How have we met the audience expectations?

We previously completed some research into audience expectations of the genre Action, which you can find here http://cljnproductions.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/audience-expectations.html. To ensure that our film opening is appealing to our audience, we have checked that we have incorporated as many of the audience's expectations as possible. You can see from the table below, which we have included, and how.

Target Audience Review of Our Film Opening

Our Finalized Film Opening

Shaky Camera Effect

Several shots used in the film opening, such as P.O.V and tracking shots had a shaky camera movement. This was a very effective effect, as is enhanced the element of speed and tension is the chase. Some of the shots were too shaky and made viewing the clip tricky, so I used iMovie to reduce the shake of those certain clips to a reasonable amount.

Certificate Rating

Following this research we have decided that our film would have a 15 certificate. This is because there would probably be some swearing later on in the film as well as scenes of violence as the audience discovers why Jack kills the Detective Nick.

The Gun

          When planning our film opening we decided that the criminal should have a pistol. Obviously we could not use a real gun in our clip, so i purchased a cheap BB gun, with realistic gun style characteristics (shape, size etc). The BB gun was bright orange, so not very realistic looking, however I overcame this by buying a small pot of gunmetal grey, and black plastic paint, and painted several layers of this onto the gun. After the paint had dried, the gun looked, even up close, very realistic and metal.

Effects

             Effects needed in our film opening are muzzle flashes both from a horizontal and front on view, and particle effects (bursts of dirt etc where bullets hit surroundings). I found a website with royalty free pre-keyed muzzle flashes and ditr particle effects, and downloaded a collection of these to choose suitable ones for the clip. The other option was to buy a collection of hundreds of pre-keyed effects that would have more variety, for example Action Essentials 2 package by Videocopilot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-9MOOTAc0E
              I have done a lot of editing on other movie softwares with pre-keyed green screened effects, so adding these effects into our movie through iMovie was not much a problem, and they are all in the movie, and play smoothly, and suit our film opening perfectly.

Filming - Day 2

As a group we have decided to re film some indivdual shots and also we decided to discard some of what we filmed, so we are now adding more when we film again on 02/03/14. We researched the weather so that we knew that we could actually film.

Titles Font

The first font that we tested did not suit our genre and looked unprofessional. We thought that it looked too rounded and not exciting enough.

We thought that this font suited the genre of spy opposed to our crime genre, that we later changed to action.

Audience Expectations

As we have decided that our genre is Action, we wanted to see what our audience expects from an action film. We asked 40 people to write on a piece of paper their immediate expectations, and their responses are portrayed in the clip below.

You can read about how we met these audience expectations here - http://cljnproductions.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/how-have-we-met-audience-expectations.html

Codes and Conventions of Action Films

Change in Genre

You can read about the codes and conventions of action films in this blog post - http://cljnproductions.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/codes-and-conventions-of-action-films.html

Our first draft commentary

Questionnaire Results

Questionnaire - First Draft

Above is a copy of the survey we will be giving out at the peer screening of our film opening. The questions relate to our use of camera work, editing, sound and mise-en-scene in order for us to receive accurate and useful feedback.

VoiceOver

We included two voice-overs to begin and end our piece. They are both spoken by Jack.
'You can only run for so long' begins the piece and
'If I stayed at home none of this would ever happen.' finishes it.

Editing Process

Binary Opposition

Gender in Crime Dramas

I created a Zohoshow in order to explain why we chose an entirely male cast.

File Format Issue

              All the filming has now been successfully uploaded onto the computer for editing, that has already started. There was a slight problem as whilst filming we had to change cameras due to a battery problem, and the second camera was filming in a different video format, .avi instead of .wmv, and the editing software we are using only recognises .avi videos, so several clips had to have their file format converted to recify this. Both cameras were filming in the same quality (1080p) so there is not a quality issue from changing cameras.

Mood Board

This is a mood board we created in order to demonstrate the intended effect our film opening will have on the audience. We have included images of shock, confusion and fear. As well as this, we have included certain buzz words such as "afraid", "quick-paced" and "powerful". These give an indication of the key characteristics we want our film opening to display.

Costume Analysis

As costume is very important to reveal aspects of the characters to audience we thought carefully about what each character would wear. Below is an analysis of why we chose their costumes.

Filming At Toys Hill

We managed to film all of our shots within 4 hours whilst at Toys Hill last Saturday without any real problems. Casual walkers and families proved to be a slight delay at first, but most realised we were filming, and were patient, allowing us not to cancel part way through any shots.

Filming Preparation

This is our itinerary for tomorrows filming. As you can see, we are being fairly ambitious with the amount of filming we are planning on doing, but I believe we can get everything done provided each shot is very short, and many of them link together very smoothly, allowing us to film multiple shots at once.Due to sunset being at 16:26, we will need to finish by then at the latest, due to the fact we cannot film in darkness.

Costume - Suits

We completed some research into costume, focusing on what a suit can represent, as we thought that we may dress our detectives in suits.

Our Logo

A very important element of creating a Film, which is often overlooked, is having a company identity.

Our company is called CLJNproductions which is simply our initials. We wanted to keep this simple as we don't want the audience to have many pre-conceptions of what our film will be like.

Below is the first draft of our logo.

Costume Changes

Originally we decided on this shirt for our costume but I realised stripey shirts do not work on camera, they appear very blurred and fuzzy. This is obviously a problem which is easily fixable. It is just one error we have come across in our film opening and will now be corrected.

Actor Profile - Nick Curran

Actor Profile - Simon Shrager

Actor Profile - Jack Cutler

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 – Forest Chase Scene Analysis

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 – Forest Chase Scene Analysis

Sound:

-          Use of silence, all you hear is diegetic sounds, like the panting, twigs breaking under feet etc (This is very effective as the scenes before the chase have loud musical backgrounds, creating a large contrast with the silence).

-      This element of silence is kept throughout the entire scene, and means at points like falling or breaking through branches is more effective, as you can hear the sounds from the world of the scene a lot clearer, and strengthens the power or these falls etc.

-      Using just diegetic sounds, puts the viewer in the chase, not just watching a film, as there is no backing like you would normally expect in a chase, however I do not think this would be effective for our clip, as we are only doing the chase, and so there is no contrast between sound in this scene or in any others.

Film Name Survey

We have created this survey of possible names for our film.

Click here to take survey

We decided on five possible options for our film opening.

1) Backup

2) Framed

3) Broken

4) Caught on the Run

5) On the Run

These titles are all plausible options for our film opening. They comply with typical conventions of our genre as well as creating enigma. This  will encourage our target audience to watch the film in order to answer the questions raised.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - Inspiration

This is an analysis of the forest chase scene in the film, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. It focuses mainly on the soundtrack and camera angles used, however the costume is a notable aspect of the clip. This film uses costume to provide a sense of the era that the film is set in. From the dresses and style of the suits, it is instantly clear that the film is set in the late 1800s. This use of costume will be influential for our costume design as our characters are also going to be wearing suits. 

Chase Scenes - Hot Fuzz

For our film opening we are filming a chase scene, this is perfect for taking inspiration, especially the use of different shots and cuts. In particular I noticed for this film they used a lot of quick cuts enhanced the pace of the scene, also when the characters ran past certain things or people, because the camera didn't track it created a blur as they sprinted past, I felt this was very effective.

 This is why I feel this particular scene is great for our group to take inspiration form and to use for our advantage! the use of the ticking like a clock getting faster and faster emphasises the pace of up coming scene, also the quick cuts between the teenage criminal and the police officer (Angel) the use of quick cuts and continuously getting closer and closer to their eyes until it's an extreme close up, again emphasises the quick pace of the scene, it also creates tension as the audience do not know who is going to move first the audience is as still as they are as the camera zooms into their eyes. The shot when the gold human statue is standing with his hands in the air is good. The camera stays focused on him as the two characters sprint past, it is a mid shot of the statue as the chase goes past in a blur it is a fast but effective shot

Chase Scenes - Analysis of Trainspotting

We decided to analyse the opening clip of Trainspotting as we are inspired by the chase and action aspects and want to incorporate them into our opening.

Chase Scenes - By Any Means

For our film opening, our group decided on crime as our genre, specifically a chase scene. Our inspiration was from a programme called 'By Any Means' this was a series on BBC 1 in the summer, that was a crime drama, hence our inspiration from it. In the clip you can see it's a very slick and precise show. We were trying to emulate the appearance of the detectives who, when questioned about being cops, reply "it's a grey area" as a group we want our "detectives" to be similar to this style of crime fighting. We also want our film opening to be as professional as we can, to emulate the programme.

Location 2 - Toy's Hill

 I know of this hill and area of forest in Toys Hill, Kent, where there is a reasonably clear downhill stretch of land, that seems perfect for our downhill chase if we agree to use a rural environment. These are some photos of the forest and area we could use if we decide to use this area.

Location 1 - Edenbridge

Gender Representation in Media

During class, we studied the topic of gender representation by annotating advertisements to demonstrate the representation of men and women. Below is a Joop! Homme advert that relies heavily on the sexualisation of both men and women in order to sell a product.

Influence - Jackie Brown (Tarantino, 1997)

At the weekend, I watched ‘Jackie Brown’, a crime drama directed by Quentin Tarantino. Whilst watching, I found many key aspects of the film that I thought would provide notable inspiration for our opening sequence.

Genre Research - Crime

Here is a presentation we made in order to present the idea for our opening sequence to the rest of our class. We present all recognisable codes and conventions of the genre of crime, as well as pointing out problems we may face throughout filming.

We chose to create an opening to a crime film as it has very clear codes and conventions that can be well communicated on screen. As well as this, we are all interested in crime as a genre, and feel our experience with this type of film will aid us in production.

Genre Research

(Click the diagram to enlarge it)

To demonstrate our understanding of genre, we decided make a mind map with definitions of the term, types of genre and some conventions of each.

Film Openings

We were set the task to create a visual presentation that answered the question 'What do you need to create a successful film opening. This is what we came up with.

At a lunchtime session, a group of Year 13 students told us about a website called Prezi, which allowed you to design interesting and creative presentations, so we decided to experiment with the program when completing the task.

Preliminary

Ciara and Lily's Preliminary Exercise

Jack and Nick's Preliminary Exercise