Storyboard

Crime Film Script

 *Big Arth lying on a sofa watching TV and laughing. The TV isn’t on*

*Jimmy enters and sits on the other sofa*

Jimmy: You will not believe the day I’ve had!

Big Arth: I don’t really care to be honest, Jimmy.

Jimmy: Wow! Thanks Arth. I really do appreciate the sympathy and the interest in how crap my day has been.

Big Arth: Well… *pause* I don’t care since all I want is that coke I sent you to get.

Jimmy: Oh yeah! Here you go. *giddy face*

*Takes cola bottle from pocket and hands it over to Big Arth*

Big Arth: What’s this!?

Jimmy: The coke you asked for…

Big Arth: I meant coke as in the drug! Coke!

Jimmy: Oh yeah! Right, I’ve got that stashed somewhere. Let me find it…

*Reaches into pockets taking out comical and household items*

Jimmy: Eeerrrrmm…

Big Arth: What?

Jimmy: Okay, so maybe I don’t have the coke…

Big Arth: WHAT!?

Jimmy: Hey, it wasn’t my fault! It was the dealer! He was… Dodgy.

Big Arth: Ok, so what happened? Why has your day been so terrible?

Jimmy: Well…

*Fade to white and into a flashback form. Flashback reveals Jimmy’s day with a consistent Edgar Wright-esque voice over*

Jimmy (V/O): …first off, I went to our usual dealer, but he wasn’t there. Instead some guy was there and he offered me the coke for free, which was quite nice. He then ran off, so I went on my way. As I was on my way back some goons grabbed me and put a bag round my head. I then woke up in some dark room with a light shining on me. Some weird boss type guy was asking me questions about the drugs but I had no way of answering him. He then pulled a gun on me and threatened to do terrible things tour dealer. I then blacked out and woke up in the middle of the street…

Big Arth: He’s gonna kill our drug dealer!?

Jimmy: Yep.

Big Arth: Crap! Right, so what did this boss type guy look like?

Jimmy: He wore a nice suit and was very evil… Oh! And he had a gun!

Big Arth: Nice suit? There’s only one person in the whole of Wrexham who has a nice suit…

Jimmy: Tell me about him!

Big Arth: I’m surprised he didn’t kill you! You were face to face with Wrexham’s number one dealer!

Jimmy: That’s not really something to brag about…

Big Arth: Shut up and stop being such an idiot! This guy is dangerous! Our dealer is in danger! Come on!

Jimmy: Where are we going?

Big Arth: To find that bloke who gave the coke…

*Both leave room*

*Titlecard*

*Scene end*

Locations & Props

Our locations are as follows...

• A house 

• A street corner

• TV studio located on college campus

Our props are as follows...

• Scissors

• Cola can

Mood Board

Audience Research

To carry out research into my potential target audience, I set a group of people some questions to answer related to my film idea.
The questions included:

• How old are you?
• How many times a month do you visit your local cinema?
• What is your favourite film of all time?
• What is your favourite genre?
• Who is your favourite actor/actress?

With these questions set out as a questionnaire, I was able to receive a result as to what a modern teen audience would want from a film. 

The results I found were that most teens would either go see a horror/thriller or a comedy film. This gave me the idea that the perfect film film for this audience would be an action comedy with a few aspects of a thriller. As teens/students are part of the age range that go to the cinema the most, it made sense to aim the film at them making people from 12-25 years old the target audience.

Production and Distribution

My groups production company is collectively been named “Trololololol Productions” in relation to our comedic ideas we have for our main film. We aim to sell our film to a more critical audience who like twist and attempting to distinguish the real. However, we will also concentrate our film on fans of classic crime and action films including the likes of Bruce Willis and Jason Statham fans, staying truthful to their conventions yet adding extra comedy factors too.
As our film isn't know and will most likely hardly make any money, it might be best to release it on a video sharing sight such as YouTube so that millions can see it for free. This will help to determine if people would actually watch a film such as Powder made by a group of amateur film makers.
Another thing to take into account for distributing our film is the age rating. As we want to keep the range of audience members to a max while keeping the dark humour, we would be aiming for a 12 certificate as this would open up a whole range of teenagers to view the film. However, because of the use of drugs it will most likely get pushed up to a 15 certificate.

12 Rating (Suitable for 12 years or over, used for films on DVD's) 

15 Rating (Suitable for 15 years or over)

Analysis of a Title Sequence - Crank

The title sequence of Crank (Neveldine & Taylor, 2006) is completely unique and extremely fast-paced compared to other films, creating a sense of unrealism. But at the, the protagonist Chev Chelios discovers that he has been injected with a deadly poison which if his heart rate drops below a certain level, kills him. Chev gets out of bed and a flood of flashbacks and memories from what happened to him come into mind, setting the backstory of the film. The title sequence ends with Chev exiting his apartment, getting into his car and then calling his doctor for advice on how to treat the poison. Throughout these shots, its established several times that Chev is in-fact infected with the poison with CGI shots of his veins and inside his slowly deceasing body.

Conventions of Crime

Crime as a genre has a vast number of conventions which also spread out into other genres too. For example, Pineapple Express (Green, 2008) is a crime film in its own right with the story revolving around drugs and the use of them in a comedic manor. However, Crank (Neveldine & Taylor, 2006) can be called a total opposite of what Pineapple Express represents. Crank features some forms of dark comedy but the main focus is on Chev Chelios keeping his heart beating by using several types of drugs and generally trying to survive.

Other conventions of the crime genre include robbery, murder, torture and destruction of property. However, destruction seems to be the most popular form of crime film so far during the 80’s and 90’s with films such as the Die Hard series etc causing a stir in what was perceived as crime and action back then and even in the present day film industry.

Preliminary Task

Prelim Task Comments

The first part of my coursework was the prelim task where myself and 2 others had to record a short 2 minute opening of a film involving a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom he/she then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue.

Our prelim film was about a distraught man who was struggling to overcome the loss of his girlfriend. As he seeks help from a psychologist, he begins to start dipping in and out of the dreamland and not knowing if he can control his actions. The sequence filmed begins with the protagonist, the man, walking into the office of the psychologist and they exchange several lines of dialogue revolving round how the man feels and his current mental state. However, at the end the man can be seen holding a gun; but in a black and white frame to help the audience make a possible judgement of what is real and what is not.

During this project, several aspects of filming and camera had been conditioned into the way I film including shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule. As I filmed this prelim task, I discovered that I had made several errors like the ones listed above. Along with those errors, I also left a camera tripod in shot during a handheld shot creating a continuity error within the frame.

I feel as though this short experience of film making has helped me to know what has to be improved in my main task.

Welcome and... Stuffs...

I will be using this blog as a sort of diary to keep track of my projects and coursework for AS Media. Using a blog like this will help me keep most of my items organised so I can relate back to them at a later date for reference.

During my coursework, I will be recording a short prelim film as practise to see if my camera work needs improving, analysing other crime films and also planning for my main film which will be the opening sequence of my own crime film. Therefore, this blog will play a major part in my coursework segment of my AS Media studies.