G321 Positive Film Of Therfield

This is the link to our negative film of Therfield School

http://sophie329959blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/baddd-school.html

G321 Film's Representing Our School

Our task is to make two film's, each lasting two to three minutes. Working in group's, we have to produce one film that show's the positive aspects of our school, aimed at prospective parents. Our second film is to show the more negative aspects of our school and is aimed to gain extra funds from prospective sponsors/investors.

Negative aspects - Litter, Graffiti, Broken computers, Common room, Toilets.
Positive aspects - Good resources, Interactive lesson's, Sports and computer rooms.

We walked around the school and filmed good and bad aspects, although when we uploaded the video, there is a lot of film but we needed to film more bad aspects of the school. We cut out all the filming that we didn't need so that we could see how much more we needed to film. We then decided to split into two groups, one editing the good aspects of the school and one editing the bad aspects of the school. We have shots of students cooking, playing sports, in computer suites, art and science lessons, school productions and working in the library. For the bad aspects of the school, we went round and filmed some more shot's of litter, broken windows and graffiti.

G321 Evaluation

We started off with filming a few shot's of our two characters arguing outside, we switched between shot's from inside the house and shot's from across the road as the argument progressed. We included a few tracking shots of our characters running along the pavement, with one of them chasing the other. We used a variety of long shot's, close-ups, medium shots, over the shoulder shots and a high angle shot. We also included two shot's at the beginning and end of the film where the character is sitting at the table and remembering the fight that happened a few day's before.

We encountered a few problems with the film not being quite long enough, but we added in titles and slowed down a clip at the end to make it more dramatic and also to lengthen the duration of our film. Our original script included a lot of speech but we weren't able to include this when filming as you couldn't hear what the character's were saying when we were filming inside the house so we thought it best to leave out the speech. Also, we wanted to film the chase just as it was starting to get dark, but when we filmed the first shots the sun was setting and the second shots were a lot darker. We couldn't film the shots again as when we had started filming there was snow on the ground so our film would not have had a continuous effect as the snow had all melted away by the next day. We decided to try and brighten the darker clips of the chase in Unlead Studio 8 so that they had a more similiar lighting to the previous shots we had filmed. We took a while to decide on what type of music we wanted in our film that would work well with our story but i think what we chose was suitable. We added the music to gain effect and to help the story flow better.

We chose to do an action film, this is shown by the shots we used such as; tracking shots, close-ups and high angle shots. We also added fast-paced music to make it more like an action film and we included a chase between the two characters. Also, when the argument is taking place I think how we cut between shot's from inside and outside the house when the two characters are arguing flow together well. We decided to add in music to build tension as there was a lot of background noise that we didn't want to include. We also thought it would be very effective to add the sound of a heartbeat near the end to portray that the character was feeling anxious while they were reminiscing about what had happened a few days earlier. We played the heartbeat after the chase had taken place, then faded to a black slide to make it seem more mysterious.

Our film followed the forms and conventions of real media products as we included elements needed to make it into an action film. For example, when the chase begins our shot's were cut together sharply and quickly which reflects the action genre and we included music that built suspense throughout the opening of the film. There is also the fact that the audience does not yet know what the two characters are arguing about which draw's them into the story and makes them want to watch more.

My media product represents two different social groups as one of our characters was posh and polite, wearing their school uniform and the other character who started the fight was a lot more rough and wearing a tracksuit and was not well-spoken.

The audience for my film would be teenagers as our characters were both teenagers so it would appeal more to them and make it easier to relate to as they are the same age group. Also, because it was an action film, younger people are more interested in this and more likely to watch the film, although adult's who like action films will aslo enjoy this. We attracted our audience by making sure that we followed most of the conventions of an action film, for example we used music to create effect and sharply cut together shots when the chase was happening to gain the audience's attention.

Audience Feedback -
"I think that it needed more confrontation in the first scene between the two characters. There were good shots and lighting. The music sounded very creepy and appropriate. I like the way that you showed the present and then went back in time. Louisa could look a bit more battered in the after shots. I liked how in the end you didn't focus the shot on louisa until the film ended, I liked that you followed the glass onto the table to finish."

"I think you have used some really good camera angles and its a good idea for an opening of a film. The only thing that you could maybe improve is that it is a bit too dark at some points, so if you were to film it again you could film it when it's a bit lighter, but other than that I thought it was really good".

"I like the sound effect of the heart beating and the scenes where the characters are running look really good."

"I think the music built up the tension well and was interesting".

"I particularly liked the part with the heartbeat as it made it dramatic, but the shot's were a bit bright in parts".

I feel that this film was an improvement on our first film as we had more time available to work on it and we avoided the same problems we came across in the first film. We included a wider variety of shot's to create meaning and were also able to film wherever we wanted, not just at school. There was a lot more freedom given with this film as we could choose which genre we wanted the film to be in and also what we wanted to happen in the story. Whereas, in the first film we were set a task of filming someone walking down the corridors in school and we only had our character for an hour. Also, during the making of the first film I learnt how to use the programme to edit our film so it was easier the second time around as I knew more about what i was doing. I feel that I have learnt a lot in the progression to my final film as we started off not being able to hold a camera steady and having no idea how to edit shot's in Unlead Studio 8 and how to add or take out sound.

G321 Our Film

G321 Locations

Here are some photos of possible locations where we will be shooting our film.


Shot of two characters arguing, outside the window.
Shot of Jane walking home from school, then being chased.

Running into this alleyway.

G321 Script for our film

LONG WAY TO HAPPY.

-- In a dimly lit kitchen, Jane is sitting at the table then looks down and puts her head in her hands. She sighs to herself; the room is almost silent except for the murmur of the television in the background.

Fades to black and words appear on the screen; ‘a week earlier’.

Cut to:

Cuts to a high-angle shot from the inside of a house, looking out the window, watching the two characters arguing outside. We can see their hand gestures and muffled shouting.

Cut to:

- A long shot from across the street, we can clearly see they are angry at each other.

Jane: I don’t know what you are talking about! I haven’t done anything!

Rosie: Shut up!! Don’t play dumb with me.

Jane: I don’t know what you mean.

Rosie: Don’t lie to me, you stuck up bitch.

Jane: Look, I don’t know what your problem is; I’m going home now.

Rosie: (shouts after her as she walks away) Yeah, you better run.

- The scene finishes with Jane leaving and Rosie left standing there still angry about what has happened.

It fades to black and the words ‘a few hours later...' appear.

Cut to:

We see Jane walking home after school in a long shot; she’s near where the argument took place beforehand. We have a few shots of her before Rosie appears behind her. All we can hear is background noise until…

Rosie: (angry, shouting) OI!!

Cut to:

Jane turns round and using an over the shoulder shot we can see Rosie angrily staring at her. Jane looks terrified and starts to run away from Rosie.

Rosie: Come back here now!!

Rosie begins to chase Jane along the road. We hear the cars driving past in the background but the main sound is of Jane's heavy breathing and her heartbeat thumping loudly.

Cut to:
It fades to black and we are back in the present in the kitchen again and she runs her hand over her black eye and is crying. This time it is deadly silent -- no background noise. She then picks up a bottle of alcohol which is on the table and takes a swig.

G321 Planning For Our Film

Costumes:

Jane is going to be walking home from school, so this is the school uniform she is going to be wearing. We will put the character Rosie in dark coloured clothing and a hoodie to make her look the opposite to Jane and portray that she is the 'baddie' .

Synopsis:

After being horribly attacked by an older girl on the way home, Jane can’t figure out what she did to deserve it. She finds it very difficult to cope with what happened and her life begins to spiral out of control. She then starts drinking which results in her taking a drastic turn. She feels worthless and is determined to get revenge for what has happened but will she find out the real reason why she was attacked? It’s not as simple as she thought; there’s a dark secret that lies between her family and her attacker’s family which puts her in great danger.

G321 Storyboard

G321 Openings Scenes Of Films

We haved watched and analysed the following film openings as reasearch before we think about our idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDU5Fs0Ef9k

Saving Private Ryan

- The scene opens with an establishing shot and titles with the location of where the film is set. There is a long shot of a boat ploughing through the water, the camera movement is continuous but shaky and seems to dip up and down, along with the tide. Close up on hand shaking, to convey the message that this is a frightening experience and then a close up on his face, to show emotions and facial detail as he is a main character, and famous actor, Tom Hanks. Slowly zooms out to a group shot of the rest of the men in boat, close enough that we can still see facial emotion, all look sad, some are throwing up. The camera uses medium shots and close ups to flick between the conversation between the two main characters, the men in charge giving orders. A low angle shot when the first bullet is fired of the man being hit and falling down, medium shot of the group from behind as many more bullets are fired and men are killed. Point of view shot from the opposition, see the tip of the gun and long shot of the men in the water they are shooting at. Switches back to bodies plunging into the water, filmed from underwater, medium shot is used to show a few dead bodies, no facial detail, just dark blurry shapes, bubbles and blood. The camera dips between underwater and over water, as if person filming is trying to stay afloat, this draws the audience into the story and makes them feel as if they are actually there. Under the water is silent, apart from when two bullets come below the surface of the water, in stark contrast to the constant gunfire above water.
In our film, we want to include some action in the opening scene, but maybe not as much or as constant as this as we want to give a clue as to why it is happening and flick between the present and the past. We will use some shaky camera movements in a chase to draw the audience in and create suspense.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd93_2MWkpI

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

The scene opens with a close up overhead shot of him in bed, then cheery music starts playing as he looks out of his window. A medium shot is used as he wakes up and sighs, rubbing his forehead and kicks the covers off. There is a long shot of his room and then a continuous shot where the camera follows him as he discovers his car has been dented. A medium shot of the note he leaves saying 'Thanks!' is shown to portray to the audience what his character is like. A tracking shot of all the people standing on the platform waiting for the train and a voice-over begins, telling the audience his private thoughts while happy background music is still quietly playing. An overhead shot is used when he starts to runaway and jumps on another train, just as it is leaving. A medium shot shows him sitting on the train, warily looking out the window and around him, which tells the audience that he doesn't want to be seen by anyone who knows him as he is skipping work. His voice-over continues as a long shot is shown of him walking along the beach, with the waves rolling up to him. An over the shoulder shot is used to show him writing in his diary.
In our opening scene, we are probably going to go straight into some of the action and show both of the characters. We are considering using a voice-over for our main character as the story is focused around her, but we may just use soundtrack music throughout and lower the volume when the two characters are having a fight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNEX5C3YGYQ

Terminator 2: Judgement Day

The scene opens with an establishing shot of the motorway, with hundreds of cars driving towards the camera. Tense music beings to play and a slow motion shot of children on swings is then shown, with their laughter echoing and then the music builds up and the swinging is slowed down even more until it fades to white. The music then suddenly stops and a shot of skeletons in a car is shown, the lighting is very dark and the camera slowly moves up to show the rest of the background where there are many more abandoned cars. A title comes up saying 'Los Angeles, 2029 AD' which informs the audience that this film is set in the future. There is a very faint background sound, which is not really music but sounds like wind, which makes the film seem more realistic and draws the audience in. The camera then pans around the location allowing us to see the destruction that has been left, a voice-over then begins with a woman stating '3 billion human lives ended on August 29, 1997'. This provides the audience with a clue as to what the film is going to be about and also builds suspense as they will then want to watch the film to find out what happened. The voice-over continues as the camera pans to show more skeletons and skulls. A robotic foot then suddenly crushes one of the skulls and the camera slowly tilts upwards to show the robot and explosions and shooting begins. Other robots are then shown in medium shots and the camera then pans to follows a group of men as they try to shoot the robots. Medium shots of the robots weapons are shown and long shots are used when the men get killed by the robots. The gunfire is constant as they carry on the battle and then high pitched tense music is played to create further atmosphere. Long shot's of explosions are shown as cars are rolled over and crushed, medium shot's are used to flick between showing the robots and the humans. One of the robots is defeated and it smashes to the ground, creating another big explosion and the camera is mostly filled with fire. The gunfire stops and an over the shoulder shot is used as soldiers are walking down a narrow corridor, armed with guns and saluting one another as they pass. The woman's voice over begins again to further explain what is happening and the introduces the main character 'My son, John Connor'. A slow zoom into a close-up is used to show his facial detail as he has scars, while the voice over explains how this happened. The shot then fades into a shot filling the whole screen with smoke and fire from an explosion.
In our film, we will definitely use some elements used in this opening scene as they have included dark lighting throughout and used a voice over to provide the audience with an insight into what is happening in the film. The music also flowed well with what was being shown on the screen, so we will think about what kind of music we want to include in our opening scene to reflect the action genre we have chosen to do.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_saCHD4Wzqk

Love Actually

The opening scenes of love actually are of loved ones being reunited at heathrow airport, this instantley gives us the idea it is going to to be a romantic film, even before the voice over starts talking. The voice over is Hugh Grant, who known for being in romcom type films. As we are doing an action film, we could try and establish straight away that this is the type of film we are doing like they have done with the romcom. Emotional, quite tense music is played in the background as high angle shots, long shots and close ups of people being reunited are shown. The speed of the clips are quite slow, which is effective because combined with the music makes the reunions seem even more emotional. This is another thing we could thing about, we could speed up or slow down soem of our scenes. The voiceover speaks about love and says sentences such as "General opinion states that we live in a world of hatred and greed,but i don't see that, seems to me that love is everywhere." and "When the planes hit the twin towers, as far as i know none of the phonecalls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge, they were all messages of love", He finishes by saying love actually is all around, and these words appear on the screen over the emotional scenes, the words "is all a round" then fade out to show the title of the film Love Actually as it fades to black. The music speeds up slighty as it cuts to a scene of one of the characters singing. We could think about whether we would like there to be a voiceover at the start of our film and whether we want to use titles to break up the different scenes like they have done. These reunion type scenes are documentary style, which we could think about whether we would like to do this too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDmBntfQBgU&feature=related

Lethal Weapon 4

The film starts with an explosion of flames which become the shape of a 4 to show the title of the film is Lethal Weapon 4. Another bout of flames appear and the title disappears and there are sounds of a police radio. We then see the main characters who are police officers driving trying to find where they are being sent to. We hear one of them say "we must be getting warmer" before they pull up to see a man in a silver suit with guns and flamethrowers. Like the love actually opening which has a them of the word love, this seems to have a them of fire. As we are doing an action type film, we could immediately get into the action like this film has done, instead of having a voiceover build it up like love actually. We also see that the film is going to be a comedy aswell as after they see the danegrous man, they quarrell about what do. They try to run him over but when he sees them they have to hid behind the car as they is firing at them. They talk about whos going to try and stop him and one says to the other that he has nothing to loose whereas the other has a wife and kids, The other guy replies that his girlfriend is going to have a baby so he will be a father too, The first guy then tells him he has a secret too, that the other guy is going to be a grandfather. While they are talking about this other police cars are being burnt. Aswell as the bullets there is a sound of heavy rain and as it is nighttime the darkness adds to the drama of the scene. This is something we could think about when deciding when to film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J8GRDWRE_E

Hancock

Like lethal weapon, Hancock starts with a police radio sound over the titles, then it jumps into a chase scene and people firing guns. Then usually it cuts to a shot of a man asleep on a public bench with the sound of peaceful jazzy music, him snoring and the bottle of alcohol that he drunk rolling around on the floor. We then cut back to the hectic chase scene. This is quite effective because it makes the audience want to find out who the man is and the contrast of him being peacefully asleep and the choatic chase scene is effective. It cuts back to the man who is being woken up by a little boy who calls him Hancock. Hancock says "What Boy?" to which he replies "bad guys." Hancock looks up at the tv in the shop window nearby to see the car chase and says "what do you want, a cookie?, Get out of my face." The boy calls him a name and walks off. A woman then also calls him this name and he picks up another bottle of alcohol and flies up into the air, exploding the bench. We then see him flying through the air, this is effective because we can see now that he is a superhero, but we dont know why he is not very nice. He smashes through lots of buildings and signs, which is typical of the action genre for this to happen as the film opens. They shoot at him and we see that he cant die or be hurt. He tells them he doesnt care what they did but because they are being loud light up there car and puts it on a massive spike on a building. The opening scenes end with shots of a television with a news station reporting on the damage Hancock has caused.

G321 Generic Conventions Of Action Films

Bourne Ultimatum:The opening scene contains shaky camera movements to give the impression that someone is following the main character. Long-shot’s and close-up’s are used frequently, long-shots are used to set the scene and show us what is going on in the background, whereas close-up’s are there to show the audience details and emphasises the facial expression of the character. There are also many over the shoulder-shots, used to place the audience into the story and is intended to show the action from the point of view of a particular character. Another shot used is the 180 degree rule, which is used to show the point of view from two characters.

Pirates of the Caribbean 3:The scene open’s with many close-up shot’s, firstly of a noose, then of the flag and then of prisoner’s feet in chains. This draw’s the audience in to those particular details and shows us that they are important in the scene. This is followed by a panning shot of the line of prisoners about to be hanged. There are many medium-long shot’s to show the large group of people, this doesn’t reveal much facial expression, but body language and relation to other characters and setting is clear. Close-up shots of various characters are used throughout to show facial expression. The scene then slowly zooms in to a mid-close up of a young boy, about to be hanged. There are mostly long shot’s and mid-close-up’s used in this opening scene.

The Dark Knight:The scene starts with a long shot, zooming in to a window of a building, where there is a small explosion of glass. Then switches to a mid close up and a high angle shot of one of the characters.There is then a medium shot showing a man from behind holding a mask. An extreme long shot is used to show distance and the vastness of buildings. It is effective at creating the image that people are insignificant when compared to the background.Over the shoulder shot is used to draw the audience into the story and make it seem like you are behind the character, watching them.

Sin City:Starts with a long shot of a woman walking to the edge of her balcony, and looking over the city. Long shot’s are commonly used as an establishing shot at the beginning of a scene; this creates a sense of time, place and atmosphere. Then we see a 2-person shot, with a man walking towards her from behind. When she turns around, there is an over the shoulder shot which has the effect of placing the audience in the film. There is a Close-up shot of cigarettes as she takes one from him and then we have an example of the 180 degree rule. The film shows over-the shoulder shots of both characters, often used in dialogue sequences. We see another Close-up shot of the woman, which shows the audience facial detail and reactions. There is then a very slow zoom in of a 2-shot, which creates suspense. After he shoots her, there is a very high angle shot, which emphasizes distance from the ground and makes her seem vulnerable.

Hancock:Shaky camera shots of a car chase and helicopters, gives the impression that the audience are also in the story. There is a long panning shot of the main character sleeping. Then the film switches to an over the shoulder shot of the characters involved in the car chase, which is intended to show the action from the perspective of a particular character. Varieties of medium shots and mid close-ups are mainly used to focus on the main character. They used a high angle shot to show the main character lifting off the ground and flying upwards towards the camera, this emphasises distance from the ground. Then many panning shots are used to show the character flying from behind and in front, the camera is also shaky which gives the feeling that the audience is flying behind him.

The generic conventions of action film openings all show something significant happening within the first five minutes of the film. For example, Pirates of the Caribbean contains hangings of many people and Sin City shows a woman being shot. One of the main shot’s used on all five of these films is over the shoulder shots, this is used to draw the audience into the situation and create more suspense in the scene. Mainly, the shot’s cut very quickly from one to another; this helps to create the feeling of danger and fast-paced action. All action films contain fights, shootouts, stunts, car chases or explosions, which are traditionally aimed more at males than females. In all of the action film openings I looked at, men are the ones involved in the violence and carrying the weapons. Computer graphics are often used to make stunts less dangerous and allow swifter movement by actors, as well as more realistic looking fighting. Action films always contain many people dying or being injured and usually have a main character that is featured as the hero.

G321 New Project

Now we have done a practice film, our task is to come up with an idea for the opening scenes of a film and film them.

G321 First Film

We edited our film in Unlead Studio 8 and we had many shots of our character walking down the corridors, but not enough of the speech part, we only had our subject for an hour so we had to squeeze in as many shots as we could. We decided to use music while the character is walking in order to create a more dramatic effect.

We started off with an extreme long shot and then continued to zoom out as the character walked closer towards the camera. Then, we switched to an over the shoulder shot to give the impression that someone is following her. It also draw's the audience into the film. There is another extreme long shot shortly after which is a point of view shot of someone watching her out the window. We then switched back to a close-up shot from behind the character which builds up suspense. Next, there is a long shot firstly from a high angle and then from a low angle showing the character walking up the stairs, and also an over the shoulder shot. As the character comes around the corner we used a medium long shot and then faded into a close up shot of her feet from behind. It then shows an extreme long shot of the character walking towards us from eye-level and then from a low angle shot. We then go on to use a few more shots leading up to the conversation.

We filmed the speaking part using medium shots and an overhead shot, while zooming into the character. We used fading to connect the shot's as this made the film run smoother rather than just cutting sharply from one shot to another. One of the things we could have added was the 180 degree rule, but we decided not to add this to create a more mysterious effect by not seeing the second characters face. The most effective shot we used was over the shoulder shots, as this drew the audience into the film and created the image that someone was following the character.

G321 Shot sizes and Angle shots used in Films and Tv Programmes

G321 3 Tv Shows