Making the storyboard was a bit of a struggle at first since the website was really strange to work with and I was quite unfamiliar with it, but it ended up being pretty simple as long as I explain what’s going on in each scene. I used http://www.storyboardthat.com to create this masterpiece. It also had a watermark at first, so I just screenshotted it instead.
Our Storyboard
Scene 1- There will pedaling shots with close-ups, mid shots, long shots, low angles etc. of all of the evidence. The evidence will include various bloodstains, a bloody knife, foot prints, and the victims body itself. This will be the majority of our title sequence, but with the limited space I had with the free trial, I could only use three squares.
Scene 2- There will be a graphic match cut between the evidence and the picture of the evidence on the newspaper. Thomas will come up behind Rebecca and will snatch the newspaper out of her hand. Multiple shots will be used here such as close ups, mid shots, and possible long shots to show the conversation between the two detectives.
“Scene” 3- This is still technically still from the second scene, but Thomas leaves the building. Rebecca is then left to grab another newspaper from the desk and have a realization about the case. This will include another midshot, and possibly a close up transitioning into the title of the film. We have a few ideas for the ending, so we will decide which one we want to use while we make our rough cuts.
Since our film features a female detective, we have chosen Rebecca Wolff to be our candidate.
Rebecca Wolff (on the left)
We chose Rebecca because she is also a student in this class, so she would understand our artistic vision for the film. She also has a intuitive vibe to her person, and as a detective you kinda need that. She’s also taller than the supporting actor we cast for the male detective, which shows a shift in power in the blocking between the two. She’s also shooting her film that same weekend, so we would need to shoot quickly, but efficiently as well. Other detective leads have shown to naturally have power over others, like Benedict Cumberbatch in Sherlock, so having a tall female detective will give us that subtle power over others easily.
For the male detective, we cast Thomas Mitchell.
Thomas “Tommy” Mitchell
We cast Tommy because he has a good voice of a “sexist” detective. Having it raspy and bratty makes him seem overly cocky and not really moving with the times. He’s also significantly shorter than Rebecca, so having that height difference would show the difference of power between the two of them. A good example is also from Sherlock with the difference between Benedict and Martin Freeman. They have a height difference to show that Sherlock is the head detective with the more power/ability to find out things easier.
For our victim, we cast Victoria Conn.
Victoria Conn
We mostly cast Victoria because she wanted to be the dead person, so we couldn’t say no if we had a volunteer. She also works in our film as we’re already challenging genre conventions with our lead female detective, so having a female victim is more normal for what we’re going for. Challenging too many things at one time and changing the norms for movies like this would be a bit much and a stretch for our movie to deal with at the moment.
Sources
I linked various TV shows and actors within this post where they are mentioned.
The main goal of our brand is to get our audience thinking. It’s a murder mystery after all, so with the mysterious vibe and twists and turns within the mystery, we would want our advertising and marketing to draw people in to know the answer to the mystery, or to try and solve it themselves. Other movies in our genre have been marketed and portrayed in this way, so following suit and just using a female lead instead will give us a good leeway into the distribution and exhibition of our film.
Since our film stars a female lead, our film could be aimed towards female empowerment. It’s not our main goal, but with the idea of a female detective solving a difficult mystery, that sort of ideal comes along with it. With the very few and sparce mystery movies with a female lead detective, our film could be considered “groundbreaking” or out of the box.
We pitched our film to Next Wave Films to produce it for that exact reason. Being an indie film would allow us the creative freedom we need rather than having constraints from such a big studio like Fox. We also don’t need a huge budget to work with, and Next Wave Films has worked with many low budget films in the past that have gained tons of popularity, like Pi by Aronofsky.
I’m a little more behind schedule than I would like to be, but I think we can make it work if we start filming this weekend with some rushed, but thorough planning throughout the week. We already have some progress on some shooting aspects (location, angles, etc.), so getting the rest done this week shouldn’t be too difficult.
Struggles
me trying to do anything for this project
I have a problem going a little too in depth on some of my subjects (including these reflections…) and that can sometimes put me behind, but I know going in depth will get me more points than not, so hopefully I don’t regret it. I’m also finished with my pre-production phase of script writing and funding, so that’s a plus. I’m also going to be in another student’s title sequence, so that will also cut into my production time a little, but it should be doable… hopefully.
Accomplishments
Me when I get stuff done
With all this planning and research done and over with, I can finally really start seeing how this project is coming together. Figuring out what will work and what won’t work for our project gives us a good lead for planning and doing what we need to do for our project quickly. Finishing on schedule will be extremely important and crucial to doing well on this project. Well, for me at least. Figuring out when to post and giving myself a schedule is good too, since I can figure out when I can go more in depth and when I can’t.
Goals
media studies be like
This week we are going to get filming done, we don’t have a choice just based on our schedule. And doing that will allow us to have a rough cut of our film and we will be able to test the angles and different dialogue instances. Once we get that done, everything will fall into place.
For our film, we don’t need a huge name behind our distribution, so using a smaller scale distribution company may work out for us.
20th Century Fox Studio
We considered 20th Century Fox since that was the company that distributed Murder On the Orient Express, but considering the other feature films they have released and the big names they have behind them, they wouldn’t want to take the financial risk of having such representation of a lead female detective. We also most likely wouldn’t have the budget for the amount of marketing required for that distribution company anyway, so going smaller would be our best choice for an indie film.
Momentum Pictures Studios
Artisan Entertainment Studios
A few other studios caught my eye as I was researching and I found Artisan Entertainment and Momentum Pictures. They both have released mystery films before and as somewhat as a indie film with low budgets, Momentum especially since they released Following by Christopher Nolan with the low budget they had. Considering the good reputation these two studios have had in the past, choosing either of them would fit our film’s themes and target audience.
MGM Studio
Another consideration was Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, or MGM for short. They released Murder At The Gallop back in 1963 with a female lead detective (one of very few), we considered them for our distribution, but it does have somewhat of a big reputation, not particularly compared to 20th Century Fox, but too big for the indie film vibe we really want to go for. So, our ultimate choices for the distribution companies we might choose for our film would be Artisan Entertainment or Momentum Pictures, with a preference to Momentum Pictures.
Exhibition
For our movie, we would most likely platform our film and release it to major cities first with the most people to see if the target demographic is reached and if the movie is actually really successful or not. Other films that have platformed in this genre have done well and earned back the money that they used for their budget, like Following by Christopher Nolan. This will give us a good opportunity to really see how our film will perform up against others.
At first we considered Genre Films, but seeing as it’s such a big company, there could be little we could do in terms of freedom and how we can represent our detective. Other mystery movies they have made either don’t really follow the “cozy detective” feel we kind of want, or has basic representation and has kept it as its always been, such as Murder On the Orient Express. The mystery movies they produce are typically associated with the action or horror genre, such as Logan, The Martian, and Fantastic Four. While that movie is close to the plot of what we want, seeing the production budget and the company under it, it wouldn’t be a very good fit for our idea. We would want a little more creative freedom since we do have a lead female detective and we are still in the age of Sherlock Holmes and the males dominating the cozy detective type of mystery films. Genre Films won’t be for our film this time.
Next Waves Films hasn’t produced as many films, but the ones they have include mystery films with the simple, sort of feeling we want to go for. It’s not a “cozy detective”, but it’s a feeling of relaxed mystery and there isn’t any extreme action involved in the movie too much. Such examples of this are Following, by Christopher Nolan and Pi by Darren Aronofsky (a personal favorite). Next Wave films has also had films that have included good representation of minorities. For example, in Southern Comfort, by Kate Davis (a female director and producer), the main character is a transsexual male living in Georgia and dealing with ovarian cancer which won’t be treated by the 20 doctors he’s visited. With this kind of good representation and even a female producer, sticking to Next Wave Films will do us some good. Next wave Films is an independent company, which would require a small budget. We wanted to go for a low budget movie so we don’t have to spend much and will be able to have a sort of challenge with how we are able to shoot our film. The demographic for our film may be slightly strayed away from a production studio they are unfamiliar with, and we would have to be creative with our marketing strategies since we have such a low budget, but it is not impossible to earn our money back. Our demographic of an older audience would be drawn in by the idea of a mystery, and could even draw in more of the female audience with their gender being represented well.
Sources
I linked various movies and production companies where they are mentioned.
Writing our script proved to be a tad difficult, but after looking at scripts for other mystery movies (Murder On the Orient Express and Memento) it was easier to put our idea into words.
The Script Itself
Beginning shows close ups of the evidence of a murder taking place, includes blood, dead body in white costuming (actress), murder weapon, possibly broken window, hand prints, finger prints, feet prints; include long takes and pedaling shots of evidence, fading between evidence
Graphic match to detective from newspaper fade Start off showing the newspaper that has all the murder details and that’s an intro for the murder and then it goes to the detective talking about it
Detective is holding newspaper and reading about the murder details and what happened and then it shows a male detective that she works with snatching the newspaper out of her hands saying like “this case is really difficult we don’t have any leads on it so you shouldn’t be doing this leave this to the men”
Most likely include: Girl takes a spare newspaper, looks at it, possibly realizes something and either
Close up then fades to black, cue title
Close up of her, then shows her walking out of the room
Why the script?
The beginning of mystery crime movies typically follows the path of introducing the crime or the detective or both. So by going over the evidence and then introducing the detective afterwards allows for a good and smooth title sequence.
Sources
I linked few movie scripts and movies throughout the post which can be accessed if you were to click on them.
The Murder On the Orient Express (2017) is the sort of feel Sitara and I want for our title sequence. So, I thought it would be appropriate to do a case study following the path of the movie through its pre-production phase, the funding phase, the production phase, distribution, and exhibition. Doing this will allow me to see which studio would best fit our genre and film idea.
Beginning Stages
Mark Gordon on set
In December 2013, the project was announced as a remake from the original released in 1974. Michael Green wrote the adapted screenplay with three producers beside him, Ridley Scott, Mark Gordon and Simon Kinberg (Variety, 1). Joining the crew as a director, Kenneth Branagh also made the executive decision to star as the main detective, Hercule Poirot. The production companies involved were Kinberg Genre, The Mark Gordon Company, and Scott Free Productions.
The first movie poster
The genre picked for the movie after writing the screenplay was mystery, crime, and drama. This was due to the mysterious elements and dramatic portrayals of each character through acting and different cinematographic elements. The target audience would most likely be among an older audience with the presumption that they saw or have heard of the 1974 version of the movie. Moviegoers with this background would most likely want to see how the movie changed from the four decades earlier or how the movie made the narrative of the original book that much better.
Production
Branagh being casted as Hercule Poirot
The principal photography phase started in late 2016, November 20th (Daniels, 1). This continued until May of 2017, the year of the film’s release. On the set of the film, Branagh also brought on the grandson and great-grandson of the author, Christie, to help bring the story to a somewhat modern light without taking away its essential story.
The cast at the ending scene
The film had a pretty big budget to work with, having it be at 55 million. They set their shooting location in the UK on the train that goes from Paris to Istanbul. It wasn’t the real train, since that one has been decommissioned since the 1970s. They shot the movie on film with a 65mm camera. In doing this, it saved time and gave the movie the type of feel that they wanted. They faced a few challenges with the 65mm film, since the only place that could process it was Los Angelos, so the Executive Producer Jenkins ended up opening his own processing building in the UK.
After shooting everything for the few months, Audsley, the film’s editor, edited the film in a short amount of time so the producers could see it. This then led to the distribution and exhibition stages.
Distribution/Exhibition
the company that took down my analysis on youtube 😦
The distribution company the film went with was 20th Century Fox. Our film most likely won’t go as big as Fox, but along the same lines. It was a wide release film across theaters as it wasn’t released in select theaters in the UK or Ireland, but wasn’t released everywhere else until a few weeks or months later. It grossed domestically $102,826,543 and $352,789,811 internationally. The movie made $10,000,000 the first day of release.
I was supposed to be done with the early stages of pre-production yesterday, but that obviously didn’t happen. Considering the week i have ahead of me, I really need to get things rolling so I can still stay on track for the shooting schedule. Luckily, some stages involve two weeks to complete, so cutting into that time shouldn’t be too much of a problem if I just manage my time well enough. Hopefully, Sitara can be on the same schedule as I am so we can really work through script writing and planning our sequence.
Accomplishments
With the more analysis and research, I found what a mystery title sequence was really meant to convey. So, our idea originally is completely scrapped, which is a good thing we didn’t stick to it since the plot and conventions of mystery would be off. Planning a much better representation of what mystery movies are supposed to be and convey would benefit us greatly instead of trying to twist our original idea.
from Murder At the Gallop
Another somewhat good thing, yet just as challenging, is the representation of our female detective. Since there’s maybe one mystery movie with the lead of a female detective (Murder At the Gallop), we have almost free range of what we can do to represent women well. This will also be a great way to challenge the stigma of the Sherlock Holmes era of mystery movies, since men are typically the lead and shown in a good light compared to how women are shown in these sorts of movies, either as the victim or not as great and grand as the male detective. And although TV shows have shown better representation of women, movies are lagging behind in this kind of trail. This could be due to the mass media surrounding movies rather than TV shows (considering Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video, etc.).
Goals
From Murder On the Orient Express (2017)
This week I’m really aiming to finish a case study of a movie in the mystery genre (most likely Murder On the Orient Express) and a few other things related to the pre-production of our title sequence to be able to get a good feel of how we should go about this. Doing this will lead to a much more smooth process for our film pitch to our intended studio to get our movie to be able to be shot. Finishing the film pitch by Sunday or next Monday would be ideal to mostly stay on schedule.
While this might not be totally helpful, it could be nice to know if any decisions come down to specific color and meanings behind those colors. Color Theory refers to the meaning and description of certain colors and what they could possibly represent.
There are the obvious primary colors: red, yellow, and blue. They are the most easily identifiable colors and are easily associated with memories. That’s why a lot of elementary classrooms are mostly brighter colors and more memorable. Warmer colors are usually orange, red, and yellow. While they are warm and could represent gently, passionate feelings, it could also evoke a sense of danger if seen in a dark fashion or scary situation, like a murder scene covered in blood. Neutral colors, like grays and shades of black and white, make good backdrops and easily established colors, like a relaxing detective’s office. How coincidental huh…
There are different qualities of colors as well.
Hue– “color” defined as hue Chroma– purity of a color, one color alone without introduction of other colors Saturation– How weak or strong color is* Value– How bright or dark color is* Tone– when adding grays to a color Tint– Introducing white to a color Shade– Introducing black to a color
*Value and saturation are easily confused, but have distinct difference of vibrance and brightness.
Taking different strategies of creating colors and making certain meanings with each of them can change the meaning of the setting or even a simple costume change. Maybe it’s a little extra, but a little more knowledge couldn’t hurt in the long run.
Into The Truth 