Evaluation Activity 7

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?

This is a embedded link to the presentation on activity 7, in which I compare my skill, ability and understanding between the Preliminary Task and our Final Film Opening

http://www.slideshare.net/zachnicholls123/evaluation-activity-7-34045293

Evaluation Activity 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
 
Drop the image onto your PowerPoint and annotate it, adding all the programs and other technology you have used as screen grabs and what you learnt about it/from using it. You could include reference to all the online and computer programs you have used such as iMovie, garage band you tube


During the filming of our film opening I had the role of camera man and thus used a tripod and camera as my main equipment
 
Before using the tripod, as a photographer and having experience filming, I already had a knowledge of the equipment and correct use of the measurement and angle readers located on tripod. This is one of the reasons why I was the camera man.
 
I feel that by repeated use of the camera and tripod I could correct the angle and height of the tripod with less use of the angle reader.
 

 Alongside the tripod I used the handheld camera, although already having knowledge of the technology and how to use it, if felt that I learnt how to use it more effectively and with greater speed allowing for quicker filming a no misfortune of deleting work or missing parts of the shot.



After filming and during the editing process I played a large role in the more detailed editing. We edited our film opening using IMovies on a Mac.

During the editing on IMovie my understanding and knowledge of the technology greatly improved not only in the simple techniques but also in more difficult ones such as clip smoothing.

I have leanrt much about IMovies, how it works and how best to use set tools through editing our As Media Film Opening.

Evaluation Activity 5

How did we attract/address our audience?

"Old Habits Die Hard" is a modern "Social Realistic Thriller" aimed at all ages above 15, but mainly in the range of 15 to 25 year old middle class adolescents, we used and based our film around similar plots to other big hitters of the social realism genre such as "This Is England" and "TrainSpotting" who got their vast viewing figures from lifelike relate-able plots and connectible characters.

We used a similar technique of both the plot line and characters in our film because we felt that by doing so we could attract not only fans of social realism's but of other genres to, this was added to by our use of many conventions seen in thrillers, by doing this we hope to attracted fans of thriller genres as well. The thriller aspects of our film, I feel, are relate-able best to films such as "Reservoir Dogs", without the huge body count, explosions and hijacking. In my view the two relate because of the non-linear story lines and the overall scene of confusion that is caused, as well as the issues of betrayal and hatred.

As far as editing and filming we tried to sick to the conventions of both Thrillers and Social Realism's whenever possible in hopes of not deterring the fans, although that's said, due to the differences between the two genres we often challenged the conventions to achieve the other, for example challenging social realism to conform to thriller this is shown in our use of music during the opening scene, the use of music in social realism's is normally kept to the minimum unless used within a story line for example, "a rave" but we felt that introducing the thriller aspect was important as the story on the whole is heavily influenced by realism.

The final aspect of our film is it's uniqueness, not often is the social realism genre mixed with the likes of action or thriller genres in the way that we did, although they more than often use action or drama within their films, its within the means of the original genre where as we challenged that, in hopes of attracting more viewer, by fulling using the thriller genre to further our films plot and to keep the viewers second guessing the story while connecting to the characters.  

Evaluation Activity 4

Our film opening is a Social Realistic Thriller and in being so we have somewhat limited the audience as although we hoped many would be attracted to the film, some may be turned off by its social realism aspect. However we aimed our film at young adults (Being 15 to 25) as that is the age range of characters in our film.

This is our Target audience

Dan Messenger

Age = 20

Gender = Male

Occupation = Florist

Hobbies = Skateboarding, Listening to Music, Gaming

Likes = Pizza, Rock Music and his cat "Munchies"

Dislikes = Rain, Maths and practical jokes

Favourite Movie = A tie between Trainspotting and Bourne Supremacy

Favourite TV show = Skins



Why would we aim our film at a similar target audience?

The target audience would be people such as Dan Messenger who can relate physically and mentally to the characters of "Old Habits Die Hard" and may even relate to some of the issues raised during the film.

Why would they watch our film?

We feel our target audience would watch our film due to their similarities with the characters, weather they are the same age, are having or had a similar experience, look the same or even have the same feeling as the characters

Evaluation Activity 3

What type of media intuition might distribute your media product and why?

Our As Media film opening is a hybrid genre of both social realism and Thriller, we feel that due to the genre and the overall plot of our film, being drug related, a production company such as "Film 4" or "Warp Films" would likely distribute our media product.

A distributor or Film distributor is responsible for the marketing of am film. This includes such things as setting the release date and the method by which a film is to be exhibited or made available for viewing.

This is a clip in which we use a "directors commentary" to speak about the film opening, the roles we played and distributors we feel are likely to distribute or film.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN9jY-C4Y9Y

Evaluation Activity 2

How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

I feel that our media film opening successfully represents a segment, be it a small segment, of young adolescents. Mainly this segment refers to the small group of drug effected teens to young adults ranging between 15 to 25, this will there for be the target audience for our film.

Toby Scott (protagonist)

Toby Scott is the protagonist of our social realistic thriller and we created him to slightly challenge the conventions of normal social realism's, although looking, speaking and from the external view act "normal" he does have his differences, not only in the fact he is a drug addict but he also deeply suffers from social awkwardness, making his character unlike most as he is not easily relate-able to most. However in terms of his addiction and separation from the "average" person he is much like, and was greatly influenced by Mark Renton.

Both characters, although suffering from drug addition and their own unique outlooks on life, have been portrayed in ways which not only make the viewers sympathise with them but end up feeling connected to them by sharing deep and often dark events that shape them.

Similarities

Both Toby and Mark are protagonists in films that related their addition into everyday terms and surround their lives in darkness. Toby much like Renton is a social outcast and other than his similar surrounding friends who all suffer their own daily problems he has no one in his life.

The Mise-En-Scene in both "Trainspotting" and "Old Habits Die Hard", in my opinion, relate to the characters in more than just personal tasted but in wants and hopes, Renton in my view deeply wants to be "normal" or at least in the way he perceives it and Toby greatly needs to be noticed thus their styles match who they hope to become.

Differences

Although both play a similar role in similar film Renton is much more visibly damaged by the long term use of drugs where as Toby is more mentally effected by the drugs. Another difference between the two is the age both of them are young adults but from the opening its clear Renton is older than Toby and this is partly shown in Toby's fear around Creegan and compared to that of Renton who is very confrontational

Evaluation Activity 1

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

  Scene 1
The opening scene of "Old Habits, Die Hard" are designed to prolong the wait, to what viewers know will end in danger, whilst making it appear as a "normal" location. This is a form of foreboding, to make the viewer on edge and wait for the action, which however doesn't come in a form which would be expected by the audience. During the first scene of the opening we use a range of master shots to close ups to best show the viewers, without being completely clear, the situation the protagonist is in.

During these shots we show "Toby" walking from a public suburb to a seemingly abandoned building. Both the techniques and filming of this scene is often very typical of thriller films as it prolongs the drama and builds suspense and we decided the locations on what we felt like were realistic for the plot of our film, we did this to conform to the realism needed in social realistic films.

We used sudden cuts and short, black transitions in addition to the shots to create a feeling of anxiousness in the viewer. We added to the feeling of anxiousness because, although the shots were fast, we drew out the sequence to seemingly last longer than needed. The way we introduced our protagonist "Toby" challenges the conventions of many social realisms as we do not tell the audience about the character but like "Train spotting" and some thrillers we quickly try to forces the viewers into questioning the protagonist's actions which make them more aware of any small details of the character. 

We decided to add a sound track over the starting scene as even though it is less seen in social realism's we felt that by opposing the expectations of the genre we could add something extra to the scene. While not necessary to the genre of social realism, it added an atmosphere and conforms to the expectations of many thrillers.

Scene 2

In this scene we showed "Toby" using a variety of close and mid shots to clearly show his appearance for the first time, we used this scene to show the viewers "he is our protagonist" and this use of shot types to show the main character is very often used in social realisms as it gets the viewers close, sometimes uncomfortably close, to the person so that they feel more aware of the person being "Human" rather than a actor.

During the early parts of this scene the music fades out alerting the viewers of change, we did this partly to allow for easier hearing of the dialogue but also so viewers can tell something is about to happen.

The location we choose to film in had two major advantages, one it was a realistic and likely setting for such a meeting but also because of it's practical use at blocking wind, rain and having reasonable low levels of external sound.

We decided to have Toby dressed in unique clothes, partly to distinguish him from others but to also show his personal uniqueness as a character. Toby on the whole breaks the average conventions of both thriller and social realism as he is nether relate-able or put in a place of admiration. We felt that although it broke the typical stereotypes as the opening progressed Toby would become more relate-able to the audience and his personal problems, mainly his social awkwardness would become a "loveable" point or one used to explain his downfalls.

Scene 3
In this scene "Toby" meets "Creegan", both characters are distanced from the viewers due to the lack of personal detail leaving the viewer to brewed over what is happening, this uncertainty is what we aimed for in the opening scenes as it creates a mystery between character and viewer, and although this isn't often used in social realisms it does occur in thrillers and, we hope, that it will makes the viewers want to continue watching, this is typical in action or psychological thrillers but really breaks the conventions of a social realism as it leaves the viewers uncertain, something most "social directors" ovoid.

Later in the scene we used a large segment of dialogue to give the story plot and to develop the relationship between audience and character. This use of dialogue based story is often found in social realisms as it builds the plot without excess action. Partly this was to develop the story itself, but it was also used to match the codes and conventions of which we didn't want to greatly challenge. As most social realism's use character to audience connections as a means to then later add to the emotions and understanding the viewers feel towards the characters.

This is the first scene in which "Creegan" is shown and unlike "Toby" he has a more professional appearance, although unshaven, he has a shirt tucked in and clean yet appropriate "cottons" with clean trainers. Compared to that of "Toby", "Creegan" is clearly more in control and that is true as "Creegan" is not addicted or taking drugs, he simply prospers off selling them to others.

"Creegan's" appearance was used for more than just showing his power over "Toby" as we wanted viewers to connect with him, only later realising his darker side.

 

Scene 4

The second part of the dialogue which took place between "Toby" and "Creegan" basically built the whole story line into one scene of ; understanding, misunderstanding, aggression and conflict. This is often seen in social realisms during key or defining moments of the film and we wanted to use a similar "sum up scene" so the audience quickly understand the overall emotive plot of the film. This scene would be repeated later in the film after back story so the viewers would better understand the events that lead to the overall outcome. 

During this scene we stuck mainly to close, mid, over the shoulder and two shots to put the viewers within the scene, again this very much fits the conventions of social realisms as the viewers are directly involved with the story line.

During this scene we removed the soundtrack and left in the diegetic noises to add to the life like effect we desired, alongside the sound we used multiple editing techniques such as cross dissolves and motion blur to add to the viewers sense of presences within the scene, we hoped and feel like the techniques allow the audience to better feel Toby's pain although not put in his position with a POV shot.

Scene 5
This is the final scene of the large block of dialogue in our opening, this scene is full of aggression and is used mainly as the "turning point" within the film. The scene is very gritty and I feel technique-wise similar to that you would see in a Shane Meadows film.

I feel this scene conformed to the average conventions of social realisms in the whole as not only is the fight done mainly verbally and rather than a out right fist fight they attempt a stare off, unlike the blockbuster action fights, in my view, social realisms focus and the impact of the fight rather than the fist to face scene that occur all to often in action films.

The editing in the scene was mainly simple cuts with a few cross dissolves at a reasonable fast pace, the editing of this scene didn't play a large part as the physical actions of the characters attracted attention directly them.

Scene 6
This sequence was the beginning of the chase scene in which "Creegan" runs after "Toby" as he tries to escape, the scene leads through two locations, from the urban warehouse to the rural forest which is nearby. This scene uses a range of shots often found in thrillers to build drama and make the viewer worry for a character, this is something we wanted to achieve as due to the hybrid nature of our film (A social realistic thriller) we wanted to conform to the thriller and social sides.

While creating and editing the chase scene we used a much faster speed than previously used in the opening and alongside the match on action and shot reverse shot that we used to show the shrinking distance between the two characters, we used repeated POV shots as we wanted to get the viewers heart pumping and fear for Toby.

Scene 7

During the chase "Toby" escapes from Creegan's rage and runs towards the forested area, in hopes of evading any violence, we felt this scene of "escaping" really fits to the profile we created of "Toby", we feel that although this scene is action filled it conforms to the conventions of both thriller and social realism extremely well.

We used a fast pace sequence of shots during the start of the chase and increased it again during this later part of the chase, we felt this added to the drama of the scene and made the characters fear even more for "Toby".
 

Our main aim during this scene within the opening was to grab the audience into the turmoil that surrounds Toby's life and make the audience want to learn more about the event before and after the collision, when repeated later in the film, it would be to really push the bond formed between Toby and the viewers

 

 

Scene 8

This scene is the "Title" scene and although social realisms often don't use titles or billing to maintain a feeling of realism, we felt that although it challenged the conventions of social realisms and didn't completely conform to that of a thriller it helped to sum the story as a whole and build viewer understanding of the past scenes, we got the idea of this technique when creating the title as we felt the location, style, font and text of the title would add to the overall audience understanding.

 

The title it's self was "Old Habits Die Hard", this title really sums up "Toby" as a whole, in feel personal like "This Is England" the title can greatly help the viewers not only start to watch a film but also understand what it is about in terms of, "This Is England" being about a "Young English Lad" during a politically tough time during England's history, our film, "Old Habits Die Hard", being about "Toby" struggling to deal with his drug addiction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scene 9

The final key scene was filmed in the style of a Vlog (Video Blog) it contains a dark confession by Toby and really shows his longing to be understood by others, during the scene we used a off-scene audio, which would later be explained, partly to confuse the audience and partly to represent the social awkwardness that Toby is plagued with. I believe this scene perfectly conformed to the conventions of the average social realism.

 

All the shots are a plain close up shot as Toby delivers his dialogue, we did this as we felt that what he was saying was important and using excess shots would distract the darkness of his dilemma and might avert the attention to less important things.

Our film opening sequence is heavily influenced by the Social realism genre so therefor we would be aiming our film towards people between the ages of 15 and 40, these people would not have to be fans of the genre itself but we hope it will attract both the fans and a wider audience selection due to its effective representation of issues that many face, in a way that others can understand..

Our Finished Film Opening !!!

This is the link to our finished film opening sequence which we uploaded to YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS4F7-6iYt0

Once again we would like to thank our actors for volunteering their time to help us.

Editing Progress

Our Editing Technique

While editing our final piece for As Media we sectioned our skills into groups so we edited individual areas so the overall video was edited by our best people in each section.

My role in editing was "Clip Adjustment" and "Overall layout", this means my role is in the early and final sections of editing. For editing I have to import, crop, arrange, lengthen and edit the clips.

Ben focused on sound editing for this he edited the sound quality, dialogue timings and mainly sound track creating, editing and placement. This lead to him working during the middle stages of production so that he could correctly format the soundtrack into the story with correct fading.

Luke's role in editing was director based with him overlooking and guiding in all aspects of editing, he focused on the "big picture" and how the film played out scene by scene as well as a whole.

Week One

During the first week we have edited the main section of our film intro but have yet to create the soundtrack or insert ether of the Vlog and character intro pictures. We have edited; the intro scene and master shot as well as the main block of dialogue we have filmed and the final chase scene.

I feel that during our first week of editing it has gone smoothly, other than some early technical difficulties with importing the clips, we have had few problems and we feel that the combined clip we have created runs and feels fluent and professional at this given time.

As far as success goes in editing I think the outcome of our first week was good and with our combined skills and abilities we edited quickly, effectively and professionally. I feel that due to our section based style of filming, in which we filmed in scene in blocks, the smoothness of each scene was greatly improved and editing the clips to run well was easier due to that.

Week Two

In the second week of editing we had fully edited the main section of our film opening including the; chase, dialogue, intro and climax, we also added and mainly edited the "Vlog" section in which Toby , the protagonist, tells the views a confusing, yet insightful look into the later stages of the film and helps them to connect with Toby.

We had no problems with the uploading process during this week as we learned how to format the files so they wouldn't incorrectly upload. We also had very little problem in the editing, only that of difficult cuts which we fixed in little time.

This week the Pro's outweighed the Con's as the clips, although some where difficult, worked well and played off each other effectively, this lead to quick editing.

Week Three

This week we have edited the soundtrack into that of our film opening, this completes our opening. The soundtrack that we created plays very well in our opening, after the normal cutting, trimming and rearranging.

As far as importing and placing the sound we had no real problems and the track seemed to placed effortlessly over the film.

Our Filming Success

Firstly we as a group would like to show our thanks to our actors Noah Davis (Creegan) and Evan Drew (Toby) for their help and their amazing acting, thank you very much.
We feel that part of the success of our filming was thanks to our actors, the skill they showed us at both improvising and getting into their characters was outstanding, from easy aggression to social awkwardness they managed to play the characters we presented them with great realism and I feel in part that is what has made our Social realism effective at sticking to the codes and conversions.

Another success we had during filming was the numerous faultless shots which aided us in quickly building a large bulk of the film, also the fact we captured multiple scenes in different shot types and angles means during editing we can cut and splice easily to create a film opening with more varierty of shots.

Understanding iMovies

While editing our prelim and final piece we used iMovie to put together and edit them, we had a limited knowledge on how to use the software some we looked online to find out more information about using it. We found this extremely useful and it has helped us to full understand and aid towards our editing skills without this extra knowledge we easily progressed through the editing stage and managed to use techniques to improve our work.

We followed step by step guides to learn new techniques and improve our speed in which we edit and because of this we could spend more time trying new methods of editing. When starting to edit we used easy guides like this one we created to help us speed up the simple editing tasks.

Step by Step Guide

Importing And Starting

Firstly you must import your clips into iMovie. (You can import directly from a camera or from any files that exist on your computer). Simply select the import feature from the FILE menu and use the browser to select your clips.  Your first import will take some time if you have a lot of clips, since iMovie will generate new thumbnails for each clip. Once you have imported all the clips, select NEW PROJECT from the file menu to create a new project.  Your project is empty, so you need to SELECT all the clips you want in your project and drag them to the timeline window on the top. Once you have the clips in the timeline, you should reorder the clips in the proper sequence by dragging and dropping them in the correct order.

Adding Transitions

You may want to use TRANSITIONS between scenes to fade one scene to another or use another transition effect. To access them, select TRANSITIONS from the WINDOW menu. Simply select the transition you desire and drag it and place it between the two scenes

Cropping 

To crop a scene, simply select the scene and then click on the CROP button. The crop window will open up and you can adjust the window to crop the video clip. This will crop the whole clip you selected so you need to preview the clip to make sure the crop fits the entire scene.

Adjusting The Video

You may want to edit the video itself. To do so, simply select a single clip or multiple clips using the SHIFT button and mouse click. Click on the VIDEO ADJUST button to bring up the control panel. You can adjust exposure, saturation and each channel independently. You can even adjust the white point by simply dragging it and moving it to a new location.

Adding Titles

Titles are added just like transitions. Select TITLES from the WINDOW menu. Drag the title from the inspector and place it into the movie. You can then completely edit the text. As with most Macintosh applications, all the fonts that are available on your system may be used. You can also easily change color, spacing and even kerning of the text.

Editing or Adding Sounds

You can also easily edit the sound of any clip and add sound and music to your movies. From the FILE menu choose Music and Sound Effects to gain complete access to your iTunes library. Here you can add a music track or sound effect to a single scene or to the whole movie. Selecting the SOUND icon from the toolbar will allow you to edit a sound, adjust the volume and fade the sound in or out.

Exporting

The final step is to export your movie. You can export directly to a number of devices including your computer or a USB stick. To export you click the EXPORT button and select the place you wish to export to once this is done it will save and you are done.

Our Films Location & filming Diary

When starting to create our film opening we decided that the location of our shots and the film on a whole, would be of key importance to establishing the storyline and conforming to the genre of social realism, It should ideally aid us as filmmakers in helping to tell our story to our demographic,  by bringing realistic locations into our filming; it makes our film opening appear more authentic for the audience.

Due to the hybrid nature of our film we used a mix of locations from urban to rural areas and felt they helped to enhance the social realism aspect as well as thriller due to it dramatic yet believable locations and story. We aimed the locations to be that of harsh, hard hitting, gritty and a little bit grim to represent the wide negative conception of areas inhabited by drug issues, as this reflects the quality of life and the living standards commonly stereotyped within areas inhabited by drug issues.  

 Production Filming Diary

 

Day 1

Urban Area Filming

 

Today we filmed the total mass of urban area footage, this includes the;

• Intro scenes (Master shot, long to close to mid shot sequence, shot reverse shot)
• Dialogue (Whole sequence of convo)
• Beginning of Chase (Match on action, shot reverse shot and mid shot)

We had a few problems during this day of filming, manly coming in the form of poor sound and weather. As much as we would like to, we couldn't control the weather but while using coats to avoid a wet camera we managed to successful film the urban areas with the looming grey sky we wanted. As far as sound goes we had well covered locations so only wind effected the sound thankfully, but again by placing "Wind barriers" in the form of Luke blocking the camera from the main force of wind.


Day 2
Rural Area Filming

Today we filmed the total mass of urban area footage, this includes the;

• Largest section of the chase scene (close ups, POV shots and long shots)
• Small amount of dialogue (POV, low angle and over the shoulder)

Unlike the first day of filming we had no problem with weather or wind that much, unless it was a desired sounds, the biggest problem was us as cameramen and directors not only being in  the shots but trying to not make noise on the leaves which proved very difficult for some shots. We used manly stationary shots in our rural filming so that we would not break the codes and conventions of a social realism, and by re filming we avoided being in shot.

Day 3
Vlog

The Vlog was a dialogue lead sence in which no real problems accured, it contained Toby talking directly into the camera, speaking well rehersed lines and with no unwanted sounds. this finished our filming and then we started to edit.

Chase Scene Analysis

During this post I will be analysing the basic codes and conventions of chase scene as well as researching the camera, sound, editing and Mise-En-Scene techniques a used within the clips.

Some conventions of a Chase Scene (on foot)

- A slow build up in the non diegetic music, rising and rising with the scene until a climax is hit for a bigger impact.

- Editing gets faster as the chase or stalk gets more intense, having quick editing during the climax of the scene to create the feeling of a fast and intense chase.

- Quick edits intertwined displaying close ups of both the pursuer and the victim’s emotions, such as their hands, feet, face and body language to show the pursuers scary qualities and angry emotion and the victims vulnerability and scared emotion.

- Typically most scenes like this are filmed at night, using the lighting to express the mood of the situation. If filmed in the day, the scenes usually kept as dark as possible, using an overcast day for example, to express the same emotion.

- Long establishing shots displaying the width or length of the streets or corridors in which the chase is taking place.

- Tracking shots taken either in front of the victim as they run away from the pursuer or an over the shoulder shot showing where they are running to.

- Slow motion used sometimes to increase the tension as the pursuer either gets closer or the victim makes a lucky getaway.

The first clip I will be analysing is taken from "NOW YOU SEE ME" which is a physiological thriller about magicians creating inhuman trick, such as robbing a bank from half way across the world.

This is a short 1 minute 26 second long clip which contain a short chase between one of the magicians and a police enforcer, In this clip they use a huge range of all the technique sections and they use them extremely well to enhance the excitement within the scene, one of the reasons I picked this scene is because of their unique camera style and use of location props in the scene.

The scene starts with an extreme close up of the magicians money prop, then showing him reaching into the scene and towards the prop this acts in a way as a POV shot of the police officer and helps us as viewers to get a clear and up close view of the action as well as allowing us to understand what he is using.

The close up leads to an over the shoulder shot, putting the audience in to the action as objects come swinging towards us, it also gives us good special awareness so we can tell where the characters are in relation to the objects, this helps us feel more like we are in the room and makes us nervous when the protagonist becomes close to capture.

Following a mid-shot that is cut between the over the shoulder shots in a fast pace editing sequence the protagonist (Magician) begins to use the surrounding location props to ovoid the police enforcer, this will be something I hope to use in our filming as it bring a more realistic feel which we are aiming for, it is first seen when he uses a curtain to seemingly teleport through the room.

The next scene that happens between 00:16 and 00:21 is probably one of the most unique shots I have ever seen in a movie, as they use a mirror to trick the audience into thinking the protagonist is somewhere he is not, by showing his reflection.

This is something I would like to attempt in our film opening as it helps to disorientate the viewers and put them in a hyphened state which would be great in our opening as the section comes from the middle of our film so the viewer should be confused by the events that happen.

Also with the extract from "NOW YOU SEE ME" they continually use low key lighting to mask the actions of the characters, this too is something I feel we will use in our opening as it helps to mask the location and makes the viewer’s concentrate more on the people rather than the scene, for us this will aid in the confusion we desire.

In the latter half of the extract the protagonist uses a garbage chute to escape from the police enforcer, during this scene they use an overhead shot to put us as viewer in the position of falling down the chute, which disorientates the viewer because of the tilted camera angle.

This is England Review *Spoilers*

In this post I will be reviewing the early clip within "This is England" where Shaun, the main character,  meets "The Skinheads" who are a group of mates that adopt Shaun into their group and who's group become the main focus of the film, as Shaun becomes involved with drugs, theft and even death.

 

With the early clip of this extract, after the title sequence, it shows Shaun walking through the town he lives in, although this scene appears to be just a space filler it is important as not only does it show the time period that the film is set in but because it shows the "state" of the area surrounding Shaun, it shows the area as a lower class area covered in vandalism and grime.

during the first key moment within This is England where Shaun and the Skinheads first meet Shane, the director, uses a long shot to show the characters, I feel this is so it shows the difference between characters better than a mid or close up shot would, by capturing all the characters in one shot you can easily notice the not only costume difference but the character postures as well, I feel it helps us see how Shaun is unlike the "Skinheads" as not only do they wear "defiant / punk" outfits whereas Shaun wears a "Good boys" attire to show his childishness and dependence.

After the first encounter with the "Skinheads" Shanes use of camera techniques becomes the main method of representing the growing bound between the group. As the scene begins with a long shot to show the difference as Shaun becomes more connected with the group it heads to the mid shots the close ups, this represents the growing bond and makes the viewer feel more involved with the story.

 

I feel that if we use the same technique of involving the audience through a change in camera shots that we will be able to slowly make the viewer’s understand "Toby" and become more sympathetic towards him.



Audience Research Survey

To gather research on our target audience and what they expect from the genre of our film we created a survey on surveymonkey and posted it online so that we could gather the results from a large audience of non-bais people.

The link to our survey is https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QS329BG this will take you straight to the survey so please take some time to fill it out for us, thank you.

from our survey we hope to collect a strong level of data to help us not only create the film to to target it at the right audience with their expectations in mind.

Filming schedule

This is our film schedule that we will be giving to cast and using for our own reference while filming our final piece.

Costume Planning

The final piece we are creating is set in modern time so finding the needed or making the needed costumes will not be hard but we do want to get costumes that suit the characteristics of the people we are trying to portray.

Creegan        

- Creegan, the young and healthy dealer who prospers on selling others addictive drugs, for this character we wanted to create the appearance of his healthiness as he sells but does not take these harmful and life changing drugs, to do this we have decided to give him a cleaner yet casual look.

To do this he will ware newer and fresher clothes which shows he is untouched from the harm he is causing and also it helps us show the audience he is not like the addicts that come to him he is just using their problems to prosper.

 Toby

- Toby, the protagonist of our film and a desperate yet hopeful drug addict who is trying to change his ways but keeps getting dragged back in by the people around him, the hardship and struggles he has gone through are what we want to truly represent in his costume so to do that we have decided on giving him older clothes but trying to make it clear he is trying to change his ways by the style in which he wears them, for example he has his shirt tucked in at the front but out at the back, this also helps us show that he is "Broken" and although from the "front" he seems fine and healthy, it’s clear from "Behind" that he is in fact really unwell and can’t take care of himself.

 We believe that with these costumes we will be able to capture the audience and help them appreciate the characters in more depth and understanding.

Inspirational Chase Music

For our final piece we wish to create a social realistic thriller, in which would contain a chase scene, for this chase scene we want to create, using the available skills and equipment we have, a effective and dramatic music sequence to go alongside the chase to add to the scene.

This is a music extract from the film "Bourne Supremacy" during an intense foot chase, which we felt to be similar to that which we hope to create. We hope to create something similar to this in the studio with help from music technicians.

Character Profile

Character Profile Number 1: Creegan Donohue

We wanted to show Creegan in a extremely negative view as the stereotypes are often representing the "drug dealer image" so we tried to show him as the very embodiment of the sinister culture of the drug trade.

 

Dark, devious, cunning, cold hearted and above all else, greedy he is a character of volatile and obtrusive nature with his sole aim in life to reap the rewards and benefits of other people’s discomfort and misfortune, primarily making a sizable profit from the drugs that he sells.

 

Sinister by nature, tyrannical and commanding by force it is these attributes that mark the character as one to be viewed with particular discontent, resentment and displeasure from audience members and the other characters alike.

Character Profile Number 2: Toby Scott

Toby the protagonist of our film, unlike the antagonist Creegan, he is more easily relate-able to members of our audience, although many wouldn't relate to his addictive and cold state, they would be include to except his downsides due to his Innocent nature.
 
Less volatile and aggressive than Creegan, the character generally is more oriented towards more usual or otherwise ‘normal’ social behaviour. However, one thing that marks Toby out as acutely different is his tendency to become socially awkward in situations whereby he can become difficult in expressing the correct emotion for the situation that he may find himself in, this often gets him into large trouble in his life due to childish smiles in the face of aggression and blank expressions in time of joy.

We wish to showcase this in our film opening as it is an area of disability similar to autism or aspersers and as we are making a social realism film opening to cover this material will be a new and exciting direction in which to move our film opening.    

Film Opening Script

This is our planned script for our final piece film opening, this is a close example of the script we will use as we have allowed the cast slight improvisation.

A script is an essential tool for any filmmaker/production company in that it provides clarification and guidance to, not only the actors performing in the piece, but also to the production staff such as cameramen and lighting crews as although they will not be performing dialogue or 'in role' so to speak- they will still be performing aspects of the film production all be it different ones to 'performers.' They will still require guidance as to how best to perform their role. A script acts as a basis- or foundation- from which the crew and actors can stimulate and springboard developments from an original, guiding source. This is why a script is so fundementally important as it acts as a guiding light to keep all team and crew members on track and not become deviated too much from the original story and ideas discussed at an earlier pre production stage. 
   

Old Habits Die Hard script

(Tracking establishing shot of the main character, Toby Scott, commentary over the top as audio track)

(Cut to master shot of sharp fencing, symbolic.)

(Homeless people crouching in litter and rubbish, long shot with a slight pan)

(Long shot that develops into a two shot, showing two main characters)

(Conversation between the two men begins)

[Dialogue]

Creegan: You’re back for more then? (Gruffly)  I haven’t seen you in bloody ages.

Toby: Not exactly Creegan

Creegan: You complaining Toby, or… something else?

Toby: No, not really far from it. I love the hits man, but only when they last. I’ve had to make a choice mate….

Creegan: (Suspiciously) What choice? This better not be heading where I think it is, or you know what will happen. (Reaches into pocket threateningly)

Toby: No... I mean the hits mate. They get fewer and fewer every time. (Maddening slightly) I need this, I crave it. But, I’ve come to a bit of ‘rough luck’ shall we say.

Creegan: What ‘rough luck’ is this? A bribe to hand me in to the pigs?! You got another thing coming mate!

(Two shot, slight pan, argument begins.)

Toby: If you think I’d hand you into that lot I could’ve done it. The offer was open for me...

Creegan: ... And you went and fucking took it. And they say I’m a lowlife!!

(Creegan pushes Toby against the wall.)

Toby: ...but I refused the offer despite the money. The wealth of friendship is worth far more than any amount of money …even in our world.

Creegan: Don’t you lecture me on your petty bullshit. Your words are filth; and so are you!! You’re scum; Scott!  Scum that’s about to be wiped off the face of the Earth!

Toby: And I thought you couldn’t sink any lower, I guess I was wrong.

(Zooms in to over the shoulder shot)

(Toby breaks free, enters chase)

(Toby runs out of tunnel, Creegan follows later after being punched)

(Match on action shot of Creegan getting phone out and dialling a number into his phone)

(Shot reverse shot of Creegan talking onto his phone)

(Close up of Toby’s legs as he runs down the street. Long/mid shot of Toby running down the street, commentary audio under the action) 

Toby: When you’ve been in the ‘game’ as long as I have you begin to realise when shit is going down. If you fail to notice it quick enough you could be fighting for your life. That’s what the drugs do; turn a simple bit of fun into roulette between life and death; a numbers game, luck of the draw as some might say.

Show wide shot of different trees. Cutting and splicing in-between them to show a sense of mystery and foreshadowing. Cut to: shot of forest floor, focussing on mud and dirt on the track. Use low angle shot to show. Audio: rustling of leaves.

Cut to: tracking shot of running feet. First, show the leading pair of feet and then those of the pursuer.

Cut to wide shot showing curve in forest track, shoot the shot from here, now showing the two characters running towards the camera and track them round the bend, kicking up dirt to show urgency and speed of the characters.  Have camera follow the characters in handheld steadicam shot to show a sense of chaos and urgency.

Pursuer grabs his target by the scruff of the neck, throwing him to floor.

Pursuer should be shown as the antagonist of the opening, dark apparel and scars to show this. Pursuer is a violent criminal.

Pursuer/Dealer/ Antagonist; Creegan Donohue.

Protagonist; Toby Scott

Creegan turning over Scott on the ground, POV Shot.

Creegan: You’re finished Scott, you’ve changed the balance forever. Now I’m gonna kill you, for all the fucking misery you’ve caused me

Cut to: webcam shot of main character, focussing his webcam and re-adjusting the lens.

 

Toby: Is this thing on?... (Sits back in chair, relaxing, but on edge)  

Right, ok (Clears throat) Yeah what you just saw, I mean before I 
(indicates himself with a wave of the hand) 

came in, was the day, the day, (pauses, zoning out slightly) my life changed and not…. 
(Pause, considering his word choice) not in a good way. We’re all born different, yeah ok I get that- we all make different choices in our lives, good or bad, proud or regretted; I know I’ve certainly made some choices in my life that I’ve lived to regret even to this day. 

We just gotta face every new day as it comes, even if that day is the darkest day we may ever face. That day, my world changed forever, I… I… killed a man not out of hatred or greed. Just defiance. Defying and standing up to his oppression. He was making a living off other people’s addiction. He had to be stopped. I don’t defend what I did; I just hope it’s easier for people to understand. 

(Fade to black; end credits roll)