Once our class had completed their opening sequences, we showed each other on a big screen and recorded the feed back. We critisized and advised each others work, aswell as positively supporting them this enabled it to us to understand the viewer thinks of it from an outside piont of view. We wanted to see if the stroyline we had wrote was portrayed well enough, whilst leaving a bit f mystery in order for them to watch on to see what happened.
Wednesday 31 March 2010
Evaluation - Activity 7
Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Below is our preliminary task (continuity editing task);
Looking back at our preliminary task it is clear that we have progressed alot and improved/ expanded our knowledge, as a group this was our first time we had ever filmed and edited properly. We used very basic skills which we have now built on for our Opening Two Minutes only using the 180 degree rule, match on action, shot/reverse shot and high and low angles, whereas now we have expanded to nearly all types of camera angles and shots.
Editing has improved a huge amount also throughout the two tasks, starting with very basic continuity transitions, then into fade in, fade out, creative, fast and slow paced editing to create a mood in which the audience will enjoy or find beneficial whilst watching.
As you can see above, both Over the Shoulder Shots are quite different, one from a level angle (basic) and the other slightly more creative and thought up to prove effective when representing social class.
The 180 degree rule is also an important rule you must consider when filming, if you film from the other side of this are the audience will be off put and likely to be dis-orientated. We had to be very careful when filming a conversation in both films as it is easy to step over this line without realising, resulting in a messy confusing scene, likely to put the viewer off.
In the screen grabs above you are able to see the difference and progress we have generally made on the creativity and thoughts behind the shots, using the birds eye view shot or in 'Brother 2 Another' a point of view shot, these both work in similar ways, a birds eye view shot helps the audience to get a general over view on what/where the character is doing/going, in this case going up the stairs. Whereas in 'Brother 2 Another' the point of view shot was used to allow the audience almost see the world through the characters eyes, in this case, experiencing, pain, shock and fright from the mugging, also helping the audience to feel involved in the story.
Close-ups are one of the standard shots used regularly with medium shots and long shots. Close-ups display the most detail, but they do not include the broader scene.
Close-ups are used in many ways, for many reasons. Close-ups are often used as cutaways from a more distant shot to show detail, such as characters' emotions, or some intricate activity with their hands. In this case an in depth sense of shock is made by the shot to highlight the issue of a brutal attack.
Below is our preliminary task (continuity editing task);
Looking back at our preliminary task it is clear that we have progressed alot and improved/ expanded our knowledge, as a group this was our first time we had ever filmed and edited properly. We used very basic skills which we have now built on for our Opening Two Minutes only using the 180 degree rule, match on action, shot/reverse shot and high and low angles, whereas now we have expanded to nearly all types of camera angles and shots.
Editing has improved a huge amount also throughout the two tasks, starting with very basic continuity transitions, then into fade in, fade out, creative, fast and slow paced editing to create a mood in which the audience will enjoy or find beneficial whilst watching.
As you can see above, both Over the Shoulder Shots are quite different, one from a level angle (basic) and the other slightly more creative and thought up to prove effective when representing social class.
The 180 degree rule is also an important rule you must consider when filming, if you film from the other side of this are the audience will be off put and likely to be dis-orientated. We had to be very careful when filming a conversation in both films as it is easy to step over this line without realising, resulting in a messy confusing scene, likely to put the viewer off.
In the screen grabs above you are able to see the difference and progress we have generally made on the creativity and thoughts behind the shots, using the birds eye view shot or in 'Brother 2 Another' a point of view shot, these both work in similar ways, a birds eye view shot helps the audience to get a general over view on what/where the character is doing/going, in this case going up the stairs. Whereas in 'Brother 2 Another' the point of view shot was used to allow the audience almost see the world through the characters eyes, in this case, experiencing, pain, shock and fright from the mugging, also helping the audience to feel involved in the story.
Close-ups are one of the standard shots used regularly with medium shots and long shots. Close-ups display the most detail, but they do not include the broader scene.
Close-ups are used in many ways, for many reasons. Close-ups are often used as cutaways from a more distant shot to show detail, such as characters' emotions, or some intricate activity with their hands. In this case an in depth sense of shock is made by the shot to highlight the issue of a brutal attack.
Evaluation - Activity 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
We used many different tools and technologies and other media products/kit to help construct our final media product.
We used:
School/Home computers - To edit and upload/update new features onto our blogs.
School supplied camera and tape - We used these film and record our opening two minutes aswell as filming audience feedback and directors commentary.
Microphone - Extension microphone used for our opening two minutes allowing us to get a good quality of sound from the character outdoors.
Tripod - We relied on the tripod for many steady shots to enhance a better quality of filming.Car - To travel to each different location safely and comftably. (It was freezing)
Ipod - This was used as a prop in our scene of William being mugged, to help illustrate wealth.Wallet & Keys - This was used as a prop in our shot of expressing the materialistic goods in Williams house as he goes to pick up both items. (match on action)
Phone - This prop was used when William is first introduced showing the audience the contrast on how William has up to date technology at his finger tips.
Fruity Loops 8 Home Studio - This was used at home to construct a suitable soundtrack for our opening sequence.
Adobe - We used Adobe Premiere 8 to edit and construct our opening two minutes aswell as using Adobe photoshop to help put together our screen grabs and complete presentation.
Memory Stick - Using memory sticks as a back up was a good idea incase of any computer errors we all had a copy of our progress, fortunately we didn't have any computing saving errors. This was also useful from travelling information from home to school.
Blogger - We used blogspot blogging to present our research, planning, evaluation and final media product.
Youtube - Finally one of the most useful websites, youtube - we found that it was very helpful when constructing our research and if we needed to see how other openings were presented in a paticular fashion. It was also used for research and easy viewable videos to then evaluate for our research and planning, helping us finalise our genre and target audience.Below are some pictures of me and some equipment we used:
We used many different tools and technologies and other media products/kit to help construct our final media product.
We used:
School/Home computers - To edit and upload/update new features onto our blogs.
School supplied camera and tape - We used these film and record our opening two minutes aswell as filming audience feedback and directors commentary.
Microphone - Extension microphone used for our opening two minutes allowing us to get a good quality of sound from the character outdoors.
Tripod - We relied on the tripod for many steady shots to enhance a better quality of filming.Car - To travel to each different location safely and comftably. (It was freezing)
Ipod - This was used as a prop in our scene of William being mugged, to help illustrate wealth.Wallet & Keys - This was used as a prop in our shot of expressing the materialistic goods in Williams house as he goes to pick up both items. (match on action)
Phone - This prop was used when William is first introduced showing the audience the contrast on how William has up to date technology at his finger tips.
Fruity Loops 8 Home Studio - This was used at home to construct a suitable soundtrack for our opening sequence.
Adobe - We used Adobe Premiere 8 to edit and construct our opening two minutes aswell as using Adobe photoshop to help put together our screen grabs and complete presentation.
Memory Stick - Using memory sticks as a back up was a good idea incase of any computer errors we all had a copy of our progress, fortunately we didn't have any computing saving errors. This was also useful from travelling information from home to school.
Blogger - We used blogspot blogging to present our research, planning, evaluation and final media product.
Youtube - Finally one of the most useful websites, youtube - we found that it was very helpful when constructing our research and if we needed to see how other openings were presented in a paticular fashion. It was also used for research and easy viewable videos to then evaluate for our research and planning, helping us finalise our genre and target audience.Below are some pictures of me and some equipment we used:
Evaluation - Activity 5
This our annoted version of our video explaining how we attemted to illistrate our charchters lifestyles and address our target audience audience!
Evaluatioin - Activity 4
Who would be the audience for your media product?
I believe the typical audience member for our media product would be anyone in between the age of 15-24 who likes getting involved with deep story lines which relate to an urban reality of a the diversity between lifestyles of teenagers.
This is Jack and Louis, Louis is 17, Jack a little younger at 16. They both share many of the same interests including graffiti style art, bmxing and gaming consoles. They are most likely to shop at outlets such as 'topman' and' 'JD Sports'. Or occasionally at more unique outlet stores such as 'size' or 'Mash Clothing' whom support the youth of today keeping up with what's new and fresh on the street. They are most likely to be found listening to the new form of drum and bass - dubstep, distinguished by it's two-step rhythm, fast beats and kicks, which are exactly what they live for. Their favourite sort of TV programmes include music channels such as MTV and TMF however also likely to watch relating teenage series such as 'The Inbetweeners' and 'Skins'. From this i am able to gain a tourough understanding of their likes and dislikes. Therefore then able to using this to my advantage to help our film stand out to them both. As they share a keen interest in music alongside many aother tenagers of the same age we could involve their social groups genre of music within the film, as did 'Adulthood' using cool and up to date urban music, to help relate elements of the films to thier lifestyles themselves. Using Pathe institution when distributing their film they; used music as it has a huge influence on the target urban 16-24 year old audience. Their strategy was then to leverage this passion for music and tap in to the viral nature of social media to build credibility for the film, and generate early hype among a new 16-24 audience.The film had to feel niche, real and about them so the challenge was to talk to them on their level by infiltrating their worlds to give the film credibility.
I believe the typical audience member for our media product would be anyone in between the age of 15-24 who likes getting involved with deep story lines which relate to an urban reality of a the diversity between lifestyles of teenagers.
This is Jack and Louis, Louis is 17, Jack a little younger at 16. They both share many of the same interests including graffiti style art, bmxing and gaming consoles. They are most likely to shop at outlets such as 'topman' and' 'JD Sports'. Or occasionally at more unique outlet stores such as 'size' or 'Mash Clothing' whom support the youth of today keeping up with what's new and fresh on the street. They are most likely to be found listening to the new form of drum and bass - dubstep, distinguished by it's two-step rhythm, fast beats and kicks, which are exactly what they live for. Their favourite sort of TV programmes include music channels such as MTV and TMF however also likely to watch relating teenage series such as 'The Inbetweeners' and 'Skins'. From this i am able to gain a tourough understanding of their likes and dislikes. Therefore then able to using this to my advantage to help our film stand out to them both. As they share a keen interest in music alongside many aother tenagers of the same age we could involve their social groups genre of music within the film, as did 'Adulthood' using cool and up to date urban music, to help relate elements of the films to thier lifestyles themselves. Using Pathe institution when distributing their film they; used music as it has a huge influence on the target urban 16-24 year old audience. Their strategy was then to leverage this passion for music and tap in to the viral nature of social media to build credibility for the film, and generate early hype among a new 16-24 audience.The film had to feel niche, real and about them so the challenge was to talk to them on their level by infiltrating their worlds to give the film credibility.
Evaluation Activity 3
Here is our directors commentary telling you why we believe Pathe to be an ideal institution to distribute our film! Hope you agree :)
Tuesday 30 March 2010
Evaluation - Activity 2
How does your media product represent paticular social groups?
Above is a screengrab of Jack's friend (deprived), as we have only three main characters who all play a major part in the opening i decided to pick Jack's friend, to help illustrate and represent the deprivation of certain characters and their social groups within urban, drama films, for an example i have screen grabbed an image of actor Adam Deacon playing Jay in Adulthood.
Both characters represent the lower class citizen - stereotypically known for involving theft, violence and drug abuse into their day to day lifestyles, helping them to get by and cope with the struggle and strife they go through.
Both Jay and Jack's friend have a similar dress code of jeans and hoody a typical teenage 'yobby' look about them, with a lack of self respect likewise representing themselves as 'whatever guy'. The style in which they are dressed is easily recognised by the audience helping them apply specific information into how they should generalise the character. Also easily recognisable is body language, most audience members will pick up on body language sub-consiously being able to identify or judge characters accordingly. In this case - Jay has a slouched body posture, with arms swung wide, as though to appear bigger than normal, head held high with a facial expression, appearing cocky and confident to over-compensate for his size. Whereas Jack's friend has a similar attitude with broadened shoulders to over-compensate for his size, with his hood up covering him from being identified and related to a crime scene.
Above is a screengrab of Jack's friend (deprived), as we have only three main characters who all play a major part in the opening i decided to pick Jack's friend, to help illustrate and represent the deprivation of certain characters and their social groups within urban, drama films, for an example i have screen grabbed an image of actor Adam Deacon playing Jay in Adulthood.
Both characters represent the lower class citizen - stereotypically known for involving theft, violence and drug abuse into their day to day lifestyles, helping them to get by and cope with the struggle and strife they go through.
Both Jay and Jack's friend have a similar dress code of jeans and hoody a typical teenage 'yobby' look about them, with a lack of self respect likewise representing themselves as 'whatever guy'. The style in which they are dressed is easily recognised by the audience helping them apply specific information into how they should generalise the character. Also easily recognisable is body language, most audience members will pick up on body language sub-consiously being able to identify or judge characters accordingly. In this case - Jay has a slouched body posture, with arms swung wide, as though to appear bigger than normal, head held high with a facial expression, appearing cocky and confident to over-compensate for his size. Whereas Jack's friend has a similar attitude with broadened shoulders to over-compensate for his size, with his hood up covering him from being identified and related to a crime scene.
Evaluation Activiy 1
These are ten screen grabs from our completed two minute opening sequence. I have chosen to evaluate and write about how they are typical or not of opening sequences of the same genre.
Frame 1 - Font and Style: BBW is the name of our production team. I believe this screen shot identifies the title font and styling in which we decided to use to help illustrate the style film, incorporating a bold basic font, commonly used in drama films. Then the added glowing shaded effect around the words we felt emphasised the unaccompanied production company, highlighted with the black background to be clear. We went for a simple but effective use of title styling to stand out to the audience.
Frame 2 -
Frame 3 - Setting/Location: Our screenshot is of 'Williams house' to help illustrate the wealth of his lifestyle this long shot of the house establishes the parallel editing of two very different, diverse lifestyles allowing the audience to identify with the setting. Establishing shots are very popular when setting scenes and locations especially in drama genres helping the audience to identify with the story.
Frame 4- How characters are introduced: I have chosen the screen grab of Jack in the shop, putting a chocolate in his pocket; I believe this best identifies his introduction into a deprived lifestyle, illustrating theft as a way to get by. Immediately identifying one lifestyle, therefore soon to come will be an introduction of a different lifestyle, able to help the audience contrast and compare the differences applying positives and negatives and the obstacles in which the long lost brothers have to deal with, crossing the paths of one and other, dealing with life in their different ways. An introduction of parallel editing is often used in urban, drama films to clearly identify the differences between up to several characters.
Frame 5 - Camera Work and Editing: This shot is of William dipping his shoulder as to enter the room; the editing of this was carefully done, to enhance the 'match on action' as William's shoulder dips into the room immediately as it is picked up. When doing this we had to mark out how big the steps taken were going to be and which foot and shoulder (left or right) would enter first. By constructing a smooth match on action, by this adds to the professional finish of the film. In this shot we used the tripod to enhance the stability as well as using hand shots held due to the awkward positioning. The mise en scene I think speaks for itself with the majestic and luxurious interior design, representing Williams surrounding ands privileged upbringing effectively.
Frame 6 -
Frame 7- Genre and how the opening suggests it: The screenshot which I chose best identifies a contrast in lifestyles as this is the second two-shot of both characters. I believe this helps illustrate an urban, drama style film, relating to reality and the ups and downs of life it self. Mise en scene also helps suggest the genre by using costume i.e. The wealthy boy dressed in smart/casual clothing, Deprived boy - Scruffy hooded jumper and jeans. Both with very different body language, a polite, well postured walk from the wealthy boy, suggesting his wealth and upper class lifestyle, whereas the body language given off from the deprived brother is almost opposite; bad postured walk, head down, hood up, rough expression. By incorporating a prop (the ipod) this helps to give the audience an even clearer understanding of who's who. As an ipod is not a necessity but a luxury only the wealthy character would have one, suggesting a life of luxury.
Frame 8 - Story and how the opening sets it up: This screen grab in which I chose; I believe represents the story and how the opening sets up best contrasting two types of characters, one deprived and one wealthy, unfortunately there is no scene in the opening two minutes in which both brothers meet, although I think this is the shot that best illustrates the story - The deprived boy steals the wealthy boys ipod this outlines the main story, of the contrasts of lives, almost as though the deprived boy steals off the rich boy to stay alive, by buying food and drink, at which point the wealthy boy doesn't realise how he is supporting his long lost brothers' life starting to link the brothers in the opening two minutes. Now leading on with the rest of the film, to show both brothers growing up in completely diverse lifestyles and how they come across each others paths positively and negatively.
Frame 9- Special Effects: The screen grab I chose which I believe best shows our effects is after the wealthy boy (William) gets mugged for his ipod, left against a fence shook up and bloody, the blood we used was fake fortunately as I didn't fancy getting beaten up, whilst playing the character. As a low budget film, very little 'special effects' were used; consequently I found it hard to find a suitable screen grab. The effect of blood is commonly used in films, to illustrate empathy or shock to the audience, suitably as the average audience member may be drawn into the attachment of characters and fight scenes suggesting social hierarchy of the characters commonly used in urban, drama films.
Frame 10 - The title of the film: Our title of the film is set on a black screen, like the majority of urban films I have evaluated, I believe starting on a black screen allows the audience to be drawn in and want to see how the film starts without giving it away to early, I believe this technique builds tension towards the actual film and allows the audience to focus on the title of the film, in our case helping them to understand the storyline, without giving away anything interesting persuading them to keep on watching. The red styling of the '2' gives the sense of blood, fright and danger between both brothers.
To conclude I believe our opening two minutes, media product, I believe we have used many tools and techniques to help support and clearly suggest the urban, drama genre.
Tuesday 23 March 2010
Completed 2 Minute Opening Sequence
Brother 2 Another This is our opening two minutes of a film, we have to do as part of our coursework for AS Media Studies. Our opening two minutes shows two brothers who are completely un-aware of their relation, as they were separated when young, currently living very diverse lifestyles. Filmed, Edited, Directed and Produced by Max Whicher, Dave Bouchard and Tom Boswell
(Fri 19 Mar 2010 09:35:20 Views: 91 Rating: Comments: 2 Text Comments amylewissimon1 - Very good, I like the story and how you have shown the contrast between the two characters :) mattyd101 - UserDecent boys... I like it!
Wednesday 17 March 2010
Research and Planning - Final Script
Jack's friend: Jack wake up, look what i got!
Jack: Where dya get this?
Jack's friend: Yeah i nicked it from posh kid init.
Jack: C'mon let's go now and sell it.
Jack's friend: Standard
We understand this is short and sweet, however it was short and sweet as we believed 'less was more if you like' keeping the dialogue to a minimum a meant we could were more able to keep a reasonably fast tempo beginning, in aim of getting the viewer more engrossed into what is going on
Jack: Where dya get this?
Jack's friend: Yeah i nicked it from posh kid init.
Jack: C'mon let's go now and sell it.
Jack's friend: Standard
We understand this is short and sweet, however it was short and sweet as we believed 'less was more if you like' keeping the dialogue to a minimum a meant we could were more able to keep a reasonably fast tempo beginning, in aim of getting the viewer more engrossed into what is going on
Research and Planning - Music Sound Track Process
We were unable to access the format that allowed us to upload the software in which we can upload the music file onto blogger, however fortunately i can open the file through the computer, allowing it to run on Adobe. Here i provided some evidence by using print screen of the process of making the music clip on Fruity Loops Home Studio 8.
Research and Planning - Official Sound Track
We understand that we are more likely to get better marks once introducing either - non copyright music, or homemade soundtracks. Therefore after listening and discussing the previous soundtracks we found inspirational, we decided to attempted to use some of our experience from home interests making our own sample music. For this we used 'Fruity Loops8'. We also tried to make a soundtrack that the audience could connect with and not feel bored listening to.
Tuesday 16 March 2010
Research and Planning - Music Inspiration 3
Finally this is my favourite possible soundtrack so far, i believe it to be ideal for what we are after. it builds tension smoothly, however helps in introducing the charcters at the same time.
Research and Planning - Music Inspiration 2
This seems as though it could be an ideal soundtrack for the morose atmosphere we are trying to create in our opening two minutes. I believe the sound track accompanied by the piano effectively helps illistrate the lifestyle of the wealthy brother whilst the drum beats represent the lifestyle of the deprived brother.
Research and Planning - Music Inspiration 1
I feel this is a perfect tempo to the relevnce of what is going on in our opening sequence. It builds tension nicely whilst mentaining fairly dark and griity feeling to film. I also think this could then drop into another beat, with a faster pace keeping the audience on edge.
Research and Planning - Filming
Today we ventured out in aim of shooting all the footage needed for our opening two minute sequence. To ensure that we enough to cover the two minute required time length we filmed a few added scenes, worrying we wouldn't have enough. The reason for this was to make sure all external factors i.e weather and traffic were the same. Also to ensure we all were wearing the same clothes and sporting the same hair cut/style throughout, instead of filming half one day and half a week later where it's likely some of these factors will have changed. This did make it a time consuming day, constantly filming from 9am - 5pm, however we hoped it be most effective and possibly even save time in the long run.
Our first obstacle was having to dodge filming around cars that were parked temporarily as we needed to film every scence a number of different times from different angles so we could use fast, sharp editing. Therefore if we were filming the same secene over the course of 20 minutes, cars may have moved. We overcame this by filming when there were as little cars and other external factors as possible.
In our storyline the deprived brother steals a chocolate from a newsagent Our second obstacle was having to disscuss with the shop owner if this would be allowed for the good of our AS media work. Wwe weren't necessarily sure if we'd have permission to film in her shop, although after a bit of persuasion she let us go ahead whilst there were no customers.
Three teenage boys, let loose for a day, it was inevitable we'd make a mistake at some point. An unfortunate recording error whilst filming in the newsagent was our third problem. The footage we thought we had filmed whilst in the shop hadn't actualyy recorded. We had only realised this 15 minutes once we were at our next location. Luckily not too far away, after the embaressment we came back to the shop to re-film, luckily everything ran smoothly second time round.
These three obstacles awere fortunately quite small were are only real dilemas throughout the day, however i think we coped well and thought logically, allowing us to move on and carry on filming consitently throughout the day.
Our first obstacle was having to dodge filming around cars that were parked temporarily as we needed to film every scence a number of different times from different angles so we could use fast, sharp editing. Therefore if we were filming the same secene over the course of 20 minutes, cars may have moved. We overcame this by filming when there were as little cars and other external factors as possible.
In our storyline the deprived brother steals a chocolate from a newsagent Our second obstacle was having to disscuss with the shop owner if this would be allowed for the good of our AS media work. Wwe weren't necessarily sure if we'd have permission to film in her shop, although after a bit of persuasion she let us go ahead whilst there were no customers.
Three teenage boys, let loose for a day, it was inevitable we'd make a mistake at some point. An unfortunate recording error whilst filming in the newsagent was our third problem. The footage we thought we had filmed whilst in the shop hadn't actualyy recorded. We had only realised this 15 minutes once we were at our next location. Luckily not too far away, after the embaressment we came back to the shop to re-film, luckily everything ran smoothly second time round.
These three obstacles awere fortunately quite small were are only real dilemas throughout the day, however i think we coped well and thought logically, allowing us to move on and carry on filming consitently throughout the day.
Friday 5 March 2010
Research and Planning - Evaluation - Changes made from our original plan
When we filmed we aimed to stick to our original story board as much as possible, also we filmed a extra few scenes to have if possible incase our filiming didn't last two minutes. However once we uploaded our final
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