Welcome

Charlie Slorick

Candidate: 1770

For my AS production, I worked with Thomas Hutchinson (1733) and Alexander Wain(1779).

Editing: I assisted with the editing of our production, though the main role of editor was given to Thomas Hutchinson due to his experience and knowledge. I worked with Thomas as he edited the recordings, we would discuss what camera angels to use and how different transitions would complement the camera work.

Camerawork: I took charge of this role as I had the most knowledge behind a camera. When filming I would speak with Tom and Alex and ask them what atmosphere they wanted to be evoked from the scene and how I could do that with the camera. I used my knowledge I had gained from photography in order to adjust the camera's ISO and Aperture, to create a strong contrast and sharp image. 

Directing: All three members of our team divided the role of directing among us, as we felt we would be able to implement an equal share of our ideas that way. It would also mean the different areas that we all specialized would be able to come together, helping us improve the quality of our project. 

CONSTRUCTION: Editing

Once we had finished film we began the editing process, with Thomas H as the lead editor as he had the most experience. We chose Adobe Premiere Pro as the editing software that we would use, as both Tom and I were both familiar with it.

We began by sifting through all of the raw footage and moving the takes we felt were good into a separate folder. This helped streamline the flow of work, as we would only be working with footage that we felt would be useful. Once this was done, we assembled a portion of the footage in chronological order (on the track). We looked at the first clip to decide what kind of effects we wanted to have on the whole text. We brought up the contrast to make the colours distinguished even in black and white. As well as this, we used an effect called "median" do slightly blur out the grain, that formed from filming in dark locations. A monochrome filter was added over the effects. We chose to have our film to be in black and white as we wanted it to stand out, like the films we took inspiration from "Roma" and "The lighthouse". It was also used in remanence of the period we took inspiration from, Film-Noir of the 1940s and '50s. For music, we use the artist C418 due to them being well known for making high-quality copyright-free music. We believed that their song "Stal" was the best choice, due to its Jazz genre. However, there was a part of the song that we felt ruined the atmosphere. Fixed this by cutting in between the part we dislike, and "stitched" the song back together by merging the gap with an exponential fade which made the jump between the cut unnoticeable.

Coloured Flame
We looked over the scene of Alex(Mafia Boss) lighting the cigar, we wanted to make this scene stand out and present his character as intimidating. We thought that making the flame stand out could create this effect. Tom suggested that the flame should be in colour, showing the Boss' fierce personality. After many attempts to create this effect, we sought out help from Alex himself as he was adept with Adobe software. Using his knowledge from his use of Photoshop he guided us through the process of creating the effect:
The base layer of the video was duplicated, then the HSL secondary colour tool was used to isolate the shades of the flame. Then all other colours were made grey. A grey Ultra Key was used to remove the grey background. Then a slight blur was used to make the flame look more natural.

Greenscreen
In one scene in our film opening, the detective (played by Nathan J) is one the phone to his assistant. For this scene, we felt that it would be a good place to use a green screen. We felt this way as the detective had just come from the crime scene, and would still be outside which would mean it would be difficult to record the sound of the conversation. The process was simple in order to apply the effect. In Premiere Pro, we used an ultra-key effect on the recording to remove all shades of green (removing the background). A still image of a dark street (the photo was taken by the filming location) was placed on the layer below the clip of the detective, making it appear as the background.

CONSTRUCTION: Website

Something that is common among film distribution, is the use of a website. Websites are used to help the audience find out more about the film, dates, reviews, trailers and more. To create our website, we took inspiration from the Knifes Out Website. We used Wix to create the website.
Knives Out

Duty Calls <Link

We created our website using Wix. We used this service as it is simple and reliable. It allowed users to produce a professional-looking website, without having to delve into complexity. We wanted the website to represent the film, therefore we kept it simple so not to overload the user. We kept a monochrome theme to represent our Film-noir theme. The website provides contact links for the audience to get in touch with us and find out more about our film. 

CONSTRUCTION: Filming

On the 25th January, Alex, Tom and I all met up with the cast in Walton. Tom and I had both seen an alleyway that we felt would be a good place to film the murder site. During the creation of the storyboards, we discussed the use of the alleyway, so we set the filming location to start at the alley to film the first scene.

First Scene
The first scene has Detective Swanson, the protagonist, investigating the location of the murder scene. The Victim, a personal connection to the detective. The alleyway was a perfect match for the scene, graffiti sprayed on the walls and high fencing on both sides this created a dark and sinister scene. I placed the tripod in the centre of the alley, I extended it up high to prevent a post from obstructing the view, as wells as this it would mean that the audience would be eye-level with Ben (Cheif of Police). This means that he is a representation of the average person and is on equal grounds with the audience. This representation will come into play later. Nathan (Detective Swanson) walks into view, he walks in front of Ben obscuring him from the view of the audience. This makes him stand out as an important character. Ben tries to turn Nathan away, but Nathan reminds him of who he is, taps badge, establishing him as someone not to be trifled with. Ben backs away. A tracking shot is used to follow Nathan to the body, who is Tom under a binbag. A slight pan up is used to follow Nathan's gaze. I then used a slow pan up while Nathan was walking down the alley. We did this as we wanted to create a transition that would be fluid. The Pan ends in the sky and we wanted to start the next scene in the sky.

Second Scene
After we had analyzed the footage and were pleased with the footage we had taken we packed up the camera gear. The next filming location was a marina in which we would film on a boat, that was owned by one of us. Luckily the marina was relatively empty, meaning there was little background noise to disturb our recording. When we began filming on the boat, I soon found out the difficulty of using a tripod on a boat. So for the rest of the filming on the boat, I opted to film handheld. While we filed Alex as the "Big Boss" we made sure that the camera was at a low angle, this is to position him as the one in power.  We then set about, film an establishing shot of the marina and Nathan entering it. After the weekend of filming, we began the first stages of editing.

PLANNING: Hot Seating

To convey how we wanted to have our characters perceived, and so that the audience would know what they are like. Adobe Premiere Pro (2019) was used to edit the hot seating.

Once the filming and editing was complete, the hot seating was upload to IGNITE FILMS (one of our production companies) youtube channel.

PLANNING: Casting

Casting for "Duty Calls" from CharlieSlorick

PLANNING: Storyboard

Planning: Risk Assessment

 

PLANNING: PROP LIST

After extensive planning, as a group, we began to draw together what props we would need in order to bring our idea to life.

Fedora
This hat is prevalent during the era in which our story takes place. A time in which class is shown in the way in which you dress. We felt that a fedora would be the ideal headwear for the setting the plot takes place in.




Bow Ties
During the 1930s bow ties were common attire for the upper-class members of society and a way of showing sophistication.






False cigar
During the era in which our story takes place, tobacco was a large part of society. There was a divide between the rich, who smoked a cigar, and the lower classes, who smokes cigarettes.









Typewriter
The staple of a stereotypical secretary and appropriate of the time.










False gun
In the wrought times of the big city, people only feel safe with a
pistol in their pocket.

PLANNING: CALL SHEET