Ryan's Blog

Film Poster Inspiration - 'Arrival' To attract audiences to watch your film, many marketing practices have to be used in order to promote the film. To market our film, we are creating a poster that will highlight what the film will involve, whilst also looking attractive and atmospheric. This is the poster for the film 'Arrival'. This film is about the arrival of aliens to earth and the process of asking the question: "What is your purpose here?" This film is a sci-fi thriller and I think this poster does a great job of representing the general atmosphere of the film. The poster takes place in the location that most of the film is set in. The imagery of this location shows the alien spaceship in the centre, with a helicopter flying towards the spaceship. By using the "Z rule" we can see that the poster shows all of it's most important information and imagery in accordance to this rule. The actor's names appear at the top ...

We decided to apply certain narrative theories to our film, in order to gain a better understanding of how we should structure the film. We looked at the theories of Propp, Todorov and Strauss. Propp's Character Types: The Hero: Kevin The Villain: Limbos The Helper: The Ferryman/Ron Todorov's Narrative Theory: Equilibrium: Kevin being alive, Ron continuing with his job Disruption: Kevin dying Recognition: Ron and Kevin meet, Ron explains his job to Kevin Repair: Ron brings him to memories of his past life Reinstatement: Kevin going 'up' or 'down' Strauss' Binary Opposition: Life vs. Death Knowing vs. Unknowing Good vs. Bad Moral vs. Immoral Heaven vs. Hell

Filming: Day 2 We filmed the initial scenes between Ron and Kevin today, which were successful overall. However, there were a few setbacks. We were filming in incredibly cold conditions (below zero), meaning it was difficult for our actors to stay comfortable while filming, especially Caolan (playing Kevin) as he only had a light hoodie. Secondly, it was very windy, which meant that trying to achieve high-quality audio was a struggle. However, this was simply avoided by covering the receptors on the handheld microphone with a tissue, which worked quite well. A low angle shot, coupled with the appropriate use of scene blocking, allowed us to create the affect of Kevin's soul (just recently taken by The Ferryman) looking down upon his own dead body. Although we are unable to film this week, we're all confident that we will be finished filming soon.

'River': Film Treatment Genre: Dark comedy, fantasy Duration: 5-10 minutes Target audience: Anyone over the age of 12 Outline: A man, named Kevin, dies from alcohol poisoning, collapsing onto the side of the road. The fabled 'Ferryman' (a prominent figure from Greek mythology) comes to 'collect' him, who takes him 'through the river' to the afterlife. This version of the afterlife appears to be some form of purgatory, as The Ferryman takes him to different parts of his life, and to see a number of different people who mean something to him. Yet this world also seems to have a society in itself, with The Ferryman's role being his actual occupation, and with other ferry men working at the time. As his journey through memories comes to an end, The Ferryman must send Kevin up or down... Character breakdown: Ferryman/Ron (John Campbell): One of the ferry men. He seemingly used to be a plucky, enthusiastic man, but has ...

Filming: Day 1 We filmed our interview scene today, which went exactly as we'd hoped. We filmed this scene, with permission, in one of our school's interview rooms. Our teacher was chosen for the role of the interviewer, as we knew that he could perform incredibly well in the role. John Campbell (playing the role of 'The Ferryman') was brought up to the school as a guest, with the schools's permission, and arrived on time. The filming went very well, as both actors exceeded our expectations and the filming location was perfect. We were able to film all of the appropriate shots, as well as record all of the necessary audio. A lot of the shots we decided to use were mid-shots, over the shoulder, two-shots and a few close-ups (highlighting The Ferryman's nervousness). We also filmed shots of the posters around the interview room, to be used as establishing shots for the scene and for comedic effect, in a moment of improvisation.  

'River' Shooting Schedule Day 1: Friday, 9th of March 2pm - 3pm  Interview Room, Rathmore Grammar School Interview Scene Cast: John Campbell, Cathal Tierney   Day 2: Sunday, 18th of March 11am - 4pm Twinbrook Initial scenes between Kevin and Ron Cast: Caolan Plumb, John Campbell   Day 3: Wednesday, 4th of April   2pm - 5pm Twinbrook, Lagmore All outdoor scenes between Kevin and Ron (including scene with Kevin's friend) Cast: Caolan Plumb, John Campbell, Aaron Esteban   Day 4: Sunday, 8th of April 4pm - 8pm Lagmore, John's house, Aaron's house Opening scene in Ron's home, Kevin and his girlfriend, final outdoor scene between Kevin and Ron Cast: Caolan Plumb, John Campbell, Amy De Meulemeester        

'River': Prop List  Scene 1 Props: - Drink can Scene 2 Props: - Printer - Laptop - Chair and table - Paper for printer - Kettle - Clothes to put on - Travel mug Scene 3 Props: - Paper (folded up) Scene 4 Props: - Table and chairs  - Stack of paper - Pens, general stationary Scene 6 Props: - Phone - Empty cans  Scene 7 Props: - Paper (folded up) Scene 8 Props: - Sealed letter - Sheet of paper                

Risk Assessment 1. Lighting: As a large portion of the film takes place outside, some of which may be in the morning (and one possible scene at night), there is a risk of it being quite dark outside, and the natural lighting therefore being subpar. To overcome this problem, we will be prepared to use external lighting if necessary. However, due to this being filmed in March, it will more than likely be bright enough during the daytime scenes, regardless of whether they are filmed in the morning or the afternoon. Also, if we do choose to film one specific scene at night, we believe that the street lighting would be sufficient, but will, of course, be prepared to use  anyway. 2. Weather: Another issue that arises from filming outside is the weather, especially considering the fact that it has been very poor recently, with a lot rain, snow and a below zero temperature, in some cases. To combat this problem we will have to keep up to date with the weather forecast, over the ...

The storyboard for our film was created using the program FireAlpaca. After I created the shot list for the film, we were then able to work on the storyboard. The images are based off of the shots that we had decided upon for the final film.