Analysis of AS media film opening.

The embedded link is another film opening made by other Media Studies students. I will be analysing and comparing the opening to the mark scheme.

Holding shot steady.
The majority of the scenes were filmed with a steady shot, however the beginning shot as the cameraman walks towards the character when he is laid down does shake quite a lot as he moves forwards.  
Framing shot appropriately.

All shots felt like the right distance away and included a lot of the scene, thought this was done well.
Variety of shot distances.
By making the beginning shot slowly draw in closer they already have a variety of shot distances with this one long flowing scene (especially as character walks away) flashbacks add to this to make even more shot distances.
Appropriate material to task.
All material felt appropriate and as though they were parts of a film opening.
Selecting mise-en-scène.
I felt that the beginning scene could have been better selected as it didn't seem to link with the flashbacks, perhaps simply by adding some props that were visible in flashbacks also would have helped in that scene. However other scenes did have appropriate mise en scene with a lot of them linking together (train tracks theme) and scene under railway bridge was good with graffiti behind.
Editing for meaning to viewer.
I thought this scene was edited very well, the scene easily played with continuity and it was obvious to the viewer that we were seeing glimpses or flashbacks of the night/day before. The order of the scenes worked perfectly how it switched through many flashbacks before returning to main character and music returning to normal.
Varied shot transitions, captions and other effects.
Only shot transition was just a simple cut and then the next scene played often cutting between one or two before returning to original shot, not much variation. Two different types of font and only true effect I noticed was the scene playing backwards. I felt this contributed towards the scene and the lack of effects enhanced the part where the music and images were playing backwards.
Use of sound with images and editing.
I thought that the editing in this film opening was really good, the way it started with almost no editing whatsoever really made me feel as the audience that I was seeing this scene in front of me, and the effect of making the music go backwards as the film does to represent the character recalling previous events is a really original and effective technique.
Using titles appropriately.
I feel the film opening uses a very realist approach, the whole scene appears realistic and believable and not out of the ordinary, I think that the titles accompany this and therefore a direct link between the titles and the rest of the opening are linked and work very well together. In the final scene as the character walks away a very distinctive font is also used to repeat the directors name which draws particular attention towards the director.

Story Narrative - 3 Act structure

As a lead group member in the story narrative I have started to look at the film as a whole. Almost all films have a three act structure, a beginning middle and end and although plots may be a lot more expansive than purely a start middle and end you can establish the three acts in a lot of modern films.

The three acts are known as the Setup, which in a broad sense means the introduction of characters (responsibilities, personalities, relationships etc), locations which dependent on whether or not the location is set in a foreign or unknown world can need extra attention. However if it is set in a present day world, with similar practices to the audience, the audience can assume what they know of their own world. Any other aspects within the films universe that will effect the reception of the film are usually established at this point also. As we have been given the task of creating a film opening this is the act that is most important in our current project. At some point during this introduction an on-screen incident will often occur, which affects the main character (protagonist). Often the protagonist, or relations of the protagonist, or other members of the cast will attempt to deal with this incident. This often leads onto second more dramatic situation, known as the first turning point or plot point, which (a) signals the end of the first act, (b) ensures life will never be the same again for the protagonist and (c) raises a dramatic question that will be answered in the climax of the film.

 

The second act is known as the confrontation where a character/group of characters is/are faced with a dilemma often caused from the attempt to solve the previous lesser problem. The characters will often have to develop new skills in order to overcome there dilemma at some stage during this act something dramatic will happen which will motivate the character's total commitment to deal with the problem. The third act is known as the resolution where the character/group of characters solve the problem previously faced often becoming enriched by the experience this is often started with a second plot point which will begin the build up to the hero and villain's final confrontation.

Missing - 3 Act Structure.

Act 1.

The film begins to follow the path of a young male character named Sean, who disappears with his friend James. Sean was recently moved to a boarding school as his parents were worried he was not achieving the grades he deserves due to involvement of petty crimes with his friend James, behind his parents back with the excuse of a school residential trip he returns to meet his old friend, who has since moved onto more hardcore crimes. Upon arrival Sean is greeted with a phone call from his friend, he promises to meet him at the canal and Sean begins walking to meet him. Unknowingly James has recently acquired a new drug which allows the user to teleport at will, while holding this package for a local drug lord he becomes a target and is being followed by a hardcore user of the currently hard to find drug. The user has mastered the powers of the drug and plans to steal the large stock at any costs. Sean arrives at the canal to find his friend James killed, believed to be the one that is storing the drug he is chased down and captured.

Act 2.

After waking up in captivity Sean is subjected to torture as he is believed to be acting dumb, in brief moments between the interruption of the drug addict the other prisoners reveal to Sean the story of the extremely addictive substance and how the person who first developed the drug was a previous prisoner and refused to create any more seeing the damaging effects of the drug, he was thus killed by the drug addict. The last substantial stock is rumored to be held by the drug lord who James became involved with. Meanwhile Sean's schoolmates arrive back from residential with no sign of Sean his protective parents become extremely worried upon questioning the school they are told that Sean never attended the trip. The police and media are revealing that a huge number of disappearances have been reported within the area of Oxford. The parents attempt to contact James however they cannot contact them. Soon they are used as hostages in an attempt for Sean to reveal the location of the drug. Sean attempts to use the drug to his advantage to escape and destroy the last stock of the drug to prevent the addict analyzing and creating or duplicating the extremely damaging drug.

Act 3.

Sean escapes and begins hunting down the drug stock, he fights not only the villains who are attacking him and attempting to locate Sean and the addiction of the drug which he has to use in order to combat the group of drug addicts hunting both him and the drug down.

Logo - Created by Eric Hesselbo

We have renamed our group "Infinite Productions) and we now have a logo, Eric created it on photoshop and here is a speedart of him making it

The logo fuses the symbol of infinity with a film reel, my blog's colours have now also been incorparated with the logo and I have situated the logo at the top of my blog, it will also be shown during our film opening.

1st Draft- Missing

Evaluation of first draft,

Overall I was pleased with how all the clips linked together, I thought there was a really good flow to the film opening and for the majority of the time I think that the audience could follow what was happening throughout the opening, the shots all linked together and there was good continuity; this was a worry when we were filming. However we went back and reshot some linking shots between the running. I also think that there are a few establishing shots that may not be needed (01:18). The final point I think we can improve on (without comparison to the mark scheme) is that while watching it I feel that it didn't feel like watching a film opening, it looked more like a music video with the continual music over the background. We have discussed this as a group and for the next edit we plan to focus a lot more on the soundtrack.

Feedback from audience.

"I love the moments in it like when Sean puts his headphones in.I think you could probably use some other shot transitions because at the moment it sometimes seems like you use that blurred transition a little too much."


"You could add more sound effects."

"I liked your video a lot!!!"

"All the shots were steady and the continuity was very effective.  The soundtrack was good and it faded in and out nicely. I liked it when time passed by and you sped it up, however sometimes the shots stuttered."

"Would've liked more ambient sound to create atmosphere and build tension"

In comparison to the mark scheme.

Holding shot steady.
I think that the majority of shots fulfill this area of the mark scheme, the only one in which I can see any problem with the steadiness of the shot is the scene 1:04-1:14, however I don't think that this is a big problem and even if we re-shot the scene (which we may do) it may not make a huge difference as it is so hard to get a completely steady shot while moving with the camera (without the use of equipment we don't own). Other than this scene and the point of view shots (where the camera is meant to be shaky and unsteady) every scene is very steady.
Framing shot appropriately.

Variety of shot distances.


Appropriate material to task.


Selecting mise-en-scène.


Editing for meaning to viewer.


Varied shot transitions, captions and other effects.


Use of sound with images and editing.


Using titles appropriately.

What we need to improve on..

• Wider range of shot distance's and camera angles
• e.g at the start of the chase scene when Sean reached the canal, we could use a dutch/cant angle to create a feeling of something being wrong
•  I feel like we had a majority of medium shots it would be good to shoot a few extreme close ups or extreme wide shots
• Variance of shot transitions, established from feedback some different transitions other than the blurred transition.
• A more realistic soundtrack, as opposed to just a constant song we need to add more ambient sound such as footsteps, cars, breathing e.t.c

Basic Deadlines for Group - [Completed]

A while ago I set some basic deadlines for the group up until our first edit was to be completed. We have been given new deadlines and I will create a similar blog post shortly of these deadlines, below is the deadlines reposted with the dates that we completed them.




8th November - Decide which pitch we will create our film opening for, acquire possible locations/cast, review basic storyboard of pitch.


 < Completed: 8th November >


[Storyboards Reviewed and Pitch Missing chosen possible locations and cast discussed, pictures of locations will be uploaded soon]




10th November - Decide cast members and locations for first weekend of filming.


< Date of completion : 9th November >


[Casted Sean Kim as character predominant character in film opening, decided on location of Radley Train Station/ Oxford Train Station, we will be purchasing a ticket to Radley in order to get some scenes of Sean on the train before filming any scenes with a combination of both Radley and Oxford train station] 






11th November - Confirm cast are aware of filming dates and confirm availability of suitable locations, complete detailed storyboard and complete script for first scenes.




< Date of completion : 11th November >




[Decided which scenes are to be filmed this weekend and basic script drafted for these scenes, detailed storyboard has been made, however we may add to or change aspects of this as we film] 






12th and 13th November - Begin filming first scenes.




< Date of completion : 13th November >




 [Me Daniel, Eric and Sean (actor) bought train tickets to Radley, all scenes for journey filmed and of the arrival from the journey, however after reviewing footage there may be some extra scenes to be recorded next weekend, overall successful day.] 






 16th November - Confirm cast members and locations needed for scenes filmed at coming weekend, ensure cast are aware of where and when the filming is taking place.




< Date of completion : 16th November >




[Unfortunately cast and majority of group were not available for filming this weekend so we decided to postpone any remaining scenes until following week.] 




 19th and 20th of November - Film remainder of scenes. 




< Date of completion : Postponed to 23rd of November due to cast and group availability >






 22nd November - Review footage and confirm if any scenes need to be shot / reshot, schedule filming dates and location




< Date of completion : 17th November>




[We still need the all the shots from the chase scene, we have also decided that a few shots of Sean arriving may need to be re-shot.]






 23rd- 30th of November - Film any left over scenes (If required)




[Refilmed some scenes on the 23rd and on the 28th of November, see other blog posts for further info.]






 1st December - Upload all clips.




< Date of completion : 28th November >




[All clips uploaded on to portable hard drive, for next edit we plan to make sure every group member has a copy of the clips however for the rough edit Eric Hesselbo will be doing the majority of the editing] 






 6th December - Rough Edits completed


< Date of completion : 30th November  >




[Eric Hesselbo completed Rough Edits see blog post for further info]

"MISSING" - 1st edit Presentation

Below is a presentation that I have created on www.prezi.com, it shows my personal roles within the group and what I have done, besides actually directing while we were filming which I believe was equally spread between all members in the group.

"Missing" - Film Opening. on Prezi

http://cherwellmediamgrant.blogspot.com/2011/11/typography-for-missing.html

Filming (30/11/11)

We have successfully filmed all shots for the journey in the first day, this has been uploaded and we are happy with everything we have done in this scene of the opening. We also filmed most of the arrival. I decided to complete a really detailed set of events, including pictures of what we have remaining to film, we brought these along with us on the day and it really helped us establish what we were to film and allowed us to visualise the end product more clearly wasting less time on the day. However once we started filming as we found new locations and planned locations were found unusable (the end scene had to be completely rethought as the bridge where we planned to film it on was pitch black with literally no artificial lighting) the film was changed slightly I still feel that creating this storyboard really helped us on the day.

Above is the storyboard images including shot distance, Mise en scene and other aspects. Below is a detailed explanation of each section of the storyboard.

1. Sean arrives as station, ago zooms out to extreme wide shot of whole train station. Sean then walks towards camera (possibly sped up) and turns corner.

2. Sean is sat down waiting for a phone call from James. Shown as a time lapse with medium over the shoulder shot. Possibly switching or having an overlay on top of the scene of Sean texting James, things such as "Where are you?", "Ring me" and "No credit".

3. Sean gets phone call, James asks him to "meet him up the canal" and asks "do you know where that is?" Sean agrees to meet him and begins walking to the canal

4.Sean  hangs up his phone and starts walking towards the canal, as he is walking he plugs in his headphones, the music which begins playing as he presses play goes from almost unnoticeable to being the dominating sound within the scene.

5. Sean reaches the canal when his friend phones him, it is possible we could include another phonecall or perhaps even the friend is visible at this point. Either way Sean ends up becoming very nervous and eventually flee's (however not during this shot) due to him being told to by James, or sight of his friends dead body or sight of the beast.

6.The camera now switches to a point of view from the beast he stands up from the body and begins to look around it is blurry so not much can be seen however. The scene switches to Sean nervously looking around, this is shot not as a point of view scene but from a similar shot as the scene where Sean reaches the canal, it is shot in the same place.

7. The scene switches to the beast now and it is looking through leaves (or perhaps a gate). Sean comes into view and the beasts breathing becomes heavier. Sean looks into the camera or the eyes of the beast and at this stage runs away.

8. A chase scene starts and the next few shots are Sean running from the beast

9. The beast is scene out of focus and disappears with effect similar to that scene in harry potter. We found a tutorial of how to do this effect:



10. The beast reappears in front of Sean as he is running away, he is checking behind him but turns round to be shocked to see the beast in front of him.

11a) The shot then switches to a point of view shot of the beast and Sean puts his hands up protecting his face when the beast attacks. (similar effect seen in another AS media studies film opening)

11b) A wide shot shows the whole scene as the beast attacks the camera then falls up or down (similar effect seen in opening of Scott Pilgrim vs the world

12. Rest of titles proceed on showing our names e.t.c

Below is the original storyboard that we took with us while filming, it has slightly more detail, however above the main aspects are included