Props

In our film we tried to use as many props that fitted with the conventions of the genre as possible.

This is the laptop that Don Capallo uses whilst finding out the numbers and looking through the resumes of the criminal crew that he is putting together, it is a relitively new laptop which fits in with the character as he is a criminal gang leader and it is unlikely that he is going to have am old laptop when he makes millions of pounds robbing banks and doing other criminal activities.

This is the phone that Don Capallo uses when contacting Jacob to tell him the rendezvous to meet up with Ronnie to secure to blue prints to the bank that the crew are planning on breaking into and robbing.

This is the  mobile phone that Jacob answers when Don Capallo calls to arrange the meeting with Ronnie. The phone is a Blackberry which is a famous business phone and can be expensive so the phone fits in with Jacobs character.

This is the gun Chis Jennings shows Matthew Benton during their conversation whilst Jacob goes to meet Ronnie to get the blue prints for the bank so that they can start planning the robbery and make their millions. We used this gun to fit in with other heist films and we also used it and a gun was what most people (from the results from the questionnaire) thought should be in the film.

This is the car that we used, we didnt have much choice with the car as it was my car and it was the only car that we had between all of the actors however we made sure that it was clean so it had a smart appearance and also the fact that my car was black makes it look smarter.

From making the opening two minutes to Larceny i realised the thought that must have to go into making a whole film. The thought and the preperation into getting our actors suits and to get hold of a fake gun was alot harder than expected and i'm not suprised it takes as long as it does to make full length films with all the thought and preperation that goes into it.

Character Profiles

Age 24

Bio: Jacob is a hardworking individual who will always succeed in what he is doing and get what he wants. Jacob hasn’t realised yet in his adult life that crime does not pay, and will find out soon enough. Jacob is a top get away driver who has serviced the top criminals and has been very successful in his line of criminal work but this will all change after the next job.

Appearance: Jacob is always looking smart and professional wearing a suit and always well shaven.

Personality: Cool, calm and collected, but serious when it comes to business.

Age 32

Bio: The “Don” is a business man. He likes little involvement with his illegal activities; he prefers to play the “supervisor” role as it keeps his hands clean. He is a well organised man who always looks the part by wearing smart and expensive shirts and suits.

The Don is a newly married man however he refuses to wear a wedding ring as he doesn’t want the criminals that he works with to know that he is a married man as this is his weakness and being married has caused him to change his perspective of life hence the “one last job” that will be featured in the film.

Appearance: Clean shaven and serious looking male, always sharp dressed with expensive designer shirts and suits.

Personality: Nobody that works with him knows Dons true character. He is a mysterious but serious character that likes to get jobs done quickly and move onto the next one.

 

Age 25

Bio: Matthew is the safe cracker, without him there is no point in the whole operation, even though all of the members of the crew play a large part

each, all of the members rely on Matthew to be able to open the safe quickly so they can make a get away before the police arrive. He fools people into thinking that he isn't smart though his slow speech and slurred words although this was only caused by his amateur boxing career in his teens when he because the 4th best teenager in the country. Matthew gave up the boxing and turned to a life of crime when he broke his arm in a motorbike accident and realised that he could use his fighting skills to earn respect so he joined a gang.

Appearance: Mathew is similar to the other characters; he wears smart sophisticated

clothes everywhere he goes to make sure people know he means business.

. 

Age 21

Bio: Chris is the youngest of all the members, he's the baby of the group but despite this is has a big mouth and he isn't afraid to say what is on his mind and he also isn't afraid to pull the trigger. Chris became who he is today through his uncle, Ben Clayton who was a famous gunman from the 80's. Chris adored his uncle and whilst on a trip away when he was 12 witnessed his first murder and because anxious to start his own body count and follow in his uncles footsteps.

Appearance: Although Chris has money and a large selection of expensive and designer suits, he is very unorganised and often is late to appointments because of this he is often wearing odd suit jackets with trousers and non matching shoes.

Personality: Chris talks a lot when he is tense and nervous, this often leads to people getting annoyed with him as other members from the crew like to be in quiet and think about what's going to happen next. He is a kind person but also a gun wielding killer.

Personality: Matthew is down to earth and realises the effect that his actions have on people however he refuses to give up the life of crime as he knows there is no other way to make the amount of money that he does legitimately

Storyboards

These are the story boards that we made before filming, although we do not stick to all the exact same shots as we came up with new ideas whilst we were filming, the story line is the same. The story boards, along with the scrip helped us as it provided us with a checklist of the shots that we needed in order to film the opening two minutes. The story board and the script also helped our actors as they has a visual reference to see what they were supposed to be doing rather than just Tim and I telling them what needed to be done.

What I learnt from this task is the preparation that needs to go into making a film. The story boards that we produced were only for the opening two minutes and the story boards still took a few hours to draw and write about.

Script

Movie script

Setting: Large room that is well lit with a desk, with a laptop on it.

DON is in his hideout alone on his mobile phone, he is calling up people that he knows through previous “jobs” to try and sort out a meet point to organise a bank robbery.

DON

(Low angle shot from the floor. See the DON walk past the camera and into a room and sit down where there will be a match on action)

Don picks up a pile of paper which is CV type document with bank robber’s skills, abilities and pictures on with a phone number at the bottom.

He picks up the phone and dials a telephone number. After this you hear the sound of a phone ringing.

Each time they talk it cuts to a different person Talking.

JACOB GREEN

“Hello”

DON

(Pause…) I have a job for you

CHRIS JENNINGS

“Where do I need to go?”

DON

“Go to

29 Union Street, West Plymouth

at 19 hundred hours tomorrow.”

MATHEW BENTON

“Who do I ask for?”

DON

“Ask for Ronnie Vendetta” (Pause… Phone boop)

Cuts to sped up shot of the sun coming up to symbolise over night.

JACOB is making his way to the rendezvous to meet RONNIE VENDETTA (Driving)

Cuts to a shot of JACOB driving to Meet RONNIE, whilst JACOB is inside with RONNIE, the film shows CHRIS & MATHEW having a conversation outside.

CHRIS

Check out my new piece man.

MATHEW

That must have cost you a ton?

CHRIS

You should know by now man, i don’t pay for my guns.

MATHEW

If someone took my gun when I died I would be pissed.

CHRIS

I aim to please.

After JACOB has been inside meeting Ronnie, he walks out with and envelope. CHRIS & MATHEW are still waiting outside and talking

JACOB GREEN

Stop chit chattin’ ladies, let’s go.

Shot shows JACOB, CHRIS & MATHEW getting in the car and then speeding away.

This is the script that we used when we were filming, the opening two minutes of the film doesn't follow this script exactly but its runs along similar lines. The reason why it doesn't follow the script exactly is because we told our actors when we were filming that they didn't have to stick to the script exactly as long as the lines that they said followed the same story line and made sense. This made it easier to film and the film looked better as the lines flow better and more naturally.

The script also features some stage directions, this is because when Tim and I made the film we had a good idea in our head of what the finished two minutes were going to be like. We gave the stage directions so that the film was as like the visions that we had in our head as much as possible.

Institutional Research

I think the institution that would distribute my film would be Universal Pictures as they distributed films of a similar genre before that are a similar style to which ours will be when it is completed.

There are other companies that could have distributed my film such as 20th Century Fox however I selected Universal Pictures as recently they have distributed "Tower Heist" and "Public Enemies" which are both films which will follow a similar style.

Our movie will be shown in British cinemas such as Vue and ODEON as i think that out media text will attract and appeal to a mass audience and these cinema are large chains that are all over the UK.

I think our movie would do well in the British cinema as recently "Tower Heist" which is a similar genre to ours made an estimated $80,791,605 in the opening weekend worldwide and the film cost $85 million so although it didn't make money in the first weekend it will make a profit as it is still in cinema and it is inevitable that they will release it on DVD and that will increase the revenue made.

Regulations Research

The British Board of Film Classification - Also knows as the "BBFC" are a non-government body that classifies cinema films on behalf of local authorities.

The business makes its money from people having to pay money to get their films classified at the standard rate of £6 per minute!

The BBFC classify films into 7 categories:

• U   - Suitable for all
• PG - Parental Guidance
• 12A - Suitable for people under the age of 12 if accompanied by an adult
• 12 - Suitable for people over the age of 12
• 15 - Suitable for people over the age of 12
• 18 - Suitable only for adults
• 18R - To be shown only in specially licensed cinemas, or supplied only in licensed sex shops, and to adults of not less than 18 years

We have decided to try and get our film in the 15 age category as according to out target audience we selected teenagers and young adults as our main audience.

In order to make our movie a 15 then we must stick to these guidelines:

 

Discrimination

The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

 

Drugs

Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.

 

Horror

Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

 

Imitable behaviour

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

 

Language

There may be frequent use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’). The strongest  terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

 

Nudity

Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

 

Sex

Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.

 

Theme

No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

 

Violence

Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.

What makes our film a 15?

Our film will contain no use of drugs however there may be conversations about drugs such as cannabis during the film, but the conversation will not promote such a substance.

There will be no horror, the genre is gangster/heist and the aim of the film will be to entertain and not to frighten people.

There may be some use of swearing in our film but not lots. Swearing will be limited to "Shit" and "Fuck" and there will be a limited use of these words. Swearing will only be used in the right situation in the film such as in a Police chase where a character would say "Shit, they're behind us!" and swearing will not be used in just ordinary sentences in everyday conversations.

The film will contain no full nudity however some mild verbal sexual references might be made during the film during conversations between characters.

As the film is a gangster/heist there will be violence involved. We were planning for someone to get shot however we will not look closely at the person and show any gory detail. Also there might be some detailed verbal description about violence during conversations between characters.

Audience Research

  This is the first question that I asked people who were filling in my online questionnaire. I asked this question so that I could find out the gender they were because i could see what answers certain genders gave however there was no real significant difference between the answers from males or females.

In this question I asked what age the people who were filling in my questionnaire, i asked this question so i could see what ages liked what in heist films. When coming up for ideas for our film we decided that out main target audience was males between the ages of 15 and 27. Luckily most of the people (93.3%) that answered my questionnaire were between the age of 11 and 20, this means that I’ll have a good idea about what my target audience want to see in a heist film.

This is one of the main questions that was in the questionnaire, we used the answers to decide what sort of scenes we should have in our film. 100% of people said that there should be guns in our movie, as soon as I and Tim (Who I made the film with) saw this response we automatically added a gun into the first two minutes of the film and this was the same for the “wheel spins” response as this too had a high answer rate.

This was another important question in the questionnaire, we had to have three character names as there were three characters in the opening two minutes of our film. The names that we used were Chris Jennings, Matthew Benton and Jacob Green.

Even though the response “Chris Jennings” had a reasonably low response rate compared to some of the other answers, Tim and I both decided that Chris was a good name for the character as some of the answers that received a higher response rate such as “Joseph Basletti” might suggest that the character was from an Italian background but his accent is clearly British so it wasn’t appropriate.

For this question it was easy to guess what answers were going to get the majority of peoples vote.

This helped us decide what skills our characters should possessed, if people selected a “beautician” or “elephant trainer” then our film could have turned out very differently.

This was a significant question and helped Tim and I decide how the film was going to end, we were both open to ending the film with the crew getting caught or getting away and this question pushed our decision to let the robbers get away with their loot.

In this question we asked for good name suggestions for our film, the original name that we were going to use was “The Bank Job” however once we got the response from the questionnaire we chose “Larceny” which was one of the answers that people filling in the questionnaire gave. We thought this was a good name because it was unusual and not a common word that is used in ones everyday vocabulary which is going to be like our film because it’s not going to be like the rest of the heist films that you might have been able to see in the cinema. Also we decided to change the name because a previous film had been made which was called “The bank job”.

Target Audience

Above is a diagram which displays the type of people and the reasons that’s people might watch a heist movie. I believe that the biggest target of a heist film was males, young and old. Younger males and teenagers between the ages of 15-27 would find heist films interesting through the use of attractive females in the roles of the villains, the technology in the films such a futuristic weapons, cars and other gadgets which typically males find interesting.

I also believed that older males, roughly between the ages of 45-65 would be interested due to the many complex twists in the story line which makes the film interesting and builds a sense of suspense and you never really know what’s going to happen next. Another thing which would attract older males to this genre is the sense of justice when money is taken from people with a low morale such as other criminal gangs another thing would be the sense of justice when the criminals get arrested for the wrong that they've done.

Another way that I defined my target audience is by socio-economic groups. I decided that heist films target a lot of the groups ranging from B to E and everything in between, this is because people in the lower groups will aspire to have more and live the rich and wild lifestyle of those of the characters in the film, people of the higher groups will have similar dreams of the richer lifestyle as we always want more than we have as most of us live very money fuelled lifestyles.

Textual Analysis of Snatch

This is a textural analysis of the opening two minutes of the film Snatch. I chose to do this film as in the film there is a heist so it will share similar features to the film that I am making.

This is the first shot of the film Snatch. As you can see it is a close up of what appears to be a male head. The tittles are being the displayed on the screen as the camera angle rises.

The camera continues to rise and you hear the voice of the person on the left say “My name is Turkish, funny name for an Englishman, I know” however his lips do not move so your not aware that he is the one who is talking. The camera continues to pan upwards until the characters head that is in the foreground of the screen shot is no longer in the shot and this reveals the actor of the left fiddling with his thumbs and the character on the right chewing gum. 

 

The dialogue continues and the camera shot changes to a close up. In the dialogue the character explains how he got his “strange name for an Englishman”. We can see that he isn't clean shaven however he is wearing a suit but his top buttons are not done up and he isn't wearing a tie showing that he is a little rough around the edges but he also has a business and smart side.

Dialogue continues but the characters lips still aren't moving. He turns his head to the left to face the character that is sat on the chair next to him.

The next shot is of the character that was sat to the right in the previous shot. Turkish’s voice continues and introduces the character so we now know that he is called Tommy. Tommy is moving his tongue very fast from one side to the other as if he was licking his lips, he looks agitated and you cannot see all of his face due to the shadow that is caused by his hat.

This is the next shot, as you can see it has changed back to a medium distance shot and we can now see both of the characters. The dialogue still continues and Turkish is talking about his relationship with Tommy. He says that they are like brothers and that they have known each other for as long as they can both remember and that they are partners. Turkish then itches his ear with his right hand and then puts both hands on his lap and locks his fingers together. Whilst he is itching his ear, Tommy is looking around the room by moving his head and rolling around his eyes.

The shot type changes from a mid distance shot to a close up and Tommy continues to look around, the angle of his head is slightly raised and it looks as if he is looking at the ceiling of the room. He lo0oks on edge and like he is waiting/anticipating something to happen.

 

The shot then switches back to Turkish. The dialogue continues and he asked a rhetorical question as he is moving his head around and looks around the room. Then the screen fades until it goes completely black.

The screen remains black for about three seconds and during this time a slow tempo songs starts to play. When the image returns we can see five people. Two of the men appear to be security guards as they search the man on the right with the beard with a metal detector. During this time, the music continues to play. It seems that they are being watched on a CCTV camera as the image that we seen is through another monitor and there are monitors either side of the screen where our attention is centred

The man on the bottom left of the screen continues to walk until he is no longer visible

The man with the beard and black jacket is getting searched with a metal detector and he is spinning around in co-operation with the security guard. As he spins around the metal detector alerts the guard and there is some speech which is spoken over the music which is still playing in the background.

The camera pans to the left to another monitor where again, there are more tittles and the characters appear moving from the right to the left and the character that you can see in the screen shot calls for the elevator by pressing the button to the right of the door with his right hand. He is then followed by three other characters that are dressed similarly.