Pre-Production

Roles and Responsibilities of the crew


Director/ Producer: Jordan Duberry
Camera/Sound: Anthony Williams (Me)
Lighting Manager: Daniel Richardson
Props Manager/Hair and Makeup Artist: Jona Daja

What the role and responsibility is for each person:

Jordan Duberry’s role of being the director is that he will be in charge of the actors and directs the action in the production of the film. Also whatever he says must be done. In all he is the person responsible for the overall unity of a production and for coordinating the work. The skills he needs for this role is communication, being a good leader, organisation, and being quick making decisions.

Also Jordan Duberry’s role of being a producer will be that he is not involved in any technical aspects of the film, but who is still responsible for the overall production. The five skills a producer needs to be successful are organization, the ability to make decisions quickly, being a good negotiator, being diplomatic, and having lots of energy.

My role is to be the camera and sound manger this is to ensure all the shots and audio requested by the director and producer is recorded to a good technical standard. This is a technical role which means the person fulfilling this job role must be able to use the equipment competently. It is the camera person’s responsibility to set up all the shot correctly and film accordingly to the storyboard alongside the rest of the production crew. It is also the camera and sound’s person’s job to hire out and look after all equipment especially whilst filming on location. The skills I will need for this is good attention and focus, being a good negotiator and having good organising ideas.

My lightning manger will be Daniel Richardson and his role will be to make sure that the lightning is correct for the film for example when back lighting is needed he will come equipt. It is Daniel's responsibility to not allow any unwanted shadows and also to have the correct tone for the film. The skills he will need for this is to know all camera and lightning angles, good judgement, and organising.

The props manger will be Jona Daja. She will add in any extras in the film for example  furniture, weapons and anything that needs to be in the scene. The skills needed for her to be the prop manger is to be organised, to be neat, and have good imagination.

And lastly Jona Daja will be the Hair and Make-up Artist; she will help the actors with their looks by fixing up their hair and also giving them better looks by adding make up for foundation so they look more appealing for the film. The skills she needs for this is good hair and makeup skills, communication, and organising.

Casting

Are crew agreed to use Jona Daja not just as the Hair & Make Artist and Props manger but also as the main actress in are film as she suited all the requirements of the character of being an young attractive innocent looking lady who is a baby sitter, this gave us an advantage of making the film as she knows exactly what is needed of herself in the film so she knows how to act the roll due to her also knowing which props are used in scenes. As are villain in the film was a clown doll we needed to employ someone of a reasonable height to act as the clown doll. Are director Jordan Duberry recruited Karl Abani who also attends Oas Academy Hadley, he agreed all the terms of being are actor for example allowing are Hair and Make-up Artist to work on him.

When planning my shots I asked for my director's storyboard so I could have a good idea of how to shot a scene by studying at home and slowly planning how to take the shots and editing the storyboard to create better shots for example of changing the extreme close-up of the phone into a point of view by doing this it makes the film look more professional and suits the narrative better. By reading through the storyboard it makes me understand the full purpose of the film by knowing what special equipment is needed for example fast tracking shots I will would need a tripod with wheels also I can help the director with scenes that is needed by the actors and props.


Budgeting

For are actor Karl Abani we needed to provide costume and make up to make him look like a realistic clown doll, we purchased a clown suit from the argos website for £5.99 and purchased face paint from a local shop for £2.50.

Jona Daja provided her own clothing and make-up as being the props manager she knew what to wear and it was also her choice of the clown costume and make up for are actor.

In my group we thought about which narratives to create for our thriller, so I took this opportunity to create my own narrative and present my storyboard to my group:

In my storyboard I used a total of 24 found shots, these shots included pictures of my friends acting to my storyboard for example using close ups on them and point-of-views, I also took establishing shots of backgrounds which suited the plot. The reason I used these pictures is because they provide visual events of what is happening in the story clearly. I took the first picture behind my garage; I took the park scenes in Albany Park and the garage scenes inside a dark room in Oasis Academy: Hadley. By taking the pictures in these locations it shows the layout and sequence in which the user or viewer sees the content or background, this helps with the narrative of the film as they help the audience understand the plot of the film.

My group reviewed my storyboard and commented that it was a worthy thriller idea but suggested that we should come up with an idea with more excitement and with a dark snister idea that has thrill as my narrative didn’t seem to have a strong plot. Jordan liked my idea but my other group members didn’t like the idea so in the end we decided to come up with a idea that all of us can fully agree on.

Are group then decided to create a thriller opening about a real story so it could create more excitement to are audience as it seems more disturbing because of the true events which took place. As we searched for real life or urban tales, we came across a urban tale of the “clown doll”, this story was about a babysitter who came across a clown doll that looked wicked and scary which then she discovered that the clown doll was a real person. The story is a tale that has many versions to it but it was this version which caught are eye, we edited the narrative into are own to craft it into are successful thriller film opening.

This is the Clown doll tale:

So-and-so's friend, a girl in her teens, is babysitting for a family in Newport Beach, Ca. The family is wealthy and has a very large house — you know the sort, with a ridiculous amount of rooms. Anyways, the parents are going out for a late dinner/movie. The father tells the babysitter that once the children are in bed she should go into this specific room (he doesn't really want her wandering around the house) and watch TV there.

The parents take off and soon she gets the kids into bed and goes to the room to watch TV. She tries watching TV, but she is disturbed by a clown statue in the corner of the room. She tries to ignore it for as long as possible, but it starts freaking her out so much that she can't handle it.

She resorts to calling the father and asks, "Hey, the kids are in bed, but is it okay if I switch rooms? This clown statue is really creeping me out."

The father says seriously, "Get the kids, go next door and call 911."

She asks, "What's going on?"

He responds, "Just go next door and once you call the police, call me back."

She gets the kids, goes next door, and calls the police. When the police are on the way, she calls the father back and asks, "So, really, what's going on?"

He responds, "We don't HAVE a clown statue." He then further explains that the children have been complaining about a clown watching them as they sleep. He and his wife had just blown it off, assuming that they were having nightmares.

The police arrive and apprehend the "clown," who turns out to be a midget. A midget clown! I guess he was some homeless person dressed as a clown, who somehow got into the house and had been living there for several weeks. He would come into the kids' rooms at nights and watch them while they slept. As the house was so large, he was able to avoid detection, surviving off their food, etc. He had been in the TV room right before the babysitter right came in there. When she entered he didn't have enough time to hide, so he just froze in place and pretended to be a statue.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/horrors/a/clown_statue.htm

This story was told by Tamra.S in 2004, as it is a quite old story but it is a infamous one which was even been said to be a real one in some aspects this is why we decided to turn it into a film opening as it leaves a good cliff hanger and shows thrill and excitement.