Inspirations of the film and its themes

It was greatly influenced by Mathieu Kassavitzs master piece La Haine, his ability to capture the gritty reality of the lives of urban adolescence profound and greatly inspiring, its also very closely tied in with the way this film runs and its mains themes and central ideas.

Also Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver is a great source of inspiration, the themes such as loneliness and desire to leave his surroundings are more than prevelant within our film, and the life of our main character just like Travis Bickle in the film.

Sound and the voice overs....music

The final stages of the film were making all the sound work properly, that involved using the sounds recording externally on the Marantz as well as the sound recorded with all the footage we shot. This was our sound man Rico job and he was more than well equipped for it as he had plenty of sound equipment as well as a sound proof booth for us to record the voice overs in.

The next step after the sound was perfect was to re write the voice over to fit perfectly with the new edited film, we did this together and then went to Rico to record it in the booth, it wasn't as easy as expected and had to be redone a few times before we got the desired sound we wanted. even after we had the perfect cut the sound had to reverberated and edited to sound as it should. unfortunately we had to to the voice overs ourselves which wasn't ideal but we weren't able to get the people we needed.



The use of music within the film was a late decision and was to help carry the emotional feeling of the character through the final stages of the film. I think it was vital as the voice over ends at the midway point of the film and we need the music to continue the narrative of the characters mind state.
We hear the song for the first time in the barbers shop but its a different version to the more powerful and emotional version By Dobie Gray which we then later use as a non diegetic sound to amplify the characters emotions.

The edit...

My job of the edit didnt start in the best way possible, i had three horrific days of dealing with files i couldnt capture and deal with on the computer due to the format we had filmed in on the Z1, in the end i had to run the footage through Imovie, to get it on the computer and used visual hub to convert them into to files reconised by final cut pro.

Once this was done i began the edit, i had a long process of dealing with all the unusable and poorly shot footage which i had to cut, to get to the good footage. There was a large amount of terrible and poor footage but also a decent amount of well shot and useful bits that i began to make the story with.

The story had to be slightly edited and manipulated to fit the available footage we had to use, so this was an interesting yet challenging task that i feel i took on and completed well, i had to use quite alot of jump cuts to accomadate for lack of story telling footage but i think it works well with the style of film we are making.

The shoot....

The shoot i feel was not as organised and well run as it should of been and there fore i think we lost out on alot of good footage, however the weather was beatiful, and we had managed to get hold of a great camera (sony z1) to shoot on.

all in all i think we handled ourselves quite well through a difficult shoot working with friends and animals which is never easy.

we managed to get all the footage required over the four day shoot and were punctual and professional with our filming and actors.

Locations..

We scouted for locations for a week or so and came across a few possible venues for each of the locations for the film.

Here are some for the opening scene were the character goes to be by himself and the dog, we wanted it to be a personal place, here are the two we are torn between.





In the end we decided to use the second as it has a more ruff edgy feel to it that i think is prevelant within the films mood.


The second location that we need to get is the house of the boss character Willis, we want it to have an edgy and dark feel to it here are two possibles.






I believe that the first of these two is the better of the two but have have had difficulties managing to get permission and due to lack of time we are going to use the second location at the one for the film as it is the house of a friend so will be easier.

The third and final location is the Barbers and we have sorted out where we will shoot this and have already received permission to do so, here are some shots of it.

Nathan....

After searching for our leading actor online we had not had the greatest deal of luck in finding a suitable actor, so we decided to try and find one through friends.
We held an audition for a friend named Nathan Whitefield, he had been acting for just over half a year but had also just got into one of the countries top acting colleges, central school of speech and drama.




I seem to of misplaced the shots we had of him from his auditions but he was by far the strongest actor and also had a feel of the character we were trying to create, his acting was very theatrical due to his acting background, he had just finished a play at the tricycle theatre. `however the theatrical acting worked with the film we wanted to do because of the lack of dialouge from the character, so his overacting would work in the film

The casting progress....

The only character that we will not be casting for is the role of Willis, we believe that we have already found a perfect person for this role, he is not an actor but visually is so suited for the role that i believe he will be perfect, especially as his role is not that main an will not require much acting.

The casting progress began with me posting adds on Starnow.com, Talentcircle.com and casting call pro, i used all three of these casting website to search for actors for the two roles of Harry and Nick. I had a lot of replies so decided to hold two days of auditions at a studio in east London were we meet a range of actors for both roles.

Here are the actors we got for the role of Nick, he is meant to be a young good looking mixed race man who has a clean cut look to him.








the last actor on here (Shelley) was the best suited visually and physically also he had the best acting skills as well as being the most like how i had imagined the character to look and feel. He was also ready an available to start acting when we needed him.


The next job for casting was a big one and was the casting of Harry the lead role, it is vital we get this one right, he is the lead protagonist and the entire film rest upon his role and acting, we saw alot more people for him.










After two days of casting we were not having much luck with the charecter of Harry all the actors were either not suited visually or simply lacked the skills to portray the character we had in mind, so we had to keep looking.

La Haine

The idea of our film is based over the course of a day and follows the main character through his day, as he goes through various different stages. By the end of the day the character has been through a lot of grief and has changed dramatically, that is something that is done very well within the French classic la Haine.

Shot in cinema verité style, this film follows a day in the life of three aimless and violence-prone young men who hail from the same decaying housing project in Paris. Vinz, who is Jewish, is the angriest and the least intelligent of the three. North African Said is calmer, but is the most despairing about his future. Hubert is Black, and the most mature, channeling his rage through boxing. Although the trio seethes with fury over the arrest and senseless beating of an Arab friend, each manages to keep the other in check. But that changes after Vinz finds a loaded gun -- and the trio becomes entangled with the police, and later a group of skinheads. The film has a shocking and dark ending with the death of lead character Vinz and then the downfall of the most stable character Hubert as he murders the cop who filled Vinz.

The way that this film builds tension perfectly through out the film until the dramatic climax, is something that is very powerful and i would love to incorporate in our film, it will work nicely in our film as it also follows a character over a dramatic day in his life.

the cut off

Here is the first draft of the script we are going to be developing and working on over the next few weeks to create into a short five minute drama

Character 1

( Harry is in his early twenties he lives in an estate in north London with his mum who is a drug addict, he does not know his father. He works as a run around for an organized crime family who deal guns and drugs. Three weeks ago he was ordered to 'see a girl about a dog'; this involved picking up a dog off a girl and looking after it for three weeks until his boss was ready to take it off him. During this three weeks he has fallen completely i love with the dog and he has called it Leo. Today is the day he has been ordered to take Leo to his boss and does not want to say good by. Harry is confused by this emotion he feels towards the dog but feels a great deal of love towards the Leo)

The Park Good Bye

A hardened London city is boy in his late teens or early twenties sitting on a park bench, it is a sunny day, he is alone, deep in thought and has a look of blissful contentment on his face which seems out of the character and almost juxtaposed due to his appearance.

CUs of face, scars on knuckles, tattoos, chains, eyes, attire,?????? Wide of him on bench

A beautiful,, energetic, friendly, perfectly formed white and brown staffordshire bull terrier with a permanent smile on its face is playing on the grass (with another dog?). A small child passes it and pets it for a minute before it runs away and continues to play. (wides of the dog(s) playing in the sunshine running

CUs of the dog(s) laying with each other and rolling around as though are friends having the time of their live(s)....slow motion....an introduction to this fun loving dog)

Voice Over: See, its the owners.................I swear i'm stopping all them man puttin on them fights, don't care how much p tyson brings us......it's sick.

The boy gets up and begins to throw a ball for the dog and each time the dog brings it back to his feet, he throws it back and forth three or four times. The fourth time the dog drops the ball, the boy takes it from him but does not throw it again and begins to stroke the dog and pat him with great love and affection, the dog sits, the boy crouches and holds the dogs face, puts his hand out which the dog put his paw into and gives him a treat.

Voice Over: Im gonna be sad to say good by boy........im gonna come visit you all the time.................I wander in H will let me buy you?......nar, ees a cunt...... I know he won't.........he better not start treating you like shit...... The past three weeks have been the least fukin stressful weeks of my life.........well, i suppose if I didn't have you to look after he would have been givin me more work....but still true say I aint even really checked the boy too tough...we just been jamming....I swear its even been good for mum havin u about.........................

The boy stands up and walks out of the park with the dog on the lead.

the boy and dog both leave frame.

The last walk

from behind on the street as they walk together, the boy is looking down at the dog and the dog looks back at him

Voice over: Shit man...you ain't gonna be my dog any more in a minute...........i swear he better not treat you like shit.......

fackin hell what av you done to me, you turned me into a chick.........pull it together son..........................................but any way im gonna ask him to sell you om.........................fuck im gonna tell him ill work for free for a month .............or two months

(he begins to sound more and more desperate and frantic as he thinks to him self)

The harsh reality

The two of them have reached their location, they stand in front of a door, the boy faces it and pause reaches out to ring the bell, then pulls hand away and pauses

Voice Over: fuck it, im just gonna ask him straight up, H I wanna keep the dog.

(the boy stands up straight and shakes his head a bit)

FUCKIN HELL what have you done to me?

he shakes his head again and laughs s to him self as if he is embarrassed by his weakness

He rings the door bell and waits

(muffled noise is coming from the house and then thuds towards the door)

right im askin him straight up......no fuckin around.......im gonna tell im..

the door swings open quickly,

Iv told you you need to ring the FUCKIN door bell once.

(The door is opened by a very tall man)

tilt up only mans body in frame with head cut off

(the boy takes a breath in order to speak firmly to the man, but before he can get a word in edge ways, the man snatches the lead out of the boys hand, drags the dog inside the house aggressively, as the boy trys to enter, the man slams the door in his face.

(The boy stands outside with the door a centermeter away from his face looking shocked and confused)

The moves away from the door and tries to look through the window which is mostely covered with a drape and he is un able make out what is going on in the house

(the boy is left out side hearing muffled noise coming from the house again, thumps and crashes, then barks then whimpers then moans.)

The boy steps away from the window as he cannot make out what is going on and goes back to the door and rings the bell

(all of a sudden he starts to freak out wondering what is happening inside the house)

The boy rings the bel again

and again

and again

and again

(suspense gaining)

The door swings open agian even quicker than the first time, a huge open hand meets the side of the boys face with a slap which nocks him back away from the door.

I TOLD U ONLY RING THE FUCKIN DOOR ONCE.

The boy is now standing a meter away from front door and a package is thrown at him and hits him in the chest. The door slams closed again. The package bounces off his chest and drops to the floor, the boy stands there in shock for a minute, then moves his hand towards his face where the man had slapped him and he realises blood is on his face.

(the boy does not under stand how he is bleeding from a slap)

He begins to feel his neck and chest to see where the blood is coming from. he cannot work it out. He stands still in complete shock and confusion. He picks up the package from the floor and looks at it closely and realises there is a postet note on it with an note saying take it to the barbors, hes waiting. The door then swings open again quickly and the dogs lead is chucked out of th door at the boy, again it hits his chest and then the floor, quickly after that the door opens again ans out flies a big black bin liner with a not in the top of it this time the boy moves out of the way and it hits the floor next to him.

do sittin with it

The door slams closed again. The boy remains still for a moment then his facial expression and stature change instantly as he puts two and two togather, he quickly picks up the lead and sees a litle bit of blood on the collar, he then rips open the bag a bit, drops it and vommits imeaditly next to it on the pavement.

Character 2

(Nick is in his late teens, he lives with his mother and father in a small council house in Kensal Green in North West London. He is very close to his mum and dad. He is very excited to be taking the girl of his dreams out on a date tonight. He has been waiting for this day for a long time. He has been given forty pounds by his parents. He wants to take her to an expensive restaurant in central London, and has devised a plan in order to make him self look good and have lots of money to impress the girl. His plan is to get his hair cut wile waiting for his friend to bring him a large amount of cocaine, he is then going to swap the cocaine for a lump some of money and use a lot of his profit to get a new out fit to wear and take the girl out. He is on a tight schedule and is anxious, worrying that if his mate and the Barbour don't hurry his night won't run according to plan. His plan is to sell the package in order to make a lot of money quickly, so he can take the girl out for an expensive meal.)

also waiting for his mate to bring him a package.

is sitting in the Barbour shop waiting to get a hair cut,

is looking in the mirror opposite, moving his head from side to side checking him self out.

Voice Over: I swear down this better not be a long ting, man needs to meet this gual soon. I need to be looking fresh boi, this gual is tidy and I know say this ting won't fly unless mans looking trim........Hurry up man.

He begins to role his eyes as he waits for his turn...... as time passes he begins to look at the clock.....tap his feet and is clearly becoming impatient waiting,

The boy makes his way to the address on the package which is the local Barbour shop.

He walks with an un explainable awkwardness as though he is turning inside out as he walks.

The person he has come to meet has just finished getting his hair cut. Character 2 gets out of the Barbour chair and walks towards the door, as he reaches he door character 1 has just reached the entrance and is trying to walk in, they very nearly bump into each other and stand awkwardly opposite each other, character 2 opens his eyes widely as if to say turn around and walk out now. Character 1 quickly turns round and walks back out of the shop entrance, they walk down the street together The transaction is made