Main Task

The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maxium of two minutes. All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s) with the exception of music or audio effect from a copyright- free source.



PERSONAL PRODUCTION DIARY

Tuesday 20th January 2009

Today I used one of my free lessons to edit my initial preliminary film that I created. When filming this concept, I didn’t allow my rational thinking to take over when I was faced with some obvious complications. I filmed the beginning of the movie at night and due to time constraints was forced to film the remaining shots – which were the internal ones- during the day. At the time, I knew that filming in these two conditions would affect the look of my movie and in the moment, I didn’t think to change my idea and start the concept with an altered beginning, which could have simply been created on the second day of filming. Consequently, now that I’ve edited the useable footage, it is only 25 seconds long- which is not sufficient for the brief given. At the moment I’m contemplating adding further shots to elongate it, however I feel that would be appropriate for me to even consider doing so once I have filmed and edited my main film.

Wednesday 21st January 2009

Once I finished editing my two preliminary tasks, I proceeded to try and upload the files onto ‘YOUTUBE’ however the file wasn’t compatible so I had to have a brief word with the IT technicians to find out how to change it. Once I had done that I uploaded the video onto my blog.

Thursday 29th January 2009

I created a production team at the beginning of this week, which consisted of Chidi as the first; Titi as the administrator and Kit as the assistant director

I put up posters for auditions for Tuesday and Wednesday and I was able to find someone to act as the character of Shania.




On Thursday, the production team and I met up with the Sarah Clifton where we discussed her role, outlined her role so that she got a better insight into plot. We ended the meeting with her suggesting two possible candidates who she had worked with before and fit the role of Tia.
In addition, it was suggested that Mr Parry could be suitable for the role of the ‘doctor’ so I met him today to ask him if he would be able to take up the role to which he agreed.

Preliminary task

Task - Mr Dunford My task is to film and edit footage of a character opening a door, crossing the room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180- degree rule.

Student interpretation
When creating this preliminary task, although the aim was simple, i wanted to create something that was, sort of, unconventional; and an idea that could be different and captivating within the time constraint whilst incorporating the elements required.

PRELIMINARY TASK FINAL
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Read below to understand, how i came to this final product.


Initial idea
There was a tall male dressed in black with a hood up with music blasting (which the audience can also hear) walking down a dark alley way. He then approaches a fully lit public building. Once he enters, the audience are shown his face and he takes off the hood and jacket, stops the music to reveal a suit and a smart looking man. [- I wanted to create this contrasting image within the readers mind to highlight the fact that people judge on first impressions despite their lack of knowledge. Within my filming making and film reviews I’ve learnt that this type of conflicting opinions (twist) is exactly the technique I like to watch and find that people enjoy. ] The man walks over to a lady with a clip board and exchanges a few words and he points her into the direction of where he is confidently heading. The audience follow the man’s direction, where he stops and sits in a seat in front of a woman. The conversation commences and we get the impression that this is a date or a blind date. Characters:
Shayne - protagonist (Zeeshan)
Melissa – Date (Karen)
Shania - Clipboard lady (Sandeep)
Amelia -Extra (Jennifer)

Filming… 2/12/08 & 4/12/08 2/12/08 – Ext. Alleyway Time: 4.45 – 6.00 Props: iPod, leather gloves Characters: The male protagonist was used for filming down the alleyway. We see the character place the headphone in and picks the song in which he is about to listen to. There is a close –up and pan upwards, when he is putting the leather gloves on. Within this filming, I’ve have also incorporated a shot so that where I planed to put the credits in, it can be created. 4/12/08 – Int. Pub/ restaurant Time: 12.05- 1.15pm Props: Clipboard Characters: Whole Company The rest of the film was shot, including the meeting of Shayne and Shania and the dialogue between Shayne and Melissa.

Review Due to time constraints and lack of cast, Zeeshan was and I was not able to complete the whole film idea in one night. So, the natural elements were indefinitely not working in favour with the production when we decided on film on the Thursday. I was fully aware that this would be the case but due to pressed deadlines, I found no incurable way to solve such problems. Disappointingly, I continued the filming and tried not to incorporate the obvious sunlight. Changes There would be two adjustments I would make if I had thought about this at the time of filming or if I had enough If I had more time I would originally stick to my initial idea and film it all in one night. On the second day of filming I wish I had decided to just start filming again, from the character opening the door, and I would have used the night time footage for something else.

Tuesday 20th January
Today I used one of my free lessons to edit my initial preliminary film that I created. When filming this concept, I didn’t allow my rational thinking to take over when I was faced with some obvious complications. I filmed the beginning of the movie at night and due to time constraints was forced to film the remaining shots – which were the internal ones- during the day. At the time, I knew that filming in these two conditions would affect the look of my movie and in the moment, I didn’t think to change my idea and start the concept with an altered beginning, which could have simply been created on the second day of filming. Consequently, now that I’ve edited the useable footage, it is only 25 seconds long- which is not sufficient for the brief given. At the moment I’m contemplating adding further shots to elongate it, however I feel that would be appropriate for me to even consider doing so once I have filmed and edited my main film, but meanwhile i will edit the footage i have to produce a decent scene.


Final Idea Consequently, after the disappointing filming progress that occurred earlier in the week. On Friday 5th December is occurred to me that I could just produce another idea that I would be satisfied with. So I hired out the camera, created another idea and wrote another storyboard. Initially, I devised the idea that I would be the protagonist who walks into a house late in the night and slowly creeps in. It is when she takes off her shoes and tries to precede upstairs, the audience are made aware that her mother is sitting on the dinner room chairs waiting for her. Her mother then shouts in a rage and ends up sending her to her bedroom Adjustments Within my family there are only three people and as director I wanted to make sure that the camera angles were to my up- most satisfaction. I decided to change the main character from female to male and used my younger brother as the main actor (child who is going to get in trouble).
Filming 6/12/08
The production was filmed in one night from 7- 8.30pm and after reviewing the raw footage I filmed more shots (e.g. door P.O.V when Kamal walks up to the door and acts as though he is putting the key within in the door and opening it). Overall I am extremely please with the raw footage so far, and will start editing on 8/12/08.
Characters:
Kamal (as himself) -son
Mum -mother (Lorraine)

Ext. Street outside house Time: 6.15pm Props:
Phone Characters: Kamal
The main character walking up the path on a mobile phone and enters the house.

Int. Inside the house Time: 6.45pm Props: (None)
Characters: Kamal & Mum
She finds him sneaking in the house, orders him to sit down and shouts at him about his irresponsible behaviour lately. Overall thoughts Although I have created two different concepts, I will edit both and use the opinion of my teachers to submit the best one, for my coursework. In order for me to complete both films I will have to go back to the first idea and finish it by incorporating the elements and techniques that were require, such as match on action and the character opening and walking through a door

Genre and Audiences

1.1) I to complete an activity; which was to caterogise numerous films into genres.

Die hard - Action

Speed - Police/crime

The Matrix - Martial arts & Science Fiction

Star Wars - Science fiction, Swashbuckler, Action

Back to the Future - Science fiction

The Mummy - Combat

Titanic - Romantic, Historical adventure

Mission Impossible II - action, combat

The Great Escape - Historical adventure, suspense

xXx- Action, Martial arts

Spider- man - comic book, combat, teen movie

X- men - comic book, combat

Blade II - martial arts, swashbuckler, action

Rush Hour- comedy, police/crime

Jurassic Park III - Science fiction

Once i had completed this task; i noticed that films that (quite often) overlapped in the genres in which they fall into.

1.2) Exploring the concept of genre II

Genres as a form of Economic Determinism - Films have genres so that it is easier, for many people in the production team e.g studios and distrubutors; are able to differeniate and standardise the product and also able to market the film effectively. It also helps producers and directors to incoroporate essential elements which coincide with the relavant genre type.

A theoretical model - the 'process of genre'

The best way to think of genre is as a constant process of meaning exchange between filmmakers and their audience- in ways which can be identified within film text.

Analysing films

My Favourite film - Synopsis

The Skeleton Key is a horror film which was released in 2005.

The opening is of a young woman (Caroline) who cares for the elderly but decides to leave the hospice that she currently works at, to become a full time career, to help an old woman look after her invalid husband in New Orleans.

Caroline cares for a bed ridden patient (Mr Ben Devereaux) who cannot speak, and becomes suspicious of the house and the wife (violet). Violet gives a skeleton key of the huge house to Caroline, makes her way into a secret room within the attic where she discovers hair, blood, bones, spells, and other instruments for practicing hoodoo.

She starts to investigate and question Violet (Gena Rowlands), the owner of the house, about the secrets. She also senses Mr. Devereaux is asking her to help her (she doesn't know for certain because he's mute and paralyzed). She tries to unravel the mystery about the Devereaux's and their ancient house.

Once she realises that Violet is part of witchcraft the aims to escape however Violet attempts to keep her and trap her within the house. She goes to the lawyer Luke for help, but he turns out to be a bad guy and he makes Caroline unconcious and brings her back to the house. Caroline ends up escaping from them after telling Mrs. Devereaux where Ben is and she runs up to the attic. There, she does the spell which she believes is the spell of protections but it turns out its the spell Mrs. Devereaux uses to take peoples remaining years for herself. Because Caroline believes in Hoodoo now, Mrs. Devereaux takes over Caroline's body and Caroline is then trapped in Mrs. Devereaux's Body. It turns out that Luke and Caroline are Papa Justify and Mama Cecile

I find this film in captivating because it has numerous twists and I enjoy that most within a film. When making my film I will be aiming to also follow the ideas of this film by confusing the audience and making them believe in one thing but then change it so this doesn’t remain true.

Here is a list of other movies that I like for different reasons:

· Awake
· Godfellas
· Love and basketball
· The wood
· Scary movie 1 & 2


Favourite media Type

I wanted to do media to get a better understanding about how the industry works and what components are need to make a successful media type. The main reason for my passion is because I do a lot of drama work for television and have become intrigued into the production and creative side.

My favourite media type would be television. Channel Four is my favourite channel because I their shows mainly target teenagers from 15 + and they do this effectively through their shows like .
Hollyoaks is my favourite soap opera mainly because they have exciting story lines.
In my opinion, the actors are very convincing which adds to their creativity.

Form and Style






Hollyoaks is set in the Chester The style of Hollyoaks. Even from the title it proves that the show can appeal to both genders as there is a contrast of blue and pink and male and female symbols.

Representation

The show mainly consists of young families and students who attend secondary school and university. There are three venues where the people of ‘Chester’ can go to social and drink – this is where they spent most of there time. This type of representation can give viewers the idea that this is what most families and students do when they are bored. That sort of illustration is not good because it may influence to the viewers to believe that, drinking in general or excessively is acceptable and normal social values. It many ways this is a true reflection of reality in some areas, but for filming purposes it is exaggerated to create more dynamic story lines.

Audiences

It is a show which can be appreciated by many different age groups. I think it particularly address ages from 15 - 35 year olds. Their story lines range from, underage drinking and teenage mothers to infertile couples and drugs management. The controversial topics can relate to many peoples live and they also have a helpline to comfort those who are dealing with some of the issues they show.

Others favourite media types

Magazine type would be the LOOK Magazine. I like it because it mainly focuses on clothes and fashion and has a few interesting articles about celebrities.

My favourite radio station would be LBC because it has discussions and debates which are intellectual and interesting. The radio station is mainly targeted at adults but I find the opinions of others interesting.

My favourite newspaper has to be the ‘Metro’ because it is free and the articles are short and informative.

My favourite phone would be Samsung Omina because it is slim and mainly touch screen with a high specification, including the Microsoft application.

My favourite Webpage would be FACEBOOK because it allows people to reunite with long lost friends for free and also offers fun applications to interact with people.


Analysing film techniques

After drafting two plans for the opening of my film I decided that the film could be more successful if I did extensive research on key tips I could incorporate in my film to make it symbolise the traits of a thriller.


When studying the original film ‘Psycho’, which was created in 1960 and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, I decided to scrutinize the shower scene. It was when the psychotic killer came into the bathroom and stabbed a woman to death. They used close- up shots of the woman’s face to see her reaction and they also focused on the knife; that was impaling her but created a silhouette of the murder. To elongate the death of the woman they added shots of her hand, clenching and going limb, to show her life deteriorating. Once she died there was an extreme close- up of her still eye that was merged and faded from a black plug hole.






‘The Eye’ is a recent 2008 film which is the remake of the same Hong Kong – Thai- Singaporean film. At the beginning of the film they show a woman walking obliviously around in the street. She misses getting hit by car and bumps into a blonde woman, who walks straight through her. The effect of the blonde woman dissolving when walking through the protagonist and re-emerging as what seems to be a soild object/person is an idea that i think is effective as the audience is now totally confused. This could be used as a typical visual refernce point which indicates the genre of this film.T