location shots

After drawing up my story board I went searching for various locations that I thought would fit my idea. I wanted small town alley ways and back streets, the reason for this was I wanted quite long and desolate places for my character to walk down. There were many options in the town that I chose to shoot my film, but I chose the location in the photo that is the sixth one down on the left. The reason for this is it gave me all the aspects I wanted, these were: Long walk way, narrow, not many people on the route, limited lighting from with in the alley way and it lead to a cross road that interlinked with a main street in the town which is exactly what I needed for my film.

filming time table

To make sure I stayed on top of my work I created a time table. Here is a what I planned to do when creating my film, although I have th dates in place some things are bound to go wrong. Not massive things but a few small things like weather conditions and actor availability. If anything does go wrong and I have to reschedule then I shall write about it in my evaluation when the time comes.

film story board

We had to make our own first two minutes to a film we had to come up with. Here is my storyboard along with all the camera shots and shot lengths that I thought at the time  were good for my idea. there were a few small things that I didn't add clearly enough in the storyboard like what shots the production companies were in or where specifically they were in the shot on the screen. Also I forgot to add in the title on the storyboard. The title of my film is relevant to my film idea, it is called "The Casing".

Codes, conventions, music and sounds.

Before I start thinking about anything to do with my film, I had to research into my chosen genre. This was action thriller. This is also known as a sub-genre as it has another genre. I will be writing about how the codes and conventions used in mt sub genre help contribute to the overall success of the film. I was going to choose horror at first but then decided as many people said to me that horror films are only good if made correctly and well otherwise they dont work. So I chose action thriller. 

The codes and conventions of an action thriller film:

There are three main categories in this sub genre. These are: 

. Technical (Camera shots and angles and techniques used to capture different shots). 
. Symbolic ( Clothing and colours used in the scenes of the film).
. Written and  audio (Music, diagetic and non-diagetic sounds). 

Technical:

. Action thriller films often have a low lighting on the bad characters to show the audience that these characters  are bad and they have shadows on their  face making them dark and mysterious. Not only do they use dark lighting to show the bad but also colours that the character is wearing helps to portray that this person is mysterious and unknown to many in the film.
. Action thrillers also have fast paced scenes and fast cuts in scenes. This is to help raise the intensity within the audience. They use a variety of shots that capture a range of different feelings and emotions that can be felt by the audience if captured correctly. These shots can capture the exprssions and emotions of the characters in the shot.
. Shots frequently found and seen in action thriller films are close ups and extreme close up. The reason for the use of these shots are because the face can show a lot about a person, what they are feeling, what situation they are in ect. 

Symbolic:

The types of clothing used in action thrillers are mostly dark coloured and by the end of the film more worn out than those found in other genres. 

Written and audio:

The sounds found and heard in a action thriller can vary. This is because changing in scenes in the film. For example films like Batman the Dark Knight is a prime example of an action thriller and a great example for the changing in audio in an action thriller film. 

This is because in some scenes where the hero (Batman) is shot doing heroic actions the music changes to a majestic like theme song that shows his pride and power, where as when the villan comes in the music changes to sounds that then grow louder and increse the intensity of the scene.
In this scene the hero Bruce starts with his theme building up as he takes on the masked crew. When it cuts the Joker in the ball room there is no music. After seeing Bruce fight in the hallway not only does it then start the intense sound effects that could help the audience predict the next scene but keeps it going on through the Jokers scene to help raise the idea of intensity and fear within the scene and those that are in that current situation. At about 1:30 the music stops and changes to a sound that then gets louder and creates the effect of fear with in the scene. The sound is almost maddening, this could have also been used to show how insane the character of the Joker is. At about 2:13 the sound is joined by anther sound and then it continues to get higher and louder helping to show the raising intensity of the scene. After when the fight between the two brakes out the music turns to a loud and fast drum beat which shows the escalation of the fight. The clip below is the one I explained.

Very Poor Choice Of Words

Conventions of the horror genre

Production companies research

When it comes to producing a film the director if he/she doesnt have the money to produce the film they want to make independently they usually team up with a production company which will help provide valuable assets to the film such as, props, sets payments for actors ect. There are some production companies that have specialised themselves for certain genres of film. For example the company Twisted Pictures

are more commonly seen helping create films more situated in the horror or thriller genres. For example the film series Saw.
There are also many other production companies in the world that help the biggest directors produce films that become box office tops. These consist of companies like Paramount studios

 and Warner Brothers

 and Lionsgate.

There are many more but these are some of the top in todays film production line. When creating our own film we were asked to and tasked to create a film production company to go with our films genre. We were also tasked with deciding weather out film would be a large scale production or a small time production and if so which one and who it would be associated with. For example smalltime productions that you would find on TV that are usually made with the help of a certain TV channel like film four in the UK. Different types of low budget films are usually helped by channels in the UK. For example channel four's Film Four helped produce the The Inbetweeners Movie. There are a range of TV channels that help produce low budget films in the UK, here are a few of the most popular.

sally

mary

sam

steve

To help me further my decision into what genre of film i wanted to make my film, I decided to go to my local cinema and ask some of the people that were going to view films. I asked a variety of people that ranged in age and gender. This gave me many different prospectives of what types of film people liked and preferred and why. I decided to use Voki to put a name and face to some of the responses that I received.

film intro annotations

In the first two minutes of the film "Reservoir Dogs" by Quentin Tarantino it has the classic old style of a movie opening. This would be to place the credits before the film itself, usually following a short introduction scene. In this case the opening scene is of the main characters leaving a diner. After the this scene the directors name is shown which in this case it is Quentin Tarantino. The actors names appear underneath a close up shot of each character as they walk down a street to help show who is who. Following this the title appears above all the charactes as they reach the end of the street. And finally as the scene comes to an end there is a black screen with more of the cast and prudction companies and also sound/film editing crewss listed. Also the director makes use of non diegetic sound, this is the music he had chosen to go over the top. The director also uses known songs and artists instead of composing music specifically for the film.

However in the film "Avengers Assemble" the opening two minutes are significantly different. This is becasue instead of showing any of the cast, it shows each main characters special item that is related to them in some way along side the actors name. Also in the majority of films that have been made the main title will be placed right at the start of the film, where as in films produced by Marvel studios the title of the film is placed at the end. Along with  the computer edited sequence of the super hero's items there are major editing teams and costume designer names. The use of placing all the different hero's items all in the same sequence helps the film portray all the characters from each individual film in the franchise that they are from.
 

For this films beginning two minutes they place the title at the start. The title is presented in red in a font that is bold and slightly grim looking. This helps to portray the film as a horror as the colour red in this case it implies the themes of fear, anger, violence and alert. The colour and style of the font used in the main title is seen throughout the rest of the opening credit sequence. Along with the bold credits, they have used computer edited horror themed sequences to help back up the expected genre of the film.
Whilst all the cut scenes are rolling there is some non-diagetic sounding over the top. This is some music in the style of a classic horror styled film (gloomy, scary, slow styled music). This also helps to build the intensity of the film that of which is coming shortly after this sequence.

In the first two minuets of the title sequence of the film "MacGruber" it shows a variety of different cut scenes which help to portray the films genre. There are different scenes showing different shots of key items that would be found in an inventory of a secret agent. The shots also capture specific detail about the main character, such as a close up of the characters profile and photographs of him. Following this there is a scene of him defusing a bomb which also helps portray the line of work the character is in. This is eventually followed by the title of the film in an explosion caused by the failure to defuse the device. All these scenes help to represent the films genre which is a comedy. The mistakes that the character made when defusing the bomb helps show the funny side to the situation. Along with this there is a scene before hand of the character playing a saxophone in a passionate manner, this in my thoughts was a bit random and helps to contribute to the element of comedy within the film.
Along side all these scenes they placed credits of all the names of the lead actors and directors along with the production companies, they used a bold military styled font which also helps show that the film is about someone in the services line of work.
Over the top of all these short cut scenes there is some non-diagetic sounds, this was the sound track that was playing all the way through the title sequence. The music was composed specifically for this film. There were also a few diagetic sounds within the sequence such as explosions, the sound of a bomb beeping away and also the everyday sounds of someone filling away files.

For the film "Machete" the opening sequence is styled a little different to others, instead of using normal image or clips they have used edited images and styled the editing in the style of a cartoon image. Using brightly lit colours and different colours for different characters. The use of different colours for each character could suggest the type of character it is, for example red could be for a dangerous or maybe a passionate character depending on the context and genre of the film. The title sequence also shows all the lead actors and the characters they are playing within the film. They have used a bold western style font as the film is based in the area of south America and helps to set the scene for the film. The music is non-diagetic and is in the syle of a heavy rock guitar, this also contributes to helping to portray what type of genre the film is which in this case it is an action. Along with this there are a few sound effects edited in, these are the sounds of guns fireing and blades clashing. These sounds help to represent what the film is all about, blades clashing helps represent the title "Machete" which is a type of blade.

preliminary task link

Here is a link to our finished preliminary task.

prelim task breif

For my main task I was tasked with creating an opening of a movie which the genre could be of my choice. I decided to choose my genre based on today's box office and film reviews. As a group we made a PowerPoint presentation on the genre of horror listing all the conventions used in a stereotypical horror film.

prelim task story board.

For our preliminary we were tasked with making a short clip that displayed key camera skills along with different editing techniques. We all sat together and contributed ideas to a story board which we would then use to direct our short film.

When editing our clips together to make our film we used Adobe premiere pro which allowed us to extend and try different styles. We eventually decided to edit the the whole finished cut in to black and white. We went with this because the theme (which was a mafia/mob boss talk) so the black and white effect worked well over the clip as it enhanced the dramatic feel of the scenes. 

 Overall the clip we made was'nt perfect but for my main task i am going to ensure that its better in everyway compared to my preliminary task.

Here are some shots of the overall story board as a whole.

And here are some shots of each individual shots within the story board itself.

                                          Shot 1.

                                          Shot 2.

                                          Shot 3.

                                          Shot 4.

                                          Shot 5.

                                          Shot 6.

                                          Shot 7.

                                          Shot 8.

                                          Shot 9.

Shot 10.

And finally here is a shot of the short script we came up with to go along with our short film.

film still shot annotations

This was a home work set for me, in which i had to annotae shot from a film. The film i chose was The Lord of The Rings. I had to explain the concepts and conventions with in the shot.  

Preliminary exercise:

For this exercise we have been tasked with creating a short clip. In this clip we have to demonstrate basic filming and editing skills. The clip itself has to contain a character opening a door, crossing a room and then sitting down in a chair opposite another character, which then the two will exchange dialogue.

This clip will demonstrate:
match on action: An editing technique that helps show continuity of which one shot cuts to another showing the object in action.
shot/reverse shot: Another continuity technique that is used mostly in two way convocations, or someone looking at an object.
the 180-degree rule: This shows two shots that are linked by 180 degrees
The finished peice will be about two mins in length and wont have an established plot, it is merely a task to show our skills in creating a filmed sequence.