Poster Analysis and Comparison

Plot Outline

A couple meet in a restaurant. The conversation begins lightly and the audience learn a little about the two characters as well as the tense dynamic of their relationship. The tension is heightened when Jim begins to distance himself and regard Rita with wariness and cynicism, when she manages to pull from him what is preying on his mind. After confronting her with various scraps of evidence and proposing difficult and unanswerable questions regarding her fidelity, Jim seems willing to listen to his partner’s defense. Through a combination of lies, manipulation and evasion, Rita placates his suspicions and declares her love for him, but upon returning from a visit to the ladies’ toilets Jim has discovered one final piece of undeniable evidence. Jim decides to walk out on her and their relationship. Rita slips on a wedding ring and returns home to her husband.

Equipment list

Photoshoots –

2 x portable lamps

2 x lamps stands and case

2 x backdrop stands

Backdrop pole

Large white backdrop sheet

Digital camera

Camera charger

Restaurant scene –

2 x portable lamps

2 x lamp stands and case

2 x pairs protective gloves for lamps

2 x video cameras, tapes and cases

2 x tripods and plates and cases

Microphone and stand

2 x extension leads

Digital camera – stills

2 x camera chargers

Dry wipe board & pen – (shot numbers for editing)

House scene –

2 x portable lamps

2 x lamp stands and case

2 x pairs protective gloves for lamps

1 video camera and tape

1 tripod and plate

1 video camera charger

2 x extension leads

Dry wipe board & pen – (shot numbers for editing)

Street scene –

1 video camera and tape

1 tripod

Microphone and stand

Dry wipe board & pen – (shot numbers for editing)

Organisation of time, props, equipment, cast and crew

Despite Bella Italia’s request that we shoot any other day but Saturday, we discovered that was the only day our two actors and both Emily and I could shoot due to conflicting work commitments. We agreed with the restaurant to begin shooting at 6 am and be finished by 11am. 
We contacted both actors confirming what time to meet and the address of the restaurant. We printed two scripts for the actors, and one each for Hannah and I, with a shooting script each for us to refer to. We organised between us who was bringing what equipment, and we met at 5:50, to do Katy’s hair, makeup and costume outside the restaurant while waiting for the manager to open up. The same arrangement went for filming the street scenes and house scenes the following week.
Following the filming at the restaurant we went to Emily's house to do a photo-shoot to get images for our poster and magazine review. 

Music for our film

Finding music for “The Lover Who Lied” was a tricky affair as there were many criteria we had to fulfil. Firstly we knew that we wanted the classic, older sound of a genuine vintage recording some 70 years old to soundtrack the restaurant scenes, and an archetypal noir movie score for the introductory and concluding sequences. We did consider the idea of recording our own music through friends or creating our own on Garageband, but were not convinced we would achieve the authenticity required to set the mood and tone for our film. But to use old recordings we had to research thoroughly what we could and could not utilise in terms of copyright law and public domain material.

The website http://www.pdinfo.com/copyrt.php was very informative regarding US copyright law, and to paraphrase the main clauses I discovered:

• Works published in the United States with a copyright date of 1922 or earlier are in the public domain in the United States.

Copyright protection outside the USA is determined by the laws of the country where you wish to use a work.  Copyright protection may be 95 years from publication date, 50 to 70 years after the death of the last surviving author, or other criteria depending on where the work was first published and how the work is to be used.

Shooting Script

Writing the shooting script was a fairly difficult task as we had hardly even used the cameras and only had other filmmaker’s work to refer to with regards to what worked and what did not. It was an entirely different matter creating your own film for the first time. We pencilled in “ten seconds” for a two second shot on occasions so that we had enough material to edit with and would minimise the risk of needing to re-shoot anything.An issue encountered when writing the shooting script was that the extra time needed in a shot not only to allow for each line to be said, but to show the audience a reaction or an action, was clocking up the minutes on our film very quickly. We hoped that it could all be sufficiently trimmed down to size in editing.

1	Long shot, establishing	Static	Rita is walking towards camera (as credits roll)	Heels (with music)	1 minute (to be edited)
2	Low angle long shot	Static	Clock tower chiming	Clock chime & heels	5 seconds
3	Extreme close-up	Tracking	High heels on concrete - MUD	Heels	20 seconds
4	Close-up	Pan/whip-pan	Following Rita’s shoes as she passes (turning a corner)		10 seconds
5	Long shot	Tracking	Rita approaching restaurant from behind		20 seconds
6	Mid-shot (to be shot twice)	Upward tilt/pan of body, revealing face	Rita pausing outside rest., smoking, drops cig., enters rest.		25 seconds
7	Low angle mid-shot	Static	Sign/name of restaurant		5 seconds
8	Establishing shot	Static	Exterior of restaurant/through restaurant window		5 seconds
9	Extreme close-up	Static	Rita’s shoe stubbing out cigarette (edited in between smoking and entering rest.)	Final line of internal monologue	10 seconds
10	Long shot	Static	Jim sitting wait in restaurant, checking watch		20 seconds
11	Extreme close-up	Static	Watch face		5 seconds
12	Long shot	Static	Rita entering restaurant – int. and walking towards table	Hubbub/ music?	20 seconds
13	Close-up	Static	Jim’s face as he notices Rita	“”	5 seconds
14	High angle mid-shot	Static	Jim speaks to Rita	Jim: “So you came”	5 seconds
15	Long two/three-shot	Static	Rita removes gloves and has coat taken by waiter	Rita: “Of course”	20 seconds
16	Close-up of note	Static	Note falls from Rita’s coat to floor		5 seconds
17	Two shot, mid	Static	Rita & waiter: eye contact	Rita orders a martini	5 seconds
18	Close-up	Static	Jim’s sceptical expression		5 seconds
19	Three shot, mid	Static	Waiter leaves table	“Certainly” / “What was it you wanted…”	10 seconds
20	OTS– Rita’s shoulder, focused on Jim (first camera)	Static	(Conversation ensues)	“You’re looking good Rita..” to “Oh I…”	1 minute
21	OTS–Jim’s shoulder, focused on Rita (second camera)	Static	(Conversation ensues)	“” (duplicate take)	1 minute
22	Close-up: Rita’s face (first camera)	Static	Conversation ensues, Rita’s evasiveness	“I’m sure I could do that…” (switch camera mid line)	5 seconds
23	Close/mid-shot of Jim (second camera)	Static	Jims wary expression	“” (duplicate take)	3 seconds
24	OTS– Jim’s shoulder, focused on Rita	Static	(Conversation ensues)	“You would?...” “With or without the new dress”	30 seconds
25	Close-up of Rita	Static	Rita arches an eyebrow		3 seconds
26	Mid-shot of Jim	Static	Jim leans back in chair, continues conversation	“I haven’t seen you lately… all the time”	5 seconds
27	OTS–Jim’s shoulder, focused on Rita (first camera)	Static	(Conversation ensues)	“Well you know…” “How can a girl like you afford couture?”	1 minute
28	OTS- Rita’s shoulder, focused on Jim (second camera)	Static	(Conversation ensues)	“” (duplicate take)	1 minute
29	Close-up of Rita	Static	Rita’s defence	“Why I oughta… I need to freshen up”	30 seconds
30	Mid-shot of Jim	Static	Rita’s defence	“” (duplicate take)	30 seconds
31	Long, two-shot, slightly low angle, then pan follows Rita	Static, followed by pan	Jim sitting, Rita stands, then walks to toilets.	“I love you Jim… straight down the line”	10 seconds
32	Mid-shot of Jim	Static	Jim’s reaction		5 seconds
33	Close-up (match-on action)	Static	Rita’s hand pushing through door		5 seconds
34	Long-shot of Jim and Rita’s empty chair	Static	Drums fingers on table, and swigs brandy, notices		5 seconds
35	Extreme close-up of note on floor	Static			5 seconds
36	Mid-shot of Jim	Static	Jim bends to pick up note, and straightens back up to read		5 seconds
37	Mid-shot to close-up of Jim’s face	Zoom or static	Jim’s reaction as he reads note		5 seconds
38	OTS, long-shot of Rita	Tilt/pan	Following Rita as she re-enters restaurant area and sits		5 seconds
39	Mid-shot of Jim (first camera)	Static	Gazing at Rita inscrutably, before speaking	Pauses – “You’re good Rita, very good”	30 seconds
40	Mid-shot of Rita (second camera)	Static	Rita stares back confidently	Pauses - “You’re good Rita, very good”	30 seconds
41	High angle close-up of Jims hand	Upward tilt towards Rita	Following Jims hand with note		5 seconds
42	Close-up of Rita, slightly high angle	Static	Rita’s reaction		5 seconds
43	Close-up of Jim	Static	Jim speaking	“But you’re no good for me”	5 seconds
44	Two, long shot	Static, then pans after Jim	Jim drains glass, rises, leaves a banknote and exits the restaurant		5 seconds
45	Slightly high angle mid-shot from behind	Static	Rita takes note and opens it		5 seconds
46	Extreme close-up of note in her hands	Static	Audience read the message within		5 seconds
47	Long-shot of Rita and Jim’s empty chair, then closes in on the table at high angle (first camera)	Static, then moves towards table	Waiter approaches and leaves the drink. Rita pockets the note and smashes the cocktail. She puts on a ring and leaves		10 seconds
48	Close-up of cocktail (second camera)	Static	Cocktail glass smashes on floor		3 seconds
49	Extreme close-up of Rita’s hand	Static	Rita puts the ring on her ring finger		3 seconds
50	Long/mid shot from side	Static	Rita looking in the toilet mirror		5 seconds
51	Close-up from side	Static	Rita applying lipstick		5 seconds
52	Long/mid shot from side	Static	Rita puts lipstick away, smoothes clothes and leaves		5 seconds
53	Establishing shot of exterior of restaurant (as used before)	Static	Rita leaves through the front door and walks off to the right	Bell as she leaves the restaurant	5 seconds
54	Long shot of Jim	Static	Jim sparking a lighter from behind and walking away down the alleyway		5 seconds
55	Establishing shot	Static	Rita through a window of a family home, greeting her family		10 seconds
56	Establishing shot (to be shot twice)	Tilt down from sky then pan towards window	“” (to be shot twice)		10 seconds
57	Close-up from side (duplicate in bedroom)	Static	Rita in dressing table mirror		5 seconds
58	Long/mid-shot from behind	Static	Rita at dressing table turning and being kissed by man		10 seconds