Thursday 10 April 2014

To Do List

Steven,

DELETE THIS POST WHEN YOU HAVE MADE YOUR CHANGES!

Your blog is looking fairly good so far. You have posted some research and planning and there is some nice detail, design and content included.

Make sure you upload you evaluation questions to your blog as the last posts.Not all of them seem to be present and one or two are incomplete. Q1 is blurry, rotate it the right way round too please, don't give the examiner an excuse to mark you down. Q5 is basic and perfunctory. Q2 doesn't provide enough depth or detail. The whole evaluation feels more than a little rushed.

Your editing commentary is a little brief, it would be nice if you provided some screenshots as evidence of the problems you faced.

Make sure all of the images you have embedded to your blog are rotated the right way round!

Explain specifically why you had to reshoot, I gave you very specific feedback. Don't just say you redid it because I told you so, explain what the problem was with each shot.

Your blog MUST include a pitch & storyboard and should include location and casting decisions. Details are on the AS media blog. You won't get a level 1 (E-D grade if these vital elements are clearly apparent!) Make these quick changes and your blog will improve from an E to a B.

Enjoy the rest of your break,

Mr S

Tuesday 25 March 2014

Final Film


This is our final film, so all of our effort has pulled off and now you can see the result of our hard work, so sit back and enjoy the show.

Friday 21 March 2014

The End

This is the end of the our journey together, so therefore without any further ado, farewell from me.

List

This is the list of all the ways I could answer the evaluation questions. As you can see by the list there are a number of ways I could present my answers to you. But I have ticked off the ways I'm going to present my answers.

Title


This is our final and the title scene we will use for our film. As you can see the all black back ground suites well for the genre we are trying to achieve. The lettering has a glowing effect which makes the candle look like it is doing the effect. Whereas the writing underneath looks like candle wax which has dripped down.
3. Dear Steven, We are thankful for you for sending your film into us, as we appreciate young and aspiring directors making films and sending them to us, as we are committed in supporting these people, as we believe that young British independent directors should be given a chance to show off their skills to the world.
As for your film we like the concept behind it, and would like you to further the film in length and story to the point of a full feature length film, which we would like to distribute, as you are the perfect candidate for us to invest to as we have had other success with other independent British films, like Four lions.
As for your film we like the concept behind it, and would like you to further the film in length and story to the point of a full feature length film, which we would like to distribute, as you are the perfect candidate for us to invest to as we have had other success with other independent British films, like Four lions.
But we have put our name to other films such as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Tyrannosaur and Don't Be Afraid of the Dark.
So we look forward to receiving your answer to our offer.
Yours Sincerely
Peter Frost
CEO
Optimum

6.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

http://Pixton.com/ic:e68fi0z7


5. How did you attract/ address your target audience?

 


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


Thursday 20 March 2014

4. Who is the main target audience for your product?

The main target audience for my product would be people rangeing from 18 year olds to people in their late 40's, as a psyhcological thriller loads of people like them as they have to think abou what is going on in the film, and even if they get it wrong they are still thrilled by the film.

As going back to our research we found a lot of people like horror films, as they find them exciting as its the thrill of not knowing what could happen next.


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

Google & Blogger

The first thing we had to do was make a g-mail account and learn to use blogger so we could keep a log of our creative ideas and film making. 



Adobe Photoshop CS5.1


We then started to integrate pictures and videos into our blogs to help us get points across and also made our blogs more interesting. We created and edited photos on Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 (EXAMPLE: opening sequences analysis).

Adobe Illustrator CS5.1
We used Illustrator to create posters and other creative documents. Illustrator gives the user more creative control than photoshop. It is specially designed to create images instead of editing or doctoring them. (EXAMPLE: Teaser Trailers) 

Online Creative Sites
Using programs such as as Prezzi and Go!Animate also made our blogs idea more interesting, and allowed us to break what would be big chunks of monotonous text into easily digestible chunks. (EXAMPLE: pitch to investors).
Sony HD DVC CamerasWhen it came to making our preliminary we had our first experience of the filming equipment; Sony HD DVC cameras and tripods.

Final Cut Express

When editing our preliminary we had to learn to use Final Cut Express for Mac. We also learnt how to add sound into the background of our clips and manipulate them using effects.

Recording Equipment & Garage Band
To do our directors commentary we also used a microphone and garage band to record and smoothen our voices. 





Editing Day 3 

In our third and last day of editing, we cleaned our opening scene to make it look as sharpe as possible. Therefore we tweaked aat the colours and brightness of the shots, as well we added the title of the film and the titles of everyone who helped make the film.

Edititng Day 2 

Today we did and completed the second half, of the opening scene. The second half is more important as it concludes the small story we tell to set the scene for the entire film.  

Wednesday 19 March 2014

Editing Day 1

Editing went well today, with the first half of our opening scene done. The process all toether took about 2 hours. As we experimented with a few ideas, as we wanted an old film effect where it looks crakled and antiqued effect. It took us a bit of time to get use to the software we are using, as we had never used it before this day.

Tuesday 18 March 2014

Editing Schedule 

We aim to do all of our editing within 2-3 days. Both me and Chris will have a go at editing to even up the load. 

Day 1:
-In the first day of us editing our film we aim to have the first half of the opening scene completed. So that is everything from the start of the opening to the middle of the opening scene we have planned out.
Day 2:
-In this day we plan to have the whole opening done and finished, so this will include us finishing the second half of the opening completed.
Day 3:
-Day 3 will be a day cleaning it all up and adding the final title scene which we are in the process of making.  

Day 3 of filming 

The footage from Day 2 was of a better quality then Day 1 by a long run. There were no shaking of the camera where it was not handled properly, we did not zoom in as much as we had, only when we really had to and if the situation suited it. 

In Day 3 of filming we went to Pettswood to film the tunnel walk.

The day was a little bit overcast but other then that, filming went ok. The night before it had rained so it gave us the perfect backdrop, as it was wet, so it gave the allusion of dampness, cold and dark which we wanted.

We also managed to get a really nice shoot in of me walking down the tunnel and train went by at the same time. 

Day 2 of filming

When we got back to download the footage we took yesterday and we took a look at it all, we realized that most of the footage was no good to us as there were, shaky parts through all the footage we had taken, there where unnecessary zooms and the lighting in parts were so bad that you could not see a thing.

So we decided to reshoot the entire beginning part of our opening scene.

We meet up at Chris's but this time it took less time to set everything up as he had done this before i turned up with the camera, so we could go straight into filming.


Day 1 of filming 

As said on the on the shooting schedule we were at Chris's house filming today, and the filming went ok as we achieved all that we had planned to do and it took about an hour to film all the shoots we had listed to do.

As it took time arranging the props as we wanted them to be scene on the camera as the mise-en-scene is important to our film as they tell their own stories. For example we printed of some plans of bike parts and how to take bikes apart as quick as possible.

The weather for today was sunny with only some clouds in sky, so the conditions for filming were right  as the light was right but the shadows the buildings produced, we are now worried that it might look a bit blue on the screen when we go into the editing phase.  

Shooting Schedule

Me and my partner aim to film our opening scene within 3 days with  the third day as back up day set aside just in case we need an extra day to re-film or film anything we have missed.

Day 1:
- We are going to film at Chris's house for the first bit, as we have gotten the use of his step-dads white van which is to be the Villains main base of operations. And we will film Chris playing the bad guy sitting down with his computer and print out plans in-front of him. Filming length for this part will be about 20-30 seconds
- Along with that Chris's house is to be the main characters house and where a number of things will happen to like:
  • The bike will be taken apart straight after the main character leaves it alone, this will take between 20-30 seconds 
  • The villain shreds some paper which will have some importance later in the film but the audience won't realize that till later in the film, Shredding the paper will take no longer then 10 seconds, then when the main character finds it on his door step it will be about 20-25 seconds.
Day 2:
- Will be filmed in Pettswood as we the use of a specific railway bridge, which leads to a woods where the main part of film would take place. what we need to film there:
  • we need to film me walking to the tunnel and me walking through the tunnel, with shots from both ends seeing me go in and out of the tunnel this at most will take 30-35 seconds
  • we also need see me opening a letter which is waiting for me, as the villain knew I would be there, 15-20 seconds 
And then Day 3 of shooting if we need it to shoot something new or something we forgot or even a re-shoot of a scene we already have done.

Opening Titles Ideas 4 


This title plays on the words of "Happy Ever After" as I wanted that was clever and witty. While the slogan is "not everything has a happy ending" as most stories told end with a happy ending and everything goes back to normal, but we wanted a story that went against the norm. The "Ending" in the    slogan is underlined which emphasizes our point.

Monday 17 March 2014

Opening Tiltes Ideas 3

This title uses inspiration from the film 'American Psycho' the knife would come across the screen, while the writing would be blood and as you can see towards the end of the blade the letters over hang the blade to give the apperance of the blood dripping from it. I prefer this title to the other two as it is more of a mature feeling to it were the other two titles had a childish feel to them. 

Opening Title Ideas 2

This was the second title idea I have come up for our film opening. This time I went with the idea of what do most people think of when Halloween comes to mind. So I went round a couple of people asking them what they think of for Halloween, I got a few Bats, Witches, Moons and Pumpkins. So I used the pumpkin idea. I believe this title is better then first, but it is still not the best it could be as there is still a some what of a childish element there still.  

Opening Title Ideas


This is the first of the ideas I have designed, the inspirtaion behind this title is one of the halloween feel as, mine and chris's film is set around Halloween. Because I drew this I looked for inspiration, so therefore I looked at Horror/Thriller film titles that had a Halloween fell to them like, Halloween and Trick 'r Treat. And this is the result I got, as you can see there is Halloween feel to it but it is to childish for what we want are film to be.

Friday 14 March 2014


Evaluation Tasks

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

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 is the main target audience for your product? 

5. How did you attract/ address your target audience? 

6. 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? 

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

These are the seven evaluation questions that I will be answering for my opening scene project. Both, me and my partner Chris have decided to do individual tasks for the evaluation, as we want to create individual looks to the ending of the of our blogs. As well we have different opinions of what we should do for each of the questions.

Tuesday 4 March 2014

Age Ratings 

The the link above is the British Board of Film Classification(bbfc), and in this link it gives you all the criteria of all the age limits, British films are set at due to their contents. And this made me think about what age limit are film would be set at if the bbfc had to classify are film, would most likely be a (15) as the content of the film, is not that particularly bloody or that controversial with the language or opinion of characters on screen.
This is our round up of all the information and research we have gathered for our final film opening scene. Within this podcast of ours we discuss how the research has led me to creating a psychological thrillers that was the favored genre for the majority of the people that did the questionnaire. As well as the outline of our idea for our film, is within this film as well.

Monday 10 February 2014

THE GAME
It tells the story of a wealthy investment banker who is given a mysterious gift: participation in a game that integrates in strange ways with his everyday life. As the lines between the banker's real life and the game become more uncertain, hints of a large conspiracy become apparent. I enjoyed this film very much, as it is one that keeps you on your feet all the way through as you try to understand what is going on to the main protagonist Nicholas Van Orton "Michael Douglas". It is not till the very end that all is revealed to the viewer. And for that this is a very good Psychological thriller as it keeps the audience glued to the film to want to know what is actualy happening.

Tuesday 4 February 2014

Shutter Island is a 2010 American psychological thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese. The film is based on Dennis Lehane's 2003 novel of the same tile. But the film itself is one of sitting on the edge of the seat, as it captivates the audience, as you want to find out more of the story as it goes on. There are moments through out the film that makes the audience question everything they see, as nothing is what it seems. So the use of enigma codes, are used to great extent in this film. So for that reason my film will contain enigma codes, so that the audience is always trying to second guess the film, but it will contain some action codes at the same time.
These are the two logos, that Chris Sykes has designed, to put in our opening sequence. But these are not our final ideas and we will continue to design more logos, until we find a design that we like and suits that genre type.
This is the film Se7en, and here is a short summary: Taking place in a nameless city, Se7en follows the story of two homicide detectives tracking down a sadistic serial killer who chooses his victims according to the seven deadly sins. Brad Pitt stars as Detective David Mills, a hopeful but naive rookie who finds himself partnered with veteran Detective William Somerset (Morgan Freeman). Together they trace the killers every step, witnessing the aftermath of his horrific crimes one by one as the victims pile up in rapid succession, all the while moving closer to a gruesome fate neither of them could have predicted. I watched this film the other day, And I thought that it was gut wrenching and that the filmmakers stick to their vision with such dedication and persistence that something indelible comes across-something ethically and artistically superior to 'The Silence of the Lambs' that refuses to exploit suffering for fun or entertainment.
These are all the results from, the questions we have asked people, to help us with what type of film I will be making. And all of this have had an effect on the choices I've made. Like that I will be making a film opening for a Horror movie. But it will be psychological thriller, and to get a feel for that genre of films, I have watched films like: Seven, The Cabin In The Wood, Shutter Island. All of these films have now helped me of how and what I want My film opening to be like.

Tuesday 28 January 2014

Narrative Theory 

Roland Barthes narrative theory claims that a narrative can be broken down into five codes or sets of rules. 

  • Action code: Applies to any action that implies a further narrative action.
  • Cultural code: An element in the narrative that is dependent on peoples knowledge of how the world works.
  • Enigma code: Refers to any element in a story that is not explained and therefore exists as an enigma
  • Semantic code: An element in a text that suggests an additional meaning by connotations.
  • Symbolic code: Similar to semantic codes, but cover a wider level where new meanings arise.

Narrative Theory

Propp’s narrative theory was based on folk tales and legends that he studied from different countries, he found that they were all quite similar and that they seemed to be about the same basic problems and the same types of character kept cropping up. He focused on the way there seemed to be different ‘types’ of characters rather than individuals. He recognised 8 character types. Propp’s 8 character types:

  • Hero who is on the quest. To restore the state of equilibrium to the narrative of the story.
  • Villain who opposes the hero, usually creates the narrative disruption. 
  • Donor helps the hero by giving him a tool. It may be object, information or advice. 
  • Dispatcher who sends the hero on his way, aids the hero in his quest.
  • False hero tries to tempt the hero away from his quest. 
  • Helper who helps the hero
  • Princess who is the reward for the hero. (the victim) is usually the character most threatened by the villain and has to be saved.
  • Father who rewards the hero for his efforts 

Monday 27 January 2014

Narrative Theory 

Levi Strauss argued that all narratives could be reduced down to binary opposites. Binary opposition (also binary system) is a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning.

Examples:
  • Americans Vs Native Americans 
  • Good Vs Evil
  • Science Vs Religion 
  • Weak Vs Strong 
  • East Vs West
  • Man Vs Women 
After studying Hundreds of Myths from around the world, and observed that we make sense of the world, using binary opposites.
He observed that all narratives are organised around the conflict between such binary opposites.

Friday 24 January 2014

Narrative Theory Steps

Todorov's narrative theory states that most story's or plot lines follow the same pattern or path.
There are 5 steps in this pattern:
1. The first part of the story will display a happy start, where the characters are content and everything is as it should.
2. The second part of the story will feature a problem or something will disrupt the happiness.
3. This part of the plot is when everyone realises the problem and the chaos it has caused.
4. This part is when the characters attempt to repair the damage and restore the problem.
5. In this final part of the plot where the problem is resolved and normality can resume again.