Our filming day was meant to be 21st of January, but the date was changed to 23rd. I can judge that it was the best day for our shooting. The whole school was covered in snow and it looked really beautiful. The day began off with us gathering into our media classroom with our crew members and discussing the continuing day. After me and another member of our group Anna went to collect our costumes and our actors. We had several problems with our costumes, as if we didn't have the right ones, but afterwards we were given another costumes, which suited the storyboard as well. We had to changed our main actor for several times, moreover just before starting to shoot, the last chosen actor refused to be involved because of some problems, so we went to find another actor. While we were searching for our actor, the other members of our crew went to the chosen location with the actors. Our story board wasn't changed at all, which proved that we were well prepared. We exactly knew the stages of shooting, so we didn't have the moments when we were thinking what is going to be shoted next. We went for thriller genre. We knew that thriller audience like action, shootings, so our storyboard was based on it. We used location which was fully covered in snow, we had two soldiers wearing guns and taking their prisoner to their boss, who was meant to kill him but was killed by the prisoner's agent-partner. So all this things which you usually see in the thriller/action movies were included in our movie too, so we targeted thriller/action watching audience.
Some photos of me in the early morning
Location
Some of the opening sequences were filmed in the studio, but we preferred to film outside, in the forest. The main reason for this is that we wanted to make a thriller/action movie which would take place in Siberia, so to make it look more realistic we decided to film it in the forest full of snow, so it would seem like that we are in Siberia. We wanted to attract audience who like thriller/action movies, so having our film done in the <deep forest of Siberia> was perfect and would attract our target audience. As we were making thriller, our two guards had machine guns and the agent had gun. We also had a black bag on our prisoner's head to show that he was captured. We started off with a wide shot showing the location. Than we saw the two guards holding the prisoner and taking him up the hill, a tracking of the two guards and the prisoner was used. As the prisoner was brought to the enemy agent a point of view shot was used, the agents point of view to show that he was waiting for prisoner. Then we did a point of view shot, the sniper's point of view, this was used to show that someone else is involved in the action, but no one knew who. Than we saw a low angle shot looking at the enemy agent, we did this to show that our agent is not in a good position and hasn't got the power which the enemy agent has. After straight away we did a high angle shot of agent looking at our prisoner, this was done to show that the enemy agent is in control of the situation and has got the power. After the enemy agent's short speech we did again a point of view shot of the sniper and how she kills the guard and the agent. And at the end we did a close up of the prisoner thanking his partner with a gesture, and the opening sequence finished with a wide shot of the prisoner walking down the hill.
Costumes and PropsThe costumes that we wanted to choose when we were planning our opening sequence were white shirt,black trousers and black shoes for our prisoner, black suits for the three negative characters and legens for our sniper. But it was quit difficult to obtain all this costumes, so we went easy. We dressed our two guards in a soldier uniform, the prisoner was wearing white shirt and black trousers and the main enemy agent was dressed in his costume. The main film that we were inspired by was James Bond, but also Born's movies influenced our opening sequence as well. We dressed the two guards in army uniform to show that military forces are involved in our opening sequence, the enemy agent was wearing his suit to be highlighted in the way that he differs from the two guardians, to show that he is the main "bad guy" in the thriller.
Actors and their roles
It wasn't so difficult to find the characters needed, however it was really difficult to find the main actor. The two guards in our movie were played by two students who perfectly suited the role. We chose one of the guards- Anri, because of his iron facial expression, face which hasn't got any emotions. By just looking at Anri audience would think that this actor is playing negative role. His sharp look and iron emotions made us to make him one of the guards. The second guard Mikael was chosen because of his angry look and also because his face is similar to those Russian guards who are in Siberia. We struggled quit a while with our main actor who would play the prisoner. We changed the actor three times and finally found the most suiting one. He suited the role because he has a good body structure and attractive facial expression, which suits the idea of making a movie similar to James Bond series where they have the main actor as a attractive, good looking person.
It wasn't so difficult to find the characters needed, however it was really difficult to find the main actor. The two guards in our movie were played by two students who perfectly suited the role. We chose one of the guards- Anri, because of his iron facial expression, face which hasn't got any emotions. By just looking at Anri audience would think that this actor is playing negative role. His sharp look and iron emotions made us to make him one of the guards. The second guard Mikael was chosen because of his angry look and also because his face is similar to those Russian guards who are in Siberia. We struggled quit a while with our main actor who would play the prisoner. We changed the actor three times and finally found the most suiting one. He suited the role because he has a good body structure and attractive facial expression, which suits the idea of making a movie similar to James Bond series where they have the main actor as a attractive, good looking person.
Sound
The opening sequence starts off with a diegetic music of the forest hovering. Afterwards we hear diegetic sound of footsteps and the prisoner's groan. While the two guards were holding the prisoner, one of the guards was kicking and hitting the prisoner, which meant that the prisoner did something bad and his enemies are being crucial towards him,we could hear a didgetic sound. When the agent pointed the gun at the prisoner, we made a non-diegetic sound of heartbeat, which signified prisoner''s fear and that he was nervous. But suddenly afterwards we could hear the diegetic sound of sniper shot. We didn't use much of non-diegetic sound, so the opening sequence would look more realistic.
Our Crew
Each of us totally contributed our effort into making the opening sequence successful. The based idea came from one of our members who's name is Theo, he offered the idea of making our opening sequence about the Russian agents and the deep forests of Siberia, after he offered that to us we began to brainstorm extra ideas and choose the best ones. We divided the crew into different tasks to do, we did this so each of us will have something to do, and also it was quit fair. Anna for example did all the illustrations and worked with costumes, Habib currently working on editing, Theo was developing the idea and I was working with the actors. When we were choosing actors we all discussed between us who would suit the character and why. While thinking about shots and mise-en-scene again all of us were involved, we were choosing all together what shots to make and what props should be needed. We didn't have any lighting( if only natural light), so we didn't discuss it. But the main aim of all this was to choose the right mes-en-sen, good actors,proper shots and props/costumes in order to create the thriller/action movie. Before choosing the actors, mes-en-sen, shots, costumes/props we were thinking if it would make the opening sequence to have more tension, suspense and all this things required for the thriller/action movie. Moreover we were also thinking to suit our target audience, what kind of costumes, types of shot and actors they would like to see in our opening sequence.
Exactly my role was to choose the right actors, test their articulation and how well they can use their body language. I casted all the chosen actors to see if they can play the characters in our opening sequence. Then I chose the ones I liked and worked with them. I showed them how to use their body language, how to make their facial expression look good (in order to convey the emotions). I worked with each of them separately, except the two guards, because their action dependent on both of them. So basically i was showing the actors how they should use their body language, facial expression and how they should play during the shooting day. When the shooting day started i was correcting the actors and helping them with their roles.
I think we have the right effect which will suit the target audience. The only thing I wasn't so happy about is that we didn't get the costumes that we wanted, so if we had to do it again, we would order the needed costumes at a proper time, not just before the shooting day. In my opinion we met our expectations and the opening sequence went well. Overall i am happy with the result. It was my first time shooting the movie and I think it is a really good experience to have, but also fun, which we enjoyed.
