Thursday 21 April 2011

Looking back at your preliminary (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

I feel like i have improved a lot since filming the preliminary task at the beginning of the year. I think my ability to film, edit and set the scene for a shot have all improved greatly and continue to get better.  

The picture on the left shows a shot reverse shot. Shot reverse shots are mostly used when characters are talking to each other. It shows the characters point of view. A shot reverse shot is when the camera is over one characters shoulder while the other character is speaking so we can see the facial expressions of the character speaking. When the other character speaks the camera changes shoulder to the character that has just spoken. The preliminary task on the right shows a mid shot of two character speaking. I don’t think the mid shot looks as professional as the shot reverse shot.  

The pictures show match on action. Match on action is when the same object is shot from multiple angles and shots; however it is done with smooth continuity as if it was done real time. This helps the audience understand what’s going on.



The 180 degree rule is when two characters in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects it might confuse the audience so we kept to one side of the line. We did this in both or preliminary and our opening two minutes.
We used a range of camera shots in our opening two minutes of our film that we didn’t use in our preliminary task. We used Long shots, Mid shots, Close ups, High angle shots, Low angle shots, Shot reverse shot, Match on action, Obeyed the 180 degree rule, Establishing shot, Panning and Tracking in our opening two minutes.
Whereas in our Preliminary we only had Long shot, Mid shot, Match on Action and we Obeyed the 180 degree rule.

I think we used editing well. We used many slide transitions for our footage and titles. We increased the pace of editing for the chase scenes, to give a more action packed feel for our audiences.

Altogether i thought we managed to produce a realistic piece of filming.

Thursday 7 April 2011

What have you learnt about technology from the process of constructing this product?






we use the microphone to get a clear sound and to pick up on sonud that was far away.



we soon discovered that the camera had a low battery life tyhis cause major problem as we couldnt spend a whole day filming. we sometimes use the camera had held.


we used the tripod as much as we could as it kept the camera steady and made it look more proffessional.



this is the tape we used.









heres some of the technology and websites we used.
We used the programs to edit the film. we also used it to distibute the film so we could get feed back. 
the technology was very helpful in the making of our film.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Who would be the audience for your media product?

target audience
Our film is 15+ because then we can include swearing and violence.
We are aiming our film at a male audience because males tend to enjoy face paced, violent film whereas females prefer romantic movies.
The shops our target audience might visit are hmv, game, topman, next.
Our target audience would mostly listen to rap, hip hop and rock.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Hi, I’m Molly Cowley, and I played the part of assassin two. I also helped direct our film Organisation XIII.

Our Production Company is panther studios. We got the idea for our logo from the Metro Goldwyn Mayers logo of a lion roaring. MGM make many action films including the James Bond series.

 
A film distributor is responsible for releasing films to the public this can be through cinema or for home viewing. There are many distribution companies some of them are Columbia Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures and 20th Century Fox. Some of the films Warner Bros. have distributed are the Matrix Series, Terminator and Free Willy. We decided that we wanted to use Universal to mass distribute our media product because they have distributed many independent film titles and have a greater knowledge of the smaller market. This is in contrast to 20th century Fox that focus on distributing Hollywood blockbuster films.

I would have asked for funding from the UK film council but as the council is closing down, I would pitch my film idea to any major film studios and talk to businesses that I think would want to sponsor my film.

The titles in this film include many names some of which are the director, actors, screenplay, set designers and other important roles within the making of this film. We feel that we have credited the people who helped make the film.

I feel our film is institutionally comparative to MGM Production Company, but I think that with our own production company we can produce our films independently differing to MGM.

Thank you.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?



In new town killers Sean is chased by two bankers who are trying to kill him. I chose to compare Sean to Jason because I think there are a lot of similarities, although Sean and Jason have completely different reasons for being in the situation they are in, for example in new town killers Sean does some street running, we also tried to include this in our film.
They are also similarly dressed. We chose to dress Jason in jeans and a jumper so he could fit in more to his surrounding; he isn’t working for the organisation anymore so we decided there was no need for him to wear a suit.
I think they are both streetwise and this come across in the opening to minutes if the film, Sean live on a rough counsel estate whereas Jason was part of a group of assassins I think the character prove they can look after themselves.
The major difference in the films, I think, are the Jason knows how to kill and escape difficult situations whereas Sean hasn’t been taught that.

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

in what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Screen Shot One - This shows the main title for our film. We wanted the film title to be big and bold so it would stand out and people would know it was an action movie. We also wanted it to be explosive I think we achieved this. I think the sound of the gunshot helped set the scene for the rest of the movie. i think that the title has lots of connotations, gangster being one of them. we had decided to take the first title from our title sequence but it didnt fit in we the film so we had to re think them.
Screen Shot Two - This screen shot is of setting and location. We decided to shoot in leatherhead town centre as it looks normal and it has lots of alleyways that we could run down. As the character run down the alleyway away from the busy high street it opens up to a car park where the characters do some free running. I think it sets the scene well as the audience are taken away from the norm to an action packed chase scene.


Screen Shot Three - The frame here demonstrates the use of costumes and props. We decided that the assassins were going to wear suits as it looks more professional and many action films have assassins wearing suits. We used props like guns to set the scene and make the film seem more realistic and dramatic


Screen Shot Four - The fourth shot shows camera work and editing. The shot we used is called a shot reverse shot which emphasizes conversation or dialogue. We used tracking shots, high angle shots, low angle shots, long shots, mid shots, close ups, shot reverse shots and many more to make the film  look more professional and realistic. We increased the pace of editing in the chase scene to emphasise the action. The use of editing I think is quite effective as we used many slide transitions to make the film run smoothly from one scene to the next.


Screen Shot Five - This frame shows us the title font and style. We had titles fade in and out in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. So they weren’t as noticeable as the title of our film. We wanted the audience to notice the titles so we wanted the titles to slip in around the action, so the audience were aware of the titles but not distracted from the action on screen. The title font colour is white to make them clearly visible but not too distracting.


Screen Shot Six - This shows us the story and how the opening sets it up. The scene is set in a room with not much lighting connoting that it is a mysterious, scary place. It also has an authoritative figure, three people in suits and an envelope each sitting around a table. This could connote many things but the body language, the props and the setting suggests the story seem dramatic and like something thrilling could happen soon. The scene could suggest a briefing of some kind as the character have 3 letters in front of them which look a bit suspicious


Screen Shot Seven - Frame seven suggests the genre of our film. We see a person being chased down an alley way which could suggest an action film. It also helps that we can see the intense body movements, the seriousness of the characters as this adds to the action movie feel. They will get this impression because chase scenes are fast paced, explosive, thrilling and everything about them suggests the action genre.
Screen Shot Eight - This shows us how the characters are introduced. Here we have a mid shot of 'The Boss' with a serious expression as he talks on the phone. We can see that 'The Boss' is automatically portrayed as a very determined and quite scary character. 'The Boss' is shown as a very intelligent guy he is wearing a suit and tie, with glasses on that suggests he is in the know and is very important.


Screen Shot Nine - This frame shows us the use of special effects. We created a production company for our film. It is a panther roar behind the picture as the title fades in and out. The slide transitions show the panther clawing its way onto screen. We thought if we used a fearsome animal for our company name it might suggest an action film. This can be compared to some of the James Bond films that have the MGM production company trademark that plays before it.

Tuesday 29 March 2011

Final Film!

Soundtrack and music

Adding sound to our film proved quite difficult and strenuous but we finally managed to achieve the desired outcome. As we had to reshoot several scenes, the soundtrack work already added to the film was seperated and merged with other sound effects when we added the new scenes. We had to start the sound editing again and managed to make it better than it was previously.
          
  We included fast paced action music for the chase scene and dramatic music for the board room scene.

  We included sound effects like gunshots as we could not create a realistic gunshot sound ourselves. We also added in the panther sound effect to our own made production title at the beginning. 

One actor was particually quiet during one scene and so we had to re-record his dialogue and dub it over the original scene. We used fast paced action music which souned quite funky to down-play the tension in the chase scene. The effect we wanted was for the scene to be serious but not too serious.

We faded the music in and out and created sound bridges from one scene to the next to take our audience seemingly from one shot to the next. The faded music seemingly slips away to reveal the dramatic conference room scene and fades back in to the action packed chase scene!

Sound editing had many issues but all were overcome and we achieved the desired effect.

Editing our film!

Hey there! Taking care of the last bit of editing now so our film is finished. We went out and re-filmed some shots for our film, this was a tricky task as we had to re-create our scene. After we finished re-filming our two shots we uploaded our footage onto Adobe Premier Elements.
Uing this programme edited our film cutting out bits we did not need and making our transitions and cuts as short as possible, as this is a common feature in action flms. The cuts were made so that we had some time left to fill in which was left for our studio/production company animation. Cutting our film and taking out things we didn't want (unwanted sounds, continuity errors and mistakes) took a lot of time as we had lots of footage to look at and make group decisions over what we wanted to keep.

Tuesday 22 March 2011

Shot List

Scene
Shot
Shot Description
ONE
1
The Universal Studios logo appears on screen

2
The main character Jason is introduced running round a corner in wide shot.

3
Jason runs down the road in mid shot. He runs into a dark alley looking around.

4
Cuts to medium close up of Jason behind a red dumpster.
TITLE
5
Film title appears onscreen ‘Organisation XIII’
TWO
6
New scene, cuts to big brown wooden doors in mid shot. The doors are then opened by Jason who storms into a board room.

7
A wide shot from inside of the organisations board room as Jason walks in. There’s a big table in the middle with the organisations members sitting around it looking at Jason.

8
Cuts to a right hand side mid shot of Jason. Jason throws his fists down on the table. A few of the organisation members can be seen also in this shot.

9
Jason takes his fists off the table and storms out the room in mid shot opening the doors quickly.
THREE
10
Cuts to Jason walking down a high street in wide shot.

11
Cuts to a wide shot from the right hand side of Jason walking the high street.

12
Cuts to Jason walking down the street in mid shot from the front.
Insert Sheet
->
In mid shot. Jason walks round a corner and walks into a woman who touches his jacket as he walks into her. He makes sure she’s okay and the he continues walking.

13
He Continues to walk down the street in mid shot.
FOUR
14
Cuts back to the board room. The boss is standing at the end of the table in mid shot looking down the table talking to his assassins.

15
Cuts to a low floor shot of three people’s feet walking down a corridor.

16
Cuts back to the boss talking in mid shot, there’s been a slight zoom in on the boss.

17
Cuts back to the low floor shot of the three people’s feet walking down a corridor.

18
Cuts to an over the shoulder shot from behind the boss. The cameras facing the two big doors as they swing open to reveal the three assassins standing in the doorway.

19
Cuts to a mid shot above the waist of the three assassins walking into the board room.

20

Over the shoulder shot form behind the boss welcoming the assassins into the board room and to take a seat.
FIVE
21
Scene cuts to Jason walking along a street and turning down a dark alley. He walks into the mid shot.

22
As Jason walks down the alley another man follows him down, both in mid shot.

23
The shot cuts to a close up on the back of Jason’s head as he turns to look over his left shoulder at the man following him.

24
Shot cuts to Jason’s face with the strange man over his left shoulder. There’s a slight pause then Jason starts to fun from the man.

25
Jason runs up a flight of stairs in mid shot then he disappears out of the shot.

26
Scene cuts to the top of the stairs just as Jason reaches the top, Jason then runs out of shot. The man chasing Jason soon follows and reaches the top of the stairs and chases after him.

27
Jason reaches a clearing in a big road he runs out of shot.

28
The follower runs out into the road but Jason’s disappeared. He looks around for a second then runs in the most likely direction. This shot is a high angle shot showing that the follower is small and useless, it also shows how many directions Jason could have gone in.

29
The follower runs along side the road to the right of the shot looking around for Jason.

30
The shot cuts to Jason in mid shot, hands behind his back and looking out of a window.

31
The shot closes in on Jason. Showing Jason looking down on his follower out of a window with a small smile on his face.
SIX
32
Jason walks out onto a car park roof slowly in mid shot.

33
Shot changes to behind Jason and looking over his right shoulder. Jason’s looking at a car in straight in front of him. He slowly walks over.