Structure of narrative

The boss which is name cannot be mentioned runs one of the biggest drug trafficking business in New York City and when snitch disturbs one of his biggest batches by giving in to the cops, he is not very happy and so sends his most trustworthy henchmen 'Big Zee' and 'Tony' the bosses henchmen. Their has currently been reports of two snitches but only one is caught and this one will serve the ultimate payment of his life to the boss. The boss also had two other henchmen's who both follow the bosses ever move and will risk their lives protecting him in case of a shoot out or police set-up.

Ø Equilibrium
A snitch is stopping rich gangsters from completing a batch by snitching on them. He later gets caught by the gangsters and serves the ultimate punishment leaving the gangsters happy and with no worry's. 

Ø Some sort of problem disrupts this equilibrium
Their is a second snitch which turns out to be a cop and this turns into a problem as they also find out that he is wired so even with the best efforts, the best lawyers in New York cannot save the family any more...

Ø The characters realise that there is a disruption of equilibrium
They find rookie Pete to be suspicious and find that he is wired.

Ø They attempt to fix the problem
Big Zee shoots and kills rookie Pete.

Ø Returns to equilibrium or new equilibrium
They attempt to cover up their tracks and plan an attack to not only assassinate the chief but also pay off the judge. This can be a problem to the other Mafia family's and so a new equilibrium starts with the assassination of the boss himself which leaves Big Zee as the protagonist and Freedo from the apposite mafia family (killer of the boss) as the antagonist.                          

Editing software

For editing software's, I will be exploring three different editing software's in the hope of finding one that best suits me. These include:

Cyber-link Power Director 11

Adobe Premier Pro

Adobe after effects CS6


These are all very successful editing software's and I will be planning to use them for:

• Power Director 11/ Adobe premier for production i.e. putting clips together, putting sound together with clips, etc.
• Adobe after effects for the video editing and effects. This is a very advanced software which i know very little of so video tutorial will come very useful. I will be using this to add: gun shots, blood splatter, muzzle flashes, etc. 

- Another cool feature that Adobe after effects has, is the ability to stabilise a clip and remove any shaky bits. The video below will explain further and show some examples. I may also plan to show the edited version of my final piece in comparison to my new piece. 

Moving onto sound, I will be editing and creating both diegetic and non-diegetic sound using the famous apple product: 

Logic Pro X 

With this software, I hope to accomplish:

• The production of a instrumental beat to use as non diegetic sound  
• Adding and possibly creating our own sound effects to use as diegetic sound i.e. atmosphere, gun shots, etc. 
• The editing of background noise to either make it higher or lower to what it is. 
• The adding of echo to the gun shots (if needed). 
• Possibly adding or editing voices in a studio to be edited with this software (unlikely but possible).

Script for the second draft

initial SCRIPT

Script for our first shoot (initial)

What sub genre will I be basing my gangster movie on?

All my research has led me to the organised crime gangster film, sub genre (MOB). This is because of the many different aspects that British gangster films lack while MOB films include and what sort of effect I want to give the audience. Below, you can see my argument and a poll to get involved, and possibly drag me towards the British gangster sub genre.

Storyboard

For the storyboard, instead of taking boring images and explaining them I have created animated pictures with Pivot animator to fully show the scene and the camera movement, position, etc. Furthermore, below every '.gif'' I will be describing the scene by naming all the different shot types and camera movements.

My first and second title

- I have chosen this particular font and animation because of the type of effect it gave me while watching films such as American gangster. From this film, I was inspired to have similar fonts and animations.

My first shot

-For this shot, I plan to have a close up, almost behind the shoulder shot of the bosses main man talking to the boss as we see the snitch walk towards him. For this, I hope to give the audience the feeling of the tension building while the snitch is almost being set up. 

My second shot

- For the second shot, I hope to capture the chasing of the snitch by the bosses main man. This will be a long shot and will show the snitch being captured just before their is a cut. From this, I hope to show the audience that from this opening, they should realize that nobody is safe and how easily a snitch can be caught. 

My third shot

- This shot will show a long shot of the bosses main man, the snitch and I hope to introduce the second henchmen from the little glance that was shown of him in the previous scene. The camera here will be still, henchmen 1's gun will be declared to the audience and just before he kills the snitch for his crimes towards the family, he gets a call from the boss were he is told to keep the snitch alive and to send him to 'the usual spot' for a private meeting with the boss. By the impression's of the two henchmen's being afraid of the boss and the snitch even more, the audience here should get the impression of this boss being bigger than they thought. 

My fourth shot

- This shot will fade into the snitches face from the last scene and will zoom out of his face, while at the same time showing some of the environment and surroundings. The scene here will be darker and later than the other scene showing the audience that time has progressed and that they have waited for the boss. 

My fifth shot

- My next shot will follow on from the previous by straight cutting to a long shot, completely revealing the surroundings and environment they are in. This will also uncover the situation their in and the camera here will be kept still. The boss here will have his two personal henchmen and the second henchmen here is replaced with another gangster but the bosses main man (henchmen 1) will be kept as the same person and as the person that captured the snitch. 

My sixth shot

- This shot will then fade in from the previous shot, with the camera being from the snitches point of view and first person (POV shot). The camera here will not move. Henchmen 1 here will ask what to do with the snitch and the boss here will pass a gun while giving the indication that he wants to talk to the snitch before he is executed. 

My seventh shot 

- While in the same shot type (POV shot of the snitch), the boss here will come and give the snitch a talk. 

My final shot

- The shot type will again stay the same and the snitch will be picked up by henchmen 1, and executed on the spot with a gun. 

My final and main title

- As the shot goes off, the shot will immediately cut to the main title "SOLO Business." The font here will be big and simple. This is because, after much research I had found that simple big fonts with caps were the most conventional for this genre. Example include: American gangster, The Godfather Part 1/2/3 

Filming/editing schedule

Props list

1.  Hand gun (x1)

Mobile phone (x1)




I know now from this task, exactly what props we will require and will be fully organised for the actual production. If we where to skip this task, we would find ourselves frozen and wasting time, planning and actually finding the props. 

Raw footage of locations





Photographs of location

 

Costume planning

Going back to my research, I had found that it was the formal clothing that stood out most as it gave this feeling of professionalism and organised crime which made the actors not only richer but also powerful showing us that this is not someone to be messing with.

In my opening, I would like to give this feeling to the audience and make it effective by giving the audience fear over them and get the audience to admire one certain character. And this is why I am planning to get my actors in formal suits (ties) and possibly get them black gangster hats with shades only for the two main bodyguards (gangsters). I have chosen to discard the bow-tie idea as I think the bow ties would be too formal and would not look right.

Below, you can see a slideshow of all the potential concepts of suits.  

Initial Planning ideas

In this post i will be presenting my ideas of potentially what my Gangster film could end up to be like.

During the planning of my film opening, i have been highly inspired by the opening of 'American Gangster and so will be intending to produce something a little similar. For example,

The screenshot below presents a main boss which does not have any speech. This not only presents him as big and powerful but immediately shows to the viewer that this is not someone to mess with and shows him as 'the boss.' Furthermore, Franklin his side man (main man) is directly beside him also lacking dialogue and shows no fear towards killing a man. This shows to the viewer that this man is not normal and is use to killing, and so should be someone to be afraid of as this is not his first kill and never his last. Franklin in this scene is also smoking a pure Cuban cigar which represents him and his boss as, rich and powerful. Building on this idea even more, we (the audience) can immediately spot and differentiate the boss by the side man, by:

• the way they are dressed as the bosses suit is more formal and worth more, and the extras such as the bowler hat and scarf.
• the movements (boss has no movement)
• facial expressions (the boss has no facial expressions)
• Who is doing the dirty work (Franklin has to do the killing)

 Going further-on, the juxtaposition in this scene shows to the audience who is bigger than who and who has more power. We can see that the victim is lower that everyone else making him defenceless towards the gangsters. Further on, we can also see that even though the boss is further behind and could be seen as in the background, he is keeping is size and still stays, big and tall. This shows to us that the tilt of Franklin's head is intended and effective.



















I admire this scene because it does not give too much away while at the same time showing to the audience who is the boss and who the main character could be, leaving the audience with small enigma codes.

I am planning to recreate my own version of this scene with a different concept but a similar idea of costume, scenery and props with younger actors but still the same body figures. To recreate something similar but our version of this scene, we would need:

• A dark location with a city scape
• Formal costumes (suits) with bowler hats and possibly shades
• Props such as guns, cigars/cigarettes, a lighter and knife
• 6 actors (Mixture between big built actors)
• Background non diegetic build up music (drums) 
• Into - Extreme close up of the snitch and zooming out to a long shot
• Titles - Fully moving, animated CGI titles created with Adobe After effects
• A lot of dialogue (almost like The godfather). 
• low level lighting

I now know what type of location, costumes, props and actors I will be looking for and can make an immediate start towards find these things. 

My preliminary Film opening

During this task, we filmed and edited a British gangster opening with the name of '24/7 Heist.'




This British gangster film opening shows a meeting between two gangsters that are planning a bank heist.

From this, I now know what I can improve on, what to include and what to avoid, etc.

Audience Research

My target audience for my genre will be between young adults and adults (16 - 25).

I know this because almost all gangster genre films have a age rating of 18 but is watched also watched by young adults aged 16+. 

So what does the British board of film classification say about the 18 age rating?

Snapshot taken from BBFC for educational purposes 

© BBFC 2010

I had created a survey and handed it out to 7 other friends to find out what my target audience would expect /want from my film opening. The results are:

• Murder
• dark (night) 
• Traditional i.e. Man being the main character
• Dietetic sound (dialogue)
• City
• Modern gangster theme 

Below, you can see a snapshot of my survey created with 'Survey monkey.' 

I have created a VOKI to represent my target audience and demonstrate my target audiences' interests and likes/dislikes.

From this task, i now know who I am aiming my production at and what I can and cannot include in my production in order to reach my targeted audience.