Focus group

My group have filmed a focus group but when we were uploading it onto this blog, we had difficulties finishing the upload. So we decided just to write it out. We interviewed a total of 3 people who had watched our film and the result was the following. I will not be writing their comments instead I’ll get them to write their own.

The first candidate wrote ‘I found that the film was very to the point and direct, this was is working towards its point; it’s a short film. On the other hand, the story presented to is very cliché and almost ‘seen before’, saying this I quite liked the settings and camera angles used. Originality, I wouldn’t say it carried any. Presentation, average – and camera work, usual. This film is something that I feel wouldn’t appeal to a younger audience nor the older audience, why? I feel that the story is used before and screen play basic. Educational wise, I suppose that this film could prove to be a stepping stone for those who have just started producing films.’

Mark Manzi

The second person wrote ‘The first thing that caught my eye is the name of the film ‘Eagle court’. It got me thinking straight away about what the film might be about.
However, throughout the film, I felt that the sound track was too static, there was no variation as different part of the movie needed different types of music.
Overall, I discover that the film is well thought of and it depicts the every-day life of certain teenagers or people because we all have fears and are chased by them and sometime in the present or in the near future we will have to face them. This is shown by the last scene when the actor being chased came out of the lift and looked shocked but he knew he had to face what was staring glaringly at him (his fears).’

Chima Uche

The third person wrote ‘The first impression I got from the film was that it was well edited and a lot of work had been put into it. The main content of the film is active and the choice of music suited the mood of the film. However, the music was the same all through. This was a down side because a change or increase in tempo of the music in some intervals would make a huge improvement to the film in general. Overall, I think the film had creativity and innovation, a clear purpose and direct to the point. The end of the film is a cliff-hanger and raises a question in the viewers mind which would be craving to be answered.'

Adeleke Fetuga

What kind of media institution might distrubute your media product and why?

A distributor is very important to any film, as it makes the film’s success. A distributor markets the film and gives it a name. They also have great ideas in which to tie in the movie to other markets and medias. We would like our film to be tied in with magazines which can reach a teenage market. The magazines we would like to target report on the latest trends and fashion e.g. Q, Kerrang, and to name a few. We would also want the distributor to have links with music channels such as MTV, VIVA, FHM etc…this would be a great synergy as we can hit a primary audience without much effort. This has been seen before with the movie Kidulthood which saw many of its adverts during prime hours on those movie channels. Another way our distributor would make a good marketing approach would by trying to advertise the product on the radio as it is a cheap way of marketing but very effective. This would all be a positive to the distributor as the market is already established and only a minimum amount of work would be needed to reach an audience.
We see this piece of media product being released during the months of December or January when there is little competition at the box office, it will be released in the major cities in small independent cinemas before hopefully moving onto a bigger canvas. This would hopefully give the movie a kick-start and capitalise on its target market and bring an inherited audience and reviews if it does indeed step up. The distributing company that we have chosen to distribute our film is 'Working Title' and the reason for choosing this is because we know this is a British distributing company and that it is well known for producing good low budget British movies. 'Working Title Films' have had a good history of making low budget British movies with a huge return. 'Working Title' is an independent film production run by Natasha Wharton, and has produced films that include Billy Elliot, Shaun of the Dead and The Calcium Kid. These have all proved to be a good investment and have been shipped out abroad because the parent company of Working Title Films is Universal Productions. This is another plus as it has another market which can it can be shipped out to if it proves a success in Britain. This has been seen with the hit Shaun of the Dead which was sold to an American audience after its initial success in the UK.
We would also hope to get the backing of other studios such as the UK Film Council and Film4 Productions which all have a track record of producing and helping to distribute these type of movies. The UK Film Council gives funding to many independent movies and helps to market them. The UK Film Council were a huge influence on us because they have funded the likes of Kidulthood. All of the choices we have made were the due to the fact that they all have a proven track record of being able to sell a product with little capital investment.
Film4 Productions have a great track record of making good British films which hit a pre-targetted audience. They co-produced the likes of This is England, Sexy Beast and Trainspotting. The last 2 which were nominated for Oscar and where met with huge critical acclaim.

Preliminary task to the main product - what have we learnt?

There was a huge difference in the two pieces of work which were the plimary task and the actual video. the difference was the quality, length and storyline for example in our plimary task we used a simple location which was our college canteen and the reason being was that we could show our camera skills. Whereas in our actual coursework we had to pick a specific place, costumes, characters and a storyline which could be carried on. In our coursework we used a number of shots to gain higher marks which we did not do in the plimary task. We also used a number of different equipments which we didn't use in the first clip, so the quality was much better then the plimary task. We learnt a number of different things for example how to use the editing software and garageband where we created our music sound track and another thing which wasnt in our plimary task and is in our coursework is the text showing who the production was about and who were the directors and characters.

We also learnt the significance of high and low key lighting in the production process, as all of our filming took place outdoors, which is very different to being in a building with good lighting. so one of the problems we faced was the weather because we had to check the weather continuously due to our video being filmed outdoors.
Another thing that we did not do in our plimary task and we did do on our real task was the storyline, as in our real task we had a deeper storyline.


We worked harder at translating the script we had written into real inspired images. This was much more difficult, because we had to try and show the characters emotions and position in society through the four technical codes. So, in that respect, we have definitely learnt about character representations on screen.

Rating

Theme: No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate to 15 year olds.
Language: There may be frequent use of strong language; the strongest terms are only rarely acceptable. Continued aggressive use of strong language and sexual abuse is unacceptable.

In our film, it would contain strong language throughout and one use of very strong language. This would be used to realistic effect to demonstrate typical conversations with teenagers.

Nudity: There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.
Sex: Sexual activity and nudity may be portrayed but without strong detail. The depiction of casual sex should be handled responsibly. There may be occasional strong verbal references to sexual behaviour.

Our film will contain no nudity as this is a 15 rated film.

Violence: Violence may be strong but may not dwell on the infliction of pain, and of injuries. Scenes of sexual violence must be discreet and brief.
Imitable techniques: Dangerous combat techniques such as ear claps, head-butts and blows to the neck are unlikely to be acceptable. There may be no emphasis on the use of easily accessible lethal weapons (in particular, knives).

There will be strong violence throughout the film but will not dwell on any infliction of pain for extended duration, no use of sexual violence.

Horror: Sustained or detailed infliction of pain or injury is unacceptable.

There will be no sustained or detailed infliction of pain or injury. There will however be extended scenes of suspension.

Drugs: Drug taking may be shown but clear instructive detail is unacceptable. The film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug use.

There will be minimum drug taking shown and references to drug taking but not detailed drug abuse nor promotion or encouragement of drug use.

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

Title
The title for our movie clip comes at the end of the 2 minute clip. The letters appear one by one with a bold strong font but the words appear out of order. It’s unlike the rest of the titles so it can show it has many changes in relation to the rest of the movies.
The beginning 3 credits are animated to give it a sense of action and modern feel about it, For example the same is seen in the opening of the movie ‘Kidulthood’. For the rest we switched to a more real font to bring out the realism of the movie.

Location
We chose the location because it gave off a urban sense to the clip. It makes it empathetic to the inner city audience who we aim to attract. The location gives the movie a gritty and rough feeling as seen in one of our examples ‘Shank’.

Costumes



In our clip, we decided that the only way the characters could dress was informal causal, we couldn’t have them appear in formal clothes because that wouldn’t suit the situation and surroundings. Mubashir was wearing jeans and a hoodie, this is common attire worn by many teenagers who we hoped to attract. Rory was wearing a sports tracksuit. In the background we had extras of people wearing different types of clothing to represent the wider community.

Camerawork/edit
In the clip, i have the first minute of the movie switching back and forth with credits. The first three are animated credits then the following 4 are still credits and finally the last is moving credits. We chose this arrangement because we wanted to set a steady pace which the audience could follow easily. We wanted to show that something was going to happen later in the scene. This is often seen in real media products when the beginning of the movie is set to fast music before fading at credits to a steady pace. We used simple shots and tracking shots. We did not use zoom in or zoom out because we wanted it to be as natural as possible. We didn’t want to confuse the audience so we didn’t add anything which would over complicate the story of the clip.

Title/font and style
We used a strong bold font just to enhance the rough feel of the clip. In addition we didn’t want to add in a font that would make it seem a bit fake and unnatural, we needed to compliment the simple story and shots with a simple font. We added in animated credits though which worked well with the soundtrack as they were quick and snappy.

Characters
We have stereotypical characters who are introduced without speech or a voice over. We allow the audience to make up their own minds about who is the good or bad guy. We wanted to leave a question so it makes the audience want to continue watching for the answer. At the end we possibly see the introduction of at least one unknown person and possible two more, this was done just to give an added question of who were they.

Special FX
We used no special FX’s within the movie because it wasn’t called for at all so we stayed clear from it. It was unneeded and unnecessary as it would have served no overall purpose.

What have we learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

As our group came into the film making realm, we discovered there were a lot of methods that we could use to ensure we get a good film clip however we discovered there were many techniques needed to achieve many ccamera shots and it simply just wasn’t the case of setting up a tripod and pressing record nor was it one where we could run away with a camera and film people acting. We had to plan the shoots in order of what was important and then shoot in that order to keep it nice and simple. We saw that during filming stage what we filmed would have to be captured so we had to film with one eye on editing so we could mess about with the shot types and whether locations.
We learnt to achieve a good steady continuous shot by using a tripod. this was good to give the film a realistic and professional look to it. Our group used a tripod because it ensured that our work could be shot properly with no trouble and it wouldn’t be jumpy. We used a camera that was good enough to film with and allowed us to do a variety of different camera shots and movements.
We also used many other things to get a good camera shot, For example we used weights to ensure when filming without the use of a tripod it would be steady and won’t be hard to watch.

When our group had finished the actual film making process we moved onto the MAC computers in which we could capture our clips.



While on the Mac we used the programme called Final cut pro, on this we used a variety of ways to edit and cut our film. Final cut pro offered up many different ways of editing a film. We first tried to experiment and see what other means of editing we could do on our clip. We captured the clips and then we tried to see how they would look like in black and white for example or how it would be if we made it in split screen to name a few. We later decided to keep it simple and just edit a straight narrative which would offer the audience a fast paced scene but would also leave a question to be answered.
On the photo of final cut pro, you will see the timeline at the bottom. This was very important in order to stay focused. We used it to time and match our soundtrack to the video without much hustle. In addition to this, we learnt how to add in animated credits, fades out/in, Importing various sounds and clips onto it, adding in text, slow motion, contrast of the colours
etc.

We used another programmed called garage band and soundtrack pro, which aided us in order to make a soundtrack. This was a new experience for our group but since there was a tutorial that we could all understand. it was easy to use and required little previous knowledge to get to grips with. We used other technologies in order to keep in contact with each other and to research more extensively the work. With the garage band equipment we tested our different sounds to our film clip and we thought that this was just enough but infact we needed to import it. We learnt more at this stage than any other because we were forced to covert and use another programme called soundtrack pro, which combined the skills we had learnt from both computers and focused them on one.

We used a variety of tools on our Mac’s which helped us with certain shortcuts and other media products. Our keyboard was highlighted in certain areas to show us the shortcuts that would reduce our workload. I mainly spent most of my time using this keyboard as opposed to actually using the buttons on screen. As I found that , over time, it was an easier for the piece of work we were doing to complete it using this method. The mouse was also very useful as it helped use navigate the final cut pro and other software with precision.
We used Google and YouTube to research and find images and clips of other movies we would want to use as examples.

Shooting locations/ schedule

We started off filming as a group in a local park 10 minutes walk away from Loreto College, themed with Mushabirs training session before his boxing match. We did this as we drew inspiration from a sport boxing ad which utilised training in a park. We chose this local park as it was only 10 minutes walk from Loreto College, making it possible to shoot scenes there while within college hours. We had progressed as far as taking pictures within Mushabirs boxing club, however when faced with certain time issues and constraints on filming we needed to rethink the film totally. After redoing the film script, we chosen the location for the filming in a local area of houses and council flats, "Eagle Court" being the most important as we shot filming inside and outside the building. The reason we chose this site was not only because it was only 5 minutes walk away and the enviroment suited our theme as our film was set in a gritty council state which would be most likely involved with crimanal activity. We started filming during March, but due to serious issues of camera work and enviroment settings for the first film plot, the filming was extended up until 20th April in which we finally finished the shots for our film fully and within most camera work rules.

Research into genre

We have chosen to do a drama, just like the movie Kidulthood, Shank, Get rich or die trying... Etc. Here are a few movie links in which we try and show you what we will be attempting to do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXpNCyMYLqA - link to the opening to Kidulthood

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfapOIPCRik - link to the trailer of Shank

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdYC6Ct3MWY - link to the trailer of Get rich or die trying

The genre would appeal to the teenage market and young adults, we hope to get a target age group of 16-24 years of age. The drama feature would explore life changes and life experiances for teenagers so it can be relataable to an audience. We picked drama as it would be ideal to portray a harsh surrounding and feel to the clip.

Sorry its seems like some of the blogs have been deleted. Plot summary Re-write

So, i will re-write them. The main task was based upon the drama genre. In the clip we begin with Mubashir, the main actor, leaving a flat of blocks and walking down a path. His looking around in anticipation of something which may happen. He continues on his walk before he stops and spots an old friend Rory, they have a mini showdown then Rory then chases Mubashir into the block of flats before Rory is locked outside. This makes Mubashir think he is safe as he runs and pushes an innocent bystander out of the way before entering an elavator. We then have a cut-away which follows the bystander, John is casting the roll, he then opens the door for Rory. We cutaway to the third floor, where it seems as if 3 people are waiting for Mubashir, as the door opens Mubashir steps back in fear and it fades to black.


The reason why we chose this ending was because this causes tention for the audiance and wants them to know wat happens next...

Who would be the audience for our media product?

The movie will be targeted to a 16-24 year old market, so would have the certificate rating of 15.The audience for our media product would be the age group of 16-24. We hope to attract the Urbanized/typical teenager who is sometimes rebellious towards authority figures E.g. A police officer. The reason why we chose this media group was because there is a a number of teenagers who are involved into crimnal lifestyle for examle gang life etc....... so there will be teenagers who would want to watch movies like this, another reason why we chose this kind of toryline was because of the sucess of adulthood and kidulthood..... after watching that we know what kind of storyline is more licked by that age group (16-24).





The typical teenager who may be into the latest trends and fashions. Mubashir is a 16 year old teenager who listens to radio stations like key 103, Galaxy, XFM… etc and is more likely to not be interested or only partly interested in politics. The type of movies he will be into is more high concept movies which do not rely heavily on world life scenarios ,unless it personally effects or is based on a life of a teenager, but more fantasy and adventure E.g. Transformers. The TV shows he will observe will be on TV stations suited to more of a younger generation for example MTV, channel U, Bravo, BBC 3 to name a few. The TV shows he will more likely follow are those which are also targeted to a 16-24 year olds, such as Family guy, Hollyokes, X factor and more. I would hope our movie will attract typical teenagers would more likely to see a movie which has a teenage perspective.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The film clip focuses on the characters stereotypes, representation and themes. We focus in and try to tap into a youth market in which there is a huge market for. We show this through the costumes we use in the clip. We show a working class type of group in our group through the use of the much hated hoodie. This also tries to tap into the hoodie culture which has been given a bad name, so we can try and reach a market faster. We try and show a divided society through the chase scene. This we hope could strike a chord with many youths who are embroiled in the gang culture which is often a violent and ill-informed choice. We don’t have many props in our clip but we try to show mise en scene through the location. The colours are dull which symbolises the mood of the clip and foreshadows the rest of the clip.

The poor lighting and whether tries to signal that this place isn’t a area to be brought up in. We see many things within the scene that suggests this, from the old bolted up shops with the trees which have lost there leaves. This place is shown to be a dead, to have no life but yet the poorest of the poor can live there however its not a good life as it leads to violence and anger which is focused on each other. The main plot shows tries to represent a new era in British history as it becomes more and more popular for youths to join gangs who are from underprivileged life’s, we’re not speaking for all youths but the ones who would fit our criteria.

We cast Mubashir in the lead role to represent a growing urban culture. He wore jeans and a hoodie to connect with the target audience and social group. We got the idea for this dress sense by watching several movies which relate to ours E.g. Kidulthood, Shank, Get rich or die trying… etc. we tried to adhere to the stereotypical urban culture. In ours we did not try to exaggerate the look for any reason but we tried to keep it in line so we can be part of that certain social group. Mubashir was used because he could look like a modern teenager who is into the latest fashion and music. We felt this was important because it did not alienate our audience.

Animatic Storyboard

While working on the Animatic storyboard I am currently doing, I came across a very good animatic storyboard on youtube. This Storyboard is a scene from 28 weeks later.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k024a0q807I
it shows what effect a animatic story board can have on the film and just how close the film and story board is matched.

filming

We have now completed our final filiming part of the coursework yesterday which was tuesady 12/04/10, and have stared the editing of the coursework which is also near enough complpete. Yesterday we added a new shot to our video which is a point of view shot of mubashir AKA bash, when he stops and looks around before moving towards the shops where he gets chased by rory. The reason we added this shot was so that we could increase the chances of gaining a higher grade.
And the background music for the video is also been produced by mubashir and michcle on garage band. this will take us approxmetley 2-3 weeks due-to it being a tension based beat. All together it will take use three weeks time to have this coursework 100% complete.

Summary

I re-read some of my blog entries and have now thought that i will go over every thing that we've done thus far.

We started offf with an idea, which included us doing a boxing opening. We wanted to mimic the Famous jog which was highly iconic in the first Rocky movie. When we begun to film it we were confronted with several problems, E.g. Location and timing. We still hope to update the blog with the footage and photos we took on those dates. We then switched to a much easier objective, it was simple of a guy being chased by another. When we found out the majority of the media groups were doing the same story we decided to change it and give it a twist. We worked hard to create a certain feel off the opening, we wanted to make it feel like an old fashioned western. We saw many things we could include in terms of the genre. We found a nice location which was silent.

We ran through a list of shot types which we then tried to pull off, we added a variety of shots which could then be quicked during the editing process so the pace can be maintained. This is waht we've done in terms of the idea and filming but this is only a quick summary.

So stay connected and check out of blog in the upcoming weeks to see more information and photos

80 percent done!!!

Ok, now that we have two days filming time remaining. We've finally completed most of the editing leaving just the credits and a bit at the begining to do. We're going to film multiple endings to ensure we have many options to choose from iffff one doesnt quite fit.

In the wise words of borat i shall end with this 'Sexy time'

new filming

We have completed the first half of the opening clip leaving the editing just to do.

UPADTE!!!!

Right, We havnt been here for quite a while, soooo i have much to update you lot about. The first and maybe the most important is that we have changed the whole plot of the two minute clip. we have moved aaway from the boxing idea because of difficulties in filming. Though we will be updating the pictures and movie clips we filmed and took over the course of the past 4 weeks, so they dont go to waste.

The new plot is one which contains a plot twist, The idea is We see mubashir coming out from a place called eagle court, we follow him untill he reaches a point. Then we bring in a new character who is to be believed as a crook and one who would rob the innocent mubashir. we have him follow mubashir for a while, before he utters the words 'Oii, wheres my phone/ i know you'. Mubashir then runs and he falls over and then pleads the person not to rob him. As the 'crook' comes into the light we realise the two are actually close friends and the crook identifies himself as being michael. the pair share a joke and then begun to walk away. In the distance we hear, 'Oii wheres my money' leaving the pair motionless just before fleaing the scene. this opens the question whether the new character is a friend or a crook. the scene finishes there.

Preliminary task

Sixth post: New member

Breath of fresh air, we have a new member, Rory from 3 we go to 4. Less pressure on the group..........

Fifth post: Film clip

The rough idea of what our group has come up with is based around the sports genre. It tells the story of Mubashir a 17 year old boxer who is about to make it big if he impresses a promoter who has come to see if he has got what it takes.

The clip begins off at his boxing club, we see him putting on individual clothing. When we he puts on his pants, it cuts to black and titles are shown, the same happens after he puts on his gloves and to limit it becoming repetitive we join the clips of him putting on his socks before cutting to a final black, when we fade from black we see Mubashir throwing a punch to a punching bag, we match cut this to a video of Mubashir when he was a kid throwing punches in a video. We start a slow zooming and we see Mubashir watching the clip, the silence is broken by the father. He delievers an important line which tells a bit more what the clip is going to be about. At this point Mubashir replies and we cut to him at the backroom of the event, we hear in the background the chanting of fans and friends. He is visibly nervous and his body is shuddering. it cuts to him entering the ring. The fight begins and he takes a few punches and a few more. When his against the ropes he looks over and sees his father and future promoter driving him on. At this point he begins to fight and he pushes his opponent into the corner just before the round ends. The clips ends and we are shown the name of the film.

Fourth post: Clip evaluation

Evaluation of the short video clip, the clip shows John walking from the upper floor and walking down stairs. He enters a room and begins a conversation with Michael. He finds out that he has a English homework due for the next lesson so he leaves.

The first shot is of a long shot to show John entering the shot after and we follow him going into the cafeteria. We have an insert shot of the John opening the door, we cut to a medium shot of him walking into the room, we cut to a long shot in order to track him and show him sitting down. Before he sits down we cut to an over the shoulder two shot to introduce a new character, Michael. We cut back to john so he can finish sitting down. We cut back to a medium close up of Michael delivering the one line of dialogue. When this happens we cut back to John to show his dissatisfaction over what he has just found out. We show a POV close up of John in order to try and emphasize John’s emotion. We cut back to a two shot of Michael and John as john stands up and shakes’s Michaels hand. We then track John walking out the room and the clip ends.

Third Post

We have just finished out editing. We have made a simple video of John having a conversation with me. we have made a few mistakes in the editing but we have learnt form them. For example, we now know only to cut when necessary. We have gain the knowledge of how to remove black spots inbetween shots, doing this we have made our video less jumpy and now has more of a plot.

Second Half

In todays lesson, me and my group worked on how we can use the camera. We shot a variety of shots outside the school campus, the first was a long shot which tracked the walk of Mubashir from side to side. We later moved indoors and worked out way in which we could film in doors and keep the lighting similar. We forgot though about teh 180 rule and crossed the line. We learnt at this point that we must keep the camera on one side in order to maintain balance and not confuse out audience.

First blog

19/01/10

we have just created a brand new exciting blog, in which we'll update you on all the going's on within our group. The group consists of 3 main people, Mubashir, Michael & john. Each of these people all bring an edge to the group which will build up in time to equal the greatest ever 2 minute introduction to a movie ever made since .....