alterations

Opening Sequence Alteration:

An alteration we made in our opening sequence is the football scene that we found sort of difficult to film in the limited time period. The alteration was that our initial idea of this scene was to have Nile O'Meally-Newell a.k.a Bradley Kean dribble his way past two players before taking a definitive shot but we decided to change this to Nile dribbling his way past football cones before taking a shot at an empty goal as this would make more sense (since the audience could interpret it as Nile being self-motivated and working hard in order to rise to the top as a footballer and also get into big-name teams whereas the initial idea wouldn't really have as much interpretations in comparison).

cast and crew

Nile O'Meally-Newell: Bradley "Keano" Kean (protagonist)
Shingai Manungo: Cameraman
Liban Ali: Tyreese Lewis (friend turned into the main antagonist)
Omar Abasi: Editor

Info on props, costume planning and locations are explained in detail in its respective blog posts.

camera shots

Extreme long-shot:
Used to express the setting of the scene that will be used as the setting throughout a movie (e.g. by showing the "Hollywood" sign in the picture above in an extreme long-shot for a movie, it is clear to the viewer that the movie will be indeed set in Hollywood/Los Angeles).

Tracking shot:
A 'tracking shot' is when a shot is taken by keeping track of something in particular (e.g. if somebody is walking, the camera will keep movement but also keep track of the person's own movements -- this is a tracking shot).



Bird's Eye View:
Filmed from a top-down perspective and, once again, more likely to be used to show the atmosphere of the setting (e.g. if a bird's eye view was taken of NYC and Miami -- they would use bird's eye view shots to highlight the gritty streets or the busy metropolis of NYC/humid and sun-filled beaches of Miami etc.)

Low Angle Shot:
Filmed from the ground looking upwards -- for example, a camera shot which is taken of a person but from the ground looking upwards therefore making him appear as some sort of 'giant' or having some form of superiority.

Close-up:



Panning:
Movement of a still/video camera but in the motion of a person shaking their head to signal a "no", meaning that panning is the horizontal movement of a camera.

Tilting:

In a simple explanation, tilting is the movement of a still/video camera yet it moves as if a person would when nodding his head (in other words, the camera stays stationary yet it rotates in a vertical plane).

opening sequence

(Scene 6 and 8 may be removed from the final storyboard of the opening sequence as flashbacks are not necessarily needed for the opening sequence since the storyline will focus on these three personalities and the audience would know about the three pathways that the character takes on regardless. If any alterations are made, look out for a new blog spot with the finalized storyboard explaining what will happen, in detail, in each scene.)

our presentation and feedback

Regarding our presentation, we received some interesting feedbacks from different groups with this one being the most-detailed feedback and the feedback that we could look back on and use as inspiration to motivate ourselves into creating that defining opening sequence :-

(Feedback from Sarah Jeena & Tasnim Khanum)
Q: it is a lot to fit into two minutes, how will you narrow it down?
A: Well, by looking back at this, we will be able to narrow down the scenes by having brief scenes of the three paths that the main protagonist takes so it does not give away too much yet the scenes are not too brief.
Q: how are you going to book the facilities, be realistic, and think about the timing.
you may have to re-shoot certain scenes, is this possible?
A: Indeed, interesting question from the duo. We do not need to book any facilities as we had managed to ask the P.E teachers as of when the Astroturf would be empty and they had gotten back to us by saying it would be a limited period of time (in fact, around 10 minutes). We have, indeed, re-shot some of the scenes with the first scene being Nile dressing up in his sports kit being re-shot for 30 minutes. We need to make sure that we execute every aspect correctly in the procedure.
Q:  Music- how are you going to include it in the scene? Will the grime suit the smart clip? why not use it as symbolism, maybe use stereotypes?
A: We are planning to include background music in the scene but not copyrighted music - more of instrumental music that does not have rights to any copyright laws as this would not be using the voice of any artists and we would not be using copyright infringement for our Coursework. Also, we aren't really going for music that would be grimy but more of motivational music -- not Rocky Balboa-style motivational music and stuff like that but obviously music that would suit all three clips.
Q: How are you going to have so many extras in an organised way? re-think exam scene.
  Camera angles need to be thought about because there are so many different things he's doing.
A: We won't be including the exam scene in our opening sequence as we feel it would be too sudden to add a scene that could easily act as the climax of the whole movie itself; it would give too much of the plot away, to be honest, and we are trying to give a small amount of it away but not too small. Just the amount that would be expected from an opening sequence.

title opening sequence

The reasons being for our opening sequence, and the movie in its entirety, titled as "Split" is because the main protagonist, Bradley Kean, will have to counter three different paths and it would be as if he is not a whole person for majority of the storyline; especially in the climax of the storyline (this climax can be read in the "Split Storyline" blog post) and never actually seems to know what life would be truly for him and this could be seen as him having split emotions or a 'split' in terms of desires since he would desire the pursuit of more than one thing in the movie. Since the pound will also play a theme in the movie as gang themes will be present so it is likely that drug deals will take place involving money in the procedure, the "Split" title could also be linked to how there is a split between the benefits that Bradley and the dealer has, for instance, or even the split in how he feels about his 'gang life' -- does he feel as if he deserves the filthy money he's been gaining from crime life or should he split up with the gang for good and search for his own identity?

DVD analysis

Goal Cover

The Goal cover expresses the thrill of the experience on the protagonist's face as you can see the bright and lively colours that surround him in the atmosphere and this gives you an idea of what we are attempting to replicate in our "Split" movie as we want our main protagonist to be thrilled with the footballing experience as it would make him feel under more pressure with what lifestyle he wants to pursue; especially when the storyline twist of him getting into Arsenal takes place before the big climax (explained in detail in the "Split Storyline" blog post.)

Adulthood Cover

The Adulthood cover contrasts the Goal cover above and this is another sort of atmosphere we are thinking of adding into our "Split" movie as it would also contrast the atmosphere of Bradley Keano being an academic student and a football star too. Furthermore, with our cover, we wanted to use "split" pictures with a picture of the main protagonist in his football kit and in his casual hoodie to represent the personalities and lifestyles he will encounter in the movie and the opening sequence. Furthermore, the colour of the atmosphere in the Adulthood cover is rather uninspiring which links to the character's facial expression of anger which also contrasts the joy of the protagonist's face on the Goal cover. With this analysis, we are willing to contrast each element with our poster but merging these pictures into one poster.