AS Media Coursework: 2010

25 March 2010

'Thug Britain'

24 March 2010

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

I think the main element I have improved on since the preliminary task is on the edit suite. In the preliminary I feel I was not confident enough on the program. However since using the program a second time round I feel a lot more comfortable when using it. What I found difficult first time round placing all the shots together. In the full product I felt this was my strongest attribute. I was surprised how easy the program was to work after you play around with it for a while. However I still feel I could improve my editing on sound. This was something I could not get to grips with doing but after a while of messing around with it again finished it on all the clips.

I would say another progression I have made since the preliminary task is my skills with the camera used to shoot the opening scene. In the preliminary I feel I was just getting to grips with using it and didn't really know how to fully use it. This time round I felt I could do more with it. I say this because I learnt how to use it properly and overall this helps make the quality of our filming a lot better. With being more confident when using the camera it helped me want to make the shots alternate and use a whole range.

I felt our full product was planned better than the preliminary. This was probably because we knew this time round the planning was key to making a solid opening scene. After the preliminary I felt our planning was not good enough to help us create something that was worth making. However the planning from the script to planning the setting was spot on. It saved us a lot of time as we already knew what we needed to do on the day of the filming something we wasn't as strong on with the preliminary.

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

Internet;

The Internet was a vital technology used. It helped me with many things such as Blogger, where I could post all my work done. The search engine Google was vital to finding the information I needed and lead me to many sites such as YouTube and Wikipedia. Wikipedia allowed me to find out allot of information about recent films from the genre we chose etc. YouTube on the other hand allowed me to watch the opening scenes to films from my genre to give me ideas on the conventions of an opening sequence. The Internet also allowed us as a group to find music for our film. We used the website http://www.unsignedbandweb.com/.

Laptop/Computer;

The schools computer and my home laptop helped me to complete work on blogger, upload photos from my camera and so forth.

Digital Camera;

We used my camera to take photos of our characters and locations filmed. We took many photos to use as evidence in our blogs.

Scanner;

A scanner was another important piece of technology used as it helped us get our work scanned onto the computer to put in our blogs.

Camera on Tripod;

Probably the most important piece of technology used in the whole project. This was used to film our opening scene. I think I learnt how to use the camera properly and would feel comfortable with no help when using it, if needed again.

Flip Camera;

This was used to record feedback for our rough cut and final product. From the feedback we got we was able to put it in our blogs and help improve our opening scene.

Software Adobe Premiere Pro;

This helped us edit our opening scene and put it all together. We learnt how it all works and our editing on our film proves it.

To summarise technology has become much easier to use and get a hold of. It if was not for the school we would not have had the correct equipment to help us make our opening. With the edit suite we were able to put together all the clips we had filmed with the video camera. Technology had a big factor when coming to create our opening sequence.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I would say one of our best selling points was the settings we used for our scenes. The first scene is in the garage. We feel this set the scene as dark and frightful signifying it was a dream. It helps grab the audiences attention straight away with the garage door being smashed closed. We feel the garage door closing sets the scene displaying something bad is about to happen. The drug deal was another setting which grabbed the attention of viewers many saying after viewing the opening it helped make it look realistic. It was shot in a deserted tunnel which was a dark scene like in the garage. The tunnel enhanced our opening making it look realistic this was one of our best unique selling points.

As a group we feel the dream was another selling point of our opening scene. This is because it created a sense of confusion with the audience. It made them want to watch on and was the narrative enigma in the opening. With Sean waking up it helped signify it was a nightmare but what it didn't tell us was what it was all about

We felt the pace of our opening scene helped the audience not differ off while watching. The titles used were quick and had pace. This helped the opening scene feel like a Drama film. We tried to make the titles as minimalist as possible. The whole reason behind this was to make the audience concentrate on the action.

We believe showing the end at the beginning was a good thing as it helped us attract the age group we chose. This was very much the case for the film 'Memento' which showed the ending at the beginning of the film. This was our pulling point that helped us reach out to the younger audiences. As an audience you want to be engaged from the offset and we feel this is what we have done with the dream scene. Social realism is another way of attracting young audiences. Many British film makers have taken advantage of this for instance 'This is England'. As a group we also feel our authentic location would help us get better reviews for our film. Personally I feel the tunnel scene was very realistic and capturing.

Overall we got around 10 people to view our film to give us feedback. We got the audience from our Common room in the school. After viewing the opening scene we asked them to fill out our questionnaire which told us a lot about where we could improve and what we did well.

Who would be the audience for your media product ?

I would say our target audience for the film we have done would be between 18-25. Looking at films such as Adulthood and Football factory this is what they have targeted. they have been very successful in targeting this audience as the films are thrilling dramas which young people love to see.

From the questionnaire we found out the films is more suited for males. This is because they are more into fast action/drama films. From recent Box office statistics it is clear the age group chosen are more likely to attend the cinema to watch our genre of film.

Target Audience;

Name;

Tim White

Gender;

Male

Age;

Interests;

Sports

Watching films

Tim's favourite genres of films are drama and action. His favourite film is 'This is England'. He is one member of our target audience we have aimed our film at.

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

The role of a production company is the responsibility for the development of a film. A company may also be responsible for raising funds for the production or may do through another party. A company could be small or in other cases be the whole studio. They normally take the film though a few stages. The first one is Development where the script is written and a blueprint is made for the film. Pre-production, this involves making preparations for the shooting of the film. This stage also involves hiring cast and crew. The middle stage is Production and this involves filming each scene for the raw elements. The next stage is Pro-Production which is probably the biggest part of film making. It involves editing The whole film so its ready to be screened to potential buyers, which brings in the final stage. This involves finding a distributor to sell the film.

Different production company's all have different ways of getting funding to make a film. The UK Film Council (UKFC) a British film industry which was set up in 2000 by the Labour Government are provided funds from The National Lottery. The money they get covers a wide range such as cover production, development, training and education. There are three funds offering around £15-18 million Lottery funding per year for the production and development of films. The Development fund aim is to improve the quality of films that are developed in the UK. It has £12 million to invest over 3 years from the lottery fund. The New Cinema Fund helps emerging talent and established film makers. £15 millions over 3 years is funded, producing around eight to ten films a year. The Premier Fund invests £8 million of Lottery funding per year into mainstream, it encourages the involvement of British creative talent in a range of films that can attract audiences worldwide.

A Distribution Company is a an organization which helps launch a film to an audience. Its the distributions job to find out what audiences want. They also need help promote a film to get the largest possible audience. Large parts of films could be changed and shaped at this stage to meet the demands of audiences Eg. the ending to a film. Many distributors need fresh ideas to reach the audiences. However the Internet is a threat to many media institutions including distribution. With illegal viewing and bad review sites distributors have to be clever and create new ideas to be successful. Many distributions companies have already embraced a leash in the market and used the Internet to interact to an audience. You would want them to distribute your film as they know how to make a film appeal to an audience. Without them it would be very hard for your film to get promoted over other films which have got fantastic companies.

In relation to our film we used 'Kings Langley Production' to help us make the film. They gave us the equipment such as camera and editing suite to help make everything work. If the film was to be realised they would help us with the funding. The money would either be raised or simple paid by the production company. If we wanted to release the film overseas such as America we would have to find an American distributor.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

'Adulthood'

'Thug Britain'

Our opening scene represents 'Thugs' as a social group. One of the ways we tried to do this was the costumes. We used the clothes worn to help show the genre of the film and social group. Hoodies, tracksuits and hats were the main items of clothing chosen to help set the scene in our film. We also chose to make the opening quick and jumpy. This is because we wanted to show though the pace of our film the social group we chose are always out and on the go. Our setting was a very important factor to making the film look realistic. For instance for the drug scene we chose a deserted tunnel to film in, somewhere were you would normally find dodgy deals going on.

The steryotypes we tryed to create were a modern day 'Thug'. "Thug, a criminal, who treats others violently and roughly, especially for hire. Often a member of a gang, as an enforcer in organized crime." Quoted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thug. From our film it is clear the casting were too young to be clased as a Thug and not have any sterotipical features such as a skinhead. However we fell we showed a different type of Thug. With hoods used we felt this helped create a modern teenage steryotype.

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

The structure in our opening sequence had to create tension like many other drama films we have seen such as ‘Adulthood’. Our film’s opening basically had three different sequences. The first was the dream Sean had, showing an insight into what happens at the end of the film. We used a viarity of shot sizes and camera angles to enhance the dream. For example the low angle shot looking at the antagonist. We see Sean doing sit-ups, getting out the shower and walking downstairs to see Deano. This helps introduce the character to the audience. We soon learn he takes good care of himself by watching him do press ups and getting out the shower. The last sequence is when the two are walking to the drug deal. In total the three different sequences tells us something about the film. It could be said our opening sequence challenges real media products. This is because each sequence is quick and sharp and does not drag on.

We tried to make the style and colour of the font used very professional but also so it fitted in with the type of film we were making. From getting feedback we were told the style of the titles reminded them of ‘The Football Factory’. This was good for us as the film we wanted to create was the same genre as ‘The Football Factory’. We kept the colour of the titles very neutral. We did this by making the writing colour white with a black background. The style of writing we made very basic as well which helped it fit in with the genre of film we actually chose.

The genre we choose could defiantly challenge real media products as the genre of Drama is a very realistic representation which we could easily show when filming. The setting we choose for the drug deal was a rural quite tunnel which we hoped would look very realistic for our genre. After viewing the filming again while editing we were very happy with the choice made to do that part of the opening scene there.

The introduction of characters was made instantly and like many films we have seen prior to our filming is a technique many directors use. From the offset we our instantly shown the two main characters, Sean and Deano. As the opening sequence carries on we soon see they are best friends which confuse the viewers to what the opening scene was about. We believe this is our hook in the opening scene and will make an audience want to carry on watching. Many films use a technique to hook views and make them want to watch on and we feel this has been done in our opening sequence.

Our camera angles used varies throughout the opening two minutes. In the first scene in the garage we done a lot of low angle shots of Deano to show his dominance he had of Sean. While on others we had long shots to show the action and the scene. Overall the shots made were quick helping show what type of genre our film was. After watching a few opening sequences from films in the same genre you can see we have done the right thing with making most of the shots hardcuts.

We edited the sound to make it fit in with every different scene. We did this by overlapping and fading in and out the sounds when editing. After discussion, we soon decided to have music over the whole of the opening scene. Looking at real media products they have music over the whole of the opening. In a scene our films opening challenges these as the music we chose fitted in with our genre.

Our editing we made mainly improved the shots and sound. Editing the shots made them hardcuts which showed the genre of our film. While editing the sound gave it a sense of a thuggish film. I would say we defiantly challenge real media products with our quick shots. It defiantly gives out the impression the genre is a drama.

The clothes our characters wore represented thugs in modern day. Both of the character wore rough looking clothes to represent them as being thugs and up to no good. It also helped make our opening scene realistic.

I would say our film is very unconventional in terms of 'Thugs'. This is because stereotype thugs would usually be seen as having skinheads. However in our film this is not the the case. Both of our characters have hair and this is very unconventional to other films in our genre such as 'This is England'. Our drug deal was also unconventional with no car being used. This was different to many deals happening in this sort of genre as you saw the two thugs walking to do the deal. Films such as 'Reservoir Dogs' included characters who were allot older age wise. Our film showed teenager thugs which helps it feel more of a modern British drama.

Our film could be linked with the 1992 film 'Reservoir Dogs'. This is because the end of the film is shown at the begining. Just like our film 'Thug Britain' someone is tyed up to a chair with another character in full control over him. In 'Reservoir Dogs' we see the ear scene which is very much similar to our opening scene in the garage. This links in with our film showing 'Thug Britain' has the same conventions as other big hit films.

Audience Feedback videos

Audience Feedback

Feedback Questionnaire:

1) Does our film grab you straight away?
On the whole we got very positive feedback for our first question. All most everyone who done the questionnaire was quoted to have said our opening scene grabbed there attention. One person who took the questionnaire said the quick shots and shouting, made them "want to watch on" and see what happened after the first scene. Other comments made was, the garage and tunnel scene looked really realistic.

2) What do you like about our film?
All in all we had positive feedback for this question, with many mentioning the same ideas. Below are a few;

- The concept of the film
- "It reflects modern gangs and has a start of a good story line for a thug film"
- The acting
- Good use of Shot reverse shot

3) What negatives could you take from our film?

Many comments made about our film where very positive but we were happy to hear some negative comments about the film to see where we went wrong. After broadcasting a rough cut of our film to a small audience we got some useful feedback. A few comments made was about the ending of our opening clip. A few watchers quoted "The opening seems to slow down towards the end of the 2 minutes". To make sure this was not the case we found upbeat music to add into our film which made the ending seem much quicker.

4) Would you carry on watching our film until the end?

Once again the comments made about our opening scene were positive and many said that they would keep watching on until the end. A few people who took the questionnaire said, The dream at the beginning grabbed there attention as they didn't know why he was tied up in the first place. Another person was quoted as saying "The opening scene hanging on a cliff hanger makes me want to watch on until the end".

5) Once the music has been added to our film do you feel it will add tension to it?
After showing our opening to a smaller audience after adding music and finishing the opening scene we asked them this question. All of the people who answered the question said it did. Many said it went with our genre of the film and the way the music picks up the pace at the end helps keep the opening at a decent pace.

6) What would you say about the quality of our editing?
Our quick shots were given good feedback being suggested that they help make the shots flow well together. We were also told it makes the whole opening flow freely and feel like a film that is a drama. Our music editing was once again mentioned with a few saying when it was added into our film was the right time.

7) Do you like the quick camera shots we have used?

Overall we had the best feedback for this question. People said the use of Shot reverse Shot, Match on Action etc. made our opening feel realistic. This is what we wanted to create seeing as our film is a Drama and we are very happy people noticed this. We also got told our quick shots were exceptional and made our opening.

26 February 2010

Post production

Production Report;

After filming our opening scene we had to edit it and put all the clips together. We uploaded our clips onto the schools edit suite and edited it on the software, Abdoe Premiere Pro.

The first job we had to do before editing any footage was the logging rushes. As we had learnt from the preliminary task the less amount of takes we took when filming, the less time we spend logging. This played off for us as we only had around four minutes of filming to log. We recorded our logging's in Microsoft Word. Unfortunately for us we had to restart the time frame twice. This was a mystery but did make the logging difficult. Overall the Logging stage took us well over a few hours

The next stage was putting together the clips we had decided were the best ones after answering yes or no on our logging's to know. After writing the In-codes and Out-codes we put in all the codes of the clips we wanted and burnt them on to the software. When all the clips we wanted were ready, we had to put them in order. This gave us the basis of our opening of a film. Once the scenes all fitted together we had to adjust a few, cutting them down or even deleted a scene completely. This also led us to adding in space to put in titles. It helped us greatly cut out a continuity error made on the kitchen scene. Adding in the title scene allowed the continuity error go unnoticed and helped was done without impeding the scene atoll.

After finishing with editing the shots we was left with adjusting the sounding and adding music. We added music we found from an unlicensed music website called http://www.unsignedbandweb.com/. We used a genre of music to fit the genre of our film and in the end chose two Drum and Bass songs. We feel the music added more character to the opening scene and help make it flow better. On the other hand the adjusting of the sound was not as easy. This was because we was not sure how to make the music fit in between each scene. After long deliberation though we finally finished the sounding and everything was complete to export the opening scene.

Post Production

Logging Rushes;

Timeline of When Titles Appear

This is England;

Timeline of when titles appear in the first 2 minutes:

0:05 – 'Filmfour and the UK FILM COUNCIL present'
0:10 – 'In association with EM MEDIA and SCREEN YORKSHIRE'
0:15 – 'A WARP FILMS production'
0:20 – 'In association with BIG ARTY PRODUCTIONS'
0:22 – 'A SHANE MEADOWS film'
0:34 – Film title (Superimposed)
0:41 – Staring… (Superimposed)
0:48 – Staring… (Superimposed)
0:54 – Staring… (Superimposed)
1:02 – Staring… (Superimposed)
1:08 – Staring… (Superimposed)
1:25 – Staring… (Superimposed)
1:32 – Staring… (Superimposed)
1:38 – Staring… (Superimposed)
1:44 – Staring… (Superimposed)

After watching the opening of 'This is England' i wrote down every title which was in it saying what it was. With the other two people in my group, i compared it to the opening sequence of 'The football factory' and 'Adulthood'. After comparing it was soon clear 'The football factory' has the most amount of titles in the opening sequence. It tells us who the lead character is after 16 seconds, because he is a well known and great actor. However on the other hand 'Adulthood' did not show who was staring in the film. This was probably down to the fact many of the leading characters are unknown. From the film i did 'This is England' I noticed all the main titles such as the production company and in association with was in the first 20 seconds. There was also a large amount of titles showing who was staring in the film suggesting many of the actors are well known. This will help us in our opening film as it gives us an idea of when we should put in each title in.

The titles we decided to put in our opening scene were:

- The name of our film

- The Production company

- In association with

- Names of who was starring

- Directors name

16 February 2010

Pre-Production Documentations

Pre-Production Report;
The final task we had to do was make an opening scene for a film designed by our group. After discussing within the group for a short period of time we all decided we wanted to to do a Drama film. We came up with allot of ideas and everyone chipped in there own ideas. All these ideas soon came into an idea about thugs. We wanted to create a modern film and used other British drama films to help us come up with some different ideas.

When deciding the plot for the opening we came up with the idea we wanted to have a flashback in our opening. This flashback would be our hook and make an audience want to watch on. Now we had our hook we thought about what could happen for the rest of the opening scene. After another discussion we decided we had to have something happening that sets the scene for the rest of the film. This is what brought about the idea of having a drugs deal so it could be recognised as a drama. We then came up with the idea for our whole film. This was a lot harder but in the end we worked out a plan for the rest of the film.

The next stage involved making up a script. We made three scripts one for the garage scene, kitchen scene and finally the ending scene. These scripts were made to make the audience think and we did not want to give a lot away in them. The garage scene script we tried to not give anything away which is why we said many lines such as "why did you do it?".

The next stage was the making of a shot list. For this we had to work out the amount of scenes we needed, amount of shots for the scenes and write a description. For every shot we also had to say what shot it was for example, Medium long shot. This took a good few hours to make. However it helped us when we was filming it saved us a lot of time.

After this we had to do our storyboards. After using the shot list to help us we had to draw each shot to the correct shot size. As a group we all drew drawings for the storyboards. We used these to help us when shooting our opening.

The next stage was the risk assessment were we had to think about all the hazards there could be when filming and describe how we could avoid them. This part of the Pre-production was done at a fast pace and took us under an hour to complete it. After we had to do our location recce. Involved was just taking pictures of the site we were filming our scenes. When we had our pictures we had to put them all together to make it look like it was panoramic view.

As a group i would say we have worked pretty well. What helped the most was being good friends which helped us communicate outside of school when we needed to send work to each other etc. On a whole we all put our own in to the project and all helped each other whenever one was stuck on a piece of work. However in a way we did not work well as group as we did not communicate with each other enough to know who had finished what. This did not help when finally putting all the work together and realising some pieces were not finished or done to the best that they could be.

One main problem we encountered was the shot lists. This was because soon after finishing them we realised many were done wrong and did not match up to the storyboards. This problem was soon resolved though and as a group we all worked together to fix the problem. What we encountered was not enough shots on each of the scenes. However we soon changed each shot and to make sure it all works when we put the shots together.

A big change we made was the genre of the film. We started off as a action film however after researched soon discovered our film was more of a drama. Many action films

include special effects and weapons. Our film was more of a 'Football factory' or 'Adulthood' film' and soon after realising this changed it to fix the problem we encountered.

The disagreements we mainly had was about the characters names. Some people in the group had different ideas about what names fitted the bill for the film we was creating, while others felt they were not right. After a short discussion though we all came to a final decision on the names and everyone in the group was happy. The majority of the time we all agreed on the same thing this made everything easy and quick.

Risk Assessment;

Risks are highlighted in bold and have been told how they will be avoided.

Mobile phone interrupting filming;

Turn the phone off to avoid it going off and disrupting the filming. This will help to keep full focus on filming.

Stairs;

Take care when on the stairs especially when carrying equipment. Also when filming on them, make sure equipment is positioned correctly.

Moving equipment;

Take care when you are moving equipment to avoid injury and damage to yourself and the equipment.

Opening and closing doors;

Take care when opening and closing doors making sure you don’t get your fingers caught.

Cooking;

Make sure we don’t burn the food otherwise this will waste valuable time.

Slipping on kitchen floor;

Don’t mess around and keep the kitchen floor clean.

Train noise;

Make sure we film when there are no trains coming along the track. If there is we will have to re-film the clip.

Cars;

Do not film during rush hour. This will ruin our clip if loads of cars come along the road.

People;

While filming in the train tunnel we will have to make sure no stranger ruins our clip. To avoid this we will have to minimise the amount of shots we take and make sure we only have to take many retakes.

Rain;

If it rains it would ruin our clip. We will avoid this by checking the weather forecast forehand before we film.