This blog has been marked. SJA 08/05/11

Final product of our opening sequence

How did you attract/ address your audience?

I tried to attract the audience I wanted by posting my video on facebook and also on youtube. On youtube we got quite a few views on our video post but no one commented on it unfortunately and the same went for facebook but when I spoke to my friends that viewed it personally they thought that it was quite interesting and related to the youth quite a lot so I though all in all it was a success even though we had to make quite a few changes to it.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I think that during the time of my preliminary task and my the task i am doing right now I am quite positive in the fact that I have learnt quite a lot for example how to work the computers (Apple Mac) and also all the equipment for example the still cameras, video cameras and the tripods to get the maximum effect from a camera angle.

One of the things that I learned and was most effective between task was continuity editing i say this because in the preliminary task as you can see in the first two screen shots i have taken above the match on action and continuity was quite of because when the actor came through the door and back out the other side it was quite clear that both the door and the actor was not in the right position therefore not getting the action as right as it could be.

But in the last two you can see the improvements i have made over time because you can see the the positioning of the door and the actor coming in was spot on. i feel that i made this sort of improvement by studying what i have to do and then carrying it out in a task.

I also think that my camera techniques and the type of shot taken got much better also. i say this because in the first task i did and filmed i was not comfortable with the camera and the types of shots i could take in order to occupy the audience and make the scene interesting but as time went on the shots go better for example i new how to take long shots, mid range shots, close up, very close ups, panning shots, point of view shots, high and low shots. These are range of shots that could make a scene not just good but great because it makes everything we are trying to do interesting and more entertaining to watch if shot properly.

In filming if you brake the 180 degree rule you may make the view confused over what is going on and they wont enjoy the movie or video as much so it was important that i learned about the 180 degree rule quite quickly and in doing so i implemented it into all the filming task i did.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Name: Nathan Thomlenson

Gender: Male

Age: 19

Lives: Inner London

Watches what TV programmes: Sports channel, Movie channels, Eastenders, Scrubs, family Guy, MTV Base, 2 and half Men

Visits what websites: Facebook, Skysports, Myspace, Youtube, Mixtapes Sites

Does what when they go out: Play Sports, concerts, Movies, Nandos, Night Clubs

Listens to what music: Rap, Pop, Funky House, House Music, R&B, Slow Jams

Wears what clothes: Jerk Style, Hoodies, Jeans, Jordons, Trapstar, Gstar, LuieV, vans, Blazers

Reads what magazines: Sports mags, Music mags

Shops where: West End, Westfields, Internet Shopping

Aspires to be: Footballer, Physio

Anything else about your ‘character’: My charactor is a very outgoing Charactor that enjoys to play all sports but mostly football. He enjoys listening to music inputicular Wiz Khalifa, Rick Ross, lil wayne, Tyga and Chris brown and loves to shop and look good on nights out. He goes to a lot of parties as he loves a good social life but is also a very fit person as he goes to the gym 4 days a week plus play football everyday. He has no girlfriend as he wants to experience life at its fullest before he gets into a proper relationship. He loves to watch t.v and play his Xbox whenever he has free time but unfortunetly very rarely gets to do this as he lives a busy lifestyle.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During the process of me learning about the technology that i used to ensure that my film was better i learnt and found out about a range of new technology for example:

• Final Cut
• IMovie HD
• IPhoto
• Youtube

These are just a range of things i learnt out to use t

o help my group and i with our opening sequence. I think that i can use the technology that i have stated to my advantage now suggesting in the future i will be able to make a good movie or anything else regarding these kind of Apple Mac technologies. When i was finished making my opening sequence i uploaded it to both Youtube and Facebook to get feedback from both my friends and people i didn't know. I thought this would be a good idea because good and bad feedback will help me in the future if i want to do things like this again.

Facebook is a great way to share and keep in touch with your friends so i thought it would be very good if i posted the clip that my group and i made to get some feedback on WWI and EBI. This was also a good way of showing of my acting techniques.

Like Facebook Youtube is also a great way to interact with people over the internet but in a different way so i thought one again it would be good to upload our opening sequence to Youtube to get some feedback not by my friends but by total strangers so i could see their reactions towards our film. I also used Youtube to get other ideas from other opening sequences because i thought that it was important to broaden our range to not just one thing.

This screenshot that i have uploaded is Imovie HD.

Now this is an very important if not the most important Technology to making your movie. I say this because you can do almost anything on this for example creating a movie, editing movies or clips, putting audio in with your movies or clips and you can also drag and replace things at any moment if you think that something is not quite right. This is the technology my group and i used to make our clip.

This picture that i have uploaded is from a site called "wordle". i have uploaded this to try and show/promote the type of technology i have used when creating my movie in Media.

This Screenshot that have uploaded is of Photo shop. This shot is basically showing the audience what photo shop looks like and all the filters at the bottom will also show the audience how to make the picture look better by editing it.

Final Cut is really good if you want to edit your film or an video after you have made one. You are able to play back and take things out and put things in using this technology. It is also good for attaching sound to your movie and this is really important if you want your movie to be upbeat and fun for the audience to watch.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why

In our task we chose to do an action film. Now action films are traditionally very high in cost because of all the props and special effects needed to make the movie better than the rest and even make if spectacular to watch. suggesting what i stated above it was only right that i chose three of the biggest movie companies to distribute my movie around the world and i did this because as well as being the biggest movie companies in the world they are also three of the best for what they have done in the past for example the type of movies they have made and the popularity and success they have got from the films they have made and distributed for example Tristar Pictures have brought out such films as (Terminator 2 judgment day) 20th Century Fox has brought out such films as (Star wars, Avatar and X-Men) and finally Paramount Pictures has brought out such films like (Star Trek, Mission Impossible and Indiana Jones) these are some of the most famous films in the world and also some of the most expensive films also especially Avatar.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film ethnic stereotype is not what is normally pertrade in a movie for example in a typical movie of any genre a black male or female is not normally the good person in the story line and may mostly be the bad guy suggesting te stereotype that is normally seen in a good film, but in our film this was not the case as the good guy hat was on the run from all the bad guys was young and black.

Another odd thing about or movie that quite changes the stareotype of a typical action thriller movie was the fact that there was 5 bad guys and four of them was white and one was black. this is almost never seen in televetion because normally its normally just a black group or a white group, it os very rarly mixed as we can see in the demostation picture i have below.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The frames that I have uploaded is a series of pictures from a scene that my group and I made for a project in media. The pictures include my title and the most important bits of the clip in my opinion. I think that it is not your typical opening sequence because I think it tells much more of a story than your typical opening sequences does especially an action opening sequence. I say this because the audience can see such things as all the bad guys faces so straight away you can tell who they are and normally a director will keep at least one of the bad guys a secret for the peruse of keeping the audience from knowing so they will have the element of dough in their mind. Also your typical action movie is normally mainstream as in the amount of money they have to spend on the props amongst other things but in our opening sequence we had no budget to work on and you can tell this was he case when you see things like our title and the props that we was using w had to work with what we had. As we are a small movie company.

Some of the camera shots we used was very inventive as you can tell in the frame I uploaded. Before every shot we thought about the best way to shoot the shot to make the audience feel more attracted to the scene and also give them more of an idea of what was going on in the actual scene. The opening clip of the whole scene does not give that idea that all of that action would take place in the sequence and I think this is good because it will surprise the audience and they will be glued to the rest of the sequence and also the film in general although there is not much special effects.

This picture I thought was quite nice because it is a little ally way but the good thing about this picture is the way it fades into darkness. This I think is good for thrillers because it causes the audience to be suspicious about what may happen or what is going on.

The reason why I took this picture is because I think a cemetery is a great place for a thriller because obviously it would be quite scary going to a cemetery in the middle of the night because anything may be lurking round the corner.

The first image i took was one in a back garden . The reason why i took this was because i thought that is was quite a nice place for a thriller firstly because it was dark and from what you can see in it it looks like something has taken place that should'nt of and that is was you normaly see in a thriller. This would keep the audiance guessing

Lucky Number Sleven(Paul McGuigan),February 24, 2006 UK

Title Of The Film: The title of the film is quite different to other thrillers because the background is on a checkbook which is not what a titleis normally like, it sets to the actual movie while the titles are still appearing in the scene suggesting that they want the title to match what is going on at the time. I think this isquite good but the down side to this is it draws the audiences attention from the actual title.

How The Setting/Locati

on Is Revealed: The setting is revealed firstly in a car park when a guy in what looks like a very expensive suit is walking with a book in his hand to his car. This makes the audience think what is happening

and makes them want to watch on. Then we see a checkbook when numbers in it with blood on it whilst a man is whipping blood off of it, the weird thing about it that makes the scene quite special is that d

uring all of this we do not see this persons face suggesting that the directors want to keep the audience in suspence.

Interesting Camerawork/Editing: They use a couple of quite i

nteresting shots for example a mid panning shot and a very close up of the two men talking in the room. this will help the audience understand more what is going on by focusing on certain things so they get noticed.

Title & Font Style: The title/font style is quite good because the letters are quite small but also black with blood all around it. this is not a title you see a lot in thrillers but what i am

noticing is thriller titles are becoming more and more extravigant as the years go on and also they are drifting away from the basic black and white back ground with the big bold writing and letters,

How The Opening Sets Up A Story: The opening sets up the story to be very exciting because it leaves the

audience quite confused about what is going on in the movie but the sequence also makes the audience get drawn to what is going on suggesting that the will want to watch on. Just the little things like the slash of blood on the book and

not seeing the mans face will add to the suspence

Genre: The genre of the film is a thriller.

Inside Man Analysis (Spike Lee, 2006, USA) (Genre1)

The Title Of The Film: The title is quite weird because it is not something you see all the time for example it is black and white and the the objects are quite odd when you first see them. Normally when you see a thriller movie the title is quite basic with normally a black back ground with white letters but not this one. I think that is it quite modern and it looks better than the normal thriller title you would see suggesting that it would attract more people when they see it.

Costumes & Props: the first thing we are shown is a random man in white plain overals instantly suggesting that something is about to happen because that is not normal for someone to wear something like that in the street. this will lead the audience to believe that something is going on and this is always a good thing as the will become drawn to the movie and want to watch on.

How The Opening Sets Up A Story: The story is set up quite well because we don't find out a lot by the opening sequence but what it does is make us want to see what may happening because of things like for example when the man walks in the bank in full white overalls. at first it may see that a bank robbery may take place but what we don't know is why this i

s going to happen or how it may happen and if you watch on in the movie you would never think that what did happen, happened when you watched the start of it.

How The Setting/Location Is Revealed:the setting is first a obvious dark room with a guy in a black top talking. This straight away makes the audience think hat is going on in the sequence and makes them want to watch on. Then the scene moves to the same man in what appears to be a prison cell. The two scenes that was opened to us makes the audience want to watch in suggesting that they are now tide to what may happen in the movie which is exactly what the directors want to happen by doing this.

Interesting Camerawork/Editing: The camera work is quite insteressing fo

r example the first shot we see is a close up of the man then the second is a mid/close up of him laying down but the good thing about the shot is that it is over him so it gives us a great angle to look at.

Double Indmenity Analysis (Billy Wilder,1944,USA)

film Title: As it was one of the first ever thriller films it would have been quite hard to tell the difference between film title weather it be a thrill or for example a comedy. But the film title is quite common to a thriller as they normally look very big and bold and every time is nearly almost the color white. These kind of film titles always gives the impression of something exciting happening in the movie and this is always a good thing because the audience always wants that felling when the watch the opening of a movie that its going to be as good as they expecting and wont let them down suggesting that they might think that they have not got what they paid for.

Setting/Location: the location and setting first of all takes place in a car. The unusual thing about the scene was that the car was driving in the road at very high speeds, as well as breaking red lights the car was also driving very dodgy suggesting that at this point the audience would of been thinking why is this happening and what is making the person in the car drive like this. So the scene has done exactly what is was meant to do which is to make the audience exciting. After that the scene is set in a building, which turned out to be his office and then we also find out that he had been shot so the location turns out to be perfect for this scene.

How The Opening Sets Up A Story: The opening sequence sets up the rest of the movie by firstly making the audience excited about what is going on because the opening sequence shows a person driving frantically in the streets of New York braking traffic lights and nearly crashing on a number of occasions. And if that was not enough excitement we then discovers that the person that was driving the car turns out to have been shot in the shoulder. This again makes us think why he got shot in the first place.

Costumes/Props: The person in the opening sequence is wearing a suit and also driving quite a posh car which gives the impression that he is quite important an important person suggesting that this set the scene from the very start of it. But saying this most of the time we did not see the mans face as he was covering it up with what he was wearing suggesting the director wanted to keep the audience in suspense.

Sound/Genre:Firstly, the film gives hints of many different aspects into what genre it could be. throughout the scene the music that was playing gave us the idea that we was watching a thriller because it was quite fast paced but also very frantic. Saying this this also did not give much away as the music/sound that was playing made us quite excited and suspicious to what was going on in he scene and what may happen later during the movie.

brief:

To create the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes

Titles

We have chosen this font for titles because it gives a very mysterious feeling to the titles which will link in with the plot of the story "the unexpected" . It has also been chosen because it is effective in the way that all the letter are in capitals therefore making it easier for the audience to read when coming across the screen. Also, the words and letter aren't hard to work out meaning less people struggling to understand who or what a word actually says making the audience not want to leave or being left in the dark about the actors, actresses and business partners. The titles will appear in the centre of the screen grabbing all the audience's attention on those words, which enables each character name or film title to really stick in their mind throughout the showing of the film. Various Transitions will be used to once again go along with the title of the film "the unexpected" because using various transition wouldn't be expected by the audience, this will give them a subtle clue to what the title is before it actually appears on screen. How you see the titles above is how they will appear, with casting being before the final title of the film. The "glenthorne productions film" sill be shown first because it is the least important to the audience out of all the titles shown and showing it first will mean that it will be the least thing they remember when recapping over the film because it was the first thing they saw, the second least important but still vital is the producers, directors and cast which will be next so that the audience have a vague, but good memory of the characters. The title is used last because it will be the last piece of writing the audience see therefore sticking in their minds the most. The film title will be much larger than all the others so that the audience will understand that the title they are seeing is more important than the others

Casting (Main Characters)

Sam: Delarney Ewerse

Rose: Latoya Hay

The Gaff: Luke Power

Corrupt Officer: Daryl Hay

Delaney Ewerse

We have decided to choose these people (including myself) to be in our cast for two reasons, one being, we know that each of us will be available for the shooting schedule and also because Delarney is 17, an age where young people would be looking for jobs and working in small stores such as a bike store. This makes it seem realistic as many other young people would also be working, any younger age wouldnt look real.

Latoya Hay

We have chosen Latoya because she has to be a woman, and, she is also available to film based on the shooting schedule also because she is good actress and can play the role of Rose because she is close to Delarney's age making them seem a realistic couple. She has also been chosen because she can come to the required locations for her part at any time as she lives there.

Luke Power

Luke will play The Gaff because he fits the role of an unsuspecting drug lord, giving an element of suprise to the audience and enabling a feeling of shock and interest. Also because he is a drama student and therefore will be a great asset to have as he has precious experience playing various roles meaning explaining the script and directions to him will be easier than with others.

Daryl Hay

Daryl (Myself) will play the corrupt police officer because once again it would be unsuspected by the audience creating a sense of surprise and shock. I can play the Corrupt Officer because I have previous experience playing roles of a "bad guy" as a result I will not need to adapt as I will know what is expected of me already. Also, we have chosen myself because I was part of the group who made the storyboard and as a result I will know what the group needs to be done at each point where I am needed.

Audience Research Questionnaire

This is my questionnaire i have compsed so i can have a full undrstanding of people's opinion on how they few movies and what kind of movies they like.

story boards

We created our story boards in order to make it easier for the group to understand and see what we are trying to achieve. It shows the different shot types and where everyone is meant to be at certain times and when it is time to film our shots it makes it easier to understand because we an go by what is on our story boards without thinking things up on the spot. All the shots that are in the story have be chosen via a mutual agreement in the group creating understanding between each other and eliminating any disputes over shot types in the future, this helps everything to be done properly. We all done a story board each and before we uploaded it we agreed to what was on it and i also thinks it saves a lot of time and effort in the future.

Shooting schedule

A shooting schedule is a plan of each day of shooting in a film production. Usually managed and created by the assistant director who then reports this to the Production manager managing the production schedule. We have made the shooting schedule so that our cast and group know and understand when they are needed and where we are filming, this results in no confusion over days of shooting meaning all the time spent will be optimised unless there is a serious problem due to illness or other reasons with the cast or crew. The shooting schedule also lets everyone know what costumes they need to wear and what props to bring meaning that nothing will be forgotten as each person will see what is required for the day of shooting. Also, it lets the casting and crew know what shots are being filmed on what day so that the cast can get into the correct character and learn the right dialogue (if any) for that day, and the crew know what filming equipment to bring and what shot types to be planning on doing. Finally the shooting schedule lets everyone know how long we will be filming for so each person knows roughly the time period and how long we will be working for on each day.

Character description

We only have four main characters in our piece: -

Sam: - Works at the bike store and isn't involved in the money laundering scheme. Rose is his girlfriend. He is kind, considerate and compassionate.

Rose: - Sam's girlfriend and housemate. She also has no knowledge of the money laundering scheme. She is generally sweet and innocent and is pritty much both harmless and helpless.

The Gaff: - Is the ringleader of the money laundering scheme and also is the boss and owner of the bike store. He's the kind of guy that will do anything to get what he wants by doing anything and by any means necessary.

The corrupt police officer: - Is sort of the Gaff's puppit. He's borred with putting criminals away and so he decided to become one. He's still working as a police officer so Sam can't expect any help form his department. He's only in it for the money. He's cunning, quick to think and act and he's creative.

Script

Scene 1

Customer: "Excuse me mate do you know where the bike valve caps are?"

Sam: "Errmm... I'll have a look for you."

Customer: "Ok, thanks."

Sam: "I'm just gonna go and ask management where it is for you mate, just bear with me for a moment."

Scene 2

Sam: "... What's going on??

Corrupt PC: "He's seen too much!"

The Gaf: "Get Him!"

Scene 3

Rose: "Hello."

Sam: "Babe, get out the house, go to your mums, it's not s-"

(The phone line goes dead)

Sam: "NO

(The phone line goes dead)

Sam: "NOO!"

Conventions of a title sequence

Ø The films title
Ø The details of the cast and crew
Ø Information on the genre
Ø Introduction to the character(s) or the persons type of character
Ø Clues and questions to draw the audience in
Ø Mood and Tone
Ø Cinematography and Mise en Scene that will be explained on in later parts of the film
Ø The opening sequence also sets up the story
Ø Allows the audience to build up an understanding of what may happen in the film

Conventions of an action film

Ø Damsil in Distress
Ø Some sort of worry over time, as in time would be running out
Ø Explosions
Ø Weapons
Ø Chase Sequences
Ø Good guy and Bad guy
Ø Blood shedStunts

Shot list

This is our shot list. We firstly drew aww the pictures on paper then we took a picture of it and uploaded it to our blogs which you can see right now.

The main props that we have chosen for our scene is the following:
Ø Mobile phone
Ø 2-3 Bicycles
Ø Black Jumpers

These are the main props that we are using to shoot our clip. We firstly need the mobile phone because during our clip there will be a number of calls being made to various people which will add drama and suspicion and that is just what the audience need to see in an action film like ours.
The second prop we are using is (bicycles). Now this is the most important prop in the whole sequence because firstly the first half of the sequence takes place in the bike shop and when it ventures out to the streets the action takes place on bicycles as the bad guys chase the shop worker on them.
And lastly to give the impression of criminals and bad guys we thought that we should dress them up in black jumpers and various other cloths because it will add suspicion before the audience knows what is going on also it helps to distinguee the bad guys from the good in our sequence.

The main location is set in a bike shop and the other locations will be in the area surrounding the bike shop also so I thought it would be good to have a picture of a bike shop so the audience know where the main shops and acting was taken place.

Film synopses

The main character works at a bike shop. He goes into work and witnesses a money laundering operation held by his boss and other associates which include a corrupt Police officer. He then runs out of the store and they chase him on bikes. The boss the calls a hit man to go round to his house and abduct his girlfriend.

Initial ideas

As a group we thought that it would be best to do an action film. We thought this because as young people our selves that are into film such as action we thought that we could come up with a range of ideas to make our film really fun and exciting for the audience to watch. We also went over other genres for example horror and comedy but we came to conclusion that with the areas that we could think of and the types o props we could get hold of action would be the best genre all-round for us and I think that this could be a big success if we put our mind to it and work hard to create something special for the audience to watch.

Shot list

I thought that the first section of our film should be quite a few close up’s and also some mid shots. I say this because at the beginning of our film it takes place in a shot with the main character placed behind the counter of the shot. So because the first section is fully focused on that main character we thought that it would be appropriate to have these types of shots so it gives the audience more of an idea of what is going on and what the movie may lead into with this character.

The middle scene will be the character that was behind the counter in the shop running from some bad guys and the scene and camera shots will be placed on the streets so we thought that we could use a range of shots for this scene for example:
Ø Close up
Ø Mid shot
Ø Still shot
Ø Very close up
Ø Long shot

We thought that all these shots would be very effective and will made the scene more exciting for the audience to watch.

The ending of the scene will be in a house with the main character in the shop and his girlfriend with about three bad guys. So the types of shot that we thought should be mainly used in this scene would be Panning Shots and also Close Ups so the audience can see clearly what is going on and these shots will be good because it will make this particular scene very intense which is how we wanted it to be.

sound

The link that I have posted below is a view sound from sound tracts that will be appropriate for our action opening sequence. It has all the things that makes an action movie effective for example the up beat sound and sound that make us excited to see what is going to happen next but also gives us quite a frill also. It is important that a sound track to a action movie is very excitable and this is exactly what the sound that I have uploaded is.

http://www.freesound.org/searchText.php