Mood Board #10: Character - ZUBASU

Number 9 on the moodboard is the character Silas, from The Da Vinci Code. The Da Vinci Code shares a lot of features with our film, and we have taken a lot of inspiration from it. We like the idea of going to old churches and historical places, as they tend to make really interesting locations. The difference between what we're doing and The Da Vinci Code is that The Da Vinci Code tends to go to the historical places and have some intelligent investigation, whereas our film goes to the historical places and has shoot outs. In this sense, our film has more in common with the prequel to The Da Vinci Code - Angels and Demons. The particular character shown here - Silas - is a character that is very similar to our character of Zubasu. The character of Zubasu was first created for our AS media film Sins of the Martyr but is making a return for this semi-sequel. Between the two we have decided that he has joined some sort of cult, as he is now a highly religious fanatic. This is very similar to the character of Silas, as he whips himself under the teachings of the radical Catholic cult, Opus Dei. The two characters also share attributes in that they are both creepy assassins.

Zubasu works for the criminal organisation of CRUCIFIX, which is a criminal religious cult dedicated to terrorism. In the film they are just making a comeback, and it is Zubasu's job to protect it in its infancy. He is the most physically threatening of the antagonists, as he is a professional assassin and is trying to hunt down the protagonists. We are currently debating as to whether he should have a twin, to make him double as deadly and badass. This would also be a good opportunity to practise some of the skills we have learnt over the course of our media course. Twins tend to work well in action films, and we would be taking inspiration from the acclaimed television series Breaking Bad. In Season 3 of Breaking Bad there are two Mexican twin assassins and they are very threatening figures.

Mood Board #9: Character - GATES

The next character on the moodboard is Spider from Elysium. We have taken inspiration from this character for the character of the technical expert in our trailer. Although in Elysium the character is also the leader of the resistance, we are not taking inspiration from this aspect of his character as we can't have too many badasses in one film or they would just all mush together. We haven't actually come up with a name for the technical expert, but I'm sure that this will come soon enough. The technical expert from Elysium was chosen because he is different from most technical experts in films, who are usually seen as nerdy and sometimes flamboyant. This technical expert is more of a tough guy, and this makes him a much more interesting character. We want our technical expert to be more like this - he's clever and knows his way around technology, but at the same time he can take care of himself outside of the lab.

The technical expert in our film is probably the least fleshed out of all the characters so far, as at the moment he is weighing heavily on stereotypes. At the moment he is far too similar to Spider from Elysium, so we need to make the character our own, and make him more interesting. As well as being the technical expert, he is also the expert on all the other aspects of the film, such as history, archaeology, ancient cults etc. He basically knows everything the the audience needs to know to understand the film and his purpose is largely expositional. Of course this would make for a rather dull character, so we are going to have to give him some extra roles and make him a more believable character, as well as justifying all the random information that he happens to know.

Mood Board #8: Character - AGENT DAVIDSON

The picture we chose for Agent Davidson is of Jeremy Renner in the film The Bourne Legacy. First and foremost, he shares several physical attributes of Agent Davidson, (whose role will be reprised by the inspiring Lee Davidson) such as the short blonde hair and the way that he moves around. The picture featured in the moodboard shows the character doing a jump in much the same way that Lee would chose to do the stunt. Jeremy Renner in the film plays a relatively young, but still experienced secret agent, which is exactly the same as the character Agent Davidson. The roles are very similar in many respects.

Agent Davidson is very much the standard Jason Bourne/Jack Bauer style secret agent. I don't like the term secret agent, as it makes him seem like a spy - perhaps government agent would be a better term to describe his job. Agent Davidson is very highly trained at combat, and knows how to use his fists in a fight. His fighting technique is very intelligent, easily being able to turn random objects to his advantage. He is a better fighter than Lucas Thorne, mainly because of his age, but he is less intelligent, making the two of them together a most formidable team. Davidson works for the fictional government agency the L.E.E (pronounced 'L double E') and is an expert at infiltrating criminal organisations. 

Mood Board #7: Character - LUCAS THORNE

The following few characters on the moodboard are characters that are similar to/have inspired the characters in our film. We couldn't find an exact match for the character of Lucas Thorne, so instead we chose Indiana Jones from the fourth, and most recent, instalment of the Indiana Jones film series. The fact that we chose him from the latest Indiana Jones film is important, as in this film he is older, and will be facing retirement soon. The younger Indiana Jones wouldn't have worked as well, as he was too young and in the middle of his career. He is also more serious in the latest film, rather than the old swashbuckling nature of the original Indiana Jones. This suits the character of Lucas Thorne as he is a more serious character. The comic relief comes from Aussie Ricky, not from Thorne.

Thorne's character is very similar to the character of Agent Davidson, in that they are both secret agent sort of people. They are both highly trained in combat and espionage and stuff like that, but Thorne is a much older, more experienced agent, who has to come out of retirement in this film in order to battle with the antagonists who he faced earlier in his career. He is slightly less athletic than Agent Davidson, as he is older, but is still a very able fighter. His importance in the film is that he has tackled the antagonist organisation before, and knows how to fight them. Agent Davidson on the other hand has never met them before, so doesn't really know what he's handling. Therefore he enlists the help of someone who does.

Mood Board #6: Character - AUSSIE RICKY

After working through the locations that are positioned along the top of the moodboard I will now move down to the next layer, which start with the characters. We have chosen a number of characters to feature in our film, as the protagonists are a team of characters who are working together to defeat the antagonist. Each of the characters has a particular set of skills that help out with the overall mission, and it is only through their combined skills that they are able to win in the end. Sorry for the massive spoiler. This team concept works along the same lines as films such as The Avengers, Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, amongst others. These films depend greatly on having variety in character, and particularly in having the characters contrast.

The first of the characters on this moodboard is one that contrasts greatly with the others. This is Aussie Ricky (name in progress) who is the comic relief of the film. His role in the film is not necessarily to help the team out with their mission, but more to help the audience get through the film. He is the friend of Lucas Thorne and that is how he got onto the mission. His name Aussie Ricky comes from the fact that he is also Australian, which makes every comic character funnier. Everyone loves an Australian character in a film. We chose this picture for him, as he is an amusing character and therefore deserves an amusing picture.The picture adds that amusement to the moodboard and makes sure that the film won't come across as overly serious.

Mood Board #5: Location - LONDON | Part II

The next location along the top of the moodboard is central London. For our AS opening two minutes we filmed in London and we found it to be a very good location. The locations around London are instantly recognisable at an international level, and give films a very high budget look. Filming in Trafalgar Square last year made it look like we were filming a professional film, as you are supposed to get permission to film before filming at these locations. However this is easy enough to get around, as no one tries to stop you filming. As we filmed in Trafalgar Square last year, this year we will probably try filming in a different London location. One in particular that springs to mind is filming in the British Museum. The British Museum would be very relevant to film in, as it works with the Da Vinci Code style of the film. Not only this, but it is also a very aesthetically impressive location, with the big blue dome rising over the central courtyard of the museum. We could get some very nice looking shots under this dome. There is also a good part about the 18th Century Enlightenment, which is a long hall which is made of wood and looks like the interior to an old library. It is a very cinematic looking location.

Another place in London that we are considering filming in is St Dunstan-in-the-East, which is an old Norman Church which got bombed in the blitz. Although it is mostly ruined, at some point people decided to turn it into a garden, so the whole place is covered in blossom and flowers. It is a very beautiful location, and would be ideal for our film. We have already scouted out this location, as we went there last year whilst scouting for our AS level locations, so we already have a good idea about the capabilities of the location.  A video of this scouting session is viewable below. There are, of course, many more exciting locations in London, such as Canary Wharf and the Tower of London, but these are two that we have identified as being strong locations that fit the storyline of our film.

Mood Board #4: Location - FARNHAM

Waverley Abbey is a location that we've had our eyes on for a while as a potential filming location. It is located in Farnham, which isn't too far away - about 30 minutes by car or an hour by train - either way it shouldn't take too long to get there. It's a very beautiful location; it was the first Cistercian Abbey in England and was destroyed in the dissolution of the monasteries. There are several parts to the ruins, with a few small walls and a few buildings with their roofs mostly intact. Around the Abbey there are woods, so the location has the feeling of being completely in the wild and overcome by nature. There is also a really cool tree that has grown over some of the ruins and its roots are amazing. With the sun in the right place the location can look even more dazzling. To make matters better, the ruins are fully accessible to the general public. They are free to climb on and there is no security at all, so we can basically do whatever we want there - including filming shoot-outs. This may be a location that we'll have to visit on an Inset day, as there can sometimes be quite a number of people there.

The great thig about Farnham is that it is not limited to Waverley Abbey as a great location.. Just down the road from the Abbey are some spectacular woods that have been used for chase sequences in the penultimate Harry Potter film and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, and have been used for battle sequences in Ridley Scott's films Gladiator and Robin Hood. Clearly these woods are worth filming in, and we will probably try to create our own chase sequence in them, trusting on the choice of such big name films. In Farnham town there is Farnham Castle, and although the castle itself is a bit of a boring location as it is literally just some walls with a flat plateau on the top, the gardens around the castle are spectacular. We probably won't use these gardens for our film, as they're not really what we're looking for, but they're a possibility if we realise we want a scene in a garden.

Mood Board #3: Location - LONDON | Part I

London will play a crucial role in our shooting, and with its diverse variety of locations there will be two posts on the city. In the first part I will discuss the areas of Camden and Highgate in North London.

The third picture along the top of the mood board is another potential location - Highgate Cemetery. We got the idea to film in Highgate Cemetery after finding a massive cemetery in Paris where we got a few shots for our trailer. Highgate Cemetery is probably the most famous cemetery in England and as there are lots of famous people buried there, there are a lot of impressive looking and creepy graves. As the whole graveyard is covered in trees it makes it very dark and atmospheric in there, so this will add to the creepy mood of the graveyard. It would fit in very well with the plot of our film, as we are considering making a Da Vinci Code style mystery/action movie. Graveyards are just the sort of places that these sort of films tend to go to, so I think that we could get some very exciting shots there.

The practicalities of shooting there are slightly more difficult. The cemetery is open for the majority of the day and is free for under 18s, which most of us are. However there may be a lot of people around and there may be security guards who might stop us filming. To counter the first of these we've found an inset day in the middle of the week, and as this is only a holiday for our particular school there shouldn't be too many people around - who goes to a famous cemetery in the middle of the week? I'm not sure what security will be like, but I'm sure we'll be able to get around it and that we'll at least be able to film something. The only other problem is that we won't be able to do so much planning in advance as we did with Trafalgar Square last year, as there aren't pictures that would show us the whole location and where all the interesting parts are.

The Horses Market in Camden Town is also a location we would like to shoot in, as its atmosphere would make for a great chase sequence. It is very aesthetically interesting with many bright colours and a variety of looks to it due to the mixture of a number of different cultures. A location that would be brilliant to film scenes in is the 'Cyberdog' store which has a immensely futuristic feel and design, reminiscent of the look of the film Tron Legacy - including scantily clad sci-fi dancers.

Mood Board #2: Location - SURREY HILLS

The second picture on the mood board is of Surrey Hills, and more specifically - Box Hill. Box Hill has been the location for a number of high budget films, most recently The World's End, however in this film it only featured for a few minutes. We could use Box Hill for a number of outside country shots. What makes professional trailers look professional is that they have a wide variety of locations and costumes from a wide variety of scenes, so by having the contrast of somewhere like Box Hill with Brighton Pier there is a sharp contrast between the green nature and the coastal nature, and Brighton city and a view over Surrey. There are also stepping stones across a river, which is an interesting location, but they wouldn't be quite suitable for our film, as our film is a serious action movie. They may work well in a montage sequence for a romance movie, but I don't think they'd be quite right for us.

Not far from Box Hill is the Denbies wine estate and vineyard. Denbies has quite a foreign, almost south of France look to it, and can also look quite daunting, seeming as its look is not dissimilar to Auschwitz. We were considering using it as the location for the antagonists' mansion because of this foreboding look. You can also get inside it as there is a restaurant, so we would be able to get inside it and have some shots of the antagonist walking inside. The vineyard surrounding the estate is also a good location for a chase sequence, and would also make a very strong location.

Mood Board #1: Location - BRIGHTON

A potential location that we have chosen for our film is Brighton, and more specifically, Brighton Pier. Brighton Pier is a very iconic location that isn't too far from where we live. Also it would be good as we currently don't have any coastal locations, and they look very high budget. The Pier would be an exciting place to have a chase sequence - along the length of the pier. This wouldn't take too much time to film, but it would be tricky to film it effectively. Underneath the pier is also a good location, as there are lots of metal poles that could be used as obstacles. As it is by the sea we could take the fight into the sea and have a fight amongst the waves. We would have to be very careful with this though, as we don't want people to think that we're actually fighting and we don't want to get the camera wet.

Around Brighton there are a number of other locations that we could film at. There is the Brighton Pavilion, which is a Georgian palace with public access to the grounds. We'd be able to film a few shots in front of this just to fill space in the trailer and to make it look higher budget. These are likely to be just shots of a character standing with his back to the camera, looking towards the Pavilion. There is also the old burnt down  pier, which would look spectacular at sunset. We could get some really iconic looking, picturesque shots there. Brighton would be an exciting location, and would work as a good contrast to the urban city settings.

Mood Board

Initial Ideas: CHARACTERS

Note: all characters' names are in the early stages of development and are subject to change

L U C A S   T H O R N E   (Nicholas Ashurst)

Retired agent of OSIRIS or Overseas Strategic Institute of Reconnaissance, Intelligence & Sabotage

' D A V I D S O N '   (Lee Davidson)

L.E.E. agent

C A L U S   R O T H E N   (James Richardson)

Z U B A S U   (Zubin Parekh)

' A U S S I E '   R I C K Y   (Richard Young)

T H E   E X P E R T   D U D E   (Philip Smith)

Initial Ideas: LOCATIONS

E N G L A N D
- Ashtead & Leatherhead (The Common, Nicholas Ashurst's House, James Richardson's House, Horsey field, Zubin's Grandad's Shed)
- Brighton & Worthing (The Beach, The Pier & Hotel)
- Farnham (Waverley Abbey, Frensham Pond, Bourne Wood)
- Isle of Wight (Yarmouth Castle, Alum Bay)
- London (Highgate Cemetery, St. Dunstans-in-the-East, Financial District)
- Ridley (Newark Priory)
- Surrey Hills (Box Hill, Denbies Vineyard)

F R A N C E
- Paris (Montmartre, Pere Lachaise)

A U S T R A L I A
- Perth

Initial Ideas: GENRE

Rom-Com

The first idea for our film is a film about a Romanian Communist. We were inspired by the above prison guard who was a Romanian guard when Romania was under the power of the Soviet Union. This aims to be an epic story of redemption where the prison guard has to come to terms with what he's done years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The story takes place during a court case where it is discovered how many people he killed during his career, and he faces the difficult task of explaining his actions to his family.

Dino-Drama

This is another idea that we are very keen on, as it is a story that is very personal to us. It tells the tale of a misunderstood dinosaur living in LA who just wants to make it big as a world famous scriptwriter. One day he recieves the oppotunity of a lifetime and the film takes us on the epic journey as DinoDave has to overcome his scaley skin issues and stunted hands to become the greatest screenwriter that Hollywood has ever seen.
 

and Thriller

The third idea we are not so keen on, as we think that it would be too hard to do. The basic idea is that we make a fairly standard cliche thriller movie. The film would be a sort of sequel to the film we that we did last year, with Agent Davidson returning for another adventure - this time with a team behind him, and another retired agent. Maybe we could have a sort of resurfacing of a criminal organisation that he must put down, or something along those lines. This is our least favourite of the ideas as it lacks drama and a unique selling point.

Poster Analysis: THOR: THE DARK WORLD (2013)

The main theatrical poster for 'Thor: The Dark World', while heavily reminiscent of the poster Marvel's latest release 'Iron Man 3', is a strikingly beautiful piece of art. With a blend of modern and fantasy settings, 'Thor' has always had the upper hand regarding visual imagery and there is no waste of it here. The poster is a overwhelmingly epic yet simultaneously somewhat understated design with the film's lead character and the huge cast of supporting actors depicted in heroic poses in a largely desaturated blue colour scheme with traces of gold and red. Despite the use of photo editing software, the image is composed and completed in such a way as to emulate a painting, much like those of famed film poster designer Drew Struzan, while unfortunately no longer in demand, drew photo-realistic depictions of film's characters and settings and arranged them in a memorable and visually stunning way as to enforce the 'epicness' of the film upon the viewer. A layer of what can only be assumed of snow has been digitally added over the top of the image to add to the artistic effect, falling in line with the general icy cold atmosphere of the poster (suitable considering its Winter release date).

Thor is depicted in traditional hero pose, with hammer in hand, looking off to the left side of the poster, as are Loki and Sif, however the characters of Jane, Odin, and the villain Malekith are facing the viewer. For the first two of these characters this is presumably done as they are the most sympathetic - Jane as the only human character, as well as being the lead's romantic interest, and Odin as caring father of Thor - and so relatable to some extent. With the latter, who is depicted as a giant head in the clouds looming over the other characters, this is to emphasise his villainy through his fierce eye expression and intense face. A number of other characters as well as spacecrafts and the architecture of Asgard fill the rest of the image while the names of the four key players - well at least the most famous here in the established Marvel Cinematic Canon - 'Chris Hemsworth', 'Natalie Portman', 'Tom Hiddleston' and 'Anthony Hopkins as Odin' are aligned along the very top of the poster in traditional fashion with the same serif font used in most Marvel releases, while the usual selection of credits appear at the bottom. There is a distinct lack of a tagline, however this is not something Marvel have tended to include as they probably think its takes away from the power of the imagery rather than adds to it.