes the audience feel uncomfortable and uneasy. Apart from the main melody we can also hear that weird noises were added into the recording co increase the scary mood of the sequence. 

title sequence-SEVEN

 

This opening title sequence from the film Seven by Kyle Cooper is made dominantly in the style of a montage. We can tell straight away the genre of the film thanks to the clips and choice of music. It is a  psychological crime thriller film. The clips in the opening title sequences are very dark, black and white, old-fashioned. They seem to be clips of the murderer planning his murders. The way Copper added special effects into the sequence makes it into an almost horror style. Than every seconds we see a black screen with white ‘scratched on’ credits to the film. Some of the key themes that come out during this sequence is murder, mystery, death, creepy, violence, disturbing images. 

The music in the sequence is very unsettling and scary. It makes the audience feel uncomfortable and uneasy. Apart from the main melody we can also hear that weird noises were added into the recording. The style of music that plays in this sequence is very similar to another title sequence I saw that was by Kyle Cooper, it was the opening title sequence of the first season of American Horror Stories. 

Kyle Cooper

 

-Kyle Cooper was born in the 1960s 

-he is a well-respected desighner from America 

- he rose to fame, thanks to his title sequences for films 

-he produced and directed more than 350 title sequences with visual effects 

-Los Angeles magazine calls him the “Da Vinci of main titles”.

-He is “one of the top 50 biggest and best creative thinkers from the last 20 years of advertising and consumer culture,” according to Creativity magazine.

 

HIS EARLY WORK:

He graduated Yale School of Art. One of his early work was the title sequence (in !995) for the American film Seven. This sequence has from then inspired multiple younger designers over the years. Cooper claims that his goal was to raze the bar for future title sequences.

 

FOUNDED COMPANIES:

-Cooper cofounded the company Imaginary Forces. This company then emerged in to one of the most successful creative agencies in Hollywood. In the year 2003 Cooper left Imaginary Forces because he wanted to focus more on his creative work and that wasn’t possible for him when he was running the business side of a massive design company. After that he founded Prologue which is a creative agency where he works with a small team and they focus on creating title sequences. 

 

INFLUENCES:

-he says that Stephen Frankfurt is his greatest influence in his work on title sequences. He claims to also be inspired by the work of William Shakespeare 

 

 

His title sequences examples:

-American Horror Story (2011)

-Sherlock Holmes (2009)

-The Incredible Hulk (2008)

-Iron Man (2008)

-Superman Returns (2006)

-Spider-Man 2 (2004)

-Men in Black (1997)

-Mission: Impossible (1996)

lighting/rule of thirds/composition

this is the video I did for my exercise in today lesson and demonstrated: lighting/the rule of thirds/ and composition. 

 

Shot by shot: draft 1

Shot by shot: draft 1

-Chaperone/friend walks in-girls looks out the window and see car arrive 

-Driver opens the door and girls get inside the car 

-Shot inside the car 

-Girl fiddling with a family ring (sentimental) - Chaperone/friend is on her phone  

-Big gate opens 

-car drives up to the house on the driveway line (camera is positioned on the road) 

-driver opens the car’s door- girls get out  

-shot of a gardener cutting hedges + looking over to the girls 

-girl looking around/admiring the house  

-driver opens the front door to the house 

- Chaperone/friend walks girl to the door/ looked in arms (friendly way) 

- driver points towards a room inside/ girl walks alone towards the room 

-‘Jeffrey Epstein character’s standing by the window looking out (we can’t see his face) he has a sheet on over the bottom half of his body. 

-he turns to the girl ( still can’t see his face ) 

-we see the regret in her facial expression  

STORY BOARD DRAFT 1:

Research task-victims

 How did young girls get introduced to Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking organization for ‘the wealthy and powerful’?

VICTIMS

Virginia Roberts Giuffre was only 16 years old when Ghislaine Maxwell approached her to become a masseuse for Jeffrey Epstein. Virginia was then subsequently abused by him on a regular bases. 

She was one of the first alleged victims to speak out publicly.

She was also captured in a now famous photo with Prince Andrew in London. With Ghislaine Maxwell smiling in the background. This was proof that she was in contact/involved with prince Andrew despite his denial ever meeting her. 

She has claimed she used to be lent out to Epstein's friends and was forced to have sex with them. For example Alan Dershowitz.

Thanks to her various legal actions, many of the allegations against Epstein and his associates have been made public and emerged. This also helped other formal victims to come forward with their statements.

The Miami Herald says more than 100 women have given statements to prosecutors or their lawyers. Sixteen of them have made statements at a hearing officially closing criminal proceedings against Epstein after his death.

Anouska de Georgiou

She was Epstein's first alleged British victim. 

She is a British actress and former a model.

She said that she met Epstein when she was “young and full of hope and the foolishness of a teenager”, he then had exploited and abused her over the course of “several years”.

She also  said, “Jeffrey Epstein manipulated me, coerced me and abused me. He cannot begin to fathom what he did to us. Something I think is very important to communicate is that loss of innocence, trust, and joy that is not recoverable. The abuse, spanning several years, was devaluing beyond measure and affected my ability to form and maintain healthy relationships, both in my work and my personal life. He could not begin to fathom what he took from us."

Johanna Sjoberg

Sjoberg claims Prince Andrew touched her breast while they were at Epstein's mansion when she was 21. She says she was lured into Epstein's circle by Ghislaine Maxwell, having been offered a job.

 

Courtney Wild

She accused Epstein of preying on vulnerable girls, like herself at the time.

She was offered a job as a masseuse when she was only 14 years old. She was then groomed by Jeffrey to bring him other underaged girls to abuse, which she would get paid for (this would sometimes be like 2 or 3 girls a day). She had an unstable family with financial problems, but she was a good kid with straight As at school. Jeffrey then started abusing her and manipulating her. She would get picked up by a private driver to bring Epstein other underaged girls. Since then she has struggled with drug abuse her howl life. 

Michelle Licata

A friend approached Licata, then a 16-year-old high school student, with an opportunity to make some quick cash. Licata says her friend told her that all she had to do was to give a massage to some old man in a "facility-type setting," and she would be paid $200.

"When we stopped in his driveway," Licata said, "She started telling me there's going to be a guy that you're going to give a massage to. He's going to ask you to take your shirt off and your pants off. But don't worry, you can keep your underwear and your bra on."

Licata said that on the day she went to Epstein's home, she was led upstairs by a young woman to a large bathroom where Epstein was talking on the phone, already lying face down on a massage table. The woman set a timer, she said, and left Licata alone in the room to begin the massage.

"After he flipped over, when he had gotten off the phone, he told me to take my clothes off," Licata said. "He was touching me. He was touching my boobs. He was touching my hips, my butt."

After it ended, Licata said Epstein gave her $300; $200 for her and $100 for the girl who brought her there, who was waiting downstairs to take her home.

Jena-Lisa Jones

Jones says she was molested by Epstein when she was 14, and was paid $200 to give him a massage.

Sarah Ransome

Ms Ransome says she was flown out to Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean in 2006 and forced was to have sex with him and other guests. 

Maria Farmer

Epstein had offered to help her painting career when she was 26 years old, but it all came to an end one night when she says Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, began violently groping her.

 

She later learned that her 16-year-old sister, Annie Farmer, had been subjected to a topless massage at Epstein’s ranch in New Mexico.

Jennifer Araoz

She says that she was 14 years old when a young woman approached her outside her New York City high school. The first few times she went to Epstein's Manhattan townhouse, all they did was talk, Araoz said, and the friendly woman came along. Araoz told him about her dream of becoming a Broadway actress. Araoz would return to Jeffrey’s house regularly over the next year, she said, she was manipulated into stripping down to her panties and giving Epstein massages that ended with him pleasuring himself to completion and her leaving with $300.

Epstein pressured her to do more, Araoz said. He told her to remove her panties. Then he grabbed her 15-year-old body.

"He raped me, forcefully raped me," Araoz said in an exclusive interview. "He knew exactly what he was doing."

second online meeting 18.1.2021

Today we had another meeting with our teacher Adam and teacher/camera man Mike. 

We talked more about our main idea. 

Mike brought up some concerns about it,

For example: how obvious do we want our sequence to show what the film is about?

How are we going to show what the movie is about? Do we want it to be specifically about Jeffrey Epstein? If yes how do we show that it’s exactly about him.

Also we had to be very thoughtful about what we would include in the opening title sequence. So it wouldn’t become just a basic car ride or that we would give away too much in just the 2 minutes of the sequence.

For example we could give Virginia a chaperone (possibly a woman) who would control/manipulate her. 

Then we should make it obvious what Virginia was introduced to in the house when she gets there. (For example a massage: Jeffrey Epstein laying on the massage table In a towel and when she gets in he turns to face her. But the camera is capturing him from the back so we still can’t see his face. And he reaches for Virginia’s hand and pulls her in the room... the door closes. 

Also the opinion of our teachers Adam and Mike was that both our ideas (main+backup) were achieved but that the child abduction story would be easier to film and produce.

We did still stick to the Jeffrey Epstein idea as our main idea for the time being. 

first online video meeting 15.1.2021

 This morning we had our first online video meeting with our group (me, Pandora, Amy) and our teacher Adam.  We mainly just established the main idea for our opening title sequence, which ended up being the idea I pitched. 
The idea is that the film would be inspired by the terrible acts of Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplices.  

The main character would be Virginia Roberts Giuffre who was involved with prince Andrew. 
The opening sequence would be of Virginia getting ready to be picked up by a private driver and taken to a safe house.
Virginia gets her suitcase and passport + sentimental things like her family ring.
She gets in the car and drives to a safe house where there’s a man (we can’t see his face) and Jeffrey is laying on a massage table. 

This meeting we also discussed the accessibility of props and locations that we want to include in our opening title sequence.  We talked about how many people we would need for the actual filming: that would be possibly 3 (Virginia, Jeffrey Epstein character and a driver. 

Then our teacher Adam left the meeting and me, Pandora and Amy discussed on a separate meeting what could be our backup idea. We decided to join Pandora’s and Amy’s ideas together to form our backup idea. 

It would be about a child abduction. The abducted girl would later for a split personality because of the stress and fear she would be put under. (We haven’t worked out the full version of the opening title sequence sequence for this idea)

 

photo of Virginia Roberts Giuffre 

photo of Jeffrey Epstein 

pitching ideas

 in todays lesson we pitched our initial ideas to ache other. 

(i didn't present my idea until the second lesson) m,

a few other students ideas:

-American society divided into very rich/very poor by the new leadership that comes to power there. It's located in the future 2030. 

-An underdog football team tries to work themselves to the top again, with a lot of drama and intensity around it. 

-A thriller about a murder and the opening title sequence would de possibly filmed in the studio but it brings up multiple down sides so it would

-schizophrenia: I liked this idea because it would be takes from the POV of a person who suffers from schizophrenia. 

-one girl is from the Uk and one from France, the girl from France moves to the Uk for boarding school and falls in love with the daughter of her host family, The film is set in the 70s so their relationships is frowned upon, so at the end they run away together. (the pitch was my favourite out off all: a typical forbidden love story) 

-kidnapping of a girl: she's stuck in a room and starts to have hallucinations and her personality splits into two. 

-covid inspired: there is an assassination on a scientist. 

-wealthy people living in old houses and one house gets robbed and a man gets killed and the wife of the desiesed trees to figure out what happened.  

-My IDEA: 'dirty and devoid'  inspired by the horrible acts of sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein and the involvement of others including his own partner Ghislaine Maxwell and prince Andrew. 

there was no negative feedback on my pitch: it was exesible, doable and interesting. 

Film initial ideas

  

Film initial ideas 

 

 

What do I do now? / get me out 

 

This film is about a young 16/17 year old girl (Olivia) in her first year of college, who gets pregnant by one of her lecturers. (Mr. Singh)

Mr. Singh is a 27 year old history teacher and he is in his second year of teaching at her collage by the time she starts to study there. He is very intelligent, smart and sometimes can be a bit geeky. Olivia falls mainly for his looks and his matureness, which she wasn’t used to from her previous boyfriends/love interests. Their attraction is expressed for the first time  after a couple of months of Olivia’s studies, during a Christmas event at the collage. Olivia gets very drunk and is sent home. Mr. Singh offers the headmistress to take Olivia home in his car, because the school didn’t think it was safe for her to take a taxi. As Mr. Singh was escorting Olivia of campus she had trouble walking and so he decided to carry her. She was making subtle passes at him. And he acted like he didn’t pay much attention to it. Then she started to press her face against his cheek and started kissing him. He kept pulling away and was trying to reject her. They get to the car and Olivia is not backing down, even though Mr Singh is really trying to act professional. He ends up giving in and they kiss. From that night they started to see ache other in secret. Mr Singh starts to show signs of manipulation and control. He hates when Olivia talks to her male at collage, and gets very jealous and possessive of her every time. He manipulates her into losing her friends so he would be only one for her to turn to. Olivia gets trapped in the relationship and then even more when she gets pregnant. She now has to decide what to do, tell her parents, but whatever she does she needs to free herself of Mr Singh.

 

The opening title sequence of this film would be of Olivia in the school bathroom holding a positive pregnancy test and being upset . The sequence would be without dialogue apart from when she imagens a ‘montage’ of previous encounters with Mr Singh. We then use very short dialogue and heated movement would be used. There would be fast dramatic, sad music playing during the opening title sequence. The sequence would include the two main characters: Olivia and Mr Singh.

            

 

 

dirty and devoid 

 

This film is inspired by the horrible acts of sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein and the involvement of others including his own partner Ghislaine Maxwell and prince Andrew. The howl story would be through the POV of one of the victims Virginia Roberts Giuffre who also was abused and sexually taken advantage of by prince Andrew himself. 

The story would take place in the present which would be of Virginia testifying on the stand in court and then it would take us back into her memories of reliving all those terrible things in the past, for example the private island that Jeffrey owned and where a lot of horrific and perverted things took place. This was the main place where he sex trafficked women and young girls. The film would end by Jeffrey being sent to prison and him killing himself. And the speculations of him being alive arouse. 

 

The opining title sequence would be without dialogue. Virginia would be in a car with a private driver on the way to get aboard a jet to the private island with Jeffrey, Ghislaine and some of their friends. Virginia is holding her passport and putting on her mother’s family ring on her finger. She get out of the car and then walks up the planes stairs. At the top of the stairs there is a man figure (we don’t see his face). He takes Virginias hand and takes her in. The planes door shuts behind her and that’s when the sequence ends. There would be acoustic sad music with lyrics playing over the entire sequence. 

 

 

 

Tasty poison

The story for this film is about a young uprising female singer Noa discovering the dark sides of the music industry. She then gets involved with an older musician Elijah. They for a relationship, she moves in with him after just three weeks of dating, because her step mother kicks her out for her gambling debts. Only Elijah is addicted to drugs and sex. He keeps being unfaithful to Noa, going out drinking/partying doing drug. He then starts to get physically abusive to her as well, when he get home drunk. She finds herself trapped in his huge fancy apartment as well as their toxic relationship. She tries to leave multiple times, but he manipulates her into staying by guilt tripping her. One night after he hits her again she leaves the apartment and goes to a bar to drink. The bar is completely empty, the bartender starts to talk to her. She breaks down and tells him what happening to her. The bartender feels sorry for her so he offers her that she can stay in his spare bedroom. Elijah keeps calling her, begging her to come back, but she doesn’t respond. She starts a new life, gets new friends and starts to date Jaxton the bartender once she moves out his spare bed room. Elijah starts showing up at Noas work, house and then even Jaxtons place. One night Elijah gets really drunk and waits for Jaxton on his front porch, stabs him and Jaxton is sent to the emergency room. Noa files for a restraining order against Elijah. He doesn’t respect it. While Jaxton is fighting for his life in hospital, Noa fears for her life. 

She doesn’t leave her apartment. She gets a gun and keeps it on her at all times. One night ELIJAH breaks into her apartment and attacks her. In panic she shoots him. The film ends with her standing outside the house in a blanket. Staring into space, while police arrives on the street. And a people are wheeling out Elijah in a body bag through the front door past her. 

 

The opening title sequence would be of Noa performing one of her songs on stage in front of a small audience. The spot light is on her and she can barely see the people in the audience. The camera first keeps going closer to her from the audience. And then starts to rotate around her focusing on her face and then zooms out from her again. The song Noa is singing is a slow soulful song, with a lot of emotions. 

 

 

 

 

 

The city of all Suns

Luca is the son of the Greek God Zeus and a mortal woman. His life completely changes when he is in the Alps skiing on a school trip. He and a his best friend Jake go off the root and end up getting lost and stranded by themselves. Luca slips on his skies and falls down onto some rocks. There is no way that fall was survivable. Luca has a vision of a middle aged man catching him and breaking his fall. When he wakes up in the hospital no one believes him. He feels like he’s crazy, but then he sees the man on the street on his way to school. He tries to catch up with him, but he keeps disappearing every time he gets close. Luca finally ends up in a back street all alone and the man is at the end of the street facing him backwords. Luca runs up to him and when he grabs his hand to turn him around, they somehow teleport in to another dimension, which is called The city of all suns. It looks like a normal city, the only thing different are the people, they are happy, smiling and they all know ache other. There is no sky or sun. but the light in there is so bright like as if they were stuck in a huge light bolt. Luca is confused and thinks he is dead and that this is all just in his head, he starts panicking. The man turns around to face him: “It was time son, your finally where you belong.” Turns out that man is Zeus, which also makes him Luca’s father. Luca starts to flip out. He has no idea where he is, he doesn’t know this man. He can’t be his father. His father was a mountain climber that died in an avalanche. He want to go back home to his mother. But Zeus tells him he can’t return to earth and that this is his home now and takes him to an academy for demi gods, there he meets other demigods like himself and makes friends with Anika and Joey who also resent being there and they are trying to come up with a plan how to get back to Earth to their normal lives. They have a lot of obstacles but they stick to the plan and manage to get back to Earth even though the Olympians try to stop them. At the end they work out a deal with the gods, that all demigods can spend 70% on Earth during the year and the rest 30% in The city of all Suns by their own choice. 

 

The title sequence is of Luca lying on the ground (after his fall in the mountains) and people performing CPR on him and then get him into an ambulance/ helicopter and take him to the hospital. The howl sequence is in slow motion with dramatic slow music. The exposure should be quite dark.