Unforeseen Emissary and preliminary

Friday, 20 April 2012

Tuesday, 17 April 2012

Shot List

High angle Mid shot


-Extreame Close Up













Over the shoulder shot










Point of view shot
Long shot


Low angle mid shot



Movement shots included;
-Tracking shot
-Zoom 
-Pan








Tuesday, 3 April 2012

My evaluation questions and how I will answer them.

1)In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products. -I shall use a Prezi to evaluate this point.

 2)How does your media product represent particular social groups.
 -Again I intend to use a Prezi and embed videos of different audience's asking them their opinion on the opening sequence.

 3)What kind of media insitution might distribute your media product?
 -I'm not 100% sure on how I shall present this. I am contemplating the use of Wix.com, this is software whereby you can make your own website. I believe this will be a very good way of presenting information.

 4)Who would be the audience for your media product?
 -For this I think I'm going to use a Prezi and again and present the information via that.

 5)How did you attract/address your audience?
 -For this I will put annotations on my Youtube video of Unforeseen Emissary.

 6)What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
-For this I shall interview myself talking about each one of the technologies we used for our opening sequence.

 7)Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product.
 -Again for this I shall use Prezi.

Thursday, 29 March 2012

Introducing my evaluation.

Now that I we have finished editing and finalising our final piece I am now ready answer the seven evaluation questions I have been set. There are different ways in which I shall approach answering these. Firstly I shall use the Prezi software on the internet. This offers a less con formative way of reprsenting data and answers. Its a more interactive and modern day tool. Moreover It differs from the colloquial writing of an essay and offers a more technological alternative. I am also planning of setting up a Wix account. This is an online website creating tool, whereby I can present even more than one answer on an online database.

Audience feedback for Final Cut

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zski9Lz90f8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Tuesday, 27 March 2012

Our final cut, with a title sequence.

Here is our improved final cut, it includes a new title sequence along with new dialogue and perfected cuts.

Thursday, 22 March 2012

Title- 'Unforeseen Emissary'

We came up with an executive title for our film. We thought considering that it is a spy thriller, we should include something to do with espionage in our title. So we came up with 'Unforeseen Emissary'

Our new script, on revision is:
Smith and Johnson are both secret agents involved in espionage.

Smith: 'Glad you could make it'

Johnson:' I haven't got much time, can we hurry it up, you know I'm not supposed to be here.'

Smith:'I need you to do one more thing for me , one more mission, she'd want you to do it.'

Johnson:' She's not here anymore, I quit along time ago, i'll nee you S.'


Wednesday, 21 March 2012

Tuesday, 20 March 2012

Audience feedback on our Rough Cut

We showed our rough cut to some people in our class and asked them to say features that are good and things we need to change.

Sound: It was effective but the dialogue was drained out by the sound of traffic in the background. Also our actually dialogue was apparently not good, in the way we gave too much away for an opening sequence. So we have cut all this out of our opening sequence and are going to re-film it.

Camera Work: The camera work was very effective, a huge variety of shots and movements were used in a very effective way. The only problem was the shake of the camera when Ricardo enters the school.

Conventions: Follows the mysterious conventions of the Thriller Genre. The strange camera angles make the audeince nervus and on edge. The only concern was the reality of it at times. Such as the dialogue, however we are definately changing this.

Obviously there was no feed back on title sequence as we have not yet completed these on Motion. However they are a working progress and should be completed by the end of the week for our second edit.

Friday, 16 March 2012

Making fake blood

This was done by our group, we used the blood in the rough cut and I'm sure it will feature in our final opening sequence. It was used making flour, red food colouring, maple syrup and water

Thursday, 15 March 2012

I have set myself some questions about the current footage we have filmed

Have we got all our footage?
-Yes


Are all our scenes not shaky?
-Out of 5 i gave ourselves 4. Their is one scene that we shall have to re-film due to the tripod dolly not handling cracks in the pavement well when doing a tracking shot.


Is all our framing ok?
-To a point, some areas the framing was rushed and we had bits we didn't need, especially in the background of some scenes in Ricardo's bedroom.


Is all our diagetic sound ok?
-Yes, apart from our one scene with dialogue, cars in the background drowned out the dialogue.


What camera angles have we used?
-We used Shot reverse shot, match on action, establishing shot, pan, a range of different angles; including low angle, high angle, mid shot etc.

Was Mise en scene good?
-Yes, within the school we did our best to make sure that school, were we filmed it didn't look like a learning environment. But in Ricardo's bed room it was hard at some parts not to include some unwanted background posters, etc, but we successfully edited these out.

Was their continuity?
-Yes we made absolutely sure that sound, miss en scene and framing were all continuous.

Does our footage look authentic?
-To a point my only query would be our fake blood, it may look too fake!


The equiptment we shall use.

Tripod:
This is used to stabalise the camera and ensure that a fixed steady framing is on the scene. One can adjust the angles and height of the camera using the treaded screws on the top of the stand and changing the clasps on the feet of it.

HD camera:
The camera obviously is used to record the motion, it also has a still setting so one can take pictures with the device. It also has a zoom function and different settings on its software. This ensure's a good motion is caught.

Still Camera:
We use the still camera to capture images of us working as a group together, we also use it for pictures of our sets and miss en scene. Its a Nikkon and does a purposeful job.

Monday, 12 March 2012

Opening title sequences.

The opening sequence of a thriller nearly always contains a title sequence, probably the most famous designer of title sequences is Saul Bass. Bass was involved in the production of a lot of Alfred Hitchcock's title sequences, although not a Hitchcock film one of Bass's most famous opening sequence was for the film 'The man with the golden arm' which can be seen here: Furthermore 'North by Northwest' was probably bass's most famous Hitchcock opening title sequences, it can be seen here: By looking at both these bass title sequences one can notice a pattern, Bass tends to use the line going down the page and in effect pushing the title on or off the page. It adds an interesting effect of cynicism. Bass also uses white lines generally. The film 'The man with the golden arm' was a taboo subject in 1955 when it was released due to it being about a heroin addict. Bass's use of the Black on white paper in the opening scene caused a stir due to its connection to the arm which is associated with drug use. This shows the power Bass's image has projected. Moreover Bass's work has been emulated in 21st century productions such as Catch me if you can (2002)

Friday, 9 March 2012

Celluliod pictures

Here is a picture of the Celluloid pictures crew, from the left- Dauud, Ricardo, Johnnie (me)

Thursday, 8 March 2012

Mise en scene


The concept of Mise en scene is basically the referral of everything that appears before the camera and its arrangement-composition, sets, props, actors, costumes, and lighting. It also incorporates the positioning and movement of actors on the set, which is called blocking. This is why it is nessacary to have have directors, this is also a small part of their job on set. 

For thriller films, the mise en scene is usually low- key for lighting, the sets are dark and associated with black that is considered a sinister colour. Red is also a common colour used. In the movie 'We need to talk about Kevin' in every scene something red is shown, this represents 'Kevin's' association to the devil.

Thriller conventions

I have been speaking about thriller conventions and how we are incorporating them into our opening sequence. But in order to fully understand I going to do more research. Firstly, we are basing our sequence on a spy thriller; such as Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy or James Bond. The conventional prop to see in this type of thriller are:
-Fake blood
-Guns
-Suits/overcoats
-Knife
-Handcuffs







Furthermore, red herring-we shall be using this in our sequence. A red herring, as the name suggests, is a decoy or distraction from the actual target or objective, designed to 'lead' them -usually the protagonist- in the wrong direction. Agatha Christy used it in her spy thriller Novels. It tends to be a regular feature in detective or spy thrillers. Also in the film Memento, the main character and protagonist Lenny is constantly searching for the 'Red Herring'

Lastly we are also using a cliff hanger. This is one of the most common conventions in Thriller movies is a cliff hanger. Naturally as we are only doing an opening sequence its no surprise that our movie will feature a cliff hanger at the end.

Tuesday, 6 March 2012

Shooting script

Shooting Script

Our company

'Our company' is called Celluloid Pictures. We found it quite difficult to think of a name at first. But then we had the idea of Celluloid as its the compund of nitrocellulose and camphor which form 'Celluloid' which is then the substance used to make film reel. We then added pictures as it composes as catchy name-

Thursday, 1 March 2012

This is our animatic storyboard. It includes the basic scenes and sounds we shall be incorporating into our opening sequence, furthermore it shows the title sequence that will show during the sequence. Where it says 'working title' that is where we are still looking for a title for our production. From doing this I learnt that the approximate duration of our openming sequence will be around the standard 2.00 minute mark.I also learnt that the props we will have to include will be ones that fit the thriller conventions. We will need-fake blood, suit, alcohol containers...The research I had to do in order to complete this was just a genral look at other animatics such as the Gorillaz one I posted earlier. To do the sound for the shower we had to record an actual shower, the other sounds mostly came from Imovie.

We have associated are production company (celluoide pictures) most strongly to the small independant film company Warp Films, here is a short bit of info about Warp:

Launched in 2001, Warp Films leads the way in exciting and original British Filmmaking. The company has been behind an array of critically acclaimed and award winning films, including several BAFTAs. Warp Film productions include Rubber Johnny, Dead Man's Shoes, This Is England, Donkey Punch, A Complete  History of My Sexual Failures and Four Lions.
Currently in post-production, as part of Warp’s digital slate Warp X, is Kill List, written and directed by Ben Wheatley. Shortly due for release after its premiere at Sundance 2011 is Tyrannosaur, Paddy Considine's directorial debut, starring Peter Mullan and Olivia Coleman.
Richard Ayoade’s debut feature Submarine starring Noah Taylor, Sally Hawkins and Paddy Considine premiered at the Toronto in 2010 and was released in the UK during March 2011 and June 2011 in the US. Warp Films' development slate currently includes projects with Shane Meadows, Chris Morris, David Slade, Frank Cottrell Boyce and Lynne Ramsay.
Warp's most recent television production for Channel 4, Shane Meadows' This Is England '86 has received numerous plaudits and reached record viewing figures. Warp is currently developing several television projects with Channel 4 and the BBC.
Upcoming short films for Film4 include The Organ Grinder’s Monkey, a short written and directed by Jake and Dinos Chapman, and Matt Holness’ debut short A Gun For George.
Warp Music Video and Commercials has an impressive roster of directors including Shane Meadows, Richard Ayoade, Robert Hales, United Visual Artists and Eric Wareheim. Their inaugural commercial 'The Boost Mobile Shuffle was for the prestigious Super Bowl 2010 spot. They have made music videos for Flying Lotus, Vampire Weekend, Tinie Tempah, Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Warp Films' first film My Wrongs #8245–8249 & 117 by Chris Morris won the Best Short Film award at the BAFTA Awards.Warp is closely associated with Chris Cunningham, who was responsible for Aphex Twin's videos Come To Daddy and Windowlicker. He is responsible for an abstract short film called Rubber Johnny, which features the music of Aphex Twin and was released on May 23, 2005.
Shane Meadows has made three films with Warp Films Dead Man's Shoes, This Is England - which won a BAFTA - and most recently "Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee".
The Chris Morris film Four Lions was twice-BAFTA nominated.In April 2008, Australian film distributor Madman Entertainment announced "a collaboration" with Warp Films. Warp and Madman plan to make "at least 2 films together over the next 3 years." with Warp setting up an Australian branch in Melbourne. The first film to come from this collaboration is the Australian drama, Snowtown Warp Australia also announced the development of Partisan, a feature film by Ariel Klieman and Sarah Cyngler in 2010.
Warp Films are currently crowd-funding four short films shot at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival by Vincent Moon, using the website Kickstarter.com. The project will need to reach its goal by 15 October.


FilmYearDirectorNotes
A Complete History of M Sexual Failures2008 Chris Waitt
All Tomorrow's Parties2009 All Tomorrow's People & Jonathan Caouette
Arctic Monkeys At the Apollo2008 Richard Ayoade
Bunny and the Bull2009 Paul King
Curtains2009 Julian Barrattshort film
Dead Man's Shoes2004 Shane Meadows
Dog Altogether2007 Paddy Considineshort film
Donkey Punch2008 Oliver Blackburn
Four Lions2010 Chris Morris
Fur TV2008 Chris Waitt
Grow Your Own2007 Richard Laxton
Hush2009 Mark Tonderai
Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee2009 Shane Meadows
My Wrongs #8245–8249 & 1172003 Chris Morrisshort film
Rubber Johnny2005 Chris Cunninghamshort film
Scummy Man2006 Paul Frasershort film/music video
Submarine2010 Richard Ayoade
The Mighty Boosh Live: Future Sailors Tour2009 Paul King
This Is England2006 Shane Meadows
This Is England 862010 Shane Meadows & Tom Harper
Tyrannosaur2011 Paddy Considine

This is the trailor to a big Warp Films success- This is England-



Tuesday, 28 February 2012

Locations

I now have a very clear understanding of where we as a group shall be filming. Firstly Our beginning shall be at Lambeth Towers in Kennington on Kennington road. We chose this location as it is the residence of one of my group partners. His bedroom shall be where we start our film. When filming here we shall have to acknowledge the time of day, as we want natural sunlight to stream through the window to fulfil the Mise-en-scene. This is a picture of Lambeth Towers:
Furthermore Are next location will be Chelsea Academy school. This location is a more convenient one as we can film during school hours. Furthermore our school features Mise-en-scene that we desire. We want lifts and a board room, both are within our school. It is a fairly modern building so it gives the sense of a contemporary feel to our movie which is what we are looking for. Here is a picture: 



Finally we are doing our finishing sequence at Lots Road Power Station. We have decided on this location as it a dereclict power station with a sinister feel about it. 




Animatic

Having composed a story board which shows the sequence of events that will feature in our opening sequence, we are now going to show it in an animated way which will enhance the audiences understanding of the purpose as to why we do it. Moreover it is a useful and detailed form of showing the sequence of events with sound and title sequences. This shows (without real footage) the rough duration and completed idea of our sequence. Here are some examples of animatics that have already been used: And this is an example of the actual video:

Monday, 27 February 2012

Preliminary task

Here is our completed preliminary task. You can tell it incorporates all the specified technical aspects: Mise en scene, 180 degree rule, Match on action. We also included some dialogue. This 40 second piece took us 90 minutes to make. This showed us that in the production of the real thing time management will be a large factor to consider! From this task me and I'm sure my team mates found that the amount of time we put into filming and what we gat back (in terms of length of film) is relatively out of proportion. We shall have to manage our time sensibly and make sure we anticipate the time we spend on producing this opening sequence. Before coin this task I researched the technical aspects we had to include in great detail. Match on action I already knew, but in order to have a clear understanding of how personally to use it I had to do some research. I found that films such as Alain Resnais's surreal Muriel ou Le temps d'un retour, played with this technique. Moreover, 180 degree rule I also researched and found that it is a method that states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. In addition it was been a common feature in films such as the Shining 'Bathroom scene' and English presenters Ant and DEc always use this when presenting with 'Ant' on the right and 'Dec' on the left. Lastly Shot reverse Shot i found to be the funnest one to film and edit. The definitions states:Shot reverse shot (or shot/countershot) is a film technique where 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.

Garage Band tutorial

Furthermore I thought garage band was a useful bit of software to figure out, so i found this tutorial very helpful. It shall be a good aid as the non-diagetic features in our film will need music made from this software.

Tutorial into how to use I Movie

so as we are editing and finalising our opening sequence through I Movie on mac's. I thought this tutorial video would prove very useful.

Here are pictures of my storyboard. A story board is used as a plan for the final opening piece. Also directors use them to show the camera operators the sequence of events and which technical aspects to incorporate into their production

From completing these story boards I have found out the approximate duration of our film, with everything we wish to include in it. This has been useful for our time management. Also I now have a far clearer idea of the props we will need to use. Interestingly the props that we shall have to include will be ones that meet the conventions of a thriller genre. Such as; guns,fake blood, knifes...Moreover as a result of doing this story board I have found that we will want to change some of our scenes and some of our locations as they may take too long filming and eat into our 2.00 minute limit.

Things to consider.

Within our Opening sequence we are going to have to encorporate a variety of techniqual aspects. Firstly Sound. We shall involve as little dialogue as possible as it is difficult with equiptment that does not cost alot to recieve it well. We have within our Media Studies department a special sound reciever which can aid the camera in picking up diagetic sound. Within the film industry top production companys such as universal studios or 20th century fox will invest millions into sound equiptment. Obviously we do not have these kind of resources, but it is possible to produce a quality film by other means, and by using what we have to its best ability. Moreover another consideration will be the filming equiptment this has been one of the most ground breaking proliferations in hardware over last 50 years. We have HD cameras which can give great detail. It has 20 mega pixels. There quality can be seen in the prelimeration task have completed. In addition the editing and title sequence of our film will need careful consideration. The title sequence will just show are names and maybe the locations. We shall have to think carefully about the colour our titles are as we dont want them to significantly stand out against the feature.

here is the shooting schedule of our group.

Shooting Schedule

Preliminary task.

Me and the other people in my group have produced a shot 3 second clip. Within this clip we have encorporated: -Match on action -180 degree rule -Shot reverse shot. This was done to show that as a group we have a clear understanding of what these techniqual aspects are. During this time we realised that making and editing films is a difficult task and we shall have to channel alot of time into the wotk of our final peice.

This is a power point I put together illistrating the logos and film companys. We would associate celluoide (our company) most stronly with an independant and small company such as focus features.

Film Company's and Logos

Wednesday, 22 February 2012

This is a powerpoint about our final idea.

My Completely Finalised Idea

Tuesday, 21 February 2012

This is vague final idea, to be more detailed next time.

Our Individual Idea

This is feed back I did on tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, this was completed by my friend Antoine Hills Darget

Question a Ire

I came across the idea of making a presentation about famous thriller directors

Famous Thriller Directors

This is some research I launched into the opening scenes of spy thrillers and thrillers

Opening Scenes of Thrillers

Tuesday, 7 February 2012

We have decided to produce a spy thriller, we have started brainstorming. Here shows some conventions and opening scenes of Spy thrillers

Technical Aspects Used Within Spy Films

Here are picture of me and some of my group working

here is a piece of text I did demonstrating the conventions of a thriller-Die Hard with a Vengence

How Does the Film Use Conventions of the Thriller Genre to Create Suspense

Tuesday, 31 January 2012

Today we studied the characteristics of a thriller. I put together this spider diagram: Conventions Thriller
So far I have watched Memento. This is a mystery/detective thriller. It was directed by Christopher Nolan. The beginning sequence starts with the protagonist waving a polaroid photo, waiting for it to develop, although in reverse. We also ascertain that he has just killed someone so to begin with the audience isn't made fully aware weather he is or isnt the antagonist/ protagonist. Moreover non-diagetic music follows this sequence. It is ansynchrous as it seems un-fitting to the enviroment and scene.(as it is a murder scene)This music is remorseful and has an optimistic tone to it.
This picture shows the protagonist.

And this is my newly updated one that I added info too.

Conventions of a Thriller

This is my power point on the conventions of thrillers, and some examples of films and techniqual aspects used

Conventions of a Thriller