Thursday, 15 December 2011
Focus Group Footage
This is the edited footage of our Focus Group. As mentioned already, it only includes the points that we found useful, when raised, in improving our original opening sequence idea.
Summary Post
I have doen as much as possible in these two hours.
Ove the holidays, I plan to do two things. Firstly, I want to start finding some examples of soundtracks and secondly I want to start thinking about how I will be storyboarding the opening sequence when I get back.
Ove the holidays, I plan to do two things. Firstly, I want to start finding some examples of soundtracks and secondly I want to start thinking about how I will be storyboarding the opening sequence when I get back.
Soundtracks
Upon gaining a better understanding of the soundtracks that are used within Thrillers, in particular Action Thrillers, as the newest treatment tends to fall into this category, I have decided to try and find some soundtracks that will be good enough to set the two moods needed.
The first soundtrack needs to create either a calm, and tranquil atmosphere or give an easy, ongoing atmosphere, which will probably be best created with soundtracks that include repetition of various parts.
The second soundtrack will need to create the complete opposite mood, that being a frantic, hi-tempo one. This will be included within the 'fight' scenes that are picked up y the CCTV camera. I will continue to search for suitable soundtracks in the next few weeks.
The first soundtrack needs to create either a calm, and tranquil atmosphere or give an easy, ongoing atmosphere, which will probably be best created with soundtracks that include repetition of various parts.
The second soundtrack will need to create the complete opposite mood, that being a frantic, hi-tempo one. This will be included within the 'fight' scenes that are picked up y the CCTV camera. I will continue to search for suitable soundtracks in the next few weeks.
Focus Group Video
By the end of this lesson, I plan to have the video footage that we got from our Focus Group up on this blog. I have edited the footage so it only includes the information that we are or have considered to change within the treatment re-write, which is already up. I would have liked to put this video up much sooner but I have been focussing on sorting out the research/questionnaire findings first.
Description of Screenplay
Within the screenplay, there is no dialogue. This is due to two things. Firstly, it will keep the tension that our opening sequence will need to rely on, as its one of the key conventions in the Thriller genre. Secondly, we don't really want to give too much away about our main character, again adding to the tension but also we want our audience to remain watching as they will want to find out more about this character through the weird goings on that the audience witness with the man in the car park.
You will also notice that there is two soundtracks. This has been decided on for a particular effect. We want to juxtapose the calm, everyday nature of the man's life with the dramatic and frantic events that we come to find out is all in his mind. So we will select a soundtrack that implements these two moods and include them both within our opening sequence to create the mood intended.
You will also notice that there is two soundtracks. This has been decided on for a particular effect. We want to juxtapose the calm, everyday nature of the man's life with the dramatic and frantic events that we come to find out is all in his mind. So we will select a soundtrack that implements these two moods and include them both within our opening sequence to create the mood intended.
Screenplay
(No Dialogue throughout)
(Establishing shot showing the street)
(Man walking down the street in a suit with a briefcase in hand)
(Soundtrack 1 playing over the top)
(Starts with a slow, calm mood)
(Shot type: Close up, beginning from feet, up)
(Camera reaches knees)
(Edit shot to flip to a car park)
(Soundtrack 2 playing over the top)
(Frantic mood/atmosphere created)
(Man is shown swinging arms as if punching something)
(Camera edited to look like a CCTV camera)
(Shot switches back to calm atmosphere)
(Back to Soundtrack 1)
(Camera continues to pan up the man's body)
(Camera reaches waist)
(Shot goes back to car park)
(Soundtrack 2 starts again)
(Man is seen with another figure, face is not seen)
(Still flailing his arms)
(Switches between calm and frantic atmospheres)
(Soundtrack 2 still plays)
(Camera still pans up the mans body)
(CCTV CAMERA follows the 'fight')
(Camera reaches just below man's head)
(Blacks out, along with soundtrack, not revealing man's identity)
Survey Findings
Overall, we found that our typical audience member would be of an age range of 21-40, as a majority 60.5% answered our survey being of that age range.
We also found that generally people answering our questionnaires were females with 63.2% and males with 36.8%.
Our audience member appears to be teachers, or just generally employed people, who are able to afford cinema tickets and DVDs. Although thriller didn’t come out as overall favourite, it did come out in top three, comedy coming first with 42.1%, romance with 21.6% and thriller with 26.3%.
People liked thrillers because they liked the suspense and tension given by it, and they like the sense of mystery, as they like to keep guessing the outcome and they consider it generally entertaining.
A majority of our answers came from people that watch films fairly often, with the vast majority of people accessing media through DVD's and TV.
A majority of our participants said that they most commonly saw adverts on the TV, billboards and from the Internet due to easy accessibility.
These results were fairly useful. We now know a definite age range group that our opening sequence will appeal to. The responses we received also fit alongside our focus group, so with both the focus group and our surveys giving similar answers, we will now be able to work on our screenplay and base it around their responses, for example, we could add a romance story alongside the thriller storyline, as romance is the second most watched genre of our survey group, however, we could not do the same with comedy, as it would relieve the audience of the tension that must be kept for our thriller movie. To gain a better understanding of our audience and their relationship with the thriller genre, we may need to create another questionnaire with more genre specific questions that link to Thrillers.
We also found that generally people answering our questionnaires were females with 63.2% and males with 36.8%.
Our audience member appears to be teachers, or just generally employed people, who are able to afford cinema tickets and DVDs. Although thriller didn’t come out as overall favourite, it did come out in top three, comedy coming first with 42.1%, romance with 21.6% and thriller with 26.3%.
People liked thrillers because they liked the suspense and tension given by it, and they like the sense of mystery, as they like to keep guessing the outcome and they consider it generally entertaining.
A majority of our answers came from people that watch films fairly often, with the vast majority of people accessing media through DVD's and TV.
A majority of our participants said that they most commonly saw adverts on the TV, billboards and from the Internet due to easy accessibility.
These results were fairly useful. We now know a definite age range group that our opening sequence will appeal to. The responses we received also fit alongside our focus group, so with both the focus group and our surveys giving similar answers, we will now be able to work on our screenplay and base it around their responses, for example, we could add a romance story alongside the thriller storyline, as romance is the second most watched genre of our survey group, however, we could not do the same with comedy, as it would relieve the audience of the tension that must be kept for our thriller movie. To gain a better understanding of our audience and their relationship with the thriller genre, we may need to create another questionnaire with more genre specific questions that link to Thrillers.
Thursday 15th December 2011
Today, I am planning to post the video footage that we received from our focus group, which has been cut down to just include the main points that we are now considering to use within the new treatment that we have began work on. This will then be followed up by another video that we plan to start at a later date, that involves our group talking about the feedback that we got from the focus group and whether we found it useful or not as well as talking about how we plan to try and implement these in our new treatment.
Because I am the only one in my group that is in to work today, I realise that I will not be able to complete all of the work that I plan to do today so I will continue to carry on with my work tomorrow.
The main tasks that I need to do:
- Screenplay
- Upload the Focus Group footage
- Soundtracks ( Info/examples on)
- Plan the group feedback video
- Begin to write up a storyboard of the treatment
Because I am the only one in my group that is in to work today, I realise that I will not be able to complete all of the work that I plan to do today so I will continue to carry on with my work tomorrow.
The main tasks that I need to do:
- Screenplay
- Upload the Focus Group footage
- Soundtracks ( Info/examples on)
- Plan the group feedback video
- Begin to write up a storyboard of the treatment
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
Tuesday 13th December
Today, I have posted up the new treatment idea that I came up with over the weekend. I have also began to start looking at various styles of music soundtracks that we can include within the 2 parts of the opening.
During the week, Im going to try and post various examples of soundtracks onto my blog and then choose the final ones which we will include in this treatment.
During the week, Im going to try and post various examples of soundtracks onto my blog and then choose the final ones which we will include in this treatment.
Sound
Our new treatment idea, being of the thriller genre, will have to include one or two soundtracks to create contrasting atmospheres within the strobing effect that we plan to use.
We know that we need to spend a considerable amount of time when choosing the soundtracks and we will continue to research these either at home or in any other lessons that we are able to do it.
We know that we need to spend a considerable amount of time when choosing the soundtracks and we will continue to research these either at home or in any other lessons that we are able to do it.
Treatment Re-Write
Over the weekend, I wrote up a new treatment idea. Within my treatment, I tried to keep some of the main elements of our original plot idea, however I have changed various parts.
New Treatment
I based my new opening around both the original opening idea that our group had and the main inspiration to this new treatment, Fight Club. This is because Fight Club has a very strong psychological element to it, which is one of the key features that we plan to include within our opening sequence. It begins with a brief establishing shot of the area, which slowly begins to focus on the main character. We then, starting from his feet, see the camera slowly pan up his body in the 'calm atmosphere' side of the opening. We will then switch the shot to various 'fight' scenes that the main character 'psychologically' goes through every night. There are various shot types and editing techniques that I plan to include within these fight scenes. Firstly, a few of the shots will be filmed as if the audience is actually there witnessing it, and we will try and film parts above the action, trying to make the shot seem like its being filmed on a CCTV camera, which will be achieved in iMovie once we start editing.
This idea will be filmed in a number of ways to create various moods that are specifically associated with our genre:
- Locations suitable to the plot ( Car Park for fight scenes, normal street setting for calm mood)
- Main character showing his psychological frustration
- Fights with the main character on his own (shows no-one being with him)
- Also showing shots with someone else with him
- Use various shot types within the action (extreme close-ups)
To show the CCTV effect, we are using this editing effect on iMovie:
Thursday, 8 December 2011
Target Audience Graphs and Conclusive Findings
Over the weekend, our group plans to take up individual roles in finalising the Research phase. As well as writing up our own screenplays for the opening sequence, we will be getting the results graphs from our questionnaires and coming to an overall conclusion on the target audience and other findings.
We will be answering theses questions:
1) What conclusions can you make about your findings? What do they tell you?
2) Who is your target audience?
3) How are you going to make your opening sequence appeal your audience?
4) Is there anything else you need to know about your target audience?
To evidence our findings, we will be publishing screen grabs of the graphs/tables that show our results onto our blogs.
We will be answering theses questions:
1) What conclusions can you make about your findings? What do they tell you?
2) Who is your target audience?
3) How are you going to make your opening sequence appeal your audience?
4) Is there anything else you need to know about your target audience?
To evidence our findings, we will be publishing screen grabs of the graphs/tables that show our results onto our blogs.
Focus Group Findings
On Tuesday, we held our focus group, showing them both our treatment pitch and inspirations, in order to help us reflect on any additional comments and opinions that they have on our opening sequence that we created originally. As all of those involved in our focus group were of our chosen target audience age, they would ultimately be the best people to ask these questions of. We also showed them the opening of American Beauty. This was an example of a film opening, specifically from our chosen thriller genre. We then asked the focus group a number of questions regarding our opening sequence, the initial plot idea and their overall opinion of the thriller genre in general. As a group we feel that we gained a lot from our focus group and we will be able to create an opening sequence that our target audience will enjoy and want to watch more of, using the suggested ideas from the focus group and the new ideas that over tim we have come up with.
Based on our focus group, we decided on a few things:
1. Our target audience would be Males and Females from 25 to 50 years of age.
2. To capture our target audience in the opening sequence, we will use action to keep them interested, as we found that it will add a bit of mystery to the opening sequence as to why this action sequence is happening. We will also add some slow paced scenes within the opening to create a juxtaposition, it adds more tension and suspense. We will also have some dramatic and slow paced music to build tension and to keep the audience hooked and interested in the film.
3. We found that the focus group would like to see a mix of slow and fast paced shots within the opening sequence to keep them interested. This would be achieved with a strobing effect that switches between these two moods that we are planning to use. A slow paced opening sequence may bore them and not keep them interested and a fast paced opening may not suit the idea of our film, and will be hard to do right.
As a result, our group decided that our opening sequence needed some changing, and so we will all individually write a screenplay based on the comments from the Focus Group and when we next come back together, we will share these ideas and begin to determine either which screenplay is better or take ideas from each one and merge them together.
Based on our focus group, we decided on a few things:
1. Our target audience would be Males and Females from 25 to 50 years of age.
2. To capture our target audience in the opening sequence, we will use action to keep them interested, as we found that it will add a bit of mystery to the opening sequence as to why this action sequence is happening. We will also add some slow paced scenes within the opening to create a juxtaposition, it adds more tension and suspense. We will also have some dramatic and slow paced music to build tension and to keep the audience hooked and interested in the film.
3. We found that the focus group would like to see a mix of slow and fast paced shots within the opening sequence to keep them interested. This would be achieved with a strobing effect that switches between these two moods that we are planning to use. A slow paced opening sequence may bore them and not keep them interested and a fast paced opening may not suit the idea of our film, and will be hard to do right.
As a result, our group decided that our opening sequence needed some changing, and so we will all individually write a screenplay based on the comments from the Focus Group and when we next come back together, we will share these ideas and begin to determine either which screenplay is better or take ideas from each one and merge them together.
Thursday 8th December 2011 - Focus Group Footage
Today, whilst the rest of my group dealt with the results and findings that we have received from our questionnaires and find out who our target audience actually is, I took time to go through the footage of the Focus group discussions and take out the main thoughts and ideas that we received from them and put them into a video which will then be posted onto our blogs at a later date.
We also plan to give our own group discussion within this video, talking about each individual point that we received an explain how we plan to implement this into our opening sequence or whether we feel there would be a better way of doing the raised point.
We also plan to give our own group discussion within this video, talking about each individual point that we received an explain how we plan to implement this into our opening sequence or whether we feel there would be a better way of doing the raised point.
Thursday, 1 December 2011
Audience Research (part 2)
As part of our work today, we have to, as a group, discuss the potential target audience of our opening sequence. This will be an important part of determining how we can collectively gather our research together in order to find a specific age group for our opening sequence to be aimed at and to accurately see whether our originally planned target audience goes along with this result. In this phase, we will be holding a Focus Group, in which we have decided to try and persuade teachers within our school to take part in, as well as the results that we receive from our questionnaire results.
We have decided to get teachers involved in our focus group as there are a variety of different age groups, varying both within our predicted target audience category as well as above and below. This will give us a much wider age range to accurately determine the actual target audience that we will need to aim our opening sequence at. We have written a letter that we will be sending to a number of the teachers around our school. We are aiming to have 5-6 teachers within this focus group but we will most likely send the letter to more just as a precautionary measure. We will also have to come up with a few questions that we will ask them in order to gather research into their particular views into both our chosen genre and opening sequence. We have discussed these in our group and have come up with the following:
What do you think our target audience is, based on the treatment idea?
How could we make the treatment more appealing to our target audience?
Would the original concept of our treatment make you want to watch the rest of the film? Why?
What is your initial thoughts on the treatment/idea?
Which aspects of our chosen thriller genre would you expect to see in our opening?
We have decided to get teachers involved in our focus group as there are a variety of different age groups, varying both within our predicted target audience category as well as above and below. This will give us a much wider age range to accurately determine the actual target audience that we will need to aim our opening sequence at. We have written a letter that we will be sending to a number of the teachers around our school. We are aiming to have 5-6 teachers within this focus group but we will most likely send the letter to more just as a precautionary measure. We will also have to come up with a few questions that we will ask them in order to gather research into their particular views into both our chosen genre and opening sequence. We have discussed these in our group and have come up with the following:
What do you think our target audience is, based on the treatment idea?
How could we make the treatment more appealing to our target audience?
Would the original concept of our treatment make you want to watch the rest of the film? Why?
What is your initial thoughts on the treatment/idea?
Which aspects of our chosen thriller genre would you expect to see in our opening?
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
Focus Groups
After we had created our questionnaire, we had to think about our target audience. We had to do this through a focus group. As a group, we feel that our target audience will be aimed at 20-30 year olds, so in our focus group, we have decided to get together various teachers within our school as it would be most convenient.
Audience Profile Research
As a group, we all came with 5 individual questions that we would then feed back to the others, to determine which questions we would put into our questionnaire.
My questions were as follows:
1 - Where do you mostly watch films? (examples provided)
2 - From the list below, specify which types of media you tend to use (examples provided)
3 - Out of 10, (0=the lowest, 10= the highest), how often do you watch films? (with scale)
4 - Below, please state the main genre of film you prefer.
5 - Do you consider yourself to like films of the 'Thriller' genre?
[ ] Yes [ ] No
Why? Why not?
Here is a link to our actual questionnaire, once we had chosen the questions that we were going to include:
Click here to take survey
My questions were as follows:
1 - Where do you mostly watch films? (examples provided)
2 - From the list below, specify which types of media you tend to use (examples provided)
3 - Out of 10, (0=the lowest, 10= the highest), how often do you watch films? (with scale)
4 - Below, please state the main genre of film you prefer.
5 - Do you consider yourself to like films of the 'Thriller' genre?
[ ] Yes [ ] No
Why? Why not?
Here is a link to our actual questionnaire, once we had chosen the questions that we were going to include:
Click here to take survey
Thursday, 24 November 2011
Opening Sequence Analysis - Thriller Genre
As research, we have been given the task of watching 5 opening sequences in order to help us gain a better idea as to how we can develop our opening sequence when we begin to film.
This opening sequence does use some of the typical conventions of the Thriller Genre. For example, in the dialogue used at the beginning of the scene, the main character, who we assume is speaking, says "..in less than a year...I'll be dead..". This, from the very beginning leaves us on sort of a cliffhanger as it does not give any specific reasoning as to why he will be dead in a year, enticing the audience of this film to watch on and find this information out. Another convention used is the way in which the mood of the audience is played with straight away, by using death as an immediate topic within the monologue, which is very typical of this genre.
The dialogue used in the opening sequence is spoken in a fairly one-dimensional voice, giving a dull mood to the film from the very beginning. This use of dullness is reflected in the character, played by Kevin Spacey, as he is shown, through the camera angles/shots, Mise-en-Scene, Editing and SFX, which in this case is the soundtrack. The camera seems to mainly focus around the main characters and their actions, rather than the setting around them, which hints at the psychological side of the thriller genre, however, we are automatically shown the key setting of this opening from the very start with an establishing shot of the city in which Lester, the main character, lives. The first shot we see of Lester is when he's in bed. There is a use of a high angled shot looking down on him. This can already connote that he has no power within his life.
A key area that needs to be highlighted is the soundtrack that is played over the top of the whole opening sequence. It is a score created by Thomas Newman, which creates a really specific atmosphere, which is a simple, repetitive theme, picked up through the continuous xylophone chords, this possibly connoting the daily lifestyle of Lester's character.
American Beauty (1999)
Director: Sam Mendes
Writer: Alan Ball
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch
This opening sequence does use some of the typical conventions of the Thriller Genre. For example, in the dialogue used at the beginning of the scene, the main character, who we assume is speaking, says "..in less than a year...I'll be dead..". This, from the very beginning leaves us on sort of a cliffhanger as it does not give any specific reasoning as to why he will be dead in a year, enticing the audience of this film to watch on and find this information out. Another convention used is the way in which the mood of the audience is played with straight away, by using death as an immediate topic within the monologue, which is very typical of this genre.
The dialogue used in the opening sequence is spoken in a fairly one-dimensional voice, giving a dull mood to the film from the very beginning. This use of dullness is reflected in the character, played by Kevin Spacey, as he is shown, through the camera angles/shots, Mise-en-Scene, Editing and SFX, which in this case is the soundtrack. The camera seems to mainly focus around the main characters and their actions, rather than the setting around them, which hints at the psychological side of the thriller genre, however, we are automatically shown the key setting of this opening from the very start with an establishing shot of the city in which Lester, the main character, lives. The first shot we see of Lester is when he's in bed. There is a use of a high angled shot looking down on him. This can already connote that he has no power within his life.
A key area that needs to be highlighted is the soundtrack that is played over the top of the whole opening sequence. It is a score created by Thomas Newman, which creates a really specific atmosphere, which is a simple, repetitive theme, picked up through the continuous xylophone chords, this possibly connoting the daily lifestyle of Lester's character.
SWOT Analysis of our Pitch/Treatment
After receiving constructive feedback from the rest of our peers, we needed to analyse our pitch using SWOT, which identifies our Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
Strengths
The initial plot idea matched the conventions of the Thriller genre. Our idea is basic, not requiring any form of SFX e.g. explosions, making it much easier to edit later on after the filming stage. We were told that the plot will work due to the fact that it is character driven.
Weaknesses
The way in which our opening scene was planned to be filmed was 'too bland' and there was a big gap between the plot and how the opening scene would be filmed. We almost made the task too difficult to do, so we were suggested to slow the pace of the opening right down instead of having it fast paced.
Opportunities
We have the opportunity to film our opening scene in different areas local to us, which means that we all don't have to travel too far to film. We will be able to edit the planned use of various shot types after the filming stage.
Threats
We may not be able to find a suitable actor to play the character we wish to include within our opening scene. Filming in public may present itself to be quite a problem with other people that are in the area at that specific time.
Tuesday, 22 November 2011
Treatment Feedback
We pitched our initial opening scene idea to the other groups and teachers within our class. From this, we were given constructive feedback on how we can improve our idea.
We were told that the plot of our thriller was good and that it matched the conventions of our genre. However, the way in which we decided to film our opening to the film needed to be thought about again. This is because the idea seemed to be 'too bland' and needed to be a little more interesting to match our genre. Also, because the actual plot of the film was good, we chose to include a fast chase opening, however within the feedback, we were given the idea that maybe we need to make it a little more simple and slower, which we have now decided to take into consideration when we re-think our opening scene.
So, now, we are re-thinking and re-writing our opening scene, making it much slower and simple than our previous idea, trying to use inspiration from other thriller films to spark more ideas for us, such as 'Lost In Translation' and 'American Beauty'.
We were told that the plot of our thriller was good and that it matched the conventions of our genre. However, the way in which we decided to film our opening to the film needed to be thought about again. This is because the idea seemed to be 'too bland' and needed to be a little more interesting to match our genre. Also, because the actual plot of the film was good, we chose to include a fast chase opening, however within the feedback, we were given the idea that maybe we need to make it a little more simple and slower, which we have now decided to take into consideration when we re-think our opening scene.
So, now, we are re-thinking and re-writing our opening scene, making it much slower and simple than our previous idea, trying to use inspiration from other thriller films to spark more ideas for us, such as 'Lost In Translation' and 'American Beauty'.
Monday, 14 November 2011
Genre Convention Research: Peer Assessment Feedback
For our homework, we were given the task of writing 3 opening scenes for our own concept of a Gangster Movie. In this, we had to keep 5 of the original concepts of a Gangster movie as well as changing 1 thing to show that we've changed the normal style of the genre.
The 5 key features that I plan to keep are:
- Characters wear suits
- Keep in the theme of violence
- Main Characters are male
- Include dialogue that starts to set the main theme of the film
- Keep the main used colours black and white.
To make it my own, I would change the following:
- Instead of settling gang wars over gunfights, each individual gang take part in a football tournament.
To expand on this idea, the teams would still try to stick the the original colour schemes, however his would be hard to do due to the fact that there will not be a clear distinction between different teams. To keep this idea within the Gangster genre, there would be a crowd around the pitch, set somewhere dark and secluded from the real world, that had drug dealing, illegal betting and V.I.P seating for the owners of the team.
I made up 3 different opening scenes to go along with this genre:
Opening Scene 1
At the very start, there is a black background with white writing, showing the name of the state/city that the film is mainly based within and during what time period. Then, the voice of the main character will provide dialogue on top of footage showing the city from above. The dialogue will be setting the scene and giving a brief history on the warfare corrupting the city.
Opening Scene 2
The second opening starts as a flashback. There is a Birds-Eye-View of the city before zooming into a back alley. From there, the main character, who at this stage is a young boy, is introduced hiding behind some boxes. He witnesses a gang interrogate and kill a traitor to the 'family'. Just as they are about to leave, the gang leader spots the young boy and says that he'll be back for him when he is older. We are then brought back into the present time period, where the main character, now much older, is part of the gang that he witnessed kill that traitor.
Opening Scene 3
Scene 3 starts in a dark room, with only a desk, forearms and hands, of the gang leader, lit by light. There are also other characters in the room with him, however thay are not shown, there voices are the only giveaway. The gang leader then moves forward into the light, so his face is revealed, delivering a key one-liner before the screen fades into black. Throughout this scene, there is a slow zoom towards the desk and the gang leader.
In my feedback, I was told that Opening Scene 2 was the better idea of the trhee. This is because it was an original and unique idea that none of those in my group had seen in any film previous. Also, I was told that there was an imaginative use of various camera shots and angles, meaning that the audience would find my opening sequence a little more intriguing to watch. The other two scenes seemed to include too much simular features that were seen in films such as The Godfather, that being the reason as to why Opening Scene 2 was chosen as my better scene.
The 5 key features that I plan to keep are:
- Characters wear suits
- Keep in the theme of violence
- Main Characters are male
- Include dialogue that starts to set the main theme of the film
- Keep the main used colours black and white.
To make it my own, I would change the following:
- Instead of settling gang wars over gunfights, each individual gang take part in a football tournament.
To expand on this idea, the teams would still try to stick the the original colour schemes, however his would be hard to do due to the fact that there will not be a clear distinction between different teams. To keep this idea within the Gangster genre, there would be a crowd around the pitch, set somewhere dark and secluded from the real world, that had drug dealing, illegal betting and V.I.P seating for the owners of the team.
I made up 3 different opening scenes to go along with this genre:
Opening Scene 1
At the very start, there is a black background with white writing, showing the name of the state/city that the film is mainly based within and during what time period. Then, the voice of the main character will provide dialogue on top of footage showing the city from above. The dialogue will be setting the scene and giving a brief history on the warfare corrupting the city.
Opening Scene 2
The second opening starts as a flashback. There is a Birds-Eye-View of the city before zooming into a back alley. From there, the main character, who at this stage is a young boy, is introduced hiding behind some boxes. He witnesses a gang interrogate and kill a traitor to the 'family'. Just as they are about to leave, the gang leader spots the young boy and says that he'll be back for him when he is older. We are then brought back into the present time period, where the main character, now much older, is part of the gang that he witnessed kill that traitor.
Opening Scene 3
Scene 3 starts in a dark room, with only a desk, forearms and hands, of the gang leader, lit by light. There are also other characters in the room with him, however thay are not shown, there voices are the only giveaway. The gang leader then moves forward into the light, so his face is revealed, delivering a key one-liner before the screen fades into black. Throughout this scene, there is a slow zoom towards the desk and the gang leader.
In my feedback, I was told that Opening Scene 2 was the better idea of the trhee. This is because it was an original and unique idea that none of those in my group had seen in any film previous. Also, I was told that there was an imaginative use of various camera shots and angles, meaning that the audience would find my opening sequence a little more intriguing to watch. The other two scenes seemed to include too much simular features that were seen in films such as The Godfather, that being the reason as to why Opening Scene 2 was chosen as my better scene.
Thursday, 10 November 2011
Evaluation Of Prelim
Due to absence, I did not have a specific role within the filming and editing stages of the prelim task, however, I was able to give constructive feedback to my group during the final stages of the editing phase, suggesting possible improvements to what they had already created in my absence. When I come onto completing the main task, I will make sure that I get involved much more and take up a specific role in both the filming and editing stages. I feel confident that the brief was met by my group during this prelim task and I understand that the tasks outlined within the brief were met also.
Below, you can clearly see the use of a 180 degree rule within the footage:
Over the shoulder of one character...
...And then over the shoulder of the other character!
Here, you can also see the use of Match-On-Action within the footage:
Walks through the door...
..And enters the room on the other side!
The Match-On-Action could have been made a little more clearer however. This could have been shown by filming her closing the door on the other side, which shows a clearer sense of this feature as well as helping the audience to fully identify that she has entered a new section of setting within the footage. The group decided to plan before going out to film. This was done in a storyboard form. Each individual shot is put together very well and blends in nicely, however there were some shots that the ASD could have been shortened slightly, highlighting the part where she walks into the room and towards the other character. Overall, I feel that the group has worked well on the prelim task and have stuck to the brief successfully.
Below, you can clearly see the use of a 180 degree rule within the footage:
Over the shoulder of one character...
...And then over the shoulder of the other character!
Here, you can also see the use of Match-On-Action within the footage:
Walks through the door...
..And enters the room on the other side!
The Match-On-Action could have been made a little more clearer however. This could have been shown by filming her closing the door on the other side, which shows a clearer sense of this feature as well as helping the audience to fully identify that she has entered a new section of setting within the footage. The group decided to plan before going out to film. This was done in a storyboard form. Each individual shot is put together very well and blends in nicely, however there were some shots that the ASD could have been shortened slightly, highlighting the part where she walks into the room and towards the other character. Overall, I feel that the group has worked well on the prelim task and have stuck to the brief successfully.
Monday, 7 November 2011
Friday, 28 October 2011
'Let The Right One In' - Homework
Here is the 10 question homework on the film 'Let The Right One In' ( Set- 18th Oct )
1: I would not describe myself as a fan of horror films.
2: The trailer doesnt use very much speech, only in the middle and towards the end. This helps to build the suspense that the director wants to create within his film. However, the lines of dialogue which are used in this trailer seem to give away a key part of the film's storyline, especially the lines 'Are you a vampire?' and the use of screams. The screams, though, are considered to be one of the many features of a horror film.
3: Familiar Conventions Of Horror
- Vampires have a weakness to direct sunlight ( Seen with Ginia in the hospital after shes bitten by Eli)
- Vampires leave two holes in the neck of their victims ( Seen on Ginia's neck after incident with Eli )
- Use of an eerie/tension-building soundtrack BEFORE a key moment ( ( Just before Eli attacks)
- Sense of death ( Eli kills Jocke )
- Blood plays a significant role in gory nature of the film ( During Eli's attacks and draining of blood in the forest)
Different Conventions Of Horror
- Deals with emotional challenges of the main character ( Bullying Oskar deals with)
4: Oskar tends to be shown on his own throughout most of the film and doesnt really spend any of his school life with any of his classmates or children who also attend his school. Eli is sort of in the same situation as Oskar, however, this is because she is not a human but instead is a vampire, thus as a result, she hasnt really got the choice whether or not she wants to be with herslf or around others. Also, when there is blood involved in a certain situation, her vampire side takes over her, which forces her to keep away from humans, however, this excludes Oskar due to their forming relationship as close friends. Snow is also a very important feature in establishing 'being an outsider'. This is because snow muffles out sound and can give you the sense of being completely remote from the nearest person and can also heighten the sense of cautiousness.
5: Oskar's character frustrated me throughout this film. This is because he was clearly getting bullied by Conny and his friends and didn't put up a fight against them until right at the very end. Also he was just a very dull character because he didnt talk very much. Eli was ok, but you could quite easily tell what she was going to do next, making her character highly predictable.
6: In all honesty, none of the narrative appealed to me. The only thing that was slightly interesting was the choice of leaving a horror film on a 'happy ending'. You would have made the assumption, like I did, that something bad would happen at the very end which would keep the horror feel to the film. By doing this at the end of the film, it seems to change the aspect of how a horror film should end.
7: If you remove the idea of Eli being a vampire, then you would tend to make the film a romantic genre rather than a horror. This would mean that you would have to take out the main features of the horror genre. This would be all of the deaths, taking out many of the background characters so the narrative can focus on the two main characters, Oskar and Eli, without there being any interruptions to the story. There would also have to be a greater deal of dialogue within the film, so the feelings and emotions of the characters can be put across to the audience watching.
8: This domestic view of vampires can take most of the fear factor away from the film and as this film is of the horror genre, you really cannot afford to do that. The vampires need to be seen in a much more evil and scarier view, because in this film, we see vampires living in the same way that any other ordinary person would live their life, in a house. You need try and keep some of the classical features of the mythical legend of vampires, such as sleeping in a coffin etc.
9: ???
10 : ???
1: I would not describe myself as a fan of horror films.
2: The trailer doesnt use very much speech, only in the middle and towards the end. This helps to build the suspense that the director wants to create within his film. However, the lines of dialogue which are used in this trailer seem to give away a key part of the film's storyline, especially the lines 'Are you a vampire?' and the use of screams. The screams, though, are considered to be one of the many features of a horror film.
3: Familiar Conventions Of Horror
- Vampires have a weakness to direct sunlight ( Seen with Ginia in the hospital after shes bitten by Eli)
- Vampires leave two holes in the neck of their victims ( Seen on Ginia's neck after incident with Eli )
- Use of an eerie/tension-building soundtrack BEFORE a key moment ( ( Just before Eli attacks)
- Sense of death ( Eli kills Jocke )
- Blood plays a significant role in gory nature of the film ( During Eli's attacks and draining of blood in the forest)
Different Conventions Of Horror
- Deals with emotional challenges of the main character ( Bullying Oskar deals with)
4: Oskar tends to be shown on his own throughout most of the film and doesnt really spend any of his school life with any of his classmates or children who also attend his school. Eli is sort of in the same situation as Oskar, however, this is because she is not a human but instead is a vampire, thus as a result, she hasnt really got the choice whether or not she wants to be with herslf or around others. Also, when there is blood involved in a certain situation, her vampire side takes over her, which forces her to keep away from humans, however, this excludes Oskar due to their forming relationship as close friends. Snow is also a very important feature in establishing 'being an outsider'. This is because snow muffles out sound and can give you the sense of being completely remote from the nearest person and can also heighten the sense of cautiousness.
5: Oskar's character frustrated me throughout this film. This is because he was clearly getting bullied by Conny and his friends and didn't put up a fight against them until right at the very end. Also he was just a very dull character because he didnt talk very much. Eli was ok, but you could quite easily tell what she was going to do next, making her character highly predictable.
6: In all honesty, none of the narrative appealed to me. The only thing that was slightly interesting was the choice of leaving a horror film on a 'happy ending'. You would have made the assumption, like I did, that something bad would happen at the very end which would keep the horror feel to the film. By doing this at the end of the film, it seems to change the aspect of how a horror film should end.
7: If you remove the idea of Eli being a vampire, then you would tend to make the film a romantic genre rather than a horror. This would mean that you would have to take out the main features of the horror genre. This would be all of the deaths, taking out many of the background characters so the narrative can focus on the two main characters, Oskar and Eli, without there being any interruptions to the story. There would also have to be a greater deal of dialogue within the film, so the feelings and emotions of the characters can be put across to the audience watching.
8: This domestic view of vampires can take most of the fear factor away from the film and as this film is of the horror genre, you really cannot afford to do that. The vampires need to be seen in a much more evil and scarier view, because in this film, we see vampires living in the same way that any other ordinary person would live their life, in a house. You need try and keep some of the classical features of the mythical legend of vampires, such as sleeping in a coffin etc.
9: ???
10 : ???
Tuesday, 27 September 2011
...Morning...
GooooooooooodMorningWorld.!! Welcome to my blog.!! Im hoping this will be an intellectual experience, as well as entertaining...
Thanks,
D.
Thanks,
D.
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