Is your media product glamourising drug dealing?

By: Amira and Simona


In this Discussion with Simon (host) she asked me the question if our opening sequence was : Glamourising drug dealing to inform our youth that it wasnt all about the rough life but to inforn the audience that there is a better life rather than being in the streets and doing things you shouldn't be. In this discussion we discussed the facts that would occur after going through this such as :jail , death etc. Our audience were the main concern  for our opening sequece because we would rather be a role model through our filming than an bad influence .

Ozzy our opening  sequence we see the main charcter Ozyy have a rough upringing although he goes to school we see him also doing drugs part time whilst doing Art on the side. We see him sneaking out the door whilst Simona the character is doing her work (painting) here we see him quickly run out and she follows him, her reaction to him doing the drugs was not a good one. A close up of Simona's face in our sequence toward the end and she seemed so distressed, let down and shocked at the fact that she saw the boy that she liked was doing this behind her back and we instantly see Ozzy's face where the camera was a low angle shot insinuating the superiority of the character Ozzy and his influence to the youth.

In conclusion to the Question the host had given me my conclusion to it was that our ratings for this movie is 15 + and that was our final decision and we made it this age for a purpose that younger kids wouldnt be allowed to watch it because it entailed some drug/ violence. If we had the pleasure in creating the entire movie we would have seen Ash (Ozzy) the main character in a really dark misfortunate place and we would have seen him in a really a place that we would never want to any of our family/loved ones go through and this was the case for Simona. So glamourising drug deaing wasn't on our agenda on making this opening sequence but to rather inform the young ones out there who would be interested in our sequal.

By Amira Duale

Consent Form

Below is the text from the consent form we asked all the extras of our product to fill in.




I _________________________ give consent for A Freak Production to use any footage of me they film, for there purpose.

by Ash Khan



Signature____________________________

Props Organisation

In our product there are a number of props we will be needing.

Headphones for Ozzy to wear
A small bag which will be used as the bag of drugs Ozzy trades.
Canvases
Paint Brushes

Most Importantly the painting of Simona...

-The painting of simona would have to be from Ozzys point of view since he is painting her in class. Obviously this would be hard to do in the time of filming so the painting would have to be done prior filming.

To make the painting as accurate we would have to film the whole of that scene excluding the shot of the painting.
Then i would have to freeze frame the shot of Simona ,from Ozzy's point of view, we plan to film and use that image to paint from.
Then we would have to film the shot of the canvas with the painting on it and edit it in.

By Ash Khan

Organising Extras

We need one main extra. The characteristics needed are:

Male

Big build

Looks at least 17

I asked a few of my friends and ended up with a few options. 

Ahmed is the number one option

Dara is second 

and Micheal is third option.

They were told to dress like a delinquent. So hoodies, fashionable trainers and black clothing.

We have all their contact details and asked them to try and be free on the days of filming.


Also, we need other extras. We need other students in the classroom. We have organised to film during when students use the room for extra work and we asked for there consent for filming.

We also need extras to walk through the corridor. Even though it is risky we plan to improvise with students that are going to be using this corridor on the day. We plan to ask for there consent and then film them walking past.

By Ash Khan

Booking the Locations...

Since we were going to film in a real school, we had to respect school policies. We did not want to interrupt lessons or learning so we pre booked locations which may do this.

We searched the school for appropriate art classrooms. We found one, but the teacher was not happy with us filming. We then continued to search and found another art classroom which was even more ideal for our filming. We had  to book with consideration of our free time and the teachers lesson times. After coming to an agreement we had our classroom set.

Also we asked permission of the teacher who has a classroom on the hallway we were going to film in. We knew we were going to be noisy and we did not want to disrupt her lesson. After discussion we agreed to film during times when she did not have a lesson.

By Ash Khan

Location

Before we started filming, we went around the location we were planning to film in and took some photos. Here are the photos of our location.

This is the corridor we plan for Ozzy to walk through. We needed a corridor where there were two turns like an "S" shape. This is so Ozzy can exit through one corner and Simona can enter through another corner, which we need for the narrative of our product.

Another location we are considering for the characters to walk through. It shows that it is clearly a school or college corridor which is what we are trying to capture.

This is a shot of the school from the playground. We are not sure if we will be using a shot from here

+ In hind-site we did not use this shot as it didn't include sufficient detail we wanted. 

Another location we are considering. We are trying to capture a school environment.

We want to include this shot because it clearly shows a school environment. The goal posts and the pitch and the bench all add to effective mise en scene.

This is the one of the locations we are planning to use for the drug deal to occur.

In hind-sight we did not use this location. One reason was because cars were sometimes parked along the side and we did not want this.

The classroom scene. This photo is from where the classroom door is. We are considering using a shot from the door since Ozzy walks out through it.

Another shot of the classroom. This is from where the character Simona would be sitting. We wanted to see what areas we could include from her point of view.

This is the location where Ozzy walks through. Here we are trying to figure out which angle to shoot Ozzy from.

The last two shots are from the Simona's point of view. This is the 2nd location of the drug deal. We found this location better because it looked more like a school. 

In this shot we wanted to see how we could capture both Simona's location and Ozzy's location using the near wall and the far wall.

Written By Ash Khan
Photos Taken and Uploaded By: Simona Larka 9575

Risk assesment - Health and safety - Preventions !

Activity - electrical cables/wires


Hazard involved

Extremely hazardous to the filming crew, The public are indanger of tripping over the cables whilst film crew are filming the shoot. If filming outside, we need to be careful of the partially sighted because it could be extremely dangerous.


Prevention

To organise all the wiring and where its going to be placed before the shooting the flim starts. Placing all the wiring/dolphins away from public. We could also use mats to cover the wires.

Activity - Heavy equipment




Hazard involved

Can be too heavy to carry around, could be hazardous to public aswell as crew.

Prevention

Making sure the equipment are in their cases and not removed could be broken/damaged. Making sure the person carries the equipment carefully or two people carrying in case of injury.

Weather-

Hazard involved


As the weather has been very snowy we need to check if theres no ice as this could be a big hazard to the crew who are acting aswell the public, we need to be careful of the icy streets as this could injure a person. We need to make sure that we have some grit at hand as this could be very useful to help get rid of the icyness.
Risks and prevention of the filming process

Absence's of some of the team members in our groups, If some of the team members were absent in the filming process (such as the actors) we could get some back up's as this could help us in the acting process because of the absences. Backups's are very well needed as the actor is not here, if there were no backups we wouldn't be able to act therefore were wasting time in our filming time.

By Amira Duale

Animatic Storyboard

Created By Ash Khan

Original Script

 --Script--            by Ash Khan

Art Class Room  (INT.)
Lesson Time, A small class of 6th form Art students are working. Ozzy is amongst them and so is Simona.
The pupils in the class are sat in a circular form facing the centre of the class.

- (Long shot) Showing the whole classroom but focusing on Ozzy.
- (medium long shot) Behind Simona. She is drawing a manikin.
-(close up) of the actual manikin she is drawing, the manikin is in the centre of the class room.
-(Close up) of Ozzy face. He is concentrating hard. He looks up and then continues drawing.
(close up) of Simona looking up and catching Ozzy look at her.
-College bell rings-

-(Medium shots) of Ozzy hastily getting up and putting on his coat and bag. He rushes out of the classroom.
-(medium shot) Simona putting on her bag and walking over to Ozzys art work that he left behind.
-(Close up) of picture. it’s a picture of her.
-(close up) of her face, She is flattered/ shocked

College Art Corridor  (INT.)      
(Fairly busy corridor, we hear students talking in the background)
-(Long shot into a close up) Simona Exit’s the classroom. Ozzy is in the foreground of the shot, Walking towards the camera briskly. Simona yells out to Ozzy

SIMONA
 Ozzy!

-Ozzy does not hear her as he is rushing and he has his headphones in/ corridor is noisy. He turns the corner.

-(Long shot) of Ozzy walking through corridor. He is walking in the direction of the camera. (camera pans)As he leaves through the school doors. We see Simona in the background, jogging after him. (camera pans) as  she follows him through the doors.

College Playground Area  (EXT.)
-Becoming dusk
-(medium shot) Ozzy walking through the quiet part of the college.
-(various shots) Ozzy walking and Simona in far distance walking briskly after him.
(two shot) as Simona is catching up to Ozzy, Simona's friend greets her.

(numerous shots involving 180 degree rule as they interact)

FRIEND
Hi, how are you?

SIMONA
Hi, I'm good thanks. And You?

FRIEND
Good, where are you going?

SIMONA
Um, I cant talk right now, I have got to go. See you later. Bye.

FRIEND
Bye!
Simona walks away.
(medium shot) of Simona walking round the corner and looking in the distance to see Ozzy.
(long shot) of Ozzy walking round a corner.
Simona continues to follow.

A quiet and neglected area around the back of the college   (EXT.)

-(long shot) Ozzy is in the foreground.  A character is in the distance.
-Ozzy is walking towards the character after turning the corner.
-(various shots) of Ozzy walking towards the character.
-(Medium shot) Simona comes the same corner Ozzy just turned. She looks to see which way he went. She sees him, and begins to carry on following him but then realises that there is another character over there.
-(Medium close up) of Simona. She is surprised, she quickly hides behind the corner, poking her head out in the direction of Ozzy and the other mysterious character.

-(various shot) Ozzy takes off his bag and takes an object out. About a handful in size but is unable to see clearly. Ozzy and the character exchange objects. (still unclear what is being exchanged)
-the other character leaves in the opposite direction.
-(Close up) On Ozzy’s face as he turns around. He looks stern.
-(medium close up) Simona retracts her head from around the corner and leans back on the wall.
-(close up) of Simona’s face. She is puzzled and in shock.

                                      
     --end scene--


By Ash Khan

INITIAL FILM PITCH AND SYNOPSIS

This is a very short, summary of our film...

The story is about a  college student in London who is a keen artist but unfortunately he sells drugs because he comes from a poor family and is determined to have money.

FILM SYNOPSIS


Ozzy, a 18 year old college student who loves to paint is lead to sell drugs in order to provide for his family. His single mother is ill and he also has a younger brother to take care of. Ozzy's frustration of being poor has made him sell drugs. the story starts in Ozzy's college where the girl that he admires oversees him selling drugs to a shady character. Simona, who is the girl, is also in Ozzys Art class. She never thought much about Ozzy before she witnessed the incident but she then felt she had to help Ozzy to leave the drug selling life and pursue his artistic dreams.

Ozzy's and Simona's relationship grows and Simona eventually has feelings for him. Ozzy swears he will not sell drugs any more and tries to go to University however Ozzy's last customer had over dosed the drugs he sold him and died. The police are now investigating the boys death and Ozzy becomes extremly paranoid and depressed.

After constant efforts of leaving that life behind Ozzy's past always manages to creep up again. In the end, through investigation and an anonymous snitch, police crack down on Ozzy and raid his house. They find large sums of drugs in his bedroom and arrest him. His mother has a heart attack from the shock and dies and his little brother is sent to foster care.

Story created by Ash Khan

Posted by Ash Khan