.Shoot day preparation.

 Preparation for the shoot started the night before where we stole Nicky (my HOY chair) we did ask her 

DW. We then went up to personal studies where people where hard at work where then distracted by 4 

boys charging in stealing the 4 extra tables and chairs and hitting them on everything possible by accident 

though. We then went Down with Matt and put the table cloth to see if it would work as a rough table to 

play poker on whilst a bald man (mike) looked over laughing with a American accent.

We then went and asked around the female population of hurtwood to see if any of them where skilled 

with the art of makeup to make the actors ugly contradicting I know. We then asked the cast who where 

late… to read through their lines which was a fresh concept in their minds. As they did this we nervously 

set up the camera mainly relying on the skill of our own Witt. 

This then made it more entertaining as the prep began to come closer to the shoot… 

After this stage we then waited til we had all our cast and crew members ready! 

.Players and cast

 Initial cast 

Stephan - poker player (winner)

Adam - (body guard)

Susana - poker player

Raffle - poker player (dead)

Mike - mafia boss

Beth - poker player 

.Final Action list with casts names.

  

• Car pulling up at hurtwood house
• Bosses face as he steps out 
• Wide of him entering the house
• Shots of him walking around the corridors 
• Tilt up to show the poker table with four people around it 
• Close up of all the peoples faces from 1 – 4 with it sustained on man 2
• Shot of the bosses screen in his room
• Shot of the boss who says begin
• Man 1 picks up cards and shuffles them briefly 
• Over head  angled shot of him laying five cards out on the table 
• Shot of man 2 pushing in a few chips 
• Shot of man 2 looking up from the chips and at the others faces 
• Shots of all of them pushing in the same amount 
• Shot of man 4 nodding at man 1
• Man 1 looks and then turns the three cards over
• Side shot of three cards getting turned over 
• Shot from the side of the table - silence, then man 2  man says 'stick' all the others say it very quickly after him 
• Shot of the last two cards being turned over 
• Shots of each hand pushing chips 
• Shot of man 1 fidgeting with his last two chips before he then slides them in 
• Cards are put down - various shots of each hand 
• Shot of the last guy with no chips left putting down his hand 
• Shot of the  3^rd guy reaching across and grabbing all the chips in the middle quickly 
• Man 1 reaching trying to get some back shouting ' no, NO!' 
• Shot of the boss from behind 
• Shot of his face where he says kill him
• Guard comes out of the dark and drags man 1 away 
• Gun shot whilst the camera is on the other players  
• Shot of the rich man saying 'play on’
• cards get reset by man 2 
• all say stick 
• man turns over three cards 
• shot of the 3^rd mans cards then the ones on the table and then his face where he says ‘all In’ 
• hands sliding all his chips in 
• Shots of the others doing the same 
• shots of cards going down 
• 2nd Man looks at his cards and breaks into hysterical happiness gathering the chips 
• Shot of the boss who says free him
• Guard comes out the dark and grabs the man who won still happy.
• Shot on the screen of him being drageed out

 

 

The tension in this is incredibly high as one player is leaving with their lives and the others are not. You have been kidnapped and imprisoned prior to this scene so this is your make-or-break moment. You are desperate for escape and incredibly run down so the point you could even be slightly delusional if you like. Most importantly you are scared with every move you make like your life depends on it.

 

 

Raff picks up the cards and shuffles them and then places five down on the table and turns the first three over.

 

Stephen looks at his cards and pushes in a few chips and then looks around

 

Adam and Becky then push in the same amount of chips 

 

Becky nods to raff who then nervously turns 3 cards over

 

Stephen looks at his cards and then says stick

 

The others say stick in order from Adam to Raff very quickly one after each other

 

Raff turns over the last two cards 

 

Stephen looks at his cards and chips and then the cards before pushing in a few more (more than two)

 

Adam does the same 

 

Becky does the same 

 

Raff has two chips left and is playing with them in his hand as he contemplates and then he slides them both into the middle

 

Cards are put down starting with Stephens

 

Raff is reluctant to put his cards down as he has realised he’s lost and as when he does Adam happily gathers the chips hes won and adds them to his pile in relief.

 

Raff beings to shout things such as ‘NO NO!’ and ‘ YOU CANT TAKE ME…PLEASE!’ as Adam dressed as a security guard drags him off the set

 

The rest react to a gunshot noise as raff is killed out side of the room

 

Stephen then deals two cards to each player and puts five down in the middle. 

 

Each player says stick starting with Adam

 

Stephen turns over three cards 

 

Adam says stick again and so does Becky

 

Stephen looks at his cards (he has got a flush) and then says all in and slides all his chips in.

 

Adam and then Becky follow

 

The last two cards are turned over and the players player theirs down starting with Adam

 

Stephen puts his down and realises hes won and can hardly believe it. He is gathering the chips and throwing cards and utterly amazed that he has won like that. The guard then drags him back but it cannot stop his feelings of relief as he bursts out with things such as ‘I’m free, I’m free!’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

George and Felix tests shoot.

 George and I went out on a test shoot to try out different shots we could do for the Boss walking through the building to get to the control room. The shots are alot like the photos on my previous blog post titled 'Loctation research and planning'. Not all of these shots would be used in the final sequence however we would quite like to shoot all of them just for options. 

These first two shots we thought would work  nicely in firsrt estabishing the boss after he steps out of the

car. They wouldnt focus too much on his face as this would help to keep an air of mystery about the character. The second one also captures Hurtwood House which looks quite daunting in the shot and acomianied by the correct sound it could work very nicely in helping to create atmosphere.

The next two shots are potential shots of the boss walking through a corridor to get to the control room. We would probably only use one of these as we dont have too much time to spare and too many could get boring. We like the first one as it is short yet tells us everything we need to know - he is traveling to somewhere with purpose. I also like the walls in the shot as they are quite old and give off a nice vibe like the building is old and forgotten and this adds to the mystery of it all.  The second shot however is also very nice as it is very powerful with the boss bursting through the double doors in a classic shot. It would help show the important character of the boss. It could even look better if we got two gaurds to open the doors before him. 

This final shot is probably my favourite shot of all of the ones we took in the test shoot. I like how the camera is peeping down the stairs as if its hiding from the boss and I like how you cant see much at the bottom of the stairs which keeps the air of mystery around the whole sequence. You can make out that it looks sort of like a basement or a bunker as he is supposed to be descending into to get to the control room. 

This concluded our test shoot as we only wanted to shoot the locations for the boss walking as these were the shots we were unsure were possible. After the test shoot it is safe to say we all think these shots would work well and would be worth our time to take them even if we didn't end up having time to use them as they do help set the mood and atmosphere for the rest of the sequence.

Me, ash, roul and penny using a camera.

 

Here are some shots of our sequence yesterday me and roulallen where the actors whilst Ashton and penny 

where on sound and filming management.

Me and nehir editing

 We first opened up the editing package of apple editing thus being said Matt took us through step by step.

The first thing he got us to do was to learn the different tabs within the package.

Then learnt how to edit a clip shorter or back to original size.

Then learnt how to paste the clip within the editing piece. 

The me and Nehir started to piece the bits of editing clips together then started matching the sound and 

speed and overall look, look realistic.

Then after we did this the lesson ended after we previewed our clips.

Email i sent to one of our cast members.

 This is the screen shot I got of the email i sent to one of the poker players (actor) Stephanie, she is a 

theatre teacher at Hurtwood house so this will fit her perfectly.

.Cast images by george

The cast members we need for our media shoot is:

A hard working sainsburys man preferably adult or late teens.

Mafia boss old / middle aged man.

Hench men / body guard.

Builder middle aged man.

A office worker middle aged or young.

A women who has a high class job.

.Costume design by george

 Rich boss man:

Elegant suit but distinct so it gives a character trait (stripped). He also wears a nice watch with black tinted glasses (ray bans?) and wears a top hat.

 

Security guards:

Tall, intimidating, anything black e.g. black suit or t shirt 

 

 

 

Player 1:

Super market worker so dressed in dirty Sainsbury's t shirt with Hi-vis jacket over the top 

 

 

 

player 2:

Middle aged business man so dirty worn out suit (top button undone, few bruises etc..)

 

Player 3:

Woman in late 20s so messed up hair with messy office work uniform and a bruises (done with makeup)

 

Player 4:

builder in late 50s, wearing white sweaty dirty vest 

Poker table set up - by Zach

 For the poker table, we were thinking to get a regular circular table and put some green cloth over it to show that it is a poker table but it is a bit rundown because people have been playing on it for a long time. Something like the picture on the left.

For the cards we are just going to acquire a poker card set from somewhere which should be easy enough. The cards will then be made a bit dirty and ripped slightly once again showing the meaning that they have been used before on multiple occasions for the previous games that have been played. However, there is still the option to make a contrast of a fancy poker table and fancy playing cards with people that have ripped clothes and dirt on their faces to show that they have been kept in a prison before playing but are actually in a wealthy area run by a rich boss man. Then we have George, a member of the group who has poker chips at his house so he will be able to provide them. 

We also need to get a fancy car for the boss to be able to arrive in. We were thinking of asking Cosmo Jackson, Richard Jackson, or Dave Fonseca if we could borrow one of their cars for the scene. The car would be a big Porsche or a Range Rover.

We may need makeup to make the 4 characters playing poker look dirty, rough and scratched up. For this we have friends who can provide it to us if needed.

In addition to this, we will need two fake guns for the guards to add to the atmosphere. The school has some from previous opening title sequences that we will be able to borrow. 

Done by Zach

Amounts of sequences by felix

  There are two sets in the sequence, the control room and the Poker room. The control room was covered in the location post as it doesn't really appear enough to be considered an actual set and most of the resources we need for it are already there in the room. The poker room however is going to be shot in the studio where we will have to gather and build everything for the day. A shot from the mood board which sort of inspires how we want it to look is this photo. the idea of one visible light in the room and the rest of

of it in darkness is the sort of affect we are looking for. After meeting Tom again he told us a light like this wouldn't work however we can put lights looking down from either side of the poker table and it will give off the same effect so that's how the lights are going to look now. The actual table will be slightly bigger than this as the shots could get quite messy if its all crampt together on a table that sort of size. The actual table itself is going to just be a normal table, round or oval if possible with green felt pulled tight around it. The felt is then going to be aged and messed up a bit as we want it to be recognisable as a poker table but not make it look like a nice one. The cards will just be normal playing cards that look slightly aged and the chips at the moment will just be normal playing chips but we are looking into swapping them for something strange just to add a creepier feeling to it. There will be a black curtain dragged round the poker table just to keep an air of mystery as nobody would be able to see the ends of the room.

Theme board done by Felix

 Most of our opening sequence is going to take place in the studio however there is about 20 seconds of fottage at the start and about 10 at the end that are not in the studio so we have started looking at ideas for where these clips will take place.

We want the sequence to open with a bold and daunting opening shot with the boss's car pulling up and him getting out. For this we think Hurtwood house would work great providing we can get the cars out of the way. The rest of the shots would also take place in the building. We thought for a potential close up of the Boss's face we could do it from the side so it would capture the horizon in the backgroud which could look quite nice. 

(Veiw that we thought would work for the side shot of the Boss)

                                    

For the inside shots we have Seen three shots we like the idea of. The first would be the Boss walking with haste through some double doors as it gives off a powerful feel. The the next shot would be him walking around a corner which looks quite old (the board would be taken down). The corridor looking old would help to create the effect of this being a secret and forgotten place under this house. The third shot would be from the other side of an indoor window of the Boss walking down some stairs as if going into a bunker - wjhere his control room is. It would then cut to The poker room.

(Left and below are Door we thought would work well for having the Boss burst through)

(corridor we thought would work for a shot as with the blue board taken out it could look aged and slightly earrie)

(Shot idea for the final shot of the Boos moving throught the house -him going down these stairs into his control room)

The second option is a much smaller room with just one screen. This one is apealing as it has already got the disired lighting effects and could work nicely as it looks more secretive. The problems are the fact it is a very small space so there is not alot of room to work with.

I think its definatly more likely we will go with the first of the two options as this is the room that is more flexible to use and also the things it doesnt have that option two has can we worked around easily.

.Georges card game.

 Georges card game.

The card game aspect will be influenced by things like casino royal (fancy poker game with a rich scary boss. So we will get our character for the boss dressed up like the bond villain in the photo and make him look wealthy but sort of disturbing with fistic character traits about him. 

This opening sequence is also influenced by the Netflix programme squid game, by the fact that it is a game in which you fight for your life. So with squid game there are certain tasks/games you have to complete and if you don't you are killed. Our opening sequence is similar in the fact that it is a game (poker) and if you don't succeed, you die. 

The control room scene is influenced by things like the scene in toy story 3 where the toy monkey is watching the different cameras placed around the the room to keep an eye on all the toy prisoners. Ours is similar in the fact that we have a control room scene where someone is watching different camera shots of one room to monitor people.

Mood board by Felix adn George

 

This is our mood board made by Felix and George.