Internship!

Our winter vacations started with an internship at "Pyramid studios", here in Karachi, which is a basically a production house. It is part of "Interflow Communications" which the largest advertising agency in Pakistan.

At the pyramid studios, we will work in groups of two in three departments ; Graphics, Audio and Editing.

Mind Maps

We were told to design mind maps for our final video which serves to help plot our ideas and come up with interesting new connections for our project video. I created three mind maps focusing on Narrative, Audience and Institution. I have already discussed about my Institution in previous post. 

While making the audience mind map, I had an idea of how the audience would react to the movie. Since its just the first 2 minutes of the movie, the main plot of the story can not be shown. I got an initial sense of what my audience reaction might be when I discussed my script with my teacher and class fellows. They all immediately told me that the idea was attractive, yet controversial. I had to clarify that the purpose of my movie is not to portray Muslims negatively. Actually, if I was making a complete movie, it would show the problems that the Muslim community faces in the modern world. Also the opening title does show that Muslim countries like Pakistan are facing the worst of terrorism. Moreover, I have given the age range of 16 years and above for my target audience because I believe that the audience will then be mature enough to understand the topic instead of taking the topic as entertainment only.

In narrative mind map, I have simply summarized the movie for production purposes for example what locations will be involved, details about the characters and what basically happens in the movie. I have also mentioned that it is sort of a recreation of an actual unfortunate event which took place in Lahore, Pakistan in May 2010. 

Treatment and Storyboard for Final

Here's the treatment for my final OCR project at A/S level. There will be some improvisation if some of the scenes are too difficult to execute. I have timed the scenes as well so that they fit in the 2 minutes specified. The time shown above the sentence, for example, "Friday,1:45 pm" is the time that will appear on the screen.

Opening Titles(Company/Institution's name)

(Max. 10 seconds)

Friday, 1:45 pm.(Slide on screen)

A van is shown stopping in alley/street. Two men get out of the van first and then a third man comes out of the back carrying a ladder. They are all seen to have guns but they conceal these as they get out of the van. There’s a fourth man, but he stays in the van.

(max. 20 sec)

Earlier, 11.36 am.(Slide on screen)

In ‘Federal Intelligence Agency’,

Arish: Listen up everyone! We a have code red situation. We have just received a bomb threat. I need you guys to alert all security agencies and get a list out of possible high profile targets.

(max. 15 sec)

1:48 pm.(Slide on screen)

The terrorists lean the ladder against the back of the mosque. They climb into the mosque and have concealed weapons. There is no one in the veranda of the mosque yet. They all start sitting in corners of the veranda.

(max. 15 sec)

12: 14 pm.(Slide on screen)

'FIA Headquarters'(appears on screen)

Afia enters Arish’s office. He was talking on the phone. He puts the phone down.

Afia: Sir, we've got maximum security up at most of the high profile targets we could think of including most of the large mosques.

Arish: No use. Saad’s informer told him a white van has already dispatched with 200 kg of explosive.

(max. 20 sec)

1:56pm(Slide on screen)

There’s a lot of crowd entering the mosque now and police security has got lose. A boy enters through the crowd.

(max. 10 sec)

1:53pm(Slide on screen)

Arish: We have got the target. Get our units and inform special forces. Come on move, move, move!(He faces Afia who was standing by his side)I hope we reach in time. If we don’t, God bless those people.

(max. 10 sec)

1:58pm(Slide on screen)

One of the terrorist hears something(He has a hearing device in his ear)and looks at one of his partners. The three then open fire. One policeman gets hit. People start rushing out. The police van and Arish’s team reaches the mosque. Arish realizes its too late to prevent bloodshed. Then there is a blast.

(max. 15 sec)

Title

(5 sec)


Here's the storyboard for my movie.  It is like an initial picture of what my movie would have.

                                                                           

Institution-for final

I did a little research on institutions that produce fictional movies that deal with issues like the Middle East and the war against terror. As a starting point, I selected the movies that I have already seen on this particular type of subject.  Warner Brothers have produced "Body of Lies" in 2008, which also deals with the same subject. The movie "Rendition" was produced by Anonymous Content in 2007. Universal Pictures has made some popular movies such as "The Kingdom", "Green Zone", "Charlie Wilson's War" and "Jarhead". Except for "Jarhead", Relativity Media has co-financed these films along Universal Pictures.
So, I have decided  Relativity Media would be a possible institution behind my film.

Switch

I was recently having trouble organizing my group and doing my assignments at the same time. Therefore, I have decided that I will work on the final project on my own. I had a backup script that I had already prepared as a contingency in case the group dynamics were not working for me. I'll have to do a little more research on institutions now and will upload mind maps soon.

Movie Poster

Our latest assignment was to come up with a poster for either our preliminary movie or the final movie, the opening title. I decided to make one for our preliminary video since we have not yet finished planning for our final video. I used two different types of software here. One was Adobe Photoshop where I used some basic effects such as cropping the pictures of my actors using Magic Wand Tool and used different texts along coloring effects. The second software I used was Picasa, which helped me 'retouch' the picture of the actors since the magic wand tool did not exactly crop as well as I wanted.
One of the things that might look confusing is that our video only featured 'Saad Tariq' and the other two actors were not shown. Therefore I placed him in the center of the three to make him look like the main character. The teenage actors, the tagline and the black and white name of the film(which gives it a formal and non-funky look) here suggests that if there was a full length movie, it would have been about the tough competition and rivalries that students face at school. The PG-13 rating at the bottom of the poster also supports this idea.

*Universal Studios logo and Dolby digital logo are properties of their respective owners.*

Second Prelim's Script

Dark interrogation cell. There is a table and two chairs. A file and some papers are lying on the table. Just one bulb hangs directly above the table, pouring all its light on it.

A man(detective) in a waist coat is walking around the room. There is a jacket hanging over one of the chairs. The man also has badge on his vest and it is implied that he is a detective or an official.

A bell rings and the door of the room opens. A man wearing a black and white striped shirt and grey/black trouser comes in (he limps) and sits down on a chair.

Detective: You have been with us for six months now Rick. You look pretty fine to me so I am expecting you to cooperate. I just want you to answer me one simple question. Who is Bob Marlin?

(Rick does not answer and keeps staring at the file on the table)

Detective: Are you listening to me? Who is Bob Marlin?

Rick(laughs at first and suddenly turns serious): I don’t know. (Giggles again)

Detective: Listen to me very carefully. I know that you are completely well so I won’t mind using physical methods to get my answer now.

Rick: I do not know Bob Marlin!

Detective: That is a lie! (Pauses). Look, you have murdered five innocent people and you can never get out of this place. But if you cooperate, I’ll give you all possible relaxations. If you do not, you will get nothing but misery and pain.

Rick: I do not feel any pain.

(Detective goes towards him and kicks him in his leg. Rick screams)

Rick: I do not know any Bob! Let me go!

Detective: You know him very well so don’t think you can lie to us, I just need to know about him!

Rick: You will never get the answer from me! (spits at the Detective.)

Detective: Take him away! (waits until Rick is taken away. Then takes out his cell phone and speaks on the phone) 'He isn’t any better. We’ll have to put him back in the ward.' ( He opens the file. The front page is Bob Marlin’s profile and a photograph in it reveals that Rick is Bob himself.)