Copycat task

I confirm that the attached portfolio is all of my own work and does not include any work completed by anyone but myself.

1.Background research

For my choice of movie scene, I chose to do the opening scene from The Godfather. The reason I chose to do this for the copycat task is due to the fact that the task asked me to recreate a dialogue scene from a movie and The Godfather was the one film that instantly came to mind because not only is it a famous movie but because it has some of the most famous pieces of dialogue.

 It also happens to be one of the most interesting scenes in the movie due to the fact it shows how powerful one man can be if he can order things like murder without having to move out of his chair. That power really is kind of scary. However that's what the movie is basically about - how someone so powerful can lose it all so easily through a few mistakes.

As for trivia, the movie was directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who, funnily enough, was actually born in 1939 (right about the time The godfather was set) and despite being born in Detroit he actually lived in the New York suburbs with his family. They happened to be Italian, which I personally feel, helped him be more integrated with the scene because he knows exactly where the characters in the scene are coming from. 

Also, another really interesting piece of trivia is the cat that Don Corleone is holding in the scene was actually a stray cat that Ford found in the street. Actually it wasn’t originally part of the movie but they used the cat anyway. The only problem was the cat kept on purring and muffling some of the lines. This resulted in making most of Marlon Brando lines being looped. During the time Marlon Brando was on scene he didn’t actually memorize most of his lines, instead he used cue cards which actually was one of the things he was most famous for. In fact Marlon Brando nickname was “The father of method acting” and you can really tell why once you have seen the movie.

For authenticity the distinct voice that Marlon Brando used for Don Corleone was actually based off of the real like mobster Frank Costello who also happened to be one of the founders of the American mafia. When Marlon Brando saw the court hearings of Frank Costello in 1951, he decided to use Frank Costello’s husky voice for Don Corleone thus making the character sound even more intimidating.

This is the clip of the original scene

(1) The Godfather I Opening scene HD - YouTube

2.Planning

The script

Shot list

Planning

The way I planned this was first by making a pitch presentation to get a rough idea of what I was doing.

After I made the pitch presentation and got the go ahead for my scene I then printed off the necessary script pages and handed them out to the actors that had wanted to do the scene.

3.Production

On the day of filming me and Jack had decided to both come in on Friday to get both of our copycat scenes done so that come Monday or Tuesday we would be able to upload it and edit it on premier pro in college. We started first by filming Jacks Star Wars copycat scene and then once we were done with that we then moved onto my Godfather copycat scene. We filmed in the Green room making sure that there were no safety hazards around and I decided to use the items around us such as a fancy looking chair and a 1900s style looking radio to recreate the scene. The actors (Daniel cooper and Henry Walton) both turned up in suits and both used Italian-American accents to really make the scene authentic and precise.

However it turned out I needed a lot more scenes then the ones I used on Friday so the actors (Daniel Cooper and Henry Walton) managed to recreate the whole thing again on the Tuesday but this time with more accurate shots to the movie. Only problem was we didn't have the same props but that didn't matter because the whole point of  the task was to make the scene look as accurate as possible.

In the post production process I ended up using the new footage rather than the old footage due to the fact the new footage was more accurate to the scene it also had better lighting. Anyway the next day (Wednesday) I uploaded the footage to premier pro and edited it and uploaded it to my assignment.

4.Evaluation

In conclusion I believe it all went exceptionally well especially the acting, in fact I think the acting was my favorite part just the way the actors made the scene sound and feel like the original scene was nothing short of amazing, it almost felt as if I was there when the original scene was being filmed and the fact the actors didn’t even need a script because they had already learnt there lines made it a whole lot easier. But that wasn’t the only the actors did to deliver the scene they also dressed exactly like the actors in the original movie dressed which I believe really makes you feel immersed in that era. There is nothing I would change about the acting or the process of filming the shots.

However there are many things that could of made it better for example it would  have looked a lot more better and realistic if we could of used the props we used the first time around. Also if we could of used the black room instead of the classroom that would have been a lot more preferable just because it would have been a lot more easier to turn that room into an office rather than the greenroom and classroom we ended up filming in. Also the lighting despite looking better than the first time we filmed it still could have been way better than it was. There for if I had to film it again I would change the lighting and film in a different room to make it look and feel more authentic.

I really do feel like I have learned trough my experience of filming this as I now see all the different thing I could change and make it look a lot better. I also got loads of really good experience of directing and how to do it. Not only directing but I also got more experience at editing which I personally believe is the best experience I got out of this. But I personally think the biggest challenge of it was filming it twice.

Star wars copycat

Today I helped Jack film his copycat scene (Star wars).