Shot Sheets

Filming Destination

Film Destination

I chose to film in South bank London for the pure reason that it is a very remarkable and recognisable place in London. South bank at dusk/night time is additionally extremely quiet at times and the sound of the thames beside you is what I needed for my film opening.

As my film opening is quite sad and lonely, I wanted to film somewhere which had a lot of space, to emphasise the loneliness of the character Ashur (played by Ibz Yildiz). I wanted to film my first scenes without the character looking up at bridges and additionally looking over them into the thames. At night time the light coming from the London buildings creates light over the water. 

The scenes that I wanted to use my character in are under a tunnel on the South bank which has yellowy/orange lightening, which is ideal to introduce my character in, as the light source is not natural and quite powerful. The other scenes with my character would be on the streets of London, near Trafalgar Square , as the streets are usually very busy and London buses regularly go down there. 

These are the self-taken photo's of my destinations to film in-

Summary of my digital storyboard

Monday 27th January 2014

After creating my storyboard on paper, I inserted my pictures onto a Final Cut Express folder where I began to cut and insert titles onto my film. On Final Cut Express I was able to cut and move scenes to different area's which made it easier to picture what my real film will look like, which also will be a great help to me for when I come to edit the actual footage. 

I finalised the order of my story board and then began to insert the titles, starting with the distributer. After that I followed in order of title, actors, ect. Each clip had one title on it apart from 

one which included two actors.

AFter all my clips had titles on and in the right place, I began to add opacity levels, which allowed the titles to fade in and out of the clip, giving it a professional look. I was also able to change the font and colour too.

After all of this was completed, I had to ensure that my storyboard timing did not go over two minutes, as if it went over, the film opening would be too long. I shorted many clips and eventually lowered the storyboard from 2:53 seconds to 1:40 seconds. This also allows me to be flexible when it comes to actual footage, as it means I have 20 extra seconds to adjust my clips with. 

When all of this was finally done, I added in my chosen music. I was advised to look at audionetwork.com which is a website which is non-copyright. I used the song Mixed Emotions by Barrie Gledden. I found this song on genre's which give an ambient and sad atmosphere, which is what I want the audience to feel when watching my film opening. I downloaded this track, where it saved onto iTunes automatically. I then rendered it onto my storyboard and cut it to the correct length of 1:40. I also tried to make the titles fall in time with the music, which engages the audience more. After this was completed, I watched the film over with some other colleagues and teachers who gave me constructive criticism such as putting certain title names before others. I took this onboard and edited my storyboard.

After this was completed I saved the file and feel confident about beginning to film.

Titles- Return Me

Return Me (2015) Title Sequence

The following titles is the order that I will follow in my title sequence- under each title I have written an explanation for why I have chosen a particular person/company for my sequence.

Distributor-

20th Century Fox

I have chosen 20th Century Fox due to the research that I conducted on similar action/adventure and thriller films. These films are based on an adventure that a character goes under involving some violence along the way which relates to my own film, as Ashur is faced with several dangerous situations as he returns back to Syria. This distributing company is additionally internationally known and is a reliable and famous distributor. 

Production Company

Paramount Pictures

Title

RETURN ME

The title of my film is called Return Me. It is a phrase in which Ashur tells himself when he is boarding the plane back to Syria. The title is a reflection of what the film is about- someone being returned somewhere. 

Actors

• Achmed- PLAYED BY- Ibz Yildiz
• Sabeen- PLAYED BY- Charles Varne
• Lilith- PLAYED BY- Alia Coulson
• Rios-Head gang member- PLAYED BY- Tony Mendos
• Kairo- Other gang member- PLAYED BY- Ray Clarke
• Saha- Cousin- PLAYED BY- Kate Bishop

Casting

Amber Salomone- As I am the director of the film I would also have casted my actors for the film, as it as a quite small production. 

Costume Design

Sandy Powell- Sandy Powell is an English costume designer whom has designed costumes for films such as;

• Shutter Island (2010)
• The Departed (2006)
• Gangs of New York (2002)
• The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013)

All of these films are Thriller/Drama's which is the same genre for my own film- Return Me. I thought that she would be a suitable role for costume design as she is famous for her designs within action packed film.

Music by

Bob Bradley- I have used Bob Bradley for Music as he is who I will be using for the song that comes on at the start of the Film. His songs Acoustic Emotions 1 and 2, and The Enquiry I will be considering to use.

Music Supervisor

Nathaniel Mechaly- Nathaniel Mechaly is a famous music producer

Film Editor

Michael Khan

Production Designer

Thomas E Sanders

Director of photography

Janusz Kaminski

Producer

Amber Salomone
Robert Rodat

Writer

Robert Rodat

Director

Amber Salomone

Existing film research

Existing films based on a similar genre 

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Genre: Action,Drama,Warfilm

General George Marshall is informed that three of the four brothers of the Ryan family were killed in action and that their mother is to receive three telegrams to inform her of that. He learns that the fourth son, Private First Class James Francis Ryan, is a paratrooper, and is missing in action somewhere in Normandy. After reading to his staff Abraham Lincoln's Bixby letter, Marshall orders that Ryan be found and sent home immediately.

Soldiers are informed that they are now In a search for Private Ryan.

Director- Steven Spielberg

Distributer-Dreamworks Pictures/ Paramount Pictures

Rendition (2007)

Genre: Thriller, Drama

After a terrorist bomb kills an American an investigation is led to an Egyptian who lives in the United States married to an American. The US government send him back to Egypt where he is tortured and interrogated. In the meantime, his wife raises hell to find him despite being pregnant but the person behind refuses to give any information.

Director- Gavin Hood

Distributer- New Line Cinema

Taken (2008)

Genre: Action, Thriller

After reluctantly agreeing to let his 17-year-old daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), go to France with her best friend, Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is horrified to hear that she is kidnapped by an Albanian gang whose specialty is prostitution rings. With only 96 hours to go before he'll never find her again, Bryan rushes to France to save her. As a former CIA agent, he has all the skills necessary to rescue her, though it may put his life in danger -he can only find her.

Director- Pierre Morel

Distributor- 20th Century Fox

Driven to Kill (2009)

Genre: Action, Thriller

A Russian mobster named Ruslan, a crime novelist returns home to find out that his daughter is marrying his arch enemy. His past comes back to haunt him when his family begin to be threatened, leaving him to return to a live he once knew…

Director- Jeff King

Distributor-20th Century Fox

The Plot- film Return Me (2015)

Return Me (2015) Action/Adventure Drama 

Achmed Eid is a 17 year old boy living in adoptive care by his English born parents, Steven and Kathryn. In March of 2011 the Syrian Civil War broke out and has been on going for the last 2 years, 9 months, 3 weeks and 1 day. Expressed through the media, Syria are known for using child soldiers in their wars as young as 14- shown by the Telegraph newspaper. Achmed, his elder brother Sabeen and little sister Lilith lived in the city of Aleppo, Syria when their parents were unfortunately killed months into the war. Unsure of what would happen to them, Achmed and his brother Sabeen were taken under to be soldiers, whilst their little sister Lilith was taken to Egypt where she would be safe. Achmed and Sabeen were taken to be soldiers by an extremely dangerous and violent gang whom capture soldiers to fight. A year on, Achmed began to experience more and more trauma and could not cope with the stress and trouble his lifestyle brung him. His determination for a better life lead him to escape, knowing that it would be a possibility that he would die if leaders of the gang saw him, Ashur took the chance and fled to Egypt to find his sister. Without their brother, Achmed and Lilith were deported to England where they would be placed in fulltime foster care. In January of 2013, Achmed and Lilith were adopted by an English couple who lived in Greenwich, London. 

During his time in London, Achmed found it very difficult settling in and learning how to adapt to not only every day life, but additionally life in England away from his brother Sabeen. From the traumatic experiences, Achmed developed skitizpheria and depression, living a very dangerous yet fragile lifestyle as a teenager. Moreover, in addition to this, the unknowing location or welfare of his brother Sabeen tortures him as he lives in doubt of whether his brother is even alive. Although Achmed appreciates his adoptive family and safe lifestyle compared to Syria, Achmed cannot help thinking about his brother.

Achmed decides that he cannot live the rest of his life wondering whether his brother is alive or not and makes the decision to go back to Syria to locate and save his brother in the hope that they will be able to flee together to come back to the United Kingdom. Achmed understands that going back to Syria to find his brother would be extremely difficult, especially with his condition and additionally knowing that the gang that first captured him would do it again, he fights against all odd's and eventually forges his way out of the country with the use of his adoptive parents card details. Will he get caught by the gang and be forced back into fighting? Or will he find his brother and return back to England.