DIRECTIONS: 'Red Riding 1974' Script Notes

After Simon showed us a powerpoint about what a director does and looks at throughout filmmaking, we watched the opening of Red Riding 1980, directed by James Marsh. This is the second of a 3-part television series about the Yorkshire Ripper. After this, our task was to look at the script of the first one Red Riding 1974 and to think like a director by making notes about how, who, where and what - broken down these are the cast, crew, style, location, framing and sound design.

CAST (in order of script appearance):

Eddie Dunford - Shawn Pyfrom as he is the ambitious youngster I imagined after reading the script.
Bill Hadley - Richard Dreyfuss

Detective Superintendent Maurice Jobson - Stephen Merchant as I feel like he has the owlish vibe & wears glasses like the description said.
Kathryn Tyler - Olivia Wilde
Barry Gannon - Lucas Till

Detective Chief Superintendent Bill Molloy - George Wendt
Mrs. Kemplay - Carrie Preston as I can see her as a suitable mother figure in this series. 

CREW

DOP - William Webb
Production designer - Robert J. Bacon
Composer - J. J. Abrams
Editer - Gregory Gontz

All these have done amazing work on NCIS which is the first television series I thought of after reading the script. 

LOCATION

Margate Police Station

I will be using Margate as my interpretation of the location in the series. In the second scene, we are in a city watching the sunset, this could be in Margate standing on the pier looking towards the town and seeing the sun set behind the buildings. The third scene we are in a construction site at night. The idea of the construction site reminds me of when they were building Dreamland up again last summer so my location for the site is Dreamland. The nearest motorway is the M2 to Margate so this is a perfect location for scene number 5 and finally the conference room in the police station can be at Margate Police Station.    

Dreamland under construction

FRAMING

In the first scenes when we are in the car with Eddie Dunford, we are looking over his shoulder and can see the motorway like himself, so we can see the rain hitting the windscreen like him. This will make us feel like we are in the car with Dunford. Then we cut to looking at him with a go-pro view when he starts to talk to himself. In the conference room when Jobson watches Eddie leave, we are sitting behind Jobson and can see him in the frame to watch Eddie leave with him and then follow him out as if we are Jobson's eyes, watching him leaving. When Barry and Eddie sit together, they will both be in the frame to start with, then we see a close up of their faces individually as they talk. When Jobson is talking to the room of people, we first see him in the frame as he starts talking, then cut to behind him and looking at the people in the room to see their faces and expressions, then cut back to looking at Jobson with a middle shot towards the end of the talk and we see him move the microphone to Mrs. Kemplay's direction in this same shot. At the end, as the policewoman is comforting a teary Mrs. Kemplay we go to a close up of Eddie as he is transfixed by her distress and put him in the middle of the frame.

SOUND DESIGN

The sound of the cars on the motorway
The rain hitting the windscreen at such a high speed
The sound of lighting the lighter for the cigarette