2 minute opening scenes

2 minute opening scenes for a Gangster film:


1.

We open from black to see a woman sitting in her home, awake, it is late. Music quietly in background- Non-diegetic. She is waiting up for someone. She is quite an older woman late 40's, 50's. On the mantle piece is a picture of a young man in his twenties, camera pans to his face. He is smiling and happy
Black title card, name of company making movie, white text.
We skip to two men in italian suits walking down the street late at night, they enter a bar. Low lighting, still at night. There is a young man sitting at the counter- the same man as in the photos- he is hunched over his drink he turns round to look as they enter. Everyone in the bar stops what they are doing. The young man turns and gets up from his stool. Raising his hands.
 Black screen white text name of actors
We skip back to the same two men walking down another street, one is cleaning his hands with a handkercheif.
Black title screen, white text actors name.
We cut back to the bar, everyone is frozen then begin to hurriedly make their exit. The young man is standing facing the two gentlemen who have entered, he looks afraid.
Black title screen, white text another name
The two gentlemen stopp outside a door of a suburban house in America. One pulls out some flowers (white lillies?). He places them on the doorstep then rings the bell
Black card white name
The same gentlemen, at the bar, pulls out a gun, the young man tries to reach for his own gun in his jacket but he's too slow and he's shot, he flops to the ground, banging off of the bar. Slow-motion.
Black title card, white name
The older woman opens the door to her house, she see's no one. She looks down at the ground and sees the flowers. She drops to the floor and grabs them up pulling them to her chest, she begins to cry and scream in anguish.
Camera swoops up into the air pulling away from her house so we can see her from afar. Name of movie comes up. Music reaches crescendo.

2.

Fade in from black, a pair of expensive balck shoes clack on the ground, walking, camera draws round so we are watching him from behind his feet, he jogs up some stone steps. Pan back as a man in an expensive back italian suit pushes open heavy wooden doors.
Skip to long shot, aisles in a church people on their knees praying, name comes up white text
He walks through the aisles
Hands polishing a gun
Same hands holding a bible, name of actor comes up white text
From behind following man in suite walking through church
The father, an Italian american priest nods to him
Her enters the confesson box and leans over the grate
The priest on the other side looks through and sees his face, we see only his eyes. Middle aged man.
The preist reaches into the folds of his uniform and pulls out some folded up dollar notes, he passes them through the grate
"Thank you father." The man on the other side does the father son and the holy spirit blessing sign on himself. He gets out and walks away from the confession box towards camera. we see him in full, slowmotion. Title of the film comes up. Music reaches crescendo.

3.

Fades from black to an extreme close up of the mans eyes, italian amrerican accent. reverse creep begins

"Albachinni, he sent friends to see me, I he told me I had to pay him his rent he told me that it was business, told me I was his new friend and friends do favours for eachother. I told him where to go. The next thing I know my cafe's gone! Burnt to the ground! There ain't nothing left! Then they come to my home- my home! They tell me I gotta pay my rent I say for what! I ain't got no business anymore!  They tell me I gotta pay! I say I already pay you and they laugh. The next day I go'tah pick up my daughter from school and there they are and the bastards standin' there holding my daughters hand! My daughters hand and there ain't nothin' I can do about it! He knows where I live, he knows how tah get to mah daughter! What am I gonna do? So  think, I'll come to the only man that I know who can do sumthin' I'll go to the big man himself. I'll come to you sir. Look, I guess what'am tryi'n to ask is, will you help me get rid of that bastard? Help me protect my daughter?"
 Long shot of the man he sits behind a big desk, sliver of light creeping in behind him from a slightly parted green curtain.
In front of him a pair of hands link (close to the screen) we realise we are seeing an over the shoulder shot but he figure we are shooting over the shoulder from is so dark we could not see them.

"I am glad that you brought this to my attention. As you should well know I do not like that this young man seems to think that he can... bully my friends, and you are my friend aren't you Romano?"

"Of course I am."


- I reckon that's probably more thna two minutes, so I'll stop here.

Preliminary Task

We started our project by brainstorming ideas- basically we just shouted out when we had one and discussed its merits and faults as a group, when we had one that struck a chord with all of us and made us all laugh I sat down to begin a script whilst Jamie and Daniel discussed and figured out dialogue. Our resulting script was so well thought out and planned in the way of shot directions that we didn't need to do a storyboard as all of the shots and angles were written into the script. As I wrote I paused to ask Daniel and Jamie what the dialogue was so that I could add it in. Once I had finished the first detailed script we wrote up a script that had only the dialogue so we could use it for the actors (Daniel and Jamie) when filming, and the more detailed script could be used by me and Chris in Directing and Shooting.

Here is the first script:

Homeless man 1 (Leo)- Jamie Vanlint
Homeless man 2 (Chester)- Daniel Wright

Shot 1: HM1 walks down stree checks if anyone is there, camera follows him panning across, longshot slight high angle
Shot 2: close up HM1 face flat angle, he looks right then left
Shot 3: Flat angle shot, mid-close up of bin as he jumps in feet first
Shot 4: Close up of top of bin, HM1 eyes as he dissapears down into bin
Shot 5: Mid-close up of feet as he lands down in front of door slight high angle flat shot
Shot 6: extreme close up/close up of HM1's hand as he turns door handle, zoom out to mid-shot as he goes through door
Shot 7: Match on action him entering through door, midshot, flat angle
Shot 8: Match on action him closing door from inside room flat angle
Shot 9: Over the shoulder slight high angle shot of HM2 over HM1's shoulder, HM2 is seated and has his back to camera/HM1
 HM2: We've been expecting you Leo
Shot 10: Close up of HM2 as he spin goes to over the shoulder shot reverse shot, long/mid shopt of HM1 in background
Shot 11: Low angle close up of HM1
HM1: What have you got for me Chester?
Shot 12: (Extreme) Low angle of HM2 as he rises from his seat
HM2: It's a code nine
Shot 13: Dramatic zoom from close up to extreme close up of HM1's face (eyes, nose part of mouth), shocked expression
HM1: Half a portion of chips
Shot 14: Extreme close up flat angle shot of HM2's face
HM2: And a savaloy
Shot 15: Slight low angle of HM!, neck and head
HM1: That's impossible!
Shot 16: over the shoulder shot of HM1 in foreground HM2 in background mid shot slight high angle
HM2: One of these opportunities comes around once in a lifetime!
Shot 17: Shot reverse shot, over HM2's shoulder, HM1 in background
HM1: I'll never make it in time!
Shot 18: Shot reverse shot, over HM1's shoulder, head and chest of HM2
HM2: Just leave. (points towards door)
HM1: I can't-
Shot 19: Close up slight low angle shot, HM2
HM2: I said leave! (points at door again)
Shot 20: Extreme close up door handle, HM1 grabs it
HM2: Wait...
Shot 21: Extreme close up HM1's hand, it slides off door handle
Shot 22: Over the shoulder shot HM1
HM2: I'm coming with you
Shot 23: Flat angle mid-close up of HM1 and HM2, they clasp hands dramatically in a show of brotherhood
Shot 24: Mid-long shot of door flat angle as HM1 opens it and he and HM2 run otu in bin bag capes
Shot 25: Match on action of them mid-shot running round corner from door, Camera follows them as they run
Shot 26: Match on action again this time they are running towards camera They jump past camera pans with them, low angle shot. They run off into distance

Ending Credits

Shot 27: Close up of fish and chips and half a savaloy, Hand reaches in and grabs the savaloy. Single shot zoom out and pan back to show HM1 and HM2 sitting down eating chips and savaloy mid-long shot of them both. HM2 is not wearing his hat
HM1: Didn't you have a hat?
Shot 28: Still same shot, HM2 reaches up to touch his head. Both look up dramatically to camera, Dramatic zoom into HM2's horrified face


The second script is only dialogue and goes like this:

 HM2: We've been expecting you Leo
 HM1: What have you got for me Chester?
 HM2: It's a code nine
 HM1: Half a portion of chips
 HM2: And a savaloy
 HM1: That's impossible!
 HM2: One of these opportunities comes around once in a lifetime!
 HM1: I'll never make it in time!
 HM2: Just leave.
 HM1: I can't-
 HM2: I said leave! .... Wait.... I'm coming with you


This simplified script allowed the actors to quickly and easily check what their lines were rather than have to search through all of the confusing shot directions. I used the more detailed script to direct, frame and angle shots, as did Chris our other camera person. This made our filming more efficient and we were able to shoot all of our film in less than two hours- except for the ending scene which was a later idea and was filmed by Daniel Crosby when Daniel and Jamie had some free time.

The Credits go as such:

Leo- Jamie Vanlint
Chester- Daniel Wright
Director (and camera person though I do not appear in the credits as such)- Olivia Barry
Camera man- Chris Adegoke

Daniel Crosby also did additional filming as I previously mentioned.

I did the main rushes when it came to editing, though I also began to do more detailed editing as I was going, and Chris did the final cut. Daniel and Jamie added effects like the grey and found and inserted the sound.

Through this excercise I think I learnt that the best way to enter a filming situation is to plan out what angle (etc) shots you want before you go in so there's is no confusion or time wasting. Also to play out the shots several times without the camera running so as to get an idea what the shot will look like in frame before filming. I also learnt that I am quite a good director but shouldn't be so monopolising with editing as I feel I wasn't very fair on Chris and I pushed him out of the way alot as I can be quite impatient and pinickity. As well as this I think we may need to record dialogue seperatley and overlay it onto the film next time as the sound is too quite on this preliminary film.

I also learnt that I need to rein in ideas and not be so grandeous in my story telling so as to not go over the briefed time.

I thoroughly enjoyed this excercise though I htink the bit i enjoyed most was the filming as we had loads of fun and had loads of film for a blooper reel. We were all very at ease with eachother as were all friends and I was very lucky with the group I was put with.

Preliminary Task

For our Preliminary task we did a one minute twenty seven second video called Savaloy and chips:




The Brief we were given was for:

-The video is to be 30 seconds long
-It must have Match on Match action
-It must have Shot reverse shot
-It must have 180% rule
-It must have dialogue
-Someone must walk through a door, across a room and someone must sit down in a chair

As you can see from the length of our video we did not stick to the first point of the brief, we felt we could deliver a better story and viewing enjoyment if we made it longer, also when we took our script to our teacher and asked him if it was okay to go over 30 seconds he said that that would be fine.
 We did however stick to the rest of the brief, here are some examples of

Match on Action:

As Jamie reaches for the door, enters through the door and closes it from the other side.

Shot reverse shot/ 180 degree rule:

Daniel over Jamies shoulder and Jamie over Daniels shoulder!

The tools we used in iMovie were:

- Crop to cut out a chair that snuck into shot when Jamie had to jump off of it onto the floor to give the idea that he was falling down from above:

-We Fade out sound and Fade in sound with the song Omen by Prodigy:

              Here the sound Fades in as they clasp hands in a heroic way:

             And Fades out as the ending credits finish and the final additional credits scene begins

-We also added music, the Mission Impossible theme and Omen by the Prodigy for our running scene by downloading the music from Youtube into iTunes and then using iMovie to select and drag the music in and crop it to the right length for our shots.

- As well as this we used Split clip to et rid of a piece of dialogue that we wanted in the next clip and that if we hadn't split the clip and then cropped the second half would've been repeated.

- Finally we added a grey and seedy effect to the first shot like it was being filmed through a CCTV camera, though I think this would've looked better had we had cut the clip more to make it look more jerky so that it looked more like it was from a CC Tv camera.