Props

The guns I ordered have arrived. They look realistic, but to make them look even more authentic I am going to paint any parts which make them seem fake the real colour. As I mentioned in my first props post, I am going to spray paint the orange parts as this gives them away as being fake. I may also uses wood wax on the shotgun and the AK47 because it will give them a 'wooden' finish making them look more solid.
The ammo belts also look good and will be used as part of Ricks costume.
The Cigars are real and will be lit during filming, the actor is over 18. I am going to try and focus on the cigar being smoked in some of the shots as it reflects Rick's tough personality.

Story Board - Completed.

After long hours of drawing up my story board, it's finally finished. I used stick figures to represent people because drawing people isn't my strong point. However I put detail into other props such as guns etc. I may tweak a few ideas (shot lengths, specific angles, new shots etc) if I feel it could positively contribute to my trailer.
I took pictures of my story board with my iPhone 6 and emailed them to myself. I felt the quality was better from my phone camera than a scanner
Each caption box under each shot contains what camera angle I will use, how long the shot will last for, a brief outline of what the shot is showing and whether there is dialogue or not.

1. Close-up shot of a screen. Message is shown about England' change. Voice over the top. Cuts to blank screen. 40-45 seconds.
2. My own media institute. (single drum beat over the top) 1.5 seconds.
3. 'In association with...' (single drum beat over the top) 1.5 seconds.
4. My second media institute. (single drum beat over top) 1.5 seconds.
5. Long shot of one of the brothers putting planks on the front door. 4 seconds.
6. Long shot of one of the brothers with rifle and one with a pistol. Surrounded by weapons. 4 seconds.

7. Close-up shot of a pistol being cocked. 2 seconds.
8. Medium shot of a knife being sharpened by one of the brothers. 5 seconds.
9. Wide shot of one brother doing press ups, sweat drips, anger in face. 2 seconds.
10. Date of 'national fight to the death'. Single drum beat over the top. Flicks to '0431 AM...'. 4 seconds.
11. Low angle shot of a Brother at the end of a table sat down. Dialgue. 6 seconds.
12. Midshot of other brother stading in door way. Dialogue. 5 seconds.

13. Sped up time-lapse of a sunrise. Specific use of grey clouds. 4-6 seconds.
14. Back to shot (low angle) of brother at table. 1.5 seconds. Lights suddenly cut. Darkness.
 15. Darkness shot. Gunshots and screams are heard over the top from outside of the house. 5 seconds.
 16. Darkness shot continued. Sound of crash over top to represent front door being smashed open. Dialogue. 4 seconds.
 17. Montage continues, screams, gun shots, metal clunking, banging etc. Flashes shown. Darkness shots. Cuts to silence.
       18. 3.5 seconds.

    19. Wide shot of the brothers sat around a fire                    surrounded by trees. Night time. 3 seconds. Dialogue.
    20. Close-up shot of brother with fire infront of face.       Dialouge. 3 seconds.
    21. Long shot of brothers running across a field. 3             seconds.
    22. Close up of 44. Magnum with finger round the            trigger. 2 seconds.
    23. Medium shot of brother punching someone. 2              seconds.
    24. Extreme close-up of a fire torch being lit. 2                  seconds.

     25. Close-up shot of the Brothers running. 2 seconds.
     26. Shot of a pile of guns. Birdseye view. 2 seconds.
     27. Midshot of brothers back to back holding guns.           Dialogue. 4-6 seconds.
      28. Wideshot of enemies. Camera will pan around to         show a lot of them. Will be holding weapons. 3                  seconds.
      29. Close-up of brother. Dialogue. 1.5 seconds.
      30. Film name. Voice over of a 'quote' from the film. Drum beat over the top. 5 seconds.
                                           

Props

I need to use a lot of guns for my piece, as demonstrated on my story board (uploading later on) there is a shot of the brothers sorting out their guns and there is a lot of them. I ordered replica guns and other weapons off Amazon, these include:

- AK-47
- MP5
- Shotgun
- 44. Magnum
- Ammo Belt

I am going to spray paint any non-realistic parts (orange bits etc) black/silver to get the mise-en-scene as realistic as possible.

Like I mentioned in my character profiles, clothes are going to be tatty and worn. This includes rips in them, stains and creases, I will use mud to make the stains, scissors to make the rips and I will scrunch them up to make the creases. This will give a good effect and make it more realistic.

Character Profiles

There are two main characters in my trailer, they are two brothers. Rick and Michael. They are going to be portrayed as quite 'badass' brothers and I think this will really help with the film as it will allow me to add more action scenes into it.
I would compare them to the brothers from AMC's, The Walking Dead, Daryl (right) and Merle (left) Dixon.

They have a very close relationship but disagree on a lot of things, mainly about how to survive after they're home is destroyed and their family have been killed. They are scruffy and have a lot of negative facial expressions, giving the audience the idea that they are tough.

Rick - Rick is the oldest of the Brother and is very protective over Michael. During the majority of the trailer he is seen with a cigar in his mouth which becomes his 'signature'. He is portrayed as the dominant brother because of his age and is generally more louder and violent than his brother. Rick is going to wear a vest for the majority of the trailer as he is quite muscular. I will make the vest look dirty and worn as there is a lot of fast paced movement in the scenario they are in and it will add to the realism of the mise-en-scene. I will use a form of grease in his hair to make it look sweaty and dirty, also adding to the the realism.

Michael - Michael is the younger brother and doesn't like Rick telling him what to do, although he never admits this. He is known for his knife skills which is briefly touched upon in the trailer. Like Rick, he is shown to be violent and tough and this will be demonstrated in the trailer. He will wear a chequered shirt which will also be creased and tatty due to the situation they are in. Similar to Ricks hair, I will use grease to make it looks sweaty and unclean.

Music

I have spent a lot of time looking at different possibilities that could suit my trailer, and my best find is, 'Warriors' by Imagine Dragons. The instrumental version would really suit my shots as it is a very fast paced song which I would intent to edit into my piece after the speech at the beginning.

The song came out fairly recently so I would imagine it would be very difficult to obtain permission for me to use it. I will contact Interscope Records via many types of social media (emails, tweets, phone calls etc) to give me the best chance of them noticing me and hopefully granting me permission. I will inform them that it is for a non-profit project where all I want to earn is the best I can it would be a great help. I think gaining permission now would really help as it would give me plenty of time to plan my shots to match the soundtrack and also allow me to edit it to the best of my ability.

Another possibility a found is a song called 'Brennisteinn' by Sigur Ros (an Icelandic band). The song is featured in AMC's The Walking Dead's Season 5 Trailer and I think it could work really well. I am going to contact their record label, XL Recordings and try to get permission and then experiment between the songs I am able to use and determine which one I feel is most effective.

Story Board - Draft 1

I started the first draft of my story board to give me a good idea of the camera angles I will use and also how I will structure it. I decided to use the film idea i wrote about in my previous post. At first I found it hard to decide how to start, so eventually I decided to put a speech from The Prime minister regarding the idea of the 'final  50' with a voice over the top.

Initial Film Idea

I have a lot of time to think and have came up with an idea I am keen to use.
It's about England being an independent country in 2017. Because it went independent it has become ruined with unemployment and crime at it's highest. Everyone is subjected to a compulsory injection without being told what it is. Later on in the year it is revealed that the injection is a tracker which monitors individual persons heartbeats. The government announces that because the country is 'falling apart', it is now a survival of the fittest and a fight to the death. For 8 months, there is no military or emergency services, it's every man for himself. The last 50 people which are classed as 'final 50' will start a new race and repopulate England. After 8 months, if there are more than 50 people alive, the military will intervene to finish the job.
I want to focus the film about two brothers protecting each other after the rest of their family have been killed.