Evaluation Q.1

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our media product develop forms and conventions of real media products. We used most of the typical conventions throughout our media product, to make it more understandable to the target audience. We explored convention in different ways; conventions that we explored around with in our products is the setting, time period, character(s) (protagonist), narrative and enigma.  

We used two locations for showing the present and the flashback to give a full picture to the audience of what is going around with the main character’s life and make it realistic. To locate the present setting, we used a well-known city ‘London’ for the reason that, we needed a publicity in our media product to drive the narrative to the story. Hence that homeless or run-away (runners) more likely to travel around in eminent and urban places such as ‘London’. The flash back would not be recognized to the audience, as we used a known couples (grandparents) house related to one of our team member, to convey the relation and companionship in the character’s history life. The wide shot of the ‘bank’s’ and ‘the bridge’ aware the audience immediately about where about the location is. Besides the setting conveying the location, but also it is instantly well known through the diegetic sound of the public. Another conventional that was used shrewdly is exposing the time period about twice in the media product; firstly when the hand writing convey right at the beginning and especially the second time exposed when the character writes in her diary records. The time period is also immediately exposed to the audience by the use of costumes and props (now-a-days outfits).

Enigma is build tension, making the audience wanting to know and understand what is happening.  We used enigma mostly throughout the product, as it makes the audience to question themselves about what is happening in our product. In the product enigma is used strongly at the end when we see only a hand reaching to the character to offer her help. This means, that the character is not revealed completely and the identity is so little that makes it more mysterious. 

Evaluation Q.3

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

For our product might be distributed by more than one Distribution Company’s (such as NetFlix, Warp, IFC films) this is due to the lack of finance as we are a small individual institution. Our media product would appeal better to a media institution like Warp Films rather than Working Title or Disney, for a number of different reasons. My group’s product is an independent film, with a low budget production, therefore may be suited to a media institution such as Warp films.  Warp films tend to take on more independent, compared to Working Title. Warp’s website has a much more user friendly feel, displaying popular films such as '71' and ‘This is England’ as their main attraction. The Working Title website looks a lot more professional, which could suggest their films are more mainstream than Warp’s. Our product is not mainstream, it is a low budget independent film, like 'This is England', so we would be better suited to use Warp as our distributor. Also Working Title target a much older demographic (under 40s), for example films such as ‘Contraband’, who have slightly older actors and actresses. But, Warp releases target a young adults demographic, rating 15 and over which is similar to our target audience.

Evaluation Q.4

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

We implied VALS system to pinpoint our target audience. Using the values system (VALS) to target demographic audience and to cover two critical concepts for understanding audiences (consumers): primary motivation and resources. The combination of motivations and resources determines how a person will express himself or herself in the marketplace as a consumer. When categorizing them, they are mindset as believers and experiences. As believers, believe in basic rights and wrongs to lead a good life and the importance of family and community. This specific believer categorizing as in our product and the story is based on Leo trying to lead a good life and understand the importance of family, which driven her away to look for her grandparents. As Leo believes she can find them without much resources to locate them. To add to that, our production is British film with an evidence of passing the requirements according to BFI. This means we locate our target audience based on British audience. It contains British culture and other elements such as the actors and setting (London) that make the film British, so it would appeal to this audience.

Our media product target audience is both gender of teenagers and young adults. To addressed our target audience, we made the film opening ‘relatable’ to teens by having a teenage protagonist. This is mainly because the main character in the film is of a similar age, therefore the audience is more likely to engage with the character’s situation and feel empathy for her state.  

We also explored other relatable themes such as isolation, depression and family values, which are all very common amongst young adults. We also addressed that it could be relatable to adult’s audience as well as teens. This is especially shown in the Christmas scene in the middle of the production. As this scene explores family, love and childhood. Through the use of red worm colour grading and a very stereotypical upbeat Christmas song, along with many Christmas decorations, jumpers and hats, it creates the perfect Christmas scene and family lifestyle. This is to present to our audience that Leo did once come from a middle class background, as in the scene the characters were presented in a joyful atmosphere by presenting the happiness in each other’s company. The scene also gives the audience an idea of how Leo’s childhood was bright and happy. This means that if our target audience such as adults watches it, they would feel reminiscent of their own family memories and childhood. Therefore, both relating to teenagers and adults as an audience for our media product. Moreover, the film genre is a mystery/thriller, so could also appeal and attract to both gender and young adults who are a fan of this genre.

The use of gratification we intended our production to provide to our target audience are such as, escapism and entertainment. We as audience use the media to provide us pleasure in our daily life. Media helps to consume the text to be vicariously and use it for escapism to experience outer world life (Leo’s life story), meaning to escape from reality. The escapism in our production is the exciting case of Leo to find her grandparents against her abusive uncle.

However, it is highly unlikely that all audience use media for escapism. Affecting the audience the way they consume text the way they would respond. For example in our production Leo’s solution was to run away from her abusive uncle and find her grandparents. This can encourage young audience of solving their solution from being abusive or other issues in the family by running away.

Our film opening is focussed on a teenage girl called Leo. In our film opening we have included a lot of wide shots of Leo walking through large crowds of people. These shots are used to represent how isolated Leo is, being quite a young girl alone in such a busy place. We have also included several close ups of Leo’s face, to highlight how sad she feels; an emotion which is typically associated with ‘depressed’ teenagers. London was chosen as our main location as the grey buildings along with our colour grading helped to create the dark and isolated feel we wanted in our opening. In postproduction, to further fit in with the cold, isolated and grumpy stereotype of this character, we colour graded our piece to being very blue in the ‘present day’ side of it and very red in the ‘past scene’. This would portray to the audience our teenage character’s isolation and strong emotional feelings of running away, juxtaposed with the warm happy-feeling family Christmas scene midway through the film opening. To add to that, the narrative gives an idea or teachings to adults how to treat younger generation and to keep them satisfied so that they do not feel of need to be driven away or make them feel isolated in any way.

In addition, we tried different ways to address audience in terms of genre, narrative and stylistic features such as the main character prop. We dressed our main character in today’s teenagers fashion that might wear when going out on a cold journey. As well as this, we made sure that Leo had similar characteristics of typical rebellious, excluded and angsty teenager. Leo wore blue skinny jeans, a black baggy t-shirt, blue hoody with a black leather jacket, along with a loose fitted beanie and dark-eyed makeup (This style of eye makeup connotes a mysterious/sadness/wounded emotions of the character), which portrays her depression feelings and conforms to the expected appearance of a grumpy teen, therefore causing the audience feel sympathy for her situation. We decided this casual outfit and dark colours would be perfect to portray a teenage girl, as it is a typical stereotype that teenagers wear comfortable during a cold journey. The outfit also connotes this rebellious feel which conforms to stereotypes of a teenager being a ran-away and unable to cope with life’s situations. 

Summary:
The main target audience for our product 'Running On The Cracks' is British audience according to BFI  it passes the test to be announced a typically British film. The product contains many elements of evidence to be a British film, such as it contains British setting, culture, actors and directors. The audience for our media product would be for both gender in their late teenage to younger adults. Our product is targeted to 16 - 25 year old demographic, this is mainly because the main character in the film is of a similar age, therefore the audience is more likely to engage with the character’s situation. Some of films I have researched that have a young main character, are more popular with the younger audience, for example, in 'Animal Kingdom' or ’21 jump street’ is young adult between the age of 16 - 25, so people of a similar age rated the film the highest out of all the demographics.

Evaluation Q.5

5. How did you attract/ address you audience?

Addressing and attracting your audience is a spirited part of a successful film. We ensured we addressed our audience through different factors, such as relevant locations and characters, camera angles and aspects of mise-en-scene to attract and address our target audience.
Our main priority was to attract the 16 - 25 demographic, we did this in a number of ways. First we chose a suitable location. We used an urban location such as ‘London’ so that our target audience could relate better to the surroundings than they would if we were to use a random location full of people such as in ‘Maidenhead’, or a location of most audience have never heard of before. Secondly we used older teenage/ young adults of similar age to our target audience as the main character, in an attempt to allow our target audience to engage in the characters situation, and feel empathy for her state.

Evaluation Q.6

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Technology is constantly changing and improving, and is an important aspects of cinematography. Before taking Media Studies for A Level, I had some little knowledge of editing and the use of camera angles within cinematography, but it was very limited. When joining the course I had miniature understanding of what the connotations of different angles were. For example I knew about the high angle, but didn't know it was used to show vulnerability, similarly, I knew about the low angle, but didn't know it was used to show dominance and to connote power in the character it was portrayed on. Once I had a better understanding of camera angles from research of the thriller genre, I was able to include various camera angles such as tilt shots connoting alienation, and panning and tracking shots. 

Before the years i had very slight understanding of how to use blogs. Now after getting my understanding of blogs it has improved, and I am now capable of inserting a wide range of analysis in different digital ways. The ability to use blogs as our foundation for our coursework, has been a very good experience. 

Types of technologies used to produce the final product

• Using a Mac for storing our final created piece and for the post production which is to edit our final product on the final cut pro.
• We used a digital camera (Nikon camera) for recording our footage to create our final piece.
• We used  our phones throughout the project to keep in contact between the group members, this was crucial as it allowed to pass information about the project that we were not certain with , e.g. filming times and locations. So that the information is to be passed on quickly.
• We used the school's YouTube on the Mac to upload our final product online.
• Google was our primary search device for carrying out our research. We used Google to research for a 'hand writing' suitable font, as the Mac on the final cut pro did not have the specific font that we wanted. After finding the suitable font we then downloaded it into the Mac to be able to use it. Furthermore, I used my Google mail account to sign up for blogger to archive my work.

Evaluation Q.7

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

From looking back at my preliminary task I learnt many aspects of how filming industry routine is, like our pre-production product, even though our team was very small in number, however we all went through the process of having a certain responsible role to complete the product in time. 

For the my preliminary task I was working as a solo individual, which means that I had all the responsibilities and roles to make sure the product is produced and in control. Though, I worked as a solo I had to come up with an idea of the narrative and plot of the product, by mainly focusing on to use shot-reverse-shot and the 180 degree rule as used in the opening of 'Pulp Fiction'. There where factors to think about, such as what I want to present to the audience by being creative and complex.

After planning my story I had to research actors to act the characters in my story and then arrange the shooting dates (I only needed one shooting date but having a second date for plan ‘B’ if the 1^st shooting date cannot take place because someone is not in set) and organize booking for equipment’s. Also, making sure that actors can attend the shooting date. On the shooting day I  set up the equipment's and the layout of the setting in the room with some help of my friends as I did not have access to a classic modern room and only had limited time of shooting. At the stage of post-production (editing) I had to do all the editing by myself with no help. I did not know much about editing as it was my first to produce a moving image, which made me experiment around at this stage till I was satisfied with the final cut.

On the full product I was in a small team, and we created a pre-production pack together. Our task is to create an opening of a book, and there were lack of choices to find the right book that we all will agree to (we found ‘Running on the Cracks’ was suitable for our team). We shared the work load evenly between us to complete the pack and get on with the shooting, making it easier and faster to complete. Through this process I learnt that communication and teamwork is very important in this production to understand the plot of the story ‘what is needed to accomplish the task’. We all decided our responsibilities and roles of hierarchy (being the director/ Assistant director/ Production manager and camera man) throughout the whole product.

There are many things I have learnt throughout my AS level Media Studies, from the first preliminary task and our final opening product. The use of certain aspects of mise-en-scene such as lighting, costume, continuity and props have all be things I and the team have needed to consider, in order to make a successful opening.

When filming my preliminary task the main focus was on the use of shot-reverse-shot used in the opening of 'Pulp Fiction', and the 180 degree rule. At first I found it quite challenging to get these simple aspects right. And looking back on it now, there were little mistakes with match on action, as there was one part where one shot the character was sitting up straight and the following shot the same character was setting in a slouching position. In our final product we used titles in between the shoots that were not match on action which made it fluid, which makes me think how much I have learnt over the months from the preliminary task.

I learnt many progression from the preliminary task to the full product. The key aspect is communication and teamwork. I feel that my knowledge of different genres of film and conventions of them has been broadened and improved so now I am able to apply this knowledge when making films to create different effects on the audience, I feel that my editing skills on the Mac has improved as well, as I can now overlay sound, duck it out if needed, freeze a frame for as a long as I want, and I can organize fades using precision editor for transitions between shots. I also feel that my analysis skills have been improved and now by picking up on certain aspects of the film I can see who the main characters are, what the genre is etc.

Lastly I feel that my camera work skills have improved as I now realise how different shots and angles can alter the effect produced on the audience. From the skills I learnt creating the preliminary task; the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot reverse shot, we carried on using the 180 degree rule and match on action for the final product. I felt that the shot reverse shot was inapplicable for the final product as we did not have any dialect in our piece.

Audience Research

When producing and marketing a film, it is really important to research your target audience. This audience can be responsible for feedback in terms of what the like or dislike about the chosen genre.


This enables you to make something made fit to the target audience taking into account the feedback. By observing the chart, we can see that 39% of the cinema audiences are aged between 15-24, which is within the range of our target audience. Secondly, in the gender column, we can see that males and females are almost the same in both the population and cinema audience, this shows that our target audience of males in terms of gender do go to the cinema and make an appropriate target audience.

 

Next diagram I researched 

 

 

As far looking at these two diagrams, they present the percentage of film that the general public typically enjoy watching. Meaning the Genre we picked is Thriller/ mysterious was a great chose to take as in both diagrams it suggests a high and great percentage if audience prefer Thriller, however it is not the highest in the chart but still a good results.

 

 

 



Film Making Techniques

Match on action: (addresses editing)

One of the most crucial tools an editor can have, match on action allows for the editor to create a seamless continuity between shots. Using a characters action/movement, the editor matches between two shots to help hide the cut. The action distracts the audience from the actual cut. Basically when end of the footer of the shot matches the header.

180 Degree Rule:

Two characters or element should have the same right/left relationship to each other (looking the opposite ways in each shot. 180 degree rule connects with two other filming techniques:





Shot reverse shot:

Is when one character is shown looking (often off-screen) at another character, and then the other character is shown looking "back" at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer unconsciously assumes that they are looking at each other.

The primary elements of a shot/reverse shot sequence are derived from the three camera set up. The shots you should have for a basic shot/reverse shot are: a two shot of the two characters usually in wide or medium shot (establishing shot), an over the shoulder/ points of view shot on character A, and an over the shoulder shot on character B.
NOTE! This does not have to be the same shot type but must be from the opposite angle.

Crossing the line:
Camera passing over the axis connecting the two subject

Generic marker:

Shows the genre

Choosing Location

Definition 

Choosing the perfect location and environment to shoot the production, that suits well with the narrative/ genre.

For example- in the Maleficent opening scene it is in a land where creatures live which is located in the forest, which is a perfect location for the shoot as creatures tend to live in the nature world away from humanity, as it is safer and also it is their adaptation.  

what is the purpose of location? 

• Location is an important element in media that helps to convey the story of the film. 
• Location exposes the film genre and scene to the audience.
• Helps to have a batter understanding where it is located (e.g in which country it is set) to the audience. Meaning, identifying time period and setting. 

Main Task

Information from the book 'Running on the Cracks': 

From reading the book you tend to imagine the character walking around in public to get to places (e.g using public transport to run away) and to find someone specific. Me and my Film Crew decided to pick London bridge for the location where the character is at the moment in tell we see her flash back, which is located in Maidenhead in one of my crew members grandparents house. We chose London because it is a well known for publicity and setting and we choose one of my crew members grandparents house as the positioning of the setting (e.g. you can see the kitchen and the dinning table clear from outside the window) is perfect for the flash back. 

Challenges

• When picking the location the next problem is confirming time and day to shoot with the Film Unit and Actors, as unfortunately it is hard to get the schedule right if someone cannot make it on the day. To over come this challenge by booking the schedule weeks/months before the shooting day and have a plan B if the schedule (plan A) did not go successful.   
•  It's not just location that is the challenge but what will the Film Unit face if the weather was not the way they expected on shooting day. You cannot undo the weather, which means the Film Unit should consider the bad side as well as the good side for the shooting day.   

Props Reseach

Definition

Objects on a set that are small or light enough to be carried by the actors. These are distinct from larger pieces of furniture or décor which merely form the background of the set.

For example:

In the film 'Find Private Ryan' the prop in this scene is the weapon each soldier is carrying. Some props are especially designed to look more like the actual item than the real object would look. In some cases such as this film, a prop is designed to behave differently from how the real object would, often for the sake of safety, or have safety features to ensure they are not dangerous.

What is the purpose of props?

• Every props has a different meaning of creating the scene.
• Many props are ordinary objects. However, a prop must "read well" from the house or on screen, meaning it must look real to the audience. 
• It helps a batter understanding visual of the scene.

Main Task

Information from the book 'Running On The Cracks':

The props where given where simply what a teenage girl would carry when she runs away (such as rucksack and diary). Me and my Film crew choose the Actor rucksack as it is used many times, light, easy to carry around, and can carry small portable object (accessories) inside when traveling.  We choose to expose the diary at some point in the scene to convey time period and the feelings of the character. 

challenges

•  When picking out the props we need to conform with the each other, and once it is conformed need to think outside the box, such as if the prop is used many times to look as if it is been used often or prop that is a brand new link (bought new) to suit the scene we are trying to convey.
• Thinking about the style, brand and colour of the prop. Then where will it be positioned in the scene. 

This quick sketch was brainstormed way before creating the pre-production pack to get a slight visual of props, costume and scenes. The visual is very different compared to how it actually looks like in the opening film we are creating.  

Film Opening of 'Forrest Gump' (McGuffin)

The visual of the opening scene

A feather floats through the air. The falling feather.

A city, Savannah, is revealed in the background. The feather floats down toward the city below. The feather drops down toward the street below, as people walk past and cars drive by, and nearly lands on a man's shoulder.

He walks across the street, causing the feather to be whisked back on its journey. The feather floats above a stopped car. The car drives off right as the feather floats down toward the street.

The feather floats under a passing car, then is sent flying back up in the air. A MAN sits on a bus bench. The feather floats above the ground and finally lands on the man's mud-soaked shoe.

The man reached down and picks up the feather. His name is FORREST GUMP. He looks at the feather oddly, moves aside a box of chocolates from an old suitcase, then opens the case.

Inside the old suitcase are an assortment of clothes, a Ping-Pong paddle, toothpaste and other personal items.

Forrest pulls out a book titled "Curious George," then places the feather inside the book. Forrest closes the suitcase.

Something in his eyes reveals that Forrest may not be all there. Forrest looks right as the sound of an arriving bus is heard. A bus pulls up. Forrest remains on the bus bench as the bus continues on.

What is the McGuffin?

The white feather that landed in between Forrest Gump mud-soaked shoe.



Film Opening of 'Inglourious basterds' (Dialogue)

 

The visual of the opening scene 

"ONCE UPON A TIME IN... NAZI OCCUPIED FRANCE"  
This SUBTITLE disappears, and is replaced by another one;

"1941           One year into the German occupation of France".
         
The farm consists of a house, small barn, and cows spread about. The owner of the property, a bull of a man FRENCH FARMER, brings a axe up and down on A tree stump blemishing his property. However simply by sight, you'd never know if he's been beating at this stump for the last year, or just started today.

JULIE           One of his three pretty teenage daughters, is hanging up laundry on the clothes line. As she hangs up a        white bed sheet, she hears a noise, moving the sheet aside she see's;

JULIE'S POV:     A Nazi town car convertible, with two little Nazi flags attached to the hood, a NAZI SOLDIER behind the wheel, a NAZI OFFICER alone in the back seat, following TWO OTHER NAZI SOLDIERS on motorcycles, coming up over the hill on the country road leading to their farm.

JULIE           'Pappa' she yells.
          The French Farmer sinks his axe in the stump, looks over his shoulder, and see's the Germans approaching. The FARMERS WIFE, CHARLOTTE comes to the doorway of their home, followed by her TWO OTHER TEENAGE DAUGHTERS, and see the Germans approaching. The Farmer yells to his family in FRENCH, SUBTITLED IN ENGLISH;

FARMER           'Go back inside and shut the door'.

FARMER           (to Julie)
          'Julie, get me some water from the pump to wash up with, then get inside with your mother.'
          The young lady runs to the water pump by the house. She picks up a basin, and begins pumping, after a few pumps, water comes out splashing into the basin. The French Farmer sits down on the stump he was previously chopping away at, pulls a handkerchief from his pocket, wipes sweat from off his face, and waits for the Nazi convoy to arrive. After living for a year with the sword of Damocles suspended over his head, this may very well be the end. Julie finishes filling the water basin, and places it on the window sill.

JULIE          'Ready Pappa.'

FARMER           'Thank you darling, now go inside and take care of your mother. Don't run.'
          Julie walks inside the farm house and closes the door behind her. As her father stands up from his stump, and moves over to the window sill with the water basin....The SOUND of the ENGINES of the two motorcycles and car get LOUDER. The Farmer SPLASHES water from the basin on his face and down his front. He takes a towel off a nail, and wipes the excess water from his face and chest, as he watches the two motorcycles, the one automobile, and the four representatives of the National Socialist Party come to a halt on his property. We don't move into them, but keep observing them from a distance, like the Farmer. The TWO NAZI MOTORCYCLIST are off their bikes, and standing at attention next to them. The NAZI DRIVER has walked around the automobile, and opened the door for his superior. The NAZI OFFICER says to The Driver in UNSUBTITLED GERMAN;

NAZI OFFICER           'This is the property of Perrier LaPadite?'

FARMER           'I am Perrier LaPadite'.
          The S.S. Colonel crosses the distance between them with long strides, and says in French with a smile on his face;

NAZI OFFICER          'It is a pleasure to meet you Monsieur LaPadite, I am Colonel Hans Landa of the S.S.COLONEL.'
          HANS LANDA offers the French Farmer PERRIER LAPADITE his hand. The Frenchman takes the German hand in his and shakes it.

PERRIER          ' How may I help you?'

COL LANDA           'I was hoping you could invite me inside your home and we may have a discussion.'

INT - LAPADITE FARM HOUSE - DAY           The door to the farm house swings open, and the Farmer gestures for the S.S. COL to enter. Removing his grey S.S. cap,inside the Frenchman's home. Col Landa is immediately greeted with the sight of the Farmers wife, and three pretty daughters standing together in the kitchen, smiling in his direction. The Farmer enters behind him, closing the door.etc.

The writer Quentin Tarantino uses a lot of Dialogue to drive the narrative and make his story more understandable to the audience.

Film Opening 'Bourne Identity' (Enigma)

DARKNESS. THE SOUND OF WIND AND SPRAY.
The darkness is actually water. A SEARCHLIGHT arcs across heavy ocean swells. Half-a-dozen flashlights --racing along what we can see is the deck of an aging FISHING TRAWLER.
FISHERMEN struggling with a gaff -- something in the water -- A HUMAN CORPSE.

THE BODY sprawled there. The Sailors all talking at once -
SAILOR #1                          -- Jesus, look at him --

SAILOR #2                          -- what? -- you never saw a dead man
                                                  before? --
SAILOR #3                          -- look, look he was shot --
                                                 (nudging the body --)
SAILOR #1                          -- don't, don't do that --
SAILOR #2                          -- he's dead, you think he cares? --
SAILOR #1                          -- so have some respect -- it's a --
                         

THE BODY MOVES! -- convulsing -- coughing up sea water -- the Sailors -- freaked -- jumping back -- standing there -- THE MAN begins to breathe.

INT. FISHING BOAT BUNK ROOM 
A wreck. Too small for all the people in here right now -- SAILORS sweeping off the table -- rough hands laying THE MAN down --THE CAPTAIN -- brutal and impatient -- watching from the door as -- GIANCARLO tears through the clutter -- then searching for a medical kit buried in the shambles.

GIANCARLO -- it's here -- hang on -- it's here somewhere -- give me a minute -- get some blankets -- get some blankets
                         on him -- (finding the kit) here we go -- here it is --

               GIANCARLO with an old trunk -- just getting it open,

THE CAPTAIN  Giancarlo.
                              (Giancarlo turns back --)
                         We pick him up? Okay, we have to pick him up. But that's as far as it goes.

GIANCARLO  He needs a doctor.

CAPTAIN          Fuck that. He lives? He dies? I don't care. We've wasted two hours on this shit already. You do what
                          you can, but we're not going back.(pure steel now) You understand me?

GIANCARLO   Yes, sir.

CAPTAIN   (talk to the rest of the sailors)
                         Let's get back to work!

GIANCARLO watching them run out.

How enigma been created?

• The first shot is lightening with black figure.
• STORM (something might go wrong or something might happen) and sound effects
• Something in the ocean (body), then they pull it up to check it.

Directors making style

Director 1: Steven Spielberg

He is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and business magnate. Spielberg is consistently considered as one of the leading pioneers of the New Hollywood era, as well as being viewed as one of the most popular and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. In a career spanning more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres.

Research on his work Style and if its related to the pre-production  

 

Stylistic feature	Example	Doable?	How?
Pace	Raiders Of The Lost Ark	Yes	·         Timing each shot         ·     Backup plan- shoot each shot again for different pace (e.g long and short shot for each one)
Scale	Star Wars	No
Sense of escapism	Jurassic Park	No

 

Director 2: Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, cinematographer, producer, and actor. Tarantino grew up an obsessed film fan and worked at Video Archives, a video rental store while training to act. His career began in the late 1980s, when he wrote and directed 'My Best Friend's Birthday', the screenplay of which formed the basis for True Romance. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with the release of Reservoir Dogs in 1992.

Research on his work Style and if its related to the pre-production  

Stylistic feature	Example	Doable?	How?
Gore	Inglorious Bastards	No
Dark humour	Django: unchained	Not really
Reliance on dialogue	Pulp fiction	Yes	·         Voice over (monologue)

Shooting Journal

At the begging of the Journal...

We where given a Task 'The title and opening of a new fiction film...' meaning creating and opening scene from an original book. We were recommended to search in the school library or on the internet. However,the books in the library were not so interesting and that sometimes one of my team member did not accept a participial book another team member picks, which left us with no book. The the director of my team recommended to research more into the book 'Running On The Cracks', which then we wee all satisfied and interested in the story.

Then...

To start filming we need to make the first step which is to create a Pre-production pack done in a time period and there was not enough to finish it in a week, only if we did it as a team for each page. Me and my team decided to split the work between each other and do a page each (do the page that can be done individually).

Shooting day

After going through the research and completing the Pre-production pack, we booked the two days shooting for two different places, before by a week and we have all the materials and tools and actors for the shoot. However, before the shooting day the plan was cancelled as something came up and that the main actor was not able to make it on the day, which made us rearrange the plan to another day.

Editing day

Before editing we need to export the videos in order to edit it them on the final pro cut. Using the storyboard and shot list to help us arrange the clips together. At this stage we were stuck as when we were putting the clips the way it was suppose to be arranged, it was not match on action nor fluid. After facing this challenge other problems kept coming up in tell we faced them all and completed the film.

What went wrong during editing and how we over come each challenge?

• When putting the shots the way it was suppose to be arranged, it was not match on action nor fluid, that was because the pace was the other way round. Meaning the pace for the long shots were too long and the pace of the short shots were too short. We decided to crop the long shots (especially on the flash back) as it was too long and slow the pace at on shot where she cries as the pace was too short. Also another way to fix the pace we froze a scene from short shots to extend it and decided to use a monologue for the freeze frames. Even though we have done all this, the pace and match on action was still not right, which left us with one solution that to rearrange the shot list and that will make the narrative clear. It was like a miracle how everything worked well when rearranging some of the shots as if it was meant to be. Lastly, we thought putting titles in between shots that were not match on action will make it more fluid, which was very successful idea.  
• Re-writing the script at the last minute; the original script was too long so we believe making it simple and short to make it less to concentrate (to much dialogue/monologue can cause confusion as too many things is happening), this will drive the narrative.
•  Afterwards, another problem we faced. That when we recorded the monologue and adding it to the shots it did not fit/suited the whole film, hence the noise of the background was to noisy for another sound track to dissolve in. The monologue is very important part of the film as it conveys the narrative and makes it clearer to the audience of what is happening in the opening scene. We decided to re-record the monologue, which did not work again. Then we decided to avoid using monologue and use a script writing like subtitles by using the hand writing font and soundtrack of screeching noise, as if someone is writing on a paper. While the character is writing on the diary the scene convey the surrounding rather that the diary to give a clearer visual to the audience and convey the feelings of character. Making the audience feel sympathy for the character.
• When making the tiles, we had to think very carefully of the type of fonts we use and some titles had to be different. On the final pro-cut it did not have all types of fonts we needed (the way we visualized it, especially the hand writing font), which left us with one solution, which was to research the type of font on the internet and download it onto the mac to be able to use it. 

Lighting & Colour Research

To measure the light source's ability to show object colours "realistically" or "naturally" compared to a familiar reference source, either incandescent light or daylight.
In many TV programmers, movies use natural daylight if shooting in the morning as it has a big influence on the look and mood that is created. Natural light can vary from bright, clear and sunny and they use special. Also they use studio lights if shooting outside after sun sets to make it brighter and clearer to see for actors and audience.

studio light      Daylight                         incandescent light 

What is the purpose Lighting & Colour Research?

• Lighting is responsible for significant effects in each scene. As light can draw attention to specific areas of interest, and create wonderful effects by its interplay with dark areas.

• Lighting can give depth to a scene, while also bringing out texture and detail in setting, décor, and clothing.

• Light can be either hard or soft light. soft light covers a wider area with a more diffuse light, diminishes outline and clarity of characters, minimizes shadow, and reduces modelling of detail and texture. Hard light clearly illuminates areas, sharply outlines and illuminates characters, brings out detail and texture, and markedly separates light and shadows.

Main Task

From the book 'Running On The Cracks' their is no details of lighting effects, which what filming industry face when filming, by using the access lights in the surrounding, and the studio lights. This part of the process is very simple, however lighting effects tend to change (e.g if shooting in a daylight, the weather could change in time/ when re-shooting a particular scene the lighting effect would be different), meaning when filming it is important to consider lighting and colour effects every time.

When we were shooting the opening scene it was in winter, which suits the genre 'thriller' as it is gloomy dull lighting effect. When shooting the flash back we used the incandescent light, to light the inside of the house as how it would be lighten up in the evening.