Pre-Production - Promo Title Variations

So I thought I would do some basic editing with the original promo title to see what outcomes there would be. I do like the original but the alternate one gives off a completely different vibe compared to the original, lets begin.




This lighter variation I did based on simple feedback after I showed it at uni. The original photo you cant make out the drugs properly, so I made this one in which you can make it out better.


This one is slightly different, I like the contrast of colours, gives an odd type of vibe but I like it, the desaturation is perfect.


This one was basically for shits and giggles if im honest. Gives the trip out illusion, if professional practise could be used as a marketing ploy?

This post may be completely useless but it shows im trying different things with the title.

Pre-Production - Working Title

First Promo Title for 'Roadman'

Here is our first produced working title for our short film we are making next year. Why roadman you ask? well, roadman is the colloquial term used to describe a drug dealer, kind of a slang that the street will understand. I came up with the idea of 'Failing to prepare, preparing to fail' as a concept for the script because of the nature of the outcome, but i feel that it didnt roll off the tongue that well. After scouring facebook ironically, i found the term 'roadman' when i was looking through some memes. And i thought, what about roadman? The whole one word movie title has worked for some disney films such as frozen, tangled, etc etc and the great short film 'soft', so why not roadman? It perfectly describes the outcome of the film without giving too much detail away, you can look at the title and know what youre expecting from it.

So as soon as myself and Tim agreed this as the working title, I got to work on a logo with the TVP logo attached as kind of a promotion to what to expect in the greenlight presentation. I found a great font on Dafont.com called mild life and searched on creative commons for some pills, I knew what i wanted out of it. I applied a satin blending option and made a transparent layer on top of the title, then added a darker filter plus the UCATVP logo, resulting in a very gritty looking promo. As you can see.

Pre-Production - Communication in the Team

This is basically how me and time communicate on a good day. Nothing quite beats an informal sit down where we discuss what needs to be done and progressing forward. We are in most days so we can sort it all out. Aside from physical meetings facebook messenger works a treat as time and i both are always connected to facebook and can access each other straight away.

In terms of working practises, we are both sharing Prezi so we can both edit the presentation ready for the greenlight screening. We use google drive to share documents using our own unique email so we can fire documents to each other with no hassle.

Basically, we got this communication thing sorted out.

Pre-Production - First Milestone to Reach

My first key milestone to reach is writing my script and getting a draft out. Once a first draft is made, I will make a critical analysis video where I go through what I do and why I did it. I want to make sure I get feedback from my tutor to make sure that I am on the right track. The key is getting the script right so that is my first milestone.

Pre-Production - Time Management

Time management is key to having a successful unit. Even though Tim is organising a schedule for the major project, its key that I make sure I keep to deadlines so I don't fall behind. For the moment, I am writing the script, which will take up the most amount of time this month, I have to also think about my dissertation aswell and make sure I don't fall behind.

Pre-Production - Identifying Roles

As there are two of us in the major project unit, roles will have to be split between us to ensure maximum efficiency in our group. Both Tim and I agreed on roles and have full justfications on why we are doing each. For Tim's ones, go on his blog, this is specifically about my roles,

Director - I had it in my head I wanted to do this for my major project. Ive directed every single short up to now and really enjoy the creativity of what I can produce wheni am a director. With the major project, I intend to be the best director I can be, and produce something really special.

Screenwriter - I also wanted to write the script. I feel if youre directing its always good writing the script aswell, so you really are the driving force behind the creativity being produced. I really enjoyed the scriptwriting unit and want to hit it home for this unit too.

Co-Editor - Both Tim and I are editing our film. It makes perfect sense for us to do so. When you edit something its always good if you have a second opinion as you could miss something or perhaps improvements to the original edit.

Pre-Production - Scripting Writing Programs Used

Pre-Production - Plot Detailing - What is the End Goal?

Pre-Production - Plot Detailing - Point of no Return

The point of no return is a key element to the lead up to a dramatic climax. It's critical I get this right first time. When Billy first comes home and has been beaten again. This marks my point of no return. Billy and Jimmy as a character are affected by this, and this is the 1st turning point of the story.

Pre-Production - Plot Detailing - What is the Change?

By this blog post, I mean the change in characters. In any great story or drama, there is a change. For example, Harry Brown. Harry goes from a simple old man with an army past to a ruthless killing machine, because someone butchered his friend. In Taken, Liam Neeson was a security guy with a past in secret service, but it takes somebody to kidnap his daughter for him to trigger. In my story, I want the change to be the change of behavior in Jimmy, and Billy's attitude from happy go lucky to somewhat of a detective to find out what Jimmy is doing whilst he is not studying.

Pre-Production - Plot Detailing - Drug Culture

'Drug Culture' is a term i used to describe the current clubbing clubbing culture in my area. Seeing first hand how close friends have engaged in this culture and slowly faded into what they are today (which isn't good). The premise is basically this, you enjoy 'going out on the piss' with all the lads but somehow drink isn't enough. You thrive for a high that something like drinking cannot give you. You resort to taking pills, going out three or four times a week, realise that you can't fund your nighttime habits so resort to selling to fund their nights out. They hang around clubs and festivals with their little 'man-bags' acting suspicious and then they get caught out, with 60 pills in their bag and then wonder how their life has gone wrong.

'Drug Baggies'

Now that is me talking about how it would related to my film, let's look at it on a bigger scale. Esquire.com has a great article on 10 things you didn't know about the drug trade in the UK and has some great information in some common misconceptions about the drug trade, which is quite interesting. The article is derived from a book that is about how Britain got hooked on drugs.

"http://www.esquire.co.uk/culture/books/5077/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-britains-drug-trade/"

Its a great article that really delves into some interesting facts about the industry, I'm going to highlight one specifically relates to my film and I want to focus on. 

This explains a lot about the current drug trade. To be a drug dealer you have to be ruthless, outgoing, and not afraid to get stuck in, otherwise just like any other competitive industry, you're gonna lose your spot. From what I heard from my personal experience, you can pay for drugs outright, or you can owe, obviously just like buying a car or financing one its always better financially if you pay for it outright as you don't owe. From what I know, ecstasy is big around kent and the south east, buying them in at £2 a pop and selling for £10. So if you have a good day, even if you only sell 4, that's fourty quid. that's a £32 profit. What student aside from it being illegal wouldnt be enticed by this? For a couple of hours work, this is big money, and you can get a lot of money to get by. Obviously the biggest mistake is re-funding your social life and not investing it, but I'm speaking from someone who actually has common sense and wouldn't do any of this at all. 

There are a specific type of drugs referred to colloquially as 'club drugs' which do exactly what they say on the tin. 'Club Drug Clinic' has a great article on the ideal of club drugs and what they are. Club Drug clinic is an official source from the NHS, so its possibly one of the more reliable sources.

Pre-Production - Plot Detailing - Locations

Pre-Production - Initial Character Profiling

Right, I've finally decided on character names and personalities. This is what I learnt in the first year. If i do a complete character profile on both characters, any dialog or action that they do when imscripting, I would know who they are inside and out, and I wont have to come up with something on the spot and then have the worry that it would be out of character in the film. It makes perfect sense in the pre writing stage to do so.

The character names I have decided on are billy and jimmy. Firstly, they both flow well off the tongue, are common english names, and ive used them before. I feel if they arent broke, dont fix them. It kind of fits in rather well with not only me, but the course. My first ever project I used the names billy and jimmy, so it only makes sense I finish the course doing exactly the same thing. Billy and Jimmy are also the main characters from the Hit beat em up game Double Dragon, although irrelevant in terms of personalities and story traits, it was the names i originally used in tribute of one of my favourite games.

Billy is our good guy, but hes not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to education. Hes 21, and taking part in the last part of a three year course in IT. He did poor in the 2nd year due to outside complications such as partying and whatnot getting in the way of his course causing him to put it into overdrive for the last year in order to achieve the grade he wants. Hes not a moron, and recognises his faults and spends his last year working overdrive both academically and in terms of a part time job. He knows that this is the last chance bus for him and will do anything to make things better. He met Jimmy on the course in the first year in halls and also stayed in halls for the second year. The third year Billy decided that house sharing will be the key factor in him passing his course because of the lack of the úni lifestyle' plaguing him at home which previously he couldn't get away from. He knew jimmy was a hard worker and thought it would be a good idea to move in with him as hes the person he got onwell with on the course. The story will follow billys efforts in discovering why jimmy is falling apart.

Jimmy is our if you wish sort of antagonist. Jimmy is what I call óne of the lads'. But heres the difference. Hes smart. Hes one of them guys you hated at uni as he always seems to fall in shit but always comes out smelling of roses, and we all know one of them in real life. Jimmy doesn't care about the uni course, he knows his constraints knowledge wise and aced the second year without trying. Jimmy is a lad. But the twist in the story I want is that he gets involved with the wrong crowd and it starts to affect him, to the point theres no productivity at all, hes failing class, hes losing money, his life is falling apart but he wont go to billy because his pride of being one of the lads is too much for him. In his core, Jimmy is a nice guy, but he doesn't want his social status damaged, which in turn turns him into a bit of a dickhead to be honest. He likes Billy, but will never openly admit and always retracts and banters with billy when billy mentions their friendship.

Pre-Production - Target Audience

Now this is a toughie. What would I like ny target audience be? For me, I have to dive into what I think the story is aimed at. So lets break it down:

Uni guys, preparing for their last year,
One nearly failed the year before, one breezed,
The plot climax is that the roles are flipped

So, my target audience would be the typical 18-21 Uni students. My aim is that they would empathize with the film and understand what my characters and story are portraying. In terms of BBFC regulations. Although drugs are referenced and proofanity is used, I wouldn't class this as an 18. An ideal rating would be 15, anything more would be an overkill. I came to this conclusion by a quick reference to movies that are out and things that would typically be an 18 or 15. Harry Brown is an 18, but it has sexual undertones, drugs, murders and much more. Something like a Transformers or an Avengers movie would be 12a as it only features minimal violence and mild profanity. Which is why my film would be perfect for a 15. Its mature enough that it needs to carry a heavy rating, but I would feel 18 is excessive.

Pre-Production - Movie Research - Harry Brown

Harry Brown is probably one of my favorite films to date and I would like to say that my style that i have created all of my own films have followed this gritty style of cinematography. Everything about the film to me is perfect.

The story line is gripping and is set in a modern Britain in contrast to older gentlemen, and the rise of yobs in modern Britain.



The cinematography is brilliant. With great uses of lighting to create a gritty atmosphere. When I see the effectiveness of the lighting portrayed, you can see the depth of the image, for example the image below. The lighting creates uneasy mood, with great uses of  mise en scene against the wall, lightly exposing both Harry and his hostage. I want this type of isolated lighting to be included in my film, the grittiness is too good.



Here's another example of great lighting used in harry brown. The way that the hostage lightly comes into frame is brilliant, fits in with the storytelling of the frame and is overall a great piece of cinematography.




Again, another scene where lighting plays a key part in portraying the story. Harry is snooping on local youths outside his house, gives the scene is sense of isolation and the feeling of being watched (obviously). I think something that looks like this would be a good fit into my film.

Aside from the aesthetics that are used in this film. The slang and terminology that the youbger thugs use has become such a staple in the modern society, Regardless of where you are in the social class this new multicultural accent has really taken over modern britain. In my film i want to incorperate elements of this new multiculteral accent and terminology, so that youths that watch my film will understand the logic behind my film.

Overall, this film is fantastic. And for a good reason. Everytime i refer to harry brown in my blogs, its because the style that the director uses to tell a story in this film (gritty aesthetics, washed out color, isolated lighting) I want to revive in my movie, i love the style.

Pre-Production Unit - Platform?

Talking about platforms, it extends far beyond just television. We are in a time where its not just television that shorts are television series are on. Netflix is currently killing it financially and in terms of brand awareness (see Netflix and chill). Netflix gross income last year was 1.75 billion, so by this fact it shows you that its not just television that is successful. The internet is the new television. I can't remember the last time i watched an actual television show on my cable box or freeview, its all online. The big companies know this (BBC, ITV etc) so they have launched their own on demand service. Netflix is currently 6.99 a month and has a variety of sourced programming such as Prison Break, Dexter and blockbuster films such as Avengers, but also original programming they have produced (Daredevil, Orange is the new Black)

A big plus with Netflix especially is that it doesn't have a set agenda or guidelines that maybe the BBC and ITV are contained to. Netflix seem to have a pretty open variety when it comes to original programming they have produced and theres no fixed style. Netflix also has a growing independant section to their website so it would be ideal for my 30 minute film.

The british part of netflix compared to the american netflix is lacking. What they need is some original UK based programming that would help boost sales on their website.

Pre-Production - Personal aims for year

For this year I want to makr personal goals that maybe I didn't do before in previous projects.

Firstly I want to make an added effort in blogging because I fell that my blogging wasnt up to scratch and I know that. This year is the most important in the whole course so it's important that I manage to do a decent blog. I mean how hard is it too do a blog I'm just a lazy sausage.

Next I want to make an effort with audition from agencies. I've never done it before and it makes sense if you want to get a decent grade you have to do the shoot as professional as possible. This means no more friends in films and we get across that actually are passionate and not just for convenience. Also keeping a record and criticize and their auditions anchoring about them. This is important because of the blogging aspect of assessing.

Next. Lighting. This is pretty self explanatory. I have not used e effective lighting in any of my films. I want to make this the best film I can make so I want all the best resources.

Next. A possibility. The Kent film office. I want to liase with them to get locations for my film. Again. Great for blog and professional practice.

Working with Tim on my project will be fun. We both have great chemistry and we will get the best out of each other.

Also, I want to focus on not crossing the line in my major project.