Selecting props for mise-en scene - drugs

When it comes to producing films the manipulation of props is a very important part of creating a good film. This is because props can be described as a major element within the mise-en scene. We must understand the topics we touch up [e.g. drug use]. Once understood we will be able to capture the attention of the audience, and also evoke a shared feeling or response towards a character/scene.

Class A drugs - Heroin, Cocaine, LSD

Class B drugs - Cannabis, Speed 

Class C drugs - Anabolic Steroids, Tranquillisers, Valium 

Examples of drugs amongst their classes. The higher the class the more harmful the substance is, something we must take into account when trying to portray the protagonist as a hard drug user. 

We must also take into account how difficult it will be to replicate illegal substances.

Chosen production logo

se7en opening title sequence analysis

Storyboard

Opening Scene to Silence of the Lambs

Although silence of the lambs as a psychological thriller focuses around the police, I feel it can still be useful in our opening, we are introduced to the main character, however we know little to nothing about her, creating suspense, we want to know what happens next, who she is, what shes doing. this sense of the unknown could be very useful in our opening.

Saul Bass title sequence - Cape fear (1991)

)

Cape fears intro does a very good job of creating a sense of fear as to what will happen in the film

shots of eyes shifting and blood mixing with water create a tone many psychological thrillers contain

I like the minimalist nature of the intro, not knowing exactly what is going on can create tension and I would like to have a similar feel to our opening.

AmericanPsycho opening scene

American psycho has a very interesting intro in the sense that it almost doesnt

rell you anything, but you learn alot, just from seeing such a complicated routine

and with christian bales narration towards the end, we learn that the character

is not quite right in the head, I feel in our film opening we should also try and

take the approach of only subtly hinting.

Black Swan opening title

Black swan has an intro that I find very inspiring for our film, it starts off with calm but forboding

piano as you see someone drawing something, creating mystery. as the sequence develops, the music becomes louder and more severe, the action on screen follows suit, setting the tone for the entire film. The colour and style of the titles are also very in line with the films subject matter which I would hope to be able to do with our film opening.

Costume

Our choice of costume design revolved around two costumes, our character as he is normally and his alter ego, the reaper. the main characters normal sides clothes were chosen just to get the point across that hes a normal person, a long sleeve shirt and some jeans, nothing that would stand out.

The reapers clothes however were chosen more carefully, a black/grey hoodie was chosen to both

make him seem like the grim reaper but also to still be based in reality.

Props

These are some of the props we chose to use in our film intro,

the credit card was selected as it is from a british bank,

also a credit card is commonly used to create lines of cocaine.

The cornflour was chosen as it was the closest thing we 

could use to actual cocaine and gave us the look we wanted.

lastly, the syringe was made by inserting a paper clip into a 

syringe, this was due to not being able to find an actual needle

and for the shots it is in the look is effective.

Location

These pictures show the location chosen for our

filming. We chose this location because we felt

it fit with the character and the themes of the film

, the room is quite small which creates a feeling

of tension with the cramped environment,

the room is also in quite bad condition which

connotes that the character is a drug addict,

the piano in the room is meant to represent the 

light in the otherwise quite shoddy (dark) room.

After Effects Software

This is the software (After Effects) that we used in order to create the sequence where the black substance is going into the blood stream, our production companies logo and the title to the film. With this software we were also able to put the titles for (Starring -Actors) onto the screen. 

Final Cut Pro- Editing Software

The picture above is the editing software (Final Cut Pro) that we used to edit our title sequence. It allowed us to add/remove sounds/music. To change saturation of the film; To add a filter (we used on the Warner Bros. Logo); To edit how long a certain shot is shown; To produce a montage(we produced a montage hinting drug use at the beginning). 

Opening Credits Part 3

In order to determine our opening credits, we used the information as guidance from 'Se7en', 'Wikipedia' and  'Man Of Steel'. All these are shown in previous posts.

We used this research to guide us, and help us through our opening credits order. They are shown below. 

Opening Credits Part 2

As we are using 'Warner Bros.' as our studio, we needed to find out how the studio is introduced in the title sequence. To find this information we watched the opening credits for 'Man Of Steel'

The above screenshot is from the Man of Steel, title sequence we watched on youtube in order to find the Warner Bros. title, as you can see it is introduced as 'WARNER BROS. PICTURES    presents', we used the exact same presentation of the credit.

Opening Credits Part 1

For our Title Sequence we need to have the titles to appear in a certain order. To find this order out, I watched the film opening for 'Se7en' which is a very similar film to ours (Psychological Thriller).

I then wrote out each title which appeared, and juxtaposed this information with Wikipedia's title order.

Above is the Wikipedia order for a title sequence

The screen print above is the names I saw on 'Sev7en'

CALL SHEET FOR SHOOTING ON 11/02/2014

DRAFT SCRIPT

Draft Updated Script                                                                                                                            Title - 'Reaper'

INTERNAL SHOT-JACK'S HOUSE- DAY                                                                                                           

THERE IS A MONTAGE OF CLOSE UPS AND EXTREME CLOSE UPS OF POWDERED DRUGS, LIGHTER, SYRINGE, SPOON, TWENTY POUND NOTE ROLLED UP. SOUND: TENSE AND FOREBODING MUSIC

THE SHOT THEN CUTS TO A VISUAL EFFECT, OF A BLACK SUBSTANCE ENTERING THE BLOODSTREAM.

TITLES

THE NEXT SHOT IS OF A CRACKED, DIRTY WALL. THE CAMERA PANS DOWNWARDS AND THE BACK OF JACK'S HEAD IS SEEN.FROM THIS POINT ONWARD THERE IS THE SAME DIEGETIC MUSIC (PLAYED ON THE PIANO)OF BEETHOVEN - MOONLIGHT SONATA

THERE IS THEN A CUT TO A CLOSE UP.IT IS THE REAPER, WHO IS PLAYING THE FIVE FINGER FILLET.

SHOT THEN CUTS TO A MID SHOT OF A PIANO AND JACK PLAYING THE PIANO. IN THE SHOT YOU ARE ABLE TO SEE A SPOON, COCAINE/CREDIT CARD AND LIGHTER.

SHOT CUTS BACK TO A CLOSE UP OF THE REAPER PLAYING THE FIVE FINGER FILLET BUT THEN ALMOST INSTANTLY CUTS TO AN OVER THE SHOULDER SHOT OF JACK (WEARING WHITE) PLAYING THE PIANO (SPOON AND LIGHTER IS VISIBLE)

THERE IS THEN A MID SHOT OF THE REAPER FROM THE SIDE PLAYING THE FIVE FINGER FILLET. THE AUDIENCE ARE NOW ABLE TO SEE THAT THE REAPER IS WEARING A BLACK HOODIE, AND THE HOOD IS UP, THEREFORE UNABLE TO SEE HIS FACE.

THERE IS THEN A CLOSE UP OF JACKS RIGHT HAND PLAYING THE PIANO IT CUTS TO A CLOSE UP OF A SHOT WHICH IS SEEN IN POINT OF VIEW OF THE PIANO LID, WHERE THE REAPER (ESTABLISHED BY HIS BLACK CLOTHING) IS SEEN PLAYING THE FIVE FINGER FILLET.

THERE IS THEN AN EXTREME CLOSE UP OF JACKS FINGERS PLAYING THE PIANO BEFORE IT ONCE AGAIN CUTS BACK TO THE POV SHOT OF THE REAPER PLAYING THE FIVE FINGER FILLET.

THERE IS THEN A MID SHOT OF JACK (ESTABLISHED BY HIS WHITE CLOTHING) PLAYING THE PIANO FROM A SIDE ANGLE. THE LIGHTER, SPOON AND POWDERED DRUG ARE ALL VISIBLE.THE SHOT THEN CUTS BACK TO THE SAME POV SHOT OF THE REAPER PLAYING THE FIVE FINGER FILLET.

THERE IS THEN A MID SHOT OF JACK PLAYING THE PIANO FROM THE RIGHT. THE SHOT IS IN THE SAME LEVEL AS THE PIANO KEYS.

THE NEXT SHOT IS A MID SHOT OF THE REAPER PLAYING THE FIVE FINGER FILLET, THE SHOT IS NOW FROM THE LEFT SIDE AND IS SLIGHTLY HIGH ANGLED. IT CUTS TO THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE REPAER PLAYING THE GAME. HE IS NOW PLAYING AT A RAPID SPEED AND HE THEN CUTS HIMSELF, ONCE CUTTING HIMSELF THE SHOT CUTS TO A HIGHER ANGLE OF THE REPAER PLAYING THE GAME; HE PLAYS IT SLOWER THIS TIME.

THERE IS THEN A POV SHOT OF THE REAPER PLAYING THE FIVE FINGER FILLET. THE VIEWER NOW SEES WHAT THE REAPER SEES.

TITLES

THERE IS THEN A MID SHOT OF THE REAPER (UNABLE TO SEE FACE, AS IT IS COVERED BY THE HOOD AND THE SHOT CUTS OUT HALF THE FACE)USING A LIGHTER UP CLOSE TO THE CAMERA.

TITLES

Sams Idea for a new intro

Rishi's idea for the film opening, with sketch of storyboard

The images you see above, is my idea that I wanted as our Opening Title Sequence. The first picture is a written format shot by shot of what would be shown, and the second and third pictures are a ruff storyboard format of the shots.  My idea was to focus more on the effects that the drugs had on the taker. However I found the following mistakes: 

1) The Reaper title comes at the end, this makes it look too much like a trailer rather than an opening             2) It is too short, and not developed enough                                                                                                 3)The shots are far too repetitive e.g close ups of face                                                                                   4) There is no real indication that I've used psychological thriller conventions                                                 

                     

Even though we did not use my idea, we still incorporated various aspects of my idea, e.g the syringe is still in the opening, the after effects are still in the opening...etc