This is my Final Production titled 'Caught Up'. I hope you enjoy it. I have alos used a a labeling system to help with navigation arrond my blog.
I am going to analyise some parts of our production and explain some of the techniques that we have used and what effect they have.
One effect that we used is called 'Grey Scale half and half'. This helps give our piece a darker effect in order to portray that somthing bad is going to happen. In the first scene our main character has just woken up, this effect also helps to give a dazed feel to the production.
When filming our production we also told the actor (Toby) to move slowly and look dazed. This along with our greyscale effect helps to give the audience the impression that somthing isnt right.
A final effect that we used was slow motion (02:36). In this part of the film he has just picked up a gun. This slow motion effect gives the audience time to take in what is happening and trys to make them feel like they are actually there.
We deciede to finish our piece with a slight cliff hanger. This was an attempt to keep our audience interested and want to continue watching.
What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?
As our Media product will have niche market it is most likely going to be distributed by smaller local media institutions. For example so of the Media institutions that may distribute our product would be Phoenix Picture House this on Walton St Oxford. This cinema will screen niche films and is a lot smaller compared to other cinemas like Odeon, there for I think this cinema is a fantastic way at distributing our product as it wont be as expensive and will target our specific audience. Its also in very good location which is populated and gives us a high chance of getting our product seen.
Oxford Mail would also be a very successful way of distributing our product as it is local and a lot of people read the oxford mail it wont be very expensive. Parents may read this and inform their teenagers about the film they see and may recommend it to others which can then get people talking about it.
Magazines would distribute our product. For example Total film will be a good way of getting our media product distributed and targeting our target audience with people ages between 15 to 20 it advertises action films and our final product will fit in perfectly within this magazine its very popular with teenagers and is a popular film magazine
In our lesson we were looking at different technical terms that can be used when analysing a film. I'm going to find there meaning and write a definition so that I remember the ones that I'm not to sure on.
Key camera angle definitions:
Framing: The process of selecting what is to be framed by a particular film or shot, for example; characters, setting and iconography.
Rule of thirds: The rule of thirds is a guideline which applies to the process of filming and photography.
Depth of field: Depth of field is the distance between the nearest and furthest object in the scene that appearance exceptionally sharp in an image.
Deep focus: It's a photographic and cinematographic technique using a large depth of field.
Shallow focus: This technique is the opposite to deep focus which incorporates a small depth of field.
Focus pulls: Focus pulls are used to shift the focal point from one part of a scene to another. For example; an actor may be in focus at a distance of 20 feet from the camera at the far side of the room and the shot includes a telephone in the foreground which is out of focus, as the phone rings, the actor turns and the focus puller pulls focus so that the phone becomes sharp and the actor goes out of focus.
cutaway: A cutaway is a shot that's usually of something other than the current action. It could be a different subject (eg. this cat when the main subject is its owner), a close up of a different part of the subject (eg. the subject's hands), or just about anything else. The cutaway is used as a "buffer" between shots (to help the editing process), or to add interest/information
Key Denotation: The first and simplest level of a meaning of an image.
Connotation: A meaning attributable to an image beyond the obvious denotational level.
TV Dramas are frequent over exaggerated portrayals of real life. e.g. romance and death through strong stereo typical characters
Representation: Key concepts of the process whereby the media constructs versions of people, places and events in images, words or sound for transmission through media texts to an audience.
Enigma: A narrative structure that narrates the creation of riddles or problems to be sorted by resolution
This is our short clip for our preliminary task we had to film someone walking through the doors and sitting down having a one on one conversation with them. Overall i thought it was successful but their are a number of different elements we will need to improve on when it comes to filming our final product
Music plays an integral part in films. Music is normally used to express a character's emotion. It is also used to heighten the drama of the film and establishes the relevant mood. The music can also enable you to know the time or setting of the film. The Music is extremely important as it can be used to set the mood so its key that you use the right music to convey the mood or the scene.
For our opening sequence we all had to have a unsigned artist for the music. The music that we were going to use is rap/hip-hop as it would compliment and go very well with our character and the scene setting the mood, as our film is has elements of youth culture and gang violence and the music would also represent that.
We spent a very long time looking for the right music as we thought it is an extremely important part within our opening sequence. Once we found the correct song we the had to edit and put it in within our production we had to fade it in and out as there is a camera shot of me turning up the volume in my car so its important it fades in to make it look correct and flow. We then made sure it faded out when he picked up the gun to add a sense of realisation and worry which really make the audience stop and think whats going to happen as when the music cuts out it feels like he hits reality.
For our opening sequnce we had to think of our target auidnece and the age range we were targeting. After watching our opening sequnce we decided that our target auidnec would be people ranged between the ages of 15 to early 20s. We have decided that it would be this age as our film is about gang culture and involves crime and some mild vilonce
Foley sound- Foley sound are sound effects added to the film during post production (after the shooting stops). They include sounds such as footsteps, clothes rustling, crockery clinking, paper folding, doors opening and slamming, punches hitting, glass breaking, etc. etc. In other words, many of the sounds that the sound recordists on set did their best to avoid recording during the shoot.Without Foley, a film sounds empty and hollow.
When me and jack came to recording our Foley sound we made sure we already made a list before hand so that we knew exactly what we needed to record. Foley was extremely important within our production as the sound made it realistic and engaged the audience.
Within Mrs banks class we have been looking and researching about the Sony music industry in order to prepare for our exam in the summer. We have to look at a number of different elements within the Sony music industry some of the topics we had to research was:
The ownership of Sony
The production
whats on Sony's website
Sony's Marketing
These are only some of the topics we have research about. Its important we have as much research as possible in order to give us the best possible chance so that we have thew knowledge about Sony when going into the exam. Within Sony we will be looking at niche and mainstream artist within Sony and their fan bases and the way in which Sony promotes new artists. We will also be looking at the way in which music technology has changed and how you purchase music.
I really enjoy this topic as love the music industry and it interests me to want to learn more and know more about it. i love listening to all types of music and i love watching music videos especially in the morning when i wake up. Learning about Sony is very interesting as the scale of it so big and there is so much to learn about it.
In the lessons recently we have been learning and talking about you tube and how it helps Sony discover and promote artists. We have been talking about its benefits and disadvantages as this will all help Link into our case study
Me and Jack met up at his house in the morning the weather was sunny and damp on the floor it was perfect weather for us to film. We had to make sure we had all he props that we needed in order that are filming to run smoothly we made sure we kept a close eye on the story board to ensure we stayed on track. As it was our first day of filming it took as a little longer to get to grips with the camera shots and making sure that all of them were just how we wanted them. We made sure we took more the one shot of the same shot to give us the best chance of it being right. Mr Buckmaster also helped us by telling us to leave a 5 second time gap before and after the shot to give us chance for editing and more room for us to work and make it look better.
We were able to get a range of shots we wanted. We made sure that the transitions between each Shot was smooth and that the shots of the boy getting ready showed the audience he was having breakfast without having to film all of it. Next time we film we must make sure the weather is the same as last time to ensure the continuity is correct and looks the same.
On mine and Jack Lucas second production meeting we started to story board some of the camera shots we wanted to get, and how we wanted to the film to look we fully discussed the different camera shots and what was possible and what wasn't possible as we didn't have a budget so we had to think very carefully of what we wanted. When we were discussing the camera shots we had to take the weather into consideration as we need good continuity.
We decided to shoot the first scene and jacks house to try and portray a boy who doesn't seem like a typical gangstar and so that the audience thinks he is a hard working student. We then started to story board board the types of shots we wanted to get within the house we had consider the yes of shots we wanted as we needed it to look like a dream.
We already had sort of an idea of the how we want the opening sequence to finish the next time we meet will film the the first scene.
Yesterday on the 5th of February Wednesday we took a trip to London to BFI South bank. We arrived at BFI South Bank at 10:20 in order to give us enough time to arrive and listen to the introduction at the studio on the cinema room. The day was all about youth media and collective identity.
when we were in the cinema the Matthew hall was speaking to us about youth media and culture identity. We then watched four different short clips.
The film above is called the wild one The Wild One is a 1953 American outlaw biker film directed by László Benedek and produced by Stanley Kramer. It is famed for Marlon Brando's iconic portrayal of the gang leader Johnny Strabler. we then had to make notes on it about the textual detail, the dominant messages sent about youth and negotiated interpretation and what kind of audience would interpret in this way.
We then did this for 3 other films
Rebel Without a Cause is a 1955 American drama film about emotionally confused suburban, middle-class teenagers. Directed by Nicholas Ray.
Quadrophenia is a 1979 British film, loosely based on the 1973 rock opera of the same name by the who. The film stars Phil Daniels as Jimmy, a Mod. It was directed by Franc Roddam in his feature directing debut.
Kidulthood is a 2006 British drama film about the life of several teenagers in Ladbroke Grove and Latimer Road area of inner west London. It was directed by Menhaj Huda and written by Noel Clarke
All of the films we watched got newer as we went on. We then had to discuss the ways in which youth media has been portrayed through each film and the difference of them as they got newer and to notice if their any trends.
Some of the trends we noticed within all of the films that youth media and collective identity was portrayed as very rebellious young males and females. They were often in gangs and had their own slang. there was often a lot of fighting too.
After we had lunch we can back in for the screening of "My brother the Devil"
This is a trailer of My brother the Devil.
overall i really enjoyed the film, i thought it was very interesting and always kept you intrigued. I also enjoyed it as you would never really know what is going to happen next. i enjoy films with a bit of violence in as it does make it that more interesting o go along with that i thought the special effects were very real which touched as part of the audience as i would gain to like certain characters. its always interesting as the action that happened in the film happens in real life. Although i thought the ending was rushed and rounded off to quickly as you didn't get to see what the other characters were doing so that was a little bit disappointing
After the film had finished the producer Gayle Griffith came out spoke to us about the film. We got the chance to ask her questions about what is like making the film which was very helpful for my film. She told us that the film was on a very low budget and had to make do i also found out that some of the actors were just people that lived around that area and were asked to help out to be in the background. They didn't have the money to close down the streets and film so they had to think of ways to be able to film it with the public still around.
From going to BFI South Bank i have learnt a lot about youth media and collective identity and i feel like it will benefit my opening sequence a lot as it has gave me some other ideas of what else we can do to our opening sequence to make it better as it really inspired as i thought My brother the Devil film was really good even with an extremely low budget which made me think its possible as i have a low budget to film my opening sequence to. The film slightly related to my opening sequence as i have a similar genre and story line. Some of the camera shots were very good and i may decide to use some of them in my film. but as i thought the ending rounded of every quickly its important that when i come to film the ending that i do not rush it and really think about how I'm going to end it.
Date:12th December
Where: ICT classroom
Who: Jack Lucas and Toby Egden
The objective of our first production meeting is to brainstorm and get some good ideas of what we want our opening sequence to be about and what type of genre to use. Me and Jack where able to get a good idea of what we wanted opening sequence to be about and what type of genre by watching a number of different opening sequences on you tube and short clips of films and different trailers to really get idea of what we like and what is possible to film as we have a low budget and not a lot of experience.
After watching different opening sequences we particularly liked kidulthoods opening sequence. and decided we wanted our story line to be among the lines.
we then discussed the ways in which we could shape and mould it to the way that best suit us. we then came up with idea that we want it to be someone having a dream about it.
Our plans for the next production meeting is to make some notes about what we want the opening sequence to be and get some ideas of the shots we want to have by watching other opening sequences and short films and trailers.
Colour treatment is key in our main task for our opening sequence, because its about a boy having a dream so this means colour treatment is very important and we must portray this by brightening up the colour treatment or taking the colour out of it and darkening it. Its important that the audience know that its a dream and know that something isn't quite right. we need to make sure the audience aren't confused and do have an understanding of whats going on this is why the colour treatment is element we must pay particular attention to.
An example of brightening up the colour treatment is:
This is a example of colour treatment where the colour has been enhanced and given a blueish greener filter to enhance the colours and make the bolder. When me and jack decide to add the colour treatments in we need to enhance the colours like the picture below or completely take the colours out to add the effect that something isn't quite right and so that the audience has a slight idea that its dream. It also adds tension and a sense of mystery.
