Assessment Criteria

What we have done so far, and we we have left to do for each category.

Deadlines!

Deadlines


We are going to try and aim for a 'day early deadlin'e so that if we havn't finished by that day then we have an extra day to do so.

Prop List

Props for characters


This is our EDITED prop list for our characters, some of them have changed.
- There is no watch
- No Keys
- No Knife
- No Bag
- No Hair Pin

By Adam Tippett

Recourse and Costume

Resources
Our main recourse will be a location. We decided that my dads house would be best because we had permission to film there and it was a good, open location to film at. It has all the things we need like a drive, empty (ish) house and the location just seems perfect. The lighting was good because the street  lamps outside were just outside and lit the street.

COSTUMES
The burglars will need to be in black hooded clothes. The woman would be be in smart, work clothes.
PROPS
- The CD (blank disk) will be needed.
- Also we will need fake blood.
- Weapon.
- Torches.
- Phone
- Keys
- Landrover (driven by Liams dad so it's lagal and safe, it's for the get-a-way scene)
- We will need a camera and we will all be acting. Taking turns between filming and acting.


*COSTUME CHANGE*
The woman's clothes have changed to 'gym wear' because the work clothes were not available at the time we were filming. It also turned out to be a much better idea because it emphasized the woman's character as being tough. Also there was a gym right around the corner from the location, so that was handy.


This was discussed as a group.

K-19 The Widowmaker Film Analyses

      The credits at the start roll in, it’s Paramount, they are a well-recognisedcompany and the audience will know it’s a high budget. The next companies are intermediateand National Geographic. Throughout these credits there is no music. This addsa certain ‘unknown’ element to the beginning. The first shot is of credits,they are in red writing and they fade as they go on to the next one. There’sslow music to introduce and open the film. Eventually, the name of the filmcomes up and dominates the screen it is the main focus point for the audience tosee. The next clip is writing. It comes up saying “Inspired by actual events”this fades out and more writing comes up saying “For twenty-eight years thisstory could not be told”. The slow music continues as the picture behind slowlyfades in and you can see that the camera is under water. This already sets thescene a bit because you can tell that the setting is not on land, but at sea. Thewriting gives the audience prior knowledge before watching the film. It isimportant that this is at the start because it will make the film easier tounderstand. The writing continues and some dates appear at thetop. This tells the audience what time period this is set in. it could helpwhen trying to understand the film when watching more that the first fewminutes. I’ve realised that having writing at the start is a good conventionthat is used because it gives the audience prior knowledge to the film. Thevery last bit of writing reads “And who will strike first” –this leaves theaudience on a rhetorical question which creates suspense and leaves them on acliff hanger. It gives the impression that there is a battle/war to come.

Thewriting stops and the first shot is of a man flipping a switch out of manyother switches. There is dialogue straight away. Having dialogue at the start is a convention that is used to introduce the audience the film straight away.

The Day After Tomorrow’, Film Opening Analysis.

The film opens with the “20^th Century Fox normal opening. This is a well-known company which is recognisable by any audience. The short clip has an alternative ending; it ends with a storm beginning behind the logo. There is lightening and sound effects of that as the logo fades out. This suggests what is going to happen at some point in the film and intrigues the audience watching.

The film begins with an arial shot of an ocean (not sure which one) the camera moves along the ocean only looking down on it,  clumps of ice begin to appear and they get bigger and bigger until icebergs appear. Finally the camera continues until giant glaciers are in the shot and the ocean disappears as we as the audience moves onto land. From what I can gather the camera is on a helicopter.  The credits have been rolling in since the start, this makes this scene seem less important if it’s got writing all over it, it’s done well though and is not distracting. The music starts to build as more of the scenery comes into shot; the camera is positioned less of a birds-eye-view now and more establishing. You can see the vast stretch of ice and snow with mountains in the background it is a beautiful landscape that will keep them captivated and draw them in. The camera then pans round and you can see a group of people. It then cuts to a close up shot of the American flag.
These two shots tell us a lot about the film. Firstly, that it’s either Americans that are out in the cold or that’s where the rest of the film is going to be set… or both? It’s also an introduction to some characters, normally the characters that are in the first few scenes are the main ones.
From the first few minutes (3) you can’t really tell what the genre is and the characters are only just introduced.

‘Ronin’, Film Opening Analysis.

‘Ronin’, Film Opening Analysis.

(Rated 15, 1997)
This film opens with the producer – Metro Goldwym Mayer (MGM) – rolling in as calm music is played over the top. Another company ‘United Artists’ comes up; this is an MGM company so it is still linked with them. This shows the audience that it a recognised film and has had a lot of money spent on it because they are well known and it’s also what the audience expect. After this some writing appears on the screen and it tells a story of how the Samurai are no longer referred to as the Samurai because of something that happened. They are now known as Ronin. This is an unusual beginning of the film because it gives the audience a bit of background knowledge on what the film is about. It might not be clear what this has to do with the film but it might in due course. This bit finishes with the word Ronin in big black letters on a red background. As the rest of the writing was smaller and just black and white it shows certain significance to this word. It then fades out into an establishing shot of a castle/palace. It pans down to some streets and the word ‘Paris’ comes onto the screen. Again the use of text over the film is useful because we as an audience wouldn’t have known this unless we recognised the landmark. Also because this is a film where the dialogue is in a different language (presumably French)
The next shot is of a man (Robert De Niro) hiding behind a wall, he watches as a woman gets out of a car and enters a café. The camera cuts to a man as he watches the woman. We only know this because the camera focuses on his eyes looking at something, the next shot is of the woman, this is eye line match and is a useful convention when using it at the start of the film because it tell the audience a small part without any dialogue. A point of view shot is next as De Niro’s character looks through the window at the woman. At this point as an audience you can tell that there are several characters interested in the woman. This is done simply by the camera angles, shot types and obviously the acting.
The next bit that stuck out for me was the introduction of the gun. Baring in mind this is still in the first five minutes it’s quite soon for action. The gun is introduced into the film by De Niro as he crouches down. The camera passes over the top of his back as he pulls away some crates and hides it behind them. The camera is relatively close so you can only see this bit. During this bit the music is used to build a bit of tension, it builds up as soon as he pulls out the gun and then goes back to how it was as he walks away.
Although not much is established in the first five minutes you can tell the genre is going to be an action film because of the gun and the two men that were looking at the woman. Something is obviously being planned and if it involves weapons then it’s not going to be comedy is it? One generic convention I also spotted was the use of an “attractive” woman. This would automatically interest the majority of the male population and would make them watch the film. Having Robert De Niro starring as a main character may also attract a wider audience. In the first five minutes we as an audience know the genre, main character(s), location/setting and can begin to understand part of the plot.

GameFace Productions

'GameFace Productions' will be the name of our made up production company that will appear in the credits at the beginning. We have a logo idea it just needs to be 'officially' made. The idea came from when we were planning and filming, when we weren't concentrating we would say "game face!" that would mean we needed to start working again...

This was designed and discussed as a group.

Target Audience

Target Audience
We've rated out film as a 15. We done this because there will be moderate violence and mild swearing.
The targeted audience will be 16-25 year olds males.
It's targeted at them because of the genre and the amount of action. Typically men would want to see this film because of that.

It states that no-one under 15 is allowed to see a '15' film at the cinema. Parents are warned that it is not suitable. 

What sort of issues might I find in a ‘15’ film?

‘15’ works are stronger than '12' or ‘12A’ rated works and could include any of the following:
• strong violence
• frequent strong language (eg 'f***').
• portrayals of sexual activity
• strong verbal references to sex
• sexual nudity
• brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
• discriminatory language or behaviour
• drug taking
© The British Board of Film Classification 2007


Although the only one of these that will be in the first few minutes (the swearing) the rest of the film may contain more of the above.

Genre Planning

This is our spider diagram of our genre planning...

Genre
We started off initially with a horror theme but everyone was doing that and we thought it would be best to do something else, also because it would be easy for us to film, we had the locations, props and a decent story line.
We scrapped that idea and secondly chose a crime/thriller genre. We chose this because of the brief story line we chose fitted the genre.We interpreted the crime bit into our film because we though the fact that the woman character was an agent we thought it would be crime.

We ended up have an action genre. This is because as our story line progressed it turned out it wasn't really much to do with crime at all. There is a lot of action at the start and the rest of the film -which we will not film- and it is mostly action...

FILM IDEA !NEW!

A woman is on her way home from work, late at night. She doesnt expect it but there are three guys who have entered her house whilst she was out. She comes home early to find them in her things, looking through her drawers... She beats them up (or just one of them) and they scramble out of the house. She frantically picks up the phone, dials a number and says....
"They know it's here."
A voice replies "Did they find it?"
...She rummages through the drawers and finds a secret compartment. She opens it to find a disk/USB.
"No. But i'm sure they'll be back"

*There is also a quick get-a-way scene at the end involving a Landrover and the end to finish the scene...*

STILL NOT OFFICIAL

Discuss Possible Genres

We listed all the possible genres we could think of and decided which were possible to film and which one we most wanted to do. We short listed Phsycological Horror and Crime Thriller. We decided that Horror was too common and that most people had chosen that genre. We also decided to take the thriller out of the other genre so that it is just a crime film. The crime opening would be easiest to film as we could easily find locations and it wouldnt require any special effects or anything like that.

This was discussed as a group.

The Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task:
 Shooting the Clip:
We chose to shoot a police interrogation interview scene. A police woman would enter the room, walk across the room, and sit opposite a suspect and say a few lines of dialogue.
         The first shot was the police woman (myself) walking towards the door where the interview was taking place. It then cuts to a closer shot of the door as she opens it. The next shot is of the police woman coming through the door from the other side. These few shots display match-on-action. The police woman then walks across the room and pulls up a chair and sits opposite another character. The camera cuts to me as I say a few lines. The suspect is then in the shot as an over the shoulder cut on him. This is displaying the 180 degree rule.

Editing the Clip
   We began to edit our clip using iMovie on the Apple Macs so that we had the best software available. We cropped some of the footage we used so that it would run a lot smoother and look less amateur. We made sure we had all the shots and cut them in the right place. We made sure they were in order so that it was more like continuity editing
     Our group is yet to finish editing but we’ve got all the shots we needed.
     A video should be uploaded soon...

Made Up Production Companies

Need to brainstorm and make up some production companies that can feature at the beginning of our clip as the credits role in...

We needed a production company that would represent all four members of our group and the type of genre we wanted to produce.
'Game Face' was the very original idea we had and we chose it because that's what we would always say  when we weren't concentrating or had trouble sticking to a task. it seemed perfect so we created a logo and the final idea being:
           Game Face Productions

VERY brief plan for the Main Task

MAIN TASK                                              VERY BRIEF PLAN

In class we briefly looked at genres for our films as we decided that it is one of the main things we need to know at the start.  This is because specific genres requiredifferent approaches.

    In my group we discussed doing a comedy, or aspoof of a horror. We then realised that it would be too hard to film, we couldn’tguarantee it would be funny in the first two minutes and that the audiencewould notice the genre. So that was our first idea out of the window.

     We then thoughtabout doing a horror/thriller into but it seemed everyone had and was doing thesame thing. As the assessors are partly looking for creativity from our clipsthen we thought we’d do something different as it might shine through.

Our third option we discussed was for a crime/action film. It’snot set in stone (as are none of our ideas at the moment) but this is the genrethat we really liked. It could be done; we had locations and even a brief storyline.

It would be a robery in a womans house/flat carried out be three men. she would attack one in self decence and accidently kill one. the police would be there any minute. She tries to take them to court for breaking and entering but they want to get her sent down for manslaughter. She tries to clear her name throughout the rest of the film constantly pleading guilty. she goes on the run and diggs deaper into the case only to fine the robbers were in her house not to steal her possesions but to steal one specific item... a disk. We would end the clip on a shot of a courthouse from outside.

^NOT SET IN STONE, JUST AN IDEA^

This was discussed as a group.

Watching the start of films...

What Have I Got From Watching The Start Of These Films?
I've noticed that not a lot is included in the first two minutes. It is not always easy to figure out the genre and who the main characters are. Also if the main characters protagonist or the antagonist. The first two minutes is generally used to set the scene or the tone of the film and establish the location. A main character is not always introduced in the start.

Need to think about this when creating my groups own...

Exploring Generic Conventions

Main Task I watched the first two minutes (ish) of a few films and watched to see how they did it, what kind of things they included, whether or not you can tell the genre and who the main characters are.
The Skeleton Key
The western music at the start could suggest that the location is somewhere in the country in America. This shows how music can be used at the start to set the location.
It starts off in a hospice, already setting the scene, the natural lighting tells the time of day it also tells the audience that it does not start of as being a typical Horror genre.
As it goes in a character dies in his bed whilst a woman reads to him. a character dying at the starts could suggest what is to come? It's quite a sad death as the character has no family.
In this film the setting is established and what it seems a main character.
You can also tell the genre is a 'Physiological Thriller'
Arlington Road
The genre is established by the first few minutes of a young boy walking down a typical American street. The eerie, tense and dramatic music (non diegetic) sets the mood for the scene. in the first few seconds of the boy walking down the street you can see blood dripping on to his shoes and trousers. By the appearance of blood added to the music you can tell this film could be a horror or a thriller. A man gets out of his chair in work clothes, this tells the audience he has a job in an office or something and is part of the 'general' public. He is seen as the protagonist character because he stops to help the boy. Whether or not these are main characters we don't know.
From the first two minutes you can tell this film genre is going to be Thriller.
Shaun Of The Dead
It starts off with eerie music over the production titles. The music builds and builds and then cuts to a shot of man, sat in a pub with a pint and a cigarette. We're straight away introduced to the main characters and what he's like. The audience is 'thrown in at the deep end' as all of the main characters are established at the start. The dialogue plays a big part on deciding which genre this could be because there's a lot of swearing and jokes. I found it funny so you would presume it was a comedy. It is in fact a comedy horror but you wouldn't know this from the first two minutes because there is nothing that suggests that it is in anyway scary.
The Pursuit Of Happyness
The fist thing we see after the production credits and company titles is writing. It says 'inspired by a true story'. This already tells the audience that this is going to be slightly non-fictional. It's a 'Biography Drama'. The calm music at the start combined with natural lighting says it to be a, happy, touching story. The audience can already tell that a middle aged man (Will Smith, recognized actor) is supporting a young boy, his son. It's set in America. The audience knows the main characters, the genre, and the location/setting.

Preliminary Task and the Main Task

Preliminary Exercise: Continuity editing task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. It will demonstrate match on action, shat reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.


Main Task: the main task will be the titles and the opening of a new fiction film of two minutes.