Research and Planning Provisional Mark

You need to revisit research posts and explore further target audience, editing, mise en scene, locations, camera compostition, sound, light, branding, use of titles, genre indicators, key moments. Create an animatic using your storyboard materials and comments on its strengths. You need to evidence your music research and choices. Post on the history of your genre. Make sure you haven't posted something without commenting on it fully. 13/20

Actors interviews

This is our actor interviews we decided that we would ask each about what kind of films we liked from a variety of genre and who our favourite actors and directors are, this is to show who we enjoy to watch and what kind of films we enjoy, it is essentially a profile of our group. This suggests that christopher Nolan is our groups most popular Director as well as Action being our favourite genre.

Film Script

Detective 1:Albert Rendle
Detective 2: Thomas Popay
Witness: Luke Swaine
Officer: Sam Valente

Witness: please! Come quick, I’ve found a body by the bridge, I think he fell.

Cut

Detective 2:
you should really stop smoking you know.

Detective 1:
My family thinks so too, Maybe a new year’s resolution?

Officer enters scene

Detective 1:
Morning officer.

Officer:
Sir, the body’s over there in the corner, initial reports are here along with forensics reports,

, this looks like a weird one sir.

Detective 1:
Alright, I’ll take a look.

Cut

Detective 1:
What’s this?

Throws/catch cut

Detective 1:
What’s in there?

Detective 2:
Diamonds.

Detective 1:
Looks like robbery wasn’t the motive.

Cut

Detective 1:
What’s this? Huh, foreign licence.

Cut

Detective 2:
So what was the killer actually after then?

Cut

Detective 1:
I don’t know but I plan to find out, there’s a blood trail over there, looks like something was dripping the victim’s blood.

Cut

Detective 2:
Let’s see where this leads.

Cut

Detective 1:
What’s that? Looks like a briefcase or something.

Cut

Detective 2:
there it is

Cut

Detective 2: So what do you think happened?

Detective 1:
Well…

Narration of flashback begins

Detective 1:
The killer knew the victim would be there, so he waited for him and simply took him by surprise and pushed him off the bridge later throwing the case in the river.

Narration of flashback ends

Detective 2:
that makes sense, but what’s in the case?

Detective1:
Let’s find out.

Cut to opening of case

Detective 2:
Shit.

I think that this script is a good one because it explores the key things we wnat the audience to notice, such as the briefcase, the fact that nothing important was stolen. The script also leaves the audience in suspence for what will happen after the titles have past. I enjoyed filming with this script although some words in the script are missing, but it really doesn't effect the film in any way.

Timeline of AS media

6th September - Started AS level media coursework
First time we learned about the course and what kind of media product we would have to make, also set up the blog, learned about how to analyse opening 2 minutes.

11th October - Preliminary task completed
Learnt several filming techniques including shot reverse shot and Match on action, it was also our first use of the school cameras.

9th November - Inital filming shots and planning shot ideas
Produced ideas about how to use our location to the best we can, also decided what kind of shots we will use and how we are going to film.

17th November - First filming weekend
30 seconds of filming produced. Began editing in class over the week, also tried to come up with institution name and the font we will be using.

7th December - Final filming weekend
Produced about 2 minutes of footage and is currently being edited in class, we also produced our own non-digetic sound for use in the film.

9th December - Editing started
We began to use Adobe Premier Elements 10 to edit our footage.

14th February - Deadline for completing film

24th February - Evaluation of Project Begins

4th April - Evaluation of Project Ends

Costume research

In our film we are planning to use a number of different costumes and props. Here is a list of potential costumes and props we are planning to use:

This is the kind of costume we are planning for our main portagonist to wear, this is because it looks very out of the ordinary and makes him stand apart from the other detective, this makes the character stand out and draws the audiences attention to him.

We also plan to have a police officer in the scene, so we will be using a vest, white shirt and black shoes and trousers, this is to make out that this is an actual crime scene, and to add realism to the scene, we will not however have them wearing any kind of hat as we would be unable to use it for legal reasons.

We plan for the detectives sidekick to be more uniformed and more regulatory, this is to give the idea that he is good at his job but doesn't step beyond the bonds of the law, it is also to show he is a lot more professional with his job.

The antagonist we believe is going to be apart of some kind of mafia style crime organsiation, he also has the style of a Hitman in an expensive suit, this is to make him look professional and to make him look like he is the antagonist.

The victim shall be wearing some smart casual clothes because we do not know who he is, this is to add mystery to him because we don't know what his affilation is, so we don't know why he was murdered.

The innocent bystander who finds the body will be wearing casual clothes a hoodie and jeans, this is too make him look like he is not affiliated with anyone.

Make-up research

For our film we needed to add make-up to our corpse we had, for this we looked for several tutorials on the internet, and we eventually found one from the TV series The Walking Dead.

This tutorial helped us get our victims face looking like someone has just fallen of a bridge, and it worked very well despite the cold conditions we were filming in, it did however begin to peal off due to the cold, however by the time that happened we didn't need the corpse anymore.

 

We have decided to create our own tutorial on how to do this kind of makeup. In this we show how we made our dead guy look more realistic, the make up looked very realsitic and it was relatively easy to set up, the makeup also very easily comes off, only needing hot water to peel staight off.

 

Font Research

This is the font used for the crime film se7en, it can be seen as very freaky and scary for the viewer, this font shows that the villain might be slightly psychotic, and the removal of the V for a 7 adds to the idea that the film is based around the seven deadly sins.

This font used by the mentalist is very basic and standsout very well from the background, the why they suggest that the mentalist thinks outside the box, suggests he is very clever and is the main character of the programme.

 

 This font used in Luther is very bold and stands out amongst the red background, that is often used to symbolise death, love and envy, this suggests these themes are carried around in the programme.

Friends with Benefits

In friends with benefits the editing used in the scene is fast cuts between the two different couples, this shows the audience that both couples are breaking up at the same time, this helps the audience keep in time with the conversations, it is also not what we expect from the start of a romance film because break-ups normally would talk place during the middle section of a film. The fast pace of editing shows the anger between the couples as they rapidly come up with lines, they also tend to cut from one female to the other, this could help show how females react to different sides of a break up. The clothes they are wearing suggests that both couples are on dates, as they are wearing smart/casual clothes, this would be expected from a date as they wouldn't want to be seen as lazy or very wealthy, they would be wanting to look good. Mila Kunis's character has a sandwich for her partner, this suggests that she has known him for a long time and she wants to impress him, this goes against the conventions of a normal romance film because it would normally be the male character who has to try and impress the female, but in this scene the roles are reversed, but in the other scene Justin Timberlake's character brought his partner concert tickets, this conforms with the convention and shows the difference between the two couples. The background of both couples suggests that they are not in the same city as the background for Mila Kunis's character is the Empire state building in New York, while Justin's character is in-front of Capitol records in Los Angles, this suggests to the audience that despite being the main characters they still don't know who each other are. There is good use of non-digetic sound in the clip as they start the break-up very comical music begins to play, this suggests to the audience that there relationships were jokes and they weren't taking them seriously. The camera-work in the film uses a close up over the shoulder shot this helps show the emotions and it helps us see from their perspective what they are seeing, they also use shallow focus, so only the characters speaking are in focus, this allows the audience to focus on the person speaking and not anything in the background.

Filming vlog

In this post I will post a variety of film and images of us filming and the location to give you an idea about how filming went and how we were able to do a variety of the shots and performances.

In this we are showing how we did the grabbing the bag out of the river scene.

Music Research

In our film we are planning to add our own non-digetic sound into the film scenes, this will be our own production so it will be non-copyright, however we have gained several inspirations from non-digetic sound from TV and film, such as Luther and Seven:

In this scene luther is getting DNA of a suspect, by hitting him in the face and taking blood from his face. The non-digetic sound is a very dramatic, and leads to a build up in tension, this helps build to the surprise at what luther does because the audience wouldn't be expecting him to be hitting people in the middle of the street. The music itself is very common in this series as there is a lot of tension within many of the scenes.

In the end scene to se7en, the music is slow and builds up to the discovery of the severed head, this helps build to the eventual shooting, the non-digetic sound is also very effective in building up the idea that Kevin Spacey's character is a psychopath, with the use of screeching instruments, helps build tension in the scene, as well as that the drum beat at the end helps add to the tension because the audience doesn't know what is going to happen.

This is the famous 24 timer countdown, the iconic sound builds significant tension between cuts in scenes, but it also does several other things effectively, for instance they also act as a way of indicating to the audience that there is a change of time and scene, allowing the audience to know that there is a different location or the scene has skipped ahead in time. It can also add tension to the scene if there is a fight or bomb threat inside the actual scene.

P.S. I love you

First 2 minutes only

In the opening to PS I love you they use deep focus camera work to keep the whole scene in focus and helps us know that both characters are important in this film. there is also good use of high and low angle shots while they are on the stairs, this helps demonstrate the dominate character in the film as the women, as she towers of the man, this suggests that she could be in the right in there argument, it could also bring back ideas of Romeo and Juliet on the balcony scene, as Romeo goes after the girl he loves. They also use medium two shot, when they are in there room getting change, they are both on opposite sides of a wall, this separation suggesting there love is in trouble and they are at a disagreement, it could be seen as a metaphor of their love separating while they are changing as people. The clothes they are wearing are look very expensive suggesting that they have just been on a date at an expensive restaurant, this suggests that they have been together  for a while as they wouldn't want to waste money on a meal with someone then split, this suggests they are a married couple. There apartment has a lot of stuff in it and looks very messy, it also looks very expensive, this suggests that they are a wealthy couple, but very unorganised, this could suggest that they have very busy lives and they both have jobs, this could suggest that there relationship is strained because they aren't seeing each as much us they would like. The scene has fast pace editing shots to emphasise the argument as they cut between characters. The main titles are not present at the start of the film which suggests that the film is more emmersive allowing the audience to see more of the film, also the title PS I love you is used in the film so it wouldn't really require an opening title. There is very little non-digetic sound used in the opening, this is to make the audience focus on the argument between the couple, however they do use it very effectivley at the start to make everyone notice that they might be in an argument, it very quickly fades out to allow the audience to notice the start of the talking.  

List of shots used in the Film

This is the lst of the film shots we plan to use in our film and what effect they will have on the audience:

• High angle shot, will give the audience the power of the dead body we will have, will also act as the establishing shot, and give the audience a full view of the crime scene.
• Dolly shot, allows the movement of people towards the cmaera, looks impressive, the audience believes that the detectives are travelling somewhere.
• medium shots, will show the audience close hand gestures, most common camera shot used in our film.
• Low angle shots, This prevents the audience knowing what they are looking at, this adds to the suspence to the film and makes the audience wonder what they are looking at.
• Close Up shots, allow specific detail to be shown, especially actor expressions and small objects we will be using in shot.
• Two shot. we will be using two shot to show two actors in the same shot , this allows for more fluent conversations instead of editing back and forth between two actor who are right next to each other.
• Match-on-action: allows a fluent flow of action, this is useful because it looks very good in our film, and it is better then having it all in one shot.
• Long shot, This shot gives us a full view of the actors and gives more detail on where they are and what there doing, this gives it more context to what they do.
• Birds eye view

Dredd opening scene

In Dredd there is a wide use of compilation footage of various riots and civil unrest, this is to give the audience an idea of what the world is like, as the main character narrates, this helps the audience relate his words to visual images. The film also has several extreme long shots as the establishing shot, this helps the audience see where the film is based. They also use birds eye view shots and extreme long shots using panning shots, this helps show us all details of the city and helps gives us an idea of the size and scale of the setting. The close up shots of Dredd getting his equipment and suit on help build suspence in the audience because they can't see his face so they cna't tell what he looks like, however as he is the narrator, which helps as get an idea of the background of the film, the audience is likely to sympathise with him more even though the sound of his voice is very aggresive and we wouldn't want to meet someone like that, he also has to wear body armour which suggests he is in a very dangerous job, this makes the audience excited as we know this will be an action film, this also conforms to what we think should be in an action film. There is also the addition of a heads-up display to the camera footage to make it look more realistic and futuristic, it makes it very immersive to the audience as they will feel like they are actually watching the people do this in the street. The people in the long shots seem to be gang members, this suggests that there is some crime involved in the film as gangs are stereotypically involved in violence like drugs and gun shootings, this gives the audience an idea of what the main antagonist will be like, but because we don't know who they are yet we are left wondering who it is and how bad they are. The panning shot of the main headquarters pans upwards to give the building the power in the shot, this shows us that they are the people in charge and they have authority over us. Dredd also uses his DNA locked Gun which is very Sci-fi as DNA checking guns don't exist, this suggests that there is a lot of action in the film, and conforms to what we expect of a futristic action film with very appealing weaponry. The main title of the film DREDD is in a very explosive font suggesting it is a piece of shrapnel, suggests to the audience the film is action-packed. The non-digetic sound used is also very dark adn rythmic, this helps build up pace and tension that the audience will hook onto, because its catchy, this eventually builds to the title sequence where it becomes very loud allowing it to ove onto the next scene with the motorbike chase. The motorbike used at the end of the scene suggests that the movie contains vehicle chases which are commonly used in action films to build up tension and give the audeince an adrenaline rush, this makes them wnat to watch the film as they want to see what happens.

Sherlock Holmes opening scene

In this opening scene from Sherlock Holmes (2009) the first thing I noticed were the titles of the institutions encarved into the pavement this makes the audience think that the film is set in a very old setting in Victorian England. The audience is also aware of the dark setting as the edges of the screen are shown to be very dark and the light appears to be from some kind of torch or lantern, this suggests that the movie is very dark and could contain a lot of dark scenes. The carriages in the scene are dark and seem to have prison bars on the door, this suggests that the film is based around some kind of crime and suggests there could be prisoners inside or there is some kind of chase going on, they also appear to be travelling very fast, conforming to the idea that this is a chase scene, as they look like they might be chasing after someone later in the clip, the carriages also suggest that the film is set in old London like in the 1800's. The costumes the police officers are wearing in the scene look very old and outdated by modern standards continuing to support the idea of old London they aslo appear to be under the command of the people in civilian clothing, as they are armed with guns,and the camera appears to focus on tehm more than the police officers, this could suggest that they are also detectives, as they appear to be wearing suits and hats like the normal people of the time and the stereotypical clothes people would think detectives would wear such as tweed jackets and bowler hats, Sherlocks costume is in constrast of what we expect from a man we know as rich and from a very upper class family, as he looks very scruffy and unorganised. The guns also suggests the film includes action sequences and presents the idea of danger into the film. The camera can be seen as using a dolly shot to chase the carriages, this helps build an idea of there speed and suggests there is a chase scene going on, they also use a dolly shot to chase the main character Sherlock down the streets, the way they use this makes the audience feel the police are after him, as he appears to be trying to get away from someone. The crow used commonly reepresents death and suggests that someone has been murdered. The non-digetic sound used in the background very swiftly changes from the main sherlock theme, which shows a kind of humour in the film with the use of an accordian to produce the sound, the sound quickly changes to fast pace sound that suggests the danger and the chase scene as it is quick and helps build the tempo of the chase, and it helps build suspense as the audience doesn't know who there chasing and why. The digetic sound caused by the guns is very action cliche as they suggest action is about to happen and it is a common why to suggest these guys are going into action.

Institution Research

There are many institutions in the world of Cinema and Media with hundreds of companies making films. Many of these institutions are very famous and commonly known to the audience. I am going to research several of these institutions and show there history and what they are currently doing and there revenue, and there success and there problems.

This is Summit entertainment they were founded originally back in 1991, by film producers Bernd Eichinger, Arnon Milchan and Andrew Vajna. This company has had a wide range of films, it has had also produced some good crime films such as Now you see me, Man on a ledge and the RED series of films. These are some similar films to the one we would like to create a crime thriller and we will be taking much inspiration from Man on a ledge for its use of editing and camera work.

 

 

Universal studios are an American movie producer created on the 30th April 1912  Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, and Jules Brulatour. It is the oldest film company in America and fourth oldest in the world. Universal are famous for a large number of highly successful films like the Bourne series which was also a key inspiration behind our film as we have secrets, fast pace of editing and great music, they also produced Zero dark thirty and other thrillers like Green zone, which provided as with other ideas about what are film should have.

 

Paramount pictures was first founded in 1914 by Adolph Zukor, Daniel Frohman and Charles Frohman. It is ranked as the highest grossing film company in the world. This company is  mostly best known for there blockbuster films such as Star Trek and Mission Impossible which have some very good examples of camera work and editing as star trek makes good use of lense flare. We also believed that the Mission Impossible had good use of non-digetic sound so we really wanted to make good use of that kind of sound.

Our film institution we will use in our film will be called Last Post Productions, this is from the combination of the first letter from all our names so Luke, Ashley, Sam and Tom. It is also named after the famous song The Last Post from WWI.



In bruges opening scene

In Bruges starts with very somber music with a very dark night with church spires and a narrator speaking about what he has done, this is very dark start to the film with very little known about where it is or what has happened, the narrator appears to be some kind of killer, and of a non-English/Irish speaker which confirms the stereotype of a foreigner, normally related to crime and gangs. The camera shots have very slow editing pace adding very little tension to the clip, the cameras usually have a two-shot close up which allows the audience to see the two people in the clip have a conversation without the use of the shot reverse shot. The camera also for the first minute uses a combination a close ups, long shots, extreme long shots, High angle shots and shallow and deep focus shots this makes the audience look at what the director wants you to see and it shows the location of where the film is set. It also uses the high angle to show statues of some demons, this suggests that these characters are possibly bad people. The titles used in the opening are very plain and modern and suggest the movie is set in a modern setting while it has very little action in it. When we first see the two characters they are dressed in smart/casual with bags hanging over there shoulders this suggests that they are in Bruges for work, it also shows they might be looking for somewhere to stay first, it also suggests they are trying to fit into the local area, suggesting there criminal past. The character in the brown coat appears to have more authority then the one in the black coat this is due to the fact that he is not hiding his face like the other one and is trying to search the area and he is much taller then the other suggesting he has the power from his perspective, both characters appear to be very annoyed with each other, this suggests that this conflict could lead to trouble later in the film, it also suggests that they could be blaming each other with the job they had last. The lighting in the opening is at first very dark suggesting evil things occurred, this is then backed up by the narration. The lighting later on is very bright suggesting a change in the time and shows as the scenery in more detail then at night, also shows the audience the characters for the first time. The non-digetic sound is very sad music and suggest to the audience someone has died, the use of piano makes it similar to what they would use at a funeral.

Crime Genre Research

In our film we have decided to make a crime thriller style film based upon a couple of films and TV dramas such as Luther, The other guys, Seven and Heat. Crime thrillers usually contain several elements unique to this genre these include:

• Fast-pace, violent murder scenes to get the male audience interested and fast on foot or car chase scenes.
• The movie normally makes the audience think and question why something doesn't occur in the film or why something isn't there.
• Most crime thrillers involve a police investigation in some way and is commonly an ally of the Protagonist.
• The main protagonist is usually a cop with perhaps private problems he will have to overcome in the film. Usually faces a much smarter antagonist.
• Flashbacks are also common as they give insight into past events and giving clues to the story.
• Tension is also very important in  impacting the audience this keeps them concentrated during the film. They can use the lighting and pace of editing and sound both digetic and non-digetic sound to help build this.
• They commonly use orchestral music to help build a sound bridge in a film and this can change the feelings an audience feels.
• The antagonist is usually a secret until the ending of the film, this creates a mystery over who the antagonist is, this keeps the audience watching, to find out who it is.
• High angle shots are also used to see a wide view of the location and to see more action, the camera also commonly stays clear of the antagonists face as to make it more of a mystery.