Preparation and Shooting days. My role

During the preparation work our group managed to generate few key features of our film and I tried to do my best so I generated some ideas mostly linked with a sound background of the film and I managed to make a shooting script of the film and write few posts as what our target audience or which kind of institution is going to distribute our film.
In the process of development of ‘Monroe’ film concept I got a role of a sound director, however we didn’t have much scenes where my direct role would necessary in the shooting day so my main work is still wait for me when we will start to edit our project and there I should work with a background of our film and fill it by Marilyn songs, broadcaster voice, thrilling music, etc.
However I’m participated directly in a shooting day as well because I tried myself as a cameraman in the first scene where we needed to track the camera on a tripod moved through tracked to provide a smooth move. So I tried several times to film this scene with all aspects of the mis-en-scene to give a full picture to our viewer where we are and slightly release Marilyn pictures, newspapers, suspect board and TV monitors with a laptop one after another and it seems to be that I succeeded in it a little bit so in editing room there will be a need to place necessary sounds only.

The team-work of our group on my opinion was very effective and our group consist of two sub-groups: Gaby and Heather who were leaders during all time of the shooting day and had most clear picture in their mind how our project should looked like. And me and Tatiana were mostly supportive characters who helped with decorating studio for appropriate scenes and made some support work.
So I think our team was great balanced and everyone knew what exactly that should do so there weren’t any conflicts or any misunderstandings and we succeeded in filming our project on 100% I think. Now we are ready to cut our film and edit it and fill with appropriate sound background to make a really good opening of the film

Casting choices

We managed to find necessary number of actors who performed roles of dancers and 50’s film crew quite fast so we had a list of potential actors who might play in ‘Monroe’. After few days lots of actors changed their mind or other problems appeared so they refused to take part in this film but we still had plenty of AS students who agreed to be part of our media project.
The biggest problem was to find a girl who would be play Marilyn because we had several candidates for this role but most of them refused to play and only one gave her agree before 2 days of actual shooting day but the day after she refused so we started to look for new actress desperately and succeeded in it, so new Marilyn was an AS student Joan de Boer and she fit her role perfectly in a pink dress, elbow length gloves and curly hair wig, she was right as a real Marilyn Monroe.
All dancers wore formal black suits which Gaby and Heather managed to find in Theatre department with other different coloured suits in which other actors were dressed who performed roles of filming crew members.
They looked exactly we wanted to, as 50’s gentlemen and of course Marilyn who was fantastic in her dress and surrounded by different aspects of the mis-en-scene.

Shooting day. Part 2. Location.

As I mentioned in part 1 in describing the practical part of our group we had two different made-up locations in a studio. Fist one was Detective’s office where walls were covered by posters, posters of Marilyn Monroe and newspapers about her. On Detective’s desk was a laptop which actually was the only one item which remind a viewer that this modern days with an investigation of 50 year age. One of the key items which shows us that we are in Detective office but not in a room one of fans of Marilyn was a Suspect board with lots of links of famous public people as John Kennedy and his brother Robert with 50’s unknown gangsters pictures who might kill a famous superstar.
The second scene in which we transformed Hurtwood studio was a 50’s studio with appropriate equipment as old-fashioned fake video camera, filming crew chairs and the scene itself which was a miniature copy of the same stage in the clip ‘Diamonds are a girls best friend’ so we made a real identical copy of 50’s environment in the studio. In addition we owned such items as speaking trumpet, small old-fashioned camera for producer, red hearts for every dancer in a scene and lots of secondary items which were handed by member of 50’s filming crew in the film.
So the only one location in our film was the Hurtwood studio, however we managed to transform it in two different environments (one of present days and one of 50’s film studio) so we made exactly what we wanted to show to potential viewer.

Finally, here is a comparison between our drafts of the two scenes and how we managed to recreate them in real studio.

Detective Office

50's Film Set

Detective office with loads of Monroe' photos and film posters with her. Old monitors, a laptop and lots of newspapers represent an extreme interest of such sort of person in Marilyn Monroe and a suspect board which we placed later give us a perception that this accomodation belongs either to crazy fan of 1950's pop-star or to Detective.

This is a final scene of our opening sequence where Joanne as Monroe was surrounded by gentlemen and an old-fashioned camera give us a clue that, firstly, all this is filming of video clip and that it takes place in sixties because of the hugу size of this camera.

The role of lightining and elements of mis-en-scene are very important here. The lightning was coloured by red thanks to studio facilities and the key light was a bit darkened in order to create a bit intimate and mysterious atmosphere. Props and costumes were picked very carefully as well. We managed to get the exact copy of Monroe dress and some black suits for actors. Finally, studio was coloured red and there were some stairs in order to create the same backstage as it was in 60's video clip so our viewer would be convinced that he is watching a real film but not a rough student work.

'Monroe' costume list

Show Scene

Marilyn Monroe:
· Marilyn Monroe Pink Dress
· Pink elbow length gloves
· Diamond necklace, earrings and bracelets
· Blonde short curly haired wig

Dancers:
· 9 black suits
· 9 pink sashes
· 9 white bowties

Crew:
· 5 Trilby Hats
· 16 Coloured suits (not black)

We chose exactly this set of costumes to be closer to the original clip of Monroe song where she was in a pink dress and elbow length gloves surrounded by gentlemen who wore exactly the same smart black suits. So we managed to find same black suits for dances. Finally, becuase we need to have a 50's look filming crew, we weared them in a different colours suits to differ them from dancers but they still should br in suits becuase it was common in 50's.

'Monroe' Prop list

Office Set:
• Posters of Marilyn
• Pictures of Marilyn
• Documents
• Ash tray
• Desk light
• 4 television monitors
• Laptop
• Bin
• Lots of paper (crunched up bits as well)
• Pencil pot with pencils and pens
• Old newspapers

Show Set:
• Black round tables
• Directors chairs
• Sound boom mic
• Loudspeaker
• 9 love hearts 30 cm high (provided by students)
• Black fan
• Clipboards
• Mugs
• Make-up
• 50’s camera
• Clapper board

The work on ‘Monroe’ opening sequence. Start of the shooting day. Preparation.

The shooting day began from the preparation of studio territory because we need to transform this place in Detectives office so we covered the walls by Monroe posters, photos and pictures. Then we prepared all monitors to show particular videos, for example one of three monitors played an iconic Monroe performance ‘Happy Birthday, Mr. President’, then the laptop on Detective’s desk played ‘Some like it’s hot’ to show one of the bright examples of Monroe’s career and the final monitor played ‘Diamonds are a girls best friend’ in which we zoom in after and transport directly to 50’s.

Then the area of the studio expanded according to the next scene, office fake walls were removed and transformed studio into one big stage with a special territory with red walls and stairs and Monroe and dancers actors on it to make the exact copy of performance that we saw moments before.
The surrounding environment was exactly what we need from office to 50’s dance scene. We met several difficulties when decorated office walls because the office territory was too big so we changed the position of posters few times to fill the space which camera is going to film by more pictures and less blank spaces in a wall. Regarding a Ball scene, a studio crew made red stairs and painted to the red the floor.

Our film sequence was concentrated more on pan and tracking techniques and less on frames which were shot from different angles. However we used a zoom at once to show the viewer his immediate journey from present day to 50’s and TV monitor which was zoomed had a role of streak between these two times. Tracking was used mostly in Office scene with a similar idea as ‘Sahara’ movie had just by showing pictures and photos in a room to tell a viewer what kind of room it is, what person can live there and what he is doing. So we panned the camera from box full of film magazines of past century to the wall, firstly, with Monroe photos where she is a small girl and photos which show her way to fame, then camera moves further to the iconic image of Monroe in white dress, to the posters of films where Marilyn Monroe starred in a main role, pan continues showing then Monroe’s worst days to suspect board of gangsters who had links with JFK, RFK and lots of public people who might willing to kill Marilyn by someone’s hands. Such shots as a TV monitor in a centre of the frame with Marilyn ‘Happy Birthday’ were very important to show the 50’s superstar not only on pictures but on videos as well. The frame with Monroe ‘Diamonds are a girls best friends’ was a key frame in office scene as middleware link between two sets of the sequence.

What kind of institution would produce our film?

Our group assumes the fact that this film is about one of the most famous American superstars so distributor and a partner to advertise such film is more likely to be situated in US and ideally such partner have to have its own international distribution network to provide a simultaneous premier of the film in all countries. So our group would hand in an application form to Hollywood and try to attract attention one of the major Hollywood distributor companies such as 20th century Fox Searchlight, United International Pictures, Sony Pictures (Tri-Star pictures) which departments are working with small and average budget films and this might be interesting for them because they already have an experience of distributing thriller with conspiracy background and exciting atmosphere but there is still not so many films about Americas conspiracy things because they used to see secrets of nation only in a good light so this movie might be a scandal because it almost accusing John Kennedy in Monroe death. So following an experience of such film as ‘Da Vince Code’ which made people to have doubts about Christian religion, another film which say not very pleasant things about government might have success not only in America but in Europe and even some Asian countries as well.
Our unique selling point is a conspiracy theory first of all is going to be a two hour puzzle until Detective solve it and second point is a musical part filled with a variety of Marilyn songs and her fantastic performances.

Finally, we stopped our choice on Fox Serchlight distribution because it is very well-known distribution company which works with low and average budget films and has a reputation of an organisation which distributes films of the really good quality. The bright examples of Fox Searchlight films are: "(500) days of summer", the screening of Chuk Palahniuk novel "Choke" and well-known film "Wrestler" thanks to Mickey Rourke and Darren Aronofsky who is famous for directing films with a deep and unusual plot. Our film has a deep plot as well based on conspiracy theory, American history and one of the most beautiful woman in the world. So we think that such distributor is likely to be interested in promotion and screening of our film.

Storyboard draft.

Set sketch. Detective's office draft.

The target audience of 'Monroe' film

Marilyn Monroe was an American superstar of 50’s so the most profitable place are going to be USA and Canada because she was American. The age class of potential viewers can vary from 60-70 years people who remember Monroe’s live performances and to 30-40 year people who hear lots of times her songs and for such people she was an idol and even an icon of American pop music. This film can be interesting even for our peers mostly not because this is a film about Marilyn Monroe but because it’s about conspiracy theory where 50’s superstar and the highest people in the country were involved including the symbol of new hope and democracy – John F Kennedy so this film would be interesting to watch and guess what were real relations of public and very famous people. The film will be interesting to men and women as well. For men, mostly, because of incredible Monroe appearance and a big conspiracy puzzle which they might solve and for women just because of Monroe and her attitude to lots of men who fell in love with her.
In addition to this we might try to interest young generation by the specific style and manners of 50’s and to encourage them to act like them or even to give a new tendency in fashion which refers to these times.
Then for people who are from Europe this film would be interesting by looking at the Marilyn personality by another angle and they could remember from old TV-shows or stories of their relatives her fantastic performances.
And for Eastern European and Russian viewers the main target audience would be the young generation of people who are well-educated in Western history and know who was Marilyn Monroe and after a huge success of such films as ‘Da Vince Code’ and ‘Angels and Demons’ and ‘National treasure’ such film as ‘Monroe’ which combines conspiracy theory and famous public people, will definitely have its own market. In addition to this for Russian and post-Soviet countries people will be interested to watch this film about Marilyn Monroe after the very popular film ‘Some like it hot’ where was Marilyn as well.
So with help of this film and our future marketing campaign we are planning to attract viewers and interest them by two main ideas: Luxurious life and death of Marilyn Monroe and conspiracy theory around her death. And we are going to attract a range of ages to watch it, the lion share is planned to earn in USA and advertisement will be used mostly in Eastern Europe and Asian countries.

The General Shooting Script of 'Monroe' opening sequence

General Shooting Script
Of ‘Monroe’ opening sequence
Team: Gabby, Heather, Tatiana, Oleg

I Detective Office

Number of items we need on the first scene.
4 TV monitors (may be we need an extra one)
Lots of printed posters, newspapers and Monroe photos which are look like old one and saved from the 50’s.
One ashtray and the cigarette
1 laptop
One light desk
A pencil case and lots of pens, pencils, highlighters
A lamp bulb which is going to be a key lighting.
A window in office to provide a little of natural lighting.
A bin full of crumpled paper
Video with Monroe performances, her funerals, Marilyn songs and a special sound effects to create an exciting atmosphere

1) The camera is placed right behind the desk and can film office interior. Camera is standing on a tripod to give us a stable picture and the only thing moving is smoke of the cigarette in ashtray. Then we have a slight move to second shot.
2) Camera on a tripod moves to one of TV monitors with her video birthday congratulation to JFK. Sound will be placed separately with a bit effect of oldness like it was played from vinyl. Then, slight move to third frame to the room wall.
3) Slight pan to the posters and photos of Monroe. We move camera on a pan slightly to allow viewers to see all photos of 50’s superstar. After second poster/photo happy music changes to a bit exciting and thrilling to give a perception that there is something wrong and make viewer to worry. Then, slight pan to the next frame
4) After a few seconds we can see another TV monitor with Monroe’s funeral process and American broadcaster voice on the background which will tell about death of the star. Another pan to the fifth frame.
5) On this frame we can see detective’s office again and lots of newspapers and photos of Monroe death investigation and her photos of dead. Thrilling music is still in tact and continues until camera starts to move to the next frame.
6) We see Monroe’s photos and newspapers about her again where she was on a peak of her fame. Music changes to the good-mood and we can guess a first tunes of the song ‘Diamonds are a girls best friends’. Slight pan to the next frame.
7) We see the final TV monitor with Monroe performance in ‘Diamonds are a girls best friends’. We continue to move camera and zoom to exactly establish the TV monitor in the centre of the frame.
8) Wee can see the TV monitor with performance and start to zoom in to the monitor to move from the office to the 50’s real scene.



II 50’s Ball scene
During all Ball scene we need:
Red wall
Red stairs
Pink hearts
Lots of sources of light behind the scene.

1) Camera on a tripod. First frame starts with a low angle and it will underline the main role of Monroe who stands surrounded by fallen men bodies. So such aspects of mis-en-scene as, first of all, Monroe’s pink dress, men are wearing the same black suits and hold big red hearts that they will present to Marilyn. The lighting must to be very bright from behind to light all stage and accentuate all attention on Marilyn actress and her bright pink dress.
2) Dancing scene which performs in a stable frame because of 50’s so we can just pan a frame and zoom it. During this scene titles which shows Director’s, producer, sound director, costume designer appears. And after a dance scene we move to the final part of the opening sequence by zooming out and when we can see that all Ball scene was performed in a studio and we can see Director in his chair and cameraman we hear Director shouts: Cut!



III Filming crew
For scene with filming crew we need:
Old-fashioned camera
Director’s chair
Clapper board
Key lighting.

1) First frame shows us Director and cameraman who look at his viewfinder. The music is slightly fading out and we follow the small conversation between Director and cameraman. (OR if we would not find an old-fashioned camera, a cameraman will be replaced by film assisstant).
2) Second frame jumps to filming crew and their assistants who started to run around and collect red hearts. On the background we can hear Director’s voice who tells ‘Well done, buddies! This was a perfect scene’ Also, we can hear buzz of lots of voices.
3) Camera is slightly zooming out and we can hear Director again ‘Ok, print it. Let’s go to the next scene’. Clapping board claks and screen turns to black. Marilyn song starts to play and the film title ‘Monroe’ appears.

Our group research work

Film idea: Gaby
Film title: Monroe



We started our research work from finding the pictures and photos of Marilyn Monroe, newspapers which described her career and then death, we found a different videos as Monroe's funeral and the video which represents the whole concept of the sequence is "Diamonds are girls best friends" so according to this we started our research regarding furniture which we will need such as: black suits for a dancers and all filming crew because it was 50's so all crew should be dressed in a fashion of 50's. According to the following time majority of people in a frame must be always a men so we chose lots of AS students for participation in this sequence and just a few girls who will play assistants and the main role of Marilyn Monroe. Next aspect of mis-en-scene is a pink dress of Marilyn and then an environment of the stage which should have a red wall, red stairway with a five steps and red hearts which every dancer will hold. And the last part of environment are typical things which were common in 1950's (old-fashioned camera, etc.)

Regarding the sound we decided to fill the film sequence by Monroe's songs and some creepy sound effects to create the atmosphere of excitement where it's necessary to make a viewer to worry about the following event.

The sequence will start not from the picture but from the sound so at start we will see just a black frame and a Marilyn song 'I wanna be loved by you' and only in a middle of the song with help of slight fade in we start to see first stage of the office where a key lighting plays a role of the main source of light and a slight blue natural light from a window. To create the atmosphere of a mystery and a bit excitement the frame will be with a smoke and the song will be continued by broadcaster news report about Monroe's death and in the frame we can see close-ups of newspapers, photos and monitors where will be videos with Marilyn and her funeral ceremony which we gathered, mostly, from Google and videos were from YouTube.The main narrative idea is a move from the investigator’s office to monitor and through it to this real situation in 50's with a real Marilyn so we become a witnesses of this time and then Marilyn death so the unique point why actually viewers might enjoy this film is that we become a witnesses of conspiracy theory where were a superstar of 50's, scene of life at the middle of the 20th century and finally a Monroe's murderer whose puzzle still unsolved