Whole Groups storyboard

Amanda:

Me:

Wendy:

The BBFC and film certificates

 

What are BBFC and what to they do?

The British board of Film Classification (BBFC)  classify films which have cinema and DVD release. They claim their 'focus is on helping children and families choose well by providing them with the guidance they need to help them choose what's right for them and avoid what's not.' - BBFC website. 

They put the ratings on the films which give guidance as to what ages the film is suitable for. 

The things they consider when choosing a category for a film are:

- Violence of all kinds

- Sex and nudity

- Obscene language

- Discriminatory language

- Self harm

- Criminal activity

- Dangerous behaviour

- Drugs, alcohol and cigarettes

- Child actors/characters (children may copy their behaviour

- Strobe lighting

Another thing they consider when classifying films is the context of it, so whether it is realistic, fantasy or animated etc. If the films are more unrealistic or animated they are usually allowed more violence in order to get a lower age certificate. This is because children are able to understand it is not real so can separate real life from fantasy.

What a film can/can't include to be awarded certain certificated. 

U RATING

'A U film should be suitable for audiences aged four years and over, although it is impossible to predict what might upset any particular child. U films should be set within a positive framework and should offer reassuring counterbalances to any violence, threat or horror.' - BBFC classification guidelines

There should be no dangerous behaviour which children may copy and no emphasis on weapons

Scary sequences must be mild and brief and should not cause anxiety in the child

No discriminatory behaviour unless it is clearly disapproved of

The only drug use allowed is giving a clear anti drug message to children

Infrequent use of mild bad language

Only very mild sexual behaviour such as kissing

Occasional nudity with no sexual context

Mild violence if it is unrealistic

PG RATING

'A PG film should not unsettle a child aged around eight or older. Unaccompanied children of any age may watch, but parents are advised to consider whether the content may upset younger or more sensitive children.' BBFC classification guidelines

It can include nudity with no sexual context

Mild bad language only - no aggressive or frequent use of it

Sexual activity may be implied but must be discreet

Scary sequences must not be prolonged or intense

There may be moderate violence without detail.

12/12A RATING

'Films classified 12A and video works classified 12 contain material that is not generally suitable for children aged under 12. No one younger than 12 may see a 12A film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult. Adults planning to take a child under 12 to view a 12A film should consider whether the film is suitable for that child. To help them decide, we recommend that they check the ratings info for that film in advance. No one younger than 12 may rent or buy a 12 rated video work' BBFC classification guidelines

Dangerous behaviour shouldn't be promoted

Sexual activity can be shown discreetly and briefly

May be references to sexual violence and sexual threat as long as they are not graphic. Any stronger forms of sexual violence must only be implied and should be presented negatively.

Drug use should not be glamourised

May be nudity, but if it is in a sexual context it must be discreet

Can be some disturbing scenes but the theme overall should not be

15 RATING

'No one younger than 15 may see a 15 film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a 15 rated video work.' - BBFC classification guidelines

Dangerous behaviour should not dwell on detail that can be copied

There may be racist, homophobic or sexist language but it should not be endorsed

Drug taking may be shown but not endorsed

Very strong language is permitted

No constraints on nudity in a non sexual way, sexual nudity should be only brief

Sexual activity can be presented but without strong details

Can be repeated very strong references to sex

Can be very strong threat and horror

Violence can be strong but not dwell on injury

18 RATING

'Suitable only for adults. No one younger than 18 may see an 18 film in a cinema. No one younger than 18 may rent or buy an 18 rated video work.' - BBFC classification guidelines. 

There are not may restrictions other than:

It must not be in breach of the criminal law

Where the material is putting people at risk

When there are more explicit images of sexual activity it may be classes as an R18 instead

Rating for our opening sequence

I think that our sequence would be awarded a 15 as it has quite strong violence and stronger threat and horror, however it is not severely disturbing. 

The violence that would be included in the film is the operations to make the clones, and maybe some fights with them. The BBFC may be concerned that it dwells on injury a lot and may be a bit graphic showing the operation. However I don't think this would be very frequent so for that reason my group and I decided it wold be rated 15. 

Process of making storyboard

 To do the drawings on my section of the storyboard I used adobe illustrator. I used my phone to draw them. These are some screenshots I took as I was drawing them. 

Storyboard

 This is my section of the storyboard, as my plan shows, I did half of the montage section. I used adobe illustrate to draw the pictures

Storyboard plan

 

Wendy

Operation and reveal

• Close up of cutting open body - 2 different angles
• Close up of the chip in the drs hand
• Taking label off foot
• Dr walking to the bucket with the chip and the label in his hand
• Chip and label on bloody towel
• Washing hands in rusty bucket
• Face in mirror - cut on face

Millie

Montage

• Jars with SD cards - 3
• Dusty old files - 2
• Person on table with scars all over body - 10
• Rusty knife in drs hand (dried blood on it) - 13
• Label on clones foot - 9
• Hand crossing off things in a notebook - 6
• Close up of clones face - 12

Amanda

Montage

• Tray of rusty tools - 8
• Rags with blood on them - 6
• Cobwebs in corner of room - 1
• Blood stains on table - 7
• Dr picking up tools - 11
• Dr opening drawer - 5
• Cork board on wall with pictures pinned to it - 4

Sound in film

 Today we had a workshop about sound in film. Firstly we recapped what diegetic and non-diegetic sounds were (diegetic sounds are in the films wold, and non diegetic are ones only the audience can hear). We then learned about the different layers of sound. They are:

- Ambient sound

- Music (diegetic and non-diegetic)

- Foley sound (sound effects)

- Voice over (can be diegetic or non-diegetic)

These are all the things that make up the sound in a film and set the scene and help know the location. 

There is also something called 'Leitmotif', which is when the soundtrack is based around a certain character which is being shown, for example Luke Skywalker, and Darth Vader's soundtracks. The soundtracks reflect the recurring theme which is based around the character.

We were then given a task to create our own soundtrack for the sequence that we made. It should reflect the mood of the sequence.

I used garage band to make mine, this is a screenshot of the process of it. 

Here is the sequence with the soundtrack:

Second Step by step outline

 - Starts with a montage of close ups:

Cobwebs in the corner of a room

Scars all over the body of the clone - Showing where he has previously been cut up

A jar with chips in - with some blood on (could be sd cards or something) 

Old dusty files

Towels/rags with blood all over them

Tray of old rusty tools - for operations on clones

Doctor opening drawer

blood dripping off table

label on the clones foot

clones face

doctors hands picking up tools 

bloody knife in drs hand

crossing something off in an old notebook with picture of clone in it - like a profile of the person and he is marking that he has got them

BLACK OUT

- then a scene with the operation

Close ups of the doctor cutting the body

A shot of the doctor operating and removing the object from the body - close up of this object 

(all throughout the operation we don't see the doctors face, only the clones)

Reveal of the doctor:

- Longer shot of the doctor holding the object - then takes label off the foot of the clone and walking over to a rusty bucket -with mirror above/next to it - still not showing his face 

- Close up of him washing blood off the object/or putting it down on a towel and then places the label the right way up next to the chip - it says ‘Dr ….. - Version 7'

- Camera moves up as doctor looks up and shows a mirror with the doctors face in it, he is looking at the cut on his face that the clone put there. We see they are the same person.

Feedback from step by step plan

 After doing our step by step plan and adding a lot more to our scene, we decided between us that the scene would be a bit too long and also quite complicated to film so we were advised to choose either the action, or the close ups. We discussed the pros and cons of doing either one and then decided on the close ups as this was our original plan that we wanted to do. So will won't be doing the new scene that we added with the action. We then decided that we need to think of some things that we can use to take close ups of as in this room there will only be a table so we need to bring everything in. Another decision we made is that the clone will be dead for the whole scene, as it was too confusing having him dead, then wake up, then sedated again.

 These are some of the things we thought we cold do close ups of:

Cobwebs in the corner of a room

Scars all over the body of the clone - Showing where he has previously been cut up

A jar with chips in - with some blood on (could be sd cards or someting) 

Tray of old rusty tools - for operations on clones

blood dripping off table

label on the clones foot

clones face

doctors hands picking up tools 

crossing something off in an old notebook with picture of clone in it - like a profile of the person and he is marking that he has got them

close up of the chip 

metal bucket on floor where he washes his hands 

metal tray on the floor which the doctor uses as a mirror to look at his cut and his face is revealed

then close up of his face to see it clearly

Step by step outline of opening scene

Introducing clone/patient

• Camera goes in an arc vertically along a body lying on a table, starting at the feet going above it to the face (at the feet we show a label but it is backwards so can’t see what’s on it) - his hands are also tied
• Person suddenly wakes and gasps and eyes open
• Fade to black then camera pans around the room showing the setting
• Door opening in distance. He then panics and tried to grab a knife 
• Medium close up of person trying to get a knife from the tray next to him - his hands are tied
• Whilst he is getting the knife - footsteps of someone getting close
• Hear handle turning to a door - plays dead
  

Introducing doctor + action

• Doctor walking in putting an old dirty white coat on and gloves as he walks to table
• Doctor takes white sheet off patient - revealing scars all over his body and a rope tried round his stomach to the table
• Close up of doctor arranging tools in tray
• Suddenly the patient sits up and slashes the doctors face with the scalpel in his hands - we don’t see the face we just see the blood dripping and blood on knife
• Doctor takes knife from the patients hands
• They then are wrestling to try and get the patient to lie down
• Finally pins the patent down and have a close up of the patients face and see blood dripping from above onto him - this is from the doctors face - they are both sweating and can hear heavy breathing 
• Doctor reaches over to tray  and grabs a syringe
• He then sticks it in the patients arm 
• Patient’s slowly close as he has been sedated - fade to black

Montage + operation

• Slow montage of around the room then sudden flashes to the operation table - in these we see the operation and blood everywhere very quickly - then flashes back to the slower montage and as the operation goes on the flashes are more and more frequent building more tension
• When the flashes/glitches become really fast they suddenly stop and the screen goes white.
• Cuts to a shot of the doctor operating and removing the object from the body - close up of this object -we do not see above his shoulders
  

The reveal 

• Longer shot of the doctor holding the object - then takes label off the foot of the patient and walking over to a sink -with mirror above it - still not showing his head
• Close up of him washing blood off the object/or putting it down on a towel and then places the label the right way up next to the chip - it says ‘Dr ….. - Version 7’
• Camera moves up as doctor looks up and shows a mirror with the doctors face in it, he is looking at the cut on his face that the clone put there. We see they are the same person.

 

Filming task

 Today we had a task to try out a short sequence of 4/5 shots. for this we will be following the 180degrees rule. We have been advised to shoot the whole sequence 4/5 times at each different angle that we want and then cut it where it makes sense to. I used imovie for the editing of my sequence.

I used my cat, Meatball as an actor for my sequence and showed her watching a video of birds. I wanted to do a longer sequence with people but all my family were working so I used my cat, however when they are around I plan to try a more complicated and longer sequence as I think they will be a lot more cooperative than my cat. 

This is my second attempt at the filming task - with somebody entering and exiting the frame.

What is Storyboarding?

 A story board is a series of drawings of each shot in the scene/film which make up the whole story.

Story boards are widely used in the production of films. They are used to plan and visualise what people will film. It also allows you to fully plan out what each shot will be, and try out different shots and see what works and what doesn't. This saves you from wasting time on set as everything is completely planned out. 

Before the story board we have only really seen the idea in words and maybe pictures of ideas that we want it to look like, so a storyboards allow us to see the film visually. Another thing story boards can help with is, after filming, for the editor to see the idea of the story and can guide them on how to edit and cut the shots. 

There is a lot of information in a storyboard, firstly you have the shot number, this is essential for organising everything, so you know exactly what shot you are working on and so the editor can arrange everything with ease. The location of the shot should also be included - stating whether it in inside or outside, what room it is in etc. This is useful as then you can easily see all of the shots in one location and film all of them together in that location to save time. For example of you are cutting between two locations.

A description of the action that is taking place in the shot is also crucial for a storyboard as it gives us a broader understanding of the movement, as this is not possible to draw. An example of this is 'man picks up glass and then throws it to the left. 

We need to know the movement of the camera, pan/tilt/handheld etc.

The sound and lighting also need to be included, for example dialogue/soundtrack/bright lights.

If we want any specific transitions like fade to black/cross dissolve we would need to mention this in the storyboard. This helps us see how the shots connect and match up. Another thing that helps with thinking about this is stating the shot duration and the timing of all the shots. 

This is the template we will be using for our storyboard:

Feedback from production group meeting

 Today we discussed more about what we wanted to do for the beginning of our scene and we thought of another idea to make it more exciting for the audience. 

This is a rough outline of our idea:

The man pulls up outside a house and is getting the body bag out the car but we see a homeless man watching him, he then approaches him and the scientist beats him up as he doesn't want to be seen doing what he is doing. Then the scientist drags the homeless man inside and locks him in a room, then drags the body bag up to to attic.

We thought that this would be more engaging than just showing the man take a body bag inside. However we aren't completely sure yet so want to discuss with Mike before we decide and do out step by step plan.