Evaluation questions

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

Our final media product both develops and challenges conventions of real media products. Gangster/thrillers are very common films, however only a few are ever extremely successful so we needed to establish our genre while also developing on it. One example of us doing this in our piece 72 Hours is the use of the camera. Classic gangster/thriller films are full of fast paced action, and the camera usually moves slightly to make the audience feel part of the action, however ours does not. We wanted the action to be clear, but still be fast paced, so encorporated the quick cuts from similar films while holding the camera steady.


Another example of our film challenging and developing conventions of real gangster/thriller films was the use of costumes and the use of light and natural colours. Our costumes show defined roles between the gangsters and the ordinary actor, and this develops the characters too. Although this separation is usually shown in gangster films between the 'good guys' and the 'bad guys' me and Kiel dressed slightly differently, although still smart, to show our individuality whilst working together. Gangster films also commonly use the dark to create tension and suspense, so we filmed the opening credits in broad daylight to show there was no-where the characters could hide and no-where they would be safe.


2. How does your media product represent a particular social group?


Our film represents older teenagers and younger adults. 72 Hours develops stereotypical views and also challenges views on the particular age group. The character played by Ryan wearing ordinary clothes represents older teenagers. This is developed by him being chased through a busy outside shopping centre, seen as a typical teenager stealing from a shop and running away; however something much more sinister is at work as the guys chasing him catch up, kill him and take a memory stick from his bag.


In contrast to the older teenager and his scruffy look, the two men chasing him are dressed more smart in order to establish they are from a different social class, and separate the two sets of characters. The stereotype of these businessmen being rational and professional is changed in this film as they are shown chucking trolleys out of the way and doing anything to get to their guy.


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

Although our film is relatively low budget and British we could have some interest from Hollywood studios, however we are more likely to get interest from a small British copany such as Film4 that wouldn't expect our movie to make a large profit. However, this would have its benefits as if Film4 distributed 72 Hours we would have access to their television channel, internet site and their high profile market. Film4 already have an established fan base, and this would allow our film the promotion it needed to attract attention. This film company normally distributes low budget British films, therefore I think this media institution would be more beneficial to our film than a big Hollywood studio such as 20th Century Fox.



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

Our chosen demographic was an age group of 15 - 23 year olds, with males probably most likely to see our film. This was because of our target research questionnaire we did months ago. We found that this age group were most likely to watch newer gangster/thriller films that developed on conventions already set up by films like Scarface and the Godfather.

We decided to have the film rating at a 15 so it would be available to a wider range of people, even though this meant making some of the violence and drug scenes less graphic. Our research supports the idea that men are more likely to see the film due to the violence, drug abuse, and sex scenes; and although well-known actors are key to a films popularity, establishing the gangster/thriller genre is just as important, therefore the promotion will have to include typical conventions of our films genre.



5. How did you attract/address your audience?

We found out from our questionnaire that well known actors and an obvious genre would attract our target audience to watch our new film, and although we obviously could not include a famous actors now, we could in the final film perhaps with the support of a big Hollywood company. However it is more likely that we get distributed by Film4, a small British company, and have clearly demonstrated conventions of the genre to attract our audience. This includes a chase, death and typical gangster costumes. The speed of the chase, annonymity of characters and the inclusion of '72 Hours earlier...' at the end of the credits are left to keep the audience guessing so they want to find out more and continue watching, as well as being more typical conventions of a gangster/thriller film.


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

I have learnt a lot about technology, in particular the use of cameras, editing software and blogging.
Although I was in the final production and therefore couldn't be filming, I still played a big part in finding locations and different angles, and also filmed much of the preliminary and Juno remake. I learnt how to film professionally and that I must have a few seconds of film before and after the action to allow time for editing. The editing software was especially difficult to use and I think we did well to edit the film together after facing difficulties such as our rough cut being deleted, and struggling to find appropriate titles. However I would now be much more confident using this equipment, and feel that our final product shows we had a good understanding of the software. Blogging was also completely new to me, and although it was a struggle to get pictures and videos on, I think I overcame these problems using common sense and learnt to blog quite well.


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

I feel that I have learnt a lot since my preliminary project, and when comparing that to my final piece you can see the difference in quality. When filming the preliminary we only filmed what we needed, so learnt from this and in our main task we filmed lots of different angles of the same clip, for example the trolley.

We also learnt that the microphone and editing software were not easy to use, and the microphone did not have a good enough quality to put in our final piece. We decided to have just music in our final task as to make sound more professional, and included the credits inbetween action shots to split the action and make it look again more professional. I also learnt that certain angles do not work well together from the preliminary, and that in order for the action to flow it needed to be split up and seen from clear and distinctive angles, something we used in our final product.

Costumes and representation

These pictures show the final costumes me, Kiel and Ryan were wearing:

Ryan was wearing a pair of smart yet casual trousers and a blue jumper to suggest how ordinary he is, and to not draw attention to him. This costume shows he is just an ordinary person and he blends into the crowd, however it soon becomes apparent he isn't just a normal person in the street when he starts getting chased. Ryans character is called Guy Smith, just an average name as the character is supposed to blend in and look average all the way through the film.



Mine and Kiels costumes are very formal and smart. Instead of being dressed exactly the same we decided to dress smart to show we were working together, yet a hint of individuality to suggest we are not the same person. This is not like usual gangsters who all dress the same, and we did this on purpose to show our differences as characters. These two gangsters are known by number one and two, however no one knows which one is which as they always work together.

Filming

Filming yesterday was very successful as we got all of the new shots we would need for our production. There were some problems including the skip, but we had a lot of difficulty filming a close up of me and kiel running towards the camera. We got over this by sitting Ryan in a trolley and pulling him backwards while running towards him. Apart from these two things filming went very smoothly and we will be editing these new clips with our old footage next week.
Whilst filming we didn't have to have permission to film near Tesco or the streets just outside of it, however we were met by people doing their gardens and also a security guard from Tesco while filming. These people were simply interested in what we were filming and said we could continue when we asked for their permission.

Skip

Whilst filming yesterday we came across a problem as a skip had been put in one of our old location s we needed for filming again. However, as the shots were all close-ups and shots facing away from the skip, we could carry on as usual and just move to the left slightly. This shows continuity as you cannot see the skip, as you couldn't before.

More filming

We have organised to film our extra shots and edit them on Friday morning. All of us actors have to wear the same clothes as last week, and hopefully the weather will be the same so the film will look continuous. We have considered health and safety issues, and will not be filming anything too risky with the cameras and actors as we d not want any injuries or to break the camera.

Audience Feedback

After showing our rough cut, we gained some audience feedback that told us our stlye was slique and the piece could be improved by using a different shots than we have not already used. The feedback also said that we had used a lot of mid-shots and long-shots, and although this was okay because our film was full of action, we needed to create a broader range of shots by adding more in. These include an establishing shot, close-ups of when characters are running or scared, tand cuts to make to some of our other shots, in order to keep the chase fast paced.

Due to this audience response we are going to change the ending of 72 Hours so the evil characters could empty the contents of the hero's bag onto the floor, then pick up an item such as a memory stick to make the audience want to watch to find out what the item means. There would be a close up on the item pulled out of the bag, again just to aadd in more different shots.

Rough Cut

This is the first rough cut for 72 Hours, unfortunately there was a problem with sound again and there is no sound at all. Also the ending is missing and I am working on the film to try and make this right:

Final filming

Again, there were problems filming as most of our arranged actors had dropped out, however we used a friend that had free lessons and stuck to our latest storyboard and shotlist to finally finsh filming.

We used a lot of stright cuts as it looked more professional than other types of edits, mixing together shots ranging from over-the-shoulder-shots, long shots and mid shots.

Another problem we had with filming, in that we had to run around near a shopping centre using toy guns. We had to keep the guns hidden in order to not alarm the public, and made sure that no one was around once we needed to use them shots. A security guard came over to ask why we were filming, but he let us conitinue after watching for a short while.

Our ideas changed a bit because of lack of other actors, and me and Kiel had to step in again. We left everything to very late however we were fortunate that filming went well, and this morning I edited all of our clips together with some credits we had already made as a group. As we left it so late and our other rough cut got deleted, I cannot publish a rough cut, but the next post will be the finished version of the opening two minutes of 72 Hours.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack will be Birdy Nam Nam - Trans Boulogne Express which isn't copyright, and today I downloaded this track and also the sound effect of a gun shot, which will be featured when our main actor is killed. I will try the sound effects and track when our filming and editing is finished.

A new plan for filming

Last Friday due to group members personal circumstances we couldn't film, so have had to postpone until next Friday when our actors are free. The two gangster characters will wear smart shirts and trousers to fit in with typical conventions of the gangster genre, and Ryan will wear everyday clothes to help him blend in with his surroundings and reinforce the idea that he is an 'everyday man'.

Today we made all of our credits, using premier-pro, and have left gaps inbetween so that when we have filmed our editing will be very simple and we will have the final copy of our work ready for next week and the deadline that is fast approaching. Our credits are flashing and moving, as we wanted them to, to symbolise the front of a clock; and we have decided our final credit saying 72 Hours will flash on and off the screen before fading to black.

New shot list

To fit in with out new idea we are keeping the same angles from our latest storyboard, but I have made another shot list for filming tomorrow. The shot list revolves around fitting all of the opening credits in, while building suspense; therefore the appropriate credits are placed inbetween certian shots, as you can see:

A new direction

As our rough cut has got deleted, we had a new idea that would include the opening credits better than our original idea. We have planned to start the opening tw minutes during the chase, but instead of filming it all continuous with the credits rolling on throughout, we will cut the screen to black after a few seconds of film and show credits then. This will cut down on the amount of refilming we will have to do and also make the credits much more visible, while hopefully building tension and suspense. This fits in with our thriller and crime genre as I have seen ther films such as Mission Impossible 3 use this technique.

Deleted

Since we last looked at our rough cut somehow it has got deleted, so although we can remember what order our clips went in we will have to edit all of them back together again, while also adding new clips we are planning to film soon.

Rough cut

Today we used the clips we filmed last week to create a rough cut of our final project. We edited the clips together and asked our teacher what he thought. It was obvious that we would have to go back and film shots again, such as an establishing shot.He gave us ideas about where to put our titles and to put a gap or freeze to split up the acion of our chase, seen in films such as Trainspotting and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Next week we will go back and re-film scenes that were not good enough for our final cut, and will have to think about continuity, especially the unpredictable weather.

Filming

About a week ago now we set out and filmed for a rough cut of 72 Hours. We faced varius problems concerning the use of actors (we changed our actor for the lead part after he didn't fit the role), and other team members turning up a tiny bit late; but once filming began we developed our ideas on the basic storyboard including the use of a car. The filming went smoothly and our actors were very professional, overall i think our rough cut will look quite good. I took some pictures while we were filming as you can see above.

A New Storyboard

We finally decided on a new storyboard for 72 Hours that involves a chase scene through town, and finishes in town car park with someone getting shot. However, this idea is not realistic because we would not be able to gain permission from the council to have a gun in a popular car park. We decided to have the chase through a nearby area because of the narrow winding alleys we found when going on our second location scout. We made a path that the chase would follow and applied our already made storyboard to this.

Soundtrack and Credits

A huge part of our first two minutes of our film will consist of opening credits, either behind or ontop of the action already happening in every frame. I had to find out what order these came in, so studyed various films before coming up with an order to suit my film:

• name of studio
• production company
• a film by __________
• cast
• edited
• producer, executive producer
• story by __________
• directed by _________

We want the credits to appear in some sort of timer, like the digits seen on a watch, in order to reinforce the idea of 72 Hours being timed. However, before I can finalise this we will have to look at our editing software to see if it is capable.

Whilst studying the four different parts of a extract in our practical lesson - sound, mise en scene, editing and camera angles, I started to look for suitable music to feature in my film. When I was looking through youtube and personal favourites, I found a three and a half minute techno song called Walk Through by Frances White that would be perfect for the chase scene we will be filming. The song builds tension, but starts quite quickly, therefore I am thinking of having diagetic sound until the chase begins, then adding this song in over the diagetic noise of the streets and car chase.

This is what the editing software looks like when creating a new title:

Another storyboard

We made another storyboard, this time including a chase scene, to make the opening two minutes more exciting. This storyboard was only rough, and was originally based in the car park in town, however we faced issues using a BB gun in a public place, so moved our idea to the local streets around our school. We went on another photo shoot, to assess potential locations and camera angles and this was very successful. The tiny alleyways and tight corners will provide some good shots for our piece, and we planned a route so the shots will all have continuity.

Potential locations

We went on a potential shooting location trip around our school, taking pictures of anything that could be used in our film. We had to think about genre, and how this would affect what location we could use. For example the stairs would be good for someone to jump or run down in an escape or chase scene, but the stairs and squash court were too dark, and would have made our film look like a horror/thriller.

Original storyboard

This is a few pages of our original draft storyboard for 72 Hours. After a couple of meetings we decided to change our storyboard, as we had no where to film that fits in with this storyboard.

Synopsis and target audience questionnaire

We have decided that our film will be a thriller/gangster called 72 Hours. It will be about a man that witnesses a violent mob murder, and is dragged into two warring gangs feud. He is given 72 Hours and a couple of leads to find something for one of the gangs, what it is the audience do not know until the end of the film. The quick paced plot and narrative take many twists and turns along the way, but eventually the witness to the murder finds what the gangsters are looking for and double cross both gangs, single handidly bringing both mob boses to justice.

Our Target Audience, Questionnaires, Responses and Certifications
To enable me and my group to see whom the target audience is going to be, we created a questionnaire which we shall hand out to the general public asking them if they would like to take part. We split the questionnaire into age group and gender so we were able to generalise on age and gender. The questionnaire was anonymous and included closed and open questions so the public could give their opinion in detail on some of the questions.

Here is an example of the questionnaire that was handed out;

1. Are you are Male or Female (circle appropriate)

2.What age range do you fit in to?

15-17 18-23 23-30 30-50 60+

3. What is your favourite type of genre (circle all that are appropriate)

Comedy Horror Thriller Love/Romantic Chick Flick
Musicals Science Fiction Films Crime & Gangster Films
Action Films Adventure Film

4. Could you please state when the last time when you watched a crime and gangster film was? And where did you watch it i.e. at home on DVD, cinema or internet download?

5. What would attract you most to watch a crime and gangster film? (Select more than one if necessary)
Actors Location of where film was being played

Director Advertisement and Previews

Storyline (Synopsis) Reviews

6. If a new blockbuster film came out which was a crime and gangster genre, had famous actors in what would be the chances of you going to see it at the cinema? Circle most appropriate.

Not Very Likely

Maybe If It Involved My Favourite Actors/ Actresses

Maybe as A one off

Very Likely

7. Is there anything that you would find inappropriate in a crime and gangster or anything that you would expect to see?

Would NOT expect

WOULD expect

After we collected all the questionnaires my group sat down and went through the questionnaires and found that our target population is ages 18 - 23 (with the exception from a few 15 - 17 years of age) and mostly males.
Going with this as our target audience we found that the last time they had watched this type of genre was at home on DVD or on the internet.
The actors and storyline we found on all of the questionnaires is what the general public circled as well as our target audience.
When it came to question 6 the majority of the questionnaires said either if it contained their favourite actor or actress or very likely.
The other questionnaires said that it wasn't very likely for them to go and watch a film of this genre. In question 7 our target audience as a whole said that they would expect killing, blood, good plot/storyline, money and a lot of 'gadgets'.
They said that they wouldn't expect friendship, strong moral values and to be viewed by children were the most popular answers that came up on the questionnaire.

Looking at the results of the questionnaire we now know that our target audience is going to be either a 15 or 18. We looked at what we can contain to make this film a 15 or 18 certificates and this is what we found.
• 15 = Ages 15+
Allowed to portray the following;

Strong Violence, Frequent language, Portrayals of Sex, both verbally and actively, Nudity, Brief sexual violence scenes, Discriminating language and behaviour, Drug taking, Occasional Strong terms, Horror can be strong but not strong in gore and Only strong substance drug abuse will not be in a 15.

18 = Ages 18+
Allowed to portray the following;
Strong issues, Violence, Sex in real time not brief cut scenes, Sexual Violence and activity, Horror, with blood and gore, Discriminating language and behaviour, And Drugs as long as they are not promotional.

As we assessed these certificates our film would mostly come under a 15 certificate as it will include drug taking, discriminating behaviour and language and strong violence. But if we wanted to make the film an 18 this would be easy as we would just make the scenes that include drugs more in detail and would include more discriminating language. However within the opening of the film, drug taking isn't shown, and no language is included as all the sound is Non - Diagetic.

Our Target Audience and futher research

After researching other films with the same genre as ours it is important to look at the target audience we are trying to make the film appeal to. The core target audience for the film ‘Pulp Fiction’ is mostly males aged between sixteen and thirty years old (although the film carries an '18' certificate). Fans of action and violent films are also the main audience, especially fans of gangster films. I am hoping the audience for our film will also be mostly males aged 16 and over, as our film will be based on the same genre as that of Pulp Fiction.
A target audience can also look for actors to show that they might like the new film. They could look for actors such as Vinnie Jones who they already know plays lots of gangsters in films, and could choose to watch a new film because it has him in it. However, our film will not have any famous actors in it as we obviously do not have access to them, so we will have to focus on representations to show the audience what type of film it is. The same problem an audience could have is with the director. As we cannot have a director already well known within the gangster genre, the first two minutes of our film will be key to the audience knowing what genre the film is.

More research

As I know now my target audience I am comparing three movies in the gangster/thriller genre to find out any mutual choices of preferences to have in these types of films, or whether to try something different.

Phonebooth
Synopsis - A likeable business man is cheating on his wife, and calls her from the same phonebooth everyday. A mysterious sniper has been watching this and traps the businessman in the phonebooth, before telling him to tell his wife of his affair or he will kill him.
Conventions - murder, affairs, love, regret, insanity
Camera angles, lighting, colour and props - Lighting is always the same as the phonebooth where all the action happens is outside, so the picture is always very clear unlike most thrillers, however this only adds to the atmosphere of the main characters lonliness and helplessness. Camera angles are very creative as the action is just about always around the phonebooth in whch the main character is trapped. A lot of wide shots and close-ups, and when the action happens the edits are very quick and switch from medium shots to close ups oftenly.



Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Synopsis - A slick gangster film that centres on a group of friends that compete on a card game and lose, making them in debt to a gangster boss. This movie is full of comedy and different characters.
Conventions - black comedy, hard-edged gangsters, gritty london, violence
Camera angles, lighting, colour and props - The lighting for this film is unusual as it is all tinted a tiny bit in grey, probably to represent a grey london full of gangsters and violence. The camera angles are inventive and unique to this film, with a lot of care and consideration going into each frame. A lot of freeze frames are used to show different characters and give way for the narration of the film.



Rise of the Footsoldier
Synopsis - This film charts the life of one of Britains most feared gangsters Carlton Leach; his early days in football hooliganism, his career as a bouncer through the 'rave scene' and to how he became feared and respected , even after the Rettendon Range Rover murders of 1995.
Conventions - gritty gangsters, real life, violence, sex drug abuse, hooliganism
Camera angles, lighting, colour and props - Camera angles are not very unique, however a lot of wide and mid shots are used to show the action going on on screen. Again this film is tinted grey and dull, especially as these are memories of the main characters life. A lot of cut scenes of old fashoined footage of typical football games and violence, are used to cut up the action and make way for narration. The camera is not steady through all of the action scenes, probably to emphasise teh action and to make the viewer fell like they are there.



In conlusion, I can see that typical things included in gangster films these days include a tint of greythroughout the film to emphasise grittiness, innovative and creative camera angles, a camera that isn't steady through action scenes and freeze frames or cut scenes to allow place for narration of the film. In order to challenge these conventions I will not be using a tint of any colour, and I will be using a steadicam for all action scenes, especially in the opening credits of the movie. Also, I will not be using freezeframes to split up the narration, as I want this film to flow like others such as Lucky Number Slevin.

More Research - Lucky Number Slevin

Next I researched the thiller/gangster genre by looking at Lucky Number Slevin. Lucky Number Slevin is a 2006 crime thriller written by Jason Smilovic and directed by Paul McGuigan. Set in New York City, the plot focuses on the paths of Slevin Kelevra (Josh Hartnett), Lindsey (Lucy Liu), two feuding crime lords known as The Boss (Morgan Freeman) and The Rabbi (Kingsley), and a mysterious hit man known as Mr. Goodkat (Willis).
The plot takes many unexpected twists and turns before the surprising ending, and this is something we could perhaps use in our film to keep the audience focusing and interested. The complicated plot is key to the events happening during the film, instead of the focus on characters or something different. The use of such a strong plot helps the story to flow and takes the viewer on a journey. If we had a complicated plot in our film this would be a convention of the classic thriller genre, and would demonstrate we have done our market research.
The characters in Lucky Number Slevin are very mysterious; even one character is named Mr. Goodcat. The twists and turns in the plot reveal that some characters are not who you think they are, and though this sounds difficult to follow, it is actually quite easy. If I included this into my film it would demonstrate clear use of the crime, thriller genre, as people are usually revealed to be someone else as the plot thickens.
The use of two rival gangs is another convention of the thriller genre. Our film has already been decided as a crime/ thriller, and the plot will include either one or two gangs that will threaten the main character. Although because we are not using well known actors that could have already played lots of roles as hard gangsters (Vinnie Jones), we are going to have to show representations of masculinity etc in the actors we use for these roles.

Research - Snatch

Now I am onto the main task of making my own two minute beginning of a film. Our group has chosen the gangster/thriller genre, and we are now researching the beginnings of other films to see what ours might look like, and ideas we could include.

Snatch
The film begins with the two main characters sat looking nervously at a man/figure sat down facing them, but he is in the shadows and has his back facing us, to make him remain annonymous. Over the top of this camera shot is the narrator Turkish talking about him and his partner Tommy, their names, what their job is, and finally the rhetorical question "What do I know about diamonds?" The camera then fades and then follws a series of security cameras watching four jews entering an elevator and entering a hotel room, without an edit, as the credits come on screen.
During the first few minutes of the film there is only one edit - this is the dissolve after Turkish ironically questions himself "What do I know about diamonds?" and we know this is what the film will be about. The figure of a man being in the shadows and having his back to the camera suggests mystery about him, especially when the two main characters are looking nervous ; and this is mainly due to the camera angle too. We can also tell a lot about the type of film due to the clothes the characters are wearing. Turkish and Tommy are wearing old-fashioned suits fitting in with the time and jobs we know they have, thanks to Turkish's narrating. Turkish's narrating gives us a good indication of their chrarcters, and how he is in charge of their partnership, but hardly ever the situation. Finally, we know what the film is about due to the start of the film actually being towards the end of the story, and we also know the events of the film will take us back to the beginning.



Also to help us in our own film, I made a time-line of the opening credits of Snatch, to see what coes where, and how far into the film:
0.00First couple of credits before film
0.02Mid shot of the two main characters as the camera pans above an unknown man's head
0.05Close up of their faces
0.10Mid shot of both of them, then more close ups of each character looking nervously around with narrating over the top0.15
0.20Fades out as narration states "What do I know about diamonds?"
0.25CCTV footage of three Jews walking through a bank. One contiuous shot of their journey as the camera moves to different screens of CCTV, with calm Jewish music in the background
1.00Establishing shot of inside bank and the bank manager shouting
1.05Mid shot of three Jews
1.11Switches back to mid shot of bank manager
1.16Switches back to Jews and the camera zooms as they reveal their weapons as teh music speeds up
1.20Another zoom into bank managers expression
1.30Various shots of Jews beating security guards and quick cuts, the camera spins once each man is beaten
1.42Quick edits of fighting and more spinning
1.56Freeze frame when the directors name comes up and the music cuts
2.03Close up of expressions
2.10Mid shot of man hit to the floor as one Jew asks "Where is the stone?"
2.25Cuts to inside van of the Jews taking off their disguises as the theme music cuts in
2.37Close up of graphic match of the diamond they stole to the mans eye
2.40Zoom out of diamond then the titles role

Juno

For our second bit of filming we had to re-film the first two miuntes of Juno, while the credits are rolling. To do this successfully we had to think about mise en scene and getting each frame exactly like the actual film. I made a storyboard for the different frames we would be using, as seen above.

The use of these storyboards made our job of filming a lot easier. We knew exactly what shot we had to film and found an appropriate location very quickly, knowing what background had to be in each shot. Getting the costume and props was easy as Roxy already had the clothes like Juno wears, and we bought a carton of orange juice to match that seen in the film.

Overall, this exercise again developed our camera filming skills, and we found how much easier it was to work with a storyboard. These elements will be incorporated into our main exercise of creating our own two minute beginning of a film.

When trying to get the video we made of Juno up on screen we are having some difficulty regarding the size of it, so will post this when ready.

The Preliminary

This increased our basic understanding of filming and camera angles, as well as starting to develop the editing software. We found it easy to film the match on action elements of Tony walking through the door; but difficult to keep continuity in the form of weather out the windows, and what the cast were wearing because we had to film over a few days. Overall, this task helped us understand how much footage we would need for our final exercise (much more than we expected), and a basic knowledge of the editing software.

This is the final version of our preliminary:


As you can see we had issues with the size of the screen on which the film is now projected, and these carried on to our re-filming of the beginning of Juno. I will upload the video when we have found a solution to making the actual film larger.

Rules of the preliminary

In our preliminary exercise, we had to include the following basic rules:

• Match on match action – refers to a film editing technique where the editor cuts from one shot to another view that matches the first shot's action and energy. Although the two shots may have actually been shot hours apart from each other, match on action gives the impression of continuous time when watching the edited film. By having a subject begin an action in one shot and carry it through to completion in the next, the editor creates a visual bridge which distracts the viewer from noticing the cut or noticing any slight continuity error between the two shots.

• Shot/reverse shot – this is a film technique wherein one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking "back" at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other. Shot reverse shot is a feature of the "classical" Hollywood style of continuity editing, done so the audience perceives one continuous action that develops linearly, chronologically, and logically.

• 180 degree rule - states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle. This is shown in the diagram below:

Introduction

The people in my group is Kiel Ormesher, Roxy Potts and Tony Myers. We have currently learnt about rules in filming and will be applying these to our preliminary exercise and re-filming the beginning of Juno, before going onto making the first two minutes of our own film.

The reason for remaking the beginning of Juno and our preliminary exercise is to get used to the cameras, and familiarise ourselves with using storyboards and the editing software we have available to us. This information will benefit us in our final task of filming the first two minutes of our own film.

Our first bit of research in media was to research our favourite film and make a powerpoint presentation about it. I chose The Warriors, a gangster/ thriller film, and this fits in with my future target research.