Friday 26 February 2010

Film Draft feedback

Improvments: too blurry,pixilated camera shots,not enough narrative. take the volume down on the camera noise. needs more angles.seems more like a trailer than an opening.
Success:well edited,the music matches the acton on the screen.nice effect between shots.well placed titles,that fit in with the clip transactions.
comments: i wanted to watch more,music and transactions work well to make me want to watch on.

The general level we recieved from everyone was around level 3.

Analysis of the production practices This is England

The film This is England is an auto biography of Shane meadows life. The film is about a young lad growing up in 1983. The skinhead era. One day the young lad Shaun was walking home from school where he just had a fight. He comes across the group of skinheads. Woody and his gang. They are just hanging about having a laugh and welcome Shaun in to the group. They instantly become best friends and they change his looks to suit the group. By buying him a Ben Sherman shirt, Doc Martin boots and a skinhead hair style. This all changes when Combo an old mate of Woody’s comes back. Combo is a bitter, dangerous, racist, militant and psychotic man. This is your typical skinhead culture. When combo comes back it upsets the mood and friendship in the gang. The gang splits with Woody leaving and taking a few lads with him. Therefore leaving the rest with Combo. Shaun stays realising what had happened to his dad to encouraging him to stay. Throughout the film the Shaun and Combo are the main two characters. I think this is done so that it shows the same culture in such different age groups. I think that Combo is bring up Shaun the way he was brought up when he was a young boy. This is mainly from people in the working class. This is because there was high unemployment in working class. This became people forming gangs such as the skinheads. This could be resembled as the Midlands man. Working class that is unemployed and resulted into the skinhead culture.
They female charm was very common in the 1980’s. This is where women have control over men by charming them. This is known when the girl and Shaun get together. She charms Shaun into liking her.
The cameras used in This is England are 30mm camera lensend. This is a good quality that can give a good picture. As the budget was low for the film they spent money on the camera quality to make what they had filmed good. There was not a lot of editing through the film as they wanted to make the mise en scene in the film as natural as possible.
The actors used in This is England are not well known. Shane Meadows did this because he didn’t want a well known actor that would be in what is quite a racist film. For example having Johnny Depp acting a Combo would seem convincing to the audience. So having an unknown actor like Stephen Graham is really convincing and makes it feel more realistic.
The lighting used through out the film are mostly from natural light. This is because they are on a tight budget and can not afford to pay for lighting scenes. Also by having natural lighting it gives the film a feel of the period it is set in and the location. The time period was the 1980’s (1983). In this era there wasn’t much to lighting in houses. Also as it is set in the urban area in Nottingham on a council estate the mise en scene is really dull, as they would have much money to buy what would be expensive lighting.
Props and costumes used in this is England are critical as there isn’t a very big budget and that they need to get the most suitable props for every scene. For example when using the cars for the mise en scene in the 1980’s they bought old cars off ebay instead of hiring them. This would save a lot of money. The cars don’t have to even work they used cars they didn’t run but used them as parked cars.

Thursday 25 February 2010

Annotation of editing

How does the editing in your choosen video construct the meaning of teh relationship between chracters?
Editing used: There are many jump cuts from taio cruz being on a boat with lots of women to him being on a speed boat with one woman, this makes that one woman stand out as possible the one he'd like to be or is in a relationship with.
Cross cutting is used to in twine different scenes, one of taio being followed by a woman and another of him on the boat.
Camera angles: over the shoulder,two shot,short fast pace shots to suit the pace of the beat, close up to show intimacy between singer and woman.

This music video uses editing shots such as: juxaposition,montage editing,and cross cutting to tell the story of robbie riding across the desert in order to reach a woman who he drives away with at the end. The short shots and camera angles of zoom,close up,low angle and over the shoulder shot make all see only robbie.

Film questions

1. The action: identify the event your idea is based around; what actually happens (discovery of a body, an illicit meeting, a witness seeing a crime being committed, a criminal act taking place, a telephone call, a chase, a short journey etc)?
A teacher that becomes obsessed with a student. The teacher has been taking pictures of her. Then shrine of them all in his cellar at home.
2. The theme(s): what should it make the audience think about or feel, what ‘issues’ will it raise (revenge, sexuality, voyeurism, stalking, obsession, greed etc)?
The film makes you think how easily how somebody can come across as a normal person with a normal job but could be a psychopath. This explains the psychological drama.
3. The narrative: how is it structured - classic narrative pattern or break with convention, real time or different time zones, flashbacks/forwards, dreams etc. Will there be dialogue? What about diegetic/ non-diegetic sound?
There will be diegetic music to help the story line and create an atmosphere. The change of music/tone will show a change in story line. There will be no dialog in the opening of the film. This is so that it doesn’t look unprofessional. This is because we don’t know any really good actors.
4. The character(s): who are they, identify their roles, what are their characteristics, including gender, appearance etc?
Our stalker will be an attractive,tall,’hairy’ man who receives many admirerers making his psychological issues very unsuspecting. Our student who is being stalked by the teacher is a pretty, blonde haired blue eye girl who the teacher finds attractive.
5. The setting and choice of location: where is it set?
The setting of our film is in a dark cellar type room belonging to the stalker. The house that he lives in is set in the secluded country side. The teacher’s bedroom is constantly dark and filled with photographs of the girl he’s obsessed with. The dark and ‘bricked’ cellar provides a great setting for creating an atmosphere of drama/thriller.

6. The mise-en-scene: identify colours, lighting, dress codes, the overall visual look
The house our film is set is very dark, old fashioned with antique furniture and plain colour walls. There will be very little lighting in the teachers room only glimpses of natural light from the sun rising.

7. The camera work: the style you are aiming for
In the opening scene we plan to use fast, quick paced camera shots of the teacher getting ready for work. every few shots we’ll have a camera flash and the camera noise to show the constant use of the Polaroid camera by the teacher. Our camera angles will mostly consist of of mid shots that only show parts of the teachers face, hands, clothes, feet to restrict how much the character know about the characters appearance.

8. The editing: edited as a continuous sequence, use of cross cutting, use of montage, or combination?

WE are in a way creating a montage of the character getting ready fro work with quick clips of him dressing.

Wednesday 24 February 2010

The Soloist

This film is a drama based film. The film is about a man who became homeless and a journalist who wants to write about his life. The homeless man is a musician and plays his violin in the streets. As a young boy he use to play the cello. This film is based on a book which was a true story. The Budget for the film was $60 million they made a Gross Revenue (Worldwide) $31,620,158. The director soloist is Joe Wright he is known for the English film director for 2005's Pride and Prejudice. The Producers are Gary Russ Krasnoff. The writers are Susannah Grant and Steve Lopez . The films a Working Title Film the film is distributed by DreamWorks in the Universal Studios. The Soloist certificate is a 12A in the UK and PG-13 in the USA.

Friday 12 February 2010

Draft



This is our first draft. We filmed on the 9th of February. This is the first time we have filmed together with everybody’s input. We found film easy to do as we had the input of everybody’s ideas and came to some good conclusions. We found that because we didn’t have much time to film that we didn’t think about the lighting used in every shot, this is why in some scenes the lighting is quiet dark. When we re-film we are going to use lamps to create the correct lighting to show certain moods in certain scenes. Also we are planning on taking more shots of scenes to create jump cuts and match on action so that it gives a faster pace to the film. To bring more tension to the film, this will help the audience to get hooked into the film. This will could also create enigma codes to keep the audience watching.

Thursday 4 February 2010

Film questions

1. The action: identify the event your idea is based around; what actually happens (discovery of a body, an illicit meeting, a witness seeing a crime being committed, a criminal act taking place, a telephone call, a chase, a short journey etc)?
A teacher that becomes obsessed with a student. The teacher has been taking pictures of her. Then shrine of them all in his cellar at home.
2. The theme(s): what should it make the audience think about or feel, what ‘issues’ will it raise (revenge, sexuality, voyeurism, stalking, obsession, greed etc)?
The film makes you think how easily how somebody can come across as a normal person with a normal job but could be a psychopath. This explains the psychological drama.
3. The narrative: how is it structured - classic narrative pattern or break with convention, real time or different time zones, flashbacks/forwards, dreams etc. Will there be dialogue? What about diegetic/ non-diegetic sound?
There will be diegetic music to help the story line and create an atmosphere. The change of music/tone will show a change in story line. There will be no dialog in the opening of the film. This is so that it doesn’t look unprofessional. This is because we don’t know any really good actors.
4. The character(s): who are they, identify their roles, what are their characteristics, including gender, appearance etc?
Our stalker will be an attractive,tall,’hairy’ man who receives many admirerers making his psychological issues very unsuspecting. Our student who is being stalked by the teacher is a pretty, blonde haired blue eye girl who the teacher finds attractive.
5. The setting and choice of location: where is it set?
The setting of our film is in a dark cellar type room belonging to the stalker. The house that he lives in is set in the secluded country side. The teacher’s bedroom is constantly dark and filled with photographs of the girl he’s obsessed with. The dark and ‘bricked’ cellar provides a great setting for creating an atmosphere of drama/thriller.

6. The mise-en-scene: identify colours, lighting, dress codes, the overall visual look
The house our film is set is very dark, old fashioned with antique furniture and plain colour walls. There will be very little lighting in the teachers room only glimpses of natural light from the sun rising.

7. The camera work: the style you are aiming for
In the opening scene we plan to use fast, quick paced camera shots of the teacher getting ready for work. every few shots we’ll have a camera flash and the camera noise to show the constant use of the Polaroid camera by the teacher. Our camera angles will mostly consist of of mid shots that only show parts of the teachers face, hands, clothes, feet to restrict how much the character know about the characters appearance.

8. The editing: edited as a continuous sequence, use of cross cutting, use of montage, or combination?

WE are in a way creating a montage of the character getting ready fro work with quick clips of him dressing.