Settings are very important to creating a good film, if you pick bad settings which dont match your genre, your film wont be convincing and consequently will not be popular. This is why we put alot of time and effort in to make sure that we found the right setting to film our movie opening.
The Alleyway
The alleyway was a very important opening setting becuase it sets the scene for the rest of the film, it is urban and is quite sinister. This setting matches the characters personalities which emphaises the dakness and the sinister mood of our film. We also chose this alleyway becuase it is somewhere which a drugdeal may happen becuase it is concealied and out of the way.
The Car Park
This is the car park where "Doyle" will meet his mates, we chose this car park becuase it is dark and sinister like the alleyway. It is very important that the alleyway and the car park are both scary and sinister so that it matches the codes and conventions of our genre. When "Doyle" walks over to his mates they are all stood in a huddle, adding to the mise en scene of our opening sequence.
The Exit from the Car Park
After "Doyle" meets his mates in the car park, there will be a shot of them walking out of the car park. This shot also shows a rough setting, everthing is over grown and not looked after and this compliments our characters personalities perfectly.
This shot will also be taken in dusk which adds a sinister mise-en-scene.
Murph's Bedroom
This setting is in "Murph's" bedroom, it will be bare and will have not have distinctive features, this is becuase our characters do not have much money and this setting should reflect this and this is why we chose this setting. This part of the film will also be shot in the dusk to add a sinister feel to match the rest of the film.
The Indoor Car Park
The Car Park used in the final scene was made out to be a sinister place, we did this on purpose so that it would grab the veiwers attention. This will be shot at night time to make is feel more serious and scarier. The two gangs will square up to eachother and there will be lots of suspense.
Age - 18 Occupation - Unemployed Bio - "Doyle" is a small time criminal/gangstar, he lives in a council house with his mother in inner city London (he doesn't know his father). He is a violent youth who has got him self into alot of trouble over the years, this consequently meant that he has a criminal record. He has a nasty drug habit which is normal in his society. Appearance - He is a white male, he dresses in tracksuits and also wears a flat peak cap, this are things that small time criminals wear so supports the message that we are trying to put across that he is quite a rough character. Personality - He is quite a violent youth that has got in alot of trouble with the police, this has shaped his personality and his hatred of the police. He is quite opinionated about certain topics in his society, for example rival gangs.
The actor who plays "Doyle" is Charlie Doyle, I have chosen him to be an actor in our film because he is a white male in the right age range that would be expected in our film (17-24 years old).
He is confident and is a good actor that compliments our film perfectly. He is also a good looking man which would appeal to a female audience.
Murph
Age -20 Occupation - Unemployed Bio - "Murph" is the new kid on the block, he has just moved into inner city London from Manchester. He has a point to prove that he is not to messed with. He lives by himself in a council flat but he has been warned that he might get kicked out because of anti-social behaviour. "Murph" drinks alot of alcohol and i want this to come across in our film, hedoesnt have that many friends because he hasn't been living in London long. Appearance - He is short and stocky, he dresses in trackies and hoodies because that is the stereotype of young white males in the age range between 17 and 24 years old. Personality - "Murph" is a hot head, he loves to get in fights and isn't scared of anything. He has quite a rough appearance to match his personality. He has some big mood swings due to the amount of alcohol he consumes.
The actor that is have chosen to play "Murph" is Keir Murphy, this is because he fits the stereo type of a white male between 17 and 24 years of age. He can look quite rough so this compliments my film perfectly.
Making these actor profiles has really helped me get ideas and inspseration for our opening sequence, it has helped me realise what the characters need to look like to make them appeal to our target audience and to also fit the genre of a british crime film. It has also made me realise how important good characters are, becuase without them the film would be unsuccessful and unconvincing.
To make sure my film is going to be as professional as possible I needed to get permission to use the song/backing track for our opening sequence, if I don't do this it will limit the places which I can post my film, for example I wouldn't be able to show it on YouTube because they would just take it down. In a serious case I could even get sued by the owner of the rights to this song because I used it in my film without permission. To make sure this didn't happen I found out what record label owned the rights to this song, it turned out to be "679Artists", but "679Artists" are owned by "Warner Music Group".
Originally I just just emailed "Warner Music Group" because I thought that they would be more likely to reply because they are a bigger company but I have still yet to receive a reply from them. I know that the email had sent because the next web page said that it was successfully delivered.
When i hadn't received an email from "Warner Music Group" I decided to email "679Artists", but when I did some research on this record label I found out that there a few different parts to their company and they had lots of previous names for their company. I found two email addresses for this record label and emailed both of them and one of this got back to me.
Since "679Artists" have given me permission to use this chosen song it makes my film seem alot more professional and will be more appealing to film makers and people who are in the industry. This is a copy of the email which I sent to "Warner Music Group" and "679Artists".
Dear Sir/Madam,
We are creating an opening sequence to a British Crime Film for our coursework in media studies and Tavistock College.
We understand that you are the owner of the copyright in the musical composition “Ps and Qs” by Kano and we want to create the opening sequence of a film to this song.We want to use the first 2 minutes of this song in the video.
We are on a limited budget so i was hoping that you would let us use this song on our video free of charge. The opening sequence that we create will only be seen by my teacher and the exam board, i will upload my video to a blogging sit called Blogspot which is password protecting so that only me, my teacher and the exam board will be able see it.
It would be much appreciated if you could send me a confirmation email saying that it is ok to use this song free of charge on our school coursework. You can reach me on this email address - lsamson-hill@tavistockcollege.devon.sch.uk. Thank you for your time,
Yours Truly
Luke Samson-Hill
I am really glad that I am able to use the song "Kano - Ps and Qs" because it fits our genre so well, it also fits the codes and conventions of our genre and would compliment our setting and story line perfectly.
Before we went out to do our final paice of filming we went out and did some practice filming, this helped us realise the positives and negatives of what we had done and made us realise what we had to do to make our film better. I wasnt that happy with the outcome of our practice filming because it didnt look as I wanted it to. The lighting was too dark so the camera didnt perfrom as well as it could of done, this consequencly made the film less convincing. The acting was bad, if I do this again I will take lots of shots of the same scene then I can choose between the shots and make sure I have the best acting possible to make the film convincing becuase otherwise the veiwer my lose intrest. I also didnt like the setting, it wasnt urban enough so the film wasnt as convincing as it could of been, the information that we gathered from our questionairere told us that it needs to be an urban background so we need to re-film this scene in a more urban background.
There was good points to our paractice filming though, I liked the costumes because they fitted the stereo type of street crime and matched what we found out from our questionairre. I also liked the "match on action", we edited well so that it flowed nicely and made the film more convincing. We also used a good range of shots that established the scene and introduced a main character.
Doing this practice filming has helped me a lot and I am very glad I have done it. It has helped me realise the strengths and weaknesses of my film and this has helped me rethink what I am going to do and what I am going to film. If I dont take insperation from this film to improve our footage and to re film the scene, my opening sequence will suffer and it wont be as sucessful and aesthetically pleasing as I had hoped.
The preliminary task was one of the first bit of practical work set to get us used to using the camera facilities and introducing us to the different camera shots/angles. Another thing that was introduced to use were two rules that we have to obide by whilst making our opening sequence being the 180 degree rule and the thirds rule. We had to film a sequence of somebody going up to a door, opening it and walking across the room to have a conversation with someone. We had two lessons to complete it.
Key summary of what we had to include:
opening a door.
Crossing a room.
Sitting down.
Dialogue.
Match on action.
Shot reverse.
180 degree rule.
thirds rule.
180 degree rule - The hardest thing which I found was sticking to the 180 degree rule, this is because without it the film doesn't look right but with it, it gives the film an edge. The rule basically means that once the camera is on one side of a character you stick to one side of that character, if the person walked across a room from left to right the next shot of them walking past should also be left to right otherwise the film would loose momentum and also make the film unbelievable.
Another rule which I found hard to stick to was the rule of thirds, this means that the emphasis of each shot should be in one of the crosses of the thirds. You dont have to follow this rule but it makes the film alot more believeable if you do, it also makes the film more aesthetically pleasing and better to watch. key aspects ofeach shot should follow the lines which make up the thirds, for example in the picture below the mans eyes are on the top horizontal line, this makes the shot look better.
There are quite a few things which i think that we could of done better in our preminary task, it helped us alot relising the aspects of a film that you have to get right otherwise our film wouldnt look right and wouldnt have any flow. When we create our final film i think that it is very important to get the 180 degree rule right otherwise our film could be disasterous.
In this blog post I am going to do some institutional research, I have chosen to research the BBC. BBC stands for British Broadcasting Corporation, it has been running for many years producing all sorts of types of media from TV shows to radio programmes. It is one of the most successful institutions in the world, it is the largest broadcaster in the would by number of employees, they employ around 23,000 staff. The BBC produce many types of texts, they ave many radio stations playing a wide range of music from modern classics to traditional Asian music, there are also radio stations that are talk shows and story tellers. They also have many TV channels producing a wide range of shows, from dramas to game shows. The BBC make most genres of entertainment on TV and they are all well made. They also produce alot of news, they even have their own 24 hour news channel. The BBC make their money through TV licenses, this funds everything they do and the payment of all the employees.
If the BBC ever came to me asking me to make my film for them it would be perfect, this is because the BBC make alot of dramas and my film would fit in nicely with all the other programmes they have produced. On the other hand the BBC have only made a few British crime films so this might add some variety to the other programmes and films which the BBC make. Since the BBC have never made a crime film, the viewers may be drawn to it because they know the great work that the BBC do and want to see what they would do with a crime film. I would expect about a £15,000 budget for my film, this is because it is set in the inner city and there isn't any extravagant places involved in my film so there would be no huge travel costs. This is what the BBC normally spend on film budgets so this is another reason why i would expect this amount of money.
To achieve maximum coverage my film would be shown on a range of the BBC TV channels as well as on BBC iPlayer so that my film would reach a wide range of people. Because my film is aimed at a younger audience and the BBC mostly cater for a older audience, they might be drawn to my film because it bring a younger audience and will bring their views up. To make sure my film got the coverage which it needed to make it popular with my target audience it would also be advertised in the advert break on a range of their TV channels and also over the radio so the that lots of people know about my film and give them the chance to watch it.
We created a questionnaire to help us figure out the key elements that our opening sequence needs to include to make it successful and appealing to out target audience. We asked a wide range of people to make sure we knew everyones opinion on what makes up a British crime film, although we did mostly asked males in their teens and some young adults because this is out target audience. creating this questionnaire has really helped us realise the key things which we need to include to appeal to our target audience. We asked a wide range of questions about who they are and what they think needs to be included in our film. The first 2 questions are about the person answering the questionnaire, what gender they are and how old they are. The second part of it is asking questions about the genre, from songs to props.
The first question was "what is your gender?", we asked a mixture of males and females but mainly males because they are our target audience.
The second question was "what is your age?", we asked a wide range of people from young teenagers to adults, we did this to make sure we weren't limiting our selves to designing our film for a very specific target audience.
In the third question we played the person who was doing the questionnaire 3 songs and they chose the song which they thought fitted the genre the most. The conclusion was that they thought that we should use "Kano - Ps and Qs".
The forth question was "what would you expect to see in a modern crime drama?", we got a wide range of responses from the people doing the questionnaire. They said things like violence, drug taking, weapons and gangs. we want to include as many of these things as possible to make sure our film is as successful as possible.
The fifth question was "what costumes would you expects the characters to be wearing?", most of the people said things like trackies, hoodies, baggy jeans and flat caps. This has really helped us with what to dress our characters in to make sure it a convincing as possible.
The sixth question was "where would you expect a crime film to be set?", everyone who did the questionnaire all agreed that it should be set in the inner city. We will definitely film our film in an urban area because it was such important theme in our film.
The seventh question was "What props would you expect to see in a modern crime film?", everyone either said said weapons or drugs. So we will try to include both to satisfy our target audience.
The eighth question was "what type of scenery would you expect to see?", they all said either ubran area or graphitied background, so will try to set bits of our opening sequence in both.
The ninth question was "what gender do you mainly expect to see?", most of the people answered males. So we will have a mainly male cast.
The tenth question was "What age group would you expect to see?", the answers brigded across two boxes, these were 14-20 and 20-37. This means that there should people in our cast ranging from around the age of 16-26.
I have learnt a lot from doing this questionnaire, it has helped us decide the fine details of our final opening sequence that we had not yet decided on. For example we knew what song we wanted to put over our film and this questionnaire supported our decision that it was a good song to choose and it went with the film well. We weren't quite sure on what to dress our actors in because it was very important to us and to our film that it look realistic and convincing, the questionnaire really helped us decide what the costumes were going to look like.
Every piece of media in the UK, from movies to magazines, is regulated. This means that legal bodies have been set up to protect the viewers and users of British media from offencive or unsuitable content, this is usually the government. I am going to undertake some research about the BBFC guidelines and analyse the code of practise for film making.
BBFC stands for the "British Board of Film Classification". The BBFC is a not-for-profit media content regulator.
There job is to....
provide an effective service to enforcement agencies
protect the public, especially children, from content which might raise harm risks
work in partnership with the industry to develop innovative service models to provide content advice which support emerging media delivery systems
empower the public, especially parents, to make informed viewing choices
provide a cost-effective, efficient classification service within our statutory remit
recognise and respect adult freedom of choice within the law
respond to and reflect changing social attitudes towards media content through proactive public consultation and research
There are 5 main certifications, they are...
U - this stands for "universal", this means it is suitable for all and is unlikely to upset children or offend people.
PG - this stands for "parental guidance", this means any age child may watch it as long as they are accompanied by an adult. Children over 8 are unlikely to get disturbed by these film but anyone younger may be affected.
12 - this means it is only suitable for children over the age of 12, it is considered unsuitable for a child under 12.
15 - no one under the age of 15 may watch this film in a cinema or buy/rent it. This is because it may contain details which may disturb younger viewers.
18 - no one under the age of 18 may watch this film in a cinema or buy/rent it. This is because it may contain details which may disturb younger viewers.
Our film will be classified 15, this is because there will be some strong violence but not graphic or gruesome enough to classify it 18. Our film will also include some sex scenes and some sexual references which would be seen a unsuitable for some younger viewers. There will also be some drug taking in our film, this is because we are trying to portray the characters in our film "dodgy people" and this helps us achieve this, some viewers may disapprove of drug taking so we have to classify our film 15. This also fits with my target audience, which is teenagers and young adults.
Audience Targeting is very important to achieve an aesthetically pleasing opening sequence to my film, if you get your audience wrong you are likely to make an unsuccessful film which will be enjoyed by no one. I have to make a British Crime film, this has a quite specific audience, with this audience you need to get right when you are filming and producing because otherwise your target audience will not enjoy it.
I have chosen to produce our British Crime film for predominately male people, this is because there will be quite alot of violence in my film which females may not appreciate. There might also be some sexism which may upset some females, on the other hand the cast of my film will be mostly male so this may appeal to females. This film is mostly targeted at males but that's not to say that females will not enjoy it.
I have chosen to aim my film at teenagers and young adults, this is because adults may not like such strong violence and such strong language. Young adults and teenagers may know more about gang culture and may even have been involved in it, some adults wont understand it. If the teenagers and young adult know about gangs and street crime they are more likely to understand the film and even relate to it. Some older adults may really enjoy the film but my arget audience is teenagers and young adults.
I have chosen to to aim my film at C2DE, this ranges from the skilled working class to the unemployed. I have chosen this because many of the people being played in my film will be from a lower class background, this means the people who watch it will be able to relate to the people on the screen and this will make the film more appealing. Other people may watch my film from different socials classes, for example ABC1, but my film will appeal to more people in C2DE than ABC1.
This is my story board, we created this to help us decide what happens in our opening sequence of our film. This story board will also help us film the opening because it will save us time, we will know what we are doing and not guessing what shot to do next. Consequently if we save time on our film we will have more time to spend on our blogs adding details.
When we created by working together, we started by bouncing ideas off each other and making notes on what we wanted to happen. Once we had decided what we wanted to happen we stared to draw up ideas using a variety of shots to create different moods and emotions, after each shot we wrote what shot it was and specific details about it like the music behind it and what was happening in it. this will definitely help us create our final film.
Shot 1 is the production shot, there is no dialogue and there is no camera movement. The shot fades out into darkness then the next shot appears.
Shot 2 is a close up of "Doyle", he is looking past the camera and off into the distance.
Shot 3 is still off "Doyle" but it is a mid shot and a freeze frame of him. The shot will freeze and the name "Doyle" will appear.
Shot 4 Is a change of scene, it is an establishing shot. It shows a group of lads all sat around drinking and smoking inside a house, the camera is still.
Shot 5 is a two shot, it show two people drinking and chatting to each other, it is a still camera shot.
Shot 6 is introducing another main character, "Murph". This shot is a close and a freeze frame, it come up with the name "Murph" so that we know who he is. This shot is of him drinking a shot of spirits.
Shot 7 show "Murph" slamming the shot glass onto the table after he has drank the shot. The emphasis of this shot is on his hand and the shot glass.
Shot 8 shows "Murph" after he has done the shot, this hot is a close up.
Shot 9 is a change of scene, it shows "Doyle" and a drug dealer walking towards each other, it a long shot and there is no camera movement.
Shot 10 is a close up of their hands as they exchange money and drugs, this is a still shot with no camera movement.
Shot 11 is the same shot as shot 9 except instead of walking towards each other, they are walking away after they have done the drug deal. This shot is a long shot with no camera movement.
Shot 12 shows "Doyles" mates standing around chatting and having a laugh, this shot is a long shot with 3 characters. This is a still shot with no camera movement.
Shot 13 is a over the shoulder shot of one of "Doyles" mates talking to him.
Shot 14 is of "Doyle" greeting and saying hi to all of his mates, this is long shot.
Shot 15 is of "Doyle" say "lets go", this intrigues the audience on where they are going and what is going to happen. This is a close up with no camera movement.
Shot 16 is of all of them walking off, this is a long shot of them walking away purposefully and at a fast pace.
Shot 17 goes back to "Murph" and all of his friends drinking in the house, " Murph" say "lets go!", this intrigues the viewer further because you want to know whats going to happen. This shot is a long shot showing the group of friends.
Shot 18 shows the two groups of friends walking towards each other shouting abuse. This is an establishing shot and an extreme long shot. By this point the viewer has a rough idea what is going to happen.
Shot 19 is a closer shot of the two groups, they are still shouting at each other and swearing at each other. It is very obvious that they are from two different crews and that they don't like each other. This is a long shot, it is a still shot with no camera movement.
Shot 20 is an over the shoulder shot looking at "Murph" and his gang. You can see all the people in the background.
Shot 21 is an over the shoulder shot looking at "Doyle" and his gang. You can see all the people the background still shouting and swearing at each other.
Shot 22 is of "Murph" and "Doyle" walking towards each other and squaring up to each other. This shot is a long shot.
Shot 23 is a close up of the two guys squaring up to each other, "Doyle" throws punch an "Murph" and the screen goes blank when he makes contact.
Shot 24 is a black screen, but you can still hear the shouting of the two gangs in the background, the shouting gets louder once the first punch was thrown.
Shot 25 is still a black screen but the words "Two Weeks Earlier..." fade in, the words are in bold print and they are white so that they contrast with the background.
Shot 26 is the title shot, we haven't yet decided what our film will be called so that is why it doesn't say in our story board.
We have chosen to have music all the way through to show that it is only the opening of the film and to emphasise the introduction of the main characters and the clues of the plot lines. The music will rise and fall in volume in different part of the opening but will stay roughly the same volume all the way through. We have chosen to use the song "Kano - Ps and Qs" because it fits with the codes and conventions of the genre and id also a song that you would expect the characters in the film to listen to.
I am going to complete a textual analysis of the film Snatch, I am going to do this using screen shots. I am going to watch the opening sequence to this film over and over again until I am very familiar with it so that I can complete a detailed and useful textual analysis. I am going to analyse what makes up each shot, the music, the type of shot, the characters and the setting. This exercise will help me design my storyboard and might give me some valid ideas which might inspire my final opening movie sequence.
The opening shot shows a group of men in the back of a van taking off their disguises. It is a long shot, these things make us want to know what they have just stolen and what they are doing.
This shot is very important, It firstly shows us what the first screen shot left us wondering, they stole a diamond and it must be a very valuable diamond. It also shows us the title of the film, the writing is in bold and underlined implying that it is important. This shot is a close up.
After the establishing shot it goes onto showing the main characters in the film doing something significant about them, this is a medium close up shot.
After it shows the character it stops in a freeze frame and comes up with their name and a picture of them. The picture show the characters in contrasting colours which adds emphasis to them.
When they are showing the characters they link them together by similar things in the shot like gambling or in this case, throwing stolen goods to each other. This is also a medium close up.
Sometimes it even does strange thing like turn the shot upside down, they have done this link the shots together, in this shot he gets turned upside down and the things in his bag fall out and onto the next shot which is a poker table.
This shot shows some of the things which the film is centered around, this shot shows some illegal gambling.
This shot shows some of the people you are going to see in the film, there is a lot of fighting in the film and this supports this. This also gives us clues on the plot lines of the film.
This shot shows a man loading a shotgun, this gives us an idea of the kind of weapons we will see in the film and also some plot lines and the type of violence we will see.
This shows someone torturing someone else, we know that the film is going to be violent but this gives us an idea of how violent it will be.
In one of the final shots we see the diamond again, this means all the main characters have been introduced and now the real plot lines will start.
Now all the mean at the start of the film are reintroduced, they are all still in the van but out of their discuses and seem to be discussing business.
This close up shot is showing one of the men holding a gun, these men seem to be foreign because they have an accent. The man holding the gun reminds us how dangerous they all are.
A lot of close up sots have been used in this opening sequence, they have done this to make sure we recognise and understand who all of the main characters are and gives us a clue what they do to make a living. I believe that this is a very successful opening to the film, it uses a range of techniques to achieve an entertaining beginning to the film. The music used in this extract of the film is very upbeat and runs throughout apart from the beginning and end where dialogue is used. Doing to textual analysis of this film has definitely helped me and inspired me to make a successful and entertaining film opening. It has helped me realise that I need to use a range of shots to convince the viewer that it is real and make them achieve escapism.
Crime and gangster film revolve around nasty and sinister poeple doing things which are below the law, such as murders, robberies, gang crime and illegal gambling. These nasty charachters and events make the film fits with the codes and conventions of a crime/gangster film.
In Crime films there are normally some stock characters, there will always be a boss, he will be a big time drug or weapons dealer. There will also be some small time criminals who are "sucking up" to the Boss, these characters are often poor and desperate for money. In a Crime film you expect to see alot of tense and scary scenes, these scenes will often be edited together with sinister music and very fast cuts to add to the suspense. The audience expect to see a a mainly male cast film, these males will be very violent which makes good veiwing. There will also be female characters but they will treated quite sexistly, but these females will also be quite violent.
There are many sub genres from crime/ ganste films:
- Hiest films
- Crime Thrillers
- Detective films
- Crime Horrors
- True Crime
- Crime Comedies
- Mob
- Hood
From a Crime or Ganster film you expect to see alot of brutal violence using weapons and guns, you may also expect to see gang crime and petty thieves on the street. But depending on the film and where it is set you may see different things, for example if it was set in inner city London you would expect to see alot of knife crime and small time criminals. Whereas if it was set in Italy, you would expect to see some big time gangsters who dress very smartly and deal in weapons and drugs but never "get their hands dirty". You will often see two oposing gangs attacking eachother or stealing drugs or weapons from one another
This setting is in "Murph's" bedroom, it will be bare and will have not have distinctive features, this is becuase our characters do not have much money and this setting should reflect this and this is why we chose this setting. This part of the film will also be shot in the dusk to add a sinister feel to match the rest of the film.
The Car Park used in the final scene was made out to be a sinister place, we did this on purpose so that it would grab the veiwers attention. This will be shot at night time to make is feel more serious and scarier. The two gangs will square up to eachother and there will be lots of suspense.
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