Friday, 11 December 2009
Media AS Evaluation
My media project uses very few of the conventions of an urban film, for a start there is no dialogue which could suggest that it is not an urban film at all, although my reasoning behind this was to portray a sense of confusion for the viewer (who is this character, why are we not told, what is he doing). I wanted to convey a sense of insanity and almost make it as though the entire scene is one big cliff-hanger. There are parts of my product that do use the conventions of an urban film such as quick cuts, quick cuts are used in urban films to make them more fast paced as well as making scenes seem more rhythmic.
My product in no way represents any form of social groups, even though the character is dressed a certain way there is still no way to be sure whether he is as he appears to be, because there has been no dialogue or music to get the feel of the character yet. In my piece I tried to get the viewer to concentrate more on the actions of the character and less on the character himself.
I believe that a company that would possibly consider distributing my film in its entirety is Pathe pictures; my reasoning behind this is that Pathe have also distributed other urban films such as Adulthood, and I feel that my film could amount to being a great representation of urban life in the southwest of England.
My target audience ranges from the age of fifteen and onwards, as there are teenagers that are represented in the film, but also adults too. This is not shown in the extract but I hope to completely finish the film in its entirety eventually. The reason I have chosen the starting age to see the film to be fifteen is that the use of the blood on the hands of the character can give the idea that there has been some kind of violence or even murder, although it could be as simple as just having a messy sandwich. To address my audience I used tactics such as having the film set in a common well known place (a house) and I used an actor that the viewers can relate to (average teenager).
In the editing process I learnt that on the application iMovie, if you use up too much space on the computer the footage begins to suffer, I had to re-film my project three times due to the corruption of iMovie and the effect this had on my footage, as well as that the effects on iMovie have a tendency to make footage jumpy and less smooth in the transition between shots. I also learnt that jump cuts are very useful in capturing the insanity of a character and also work well when you are trying to convey long periods of time elapsing.
I have made a huge amount of progress since my preliminary project, I am now more competent at using iMovie as well as using a camera, and I have developed that way in which my stories are displayed on screen. My mise en scene has developed as well; I now take time out to gather together props costumes and which location I am going to film.
There are some things I would change about my project such as sticking with my original plan and doing everything in order with time to spare but other than that I believe that I have done well in this project and made a lot of progress when it comes to using the technology available.
My media project uses very few of the conventions of an urban film, for a start there is no dialogue which could suggest that it is not an urban film at all, although my reasoning behind this was to portray a sense of confusion for the viewer (who is this character, why are we not told, what is he doing). I wanted to convey a sense of insanity and almost make it as though the entire scene is one big cliff-hanger. There are parts of my product that do use the conventions of an urban film such as quick cuts, quick cuts are used in urban films to make them more fast paced as well as making scenes seem more rhythmic.
My product in no way represents any form of social groups, even though the character is dressed a certain way there is still no way to be sure whether he is as he appears to be, because there has been no dialogue or music to get the feel of the character yet. In my piece I tried to get the viewer to concentrate more on the actions of the character and less on the character himself.
I believe that a company that would possibly consider distributing my film in its entirety is Pathe pictures; my reasoning behind this is that Pathe have also distributed other urban films such as Adulthood, and I feel that my film could amount to being a great representation of urban life in the southwest of England.
My target audience ranges from the age of fifteen and onwards, as there are teenagers that are represented in the film, but also adults too. This is not shown in the extract but I hope to completely finish the film in its entirety eventually. The reason I have chosen the starting age to see the film to be fifteen is that the use of the blood on the hands of the character can give the idea that there has been some kind of violence or even murder, although it could be as simple as just having a messy sandwich. To address my audience I used tactics such as having the film set in a common well known place (a house) and I used an actor that the viewers can relate to (average teenager).
In the editing process I learnt that on the application iMovie, if you use up too much space on the computer the footage begins to suffer, I had to re-film my project three times due to the corruption of iMovie and the effect this had on my footage, as well as that the effects on iMovie have a tendency to make footage jumpy and less smooth in the transition between shots. I also learnt that jump cuts are very useful in capturing the insanity of a character and also work well when you are trying to convey long periods of time elapsing.
I have made a huge amount of progress since my preliminary project, I am now more competent at using iMovie as well as using a camera, and I have developed that way in which my stories are displayed on screen. My mise en scene has developed as well; I now take time out to gather together props costumes and which location I am going to film.
There are some things I would change about my project such as sticking with my original plan and doing everything in order with time to spare but other than that I believe that I have done well in this project and made a lot of progress when it comes to using the technology available.
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
AS work
Extra Information
Location plan
1. St George park-a wide open space with grass trees and a lake good to make the character seem lonely
2. Sailsbury St-very long road good to show a character walking and jump cuts
3. Eastville park-huge park with lots of dark dingy areas good to make the scene more sinister
4. Gadshill Rd-high up road on a hill good to show characters walking
5. Greenbank cemetery-very dark and sinister good for black and white scenes
6. Vassles park-lots of places to hide very good for 1st person shots
7. Ashton court-large fields surrounded by forest good for chase scenes
8. Brandon hill/Cabot tower-good to get a gothic dark feel to a scene
9. Bristol city centre-good to make the scene more modern lots of shops and cars driving past makes the scene busy
10. Cycle track-dark dingy long track gives the scene a more sinister feel
List of Possible Actors
1. Callum Gratze
2. Cameron Gratze
3. Cai Gratze
4. Tom Wheeler
5. James O’Connor
6. Joe Kelly
7. Emily Kingston
8. Ryan Francis
Props List
1. Blood like substance
2. Knife
3. Urban style clothing
4. Sink and taps
5. Jacket
6. Bed
7. Window
8. Cars on a street
9. Mobile phone
Movie Questionnaire
1. How old are you? 10-15 16-20 21-25 26 onwards (Please circle)
2. What is your favourite genre of film?
……………………………………………………………………………………………….. (Please specify)
3. What is your favourite genre of music?
………………………………………………………………………………………………… (Please specify)
4. Do you enjoy films with a lot of gore and blood? YES NO (please circle)
5. Do you prefer films to have a sound track or to have real life sound? (Please circle)
6. What is your favourite urban film? (If you have one)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………. (Please specify)
7. Do you like effects to be used in films (CGI)? YES NO (Please circle)
8. What makes a good film for you?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………. (Please specify)
9. Do you agree with drugs being incorporated into films? YES NO (Please circle)
10. Do you agree with murder being incorporated into films? YES NO (Please circle)
Questionnaire evaluation
Four out of five peoples answers for question one were 16-20 which shows me that my film should be mainly targeted at teenagers if I want it to do well upon its release.
The majority of the answers to question two were genres that contained alot of action such as thriller or kung-fu; this tells me that my film should feature some kind of fight sequence or something grittier like the presence of death.
Most of my target audience’s favourite genres of music seem to be based around urban life which tells me that a strong soundtrack could be very useful.
Four out of the five people I asked said they enjoyed films with blood and gore; this is useful as I can incorporate this into my film relatively easily and then add more depth to my story.
Every person I asked said they prefer to have a soundtrack in a film rather that real life sounds this makes my job alot easier because it means I do not have to have dialogue in my film as my target audience prefer not to have real sounds in the film.
Most of the people i asked said that their favourite urban film is kidulthood, this gives me a very specific idea of what people want, and now that I know this I can very loosely bas parts of my story around this film.
The majority of the people in my target audience seem to like to see special effects in films; I can now try to incorporate this into my film to make it almost sci-fi like.
Alot of the people I asked said that the storyline is what makes a film good and interesting or not, this has told me that I need to spend alot more time on filming than editing, and focus more on the actual story in general.
Everyone I asked said that it was acceptable for drugs and death to be incorporated into films but only if these things are in context, this lets me know that I have to fit drugs and death into my film somewhere but i have to has decent reasoning for having these things.
Shot list
1. Low angle shot of the sky, camera pans down, round to the right and finishes facing the opposite way looking at the road.
2. Shot of the road with character walking, jump cuts to add effect camera then pans round to the right to watch character walk into house.
3. Low angle shot from inside the house of character walking past and down the corridor.
4. Low angle shot of character walking into the kitchen, camera pans round as the character walks past and over to the sink.
5. High angle over the shoulder shot of character washing hands.
6. Close up of characters hands, as the blood is being washed off.
7. Medium shot from other side of character washing hands, camera pans up to the ceiling.
8. Medium long shot of character sitting on bed.
9. Medium shot of character putting on shirt, camera pans down to see character putting on shoes.
10. Medium shot of character grabbing coat and leaving the room.
11. Medium shot of character walking towards the camera, pans to see the character start walking down the stairs.
12. Long shot from the hallway of character walking down the stairs and passed the camera, pans to see character walk out the door and onto the street.
13. Long shot of character walking down the street camera pans across to the right and finally up to the sky for the end credits.
Location plan
1. St George park-a wide open space with grass trees and a lake good to make the character seem lonely
2. Sailsbury St-very long road good to show a character walking and jump cuts
3. Eastville park-huge park with lots of dark dingy areas good to make the scene more sinister
4. Gadshill Rd-high up road on a hill good to show characters walking
5. Greenbank cemetery-very dark and sinister good for black and white scenes
6. Vassles park-lots of places to hide very good for 1st person shots
7. Ashton court-large fields surrounded by forest good for chase scenes
8. Brandon hill/Cabot tower-good to get a gothic dark feel to a scene
9. Bristol city centre-good to make the scene more modern lots of shops and cars driving past makes the scene busy
10. Cycle track-dark dingy long track gives the scene a more sinister feel
List of Possible Actors
1. Callum Gratze
2. Cameron Gratze
3. Cai Gratze
4. Tom Wheeler
5. James O’Connor
6. Joe Kelly
7. Emily Kingston
8. Ryan Francis
Props List
1. Blood like substance
2. Knife
3. Urban style clothing
4. Sink and taps
5. Jacket
6. Bed
7. Window
8. Cars on a street
9. Mobile phone
Movie Questionnaire
1. How old are you? 10-15 16-20 21-25 26 onwards (Please circle)
2. What is your favourite genre of film?
……………………………………………………………………………………………….. (Please specify)
3. What is your favourite genre of music?
………………………………………………………………………………………………… (Please specify)
4. Do you enjoy films with a lot of gore and blood? YES NO (please circle)
5. Do you prefer films to have a sound track or to have real life sound? (Please circle)
6. What is your favourite urban film? (If you have one)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………. (Please specify)
7. Do you like effects to be used in films (CGI)? YES NO (Please circle)
8. What makes a good film for you?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………. (Please specify)
9. Do you agree with drugs being incorporated into films? YES NO (Please circle)
10. Do you agree with murder being incorporated into films? YES NO (Please circle)
Questionnaire evaluation
Four out of five peoples answers for question one were 16-20 which shows me that my film should be mainly targeted at teenagers if I want it to do well upon its release.
The majority of the answers to question two were genres that contained alot of action such as thriller or kung-fu; this tells me that my film should feature some kind of fight sequence or something grittier like the presence of death.
Most of my target audience’s favourite genres of music seem to be based around urban life which tells me that a strong soundtrack could be very useful.
Four out of the five people I asked said they enjoyed films with blood and gore; this is useful as I can incorporate this into my film relatively easily and then add more depth to my story.
Every person I asked said they prefer to have a soundtrack in a film rather that real life sounds this makes my job alot easier because it means I do not have to have dialogue in my film as my target audience prefer not to have real sounds in the film.
Most of the people i asked said that their favourite urban film is kidulthood, this gives me a very specific idea of what people want, and now that I know this I can very loosely bas parts of my story around this film.
The majority of the people in my target audience seem to like to see special effects in films; I can now try to incorporate this into my film to make it almost sci-fi like.
Alot of the people I asked said that the storyline is what makes a film good and interesting or not, this has told me that I need to spend alot more time on filming than editing, and focus more on the actual story in general.
Everyone I asked said that it was acceptable for drugs and death to be incorporated into films but only if these things are in context, this lets me know that I have to fit drugs and death into my film somewhere but i have to has decent reasoning for having these things.
Shot list
1. Low angle shot of the sky, camera pans down, round to the right and finishes facing the opposite way looking at the road.
2. Shot of the road with character walking, jump cuts to add effect camera then pans round to the right to watch character walk into house.
3. Low angle shot from inside the house of character walking past and down the corridor.
4. Low angle shot of character walking into the kitchen, camera pans round as the character walks past and over to the sink.
5. High angle over the shoulder shot of character washing hands.
6. Close up of characters hands, as the blood is being washed off.
7. Medium shot from other side of character washing hands, camera pans up to the ceiling.
8. Medium long shot of character sitting on bed.
9. Medium shot of character putting on shirt, camera pans down to see character putting on shoes.
10. Medium shot of character grabbing coat and leaving the room.
11. Medium shot of character walking towards the camera, pans to see the character start walking down the stairs.
12. Long shot from the hallway of character walking down the stairs and passed the camera, pans to see character walk out the door and onto the street.
13. Long shot of character walking down the street camera pans across to the right and finally up to the sky for the end credits.
Research
Kidulthood
cinematography-shaky camera-makes scene more realistic
tracking-stay in the persona of the character
close up-to show expression and give an insight into the characters world
panning-to switch between social groups
over the shoulder-to show conversation
mise en scene-football-to show types of character
school uniform-to show how old the characters are
gameboy-to emphisise how old the characters are
mobile phone-to show that the film is modern
hoodies-fits in with the urban style of life
editing-slow motion-to draw attention to different aspects of the scene
quick cuts-to speed up the tempo of the scene
zoom-to draw focus on to different characters
jump cuts-to speed up the pace of the scene
sound-kids playing-to show the age of the characters and where the scene is set
soundtrack-urban music to fit in with the genre of the film
urban dialogue-to fit in with the genre of the film
drill-to show what the character is drilling and to draw attention to this
Adulthood
cinematography-close ups-to take you back to the previous story-line in the last film
long shots-to show the main parts of the last film
high angle shots-to show the illegal rave in its entirety
tracking-to show the mentality of the new age of kids
medium shot-to show the 'new crew'
mise en scene-decks-to show one of the crucial parts of the last film
urban clothing-to fit in with the genre of the two films
baseball bat-to show the weapons used in the previous film
ambulance-to give insight into the main part of the last film and show how drastic the situation was
gun-to show how things have progressed and become more dangerous than the last film
editing-quick cuts-to show parts of the film quickly
zoom-to dive into the world of the film
fast forward-to add pace to the scene
slow motion-to emphasise expression on characters faces
dissolve-to show time elapsing from six years ago to now
sound-dialogue-ghetto language to add to the themes of the film
urban music-to add to the themes of the film
gunshot-to show how dangerous life has become
window smash-to shock the viewer
8Mile
cinematography-over the shoulder-to make the viewer look into the world of the character
close up-to show fear on character's face
medium shot-to show mise en scene
shaky camera- to make the scene more realistic
panning-to show the speed at which the character is moving
mise en scene-hoodies-to show urban style
graffiti-to show urban setting
dumpster-to show dirt and how deprived the area is
alley way-to show dirt (slums)
clothes in bin bag-to show poverty
editing-zoom-to dive into the world of the film
quick cuts-to speed up pace of the scene
sound-hip hop-fits in with the genre of the film
urban language- fits in with the genre of the film
creaking doors- shows the poverty of the area
gritty walking-show the dirt and the poverty of the area in which the film is set
Conventions
As far as I can see the main conventions of the opening scenes in urban films are, that the main character is established, the locations of the film are shown, and a basic outline of the story is revealed. I took this into account when i made my scene as I showed who the character was and where the film was going to take place while also making the viewer interested in the story. In the three films I studied (Kidulthood, Adulthood and 8Mile) I found out that sometimes Urban films start at the end then go back to the beginning this is useful as it creates a sense of confusion and makes the viewer interested in the film. In these three films the passion, or interests of the characters are conveyed in the first scene, this is a convention I decided not to use in my film as I wanted the audience to really think about what could have happened previously.
Wednesday, 25 November 2009
My A2 timeline
week 1 Monday 7th September
- start course, decide what I am doing
week 2 Monday 14th September
- brainstorm ideas for music video
- start blog, post ideas for music video
week 3 Monday 21st September
- questionnaire, hand out questionnaire
- questionnaire evaluation
week 4 Monday 28th September
- storyboard, shot list
- casting, look for locations
week 5 Monday 5th October
- final draft of storyboard and shot list
- finalising cast and locations
- update blog with questionnaire evaluation and examples of questionnaire
week 6 Monday 12th October
- timeline
week 7 Monday 19th october- end of term
- filming
- uploading
- editing
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