THUG BRITAIN FILM:

THUG BRITAIN FILM:

What Kind of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product and Why?

What Kind of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product and Why?:

The role of a production company is to be responsible for the development of a film. The ways in which the production company does this is by raising funds for the production of the film or seek backing from other parties. This is because British movies struggle to appeal and have a smaller financial backing to big American studios who produce films that can attract the whole world.

Examples of a media institution that would distribute our film could be Film Four. Film Four is a production company that backs British movies. Examples of British movies that Film Four has backed and help produce include This is England, The Football Factory and Four Lions. Film Four would play the film they are distributing and give it loads of air time and a place on their website so it would get more publicity and get around by the word of mouth.

Another example of where films can get financial backing from could be the UK Film Council. The UK Film Council is the Government backed lead agency for film in the UK ensuring that the economic, cultural and educational aspects of film are effectively represented at home and abroad.

How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?


From the pictures you can see that our social group represents violence and a fast paced lifestyle. Also the clothes that the actors are wearing represents that our social group is not poor and treats there lifestyle as their jobs. The similarities that you can see between the two pictures are the dark clothing that is on the two main characters in shot are wearing. The dark clothing with the jackets zipped right up represents that they are more likely to be involved in trouble and come across more dangerous and the hostile environment in each picture shows this. Also the way the characters are portrayed in the picture comes across intimidating. In our picture our character is standing behind another intimidating him. Where as in the other picture the character is jumping out at the screen intimidating the audience.

Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task, What Do You feel You Have Learnt In The Progression from It To the Full Product?

Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task, What Do You feel You Have Learnt In The Progression from It To the Full Product?

I feel I have learnt a lot since the preliminary task and I feel I have improved on many of my skills. The skills I feel I have improved on include, camera skills, using the edit suite, key media terms and my overall knowledge of pre-production and post production.

In the preliminary task I did not film. So it was vital that in the main task I learnt the key camera skills as I had to film certain shots. The type of things I learnt was setting up the camera, how to film different shots and camera movement. I feel as though I successfully learnt all these skills and filmed to my full ability.

Another area I have progressed and learnt since the preliminary task was how to use the edit suite. In the preliminary task I tended to sit back and not take a lead role when editing as I struggled when using the edit suite. In the main task I learnt how to use the edit suite and took more of a lead role.

Also in my preliminary task we came across a lot of continuity error after we filmed and edited and because of the continuity error we had to film twice. In the main task we learnt from our mistakes in the preliminary task and came across no continuity error when we edited.

During the task my knowledge of pre-production and post production also improved. I now know all the stages and documents that need to be produces before filming stage by stage. Also I know the stages that need to be done after filming as well.

Who Would Be the Audience for Your Media Product?

Who Would Be the Audience for Your Media Product?

The audience that we are trying to attract is 15+ - 24 men as we feel this age group could relate to our film better than women. The reason for this is because when we put together our questionnaire the males who answered were interested in more fast paced action and drama films. Women however said that they liked more romantic and teen dramas. Also a group of men are more likely to attend the cinema with a group of mates to watch a fast paced, high action drama film.

From recent Box office statistics it is clear that this age group or more likely to attend the cinema to watch our type of film.

What Have You Learnt About Technologies from the Process of Constructing This Product?

What Have You Learnt About Technologies from the Process of Constructing This Product?

How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

I feel the locations we used made our film more realistic and would attract to our audience. For example the tunnel where we filmed our drugs scene had graffiti covered on it and the surrounding area made it look like a rough area where drug dealers would operate. The lock-up where we filmed the dream scene added tension and atmosphere to the scene. We felt this would appeal to the audience because it well make the audience feel a sense of realism when they are watching our film.

We also attracted our audience by realising these images to get our audience intrigued into watching our film. The two pictures showed our characters in the lock-up and standing by the tunnel where we filmed the drug deal.

Post-Production

Post-Production:

Logging Rushes:



Post-Production Report:

After we finnished filming it was time to edit. We began editing on Wednesday 3rd March and uploaded all our shots onto the software Abdoe Premiere Pro. Overall I found Abdoe Premiere Pro a very easy and simple software to edit on.

The first job we had to do when editing was logging all our clips. We did not find logging to difficult as were the only group to log in the prelimanary task so we knew what we was doing. As we had quite a few clips from filming errors and laughing in shots from filming it took us over 2 hours to log and at sometimes it became very tedius. We logged all our clips using a table on Microsoft Word we logged the in code, out code, scene, shot, take, description of shot and yes/no.

After we finnished logging we had to select the clips we wanted for our film. Because we logged all the clips we wanted it was easier to put them in. We wrote down the in-code and the out -code and then the software automatically selected it ready to insert into our time line. Once we had added all our clips we created a time line with all our clips in. Now it was starting to look more like a film.

Once we put all our clips into a time line we watched the whole thing through closely and look to see if our film all fits together and look for any continuity errors we may have made. We came across a continuity error in scene 5 but luckily we managed to work around this by zooming the shot in.

After we finished watching our film through we then started adjusting and levelling the sound. We found this but quite hard because at first we did not know what to do but after some help we soon realised and completed it. Because we wanted a song involved in our film we needed to find some unlicensed music. We had two options to either record a piece for our film or find some existing unlicensed music on-line. We came across the website http://www.unsignedbandweb.com/ and on there we searched through music genre's and eventually found a piece of unlicensed music to put into our opening sequence.

After we inserted and edited our piece of music to fit with our film we was finished in the editing suite and was ready to export our film and get feedback from other students in our class.

Audience Feedback

Audience Feedback:


We exported a rough cut of our film during editing to recieve feedback on how other audiences see the film. We screened our film to the rest of our class and asked them to give us feedback on what they thought of it. As a group we created a questionnaire for our audience to answer.


These are the questions we asked our audience:

1) Does our film grab you straight away?

Our watching audience said that our film is quite good at catching there attention straight away. Most of our audience felt that our opening scene is quite powerful and reflected our genre well and therefore caught there attention straight away. Everyone who gave feedback all said it grabbed them straight away.

2) What do you like about our film?

We recieved a lot of positive feedback of what people liked about our film. Our audience said the following things:

- It reflects our genre well.

- The use of shot/reverse - shot was good.

- Quick camera shots were very good and kept the pace of the film going.

- The concept was good.

- The music added tension to the film.

3) What negatives could you take from our film?


On a whole we did not recieve to many negative reviews of our film. The one point that was raised when we screened the rough cut was towards the end of the film the pace slows down. With the feedback we recieved we added music to our film and this helped the pace speed up, when the replayed our film to our audience and recieved feedack saying it music added more pace to our film.


4) Would you carry on watching our film until the end?

As we recieved good feedback from our watching audience the majority said that they would carry on watching our film untill the end. They feel our opening sequence did enough to make the feel like they want to carry on watching untill the end. Our audience also said we left our sequence on a cliff-hanger and thats what made our opening sequence so good.

6) What would you say about the quality of our editing?

We were prasied by our watching audience about the quallity of our editing. They felt the quick camera shots made it run smoothly. Also they felt the way we leveled our sound and the quality of where our music came in was partically good.

7) Do you like the quick camera shots we have used?

The most promosing feedback we recieved was the amount of quick camera shots we used. They partically liked the use of shot/reverse-shot, the 3rd degree rule and match-on-action. Our audience felt the quick carmera shots made the pace of our very good.

Research Job Roles

Research Job Roles:

There are many job roles in the process of producing a film. I have researched some of the roles and listed them below:

The Producer - Producers are responsible for keeping the whole project together and making sure everything runs smoothly with the business objectives and creative visions are meet by everyone involved in the project.

The Director - A film director is a person who directs the making and production of a film. The Director of a film will guide his technical crew and actors in his vision to make the film appeal to the watching audience.

Production Report

Production Report:

Filming was not to difficult for our group as the three of us knew each other well and it was convenient to film whenever. We decided to film in half term on the dates Thursday 25th February and Saturday 27th February. Filming during half-term was the easiest option for us as it meant we did not have to worry about finding free periods that match up and Matt had to go to a partnership school for one of his lessons so it would make things difficult.

We we all meet up on the Thursday to film. We began by putting our set together and making the house we was filming in fit to how we want it to look on camera. After getting our set ready we began filming and did not encounter any problems. We whistled through getting our filming done in no time at all and got all the shots we needed to get done on the Thursday done in time.

Filming on the Saturday proved to be a little bit more difficult to the Thursday as we were filming in Liam's Grandads lock up on his farm. It proved to be difficult as we did not know what we was working with. For example we did not know what the lighting was like , how big it was, if it was tidy etc. When we arrived at the farm we took a look inside the lock-up and had a discussion on what to do and how to film. We decided to move a few things around so filming would be easier. After sorting everything out filming was a success and was done quickly and with ease.

Timline of When Titles Appear

Timline of When Titles Appear:

The Football Factory:
00:03 - A Vertigo Films Rockstar Games Production

00:10 - A Nick Love Film

00:16 - Starring Danny Dyer

00:20 - Starring Frank Harper

00:24 - Starring Tamer Hassan

00:29 - Starring Roland Manookian

00:33 - Starring Neil Maskell

00:38 - Starring Dudley Sutton

00:47 - Starring Jamie Foreman

00:52 - Casting Director Sam Chandley

00:55 - Make up and hair designer Deanne Turner

01:00 - Costume designer Jayne Gregory

01:03 - Composer Ivor Geust

01:07 - Music supervisor Lol Hammond

01:10 - Editor Stuart Gazzard

01:15 - Production designer Paul Burns

01:21 - Director of photography Damien Bromley

01:27 - Executive producers Rockstar Games

01:33 - Executive producers Robert Blagojevic and Rupert Preston

01:37 - Based on the book "The Football Factory" by John King

01:47 - Produced by Allan Niblo and James Richardson

01:49 - Written & Directed by Nick Love

Comparing the opening sequences of' 'The Football Factory', 'Kidulthood' and 'This Is England' we looked at when titles appear. We noticed that The Football Factory has the most amount of titles and Kidulthood has the least amount.

Both This is England and The Football Factory have the characters names in the opening titles but Kidulthood does not. We think this because most of the actors staring in Kidulthood are unkown and if people are drawn into the film they will want to watch untill the end credits where they see the actors names.

As a group we have compared the three films opening titles and thought of where we will put our titles in our film.

We have decided to show the following titles in our film:

Name of Film

In Association with...

Production Company

Director

Names of Actors

Texture Analysis (Micro/Macro) of Opening Sequence

Texture Analysis (Micro/Macro) of Opening Sequence:

The Football Factory:

The Football Factory begins by fading into a title telling you the name of the production company that made the film. As it comes on quite quickly and has high tempo upbeat music playing over it the film grabs you straight away and your whole attention is focused on it.

The sudden quick camera shots reflect the fast paced action the film goes at. Throughout the opening two minute sequence there are lots of different camera changes of different shots. they have used the technique of panning, jibbing and tracking all in the opening sequence.

The opening sequence has used mostly pictures of football hooliganism, fighting, drugs & sex. All the photos have been edited so the lighting is dark and the pictures are slightly blurred. This gives a representation of what the film is going to be like and what genre it is straight away. The photos roll quickly with titles in between.

The music playing in the opening sequence adds tension and builds up to the main part of the film. at the beginning of the film the music starts off at a high tempo and gradually builds up speed and tempo. This adds a sense of realism and with the disturbing pictures being shown it adds and builds up tension to the watching audience.

Questionnaire

Questionnaire:

The aim of creating a questionnaire was to receive feedback on the genre of our film that we are creating a short film on and to see what people like in a film.

Questions we asked:

1) What is your favourite genre of film?

From the results we received from our questionnaire's we sent out, most of the boys that filled it in said they are interested in fast paced action films and Horrors. The girls sent back differently and said they was more interested in watching chick-flicks and romantic comedies.

2) What will have to be in the first two minutes of a film to keep you watching on?

From the feedback we received most of the people said they would expect a lot of fast paced action and a build up of tension in the first two minutes of a film. This would be successful with fast paced and quick changes of camera shots.

3) On average how many films do you watch a month?

o 5 and under
o 6-14
o 15 and over

From the answers we received most people generally attend the cinema around 5 times and under each week. With a few attending over 6 times a month.

4) What is your all time favourite film?

Some favourite films were listed as:

Die Hard

Miss Congeniality

Top Gun

Adulthood

5) What is the most disappointing film you have seen and why?

Some films films were listed as:
Mr Bean's Holiday

Alone in the Dark

Disaster Movie

6) What genre of film do you mostly have in your DVD collection?

Many peoples genre varied with boys tending to have more action and comedy films. Where as girls had more romantic and chick flick films.

7) What makes a good ending to a film?

People answered this question by saying a good ending of a film would consist of being high in action with the tension being built up throughout the film. Also people said they liked an ending that they can understand easily.

Production Documents

Pre Production Report:

As a group I felt that we are working very well together considering we have less numbers than other groups. We came to a quick decision to choose the genre drama as we felt it would be a genre we would pull of most succesfully and enjoy working with. With each task we did e.g the treatment, shot list, mise-en-scene and risk assesment we dished out to one another and worked on it so we would get it done quicker.

As a group we havent really encountered any problems but sometimes we have found ourselfs working far to qucikly and maybe soemtimes we have needed to pick up the pace in order to get tasked completed in time. Because of this we have soemtimes been uplaoded with a lot of work and been trialing behind.

We have encountered a few things we have had to change for example we had a few problems with the genre but in the end changed action to drama as we feel it would suit as better. Also we have had to change the date of our filming as we was not available to film on a certain day.

As a group the only thing that we have dissagreed with is the names of the charcters and plot of our film. This is because we felt it didnt go with the genre correctly but after a discussion we eventually came to an agreement. Evreything else we all agreed with.

Shot List:

Storyboards:

Risk Assessment:

Mobile phone interrupting filming - Turn the phone off to avoid it going off and disrupting the filming. This will help to keep full focus on filming.

Stairs - Take care when on the stairs especially when carrying equipment. Also when filming on them, make sure equipment is positioned correctly.

Moving equipment - Take care when you are moving equipment to avoid injury and damage to yourself and the equipment.

Opening and closing doors - Take care when opening and closing doors making sure you don’t get your fingers caught.

Cooking - Make sure we don’t burn the food otherwise this will waste valuable time.

Slipping on kitchen floor - Don’t mess around and keep the kitchen floor clean.

Train noise - Make sure we film when there are no trains coming along the track. If there is we will have to re-film the clip.

Cars - Do not film during rush hour. This will ruin our clip if loads of cars come along the road.

People - While filming in the train tunnel we will have to make sure no stranger ruins our clip. To avoid this we will have to minimise the amount of shots we take and make sure we only have to take many retakes.

Rain - If it rains it would ruin our clip. We will avoid this by checking the weather forecast forehand before we film.

Script:

Location Reece:

For our short film we have decided to film in three separate locations. A garage in a farm, a house and a train tunnel. We have received confirmation that we are allowed to film in all three places well in advance so its not a hassle finding places to film.

We have decided the garage would be a good place to film our first scene as it is a dark area and it will add atmosphere and eeriness to our scene also there is a lot of space so we can have a lot of different camera shots.

Crew & Cast List:

Recent films from the Genre Action

Recent films from the Genre Drama:

Some recent British Drama films are:

- This Is England (2006):
Set in the 1980's the film covers a troubled boy growing up, the film covers friendship, violence and racism. This Is England could relate to our film as we could cover friendship and bonds between our two main characters.

- Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels (1998):

Four London working class stiffs pool their money to put one in a high stakes card game, but things go wrong and they end up owing half a million pounds and having one week to come up with the cash. This film could relate to ours as we could see gambling and a lot of high stakes scenes.

- The Football Factory:

The Football Factory is more than just a study of the English obsession with football violence, its about men looking for armies to join, wars to fight and places to belong. A forgotten culture of Anglo Saxon males fed up with being told they're not good enough and using thier fists as a drug they describe as being more potent than sex and drugs put together. Shot in documentery style with the energy and vibrancy of handheld, The Football Factory is frightingly real yet full of painful humour as the four characters extreme thoughts and actions unfold before us.

- Mean Machine (2001):

A soccer star jailed for assault leads a group of inmates in a match against prison guards. The film covers a lot of physical violence, racism, and murder. Some of these issues we could use as a motivation for our film.

- Shifty (2008):

Shifty, a young crack cocaine dealer in London, sees his life quickly spiral out of control when his best friend returns home. Stalked by a customer desperate to score at all costs, and with his family about to turn their back on him for good, Shifty must out-run and out-smart a rival drug dealer, intent on setting him up for a big fall. As his long time friend Chris, confronts the dark past he left behind him, Shifty is forced to face up to the violent future he's hurtling towards.

We can highlight some of the issues used in Shifty e.g drugs, drug dealing, dark pasts and friendships and use them in out film.

History of Genre (Action)

History of Genre (Action):

Action films have only recently started to develop in the 1970's. But overtime they have evolved to what they look like now. In the 1920's - 1930's action films were often described as "swashbuckling adventure films." Towards the 1940's - 1950's action films were seen as war and cowboy movies and in the 1960's - 1970's is when the action film started to develop. With films such as the James Bond films introduced a new fast paced style of action film with quick cutting, fast car chases, fist fights and a variety of weapons and gadgets. In the 1980's Action films took over the Hollywood industry and was labelled the "action era" with stars such as Slyvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson and Arnold Schwarzenegger popularizing the genre.

Group Meeting

Group Meeting:


Decisions made about genre + why?:
As a group we came to a conclusion to pick the genre action for our short film. We picked this genre as we felt that as a group it would be the type of genre that we could pull of succesfully. We came down to two genres to pick from comedy & action and decided to go for action as we felt we would also enjoy working with that genre throughout the task.


Plot for whole film:
Sean and Deano are two ordinary geezers in their twenties caught in massive amounts of debt due to endless amounts of drug taking and betting. After many years of being flatmates they become very close. They both later on in the film though fall out with each other after having an argument about rent on the flat.

The beginning of the film shows Sean tied up with Deano intimidating him with a baseball bat because Sean has slept with Deano’s girlfriend. This is ironic because they are both best mates and do everything together. In the opening scene they plan and successfully pull of a drug deal together.

Throughout the film Sean gets involved in all kinds of trouble. This included a drug deal that an old enemy tips the police off about, Sean manages to escape but things from that moment start to get a whole lot worse when Sean sleeps with Deano’s girlfriend after a drunken night out.

The end scene shows Deano and Sean having it out. Deano kidnaps Sean and ties him up in a dark garage and intimidates him with a baseball bat. The ending shows Deano being escorted away by the police and Sean leaving in a ambulance after something went horribly wrong in the garage.

Plot for opening sequence:

The opening scene will show the ending of the film to encourage the audience to watch on with tension and establish a non-linear narrative.

This scene opens with Sean in the middle of a dream, its shows him tied up in a dark cold garage. After a short exchange of words with the person who has tied him up, he gets hit around the head with a baseball bat.

The bad nightmare is short lived though and he wakes up disturbed. This is ironic because the person who had him tied up was his flatmate; this is our hook in the film. When Sean wakes up, he begins to get ready for the big event, he first off, does press-ups, followed by a shower, and he then goes downstairs to have breakfast.

Soon on in the opening we are introduced to his flatmate “Deano” when they sit down with each other and have breakfast to discuss a drug deal that they are going to be involved in.

After speaking for a while they soon set off to the drug deal in a deserted tunnel. After this the audience see the end of the opening and the beginning to a new setting and time.

Conventions of an Opening Sequence

Conventions of an Opening Sequence:

Main Brief

Main Brief:

Building on your skills from the prelimanary excercise produce the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes. All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidates(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from copyright-free source.