Final cut with voiceover

Finished cut without narration

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)

1st shot: This is an establishing shot of the setting where the opening takes place. Three people are seen sitting in a car and their identities are hidden. The shot was colour corrected and this plays into why you can't see the characters faces

2nd shot: We used a 4 point garbage matte in order to make the reflection of the smoker dark and once again so you can't see his face. The shot was also reversed so the cigarette is brought down at the start of the shot.

3rd shot: This is the title of our film. It rolls down with Rob pulling down his balaclava and rolls up again to reveal a panning down shot of Elliot sleeping.

4th shot: We gained a lot of praise for this shot. We lit a roll-up cigarette and put it hanging out of an ash tray. We changed the camera setting to manual focus and changed it so the foreground (roll-up) is focused and the background (Elliot and bed) are out of focus .

5th shot: This was one of the few shots where we used the dolly provided by the media department. A slight tint of red was put on the clip when the shot gets to the room where Max is sleeping and starts of blue in Elliott's room.

6th shot: Again a 4 point garbage was used to tint out the windscreen. The shot shakes down in a transition we created in the edit. This meant we had to keyframe the garbage matte so it fits the windscreen for every frame of the transition.

7th shot: This is an other shot we received praise for. This was one of the shots where we used the fish eye lens. The camera was placed on the dashboard and the shot was arranged from there.

8th shot: This shot was collected after the official shoot day whereby Rob and Elliot went to town and filmed this shot.  It's placed outside a bank as this character is meant to be waiting to pull of the heist. In the alternate ending the shot is edited with a dazzle effect and is shown as a flash back as the script was tweaked for the alternate ending

9th shot: This  is a panning shot of Max walking out of the house to the car. We timed this shot so Elliot behind the camera would signal Rob of when to open the window as Max arrived to the car.

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How does your media product represent particular social groups?

For this I chose the character that is played by Max, who at the end of the opening is revealed to be working with the people inside the car, rather then the people inside the car coming for him. This character is the only person in the car who's face is seen, suggesting he will play a large role in the film as it necessary for him to be followed throughout the opening. 

Like Hans Gruber, Max plays a character that is calm, and knows thoroughly what he is doing, and both are committing an armed robbery. Max plays a character that is confident and gets about his day like any other with no problems, and his confidence is shown on screen, while Hans is also very confident, stating in 'Die Hard' "I am an exceptional thief". Both characters dress smart, as not affected by the possibility of being seen by cameras and want to be seen as someone with smart taste, Hans in 'Die Hard' compliments the suit of a man he is about to kill, saying "It would be a shame to ruin it", displaying a calm ruthlessness in both characters, as Max calmly takes the rub from Rob at the end of the opening.

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

This is our directors commentary for our finished piece of work

Who would be the audience for your media product?

In media we created the target audience for our film, the ideal person that would go watch it, to aim towards in advertising.

We went with the main characters in 'Superbad'

How old are they- 17 and a half
What are they called- Rolliax
How do they dress- Casual, Hoodie and jeans
Where do they live- Anywhere on earth
What do they spend their money on- Games (Quake, COD, Halo), clothes (Hoodie and jeans), movies (Snatch, Kidulthood)
Where do they watch films- DVD, internet, cinema
What kind of music do they like- Pop music (So solid crew), download music
Leisure time- Socialising, facebook
How much TV do they watch- 2-3 hours per day
What is their favorite film- Pulp fiction

How did you attract/address your audience?

Here is a youtube video of our finished product with annotations referring to the source material we used and the inspiration we got.

Rating for Film Opening

On the SBBFC (Student Board of Film Classification), there are guidelines for rating a film, and even though we have not had it officially rated, we can get a very good idea of what it would be rated.

Our film would have been rated '15', for strong violence, frequent strong language, strong verbal references to sex, and drug taking.

In order for our film to remain a '15', it must not encourage or promote the drug taking, which would not be the case in our film, as references would be brief.  

Another reason the film would be rated '15' is because of the general dark tone of the film, and it's complexity, which younger people would not be able to understand and grasp.

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

This was our Timeline at the end of our project.

using Final cut i found it to be a very exciting and easy to use program with everything set out for the user.

Other online and computer programs we used were: youtube, flickr, blogger, final cut,photoshop and vimeo

Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

The main technique that we used from the continuity task was the match on action shot. We didn't have any direct dialogue so the 180 degree rule and the shot reverse shot wasn't needed.

Below is the match on action we used. The shot was me walk up to the door and opening it and showing it being opened from the other side.

Match on action is when someone does an action lasting through two chots and it looks smooth as it runs through both shots

This is the match on action shot we used in the original continuity task.

Overall i am glad we learnt the match on action shot as it gave us a wider range of activities our character could be taking part in.

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Christina and angelica's rough cut

Strengths:

• Establishing shots are well placed
• Good use of natural light to give an eerie feel
• Text effects are impressive, the way they jitter in gives the viewer the sense of a horror or maybe supernatural film
• Font used also gives of supernatural feel
• Placement of props (drills, blocks of wood) describe a gritty, workshop environment
• Doesn't give away too much of the story and not too little

Weaknesses:

• Music is good at the beginning but loses dramatic effect when the strings come in
• Shot after the title "something wicked" doesn't seem to have a lot going on or anything interested to catch the eye compared to the other shots

Recommended changes

• Replace shot after main title with new establishing shot or remove the shot
• Keep the music nice and simple without the need for strings or find a way to make the strings fit more with the overall loop (i'm not sure whether you guys made it with garageband or not)
• Maybe more shots of the protagonist entering the room (more foot shots?)

There doesn't seem to be anything missing, only tweaks are needed. Overally i thought this was a good opening.

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Film relating to ours

I think our film was made fully Public enemies would be its closest match

The heists in the movie are quick and calculated in ours there would only be one at the very beginning but in the same speed as the public enemies heists. The main bulk of the film would be them living their lives after the robbery much like in the scenes of which john dillinger and his girlfriend talk about moving away and quitting. There are no clips available that would be useful in describing the similarities between these two films but i can post the trailer here.

It was hard to find a film much like ours because it has many elements from lots of other films.

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Filming

We began filming for our opening film project on friday. At 10:30 we all arrived at Coleridge. For the next forty minutes we sorted out whether the sound and video on the camera's were capturing properly. Luckily they were so we headed off. Elliot and rob took the bus while i cycled home we all arrived at my place at around 11 oclock. We immediately started filming as we knew time was of the essence. We could only do the shots without dolly's as we had the long road dolly booked from 1 to ten past four. So we filmed all the shots that didn't need the dolly up to 1 oclock then from 2 till 3 30 we filmed the rest of the shots. We just have 1 more scene to do which is outside any bank.

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Final idea

Our final idea is a heist movie.

Basic breakdown

The opening will be 3 crooks in a car stopping outside a house. Inside the house is two people waking up, one of them is preparing for work and the other is just lazing about. It turns out that the one getting ready for work is actually going to join the crooks in the car as he is part of the heist. The heist itself happens very early on, the whole movie is mostly about how they all cope with the heist and live their lives.

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4 example 25 word pitches

Egomania by Paul Alexander and Simon Braithwaite - Hotshot young lawyer Michael Stark becomes so successful, so arrogant and so full of himself that his ego decides to go solo - with disastrous consequences.

The Cleaner by Peter Michael Rosenberg - When a crime scene cleaner haunted by his past uncovers evidence that suggests LAPD cops are working as assassins, he becomes their next target.

Shoeless Joe by Andrew Clyde - A holiday of a lifetime across the desolate heart of the Australian outback turns into a living nightmare for five friends.

Storage by Chris Denne and Matt Winn - Terror stalks a storage facility. Survival for those trapped inside depends on the secrets in those endles

Fontboard

I wasn't there for the lesson where we made font boards but the other members of my group made one (elliot and rob). 

 I like the fonts they chose because its easy to read but also it's exciting and pleasing to the eye

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Greenscreen activity

We did a green screen activity where jahmal walked on a treadmill in front of a green screen.

I took out the background (keying) and replaced it with the juno long road we created. I animated juno walking around using motion keyframes and copied the clip to make two of jahmal.

This is what i created

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Making my ident

Stage one: I added the actual title of my production 

company in a font found of the internet

Stage two: I added a line below the center to represent the horizon

Stage three: I found a picture of a monkey off deviant art

 looking at a banana and took away the banana 

Stage four: I found a cartoon image of chicken 

Stage five: I drew a speech bubble with the pen tool and 

wrote "Jerk Chiiken!" inside of it

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Moodboard for film

Rob and Elliot made a mood board for the film opening based on guns and shooting. This was all done when i was away. Here it is

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List of props

Baseball bat
Fake pistol
Balaclava's
Car
Dolly?
Fish eye lens
2 different alarm clocks
Clock
Two tooth brushes

fake plane tickets

Crew list

Group members:
Max Phillips
Elliot Hickey
Rob Williams

Performers:
Max Phillips
Elliot Hickey
Rob Williams
One other voice actor

Body double for when actor looks out to car

Feedback

Blog coming along well!

Moving storyboard

This is mine, elliots and rob's animatic storyline

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My logo

This is my logo

It is composed using only two pictures. A cartoon monkey looking at a banana and a cartoon piece of chicken. I chose the name Bumbaklot productions because i planned to do a jamaican style logo. I animated the monkey moving in and the chicken flying in using final cut and found a music loop from garageband as the background music. I recorded my own voice on garageband to animate the "Jerk Chiicken" phrase. I've always liked logo's that were quirky and different which is why i like my logo. Its not over complicated and it's fun to watch.

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Our own 9 frames

We were told to put 9 frames of any material we want together to show the opening of a film.

We used the idea of complete contrast. Death crossed with happiness. Spongebob squarepants then a nuclear explosion is the biggest contrast. This title sequence might be for a documentary seeing as it features brands and celebrities that people recognize.

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Resevoir dogs title sequence

I copied the same layout scheme as steve pretty much with the music along the bottom and titles along the top. 

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Continuity Editing

We did an exercise on continuity in filming and editing. This is when the camera shots link together so the flow of the film is not interrupted.

The 180 degree rule

This rule states that if we have two characters talking to each other lets say mr a and mr b if i was the have one shot over mr b's left shoulder looking a mr a, in order for the shot to look right i would have the next shot over mr a's right shoulder. If i were to set the shot over mr a's left shoulder it would look as though mr a has moved or is looking in another direction

Match on action

This is when an action that a character is making in one shot has to continue smoothly onto the next shot. If we had someone opening a door we would have him walking to the door and opening it then having a close up of the hand opening the door. Match on action is simply when these the camera shots link together so the character doesn't look like they're opening the door twice

Shot/reverse shot

This is used when there is a conversation between two characters. If two characters are talking facing each other, when one talks the shot is over the shoulder of the character who isn't talking. This is another technique to keep the flow of the film smooth.

This is an example that me angelica and alex made demonstrating all three of these techniques being used in a scene.

In my opinion i think we succeeded in demonstrating all of these techniques the match on action is smooth, the dialogue seems to flow as in a conversation and we didn't break the 180 degree rule.

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Credits list

A Bumbaclot productions presents 
A Long Road Film
(cast) David Skinner
(cast) Sam Dilan
(cast) Alison Ford
Costume Design by James Hendon
Art Direction by hannah Manson
Production Design by Tom Bennit
Casting by Anna Ross
Film Editing by Dorn Samson
Cinematography by Dody Zimmer
Original Music by Sean Scott
Produced by Elliott David
Directed by Jamse Handson
Main Title.

PITCHES!

Action: Bruce willis in an explosives truck. Maverick widower cop has to stop foreign terroist plot. Kills all of them with his truck

Supernatural: Girl falls in love with werewolf. Werewolf kills girls dad, Love or revenge? Chooses love villagers learn to like werewolf. Werewolf accidently kills girl.

Indie: Young musical savante in abusive family turns to drugs and crime. meets girl, girl gives ultimatum, drugs or her? he chooses her, she dies. He writes amazing piece

Animated: Felon escapes to moon. Transport cut off. People trying to find way off while looking for the felon. Protagonists finds felon, felon kills everyone and is left alone

Feedback

Good on Juno- looks like you need to finish the draft of the case study

Juno Opening

The task given was to plan shoot and edit our own version of the opening to the movie Juno. We were to do everything from storyboarding to camerawork. This was great because it really allowed us to make something that was purely ours. We started off being put in groups ours was me, Emma, Christina and Jahmal. We first started by watching the Juno sequence online and doing a storyboard to match the shots taken. This was pretty hard seeing as we hadn’t quite grasped the idea of less detail and more on the angle and position of the shot. The next lesson at Coleridge was when we started the filming. We were first given a quick tutorial on how to use the cameras and the health and safety aspects. After this one person from each of our groups was sent out to scout for a place to film. In my group it was me that was sent out. Finding the location was vital as there was no way we could make the film have the same looking background as in the actual film so only places where the angles would work were the kind of places I looked for. I came back to tell everyone the shots taken then we took a camera and went off. We filmed all the shots until the end of the day. We came to edit the film the next lesson at Coleridge when we were split into pairs within our groups. I was with Jahmal. I play Juno in the opening we made, this wasn’t personal preference but neither of the girls didn’t want to play Juno and I was happy to play the role if no one else wanted to. In the end I found the planning towards making the film the hardest and actual doing and editing it fairly simple. I am pleased with the result we got but I wish I didn’t apply the cartoon effect onto the film as it ruined the quality somewhat. We got the shots we wanted though i especially like the similarity between these two shots.

Finally here's our finished piece with the actual opening

To find out more about the actual film there's a wikipedia page and an imdb page

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Feedback

Excellent work on the films- good to see all the clips there. You do need to say something more about what the moodboard exercise was based upon. Could you also delete Alex's message please.

This blog will be the evidence of your research and planning for the AS coursework, so there needs to be lots on it and lots of detail to it.

Photoshopping postcard

We were told to make our own postcards using photoshop HERE IS MINE!

To make this i used

• 3 different images
• cropping
• rasterizing
  
• layer effects (inner glow, outer glow etc)
• magic wand tool to remove areas i didn't need

I actually didn't have a plan as to how i wanted the final product to look like so i did it as i went along. I'm not very happy with the text i used but its a bit late now so meh. I wanted to feather the edges of the film strip but i couldn't find how to do this and nick couldn't either. Overall i am happy with my final result.

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Student Film opening

I was told to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of a students film opening.

I chose the first one i found which was another students at long roads film



STRENGTHS:

• Heart beating sequence adds tension well
• Camera shots work well to add urgency to the sequence
• Music works well in some of the shots

WEAKNESSES:

• Music doesn't progress much and gets a bit boring after awhile
• Acting at the end (runner stops and is grabbed) is not very good
• Black and White filter is unnecessary
• Title at the end is a little too big

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3 film openings

I was told to watch three film openings and pick my favourite of the three and explain what's good about it and why i like it.

I chose the opening to
Magnolia


Pineapple Express


and Visioneers


I like the opening to Magnolia the most.

The entire sequence is not aimed to introduce the audience to the different characters but instead to set the mood and overall feel of the film. For those who chose not to watch the intro it is simply a description of three remarkably coincidental events.The narration for the sequence is great because the voice has a michael moore feel to it which makes you think that the events being described are actual fact or based upon (which they very well may be). The opening is great and i would recommend anyone to go and see the whole film.

:D

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Final cut

At Coleridge we learnt to use the razor blade tool and learnt how to fade in and out video clips. Luckily i had used final cut before so found the whole process fairly easy but still fun to do. I like the film opening that we made because its dramatic and it suits well to the city shots. Oh and we learnt to title as well :D

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Film opening!

On Tuesday morning at coleridge we made our own mix up of clips with music to make a film opening/trailer.

Here is what me and yasmin made


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Moodbooard

The other day we made a moodboard for this film called shifty HERE IT IS!

We were shown a storyboard for a scene for the film Shifty. We were told to create the moodboard based upon what we thought the visual style of Shifty would be like if we made it.
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