Archive » 2010
1. in what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The title of the film
The name of my film is shown to the audience in the first frame and it is visible after the first two seconds have gone. In this clip there is a point of view shot of the person making a ransom note, but the note is the name of the film, this gives the impression that the film is about a kidnapping straight away to the audience that are watching and it also fits in with the story of the film, in the shot there are trimmings and scissors on the side of the shot and this shows to the audience that the ransom note is ready to be made and then there are a pair of hands and the person is gluing down the letters giving the impression that someone is after something.
This style of an opening is mainly seen in horror films as it shows that something bad is going to happen, but I have used it for a thriller film, this will then confuse the audience and I think that this is a good idea because it will make the audience interested in the film to find out why there is an opening scene that is more suited to a horror film.
Setting/location
I have tried to get the urban effect of a built up area that is out of a city centre, this means that the houses will be more spaced out and that the robber would have gotten a far way away from the bank that has just been robbed
Costumes and props
The costumes that I have decided to use for the bank robber are dark and mysterious and this effect was achieved by the robber wearing a black coat with jeans, trainers and a bag on their back, this gave the robber the appearance of he is trying to hide something from other people. For the undercover police officer I have used a similar concept but it is more of a casual look that I was after and this was achieved by him wearing navy track suite bottoms, and a black coat. Then there is the kidnapper who has a hidden identity, i did this because it will make the audience want to watch on to find out who he is.
The props that i have used are all to do with thriller and action movies and they are guns, masks and bags.
Camerawork and editing
the purpose of my camera work and editing was to confuse the audience and make them feel that they have no understanding on what is going on and that it is all mixed up, this makes the chase scene more interesting and action packed, then the editing slows down once the running has turned into shooting, then there is a jump cut to where the police officer is being tortured.
Title font and style
The title style is to make it look like a ransom note, this makes the audience assume that the film is a horror because they are affiliated more with horror films
Story and how the opening sets it up
The story of the film is: about a criminal who has just robbed a bank and accidentally runs into an undercover police officer, they then begin to chase, but the chase ends shortly as the police officer is captured hostage, this is set up by mainly the title, this is because there is a ransom note being made and it sets the story off, then there is a chase, then the undercover police officer is knocked out and then finally the police officer is being tortured.
Genre and how the opening suggests it
The genre is a thriller, this is suggested by the chase at the beginning of the clip and then there is a gun fight.
How characters are introduced
The bank robber is introduced by jogging away from the robbery scene and then there is a police officer undercover that is presented as casually walking along and finally the kidnapper is introduced by slowly walking up to the police officer when he isn’t looking and then knocks him out.
Special effects
There are some special effects like the songs and then the diegetic noises like the gun shots and the shouting. The gun shots show that there is a serious fight going on and that the genre of the film is a thriller / action and then the shouting represents hate/justice/trying to get attention and it also shows the genre of a thriller / action
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Rhys and Chris Tucker
The key character that I have chosen is Rhys Withers, this is because he is one of the main characters in my film opening scene. A character that is from another film that can be related to Rhys would be Paul Reiser staring as a thug in Beverly Hills cop 2, I think that this character is one of the best matches for Rhys, this is because their characters both disobey the rules of the law, they both wear dark cloths, they both end up running from the police, they are both represented in the same way, they are both working for someone, they both shoot a gun at the police, they both steal from a bank, they are both in an evil plot that involves stealing goods to alert the police and then they both kill / injure a police inspector later on into the film. The differences between the two characters are that Rhys is running in the film and Paul is driving, they do not wear the same style of clothing (jeans and coat / tuxedo), Rhys steals from a bank to get attention of the police and Paul kills a member of a police force and leaves a letter behind / he does the same with any other crime. Another character from an existing film that is similar to Rhys (but he is not completely the same) is Chris Tucker and he plays as Carter in Rush hour 1, 2 and 3, both of the characters are both similar and different. The characters are similar because they have the same appearance in front of the camera, they both wear dark clothes, they both run in the films, they both shoot a gun in the films and they both have a friend that helps them in their quests... then the two characters are very different because they are wearing different styles of clothing (jeans and coat / tuxedo), they Rhys is a represented as a bad guy and Carter is represented as a good guy, Rhys stars in a thriller and Carter stars in an action comedy, Rhys steals in the film to alert the police and Carter is a police officer and helps out with solving the crime
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience that I have aimed my film opening scene at are teenage boys at the age of around 14 –20. The possible taste of this target audience group would be the following:
a. - Music genre: rock, rap, dance, punk, drum and bass, game, alternate, pop
b. - Shops: games, clothes, gadgets, computers, fashion, sports, shoes, fast foods, scents (aftershave ect...)
c. - Television programmes: soaps, comedy, drama, TV series e.g. top gear, sports
d. - Leisure activities: socialising, internet surfing, gaming , TV, music, hobbies, sports, talking via internet e.g. MSN / Face Book
The target audience that I have chosen will watch my film because it is based all around that age group and it is a thriller action film and this is the most commonly watched film genre at the age group of boy that I have selected, they will also watch it because it is a thriller that gives them a sense of escaping reality and joining in with the film.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have used a laptop and a PC tower to complete the task of making a film opening and I have used a wide variety of software/programmes, here is the list below:
1. 1. Sony Vegas Pro
I have used this to edit all of my film opening scene. (I found this tricky to use)
2. 2. Corel videostudio
I have used this to edit and publish my voice over onto YouTube (I found this a lot more easier to use than sonny Vegas)
3. 3. Photoshop
I have used this at Lutterworth college to make my idents.
4. 4. Paintshop pro
I used this to edit my idents at home
I have also been using online features like:
1. 1. Blogger
This is where all of my research, planning, film and evaluation will go
2. 2. Google
I have used this to search the internet for any help, images and music
3. 3. Soundcloud
This is where I stored all of the music that i have found and then put it onto my blog
4. 4. Bubbl
I made spider diagrams with this software
5. 5. Font generator
I used this to make my own fonts and i have used this in my research
6. 6. Royalty free music site
I have used this site to find all of the music that is in my film
7. 7. Scibd
I have used this to put word documents onto my blog
8. 8. Slide share
I have used this to put Power points onto my blog
7. Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
At the beginning of the project I was not sure on how to use anything, in the first lesson on media we learnt how to use the cameras and then the Macs, but I then decided to use all of my own resources for the project and I have learnt how to use Sony Vegas Pro and I have learnt how to use my own camera.
In the preliminary task I had to edit the video on the Macs and when I am looking back at that prelim I have realised how well I have improved on all of the editing including the continuity, in my prelim the continuity was not very good as one of the actors jumps across the room and then sits down, however in my final version of the film that I have created I have made it so that all of the footsteps are inline and that everything runs smoothly with noting jumping, I have achieved this by
a. Making the actors run from further back and then they ran further than what was needed (this was to make sure that I could edit the clip and then delete anything that I did not need
b. I kept notice of the key features e.g. the feet of the actor and then made sure that they all match up together
When I was filming I used marks to tell the actors to aim for with e.g. a stone
actors i have chosen
1. Rhys will play the role of the bank robber
2. Damon will play the role of the undercover police officer
3. Joe will play the role of the criminal who kidnaps the police officer
possible characters 6
evaluation help 2
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)
Remember when we looked at 9 frames from Art of the title sequence? Well now it's your turn to do the same with nine of your frames.
You should go through the final version of the project and select nine distinct frames which you screengrab and drop into a photoshop in the same style as the website. You will be using these to write about how typical or not of opening sequences your particular design is, so choose them carefully.
Once you have the nine frames neatly in Photoshop, screengrab the whole thing and post to your blog, then write an analysis of how you have used such conventions.
The aspects we would like you to consider across your nine frames are:
The title of the film
Setting/location
Costumes and props
Camerawork and editing
Title font and style
Story and how the opening sets it up
Genre and how the opening suggests it
How characters are introduced
Special effects
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Pick a key character from your opening. Take a screengrab of a reasonable sized image of them. Think of one or more characters from other films with some similarity to them (but maybe some differences too!), find an image on the web of that/those characters and grab it as well. Drop the two into photoshop, as a split screen. Export this splitscreen image as a jpeg then drop onto your blog and write about the similarities and differences in terms of appearance, costume, role in film etc.
So for example if you have a lone cop type character, look for other lone cops to compare him with...
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 3
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
For this question, you are going to do a 'director's commentary' style voiceover explaining some of the key features of your opening
You will need to script the voiceover which deals with institutional issues to include:
discussion of your production company name and logo and the role of such companies
What does a production company do? start here
the idea of a distributor and who that might be and why. start here
where the money might have come from for a film such as yours herewhy the various people are named in the titles- which jobs appear in titles and in what order and how have you reflected this?
what your film is similar to 'institutionally' (name some films which would be released in a similar way)
You need to refer to actual company names and processes so you will need to go back to the early posts on film companies and maybe do a bit more research
When you have scripted, record the voiceover using Final Cut on a new audio timeline, then export to quicktime and embed on blog.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 4
Who would be the audience for your media product?
You should have a drawing of your target audience member and an explanation of what kinds of taste they might have- where they would shop, what music they would listen to, what their favourite Tv programme would be, etc.
make sure you have taken a phot of it, post it on the blog and write a few notes on why they would watch your film.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 5
How did you attract/address your audience?
You will use YOUTUBE's annotation tools to add NOTES, SPEECHBUBBLES, and LINKS to your video:
http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=92710
These annotations will highlight the ways in which your Film Opening links to other similiar films in order to attract the particular Audience you have previously identified.
Your annotations will refer to genre conventions, use of music, similiarities with other movies and what you have identified as the Unique Selling Point of your imaginary film.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
In pairs, take a picture of each other holding the kit you have used. This might just be the camera and tripod, and your Macbook but there may be other things you want in the shot.
Drop the image onto your blog and annotate it, adding all the programs and other technology you have used as screengrabs and what you learnt about it/from using it. Your written text need only be minimal. You could include reference to all the online and computer programs you have used such as youtube, flickr, blogger, final cut,photoshop,vimeo garageband, etc.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 7
Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
Concentrate on editing and camerawork.
Grab some frames from both tasks and put them on the blog and show what you know about shot types, edit terms and techniques.
Make sure you mention the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot/reverse shot
evaluation help?
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups ?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
7. Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
possible character 5
possible character 4
possible character 3
possible character 2
possible character 1
pitch feedback
Target audience
In my pitch I mentioned about the age of what I think would be the target audience and the class members seemed to agree with what I have fort it would be, then the class made notes on what gender would be best suited for my idea and the majority of the answers was teenage boys. This meant that the target audience was easily visible to the class and this was a good sign as it will be easy to spot what audience will best suite my film genre and story.
Results from the storyline
The results that I got back from the storyline of my film idea was mainly positive, but there were a few students that thought it wasn’t a very good story to use and one of the points that were made against my story board was that it seemed a bit bland for an action thriller and that I would need to make is sound more exiting.
Results from the location ideas
Almost all of the students in the class said that the location I have chosen is not suited for the genre of my film opening scene and the comments that I received were all saying that I could find a better location to film it at, an example of a better location was in a more urban surrounding e.g. down a street.
Suggestions on improvements
I have looked at all of the results from presenting my pitch and I have found out that there are some helpful suggestions that I may consider to use with my film and they are: to find a better location that suites the genre of my film (an example was to find an urban street), to find a well suited song for the chase (an example was to use a rock genre of song), to improve the story of the opening (an example was to show that the hostage is having a flashback). I will take all of the points that have been made with my pitch and I will consider using some of the points that have been made.
why I chose Geisel as my title?
production / indent company name ideas
1. Action clips
2. Stencil sketch
3. Sonar studio
4. Sharp films
5. New street
6. Hair line
7. Mainline studios
8. Eye watch
9. Beat studio
10. Sound level
11. Film strip
12. Sound waves
13. Eye line studio
14. Shooting star
15. 35mm rainbow
This is England analysis
I have been watching the film This is England and I have been making notes about the productin practaces that have been used in the film. Whilst I was watching the film I have noticed that all of the lighting that has been used is more natural than most other films, the actors that have been used in the film are not well known and arnt as succsessful as other actors e.g. Tom Cruise, I have also picked up that the film is set in the 1980’s and that the target audience for the film is working class and it is all about skinheads and their cultures. Near the half way point of the film the audience are introduced to another skinhead that thinks he is the leader of the gang, this is shown to the audience by him being racist and meaning to be when there is a black man in the room with him called Milk.
After I watched the film I then looked at an interview of Shane Meadows and he talked about all of the production practacies that were used in the film. I have been making notes on what Shane Meadows has said in the interview about This is England and I have found out that he has used natural lighting in throughout the film, this was because it was cheaper than using artificial lighting and Shane also mentioned that the natural lighting gave a realistic effect for the audience, then he mentioned that he received a grant of £90,000 from the National Lottery and this boosted their proffit because they were able to product 10 more prints and as a result more people went to watch the film because it was on in more cinemas, he also mentions that all of the cars that were used in the film were brought off of ebay and weren’t working when they bought them but they had someone in the production team to help repair them so Shane didn’t waste much money on the cars, in the interview Shane mentioned that he had found an area in Nottingham that hasn’t been touched since the 1970’s so this was the place that they had filmed in and this also saved them thousands of pounds, in the interview I found out where the story of this film came from as Shane Meadows mentions that he was a skinhead and all of the skinheads that Shean pals up with were bassed on skinheads that Shane Meadows palled up with when he was around that age.
This film appeals to the target audience of working class, this is because it is bassed around a poor area and the film is also surrounded by a working class society, also there is mild drug reffereces and usage, there is also strong language and violence and there is also racism.
film text examples.
Text Examples
list of shots in my film opening.
Shots list
I have listed all of the different camera shots that I will be using in my film opening, how ever I may decide to change some of the shots once I have made my draft opening and I have looked at it. In the list below there are all of the camera shots that I plan to use and they are also all in my story board.
- Opening title
- Zoom
- Tilt
- Extreme close up
- Pan
- Mid shot
- Over shoulder shot
- 180 degree rule
- Two person shot
- Point of view
- Establishing shot
- Over shoulder shot
- Long shot / also an establishing shot
- Close up
- Close up
- Close up
- Mid shot
- Point of view
- Long shot
- Close up / tracking shot
- Close up
- Mid shot
- Close up slowly tilting
- Long shot
- Point of view shot
- Over shoulder shot
- High angle shot
- Point of view shot
- Mid shot
- Point of view shot
- Establishing shot zooming out
- End credits
the soloist research part 2.
Jamie Foxx as Nathaniel Ayers.
Robert Downey Jr. as Steve Lopez.
Catherine Keener as Mary Weston (formerly Mary Lopez).
Tom Hollander as Graham Claydon.
Lisa Gay Hamilton as Jennifer.
Rachael Harris as Lopez's co-worker.
Jena Malone as a lab technician.
Diana Gomes as a Psychologist.
Stephen Root as Curt Reynolds.
Marcus Carl Franklin as Young Nathaniel Ayers.
Lorraine Toussaint as Flo Ayers.
the soloist research.
Produced by: Gary Foster, Russ Krasnoff.
Written by:
Screenplay: Susannah Grant.
Book and articles: Steve Lopez.
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Robert Downey Jr, Catherine Keener
Music by: Dario Marianelli
Cinematography: Seamus McGarvey
Editing by: Paul Tothill
Studio: StudioCanal, Participant Media, Working Title Films
Distributed by: DreamWorks (US), Universal Studios (international)
Release date(s): 24 April 2009 (US), 11 September 2009 (UK)
Running time: 117 min.
Country: United States
Language: English
Budget: $60 million
Gross revenue: $31,720,158 (worldwide)