Video Final Draft

Costumes and Props

Props we have used are the headphones and a microphone for the studio shots and for the cuts between the shots at the begining of the video.

We also used a music mixer with its controls going up and down to have variety and "flavour" in our shots.

We used a phone (Sony Ericsson Xperia X1) for the phone conversation between the artist and the producer.

Piano keyboard was also used as one of the shots that has been put in between the main storyline.

Notepads etc were used to show the creating process of rap lyrics.

Costumes:

We used everyday clothing and a Kitchen Porter uniform while shooting in the kitchen.

Cast

Adam Piechocki(PIH)/Camera Man - Denis Biela
Music Producer/Camera Man - Harim John
Person in the corridor bumping into Denis Biela - Akeesh Khokhar

Risk Assessment

There are few risks involved in making of our film:

The stairs at the begining of the film are quite slippery and steap, which makes it dangerous to walk down them at a fast pace. That's why we decided to take it slowly walking down the stairs.

Our high shots are dangerous at times, one of the shots involves the camera being near an opened window. This may result in the camera falling out the window, breaking and hurting someone. Therefore we had someone securing the camera at all times. Another shot when the main artist bumps into a person walking out the toilet (Akeesh Khokhar)the camera man (Harim John) is standing on the chair near the door which could lead to him falling off the chair hurting himself.

There are also some shots in the kitchen where, which for obvious reasons is a dangerous place to shoot a music video. We had a manager's supervision at all times to avoid an mishaps.

Our Video So Far

This is pretty much our final draft of the video. We still have a chance to change few bits and pieces before monday.
Our main concept is to portray an aspiring rapper, who's still at school working on his lyrics, being in his own world concentrating just on the rap.

This is the video, its not the final piece.

PiH-Rosyjska Ruletka(Russian Roulette)

We decided to go with a new song. The reason for this is that the previous song required performance from multiple people, and unfortunately we haven't managed to get enough people, people that at the beginning said will do it didn't and so on. The new song only requires one person performance, myself(Denis) know the lyrics so it wont be a problem to perform it.



This song comes from PIH's latest double disk album: Kwiaty Zla(Flowers Of Evil)

New Artist Presentation

Pih

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Progress So Far

We are now in process of filming our music video, we already started filming our intro, first verse and bits and pieces of verse two and three. We still need to get more people to be our crowd, but we alread arranged people to come. We came up with new concepts, it is not going to change much but it will add more flavour to the video. We haven't started editing yet due to some equipment issues.

Jestem Soba by Fandango Gang Textual Analysis

I had to embed the code for the textual analysis because I couldn't upload the text with the screen grabs straight onto a blog.

Jestem Soba

Textual Analysis

Killaz Group-Pod Blokiem/Jestem Szejkiem

Pod Blokiem/Jestem szejkiem by Killaz Group was directed by Dariusz Szermanowicz. The video was made to promote a movie about Polish hip-hop/rap culture called “Blokersi” and was also a promo to a first mainstream album by Killaz Group called “Nokaut”.

The video has most of the genre characteristics, hand gestures, movement etc. Using the hand gestures the artist tries to illustrate some of the things his talking about in his song. The other characteristic is the setting, in most rap songs depending on the lyrics and the story behind them the director tries to find the appropriate setting for the video, which is also the case in this video, both artists talk about the place they used to grow up in and that it was, so the setting is also made to look as being tough and unfriendly. The relationship between the lyrics and the visuals is only the one I mentioned above, artist talks about a place of his upbringing being touch and the visuals, the set is also made to look this way. The relationship between music and the visuals is much wider, in the first half of the song the beat is much slower, so the artist’s movement is also much calmer, in from time to time the director edited in and explosion on the screen to go with the beat. In the second half of the song the beat changes, it becomes more dynamic and faster, therefore the tempo of the video changes, in the second half the director used more different types of shots, artist’s movement become more aggressive and faster. In both parts of the video the main focus is on the artist, the most common shot is the medium close-up, in the first part of the clip there’s only one artist performing so the whole focus is on him and his performance. In the second part of the video both of the artists are performing, depending of the order of performance the focus changes on the artist there’s always one artist working as the other ones backup. The video is narrative based, the reason for that is the song is about the artists place of living, so there’s a lot of shots of places corresponding to the lyrics e.g. grey city living blocks. The artist is also talking about his “people” so there’s a lot of shots of him shaking hands with many different people.

Music Video Synopsis

We decided to go with the Polish rap group called Killaz Group. The song we are going to make a music video of is Manewry.

Intro of the song:

Lead singer walks towards the camera, with the car headlights shining behind him, making him appear as a shadowy figure. We will need to show two more artist entering the set, we will either do it the same as the lead singer entrance(one after another) or come up with different ones. All the entrances will be shown in slow motion, we will also use jump cuts.

Chorus:

In the song the chorus appears 4 times, so we will try to come up with different way to perform the chorus each time, different set up, people etc. Person performing the chorus is the lead artist so we will have to keep this factor the same, we were thinking of choosing different locations for each chorus, different clothes, the way people move and act. During the chorus we want the whole set to sing the lyrics with the artist and while doing so, bouncing and moving around in typical to rap genre way. The other two artist will appear in every chorus as well as in the rest of the video but the focus will be on the artist currently rapping.

The song:

The song itself doesn't tell a particular story, so what we have to focus on mainly is getting the lyrics right and try to come up with a simple yet effective concept for our video. We will try and shoot at at least 3 urban locations, one for each verse. Each actor will be lip syncing the chosen artist's lyrics and while doing so move/bounce around lively, do hand gestures like in a rap video. We want the whole crowd in the background to also act lively and try to make the video look better.

A2

This year, during the A2 Media Studies course, me and my peer are going to create a music video. We are most likely going to go with a rap song of some sort, we have not yet decided if its going to be an English language song or Polish.
The reason for us wanting to choose a Polish song is that we both think that the end result would be better for us, because I would feel more comfortable lip syncing polish lyrics, I've seen lots of Polish rap videos and I think this could benefit our group.
We are planning to do something simple yet effective, we will most likely film during the evening, to achieve a better effect, so therefore we're going to need some lights. The way we planned it we're going to ask some of our friends to aid with their cars, we haven't thought of a location yet, we will try to find a place that will set up the atmosphere for our video, somewhere remote where we can film in peace without disturbing anyone.
We will keep up to date with our progress.

Final Storyboards

Coronation Street

The TV drama I am going to talk is about is Coronation Street, which is screened on ITV Monday to Friday.
Coronation Street is a English TV drama that reflects everyday situations such as love, conflicts, revenge and anything you may go through your life. Coronation Street belongs to soap opera sub-genre.
Multiple characters and narratives usually limited by specific geographical location. Lack complete narrative closure:
In this section I’m going to talk about one the typical characteristics to a soap opera. Soap operas tend to have multiple/recognizable characters. Doing that creators of Coronation Street give a felling of familiarity, and also this doesn’t make the drama too complicated. Soap operas are usually shot in the same locations e.g. pubs, hospitals and familiar estates. Again this doesn’t make the drama too complicated and the viewer is familiar with the settings.
Probably the most typical characteristic to a soap like this is lack of complete narrative closure. This means that the story or a certain situation won’t be resolved in a one particular episode. Directors use this technique very widely to keep the viewers on their toes. By doing this the creator creates a certain degree of anticipation, and if the effect is created properly the directors are almost guaranteed that people will return to this particular show.
Setting:
As I mentioned before the setting are the same on every episode. Sometimes for many years. It is good that it is kept the same so that the viewer does not get confused and its familiar with the set.
Corrie itself has few key locations such as the pub or the district itself. In the opening sequence you can see the whole “square”, this is a key location. Thanks to this shot viewers know straight away what they’re watching.
Iconography:
In TV soaps such as Coronation Street, everyday objects are used as props. This is showing us that this TV drama reflects everyday life. Again by doing this the director gives the viewer a normal tv drama, viewers do not feel like they watching something strange. Viewers see objects that they can find in their homes on daily bases. Even small things, such as half drunk bottle of orange juice. Everything makes a soap like this easier to watch. Using everyday household objects people have the feeling of normality.





Themes:
In soap operas themes vary between episodes. You will never see the same theme over and over again. For instance not every episode of the soap opera will be based on a hate theme. In each episode you will see something new. In some (or maybe most) the producer will place multiple themes in one episode so that the soap will be more interesting, because if the director will stick to one theme he/she would lose the audience as the drama would become boring and predictable.
Character Types:
In some cases there are multiple recognizable characters. In Coronation Street’s case it’s the same. The reason you will see multiple characters in a soap like that is the feeling of familiarity with the show, you can watch the show without being confused who’s who and where did they came from. I personally think that again this reflecting real life, the reason I think that is because in real life you will meet and ‘know’ loads of people. So if you see familiar faces on the show you will feel comfortable watching that show.
Sounds:
The first sound you will hear watching a soap opera such as Coronation Street will the theme tune. This is very important pieces of music when it comes to a soap opera because it distinguishes itself from other soaps.
There are also some ambient sounds, this sounds you will hear in everyday life e.g. a train, plane, cars driving by and many more familiar sounds. These kinds of sound give the soap opera a feeling of normality and normal life. People will be more likely to watch this kind of a show than a show where there too much unnecessary music.
In a soap opera you will also be able to hear some music coming from the background to underline certain moments. For instance if someone’s fighting, you won’t hear YMCA coming from the background. But something more dramatic, the reason that music is coming from the background and it’s not edited in the actual episode because you get the feeling of normality, and also it is kind of a key element to the soap opera that the music remains ambient and not edited into the scene.
Conclusion:
As you can see all of these elements are crucial to make a good quality soap opera. In order to achieve a perfect result all of these points have to be applied fully so that a bigger audience will be eager to watch the soap opera. Every single point is very important in making any show because if you miss out one thing the drama won’t be the same.
That’s why I think Coronation Street is perfect example of its sub-genre because it fulfills all the key elements that have to present in making a soap opera. Coronation Street has been on the air for many years now so I think that they are doing a pretty good job of keeping their audience, because some people have been watching Corrie for as long as they remember. And why they are still watching it? Because all the key points have been fulfilled.
So from everything I wrote above I can confidently say that Coronation Street is the example of a soap opera sub-genre.

Silent Witness Representation

In the Silent Witness extract, most of the young black males are represented in a negative way. They’re either involved in gang activity, they just starting or they just stopped. There is only a small number of characters that are trying to make a difference to their community. All of the gang activity is shown in a very stereotypical way, all of the gangs are based in a council estate, young people are sucked into a gang culture because they don’t have any another choice but to sell drugs for vicious and cruel gang leaders like Kennan.
The first sequence in an extract starts off with an aerial establishing shot (possibly a crane shot) of a girl and her paramedic partner in the boat. Medium close ups are used to show the happiness and freedom on their faces as they swim on the river. Cuts are slow and steady, there’s a sound bridge between this and next sequence to establish spatial and temporal continuity. This technique gives us an overview on contrast between surroundings, in first sequence there’s a natural colour palette, the environment that two of the characters are in is wide open to establish the feeling of freedom. Big houses in the background represent the level of wealth.
As I mentioned before a sound bridge is used between the sequences. In the second sequence right at the beginning there’s a tracking shot of Levi and Keenan’s right hand man. Medium close up was used to show Levi’s awareness, he knew that something was wrong and a medium close up explicitly shows his worries. Right after Levi enters Kennan’s “den” medium close ups are used to show Kennan’s angry and ruthless face, this represents a typical thug like mentality .Shot reverse shot showed us just how serious the situation was, it shows us that Kennan is in full control and that Levi has no choice but obey anything Kennan says. There’s a massive graphic contrast between first and second sequence. From peaceful and calm river side to graffiti covered walls in the poor estate area. The sound also represents a dramatic change in surroundings, in this sequence you could hear dogs barking aggressively in the background, there were also some ambient sounds present in this sequence. The way Kennan talks shows us that he’s the boss, from the tone of his voice we can clearly state that he doesn’t ask anyone to do something, he just tells them to do it. When it comes to mise-en-scene there’s also a dramatic change. In this sequence we are surrounded by council flats to represent the economical/social status. There are some flowers against the graffiti covered wall to honour memory of a girl that has been killed by a gang, this represent a clear gang presence and their brutal activities. Levi is wearing a school uniform, this represents that even kids as young as young as primary school age are forced to join a gang. Levi’s schools uniform also represents his vulnerability.
In the third sequence when a press conference takes place, there’s a high angle shot to show a mother which is clearly upset about her son’s murder. A master shot is used to show a whole group anticipating in the conference, this represents a typical press type of event. Simple cuts are used to maintain continuity. Throughout the sequence we can hear camera shots being taken and there’s dialogue throughout. The way that the lawyer speaks clearly states that he is looking for trouble and that he is very argumentative. This type of behaviour represents a very stereotypical view on lawyers. Lawyer’s costume is used to show his status as a solicitor.
In the fourth sequence a low angle shot is used to show a conversation between the mother, the solicitor and the officer. Action matches represent the conversation and the reactions of people engaged in the conversation. The reaction shot was used when the mother was asked if she drank alcohol during her pregnancy, this shot was used in a very smart way, it was used to give us an answer without the need of mother to say anything. There are frequent two shots used, especially when one of the officers is explaining something and the second person is carefully listening. Non diagetic music was used when the mother finds out that her son was only a victim, she also found out that her son was a gang member who’s responsible for murder of a young girl. Again lawyer’s suite is used to reinforce his status as a solicitor.

Coronation Street Extract

After watching Coronation Street extract I was able to pick up various techniques that have been used in this extract.
Firstly I am going to talk about mise-en-scene. The director used objects and techniques typical to this type of TV drama.
First of all the clothes that actors have been wearing were a non brand clothes. This technique is used to avoid the advertising and to show a standard working class way off dressing. This also shows us that not all of the clothes you see on TV have to be well known branded ones.
Then in the pub scene there are fruit machines clearly visible in the background, this suppose to give us an image of what a pub or a bar should look like in real life. In one of the scenes I also noticed a pile of boxes, my first impression was that someone was either moving out or moving in. Also in the same scene the character opened a letter regarding his divorce this also shows us a situation that occurs in real life frequently. Throughout the extract there were objects recognizable, real life objects such as golf clubs, bottles and beer cans. I noticed the beer can in the scene when one of actors puts the beers in the fridge for someone else to have later. Coming back to the pub scene there were also some paintings/pictures visible on the wall, these props were used to catch viewers attention to how the pub in the show looks like so that they can see its not different from a real life one. One of the characters was wearing a hat since he started a scene, this reflects on normality.
As soon as the establishing shot starts you can hear the theme tune that is clearly recognizable, there is always some diagetic music is heard throughout the extract. Music in the background fades out slightly when the dialogue starts. There are also people talking in the background, cars driving nearby, this technique has been used to enhance realism of the scene. Most of the sounds in the background were ambient.
Simple editing rules were used in between scenes. The most frequent technique used in this extract was hard cuts. These were used to get from one shot straight to another without any fuss or confusion. Action match was also used in this extract when two of the blokes were playing mini golf on the street, this technique was used to avoid viewers missing out on the facial expressions and the dialogue. Fade in and out of sound was also used frequently to make the sound quieter or louder, this was most commonly used as soon as the characters started talking to each other. There was also a long take in the pub scene; this was used because the situation needed more explanation than in other scenes. When two of the guys were playing golf in the street a reaction shot was also used.

The establishing shot at the beginning was crucial to introduce the viewer to the show, in this like in any soap opera establishing shots are very important as they are recognizable and they help the viewer to “settle in”. The close-up was used very frequently especially in the pub scenes to show the characters reactions and facial expressions. This technique was used in the dialogues to show the character’s faces. There was a dolly shot used as two men were walking down the street, this technique was used to keep up with the characters as they were walking along the street. And also because the director wanted to get the dialogues. Over the shoulder shot was also used throughout the extract to point viewers attention on whatever the character is looking at.

Adulthood Target Audience

Adulthood is a follow-up to an early movie Kidulthood which was created by Noel Clark. The movie shows everyday life and struggle of London’s teenagers. The movie is aimed at mostly at males aged 15-20 and for both Caucasian and Afro-American group of people, that like to watch movies that reflect every day issues. Working class is more likely to watch this type of movie because it represents a “normal” life. The reason for that is I watched the movie and from what I observed the movie is aimed at these groups of people, because its more of an boyish movie that has some violence and a lot of strong language and some sex scenes. From the psychographic point of view I think that the movie is aimed a these groups: Mainstreamers-because it is a everyday movie and everyone could afford to go and see it and relate to it
Explorers-because this movie is different than any other films it offers more drama and more action than a standard British film.
Reformers-because these people are open minded, they like to explore new things.
Media consumption point of view is fairly simple this movie is mainly aimed at teenagers, and if you research the internet you will find that it was mostly teenagers that went to see the movie because of all the hype surrounding it. This movie was also certified as a 15 so it was possible for young people to go and see the movie by themselves.

Evaluation

Media Evaluation

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Evalutaion(First Draft)

Question 1:

Our film is pretty much a usual teenage drama. We tried to achieve an Adulthood type of film. To achieve this effect we used teenage cast, which represent an everyday youth. We set the film up in a familiar to everyone settings, which are typical to this type of genre, because of this our audience can familiarize themselves with the film. There aren't any significant objects, the reason for this is that we wanted to make the film as realistic as possible and fairly simple. Straight away we wanted to use a snare and other narrative codes, so that the audience gets into a film more. Our main two characters are typical teenagers you can meet everyday and familiarise yourself with them. Other films of similar genre are casting young actors to attract bigger audiences to watch their film. We decided to shoot our film around the skate park area in Windsor, we chose this location because it had the perfect surroundings for all the shots. The paths and benches around the park area were ideal. Twisted path way worked perfectly for our chase shots, because they are surrounded by bushes and that creates that feeling of suspense, not knowing who’s going to appear from behind the bush first: The victim or the attacker? As I mentioned before we tried to achieve some narratives codes in our film, whether we achieved them or not we will find out soon enough. In the opening sequence of our film the viewer isn’t who is she/he looking at, so that’s where we tried to create a snare. Because our final piece can only be 2min to 2min 30sec long we couldn’t really achieve all hermeneutic codes, if we could make a longer film we surely would a variety of different codes. When it comes to sound we used an upbeat, soundtrack which we made ourselves, we tried to fit the soundtrack to the movie as good as we possibly could, because we couldn’t just snap any music into our chase scene for instance.

Question 2:

In our film we tried to represent teenagers in a stereotypical and negative way. They way we did it surely appeals to young people this film is aimed at. After watching our film I’m sure at least 2 out of 10 youths can say: “I’ve seen it happen” or “This has happened to my mate” etc. The group we tried to represent young males aged 16 upwards, we showed a typical hoodie picking on a smaller and vulnerable boy. Our main characters is shown chasing and mugging the younger and smaller male, we didn’t use any dialogue in our film because we thought that the images would speak better for themselves, throughout our film one of the youths is represented in a negative way, and the second one the audience was suppose to feel sorry for. Because the victim is smaller and younger than the attacker he gets “bullied” by him. The way we achieved a stereotypical representation is we showed a youth wearing a hoodie, so that everyone presumes he’s a knife carrying killer. We used a cast of Polish teenagers, this is another stereotypical representation and especially because the youths are Polish everyone straight away presumes they are nothing but trouble. Our film ends on our victim getting beaten up and mugged, because this is the way it usually ends.

Question 3:

To distribute our film we will probably try a company such as Cipher Films or other small production company. The reason for this is that our film is a small budget film similar to other film of this genre, which are aimed at much smaller and specific audience. When it comes to advertising of our film the campaign wouldn't be massive, we would probably have few posters around the areas where youths hang out. And similar to Adulthood advertise on social websites. The reason we would choose Cipher is that they are the company behind Adulthood and Kidulthood, so they can help us reach our target audience and they already have the market to distribute films such us ours. We don’t think any of the major production companies will take our production on, because our film is aimed at a niche target audience. So this is way we would look for support in smaller and independent production companies, which specialise in productions such as ours.

Question 4:

From the research we conducted we found out that our main target audience will be young heterosexual males aged 16-22. We target our film mainly at mainstreamers and aspirers, our target audience will be people from a middle and working class backgrounds, people who can relate to the situation we portraying

Question 5:

Pre-Production:Casting young and convincing actors/actresses, similar to the people we are trying target. Because of that our audience can familiarise themselves with the group of people in the filmProduction:During the production stage we used variety of different camera shots and techniques to keep the viewer stimulated and interested, we didn’t use any unconventional shots because our deadline was approaching quicker than we expected, we could have done it but at the last minute we decided to divert from our original idea which was a great idea, because our initial idea didn’t go exactly how we wanted it to go.

Post-Production:

At the post production stage we had to be careful, not to ruin the film with sloppy soundtrack or editing. So, to maintain our audience we decided to make a soundtrack which would reach our audience in a best possible way, we wanted the audience to somehow relate to the soundtrack and to like it at the same time. We decided to create the soundtrack that will best represent the climate of our film, we created an up beat and at times dramatic soundtrack. At the beginning of our project we decided to make a film in a horror genre, but during our half term we completely changed the concept of our film. How we came to this decision we don’t know, we just came to it out of nowhere, we decided that our first idea wasn’t exactly going how we planned.

As I mentioned before our film is about a young male getting attacked, it ends inconclusively, the reason for this is that we wanted our audience to ask the question: What’s going to happen to the guy that attacked him? Is he going to get arrested?

Question 6:

There was a variety of technologies we used. To film the sequence we used a HDD Sony camcorder. Which was a best alternative for our because it wasn’t as time consuming as a tape camcorder, on a HDD camcorder all we had to do is to convert the clips to MOV files which didn’t take long, but on the tape camcorder we would have to capture the clips we wanted which takes longer and can easily go wrong. After filming we used Final Cut pro to edit the film. At the first it was quite hard to get used to the new software, which no one in my group used before, but obviously before doing any serious editing we had instructions from our teacher on how to use the software properly. Overall the software performed quite good, after a while it was quite easy to edit the film, software looked scary to use, but it turned to be pretty simple at the same time. The hardware we used to edit the whole thing was a MacBook Pro, to create our soundtrack we used GarageBand, this peace of software includes loads of music loops and samples which make it really easy to create a nice piece of music. The only drawback to this is that other groups that used the same software could have created a similar piece of music to ours. .We used the Internet to perform our research and look for props in case we needed any.

Question 7:

Since our preliminary task we have improved our filming techniques, we now remember to remeber for instance a 180-degree rule that we forgot about during the preliminary task. Production stages, and we since then learnt to plan everything very carefully during pre-production we planned choosing our location more carefully, this time we made sure that this location is perfect and accessible. We didn’t plan our shots carefully enough during the preliminary task, this time we planned the shots and executed them exactly the way we intended to. We chose actors and such much more carefully. Our storyboards were much more detailed than they were during the preliminary task, which helped us a lot. During the pre-production we learnt that we had to choose the location, which has appropriate lighting to our shot, it had to be big enough to execute all the shots with precision. Also with choice of location we had to find the location appropriate to the story which we didn’t do during our preliminary task. Our shots were much more professional and executed the way they were suppose to be executed, this time for most of our shots we used a tripod instead of handheld shots. During our main film we tried to get everything done perfectly not just to look good, but to be perfect. At times we worked over and over on one shot just because it either didn’t look good enough or didn’t work with the rest of the film. Overall the biggest improvement was camera techniques and following the rules like continuity and 180 degree rule. Casting was also much more selective, we wanted to use actors and actresses appropriate to the story etc, luckily all of my friends offered to help straight away. At the post production stage we also took much more time on editing, we were very, very detailed about our editing. We edited the film with precision and professionalism to get the best results, at times we either had to cut some of the clips, slow it down, add credits to some of the sequences, we had to experiment with various techniques to make the film look and feel as professional as possible, we also remembered our previous unit so we used sound to maintain temporal continuity etc. In order to create a story we had to join all the clips in a sequence, which we tried our best with that.

Props we need

Our initial film idea required us getting these props to complete our production. But at the end we decided to go for drama, so we don't require these props any more



Firstly we need to get a balaclava or some sort of a mask to achieve a desired effect








The genre we chose is horror so it's obvious we should get a bottle of fake blood

Than we would need to get a rubber knife, this again is to achieve the effect we are aiming for








We would than get the "outfit" that butchers wear, this will help to create an even more tense atmosphere

Storyboards

These were our initial story boards, our actual story boards will be uploaded shortly




These are our first storyboards, I'm not sure if you can clearly see it but what we are trying to do is create that feeling of suspense like in Saw Films. We currently at the stage of adding final touches to the storyboards so the rest of them will be uploaded shortly. On Monday's lesson we should definitely finish the storyboards and start writing a script. After that the thing left to do will be filming.
This is Saw's opening sequence so you can get a rough idea of what we are trying to achieve

Questionnaire

What the survey that we conducted we concluded that the audience for our production will be Males between 15 to 20 years old.
We asked the participants what is their favorite genre, we received mixed answers not all of them were horror films like we hoped, but we also asked a question if they are likely to watch a film outside of their favorite genre and they said yes.
Our film will mainly target mainstreamers and aspirers, our core target audience will be students because it is a small production and i think that they will enjoy the film.
Lifestyle target audience will be classes B, C1, C2 and D.
Questionnaire will be uploaded shortly.

Friday the 13th opening sequence

Even though these films are not in our genre I chose it because i thought that this film was best to analyse.


Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th starts of in some sort of camp, there’s a girl running and screaming quite hysterically through what looks like a forest. The mood is set by rain, lightning and an upbeat music. Straight away we are led to believe that the girl is in trouble, the reason for that is the surroundings and the way girl is acting. Opening sequence consists of series of cuts, between credits and a sequence itself. In my opinion this technique was used quite wisely because it doesn’t get the audience bored with watching a girl run all the time, the cut goes from a scene to a name on the screen and after a name appears and the camera goes back to the scene the girl proceeds a bit further each time. This keeps the audience on their toes and gives that little sense of edginess. After a while of running the girl gets tackled by a much older woman, she then explains that she will be punished for what she done to Jason, so as we can see a snare was used in this sequence, because at the beginning the girl was positioned as a victim and she’s shown as a perpetrator. We then find out that the older lady is Jason’s mother, after a short conversation the girl “slays” the mother and runs away. In this particular sequence a Hermeneutic Code was used, reason for this is that the it is not fully or clearly explained to us what exactly is going on, all we now is that someone drowned and someone’s has to pay for it. We don’t know the story behind the whole incident, the audience’s view on the young girl changes while she confronts the mother. We only get partial answers on what is going on
The other code that was used was a proairetic code, it was used to start off a movie, Jason drowns mother wants revenge, a girl kills the mother someone else just has to happen further into the movie. Shortly after mother’s death we see someone pick up her necklace and a machete, and a voice comes on in the background. Because of this voice our view on the whole scene is changed again, the mother is now represented as being a evil puppet master who orders someone to kill for her. Throughout the sequence the audience is kept on the edge of their seats, they want answers which will be given to them as the movie proceeds, because of that the director kept the audience interested in the film. And from what we see in the opening sequence we are guaranteed to see more twists and turns throughout the film.

Evaluation of the preliminary sequence

First of all we had to draw up storyboards and think of our scripts and camera shots. We had to be especially careful about camera shots, the reason for that was we had to fulfil the criteria given to us by our teacher.

After finalizing the first step we had to think of finding a suitable room to film it in, the room we went for was a business studies. The reason we chose this room was that it was a perfect location for our production, the location was exactly what we were looking for, the corridor outside was perfect for our opening shot.

When it comes to equipment we have used two camcorders and Apple’s MacBook Pros. We used Final Cut to edit our movie. Final cut is a great piece of software but at this stage there’s still a lot more we have to learn on how to use it, but our teacher posted some tutorials on his blog so it won’t be as difficult as it could be.

What went well? Well we executed the movie exactly the way we planned to. The difficulties were that it wasn’t as easy to find the room, we didn’t really thoroughly planned all the shots.

Overall I think that the project went well, however we didn’t really execute the shot with the profession that was expected from us, we broke a 180 degree rule, we didn’t really get and action match and in one part of a film there’s was a third person visible when it shouldn’t be.

We would definitely re-film the whole think and think of what we’re doing more. That’s the only improvement I would suggest

When we will film our main task we will think of camera shots more carefully because they are the key for the success, and also we would put much more time in planning it e.g. story boards, scripts and dialogues.

This my analysis of Saw V's opening sequence

SAW V

In Saw 5 a movie starts off with a man waking up in a dark room, shortly after his awakening he realises that he’s tied up to some sort of a concrete “bed”. He straggles and screams in panic as he tries to set himself free. At first there’s a close-up on his face to keep this feeling of mystery and edginess. Camera than zooms out to show us the whole room, this enables the audience to see what kind of the situation he’s into. During he’s struggle a TV comes on displaying some sort of a freaky puppet which by the way talks to him. We are straight away positioned to dislike the puppet and to be scared of it, this positions the audience to immediately think that Seth (a tied up man) is a victim of some sort of a freakish monster. A puppet than explains to Seth why he’s in this situation and what he has to do to set himself free, it gives him a challenge. During the sequence the music is quite quick and upbeat, to reflect the feeling of panic and struggle. Even though Seth is in an empty and isolated place he still screams for help. During the puppets “speech” a pendulum is revealed, and the situation is then clearly explained to the audience, in 30 seconds a pendulum will drop slicing Seth in half, unless he doesn’t do what he’s instructed to do. In the sequence there’s a number of action matches between Seth and the TV. In the first sequence Seth is being represented as being a victim of Jigsaw, movie’s torture mastermind. The puppet is represented as being the tool between jigsaw and the victim. I think the first sequence is significant to the movie because later on we find out that the opening sequence was constructed to completely mislead us. When the pendulum is put in motion the music completely stops and there’s only sound of the pendulum swinging and Seth screaming. As the opening sequence starts we are straight away lead to believe that the whole movie will be a gory massacre, and after short while we realise that it is a bloody massacre. The think I like about this movie, it is even significant in the first scene is that this movie isn’t just about mindless violence, people are put in these situations for a reason and because of what they done.

Foundation Production Group 8

On this blog we are going to post our research on coursework we have to complete