Casting - Caprivi

Philip Smith

Philip is a very experienced actor, and he has been selected to play Caprivi in our opening two minutes. Caprivi is the boss of the kidnapping organisation, but despite this he is quite laid back on the job. He is a businessman at heart, and keeps himself well-groomed, but what we see of him in the opening two minutes is just plain laziness and lack of organisation. This, of course, is not reflected in Philip's personality, as he is actually the co-director of this film as well as one of the lead actors! I have worked with him on many occasions, both as a director and as an actor, and I think we have a very strong working relationship. He was also in 'The Nero Complex'  alongside Lee, and so I know that the two have chemistry when it comes to acting. In 'The Nero Complex'  not only did he show himself as a fierce fighter, but he also delivered  beautiful renditions of 'Somewhere out there', 'The Lady is a Tramp' and 'Life's a Happy Song'. When it comes to his acting, I can personally vouch for him and say that it is first class. His control over his voice box is beyond words, and personally I think he could fit into any role in any film, from Othello to Bucky Larsson! The audience will really see him in his element in 'Sins of the Martyr', as this was the role that many believe he was born to play.

Casting - Davidson

After a series of gruelling auditions for the iconic role of Agent Davidson, we finally settled on the little-known, yet talented actor Lee Davidson, who ironically has the same surname as the lead character in the film, and even more of a coincidence, his first name is the L.E.E without the dots between them!

Lee Davidson

My co-worker and I have a very good working relationship with Lee, and have worked with him on many occasions, most recently on our Preliminary Task where he proved to be very adept at fight sequences. We have also worked with him on stage in a play called 'The Nero Complex', which can be viewed below. In this he portrayed the iconic role of Praetorius, and really brought a new dynamic to songs such as 'The Lady is a Tramp' and 'Life's a Happy Song'. The raw emotion that was balanced with the delicate poetry offered something special that not many actors can master.

 He has also had training in martial arts and enjoys sport, lending him perfectly to the role. Another reason for our decision was that he was by far the most muscle bound of all the people auditioning for the role, and that's the kind of thing we need for our action hero. It is clear to see that even from this early stage, Lee will bring his own into the character of Agent Davidson, and his performance will be something to be remembered.

Location Conveniences

As we're on location, it is important to think of all the facilities that we will need to keep going all day. The actors wont be very happy without refreshments, meals and toilets! Also it must have ease of access, so that we can get straight there. Seeming as our only location is Trafalgar Square, I will only be working this out for that location.

Toilets: - Conveniently there are male and female toilets in the middle of Trafalgar Square, and they are very high quality. There are also lifts to easily access them, and in case any of our crew are hurt, as well as baby changes in case there are any abrupt pregnancies. If these are closed then there are toilets in the National Art Gallery, and the nearby cafes.

Food: There are a lot of cafes and fast food restaurants nearby where the cast and crew can buy their own food. A McDonalds is five minutes walk away towards Leicester Square, and there is a Cafe Nero  on one of the corners of the square. In addition to these there are many restaurants around the area, but I doubt we'll be going to any of them. Conveniently, there is a cafe in the middle of the square, and this provides reasonably cheap food, so for just a quick snack it will be good.

Security: There is always one security guard around Trafalgar Square, so if some local felons attempt to disturb our film making there is security on site. Unfortunately this is also a downside, as it means we cannot go all out on the fight sequences.

Transport: The  closest station to Trafalgar Square is Charing Cross, which exits directly into the square. It can be reached from London Waterloo by taking the Northen Line North two stops. London Waterloo is easy to access as Ashtead Station is five minutes away from my house, and London Waterloo is a few stops away.

Hospitals: St Thomas's Hospital is reasonably close to Trafalgar Square, as it is the other side of Westminster Bridge. This means that if any of our crew is hurt, attacked or decapitated then there's a hospital close at hand.

Scripting - First Draft

INT. CHARING CROSS UNDERGROUND STATION

Dark. Train lights slowly move down the tunnel and get brighter and closer. DAVIDSON leaves the train.

DAVIDSON
Just arrived, he’s getting out here.

He watches as JIM walks upstairs, and pursues him through a crowd of people leaving the train. CAPRIVI is elsewhere.

CAPRIVI
Keep following him. 

DAVIDSON follows JIM through the subway exit and arrives at Trafalgar Square.

EXT. TRAFALGAR SQUARE

 JIM is out of sight.

DAVIDSON

I’ve lost him. He has just left the subway. Young, can you get a visual?

YUNG is on the raised level in Trafalgar Square watching.

YUNG
Yeah. (Yawns) He’s just rounded the column.

DAVIDSON moves round near the road for a better look.

DAVIDSON
I’ve got him.

YUNG
He’s got a case. Where did he get that?

 DAVIDSON
I don’t know. He didn’t have that on the train.

JIM puts the case on the edge of the fountain and opens it.

YUNG
I’ve got to get in for a closer look.

 DAVIDSON
Palmer, is it clear?

A dead man on the roof is dragged off.

DAVIDSON
Palmer? Young, hold off for now.

CAPRIVI
Don’t risk it, we haven’t enough men. Tell him to fall back.

 YUNG
F*ck it!

Rips the earpiece from his ear and casts it into the Costa abyss.

 DAVIDSON
He’s gone dark.

 CAPRIVI
You have to stop him.

DAVIDSON hangs up. ZUBASU appears behind an agitated CAPRIVI. As YUNG makes his way down the stairs DAVIDSON starts moving. YUNG reaches the fountain and DAVIDSON jumps over a wall into the square. YUNG and JIM exchange glances as DAVIDSON stops in the middle of the square. Pause. Everything is at a standstill. Bang. YUNG is down.

DAVIDSON
Yung is down.

Silence.

Hello? Dammit.

DAVIDSON hangs up. He starts moving towards JIM, but two men approach from across the square and take JIM away. One of them starts to follow DAVIDSON. DAVIDSON crosses the square and goes into the toilet lift. The man follows him in, and DAVIDSON takes him out. DAVIDSON leaves the lift, leaving a dead body behind him. Surprisingly, no one in the square, even the security guards have noticed the commotion, so DAVIDSON escapes unnoticed

Props List

There will be a fair few props in our film that we will need, and, being a film, each prop should have as much personality as the character who uses it. The props reflect the character of the person who uses it, so it is vital that we locate the right props. They also, of course, need to be affordable and accessable. Here is a list of the props we will need:

Ear Pieces - During the sequence the characters working for the kidnapping company, and also Agent Davidson use ear pieces in order to keep each other updated with the mission across the location. An idea we have had for ear pieces is to get hold of some old, borken headphones and cut the cable off, so that only the bud that goes into the ear remains. This will look very state-of-the-art as they wont have any cables attached.

Briefcase - Half way through the scene the target picks up a briefcase which has something in that we never find out. The briefcase is what raises alarm in one of the kidnappers head, as they think that something big is going down. I think that the look that we want for the briefcase is either a brown leather one, which would look very old-school stylish, or we want a silver metal one that would make it seem more official and its contents more precious. We will see what we can find and decide what looks best.

Cup of Coffee - A small, yet essential prop is a cup of coffee that one of the kidnappers is drinking whilst on the job. When he starts to get alarmed he takes out the ear piece and puts it in the cup of coffee in order to 'go dark' dramatically. The cup of coffee also establishes how lazy the kidnappers are, and that the mission up till then was not very serious at all. It will be a basic cafe take away style cup, preferably without a lid, so that the ear piece can be easily put in it.

Phone - One of the kidnappers who isn't directly at the scene isn't speaking through an ear piece as he does not need to because there is no one around to be suspicious of him. He is speaking through a phone instead. The phone can be very modern to show that the man gets a decent amount of money from the job and he thinks of himself as a sort of a businessman. I think that the best sort of phone for this would be a smart phone, as he would also probably use the phone to get schematics for buildings and get quick internet access. A person I know has a very nice white smart phone that is quite big, so we will probably use that. If this is confirmed than I will post a picture straight away.

That is all the props that we will need for the opening two minutes of our film. We are also considering giving the kidnappers binoculars so that it is clear to the audience that they are just observing the target to start with, however it does lose the power of stealth that the kidnappers have, as weilding binoculars in Trafalgar Square isn't very common.

Scripting

When making a film, an important part is the script, as it will ultimately be what makes or breaks a good film. It's hard to make a good film out of a bad script! Our film opening is mainly one action sequence, but it does contain dialogue within it, and therefore we need to script this before we get on locaion so that we know exactly what we are doing. A script would also help in fixing down the synopsis of the opening fully and in detail, so would eb a big step forward.

It is important in a story that early on each character gains a definitive voice, and it is obvious from an outset about their relationships with all the other characters. These two points are what will shape the dialogue, and from following this formula the dialogue should come pretty naturally. In this way, writing the script also helps with character development, and therefore with the acting.
Our main character is Agent Davidson, but will be known in the film as simply 'Davidson', as 'Agent Davidson' sounds incredible childish andit doesn't sound serious at all. From his experience working as a government agent we would expect him to take any sort of mission reasonably seriously, and use a few military semantics. Being on the good side of the law he is a bit like a fish out of water in the opening scene, as he is not used to having to avoid the police or break the law. The company he is in a mole with isn't as strict as the L.E.E and so the more laid back atmosphere seems very uncanny to him. However he will try to act as if he knows what he is doing and try to fit in with them, so his dialogue will be a combination of casual and using the formal semantics. To appeal to a wider audience, we have also crafted Davidson as quite suave, and he has a bit of a James Bond air to him. With this in mind the dialogue should perhaps be a bit less formal at times.

The people working with Davidson for the kidnapping company are a lot more laid back, and although they get the job done, they are not as used to strict rules and efficiency as Davidson is. During the scene we have decided that one of thier men is drinking coffee whilst on the job, and another is eating a sandwich. This also gives the feel that the mission is not that serious at the moment and was not meant to go further. Starting out like this makes it all the more shocking when the mission goes so drastically wrong, after everyone had started out so calmly and securely. These characters will talk very informally down the phone to the extent where they are almost talking lazily. At first in the opening, these characters will even yawn a few times, to give the idea that they do not have honest jobs where you have to get up early all the time.

Although a lot of communication comes through non-verbal communication, this is considerably harder in the opening sequence as all the characters are talking through ear pieces. They are trying not to give their position away or seem like there are more of them around, so they are talking as covertly as possible, not leaving much room to communicate non-verbally.The difficulties that come with filming a conversation through ear pieces are that the timings might go a bit wrong between listening to the other side of the conversation and replying. They also will not know the tone of voice that the other actor uses, and so their reply may be under or over acted. To get over this problem the actors will have to go through the dialogue in detail before filming.

The script is still in very early stages at the moment, but it will be posted on here as soon as it is finished. I will also post showing the progression of the script from first to final draft.

Film Institutions - Enigma Entertainment

Enigma Entertainment is the production company owned by Philip Smith and myself. It is comprised of two divisions - Enigma Theatre and Enigma Cinema, which are a rebranding of the now defunct ASP-TV and it's subsidaries Collossus Pictures and Spartan Entertainment, which were responsible for projects such as 'France 24' and 'The Piano'  in the cinematic department, as well as 'Love, Lies & Venice' and 'The Nero Complex' in the theatre department.

Enigma Cinema is a production company that specialises in virtually no-budget blockbuster epics, with our debut feature the hugely successful 'Preliminary Task' which accumulated over 200 views within a fortnight on Youtube. Subjects tackled in Enigma films tend to gravitate towards violence and fast-paced action, forever culminating in an explosive climax. Enigma Theatre, however, is best known for its disgusting and outrageous subject matters, and is not afraid to take taboos to another level.

In the upcoming Enigma Cinema feature film 'Sins of the Martyr' (Spring 2013), the audience will see a more sophisticated level of film making, and a higher class of action sequences. Despite its extremely low-budget, the film retains an extremely high production value through it's iconic locations and world-class acting.