For main task we are wanting to do an action/ thriller film. The research I have done below is starting of films which are action/ thriller types of films. The reason I am researching these are because we may be able to get some ideas based on the some of this research. The films I have researched are:
Valkyrie
Plot- German officer trying to assassinate Hitler and use operation Valkyrie to take control of country. They are playing a high risk game is trying to blow up the leader and knowing if caught he would die. They go on a Bombing raid on Berlin. The plan is to kill Hitler and then dismatle the Nazi regime.
What makes Valkyrie so interesting to watch is how they present the start. We (the audience) are hering this man saying what he is writing in this letter. While we listen to what he is writing we also get an overiew in what sort of enviornment he is under. We then watch this candle burn while he is writing for 6 seconds and then watch him write for a minute. We hear this contrant background hum which is adding to the tension to the start of the movie. He then tells us what this whole movie is all about when he says “but the arch enmery of Germany change must be made” That quote sets up the whole film as we now know what he is fighting for. We can use elements of this with the thought process being read out to the audience and we may add some flash back while we hear some of the thoughts for our main task.
Transformer 2
Plot: is to get Sam Witwicky as a prisoner as he finds out about the ancient origins of the transformers.
Even though this is a sci-fi action film we can take some inspiration in how they are presented at the start where they show all these different places. Also the way they build the tension with the sounds they produce and how they build the film up. It grabs the audience attention straight away which makes this such a successful film. The action is so great that no dialog was necessary to get the audience wanting to see the movie. This is the sort of thing that we would like to do for our film without the sci-fi affects.
Death Note
Plot: Yagami Light is a smart student with a great future ahead of him but he is very bored at what he does. One day he finds a “Death Note” which gives him the power to kill people however he likes.
This is a different sort of film. It is an action film but it the action comes later in the film so what we see is the build up to it. It shows how this book got into his hands and what drove him to do what he did. It is a tense build up with this church hum in the background sensing something bad is going to happen but the longer we wait the more tense it gets for us the audience not knowing what is going to happen. If we dont do a chase scene we could try and build something mysterious and made room for a Potential chase later on in the film instead of doing a chase scene.
James Bond Casino Royale
Plot: Bond has to try and stop a guy called Le Chiffre who is a banker to the terrorist world win a casino match. He has to win back his money to keep his money safe and keep in contact with the terrorist.
I think this is the sort of thing that we could do on a smaller budget but without the blowing up affects and the expensive Equipment. This film has all the aspects of the genre we want to do but we will have to do it in a smaller price range as we do not have the resources or the finance. This fits in with the sort of film we were planning on doing.
Plot: “Ken is a high school student who dreams of driving Corvettes. His passion leads him to a perfect job as a Corvette mechanic, but he is soon embroiled in his boss's dirty dealings.” One of the summaries summed this film up as.
I think we can use elements of this car chase into our film. Instead of doing a car chase we would have an bike chase with an gang wanting something and a chase starts happening because the gang don’t get what they came for. We will have to try some of these out ourselves before making a final decision on what we are doing for our final product.
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
Main task
While we have being completing our prelim evaluation we have been planning for our main task. We have been thinking about ideas during our prelim about what could our final piece could be. We decided that our preferred option was to do a chase scene. We know that the first 2 minutes of a chase scene has to engaging and exciting. This time last week we had an idea, while talking on facebook, which was that a
The captured hostage is thrown into a boot of a car.
The hostage takers drive towards the woods or somewhere it could be seen as a scary place to go during the night.
Then the car stops as one of the gang opens the boot that the guy he is still tied up to.
Then he see the guy in the boot has untied himself and knocks the gang member to the floor and the gang member shouts to get the attention of the others, seeing the guy escaping causes a chase happening. We may have to do some research for the main task. I will put this research up Later on today.
The captured hostage is thrown into a boot of a car.
The hostage takers drive towards the woods or somewhere it could be seen as a scary place to go during the night.
Then the car stops as one of the gang opens the boot that the guy he is still tied up to.
Then he see the guy in the boot has untied himself and knocks the gang member to the floor and the gang member shouts to get the attention of the others, seeing the guy escaping causes a chase happening. We may have to do some research for the main task. I will put this research up Later on today.
Sunday, 21 March 2010
Prelim Evalution
Prelim Evaluation
For our prelim task we had to we had to film and edit a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character where we needed to have some kind or dialogue. In the task we had to demonstrate that we can do a match on action shot, a reverse shot and can observe the 180 degree rule. The place where we decided to film this was at an old abandon shop. Our genre was thriller and we felt this was the perfect location as it is a dark place and the walls look like they haven’t been touched for years. The walls actually made it look like the addendum shop it was so we thought that this was a perfect location. This also very conventional as this is the sort of place that criminals would normally meet up.
The second thing we had to do was see who was how to portray the characters. This is important as we need to make sure that the audience knows who has the higher ground and who has more to lose from this short passage. We decided that we were going to bring some king of illegal item which we would keep unidentified and the other person is waiting for this product to come to him. To make this into a serious deal we decided that the person bring in this item would wear a suit to show off his seriousness and the receiver dress casually. We also wanted him to look serious as well so he wore a smart T- shirt and Jeans. The clothing is quite conventional as the dealer and the recipient would be dressed smartly for an important occasion.
Filming
The first thing we had to do was to establish the location to the audience. So we decided to start off with the door slamming shut which is indicating that someone has come. We did the door slamming quite a few times as we needed to get the correct sound as we needed to get the audience attention straight away. Once we got the audience attention the audience will want to see person that just slammed the door shut. But, we decided to keep the person anonymous from view. All they can see is the part of the body as he walked across the hall went up the stairs and opening the door. This is effective as it increases the audiences desire to see the character. It builds the tension. We used the match on action shot as he came through the door.
After walking through the door and turning around we had a brief pause as we met the receiver as we did an over the shoulder shot. Patrick then went over to the other side to do the same shot by observing the 180 degree rule we saw the face of the dealer for the first time. It is true that this was the first time we could see the dealer but to keep the suspense going we filmed him at a distance out of focus until he become close enough to the camera for the audience to see his face properly for the first time.
We then used a shot reverse shot technique where the first thing we did was do an establishing shot where we see the dealer sitting down next to the receiver and then a few over the shoulder shots as the dialog is being said. We wanted the audience have a felling that these two people have not met before and only got in contact through other contacts. To show this we made the dialog brief and formal. This also made the dealer the person in control. This is evident when the dialog was going on as when ever I (Piyal) was speaking the camera was always looking up to the dealer showing off that he is the one in control. When the dealer is speaking the camera is showing that the dealer is looking down on the recipient which is also showing off his power.
Our media product was to represent the criminal world. Deals are always going on in these sorts of locations. We are representing the ways of how the black market works and runs. Our group have been watching shows like Hustle to see how criminal deals and cons are being worked. What they do in Hustle is come up with an idea or a product and try and sell this idea for money but also making them think that they will always get the better end of the deal. They usually need someone to make the product they are selling so they meet in areas like our prelim task so the deal can be made.
The media institutions that may be interested in our sort of product would be the likes of film 4. They also look for the next best home grown talent. They want the young film producers recognise. They are at least given a chance to show off there work. They would like to take on the younger generation as they the future of the film industry and more willing in trying out the newer technology.
Our prelim task was aimed at an audience aged between 16-30 years old. This is aimed at the people who are prepared to be patient. We build the tension by doing everything slowly. The thing which defines our target audience is the deal which is going on. It wouldn’t be appropriate for young children to see illegal dealings and for the older generation they may feel a bit threatened by the illegal actions which are taken place. But this teenage to younger adult market would find this sort of goings on more to there liking and so some extent it is showing off reality and what is going on around the world.
From our prelim task we have learned that the little details is the things which makes the filming and acting work or fail. This was apparent in a number of different times like when we had to close the door, right at the start, many times so we could get the sound perfectly right because if we hadn’t got the audience attention from the word go then our whole prelim task would fail. Also near the end of filming the lighting was an issue as it got dark outside so our timing of when start needs to be spot on or having extra lighting in case we do run into a few difficulties during our filming for our main task.
Overall, I believe our prelim task was a success. We did all the shots that we were required to do; we also managed to grab the audience attention straight away. We built up the in the first 15 seconds and we also kept the identity of the dealer a secret until we met up with the receiver.
Areas for focus in the main task include:
1- Sound- The only thing we can hear is the actors acting and have no other distraction. We many decide to have an separate microphone.
2- Lighting- This is important that we keep a even level of light. If we need to show darkness we need to show the gradual fade of light but if we don’t then we will put some extra lighting.
3- Dialog- We do not have the best actors so a minimal amount of dialog may be necessary. We feel that the less dialog will keep the tension level higher and more dramatic and it will be easier for us to film.
For our prelim task we had to we had to film and edit a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character where we needed to have some kind or dialogue. In the task we had to demonstrate that we can do a match on action shot, a reverse shot and can observe the 180 degree rule. The place where we decided to film this was at an old abandon shop. Our genre was thriller and we felt this was the perfect location as it is a dark place and the walls look like they haven’t been touched for years. The walls actually made it look like the addendum shop it was so we thought that this was a perfect location. This also very conventional as this is the sort of place that criminals would normally meet up.
The second thing we had to do was see who was how to portray the characters. This is important as we need to make sure that the audience knows who has the higher ground and who has more to lose from this short passage. We decided that we were going to bring some king of illegal item which we would keep unidentified and the other person is waiting for this product to come to him. To make this into a serious deal we decided that the person bring in this item would wear a suit to show off his seriousness and the receiver dress casually. We also wanted him to look serious as well so he wore a smart T- shirt and Jeans. The clothing is quite conventional as the dealer and the recipient would be dressed smartly for an important occasion.
Filming
The first thing we had to do was to establish the location to the audience. So we decided to start off with the door slamming shut which is indicating that someone has come. We did the door slamming quite a few times as we needed to get the correct sound as we needed to get the audience attention straight away. Once we got the audience attention the audience will want to see person that just slammed the door shut. But, we decided to keep the person anonymous from view. All they can see is the part of the body as he walked across the hall went up the stairs and opening the door. This is effective as it increases the audiences desire to see the character. It builds the tension. We used the match on action shot as he came through the door.
After walking through the door and turning around we had a brief pause as we met the receiver as we did an over the shoulder shot. Patrick then went over to the other side to do the same shot by observing the 180 degree rule we saw the face of the dealer for the first time. It is true that this was the first time we could see the dealer but to keep the suspense going we filmed him at a distance out of focus until he become close enough to the camera for the audience to see his face properly for the first time.
We then used a shot reverse shot technique where the first thing we did was do an establishing shot where we see the dealer sitting down next to the receiver and then a few over the shoulder shots as the dialog is being said. We wanted the audience have a felling that these two people have not met before and only got in contact through other contacts. To show this we made the dialog brief and formal. This also made the dealer the person in control. This is evident when the dialog was going on as when ever I (Piyal) was speaking the camera was always looking up to the dealer showing off that he is the one in control. When the dealer is speaking the camera is showing that the dealer is looking down on the recipient which is also showing off his power.
Our media product was to represent the criminal world. Deals are always going on in these sorts of locations. We are representing the ways of how the black market works and runs. Our group have been watching shows like Hustle to see how criminal deals and cons are being worked. What they do in Hustle is come up with an idea or a product and try and sell this idea for money but also making them think that they will always get the better end of the deal. They usually need someone to make the product they are selling so they meet in areas like our prelim task so the deal can be made.
The media institutions that may be interested in our sort of product would be the likes of film 4. They also look for the next best home grown talent. They want the young film producers recognise. They are at least given a chance to show off there work. They would like to take on the younger generation as they the future of the film industry and more willing in trying out the newer technology.
Our prelim task was aimed at an audience aged between 16-30 years old. This is aimed at the people who are prepared to be patient. We build the tension by doing everything slowly. The thing which defines our target audience is the deal which is going on. It wouldn’t be appropriate for young children to see illegal dealings and for the older generation they may feel a bit threatened by the illegal actions which are taken place. But this teenage to younger adult market would find this sort of goings on more to there liking and so some extent it is showing off reality and what is going on around the world.
From our prelim task we have learned that the little details is the things which makes the filming and acting work or fail. This was apparent in a number of different times like when we had to close the door, right at the start, many times so we could get the sound perfectly right because if we hadn’t got the audience attention from the word go then our whole prelim task would fail. Also near the end of filming the lighting was an issue as it got dark outside so our timing of when start needs to be spot on or having extra lighting in case we do run into a few difficulties during our filming for our main task.
Overall, I believe our prelim task was a success. We did all the shots that we were required to do; we also managed to grab the audience attention straight away. We built up the in the first 15 seconds and we also kept the identity of the dealer a secret until we met up with the receiver.
Areas for focus in the main task include:
1- Sound- The only thing we can hear is the actors acting and have no other distraction. We many decide to have an separate microphone.
2- Lighting- This is important that we keep a even level of light. If we need to show darkness we need to show the gradual fade of light but if we don’t then we will put some extra lighting.
3- Dialog- We do not have the best actors so a minimal amount of dialog may be necessary. We feel that the less dialog will keep the tension level higher and more dramatic and it will be easier for us to film.
Friday, 19 March 2010
Prelim video
This is the video for my premlim task. It took us 4 hours and a half hours to do. I was doing the acting of the person who is receiving the briefcase and Matty was acting as the dealer and Patrick was the camera man.
Monday, 1 March 2010
Story board
This is the story board for our Prelim task. This was part of the cover lesson that Miss Cate gave us to start our story board. We did this first in the school common room however we didnt finish the full story board so we had to redo the whole story board. So on Fridays lesson we had to use a different location and we didnt have the same bag as from the day before so we decided to use a memory stick instead. We thought the memory stick would keep the suspense going.
Saturday, 27 February 2010
Filming ideas
On the 19th of February Matty, Patrick and I met up in town to discuss possible ideas for our media studies project. The first thing we discussed was possible genres. So we started off naming all the genres we know and then seeing which ones were realistic enough for us to do. The genres which we were left with that we could possibly do were Action, Romance, Horror, Drama, Comedy and crime and gangster. Thoses are the genres that we were looking at possibly doing for our Film.
The reason why we are not considering the other genres are:
- Can't do thriller as it will take too long to build up suspence.
- Can't do sci-fi as it is too complicated to do effectivrly. Our knowledge of Sci-fi is limited.
- Can't do Westerns as it envolves being in rural areas which we don't have. EG:desert
- Can't do musicals as it involves having good singers and dancers and the songs could take more than 2 minutes which is more than our maximum allowed time.
- Can't do war films simply because we just dont have the finance to do that.
Our first idea for our is to do a con-man type film. We feel that the con-man idea was our prefered option but we also discussed the option of using the other dramas such as action crime and comedy.
Our target audience for this will be 15-28 years old. This is the audience range that we would understand the most and it fits in with the genres we would like to do.
The reason why we are not considering the other genres are:
- Can't do thriller as it will take too long to build up suspence.
- Can't do sci-fi as it is too complicated to do effectivrly. Our knowledge of Sci-fi is limited.
- Can't do Westerns as it envolves being in rural areas which we don't have. EG:desert
- Can't do musicals as it involves having good singers and dancers and the songs could take more than 2 minutes which is more than our maximum allowed time.
- Can't do war films simply because we just dont have the finance to do that.
Our first idea for our is to do a con-man type film. We feel that the con-man idea was our prefered option but we also discussed the option of using the other dramas such as action crime and comedy.
Our target audience for this will be 15-28 years old. This is the audience range that we would understand the most and it fits in with the genres we would like to do.
Thursday, 25 February 2010
Shot reverse shot
Shot reverse shot (or shot/countershot) is film technology wherein one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking "back" at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.
A Shot Reverse Shot starts off with an Establishing shot and then a tight shot is also used help engage the viewers emotion. To shot the shot you need to have a basic two shot and then a medium shot of each character, a medium shot over the shoulder of each character and a close up of eacg character. All shots should be done from the same angle and a lot of lead space to see to make sure they are looking at the other character and also do not go over the 180 degree rule otherwise the audience will be confused in what you are doing.
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