Casting Callouts

Within our film opening, there are 4 roles that need to played by different actors. In order to appeal to actors to star in our film opening, we produced casting callouts to find the best possible and hopefully ideal actors that fit in all the different roles within our narrative and best fit in with what we are looking for.

Protaganist:

We are currently casting for a male protagonist aged between 15 and 18 to act in our film. You will need to be between the height of 5ft 10" and 6ft 1". The characteristics you will need is to be quite dominant and at audition improvise a short scene of a chase between two characters. For this role you will need to have strong athletic ability with limited disabilities and can be of any ethnicity.

Antagonist:

We are currently casting for a male antagonist who is middle aged and of a height around 6ft 2' being any ethnicity. The audition for this role would involve improvising an exchange of a briefcase between two shady characters. You must be dominant and be able to assert authority well through the use of body language. The costume for this role would involve wearing a dark suit.

Others:

We are currently casting for two male henchmen to play a minor acting role in our film. The actors must be around middle aged and be of a height above six foot, as well as be able to drive. You can be of any ethnicity and have limited disabilities. In audition, you will need to improvise a dominant walk with a briefcase as well as a small car scene.

Casting Conventions

In our group, we brainstormed what our ideal protagonist and antagonist would be for our film opening. This then helped us produce call-outs to find actors that best suited the roles within our film opening. 

Location Recce

Our main location for our film opening will be the Castle Quay car park building in Banbury because this is where the exchange of a briefcase will be happening in our film opening. We will film this part in the dark as we want to create a feeling of tension during the exchange of the briefcase because we want to conform to some of the conventions of thriller which are low-lighting and high-tension.

It will roughly take us about 10-20 minutes to arrive at our location as we will most likely travel by car and because all of us live near Banbury. We will probably be filming on location for about 2 hours as we also want to include a time lapse from day to night as a transition within our film opening. In order to film our time lapse, we will have to place our camera on top of a tripod and ensure that it stays in position until it the time lapse is complete. The main reason for filming this part of the film opening at night is that we want to have low-key lighting in the scene to create tension during the exchange and to emphasise that it is a key part of our film opening.

Main Task Planner - Film Opening

• Logline (25 word summary): Two opposing gangs exchange a mysterious briefcase in a sketchy setting, however, a stand alone hero thinks otherwise
• Synopsis/Narrative: Two opposing characters meet to do an exchange of a package unaware of a third adversary who is ready to steal it. Once the exchange is complete, the interceptor chases the dealer for the package and the opening ends with him catching him
• Audience: 15 years of age because of the conventions of our chosen genre, action-thriller
• Representation: Dark clothing to surround the characters with mystery and not inform the audience of their true identities 
• Sound: Dramatic music (non-diegetic sound) starting from when the interceptor receives the text message, building up tension. Little dialogue apart from at the beginning when travelling to the location of the exchange
• Mise-en-scene: We will choose the appropriate props and arrange the scene in the best way we can in order to match the descriptions of each scene
• Setting/Costume and Props: Our film opening will be based in the setting of a multi-storey car park and the surrounding area. The costume used will be dark clothing and suits to make the film opening seem as realistic as possible
• Acting: We will acquire the best possible actors to play the roles in our film opening. We will consider different actors and the positives and negatives of their ability to act in our film opening
• Lighting: We will use low-key lighting in our film opening because we want to conform with the conventions of action-thriller, our chosen genre. This may take time to set up correctly in order to make it look as best as possible
• Editing: During post-production, we will use continuity editing so that the narrative of our film opening is clear and easy to understand for our target audience

Narrative Structure

Narrative structure- The way in which a film is structured, either chronologically or with jump cuts or flashbacks. If a film is in time order, this would make it a linear narrative structure. However, if the film cuts between multiple narratives happening simultaneously or has flashbacks, this would make it a non-linear narrative structure.

Our film opening is going to have a linear narrative so it easy for our target audience to understand our storyline and so that they can feel the tension created in our opening. We think that using flashbacks isn't going to be effective as we want our film opening to be fast-paced and to keep the audience intrigued as what is going to happen next in our opening. Therefore, our film opening will flow continuously and keep our audience interested in it until the end.

Mise-en-scene Key Terms

Camera shots and angles

Match on action - a character/vehicle leaves the frame on the left, then enters the next shot on the right to maintain continuity

Aerial shot - a shot directly above the scene to show a clear view, often used to emphasise a spectacle.

Close up (and variations) - close ups (extreme, big and medium) are used to draw the audience closer to the scene and involve with what is going on. They are mainly used  to observe reactions and emotions, like happiness, elation and tension

Crab shot - a camera shot inside of a confined space

Crane shot- a shot in which the camera is positioned onto a specially-manufactured crane that can be lowered or raised

Establishing shot- a shot that is normally used at the start of a film/TV show or a new scene in a film to constitute the relationship between the set and the characters in that scene

Head on shot- a shot were the action goes directly towards the camera (mainly used in action/war films to increase tension

High angle- a shot were the camera is positioned above the subject(s), often used to make them seem vulnerable or powerless

Long shot- a shot were the camera is positioned in the distance from the subjects being filmed

Low-angle shot- a shot were the camera is placed below eye-level of the subject(s) being filmed

POV- a camera shot from the perspective of the character used to create realism and involve the audience in the scene

Reaction shot- created for an interview between 2 people, commonly used to display an interviewer reacting to their respondent's answers

Subjective shot- a shot where the camera is positioned as if it looking through the subjects eyes

Tracking shot- a shot where the camera moves along rails to follow the subject/character

Two shot- shot of 2 people, normally a medium close up/medium shot. It shows the spatial relationship of 2 people, who often are in a conversation. Commonly used in TV soaps.

Wide shot- can be used as an establishing shot of a set/location or of a large crowd.

Transitions/Editing

Crosscut- a moving image edit involving a number of cutaways and also cuts back from a sequence of narrative action to another one taking place at the same time

Cutaway- a short shot that briefly interrupts the primary action of the film by displaying a related action, thing or character, not necessarily part of the current scene

Jump cut- a sudden, disorientating transition in the middle of a continuos shot in which the action the is obviously advanced in time and/or cut between 2 similar shots, normally done to create discontinuity for artistic effect

Dissolve- a type of transition when one image dissolves into another image

Match on action- emphasises continuity of time and space by matching the action of the previous shot with continuation of the action

Visual effects- the enhancement or removal of certain elements within a scene

Parallel editing- when two locations are cut together to imply a connection between the two sets of events

Montage editing- several images juxtaposed together to create meaning

Graphic match- an effect in which two different objects of the same shape are dissolved into one another

Juxtaposition- placement of two, often opposed, images on either side of an edit to create an effect

Continuity editing- type of editing that aims to create a sense of reality and time moving forward. Also nicknamed invisible editing referring to how the technique does not draw attention to the editing process

Eyeline match- type of editing that maintains eyeline on level when cutting from a character to see what the character sees

Flashback- scene or movement in a film in which the audience is shown an event that happened earlier in the film

Slow motion- indicates intensity or importance of an action scene

Credits- information at the beginning or end of a film giving details of cast and crew etc.

Linear narrative- style of storytelling in which events happen chronologically

Lighting/Sound

High key lighting- lighting that appears to be natural (but infrequently is). A three point system is used to decrease shadows and be flattering to the character

Low key lighting- lighting system which intensifies shadows and gives a moody or scary effect

Back lighting- when a character is lit from behind, thus silhouetting them

Diegetic sound- sound that can be heard by the characters within a scene/ sound part of the imaginary world

Non diegetic sound- sound that cannot be heard by the characters and is not part of the storyworld in the film. Can be musical soundtrack or voiceover

Score- Musical component of a film's soundtrack, usually composed specifically for a scene

Sound effects- sounds that are added to a film during the post-production stage

Sound motif- sound effect or combination of sound effects that are affiliated with a certain character, setting, situation or idea

Sound bridge- can lead in or out of the scene. Can occur at beginning of scene when the sound from the previous one carries over briefly before the sound from the new scene begins

Dialogue- words spoken between characters

Incidental music- non-diegetic sounds which add atmosphere to an action or revelation

Ambient sound- background sounds that are present in a scene or location. It provides audio continuity between shots, reinventing an unnatural silence when no others sounds are present and establishes or reinforcing the mood of a scene

Sound perspectives- sense of a sound's position in space, yielded by volume and pitch. Used to create a more realistic sense of space, with events happening closer or further away

Voiceover- when a voice (often of a character in a film) is heard while we see an image of space and time in which that character is not speaking. It is often used to give a sense of a character's subjectivity or to narrate an event told in flashback

General terms

Mise-en-scene- everything that is a scene e.g. costume, props, lighting etc.

Location- place where the scene is being shot

Set design- the decoration of a set that expresses certain characteristics

Costume- clothing of the characters connotes different things about them

Iconography- visual style of a film/TV show

Props- things used by characters in particular scenes

Proxemics- physical distance between characters

Physicality- physical presence of a character and what they bring to the role

Gesture/posture- physical movements of characters and what it says about them

Planning - Script

This is the script that we produced in our group for our film opening. In our film opening, an exchange of a mysterious package takes places at a sketchy setting, only to be hijacked by an unknown perpetrator.

INT. CAR - DAY (1)

                                                 

                     Driver of the car adjusts front mirror to align with subjects face in the  

                                  back seat, as he travels towards the exchange. 

                                                               DRIVER 

      

                                                         Where you off to? 

                                                                DEALER 

                                                Just another business meeting. 

                                                   EXT. STREET - DAY (2) 

                            

                          Low angled camera shot of the cars passing through the street. 

                                  No characters are shown. 1-2 second shot. 

                                                EXT. UNKNOWN LOCATION - DAY (3)

                          Extreme close up of a phone showing a time and location. You 

                             don't know who is receiving this text or who its came from. 

                                                                                         Fade out: Blackout to:

                                                TITLE SCREEN: THE EXCHANGE 

                    Black screen as the title of the film appears suddenly in bold, jumping 

                                                out towards the camera. (5 seconds) 

       

                                                                                       Dramatic music fades in:

                                                                                                                     

                                                                                                      Dissolve to:

                                                EXT. IN THE TOWN - DAY (4)

               

                      Tracking shot of the interceptors feet as he walks towards the 

                      location he's just received. Extras in the background as he walks 

                      through the street. Dramatic music becomes added to create tension 

                      and add anticipation to the audience. 

                                                

                                                INT. CAR PARK - DAY (5) 

                                                 

                Close up of a car pulling into the undercover car park to complete the 

                exchange. The music gets higher in tension and opening credits appear 

                on the side of the screen over time, gradually introducing everyone 

                involved in the film.

                Camera cuts to establishing shot of the car park with two cars facing 

                each other ready to do the exchange. The camera then zooms in onto
                the cars gradually.

                Camera cuts to a shot of the subject in a low angled shot, showing their
                feet as the step out of the car. The music begins to increase in tension
                as the audience see the briefcase for the first time. Tracking shot of the
                subjects feet as he begins to walk towards the deal.

                 As the receiver of the briefcase and the giver meet there is a over the
                 shoulder shot as the character passes the briefcase over, the camera
                 doesn't show who receives the briefcase during the exchange.
                                             
                                                EXT. STREET - DAY (6)

               High angled long shot of the subject walking away from the deal,
               music still continuing, camera slowly zooms into the subject and begins
               to track him, as if someone is stalking him.

               Cut to mid shot of the subject walking away with the briefcase. The
               subject walks past the camera and then the camera focuses on a person
               following him in a suspicious way, the subject is unaware of this.

               Cut to side shot of the characters as the subject becomes aware of the
               follower and he begins to up the pace to try and get away from him.
               Camera doesn't move, the characters pass by it.

                                               EXT. ALLEY - DAY (7)

              Close up of the subject's face with the briefcase held up to it, he's hid
              behind the wall trying to lose his follower and get away with the
              briefcase. Shows the emotions of the character.

              The camera remains in a close up of the subjects face, the interceptor/
              follower grabs the subjects face and covers their mouth.

                                                               DEALER

                                                              (Screams)

Cut out to blackout.