In Project Diary 4 we went out near where we lived in search for possible locations we could use for the production of our film and we found a really good lane and lay by that were really close together we thought would be perfect for our film. The pictures of the setting are below:
These were are original choice of settings, however when it came to having to get the actors and the equipment to the location, this is when it became a problem, as the location is a bit out of the way along a country road meaning we had to have a rethink of where we would film. In the end we decided to film somewhere a lot closer to home, in fact it was right behind my house. This gave us the perfect place to film as it was really close to my house so the equipment and the actors where not hard to transport.
There are pictures of the location below:
to come
We have uploaded a google maps image to display to you the logistical problem we were having:
For the music in our production we wanted to use something that was relevant to our storyline, this meant me and my partner looked back to find what was the number one hit in August of 1961, we found out that it was a song called 'You Dont Know' by Helen Shapiro. This provided us with a subtle yet clever intertextual reference. However, to require the use of the music though we had to contact the owners/representatives of the song.
The company that we found to own the song was EMI Records so we found the contact details so that we could acquire the rights to use the song. We decided to contact the company first via the phone as we thought it would be difficult to get a response quickly enough via email. We were forwarded on to someone who told us to contact them directly via email to find out if the use of the song was plausible. He first said that the chance of using the song would be high. The conversation is below: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello, I am the student who just rang regarding the use of Helen Shapiro's You Don't know for my AS Level Media Production. If you could reply with written permission that would be greatly appreciated.
It appears this song is owned by Lorna Music Co Ltd for the publishing side. You may have been looking for EMI Records, who may own the recording. I would suggest you contact Jessica for this- 'REMOVED FOR PRIVACY'.
I am writing to enquire about the use of a song owned by Lorna Music Co Ltd in my AS level Media Production and was informed by a member of your publishing team that I should contact you for permission. The song in question is You Don't Know by Helen Shapiro and I guarantee that it will be used entirely for non-profit and educational use and if necessary we can provide you with our online e-Portfolio's to prove it's use.
Thank you for getting in contact to use Helen Shapiro “You Don’t Know” in your media production. So that I can process your request can you please answer the questions in red below?
SCHOOL/UNIVERSITY: To which school or university is your project to be submitted for marking?
PROJECT: What is the name of your project?
RECORDING & ARTIST: “You Don’t Know” performed by Helen Shapiro
DURATION AND NATURE OF USE:How much of the recording do you require? (e.g. 30 secs, 1 min, full duration of the recording) Will the recording be used solely in the background accompanying visual images?
MEDIA:Is the use purely for marking purposes?
TERRITORY:Is it solely UK for which you need rights?
TERM:How long do you require the rights? 6 months, 1 year?
COMMENCEMENT DATE:When do you require the rights from?
PROJECT SYNOPSIS (Please supply visuals if available):
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further queries.
PROJECT: AS Level Media Production - Trailer for own film creation
RECORDING & ARTIST: “You Don’t Know” performed by Helen Shapiro
DURATION AND NATURE OF USE:One minute - Shall be featured in the background as an intertextual reference due to the film being set in August 1961 when it was a number 1 hit.
MEDIA:Purely for marking and educational, though it will be posted on You Tube so that it can be linked to our Portfolio's for moderation.
TERRITORY:It shall be posted on You Tube so I assume we will need rights for all that can view it, if that is possible?
TERM:Once it has been uploaded to You Tube we had not planned to remove it so if it's possible we'd like the rights as long as possible if not indefinitely?
COMMENCEMENT DATE:Though it will not be uploaded today, I'm not aware entirely when the finishing date of the project will be, so if possible commencement date would be from your acceptance today or when that is.
PROJECT SYNOPSIS (Please supply visuals if available): The project is for our coursework and is to create a film trailer for a thriller. Our film is about a copycat of the A6 Murderer from 1961; to enforce this we show at the opening of the trailer snippets of the original murder with Helen Shapiro's song playing in the background as if from a car radio to set the time period. I'm afraid the film isn't shot yet though I have attached the storyboard that the music will be applied to. I'd like to add that we would be perfectly happy to link to EMI and/or a link to buy the song in the description and plan to give complete credit in the credits and description.
Thank you very much for your time, I hope you can grant us the use of the song.
Please accept this email as confirmation that EMI Records Limited ("EMI") has no objection to your request to use up to 1 minute of “You Don’t Know” by Helen Shapiro (the "Artist") as you have described solely in connection with your school coursework, PROVIDED that at all times:
(i) Your school coursework is not exploited commercially in any way and is not used in any sort of commercial context;
(ii) Your use of the sound recording referred to above in your school coursework is in no way derogatory towards EMI, its affiliates or the Artist;
(iii) Your school coursework is in no way derogatory towards EMI, its affiliates or the Artist;
(iv) You only use the sound recording referred to above in the manner that you have described for 1 year from the date of this email and solely within the UK; and
(v) The Artist or their management do not at any time after the date of this email raise objections to your use of the sound recording in your school coursework.
This was fantastic news for our production as it means that we would be covered for the use, however, we cannot upload it to YouTube and therefore cannot link to our blogs. This means that we will have to send the exam board the Helen Shapiro version and record a similar version for use online.
Since me and my partner first created our blog we set out to create a trailer meaning most of the content is in relation to producing a trailer, however things have arisen that meant we had to alter our original brief. Once we had produced the final trailer we should a few people the trailer to get their feedback, their comments are below:
Audience Member 1: "I really like the shots and filters, though I think it's possible you're giving away too much of the storyline."
Audience Member 2: "The footage is perfect, but I think for a Trailer it lacks pace and really looks like the opening sequence of a film."
Audience Member 3: "I love the storyline, but most trailers don't reveal as much which could be a real downside."
After receiving this feedback which all clearly stated that our project, with some minor tweaks, looked more and more like a opening sequence than a trailer. We hence then found out that we could change the brief from creating a trailer to the first 2 minutes of a thriller film. After doing the minor tweaks we ended up with a film we were both extremely happy with.
Another prop that is need for our production is the murder weapon, and for this to fit in with the storyline of the film it has to be a gun. This means we needed a realistic firearm, but because of this it made it a necessity for us to have to read up on the law regarding the imitation and toy firearms. The legislation is below:
Code of Practice for Toy Firearms (V1.0)
"The Violent Crime Reduction Act, amongst other things, amends firearms legislation to ban the
manufacture, import and sale of realistic imitations and prohibits the sale of any imitation firearm
(whether or not it is realistic) to persons under the age of 18 years. Longer sentences have been
introduced for the possession of an imitation firearm in a public place without reasonable excuse. "
These details mean that we were unable to find a realistic firearm, without blowing the bank, plus if we are to have a realistic weapon we need to make sure that anyone in the vicinity is fully aware that the prop is being used for filming purposes only.
This meant what we decided to do was buy a children's toy gun that followed the UK Law and alter it to meet our needs. The gun we bought was originally blue and bought from Pound world To alter it to what we need we took it apart, removed the orange plug at the end and then sprayed it Matt black to look more realistic the result is below:
There is only one scene in the production that requires the gun to be taken out into a public place, however, when we do this we will notify anyone in the vicinity that it is a fake firearm being used for filming purposes, we will also try to film as quickly as possible.
The gun must also need to be used as photography prop inside an evidence bag, the picture we took is below. We used a sandwhich bag to make it look like and evidence bag and then to make it look more convincing we edited it by adding the text 'police evidence bag' and a barcode and changed it to black and white.
For our production, in one scene we require a DNA certificate to make the scene look more convincing and to prove that the murderer is James Hanratty. Me and Ross, researched into similiar products to get some inspiration to design our own. Below is the word document and the finished assembled version.
To help me and my partner in the imminent production of our thriller trailer we have decide to make a draft script that will form the base of our production, it outlines what roles need to be played and the voiceover of the trailer, although they are most likely to change and be improvised. The following scripts are below: Script Key PCI - Police Chief Inspector FS - Forensic Scientist
Script 1 - Conversation between PCI and FS about victim
FS: One Fatality, one raped and seriously injured, currently in intensive care, though don't expect anything soon. Mark Glenn, we knew him, Pathologist, do you remember? God, third one this month.
PCI: Yeeah, right, send your men home; you won't find anything.
FS: *Looks puzzled*
Script 2 - Sound Bridge of PCI that runs along most of the trailer
PCI: On the 22nd of August 1961 Michael Gregsten and Valerie Storie's car was hijacked off the A6. The hijacker later shot Gregsten before raping and shooting Storie. I think you'll agree, this isn't a homicide... it's a reenactment. Mark, happens to have been one of the Pathologists who resolved the original case in 2002 with DNA evidence, as were the others. The victims car was found abandoned in Ilford the same day, sporting no evidence, whatsoever. Enforcing this, the murder weapon was found by a cleaner on the backseat of a bus, again... no evidence. James Hanratty was the prime suspect throughout the investigation despite such a resounding lack of evidence; he was later hanged after being found guilty.
However... there was always significant evidence that lead towards a second suspect...
Script 3 - Discussion of DNA results between PCI and FS
FS: I have the results of the DNA testing, but you're not going to like it.
PCI: Well?
FS: It seems your murderer is dead... and has been for over fifty years
The A6 Murders(Quoted from the James Hanratty Wikipedia Article)
The Facts
At about 06:45 on the 23rd of August 1961, the body of Michael Gregsten was discovered in a lay by on the side of the A6 near Deadman's Hill, near Clophill. He had been shot at point blank range twice by a .38n revolver. Lying beside him was his semi-conscious mistress Valerie Storie. She has been raped and then shot 5 times, 4 in the shoulder and one in the neck, this caused her to become paralyzed below the shoulders.
The evening post the murder, the care that Valerie and Michael had been in that night was found abandoned behind Redbridge Tube Station in Essex. The car had been jointly owned by Gregstens Mother and his and Aunt and lent to him for what Valerie said was a supposed 'Car Rally'. Michael and Valerie worked at the same laboratory, he was a scientist and she was an assistant and they had been having an affair which didnt become public knowledge until much later.
The killer was suspected two be one of two people, either Peter Louis Alphon or James Hanratty, during the trial both of them changed their version of events several times, making it difficult for the judge and jury to make a decision. However, they decided that James Hanratty was the criminal and sentenced him to death, even though Valerie failed to pick him out of a line up. James Hanratty was one of the last people to be hung for his crimes in the United Kingdom.
The Appeal
Although James Hanratty was sentenced to death for the acts he committed during the A6 Murders, there was always much speculation that he wasn't the killer. This provoked an appeal by his family in 2002, due to the introduction of DNA evidence. The case was reopened and DNA gathered from James' corpse and his family. The evidence gave the judge no choice but to say that James Hanratty was the killer 'Beyond Doubt'.
However, his family still believe in his innocence and claim that the DNA evidence could have been contaminated because it has been in a scientific lab for 41 year and the DNA from his corpse could be corrupted. Our Idea Our storyline consists of the reenactment/copycat of the A6 murders in which they are now set in the modern day, however, once they do find DNA of the killer on the victims, they discover that it is actually the DNA of the original A6 murderer James Hanratty who has been dead some 41 years... In 2002 Hanratty, who was the original killer was proved guilty by DNA evidence which was not available at the time of the first trial. This means that for Hanratty to be the killer now the DNA Evidence must have been tampered with. To enforce it one of the victims of the case, is one of the Pathologists who worked on the original Hanratty case, this adds tension to the plot and implies a tick list type ideology to the film as the dead pathologist is one of many in the recent times. This shows that it is obvious that the killer doesnt agree with the result of the original case. We have decided to call our production film 'Deadman' as the original murders happened on Deadman's Hill so acts like a play on words and the proved killer in the reenactment is James Hanratty who is now a 'Dead-man'
Our filming, and production schedule is very tight and involves the use of adult actors throughout, this means to film these actors in the appropriate lighting, and to consider with the actors working lives and school work means we have to leave school during a free period on Friday 23rd of November. In order to acheive this, we had to gain permission from the school, this involved approaching our Vice Principal, Mr Bernard. Before approaching him we asked our Media Teacher, Mr Seston to write us a a formal letter giving his own permission that we could give to Mr Bernard. Below is the written letter and the printed signed letter:
This is a video version of the storyboard which we spoke the script over to highlight more clearly to our audience how the final production would likely come together. We think this is a great asset both to us and our audience to help us understand how we want the film to look.
The music in the background is a song called Dvorak by Tom, we chose to use this as background music because we felt it was m Milsom ellow and chilling and captured the audiences attention by creating tension, although we originally decided to use it as background music we thought it was well fitted and may incorporate this into our final production.
As me and my partner did with out preliminary task we decided to do a detailed storyboard of how we envisioned our production looking at the time, however, we can see ourselves having to add and take away parts of the production to fulfill the marking criteria, all of these changes or additions will be justified in our evaluation, although we will try and follow the storyboard as closely as possible.
Once again, we have been unfortunate when selecting actors, our replacement actor for the role of the 'Historian' is now unavailable in the alloted time frame. Due to this me and Ross, have decided to remove the role entirely and again, re-cast a different role. We have decided to give the lengthy voiceover part to Ross' dad who is playing the Police Chief Inspector. This removes some of the possible audience questions such as 'Why is he talking to a historian if he already know the plot?' etc. This will also be easier for us in a logistical manner as the ability to record Ross' dad is a lot easier to organise and complete.
As you can see in our project diaries in each one there is a little fun preliminary video at the start, we decided to do this ,one because it provided the audience with something fun and interesting to watch and two it allowed us to get use to the camera we would be using, experiment with different shot angles and get use to the editing software.
