Story Narrative - Possible Pitches

Below are three pitches for possible films for which we could create a film opening to, I will present these idea's to my group and we will decide which one we feel will be best to continue and develop the opening scene.

Pitch 1 - Missing (Supernatrual/Beast) - People begin mysteriously dissapearing from area (perhaps near train station), supernatrual forces believed to be behind the unexplained dissapearences.

Pitch 2 - United (Hooligan Film) - Swindon Town and Oxford United meet for the first time in 20 years, specialist detective warns police force that there will be more trouble than expected and relates this meeting to the recent Millwall, Westham clash that had a disastrous outcome, however his warnings are dismissed as hooliganism is believed to be a thing of the past.

Pitch 3 - Escape (Gang) - Leader of a youth gang wishes to pass on leadership to his younger brother. Shows the struggle of this younger brother to escape the gang culture with the help of his musical talent.

Initial Ideas for Opening Film. - Gang Culture

Another possible genre for a film opening that I believe we could possibly explore is the idea of gang culture. These films are on an increase in popularity reflecting the real life events and gangs, modern audiences are interested in believable story lines and as the increase of coverage of gangs by the media increases..

Example - The London Riots, below is a clip of a gang of youths robbing another injured man during the riots



The gang mentality was most likely adopted from America, gangs such as the Bloods and the Crips are famous for gang warfare and the increase in gangs in England has been mirrored by an increase in "Gang films" for example One Day..


Another example of a film involving gangs is "This is England" a film following a group of friends who get involved with a number of skinheads who support groups such as the English Defence League and other racial groups.



This is interesting to look at as it shows the change in gang mentality but also the similarities accross all gangs. The switch in This is England from friends to gang is very noticeable and it is an interesting subject to examine, when do a group of friends become a "gang" something that is considered very negative recently and even making new laws allowing gang members to be banned from wearing certain colours if the police feel that it relates to a gang.

Initial Ideas for Opening Film. - Supernatural/Beast

Another idea we had for our film openings was a presence of something supernatural, a death and perhaps the solving of this death, or witness of it. Something that we were keen to intergrate into the opening was the idea of viewing the scene through this evil beings eyes. It's seen in many films for example in the "Witness" opening film. Although viewed in a different context, the basic idea of the shot is still the same (you may want to skip to 2:00 minutes if you only want to view the camera angle).

Initial Ideas for Opening Film.

In the first meeting we had as a group we decided that we would split up the responsibilities between the group I have been given the task of both Casting and Story narrative. We briefly spoke as a group as to what type of film we were going to create an opening to possibly a hooligan film, similar to Green street, The Firm or the Football Factories, etc. We chose to head towards this sort of genre of film because we felt it had an original and recognisable style. As well as previously analysing some other film openings I decided to have a look at two hooligan film openings to try and draw some inspiration to help decide what type of film we were going to create an opening for...

The Football Factories


I really like the way the film shows surveillance images, newspaper cuttings and similar short clips strung together with opening titles, it puts the audience in the position of a sort of inspector trying to decipher who the hooligans are, this led me to consider creating an opening for a film like this following the life of a detective who specialises in tracking down football hooligans.

Green Street Hooligans


The opening of the train station being dominated by the football fans who treat it as if they own it having no regard for other users of the trainline was a really good location, I liked the way the football fans really treated it as there home. They sung at the top of their voices kicked cans about and showed no respect for other users. The whole location was taken over by this group of individuals. This then comes to a clash of two groups, something that rarely happens and I feel that hooligans (or the more broad term of gangs) gives people a reason to fight and argue amongst each other. It creates a tension when people are seperated into two groups and whether or not it is moral to fight for nothing more than belonging to different groups of people, the notion that some people find it acceptable and do carry out fights because of this is not one that is impossible to imagine amongst modern audiences.

Saving Private Ryan - Omaha Beach Scene Part 1 - Super High Quality

I chose this clip because I really like the way it is edited, the way the camera shakes to emphasize the fear shown by the soldiers really creates an atmosphere at the very start of the clip. It puts the audience in a position where they can really consider what might have been going through the soldiers heads at this time. The camera angles and lighting are chosen carefully to keep the enemy anonymous and unseen, this makes them seem less human and enhances the fear of this unknown enemy. Another aspect I particularly liked was where everything slowed down and the sound completely cuts out, this is an extremely effective edit and creates tension, fear and isolates the character from the scene, allowing both the character and the audience to really take in the horror happening in the scene. The transitions are clean and smooth, with a good mix of both shaky camera shots and still shots really makes the audience feel a part of the action. Although not to do with editing another effective aspect of this scene is the background noise, it makes it hard to hear the characters and really creates a feeling of chaos and terror.

Film opening Project.

We have been given a basic idea of what our final task will be, we have been told it must be a short film opening. A mark scheme has been shown to us and there are three main areas we need to focus on, Research and Planning, this is the stage we are currently at, Construction, which refers to the actual filming, editing and creating the opening, and Evaluation.

Cherwell Pre lim

The above embedded video is our updated preliminary task, the main change made was the difference in length between the two videos (this one is shorter)

Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince --- Opening

The first shot is a 3D animation of the warner brothers logo, it is surrounded by clouds and is slowly being brought closer towards the viewer and the virtual camera, this opening shot is related to harry potters theme as magical conventions are shown even with the logos. The mise en scene of the lightning in the clouds also enhances the magical aspect. Sound is also enhancing the drama in this opening animation, an eerie sound of voices can be heard and the volume is increased as you are once again getting closer to the 3D logo, the screen goes white and the viewer is transformed into the next shot. An ECU of an unknown characters eye is shown interrupted by Loud camera flashes which are projected in sync with the flashes projected onto the main characters face. From the sound and editing really enhance the theme and give a clear target audience. The combination of sound and camera shots accompany each other to produce this seamless opening, the target audience is probably 16+ as it has scary aspects even within the opening.

By Eric Hesselbo

8 Mile - Intro

8 Mile is a 2002 American hip-hop drama film, directed by Curtis Hanson the budget was $41 million, a fairly low sum of money in producing such a large film the box office gross was $242,875,078. The film opening begins with some hip-hop music playing, presumably Non-diegetic however once the title has finished and the actual scene starts it is noticeable that the character on screen can hear the music, through headphones. The mise-en-scene shows a lower-class bathroom graffiti litters the wall, the mirrors are cracked and "Rabbit" (the character on screen) is shown in cheap, brandless clothes a plain hoody, hat and jeans. He is mouthing/dancing along to the music, he is not affected by his surroundings, this all contributes to the connotation that the character is of a "lower class". He is of a white ethnicity which, slightly after this scene ends is shown as unusual in his surroundings, where the characters are predominantly African-Americans. He is shown as the only character in the scene, the music reinforces this feeling of isolation with the lyrics "you all alone in these streets cousin". The character is obviously preparing for something, he is stretching his neck and practising rapping as he is about to go and "battle". Another point to notice with the character's race is that he is miming to an African-American male, perhaps connoting that he desires to fit in as at the time this film is set there were no successful white rappers, of course this displays irony within the film as the actor (eminem) is now one of the most successful rap artists of all time and has proved this prejudice wrong.

C.G

Sound, Doctor Who

During the first two minutes of this scene, sound plays a key aspect in helping the audience derive meanings and decode the scene. The scene starts with a woman entering and some non-diegetic sound being played, the music sounds like something from a western/cowboy film perhaps parodying a stand-off. This is followed by a male character speaking, perhaps identifying his superiority in the scene, he commands the female character who obeys, the sound is clearly heard as she unstraps a device, chucks it to the male character and he catches it. He then once again commands her to kneel, this truely shows his ultimate control over the her. He continues to announce his plans to the room, showing his arrogance and certainty of his plan. He turns round and futuristic beeping and voices communicate with him. This shows he is technologically advanced, he turns a ticking clock on which causes the audience to be aware of time, he continues to talk and something that is noticeable is that he is the only person to talk for the whole scene, this singles him out as the only important person. However she interrupts him by laughing, he is shocked and he suddenly seems weaker, the woman is suddenly in a higher position of power, although she is in such a vulnerable position. He begins to worry and his voice is a lot less firm re-establishing power in the scene. This shows how important the sound and dialogue is, purely by talking the whole scene is directed upon him and as soon as someone else joins in he does not seem powerful.

Analyse How Gender is Represented in this Extract of Prime Suspect.

Analysis of the first 5 minutes.


In this extract there is a strong connotation that being male is somewhat of an advantage in this workplace, or at least that the men in the extract believe this. However the main character is female and she is shown as very important, the camera regularly tracks and pans following the main character. However the male characters seem to consider themselves superior to the main character. This is shown in the first scene and throughout the rest of the extract, the camera first shows the male character starting the dialogue. He refers to the female character in an angry, condescending tone, dismissing her rights by saying that "now is not the time" to discuss them. As the audience we are led to believe that to fit in the character, who is female attempts to make herself more masculine, this is shown immediately as she has short hair and little make-up, she is smoking as is the man perhaps trying to create a connection between her and the "boss".

The following scene is of two male characters, they speak to each other as friends and equals despite the difference in rank. Their tones are helpful they are anxious to contradict each other. Once again another reference to the female character attempting to be male as referring to her one of the characters says "She's got balls". Hellen Mirren (the main character) is then shown walking out of the Commanders office, shown together with a plaque on the door it tells the audience that she is important appearing in the same shot as the words "Commander". She has got a smile on her face and has obviously just received news of promotion.

The following scene shows the rest of the office, the whole room is filled completely with men, many of them complaining about a woman being placed in charge. The boss character from the first scene associates himself with them, this creates a seperation between all men in the office and Mirren as earlier on this very character dissociated himself with Mirren.

During the next scene close-ups of both pictures and Mirren showing a connection between the character and victim, she shows empathy with a sad expression on her face you can see that she has a passion for her job whether other characters believe she is capable or not. She speaks quickly but respectively to people of a less superior rank than hers, she knows what she is doing and what she wants.

Preliminary Task - First Video.

The embedded video is our first attempt at our preliminary task, overall I was really pleased with how the video turned out the music worked well and we had a wide range of shots and managed to include all three requirements (180 degree rule, Match on action, Reverse shot/Shot). However if I were to do the task again I would make sure that it had constant continuity. In many of the scenes the main character is wearing different clothes to previous scenes, some "morning shots" were shot at night. We did re-shoot some scenes to attempt to fix this with the most obvious examples, however due to a lack of time a lot of the shots were kept. Another thing that I feel we could have improved on was that the ending could be slightly confusing. What is meant to happen is that the character is thrown against the wall falling through the wall before waking up in his bed, although I feel that it worked out however I am aware of what is going on and it is possible that the audience may find this confusing. Once again due to a lack of time we did not have the opportunity to re shoot this scene but I do not think that it would have made much difference. Finally the last point that I think could have been improved is that it drags on, I think there are too many days and it gets repetitive and boring, for the final shoot however we have reduced the film to just 3 days as opposed to 2 and I think this has fixed the problem.

Preliminary Task.

We have started filming and editing our preliminary task, we have decided to make the film a short loop of an average day, this day continues to repeat itself before the main scene of the short film. This is where the main character is robbed which allows us to fulfill the requirement of a shot/reverse shot with dialogue. The following scene is the start of the loop again.

Anchorage

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Preliminary Task.

We have been set a preliminary task with 3 requirements they are as follows:

1. Match on action (continuity editing)

2. Obey the 180° rule

3. Shot / Reverse shot (convention of dialogue)

Match on action means that the film should run smoothly and appear to not jump from different places for example you could open a door and cut followed by the other side of another door, this may be a completely different place but with a match on action you can trick the audience into believing that what is behind the second door is actually behind the first door. This can be used in many instances and on a basic level is means that every action should be followed by a relevant reaction.

For example in the following clip from Casino Royale it appears the whole sequence is set in one place, however each shot could have been filmed in different places, even different countries to get the desired effect. However a match on action and successful editing can trick the audience into believing that the whole scene is filmed in one place.

http://youtu.be/m5M5R2pcPJ0 


The 180° rule is about camera angles and how the scene is filmed, when filming the director should imagine that there is an imaginary line cutting across where the scene is filmed from, this line should not be crossed while filming this scene so as not to confuse and disorientate film audiences.

Finally the shot/reverse shot refers to when two or more characters are having a conversation it is the most typical way to shoot dialogue and it films one person from a certain angle before switching to do the opposite side but similar angle, zoom, focus and position for the other person while he talks before switching back to the previous shot.

Camera movement research.

How is ethnicity represented in this scene through camera movement?

In our media studies lesson we have been given a homework to analyse a scene from spooks. Giving particular focus on camera movements and how these represent ehtnicity within the scene. The scene starts with a crane shot and although all characters are seen as silhouettes on screen, it is noticeable is all characters are in different positions on screen, none seem connected and this could be interpreted as signifying racial separation. The shot then changes to reveal a white female, a black male, and an Iraqi as well as a bodyguard who is also presumable Iraqi. The Iraqi without a balaclava is lecturing the two captives. A panning shot followed him accross the room where he is shown stood up compared to the two captives who are sat down. This immediately gives a feeling of importance to the Iraqi character as he is shown higher up than the two captives. A close up on a photo shortly followed by a tilt shot leading up from the table to the Iraqi reinforces this feeling of power and importance.