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

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.

Storyboards;

Script;

Pre-Production Documentations

Shot List; Location Recce;



Crew & Cast list;

Scene 1 -

Crew; Liam O'Connor - Camera, Sound Editing.

Cast; Ryan Thrussell & Matt Stewart-Smith.

Scene 2 -

Crew; Liam O'Connor - Camera, Sound Editing.

Cast; Matt Stewart-Smith.

Scene 3 -

Crew; Liam O'Connor - Camera, Sound Editing.

Cast; Matt Stewart-Smith.

Scene 4 -

Crew; Liam O'Connor - Camera, Sound Editing.

Cast; Ryan Thrussell & Matt Stewart-Smith.

Scene 5 -

Crew; Liam O'Connor - Camera, Sound Editing.

Cast; Ryan Thrussell & Matt Stewart-Smith.

Scene 6 -

Crew; Liam O'Connor & Ryan Thrussell - Camera, Sound Editing.

Cast; Ryan Thrussell, Matt Stewart-Smith and Liam O'Connor.

Prop/Equipment List;

- Wooden bat

- Chair

- Rope

- Scarf

- Mobile Phone

- Drinks bottle

- Towel

- Drink cans

- Toast

Texture Analysis

Adulthood;

The opening to the film Adulthood shows many techniques that grabs the attention of an audience straight away. The first scene we are shown a flashbacks of the film Kidulthood which are important to the storyline as you have to see them to know what is happening. After this wee see a changed in time, to six years later.

The editing in the first few shots we see are quick and sharp shots of the main characters and fighting. These quick shots fade in and out from black and signify who the main characters are. It also signifies it is a Drama film as it is an upbeat mood. In the second half of the opening we see many shots which are spilt up into three ways. This helps show the setting of the film quicker and doesn't waste any time in doing so. Once again this represents the nature of the film with gangs, weapons and drugs.

The very beginning of the film during the flashback there is silence. This helps build up tension, which helps set the mood that something bad is going to happen. The first bit of sound we hear in this part of the opening is the baseball bat. The sound used at this point signifies it is an important part in the film. After the change in time we hear a song being played with a load of people raving to. It is a Grime/Hip-Hop song which also helps set the genre. When the characters talk the music is dipped down however when the man in the car is attacked the music is stopped. This is to try and make it look realistic.

In the opening scene we see many long shots. This signifies there is a lot of action happening. When the camera tracks in from the highway we have a high angle shot of all of the people raving. It helps set the genre as you can see the setting clearly from the view of the camera. The shots focusing on the actions helps the audience see the film is going to consist of drugs, violence and sex.

Recent Films from the Genre

(The Football Factory {2004})

The Football Factory is a 2004 staring Danny Dyer. It focuses on two different groups of football supporters and follows Tommy Johnson (Danny Dyer), a football hooligan in his mid 20s who has begun to question his morals and the morals of those around him. This could relate to our film we do because it all revolves around violence and disturbed people. The main protagonist (Danny Dyer) could also be used in our film to help tell the story from his point of view.

(This is England {2006}) - Made around £7 million revenue.

This is England is set in the early 1980's and centres around a group of young skinheads in England. 12-year-old Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) is the main character and it shows him fall into an older skinhead gang. The film illustrates that the skinhead subculture, whose 1960s roots include elements of black culture. This could relate to a film we do as the main character falls into a bit of trouble. It also shows gang life and how everyone in the group is so close and all stand up for each other.

(Mean Machine {2001}) - Around £6 million revenue.

Mean Machine is a British film staring former English footballer Vinnie Jones. The film is an adaptation of the 1974 American film The Longest Yard. Danny Meehan (Vinnie Jones) who is banned from football is sentenced to three years in Lonmarsh prison. While he is in prison he becomes the coach of the inmates and leads them to victory over the guards. This could be in relation to a film we do as the lead character is not one to be messed with.

(Adulthood {2008}) - Gross revenue of over £3 million.

Adulthood is a British drama film directed, written by and starring Noel Clarke. It closely follows the story of Sam Peel (Noel Clarke) after he is released from jail. This could relate to a film we do as its about young adults who are involved with drugs and crime. The film also revolves around payback and this is what we want to include in our film.

(Green Street {2005})

Green Street is a 2005 British independent drama film about football hooliganism in England. In the film, an American college student (Matt Buckner — played by Elijah Wood) falls in with a violent West Ham football firm (the Green Street Elite) run by his brother-in-law's brother and is morally transformed by their commitment to each other. This could relate to a film we do as its all about physical violence.

History of Genre

Action movies are a film genre where in the story is largely told through physical action as opposed to talking. While action has long been a big part of films, the "Action film" as a genre of its own began to develop in the 1970s. The genre could be said to be a mix of thriller and adventure films. Traditionally Action films were aimed at a male audience from early teens to the mid 30s. With films such as ‘Die hard’, ‘Lethal Weapon’ and with actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger, the genre did not appeal to females. However the genre moved with the times and many action filmmakers from the 1990s and 2000s added female heroines. A prime example of this move was ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ were we saw Keira Knightley take the film by a storm.

In the early days of film, action-based films would involve wielded swords in period pieces, but as times moved on so did the media business and by the 1950’s Cowboy movies where the next big thing. ‘The Gunfighter’ and ‘Annie Get Your Gun’ are just two examples of films that were successful in the 50’s thanks to the Cowboy Western scene. The 1960’s brought us the rise of the well known ‘James Bond’. The movie showed us ‘The sign of the times’ with male dominance playing a key part in the movie. With bold character’s including Sean Connery these action packed films were very successful especially in Hollywood. The 1964 ‘Goldfinger’ film saw a $125 million gross profit with just $3 million being spent. To this day ‘James bond’ films are still being made and bring in huge profits, most recently being ‘Quantum of Solace’

The 1980’s brought a male dominance to screening, displaying a new image of a macho man. This macho man image was well built, fearless men that craved action. A great example of this was Arnold Schwarzenegger who stared in films like ‘The terminator’ which made him a film superstar. The film was all about his fierce and male dominance, including guns and big machines. Other actors that created this image in the 80s have included Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson and Bruce Willis.

The 90’s followed suit with the 1980’s by still producing male targeted films. These action films included ‘Braveheart’, ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and ‘Terminator 2’. ‘Saving Private Ryan’ staring Tom Hanks is said to be one of the best films on the century. An American war film set in World War 2 saw revenue of $553,709,788. However in 1997 the genre all changed and suddenly the appeal to women was made with ‘Titanic’. This thrilling film about the sinking of the RMS Titanic made huge gross revenue of $1,843,201,268. British actress Kate Winslet stared in the film and showed Action thriller didn’t have to involve well built and controlling men.

To date, action films tend to be expensive, requiring big budget special effects and stunt work. The release of ‘Titanic’ though showed film producer’s women can star in these films and help them to be a real success. ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ and ‘King Kong’ have both proved this point. The film industry is forever evolving and the Action genre will decently have to involve with it as well.

Group Meeting

Decisions made about Genre + Why?
After a discussion with our group we came up with the decision that the genre we were choosing was action. After research we soon discovered we had chose the wrong genre. We all agreed drama was the one for what we wanted to film. Looking at recent films such as adulthood and football factory we took ideas as well as putting in our own. The reason we decided to do drama we recon we could pull it off successfully with the storyline we have. It’s also a up and coming genre with many good British films being the genre.

Plot of Whole Film;
Sean and Deano are two ordinary geezers in their twenties caught in massive amounts of debt due to endless amounts of drug taking and betting. After many years of being flatmates they become very close. They both later on in the film though fall out with each other after having an argument about rent on the flat. The beginning of the film shows Sean tied up with Deano intimidating him with a baseball bat because Sean has slept with Deano’s girlfriend. This is ironic because they are both best mates and do everything together. In the opening scene they plan and successfully pull of a drug deal together. Throughout the film Sean gets involved in all kinds of trouble. This included a drug deal that an old enemy tips the police off about, Sean manages to escape but things from that moment start to get a whole lot worse when Sean sleeps with Deano’s girlfriend after a drunken night out. The end scene shows Deano and Sean having it out. Deano kidnaps Sean and ties him up in a dark garage and intimidates him with a baseball bat. The ending shows Deano being escorted away by the police and Sean leaving in a ambulance after something went horribly wrong in the garage.

Plot of Opening Sequence;

The opening scene will show the ending of the film to encourage the audience to watch on with tension and establish a non-linear narrative.This scene opens with Sean in the middle of a dream, its shows him tied up in a dark cold garage. After a short exchange of words with the person who has tied him up, he gets hit around the head with a baseball bat. The bad nightmare is short lived though and he wakes up disturbed. This is ironic because the person who had him tied up was his flatmate; this is our hook in the film. When Sean wakes up, he begins to get ready for the big event, he first off, does press-ups, followed by a shower, and he then goes downstairs to have breakfast. Soon on in the opening we are introduced to his flatmate 'Deano' when they sit down with each other and have breakfast to discuss a drug deal that they are going to be involved in. After speaking for a while they soon set off to the drug deal in a deserted tunnel. After this the audience see the end of the opening and the beginning to a new setting and time.

Conventions of an Opening Sequence

Jonny English;
In Jonny English we are straight away introduced to the main protagonist who pushes bushes out the way to show a extreme close up of his face. This tells us he is going to be the lead character in the film. It sets the scene early on, as a rural castle. This immediately tells the viewers its going to be a dark and early opening. Guarded by dangerous dogs the films genre is soon broadcast as a comedy/drama. When he leads the dogs away from him with two squeaky toys we soon see this. The music played in the background has a James Bond sound to it. It starts off very slow but as the opening picks up momentum so does the music getting faster into action sounding. This is showing it can also be considered as a drama. The film begins with a high to low tracking shot which ends up with an extreme close up of Jonnys face. This shows he is lead character and the protagonist. In this shot he is looking up at the castle thinking deeply. It shows the castle from a long shot looking up at it to show its power and big presence. We then see him running to the castle. It starts from a medium close up slowly moving up from his feet to show him running. At this point we can tell Jonny is heading for the castle and has a cunning plan. The same can be said for when he is walking up the stairs. It starts from a close up of his feet slowing panning upwards to show his whole body. When he enters the room we see him picking up a letter this tracks his hand picking it up back up to his face to see his reaction. The last part were he is caught by the women with a gun we see many different camera movements all in one. Over the shoulder shots is the main one we see. (We also see over such as zoom and tracking). The ending clip ends with an extreme close up of Jonny asleep kissing in mid-air. When the film starts we can immediately tell it’s a drama because of the music being played in the background. It is James Bond sound-alike music. Titles are super imposed over the footage including who is staring in the film. It starts of at a slow pace following him into the castle. As we see him in the castle the music soon changes pace and builds of speed and tension. However it all stops when a gun is pointed in his face. As he turns around to greet the women and move the gun out the way romantic music soon played to add to the atmosphere of his dream.

The film first fades in from black to dark scenery. We see one jump cut in the opening scene. It happens when he is running to the castle. It starts off with him running with no sight of the castle in the background. There is a quick jump from this though and we soon see the castle in the background with Jonny still running. Shot reverse shot is first established in the beginning of the film when he is speaking to the women. It shows about four different shot reverse shots of him and the women exchanging words. The ending of the opening scene fades out to white. This is because he is in a dream. It shows Jonny asleep after this kissing mid-air. The lighting in all the scenes is dimmed as the scene is set at night. When he enters the castle in the room lighting is turned on when the women first enters the room this is used to create tension.Jonny’s costume in the opening scene is a ‘Bond style’ of clothing. His all black suit with gloves thrown in is almost an imitation of a character like James Bond. The set inside the castle is old fashioned but got many features that make it look expensive like. The wallpaper and lamps show this by looking so rich and powerful.